Alphys sat beside the sealed cart of souls. She had arrived with about a half hour to spare. She was dressed in a long, fluffy white coat, and she sat in such a way that the coat billowed around her like a tent. She would have been happy and cozy like this, if she didn't know what was coming.

She remembered Sans' face when he had watched her leave. She wondered how desperate she must have seemed, how guilty. How bad had she looked to earn such a grim expression from him?

The snow began to lift as dirt pushed through, then a folded stem, then a yellow flower.

"Wow, I must say I am impressed!" Flowey's hollow praise flooded Alphys' ear holes. "Very impressed! I never thought you, out of all of them, would have had the guts-!" He cut himself off with a burst of his own laughter.

"Do you know, how many… I mean how many-!" he simply could not get the words out through his cackling. "Oh, if I had known!"

"Just take them and leave!" Alphys grumbled. Flowey lightly smacked her upside the head.

"Watch that attitude, Doctor!" he sneered. "You're getting too bold for your britches! At least the other times you had some sort of survival instinct! You were always the only one smart enough to run away!"

Alphys' stomach churned. Running away. The very idea seemed so familiar, far more than she thought it should be. Of course, that had been her plan if Undyne had… had…

"Alphys has already evacuated everyone..." Alphys' head snapped towards Flowey as he did a near perfect impression of Undyne's voice, his face shifting to look like hers. "You're too late ya weed, fuhuhu!" Flowey's Undyne Face began melting. "And then death!" he finished in his own voice with a dramatic flair, as if he was quoting a play.

Alphys was certain she had never heard Undyne say that, and yet, it was so familiar.

"Oh, don't tell me you haven't connected the dots yet Doctor!" Flowey chided. "I haven't exactly been subtle!"

Alphys didn't say anything. Of course she had connected the dots.

And she didn't like the results.

"But, reminiscing time is over," Flowey sighed wistfully. "Open the box Doctor."

Alphys did not want to open the box. Her gut, her magic, simmered angrily. But she couldn't quite summon it. She felt like a shaken soda can, a lit fuse.

Flowey yawned. "We don't have all the time in the world, Alphys. Not anymore, anyway. Get on with it!"

Alphys muttered some profanities as she fiddled with a key on the metal cart. She turned it with a soft click, and the sides of the cart flopped open, landing in the snow with two pompft sounds.

"You happy?" she spat.

"Very." he replied, his face split wide open in a sinister grin.

He inspected the jars, one by one, one color at a time, tapping the lids and continuing to smile. With these souls he would become godlike.

Alphys was suddenly overwhelmed by a need to act. A need to stop him.

Flowey

· Atack ?

· Def. ?

A danger to all.

Alphys hadn't intended to check his stats, but now she found herself running through Undyne's battle preparation list.

"'What does this fight mean to you?' It means everything, for everyone!" she thought. "It means everyone gets to live to see another day, It means the safety for humans and monsters, it means a lot!"

She worked at pulling the magic from her feelings. Her guilt, her anger, her love.

Her vengeance, not just for her friends, but for herself, for the versions of herself who never had the chance to be her, the versions who fled, who hid, who died.

She raised her hands and squeezed her eyes shut, the flood of emotions ringing in her ears and drowning out everything else. She had one shot.

She opened her eyes when she smelled smoke.

Flowey stared at her, his mouth open wide with surprise, and with what almost looked like fear. A large, smoking hole was blasted straight through most of his stem, and he had to shift his weight to keep from falling.

Slowly, his shock faded. "Well." He smiled. "I'll be damned. You know, you really are my favorite version. I never would have thought you had it in you!"

He patted her on the head in congratulations. Then he slammed her into a tree.

"But you're too little, too late!"

He raised his vines and smashed all six containers, grabbing at the souls inside. Alphys was forced to close her eyes as the clearing lit up with bright white light, when she finally managed to open them again, she was stricken with terror.

In Flowey's place there now stood a gigantic beast. It was a nonsensical muddle of vines and eyes and metal wires. All of its eyes turned toward her, and she could feel the vine holding her against the tree begin to grow thorns. The monster… the monster that was indeed still Flowey raised his arm in preparation to crush her.

That's when a white beam of magic chopped it clean off.

Alphys had been acting odd, and nothing about it was familiar. Sans didn't like that.

She had left him alone again, but this time he didn't know why. She hadn't even said hello when she had returned, she had just yelled that she had one more errand to run and grabbed a coat.

