The Marsh - FINAL
The black figure stood in the cellar's doorway, silent and towering, built like a brute, with large muscular limbs and broad shoulders.
She stood clothed in black tactical army boots, black tactical army pants, and thick yet flexible body armour on the front. The armour had a spray-painted logo of a silver half-moon and a spear piercing through from the top.
The helmet, spray painted black, resembled a motorcycle helmet, with the bottom-half spray painted silver into piranha's jaw.
To finish this look was a black leather hood with silver trim.
"A-A-A-A-Ashu-T-Tshuki?" Finrick said in terror. "Hehe, what a s-s-surprise."
Ashu-Tshuki cracked both her knuckles one by one. The audible cracking reverberated through the entire room.
Frisk using whatever energy she could muster, moved a bit to get a better sight of the stranger.
"Holy shit," she muttered when she got a better sight. "Hot damn!"
Ashu-Tshuki gave her an examining look from across the room. It was almost like a look of recognition. Is she aware of what Frisk really is? Was that what that "look" was?
Ashu-Tshuki's gaze returned to the fish monster, who winced as it did. Finrick's entire body shivered more than usual, which Frisk didn't know was possible. The gun hand shivered the worst as if the rusty pistol had suddenly gained a few tons from the masked glare.
"I-I-I-," Finrick muttered. "This, heh, th-this has all been a m-misunderstanding, hehe."
The brutish vigilante took a single step forward into the room, making him flinch. Then, after a moment, she took another.
"STAY BACK!" Finrick cried out.
He aimed the gun at his side, towards where MK sat in shock.
"I-I'll shoot!" Finrick said.
Ashu-Tshuki took another step forward, and Finrick backed up in response.
"I-I mean it!" Finrick said, glistening sweat running down his face. "I swear to The Angel and to all gods of this underground that I will shoot this kid!"
The vigilante paused and slowly looked at MK, quivering in their chair.
"So I'm warning you to b-b-b-BACK OFF!" Finrick cried out. "I'll do it. I swear I'll FUCKING DO IT!"
Ashu-Tshuki returned her glare and walked toward him.
"You're so full of shit, punk!" she growled.
No one in the room except the two attackers could register what then ensued until the dust settled, as the next few seconds were like a blur to them all.
First, a giant fist buried itself in Finrick's face causing his motor functions to halt. Then another came just as quick in an uppercut, forcing his head upward and several fish teeth flying loose. Blood droplets followed the pointy hurling teeth that fastened themself into the ceiling before quickly dusting.
As Finrick attempted to adjust himself while standing on shaking toes and also trying to move his head down, Ashu-Tshuki raised her foot and kicked him in the stomach, sending him hurling across the room. He smashed through a cupboard and into the wall, falling on his feet.
Pained gasps came hissing from Finrick's mouth as he tried desperately to stand back up. As he saw Ashu-Tshuki come closer, he quickly aimed and fired. He missed. The figure came closer.
He yelped and fired again. He hit the figure's chest, only for the bullet to bounce off the armour.
"Oh gods!" he yelped.
He desperately reached into his jacket's inner pocket as the figure came towering over him.
Then, he felt the big muscular hand grab his throat and lift his entire body into the air. Another hand grasped his gun arm and squeezed it so hard he yelped, and the revolver fell out of his now partly broken and useless gun hand.
With one last resort, he slammed the figure in the head with a handful of strange relaxation powder. But outside of pausing for a few good seconds, it seemed to have no effect. Except making her more aggressive, as shown when the figure pulled Finrick's horrified face closer to the mask until they were at nose length.
Finrick was about to say something but was interrupted by being lifted into the air again.
"NGAHHH!" Ashu-Tshuki cried out.
And then she body slammed Finrick to the floor. It was so quick and forceful that a small shockwave followed and a tiny crack formed on the floor. Frisk almost thought the impact shattered every bone in his body. She half-expected nothing but a dust cloud to remain afterwards.
So now Finrick laid on the ground, battered, bloodied and utterly defeated. A soft groan escaped his lips.
Unfortunately, it appeared Ashu-Tshuki wasn't finished with him just yet, for she suddenly crouched over his stunned body, put her hands on his throat, and pushed her fingers in.
"W-w-w-what are you-GAH!"
It was as if all of Finrick's body gathered whatever little energy he had to fight. He uselessly tried to pull the strong hands off his throat with his frail hands. His legs kicked and flailed like a fish forced out of the water, gasping to breathe, knowing death was close. His pleading eyes started flooding with tears.
