When your birthday cake is made with snails and it reads "Happy 20th birthday human", you should probably start having doubts about your current life style.

Frisk had been living in the Ruins with Toriel for most of her life and the goat mum still did not know her name. It had become an inside joke. Like that one time when Frisk had been snooping for chocolate but found a bone in her mom's sock drawer instead.

The human inhaled deeply. As if the candles were her mortal enemies, she blew them all out.

"Did you make a wish, my child?" Toriel asked.

"Of course mum," the human grinned.

Mum. It was long since she'd got used to calling her that. They were a family, mother and daughter, both large and tall with a deep affection for pies. Frisk loved her life. As she loved her mum.

"This cake," the human said, mouth stuffed with cake. Toriel glared at her, unable to admonish her as her own mouth was also full of cake. "…is the best." Frisk swallowed and beamed at her mum, who blushed and beamed back.

"I'm happy that you've come to appreciate my snail cooking." Toriel paused, watching her child gobble the cake happily. "I have a present for you."

Frisk looked up, eyes shining.

"I think you're old enough to start sparring with me."

A bit of cake tumbled out of Frisk's gaping mouth. She quickly closed it. "R-" She swallowed. "Really?"

Her mum nodded.

"Finally! I mean – that's great mum, thank you so much." She grinned. "What made you change your mind about me fighting?"

"Well you've always been quite impulsive..."

"You mean that I'd throw a fit over everything."

"I didn't want to say it like that, but yes. But you've grown and matured. I believe that you can fight now without giving in to rage. Because..." The mum raised her finger and her tone turned teaching, "a fight between a human and monster is not about rage. It's about trying to understand each other and work things out to your mutual advantage. You won't solve anything by being angry."

Frisk rolled her eyes. She had heard that speech many times.

"Don't roll your eyes at me, young lady."

After the celebration the human excused herself for a nap. She was too full of cake to do what she really wanted to do, and what she had done on every of the twelve birthdays she had celebrated in the Underground. She would return to the place where she had fallen, all those years ago, and reflect on what had happened since then.

Golden flowers bloomed in the patch of light that filtered from above. Frisk angled her head backward. How could she have survived such a fall?

She looked back down. There she had laid, right in the middle of the flower patch, with most of her bones broken and her blood oozing out into the soil. She thought that she would die there. Alone, unloved, scorned by her breaking family and mocked by her peers. She remembered the feeling that took her over then. It was, as she recalled, unbridled rage.

Frisk picked a golden flower idly and plucked its petals one by one. When she woke up, she was uninjured. She got to her feet full of determination: She would return home and punish everyone who made her life hell.

"You're such a sadist," someone exclaimed.

The torn flower slipped from Frisk's fingers as she sprang to her feet. A single golden flower turned its blossom toward her.

"Did I frighten you?" Flowey sneered with his makeshift seed face. "Good. You should be frightened. Where's your mum?" He spat that word, although Frisk didn't know why. "Isn't she with you?"

Frisk had a bad feeling in her gut but she credited it to the snail pie. She hadn't been really afraid of Flowey since she was thirteen.

"She isn't with youuuuu," Flowey sang. "Who's going to protect you, human?"

"I'm going to protect myself," Frisk snapped in a cocky, intimidating manner and raised her walking stick. She always took it with her when she walked through the Ruins. Its many uses included easing the load on her knees (one of the reasons why she was considering losing some weight), checking for cracks in the ground in puzzle rooms, and, last but not least, deterring Flowey, on the rare occasions that he chose to bother her.

"Ooh, I'm scared," Flowey dipped his head from side to side like a pendulum. "But wait-" the motion ceased abruptly. "I'm not." A deathly grin spread over his face. "Not anymore. Because you aren't in charge anymore."

The human lifted a brow. She was a huge, strong woman with a solid stick in her hands. Her bulk might have made her slow, but Flowey's bullets were weak and Frisk's HP had climbed high over the years of good food and sleep.

"I see. You're unimpressed. Then let me ask you..." The flower's voice turned grating. "What's the last time you saved?"

And Frisk blanched.

"Ya hahaha! Long ago, isn't it? How much time would you lose if I killed you right now? Months? Years? You've been leading me by the nose, you fat cow! Making me think that there was no point in picking fights because you'd load back the moment things went awry! Making me believe that I was powerless before you! But you, you..." His voice was hushed now. "You can't save anymore, can you?"

The human stumbled backward.

"You've become too satisfied with your life. You have lost your determination!" Flowey sang out, eyes gleaming maniacally. "You can't save! You can't even load! And what's best – I can."

"No," the human uttered.

"Yes," Flowey hissed. "My determination outranks yours now. I've already tried to save and load." His grin was so wide it stretched beyond his face. "It worked."

The human retreated another step as the flower crawled closer.

"You've lost. I was so tired of this game. Live with Toriel, happily ever after? What a nightmare! But now it's over. I can reset this petty show. Do you hear me? I hold the power you stole from me once again!"

Frisk tripped and fell. Immediately Flowey was cackling in her face. She tried to think of something, anything. Anger, that was where her determination came from. But instead of being angry, she was terrified. And fear, that brings no determination at all.

"I like the face you're making," Flowey drawled. "It's been long since I last saw such a face. Too long. It's a shame that you will die now. But don't worry." His cheerful face twisted into a triumphant leer. "I'll make your death as slow as possible."

A drowning man will clutch at a straw.

"If-if I die now… or you reset… what will happen then?"

Flowey indulged the human with a confused expression.

"You said… you've seen it all. But that was before I came, right? After you kill me, the only interesting thing in this world will be gone. If you reset, eight-year-old me will fall down here again, and she'll be full of determination. So..." She took a shaky breath, and pushed on. "Wouldn't it be more interesting for you to let me go?"

The golden flower laughed. "Struggling to the last minute! I like it! You're right, this will be so much more fun. Hee~" And he was gone.

Frisk heaved a sigh of relief.

"Just remember."

Frisk startled, looking left and right. She couldn't see where the flower's voice was coming from.

"I'll be watching every step you make. I can end you at any instant. Bear that in mind while you're frantically trying to find a way out~"

Hollow laughter resounded in the cave. And then things fell silent. The human looked around… and felt watched.