FRISK

LV 1

HP ?/40

G 10

It's just a dream. I'm just dreaming.

Subject 1 and 2 don't exist anymore, it's just Sans and Papyrus. No, that's not it. What happened? They're not- they've always been- The point is it's a dream- that the project has been over for a long time. They have friends now. They're people now. No, they were always people, but- now I am forced to acknowledge it? Is that it?

I can't wake up. I can't wake up, even knowing that it's a dream, even knowing that literally all I need to do is open my eyes and it will stop.

Someone help me, please.

Even a scream will do, if it will wake me. As much as I hate it.

How many times did he want to give up? Was it only because I gave him someone to cling to that he didn't, that he kept enduring it? Was that even crueler than not giving him anything at all? I needed him to never give up, but that was all he ever wanted to do. It's not something I didn't expect. I didn't do much about it. I knew he'd never be able to escape as long as I was around.

I liked that kind of power.

No-

I-

Wake up, wake up...

Waterfall was pretty different without any light. The caverns were actually pretty creepy, with only the small amount that Frisk had to see them with. It was also difficult to navigate, so again the child was grateful to have Flowey there. He seemed to know Waterfall like the back of his hand. Perhaps he would spend time here pretending to be an Echo flower when not causing pain and misery to monsterkind. Not wanting to dwell on that, Frisk shook her head and kept silently moving to his directions.

Sometimes her light shined on droplets of water and it made her throat ache; when was the last time she'd even taken a drink? She hadn't needed to eat or drink in the grey world, but here it was different. Her stomach was quietly growling too. She'd even eat Papyrus' spaghetti pie gladly, at this rate. Well, she'd gladly eat it anyway.

Without realizing it, she'd begun to just stare at her shoes as she walked. Watching the circle of light that kept up without missing a beat. In it everything was the right color, at least the colors she remembered of Waterfall. Outside it, it threw gold at the grey like a regular spotlight. It was pretty cool, the way the borders could stretch just the littlest bit if she tried. Frisk wondered if this was how monsters felt when they used magic.

"-Frisk," The tremor in Flowey's voice brought her back up, brought her to a complete halt. "Frisk, stop."

Chara was standing in front of them, several feet away.

The ghastly hole that was her mouth was closed, back to the resting smile. Even so her eyes were still big and pitch black, filling up far too much of her face like on an insect. She blinked, slowly, her lids also looking swollen as fat black tears dripped down her pale face. Frisk's own eyes itched and she scratched them frantically, fearing that she too would-

But her eyes were fine. It was just that when she opened them again, Chara was an inch from her face.

"AAAAAAAH!" She didn't know if it was her or Flowey who screamed, or both. She stepped backwards several paces, almost losing her balance when she did. She could feel Flowey wrapping around her more tightly, his vines and roots feeling prickly. His lower thorns were poking through her sweater.

"Ḥ̼̗̳ͅą ̮͓̫̥ͅͅh͏̬͇̫͖͈a̲̞͓͈̘̺͠ ͔̳̲̯͍̰̰͢h͓a̷̟ ̶̭͕̫̣̦͙ha ̟͖̳͉h͍͕͕a̧͕ h͞a̙̖͚." Chara was laughing at them, opening her lips just a crack. Sludge dribbled out, so she closed them again and wiped her mouth. Without moving her lips again she said, tilting her head, "You got back up, Frisk. I knew you would."

She only did because Flowey forced her to. "...H... hi." She said. Her heart beat furiously and she looked around, wishing that she could see ahead or behind just a little bit more. "Can you tell me... where..."

"No." Chara took another step forward, and Frisk took another step backward. "But you see what I mean, right? About the awful memories?"

The other girl didn't respond.

Chara made yet another step. This time Frisk stood her ground. Chara held out her hand. "Give me the flower."

From beside her ear, she heard a gentle little whimper. Instinctively she reached out a hand, as if to press Flowey closer to her body, and she firmly shook her head at the creature in front of them.

So instead Chara said with a smile, "Asriel, get over here."

"N... no." The voice that sounded in Frisk's ear was so soft, so familiar, that it caused a sharp pain to shoot from her throat into her heart. She huffed, struggling to keep breathing. Flowey inched away from her ear. "I... I heard everything! Alice, y-you were going to let her erase me..."

