Carmina, Guts, and Joseph were silent in the temple, waiting for the others to return. Chara sat against the wall some distance away from them, their shoulders shaking, trying to not show how disturbed they were at the sight of Frisk writhing in pain and Flowey crying tearful apologies. The others were stiff as they stared at the floor, Guts and Joseph with guilt, Carmina with horror.
"I've seen some messed up things in my life, we all have," Guts said quietly. "That… may be the worst. A child went through that, wasn't allowed to die…"
"I can't tell if they're just tough enough to treat this better than us, or if Flowey's made them forget part of what happened," Joseph added, partly just to fill the silence. "They've said that they died a bunch of times during the resets, thousands of times even; I have to think that this was worse. They were forced to endure the pain instead of going back."
"I don't think I can pile on any more guilt than you two already have," Carmina signed, a disgusted look still on her face. "Suffice it to say that I don't want something so awful happening again, or for any of us to cause it." They nodded, readily agreeing. A hollow, quiet laughter that gave Carmina flashbacks to Firelink Shrine echoed from Chara. Their tears dripped loudly on the stone floor.
"I don't know what's worse, this place or the people in it," Chara whispered shakily, sounding close to breaking. "Even at the end of the genocide runs, when I took their soul and sent them to another world, their death was quick, some might say merciful. Their DT and EXP were so high that it didn't feel like anything to them, and it was what they deserved at that point. I hate humans, Frisk is the only one I can tolerate even a little, but I wouldn't want anything or anyone to experience that."
"These thoughts aren't going anywhere!" Guts suddenly shouted, seemingly angry at himself. "It happened, but we'll make sure it doesn't after today. There's nothing that can be done about it now." He turned to Chara. "If they're the only one you can stand, then help them get stronger, enough to survive here. Breaking down won't help anyone, least of all Frisk." Carmina sighed, somewhere between exasperation and admitting that Guts was right. Chara was quiet but took a steadying breath.
"… You're right. I'm going to look for them and practice my teaching." She walked out, forgetting to insult anyone after everything that had happened.
"Did we make the right choice?" Carmina asked. "Bringing them here?"
"I want to think we did," Joseph said. "They've been through the same stuff we have, at a different age maybe, but as kids, we all made friends with death."
Chara found Sam and Frisk resting by a floating stream of argent, Frisk looking redder than usual. Sam had her helmet off for the first time that Chara knew, and she got a good look at the soldier: short brown hair, red skin, and dull green eyes with bags under them that twitched around at anything that could possibly be a hiding place for a demon. "Mind if I join you?"
"Come on over, the argent's fine," Frisk joked, chuckling quietly. "I know, I'm awful."
"As bad as the comedian, but you'll probably take that as a compliment." Chara rolled her eyes. "Stand up, I want to teach you some stuff."
"Like what? That I'll probably die?"
"More like how to not die, but close," Chara answered, waiting for Frisk to stand in front of her. "So, I haven't ever really taught."
"Obviously."
"Gee, thanks," Chara deadpanned. "Anyways, cut me some slack with this. I'll start by listing your weaknesses. You've relied on your reset to save you a number of times, making you reckless. You've fought the same enemies for decades, and while your dodging skills have improved, anything here would need new strategies, strategies that you don't have your reset to catch you while you make. You're weak in comparison to everything here. You don't have stamina, your longest fight has only ever been with Sans. To top all of that off, you're a pacifist by default."
"Hold on, you're a freaking conscientious objector?" Sam asked incredulously.
"I mean, the only things I've ever fought were naturally peaceful as well. I guess I only object if I think my enemy is innocent?" Frisk said, unsure.
"I don't think you'll have that problem here. You saw what the demons were like, how they're fueled by hate and only want to destroy, right?" Chara asked Frisk, trying to get them to see reason.
"Yeah… I did… and I also know that I won't be able to change them like I did in the Underground. I don't like it, but I can kill to survive."
"Good. With that out of the way, let's see what you and Flowey can do when you're combined like this. You got that Flowey?"
"Yeah? I'm right here on their fat head, I heard everything," Flowey replied, snarkily.