"Puh-gah, p-please!" he said, sobbing between half-breaths. "Have-gah, have m-mercy-!"
His words fell on deaf ears as the masked vigilante just stared in silence and squeezed harder.
The others, Frisk, Flowey and MK, stared in discomfort at the brutal display in front of them. It was like they both had forgotten they existed.
"E-excuse me?" Frisk said. "M-miss?"
The figure looked up, hands still grasping the struggling and dying monster's throat.
"T-this guy is a creepy piece of shit," Frisk continued. "But I… I think this is too much."
The figure stared at her, seemingly unconvinced.
"I'm usually ready for bastards to die," Flowey said, and Ashu-Tshuki gazed at him. "But I think I agree with her. I feel he's had enough. He's beaten."
Then her gaze went across the room and towards MK. Their eyes looked absolutely terrified.
They seemed terrified of her.
There was barely any air left in the fish monster, as he had grown pale, and his limbs had gone soft and scarcely made any more movement.
Then, releasing an audible sigh, Ashu-Tshuki eased her fingers a bit. At that moment, Finrick gasped and greedily began gobbling up oxygen.
Ashu-Tshuki moved her gaze downwards to his face.
"You will not follow them," she stated. "You will stop your business. End it. You will not farm or even sell any more of your drugs. No more! Especially not to children."
Finrick eyed her with unease and haze. He seemed unwilling to give any answer.
"Agreed?!" the vigilante hissed.
"Yes!" Finrick quickly replied, sobbing. "Y-yes! I will stop! A-absolutely."
"Good," Ashu-Tshuki said. "Because did you feel that? That was death itself coming for you. Just a few more seconds. And poof. You're dust. Remember that. Remember that sensation next time you're thinking of going into business."
"I-I will!" Finrick stated. "I-I will remember, don't worry!"
After a moment of pause, Ashu-Tshuki fully released her hold.
Finrick coughed and coughed, then began breathing slowly and steadily. He caressed his throat, feeling the visible red hand marks.
Meanwhile, Ashu-Tshuki walked to the closest shelf of powders.
"Thank you," Finrick sobbed. "Thank you!"
"Uh-huh," Ashu-Tshuki said without removing her gaze from the shelf. "Hey, which one of these is the sleeping one? Sommnushade?"
Finrick, breathing slowly, looked at her with uncertainty.
"Erm…" he answered.
Ashu-Tshuki cleared her throat.
"T-the yellow-ish one!" Finrick cried out. "In the third row from the top! I-it also has a bit of green tinge to it. You won't miss it."
Ashu-Tshuki placed her palm into the bowl holding the closest match.
"Huh," she muttered as she examined the strange powder filling her palm.
"Yeah, it's this one, I-I promise," Finrick stated. "Just, erm, try it out soon, a-a-and you'll see."
"Oh. I will."
And with that, she hurled the powder onto his face.
"Wha…?" Finrick stated.
He coughed lightly.
"W-what did you?"
He yawned.
"What did you… dooooooooo-"
And like that, he fell back down. His eyes shut closed, and he snored.
"Heh," Ashu-Tshuki said and looked back at her palm. "This stuff. Really handy."
"Why didn't you just knock him out?" Frisk asked. "You know? Punched his head till he goes unconscious?"
"And risk serious brain damage?" Ashu-Tshuki replied. "At that point, I might as well just kill him. Heh, it doesn't work like in stories and films. Trust me, I know from experience."
Finrick moved and mumbled a little in his sleep, so Ashu-Tshuki gave him a soft kick, making him stop.
"So," she began. "Are you kids alright."
"Oh yeah, just swell," Flowey said sarcastically.
Ashu-Tshuki's eyes went towards MK, who sat frozen still in their chair, staring at her with wide-open eyes.
"What about, erm, him? Her?"
"Them," Frisk corrected. "And they're just in shock. That's all. I think."
"They'll recover," Flowey said. "No worries."
"Good," Ashu-Tshuki said.
Frisk gave a tired sigh. It had a mix of audible relief in it.
"Thank you," she said. "Thank you so much for your help, whoever you are."
"No problems!" Ashu-Tshuki said with pride. "It's what I do."
"Ashu…-Tshuki?" Flowey said. "You look a bit different from what I remember. A bit more "upgraded"."
"Oh, yeah," Frisk said. "You're that, erm, vigilante- super-hero gal, aren't you? I've heard about you from Snowdin."
