"How could you?! You betrayed me! I trusted you with my life! How could you?!"

"..."

I had barely even opened my eyes to take in the all-too-familiar view of the throne room when I lashed out in anger. The rush of determination still flooded my system from the reset, and the extra boost fueled my emotions of raw hatred. In a matter of seconds, I had lain waste to the garden around me in a blind rage. I found myself panting, head drooped low to stare at the tiled ground. The bleary edges of my vision revealed broken remains of stems and petals scattered all around me. I didn't care. I hated them anyway.

Slowly, the surge of power ebbed, but I found that I didn't want it to. With a wordless yell, I stoked my determination again and everything flashed to white. Just like that, the flowers in the throne room were restored to perfect health. I destroyed them again.

Emotions stormed through me as I killed the flowers, reset, and killed them again time after time. I could feel the anger surge through me and transform into the physical power with which I lashed out. Wave after wave of magic burst from the pool of emotions deep inside my core. Finally, after what felt like hours of senseless slaughter, my anger eased enough that I was able to regain control of myself. As the heat of hatred drained from me, I was left feeling cold. Numb.

Why? Why had they betrayed me? I had been trying to help them, and they had turned on me. It wasn't just that trash bag of a skeleton either, it was all of them. The whole Underground. I had done nothing wrong, and they killed me for it. Undyne, Alphys, Sans, the whole lot of them.

Suddenly, a wave of hopelessness washed over me. What was I supposed to do now? I frowned bitterly at one of the golden flowers growing beside me. Just seconds before, that flower had been nothing but stubble. Nothing I had done previously mattered. Everything I had accomplished as a flower had been erased. There was nothing I could do.

I could feel thick tears roll down my face and the flower blurred into splotches of colors. "It's not fair," I whispered hoarsely. "It just isn't fair." I took a shuddering breath and sank a few inches into the soil, letting despair fill the void of my soul.

"Chara!" I wailed, whipping my head back and calling with my might. "Chara! Oh God. What am I supposed to do? Oh, Chara. Please." My voice trailed off into the faint echo left by the reverberating hall. "Please come back," I mumbled.

But, of course, nobody came. Chara was dead. No one would come to my aid. No one would help. No one cared.

"Why does this always happen to me? Why is it that every time I try to do the right thing, all I end up doing is getting hurt?"

I wandered around the Underground aimlessly for an embarrassing amount of time. I didn't know what to do, but I also didn't feel like standing still. Part of the problem was that I found that I suddenly had no motivation to do much of anything. The only thing that kept me from crumbling into dust was the fear of dying. I didn't want to die, and that alone seemed to be enough.

Eventually, I found myself in Waterfall staring into the waters at my wavering reflection. Through the ripples of the current, I could see the form of a sorrowful golden flower staring into space. I chose to look past it at the rocks below the surface of the water. Faintly, I thought back to the time when Chara and I had been sitting on this very bank throwing rocks into the water, talking about our latest schemes, and planning for our next adventures.

My thoughts were interrupted by a faint melody echoing somewhere upriver. I blinked in surprise, though my mind instantly connected the song with the river person. It had felt like forever since I had even seen the cloaked monster, which was odd considering how many resets I had been through since then. I scowled. Not that those resets even mattered anymore.

I thought about retreating to be left alone with my thoughts, but some part of me was longing for company. I watched stoically as the sleek, narrow boat came into view, the river person standing high on it with a long oar dipped into the water. "Tra la la, the angel has fallen to death and decay. When will he be reborn? Tra la la, tho monsters may see the clear light of the day, no one will know his true form." The river person's voice rose and fell, but my mind was too preoccupied to pay much attention to the lyrics. I only numbly noticed when the boat scraped to a halt beside me and the river person turned to look at me. Oddly enough, the mast of the boat also turned in my direction. The movement shocked me out of my reverie and I jumped a little as the mast leaned down to get a closer look, the wood carved into the shape of some animal. Was the boat another monster? I could have sworn it was just a plain old boat every other time I had seen it, but enough time had passed since then that I abruptly found myself doubting my own memory.

"Tra la la. Good midday to you, friend," the river person said in their usual sing-song voice. I frowned as I stared at the empty eyes of the boat monster before shaking my head and pointedly ignoring it, directing my gaze back to the cloaked figure riding on top. The river person took my silence as an opportunity to continue talking. "I like to ride in my boat. Would you care to join me?" I didn't say anything, but I glanced around the cavern briefly before tentatively climbing aboard, keenly aware that the boat was watching my every movement. The moment I was sitting behind the river person, the boat turned straight forward again and shoved away from the rocky shore. "Then we're off."

The boat ride was strangely relaxing. My unease from the living boat quickly vanished as the familiar feeling of floating down the river calmed me. I found that I didn't really care where the river person decided to take me today, even if we ended up circling the underground for the rest of eternity. "Tra la la, this river has finally reached its end, another to take up the flow. Tra la la, when will our prison be opened again? The souls of the fallen will show." Although the lyrics of the song were just as bizarre as always, they seemed to be less silly than usual, and the melody sounded almost sad. I found myself intently listening to the words this time, anything to take my mind off of my own emotions. As always, the lyrics seemed to nag at me like I was missing something important about them. I puzzled it out in my mind as I listened, my eyes absently tracing the pattern of light dancing on the cave ceiling.

