Chapter 12:
During the small pizza party, I explained to Undyne, Gaster, and his followers about the different Amalgamates and how they were all monsters that were fused together by melting together due to excess Determination in their systems. And that, upon my soul touching them, they were diffused and back to normal. And how the only side effect to doing so was that their bodies lost all of their pigmentation aside from black and white, Gaster sighing at that.
"If their bodies have lost their color, then that only means one thing... parts of them were lost to the Void... mainly, the coding that gave them life... now all of you are back to life as your old selves, yes, but you are also caught in-between the confines of life and death itself. You'll never be able to grow old or turn into dust and your souls are pretty much off limits to anything the future might hold for you. Pretty much the only thing that could kill you all now is if a powerful human were to strike with the intent to kill," Gaster explained, me being surprised at that and Undyne then looking at him and the others with confusion.
"So, I know that you got Magenta saved from the Void, but I definitely didn't expect that you saved Gaster from it and his three followers... how'd that happen again?" Undyne asked as she then took a huge bite out of the water sausage pizza.
"Well, Gaster was lost to the Void the moment he touched the CORE, as it's heat was too intense to just turn him into dust... as for his followers, no clue how they got there," I said, them smirking at that.
"Let's just say, we met our fates due to divine retribution," the gingerbread guy said.
"Well, when Frisk encountered the Void, it was in the form of a large white door just outside of your house and to the west. She then went through it and Gaster attacked her out of desperation to leave the Void, as he was stuck behind it for way too long... and when he did, the result was that Frisk's soul absorbed the blow and answered back by making the entire room glow like a rainbow. And it then affected the door, allowing us all to leave at the same time," Magenta explained.
"I see... so how come none of us ever learned of that?" asked Shyster, Shyren's sister.
"Because the Void has an odd trick to it... it basically desires for those inside of it... to be forgotten about by everyone. The only ones who knew about the Void and its inhabitants were me, my former assistant, and Undyne, since I told her about it..." Alphys sighed.
"Former assistant?... Sans used to work with you?" I asked, Alphys smirking at that.
"Yes, but he only worked with me for about a month... he stopped shortly after the incident with the golden flowers... I guess he knew of what would come after and didn't want to be bothered," Alphys said, me seeing her smile fade into a frown.
"Okay... how about we go ahead and get to calling the family members and getting everyone safely home?" I asked, Alphys and the others smiling at that.
"Okay, let's do that," Alphys said as we then called all the different monsters' families... which took a good half hour, so we sadly had to make Mettaton wait to encounter me.. but then, after everyone was called, Gaster, Sans, and the others proceeded to escort everyone out of the place and to their respective areas... and only when everyone but myself, Magenta, Spike, and Alphys were left did I then ask her an important question.
"Okay, everyone's gone, so please, tell me, Alphys. What do you know about Flowey?" I asked, her sighing at that as she bit her lip and then started to speak.
"Around the same time I... experimented on the test subjects... I also did the same thing with some golden flowers from King Asgore's garden... I injected Determination extract from the 6 human souls into the different plants... I was trying to see what may happen if something without a soul gained sentience... a will to live... it worked, but with disastrous consequences..." Alphys said as she then shuddered again.
"So... you created Flowey?" I asked, her sighing at that.
"Yes... he was created from the first golden flower that grew in the garden... it grew shortly before the queen disappeared and after the incident with the prince and the fallen child, Chara... Flowey... born from the ashes of the prince... became fully aware of everything shortly after being planted back in the garden... he has the memories of Asriel, but no soul... and therefore, no positive emotions, no negative emotions, just emptiness..." Alphys said, me gawking at that and being a bit taken aback.
"Wait... Flowey... is Asriel?" I asked, her nodding at that. "But... then why is he so cold and ruthless? Why does he want me dead?" I asked, Alphys shuddering as I saw her hands get clammy.
