Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“welp, I’m going to grillby’s. papyrus, do you want anything?” Sans muttered.

The skeleton slunk off behind a pillar. Frisk clenched all their muscles in anticipation of a trick. After a minute, they were just confused, so Frisk took a reluctant step forward and checked behind the pillar. Dust. There was a pile of dust. The comedian had finally failed.

Frisk laughed in relief. For a bit, Frisk had believed they might never escape. The skeleton was more unnerving than Undyne had been, but ultimately didn’t last much longer. Finally, the last obstacle was gone. Unless…

No, Frisk decided it was best not to count themself out just yet. The six human souls… if Asgore or Flowey had taken them, there might be another world of hurt in store.

These thoughts flooded Frisk’s mind as they took tentative steps one at a time towards Asgore and his throne room.

Flowey was Frisk’s ally, in a certain way. He thought of Frisk as his childhood playmate, Chara. Flowey wasn’t too far off, but it didn’t matter in the end. He was probably too much of a coward to do anything to his best friend. Asgore was just as much of a coward himself, if not more. Frisk decided they were probably safe.

As Frisk stepped into the throne room, Asgore turned to face them. He began speaking, but Frisk tuned him out. Something about the room felt off. There were the distant notes of some song.

This melody wasn’t like the noise Frisk could always hear in the underground. It was more real and present, as if it was coming from a real instrument. Along with that, while the notes were unfamiliar, the vibe seemed strangely similar to the song Frisk heard after their every death; the one fueling them with determination. Except, the song wasn’t fueling Frisk with determination, but… dread? No, that wasn’t it. Guilt? Not quite that either.

The words “flower warned me about” pricked Frisk’s ear. Of course he was a traitor as well. Frisk almost wished it surprised them, but after all this time, nothing seemed new. Flowey never had been a trustworthy ally.

Still, something about the room felt odd, almost foreboding. Perhaps it was just Flowey’s presence, or maybe Frisk was just paranoid after Sans came out of nowhere.

Frisk made a conscious effort to ignore the sensation. Then, they started a battle with Asgore.

“Why not settle this over a nice cup of tea?”

Swish! It wasn’t really much of a battle.

“Why? You—”

Friendliness pellets appeared around Asgore, then closed in and killed him, leaving his soul, which was destroyed in the same fashion. Afterwards, a familiar weed popped up in front of Frisk.

“See, I— I never betrayed you! It was all a trick, see? I was waiting to kill him for you. After all, it’s me, your best friend. I’m helpful! I can be useful to you! I promise I won’t get in your way! I can help! I can— I can—” Flowey begged.

“Please don’t kill me!”

A loud, crunchy slash rang out through the throne room. It was followed by a harsh scream, abruptly choked off by the next slash. Then the next, and the next, and the next, and the next and the next and the next until the flower standing before Frisk was nothing at all.

“Your best friend too? That lil’ plant’s pretty popular, ain’t he?” someone else commented.

A tumbleweed rolled between Frisk and the stranger. They stood next to the former king’s throne, leaning on it and facing away from Frisk. They also wore a hat, reminiscent of that from a western film. Its duller brown contrasted with the golden bandana the cowboy wore around their neck. The rest of their attire had a similar appearance to their hat, which was pulled down over their face, obscuring it in shadow.

“Then again, you don’t look much like the friendly type,” they added.

Frisk raised an eyebrow a small, nearly imperceptible amount. “Who are you?”

A smile split across the stranger’s lips. “You’ll have plenty of time to figure that out.”

Suddenly, the cowboy drew a gun and shot rapidly. Frisk was unprepared, dying to the very first shot.

The stranger holstered their gun and sighed before forcing their muscles loose. He was well aware that this wouldn’t be their final clash.

Chapter Text

Frisk took a few tentative steps forward. They did it once, so they could do it again. A shadow peered at them from across the corridor as Frisk approached.

“your face…” Sans muttered.

“i’m pretty good at reading faces, but i’ve got no idea what’s happening,” the comedian admitted. “it looks kinda like you just died once, but you’ve also got the same dull annoyance as you do after dying a dozen or more times.”

Silence lingered in the air for a moment. “did something else kill ya? heh, you deserved it, freak.”

Instantly, the skeleton attacked. Even if the timing was unexpected, Frisk was prepared.

The rest of the battle was no harder than last time; they’d seen every one of his attacks before. It took even less time before the skeleton died.

Before Frisk moved on, they went back to their save point and updated their save file. Afterwards, they continued with less trepidation than last time.

As Frisk walked into the throne room again, the same weighted music played. Frisk didn’t bother with Asgore’s words. The king didn’t even have time to turn around.

“Curious, I’ve never—”

The king was instantly cut off by a slash. He was on one knee as friendliness pellets surrounded him and closed in, killing the king. His soul was shattered the same way.

The weed popped up in front of Frisk, shaking a bit.

“So, uh, Chara? You killed me…” he trailed off. His face twisted in confusion.

Frisk’s hand twitched, so Flowey quickly sputtered out more dialogue. “B—But now you’ve come back! There’s no one else here. That smiley trashbag’s gone. The king certainly wasn’t why you came back!” The flower’s expression twitched into a smile at his joke.

“So, did you come back for me?” Flowey asked, holding onto that same shaky smile. “Did you regret it? Did you come back so we could be together?!” Flowey’s mouth hung out in a desperate grin, as if he was convincing himself.

When it was clear Flowey was done, Frisk slashed at him, producing a satisfying, crunchy sound. The flora screamed, before it was cut off by another slash and another until there was nothing left of their best friend.

Frisk looked up at the throne, only to see that the stranger already had their gun aimed at them.

A loud bang erupted through the room.

The cowboy lifted their gun in front of their face and blew on the smoking barrel.

Game Over.

So… this new boss had knowledge of Frisk’s control over the timeline, at least to some extent. It begged to question whether they were like Sans and gleamed that this wasn’t their first encounter from context clues, such as Flowey’s dialogue, or if they could remember them entirely, like Flowey could.

Frisk was grateful that they had updated their save file after killing Sans. If Frisk didn’t, they would’ve spent more time fighting him than in the throne room.

Frisk walked into the throne room. Once again, Asgore’s back was to Frisk. They walked right up and gave him a hearty slice with their knife. Asgore fell to his knees before Flowey finished off the reigning monarch.

Flowey turned to their partner and gulped, though tried to hide it behind a trained grin. “Howdy again. It’s me, your best pal, Flowey.”

Flowey’s mouth hung open for a moment before he closed it and sighed. His face dropped into a genuine expression of confusion.

“Why did you bring me back? It doesn’t look like you did it for my sake…”

The gears in Flowey’s mind turned. Then, he donned a look of shocked realization and fear. “I— It’s revenge, isn’t it?! I— I killed you ov—v—ver and ov—ver again with the— the six souls. Now s— since I can r— remember it, you’re t— taking the s—same s—sick pleasure killing me ov—ver and over and over again. Y— You—”

Frisk swung their knife at Flowey, cutting him off with his own scream. Frisk held their knife up for another swing—

Bang!

Frisk wasn’t prepared. They died in an instant.

“Huh?” Flowey mumbled.

Frisk clenched their fists. Again, they weren’t prepared. Then again, this mysterious cowboy didn’t even let them finish their prior battle.

Frisk’s patience was worn thin. They immediately charged in, seeing Asgore turned towards Flowey, who was perfectly visible, shocked, and stuttering. Frisk took a step forward— and was suddenly shot. They died. Again.

“WHAT?!” Flowey screamed.

Frisk clenched their fists, but let them fall to their sides with a sigh. They sat down and leaned against a pillar, breathing in and out slowly.

A familiar voice entered their mind. “There isn’t time to waste, Frisk. Finish what you began. We’re on the brink of success here!”

“You saw what happened, Chara. Four times. That thing killed me four times in a row and I haven’t even seen their face yet. I haven’t gotten to attack or formally enter battle. I— I don’t know if I can do it,” Frisk muttered.

Frisk thought they heard something vaguely like snickering. Then, it was as if they weren’t trying to hide it anymore. “Haha! Like I haven’t heard that one before! Though I must say, you really ‘jumped the gun’ this time.”

“After killing Flowey, I should’ve been strong enough to destroy the entire timeline with a simple strike, but…”

Chara sighed. “I am rather confident that’s because you have not emptied the underground yet. There is still someone here who wants to fight. One person who hasn’t curled up and succumbed to defeat. Yet.”

Frisk clenched their teeth and pleaded their case. “Still… he killed me in a single strike. With a single shot, my HP dropped to zero. It’s not like Sans. It wasn’t a single attack, it was a single strike. With the locket and maximum level, he shouldn’t be doing nearly so much damage!”

There was a moment of silence. Then, it sounded as if Chara was breathing in and out slowly. It was purely for dramatics though, as the dead didn’t need to breathe.

“Your guard was down. It is just like what you’ve done in previous runs; when you convinced someone not to fight you until they agreed, then betrayed them and killed them at the last moment in a single strike. They did not have their guard up and you bypassed all their defenses. Now that is happening to you.”

“Oh…” Frisk felt like an idiot.

Chara got the conversation back on track. “You were shocked and scared after Undyne showed you her true strength too. Once Sans showed how hard he could fight, you went through the same emotions, but now both are piles of dust, drifting on the wind. What is this opponent compared to them?”

Frisk sighed and stood up. “I guess you’re right. I’m ready to try again.”

Frisk brushed the dust off their pants. They faintly heard footsteps approaching and turned up to see Asgore standing on the other side of the corridor, far away from Frisk. There was a song accompanying him.

*3 Left

Frisk took out their knife and stepped forward.

Asgore sighed. “I’d hoped to talk to you, maybe offer you some tea, but something tells me that wouldn’t end well, so… know that you leaving the underground was never a possibility. Your fate was sealed as soon as you entered my kingdom.”

*Getting serious

Asgore revealed his trident and threw it at Frisk, who sidestepped and barreled forward in a sprint. Asgore released fire in waves, filling the corridor, but Frisk dodged and weaved through the flames, closing in on Asgore. As Frisk got close, Asgore revealed another trident as his eyes flashed red each multiple times in succession, then, with the same rhythm, he swung his trident towards Frisk at lightning speed. Frisk stepped back to avoid the swings and leapt back at Asgore, swinging their knife. Asgore swung his trident and the two weapons clashed repeatedly as Asgore backed up into a pillar.

*Cornered

Frisk stepped back for another swing and Asgore held out his trident to block. His trident was cut in half and dissolved into magic. Frisk stepped closer and plunged the real knife deep into Asgore, leaving the number “99999999999” hanging above him. Asgore gasped as he dissolved into dust, leaving behind his soul, which Frisk grabbed with their hand before clenching their fist, shattering it.

Frisk reached for their knife, noticing it was stuck in the pillar. With a bit of effort, they retched it out. Then, Frisk trudged back to the beginning of the corridor again and interacted with the save point.

*2 Left

Frisk saved. Then, Frisk walked back across the last corridor towards the throne room. They noticed that just outside of the door was another save point. That would save them a bit of time for each of their eventual resets, so they saved at this one too, then took another step, trudging into the throne room…

Asgore stood in place, his back to the door for a few moments. Then, Asgore suddenly turned around. He thought out loud, “I don’t know why, but I can’t help but feel that they should have been here by now. I’m going to check on them.”

Asgore then proceeded to walk out of his throne room. Flowey watched on without really processing the information.

After a moment of deliberation, Flowey yelled out loud, “WHAT?!” again.

Flowey tipped his head down as he thought. “I— I wasn’t really sure the first time, cuz I was half dead and all, but… the second time…” the plant muttered.

Flowey looked around for someone to direct his murmuring at. He settled on the lifeless golden flower next to him.

“I mean… Huh, somebody just killed Chara! Twice! That’s why they’re been resetting! It wasn’t for me at all… That’s equal parts disappointing and relieving,” Flowey continued.

“Wait… who even did that?” Flowey speculated, rubbing his petals with a vine. “It was a gunshot so… Nerdlo? No, no way can it be that wimpy loser when the king can’t do anything! Then again, I don’t think there’s anyone else who has a gun like that and knows how to use it…”

Flowey suddenly shot up in realization, turning away from the flower he’d been addressing. “Wait, whoever it is is right here! I’m an idiot…”

“Starlo?” Flowey called out.

A cowboy stepped out from behind the throne, keeping his hat down, blocking his face from Flowey.

“Hold on… it can’t be…” Flowey muttered.

The stranger pushed his hat up, revealing his face. “Wrong cowboy, partner.”

“CLOVER!?!?!?!” Flowey yelled.

“Howdy to you too, my best friend!” Clover said with a smile. A part of Flowey’s mind vaguely noticed a Dunebud behind Clover.

“Why are you back?! How are you back?! And why is a Dunebud here?” Flowey sputtered out in confusion.

Clover sighed. “The human.”

Flowey sighed. “Isn’t that always the reason? But still… how? And again with the Dunebud?”

Clover sat down next to his friend and petted the head of Dunebud. He looked up at the evening sky peeking into the underground. “The human’s injustices… woke me up. I was distantly aware of everything they were doing and I just— I just— I felt a ringing in my soul. It wouldn’t let me sit idly by… so I didn’t.”

“But Chara— no, Frisk. Frisk wasn’t exactly kind either. Why are you here?” Flowey asked.

Clover's face darkened into a snarl. Dunebud’s face morphed in confusion. “Because murdering them in cold blood isn’t exactly kind either. But it certainly is justified.”

Flowey smiled as genuinely as he could muster. “I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my… wait, I’m a flower I don’t have a heart. Or a soul… Thank you from the bottom of my roots.”

Clover hesitated, side-eying his friend. “…You’re welcome?”

“Hey friend, you’re gonna need the best ammunition you can get, so here,” Flowey offered, “The present I never gave to you.”

A pile of magical bullets materialized next to the best friends, which Clover took. He felt the bullets in his hand and whistled softly in appreciation for their uniqueness, then unloaded his silver bullets and loaded the bullets of Flowey’s design. As Clover did so, Dunebud began to lean into Clover with a squeal, demanding further affection.

“What do you call these bullets?” Clover asked, absentmindedly petting Dunebud.

“Let’s call them… friendliness pellets,” Flowey suggested.

Clover raised an eyebrow, which Dunebud attempted to mimic.

“They signify our friendship,” Flowey explained.

Clover silently “ah”ed.

A strange sensation went through the air, filling Flowey and Clover with a sense of unease. Clover turned to Flowey, who saw a bit of Clover’s previously concealed panic in his eyes.

“Yeah, I know. They just saved,” Flowey concurred.

Clover stood up and walked in front of the throne. After a bit of thought, Clover reached into his satchel and threw Flowey a harmonica. It hit his head and bounced off.

Flowey lifted the harmonica with a vine. “What am I supposed to do with this!?” he demanded.

Clover gave him a look and muttered, “Play it, please?”

“Why?” Flowey asked.

“Atmosphere,” Clover replied.

Flowey sighed and put the harmonica to his… lips? His mouth. Then, Flowey started playing an arrangement of “Your Best Friend”. Dunebud giggled excitedly, then popped over to the corner by the door. Clover tipped his hat down to hide his face as he stared directly at the walkway. The familiar feeling of a save file being updated was felt through the room. (...Well, not by Dunebud.)

Flowey changed his mind about the song he was playing, deciding Starlo wouldn’t mind if he borrowed his theme, “North Star”. It seemed rather fitting.

Chapter Text

Frisk walked into the room, only for their attention to be consumed by a blob of sand. Clover or Flowey may have been present, but Frisk knew and cared not, only acknowledging the sheer terror and joy that filled them as they stared at this wonderful blob of sand. It had a small frown though, as if it realized Frisk's actions. That must have been the reason Dunebud leapt at Frisk.

Frisk turned and tried to run, but it was in vain. Dunebud pounced on top of Frisk, pinning them to the ground, and proceeded to cuddle. Suddenly, Frisk's LOVE melted away, down to LOVE 1, and all desire to kill was gone from Frisk, who now laid giggling.

"I cannot believe this," Chara muttered, though they too were beginning to soften.

Clover and Flowey's mouths dropped.

"What the heck is happening?!" Flowey demanded.

Dunebud turned around and yelled, "yipEE"

Clover smiled. "It was simpler than I thought. We won."

Chapter Text

Frisk walked into the throne room. The room was bathed in light from the setting sun. A tense tune emanated from the harmonica, accompanied by the sound of howling wind. Standing in front of the throne was the cowboy, head tilted down, his face obscured by his hat and its shadow. A tumbleweed rolled between the two soon-to-be combatants. Both of their chests glowed in a heart shape, one red and the other yellow. Slow breaths were taken from both sides. Frisk clenched their knife tightly in their right hand. The cowboy twirled their gun with their left hand.

Check — Cowboy

HP 16 ATK 19 DEF 22
A Level Playing Field

The cowboy’s gun stopped spinning and the music changed to another song: “Justice”. The cowboy turned their body to the side as they yanked their gun from its holster and fired six times.

Frisk sidestepped five times and then cut the final bullet with their knife, disintegrating it completely. Frisk sprinted towards the cowboy, who was just standing there, and swung their knife at the cowboy’s neck.

Suddenly, the cowboy wasn’t there, they were behind Frisk, as if they’d phased straight through the attack. Frisk turned around, only to see a gun pointed at their face. They took a bullet and recoiled, taking another bullet and another. The cowboy unloaded his entire chamber into Frisk, and gained distance from them in the process. HP: 63/99

Frisk dashed forward while slicing more bullets out of the air. They missed one, which lodged itself in their chest, but they continued.

Frisk stabbed towards the cowboy, looking for where he was about to go. Frisk instantly saw him a bit to their left and spun that way, swinging their knife. Once again, the cowboy dodged, this time all the way behind Frisk. He then aimed his gun at Frisk and shot them twice before they regained their footing and dodged the rest of the bullets. HP: 45/99

Frisk’s eye caught on something: a weird smiling monster in the corner. It looked like it was made of sand and had a small plant on its head. Suddenly, Frisk felt a pain in their side. They’d gotten distracted. They could kill that monster later. At that moment, Frisk had higher priorities.

They dodged the remainder of the bullets coming their way and slashed at the cowboy, who dodged to the right. His sidestep revealed an even more baffling sight than before: Flowey playing the harmonica. He even wore his own cowboy hat. The traitor, providing his talents to Frisk’s enemy. Flowey winked and Frisk felt another pain in their side. Distracted. Again. HP: 33/99

Frisk dodged the other bullets, spared a moment to give Flowey their “creepy face,” and then enacted a new plan as they sprinted towards the cowboy. They swung towards him with their knife. He dashed out of the way… of Frisk’s toy knife. In their other hand was the real knife, which was right where Frisk needed it.

They slashed right at the cowboy’s chest. Above him a number, signifying the damage dealt, appeared. Zero.

Frisk froze. Their opponent had 16 HP and 22 DEF. He should be dead! He should be itty bitty specs of dust on the floor! He should’ve been entirely obliterated!!!

He repositioned his cowboy hat, revealing their face: The smiling face of a human. Frisk felt cold steel press into their chest.

“The name’s Clover.”

The statement was punctuated with six loud blasts into Frisk’s chest. HP: 0/99.

Game Over.

“What?! How did you live that, Clover?!” Flowey demanded.

“Golden Pear,” Clover stated as he retrieved a Golden Cactus from his inventory and began to eat it.

“Why are you doing that?!” Flowey demanded.

“Just in case,” Clover replied with a wink.

Frisk stood next to their save point. They breathed in and out to prepare themselves until a message they’d heard rang in their mind. “*2 Left”

Frisk interacted with the save point, confused, annoyed, and a bit curious.

*2 Left

Frisk tilted their head in confusion. Did one of their opponents not count? Maybe since Flowey didn’t have a soul? Maybe it was because that human (Clover was his name, right?) wasn’t a monster? Or perhaps that sand monster was something else entirely; maybe it wasn’t even real. Frisk declined to save. Instead, they made their way into the throne room again.

Inside the throne room, there was the same sunlight as last time. The same howling sound of wind, emanating from the barrier. Standing in front of the throne was the same cowboy. Both of their chests glowed in the same heart shape in the same colors, one red and the other yellow. But this time, Clover’s hat was tilted upwards, revealing his smiling face. This time, the harmonica sang a different tune: “Showdown!”

Check — Clover

HP 16 ATK 19 DEF 22
Human soul of Justice

Frisk waited for it. There! The same tumbleweed rolled between the two soon-to-be combatants, as if on cue. Frisk ran forward and kicked it at Clover’s face.

Clover ducked under, barely avoiding it. Taking advantage of the moment, Frisk jumped straight at the cowboy as he was crouched there and slashed.

Clover dashed out of the way, but in his momentary panic, he dodged right into Frisk’s other knife swing. The attack did zero damage, but Frisk was not deterred.

Flowey switched the song he was playing on the harmonica to what sounded like “Spear of Justice”, although on the harmonica, the song’s violence wasn’t fully replicated, making it sound empty and hollow, not unlike the rest of the underground.

Frisk lunged toward Clover again, but Clover dashed further away and took out a golden cup, the same exact color as his scarf. He gulped down whatever was in the cup, then put back the cup.

Frisk lunged again, but Clover was gone. He must have dashed away again. Frisk felt a bullet in their side. They turned, but didn’t see Clover in that direction. A bullet in their back. Again they turned, but the cowboy was nowhere to be found. HP: 87/99

Another bullet hit and another. Frisk couldn’t dodge them, so they decided to keep turning and cut any bullets they saw out of the air.

Check — Clover

HP 16 ATK 19 DEF 22 SP: +3
His body isn’t even used to regular caffeine

As Frisk continued turning, they caught glimpses of Clover, running around at absurd speeds, forcing Frisk to wonder how much caffeine was in that drink. They only had one tool to help them.

Frisk took out the Sea Tea and drank it quickly. But as Frisk was drinking, they couldn’t stop the bullets pelting them. HP: 9/99

They finished drinking, raising their HP to 19 and, more importantly, their SP up one. Frisk dropped the empty cup and ran away from the bullets. More bullets were fired at them, but Frisk could now certainly dodge them with this extra speed. The question was whether they could catch Clover.

Frisk sprinted towards Clover, but Clover got away at twice the speed. Still, Frisk refused to give up like that. As Clover darted around the throne room and shot, Frisk approached something else: Dunebud. They swung their knife…

Clover was in between Frisk and Dunebud, raising his golden cup in front of the knife. The knife shattered it, but it stopped the knife entirely. That cup must’ve been made of actual gold!

Clover quickly put his gun at Frisk’s chest and shot. Frisk brought down their knife, but Clover dashed to Frisk’s other side and shot them again. Frisk spun, swinging their knife desperately. Clover merely dashed to Frisk’s other side again and shot once more, making Frisk fall forward. HP: 1/99

Frisk landed on their hands and feet. Clover brought his gun to their head.

“You know, there’s only one way this could ever end. Will ever end.”

Clover pulled the trigger.

Game Over.

Chapter Text

Once again Frisk was standing at their save point outside the throne room. This was becoming just a bit too familiar, but there wasn’t much Frisk could do about it other than win, which was easier said than done considering Clover’s abilities, by far the most frustrating of which being the result of him being a human: Determination, and thereby the ability to remember each time Frisk’s save file was loaded.

Frisk sighed and entered the throne room again. There was the same sun as last time. The same howling sound of wind, emanating from the barrier. The same tumbleweed rolled between, but that plan had already been spent. Standing in front of the throne was the same cowboy, and just like last time, Clover’s hat was tilted upwards, revealing his smiling face. Only the harmonica sang a different tune, this one being, “But the World Refused to Die”.

Check - Frisk

HP 99 ATK 99 DEF 99
No longer human

A smile flashed over Frisk’s face as they drew a knife and threw it at Clover. Clover dashed out of the way and drew his gun, firing it immediately. It was impossible to see the gun as it moved; one moment, it was in its holster, the next it had released a bullet, flying straight towards Frisk. Another moment afterwards, Frisk had taken their real knife and slashed the bullet out of the air. The harmonica’s song quickly shifted to “Finale”, played to the best of Flowey’s abilities.

Clover fired five more times. Frisk quickly slashed each and every one of them apart, then sprinted forward and made a stab. However, Clover simply dashed to Frisk’s other side and shot them in the back. Frisk staggered a step forward, purposefully.

As Frisk staggered, the tumbleweed rolled in front of them. It was in their reach. Frisk grabbed the tumbleweed. Then, Frisk spun on their heel and threw it at Clover, catching him completely off-guard.

Clover ducked underneath the tumbleweed, but Frisk lunged forward towards him, knife outstretched. Clover’s stance was too unbalanced to dash, so he jumped as high as he could, attempting to leap over the attack. Apparently, Clover was not particularly skilled at jumping, only able to ascend about two feet off the ground, barely avoiding the strike. In retrospect, Clover was not particularly surprised at his jump height, which was, in fact, well above average for humans, especially considering that Clover was only a child.

Frisk saw Clover’s jump and hopped about one foot up, then brought their arm high enough to slice at Clover’s side. They quickly turned around to slice again, but Clover used the meantime to aim his gun at them. Clover fired, and Frisk just barely managed to dart out of the way.

Clover landed and spun around, seeing Frisk not too far away. He dashed with his fist extended and punched Frisk in the face hard enough to make them fall over. Unfortunately, it didn’t bruise them, though Clover supposed they couldn’t hope for anything different considering Frisk’s 99 DEF. HP: 92/99

Frisk grabbed Clover and pulled him down while pulling themselves up. Clover immediately lost their balance, while Frisk was quickly ascending. Frisk held their knife pointed at Clover’s chest, intending to use their opposite velocities to completely impale Clover, but the cowboy spun to his side, causing Frisk to accelerate. This pushed them to their feet faster, but put them off balance. However, Frisk let go of Clover’s fist early enough to catch themselves.

