#chesans

You force yourself to keep walking, despite your fears.  But then, as Chesans’ tail is disappearing around the bend, you call out to him.  He turns back to look at you, and his little skeleton face is filled with conflict and sadness, despite his eternal grin.  “What is it, kid?”

You feel bad and you're tempted to ask him why he seems so depressed, but the longing to go home overpowers it.  You instead ask him if he could help you convince Asgore to not send the royal guard to kill you and let you go through the barrier.  If Chesans had eyebrows, he would've raised one right then.  “I mean, I'll do what I can, but I'm not gonna work myself down to the bone for you.”  You glare at him and his smile seems to brighten.  “Alright, alright.”

You both walk into the flower garden together, which is bustling with card soldiers.  As you pass the giant cards behind glass, you can't help but glance at the empty display case with your name engraved in it.  Before you can ask the cat how your name got there, Queen Asgore enters the room.

Chesans winks at you and walks up to the goat hybrid, meowing.  Asgore picks him up adoringly and asks him what's the matter.  The skeleton cat leans in to whisper into his ear, but stops when a skeleton rabbit hops through the same door Asgore had come from.  You catch your breath as you realize this is the very rabbit who led you into this mad world in the first place.

“Your majesty, I, the great Pappybit, have written out today's entire schedule for you, down to the minute.  I also- oh!  It's the human from the surface!”  Your heart leaps when you realize everyone in the room turns to look at you.

“Oh, howdy.”  The queen’s deep voice resonates through the room.  You wave and tell her you would like to cross the barrier to go home.  Suddenly, you think to yourself, who are you kidding.  You don't have a good sense of reality.  You're trying to negotiate with a fluffy goat for crying out loud.

But, the goat gives you one look and says.  “Fine.  If you've come all this way, I suppose you deserve a fair fight.  Come with me.”

You notice all of the card people and Pappybit leave the garden as you and Asgore progress into the next room.  The maze of mirrors awaits you, and Chesans can't help but chuckle slightly at your terrified face.  He jumps down and brushes by your leg.  It's obvious he thinks you're merely afraid of fighting the queen when he says, “Don’t worry, you haven't died yet.  You'll probably crawl out of this alive.” And just like that, he's gone.  You can't help but smile a little at this nonreassuring response, even though you can feel fear coursing through you due to being so close to the looking glass.

Asgore travels calmly through the maze, as if he's walked this path thousands of times before.  You follow him through another doorway to find a dark room.  There's but one Ray of sunshine shining down on a patch of grass, but otherwise everything is made of stone.  At the other end, there's a shimmering wall, and you know that’s the barrier.  You're filled with determination.

You can't help but feel grateful for the normalcy of this small room.  You can feel your sanity settling down, until you look back at Asgore.  The suit of hearts from the garden room are rising in a circle out of the ground around both of you.  They spin around you two slowly, making you feel slightly nervous.

“It was nice to meet you.  Goodbye.”  Asgore summons a red trident, with a heart attached to the end that isn't pronged.  His dress, as unflattering as it is, fails to make him not look intimidating.  The cards spin faster around you as you dodge his swipes and fireballs.  You try to not attack as best you can, but you realize after a few minutes that he's not going to give in.  Cringing, you take out your knife.  You slice at him between his attacks, and slowly he grows weaker.  It all comes to a stop as he falls on his knees.  The cards vanish as the Queen of Hearts looks up at you sadly.

“You know, I wish it could've been better.  We could've had a family, and been happy!  His glassy eyes searched yours earnestly.  “I never wanted to hurt anyone.  I just wanted to provide hope for these people, but, I failed.  I… I just want to see my wife.  I want to see my son.”  Tears soak into the fur on Asgore’s cheeks as he cringes.  “But… I can't.  I'm sorry.  Just kill me.  It'll serve me justice.”

You drop the knife, and the clink against the stone floor echos throughout the small room.  The goat Queen looks up at you with surprise and hope in his wide eyes.  “Maybe… Maybe we can have a family.  We can make this.  Oh, you’ll love the castle.  I find new secrets in it every day.”  Asgore smiles, and you feel your heart warm.  You hope you can leave this warped world happy with what you’ve done.

A circle of white seeds forms around Queen Asgore, and his face shifts from content to horror.  They all close in around him, and the monster disintegrates into gray dust.  Tears leap into your eyes as a glowing white heart hovers in front of you.  You reach out to touch it when another white seed folks onto it, and the soul shatters.

A little smiling yellow flower pops up in the grass patch between you and the door.  You grit your teeth out of frustration and anger at this wretched plant.  He has been haunting you since the start of this obscure adventure, and now he's the only thing standing between you and freedom.  You can see the Barrier of Stability shimmering and glowing behind him as his creepy grin forms into a cackle.

“You really thought you could get away from me?  I will never let you escape, you foul creature!  I want to watch you die at my will forever.  Luckily, while you were distracting the old man, I got ahold of all twelve human souls.  Would you like to see?”

He doesn't let you reply.  The dim light from the barrier is blocked as the flower grows bigger and bigger, but you can't see him until his eyes light up.  You put your hand over your mouth as you’re terror-stricken by the monstrosity in front of you.

