Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Clover stands before the King of Monsterkind, Asgore in front of the barrier standing between monsterkind and the surface. His gun, a gift from a friend betrayed, drawn and pointed forwards. Finger outside the trigger, ammo discarded, and hands tremble as tears stream down, Clover gives Asgore a reason to end him. A rare moment of clarity inside himself dawned only recently. Though it was drawn upon moments too late. Upon that turret a life was lost that hadn't needed to. "I really am lower than dirt ain’t I..." That thought keeps pinging around in Clover’s mind as his SOUL gets battered by both flame and trident.

Meanwhile a small, yellow flower watches the slaughter playing out in front of him. Thinking and talking only for himself to hear. Why are you just STANDING there like an IDIOT? ASGORE is RIGHT THERE! Do you WANT to DIE? To become NOTHING more than a SOUL in a jar? Clover’s NEVER gotten this close before. And this is how he chose to go out…

…

A resounding *CRACK* echoes throughout the chamber as Clover’s body goes limp. A soft *click* can be heard right after Clover’s SOUL is taken from him.

“Sigh… Can't say I didn't see THAT coming. Still, my hopes were high. There's gotta be SOME way to get what I need. Clover's competent... enough, but still… Nothing ever works out when it comes to them. Hmm… I could reset and try my luck again… 

Or...

I could accept what I've been given and wait. The King is only one SOUL away now. It might be a good idea to piggyback off the next human instead. But… Who knows how long that will take and even worse, If the next human would be skilled enough to do what Clover couldn't

…Even after all these tries…

I need some time to think it over. This isn't the end, but don’t get your hopes up Clover. Maybe next time I could get him some LV after he pulls the trigger. HAH. Like he would ever do any of this again. Maybe this was the one and only time he’ll get to the King. Just to spite me.

…You know what? I think I’ll take my chances with the next human. It’s been fun, with just how many runs you’ve made us do. There's been so many now that even I’ve lost count. There have got to be hundreds of them, if not even a thousand by now. And I don’t want to just sit around and babysit you for a thousand more. Just for the off chance you face Asgore again.  But I don’t think you’ll EVER be good enough to get me what I want…

Not after I’ve seen your best…

Not after I’ve seen your most violent…

Not after I’ve seen you at your most methodic…

Even those runs end in failure. Almost always at the birdbrain’s pleas no less. You really are pathetic. Though… I’d call you a “friend” at least. You did keep me entertained for a long while. So… Goodbye. Friend.”

*FILE SAVED*

*FzZt*

*BzzZZzT*

*FILE RESET*

Chapter Text

WHAT

“How did-? Why am I-? This doesn't make any sense. How am I back here? I’m all the way back to when Clover first fell into the Underground?! I can even see him passed out on those stupid flowers through that ruined archway. How?! Did that little- no. He couldn’t have. He never had enough DETERMINATION that run to even begin to feel the effects of LOADing beyond what I let him. So again, how am I back here? This would be oh so very interesting if it made any sense.

Was that odd thing in the wall ALWAYS there? No, it couldn’t have. I would have definitely noticed it. Or would I have? It IS pretty hidden. Only reason I even saw it was because I’m looking harder than I normally do here for something to make sense. I should probably go. Clover isn’t gonna fall through the lever puzzle himself now is he and I’d hate for her to see me.”

“He’s taking his sweet ol’ time getting here. I don’t have all day. Not like anything else interesting’s going to happen. I’ll let him play this run and be done with him and his meddling. Nothing else even remotely interesting happens the day he comes down here anyhow. I’ve checked.”

*SNAP*

“OH! He’s finally coming!”

*CRACK*

Alright, showtime. Maybe if I use the first script I used, he’ll give me something I haven't seen before and THEN I’ll know if he somehow did all of this. I doubt he’s the one who RESET, but… It's in Clover’s very nature to give me a headache.

"Howdy! I'm FLOWEY. FLOWEY the FLOWER!" Got to keep up my smile.

There’s that screen again. And this time there’s something, or rather someone, else in it!

"Hmm...You look confused!" 

They definitely weren't there last time. Maybe that’s why it took Clover so long to get here? Was he waiting for them to get back or something?

"Toriel ought to have taught you how things work around here!"

Is it… a window into another world?

"She didn't?"

There’s no way. That would be too crazy…

But then again…

It would make much more sense on how we came back here.

"I guess little old me will have to do then. Ready? Here we go!"

Well I should watch for a while. Make sure before I do something an idiot like Clover would do. It wouldn't hurt to stay on script for a while longer and watch.

"See that heart? That is your SOUL. The very culmination of your being! Your LV represents your LOVE... it's..."

I-is that thing in the- Yeah, I’m just gonna call it a screen. I don’t really care if it is or not.- screen mocking me?!

"Heh... I'm sure you won't have to worry about that. In the Underground, monsters may try to attack you!"

Oh buddy. I’m SO going to enjoy making you scream.

"If you see bullets like these... You need to avoid them at all costs!"

Why are they putting both their hands up?

"Try dodging my bullets now! Here they come!"

*17/20*

"Sorry about that."

Is Clover really doing this again? The Clover Special? Guess I really shouldn’t be surprised. Not like he ever dodges the first ones anyway.

"Let's try again! Here they come! Dodge them all!"

Okay. Normally he gets the hint and dodges them.

*14/20*

"What are you doing? Dodge. The. Bullets."

What…

Why didn’t he dodge? And why is the figure… laughing?

"Don't mess it up this time."

*11/20*

"You sicko! Are you doing this on purpose?!"

I just noticed the figure always seems to put a single hand back down between my volleys. Why is that? Are they… 

"Fine! I'll just stop sending them then."

…There’s no way. Has Clover been controlled the ENTIRE TIME I’VE KNOWN HIM?!

"Since you're so bad at dodging bullets, I can SAVE your progress for you."

If I’m right, then how long has he not been himself? Wait… I think I got it. Clover’s always been stoic, but he always talked to Toriel when they first meet in the runs when he stayed with her. Or at least all of the runs before I made him fall down here in the Dark Ruins. HAS ALL OF THAT IMPROVEMENT I’VE SEEN BEEN A LIE?! Now I’m mad. Not at Clover, but at the screen wielding warrior up there controlling him.

"That means if something bad happens, I can make it unhappen for you."

Now I’m definitely gonna scare the angel out of this clown up there. If I’m right, and I almost always am, I should be able to get closer to my goals if I make them panic and join me out of fear for their own life. Or maybe Clover gets his own independence back and I can just… convince him to go to Asgore on his own. It’s not like he couldn’t. If not, it’s not really a problem for me. I’ll just let him go out however he wants to I guess. Not like that’s really a surprise anymore.

Chapter Text

Where am I? What am I doing?

It’s quiet. Why is it so quiet? I can see yellow.

What even is yellow? Does it really matter?

I feel tired, but my body gets up.

Nothing makes sense right now.

I see something tall. They’re also white and purple with some red. Are they tall? I can’t tell.

Are they even white? I may just be dreaming. That’s gotta be it. Ain’t no way otherwise.

But still, I’m tired…

My body follows along like it got a mind o’ it’s own.

It’s noisy again. I think it’s from the tall lady? I think she’s a lady.

She’s talkin’ again. Something about a Ruins?

I don’t really hear her all that well…

Well she opened the doors there, so I’ll follow her.

Levers? Or maybe tricks of my eyes. I don’t know.

I’ll pull ‘em though. I guess. I’m so tired. It feels like I haven’t slept a wink in decades, but that can’t be right. I think…

First lever down.

I don’t know. It’s too fuzzy in my mind for thinkin’. I just wanna sleep.

Second lever down.

And she’s talkin’ again. Not like I understand a word though. Just gotta pull that last lever and maybe I can sleep.

*SNAP*

*CRACK*

It hurts. Nothin’ broken, but I can feel pain. It helps a little with this here… thought blockin’ fog.

Maybe I should…

What was I doing here again? Oh right. Those missin’ kids. Ah, there’s the flyer I made…

And… there it goes into the abyss…

The pain from fallin’s gone at least. Does mean it’s gettin’ too hard to think again though. Oh well.

At least I had a nap. Maybe. I hope it’s enough to last. Still tired though.

Welp, my body seems to know what it’s doin’ at least. I hope… It keeps movin’ forwards on its own. I see more of the void that ate my poster around here. It’s… somethin’ to look at, at least. Keeps my head off thinkin’. WOAH! Why’d my body stop so fast? More yellow things? Or maybe the sun’s playin’ tricks on my mind. Oh well. Too fuzzy to think. It’s pretty loud though. Whatever it is. Somethin’ somethin’ souls, somethin’ somethin’ bullets. Wait… Bullets? 

*17/20*

1. That smarts. Okay, I’m awake. Still a little fuzzed in my noggin, but still. So it’s a talkin’ yellow flower in front of me. That… makes no sense, but whatever, that ain’t what’s important here. The flower shot me. At least I… think… so… The fuzz is back. I can’t really think anymore. Maybe it’ll leave me alone now that it’s hurt me. Maybe.

*14/20*

NOPE. Nope. It ain’t lettin’ me go anytime soon. I can’t let ‘em get me so soon. Gotta pay attention and dodge. At least… I think so… What’s that little yellow thing in front o’ me? Looks almost like a cartoon heart. Is that that soul thing it was spoutin’ ‘bout earlier? Can I move it? I don’t know, but the fog’s rollin’ in again. Hopefully it’s over now. What’s that laughing behind me I hear? Why is it so familiar?

*11/20*

AUGH. I can’t get distracted again. That stings worse than angry cornered cattle. Keep focused Clover. Keep your mind in line. Keep the fog at bay. No way you’re gettin’ struck again.

"Since you're so bad at dodging bullets, I can SAVE your progress for you."

What? What does that even mean? Nevermind. Focus.

"That means if something bad happens, I can make it unhappen for you."

Okay… Does that mean… Daw shucks. The fog settled back in. Let myself get distracted by… pretty words I think. Dunno what it all means, but I'm too tired to care right now. I think I’mma get some shuteye…

*THUMP*

Chapter Text

Well I can roll with whatever happens later. The first thing I’ve got to do is scare this idiot up there half to death. Shouldn’t be all that hard. They probably think nobody’s noticed them at all. Why else would they mock me so boldly? Well if they’ve heard this spiel before, then… Maybe I shouldn’t be so… on script anymore. I’ll give that thing up there my best scary face. And unlike Clover, they should be able to handle it.

"You probably want to go home, don'tcha?" 

And I think I know exactly when to strike hehehe.

"Well you've got a long journey ahead!"

All I have to do is get up close to that screen. Shouldn’t be too hard for me.

"If you ever need to save, come look for me!"

Almost there…

"I'll leave these little things around for you."

NOW!

*CREA-A-K*

Okay, that hurt. At least I’m close enough to see what’s there clearly now… I wish I hadn’t now. Wow, that’s nasty. Look at all those boxes behind him. That neckbeard isn’t doing this guy any favors. When was the last time this saggy loaf took a shower because this guy needs to clean himself baaaad. I can smell the stink from here and I’m a flower through a screen! And are those… notes? Like physical paper notes?! The only time I EVER see anything even half as bad as this is in that stupid lab that the ‘royal scientist’ lives in.

“Or at least that’s what I would have said if this was our first time pal.”

Put on a ‘polygon’ smile Flowey. Got to look good for the show after all! Remind that false deity who they’re messing with. All I need now is to REALLY sell it.

“Not like I even really needed to do all of this, did I?”

“W-what the-?!”

*CREA-POP*

*SLAM*

I wasn’t expecting THAT kind of reaction! Ha, serves it right. Got to keep it up. I startled it, but there’s no way it’s afraid yet. 

“What’s the matter bud? Missed your ‘Best Friend’ so much you had to RESET right in front of me? Though, next time I’d like some WARNING before you go touching things you’re not supposed to. If there even is a next time.”

“W-w-what’s THAT s-sup-p-posed to m-mean?’

“I’m glad you asked! Because next time you even LOOK at me again, I might just come slinking into a corner you’ve never even seen before and make you my new plaything.”

”Eep”

”So I’d appreciate it if you’d leave here. Forever.”

“I-I’llgetrightonthatbossplant! …why can’t I quit?”

Wait… The stupid ‘god’ can’t leave?! That’s hysterical! No way I’m NOT taking this even further!

“Of COURSE I wasn’t gonna make it THAT easy to leave me! I want to watch you squirm. To see you slowly wither away in front of me. To make sure that you leave. For good.”

“Uh oh… Wait! The killswitch! That’s got to work!”

*click*

“…”

“Was that supposed to be intimidating? Because it clearly didn’t work.”

“... it didn’t work?! H-how?! There shouldn’t even be any electricity running to my computer anymore. How is it still ON?! And HOW IS FLOWEY STILL MOVING?! T-this doesn’t make any sense?! I’ve never even heard of something like this. Uh… I got it! The power cable! There’s no way it’ll be on after THIS! I’m never coming back to Undertale Yellow again after this.”

*pop*

*Pshoom*

*Rumble*

*Bzzzt*

Well that was weird. Been a looong time since I’ve felt something rumble THAT hard. And that’s not even counting that weird noise. Shouldn’t be anything to worry about though. Nothing I can’t handle.

“That was, interesting at least. Shame the screen went dark. Would have LOVED to see them fail and flounder around again! Hahaha”

Not like I totally failed at least. If I’m right then Clover should be okay now. I should go check up on him now shouldn’t I? I wouldn’t want him to fall even further down these stupid, decrepit, ruins.

*GRO-A-A-A-N*

Note to self. Don’t stretch yourself too hard. Hurts even worse than death. Anyhow…Clover! Right. And… Clover’s asleep. Oh well! I feel GREAT! I managed to scare a false GOD! HAHAHA! Ough, something in my stem feels… odd… Almost like when I absorb Clover’s soul, but not quite as squirmy. Oh well. It probably just happened because I stretched too hard. Nothing to worry about. Just like that rumbling and noise from before. Heh, maybe I should look into that. That definitely wasn’t normal.

But for Flowey, nothing ever goes this smoothly without some sort of hiccup down the line. However, everything seems to be normal. The dark ruins don’t seem to be collapsing in on themselves this time, Toriel hasn’t decided to jump down here herself, and even Clover’s not ruining everything yet!

This run might just yield something worth my time yet. Though I might just push what I’d consider a ‘failed run’ down a few rungs because I do NOT want to deal with that stupid idiot of a 'person' through the screen again. I WAS just going to let Clover go, but… maybe I could lay back and see if something new happens. If he really was possessed by that... thing, then it should be pretty easy to see with his stupid actions. Not like I have very high hopes for the kid anymore. Though, it might also be just as worth it to stick a little closer than normal. If he’s anything like those early runs when I let him stay with Toriel for a bit, then it wouldn’t shock me if he just keeled over and died as soon as he left my sight. Clover was always good at dying in the early days. A grimacing expression washed over Flowey’s face.

“Well I’ve got some time to decide what I’ll do here. I doubt the little cowpoke will get up anytime soon. Clover just looks… so tired. I almost just want to let him sleep there.”

With grimace shifting into pure confusion at the works coming out of Flowy’s mouth. What am I even saying?! I WANT to let him sleep?! WHAT??? When have I ever even CARED about Clover? Besides caring if he makes it to Asgore so he can get me my rightful SOULs. Whatever. I’ll let him sleep for now. I need time to think anyways. It’s not like I can’t just LOAD again and kill him.

A deep sense of something akin to dread starts to form. On second thought, maybe I shouldn’t kill him just yet… I wouldn’t want that thing to come back if it really was Clover who RESET then.

Deep within the caverns that make up the Dark Ruins, a shift has occurred. A story told through hundreds of loops and thousands of failures, has taken a turn not seen before. A plethora of differences, but a story must commence nonetheless. And the first steps into that new journey is written by a flower stained with blood and dust from killings long since wiped from time itself with some help from a small, one could almost say heartfelt, change of mind. Brought forth by the removal of the path worn down not by the foolhardy nor the brave, but the churning wheels of curiosity and near obsessive insanity. 

Chapter Text

Clover, with a mind finally cleared from his haze, stirs from his restful slumber.

Where am I? Have I finally died? Is this what the afterlife looks like?

“Hey kid, are you finally awake?” A familiar yellow flower calls out, finally snapping Clover out from his own head.

 “I’m up, I'm up!” With frantic moves and tone, not unlike a kid caught sleeping in on a schoolday, Clover tries to spring into a sitting position. Only to find out, rather forcefully at that, that he’s been tucked under some strong vines. “Why am I bound down like a runaway train victim?”

“That’s because you almost fell down there in your sleep.” The flower responds almost disinterestedly with a flick of his vines towards the edge of the crumbling platform. “Though that doesn’t really matter now. Have you even heard a thing I’ve told you since you came down here?”

“Ehehehe, no I haven’t. I’m sorry Mr.Flower sir.” Clover replied sheepishly.

“Okay so, I’m only going to repeat myself once. If you don’t pay attention THIS time, you’re on your own. Do you understand, kid?”

“Yes sir!”

“Alright. *AHEM*  Howdy! I'm FLOWEY. FLOWEY the FLOWER! Toriel ought to have taught you how things work around here!” Flowey starts with a practiced cheer and grace.

“I don’t remember no Toriel, but maybe I wasn’t paying attention.” Clover interjects.

Flowey’s petals bristle with annoyance at being disrupted “...But I know she didn't. Well I guess little old me will have to do then. Ready? Here we go!”

*CHK-

CHK-

NEOWW*

Suddenly, the world loses all color, music starts to ring from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and a little yellow heart appears inside a box in front of Clover’s eyes.

“See that heart? That is your SOUL. The very culmination of your being! Your LV represents your LOVE... it's... Heh... I'm sure you won't have to worry about that. In the Underground, monsters may try to attack you! If you see bullets like these... You need to avoid them at all costs!” Flowey talks undeterred, almost like nothing’s happened at all.

Clover, for reasons unknown even to himself, managed to gracefully move his soul and dodge every pellet Flowey sent his way. Are those the bullets I heard about earlier? It makes sense why it seemed to take so long between volleys then. He was trying to get me to dodge ‘em.

Flowey’s face flickers into genuine shock as he mutters “He’s never dodged the first shots before. I thought for sure he’d flounder for a little bit. Maybe that guy there actually held him back?” Just as quickly as before, however, Flowey jumps right back into his crafted spiel. “Nice job there, buddy! In case you do get hit, I can SAVE your progress!”

Clover’s voice cuts through Flowey’s speech yet again “I think I remember you saying something like that before.”

Ignoring Clover’s words, Flowey continues “That means if something bad happens, I can make it unhappen for you.”

The world around Clover regains color as Flowey concludes his speech, but the next question he asks took Clover off guard. "You probably want to go home, don'tcha?"

“I bet most folk probably would, but…” Clover grimaces at the thought of returning to that place, especially if he fails his mission. Even if they all missed me, it might be best for all if I don’t come back at all.

“But what? Do you not WANT to go back?” Flowey asks with a hint of confusion.

Clover sighs in resignation “Well maybe you’re right. I could at least give it a shot. Maybe they’re still alive out there!”

“That’s the spirit! And you won’t have to do it alone because your Best Friend Flowey the Flower will be right there by your side every step of the way!” Flowey declares with a little wink and playful tongue poke. “Well anyways, you've got a long journey ahead! If you ever need to save, come look for me! I'll leave these little things around for you.” Flowey burrows underground, leaving a golden star behind before reappearing in front of the star. “That way it's easy to find me! If you see one don't hesitate to call me! And then I'll save for you. Like I just saved for you a second ago!”

