Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Clover’s body hurt, it hurt to breathe, it hurt to hear, it hurt to see, it just hurt all over.

It’s been a while since they’ve felt this horrible, but it’ll all be over soon.

This is for the greater good after all, they themselves don’t matter much on their own if the entire underground can be freed later on, this isn’t the time to be selfish.

If there’s one thing Clover would have to regret.. it’d have to have been how non verbal they were to everyone.

Of course they still talked but… they still should’ve talked more often or at least tried.

Either that or their failure to bring justice to the other human children.

That stung Clover personally, failure… they failed once again.

Clover barely felt a small grimace form on their face, they would’ve missed it if they weren’t trying to focus on anything except the spreading pain and the growing emptiness rooted deep in their body.

They failed their sibling, the other children, their biological parents and even Flowey.

Maybe they weren’t that good at all of this justice stuff after all, but they don’t regret doing this and even in a million years time they wouldn’t regret it.

Clover's mind went blank, as they lost all senses they were used to having.

They can only feel their soul.. their soul? Ah they must’ve died and stayed conscious inside of their soul, that’s alright they can wait.

Even in this silent abyss, they have no other choice than to wait, who knows what’ll happen if they let themselves stop thinking.

Will they go insane, or will they die for real? As long as they don’t fall into complete oblivion.. they can deal with it.

Wait the monsters have suffered much more than Clover, so why were they complaining about an empty abyss of all things?

They shove that train of thoughts aside, they’d prefer not to self sabotage their own sanity.

Clover enjoys the silence for a second, it’s been a while since things have been this peaceful.

They think back on the small adventures they’ve had before finally coming to this point to try and keep their brain at least a little active, can they actually call it their brain at this point? Maybe not, but that’d be too complicated to think about at the moment.

——————————————————————

Clover walked through the snow that came up to their knees, they didn’t particularly like visiting Snowdin often because of the cold, but Dalv recently moved in officially so they figured they’d pay him a visit.

They’d begged Starlo to get a basket of corn for him because his parents were busy elsewhere and they didn’t know how to harvest corn without damaging it.

The small basket in Clover’s hand already started to feel cold to the touch, good for preservation?

Clover made their way through the large quantity of snow, has there been a snow storm recently?

They should ask the mail whale for general news more often.

They made their way past the puzzles they had previously completed, thank god that haven’t been reset yet or that’d be a whole other can of worms- and found Dalv’s small cabin, knocking on the door with the weird iron ring.

These kinds of doorbell’s they’d only have seen at old people's houses, was Dalv an old person like the grandma that lived next door to them on the surface?

THUMP THUMP THUMP.

What a loud sound, though that makes it quite effective doesn’t it? If you really think about it, wouldn't it be dangerous if you tried to knock with someone’s hand blocking the path?

Shuffling came from behind the door before it gently opened up, that didn’t take long at all.

“Hello? Can I help you?”

Dalv asked before realising it was Clover who held up the all mighty corn basket with a smile.

“Oh! You’ve come to visit, please come inside, it must be cold out there.”

Dalv let’s Clover in who quickly takes off their boots so they don't drag any unnecessary snow over the floor, just because someone lets you in doesn’t mean you treat it like your own house.

Clover was sat down at a table and Dalv thanked them for the basket.

It seems his food problems aren’t completely resolved yet, maybe they should bring different foods around some time, if they remember correctly Dalv has only eaten corn for a long amount of time.

Not that Clover has such a large palate of food they’ve eaten but at least it’s not just a single type of food.

Dalv walks over to his drawing area and lays down a few different drawings they haven’t seen before.

“As I’ve stated before I’ve been practising with penilla, but I haven’t been able to show you the actual drawings before.”

Dalv looked really proud with a small smile.

“I also have been playing the organ more often if you’d like to hear.”

Clover nodded excitedly, they really liked the drawings, but the words caught in Clovers throat like they usually did.

“…the drawings are.. pretty”

Dalv beamed as he led the way to the organ, Clover liked listening to it, but Dalv seemed nervous so Clover took out their harmonica to play along! It worked swimmingly and they had fun playing the simple tunes that’d come up in their heads.

Dalv later asked them to promise to come to any performances he’d hold in the future.

Clover nodded and promised.

In the end they never could fulfil that promise.

——————————————————————

Clover floated around in the dark abyss, did they actually truly move? They couldn’t exactly tell.

A little entertainment would’ve been nice, or even just some background noise would suffice.

They softly vibrated the song he and Dlav played that day, it filled them with memories.

——————————————————————

Clover sat at the saloon bar drinking root beer, they hadn’t arrived back from the steamworks that long ago but traversing the hot environment had made them thirsty.

After Ed brought them back to the village they had thought about investigating Ceroba’s old house, but… It’s better to wait till they return as they can’t exactly go alone, considering their reaction to what they saw there it might not be entirely safe to go alone.

They hadn’t talked since this morning when they had.. attacked Clover.

Even when Clover returned with the help of Ed, Ed simply sped away out of sight.

Clover could tell they regretted what they had done and thought about confronting them, but knowing themself unless another fight starts and the situation calls for it, they won’t be saying more than a few words. 

Clover almost jumped when someone sat down next to them with a loud creak, Ed?

On his other side Moray sat down, Ace standing shakily behind them like usual and Mooch- actually Clover can’t see Mooch but she’s probably.. doing something that is less than legal.

Clover didn’t feel threatened at all, they seemed almost melancholy-ish when looked at.

They kind of already knew what this was about with the faces they were making.

Awkward silence fell over the group as Clover took a sip from their drink.

It tasted sparkly- was that the right word? Clover doesn’t know if humans and monsters describe some feelings differently.

Moray sighed, being the first to talk.

“Look Clover— we’d like to apologise for our actions this morning.”

Ace continued.

“I’m not usually the person that apologises often, but i admit we were completely in the wrong for attacking you.”

Ed inhaled sharply.

“North Star got caught up in the sheriff fantasy and you got dragged into this mess because of it, we- I should’ve been more considerate for what you might’ve been feeling, or I at least could’ve asked when picking you up so rudely.”

Mooch appeared next to Clover, slowly pushing a golden coin that looked like it came straight out of an old game with a certain red plumber as the main character.

Clover stopped Mooch by placing their hand on the coin and slowly pushing it back, they tipped their hat downwards.

Clover could feel the tension in the air, along with the uncertainty.

They swallowed to attempt to open their throat up a bit, just so they could talk a bit easier.

Alright then, how does one comfort an adult?

Clover really only knows how to comfort kids not full-grown adults, do they just need words of reassurance or physical contact?

That usually works with kids, but these ARE adults right?

Well they have the mentality of children so perhaps it wouldn’t matter too much.

Clover rested their hand on Mooch’s head since it seemed to be some sort of comforting, they’ve seen Ed do it before.

“.. it’s alright, i.. forgive you.”

Clover had to restrain themselves from cringing, they are going to really work on communication sooner or later.

Clover could see the moment when the four’s expressions turned to relief, relaxation or excitement.

“Really?! Really?!”

Mooch beamed.

“That’s such a relief.”

Moray exhaled carefully as they took a sip out of a bottle of water, something in Clover tells them it doesn’t taste like the water in the steamworks.

Clover saw Ace only give a small nod, did he really think he was better than them?…

He was probably right, who was Clover to argue with a brooding, emo fashionista.

Lastly Ed looked like he was almost crying tears of relief, gentle giant.

The five of them spent the night talking about cowboys and Clover learned a few interesting facts about Starlo, they never would’ve guessed he was a cat person.

After a frustrating day they needed a bit of time to unwind and they ended up falling asleep together at the feisty five HQ, Clover couldn’t help worrying about Starlo, Ceroba and Martlet, but they were strong and…. Somewhat reliable people deserving of a little trust.

How nice it was to enjoy such simple activities, it’s too late to go back now.

——————————————————————

Clover could vividly remember Dina’s fond looks directed at the five, they are pretty sure they also got a few free drinks from her.

If they ever find a way to return, they’ll have to pay Dina back for that.

——————————————————————

Clover sighed as the gates of the town were still locked shut, it was worth a shot after two days of being stuck here.

Why does every mission have to include a day in between? It’s a little dramatic, not that they don’t have a hand in dramatics as well.

When they were on Ava with Martlet they remember purposefully rubbing the places she’d had hit, or walking slower and a bit more limp when they reünited after the boat crash.

Clover didn’t want to be cruel, but if they weren’t allowed to be sassy, they’d find a way.

Today Clover and the feisty five made handmade badges, Clover made one in the shape of a Clover, but they’ve never really been good at sculpting.

They look at the town bell and headed towards the save point.

They sat down tapping it until Flowey popped out.

“Howdy! Isn’t this technically child abduction, keeping you here and all that?”

Clover scoffed and rolled their eyes.

“Don’t give me that, I didn’t see you consenting to be trapped here! Are ya scared someone will come for you in your sleep? I’ll save for you buddy, don't worry.”

Clover shook their head and revealed the probably fake golden badge they’d made earlier.

They exhaled softly to try and lessen the bundle of nerves clogging their vocal cords.

What if he doesn’t like it? Knowing Flowey he’s going to be awfully blunt and my skills aren’t the best, but sucking up my pride and not giving it to him is a fate worse than death.

“It’s.. for you..”

Flowey looked shocked for a split second before going back to the annoying toothy grin he always wore.

“Wow it… absolutely sucks!”

He said in his usual chipper tone.

“Seriously I don’t have hands and even my craftsmen ship is better than whatever that  is supposed to be!”

Clover glares and is about to take the badge back, before being surprised that Flowey snatched it.

“Hey there, just because it’s ugly doesn’t mean I don’t want it, go to bed it’s getting late.”

Clover stands up to return to the feisty five headquarters, they could’ve sworn they heard Flowey thank them underneath his breath.

Maybe they should’ve gotten something nicer to thank him, he’s done so much but… nothing came from it.

——————————————————————

Clover wondered why Flowey never showed himself to other monsters, was it because he was shy? No that didn’t fit his personality, maybe they’ll find out another day.

——————————————————————

Clover had just eaten dinner with the feisty five as they snuck out of bed, they headed to the saloon and tried to give Dina G for some more.

Dina refused because the kid was growing and naturally needed more food to stay functional, that night Clover left the saloon with a small container of tasty western dinner.

Clover wasn’t intending on eating it though, they quietly snuck into the prison talking the door to wake up Martlet.

Martlet woke up beaming and didn’t spare a second to rush to the cell bars, it always surprised Clover at how fast this bird could get when she was excited.

Guess adrenaline can do wonders for a body’s functions no matter what species they belong to.

“Clover! Thank the kind you didn’t get hurt, did they feed you correctly? Do you have a place to sleep?”

Martlet worried, slowly her eyes landed on Clovers new wild revolver.

“Why did they give a kid a real gun! That had to be a safety hazard, gosh everything here is horrible.

No privacy, bad food, bad bed and even though this is a dessert with it being hot moments ago it’s somehow ice cold! Not that I’m not used to it of course but still.”

Clover stayed silent, like they usually did much to their displeasure.

Some intrusive thoughts wanted to break Martlet out right here right now and make a run for it, but that’d be horribly rude and straight up unfair to the group.

Clover sat down, Martlet carefully watching their movements as she saw Clover reach into their bag.

Clover took out a spare blanket, the food they’d retrieved earlier and a spare pillow.

Martlet's expression brightened again, Clover was absolutely terrified of how fast this bird's mood could change.

“You brought that for me? Gee you're a lifesaver Clover! Did you make any progress or-?”

Clover lowered their head. “.. ‘sorry”

Martlet’s expression turned sad, she gently bumped them with her wing.

“Hey it’s alright look at these items you’ve managed to bring here, you’re already doing more than enough.”

Clover couldn’t help smiling, for a moment letting themself lean into Martlet’s touch before quickly pulling back.

Martlet didn’t mind, she only gave a sheepish smile.

“Hey how about this, when we get out of here i’ll show you how it feels like to fly in the air okay? Now how about you go back to bed Clover?

A growing kid needs their sleep to become big and strong.”

Clover stood up nodding, they managed to force another word out of themselves.

“..goodnight”

Clover saw the smile on Martlet’s beak turn warmer as they left, maybe they should bring a souvenir from the next trial.

Clover managed to sneak dinners into Martlet’s cell every night they had to stay there, they even brought her a small little cowboy path they managed to obtain through trial and error.

Martlet really appreciated the effort and assured them everything would work out and they’d go flying when everything was over.

They never ended up flying together, maybe that’s for the better.

——————————————————————

Clover tried to wiggle around in the void to no avail, if this floating was what flying felt like they didn’t like it.

Of course they knew aeroplanes existed, but they never went on one.

They don’t really mind though, they aren’t sure yet if they are afraid of heights or not!

Now thinking about it, what was Martlet to them? They always felt more like an older sibling than a friend to be honest, guess it takes one to know one.

——————————————————————

Clover fiddled with their fingers as they had finished the first task but wasn’t allowed to continue yet, they didn’t exactly feel comfortable just sitting by the feisty five in the bar yet.

They’ve now made the decision to play in the sand like an idiot until they come up with a plan, I know amazing thought process but give them a break.

Their past week has been full of stress and camping outside where any random monster can decide to ambush them, it was not doing wonders for their stress levels.

“Hey pardner’ ya doing okay there’?”

Clover could recognize that HORRIBLE accent from miles away, they jumped up spinning around and hovered their hand threateningly over their new revolver.

Wow, dying to el bailador 38 times was actually worth it, but they don’t exactly know how to feel about the totally real gun in their hollister.

North Star threw his hands up as a sign of peace, a kind toothy smile placed on his face.

“Hey now! No need to get violent. I was just getting a lil’ concerned for ya, ya’ know?”

Clover slowly let their guard down standing up straight, their usual poker face plastered on.

“The dunes can be a bit dangerous so ya’ must be on edge, but let me tell ya here pardner!”

Respectfully, stop calling clover pardner they are pretty sure it’s spelled partner.

Did you perhaps skip a few grades in school? You can’t spell duel right either.

“Everyone here is a genuinely kind person, I can vouch for ‘em all. How about you come in and play a game of good ‘ol cards with us ey?”

Clover had nothing better to do so they nodded, they proceeded to win 4-10 rounds only being beaten by Ace, such a shame.

North Star promised them a prize, they got a nice cream coupon.

What a pleasant surprise, ice cream is always a good sign!

Clover never got to use that coupon though, it’s probably rotting along with their corpse at this point.

——————————————————————

How long have they been here? It feels like it’s been ages, just pure nothingness.

Hope slowly started to drain from Clovers soul, was there really no escape? Was this the end? Were they being too hopeful on being able to make a comeback?

——————————————————————

Ceroba sat in front of a grave, a soft breeze blew red petals off of the nearby tree.

She read the letters on the grave as she has done almost a million times before, it never hurt any less.

‘CLOVER’

‘20XX’

‘BETWEEN THE AGE OF TEN AND THIRTEEN’

‘A lucky clover to everyone around them, except for themselves.’

Ceroba lowered her head, slowly she’d moved on.

Yet the sweet memories with the kid will never go away no matter how much she’d try, it was like having Kanako back, but it wasn’t at the same time.

Different yet similar, both too stubborn for their own good and… Ceroba didn’t have the heart to stop either of them from destroying themselves.

“Clover…. Sacrifice was a far too cruel a fate for you.”

She knew how tough they always acted, yet she could see the liveliness in their eyes.

She should’ve tried to talk to them more, no one even bothered to ask them their age or birthday.

Even their last name had been a mystery, but they managed to leave such a huge impact on their friends.

Martlet joined Ceroba, leaving a golden coloured flower by the grave.

“Here as well for the four year anniversary?”

Ceroba nodded softly, slightly lowering her own head.

“I sometimes still wonder how things turned out if they were still around, how things would’ve turned out y’know?”

Martlet nodded, Ceroba doesn’t know what she’s been up to, she’s actually barely seen Martlet for the last few years.

Except for the frequent letters of course, despite the distance between the two they decided on becoming pen pals.

Then came Starlo and the posse, all out of their usual cowboy get up.

Then Dalv and Penilla decided to pay a visit, el bailador, Dina, a few micro froggits and Ceroba could’ve sworn she saw a golden flower appear for a split second.

At the end of the day Ceroba left behind a lucky clover and a prayer.

“Please… if there really is a god up there let me ask again, let Clover come back to us.. Knowing that kid, they might just find a way.”

She left the grave, the fake light used to illuminate the underground gently covering the grave with a yellow light.

Truly, what justice is there if a kid has to sacrifice their life because there’s no other way…

Ceroba’s prayers wouldn’t be left unheard, as another human makes their way through the underground.

A certain flower got increasingly agitated, is hurting someone really that hard? Just like-! Nevermind..

Chapter Text

Ceroba stood behind a small corn stall in new home, it was never busy, but not deserted either.

A nice inbetween, the regulars are all nice people as well.

After Clover’s… department Ceroba has decided- after a lot of crying in solitude- to help Starlo’s family at the farm, it's a good way to keep her mind off of the people who aren’t here anymore.

She sighed as she poked at some roasted corn, she has to make sure they aren’t burning after all.

——————————————————————

That night Ceroba had helped Dina make dinner, it’s not like she doesn’t trust Dina, but there’s a kid now and they need a healthy meal.

The group of seven sat in a line eating dinner at the saloon; potatoes, beef, corn, beans and tomatoes all laid upon their plates.

The lack of ingredients here was an annoying hurdle tonight, sadly the shipping of ingredients has come late this week.

The posse was talking about a few random topics, mostly human things, since a new one has just arrived in their humble town they’ve all been excited.

“So above the surface, I’ve been wondering. Do they have different types of food up there?”

“…”

“Really?!! So when the barrier breaks we can still eat our normal meals! Phew, what a relief.”

“Mooch! Stop stealing my meat!”

“I don’t see your name on it.”

“I wonder what different kinds of human fashion looks like, do you know Clover?”

“…”

“That’s alright, one human can’t know everything.”

“I wonder if humans will react violently to us, when we leave the underground I mean.”

“No need to worry pardner’, our weapons are a few of the most advanced ones in the underground.”

“They.. have more.. advanced types.”

“What really? That’ll be trouble to fight off, but at least we have our trusty magic.”

“What are all of you worrying about, Clover isn't aggressive so there are obviously more kind humans like them.”

“I guess that can be true, we just can’t know for sure.”

“We should hold a human trivia night, we can ask Clover for the correct answers!”

“Stop pestering Clover, they’re a kid. Let them eat.”

“Oh, sorry Ace.”

“Star.” Ceroba interfered. “Please don’t talk with your mouth full, it isn’t flattering.”

Starlo turned a shade of orange, shutting up and turning away as fast as he could.

Should’ve thought about that before he started talking, not that anyone can really blame his excitement.

“Clover, stop poking your beans and just eat them.”

Clover looked up at her, with an expression of ‘oh’.

Did they really not know what beans were, that’s concerning.

Despite that Clover didn’t eat the beans, stubborn little gremlin.

“Clover, seriously some beans won’t poison you.”

Ceroba sighed, and suddenly Starlo talked very loudly.

“Hey isn’t it funny how most humans look the same, I mean monsters come in many shapes and sizes, but humans consistently look the same.”

The Posse chuckled loudly, agreeing with him.

Ceroba raised an eye at Starlo’s sudden outburst, what was that all about?

When Ceroba had turned back to Clover and their plate, suddenly the beans were replaced by a few tomatoes.

Magically beans have appeared on Moray’s and Ed’s plates, who conveniently avoid eye contact with her.

These little pricks-

——————————————————————

Ceroba sighed fondly at the memory, they really had thought she didn’t notice.

Those idiots always had the best intentions at the end of the day, Clovers bewildered look was quite precious.

They didn’t often show their emotions on their face, nor did they talk a lot.

Yet the little human had found a way to worm themselves into everyone’s hearts.

The bell of the stall rings, ah she hasn’t been paying attention.

She turns to the customer standing in front of the stall, with her best customer service smile she could pull off.

“Hello and good morning, how may I help you today?”

——————————————————————

Clover drifted around in the abyss, they’ve run out of things to think about a long time ago.

they were pretty sure they don’t have to sleep anymore, for some reason they still feel tired.

Have they just been here too long, it’ll probably fly by after a while.

Would the outcome have been better if they let Flowey reset, no this is probably the best outcome for their friends.

Clover would like to cry, but they have no eyes.

Clover has given up on getting out of here, look at them, look at the situation, there’s no hope , there’s no other option , there is nothing .

————————————————————

Clover stood in front of the save point, Ceroba behind them.

Fifteen, Axis really was getting up there in the death count huh?

Clover felt that shouldn’t be something to make some sort of game out of, yet to keep their sanity they still did.

Clover couldn’t get their body to move just yet, they just— Just need some time to take a small break.

No. No, they were so close, giving up now was not an option, Kanako was waiting for her mom, this is not the time to delay!

They need to deliver justice or else they’ll just keep failing everyone, they need to keep going no matter how many times it takes , uselessly standing around isn’t helping anyone or anything, they themselves don’t matter in the greater picture of justice , just keep it together, keep it together, keep it together, keep it together, keepittogetherkeepittogetherkeepittogetherkeepittogethekeepittoge-

Clover felt a padded hand rest on their own shoulder, they looked back at Ceroba.

“Hey, I think you may need to rest a bit. This time i mean it.”

She looked worried, yet Clover shook their head.

They turned around and headed to the control station to turn off the power source, they already knew Ceroba was following.

*You are filled with Justice

——————————————————————

Ceroba sold another piece of corn, she wonders if she should’ve been more insistent.

Not only when Clover was planning on sacrificing themself, back in the steamworks before the fight with Axis they looked really stressed out.

They should’ve made Clover take a break, that day had been particularly eventful for them.

She sighed as she knew the thoughts about Clover would eventually fade away again, probably because the anniversary was yesterday.

There have been human sightings the past week, Ceroba wasn’t that concerned about humans anymore but what a coincidence.

This probably is just another cruel trick fate was playing on her, in the end she’s gotten used to it.

When the human gets captured, then Clover’s wish can finally come true.

——————————————————————

Ceroba followed Clover through the steamworks, they seemed to be navigating quite nicely.

Clover just got them out of a fight with the gardener, which was impressive but they seemed a bit hurt.

Ceroba needed this kid’s soul intact for her plan, but if they die prematurely that’ll be a problem.

Ceroba poked at the back of Clover's head to get their attention, they turned around with not much of a fuss.

“Hey, you look a bit hurt. Let’s take a break okay?”

Clover took something out of their back pocket, is that a small bag of gunpowder?

they slowly untied it, holding the black powder in their hand.

They wouldn’t, they wouldn’t! Clover slowly raises the gunpowder to their face.

They wouldn’t! They would? Clover takes a bite out of the gunpowder slowly consuming it, at the same time they are staring Ceroba right in the eyes, their normal emotion lacking expression plastered all over their face.

she has to admit this kid has a phenomenal poker face, who else does she know can do this with a straight face?

Ceroba stays silent for an extended period of time, that cannot be healthy.

“Clover, we’re going to have to talk about your diet on a later date.”

Something inside her knew that wouldn’t happen, but if it did then they have been warned.

Ceroba could’ve sworn she heard Clover’s muffled giggles as they continued walking, she couldn’t help smiling weakly at their antics.

——————————————————————

Clover emptily stared out into the abyss, silence rang through their entire being.

A syringe stabbed through their soul, as has happened repeatedly over the time they’ve been staying in this abyss.

They like to think their soul winced at whatever the needle was doing, it didn’t particularly feel pleasant.

It wouldn’t hurt to not shove a needle into a soul without shaky hands, does this person just not consider that?

It was kind of freaky at first, but you learn how to get used to it.

Clover felt themselves become increasingly tired, great as if they didn’t want to be able to sleep already.

——————————————————————-

Ceroba fiddled with the corn she was roasting at the stall, she almost had a heart attack when a human kid rang the bell.

A human kid that eerily looked like Clover, they weren’t the same though.

“Good Evening, how may I help you?”

Ceroba felt oddly unnerved by the kids' presence, they just pointed towards what they wanted.

“Alright i’ll get that for you, could you wait here for a moment?”

The kid nodded as Ceroba fetched the corn, wow this kid was even quieter than Clover, guess humans don’t talk as much as the movies portray.

——————————————————————

Clover stood in front of Ceroba, they didn’t want to break her prized mask and shouted out, probably the loudest they’ve ever heard themself be.

“Ceroba! Please, this isn’t the way to go about this! You’re hurting people that don’t deserve this, there has to be a route to avoid this!”

Ceroba didn’t listen, Clover took another hit to the back.

“You don’t know anything Clover, you’re a kid! What I’m doing is for the greater good of monster kind, so please… back down!”

Clover’s heart ached, these poor monsters… Didn’t deserve this, Clover makes up their mind on what to do after this fight.

——————————————————————

Ceroba sighs as her shift comes to an end, its been a long day and she has had her bi-weekly heart attack.

Isn’t it movie night with the feisty five, she should drop by before they start another fight with each other.

