Chapter Text
He woke up laying on his back in a patch of flowers.
Everything hurt.
Opening his eyes, he winced and covered his eyes as a ray of sunlight shined directly on his face.
He took a deep breath. In. And out.
In… And out.
The aching in his body subsided a bit. Enough for him to get his thoughts in order and recount the events that led him here.
He'd been working his shift at the Market Mart when he got yet another call from the school to, once again, tell him that his kid sibling Clover had gotten themself in trouble. Again. Only this time instead of telling him to come pick them up for the day, they informed him that Clover hadn't even shown up.
He went home early in a huff (and got chewed out for bailing early again too, apparently this was his 'last warning'. Guess all the other last warnings didn't count), planning to scold the kid for sleeping in. Imagine his surprise when he couldn't find any sign of them at home.
It wasn't his first assumption that the kid played hooky. For all the trouble as they got themself into they weren't a troublemaker. He'd actually started to worry they'd been kidnapped on the walk to school or something before he found their school supplies still in their room. But their hat was gone. And the little cowboy Halloween costume he bought them to go with it last Halloween was gone too. They got dressed before they left.
Somehow, the least surprising thing was that Clover took the time to put on that costume before wandering off. It was very them.
While he could respect the desire to avoid school at all costs, he really needed them to not do that.
He didn't even know where they'd go. They didn't exactly have any friends to go visit or usual hangout spots, the only places they went were school and home.
Calling the police got him nowhere. Apparently, 'My kid sibling skipped school and I don't know where they are, could you maybe help look for them?' wasn't good enough for them to do anything. 'He'll probably turn up on his own.' the guy said, 'Call back if he's still missing by tonight.' Jackass.
With the authorities being useless and his frustration growing, he did the only thing he could think of. He walked around aimlessly, asking random strangers on the street if they'd seen a kid in a cowboy costume. Thankfully, the costume made them stand out enough for people to remember seeing them. It made a kind of breadcrumb trail of witnesses that led him further and further out of the city until…
He found himself at the edge of the forest surrounding Mt. Ebott.
A cold dread filled him.
They just went to the woods, he told himself. Not the mountain itself. They wouldn't.
In a last ditch attempt to get some help, he called some of his friends to ask if they would help search the woods with him. No one picked up.
And into the forest he went. Up and down the hiking trails he called their name, keeping himself occupied by thinking about how he would punish the kid for pulling this stunt. No cowboy movies for a week. No, two weeks!
It was a stroke of dumb luck that he found a set of child sized footprints leading off the path and into the wilderness. Oh they would, wouldn't they? Sure those footprints could've belonged to any kid, but Clover would.
No cowboy movies for a month. And no toy guns either.
With nothing to go off of but a vague direction, into the woods he went. He walked in as straight on a line as he could until he found a natural looking trail going further in. It even had more tracks to follow.
The ground got steeper, and he couldn't deny where he was being led to.
Mount Ebott.
The mountain that everyone avoids like the plague. The mountain where children kept disappearing.
Fuck.
Ascending the mountain, his slow panic over Clover's wellbeing took precedence over the exhaustion of climbing the mountain. Over and over, he told himself that Clover was fine. That he'd reach the next peak and they'd be there and he'd tell them off for being there and that would be that. He tried very hard not to imagine that the last time he would ever see them was that morning.
(Now that he thought about it, he didn't actually see them that morning. He made breakfast for two, ate his share, packed them a lunch bag, put it all in the fridge and left for work before they were even up. As was his routine.)
Finally, the tracks led him to a cavern.
He called their name, no response.
He entered the cavern. There was a large hole in the back of it, and a set of small footprints leading to it.
He swallowed.
Slowly, he put one foot after another, his heart beating out of his chest as he approached.
He was going to look down the hole, and Clover would be fine. He was not about to look down this pit to see his kid sibling's mangled corpse.
He was closer, but he couldn't see the bottom. He didn't want to. He squinted his eyes as he put one foot in front of the other, afraid of what he'd see.
As he took the final steps towards the hole, his eyes were practically shut.
If his eyes had been open, maybe he wouldn't have tripped on a root and fallen head first into the hole.
Like an idiot.
He vaguely remembered flipping a few times midair, screaming as he realized he was about to die before landing flat on his back and passing out.
And then he woke up here. At least he didn't land on his head… How long had he been unconscious?
He groaned as he sat himself up. He saw cave walls and a hallway (was it still called a hallway if it was a cave?) going deeper in. Looking up, he saw where he fell from. He'd never been good at measuring distance, but… it was a long, long drop. It was a miracle he didn't break any bones. Who knew flowers made such good cushions? He might've even died if it weren't for them.
He swallowed. He could have died.
Breathe in. And out.
He pushed himself up off the ground, wincing as his feet and legs and back screamed at him. He needed to get out of here. Staying put wasn't going to do him any good and he wasn't going back the way came any time soon, so the only option was the cave-hallway thing.
He forced one foot in front of the other, slowly making his way forward. He'd just have to walk it off.
The last thing he expected at the end of the hallway was a stone doorway.
