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Undyne didn't wake up with a start or a gasp. It was just the quiet opening of her eyes. It was still late at night, nowhere near morning. She wasn't even sure why she was awake until she felt the dampness on her cheeks and saw the purple glow of Penn's soul flickering.

It was a moment later that she felt the deep pang in her chest, a painful hollow that almost overwhelmed her and set the tears flowing freely. It was an emotion that wasn't hers, but it was frighteningly powerful.

"Hey, bud... What's with the waterworks?" She reached up, placing her hand over the glowing spot. She didn't know why, but it seemed to help him calm down. She'd already used it several times to help fend off panic attacks (one of many uniquely unpleasant experiences she'd been introduced to within the last 24 hours) while they were waiting for Sunset and Missy to wake up. This time, though, it didn't seem to do much to calm him down. Instead, she felt a haze come up over his thoughts, like burying himself under a blanket to hide his face. The feelings were still there, just muted.

"S-Sorry... I didn't mean to wake you up..." Penn's response was timid, uncharacteristically so.

"Ahh, it's cool..." Undyne rolled into a sitting position. "I was thinking about taking another patrol around camp, anyways!" she added as she began stretching her arms. Her body was aching, which made her smile. Aching meant that she'd pushed herself hard earlier, and she'd be stronger for it later on. Aching was a sign of progress. With a deep breath, she pushed herself to her feet and started stretching her legs. A couple short minutes later, she was feeling much better and the stiffness had all been worked out. With her warm-ups complete, she stepped out of her tent and into the chilly air. It was a clear night, and she felt her heart skip a beat as she looked up at the sky again.

It just seemed so... endless. The stars were more beautiful than she had ever dared imagine, like a million diamonds twinkling in a bottomless sea.

She was barely able to contain her giddiness at the thought, but she refused to giggle like a schoolgirl here, where other monsters could possibly hear it. With one last deep breath to steady her nerves, she set off at a light jog, carefully picking her way through the refugee camp to avoid any careless sleepers or tiny tents. A few nocturnal monsters waved to her, some even raising their fists (or equivalent limb) in a quiet cheer. She nodded and raised her own fist in unity before continuing on her way.

Soon, they had cleared the edge of the camp and entered the forest. Undyne couldn't help but feel a thrill as she knew she could finally let loose.

"Hold on to your butts!" she said to no one in particular. With one leap, she completely cleared the treeline. It was easy to pick out the next spot she was going to push off of, it felt like she had all the time in the world before gravity started to pull her back down. She marveled as she found herself able to keep picking out strong branches and footholds, sometimes adjusting her trajectory by pushing off of a spear.

After a few minutes of this, she let herself slip back through the branches, hitting the ground below running. The moment she had a firm foothold, she grinned, digging in her toes and putting her full force into an all-out sprint.

The world became a blur as her strength propelled her forward. Unlike the tree-jumping, this way of traveling was actually fast enough to keep up with her quick reactions, resulting in more than a few close calls between the trees and her face. However, the longer she ran, the more she could feel herself getting the hang of making the rapid, more delicate adjustments needed to avoid crashing.

Good, then CATCH! Undyne grinned wildly as she planted both feet on the ground, leaping as high into the air as she could. She flew up higher and higher, first two, then three times as tall as the trees. Just when she reached the apex of her arc, a wide, heavy purple shield materialized beneath her feet, catching her and stopping her from falling.

"W-Woah, WOAH!" Undyne pinwheeled her arms wildly as she tried to regain her balance. The shield was tipping and wobbling, leaving her uncertain that it could hold her weight. Gradually, though, they seemed to reach an equilibrium, and Undyne got exactly what she wanted: she was surfing through the sky on a magic shield.

"WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!" She screamed her revelry into the skies, as if her joy could rattle the heavens and knock a few stars loose for her to catch.

When she'd finally calmed down enough to focus more on catching her breath, she took a second to check on Penn.

Aside from tinges of fear about the height, she wasn't receiving any kind of change to his emotional state. Clearly, this was a serious matter if THIS couldn't lift his spirits.

"So... we're about as far away from ANYONE as we can get..." She very carefully lowered herself into a sitting position and let her legs hang off the side to get more comfortable. "Think you can tell me what's bothering you now that we've got some privacy, buddy?"

Very slowly, she felt the barrier beginning to drop, striking her again with that deep pang of negative emotions. It was hard for her to sort them all out, but she could feel guilt, loneliness, and even fear mixed into the turmoil.