“But you just said you’d be there every step of the way? If I gotta seek ya out, then don’t that mean ya ain’t there? And if'n you ain't around then…” Clover started before abruptly apologizing “Sorry ‘bout that. I sometimes start talking like how my folks used to. Most people don’t like it when I talk that way.”

“And why would I care how you talk, idiot?” Flowey really wants to retort, but refrains himself. “Okay, you do have a point there. I won’t always be available, I am a busy flower after all. However, that star I made is called a SAVE point and I control who uses them. Even if I’m not there, you can still use them, so that means I’m still helping you out!”

“Alright, if you say so, partner. Uh, can I get let out of these vines please?”

“Will do pal, but I’m staying underground for a while. I’ll come back up if you really want to talk or if I need to let you know about something.”

Flowey pops back under the ground as the vines surrounding Clover recede quickly, letting him finally stretch and get a good look at where his impromptu nap took place. The walls are made of deep purple bricks that seem to soak up what little light comes down there. Behind Clover is a bridge made of similar bricks to the walls, but clearly they haven’t been maintained as they crumble and fall into the total darkness surrounding both sides. Wait a moment. Didn’t my poster fall down there? I should make sure nothing else went with it. Clover’s mind thought as he tapped his holster for his toy revolver and gripped at his well worn cowboy’s hat and blue and yellow polkadot bandana tied around his neck. “Alright, I got everything else I came down here with.” Clover says before turning away from the bridge. Luckily for him, there’s a doorway on the other side of the room. It seems his luck runs short there because while walking through, many pillars adorning the sides of the hall crumble down, nearly crushing Clover beneath their white, marble rubble. Speeding up to make it through without dying, it becomes obvious that levers are well loved here in these ruins. 3 levers line the wall with 3 sets of spikes blocking the only other exit to the room. As much as Clover’s mind can’t remember what happened, the feeling of levers being abundant rings through. Pulling the levers at random seemed to do the trick however as a small chime can be heard from somewhere around whilst the spikes retreat into the ground. A small buzzing noise can be heard through the doorway and before Clover can go to investigate, a small, strange, almost alien-like, monster careens towards him.

*CHK-

CHK-

NEOWW*

*Flier is giving fighting a try!*

Chapter Text

The world loses color once again as Clover sees some orange boxes appear in front of him instead of a single battle arena, although one of the options is grayed out. 

|❤︎FIGHT| |ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

As strange as it would sound to almost anyone else, moving his SOUL feels like second nature. Almost as easy as breathing or walking.

|FIGHT| |❤︎ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

❤︎ * FLIER

Where are those bullets that Flowey showed me earlier? I would’ve expected to be attacked by now. 

❤︎ * Check | * Comfort | * Complement | * Criticize

*FLIER -- ATK 3 DEF 2

*FLIER feels nothing.

Nothin’? I guess I kinda feel bad for the guy.

“I’m looking to buy a boat! Know anyone who’s selling?” Flier asked without any prompting.

“I’ve never seen anyone with a boat before, sorry I can’t-” Clover tries to reply before small, white flies start buzzing around Clover’s newfound box.

*17/20*

Getting clipped by one unexpectedly, Clover feels like something slammed into his arm, but looking where the pain is reveals nothing. Not a cut or even visible damage. Well there’s the bullets! So if my SOUL gets hit, then I feel like I get hurt, but I must not actually get cut up. That must be what Flowey meant when he said “In the Underground, monsters may try to attack you! If you see bullets like these... You need to avoid them at all costs!”  My guess is that if I take too much damage, then I die. It’d line up pretty darn nicely with what Flowey said about undoing things when “something bad happens”.

*Flier is caught up in old memories*

|FIGHT| |❤︎ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

 * Check | ❤︎  * Comfort | * Complement | * Criticize

“Hey, you look like someone who thinks things are over for ya huh?”

Flier, with an obviously forced “cool guy” smirk, replies “Nah bruh, there’s no way someone like… me would… *sigh* you’re right… I’m middle aged and my life’s almost over...”

“It ain’t over yet! It’s only half over and you should enjoy it! Make the rest of it count.”

“Hey, you’re right! I don’t need to be “cool” like the kids. I just need to enjoy myself!”

“Now there’s the spirit!”

More flies pop out of the wall, slower this time so as to not hit Clover like last time.

|FIGHT| |ACT| |ITEM| |❤︎MERCY|

❤︎ * Spare | * Flee

*YOU WON*

Flier hands Clover a few golden coins with “G” stamped on it. “Here you go kid! Thanks for helping me realize my worth.”

“I can’t take this. All I did was tell ya you should keep going, not something worth giving me money for.”

“Oh! You must be new to the Underground then. It’s customary for monsters to give someone some money if they attack them. Though the only people that wouldn’t know that are monsters who must ‘ve basically lived in total isolation, or a new… human in the… underground…”

“Well I am a human so that explains that.”
After a beat, Flier stuttered out “Uh… B-but if you’re a h-human, then w-why did you SPARE me? I’ve b-been told humans are c-cold hearted k-killers.”

A tiny grimace crosses Clover’s face hearing that. “I guess some folk could be called that, but most humans wouldn’t hurt ‘cha without good reason to.”

“O-oh. I guess that makes sense then. Well welcome to the Underground then! Do you know where you are?”

“Maybe… When I fell down here, I felt like my mind was fillin’ with fog. I couldn’t really think straight and I don’t remember what anyone told me then.”

“Alright then. You’re in the Dark Ruins. This place, along the ruins above it, used to be Monsterkind’s first capital city! At least… that’s what I’ve been told…” Flier shied away a little.

Clover made a mental note to ask why it’s so ruined later, but in more pressing matters “I got one more question for now. Where’s the exit to the dark ruins? I kinda gotta run and finish my mission down here.”

“A mission? Oh! Uh, you’ll find the exit if you keep following this path. Though… There might be a problem with that…”
“A problem?”

“Yeah… There’s a monster who lives in front of the exit. His name is Dalv, and he’s… protective… of his home to put it lightly.”

“Would he let me go if y’all went and asked him nicely to let me pass?”

“I don’t really see why he wouldn’t. Though you might need more than just me… We don’t really talk all that much…”

“Alrighty then. I’ll go find more folk and ask them for some help then! I guess I’ll see ya later then?”

“Y-yeah, I’ll see you later as well, human.”

“Oh yeah, I guess you never caught my name huh? I’m Clover!”

“Nice to properly meet you, Clover. My name’s Flier. See you again later, Clover.”

And with that final goodbye, Flier darts off through where those spikes lowered earlier. Clover started towards the exit, but turned around when a thought ran across his mind. Maybe I should go back to that star Flowey set up and try that savin’ thing he talked ‘bout. I’d hate to die to somethin’ and redo all that.

Backtracking through the broken down hall, Clover reaches the little star and touches it. Flowey shows himself again when Clover’s hand retreats back. 

“Howdy Clover! That sure was an interesting battle you had back there.” Flowey remarks with a cheeky grin poking through.

“Howdy yourself Flowey. Well I just didn’t wanna hurt ‘em ya know? He just sent those flies ‘cause he didn’t feel nothin’.”

“Oh sure pal. Anyways, why’d you come back here? Did ya miss little ol’ me?” A clear mock directed at Clover’s backtracking.

“Nah, I thought you said I could ‘save’ at these here stars and I didn’t wanna go through that again.”

“You know what, that’s probably the smartest thing you’ve done yet. Also it’s not called a save. It’s called a SAVE.”

“Ain’t that just the same thing, just louder?”

“It’s important to call it the right thing. You wouldn’t want your plastic scrap you call a ‘weapon’ on your belt to be called garbage now would you?”

“I get it. No need to be so snarky about it.”

“Ha, well you came here for a SAVE, so let’s get you SAVEd up then!”

A new box appears in front of Clover with 2 options.

| Clover     LV 1   999:99 |

| Dark Ruins - Entrance |

| ❤︎ Save             Return |

*FILE SAVED*

Selecting the save button, Clover feels the pain in his arm dissipate. Almost like SAVEs do more than just save a point in time for Flowey to return him to.

“Well I guess if that’s all, then see you next time Clover.” Flowey says as he retreats underground yet again.

After darting away from Clover, Flowey starts to feel a warm feeling brew within himself. Why do I feel so warm and fuzzy helping Clover now? It doesn’t make sense. I’m not supposed to feel ANYTHING at all! I don’t have a SOUL for myself, so I can’t feel love, but what else could this even be? Strange thoughts bombard Flowey’s mind Wait… I got it! It’s not love, or compassion, or anything sappy like that. It’s got to be excitement for this run! I mean, I did beat that gargantuan idiot with power earlier, and Clover’s doing things he’s never done before! Like actually responding to some of my jabs instead of just staring ahead and ignoring me. Now that I think about it… Clover used to be so much more talkative before I broke that stupid lever puzzle. Now I’m almost certain that he was being controlled at the very least.

Clover shrugs off Flowey’s sudden departure and moves on. Moving back into the hall for hopefully the last time, however he doubts it, he spots a figure facing away from him studying one of the pillars. Wearing a full cloak from top to bottom makes it hard to tell who, or what, they might be. Small protrusions barely visible on the top of their cloak make Clover think that whoever this person is, they’re not likely to be one of the other fallen humans. Taking a step forwards, Clover’s boot clacks against a part of broken marble, catching the cloaked figure’s attention.

“W-who’s there?” they ask, clearly taken off guard. Spinning around, Clover sees that their face is completely shrouded in darkness. The cloaked figure leans forward, seemingly to get a better look at Clover. “You look familiar…” they say after a lengthy pause.

“Well the name’s Cl-” Clover starts before the figure continues to blether on.

“Wait a moment… There’s no way. It can’t be you. No way… I have to go. If it really is you, then please don’t follow. I’m sorry I didn’t do more to help. Please leave me be.” 

The figure darts away towards the lever puzzle room. Meanwhile Flowey decided to pop back up at Clover’s feet. “Howdy again Clover! I just wanted to pop in and let you know that that was Dalv. Kind of a weirdo I know.”

“I musta reminded him of someone, so I don’t wanna blame him yet.”

“You’re waaay to kind Clover. A little accountability might go a long way for you, ya know?”

“I try to see all sides of a story before I judge someone. It does no one any good to jump to a wrong opinion early.”

“Eh, agree to disagree on that one pal. Anyways, see you later!” 

If that really was Dalv, then I think Flier was right on the mark about needin’ more folk to convince them of anythin’. They didn’t even let me finish introducin’ myself. Clover thought with a sigh. Finally moving through where the spikes retreated into the ground, Clover came across another puzzle room with lit up boxes. Fortunately for him, Clover doesn’t need to complete it himself because the spikes on the other side are already down. That musta been how Dalv got over to where I was.

Moving on, there’s a small flight of steps leading to a decent sized platform. Wear patterns embedded on the floor make it pretty clear someone spends a lot of time pacing around over here. The platform leads into another hallway with a side path leading somewhere else. Next to the doorway was a patch of flowers and some kind of lizard-like monster with a pencil tipped head doodling away on a paper. Large piles of crumpled drawings litter the area around them.

Clover decides to take the initiative “Howdy there, I’m Clover. Nice to meetcha!”

“Ugh, this doesn’t look right either.” The pencil monster ignored Clover’s greeting and crumpled up her paper before throwing it onto one of the smaller piles. Turning around to grab another piece of paper, she finally acknowledged Clover. A spark of creativity shines through her eyes as she says “Hey, you there. I’ve never seen you before. Do you mind if I draw you?”

“Uh, sure thing miss. I don’t mind one bit.”

“Oh thank you! This might be what I need to finally finish drawing those flowers.”

*CHK-

CHK-

NEOWW*

A noise that Clover’s starting to become all too familiar with rings out as the world drains into black and white.

*Penilla draws near!*

|❤︎FIGHT| |ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

Heh, like drawin’. Not a bad pun. 

|FIGHT| |❤︎ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

❤︎ * Penilla

❤︎ * Check | * Compliment | * Distract 

*PENILLA -- ATK 3 DEF 3

*A sketchy character

But she don’t seem so… Oh wait. Another pun. Definitely coulda been better, but it works I guess.

Seeming distracted by her art supplies, Penilla mutters to no one in particular “2B or not 2B”

Clover inwardly groans. Another pun?! Each one keeps gettin’ worse than the last. How many of those do I gotta hear? I don’t think I could take much worse. 

A quick chirping noise alongside strange exclamation points flashing brings Clover back to the battle, but not before 2 pencils cross right through his SOUL. Stifling a flinch at the pain, Clover moves into the corner of his fighting box when lines left behind by the pencils start to spin. Almost like instinct, Clover moves his SOUL around and around like a madman on a carousel. 

*16/20*

Penilla seems completely unaware that she’s attacking, as she continues her 3rd sketch of Clover. The first two sketches seem to be only slightly crumpled and placed atop her art supplies.A small glance shows Clover some of the best art he’s seen. A small scowl adorns her muzzle while her eyebrows furrow in concentration, almost like she isn’t happy with her work.

|FIGHT| |❤︎ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

❤︎ * Penilla

* Check | ❤︎  * Compliment | * Distract 

“I love those sketches you’ve done back there. They look just like me!”

The compliment seems to just make Penilla blush in embarrassment. “You’re just saying that because you feel obligated.”

“Naw, I’m being honest with ya.” Clover manages to say while dodging more white pencils darting straight for his SOUL.

Penilla signs the fifth sketch before starting on a brand new one. Her anger and stress only getting worse as this goes on.

|FIGHT| |❤︎ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

❤︎ * Penilla

* Check |   * Compliment | ❤︎ * Distract 

Clover decides that enough is enough and puts himself right between Penilla and her 7th sketch of him. “Hey, you really look like you need a break. If ya keep pushin’ yourself like a mule, then it’s gonna be no time flat ‘fore ya crash and hate doing whatcha love.”

“I suppose I could use a break.” Penilla meekly agrees.

While putting away her art supplies, more magic pencils rampage around Clover, forcing him onto the backfoot. Right before one final pencil hits his SOUL, Penilla’s eyes widen as she realizes what’s been happening right in front of her face and stops it. “O-oh my. I’m so sorry. I didn’t even realize I pulled you into a BATTLE…”

|FIGHT| |ACT| |ITEM| |❤︎MERCY|

❤︎ * Spare | * Flee

*YOU WON*

Panilla stuffs a few gold coins into Clover’s hands in apology.

Clover chuckles out, “It’s alright. I only got hurt once, so it really ain’t a big deal.” 

“W-wait… I would never make my magic hurt someone, so why did it hurt you? Also I don’t see any dust on the ground.” Penilla remarks with worry across her features.

“Whatcha mean by all that?”

Penilla’s face drops in shock. “Have you never been to school? Monsters lose dust when they get injured because our bodies are made of magic.”

“Ah, I think I get why you were lookin’ for dust now. Ya only hit me once and while it does sting, I don’t think I’m bleedin’ anywhere”

Bleeding? That’s definitely not a normal monster thing, so why even bring that up? Penilla questions internally. “But you shouldn’t have been hurt by my magic at all!”

Clover tilts his head like a lost puppy “And why’s that?”

“Because magic only hurts other monsters if they want it to. Being made of magic makes us really susceptible to emotions and intent. If you don’t want to hurt someone, then it won't hurt them. It really is as simple as that.” Penilla says with a small huff. “Did you really not know any of this?”

“I really didn’t, no. I’m sorry. Honestly I’m still new to all this stuff down here.”

A realization suddenly dawns on Penilla. What if this kid isn’t a monster at all? If he’s not from the Underground, then him not knowing anything about magic makes sense. But if he’s not a monster and if he’s not from the Underground, then that means… “I know this might come off as rude, but I have to ask. Are you a human?”

Clover panics. Uh oh. Do I just answer her truthfully, or do I just wing it? Uh… Let's just do it. I hope she takes it better than Flier did.

“Yeah. Name’s Clover by the way.” Clover points a thumb in towards himself while striking a pose.

“Nice to make your acquaintance, my name’s Penilla. So how’d you get down here?”

Clover released a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “Ah, that’s easy! I jumped down a hole up top and then I think I fell through the floor and now I’m here.”

Penilla tries to hide her shock. He JUMPED down here?! I don’t know too much about humans, but that can’t be a normal thing for them to do. 

Clover, feeling the atmosphere souring, tries to change topics “But anyways, I’m trying to get out of here.”

“Uh, I know where the exit is, but I don’t think it’ll be easy to leave.”

“I know Dalv lives there. I met Flier earlier and he said almost the same thing. He thinks Dalv might let me leave if I can get enough monsters down here to talk to him.”

“Flier said that.”

“Yup.”

“Flier?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“There’s no way. Flier always tries to act ‘cool’ and ‘hip’, his own words, not mine.”

“I got him to see that doing things that way ain’t no way to live.”

“...I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Well he should be on his way to Dalv’s house right now! Could you go and put in a good word to Dalv for me, Penilla?”

“*sigh* You know what. Sure, I’ll talk with Dalv. You’re right by the way, I definitely need a break. I can feel it down in my soul. Walking over to Dalv’s might do me some good. And on that note, I should see you soon, Clover.”

Penilla takes the branching path out of the flower filled hallway.

“See ya ‘round Penilla.”

That’s gotta be the way to Dalv’s house. I should probably continue that way. But Clover’s curiosity takes over his thoughts. Or I could also explore a bit more and see if I can find anyone else.

Continuing on the straight path forwards, Clover enters a small, closed off room with an abandoned stall shoved against the northmost wall. Well that’s a bit disappointing, now ain’t it. Inspecting the lone stand in the room, he realized it was a limeade stand! The sign next to the bowl of green limeade says “5g a glass”. Without thinking about it too hard, Clover pulls out exactly 5g and puts the money in a tip jar next to the unmanned station and pours himself a glass. Realizing he isn’t all that thirsty at the moment, Clover puts it in his inventory. 

That’s also the same moment Clover realizes he has an inventory and spends the next 15 minutes just amazed at how easy he can put and pull things out of it.

Flowey sat back and watched as Clover managed to recruit Penilla to his cause and then promptly walked into that stupid lemonade room quite a while ago. Meanwhile a feeling Flowey forgot he could even feel roars deep within him. If you asked Flowey what that feeling was, he’d tell you it’s boredom. What is taking him so long? There’s only a lemonade stand in there. Is he TRYING to waste his time? Whatever, not like I care. …I should see what’s up though. Maybe he found something new in there this time!

Burrowing inside, Flowey finds an empty lemonade stand. No, wait a second. Lemonade isn’t green. Upon closer inspection Flowey realized that, in place of a lemonade stand, there was a limeade stand instead. Looking around further after that revelation reveals a lone Clover sitting near a wall pulling a cup of said limeade seemingly in and out of existence. If it was anyone other than Flowey, they might’ve panicked. However, this is Flowey, and therefore has seen this little bit of Clover’s inventory a thousand times before. With this newfound knowledge that Clover’s just relearning his old tricks, Flowey retreats back to his SAVE point in the hallway outside.

After a total of at least 20 minutes inside a room with only a single limeade stand, Clover returns to the hallway filled with purple flowers. Deciding that he’s stalled enough, he turns down the corridor Penilla went in the first time and promptly sees a SAVE point just sitting conveniently in the center. If he didn’t know any better, Clover might have thought Flowey was waiting there just for him, but his snippy attitude makes Clover doubt that’s the case. Reaching out and touching the star shaped object, Flowey reappears. 

“Howdy Clover. Sure took your sweet time in that dead end now didn’t you.” Flowey says with a knowing smirk. “Say, did you learn about your INVENTORY yet?”