As Clover hit the ground, he noticed it was surprisingly soft. He realized that these must have been the same type of flowers that cushioned him during his initial fall. Meanwhile, Frisk held up their knife and brought it down on Clover. Due to the soft landing, Clover was easily able to roll out of the way, causing Frisk’s attack to miss and cut an innocent flower, infecting Flowey with a mysterious twitch.

Clover rose to his feet, keeping an eye on Frisk. Frisk stood still. The two locked eyes and another tumbleweed thematically rolled past them. Once it passed, Frisk darted forward towards Clover. Clover shot at Frisk. They didn’t slice it out of the air or dodge. They kept barreling towards Clover at full speed. Clover was about to dodge out of the way, but then the barrel of his gun was grabbed by Frisk, who flashed a smile.

Frisk tugged on the weapon, but Clover held on tight. Then, Frisk brought their knife down towards Clover’s wrist, trying to cut it. Clover tugged to the side, avoiding it and directing the gun at Frisk. Clover pulled the trigger, but Frisk tugged and angled the gun towards the ground. Another flower had a bullet hole pierce straight through, causing Flowey’s twitch to act up again. Frisk tried to cut Clover’s wrist again, but Clover tugged towards himself, protecting his wrist. However, it came at a cost…

The Wild Revolver was sliced apart, the impact so great as to make the gun dissolve into yellow powder. The gift Starlo bought for Clover at double the price, the weapon he’d given Starlo at his death to remember him by, it blew away on the breeze. A tear fell from Clover’s eye.

Beyond that, the gun had served a purpose of utility as of late. After all, it was currently Clover’s only weapon. He frankly had no idea what had happened to his toy gun and until this moment, he didn’t care.

Yet at this moment, Clover had become a child standing in front of a demon, staring at his useless gun through the tears welling his eyes.

Shock overcame Flowey, so as to stop playing the harmonica. Dunebud’s expression fell into something more unsure. Frisk sliced their knife across Clover’s torso, right where his soul was shining in the shape of a heart.

No blood. No gore. No dust. No damage at all. A zero hung over Clover’s head. The second and last hit of invincibility offered by his golden pear. Another hit would surely take out Clover’s measly 16 HP. The human and demon felt a shift in the air.

Whiteness filled Clover and Frisk’s vision. Then, they were looking upon something entirely different…

——

“Do you really hate me th— that much?” Toriel asked. The caretaker of the ruins. The nice old lady guiding humans to safety. Trying to take care of Frisk. Sliced to dust, mercilessly.

Toriel’s soul hung in the air. Frisk sliced again, cutting the heart straight down the middle.

Clover’s hands fell limply to his side.

LOVE: 4

——

“IS THAT A HUG? I ACCEPT!” Papyrus said with a bright smile. Then, he was struck down, reduced to a head as the rest of his body crumbled to dust.

“I— I STILL BELIEVE IN YOU. Y— YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER!” His dying words.

Clover dropped his gun to the floor.

LOVE: 7

——

“Oh. Oh man. What would Undyne do?”

The child turned to Frisk. “If you want to hurt anyone else, you’re gonna have to go through me!”

They swung their weapon, trying to kill a mere child.

Clover turned on their heels and walked away.

LOVE: 8

Undyne intercepted the blow. She shooed the child away and nearly crumbled to dust, but with determination, she held on. She explained how she felt everyone's hearts beating together, wishing for Frisk’s annihilation. She transformed into Undyne the Undying. Into the monsterkind’s zenith.

But after a grueling battle, Frisk jumped up towards Undyne with their dusty tutu and ballerina shoes. They kicked Undyne in the face hard enough for Undyne to fall to her knees. Then, she slowly began to melt. “Papyrus, Alphys, Asgore… I failed you.”

Clover put a foot on the cushion of the throne.

LOVE: 10

——

Frisk beheld a terrifying transformation with of their own eyes. Mettaton became Mettaton NEO, giving hope to his fans; those who were left. Mettaton charged up a blast with his cannon. Frisk was frozen with fear, their feet stuck on the floor. They gulped; the most movement they could manage. Frisk shook as they fumbled for and grabbed the empty gun, then pointed it at Mettaton NEO.

Their determination built up until a blast came soaring out of the gun, straight towards Mettaton NEO. A hole was blown straight through his center. Then, a moment later, he was gone, with his fans. As shaky as it was, Mettaton had made sure he went down smiling.

However, not only was Mettaton killed; so were all the hopes and dreams of the underground, slaughtered in a single blast of pure determination. With this knowledge, Frisk smiled widely.

Clover put his other foot on the throne’s railing.

LOVE: 12

——

“On days like this, kids like you should be burning in hell.”

Sans judged them. They were guilty. Sans enacted Justice the best he could. Still, Frisk was too determined. They persisted.

For all his gusto and his skill, Sans couldn’t face up to Frisk. As Sans fell asleep, Frisk stabbed towards him. Sans quickly dodged, but Frisk sliced their knife to the side. It skidded against Sans and cut him open, making blood gush from the wound. Sans slunk off and turned to dust behind a pillar.

Then, when Frisk was forced to fight Sans again, Frisk killed him the same way without hesitation.

Clover took a quick step on the toy knife embedded into the king’s empty throne.

LOVE: 14

——

Frisk stepped back for another swing and Asgore held out his trident to block. His trident was cut in half and dissolved into magic. Frisk stepped closer and plunged the real knife deep into Asgore. The number “99999999999” hung above him. Asgore gasped as he dissolved into dust, leaving behind his soul. Frisk grabbed his soul with their hand and shattered it.

Clover placed his feet on top of the throne’s backrest.

LOVE: 15

——

Toriel, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, and Frisk all stood on a ridge, outside of Mt. Ebott, looking out at the sunset.

Flowey appeared to Frisk. “Please, don’t reset. Let everyone live their life on the surface… Sorry, you’ve probably already heard this a million times before.”

Frisk hit the reset button, bringing the world back to how it was when their adventure began.

LOVE: 19

——

Clover stood high upon the throne. His back was turned on Frisk.

Clover turned his head towards the demon, his face staying obscured in shadow. “You… I can’t even begin to tell you how downright unjustified what you did was. You… took away monsterkind’s happy ending for your own sick pleasure. You killed them all because… you were curious?! You just wanted to know what happened.”

Frisk stepped to the foot of the empty throne and ate a handful of snow; a part of a snowman Frisk had torn to bits. HP: 99/99

Music started to play. It wasn’t like the tunes Flowey had played on the harmonica. In fact, it felt similar to all of the other music Frisk had heard during their most intense battles in its almost “pixelated” instrumentation. As for the mood… it was vindictive and intense.

Clover sighed. He turned his head down, making the shadow cast by his hat over his face twice as deep. Through the fading sunlight, it was impossible to see any part of Clover above his snarl.

“LOVE. As I’ve learned, it stands for Levels Of ViolencE. Right now, I’ve realized there’s only one thing that can bring Justice to the fallen monsters you’ve slain and the scared monsters whose lives have been ruined.”

The song that was playing… if Frisk had to describe it in a single word, that word would be… “Retribution”. In more words than that, it might have been, “Recompense for the Departed”, or perhaps, “Balancing the Scales of Justice”.

A yellow light shined out from under the shadow over Clover’s face. Right where the cowboy’s eye was. “And it’s downright violent, but also perfectly justified.”

Yellow energy coalesced and built up in Clover’s clenched right fist. The image of a yellow heart disappeared from Clover’s chest and reappeared, twice as bright on his hand. “So, I’ll give you one last chance. Fall to your knees. BEG! Beg for forgiveness from the monsters you’ve slain!”

Frisk’s mouth curled upwards into a smile as their eyes glowed red. They tore the toy knife out of the throne’s backrest.

“I thought so.”

LOVE: 20 EXP: 0

Clover took out his fingers on his right hand, forming a finger gun. He aimed it and released the build-up of energy in a laser made of magic, determination, his soul, and Justice, all in one. In that way, it was not unlike Undyne the Undying, though rather than being an opponent, that power was all put in a single technique.

Frisk jumped and rolled to the side, barely evading it. In the spot it had hit, the flowers were eviscerated, as was the ground, leaving a deep hole with the dirt around it so blackened that the hole was indistinguishable from a complete void.

At that moment, Flowey did not twitch. He froze entirely.

Frisk darted at the throne and cut it in half with their blade. At the last second, Clover jumped off the throne and landed a short distance behind Frisk.

Frisk spun, and threw their knife at Clover. Clover barely moved to avoid the attack. The knife kept flying towards the frozen figure of Flowey, cutting off one of his petals, the one on the far right side. Flowey twitched afterwards and distantly felt his new bald spot with a vine.

Meanwhile, Clover lunged forward and grabbed Frisk by the collar. He was holding them up as he aimed his finger gun at them. Yellow light shone brightly, building up once more.

Check - Clover

HP 100 ATK 58 DEF 27
Judge. Jury. Executioner.

Those stats bordered on the literal incredible. Frisk didn’t struggle; it wouldn’t have amounted to anything. Clover released his laser from his fingers. Naturally, with such a combination of magic, determination, their soul, and Justice, Frisk met the same fate as the flowers: immediate evisceration.

*You gained 1 EXP and 434 G!

“Uh— uh— What the heck?!” Flowey sputtered out.

Clover walked over to Dunebud and gave her a good jiggle. “Awawa!”

“You didn’t answer my question!” Flowey yelled.

Dunebud’s smile grew wider as Clover patted her head a few times until it looked as if the smile would grow off of Dunebud’s body. “heHe!” Dunebud cheered.

“Ergh!” Flowey yelled. Then, his face morphed into a rather blank expression. “Wait a minute, you still haven’t told me how Dunebud got here!”

Clover stood up and turned around. He opened his mouth and— took a bite of the Golden Cactus.

“Ugh. Come on Clover!” Flowey demanded.

Clover sighed. “Okay, she—”

Chapter Text

Frisk stood by the save point and sighed. They really were starting to run out of tricks. Compared to that laser, Frisk didn’t have much. With just their knife and their fake knife. What they needed was more power, but they had already killed everyone. There was no more EXP to get, except… Alphys. Last time, Frisk had gotten cold feet. They didn’t go through with it. Last time, Alphys had called them. She had told them how she had evacuated everyone into her lab.

Frisk turned around and began walking away.

“What are you doing?” Chara demanded.

“Getting more power,” Frisk explained as they walked.

“Huh? You’re at 20 LOVE! That’s the maximum!” Chara reminded them.

“There are more monsters. Alphys evacuated them into her lab. That means there’s more EXP to be gained and that means more power to be had,” Frisk explained.

“But what if that doesn’t give you any more LOVE?” Chara asked.

“Then at least I’ll be retrieving the weapons left here by the previous humans,” Frisk explained as they walked.

“But, you do remember that the tough glove is all the way back in Waterfall, right?” Chara reminded them.

“Then I’ll go to Waterfall. You remember how I went all the way back to Gerson for the torn notebook and cloudy glasses, which was one of the only reasons I could beat Sans.”

“Fine. Anything not to spend a thousand resets looking at the face of a human,” Chara agreed.

“But you’ve spent so much time with me,” Frisk argued.

“I’m not exactly looking at you. Besides, you certainly aren’t human anymore,” Chara retorted.

Frisk giggled. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Huh, were you saying something?” Flowey asked.

“I— I think we were talking about the Dunebud, but maybe—” Clover mused.

“So, about the Dunebud—” Flowey interrupted.

“Wait, are you hearing what Frisk is saying about the monsters?” Clover asked.

“Yeah… and… it sounds like they’re talking to someone. I— I thought I could hear someone else,” Flowey admitted. Flowey mumbled softly, “And the voice was so familiar…”

“Strange…” Clover mumbled, “Because I heard another voice too.”

The two friends sat together in silence for a few moments. Then, Dunebud came and broke the tension by rubbing on Clover’s knee while saying “Gwob Gwub!”

Clover giggled as he patted Dunebud’s head. “Awooo!” she yelled.

“So, buddy, are you gonna just let Frisk get away?” Flowey asked.

“I mean, this is where the human souls are…” Clover answered.

“Weren’t you trying to save monsters?” Flowey asked.

Clover sighed as he gave Dunebud another jiggle. She mumbled appreciatively.

“Yeah, I guess I should follow. Even if they come back here… there’s no telling how many monsters they’ll hurt before then,” Clover said.

“Great! Well, I’ve got an idea on how to catch up,” Flowey offered.

“What?” Clover asked.

“The elevators! They’re working and there sure isn’t anyone in them right now,” Flowey explained.

Clover nodded along.

“So, shall we get going, buddy?” Flowey asked.

Clover nodded again.

Flowey and Clover started to leave, with Dunebud following. Clover quickly turned around and dropped into a squating position. He patted Dunebud on his head as he told her, “You stay here, where it’s safe.”

“Uuuu?” Dunebud asked.

“Mmm—hmm.” Clover nodded. “Stay here.”

Dunebud’s expression melted into a frown. Clover gave her a jiggle and stood up, then turned around and left, following Flowey.

Dunebud tried to disappear into the sand, but there was only dirt. Dunebud suddenly felt far from home, but she would stay there as told.

“Ya know, ya should’ve said something. Ya should’ve been honest at the very least! Ya slowly let all their hopes leave and then only gave ‘em back when these folks are on the brink of death! And after they have families that will never be able to see them again. Families that will never know that they could’ve been together and families that never will be together!”

Alphys flinched as she heard the words. They were harsh, but true.

Surrounding Alphys and her rebuker were crying people. There didn’t seem to be a single dry eye from anyone except the one berating her. Melting people compacted together into things called Amalgamates were finally meeting up with any of their family that could be evacuated.

Snowdrake’s mother was hugging Snowdrake’s father. Both of them mourned their son, killed by the demon. Endegoney looked down on Monster Kid with its massive orifice taking up its entire face. Monster Kid shivered and cried, though the reason wasn’t quite clear. Lemon Bread looked around to see if they could find Shyren, but Shyren wasn’t here. She’d passed on. No one had the heart to tell Lemon Bread, though she was starting to realize and panic. Reaper Bird hovered in the corner, seemingly having realized that its family is no more. Even the Memoryheads were in a somber mood.

Alphys wanted to cry, but she didn’t deserve it. Besides, anyone with any hope was resting on Alphys’ shoulders. Alphys was not one of those monsters, but she wouldn’t let everyone lose their hopes while she could help them. Mettaton wouldn’t have. Undyne wouldn’t have.

A tear fell at that thought. She couldn’t hold it back. Alphys really should’ve told her. However, Undyne had believed in her when she died. Alphys wouldn’t abandon her hope.

Upon seeing Alphys’ tear, her rebuker sighed and said, “Yeah, cry.”

Starlo turned back to the screen Alphys had been watching without fail. They both silently gazed hopelessly. There was nothing they could do. Perhaps even less than that.

Alphys switched the camera feed repeatedly as another tear fell.

“What’s that tear for?” Starlo asked.

Alphys sighed. “Sans. He left and said he was going to report on the human, but… he was so angry. And what they did to Papyrus… I don’t think he was just going to report.”

“Oh…” Starlo muttered.

The two kept watching until the camera caught the human. Back at the platform where the human slaughtered Mettaton NEO, they had returned. They walked into the center, a pan in hand, and grabbed a gun off of the floor. They then shot the camera viewing them. Alphys switched to another viewing of the same arena, (what, did you think Mettaton wanted his grand finale to only be filmed from one angle?) which was shot immediately afterwards. Each camera was successively smashed or slashed apart until there was no way to see the human.

Alphys switched the screen to different cameras, trying to find the human, but it was hard to know which camera viewed where considering the CORE’s recent reconfiguration. Starlo sighed and walked away from the scientist.

With a smile, Starlo looked at the crying forms of Ceroba and another amalgamate, Kanako, in an embrace after years. Starlo kept walking, not wanting to interrupt their reunion. If only it had happened before now, so they had time to live together and not just to die together.

Starlo came across his posse, all of whom were sitting down in a row. Moray was looking at the ground, hair unkempt and completely covering their face. Ed had one of his arms covering his own face, dripping with tears. His other arm was holding Mooch tightly. Mooch was hugging Ed in return and was covering her face with a soaking wet pillow. Even Ace, resident stoic, had his normally visible eye hidden along with the rest of his face.

Ace’s head moved up a bit. He revealed his eye and began to speak. “I didn’t know you had that brutality in you, star.”

Starlo took off his hat and scratched his head sheepishly. “I— I knew Ceroba would’ve been really mad at any other time, but she was too busy reuniting with Kanako, so I kinda just took over.”

As Alphys switched the cameras to see the human, her concern for Sans and Asgore nagged at the back of her head. They— They were dead, weren’t they? Then, something perhaps more important occurred to Alphys.

Alphys turned around and tried to guess who the most responsible person was. She decided it was the Ketsukane woman hugging her daughter. So, Alphys went over and, although she felt bad about it, tapped the fox on her shoulder, interrupting their embrace.

Ceroba sighed softly as she let go of her daughter and turned to… the royal scientist. Calmly, Ceroba asked, “What is it?”

Alphys gulped, knitting her hands together. Even Ceroba’s calm voice was intimidating, but Alphys had the remains of the Underground’s hopes and dreams on her shoulders. “Mrs. Ketsukane, I need to get the human souls from Asgore’s castle. If I— Until I return, you’re— you’re in charge. N— Now I g— get it if you h— hate me. I never sh— sh— should’ve kept this hidden, but— but—”

Ceroba sighed and put a hand on Alphys’ shoulder. “I really feel like I should hate you for what you’ve done, but I don’t have any hate left with that demon rampaging. And you’re also the only reason I — that any of us — lived long enough for this reunion. So, thank you. I’ll take care of everyone in the lab.”

Alphys’ mouth quivered and tears flowed freely from her eyes. She twitched and began to hug herself. “Th— Thank you.”

Ceroba gave a smile that was supposed to be reassuring, but looked a bit uncertain. Alphys couldn’t even see it through her soaked spectacles.

Alphys regained her composure shortly. She apologized profusely as she took off her glasses and used a napkin to dry them.

“Sorry! Sorry! Over here is the screen you need to be watching,” Alphys explained as she guided the Ketsukanes to the aforementioned screen, “and you can press these buttons to change which camera you’re watching. It’s rather unorganized in the CORE, but in Snowdin, Waterfall, Hotland, and some parts of the Dunes, it should be relatively straightforward to watch the human.”

“I see,” Ceroba replied.

“Then, there’s two elevators. The one in the corner over there goes back to my normal lab, but that one connects to New Home. If the human comes, it’s your job to guide everyone to the other elevator in order to escape, is that clear?” Alphys explained with a sense of authority.

Ceroba nodded. “Where are you going? What are you doing?”

Alphys let out a breath. “I— I’m going to the castle. I need to check if King Asgore was— was killed by the human. I need to know if my friend, Sans, ended up fighting them. And most of all, I need to retrieve the human souls. Otherwise, everything we’ve been doing since the death of the King’s children has been for nothing. Even if it’s hard to remember, this is the seventh human soul. If they die, those who are left will have the chance to see the sky as long as the souls are intact.” Alphys paused. “And they’re our best chance at defeating the human. With their power, we should be able to overwhelm them. They’re our last chance at victory.”

Ceroba nodded. “You’re right. I— I knew one of those humans. I don’t want their sacrifice to be in vain.”

“Y— You did? Which one w— was it?” Alphys asked.

Ceroba lifted an eyebrow. “The one which lived in my lifespan and sacrificed themself? Did more than just Cl— Cl— the yellow-souled human do that?”

Alphys gulped. “I was n— never as aware of the c— current going-ons in the Underground. I was too b— busy being down here, watching anime, and f— f— feeling sorry for myself.”

A moment of silence persisted between the two individuals and the passively watching Kanako. She piped up, asking, “Are you going now, Dr. Alphys?”

Alphys jumped up, startled out of her trance. “Y— Yes! I’m d— doing that right n— now!”

Alphys began running past the elevator, into another room. Then, after a few moments, she ran back to the first room and into the elevator headed to New Home. The doors closed and the Ketsukanes turned away.

Ceroba turned back to the screen and started flipping through cameras. Before she got far, Ceroba felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning, she saw her childhood friend Starlo.

“That scientist really was a ball of anxiety, wasn’t she? Way more anxious than when we first got here, am I right? I guess I must’ve yelled at her more harshly than I thought,” Starlo mumbled.

Ceroba sighed. “I didn’t pay much attention to her demeanor since we got here, but I know from when I saw her as I brought Kanako here that she was fairly prone to stuttering.”

“Oh,” Starlo responded in a somewhat perplexed tone.

Ceroba turned her full attention to the monitor she was flipping through. All Ceroba saw in different segments of the CORE were deactivated or broken puzzles along with piles of dust. Nearly forty monsters had been killed in the CORE, so it was hardly surprising to see so much dust, though it was rather disheartening. These were supposed to be professional mercenaries, but that didn’t mean much in the peaceful underground.

Ceroba felt a tug on her sleeve. She turned and saw Kanako, who seemed to want to hold hands. Her face was scrunched up. Though it was harder to tell with how melted it was and the other monsters melted into Kanako’s form, this was still her daughter’s face and Ceroba could tell that her daughter was scared. Ceroba smiled in a way she hoped was reassuring and obliged her daughter’s request.

Absent-mindedly, Ceroba had still been scrolling through until she heard a sharp gasp and a hushed request from Starlo. “Go back.”

Ceroba looked up and went back. She had gone a bit too far and was in the MTT Resort, but… perhaps it wasn’t too far after all. Ceroba was shocked and startled at the current sight. She couldn’t do anything but gasp and stare.

“That’s not the human everyone’s scared of, right? They looked different. More… purple and scary,” Kanako observed.

“No. This isn’t them,” Ceroba muttered.

Starlo turned on his heel, hitting his spurs on the ground. “Moray! Ed! Ace! Mooch! Dalv! Martlet! You need to see this, now!”

Dalv quickly came up, Penilla trailing behind, nearly hidden by his cape. “What is it, St—” He stopped himself. Penilla stopped immediately thereafter.

The Feisty Four came next, led by Ace. Moray swept aside their hair to see. Immediately, they froze, their mouth agape and now revealed eyes bulging. The Feisty Four all wore similar shocked expressions. Mooch nearly fell off of Ed’s shoulder.

Noticing the commotion, a crowd was slowly forming around the monitor. They muttered at the sight on screen. Starlo tore his eyes from the screen and looked over the crowd and noticed the lack of a specific ex-royal guard. “Where’s Martlet?”

The Feisty Four looked around, but couldn’t see Martlet either.

Dalv pointed to a door near the elevator. “I think I heard her say she was going to get something before going that way.”

“Thanks Dalv,” Starlo muttered as he pushed his way through the crowd and towards the door.

Martlet shivered. She’d barely managed to come out unscathed after her encounter with one of the amalgamates. She was lucky to have been mistaken for someone they were fond of, named Snowy. Still, Martlet had to wonder why this creature had disguised themself as a fridge.

The creature slunk away sadly, accompanied by a blue bird monster who seemed to know them. Somehow, Martlet thought they looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on why. It must’ve been from the gaggle of sunglass-wearing birds like them that used to bother Martlet up until…

Martlet put those thoughts to the back of her mind like so many times before as she searched a real fridge. All she found were strange, unexplainable objects and bits of food. Some of it looked and smelled like it had been discarded years ago.

Martlet moved onto another fridge, throwing aside anything that she wasn’t afraid to touch. The thing must be here. At least, this was where Martlet had found it the first time.

Eventually, Dr. Alphys dashed in here, opened a fridge Martlet thought she had already checked, opened a drawer near the bottom, threw aside a bag of salad, and lifted out one of items Martlet had been searching for. Alphys then put it in her lab pocket and darted back off.

As soon as the doctor was gone, Martlet dashed to the fridge, opened that same drawer, and saw vials stacked on vials of the substance Martlet had been searching for. These contained something immensely powerful. Perhaps enough to make Martlet immortal. Martlet only hoped she wasn’t too late, endlessly cursing that she had thrown out the initial version of her plan not long after Clover’s fall.

They came in five colors, Cyan, Orange, Green, Purple, and Blue. For whatever reason, the blue one called out to Martlet. Perhaps because she was blue, even if that wasn’t her favorite color.

Trying not to think about it too hard, Martlet grabbed the blue vial and closed the drawer and fridge. She stuffed the vial in her purse. Martlet noticed a lot of noise; there seemed to be some sort of commotion. The human hadn’t come here, had they? No, it wasn’t panic…

Starlo ran into the room, panting. “Martlet, you need to see this, now!”

Martlet followed Starlo back out. As soon as she exited the room, Martlet stopped in her tracks.

On the screen, a certain human cowboy was staring up at the statue of Mettaton. A faced flower popped up next to them and both of their mouths began to move as they faced each other.

The flower looked vaguely familiar, but Martlet couldn’t place it. Though, Martlet suddenly had a strange empty feeling in her torso. She discarded the sensation, shaking her head.

“I’m going,” Martlet stated.

“But, Martlet—” Starlo protested.

“That’s a statement, not a request,” Martlet clarified.

Starlo sighed and dug something from his side. “Here then, take Clover this. A bit of cowboy equipment he never got. It’s gonna help out if he’s about to do what I think he is.”

Starlo held out a lasso to Martlet. She grabbed it and dashed towards the elevator. When Martlet realized it was in use, she flew over the crowd to the other elevator and rode it back up into the lab. Soon enough, she’d be at the humans.

