(A/N

I'm here! Back from the dead. Whew...

Anyway, thanks HydraEmotions, Deep Thought, and Capt. Schroller for reviewing my story! All help is always appreciated. Fun fact: I had kinda sorta maybe comletely forgotten about this story until HydraEmotions reviewed it what was a couple of days ago when I wrote this Author's Note. It's been... longer now. Life, you know? So I basically just went "well crap" and started writing again. So thanks HydraEmotions, and everyone else too, for motivating me!

Guess I left on a really tense point last chapter, so I'll just jump right back in now. Enjoy!


Chapter 29

Hope stumbles forward, suddenly regaining feeling in her body. She sticks her hands out in front of her, steadying herself, and tries to focus her racing mind.

'I'm here.'

'I'm back.'

'I'm in the Judgement Hall.'

'I'm alive.'

Hope's head snaps upward. Frisk. If she's here, than that means Frisk has come back, too. Which also means... she's about to charge into danger again.

Hope dashes forward, ignoring the cries from her stiff muscles. she can't let her sister go it alone again, not against someone as strong as Asgore. 'I have to catch her, I have to catch her...'

S*** Hope! Where's the fire? Maeko sputters, gritting her teeth. Hope ignores her. She bursts unceremoniously through the doorway to the Judgement Hall, sprinting forward with hardly a pause. The tiles sparkle dazzlingly in the warm light, radiating pure warmth and regality. On a normal day, Hope likely would have stopped and just... stared. The beautiful scenery was certainly nothing she had seen anywhere else. Hope ignored this, however, only has just passing the first sunlit window when her leg is suddenly yanked out from under her. She hits the ground with a thud, her dagger skittering across the tile.

Don't tell me- Maeko growls, not needing to finish her thought. Hope sucks in a breath, glancing behind her. A vine coils around her ankle, still shifting slowly in that eerie horror movie style tt reminds her of only one monster. Maeko swears under her breath.

I'm gonna kill that f***ing flower when we're f***ing through this s***. Mark my words, I f***ing swear...

Hope tugs on the vine with fumbling and uncoordinated hands, desperately trying to get a firm grip. A sharp pain in her hand makes her jerk it backwards, gasping briefly. Blood wells up from a gash in her palm. Hope watches as thorns begin to form around the vine's surface, creating a sort of impenetrable barrier. Tiny cuts begin to form on her ankle.

'Maeko, help!' Hope cries into her mind, reaching out again to try to find somewhere safe to grab on the vine. More needle-like thorns form wherever she tries to place her hands.

Maeko is quiet for a moment, and Hope can almost feel the gears in her mind whirring. She gasps. Hope, wait! What about your knife? She points with a shadow finger.

Hope whirls around, seeing the bone dagger Sans gave her resting a few feet away. She reaches for the handle, realizing immediately that it's probably a lost cause. It's so close, but not close enough. She reaches, stretching as far as she can go, until she can practically feel the air around it. Her fingers extend to their full length, barely able to brush the surface. Almost...

The knife is suddenly yanked backwards by another vine. "No!" Hope shouts. The sudden defeat weighs frustratingly on her shoulders. She was so close. Only a second later, something yanks the vine around her ankle, driving the needles further into her skin. Hope cries out, helpless and in pain as she's dragged backwards across the smooth tile. An evilly familiar grin greets her, only ten feet away.

"Looking for something?" Flowey asks, dangling a knife in front of him. Hope freezes, eyes suddenly glued to the menacing form looming in front of her. The same red barbed thorns that cut into Hope's ankle now protrude from his stem, which is longer than usual. His petals fan out around his head menacingly, reminiscent of that one dinosaur that attacked Dennis in the car in Jurassic Park. The name of the dinosaur doesn't come to mind. Hope is snapped back into the present by Maeko shouting profanities.

Hope swallows. "Flowey?" she asks in a small voice. Flowey just grins in reply, making Hope's stomach clench. Thorny vines suddenly shoot up from the ground around Hop, and she screams, pulling her knees up to her chest. They close in in a cage around her, forming rope-like bars and a ceiling before Hope can make an escape. SHe suddenly feels claustrophobic, afraid the vines are going to descend and slowly crush her. Instead, they freeze in place, content with their job of containment. Flowey cackles.

"You're such an IDIOT!" he shouts, narrowing his eyes at Hope. "You really think I'll let you play hero here? Go swoop in and save your sister from certain death?" Hope flinches, clutching her legs closer to herself and digging her nails into her calves. Maeko trembles with rage.

"I mean, really," Flowey continues gleefully. "look at yourself! Trembling in fear, curled up in a ball at the bottom of a cage. Do you really think you are going to be able to save anyone?"