"Indeed!" she replied in a gruff voice. "I am Ashu-Tshuki. The moon crusader. The fighter of darkness in the shadow."
She proudly smashed her palm onto her chest.
"And you're Frisk, aren't you?"
Frisk looked up at her with worry.
"Erm… how do you know me?" she asked.
The monstrously built warrior kneeled down, on one knee, in front of Frisk like she was royalty, but even then, Frisk still had to look up to make "eye contact".
"Simple, word spreads around," Ashu-Tshuki said. "It still took me a while to track you down. At first, I was scared The Royal Bastards would get to you first. Hah! Thankfully, The Hunt is anything but sneaky. They leave traces of themselves everywhere. I managed to sneak around them while they messed around in camp and buy myself about a day of a headstart."
Frisk didn't know what to say, how to react. It seemed the vigilante could read that on her.
"Eh, don't be scared," the vigilante said in a friendly tone. "If it wasn't obvious, I hate Mickey, The Hunt, and the current government just as much as you probably do. If I wanted to take you, I'd have already knocked all of you out as soon as I found out about this amazing powder."
Frisk felt the familiar rush of strange relief.
"Even then, this is a dangerous place for your kind," the vigilante stated. "Especially nowadays."
Frisk gulped a little.
"And, erm, what would "my kind" be?" she replied.
The masked figure stared at her silently for a good few moments.
"Are the other two aware?" she whispered. "Of your…- humanity?"
Frisk nodded uneasily.
"Good," the figure said. "Eh, with how it's going, I assume these two would've learned about it sooner or later."
She stood up and faced the others.
"Now. kids," Ashu-Tshuki began. "I think it's time we beat this crap-shack, ain't it?"
"Oh, please do," Flowey stated. "I'm already thick of the foul air. It's so thick that it feels as if it's crushing me by its weight."
"Oh yes, I feel you, flower!"
The black figure turned to MK, still tied up and staring at her.
"Hey," she calmly spoke to them. "Don't be scared. I'm a friend. Now, let me get you out of these b-"
"Undyne?" MK suddenly uttered.
The figure, suffice to say, looked utterly taken aback by that.
"Erm, e-excuse me?" she responded.
"You're Undyne, aren't you?" MK repeated in a higher tone. "It's you? Isn't it?"
Ashu-Tshuki looked like she was unable to reply to that. She placed a hand on the back of her head, and Frisk felt like she could almost see the sweat drops underneath the helmet.
"Heh," she said, a bit awkwardly. "Hehe. You're, erm, m-mistaken. N-no worries, though. I get that a lot. What with us sharing similar, erm, builds? But I-I'm not Undyne. Not at all! Heh. That old hag, pfft! She, erm-"
"No, no, no, the kid has a point," Flowey said. "That scream you did earlier? That whole "ngahhh" thing sounded eerily familiar, but I couldn't place it. But when they said "Undyne", it immediately hit me. Yeah, I recognise you. I recognise your voice! It's been a while, but I know it now."
"Excuse me, have we met?" the figure replied.
"Erm, yes," Flowey stated. "Yes. A long time ago, Undyne."
"For the last time, I'm not Undyne!" Ashu-Tshuki protested.
"It's… it's pretty obvious," Flowey said, shrugging. "Your obviously fake growling voice, that's clearly there to hide your "real voice". You sound just like back when you tried to sound tough as you kicked that fat guy out the bar when you were a bouncer in Fisher-Town."
"Alright, there's no fucking way you were there that night! I surely would've remembered-!"
At that moment, the vigilante realised her error. Everyone looked at her, knowing she couldn't hide much anymore.
"Shit!" she hissed under her breath.
"You truly are Undyne?" MK said, eyes gleaming.
Ashu-Tshuki gave out a tired and frustrated sigh.
"Is there anyone else here?" she said. "Is there anyone nearby possibly…-recording something?"
"No, I-I think it's just us," Frisk stated.
"Uh-huh," Flowey confirmed. "I went through the entire house for these two and spotted no one else. That's unless they're hiding, like, really well. Maybe inside a wall somewhere."
Ashu-Tshuki paused, for a moment, as if focusing very hard. She so was so still you could almost mistake her for a statue.
"H-hello?!" Flowey said after a moment. "Are you-"
"Ok…" Ashu-Tshuki muttered as if to confirm it was safe, startling Flowey. "Now. Do you all promise not to tell anyone what you're about to see?"
"Yes, absolutely!" MK exclaimed.