Bizarre… He honestly couldn't think of a good reason it'd be there, so instead he focused on the idea that manmade structures meant people might be around.
Through the stone doorway was an empty tunnel, with sunlight shining through a crevice in the ceiling onto a patch of grass. He didn't pay it much mind, as he was much more interested in the doorway at the other side of the tunnel.
After passing though another empty cavern and another doorway, what he saw left him speechless.
A grand hall stood before him. Tall brick walls stretched at least three stories high. A wide, smooth stone floor covered the ground. A neat pile of beautiful red leaves sat between two staircases, each leading to the same doorway with a plaque hanging above it and leafy vines around it. And for some reason, the walls and floor were purple. Looking closer at the bricks, they didn't seem to be painted or anything. They were just purple. On their own.
What the hell was this doing under Ebott?
Walking further in, he noticed a simple design on the floor. A purple circle in a light purple square. But around the edges of the square was a line of red leaves someone must have put there.
Someone was living down here.
He ascended the stairs, groaning a little at his sore legs, and craned his neck to read the plaque.
Home
That didn't help at all! Who's home? And where was this? What was this?
He moved to the next room hoping for answers, only to be even more confused. There were six giant buttons on the floor, four of which were pressed down, and a lever and sign on the wall. He went to the sign first, hoping for any kind of information.
Only the fearless may proceed.
Brave ones, foolish ones.
Both walk not the middle road.
…Okay? That told him nothing. What was even the point of putting up a sign if it wasn't going to say anything useful? He tried pressing the remaining buttons, and then pulling the lever. Nothing happened. What was even the point of this stuff?!
The more he saw of this place the less it made sense. He'd probably have more patience for this if his legs and back weren't still aching from the fall, but as it stood he felt like he was losing it.
Whatever. He moved onto the next room.
This one was a long hallway with two moats with flowing water and little wooden bridges going over them. The walls had levers with some writing scribbled beside them with what looked like marker. Vines were crawling down from the ceiling and there was a hole in the floor in front of one of the levers. Despite the place's obvious age it also felt oddly taken care of.
He eyed the hole in the floor. If the place was falling apart like that, was he gonna have to worry about where he's stepping or something?
There was a wooden sign standing just ahead of the entrance, clearly placed to be noticeable. It had to be important.
Look at signs to read them!
Without thinking he reeled back and kicked the sign as hard as he could, splintering it into chunks and further hurting his already aching leg. He collapsed to the ground, groaning and holding his aching leg to his chest.
He was actually thankful to be completely alone. This would be embarrassing, but no one was around to judge him for once.
Sighing, he figured it was gonna be a while before he went anywh-
*Ribbit*
He jumped to his feet, leg pain forgotten, as massive white frog made itself known. The thing the size of a damn pit bull! He didn't know shit about frogs but he knew for sure that they didn't come that big!
Then he noticed the floating heart in front of his chest, its yellow glow standing in stark contrast to the darkened roo- why was everything so dark?! The bright purple walls and floors were pitch black, only visible from the neon purple outlines at their edges. Looking around, the various objects in the room were similarly highlighted with bright neon colored lines.
He was so distracted by the sudden shift that he completely missed the massive frog leaping closer, only refocusing on it as its tongue shot out towards the heart. And when it made contact-
He shrieked as jolt of pain shot through him. It wasn't coming from any specific part of his body, It just was. And it hurt.
Danger! That's all that was on his mind now. His instincts told him to run and he listened, scrambling past the giant frog and towards the other side of the room. The way he came in was a dead end and he did not want to be cornered by that thing. He only noticed the fucking floor spikes guarding the way out after he'd already tripped over them, scraping his legs but catching himself before crashing to the ground.
Why were there spikes there what fucking psycho would- No shut up keep running!
It would have been a good plan if he didn't keep running into other weird creatures. Giant frogs, fairy looking things, cyclops things and even a giant carrot with a face. Every time the world around him would shift into that weird darkness and the yellow heart would appear, and every time he ran away. As far as he cared the heart was there to tell him he was in danger.
The place itself was built like a maze too, an endless series of halls full of twists and turns and stuff. Weird stuff.
Dummies and spikes and trap floor tiles that tried to drop him when he stepped on one, buttons and spikes and a bunch of rocks and one that talked, signs he didn't read and a table with nothing on it but a singe wedge of cheese and an entire room at was almost nothing but floor spikes!
That last one was the worst. He'd just trial and error-ed his way through finding which spikes retracted when stepped on rather that wait around for some other horrible thing to find him, which only gave him a bunch of extra scrapes for his trouble.
Even ignoring the danger and the pain, he'd still hate this place. Nothing in it made any damn sense!
His legs burned as he escaped from four exact copies of the same room. It couldn't be ignored anymore, he needed a break. But those things were everywhere so staying still wasn't an option. Sooner or later this place would run out of rooms or he'd run out of steam or-
He rounded a corner and ran face-first into what felt like a brick wall. A very fuzzy brick wall.
He fell backwards, landing on his ass with a thud.
"Oh my! I am so sorry, I was not looking where I was- Oh! A human?"
