Chapter Text
Flowey strode forward comfortably in Sans’s body. Without Sans constantly fighting him, it had to have been easier. Sans had been fighting him for hours. Sans was… exhausted. He’d never have expected something so internal to be so tiring; fighting Flowey long enough to warn his brother had been almost impossible. It felt like it had taken everything he had. Sans had been too tired to struggle, forced to watch as Flowey had used his body to jump to Snowdin and threaten Grillby. He’d known his old friend could take care of himself, but it was horrifying to watch, all the same.
“Hmmmm,” Flowey said aloud, his voice echoing in Sans’s own head. “It feels like you’re still fighting me, Sans. I think we’re gonna have to put a stop to that behavior right now.” Flowey chuckled. “I wonder who else you care about I might be able to get to.” Flowey laughed again, low and self-satisfied. Sans was beginning to hate the sound of his own laugh. “Someone a little more defenseless than that old hothead.” There was a pause in which all Sans could hear was his own controlled footsteps. “I know! Let’s go visit the good Doctor Alphys. I think she’s about as harmless as they come, hmmm? Defenseless. Weak. She’s the perfect prey.”
“no no no no no no-”
“No?” Sans hadn’t even realized he’d spoken aloud. “Well that settles it, then. Next stop, Hotland. I’ve got-” Flowey snickered. “Oh, Sans, you’ll appreciate this one. I’ve got a bone to pick with her.”
Sans felt sick.
“Now, Sans, be a good toy… and… jump…” But instead of forcing him to jump, Flowey seethed. Sans felt magic surge around him- his own and that of Flowey- and he tried to figure out what had set the flower off. Directly ahead of them, gently patting a moldsmal before it wiggled away, was Frisk. It felt at once like Flowey tightened his grip on Sans, vines tensing around his bones nearly to the breaking point. “Oh, this is even better.”
“frisk is just a kid you can’t-”
The vines tightened further. Sans did feel something snap, but Flowey wouldn’t even let him cry out. “Shut up. Frisk is a powerful soul and a being of determination.” Flowey chuckled, slipping into Sans’s voice easily. “it’s going to be so fun watching them die.”
Frisk looked up as Sans approached them. They offered a wide, welcoming smile that Sans would otherwise have enjoyed very much. As it was, he just hoped he could muster the strength to step in when Frisk needed him most. “hey, kiddo, how’s it going?” Frisk stood, bouncing a little in place. “that good, huh?” Frisk nodded and reached out to grab Sans’s hand. He felt the vines shrink back from his wrist a little- not enough for him to do anything, but enough that Frisk wouldn’t accidentally brush against them. “what, a date with papyrus wasn’t enough? you need both of us?”
Frisk squeezed his hand once and winked. They started walking, tugging Sans along behind them toward a secluded section of Waterfall.
At this rate they would do Flowey’s work for him. Sans tried to gather the energy to pull back, but all he could manage was a tight squeeze back at Frisk. The kid nodded once as they walked, though to themselves or to Sans he had no idea.
“hey, kiddo, where exactly are we going?” Frisk didn’t answer, still leading Sans and his pilot deeper into the uninhabited areas of Waterfall. Flowey pulled his hand away from Frisk and stopped walking. “listen, kiddo-” There was a sudden sickening shift in reality. When Frisk turned around, their face was aglow with the light spilling from their SOUL. “hey, buddy, you’re not gonna fight your old friend sans, are you?”
“Give him back.” Flowey seemed as startled by Frisk’s sudden words as Sans himself was. Frisk spoke so rarely, it was easy to forget that they had a voice at all. It was soft from disuse, and high like a child’s voice usually was, but Frisk spoke with the authority of a monarch. “You have my friend. Give him back, Flowey.”
The kid knew about- Flowey dropped all pretense, unfurling himself from where he hid in Sans’s bones. “Ohhh, so you figured me out, did you? That’s just peachy.”
“I didn’t go on a date with Papyrus in this timeline,” Frisk said quietly.
Sans’s body jerked back in surprise. Flowey curled around his skull a little; Sans could feel his grin getting wider against his own wishes. “And just what have you been doing resetting without telling me, you naughty child?”
Frisk didn’t answer the flower, but instead pulled out a knife that Sans didn’t even know they’d had. It looked wrong, gripped in Frisk’s tiny fingers. Frisk, who stopped to pet the moldsmals as they walked. Frisk, who’d made friends with every resident in Snowdin town. Frisk, who’d stepped around bones flung their way and offered a hand of peace. The knife in their hands looked wrong- so very wrong-
“f-frisk…”
“Quiet, you!” Flowey snapped another one of his bones, and this time he let Sans’s scream out. Frisk watched the whole scene with eyes far more hardened that Sans would have expected. “He’s awfully stubborn, this one.” Overlapping with Sans’s sobs, Flowey spoke as if nothing was wrong. “We both know you’re not Chara. You don’t have the guts to use that knife.”
The blade glittered in the light when Frisk shifted. Sans focused on that and not the nausea caused by the broken bones. Flowey didn’t seem to feel a thing. “You have my friend. I’m determined to get him back.”