No, please, I won't do it ever again, you win, I w-won't get in your way anymore! I can help you, I can be helpful, I can... I can... ...please don't kill me..!"

The room faded in and out. Chara stood over Flowey, bloodied by thorns and bullets and fiery magic and everything else he had thrown at them, six rebellious human SOULs revolving in the dark like colorful planets. No hint of kindness or mercy shone through their glassy eyes.

They lowered their knife.

"As...ri...el..."

Flowey thought about leaving the RUINS, sometimes, just to see what would happen if he called Alphys' bluff. They were so small once you got used to them.

When he could no longer pretend that Chara was going to come to save him, when he realized that he had no way of knowing if they were dead (their SAVE file was overwritten, he refused to believe that Undyne's Determination could be greater than theirs, and their past behavior didn't exactly inspire optimism) and that even if they were alive, he had betrayed them, attacked them, given them no reason to trust him or want him nearby, when he imagined them living a long and happy life on the surface without him, having forgotten that he even existed—he considered a different method of "leaving".

It seemed like the final logical step, letting Alphys self-destruct in peace, free of his pointless existence. But he could never bring himself to do it. He didn't know why not. The petals Undyne had crushed were only just beginning to heal when he came down with an infection—some weird Amalgamate germs, maybe, or a parasite in the soil that Asgore could have identified—that he just couldn't shake off, which left his roots rotting into soggy mush and seemed like a clear message from the universe that it was time to quit.

Call it spite, then. Flowey never liked being told what to do. He excised the dying roots as best he could, then planted himself in the sunlight and slept. His petals stayed wilted, refusing to mend, and new roots didn't grow in to replace the old. He never healed quite right. But he didn't die.

The RUINS were so small.

Flowey had too much pride to seek out Napstablook for companionship, and if he did happen to approach the ghost, just or the hell of it, they would vanish before he could get two words out. Alphys installed more surveillance cameras to replace the ones Flowey had destroyed, which gave him a perfect outlet for his frustration, but she gave up replacing them even sooner than he'd expected. He savored his petty victory for half a day before the silence in the RUINS left him numb and empty. Even emptier than normal.

Out of habit, the way a dog might dig up a bone and gnaw it and bury it again, he wondered why Chara left. Sometimes. Not so often as he used to. Whatever their motivations were, the end result was the same.

They were never coming back.

A familiar sight. The same beginning to the same story, cycling back around: a human child, scratched and bruised by their fall into the RUINS.

Less familiar was the sight of two human children.

One was busy pawing around through a backpack, so it was the other human that saw Flowey first. They grabbed for the other human and pointed, gasping a name, but before he could commit that bit of information to memory, the second human was pointing a long-barreled gun and pointed it at his face.

Flowey saw his own eyes reflected in the metal. He stared back at himself, phantom pains tingling through limbs he didn't possess anymore. He'd seen weapons like this one before. Once.

The first human shoved the gun down, pointing it into the dirt. Flowey ducked underground and came back up against the wall, as far away as he could get.

"What's your problem?" the second human demanded, smacking their companion's hand away.

"What's YOUR problem?! You can't attack a flower, that's so STUPID."

"It has a face. Normal flowers don't have faces."

"So? If we found a unicorn, would you try and kill that, too? Look, you scared it." Flowey flinched back as the human crouched over him, and instantly hated himself for it. "Awww, he's cute!" they squealed in delight, switching over to a hideous baby voice. "Hi, cuuuuutie! Don't be scared, it's only a widdle BB gun."

"Don't tell it that," the second human groused. "And don't get so close to that thing."

"If you kill him, I'll kill YOU. He's cute."

"It's creepy."

The first human frowned and sat back on their heels, allowing Flowey a chance for a proper look at them. They were familiar enough to catch his attention, but their skin was a little too dark, their reddish hair was a little too light, and their mannerisms were wildly wrong. The second human had an oversized army jacket that did far less to camouflage them than their hair, pale blond and long enough to sweep over the tops of their flowers. Even without the hair, Flowey already knew they couldn't be Chara, because Chara would never tolerate another human's presence. Unless they were bringing one in the form of a SOUL. A nice little apology gift for Flowey, like an absentee parent trying to buy back their kid's love with a shiny new toy.