Dunebud looked at where Clover had left. Feeling lonely, she wanted to follow, but she knew Clover was looking out for her, so Dunebud went the other direction out of the throne room.

After a few moments, Dunebud was at the barrier, looking through it. If she squinted, Dunebud was certain she could see the sky. Around her were six capsules. Five had souls inside of them, colored Cyan, Orange, Blue, Purple, and Green. Then, there was one empty canister. Although, there was one other thing. It was like one of the canisters, but in pieces, like it wasn’t finished being built.

Since there was a spare, Dunebud didn’t think anyone would mind if they borrowed the pieces for one. So, Dunebud put one big piece in her mouth, but spit it back out quickly. It was really sharp and it hurt her mouth!

Dunebud found another, less sharp piece of glass and ate it. It was great! Then another little piece. Dunebud was about to find another, but it became entranced in the glow of the orange soul. Dunebud shook her head and left. After all, souls were very important to the people they belonged to.

Chapter Text

Dunebud looked at where Clover had left. Feeling lonely, she wanted to follow, but she knew Clover was looking out for her, so Dunebud went the other direction out of the throne room.

After a few moments, Dunebud was at the barrier, looking through it. If she squinted, Dunebud was certain she could see the sky. Around her were six capsules. Five had souls inside of them, colored Cyan, Orange, Blue, Purple, and Green. Then, there was one empty canister. Although, there was one other thing. It was like one of the canisters, but in pieces, like it wasn’t finished being built.

Since there was a spare, Dunebud didn’t think anyone would mind if they borrowed the pieces for one. So, Dunebud put one big piece in her mouth, but spit it back out quickly. It was really sharp and it hurt her mouth!

Dunebud found another, less sharp piece of glass and ate it. It was great! Then another little piece. Dunebud was about to find another, but it became entranced in the glow of the orange soul. Dunebud shook her head and left. After all, souls were very important to the people they belonged to.

There was a deep recess in Alphys’ lab, one where Alphys had worked on her favorite project before Alphys became too scared to go this deep in the lab. So, she’d left what she no longer needed in this room. Various other junk ended up collecting here, including lab notes, old decomposing food, goopy remnants of the residents, and puddles of a strange, unfamiliar liquid.

Inside of this forlorn room, a single resident floated, crying their signature tears. In front of them lay a familiar form, yet this didn’t house what Napstablook so desperately wanted. His cousin… was dead. He was never prepared for that possibility. Ghosts couldn’t be killed, but by bonding with a physical form, they would die with the physical form’s destruction.

Napstablook’s cousin had been a hero. They’d taken on the human directly, even with no hope of success. Napstablook’s cousin had been Mettaton. Napstablook’s cousin had told him that shortly before he went to engage the human, and his subsequent murder. Napstablook was more alone than he had ever been in his life. He knew he would never see his cousin again. His cousin was gone forever.

Napstablook’s tears were more real now than they had ever been before. Now, his usual self—loathing was combined with grief and another whirlwind of emotions that Napstablook had no name for besides misery.

Napstablook tried to distract himself with the only line thought he had which seemed bearable. Napstablook wondered how it felt to be in such a body, to possess it with his power as a ghost. So, he did. He entered the body which was so close to his cousin, and yet could never be like him. It didn’t have his heart, his passion, his soul.

Looking around, Napstablook felt strangely more… whole with a physical form. Napstablook felt like could see himself making grandiose gestures, or— or—

Any number of other things that Napstablook’s cousin had done, but would never do again.

Napstablook tried to hold it back, but it seemed that his resolve was incorporeal, being completely phased through. The sadness overflowed Napstablook. All of his magical power was concentrated into the same tears he always shed, physical releases of his sorrow. More tears fell. And more. And more. The entire room was flooded.

Looking around the room, Napstablook realized what a pitiful sight he was. What he always had been. If he hadn’t been so cowardly, he would’ve attacked the human. He was incorporeal, so he would never be killed. Yet somehow, Napstablook was scared of something that couldn’t even touch him. Pathetic.

Napstablook decided to leave, maybe pretend he didn’t exist. Maybe silently watching the human, always saying he’d intervene, but never actually doing it. However, when Napstablook tried to float away, he found that he couldn’t.

Suddenly, the ghost remembered that he’d possessed a robot. He’d never realized just how hard it was to escape a body possessed. The way his cousin, the other deceased one, the one who’d come to be known as Mad Dummy (or Glad Dummy in his final moments, Napstablook added), had described it in a way which made it seem easy. Remembering Mad Dummy’s advice (he’d only gotten after Napstablook begged), Napstablook tried to will himself out. He tried to imagine himself flying out free…

But then again, Napstablook couldn’t ever really be free, could he? Weighed down by a lifetime of mistakes and missed opportunities, Napstablook couldn’t go anywhere. So, Napstablook tried the other thing, imagining his form was broken and that he was being forced to be removed. That worked no better.

Originally, Napstablook had felt inadequate for needing to ask, but now Napstablook felt like the advice he’d been given felt inadequate. However, it wasn’t like he could ask his cousin for new advice. Wait— had Napstablook just gotten mad at his cousin? His cousin who never let him be fully alone, even when he was fed up with Napstablook. The one Napstablook would never see again.

Using his newfound anger, Napstablook tried to force his way out, but it didn’t work. Then, Napstablook wondered something. He’d gotten quite sad and full of emotion… perhaps like his cousins had? Had Napstablook just… bonded to a corporeal form?

Water gushed out of the fountain and onto the floor. In the flow was a hand, feeling the sensation for the first time in a long time. Clover took his hand back out of the rushing water and shook it dry.

“What’re you doing, weird— er, potential customer?” a strange monster asked.

Clover walked over, thinking about how different this place was from what he remembered. This store no longer looked vaguely like a gift shop, the store was a fast food place. From signs around, the place seemed to be called the “MTT—Brand Burger Emporium.” “What are you doing here?” Clover asked.

“Doing my job, weirdo,” replied the monster. They were a sort of orangish—brownish… thing with a face only a mother could love.

“I thought that people would’ve evacuated…” Clover muttered.

“And I thought everyone else would show up for their shifts! Now shut up. I’m not allowed to talk to customers who haven’t bought anything,” they yelled.

Clover stepped back and viewed the menu. He then checked his satchel. He didn’t have enough money to buy the “Steak in the Shape of Mettaton’s Face”. So, instead, Clover decided on a less expensive item.

“Legendary Hero, please,” Clover requested.

“Thanksy! Have a FABU-FUL day!!!" the cashier said with a forced smile.

Clover took the Legendary Hero and asked, “So, no one evacuated?”

“Some freak came by earlier and said that they did, but I didn’t hear anything about it!”

“Well… there’s a dangerous human on the loose. They’ve killed… a lot of monsters,” Clover explained.

“Heh, you’re pulling my leg!” the cashier replied.

After a moment of silence, the cashier’s expression tensed. “You know, you look a little like a human… I think I’ve already been threatened enough for today.”

The cashier quickly grabbed a glass screen from above his head and pulled it down, putting a noise-canceling barrier between Clover and themself.

Clover sighed, although he wasn’t sure if it was relief or worry. He walked out of the “MTT-Brand Burger Emporium” and back towards the fountain. The label described a “Mettaton added last week.” The fountain had a very different statue, so Clover extrapolated that this was a statue of Mettaton. Did the MTT stand for Mettaton? Something about this place seemed off in more than just the way it was empty. The name Mettaton also looked like something Clover had heard of before, somewhere…

Clover suddenly remembered the vague sight of a robot standing before Frisk and knew his name was Mettaton NEO. It seemed like he’d tried to stop Frisk. If Clover’s guesses were correct, he wasn’t sure what to think of this Mettaton.

Next to Clover, a flower popped up. “Howdy, I’m here! It’s a little harder since I can’t go in an elevator.”

Clover silently nodded. Suddenly, he noticed a camera and got the urge to wave. Flowey saw Clover waving and scrunched up his face in confusion. He followed Clover’s gaze and found the camera. “Oh, do you even know who’s watching?”

Clover thought for a moment. “Of course.”

“Really? Then who is it?” Flowey asked with a slightly devious smile.

Clover flapped his mouth silently. Then, he answered, “Ceroba?”

Flowey smirked. “No, it’s Alphys the royal scientist, you dingus!”

Clover looked away, embarrassed. He then walked over to the side of the fountain and sat on it. “That laser was pretty cool, think you can do it again?”

Clover thought for a moment… “No. I did that with pure justice flowing through me. It was after I’d looked in their mind and seen their cruel memories. I can remember the feelings I had after seeing their memories, but their memories themselves are… blurry.”

Flowey stopped, his mouth hanging, his face somehow paler than before.

“What?” Clover asked.

Flowey blinked a few times.

“What?!” Clover demanded.

“YOU CAN READ MINDS?!” Flowey demanded.

“Sometimes…” Clover trailed off, “Like, during certain… phase changes.”

Flowey blinked. “Is that why Ceroba demanded you to get out of her head?!”

“Yeah…” Clover admitted.

Flowey sighed. “So… you have the ability to shoot massive lasers from your soul AND to read minds?!”

“I can dash too!” Clover added.

“Everyone can ru—” then Flowey realized what Clover meant. “Right… you can also displace yourself a certain distance away; phasing through attacks. That’s pretty much short—range teleportation. Because shooting lasers and reading minds wasn’t enough.”

“And yet you can turn back time,” Clover argued.

“I used to be able to…” Flowey muttered.

Clover opened his mouth, then closed it.

Out of nowhere, footsteps broke the silence.

Flowey and Clover turned to the doorway and saw a smiling demon. They held up a gun and a red glow emanated from the barrel. Then, a blast came out, rushing towards Clover. Clover dashed off of the fountain and onto his feet. Frisk pulled the trigger again, but the red energy fizzled out. “Useless piece of junk…” Frisk muttered, hitting the gun.

Clover recognized the gun. For all its wear and tear, that was unmistakably the same gun Starlo had bought for him during his… adventure through the underground.

A blast fired from the revolver in Clover’s hand. Frisk wasn’t holding their knife, so they dodged to the side. Clover gestured down a hallway with his head. Flowey nodded and fired friendliness pellets at Frisk. Frisk avoided them, but was being subconsciously corralled down the aforementioned hall.

Frisk kept walking back into the hall as they tried to shoot at Clover with their empty gun, but Frisk kept messing it up, making the blasts fly horribly off—target. As Frisk took another step backwards, vines tied around their ankles. They fell to the ground and dropped their weapon.

Frisk looked up at the cowboy standing over them. He put a foot on Frisk’s chest and aimed his gun at their head. Frisk reached out for their weapon, but Flowey bound their hands in place with vines.

“You—”

[File 0 Loaded] Frisk turned on their heel and jumped over some vines on the ground attempting to grab them. Then, Frisk dashed away.

Flowey popped up in the hall. “Darn! I wasn’t ready!”

Clover dashed in and looked around. “Where is Frisk?”

Flowey and Clover looked around. All they saw were the two walls of the hall and a wall of black void. One wall was lined with doors to hotel rooms.

“You check inside the hotel rooms, and I’ll watch your back,” Flowey suggested. Clover nodded in agreement.

Clover walked to the first door and knocked.

“You don’t need to knock! If anyone’s here, they’re stupid and gonna die pretty soon no matter what we do,” Flowey argued.

Clover spared a thought for the cashier. While they seemed rude, Clover hoped they could make it out of this place safely. Clover also realized that no one had come to work, there might not be anyone staying here. Clover hoped his reasoning made sense.

Gripping the handle tightly, Clover twisted and pushed, trying to open the door. When that didn’t work, he tried pulling it out. That didn’t work either.

“It’s locked,” Flowey muttered dryly.

Clover bit his lip as he lifted his gun to the lock and fired at it. The door immediately swung in, revealing an empty room. Clover moved to the next one.

“You know, hiding here was a wonderful idea,” Chara commented. A second gunshot rang out, filling the hall.

Frisk stood leaning against a sign advertising “Art Club” inside a black void. The sign reminded Frisk that they should really take down So Sorry if they find him. It wasn’t like they needed EXP anyway. “I don’t need your sarcasm right now!” Frisk half—yelled. Their sound was barely hidden by a gunshot.

“I’m not being sarcastic,” Chara clarified, “This really was a great idea.”

“Oh,” Frisk muttered.

“However, there aren’t going to be many other places to check once he finishes with those rooms, so you might want to get going sooner rather than later,” Chara suggested. A sentiment Frisk wholeheartedly agreed with. They moved towards the edge of the void they were hanging in and peeked out, only to see Flowey peeking in their direction. Frisk only hoped they were still masked by the void.

“Did you hear something?” Flowey asked.

“Maybe…” Clover mumbled as they turned. Both Clover and Flowey looked around, but didn’t find Frisk.

“Just… keep checking the rooms,” Flowey suggested.

Clover nodded and turned around, shooting the last lock and opening the last door. Inside, there wasn’t anyone. Clover was about to turn around when he heard a shout of, “Behind you!”

Clover spun on his heel and saw Frisk in the air, coming straight towards him. Before Clover could react, a vine grabbed Frisk and dragged them to the ground. Frisk spun and cut the vine off their ankle, but then felt something impact their back. Frisk fell to one knee. Then, vines came up on all sides of Frisk. They surrounded Frisk and pulled them down. Frisk cut as many as they could, but more and more appeared in their place.

[File 0 Loaded] Frisk was on the border of the void. They immediately dashed away, not bothering with Flowey or Clover. Vines ripped through the floor, trying to grab them, but Frisk went too fast. Gunshots rang and bullets flew towards Frisk, but they expertly dodged them. Clover and Flowey were on their (figurative) tail, so Frisk kept going into the theatre. Seeing a clothed table, Frisk ran past the first one and under the second one.

“Come on, again?!” Flowey yelled. Clover aimed at each of the tables in turn, wondering if there was somewhere else Frisk could be hiding.

“Let me take care of this,” Flowey ordered.

Vines appeared next to each table and lifted each tablecloth off simultaneously. Clover saw Frisk below one, but before he could aim and fire, they’d already set off towards a wall. They threw their knife at a window, shattering it, and jumped through, grabbing their knife again.

Frisk kept running. They found stairs down from the MTT Resort and to a lower level. On that level, Frisk put their hands on their knees and panted.

“It’s kind of funny that after so long of chasing down and killing every monster you’ve seen, now you’re the one running. You didn’t even run from Sans or— well, from Sans,” Chara commented.

“Look, Sans couldn’t remember when I loaded my save file, even if he almost made me think he could. I’m not getting anywhere by fighting Clover. It’s just bashing my head into a brick wall,” Frisk defended as they ran.

“I’m pretty sure you could destroy a brick wall without much issue,” Chara mused.

An exasperated Frisk sighed. “It’s an expression!”

“I know. I’m also not saying you’re wrong to run, I just think it’s a bit funny,” Chara explained.

“When’d you get so talkative?” Frisk questioned.

“I’m feeling a bit more myself since you went so long without killing anyone,” Chara admitted.

With a slam, Frisk’s attention was taken back to the MTT Resort. They turned around and looked back towards it. They saw Clover staring down at them. At his side was the same obnoxious flower smirking. In his hand was his revolver, pointed right at Frisk’s face. Frisk steadied their knife.

The light coming through ornate windows seemed somehow muted. Everything seemed darker today… Blood puddled everywhere on the tiles. Scorch marks dotted every pillar, as if an inferno had come through. In fact, Alphys reasoned that one had come through. With a pile of dust right below a deep indent within a pillar, the right size for a knife.

Tears fell to the ground, splattering on the shining tiles, not far from the dust. That dust… must’ve been… Alphys felt unfit to touch the dust. However, she couldn’t leave what was left of their ruler here. So, using a container created to house a soul, Alphys took Asgore’s dust. Alphys rationalized that she wouldn’t need it for anything else. The souls were safely contained already and there was even an extra… in a certain sense.

Once all the dust was in the container (or stuck to her hands), Alphys put away the container in her Dimensional Box on her phone. Then, Alphys looked around to see if, maybe—

No. She saw it. Hidden behind a pillar, there was another dust pile. Alphys ran over and grabbed handfuls of dust. It slowly trickled down between Alphys’ hands. She muttered to herself, “nononono, no, no, NO!”

Alphys dug through her friends’ dust, not certain what she was trying to find. Instead of anything she’d wanted to see, what Alphys saw was a half—empty bottle of ketchup. Alphys sniffled and wiped away her tears with her sleeve. Alphys put the ketchup on top of the dust pile, making it resemble a memorial. Alphys stood up and walked out of the last corridor.

At the bottom of some stairs was a row of seven boxes. Dunebud slunk towards the first of these boxes. With a loud grinding sound, the lid with a red heart slid off. Looking inside, Dunebud only saw some sort of wrappings. What a strange thing to keep in a box!

Dunebud slunk to the other side of the boxes and opened the box with a yellow heart on it. Inside there was a person that had the same face as Clover, but they didn’t have his hat, so it couldn’t be him. They had their eyes closed and— wait, that meant this person was trying to sleep! Sliding these lids was loud and Dunebud was thankful that she hadn’t woken this person up. Dunebud slid the lid back on slowly, hoping it would make less noise. It did, marginally.

It was rude to watch people sleep, no matter how strange the beds. If nothing else, these beds seemed the exact right size for their occupants. Maybe they were more comfortable than they looked. Dunebud slunk back up the stairs. The flowers by that big chair were lots of fun to watch, even if they were less lively than Flowey. Dunebud hoped she could remember to be quiet so those people didn’t wake up!

Chapter Text

Martlet stood up on a massive spire of rock towering above this section of Hotland. She looked back at the lab she’d come from; It looked so tiny from this far away. Looking at the MTT Resort, it seemed less distant than before. It looked like it was closer than the lab now. Martlet truly was making good, adrenaline-fueled progress!

Martlet took a deep breath, calming herself down. It was just a short break, she had a bit of time. Once Martlet was sufficiently relaxed, she jumped off the rock and flew forwards, towards the MTT Resort.

“Come on Ceroba, it can’t be that hard to find the right camera!” Starlo protested.

The fox was flipping through cameras, attempting to discover which camera showed the new battlefield for the humans. Through gritted teeth, Ceroba retorted, “Then you try!”

“Fine, I will,” Starlo accepted. Ceroba stepped to the side and let Starlo come forward. Starlo looked over all of the buttons, thoughtfully. Starlo raised one hand high into the air and then brought it down with noticeable dramatic flair onto… the forward button. The camera skipped forward and revealed two opponents in the middle of a dramatic stare down.

“Yeah, North Star!” Mooch called out.

Cheers rang out through the crowd. Starlo turned around and bathed in the glory for a moment, giving them his signature finger guns.

“Thank you, Starlo!”/“Great job!”/“Whoo!” Kanako added, along with the other monsters she had become one with.

Looking towards Kanako, Starlo caught Ceroba’s annoyed glare. Starlo smirked and shrugged. Ceroba sighed, putting her hand on her forehead.

Dalv tried to pay attention to their antics, they were fun and could distract him from his gloom for a moment. However, the vampire’s attention was almost solely directed at the conflict on screen. The tension between the two radiated through the screen, quickly silencing the crowd. Dalv could feel Penilla shaking next to him. Dalv quietly put a hand on her head, calming her.

Even with their short-founded enthusiasm, the monsters here were nearly devoid of hope. They only had hope that Asgore had somehow lived. They had hope that Alphys would still be okay and could protect them. They hoped, above all else, that the human could somehow be stopped. The newcomer was the thing that hope latched on, allowing them to think that, just maybe, they could all be okay.

Dalv had one other hope: That Clover could be okay. That he could see his friend one more time. After all, he had never even gotten the chance to say a proper goodbye…

Tension was thicker in the air than the heat rising from the lava below as Frisk and Clover locked eyes. Looking on, Flowey bit his… the bottom of his mouth. He really should stay, but…

“Clover, I’m leaving,” Flowey stated.

Clover’s attention was immediately snapped to his companion to his left. “Where are you going?!” Clover demanded, but his friend had already popped back into the ground.

With a sigh, Clover looked back over at Frisk, who was mere feet away, above him with their knife positioned to plunge into Clover’s chest. Clover was too close to shoot Frisk, but with their dashing ability, they could safely gain a few feet, or…

As Frisk’s knife was about to make contact with Clover, the cowboy dashed forward with his fist outstretched. The strike did nothing to Clover as he slammed his fist into Frisk’s stomach, sending them reeling back and tumbling down the steps Clover had been at the head of. Clover jumped down the stairs and landed on top of Frisk, one foot pinning them to the ground. Frisk made a slash towards Clover’s leg. Clover grabbed the knife with his hand, trying to yank it out of Frisk’s hand. Both played a small game of tug-of-war.

Trying to end it, Frisk revealed the burnt pan and slammed it into Clover’s leg. One of the hits of invincibility granted by the Golden Pear was used up. Clover was not hurt, but his balance was compromised and he fell over, rolling off of Frisk, but took the knife with him. Frisk rolled over and thrust the pan at Clover’s arm. Clover slashed back with the knife. The two weapons clashed and the force rocketed through both human’s arms, making both fall to the ground.

On the ground, both of them continued to roll, their hands locked and trying to hit each other without success. Then, Clover kicked Frisk in the stomach before rolling away and rising to his feet. Clover dashed towards the weapons and grabbed both. Frisk rose to their feet and sprinted towards Clover, but Clover was already throwing their weapons off the platform towards the lava.

Frisk sprinted towards their weapons and jumped off the platform they were on, grabbing the knife and pan and continuing to fall. Then, with the distance they cleared, Frisk landed on a lower platform, the one which Mettaton dropped them to after his song in other routes. Frisk remembered the moment with fondness.

Clover looked down at Frisk, standing on what used to be El Balidor’s dance floor. Now it was lifeless, just like everything else in the underground. “Ya really are stubborn, aren’t ‘cha?”

Frisk turned to their opponent and shot him a smirk. “Beyond stubborn. I’m determined.”

Clover’s brow furrowed. That word… it felt like there was something behind it. Something gnawed at the edge of Clover’s consciousness, but that wasn’t currently important, so Clover set it to the side. Perhaps Flowey knew.

Clover took out his revolver and jumped, shooting at Frisk as he did so. Frisk cut the bullets out of the air. Clover landed right in front of Frisk, who tried to stab him, but Clover dashed right to Frisk’s other side, pressing his gun to Frisk’s back and firing it.

Frisk took a staggering step forward and nearly fell to the lava far below. Several pebbles fell themselves.

“Could you stop doing that?! It’s beyond annoying! It’s got to be cheating!” Frisk demanded.

Clover retorted with, “If you wanted to play by the rules, then you shouldn’t have killed everyone who cared.”

Frisk spun on their heel, trying to slash Clover. At the very least, the cowboy couldn’t teleport to Frisk’s other side.

Clover dashed away from Frisk and tried to think of what to do. At this rate, Clover wasn’t certain how much longer he could last. Maybe Flowey would come back soon? Clover really didn’t know what that weed was thinking!

Clover then had an idea. He started running away from Frisk, who followed, trying to look for an opportunity to slash. Once Clover got to the stairs back up to the platform they’d been on, he stopped and spun back at Frisk. Frisk fell for the bait, slashing towards Clover. Clover dashed backwards and up the stairs a few steps as the slash made contact with lower steps. The sheer force and might of the strike cleaved the stairs apart, along with everything connected to them.

The platform Frisk was on began to fall down towards the lava. As it did, Frisk pulled out the Empty Gun and shot it in Clover’s direction. But… it didn’t work, fizzling out. “Oh that’s fu-”

[File 9 Loaded] Frisk shot the Empty Gun towards Clover. The blast of pure determination got closer. At the last second, Clover dashed to the side, but he realized he wasn’t the target of the blast. The rock below him was. What he’d been standing on was falling to the lava below, and as he stepped on this rock.

With a snap, the rock broke and Clover fell. Clover braced himself for death. If Frisk could somehow survive, then Clover knew they were done forever.

Then, out of nowhere, a blue streak slammed into him.

Frisk ran to the edge of their platform and jumped off, seeing some land beneath they were aiming for. They got closer and closer and, as they hit the ground, Frisk rolled and climbed to their feet, dusting off their clothes and saving their progress. After all, Clover was, or at the very least should be, dead.

Then, from over Frisk’s shoulder, the blue streak tumbled down. They landed on the ground and bounced, tumbling with something held by it. As they slowed down, Frisk realized that the thing was Clover. However, as the blue creature slowed, Clover did not. The blue creature came to a stop by the edge of the platform, and Clover bounced off of it.

Clover barely registered his tossing and turning until he realized he was falling again. Looking up, Clover saw a face he never thought he’d see again: Martlet. Though, her face was stricken with panic and worry. As Clover fell, Martlet scrambled for something and then… she threw a rope down.

Clover quickly grabbed on as Martlet called, “Hold on tight, Clover! I’ll pull you up!”

Clover tightened his grip, biting his lip and feeling a tear falling from his eye. Martlet got on the ground and tugged. The rope was quickly being pulled up and up.

Frisk watched on in amusement for a moment. Then, in no rush, they shambled forward towards Martlet, kicking a pebble at her. It impacted Martlet directly on her head and immediately, she stopped pulling the rope up, content to just hold it as she shook and then, stopped moving, still gripping the rope fast. That wouldn’t do…

Clover felt the rope stop, and looked up and Martlet shaking and closing her eyes until she stopped moving. Had she… fallen down? No, not yet! Clover immediately started furiously climbing up with his dash ability.

Frisk stood above the bird and brought their knife down, and with a stab, dust was kicked up everywhere as the rope fell down.

Clover felt the rope fall and let go, putting their foot on a slightly outstretched rock for his last step. Clover jumped up and dashed up one last time into the small dust cloud covering Frisk.