Hope stares, the words playing on repeat in her head. She doesn't even try to fight them back with cries of "You're wrong!" and "I will save her!" this time. She knows it, and he knows it too. Because... Flowey's right. Hope can't save anyone. Not her sister, not herself. She is worthless, useless. A waste of time and space.

"enough'a this," a voice says from behind Hope. Her heart leaps with joy. Could it be? She whirls around and sees a face with a grin, but not the evil, menacing one she had grown to fear. It's a different, permanent, skeletal grin that once frightened her but now means her only salvation. Hope leaps up and wraps her arms around the short skeleton.

"Sans!" she exclaims, bubbly with relief and happiness. She could almost see his grin widen at her enthusiasm.

"heh. c'mon, kid," he says, gently guiding Hope's arms off of him. "let's get outta here." He puts his hand on her shoulder, and Hope can't hold in the smile that forms. Everything else seems forgotten, lost in the past, and nothing matters now except that Sans came to her rescue, saved her like he promised to. Hope is ready, so ready, for the weird sensation that always comes when Sans uses one of his "shortcuts," however nauseating they may sometimes be. But then, as Hope stares at Sans, she realizes she forgot one very important factor.

Time seems to slow as Sans' pupils disappear into nothing, his smile slowly shrinking, allowing the horrible inevitability to sink in. Even Hope's trembling seems oddly slow, like an weird sort of swaying.

"Sans..." she whispers, knowing what has happened but not ready to face it. Scarlet leaks through the front of Sans' white shirt, and a vine snakes away from his back. The world suddenlyeaps into overdrive. Hope gasps.

"No no no no! Sans!" Hope shouts, gripping the skeleton's bony shoulders. "No no no, you're okay, Sans. Don't do this to me, you're okay! You're okay!" Her words come out in a tumbled mesh, desperate and pointless and useless. Her fingers dig into his shoulderblades as her eyes dart between his two eye cavities, searching for some sort of reassurance. He's okay, he has to be. Sans can never get hurt, never be caught. He is invincible, undefeatable. His pupils reappear, tiny, pained pinpricks in vast sea of blackness.

"sorry kiddo," Sans says, managing a strained chuckle. "i tried." Almost immediately after, he crumbles to dust in Hope's hands. Hope screams. His sweatshirt hangs in her grasp, all the rest of his clothes falling to the ground as their skeleton inhabitant disintegrates. Hope's hands shake as she grips the sweatshirt, so soft and blue and covered in dust. Flowey whistles in awe.

"Oh, Smiley Trashbag. You had it coming." Hope tears her eyes away from the clothing in her hands, turning to the evil face looming above. "Always where you shouldn't be... oh, well. Can't be helped now." Flowey chuckles darkly.

"You know, Frisk is battling Asgore right now," he muses, shrinking down to his normal size. He disappears into the ground, then reappears closer to Hopes cage. "I'm sure that's why you were so eager to get to her." Hope remains silent, and Flowey smirks.

"Hehe... I don't think she'll ever be able to change his mind. And even if she does..." He grins, taunting Hope with his hidden information. "Well, let's just say she'll have absolute hell to go through." Flowey disappears into the ground, his gleeful laughter ringing in Hope's ears long after the echoes subside.

Maeko absolutely loses it. You monster! she shrieks, fists clenched so hard her nails would have been digging into her palms if she had a body. You killed him! You killed Sans! You- you don't deserve this! You don't deserve to torture my friends! If I had a body, I would kill you! Can you hear me? I WILL KILL YOU!

Hope crumples to the floor, defeated. Her knees land in the hard, gritty dust of Sans, and Hope can feel the knife being driven into her own back. It shouldn've been her, he didnt deserve this. It should've been her, it should've been her...

"Oh Sans..." she whispers, a tear running off the bridge of her nose. "I am so sorry. I... I could've... I could've done better..." She hiccups, fear and grief turning her limbs to lead. Sans, the skeleton she once thought invincible, was now lying in ashes at her feet. She should've done something, she should've thrown herself in the way. It's all her fault, all her fault... and Flowey's. A sudden burst of anger propels her to her feet and into the prison bars.

"You can't keep doing this to me forever!" she shrieks, rattling the vines. "You have to stop eventually! Just let me out, end your game. Please!" She shrieks loudly and horribly, the sound reverberating around the room. Her mind races, knowing she can't bear to have her sister die again, to have anyone die again. She has to save Frisk, and once she does that, she can save Sans too, right?

Hope looks up and sees the dagger in front of her cell. She reaches her arm through the bar until her shoulder stops her, digging into her collarbone. The dagger remains frustratingly out of reach, at least thee feet past the furthest tip of her fingers.

Come on... come on! Maeko growls, You need to get the knife. You have to get out of here!

