Chapter Text
Void, endless, blinding emptiness. It’s not black, that would be too interesting. It’s like trying to use your fingertips to look at something. You just can’t.
Of course, Clover’s mind isn’t as shattered as the goopy black and white monster is, so Clover has had a lot of time to relive their memories. The memories don’t come from only this run, but of every single time Clover has fallen.
Until everything winds back.
What body was once fractured is now whole again.
Clover feels the save file, so it won’t be a problem. One look at the soul and something’s wrong. It’s fractured. A white lining holds the yellow fragments together.
Clover checks his equipment. By his belt he finds a green revolver, alongside a red one. On the opposite side there’s a sawed-off shotgun… With a freaking chainsaw attached.
Clover unholsters the gun strapped to his back and finds a rifle. Upon firing it into a nearby sign an bolt of eletricity has burned through.
“Let’s hope I won’t hafta use it.” Clover straps the railrifle back onto his back.
Now to jump into the Underground.
The descent isn’t anything Clover isn’t used to, they did it once already. When they… Spared everybody, yes. That’s what happened.
It was over, Frisk beat Flowey- no… Frisk beat Asriel, he was about to accept his fate and stay in the Underground to not be tempted to bring anyone harm again.
‘But the GOD DAMN BRAT RESET!’ Flowey thinks. ‘I know the script by heart, Frisk reset way too many times for me to forget my every speech.’ But the growth Flowey underwent isn’t so easily swept under the rug. And a speck of a soul thumps as a familiar face enters the room.
“Howdy, I’m Flowey- Wait a gosh darn second.” Flowey squints his eyes.
“YOU? After that self-sacrificial bullshit YOU come back here?” Flowey starts a battle.
“Flowey…” Clover looks at the tiny flower.
“Come on! The whole weight behind that scene is for nothing! Here, let’s see how much you remember.” Flowey tosses a few friendliness pellets at Clover. Masterfully dodged.
“Good. Now let’s go! And take me with you!” Flowey ends the battle and raises his petals towards Clover. The cowboy lends Flowey an arm and the flower tangles itself around Clover’s hat.
Toriel looks at Clover and turns back, thinking she’s hallucinating.
“So… How did I come back?” Clover walks the only path he sees.
“Hell if I know! That brat probably messed something up and now they’re not even here!” Flowey cackles.
“Wait, what was that?” Clover reaches out towards the save point.
“There was supposed to be this other kid instead of you, they always reset everything after killing Asgore. Now they reached too far and you’re the one that’s back… By the way… You seem… Older.”
Clover looks at himself and notices exactly that. He also has a new outfit to compensate for the new age.
A brown leather vest, with a white dress shirt under it. Black denim cover’s Clover’s legs and iron-tipped boots protect Clover’s feet.
“Guess I do! Maybe Dina will finally sell me an adult soda!” Clover reads the sign in the next room, he guesses he has to press the buttons that aren’t on the path and opens the door.
“Geez, bud. You’re and adult and the first thing on your mind is alcoholism?” Flowey hangs down, looking at Clover’s face.
Clover freezes for a second, then continues. This time both of the labled switches work as intended. On the floor of the unlabeled one wooden planks serve as a warning and a reminder.
“Just curious about the taste, s’all…” Clover looks at the dummy. Time to see what’s up with the new guns!
First, the shotgun.
“What doing some tar- HOLY SHIT! What’s that, a sawed-on shotgun?”
Clover looks at it and chuckles. “I don’t have a better name for it, so let’s go with that.”
Clover loads the gun and fires the gun into the dummy. It went straight through.
A click on the second trigger and the chainsaw starts spinning. He turns it off and holsters the shotgun.
“Woah! You’re looking to kill somebody or what?” Flowey is still hearing the chainsaw’s noises.
“Not if they don’t deserve it, no.” Clover pulls out the green revolver and tosses a coin into the air.
“Gunhat, no.” Flowey looks at the coin.