"Yeah, yeah," Flowey said unenthusiastically. "Lips are sealed."
"Sure," Frisk stated.
With that, Ashu-Tshuki breathed in and removed her hood.
"Eh, the air pretty thick here either way," she stated. "This is a bit of a relief in that way."
An audible hiss came as Ashu-Tshuki pulled the helmet off, revealing what in Frisk's eyes was probably one of the ugliest women she had ever seen. Or, at least by human standards.
Besides the slimy, blue skin or scales, the figure had a large, protruding lipless mouth and two large slits instead of a nose. In addition, there were two large fish eyes, one yellow, animalistic and glowing slightly, and the other was underneath a black eye patch. To finish it off were two long, finlike ears protruding from the sides, and lastly, she had what looked like short, red hair, with the texture of seaweed, shaved from the side.
Then as if it couldn't be worse, the woman gave a grinning smile to the kids, revealing her pointy piranha-esque teeth.
"Sup," Undyne said.
"Undyne," Flowey said in a greeting tone. "You've certainly gotten- erm, bigger and more extreme since the last we met."
"Ok, where have I actually met you, kid?" Undyne asked, holding the helmet under her arm. "And I refuse to believe it was at that bar years ago. Because I literally cannot remember you."
"Welp, that's… mildly saddening to hear," Flowey whispered to Frisk. "Am I really that unmemorable, Frisk?"
"Yo, I am so happy right now," MK said, shivering with excitement. "You're just like how I imagined you being. My moms told me so many awesome stories about you. They really love you."
"I'm sure they do, kid," Undyne simply stated with a strange disinterest. "Now, let me get you out of these bonds."
A soft blue light manifested in her open palm. Out of it was summoned a solid, crystal-like, all-blue glowing spear.
"Damn," Frisk said.
Undyne struck upwards, almost in a flash, and the tape binding slipped off MK in pairs of two.
"Yo, cool!" MK said, smiling.
"Yeah, yeah, very impressive," Flowey replied.
"Well, either way, you're a resourceful bunch," Undyne continued. "I've been studying your tracks, your movements. And Frisk? Frisk the human?"
"J-just call me Frisk," the human replied.
"Well, Frisk," Undyne continued. "Man, I've heard humans are determined, but whew. The fact that you managed to escape The Royal Hunt and thus humiliate that Lord Bastard. That has, literally, never happened before. And I got a feeling he's going pretend that's still the case."
"Thanks," Frisk said, somewhat smugly.
Undyne sighed
"Unfortunately for you," she continued. "Mickey has the determination of all hell, maybe a bit more than you, no offence. And now that you've angered him, he will probably do anything in his power to be sure you won't escape again. It's going to get difficult. Much, much more difficult. For all of you."
"We figured that," Frisk stated and gulped. "What is the point?"
Undyne kneeled in front of Frisk again, making the human feel like she needed to get used to that from her soon.
"It means," Undyne began. "That I'm going to escort you through the swamp. And protect you. All of you."
Flowey snorted.
"Protect us?" he said. "Sorry, miss. But we don't need your help."
"Says the group that got captured," she replied.
"That only happened because Frisk was an idiot," Flowey said.
"Hey!" Frisk responded. "Alright, it's true, sorta, this time. But still, he's right. I appreciate the offer, lady, but I think we're mostly able to do fine on our own."
Undyne looked at the floor, hand on chin and looking thoughtful.
"You're not going to refuse additional help, are you?" she asked. "And like you were just admitting, you're not the smartest bunch."
"Says the loud meathead," Flowey replied.
"Yo, don't talk about her like that!" MK responded harshly.
"Why, is she allowed to insult us but not the other way around?" Flowey protested.
"No, no, you're right, sorry," Undyne said, grinning and pointing at her head. "Now, for your point, there's more in this nogging than just meat."
She rose back up.
"And I've been improving my senses these past few days," Undyne added. "Not just sight, but sound, smell, and you know. If anyone can guide you through this damnable fog, it's me."
"Hmm," Frisk said, thinking. "Yeah, I don't think we've been doing well getting through."
"We've barely had a chance to try," Flowey pointed out.
"Now you won't have to," Undyne replied.
"C'mon, you're not mistrusting Undyne of all monsters?" MK inquired. "She just saved us."
"Of course, I trust her," Flowey responded. "I'm just nervous we're getting too much attention this way."
"As if that's possible," Undyne said and pulled up a phone she showed MK and the flower.