"You think it'll bite my face off? You're not gonna do that, little flower, right?" asked the first human. Blessedly, they'd dropped the baby talk. "Can you talk? Do you have a name? Why are your petals all messed up? You're a golden flower, like those other ones, aren't you? Those are REAL golden flowers, aren't they?"

Embarrassingly, Flowey could only stare at them, his mouth hanging open a little. Once, he would've seen these noisy humans as gifts, two powerful SOULs falling straight through the barrier and onto his (figurative) lap, but that was when he had a SAVE file, when he was strong. Now... he was just as pitiful as his faded, wilting petals must have made him look. Alphys didn't even need her mutant bodyguard to keep him away. In a fight against two humans, one of which carried a deadly weapon, he had no chance whatsoever.

No chance... in a fight.

Humans needed to sleep, just as much as monsters.

Flowey made a show of drooping. He hadn't spoken to another person in a long, long time, but all his runs through the Underground had given him plenty of experience in steering conversation down more helpful paths, it was practically muscle memory. "Oh, gosh, I hope we haven't already gotten off on the wrong foot. I didn't mean to startle you, but it's just been so long since ANY humans have fallen down here," he said, perking up. "What are your names? I'm Flowey the flower, and I'm just SO happy to meet you!"

"Aww! We're—"

"Stop telling it things!"

"Ugh, you're being crappy."

Flowey waited for the blond human to fire back, until he figured that the disgruntled silence was their answer. "You two must be so confused. It's easy to forget... this place is called the Underground. It's inhabited by monsters—"

"See, I told you. Get away from it!"

"No, silly, I already told YOU. I'm a FLOWER," Flowey corrected.

"Flowers don't have faces, and they don't talk."

Flowey smiled patiently. "Maybe not on the surface, but this is the Underground!"

"That's stupid."

"Let him finish!"

"How do you know it's a 'him'?"

"You said 'he', too!"

"Did not."

"YEAH!"

Good grief. Would Flowey have to hear this constant chatter once he'd absorbed their SOULs? He couldn't afford to be picky, but it was a nightmarish thought. "As I was saying... you may not realize this, but you're incredibly lucky to be HERE. The last time there was a human..."

Flowey's forced smile dropped away as realization set in, so incredibly obvious that he couldn't believe how stupid he'd been. He'd spent so much time worrying and wondering about Chara's fate, and right here were two beings from their world. Chara always found humans detestable, but the others in their village knew they existed, all those years ago, hadn't they?

"Saaay." He leaned in closer on his stem. "Have either of you seen my friend, Chara?"

Blondie and Rain Boots looked blankly at each other.

"'Chara'..?"

"Nope, never heard of them. What do they look like?"

"They..." Flowey lapsed into silence, his smile fading. What color was Chara's sweater? What color were their eyes? The face he remembered from their childhood was all scrambled together with the face they had stolen from someone else, an unlucky human with a stick and a bandaged knee. They looked like a human. "They... have brown hair, and light brown skin. They might still have some scars. They like striped sweaters, and they have a heart-shaped gold locket."

"Brown hair, light brown skin..." the first human glanced to their friend, scratching the back of their neck. "That's half the kids in our class, pretty much. Don't you remember anything specific?"

"Fine, forget THAT part," Flowey said, a little desperate. "Their name is Chara Dreemurr, and they're a kid like you, and they DESPISE humans. If you met them, you would KNOW. You just WOULD."

"Um. Then I guess we haven't. I definitely haven't."

"You're friends with a misanthrope?"

"They hate humans, not flowers," Flowey explained, which didn't stop the second human from eyeing him suspiciously. He cleared his... well, he made a throat-clearing sound. "ANYWAY, what I mean is... I like humans. I'd like to help you, if... it's all right with you both."

"Don't worry, little guy, we aren't gonna do anything bad to you. They were just SURPRISED, is all." The first human shot their friend a look.

Flowey beamed. "Of course! Gosh, you're both really smart to be so cautious. This place, the Underground, it's... well, why don't you follow me? I'll explain everything while I guide you through the catacombs."