Going rigid, the little girl's smile drooped. But then she recovered. "I'm sorry Asriel, but I can't think selfishly at a time like this," she said, taking a few steps forward. Frisk was unable to stand her ground any longer, risking being within reach of that tiny hand, so she took several more steps back. She could feel Flowey trembling on her shoulder. The smile in front of her was making her feel sick, now, as a voice came out of it. "Don't worry. Even when no one remembers that you existed, I'll still keep the promise that we made."

Promise?

She didn't have time to ask. Flowey's voice snapped back to the awful one that she remembered, the rasp that he used at his most transparent, "I HATE YOU!"

Chara laughed bitterly. "Well golly gee Asriel I already knew that, you stupid whiny crybaby!"

"Go away!" Frisk shouted, putting her hands protectively around the being by her head. "I just want to bring everyone back home!"

"Give me the flower, Frisk."

"No!"

"Give him to me."

"Stop it!"

"H̟̦̉̉͡à͞ņ̠̬̼̗d̼̹̣̗̖͈ͯͧͥ͢ ̡̘͚̩̈͑h̵̺̗̰̭̯̗iͫ̊͋̒͑m̌ͨ̊̌̏ͮ͞ ̲̫̺͇̰̰̟ͫͣo̻̝̣͔̹̩̼̿̂̏̑ͥv̷̗̮̯͛̊͊e̤ͫ́r̲̜̈."

Drooling sludge Chara ran, suddenly, to close the distance between them. Frisk uttered a scream.

Shhk!

In another second Chara's steps slowed and faltered until they stopped completely. She fell onto her knees right in front of Frisk, who- again- backed up. "Uu... uhh..?" She blinked, and when she opened her lids again her eyes were a normal brown. She looked down at herself, and Frisk and Flowey followed her eyes too.

There was a big blue spear sticking out of her stomach.

Slowly, Frisk and Flowey looked up beyond the fallen girl. Limping closer in the distance, lit by only the barest amounts of light that caught on her armor, was a familiar shape. Red hair a mess in her face, grimacing hard, and moving only with extraordinary effort.

It was Undyne.

The spear in her stomach dissolved and as the hole in her stomach healed Chara stood too, looking back at Undyne. Her voice echoed in Frisk's head. "Undyne? W... why?"

"Ge... h'way from F.. frisk..." She hissed through her teeth, through her exhaustion.

And Chara's voice became loud in all their heads. "Why are you awake?!" A barrage of blue spears flew at her and the girl shrieked, trying to dodge. One stuck into her face and another her chest. Another struck her leg and she stumbled back, twitching violently and uttering a low groan. The spears faded and the injuries began to close, but her face was twisted with pain, "You shouldn't be awake!- !"

Yet more spears pierced her body, Undyne gritting her teeth and swinging a large metal spear in the demonic child's direction. Chara screamed. "STOP!" But each time the spears vanished and her injuries started closing, more were taking their place. At last the child ran; Frisk could hear her wailing growing in intensity as she fled, disappearing as if into thin air after passing her and Flowey.

Undyne was by then only a few feet away from them. She and Frisk stared at each other for a few seconds, the warrior breathing hard and going more and more limp. The child wanted to say something like "thank you" or, much like Chara, "how are you even awake," but could find no words for what she had just witnessed. Flowey surely wasn't providing any.

Not smiling, only grimacing in pain, Undyne collapsed and fell to her knees. Frisk ran to her friend, stomach churning, and tried to keep her from falling further. Her armor was cold, and yet her scales were hot to the touch. She wasn't wounded in any way, and yet... "Careful," Frisk said faintly.

Grunting, Undyne struggled to speak clearly. "I... I didn't..."

Each word she said was accompanied by a gasp, the monster sharply inhaling. It made Frisk's throat tighten with fear, gripping her harder for whatever her meager hands were worth. Somehow, it was even worse than what had happened to Papyrus. She was conscious for it. "U-undyne-"

"D.. didn't give you... nightmares... right?"

Oh. "... ..." Unable to respond Frisk just looked at her, fighting more tears. No. She wouldn't let Undyne see. So instead, she gave a big smile, the biggest one she could muster. And as she did, she heard Undyne laugh weakly. "You're still.. m-missing your tooth... you look so... badass."

Her chest tightening, the tears coming down anyway, the child hugged her friend tight so that she wouldn't see them. "You saved me. So... I'm gonna SAVE you now, Undyne. I'll see you soon."

You reach to your SAVE file.

