You get to your feet, gripping the stick tightly in your right hand. In the left is the knife that Sans left you. Your arm trembles a bit as you consider abandoning it. But it isn't your knife to abandon, and...there are still monsters down here, all of which would happily kill you. Reluctantly you tuck it into one of the belt loops of your pants and pull the hem of your sweater down over it.

'Only for emergencies.' You tell yourself, biting your lip and taking a cautious, first step forward. In front of you is a drop, and not far to your left is another. As well as your right. When you begin to walk in the seemingly only safe direction, you find yourself stepping into a steep, wet puddle.

Giving a gasp of confusion you scramble back, shaking out your now-soaked bare feet and furrowing your brow. The cooling sensation is a relief, but you're very confused. You don't remember there being any sorts of bodies of water in Hotland.

Reluctantly you move forward again, tapping the end of the stick to the side of the puddle until you can hear it knocking against solid ground. Deciding it's just a weird spill, you advance again. There's no water this time, but the moment your foot transfers from dirt to solid ground, there's a loud buzzer. You jump back, startled.

You stand there for a moment, bewildered, as you try and reason out where you could possibly be. You know that you've heard that noise before, and that it means something bad, but...you can't remember. All your memories are blurred behind the days and days worth of time spent fighting Sans.

In spite of the loud sound it made, nothing happened to you when you stepped forward, and so you reluctantly do so again. You wince at the noise but quickly move on. For a moment, the smell of burning metal fades away and is replaced by something...citrus like-

You give a startled shriek as you suddenly slip, feet falling out from under you as you slide forward into another puddle. Another spill? No, there's...there's something stranger going on. Leaning forward, you feel around in front of you, until your hand reaches the end of the water, and you notice that there's a slightly raised wall surrounding it. It's in some sort of...shallow pool. Shifting onto your knees, you follow the edge's pattern, and realize that you're sitting in a perfect square.

This is familiar. Your shoulders tense up as you begin dragging up the memory - Mettaton, a sneering Alphys, a mocking crowd, a timer ticking down to your demise as flames licked at your heels…

...this is the Puzzle.

You allow yourself a moment of panic. You don't remember the rules, but even if you did, what good would it do you? You can't see the tile colors. Getting through this was hard enough when you had your sight, but trying to solve it blind? It's imposs-...

Gritting your teeth, you shift your jaw and stand up. No. You won't think of that word. It's going to be hard, but you can do it. Trial and error will have to be your strategy.

You take in a deep breath and square your shoulders, tapping your stick persistently against the edges of the pool. Ahead of you smells like...oranges. To your left and right, there are harmless platforms. You put your hand on them, and they don't buzz. You pick your right and step up onto the tile. The water soaked into your clothes evaporates almost immediately in the heat.

Another move forward, however, gives you an unpleasant shock. Literally. A jolt of electricity is sent through your body, causing you to cry out in pain. Right. Those tiles. You forgot how painful they were.

A weary sigh threatens to escape, but you crush it down. Trial and error...you can do this.

In the end, you're crawling through the puzzle. Your stick can't reliably tell you much about your terrain, and so you have to feel ahead of you. Is it slippery? Wet? Loud? Electric?

You get shocked more than once, and you get your hand bitten by piranhas at least three times. By the time your palm touches the dirt covered ground, you're exhausted. A cry of relief escapes you when you finally stand up and find yourself free of that horror.

That took hours..several, painful hours. You just want to go to sleep. You realize wearily that you haven't had any rest since the last reload. Adrenaline was keeping you fueled for a while, but now you feel practically dead.

Would Sans get mad if you found somewhere to rest…? He never said you couldn't…but you don't have enough money for the Hotel, and you can't just fall asleep anywhere. Clearly the only safe place for you to sleep will be back at the Hall with Sans.

Biting down on your lip, you begin slowly trudging forward. It's going to be a long, lonely walk…

"...Frisk!"

Jumping, you wheel around, searching for the source of that familiar voice.

"Frisk! Over here!"

Eventually you pinpoint the noise, and you drop to your knees, finding yourself resting in front of a yellow-petaled plant, "F-Flowe-y!" You gasp, struggling to attempt a hug.

"Frisk! I'm so glad I found you! What...what happened to your eyes..? Why are you blindfolded?"

You lean back, tilting your head down. Flowey doesn't know sign language, although he's learned some from your time spent together. Still, it isn't enough to tell him what's happened to you since he left. All you can manage with him is 'yes' and 'no'.

"Did...did Sans do that to you…?"

You give a short, concise nod. Flowey gives a quiet gasp of horror. You wish you could explain to him that you deserve it.

"Oh no...oh no, Frisk, I'm so sorry, I should have been there for you...! I could have helped!"

You feel a leaf on the back of your hand, and you gently rest your other palm over it, shaking your head. There was nothing he could have done.

"...heh. That's silly, isn't it? I wasn't much help…"

You try to give him a reassuring smile, to silently tell him that he helped you so much along your journey.

