Dark.
Darker.
Yet darker.
The darkness stretched on forever, and the air was still, just as though it didn't exist either. Silence reigned supreme once again. There was nothing; no clash of weapons, no screams, no cries of grief. Even the pulsating noise of the Barrier had vanished.
It had just gone dead quiet.
Finally, a lonely pair of eyes opened somewhere in the darkness. They darted around, and the figure quickly discovered that was alone in the vast sea of nothingness. She knew this place, but at the same time, she had no idea where she was.
It was the void; the void she'd visited only once, when she'd foolishly let herself die at the hands of Muffet's pet, its emptiness stretching across infinity.
Ginger slowly rose to her feet; to her surprise, the battle wounds she'd received while fighting Asgore had all vanished...Of course, the last time she'd been here, she hadn't exactly hopped on one leg across the blackness after her other one was ripped off. Was it more entwined with the spirit? The void was a different place from the physical realm, she'd long concluded, but it still held vast mysteries.
She looked around; there was nothing to be seen among the sea of nothing. Except...
What was that?
Off in the far distance, she saw...SOMETHING clashing against the black. A tiny flicker of light. Were those the same options that had appeared to her during her last visit to this grim place? There was only one way to know for sure, so she began to bolt for it.
As the object came into view more clearly, Ginger began to slow down. It was...it was...
A Save Point?
She finally skidded to a halt when she came within just a foot of the shimmering star. The human rose a skeptical eyebrow; what was a Save Point doing in the void? Sure, she'd seen them in some odd places with some odd names, but here? In the void? It didn't really make sense. And what'd happened to her options to Continue or Not? Maybe it was a replacement option...But come to think of it, what was she doing here in the first place? Hadn't she won that fight? Asgore stopped fighting, then promised happiness with his comforting words, and then Flowey...
Flowey...What'd happened after that...was sort of a blur. How long had she been here, anyway?
She wondered what would happen if she checked that Save Point...
*The End
-Save
-Return
A cracking sound, louder than the loudest earthquake, erupted across the void, and the Save Point flickered, then dimmed, then disappeared.
*File Erased
Something broke its way through the words flashed before her, shattering them as its head came into view.
It smiling, flowery head.
"Howdy, there!" he greeted. "It's me, Flowey! Flowey the flower!"
Ginger instinctively pulled her dagger from her pack, finding that it'd returned to her, and pointed it at the hellish bloom, who was ten times bigger than he should have been.
"What'd you do!? Where is everything!?" she demanded of him.
"Oh, I owe you a huge thanks, you know?" he explained. "You REALLY did a number on that old fool. Even I was impressed! Without you, I'd have never gotten past him!"
"WHAT HAPPENED TO KING ASGORE!?"
"Well..."
His face contorted until it became an exact likeness of the king.
"It's really pretty simple! Thanks to your help..."
And his image began to melt into a hellish mess of dripping flesh.
"HE'S DEAD."
He flashed back to his original face, a malicious grin spread across his face.
"And I have the six human SOULs all right here at my command!"
The demon let out another raspy laugh.
"Boy, I've been empty for so long...It feels GREAT to have a SOUL inside me again. Mmmm, I can feel them all...wriggling..."
Ginger was about ready to drop her knife, her hand had gotten so weak.
"Awww, you're feelin' left out, aren't you?" He sympathized falsely. "Well, don't worry! After all, I only have six human SOULs. I just need one more to add to my collection... BEFORE I BECOME AN ABSOLUTE GOD. And then, with my newfound powers...Monsters. Humans. EVERYONE. I'LL SHOW THEM ALL THE REAL MEANING OF THIS KILL OR BE KILLED WORLD!"
No...This wasn't happening. This COULDN'T be happening! Maybe if she just willed herself back to the Save Point before fighting Asgore...
"Oh, and you can forget about escaping to your old Save File...It's GONE. FOREVER."
"No..." she whispered hoarsely.
"But don't you worry! Your old friend Flowey worked out a little replacement for you!"
His eyes became dark pits, and his mouth opened to reveal two rows of razor sharp teeth.
"I'LL SAVE OVER YOUR OWN DEATH. AND THEN YOU CAN WATCH ME TEAR YOU TO BLOODY, MANGLED PIECES! OVER! AND OVER! AND OVER UNTIL YOUR OWN SANITY IS RIPPED APART JUST LIKE YOUR BODY! AND YOU FINALLY CAVE IN TO THE ETERNAL PIT OF-"
The human stepped forward, her knife still pointed at him. She wasn't going down without at least fighting back.
"...What?" he marveled. "Do you REALLY, ACTUALLY think you can stop ME!?"
He managed a laugh, genuinely amused by her futile attempt at being a threat.
"Boy...You really ARE an idiot!"
Deciding not to wait any longer for his inevitable omnipotence, he disappeared into the darkness. Ginger's SOUL flashed before her, and in Flowey's place, there appeared six other flashes, appearing in hexagonal formation, just as a fight squadron would when entering the battlefield.