“Can’t say anyone’s told me about an inventory, but I think I might’ve.” Clover shrugs.

“So is that why you took almost 20 minutes inside a room with literally nothing else to do except drink a single glass of limeade?” The sass in Flowey’s voice dripped like venom.

Choosing to ignore the sass, Clover answers his friend’s question “Yeah, that’s exactly why I was there. It was kinda fun just pushin’ and pullin’ that cup around in there!”

A small chuckle escaped Flowey as that warm feeling from earlier returned. This time much stronger than before. A thought worms its way into the back of Flowey’s mind. What if this isn’t excitement, but is actually attachment to the little scamp?

Banishing that thought for the time, Flowey pushes onwards. “Alright pal, let’s get you saved up though. It has been a little while, hasn’t it?”

“I should probably do that, ehehehe…”

| Clover     LV  1   999:99 |

|   Dark Ruins  -  Atrium  |

| ❤︎ Save              Return |

*FILE SAVED*

Chapter Text

With a wink and a wave, Clover leaves Flowey to burrow away again. Moving on through the offshoot, Clover finds himself at the entrance to a corn maze.

Now how in the world did anyone get anything to grow down here? Much less this much corn.

With spikes blocking the outsides, Clover wanders into the corn. Aimlessly searching, he comes across a piece of candy corn about half the size of himself. When Clover reaches for it, he hears a low rustling coming from the corn stalks. Not to be caught off guard again, Clover reacts swiftly. 

Out of the corn, a sentient candy corn cob bounds. Checking reveals her name to be Sweet Corn. And that she always has a sugar rush. Now in the battle box, as Clover has started calling it, he hears and sees that same red exclamation mark appear from the ground directly below his SOUL. Mere moments later, a stalk of corn darts upwards from where those marks vanished.

Those strange things must be some kinda early warnin’ system. That’s pretty neat!

Swiftly dodging a number of corn stalks sent by the happy candy, Clover retaliates by giving Sweet Corn a hug. 

She squeaks out a happy “I’m feelin’ the love~” as Sweet Corn sticks to Clover’s shirt.

“Howdy, I’m Clover.” Clover quickly introduced shortly after sparing Sweet Corn. “And I know we just met, but can ya help me with somethin’?”

“Of course I can!” Sweet corn bounds “What’s the problem, Clover?”

“I’m tryin’ to get those I meet down here to talk Dalv into letting me leave. I fell down here and there isn’t a way to get back without going through his house.”

“Oh, if that’s all, then me and my siblings would love to help! Dalv doesn’t seem to be very happy lately. This might just cheer him up!”

“Alright, thanks for the help Sweet Corn.”

“Not a problem friend!” Sweet Corn didn’t even realize she never gave her name to Clover in the first place. 

As Sweet Corn jumps back into the corn, many of the nearby corn stalks start rustling with activity. A sea of orange, yellow, and white flows out of the maze. Most of them flood out the door Clover came in through. I’m sure they’ll figure it out. Eventually at least… 

Pushing onwards, Clover finds himself aimless once again. While wandering around, he looks at the piece of non-sentient candy corn he found. It’s just like checking an enemy in battle for Clover.

* “Candy Corn” - Restores 9 HP

* (Your teeth hurt just looking at it.)

“So this thing restores hp? Like Health points or somethin’ like that?”

“It’s not exactly like health points, but not too far off. HP stands for HoPe. You lose all your Hope, and your SOUL splinters and breaks.” Flowey says as he springs out from the base of a corn stalk.

Clover, startled by the flower’s sudden arrival, tensed up for a fight. Before losing all his tension by looking at Flowey’s dumb grin. “Howdy Flowey. What’cha mean by ‘splinters and breaks’?”

“Exactly what I said. Lose Hope, and your SOUL weakens and shatters. Almost no one survives long after losing their SOUL.”

“Almost no one?” Clover tries raising an eyebrow, but ends up with both raised instead.

“Never mind that. That really isn’t that important. It’s not like you could survive anyhow.” Flowey’s facade shifts slightly, showing how nervous he really is for a brief moment. “Anyways, just keep moving and I’m sure you’ll find a way out, ol’ buddy.”

Clover opens his mouth to say bye, but before a single noise comes out, Flowey’s gone. Clearly Flowey’s gonna get the last word in. Ain’t worth it to push small talk any further than he wants to. Clover’s face forms a minor frown at this thought. He was hoping to talk more with Flowey while exploring alone, but clearly the flower has other ideas.

Pushing those thoughts away for the time, Clover presses on. His determination is rewarded when the glint of a lever catches his attention. Flicking it, a loud *SHUNK* can be heard from the direction Clover thinks the entrance is. Jogging around the maze shows the spikes near the beginning have lowered. That’d be useful if I ever need to go back there. Clover thinks with a faint chuckle.

Walking back to the exit, an almost imperceptible *thunk* gives Clover pause. Uh oh, are the spikes timed?! Turning the corner again reveals that to not be the case as the same spikes were still, indeed, firmly in the ground. Walking with a little more urgency now, he treads towards the next hall, but not before getting distracted by a sign on the wall he missed.

“Friend: I planted these for you. It isn't much, but I hope it brightens your day. It always brightened mine.“

Aww, so someone musta planted and tended to these here fields with love. That does explain Sweet Corn’s happy and lovey attitude. A smile returns to Clover’s face. 

Moving on from the needed distraction, Clover sees the source of that noise from earlier. Along an entire side of the hallway, spikes form a barrier that prevent him from passing. On the other side a single Sweet Corn can be seen bouncing down the hall alongside a decently sized pouch with a sign stuck in the opening. With no obvious signs forward, Clover decides to do what he’s been doing all day now. He backtracks again.

Back in the corn maze, Clover pulls the lever that lowered the spikes before. A *THUNK* permeates the room, albeit not nearly as loud as before. Looking into the hall reveals that the corn lever only connects to the corn spikes. The *SHUNK* from before can be heard before Clover wandered down the only path left for him.

Another broken down bridge is all that greets Clover’s feet at the end of the hall. However, Clover sees that same cloaked figure from earlier on the other side of the bridge. Flowey said that he was the same Dalv that Clover needs to get through to leave. Dalv’s pulling a slightly decayed plank of wood to the side of the bridge.

Hoping that maybe someone’s talked to Dalv by now, Clover clears his throat to catch his attention.

*ahem* 

“Hm? Who’s there?” Dalv’s head shoots up at the sudden noise.

“Howdy there Dalv. I was hopin’ that you’d-” Clover starts before Dalv’s face falls and he starts muttering again.

“Oh please, not again. I asked you not to follow me. Please believe me when I say I didn’t mean for things to turn out that way. I really do wish I could have done more. Please, go back where you came from and leave me alone.” Dalv finished his rambling by sprinting away from the bridge.

Clover’s face falls into a slight annoyance as everything Clover told Dalv fell on deaf ears. If he’d just listen for a moment, then we’d get everythin’ all cleared up. There’d be no need to run away over and over again.

Shaking his head, Clover looks around for anything that might help him. A lever clearly sitting on the wall marks a clear starting point for what to do next. Pulling it lowers the wall of spikes blocking him out with a satisfying *shink* sound. 

Going down the newly opened path, Clover looks around at the pouch’s sign.

“To Clover. 

Here’s the G me and my siblings owe you for fighting you earlier. 

- With love~ Sweet Corn and family :D”

“Well I guess I could take it. I mean, it seems like a little much to me. I’ll talk with her later and ask 'em in person if she meant to give me all this.” Clover said to no one in particular as he swipes up the pouch and deposits it into his inventory.

Turning the corner, Clover spots a row of 4 standing pillars. All but one in pristine condition, considering the area at least. The third pillar shows the work of an obvious vandal at play, an image of a cat in the pillar makes Clover groan in annoyance. A cat-er-pillar? Really? This place must really love puns ‘cause if I made even half as many jokes… I really don’t wanna think ‘bout those times right now…

Inspecting the wall behind shows something that isn’t a pun for once. Clover noticed a hole in the shape of a “3” near some vines tucked away in the corner. Now that’s mighty interesting there. Thinking back on it, Clover thinks he might have seen a “5” or something like that in the other pillared hallway. If my eyes ain’t trickin’ me then where’s number 4?

Spinning on his heels towards the next room, Clover spies another SAVE point close by. His excitement wears off fast as another monster shows up. This one has the appearance of a hallway mirror someone might find in an abandoned manor with a small face atop its frame and arms attached on the sides. 

“Hello there young one. Your appearance is dreadful. It looks almost as if you’ve fallen down a pit recently. That just won’t do.”

“Oh, uh. Howdy. You can just call me Clover if ya want. And you ain’t wrong about the whole pit thing.” 

“Ah, it appears I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Rorrim. Pleasure to meet you properly, Clover.”

Is his name really another pun? “That’s quite alright there Rorrim. I don’t wanna be rude, but may I use you to clean up a lil’ bit?”

“I would be delighted to assist you, young Clover.”

Peering at his reflection, Clover gets a good chance to see himself for the first time in a while. His golden yellow eyes stare back, though Clover swears a gleam of red can be seen floating around, though it might just be Rorrim’s reflection. His unkempt brown hair flows into a small ponytail tied off in the back with a small piece of natural twine. Clover also notes that his cowboy outfit has loads of dirt and dust all over, and his hat isn’t on his head right at all. After brushing himself off and fixing his hat, Clover examined him again. Seeing nothing out of place, he gave his reflection a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

“You look absolutely wonderful, Clover.” Rorrim says as Clover takes a step back.

“I gotta thank you Rorrim. If you hadn’t been here, I don’t think I woulda noticed how bad I looked.”

“You are very welcome, young Clover. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but you appear a tad bit stressed. If you don’t mind, I’d like to know what bothers you so.”

Taken aback by Rorrim’s astute observations, Clover tensed. However, he still decided to let Rorrim know what’s bothering him, at least a little bit. “Well since you asked, I’m still gettin’ used to all this.” Clover gestures all around. “And I’m scared about all that.”

“Hmm. I can’t understand exactly how you feel, being a new human in the underground and all, but I can see where you come from. Maybe if you focus on the little things, and not the big picture, you can see everything more clearly. I believe the saying is ‘seeing the forest for the trees’ if I remember correctly.”

Clover’s smile starts to fade as old memories start to invade his mind.

“Alright. I’ll keep that in mind goin’ forwards. Thanks again.”

 “Not a problem my friend.” Clearly seeing his new friend start to close in on himself, Rorrim makes the decision to bring up something that a Sweet Corn mentioned while passing by. “Though I can clearly see you have something you wish to ask me, do you not?”

“I guess I do. Would ya be willin’ to talk with Dalv and get ‘im to let me outta the Dark Ruins? I know that’s a lot to ask for, and I’d understand if ya don’t wanna.” Clover barely managed to mumble the last part out.

“But of course. I can understand why someone would want assistance when talking with Dalv. He does not tend to listen to most of the monsters that reside in here, so I shall do my best to help you. Thank you Clover, for trusting me enough to open up at all.”

Clover wants to speak, but the words keep catching in his throat as he keeps curling into himself more and more. In the end, he just gives a single nod to Rorrim. 

Rorrim, seeing Clover’s unease, decided to take his leave. Only turning around to give a small bow and tell the young boy “I shall see you at Dalv’s then.” as kindly as he could.

Watching Rorrim go, Clover’s mind starts to race with images from those who talked to him in a similar way once before. Tears start to force their way out while Clover starts to murmur to himself, “Don’t go. Please don’t go. Don’t leave me there again.” over and over again as he crumbles to his knees.

Chapter Text

Something deep within Flowey’s very being starts to churn with vigor as he watches Clover break down. A feeling. The same feeling Flowey had shoved away as nothing more than dread whenever he thinks of killing Clover. Every attempt to quell or shift that feeling away, ends in it growing even more. Growing so large it cannot be ignored.

Even I can admit when I’m obviously wrong about something. Clearly whatever this feeling is, it isn't dread. The only thing I can even begin to compare it to is… back when they died… back when that crybaby felt bad about letting his sibling eat those buttercups and die in front of him. What was that emotion called again? I think it’s called guilt. Yeah, it’s comparable to guilt. But what would I be guilty about? Hmm. My only guess is that, somehow, by getting rid of that idiot controlling Clover, it made me feel guilty for doing everything I’ve done to him while he wasn’t there in the head. I don’t have the faintest idea why Clover being a crybaby would make me feel bad, or why I don’t want him dead, but unless something proves me wrong again, I’m going with that theory. Oh well, might as well at least try to cheer him up. It might get that stupid guilt to finally go away.

Flowey hasn’t tried cheering anyone up in a long time, but in his best attempt at comfort, he springs out of the ground next to Clover and rests the leaves and petals closest to Clover on his shoulder with as quiet and calm of a voice as he can muster, he whispered “Shh, shh. It’s okay Clover. I’m not gonna leave you alone. It’s all going to be all right.”

“Are ya *sniff* sure?” Clover managed to barely choke out.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’m your pal, aren’t I?”

“Y-yeah, ya are my pal.”

“So I’ll make sure it’s okay, alright?”

Taking his sleeve, Clover wipes away the tears staining his cheeks, still leaving behind wet eyes and a runny nose. He turns to his companion with a small smile on his face, and says “Alright, Flowey. And, thank you.”

“What’re you thanking me for?”

“For bein’ there when I needed it. Really, it means a lot.”

A small, genuine, smile forms around the sides of Flowey’s mouth as guilt turns into that warm, fuzzy feeling once more at Clover’s own smile. “Not a problem. That’s what pals are for aren’t they?”

“Hehe, I guess you’d know more ‘bout it than I would.”

How would he not know? Wouldn’t Clover have had friends on the surface? Idiots do tend to gather other idiots after all. Flowey ponders over what Clover said, but decides to ignore it for now, as making sure Clover isn’t about to collapse into a sad sack of corn again takes priority in his mind. “So, are you feeling any better now?”

Tears continue to slip out, but the sniffling seems to be gone as Clover shakily says “Yeah, I’m feelin’ a lot better. I jus’ need a bit to compose myself.”

“Alright. When you’re ready, just go up to the SAVE star and we can move on. I got something I want to let you know about, and I need to know you heard me clearly.”

“Okay.”

And with that, Flowey burrows underground again. After wiping up the tears still left, Clover stands and feels something slip off his shoulder. A soft vine slowly falls to the ground. Clover picks it back up with a smile. A simple presence he twirls around his fingers to remind Clover that he isn’t alone. Not anymore at least.

With determination and resolve, Clover finally makes his way to the SAVE point he saw before his encounter with Rorrim. Clover reflects on Rorrim’s exit. Next time I see ‘em, I definitely need to apologize for my outburst. He didn’t deserve none of that.

Before Clover can even touch the SAVE star, Flowey pops up and peers around the corner. With a tiny sigh of relief, Flowey quietly whispers, “Let’s SAVE you up first. I don’t want to wait here for you to get back if he hears us.”

| Clover     LV  1   999:99 |

|    Dark Ruins   -   Cliff    |

| ❤︎ Save              Return |

*FILE SAVED*

“Okay, so what I needed to tell you is that there’s a monster in the next room. Now normally I wouldn’t feel the need to say anything about it because, obviously, there’s monsters everywhere around here, but this time’s different.” Flowey continued whispering with a tinge of fear across his face. He pauses to peek back around the corner again.

Clover, sensing how serious this could be, whispers back, “Seems like this problem’s a little bit bigger than them just being ‘different’.”

Whipping back around, a snarl evident on the corners of Flowey’s face, “It’s different because he’s usually not nearly as powerful, and yet look at the damage he caused when those Sweet Corn came by earlier.”

Flowey gestures towards the doorway leading onto another bridge. Clover glances around the corner. Destruction is all that awaits as far as the eye can see. Clear chunks of bridge ripped out, trails of unnaturally white dust are strewn about, and unnatural fog etches its way ever closer. Dread takes hold inside Clover as fear drives him back to Flowey. 

“Ain’t there another way to Dalv’s?” Clover whispers, panicked eyes darting around for whoever caused that.

“As much as I want to lead you on a wild goose chase, no. However, there is some good advice I can give.”

“What could possibly be good advice ‘bout that? I don't think I’d make it a moment ‘gainst somethin’ that caused all that.”

“Good then, because as long as you do what I tell you here, you won’t have to. The monster in there is a bat monster named Decibat and he loves silence. I’m almost certain those Sweet Corn don’t even know the meaning of quiet, let alone silence, so it didn’t really surprise me when he woke up then. What did shock me was how strong his magic attacks were. Usually he’d barely cause a scratch if someone disturbed him, but… I hope you’re smart enough to get what I’m saying here.”

“Alright. Lemme make sure I get it first. So I just need to be absolutely silent when I walk through there. Right, Flowey?”

“Exactly. Golly, I knew you’re smarter than you look!”

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the warnin’ though Flowey. I ain’t lettin’ it go to waste.”

“See you on the other side, Clover.” Flowey nods his petals before shooting underground again.

Clover takes a deep breath and lets his face fall back into that neutral expression he always used to give. With little to no effort, Clover starts onwards without even the noise of air upon his footfall.

Treading into the haze on the bridge, Clover’s vision starts to darken. A slight feeling of panic and dread creeps at the back of Clover’s mind when the only thing he can see is his hands in front of his face, and the ground right under his feet. Practiced silence being ingrained into him being the only thing keeping Clover from waking the bat-like monster hiding in the fog. 

As the misty fog begins to lighten, Clover hears a *woosh* behind him. Turning around reveals Decibat, as Flowey said, he looks like a bat. A deep navy blue bat, but a bat nonetheless.

“Hush, hush. You must also be a sentinel of silence like myself to move so quietly. My name is Decibat.” Decibat whispered everything so quietly that it wouldn’t have been possible to hear if a single other noise was present.

Respecting Decibat’s volume, Clover whispers as quietly as he can, “Nice to meet you Decibat. I’ve never heard of a ‘sentinel of silence’ before, but my name’s Clover.”

“Oh, but you are so quiet. It’s quite a nice surprise from those usually around here.”

“I see.”

“Since you are not a sentinel already, I shall declare you as an honorary sentinel of silence. Hush, hush.”

“Thank you Decibat.”

“You’re welcome, Clover. Before you go, would you know why all of those Sweet Corn came and disrupted the silence in this area?”

“Yes. The Sweet Corn were going to Dalv’s house in order to convince him to let me leave the dark ruins.”

“Hm. I see now. I’m going to have to apologize to them all later for attacking them. Well, if you wish to leave here, then I might also go pay Dalv a visit. It will most likely be loud, but for an honorary sentinel of silence, I shall take the burden. Hush, hush.”

“...”

With the lasting silence in the air, Decibat takes to the ceiling once more. Once he was out of sight, Clover turns around and heads off of the heavily torn bridge. Unbeknownst to either the human, or the bat, a golden flower watched in utter silence at the whole exchange with a frown and burrowed away the moment Clover started walking again.

Something’s definitely up with him. That stupid face he started making as soon as I tell him to “be quiet” is NOT a normal thing humans do. And then he started talking so weirdly. It’s almost like Clover’s being possessed by that ‘god’ again, but different… Flowey’s thoughts feel clouded by fear. Not fear for himself, for that he could rationalize, but fear for Clover’s safety. And that feeling scares him.

*sigh* I really can’t deny it any longer, can I? Something’s changed in me. I don’t think I COULD feel like this before, but now. Now I feel like I owe it to Clover to see him to the end. Ugh, it feels like that stupid crybaby’s the only reason I even get what’s going on. I really don’t want to do this, but maybe I should talk to the royal scientist soon. As much as she’s a bumbling idiot, some of that stuff down there in that lab of hers might keep that thing away while I figure out what to do. I’ll do it when Clover stops for a while. I wouldn’t want to leave him alone again. Especially not if he’ll just break like before. 

