A familiar enemy. A new human to the Underworld, with a deadly mission. When these two meet up, there is only one course of action.
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Chapter 12: Mutually Assured Destruction
Kaitlyn found herself on a little platform jutting out over boiling lava. Her eyes widened, and she glanced around frantically. This looked like a very precarious situation to be in, and she wanted to get out of it as soon as possible. She froze, not really daring to move. The last thing she wanted was to overweigh one portion of the platform and have it tip. Of course, she was more likely to fall in if she tried to move.
The platform she was standing on appeared to have two portions. Most of it consisted of a rather questionable, lit up, burgundy arrow. The rest was barely wide enough for Kaitlyn's feet. The platform itself couldn't have been much larger than six inches in diameter. It was also very hot, which was saying something. She had just left a rainforest after all.
There didn't appear to be any monsters around. She scanned the area, and her eyes were drawn to the only living thing in the area. On a larger platform, six foot by six foot this time, there was a sunflower. It instilled two thoughts inside of her instantly. The first was how a flower could possibly have grown in this environment. It simply didn't make any logical sense. Plus… the fact that there was no foliage around anywhere implied that something was off.
The second thought was how intriguing the concept of a flower with a face looked. She couldn't really think of any purpose for such a plant, but she had never seen anything of the sort back in the rainforest. She leaned forward to get a closer look. "Howdy," it declared. "My name's Flowey. Welcome to the Underworld."
Kaitlyn nearly stumbled backwards in surprise. If it were anybody else, they would have lost their balance, stumbling backwards and plummeting into the lava below. Kaitlyn, however, was a master of acrobatics. Thus, she was able to catch herself before she committed accidental suicide. Then she turned her attention back to the talking flower.
There was a lot to pack into the little statement the monster had just said. As a monster it clearly was. It had welcomed her into the Underworld. They were clearly in the middle of it, as she couldn't see any entrances or exits anywhere. Plus, the fact that he had clearly been standing… sitting… whatever a flower did… there, staring at this spot for who knows how long kinda implied he knew she would be coming to this exact spot.
The only conceivable explanation was that this flower monster thing knew where she had just come from, which was really bad news for her. It meant that she had, before doing absolutely anything, already… been hindered. The easy thing to do would have been to just pull the flower out by its roots and throw it into the lava.
However, as she had absolutely no idea what his position was in the monster society, it was probably not such a good idea. Also, The Master had strictly forbid her to kill anyone. Sure it was just a flower, but she was pretty sure it still counted. Glancing back at the flower and taking stock of it, she knew first of all that the welcoming smile was phony. It took a phony to spot a phony, and she was the best phony out there.
Kaitlyn smiled back, putting all of her skill into making her smile seem as sincere as possible as she faced her first test. Her feet were getting a little hot since ballet slippers were not meant to withstand a lot of environmental stuff, lava being one such thing, but she ignored it for now. "Hi Flowey," she said with an angelic voice. She did a little curtsy, an acrobatic skill of some difficulty when considering how little room she had to stand on. "My name is Kaitlyn, and thank you."
"Howdy, Kaitlyn. Do ya mind if I call ya Blue? Or perhaps… Deception?" He winked at her as he said it. "Dec seems ta suit ya. That's what I'll call ya. Nice ta meet ya, Dec." He popped underground and appeared again on a tiny platform right next to hers. "I think you, and I could become great friends. Whaddaya say, partner? Wanna help me to destroy The Underworld?"
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Flowey looked at the girl in front of him, a look of confidence and excitement etched across his face. He wasn't sure how much of it she was buying, nor was he himself exactly sure how much he was actually trying to sell. That was the secret here. Blend truth and fiction, fact and guesswork, so closely together that even a person as used to seeing through lies as Kaitlyn the Deceiver, would be at a loss as to when exactly he was lying.
"I remember what is on the other side," he said as he glanced at the open space behind her. "I've been there before. A long time ago. And I am pretty sure I know what brought ya here." Plus, the expression that he had been given when he called her Deception was exactly what he had been hoping for.
"If ya wanna, I dunno, drop the act for a few moments, we might actually be able to get something accomplished. We have business to discuss, after all, and I can promise ya… It'll be well worth your while. Whaddaya say?" His smile this time was as genuine as they came. Then he fell silent, simply staring at her and waiting.
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Kaitlyn frowned back, annoyance clearly etched upon her face. Wh-How? How could this flower possibly know everything? He didn't just know where she came from, but clearly knew who she was as well. That was supposed to be a secret. And… now he was offering her a partnership. It was all rather suspicious, but what would happen to her if she said no?