The ground beneath Ceroba cracked, she let out a small gasp as vines ensnared her, not giving her any time to react.

——————————————————————

Clover felt the abyss shake, weird do someone drop their soul container again?

…

Or is something finally happening.

Chapter Text

Everything, why is everything fuzzy?

Memories, senses and thoughts have all blurred, what on earth happened?

Crack ..

Hm? What’s that sound, is something breaking?

Crack..

This sounds awfully familiar, how are they familiar with the sound of a certain item breaking?

CRASH!

Clover’s eyes shot open as they fanatically tried to check for their soul, before hitting the ground with a loud bang.

They jolted upwards from the shock, enough to scramble up from whatever floor they hit.

Is this even a floor? It’s just a black surface that is suspiciously liquid-y, how are they standing on this substance?

Clover looked around whatever abyss they were in this time, the sight was a bit more than slightly unsettling.

Thousands of souls littered the area, some hung in the air while some were closer to the bottom.

From the deduction that Clover just fell they probably were hanging around in the air as a soul, far out of reach from any passerby.

At that point in time Clover noticed they had some kind of a body again, their first instinct was to try and find out what it looked like.

They have been dead for quite a while, who knows what might’ve changed.

The answer was; It’s literally just their old body in a slightly transparent form, along with the creepy fact they could see their soul.

If Clover could’ve had a heart attack, they would’ve.

Their soul was a pastel yellow, a far cry from the bright yellow it had been before.

Atleast now they know what that needle was extracting, determination absolutely lovely as if this wasn’t going to be painful enough to get through.

which person in the right mind steals someone’s determination, isn’t that basically someone’s will to live?

Clover looked at their transparent body, alright Clover knew they were a white cracker but they like to believe they weren’t this pale .

…

Thinking about that internal sentence, that wasn’t supposed to sound racist.

Clover looked around, they couldn’t really find anything other than souls.

Silence filled the abyss as souls serenely moved up and down in a calm manner, Clover had no idea where they were.

This calls for one thing; wander around aimlessly until you find something, that’s it.

Clover knows they aren’t a genius, but this was probably the best course of action on what looked like a graveyard.

Clover proceeded through the area carefully, not only because of the weird environment, but also because they had to get used to walking again.

Despite popular belief after not walking for so long, it doesn’t magically become easier, quite the opposite.

Clover could hear a fight in the distance, no matter how much they wanted to approach in the state they were in, that wouldn’t be smart.

Clover assumed their mind was still groggy, because they weren’t paying a lot of attention they walked right into a moving soul.

It was a soul with a crack going halfway down, the soul emitted a blue glow, something about the soul felt familiar.

Clover remembered how it felt for their own soul to crack and break, it hurt everytime without fail, for someone to be permanently in a state of pain like that.

It simply isn’t fair, Clover has floated around doing nothing for long enough, justice must be obtained.

Even if they are in the middle of nowhere, Clover didn’t hesitate to make up their mind to help this soul.

They gently slipped the soul into their outlined satchel, Clover was pretty sure they were some kind of astral projection in this form, for some reason the soul stayed secure inside of the satchel and Clover was willing to take that.

Clover looked around the abyss, it was like the soul container, but soul containers can’t stabilise more than one soul.

Along with that the sensation is more like floating in an abyss, not your mind going numb.

Clover saw another human soul, and another, and- summarising it there are around five other human souls present.

That would mean that someone absorbed them along with Clover’s soul, but why are all of these monster souls here?

If that’s true then the person that absorbed them should have near godlike powers, if they can reach out to them, they can ask them to heal the soul.

Clover strained their ears to find the direction of the battle sounds, that’s probably the fastest shortcut towards the solution.

If the soul is hurting as much as Clover thinks they are, then the quicker will end up being the better.

Clover twirled around and started traversing the abyss, careful of the damaged soul they were carrying.

They continued at a slower pace than usual, they were still getting the hang of it and tripping wasn’t an option at the moment.

The force of the fall might damage the soul further, in Clover’s personal experience that hurts quite bad.

A weird botanical and sweet smell plagues this abyss, dull rainbow colours swirled in the sky.

Does that have something to do with the person that absorbed the souls, they probably wouldn’t have noticed if they weren’t paying closer attention.

This would have been faster if Clover could use that handy dash ability they got in Ceroba’s fight, the problem is they have no idea if it works with more than one person-

In this case the soul- besides that, their soul is definitely weakened due to whatever was happening in the soul container.

Clover would bet good money on guessing that it was that weird needle, even more reason to hate syringes.

Clover looked at the souls floating in the air, they were deep in thought only partially paying attention.

‘They all seem to be just fine, what could’ve happened to this soul. Or was it just in this state even before it was absorbed.’

Clover narrowed their eyes, they felt increasingly bad for this soul, they really didn’t deserve this, someone has to set this right.

——————————————————————

Clover felt increasingly bad for the human children, they really didn’t deserve to be in a dark place like this, someone has to set this right.

Clover walked through the first long hall of the dark ruins, the air quality wasn’t good and there was hardly any light.

Something crackled underneath their feet, a golden flower? Hasn’t it strayed a little far from the rest of its kind?

The long hallway led into a small room, Clover would never admit to anyone how much of a heart attack the flower that popped up gave them.

——————————————————————

Clover headed down what they perceived to be some kind of long hall, the further they proceeded the sweeter the botanical smells became.

Clover carefully took out the soul from their satchel, the faster they god this over with the less pain the soul will be in.

Clover found a small room with a patch of golden flowers in the middle, surrounded by six monster souls floating in circles, a single young goat monster sat in the middle of the circling souls.

Clover took a step forward, sadly the golden flowers were more crunchy than anticipated, the goat monster snapped towards the origin of the sound with a glare in his eyes.

“How did you wake up-?” His eyes widened slightly “Clover, you’re not?”

Clover tried to hide their own shock at the knowledge of their name, was it because this monster absorbed them?

Clover did their best to clear their throat, it would be easier to talk more that way.

“Howdy, seems you.. know my name….. I’d like to ask, can heal thi-”

The goat kid cut them off hurriedly looking back and forth from whatever he was looking at, it was some kind of screen, Clover couldn’t really identify what was displayed on it.

“Sorry, I don’t have time for this.”

The tone was cold and commanding, Clover got shoved out of the room by some vine and a piece of the ceiling falling down and closing it off.

Clover lost their balance and fell backwards, the soul crackling slightly underneath the impact.

Clover might have noticed the familiarity in the goats ability and his relation to flowers, if they weren’t busy apologising over and over to the damaged soul, even if they couldn’t hear them.

——————————————————————

Asriel left Frisks' little family reunion, after breaking the barrier it won’t take long to turn back into a flower.

While he would’ve loved to join the reunion, he feels like he hasn’t deserved it after his previous behaviour.

It wasn’t fair… Fair? Asriel’s thoughts jump to Clover and their request, it’s truly a wonder how that kid’s consciousness hasn’t died yet.

Maybe, he can bring justice to the soul of justice themselves and help with their little request before he turns back into a flower.

It’s the least he can do after being so rude, besides who wouldn’t want to help a friend in need?… Come to think of it their soul was awfully pale, does this have to do with the determination experiments?

Those should’ve been shut down years ago, perhaps he should leave an anonymous tip later.

Chapter Text

Ceroba was back at the corn stall, she grabbed for her soul, once again firmly placed inside of her chest.

She breathed unevenly trying to regain her composure, being absorbed by another monster is not fun, getting one’s soul ripped out of their body was probably just as bad.

She grabbed for the counter of the stall to stabilise herself, she’d rather not fall down. 

Ceroba decided it was high time to close up shop for the day, her shift was already over anyways and after what just happened, chances are no one really wants to buy corn anymore.

The televisions around New home flickered on once again, mettaton's booming voice filling the streets.

“GOOD EVENING MONSTERS OF THE UNDERGROUND! IT’S YOUR FAVOURITE ROBOT AND YOUR FAVOURITE TV STAR AT THE SAME TIME!”

Ceroba begs to differ, she much prefers Axis , but that might be because it’s her late husband's creation.

The background was peculiar, trees over some kind of cliff side and a large orange orb in the sky.

“BREAKING NEWS! THE BARRIER HAS BEEN BROKEN WITH THE HELP OF THIS HUMAN CHILD!”

The camera mettaton was probably holding turned to the small kid Ceroba saw earlier, Frisk . That was their name, she learned it while her soul was absorbed.

“ FRISK ?! HOW DOES IT FEEL TO-”

Ceroba stopped listening to that annoying robot's voice, she ignored the cheers and celebration of the monsters around her.

She clenched her fists, her nails starting to dig into her paws.

She watches how Frisk gets praise from their friends- from the captain of the royal guard , from the king , it makes Ceroba’s blood boil.

Ceroba felt an arrangement of emotions mix together; respect, anger, grief, jealousy and resentment.

Why does this stubborn kid get to live, why didn’t Clover get to live as well, it isn’t fair!

Ceroba had to wonder, what justice truly is there?

Clover was one of the kindest and most forgiving kids she has ever met, but why do they have to die while Frisk gets to survive?

Why do they get to have their precious kid while Ceroba isn’t allowed to even keep her biological one, she inhaled, exhaled, inhaled and calmed down a bit.

She was getting caught up in her emotions again, she should be happy the sacrifice they made hasn’t gone to waste, she should be grateful at least one kid survived, she should be ecstatic that the barrier is broken.

Yet for some reason she didn’t feel any of that, just a sense of unfairness and numb anger. 

Ceroba wasn’t in the best mood, now she wasn’t in the best mood, annoyed and dishevelled because of the soul thing, what an amazing day. 

She sighed and moved away to store away the corn, she wasn’t expecting that they were all suddenly going to be allowed into the surface, so wasting food is still not a good idea.

Besides, wasting food is just a bad idea in general, it can always be saved for later occasions.

Ceroba closed up the stall, putting away the corn, her thoughts lingering on the children she’ll never see again.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say she was practically blocking out everything that she wasn’t focusing on at the moment, for some reason the bell still rang.

Didn’t she just flip the sign to closed, must be another Karen.

Ceroba twirls to the origin of the bell, she was met with a random looking monster fiddling with their fingers.

“I’m sorry we’re closing up at the moment.”

Ceroba said with a very customer service inspired voice, the monster gave a small nod.

“I-i saw but, i’ve seen a small kid- a kitsune monster with almost black hair, faded red and gold clothes and brown eyes looking for her mother.

You just looked a bit like her and i wanted to see if i could help the poor kid.”

The monster never looked into Ceroba’s eyes, if she had to be honest she never was looking into their eyes either, she didn’t really care about that at the moment.

Ceroba dropped whatever she was doing and started advancing towards the direction the monster came from.

Most of the underground got absorbed by another monster, but if it could’ve broken the barrier then maybe- Just maybe, whoever did it could’ve fixed Kanako’s soul.

If Ceroba’s hypothesis was true?

She didn’t know, but if there was even a slim chance it was, she didn’t want to stand around and do nothing.

She has hurt her own kid, she regrets that deeply, but if there’s a chance she can hold her child again and redeem herself as a mother.. That’s all she can even hope to ask for at this point, yes Ceroba might be going crazy, yes she’s shaken up by everything happening so quickly, but Kanako is her precious daughter and she’ll do just about anything to get her child or husband back.

She’s been told by the lab a while ago her child was alive, yet she was never permitted to talk or see her.

It was cruel, yet if Kanako is out and about, she is going to personally jump the scientist because of their inconsiderate behaviour and flat out refusal to even communicate with her child.

Adrenaline rushed through Ceroba’s body, her mind focused on one thing, unable to process anything else happening around her.

Suddenly she freezes, all her anger and frustration drained away in a matter of seconds.

Is it really-? It has to be, it cannot be anyone else!

Ceroba quickly changed directions, hope filled her soul. 

She weaved around the crowd, probably bumping a few people in the process.

Ceroba couldn’t find it in herself to care at the moment, Ceroba left new home entering Hotland.

There were barely any people here in comparison to New home, there was no sign of Kanako.

Ceroba bit back her sadness, of course Kanako isn’t here!

She screwed up massively and Kanako couldn’t just suddenly pop right back up, she’d gotten caught up in the fantasy way too quickly.

Ceroba looked around to see that cursed lab in the distance, why here?

Ceroba sighed, it’s time to go home and rest, she’s probably hallucinating from just being absorbed or something.

Ceroba turned around, her legs numbly moving into the direction of the dunes.

She paused, a nagging feeling told her to stay a little longer.

She didn’t really want to, she wasn’t allowed into the lab and it's the place where Kanako is being kept prisoner.

Ceroba started walking again, she’s probably lingered for way too long.

She’s stopped by a light tug on her sleeve, a young and innocent spoke from behind her.

“Is that you- mommy?”

Ceroba’s breath caught in her throat, slowly turning around with slight hesitance.

She found a kid staring at her with big teary eyes, she found her kid staring at her with big teary eyes.

Ceroba’s voice came out as a whisper. “Kanako?”

Kanako beamed jumping into Ceroba’s arms, she looks like she hasn’t aged a day. “Mommy!” Kanako cried into Ceroba’s arms who knelt down, she didn’t want Kanako to lose her grip and fall.

Ceroba couldn’t hold back her own tears either, in situations like this it would be incredibly hard.

“Kanako, it’s really you.” She spoke with a tone of genuine relief.

“Mommy!” Kanako cried. “It hurt! It hurt so much!” 

Ceroba’s blood boiled at that sentence, yet she knew it was mostly her own fault.

“I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry Kanako, I should’ve never done that!”

Kanako kept crying into her mother’s arms “at the lab, a weird syringe poured liquid into my soul! It made everything hurt but I couldn’t wake up!”

Ceroba felt the sudden urge to do something less than legal, that does raise a question though.

“How did you even wake up? What happened?” Her voice was as soft as a whisper, she thought about wiping away her own tears, but she really didn’t want to let Kanako go.

Kanako sniffled. “This nice goat kid came and did something magical, he said it was ‘a request from their friend.’”

While that was very interesting Ceroba found it wasn’t the time to interrogate her kid, Kanako must be tired and out of shape by now.

“Kanako, let’s go home.” Ceroba said with a gentle tone, aiming to comfort Kanako.

Kanako nodded, still clinging onto Ceroba tightly.

Back at the wild east village the feisty five almost had a collective mental breakdown seeing Kanako again, Kanako was happy to see them as well yet clearly tired.

Kanako had refused Ed’s offer to carry Kanako to her estate which seemed to upset him, either way Starlo still accompanied her on her way to her house.

Kanako had already fallen asleep again in her arms when they arrived, she carefully climbed up the stairs and tucked Kanako into bed.

Starlo waited for her in the meeting room, tears still rolling from his eyes, for once he’s not speaking in that horrible cowboy accent he stole from movies.

“I guess this really is the best day we could’ve hoped for huh? The barrier is broken, Kanako is alive and well and… their sacrifice wasn’t for nothing.”

Ceroba nodded, she has gotten quite tired herself.

“I don’t think it’s fair that Frisk kid gets to live, but this is what Clover would’ve wanted in the end.”

Starlo’s expression became more melancholic.

“I agree with you, but the whole reason they decided to sacrifice themself was because they didn’t want anyone to suffer, they would be proud if they could see us…

Isn’t it funny? It’s four years later and that kid still gets us all upset about ‘em .”

Starlo chuckled darkly.

Ceroba looked at him with a weak smile and sighed.

“I guess the people who come and go leave the biggest impacts on us, don’t they?”

Starlo and Ceroba stayed silent for a moment, it didn’t take long for Starlo to return home for the night.

Something gave Ceroba the feeling things were going to start changing at a rapid pace soon, but right now? She didn’t quite seem to mind the future, she was content with the present.

If only Chujin could’ve been here…

Chapter Text

So this is what death is like, it felt familiar.
This wasn’t so bad, it was warm and fuzzy, in the end they couldn’t help that soul.
Hehe.. hehehehehehe they should really get an award ‘biggest failure’, even if they tried they couldn’t help a single soul with their own two hands.
Clover felt regret, yet a satisfied feeling spread across their soul, at least they could help them break free with the sacrifice.
Clover had to admit; they were scared, who wouldn’t be in this situation of death?

Clover gasped for air as a sensation filled their chest, they shot up only to be met with some kind of ceiling banging their head against it.

——————————————————————————

Ceroba stands in the kitchen making chowder.
She hasn’t done it in a long time, but since Kanako is back it’s worth a shot.
Kanako hasn’t been back in a while and what other way to greet her than a familiar home cooked meal, Ceroba has done this so many times it’s practically impossible- even after multiple years- to mess the recipe up.
A familiar and welcome smell emerged from the pot, bringing back good and bad memories.
Ceroba couldn’t help but have a soft smile on her snout, she has her daughter back, she finally has her daughter back.
It was almost hard to believe, for once fate hadn’t screwed her over.

Soft footsteps entered the kitchen, Kanako’s weight leaned onto Ceroba’s side.
“Good morning.” Ceroba greeted her with a calm voice.
“‘Morning.” Kanako seemed to still be a bit tired, that’s okay.
“Are you hungry? I’m making something i’m sure you remember.”

Ceroba’s soul almost melted when she saw Kanako’s beaming face, she has been daughter deprived for years and now it’s hard to take the cuteness head on.
Kanako bounced a little on her feet despite how tired she looked. “Really? I haven’t eaten since I arrived at the lab!” Did Ceroba need to hire a hitman, it was starting to become increasingly tempting.
“Really now?” Ceroba said in a less than pleasant tone of voice “How about we continue talking while we are eating breakfast?”
Kanako nodded excitedly, Ceroba was very happy to have her back.

——————————————————————————

Clover felt a numb aching on their forehead, what just happened?
They tried to get up, but softly bopped their head against some kind of lid.
Luckily they weren’t rushing it or else that would’ve hurt a bunch, Clover pushed the lid off of whatever they had been resting in.
Their body currently didn’t possess a lot of strength, luckily it was enough to move around and push objects.
The light burned Clover’s eyes, well that’s quite a dramatic statement.
Despite that it did feel kind of true, Clover hasn’t seen actual light in a long time.
They must’ve sat there for at least five minutes re-adjusting to their own senses, their own body.

When their eyes finally decided to work they could see where they were, it didn’t look so uplifting.
Clover was sitting in a coffin among six others, each hat a wreath of flowers with two items on top of them.
Inside of Clovers Coffin were a few mummy-like bandages that seemed to have been cut open, for the rest? Just a plain old grey room with way too much light.
Clover looked at the wreath that was nestled on top of their own coffin, woven out of a mix of yellow flowers; black eyed Susan’s, Calla lily’s, dahlia’s, marigolds, sunflowers and tulips.
They faintly remember their younger sibling rambling about flowers after talking to a particularly knowledgeable friend, they cannot remember its meaning though.
That doesn’t matter, whoever decided to make the wreath’s did an amazing job.
It was very pretty in Clover’s opinion and the other coffins had similar ones, they looked at the items by the wreath of yellow flowers.
Clover’s face lit up in contrast to their usual poker face, nestled by the flowers was their old cowboy hat and wild revolver.

Whoever found this is officially a saint to bring it back to them, they couldn’t begin to live without their hat.
Clover struggled to get out of the coffin and take their items, this was going to be a long trip.

——————————————————————————

Ceroba stood by the saloon doors, she watched the feisty five play with Kanako.
It’s truly been a long time since they’ve been able to have play dates, back in the day they used to do it all of the time.
Dina came out of the bar, she had a few drinks (non alcoholic of course) with her and a fond smile on her face.
The snakes around her neck basked in the sunlight, it looked very dramatic.
They ended up having a small conversation about how nice it is to see everyone in such high spirits, in the end it’s expected in these situations isn’t it?

——————————————————————————

Clover proceeded through some kind of golden hall, they were pretty out of breath from the flight of stairs.
Seriously, who digs so incredibly deep for a coffin room, at that point just bury the coffin.
Clover felt hunger burn in their throat, though all of the monster food they had was consumed during Ceroba’s fight.
Clover stumbled into New home, it has changed a lot with television playing commercials and flashing lights.
Their mind was loopy and tired, the flashing lights made their vision go fuzzy.
Thinking was a bit hard at the moment, but they had a shell of a plan.
The question is if they could locate the mail whale’s bell.
Clover weaved through the crowd, they were pretty sure they were receiving concerned looks and bumped into at least three people.
The one time in years they needed their mind not to give up on them, it was giving up on them.

Clover soon arrived to a sign they only assumed to be the mail sign, mostly because of the struggle to use their eyes at the moment.
The pink flying creature with a basket descended from the air, Clover didn’t even give them time to greet them.
“..Snowdin, I’d like.. to go to Snowdin.”
“A-are you sure?- You don’t look so well and there’s currently a-“
“Please… Snowdin.”
“Right away, please enter the basket.”
There was a serious, concerned and forced polite sound in the whale’s voice, Clover paid no mind as they entered the basket.

——————————————————————————

Martlet huffed in discontent, when she finally had the motivation to go grocery shopping there’s a blizzard in Snowdin!
What horrid timing, the weather really sucked.
Can’t it be more predictable? That’d be very- Martlet’s heart almost stopped, she saw something- someone oddly familiar lying among the snow.

Chapter Text

Clover knew they had made a mistake, they probably should’ve listened to the mail whale.
Well not that they were really able to, but still it might’ve been nice.

A cold sensation plagued Clover’s entire body, they barely had any sense of touch in their hands or lower legs, along with the feeling of numb needles stabbing into them.
They felt a weak feeling in their body worsen, sadly they were already familiar with it because of the needle.
Clover was pretty sure they had gotten sick, this wouldn’t be as bad if they weren’t suffering from a headache.
Well guess they die from frostbite, that’s— hard to find an accurate reaction for after already having died once.
…
…
Wait a minute, this doesn’t feel like snow.
They recall face planting into snow, but they are laying back first on a soft object.
Clover struggled to open their own eyes, despite that they managed to peel their eyes open.
Much to their own delight, they were in some kind of room and not some dingy cold basement.
It looked like a guest room due to the sheer lack of decoration, they were laid down on a bed among an almost literal nest of blankets.
Clover attempted to move around underneath the blankets, their attempt failed.
Despite their definite concern about being sick or gaining frostbite, the next major concern on their list was; where the hell are they.
As fun as it is to get your life saved by someone, that’s potential kidnapping.

Clover attempted to free themselves from the assortment of blankets again, sadly they didn’t have a lot of energy or force in their body at the moment and failed.
Clover felt panic starting to rise in their chest, until the door opened with a soft creak.
Clover forced their body to face the door, only their head moved and it was painfully slow.
Despite their initial panic, it didn’t remain for longer than a few seconds.
Martlet stood at the door, somewhat shocked at the fact Clover was actually alive.
“Is it.. really you?” Her tone of voice was a soft whisper, woven with doubt and sadness.
Was this actually real or was clover hallucinating again, they really are going insane aren’t they?
Another one of these stupidly realistic dreams, it isn’t fair.

——————————————————————

Martlet didn’t know what to say, what to feel or what to do.
Clover is back, —or she likes it believe it’s actually clover— after four years the kid just suddenly comes back.
How is she supposed to react to this, how can she know this isn’t some look alike?
Besides that they look absolutely horrible, they probably have a minor version of frostbite and them having gotten sick isn’t off the table either.
Martlet took a careful step into the room, Clover finally said something.
“..You’re not real?” They didn’t sound completely sure, it still managed to shock Martlet.
“What..?” Martlet’s blood ran cold at the accusation, why would they think she isn’t real?

Clover stayed silent, an unreadable expression on their face.
“You’re.. not real right?… Just another hallucination.”
Concern started to rise in Martlet’s chest, what did that mean?
Clover’s expression looked a bit absent, perhaps they weren’t comprehending that this was reality?
“Clover, i- why would you think that?” Martlet settled on asking a question instead of denying, that’d probably help a lot more than outright refusal.
“…” Clover didn’t reply, their usual silence infecting the room.
Clover looked like they were waiting for everything to just disappear, what happened to them in that container? Were they-? No that shouldn’t be possible right?
“Clover, this isn’t a hallucination.” Martlet slowly walked towards Clover, hoping not to startle them as they weren’t paying a lot of attention.
Clover’s eyes narrowed in scepticism, not believing Martlet for a second.
“Why should i trust you? For all i know my mind is just playing tricks on me again.”
Martlet felt a bit hurt, this is the most she ever remembers Clover having spoken and it’s because they think this isn’t real.

Martlet stood beside Clover’s (guest) bed, Clover barely acknowledged.
“Clover.. This isn’t a hallucination- you’re really back.” Marlet slipped her wing underneath the blankets to squeeze Clover’s small hand.
Realization struck Clover as their eyes widened, they started to struggle against the weight of the blanket nest.
As martlet moved the assortment of blankets off of Clover as they practically plunged themselves into her arms, clinging as if their life depended on it.
Martlet didn’t question it feeling tears ongure own form in her eyes, carefully wrapping her arms around Clover.
If Clover would later ask, no she didn’t notice how much they were sobbing.
She would rather pretend she didn’t know than make Clover feel uncomfortable, she likes to think she’s become slightly better at ‘reading the room’ after Clover departed.