And she had had something in a metal cart.

There's only one thing in the underground that could require that much armor for transport, or rather, six things.

Where was she going with those?

He had followed her on the camera as far as he could, all the way to the woods, but he had lost sight of her when he found one of the cameras mysteriously offline.

And then there was the noise. Ringing right through the caverns and up to the core, the loud sound of thunder.

He didn't know anyone with magic like that.

The dogs were on top of him in no time, panicking and whining due to the loud noise. He had patted them to calm them down.

"We need to find Alphys." he told them. They barked in agreement.

"How did you find us?" Flowey growled. Sans was standing across the clearing, raised high in the air on Endogeny's back.

"Aww, lighten up!" Sans said, despite the serious look on his face. "You were positively beaming! Your face just lit up the caverns!"

Flowey groaned. "Okay, I get it, the bright flash, right!" He straightened up; his red monitor eyes focused on the skeleton. His severed arm dripped a light green water that sizzled and melted the snow beneath it. "You and your jokes, you stupid comedian!"

"What?" Sans asked. "You got a bone to pick with me?"

"I've had enough with that joke, thank you! It wasn't funny the first 186 times and it still isn't."

Sans grinned slyly. "I had a feeling."

Flowey raised the stump of his cactus hand, a small bud was growing in the middle of it. "You know what I do find funny though?" The small flower began blossoming, getting bigger and bigger, before the pale pink petals fell away, revealing a new, completely unscathed hand. Flowey was laughing.

Sans booed. Flowey tried to smash him with his freshly regrown arm, but Endogeny was too fast.

"Woops!" Sans taunted. "Looks like I'm on an unhittable target, what are you going to do now?"

"You can't dodge forever!" Flowey screamed. "You'll slip up! You'll get tired and fall off that dog! Then I'll have you!"

He whacked at Sans with his vines and plucked bombs from thin air to drop on him. He was agitated. Not only was Sans often his biggest nuisance, but he still couldn't reach his save files. Where was Chara? They must still have the file.

"Chara! Chara if you're out there answer me!"

His cries were met with a lightning strike to the head. He turned to see Alphys dash away into the forest just as the following thunder struck. He saw that the tree she had been held to was in flames, vines and all. He searched the trees for her, waiting to strike if she re-emerged. Too late, he heard a blaster charging, and he barely had enough time to shield his head before it launched, cutting off his arm once again. He couldn't concentrate on both of them at the same time, even if he had eyes to spare.

His draining health flashed before his eyes.

1

He laughed. Of course! He hadn't killed anyone this time around!

"Chop off my limbs all you like, idiot!" He mocked, his arm already growing back. "You have nothing on me!"

Sans was sweating. He knew it too.

Another lightning blast launched from the woods, hitting him in the face this time. The strike left a hole of dead pixels beneath his right eye.

"Dammit!" he screamed as the thunder roared. Dissipating electricity ran up and down his monitor face as the hole beneath his eye closed up. Another number flashed before his eyes:

276

Now that was worrisome. Her new magic was unfocused but rawly powerful. She also didn't have the best aim, but he was a big target.

He needed to limit the playing field. A stray bolt had bounced off the edge of his monitor and had set another tree on fire. Flowey noticed that, despite the snow, the fire from the other tree was spreading as well.

Perfect.

He sacrificed a few vines to the flames as he raked the spreading fire towards himself. Alphys was forced to run as the flaming vine chased her, landing her trapped with Sans in the middle of an ever-growing crescent of fire. The heat began to grow so intense that the snow melted away beneath their feet. Behind them and to their sides there was nothing but flames, and in front of them was Flowey. There was no escape.

Alphys tried to launch another lightning attack, but was forced to use it to counter when more of Flowey's spiked vines flew toward her. Sans, meanwhile, couldn't get an attack in edgewise as he was forced to cling to Endogeny to keep from falling off. Alphys launched another counter against an attack from Flowey. She knew if she slipped up

she would be done for, chipped down by Flowey until she was dust. And if Sans slipped up, it would definitely be the end for him.

They couldn't keep this up forever.

But suddenly, the barrage of attacks stopped. Alphys looked up at the monstrous form of Flowey, hoping that Sans had taken him out, or that he was willing to bargain.

Instead, she saw two venus flytraps blooming on his hands.

The air filled with a chilling buzz. Alphys nearly lost her footing as the ground began to shake. Hundreds of flaming flies burst from the fire behind them.

