Mettaton and Frisk walked towards where the golden thing had vanished. They only needed a moment to adjust their eyes to the darkness once they stepped out of the ring of light before they noticed a hallway. With nowhere else to go, the two walked through it.
Frisk glanced at the dark mud brick around them as they walked. "Does this look at all familiar to you?"
No, it doesn't. I passed right through the cavern walls when I fled here. Frisk could feel him shiver. Not fun, by the way.
Frisk ran a hand along the wall, causing small bits of dirt to crumble off as they did so. It was an interesting contrast to the tough sides of caverns they'd seen before. So fragile, so...dirty. How odd. Mettaton had said that monsters lived in this cavern, though. Had the monsters come here and built up the walls?
Frisk didn't get a chance to ask Mettaton. The moment they stepped out of the hallway, they were greeted by another ring of light. In that light sat a cute, smiling flower. They looked so adorable, what with their golden petals and bright smile. The human wanted to walk right up and pet them.
But their legs wouldn't move. Again, they felt another emotion that wasn't theirs. This time, distrust. Frisk, honey, I know what you're thinking. But I'm telling you right now, something bothers me about this flower. Something is not right. I wouldn't trust anything he says.
The human huffed. They could already tell there were going to be problems in the future seeing as now they both had control over Frisk's body, at least to some degree. But, for Mettaton's sake, they would be cautious. "Then you tell me if they're lying," Frisk whispered back.
Fair enough, Mettaton replied, finally letting Frisk walk up to the flower.
"Howdy," the flower greeted Frisk once they were close enough. "I'm Flowey, Flowey the flower!" Frisk realized from the voice that Mettaton had been correct in assuming the flower to be a boy. Flowey hummed a moment. "Say, you look familiar."
That caught them both off guard. Familiar? But Frisk had never fallen down before. How could any monster possibly know them?
Flowey continued, offering an even brighter smile. "Well, I'll give ya the basics!" He swung his head side-to-side. Suddenly, Frisk felt something materialize against their chest. They looked down. Underneath their sweater, something glowed red and pink. What was it?
As if reading their mind, Flowey said, "You see that? That red edged with pink? It's a heart! That heart is your soul, the culmination of your beings!"
He's not wrong there, Mettaton added reluctantly.
"Now, your soul starts off weak, but will grow strong if you gain a lot of L-V! What's L-V stand for? Why, LOVE!" An alarm went off in Mettaton's mind. "LOVE is shared through little white...friendliness pellets! Get ready, catch as many as you can!"
Frisk, he's lying! Don't you dare touch those pellets! They straightened up at Mettaton's sudden exclamation. Something was off. Why was he suddenly so terrified? Before they could say anything, little white pellets were already being thrown at them. Something about them didn't look right. Frisk obeyed Mettaton's command, and stepped to the side.
Flowey didn't look pleased. His smile started to fall. "Hey...you missed them. Let's try that again, 'kay?" Once again, Flowey launched white pellets at Frisk. And once again, Frisk stepped aside. And once again, Flowey's smile fell. "Hey! Is this a joke? Are you two braindead? Run. INTO. THE. BULLETS!"
Frisk grimaced. Bullets. They were bullets that he was throwing. Not pellets at all, much less pellets of friendship. Flowey was trying to kill them. Frisk didn't need to be told again to dodge out of the way a third time.
Suddenly, Flowey's smile looked a lot less friendly. His eyes widened, and a few sharp teeth decorated his mouth. "You know what's going on here, don't you?"
Frisk could feel Mettaton struggling with something. Frisk, I'm going to need your help!
"You just wanted to see me suffer!"
Help with what? Frisk thought back, panicked. They could feel his desperation building.
Suddenly, they were surrounded by a ring of white bullets. They began to close in. Flowey laughed. "DIE."
Frisk, your soul! Your SOUL, darling! Soul? Their soul! That's right, it had materialized. Frisk instinctively clutched at their soul. They had to get through would get through this. They were determined not to fail here, at the start.
Energy flooded through them. Unearthly bolts of electricity fell from above, surrounding Frisk and turning all the pellets that they touched to ash. They crackled and sparked. The sound reminded Frisk of a bunch of computers shorting out.