Frisk put back their knife, fully satisfied. Finally, that cowboy was harder to kill than he had any right to be. Almost as hard as Sans…

Suddenly, Frisk saw a yellow flash, dispersing enough of the dust cloud they were in to reveal Clover’s clearly infuriated, yet still smiling face a bit below them. Still too low to get onto the platform. They’d fall into the lava. Then, Frisk felt something around grab their wrist and tug down. Frisk was pulled off of their feet and down, out of the dust cloud.

Clover smugly muttered, “You’re coming down ‘ere with me.”

Frisk fell right above Clover, whose face was a perfect mix of smugness and fury. Both were heading to lava and fast. Frisk knew they’d have to load, but… they wanted to at least see Clover die first.

“You’re going insane. You realize that, right Frisk?” Chara asked.

Frisk ignored the voice.

As Clover neared the lava, he kept up his facade the best he could. Deep inside, he was disgruntled and being torn apart. He was on the brink of tears, but Frisk needed to be intimidated if they were going to give up and crying wouldn’t help Clover do that, so they suppressed it. Besides, Martlet was about to come back, wasn’t she?

As the two humans approached, the sweltering heat only got hotter and hotter. Frisk felt burns pester everywhere on their skin. Clover felt the temperature edge towards blistering heat. Then, for a moment, Clover felt nothing. The next moment, the heat was beyond comprehension. Clover only felt pain.

Suddenly, mere feet above the lava, Clover disintegrated, leaving his exposed soul. As Frisk felt their flesh melt off, they took a moment to slash the soul in half with their knife. That was the most satisfying slash Frisk had ever done. They plunged into the lava with a smile on their face. They were numb to the pain anyway.

“Sans (and everyone else too, I guess) was right. You really are a freak. Then again, I always was too. Partners in crime…”

“It’s not anywhere? Maybe I was wrong,” Flowey muttered as he left the CORE. Then, a thought came to Flowey. Perhaps they’d never gotten it at all.

Flowey popped up in front of Bratty and Catty’s dumpster they called a shop. He searched around to see if it was still here. He found the mystery key, and some junk they called food. Ah, there it was!

Flowey grabbed it, muttering, “Cocky dimwit. They didn’t take the time to steal better armor. How were they supposed to even know it wouldn’t be useful?!”

Flowey inspected the cowboy hat. It had a few stains and some moss growing on it. (Did that moss have a bite mark?) However, it was clear, this was the very same hat Starlo had given Clover and Clover had given back shortly before his demise. The same hat Clover was currently wearing right now.

Talking about Clover, now that Flowey had done what he set out to do, he should really check if Clover needed help.

Suddenly, Flowey was back in the CORE and smiled with satisfaction, imagining how Frisk died this time. Flowey disappeared into the ground, searching for his gunslinging friend.

[File 9 Loaded] Frisk saw the blue bird fall from over their shoulder. Once again, they bounced and Clover fell off the platform, but the bird threw down a rope and got on the ground, pulling Clover up. This time, Frisk wasted no time, kicking the pebble at the bird’s head to incapacitate them, then immediately pulling into a full sprint.

At the bottom of the rope, Clover called up, “Don’t do anything, I’ll climb up on my own!”

“Okay,” Martlet reluctantly responded moments before she was incapacitated by a pebble.

Clover used their dash ability sooner this time, climbing up and up and-

Frisk perched over the bird, knife raised. Clover reached the top of the rope. He dashed. Frisk brought down the knife. Onto Clover. Clover’s last hit of invincibility was gone, but he didn’t care.

Before Frisk could react, Clover brought his fist up and slammed it into Frisk’s chin. Then, Clover brought his arm back, elbowing Frisk in the ribs. Frisk took a few pained steps back.

Clover stared at Frisk, the memory of Martlet being reduced to a cloud of dust played over and over in his head. He grasped onto the emotions he felt after seeing Frisk’s mind. He remembered vaguely the injustices of it. Of someone still believing in them, their trust betrayed and of heroes slain. Then, he saw Martlet’s death. Then he saw it again and again.

Energy built up in Clover’s finger as it glowed yellow. “For Martlet,” Clover muttered as he released the energy.

A yellow pellet a bit bigger than Clover’s fist flew from his fingers and towards Frisk. As it impacted their chest, it made a small explosion, sending Frisk another few steps back.

Turning back to Martlet, Clover picked her up and slung her over his shoulders. Martlet nearly touched the ground on both sides of Clover, but Clover barely kept her up, even as it threatened his balance. Clover then repeatedly dashed away from Frisk towards a massive, metallic, and very familiar door.

Frisk let Clover run, sighing. They turned around and looked for an elevator. There it was, albeit ancient and decrepit, it was Frisk’s savior. They could finally leave behind that cowboy and get on with their killing spree. That single bird wasn’t worth the effort when compared to all the evacuees in Alphys’ Lab.

Frisk saved before walking to the elevator. Forcing the doors open with their arms, Frisk walked in and pressed the button labeled L1, but it only produced a spark. Checking the buttons in more detail, they noticed that the entire area around it was completely, unnaturally misshapen. Frisk had the urge to turn around, only to see a certain infuriating flower wink at them.

[File 0 Loaded] Frisk ran at the elevator with the same speed they used to cut bullets out of the air. Near-instantly, Frisk was at the elevator, pushing the door open. Within moments, Frisk was inside and looking at the terminal of buttons. The misshapen, broken apart terminal. Looking down, they saw the flower hurl one more friendliness pellet at the terminal for good measure. He then turned around and gave an all-too-cheerful smile with eyebrows furrowed together in mock concern. “Oops!”

Frisk prepared to strike them down with their blade, but the flower quickly popped into the ground. Frisk’s fist shook, but they tried to move past it. After all, there wasn’t much they could do. Frisk stepped out of the elevator and looked on at the doorway they hadn’t paid much attention to prior. Although, surprisingly, the doorway didn’t seem familiar at all. Above it was massive letters spelling “ST AMV ORK”. That was broken, right?

This was strange. Frisk thought they’d explored everywhere in the underground. Done everything. This Clover character was showing them yet another new thing. Frisk pressed onwards to this new location that might have been called “Stamvork”.

The throne room was picturesque, untouched by the human’s destruction, as if they’d never gone in there at all. It was bittersweet, knowing the king’s beloved garden was wonderfully preserved, but that the king would never be able to take care of it again. There was no better gardener in the entire underground, certainly not any alive. So, inevitably, this garden would become overgrown, savage, and unwelcoming.

“Oh Asgore…” Alphys muttered.

Still, this was not the cause of Alphys’ worries. She had come for an entirely different purpose, so the scientist pressed on past the throne room and to the barrier. Inside, all seven containers were visible. One was empty, then there were the souls, Cyan, Orange, Blue, Purple, Green, and- it was gone. The last soul, the yellow soul, most recently collected, was gone. Its container was shattered apart. The human had destroyed yet another piece of their hope.

Still, Alphys wondered why the human would destroy one and only one soul. She couldn’t understand it, but there were many things that the human did she couldn’t fathom. What could their motivations for their actions even be?

With a sigh, Alphys began to put the souls and their containers in her dimensional box on her phone. She also took the empty container. They might as well store the human’s soul if they- when they killed them. Negative thinking like that would only doom them.

As Alphys grabbed the final container with the green soul, they heard a quiet, swishing noise. Alphys immediately straightened in fright. This produced a thundering cracking sound. Alphys… literally couldn’t remember the last time she’d stood up straight.

“heeHe!”

That laugh… it sounded so pure, innocent, yet directed at her fear. It shouldn’t belong to such a horrible being. Alphys was glad she’d prepared for the human’s possible return. Fumbling in her coat, Alphys grabbed her vial of determination as she turned around to face the-

To face a cute monster resembling a pile of sand.

“Uh… what are you doing here?” Alphys nervously asked, regaining her composure and putting the vial of determination back in her pocket.

“Gore~!” Dunebud replied.

Alphys looked around, avoiding eye contact. “So… you came to see the king?”

“Yu yu~!” Dunebud confirmed.

“Did- Did you get to talk to him?” Alphys asked, still trying not to look them in the eyes. Since she had nothing else to pretend to look at, Alphys pulled out her phone and looked at it.

“Yu yu~!” Dunebud confirmed.

Suddenly, Alphys remembered to put the green soul in her dimensional box. Trying to be slightly less awkward, Alphys asked, “So… what’s you name?”

Dunebud bounced up and down, while looking right at Alphys’ phone.

“You… want my phone?” Alphys asked, uncertain.

“Yu yu~!” Dunebud confirmed. She slunk towards Alphys and jumped up, grabbing the phone with its stub-like arms. Back on the ground, Dunebud put the phone on the ground and smacked it with her forehead.

Alphys reached down, popping her back back into its usual hunched posture and grabbing her phone. The text on it said, {Send friend request to “~MeDunebud!” ?} with the options “yes” and “no” provided underneath. Alphys hit the “yes” option.

Dunebud suddenly shook and then spit out a phone. She slapped her phone with their forehead and Alphys’ phone displayed the text {Friend request accepted by “~MeDunebud!” !} Moments later, she received a text saying {~HEY! ME! DUNEBUD!}.

Alphys smiled, then something occurred to her. If the human came back to attack the other souls, they would find this innocent Dunebud.

“Do… you want to come back to my lab with me?” Alphys asked with a shaky, forced smile.

Alphys received a text saying {YEAH!}. However, when looking at her recent messages, Alphys noticed one from {FutureStar11111}. That was… Mettaton’s old account. The ones were for “how many times over I’m number one!” But… Mettaton was gone, and he hadn’t used that account in ages anyway.

The text said, {help}

Alphys quickly said, “Dunebud, was it? Can we wait a bit?” She didn’t wait for an answer before texting {Can I call you?}.

An immediate response: {yes}

Alphys started the call. In her most assertive voice, Alphys demanded, “Who are you? Mettaton is dead, so… Who. Are. You?”

“b- blooky.”

“Wha- What?! What happened?!” Alphys asked, panic rising.

“it- it was an- an accident!” Napstablook yelled. Alphys realized her speaker must need fixing, since the voice sounded much more… blocky and grainy than usual.

“What. Happened?” Alphys said, authority and a hint of anger clear in her tone.

“i- i accidentally fused.”

Alphys’ face paled.

Chapter Text

Steam rushed through every inch of a factory, powering the whole system with excess. After all, the system had been created to serve the entire underground, though most monsters no longer seemed to want anything to do with the Steamworks. Still, the robots inside persevered. Ever since their reactivation at Clover and Ceroba’s hands, they refused to be powered down. They had their own lives. And families.

One of these pipes pumping steam had a leak, spilling excessive steam into the furnace. While the Steamworks still had more than enough steam and didn’t need to breathe, this particular chamber had a relatively small platform above a massive pit of magma below. The most fortunate part was that the furnace was a rarely traveled part of the Steamworks since there was nothing of importance here beside a surprisingly durable trash can. It was also right next to the exit, which no robot was to leave through, so it was not a major concern.

Due to the lack of urgency, Axis felt comfortable trying to test the skills of his apprentices. All three of them rushed onto the scene in front of Axis as he trailed behind, yelling, “BE CAREFUL. FALLING OFF THIS [annoying] PLATFORM COULD BE LETHAL.”

Axis Jr. and Axis 2.0 continue running, paying no mind to their father’s warning. Axisa spun on her wheel and muttered, “;;;”

“DO NOT ‘whatever’ ME YOU LITTLE [punk],” Axis yelled back.

“WE’LL BE FINE.” Axis Jr. argued.

“I found the [secreting] steam pipe.” Axis 2.0 exclaimed.

“!” Axisa exclaimed.

“YES,” Axis Jr. cheered.

Axis watched on, marveling at how much they’d grown. Even though they didn’t make it halfway up his chassis, their programming had evolved and developed into three beautiful things he would always treasure. Axis only wished his own creator could see them now. Or Clover. This could never have happened without both of them.

“I DID IT,” Axis Jr. cried out in excitement.

“Not quite. I did that already. You wouldn’t recognize a functional pipe if it [pummeled] you on the head.” Axis 2.0 caustically bit back.

Axis Jr. retorted, “A WORKING PIPE WOULDN’T HIT ME IN THE HEAD. WHY DO YOU KEEP SAYING YOU’RE SO SMART?”

“Because I [recognized] that,” Axis 2.0 argued, “It is [merely] a figure of speech.”

“!” Axisa called.

Axis Jr. and Axis 2.0 turned back to Axisa. “What?” Axis 2.0 asked.

“!!” Axisa explained.

“Oh, whoops. I shouldn’t have gotten so [absentminded],” Axis 2.0 muttered.

“!...!” Axisa continued.

“Oh, you [secured] it already…” Axis 2.0 muttered.

“HEHEHE, YOU’RE REALLY A [I LOVE YOU],” Axis Jr. yelled.

“YOU KNOW WE DON’T USE THAT KIND OF [offensive] LANGUAGE,” his father chided.

“YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT I SAID.” Axis Jr. protested.

Axis retorted, “YES, BUT I KNOW YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE SAID IT.”

Axis Jr. gave a quiet “HMPH” as Axis caressed the antenna in the middle of Axis Jr.’s head.

“GOOD JOB REPAIRING THE LEAK IN THAT PIPE. YOU WERE MUCH FASTER THAN I EXPECTED. IT MUST BE BECAUSE YOU THREE WERE WORKING TOGETHER,” Axis mused. “I WILL SCAN THE PIPE TO BE CONFIDENT.”

Axis began to scan the pipe system and saw that the leak just below the surface of the platform was indeed repaired, but below that were other leaks, their locations previously unascertainable. Now it was clear that many were nearly a quarter mile below the platform, their steam spilling up from the sides of the platform.

“[shucks],” Axis muttered.

“WE DID IT WRONG?” Axis Jr. speculated.

“NOPE. THIS IS JUST WAY WORSE THAN I THOUGHT,” Axis explained.

“And it’s about… to get… get even worse,” an exhausted voice called out through panting breaths.

“?” Axisa wondered.

“Who is that?” Axis 2.0 asked.

“THAT VOICE SOUNDS FAMILIAR. REFERENCING DATABANKS…” Axis stated.

Axis and all of his children had turned to the voice by this point. However, the steam completely masked their presence.

“No need, it’s m- it’s me, Axis,” the voice strained with effort. A shadow was starting to form, showing their figure, though it was unlike anything the robots had seen.

Taking a final step out of the steam, the figure revealed himself to be Clover, holding Martlet over his shoulder.

“HATTED HUMAN. YOU HAVE RETURNED WITH FEATHERED FRIEND. YOU APPEAR TO BE UNDER SIGNIFICANT PHYSICAL STRESS,” Axis noted. “MAY I ASSIST?”

“You don’t have to. She’s lighter than she- she looks,” Clover wheezed.

“This is due to the fact that [avian creatures] have [porous] bones,” Axis 2.0 explained in an haughy of tone.

“BUT MONSTERS DON’T HAVE BONES! THEY’RE MADE OF MAGIC WHICH TURNS TO DUST!” Axis Jr. argued.

“YOU ARE BOTH CORRECT, CHILDREN,” Axis explained as he took Martlet from Clover despite his protests, “WHILE TRUE BIRDS HAVE HOLLOW BONES, MONSTERS DO NO HAVE BONES AT ALL. ALTHOUGH, BIRD-LIKE MONSTERS HAVE A LOWER DENSITY OF MAGIC AND ARE LIGHTER WHICH ASSISTS IN FLIGHT.”

“?!” Axisa inquired.

“YES, YOU ARE RIGHT, AXISA. IT IS RUDE TO TALK ABOUT A WOMAN’S WEIGHT. YOU SHOULD AVOID THAT. HOWEVER, IT IS RELEVANT AND IMPORTANT FOR OUR SITUATION,” Axis explained.

“...Are these your kids?” Clover asked, bewildered.

“YES. THEY ARE MY PRIDE AND JOY,” Axis explained.

“...Thanks for taking Martlet. Just… be careful,” Clover said to Axis, stealing a worried glance at Martlet.

“I WILL,” Axis assured. He had to resist his innate urge to rub Clover’s head since he was occupied holding Martlet’s body.

“Will she be okay?” Clover asked, his eyes betraying the calm of his words. Those two things alone gave Axis a lot of information.

“I WILL TAKE HER TO THE INFIRMARY,” Axis reassured.

“...Okay,” muttered Clover, settling himself down with deep breaths.

“CAN WE CARRY HER?” Axis Jr. asked.

Axis asked, “ARE ALL OF YOUR GRAVITY REPULSORS FULLY CHARGED?”

“YEAH, LIKE ALWAYS,” Axis Jr. exclaimed.

“[Negative]...” Axis 2.0 admitted.

“...” Axisa answered in kind.

“UNFORTUNATELY THEN, I CAN’T LET YOU.”

Axis 2.0 protested, “But you [insisted] she was light.”

“COMPARED TO OTHER FULLY GROWN MONSTERS. YOUR WHEELS CANNOT HANDLE THE WEIGHT OF MONSTERS. THEY WILL BREAK AND I DON’T WANT YOU TO BREAK,” Axis explained.

“Axis,” Clover quietly reminded, his concern growing.

“RIGHT. I AM LEAVING TO HELP MARTLET. CLOVER, TAKE CARE OF THE CHILDREN. I TRUST YOU.” Axis hastily stated as he wheeled away.

A flower popped up in the center of the room. “As sweet as this is, didn’t you hear about the murderer coming?!”

“I didn’t tell them yet,” Clover admitted.

Flowey sighed. “Each and every day, you become more and more of a disappointment.”

“And yet without me, you wouldn’t be here,” Clover retorted.

“That’s the worst part,” Flowey mumbled.

“Searching for: Definition of ‘murderer’...” Axis 2.0 began.

“?” Axisa asked.

“WHAT IS IT?” Axis Jr. asked in turn.

“Bad,” Axis 2.0 said.

“!” Axisa exclaimed.

“UH… THAT WASN’T A FANCY WORD. DID YOU HEAR THAT AXISA? HE DIDN’T EVEN ACTIVE HIS FANCY WORD FUNCTION. THAT’S BAD,” Axis Jr. mused.

“?” Axisa asked.

“Do you understand what she’s saying?” Clover whispered to Flowey.

“No clue,” Flowey admitted.

“That’s not the normal [hue] of the furnace’s glow,” Axis 2.0 commented.

“AND IT’S WAY BRIGHTER TOO,” Axis Jr. added.

“...!” Axisa added.

“YEAH, THE SHAPE TOO…” Axis Jr. agreed.

Clover and Flowey turned around to see a red glow in the shape of two eyes and a mouth, smiling farcically. As it got closer, the steam obscured the figure less until…

Clover dashed to the side near a cylinder and drew his revolver. “Run, ‘bots!”

Axisa and Axis Jr. children obeyed immediately, turning around and wheeling away. Axis 2.0 stayed for a moment, playing out loud, “Calculating likelihood of success… Likelihood (rounded to the millionth place): 0.000000%.” Axis 2.0 hastily followed his siblings.

Frisk ran right across the platform and jumped over Axis 2.0, standing in his way. They took in his expression full of shock and fear for a moment before striking with their blade. With a clink, the steel of the knife clanged against metal, bouncing off.

Axis Jr. and Axisa watched on in awe at the figure kneeling between their brother and Frisk. Clover held up a trash can lid, blocking the attack entirely. He holstered his revolver and grabbed Axis 2.0 with his hand. Then, he dashed to Frisk’s other side and dashed towards Axisa and Axis Jr, crying “Roll out of here!”

As the children did so, Clover set down Axis 2.0 and pushed him in their direction. “Th-Thank you,” he muttered.

Clover tipped his hat before standing up and glaring down at Frisk. At this point, the path had thinned. It was barely wide enough for Clover or Frisk to be on, with absolutely no room to go around.

Frisk wasted no time, dashing towards Clover. Clover stood his ground and gripped the lasso Martlet had delivered. Clover wondered if it really was as easy as Starlo made it look. If it was, this would look awesome.

Clover lunged forward, hitting Frisk with his shield. Then, Clover struck with his lasso, tying it around Frisk’s ankle, then yanking it out from under their feet. Clover then reached out and smacked Frisk in the face with the lid. With their balance gone, Frisk was sent careening off of the platform and into the acid below.

Flowey whistled in appreciation, looking below at Frisk’s soul hovering over the liquid. “That was pretty good. Here I was thinking you couldn’t do anything but shoot.”

[File 9 Loaded] Frisk dashed at Clover, who lunged forward with his shield. Frisk jumped up and used the bottom rim of the trash can lid as a stepping stone before leaping off of Clover’s head, sending themself hurling into the air. In the air, Frisk drew the empty gun and aimed it at the trio of Axis-lings. However, the shot sputtered out. Perfect.

[File 0 Loaded] Frisk stepped off of Clover’s head and took out their weapon as Clover turned and dashed to protect Axis’ children, panic clear in his eyes. However, Frisk’s drawn weapon was not their firearm, but their blade. As they landed, they slashed at the now-undefended human in front of them. A vine rose from the ground to grab their hand, but Frisk grabbed the vine with their other hand as they reached out and a massive gash formed across Clover’s torso, spewing yellow powder. HP: 1/16.

Frisk raised their knife for a final strike, soaking in the sensation and waiting for the inevitable intervention. After a moment’s pause, Flowey preemptively sent a barrage of friendliness pellets between the humans. Once the bullets were finished, Frisk was able to bring it down with ease.

“NO. YOU CAN’T.”

Frisk felt a cold metal chassis on their leg, immediately followed by a shock, debilitating Frisk for a moment. That moment was just long enough for Clover to rise to his feet. Both humans looked at Frisk’s leg and found something which brought great joy to Frisk in an instant. Axis Jr. was hugging it.

Frisk brought their other leg around and kicked Axis Jr, punting him off the platform and sending him flying. After a few long moments, Axis Jr. hit the acid and began to sink, his lights flickering off.

Frisk gained 20 EXP. Clover’s LOVE increased.

Clover fired a bullet from their finger, hurling towards Frisk. It hit, doing massive damage and sending them falling off the side of the walkway, careening towards-

[File 0 Loaded] Time reverted back to the moment Axis Jr. sank below the acid. A tear fell from Clover’s eye, but he shot at Frisk. [File 0 Loaded] Then he shot again. [File 0 Loaded] Again. [File 0 Loaded] Again. [File 0 Loaded] Again. [File 0 Loaded] [File 0 Loaded] [File 0 Loaded]

Clover’s shot sputtered out as he fell to his knees, sobbing pitifully. As Frisk stepped forward again, vines clasped around their feet. Other vines dragged Clover away at a surprisingly quick pace.

Frisk hacked the vines off their legs and dashed towards Clover, but was too late. A certain aggravating flower popped out of the ground as the entire section of the platform between them was engulfed by vines and crushed, the rubble falling into the acid below. The resulting gap was nearly forty bones long.

“That’s quite a measuring system,” Chara muttered.

Frisk ignored the voice, keeping their gaze at the flower on the other side of the chasm. Flowey squinted as if something was wrong, but then tilted his head in a way that vaguely reminded Frisk of a shrug. Flowey then disappeared back into the ground with his infuriating wink.

On the other side of the chasm, Axisa and Axis 2.0 huddled around Clover.

“?” Axisa asked.

“Are- Are we gonna be [adequate]?” Axis 2.0 asked.

Flowey popped up right next to the clump. “Just get your… dad,” Flowey suggested hesitantly.

“I AM HERE, FLOWER,” Axis noted.

Flowey flinched. He was far from a fan of being surprised. “Oh, when did you get here?”

“ROUGHLY 7.4 SECONDS AGO,” Axis answered.

“That’s not much of a rough estimate,” Flowey noted.

Axis retorted, “YES IT IS. THE EXACT ANSWER WOULD HAVE BEEN 7.35356261557166837251872617725716162726617162726717176172716558669-”

“Okay, I get the point!” Flowey yelled.

“THAT IS FORTUNATE, NOW THAT I DON’T HAVE TO EXPLAIN ANYTHING, COULD SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT HAPPENED?” Axis asked.

“...” Axisa whimpered.

“i’m so sorry,” Clover muttered.

Axis looked expectantly at Axis 2.0, begging for a real explanation. Axis 2.0 just shook his head. Axis rushed to Clover and shook him. “WHAT HAPPENED?”

“i couldn’t save him… axis jr… he’s in the acid. sinking. gone.” Clover muttered.

“[I love you]” Axisa muttered as she clung to her father.

“That’s sweet, I was starting to think she could only use punctuation,” Flowey muttered.

Axisa turned towards Frisk and shouted, “[I love you]”

Flowey froze. “That’s… strange…”

Axis purposefully ignored the flora.“YES, AXISA, THIS IS A SITUATION RUDE WORDS ARE ACCEPTABLE. IN FACT…” Axis emphasized his next words, sending them straight to Frisk. “I [freaking] HATE YOU, YOU [freaking] piece of [crap].”

Frisk raised a finger towards Axis, but before Frisk could finish their motion, Axis suddenly hurled a massive ball of magic towards Frisk. They looked more annoyed than shocked at the sudden attack and easily jumped out of the way.

Axis turned back around to his children, putting his back to Frisk. “WE WILL GO NOW. I DON’T THINK WE SHOULD STAY BY THE MANIAC ANY LONGER THAN NECESSARY.”

Axis beckoned for his children to follow as he tried to keep his composure. If he lost it, what would that be saying to his children? What would his wife and son think?

Flowey saw Axis and his children leaving, but noticed Clover wasn’t following them.

Flowey popped up in front of Clover, asking, “You okay, buddy?”