"I just kept dying, making you feel guilty...it was probably for the best that you took me out of it."

You pause, lifting your head up and furrowing your brow. How does he know about…?

"...I...I should start being honest with you, Frisk. You're my best friend, after all! Best friends shouldn't keep secrets from each other." You hear the flower give a sigh, "I've...always known about the RESETs, Frisk."

Your lips part slightly in shock, and you lean back. He remembered? He remembered every time he died…?

"I pretended that I didn't, so that you wouldn't feel bad for me! You had enough trouble trying to take care of yourself. But...I guess you aren't as good at that as I thought you could be…"

You shift in your seat, pulling your knees up to your chin and putting your forehead down. No, you really can't take care of yourself. You've tried so many times…

"You've been RESETing so much, Frisk. I tried to find a way to get to you, but every time I came close, I ended up appearing back where I started, outside the CORE. There wasn't anything I could do." The pain in your friend's voice is obvious. You reach out to try and reassure him, stroking his petals with your fingers. "I knew I had to wait until you came back out here before I could do anything, and I didn't know if that would ever happen, but…! You're here! We're together again."

Smiling, you nod, taking in a deep breath straightening out your legs. Now that he's here to help you, getting through the Hall and back to the surface will be much easier.

"...I'm just sorry that you couldn't beat Sans on your own." Flowey mumbles.

You consider telling him that you did, once, but then you would have to explain why you brought him back, and...you don't know if he would understand. So you look away instead.

"...and...if you can't get past him, then...how would you get past Asgore? It's...it's hopeless, Frisk. You can't do it."

Shocked, you look back at the flower. You've only ever heard encouragement from him before, but now...now he's telling you to give up?

"F-Flo..Flow-ey.." You start, expression contorting in pain.

"It's not your fault, Frisk!" Flowey rushes to reassure you, "You're just not strong enough, but...but if we were together...our combined power, Frisk, would be enough to defeat Sans and Asgore!" His voice lifts a bit, and you tilt your head, frowning, "I know you think I'm still weak, but...I took a monster's SOUL, Frisk! For you!"

You lean back in horror, mouth agape - Flowey killed someone?

"Don't...don't look at me like that! I had to do it! You weren't doing anything! You were just dying over and over!" He shouts, and you can hear the tears in his voice, "It's just one monster, Frisk. And now I have a SOUL! Aren't you happy for me?"

'Just one monster'...? Just one life, corrupt as it may be, doesn't deserve to be stolen away. You shake your head at him, looking away and scrunching up your nose as the threat of more tearless crying begins to build up.

Flowey is quiet for a few minutes. You can tell you've upset him, but you can't just tell him it's okay. You can't assure him that his actions were just.

"...I understand, Frisk." He says softly, "You still don't understand how this world works...it must be a lot nicer on the surface, huh?"

Wiping your nose on the sleeve of your sweater, you stand up on shaking legs to fight the urge to fall asleep, "Mhm.."

"...I want to see what it's like up there, Frisk." Flowey says eagerly.

You hear an unfamiliar sound...like a sort of shuffling. It concerns you, and you take a step back. Immediately a vine snaps around your wrist, causing you to drop your stick and stumble back forward.

"Even though I have a SOUL, now, it isn't powerful enough on it's own...it takes a human SOUL, too…"

You start digging in your heels, giving a frightened gasp as you realize your 'friend's' intentions. You try to pull off the vine, but it only clings tighter.

"I have to get out of here, Frisk. I can't...I can't take it anymore! I want to see the sun. I want to see the stars. I don't want to have to fear for my life all the time!"

"N-n-no!" You cry out, falling to your knees as more vines wrap around your legs and pull you down, "N-no! No-o!"

"Please, Frisk, just...just let me have this! We'll exist together, just inside one body! You'll get used to it-"

"No!" You scream, your voice cutting out as your neck is tightly noosed, your windpipe slowly being crushed. You start to gasp for air.

"It's okay, Frisk…" Flowey reassures you in a timid voice, "...I'll make it quick. I promise."

Your head begins to grow light. You can feel yourself beginning to fade away. You can't die - you can't die you can't. You refuse!

Almost acting entirely of its own will, your free hand grabs around the handle of Sans's knife. Frantically you slash forward, feeling the blade slice through...something. You don't know what. But it causes Flowey to cry out in shock and pain.

"Frisk! Wh...n-no! No, put that away!"

You sense another vine trying to grab it away from you, but you jerk your arm away, bringing down the weapon on the restraint holding your other wrist. You follow the sound of his voice, crawling forward and kicking out at the limbs that try to wrap around your legs. You won't die. You won't die you WON'T-

Your arm swings forward again, and this time, you know exactly what you've hit. The abruptly silenced scream tells you enough. You hold still, trembling as you feel the vines crumble into dust around you.

You don't even cry. What's the point?

He'll be back, when you reload again.

It doesn't matter. Nothing does.