As soon as they vanished, a ball of electricity formed in front of their hand. But it didn't look like normal electricity. The center was a standard white-ish yellow, but the edge of it was red. It, too, crackled and sparked.
Hand forward, darling! Frisk looked up at Flowey, hesitating for just a moment. They then pushed their hand out.
The ball flew straight at the flower, whose expression changed from confusion to horror. It glided just over his petals as he ducked into the ground, fleeing. It looked like he was screaming, but the sound from the electricity ball blocked out whatever noise Flowey made. He didn't pop back up. Frisk touched their chest again. Their soul wasn't there. The electric ball dissipated in the darkness.
At a loss, the human walked up to the spot Flowey had just been. There was very loosely packed earth. Faint screaming could be heard underneath, which made Frisk realize that Flowey must be digging a tunnel to safety.
"What was all of that?" they asked in a confused tone
That, my dear Frisk, Mettaton began, sounding rather exhausted, was a fight. It happens when someone approaches you with hostile intentions. For humans, their soul materializes when they enter a one.
"And you know that how?"
I've heard stories from those that fought humans.
"And what about monsters?"
Monsters are different. Their bodies are very closely tied to their souls. Instead of their souls appearing, they turn a faint grey.
Frisk nodded. This sure was interesting, and something they'd never experienced before. Why did it work that way down here, but not on the surface?
They looked up. In the darkness, they could see another doorway that had been behind Flowey. "I guess we should continue on," Frisk said, more to themselves than to Mettaton.
You go on, sweetheart. I feel perfectly exhausted, so I'm going to check out for the moment. And just like that, they felt their connection to Mettaton vanish. That wasn't good. He knew vital information about this place. How could they get through without him?
"Mettaton?" they called out, panic rising. He didn't answer. Frisk hoped he was just asleep, and not actually gone. He was their hope for getting through alive.
He said they could go forward. Maybe Frisk should listen. Mettaton probably wanted them to go on and explore. It couldn't hurt, could it? Mettaton had said most monsters weren't dangerous, after all. Even if Flowey had just attacked them.
Frisk continued forward, trying to push down their rising dread. The passage through the door was surprisingly well lit with torches. Or, they looked like torches at least. They could be anything, considering what Frisk just saw.
The torches revealed purple stone stairs that lead to an archway made of violet bricks. Beside the archway looked to be windows to either side. A few vines crawled on the wall. Between the two staircases lay a bed of red leaves. The look of it made Frisk smile. It resembled a silly face. Their footsteps echoed as they treked up the stairs.
Through the archway was well-lit room, also lit by torches. It was a small room made of violet bricks with a door on the far wall, some buttons on the floor, and level and plaque beside the door.
Frisk walked up to the door. It wouldn't budge when they tried to open it. Odd. They looked at the plaque on the wall. It read, "ONLY THE FEARLESS MAY PROCEED. BRAVE ONES, FOOLISH ONES, BOTH WALK NOT THE MIDDLE ROAD". What did that mean? Frisk looked back to the buttons. Don't walk the middle road? Don't walk the middle road…
Don't hit the buttons in the middle. Frisk walked over to the buttons and stepped on all but the middle two. They looked back to the door. Nothing. Did they need to pull the lever? They walked over and pulled it down.
The door opened. Through it, Frisk could see a much larger room of brick with a few grey frog-like creatures wandering around. From where they were, the human could see a sign and another plaque on the wall. On the floor, there was a lighter colored path leading to the right. They didn't want to go in, but there was no other way to go. Besides, maybe they could hold their own without Mettaton. If he really was gone, they'd have to.
They walked into the room up to the sign. It read, "PRESS Z TO READ SIGNS". Frisk looked around. Z? What Z? All they could see were the few frog creatures walking around. And two bridges over water. And a few levers on the wall.
They then chose to read the plaque behind the sign. It simply said, "STAY ON THE PATH". Well, that was good enough for Frisk. They walked back on the light colored section of the floor and followed it to the right. The few creatures in the room disregarded them to their relief.
When they got to the end, however, they noticed a bunch of spikes in their path. Was this a puzzle, too, like the last room? Maybe they could step over the spikes, but what if they slipped? They grimaced at the thought of what would happen.