Walking off the bridge, Clover spots something standing around the next corner. Whoever they are, they haven’t seen him yet, and Clover takes the opportunity to stuff himself into the corner opposite the door he came from, hiding him from the monster. Suddenly, the faint, familiar rumble of a friend emerging from the soil reaches Clover’s ears and breaks him out of his forced silent neutrality.

“Howdy, Flowey!”

Flowey looks shocked at Clover. Both for his sudden shift in attitude, and knowing Flowey was even there. “Howdy! Nice job talking Decibat down like that! (phew, he scared me there.)”

“What was that last part?” A playful smirk lights up Clover’s face. He knows exactly what Flowey said, but wants to see how this’ll play out.

“N-nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Uh huh. If you say so.”

“Well I do say so, so there.” Flowey blows a raspberry Clover’s way.

“Hehe, so what brings ya up for air this time? Got somethin’ to tell me again?”

“Well gosh, since you bring it up, I’ve got a couple questions for you pal.” Flowey says with as much venom as he could.

“Shoot.”

“So what’s going on with all of that?”

“All of what, exactly?”

“That whole breaking down thing for starters.”

Clover’s eyes darken a little. “I don’t wanna talk ‘bout it none.”

“Fine, I get you don’t ‘wanna talk ‘bout it’, but I just want to know what caused you to break so hard. If you answer that, then I’ll move on, okay?”

Clover looks up towards the roof in contemplation for a minute before responding, “Alright, fine. It’s the way Rorrim treated me back there. The only ones who’ve treated me like that were folk I met between bad things that happened in my life. I wasn’t with them long, but only hell came after they left me. I’m not delvin’ into that any further right now.”

That was definitely not what Flowey was expecting, but that suddenly puts a lot of pieces into place. “Okaay then. Onto my next question, Why the HELL did you look possessed again?!”

“...Wait, what? Possessed?”

“Yeah, possessed. I realized it when we first met. I got them to run away like a coward. I don’t think anyone else would’ve realized it though, that idiot was good at hiding.”

Clover stood there, frozen in total shock at what Flowey just told him. So I was friggin’ POSSESSED when I fell down here?! ARGH, I just wanna let loose right now. Clover’s hand starts to twitch right above where his little toy gun sat in its holster. In that moment, Flowey saw the vestiges of a run early on in Clover’s possession.  Hold yer'self Clover. There ain’t no targets in sight, and you ain’t riskin’ Flowey’s safety just ‘cause ya need ta let off steam. Clover’s breathing deepens as he closes his eyes. Suddenly snapping out of it with a deadened look, Clover questions Flowey, “Alright, so what’cha mean by lookin’ possessed?”

It’s Flowey’s turn to be shocked. This time at how fast Clover managed to go from a deer in a truck’s headlights to colder than deep frozen chicken. Unlike Clover, Flowey came back almost immediately. “Hmm. Well, your eyes almost looked blank while you kept staring ahead, and your voice seemed to just go… flat, for a lack of a better word.”

“So, it’s the face I made that made you think someone’s possessin’ me again.” Clover tries lifting a single brow, and ends up raising both, while trying to hide a chuckle.

“It’s not funny!”

“I know it ain’t. I’m laughin’ at the craziness of this whole thing. Honest!” Clover’s voice keeps betraying him with intermittent snickers and chuckles.

Pausing to think about the whole situation, realization dawned on Flowey on just how different things really are right then. It doesn’t take long for Flowey to join Clover’s jovial laughs. As much as both of them wished they could keep laughing forever, they knew Clover’s journey must continue. 

“I know this is fun and all, but maybe you should SAVE Clover.” Flowey was the first to break off the moment with some, notably useful advice.

“Yeah, you got a point there.”

| Clover     LV  1   999:99 |

|   Dark Ruins  -  Puzzle   |

| ❤︎ Save              Return |

*FILE SAVED*

Chapter Text

With newfound pep in his step from laughter with a friend, Clover bounds onwards. That vigor doesn’t stop him from almost bumping right into a floating scroll with ribbons for arms in the middle of performing a series of “hand signs” while screaming upwards at nothing.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I CAN FEEL MY POWER GROWING WITH EVERY SEAL I MAKE!” The strange scroll thundered out.

“Excuse me, think I could pass you by?” Clover raised his voice a little bit so he could be heard over all the yelling.

“WITH THIS POWER, I’LL BE ABLE TO BEAT ANY ANTAGONIST THAT TRIES TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!” Clover’s plea goes ignored in favor of the scroll gathering magical power near the edges of his ribbons and forming it into a ball. “HA-ME-KA-ME-KAAAAAAAA!!!”

The ball in the scroll’s ribbons suddenly, and violently, ripped upwards into the ceiling. The resulting blast and shockwave knocked parts of the ruin’s roof around, nearly crushing Clover where he stood. Luckily for him, his body reacted instantly, dodging almost all of the falling rubble, and flinging the scroll away from the danger. A few pebbles scratched Clover’s cheek and arms, while a broken brick shredded a part of his calf, drawing decent amounts of blood all across his body.

The scroll recovers from the sudden flight with ease and finally notices Clover. “AH HA! I KNEW MY POWER WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO ATTRACT A POWERFUL FOE! I, CRISPY SCROLL, SHALL FIGHT YOU FOR THE FATE OF THE WORLD, YOU ANTAGONIST!” Flinging up more ribbon signs, Crispy Scroll drags Clover into battle.

“Do we really gotta fight? I ain’t wanting to hurt no one.” Clover’s question ends up being answered when a beam of light nearly pierces the side of his SOUL.

“THERE’S NO WAY AROUND IT! WE MUST FIGHT, FOR THE SAFETY OF THE UNDERGROUND DEPENDS ON IT!”

While moving his SOUL around as Crispy Scroll takes random slashes at him, Clover ends up moving forwards, and badly lands on his injured leg. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH” He screams in agony as pain sears throughout his leg.

Clover’s scream made Crispy Scroll hesitate for a moment before asking, not screaming for once, “Wait! Do you speak fluent reference?” Crispy Scroll seems completely oblivious to Clover’s agony.

With tears hot in his eyes, Clover screams yet again. This time not from the pain, but the frustration of how blind Crispy Scroll seems to be to everything around him. “aaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

“Yeah, yeah! I can feel the power coursing through my ribbons! LET’S DO THIS! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” Crispy Scroll continues to scream for what feels like minutes on end, but must have only been a few moments in reality, before peetering out.

Clover takes the momentary distraction to check his leg injury over. Blood seeps out of the wound, soaking the ground nearby with a sporadic trail of red the width of a line of chalk. Yup, it’s bad… Looks like it ain’t gonna kill me anytime soon, but that brick musta torn somethin’ up bad for that. Coulda been worse, at least I could actually see how bad it is this time.

“AHAHAHA! FOR A YELL LIKE THAT, I MUST HAVE BEEN MISTAKEN! THERE’S NO WAY A STANDARD ANTAGONIST COULD DO THAT! YOU MUST ACTUALLY BE A Main… antagonist…” Crispy Scroll’s boisterous yelling slowly dies out as he actually takes in the scene before him. It finally dawns on him just how far he took things. The area where he shot his “Hamekameka Beam” skywards is covered with large debris and rubble. From that is a splotchy trail of red leading over to the human he’d been attacking just moments ago. Had I not been thrown, I would've been crushed! Nani?! Why would an antagonist save me? There’s no way an antagonist would save someone like that. So that means that kid must really be another protagonist… Chotto matte… A KID?! AND ARE THEY DROPPING THAT BLOOD STUFF MANGA CHARACTERS LOSE WHEN THEY START TO DIE?!?! 

“Daijoubu?” Crispy Scroll says as he slowly hovers over to Clover, now rocking his leg trying to take his mind off the pain.

The strange word causes Clover to lose focus and lets his leg fall back to the ground. With a thud, pain flares back again. “Ow, ow, ow, ow…” Clover manages through hissing teeth. I migha hurt myself worse than I thought. This hurts like the dickens.

Now a lot closer, Crispy Scroll sees Clover’s leg and just how badly it’s scratched up. “L-let me help you out. I’m sorry about all this…”

“Ya ain’t got nothin’ to apologize for. Jus’ next time, keep yer wits about’cha and don’t let anyone get hurt.” Clover smiles a pained smile towards Crispy.

“But still, you’re hurt because of my actions. What kind of protagonist would I be if I let someone stay hurt?” Crispy Scroll pushes his ribbons as far outward as he can as a glowing green light emits from the tips. A green sphere starts to form in  between him and Clover, growing in size until it’s about the size of a basketball. Clover winces back in anticipation, expecting a blast right to his soul like before.

Crispy Scroll lets the orb go with a “HYAA” as it sails right towards Clover’s leg. In an unexpected twist, instead of tearing off his leg like he thought it would, Clover could feel a pulse of warmth through him. It started in his SOUL and spread all the way to both the tips of his toes and the palm of his hands. Just like some kind of anime miracle power, Clover watches as the cuts and tears on his arms and leg start to shrink. Not all the way, but enough for him to stop bleeding and for some of the pain to subside. 

Enough to walk again at the very least. Clover thought. “Thanks Crispy Scroll. I should be fine to keep goin’.”

“Not a problem for a fellow protagonist! Anything I can do to help defeat the forces of evil!” Crispy Scroll’s voice starts to raise in excitement, but not to the same, ear tearing, levels as before.

“Say, howd’ja know I was injured as badly as I was?”

“Oh that’s easy, manga always make characters bleed before their deaths. I just saw that same stuff coming from you and knew I needed to save you!”

“What’s a, mon-guh?” Clover tilts a little in confusion.

“*gasp* You’ve never read a manga before?! That will not do! Every protagonist should know the joys of manga! At least tell me you’ve seen anime before, right?!”

“I think so at least. I remember somethin’ my ma put on every once in a while. All I can remember is that these guys were walkin’ through the desert. One o’ them had a massive cross across his shoulder, while the other had this real spikey hair and a large revolver in his hands. I don’t remember much else ‘bout it though. It was a number of years ago by now.”

“Hmm. That sounds similar to an anime I know, but the protagonist’s hair isn’t spikey. Though it is pretty common for characters to get spikey hair when they power up.” Crispy brushes the bottom of his scroll with his ribbons in an attempt to mimic a wise old sage. “But we’re getting off plot here. What brings a human down here anyhow?”

Clover internally shrugs to himself. If someone’s as much of a fanatic about human stuff as Crispy Scroll is, they’re bound to recognize a human fairly quickly. “I came down here to find the whereabouts of the other missin’ kids and take ‘em home. Or at least get some justice for ‘em if nothin’ else.”

“So a plot for revenge then.”

“Nah, my pa used to tell me “revenge is jus’ a dead man’s game, and I ain’t never wanna see no one play it again.” and I believe it. A dead man can’t pay for his crimes after all.”

“Very wise. Very wise. That’s the exact kind of philosophy a protagonist should have!” Crispy continues to stroke at his nonexistent beard. “Although it may be difficult to enact that justice while being trapped in these ruins.”

“Oh yeah, I gotta plan for Dalv already in mind.”

“Just as any good protagonist should. May I be included in this plan of yours?”

“Sure thing! I’ve been talkin’ to a buncha folk ‘round here and I asked ‘em all to talk with Dalv about lettin’ me leave.”

‘That’s a… GREAT PLAN! I LOVE IT!!! I’LL MAKE SURE DALV LETS YOU CONTINUE YOUR JOURNEY, Uh… I just realized I never heard your name.” Crispy’s energetic screaming deflates just as fast as it came.

Never one to give up the dramatic flair, Clover grins while he twirls his toy revolver out of its holster, and pushes up the brim of his hat by the barrel. His golden eyes seem to sparkle with a red sheen as he speaks with gusto. “Name’s Clover. And you best remember it.”

“AHAHAHA! NOW THAT’S A PROTAGONIST’S REVEAL IF I’VE EVER SEEN ONE! NOW, I SHALL AID YOU ON YOUR QUEST FOR JUSTICE! I, CRISPY SCROLL, SHALL NOW GO AND TALK DALV INTO LETTING YOU PAST!” Crispy screams as he floats off, never once getting quieter.

The moment Crispy Scroll gets far enough to not be heard, Clover hears the telltale sound of burrowing nearby. Glancing over, he can see Flowey appear and sit there pleasantly like he’s always been there and didn’t just dig himself there like a mole.

“So… that was something.” Flowey starts while looking at where Crispy Scroll left from.

“You can say that again. If I didn’t have folk waitin’ ‘round for me, I’d probably just flop over an’ sleep right here. Speakin’ of folk, Imma jus’ ask if ya know if there’s anyone else I outa talk with before headin’ over to Dalv’s?” Clover asks before landing badly on his injured leg again. There was some pain, not enough to scream, but enough to make him hiss through clenched teeth.

“You should probably go SAVE up real fast. Might help those wounds you got there. And to answer your question, there’s only one other monster in the Dark Ruins that you haven’t gotten to talk with yet, and I doubt they’ll talk with Dalv. Probably the only thing less talkative than you when you were possessed.” Flowey says that last part quieter than the rest, as if he didn’t want Clover to hear.

Following Flowey’s advice, Clover makes his way back to the glowing star around the corner. On the way, the adrenaline rush Clover’s been near constantly subjected to starts to wear off and he feels the extent of his injuries. Multiple lacerations dot Clover’s arms with soreness, a nasty gash leaves a decent portion of his face in pain, and his leg. Had he not dodged, it’s almost certain there wouldn’t be one left, judging from how badly his leg was torn. At least Crispy’s healing stopped the bleeding, otherwise Clover might’ve seen firsthand if Flowey really did have time powers like he claimed.

| Clover     LV  1   999:99 |

|   Dark Ruins  -  Puzzle   |

| ❤︎ Save              Return |

*FILE SAVED*

Slowly, the wounds along Clover’s body start knitting themselves closed in front of him. The relief isn’t as instantaneous as it was when the most grievous injury came from a magic pencil, but it was wondrous to feel anyway. 

“Huh. That takes way longer than I expected. It’s not everyday someone gets physical injuries down here.” Flowey says as he springs up at the little star.

“Haha. It could’ve been worse. Ain’t like I saw the reaper at my doorstep or nothin’.” Clover’s injuries can still be seen, but lessened to the point of being thin red lines instead of gashes.

Interesting. I don’t think I’ve seen Clover get hurt by something physical and live long enough to heal before. That begs the question, if a physical body gets hurt badly enough, could we die? I mean, we could SAVE and it still might not be enough… Flowey feels a sense of macabre shift inside him at the thought, though that thought is drowned out by a malignant sense of fear. Fear for both himself and, more strangely to the flower, Clover’s safety. Golly, here I go again, feeling something I shouldn’t be able to feel at all about Clover. Though I guess it’s not surprising I feel this way anymore. The first chance I get, I’m definitely gonna have a talk with that royal scientist.

 Clover watches as Flowey seems to go from curious, to shaking with a fearful grimace, to resolute in a matter of moments. Sensing he shouldn’t pry, Clover starts to walk back with a simple “I’ll see ya up ahead Flowey.”

Navigating around the rubble, Clover pushes onward with determination in his step. His reward came swiftly with the approaching cacophony of familiar voices echoing from down the hall. Namely Crispy Scroll’s yelling, and other voices can be vaguely heard. The sound of those he’s met so far carries him further and faster.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S LOCKED?! THERE’S NO WAY A LOCKED GATE’S GOING TO STOP ME!” Crispy’s loud voice drowns out the echoes surrounding it.

Nearly sprinting into the room, Clover hears Flier’s voice “Can you please stop yelling Crispy? I-I don’t want another mishap with Decibat again.”

“Baka…” Crispy scroll mutters, accidentally in a volume everyone could hear. 

Before anyone could get angry at Crispy, Clover clomped the back of his boot on the ground as he entered the room. Fortune strikes again for the young cowboy as nearly everyone stops to see who else just arrived, and immediately the tension in the room seemingly evaporates. Looking around the room, Clover sees almost everyone he’s talked to near a gate, notable exceptions being Penilla, who’s standing near the nearly finished puzzle in the center of the room, and Decibat, who’s the only one absent. I guess since he could fly, he mighta taken a different path.

Rorrim comes over to Clover hesitantly and says with regret interlaced “I must apologize, Clover. I should have never left you back there. You seemed on the brink of tears and needed someone to aid you. I should have stayed and helped you further than I did.”

A feeling of unease grips Clover from Rorrim’s way of talking to him, but he’s able to push it away nearly fully by remembering Flowey’s promise “I’m not gonna leave you alone.”

With a smile, Clover’s able to say with a sense of confidence “It’s all right. I’m actually kinda glad you did ‘cause I ain’t certain I woulda kept myself as together as I did.”

“And yet I still left you alone. That on its own constitutes an apology.” Rorrim insists

“If it’ll getcha back n’ happy, then I accept your apology.”

“*sigh* I shall take your acceptance for now, but I’ll make it up to you later on. However, we have more pressing matters to attend to.” Rorrim says reluctantly.

“Yeah, it looks like Dalv locked his front gate and we haven’t gotten the chance to speak to him yet.” Flier says a little dejectedly.

“Aw, it’s not all bad. At least we all made a new friend!” Sweet Corn says as she jumps to Flier’s side.

“I guess you’ve got a point there.” Flier has a small smile growing on his face.

“You know, you’re a lot more bearable this way, Flier. At least you’re not trying to buy boats or something just as ridiculous.” Penilla decided to enter the conversation. “And I actually know another way into Dalv’s property.”

“Ya do? Then where’s it at?” Clover asked

Like magic, Penilla taps the top of the darkened box next to her and finishes the puzzle. A funny sounding jingle can be heard coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, while the spikes covering the other exit lowered into the ground. “It’s down that way. I only know it exists because someone blew it open when they were practicing that kahama blast, or something like that.” Penilla points her eraser tipped tail towards Crispy Scroll.

“It’s a Hamekameka Blast thank you very much. And that gives me a great idea! Let me charge up and I’ll DESTROY THIS GATE IN OUR WAY!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA-” Crispy Scroll starts screaming with his ribbons pointed at the sky.

Penilla, with a roll of her eyes, beckons for everyone one else present to follow her down the newly opened pathway. Once out of earshot of Crispy’s yelling, she points towards a suspiciously flat portion of the wall. “This is where the hole in the wall is. Dalv asked me to draw something to cover it up with until he could get around to fixing it. I’d bring it down myself, but I’m a little too short.”

With a nod between them, Rorrim and Flier float up towards the top of the drawing and yank the corners. The large tarp covering fell down to the floor with a small woosh, revealing a pretty large hole in the wall. Darkness spills out of the newly opened pathway like water. Penilla starts walking in. “There’s only one real exit to this area, so it shouldn’t be hard to find your way around.”

Clover taps Sweet Corn on a bent husk leaf. “Heyya Sweet Corn, before we go in I got a few questions to ask ya. If it ain’t much trouble.”

“Oh, of course Clover. Anything you need!’

“Alright, so I found that bag o’ ‘G’ y’all left for me, and I just gotta ask if y’all really meant to give me that much, or if ya’d want it back.”

“Well we all gave you one G each, and we really do want you to have it! Nothing like spreading the love around.” Sweet corn giggled out.

“Ah, that makes a heap more sense then. One more question though, where’s the rest o’ ya at?”