"Tra la la, look above through the rock to the skies. Tra la la, soon they will fall, the lost in disguise. Tra la la, the two will be united again. Tra la la, will they be foe? Or will they be friend?"

"Tra la la, perhaps it is time for you to decide. Tra la la, will you or won't you free us this time?"

What? What'd he mean, "this time?" I'd tried to free everyone countless times! It wasn't possible. I grit my teeth in annoyance. Not that the song was talking about me. If I had a guess, it was something to do with the mythical angel prophecy, that stupid fairy tale someone made up to give the monsters hope. Or something.

Rocks ground against wood and I blinked, not expecting the trip to end so quickly. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at the river person, but the cloaked figure didn't even look at me, merely staring off into space. The sudden silence was haunting, and I stepped off the boat feeling more than a little bit unnerved. "Come again sometime," the river person hummed in a low voice. I stood and watched as the boat floated away, a little more perturbed than I had been before the boat ride. Yet another weird encounter from the river person. Great.

I decided to focus on where I had been dropped off and found that I was in another location in Waterfall, though I didn't recognize the area. The path looked mostly worn and unused, and I guessed that not many monsters made their way through these tunnels. I sighed in irritation, frustrated that I had been dumped off in the middle of nowhere, but decided to follow the trail. I hadn't gone very far when something caught my eye. At first, I thought it was a monster, but as I approached it, I noticed that it wasn't living. It was a stone carving made to look like a monster.

I frowned. I had never seen this statue before, and looking at it closer, I found that it vaguely resembled my father. Some of the features were worn away, probably because there was water continually dripping from the ceiling and onto the stone, but the horns coming from its head were too similar to my father's to be anything else. After a while of looking the statue over, I noticed that there were a few words engraved on the base of the statue. I scanned over them, blinked, then reread them to make sure I hadn't imagined them.

"In Memory of Asriel and Chara Dreemer."

There was also a date inscribed beside it, though the stone had broken away enough that I could no longer read it. Somehow I knew that the date inscribed was the day I had died. Finally, the tears came. I shuddered as sadness overrode the emptiness I had been feeling since I had reset. There was no reason to cry, and I found myself inwardly chiding myself for my weakness, but I couldn't stop the tears.

A disturbing thought came to me. My father had gone through the trouble to have this statue made, and yet for some reason it was sitting all alone in the middle of a random, abandoned tunnel in Waterfall. Clearly, he hadn't cared enough to ensure that it got a proper place. The thought stoked my anger aflame again, and I allowed that thought to cut through my stupid crying. This time, the anger burned low in me, not enough to fling me into a pointless rage, but enough that I could push past the depression.

Everyone had betrayed me. But that was no reason to give up and stop trying. Strangely, seeing the statue that had been constructed as a memorial of my death filled me with determination. I found myself once again determined to break the barrier. Not that these stupid monsters deserved freedom, but simply to prove them all wrong. They were busy looking for a dumb angel to come and save them but were too stupid to do anything about it themselves. Not this time. I would do it. No matter what. It was better than rotting away into nothing.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. For everything."

"No you're not."

I was more than a little bit annoyed with myself that the first person I gravitated towards was Papyrus. Of all the traitors in the Underground, Papyrus was the only one who hadn't actively turned against me. He was the only person I could trust. The annoying part of it was that I knew that the only reason he hadn't turned on me was because he was far too stupid to accomplish such a feat.

After staring at the forgotten statue, I had to wander around the twisted corridors of Waterfall for an annoyingly long period of time in order to get my bearings again. Once I was back to familiar tunnels, I made my way back to Snowdin. I stopped by Undyne's house briefly, thinking that Papyrus might still be there hanging out with the crazy fish lady, but the skeleton was long gone by that point. Luckily, I spotted Papyrus running down the path between Waterfall and Snowdin where the air currents constantly whipped the snow up into blinding flurries.

As I neared him, I found myself hesitating. What was I supposed to say to him? What was I even going to do? I shook the questions aside. If I wavered now, then so did my determination. This was no time for stupid questions. I plowed ahead and popped up in front of the skeleton, scanning the area to make sure there weren't any other monsters in view. I didn't want to see any of them.

Papyrus didn't slow as he approached and I began to worry that he wouldn't stop, but just before I got stepped on, he slid to a halt and pointed dramatically at me. "Yellow!" he exclaimed. I blinked. What in the world? I opened my mouth, perplexed by his strange reaction, but Papyrus wasn't even looking at me anymore. He had his head tilted with his eyes closed, and he held a waggling index finger up before him. "Thought you could catch me off guard, did you? Well, I, the Great Papyrus, am never surprised! Even if there is a yellow flower growing in the snow that was not there this morning! Nyeh heh heh!."

