Chapter 7: Chara

After I finally beat Toriel, which, according to Frisk, took 23 attempts, Flowey and Frisk seemed ready to journey off into sunshine and daisies. I wasn't so sure, so I took some extra precautions, like saving in case we couldn't find another SAVE point before we died, and actually packing food in an old backpack that Toriel had said she had gotten from another of the fallen humans. I wondered to myself why that fallen human hadn't taken their backpack when they were leaving. Anyways, after I cleared up all the minor problems, we were ready to journey off and hopefully not die every few feet. According to Toriel, the defenses outside the Ruins would be much stronger, and at points we would come across unsolvable puzzles or more dangerous death traps.

When we asked Toriel what kind of people could be outside the door, she sighed and said, "Now that you are leaving, my children, I suppose I have no choice but to tell you. After Asgore decided to Underground was kill or be killed, I fled from the rest of the Underground and returned to the Ruins. I never thought that I, too, would become one of them. I do not know much about who is alive now and which people would be a threat. There are only two people that I know will be a barrier to leaving this place. The first is the Captain of the Royal Guard, which was originally dedicated to keeping peace. Her name is Undyne, and she was always strong and powerful before I left. I can hardly imagine how bloodthirsty and vicious she might be now. The other is the Royal Scientist, Dr. Alphys. She was never particularly smart or powerful, but she was cunning, and I'm sure Asgore would have put her skills to good use.

Whatever you do, do not let Asgore take even one of your souls. Asgore already has six human souls; with the power of seven, he will become a god. He will destroy the barrier and wage war on all of humanity. And considering how powerful the monsters are, and how powerful they will be when every monster gains a human soul, I fear that humanity will be destroyed as quickly as monsters were in the last war." Toriel looked worried, and I realized that if Asgore got a seventh human soul, he would be able to shatter the locked door to the Ruins and destroy the entirely of the Ruins. There was more than just our lives at stake, here. But with the power to SAVE, LOAD, and RESET, we were practically gods. There was no way Asgore would be able to get another human soul.

"There are three major areas you must pass before you reach the CORE, which leads directly to the King's castle. The first is Snowdin. Knowing that all humans who pass through here must come through the Ruins, I suspect that this area will have the strongest defenses. I am not sure what people you may meet in this area. Perhaps other members of the Royal Guard. This will likely be your hardest obstacle to get past." That was bad news, but at least we wouldn't encounter Undyne or Dr. Alphys in these areas. "Further is Waterfall, which Undyne lives in and often patrols. It is possible that you will encounter her multiple times. Waterfall is often very wet, so it is perfect for Undyne, who is a fish. She will have no trouble attacking you in this area; however, if you manage to escape from her and reach the next area, Hotland, you may have a chance. Hotland is often burning, and Undyne probably cannot withstand the heat. However, your next enemy, Dr. Alphys, lives there, and will probably set up traps for you. When you reach the CORE, there is an elevator designed for monsters to quickly travel from there to New Home and Asgore's castle. Your best option there is to probably disguise yourself as a monster and ride up to the surface, hopefully bypassing the monsters in the CORE, which are immensely strong, perhaps even stronger than me. From there, you will reach New Home, which is where Asgore's castle is. I have no idea what the defenses there might be like, if there are any. Monsters used to be very populated there, but with the new policy, I do not know how many remain."

"That is all I have to say for now. Be good, won't you? My children." Knowing that we were ready to begin our arduous quest filled us with determination.

After packing some ButtsPie, which both of us loved, we were ready to set off. We saved one last time before walking down into the basement. We walked down a long corridor, which gave me time to think. Toriel hadn't told us much, in retrospect. Who was Asgore? How could we help him? Why was the kill or be killed policy initiated in the first place? And why did I feel like there was one big secret that Toriel was hiding from us? None of it made sense, but I was sure Toriel was hiding something. And maybe we needed that something to help Asgore. But I knew Toriel had told us all she could without cracking herself. I didn't want to ask more questions. She had been such a help to us, and such a kind mother. I didn't want her to remember things she was clearly trying to hide away.

And then there was the whole task of what we were going to do after we called off the kill or be killed policy. Most monsters had too much LOVE to easily become better people. Even though "kill or be killed" wasn't a rule, monsters would still attack each other anyways. There really was no escape from it, no matter what we did, but I stayed hopeful. Perhaps the king would help society, just like Toriel did in the Ruins. Maybe with enough time, even the worst monsters, like Undyne, would change. Everyone just needed a second chance. Everyone could be a little better. Or so I hoped.