The screen revealed a wanted poster with a crudely drawn sketch.
Of Flowey.
"These just hit the underweb-"
Undyne swiped to the next photo, revealing a drawn wanted poster of Frisk.
"- a few hours ago."
She swiped again, revealing one of MK.
"Oh…" Flowey said.
"I-is that real…?" MK said in unease and disbelief.
"Afraid so, kid," Undyne replied. "Seems you're all persons of interest to The Hunt now. All of you."
"I saw these posters this upstairs," Frisk stated. "Printed out and just hanging on the desk."
"A few hours, you say?" Flowey said. "When did they have time for that?"
"As soon as they got wind of you, it seemed," Undyne responded. "And now, every site I can think of is bombarded with ads of your drawn-out faces. It means, seemingly, everyone who uses the internet knows about you as well. Or, I don't know, 95 per cent of the population."
"Fuck me," Frisk muttered.
"So yeah. The only one of us that'll be in danger with a team-up would be me," Undyne said. "So, with that in mind, what do you say?"
Flowey put a vine on his chin and pouted. Then, after a moment, he shrugged.
"Eh, you know me," he said. "Generally sceptical of everything and everyone. But meh. I've trusted worse people, and at this point, I think we really need any ally we can get. Yeah, yeah. I changed my mind. I see now that four heads are better than three, or whatever."
There came a loud singular clap of hands, suddenly drowning out all noise.
"Alright!" Undyne exclaimed, standing up and rubbing her hands together. "Kids? I think it's been long overdue for us to quit this joint."
"That's what I've been saying!" Flowey replied, mildly insulted. "More or less. Like, 5 minutes ago. More or less."
"Finally," Frisk said. "Jesus, this has been-"
She stumbled forward after a single step and quickly leaned herself to the wall.
"Woah, are you ok?" Undyne asked calmly.
Frisk stubbornly wanted to say yes. But the honesty got the better of her now.
"Not really," she said. "I-I'm not usually like this, I'm sorry. Erm, not sorry-"
"You're trying to be tough for me?" Undyne said, smiling in amusement. "Heh. Either way, I've seen this before. A soft paralysing agent, it'll fade in a few."
"Great!" Frisk said. "Then just give me a few."
"Don't think we have time for that," Flowey said.
"We have time," Undyne said. "But yeah, I think it's best if we go now, get a head start. Come on! Let me carry you."
Undyne reached her hands forward in open palms, fingers beckoning.
"No, no," Frisk stated. "I still need to find my stuff."
"Hmm," Undyne said. "Probably upstairs."
Her piranha-esque mouth formed into an open grin, and she flexed her fingers.
"So what do you say, kid? Want me to lift you up?"
"Please," Frisk began. "That won't be necessary-"
Sometime later, Frisk still felt an annoying headache from being grabbed by the head and rushed up crooked steps. Undyne apologised, of course, in her own, strange way.
Or at least she said something Frisk assumed was her attempt at an apology.
She even handed Frisk Finrick's revolver, or what remained of it, and told her to "keep it".
Whatever that meant. It was too broken from the struggle, more than it already was, and it didn't seem to be helpful as a weapon anymore. Except, maybe as a small club. Frisk doubted it even had any more rounds in it.
Later, after a bout of searching the house, Frisk and Flowey found her bag and stuff in one of the many side bedrooms spread on top of a dirty mattress.
As they were, apparently, lazily thrown without care or thought, Frisk ran through them with worry.
She opened her bag and breathed a sigh of relief that the bottle, still filled with water from Waterfall, hadn't broken in the throw.
"Thank God, that would've been a mess," she muttered.
She put the bottle back down alongside her new gift. There was no knowing when she could use a broken revolver.
Better than in Finrick's hands, Frisk figured.
"That's everything?" Flowey inquired.
"No," Frisk stated. "Where's the knife?"
"I don't know," Flowey stated. "Still think it's going to be of use anymore? Now that The Hunt is probably upping up their defences? And we now have a massive shield, in the form of Undyne, of course."
"No clue," Frisk said, looking around the room. "But…- I feel it's special."
"Really?" Flowey said a brow frowned. "Didn't know you were such a sentimental person."
"Yeah, yeah, I know it's just a knife," Frisk said. "But, y'know? Been help to me so far."
"Heh, the True Knife is not just a knife."
Frisk looked at him with a look of transparent confusion.
Then she shrugged and continued looking around the room.
After barely a few seconds, she spotted a knife hilt near the mattress, almost blending in smoothly.
