Chapter 10: Mutilated Abominations

AN: Hey, sorry I made you all wait so long for this one! Life got busy/stressful again. Also, thank you to all my lovely reviewers, especially Zerodius for your writing advice and ScarkitTheMadaNeko for your review biscuits!

You never imagined it would be so nostalgic to see Snowdin again. Excited, you looked around at the homely looking buildings as you walked through the town. Flowey became impatient with you several times, ordering you to speed up. You were witty and smart mouthed with him, but nonetheless ran to catch up with him.

Once you got to Sans and Papyrus' house, you stopped. "Is he here?" You demanded.

Flowey turned and sighed, annoyed. "No. Can we go now? I'm fed up with your stalling."

"Fuck you," you hissed under your breath, continuing to make your way towards waterfall.

Oddly enough, it wasn't long before Flowey paused, the blizzard path where you fought Papyrus before him. You heard him panting.

"Feeling guilty?" You said cheekily, having a hunch that he too had faced off against Papyrus on this very ground.

"Fuck off," he growled. It seemed he had warmed up fairly quickly to your new manner of communicating with each other.

"Fine," you shrugged, and continued travelling with him.

As you followed close behind him through waterfall, pace steady but quick, you wondered where he was taking. It took you until halfway through Waterfall to gather the courage to ask. "Flowey," you said, clearing your throat. "Can I ask you something?"

"What?" he grumbled, not bothering to look back.

You swallowed nervously. "How did you even do it?"

"Do what?" You noticed he sounded slightly less annoyed.

"You know." A long pause. "Papyrus."

He laughed lightly at your nervousness. "I can go back in time a little. Not enough to completely change the course of time, but just enough to manipulate small events." An exhale. "But it was enough."

You both went silent, lost in thought. The entrance to Hotland was near before you spoke again.

"Where are we going?"

"Don't push it, human," Flowey sneered.

Luckily, you didn't have to wait much longer to get an answer to that. Before long you were at the entrance of Alphys' lab. Surprisingly, the building was still white and shiny, fitting of royalty despite everything.

"In," the flower ordered.

You entered and he prodded you to the elevator door. Before entering, you looked back and gave him a quizzical look. "Down?"

Flowey didn't respond, just shoved you in and stared you down as you both descended into the laboratory. Looking over at him, you saw that his face was emotionless, expression stern and concentrated. You mused over what he could be thinking.

"Out," he commanded when the elevator reached the bottom.

You jumped over the ledge onto the dark green tiles. Once more, Flowey lead you, dim, musty halls winding on. On the walls, you expected to see Flowey's origin story as once documented by Alphys as what you assumed was an official record. However, the panels were scratched out, wires exposed by what seemed to be a sharp, slashing instrument. You looked from the destroyed panels to Flowey, walking beside you, facing forward with the same empty look on his face. Remembering he was created here, you debated how many times he had visited this place in his year of solitude. You saw how the damage could have been done by his harsh, battle-fit leaves.

You reached the area where three experimentation tables laid side by side. Past the beds were three sinks. You recalled pulling a key out of one. Parallel to the sinks was a counter, various drawers open and supplies spread askew across the countertop. "This is your workspace," Flowey stated in a matter-of-fact fashion. "You will find a way for me to either manipulate time completely or to get me the fuck out of this prison, or Sans will be killed and you, too, will be trapped here with me." He grew uncomfortably close you your face. "Forever," he snarled, teeth close enough to bite you.

"Have you ever tried saying please?" You challenged him.

"No," he said, face back to its hardened neutral normal from before. "Now get to work."

Trying not to think of the obnoxious Flower boring his eyes into the back of your head, you turned to the tools on the tabletop before you. You had no idea what any of them were, nor any idea where to start. You sifted through the drawers as well. Haphazardly strewn among various syringes, measuring equipment, various thingamabobs, and other scientific equipment, were several gardening and monster medicinal tools (of which you recognized from your several stays in the hospital at Papyrus' side). You knew not what any of them were.

"Where do I start?" You asked, throwing up your hands in defeat. Sighing, Flowey gestured to several groups of tools, naming items and procedures that flew completely over your head. You interrupted him loudly, shouting, "I don't know what any of that is supposed to mean!"

Flowey huffed, frustrated. "Some savior."

"It's not my fault I was never a royal scientist," you crossed your arms, close to snapping at the arrogant flower. "Why don't you ask Sans?"

