As Chara threw their hands forward, casting their magic, I pushed against their soul. I could feel my body ache at the effort but I kept pushing. My soul had enough strength to shove theirs back into whatever void they came out of. They shouted and cursed but I could feel them slipping away. I quickly took back the rightful spot in my body and regained my coordination. Too bad for me that when I did, I spent any leftover energy from Chara's magic show. My body crumpled to the floor and I saw Asriel slump over with me. His vines fell, and from above more tendrils rained down with Ariel among them.

She cried and wailed as the web of green that held her up hit the floor. Asriel had managed to create enough of them to hold her far above the ground during our fight, and there were enough vines to lessen the blow when she fell. She laid unharmed on top of them, her little hands and feet moving in protest. I wanted to grab her and go, but both of us were too far out of reach right now.

We both stared, Asriel and I, too weak to move, and unsure if the other would attack. My instincts were yelling at me to not trust him, but as I laid there I realized it was Asriel's vines that held my daughter out of harm's way. He'd been keeping her above us, out of sight, even when he needed his magic to fight Chara.

"Why?" I spoke out, catching his attention.

He rose his head enough to look at me. His dark eyes held no hint of what he may have been thinking.

"Why did you take her?"

He huffed slightly and spoke back. "In this world, it's kill or be killed…with Gaster and Chara…she can't kill yet, so she would need to hide to stay safe…"

"You…" I tried to make sense of it. "You wanted to protect her…but you tied up Mom and Pap—"

"Do you think they'd just hand her over? Plus if anyone knew where I was taking her you and Gaster would find her, and you were Chara's host."

"I wasn't—"

"I know you didn't want to be…Chara never asked for things, they just took them…Hate me if you want, I don't care, but I'm not letting the kid get put in more trouble."

I was speechless. He just wanted to save her? This flower, the same one that had attacked me so long ago, was trying to prevent harm? Thinking back, he did give me warnings, both when I fell and just before the craziness happened with Gaster and Chara. He had also followed me through the Underground and killed his own father when I hadn't (though Asgore had stopped attacking me at the time). Maybe he wasn't evil, but I couldn't put full trust in him.

I attempted to sit up, my body feeling like the limp spaghetti noodles made by Papyrus so often. Once successful, I crawled my way to Ariel and held her to my chest. I didn't see any signs of harm on her, and she snuggled into me right away. For now, I could believe she was safe, and that Asriel took care of her.