"ATHRUN!"
That was the first word that left the lips of Nicol Amalfi as he found himself regaining consciousness, with him jolting his eyes open in the process before his body shot up from its former position on the ground.
Adrenaline began to pump through the boy's system as he felt his heart racing tremendously. His vision blurred rather intensely as he swung his head from side to side with enough speed to snap his neck with each turn, and the worry was very apparent in his gaze as he swiftly surveyed his surroundings with panic induced precision, though before long, his panic faded into no small amount of confusion as he realized where he currently was.
How… strange. The last he recalled, Nicol remembered that he was sitting within the cockpit of the Blitz Gundam. Now, however, he found himself sitting atop a grove of beautiful golden flowers within a strange cave system. The flowers weren't uncomfortable to sit on, all things considered, and above them was a light that shone down upon the grove of golden flowers, with it more than likely being the thing that allowed them to grow in the first place.
Staring down at the golden flowers beneath him, Amalfi found himself slowly but surely realizing that he… he wasn't where he believed he was… and upon acknowledging that, a sense of foreboding flooded the Coordinator's system as he felt the adrenaline leave his body…
And right as it did so, the boy gasped in shock as he felt a sharp sensation of pain course through his entire body. Wincing immensely because of it, Nicol squeezed his eyes shut and moved his arm over the source of the pain and found that he had wrapped his entire forearm around his abdomen seconds later, and as he removed it, Amalfi widened his eyes immensely when he realized that… he was injured… very injured…
There was blood… so much blood on the sleeve of his forearm… more than enough to make the boy gag a little as he glanced down below himself. As he did so, Nicol found himself widening his eyes immensely when he saw that the dirt beneath him had gotten a little red from just how much blood he was losing, and the mere realization of all that was enough to make him lean back intensely as he tried to process this piece of information. He would've fallen onto his back were it not for his other hand springing backwards to stop him from doing so, and as he propped himself up in a sitting position, the boy clenched his blood soaked fist gently as he recalled… just what had happened to him.
Through the pain in his abdomen and the still lingering shock that came with seeing himself injured to this degree, Nicol recalled… Athrun. Yes… Athrun Zala. He was being pursued by the Strike Gundam, and his unit, the Aegis, was in no condition to fight. In a panic, Nicol had attempted to assist him with his Blitz… and ultimately, his attempt at saving his friend had only brought about his untimely end…
'I… I died…' thought Nicol as his eyes began to feel rather glassy. As he thought that, Amalfi's insides began to twist violently as he struggled to make peace with that one statement, and as he did so, the pilot found himself clenching the hand he was using to prop himself up rather tightly into the soil beneath him as he tried to make peace with his death…
Peace that, evidently enough, would not come anytime soon as the boy began to feel some tears slide down his cheeks. The injury on his abdomen hurt like nothing he has ever felt in the past… and by all means, it was probably severe enough to kill him if he continued to let it bleed out… and yet, it couldn't even compare to the pain he felt as he tried to come to terms with his untimely demise.
More and more tears began to flow from Amalfi's eyes and down his cheeks as the seconds ticked by, though his sobbing was mostly controlled as he forced himself to practice some restraint with his emotions just this once. As he did so, Nicol clung onto the abdomen of his blood soaked uniform rather tightly with his forearm, with the red liquid dripping from the injury behind his shirt at an alarming rate as several thoughts began to work their way into his mind.
"A-Athrun… he… he's…' thought Nicol rather worriedly as he brought up the last thing that he remembered before dying… he hoped that Athrun Zala had escaped in the subsequent explosion of the Blitz Gundam. If he had survived, then Nicol could at least say that he didn't die for nothing… 'H-He's fine. I'm sure of it. He's not our ace for nothing…
Yes… Athrun Zala, the Ace Pilot of the Le Creuset Team, Pilot to the Aegis Gundam… and one of Nicol Amalfi's dearest friends. Nicol knew the guy long enough to know that he was by no means dumb, and he was confident on the fact that he had escaped during the commotion…
Aside from Athrun Zala, however… there was…
'Mother…'
The mere thought of Nicol's mother had broken all semblance of calm and emotional restraint that Amalfi had left as tears began to flow freely from his eyes, with them landing onto his ZAFT Red Officer Uniform thereafter as he found himself recalling the last words that he had uttered to his dear mother… he had made a promise to return to her, had he not?
He could only imagine the pain that she must've felt when she realized that Nicol had been KIA… the grief that both his parents must've feel when they learnt of his death… and that thought alone was more than enough to make Amalfi clench his fist tightly as his shoulders heaved up and down in grief.