She was a stranger in a strange land. She didn't know the slightest thing about how to even go about finding Yellow, and the Master had either been unable, or unwilling, to tell her. She never could tell with him. Either way, she had been left entirely in the dark, groping around cluelessly. Flowey, on the other hand, seemed very knowledgeable, irritatingly so. If he really wanted a partnership, he might be a useful tool to keep around. When he was no longer of use, she could remove him.
Her face relaxed from that of a perfect angel to the sassy, sarcastic character that she had been showing off so strongly in the meeting. "Yeah, Flowey. I think we can work something out. You scratch my back; I scratch yours type of thing?" She pulled a lollipop out of her pocket and stuck it into her mouth. "Of course, it depends on what it is you want. I mean, I am sort of pressed for time."
"What do I want?" Flowey began, and he changed. He was still a flower, but the innocence was gone. His eyes were wider, and his smile was jagged. He looked quite a lot more like a monster now, a demon flower. "I'm assuming the things I want will help ya with what you want. Chaos. Blood. Death. Namely, I just want to stop being bored. And unless I'm quite mistaken, you and your kind are kindly coming over here to help me out. Ain't that right, Dec?"
This was her type of flower. That was the first thing to cross Kaitlyn's mind. The things he wanted seemed like the sort of things that she would enjoy as well. He would have fit right in with the souls at the meeting. In fact, if he had spoken to The Mater, he would probably have been recruited. He hadn't though, and so she had to remember. He was the enemy. He was a tool that she was going to have to throw away at some point. Nothing more.
"Not buying it," she said, giving Flowey an impatient look. "You seem way too intelligent to simply want to join me for the sake of killing monsters. In fact, I think you could have been doing that on your own. So I'll ask again, and I'd like a more honest answer, please. If I form a partnership with you, what am I going to have to do?"
"There is a human who has been a constant pain to me since the day I met her," Flowey replied with a touch of bitterness. "I'll help you in any way you like, and in return I will only ask for one thing, her soul."
Kaitlyn raised her eyebrows. He wanted the soul of a human girl. As far as she was aware, there was only one human girl in the Underworld. Then… "What's her name?" She asked.
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Frisk. He hated the word more than words could express. She'd stopped him hundreds of times. She'd stolen, and then lost, his teleportation powers. Why hadn't he gotten them back afterwards? He wasn't sure, but it was a bit infuriating. These were the two outward reasons. They were the reasons that Frisk would certainly have told anyone who asked her why Flowey had it in for her.
But there was a third reason. One he hadn't ever said aloud, nor ever intended to. It would mean that he cared, and he didn't. He didn't care about anything. Then for a short while… he'd thought he had. But after the close call at the end of the last run, he knew that had been nothing more than an illusion. That was it, wasn't it? After his failure in the genocide run, he'd lost his determination too.
Nonsense! He was Flowey! He was going to grind the Underworld beneath his feet. He was going to make them pay for everything that he had endured. He would make them regret reviving him. Over the years since the last reset, he'd grown far stronger. Not in the conventional LV or XP ways. He'd been trying to keep a relatively low profile until he found a way to bring down Frisk.
A human soul would make him unstoppable. And if he could get his hands on it without endangering his own life? That would be almost heavenly… well, heavenly for him; hellish for the world. Of course, nothing would give him more pleasure than taking the infuriating Red Soul down himself. He chuckled, and then spoke with a hint of bitterness. "Frisk. She's the Red Soul."
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Kaitlyn pondered, making sure not to express pleasure at this relatively odd piece of fortune. They were after pretty much the exact same thing. The only difference was the main target. Flowey here, wanted to get rid of the 'mockery of a monster child' as The Master had called Red. She was supposed to go after that girl, but only after Yellow. He was the main target. She chuckled. They were like a rainbow, the seven of the human souls. Though… a rainbow that didn't appear to know which direction it was supposed to be going.
She didn't trust the flower though. There was something he wasn't telling her. Some motive that he was keeping to himself. But he really did want the same thing she did. There was no way of faking that emotion. Plus, he was full of information that she needed and didn't know of any other way to get. He could double-cross her at any time though. She felt the warm metal of the dagger against her skin, under the leotard she was wearing. Then again, so could she.
Mutually assured destruction, she thought was the term. She'd heard it more than once. Green liked to throw it around at a lot of their meetings. If she understood correctly from the circumstances he'd used it in, it was when two or more forces threatened each other, and so agreed not to harm one another. She wasn't sure if it was the proper term for when two said forces teamed up against a common enemy, but who knew? She'd have to ask Green about it when she returned. And was the new leader, as the daughter of The Master would certainly be.