“Gunhat, yes!” Clover throws four coins into the air and shoots one of them, a yellow bullet bounces coin from coin and headshots the dummy.
“You’re losing money with every shot like that! And it’s way harder than just shooting the thing!” Flowey is complaining from Clover’s hat.
“But it looks sick as hell!” Clover holsters the revolver and continues walking.
A carpet of spikes, Flowey marked the safe spikes after Clover struggles for fifteen minutes. Then a really long hallway, ‘The Hallway of Independence’ as Flowey called it.
Then a save point above the leaves.
“So you’re the one saving now. I raised you well.” Flowey does a few exaggerated sobs.
Clover laughs and visits the room above. ‘Take one.’ the piece of paper says.
“Hey! Let’s just take all of them!”
Clover sighs and takes two pieces of candy. One gets tossed into the air and Flowey picks it up.
“Thanks.”
On the further path there lie the rock puzzles, a ghost (which Clover had to fight.) and the perspective shift rooms.
The Ghost’s name is Napstablook. He took a bit to cheer up, but he’s nice. It’s a shame his only attack was a rain of tears, Clover thinks he has potential to be powerful.
Gunhat avoids Toriel’s house, because Flowey wouldn’t stop complaining about going there and the duo stops at a balcony, which gives them a view on the entirety of the ruined capital.
“So what do we do? Exit’s at Toriel’s place and we have no other way.” Clover gazes upon the city below them.
“Well, there’s a whole city below us… Not to mention that statistically you’ve fallen one point five times more than the average human. How about we make it a double?” Flowey looks down, the fall is about the same as the one into the Dark Ruins.
Clover also looks down. They would land on a patch of leaves in a park, nobody is there. The cowboy fixes his hat and jumps.
A gigantic beast is torturing a child. The kid’s soul is red, and the beast takes joy in every single death.
Clover struggles, they can’t move. Neither Clover nor the other souls next to them.
Then it’s Clover’s turn to attack. The Justice Soul makes sure to do a bad job at aiming, telegraphing every shot and aiming in the general direction instead of straight at the poor human.
And then, he’s free. Clover and the other heal Red. That’s what Clover calls them, since they don’t know Red’s name.
Next thing they know Red slashes at the anatomically and botanically challenged gargantuan beast and Clover wakes up in the Dark Ruins. Only one goal in mind.
KILL EVERYBODY
“-over! Clover!” A vine slaps Clover’s face repeatedly.
Clover raises his hand and slowly sits up.
“Geez, you’re finally awake. It took you a few hours.” Gunhat looks around and finds themself in a bed in a red-tinted room.
“Where are we?”
“Back at Toriel’s. Took a bit of convincing, but you can stay until you recover.” Flowey is… in a flower pot. Clover supresses a laugh.
“Yeah, laugh it up. Either way, pick up the pie and find a save point to heal yourself.” Clover gets hit with memories of staying with Toriel, then Clover remembers Kanako is still in the Lab. Clover remembers that his friends still think he’s dead.
“After we save, we’re leaving.” Clover stands up, puts the pie into their inventory and puts on their hat. Flowey is already on it.
“And what changed this time? The times you were invited to stay with Toriel nothing convinced you to leave!”
“My friends still think I’m dead. Not to metion Ceroba’s daughter still stuck at the Lab.” Clover walks out of the house and finds a save point right before the entrance.
“Wait, Kanako’s an AMALGAMATE?” Flowey looks down from the hat to meet Clover’s face.
“Well, after she fell down Ceroba sent her to the Lab to try to save her. Even by the time we fought she felt that Kanako’s alive.”
“Well WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? You know how many things I couldn’t do when I was with the power? TWO! Two god damn things! Getting that smiley trashbag to spill his secrets and finding the Foxes daughter! Then you come in and casually mention that ALPHYS has her?” Flowey continues ranting about how he couldn’t figure it out himself no matter what.
“Well, we were leaving now. Just don’t expect me to leave out meeting my friends, we’re also going through Waterfall. I never saw the place last time around.” Clover enters the house again.