I blinked, thoroughly confused. "What," I blurted.

"Yeeek!" Papyrus screeched, jumping away comically. "W-wowie! It's a talking flower!" He recovered quickly from his surprise, leaning forward as if to get a better look at me. I narrowed my eyes, trying to give him my best dead-pan expression. I had forgotten just how much of an idiot this guy was. However, I also didn't want to simply blow him off. Papyrus had become my main connection with anyone in the Underground. I didn't really have anything in particular to say to him, but I figured that I might as well be nice about it.

Besides, he could prove to be useful. Papyrus was incredibly easy to manipulate, so if he considered me to be his friend, I could call on him any time I needed something done. I broke out into a sudden, huge smile. "Howdy, Papyrus!"

He gasped, sparkles suddenly lighting up his eyes. "It knows my name!" he said. "Wowie! Does this mean I'm..." He paused, bringing a gloved hand to his jaw. "Popular?!" The skeleton appeared to be overjoyed at this prospect. I frowned, wondering if I had ever gotten such a reaction from him before. I didn't think I had, but I couldn't actually remember anymore. The skeleton abruptly regained his composure and cleared his throat, letting his voice drop to a regular pitch. "Nyeh heh heh! No doubt you've heard about me in hearsay. For truly, I am very great."

I shook off my frown, bringing back my fake grin. "Of course I've heard about you," I cooed. "You're The Great Papyrus! Everyone knows you're training under the direction of Undyne herself! Why, I'd say you're the best monster in this whole stupid Underground!"

I found that my heart really wasn't in it. Papyrus didn't seem to notice. He clasped his hands together and stared at me with a goofy expression, eye sockets sparkling. I chuckled to myself. Easiest person to manipulate ever. Papyrus shook himself again, trying and failing to not look like a complete idiot.

"Obviously, you are correct!" He said with only the tiniest hint of an awkward cough. "Now, how may I help you, my little flowery friend?" I continued to smile at him in false innocence.

"Oh, you don't have to do anything for me, Papyrus. I just wanted to say hi to you. That's all." I honestly wasn't sure what Papyrus could even do for me. He wasn't exactly any more capable of breaking the barrier than I was. I just wanted him on my side in case I did think of something he could do. My explanation to him seemed hollow, though. Just saying hi? Really?

Papyrus, fool as he was, smiled at me as if there was nothing weird about my reasoning. "Well, hello, then!" He said enthusiastically. I didn't really know how to respond to that.

"Um. Hello," I said instinctively. Papyrus nodded in approval.

"Consider it done! We have said hello! Now, onward to more great things!" He began to stroll down the path, clothes rippling in the wind and snow until I could barely see him anymore. I blinked, unsure if I was supposed to follow him or not. I simply gazed after him until swirling snow was the only thing I could see. With a shake of my head, I dove below ground.

Only then did Papyrus return with a gloved hand rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Erm. That was meant as a friendly gesture for you to come with me." He stopped when he reached the spot where I had previously been. "Hm?" he muttered, confused. "I could have sworn there had been a talking flower here moments ago! Aha! Some trickery of my imagination, no doubt!"

Despite his words, I could see him scanning the area, trying to search for me. Strangely, he did seem troubled by my disappearance. But what was I supposed to do? Pop up and say, "Oh, sorry about that, I thought you were leaving?"

After searching for a few moments, the skeleton made his way back home, still looking worried. I glanced to the side, feeling awkward. Well, that happened.

"..."

I spent a long time doing a lot of nothing. Nothing but watch. I watched people live their lives, and that was the extent of all I cared to do. I watched Undyne and Alphys' hopeless excuse for a relationship, watched Mettaton slowly transform Hotland to his whims and pleasure, watched my mother waste away in the ruins, and all the while I found that I just didn't care anymore. I hated all of them. What I did care about was an opportunity. If there was ever a moment that lent itself to helping me break the barrier, I wanted to be there for it. So I watched.

I tried talking with Papyrus a few more times, but found that I really didn't have much to say. Most of my conversations turned out to be similar to the first one: awkward and brief. I also had to find times when he wasn't with anyone, especially his trashy brother, and since Papyrus constantly went in and out of town, it was pretty rare that I found any good opportunities to speak with him.

At one point, I went back to the spooky machine in the lab under Alphys's house, but the computer didn't say much about how it worked or what it even did. There was no trace of those blueprints I had watched Sans take away previously, which was a little odd considering that I had reset. Who knew exactly where that jerk had even found the dumb things. It probably didn't matter anyway since I doubted that I could even use it. What was I going to do with a determination extracting machine? Extract my own determination? Then I would die. Brilliant.

On some days, I wasn't even sure why I kept going. Something about letting myself die just felt wrong to me, though. There was this huge unknown as to what would happen if I died. I had never really taken much thought to it before, but at least when I was still a goat, I had the reassurance that monsters would inhabit the thing they loved the most in life if their dust was scattered there. Well, I was now inhabiting a flower and I didn't have a soul. What would happen if I died again? Would I just cease to exist?