——————————————————————

Dalv gently knocked at Martlet’s door, he’s been asked to play the organ at some sort of music event.
He’s steadily been creating a name for himself, a nagging feeling told him Clover- Nevermind.
Dalv patiently awaited for the door to open, he wanted to give Martlet an invitation like he usually did.
He will have to visit the dunes later, he’s caught wind about Ceroba’s kid returning, so maybe he should congratulate Ceroba on that?
It goes without saying that Dalv almost had a heartattack when Martlet opened the door, what was supposed to be a dead Clover tightly clinging to her chest.

Chapter Text

Starlo held a crate of corn, you might be asking: ‘Starlo, why are you holding a crate of corn?’
The answer was simple, Dina ran out of corn and needed some more, but Starlo is being blocked by a very energetic Kanako.
It seems she’s been adjusting nicely, which is a good thing.
The bad thing is that Kanako is using one of those children's puppy eyes tactics, she had asked Ceroba to bring her to Snowdin.
Something along the lines of seeing an old friend and making snowmen, Ceroba had declined saying she was busy today and told her to ask ‘Uncle Starlo’.
Starlo wasn’t fond of the cold and honestly didn’t really want to visit, much to his bad fortune puppy dog eyes were super effective on him.
Besides Dalv had sent him an invite through the mail, that was incredibly out of character for him and kind of concerning to break that habit all of the sudden.

Much to Starlo’s dissapointment, he ended up agreeing to take her BUT only after Dalv’s performance so he can physically brace himself for the cold.
Despite the disappointment in Kanako’s face, there was also evident excitement.
Starlo should probably learn how to decline requests more often…

——————————————————————

Martlet sat close to the front row, like usual Dalv’s performance was enchanting.. Now if he only had a little more self confidence..
Starlo and Ceroba sat to the right of her, they both were in higher spirits than before.
Martlet should ask about Kanako later, she doesn’t get to see the two that often anymore so it’s a good time to catch up!
In all honesty, Matlet felt bad for leaving Clover alone at her home.
She remembers how upset they were, especially when Martlet said she was going to Dalv’s performance.
When Dalv came by the air was uncomfortable at first, but the two of them quickly got along again even drawing a few pictures.
She remembered something about Dalv commenting about having a young fox-like friend that liked to draw, nevermind that for a moment.
Clover really wanted to join Martlet, but they didn’t have a ticket and they weren’t exactly in the best shape.
They also seemed to back down from their insistence to come along after hearing about the public status of the event, it seems they don’t want others to really know they aren’t dead anymore.

Martlet shakes her head, this isn’t quite the time to think about that!
She’s here to listen to Dalv’s music and socialise with her friends, priorities come first and worry about the frail human child hiding in her home later.
Martlet got snapped out of her train of thoughts because of a loud applause, Martlet applauded as well but now felt bad for zoning out.
Hopefully no one noticed, or else she’ll feel like the scum of the earth.
Everyone slowly stood up from their seats and left the room, the trio awaited Dalv outside of the building.
Martlet wondered when they’d be allowed to enter the surface, what does the sun feel like?
Martlet decided it was high time for some conversation, it would probably make things less awkward just… standing around..

“So how have you two been?” Martlet breaks the silence. “You seem in a much better mood than usual.”
Ceroba hummed an affirmative sound. “My daughter has returned from the lab.”
Martlet beams. “Your daughter Kanako? That’s amazing!”
Starlo chuckled. “Yeah the ol’ kid actually wants to visit Snowdin later today.”
Martlet feels excitement rise in her chest. “Oh! I’ll be sure to greet her when i come across you two then!”
Ceroba sighed in relief. “I’m so glad she was able to return safely, i really thought…”
Starlo grimaced. “We all thought that she was no longer… Anyways!” Starlo started a desperate attempt to change the subject. “How have you been doing Martlet? Anything new?”
Martlet chuckled. “Well most of my time is preoccupied with being an Architect- but no nothing new.” Martlet felt like she had the lying skills of an eight year old as her two friends looked at her sceptically.
Ceroba gave her the look™️ she could’ve sworn her own mother had given her when she was a kid.

Martlet thanked her lucky stars when Dalv walked outside, growing bashful from all of the congratulations.
Dalv laughed awkwardly. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this kind of treatment, it doesn’t really feel like i deserve it sometimes.”
Starlo made the friendly gesture of throwing his hand around Dalv’s shoulder. “Nonsense pardner! You have worked hard for this, you deserve all of the praise you get.”
Ceroba nodded in agreement, her hand idly resting on her hip. “You’ve improved a lot since your first performance, discrediting you would be unfair.”
Martlet bounced on her feet. “You know what, how about we get some nice cream!”
Dalv smiled. “That would be nice, thank you.”
——————————————————————

Starlo wore probably some of the warmest clothing he had ever bothered to put on, he kind of felt like he was playing an escort mission.
Starlo already thought the drawing in Kanako’s room was familiar, thinking back it was clearly a drawing of Dalv.
Currently Kanako is enjoying catching up and having a tea party with him, Starlo regrets leaving them as now he has nothing to do.
Despite that Starlo didn’t really want to be left in the cold, an idea popped into his mind.
Martlet also lives in Snowdin, he can pop by there and see how it’s going.
Technically yes he has already asked, but for some reason in that exact moment Martlet’s lying skills were worse than his own.

Starlo headed over to Martlet’s house, it isn’t that big so it’s probably more accurate to describe it as a cottage.
Starlo knocked the door and waited patiently, he could hear a few things hitting the ground.
Is everything okay in there, that doesn’t sound so terrifically safe.
Starlo’s heart dropped.
A small tired yet recognizable figure opened the door..
“Clover?”
Martlet came rushing down the stairs.

Chapter Text

Starlo sat upon a comfortable blue couch, Martlet went to get tea.

Honestly the only reason why Starlo hadn’t stolen Clover and run off yet is because he needed answers.

Martlet came back with hot tea, Martlet sat down beside him.

“I’m sure you have… questions.” Martlet looked at her wings.

“Why didn’t you tell us.” Starlo wasted no second.

“…” 

“Martlet, why didn’t you tell us that Clover..”

Clover sat in between the two, clearly enjoying being in the company of the two, but… far from healthy or good shape.

“Look at Clover.. Do you really think their friends would want to see them like that? Do you think Clover wants their friends to see them like that?”

Starlo tipped his head down, resting a hand on Clover’s head.

Clover saw that as an invitation clinging to Starlo’s side, Starlo couldn’t help smiling.

“No, you’re right. I don’t want to see them like this either.”

“You know, i don’t even know how they came back.”

“What?”

“I just found them in a blizzard some time ago, they haven’t said anything about it since.”

Clover dug their head into Starlo’s side.

“Don’t want to… talk ‘bout it.”

Starlo frowned.

“Still you really should’ve told us, we’re also Clover’s friends.”

Martlet looked away.

“…Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“I understand.. How are ya feeling pardner?”

Starlo turned to Clover.

“..a bit… tired.”

Martlet gave them one of the tea cups, Clover didn’t stop clinging to Starlo but did take the cup.

Starlo looked back up to Martlet, seriousness plaguing his eyes.

“We should take Clover to the others, they deserve to know.”

Martlet shook her head.

“Don’t you think it’s time yet, Clover’s been back for no more than a few days. Clover’s still a kid even after dying and coming back, in my opinion they still need to adjust to being back.”

She spoke with stern seriousness, sighing with presumably melancholy.

“…”

“…”

Neither of the two found it in themselves to speak, the situation had gotten very awkward.

“I think i’ll.. get something to eat, please excuse me.”

Martlet stood up and left the living room.

——————————————————————

Martlet sighed in relief, that’s another awkward situation she got out of.

The tension that built up had gotten too much for Martlet to handle, so she kind of.. escaped.

Yes she knows that wasn’t the most courageous move, but nothing’s wrong with a tactical retreat.

So how should she go about this situation? She could try and ask Clover to explain but that would be rude, they should be resting as well, their physical body isn’t in great condition and she hasn’t even checked their soul yet.

Perhaps she can try to convince Starlo to stay here and help, judging from Clover’s behaviour they would love to have another one of their friends around.

Yeah that’s not a half bad idea, she should go back into that living room and put on her best convincing act!

Martlet exhaled nervously and puffed up her chest, she walked into the living room expecting a Starlo and a Clover sitting neatly on the couch.

There was neither a Starlo or a Clover with the door opened wide, adult boot-like footsteps planted into the snow.

Martlet felt like she had made a mistake leaving the two alone, because now she’s pretty sure Starlo made a run for it with Clover.

Did Starlo know Clover was still unwell or did he just not think it through- NEVERMIND CHASE HIM! CHASE HIM!

In a rush of panick Martlet left her house, slamming the door shut and taking to the air to chase the two.

——————————————————————

Starlo ran through Snowdin, it was probable that Kanako had already finished her play date with Dalv.

That is probably for the better, easier to rush straight to the wild east without hesitation.

Starlo is starting to think taking Clover and running off in a matter of seconds wasn’t a good idea, Clover was shivering and burning up.

Starlo should’ve at least looked for a coat, cowboy clothes are meant for warmer weather. 

Kanako waved at Starlo in the distance, it definitely looks like she had a good time.

Starlo thanks his cowboy training to being able to snag Kanako with one smooth move work the ground, Starlo was nervous he might’ve dropped the kid.

“Uncle Starlo?”

Kanako’s naive voice asked.

“Yea pardner?”

“Who’s this, they don’t look so well.”

Kanako showed concern for Clover, this is not the time for Starlo’s heart to melt.

“A good friend of the wild east, they haven’t visited in a long time so you wouldn’t know them”

Starlo tried to seem confident, it’s better that Kanako doesn’t know that the other kid is supposedly dead.

“Oh! Then they must be a good guy! I’ll be sure to warmly introduce myself when they are better!”

Isn’t Clover a guy? Problems and thoughts for later.

“Yeah, but let’s get home now, Snowdin is a bit too cold for you or Clover.”

Kanako smiled energetically, happy to return home.

“Okay!”

Starlo could only hope the mail whale could carry all three of them, or else things would start to get difficult.

——————————————————————

Martlet saw the mail whale with three familiar figures leave Snowdin, is that really any way to treat a young girl-

Wait, is Clover even a girl? After four years she still doesn’t know.

Nevermind just chase the mail whale, not that hard stop getting distracted!

——————————————————————

Ceroba came home from the Corn stand, well more like just the wild east village to wait on Kanako.

For some dumb reason her friends and family have not dropped the trend of giving her heart attacks, the last thing she could have been expecting today was Starlo returning to the town with Kanako and a supposedly dead Clover.

That isn’t right, no no nononononononono Clover is dead this can’t be right.

Clover is dead, she saw them just before they died, this can’t be— can it?

Chapter Text

Ceroba sat in the living room of her house, Martlet and Starlo sat on the opposite side of the table.

She’d sent Kanako to her room to rest up for the night and Clover was out to rest in the guest room.

Ceroba gave them her best ‘i’m judging you’ stare, before breaking the silence.

“I hope you two know there’s some explaining to do, Starlo since you’re the one who… brought Clover here, how about you start?”

Ceroba avoided the word kidnapped, in all sense it was kidnapping.

Starlo didn’t have his hat on, probably to look more serious (it wasn’t working).

“I was going to visit Martlet today since Kanako and Dalv were having a playdate and when I knocked on the door Clover opened it, Martlet was insisting on keeping them inside for now but i didn’t think that was fair to their friends.

So i picked up Clover and made a run for it when Martlet wasn’t looking and picked up Kanako who luckily finished her playdate.”

Martlet had her wings crossed and was presumably pouting.

Ceroba sighed, shaking her head.

“Martlet, your side of the story please?”

Martlet snapped out of her annoyance, she blinked a few times before understanding the question.

“Well I don’t have a lot of information myself, but I’ll tell you how it went.

It started when i found a familiar hat in Snowdin-”

——————————————————————

Clover felt horrible, it seems no one in their lovely friend group knows how to carry a child safely.

Well who could blame Starlo, he was carrying two children running from Martlet that isn’t so easy.

Luckily Clover was laid down on a particularly comfortable bed, Clover could vividly recall this environment.

They were pretty sure this is Ceroba’s house, they haven’t been here in a while but how the house was styled made it obvious.

Despite the discomfort Clover was feeling, they climb out of the bed.

Clover relied on the walls not to fall over proceeding through the halls, the place is in much better condition than the last time they visited.

It fills Clover with a light hearted feeling, seeing Ceroba’s house so lively fills Clover with relief.

Clover was about to enter the living room before they saw a familiar figure by the stairs, Clover was sure this had to be..

——————————————————————

Ceroba nodded, and sighed discontentedly.

“Starlo, as much as i hate to admit it, you are definitely in the wrong.”

Starlo looked hurt, but understanding.

“I admit i wasn’t thinking straight, but it hurts coming from you.”

Martlet looked almost proud for being in the right, but Ceroba didn’t plan on sparing Martlet’s feelings.

“And Martlet? You also aren’t innocent, you shouldn’t have hidden that Clover was alive even if it was to spare our feelings.”

Martlet expression changed within seconds.

“Sorry.. I thought it was for the better.”

Ceroba couldn’t help sighing, these two idiots really lacked a good chunk of sense, but their hearts were luckily in the right place.

“Just try to think through decisions more thoroughly before doing something, and from the perspective of more than one person.”

Ceroba saw the two nod, they were basically sparkling with determination.

These two including were definitely going to be the death of her, at least Dalv isn’t a trouble magnet.

——————————————————————

Clover sat in Kanako’s room, Kanako sitting on the other side of the plastic table to them.

Clover didn’t know what to say, well they can’t talk that well in regular conversations anyways but this is arguably worse.

Kanako is alive and well, Clover couldn’t be happier for Ceroba but this silence is not appreciated.

Kanako started the conversation, luckily.

“I heard from Uncle Starlo that you are a friend of the wild east!

My name is Kanako Ketsukane, it’s nice to meet you!”

She spoke with a warm and innocent tone, sticking out a paw for Clover to shake.

Kanako reminded Clover of their younger sibling, dropping the poker face for once might not be so bad.

Clover did their best attempt at a polite smile and took Kanako’s hand, they fought against the silence throbbing in their throat.

“My name is Clover.. it’s nice to meet’cha partner”

“Clover? Like a lucky Clover?”

Kanako’s expression sparkled with curiosity, she practically bounced on the plastic chair.

“Some people might say that.”

Clover really didn’t know how to react to that, but they didn’t have the heart to hurt her fantasy.

“Ah! That’s so cool, i’ve never seen a lucky Clover before! Let alone meet one! You know it really is amazing to have someone my age around here, all of the adults treat me like a baby.”

Kanako pouted, she didn't look like she’d aged a day from when she fell down.

Clover was internally fighting off the massive discomfort from existence and the impending headache, though this conversation is totally worth it.

“...” Clover couldn’t pry any words out of their throat, they settled on nodding.

Kanako continued, she didn’t seem bothered.

“I mean I’ve wanted to drink some of that adult soda for a while, but Dina never lets me buy any when my mom’s away.”

Clover looked Kanako in the eyes, they recall having found some in the dumpsters of New home before.

“I’ve… drank some of that before..”

Kanako did the puppy dog sparkle thing, is this a skill every child suddenly had?

“You’ve drank that stuff before? My mom never lets me near any of that soda, it’s unfair.”

——————————————————————

Ceroba walked up the stairs in a hurry, she doesn’t have any other options.

Clover isn’t in the guest room anymore and as much as she hates disturbing Kanako’s sleep, the thought of a sick and possibly injured human child walking around isn’t very reassuring.

Ceroba stopped as she saw Starlo and Martlet peek through the door into the room, Ceroba felt incredibly confused.

“What are you two-?” She got shushed by her two friends, she decided to take a look as well.

Kanako and Clover were having a fake tea party at the small plastic table and chairs, she had recently bought them because Kanako kept wanting to have a tea party with the feisty five in her room and she just couldn’t object.

While she will have to be scolding Kanako later for not going to bed like asked, maybe she’ll let it slide this one time..

Chapter Text

Frisk was struggling to say the least, the villagers of the town she lived in weren’t as inviting as expected.

They’ve barely managed to keep them from calling authorities, knowing that if they do, they'll get the government to start an unwanted war.

Frisk has been working the whole day, attempting to calm down the villagers and adjusting them slowly.

Frisk would really appreciate it if they were home back with Toriel already, sadly a few adults hindered their path back to the underground which made their day a whole lot longer.

              —————————————

Frisk arrives back *‘HOME’ , tired from the walk and exhausted from convincing the villagers, they see Toriel read a book on her reading chair.

She looks nervous, fidgety and upset.

Frisk walks over and tugs Toriel’s sleeve, she looks over immediately.

[*YOU ASK TORIEL WHAT’S WRONG]

Toriel looks down at her book again, never actually reading it.

“Frisk dear… Do you think I’m a bad mother?”

Frisk feels their Soul drop, Chara the ghost following them also seemed shocked.

[*YOU SHAKE YOUR HEAD AND DENY FIERCELY]

A small smile appears on Toriel’s face, but she doesn’t seem to believe Frisk.

“Thank you, my child, but I can't truly believe your words. I have lost eight children i should’ve protected, while i do know one- Asriel is still alive as Flowey. 

He hasn't come to visit once.”

Chara slumped, even though they were a ghost they still tried to comfort Toriel.

‘That’s not true at all mom! This- none of this was your fault!’

Chara seemed genuinely upset at the way Toriel was thinking about this, yet no one except Frisk could hear or see them.

[*YOU TELL TORIEL THAT IT ISN’T HER FAULT, YOU TELL TORIEL SHE’S AN AMAZING AND KIND MOTHER]

Toriel puts down her book and hugs Frisk, Toriel seems thankful.

“Thank you Frisk dear, you must be hungry after another long day.

Those humans are very insistent on another war..”

Her tone switched to gloomy for a split second before snapping back, acting as if nothing was wrong.

“I’ll go get started on dinner my child, please rest your hard work is appreciated.”

Toriel lifts Frisk onto the couch and heads into the kitchen, Chara floats around Frisk like usual.

‘You know Frisk i’m very jealous of you.. How i wish i could eat mom’s food again.’

[*YOU TELL CHARA THAT YOU FEEL PITY FOR HER LACK OF GOAT MOM NUTRITION]

Chara giggles ‘Thank you, your pity makes me oh so happy that someone cares. The only thing that doesn’t make me regret being dead is the work you have to do with humans, those chickens never change do they?’

Frisk turned their gaze to the ground in frustration, Chara notices.

‘Hey don’t worry, you’ve got me and the other monsters. Show those humans how determined you are and open their eyes’ Chara speaks in a reassuring and kind tone, it makes Frisk smile.

[*YOU TELL CHARA YOU HAVE DECIDED TO HELP TORIEL]

Chara sighed, it was more in a fond way than annoyed.

‘You really need to start thinking about yourself one of these days, it might just save you a whole lot of trouble.’

Frisk entered the kitchen and began helping Toriel despite her objection, Frisk found it a relaxing activity.

               —————————————

Asgore sat upon his throne, he was grateful for Frisk’s efforts but he had a nagging feeling that wouldn’t be enough.

He had paperwork in his hands ‘Monster army, join form’ written in elegant handwriting.

              —————————————

Kanako nervously peeked into the guest room, worriedly looking at the lucky Clover that was laying down on the bed.

Her mom had told her not to disturb them, she said they weren’t feeling well.

“Kanako right?” Kanako jumped at the female voice behind her, it was the blue bird lady.

“There’s nothing to worry about, Clover will be alright.”

Kanako looked at her with expectant eyes, the bird lady was crouched down to Kanako’s level.

“Are you sure bird lady? The lucky Clover seems like they are struggling.” Kanako’s innocence shone through.

The bird lady nodded without hesitance, she seemed very confident.

“They just are a little sick, they’ve been through worse.” The blue bird lady talked in a comforting voice.

“Now how about you go outside and play, it’ll make you feel better.”

Kanako nodded and left the estate, she’s gotten an idea.

Maybe she can collect a few flowers for the lucky Clover, for her amazing quest she’ll have to find Rosa, Pedla or Violetta. 

Kanako walked into the oasis town, the villagers greeted her warmly as they always did.

She made her way towards the Flower house, a house filled with all kinds of Floral plants that the three flower sisters grew.

Kanako pushed the door open with a slight struggle, entering the beautiful room littered with all kinds of flowers.

A blue flower nestled in the middle of the room, Kanako started searching for the perfect flower, perhaps she could even find a clover!

Kanako searched between the flowers, she felt a light back hit her head but ultimately ignored it.

“Psst.” Another pebble(?) hit Kanako’s back, Kanako turned around but couldn’t find anyone.

“Psst, over here.” Another pebble- no a seed hit Kanako softly, Kanako turned to its origin again.

It was a golden flower with a smiling face, it had a bright toothy smile.

“Howdy, I’m Flowey.” Kanako stumbled backwards in surprise.

“Wah? A talking flower? Would this be an appropriate gift for the lucky Clover?”

The flower’s smile turned into a frown, it looked unamused.

“Hey now, that’s rude. Are you looking for a flower for a certain human named Clover huh? I happen to be their BEST FRIEND and i know the perfect flowers to get for them, want me to show you?”

Kanako beamed.

“Really I’d love to, thank you Flowey!”

              —————————————

Clover was unamused, being stuck in bed all day with a horrible headache isn’t a fun activity.

The door creaked open, was it Martlet again?

The person that stood by the door was not an adult, Kanako peeked through the door curiously.

“..You aren’t…. supposed to—” Kanako made a shushing motion, she snuck into Clover’s guest room.

She placed down a small vase filled with golden flowers, Kanako smiled and snuck out again.

Where did she find these?

If anyone later asked Clover where these flowers came from, they appeared while Clover was asleep.

Chapter Text

Clover was annoyed, they didn’t want to stay in bed any longer.

While Kanako’s gesture was absolutely precious, they didn’t like being stuck in bed.

Atleast back at Martlet’s house they were allowed to walk around without supervision, here they just get carried back into bed.

Clover lays still for a few seconds before deciding to go on an adventure, not really an adventure but a stealth mission!

Clover left the bed, determined to sneak out of the house.

Clover’s first attempt was going smoothly, making it concerning how there aren’t any intruders.

Clover thought too soon, they tripped and fell over a loose floorboard.

Not even a minute later Starlo was already dragging them back to bed.

Attempt two was much more of a challenge, Starlo was on look out!

Clover snuck past him by… not going into his direction at all.

The living room had Kanako in it drawing with Martlet, not the ideal path.

Clover slowly turned towards the window.

——————————————————————

Starlo stood by the hall, Clover just tried to escape and they are in no condition to be going around all carefree!

It’s dangerous for them even if monsters don’t try to attack anymore, they’ll thank him later.

Starlo stood proudly by the hall, boridly looking out of the window.

Nothing that interesting, just a tumbleweed rolling by, sand drifting in the wind, Clover running away from the estate…

Clover running away from the estate?! No way, how did they even do that?

Starlo dashed towards the front door and jumped outside, starting the chase.

“Clover! How many times do I have to tell ya pardner, stay in bed!”

Clover realises they’ve been caught and starts making a mad dash towards the town, Starlo close on their heels.

Clover takes a sharp turn, turning towards the mines which are decidedly not that safe.

“Wait, stop! I haven’t turned the boulder machines off yet pardner!”

Despite Clover being injured and exhausted they are still very slippery, does this kid not know what it means to stand still?

Clover made a sharp turn getting onto the elevator, Starlo didn’t have enough time to get on properly, but he did have enough time to throw his lasso onto something that stuck out.

He was pretty sure that lift ride just took twenty years off of his life, for some reason Clover didn’t even bother to stand still rushing ahead.

Starlo almost was caught up to Clover, until an annoying figure jumped over the ledge blocking Starlo’s path.

The floor turned into a dance dance revolution game, remind Starlo to put El bailador on his ‘do not like’ list.

——————————————————————

Clover had absolutely no idea how that even remotely worked, but somehow Starlo has been road blocked by El bailador.

Clover feels bad for Starlo, El bailador is one hell of an annoying enemy.

Clover took another elevator down and entered the mineshafts, they mostly went this way on accident but what can it hurt?

Clover made their way over to the entrance in a slow pace, looking at the sparkly gems from the minecart they were seated in.

It looked just like it had last time, guess not a lot has changed since the past 4 years.

Clover almost made their way into the reception (using the wall as support) before halting, an unfamiliar figure stood by the desk.

It was a big fish lady with armour and a lot of water bottles, she had a few posters in her hand.

“Good morning, loyal citizen of the underground, i have something the king has requested to be handed out.”

The receptionist was shaking in her boots, at the same time very starry eyed.

“C-captain Undyne? What do i owe the pleasure?”

Undyne smiled with a large sharp toothy grin, seemingly not minding the reaction.

“Like i said, royal mail! The king thought it’d be best if the royal guard delivered it themselves… anyways please have a nice day dear citizen, I have more of these posters to deliver!”