Alphys was swarmed with flies, each of them chipping off a bit of health as well as dragging her towards the giant flytraps. She screamed as they lifted her off the ground. She landed on the sticky inside of the flytrap, its teeth closing in front of her. A bone flew through the air and propped the trap open just in time. Sans reached his hand in and grabbed hers, dragging her onto Endogeny's back.

"Try attacking from here!" he yelled back at her.

Endogeny's immunity from getting hit did indeed help with launching attacks, but it made it harder to hit Flowey. The wild firing was dangerous too, as it made the fire worse.

"We can't keep this up!" cried Alphys. "We can't do this alone, we need more firepower!"

"The flames are blocking everything!" Sans hollered back over the ruckus of Flowey's attacks.

A tiny yap caught their attention. Toby was running alongside them. He nodded at them in a determined way. Endogeny whined, but Toby barked back instantly before veering off towards the flaming trees.

Flowey's attention turned toward him.

"Stupid dog!" Several vines with weird, fleshy finger guns began to come out of him. Alphys screamed as dozens of finger bullets began launching towards the dog.

Toby let out a howl. Suddenly his stomach began to glow red, the same red that a certain legendary artifact was rumored to be. Before Alphys could blink, his whole body was encased in red light, forming around him like an arrow. His speed doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled as he sped into the flames, pushing them aside and leaving a temporary tunnel in his wake before the fire closed in again.

"Blasted little annoying thing!" Flowey roared. He turned back to Alphys and Sans. "Well this has been fun, but I need to stop him before he alerts the whole Underground. No hard feelings!" He mocked.

The cheeks on his longer mouth began to bulge, and the mouth quivered as it held itself shut, as if the power within was almost too much to contain. Sans also summoned a blaster in preparation.

The two of them let matching blasts fly, Sans' white beam and Flowey's blue beam colliding in the center, sending a wave across the small battlefield that pushed back the fire for a moment. Flowey pushed harder, beginning to knock Sans off balance. Alphys didn't know what to do. She thought about trying to add her magic to the blast but if she messed up the risk was too high.

So she did the next thing she could think of. She stood up and wrapped her arms around Sans' chest from behind to stabilize him.

The two of them sank slightly into Endogeny, their combined weight pushing them into his goopy fur. With the new stability, Sans was able to overpower Flowey's attack, launching it back into his mouth.

Flowey gasped as the attack hit him in such a sensitive spot. While the attack was still dealing only 1 damage, he had no moments of invincibility to avoid it, the 1s stacking up quickly. By the time the attack ran out, he had taken quite a bit of damage.

Flowey's second mouth hung open, its tongue lolling out, the two eyes closest to it were now filled with cartoonish Xs. There was no way he'd be able to fire that laser again anytime soon.

Sans collapsed in Alphys' arms. She lowered him to Endogeny's back but had to hold him to keep him from falling. This was not good. Neither of them could attack like this.

Flowey had turned away for a few minutes to nurse his wound, but he was starting to look back at them, his eyes filling with fire.

Or rather, Alphys realised, reflecting the ever-approaching flames.

In a blind rage he flailed his vines toward them. Endogeny decided it was their turn to attack.

They reared back, forcing Alphys to cling to their back with one hand for dear life, the other holding Sans. The shadow dogs on Endogeny's stomach were working into a frenzy. They swarmed and barked and howled, trying to assemble a reasonable and cohesive attack. From within the inky blackness a faceless dog appeared. It was nearly the same as Toby.

It looked up at Flowey. Kicking its legs in the snow, it launched into the air, rocketing with a flame from its rear. Its face opened into a ghastly hole, and hundreds of backwards arrows began pouring down on the plant monster.

Flowey raised his arms in defence, but the damage began to stack up regardless. The rain of arrows was merciless, and for a moment it looked like Flowey was in danger.

That's when he discovered he had flamethrowers.

His screams turned to maniacal laughter as he flailed the flames around, burning up the arrows before they had a chance to hit him. The little faceless dog fell to the ground and melted into a sparkling white dust, similar to most spent magic attacks.

Flowey turned his flamethrowers to feed the flames of the forest. A flame licked toward them and Endogeny dodged it, but it left Alphys' coat singed like a roasted marshmallow. She carefully pulled it off and tossed it aside.

Thanks to Flowey's aid the flames were nearly upon Endogeny and their riders, and now he was approaching them with his own flames. Alphys sealed her eyes shut and prepared to be turned to ash.