Chara had already solved all the puzzles necessary for progression, and Alphys, in her infinite queenly wisdom, never bothered to recalibrate them, so the journey through the RUINS was nothing more than a long walk. The humans strolled along in no special hurry, Flowey following at their heels. The first human was wearing yellow rain boots, bright as crayons, but the soles turned steadily grayer as they tromped obliviously through the dust scattered all over the ground.

"This place, the RUINS, is completely abandoned. That's a good thing for us, because the rest of the Underground is inhabited by deadly monsters with magic powers, and they all hunger for human SOULs. If a monster were to absorb just one SOUL, it would gain terrible power, and two... brrr!" Flowey gave a theatrical shudder for emphasis.

"Two, as in... us," said Blondie.

"Yes, exactly. There's no guessing what their queen, Alphys, would do if SHE got her claws on more SOULs. Nothing good, I imagine. She despises any creature that isn't one of her own kind... she banished me here and vowed to have me killed if I ever attempted to escape. it could be worse... exile is better than being abducted and turned into one of her 'experiments'."

"Like a science experiment?" asked Rain Boots.

"Yes, exactly. When she was just the royal scientist, Alphys extracted a substance from human SOULs and injected it into the bodies of comatose monsters, mutating them into hideous, deathless abominations. After Chara rescued the SOULs and escaped to the surface, Alphys usurped the throne and used her remaining power to resurrect her best friend, a monster named Undyne. But it went hideously wrong. You see, when a monster returns from the dead, their SOUL doesn't come back with them. Without their SOUL, they can feel no love or compassion."

Rain Boots frowned, kicking at a few stray leaves.

"Undyne was never a NICE person, even as far as monsters are concerned, but now she's become a walking nightmare. She murdered the queen's other friend, then tried to kill ME, just for the sadistic joy of it. She would happily kill again if the queen didn't keep her on such a tight leash, which, well... there's no predicting how long THAT will list. Undyne hates human even more than Alphys does, if you can believe it."

"Her friend... that's sorta sad, actually," said Rain Boots.

"It's WHAT?"

"Not even the worst person can be COMPLETELY bad a hundred percent of the time, even if they try. Alphys did something good, for once, to help her friend... I'd maybe do the same thing, if I was her... but she messed it up. Even if they're both rotten people, that's depressing."

"Trust me. You would NOT think that way if you met them."

"I don't feel any pity for evil monsters that steal people's SOULs, even for a 'good' reason. I wouldn't want to you bring me back in that way, if I died. We would both go to hell," Blondie intoned.

"They're the bad guys. I know. I'm just SAYING."

"Well, don't do that."

"Don't do what, the stuff Alphys did? Darn, I was SO looking forward to turning you into an evil zombie. Not."

"You know what I meant."

"Yeah, so do you!"

"I haven't even gotten to the worst part, yet," Flowey said. "Not only is she violent AND invulnerable to attack, like most of the queen's creations, but Undyne has the power to alter time itself. Even if you COULD defeat her, she would simply undo her own death."

With wide-eyed innocence, Flowey allowed that cheery thought to linger in the air. For a long moment, both humans had nothing to say.

Finally, Blondie nodded, keeping up something close to a poker face. "We'll keep that in mind after we leave," they said.

"After you—huh? I JUST told you all those horrible things, and you STILL want to leave? You'll die!"

"We can't stay in this one place forever. Eventually, we'll have to move on."

"...I see."

Knowing what he did about humans, their reaction didn't shock Flowey. He wondered how these two would've handled all the Vegetoids and Froggits and the rest, if Chara hadn't gotten to all of them first.

The rest of the walk was quiet, and without any monsters to eradicate, puzzles to solve, or spider bake sales to support, they reached Toriel's house in a fraction of the time it had taken Chara. Rain Boots peeked in through the cracked window, shading their eyes from the diffuse, sourceless light that magically kept the Underground from complete darkness, while Blondie raised their fist to knock on the door.

"Oh, don't bother, you can go right in," said Flowey.

Blondie cocked their head, dropping their hand to rest idly on their gun. They were wearing black nail polish, though it had mostly chipped off. "Do you live here?"

"Not quite... but don't worry about it. The old lady who lived in this house has been gone for ages, and she won't be coming back."