Undyne spoke in a cocky and confident tone, she didn’t seem to have a volume button.

As the ‘captain’ left Clover made their way to the receptionist's desk, practically beaming with curiosity.

The receptionist looked at Clover, she became more relaxed!

“Well hello there kid, would you like one of these?”

Clover nodded energetically as they got the poster handed to them, they found a place to read its contents.

Clover’s hand itched for their wild revolver, it was propaganda.

A cartoonish drawing of the king sticking his thumb up with the letters; ‘Join the royal guard and protect your kingdom! Human war is approaching rapidly!’

There was a form stuck to the backside of the poster, it beckoned to be torn apart by Clover.

——————————————————————

Starlo headed back down the elevator, Clover would have to circle around eventually , besides Starlo was exhausted.

Starlo sighed tiredly as he sat down on one of the swings, the atmosphere was comfortably silent.

Starlo swung the swing lightly with his legs, it creaked softly upon the motion.

A figure one could mistake for Moray walks into sight, armour clanging against each other with the motion of walking.

Starlo’s blood turns cold as Undyne, captain of the royal guard notices and walks up to him, her regular toothy confident smile plastered on her face.

Starlo takes a deep breath, he needs to at least try and stay calm.

“Howdy captain Undyne, welcome to the dunes, how may i be of service.”

Starlo believes his confident act actually passed as believable, if it didn’t Undyne didn’t comment on it.

“Good morning, loyal citizen of the underground! The king has directly asked us the royal guard to hand out these posters, please enjoy the entirety of your day.”

Undyne handed Starlo some kind of poster, was it just him or did she seem a bit annoyed doing this job?

Probably just Starlo’s imagination again, when he checked the poster his blood ran cold.

Just when he thought Clover wouldn’t be in mortal danger in the underground anymore, he had to find the small cowboy fast.

Despite his exhaustion Starlo ran off to find Clover again, with this spreading it wouldn’t be so weird for monsters to start attacking Clover again and this time Clover is significantly weaker than before.

Chapter Text

Ceroba, Dalv, Martlet and Starlo sat in the kitchen, while the two children innocently played in the living room.

This adult meeting was called regarding certain propaganda that’s been popping up lately, which very much threatens a child’s safety at the moment. 

Ceroba sighed and figured she should start the meeting.

“Alright, i’m sure we’re all well aware of what's happening.”

The three bop their heads in agreement, such teamwork.

“Yeah, ya’ can’t expect us not to know Ceroba, especially when the deputy might be in a lot of danger.”

Starlo crossed his arms, his hat made him look confidently serious.

“We need to find a way to keep Clover safe, we— we’ve just got them back, we can’t lose them again.”

Martlet spoke with nervousness, clearly stressed and uncomfortable.

“Clover is my friend.. They helped me a lot, they helped all of us a lot.. we can’t just leave them in the dust, that’s not what friends do.”

Dalv spoke with every ounce of confidence he could muster, Ceroba appreciates the effort.

She sighed and started leaning on the counter, no reason to be gentle about this.

“Let’s not beat around the bush, Clover can’t stay here or atleast walk around like this.”

She could see the hesitance on her friends faces, it hurt a bit.

“We have options, but a lot are temporary or inconvenient. One of our options is disguising Clover as a monster, it might work for a while but won’t hold up long term. I’m sure we all know by now Clover isn’t exactly subtle, and their previous ‘friends’ might recognize and snitch on them.”

Ceroba spoke in a tone calmer than how she was feeling, the others didn’t seem much better.

“Our second option is hiding Clover in the steamworks, Axis is fond of the kid and— we'll be able to visit them frequently. Though it won’t be long till someone gets curious and finds out, if that happens Axis might be able to ward off enemies temporarily. Of course he wouldn’t last forever, it does give Clover a bit more freedom though.”

Ceroba stayed silent, she could feel the three look at her with anticipation.

“Our third option is… Sending Clover back to the surface.”

She didn’t have to look to know the despairful looks on her friends faces, she understood that this was a bit painful to consider.

“It’s the safest and most permanent option, a kid like them won’t be remotely involved in the war.. And I’m sure there’ll be someone waiting for them— Waiting to take care of them once again.”

Ceroba shook off her own discomfort, trying to keep her voice steady as she continued.

“While we might not be able to see Clover again for a while, or even for the rest of our lives it might be in their best interest.”

Ceroba took a sharp breath, trying to ignore her friend's reactions.

“I don’t like this outcome, neither do I desire it but… Do we really want Clover to die again? We don’t even know how they came back, and they probably won’t be able to do it again.”

Ceroba heard something drop to the ground, Clover stood by the doorframe.

Their usual confident and neutral face replaced by one filled with terror, it seemed they dropped a few crayons.

“Are you… going to send me back to the surface?”

The question was filled with sadness and fear, what could’ve caused it?

Martlet stood up and carefully approached Clover, crouching down a bit.

“Clover, sorry but- it might just be the best for you.”

Clover backed away a little, shaking their head.

“No— no, no, you can’t- you can’t send me back there.”

Clover replied with teary eyes, their brown eyes a bit glassy from them.

“The adults there, they’re- they’re monsters, real monsters..” 

For some reason that didn’t feel as offensive as it should’ve. 

“I might’ve promised my younger sibling to come back- i really wanted to at first as well! But there’s no way, there’s no way they stayed in that hell hole for such a long time waiting.”

Clover turned their gaze towards the ground, their knuckles became pale from gripping the door frame so tightly.

“If they did… I don’t want to be greeted by their dead body, those people who call themselves my adoptive parents.. Are nothing but violent beasts!”

Tears of regret rolled down Clover’s face, Martlet pulled Clover into a hug.

She spoke with a stern tone Ceroba doesn’t recall her ever having used before, a cold and stern tone that leaves no room to object.

“We aren’t sending Clover back up there.”

Even Starlo’s eyes widened at Martlet’s tone, while Dalv almost folded into himself.

“I don’t care if it’s more dangerous to keep them here, on the surface might be a threat just as big and there? No one will even bother to try and help if what they are saying is true.”

Clover tightly gripped Martlet’s shirt, refusing to let go.

Kanako now also looked into the kitchen with visible concern, sitting down behind Clover resting one of her paws on their back as a form of reassurance.

Dalv slowly unfolded, despite stumbling over his words he caught everyone’s attention.

“I-i might have another option, it’s s-safer than the others but we can’t be completely sure..”

Dalv shivered as Martlet looked at him with serious and almost cold eyes, she’s gone into a full protection mode.

Starlo nodded and answered.

“Lay it on us Dalv, we don’t have a lot of room here.”

Dalv took a steady inhale and exhale, most likely to calm himself.

“We can send them to the ruins.. with the former queen- Now, i know this might sound bad at first but hear me out!” 

Dalv didn’t seem comfortable underneath the judging gazes of his friends. 

“The former queen was a previous neighbour of mine, she wasn’t really aware until I delivered a letter when i moved out… We ended up becoming pen pals as she’s quite the nice lady, she’s told me about the former souls including how she lost Clover, a funny skeleton, maintenance to the ruins and even.. Adopting the current fallen child Frisk.”

Shock infected the air, quickly easing up everyone’s tension.

“Since she lives in the ruins and is a boss monster along with her kindness, i am almost completely certain she can take care of Clover for the time being- though it’s just a suggestion.. She still is the Ex-queen Toriel..”

The name caught Clover's attention, who now looked up from Martlet’s shoulder who also eased up her grip on them.

“..Toriel?” Clover seemed to swallow something down as far as Ceroba could tell. “I remember her… She tried to help me when i first fell.. a puzzle got jammed and.. I never waited for her to return.”

Clover looked a bit regretful, it seems it was hard to keep their usual poker face in tact at the moment.

Starlo nodded sharply, seemingly having reached a conclusion.

“If that’s true, it might as well be our best option. Dalv can you come in contact with qu— Toriel and ask if our little pardner here can stay with her for a while?”

Dalv nodded, he seemed to have become less nervous again.

“Yes, it’s due time for me to send another letter anyways.. We can only hope for the best..”

Clover stood up, Martlet letting them go to Ceroba and tug on her sleeve, Kanako also stood behind them with pleading eyes.

“Will all of you.. come to visit?”

Kanako looked at Ceroba expectantly.

“Please mom?”

Ceroba looked at Martlet who for some reason was looking at her for confirmation, it may be because Chujin had been a father figure to Martlet and that means Ceroba was the mother figure? No time to contemplate her unofficial family tree!

Ceroba kneeled down, ruffling Clover’s already messy hair underneath the hat.

“I promise we will.”

Clover and Kanako beamed, they hugged Ceroba.

Ceroba signed for the others to join in a group hug, the three were more than happy to join.

Let’s hope this temporary plan works.. Whatever happens they need to find a way to keep Clover safe, she refuses to let anyone she holds dear die again.

Ceroba is filled… with determination.

Chapter Text

Frisk swung their legs while sitting on top of Toriel’s reading chair, Toriel seemed a bit restless.

Chara floated around Frisk. 

‘Why is mom worried? Is it about the possibility of humans attacking? She does know we can just retaliate with even more violence.’

Frisk looks at Chara with a disappointed look before turning back to Toriel.

[*YOU ASK GOAT MOM WHY SHE’S SO WORRIED]

Toriel turned to Frisk in an instant.

“Oh I’m sorry my child, I must’ve forgotten to tell you! One of my friends- a previous neighbour of mine called Dalv-“

 Frisk wonders if that’s who keeps sending Toriel letters frequently. 

“-Has asked me to take care of a young human friend of theirs, it seems the underground still isn’t quite safe.. He and his friends are worried for the child’s well being and.. Well you understand the rest.”

Suddenly it makes sense why the second old bed in Frisk's room had been cleaned recently, while it would’ve been nice for this to not be on such short notice- The idea of having another human friend Frisk's age fills them with determination.

[*YOU TELL GOAT MOM THAT IT’S OKAY, YOU TELL GOAT MOM THAT YOU ARE EXCITED TO MAKE A NEW FRIEND!]

Toriel smiles warmly, it makes Frisk happy.

“I’m happy you are excited, my child.”

Chara hugged, not amused.

‘Another human? I’ve barely got around being friends with you. All other humans are scum bags in my opinion.’

There are times Frisk wished they could’ve saved Chara from being betrayed by humanity, helping Chara accept humanity step by step fills them with determination.

——————————————————————

Clover felt their skin crawl, they didn’t want to leave their friends for a person they barely know.

They couldn’t care less if they’d be safer there! But even if they objected till the morning came, their friends would give them no other choice.

Adults are foolish and stupid, selfish creatures who’ve lost their innocence- that’s what they used to think.

They’d gotten used to their friends, they realised not all adults are dirt eating worms.. it’s just most of them.

Clover is thinking of anything except staying with a stranger, in a desperate attempt to swallow up their discomfort.

Dalv slowly led Clover to the entrance to the ruins, he knocked three times.

Time passed, Clover counted the seconds.

One… Two… Three… Four.. Five.. Six.. Seven.. 

Click! The door opened and a familiar goat figure stood beside it, Clover saw the moment recognition flooded her eyes.

Dalv decided to take the lead in the conversation, Clover had to admit he has upped his social skills since they first met.

“Hello Toriel, thanks again for agreeing to take care of Clover here— we we’re all really concerned about their safety and they didn’t want to be sent back to the surface.”

Dalv spoke a bit awkwardly, Toriel didn’t mind as she crouched down to Clover’s eye level.

“It’s alright… Hello Clover, i..” She was choosing her words carefully. “I had thought you died a long time ago, but it seems you have finally returned to the ruins.” She rubbed one of her eyes, her voice was a bit shaky.

How can one woman care so much for a child they barely know, the kindness of Toriel should most definitely be protected

.

Dalv bade his goodbye as Toriel took Clover back into the ruins, he and the others better keep their promise.

Toriel stopped and turned to Clover with an unreadable look, Clover could only identify relief.

“I am glad you haven’t died, i-i want to apologise for being a bad caretaker.”

Clover shook their head in disagreement.

“..it’s not your fault… irresponsible to an extent.. but not your fault.” Clover’s answer made Toriel look a bit less tense, the two proceeded up the stairs.

——————————————————————

Frisk waited impatiently on their new friend, Chara looked at them with a judging look.

‘Seriously Frisk, i still don’t get why you’re so excited.’

[*YOU TELL CHARA IT'S BECAUSE-]

Chara interrupted Frisk.

‘Yeah, yeah, because you are happy to make a new friend. Just stay on guard.’

Chara sighed as Frisk started pacing again, Frisk couldn’t stand still today.

They heard the door downstairs open, it was a heavy door so it’s pretty hard to miss the sound it made while opening.

Chara seemed mostly unphased, in contrast Frisk was brimming from excitement.

Frisk wonders if this new friend will turn into some kind of sibling, they’ll have to get used to having a sibling again— ….. They miss their old sibling.

Frisk pushed their mind forward, ignoring the thoughts of people who are more than dead.

They checked, their body had been there in a coffin, their sibling wasn't alive anymore.

Chara hovered around Frisk, having noticed the change.

‘Hey, you look awfully melancholic for some reason. Where did this come from?’

[*YOU TELL CHARA IT’S ALRIGHT, YOU TELL CHARA YOU WERE THINKING ABOUT THE PAST]

Chara huffed and made a motion to bonk Frisk's head, naturally their hand phased through.

‘I might not know a lot but you’ve only let on that it wasn't a fun time, try to look ahead of you. I tried to hold on to the past too strongly myself and look where it got me.’

Frisk huffed, that wasn’t a funny joke and Chara knew it.

Like usual, it didn’t stop Chara from still making the joke with a cold grin.

Toriel came up from the stairs, a child only slightly older than Frisk following her up.

Frisk’s blood ran cold, it was clear the other kid also was shocked, to say the least.

Frisk was almost a hundred percent certain that it isn’t possible to revive from the dead, they had seen their corpse in the designated coffin before!

Yet somehow the familiar figure stood in front of them, they didn’t look as pale as in the coffin but still far from their best and a bit bothered.

It’s safe to say Frisk was barely thinking about what they were saying, it ended up biting them hard.

[*YOU TELL THE FIGURE THAT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE YOUR ELDER SIBLING THAT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD] 

Clover(?) looked at Frisk awkwardly, they made an attempt at a smile.

“I got better?”

Chapter Text

Ever since Clover arrived at the ruins things between them and their younger sibling have been.. awkward to say the least.

The age gap suddenly wasn’t so big anymore, they hadn't had contact for a good amount of time and they had been right; Clover was supposed to be dead.

If being honest they weren’t siblings by blood, their mothers had been sisters and after Clover’s parents died they had been taken in by their aunt and uncle.

Of course in Clover’s opinion they really shouldn’t be allowed to have kids, but Clover was glad they gave birth to Frisk as they have been and still are one of the most important people in their life.

Despite that it still didn’t make it less awkward, Clover has been here for roughly four hours and the two have been hovering around each other.

Neither have been brave enough to say anything yet, but they don’t really want to leave each other's presence either.

It also didn’t help that Clover was a bit more than mildly concerned about how Frisk was whispering to themselves, what happened to them while Clover was absent?

——————————————————————-

Frisk sat on the other side of the room silently staring at Clover, Clover stared back just as much.

Frisk doesn’t know if Toriel hasn’t intervened because she thought it was normal or just primal behaviour.

Chara floated between the two staring humans, they seemed very judgmental.

‘So what’s stopping you from talking to them again?’

[*YOU WHISPER TO CHARA THAT THIS IS YOUR ELDER SIBLING WHO HAS BEEN DEAD FOR FOUR YEARS]

Chara hummed affirmatively, nodding slowly.

“I have absolutely no idea what’s the problem or what this unspoken tension is.’

[*YOU THINK FOR A MOMENT BEFORE TELLING CHARA CLOVER IS BASICALLY A DEAD MENTOR FIGURE WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD]

Chara made an ‘oh’ face.

‘That makes more sense, but that still doesn’t stop you from talking to them. They weren’t wrong, they died and got better! Look, they're walking around and acting like they never died! Clearly better than being dead’

[*YOU TELL CHARA THEY AREN’T HELPING]

——————————————————————

Clover couldn’t exactly take the tension any longer and stood up, slowly walking towards the door.

Toriel looked up from her book, she didn’t miss a beat.

“Clover? Where are you going, did you get tired from your game with my child? Or was it some form of human communication- or asserting dominance? Sorry I don’t seem to be familiar with human culture.”

Clover had to struggle to keep their poker face, that was one hell of a funny misconception.

“I just wanted to go into the ruins, I haven’t seen a lot of it and I’d like to explore a bit.”

Clover honestly just wanted to leave the situation, but they didn’t want to hurt Toriel's feelings.

“Clover, the ruins are dangerous with countless traps- I refuse to be irresponsible enough to let you go out there alone again.”

Clover turned to Toriel, trying their best to look confident and strong.

“No need to worry, i won’t even leave the front area of the house i promise!”

Toriel thought for a moment.

“Then how about all three of us go out to the front of the house, you can play with the curious monsters like Frisk does. My child? Would you mind playing in the yard with Clover.”

Frisk looked at Toriel with their closed eyes, they shook their head.

“No I don’t mind at all!”

——————————————————————

Clover hasn’t escaped their awkward situation, it’s still the three of them mostly in silence.

Mostly, since Frisk is admiring Clover who somehow attracted every froggit in the surrounding area as an ally.

A nagging feeling tells Clover this has something to do with the macro froggit, the muscle frog dude was very scary.

“So…. How have you been for the past years?”

Clover asked, swallowing down their discomfort, still surrounded by a horde of froggits.

Frisk stayed silent for a prolonged amount of time, they took a deep breath.

“It’s been.. hard, my parents didn’t get any kinder once you left.”

Clover the owner, they’ll need to punch them square in the nose when those two see them again.

“I- i am sorry. I didn’t end up coming back, i forgot to think about you back then since i wanted to deliver justice- and hurt you by accident… sorry.”

Toriel looked at the children with wide eyes, she didn’t seem to have been expecting this.

“You don’t have to-“ “I forgive you” Frisk cut Clover off.

“I forgive you, this never was your fault to begin with.” Frisk was clenching their fists. “You went to search for my friends for me, you took the responsibility for me to try and make me feel better. It was never your fault you couldn’t handle it.”

Clover knew Frisk, they have always been too merciful.

One day? That’ll come to bite them in their back, how unfair.

Clover rested their hand on Frisk's head as a way of reassurance, like they had used to do.

“It isn’t your fault either, there’s nothing you could’ve done to change it. It’s alright, i’m back now and i do not attend on dying again.”

Frisk sniffled and launched themself into Clover’s arms, they didn’t mind and hugged back.

Toriel approached and gently wrapped her arms around the two, surrounded by froggits the three share the moment in silence.

Chapter Text

[*YOU BUNDLE YOURSELF IN SCARVES AND COATS]

Frisk prepares to venture into Snowdin, like any regular person they put on a lot of layers not to freeze!

Clover looks a bit concerned at Frisk, it seems they are judging them.

“Frisk? You do know that the concept of layers will become obsolete if you wear it inside, because then you’ll still be cold outside.”

Frisk looked like they just had a brain boom, so that’s why they could never seem to be warm when entering Snowdin!

Chara facepalmed, it seems they expected Frisk to already know this very insightful piece of knowledge.

Toriel came down with two small boxes containing lunch! Butterscotch pie.

“Frisk you remember the drill right?”

Frisk nodded, Toriel smiled contently.

“Don’t get home after dark, don’t get in trouble and stay safe.”

Toriel repeated for Clover, they nodded wrapping a silver scarf around their neck.

Frisk took Clover’s hand and guided them out of the ruins, the two waved to Toriel and a few stray froggits.

Snowdin was as pearly white and cold as ever, Chara didn’t seem bothered by the cold.

[*YOU ASK CLOVER IF THEY’VE BEEN TO SNOWDIN BEFORE]

Clover chuckled, their answer came shortly after.

“I don’t think I’ve been to this part of Snowdin, but that would be correct.”

Frisk is thrilled to know there’s a chance that Clover was familiar with Snowdin, it fills them with determination to keep going.

The two walked past a suspiciously placed branch, almost arriving at the bridge.

A twig snaps behind the duo, Frisk turns around to see their friend!

The silhouette of sans stood behind the two, Clover stepped infront of Frisk not trusting the stranger.

Sans stepped out of the shadows, he winked.

“Hey kid, no need to be so chilled to the bone , I’m not here to hurt you.”

[*YOU CALL OUT FOR SANS]

Sans waved towards Frisk, Clover relaxed.

“Hey Frisk, nice to see ya. Who’s your friend here?”

Clover seems to be asking themself an assortment of questions, they probably haven’t seen one of the skeleton brothers yet.

[*YOU INFORM SANS THAT THIS IS YOUR SIBLING]

Sans nodded, he stood out his hand for Clover.

“Well hiya there Frisk’s sibling. I’m Sans, sans the skeleton. Nice to meet’cha.”

When Clover took Sans’ hand there was a sound of a whoopie coushion, Clover was debating if they should be insulted or not.

“Haha! The old whoopie coushion in the hand trick, Never gets old.”

Frisk was trying to muffle their hysterical giggles, Chara was hysterically giggling, Clover blankly stared at sans.

“Well, i’ll see you two around then.” Sans dissapeared! A shortcut, Clover looked oddly blank.

They slowly turned towards Frisk.

“How are your friends worse than mine?”

Frisk and Chara couldn’t hold their laughter in anymore.

——————————————————————

Clover watched the lights from the christmas tree flicker on and off, they were pretty sure it wasn’t Christmas but the effort was there.

Frisk has went to get some cinnamon bunny’s leaving Clover to stand in front of the big tree, suddenly a very loud voice boomed from right behind Clover.

“NYEHEHEHE! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD AND I SPOT AN UNFAMILIAR HUMAN!”

Clover very slowly turned around to see ‘the great papyrus’, it was another skeleton.

What is it with living skeletons and being obnoxious here, is it like in their genetics? Do living skeletons even have genetics?

“WHAT’S YOUR NAME HUMAN?”

Papyrus said pointing at Clover, Clover like any normal person panicked.

“I- Uh- Gun-Hat?”

There was an extended period of silence, Papyrus stared Clover down.

“WOWEE THAT’S SUCH A COOL NAME! I MUST APOLOGIZE BUT ACCORDING TO ROYAL GAURD I MUST APPREHEND YOU!”

Clover got Martlet Deja-vu, this definetly happened before.

“Wait!- wait, wait! What if I said I.. uh? Am a deputy?”

Clover wasn’t really in great physical shape- dying does that to a person- so you can imagine how desperate they’d be to avoid a fight.

“DOES THAT MEAN YOU AREN’T HUMAN?”

“No i’m still human.”

“THEN WHY DID YOU SAY YOU ARE A DEPUTY?”

“That’s a career.”

“WHAT DOES A DEPUTY DO?”

“Work along side the sherif!”

“WHAT’S A SHERRIF?”

“The police?”

“WHAT’S THE POLICE?”

“Law enforcement.”

“KIND OF LIKE THE ROYAL GAURD?”

“Yes?”

“WOWEE! SO WERE KIND OF COLLEGUES?”

“I guess?..”

Papyrus beamed “THAT’S AMAZING, I DIDN’T THINK I’D MEET ANOTHER GAURD SO SOON AFTER JOINING! IT’S NICE TO MEET YOU GUN-HAT, SORRY FOR THE WHOLE APPREHENSION THING. I’M SURE SINCE YOUR ALSO A GAURD YOU ARE AN ACCEPTION LIKE FRISK!”

Frisk? This skeleton knows their sibling! This must be one of their friends.

“It’s alright, it’s already happened more than once.”

At that point Frisk returned with two cinnamon bunny’s, they looked surprised at Papyrus’s presence.

“Good morning Papyrus!” Frisk hands Clover a cinnamon bunny, they kind of feel bad taking a bite out of it.

“GOOD MORNING FRISK DO YOU KNOW GUN-HAT HERE?”

Frisk looks confused, they snickered upon the nickname.

“Do you mean Clover? Yes they’re my sibling.”

Papyrus’ eyes bulged in a cartoony way to show his shock, is that supposed to be possible?

“GUN-HAT IS YOUR SIBLING? I DIDN’T KNOW YOU HAVE RELATIVES!”

Clover shrugged. “Well they probably thought I was dead for the last four years.”

“A LONG LOST SIBLING!?”

——————————————————————

Frisk watched how Papyrus started rambling about how sad it must’ve been to be separated, not even Chara seems to be able to keep track.

[*YOU THANK PAPYRUS FOR HIS CONCERN]

“NO PROBLEM FRISK, I COULDN’T EVEN START TO IMAGINE IF MY LAZY BROTHER WAS MISSING!”

Papyrus made a few dramatic gestures, Clover seemed to be simply enjoying the food.

“NOW WE NEED TO CELEBRATE THE ARRIVAL OF YOUR SIBLING! LET’S GO MAKE SPAGHETTI… WITH UNDYNE!”