Flowey squinted at you. "Are you mad?"

"I'm just saying he might know more about this than you think." You recalled the discovery you made in his basement, as well as his comments on time travel in the car with Papyrus, and said confidently, "Please."

After thinking for a long moment, Flowey glared quizzically at you and nodded. "You better not try and collaborate with him. I can see everything you do, hear everything you say."

"Of course." You droned, anticipating seeing Sans. You didn't actually think that would work.

After glaring again at you intensely, he vanished into the ground, leaving you to ponder how he could travel like that if there was no soil beneath him before he returned momentarily with the skeleton, wrapped in vines and unconscious.

"Sans!" You shrieked, running to him. Summoning his soul, you examined his condition. None of his bones seemed to be broken and his 1 HP was very intact, however his soul hardly glimmered at all. "What did you do to him?" you howled.

"Calm down, he's fine," Flowey chuckled flippantly, releasing the vines around him and leaving him to fall to the ground. You caught him clumsily, shifting hastily to support his weight in your arms and of your chest, which was a bit awkward. He was heavier than you would have thought a skeleton monster to be. "The others watched over him, mostly to make sure he didn't escape."

"Others? What others?" You gasped, head snapping up.

Flowey made a flippant motion towards you with a leaf. "Shut up and wake him."

Your concern for Sans outweighed your desire for answers. Gently, you shook the unconscious monster in your arms. When he did not awaken, you laid him softly on one of the experimentation tables. "Sans," you coaxed him. "Wake up!"

Slowly, almost hesitantly, his eyes brightened, blissfully unaware at first. Alarm set in shortly and he looked around until his then alert gaze fell on you. "Frisk?"

"Yeah, it's me. You're okay now." You waited a few seconds for him to take in his surroundings before you bombarded him with your worry. "Did he hurt you?"

"Not much, I'll be fine," he said. You were both relieved and angry. "But…" he started before cutting off and shuttering nervously.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" You asked immediately.

"No, nothing. Just…" with a hateful glance at Flowey, who looked at the both of you impatiently, his eyes went dim. "There are other monsters, but they're not 'monsters,' ya know?"

You didn't understand what he was saying, but he seemed shaken up, and if was enough to scare Sans, then you were scared too. "What are they?" you asked nobody in particular.

Flowey smirked but didn't answer. "Get to work," he ordered instead.

"He wants us to find him a way out, preferably by manipulating time," you explained to Sans, "But I don't know the first place to start."

Sans nodded. "Right. I'll need to see what Alphys left me to work with first." He looked to Flowey. "Am I allowed to traverse the lab?"

Ignoring his sarcasm, Flowey said he could. "But remember," he warned, "I can see everything." With that caveat, he vanished into the ground without a trace.

Even though you knew he was probably watching you, you felt a bit more at ease without him watching you directly over your shoulder. "Do you know how to do this?" you inquired, toying with a tool on the table.

"Yes," Sans replied, taking the tool from your hand and setting it down. "I worked with the old royal scientist." He picked up a few things from the table after sifting through the drawers and began walking down the corridors.

Following close behind him, you went through several halls and an elevator until you reached a room with multiple refrigerators lining the wall. You watched him open one and pull out a glass, cylindrical container containing a bright red crystal, glowing and pulsating in a way that reminded you of a soul. He handed it to you carefully and took out an airtight container filled halfway with opaque green liquid.

"What is that?" You questioned, staring down at your hands in awe.

"It's a core, the main power source of one of Doctor Gaster's experiments. It runs on determination."

"And that?" You pointed to the liquid.

"Another experiment. Gaster started it and Alphys had nearly perfected it. It's called 'currengy,' gel infused with electricity and magic. Very dangerous. Oh, I almost forgot!" Sans gently transferred the canister to you and turned to another fridge. A puff of smoke came out when he opened it and he pulled out a red, matte orb. "This," he began triumphantly, smiling mischievously, "is the Legendary Artifact."

You recalled seeing it before. "What does it do?"

Sans' eyes glimmered as he answered, "Everything."

You gawked for a moment longer before Sans tucked the Artifact away in his pocket and gestured to the doorway with a nod of his head.

Just as the two of you turned to go back, a high pitched, distorted chuckling sound rang through the room. Eyes wide, you stepped closer to Sans.

"What," you whispered, "Was. That?"