"I... can't! I can't get it," Hope replies, pointlessly stretching her arm. She tries her leg, but her thigh won't fit through the small gap. Stupid legs, stupid body.

Well try harder! Maeko barks, pounding her fist on an imaginary wall.

"I am trying!" Hope protests, "What am I supposed to do?"

I don't know! Maeko snaps, her voice reverberating off the walls of Hope's mind. This is your sister. You can think of something!

"I can't think of anything!" Hope wails, tears smearing all the colors of reality. "I'm trying, really I am, but I can't-"

If you really cared, you'd stop being so useless and DO SOMETHING! Maeko yells, then immediately stops. She and Hope both sit in a dumbfounded silence.

Wait, no, Hope, I didn't mean that, I swear- Meako starts, trying to take back the venom that left her tongue, but it's too late. Hope stares at the floor where bits of Sans dust have been moved by a draft. It seems so calm, the little bits of grit being gently pushed from one corner to another. Maybe it's calm where he is, too. Monster death can't be much different than human death. Darkness, nothingness, calm and quiet and thoughtless. But still death all the same.

"You're right," she says after a long silence, her voice quieter than a mouse's. "You are absolutely right. I am the most useless, worthless, pointless piece-of-crap being to ever walk this earth." She turns to Sans' sweatshirt, which had at some point escaped her grasp. It tells silent jokes, riddles her with puns that she loves and Maeko can't stand. His smile lingers in the fabric, mischievious and laid-back, not always comforting but welcome all the same. Her words catch in her throat. "I'm a failure."

Hope holds Sans' sweatshirt to her face, unable to contain the sobs that echo around the hall. Useless, pathetic, pointless, worthless.

Hope, no, please- Maeko begins, but is then suddenly cut off. Hope freezes. That's not right. She... can't feel her.

"M-Maeko?" she asks, her voice trembling. "Maeko!" Her friend doesn't answer, and Hope can't sense her anymore. Something happened, something terrible happened. Maeko's gone. Hope begins to tremble.

"You were right, Maeko. You finally said the truth," she whispers, every word stabbing her heart. "I deserved that. Every word you said. I failed Frisk, than I failed Sans, and now I've failed you too." She pauses only a second, voice cracking. "Hear that Flowey? I'm a freaking failure!" Hope looks down at the sweatshirt in her hands. The fabric trembles ever so slightly in her grip, unable to suppress the tremor in her hands. Hope shouts, hurling it at the vines. She sobs again, burying her head in her hands, but freezes when she hears a muffled thunk. Something solid hit the floor. But... she only threw a sweatshirt.

Hope crawls over to the blue heap now lying on the ground and reaches inside one of the pockets. Her fingers brush against something not fabric, and she quickly wraps her hand around it and yanks it out. Her spirits drop when she sees what it is.

A hot cat.

It stares up at her with tiny round eyes, friendly and cute. Hope blinks hard to ward away tears. A stupid hot cat... why, Sans? Who just... carries those around?! Hissing through her teeth, Hope chucks the hot cat as hard as she can through the vines. She snatches up the sweatshirt, hoping with all her might that there's something in the other pocket, anything except food. This time she jams her hand in, desperate to find something else. Her fingers immediately close around something jagged and sharp. She's so happy that she hardly even feels the pain as she tugs the free from the sweatshirt.

Hope stares at the weapon in her hand, moving her hand away from what turns out to be the blade of a bone dagger. It's handle feels rough against her palm, the blade jagged and dangerous as her own. She can hardly believe her eyes. Of course Sans would have one too. He wouldn't just give Hope his only knife. He may have trusted Hope well enough, but he wasn't stupid (though the hot cat suggested otherwise).

Hope takes a breath, guiding the knife blade to one of the vines. Then, quickly, she begins to saw.


(A/N

Whoa! That was quick. Not nearly as busy as some of my other chapters, amiright? *awkward laughter*

Flowey really sucks, doesn't he?

Anyway, we're finally here at the end, what I (and hopefully you) have been waiting for: Omega Flowey. Yup folks, you're about to get all up front and personal with this guy, 'cause he's gonna grate on your nerves like nobody's business! Unless you happen to like him, in which case... I am not with you on that one, friend. But yeah, it's about to go down, so brace yourselves.

Might I just add, the editing process on this one took so long. As in, a week. Uuuuuggggghhhh. I'm such a slow editor.

Thank you for reading this chapter, and please follow, favorite, and review if you enjoyed it. Haaaaaaaaaaaappy reading!)

(Also, before I forget, Sistertale's anniversary is on June 6th (has it really been a whole year?), and I was thinking that maybe, just for fun, I could write some extra short or something. Or multiple. Depends on how I'm feeling. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas, please feel free to let me know in te reviews or send me a PM. Anyway, just thought that could be cool. No pressure though!)