Frisk had a bad feeling about this.

[*YOU ASK PAPYRUS IF IT WOULDN’T BOTHER UNDYNE AND HER DUTIES]

Papyrus shook his head.

“NONSENSE! WE HAD A TRAINING SESSION COMING UP ANYWAYS! LET’S GO MY HUMAN FRIENDS!”

Papyrus picked Frisk and Clover up, Chara was giggling at the chaotic mess of it all.

Papyrus spared no seconds and ran off towards waterfall, Frisk dropped their cinnamon bunny, Clover gave the rest of theirs to them.

Chapter Text

[*YOU HAVE ENTERED WATERFALL]

Frisk and Clover were getting carried by papyrus towards Undyne’s house, the speed at which he was running was quite impressive.

Especially considering he was carrying two children, for some reason Clover seemed pretty familiar with getting scooped up and run off with.

Is this not their first time? That should probably be concerning, who gets kidnapped more than one or two times?

Chara was just hovering behind them, enjoying the show

Papyrus set Frisk and Clover down infront of the house, Papyrus looked proud of his work.

Clover decided to take the hint and knock the big fish door, it slammed open with Undyne wearing a big grin.

“Papyrus! You came early today!-“

She fell silent when she saw Clover, not even hesitating to summon her spear and slam it down onto Clover who luckily dodged.

Papyrus blocked Undyne’s way to Clover, she got frustrated.

“Papyrus! Did you already forget the rules? We have to apprehend the humans right now!”

Frisk didn’t quite understand why, but Papyrus didn’t waver.

“UNDYNE, I THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE COME EARLY SO WE CAN CELEBRATE WITH FRISK HOW THEIR LONG LOST SIBLING HAS RETURNED!”

Undyne’s anger dropped within seconds replaced by absolute confusion, a hint of regret.

“That cowboy is the squirts' sibling!? They do have similar expressions..”

Chara looked bored.

‘Such a warm welcome already’

[*YOU CONFIRM TO UNDYNE THAT CLOVER IS YOUR SIBLING]

Undyne stays silent for a few seconds, her spear disappearing as she sighed.

“Sorry kid, we’re under strict orders but i’m sure there’s an exception for you because of Frisk.. Now! Let’s get cooking then shall we?”

Papyrus nodded energetically as Undyne let the three into her home, it has been fixed since the last fire.

“So hey squirts sibling, name?”

Clover blinked for a few seconds, as if she could have worded it more nicely.

“Gun-hat”

Frisk had to repress giggles, Undyne looked suspiciously.

“That’s one cool as hell name! But it’s kind of not a name..”

[*YOU CONFIRM THAT CLOVER’S NAME IS GUN-HAT]

Undyne beamed.

“I have so much respect for your parents right now!”

Chara made a comment about Undyne being stupid which was promptly ignored by Frisk, Chara shrugged.

Clover’s neutral expression darkened a bit, Frisk was sure they’re the only one who spotted the difference.

Papyrus joined in on Undyne’s hype train, oh god.

“UNDYNE! LET’S MAKE THE BEST SPAGHETTI EVER!!”

Undyne nodded, aggressively taking out all of the tools, she signed for the two children to come over.

She pointed at Clover then the tomato.

“ Punch the tomato.”

Clover looked confused and punched the tomato lightly, Undyne looked disappointed and started to hype it up.

“Punch the tomato harder!”

“YOU CAN DO IT HUMAN!”

Clover tried a few times, Frisk joined in but they couldn’t punch the tomato hard enough.

Chara’s punches phased through the tomatoes, such a shame.

[*YOU FAIL TO PUNCH THE TOMATO]

“That’s a bit disappointing- it’s okay though I’ve grown to know that humans can’t pulverise tomatoes like that! Here let me-“

A gunshot went off as Clover shot the tomato with their gun, Undyne and Papyrus looked in shock as Frisk clapped their hands.

“…I don’t think this is.. how you make spaghetti…”

Undyne shook her head before seemingly coming up with an idea, a maniacal grin appeared on her face.

“You know that is one gutsy move, gun-hat! I declare… A COOK BATTLE!! You and Frisk! Me and Papyrus! We’ll see who can make the better spaghetti!!”

“THAT'S A GRRRREAT IDEA CAPTAIN UNDYNE!”

[*YOU AGREE WITH PAPYRUS]

Clover gave a hesitant nod and Undyne let out a confident laugh, almost as if she didn’t believe Clover and Frisk could do better than her and Papyrus.

Undyne twirled a spatula and pointed it towards Clover, their face still neutral.

“I declare the war of the kitchen!!! Let our unmatched skills be shown honourable…”

“Deputy”

“Deputy!!!!”

Undyne ran to the cabinets and took out a few more items, placing them down on the opposite side of the counter.

She promptly shoved Clover and Frisk towards that part of the kitchen, she dragged Papyrus to the other.

“Let our war begin!”

Undyne started punching the poor tomatoes.

——————————————————————

Clover regretted agreeing to this ‘cook war’, they themselves were faring quite well boiling the water with salt.

The spaghetti was coming along nicely, on their side..

Undyne and Papyrus had been punching the tomatoes to oblivion, Frisk attempted to punch the tomatoes as well until they were told to specifically dice them by Clover.

Now that the sauce is also cooking, Frisk has gone back to punching more vegetables to match the spirit of the enemies.

Clover is afraid they’ve been a horrible influence to Frisk, considering Frisk? that probably wouldn’t be that bad.

Clover hears a loud crunch beside them, Undyne has punched a hole in the wall.

Clover starts to feel like their life is in mortal danger, how are two people so exceedingly bad at making a simple meal?

Clover stirred the pot so the spaghetti wouldn’t burn, they saw Undyne SNAP the spaghetti in half and fling it into the pot with water.

Clover looked on with HORROR at what kind of crimes were being committed, Clover honestly wanted to start flinging land but restrained themself.

Undyne looked Clover straight in the eyes, sporting a feral toothy grin.

“What? Scared by my supreme cooking skills?”

Clover shook their head, they think they preferred Moray over Undyne any chance they’d get.

Undyne started cranking the heat up, up, up, up, why wasn’t she stopping? Up, up and up until the water in the pot set ablaze sending everyone in a panic.

Papyrus was retrieving water to Throw over the flame while Undyne was debating throwing a spear at it, Frisk just looked in awe at the brilliant blaze.

Clover put a lid on the pot, the fire disappeared.

“..I think you burned it.”

Undyne and Papyrus laughed sheepishly, Undyne was the one who ended up speaking.

“Oopsie?”

——————————————————————

The group ended up spending the night eating the spaghetti Clover didn’t burn to a crisp, Undyne and Papyrus were talking about ‘intense workouts’.

Clover enjoyed eating warm food which wasn’t anything weird or stolen, Frisk enjoyed eating the food their sibling made and this time it wasn’t out of necessity.

They got scolded by Toriel for coming back late, the two agreed it was totally worth it.

Chapter Text

Clover sat in the bedroom with Frisk, a book open on their lap.

It was the fairytale of the little mermaid, Frisk always enjoyed reading it in the past, it seemed that their love for the tale never changed.

Frisk leaned on Clover’s shoulder, they didn’t wake up that long ago so they are still a bit sleepy.

Should Clover take them to Toriel, they probably haven’t eaten yet.

Clover nudged Frisk who then looked up from the book, Clover pointed to the door and Frisk took the hint and nodded.

Clover helped Frisk up and the two headed towards the kitchen, Toriel seemed to be down at the main gates.

When entering the kitchen there was a fresh butterscotch pie left out, Frisk immidiatly made a B line for the pie.

“Frisk? What did I tell you about breakfast?”

Frisk grinned mischievously, turning back to Clover.

“Don’t eat sweets before breakfast.”

“And that’s a pie, so go eat actual breakfast.”

“But a pie isn’t a sweet!”

“Frisk…”

“…Fine”

Clover searched around and found bread! They settled on making simple sandwiches.

Frisk stole a sandwich before Clover even finished the second one, they really wanted that pie didn’t they?

Clover finished the second sandwich, silently eating it while they watched watched Frisk struggle with the crusts.

Toriel rushed into the kitchen and swiftly pulled Clover behind her as a loud metallic voice rang loud.

“HELLO FRISK DEAR.”

Is that a robot, do they know Axis?

“TODAY WE ARE HERE TO PARTICIPATE IN THRILLING FOR THE MEDIA!!”

Toriel pulled Clover out of the room away from the robot, Toriel rushed out of the house and by the tree.

“My child, I’m sorry but the robot you just saw is a film star here, I promised Dalv and your friends to keep you out of sight and trouble.

To do that you’ll have to stay out of sight, I’m sorry my child but can you run and come back later tonight?”

Clover understood and nodded, they ran further into the ruins.

——————————————————————-

[*YOU MAKE A DRAMATIC POSE TO DISTRACT METTATON, YOUR SIBLING ESCAPES SUCCESFULLY]

“MARVELOUS!!! LET’S START OUT FIRST EXCITING ACTIVITY OF TODAY!!”

A few camera’s circled the two, Frisk braced themself for the worst.

“DANCE DANCE MANIA!!! HOSTED BY OUT MARVELOUS GUEST EL BAILADOR!”

The floor turned to a huge dance dance revolution area, how? Frisk doesn’t know.

A sketchy brawler dressed man appeared and made a few poses, he spoke in an eccentric upbeat voice.

“Hello dancers!! I am here to enforce the rules! Hit all the glowing floor tiles as fast as you can! Miss too many and you lose, step off of the dance floor and you lose!”

Mettaton turned into their flashy form, music started to blast from speakers.

“Now, Dance!!”

The floor flashed with brilliant light, inviting Frisk and mettaton to step on them.

Toriel slides into the background acting inconspicuous, staying mostly silent.

[*YOU ARE FILLED WITH DETERMINATION TO WIN THIS DANCE BATTLE]

——————————————————————

Clover walked through the ruins, they admired the beauty and mostly well kept state it has been maintaned in.

They get hold up by an enemy- wait nevermind it’s a froggit.

The froggit hops and nudges Clover’s hand, it’s asking them to follow them through the ruins.

Clover nodded and followed the froggit into the ruins, walking past a sad looking ghost in the process.

——————————————————————

Frisk danced to the raving music hitting the notes in a majestic manner, smoke joins the field with blue and orange lasers.

Frisk expertly neutralizes the lasers, twirling for some pazzaz.

[*YOU THROW YOUR EMERGENCY GLITTER IN THE AIR]

“OHOHOHOHO!! THIS IS GETTING GETTING EXCITING”

Mettaton posed dramatically making Frisk return in kind, El Bailador posed as well while Toriel was waving glow sticks.

El bailador laughed, a warm kind laugh.

“I haven’t had such energetic dancers since the cowboy kid! Let’s turn keep up the pace!”

Frisk could bet that he was talking about Clover, their cowboy sibling! They were a horrible dancer though, guess they have heart?

Glitter explosions started to go off, Toriel was not awaiting the mess she was going to have to clean after.

——————————————————————

Clover is getting escorted by a small group of froggits, they do not know where they came from and don’t want to bother asking.

They crawled through a hole in the wall, they entered a large hallway covered in vines and there were small rivers running down the sides of the path.

Lilly pads drifted along the river, Froggit’s of differing sizes floating among them.

Clover took the golden bandana from their satchel and tied it around their neck just in case, they wouldn’t have given this thing away even if they were rotting in hell.

Clover got led into a canyon filled with houses chilled into it, families of Froggit’s watched Clovers arrival.

They were admittedly tired from walking so much, but they refused to keep the froggit’s waiting.

Clover looked at the vine filled civilization with many waterfalls running down the walls, this must be the fabled [*FROGGIT KINGDOM].

Clover was led up to an area before a throne, the Froggit’s waited for something to happen.

Seconds passed by quietly making Clover nervous, a crack could be heard from the wall.

BANG

The super buff and big Froggit Clover has seen before slams onto the throne through a wall wearing a comically small crown, it flexes its huge muscles.

The frog opens it’s mouth, somehow able to talk.

“Welcome back Frog noble Gun-Hat.” 

Clover feels their skin go pale, how do they know their nickname?

“The frog alliance has assumed you had deceased, but you’ve returned at last.”

Clover stared with their mouth open and wordless.

“We have brought you here as we have decided to celebrate your return!”

Cannons filled with lily flowers went off, Clover didn’t know if they should fear for their life or join the party.

——————————————————————

Frisk struggled against Mettaton’s supreme dancing skills, they missed another note and the dance floor turned red.

“IT SEEMS I! METTATON HAVE FINISHED THIS AMAZING BATTLE! OUR NEXT BATTLE IN THIS WAR WILL HE A GAME IF TAG!”

Frisk wondered how many people were watching this, they hoped they were enjoying this.

Mettaton carried Frisk, leaving goat mom and El Bailador behind.

Mettaton took them to the large pillar hall of the ruins, Chara decided to watch from a corner. 

Frisk was preparing to play the most epic game of rage any monster has laid their eyes upon, just before the two were about to start someone crashed through the wall.

Clover clumsily got up grasping their head, they were soaked in water and a few Froggit’s hopped back into the area.

Mettaton looked a bit shocked as far as Frisk could tell, the small mettaton’s with cameras grabbed Frisk.

“SORRY FRISK DEAR, BUT IT SEEMS THERE IS A NEW PRIORITY, I WILL BE BACK LATER AND THAT'S A PROMISE SO STAY TUNED!”

The mini Mettaton’s pulled Frisk away from the scene.

[*YOU CALL FOR METTATON]

[*YOU CALL FOR CLOVER]

[*BUT NOBODY CAME]

Frisk started to wonder.. Why were they still attacking humans anyways?

——————————————————————

Clover stumbled up in their feet, the robot standing before them.

“SALUTATIONS HUMAN, TO PREVENT THE WARNED WAR FROM HAPPENING EARLIER THAN ANTICIPATED I MUST NOW EXTERMINATE YOU!”

Was Clover in a fever dream? First the Frog thing, then the flood and now this robot.

Clover snapped out of the confusion as a beam from a bomb scorched a part of Clover’s arm, fear consumed their mind as the situation settled in.

They haven’t done this in a long time.. Let’s see if they can still ‘Dance’..

Death by glamour starts playing in the background.

Chapter Text

Clover braced themself for the fight, their eyes almost got burned by impossibly bright spotlights.

A few camera’s appeared and the robot held a microphone, it spoke with a booming voice.

“WELCOME TO THE SHOW! DEAR LADIES AND GENTLEMEN TODAY WE HAVE A STRAY HUMAN RIGHT HERE IN THE RUINS! THERE’S BEEN RUMOURS GOING AROUND HUMAN SPIES ENTERED THE UNDERGROUND AND DEAR VIEWERS WE HAVE FOUND ONE?!”

Clover got into a stance which would make it easy to come into action, is this prick broadcasting? 

Should Clover have a shield of some kind, music started blasting with smoke and spotlights going crazy.

Bombs well from the sky, Clover saw the yellow glow coming from them.

They raised their gun and shot the bombs down, they made X shaped blasts having Clover scramble to dodge the attacks.

The robot simply kept talking, Clover really preferred Axis over this prick.

“AS YOU SEE THIS SPY IS JUST A SMALL CHILD HUMAN, THIS ONLY PROVES THAT MOST HUMANS ARE LOW LIFE SCUMS THAT WOULD DO ANYTHING TO WIN A WAR!”

Clover saw lasers that were blue and orange pass by, they made their way through them with relative ease.

It can’t be just them, but why is this fight easier than Axis?

“SMALL SPY! WOULD YOU GRACE THE UNDERGROUND WITH YOUR NAME BEFORE YOU DIE!”

Clover jumped out of the way when shaky blocks descended from the sky, Clover glared at the robot.

“… Gun-hat?” Clover isn’t Frisk they rather wouldn’t have the underground know their name, that’s friend only privilege.

“GUN-HAT TRULY AN ENCHANTING AND FITTING NAME, NOW PLEASE DECEASE”

Rude?

——————————————————————

Starlo walked into the saloon, he saw Ceroba sit there with her head in her paws as Kanako drew a picture with Mooch.

Starlo walked over to his best friend, he leaned on the counter.

“What’s got you so stressed out?” He asked with a lighthearted tone.

Ceroba pointed at the TV over the bar, Clover dubbed ‘Gun-hat’ was fighting Mettaton in the ruins.

Starlo looked at the screen with bewilderment and took a deep inhale.

Starlo calmly walks out of the saloon, out of town and sighed.

“WE LITERALLY SENT THAT KID THERE SO THIS WOULDN’T HAPPEN!” He yelled at the top of his lungs.

——————————————————————

Clover dodged another attack from the robot with relative ease, being honest it was kind of annoying having to do this in clothes soaking wet.

Very restricting, that is a huge disadvantage in a fight.

Clover saw the robot turn to the camera’s behind them, they spotted a switch.

Clover aimed their revolver with a packing peanut in it, they pulled the trigger shooting the switch.

It flipped, but the packing peanut basically disintegrated.

Steam erupted from the robot, Clover swore they heard an ‘oooh yes’.

A glamorous ping and black robot danced in place, a board with approval rating behind them.

Clover decided this might be the perfect time to try and run, they glanced around the battlefield hurriedly. 

They saw a Froggit look at them from the gap they emerged from, it was signing for Clover to follow it.

Clover looked over at the robot ‘Mettaton’.

“LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!”

It started to pose dramatically, making exaggerated facial expressions.

Nope Clover would rather take the frog route, they expertly dodged… legs?

Clover had to shoot a few legs to make a pathway to leave, it was successful and Clover followed the froggit at a rapid pace.

For some reason the stupid robot followed Clover, this was very frightening since it’s disturbing to see a posing robot sprint towards you.

The froggit seemed to agree as it sped up, Clover also quickening their pace to escape the robot.

They had to be careful not to slip and crash into the ground with the moist floor, lily pads and broken vines littered the floor as safety hazards as a cherry on top.

Clover saw Mettaton slip and do a split before continuing, it was pretty funny but proof of how dangerous a misstep could be at the moment.

The temperature started dropping and Clover felt the burn on their arm sting, oh yes right thank you universe they almost forgot they were WOUNDED.

The Froggit and Clover took a sharp turn, the water patches on the floor having turned to ice becoming more of a hindrance than before.

Clover as a very skilled honorary frog hopped past the patches of ice with the Froggit, they were starting to run out of energy.

Clover pulled the Froggit out of the way to dodge another bomb being hurled at them, the Froggit seemed thankful.

“AREN’T YOU DESPERATE RUNNING AWAY LIKE THAT? DON’T THINK YOU CAN RUN FOREVER”

Clover hated to admit that the scrap metal was right, hopefully the froggit knew what it was doing.

The two made a sharp turn, Clover felt the area start to heat up again. 

Where in the world was this going?

The water in the cave system was separated with a barrier, a new liquid replacing it.

An oddly familiar bright pink replacing it, Clover immediately knew where they were headed.

At this point the two have put a fair amount of distance between themself and mettaton, sadly they have arrived at a locked door.

Clover tried a few combinations they had thought to remember Ceroba using, the door didn’t budge.

Luckily the door slammed open when Clover shot the control panel open, the Froggit was surprised but kept going.

——————————————————————

Axis rolled through the halls of the steamworks, he was alerted by a security door breaking and being cracked open.

He had left his beloved wife in bed, he didn’t want to disturb her.

Axis saw the kid with a hat running with a froggit, he hadn’t seen the kid in a while!

They simply must catch up— Axis stopped when he saw an attacking robot follow the hat kid, something clicked in his system.

Axis put himself between the attacker and hat kid, the attacker looked confident with cameras and a screen Axis can’t be bothered to read following it.

“OH MY ANOTHER ROBOT?”

Axis questioned how this abomination was a robot, high tech yes but an abomination.

“INTRUDER SPOTTED: STEAMWORKS EASTERN BRANCH, AXIS MODEL 014 READY TO PROTECT”

The other ‘robot’ looked disappointed.

“OH WHAT A SHAME, I’D RATHER NOT FIGHT ANOTHER ROBOT”

Axis blew steam through his ventilation.

“SCRAP METAL LIKE YOU SHOULDN’T BE CONSIDERED A ROBOT.”

Axis nudged hat kid to start running, Clover obliged, still holding the froggit.

“IF YOU'RE GOING TO GET IN MY WAY, THEN I, METTATON WILL HAVE TO BRING YOU TO THE DUMP!”

Wouldn’t this be an appropriate time for a death by glamour x guns blazing soundtrack

Chapter Text

Axis looked at the other robot as it did dramatic poses while preparing an attack, was this a distraction technique? It isn’t that effective, mostly just annoying at best.

Axis raises his arms throwing a collection of attacks, crashing against Mettaton’s breaking most of them a few even hitting Mettaton.

“OH DEAR WE’VE GOT A FIGHTER!”

——————————————————————

Ceroba aggressively tapped in combinations to open the steamworks gates, give her a hot minute it’s been a while-

After she saw Clover rush into the steamworks on the screen Ceroba immediately stood up and headed for the gates, unexpectedly Kanako tried to follow her but was swiftly assured that it’d be a bit too dangerous to join Ceroba.

Ceroba finally opened the big metal doors, she ran into the steamworks messily trying to navigate through it.

She quickly ran past the machinery and further into the steamworks, seriously they can’t leave that kid unsupervised for more than one day?

——————————————————————

Axis rolled out of the way of an attack with his one wheel, it's actually an advantage most of the time.

He decided to ‘learn’ from the hat kid and dodge attacks, it’s actually very effective.

The ‘ratings’ on the screen seem to be spiking, should Axis be concerned about that.

Probably not, this robot seemed weirdly stupid in comparison to himself.

Axis threw a few more attacks, guns going off damaging the opposing robot.

The gaurdener would probably be more qualified to attack this fool, for Axis this just feels like a waste of energy.

Axis could better be spending his time caring and spending time with his wife, or catching up with the small hat kid.

——————————————————————

Clover walked along the corridors of the steamworks, safe to say they were pretty lost.

They didn’t exactly look like they fit in either, they were a small human child carrying a froggit for crying out loud.

Clover spotted a small trail of clovers that looked very out of place, they started following it.

——————————————————————-

Ceroba rushed down a path, she’ll be damned if she lets that kid die again.

Occasional crackles came from beneath her feet, it’s probably just more of those white plants.

Ceroba turned a corner, she almost slid into a wall.

——————————————————————-

Axis looked on as he saw the robot start to struggle, narrowly avoiding the first attacks but usually getting hit by them ricocheting off of the walls or floor.

“THIS IS SO UNFABULOUS”

‘Mettaton’ turned heel and attempted to run away from Axis, Axis gave chase rushing after the other ‘robot’ who was trying to shake him off.

How rude, just running from a fight you started.

Do robots these days have no pride, is this ‘mettaton’ even a robot at all?

——————————————————————

Clover dragged their body through the steamworks, exhaustion definitely having caught up to them.

They finally arrived at the place with that obnoxious vending machine, sitting down at a table.

Clover checked their soul to see if it had gained any colour back from when they were absorbed, though luck the colour was still very pale.

The froggit looked concerned, nudging the soul, Clover put their index finger in front of their mouth as a request to stay silent about it.

“Ribbit Ribbit”

Clover couldn’t understand what the Froggit was saying but something told them it promised to keep silent, Clover debated on keeping the Froggit as a pet.

——————————————————————

Ceroba ran down the hall, she almost passed the vending machine before she saw someone from the corner of her eye.

Ceroba almost tripped because she halted so fast, Clover sat there clearly tired with a froggit on their lap.

Ceroba didn’t hesitate to rush to Clover’s side.

“Are you hurt? Did you sprain anything? Why didn’t you just stay put! We let you go to the ruins because it’d be safer than this place, how did you manage to get in so much trouble!”

Ceroba’s mind was panicking similarly to when she heard that Kanako had returned, her motherly instincts were taking over.

Clover blinked a few times in confusion, where they just were not used to someone worrying this much?

“I’m just a bit tired, I haven’t eaten or drinken a lot yet.”

Ceroba sighed and stood up walking over to the rude vending machine, she bought a bottle of water and a granola bar glaring at the machine while doing so before bringing it to Clover and their Froggit friend.

Clover mumbled a thank you underneath their breath and began eating the items, Ceroba felt her chest get slightly lighter.

——————————————————————

Mettaton tried to find a way to the human, he didn’t know that there was another robot in the underground!

Whatever the reason was that it was attacking Mettaton must have something to do with the kid, nevermind that this robot is stupidly strong and annoying to beat.

Mettaton doubts that he could beat the robot that called itself Axis, luckily he already turned off the broadcast before initiating his escape because his views would plummet!

Mettaton took turns attempting to avoid bullets ricocheting off of the walls; it didn’t take long for him to have gone full circle and return to the secret passageway.

Mettaton quickly went through it and kept going for a minute before realising that the demonic robot stopped chasing him, it was now closing off the passageway while staring into Mettaton’s soul…

Creepy.

Chapter Text

Frisk hesitantly stepped into the hole Clover came from, Chara floating behind them.