Flowey gave his brightest, sunniest, look-I'm-just-a-sweet-little-flower smile, effective on most monsters and precisely half of all the skeletons he'd ever met. He wasn't so sure how Blondie liked it, but Rain Boots had no qualms about pushing past and letting themselves into the cute little house, at which point there was no choice but to follow (Flowey knew the feeling.)

Like the good friend that he was, he led them down to the where the stone door loomed, twice as tall as both humans combined and a hundred times heavier. Below the engraved Delta Rune was a small, simple keypad with chunky gray buttons, not so different from what you might find on an electronic safe, or some storage room deep in the Core.

"This WAS the way out, but ever since Chara escaped, it's been closed off," he explained. "The only person who knows the password is Alphys herself."

The humans made a perfunctory effort at pushing open the door until their feet skidded back. Blondie experimentally punched a random number into the keypad until it beeped at them and the screen cleared. They pressed more buttons. Another beep. They tried again, and the door magically opened, just for them!

...No, just kidding, they accomplished nothing. Great job, Blondie! Beep!

"This is the only way? Are you sure?" they asked.

"Yes, but that's a GOOD thing. As long as Alphys doesn't know you're here, you'll be perfectly safe. The other humans must be worried SICK about you two, right? I'm sure it won't take long at all for them to come looking for you, and until then, you can stay here. There's even a kid's room with two beds for you to sleep in, if you're tired. It's perfect!"

Even as he spoke, Flowey sensed he'd taken the wrong approach. The humans exchanged a look.

"Nobody's gonna find us here," said Rain Boots.

"If we stayed here, we'd starve. We have to keep going," added Blondie.

"And, plus... I wanna see the rest of the Underground, and real magic!"

"Magic is real, yes... but it's also INCREDIBLY dangerous. Even if you managed to escape from the RUINS, you would die. Undyne—"

Blondie interrupted. "We get it. You've already said that."

"Is Alphys super strong? If she came here and we surprised her, or something... or we just ran through before she could stop us..."

Flowey shook his head. "You really, REALLY would not want that to happen. Undyne is the greater threat, but Alphys could still EASILY destroy you both." There was a sentence he'd never expected to say with a straight face.

Predictably, Blondie shrugged off their backpack and unzipped it, and Rain Boots decided it was their turn to go press some random buttons. Humans were determined, and with that Determination came an amazing level of stubbornness. It didn't matter to him what they did, though; either they would tire themselves out with their pointless efforts and accept his suggestion of a cozy place to sleep, or else they would collapse from exhaustion. Both options perfectly suited his needs.

Flowey let out a long, long sigh. "If you don't want to heed my advice, I can't stop you," he said. "But... oh, gosh. I just hope that neither of you get hurt. You have no idea how dangerous this is."

Settled in the middle of the room, Blondie had claimed their friend's backpack and carefully spread out all of their belongings over the floor. Between the two, the humans had a ball of string, a set of toy binoculars, half a roll of duct tape, bug spray, candy bars, wadded candy wrappers, and pink safety scissors—all belonging to Rain Boots—plus a water bottle, a tiny first-aid kit, a dented old cigarette lighter, a folded pocket knife, and a canister of tiny metal marbles—all Blondie's. They also fished out a few gray coins and a wad of little papers from their pockets, dropping both onto the nearest empty spot on the stone.

Behind them, the keypad beeped. Whether Rain Boots was going sequentially or guessing at complete random, Flowey didn't even want to know. He leaned down to examine Blondie's slips of paper, which were all decorated with pictures of buildings and grotesque human faces. "What are you looking for?"

"This is a puzzle. Puzzles are meant to have a solution. I just need to find the right combination of items." Blondie absently swept their cornsilk hair away from their face. If they knelt down any lower, it would drag on the floor. Seemed like a ridiculous hassle. "Then... then we'll force the door open."

"Interesting."

Flowey let his mind wander. Chara... Chara was going to be so surprised when he found them. Still irritated, maybe, because he hadn't parted with them on such good terms. But he would apologize—grovel, if he really had to—and then they'd come around, like always. Chara was the smart one, so much more perceptive than the naïve little kid he'd once been, and they understood him better than anyone. Once they got over their anger, they would realize that he hadn't truly meant to hurt them, and they would choose forgiveness, because they hadn't meant to hurt him, either. They'd spared him. They never spared anybody, except for—there was Sans technically, plus a few merchants, but Sans was garbage and the others were unimportant—except for him. Their best friend. They'd left the Underground wearing that locket. Their locket. Best friends forever.