The thought was unnerving, but I found my mind wandering back to that topic time and time again. Sometimes it seemed like the only reason to keep going was simply because I was afraid of what would happen if I stopped. Apparently, that was all I needed.

I lost track of how much time slipped away. Probably months. I would wake up each morning, wander around until I found something interesting to look at, watch the idiots for the small amount of entertainment they had to offer, then somehow drift asleep when the day was over. Any semblance of a life I might have once had was gone.

Most of my time was spent below the surface. I was so tired of interacting with people. There wasn't much point to it anyway. I decided that I didn't really want to talk to anyone. Anyone but Papyrus, anyway. Although I visited him less frequently, I still held on to that link to reality, even if it was a stupid one. At the very least, he proved to be the most entertaining person to follow around.

I was both getting sick of the monotonous days as well as getting used to them. Monsters didn't matter anymore. Time didn't matter anymore. The only thing that really mattered was that I was going to break that barrier one way or another, and with every passing day, even that became less and less of a motivation. I simply was, and that was that.

"I think Mom and Dad would be proud of us. I know, we didn't save everyone like we planned, but at least we tried. That's what matters in the end, right?"

"U-Undyne!" Alphys called somewhere above me. I was a bit surprised to hear the scientist since it was rare that she ventured forth from her lab. Where was I, anyway? I hadn't been paying attention. I found that I tended to wander aimlessly underground a lot. Sometimes it took me a while to even find the caverns above if I drifted too far beneath the ground, lost somewhere in the void of the earth. Hearing the pathetic lizard girl snapped me out of my reverie and I looked around to gauge where I was. It looked like somewhere in Waterfall, maybe by the garbage dump. That would explain why Alphys was there.

"Alphys!" Undyne's voice responded fondly. Movement caught my eye, allowing me to spot the fish lady as she bounded over to where Alphys was peeking her head nervously around the corner. The lizard let out a squeak and a blush seeing her would-be lover leap towards her, and she ducked backwards out of view. "Hey, I've been waiting for you for forever! What took you?" Undyne asked as she neared her friend, a giant smile on her face.

I shook my head and grunted to myself. Nothing but a bunch of losers being gooey and friendship-y together. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything better to do, so out of habit, I watched them and listened in on their conversation. Eavesdropping had become my main source of entertainment nowadays.

Alphys shuffled forward, eyes glued to the ground to the left of her foot. "I-I-I'm s-sorry, Undyne. For, uh, being late I mean. Um. Something happened in the, er, s-something, uh, desperately needed my attention." Her eyes kept flicking back and forth as she tried to make excuses for what had kept her from coming sooner. From her evasiveness, I could only guess that one of the amalgamates had been causing trouble in the true lab. Either that or she had been binge-watching a show and lost track of time.

Undyne slapped Alphys on the back, making the smaller woman jump. "No worries! I'm sure it was important, whatever it was! So! What's the plan today?" That stupid grin never faded from the fish's lips. I could almost gag.

Alphys especially made me sick. I had stumbled into her talking to herself one day as she was pretending to be talking to Undyne. She had been so gushy, it was disgusting, and some of the things she implied... Ugh. Nasty. More than one occasion of observing the doctor when she thought she was alone made me conclude that her attraction to Undyne was more of an obsession in a gross sort of a way than any actual genuine love. It was kind of like her obsession with those cartoon thingies she watched, but somehow creepier because Undyne was a real person. Looking at the lizard now, I could see her blushing and sweating at various intervals, and I wished that I didn't know why.

Alphys glanced down awkwardly. "A-actually, I was kinda hoping to... Er. Well... See, there's this thing that I think would be cool... But, uh, I mean, you don't have to if... if... you don't want to..."

"What's that?" Undyne asked eagerly, encouraging her friend to spit out what she had in mind.

"Well, I was kinda thinking it would be neat to, uh, m-make costumes and stuff. For, like, the h-human history s-stuff I've been showing you." By this point, her cheeks were bright red and she looked about ready to turn and sprint down the corridor. I rolled my eyes. Who would actually believe that those stupid cartoons were human history?

Undyne, however, seemed to soak in the lies like a sponge. "Costumes of human history?" She instantly grinned at her friend. "Sounds awesome!" Then she got goo-goo-eyed and stared off dreamily into space. "Can I have one of those swords? Like, one of the huge ones?"

This made Alphys perk back up, seeing that Undyne wasn't as utterly appalled by her suggestion as I was. "Y-yeah, of course we can!" she said, picking up speed. "In fact, I know just the outfit for you!" I grimaced. I'm sure she did. Undyne, however, beamed at the prospect. Then she frowned with a look of contemplation. "What's wrong?" Alphys asked, suddenly nervous again.

"Hm. It's just that I don't know what to have you wear," she mused. Alphys turned a few shades redder.

"O-oh. Um, I w-was thinking of going as, uh, Mew Mew Kissy-Cutie," Alphys mumbled. "But, uh, i-if you wanted to, er..." Her expression shifted to a mixture of horror and desire. "dress me up as something?"