“They got tired and decided to take a nap. Nothing like some good sleep to make someone happy!”

“Alright then. That’s all I got fer now, and thanks for helpin’ me out. I mean it.”

“Not a problem! It’s what friends are for after all.” Sweet corn bound off into the darkness where everyone else went.

Heh, at least I ain’t doin’ this by myself. I don’t think I coulda made it nearly half as far if it wasn’t for my new friends. Clover thought to himself as he trudged into the darkened halls. Moving deeper in, Clover’s surprised by how much he can still see. It’s not nearly as easy as it was before, but he can still make out the walls and floor a few feet in front of himself. Coming across a fork in the path, Clover spots something out of the corner of his eye. Going closer reveals a snow white feather laying on the ground, forgotten to the passage of time. Picking it up, Clover decided to stick it in the brim of his hat, filling him with a feeling of pride. Continuing on his branched path, Clover finds yet another split in the road. Choosing to move forwards, he finds himself in front of a barricade of stalagmites and stalactites. Peering in between the cracks, Clover can see the path continue onwards, and yet he can’t squeeze through. Leaving it for now, he makes his way back to the branch and finds an oddly shaped hole in the wall that looks like the number “2”. Alright, so we got a 5 back in that ol’ broken pillar room, a 3 next ta the ‘caterpillar’, and a 2 in these dark halls. I ain’t got a clue where 1 or 4 are, and that’s not sayin’ nothin’ about any number higher than 5. Maybe I’ll go talk with all ‘em and see what’s up with them holes.

Leaving the holes alone for now, Clover keeps up pace towards the end of this hall. Leaving the dark behind, he sees Decibat sitting on a perch, looking towards the other end of the bridge Clover found himself on. His instincts took over and his body stopped making any and all noise it could. His boots start gliding across the stone floor as Decibat’s ears perk up. A faint echo of Crispy Scroll’s screaming can be heard.

Clover’s boot connects with a tiny pebble and sends it skittering away, catching Decibat’s attention. Decibat’s head snapped towards the offending rock and spotted Clover’s carefully practiced neutrality. Decibat and Clover silently nod towards one another as Clover passes in front of Decibat’s perch. Just as Clover’s about to leave without incident, Crispy Scroll’s scream can be heard again, this time louder than anything he’s screamed before. Decibat, getting increasingly annoyed at the sudden loud outbursts echoing through his sleeping chamber, whispered to Clover, “Hush hush. Clover, do you know where that insistent screaming’s coming from?”

“Yes. Crispy Scroll says he’s charging up to destroy Dalv’s front gate.”

“Ah, he must have blocked it again. No wonder the other residents came around here then.” Decibat turns around, only to pull out a pair of soundproof earmuffs with a model of Crispy Scroll for the headband. “I might need these then if he’s doing that again. I’ll go and talk with Dalv in a little while, after the noises die down.”

Clover nods again and hurries off, silent all the while. After leaving Decibat alone for his silence again, Clover closes his eyes and takes a deep breath in. Exhaling sharply, he knocks himself out of his silent state.

“Hey, Clover. Over here.” The voice of Penilla drags Clover’s vision over to a beautiful water feature, on each side a set of stairs can be seen ascending towards a small platform. As Clover makes his way towards the group of monsters, Penilla can’t help but notice a new feature to Clover’s attire. “I love that feather in your hat! After I finish taking my break, you have to let me draw you!”

Even on break, she can’t help but perk up at the thought of drawin’ somethin’ interestin’. Clover thought as he said to Penilla, “Sure thing. However, I will be makein' sure ya don’t burn yerself out ‘fore ya finish. Ain’t gonna getcha to take a break, only to burn right away.”

Rorrim waited for a beat of silence before clearing his throat. “Ahem. While we were waiting for your arrival Clover, we’ve decided it may be smart to keep you away from Dalv at first. From what I can gather from his monologues, his problems seem to stem from a human he encountered back before he came here. I may not know much about them, but I do know that if he spots you before we talk, he may freeze up and stop listening to a word anyone says.”

“I guess that makes sense. No point in havin’ me ‘round when that’d just make it harder to do what we came here for. Actually, it kinda works out for all of us ‘cause I’ve been findin’ some random holes in the walls that I wanna check out again ‘fore I leave.”

Flier flies up from where he was hidden in the group to talk to Clover, “What kind of holes were you looking for? Maybe one of us knows more about it.”

“I found some holes ‘round here in the shapes o’ numbers. I’ve seen a ‘2’, a ‘3’, and a ‘5’, but I ain’t seen a ‘4’ or a ‘1’. Anyone seen anythin’ like that?”

“Nope.” Penilla said at the same time as Sweet Corn, while Flier can be heard saying sorry. Rorrim takes a moment to ponder before saying his “No.”

“Darn. Welp, best of luck to yall. I’ll let Crispy and Decibat know what’s goin’ on.”

Flier immediately asked, “Wait a moment. Decibat’s actually here for the same reason we are?!” 

“Yessir.”

“O-okay. Just making sure.”

“Alright, let’s get going. We’ll let you know if Dalv’ll let you out.” Penilla cuts in before it becomes awkward.

As they all bid each other farewell and luck on their respective tasks, Clover treks down to where Crispy’s screaming could still be heard. Leading into a new room with a gate blocking a long hallway at the end, Clover hears the giveaway sounds of Flowey’s arrival near the center. After their usual 'Howdy's to each other, Flowey lets Clover know that, “I overheard your conversation with the others and, unlike them, I actually do know where the last 2 numbers you need are.”

“Really?! Where are they?” Clover starts to vibrate like an overstimulated chihuahua.

“Slow your roll, cowboy. I want to try something first. Kinda hard to keep an eye on you from six feet under you know.”

Clover grumbled at Flowey’s joke.

“Hey, hey. Cool off. I said I’d tell you in a minute.” Flowey chuckles at Clover’s little pout.

“Alright, fine. What’cha wanna do?”

“Gosh, I’d tell you, but it might just be easier to show you instead. All I need you to do is stand still.” Flowey’s words were punctuated by the sound of snapping foliage underneath the ground. Vines start to grow around Flowey’s stem, seeming to lift him upwards. Slowly, he keeps rising up to Clover’s face level, and drapes himself around Clover’s shoulders and vest. Flowey rests his face on the outside of Clover’s vest. From a glance, Flowey looks exactly like a large flower pin. A closer inspection would reveal small, green vines decorating Clover under his vest. “Golly, I wasn’t expecting that to work at all!”

“Hey, I thought you didn’t like bein’ seen?”

“It’s not like anyone’s left to notice anyways. The only two left around here are that screaming scroll, who I’m almost certain is too busy to care. And the bat, and you seem to be really good at not disturbing him.”

“Point taken.”

“Yes it is. Anyways, you wanted to know where those little holes in the wall are, right?”

“Yes sir I would.”

“Alright, well the first hole is right behind you.”

Clover spins around, and sure enough, a hole in the wall that reminds him of ‘1’ stares him down. 

“And before you go darting off, the second one is near that weird little platform area near where you fell from.”

“Thanks for the help, pal!” Clover said as he practically flew towards the first hole in the wall. Crouching down near it, he pokes at the hole. After about a minute of prodding, Clover finds a small button, disguised as a piece of wall, right above the top of the hole. A small croaking noise can be heard. Clover then continues to poke for another minute.

Getting fed up with Clover pestering the wall, Flowey taps on Clover with his petals, “Hey, Clover.”

“Hmm? What’s up?”

“I think that’s everything.”

Clover, seemingly satisfied at tapping a wall for a few minutes straight, picks himself back up and moves back towards the next numbered hole. Before he could make it too far, Flowey motioned for him to go up the stairs. “There’s a SAVE point there. I have a feeling it might be useful later.”

| Clover     LV  1   999:99 |

|    Dark Ruins   -   Hall    |

| ❤︎ Save              Return |

*FILE SAVED*

Clover figured SAVEing might be a good idea anyhow before continuing. Crossing into Decibat’s path once more, Clover tensed back into his neutral state of mind once more. It apparently wasn’t necessary however, as Decibat fell asleep with his custom earmuffs on. Treading back into the darkened halls, Clover regained his composure.

Getting to the second hole was a little harder than Clover anticipated. He turned down the wrong path at least 3 separate times. Only when he stumbled across the closed off pathway again, did Clover manage to find the area he was looking for. Flowey just sat there, being no help because, as he put it, “I’ve never actually been down these hallways before, all I know is that the other path doesn’t lead anywhere. At least, as far as I know.”

Once Clover found it, finding the croak button was easy. Pushing it makes a higher croak than before. Like before, he ended up sifting around the hole again for any secrets, but ended up getting bored pretty quickly when he didn’t find anything.

Getting out was significantly easier than going in, mostly because Flowey was paying attention and directed Clover on where to go. Leaving the dark halls behind, Clover saw Crispy Scroll, still screaming into the air. A white light was emanating off of him, so clearly something was happening from his screams. Clover decided it was probably better to talk to him after finding all the random secrets he can.

Clover starts to slow down near the next SAVE point, but Flowey stops him. “Why would you SAVE again? There’s no real point right now. All that’s gonna do is slow us down. Come on, keep moving pal!”

Seeing the wisdom in his words, Clover moves back across the bridge where he gained his ‘honorary sentinel of silence’ title just a little while ago. The next room contains the first number he actually took note of. The ‘3’ hole was the exact same as the other two, except the croak was higher still. Clover spends significantly less time prodding this time, as he only traced the outline of the hole with his finger before moving on.

Pushing onwards, Flowey looks up at Clover’s eyes as he turns into the corn maze room. Besides the regular gold, Flowey could swear he saw a smidge of red permeating around his iris.

Nearing the end of the corn maze’s side path, Clover realized he never checked what was on the other side of the spikes. Sprinting ahead, as to not lose much time, all that awaits him is another broken bridge. Though not all is lost as there’s a little pile of conveniently bullet shaped pebbles in the center of the area. Clover takes them and stuffs them in his back pocket for now.

Going back on the main path, Flowey starts to direct Clover on where to go for the next hole. Passing by the area where Clover first met Penilla, Clover sees one of the sketches she did of him. Not wanting to leave it behind to rot, Clover picks the drawing up. Though with Flowey being there, he didn’t want to keep it in the open for long. As much as he trusts Flowey, he still has a bit of sass to him when he wants.

Moving with Flowey’s instruction, Clover finds the next wall number under the stairs. Pushing the button makes another, higher croak. As the duo started towards the last number however, something happened. Something familiar to Flowey. Something that happened less than a day ago.

*Rumble* 

The ground shook violently

*Bzzzt*

And a strange noise permeated the air.

“Clover, keep your eyes open. I don’t like that one bit.” Flowey’s head starts to swivel around from his position on Clover’s vest.

Clover grunted in affirmation. A strange feeling tingles at the back of his mind as well. 

Moving much more carefully, Clover makes his way past the solved puzzles. His eyes sweep for any sign of danger. Flowey’s even started putting vine walls in entry ways they pass by to make sure nothing follows them. Finally entering the last room, Clover audibly notes that, “Those pillars were damaged before.”

Flowey takes a look around the room for, really, the first time. He remembers brief glances showing broken down pillars and rubble lining the path, but now… Now the room’s spotless. Almost like it was freshly built. All the rubble on the floor from decay, gone. The fallen pillars, fixed. The only thing left that looks a little worn is a number, carved out of the wall. The number ‘5’. Clover hesitantly pushes the last button. One final croak, so high now it’s hard to hear, rings out. 

Clover and Flowey hear movement in the distance…

An intimidating presence fills the Ruins.

Chapter Text

Already on edge, the new presence only compounds on the duo’s fears. Flowey’s face slowly moved from the front of Clover’s jacket up to over his shoulder for a better vantage point. Clover, on the other hand, unlatched the strap on his holster, and thumbed the grip of his weapon. His face falling into his signature neutrality once more.

Clover angles his body slightly while moving with careful, silent steps towards the levers and light blocks he passed for the first time only a little while ago. Every creak and groan causes his and Flowey’s gaze to snap towards it. Keeping up the cautious pace, it takes minutes before they reach the light puzzle again. A light, almost imperceptible rumbling can be heard. Flowey signals to Clover to stop and listen with a vine coming from the ground.

Clover, realizing that there is something else in the ruins with them, quickens his pace. Soft clacks emanating from his boot heels as he forgoes stealth for more speed. Flowey, being severed from his usual methods of detection, moves further up on Clover, forming a flower wreath on his hat to keep a better watch.

It isn’t much longer before the pair enter the corn maze room once more. Once Clover steps foot past the lowered spikes on his right, a massive *BOOM* rings out from the exit. Leaving any stealth behind, Clover starts sprinting towards the explosive noise. Turning the corner quickly to where a wall of spikes once stood, Flowey pushes his own wall of spineless vines up from the ground. Clover bounced off the wall Flowey made and landed right on his rear. 

“Oof, what’s that for Flowey?” Clover opens his eyes again only to see debris and rubble forming a barrier right where he was about to run. “Oh, that’s why. Sorry ‘bout that Flowey.”

“Apology accepted, for now.” Flowey’s face tips over the brim of Clover’s hat so Clover could see him smile smugly.

Getting up with a little *umph* Clover starts prodding carefully around the damage crafted barricade looking for any way through. As Clover keeps looking, Flowey begins shifting back down to Clover’s vest to listen for any strange noises coming from the other side. 

“Sounds like whatever caused this isn’t over there any more. Or at the very least they’re being as silent as you were.” Flowey says after a few moments of listening for anything. Not like I can actually see anything over there.

Relief trickles into Clover at Flowey’s words, but his face betrays the emotions inside as it remains blank while he continues his search for a path through the rubble. After another few moments of analysis, Clover comes to the conclusion that they aren’t going to be able to cross there.

“Hey Flowey, ya got any way ‘cross that broken bridge over there?” Clover asks with a thumb pointing towards the area where the broken apart bridge that Clover saw Dalv on for the second time they saw one another.

“Yeah, I think I could use some vines to repair that bridge, but we probably shouldn’t push forwards too quickly. Whatever made this-” Flowey knocks on the rubble with a vine for emphasis “-is on that side.”

With caution, Clover moves back towards the only exit to the hallway they’re in, but stops on a dime as soon as the bridge comes into view. Both Clover and Flowey’s jaws drop open as they see the bridge completely intact. Flowey looks back towards Clover as he says, “That… that definitely was broken when you came here before. So how is it possible to be fixed?! And even more ridiculously, how come it looks like it was just built?!” 

“I-I don’t know. Unless it’s magic of some kind?” Clover says, just as bewildered as Flowey is.

“If someone even had magi-” Flowey starts as if he’s about to retort back with a snarky comment, but before he gets the chance to finish, another large *BOOM* shakes the ground beneath Clover’s boots. “Nevermind, just go!”

Listening to Flowey’s instruction, Clover takes off across the bridge. He runs full sprint into a room filled with wooden boxes, where he skids to a stop in front of one wedged open.

“What’s the hold up?! You heard that explosion!” Flowey’s head keeps fluttering from side to side in an attempt to see as much around him as he can from Clover’s vest.

“I saw somethin’ stickin’ out of this box. Looks like it could be helpful.” Clover walks up to the lip of the opened box and reaches in.

Oh, how could I forget that stupid thing. Out of every run, that idiot always grabbed that. It didn’t even matter if they did everything with no items, or no armor, or anything, but they always took a detour and grabbed that stupid, dog shaped cor- Flowey thought bitterly about the being possessing Clover before abruptly shutting that line of thinking down when Clover pulled his arm out to reveal, a regular corndog. That’s- no- what? It’s normally a corn dog, not- whatever that thing is. It does look like a good healing item though. “So, what’s so important that you just had to stop?”

“Lemme check real quick.”

* “Corndog” - Restores 12 HP

* (Battered and fried in a soft cornbread batter.)

“Looks like a regular corndog you’d get at a fair or somethin’. Restores 12 HP though.” Clover sniffs the corndog once “Yup, still smells fresh as a fritter on a baker’s window.” before promptly storing it in his inventory

“So, is that what corn dogs look like on the surface?” Flowey lets a little bit of his curiosity slide out.

“Yup. It ain’t often that most folk’ll get ‘em though. Mostly at outdoor family events or for the lil’ tykes. At least as far as I’ve heard from others. I tended to only get ‘em at the local fair when it used to roll around.” Clover wears a small, sad smile filled with nostalgia.

“Yeesh, but that doesn’t look very appetizing to me. Down here, corn dogs are just pieces of corn that grew strange and ended up looking kinda like a dog.” Flowey says, trying to change the topic away from the surface. Ugh, I might be suddenly caring about him, but that doesn’t mean I want to hear his stupid sob story. I’ll let whoever gets stuck with him listen to that drivel. Most likely the birdbrain, but maybe he’ll end up with the grieving fox. Ha, now THAT I’d pay to see! Or maybe, in the end, he’ll do the same thing he did last time and just die. Eh, not my problem at that point.

“Heh, that sure sounds like somethin’ to behold. Anyways, might as well check what kinda recovery I could pull off since I got some stuff now.” Clover pulls open his inventory, only to find something strange. “Huh, looks like my limeade from earlier ain’t limeade no more.”

“How so?” Flowey’s curiosity gets the better of him yet again.

|❤︎ Lemonade         |

|    Candy Corn       |

|    Patch                 |

|    Pebble Ammo    |

|                             |

| Use |❤︎ Info |Drop|

* “Lemonade” - Restores 7 HP

* (A fizzy lemon soda from Europe. The name causes confusion among many foreigners.)

“I guess my inventory’s callin’ it a soda from Europe? Dunno what that’s all ‘bout, but it still restores 7 hp like before.” Clover says with a twinge of confusion laced in his voice.

“Eh, then it really shouldn’t matter. All that matters is how much HP it recovers. Remember, hit 0 and your SOUL shatters.” Flowey says that last part in a sing-song.

“I remember that, ya weed.”

“Love you too, pal!”

Shaking his head, Clover decides to move on from the boxes of corn. Finding his way back into the water feature room where most of his newfound friends asked him to wait, Clover thinks to himself. What were we doin’ again? I got so distracted by that corndog. Uh… OH YEA-

And almost as if the world itself heard his thoughts, another *BOOM* thunders out. This time clearly from the direction of Crispy Scroll. Silently, both Flowey and Clover look at each other once more, before Flowey nods his head towards the SAVE star. Rushing over to save again, before something bad happens, Clover starts to hear the sounds of fighting getting closer from Crispy’s direction.

| Clover     LV  1   999:99 |

|    Dark Ruins   -   Hall    |

| ❤︎ Save              Return |

*FILE SAVED*

Right as Clover starts heading back towards Dalv’s front gate, Crispy Scroll gets sent flying through the hall and crashes hard against the right set of stairs. Watching as the dust cloud from the, now destroyed, stairs settle, Clover sees that Crispy Scroll has tears and scratches all across his body that seem to be leaking white dust everywhere, his left eye seems to be nearly sealed shut, and his ribbons look like they’ve been dragged in front of an open furnace from how blackened they are. Clover wastes no time in winding up, and jumping over to Crispy’s side to aid him as best as he can. The moment he lands, he pulls out the Candy Corn from his inventory and pushes himself towards Crispy’s body.

As Clover approaches, Crispy Scroll’s good eye darts over and, in a raspy, damaged voice, he warns Clover. “Clover! *cough* Be careful. Ther-*cough* there’s a powerful antag-*cough* antagonist over there.” Crispy opens his mouth to continue, but before he can, he devolves into a bad coughing fit. With every cough, Crispy’s body jerks violently, as if every cough causes pain over and over again.