“Fine. A tip for now, hope you weren’t lying about being fireproof!”
Clover nods and walks up to Toriel. She’s reading on her chair.
“Oh, you are awake, my child? You are lucky to have such a… loud friend. If not for his calls I would have never found you. What do you need, Clover?”
“Well, thank you for letting me rest ma’am, but I need to go. I dunno if Flowey explained it, but I have friends to meet again out there.” Clover smiles and scratches his neck.
“Are you certain? How about I read you this book instead?” Toriel is worried.
“No ma’am, it’s too important for me.”
“I understand. I need to do something, wait here, my child.” Toriel runs out of the room.
Flowey sighs. “Go after her. She’ll want to break the door. If she succeeds we’ll have to reload and go through that again.”
Clover nods and runs after Toriel.
He stops in the hallway, Toriel is waiting.
“You wish to return home, do you not? Do you not get it? If you leave, Asgore will kill you.” Toriel goes further, so does Clover.
“Turn back, this place is safe. We can catch bugs and explore the city! If you’re worried about boredom we have things to do here!” Toriel runs again.
“Huh. Her speech has changed.” Flowey nods. Clover continues.
“Don’t you get it? Everyone has met the same fate. They fall, they leave, they DIE. The last human hasn’t even reached this house. I only want what’s best for you, child.” Toriel runs again. Clover follows.
“This is your last warning. Turn back and go to your room.”
Toriel stops at a door, Clover is in front of her.
“So this is your decision. Prove yourself, show me that you’re strong enough to survive!” The world flickers and a battle starts.
Clover uses the check option.
“Toriel, Atk and Def are eighty. Show her what you’re made of!”
Toriel summons an inferno from her hands, surrounding Clover in flames. A distant memory comes back and Clover dashes through the flames.
Toriel doesn’t falter, she summons hands that leave a trail of homing fireballs. The rain of fire falls down faster than water during a thunderstorm does. Clover gets hit two or three times, but most of it is countered by Flowey’s friendliness pellets.
Clover fires two rubber pellets at Toriel, 10 HP down, 11 HP down.
“Wait a sec, I ain’t a child ma’am!” Clover jumps back, ready for the next attack.
Toriel smiles and sends trails of fire, they’re not homing at least. Clover gets almost hit by one, but dashes at the last second. The surrounding arena is covered in flames. Flowey tosses a healing bullet at Clover and they toss two coins into the air. A yellow bullet jumps coin from coin and lands on Toriel’s head. 20 HP down, Ricoshot x2 bonus, 8 HP down.
The snakes never stopped, now the rain of fire assaults again. Clover dashes and weaves through the fire. They’re reluctant to hurt Toriel.
“Come on, Clover! Use that railcannon thingy you have!” Flowey shouts through the heat, fire droplets are stopped by Flowey later and later.
Clover dashes and dodges until they find a window.
Four coins, Clover pulls out their Railrifle and tosses four coins into the air. Before he can shoot it a fireball bounces back into Toriel. 101 HP down. Ricoshot x1 bonus, 10 HP down.
“Well ain’t that curious…” Clover looks at the coins and gets hit by a snake.
“JUST SHOOT HER ALREADY!” Flowey summons a vine shield.
Clover shoots Toriel with the red revolver. A small laser blast hits her. 20 HP down.
A pool of molten brick inches closer.
Hands dash at Clover from every side, leaving even more snakes to dodge. The fire rains grows stronger. Clover gets hit five times and eats a piece of candy.
Four coins, a shot from the Railrifle. 100 HP down. Ricoshot x4 bonus. 40 HP down.
“Her HP is low. Why can’t we spare her?” Flowey notices that the rain is gone, the hands and snakes are significantly slower. “Look, let’s try waiting. Killing her is not on our agenda.”
The slowed down armageddon of fire is easy for Clover to dodge. The hands don’t leas a trail anymore, the snakes are going in a straight line, leaving Clover obvious space to dodge.