Unlike the likes of Yzak Joule or Dearka Elsman, Nicol was not exactly an emotionally calm child. Whenever they cried, nothing more than a handful of tears would leave them, as their emotions were hardened through their experiences and sheer hatred of Naturals. As for Nicol, however, as the youngest of the three, as well as being the most tolerant of Naturals… he was unable to mimic their hardened nature, and by all means, he reckoned that, when compared to them, he was taking his death rather pathetically as he found himself sobbing uncontrollably…
A handful of chokes and sobs were able to escape Nicol's lips as he began to imagine the state of distress his parents were in when they had learnt that he was no longer with them. He… he had been careless in battle. Had he focused more… he could have potentially defeated the Strike Gundam and kept himself alive… but due to his lack of combat experience, at least when compared to Yzak or Dearka, or even Athrun and the now deceased Rusty… he had not been able to plan ahead as well as any of them, and as a result, it had costed him dearly…
'I… I truly am a fool… I'm sorry… m-mother… f-f-father…' lamented Nicol in anguish as he continued to allow the tears to flow down his face.
Rather abruptly, a choked, self deprecating laugh managed to squeeze its way out of Amalfi's throat as he found himself… laughing a little at just how pathetic he was. The choked cackle was weak and lasted for less than a second… and yet, for as much as he had done it in order to mock himself for his shortcomings… Nicol couldn't help but feel as though that laugh didn't come out naturally…
It felt almost as though something had compelled him to laugh as he wept, though he didn't acknowledge that one fact as he continued bawling at his own expense.
Though before long… the cries of the ZAFT pilot seemed to alert someone to his presence, and thereafter… a spot on the small grove of golden flowers that he was sitting on began to shudder a little as something slowly but surely began to force itself out from beneath it.
Nicol didn't notice this, however, as he kept his eyes shut whilst he continued to lament his current situation, with him only realizing that something was off when, not too far in front of him, the ground exploded outwards a little, allowing another golden flower to emerge from the soil, much to his surprise, as he didn't recall plants being able to grow that swiftly.
He also didn't recall flowers having faces on them either...
"Howdy!"
And he sure as Hell didn't remember them speaking either…
This was rather… strange, all things considered…
Flowey has been alive for far longer than he was willing to admit. As a being that was once able to RESET the world around him whenever he wished, the living flower, whilst technically being only a handful of months old at best, could be considered over a few thousand years old if the RESETS were to be included in his lifespan.
The ability to turn back time… to… RESET the world… it was attributed to just how DETERMINED a being was. Only those with an immense amount of DETERMINATION were able to forcefully turn back time via the use of the LOAD and SAVE functions. How this was possible was still a subject of debate, but regardless… Flowey, despite being a Monster… was more than DETERMINED enough to force the world into RESETTING on more than one occasion.
With this power, the living flower Monster has done quite a few… questionable things, so to speak, as he kept RESETTING the timeline over and over again. Be they noble deeds that would be celebrated throughout all of history, or great forms of evil that would make even the devil themselves flinch, Flowey has done them all, and through various methods as well. No ACT was too malevolent or benevolent for the Golden Demise, for he did not feel… any form of emotion at all due to some… unique circumstances, and as such, empathy was a foreign concept to him, and he doubted that would change anytime soon.
Even so… the living flower was still somewhat aware of how his ability to RESET the world had a tendency to disappear after the Eighth Child had fallen into the Underground. His memories that came after their arrival was… fuzzy, so say the least, though he did recall at least one thing; whoever this human was… they were certainly DETERMINED enough to override his ability to RESET, and while, as stated above, Flowey was unable to feel emotions… the mere thought of losing his ability to RESET all because a child had fallen into the underground was almost enough to make him feel fear.
Almost.
The prospect of playing by a human child's rules was not enticing to Flowey, and as such, he made several attempts at forcefully regaining his ability to RESET… but regrettably (for him at least), the flower was unable to do so successfully. The human was just too… DETERMINED to allow the living flower to regain his ability to RESET through conventional means, whether or not he knew about his true intentions, and after countless attempts, the living flower opted to begrudgingly go with the flow and just… see how things would play out.
As with him, the human seemed keen on RESETTING rather frequently, though it seemed as though their motives were different from those of Flowey's, as, unlike the living flower, who simply RESETTED for the fun of it, he didn't recall them having even a single point of EXP prior to every RESET, and likewise, the child seemed more keen on befriending everyone in the underground and getting all of them a happy ending rather than actually find out every last detail about the world they had fallen into. That in itself was rather interesting, and by all means, the exploits of the child were intriguing to the flower as well… though if he were honest, he'd much rather have his ability to RESET back rather than just watch everything play out.
Flowey still recalled what had happened prior to the latest RESET. The human child had just defeat Asgore, the King of the Monsters, for… well, only God knew how many times Asgore had fallen at his hands at this point, and as with all other times, Flowey had appeared to finish the old fool off to mock the squinty eyed kid's attempts yet again. And, as per usual by now… the child RESETTED, and likewise, Flowey eventually found himself back at where he always started out at, a location close to the grove of golden flowers where they were buried at.