Blue.
Orange.
Indigo.
Purple.
Green.
Yellow.
Six SOULs.
Six different traits.
And they joined with their cruel master to form a single demigod going head to head against one enemy SOUL.
The scarlet one. The last needed to take complete control. She was the only thing that stood in Flowey's way.
The black of the void began to flash red, the light almost pulsating like the Barrier. The six SOULs beat together to form the dark image of a thorny beast emerging from the shadows. He came from all directions except for right behind her, growing larger as his power grew stronger. His thorns grew sharper. He commanded more teeth. More eyes. More claws. More grey veins pulsing with his own power. More weapons to wield.
More terror.
The human stood, wide-eyed, at her opponent as his face finally came into view, right in the very center of the green abomination. He opened his mouth, displaying a crooked smile, and his demonic eyes, flashing red and green, displayed one single, raw emotion.
Insanity. He'd gone mad. And if she didn't win, the whole world would be doomed. She HAD to fight him. She HAD to BEAT him or else EVERYTHING and EVERYONE on the earth would perish. The world was in her hands. And nobody except herself even knew it.
And with a horrific roar of a cackle that rang out across the entire void, the assault began.
To Ginger's surprise, he started out with an unfittingly easy-to-counter attack; a series of white bullets, shaped mockingly like Save Points, and while they came fast, they were spaced apart easily enough to her to weave around them, especially with all of the experience she'd accumulated dodging these kinds of moves. A warmup attack, she surmised; a foe like this HAD to have more powerful moves at his disposal.
She was right; just barely before the bullets finished, he summoned new weapons on either side of him in a split second.
And they spat flames!
One of them singed her arm, but they couldn't move fast enough to do any more than they did. Ginger managed to dig her knife into one of the thorny arms extending down from above at her, a large chunk of it coming off and spilling white, liquid sap. Due to his size, Flowey barely even noticed it, and instead launched a counter move.
He aimed a barrage of clawed, thorny vines down at her, and Ginger had to move and keep moving in order to even have a chance at avoiding them. One of the thorny vines snagged her leg and tripped her, and he aimed right at his opponent's chest while she was down so he could rip her heart clean out of its cavity. But she managed to roll off to the side just in time, the vines instead deciding to hit her along the legs, leaving several open gashes from their spikes.
Despite them stinging more than she expected, the human got back onto her feet, only for another attack to form against her.
One that she recognized all to well.
It was Flowey's classic assault of 'friendliness pellets.' But on a much greater and more powerful scale.
They formed across the battlefield instead of directly around her, giving her just a brief moment to plan her move before they imploded, then shot outward. The further she was away from the rings when they did that, the better she could doge them, so she tried this...
But the attack was more confusing to counter than she anticipated, and she ended up smack in the middle of one of the rings as it shot inward towards her. Pain exploded in the warrior's chest as one of them hit and the rest of them dissipated. Ginger's face contorted with pain as she clawed at her chest, feeling constricted by her own ribs. Was this the last thing Asgore felt before dusting? She was afraid to know.
But she survived it, and shot a glare up at the demigod that had every intention to murder her in an absolute bloodbath.
"Urgh...Fine. So you're fast," Flowey admitted. "But that won't help you against THIS!"
One of the six loops of sap vessels forming around his face began to pulse harder, the sickly grey flashing a light blue color.
The SOUL. That was where he kept them.
Flowey's monstrous form disappeared from view again, and in his place was the tiny blue SOUL that he had under his belt.
The SOUL of PATIENCE.
The several dozen bullets it summoned up were aptly shaped like knives, and just as sharp and deadly as any real one. They moved across the field in sync with one another, rotating as they meandered. Ginger only had a few seconds to pass by the blades as they spun, and every careful maneuver she made around them came just inches shy of getting her sliced. The human SOUL seemed stiff in its place, and the fighter could tell that it was doing all of this against its will.
"Can't you escape somehow?" she asked it, though she knew not to expect an answer. "You might be under his control, but if you could break free of it, you might be able to help put a stop to this, you know! At least snap out of it, would you!?"
One of the blades cut across her arm and through the leather, leaving a good inch deep slash there with its very tip. The human let out a pained cry as blood began to spurt out of the gash, and she pressed her arm against in in a vain attempt to slow the bleeding. The SOUL didn't seem to have paid her any mind.
But that was when the white knives began to waver, and the white magic turned green, the pellets all heading right for her.
Green magic...
She tried one of the bullets; all one had to do was brush against her finger and the laceration in her arm would close up just a bit more. There were dozens of them, and they had taken the form of bandages instead of the lethal knives. Before she even knew it, the artery had closed, the blood lost had been restored to her, and the wound had fully closed. The human SOUL had answered her after all.
And then, to her utter shock, it answered her CLEARLY. She could hear it speak to her as the green bullets continued to approach.