‘Are you sure you want to do this? It looks creepy’

[*YOU CONFIRM YOUR DESIRE TO FIND YOUR SIBLING]

[*LOOKING INTO THE ONLY POSSIBLE PATH TOWARDS YOUR SIBLING FILLS YOU WITH DETERMINATION]

Frisk's footsteps echoed throughout the damp hall, every step they took made a seemingly loud sound.

Chara curiously floated throughout the cavern, never straying too far from Frisk.

‘This looks like something Froggit would try and make; it’s damp, small rivers and has lily pads, perfect environment for them.’

Frisk nodded continuing forward, luckily they already told Toriel what was going on.

Toriel seemed to be in a state of panic and headed into the ruins with Frisk to search, they ended up splitting into two directions.

If anything goes wrong Frisk can always call Toriel for help, having a phone sure is convenient.

They should get one for Clover, or atleast try and pester Asgore to get one.

Frisk poked one of the stray lily pads, it felt soggy and weird.

Despite that, it looked pretty edible.

[*LILYPAD ADDED TO INVENTORY]

Frisk would have to stock up on healing items, yes they could technically save but dying still hurt quite a lot.

Chara just looked at Frisk questioningly.

‘I swear you are going to have to fix those horrible eating habits, i hope you never fall low enough to start eating branches.’

[*YOU TELL CHARA YOU WOULDN’T, BRANCHES WERE TOO HARD AND BAD FOR THE STOMACH]

Chara grimaced, seemingly feeling pity for Frisk.

‘You’ve actually eaten branches before?’

Frisk shrugged and continued on their path through the cavern(?), the sound of running water became quieter the more they walked.

[*YOU FEEL THE TEMPERATURE IN THE AIR SLOWLY START TO DROP]

Frisk sees patches of water turn into patches of ice, isn’t this a tripping hazard?

Frisk can see the marks that someone had fallen, due to the cracked ice and such.

Frisk carefully walks around the ice, slightly shivering due to the cold.

Clanging of metal became audible in the distance, Mettaton approached Frisk.

“FRISK, NICE TO SEE YOU DEAR! I DON’T SUGGEST GOING THAT WAY, THAT SPY KID RAN INTO SOME KIND OF MECHANICAL WORK PLACE WITH A ROBOT. IT’S BETTER TO STAY AWAY I’M SURE OTHER MONSTERS WILL GET TO THAT ENE-”

Frisk cut Mettaton off.

[*YOU CHALLENGE METTATON TO CALL YOUR SIBLING A SPY AGAIN]

Mettaton’s ramble came to a grinding halt, he looked at Frisk in shock.

[*YOU TELL METTATON THAT THERE IS NO WAY YOUR SIBLING IS A SPY]

[*YOU TELL METTATON HE WAS BEING MEAN AND DIDN’T LISTEN AGAIN, YOU TELL METTATON HE SHOULD START WORKING ON THAT]

[*YOU FEEL BAD FOR SAYING ALL OF THAT]

Frisk ran past Mettaton, their blood boiling as Chara followed them with slight surprise.

‘Wow Frisk, never thought you’d be the one. Seriously, these monsters don’t know what the word consequences mean.’

Frisk continued down the cavern leaving Mettaton behind to reflect, they were careful of the ice.

Frisk felt the temperature fluctuate again, the air around them becoming warmer as they find themself infront of a wall which was patched up quite poorly.

Frisk threw a weak punch, the wall came down.

They’ve never felt this proud before, Chara snickered at their new found achievement.

Frisk entered the unknown territory of bright pink liquids, steaming machines and legendary background music.

Frisk headed down the intended path, step by step, closely observing their surroundings to try and find their sibling.

Chara didn’t seem to be paying as much attention, mostly floating around and making exaggerated sighs.

Frisk enjoyed the beauty of this area, there seems to be a lot they haven’t discovered yet in the underground if they never knew this existed.

[*YOU ASK CHARA IF THEY KNOW THERE YOU ARE]

Chara floated back to Frisk, floating upside down to entertain themself.

‘I think it’s one of the older labs, I heard dad talk about a few when me and Asriel tried to spy on his work.’

Chara rolled their eyes, making a flip.

‘It was pretty boring so i didn’t really pay attention.’

Frisk didn’t expect that traces of ash and burned up plants were sometimes visible on the ground.

What a curious phenomenon, maybe there are plants somewhere in here that got burned up over time.

——————————————————————

Clover stood up from where they sat down with a slight stumble, safe to say they haven’t run this much in a while.

Ceroba kept a watchful eye on Clover, it filled them with the energy to continue.

It can’t be just them but they’ve been feeling less bothered to do things these days, either that or it just slips their mind an awful lot of times.

Whatever probably not something to be concerned about, Clover stood up walking away from the rest area.

With the Froggit nestled in their arms and Ceroba following them, they were ready to go back to the wild east- or atleast visit.

Clover halted when they heard a voice call out for them, Frisk's voice became clear to them, which was rare.

Ceroba jumped in front of Clover, Frisk stopped staring at her with their closed eyes.

Clover never really figured out how that worked, Ceroba was the one who spoke.

“Frisk.. What are you doing here? Did you decide to go after Clover after all?”

“No that isn’t-“

“Stop, you’re not getting any closer.”

Clover tugged on Ceroba’s sleeve who turned to Clover without a second thought.

“Frisk is my younger sibling.”

Ceroba fell silent, relaxing a bit as it infected the air.

She stepped out of the way, Frisk letting out a sigh of relief.

“Sorry kid, guess i jumped to conclusions after that tacky robot attacked.”

Frisk nodded hesitantly.

“It’s.. alright.” They snapped towards Clover. “If you don’t mind, we're going to Asgore.”

Ceroba looked just as shocked as Clover. “What do you-?”

Frisk answered. “Clearing up the misunderstanding, so Clover stops being attacked.”

Ceroba was trying to come up with an argument but couldn’t find one, she facepalmed.

“Why didn’t we think about that sooner….. Alright I’ll be following as well, I don’t want two chaotic kids getting in trouble around fire.”

Clover nodded with a smile as Frisk motioned for the two to follow, the two chaotic children, mother fox (and ghost) headed for Asgore’s castle.

Chapter Text

Ceroba followed the two kids, they walked in mutual silence.

It was oddly comfortable despite the absolute silence, they had enough faith in each other that neither bothered to check if the other was still present.

The path the group followed wasn’t really busy, but it was effective to reach their destination.

——————————————————————

Kanako ran after Mooch, she had stolen Kanako’s yellow crayon.

Kanako was chasing her because she couldn’t draw the sand, Starlo or the town bell without her yellow crayon.

While she herself didn’t want to admit it, she was nervous about her mom’s whereabouts.

Thinking of it, they haven’t visited Clover yet! That’s rude isn’t it? She should ask mom to go visit together when she returns, wait was she getting side tracked? 

Oh right, her crayon! Kanako jumped onto Mooch, Mooch toppled over. Mission success!

——————————————————————

While monsters eyed Clover with disdain they kept their distance due to Frisk, Ceroba would love to smack that scrap of a robot for doing that to Clover.

At Least the food healed the arm injury, or else that robot wouldn’t have arms anymore.

Ceroba thought she saw a golden flower out of the corner of her eye, she looked over into the direction.. It was just a hallucination then.

——————————————————————

Starlo was panicking, he didn’t know where Ceroba went and Clover was also no longer on the screens.

Of course Starlo couldn’t leave for three minutes to blow off some steam, everything had to get jumbled up and confusing while he wasn’t around.

Starlo was about to walk off when Kanako tugged his sleeve, he looked down at her.

“Howdy pardner, somethin’ going on?”

Starlo did his best to keep his cowboy accent, Kanako only smiled.

“I was wondering if you wanted to draw with me, mom went after Clover when they got in trouble.”

Starlo sighed, straining his smile, he really didn’t get included much did he?

“Yeah of course pardner!”

He ended up replying that one simple sentence, not having the heart to decline, yet still wanting to accompany his friends.

——————————————————————

Ceroba looked around the throne room, still retaining memories from that horrible time she had to turn in Clover’s soul.

Yet the king was nowhere to be found, the three were practically turning the castle upside down.

While Frisk was returning items to their rightful place Clover and Ceroba had absolutely no respect for the man, leading to ⅔ of the castle looking like a mess.

Ceroba found and picked up the note calling the two kids over, slowly folding it open and reading it out loud.

“Dear visitors, i; king Asgore and captain of the royal guard; Undyne have headed towards the surface to attempt establishing diplomatic relations.

Please be advised that if i return and the attempt has failed, the likelihood of a war being declared it high.”

Frisk looked like they were panicking.

“I told him he shouldn’t yet.. i was still working on it he can’t just- it’ll cause a war on such short notice!”

Ceroba turned to Frisk, questioning if they were aware.

“Kid, aren’t you aware that invitations and recruiting for new royal guard and monster army members started five days ago; the day before Clover came to the ruins?”

Frisk turned pale, it seemed like they didn’t know.

Their face turned a shade of angry red before Clover rested a hand on their back making Frisk calm down, they looked up.

“We have to follow them.”

Ceroba nodded as she followed Frisk to a room, through it she saw a sight she hadn’t seen before.

The sun shown brilliantly in the sky as trees stretched out into the distance, sadly this was no time to admire the beauty of the surface.

The three rushed down the mountain into the forest, relying on Frisk to navigate.

——————————————————————

Asgore stood in front of the humans, this wasn’t going as well as he hoped…

“Is that the truth? Really? Why? Why did you kill those kids?!” The secretary of the major who Frisk had called understanding yelled slowly backing up.

Asgore shook his head.

“I didn’t want to, i doubt anyone did, but we had no choice after so many years.”

The secretary shook their head, malice filling their eyes.

“No! No one said the souls had to be absorbed, no one said those kids had to be killed— you could’ve waited, you could’ve been reasonable but now six innocent kids died because of you! Who knows what more unethical choices you’ll make if we let you into our society? How many more people will you hurt?”

Asgore is going to have to apologise to Frisk and Undyne later, Frisk for betraying their trust and Undyne for dragging her along.

She looked uncomfortable and a bit mad, Asgore sighed.

“I was hoping we could establish diplomatic relations but.. i don’t think you’d like that.”

Asgore hasn’t seen this human’s soul yet but he could guess it was one of Justice, the human glared.

“Do you think you’re going to get away with this? This report is going to be sent to authorities, I’m sorry but you’ll be apprehended- don’t worry I’m sure your people will be just-“

Asgore cut them off.

“I’m not abandoning my people.”

“Sir Asgore, if you do that we’ll have no choice but to become violent.”

Undyne’s voice rang loud and clear, she already knew what Asgore's commands were going to be.

“So be it.”

At that moment a familiar voice yelled, an uncommon act for the beholder.

“Please stop!”

Frisk ran to the confrontation with a fox-like monster and… Asgore’s heart dropped as he saw the figure that looked identical to the seventh fallen human- the sixth soul of justice.

“Frisk thank god you’re okay— is that.. Clov— Nevermind, get those two kids away from that monster and escort them home, they can’t stay in the underground anymore to try and convince manners they clearly don’t have. Rest of you, stay with me to try and keep them away while the others call authorities.”

Two guards who they called ‘Police’ swiftly removed the fox-like monster from the two, she tried to struggle against it but they raised a gun to her head.

The policemen ran off with the kids struggling against them, did Asgore just witness a kidnapping?

——————————————————————

Clover tried to get released by the police, they didn’t have a lot of strength and gave up about halfway along the path.

Frisk didn’t stop struggling until they were put in front of an awfully familiar house, a woman opened the door.

Clover felt hatred rise in their chest when facing the woman that dared to call herself their ‘mother’ or ‘aunt’, Clover only saw a demon.

“Oh my!” She said with a fake care and worry in her voice. “My two kids are finally home! Thank you officer.”

The hah shoved Frisk and Clover into the house not even letting the police speak, she checked if the police left and slowly turned towards them.

“So the brats have returned… Do you think you’ll get off with a slap on the wrist? It’ll be much worse than that.” The hag spit pure venom, Clover got in front of Frisk on instinct as her husband approached.

[*YOU ARE FILLED WITH FEAR]

Chapter Text

Toriel was rushing towards the castle, clearly Asgore didn’t learn the first time she punched him.

The announcement of a war? That’s already bad enough, but how did that stupid goat man lose HER child in the process of doing so.

Not only that he also lost the other human! Clover, the kid that he had already hurt once before!

Just when she thought that her ex-husband couldn’t get any worse, he became worse.

Toriel barged into the throne room, with the meanest glare she could muster.

“Explain!” The situation she stumbled into was.. not what she expected.

A fox lady was being restrained by captain undyne, she was yelling at him in pure fury.

“-You useless king! You just let them take those two away? They obviously didn’t want to go and you just let it happen, what kind of ‘hey thanks for breaking the barrier’ is that!”

Toriel seems to not have been heard because of the fox lady, but something told Toriel she was in the right to yell at him right now.

Toriel lent on the door frame, she saw how Asgore tried to argue but never got the chance.

Undyne mostly struggled to keep the angry fox lady from hitting him, Toriel kind of hoped she did.

Toriel didn’t have to wait long for other angry or worried monsters to start arriving, few she recognized, few she didn’t.

Papyrus carrying him brother came first with immense concern, second came a blue bird lady flying in, then Alphys with a Mettaton who even though in his box-like form looked shaken up.

Dalv arrived not much later with a cowboy star monster who with the bird lady pulled the fox lady away from Undyne and the king, pulling her into a corner so she could explain.

Toriel walked up to Asgore, a mean look on her face.

“Would you like to explain?”

Toriel asked with mock kindness, at that moment.. the king felt true fear for the first time.

——————————————————————

Toriel brushed her hands off on her dress, Asgore had a bright red mark on his face.

The bystanders looked on in shock, except sans and Dalv’s friends that looked at him as if unanimously agreeing he deserved that.

“Alright Tori whi-”

“Toriel”

“Toriel, while i do apologise, we have a war on our hands.”

“Really? You’re just going to go through with it and fight that war? How do you expect humanity to ever forgive you if you murder more innocents?”

“I have no other choice”

“Maybe you would’ve had one if you listened to my child.”

“I’ll apologise profusely when we see them again but now is not the time.”

The fox lady intercepted.

“Well because of your foolery you might never even get the chance.”

“Alright- alright, please just let me talk without getting argued against.”

Asgore seemed tired, but the fox lady and Toriel replied at the same time.

“Absolutely not.”

The star cowboy made a shocked expression and spoke in a horrible cowboy accent.

“I never knew mother telepathy was real, i thought Ceroba was joking.”

The fox lady- Ceroba rolled her eyes.

“I was but great minds think alike, unlike a certain idiot king.”

Toriel added.

“If he was thinking then maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Asgore groaned in annoyance.

“I’m about a hundred percent sure those kids won’t forgive me, but i have to do something to forgive my sins..”

“Oh don’t worry, they’ll forgive you.”

Everyone jumped back at the sound of a familiar flower, Toriel felt her heart sink at the sight of her dead child.

“I mean you’ve all collectively done way worse than not being able to help, from what I’ve heard they walked into it themselves they’d be faster to blame themself than you.”

Papyrus looked like he was questioning him, drastically.

“LITTLE FLOWER WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I DON’T RECALL DOING THINGS THAT HURT THE TINY HUMAN MORE THAN THIS.”

Flowey looked at him with a smile frozen on his face, his eyes were less empty than the first time Toriel had seen him like this.

“Oh you can’t be that oblivious, dragging the two around, attacking them even after they plead for mercy, blaming them for things they didn’t do, all of you have been very selfish!”

The room fell silent, dread rising from the depths of everyone’s hearts.

“Have any of you even bothered to count how many times you’ve done things they never had the chance to agree to? How many times you might’ve hit or hurt them by accident, how many times they’ve walked injuries you could’ve prevented off?”

Toriel remembered clearly every time she hit Frisk with her fire, or when she left them in the ruins to explore for themself and they arrived back injured and bruised.

“Do any of you even remember apologising properly? Of course you don’t! Because none of you did. The only one who didn’t hurt one of the kids is probably the smiley trashbag”

Flowey had a cruel smile, no sympathy for the monsters that were clearly in some sort of shock.

Flowey laughed emptily.

“Wait seriously? None of you even noticed this entire time? Wow, that's some reaaaal friendship there.”

Flowey scoffed.

“I’ll leave the ‘adults’ to think about this. I’m sure such smart monsters have a greaaat plan.”

The sarcasm in his voice was evident as he burrowed into the ground leaving silence behind.

Everyone kept silent, not daring or not bothering to say anything.

Toriel didn’t know what to say, what to do, how to react.

A clumsy voice was the first to talk.

“W-we need to fix this. Even if a w-war is on the horizon, we need to fix what we’ve done.”

Asgore looked down, a shadow cast over his eyes.

“I’ll see what i can do preparing, we’ll find a way to reduce casualties as much as possible..

As silence filled the room the group slowly split up again, some filled with determination, some with regret but all knew what was ahead of them.

it wasn’t pretty.

Chapter Text

Frisk hid in the old small and dingy room curled up into a ball, they hid from the loud noises of shouting and things breaking outside.

Chara floated by the door, they looked concerned.

‘So this was your home life before? I always knew it wasn’t great, it was obvious from what you told me.

It’s about just as bad as I imagined, but at least you have someone trying to protect you.’

Chara looked at Frisk before turning away again, it was a bit awkward.

‘Alright not the time, I see.’

Something loudly shattered downstairs, the screaming got louder.

Frisks blood froze, Chara scowled floating through the door probably to look at the fight.

——————————————————————

Ceroba stood by the door of the lab, she didn’t really want to participate all that badly with this whole war thing.

While that is true it’s also the quickest way to get Clover and that Frisk kid back if she were to sneak away, even if that might take a while to succeed there isn’t really another way to go about this easily.

The underground is in lockdown and you can’t just leave anymore, unless you’re a flying monster going up in the ruins forget it!

Alphys came out of a hidden door, she looked serious with a clipboard in her hand.

“A-alright I have a few w-weapons that have been under construction for a long time, I-I made them with Determination extracted from the souls.”

Ceroba’s heart dropped, she felt heat rise to her paws threatening to attack.

Martlet grabbed her shoulder, the icy wings grounded Ceroba.

“W-we have an assortment of different weapons ranging from melee, to firearms a-and i even managed to successfully make a few robots out of them.”

Alphys looked proud, Asgore praised her.

Ceroba wasn’t impressed knowing the beautiful robot her late husband had made, she waited for the presentations.

After the weapons were moved out of the storage Ceroba had to admit they looked impressive, even if a little bulky they were indeed injected with determination from most souls.

Alphys started talking again, great give us an explanation.

“S-so these are a little hard to make since I have to extract DT from a soul t-to give the weapons their abilities, but I promise it’s worthwhile.”

Asgore looked a bit curious, and confused.

“Why would that be so hard doctor Alphys?”

Alphys stumbled over her words, such confidence.

“W-well the SOULs sometimes cling onto the DT as if consciously trying to keep it, t-there have been theories that they might be aware- B-BUT There is no evidence to prove that.”

If Clover or Kanako was aware while Alphys was shoving needles into their soul Ceroba would personally make Alphys a pin cushion, no mercy.

——————————————————————

Frisk his in the corner as the sounds slowly died down, the door to the room swung open and slammed shut.

Clover emerged with a stream of blood running down their face, they looked rough but their knuckles were also a bit bruised.

Frisk worried and rushed towards Clover.

[*YOU ASK CLOVER WHAT HAPPENED]

Clover’s pissed expression turned to an attempt at a reassuring smile, the tinge of pain was still visible.

“No need to worry about me, it’ll be alright.”

Clover took their yellow and blue bandana and held it against the wound, it started to absorb the blood.

“I’ll keep them away, I’m not exactly planning on just ‘taking’ it anymore.”

Frisk guessed as much, they were sure the bruised knuckles were enough of an indicator they fought back.

Frisk saw Chara motion at the window seemingly trying to help, Clover looked questioningly at Frisk.

‘Frisk, do you think you two can leave through the window?’

[*YOU REPEAT THE QUESTION TO CLOVER]

Clover walks over to the window looking out of it, their eyes widened slightly.

“You might not be wrong.”

Clover attempted to open the window, swiftly failing.

Frisk looked down in disappointment before hearing a loud crash, Clover took a lamp and shattered the window.

“Quick I don’t think they didn’t hear us.”

——————————————————————

Ceroba stood in front of the area where she first saw the humans, the humans that took one of her kids.

She clenched her hand tightly around her staff, a knife holstered on her side.

She knew she would use it, but the yellow shine of its Determination embedded blade reminded her of Clover.

Let the fight begin, she shall not waver.

Chapter Text

Kanako was curled into a ball of stress, the war has been going on for about a day or two and it wasn’t doing well for anyone’s nerves.

Kanako knew her mom was safe, she promised everytime she left home in the morning. 

Yet it didn’t calm Kanako’s nerves, it only made her worry more about the promise being broken.

After sitting there for a few minutes she took a deep breath, stood up and puffed her chest.

Kanako is a big kid now, she shouldn’t be scared, she shall make a great venture through the underground to distract herself prove her bravery!

Kanako headed down the stairs, she headed into the hall going for the front door.

Without her mom being present it was quite silent, she had gotten used to her mom being at work but knowing she was somewhere dangerous…

NOPE! Not thinking about that, it’s time to prove to herself that she’s a big kid now!

Kanako left her house, the village was oddly silent, there were usually a fair amount of citizens.. But now? There were none.

Kanako pushed the door to the bakery open, there was the same jingle of the bell but no one was visibly present.

The door closed shut again, Kanako headed to the mail whale bell, maybe she can visit Dalv..

——————————————————————

Asgore held his trident sturdily, it shone with the six colours of determination that Alphys had collected.

Asgore swiftly restrained another human, a DT robot moving them away.

The fight was going smoothly, a bit too smoothly.

Explosions went off across the battlefields with advanced- well advanced for them- guns shot the more hostile monsters down.

Asgore prepared to dash in and take them down, with weapons like those the monsters were already at a disadvantage.

Despite that, Asgore refused to let his citizens down, he refused to let any one of his subjects bite the dust as he thrusted his spear into one of the guns.

——————————————————————

Kanako walked through the chilly surroundings of Snowdin, it wasn’t as lively as usual but it wasn’t devoid of life either.

Kanako was kind of regretting not putting on more layers, luckily her fur helped a lot against the cold.

The festive lights flickered on and off, yet it felt a bit hollow without most of the residents having fun outside.

Kanako came across a building called the ‘librarby’, curiosity got the best of her and she took a peek inside… Just a regular library, again completely empty.

Kanako didn’t hesitate on continuing her journey with a faster pace, she found the silence creepy and unnerving.

Two things she didn’t like, back to the big Christmas tree! Hopefully more residents there…

——————————————————————

Asgore burned down a mother fence the humans tried to set up, how many times are they going to try before they get the memo of ‘not happening’.

A few bullets bounced off of his armour, Asgore dashed for the next human aiming for the weapon.

The other monsters seemed to be doing fine, using healing magic and barrier magic to try and keep the projectiles at bay.

Asgore is proud of his people, he refuses for the monsters to fall, he is stubborn and filled with determination as he strikes human weapons down.

A blaze spread over the treetops, it was a pinkish colour that shone brilliantly.

Asgore hasn’t seen a lot of other fire users, he wonders who that might be.

Maybe he should ask them for a cup of tea, that would be polite right?

It’s always nice to make friends with other monsters who can use similar magic, even if they aren’t anything special in the underground.

Asgore might be a king, but even he has to admit he can’t shoulder or do everything alone.

He will trust in his people as they trust him, for their sakes he will push through.

——————————————————————

Kanako looked up at the big decorated tree, it's always pretty, somehow her fascination for it never ceased no matter how many times she looked at it.

An armless reptile kid approached her, he wore an energetic yet a bit gloomy smile.

“Hey there? Admiring the tree’s beauty? I know it looks really pretty!”

Kanako nodded.

“It never gets boring.”

The yellow reptile kid nodded.

“I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the underground you’ll find a tree like this one!”

The upbeat tone in the kids voice sounded a bit forced, Kanako frowned.

“Do you think there are more on the surface?”

The reptile kid nodded again.

“Yeah, I hope we can get to see them someday.”

The reptile kid heard someone call for them and left, Kanako kept staring at the tree while imagining the surface.

Hope only gets someone so far, but it’s the only building block monster kind has.

If everything was truly born from hopes, then it wouldn’t hurt to dream as well.

…

Why was Kanako here again?

Chapter Text

Clover knew the war was raging on somewhere , but no matter how much they tried neither of them could find it.

They only have one more option… Clover quickly advanced through the forest squeezing Frisk’s hand, their rapid yet shallow breathing speaking volumes for their exhaustion.

They didn’t take the time to process their surroundings almost tripping over branches and roots, there’s no time to waste, lives are on the line they shouldn’t falter now.

The mountain was just up ahead, Clover hoped with all of their heart that those flowers would still work the same magic as last time.

