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It wasn’t that Ralsei didn’t know he would be there. That wasn’t an excuse. Not for Ralsei. When his fur stood on end and he knew, with a sinking feeling in his gut, that the next fountain had been opened, he'd expected it. From the moment he took a deep breath and allowed himself to enter the boundaries of the flower fields, he’d been running the scenario in his mind, making a list of every checkpoint they’d pass along the way, exactly how this was going to go. There weren’t many things he could call dear, but one of them was an encyclopedic knowledge of how the future would—no, had to—unfold, and it told him that there would only be a matter of time until they met.
The flower man. The one Ralsei was meant to burn alive.
He walked resignedly, keeping to the paths and obeying each twist and turn he knew he could be stepped around, by someone braver better real less scrupulous than him. He kept his hands clasped tightly together, suppressing the embers that smoldered between his fingers. This was fated to happen, sooner or later. No matter how much he prayed and pleaded, it had arrived indifferently. And it could only happen in one way, words that were woven into his very being.
It wasn’t even that he was mad to be shoved in the closet. He’d endured worse. He’d have to endure so, so much more in the future. He was dutifully ready to be crumpled and crushed and beaten in any way that fate ordained. It was part of the reason he’d always urged for kindness towards the other inhabitants of the dark world, even their “enemies”. Instruments of the Prophecy couldn’t be blamed for carrying out a fate beyond their control, after all. They were all just pieces in one big game, one it was his job to help manage.
Lately, he’d been forgetting he was an instrument too. He’d been allowing himself to slip, to show the sinful side of him to Susie and others, the one that believed her and thought like they were equals. He’d even given them commands during their last fight! As a result, all his errant prayers, his endless pleading, must have gone…
No, the problem here was that he wasn’t supposed to go in the closet! They weren’t even supposed to meet until he’d found Kris and Susie! Walking along the hedges, Ralsei had been surprised to encounter Flowery early, and had barely been able to get a word in edgewise before the sparkling man had lifted him up by the scruff and tossed him into a wardrobe.
“Sorry, princess!” he’d laughed, rolling a flailing Ralsei up into a ball and tossing him into a closet. The doors whammed after him, swallowing him in stuffy darkness.
“Can’t have you spoiling the show too early,” came the voice from outside the closet. “Show up a bit later with your friends, okay?”
Ralsei could hear the smile and wink. It made him shudder. Oh, everything about Flowery made him shudder. It was so bad. Stars, he knew they were fated to be enemies, but he didn’t know it would be this bad. Even Queen was more manageable! At least she barely realized he existed, instead of patronizing him and acting like his better… hold on, early? Wait, was he too early?
Crumpled up into a ball between the four dark walls, Ralsei contemplated his mistake in shock. How could this have happened? Could he have gone off the correct path by accident? Arrived before he should? Perhaps he stumbled into the wrong area and found Flowery by accident, and in that case, it was only right that he be thrown in here. A growing pit of guilt simmered beneath his robes. Things had to play out by the same divine plan, after all. As much as he knew he would dislike him, Ralsei couldn’t blame Flowery for setting things back on track until they could meet “properly”.
But no, that wasn’t right, Ralsei knew these paths by heart, and had an impeccable sense of time, and Flowery… Flowery should have been keeping Asgore occupied in a different area right about now! So no, this couldn’t have been Ralsei’s error. For Flowery to be here, and alone at that… he must’ve thrown the plan straight out the window. Which meant stuffing Ralsei in the closet wasn’t a product of divine fate—Flowery had done that himself!
He didn’t know what Flowery was up to, or why he’d decided to go rogue, but Ralsei had to stop him. He couldn’t be allowed to derail the story like this at such a critical stage! And to do it so… smugly, too! What was that he’d called Ralsei before throwing him in here? “Princess”? Only jerks, the mean ones not the ones like Susie, acted like that. Cheeks burning with indignance, Ralsei kicked against the door of the cupboard as much as his squeezed body would allow. But the doors barely gave.
Some sparks weaved between his fingers, offering a brief glimpse of light—reminding him of a solution. No-one would even know…
No. He balled his hands into fists, snuffing them out. Once he started, he didn’t know where he’d stop.
And even knowing what the Prophecy had determined him to be, what it planned for him to do, Ralsei so very much didn’t want to. He didn’t want to do that, be that. It… it wasn’t him. How could he look Kris and Susie in the eyes again after he…
(Of course, he wasn’t supposed to. He knew this. He turned away. He couldn’t bear it.)