"Thank you...for that," it seemed to huff. "But the fight's not over yet. You still have five more to break free. I'm free of his command, but only when you help all of us will we be able to get out of him for good. Have PATIENCE, friend. And...Be careful not to hurt yourself again. He's extremely strong."
"I'll keep that in mind..." Ginger mused, giving her a quick salute.
The SOUL faded, and the botanical beast came into plain view again, that contorted grin still on his face. He said nothing, but instead launched his next attack from one of the gross-looking eyes on his fleshy face and three thistly missiles shot at her, bouncing across the battlefield. Ginger was immensely disturbed by the look of the weapons; they were like shooting green comets, but with thorns and gnashing teeth, and if she didn't avoid them, she would be bitten.
And she DIDN'T want to find out whether or not those teeth were venomous.
It was a good things they were spaced out well enough, and the tails of the missiles didn't do quite as much damage, she found out, colliding with one as it passed her by and receiving a superficial abrasion along the face.
But Flowey's attacks only got more bizarre and freakishly horrifying from there. Snapping flytraps on either side of him? A horde of giant flies that buzzed toward her? Finger bullets tipped with daisy blooms that aimed their course and fired across the blackness!? It would have sent any other warrior to their knees begging MERCY by now, only to die a horrible death at his vines. But she'd faced off against strange enemies before. And she'd faced plenty of horror before. Those two experiences combined allowed her to at least keep her sanity in check, if not be able to match him.
And now that she knew what she had to do with the SOULs when they fired up, she knew she at least had a chance against the creature.
Ginger managed to land another stab of her dagger against his thorny arm; it seemed ever-so-slightly softer there than it was the last time she dug her blade into there, and she could have sworn she saw the giant cactus of an arm flinch a bit when the sap began to spill out from the deep jab. Just when he seemed like he was about to fire up the second SOUL, he summoned yet another barrage of attacks.
Bombs.
And not just any bombs.
Flowey had FREAKING. NUKES.
And they all had his face on them, as though he was particularly proud of them.
"Oh, Glaux..." she grimaced.
He pointed them at her, and they shot out at immense speed, exploding behind her; it was a good thing that they didn't ACTUALLY give off radiation, or she would have been doomed even if she hadn't been hit by any of the booming flames. Only one of the bombs struck her, but it took her with it toward the back of the battlefield and blew itself to smithereens right on top of her in a fiery burst. She was burned practically everywhere, and had received a particularly gruesome wound on her abdomen, where the missile landed to begin with. Despite her burns, she pressed on; she wasn't about to give up just yet.
There was another swarm of the giant flies, and Ginger staggered back to her feet after dodging all but one of them to see another one of Flowey's sap vessels start flashing orange. Another SOUL was about to make its move. All she had to was call out to it and it would be free of its captor's control.
And Flowey faded into the void again as his second SOUL, an orange one, came into vision.
The SOUL of BRAVERY.
This one attacked with gloved hands that stretched out and then retracted, and they formed spinning circles across the field. The one spot the gloves couldn't reach was the very center of their formations, and she took refuge in one of them, passing through a gap in the attacks when they extended before getting a chance to speak.
Hey...Gloves...Wait a sec...
"Hey! You!" she called out, slipping off one of the gauntlets of her hand, wincing as the burns she'd withstood became more apparent.
The leather glove she'd gotten from the Snowdin Shop was still there, after all this time and after so many battles. It'd carried her a long way, and having been in her armor so much recently, The human had almost forgotten that she even had it. But it was there, and it could still pack just as good a punch as the day she got it.
"This yours?!"
The white gloves wavered, then turned green, and the fingers curled into thumbs up.
"Holy moly! That's my glove! That's awesome! Where'd you find that!?"
"Shop on Snowdin was sellin' it; traded in for an old plastic knife...That...I think might've actually belonged to PATIENCE?" Ginger surmised as she collected more of the green magic attacks. Her burns grew lesser and lesser with every impact.
"Wow...You and I have a lot in common, you know? Hey, keep this up! Your grit 'n' BRAVERY's gonna get you through this! Show this plant guy who's boss!"
"Will do," she promised him, tightening the glove on her hand as he faded again.
And there was Flowey, big and bad as ever. And she stared up at him with a poisonous prick in her eyes and a small smirk on her face.
"Getting COCKY, are we?" he bellowed. "Well, what if I told you that you can't SAVE anymore!? You wouldn't be able to just come back on your own unless I WANTED you to! How about I give you a little DEMONSTRATION!?"
"More like 'demon-stration.' Because that's what YOU are."
"FOOL! IDIOT! I'm no demon! I'm something FAR WORSE."
He shot his vines down at her again, which she got past with another quick bolt to the side, then another barrage of Save Point bullets. It looked like she had him figured out when the vines he'd shot simply vanished, replaced with a sudden appearance of an already in-progress Save Point attack. There was a shift in the void that accompanied the assault, and Ginger suddenly realized what he was doing.
