Chara

I saw his jawline set stubbornly as I said the words. "And why, exactly, should I give you your answers?" His left eye was glowing again. It reflected eerily upon his face, faintly illuminating the area around us.

"Because," I said, carefully articulating each syllable, "If you don't, I will RESET. And RESET. And RESET. Until, that is, I get some answers out of you. So, unless you want to be stuck in this room till the end of time, I'd suggest cooperating."

His right eye seemingly disappeared and he thrust his arm forwards. I gave a brief yell of surprise as I was lifted off the ground. I struggled, unable to move. I felt a presence latching onto my soul and I attempted, with little success, to free it. I tried to RESET, but Sans seemed to be sapping my determination.

"Sans, stop," a high-pitched voice said. "This isn't Frisk!"

"Frisk had her soul," the skeleton snarled. He raised his arm, lifting me high into the air. "She's close enough."

"Sans!" the small, apparently sentient and mobile flower from before ran out from the darkness. "You came back in time to stop Frisk from absorbing her soul, remember? Killing her now is pointless!"

"She can't kill everyone if she's dead!"

"You're a fool!" spat the flower. "She was dead when Frisk came, too! Now stop it!" He shouted the last two words.

"I'll teach her not to mess with me! She'll never dare attempt genocide!" He tensed his arm, preparing to slam it down to the ground, when a bright flash lit up from where the flower was standing. A moment later, an immense creature appeared in his place, running out between Sans and I. The creature looked like something from a nightmare, with a grotesque animal skull-looking head, thick, plant-like arms and a tangle of what appeared to me wires of some sort above his head.

"ENOUGH!" the creature roared, the word reverberating loudly around the room. "I WON'T LET YOU HURT CHARA!" Sans lowered his arm and I fell to the floor, gratefully noting that the skeleton had let go of my soul. But before I could relish in my freedom, the creature vanished and I was up in the air again. I noticed that the flower was back in the corner of the room. Sans dropped me to the floor painfully.

I looked up at the skeleton. "The hell was that for?" Before giving him a chance to respond, I turned towards the flower. "The hell was that? You can RESET?"

"That's what happens when a flower absorbs six human souls," the flower said. "And, to be technically correct, it's not RESETing. It's loading a SAVE."

I blinked. "You make it sound like we're in a video game." The flower smiled and gave me a wink. "Who are you, anyways?"

"I'm Flowey!" he said, seeming unnaturally happy. "Flowey the flower!"

"No sh-"

"You may know me better as Asriel," Flowey cut me off.

The room grew very quiet very fast. Flowey and I stared at each other for a minute. "Is that why… you were so keen on protecting me?"

Flowey winked again. I had never known Asriel to do that. It must be a recent development. "We're still inseparable, even after all these years," he said, then frowned momentarily.

"Anyways, uh, sorry about that, Chara," Sans said, speaking quickly, so quickly I could barely understand him. "In… in the future, someone with a strikingly similar soul energy did some things that I would rather not talk about and… you… you threatening to RESET over and over again… triggered something. Anyways, sorry about all of that."

I tilted my head. "You tried to kill me," I said flatly.

"Well, on the bright side, I didn't succeed this time."

"Pardon me?" I asked. "Have you succeeded in the past?"

Sans grinned at me. "Well, in the future, actually."

"Um… why, exactly? Does this have something to do with the certain point in time which you don't enjoy talking about? Which you came back to stop from happening?"

Sans grimaced. "Well… yes." He hesitated. "Congratulations, Flowey, you've just been nominated to tell the kid. Later, you two." He finger-gunned at me (it seemed to be a habit of his,) and vanished.

"God damn the skeleton!" the flower shrieked. He ran forwards, pacing around the spot where Sans had been standing a minute earlier. "Of course he would leave me to deal with all the messy work. Of course he would run away when things got a little bit uncomfortable. Of course he would leave me to clean up his mess!"

"Asriel!" I shouted. "Stop! Calm down."

The flower froze. "Please… please don't call me that."

I shrugged. "Why not? You said that you were him."

"Er… let's put it this way. Would you appreciate it if I called you Frisk?"

"Um… No, but I don't even know who-"

"Forget that. Bad analogy. Just… I am not entirely the same entity as Asriel. I have his memories, that's all." He hesitated, then looked me in the eye. "You… you are still my very best friend."

"Um… thanks? So, uh, Flowey… what the hell was the skeleton talking about?"

Flowey took a deep breath. Apparently talking, moving flowers have to breath. "Listen, Chara, you're not going to like this. At all. Are you sure you want to know?"

I waved a hand tiredly. "Just tell me, flower."

"Very well," he said, beginning to pace across the floor. "After I absorbed your soul and crossed through the barrier-"

"Hold up. You just said that you weren't the same entity as Asriel."

"Uh, yes, well… I see the memory from his perspective. Just bear with me, okay?" I nodded reluctantly. "Anways," he continued, "The humans thought that I had killed you. They… they attacked me. You tried to make me fight back… I refused. I crossed the barrier back into the Underground. Hours later, I died. My dust spread across the golden flowers that had sprouted in the castle garden… then I became your truly. The king, wracked with grief and filled with a thirst for vengeance, declared that any other humans who fell must die. He would store their SOULs, and then, when he had enough, he would absorb them and blast through the barrier, freeing everyone.

"Now, fast forwards fifty years. Did Sans tell you about Frisk?" I nodded, and Flowey continued. "Right. So he told you about the whole genocide spheal yhadda yhadda yhadda?" I hesitated for a second, then nodded. I've also seen her kill everyone I ever cared about. "Anyways, that's where we were right before we got this idea to come back and persuade you not to commit suicide."

"Why, exactly, is that related?"

Flowey hesitated. "W-well… after Asriel died, you SOUL… evaporated. For a while you hung out with me, then… then one day, you left. I... I did not know where you went. All I know, is that one day, when Frisk fell down Mt. Ebott… you and her had joined together.

"Now. Backtracking somewhat. Do your best not to judge me, alright? When you died, I had taken your SAVE and RESET ability. Even as our SOULs separated, I retained that power. At first, I tried to use it for good. I tried to help everybody. Then… I got bored. I decided, one day… that being the good guy had grown old. I was lonely, Chara. Nobody would bother talking to plant. And nobody… nobody had ever understood me since your SOUL left. I decided… I decided I would kill them, Chara." I do not know if he saw the disgusted, horrified expression that crossed my face, but if he did, he didn't address it. "Fifty years of loneliness perverts you into a horrible killing machine. You… you understood. You may not now, Chara, but fifty years into the future, you understood. That's why Sans attacked you. He… you reminded him of what Frisk did on her genocide run." Flowey gave a dark laugh. "You see, Chara…

"You were the one who pushed Frisk to become an evil, murderous killing machine."