The keypad beeped.

"You'll drive yourself crazy trying to guess that code," said Blondie.

"Better than YOU doing something stupid and hurting yourself."

Hoping to head off another round of meaningless jabber, Flowey jumped back in. "What will you do, even if you manage to escape this place? Alphys and Undyne will kill you as soon as they know you're here... and then they'll take your SOULs. ASSUMING another monster doesn't kill you first."

Blondie thought for a minute.

"We may not have magic powers like theirs, but normal human beings can be strong, too. And besides," they added, with a dimpled half-smile, "Real adventures always have a 'final boss' at the end."

The delusion. The sheer. Blinding. Delusion. It was almost majestically disgusting, and that was the opinion of a creature who'd long ago abandoned any normal sense of morality. Chara had willingly followed him down that path, barely waiting for Toriel to turn her back before pouncing on those helpless Whimsuns and Froggits... but Flowey had no SOUL, and Chara only had one because they'd stolen it; these two humans had no excuse. Was this why Chara felt such hatred toward their own kind? They never did explain their reasoning in much detail, even on the day they showed him their old scars and told him their reason for climbing the mountain. He'd known better than to pry.

Coming back down to Earth, Flowey tried to scrounge up a coherent response. "According to the old legends, travelers who climb Mt. Ebott will disappear. That didn't seem CONCERNING?"

Beep.

"Take a break already, or you're going to drive me crazy," Blondie snapped.

Rain Boots made a face at them, but willingly turned away from the keypad. They tiptoed around all the junk and sat in the corner. "If you 'disappear,' you're not dead. It just means you went away somewhere, and nobody else knows where you went, is all," they said. "...Which is pretty much what we did, I guess."

Blondie flicked at the cigarette lighter, staring into the flame before snapping it shut.

"I dare you to set that number-lock-thing and see what happens," said Rain Boots.

"It doesn't look flammable."

"Shoot it?"

"It'll ricochet."

"Whatever." Rain Boots slid down until they were flat on the floor, their head propped up at an uncomfortable-looking angle. "Hey, Flowey," they said, voice muffled by the collar of their hoodie. "Did that old lady who lived upstairs have grandkids? You said there's a room for kids. Where did THEY go?"

Flowey looked up at the ceiling. "That room belonged to her children. They both died young. She never got over it." Not even in the runs where Flowey revealed his true identity. He'd assumed it was because she still grieved for Chara, a child she'd loved just as dearly as her biological son, but their reunion didn't leave her feeling very happy. Or... feeling. And now Rain Boots was practically rolling around in what was left of her dust like a chinchilla taking a sand-bath.

"Um. Yikes?"

"It happened a long time ago."

They pushed themselves up with one elbow. "How many dead people is that? There's those kids, plus the old lady, Alphys' friend... it's disturbing." They glanced at their friend. "Even if they're all evil monsters."

At some point, Blondie had taken it upon themselves to try their hand at the very fun and not at all annoying or futile pressing-random-buttons-until-they-beep quote-unquote puzzle. If Flowey had arms, he would've shrugged in reply, but instead he thought about what might happen if Blondie really did try shooting the door open. Probably nothing, sadly.

"What's so unusual? People die. That's how it is," he said.

Rain Boots laced their fingers over their belly and slid the rest of the way down. "I guess," they mumbled, eyes drifting shut.

Then they jolted upright, cracking the back of their head into the wall. A millisecond earlier or later—Flowey couldn't even tell—Blondie gasped and jumped back from the door, their gun bouncing against their hip. From beneath the floor came a low rumble, more vibration than sound; Flowey sensed it through his tattered roots before he heard it, and imagined both humans could feel it, too.

"What's that? What the heck did you DO?"

"I don't know, I barely touched it!"

With a steady whir from some unseen motor, the door slowly ground open. Blind panic flashed through Flowey like electricity, but no one was standing outside, no violent mob or mutated fish monsters. Only the forest path leading to Snowdin, unchanged by the passage of time.