He was Loading new Save files. And returning to them to confuse her.
But she knew of the Saves and Loads just as much as he did, so she would know when he shifted back to another point in time.
Flowey was having a ball, watching the human dark about the battleground, confused and borderline disoriented by his new tactic; it'd been so long since he'd been able to do this, and it was exhilarating watching his puny opponent run aimlessly across the void trying to avoid his unexpected shifts between files.
*File 2 Loaded
*File 2 Saved
*File 2 Loaded
*File 2 Saved
It was the most fun he'd had in AGES!
At least...It was funny for a little while; now that she'd proven herself to be very evasive, he was getting more annoyed. He tried a few more shots, and another Load; Ginger was apparently prepared for the sudden change to Save Point bullets coming at her. How in the actual HELL did she manage to only be hit by two of them? And WHY was she so confident all of a sudden!? He was a giant, terrifying demigod of death and destruction! How was this mere mortal so...CASUAL in battling him!?
Oh, well...She wouldn't be laughing when he threw his NEXT move at her.
Little did he know of the scheming going on between two freed entities hidden within him.
The assault stopped, and another one of his sap vessels began to pulse indigo. The corresponding SOUL flashed into view.
The SOUL of INTEGRITY.
Oh, boy. The last thing she thought would have ever come to mind about now was her insane battle against Mettaton and his grossly fabulous legs. But that was exactly what the stars above her, coupled with the stomping ballet shoes approaching, reminded her of. And the last thing she wanted was to be jabbed in the face by another foot.
It was a good thing the shoes rose and fell, allowing her the opportunity to pass through them. But their movement was uneven; some of the bullets fell while others raised, and none of them seemed to be in sync with one another; a bit ironic, considering what this human apparently strived to do when she was still alive.
"Ever wanted to be a star? You'll be one in MY book if you're able to break out of there!"
She was flat out stomped on top of the head by one of the shoes.
"Hey! Damn you, anyhow! I've been hit by enough feet for one lifetime!"
As if on cue, the shoes rose higher, and stopped their attack. The row of stars that kept Ginger from jumping too high without being pelted flashed green into music notes.
"I admit, you're a little crass...But your heart's definitely in the right place, and I uphold you for that."
"Eh...Sorry 'bout that; gettin' kinda tired of this whole ordeal..."
As she collected the notes, the tender spot on her head began to strengthen again.
"Um...So...I'm sorry that this happened to you. Looks like you had high hopes for the future."
"It's not as bad as you might think. All I can say to you is that you were very wise to be wary of Undyne."
"Did...Is she the one who-"
"Simply put? Yes. And I'm glad you were able to coax her out of the idea. You've developed a greater sense of INTEGRITY since your arrival."
"How do you know all this?"
"We share Flowey's memories. But I don't have time to explain. I can feel it, he's about to-"
The SOUL was cut off, and the creature appeared again.
"Getting tired yet?"
"I'm just warming up."
"Funny...So am I!"
Flowey started up the Save Point bullets again; easy to get by. Then his friendliness pellets; also easy. What was he talking about? Unless, of course, he was only starting off easy in order to catch her off-
His thistle missiles started bouncing across the field again; okay, a bit unexpected, but Ginger knew how to handle these as well. And then came the flies. Oh, the flies were easy; all they did was fly in straight lines toward the open flytrap that'd grown out of one of the beast's cactus arms. The only concern was the sheer number of them that'd been summoned, and it was a bit hard to get out of one's way without moving into the path of another.
Then the bombs. She absolutely DESPISED those Flowey bombs, and gave it everything she had to just avoid being struck by one. The tips of the flames that burst out from behind licked her, and she received smaller burns along the back; nothing major. It looked like he'd become predictable enough for her to avoid most of his moves; hadn't he ever heard of the element of surprise?
He shot out two more series of his thorny vines before the fourth sap vessel began to pulse a sickening purple, and the bright violet SOUL emerged from its confines.
The SOUL of PERSEVERANCE.
In Flowey's place there appeared two columns of books, and from within their pages, the bullets emerged.
And they were actually sort of depressing to behold.
They were words; words that conjured negative thoughts. They came at her from the sides, and she ducked and jumped over them, some coming from a greater height than others. Sadness. Cruelty. Hatred. Despair. Slaughter. These were only a handful of things the white magic spelled out in bold letters. And if she lost, all of these things would come raining down upon civilization from Flowey's evil green hand.
"It's not gonna happen if we stop it first! Come on! Snap out of it!"
She was answered; the white magic wavered, and now, from out of the pages of the books, came green words. Relief. Kindness. Love. Hope. Dreams. The SOUL of the once-living human was now convinced of a brighter future.
"It's not pleasant being trapped in this verdant abomination. You have my gratitude."