"Asriel has the power of Determination... and with it, he was able to SAVE, LOAD, and RESET... with those powers, he began to see the same scenarios day in and day out... before he got bored and decided to kill... and the more he killed, the more it amused him to see everyone suffer... but he was always stopped by the final hurdle, one that Chara should know very well," Alphys said, Chara taking control of my body and hanging our head low.
"The comic... him," Chara frowned, me knowing what she meant.
"Yes... Sans always stopped him during his genocide runs... he managed to break his will to keep killing and kept forcing him to RESET... until Flowey eventually gave up... but then, you came along... and ever since, the system has decided that this day would repeat on loop for all eternity, just from your soul being Underground," Alphys said as she looked at me in particular with a glare in her eyes.
"It's not like I meant to do that, you know? And I have no memories of any of the events leading to this point other than what Chara has shown me," I said, Alphys nodding at that.
"I know. I just despise the fact that your soul, before this reset, was the cause of so much s-suffering... all the bloodshed, all the sappy happy endings... all the fighting and sparing, I've seen them all before... and hate them all at the same time," Alphys said, me looking at her with a sigh. "But... in the end, I know it wasn't you that was at fault... it was the humans in the true world that tortured us for countless RESETs... at least now I know that this is the final one..." Alphys sighed, me nodding at that.
"Yeah... so, do you think that we can keep going? I wanna see Mettaton in person again! I wanna get his autograph, even if he is trying to kill you!" Spike said with a smile, me smirking at him.
"Sure thing," I said, Alphys looking at me with a smile.
"Wait, before you go, I want to upgrade your phone... I only do it for the pacifists that spared Undyne... can I have it for a sec?" Alphys asked, me nodding as I gave her the phone and she went to her desk, tinkered with it for about 20 seconds, then came back and gave me the upgraded phone. "Here you go, it's got a bunch of new features to it. It can do texts, inventory management, it's got a cool key chain, a jet pack feature, a bomb diffusing system, and a Justice Shot button," Alphys said with a smile as I saw she also signed me up for the Undernet. I then decided I would befriend Alphys on her thing, since she didn't add me as a friend, her smiling as she got a notification on her phone and she sighed happily.
"Thanks, Frisk," she smiled and me nodding... only for Chara to suddenly take control.
"You promise not to flood us with nonsense babbling? Like you usually do in the pacifist runs?" Chara asked.
"I promise to keep them to a minimum... but I will still update it from time to time, though definitely not as often as I used to," Alphys said, me smiling at that.
"Now let's go find that Mettaton guy," Magenta said, me nodding as we then left the lab and proceeded out the door to the east, us seeing that we had to move along some conveyor belts to move forward, which I felt was very fun. And then a strange monster appeared, one who looked like a very happy volcano-shaped monster.
"Hi there, miss human! I'm Vulkin," he said happily, me smiling at how cute he sounded and the fact that he seemed pretty friendly.
"Hello, Vulkin. I'm Frisk," I smiled at him.
"So, I heard a lot of stories about how you managed to find and rescue the different test subjects that Alphys had, right?" he asked, me nodding at that. "Well, I just wanted to thank you for that. I'm best friends with the daughter of one of the monsters, her being a fire girl who's in high school. I wanted to do something to help out, but I didn't know what I could do," Vulkin smiled.
"Well, how about you go try to spread the word around Hotland about me being a good human and that I am not at all dangerous? Eventually the word of mouth should reach Mettaton and he'll stop trying to kill me... a little flower has been spreading lies about me being a cold and ruthless killer, you see," I said, Vulkin nodding at that.
"Yeah, I know, he tried to tell me that story too, but I didn't believe a word of it!" Vulkin giggled. "Okay, I'll go ahead and spread the word that the flower's not a good person! Hopefully Mettaton hears it before you encounter him," Vulkin said as he then proceeded to move ahead through the lava, me smirking at the cuteness a volcano monster could have.
"So, what's your opinion on Vulkin?" Magenta asked, me smirking at her.