This… this thing is a gigantic mesh of plant, human, and human machines.  And, surprisingly, bits of fur line the limbs of chlorophyll- colored vines that sprout from a metal chest.  The flower’s petals are made of strips of fabric, and the flower’s face is contained in a tv.  Its eyes are bloodshot and his smile is a mixture of fangs and human teeth.  Its body groaned with every movement.  Eyeballs and random teeth were scattered about the flower.  It had vague hints of Asrielocky, but mostly the thing was just machine parts and human flesh.

But, it's voice.  It was Flowey’s static voice, but ten times worse and twenty times louder.  “Howdy!  I'm Omega Flowokey.  Say hello to your eternal hell.”  Flowey's cackle echos inside the cramped space.  Its green limbs snake around you so you have no choice but to fight.  You pick your knife up off the ground and grip it tightly.  Wait, can't you go back?  You shut your eyes and try to go back in time, but you feel a cage around your mind.  It’s unbreakable.

“Haha, your old save file?  I have that power now.  That means I get to watch you die a million times!”  Flowey shoots laser beams from one of its mouths and it pierces through you.  As you feel yourself fade your mind gets yanked back to seconds before.  Vines shoot through your chest, and you're dragged again, back a few seconds in time.  Your soul grows strained as Flowey kills you again and again, and you can do nothing to stop it.

“You know what?” Omega Flowocky muses, after at least twenty cycles.  “I think I'll let you call for your friends.  It’d be amusing.  Go ahead.  Cry into the darkness!”

You look skeptically at the despicable nightmare, and then turn and scream at the entrance to this cave.  You call out for help.  Toriel, Chesans, Alphare, Hatterton, Burgerpillar, that random royal guard from the last run-

“But nobody came.  It hurts, doesn't it?  Being alone.  That's why I can't let you leave.”  You stare at Omega Flowockey, and you feel yourself tear up, but you don't cry.  Determination is overpowering you.  You can do this.  You lunge at the cyborg and slice your knife at its human eyes.  It screeches and steps back.  “You can't defeat me.  Twelve human souls against one?  Watch this.”

An orange soul emerges from the unreal being and hovers in front of you.  Objects come flying at you from all sides, but you dodge them and shout at the soul that you're human too, and if you work together then Flowey can be defeated.  The soul seems to break free of Flowey's for a split second and it heals you.  You feel your muscles rejuvenated, and you're filled with hope.

You dodge Flowey for a while, and then the thing unleashes the next soul.  You go through all twelve with a similar cycle as the first.  They all seem willing to help you. Pink, yellow, green, blue, purple, gray, cyan, amber, indigo, turquoise, magenta, every one of them.  But, Flowey always seems to drag them back under his control.  Suddenly, healing items are rising from the Flowockey as you fight the beast.  You can destroy him!  You keep pushing, matching every blow and dodging as many attacks as you can.

The hellish being eventually crumples over.  “You fool.  I can still reload…”  His bloodshot eyes widen and he bites his lip as the seconds tick by.  “Why isn't this working?” he squeaks.  All twelve souls erupt from him  and begin to pummel him with attacks.  “What're you doing!?! I'm supposed to control you!”  His screams are overpowered by the gradual destruction carried out by the persistent souls.  You feel a companionship towards these lost humans, and a small bit of sadness comes over you as you realize these were people who probably lost their minds in this warped land.

Flowey disappears, and nothing stands between you and the Barrier of Stability.  But…one thing’s still in your way.  Your sanity.  

Honestly, you don't care by this point.  You've been through so much I'm one day, you're just done.  You still somehow remember your home, and that better be good enough because you are just done.

But, all these kind, beautiful, thoughtful monsters.  These insane monster that care about you.  Your heart aches to leave them, but you force yourself to step forward, reminding yourself of the village and your friends and family.  You pass through the barrier.

Your soul is being tugged in a million directions.  All you can see is white, and your skin is tingling with a fiery sensation.  You black out from overstimulation, and when you wake up, you're in the meadow.  The meadow on the surface, the place you stood where you first saw Pappybit.  Was it all a dream?

“No.”  You turn your head sharply at that voice.  A tired, beaten flower stands a few feet away.  “It is not a dream.  All of it was real.  That's why you could pass through the barrier.  If Underland is real, then isn't that part of reality?”

You stare at Flowey and ask him why the other monsters couldn't go through.  “Well… You know.  Human souls are much stronger.  If a monster’s soul went under that kind of strain, they'd die.  Anyways, that's not what I'm here to tell you.  I'm here to ask you if that was good enough.  All your friends, they're trapped down there forever.”  The sun setting behind him gives a bit of a dramatic effect.  “Don't you want to save them?  You can.  I think I can get you a happier ending.”

You nod, as your heart longs to help all of those monsters.  They deserve better than that messed up place.  “Alright.  See you soon, Alisk.”  Flowey sucks into the ground and far below.  You feel your mind being tapped to go back in time, and you follow it.  Your body falls back into the underground, and the screeches of the Flowey fight echo in your ears as you land outside the chamber.  Asgore waits inside.  Immediately, you turn and run back to the rest of the castle.  You can get a happier ending, one with all of these friends in it.  You feel hope.