"There," Frisk said and picked it up.
"Sorry, True Knife?" Flowey continued. "Huh. The name just came to me. Felt natural for some reason. I can't recall why, though."
"Yeah, interesting," Frisk said without looking.
Frisk, holding the knife, pulled it slightly from its holster, enough to reveal a piece of the metal blade with the crimson aura.
"Ah-hah," she said.
"Are you even listening to me?" Flowey inquired.
"Every word," Frisk responded without looking at him.
There came a soft yet satisfying shh sound as the knife sheathed back.
"Is there something wrong?"
"Huh?" Frisk asked. "Yeah, yeah. Everything is peachy-keen."
Flowey frowned.
"Come now," he said.
"What?" Frisk asked tiredly.
"It's so obvious a freaking blind person could see it," Flowey added. "You're not usually like this. I've only known you for two or three days, but even I can see you're not being-"
"I said I'm fine!" Frisk said harshly, then lowered her voice. "Sorry. I'm not in the mood to be making a big mess."
"Out of what?"
Frisk sighed.
"Come on, you're always on and on about not hiding your feelings," Flowey pointed out. "So it's kind of hypocritical-"
"Alright, you want me to be honest?" Frisk began. "Fine. I'm upset. You got me."
Flowey chuckled.
"See, that wasn't so hard?" he said. "It's normal to be upset after that Kushmaster mess. I'd be surprised if you weren't."
"It's not just Finrick I'm upset about," Frisk stated. "I mean, I obviously am, but-"
She paused, and Flowey gave her a raised brow.
"Really now?" he inquired. "Then what is it?"
"You know," Frisk simply stated.
"I-I don't," Flowey responded with confusion. "It's not me, is it? I-is it?"
Frisk did not respond, but she looked thoughtful. Very thoughtful.
"It is about me, isn't it?" Flowey realised. "Something I did?"
"Why did you have to do that?" Frisk suddenly asked. "At such a moment?"
"Do what?" Flowey inquired. "Rescue you? Ugh. Come now, you're not telling me-"
"No, no, no, I appreciate that," Frisk stated. "And I needed rescuing. Truly. Thing is. It's just that-"
She paused.
"What?"
"I was scared shitless, ok?!" Frisk replied. "I-I haven't felt this powerless in I don't know. And seeing MK like that just made it worse. Then you came along, and I was so happy. But then the first thing you did was, what? Untie us? No, try to make me "admit you were right", even though we were still tied up."
"T-that's what you're upset about?" Flowey responded. "That you were wrong?"
"Wha-, NO," Frisk responded. "You were 100 per cent right. I was an idiot. I should've listened and been way more careful, and I should not trust every stranger we find. But doing it at that moment and refusing to help until I said what you wanted to hear? It felt like you were putting your own "correctness" ahead of our safety. Like the idea of protecting me, protecting us, was secondary to you. It hurt me. That's why I'm upset, ok?"
"You can Reset, remember?" Flowey stated. "I… I felt it was different with that in mind. I assumed that, because of that, you didn't think of the danger as big of a deal."
Frisk shook her head tiredly.
"I haven't had this power for my entire life until this week," she stated. "Or, at the very least, I've not been aware of it. Shaking away ideas of mortality and, I don't know, deep-seated survival instincts. It's not that easy. At least, not for me. I don't know how you handled this ability. But even then, it wasn't the idea of possible death that frightened me. That would've been a relief due to resets. It was the idea of being unable to do even that. Being taken by The Hunt and knowing whatever happened to MK was my fault, alongside never given a chance to undo-"
She breathed in some air and wiped away tears forming in her eyes.
"I told you I didn't want to make a big mess," Frisk said. "I'm sorry, I-"
"No, I'm sorry," Flowey said.
Frisk gave him a look of surprise.
"Really?" she inquired.
"Yeah," Flowey stated. "I mean it. I didn't know you felt that way. I should've, but I didn't take it into account. If I did, I would've swallowed my pride and saved it for later."
Frisk didn't know what to make of this. Did she really even need an apology?
"Eh, you did save me in the end," she stated. "I feel like that is an apology enough."
She chuckled and wiped away a tear.
"God, look at me," Frisk said. "I'm making a mess out of a molehill because guess what? Despite everything, I'm a typical boring teen too wrapped up in her selfish emotions."
"Geez, don't be like that," Flowey stated, sounding almost insulted on her behalf. "A typical teen, oh please? You're pretty special."
