Chapter 16: Circumstantial Company

Waking up wasn't something you particularly looked forward to anymore. This time was no exception. As you slowly blinked sleep from your eyes, you wasted no time checking your surrounding as best you could, since you soon discovered you were bound to a table by the wrists and ankles. Instead of being mortified, you simply sighed. Of course you were terrified, but this hindrance seemed to be just one more obstacle on the top of the ever growing pile of unfortunate situations you seemed to find yourself in.

You were underground, in the labs. Not a soul was around, at least none that you could see or hear. You decided against screaming for help, considering that the only ones who might find you were the deformed abominations or worse – Flowey himself. Quite frankly, you expected him to be waiting for you to wake up, taunts and insults readied on the tip of his tongue. It worried you that you were left unattended.

The next thing you did was going to be mustering up some determination to try and reload a save, but one deep inhale later and a glance down at your chest stopped you dead in your thoughts.

It took quite a bit to shock you. This shocked you. There, grappled to your skin, were several long, thick needles attached to bags of you could only guess what – hopefully not poison – hanging from the ceiling. One was bright green and slimy looking, and several were a bright, pungent purple, not unlike the concoction that Sans had tricked Flowey into taking. This mortified you, enough to make you freeze up and not notice the sound or smell approaching you. Only once it began to speak, stuttering incomprehensibly, did you let out a shriek.

"He-hey! Don't freak out, y'hear?"

You forced your nerves to calm themselves and whipped your head around to see something talking to you. It looked like a concave eyeball with tentacles.

"W-What do you want?" You managed to squawk.

"Just to talk, you looked miserable."

You paused to question it. It's voice seemed more inviting than the other abominations. When you examined him closer, you noticed he was leaking some sort of fluid, clear with whitish spots distributed evenly throughout the solution. He was drippy, similar to the others, but instead of mold, he seemed to be coated in more of a yellowish mucus color. His eyes held the same absence of light that you had come to know in seemingly everyone you saw nowadays, but his eyelashes struck you as odd, extending farther than they should have and clumping oddly, sometimes curling downwards into his eyes. It blinked several times at you, almost as if it wanted to charm you. Finally it hit you.

"Onionsan?"

"You remember me! I'm flattered, y'hear?"

You cringed at the sight of him and your heart went out to him. "I'm sorry, it's my fault that Flowey's done this to you all."

"He would've done something drastic anyways. He gets bored, y'hear? Anyways, it's not so bad. It hurts a little, but my lake was running dryer than ever. At least this way I'm always moist, y'hear?"

You nodded, trying not to acknowledge the sadness in his voice or broken, grotesque smile.

"Flowey said not to touch the human. I wasn't supposed to be keeping an eye on you, but then you started convulsing and, well, you did save us all and it's not your fault the aquarium's full and the ocean's so lonely, y'hear? I got worried."

You smiled. "Thank you, Onionsan." He nodded happily, blushing and oozing preservative. You decided to push your luck, convinced that he wouldn't become violent with you and unsure of how much time you had before Flowey realized that you were awake. "Is there anyway you can get me out of this?" You clenched and unclenched your fists. The bonds were so tight you could barely wriggle.

Onionsan's expression fell, and he shook his head. "Sorry, no can do. Those bars block determination, and I don't think it's safe to pull those needles out, y'hear?"

"Do you know what's in those bags?" You glanced up to the ceiling.

Onionsan just looked at you sadly. It didn't help your suspicions.

More urgently, you persisted. "Where is Sans?"

"Um..." Onionsan fidgeted nervously. "He kinda ran off."

"What?" You had assumed he would be captured as well, but never would you have thought that he would leave you behind.

"You don't remember?" Onionsan whispered, staring at you. You shook your head immediately, still craning your neck to the side. The action hurt quite a bit, but you hardly noticed. With a sigh, Onionsan explained. "Flowey wanted to make you two turn against each other, but he planned for that not to work and for you to try and use your determination instead. It broke the chains, but he was ready, y'hear? He immediately tried to inject you with a poison that made you pass out and overdose you on determination. You both put up a fight though, so he could only manage to get one of you, and it was you, y'hear? He hooked you up here and injected more things into you. I- I think he tortured you, made you imagine crazy things, y-y'hear?'

You nodded slowly. You weren't angry with Sans. Instead, you assured yourself that he was doing whatever he could to help you, and this way, you only had yourself to worry about. "Where is Flowey now? He said he would..." You trailed off, not wanting to worry Onionsan – or yourself – anymore than you had to. You could tell he was already on edge from the time he mentioned torture onwards.

"He's going after Sans now," A voice gurgled. "If anything, I'd be more worried for Flowey. Sans is out to kill."

A glance at Onionsan's shocked visage told you that he hadn't said a word. Glancing around, you saw Mad Dummy approach, still dripping crimson from his knife wounds and breathing in choked out breathes, like a pot of water was boiling in his throat.

"You shouldn't be here, Onionsan, 'y'hear?'" Mad Dummy mocked. Onionsan let out a startled noise and shrunk away from you, behind another lab bench. "You'd be best not to try and escape, ny!" He grunted towards you this time, almost threateningly but too weak to be intimidating. "He made you as unstable as he made himself when he tried to reverse Sans taking away his save powers. Extracting your determination, then adding it back in tenfold. You're lucky that much determination didn't make you like us."

Deciding against apologizing to Mad Dummy, in fear that he might yell or worse, you took the next best route that you could think of. "If neither of you can help me out of here, can you at least try to get the core back from Flowey? I promise that I'll do whatever I can to come back for you and fix you up if you just try."

Onionsan poked his head out from his hiding spot. "Defy Flowey?"

"That's suicide!" Dummy huffed, but continued to look at you expectantly. When you said nothing, waiting for something, anything from him, he continued. "What does this core even do? And why should I risk my life for an 'if' like that?"

Ignoring another twinge of pain through your body as the poison flowed through your veins, you sighed. "There's no guarantee for anything, but that core is pure determination. There's no way Flowey is capable of any of this without it. If you can just get that crystal away from him, there's a chance that I can talk him down-"

"Talk?" Mad Dummy howled in laughter. "You think you can spare someone like that? I'd rather count on Sans." Grumbling, he stormed away.

With another painful sigh, you glanced over at Onionsan, who was already slowly nearing you, long greasy extremities pulling him along the tiles.

"Please, Onionsan? I know it's hard, but I don't know if I can do this alone." You tried not to sound like you were losing hope, because you weren't. You couldn't afford to, but Sans was no where to be found, and you couldn't see a way to get yourself out of your current predicament without waiting for either Flowey or Sans. You were afraid you were too unstable, physically and mentally, and unsure if sparing would actually work in the end. While you had to try, for your own sanity and because if nobody else would do the right thing then damnit you would, your chances were low and dropping. You could use some help.

"I- I'll do what I can, Frisk."

You sighed in relief and smiled, twisting a bit to show him your thanks, and he was beside you, reaching out to touch your bedside. He grinned nervously, almost determinedly, and you realized there were tears dripping quietly down your cheek.

"Thank you so much. For everything. Anything will help."

Onionsan nodded, and you could tell he wanted to reflexively wipe the tears from your face but held back. You both knew he would slime you, so you both contented yourselves with simpering and sharing a knowing stare.

"Thank you, human. I'll try and talk to the others too. You try so hard, and I just wish I could do something, y'hear?"

"Trust me, I know. I wish I could do more." You clenched your teeth as another burst of pain flowed through you. The last thing you saw was Onionsan's worried expression and his mouth moving frantically. You passed out moments later, not knowing that Onionsan was warning you that someone was coming.