I was interrupted from my musings by Flowey, who I was somewhat annoyed with for making us leave. I wasn't necessarily mad at him, but I knew if it weren't for him, we'd be happily living the rest of our life with Toriel. In fact, the three of us had even taken to calling her mom, because of how nicely she treated us. But even then, I knew I, too, would never be satisfied just waiting my life there. Life would become boring, after a while. There would be so much to do in the outside world. Perhaps Frisk, with Patience by their side, could stay forever, but I couldn't. I wasn't adventurous, or curious, but I knew that something was missing in our lives, whatever that may be. So eventually, even if Flowey wasn't there to expedite the process, I would leave myself.

"I want to tell you another story," said Flowey. "I don't know exactly how I was born, or created, or whatever. But I remember waking up in the king's garden. I don't think I had any parents, unless they abandoned me. And I've never seen another plant monster before. I didn't like being a flower. I had no arms, or legs, and I couldn't walk or run or anything." Flowey was talking as though he once had all those things, which made no sense. But I wasn't in the mood to think more about it. Flowey continued. "'Somebody help!' I called out. I cried into the darkness, hoping and praying that someone would save me." Flowey lowered his voice, and almost hissed his next few words. "But nobody came." Flowey resumed his normal talking voice, and I was a little creeped out. I didn't know that Flowey could be that scary at times. But I kind of envied his ability to act very creepy at times. It would be a good talent to have.

"It was then that I saw my first SAVE point. I was just as confused as you probably were. But I saved, anyways, and continued down to New Home. You see, I didn't know the world was kill or be killed," he continued. "So when I traveled from the king's garden to New Home, I was expecting to be greeted warmly. I was expecting to maybe find a place to stay or get something to do. Instead, I died." Flowey paused for a moment, probably for dramatic effect. "I don't think I have to explain how painful death was. I'm just going to say this: It hurt. A lot." I nodded my head. Death became slightly less painful as it happened over and over again, but there was no forgetting how immensely painful our first few deaths were, by Toriel's hands. "Then I woke up. Back in the garden. Back at my SAVE point. I experimented for a while. Trying to save, load, reset. It wasn't all too bad if you didn't die when it happened. But the point is, that's how I know about all these things. About saving, and loading, and resetting altogether. Because I went through all of it."

Flowey stopped talking, and I realized how much effort it must have taken him to say all that. That was clearly a heartfelt confession, and I was impressed with him for talking about stuff that he clearly wanted to hide away, just like Toriel. He was never much of an open person, but this solved a couple of my questions. Not all of them, though. He seemed to know things that he never could have figured out if he was a flower. And he kept talking like he hadn't always been a flower. But what could he have been before? A human reincarnated as a flower? Perhaps a monster? The second option made some sense, so I decided to go with that guess.

"I… have something to say too," said Frisk. "I don't have Patience anymore." Over time, we had grown to think of patience like a person, a spirit following Frisk around and helping them be patient and withstand onslaughts. That's how Frisk described it, so I decided to go along with their viewpoint. We named the spirit Patience, because clearly neither Frisk nor I had the creativity to come up with an original name. So I was somewhat shocked when Frisk said they didn't have their spirit guide following them around.

"What? But you said Patience would be around forever, and you told mom that, too!"

"I lied to mom," they responded, "so we could leave. Patience left the moment I decided to follow you guys and leave the Ruins. Because leaving wasn't a very patient decision. I mean, I still have the toy knife and faded ribbon, but I don't think they'll help me anymore. Here, I'll put the in the backpack. I guess we'll keep them. Maybe we'll come across Patience again." I doubted it, but it was probably a good idea to keep it in case. It felt wrong to just throw them away. "We...we should keep going. Asgore's castle is still pretty far away."

"Yeah," I agreed. We found a small patch of dirt at the end of the long corridor, and even though we had just left, we decided to wait there for a bit so Flowey could stay in the dirt and get nutrients. The three of us took a little nap, and when we woke up, Flowey looked more energized and ready to continue. We hadn't seen dirt in so long that I was happy we had found some here. I hoped we'd find more patches of dirt as we continued through the Underground. But there wasn't much time to waste. Together, we opened the large purple door leading to the rest of the Underground.