"Are...You the one who gave his things to Gerson? I kinda recognize the notebook."
"You're acquainted with Gerson? I enjoyed his company...but not his refreshments. Does he still have those?"
"He, uh...gave them to a friend of mine, since he's not sure how much longer he'll be around to keep 'em safe. But don't worry; they're in good hands. I should know."
"I'm satisfied by that. Keep up the battle, friend. Through your PERSEVERANCE, we may witness the light of day yet."
"I got two left to help out. And I think Flowey's getting weaker."
"Excellent. Now, turn those hopeful words into a reality."
The purple SOUL vanished, and the beast appeared yet again. Ginger noted that his arms looked a bit less...stiff and hard now. His defenses were weakening with every SOUL she rescued from his clutches. When she got all six, she might be able to go all out.
But Flowey wasn't about to make it easy for her; he knew just how much she was thrown off by his Save and Load attack. Yes, she'd gotten used to it the first wave, but she wouldn't be expecting him to try it again so soon, for sure! Besides, as quick as it'd gotten boring, he wanted to see if he had better luck this time around.
The Save Point bullets and thorny vines shooting down at her came, disappeared, and then reappeared mid-attack. Any other opponent would have been dead by now, but no other warrior they knew of had any experience with Saving and Loading under their belt. The bullets spread out, and the vines shot downward like whips, proving to be more successful against Ginger than the bullets, as quite a few of them smote her, the impacts leaving bruises and the thorns leaving jab wounds, cutting through the leather and piercing her human flesh.
Even so, the cursed human just. Wouldn't. DIE. How determined WAS this idiot!?
Deciding not to hold off his next big attack, he stopped the Loading and Saving, and fired up another one of the sap vessels where the SOULs were all held. This one flashed green, and when the monstrous creature retreated from view, the fifth SOUL took his place.
The SOUL of KINDNESS.
Ginger looked up at the attack it was forming.
Frying pans. And they spewed out flames, which came falling towards her. She was surprised at how spread out most of Flowey's attacks were; wasn't he trying to KILL her? He was making it a lot easier for her than she expected him to; was he just toying with her? Keeping himself entertained WHILE he made her suffer, just to see how long she could last against him? The sick bastard...
"Hey! How 'bout you use those pans to cook this flower instead!? Get on out of there! Come on!"
The flamed flickered, then faded, then stopped flying out of the pans altogether, now replaced with green magic in the shape of...
Eggs.
She...had actually gotten a bit more used to the idea of humans and monsters cooking eggs, despite having hatched from one herself. Besides, they were CHICKEN eggs, not those of an owl. And because of that, they likely never contained any chicks to begin with, so she collected them as they fell without much hesitation.
"So, KINDNESS. How often did you make these, huh?"
"I made them a lot on the surface," the green SOUL answered her. "We had sort of a mini farm, and I used to make them for people who weren't as well-off as us. Where I'm from, a little KINDNESS goes a long way."
"Yeah...I'm, uh...not the strongest in that field, sorry to say."
"You've gotten better than you were. I can say that."
"Well...If you say so, KINDNESS."
"Erm...We DO have names, though. Besides the traits."
"Oh. Sorry..."
"It's okay; you wouldn't have known."
"So, then...What ARE your names?"
"Adeline, Owen, Noria, Hank...And I'm Liz."
"Isn't there one left?"
"Oh, boy...Dennis is a card. He's always telling us crazy stories about fighting off bandits with his pistol and how he wanted to be a police-"
"Wait. His WHAT?"
"You'll find out here in a minute! Flowey's about to-"
She faded from view, and once again, the young fighter was going head-to-head with Flowey.
Ginger had most, if not all of his deranged attack methods figured out by now; She dodged the thistle missiles, then the friendliness pellets, and then ducked and slid under the two flamethrowers he fired from side to side. Ginger had yet to see anything new, which was further proven by the Save Point bullets and Flowey nukes that followed suit. As the deranged creature began to strike his vines down again, the warrior came within close quarters, and actually managed to land a good, strong cut of her blade against his four-eyed abomination of a face, and the liquid that spurted from it was a disgusting mix of white AND red, almost like blood mixed in with the sap. Seeing how close she was to him with him, Flowey went in to launch his vines, seeing how quickly they would land, but he failed to fire before the human flung the cloak she still wore over his hideous face, staining the dark fabric red and white. Despite not all of them landing, as his aim was obscured, a good six of them knocked the human back with their barbed ends, the metal of her armor becoming scratched and the leather tearing apart. Once she saw just how badly damaged her gear was, she practically flailed across the entire battleground to stay out of their way. Even if she COULD predict the gist of his attacks for the most part now, he was still quick, and she was running out of energy herself.
The last of his sap vessels began to pulse, and it flashed a bright shade of yellow before the SOUL appeared.
The SOUL of JUSTICE.
What was his name? Dennis? And how was he-
"Oh, no..." she uttered, her eyes widening in fear at the weapon formed.
