You almost tripped over a root from standing up so fast, startled from the golden flower looking up at you. "F-Flowey?" You asked, trying to keep as calm as possible.
"Eheh don't look so surprised! I've been looking for you for the past few days, you could have told me you wanted to come down here!" He smiled up at you, and you felt a slight amount of relief. He didn't think you were trying to avoid him.
"Y-yeah, well, you know what they say… spontaneous vacations are good for the soul or something, ha…" You started as casually as you could, heart hammering in your chest. You mentally willed Sans to take extra time with the bubble tea, maybe you'd be lucky enough that the cash register malfunctions or something. You needed to buy time to get away and think of what to do. "Well, you aren't supposed to be working out or anything during a vacation, so I guess I didn't tell you because I figured we would end up training-"
"Friends are supposed to do more than just train, remember?" He tilted his head at you, and you remembered saying something similar to him. "Besides, I can tell you a lot more about the Underground than Smiley Trashbag can." His smile grew, almost unsettlingly so.
"That's probably true, but uh… don't you have bad memories from being down here?" You asked, hiding some steps backward as shifting weight on your feet.
"I didn't have bad memories of this place," He looked up, smile growing teeth and sharp eyes before looking back at you. "I made bad memories."
You took a step back, frightened, and Flowey's features immediately softened and turned back to 'normal.' "What? Was that a too much?" He asked, tilting his head, concerned. You nodded slightly, quickly trying to cover up your current fear.
"Just a bit. Hahah… sorry, I'm a little jumpy from, uh, hearing about what's going on back in the city." You made up the excuse quickly. "Lots of attacks on monsters, I've heard. Some Human Pride people dying too? That-"
"Oh! That was me!" He smiled brightly like it was a feat to brag about. You felt yourself staring wide-eyed at the flower, unable to move yourself. "What's wrong?"
You shook your head, feeling Goosebumps travel up your arms. "N-nothing. It's just… don't you think that killing them was… well, too much?" You asked, swallowing the lump in your throat. Of course it was too much, but you needed him on your side… or at least not hostile against you.
Flowey frowned. "They killed you! Wouldn't it feel good to get revenge for that?" He asked back, seeming upset you weren't happy for his feat.
"If I was still dead, maybe, I don't know." You found your voice shaking ever so slightly, this conversation quickly not going the way you wanted. "But I'm alive and they never killed me, making the revenge—I don't know—void?" You didn't know where to go from there, but you could see the confusion rising on Flowey's face.
"What is it with you humans and showing compassion for people that hurt you?!" Flowey frowned. "No wonder you are always getting into trouble, you never end things when you should! I guarantee it would save you a lot of trouble ahead of time." He declared, his leaves moving in an exasperated way.
"I gave you a second chance, didn't I?" You asked, realizing the irony of that statement at the moment. Flowey thought a moment, head bouncing up with a thought.
"You are right! If you were dumb enough to trust me of all creatures, how could I ever trust you to show mercy to anyone? They might be as bad as I am, and you would just be inviting them to stab you in the back!" He realized, and your gut chilled.
"Now hold on, I didn't-"
A vine snapped out of nowhere, wrapping around your wrist and cutting your contradiction off. "You need my protection even more than I thought!" Flowey grew closer, making you recoil and take a step back as much as the vine would allow.
"F-Flowey! I don't need your protection, I've been doing just fine!" You tried to reassure him, looking all around for an escape.
"Of course you need me! Friends look out for each other!" His vine gripped tighter on your wrist, pulling you down slightly with a yelp. "I won't let anyone else hurt you." His dark eyes locked with yours, driving fear straight into your core.
"No."
"What was that?" Flowey asked, tilting his head at you before you realized you said anything.
"No. I don't want your protection." You said clearly and short, trying one last ditch effort to maybe get to him. "This is not how a friendship should be, and I don't want this." It was hard to keep your voice steady, but you kept your eyes locked into his. You felt the rough vine around your wrist loosen slightly. Flowey's eyes diverted, confusion filling them.