"What, tough?" Frisk said. "There's a lot of girls like me out there. I'm not unique."
"We're all unique," Flowey said. "Somewhat. Back to the point, I just want you to know that, big deal or not, you shouldn't apologise for feeling this way. I was a dick, and I want to admit it."
Frisk thought to herself a bit.
"Yeah, maybe," she said.
She picked up the pink bag and put it on her back.
"We should go find the others," Frisk said.
"Yeah," Flowey said thoughtfully.
With that, Frisk walked out of the room and down the hallway, the flower tailing behind.
"I just realised something," Flowey said while frowning. "If Smiley Trashbag were around, he would've called this a "fishy" situation."
Frisk almost burst out laughing.
"Really?" Flowey stated. "You're laughing at that?"
"No, it's terrible," Frisk stated, smiling. "It's just so sudden. Also, why are you judging? You literally just told me I shouldn't apologise for feeling certain ways, eh?"
"I did," Flowey said. "Honestly, I'm sorta new to this whole "emotion" business. Not familiar with "having feelings", if you get what I mean."
"N-no, I don't?" Frisk said, mildly puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"Yo, guys!" MK called out.
The familiar yellow armless dinosaur came running down the hall opposite them.
"Geez, I was looking for you two!" they said.
"MK!" Frisk replied. "How you're feeling?"
"Erm, better," they said while tailing beside her. "I think I'm still kinda shaking, though."
"That's normal," Flowey stated. "I'd be more surprised if you weren't somewhat shocked still."
"Uh-huh," MK replied. "Yo, Flowey? Can I say something?"
"Sure?"
"That kind of a dick move back there?"
"What?"
"You really just sat there and didn't untie her until she admitted you were right?"
Flowey groaned and looked up at Frisk.
"Frisk, we literally just talked about that. Can you help me here-?"
"Erm, hey, where's that fish-lady?" Frisk asked MK. "Undyne? She didn't leave, did she?"
"No, she's downstairs," MK said.
The amazonian fish warrior stood unmasked in front of the open greenhouse, arms folded. She sighed tiredly.
"Look at all this mess," she said, the human girl now standing beside her nodding.
"You really think Finrick will keep his promise?" Flowey inquired.
Undyne snorted.
"No," she said with confidence. "If anything, I think the bastard will double down. Hire some bodyguards, or even get support from The Royal Hunt. Some of them love the shit he makes, especially Mickey, that weed-smoking bastard. Plus, even if it wasn't such a lucrative business, I don't think The Kusmaster could live without it."
She sighed.
"I don't think I'm done with him yet," Undyne continued. "Especially not with all of this. How much are you all willing to guess this is?"
"No clue," Frisk said. "I don't even know my own general weight."
"Millions of Gs," Flowey guessed. "Maybe."
"Damn," Undyne said. "That's a lot of money."
"Shouldn't we hurry?" Flowey said, a bit agitated. "I've got a feeling Finrick will wake up any second now."
"Heh, unlikely," Undyne said. "That dust I spewed on him? I've seen it before. He'll be sleeping for at least an hour more. At least."
"What are you going to do about him?" MK inquired.
"Good question," Undyne said. "Assuming in the unlikelihood that he holds onto his promise, he will be no more trouble. That's a big freaking if, though. I wish I had a way to make sure of it. Unless…"
Her face formed a large grin. It was an uncomfortably large grin enough to send shivers in your entire system. It hinted at mad considerations and devious thoughts.
"Hey, kids?" she began, sounding oh so deviously. "You want to have some fun?"
"Pardon?"
"Excuse me?"
"Yo, what?"
Undyne stepped into the greenhouse and walked a bit, taking in all the sights. Clueless on what to do, Frisk simply followed her inside. And because of that, the other two joined in the confusion and followed suit.
The leaves of the potted Baron's Breath moved softly from a subtle breeze. The air was thick with the stench of plants. If one were to theorise whether a stink could blind a person partly, this would be a place to support that theory.
"So, we want to be sure he doesn't fall back on it?" Undyne asked while standing over a table holding seemingly the most amount of the drug.
She looked down at Frisk with a smile on her face.
"Human?" Undyne began. "Open your arms."
"L-like this?" Frisk inquired as she did what Undyne explained.
Undyne lifted a hand over the open palms and shook her fingers lightly.
Suddenly, Frisk felt a somewhat heavy weight. She looked to find herself now carrying a large, blue pointy spear.
