Chapter 10: Pesticide Route

She couldn't pull her eyes away, she was frozen. Muzzled by the vines.

This couldn't be it! This couldn't be the end. She groaned, in an attempt to warn him, as she felt her knee buckle again.

Suddenly a bright red flame seemed to engulf the area behind Sans.

She blinked as she pried the vine off her lips, her eyes watering from the sudden flash of light. She wasn't sure what she'd seen. Her face felt hot, and as soon as she felt the pain run up through her knee as she attempted to step forward, her body gave up on her.

Sans teleported to catch her before she hit the ground. He looked up and once again, singed the ground with his Gasters. The damn Flower was gone. The whole area was smoking between the blue flames and whatever had saved him.

"Do not think that when my best customer goes missing, I do not go looking. One cannot miss the blue light you give off when you are enraged or without a daily dose of ketchup I presume? Anyone in the area would have seen that."

Sans looked to see Grillby standing next to the shrivelled and darkened vines behind him.

"Heh, shoulda known."

"Your tab is rising exponentially for every moment I'm away from the pub."

"Not a problem. My tab isn't the big issue here. Look, no time to explain, can you take the kid to my place. My room. It's the only safe place I can think of."

"Your room?" Grillby suspected there was something amiss, but he couldn't help but be suspicious of Sans after their previous conversation at the bar with Frisk.

"Look Grills, that monster kid's gonna come back. I'm working up a plan for this… you know you might be worth more than just ketchup and burgers eh?"

"Not going to decode that one now. I'm going to trust you're going to manage the rest. If your brother is home how do I explain this?" Grillby picked up the human girl. He placed his fingers delicately on the areas of her sweater that were not torn so as not to singe her.

"He's with Undyne today. Third wheeling. Leave it to me. Actually, as a matter of fact tell him to invite Undyne and Alphys over if he is home. She'll need Alphys." Sans used his Gaster Blaster one more time, as he looked suspiciously to the dark grassy earth after he thought he saw something move in the corner of his socket. He ended up singing a deep hole in the earth where Flowey had once sprouted. They silently saw the broken ruminant of a human soul shatter, as it seemed to appear out of the soil. So Flowey hadn't managed to keep the human soul inside him. He'd suspected he was using the last of that soul's power to destroy him. If not for Grillby…or Frisk's warning, Sans had to admit, he might have succeeded.

"I'll be there soon. Also, if you happen to see any flowers…that don't happen to be blue…more specifically an irksome golden yellow… flame it Grills'."

Sans tone got deep and serious. Grillby took a quick nod and left with Frisk in his arms.

Sans continued to dig deep holes in the ground. The bastard had gotten away. He didn't like this area of the Waterfall. He went to the section of earth, the narrow passageway that like the Temmie village, couldn't be found unless you were looking.

With a bright blinding blue light, he managed to severe the earth bridge between that area of the Waterfall and the surrounding water. No bridge between here and the rest of Waterfall. No way for the flower to travel, unless that flower could breathe underwater. If it had managed to get away, he needed to make some quick meetings soon with some very specific monsters.

He was overdue with a talk with the King. Not to mention Toriel when she found out what happened to Frisk. And he'd already been considering a plan to prevent this from happening again.

But one thing was first.

Frisk.

He settled into the reality of it. He patted his G.B's on the nose as they disappeared. He felt the guilt sink into his bones.

This was a path he put her on. He'd once intended to save her. But now, knowing what he saw, his curiosity for his own selfish wish to see this … this timeline out.

If she didn't hate him after this, he'd be damn well surprised.

"So ,what exactly happened?" Alphys left Sans room after delicately bandaging Frisk's leg. Her voice was calm, almost in a whisper. "She didn't even wake up…I-I-thought for sure that it would hurt her knee but-"

"Look all I have to say is there's a Flower." Sans shoved his hands in his pockets.

"A flower?" Undyne raised a brow. "And you didn't CRUSH IT?!"

"Not a Flower…he he. A monster. He's got the ability to screw around with things here…I've seen it before. When Frisk was a kid, I saw it following her a bit. Now I know it was jealous of her. Frisk is the only one here who had enough Determination to survive that guy. I donno, what else to say other than he's tryna accumulate souls to get stronger. He was tryna tempt Frisk to go back to her ol'path about going after the King and leave. Either way, we ain't gonna let that happen."

"Oh? Brother? Have you a trap? Have my evil plans of trapping humans finally rub off on you?"

"He, I suppose Pap. Look, Undyne you gotta go talk to the King. That King of ours loves those flowers for some reason. I don't care if you burn em on accident or take Grills with ya, but that Flowey thing will likely go after the souls he has…so as for the rest of us. If you see a gold flower; get rid of it."

"You know…I could perhaps…uhm…I mean…I suppose I may-"

Sans looked to Alphys. "Got something to say? Not sure how a monster soul ends up in a flower but you got something that can help this out?"

Alphys swallowed, avoiding San's sockets. "Ahem…um…perhaps some …well I read in a human book there's something called a Herbicide…kills …well…plants. Maybe I could use the pollen in that flower to target it exactly…to assist this quest?"

"Not a bad idea ol'Alph." Sans smirked a bit.

"Ah, ah and what of me?"

"Well I'll need to tell Tors what happened after this has passed, but I did have an idea about the kids."

"Kids?" Undyne asked.

"Well we did neglect to keep an eye out for other kids that fell through from the top…so if Flower kid decides to try to kill another we gotta stop him. So Pap you up for the challenge?"

"Challenge? Challenge! If it will keep Frisk safe I am definitely up for the challenge! So…what is the challenge?"

"Go talk to lil' ol'Muffet. Tell her Sans has a favour he'd like to cash in…and speaking of which, bring a couple G with ya, she takes her bake sales seriously if I recall."

"Righty!" Papyrus saluted his brother. "And uhm…if she says no?"

Sans paused. He smirked at his cleverness. "Tell her ol' Grills might be able to help with the sale of her spider sweets at his place. I got a few favors to cash in." He shrugged.

"Oh yea, like he'll let you with the tab you've grown there?" Undyne laughed.

"Hey, what can I say hard to say no to a skeleton like me. Either way, I mean it with this Flowey kid. Even if our Frisk gets her determination back, I'm not sure his next moves."

"Hey, I'll be damned if a Flower crushes our King, or our Frisk. I'll go tell the King his golden flowers nearly killed a kid…"

"S-s-he's not a kid anymore though…" Alphys reminded Undyne.

"Heh… I know." Sans muttered. His eyes cautiously departed to his room upstairs.