She leaned back, laying herself out on the shield and staring up at the stars again.

"I... have this partner. I needed a way to keep myself rational when my mental health wasn't so great, so I started talking to myself a few years ago. I imagined it was one of my cards come to life, and she just kinda... took on a life of her own. She became my voice of reason."

"Huh... That's not that silly. If it worked, then it sounds pretty dang cool, actually!" Undyne smiled. "You figured out how to use your brain to help your brain!"

"She mostly just focused on helping me say alive. Except... ever since we fused, I haven't been able to hear her. It's like she's gone... and I don't know why." His voice had a tremble to it, and Undyne could feel tears welling up in her eyes again. "This whole 'fused souls' thing is really scary, and the one thing I always counted on to keep me calm is gone and I don't know if she's just giving me the silent treatment or if she's really gone and what if she died when I did and didn't pass on to you somehow-"

"Whoa, whoa, dude!" Undyne sat up, putting both hands over her chest and forcing herself to take deep breaths. Her heart was racing and she could feel her head starting to spin. Even the shield seemed to be losing stability, wobbling and wavering unsteadily as it threatened to drop completely. "Hey, take it easy!"

She forced herself to stay as still as she could, continuing to take deep breaths until the racing of her heart slowed back to a reasonable pace. Their flight evened back out as Penn calmed back down, leaving them once again gliding smoothly through the night sky.

"Not really... I just... I realized that if she's really gone, the last thing I ever told her was that she was selfish... and the last thing she ever told me was to stop picking fights I couldn't win. I ignored her, and NOW look at where I am!"

"Hey, it's okay... Trust me, we're BOTH freaked out by this." She gave her chest a reassuring pat before carefully pushing herself back up to her feet. "But if this 'partner' of yours is still in your head, then we're gonna find a way to bring her out! And if she's not..." She grinned and pounded her fist into her palm. "Then we'll figure out where she went and drag her back where she belongs!"

"Dude, you literally gave up your life to fight with me. You didn't have to do that..." Undyne felt a pang of her own guilt pass through their souls. "Not to mention your soul saved MY life! You weren't a royal guardsman or even a monster! If you lost someone because of that, helping you find them is the least I can do."

Undyne cocked her head, trying to focus on her hearing. Sure enough, she could hear what sounded like a soft whining at first, but it was rapidly growing louder. Turning in the direction she could hear it from, she could make out a figure speeding towards them, clearly out of control.

She didn't even need to consciously ask, she could feel that they were thinking the same thing: this person needed help. Their shield reversed direction, setting them on a course to intercept the growing speck.

The shield pushed upwards as she pushed off, launching her even higher into the sky. Just as planned, the careening monster slammed into her in a mess of feathers and lace, sending them both flying back with the force of the impact.

Undyne made sure her knees weren't locked as the shield appeared behind her, angled for her to land on it feet-first and completely cancel their motion. They swerved back and forth for a moment as the energy transferred into the magical construct, threatening to shatter it from the sheer force of the impact, but eventually they came to a safe stop. Undyne looked down at the bundle in her arms, recognizing Missy instantly.

Missy was crying, clearly terrified and bearing a large, swollen black eye from whatever had struck her. Undyne gritted her teeth to try and hold back the rage that filled her at the sight. Missy looked up at her, instantly grabbing onto her shirt.

"S-Sunset! Sunset's in trouble! Th-There was this talking flower that told her to go back to the mountain and try to reset the timeline, but it was a trap and it was HUGE and it grabbed her before I could do anything!"

In her mind's eye, Undyne saw flashes of Penn's memories, images of one of Asgore's yellow flowers, but with a face at the center. She could see it whispering in the human's ear, watching silently in the underground as they went about their grisly, genocidal work with a smile on its face. It was the one who had been there in her last moments before death, taunting them both for their loss.

"Flowey..." They growled together. Each of their outrage seemed to feed into the other's, driving her to new heights of fury.

She leaned forward, and the shield tilted to accommodate her, driving them back in the direction of the mountain at top speed, keeping Missy cradled in their arms.

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It sure was handy that this universe had HP bars that could be checked. It meant she could bring them to the brink of death without actually killing them.

She hit them again, watching the bar drop with no small amount of grim satisfaction. She normally had a soft spot for kids, it was a shame that this one was unforgivable.