Undyne nodded solidly with a menacing grin, obviously not noting how contorted Alphys's face was. "Of course! You're picking something for me to wear, so it's only appropriate that I find something for you to wear!" Alphys said nothing and just stood there looking like a strangled cat. Undyne softened her smile to be more of a comforting one. "It'll be cute. I promise!"

"O-o-of course! Everything you wear is c-cute!" Her expression, however, did not improve.

Ugh. I hated these idiots. I shook my head in disgust. I had once thought that I could root for them to have a good relationship, but they were just so awful together. They were too dumb to see that of course, which made it all the worse.

"Hmm. Yeah! This sounds like a ton of fun! Think I could invite a few people to it?" Undyne asked. Alphys jumped again.

"I-i-invite?! What's there to, uh, b-be invited to?" She looked very uncomfortable at the idea of bringing more people into this.

"Why, a costume party, of course! What else would we be making costumes for?" Undyne's grin shifted into a more devious expression again and she began tapping her webbed fingers together as though she were plotting something. "Besides, humans have a day where they dress up as monsters once a year, right?"

"It's called Halloween," Alphys mumbled, mostly to herself.

"Yeah, whatever. That. It's only fair then that we get to have a day where we dress up as humans! Fuhuhuhu! It's a perfect revenge!"

I shook my head again. This was utterly ridiculous, but it might be fun to watch. And if more people were there, it was less likely that the outfit Alphys chose for Undyne would be questionable.

"W-w-ait!" Alphys called. "Does it really have to be, uh, I mean, a-a-are you really going to invite p-people?" She looked extremely uncomfortable, glancing around nervously as though checking to see that no one else could hear the conversation. I chuckled to myself. She couldn't see me, and I was listening to every word.

The fish lady ignored Alphys, caught up in her own musings. She remained silent, gazing off into space with a strange smirk on her face.

"I mean, n-not that I mind you having... friends," Alphys said shakily, "But, uh, hrm. D-do you really have to invite people? I thought this was just going to be between the t-two of us." Her mutterings tapered off into a sort of squeaky whine. It only made her look even more pathetic. She clearly was not comfortable with the idea of other people being there.

Undyne looked up as though she only just then realized that Alphys had been talking to her. "Hmm? Of course there have to be people! We can't have a party with just two people! C'mon, it'll be fun!" She grinned at her friend in what was supposed to be a reassuring way. Alphys did not look convinced.

The conversation continued, but I had mostly lost interest. Undyne continued making plans with Alphys for the costumes, ignoring the lizard's obvious discomfort at having other people coming over. The more the fish talked about the creation of the costumes rather than the event she was planning, however, the more Alphys relaxed, easing into her own ideas for what to make and how to make it. I left them while they were still talking. I had an idea for something I could mess with.

"Asriel, I'm not sure if you noticed, but we failed. End of story. There's nothing for Mom and Dad to be proud of. They didn't even know we were going to try to break the barrier, and now we're dying. We're dead. Because of you."

"Hey, Papyrus!" I called, poking my head above the snow. The skeleton looked up from his snowman army he was in the process of building and quickly located me.

"Ah, hello my little flowery friend!" he replied, a grin quickly spreading across his face. He pulled himself up from where he had been kneeling next to a sculpture that appeared to be in the act of throwing a snowball at another snowman. Once standing, he brushed off his shorts which were labeled "Extra cool" today.

I shivered a little. Somehow, Papyrus's shorts and T-shirt were doing nothing but emphasizing just how frigid it was in the snow. Extra cool indeed. I sort of envied the skeleton's resistance to cold. "Come to see my masterpiece, have you?" Papyrus asked, placing his hands on his hips.

It was actually kind of impressive. Papyrus may be dumb as a rock, but he did have some interesting skills. Though he probably only got good at building stuff in the snow because of how much time he spent by himself in the forests of Snowdin with nothing to do. There were at least fifteen intricate snowmen in various action poses locked in the middle of a snowball fight.

I gave the snow sculptures an appraising look, nodding as I gazed around the field. "This looks great, Papyrus!" I stated. Not that there was any point to the scene, and it would probably be torn down at some point to be made into a puzzle, but it did look pretty decent.

Papyrus nodded solidly, looking proud of himself. "Of course it is!" he proclaimed. "It was built by none other than the Master Snow Sculptor Papyrus!" His bout of bravado over, he gazed wistfully into the distance. "Ah, if only others could view and admire the beauty of my work. Then they might know of the craftsmanship of the Great Papyrus!"

I chuckled to myself. "Then why don't you build this closer to town where people can actually see it?" I asked bluntly. Idiot.

The skeleton stomped his foot in abrupt anger. "Every time I try to build something great in a place where people can see it, my worthless brother comes by and has to wreck it by making it into some sort of pun!" He grumbled to himself for a moment. I rolled my eyes. Go figure.