Irritated, the living flower grumbled to himself as he once again began to wait for the human child to awaken from his RESET induced slumber and walk up to him. Though the timeline of each RESET was, typically, incredibly flexible, there were a small handful of… variables that were required to be enforced in each and every one of them, and Flowey greeting the human at this exact spot was one of them. He couldn't leave this damn spot until the human entered and after he had spoken to them in some way, for crying out loud, and that in itself was rather infuriating as the flower recalled that one time where the human purposely lingered outside this one specific room in order to snicker at his expense.
That lil' brat…
And so… Flowey waited for quite some time as he grumbled and picked at his leaves, with him… patiently waiting for the arrival of that squinty eyed brat as per usual. A minute passed since the RESET had happened, and then an hour… which quickly became two… and then four… and thereafter… five hours had passed, and by then, Flowey found himself ready to rip out his own petals as he growled out in rage.
"FOR FUCKS SAKE. WHAT'S TAKING THAT BRAT SO FUCKING LONG?!" demanded Flowey, with him reaching the very end of his limit by now, what with all the constant RESETS and him being infuriated at how it wasn't him doing all of it as he swung himself around on his stem. Magical Bullet Seeds materialised all around him as the living flower yelled and shrieked in an attempt to ease his boredom and fired the seeds at random objects all around him, though as soon as one of his many bullets had impacted the ceiling above him, the flower suddenly heard it…
"ATHRUN!"
Pausing his murderous attempt at alleviating his boredom as soon as he heard that… unfamiliar voice ring out through the Underground, Flowey appeared briefly confused as he stared over at the source of the cry. That was… unexpected, to say the least, as, in the very few times where they had interacted with each other, the living flower did not recall the squinty eyed child speaking… ever.
Now that he thought about it… Flowey didn't even recall hearing the kid cry out in pain! What kind of child even were they…?
With that in mind, Flowey found his interest piqued as he perked his nonexistent ears up and focused a little, with him assuming that he'd hear more if he were patient. And his patience was inevitably rewarded, as the living flower inevitably heard the faint sounds of sobbing, much to his surprise, as the human child had never cried before during their time here. Or, at the very least, they had never done so in Flowey's presence…
Rather abruptly, however, Flowey felt a shudder go up his stem as he shivered a tiny bit in the dirt. A mild sensation travelled through his entire body as the world around him glitched for the briefest of seconds, and thereafter, the flower shook his 'head' from side to side before he grimaced and raised a brow, silently wondering what had happened.
Out of curiosity, the flower made an attempt to sink into the ground, having fully expected it to not work due to it being one of the few preconceived rules of the timeline. And yet… it came as a small shock to Flowey when he felt his body slipping into the underground with little to no resistance, and thereafter, the living flower found himself… smiling as he realized that whatever had just happened may or may not have broken some of the preconceived rules of this world…
Whilst he was still beneath the surface, Flowey found himself pondering his next course of action, and before long, a massive, malicious smile snuck its way onto his face as he realized that, right now… the human was more than likely vulnerable. A crying child was a weak target, after all, and if he wished to regain his powers, now was as good a time as any to strike them down.
After all, they didn't have a SAVE file active at the moment, that much was obvious as RESETS tended to erase all previously made SAVES… and without a SAVE file, they couldn't LOAD, and if they died and they didn't RESET, then that meant that the living flower would regain his powers! The mere thought of regaining his ability to manipulate time itself was enough to excite Flowey just a tiny bit as he began to slither through the dirt, towards the 'spawn point', for the lack of a better term, of the human, with him eagerly flexing his vines as he got ready to strangle the life out of them.
As he drew closer, however, Flowey found his resolve to kill the human wavering, if only by a little, as he recalled just who was buried underneath the golden flowers that the human child would always fall onto. Would they approve of his actions…? Probably not, though honestly speaking, the living flower's worries were quickly set aside as he smirked once more and shuffled past the casket that was buried beneath the golden flowers and popped out of the soil to introduce himself.
"Howdy!" proclaimed Flowey as he emerged from the soil, with him making use of his most friendly tone of voice in order to throw the human off. He reckoned that it was the same human as before, after all, and in order to kill them properly, he reckoned that he would need to make use of some deception in order to do so…
And yet, as he was about to continue speaking, Flowey found himself trailing off as the surprise began to seep into his voice. The milliseconds ticked by with each word that left the flower monster's lips, and before long, he was stunned into silence as he realized that… this was not the kid that would always greet him.
"I… I'm Flowey… Flowey the… Flower…"
I'm bad with outros so I can't make one that well here.
Erm… hope you enjoyed this recreation of the first few minutes of Undertale!