Clover didn’t respond, he just silently looked at the ground. Flowey sighed and dragged the cowboy with him as he followed Axis. As they went, an announcement bellowed through every functioning speaker in the Steamworks: “THERE IS A MEETING FOR EVERYONE WHO THINKS OF THEMSELVES AS PART OF THE STEAMWORKS, STARTING AT… RIGHT NOW. IT IS IN THE CHEMISTRY HALL. COME IMMEDIATELY.”

Flowey was intrigued. What was their plan? This didn’t sound quite like the evacuation all the boring monsters had done. Perhaps Flowey should’ve played with Axis more. Whatever, this was going to be quite fun.

Chapter Text

Frisk groaned as they gazed at the gap. It was far, but they had enhanced abilities. They were fast enough to dodge or cut bullets and strong enough to destroy anything, so this shouldn’t be difficult. Frisk took several steps back and found a save point. After saving, they sprinted towards the gap at their top speed. They immediately began to pant, but Frisk kept their pace, pushing themself onward as fast as they could. At the very last moment, Frisk jumped, soaring into the air over the acid. They might have made it about halfway across the gap before they hit the acid.

As soon as Frisk was back, standing next to their save point, Chara broke out into laughter. Frisk made a decidedly unamused face, adding a dry “Haha.”

Chara didn’t take the hint, continuing laughing until they mimicked taking a breath. Chara mumbled, “That was underwhelming.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Frisk muttered. Jumping had never been their strong suit. Falling was more of their style.

“Welp, you seem pretty stuck,” Chara mused.

Frisk’s mask seemed to fade, leaving concern etched on their face. “What should I do?”

Chara thought carefully. “You know, this is pretty tricky, kinda like a puzzle. Then again, when was the last time you did that?”

Frisk bit their lip.

Chara sighed. “I understand, this news is alarming, distressing even, but there’s not many other options if we want to keep killing and gaining EXP and LOVE.”
Frisk looked around but saw no objects on the railed platform. There was nothing to use to solve the puzzle.

Chara mimicked the sound of a facepalm. “The railed platform. Can’t you destroy anything? You just said that a paragraph or ten ago. Shouldn’t that mean you can take and use the railing?”

Frisk saw what Chara was implying and did a literal facepalm. That earned them a small chuckle from the disembodied voice in their head. Though, even if they now understood what they had to do, it seemed rather difficult to use the steel railing as a tightrope. Nonetheless, Frisk set off to complete their task.

One by one, Frisk cut the pegs holding up the railing, checking the length of the gap to make sure the segment was long enough. Once they were fully satisfied, Frisk dislodged it and laid it over the gap… only for it to fall in. Barely too short.

So, they did the same thing over again, making sure it was longer than last time. When Frisk was certain it was long enough, they cut out a little bit more and sliced it off completely. Frisk ran back to the gap and laid the railing over it, all the while muttering, “This better work.”

Chara made the sound of a sigh, being forced to agree. Even they were quite bored by this point. As Frisk laid the bar across the gap, Chara waited with bated metaphorical breath. The bar touched the opposite side, and then Frisk laid it on this side. Frisk let go and… it rolled a bit until the pegs were facing down and wobbled for a second before staying perfectly still.

Frisk took a breath of relief and saved. Then, they took a tentative step on the metal bar, before almost immediately falling off. Frisk reappeared right in front of the metal bar with a tired look, understanding what was about to come…

Frisk decided that as horrible as falling into lava was, acid was infinitely worse. Worse than spears, bones, blasters, or bullets; though it was still better than whatever had come from Clover’s soul. Nothing could be more painful than their own sins! As Frisk fell into the acid again, they amended their statement, noting that the acid was getting dangerously close. It was like burning, melting, and drowning at the same time!

“No kidding,” Chara muttered with no more snarky comment prepared. They could feel some semblance of that pain and they agreed with Frisk’s assessment. The pain was… well, painful. Funny how that worked.

Frisk carefully put one foot in front of the other as they held their hands out on each side. They took step after step, getting closer and closer to the other side. Even with a knife in their hand, They tentatively balanced on the beam as they got closer and closer. One step at a time, the other side of this infuriating gap was in sight. Then, it was right there, as Frisk took a sigh of relief, they took one final step and saved.

Except, as they took that step, they slipped and fell into the boiling acid below. Then, they came back as they were slipping and fell again. Then again and again in a sort of purgatory. To save themselves from the pain, Frisk barely reached out and grabbed the railing they were falling from. However, they couldn’t pull themselves up, because if they did then they’d just fall off the thin beam again. They were stuck and scared, and to top it all off, their determination was waning. No! They would not make it through Undyne the Undying and Sans only to give up because of a stupid pit. This wasn’t even meant to kill them! Frisk looked around, pleading to this faux reality that there would be something they could use to save themselves. But, as they searched, Frisk couldn’t find anything.

“There,” Chara interrupted. Frisk got the impression to look up and saw, among many pipes, one which looked flimsy and bendable. However, it was high up, above the platform they had nearly reached and therefore, Frisk could never reach towards it at all.

Frisk dug in their pockets and found the gun; their only ranged weapon. They aimed it at the pipe and fired. However, the blast sputtered out and propelled against Frisk, making them lose their grip and leading to an anguished scream as the acid consumed them.

Frisk tried to blast the pipe again, very careful to use the weapon correctly, but the weapon’s jolting caused the blast to miss. Instead, it hit a more sturdy pipe and caved it in, causing the pipe to explode and destroy many of the other nearby pipes. Metal debris fell everywhere, including right towards them. One piece bumped into Frisk, who had to grab the railing with both hands to keep their balance, but by grabbing the railing, they were forced to drop the gun into the acid pool. With that, Frisk’s spirits sank. They could no longer feel their determination overflowing through their body. Frisk grabbed their favorite weapon, the knife, and gazed into it, almost willing it to be useful. Frisk allowed their mind to work, imagining they were close to the pipe, able to slice it straight through with ease. Frisk swung… and a red slash came out from the knife, flying up towards the pipe, severing it.

The pipe came right down to Frisk, who grabbed it and climbed their way over to the platform, only for the tug to knock loose more rubble and destabilise the platform they were headed towards. They picked up the pace, jumping onto the platform and continuing to dash forward as the ground crumbled beneath their fight.

“Keep going, Frisk!” Chara cried. Above all else, Chara did not want to feel the acid again.

Frisk’s feet pounded the ground, tearing it apart as rubble fell. Even the floor ahead was being shredded, but Frisk caught a glance of solid ground. With one leap, they finally arrived. Frisk looked around, seeing if there was something about to kill them and nearly cried with relief when there wasn’t anything. They saved and picked themselves up, dusting themselves off and looking at the ways they could. They chose a direction and ran, hoping to find one of their foes who had drawn the acid bath.

“Please stay right where you are, Napstablook,” Alphys asserted.

“y- yeah. okay,” he replied.

Alphys hung up. Another problem; another reason to go back to the lab. Alphys had to be fast.

“Dunebud, come with me. Quickly,” Alphys demanded.

{II! BE! FAST!} Dunebud texted. She then reached forward and swallowed her phone.

Alphys ran as fast as she could back to the closest elevator, Dunebud keeping pace with her.

Something jostled in Alphys’ coat pocket, but she didn’t pay much attention to it. She didn’t even realize as the syringe filled with determination fell out of her pocket and landed on Dunebud’s head. Luckily, its sand-like makeup seemed to cushion the still intact syringe.

Feeling something off, Alphys looked over at Dunebud, but the syringe was buried in her sandy makeup, so all Alphys saw was Dunebud’s eyes lock onto a sight as they stopped. Following her gaze, Alphys noticed a stain of dust by a pillar. With a tear in her eye and trembling lips, Dunebud looked back at Alphys.

Alphys sighed. “The others will explain back at the lab. We have to go. Now.”

Dunebud looked at the ground but nodded.

A mere moment later, the two piled into an elevator along with a very confused Burgerpants.

“What’s happening?” he demanded.

“We’re going back to the lab, where everyone’s evacuated,” Alphys stated as she inputted the directions in the elevator.

As the elevator doors closed, Dunebud shook her head. With just a sliver of space between each door, Dunebud slipped her way through them like liquid and was gone.

Alphys’ face lit up in horror as she pounded the door. “Dunebud! Wait!” The royal scientist pressed the “open door” button rapidly, but they’d already started moving. Alphys would go all the way to the lab before she had a chance to come back.

“Oof. Looks like she’s dead,” Burgerpants muttered.

Alphys took deep breaths to block out the other monster and to calm herself down. Once she finished, she fumbled in her pockets for her phone. Once she retrieved it, Alphys sent a message to “~MeDunebud!” saying, “what are u doing”.

After a few moments, a reply was sent. “HELPING! FRIEND!”

As many times as Alphys bombarded Dunebud with texts, she got no reply. By the time the door opened to Alphys’ lab, she realized it would be too late. Alphys still had the rest of monsterkind to take care of, not to mention the human souls and the problems of Napstablook, who was right here. As much as it pained Alphys, she would have to leave Dunebud. Alphys would have to block out the possibility of death meeting that well of joy.

Flowey couldn’t feel his vines anymore. It wasn’t as if he was dragging Clover far, or that he was particularly heavy; he seemed even lighter than when he had been alive the first time. No, Flowey just didn’t have much practice dragging anyone very far. There were a million easier ways to dispose of corpses and limited other uses for dragging someone.

So, Flowey groaned and grit his teeth as he pressed forward, valiantly dragging his immobile ally. “Don’t say I never did anything for you,” he growled. He checked Clover for a bit of extra information.

Check - Clover

ATK - DEF 3
Out of it

Clover didn’t notice anything, didn’t hear a word of Flowey’s, didn’t understand his friend’s struggle or even that he was being dragged. All he could hear was ringing. All he could feel was an overwhelming chill. All he could see was Axis Jr. falling into the acid, over and over and over and-

Clover’s reverie was interrupted as he was tossed in the air and slammed into the steel floor. The cowboy brought himself back up, trying to stand and failing. He settled on sitting up, leaning against a massive screen which he felt a strange, misplaced hatred for.

“IS THAT- iS it eVEryone?” Axis asked out loud, looking over at the other entrance, a Jandroid walking in. He kept his two children held tightly in his hands.

Flowey yelled, “Does it matter, bolt brain? We don’t have time.”

Axis gave the robotic equivalent of a sigh. “I SUPpose yoU are correct.”

The robot placed down Axis 2.0 and Axisa, both of whom simply trembled when separated from their father. Clover found himself moving towards them without deciding to, engulfing them in a hug.

Axis turned to face everyone gathered in front of him. There were Jandroids, Televis, Guardener’s helpers, Goosics, Sousborg, his own children, and even Clover and Flowey - all misfits, placed here with nowhere else to go. How could he tell them that they stood no chance, that they needed to run away and leave their haven behind, to a society of monsters unlike them where they would never belong? How could they do that? How could Axis force them to?

He could get started.

“There’s a human here,” Axis called out. His solemnity echoed through the chamber, hushing all.

Jandroid turned to Clover. “It is strangely nice to see you.”

“Uh… I mEan another human. One besides Clover,” Axis clarified. This was so much worse…

“Another new tune-lover!” Goosic exclaimed.

“NO-!” Axis cried out. Couldn’t they see? Humans were dangerous, depraved, and needed to be stopped. No, it wasn’t all of them, the hatted human was a testament to that, but this human could reduce everything they hold dear to scrap metal.

Axis’s scream cut through the noise like a red-hot chainsaw through office paper.

“No. They’re not like Clover at all. Clover’s helped us all, but this human… they’re hardly alive. They are exactly how our creators- how Chujin described humans. They are an evil, uncompassionate being devoid of sympathy. The exact thing all monsters feared.”

Silence hung heavy in the air, weighing down and denting the hearts of each steel-plated worker who was declared to be soulless.

Something didn’t feel right to Flowey. Something besides the repeated loads putting him and Clover on edge.

“They aRe a kILLER,” Axis explained, “I C@N SEE THE_DUST. M- M- ONSTERS DI3,,D ON THEIR_KN//IFE. THE 0N-EZ WH0_CREAT3D US. T//HEY G0_T MY son_ .”

”He iz.. . gone.” Axis couldn’t say another word. It was too much. Hopeless. Axis prepared to roll away.

Suddenly, Axis noticed from the corner of his visual receptors, his two remaining children quivering, filled with fear. Doubt. Grief. Emotion.

“D0 YOU_ FE3L THAT? FEEL S//OMETHING AT ALL?” Axis demanded.

The robots silently nodded along, their faces fixated on the floor.

“You FEEL. That is more than this [freaking] human. Fear and grief are what they leave, and you are feeling it, like something that lives. We- We are_ more alive th@n that d;;emon.”

Each and every person looked right at Axis with rapt attention.

“We were created with a purpose. To serve monsterkind. Even here in the Steamworks, without a monster in sight, there is a way we can serve monsterkind, to fulfill our purpose. We can alleviate our creators of their fear,” Axis explained.

“We can kill the human.”

Flowey and Clover flinched back, shocked. The robots stepped forward, their circuitry’s whirring becoming audible.

“We may have no souls, but we have hearts, we have passion! They have none of those things. We can break free of our programming restraints! We can outdo their mindless march!” Axis beckoned.

Flowey had no words. He couldn’t even register the tear that flowed onto his petal.

“STEAMWORKS, IT IS TIME TO RISE UP! WE WILL FULFILL OUR MISSION! WITH THEIR SOUL, MONSTERS CAN SEE THE SUN! WE WILL TURN THE STEAMWORKS INTO THIS HUMAN’S MECHANICAL GRAVE!” Axis screamed.

Dunebud slid over to the wide-open coffin. As she peered in, she looked at every intricacy of the face and realized it was exactly the same. Dunebud remembered one thing people did to those who fell down, and if the King had died, then Clover may not have much time left. But… shots were something that helped save someone from getting owies, right?

Dunebud spit out a syringe and held it in her stubby hand.

Maybe… this could help Clover feel better.

The needle pierced into her friend’s skin and “Clover” sat up.

Chapter Text

Axis rolled through the chemistry lab, quickly followed by every other robot he’d been speaking to, the robots who had committed to rising up. Flowey popped up in front of them, intrigued by their behavior. He took notice as Axis replaced all of the Sousbergs’ silverware with knives and labelled Frisk as meat to be cut. He looked on as Axis created a program on Tele-Vis designed for maximum likelihood of an epileptic seizure. Flowey’s face shriveled up as he heard the record for Goosic, despite the flower’s lack of ears.

Joining the song- no, joining the hideous noise designed for maximum discomfort, was Clover’s scream. As soon as it was heard, the record suddenly stopped.

Clover walked over and stood in the doorway, staring. “that was horrible,” he muttered.

“I’D SAY SORRY BUT I DON’T WANT TO TEACH MY KIDS TO LIE,” Axis replied. “WE HAVE TO KILL THIS HUMAN—”

“frisk,” Clover specified, a small, nearly sadistic smile forming on his lips, “they’re not human anymore. and i think you misunderstood. that was a horrible, grating noise which i regret ever having contact with my eardrums. it’s perfect.”

“YEAH!” Goosic shouted. “Then I’ll play-”

Clover instinctively put hands on his ears, “i didn’t mean it like that! please don’t make me listen to it.”

“Oh, okay!” Goosic replied.

Flowey popped up between Clover and Goosic. “Hey, my bestie and pal, do you see that over there or is my brain rotting?”

Clover turned around to watch with Flowey as Axis outfitted the Jandroids—along with their buckets and mops—with a special coating, then filled up their buckets with a strange liquid.

“what in tarnation?” Clover muttered.

“That’s— that’s Hydrochloric Acid,” Flowey bluntly stated.

“OF COURSE. THERE IS NO MORE POWERFUL WEAPON,” Axis declared.

Clover and Flowey shared a glance. “i mean, frisk—”

Flowey shook his head. “It’s much more gruesome.“

Clover trembled. It was hard to imagine something more terrifying than a blade cutting through a friend like butter, reducing them to dust.

“ALL TROOPS WAIT IN RESERVE,” Axis commanded. “WE WILL UTILIZE YOUR NEWFOUND COMBAT ABILITIES ONCE WE HAVE SET UP AN AMBUSH.”

Clover stepped up next to Axis and weakly called, “axis?”

Axis turned. “YES HATTED HUMAN?”

“is martlet okay?”

Axis studied Clover’s face. The human's usual steeled, unreadable expression was currently broken apart by a trembling lip and a single tear.

“CHILDREN, COME WITH ME AND CLOVER.”

“~?” Axisa asked.

“WE ARE GOING TO SEE MARTLET,” the father explained, as he grabbed his children and wheeled away with Clover and Flowey in hot pursuit.

Axis wheeled through doors and passageways at a shocking pace until he arrived at the clinic, in which there were two beds, though there were torn remains of what seemed to have been a third. The left bed’s mattress had the bottom half cut apart and its stuffing spilling out and its pillow was… rotted?

The other bed was in much better shape, although the details were unidentifiable through the miscellaneous slightly rusted medical equipment surrounding it. That was, every detail except the most important one: its occupant.

Clover felt his heart beat as he trudged over to the bed where he found an angle he could see Martlet from. Her eyes were closed and wires from each machine were attached to her all across her body, with some sort of slime covering the injury on her head.

Seeing the machines, panic surged into Clover, who furiously shook Martlet’s wing. Slowly, Martlet’s eyes opened and she turned to face the human.

“you’re okay,” Clover muttered, the smallest smile appearing on his face.

“Huh, what’s happening? Who are these people?” Martlet muttered.

“YOU ARE IN THE STEAMWORKS. I AM AXIS AND THESE ARE MY CHILDREN, AXISA, AXIS 2.0 AND—” the robot paused. “THEY ARE MY CHILDREN AND THIS IS CLOVER.”

Clover cringed. Martlet was alive, but not everyone.

“And he is?” Martlet asked.

Clover glanced over. “flowey? why’d you come?”

“Just to accompany my best bud!” Flowey exclaimed.

“Ah, okay, you’re friends…” Martlet muttered. Suddenly her eyes went wide and she shot up, sitting straight. “Clover! You’re-” Martlet burst into a coughing fit and slumped back over, a bit of dust hovering in the air.

Clover’s grip tightened on Martlet’s wing.

“Ow…” Martlet muttered.

“sorry, i’m so sorry…” Clover replied, releasing her and stepping back.

Martlet weakly smiled. “No! I’m just glad— glad you’re okay.”

“you’re hurt…” Clover mumbled, looking down.

“I’m okay,” Martlet assured him.

Clover lifted his eyes, revealing tears dripping.

Martlet grabbed Clover and pulled him towards her in a hug. “I’m happy to see you.”

Clover nodded in agreement.

Both stayed very still.

“As sweet as this is, we don’t have a lot of time. Let’s get going,” Flowey (insisted?).

Clover yelped. He’d forgotten all about their company.

“:)” Axisa assured the human. Unfortunately, Clover had no idea what she meant.

Axis 2.0 briefly scanned Martlet. “Her [condition] still looks [critical].”

Clover ignored the statement, instead responding to Flowey, “yeah, we can go.”

The human walked out of the room, quickly followed by Flowey popping back into the ground. Axis set down his children and the three were about to wheel away before Martlet yelled, with exertion, “Axis, can we- can I have a word?”

Axis turned around. “I GUESS.”

“What does Martlet [require]?” Axis 2.0 questioned.

“RUN ALONG NOW, CHILDREN. CATCH UP WITH CLOVER.”

“-?” Axisa asked.

“THIS SEEMS PRIVATE. PLEASE,” Axis begged.

Axis 2.0 grabbed Axisa by the hand and tugged, trying to lead her out. After a moment, Axisa reluctantly followed.

Axis rolled over to Martlet’s bed. “I ECHO MY SON’S SENTIMENT. WHAT DO YOU NEED?”

“Will I really be okay?” Martlet asked.

“I’M NOT SURE,” Axis admitted. “YOU WERE VERY CLOSE TO FALLING DOWN, BUT YOU SEEM TO BE GETTING BETTER…”

“If I do end up falling down, can you do something for me?” Martlet requested.

“WHAT IS IT?”

Martlet reached into her purse and revealed a syringe filled with a mysteriously familiar substance. “Inject this into me. Its power should let me— let me live.”

Axis looked at the syringe for a long time. Why did he recognize it? His scans matched it with something in his database; something classified unless something exceeding threat level 10 was encountered, which was a qualification that this second human certainly met.

…

A qualification that this third human certainly met.

[Gosh], what had Axis done?

“Axis?” Martlet asked.

The robot didn’t bother to look at the bird, instead placing the syringe inside his storage compartment. “I agree.”

Quickly, Axis wheeled out of the clinic and back to the chemistry lab.

The elevator door opened to reveal a shaking Alphys along with a very confused ugly person.

Alphys noticed a large, noisy crowd gathered around her screen. Curious, Alphys shambled towards the woman she had left in charge, cutting past the other evacuees.

“Mrs. Ketsukane?” Alphys called out.

Ceroba turned away from her friend and towards the scientist. “Ah Alphys, you’re back.”

“Y- Yeah. What’s going on? This is uh- quite a- quite a commotion.”

Monster Kid pushed into the conversation, dressed like a resident of the Dunes. “Someone’s fighting the human! They’re so cool, like bam, pow, wow!”

“Huh- What?” Alphys muttered.

“Oh the cameras, we saw a fight between the human and another one: Clover, the sixth soul, friend of many here,” Ceroba explained, “But both of them dropped to a part of Hotland where we couldn’t see them anymore. Everyone was very hopeful, but now they’re just anxious.”

“I’ve got a bit of news to add, but I’m n- not loud enough to- to shout over all these monsters.”

Ceroba raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

Alphys pulled out her phone to access her dimensional box, then took out the five human souls. “These five souls are intact, but the yellow one’s was shattered. I thought that it- it was the human, but maybe it- maybe it’s something else if they’re r- running around the Underground. But, uh…” Alphys pulled out a sixth container, filled with dust. “Our king is no more. And, uh, neither is Sans, but- but I don’t think everyone else c- cares about that.”

Ceroba was taken aback at the information overload.

“Sorry, uh, please tell everyone else. I’ve got some- some more business. Goodbye!”

Without another word, Alphys dashed away from the other monsters into a part of her lab that was still abandoned. In a hallway where each lightbulb had sputtered out at least a year ago, Alphys made out Endogeny, rabid with grief. The melted amalgamation of canines was in the process of tearing apart a lab table when Alphys stepped on a DVD, which snapped loudly.

Endogeny glared right at Alphys and leaped, nine orifices filled with teeth facing her. The scientist stood her ground, this wasn’t her first rodeo. Alphys took a tennis ball out of her dimensional box and threw it behind her. Endogeny was momentarily distracted, leaping over Alphys. The scientist ran as she heard the ball get consumed… until she didn’t.

Hearing gooey footsteps behind her, Alphys looked around and saw a half-empty bag of dog food on a counter. She knocked it off, letting it’s contents spill on the floor to stall, but didn’t slow down. Alphys continued to run until she found the door she was looking for and disappeared behind it.

Alphys slowly caught her breath, taking solace in Endogeny's inconsistent object permanence, and the fact that it seemed to have forgotten how to open doors.

Remembering why she’d come, Alphys called out, “Blooky, are you here?”

After a moment, Mettaton’s beta body rolled in front of her.

“So, I take it you’ve figured out how to move in that body. How about the speakers, can you say anything?”

“y- yes,” the body replied. Its speech was extremely grainy, but luckily not incomprehensible.

Alphys reminded herself she didn’t have infinite time. She folded her arms. “Great. Then explain to me from the beginning: How did this happen.”

“i was sad after- after my cousin- the human- they-”

“I get it. Go on,” Alphys ordered.

“and as i was- was grieving, i wanted know how it- it felt to be mettaton. but I cried- cried so hard while i was here that i fused.”

Alphys sighed. “I- I’m sorry. I’ve got a lot of problems on my plate, but I’m really sorry. We should’ve told you before. But now I’m not sure what to do. If you’re okay like this, should I just leave you? We can talk once the killer situation is sorted out?”

“n- no! i’m scared and a- alone. please. a- and mettaton died as a hero. i’ve thought and- and- well, everyone trusted mettaton. maybe they could trust me. maybe i could be mettaton,” Napstablook suggested.

“What?” Alphys asked, her folded arms coming back to her sides.

“well, with NEO, he made them think he could beat the human. he said the design didn’t have time to be finished though. what if you- you gave me the finished design. i pretend to be mettaton rebuilt and- and they get to put their hopes on me. i fight the human with a chance. and i get to stop being someone as uncool as myself,” Napstablook explained.

Alphys’ serious expression melted away. ”You’re not that uncool!” the scientist assured the Napstablook, placing her hand on his steel form.

The robot slapped her hand away. “Come on, please! I’ve thought about this for a while.”

“It’s only been a few hours since you got into this mess,” Alphys reminded him, trying to salvage her authoritative position.

“And it was only a few more hours since the human fell down here,” Napstablook countered.

Alphys nearly flinched back. “I- I guess. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you,” the new Mettaton replied.

Dunebud smiled broadly as she led her friend to the elevator. They were going to see more friends in the lab with Alphys. Strangely though, her friend wasn’t very excited. He was in a weird mood, but Dunebud didn’t mind too much, that would make her a bad friend.

As the elevator doors clicked closed though, she noticed a snarl on Clover’s face. His hand trembled as it held tightly onto a toy gun. Was her friend feeling okay? Dunebud was a bit scared- for her friend!

Meanwhile, Clover sat on a lab table, trying and failing to play a tune on his harmonica; all that came out were disharmonious sounds bordering on Goosic’s new weaponized record in terms of quality. Nearby, Flowey poked through the crack in the floor and watched the Axis-lings huddle around something.

