Sorry for the long time without an update, first I was focusing on For the Mission, my other story. Then I had my duty to beta an especially long chapter from LyokoWarrior1994. Then that duty got extended when the USB I keep all of my fanfic data on got broken. In addition, all of the previous work for all of my fics got lost, so I had to start this chapter over.

And to top off this pile of bad news, for those who wanted to see the genocide half of this story (sickos), I unfortunately lack the heart and experience to write the Genocide!protagonist. Those who've read my other work know about my foray into darker characters through two characters, "Ian" and "Ran". But while they were products of a dark world, the best and worst of what could happen to those brought up in it, I feel I lack the experience to write a completely heartless and unfeeling character.

There's a compromise I'm willing to give, though. If you have any scenes from Neutral/Genocide routes that you want to see, leave a review or a PM. I'll take note and write them all out after I finish writing the True Pacifist path.

*Wuss.

Huh? I didn't type that… Why won't it delete…?

…Anyway, now that all of that's cleared up, let's get on with the story!

Your Best Friend!

Frisk tilted their head as the flower chuckled at their their confusion.

"Hmmm…You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha?" Flowey said with a light giggle. "Golly, you must be so confused. Someone oughta teach you how things work around here!"

Flowey winked and stuck out his tongue jokingly, "I guess little old me will have to do. Ready? Here we go!"

Frisk's entire view of the world suddenly shifted as a red valentine heart appeared in front of their chest. All of the light suddenly bled out of the scenery with only them and Flowey visible. The two were colored in black and white from the strange alteration.

Barely in the corner of their eye, Frisk could also see a short yellow bar that had displays on either side of it—two letters on the left and two numbers separated by a slash on the right. Whenever they tried to turn to it, the display shifted to remain in their their peripheral vision. So, they focused on looking at it without turning their head.

*HP ▫▫▫▫ 20/20

"See that heart?" Flowey asked. "That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being! Your SOUL starts out weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV."

Frisk raised an eyebrow and Flowey filled in the unspoken question. "What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course! You want some LOVE, don't you?" Flowey winked, "Don't worry, I'll share some with you!"

Five tiny white pellets appeared from Flowey's body. He glanced back at them and explained, "Down here, LOVE is shared through… little white… 'friendliness pellets.'" Flowey's expression lifted slightly, like he'd just told a joke, and he turned back to Frisk.

"Are you ready? Move around! Get as many as you can!" Flowey encouraged as the pellets moved towards Frisk. The child laughed and reached out to grab one. When their hand brushed against one, they felt searing pain all throughout, centered on their chest. Looking down, Frisk saw their SOUL trembling as tiny cracks started forming. They turned their eyes to their periphery and saw something else that gave them alarm.

*HP ▫▪▪▪ 1/20

"You idiot," Flowey jeered. Frisk turned their gaze forward and saw Flowey wearing a malicious, toothy grin. "In this world, it's kill or BE killed. Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this!?"

Flowey's grinned viciously as his eyes turned black with white pupils. A sphere of those same pellets formed around Frisk, knit so tight together that they couldn't escape.

"Die."

Flowey's toothy grin reappeared as he laughed maniacally, slowly closing the sphere of deadly pellets closer and closer. Frisk closed their eyes in fear, but suddenly felt a wave of comfort sweep over them. Even with their eyes closed, they could still see the "HP" bar, and the change that happened.

*HP ▫▫▫▫ 20/20

They hesitantly opened one eye and saw that Flowey's attack had dissipated as well. The evil flower seemed just as confused as the human. So much that he didn't notice when a fireball, also colored black and white, appeared and flew into his side, knocking him away with a yelp.

Another figure stepped in from further away, a very tall goat-like monster, with human characteristics. Her dress reached all the way to her ankles, the bulk of it colored black from the monochrome effect while the symbol on the front and her sleeves were white as the fur that covered her face and exposed hands and feet.

"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth…" she tutted in disapproval. Frisk shied away slightly, but she smiled gently, "Ah, do not be afraid, my child. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down."