“Hey, don’t talk. Jus’ take this.” Clover holds Crispy’s back with one arm, while giving Crispy the Candy Corn in his other hand.

Crispy takes hold of the Candy Corn and eats. Once he swallows, his body glows a faint green and his injuries seem to recover, in only slightly. He is no longer losing dust, but his eye still remains shut, and his ribbons are still charcoal black. He’s still hacking up a storm, but it isn’t nearly as violent as before. 

“You feelin’ any better there?” Clover’s concern evident on his face

“Y-yeah. But there’s still a threat out there!” Crispy Scroll tries to get up, but cannot get higher than an inch before collapsing back down. “Oof, I think that antagonist took more of my energy than I thought. I don’t think I’m able to get back up, at least not for a while.”

“Hol’ up a moment, what’s this ‘threat’ you're talking ‘bout? Clover turns his head towards where Crispy flew from. 

At that moment, a silhouette came through the busted gate with a twisted laugh. “Mwah-hah-hah-haaaaah.”

“Be careful, Clover. He fights dirty in a way I’ve never seen before.” Crispy says with a scowl.

“Ahh, a new protagonist has appeared. And it appears their name is Clover! How wonderful.” A deep, slow, husky voice echoes throughout the room. As the new threat enters, Clover can see that he has the same general body shape as Crispy Scroll, however his scroll is an ashen gray, his eyes are blood red, his golden lock is tarnished and rusted over, and his ribbons are a deep, dark crimson. “Maybe you shall be better entertainment than that disillusioned fool on the ground beside you.”

Clover’s hat shadows his eyes as a deep scowl forms across his face. He turns to face his unnamed foe with a sideways stance and points. “I don’t even know who ya are or what your deal is. But I know that ya ain’t good. And that means ya gotta be brought to justice.”

“A-HAHAHA!” The grey imposter’s laugh stains the walls with its pure, unfiltered amusement. “Where are my manners? Many called me a mutant. Others called me an antagonist. But I permit you to call me... Antiscroll.” 

Antiscroll smiles a wicked, evil smile and continues. “Though I am humored by how bold you are, child. I shall grant you a mercy in our battle. I will remove the turn timer, so you may stand a chance against me. It would be no fun if you couldn’t even struggle against my might. Hmm, maybe I should let that buffoon join back in. Cause him even more agony than I already have!”

*bang*

A single shot rings out from where Clover stands, his weapon of choice pointed towards the ceiling. “I’ll let’cha say what ya want ‘bout ME, I’ve been called almost anythin’ under the sun.” Clover’s voice gets significantly louder as he continues, “However, I will NOT let’cha talk ‘bout my friends that way!”

Crispy Scroll can't help but feel astonished at Clover’s declaration. He thinks of me as a friend? After I almost crushed him when we first met! A-and then I called him an antagonist of all things! And then tried to kill him! And yet, he called me his friend?! Hehehe, well I guess he really is a better protagonist than I’ll ever be. I’ve got to help him out in ANY way I can. I’ve got this, yeah. I’VE GOT THIS!!!

“Clover, listen to me.” Clover’s head glances back towards Crispy Scroll’s voice. His golden eyes pierced the veil of shadow casted by his brim. “That imposter over there is strange. I don’t know where he hails from, but he showed up through an odd, green mist. Like I said before, he fights extremely dirty. I don’t know what kind of magic it was, but he turned our fight into… something else entirely. I really don’t know how to explain it better than that. It does have rules, although I couldn’t adapt in time. And lastly, be careful Clover. I got way too confident in my abilities, and look where that got me against him.”

Antiscroll appears to be getting impatient. “You really keep trying my patience don’t you Scroll. Fine. If you are done, then we shall commence the slaughter.”

Clover’s vision suddenly dimmed, almost like looking through a pair of dark sunglasses, and strange text appeared in the center of his vision.

Antiscroll has challenged you.

|   accept   |  |   decline   |

Huh, this ain’t how battle’s normally done. Clover thought for a moment before selecting…

|❤︎ accept   |  |   decline   |

Chapter Text

As he accepted Antiscroll’s challenge, Clover sees his SOUL leave his body like any normal battle he’s done before, but unlike every other time, his SOUL doesn’t remain as a yellow cartoon shaped heart. Instead, it shifts and changes into the rough shape of a human, or more accurately, a stick-figure, glowing the same hue of yellow as normal. Small yellow hearts float off of them towards the sky. A katana glows at this figure's side, alongside a holstered revolver tucked on the SOUL’s hip. Clover watches in awe as his SOUL’s new form moves, ever so slightly, to engage his newfound opponent. Looking to the left of his SOUL, Clover can see Antiscroll, nearly the same as before, but with a few glaring differences. The ends of his ribbons are now adorned with small, sharp claws that ooze a green sludge from them being the most notable. 

“Now then, can you survive my onslaught better than the rest?” Antiscroll’s voice seems to echo from everywhere all at once, altho his body never seemed to move an inch. Though the condescension in his voice was palpable as he said,  “As I claimed earlier, I have graciously removed the turn timers, so take as much time as you need. It’s not as if that might save you.” 

It was then that Clover looked down at his options, only to be met with a flight deck in disguise. Colors of all kinds bombard him, all neatly sectioned into different areas. On the top, there’s a cyan radial wheel with the words ‘DI x1.0’. Below that there’s many different buttons. White ‘movement’s, yellow ‘attack’s, red ‘special’s, and a blue ‘super’. Labels on each side of a central area of buttons and toggles that descend, ‘lock in’, ‘hold’, ‘free’, and ‘flip’. 

Clover starts poking and prodding at this new system, being sure not to hit the buttons in the center yet. Every time he pushes a button, it almost looks like a hologram of what could happen plays out, while the main bodies stay in complete standstill. Pushing around and around, Clover figures out that the left side corresponds to Antiscroll’s moves, and the right is what his SOUL can do. 

When he lets the holograms play out, he can see exactly when he would get hit, and how much time Antiscroll would have to hit him again without consequence, or vice versa. Using this, he figured his best course of action was to walk backwards and see if he could find a more peaceful solution, as he had for every other strange fight he’s been in so far.

The moment Clover pressed the ‘lock in’ button, both his SOUL, and Antiscroll moved for a few moments. Antiscroll ‘Juke’d backwards slightly, and thrust his spiked ribbons to his sides in a ‘Horizontal Acid Slash’ to the sides of him. Luckily, Clover dodged it by a fraction of a second by ‘Walking Backwards’.

“WHAT?!” Antiscroll’s nebulous voice screamed in Clover’s head once both parties froze in time once again. 

“Looks like I dodged it, ya vermin.” Clover can’t help but taunt Antiscroll for his reaction.

“You got lucky. That’s all.” Antiscroll growled out.

Clover looks over his moves and, upon not seeing any moves that don’t cause harm, decides to ‘Jump’ slightly backwards into the air this time. Locking in again, his move doesn’t go off instantly. After what feels like 2-3 minutes have passed in this strange time freeze, both fighters move again. Antiscroll dashes forwards and attempts to ‘Envenom’ the air with a bite right where Clover’s SOUL was at mere frames ago.

“Ah-hahaha!” Antiscroll laughs in delight upon realizing Clover’s strategy. “It’s cute that you think you can win with your movements alone.”

“Well I ain’t plannin’ on runnin’ forever. All I gotta do is keep ya busy ‘till I can spare ya, just like everyone other monster down here so far. Just ‘cause your battle’s stranger than others, doesn’t mean I can’t use the same ol’ tricks.” Clover says with conviction.

“You truly are a naive child if you think I can be defeated in any manner you would use against those you called ‘monsters’” Antiscroll’s voice rises with indignation.

“Oh, and how are ya so different? Ya look just like Crispy Scroll, except if he decided to ditch the yellin’ and got into the clownin’ around business.” Clover keeps taunting him, in hopes that he’ll back off like his new friends did, or at least cause Antiscroll to make a mistake.

Antiscroll *tsked* at Clover’s taunt. “If you must know, the only way to win is to defeat me with force. The only reason why I tell you this is because prey that fight back are much more entertaining than fools that do nothing but dodge.”

Clover noticed Antiscroll only had a single, green move under a ‘super’ move. Thinking he could move in for a throw to disarm and disorientate his opponent, Clover ‘Air Dash’es off of nothing towards where Antiscroll stands. If this ‘frame advantage’ was correct, then he should have 5 frames to make a move before his opponent gets the chance to retaliate. 

Although something clearly went wrong, because Antiscroll's body makes a sharp noise frames after Clover started dashing, which allows him to make another move. 

“Huh? What just happened?” Clover questions to the air.

Antiscroll only responds by laughing in a low, immoral chuckle.

Realizing his plan of action might not be a smart one right then, Clover makes his SOUL bound off the air itself and ‘Jump’s once more, sailing over an Antiscroll who ‘Juke’s backwards before throwing himself forwards by the claws on his ribbons in a flying ‘Corkscrew’.

Antiscroll growled “You little- It’s fine. Keep flying around like a gnat. See how long you last.”

“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Seems like it works ‘cause it ain’t like you’ve hit me once so far.” Clover continues taunting Antiscroll in hopes he makes a poor decision. He might actually be right when he said “the only way to win is to defeat me with force.” The only moves I got that clearly ain’t meant to kill are a lasso and a grab, but they ain’t gonna help me right now. I guess I also got a ‘gun throw’ move, but I ain’t sure how that works.

Pressing down on the ‘Gun throw’ shows a hologram of Clover’s SOUL tying his lasso around the center of its gun and tossing it with a spin. It’s probably a good move to keep the pressure up. Might keep ‘em off me for a moment while I figure out what my moves actually do.

It takes a considerable amount of time before his SOUL begins to feel the effects of time again and launches the holstered weapon. Clearly Antiscroll was not expecting this course of action, for he performs a ‘Leap Slash’ into the air with a sickly green swipe, directly into the path of the flying weapon.

Clover expected to hear a yelp of pain, or at least something that resembled it, to come from Antiscroll as his revolver strikes him dead center. He was not expecting to hear no sounds of pain, but instead only agitated mumblings, too low to properly hear, but loud enough to make out small parts. Something about continuing to dodge or something like that.

“-stupid, lucky shot. Of course he’d use a cheap move like that.-” being the only thing said loud enough for him to hear clearly.

Seeing the holograms continue onwards from where the combatants are frozen, Clover realized something he didn’t even consider before. He saw that his gun was going to fire and hit Antiscroll again, and looking through his options, Clover couldn't see a way to prevent it. It also dawned on him that his moveset was dramatically more limited than before. His first attack was going to be the first, and second strike of this battle. That ain’t great… At least he DID make it clear he actually wanted to fight. As long as I hol’ back a little, he shouldn’t die. I hope at least.

Before he dwells on his blunder for too long, one of the moves Clover can use catches his attention. It has the image of an eye on it, and the area where moves are labeled it calls it ‘foresight’. Clover’s mind touched it, only to show a small bubble of static where his SOUL’s hologram was. A new radial dial showed up next to his ‘DI’ one labeled ‘Direction’. Instinctively, Clover knows how to drag it around, and the static bubble hologram moves with the ‘Direction’ wheel. 

After only about 20 seconds have passed, Antiscroll gets fed up with waiting. “Will you select your move already? There should be no reason why this takes more than a few seconds.”

“Wait, so we don’t move ‘till we both select our moves?” Clover asks the disembodied voice of Antiscroll.

“Of course we don’t. If we DID, then I wouldn’t need to wait on your insignificant self.” Even though Clover can’t see where Antiscroll’s voice keeps coming from, he can tell Antiscroll's face was scrunched in annoyance.

A bad feeling makes Clover decide to not taunt him any more than he already has. I probably could tell him somethin’ like “Then why’d it take ya so long last time?”, but that’d probably cause him to focus a little bit more than just lettin’ him steam.

Antiscroll keeps up his annoyed mutterings, while Clover slowly moves his ‘foresight’ near where Antiscroll should end up flying towards in his ragdoll state.

The next turn shows Clover a few new toggles where the ‘Direction’ wheel was. There were 3 to be specific. From top down there was a ‘Shift’ toggle, a ‘Rift’ toggle, and a ‘Drift’ toggle. Selecting ‘Shift’ and then deciding to ‘Grab’, Clover’s SOUL teleports to where the glitched static was just a moment ago and grasps Antiscroll out of midair, throwing him violently into the ground. 

Neither opponent is speaking at this time, however Clover can hear mild grunts, not born of injury, but of frustration that he can only assume came from Antiscroll’s anger at being grabbed.

Clover cycles through his options carefully, seeing nothing that can be used right that moment, he uses ‘Foresight’ once more, placing a field of static behind where Antiscroll’s splayed out on the ground.

Antiscroll now has 2 options on his side of Clover’s UI. One is called ‘Getup’ and seems to let Antiscroll get up off the ground. The other is called ‘Tech Dodge’ and allows Antiscroll to roll out of the way. Watching his opponent’s options carefully, Clover thrusts his SOUL’s sword out like a bee’s ‘stinger’, hoping Antiscroll moves into a forwards roll.

A shame that Antiscroll rolled away from him instead.

By this point, Clover is almost certain that neither individual feels the attacks connecting on one another, which makes Clover question how Crispy Scroll was so battered when Clover saw him bust through the wall.

Clover ‘hold’s off for a turn, for both of them can move in a single frame.

“And here I was, hoping you would be a fool and try to attack me once again. Wasting one of your moves” Antiscroll’s voice adopts an uncharacteristically flat tone.

“Did ya make that same mistake earlier? Seems like the kind ya would make.” Clover makes the decision to try to push Antiscroll’s buttons once more, in hopes of causing him to lose focus.

An angry grunt confirms that Antiscroll’s rage is boiling once more.

Clover ‘locks in’ a ‘Stinger’ once more in hopes that he will dart forwards with one of his ‘Attack’ moves. Unfortunately, Clover fails to predict that Antiscroll would ‘Pounce’ directly into Clover’s sword, batting it away with one claw, and using the other to pierce right into his SOUL’s midsection. Clover was still expecting pain to spike throughout his body, but he didn't feel any pain from where his SOUL was spiked. A mild ache does come from the area though.

“And now, there’s nothing you can do. Nothing except watch as I make you suffer for my enjoyment.” Antiscroll chuckles as he speaks.

Now it’s Antiscroll’s turn to strike Clover down, and he begins his onslaught with a ‘Swipe’ of his clawed ribbons. Clover saw that he had the option to ‘Burst’, but he decided to ‘Hold’ against that for now.

Following up on his strike, Antiscroll ducks to the floor and does a ‘Low Swipe’ at Clover’s feet, bouncing him skywards.  Clover, once more, ‘Hold’s his position.

Antiscroll can be heard chuckling to himself.

Clover ‘Hold’s the line for one more turn, while Antiscroll juts forwards and slices Clover’s SOUL right out of the air. The strike sent him careening towards the ground, but before his SOUL touched the floor, Clover got one more turn.

A guttural ‘Howl’ permeated the air for only a moment before Clover ‘Burst’ out and sent Antiscroll gliding along the ground away from him.

“YOU LITTLE SH-*pshhh*” Antiscroll’s voice roars out before being abruptly cut off by static.

Clover feels a pang of guilt over Antiscroll’s outburst. “You doin’ alright there?” Clover asks, remorse evident for causing Antiscroll to scream like that.

“Profanity detected. Scanning for root cause. …”Antiscroll’s voice seems to have changed from his normal husky voice to a more metallic, monotone undertone.

“Uh, ya ain’t makin’ no sense.”

“…”

Antiscroll’s body started to glitch in front of Clover even though their time was still paused.

“Antiscroll? Are ya still with me here?”

“ …Scan completed. Problem discovered: Primary directive compromised. Solution: No solution found. Resuming processes.”

“Antiscroll?! Please don’t tell me I killed ya by makin’ ya too mad.”

“Ugh, huh? What just… Did something just happen?” Antiscroll’s voice suddenly became less robotic, and returned to the deep, husky tone that Clover’s come to recognize.

“Oh good. I honestly thought my tauntin’ mighta done ya in for good there. How’re you feelin’?” Clover’s concern flips to relief.

“And why would a little brat like you need to know that.” As if he suddenly remembered where he was, Antiscroll regained his condescending attitude. “It matters not because I will be the cause of your destruction.”

I wonder what all that was ‘bout. I doubt he’ll tell me, but I really do hope he’s okay. I really wouldn’t wanna hurt nobody for no good reason Clover’s mind still swam with worry, but now that Antiscroll at least seems back to normal, he needs to pull himself back into the fight.

Clover spots that a new, lime green, movement is available to Antiscroll, and he realizes that he also has a new toggle that shares the same eye as ‘foresight’. Toggling it on leaves a static field where Clover’s SOUL was. Cycling through his options, Clover lands on ‘Jump’ing once again.

As Clover’s SOUL ‘Jump’ed towards the sky, Antiscroll used his new movement, ‘Slop Dash’, in order to close the distance.

“Back to being a flying gnat again, are you?” Antiscroll says with a growl.

“Ain’t like it’s failed me yet.”

Clover peruses his options and figures he might as well see what that ‘Drift’ toggle does. Huh, for some reason, it uses a bottle of milk as its icon. And upon pressing it, he sees that his moves have completely changed. What was once a meager management of mediocre moves, shifted into a smorgasbord of superb selection. Before he makes his decision on his attack, Clover looks at Antiscroll’s options and realizes the only real move he has that could even hit him is a move called ‘Dash Attack’, and figures that he might as well plan around the idea that Antiscroll’ll use the most obvious course of action. With his newfound options, he settles on a move he couldn’t use before, ‘Ankle Cutter’. 

And after a brief moment, Clover prediction pays off. Antiscroll ‘Dash Attack’ed directly into Clover outstretched sword. Catching the lower part of his body, Clover’s SOUL flings Antiscroll towards him.

“Deciding to fight now? At least you no longer keep running away like a coward.” The anger in Antiscroll’s voice is still palpable.

“Well now, I’m just doing exactly what’cha asked me to do.” Clover can’t help but take another jab at Antiscroll’s psyche.

Trying to keep up the pressure, Clover uses a ‘Super’ for the first time, and ‘Teleport’s directly into Antiscroll’s flight path.

Clover’s SOUL then proceeds to do a ‘Vertical Slash’ with its katana, and swiftly ‘Draw’s its revolver cleanly from where it was holstered, only to ‘Hold’ for a beat to aim and ‘Shoot’ a bullet into Antiscroll’s body. The knockback of both blows combined launched Antiscroll away from Clover’s SOUL, but not far enough. Clover makes a ‘Foresight’ static field behind Antiscroll, and ‘Shift’s to intercept him with another, albeit ‘Flip’ped, ‘Vertical Slash’. While both of them soar through the air, an ‘Upward Swipe’ from his katana sends both fighters even more skywards.

Clover knocked Antiscroll away so far away that his sword could no longer reach, so Clover ‘Quick Draw’s his SOUL’s revolver to fire one last shot. Fortunately for Clover, Antiscroll put himself in a much worse position by ‘Burst’ing

“So NOW you FINALLY CHANGE things up.” Antiscroll’s anger keeps rising as Clover shoots him ‘Point Blank’  “You COULD have jumped, or MAYBE set up another ‘Foresight”, OR EVEN JUST RAN AGAIN, so WHY would you PULL OUT YOUR STUPID REVOLVER?”

Now it’s Clover’s time to chuckle now.

“AND WHAT IS SO FUNNY YOU FU-*pshhh*” Antiscroll’s voice, once again, booms out before devolving back into sudden static.