If the fish monster had said anything to that, then Frisk couldn't hear it. The memories of Undyne that reached her were all intense, as would be expected. From the moment she first saw her, quivering with fear, when they kind of burned her house down and she realized everything was going to be okay between them, to all the times she boisterously told her what to do. Out of anything else, her loud voice in her ears was the strongest. As she smiled big at her.

She felt safe with Undyne.

But now she was gone, and Frisk couldn't feel the cold of her armor anymore.

She sat there on her knees for a few second, wiping her face. But Flowey, growing prickly on her shoulder, gave her a nudge. "Frisk... ..." When she only moved a little bit, he hissed louder, "Get up!"

Reluctantly, slowly, Frisk stood back up. Flowey snapped, "Go! They're going to come back! Take us home!"

"No," Frisk started walking. "We have two more left."

"Are you kidding me!?" Flowey's voice was a hysterical screech. "They know where we are now! And you just sent away the only person who could help!"

Picking up her pace, the child smiled. "You have bullets, use them."

"Yeah bu-." He heaved a huge breath, even though flowers had no lungs. "Where are we even going? Is it far?"

"They're in the Core."

"We're going to die! They'll find us!"

His panic was even starting to affect her, as calm as she tried to be. Frisk started running. "Just tell me which way."

"Left! Th-then right!" To correct for the increase in speed, Flowey was holding on to her painfully tight; she was sure she was bleeding under the sweater.

That's correct; she knew this way through the cavern. It was when she was in Hotland that she was going to have trouble. She prayed to nobody in particular that she was going to make it. The huge building suddenly felt so far away.

"Why are you even wasting your time like this?" Flowey was saying in her ear. "I mean, I guess you and Smiley are friends, but that guy? That guy that tried to kill you earlier?"

Well, everyone that met her tried to kill her. All of her friends had tried, at least once. And even the ones that didn't try, would have, if not for... "Well..." she hesitated. Her gut didn't give her specifics like that. "Maybe it's because I... " she couldn't help grinning, even as she ran. "I think he's really cool with those psychic hands. And maybe if I save his life, he'll teach me ASL like I keep asking him to."

Flowey gave a snort of disbelief, "That's really stupid reason to spare someone."

"I'll think of a better one on the way there! And you shouldn't be complaining about me sparing people for stupid reasons," she snapped with a frown and a burning face. Flowey stopped questioning her after that.

The Core still felt far away even when her feet began pounding on the uneven rock and gravel of Hotland's roads. The wooden bridge was close, soon to be illuminated by her light; she remembered where the water-cooler used to stand.

"FRISK!" Flowey's cry almost stopped her, until she realized at the last second that maybe she should not stop when he was using that tone of voice. "FRISK FRISK FRISK-"

"Bullets, Flowey!" The child screamed, regaining her stride and breathing hard. How was this the same Flowey that had attacked her all those times? The one that had laughed so cruelly and so gleefully torn her apart? The one that had stolen all of her friends and tortured her for his own amusement? How was it that being afraid had transformed him so completely? Maybe there was a lesson in that.

Frisk was also scared. She could hear footsteps outside of her own, rapidly approaching them from behind. She knew who it was.

Maybe she had been hiding in the shadows, waiting for them to pass her by.

There was a whizzing sound behind her, and then a loud scream as the bullets impacted. The footsteps faltered and stopped, and encouraged Frisk picked up speed. "Which way to the ladder?" She called.

Momentarily Flowey didn't respond, shooting bullets towards Chara with a deep snarl, but then he said, "Left!"

Frisk tripped over a rock that appeared to be right next to her when she turned, as if just now materializing, but even as the stone scraped at her hands she ripped herself upright. She stared at her feet and the light, making sure she didn't dare trip again. Chara was also running on that path, but with a next barrage of bullets Frisk heard a crash and series of yelps as the child behind her was hit.

Her gut hurt. "I'm sorry!" She called out, not sure that anybody was listening.

But she reached the ladder and climbed. She climbed with aching hands, elbows and knees, not knowing how long she was going to climb for and when Chara would catch up to her. Flowey was breathing hard into her ear, and a root wrapped around her neck and waist as yet more handholds for him. If he fell off now, he might end up falling into an abyss.

She didn't know what to say to him, so she said nothing. His petals brushed against her skin as he drooped and breathed.

The ladder shook and Frisk uttered a little whimper of her own. She couldn't, she couldn't climb fast enough now. The ladder kept shaking. "F-flowey-" she said hoarsely, like pressing a command button to shoot.

