Frisk's jaws dropped.
People that weren't humans or monsters.
People that weren't humans or monsters.
No matter how many times they ran those words through their head, they couldn't seem to make them make any sense.
How was that even possible? They'd looked through monster history books, and not once had there been mention of something other than humans living on Earth with them -
"What'ya mean, not human or monster?"
Sans. Sounding just as shocked as Frisk felt, which meant that his voice was almost more emotional than they'd ever heard it. No lazy indifference or calm good humor – just pure, undiluted shock.
"Exactly what I said!" Flowey was practically bouncing in his pot, the excitement in his face so obvious that even a blind man couldn't have missed it. "They were something different. I don't know what they were, but they were there, and they were something new!" A giggle escaped from him.
I haven't seen him so excited in a long time.
Not that they were entirely surprised. Flowey may have shaped up a lot since that first timeline so many Resets ago, but the one thing that hadn't changed was that the emotion that usually drove him was boredom. He'd spent thousands of different timelines changing the smallest of details just for his own entertainment, and then hoping – as much as a soulless being could hope – that something, anything new would happen because he'd done everything else he could.
And once Frisk had learned how to get the monsters to the surface, and focused their determination on getting them to stay there, they hadn't tried much of anything new.
Yeah, it's no wonder he's so excited.
"Are 'ya sure they were something new." Sans's sockets narrowed in thought, pupils flickering back into view (they hadn't even noticed they'd disappeared, they should pay more attention.) "They weren't just… mutant humans or something?"
Flowey's good mood vanished, and he scowled angrily at the skeleton. "I'm not an idiot, trashbag! I know they weren't human!" He smirked. "I looked. Their souls were different!"
Their souls were…? Frisk started. "Flowey. You attacked one?!"
And now the flower's eyes turned shifty, one grin out of a multitude emerging that meant huh? I didn't say anything, what are you talking about? "What? Noooooo, I wouldn't ever do that, Frisk! I promised you, didn't I?"
Frisk glared at him.
A bead of sweat appeared on Flowey's forehead.
Frisk glared some more, and felt Chara glaring too. They didn't think the ghost was slipping into control, but something of them must have shown, because Flowey actually started, and then quickly blurted out, "Okay, I did fight a couple, but they're not hurt and they healed themselves and I didn't kill anybody! I didn't break my promise, Frisk, I didn't kill anybody!"
The ambassador sighed, backing down a bit.
"Okay, Flowey, I believe you. But why did you attack them?"
"I didn't attack them. I was just… curious."
"How would 'ya know they could heal themselves then?" Sans sounded suspicious – and for good reason. Flowey and curious had, at one point in time, been two words that Frisk feared with every ounce of their being.
"Okay fine, maybe I attacked them, but they were fine afterward! They didn't even need any food, there were just these blue sparks and then they weren't hurt anymore!"
"Blue sparks?" That definitely didn't sound like monster healing. There were no lights at all when Frisk used monster food to heal, and the few times that a monster had healed them directly, there had been little flickers of white light, not blue.
"Yup!" The monster bounced in his pot again, then paused and scowled. "That wasn't the only thing they did, either. The second one? It did something to me, just by talking."
*"Something?"
"Something?" Frisk echoed. "What did they do?"
"I told you. It talked." His scowl grew deeper and his voice took on a low, angry growl as he kept talking. "It said you will leave us alone or something like that, and for a moment? I wanted to. I wanted to leave it alone, to stop asking questions and never confront them again!" One of his leaves made an angry gesture. "It made me want to!"
A chill ran down their spine.
They made Flowey want to leave them alone? No one's that persuasive!
*I don't think it was persuasion , Frisk. They made him. They were trying to control him!
Chara hadn't sounded that angry for at least a year, since the last time someone had brought up the topic of their biological parents. And Frisk didn't blame them one bit.
They were a little angry, too.
Flowey doesn't make the right choices all the time, but they're his choices! Not theirs! His! How could somebody do that, taking choice away from someone like that!
"Damn." Sans leaned back against the wall, his brow furrowed. "Do'ya think that was magic, too? I've never heard of a monster who could do that, but…"
"Of course it was magic! What else could it be?! And golly, when I get my vines on that thing again –" Murderous intent radiated from the monster.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down, calm down!" Frisk made frantic gestures with their hands until Flowey did so with a reluctant grumble, then took a moment to think.
Some creature that can turn invisible, heal, and magically make someone want to follow their orders.
They'd never heard of anything like that, but they needed to research it. Anything that could almost bend Flowey to their will like that…
What could they do, if it was a monster like Alphys? Or Napstablook? Or Snowdrake? Monsters whose willpower wasn't even close to that of Flowey, and with so many insecurities…
And if whatever these people were had malicious intentions… the monsters would literally never see them coming.
I have to find out what they are, and what they were doing down there, quickly!
And… Frisk glanced nervously at Sans. "Sans, do you think that maybe it's these… people responsible for the SAVE point? I mean, we've never encountered anything like them in the other timelines, and I've never found a SAVE point on the surface before –"
"Wait wait wait!" Flowey made a frantic hold on a second gesture with his leaves. "You've found a what?"
A sudden shpeal of centaurian profanity roared out of Holly's earpiece just as she reached up to remove her helmet inside the safety of Fowl Manor, and she winced.
"Foaly?" She hissed. "What in the world –"
"I've got an alert from one of the Recon officers watching the monster Ambassador! We got a Code Flora!"
Holly's heart nearly stopped.
Code Flora.
The flower's here?! In Ireland?!
"D'Arvit!"
"Code Flora" is basically official LEP-speak for "D'ARVIT FLOWEY'S HERE RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
Though honestly, they should fear more for their own secrets. Frisk will NOT let this sort of thing lie, and if there's one thing that SAVEs, LOADs, and Resets are good for, it's uncovering secrets that nobody else wants you to know.
Sorry for the shorter chapter this week, but it felt like a good place to leave off.
And, finally, some worldbuilding stuff (again with help from danielxcutter), who basically asked: "Has Flowey been down there in the Underground all alone ever since the Barrier was broken?"
And my answer is: He hasn't been completely alone. Whenever Frisk is in Ebott, they make certain to visit him whenever possible, to keep him company. Whenever Frisk is out of the country, Papyrus and Sans will visit him – Papyrus because he considers Flowey his friend, and Sans to keep an eye on him. Generally, the skelebros stay in the United States, so company isn't usually a problem.
However, in this run, Sans and Papyrus actually left the US a few months previous to Frisk arriving in Ireland – they took a trip to Italy. So Flowey's been alone, without having someone to actually talk to, for several months now – and when he's alone for too long, well… that's why he was so stab-happy with the fairies in the Underground. He was bored, and a bored Flowey is a dangerous Flowey.
EDIT: Fixed a couple of typos that were kinda bothering me AND bothering daniel so... thanks for pointing those out daniel!