Towering over him was a goat? woman? in a purple robe thing with a symbol on the front. Even if he wasn't on the ground she would still stand a head above him.
He stood up and sprinted through the nearest passage.
"No! Wait! Come back!"
Nope! No way! He could just tell she could break him over her knee. He had no doubts that she could very, very easily destroy him if she wanted to.
He was limping now. He didn't think he hit the ground that hard, but he was definitely running slower now and every step hurt. That was fine though. It had to be fine. He'd be screwed if it wasn't fine so it was fine.
He'd just keep going till he found a good place to lose the giant goat woman, with all the nooks and crannies this place had he was sure he'd find somewhere to hide.
At least until he found himself on a balcony. A dead end.
It was so open that for a moment he thought he'd made his way outdoors, he could even feel a light breeze. But he was still underground and… Below he could see rows upon rows of buildings reminiscent of castles, stretching out into the darkness of the cave until they were nothing but silhouettes. There must've been thousands of them. He could barely make out a network of paths weaving between the buildings.
It was a city. An entire, abandoned city, directly below Mount Ebott.
He could admit he rarely ever paid attention in school, but he should have heard about something like this. He would have heard about this. There's no way there could be an entire underground city that absolutely nobody talks about.
A voice came from behind, "Please do not be afraid!"
He spun around on high alert.
"I mean you no harm." The goat woman was standing in the doorway to the balcony, her hands out in a placating manner. "There is no need to fight." He sure hoped not, he didn't stand a chance against her. "My name is Toriel, I am the caretaker of the Ruins. I know this must all be very frightening, but I promise you have nothing to fear."
It was only now dawning on him that she wasn't like the other things he'd encountered so far. She could talk, for one. Maybe she could be reasoned with? The heart wasn't showing up like with the others, so maybe that meant she was safe?
But he didn't know her intentions. She could be trying to trick him.
He looked around to see if there was anywhere he could go or anything he could use. The only thing on the balcony was a tiny toy knife. He'd be better off fighting bare fisted if that was his only option.
"You are injured. I can heal you." She must have seen him limping. "Please." She looked almost pleading.
He couldn't run, she was blocking the exit. He couldn't fight, and even if he could his only weapon was a toy.
Not seeing any other option, he nodded. Maybe if she thought he trusted her she'd leave an opening.
She breathed a sigh as she stepped closer, hands outstretched. There was a gap between her and the exit now, just a little more and-
He blinked, and all at once the pain in his body vanished. The ache in his back was gone and his legs felt great!
"There, all done. Feeling better?" He caught a glimpse of green light fading from her hands as she pulled them back, placing them at her sides. She looked much more relaxed.
When she said she could heal him he was thinking, like, a bandage or something. But instead she just, uh… Huh.
Absent-mindedly, he nodded again.
Now that he was still his adrenaline was wearing off, so he was feeling all that running. His injuries may have been gone, but he would really like to sit down for while. Maybe take a nap too.
"Good. Now, you look exhausted. If you need a safe place to rest, my home is just around the corner. And I would be happy to answer any questions you have over a fresh meal." Was she… trying to bribe him with food?
He weighed his options. He was spent, physically and mentally. He was completely out of his depth. He knew nothing, understood nothing and felt like he was about to crumble into nothing. Food and answers sounded like heaven right now. On the other hand, she could be trying to make him drop his guard. But, if she wanted to hurt him, healing him would have done nothing for her. Seemed unlikely.
And, well, he did miss lunch…
"Okay."
Her face lit up with a smile. "Excellent. Now that things have calmed down, allow me to introduce myself. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins." Finally, he had a name for this place.
Oh, right. He should probably introduce himself as well.
"My name's Garrett."
Something felt different.
Flowey watched Clover run back into the first part of the Dark Ruins, checking every nook and cranny for number shaped cracks in the walls. Just as they had many, many, times before.
It was looking like another goodie two shoes run. The most boring option, especially when he already knew how it ends. He was half tempted to reset right there and save himself the hassle.
But he wouldn't. If he reset every time he got bored he'd never get anywhere. He would never know if Clover truly was a lost cause if he didn't keep trying.
Even if it meant doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over-
Clover came back holding a golden pear, looking very accomplished. It took them longer than usual to get it this time. Annoying. Clover usually got faster at these things the more he reset.
Flowey put on a best friend smile as they approached. "Hey bud, looking good! Want me to Save?"
They tipped their hat and nodded.
File saved
"Alright, you're all set!"
With that, Clover set off towards the hermit's hovel. Soon they'll be at the moron's sentry station, then they'll be riding the raft into the Dunes to play cowboy, then the Steamworks and New Home, and soon enough he'll Reset and they'll be right back here again.
Same as always.
And yet, despite being exactly the same as always, something felt different. Whatever it was, he couldn't put his finger on it. Vine. Leaf. Whatever. The point was he couldn't figure out what it was and that bothered him.
Maybe the boredom was finally getting to him and his mind was making stuff up for entertainment.
If that was all it was, he'd take it. Anything was better than the never ending sameness of watching Clover.