"Erm, thanks?" Frisk inquired. "What for?"
At that moment, seeing the spear and Undyne cracking her knuckles, Flowey's eyes opened wide. Wide from realisation.
"Wait…" Flowey said, eyeing Undyne. "Don't tell me you're thinking about-"
In a near instant, the table in front of the warrior lady was crushed down into pieces by Undyne's clenched fish. A loud crash came as plants and broken parts of pot ceramics flew everywhere, and Frisk covered her face with one loose arm.
"Jesus!" she cried out.
Then another table, this one behind Undyne, came crashing as well as she slammed it down with her foot.
"Holy sh-crap, woman!" Flowey cried out.
"What are you all waiting for?!" Undyne cried out, invigorated with energy. "You're just going to stand there, kids?!"
Frisk stood for a moment, thinking. Then she shrugged.
And she smashed the nearest pot with her spear, swinging it to the side.
"Ghya!" she cried. "Whew. Holy crap, this is-!"
She smashed another pot, harder this time. Then she struck the entire top of a table, destroying almost everything in one swell swoop.
"Hot fucking damn, this is awesome!" Frisk exclaimed.
Undyne yelled a war cry and flipped two tables at the same time. One hand each.
"Gah, you ladies are barbaric!" Flowey cried out.
"Yo, can I join?" MK pleaded.
"HELLS YEAH, KID!" Undyne cried out. "There's enough for EVERYONE!"
"Oh… awesome!"
"Not you too," Flowey stated.
Before he could protest, MK headbutted a shelf, sending it crashing to the floor. The greenhouse became a loud mess of chaos, mayhem and shattered ceramics and supplies in just a second.
"Come on, Flowey!" Frisk said with energy as she smashed another pot with a downward swing of the spear.
Looking on at the kids and one single adult putting destruction on any poor object in the way, it finally dawned on Flowey that he would not be able to win this fight.
So, he accepted it. Amidst such havoc, there was only one way to go on.
"Eh, what the hell," he said.
And he expanded his vines into lengths he had never expanded before, then almost ripped the greenhouse off the ground as he destroyed, destroyed, and destroyed.
Herbs stomped on, tools wrecked, and tables smashed.
With everything in the greenhouse's interior assaulted in some form, Undyne felt there was one more task. Final sabotage of the day. She told the others it would be a big, fiery middle finger to Finrick and The Royal Hunt.
Whatever remained was gathered outside. Mostly Baron's Breath weed. But there were also powders, tiny pieces of broken tools, and even the office computer, devastated by the raid, thrown into the pile.
Then when the pile reached higher than the greenhouse, it was time.
Undyne had gathered three spare gas masks, each carefully measured in size, and asked them all to put them on.
They obliged, but it was needlessly complicated. MK required assistance from Frisk, and a flower putting on a gasmask proved to be more than a clumsy act.
But when the challenging part was over, and the three breathed in the nasty but preferable odour of the mask, they were ready.
Undyne put on her protective "Ashu-Tshuki" mask and threw an additional can of gasoline for good measure.
She then summed two spears and struck them both, producing a spark.
The spark flew into the air and landed on a nearby trail of gas. The path lit up in an orange flame. It grew and grew as it followed the course set for it.
Then when it touched its first pile of discarded Baron's Breath, the flame blew up into a gorgeous green flame.
Everything that wasn't the moist grass of the marsh incinerated as the green flame danced, and the four onlookers looked on in awe of their work, safe from the nasty fumes spewing out of the burnt-up herbs. The smoke must've reached towards the cavern ceiling, and it dawned on them at that point it all was perhaps signalling the entire underground, something Undyne recklessly desired.
Then it fizzled up. In an instant, the green fire dissipated into the air taking all the burnt material with it. All that was left was a massive pile of ashes floating away piece-by-piece.
As they all looked back, they realised it took them more than half an hour to gather all this material and then build a pyre on top of it. The group had collected every trashed leaf, alongside every tool and splinter they could find, in the greenhouse.
They even tore out the broken computer monitor, then did the same with the motherboard and every electric material, tech, or wire they could find.
To put it short, it was busy work and perhaps way more than necessary. Suffice it to say it was a lot of effort for a relatively short blaze.
But in the end, they all agreed it was worth it.
REMINDER: this fic(and AU) has an open discord server where you can ask ME any questions, lore or otherwise, alongside updates, teasers, sneak peeks for future scenes and events, and more.
/smnqqVTZyB
Author's note is coming soon...