When Sans didn't respond after a moment, you looked up at his face to see him staring, panic clear in the strain of his lips. You began to worry it was the same 'others' that had made him so shaky before and grew nervous.

"Sans?" you said, a bit louder.

That seemed to snap him out of his trance. "Get behind me," he snapped, immediately extending his arms. You obeyed instantly.

Not a moment after you snuck under his arm did two deformed monsters enter the room in a mix of a float and a fall. They reminded you slightly of the monsters you had seen in the true lab before, but somewhat more disturbing and darker than the others were sad. You squinted past Sans' sweatshirt, recognizing them as Astigmatism and Tsunderplane. They both looked to be in great amounts of pain, Astigmatism's cheeky smirk resembling more of an angry eyed, scowling expression. Its body seemed to be carved into, arms shredded, flaps of fleshy bits melting into each other as if someone had peeled a drooling potato unevenly. It's legs appeared to be somehow sharper and pointier than before, but it stumbled, using its hands to poorly balance itself. You assumed it managed to drift sloppily every few feet by magic. Tsunderplane, on the other hand, was dragging its tail end on the ground, turbines making sputtering noises each bound it took, engines whirring and going nowhere. Its wings looked singed beyond repair, but upon closer examination you saw small sections where there lived circular 'corrosions' for lack of a better term. Some were scaly and bubbly, others resembled tentacles growing out of the actual wings, dripping odd, moldy colored slime. They both reeked of acid.

"Flowey!" Sans yelled, startling you. "FLOWEY!" he screamed when his call remained unanswered. "If you want our help, GET US OUT OF HERE!"

"Sans, maybe they can still be reasoned with," you offered, tugging on his sleeve which he promptly pulled away.

"No," he insisted. "They aren't monsters anymore." You couldn't help but be a bit offended by his judgmental comment. After all this, you assumed he of all people should know that there is more to being alive than meets the eye.

Flowey's evil laugh followed the gross squelching noises the abominations made, and the hairs on the back of your neck rose. This surely was one of the more creepy days you had had in awhile.

"You're right, they're not monsters." You heard his voice and looked around just in time to spot him popping up in front of them.

"What happened to them?" you wondered aloud, half disgusted, half sympathetic.

"Well, since you asked these are some of the monsters that stayed in the underground!"

"What did you do to them?" Sans growled, nudging you behind his back again.

Snorting with laughter, Flowey glanced back at them with an expression you could only describe as pride. "Why, I made them bodies befitting of their personalities. Simply cruel, these monsters. So much that they're almost human. They look vile enough to be, don't you agree?" You were more than used to biting your tongue by now. Flowey continued when you remained silent. "Anyway, I tried to take their souls, but since it didn't work, I simply tried everything I could think of instead, even if I didn't know what it did. I could've probably made do with just the scalpels, but their will to hurt me seemed pretty strong, so I figured why stop there?"

You could feel the anger coming off of Sans in waves. "You," he hissed, "Are worse than any human or monster will ever be. You're a brute!"

Flowey bowed, thin body shaking with spurts of chuckles. From behind him, Astigmatism tried to take a swing at him, but Flowey receded back into the ground before it could make contact and it spiraled into the ground, head colliding with tile. Flowey reappeared in front of it's head, this time facing the two abominations. "Okay, that's enough from the both of you. Get out of their way and don't bother them, but keep an eye out in case they try to escape."

Astigmatism made a gurgling upset noise directed at the flower, who tsked in response. "Now now, you and your friends won't get out unless these two can get their work done." With that Astigmatism glared with it's large eye and then resigned, making another distorted howl as it tripped around and crept away. Tsunderplane let out a whine (In it, you could've sworn you heard 'yes, senpai') and followed the other abomination.

"That's horrible," you choked, creeping out from behind Sans, whose arms lowered when they retreated. "There aren't any more of them, are there?"

"Oh, there's a few more," Flowey ticked off on his leaf as he listed, "Onionsan, Gyftrot, Doggo, and that really pissed off dummy."

You put your hand over your mouth, hiding a gasp. "You savage," Sans said, glaring as he pushed past Flowey to continue his work in the lab. "You're lucky my brother is at stake, or I would have killed you by now."

"I'd like to see you try." Flowey responded while staring at you. He disappeared and left you alone in the room, shivering from the cold and the tension. Hurriedly, you ran after Sans to try and help with his work, arms wrapped tightly around yourself.