Sophie woke up on a bed of golden flowers. She was somewhat aware of the nature of the deal, but its specifics were maddeningly vague. Including the exact destination.
Oh well. The hole, the flowers, the purple entrance. It was clear.
She quickly went through the main threats here. Flowey and Asriel. Same person, but different ways of dealing with him. Sans. Probably wouldn't take well to the resets. She'd be dead where she stood, etc. ASGORE. Pushover compared to the other two, but he managed to kill six other kids (all of whom probably had time travel superpowers too) so maybe she was just underestimating him. Gaster stood as a wildcard.
Then there was Alphys, who was probably holding back an unknown amount. She has control of the CORE, Mettaton, and the Amalgamates. And the Determination Extractor.
Oh, and Papyrus too, somewhere low down. He had good control of his magic, and unspecified similarities to Sans.
With that done, she stepped into the next room, fully expecting to see Flowey there. Instead, it was just Toriel.
"My child, do not be afraid. I am TORIEL, caretaker of these Ruins."
"I need to go and see ASGORE."
"ASGORE? What do you know about him?"
"He's killed six people, took their SOULs, and needs one more to break the barrier."
"So you know. Then why do you still want to go?"
Sophie remembered at this point that Toriel resisted Frisk leaving the Ruins. She doubted she had as much determination, in the game mechanic sense and in the literal sense. She was also bad at lying, so it was time to give some only mildly warped truth.
"I'm a time traveller. It's very important."
"You must prove it to me."
"Sure. Think of a number between one and a thousand. Tell it to me in a few minutes."
Sophie walked into the Ruins, and saved at the first location. She wasn't really sure how the whole thing worked, but she was sure she could figure out how to reload. Toriel followed her.
"Alright. Set up now. Tell me it, and I'll have everything I need."
"Sixty-six."
"That sounds right."
And then Sophie loaded the save. She turned to Toriel, who was just entering the room.
"Sixty-six," she said. "You told me that in the future."
"That is right. I suppose it wouldn't do good to keep you here,"
"I could tell you a bit more when we're at Home"
Sophie solved the puzzle in the first room, by pressing the four buttons on the edges of the arrangement. She solved the rest as well, purely by memory, with Toriel offering to help but eventually just silently watching once she showed that she had a handle on things.
They soon arrived at Home. Sophie sat down, and broke the silence.
"I'm a time traveller. Have you got any questions?"
"How much do you know?"
"Anything that could happen when I'm walking in a straight line to Asgore. That's through Snowdin, then Waterfall, then Hotland, and up through the CORE. Also the True Lab."
"I have not heard of the True Lab."
"It was after you left. They were trying to make an artificial SOUL. All they did was resurrect some monsters that had fallen down, and badly."
"How badly?"
"Several melted together into one body. Very bad stuff. One came back without a SOUL."
"How can a monster survive without a SOUL? I have never heard of anything like this."
"It…"
Sophie glanced down, and back up. No point on not telling Toriel, even though it would really delay her if there were any significant questions raised.
"When Asriel died, his dust spread over the flowers. One was injected with determination, and it came back. Still Asriel, but without the SOUL."
"That… why has nobody told me?"
"He did. He's also a time traveller, so he went back in time when he found it wasn't making him happy."
"Then…" Toriel shook her head. "How do we fix this?"
"I don't know. I don't really want him like that either. Last time, he absorbed six human SOULs and every monster SOUL."
"I would not think he could do that."
"He's not really himself. I'll need to go soon, but if you really want to talk to him, he's called Flowey. Anything you would say normally would be boring and predictable to him."
"Thank you for your help, child. Would you like a cup of tea before you go?"
Sophie really thought Asgore was the one for tea. It did remind her of something, though.
"No thanks, I'm not really a fan. It does remind me of something. Try asking Asriel – Flowey – about buttercups. And what he did on the other side of the barrier. Bye!"
Sophie stood up, and walked down the stairs to the hallway to the exit. Toriel didn't seem to be following her. Sophie hoped that she wasn't too upset once she thought of Chara's symptoms and figured out what happened. Oh well. The truth had to come out somehow.
She saw the patch of grass, and Flowey was planted in the middle of it. He had his usual smile, which, to his credit, did a very good job of making him look nonthreatening.
"So, I hear you've been talking about helping me?"
Sophie kept walking.
"What makes you think I want to be saved?"
Sophie decided to start humming His Theme. It plays on his statue, so Flowey should probably know the tune.
"I'm happy being the god of the world. Or I was. Until you showed up, and took that from me."
Sophie was almost at the door. Flowey seemed unwilling or unable to actually hurt her.
"It will be fun to watch you suffer. You think that bag of bones will keep his promise? He'll tear you to bloody pieces."
Flowey winked, and vanished. Sophie walked through the exit, to Snowdin, and heard a voice, coming from everywhere at once.
"You're hard to pin down, you know?"