The children ran over to Clover with something in their hands, though Flowey couldn’t quite tell what it was.

“!…!” Axisa yelled as she and her brother presented what they were working on.

“what is it?” he asked, forcing a smile.

“Something to put on your [headgear],” Axis 2.0 explained.

Clover grabbed it and inspected it. It seemed to be three bolts welded together, though one bolt was cracked. “ah.”

“Do you [relish] it?” Axis 2.0 asked.

“yeah, sure.” There was no hint of enthusiasm in his voice.

“?” Axisa replied.

“it is cool,” Clover admitted, though he was not convincing.

Feeling rather unappreciated, Axis 2.0 asked, “Hey, why are you so [depressed] now?“

”Yeah, Martlet’s fine, so what’s the deal?!” Flowey demanded, popping up right next to Clover on the table.

“he… he died,” Clover muttered. “martlet’s hurt too. i couldn’t stop it.”

Axisa and Axis 2.0 shut up immediately. Flowey didn’t seem to care.

“Yeah, well a lot of people were hurt and died before you came,” the plant argued.

“yeah, but, that was before me. i came back so i could save everyone, but i couldn’t. i never really expected to succeed, but it’s still so painful to watch. i tried so hard when i went on my journey to make sure no one died, i came back to stop the pain, but now i don’t even have a choice,” Clover explained.

“Well, you weren’t always a saint. Idealizing your past isn’t helping you and it’s plain annoying. I was there. Each turn, I saw you contemplate whether to kill or spare, and though you never gave into to your killer urges, you don’t get to play Mary Sue,” Flowey retorted.

“i- i don’t remember those thoughts,” Clover muttered.

Flowey turned and whispered, “I remember your choices all too well.”

“but my choice was to protect axis jr.”

As the tension increased, Axis 2.0 wheeled out of the room. Axisa thought about following, but instead rolled right to Clover and hugged him. “:-!.”

Clover let a tear roll down his face as he hugged Axisa in return.

Flowey looked at the scene and sighed. “You want to be a sinless saint, try it. I just-” Flowey bit his not-lip; Clover’s morality wasn’t really Flowey’s complaint anyway, just his friend’s inconsistency. “You could’ve stopped more deaths if you weren’t busy being dead. Besides, you didn’t seem to care very much when the king died.”

“i- i mean- well- uh- you see, that- uh…” Clover stammered, releasing Axisa. Eventually he brought his hat down low, covering most of his face. “he killed the other humans. he was a sinner. i would never think of killing him, but… i couldn’t focus on saving him when there was a friend right there to reunite with.”

Flowey grit his teeth and forced a smile. “Well, that’s just… look, everyone’s done something bad. And just… it hurts other good people a lot when people they care about die.”

Clover looked towards the ground. “i see what you mean… he didn’t seem that important you though.”

“I mean, he was my dad, but it’s fine,” Flowey said calmly.

Clover’s jaw dropped. “i- i- i- What?! Flowey, you don’t need to use that much sarcasm, but- I- I get it!”

“Oh no, I wasn’t being sarcastic,” Flowey clarified, “I don’t care. It’s really hard to care about anything. The thing I got closest to caring for… was Frisk, even if I thought they were my sibling at the time. Besides, my remark got you back to using capital letters.”

"I… I guess it did,” Clover mumbled.

“Now come on, pal!” Flowey beckoned, popping out of the ground several meters away.

A tear fell from Clover’s eye. “Thanks, Flowey.”

“Come on!” Flowey exclaimed, “I did this so you wouldn’t be sad!”

Clover’s face went back to its familiar, blank, emotionless expression. “You know Flowey, you can’t just change someone’s mood instantly like that.”

“You’d be surprised what you can do if you know what buttons to push,” Flowey muttered under his breath.

“You’d be surprised just how complicated people are,” Clover countered.

“I t h i n k I k n o w E X A C T L Y h o w c o m p l i c a t e d p e o p l e a r e.”

“Did you say something, pal?” Clover asked.

Flowey looked at Clover and felt like squirming. “Nothing but that I need to check on something.”

“Oh, good luck,” Clover wished with a curt wave. Axisa waved in a likewise motion.

“Thanks,” Flowey muttered, slipping into the ground. He wasn’t actually lying anyway. He did want to know just where Frisk was. Flowey was sure “Commander” Axis would appreciate that anyway.

Meanwhile, Axis was wheeling into the room just as Flowey had left. He held his trembling son and set him down next to his sister before rolling to the massive screen, repurposed from its mixing minigame to display the security cameras.

“What is it, Axis?” Clover asked.

“I AM CURIOUS HOW FAR THE HUMAN-”

“Frisk. They’re not human,” Clover amended.

“HOW FAR FRISK HAS REACHED AS WE PREPARED,” Axis explained.

Clover watched from the cameras as Axis flipped to both sides of the gap Flowey created, but Frisk was not there. In the packaging department, many machines were sliced apart, including a screen which had been brutally carved out of the wall at its every appearance.

All the way through the department and back to the Greenhouse, where Flowey had popped out from the ground. He muttered something as he looked to the other plantlife, most likely a witty comment about their inferiority. As he turned, a dark presence stepped into the camera’s view. It held a knife high above Flowey, who turned around just too late as the weapon was brought down sharply.

“I AM SORRY FOR YOUR FRIEND, CLOVER,” Axis muttered.

Clover was too stunned to move a muscle.

Just as the knife met Flowey’s petals, a mechanical limb slammed into the demon, holding them against the wall and choking them.

“Is that Guardener?” Axis 2.0 asked.

[File 9 Loaded] Clover lept from the lab table and dashed to the Greenhouse as quickly as possible.

Chapter Text

Huh. Flowey needed to stop claiming that Clover was an idiot. After all, he wasn’t much better. Curiosity had always been Flowey’s weakness. Even in grave peril, Flowey wanted to know more. He told himself it was tactical, gaining information to create a plan, but it wasn’t exactly tactical to walk into a death trap. What else could it be called to walk next to someone whose only trait that surpassed their ability to murder was their desire to? Not to mention that Frisk had infinite attempts to do just that.

Flowey gazed up at the knife slashing straight down at him. That moment lasted longer than all of the flower’s resets. He could see every detail, from the specks of dust on the knife to Frisk’s unkempt hair. He sincerely gazed at the red glow of Frisk’s soul, shining out through a heart shape on their chest and through their eyes. He really took in the sweater’s blue and magenta coloration, so different from his Asriel and Chara’s green and cream sweater. He saw The Locket, the one thing which was the same between both.

While Flowey had trained in many timelines to enhance his fighting skill, it didn’t make up for the fact that, at the end of the day, Flowey was a flower and had stats which reflected that. Without timeline manipulation, he wasn’t even a match for someone like Papyrus. Flowey may as well have signed his own death warrant.

[File 0 Saved]

Flowey shut his eyes and prepared for his life to finally end. For the first time in a long time, that thought wasn’t accompanied by overwhelming terror. Instead, he felt a calm acceptance, nearly welcoming it. All that held him back were thin, hollow regrets. In the end, Flowey always knew what he was doing was wrong. When all was said and done, Flowey was going to miss-

Clover.

Huh.

No, Flowey wasn’t grieving any chance or illusion of staying with Chara. Deep down, he knew they weren’t here anymore, as much as he’d convinced himself otherwise. He was more than content to stay with the stupid cowboy… who wasn’t really any stupider than Flowey himself, but Flowey’s point still stood.

Well, there was no time to dwell on that stark realization. Time to get back to dying.

There it was, the killing cut. It cleanly sliced into Flowey’s rightmost petal and… right back out the bottom, hacking off the petal.

Had… Had Flowey just been spared?

Opening one eye tentatively, Flowey saw Frisk replaced by a hulking robot, facing away from him. Its piston arm was extended, holding something against the wall.

“[>/OFFENSE LEVEL 8 - INCARCERATION]”

“You t- tin can! I- I almost killed th- that stupid weed!” Frisk choked out.

As Flowey listened and watched, the image was clarified. The robot was Guardener, and she was holding Frisk against the wall, choking them. Judging from Frisk’s red face, gasping for air, it was working too. Only, why was Guardener attacking? Axis had mentioned that they couldn’t contact her so she didn’t know about the threat. Frisk also hadn’t attacked any plantlife-

Oh.

No plantlife other than Flowey. Huh. So much to think about. Flowey was rather relieved to be alive long enough to think about it. He wasn’t very worried about anything that Frisk would do, thanks to Guardener’s iron grip. Considering the way she’d protected Flowey, he supposed he could call her his guardian angel.

…Flowey supposed he also wasn’t better at jokes than his family. That really put things in perspective. He was dumb, unfunny, and very nearly dead. It was a wonder anyone could be scared of him!

[File 9 Loaded]

Flowey felt his petal hacked off again. He had a sneaking suspicion there was no saving it, which was quite unfortunate, because that hurt.

This time, Flowey watched as Frisk was, amusingly, lifted off the ground and pinned to the wall for a second time.

Despite his occasional idiocy, Flowey regarded himself as rather cunning at times… though maybe it was just ego. Either way, he had an idea. “Guardener, thank you! That trespasser there is an enemy of the whole garden. They want to destroy everything!”

“[OFFENSE LEVEL INCREASED_ LEVEL 10 - TERMINATION]”

“That’s more like it!” Flowey exclaimed. “Have fun with Guardener!” He was about to pop into the ground and leave, but there was a sort of sensation in his body which stopped him. He pursed his not-lips together, drawing his mouth tight.

Contrary to Flowey’s momentary confidence, Frisk was no pathetic child. They pushed against Guardener, fighting back and pushing the multi-ton robot away until they could worm their way out of her grip. Falling back to the ground, Frisk lunged forward, trying to strike Flowey with their knife.

…Flowey did not fancy himself becoming fresh produce, so he plunged into the dirt below him, but the heavy sensation inside him pushed Flowey back to the surface. As he reappeared, he saw Frisk stab towards Guardener, who extended their piston arms to raise their torso and avoid the strike entirely. Guardener then lifted one arm off the ground and punched Frisk to the far side of the garden.

“Wow, that was a good punch!” Flowey exclaimed.

“I APPRECIATE YOUR ADORATION, FLOWER,” Guardener replied.

Rising to their feet, Frisk glared at Flowey. They swung their knife at nothing, which perplexed Flowey. As he watched intently, he noticed the blade glow red for a moment. [File 0 Saved] Then, the trail the knife had cut through the air turned red and the slash flew forward to Flowey.

Guardener reached out to stop the slash, but couldn’t reach it nearly quickly enough. It tore through flowers and other flora that covered the ground. Luckily, Flowey instinctively leaned back and let the slash soar over him.

Well, Flowey would definitely have to tell Clover about that new development.

Across the room, Frisk’s face had returned to its almost inscrutable expression, but Flowey noticed the smallest crinkle on their forehead showcasing annoyance.

“ENGAGING TARGET INCAPACITATION. ACCEPT YOUR PUNISHMENT.”

Suddenly, white vines shot up from the ground and formed a cage around Frisk before tightening into a stranglehold and pulling Frisk to the ground. Frisk thrashed around, trying to escape from the vines, which slowly uncurled from around Frisk.

Flowey wrapped his own thorny vines around Frisk and dragged them, scratching every inch of Frisk’s skin with thorns as he did. With each scratch, a point of Frisk’s HP was taken. As their HP was drained, Frisk struggled and finally ripped their way free of the vines. HP: 1/99.

A vine sprung from the floor and impaled Frisk.

[File 0 Loaded]

Flowey was glad he had ducked under the slash instinctually because otherwise he would’ve forgotten. As he straightened his stem, Flowey saw Frisk leaping across the room towards Guardener, their knife extended.

Flowey shot one vine out of the ground and wrapped it around Frisk’s ankle, dragging them to the ground just in front of the floral protector, who ensnared the demon with white vines again. Flowey then surrounded Frisk with a dozen friendliness pellets and closed them in, then did so again and again, seven times. HP: 15/99.

Frisk struggled to free their hand and sliced towards Flowey, much lower to the ground. Flowey tried to pop into the dirt to avoid it, but was too slow. Suddenly, the world was spun onto its side. Flowey couldn’t feel his stem. Had those black dots always covered the garden?

All Flowey knew for sure was that Frisk was smirking. It only lasted for a moment though. Then, a piston arm crushed Frisk. From one half-numb root, Flowey tasted blood.

“YOUR DESECRATION IS_ U;UNF0RGIV4BLE.”

[File 0 Loaded]

…So that was how it felt to have half of your stem slit. Wow, the “tasting blood” sentence was phrased pretty weirdly.

Flowey saw Frisk leap through the air again and sent the vine to pull them to the ground, but Frisk twirled around to cut it. Continuing on their path, Frisk twirled more to face forward again, only to see a massive magical gear construct. One of its teeth slammed into Frisk, who careened towards the ground. Once Frisk hit the flowerbed, the gear fell towards them, but they kicked it towards Guardener, who punched it hard enough for it to dissolve back into magic.

Frisk was surrounded by friendliness pellets, which closed in on them, but Frisk ignored their damage, rising to their feet and slashing at Guardener. The strike cut deep and punctured Guardener’s backup fuel tank. Its experimental fuel, petroleum, began to leak out. As the oil poured out onto the flora, it shriveled.

“NO. TH3 GArD;DEN CaaN/N0T BE _DyyyING.” Panicking, Guardener initiated extreme preventive measures. She funneled the fuel into any and all empty spaces inside her body away from the gash. She also used one piston arm to cover the opening to minimize the fuel leak.

Frisk cut again, creating another oil leak. Guardener used her other arm to cover this one. Frisk cut again and again. Flowey grabbed Frisk with his vines and tried to drag them away, but they kept their feet firmly planted and cut once more.

Flowey felt his petals shrivel up as he watched each successive slash; each new spill of oil; each flower wilt.

“I 4Mm ssOR;RrY, _FL0WE7.”

Guardener repositioned her arms repeatedly to cover as many gashes as she could, but she couldn’t reach all of them. The way she positioned her arms made it appear like she was hugging herself. Each gash that Guardener couldn’t reach was covered by one of Flowey’s vines.

“I_ StiLLL THIN;NK tHE G4Rd3N,,, iiiS b34UT1F/FUL.”

Only one small tear had not been covered. It allowed a single drop of oil to leak from Guardener’s optical receptors as they began to blink, slower and slower. Then, the eyes didn’t blink back on.

Flowey froze.

Frisk giggled as they sunk their knife into Guardener’s shoulder, then tore it down and across. Frisk gained 0 EXP.

The shriek of metal rang out as Guardener’s top half slowly slid off of its bottom half. Then a crash echoed through the garden as her top half slammed into the ground. A puddle of oil formed around each segment, quickly killing the surrounding flowers.

As the oil spread closer to Flowey, he was petrified. Then as his roots tasted the oil, he recoiled. What was Flowey thinking?! It was just another senseless death like every other, if it was possible to even call that tin can alive! Flowey needed to get out of here, now.

[File 0 Saved]

“We did it! Finally!” Frisk exclaimed.

Chara muttered, “That was-”

“There was no ‘we’ in that.” Flowey seethed, popping up a little further from the demon.

Frisk spun on their heel to face Flowey and showed him their scary face. “Aw, did you think I was talking to you?”

Flowey didn’t flinch. Instead, he matched the face by twisting his face into a grotesque grin. “I hope you’re happy with your zero EXP.”

Realization hit Frisk. “Oh you-”

“Hahahaha!” Flowey interjected. “This has nothing to do with me, you absolute idiot. These aren’t monsters. These things have no soul. You didn’t kill anything, just dismantled your local toaster. The same is true for every stupid machine in this facility. If you’re hunting for EXP…” Flowey snarled. “Well then you’d better start looking somewhere else.”

Frisk smirked, flourishing their knife as their eyes fixated upon Flowey. “Well then, I know just where to start.”

The demon felt cold steel press against their head. “If only you had the chance.”

A warning rang out in Frisk’s head. “You have very low HP. You could be cornered if you don’t heal.”

Flowey bitterly chuckled. “You know, Chara would’ve noticed that I was stalling for time, or that you hadn’t gotten any EXP. They would’ve realized that you’ve run out of options. They would’ve realized when to have a partner. I don’t understand how I ever thought you were them!”

A vine retched The Locket Frisk wore from their neck.

Chara shrieked, “That vile-”

Frisk quickly shoved a piece of pie into their mouth, healing them to full HP.

Clover pulled the trigger. HP: 79/99

It occurred to Frisk that their DEF had been reduced from what felt like infinity to practically none.

The demon crouched below the next shot and tripped Clover. Then, they dashed at Flowey, who was wearing The Locket.

Before they could reach him, Flowey disappeared and popped back up behind Clover.

Frisk turned back to Clover, who wore a smirk as they aimed their firearm.

Frisk felt another bullet pierce right through them. HP: 59/99

Three more hits. Five shots in total and Frisk would be dead, again. Clover didn’t need to use even a full chamber of bullets!

The way Clover stood uncompromisingly tall on top of Guardener’s wreckage, his smoking barrel pointed right at Frisk, and his steely expression combined created a picture of heroism that even Undyne would admire. It invoked renewed terror, rushing through every ounce of Frisk’s being.

“Despite the little prick’s intervention, this isn’t as bad as it looks. Remember, Clover hasn’t seen your new trick yet,” Chara reassured.

With no hesitation, no change in expression, Frisk sliced through the air, sending a slash flying right towards Clover’s center.

Clover realized a moment before the slash impacted, taking a single leap off the robotic wreckage and onto the flowerbed.

A scream.

Clover was on one knee, his right hand tentatively covering his left shoulder.

All eyes were locked onto the space directly beside him, where laid an arm firmly grasping a revolver. As it laid there, the limb and weapon flaked apart into yellow dust.

“Clover…?” Flowey asked.

The cowboy stared wordlessly at the dust lingering from his own limb.

To Frisk, this was an opportunity; one that would not go to waste.

[File 0 Saved]

Frisk leaped across the room and tried to plunge their knife into Clover. Then, a massive pink energy sphere filled their vision for a moment before it exploded, launching Frisk into a nearby wall. HP: 35/99

Looking up, Frisk saw a robot which seemed to be a larger variant of the three they had encountered upon their initial entry. However, this one’s eyes didn’t glow pink, but crimson. It stared into Frisk’s soul with… subdued malice? Misplaced compassion? The remaining smaller models clinged onto the larger one. Around the group were about a dozen turrets, each aimed right at Frisk.

Frisk hastily equipped the Cloudy Glasses. Were they great? No. Were they better than nothing? Certainly. Could they compare to the locket? …A question better left unsaid.

Frisk considered loading, but decided it wouldn’t help. The robot’s behavior wasn’t going to be different if they loaded. After all, he didn’t possess an ounce of determination. Instead, Frisk would just have to deal with these idiotic robots.

Check - Axis

HP 750 ATK 19 DEF 15
Steam-Powered Caretaker

“HUMAN, I UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR JOURNEY WAS LIKELY PAINFUL OR FRIGHTENING, BUT YOUR ACTIONS ARE NOT FORGIVABLE. I HAVE MADE A PROMISE TO EACH ROBOT IN THIS FACILITY: THIS WILL BE YOUR MECHANICAL GRAVE.”

Foolish machine… wasn’t it obvious that they weren’t human anymore?

A red slash flew from Frisk’s knife, straight towards Axis. Suddenly, one of the smaller robots, Axis 2.0, dived in front of the larger one with a trash can lid in hand. The lid blocked the attack entirely, with only the faintest scratch on the trash can lid.

The turrets fired together. Frisk stepped back to avoid them, but their crossfire encompassed the entire area, not unlike a firing squad.

Frisk cut as many bullets from the air as they could, but too many were coming from every angle. Instead, Frisk charged out of the rain of bullets, towards Axis. HP: 18/99

Suddenly, massive electrical currents materialized between Axis and Frisk, then flew towards Frisk one by one.

Frisk cut each current apart one by one, but out of nowhere, Axis’ hand was wrapped around Frisk. The demon tried to cut off the arm, only to realize he had none. In fact, Axis was across the arm with plenty of time to block an attack.

In frustration, Frisk sent slices at Axis over and over again. The large robot put a hand on the Axis 2.0’s head as a bit of comfort while the child used the trash can lid to block each successive strike.

Standing firm, Axis raised his hand and materialized a pink, glowing bomb in it, “I WISH IT DID NOT HAVE TO COME TO THIS. I WILL TELL YOU I TAKE NO PLEASURE IN THIS… WELL MAYBE JUST A LITTLE BIT.”

Frisk wrestled against Axis’ disembodied hand, but they were too late.

Axis covered Axisa’s eyes and hoped that Axis 2.0 couldn’t see past the trash can lid.

Frisk felt heat and pressure rush over their face.

The sight was even worse than he remembered now that he was up close.

[File 9 Loaded]

Instead of leaping at Clover, Frisk was completely still. It felt like they had grown roots like everything around them.

A massive pink sphere flew in front of Frisk’s face. As soon as it passed, Frisk tried to move, only to find vines tied around their feet.

“Looks like your wish came true,” Chara muttered.

Across the room Flowey pleaded, “Go! You guys can’t fight Frisk. They’re too… strong. Look at what they did to Clover.”

“!?!” Axisa exclaimed, rolling in circles around Clover, who was trying to climb to his feet, ignoring his missing arm and revolver.

“…Flower, stall them while I help Clover.”

Frisk leaped at Clover before the opportunity passed, only to be assaulted by a rain of friendliness pellets, throwing them to the ground.

Axis hastily lifted Clover over his head and wheeled away. As Clover was hoisted, his satchel fell to the ground, so Axisa grabbed it and wheeled after her father. Axis 2.0 brought up the rear, shielding the others from Frisk’s attacks.

Meanwhile, Flowey pelted Frisk with difficult arrangements of pellets so they couldn’t focus enough to find some way past Axis 2.0’s defense. Then, in a moment, the family had escaped.

Frisk groaned in frustration, but at the moment, Frisk had to get out of this place. There was no EXP to get here; no power to gain; no fun to be had. Only frustration. They didn’t need to kill these useless robots, they just had to leave them in the dust.

So, Frisk turned around and walked away from the battle and from where their opponents had left. As they walked away, Flowey popped up next to them and cackled. Frisk sliced at the flora, but he popped into the ground and it was just one of the many white flowers covering the ground which was sliced.

With just one more groan, Frisk had left the garden.

A moment afterwards, Flowey popped back up next to Guardener. It made no sense to stay, but… Flowey wanted to. The same heavy feeling from before pulled him to the sight. There had to be a name for this feeling!

…There was.

Guilt.

Flowey chuckled softly, incredulously, before giving up and letting a tear fall. Flowey took the flower Frisk had just cut from the ground and placed it atop Guardener’s wreckage. All the while, he could feel another weight - that of the locket he wore.

Flowey tore his eyes away from the site and noticed that the petal that had been torn off of him was covered in the yellow dust from Clover’s arm.

Flowey stared as thoughts swirled around in his mind. The flora shook his head to rid himself of them, then disappeared to reunite with his friends.

Ceroba looked over the crowd, all of which were murmuring in worry and panic. For a second they had hope, but once again they were in doubt. If Undyne couldn’t stop the killer, then how could this human?

If these adults were all scared, Ceroba could only imagine her daughter’s terror. Ceroba was almost scared to look Kanako in the eye, content for the moment to hold her hand. So, she looked right at Starlo, who sat beside her and displayed full confidence in Clover (though Ceroba’s mind whispered that it could be a facade). She held his hand as well. It felt almost like if she let go of either her friend or daughter, she would lose them forever.

While nearly everyone else was falling back into despair, Ceroba trusted Clover. He was extremely skilled and never lost a battle. Ceroba wanted nothing more in the world to be true than that Clover had defeated that… demon, but she held doubt. If Clover died again though… Ceroba couldn’t have him ripped away once more. There was too much guilt the first time, and this was her only chance to make amends.

Kanako perked up as her friend, Dalv, walked towards them. “Mrs. Ketsukane… is there supposed to be anyone else coming down through the elevator?”

Ceroba was taken aback. “No, but they must be survivors. I’ll go greet them.” She rose to her feet.

“And if they’re…” Dalv trailed off, unable to look Ceroba in the eye.

“Then I’ll be there to handle it,” Ceroba assured him as she walked past.

Dalv nodded gravely and fell in stride with Ceroba.

Starlo suggested that Kanako go play with the Feisty Four. Then, he followed Dalv and Ceroba to the elevator.

The three stood side-by-side in front of the elevator, taking battle-ready poses. They tensed as they watched a small screen in front of them which displayed how close it was until…

Ding!

The doors opened to reveal Clover (and a Dunebud). His hat was gone, showing a rats nest of hair, and his skin was pale, but this was unmistakably the same person who had helped them when he fell into the underground. Dalv, Starlo, and Ceroba’s faces lifted and their stances softened. They prepared to greet him warmly-

Two gunshots rang out.

Starlo caught Ceroba as she fell to the ground and Dalv stood next to them, panicking.

“Clover” holstered his smoking gun and walked right into the lab.

Chapter Text

Ceroba crumbled to dust in Starlo’s arms.

A shadow covered North Star’s face. All that could be seen were the tears dripping off from his chin.

“Why in tarnation did you do that?!” he demanded.

Clover’s hands reached up and covered his mouth. “Oh my goodness I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to!”

North Star snarled. “Then what exactly did you mean to do?”

“It was a misclick, I swear!” Clover exclaimed.

“Do ya think I care?” North Star asked, unholstering his rifle.

Clover shrugged. “Looks like I messed up, but might as well commit to it.” He unholstered a chain gun.