“Uh… This is the second time ya’ve done that, are ya good or what?” A feeling of dread for what this means of Antiscroll worms its way back into Clover’s mind.

“Profanity detected. Scanning for root cause. …” Antiscroll’s voice turns metallic once more, almost like he isn’t alive.

“…” Clover remains silent, and keeps a closer eye on Antiscroll’s body this time in hopes of figuring out what’s happening.

“…”

This time, Clover sees something strange when Antiscroll glitches out. He watches Antiscroll’s body distort from his usual grey, scroll form, to a sickly green stickman with green squares falling off of him and falling before dissipating into green ones and zeros. Almost as if Antiscroll’s body was made up of a different, digital world’s material instead of the magic that Penilla said monsters are made from. His ribbons transform into clawed hands, a noticeable hunch is present in his posture, and venom drips from fangs nearly invisible if you weren’t looking closely. After just a moment, Antiscroll glitches back into his usual self.

“ …Scan completed. New Problem discovered: E.S.U. Unit producing excess synthetic “anger”. Solution: Terminate verbal responses in order to mitigate profanity. Resuming processes.” The synthetic version of Antiscroll’s voiced out in monotone.

“Does that mean ya ain’t gonna talk back no more?” Clover questions

A static sound can be heard, not unlike a response, but completely unintelligible to Clover’s ears.

“...I’mma take that as a yes then.”

After what Clover saw, it’s pretty hard to deny that Antiscroll isn’t a monster, or at least not a monster from this world. It's like he took the form of someone at random. That’d explain why he looks so much like Crispy Scroll at least. And if he’s from another world, then it makes sense why his battle’s so unique, but if he ain’t from this world, then how’d he get here? Better yet, if he’s from some game world or somethin’ like that, then what does that make this one? Probably best not to dwell on that all too hard. Kinda makes my head hurt if I do…

During all of this, Clover completely forgot to look for his next move. In a rush, he hastily picked a ‘3 Combo’ in hopes that it might lead to some kind of follow up, or at least knock Antiscroll down for a while.

Clover’s sword proceeds to cleave through Antiscroll like butter and flings him upwards, poised for a follow up strike.

The static noises flare up once again, as if Antiscroll’s trying to voice his discontent at Clover’s move choice. 

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear a lick of what’cha sayin’ to me. It’s all staticky and junk.” Clover says to ensure Antiscroll knows fully what Clover hears.

The static quiets down quite quickly after that.

The next turn both ‘Hold’ as Clover’s ‘3 Combo’ still have more to do. Time continues flowing and Clover’s SOUL slashes true another 2 strikes, spiking Antiscroll with new damage, as well as flinging him even higher into the air.

Following up on his combo, Clover’s sword finishes with an ‘Upward Swipe’ to send Antiscroll flying through the sky, ever higher. 

His next strike sees his sword flipping back around in a ‘Horizontal Slash’ to stunt Antiscroll’s upward velocity, sending it sideways instead. Antiscroll’s body crashes against an invisible wall, clearly dictating the size of the area they find themselves in. Clover, seizing the opportunity, sheaths his sword, and pulls out a ‘Lasso’ to bind Antiscroll before pulling him into an ‘Izuna Drop’, piledriving them both towards the ground.

Antiscroll’s body is sent flying away from Clover’s SOUL at high speeds, eventually crashing, and bouncing, off the wall of the area once again. Perusing his options, Clover realized that there isn’t a single move he could do to hit Antiscroll before Antiscroll got the chance to, so he pulled out the old ‘Quick Draw’, freeing his revolver. Clover, on instinct, checked his ammo count, and realized he only has three shots left. In the time it takes him to look, Antiscroll starts dropping down like a sack of bricks in a ‘Super Fall’.

There’s a brief moment in time where Clover considered putting all three remaining shots out in a quick fanning burst, but then he notes a strange special, ‘Temporal Round’. It doesn’t fire right away, but seems, at least from Clover's perspective and because of the holograms, to track and spitfire right towards his opponent after a few moments without consuming a bullet. Because of that, he combines it with ‘Sight’ in order to put some pressure on Antiscroll before he gets any closer. It’s clear that Antiscroll believed Clover was going to attack straight upwards as he ‘Air Dashed’ to the side.

Clover’s SOUL performs a ‘Super Dash’ to close the distance between the two opponents, however it’s Clover’s time to be predicted, as Antiscroll craters down in a ‘Pounce’, spiking Clover directly into the floor. Fortune seems to favor Clover today, as he spots that nothing Antiscroll could do would be able to damage him further.

Fortune doesn’t hold a candle to prediction as Clover's 'Tech Dodge’ roll to the right was caught out by an ‘Overhead Claw’ by Antiscroll. In the same moment, Clover’s ‘Temporal Round’ from before went off, and flew straight under Antiscroll’s body, missing him entirely.

Clover’s streak of being predictable doesn’t end there, as next move, he ‘Burst’s to try to get out of any follow up combo, like he did to Antiscroll just a few minutes past, but Antiscroll predicts that and ‘Block’s it. Clover didn’t even realize it could be ‘Block’ed at all, as no attempts to ‘Burst’ have been punished in that way.

So, Clover ‘Hold’s once again, and braces his SOUL for a one sided beatdown. As expected, Antiscroll delivers on that promise with a ‘Corkscrew’, before ‘Juke’ing to the right and pummeling him again with another ‘Corkscrew’.

Antiscroll’s assault doesn’t let up there, as he ‘Juke’s left to get in front of Clover and pops him into the air with a ‘Low Swipe’. He follows up with a ‘Leap Slash’, sending Clover’s SOUL flying into the sky.

He barrage continues from there when he ‘Juke’s once more, nearly into Clover, and unleashing multiple globs of acid in a ‘Caustic Barrage’ into Clover’s back. Before Clover can even get knocked back more than a few feet away, Antiscroll ‘Juke’s again and unleashes another ‘Leap Slash’ into Clover’s ribs. Once he gets in front of Clover, Antiscroll ‘Vault’s onto Clover’s SOUL, sending it into the ground, and springs himself higher into the air. As he comes down to meet a rebounding Clover, Antiscroll spins himself vertically, claws striking out in order to ‘Shred’ Clover once more.

Finally, Antiscroll ends his combo by landing with a ‘Howl’. The static from before returns, calmer this time, almost happy in a way. If Clover had to put it into words, it almost sounded like Antiscroll was cheering for his own combo.

Clover and Antiscroll take their turns on sync once again, and Clover makes the call to ‘Block’ for the first time. Antiscroll curls up and ‘Corkscrew’s again, but Clover’s SOUL deflects it with his blade and sends blue streaks of light outwards as Antiscroll flies by. Clover punishes by doing another ‘Quick Draw’ and ‘Shoot’s another bullet that ends up striking.

Antiscroll ‘Burst’ causes Clover’s bullet to ricochet instead of pierce him, and allows him to survive another turn. Clover figures that he could create a ‘Foresight’ under Antiscroll and catch him out, hopefully ending this whole fight once and for all.

Static starts to screech out when Clover sees that there’s nothing Antiscroll can do to stop him. 

Clover’s SOUL draws out its revolver for one more ‘Quick Draw’ and ‘Shoot’s out one more bullet while also exploding his ‘Foresight’ in a ‘Rift’. Both attacks strike blows, but Antiscroll makes one last ditch effort to ‘Block’ both attacks. The damage riddled across his body makes it clear that Antiscroll doesn’t have much left in him.

Fortune continues to smile down on Clover today, as he never put his 6-shooter away, and he still has exactly one more bullet.

“One... I have one left in my chamber... I'll make this count.” Clover says with conviction in his voice. A tingling feeling in the back of his mind makes Clover believe he must’ve heard it before. Somewhere…

He fans the hammer back and ‘Shoot’s the final shot in his revolver. Antiscroll, in an act of desperation, tries to spin himself back into a ‘Corkscrew’ and flies at Clover’s SOUL. One final *bang* rings out, and Antiscroll flings forwards, only to collapse into the ground. The battle is over.

Clover’s final shot lands true.

Chapter Text

Clover’s SOUL transforms back from the form it took on into its normal yellow cartoon heart before returning to Clover. The moment that Clover can move his body on his own, he rushes over to where Antiscroll’s splayed out on the floor. Antiscroll’s body is shredded with sword slashes and pierced with flaming bullet holes.

Clover scoops Antiscroll in his arms. He looks down and can see Antiscroll’s eyes open again. Antiscroll looks up into Clover’s eyes and tries to speak, but that same static from before obscures everything said.

After waiting a moment, he tries again, only for the same thing to happen once again. Antiscroll starts to contort his face in rage before abruptly deflating in despair. It was at this moment that the same synthetic voice from before started speaking, coming not from Antiscroll’s voice, but from deep within his body instead. “Solution for Problem: E.S.U. Unit producing excess synthetic “anger”: has been deemed successful. Returning verbal responses to nominal status.”

“Ugh, can you hear me, kid?” Antiscroll’s deep, husky voice can be heard without static covering everything again.

“Yeah. Yeah I can.” Clover says with tears welling in his eyes.

“Heh, I guess you beat me. Do not worry, I’ll recover from this, and maybe next time we battle, I’ll be the victor.” Antiscroll’s tone lost all of the grandeur he spoke with previously, replaced by a bittersweet one instead.

“A-are ya sure you’re gonna be all right? If ya need it, I got some healing items right here.”

“I’m positive. One unique thing about any challenged fight from me is that any injuries won’t be fatal. As much as I talk a big game, I’ve been faced with that reality one too many times…” A hint of bitterness comes through his voice. 

Clover sighs in relief “Alright. A-at least I know I ain’t your killer. I ain’t ever wanted to take no one’s life if I can help it.”

“Haha, after I tried to end you, you’d still try not to kill me. That’s quite humorous, if it were not so noble. Well, be it as it may, I can feel my time in this world coming to a close. I am quite glad that my last moments here are with a true and proper protagonistic person, such as you, Clover.”

“Wh-what’cha mean by your “last moments”? I thought ya said that ya ain’t gonna die!” Clover starts to panic at Antiscroll’s foreboding words.

“Hahaha, I’m not going to die. I just have the innate knowledge that I shall return to where I came from in a moment. Do not fret, for I will survive.” Antiscroll says to try and reassure Clover that he’s okay. In that moment, both of their visions start to become enveloped by a plume of green mist that developed around them.

“What’s goin’ on?” Clover’s panic starts to rise even higher as his vision becomes more blurred by the green. In his panic, he fails to notice Antiscroll’s body slowly being absorbed by the haze, slowly turning into small numbers in the air.

After not hearing a response from Antiscroll for a minute, Clover looks back at his arms. Antiscroll was gone, but in his place, a note written in beautiful calligraphy.

“Dear Clover,

I know it must seem sudden, but I am all right. That green mist that came so suddenly took me back to my home. I know that I may have seemed… agitated, however I did enjoy our fight. Please look after yourself, and train hard, for next time we meet I shall be stronger than I was. It truly is a shame that I cannot be in your realm for long, but I will never forget your face, nor your name. I am grateful for the time I was allowed to write this for you, as I saw how terrified you were when you believed that I was not long for the living. Next time I see you, mayhaps we could partake in a tournament of sorts. As much as I did gibe at him, Crispy Scroll does have potential for combat, so please inform him that I apologize for my sentiments towards him. Alass, as much as I wish I could continue to write this, my allotted time is nearing its end, so this is where I must bid you farewell.

From the mutant, also known as Antiscroll”

Tears begin to stain the bottom of the slightly crinkled paper in Clover’s tight grip. Small hics come from his watery face as he presses the paper closer to his chest. 

A small smile starts to form after a minute of sitting there. “He ain’t dead. I really thought I killed him.”

After a while, Clover hears an *ahem* from a certain golden flower sitting on his chest.

“O-oh, Flowey! I kinda forgot that ya were still there…” Clover’s voice is still filled with hiccups, but the tears try to stop.

“I’m sure you did. Anyways, I have something important to say.” Flowey’s head shifts along the vines on Clover’s shoulder until he’s near Clover’s ear before screaming, “NEXT TIME YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING SOMETHING AS STUPID AS THAT, TELL ME SO I DON’T DIE YOU IDIOT!!!”

Clover recoiled from the volume. “A-alright. No need to shout there.”

“Clearly I have to. Otherwise I don’t think you’ll get it through your thick skull. Have you even seen how much damage that ‘fight’ of yours caused?!” 

Clover pulls his eyes up from the ground, drying his eyes with his sleeve, and observes the absolute carnage all around them. The ceiling had massive gashes along it, the floor was covered in scratch marks, and the walls were riddled with bullet holes. “What? What happened here? Why is there so much damage? We- we never even got close to this many strikes against each other.”

“Well, glad you asked! I don’t know either! However, it’s probably a good time to go and SAVE again. Before you end up pinned under some rubble.” Flowey has a forced cheeky grin plastered on his face. “But before you go and start sputtering something like ‘but you were there. How could you not know?’” Flowey’s voice mimics Clover’s with startling accuracy. “,or something like that, I was paying a lot more attention on keeping both you, and that other idiot, Crispy Scroll alive. Kinda hard to pay attention to how that fight was going when chunks of roof kept falling down. Also it doesn’t help that I’m still severed from my main root system while I’m on your vest, so I can’t exactly do everything I can normally do.”

“Alright, alright. I get it. I’m gonna go SAVE now.”

“And when you do, I have something to tell you.”

Clover starts back up towards the SAVE point at the top of the stairs, but doesn’t make it too far before collapsing down on the ground. He can feel the muscle fatigue in all of his limbs, all the way down to his very SOUL. After a few moments though, he’s able to drag himself to the base of the stairs, before settling down on the bottom stair to regain some strength. 

Flowey knows fully well that Clover can’t make it up the stairs in his condition, so he starts to drag vines from the ground and wraps them around Clover’s limbs. Using the vines as braces, Clover’s able to ascend the stairs rather slowly. Flowey glances at Clover’s face and could swear that his eyes shone bright red instead of his usual yellow for just a moment, but he couldn’t tell if he was just seeing things. It takes a few minutes longer, still using the tag team of Flowey’s vines, and Clover’s sheer determination, but they made it.

| Clover     LV  1   999:99 |

|    Dark Ruins   -   Hall    |

| ❤︎ Save              Return |

*FILE SAVED*

Clover presses the SAVE point and can feel his limbs regaining strength once again. Flowey retracts his vines back into the ground and allows Clover to take a few steps before moving back to his spot on Clover’s vest.

“So, what’cha got for me, Flowey?”

“Alright, well do you remember that intimidating presence we felt when you pressed the last button in that string of numbers?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, I think I know where it came from. Might be nothing, but it might be worth checking out.” Flowey’s face turns into a smug smile, “I know you like backtracking everywhere.” 

“Really? Where?! We gotta make sure no one’s hurt!” Clover’s panic starts to rise again.

“Calm down. If I’m right, and I usually am, then those stalagmites back there should be gone.” Flowey swipes his face towards the darkened halls from before.

“And why would ya think that?”

“Uhh…” Think of an excuse. You do NOT want Clover to stop trusting you. You’ve already gone way too far to lose it all now. “... Well, sometimes I burrow over on that side, and I could feel that presence over there.”

“Hmm. When ya put it that way, it makes a heap of sense! Alright, got any idea what’s back there?”

“Nope!”

“...”

“...”

Clover deadpans at Flowey’s straining smile.

“A-anyways, you gonna go check it out, pal?” Flowey retreats back to Clover’s vest once more.

*sigh* “Alright, let’s get goin’, partner.” 

Clover walks down the hallway where Decibat continues to sleep peacefully. As he does, an overwhelming presence starts to press down on his back. His body starts to resist Clover’s will, but cannot keep him from moving forwards anyhow. By the time he reached the dark halls, Clover might as well have been walking against a jet engine with how much effort he has to make for every step forward he takes. After continuing to push against his very body, Clover finds out that where that passage that was blocked off before, has opened up just like how Flowey said.

As he walks through the new path, the presence forcing his body to stop responding ceases, making Clover stumble and fall to the floor. Getting up and dusting off his jacket, Clover realized that during that whole journey from near Dalv’s front door, to nearly 3 rooms away, that he lost a certain flower. Before he gets the chance to yell for Flowey, Clover hears the familiar sounds of burrowing further in. That’s when Flowey popped out of the floor and started doing a little jig.

“Took you long enough.”

“Well sorry ‘bout that. My body felt that presence growin’ stronger and decided to just lock up on me. Kinda hard to keep pushin’ when ya mind’s the only thing goin’, but I made it.”

Flowey’s eyes open in surprise. “Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean by ‘lock up’? I don’t exactly feel like dealing with another possession today.”

“Nah, it ain’t like that. At least I don’t think so. What I mean was my body just kinda… stopped listenin’ to my head. I wish I could explain it better, but that’s the best I got. When I was possessed, my head felt like it was fogged up on high. This time I still had my wits and will to keep pushin’ on my own.”

“Ugh… Golly Clover, you’re gonna be the death of me here.” Flowey exaggerated his distress by wilting himself, before immediately springing back up with a smile, “Anyways, I just popped back up to let you know that I’m getting the heck out of here! I really don’t want to see what made even my petals stand on edge, but I’m sure you got this, pal.”

“Wait-”

“No, no. Even if you do fail, we still got that SAVE you made! So don’t you worry your little head because your best friend Flowey still has your back, even when I’m not here! Remember?”

“...I remember, but-”

“Uh, uh, uh. No buts mister. I actually have something I want to check up on real quick while I’m away, so this isn’t just me abandoning you for no good reason. Cheer up pal, you got this! I believe in you!” Yuck, did I really just say “I believe in you”? Now I want to RESET again, just so I never say that again. Oh angel, who am I kidding. I actually DO believe he’s got this, but WHY did I say that out LOUD?! Also now that I’ve put my roots in my mouth, I really should come up with something to check on, because I did NOT think that through. Hmm… Ah! I got it!

And before Clover could even get another word in edge wise, Flowey hunkers down into the soil once more. So, we’re doin’ this bit again? *sigh* Ain’t like I didn’t expect it.

So, with no more distractions, Clover plods onwards into the darkened hall. The silence is deafening, even more so now than ever before. The darkness seems to encompass all now. Even the wind and his bootsteps, the only sources of sound, ceased.

Suddenly, Clover hears movement from behind him. Not much, but a small *thud* rings out. Clover turns slowly, the darkness keeps him from truly seeing what made the noise. Slowly, he creeps backwards, keeping his eyes trained on the darkness in front of him. 

Then he hears it again. *thud*

Clover steps back. Heart pounding in his chest.

*thud*

His eyes start to dart around, head moving on a swivel for anything that could be making that sound.

*thud*

His hands start to shake. He brings his arms forwards to steady them. The sound keeps coming every frequently, but not consistently enough to keep Clover’s nerves calm.

*thud*

Now his knees start trembling. Another shaky step behind him towards the ever encroaching abyss surrounding him.

*thud*

His body starts to shake more and more, his teeth chattering, his legs flutter around, his arms now pressed tight to keep them still, yet not still enough. 

*thud*

He takes another step backwards, only to hit a wall. Nowhere left to run. Nowhere left to hide. He can’t see still, his nerves shaken beyond help. He starts sliding down the jagged stone walls that now bar his escape from whatever lurks just out of sight.

*thud*

His eyes become wet, his mouth quivers, and he starts to fear. Genuine fear of something he has no idea what it could possibly be. His mind starts racing through anything, but even with everything he’s seen today, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

*ribbit*

The darkness recedes fast, and Clover’s mind goes blank trying to comprehend what he saw. Out of everything he could have ever expected, a miniscule monster that looks like a white frog, so small that it makes a grape look like a mountain, bounds around again.