"I don't understand…" He said quietly. "Why!?" He suddenly leapt at you, a vine wrapping around your throat and lifting you up into the air gasping. You quickly gripped around the vine, struggling to gulp in air. That seemed to make Flowey angrier. "Why do you not want my protection?! If I protected you, this kind of thing would never happen! I could do a better job than he ever did for you!" He screeched, suddenly freezing.
"It's him, isn't it?" He asked, dropping you to the ground with a heavy thud. You gasped in air, hand still around your throat. "It's because of that Smiley Trashbag that you don't want anything to do with me, isn't it?!" His deformed face got close to yours for a moment before pulling back. "He can't protect you at all! How badly have you been hurt since leaving me, I wonder?" Your chest suddenly got tight, and you tried to grab your Soul before it popped out.
In your hands was your Soul, looking tie-dyed with purples and dark blue, and as you started to familiarize yourself with, not a spot of red. Flowey recoiled, horrified at the state of your Soul.
"Wha… What happened?! How could he—There's no…" Flowey started, his body slowly coiling up in distress. "How could he let this happen?!" He let out a frustrated scream that pierced the empty air, all of the vines surrounding the area suddenly lashing out randomly like worms on the sidewalk. You immediately took the opportunity to get out of there, running as fast as you could and somehow managing to get past all of the vines untouched as he screamed. You needed to get out of here right now. The cut on your foot reminded you of its existence, but you ignored it the best you could as you ran and made it to the entrance of Tallwood, and into the small cave section that looked like it belonged to Waterfall.
To your dismay, it didn't seem like this part of cave actually lead anywhere else. You could see cave walls all around you, one even having a miniature waterfall running down from who knows how far up. You did a double take, noticing a ladder next to the waterfall. Perfect. You immediately stepped up on it, only to have your hurt foot flinch and nearly make you fall on the first step. You ground your teeth, trying again, but it hurt too much, you wouldn't be able to climb all the way up. You stepped off of the ladder, careful to be as quiet as possible and not let Flowey know of your position. Trying to keep yourself from panicking, you dug through your pockets but didn't find your phone. Of course you didn't have your phone on you, never mind the fact it's still dead, that would have been too convenient.
You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm yourself. Everything is going to be okay, it always ends up that way. You will find a way to handle Flowey, and you and Sans will be able to get back home in time for dinner and give massages to each other all night. Yeah. You lied to yourself, trying to force the positive attitude. Purple light shone past your eyelids, making you open them.
A mostly-solid purple Soul hovered in front of you, and your eyes were drawn to the light blue band that was around it. Sans' band. You carefully grabbed your Soul, and hovered a finger over the band. You didn't have your phone, but you did have some way to communicate with Sans.
You tapped the band three times quickly, three times slowly, and another three times quickly. Did Sans know Morse Code? Even if most people didn't, almost everyone knew that pattern. You were so deep in your thought, you almost missed the faint call of your name.
You listened, suddenly realizing it got very quiet in the other cave. You heard your name called again, and you noticed it was Sans' voice. Oh no, he probably went to where he left you.
"Sans!" You shouted, quickly shoving your Soul back into your chest and running out of the hidden cave into the trees.
"What's wrong? I'm sorry I took so long, there was a problem with the register—" You saw him in the middle of a few trees, no Flowey to be seen. You ran in his direction, your foot feeling like every left step was on fresh piles of glass from the pain.
"We need to get out of here, right now!" You yelled, feeling your hair rise on end again. Something was wrong. Sans dropped the paper bag he was holding, seeming to get ready to do something before a vine suddenly whipped out, grabbing his arm and yanking him downwards.
"You see? He can't protect you at all!" Flowey's voice shouted out from seemingly everywhere, cracking from his emotions. More vines broke out of the ground, some close to you and the rest around Sans, each wrapping around a limb and pulling him downwards as he struggled against them. The few that appeared near you immediately coiled your arms to your sides, picking you up ever so slightly so you couldn't move. You struggled, watching as more vines restricted Sans as he yelled and yanked with all his might.
"Flowey, please! Don't hurt him!" You screamed, kicking the air and trying to use your nails to claw through the vines holding you hostage. Flowey's unnerving laugh could be heard all around, and his head sprung up besides Sans.