The pool of molten brick has cooled down.
“...”
Toriel sends a barrage of random fireballs at Clover. Clover ducks, dives and dashes around them. And doesn’t attack anymore.
Fireballs converge into fewer, larger attacks.
“Attack or run away!” Toriel shouts as the four large fireballs slowly follow Clover around the arena. The hands are gone and the snakes dash, leaving empty spaces placed in a grid pattern.
Clover gets hit by the moon ball and dies.
Back to the beginning of the fight.
“GOD DAMNIT! We were so close! Come on! The goat doesn’t know what’ll hit her!” Flowey nudges Clover forward.
“Prove yourself. Show me that you’re strong enough to survive!”
The world flickers and the battle begins.
Clover tosses four coins into the air and shoots the Railrifle. 100 HP down. Ricoshot x4 bonus. 40 HP down.
Toriel summons a flurry of fireballs from all sides. There is barely any room to dodge, but dashing will make this trivial.
Five hands flicker into the air and rush at Clover, leaving a trail of flame behind. Clover jumps on a hand, shoots the second via coin. The third hand was impaled by three vines by Flowey. The fourth hit Clover, but Clover punched it in retaliation and it went straight into the fifth with an explosion. Toriel got hit. 20 HP down.
The battle continues, snakes rush at Clover, rain mercilessly falls from above. Hands try to slam Clover into the ground. 100 HP down. 20 HP down. 10, 20, 15, 15, 20, 20 HP down. A golden laser fires from the red revolver, 50 HP down.
Toriel’s flames slow down and make a point to avoid Clover.
“...”
“....”
“.....”
“What are you doing?” Toriel looks confused.
“I think I’ve proven myself plenty, miss Toriel. Your HP is as low as the pits of hell and I’ve still got fire to keep goin’. But killing ain’t my thing.” Clover holsters his revolver.
“...” Toriel dismisses the fireballs.
“And I ain’t a child, miss. Look, I won’t go to Asgore, nothing awaits me on the surface. When I said I’ve got friends to meet I meant here in the Underground. Dalv, Martlet, Starlo… All of them think I’m dead, so I need to see them and show them that I’m alive… Letting them think that I’m six feet under would be a grave injustice.”
The arena flickers and the battle ends.
“I understand, Clover. The Ruins get very small once you get used to them… I have an idea, how about you find your friends and visit me again? I’ll treat you all to some butterscotch-cinnamon pie.” Toriel smiles.
“Well, I’ll do what I can. But I have a terrible fate to fix down in the Lab in Hotland.” Clover takes a step forward.
“Doctor Gaster’s place?”
“Never heard anythin’ about a ‘Gaster’, they say Alphys runs the place.”
“So the old skeleton finally retired… Let me tell you, he was determined to break the barrier without the human souls. Say hi to him form me once you meet him, won’t you?”
“‘Course I will.” Clover takes an another step forward.
“Until next time, Clover.” Toriel goes towards her house.
Clover goes through the door and walks down the long hallway. In a patch of grass Flowey appears.
“Sorry buddy, after the fight I had to check on something… Well, you managed to spare Toriel! Even got her to not basically exile you from the place. You’re really changing things around, Clover!” Flowey goes back to Clover’s hat. “Let’s go! You want to see that scatterbrain, right?”
Clover smiles and goes through the exit.
Spiraling faster, faster, faster and faster.
Falling down, down, down, deep down.
Sunken in a sea of deep blue.
Somewhere far, a bright yellow shines. Somewhere above, somewhere west. A bit of red bleeds through. Alongside it is a dimmer, smaller white light. Both of the lights are moving.
She wants to move up, move closer to the light.
The blue sinks her further. She can tell it doesn’t want this as much as her, but even as an extract the human soul is much stronger than a monster could even hope to be.
A voice rings out in her head. The voice is stuttering, it left a plate of food.
She smiles before eating.
The voice seems happy.
The blue calms a little.