Flowey led them through the Ruins. As they walked through the tunnels and rooms made of crumbling stone and ivy, Lara saw some pressure plates and levers. They seemed to be connected to some mechanism. When she asked Flowey about it, he said, "These are old puzzles. They were constructed by the first monster down here. I could never figure out why they did that. Luckily for us, they have all been solved so that we can pass unhindered. Although, come to think of it, there's a room with a puzzle that constantly reset itself. Speak of the devil. There it is."

They entered a long, rectangular room. Instead of a floor, it had a pool of water. The only way to the other edge of the pool was a bridge made entirely of metal plates. Huge metal spikes protruded from them.

"How are we supposed to figure that out?" Lara asked.

"Should I be honest? No idea. Whenever I used to come to this place, I would just use my roots to get to the other side. You must solve the puzzle. You won't get through here otherwise."

"Can't I just swim across to the other side of the pool and avoid the puzzle?"

Flowey shook his head and replied, "I wouldn't do that. Take a look in the water."

Following his advice, Lara saw orange fish with sharp teeth that were swimming in the pool. They looked very hungry.

"Those are piranhas. Normally they would only attack you if you smelled like orange. But just look how emaciated the critters are. They have been left here without food for a long time. If you fall into the water, they will tear you apart in just a few seconds."

"Piranhas? Seriously what the hell? Who came up with this and why?"

"Like I said, I have no idea. Unfortunately neither of us has the power to change the past, so we can only figure out the present."

Lara watched the predatory fish in the water and then the metal spikes. She had a choice: either sharp spikes or sharp teeth. Neither option seemed tempting. But the former definitely had the better chance of survival. But how could she get past the thorns?

"Flowey, do you really have no idea at all, how to solve this puzzle?", asked the human girl.

"Let me think for a second."

The flower searched his memories for answers. He had constantly watched as Toriel led the human children over the spikes, walking a certain path. But how did she know the right path to take?

Wait a minute. Monster puzzles always had a tip close by that hinted at the right solution. That was why Flowey rarely bothered himself with any of the puzzles in the ruins. They were just to easy for him. Oh and being able to completely avoid them with his root travel system was also a factor. But there had to be something close by that could help Lara.

"Stay here, I will be back soon", he said to her.

"Are you going to leave me here?" Lara seemed to tense up while asking this.

"What, no! I mean yes. I mean… I will just look for some possible answers for the puzzle. Once I find them I will be back. Trust me, okay?"

Lara pondered something for a second. Her shoulders slightly relaxed. Then she gave the flower a nod.

Flowey examined the room he and Lara had been in earlier. He quickly found the stone tablet that read:

The eastern room corresponds to the design of the western room.

After some further examination the flower quickly realized that the floor of a certain room was colored in a way, that showed a path. Coincidence? Certainly not!

Flowey memorized the path and then returned to Lara.

She looked slightly surprised at seeing him back but quickly asked: "Did you find something?"

"Yes. Listen, follow closely to my instructions and you can pass the bridge."

"Are you sure it will work?"

"Yes. Do you trust me?"

"I… I guess…" Lara wandered towards the beginning of the spike bridge.

"So what am I supposed to do?"

Flowey started to give the human girl instructions at which directions she was supposed to move. She was of course very nervous, but the spikes retreated in front of her and the human girl made slowly but surely progress. Unfortunately there were some troubles at communicating the directions.

"Right. Lara stop, I said right!"

"I´m going right!"

"My right! Just like you were going my left before. Why are you… okay, now go forward, but not to much!"

Because of these hurdles and the fact that the metal of the bridge was rusty, due to long exposure to the water, it partly caved in. Lara lost her balance and, out of reflex, stretched out her arm. And grasped it fully into a metal spike. She gritted her teeth, surpressing a pain filled scream, and pulled her hand out. A few drops of blood landed in the water. The piranhas completely went manic. They started biting each other. A particularly large piranha jumped out of the water, straight at Lara. It opened its mouth hungrily. Since she had nowhere to go, Lara ducked. The predator sailed over her and was impaled on one of the metal spikes. Lara winced when she saw that. While she was glad it didn´t got her, she felt pity for the starved animal. Nevertheless, if she didn't want to be attacked by more predatory fish, she had to get off the bridge quickly.

Flowey called out the rest of the directions, then appeared beside her as she reached the end of the room.

"Are you okay?", he asked.