"Anyway, I wanted to tell you something," I said, changing the topic. "I heard that Undyne is planning on throwing a party sometime soon." Papyrus cocked his head. I went on. "A costume party. You should go! Just think of how many people will be able to admire an outfit that you make!" I chuckled. Papyrus was bound to make something utterly ridiculous, and for that reason alone, I wanted to see it happen, if only so I could laugh at him.

The skeleton had a look of contemplation on his face for a moment. "Wowie!" He said, a little more subdued than normal. Then he straightened, posing in a self-confident stance. "Nyeh heh heh! The whole Underground will know of the awesome coolness of the Great Papyrus! What a fantastic idea, little flower!" He glanced down at me, a huge grin on his face. "So when is this party thing?" he asked, voice still bold.

And why would he expect me to know that? Moron. Hadn't I just told him that Undyne was still planning the dumb thing? I grinned at him, trying to hide my sudden irritation. "I'm sure Undyne will let you know more details."

"Hmm..." Papyrus mused. "Yes, of course! Undyne is bound to invite me! After all, I am the Great Papyrus! There's no way she'd purposely leave me out of a big event such as this!"

I kept the grin on my face, but I knew Papyrus well enough to know that his last statement meant that he was worried that Undyne wouldn't actually invite him. That was a good point. The stupid fish lady was probably dumb enough to think that excluding Papyrus from the party would help him in some way. She was probably concerned that he would embarrass himself in front of everyone or something. I mean, that was a legitimate concern, but Papyrus would do that anyway, invited or not.

"Now, what costume should I make?" Papyrus muttered to himself, his eyes looking almost as devious as Undyne's had been. I couldn't stand the cold anymore. Since the skeleton was distracted anyway, I retreated back into the warmth of the ground. Time to kick back and watch the show.

"I... I don't know what to do, Chara..."

"There's nothing that can be done, Asriel."

This was more stupid than I had initially thought it would be, and that was saying something. Stupid for Alphys to have come up with the idea, stupid for Undyne to be insisting on turning it into a party, stupid for me to have gotten involved. I grit my teeth as I watched Papyrus proudly present his intent to make a costume to his brother.

Normally, I did everything in my power to stay away from Sans, even when I was safely underneath the ground, but Papyrus was the only one I cared to follow around. It would figure that the dumb skeleton would go to his stinking brother about this, though. Ugh. I had just assumed that Papyrus would have at least talked to Undyne about it first, but oh no. He had to talk to the smelly trash bag first. For that reason alone, I was abruptly in a bad mood.

"So what're you planning on making?" Sans asked, lying back along their ugly, beat-up couch with his arms tucked behind his head. Papyrus stood in the kitchen, hands on his hips, gazing around as though trying to find inspiration from the walls.

"I don't know!" he proclaimed.

Sans shrugged a little. "Well, whatever you make, I'm sure it'll be pretty cool."

"Of course it will be cool! I'm just not sure what that coolness will be just yet."

The taller skeleton began pacing, rubbing his chin in thought. After circling for a bit, he wandered upstairs and went into his room. I sighed in annoyance since I couldn't follow him up there. Instead, I eyed Sans, looking for any sign of him knowing I was there. Thankfully, he didn't even open his eyes. He did, however, pull out a ketchup bottle from somewhere in his jacket, pop the lid, then proceed to chug the thing. Yuck.

Papyrus burst out of his door only a short while later with an, "Aha!" He barreled down the stairs and held forth a small object in his hand. I squinted at it, trying to make out the details. It looked like some sort of action figure. "I shall wear this robot's costume!"

"Might be hard to fit in," Sans said causally, tossing the empty ketchup bottle behind the couch with an off-hand motion. "Looks a bit small."

"No, no, no! Not the actual outfit he's wearing! You know better! I will make my costume to look like this one, but big enough to fit me! And cooler!" He settled back on his heels, looking over the tiny figurine. "I will add my own personal flair to it, of course. I can't make it exactly like this one. That would by copyright!" He continued to scan the small robot, his hand covering the thing so I couldn't see what it looked like properly.

Sans shuffled into a sitting position, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "How'd you hear about this party thing, anyway?" He asked abruptly. "I haven't heard anything about it, and you don't have training with Undyne til Thursday."

I grimaced, suddenly on edge. Papyrus, however, beamed. "Let's just say a little flower told it to me!" Sans looked bemused.

"An echo flower? You heard it from an echo flower?"

"No!" Papyrus exclaimed, flushing. "It is a very special talking flower!"

Sans chuckled, eyes closing again. "Whatever, Paps. I was just curious."

Relief flooded through me. Papyrus had the decency to make it sound like he was defending himself, which in turn made him look guilty of lying. My identity was safe for now.

"So how are you planning on makin' it?" Sans asked with a yawn, stretching out his feet and reclining back. Papyrus didn't respond, one hand holding the robot while the other scratched at his jaw. After a moment of silence, the shorter skeleton opened one eye to look at his brother. "Need any help?"