She was smart, perceptive, and the best deceiver there was. She wouldn't allow herself to be manipulated. Flowey would be like putty in her hands. She rubbed them together. "Oh, you'll have your chaos," she said with a sneaky smirk. "Th… My master will make sure of that. First, though, we need to get rid of the humans."
She paused for a second there. Had a flicker of confusion might have just passed over the flower's face? Did she just tell him something she didn't know? No way could he have figured anything out about her master from that one sentence, could he? She'd have to be more careful. "Red is one of my targets, but my main one is actually Yellow. I need to meet him, find out what his intentions are, and discover whose side he is on. I can take care of Red along the way. You don't happen to know way either of them might be… do you?"
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Yellow? Steven? The most powerful and dangerous of the human souls? … Well, besides Demon Frisk. No. He was quite possibly stronger. Demon Frisk had had the ability to reset as many times as possible. Steven had only gotten one shot against Sans. In that one shot, though, he'd almost defeated the skeleton. And unlike Demon Frisk, he'd only been at LV 1.
In this timeline, he was probably by far the strongest soul. And this little girl was supposed to take him down? It was almost laughable. Almost. Whoever they worked for had to be some sort of mastermind. Thus, he clearly knew what he was doing. It would be interesting to see how this unraveled.
He played it cool, contemplating over this new development. He'd assumed that one could come out to remove Frisk, as she was the only soul not under the command of whoever had pulled off the soul reversal. Dealing with two souls at once would be rather unpleasant, but there was little doubt that if a soul were to rebel, they would want to join up with Frisk.
"Yellow will be with Red, Dec. Ya can count on it with absolute certainty. If he plans to oppose your master, he ain't gonna want ta take ya all on mono-e-mono. He'll join forces with someone, and as he knows your master will be gunning for Red, she's the obvious choice." He knew he had to be careful. Every word he said had to have at least some shred of truth to it. There was absolutely no doubt she would notice the instant he lied.
"You do know that He is still around, right?" Flowey asked the next question as if out of nowhere. But it was to test the waters. He had to know how much she knew about Gaster. "Keeping a close eye on Frisk? You can count on it that he is still in Snowdin, and that if he sees you, you will die.
"I don'tknow what your plan is, but nobody can best him. Not as he currently is. I bet even your master knows THAT." He certainly did. Flowey frowned. That skeleton mastermind was the only reason he hadn't taken down Frisk himself the moment he'd found out that she lost her powers.
Kaitlyn sucked on her lollipop, giving off no reaction whatsoever. Kinda irritating really. "I think you severely underestimate me, Flowey. That guy shouldn't be much of a problem at all for somebody like me." Flowey frowned at her words. He wanted to believe they were nothing more than bravado, that the girl couldn't really be that stupid, but he couldn't read her. That was something he was loathe to admit it. For the first time in hundreds of years, he'd met somebody that he couldn't read.
Flowey nodded as he looked around. "Alright. The first thing ya are going to want to do is step on that flashing arrow that seems to have ya spooked. It seems, ya would rather be balancing on the edge of death. It'll launch ya to the platform that I just left. After that, we are gonna want ta talk to the River Person. He runs a boat near here, and there is no one who can get ya around the Underworld faster. Me, I don't need such transportation, but as a soul trapped in a human body, I'm pretty sure ya do."
"I'll go and take care of the annoying puzzles along the way, while you get yourself out of here. Just keeping forward until ya see some stairs. The River Person will be at the bottom of them. That's where I'll see ya next." Then he popped underground, leaving Kaitlyn alone in the fiery chasms of the Hotlands.
There were places he had to be, and traps that he had to lay. He was pretty clear on the fact that he was way over his head, but thousands of resets had long ago made him stop caring about taking such risks. He'd lived longer than practically anybody in the Underworld, if you added all of the trips back in time that only remembered together. In all of that he'd learned one thing. If you want to get ahead in life, you have to take some, albeit well-calculated, risks.
He didn't know who this Master was, but if he could pull off a spell like the soul reversal, he had to be unimaginably powerful. Unless Gaster was ready, the likelihood of Glowey making it out of this alive was minute. If, on the other hand, Flowey could get the two of them to take each other down, the only one who even COULD winwas Flowey.
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Flowey and Kaitlyn join forces, both with different plans for how the other can be used. In this game of trickery, who will come out on top in the end? Only time will tell. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. As always, your fanship means a lot to me. Hope to hear from you.
~ Xanatos Stones