And white bullets shot right down, causing a breeze on her back.

Chara screamed and the ladder stopped shaking; Frisk, in turn, climbed faster than she ever thought possible. Even if all she could see was the ladder, and there wasn't any end. She knew when the ladder began to tremble again, she wouldn't be able to get up any farther.

But Flowey called out, "It's this floor!"

And she pulled herself on to solid ground, panting, before weakly stumbling on her feet. His voice was loud, too loud, "Just- keep going forward!"

"Okay," she said in a whisper, taking a deep breath. She had to do this. The light shined around her feet, and she ran again. Please, she thought. Please, please, please...

"Left! Up the stairs!"

Up she ran, and her legs had never hurt more in her life.

But then there were more footsteps on the stairs, faster footsteps than hers. Tears blurred her eyes as she went.

More bullets flew from at her back and Chara yowled, rolling down the stairs.

"Through the hotel!"

She was going to pass out. She was going to pass out and Chara would catch her.

And then-?

Then what?

"Up more stairs! A little to the left!"

She didn't want to die. Would she even die, here? Or was it just Flowey that was going to die? What did Chara want with her?

"It's the walkway! A little to the right! Don't fall off!"

"You're choking me," Frisk hissed as she stumbled and crawled, got back up and ran without any more energy.

Flowey relaxed his grip on her neck, although there were plenty other vines that tightened on her body. "Hurry up!"

All she had to do was... reach the elevator right?

"Open the door."

The door opened.

"In here."

Mercifully, instead of trying to force her up again Flowey reached out a vine and pushed the down button on the wall when Frisk collapsed inside the elevator. As the double doors closed something rammed into them hard, and both Flowey and Frisk couldn't help screaming despite how desperately they tried to regain their breath. There was an indent on the doors.

They had a minute or so, before the elevator would take them to their destination. Frisk sat on the floor and gasped for air. Those gasps turned quickly into sobs, and she wiped at her eyes.

Flowey let go of her, returning to the floor just within her circle of light. "Cut that out!" He snapped. "We have to get going as soon as this thing reaches the bottom!"

But although she tried, she couldn't stop. Why? Why was everything so scary? What had she ever done to deserve this? She just wanted to go home... She just wanted to see Toriel again...

You've felt this way before.

All she was doing was cry, these days, it felt like. Trying to hide her irritated eyes and dripping nose, Frisk curled up and pulled her knees up to her face, shaking. She felt like something was going to give. There was no one here to make her laugh or make it seem a little brighter out.

"Frisk, I said knock it off," Flowey growled. He was the only one there, once again. But she didn't stop. So the flower stopped trying, instead, slowly drooping until she couldn't see his face behind the veil of petals. He heaved a huge sigh.

Too soon, the elevator doors ground open, struggling to move correctly with the indent. Frisk wiped her face again and stood up. Her legs really hurt but she kept on walking, with Flowey climbing up her body to his now usual perch. The sensation of his thorny vines wrapping around her helped keep her body stiff and upright, so as painful as the thorns were she was grateful for that.

Sans lay before her where she left him. She knelt down beside him, and Flowey hunched away at first until assured he was fully asleep.

Not trembling and crying like Papyrus. But... she wondered if that meant he was fine, or if it meant something else.

"He doesn't trust you, you know."

Frisk sighed.

"I'm just saying," Flowey shrugged in his roots, grinning at her. "He doesn't. Why do you think he's always keeping an eye on you? It's not because he's worried about your safety or anything like that."

"This is a bad time, Flowey," Frisk said, almost inaudibly.

At that, inexplicably, the flower began cracking up. "Boy, I've heard something like that before from somebody."

The child put her hands to Sans', grimacing.

You reach to your SAVE file.

Didn't trust her, huh? At the very start, she hadn't trusted him either. That faded so fast under the pranks and jokes, and that itself seemed a little foolish now. But then, she was a small child. Not to be trusted, but easily trusting. There were serious moments too- when she felt him looking into her SOUL, when it seemed like he always knew things that he shouldn't, knew when she was lying, knew what was wrong or right before she'd figured it out for herself. And when he got mad, like recently, and she didn't know what to say.

But the memory that stuck out to her was the sensation of smiling in spite of herself. Since he was always smiling back at her, in spite of everything.

Sans was gone.

One more left.

The door opened stickily, and Frisk walked into the Inner Core room with Flowey on her shoulder. Before stepping farther, she thought to lock the door behind her in case that would have any effect stopping Chara. Holding on to the maintenance key, even though everything was unlocked already, had some use to it after all.