No, they’d find a way to do it more peacefully. Just like they had the previous four times. The prophecy could reach its final conclusion without any of the violence or suffering if he just… followed it the right way. Found some way to get through to Flowery, make him understand why things had to be this way. He hadn’t been proven wrong yet. He just had to believe.
It was a terrible thought, but Ralsei was beginning to relish the idea of just letting the prophecy play out. First it was the hat. Maybe he didn’t have any strong opinions about the hat on its own, and it would only complicate things if Asgore saw him now, but something about Flowery putting it on him made his insides simmer with something he could only call immense dislike. How dare Flowery have any say in what he wore!
(if anything, he’d rather be wearing the ribbon Susie had on, but she looked so happy with it, and just when she was getting comfortable with wearing them too… he didn’t want to encroach on that. It would look silly with his cloak, anyway...)
And it just kept getting worse! Flowery just did whatever he wanted, like he could just do that. Nobody, least of all a darkner, should have been able to break the rules the way Flowery did.
Then, he started taking control of the party. He got to explain things to Susie. He told Kris how to solve all the puzzles—or rather, he just solved them himself. And worse, the more it happened, the more Kris and Susie seemed to drift towards him instead. It was obvious that Susie liked Flowery, for some reason, and when asked to choose, Kris muted him instead! Ralsei hadn’t even known you could do that, which made it all the more embarrassing. Flowery had just… cheated! It was like… Ralsei was being cut out.
At some point, Flowery had patted him on the head, letting out one of his signature laughs.
“Hey,” he said to Kris with a laugh, waving a hand. Flower petals danced in the air, and suddenly Ralsei could speak again. “Shouldn’t go around bullying your friends like that. Wouldn’t want any of them to feel powerless, right?”
As Flowery walked on, Ralsei couldn’t do anything but follow Kris. He felt something bubbling up inside him, some sinful, horrible feeling that made him feel wriggly and black inside, turning his steps into stomps as he followed the party with balled fists, eyes so trained on the offending flower that he could have shot streams of fire directly into the back of his head. It was something stronger than dislike, more vivid than annoyance, or mere frustration. No, this was personal. Ralsei hated Flowery. Ralsei wanted Flowery gone. Perhaps, even with all the flower’s cheating, this was how the prophecy would redirect sinners back on the straight path—
Flames licked the back of his cloak. He drew a sharp breath, eyes widening. N-no… he couldn’t have come this close. He had to keep control of himself. Just… find some way to get rid of the man. Peacefully.
It was unacceptable and Ralsei had to fix it. Everything was going wrong, and the seed Flowery had planted had spread to him too. Because when he would normally put on a smile, when he would preach forgiveness and try to be the better person, instead he was acting on that brimming, bubbling frustration, letting himself succumb to those worse instincts.
And this little mouse was pushing him too far. He didn’t know what caused it. Maybe it was how self-aggrandizing the little creature was. Maybe that this was the fourth—no, fifth?--fight they’d been in involving her today? Maybe, just maybe, it was that she’d scorningly called him “hatless”, and he was thinking he quite liked himself without the hat, thank you very much. What if he told her to take off those gloves? Sparks of flame flickered between his paws, barely held back by the last shreds of him from two hours ago, who would have just about fainted from seeing how far he’d fallen. Now, he could barely find the energy to hold back all the horrible, sinful things hiding behind his polite gaze. He felt his face draw back into a snide grimace, biting back some scathing retort, before—
“Psst, Ralsei...”
Something tugged on the sleeve of his cloak. Broken out of his funnel of rage, Ralsei turned and saw Susie staring at him.
Trying to keep him in line.
Something changed in his eyes. A shaky realization that just a few days ago, even a few hours ago, it would have been him walking Susie back from the brink, not… not…
He apologized, tried to put on his usual happy face, but the mask was starting slip, melted and ill-fitting like it was being burned away.
It couldn’t be happening like this. Was this really the person he was meant to be? Had he really changed so much in just a few hours? Was the path of fire truly his prescribed fate, bells tolling no matter how he felt or acted?
He couldn’t slip again. He couldn’t let himself fall over the edge. He was so scared. If he let go now, then…
Ralsei sat by the lake. It was a rare quiet moment, a brief reprieve from Kris and Susie, from him. He quietly prayed to anyone that would hear, that if they wouldn’t spare him then at least spare Kris and Susie, let them be happy together, don’t let them see what he really is underneath please don’t make him do that don’t make him burn it all down please don’t—
“Hey there.”
The sound of that voice jarred Ralsei out of his praying. Flowery had somehow emerged from the lake—how long had he been there for.