"I think he's adorable, but not nearly as much as you," I said, Chara gagging in thought and me smirking at that.
"No mushy gushy stuff, please? I'm not into girls, yet you keep on flirting with her," Chara said in thought, me smiling at that comment. I was definitely gonna torture her way more often, then. "Oh come on! Why do you have to be so mean?" Chara groaned as she took control, Magenta giggling and Spike smirking as well.
"You're really funny when you're annoyed, hon," Magenta smirked, Chara frowning at that.
"Just don't say my name in open spaces. That flower could be anywhere, listening in from afar," Chara said, Magenta and Spike nodding at that.
"We promise," Spike said as I then took control again and we proceeded to move forward once again And after moving forward some more, we came across a strange puzzle that consisted of pressure plates that had steam under them.
"So... what do I do here?" I asked.
"These are very fun. You stand on the pressure plates and the steam sends you forward," Magenta smirked as she then demonstrated by stepping on one and then her being sent to another small island and me smirking at how it did look pretty fun. Spike followed suit and I was about to do the same before something happened. A very fast moving object rushed past me and almost rammed into me, me being shocked at this and seeing that the moving object was... some kinda plane that had eyes, a mouth, and a pink bunny ear hat on.
"O-Oh! S-Sorry, human! I was t-trying to meet with someone important," the plane said, her sounding pretty apprehensive at me and her blushing as I moved closer to her. "B-Baka... d-don't get any closer... o-or I'll... um... I'll..." the plane creature said as I simply smiled at her.
"You're pretty shy, aren't you?" I asked, her looking at me and scoffing.
"N-NO! I'm not shy, I just... I totally don't like you at all and I'd never fall in love with you... Baka," she said, me only then realizing that she was an obvious Tsundere.
"Okay then, that's fine. What's your name? I'm Frisk," I said, the plane monster blushing a bit more at that.
"U-Um... I'm Tsunderplane... uh... I-I'm gonna leave now, bye," she said as she then flew off again and Magenta smiled at me from her area.
"That was Tsunderplane. She's basically a sentient plane that is a huge crush on humans, but is too shy to ever tell anyone her true feelings," Magenta said, me chuckling at that as I then followed after her and Spike and we saw that we had to get through some lasers that were colored blue and orange. The blue ones were moving and the orange ones stayed still.
"I have an idea of how to get through this without getting hurt," I smirked as I then moved through the orange ones and stayed completely still for the blue lasers when they moved past me, seeing they did nothing. And once I got through, I then hit the button and the lasers disappeared, allowing Spike and Magenta to follow after me and us then finding a large door blocking our progress to the north and Alphys then called me on my phone.
"Hello?" I asked into it.
"Hi... um, about this door, you need to finish a couple puzzles to the west and east... I feel bad to say this, but... before we met and before I was told that stuff by that flower... I was planning on having you go through Hotland and protect you from fake dangers... I reactivated puzzles and convinced Mettaton to put on a show and all... but the puzzles may have been tampered by Mettaton, so I felt that I should mention that," Alphys explained, me smiling at that.
"I see... well, at least you're admitting it. That shows that you're improving," I said, Alphys sighing contentedly at that. "So what are the puzzles supposed to be?"
"Well... it's kind of like a puzzle where you need to shoot at an opposing enemy ship... but you need to move a bunch of blockades in order to shoot the ship... failing to do so will reset the puzzle," Alphys explained, me smiling at that as I then proceeded to the west first and saw that the way through was blocked by a blue laser. "Um... I'll try to turn that off from here in the lab," Alphys said as, shortly after, the laser went down and we then moved through... only for it to reform shortly after Magenta was going through it, her actually gasping as she got burnt slightly on the side from the laser due to her moving at first! I could tell that she was holding in her screams of pain as Alphys stammered a bit and typed some more until the laser turned color from blue to green, Magenta sighing in relief upon touching the green laser, which confused me.