"Then show me what you got, be creative." Chara picked a spot next to Sam to watch as Flowey and Frisk experimented, growing roots and vines and seeing what they could do. Both Chara and Sam took mental notes of what they thought, and when Frisk finished they shared their ideas.
"To start, you have a major terrain advantage. Those roots grow really fast, and it almost looked like you had more arms at some points."
"It felt like I did," Frisk said, looking at some roots growing from her palm. "I'm tapped in with Flowey directly, so I can move these like my own hands, and he can move me with his roots. I don't really feel pain, and I feel way stronger than I ever was in the underground, even after the genocide route. With this level of control over Flowey's roots, it feels like I just got a cheat code."
"They can still be cut, Frisk. Even thorns aren't very strong," Flowey reminded the human. "Try to keep that in mind when you're, you know, about to die." Frisk rolled their eyes.
"I won't forget, sunflowey," Frisk said, slowly grinning. Flowey and Chara gave looks of disgust, but Sam chuckled. "So aside from things that bludgeon, cut, or stab, would it be possible to make something that can shoot?"
"Root guns? I dunno, never tried it since plants don't normally explode… but argent might do something about that… give me a minute," Flowey said, raising Frisk's arm and forming a pistol with his roots. He tried focusing argent in different ways and came up with different guns. "I managed to make some basic ammo: pistol, shotgun, and rifle. I could make pistol all day, but shotgun and rifle are a little trickier. You have unlimited everything, but I need some time to make those two, so use it… sparingly? Is that the word?"
"It is," Chara confirmed. "I know you used argent for the boom, but what's in the bullets?"
"Friendliness pellets." He gave a creepy smile. "You remember those, right Frisk?"
"Mmhm, I do. Btw, your scary face isn't that scary," they said, flicking where a nose would be. Chara snorted, holding in her laugh, while Sam didn't even try to hide her's.
"Flower kid, you just got punked," Chara wheezed, doubled over and still trying to hold in her laughter.
"ALRIGHT, ENOUGH WITH THE GIGGLING!" Flowey screamed at them, petals blushed green.
"Sounds like things have gotten better out here," Guts said, walking up alongside Joseph and Carmina. He turned to Frisk. "Alright now, kid?"
"Pretty good, I don't feel helpless at least." Guts nodded at this, an unreadable expression on his face. "At this point, I just need to work on speed and dodging."
"We'll take care of that later," Joseph interjected. "We're moving shop."
"Why's that?" Chara tilted her head. "Are there demons coming here?"
"They're everywhere, but they're grouping up around here, so yeah," Guts said, pointing past some rocks. On an open and dusty plain, a circle of demons was easily seen to be closing in.
"What'd we do to catch that kind of attention?" Sam asked, turning to Joseph. "We haven't killed that many, have we?"
"I think it's the power we all have, plus the power you four all stole: argent. Whatever the reason, we have to leave now." They all nodded and began running to an outcrop of rock that would be easier to defend than the temple. "Everyone shorter than five feet stick close to somebody bigger than you."
"Got it," Frisk, Flowey, and Chara echoed, Frisk running alongside Sam and Chara next to Joseph. They reached the outcrop a minute or so before the demons would arrive, and got into position. Frisk tried to grow some traps under the dust around them, holes sealed with a thin layer of vines and covered in dust that were ready to impale anything that fell in.
"Flowey, I just had an idea," Frisk thought. "How long would it take you to brain hack a few of these guys, make them like me and have them shoot on their own guys?"
"I-I don't know a-about that," he stuttered, scared of the upcoming fight. "I'll try it and get back to you." And then the demons arrived.
Frisks traps worked well against the first wave, suddenly swallowing the smaller demons and hobbling the big ones. Their screams heightened in pitch from the holes in the ground, from war cry to pain. Flowey focused on a smaller demon to practice on that was still alive, wrapping roots around nerves and threading himself into its brain. He released it after a moment and watched as it clumsily climbed out of the hole and stumbled away.
"Darn it! I'll try again." He did it faster on the next one, and this time it emerged with a roar as it fired around randomly, occasionally hitting another demon with either fire or claws. The third time he got to the brain faster and tried to switch up friend and foe. "Almost… got it!" This time the demon leaped from the trap onto a hell knight, clawing out its eyes and biting away its skull. It was killed quickly, but Flowey had succeeded. "I need around ten seconds to switch them to fight for us, Frisk!"
