The echo flowers of Waterfall were strangely silent. Frisk didn't like this one bit. Why weren't the flowers talking anymore? They weren't supposed to stop, right?
If it weren't for Alphys walking beside them, the child could have sworn they had stumbled into the wrong timeline. They shuddered at the thought of that previous timeline.
"Oh no", the monster whispered, her voice barely above the sounds of rushing water. "It-it's even worse than I thought…"
Frisk looked at her questioningly.
"Well, there's th-this theory that echo flowers appeared in the Underground because of the high concentration of magic in here", she explained, "but… now that most of us left to the surface, we don't- I mean, there isn't as much magic here anymore, and maybe the flowers are, hum, losing their power?"
The nearest blue flower started repeating Alphys' last three words.
"Well, m-maybe not all of it yet", she added, and the magic plant now repeated this instead.
When Frisk had suggested taking a walk to the Underground for old time's sake, they hadn't expected talks about the local plant life possibly losing its magic.
They had come back down there a few times in the past two years but this was the first time they had found this part so quiet. They guessed it had taken all this time for the magic to start wearing off.
The human and the monster sat on the ground and waited silently next to the echo flower for a while. About ten minutes later, the voice grew quieter until it finally fell silent again.
Alphys and Frisk both knew that this wasn't a normal behaviour for these magic plants ; they were supposed to keep repeating the last thing they heard indefinitely.
Frisk quickly stood up and walked ahead. Now, they weren't usually the type of person who were bothered by silence, however silence in the Underground, especially Waterfall, was way too reminiscent of a past life they didn't want to remember.
"F-Frisk, wait!" the lizard woman called as she also stood up, her voiced echoed by the blue flower.
After a while, they reached the frontier between Waterfall and Snowdin. Sans' station still stood there, untouched.
Alphys didn't dare to go further, as the cold of Snowdin wasn't really good for her. However, Frisk took their jacket from their backpack and set out into the snow, waving at the few ice monsters they crossed paths with along the way. Some of them had gone back underground for summer ; others such as Gyftrot had simply never gone to the surface at all.
The child kept walking until the door to the ruins, wide open ever since the day the Barrier shattered, was finally visible.
Alphys didn't quite understood why Frisk insisted on going all the way back to the ruins. They never really explained. Then again, they were a child of few words so long explanations were rare. Plus they only went there a few times over the past two years and never stayed that long.
This time, they happened to have been staying at Undyne (who had left early in the morning to meet up with Papyrus) and Alphys' for the day and since the latter needed to observe the wild echo flowers…
The one she had in her lab on the surface was doing just fine, but those in the Underground seemed… underfed. Maybe she would need to plant more around new monster settlements to keep this species alive.
This one didn't need to be replanted yet, though, most likely due to the proximity of ice monsters escaping to nearby Snowdin in the summer. The flowers closer to Hotland would need to be taken care of first.
Alphys took her phone from her pocket and texted Asgore about it. After all, he had more knowledge in gardening than most other people she knew, so she could probably use his help.
She then texted Frisk to make sure they were ok. It took a few minutes to get an answer from either of them.
Frisk pocketed their phone again once they had reassured their reptilian friend that everything was fine. They went through Toriel's former house in the ruins. It was almost as cold as Snowdin now that the boss monster wasn't here to light up the fireplace.
This time it was in front of the house, near the strange black tree, that they found him.
"Oh, howdy", Flowey greeted the human after he heard their footsteps and turned around to face them. "Didn't I tell you last time not to come back? And the time before that?"
Unsurprisingly, they didn't reply and sat beside the golden flower instead.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" he continued as Frisk put their backpack between their knees and opened it.
They gave him some pictures of the surface, newspaper cuts to keep him updated on what was happening up there, and a letter. At least they had stopped trying to get him to go there with them. He didn't quite trust himself not to hurt others again. Especially when he could no longer undo any of the potential damage through SAVEs and resets. Well, Frisk could probably reload a SAVE, but from what he had been told, Smiley Trashbag would rather they didn't do that, please.
Speaking of SAVE and reset…
"You know they can still reset everything, right?" the flower said suddenly. Frisk nodded slowly and stared at the ground, picking up fallen leaves from the dark tree and mindlessly playing with them with one hand. "Who knows, maybe they already did."
The human pointed at the date on one of the newspaper clippings.
"What is it, Frisk?" Flowey asked. "It's just yesterday's date."
They pointed harder at the year.
"You mean it's been over two years?" he guessed.
They nodded.
"Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it never will, Frisk. You know that, right?"
The human was obviously very aware of this fact, but certainly didn't want to discuss it, so they zipped up their backpack and stood up to leave.
As much as Flowey appreciated having company for once, he felt it was better for everyone if Frisk didn't stay by his side for too long.
When Frisk joined up with Alphys again, they seemed upset about something. Why did it happen every time? They never said. They probably weren't ready to talk about it. The best the monster could do was distract her friend from whatever they were thinking about, so she started ranting about the last anime Undyne and her had discovered. For a moment she was afraid the young human wasn't listening to her at all, but when they started smiling again her eyes lit up brighter : it was working!
Frisk took their jacket off halfway through Waterfall. With the lizard woman's overly long infodump about her new favourite shows waking up all the echo flowers they both came across, the place was no longer uncomfortably silent.