So, they backtracked to the levers on the wall. They tried to pull the closest one. But it wouldn't budge. They tried harder. Still, it wouldn't move.
They let that lever go and tried the one next to it. That one, while difficult, Frisk managed to pull down. The human then went on to pull down the third lever. There was a clicking sound. A glance to the exit showed that the spikes were gone. Only two levers had needed pulling. Perhaps the other was a decoy. Either way, Frisk took the opportunity to walk out.
The next room was fairly bare. It was a small room with nothing more than a dummy and ivy on the walls. The path lead to a door on the right.
Frisk stared at the dummy. The dummy stared back. With a smile, they walked up and pet the dummy. They could have sworn they saw it move. Was the dummy a monster?
The human didn't think on it too long before heading to the next room. The next room had a strange zig-zag pattern on the floor. There was a doorway to the right. It led to a small hallway with a plaque on the left wall that read, "THE WESTERN ROOM IS THE EASTERN ROOM'S BLUEPRINT".
Frisk rubbed their chin for a moment. What did that mean? Blueprint? Was the next room modeled after that one?
A wet slapping sound interrupted their thoughts. Frisk looked to their left to see a frog creature hopping close. They felt something against their chest again. A fight? No, no no, they couldn't fight without Mettaton present. They didn't have anything to fight with. They hadn't even a stick.
Frisk turned and fled to the next room. They skidded to a stop when they saw a bunch of spikes. They lined the bridge, and only way to the other side. To the exit. How could they possibly get away?
They barely glanced back when they saw the frog's cheeks puff up. Little winged particles that resembled flies flew from its mouth. They smacked directly into Frisk's face, causing the human to panic and lose their balance. They expected to be impaled.
They weren't. They landed on cold hard metal. Frisk looked below them. The spikes had retracted. Did they retract in the pattern the other room's path had been? They got up. The frog creature looked angry as it hopped closer. God, they hoped this theory was right.
The human began to run using the pattern that had been on the eastern room's floor. To their relief, the spikes did retract in that pattern.
They didn't stop to see if the frog was still following them as they got to the other side. Fear drove them on. They didn't pay attention to the next room's length or just how overgrown its walls were. Frisk kept running. They ran until they passed a pillar and approached a doorway.
Frisk skidded to a stop just past the doorway, forcing themselves to breathe. As they leaned against the wall, they listened. Nothing but their own breathing, and the faint sound of rushing water. A hand went to their chest. No soul. They were safe. They had gotten away from that threat.
A sigh escaped their lips as they straightened up and looked around the the right, there were two left piles and a hallway leading onwards. In front against the far wall was a much larger leaf pile. And to the left was another door onwards, presumably where the sound of water was coming from. And-oh gods, another frog thing.
The frog, however, merely sat there, minding its own business. Once it noticed Frisk, it lifted a paw and waved. The hand on Frisk's chest tightened. No soul. This frog wasn't hostile? How strange.
Frisk took a step forward, and nearly fell over. Pain shot through their ankle. They must have stepped on it wrong when running and not noticed. Or possibly agitated an injury from when they fell. The frog tilted its head in confusion, but didn't move. It then pointed to the room behind it. Maybe there was something in there that could help.
Frisk limped into the other room, greeted with the sight of a candy bowl on a pedestal, and flowing water to either side of the path. And, as usual, ivy growing on the far wall. The human walked over, taking a look at the sign taped to the bowl. "MONSTER CANDY. PLEASE TAKE ONE."
So they did. Opening the wrapper, they popped the small ball-shaped sweet into their mouth. It had an interesting flavor, kind of like grape candy. But not licorice. As they chewed, they began to notice a strange-but not unpleasant-sensation on their foot.
As they ate, they decided to glance around the small room. Something about this particular room felt pleasant.
They looked at the water. It made them shiver a little. And they noticed something; the reflection of the brick wall and torches in it. That was right, water was reflective. Perhaps now they should see why everyone said they looked familiar. The human took a few careful steps towards the water.
What they saw made them reel back and nearly choke on their candy. Lines were etched into their cheeks that made it look like there were metals plates on either side, and their brown eyes now had a pink hue to them. They didn't look human anymore.
Frisk screamed.