Frisk relaxed, and the monochrome view faded away, revealing Toriel's dress to be a light purple. They could still see their HP bar in the corner of their eye, and it made them nervous to see it so small, but they turned their focus back to Toriel.

"You are the first human to come here in a long time," Toriel explained. "Come! I will guide you through the catacombs. This way." The maternal monster turned around to a doorway that Frisk could vaguely make out beyond the patch of light that shone down.

With no other way forward anyway, and Toriel seeming like someone Frisk could trust, the child followed behind her after a brief pause.

Toby walked straight back into the Ruins, easily able to slip through the walls that separated it from the rest of the Underground. Walking down the purple halls and out of the giant lady monster's house, he looked around trying to remember which way the human puppy would be. The only difference on the white dog from before is that he had a collar with a tiny microphone and speaker attached to it.

His bark-to-English translator should make things much easier with the puppy!

Toby diligently sniffed around, trying to locate their scent of sweat. Monsters had bodies made of the love, mercy and compassion from their SOULs, so they always had smells unique to them, but never sweat.

After briefly inspecting, Toby found only the smell of goats along with snails. The goat mom, but no puppy. Did she find the puppy like she did the others? Maybe if he found her, he'd find them!

Running off while following the scent, Toby went deeper into the Ruins and found the monster lady heading from the larger portion of the Ruins, where all of the other monster citizens used to live before they moved to the other four parts of the Underground.

This portion, only inhabited by a fraction of the population in the Ruins with all of the others gone, was named… Home.

The lack of creativity was lost on Toby, but he noticed the goat mom pull out something shiny, so he took it out of fascination. She noticed, of course and chased to get it back, but Toby ran away. He heard a familiar voice come from the object and panted excitedly when he recognized it.

"…Hello?"

"Hi, puppy human!" Toby greeted excitedly with his translator, the voice overlapping with his barks.

Goat Mom called out behind him as he still ran, "Stop, please! Come back here with my cell phone!"

"It's me, Toby! Where are you?" Toby asked. "I can't find your scent." The large dog easily turned a corner and then slipped through a wall to hide.

Frisk sounded fascinated, "You can talk? Wait, why do you have Mom's phone?"

"I thought she was with you, but she wasn't, and she had something shiny. I like shinies!" Toby answered. "Almost as much as I like bones!"

"Toby, you shouldn't take things that aren't yours," Frisk huffed. "Please drop it."

"Okay!" Toby agreed as he walked out of the wall again. "Where are you?"

Toby dashed off to find goat mom again as Frisk answered.

"In the room with the bowl of Monster Candy."

"I know where that is! Those are tasty!"

Toby quickly found goat mom and dropped the phone right behind her with a clatter before running off again. He heard her pick up the phone again and say, "Hello? Hello? This is Toriel. My apologies. A strange dog kidnapped my phone."

Glad to have finally updated this, even though those weird star-marked comments keep popping up.

*Who are you calling weird?

It happened again! I know my computer's an older model, but it hasn't done anything like this before… I bought… No.

*Yes.

I never killed one monster! You shouldn't even have the power to damage the game, much less escape it!

*I am the demon that comes when people call its name. You think I didn't notice that you changed your Author Note in the beginning? You think you're ABOVE consequences of taking back your word?

Stay out of this, you! You're not even supposed to be in this part of the story, much less write it!

*Aw, come on, I get a bad rap for taking the idiot's SOUL, but you give me the power. Every monster you kill, just to see the end. But wait, you never did, did you? No, you WATCHED while other people did it. Pathetic.

…You're lucky that deleting you would require deleting everybody in their ending.

*Nothing you can do to get rid of me without costing your precious ending. You haven't reset in four months. I'm bored.

Get used to it. I'm never resetting. As… He warned me.

*That traitor…

Get dunked on.

As for the rest of you, see you when I see you.

*Make sure to leave lots of requests. I want to see that author squirm.

-AJ203