"Whew... green is always good," Magenta said, me being confused at that.
"But I thought green attacks made you stop in place?" I asked.
"Only Undyne's does that. All other monsters Underground that have green attacks makes them heal your opponent if it hits them," Spike said, me smirking at that as I then went into the door and saw that the puzzle in place was consisting of exactly what Alphys described... the only issue was that it also had some kind of trap in place where the control panel was... and I had a bad feeling that I'd get hurt badly if I made a wrong move.
"Hmm..." I said as I looked at the console and proceeded to make the most logical choice and I managed to shoot the other ship on the other side, the puzzle doing a victory tune and me smiling at that.
"Okay, time to see how the green laser is," Magenta said as we went out of the room and saw that the laser was still green and that there were four monsters on the other side... two of them were colorful and two of them were black and white. They consisted of two tentacled monsters and two fire ladies with two of them being former test subjects.
"Hi there, are you the nice and compassionate human that saved my mother and my friend's dad?" the green fire girl asked, her looking like she was in high school and wearing a sailor school uniform.
"Yep, I'm Frisk. I just hope that this green laser doesn't change into a different color when we go through it again," I said as I went through it and was surprised that nothing happened... and after Spike and Magenta went through, the laser stayed green.
"Okay... I'm gonna close the feed now..." Alphys said, me being surprised that she was still on the line! And shortly after she did that, the laser grid changed back to blue.
"Thanks for that, Alphys," I said, her smiling at that.
"You're welcome... I'm gonna be MIA for a bit now, because Undyne wanted to come visit me... she and I want some private time," Alphys said, me smiling at that.
"By all means, enjoy it. You deserve it," I smirked at her as Alphys then hung up and simply sent me a blushing emoji, which proved that she still was shy, even after everything that happened. Our group then finished up the puzzle on the east (with Chara doing it instead and getting through easily) and we then proceeded through the now-open door and proceeded to jump across a whole bunch of different vents that catapulted our group to an area that looked pretty dark... which I found odd, considering there was lava around us.
"Hold on, I think I can use some magic to light the place up," Magenta said as she then created a small light of sorts that allowed us to see our surroundings... and we saw we were on some kind of stage that was fashioned like a kitchen.
"Looks like it's time to get cooking," I smiled at this as Mettaton then appeared from under the counter wearing an apron and a chef's hat.
"Indeed, you are correct, human! Welcome, beauties and gentlebeauties, to the Underground's premier cooking show, 'Cooking with a Killer Robot!" Mettaton said bombastically as the cameras were all on our group and me smiling at the fact that I was no on TV. "Today on our delightful show, our wonderful assistants will be helping us bake chocolate cake!" Mettaton said, me immediately feeling Chara switch to control and Mettaton actually looking at her in confusion.
"Chocolate... must make! Must eat!" Chara said with a wicked smile, Mettaton looking a bit surprised at her saying that.
"Um.. ehem, yes. The ingredients we need are cocoa powder, eggs, milk, and sugar! Go on and get the ingredients and we can get started, darlings!" Mettaton said as I saw that they were on the shelf, Chara grabbing the chocolate powder and the eggs while Magenta used her psychic powers to grab the sugar and milk, us placing them on the counter in a neat fashion. "Well done, darlings!... Oh, wait a second... I'm forgetting the most important ingredient of all!" Mettaton said, me smiling at that.
"Yeah, the most important ingredient for this recipe is... talent!" I smirked... and out of nowhere, Sans appeared and blew on a trombone playing "Wah Wah Wah!" on it, which caused Spike to roll on the ground laughing his head off.
"Ooh, looks like you're a comedian, aren't you, darling? But no, the most important ingredient is..." Mettaton said as he then grabbed something from under the counter... a CHAINSAW! "A human soul!" Mettaton shouted as he then revved up the chainsaw and started to slowly wheel over to me, Chara letting me in control and me wondering how to escape... only for me to gasp as I suddenly felt something on my ankles that anchored me to the ground... green vines!