As the three of us stepped out into the world beyond, the door instantly shut behind us. I marveled at how powerful the magic must be, for it to close such a large door, all on it's own, with that kind of speed. There was no wonder the monsters outside the Ruins couldn't open it. In fact, it was something of a miracle that all three of us managed to walk through the doorway before the door slammed shut behind us. As I turned back to see it, I noticed what Toriel had called the Delta Rune, the symbol of the monster kingdom and royalty. In fact, the delta run was prevalent on most of the doors in the Ruins, including the first entrance we walked through to meet Flowey. The Delta Rune was also prominent on Toriel's red and black clothing in the very front, where everyone could see it. I wondered why she was wearing the Royal symbol if she wasn't a member of the royalty. Unless, perhaps, she was a member of the royalty. But that seemed impossible. Toriel being the queen? Then, I realized, Toriel had only talked about "the king", never mentioning the queen or any other possible members of the royal family. Perhaps Toriel was in fact the queen. It was too bad that I noticed all of this after we left the Ruins, so I couldn't ask her questions. And I wasn't willing to load just for the opportunity to ask mom a couple questions.

As I turned around again to look at the scenery and not the door, I noticed two things. The first, and most prominent, was that there was a barrier of spikes five feet tall right in front of us. The spikes extended not only from the bottom but from the top, attached to a makeshift ceiling that hung over us and blocked the view above. Thankfully, the room was still lit, due to magic. But I couldn't see anything but the metal ceiling above us and the teeth-like spikes in front of us. I tried punching the ceiling and inspecting the spikes for any gap Flowey could fit through, but I found nothing. And if we loaded our SAVE file, we'd have the same dilemma. There was only one good way to put it: we were trapped, and there was no escape.

The second thing I noticed was the bone-chilling cold. I curled my arms around myself in an attempt to keep warm, and Flowey seemed to do the same with his petals. Thankfully, Toriel had jackets which she had knitted, but Flowey didn't have any protection from the cold. Furthermore, permafrost beneath the ground prevented Flowey from digging and tunneling under the snow. According to Flowey, there were no cracks he could slip through, unlike in the Ruins. So that trick wouldn't work anymore. The cold made it hard to think, and I wanted to hear Frisk's theme song, but I knew we couldn't afford to be seen.

"This…" began Flowey, "this wasn't here before. Back when I was in Snowdin, sure there were death traps and all, but there wasn't just a big barrier blocking the door to the Ruins! I mean, it's pretty smart, now a human can't get in or out of here, but still, this feels somewhat unfair. But then again, King Asgore doesn't play nice. We can't expect anything but unfair puzzles and death traps here. And this is the most deadly death trap I've seen in this place. Unless someone comes here, we'll freeze to death. Or maybe we'll die of starvation, whichever one comes first. And worse off, if someone comes here, I don't know what they'll do. Probably kill us, seeing as we're humans. Basically, we have no chance of escaping. Maybe we should just load and go back to mom's house."

"No," said Frisk and I simultaneously. I looked at them in shock; I wasn't expecting them to agree with me. But we both knew that Flowey, at the least, wouldn't be happy living there. And neither of us were willing to living in a world where Flowey, our guide and companion throughout our journey, wasn't happy. Plus, I was getting bored of living in the same small house in such a small, isolated place. Frisk probably would have gotten bored even faster if they hadn't had Patience with them. So in any case, neither of us wanted to go back.

Flowey looked surprised. "Really?" He was silent for a moment, probably thinking about why we were doing this. "Tha—thanks. I didn't know you cared about me that much." He looked guilty, probably because he wasn't telling us everything when we cared for him so much. But we wasn't offering any more information, and I didn't want to ask him about stuff he didn't want to talk about. Then, I realized there was a way to make him feel better. I could make him feel valuable—no, I could make him valuable—by asking for help on something that he knew about, but we didn't. And I had the perfect idea for what I was going to ask him.

"Flowey?" I said. "Do you have any idea who might be in Snowdin. Like who might try to kill us?"

He thought for a bit. "Well, there's the Royal Guard, which is almost entirely composed of dogs. Usually I can distract them with sticks, but recently they got training from Undyne to ignore that weakness, so I really have no idea how you would deal with them. Then there's Papyrus, Undyne's second-in-command. He's a skeleton, pretty tall, and decked out in red and black. He's one of the most vicious monsters in the Underground: perhaps even second, with the first being Undyne, of course. He takes joy in watching other people suffer, and from what I've seen, he likes to… toy with his prey before killing them." Frisk looked ready to throw up, and I wasn't feeling too great either. "But hopefully, we won't get captured by hi—"

Flowey was cut short by the noise of the spikes from the top and bottom retracting. The light almost glared us, and when my vision cleared I realized that Flowey had given a pretty good description. His mouth was twisted into a jagged smile, and his left eye looked to have a scar over it, if skeletons could scar. He was wearing a red scarf, and had a black top that protruded out from either side near his shoulders. His spine was visible, and he was wearing red spiky gloves, and an equally spiky belt with a golden skull on it. His black pants were engulfed by huge red boots, which spiked up at the top. This was Papyrus, and he looked about ready to kill us.