The humans stared out, saucer-eyed. Tentatively, Blondie stepped out onto the path. "Is this real?" they breathed, raising their hands to catch the thin flurries of snowflakes that blew past. "It's... cold. Real cold. Real snow. How?"

Rain Boots scrambled up and after their fellow human, scooping up a fistful of snow and letting it crunch in their hands. "It's magic! Just like Flowey told us!"

A friendly smile stayed on his face as if the cold air had frozen it. No way, no way, there was no possible way that a human, especially some stupid little kid dressing up like they wanted to be a big tough soldier, could take a random guess and miraculously bypass an obstacle that should be insurmountable. Flowey was the only truly intelligent creature in the Underground, and even he had no idea what combination Alphys had been using. If he ever worked up the courage—or despair—to leave the RUINS, he could just burrow out, so there was never any point in messing around with Alphys' stupid little security...

...measure...

Crap. Crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap. "DAMN it," Flowey whispered to himself.

With his luck, Undyne might already be on her way. A fight against two humans was hopeless but a three-on-one fight would be even less fair, and he'd choose death over letting Alphys take those SOULs. Picking a fight was stupid, but stupidity was his only choice. That or certain death.

"Hey, w-wait!" he called out, planting himself as close to the edge of the path without technically leaving the RUINS. "What about all your stuff? If you truly want to leave, I can't stop you, but you should at LEAST be fully prepared."

The afterimage of a smile was bright in Blondie's eyes as they turned back. "Oh. That was stupid." Their expression slid back into a kid's attempt at stoicism as they motioned for Rain Boots to follow them back. "...Thank you."

They took up their backpacks and shoveled their belongings back inside. Flowey's thoughts were equally scrambled-around. He should attack while they were distracted, all he needed was a SOUL, either one of their SOULs, and then he could easily overpower the remaining human. Rain Boots looked smaller and weaker, easier to subdue, but then Blondie would be free to shoot at him. If he went for Blondie first, Rain Boots might not be as effective at defending their friend, but the struggle would be more prolonged, almost guaranteeing an injury he couldn't afford. Would it be better to grab one and cut his losses, even if it meant he couldn't cross the barrier... but what if the SOUL rebelled, why hadn't he considered that? If he was taking a gamble no matter what, then he should go for both, and that brought him right back around to step one. Which one? Which one, which one, which one?

"Flowey! Helloooo?"

"Wh-...what..?"

Rain Boots giggled. "You were off in space, there." They rolled up the ball of string and tossed it in their bag. "I asked what you're gonna do when we leave. You said you're only here 'cause you're scared of Alphys..."

"Are you about to suggest we take him along?" asked Blondie.

"Maaaybe."

Go with them? It was an idea worth considering. Humans were strong... just not strong enough to be more useful to Flowey than their SOULs. If not for Undyne, the equation might work out differently, but so would a lot of things.

And every passing second was wasted time. He had to just go for one, either one. And quick.

The next time Rain Boots glanced down at their bag, tangled bunches of vines shot up from the ground and coiled around them, snagging both wrists and curling around their face. The vines retracted, slamming them into the floor with a strained, muffled yelp.

"What was—" Blondie had the decency to freeze, staring uncomprehendingly at the ensnaring vines. Not so tough now, were they?

In the time it took Blondie to figure out what they were looking at, Flowey should have sent out more vines, but he'd already used up all that he had. No problem, vines weren't efficient at inflicting damage by themselves, even at full strength. Flowey pulled from his remaining energy reserves and summoned a miniature asterism of glowing magic bullets, only to spot Blondie making a grab for their gun. The attack swerved, changing targets midway through its flight, and Blondie was either completely taken off guard or else really bad at dodging, because it hit them square-on and sent them tumbling back onto their butt. Their SOUL flashed blue in their chest, and Flowey heard a faint crack. Damage—less than he'd expected—but that was better than shattering the thing, so it was fine.

While his attention was directed toward Blondie, he felt a strangely distant stab of pain, as if in a body part not quite connected to the rest of him. The vines retracted by reflex, or tried, because it was when they failed to move quite right that he realized he'd let them loosen enough for Rain Boots to bite down like a squirrel. Flowey couldn't afford to lose much more health before he was totally incapable of any attack.