Now she went to where Dr. Gaster was still laying, huffing. Not wanting to kneel anymore she sat down, instead. She suddenly realized, in the process, that she wasn't going to be able to stand back up. Her legs chose this moment to stop working.

While her face twisted in pain Flowey laughed at her, "So, have you thought of a better reason? Or can we go now?"

A better reason? That's right, she had completely forgotten about that. Frisk looked at the unconscious scientist, watched him shake, and wondered what the images were that went through his mind. What could he possibly be scared of?

Just wanting an ASL tutorial... was not a very good reason to spare someone.

Especially someone who had done so many awful things, who might even do more. Someone who'd made Papyrus afraid and Sans angry, sides of them she had never seen before and never wanted to see. Was she being a bad friend by doing this? At least Flowey would always stay here, away from the people she loved. But what was going to happen when she brought Dr. Gaster back? Was he going to integrate himself into monster society? Was he going to leave as soon as he could and escape what he'd done? Was everything going to be better, or would it all be worse?

"I don't know."

But she reached for his hands, closing both of hers around one- unable to resist running her fingertips on the edge of the hole in his palm, first. The hairs on the back of her neck rose when she felt his fingers close around her hands too.

...It is, she thought, better to spare someone for a really stupid reason...

Then to abandon or kill someone for any reason.

Right?

You reach for your SAVE file.

But nothing happened.

"...Uh..." Flowey's voice punctuated the uncertainty she felt. "What are you doing now?"

"Nothing's happening," Frisk choked out.

Although for a second he hesitated, his cruel laughter filled her ears and she tightened her grip on Dr. Gaster's hand. "Oh my god! You don't even know what you're doing, do you?"

But his laughter stopped, and Frisk's heart almost did too, when they heard a grinding sound from far away. And now Flowey's voice was tinged again with panic, "L-look, forget about him, get us out of here while we still have a chance!"

The child shook her head, holding the hand tighter. No. It had... it had worked before. Flowey started to scream at her, "Frisk, take us out of here! Get us out of here, they're coming, they're going to kill me! Frisk!" But no matter how he screamed, she kept shaking her head. It had worked with the others. Why wasn't it working with him?

You reach for your SAVE file.

But nothing happened.

Was it just because her memories of him weren't from reality? That wasn't fair. She'd only ever spoken to him in the grey world, and she suspected meeting that fragment of him wouldn't count for this. She'd never known him in the real world, she'd never met him until...

She'd...

But she'd not met the other monsters in reality either, at least not most of them. And yet she'd SAVED them.

Something slammed against the door.

As Flowey squeezed her tight, piercing her with his thorns, Frisk knew what she had to do.

You reach for your SAVE file.

No... you reach for my SAVE file.

Things that had never happened to her before entered her head and Chara started to scream as she attacked the locked door.

When they first met and she surprised him with her meager knowledge of sign language,

And

"Oh my god NO, they are not the same at all. Cups of butter are a cooking ingredient. Buttercups are very poisonous flowers. You poisoned him with- ...Ah-... I'm sorry. Please stop crying, human. I told you he's going to live. ...We all make mistakes."

The sounds she made weren't from crying but, with her face hidden from him by then, he didn't know that. And his hands floating in front of her didn't have eyes, either,

And

Everybody was sad to see her go.

Unexpectedly, he was sad too. But he might have been more sad to see everyone else suffering. He always, always looked so tired of seeing that,

And

That was it. Those three images were the only ones she could scrape together. But it was better than nothing.

They grew stronger and stronger in her mind's eye, until she could swear she saw them in front of her. The clearest picture in her head, of those three, was his hands.

Although... Frisk could have sworn that they looked different between the images and the real thing. But when she glanced down to check, Dr. Gaster was already gone. Her heart leaped into her throat, the girl looking for his body- but sure enough, he was all gone. It had worked. It worked. It really worked.

She made a mental note to apologize to Dr. Gaster for breaking her promise.

Although it wasn't one she ever intended to keep.

A large breath she'd been holding in finally came out. She looked over at Flowey, who was still glancing at the door repeatedly as it banged and Chara yelled on the other side. She looked at him for a long time, until he finally noticed she wasn't doing anything and shouted at her, "What?"

"N-nothing." The child offered her hand for him again. "Let's... go home."

Next Chapter: You Tried