*thud*

That’s when it truly hits Clover. The presence that kept him in fear was this little guy. They could be described as a “blink and you’ll miss it” kind of monster, because Clover almost did lose track of them when he blinked. 

“Ha. Haha. Ahahahahaha” Clover starts to fall into hysterical laughter for a minute before he can compose himself enough to confront this micro frog that seems to be facing off with him. When Clover calms down enough, that’s when the little monster darts towards him. Clover was caught off guard by this move, and even more so when he starts to hear new battle music.

*CHK-

CHK-

NEOWW*

*You notice Micro Froggit attacking you!*

Ah, so that’s what they are! A micro froggit. Huh, feels like I should know what a “froggit” is, but I’m drawin’ a blank. 

|FIGHT| |❤︎ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

❤︎ * Micro Froggit

❤︎ *Check | * Compliment | * Threaten | * Stomp 

Now that’s a list of ACTs right there! But, why is stomp red? Uh… I don’t think I like that…

*MICRO FROGGIT -- ATK 3 DEF 2

*Often falls through the cracks.

*Micro ribbit.*

Clover, still reeling from the shock of being attacked by a gnat sized frog, ends up getting his SOUL nicked by a massive fly attack that homed in on where he was. 

*18/20*

Clover catches a faint whiff of mustard seed in the air for some odd reason. Sniffing again, the smell is gone. “That’s odd…” Clover murmurs to himself.

|FIGHT| |❤︎ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

❤︎ * Micro Froggit

 *Check | ❤︎ * Compliment | * Threaten | * Stomp 

Clover turns in the general direction he saw the little frog monster last, “Hey, you’re really scary when ya want to ya know!”

*Micro Froggit doesn’t seem convinced. You may have been looking in the wrong direction.

Darn it.

*Happy croak.*

*16/20*

Before Clover can react, even smaller versions of Micro Froggit start to launch themselves out of the corners of the battle box and strike Clover.

*14/20*

And struck him once more for good measure. Ow! I gotta be more prepared than that.

Clover can’t tell if Micro Froggit’s still there or not. Oh wait, I see ‘em now. Real hard to keep an eye on somethin’ so small though…

|FIGHT| |❤︎ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

❤︎ * Micro Froggit

Maybe they ain’t a fan of compliments? I don’t wanna threaten ‘em, but if I gotta then I gotta.

 *Check | * Compliment | ❤︎ * Threaten | * Stomp |

*Micro Froggit is shaking, but you might just be straining your eyes.

*Growl.*

This time, Clover was ready when the massive fly came around once more. Instead of getting clipped, he started to sweep around the fly like a madman riding a carousel, taking no damage this time.

Micro Froggit looks like he’s trying to hop away. Maybe in fear, maybe in boredom, it’s hard to tell anything at all from their size.

|FIGHT| |❤︎ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

Uh oh. That didn’t work neither. Maybe… maybe the only option is to stomp on ‘em… But I don’t wanna do that. They don’t deserve it! However they did try to kill me just a moment ago, and they were the one to attack first, so it does seem like they actually wanna fight to the death…

❤︎ * Micro Froggit

No. I ain’t gonna do that. They seem scared right now, and I ain’t ‘bout to be no killer if I can help it. Maybe I gotta do the same thing a few times? Still better than stompin’ the poor fella.

 *Check | ❤︎ * Compliment | * Threaten | * Stomp 

“Ya pack quite a wallop ya know!” Clover beams a smile at where Micro Froggit was a moment ago.

*Micro Froggit doesn’t seem convinced. You may have been looking in the wrong direction.

Again?! They were JUST there! Welp, maybe it’s gotta be in a row? I’ll keep complimentin’ ‘em ‘till they give up!

*Happy croak.*

Clover’s SOUL runs circles around another giant fly, but gets clipped once while distracted looking for where Micro Froggit went.

*12/20*

This time, the smell of mustard seed doesn’t catch Clover by surprise. Ya know what? Maybe it’s a smell Micro Froggit makes when they’re happy? Dunno how that would work, exactly, but I ain’t got no other leads to that smell right now.

|FIGHT| |❤︎ACT| |ITEM| |MERCY|

❤︎ * Micro Froggit

 *Check | ❤︎ * Compliment | * Threaten | * Stomp 

This time, Clover makes sure to keep eye contact with Micro Froggit. At least as well as he could due to the fact that he can’t really see their eyes from how small they are before complimenting him “I gotta admit, you are a slippery lil’ speedster when ya wanna be, huh?”

*You can’t tell how Micro Froggit is reacting.

*You think it looks flattered.

Well I’d hope so at least. Gotta give it my all!

*Happy croak.*

Clover gets distracted again by the giant fly, and gets struck one last time.

*10/20*

Taking another glance at Micro Froggit, Clover thinks he sees them waving goodbye, but it’s really hard to be certain. He takes the opportunity to 

|FIGHT| |ACT| |ITEM| |❤︎MERCY|

❤︎*Spare

And a new noise Clover’s never heard before chimes out, while the boxes in his vision flash a pulse of yellow, with streaks of red. 

*YOU WON!

*You earned 0 XP and 0 gold.

As the world returns back to color, another Micro Froggit hops into view. Both of the Micro Froggits bounce with each other for a few seconds, before turning back to face Clover. Clover starts to feel tense again as he’s on half health, and the threat of facing two combatants instead of only one doesn’t sit well. Contrarily, the Micro Froggits both wave goodbye to Clover before bounding off. And so, Clover moves along with a new smile on his face.

Meanwhile, at the same time, a certain friendly flower catches the end of a conversation that clearly didn’t convince someone…

Chapter Text

Flowey starts to burrow away from where Clover was heading. In the meantime, his mind starts to wander.

Alright, I left Clover to do… whatever it is he does in that stupid dead end. Hmm, now that it’s on my mind, I’m realizing just how little I’ve actually SEEN of Clover’s journey down here. First, I don’t really pay too much attention in rooms without a SAVE point in them, and that came back to bite me. Second, now that I’m back in my roots, it’s pretty clear just how limited my ‘vision’ of everything actually is. It’s not totally useless, but I can’t really feel where another monster is exactly, just that they’re close. Never really thought about that until now. Third, Clover is really dedicated to finding every little nook and cranny he can. I guess he always did that, but I was really hoping that that was something that idiot controlling him did. *sigh* Oh well. Best thing I can do for now is make sure those other bumbling idiots actually managed to convince that shut in to actually let Clover leave ALIVE.

It doesn’t take Flowey long to burrow into a darkened corner near the water’s edge in the shadows under Dalv’s, now ruined, front porch. Crispy Scroll is still completely unconscious in his hole in the stairs. Flowey can feel a lot of monsters gathered somewhere beyond Dalv’s front door, even though he can’t see it. 

Golly, it’s really tempting to just sprout up, but then I’d actually have to explain myself. If I didn’t have to limit myself to only LOADing for Clover, then it wouldn’t be a problem, but it’d be really bad if Clover started to distrust me. I still at least have the chance to get the kid to Asgore, even if it’s really slim. If I can help it, I’m not messing that up. Oh well, it could be worse. That idiot over there could’ve seen me during Clover’s fight before, but luckily for me he’s unconscious! Ugh, if I didn’t have Clover, then it would be so EASY to just, stab him, and leave him to dust. It would’ve been really funny to watch them all see the pile of dust and turn on Clover! A sour feeling settled deep in Flowey’s mind at the thought of killing someone for fun. Urgh, or maybe not…

Flowey lets his head rest for a moment before squirming around in agitation.

ARGH, if only my STUPID HEAD didn’t keep feeling ‘bad’ for things I’ve done A THOUSAND TIMES BEFORE! Rrrr, if only I could figure out what caused all of this, maybe I could get rid of it. Ugh… It’s almost like the whole world itself just WANTS me to go to that stupid fraud in a labcoat. The sooner I can, the better. 

Whatever, I’ll just go when I know Clover’s going to stay put for a few days. If nothing else, I might find something new from the former royal scientist. What was their name again? W.D. Something or other. Eh, doesn’t matter to me. As long as I get something out of it. 

Before Flowey can delve deeper into his own head, he hears the flutter of voices drifting across the air. Too quiet to make out, but loud enough to tell who’s talking. From his post, Flowey can tell that a conversation is being held, mostly by Penilla and Decibat?! What?! No way. Things have definitely changed, but there’s no WAY that DECIBAT of all monsters CHOSE to talk to others WILLINGLY! Okay, scratch that plan, as soon as I get even a few HOURS to myself, I’m paying Hotland a visit. Something’s wrong, horribly wrong. No way, no how I’m letting it stay this way! But still, I should hold off RESETing. For all I know, that makes this whole thing WORSE. 

Flowey subtly leans in closer to listen to the group now gathering on the lip of the overlook that makes up Dalv’s balcony. Oblivious to the destruction around them, the group continues their discussion. 

Penilla was the first one Flowey could hear. “-ut still Dalv, we’re all vouching for him here. It’s not like you couldn’t just board it up again.”

“Exactly, it’ll take less than a minute if you really can’t stand them being unboarded.” Decibat’s quiet voice comes through next.

“*sigh* I guess you’re correct. If, for no other reason, then to ensure my peace.” Dalv finally sighs out from beyond Flowey’s view. Even then he can still guess that Dalv’s shoulders slumped heavily at that.

Well gosh golly gee! Color me impressed! The gaggle of idiots actually seemed to get through Dalv’s thick skull! I was expecting them to fail in such a dramatic way that Clover actually had to run away just to avoid dying on repeat, but somehow, they did it! I… really don’t like how happy that makes me feel… Eh, just chalk it up to weirdness for now, and to get that wiggly Clover to sit put until I kno-

Knocking Flowey out of his own thoughts was a cacophony of different exclamations, as the gathering finally took notice of the lingering mess of destruction caused by Antiscroll’s fights.

“Wh-what the?” Dalv stammers out,

“Oh angel, no…” Flier weakly mutters,

“That’s… not good…” Penilla says.

That’s all Flowey could make out, the rest either being way too quiet, or ended up being mumbled incoherently. Keeping his face as hidden as he could, he risked a peek up and over the ledge, only to see everyone in various states of shock.

Out of everyone, it’s Flyer who speaks up first, rattling the daze everyone there found themselves in. “S-so… does anyone know what happened, o-or did no one hear anything?”

Everyone replied in the negative. It was at this moment that Decibat spotted Crispy Scroll’s body lodged in the stairs. “Oh no. Is that…”

With a flap of his wings, Decibat rushed over to Crispy Scroll lies. The backblast sends a massive rush of wind, knocking nearly everyone else over. In the resulting chaos, Flowey shrinks back to the ground and pretends to be a regular flower. Getting close, Decibat starts looking Crispy over, and notes that, “Hush, hush. He’s alright. Just passed out.”

After a considerable amount of time, Rorrim finally manages to float over and check Crispy’s condition. “Hm, if I had to make a guess, it appears that someone has already attempted to give him food. With what, I cannot be certain.” Rorrim points towards sections of Crispy Scroll’s ripped body that have been repaired, albeit not fully healed.

Meanwhile Dalv made it into Flowey’s sight as he descended the stairs. Dalv was clearly panicking as he started to mutter and murmur to himself while pressing his hands into the sides of his uncovered face. Flowey couldn’t hear everything, but he distinctly believes he heard Dalv say “No, I can’t let someone who would do this go. I cannot mess this up this time.”

This doesn’t bode well for Flowey, but he can’t warn Clover just yet about what he’s hearing because, as Flowey would put it, a certain ‘doom and gloom’ vampire would definitely spot him, and right now, that was not a risk he could take. Instead, he just sits and listens in as best as he can.

Sweet Corn both try to cheer Dalv up while flier also starts to devolve into mumbles, but nothing they try seems to calm him down from his newfound mutterings. Penilla, still on higher ground, pulls out her art supplies and pulls out a few random tools. Flowey can only see glimpses of what she’s doing and can only guess that she’s trying to figure out what happened. At least that’s what I’D do. Although, only idiots could guess what other idiots would do. Flowey thinks to himself.

After a few more minutes of nobody doing anything new, Penilla sets her supplies away with a *Clack* that echoed in the cavernous walls. The sudden noise made Flowey jump slightly, and  noticed that Dalv seemed to glance in his direction for a moment. Fortunately it doesn’t seem like Flowey’s cover got blown just yet.

Phew, that was WAY to close for comfort. Okay, Flowey, make a plan. You got this. Alright, when those murmuring idiots over there turn away, that’s when I’ll make my move. I have to get to Clover and let him know that these idiots FAILED the ONE THING they had to do. 

Penilla makes her way down the stairs and starts looking closer into the deep gashes in the walls and floor. Something about the way she just keeps analyzing things makes Flowey start to wonder.

Or maybe I keep an eye on them for just a bit longer. See if they aren’t as idiotic as they look…

It doesn’t take much longer for the group Dalv unintentionally formed around him to absently meander over to where the brunt of Antiscroll’s damage happened. Dalv’s front gate. Instead of retreating and telling Clover to keep an eye out, Flowey’s insatiable curiosity gets the better of him once more. He instead decides to push forwards and keep watch. He isn’t completely careless though, because he sent a SAVE point to just in front of Decibat’s flaming perch. If he’s lucky, then Clover might realize something’s up and stay away. Who am I kidding, that kid’s name must be ironic. I’ve never seen someone who dies in any stupider ways than he has. And that’s BEFORE he ended up POSSESSED for crying out loud!

Flowey found a nice little corner just before the light puzzle with his roots and pops up not even a second before Flier leaves the ruined gateway. It takes Flowey a moment to even recognize where he’s at, but fortune must favor him today as Flier, Dalv, and even Sweet Corn all stood around in more shock and awe at the damage than Flowey. 

Unlike in front of Dalv’s home where the damage mostly consisted of slashes caused by sharpened blades, smouldering holes left by phantom bullets, and periodic acidic burns. The light puzzle area, on the other hand, looked like a whirlwind of destruction came rampaging through, even more burns of acidic nature riddle the room, wild gashes tore into the floor, ashes of the demolished light puzzle strewn about, and the walls, if you could even call them that from how destroyed they were, had some kind of energy dripping from meteoric holes gaping throughout.

Flowey was the first to recover, mostly due to knowing what caused so much damage. Even if he wasn’t expecting this much of it. Flowey squints his eyes nearly shut and presses his mouth as closed as he could before anyone notices him. From a glance, you’d be hard pressed to see anything more than a golden flower growing in the ruins of a fight.

It takes a minute longer for the others to finally snap out of their frozen state. Dalv was the first to move by taking his cloak’s hood, and pulling it back over his face, hiding it in shadows once more. Sweet Corn then starts to nuzzle up to Dalv’s side, somewhat out of fear, but also to comfort her friend. Flier meanwhile just starts to slowly flutter towards the ground like a piece of paper in the wind. 

No one spoke for what felt like hours, but was, in reality, not even a minute before Penilla’s voice echoed out. “Hey guys, Crispy’s waking up!”

Flowey was the first one back again, burrowing blindly back where he sat before, just hoping nobody was looking. After him came the hurried footsteps of Dalv and the others with him. Next came the soft *click* of bootsteps coming from the other side of the room.

Flowey spots Dalv tense up dramatically and start heading towards where Flowey left Clover behind.

Oh no…

Clover’s looking at a strange fruit shaped object in front of him. He cocks his head to the side, determining whether or not to take this golden pear sitting suspiciously on a raised platform that sits over a dark void so deep, Clover only sees fog below. 

It looks so beautiful and delicious! Augh, but it could be trapped… Hmm… Clover contemplates for a few seconds. Welp, ain’t like it’s doin’ anyone any good down here now ain’t it?

Curiosity gets the better of Clover and he picks it up. He decides to take a glance at what it does before talking to the only other person in the room. At least Clover hopes they’re the only two there and he won’t end up fighting another micro froggit.

|     Lemonade      |

|     Patch              |

|     Pebble Ammo|

|     Corndog         |

|❤︎ G. Pear            |

|                             |

| Use ❤︎ Info Drop|

* (Makes you invulnerable for a pear of hits.)

Mmmrgh, I really wanna be mad at that pun, but I can’t… It just fits to gosh darned well… Oh, what I wouldn’t do for a different type of joke…

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Clover turns his attention to, what could only be considered, a sentient dust bunny near the edge of where the main bridge breaks apart.

Clover starts first, “Howdy! Names Clover. So, what’cha doing all the way out here? Hidin’ from something?”

Clover’s voice startles the dust bunny and they give him a once over glance before speaking. “Oh, are you hiding from Dalv too?”

“Eh, kinda? It’s more like I’m just stayin’ out of the way while my friends convince him to let me outta here. Mind if I stick around for a bit?”

“There isn’t much room, but you’re welcome to join me! I know lots of games to kill time!”

Clover, wanting to humor one of the first monsters who haven’t pulled them into a fight on sight, plays along. “Oh ya do now? Alright, I’ll bite, what’cha got in mind?”

“How about we play count the dust!”

“Well now, what’s the rules?”

“We see who can count the most dust before getting bored!”

Huh, I guess that is a way to pass time. Not really much of a game, but I’ll play along. Ain’t like they need me back so soon anyhow. “Alright, let’s play!”

“Ready?”

Clover lets his eyes focus in on the dust that litters the floor.

“Go!”

One, two, three, four, five…

…twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine… 

“Thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five…” Now how in tarnation have they-? Wait, keep focused Clover.

…sixty-six, sixty-seven, sixty-eight…

“Seventy-eight, seventy-nine…” *ACHOO* The dust bunny sneezed, blowing all the dust in the area into the pit down below. “Oh dear… I lost count…”

“Ah, uh…” Clover tries to cheer them up a little, but nothing comes to mind.

“I guess you win then!” The dust bunny monster says with a smile towards Clover.

“Well alrighty then. I’d love to stay and chat, but my other friends might need me soon. If I get the chance to come back, I’d love to play another game with ya! You have a good one now!” Clover says while waving goodbye to his new friend.

As he walks away, Clover hears in the distance, “Is it dusty in here or is it just me?” and promptly has to stifle his laughter.

It takes Clover longer than he’d like to admit, but after stumbling around in the dark once again, he finds himself at Decibat’s perch once more. A new SAVE star glows at the base of it. Again, curiosity compels him to touch it.

|  Clover       LV  1     999:99  |

|Dark Ruins - Hall of Silence|

|  ❤︎ Save                  Return  |

*FILE SAVED*

Clearly, something’s up if Flowey created a new SAVE point just for him. Clover steels himself by readjusting his hat with a firm tug before walking towards the room where his friends wanted him to stay put. That also ended up being where Crispy Scroll was knocked unconscious ain’t it, and where I ended up fightin’ Antiscroll. Huh, I guess a lot has happened in that room, hasn't it?

Clover could hear a commotion as he stepped into the room. The first thing he noticed was that Crispy Scroll wasn’t in the stairs anymore, but was being held in Decibat’s arms. Crispy was no longer unconscious, however even Clover could clearly see he hadn't recovered much strength yet. The second thing he noticed was Flowey across the water, looking at him with wide eyes. He was mouthing something, but Clover couldn’t really tell for sure what he was saying. The last thing he saw was the cloaked figure that everyone keeps calling Dalv marching towards him with hostility laced in his every walk. Suddenly he was pulled into a battle again. Dalv’s hood was knocked down by the sudden force of electricity pulsing through the air.

* Dalv musters his fighting spirit.