"Ehehehehe… Hurt him? Of course not! Well… much." His dark smile grew bigger as he pressed the side of his face next to Sans', as if they were posing for a photo. "We can work together, after all! If you don't want my protection, I'll make sure he does it properly. I wonder how many timelines he told you about?"
That seemed to spark something in Sans, and all of his struggles became uncoordinated as he even more desperately tried to pull out of the vines. Your eyes barely caught the flash of movements his body was making, stretching, almost glitching as blue magic was flaring from his eye. He was trying to teleport, you realized, but the roots had him grounded. Bones exploded out of the ground all around him, cutting off a clear view.
"Sans!" You yelled, kicking the air and struggling to see what was happening. You could hear Sans yelling and the sound of something being unzipped. The vine holding you up suddenly let go and vanished underground, dropping you hard on your back and winding you for a moment. You quickly rolled up and ran into the bones, trying to get past them.
There he was. Sans had his jacket opened, and you saw him holding and trying to yank Flowey away from his ribcage, which was full of moving vines. The vines were twisting between his bones, quickly growing throughout his skeleton and creeping towards his arms. "Flowey! Get away from him!" You shouted rushing forwards to… to… you didn't know what.
Your chest suddenly felt too tight, and you were knocked back into a thick bone a few feet back. Sans had a hand open at you as his blue eye flickered at you. "Run!" He grunted, but Flowey laughed. That was just the distraction he was waiting for.
Flowey's head immediately ducked down and pushed into Sans' skull through his neck, choking off a pained scream from Sans as he grabbed at his head and folded forwards.
Immediately everything was far too still, far too quiet, only to be broken by Sans slowly chuckling.
No, it wasn't Sans.
"Heheheh… There we go." His voice was mixed with Flowey's as his pose straightened too far, head rolling and looking at you with empty eye sockets and wearing the false smile. Flowey's head slowly peeked out of Sans' right eye, wearing his innocent smile. "You see? I told you we could work together."
Your gut tightened, every ounce of your body screamed for you to run but you could only stare at the horror in front of you, shaking.
"What's wrong, Vertebae?" He- they asked with a chuckle, the sound of vines moving and brushing against themselves the only other sound in the quiet forest. He stepped forwards, and the bones surrounding the area suddenly vanished, causing you to fall backwards. You scrambled back, kicking up dirt with your flailing feet.
"G-get away!" You yelled, backing into a tree. Sans' feet stopped a moment, seeming to resist before taking another step towards you. You felt like you were going to hyperventilate, your heart was hammering too fast and it seemed you couldn't get enough air.
Sans' left eye flared blue, and bones shot up between you and him, cutting his advances off. "What? Oh, how strange, you think you still have some control." His duo voice chuckled as his arm unnaturally raised, and he shoved the bones back underground.
"L-leave… them… alone." Sans' shaking voice said quietly, without Flowey's voice under toning it. You could see tears welling up at his left eye, and his smile was faltering for a moment. It quickly came back when Flowey started laughing, using Sans' voice as well.
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm doing this for them. Someone has to properly protect them. Isn't that right, Vertebae?" The nickname sounded corrupted when Flowey said it.
You couldn't respond. You didn't know how to. You wanted to scream at him and rip Flowey out of Sans' skull but you couldn't bring yourself to move an inch, your fear rooting you next to the tree. They stepped forward and you recoiled, pulling your legs closer to you. "P-please!" You yelped. "I-I don't want this! Why can't you understand?" Your cheeks felt wet.
"I think you aren't the one understanding." A frown appeared on Sans' face, matching Flowey's. "You know what, I'll prove it to you! Let's train!" You felt yourself lifted up by blue magic, pulling you through the air before it vanished, and you fell to the ground. You scrambled up and started running away from them, only for a wall of bones to block your path.
"Has he even bothered to train with you?" Flowey asked, and you looked over just in time to dodge a bone that flew through the air. "I bet he only let you train with Papyrus, huh? I wonder why that is." He laughed, and more bones suddenly flew at you. Gravity faltered, feeling heavy around you only to be normal again, luckily just in time for you to jump over the bones.