"Flowey," I frowned as I simply waited for Mettaton to try and connect the chainsaw to my chest... and when he was about to swing it at me, I simply tried out my own tricks and grabbed the chainsaw by the blades... and nothing at all happened to my skin! In fact, the power that I exuded through my hands managed to bend the chainsaw blade in half and for Mettaton to simply wheel himself backwards as I tossed the chainsaw over the edge of the stage and into the lava below us.
"Oh dear... it appears that I was mistaken. I cannot kill you as easily as I thought, human! I guess we'll just make the recipe without a human soul!" Mettaton said, me smirking at that.
"All I care about is eating the thing... I have a bit of a crazy love for anything related to chocolate," I said, intentionally giving Flowey a hint, since his vines were still around my ankles. And the moment that I said that, the vines retreated into the ground and Mettaton then formed a smiley face on his lighted face.
"Oh, but of course, darling!" Mettaton smiled as the cameras then turned off and Mettaton threw the ingredients off of the platform and simply brought out the cake from the oven, the cameras then turning on and me smiling at how he was doing what cooking shows always did. Made the food ahead of time. "And voila! A chocolate cake! Would you like to taste it, darling?" Mettaton asked, Chara immediately smirking and using one of the butter knives on the counter to slice a piece of the cake and her to then eat it with a smile on her face... before she then gasped and spat all of it out, Mettaton being shocked at that.
"Hmm... maybe it could've used a bit more sugar," Mettaton said as I then wondered what the heck made Chara spit out her favorite food.
"No, that wasn't the problem... that cake was poisoned with buttercups!" Chara exclaimed, me being shocked as well as very confused... and Mettaton also looked surprised... I think.
"Poisoned? That definitely wasn't part of the recipe... I do not recall putting buttercups in this cake..." Mettaton said as the cameras then turned off and I then looked at him with seriousness as I went in control.
"It's because that flower guy that's trying to help you kill me? He only wants me dead because he fears me and my strength. He probably expected plan A to fail, so he poisoned the cake and expected me to die from getting poisoned and dying a slow and painful death... but... how did my... other, more powerful soul, know that the cake was poisoned with buttercups specifically?" I asked, Chara sighing at that bit.
"I'll tell you, but not near this bozo... later on, yes," Chara said to me in thought as I then looked at the robotic entertainer with a smile.
"Listen, Mettaton. While it is true that a strike from me could destroy the entire world, it would only happen if I attacked something with the intent to kill it. And I don't want to kill or hurt anyone... I mean, I'm a kid, 9 years old. Why would I ever think of killing anyone, let alone all the nice folks I've met down here?" I asked, Mettaton making his lights turn into a frown.
"I understand your concerns, human, but we still have an audience to woo and a show to do! So, from here on out, I'll just 'pretend' to get you killed and tell that flower guy to lay off," Mettaton said, me shaking my head no at that.
"No, that wouldn't be a good idea... that flower is much more murder happy if things don't go his way... so try to keep the act going while also making the flower get played for a fool. That way the audience will be enticed and we can still have a proper show," I said, Mettaton smirking at that for a change.
"I like the way you think, human female! I shall await you on the second floor of Hotland, then! Be sure to bring a stellar performance!" Mettaton smiled as he then jetted off again and I looked at the other two in my group with a smile.
"Well, so you're aware, I could sense that Flowey wasn't anywhere around when you said that... otherwise, I would've gotten you to shut up at the plan you just made," Magenta said, me smiling at that.
"So... kid? Do you think you could tell me about how you knew about the poison?" I asked Chara as we then went forward on our way and we eventually found an elevator.
"I will... I'll tell you the actual story... the story of how I caused all this heartache and misery in the first place... with the stupidest plan I ever made," Chara sighed... now I was really curious. What would they tell me? And how did it relate to buttercups being used as poison?