Frisk squeezed Clover’s hand, Clover nodded as they ran into the cave.

The two jumped, Clover as a safety measure grabbed Frisk and pulled them into a tight embrace turning their back towards the ground.

Frisk clung to Clover’s Clothes as they descended down the hole, Clover felt their mind go numb as their body hit the ground with a loud.. BANG!!

They felt a bolt of pain travel up their body, slipping out of consciousness as the air got pushed out of their lungs.

They were pretty sure they had an impending headache, that’ll be a future problem.

——————————————————————

Frisk rolled off of Clover’s chest, frantically shaking the body to wake up in a hurried panic.

Frisk tightened their grip and shook harder, yet Clover remained unresponsive.

Frisk frantically tried to get Clover to wake up, to the point they may or may not have slapped Clover across the face at least once.

Frisk got increasingly frustrated taking out the stick in their inventory and-

[*SOMEONE CALLS OUT YOUR NAME]

Frisk whips around towards Chara who looked concerned and annoyed, they looked a bit impatient.

‘Are you finally listening? Good, they aren’t dead MORON they just passed out from the impact. The worst thing they might have is a concussion but for the rest it’ll be fine.’

Frisk felt a sigh of relief escape their throat, they returned the stick to their inventory.

They weren’t thinking rationally blinded by panic, they need to try and keep their emotions in check if they wanted to try and prevent anyone getting hurt in that ‘war’.

Frisk can bet the humans aren’t taking this seriously, but the monsters don’t know that.

Frisk picked up Clover’s body and slung it over their shoulder, placing Clover’s hat on their own head or they wouldn’t lose it.

Frisk is going to have to thank Papyrus and Undyne later for training them, but they’ll have to find them safely first.

Frisk proceeded into the ruins as Chara followed closely behind, the echoing silence was even more horrible than usual.

Even the soft croaking of a Froggit- or the occasional flapping of a Whimsun’s wings weren’t present anymore, silence intoxicated the ruins.

Frisk found a save point, better safe than sorry…

[*YOU ARE FILLED WITH DETERMINATION TO BRING THE SERENE LIFE OF THE RUINS BACK]

They proceeded slowly taking care of the traps, quietly wondering where the hole in the wall went.

Despite the oddities, Frisk was determined, they refused to give up under any circumstance.

Their footsteps rang through the empty corridors, dragging them and their sibling forward.

Their mission filled them with determination.

Chara didn’t look concerned, Frisk has long given up on trying to figure out if it was an act or if it was simply the truth.

Chara was a good liar, if they didn’t want Frisk to know about something they’d easily fool them into believing a lie.

Yet Chara was one of their best friends, someone they cared about, despite their cold attitude Frisk could tell they cared.

Their friends filled them with determination.

Frisk proceeded through the ruins arriving at their home, Toriel wasn’t there.

They set Clover down on a chair hurrying to the kitchen, they took a small glass and filled it with freezing cold water.

A familiar cinnamon-butterscotch pie stood upon the counter, Frisk took a few slices to go, they were sure Toriel wouldn’t mind.

The thought of their goat mom filled them with determination.

Frisk went back to the living room cup of water in hands, if the movies were right.. this should theoretically work.

[*YOU TOSS THE GLASS OF WATER OVER CLOVER’S FACE]

——————————————————————

A cold sensation travelled through Clover’s body as they jolted awake.

Their bandana and face was soaking wet as they sat in Toriel’s reading chair, they looked at Frisk who wore their cowboy hat with an empty cup on hand.

Clover sighed slightly massaging their temples to lighten the small headache they were suffering before getting up, they took their hat back and bonked Frisk on the head.

“Put that back where you found it, you’re not stealing more random items.”

Frisk giggled before dashing into the kitchen and returning in record time, Clover looked at Frisk sceptically.

“You typically clean a glass after use.”

Frisk hugged and returned to the kitchen, Clover heard the water run for a while followed by a small yelp.

Frisk probably burned their hand on hot water again…. Frisk emerged from the kitchen this time less patient, the ends of their sleeves had become a bit wet.

Clover smiled proudly, reaching out their hand for frisk to take.

“Come on, that war isn’t waiting for us to show up.”

Frisk gladly took it as the two descended down towards the very big doors with the ‘deltarune’ emblem.

Clover reached for the door before a wall of thorny vines blocked it, making them stumble away from the hazard.

“I don’t suggest you go out there, it’s not exactly safe.”

Clover whirled around to the source of the familiar voice, relief and familiarity rose in their chest at the sight of Flowey.

“Flowey! It’s great to see you again.”

Flowey gave a hesitant nod.

“I suppose it is, old friend, really though you were dead there for a second… Nevermind that I know what you two imbeciles are planning, you are so. very. Predictable!”

Clover remembered Flowey having said that once before, giving a hesitant nod.

Frisk hid behind Clover trusting them to lead the conversation, wondering what brought that on.

“I know, but that war it’ll!- it’ll destroy lives along with families, we can’t just let it go on!”

Flowey sighed.

“As much as I’d like to argue with the two of you walking into a probable death trap, I know there’s nothing that can stop your justice or your determination when you put your minds to it.”

Clover felt pride rise to their chest, that’s a compliment coming from Flowey if they had to be honest.

Flowey continued, with a smug grin on his face.

“Despite that I’m kind of curious where this’ll lead, it should be very entertaining , I guess I’ll tag along for now.”

Clover felt like that wasn’t the only reason Flowey came along, still they turned to Frisk who seemed a bit less tense now.

“Do you have a flowerpot?”

“…I do?”

“What are you two idiots planning this time?”

With a new party to the team, carried along in a flower pot, the journey to the battlefield continued.

A pastel colour of justice started to regain its shine, soul recovering filling with determination for the sake of justice.  

Chapter Text

Ceroba blocked another attack, the field where they were attacking engulfed in the familiar grid.

With barely any colours in her surroundings it made it easier to focus on the enemy, she was trying her best not to hurt them too badly.

Most of them ended in successful apprehension, the dry leaves didn’t seem to appreciate the fire though setting the local ecosystem ablaze.

Ceroba reminded herself about her mission, what she’s here to do, yet she’s not getting any openings.

Despite the fight the humans didn’t seem to be taking this seriously as a war, which Ceroba greatly appreciated as it made her life easier.

Sadly it didn’t make it any easier to sneak away, which was the whole reason she accompanied the monsters to the surface for this.

Luckily attacking things made it frustrating, occasionally it felt satisfying when she saw the human having attacked another monster.

Ceroba’s paw never reached for the knife she brought with her from the lab, it was mostly there for moral support since it reminded her of Clover.

Despite the almost useless job it server, it was helping to an extent.

It filled Ceroba with determination, to protect Kanako and Clover.

She will never admit out loud that the small cowboy is practically her second child, never.

——————————————————————

Frisk walked in front leading Clover and Flowey through snowdin, Chara occasionally eyes Flowey trying to do it discreetly.

It wasn’t working, guess you don’t learn any stealth skills when you’re dead huh?

[*YOU STEP ON A TWIG THAT SNAPS WITH A LOUD SOUND]

Frisk wonders how that got there, last time they checked Sans snapped that twig.

Did it regenerate? The wonders of monster kind had no end, wait! Not the time to get sidetracked!

The soft crunching of the snow was serene, despite the serenity of Snowdin it wasn’t a comfortable one.

[*THE SILENCE IN THE AIR MAKES YOU WORRY FOR THE MONSTERS]

[*YOU ARE FILLED WITH DETERMINATION TO BRING THE MONSTERS FIGHTING BACK TO THEIR FAMILIES]

The group walked over the bridge with the way too large fence, Frisk walked about the path on their way to the town.

A familiar tune that always played in Snowdin rang through the empty area, the song sounded more hollow than usual.

The two entered Snowdin town, the emptiness of the area sent chills down Frisk's spine.

There were still people, but the usual homely air had become more melancholic and anxious.

“Wow! These people are awfully depressed today!”

Frisk did in fact not appreciate Flowey’s comment, Clover didn’t either but Chara was snickering.

Guess they share the same horrible sense of humour, amazing.

The two walked through Snowdin, Frisk had a quickened pace clearly not comfortable with whatever was going on.

[*YOU HEAR A VOICE CALL FOR CLOVER]

“Hey! Clover!” It was a young and energetic voice belonging to a brown fox monster.

Clover smiled and waved “Hello there Kanako.”

Kanako bounced in front of the three “I was really worried when mom said you had to go for a little while, I’m glad you’re back safely- oh is that mister Flowey? He helped me find those golden flowers!”

Kanako was definitely talking a bit too fast for Frisks and Clover’s liking, Flowey however didn’t mind. “Howdy there Kanako!”

Clover patiently listened to the fox, Frisk stayed neutral and a bit confused. 

She started rapidly talking about worrying for her mom, how ‘uncle Starlo and the feisty five’ were constantly trying to keep the dunes calm and how she just wanted it to be over because of all of the anxiety.

[*YOU TELL KANAKO THAT YOU, CLOVER AND FLOWEY ARE ON YOUR WAY TO INTERCEPT THE BATTLE]

Frisk had no idea how they were gonna do it and knew fully well it probably wouldn’t make a lot of sense, yet they knew the path of this fight was wrong.

Kanako’s eyes sparkled, it seemed Frisk had grabbed her attention.

“Really?! Can I join? Can I join? We can go through the steamworks!”

Frisk was confused at what the steamworks actually were, they looked at Clover for them to elaborate.

“The steamworks are connected to the dunes, think of it as a shortcut towards a new home.”

Kanako nodded. “Mom said Miss Martlet had a few docks built, we can fairly quickly get to the dunes now, along with that it should be safer than before!”

Frisk didn’t know who that was or what was going on but Clover seemed to trust it so they were willing to go along with this plan, Kanako led the group to an unknown part of Snowdin.

They walked past some sort of resort before coming across a stable looking raft, Kanako invited them to join her on it and they did.

The retracted the raft’s rope which connected it to the docks, Frisk felt the movement of the boat as they slowly went into the stream.

They could’ve sworn they saw Monster kid run and trip in their direction but there wasn’t enough time to process it, Frisk hopes they didn’t accidentally leave monster kid behind.

Chapter Text

Clover tightly held onto Frisk's hand and Flowey’s flower pot as they led the way, Kanako had tried to insist on leading the way before realising she didn’t know where to go either.

With that she ended up at the end of the line with a disappointed look, despite that Clover couldn’t be angry at her.

She probably hasn’t fully explored the dunes yet, she’s just a kid and knowing Ceroba she wouldn’t have let Kanako be so reckless.

Clover walked through the sand with little to no difficulty, while Kanako didn’t have much trouble Frisk did.

It only made sense since they’ve never been here before, but they insisted on walking normally after Clover offered to carry them on their back.

It almost made them proud seeing how independent and strong Frisk has become, yet they are still a kid, they shouldn’t have to be acting this way…

Clover felt guilt rise in their chest as they recalled they could’ve prevented this, they shook their head to try and shake off the thought.

The group proceeded through the dunes, Kanako took the lead when she found it look familiar which was very fortunate.

Clover has only been through this place once? Twice? Thrice? Not enough to get the fastest way to the wild east, Kanako had a quick pace but luckily Frisk was already getting used to the send from their more stable style of walking.

Kanako led them into the wild east, silence choked the air, not even Dina seemed to be active.

Clover got shivers sent down their spine, this uneasy feeling wasn’t very pleasant.

——————————————————————

Ceroba struck another person unconscious, despite that she never exited battle mode as there was a new fighter.

She was starting to get tired, she just needed some time to get away is that really too much to ask?

Ceroba sighed, raising her staff, this really couldn’t end fast enough.

——————————————————————

Frisk walked as Clover messed with the control pad, Chara had suggested breaking the door but Frisk subtly gave a shake of their head.

Kanako was holding Flowey blabbering about something Flowey absolutely wasn’t listening to.

[*YOU PATIENTLY WAIT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR]

Frisk felt something familiar about it but couldn’t lay their finger on it, have they actually been here before or was it just a coincidence.

Who was Frisk kidding, with their collective luck there was gonna be some kind of murder robot on the other side of this door and they would be none the wiser.

Clover grumbled, with a loud crashing sound the door opened, Clover looked away innocently standing right next to the smashed control pad.

Kanako looked a bit shocked but went along with it, Frisk shrugged it off and Flowey looked disinterested.

[*MACHINERY LITTERS THE AREA]

Frisk looked around, was this the place they found Clover with that fox lady? Yes it must’ve been.

Yep Frisk definitely recognized that godly music, they were heading through the hall.. until a robot smashed through the door.

“INTRUDER SPOTTED: S— HOLD ON NEVER MIND YOU'RE WITH THE HAT KID.”

Clover waved and Axis waved back.

“WELCOME TO THE STEAMWORKS, I AM AXIS MODEL 014 PLEASE CONTINUE WITH CAUTION AROUND THE MACHINERY.”

Axis sped off, he had a few materials and tools, was he fixing the wall from earlier?

Frisk shrugged it off as Clover and Kanako didn’t seem to mind either, Flowey didn’t count.

Chara just floated around like usual, seemingly occupied with literal nothingness.

——————————————————————

Papyrus’ soul felt heavy as he struck another human down, he wasn’t expecting it to be like this.

Why was it so hard to do his job? Why wasn’t there a more peaceful solution?

Papyrus forced himself to ignore it, but he couldn’t bring himself to use his magic or hurt the humans too badly.

With a heavy soul he continued, his cyan sword still had its cover on he couldn’t help himself.

He didn’t want to hurt them, this wasn’t what he expected, maybe it’d be better for this to be over as soon as possible..

He blocked another attack, returning one that was flimsy even for his own tastes.

He took a deep breath. Patience, it’ll all be over soon.

Chapter Text

Clover practically dragged their legs across the ground, yet they couldn’t slow down.

Way too much was on the line. 

This isn’t the time to slack, this isn’t the time to rest. No, no, NO, NO NO NO! They refuse to let injustice happen, they refuse to let this keep going!

They followed closely behind Frisk, Flowey seemed a bit anxious for whatever reason.

I guess after getting to know him for so long at some point you just gain the ability to tell how the flower is feeling.

Kanako was behind Clover, she was visibly worried and a bit tense.

Now they were in new home the goal was close and the severity of the situation was really starting to get to everyone’s heads.

Clover used the breathing exercise they remembered, when he was frustrated he’d throw a hissy fit and eventually Flowey had enough and taught him about it.

Just like back then it was able to calm Clover’s nerves, it really did work like a charm.

Another corner was turned, the group ran through a flower bed and rushed to the exit.

——————————————————————

Kanako shielded her eyes when light fell onto them, her eyes dilated when she saw what caused it.

A beautiful orb hang in the sky, is that what mommy called the ‘sun’?

Kanako reached out to what felt like an embodiment of hope, a vine stopped her from continuing.

Clover pulled her back as fast as they could, when Kanako realised what she was doing she noticed she was about to walk off of the cliff.

Flowey chuckled, presumably a bit nervous. “Look I know the sun is very enchanting to see for the first time in your life, but it’s not worth dying over.”

Kanako felt adrenaline shoot through her body as she backed up a bit more, Clover moved out of the way to let her.

“I-I’m so sorry!” Kanako covered her mouth. “I didn’t know I was-”

Clover rested a hand on her shoulder, they shook their head.

“It’s… alright but now’s not the time.”

Frisk nodded, making a hurried sign for the three to follow, Kanako followed Frisk off of the cliff.

Kanako struggled to follow the two (three), as they weaved through the forest.

Kanako knew she had some mischief finesse but this was in a whole other level, so all humans have these skills?

Kanako almost jumped out of her fur as she heard a loud bang, smoke rising in the distance, worry rose in her chest forcing her to move faster.

Kanako felt desperation and tears fill her eyes, what if that was her mom? What if the humans are winning? What if the king is already dead?

Kanako shook her head cursing her habit of overthinking, not the time, not the time, not the time!

The leaves rushed past Kanako’s body as low hanging trees got in the way, she was starting to run out of breath.

——————————————————————

Frisk felt their soul ache, it was a familiar feeling they felt while fighting mettaton or undyne.

They ignored the feeling as they rushed forward, Chara following closest behind them of everyone.

‘You know I don’t particularly like humanity, but I don’t want monsters to screw themself over either.’

Frisk absentmindedly nodded, not even listening anymore, fixated on their goal.

[*YOU ARE FILLED WITH DETERMINATION TO SAVE YOUR FRIENDS]

Frisk rushed over the battlefield feeling themself get hurled into battle mode, but they didn’t care.

They knew the others were still following them, they could see them from the corner of their closed eyes.

They rushed over the battlefield seeing everything in black and white, the occasional splash of colour from a soul.

They were running as fast as they could, closing their throat tightly as tension rose in every inch of their body.

——————————————————————

Ceroba dodged an attack from an especially sadistic looking human, they sealed out a scary amount of damage.

The human kept slashing, Ceroba narrowly dodged most of the attacks, a few scraping against her clothes.

The human had malice and pure hatred in their eyes, violently swinging their weapon.

She could feel the killing intent radiating off of this human, while she saw how most humans were mostly just trying to capture and peacefully neutralise the monsters this one was out for blood.

It seems some humans still harbour deep hatred for monsters, Ceroba did not know why.

She saw three familiar entities enter the near battlefield, she almost froze in shock at realising who they were.

The first one was Frisk, they were shouting and waving their hands trying to get the attention of both monsters and humans yet not succeeding.

Clover held a flowerpot with— Flowey? Since when was that flower in a flowerpot— They were assisting Frisk but kept a more wary eye on the surroundings.

Lastly.. Kanako? Oh she’s definitely going to be grounded after this, Ceroba didn’t quite like the thought of Kanako being here in probable danger.

At that moment Ceroba was caught off guard having preoccupied with the kids that just arrived, the assistive human struck her legs making her topple down.

Ceroba saw the human raise their weapon, she closed her eyes as she knew she wouldn’t be fast enough to dodge.

She braced for the attack feeling her own blood run cold, she had been so confident this entire time that now she was certainly going to get badly hurt fear flooded almost every sense.

She knew she wouldn’t die, she was confident of it, she just knew it was gonna hurt. Bad.

Ceroba hated the thought of her daughter and Clover seeing her get hurt, she hated them even being here!

Ceroba expected the feeling of cold steel to run through her fur into her body, but instead she heard the loud crashing of a pot.

Ceroba felt her blood run cold upon remembering the closest person with any kind of pot, opening her eyes and she froze at the sight of an injured Clover.

The human seemed to be just as shaken as she was, Ceroba got major Deja-vu from what happened with Kanako.

This time she refused to sit still and watch it happen, mindlessly pelting the human with a fireball and ripped off a piece of her clothing.

The soft white cloth turned crimson as she used it to apply pressure to the wound, Kanako quickly dashed over with tears forming in her eyes.

——————————————————————

Frisk saw how Clover took a dangerous hit, how the fox lady- Ceroba and Kanako mindlessly panicked into trying to take care of them.

Frisk saw how shaken papyrus looked, desperate to spare the enemies yet not succeeding.

Frisk saw how much their friends were struggling even with the weird weapons and machinery, how much they seemed to be hurting due to injuries or their morale which had been questioned by this fight.

How the haunted look on Flowey’s face even in battle mode was more than clear, they slowly turned towards where they saw Asgore and who they presumed to be the leader weren’t paying attention.

[*YOU ARE FILLED WITH DETERMINATION FURY]

Frisk forced their eyes open, instead of the white of the battle mode or even the familiar hazel it carried a red shine.

Frisk didn’t hear Chara’s confusion, Chara’s warnings, Frisk was fed up.

[*A POWER OVERFLOWS YOUR SOUL COURSING THROUGHOUT YOUR BODY]

[*YOU SHOUT AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS FOR EVERYONE TO STOP]

[*CRACKS ECHOED THROUGH THE AREA]

Frisk could’ve expected a lot to happen but breaking the battle mode wasn’t one of them; the feeling of shattering something that was etched so deeply into a monster's reality reminded them of that run.

Frisk felt the overwhelming fury coursing through their veins die down, their care for their friends and family keeping it burning.

[*YOU ASK IF THE KING AND THE ‘COMMANDER’ ARE DONE USELESSLY FIGHTING]

The two almost jumped in shock, not expecting Frisk to sound that serious.

Frisk didn’t react, at the moment they couldn’t be too particularly bothered to care.

[*YOU TELL THE TWO AUTHORITATIVE FIGURES ABOUT THEIR STUPIDITY, YOU RECOMMEND A LEVEL HEADED MEETING]

The two figures seemed too shaken to decline, nodding to Frisk's ‘recommendation’.

Frisk turned to Ceroba and Kanako who were looking in almost as much shock as the other two, Flowey seems to have already run off.

Problems for later.

[*YOU TELL CEROBA AND KANAKO TO GET CLOVER TO GET TAKEN CARE OF WHILE YOU DEAL WITH THIS ‘SITUATION’]

It seems Ceroba didn’t need a lot more to stand up with shaky legs, nod and run off with Kanako and Clover in hand.

Frisk looked around the battlefield which had fallen completely silent, they ignored it, reaching out their hands for the two authority figures to take and follow them to a ‘calmer’ place.

they reluctantly agree.

Chapter Text

Ceroba has never felt her legs drag her somewhere this fast ever since Kanako fell, with Kanako and an injured Clover in hand she was speeding towards the underground.

Ceroba rushed as fast as she could with two kids in her arms, one unconscious and one uncontrollably sobbing.

Ceroba felt a bit jealous of Martlet, it’d be so much easier to get around with wings..

——————————————————————

Frisk and the two authorities, not including Chara, stood somewhere a bit farther away from the fight.

[*YOU LOOK AT THE TWO FIGURES WITH A DISAPPROVING GLARE]

Frisk hadn't closed their eyes yet and had their arms crossed, they hoped it’d get their frustration over to the king and human commander.

[*YOU ASK THE TWO PEOPLE IF THEY UNDERSTOOD THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS]

King Asgore looked a bit guilty, the human commander was avoiding eye contact with an irritated expression.

The king decided to speak first.

“Frisk, i know that some people may get hurt-”

[*YOU INTERRUPT THE KING AND CORRECT HIM THAT SOME PEOPLE MAY DIE]

The king looked a bit shocked, but that statement shut him up tightly, Frisk wondered why they had to do this.

The human commander was next.

“We have nothing against the monsters, but this ‘king’ refused judgement or apprehension.”

[*YOU TELL THE HUMAN COMMANDER THAT'S NO REASON TO AGREE TO A WAR]

The human commander scoffed.

“We know but we had no choice, he was becoming hostile. Besides we weren’t planning to hurt any of the monsters, they weren’t trying to kill any of us so why would we?”

Asgore looked a bit surprised.

[*YOU THANK THE HUMAN COMMANDER FOR THEIR KINDNESS]

The human commander gave a soft smile, Asgore lowered his head.

“I apologise, truly from the bottom of my heart.”

[*YOU TELL ASGORE THAT A SORRY WOULDN’T SOLVE EVERYTHING AS GENTLY AS YOU CAN]

Asgore nodded with a melancholic expression.

[*YOU TELL THE TWO AUTHORITATIVE FIGURES TO TELL THEIR RESPECTIVE GROUPS TO STAND DOWN, THEN DISCUSS WHAT HAPPENS AFTER]

The human commander nodded “Understood.. uh sorry to drag you into this kid.”

Asgore looked a bit tense “.. Again i must apologise, this isn’t something i should let a child handle.”

[*YOU THANK THE TWO FOR THEIR APOLOGIES AND TELL THEM THAT YOU’LL BE AWAITING THEM]

——————————————————————

Ceroba held on tightly to her— wait no Clover isn’t het kid the two children as they slid down the laundry chute, wasn’t her favourite mode of transport but it was much faster than walking through the steamworks.

Ceroba arrived at the bottom in no time and headed for the exit, exhaustion was slowly creeping up on her body but she just needed to persevere a little more to the infirmary in the wild east.

As much as it would be easier, she most certainly does not trust ‘doctor’ Alphys at the moment.

Ceroba rushed past the corn fields belonging to Starlo’s parents, Ceroba’s torn clothing used to apply pressure to Clover’s wound was starting to turn a familiar and warm crimson.

Panic rose in her chest as she hurriedly tried to calm Kanako down at the same time, she is starting to admire people who have two children or more.

With a sharp turn she entered the almost empty town, practically barging into the infirmary to find no one.

She put Clover down in one of the beds and Kanako on another, she didn’t have a lot of time for this.

“Kanako, dear can you make sure nothing bad happens to Clover while I search for bandages?”

Kanako nodded teary eyed, keeping close watch over Clover’s body which seemed to barely be breathing.

Ceroba almost trashed the place searching for bandages, luckily she did manage to find them.

Ceroba was about to remove the cloth before looking at Kanako, she shouldn’t see this.

“Kanako, could you please look away for a second?”

Kanako nodded with some sort of pout before spinning around, it seems she wanted to make sure Clover wasn’t.. dying? Dead? Not the time.

Ceroba removed the Cloth and yep that definitely wasn’t pretty, she carefully bound the bandage around the wound.