"Help?" Papyrus abruptly placed his hands on his hips dramatically. "The great Papyrus does not need any help!" Sans shrugged before meeting Papyrus's gaze with a raised eyebrow, not saying anything. It was brief, but that seemed to make Papyrus change his mind. "Well... I will need resources," he muttered. "Something metal, about yea big." He gestured with his hands towards his torso. "And another one about yea big." He motioned to his pelvis.

Sans cocked his head. "Isn't metal going to be super heavy? It's just a costume."

"But it's a ROBOT costume!" Papyrus explained, sounding exasperated.

"You know you can make other things look like metal, right?" Sans said, voice flat. "Like, uh, what about those weird basketball things you wear sometimes? Couldn't you, I dunno, paint those white or something?"

"Sans, I do not have a wearable basketball big enough to wear around my chest!" He gestured wildly to his torso again. Sans shrugged.

"You never know. Don't worry, I'll find ya somethin'."

Despite this, he made no immediate movements. Papyrus went back to admiring his robot action figure, bending its little arms and legs into various poses and smiling to himself. Finally, Sans pulled himself to his feet and headed for the door. "Welp, guess I'd better get back to work," he mumbled, then vanished outside.

I waited a minute, just in case he decided to come back. When he didn't return, I popped up through the floor. "Howdy, Papyrus!" I exclaimed as cheerily as I could. The skeleton blinked before glancing down at me. He grinned when he saw me.

"Well, hello there! Welcome to my humble abode! I was not expecting company! Oh, you just missed my brother. I was hoping to introduce you two!"

"What a shame," I stated.

"Anyhoo, what can I do for you?" he asked, not seeming to have heard my dry remark. I withheld a grimace. I hated it when he asked me that.

"Um... I wanted to see what you're planning on doing for your costume!"

"Ah! I see, I see! Wanting to get a taste of the awesomeness of the Great Papyrus! Well, I'm no keeper of secrets! Behold!" He brought his action figure front and forward. Looking at it closely, it looked pretty dumb. Why did Papyrus have such a stupid thing like this?

"That'll look pretty neat when it's done," I lied.

"Hm. Yes, I should think so. After all, it will be my special outfit!" He looked way too pleased by the prospect. I had to smile at how childish and stupid he was. This was way too easy.

It was then that I noticed just how bored I was of him. Papyrus was entirely predictable. Yes, he said some of the weirdest things sometimes, but otherwise, I could guess what he was going to do before he even did it. There was no fun, no surprise. Even manipulating him had become boring. Maybe that was why I was so upset. Messing with Papyrus no longer had the same appeal it once had.

"Golly, that's neat. I can't wait to see it when it's finished." The lies spilled from my mouth easily enough, but I felt hollow inside. I gave Papyrus a half-hearted grin before diving below the ground again. The skeleton started, letting out a strange squawk as I left, but I didn't care. I glanced up just long enough to see the sad expression on his face.

"Oh. Well, goodbye then, little friend."

I continued to hang around underneath Papyrus's house, but I found that I wasn't paying any particular attention to the skeleton above me. I had lost interest. Unfortunately, I didn't know where else to go, so I stayed put. A few hours passed before Sans returned with an armful of garbage that Papyrus eagerly pounced on. I vaguely watched him work on his stupid costume, but didn't put my full attention on it. This party thing was pointless.

I had brief thoughts of attempting to sabotage the event, but what would that accomplish? It wasn't getting me any closer to breaking the barrier. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything that was getting me any closer to that goal. It had been months. Months of nothing. Even with my determination to break the barrier, there was a part of me that seriously doubted that I would ever get to that point.

"No. You're wrong. There is always something that can be done. Things will work out. You'll see, Chara. I'll prove it to you."

Undyne looked deflated as she stood outside the laboratory door. It was somewhat comical seeing her dressed head to toe in an outfit more befitting a little girl. I had overheard the term "Warrior Princess" used to describe it, but the bright pink, very feminine kimono with a giant bow tied in the back was an odd look for Undyne, even if it did come with a giant sword. The fish lady read and reread the piece of paper that had been haphazardly slapped to the door, her lip curled in a grimace.

Between the odd angle and the horrible handwriting, I couldn't actually read what the note said, but I had a number of guesses. "What does she mean, 'something came up,'" Undyne growled. "We were working together on these costumes just yesterday! What could possibly come up that's more important than this party? We've been planning this forever!" She stopped, knuckling her forehead. "No, it's ok. She's probably got something important she needs to work on. She wouldn't have canceled if it wasn't important."

I knew from checking that Alphys wasn't doing anything at all, just huddling over her security system and gnawing on her claws as she watched Undyne from the safety of her lab. It would figure that I hadn't even needed to sabotage the event for it to go wrong. Of course Alphys would bail. She was still high-strung from the constant letters she kept getting from the families of the amalgamates. I chuckled a bit over Undyne muttering to herself.

In the weeks leading up to the day of the party I had already been able to tell that Alphys wasn't actually planning on going. While she was perfectly happy making costumes with Undyne from whatever scraps they could find in the dumpster, going out in public was definitely not Alphys's kind of thing. Especially when she feared people finding out the truth about what happened to all those monsters that still hadn't come home. Undyne had doomed the party just by inviting people.