“Got a lot on your mind?” the worthless flower asked.
“Aren’t you mad we got out of jail?” Ralsei asked flatly.
The conniving fae rattled off grating platitudes about friendship in response. Ralsei could have laughed. He settled for a barking scoff.
“Don’t act like you have an actual plan,” he spitefully bit out.
Flowery, mercifully, chose not to respond to that with something annoying.
“So. You get to praying a lot?” he asked.
Finally, a tolerable question.
“O-of course,” said Ralsei, staring down at his clasped hands. “Every chance I get. I pray for Kris and Susie, for…” for this entire thing to end happily, for a path to open, for some kind of escape, for this to not end how it must.
“Hah.” Flowery climbed up onto the bridge, next to him. “You’ve got a kind and loving heart.”
Ralsei wanted to vomit. “Thanks.”
“How much do you think that praying helps?”
“I… don’t have a choice.” Who did this man think he was? Like he would know anything about prayer, acting like he controlled this world and its fate. “I have to believe. Some of us have to.” Then, quieter, “it’s all I have.”
“You sure?” that intolerable tone was leaking into Flowery’s voice again, dripping with arrogance, that ‘I know something you don’t’ cadence. “Sounds like maybe you already have everything you need. Why don't you put some more faith in yourself—” a quick poke into Ralsei’s shoulder “—and let loose a bit?”
“...I’m supposed to burn you alive, you know.”
The admission was quiet and tired. Nothing like his usual happy voice, the one he’d put up for Kris and Susie even if he was bleeding out. But this wasn’t Kris or Susie. This was a darkner who knew everything, who knew and was just toying with him. And he was… too tired to be angry or fake things anymore.
“I almost have. M-more than once. Do you want that to happen? Do you want this whole place to go up in flames? Because that’s what happens if I… I…”
More sparks twitching between his curled fingers. He could feel the itch, the want to grab choke burn.
“Hey.” An arm settled on Ralsei’s shoulder. He didn’t have the energy to move away from it. Flowery hadn’t moved either. “You haven’t done that yet. And I don’t think you’re going to.”
That caused Ralsei to stare right into Flowery’s smug face, an expression of incredulous anger creeping onto his own.
“What could you know about it?! You’re just—”
“A darkner? Same as you, Raly. What about it?”
“You have a part to play—“
“In what story? Yours?” Flowery chuckled. “How’d you like being a part of mine earlier?”
Ralsei just growled.
“Oh, settle down.” Flowery messed with his hair. “Thing is, I just decided not to follow my script. And you know what? I think you did too, a long while ago.”
“...What makes you say that?” Ralsei asked, hating himself for it.
“’Cause this whole time, you’ve been holding yourself back. You’re following the boundaries, but you’re trying to read between them. Which means, you’re hoping for something better, right?”
“That’s exactly it!” Ralsei cried, throwing up his hands. “I work within the boundaries. I work with what I have. You throwing—throwing it all away isn’t going to solve anything, it’s just going to make things fall apart! You’ll go crazy. That’s what happens when things don’t go…”
Visions of Jevil. Of Spamton. Even Tenna, from one brief glimpse into the void Ralsei stared into each day, had become a tyrant grasping for hope.
“Maybe,” said Flowery. “But maybe I know that, in the end, you three will come out on top no matter what.” he patted Ralsei on the head. “So cheer up! You’ll get your ending. But for as long as we’re playing out this old story, I’m going to be my own kind of character. Way cooler than the Flowery you were supposed to get, amiright?”
Ralsei couldn’t find it in him to agree.
“You’re messing with the prophecy,” he growled.
Flowery just shrugged.
“Then burn my face off.”
Ralsei’s face drooped with shock. How could he be so…
“How can you be so—”
“Hey. You want the prophecy? Play your own part in it.” Flowery looked at him sternly, gave him a look that said he knew Ralsei wouldn’t. “But if you’re like me, maybe you want something more than that worn-out old poem can give you.”
“If we don’t foll—”
“Then what?” Flowery scowled. His expression had fallen, his voice starting to rise with anger. “What about that old thing turns out so well for you? Shouldn’t you, of all people, want to throw it to the wind?”
“If I throw it to the wind, we die,” Ralsei bit. Flames, righteous flame, forbidden flame, licked at his teeth. “Can’t you see that? You’re so arrogant, so selfish, but if I’m like you, then…”
“You’re selfish too.” An indifferent handwave. “Big deal. Everyone’s selfish. Wanting things for yourself… is that such a bad thing?”
“Yes!”