It was a pistol, fashioned after the very one that Bratty and Catty had for sale, along with that hat. Red target marks flashed across the field, and the barrel rotated all over the place as it aimed at them, firing the white bullets. THIS gun definitely wasn't empty.
And it didn't help that she had a genuine FEAR of these manmade weapons, knowing just how powerful they could be in the wrong hands. Ginger was so busy trying to keep herself from panicking that she was barely able to avoid being shot at.
But when one of the literal bullets finally did make its mark, shooting a bit too close to her and speeding across her arm, she had a near heart attack...Until she realized that it didn't do NEAR as much damage as she expected. Ginger rolled her eyes at herself; these were MAGIC entities, not physical. There was only so much they could do.
She continued ducking beside and under the projectiles as they kept at it, careful to avoid standing in the line of the barrel and the targets, before calling out.
"Hey! Why don't you break on out of there and tell me! Just how many vermin did you use this thing on!?"
She heard an excited gasp from the entity, and then the gun began to fire...what looked like green clover instead of bullets for her to collect.
"SOOOO-EY! You kiddin' me!? Raccoons, badgers, hogs, you name it! Whenever they went on after our chickens, I went 'n' showed them pesky critters what for! Heh! Works great on people, too! 'Course, never did use it on someone unless they was just crazy 'nuff t' eat the devil with his horns on 'n' askin' for it. Human and fish alike. O' course... the fish is what GOT me here like this, must say."
"Undyne did you in too, huh? Knew she was a rotten egg."
"Hey, she's a better shot at least than this hulkin' prickly-pear puck, I give 'er that! Besides, she seemed a lot like myself, gotta say; always tryin' to do what was right for the monsters here and not stoppin' till she did. 'S why I wanted t' be a boy in blue one day. Admit'ly, she's kinda mixed up, but it's her duty to her people! And speakin' o' duty... It's time we bring this guy to JUSTICE!"
The gun dissipated, and the five other SOULs appeared alongside the yellow one, approaching the living human and circling around her. Their signature healing bullets began to come out of them towards her, and she absorbed every last one.
"It's not long now. Without our extra aid, his defenses will all plummet."
"Knew you had the guts! Now without us completely under his control, his body's gonna go soft!"
"You've done the right thing. Now, let us work together to save this world."
"His form has begun the destabilization process. Now all you have to do is dissemble him."
"Everyone on earth, both good and bad, is depending on us to save them. We can't let them down now!"
"Come on, pardners! Make him say 'uncle'! Y'all with me!?"
"Let's finish this once and for all," Ginger sneered as the beast came back into view. His defense had fallen down to zero.
"Flowey...I'm gonna kick your grass."
He paid her no mind, instead launching out his Save Point bullets. They were going painstakingly slower than usual, and were now ever easier to weave past, allowing Ginger to draw in for another attack of her own and land another slash across his face, spilling out the red and white liquid that flowed through his veins. He didn't stop; in fact, the beast only continued to send them out, barely aware of what was really going on, he was in such a delirious state of murder-happy madness. And mixed in with the white bullets were green ones, and ach of the six shapes were signature to the ones she'd seen them give her when they were freed. She swung her knife again as she dodged the bullets, this time along the thin part of his thorny arm; she nearly cut through half of it, and sap came spurting out. She kept at it; dodge, slice, heal, dodge, slice, heal, then dodge, slice, and heal again. With each blow the human landed, the stronger they got, and the deeper they cut, and the more fluid the evil spawn of hagsmire spilled out.
He was getting weaker every second.
Finally the white bullets ceased, and Flowey summoned his finger guns. Ginger didn't like the finger guns; they were difficult to dodge all the way, but the good news was that they typically didn't come too close to his face, so she saw her chance to sprint at him through the fire, and began her close combat with him, running her blade up right up his arm, and then across one of the thick, thorny vines extending from his center before finally landing it right in one of his eyes. The living nightmare bellowed in agony, and continued to assault her with a barrage of flies, and then his thistle missiles, his stabbed eye emitting white fluid mixed with black goop. All the while, the green bullets from the SOULs kept coming down to help her, and whatever damage she did take was easily, instantly healed. A strike from a fly? Healed by a bandage. A scrape from a thistle? An egg did her some good. A cut along Flowey's other arm, nearly chopping it off entirely as more fluids began to pour out all over the void? There was no green magic going to him. He just kept losing more of his immense strength. Ginger kept at it.
He summoned his flies again; she sliced off the flytrap luring them in, and the buzzing insects dissipated.
He tried his bombs; she managed to make him aim one of them at his arm where she stood instead, and the thorny plant flesh went up in flames.
He tried his vines; with every one that came down, she sliced at them. Even the ones that struck her weren't safe from her blade.