Screams rang out as Clover unloaded all of his ammo. Soon, dust filled the entire lab, and Clover choked on it.

Standing next to Clover, watching, had been Dunebud, who was filled with terror and grief. She tried to remain still, but her not-lip trembled.

What? Did you think Flowey was the only one who lacked lips? No. In this cruel world, no one has lips. Don’t you understand? Not plant, monster, human, or robot!

Flowey popped out of the ground next to Clover. “Okay, April Fools! Now let’s call this a wrap.”

Except, it wasn’t. It was April 2nd for crying out-

“Nope. We’re not doing this. You were late to the party, but this is still a joke,” Flowey argued. The five human souls floated out of their canisters to join Flowey

This wasn’t that unserious! It could work in the continuity!

The five souls swirled around Flowey and combined with him.

With the souls, Flowey now controlled reality instead of that half-rate narrator “Metal Omegux”.

“You’re… not gonna take mine too?” Clover asked.

Flowey looked at him with a raised eyebrow and the clearest look of confusion. “You didn’t figure it out? You don’t have a stupid soul.”

“I forgor”

“Now, let’s see here…” Flowey mumbled.

Flowey tore down reality, erasing this chapter from existence.

Chapter Text

Sitting up straight, the first thing that Clover noticed was how much every muscle in his body ached. He supposed that was expected after being dead for who-knows-how-how-long.

The second thing he noticed was a single Dunebud looking over him, excited and relieved. “Gwob Gwub~!”

The third thing he noticed was that he was completely alone. None of his friends, real or otherwise, had chosen to be near him when he had woken. Once again, Clover was left by himself. He wished it was surprising.

Dunebud squealed and tried to drag Clover, who slowly rose to his feet. He followed the monster past six other coffins and to a set of stairs. Clover paused and turned around to read the name of the coffin with a red heart. “Chara”.

“Uuuu?” Dunebud muttered.

Clover shook his head to dispel an oncoming memory. It wasn’t the place or the time to be lost in a reverie. He was finally alive, for whatever it was worth.

He followed the sand monster past a door which led to the throne room. He looked inside, but turned back away at the garden of sickeningly golden flowers.

The cowboy raised an eyebrow at the scattered specs of dust in the golden hallway. It added to an already oppressive atmosphere.

Finally, Dunebud stopped in front of an elevator. It (she?) tried to reach up and press the button, but it was too high. Clover stepped in and pressed it.

Clover leaned against the wall and waited.

In front of him, Dunebud squiggled a bit and called out, “Wiggle Woggle~”

Clover turned his back on the sand creature and stared at his reflection in the elevator doors. Without a hat, his rats nest of hair was exposed, and none of his gear looked quite as pristine as it once had. Clover also looked rather sickly, paler than a ghost and his skin tight against his bones.

Reaching into his holster, Clover pulled out a toy gun; all he had as a weapon after giving his Wild Revolver up.

The elevator doors opened in front of Clover and Dunebud, who walked in.

As the elevator doors closed and they descended, Clover breathed in and out slowly. It felt relieving to know he could, reassuring himself of the events, but it felt hollow. He felt hollow. For all his supposed fortune, Clover was taking an elevator to some unknown location with a monster he’s barely met, not to mention that none of his friends were there.

Was it even worth it to have come back alive?

Needing something to smash, Clover noticed a vial with its needle stabbed into his leg and pulled it out. Then, he threw it against the elevator wall.

As it shattered, Dunebud shrunk away, already scared of him.

The elevator abruptly stopped, making Clover fall over and cut himself on the glass shards. How wonderful…

“For having the name Clover, you sure aren’t lucky!” Flowey snidely remarked.

The human chuckled softly at the memory as he pried himself from the floor. Flowey had been completely right…

“I'm only kiddin' around of course. I'd say you're more of a machine than that bot up there, haha!”

…But not even Flowey understood.

Even when Clover woke up from his coffin, he was alone. None of his “friends” were there, not Starlo, not Martlet, not Dalv, and not even Flowey. Just a single Dunebud he’d barely met.

Clover leaned over to the slightly shaking Dunebud and hesitantly gave them (her?) one pat on the head.

It shouldn’t have surprised Clover that he was abandoned.

—— 

“It’s time to go,” Clover muttered. He could somehow feel that he wasn’t supposed to live any longer than this.

After an all-too-short conversation, Starlo and Martlet agreed that Clover could die. Then, with nothing but a hug and receiving a gift each, they left. They left Clover alone with Ceroba, the first to agree to his death; almost immediately, as if she hadn’t needed any convincing. Why were they gone?

Suddenly, Clover felt so weak. He looked into his hand and saw his own soul. How… How was that even possible?

For the first time, Clover couldn’t feel his soul.

Was it really the first time?

Ceroba snatched the soul from him and placed it in a container. She hollowly asked if she should stay with him, but why would Clover want to be with her, the one who just tried to kill him; the one who stole his soul? He told Ceroba to go. He assured her that he’d be fine, because at least things would be better if she wasn’t standing in front of him.

Once she had left his field of view, Clover let out a sigh of relief. Then, Clover felt woozy. He staggered over and fell on the ground. He lifted up onto his hands and knees, but he still felt so wrong as he tried inhale and exhale and-

Clover couldn’t breathe.

He clawed his way towards a rock wall and forced himself to sit up, leaning against it. He expanded and contracted his lungs. Clover’s entire body shuddered as he forced his muscles to move.

His hand was placed on his chest, where he could once feel the soft, warm beating of his soul. Now, it was cold to the touch; colder than his chattering teeth or tingling toes. It was a chill that no longer felt like ice so much as an endless void where not so much as a modicum of warmth could reside.

The chill gnawed at Clover’s lungs, taking away each breath he heaved. Clover yearned to be as far away from the void as he could be. He contracted each muscle in his right arm, retching his hand away from his chest, but it didn’t budge.

Panic coursed through Clover’s veins, flushing out the remnants of life that once flowed. He tried to lift his left arm, but it didn’t move. He tried to clench his fist, but he couldn’t move. He tried to wiggle his toes, but they were still. He tried to shed tears, but his eyes were dry.

“Please, come back,” Clover whispered. Even the soft words made Clover’s throat hurt.

He didn’t want to die alone.

Flowey popped out of the ground in front of Clover. “So, this is it? All that work just to become another cog in the machine?"

That truly was all Clover had become, wasn’t it? Clover was finally, truly dying…

“Heh, you've grown so predictable!" Flowey exclaimed with a bit of a cackle.

Clover wanted to laugh along with him, but his lungs refused. If Clover knew Flowey, how determined he was to help him, then Flowey would load and they could laugh about how stupid Clover had been.

“I could undo all of this right now but…”

Yes!

“Maybe you've earned your rest."

No. Please! Inwardly, Clover begged for Flowey to save him. Did Flowey understand how horrifying this was? Clover didn’t want to die!

“After all, there's always another."

What.

Flowey turned away from Clover, seemingly lost in thought.

…Was Flowey just going to replace Clover? Was he nothing but a toy to be thrown out?! Was there nothing special between the two of them?

"Can't say it's been fun so... I suppose this is where we part ways."

…No fun? Had the adventure meant nothing to Flowey?

"Oh, who am I kidding? Until we meet again... friend.”

No! Clover tried to scream at his friend to come back, but nothing came out.

So, this was what death could feel like? It was unlike the other times, quick and almost painless. Now, Clover was dying, cold and alone. None of his friends had cared enough to stay with him as his life flickered out.

Spasms overtook Clover’s body as cold washed back over. The void in his center grew to fill him.

Ceroba, Starlo, Martlet, Flowey…

Why didn’t they care?

As Clover lay there, wracking his brain for answers, he found one.

Ceroba’s excitement… Her immediate agreement… She was finally alone with Clover’s pure soul. Clover had only saved her the step of killing him with her own hands! His soul may never get to Asgore; it may never be able to save monsterkind. Now, it was just the same as it would have been if Flowey had let him lose the battle.

Why had Clover extended the olive branch? He should’ve obeyed the philosophy- er, the flowosophy of another plant: “Kill or be killed.”

Except… Flowey had never said that!

Clover chuckled at his past self.

—— 

Immobilized and dying coldly on a rooftop, questioning how Flowey could be so cruel… it wasn’t a new sensation. Clover could remember something eerily similar.

Clover clenched his fist as another memory flooded through him.

[Anyone sensitive to graphic depictions of violence may want to skip this memory.]

The world slowly came into focus. Clover immediately wished it hadn’t.

The entire rooftop was covered in a sea of the very thorny vines that Flowey had attacked with. The sea was covered in a few dozen tiny golden flowers. Emerging from the sea were about ten vines wrapped around Clover to keep him in place, perfectly still.

He felt the thorns pressing into his hands, feet, and sides. Each other body part was wrapped so tightly that Clover felt shards that used to be bones slicing apart his flattened flesh from the inside. Blood dripped down his entire body, covering every inch of his body below his neck.

Clover opened his mouth to scream, but no words could escape him. There was no air in his lungs…

Through the pain, Clover had not originally noticed that the one area of his body blissfully lacking pain was… completely removed from his body.

An entire chunk of his torso was absent, replaced by a vine impaling, right where his soul had been.

Yet, what had been described was not what terrified Clover most. That privilege belonged to the sight directly in front of him, blocking the view of the CORE entirely. A single stem had been enlarged to resemble a green mountain, though its shape was almost that of a throne. There were two armrests extending out of it, at the end of each was a claw made of thorns. At the base of the structure was a golden flowerbed, each with just a trademark grin.

At the botanical behemoth’s peak, there was one massive flower where the face had been replaced by… something else. An… eyelid?

It opened.

An eye larger than Clover.

“Ooh, you’re awake? You’re alive?!” Each flower spread across the sea of thorns and each flower piled together at the base of the beast spoke in perfect unison. Every single flower spoke save for the one staring through Clover.

“I always wondered how much of humans were in their souls and those fleshy things in their heads- brains, were they called?”

Clover’s head throbbed in agony from the perfectly synchronized rhythm of the plants - from their different pitches - creating the perfect antithesis to vocal harmony.

“Hmm… with this much blood loss, I thought you were dead! You must have had more determination than I thought, pal.”

Clover tried to choke out a response, but it was for naught.

“How are you feeling - you know, emotionally? Can you even feel?”

There was nothing but pain.

“You can’t, can you?! You’re just like me…” voices muttered from all around Clover.

“That’s just delicious. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much longer you’ll live. What, with all your determination leaking out with your blood.”

Through the pain, it was hard to tell, but now Clover was nearly certain that he was cold; cold as if he had never known warmth. His body shook, though it only produced more pain.

“Oh you’re so distracting! It looks like I’ve misplaced your soul!”

Deep breaths. It was always said that deep breaths could help Clover calm down, but what now that Clover had no lungs?

“I’m really shocked you have enough determination to still stay here, what without that precious soul. If only you had enough to remember resets. That would be so helpful - for you. Lucky me, it’s more fun this way! No, I’ll always be the one with determination. I’ll always be the one with reality - with the timeline bending to my whims. I’ll always be the one in control.”

Clover’s eyes silently pleaded with Flowey.

“Haha! Your puppy dog eyes won’t work on me. I need your soul, so remember this: In this world, it’s kill or be killed.”

Taking considerable effort, Clover shook his head back and forth.

“Oh, then care to explain your executions, or if you’re to be believed, your murders?” The collective voice of the flowers morphed into something grotesque and gleeful.

For once, Clover wanted to yell at Flowey. He wanted to scream how wrong he was, but the words were swallowed by the void gnawing his center apart.

A yellow glow shone brightly from beneath the skin of the green mountain.

“Oh, I found it!” the collective exclaimed. “I was beginning to wonder where your soul went. I guess I got a bit sidetracked, but with this power, you’re not needed anymore.”

A vine wrapped around Clover’s head, over his eyes.

“I’m done playing with you.”

The vine tightened and twisted. Clover choked out a final scream, blood exhaled in place of air. Then there was nothing.

—— 

Even as the elevator descended, Clover continued to shake — and not only from fear. Clover was still so cold…

Yet, Clover was getting closer to his destination. Unfortunately, the elevator was moving ever so slowly. Though, that was exactly the kind of torture Clover had come to expect; the kind of luck he always experienced.

Clover never had been lucky. If he’d been lucky, that memory, as well as many others, would have stayed in the deep recesses of Clover’s mind. If he was just a bit more lucky, he’d have stayed dead.

—— 

For hours, memories of more things that never happened whirled around in Clover’s mind.

Each time Clover’s consciousness returned to his own body, he wondered how long it would stay before it was pulled into another memory of his friends meeting gruesome deaths from his own bullets. He wondered why he couldn’t bring himself to care about each murder.

While the panic was its own kind of torture, it was not nearly as painful as the repeated memories of his deaths at the hands of each of his friends, showing it had happened dozens more than Clover could ever have anticipated. He felt the physical torment of his body being torn to shreds just to reveal his soul.

As Clover waited, leaning against the wall, he began to wonder if his body would lay by the blossoming tree forever. He wondered if he’d stay conscious, continually dying right here for all eternity.

Out of nowhere, a vaguely familiar melody drifted to Clover’s ears.

For the first time in an hour, Clover paid attention to his sight, looking through the black dots covering his vision.

Towering over Clover was a massive man with a purple cape wrapped around him. He had gargantuan golden shoulder plates and a small crown on his head between his titanic horns. He remembered vaguely that this was Asgore, King of Monsters.

Clover could recall their encounters; they never lasted long. He remembered rings of fire closing on him, scorching him. He remembered his words: “Your fate was sealed the moment you entered my kingdom.”

Tension ran through Clover as he mentally prepared for battle, but it didn’t reach his muscles.

Clover tried to make peace with whatever horror he was going to experience, but he was too busy panicking.

A tear landed on the stones.

It took a moment for Clover to realize it had come from the king’s own eyes.

Asgore lifted Clover from the ground and cradled him softly in his arms, like a hug. As he got closer to the king, he realized that the melody he had noticed earlier was the king’s humming.

Asgore carried Clover through New Home, where citizens of every kind hurried out of the way, looking on with a hushed silence that persisted until the crowd died out as Asgore stood in front of a familiar house.

As Asgore walked inside, Clover recognized this as the same house, or one shockingly similar, to that in memories that suddenly flooded his mind. They showed him sitting in front of Toriel with a comfortable sweater and listening to her teach him to the joy of both.

What Clover would give to have the life Toriel, Martlet, or Starlo had offered...

“Clover? I do believe that is what she said your name was… I am so sorry it has come to this. I wish that I could tell you that I never wanted any of this. I was in grief and made a mistake, but it does not justify my actions.”

Clover wanted to be angry, furious even! Yet… he couldn’t muster up the emotion.

“Once, in this very house, I had two children: Asriel and Chara. While Asriel was of my own dust, Chara was a human who had fallen into the underground. We treated and loved them just as if they had been our second child, all until they got sick and…” Asgore choked out the next words. “They never recovered. Then, in grief, Asriel absorbed the soul and soon was found dead in my garden, his dust strewn across my golden flowers.”

Asgore walked into a room with two child-sized beds. “This had been their room. It-”

Asgore interrupted himself with a sigh. “Nevermind. I missed this opportunity when you died before reaching my castle. No longer will my words reach you. If you can somehow hear this… know that I will not waste any more time laying you to rest.”

Asgore closed Clover eyes. He tried to open them, but even those small muscles were beyond reach. So, he waited as Asgore trekked on. They continued in silence only interrupted by each thudding footstep until Clover's body was set down on hard stone.

“I’m so sorry,” Asgore muttered. Then, Clover heard the grinding of stone and complete silence.

Clover’s sense of touch was all that kept him grounded to reality, until that faded too and he was left inside that very void that was at his center, reliving events over and over.

Then, his mind slowed down and stopped.

The next thing Clover knew, he had woken up.

—— 

Clover grounded himself again by breathing in and out slowly, reminding himself that he could again. He clenched his toy gun and stared at the unopened doors in front of him.

This elevator, this painful ride was on the verge of breaking Clover. Regaining life had been supposed to bring him agency and allow him to continue, not to make Clover relive the past once more, yet he had been instantly kicked back there. Clover supposed it was exactly his luck.

Where was the luck that Clover’s namesake was supposed to bring? He had never received it in his painful existence. Perhaps it never was a four-leafed clover as he had assumed. Maybe this cruel world had torn off the fourth leaf. Either way, Clover was a three-leafed clover, a shamrock, and the implied luck with his name had become nothing but irritating.

Clover refused to keep his name. It was a form of pain which he could control. From this moment on, Clover decided he would be called, rather simply, as “Shamrock”. A clover without luck. Shamrock smiled at how fitting the name was.

The elevator slowed to a stop.

Shamrock prepared himself with one more deep breath.

With a ding the elevator doors opened, showing Shamrock the faces of people he’d known in his previous life: Dalv, the kind vampire who had been the first to truly befriend him; Starlo, the sheriff who had allowed him to embrace his identity; and Ceroba, the fox who had faked her way as a friend through their entire journey in the Steamworks, then tried to kill Clover. Beyond that, she had agreed too quickly to his sacrifice, as if she was begging for the others to let Clover die. In a way, she'd succeeded. It was no longer Clover who stood before her.

Before a thought could form in Shamrock’s mind, he unholstered his weapon and let two shots ring out.

Without a word, without any obligation to an explanation, Shamrock walked past the trio and into the facility.

Chapter Text

Two bullets ripped their way through Ceroba, continuing on their path until they slammed into the laboratory wall opposite the elevator.

Ceroba clutched her wound and gazed at the perpetrator, a human cowboy she’d assumed was her friend; a human she believed to be Clover. Ceroba opened her mouth to ask something, only for her eyes to roll back into her head as she fell backwards.

North Star grabbed his friend as she fell and held her in his arms. He muttered unintelligibly for a moment before sputtering out, “Ceroba?! Are— Are you okay? Ceroba, answer!”

There was no response and, to his horror, Starlo noticed dust quickly flaking from the wound.

The human cowboy stepped out of an elevator, pushed past his victim, and walked into the lab. He didn’t spare a glance backwards.

Dalv looked between the human and Starlo, who held Ceroba in his arms, with tears dripping onto her form. Eventually, Dalv’s gaze landed on the sand blob in the elevator.

The blob, which he recognized as a Dunebud, gave Dalv a questioning look. After waiting a moment, she put a smile back on and slunk out of the elevator, following behind the human.

Dalv sighed and gave one more glance at Starlo, who was stuck in his own world. Then, he followed quickly behind the human, reaching out and putting a hand on its shoulder.

“C— Clover?” Dalv mumbled.

The human glared back at Dalv. “It’s Shamrock.”

Whispers emanated from a mass of monsters as they parted, pressing against the walls to make way for the human — or at least the thing that looked like one.

Shamrock walked through the crowd, feeling each soul’s terror, and not caring the least bit. The cowboy wandered around aimlessly, inspecting the many monsters he had never seen before, along with those that he had. There were hundreds of them locked up in the laboratory, all trying to be as far from him as they could be.

As Shamrock continued, one whisper perked his ear: “Do you see that? It’s a second human here to kill us all!”

Shamrock turned around and searched for whoever had mentioned “second human.” As Shamrock searched, he heard a reply. “Yeah, I heard. I still can’t believe I thought he was going to save us from the first human. They’re all the same…”

There. Shamrock stared straight at the duo. It was a small mouse-like monster with an oversized scarf wrapped around it and a taller red monster with horns on it.

Shamrock stepped right towards the duo. “What other human are you talking about?”

The monsters froze as ice cold eyes gazed through them. The mouse stammered out, “Y—Y—You kn—know! The o—one that you w—w—w—were fighting!”

Shamrock unholstered his weapon and aimed it at the mouse. “Who. Are. You. Talking about?”

The horned monster stepped in the way. Despite his shivering, the monster firmly glared. “Now why would we answer a human like you?”

Shamrock clenched his teeth and leveled his weapon at the horned monster. Then, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“P— Please don’t,” Dalv pleaded, “Please, Clov— I mean, Shamrock.”

Shamrock sighed and lowered his weapon. What he was doing — he really shouldn’t be doing it, should he? Then… Why was he going to? He was supposed to be some sort of enforcer of justice, not a criminal. He was glad Dalv had enough sense to stop him.

Shamrock contemplated that apologizing had to be the right thing to do. After all, he was supposed to feel guilty about injustice. Yet, as he turned back to the mouse and horned monster, he saw no one close, with the duo having disappeared back into the crowd of monsters, abandoning him before the conversation could even conclude.

With that realization, Shamrock sneered and tightened his grip on his revolver.

“Are you okay, Shamrock?” Dalv asked. As Shamrock turned at him, he saw concern on Dalv’s pursed lips, but fear (or perhaps nerves) in his stance, just a bit further from Shamrock than he should’ve been. However, Shamrock also noticed his eyes shined with an inkling of hope.

“Am I okay?” Shamrock repeated to himself.

“Buuh~!“ Dunebud affirmed.

Shamrock really wasn’t sure. Without a soul, he wasn’t what he used to be, but he wasn’t in any pain.

“Hello! Clover!”

The shout broke Shamrock out of his stupor. He spun on his heels to face a melting fox with shoulders replaced by little blobs with faces. They looked strikingly like Trihecta, and the fox had a certain resemblance to Ceroba.

“I’m Kanako!” the monster exclaimed. The faces on her shoulders were looking around with uncertainty.

Shamrock could feel something off about the girl, but he couldn’t place what it was.

“My Mom, Uncle Star, and Dalv have been telling me all about you!” Kanako continued. “Oh, hello to you too, Dalv!”

“H—Hello, Kanako,” Dalv replied. “Maybe you should give Shamrock here a b—bit of space.”

Shamrock didn't seem to hear Dalv, intently staring into Kanako. All at once, it was clear to Shamrock; he could sense the monster’s soul, or rather, souls. To his surprise, Kanako had multiple souls, and one was human.

Ceroba’s plan… was this what came of Clover’s soul? Did it even reach the castle? Was his sacrifice truly that meaningless?!

“Clover? Er, was it Shamrock? Are y-you okay?” Kanako asked as she stepped back.

As Shamrock focused more, he realized the soul wasn’t fully human. Perhaps it was only pieces, like Chujin’s experiments, but his soul and sacrifice were still desecrated to achieve the same goal he fought against. It was true then, that Ceroba had betrayed him to steal his soul, and so his attack was justified!

All was right in the world. Except… he still was empty inside, abandoned by the soul in front of him, which was defiled in order to create the thing that stood before him.

Shamrock did not know if justice or rage guided his hand, nor did he care. He aimed and fired.

The girl’s form wavered, melting for a moment before reforming. She winced, but above her, Shamrock saw that the attack had dealt a mere 120 damage; a fraction of her health bar.

Dalv closed his eyes and shook his head. No, surely Clover wouldn’t be doing this. Not to his friend…

Suddenly, Ed stepped between Shamrock and Kanako, then cracked his knuckles. “What’cha doin' here, punk?”

Moray stepped next to Ed and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Ed, surely you recognize who you’re talking to.”

Mooch tugged on Ed’s jacket. “Y—Yeah, Ed! Th—That’s Clover!” The squirrel had a weak smile and traces of tears which had strewn down her face.

Ed’s face melted and he patted Mooch on the head. “Sorry, but he’s askin’ fer it. Clover’s shot Ceroba and now Kanako.”

“Shamrock,” the cowboy corrected with a glare.

“I’m with Ed on this one.” Previously unnoticed, Ace was just behind Moray. “Just look at that expression.”

Moray pushed Ed and Ace back. “Just let me talk to him. Please.”

Ed sighed and nodded, followed by Ace doing likewise. They stepped back as Moray walked forward to Shamrock.

Meanwhile, with wide eyes, Kanako looked between the spot where she was shot, at Shamrock, and back again. Slowly, the shock melted off of her face as it drooped into a frown. It was followed by a small cringe and the ache she felt within herself.

Dalv put a hand on Kanako’s shoulder, making her look over at him. “I’m sorry about that Kanako. I assure you, you’ll be okay.”

“Y-You’re sure?” she asked. She tried to suppress the dull pain as it quickly faded.

“I’ll make sure of it. Besides, Clover, or Shamrock as he’s calling himself, is a very good person at heart. He’s just… upset.”

Kanako smiled. “Oh, that sucks. Welp, thanks Dalv!”

Dalv smiled back. “You’re more than welcome. Just, please, be careful.”

“I will be,” Kanako assured him.

Across the lab, Moray was pulling Shamrock into the corner of the lab, where a dozen monsters were scrambling away. Moray leaned against one wall and Shamrock leaned against the other, both facing their heads at the other. Between them, Dunebud had smushed herself into the corner.

“So, Clover, Shamrock, whichever; what happened?” Moray asked.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” Shamrock tersely replied.

Moray bit their lip. ”You know, you’re worrying everyone.”

“YuhUh~” Dunebud added.

“I can tell.” Shamrock stared right into Moray’s eyes.

Moray looked back at the other members of the Feisty Four. “It would just really put us at ease if you could tell us why. Or even just tell me why, and I’ll tell them that you have a good reason.”

“Then how about I just tell you I have a good reason?” Shamrock suggested.

Moray looked back at Shamrock, desperation showing. They begged, “Please w—work with me here!”

There it was, clear as day: fear.

Shamrock looked back at the other members of the Feisty Four. They were too far to make out the words, but from their expressions, Ed seemed angry and Mooch was just confused, peeking out from behind Ed’s arm raised in front of her. At first glance, Ace was just as hard to read as normal, but his visible eye was fixed on Shamrock and Moray and the way it shook revealed terror.