Of course, it wasn't like Undyne had invited a huge ton of people. The only ones there were Asgore, the skeleton brothers, and a few members from the royal guard like 01 and 02. Asgore had clearly not gotten the memo of what counted as a costume and had simply put on a name tag that said, "Hello, my name is Not Asgore" with his otherwise usual attire. Sans hadn't even bothered wearing a costume, though he had helped Papyrus with making his. I only knew that because I had watched the two of them. Currently, all the party guests were back at Undyne's house. Undyne had only left to investigate why Alphys never showed up.

It was kind of sad, really. The fish lady had put quite a lot of work into making this party thing, and she had done so specifically with Alphys in mind, but because of her cowardice, Alphys had ruined it all. Undyne was clearly disappointed. She continued to stand outside of the laboratory at a loss for what to do. Monsters were such silly creatures, always trying to find the best in others even when others could never live up to those expectations. It seemed funny to me that Undyne was the bravest monster in the underground, but the woman she had a crush on was the complete opposite. How stupid could you get?

I watched the rest of the party, but like everything else in the underground, it wasn't really that interesting. I only faintly paid attention to what was going on. Before I knew it, the party was over. Three whole weeks of buildup and the thing was over in the blink of an eye.

I found myself back to aimlessly wandering the hallways with no goal or purpose in mind, the spark of determination only faintly pulsing in me. Perhaps nothing good would ever come again. Maybe it was better to drop into emptiness. After all, I was somewhat already there.

"I don't know how, but we're going to make it, you and I. We'll stick together, no matter what, and we will find a way to get past all of this. It's what we do. We survive."

I had to shake myself out of the depression again. It took me a few days, but I did it. I couldn't let that destroy me. Not yet. There was still a barrier, and somehow I would find a way to break it. It was that drive that led me to the ruins. I figured that while Toriel was waiting for a human to fall down so she could "save" them, I could be one step ahead of her. Apparently six humans had already been dumb enough to fall down this stupid hole, maybe one day another would come. I couldn't get the six souls from Asgore, but I only needed one in order to get past the barrier and grab whatever souls I needed from up there.

Coming back to the place where I had first met Chara felt odd to me. In some ways, it felt a little nostalgic seeing the sunlight filtering down and dancing over the cave floor. The golden flowers that grew there were a lot like the ones back in the throne room, but somehow they seemed more at peace here. I sat and watched until my mind numbed. I wasn't sure how long I was there for. A few days at least. With the sunlight running its normal cycle above, I could at least tell when it was day or night, but I didn't care enough to note exactly how many times the cycle went.

A sharp snap brought my attention back into focus. I immediately looked up and caught sight of movement as a humanoid shadow started to fall. What luck! For an instant, it almost seemed like I was watching Chara again. I shook my head. No. This wasn't Chara. This was some other dumb human. A dumb human that was about to die. They crashed to the ground with a muffled sound, petals and leaves breaking beneath them to soften the blow.

No! This was not Chara! Chara was dead! But even as the human moaned and rolled over, it looked so much like her... I shook my head forcefully. And then, as the figure slowly stood up, I could see the differences. It was almost a relief. No, it really wasn't Chara. Similar, perhaps, but not the same. I grinned from where I sat under the rocks, determination flooding through me. Maybe it was fate that drew me down here or sheer dumb luck, but somehow I was there right when I needed to be. This was it! I would finally do it! I would finally break the barrier this time!

Suddenly in a cheerful mood, I popped up out of the ground a little ways down the path and waited for the human to stagger towards me. I had to be crafty about this. I probably couldn't outright slaughter them, but maybe if I caught them by surprise...

I put on my best innocent smile.

"We'll do it together."

"Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!

End

Author note: Sorry for taking so long to finish the story. I know it's long overdue. Life happened. No really, I went to college, got married, started my own business, etc etc. There's been a lot of stuff that's happened and FloweyTale had to take a huge backseat to it all. I appreciate your patience and understanding. Thank you so much for reading FloweyTale! I really wanted to write this mostly because I feel like Flowey is often misunderstood. I see a lot of stuff that makes Flowey seem like an alternate personality that took over Asriel, but I wanted to show that Flowey really is Asriel and vice versa. To me, that makes Asriel a much deeper character, someone who's gone through so much and is still able to find his compassion and apologize at the end of everything. Through writing this, I grew a much deeper understanding and appreciation for all of the characters, not just Flowey himself. It's just funny to love the characters and force myself to write from the perspective of someone who hates them all. Sans in particular was fun to write because he's my favorite character and Flowey's least favorite character. If the ending seems abrupt, that's because it is. I spent a long time writing and re-writing bits of this chapter without knowing how to best end it. I finally got to the point where I just needed to make an end and call it done. I didn't want to venture forth into the rest of Undertale because I didn't want to undermine the genius that is the original game. All I can say is that I hope you enjoyed the story!