And then she went after the pulsing veins that'd contained the SOULs. The Save Point bullets started up again, and she weaved around the field to get back up to his face. All Ginger had to do was shove the tip of her blade into one of them, and the leftover energy began to pour out. Then with them already weakened, she could slice the dagger across them and send them flailing, helplessly trying to reassemble.
Flowey's cries of pain grew louder and more desperate the more damage he took on. He was nearly blinded, all but one of his eyes having been punctured and drained, and he could barely aim his vines or flamethrowers anymore. His arms threatened to fall clean off, his sap vessels were all sliced in two and bleeding out, and his already hideous face had become even more horribly disfigured by the damage dealt.
Finally, the human plunged her dagger right into the center of his face, and his entire, pulsing, flailing, gnashing form froze as he emitted one more agonized gag of a noise.
He was out of health.
She'd done it.
And then, the creature began to shake violently, and the noise that erupted from within him made him seem ready to explode.
"No...NO!" Flowey screamed. "This CAN'T be happening! You...YOU...!"
"Hasta la vista, weedy!"
Ginger smiled in spite of the potential danger of an explosion, and she ducked and covered.
And then, there was a shift in the void, and the rumbling suddenly stopped.
"You IDIOT."
"...What."
She rose her head again. Flowey's enormous, battered, torn, bleeding, pulsing form...
Had completely healed.
The shift she felt in the void. He'd...He'd...
He'd LOADED right back to the very beginning of the fight!
"...No..."
She was petrified with horror. So much so that she didn't even notice the white light firing up in his mandibles.
And then, all of a sudden, she was engulfed in a white hot beam, hotter than the core of the sun itself, and was reduced to nothing but a pile of charred bones.
And then, all of a sudden, she was back to normal. Ginger gagged out a gasp for breath, her heart still barely beating.
And then it stopped again, as another array of his vines shot at her and passed right through the chest, tearing everything in its way out completely.
Then she was normal again. Then burned alive, then impaled, then burned again, gored, burned, gored, burned, gored, burned, gored, burned, gored.
To him it was a hay day. To the human, it was hell, dying a horrible, painful, gruesome death over and over again with every time he reloaded his file.
Finally, he sent the vines shooting everywhere EXCEPT right at her vitals, penetrating her arms, shoulders, legs, and right along her ribcage. Her armor, having gone back to a better condition with the rewind of time, was in shambles within seconds, and in her trauma, both physical and mental, its wearer still could barely manage to breathe, let alone listen to what the creature was now saying as he surrounded her with one last array of friendliness pellets to finish her off; a sick callback to their first encounter.
"Hee hee hee...Did you HONESTLY think you could ACTUALLY defeat me!?" Flowey taunted, still wearing that contorted grin on his face. "I am practically the GOD of this world. And you? You're HOPELESS. HOPELESS AND ALONE."
"No..." she croaked, her vital fluid spilling out of every limb and both her sides. "I...can't..."
"But golly gosh, it can! Your worthless FRIENDS can't save you now. Call out for help, if you even have the strength left. I DARE you. Cry into the darkness! 'Mommy! Daddy! Somebody help me!' SEE WHAT GOOD IT DOES YOU, YOU DYING, MORTAL FOOL!"
She convulsed as she drew in a breath, almost certain it'd be her last one. But the young human wasn't about to let one last attempt go to waste.
"Help...! Somebody help...!" she gasped, practically sounding like she was about to vomit.
And she waited.
...
...
...
*But nobody came.
"Ha...Oh, boy. What a shame!" the flowery beast fake-lamented. "Nobody else IS GONNA GET TO SEE YOU DIE!"
Another hellish cackle roared out across the dark void, and the pellets honed in onto their target. It was over. She was done.
She'd lost.
They'd all lost.
...
...
...
...What's the hold up?
All of a sudden, Ginger's pain dissipated.
What...?
Had she died? Had she become nothing but a SOUL? She didn't...FEEL dead.
Slowly and shakily, she rose to her feet...Her armor was back to the way it was. The blood was gone. The holes had been mended.
...She'd been healed.
But...how?
"What?"
Flowey was just as confused as her.
"How'd you...? Ha...Well...Not a problem for me! I'll just Reload my..."
*Load Failed
All of a sudden, Flowey started to look a bit...sweaty.
"Wh...Where are my powers? What's going on...?"
He got his answer right then and there.
Around him appeared the six human SOULs that'd first fought alongside the plant to destroy the living human, then befriended her when they'd been reached out to.
Adeline. Owen. Noria. Hank. Liz. Dennis. They were all here.
A smile inched across Ginger's face; her cry for help HAD been answered.
"The SOULs? What...What are they doing?"
And that was when Ginger gave them a command of her own.
"Fellas! MAKE 'EM YELL 'UNCLE'!"
Lights blared.
The ground shook.
Flowey's panicked screams rang out across the void.
"NO! NOOOO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO OBEY ME! STOP! STOP IT! STOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
Everything whited out, and the young human shielded her eyes with the cloak that'd returned to her shoulders.