The gravity of what Ralsei said hit him seconds after he said it. But he was tied to the mast. He couldn’t not believe it.
“I’m, I’m not supposed to want things. Don’t you get it? Neither of us are.”
“And yet, we do.”
“You won’t get what you want.” Ralsei muttered it bitterly, looking at his wavering reflection in the water. It hurt to look at it, but it hurt more to look anywhere else. None of them could get what they wanted. Least of all him. He growled and spat the words, flames leaking from his fists. “You know you won’t get what you want. It doesn’t matter if I don’t burn your face off. When we seal this fountain, one way or another…”
A clean, musical laugh cut through his words. Was Flowery… laughing. He was laughing.
“Man, Raly, sounds like you still don’t get it?” Flowery chuckled, patting his back. “I already have what I want. I’ve had it since the beginning. And even if it ends… hey, least I got to taste it. Question is, what are you going to do with the time you have left?”
Ralsei didn’t know how to answer. He stared down at the water. Could he really…
But he couldn’t have that. He let it slip a few times. He’d asked for a tiara or a ribbon here and there. Maybe he’d worn them once or twice, when, when no-one was looking. Claimed one was an armor when Susie asked about it. He even got to wear a dress, briefly, e-even if it was just for Kris’ amusement. But he couldn’t, not for real, the prophecy says prince and without one everything would disintegrate, how could he…
He noticed too late he was blushing. A bright red blush.
“Heh.” A finger tapped Ralsei’s nose. He glared, his blush reddening despite himself. “Sounds like you already know what you want, princess.”
Before he could respond, a few vouchers were flicked into his view.
“Why don’t you three have a couple drinks before the end? On me.”
Ralsei took the vouchers, eyes widening with glee as he saw them.
“Oh! I bet Susie would like the root beer one, and Kris…”
“You wanted to try this one, right?” One voucher danced out from behind the other two, covered in blue and pink.
“H-how’d you know that?” Ralsei stammered.
Flowery winked. “You were staring at it the longest. Just get your favorite, and don’t worry about the others, alright?”
Taking the vouchers felt like accepting candy from your worst enemy. Ralsei did it anyway. Flowey stood and began to float, turning his back to Ralsei.
“Oh, by the way,” he said, lightly touching down. He dug in his pocket for something, before pulling it out. It was clasped tightly in his hands. He held it out. “Think you dropped this. Didn’t want to give it to you earlier, but… well, I think you’ll know what to do with it now. Give it to Kris for me, will ya? Ciao!”
The object fell into Ralsei’s hands. It was dark and heavy. With a whoosh and a flourish of petals, Flowery was gone. Ralsei shivered as he held the item, the vouchers forgotten. Cold spread through him. It wasn’t his. It wasn’t his it wasn’t his it wasn’t his he never wanted to have this but he knew what it was. He unclasped his hands and looked down at the shimmering dark crystal, each side reflecting a new reality.
From one angle, he saw himself back in the dark sanctuary, covered in blood, weeping amongst a sea of shattered glass. He turned it over. He saw a rushing inferno, flames consuming the vast meadows, himself opposite Kris, Susie, the flowers, and everyone else. Fire burned in his eyes and spiraled from his hands all the way through his horns. Familiarity panged in him—a reminder of how this all should have gone.
He flipped it again. He saw himself gazing out into the sunset, Kris on one side and Susie on the other. In this vision, instead of Susie… he was the one wearing the large, red ribbon.
He could get lost in it forever. He could slowly go insane thinking of all the possibilities, all the lost dreams, just like every other darkner who’d held one of these. But… did he need it? Even the power of a shadowcrystal… he turned away. It was like snapping his eyes away from a hungry vortex.
This belonged to the old Ralsei. The one Kris and Susie would have had to fight, sooner or later. The one who should have betrayed them all by now, turned into a prince of righteous fire. The one whose dream was forever lost.
With a wave of his hands, the crystal disappeared into his inventory. Ralsei bent over, picking up the vouchers and staring at all the different colors. Somehow, walking felt… easier. His body quaked a bit, but his shoulders no longer sagged with an unseen weight.
As much as he hated to admit it… perhaps Flowery wasn’t such a villain after all. Perhaps they both wanted the same thing. More and more, almost intolerably, he was beginning to want what Ralsei wanted, and not what an instrument of the prophecy should prefer.
He wasn’t the prince of fire. He wouldn’t be. Ralsei didn’t want to follow the prophecy. He wanted to keep being friends with Kris and Susie. He wanted be something more than “the prince”. Something more than just an instrument.
And if that broke fate? Maybe, just maybe… it was better off broken.