Flowey let out a squawk as a flame launched out at him through the massive fire. He cried out in shock as it blasted one of his flamethrowers off.

Alphys opened her eyes to squint through the smoke. Someone was emerging from the fire. It was…

"Grillby?!" Alphys was astounded.

Grillby waved in her direction before disappearing back into the fire. A few more fireballs hit Flowey from the forest. Grillby was using the same tactic of hiding in the trees that Alphys had been using, only he had the advantage of being able to hide in the fire.

Grillby was able to keep Flowey distracted as Endogeny worked on finding a way to distance themselves from the flames. There wasn't much that could be done, though. The fire was out of control and their battlefield was shrinking every second.

A tunnel of flames burst open as a spiraled blue spear found a target in one of Flowey's good eyes. He howled in anger as a blue, melted figure made her way through the fire, the flames dutifully missing her as she slid along.

"Undyne! Oh, thank heavens!" Alphys cried, but her jubilance was soon drowned out by Flowey's roars.

"How does this keep happening?" he whined. "I'm basically a god! I shouldn't be losing to a bunch of idiots like you!"

He stowed away his remaining flamethrower, whipping out his finger guns instead. Undyne used a spear to shield herself and Alphys' group from the finger bullets. Grillby picked the guns off one by one from his safe place in the fire.

A much larger flame came from the forest and hit Flowey in the tangle of chords that made up his back. After Flowey's screaming had stopped, Alphys realized it was actually a monster. A Pyrope.

"The townsfolk are trying to put out the fire!" Undyne yelled to Alphys. "And any monster capable of withstanding the flames are being sent in to back us up! How is he?" She was pointing at Sans, who was still unconscious... and snoring.

"I think he's asleep!" Alphys replied. Undyne gave her an odd look. "He used a lot of energy, maybe he's recharging?" Alphys guessed.

"Can I help you?" A Vulkin had sauntered out from the woods behind them.

"You can help me!" called Pyrope. Vulkin grinned and skipped toward it, drenching it in lava.

"Ahhh!" sighed Pyrope. "Nice and hot!"

Pyrope coiled itself up and sprang at Flowey like a spring. Vulkin patted its feet happily. "I'm good at helping!"

Flowey was almost on the ground now, his metal and plant body nearly burnt through. Alphys was relieved. They could win this fight! They were winning it right now!

Flowey began to push himself back upward, his arms nearly his only remaining support. His second mouth was beginning to groan and shake. The Xs faded from its eyes. Flowey laughed weakly.

"Game over, everyone." He whispered. A blue laser fired from the mouth.

At first it looked like it would hit the Vulkin head on, but Pyrope jumped in the way and took some of the damage, leaving both monsters critically injured, but alive. He turned the beam towards Undyne and her shielded companions. The attack continued to miss Undyne, but the beam seemed to draw in closer and closer...

Undyne's arm flew off with a horrible sound. The sound did not come from Undyne's mouth, nor did it sound like a breaking bone or tearing flesh, but an unrealistic screeching noise, as if her injury defied some law of reality regarding her existence.

Flowey was hit with more fire from the forest, but a quick scan of the trees with his laser and the crackling sound of Grillby crying out put an end to that. The blue laser returned and more of Undyne's mass began to blow away. Each strike to her body created another, slightly quieter version of the reality defying screech.

Then Alphys heard it through the mayhem, a tiny bark.

Toby launched from the fire like a glowing red missile, slamming right into Flowey's head. The laser stopped as glass shards from Flowey's monitor sprayed across what remained of the field.

Flowey staggered, barely able to support himself even with his huge cacti arms. He spat out glass as his face dripped through the cracks and holes in his monitor. The pipes around his head that looked kind of like petals were beginning to glow different colors. The same colors as the souls, Alphys noticed.

"Undyne, I think we can beat him now." she gripped Undyne's melting shoulders and pointed towards the lights. "I think those are his weak spots."

Flowey started coughing up blue sparks from his second mouth. "We need to hurry." Undyne said. "Do you think you can take this shot with me? I don't know if I have the power to do it alone."

Alphys hesitated. "I can't aim! We have one shot at this as far as we know, what if I miss?" She glanced at Flowey warily. He was beginning to get back up.

"Your attacks are lightning, right?" Undyne asked thoughtfully. Alphys nodded. "Then you won't miss, trust me."