"Awesome! Keep doing that!" Frisk thought to flowey, using the vines to strangle a few demons at a time and flay others with thorns, cutting through muscle and bone like butter. Bodyparts were sent flying with every swipe of her attacks, and spikes shot from the ground in random places to impale any demon unlucky enough to find her traps.
Guts was fighting in the thick of the demon horde, same as Joseph a short distance away, trying to thin out the others' workload. He cleaved three or four demons in half with each swing, blood and gore coating his sword like unholy paint. Even though he was being splashed by the viscera as well, his armor drank it as greedily as sand swallowing water, leaving it dark and pristine throughout the fight. Wounds that managed to penetrate or bend his armor were fixed in moments, and the pain only made him more dangerous.
Joseph was in his element: demons, weapons, and bloodshed. In some corner of his mind, he found it funny that these guys still tried to kill him after two thousand years. He'd mastered fighting them, turned war into art, and found the order in their chaos that made it oh so easy to avoid their attacks and slay them the instant they were in range.
Carmina usually worked better when she fought like Guts and Joseph, but the enormous shield in her one hand and the ax in her other were also comfortable. She'd changed into Havel's armor before the fight, expecting to need the stability. Most of the attacks were light enough to not worry about, and she could handle the heavy hitters well enough, so protecting Frisk and Flowey was easier than she thought. It would be a relief to change back into her light armor after this fight though.
Samantha made use of her marksman training and her dmr, popping heads with ease and speed. Anybody that got too close was slammed in the head by the stock or a knife, and then she kept firing. It hadn't taken long to figure out the way these guys moved, at which point it was business as usual. It was like fighting a less organized Covenant for her. If it weren't so fun she'd be bored.
Chara stuck tight to Frisk's blind spot, defending their back as they created a whirlwind of chlorophyll. Demons came quick but were forced into a chokepoint that made them easy prey, letting Chara slash them in the throat and dodge their swift but sloppy attacks. It wasn't easy for her, never having fought so many in a row prior to now, but she did well enough that neither she nor Frisk was hurt up to now.
Soon the demons thinned, and before they knew it the entire horde was in pieces on the ground underneath them. They ran to the nearest refuge they could find (a mountain this time) and hunkered down until they made another portal.
"What should we look for next? Another warrior? A healer?" Carmina asked.
"I'm thinking a builder or someone that can fortify a location better than us," Sam supplied. "We need to be able to have a point of attack, a place that allows us to build our strength instead of having to run."
"I agree. We need an engineer," Joseph said. "We've got fighters, now we need to plan a base."
"Can't we borrow one of the run-down joints around here?" Guts asked. "They're solid, already here-"
"Crawling with demons and too big to defend, you're right," Joseph cut off. "I've tried using them once or twice, a long time ago when I was pretty new in hell, and even with more people it's not going to work. The effort to make one of those places defendable is a lot more than building a new one that's smaller. Whichever choice, we still need an engineer." He turned to Carmina. "Would you do the honors?" She nodded, and summoned up a disk of swirling argent. She had her eyes closed for a time, searching for someone who fit the bill, when finally the red cloud collapsed inward.
On the other side of the hole was a metal corridor, blood-spattered and full of scrap metal. Unearthly screams echoed faintly from a ways off. Coming closer was the sound of metal boots clanging against the floor, heavy and hurried, along with shallow breathing. They readied their weapons just in case it was something dangerous, but Carmina's portal proved to have spot-on accuracy when a man in an armored space suit came walking around the corner. He stopped at the sight of everyone on the other side of the hellish portal.
"What the hell? Am I hallucinating again?" he muttered loudly. A roar came from behind him, making the man face back the way he came for a moment and then turn to the portal again. "Screw it, as long as you guys don't kill me I'm coming through, imaginary or not." He sprinted forward and dived through the hole, checking over his shoulder to watch as a massive creature made of rotting flesh came thumping into view. "If you can, close that thing quick, dammit!" The portal snapped shut before the thing got too close, and the man fell onto the ground and sighed in relief. "I… am way too… sleep deprived…" Immediately after this proclamation, he went limp in the dust and fell asleep.