"Does this look okay to you?", Lara snapped and showed him the bloody flesh wound.

"Hey I'm just concerned about you. No need to be this aggressive."

Lara's face immediately showed regret.

"I'm sorry. Its just… it hurts a lot."

Flowey looked closer at the wound. While the flower had rather lacking skills in being emphatic, he was very familiar with physical pain.

"Yeah, that doesn't look to good. I don't think I can patch that wound up," Flowey said in a nervous tone. Toriels house was still afar and until then the flower didn't want to Lara receive a heavy blood loss or get infected with something. But before either flower or human could come up with a solution, a calm voice interjected: "I think I can be of assistance." The two looked up and turned towards the tunnel in front of them. A ghostly figure floated towards them. It was a girl but she consisted of a bluish light. A heart floated in her chest, which closely resembled Lara's soul, but was of a light blue color. She was wearing shorts and a striped t-shirt, both also made of that ghostly cyan light. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail with a pretty ribbon/bow. As the ghost girl approached, Lara guessed they had to be around the same age.

"Who are you?" asked Lara. Oddly enough, she felt no fear from encountering a real life ghost.

"My name is Emma. I'm one of the six people who died in the Underground," said the ghost girl matter of factly, like she didn't just announce her death or the ones of others. Before Lara could say something about that, Emma asked: "And who are you?"

"I'm Lara and this is... Uh... Flowey what are you doing?"

The flower tried to hide behind its human companion. In vain. Emma's eyes caught him immediately.

"Hello Flowey. Long time no see. More or less. Why are you looking so concerned? Oh don't worry. I am not mad at you. No longer. I know now that you don't really mean it that way. Besides, we have more important things to do now than fight about things that happened in the past. Right?"

"Y-yes," Flowey said sheepishly. Then he said a little louder, "If you need help patching up Lara, just ask me. I will do it"

"Good."

"You two know each other?" Lara asked.

"Me and Flowey have had some difficulties in the past. But that has been resolved," Emma replied.

"I would give you your things back, or show you where I hid them. But since they're gone, I can't," Flowey said in a distressed tone. He felt something resonating in him that Emma's appearance has caused in him. A spark of regret? An echo of his soul?

Emma gave Flowey a soft smile and said, "Shh, take it easy Flowey I believe you. I forgive you. Now just help me with the wound", and turning to Lara: "Please show me to me."

A little reluctantly, she reached out and did as she was told. Emma eyed her worriedly.

"I know of a place near here where we could take better care of you. But until then, let's bandage your hand improvisational so you don't lose any more blood. Tho I don't know what we can use. We would need something long and movable, that also absorbs the blood. Lara could you try to rip some cloth of your sweater?"

"I…"

"I have an idea," Flowey said. He extended two vines, a thick strong one and one that was long, slightly flat and flexible. The strong tendril grabbed the thin one and tore it out of the ground. He held out the torn vine to the two girls. Emma made a face like Flowey just detonated a nuclear bomb while Lara yelled, "Oh my god! Flowey, doesn't that hurt you?"

"Nah. My body reacts to certain kind of pains differently. There was just an uncomfortable feeling, like pulling a hair out. In any case, this vine should be enough as a bandage for the time being."

Emma, who managed to overcome her shock, said: "Okay if you say so. Listen carefully to what I'm saying, so you'll get the bandage right. I'd love to do it myself, but, well, I'm just a ghost. Cannot touch anything material."

The flower listened attentively to what the spirit girl dictated to him and followed every single word. The wound was soon taken care of. At least for now.

"Okay, that should do it for now. Let's quickly go to the place where Lara can be treated better."

"I know which place you mean. Toriels house," Flowey said and continued, "how about I take the lead. In the meantime, you can tell us what you're doing here, Emma. As a ghost."

Without waiting for an answer, Flowey disappeared into the next room. Annoyed, Emma mumbled something about impatient boys who always have to have the last word and floated after the flower. Lara followed her, her eyes filled with curiousity and questions.

So ghosts are real too? I guess that makes sense, since Flowey said my soul would continue to exist after death. But… why was he so surprised then when Emma showed up? Maybe because he seems to know her personally? I hope I will receive some answers, things are becoming much weirder than I tought they would be. Then again… I didn´t really think about anything really special when climbing the mountain.

Lara looked down in a saddened expression.

I was just preparing myself… for the worst.