And then, everything stilled.
Everything was calm.
Finally, Ginger opened her eyes.
...She...she was back.
Back in the room the Barrier once stood in. But when she looked behind her...
She found that the Barrier was now BEHIND her, and nothing now stood in the way of her and the exit cave.
Except...
Flowey.
His tiny, tattered form hunched over before her, helpless and defeated.
But she took no pity on him. It didn't matter how terrible he looked. As long as Flowey was alive, he posed a danger. As long as he was still alive, he could collect six MORE human SOULs, and use them to threaten the destruction of the entire earth once again.
She held fast onto the handle of the worn dagger, looking up and down the blade.
Perfect for cutting through plants and vines.
She drew it back, stooped down to reach the flower, then swung the blade across his stem.
Flowey's tattered head fell to the ground. He foamed at the mouth, and a twisted grin stretched across his face as he emitted his last words in a sick snarl.
"I KNEW you had it in you...!"
Then, his face twitched, and then, it faded into white, disappearing completely.
Now, all that Ginger looked down at was a deadheaded flower, soon to turn brown and wither into nothing.
Flowey was dead.
She looked behind her; she could still see beyond the Barrier behind her.
And then her eyes widened at the sight of what sat there, just on the other side.
Asgore's dust sat in a pile on the ground, nothing left of him except his crown, sat atop the white powder.
The human heaved out a grievous sigh. Asgore was gone, too. There was no way she could go back into the Underground now, with him deceased.
And ESPECIALLY with her being partially responsible for it.
There was only one place she could go.
Out the cave.
Ginger approached the light at the end of the tunnel. The outside world came into view more and more the closer she got.
Then, finally, after a week of waiting, she stepped out of the cave and planted her feet on the surface ground, warmed by the late afternoon sun shining down on her.
The mouth of the cave was along a small cliff on the mountain's side, closer to the top. One could easily jump off of it and walk the rest of the way down the grassy slope. The view from there was quite nice, as well. She could see for a good distance over all of the beautiful red and gold autumn trees, a few green pines mixed in. The white clouds rolled along in the winds above the earth, and for the first time in what felt like years, she drew in a sweet, crisp breath of the outside forest air.
She was finally free.
...But she was still a human.
"D-don't panic..." Ginger said to herself aloud. "Maybe...Maybe the effects of the Barrier just...haven't worn off yet? Yeah...I still might turn back to the way I was. All I have to do is wait a while and see what happens. A-and once I'm back to normal, I'll be..."
She faltered for a moment.
"I'll be able to go back home to the Pure Ones."
She began her descent toward the woodline, the shade of the trees beckoning her to shelter herself beneath them to get out of the blinding sunlight.
For now, it was the only thing she really COULD do while she waited.
And wait she did.
...
"...Something's happened."
"What?"
Metal Beak sensed an oddity in the atmosphere. He'd felt a couple of strange shifts over the past few hours, and what exactly had caused it was a mystery to him.
But there was one thing his gizzard told him that was definitely certain.
"...Nyra, round up the scouts and assemble the squadron head, then call role. We're packing it up and going out."
"Sir, it's barely been another day, what do you-"
"She's not coming back."
There was a silence between the two mates; too long a silence, and Nyra squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then deflated.
"...You're quite certain?"
"I am."
"Is...Is she..."
"I can't tell. Something in the air is making my gizzuition go...everywhere. All I can get from it is that she's not coming back. Dead or alive, whatever the case may be. Now... Go round up the Pure Ones. All of them. And cross the young general's name from the list. And all the others, once we return to the Beaks."
"...Yes, my Lord."
The Ablah General turned to follow orders.
"And one more thing."
She faced him again, and there was a flicker of empathy in his good eye.
"Don't take any of this the wrong way...I saw her in the same light you did."
Nyra sighed deeply.
"...Thank you, my love."
And then she spread her red-tipped wings and took to the skies to gather the other soldiers.
Once she was gone, the High Tyto drew in a breath, then emitted a loud, echoing, plaintive screech, mourning the loss of a good, loyal soldier.
A.N.: Hey, sorry 'bout the lack of Author's Notes down here for a few chapters; didn't wanna ruin the grim mood with my shenanigans. XD
But now that things are finally looking up...sort of...I can! From here on out, not all of the chapters will have these little commentary snippets at the bottom, usually when the chapter ends on a sad/serious note, so that when you finish a chapter and acknowledge how grim the situation is for the characters, you aren't met with this nonsense that ruins the feel. XD
Also, yes, blah blah blah, the SOULs don't speak directly to the player, blah blah blah, we don't know their names. Blah blah blah.
It's FANFICTION.
I can do what I want with the characters. Besides, it makes the SOULs of the kids a bit more relatable imo.
Hey, thanks again for reading! Next chapter's gonna be here sooner than you might expect! :D