"How do you know?"

"Trust me!" Undyne repeated.

"You know I do. What do you need me to do?"

"Wait for my signal. Then throw as much of your power at him as possible." She sank down into an alarmingly small puddle and slinked off towards Flowey.

"Okay." Alphys slid off Endogeny, placing Sans in what was left of the snow. "Take him as far away as you can. Be careful." She whispered to the dog(s). Endogeny barked gently. They used the shadow dogs to scoop him off the ground and envelop him, then ran for the fire. The flames missed them all the way through.

Alphys stood firm on the rapidly drying ground. The fire approached ever closer. Whatever happened next would be the difference between victory or being burned alive.

Undyne raised her hands in the air, bringing a rain of Z-shaped spears down on Flowey. He raised an arm with his remaining flamethrower and began torching them as they fell, but his arm was shaking.

"NOW!" Undyne yelled. Alphys didn't understand, but she fired at Flowey anyway, throwing anything she had left inside at him. Now or never.

As it had turned out, Undyne's attack had managed to plant a spear in all six of Flowey's metal 'petals'. The lightning was drawn towards them, beginning to zap between the spears as well as riding the Z-shape up and down. Flowey jolted and screamed, shaking his head to try and dislodge the spears. In one final attempt at victory, he fired a weakened blast from his second mouth, cutting the ground beside Alphys and causing her to tip towards the fire. Undyne ran from her spot and dove at her just as the electricity destroyed Flowey's petals. A forceful flash of light shook the area around them, and Alphys blacked out just as the flames began to scorch her back.

Alphys came to when a batch of water was thrown on her. It stung her eyes and tasted terrible in her mouth, almost like… soap? She sputtered and tried to wipe it off her face.

"Wosh u face." Woshua grumbled, moving on to pour soap on the chard bits of the forest in a vain attempt to clean it. "Wosh trees!"

Alphys shivered as rain fell onto her face. A ring of monsters were holding hands and chanting, creating clouds that drifted towards the top of the caverns. As they arrived, the clouds began to dissolve into water droplets, falling and combating what remained of the dying flames. Other monsters worked in a long line to pour buckets of water that were being passed all the way to and from the river.

Alphys finally realized that she was sitting on a gurney, lined up next to five others. The first two had Vulkin and Pyrope, who were sleeping peacefully and looked like they had already been healed. The third had grillby on it, who was currently being healed by the Snowdin shopkeeper. He waved at her when he saw she was looking, and she waved back guiltily. He didn't look badly hurt, but Alphys noticed a large gash in his suit from his chest to stomach, nearly cutting it in half.

On the other side of her was Undyne. Or rather, a puddle with Undyne's coloration. Alphys raised out her hand carefully, and a hand emerged from the puddle as well. They sat just like that for a while, holding hands.

Alphys continued to assess her surroundings. To her surprise, the six souls were back in their containers! She couldn't believe it! There was no way they should have survived being attacked with Flowey and yet there they were, sealed back in the glass with webbing thanks to Muffet, who was keeping a watch over them and…

Flowey.

He seemed unconscious, hunched over in the middle of the charred field in the only remaining patch of live grass. Alphys couldn't believe that he was still around after having the souls ripped from him like that. She felt like she was onto something, a scientific breakthrough.

Alphys squeaked as Flowey began to stir. He looked about, assessing his situation. He looked frightened, but covered it quickly with laughter. "Hehehe, you fools think you beat me? I'll be back! I'll be back you hear me!"

Alphys looked around in a panic as he began to burrow. Why wasn't anyone doing anything? They had barely even reacted!

What she didn't see was that Flowey only made it a few feet into his escape before running into a horrendous, pointed sneer. He turned away only to be faced by another, and then another. While he had been unconscious, the Vegetoid had been busy chewing through his complex, cavern spanning root system. They had him trapped.

One of the Vegetoid scooped him up in its mouth as they surfaced, and spat him into a pot in the hands of a waiting bunny, who in turn stuck him in a pet carrier.

Alphys laid back in peace, amazed at the monsters' ingenuity. She grimaced as she landed on her burnt back. The shopkeeper noted her distress and came over, offering her a healing spell. She accepted, switching hands with Undyne as she flipped to her front. She relaxed as the cooling magic began to mend her skin.

Two gurneys over from her, beside Undyne, Sans awoke, yawning and stretching. He blinked his eye sockets and surveyed the scene.

"Did I miss anything?"