She wishes she could do more but she wasn’t a medical expert, maybe she could at least check Clover’s soul?

Ceroba focused on Clover’s being, their consciousness and existence.

A familiar heart shaped object was visible to Ceroba, yet something was wrong.

Instead of the vibrant yellow the soul had been, it was more pastel, she was sure a normal monster couldn’t tell but she’s seen that soul many times before and this definitely wasn’t right.

How could this have- …

Ceroba took out the knife she took from the lab, the knife that glowed with a familiar yellow .

Fury filled her veins, she took a deep breath to keep calm putting the knife away.

She was going to give that reptilian scientist a piece of her mind later, but for now..

She gently picked Clover up and tapped Kanako’s shoulder who turned around with an expectant expression, it forced a small smile out of her.

“How about we go home now? You can tell me all about your journey to the surface now Clover’s alright.”

Kanako beamed, on the way home she spoke like a little chatterbox on how they rushed through the underground.

Chapter Text

Ceroba paced around the room, it was night and quite late at that but she was waiting for her friends.. And people she knew a little, to arrive.

Martlet, Starlo, Dalv, Toriel, mostly to check up on everyone.

She didn’t trust all of them to be perfectly fine, besides they needed to talk about what to do with Clover.

As fun in games it all is, Ceroba’s sure Toriel will want to adopt Clover so they can be with Frisk.

She won’t deny the kid has definitely grown on her, but she doesn’t want to split their actual family up.

Ceroba almost jumped at the first knock of the door, she rushed down one of the halls making it to the front door.

She took a deep breath and opened it, sliding the door open as if there was nothing to be worrying about.

As soon as she opened the door a small child rushed in and explored the house, Ceroba barely recognized them as Frisk.

At the door the ex-queen stood with a warm smile.

“Welcome, please come in.” Ceroba swallowed her nerves, leading the ex-queen to the living room.

The air was a bit tense as Ceroba made some tea, the silence wasn’t very comfortable.

Luckily the next person to arrive wasn’t Dalv, but Starlo.

In his usual.. ‘fashion’ he started up small talk with Toriel, clearing up a lot of the tension replacing it with comfortable chit chat.

It was mostly him telling Toriel all about cowboy’s, she patiently smiled and nodded.

Ceroba admired the queen for her kindness, Next Dalv arrived he joined in on listening and at some point he and Starlo started chatting about corn!

It was mostly about sales but Toriel somehow was able to mingle with a pie business, Ceroba had to admire the comfortable atmosphere.

Lastly Martlet arrived and they all sat around the kotatsu, Toriel was the first to break the ice.

“So.. How’s Clover doing?”

Ceroba had expected this question.

“Right now they are fine, but I don’t know that much about human anatomy. I fear something might.. happen.”

The air got a bit gloomier, Toriel spoke up again.

“I have cared for a number of human children by now. I’m not the best but I can do something to help.”

Ceroba looked up with hope and expectation, this was good.

“Really? That’d be great, please do! Let me show you the way.”

Toriel stood up and Ceroba quickly did the same, she showed her to the guest room.

Frisk was beside Clover's bed sitting down, drowsily nodding their head, it seems they came to make sure their sibling was alright.

Ceroba smiled fondly at the scene while Toriel approached the bed, a warm emerald glow came from her hands.

She hovered her hands slightly above Clover careful not to disturb either of the children, even from the door felt the comfortable warmth of the magic.

It was powerful yet caring, love and affection had clearly birthed this kind of magic and Ceroba saw Clover’s slightly bothered face slowly turn peaceful.

Toriel moved away from the bed, Ceroba showed her into the hall.

“Sorry that’s all I can do..”

Toriel looked apologetic.

“Nonsense, even from a distance you can see Clover is doing better.”

Ceroba replied politely, the two headed back to the three adult children who anxiously awaited their return.

Ceroba nodded and they calmed down, they two sat back down at the table and Toriel took her tea in her hands again.

“I was intending to adopt Clover.. But i think one of you has beat me to it.”

Martlet giggled.

“Yes, Ceroba definitely is Clovers mother.”

Ceroba felt a bit shocked at that statement.

“I don’t think so- I doubt they even doubt me as a mother.”

Starlo made a thinking gesture.

“I don’t know, you’re pretty protective of them just like how you protect Kanako.”

Dalv nodded.

“Pretty sure i heard Clover almost call you mom once.”

Ceroba sighed, she was too tired.

“I’ll ask them in the morning alright?”

“Promise you won’t procrastinate.”

“I promise Starlo.”

“Heh! The sheriff always wins… Now i was wondering since we were all here what the harm would be if we played a little game..”

“Oh, what kind?”

“I brought monopoly.”

“I love building! And monopoly! Let’s play!”

“That sounds delightful.”

“Alright, I’ll go see if I have anything to eat.”

The small group ended up playing monopoly throughout the night, somehow Martlet ended up winning with Toriel in second, Ceroba in third, Dalv fourth and Starlo dead last.

——————————————————————

The next morning Ceroba entered Clover’s room temporary stay with breakfast, they were drawing with Kanako.

Mostly different Flowers and drawings of them, frisk and Flowey together.

Ceroba placed the breakfast for the two kids on the nightstand, she took a deep breath to prepare herself.

“Clover, Kanako?” The two looked up from their shenanigans.

“Yes mommy?” “Yes Ceroba?” They asked almost in unison.

“How would you feel about.. being siblings?”

Both of their faces lit up, Kanako almost jumping while Clover was more shocked.

“You’d be willing to?-“

“Yes! Yes! I’d love to have Clover as my sibling! They’re a cool cowboy and a nice person! Right Clover? Wouldn’t you like it too?”

Kanako grabbed Clover’s hands as she got ahead of herself again.

“Now Kanako, give Clover a chance to answer on their own.”

“Oh right sorry mommy…”

“Don’t apologise to me, apologise to Clover.”

Kanako almost jumped at the realisation.

“Sorry Clover, please forgive me..”

“Now Clover is like to also hear-?”

Ceroba saw Clover’s glassy eyes, Kanako also noticed and grew concerned.

“Clover are you alright?”

Ceroba asked in the softest tone she could muster.

“You’d really? Really do that? I- i would appreciate to- i want to be part of you family.”

Ceroba’s heart almost squeezed at the adorableness of Clover stumbling over their words in this situation.

Ceroba carefully hugged Clover, Kanako also hugged Clover.

With soft sniffles, Clover hugged back.

Chapter Text

Ceroba took a sip of her tea, it was late at night and most of the lights were out.

She’s been enjoying the previous week, everything has been much less chaotic and more peaceful.

Now that’s true she does still have the nights she wakes up from a particularly rough dream and can’t return to sleep, that’s how she got here right now.

The fragrance of Corn tea was pleasant and almost nostalgic, Ceroba missed Chujin, she always have and probably always will.

But all she can do is treasure and honour his memory, that’s how to keep his legacy alive.

Ceroba let out a huff of air she wasn’t intending on keeping in, she took a relaxing sip of her tea.

Rather than look at the past she should look at the future, it held many happy memories and moments; she was sure of it.

Ceroba realised how occupied she was with her mind as she felt a tug on her sleeve, it was Clover.

They looked slightly panicked, but somehow relieved? Ceroba crouched down for Clover who clung to her as if a life-line, this was starting to become a concerning habit in dark places.

“Are you alright Clover?”

Clover shook their head, despite that they didn’t seem alright.

“I had a nightmare…”

Clover rested her paw on their head in an attempt to comfort them.

“Do you want to talk about it? It’s said to make people feel better.”

Clover thought, it took a little while but with some hesitance they nodded.

Ceroba moved Clover to the living room turning theology’s on and getting a cup of tea for Clover as well, for a few seconds they fiddled with the cup.

Ceroba was curious and worried, but she had to be patient.

Eventually Clover decided to speak, it was in a hushed and shaky tone.

“I had a nightmare of being in the scary black space again.”

“The scary black space?” Ceroba raised an eyebrow.

“The place where i was after I sacrificed my soul.” Ceroba was certain she almost dropped her cup of tea.

“Pardon?”

“It was a big empty space that was a black void, I couldn’t move, speak, cry, nothing.”

“You were conscious throughout that entire time?”

Clover shrugged with a defeated look.

“I can’t tell besides the occasional stab of a needle there was no way to tell the time, or even consider if I was aware of not.”

Ah yes thanks for the reminder that Ceroba still needed to curbstomp Alphys out of existence.

“That sounds… unpleasant.”

Clover nodded.

“Every once in a while I’d get a hallucination about being back again.. When I first woke up, i doubted it was real.” Ceroba was certain she was going to damage her cup, so she set it down. “When it’s dark, I sometimes mistake it for that void again..”

Ceroba stood up and opened her arms for Clover, they happily took the hug.

Ceroba didn’t let it fly over her head that Clover looked very tired, she didn’t comment on it.

She let Clover drink their tea, they were talking about game night with Starlo and the feisty(j) five.

She already knew what had happened but she didn’t comment on it.

At the end of their ramble, Clover was practically already asleep, Ceroba carried them to bed, checking on Kanako as well before heading to her room.

Ceroba got her phone, ready to ask Martlet to install a few nightlights to prevent future panic for both children.

Chapter Text

Kanako waited along with her dear friends, she had heard from mom that Martlet and someone called Papyrus gave a fun activity planned for today!

Kanako heard what she already learned to be MK’s and Flowey’s voices, arguing with Clover holding back giggles.

“No you can’t eat me!”

“But you’re a plant, plants are edible can’t I have a small bite?”

“No! Clover help me!”

“Flowers are poisonous if you eat the wrong ones, MK.”

“Wait really!? Than I must’ve lucked out on all of those plants!”

“You’ve eaten plants before!? Is that why you want to taste me?”

“Why?”

“It seemed interesting.”

Kanako giggled at the casual banter, getting snapped out of it by two voices.

“Hey kids!”

“READY TO DO A PUZZLE ROOM WITH THE GREEEAAAAATTT PAPYRUS AND FORMER PUZZLE MASTER OF THE ROYAL GUARD?”

“You don’t have to call me that, you know?” Martlet sounded a bit awkward but Papyrus— who was piggybacking a Frisk on his back— waved it off saying she deserved the respect.

Frisk jumped down and hugged Clover, then MK, then Kanako and lastly and offended Flowey.

“Wow I see you care so much about me!”

He said with a chipper tone.

“I do care about you, just to a minimal extent.”

Kanako burst into giggles, Frisk looked proud.

“I see your time with Undyne has been.. affecting you.”

“I see being beaten by me has damaged your pride.”

Martlet stepped in.

“Kids! Kids let’s not fight, we’re here to have fun!” She seemed nervous because of the argument threatening to break out. “Let’s go, we're going to be late.”

“YES I COULDNT IMAGINE BEING LATE!”

Kanako basically hopped to the sides of the adults as the group started to walk into new home. There have been newly constructed buildings after a few monsters visited the surface, puzzle rooms were one of those constructions.

Martlet looked all over the room, there weren’t any hints, if they didn’t find this the ‘bomb’ would go off!

She saw Clover fiddling with something by the next door with Kanako, but Martlet couldn’t tell what they were doing.

Mk, Flowey, Frisk and Papyrus were competing in the other room, Martlet knew this was all a friendly-ish competition but she didn’t want to lose.

Martlet grabbed the table, she tried to lift it but it was chained to the ground.

The ticking timer slowly started to give her the creeps, a soft click was heard.

“What happened?”

Clover and Kanako had unlocked the door, Clover held a long pole.

“Oh.. Good job!”

Kanako and Clover beamed with pride, the next puzzle was a secret language puzzle with hints and answers around the room to unlock the next door.

Inside looked like some kind of bedroom, it gave Martlet the hebejebes.

——————————————————————

Frisk aggressively pulled on the door with Flowey, they didn’t know what to do anymore so they just resorted to chaos like the little maniacs they were.

[*YOU PULL ON THE DOOR, IT DOESN’T BUDGE]

[*YOU ARE FILLED WITH DETERMINATION TO BUST THIS DOOR DOWN]

“PULL HARDER FRISK!”

Mk and papyrus were being reasonable and trying to figure out the actual puzzle, meanwhile Flowey successfully pulled the door off of its hinges.

Mission success?

——————————————————————

Kanako closely inspected the inscriptions, martlet had already found a few and they were on the last bar of codes and colours.

Tension rose in the air as they didn’t want to start from the beginning once again, Clover took a deep breath.

“Blue, yellow, pink”

“Are you sure?”

“Dead sure.”

A large beep was heard as they had to start from the beginning again.

“I think it was the other way around-“

“Your timing is disgraceful.”

——————————————————————

Flowey watched as the skeleton and human moron flexed their amazing puzzle skills, blowing through the combinations like a breeze while dramatically posing.

With a loud buzzer a key fell from the combination screen and they opened the door to the next room, Flowey looked inside— HOLY CRISPS IS THAT A DEAD BODY!! Oh never mind it’s just a mannequin in the bed, papyrus and Mk look like they’ve experienced a heart attack but frisk seems to have noticed immediately.

Frisk and Flowey exchanged feral grins as they looted the body.

——————————————————————

Clover typed and fiddled with the big device, trying to find the final passcode.

It wasn’t working, Kanako was panicking because of the timer narrowing down and Martlet was frantically running around.

Clover took a deep breath and thought of random numbers they remembered from different puzzles, they typed it in…. The door flung open as the devices shut down, they had one.

The three celebrated loudly.

——————————————————————

Mk looked on in horror about the situation, Frisk and papyrus were trying to solve the puzzle looking for any clues while Flowey tore the place apart alongside them.

Sadly their efforts were in vain as an alarm went off and a video of a bomb falling and destroying a country was played, the door opened as the four looked devastated or in shock.

——————————————————————

Ceroba opened the door to see her two children alongside Frisk and Flowey, While Clover and Kanako looked quite lively the other two were eerily silent and gloomy.

“Come in, Toriel is already here. I’m just making some tea alright?”

Ceroba led the four to the living room and finished preparing the tea, she sat down next to Toriel after the cups were distributed.

Toriel asked first. “So kids, how was the puzzle room?”

Clover and Kanako both replied with glee.

“It was lots of fun! A bit hard but a lot of fun!”

“I liked it, Martlet was also really good.”

There was silence before Flowey replied.

“I think we just blew up a country on accident.”

…

…

“YOU WHAT?!”

Chapter Text

The steamworks were a bit more pleasant than usual today, as Axis, his wife, Clover, Kanako, Frisk, Flowey and MK all sat around a tea table.

Axis’ wife had invited them for a tea party, which was very kind in MK’s opinion.

He just wondered why she was being so quiet…

MK looked at the slightly burned pie on the middle of the table, a sense of pride bubbling up into his torso.

He made that pie with Toriel, Flowey and Frisk! That's something to be fairly proud of right?

MK struggled to reach for the pie, his lack of hands made it a bit hard, but luckily Kanako helped him.

The taste wasn’t that extraordinary as Miss Toriel’s, but you could taste the love baked into it.

Axis pretended to eat a pie, ah yes robots didn’t eat did they? He looked up at the plate and spoke in his usual loud voice, MK had to admit he was more likeable than Mettaton- don't tell him he thought that.

“WHERE DID YOU GET THIS EXTRAVAGANT PIE???”

Frisk perked up, ready to give their amazing story.

“It all started this morning….”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toriel welcomed MK into her home, leading him upstairs to the kitchen where frisk was already ready to bake a pie.

Toriel smiled fondly at the two children’s enthusiasm and.. Flowey’s sassiness.

It was nice to have her son back, but she’ll have to re-teach him manners.

“Alright children, like requested- today we’ll be baking a pie!”

Toriel watched as the kids straightened their backs and turned to her, nodding.

“The first step of making a pie is mixing the batter, so we shall start with that.”

Toriel headed to the cupboard, MK already picking up a whisk with their tail and Frisk rummaging around the fridge.

“Frisk we need flour, brown sugar, whole milk, eggs, salt, sugar, baking soda and baking powder.”

Toriel watched how Frisk’s usual neutral face contorted with confusion, she headed over to help Frisk get the ingredients with a fond smile.

Toriel saw how Asriel Flowey carefully mixed the ingredients commanding the other two on putting them in, they obliged a bit too easily..

Toriel supervised as she watched the three carefully craft the dough, at some point Flowey left Frisk to mix the dough while he and MK got started on the filling.

Toriel had never felt more proud in her life, watching her kids get along with another kid and bake pies.

She looked at Frisk putting the dough into the shape, her heart stopped and her blood ran cold.

She didn’t know why, but her eyes didn’t perceive Frisk.

For a second a memory of Chara flashed in her mind, Chara and Flowey Asriel baking something that was likely to end up burned.

But it wasn’t Chara and it wasn’t Asriel, these were Frisk and Flowey.

She left the kitchen with a feeling of dread and guilt, those two weren’t replacements.

It was unfair to think of them like that, yet the two reminded Toriel so much of the past.

Well Flowey was Asriel and at the same time he wasn’t, yet to Toriel he still was her child.

She didn’t want to fail him again, but at the moment thinking about his past form and his sibling…

It still saddened her, it still boiled up a bit of grief.

Toriel took deep breaths, she suddenly has a bad gut feeling.

She sniffled, smelling something burned- no something burning…

She ran into the kitchen as she saw a huge fire starting up, out of instinct magic sparked at the back of her hands.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[*YOU TELL AXIS, CLOVER AND KANAKO HOW YOU BURNED THE PIE IN RECORD TIME]

Frisk was met with confused and concerned stares, Clover sighed.

“You do understand this is why I never let you j to the kitchen right?”

Flowey looked at Clover with sympathy.

“I don’t know how you kept this moron alive for so long.”

Clover shrugged.

[*YOU TELL FLOWEY IT’S BECAUSE OF THE POWER OF SIBLINGHOOD]

“The power of siblinghood almost didn’t save you from chugging bleach”

Clover commented.

Chara stared at Frisk, deadpanning.

‘And I thought I had a bad food palette.’

[*YOU GIGGLE AND TELL CHARA ALONG WITH THE OTHERS THAT THEY HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF INEDIBLE THINGS YOU HAVE EATEN]

Chapter Text

Frisk sat upon the cliff they had first seen when the barrier broke, Chara sat next to them with an unreadable expression.

Frisk enjoyed the sight of the sunset, this moment of tranquillity being a welcome phenomenon.

Frisk heard Chara’s voice, unchanging like always.

“Really Frisk, would you really rather be looking out into the horizon than spending time with your precious friends?”

[*YOU NOD, YOU TELL CHARA THAT LITTLE MOMENTS LIKE THESE SHOULD BE TREASURED]

Frisk saw Chara’s smile twitch, it was too fast to tell the difference between any emotions.

“…”

Frisk feels something is wrong with Chara, a weird undertone of melancholy in their usual demeanour.

[*YOU ASK CHARA WHAT’S WRONG]

Chara scowled, turning their translucent body away from Frisk.

“It’s none of your business.”

[*YOU ASK CHARA IF THEY MISS BEING ALIVE, IF THEY MISS THEIR PARENTS OR SIBLING]

Chara stayed silent, their head slumping.

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll never be able to talk to them again..”

Chara sounded frustrated.

“I’ll never be able to eat one of mom’s pies again, or spend time with Asriel- no Flowey anymore.”

Chara’s shoulders shook slightly.

“It’s impossible I’m dead, leave it alone.”

Frisk frowned, thinking about how horrible it must feel.

Forced to watch the people you once cared about change so drastically, see how they have fun and care so deeply for someone that isn’t you.

Forced to see them live their happily ever after is such detail, yet never being able to be a part of it.

[*YOU TELL CHARA YOU’LL FIND A WAY]

Chara turned to face Frisk, clear confusion visible on their face.

“What are you talking about? That isn’t possible.”

[*YOU TELL CHARA YOU ARE FILLED WITH DETERMINATION]

[*YOU TELL CHARA YOU’LL FIND A WAY]

Chara chuckled, a hint of amusement laced into their voice.

“And how are you planning on doing that? You can’t exactly bring someone back to life after they die.”

[*YOU TELL CHARA YOU’LL SEARCH ALPHYS’ EXPERIMENTS]

[*YOU TELL CHARA YOU’LL GET FLOWEY’S EXPLANATION ON HOW THEY AREN’T DEAD YET]

[*YOU TELL CHARA YOU’LL FIND AND CONVINCE GASTER ]

Chara looked at Frisk with widened eyes, slightly confused at why Frisk would go to those lengths.

“And all of that.. for a stranger?”

Frisk smiled.

[*YOU TELL CHARA YOU TWO AREN’T STRANGERS]

[*YOU TELL CHARA THEY’RE YOUR FRIENDS]

Chara blinked a few times, a genuine smile graced their face.

“Well then.. I don’t mind putting my faith in a….. friend.”

[*YOU THANK CHARA FOR THEIR TRUST]

[*YOU TELL THEN YOU WON’T LET THEM DOWN]

Chara gave a slight nod, the two watched as the sun disappeared underneath the trees.

there was a lot of work to be done, but the sun has set and that meant the world was telling them to rest and prepare for a brand new day.

Chapter Text

So you silly creatures it has been a while since To avoid death had been alive, are you sad? No?
Expected.
Anyways one ear hurting creature has been asking ‘when’s the next chapter?’
And I went ‘alright let’s just rewrite it atp.’
Sooooo check the chapter summary for the link, small warning; this is much more self indulgent than To Avoid Death and has fallen human oc’s that definitely have relations to Clover and Frisk.
Which?
I’m not telling you!
Boo!!!

Anyways, if you’re interested? Go read it! Please? Please? Please?

If you’re not….
This is my goodbye!! I hope you likes to avoid death and I’m sorry I couldn’t say goodbye properly before this!! Never lose hope and beat anyone up that’s a little crab!! Don’t tell the police I said that… I can’t afford another potential charge of accessory to murder…

Chapter Text

Never in a million years had Starlo thought he’d be teaching a bunch of kids to ride bowll’s with Undyne THE captain of the royal guard supervising.

Yet here he was trying to keep Kanako, Clover, Frisk and weirdly ‘Flowey’ who was dragged along by flowerpot from dying while Undyne kept provoking the Bowll’s.

Starlo didn’t know why he agreed to this and he especially didn’t want any angry mother’s after him, if he did get any he’d doubt he’d stay alive for long.

Despite all odds; Clover wasn’t doing that bad, maybe they had experience with Bowll’s? On the other hand, Kanako was five seconds away from falling into the soup.

Frisk wasn’t in a much better situation but somehow prevailed without difficulty, how the child does that Starlo might never know.

He only knew Flowey was enjoying the show from Clover’s Bowll, that grin he was wearing could rival the smuggest poets he read about.

Starlo probably should have called the others of the Feisty(j) five to assist him, but he didn’t want to disturb their plans with babysitting.

Starlo barely had the time to register— and dodge a spear, Undyne was chasing after Frisks Bowll.

“Miss Undyne, that isn’t a good idea. Provoking the Bowll will only get you—“

A loud clang could be heard, Undyne was lucky she wore her armour underneath her clothes.

“—Hurt.”

Starlo now knew how it felt to be a parent, it wasn’t fun.

He has discovered the secret as to why Toriel and Ceroba are so strong, they deal with this chaos.

——————————————————————

Clover idly cleaned the Bowll it seemed to enjoy that, Flowey's flowerpot was in their off hand.

They don’t know how Frisk managed to get Flowey back but they weren’t complaining.

They watched the chaos unfold in the near distance, they wish they could record it.

“UNDYNE DON’T PROVOKE THE BOWLL!”

“IT HAS IT COMING!”

“FRISK IS STILL ON THE BOWLL YOU CAN'T BEAT IT UP!”

“WATCH ME!”

Frisk provoked Undyne, Undyne screeched harder.

Clover smiled fondly at the scenario as Kanako jumped off of her Bowll who joined the fight, Flowey looked at Clover.

“Hey Gun-hat?”

“Hm?”

“Are you satisfied?”

“What are you talking about.”

“Are you satisfied with this outcome, this ending?”

“Are you?”

“I don’t know.”

“How come?”

“I guess I can’t tell yet, it isn’t the end of the world or anything.”

“Then there’s your answer.”

“Huh?”

“I can’t be satisfied with the ending if it isn’t the end yet.”

“You know that isn’t what I meant.”

“Then answer the question how you intended it yourself.”

“Touché.”

“Some reason why you’re asking this?”

“Just wondering, this is quite the interesting timeline.”

“Do you not like this line of events?”

“I think I prefer it over many others.”

“Glad even the soulless being is starting to feel something.”

“Not even in a million years.”

“Somehow I doubt that.”

A large crashing sound disturbed their conversation, a Bowll had crashed the fence.

“Let me guess you want to go after it.”

“What? Of course, it might cause trouble.”

Clover got ready on their Bowll to give chase, Flowey rolled his eyes.

“You really are a cowboy..”

“Not a fake one?”

“Don’t make me take my words back.”

“Noted.”

Clover nudged their Bowll to follow the escapeè, Flowey screeched in horror when they jumped the fence.