"Stay still already!" he snarled at the squirming human, and pulled the vines tighter. He only realized a moment later that by dragging them facedown, he'd made it so he couldn't see their SOUL. No problem, he'd rip it straight out of their body.

"I said—" Flowey struggled to generate another wave of magic. There was a flickering pulse of light that left him lightheaded, black dots dancing across his vision. "Stop—MOVING!"

There was another motion off to his side. He aimed his next attack just as he'd done before, but the bullets went wide and fizzled before they even reached the wall. He began to duck under the ground, sensing that things had gone hopelessly off-course, but then there was a bright flash that wasn't his magic, sweeping down in a thin arc—it was the same as when he'd taken those six SOULs and forced Chara into a fight, before they stopped and lowered their knife and told him to run—

Except that he wasn't spared, this time. There was pain across his face, down the center of his stem, and then he felt nothing.

The vines around the smaller human (creatively nicknamed "Rain Boots" by a certain little flower) twitched like dying snakes and slid away. The human rolled onto their hands and knees and spat out the stringy bits of plant matter stuck to their tongue. The other human (blessed with the equally inspired moniker "Blondie") dropped the not-quite-so-safe safety scissors and staggered to their friend's side. There were thin cuts across the inside of their fingers where the delicate skin had pressed into one of the opened blades.

"Did he hurt you? You're not—you're not hurt, are you?"

Rain Boots stared down at the little scraps of petals and yellowed stem, the remains of the wilted little flower that had been Flowey. With his face gone, he didn't look any different from the others that grew where they had fallen. They wiped their face with their sleeve.

"Why... why'd he do that?"

Blondie pressed on their finger and grimaced, licking away the welling drops of blood, and searched around in their backpack with their uninjured hand for the first-aid kit. "I don't know," they said, tactfully avoiding the I told you so! that might have been running through their mind at that moment. "I didn't... it wasn't that I meant to... do that. You saw how it happened, didn't you? I didn't want to kill him, but he was about to kill you." They tore open the paper packaging around the bandages with their teeth.

Rain Boots said nothing.

"Do you need one of these?"

"I'm okay."

"You saw. That flower wasn't going to listen, if I just told it to stop."

Blondie flexed their fingers and readjusted the bandages, waiting for an answer that didn't come. When they noticed the blankness on their friend's face, they crawled over and hugged them. "Don't worry, you're only... it was just a surprise."

"Why'd he DO that?"

"I don't know."

The hug helped. A little. Rain Boots leaned their head on their friend's shoulder. "He was NICE. Why'd he suddenly do that?"

"We shouldn't have trusted him. We both did, so it's my fault, too."

"I did first."

Blondie looked over Rain Boots' head as a thin layer of snow formed in the doorway, carried into the RUINS by the icy wind. They shivered and pulled back to retrieve their gun, which at some point in the scuffle had slipped from their shoulder and gotten kicked aside. They offered their good hand to help Rain Boots to their feet.

"I didn't wanna hurt it," Blondie repeated, as if saying the words often enough would make them truer. "You saw that, didn't you? It's not a sin if it's... if you..."

"Can we leave now?"

"...Yeah. Okay."

The humans averted their eyes as they stepped around Flowey's remains. Hand-in-hand, they ventured back out onto the frozen path. The landscape beyond the RUINS was silent as a painting, the trunks of the more distant trees black against the blue-tinged snow, the high, leafless branches blending into the darkness of the... not a sky. Not quite a sky. But snow was falling from somewhere, fluttering in soft, fat flakes. The humans' breath formed alternating puffs in the cold air.

Blondie glanced to the edges of the forest, warily checking the bush just outside the door. A closer look would have revealed a surveillance camera, but Flowey's warnings only mentioned bloodthirsty monsters eager to rip their SOUL from their chest, and this place was quiet. Peaceful, even. They gently tugged their friend's hand, pulling them along.

"Isn't it pretty?" they prompted, in a voice that was a little too gentle, too obviously an attempt to sound soothing.

Rain Boots rapidly blinked. They swallowed. They looked up at the void where a sky should have been. Snowflakes fell into their hair. "Yeah," they mumbled.

The humans walked, still holding hands, into the silent forest.