"Flowey! Don't do this-"
"The way I see it, either he was too scared to risk fighting against you, or, the much more likely reason, he didn't want you to know how to counter him." He laughed and motioned with his right hand. Gravity suddenly was coming from your left, you screamed and fell against the tree heavily, before falling towards the tree on the right. The magic vanished and you fell back to normal gravity, landing hard on the ground and getting a bone smacked across your face. It didn't hurt bad, to your surprise, but when more bones smacked into you one after another, you knew you were going to have trouble. You rolled out of the way, looked up, and saw a Gaster Blaster appear over Sans' head.
Your heart dropped, watching it open its mouth and light starting to build in it, only for it to vanish again. "What?" Flowey's voice dominated the question, looking up confused. "Fine, if you are going to hold back on me, I'll use my own attacks as substitute." A few white pellets appeared around Sans, and fired at you.
Normally you would be able to handle the pellets, but when paired up with bone attacks, along with the gravity switches, you didn't know how long you could hold on. A couple bones caused you to trip, and the pellets stung against your back. As you scrambled to get back up, you noticed one of the large bones of the wall vanished, leaving a gap for you. That was your escape route.
You ran with all your power to the hole in the wall, ignoring the few smaller bones that bounced against your back and slipped through. "Running is cheating!" You heard something that sounded like rope being twisted, and suddenly you couldn't move.
"NO!" Sans' shout echoed through the trees, and you half expected a flock of birds to fly away. It would have been better than the sound of your heartbeat and the slight ringing in your ear, at least. You felt confused. Why weren't you moving? Why did everything get so cold? You noticed dark redness in your vision, and you looked over to your shoulder, seeing a thick vine protruding out of it, coated in blood. Your blood, you realized slowly. You reached up to touch the vine, at least you tried, your left arm didn't respond to your attempts, just limply hanging there.
"O-oh, I didn't mean for-" Flowey's voice started, and the vine pulled out.
You screamed and collapsed onto the ground, all of the pain suddenly hitting you all at once. Your vision danced, threatening to black out and leaving you with tunnel vision with only whiteness at the end. Your head hit the ground as you grabbed your shoulder with your working hand, and you heard the crunch of snow and coldness press against you. You coughed, desperately gulping in cold air and trying to think of anything other than the immense pain your entire body was burning with.
You looked up, ready to see what Flowey's reaction would be, but instead only white and brown filled your vision before focusing, and you saw the side of Sans' house. It was dark around you, only lit up by the nearby lamps and the pure white snow, which was slowly being dyed red under you.
You held your bleeding shoulder, feeling the warmth leak through your shirt and over your fingers as you struggled to lift yourself from the crunchy snow. This didn't make sense… Your head felt like it was being hit with a jackhammer, split on screaming for help or wanting to pass out. No, you couldn't pass out, that would mean the end of you. How were you here? You made your way onto your feet, one shooting foot long needles of pain into your legs but it was nothing compared to your shoulder, and you stumbled towards the door. You didn't know what you were doing, but you needed to do something.
You collapsed against the door, your shaking hand having trouble getting a grip around the cold handle and giving a pull, but it didn't give. You blinked, refocusing your eyes on the lock that was on the door. No. Nonono you don't have time for this! You yelled, pushing all of your might at the door. It was a solid door, there was no chance of it ever opening to most attacks, never mind the little amount of force you could give it in your current state
Suddenly the feeling of nails and pulling appeared again, causing you to scream and your gut to threaten to throw up. You fell to your knees and folded over your stomach, suddenly seeing purple. You swallowed and blinked away tears before looking up, seeing Gaster looking down at you with a tilted head.
You made it inside, somehow. You couldn't be bothered to ask how, and reached up towards a large red button on the keyboard that was besides the glass room. You had to stretch, and every molecule of your body was screaming in pain by the time you finally hit it. The sound of hissing air being released from somewhere could be heard, and you collapsed onto the tiled floor. Your nearly closed eyes drifted up to Gaster, seeing him tilt his head the other way.
"P-please… help." The pain became too much, and all at once, everything was gone.