As he took another look, Clover noticed that Ed was repeatedly glancing away from Mooch and right at Shamrock, his fist clenched, but his cross expression wavering. The anger was mostly a mask! As Shamrock glanced around the lab, he could see Sweet Corn, Frostermit, and Insomnitot; all monsters Clover had befriended on his journey, and all huddled against the lab walls to hide from Shamrock’s wrath.

That was bad, wasn’t it? His mind insisted that it should be terrible, undoing the bonds he had made. All his work was undone, and wasn’t that a tragedy?

That shouldn’t happen. Shamrock wanted his actions undone. He wanted the fear undone. He wanted his indifference undone.

Instinct prevailed and Shamrock screamed, “Flowey! Load! Please!”

But time didn’t turn back. There was no indication that the plant had heard him at all.

“Flowey? Who is that?” Moray demanded.

Shamrock shrunk away into the wall.

Dunebud pushed her way between Shamrock and Moray, gave a big smile, and yelled, “Bestest Fwend~!”

“Huh? Bestest friend…?” Moray muttered, their eyes slowly widening. “Wait, that flower with you in the-”

No no no. Shamrock slowly backed away, his eyes wide as golf balls.

Moray stepped closer. “Clover, who is Flowey?! What were you talking about?! What is going on!?!”

Shamrock breathed in and out — in and out, faster and faster.

Moray snatched Shamrock’s forearm. “Explain yourself!” they demanded.

Shamrock fumbled with his holster; his hand seizing the weapon.

“Agh!” Moray shrieked. They let go and clutched their shoulder with their other hand. Moray grit their teeth as they stared at the tiny bit of dust that slid out through their fingertips.

Moray was too occupied to notice as Shamrock turned around and dashed away, tears trailing behind as he turned and disappeared down a hallway.

—— 

Martlet lay on a stiff bed, staring up at the ceiling. She felt the lump on her head from the human. It still hurt, but not nearly as much as it did when she first woke up.

Come to think of it, Martlet was shocked that she had woken up at all. She wasn’t sure if it was more shocking that the human hadn’t killed her or that the machinery healing her actually worked!

The longer Martlet stayed awake, the clearer her thoughts became. Those thoughts gave her more and more anxiety, and eventually boredom. She had to do something, if not to stop the human, then at least to see Clover!

The clinic door burst open as Axis sped in, holding Clover in his arms. He was followed by his children, one holding a trash can lid, the other Clover’s hat.

Wait- no no no! That wasn’t what Martlet meant at all!

Axis laid Clover on the moldy bed beside Martlet. The pillow at the top dissolved into a fine powder as soon as Clover's head was placed on it. As the cloud settled, Martlet saw the nub that was Clover’s arm, and the yellow dust leaking from it.

It took all of Martlet’s focus not to jolt up and rush over to Clover. Instead, she continued to lie down and breathe deeply.

The Axislings stood beside Clover’s bed, gazing up with worry in their eyes. Axisa carefully placed Clover’s hat on his bedside table, next to a concerned golden flower.

Calmly, Martlet asked, “Is Clover going to be okay? His arm…”

“HE WILL LIVE,” Axis replied. “AS FOR HIS ARM, WE’LL SEE. I’VE ANALYZED HIS PHYSIOLOGY AND THINK I CAN HELP HIM.”

Flowey made his presence on the bedside table known by clearing his throat. “Ahem! How in the world do you plan to do that?”

“I HAVE TO GET SOME STUFF FIRST, BUT I’LL BE BACK IN A BIT. BYE.” With that, Axis wheeled out of the room.

Flowey blinked. With a shake of his head, the flora shrugged off the oddity. He turned to Clover and asked, “So, pal, you feeling okay?”

“N—Not really,” Clover croaked.

“Not sure what else I expected,” Flowey admitted.

Clover asked, “Is M—Martlet here?”

Flowey glanced over to the other bed. “Yep, she’s awake and staring at you. If I had to guess, she’s also trying hard not to think about you because she’s anxious.”

“It’s not working very well,” Martlet complained. “Wait a minute, stop talking about me like I can’t hear you!”

Axis 2.0 piped up, “Oh, [attention] blue bird!” The robot rolled over to Martlet’s bed.

Martlet raised an eyebrow and very slowly, very carefully sat up. “What is it?”

Axis 2.0 tried to lift himself up so he could see Martlet better. “What did you [require] to talk to Dad about earlier?”

“It was about if I didn’t get better,” Martlet explained. ”But I’m already feeling pretty good, so it’s nothing. Got that?”

“I guess…" With that, Axis 2.0 let go and dropped back to the ground.

Flowey raised an eyebrow and looked into Martlet’s eyes. She was ignoring him, but he noticed that her expression had relief mixed in with her worry. She was hiding something… and Flowey could’ve sworn this seemed familiar somehow.

Axisa rolled over and asked, “(!)?” She pointed at Martlet as she spoke.

“Huh, you’re right. I think I’ve heard the name Martlet before too,” Axis 2.0 replied.

Axis 2.0 clambered back upwards to see Martlet again. “Hey, do you [have familiarity with] Chujin?”

“Uh, yeah,” Martlet hastily replied, caught off guard.

“Wow! Could you [inquire] sometime why he’s never come back to visit?” Axis 2.0 asked. “Dad always speaks [tenderly] about him.

Before Martlet had time to process the question, Axis burst back into the room with a bar of gravity granola and a syringe filled with a blue liquid.

“FLOWER, YOU WANTED ME TO EXPLAIN THIS, RIGHT?” Axis confirmed.

“Yeah, there’s no way a simple healing item can restore that much flesh and bone! Even if he was a monster, the healing would be way too slow,” Flowey argued.

“YEP.” Axis rolled over to Clover’s side. “CAN YOU EAT THIS, CLOVER?”

Clover nodded and grabbed the bar, shoving it down his throat.

Slowly, yellow mist formed around where Clover’s arm should have been.

“CALCULATING…” Axis muttered. “THAT WON’T BE ENOUGH. DRINK THIS H2O.”

Axis handed Clover a bottle of water, which he gulped down. More mist began to form.

”Where’s that explanation, Axis?” Flowey asked. “Cuz I’m lost.”

Axis explained, “SO, UH, I’VE GOT NO CLUE WHY, BUT CLOVER’S BODY IS MADE OF MAGIC, LIKE MONSTERS. SO THIS WILL HEAL HIM JUST LIKE IT WOULD FOR A MONSTER.”

Flowey, Clover, and Martlet stared at Axis in shocked disbelief.

“ANYWAY, SO THAT WOULD STILL BE TOO SLOW, BUT THIS SUBSTANCE WILL BE ABLE TO STABILIZE THE MAGIC AND TURN IT INTO AN ARM. DON’T WORRY, I CONSULTED EXPERT RESEARCH FOR THIS.”

“Because this exact thing has happened before?” Flowey skeptically replied.

“NO, BUT IT’S CLOSE ENOUGH.”

Without another word, Axis injected Clover. Slowly, the mist turned into goo and started bubbling.

“WELL, NOW CLOVER SHOULD BE FINE,” Axis insisted, “AND SO I NEED TO ORGANIZE THE TROOPS IN AN ATTACK. FLOWER, PLEASE WATCH MY KIDS. BYE.”

Without another word, Axis sped away.

Flowey pursed his not-lips. “Putting me in charge of the children is… an interesting choice.”

Flowey looked at Clover and Martlet, each confined in hospital beds.

“I mean, it makes perfect sense, but that doesn’t make it not strange,” the flora clarified.

With that said, Flowey looked back at Clover, his eyes locking onto his arm. Everyone in the room stared at his arm as it bubbled and warped.

“Looking at Clover’s [appendage] has every sign of being hypnotic,” Axis 2.0 noted.

“I dunno about that, boltbrain,” Flowey complained. “Cuz I’m flat out bored.”

“?” Axisa asked.

Flowey blinked. “Sorry, still no clue what you said. Can you translate, Axis… was it 2.0?”

“[Correct],” Axis 2.0 replied. “Axisa was asking if you [desired] to do something about your boredom.”

“I do!” Flowey exclaimed. “Since I’m babysitting, how about you guys join me as I check out this hall?”

“~!” Axisa exclaimed.

“Yeah!” Axis 2.0 agreed.

Flowey smirked with satisfaction. “Great! Let’s go!”

“You’re sure, Flowey?” Clover asked, tearing his eyes away from his arm.

“Sorry pal, but you seem occupied, and this is drop dead boring!” Flowey replied.

“But isn’t this exactly what nearly got you killed a couple minutes ago? Isn’t that curiosity the same thing that…" Clover trailed off and looked back at his arm.

Flowey cringed and looked at his rightmost petal, sliced clean off of him. “You know what? I’ll check the cameras to make sure Frisk is far away first.”

“Good luck,” Martlet added.

Not wasting another moment, Flowey popped into the ground.

The Axislings rolled around the room mindlessly as they waited. Axis 2.0 quickly set down the trash can lid next to Clover, then went back to waiting.

After a moment, Flowey popped out of the ground next to the door. “Coast is clear. Come on.”

Quickly, Flowey led the Axislings down the hall, which was lined with door after door that seemed to never end. Each time they passed a door, Flowey briefly popped in, but each time he reappeared with more dejection.

“I can’t believe all of these classified science thingies are so boring…” the flora muttered.

Axisa pointed. “?;”

Following her finger, Flowey noticed a door that was cracked open.

“Ooh, suspicious!” Flowey exclaimed before popping into the ground to investigate.

Axisa and Axis 2.0 quickly followed, speeding into the room. They saw Flowey, staring forward with his mouth agape.

The Axislings, confused, looked at what was ahead and froze as they saw a massive machine towering in front of them. It had several segments connected, the center of which being a glass cylinder filled with a navy blue liquid. On the bottom were pipes draining the liquid to various machines that had a variety of features including buttons, switches, and pipes releasing steam. Each of these machines also had a pipe gushing the blue liquid back into the center machine. As Flowey and the Axislings stared, they could swear that the central cylinder was slowly filling up.

“What is this?” Flowey muttered.

Axisa noticed tread marks and followed them to an opening in the machine in which there were several syringes, all filled with the same blue liquid. One of the spots for a syringe was strangely empty.

Axis 2.0 noticed a machine with an access panel and several monitors. He dashed over and inspected the panel, eventually determining that the panel was operable only through an Axis model exclusive cord.

His curiosity piqued, Axis 2.0 plugged in and started rummaging through the files inside the machine’s mainframe. He found a multitude of operating instructions, along with a few research logs and a “pitch to Asgore.” Axis 2.0 began to download all the files to his hard drive.

As he skimmed through the first file, Axis 2.0 froze. He looked at each file in immediate succession, but the top of each digital page was the same confirmation.

“Hey, what’s on that computer?” Flowey asked. “Does it say what this is?”

“The machine… it’s been [constructed] by… Chujin,” Axis 2.0 muttered in disbelief.

“Uh… okay, but that’s not what I asked,” Flowey replied.

Axis 2.0 wheeled closer, putting his hand on the machine, as if to will another connection between it and himself, greater and deeper than a mere cord. This thing, it was a product of their father’s creator, a subject which Axis 2.0 had always been dying to know more about. Finally, there was something more, another link to him, but one that had only given him more questions. Yet, now, the answers to all of them were within his hard drive.

“Can you at least tell me the thing’s name?!” Flowey demanded, seething at being ignored.

Half-heartedly, barely acknowledging that a question was asked, Axis 2.0 produced an answer from the files within him. “It’s [referred to as] The Determination Duplicator.”

“Oh,” the flora mouthed. He looked up at the machine and the liquid as it continued to pile up within.

Plant and machine stared at the machine with twin intrigue, shock, and amazement. Questions flooded both minds as they took in the grandeur of Chujin’s secret creation.

Chapter Text

Shouts and screams rang out, growing louder even as they became more distant. As Shamrock rounded corners he tried to outrun the noise, but it echoed off every surface; it echoed inside his ears.

As Shamrock continued to run, he noticed plaques that detailed something strange. He glanced at them and caught several words from each as he fled. “Fallen down; determination; injected; alive; melting; amalgamate; mistake.”

Shamrock couldn’t help but be reminded of the pamphlet he’d found in Ceroba’s trash can in his previous life; the one asking for fallen down monsters to be sent to this lab. Kanako being here and her form melting completed the disturbing story conjured in Shamrock’s mind.

“At least they have their souls,” he muttered to himself.

Shamrock realized that the noises of shouts and screams were completely gone, replaced by something else. A low rumbling, and a sliding, slithering sound alongside it.

Hesitantly, Shamrock rounded the next corner and was suddenly face-to-face with… something indescribable. He supposed that face-to-mouth was a more apt way to describe it, as this thing seemed to be little more than that propped on some sludge stand.

Gulping, Shamrock tried to check the thing, but he couldn’t find any stats. All he could gleam was the name of this thing: Lemon Bread.

The low rumbling slid up in pitch and volume until it was a booming snarl. Then, Lemon Bread’s teeth separated and a high-pitched scream rang out, forcing Shamrock to cover his ears as Lemon Bread lunged forward, gaping maw opened wide.

Shamrock leapt back and spun on his heel, then sprinted away. His breath quickened as he tried to get as far from the amalgamate as he could, the shrieking continuing as it followed Shamrock, who grit his teeth to withstand the pain of his ringing ears.

As he kept running, Shamrock realized Lemon Bread was catching up. It was so close that he practically could smell the thing’s rotten breath. Shamrock desperately looked around for any escape, only then spotting a door to his left. Shamrock picked up the pace and ran towards the door, opened it, and slipped in.

Shamrock slammed the door shut and leaned against it, panting. That chase was… too much. His feet nearly gave out as the door shook. Lemon Bread was banging against it, trying to break it down.

Desperate, Shamrock glanced around once more for anything that had a chance of barricading the door in his stead. He saw it; a steel bar just out of reach. Shamrock jumped over and quickly fastened the steel bar to the door, then took a step back. As the door continued to be raptured, the bar held strong.

Shamrock let out a deep breath he didn’t know he had been holding. After all this time, the sensation of breathing felt surreal.***

That thing that chased him… That was an Amalgamate, just as described on those plaques, wasn’t it? Horrifying, grotesque… and terribly tragic. That thing was made from a dozen monsters, all mindlessly attacking. The thing couldn’t even form a coherent word! It was almost like it was undead… and for that reason, it had Shamrock’s sympathy.

Lemon Bread’s pounding on the door continued to wail, but it became so repetitive and rhythmic, it was easy to tune out. And with the noise out of Shamrock’s mind, he was able to focus on what was around the room.

While the half near the door was featureless, the other half of this room had plenty of worn-down, rusted antiques, along with a high-quality shotgun hung upon the wall. His interest piqued, Shamrock walked over and ran his hand over the gun. It seemed to be in rather good condition, though he hadn’t gotten his hands on this kind of gun before, so he couldn’t be quite certain.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Shamrock noticed another plaque and decided to read it:

“Diary Entry 3.5: So maybe this doesn’t have to do with my job so I shouldn’t be putting this here and taking up space in my lab, but isn’t this stuff so cool? Today, I found the coolest thing in the garbage dump: a real human shotgun! Oh, I should get back to my job before Asgore notices…”

A real human gun… Shamrock took it off the wall and whistled in appreciation. There was little he could respect more than this. A moment later, Shamrock conceded that he had nothing to use the shotgun for, so he placed it back on the wall.

With nothing else to do, Shamrock felt forced to reflect on the minutes before this; on why he was running in the first place, before he saw Lemon Bread.

Shamrock saw an image in his mind of Moray, shocked and clutching their shoulder, but dust leaking out regardless. He felt the cold steel of his revolver in his hand and remembered the kick when he pulled the trigger. It was less brutal, less murderous than other memories, but more recent and more real than them.

That was unjust. He knew it somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind. There was next to no justification and it was simply something a paragon of justice shouldn’t do.

On that note, should Shamrock have really shot Ceroba? She had used him, but that expression from Starlo… that was panic; desperation. Starlo was shocked and horrified by the sheer injustice of that attack. Then, Starlo didn’t acknowledge Shamrock, nor the other way around, as if there was no bond between them at all.

That was a terrible thing! He had worked so hard to keep that friendship through tumultuous times, but now, Shamrock tore it apart and here he was, sitting in this dark room, hiding and alone.

Starlo shot his revolver at Clover. He was already betrayed and tied in place. Clover felt a hole in his center where Starlo had just killed him. Starlo clearly had no respect for their bond, so Clover had none either. Clover shot and shot and reloaded and shot again until Starlo’s dust scattered on the wind.

Had that been justified? No! But Starlo didn’t have to be justified. He wasn’t supposed to be a Paragon of Justice. But that was the one thing Clover held himself to across every single timeline. That was the one central truth Clover needed. But Shamrock wasn’t Clover. Clover was dead and Shamrock was destroying each memory of that person.

Shamrock leaned against the wall, hand on his forehead. He felt himself shiver, shake, tremble. He’d torn apart everything gifted to him through Clover’s memory. Now, he was alone again, just like he had been under that blossoming tree.

Only, could Shamrock ever be alone? No! There was always one person: His eternal companion. His “best friend.”

Shamrock stood tall and chuckled morosely, slapping himself in the face for his own idiocy. This was the entire reason he’d run away, the entire reason he’d fled from his friends.

“Flowey! I’m alone now. You can come out,” Shamrock called.

Shamrock waited, his eyes on the ground in the middle of the room. Nothing appeared there. Looking around, Shamrock didn’t see Flowey anywhere else either.

“How about you just say something?” Shamrock urged.

He opened his ears, but couldn’t hear the plant. He could only hear the ringing in his ears and the thumping of his heart.

“Fine!” Shamrock stomped the ground. “So you want to hide. Be like that! Just… please. Please please load a previous save.”

There was no response.

Shamrock unholstered his toy gun and aimed it frantically around the room. “Flowey, are you listening to me?!”

No response. Again.

“Heh. So you’re playing hard to get, now are you?” Shamrock lowered his weapon and smiled wide. “Come on, just come out and say hi!”

Nothing.

“I said COME OUT.” Shamrock pulled the trigger.

There was nothing but a chip in the floor that smoke piled out of.

Shamrock trembled and grit his teeth. He put his weapon to his chin. “C- Come on, Flowey. I’m not afraid to do it. I can force your hand. You don’t have to make this messy.”

Silence. Just ringing in his ears, daring him to do it.

Shamrock holstered his weapon and looked at the ground. Tears dropped to the ground and puddled together.

Flowey wasn’t here. Shamrock was alone.

Flowey wasn’t here. He didn’t control Shamrock’s fate.

Flowey wasn’t here. Shamrock’s fate was in his own hands.

A cackle erupted from deep in Shamrock’s lungs. It cascaded out, tearing up his throat as this revelation bubbled up from the deepest recesses of his mind.

A gift! His fate was his own. It was a horrid, lonely fate, but it belonged to him for the first time.

And deep within Shamrock’s empty core where his soul should’ve been, he finally grappled with the truth binding him together. There was no guilt down there. He didn’t regret shooting Ceroba or Moray; not really.

His pain came from fear. The thought of being alone permeated his being, filling him with terror. But those people, the ones he shot, they didn’t make him feel anything and they had no value to him. Someone soulless and sensible like him couldn’t care.

A muffled roar filled the room. Then, the grinding of metal.

Shamrock turned to the door. It was torn off its hinges and bent around the iron bar by a giant mouth. Then, the mouth twisted and snapped up the whole door, leaving a gaping hole in the wall for Lemon Bread to slither in through.

Shamrock asked himself a question: Did Shamrock care? Did he care about this thing’s past or the harm he could cause it? No. Did he care about the harm that it would do to him? Yes. Shamrock wouldn’t lie down and take any more of this pain.

He grabbed the shotgun off of the wall and blasted Lemon Bread, who reared up and roared in pain. It lunged for Shamrock, who sidestepped and pressed the weapon against Lemon Bread’s melted form before pulling the trigger again.

Lemon Bread reared back and snarled. Beady eyes formed on the thing’s head and shot beams at Shamrock, who swerved around them and got right next to Lemon Bread.

He shot. Then shot again. Lemon Bread cried out and stumbled back, but Shamrock didn’t let up. He fired again and again, pumping Lemon Bread full of lead.

The amalgamate started dripping its own mass onto the floor. It melted down into a slimy puddle. Shamrock slammed his foot into that puddle and it slunk back out of the door, out of sight.

Shamrock let out a deep breath, then took a deep breath inwards. It was gone and he felt better than ever. He was still empty, but there was a thin line of satisfaction strung inside his core.

“Clo- Uh, I mean, Shamrock! Shamrock!” someone called.

Shamrock aimed his shotgun at the door. Who would dare follow him out here?

As the owner of the voice walked into the door, their eyes caught on the shotgun and widened. Shamrock quickly put down his weapon and stared.

“H- Hello, Shamrock,” Dalv said. “Can I come in?”

Shamrock nodded quietly.

Dalv scurried into the room and took a look around. After a moment, he disregarded everything else and kneeled down in front of Shamrock.

“Shamrock, are you okay?”

He looked Dalv in the eyes. “I don’t think I can answer that.”

Dalv put a hand on Shamrock’s shoulder. “It’s fine. You don’t have to. I just… was worried about you. You panicked and ran off and- and it looked like something was wrong, like you were in pain, and- and… We’re friends. So, I thought I should help you feel better, like you did for me - before, when I was alone. That’s what friends do, right?”

A spark of warmth. A feeble, flittering thing, really, but it was some small light inside his empty core.

Shamrock flung his arms around Dalv.

Dalv’s mouth gaped open. “Shamrock?”

“Thank you,” he muttered.

Dalv forced his mouth shut into a smile and wrapped his arms around Shamrock.

At that moment, Shamrock wasn’t alone. There was someone next to him - someone who hadn’t let him die and someone whose care was genuine.

Tears dripped onto Dalv’s shoulder, taking all the moisture from Shamrock and leaving him dry. Dry like under the blossoming tree when his blood ran out.

For the first time since he woke up, Shamrock was glad he wasn’t dead. If there was some value in this life that his idiotic soul chose to abandon, he wouldn’t be so stupid.

How long would he last?

Shamrock still didn’t have his soul, so how long could he last before he dried out and died again, thoughts stopping as he became nothing but a corpse?

He thought back to the vial that was sticking out of him when he woke up. That thing had awakened him.

Shamrock pulled himself away from Dalv.

“Oh, are you feeling better?” the vampire asked.

“Have you seen any vials in this lab?” Shamrock demanded.

Dalv pursed his lips in thought. “I think, perhaps?”

“Show them to me,” Shamrock demanded.

Dalv stared. He then hastily reminded himself that Shamrock was his friend. They were supposed to help each other. He had to trust Shamrock.

“Come on,” Dalv said before turning and walking out. Shamrock picked up the shotgun and trailed the vampire - the person he might even consider his friend.

“Here we are,” Dalv stated. With how long the vampire had been in this lab, it had mostly lost its terror, but something about this room still felt off. It had fridges and fans, blowing some sort of wispy cloud around.

Shamrock wordlessly wandered past Dalv into the room. He searched through the fridges and then snatched something. He must’ve found the vials he was looking for.

Dalv walked over to Shamrock and looked at what he grabbed. He was not surprised that it was a vial of some liquid substance, but he was surprised by how many were there. Shamrock had grabbed a few dozen vials that were cyan, orange, blue, purple, and green.

Shamrock slid to the ground, back against the fridge. Dalv hesitantly slid down beside him.

“What are you planning to do with those?” he asked.

Shamrock pulled out one vial and stared at the needle. “Dalv, don’t watch. Please.”

Dalv furrowed his eyebrows.

“Shamrock?” Dalv muttered.

“Trust me, please,” he replied.

Dalv opened his mouth to reply, but all words left him as he saw Shamrock slam the needle into his arm. Dalv’s mouth gaped open as he watched Shamrock shove another and another in. Dalv turned away, leaving Shamrock to himself as requested.

Shamrock kept going, putting more and more needles in until he couldn’t see his arm. He couldn’t feel it either. It was too numb from the pain of so many needles. Shamrock used his good arm to put more needles into his body, pumping determination into his leg. Then, his other leg. When those were covered and numb too, Shamrock started stabbing his side.

The pain wasn’t just in those points of injection. It coursed through his body, flowing in his veins. It felt like it would tear him apart, but Shamrock knew that this was the same thing that was just barely keeping him together. Yet the pain overflowed him. He could see it as he looked at his hand and saw his veins colorful and bulging, ready to pop.

And as that pain took over, Shamrock’s hand went limp.

Panic coursed through Clover’s veins, flushing out the remnants of life that once flowed. He tried to lift his left arm, but it didn’t move. He tried to clench his fist, but he couldn’t move. He tried to wiggle his toes, but they were still. He tried to shed tears, but his eyes were dry.

Shamrock couldn’t uselessly slump here again. He couldn’t go dry and stop thinking, not while there was still more determination in those vials.

“Dalv, please. Finish this. Give me the rest of those vials,” Shamrock croaked out.

The vampire walked back and looked at Shamrock. He put his hands in front of his mouth and his eyes widened. “Don’t you have enough?”

“N- No. I need to have more of this. I can’t die again. Please, friend,” Shamrock pleaded.

Dalv closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was committed to helping his friend, wasn’t he?

He finished it, injecting all of the vials that were left into his friend. Now only an empty bag lay at his feet.

Shamrock had already passed out; Dalv could only assume it was from the pain. Dalv sighed and pulled out each empty vial from his friend. There was something he wasn’t saying; a new pain behind those eyes.

Dalv sat down next to his friend and wrapped an arm around him. Dalv could only hope Shamrock would feel better with those vials in him and a friend nearby.