The child couldn't express how grateful they were for that.
Alphys kept talking until they reached her home on the surface. Toriel should arrive to pick up her adopted child any minute now.
Surely enough, not long after Alphys and Frisk sat inside for a snack, the doorbell rang. The human child literally bounced off the couch to open the door to their "momster".
"Greetings my child", she smiled as she picked them up for a hug. "Did the sleepover go well?"
Frisk nodded, smiling back. As soon as their feet touched the floor again, they dashed to the kitchen to make some tea.
"Undyne isn't here with you?" Toriel asked Alphys.
"She's hanging out with Papyrus. Oh, and, hum… please take a seat. If you want."
The two women sat on the couch, waiting for the tea to be ready.
Frisk arrived with the tea and served the three of them before sitting as well. They all chatted for a while until the teacups were cold and empty and it was time for mother and child to leave.
No-one mentioned Frisk going back to the ruins again, but since Alphys did mention them tagging along while she was doing some routine observation of Waterfall Toriel could easily guess that they did it again. It had been many months since the last time. Were they feeling nostalgic? Did they have another reason? She guessed only Frisk knew the answer.
Sans woke up from his nap and immediately checked the date on his phone like he always did ever since the Barrier was broken. It had been over two years now.
The possibility of a reset seemed less and less likely as time passed, but still a part of him kept reminding him that it was still a possibility. He doubted that voice would shut up any time soon, no matter how happy Frisk seemed to be with their life now.
The sound of Papyrus and Undyne entering the house and talking loudly distracted him from his thoughts. Since it was lunchtime, they decided an impromptu cooking lesson was in order.
Sans lay awake on his bed for a little while before finally getting up. His brother and his friend had gotten much better at cooking (and also at not burning anything) over the last few months so maybe he would actually eat lunch with them instead of going to New Grillby's today.
He went downstairs and stood right outside the kitchen.
"'sup?" he asked.
"SANS!" Papyrus exclaimed. "YOU'RE RIGHT ON TIME TO TASTE MY GREATEST SPAGHETTI YET!"
"Don't you mean 'our greatest spaghetti'?" Undyne corrected him.
"OF COURSE! AS GREAT AS I AM, I COULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN THIS FAR WITHOUT YOU, UNDYNE!"
Sans was proud of his brother's progress : his creations were edible now! He still didn't seem to be much interested in trying other dishes, but Sans didn't mind. After all, if it weren't for Papyrus he'd be eating the same burger for every meal every single day.
Undyne went back to her and Alphys' house after lunch, leaving the skeleton brothers alone. A few minutes later, Papyrus's phone buzzed from a new text.
"so, who is it?" Sans asked as his brother read the message.
"IT'S FRISK. THEY WENT TO THE UNDERGROUND WITH ALPHYS TODAY."
While Sans was very much aware of how Frisk went back to the ruins a few times before, he didn't quite understand why they would text Papyrus about it. If there was a reason for that, he didn't mention it. He probably would sooner or later though : he wasn't the type of monster to keep secrets.
The tall skeleton quickly typed a reply, put his phone back in his pocket and decided to spend his afternoon cleaning the house.
Sans remained in his seat and texted Frisk.
"so i heard you went back to the underground today, kid?"
"Yes. Alphys wanted to check on the echo flowers. They don't seem so good. Maybe they miss everyone?"
"guess their aim isn't very good then"
"…"
"don't you '…' me, kiddo ;)"
"They were too quiet. I don't like it."
"need to talk?"
"Not over text"
"ok"
Over the next few days, more echo flowers were transferred to the park near the centre of the monster town of Ebott. Asgore and Frisk helped with the task.
The latter still wished a certain other flower could get to see the surface too, but even with all their determination they couldn't force him. Besides, with the Barrier gone it's not like Flowey was actually trapped.
"You seem deep in thought, Frisk", Asgore pointed out as he watered the blue flowers. The nearest one echoed his words.
The human gave him a reassuring gesture.
"Do you wish to get some nice cream after this?" the boss monster suggested.
Frisk nodded enthusiastically. Nice cream was always welcome, and in the summer heat even more so.
Asgore carried them on his shoulder all the way to the shop, as the child and their short legs (compared to most of their monster friends') couldn't always keep up with him when they walked together. Plus Frisk enjoyed the view up there.
A few minutes later they were both sitting quietly on a large park bench while enjoying some frozen treats and observing their work. Knowing that their combined efforts would contribute in saving this unique kind of flower from extinction filled the child with determination. It was more than enough for a SAVE point to form.
Even though they had no intention of messing with the timeline again, there was something reassuring about knowing that, should something happen to them or someone they loved that couldn't be repaired through normal means, they had a point in time to go back to in last resort.
Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
Frisk took a picture of the park with its new flowers then convinced their surrogate father to take a selfie with together. Both photos were uploaded to the internet for all their friends to see. They attached the tag "#SaveTheEchoFlowers" (the name was Asgore's idea) to the pictures.
Flowey's words still echoed through Frisk's head. Sure they could still create SAVE points, but resets seemed to be completely out of their control now. This didn't reassure them one bit. However, the possibility of a reset seemed less and less likely as time passed. Maybe they were really free. Frisk wanted to believe so.