"I can do this all day. It won't be pleasant for either of us, but I CAN. Reset. NOW."

She reeled back again to land a blow, but a cursory glance to their stats told her that they had nearly reached their limit.

"Hmmph. Without your knife, you really ARE only human..." she muttered, letting them drop to the floor as she stepped back. "I think I remember there being a bowl of monster candy a ways back. I'll go get it so I can heal you, and then we'll start from the beginning..." Her glowing eye cast a sickly red glow over the cell as the murderer crawled back into the corner. "I'd say, to walk there and back in this condition... You have an hour to reconsider your stance on-"

She paused. She could sense another power was growing nearby, swiftly eclipsing the kid's own determination. She turned her eye in the direction of the aura, catching sight of multiple other souls growing in strength. She counted... six lesser souls, and one familiar, blazing soul glowing in the center of it all. Seven human souls. If Penn's memory was right, that meant someone had recently ascended to godhood. It appeared that Frisk wasn't the one in charge, any more.

Well, if one wanted to make an 'appeal' to power, it was best to go straight to the top.

She didn't speak as she walked away. If she accidentally destroyed this thing, then it would be better to let Frisk stew in the anticipation as a backup plan. An extra card in her hand.

It was going to take her time to catch up to the strange force, and she found herself humming to pass the time.

"I am made o-o-o-o-of... lo-o-o-o-ove... lo-o-o-o-ove... and it's stronger than you..."

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"SHH!" Undyne clapped her hand over Missy's mouth. "Do you want to wake up half the camp?" she hissed.

"And what are they going to do?" Undyne placed her hands on her hips. "Flowey has all six of the human souls AND Sunset's determination! It would be a massacre!"

"We'd be stronger in numbers!" Missy fired back, barely keeping her voice below normal speaking level. "It works for the Ghostricks, it would work here!"

"I've SEEN Penn's memories about this... The only way to beat Flowey would be to separate him from the souls. It's a one-monster job: get in, get the souls, and get out. We're too fast for him to catch. It's simple." She picked Missy up by the shoulders and set her at eye-level on a low branch. "Bringing anyone else would be an unnecessary risk, and the Royal Guard don't TAKE unnecessary risks with civilians!"

"No. Everything about civilians goes double- no, triple for the king!" Undyne shook her head.

Missy pouted and glared for several seconds before finally relenting. "Fine. But I'm not letting him catch me off-guard this time!" She rolled backwards off of the branch. Somehow, in the brief moment her face was hidden from view, she managed to attach a bloodstained hockey mask to her head. A second later, she had reached into her hat and retrieved a frightening-looking machete. "Okay, let's go get this son-of-a-glitch!"

Undyne held out her hand, catching Missy and pushing her back away from the mountain.

"Not you, kid. You already took one beating, I'm NOT going to let you take another." She reached down and lifted up the mask, pushing it to the top of her head. "You stay here and start working on firing off another one of those giant lasers. If something goes wrong-"

Undyne blinked, feeling a chill as her backup plan fell out from underneath her. "What?"

"Do you have ANY idea how tough that is? It's supposed to end a battle or die trying!" Missy folded her arms. "I can't just go firing them willy-nilly every night! It'll be at least a WEEK before I can do that again!"

"A week... great." Undyne sighed. "Time hasn't exactly been on our side lately, has it?"

Undyne wasn't good at putting plans together. Usually, her plan of attack was "attack." If Penn's memory was right, then this monstrosity would be able to overpower Missy in a heartbeat, in fact it already had.

"Sunset's MY partner! You can't just tell me that I'm not allowed to help save her!"

Missy was taken aback for a second. Her entire demeanor seemed to change, anxiously pushing her fingers together and looking at the ground. "Big Sis? I mean... she's another duel spirit-"

Undyne smiled, glad her line of questioning had paid off. "Is she powerful? And NOT at the start of a week-long cooldown on her powers?"

"Oh, DEFINITELY! But if she's not with Penn..." She gestured to Penn's soul, then began to scratch at her chin in thought. "I don't know where we could find her..."

"Good." Undyne clapped the little angel on the shoulder. "YOU work on tracking her down! Then, once I've got that overgrown dandelion on the ropes, you two come in and finish him off!"

She didn't wait for Missy's rebuttal, leaving in a cloud of dust as she sped towards the opening in the mountain.

"Nice job not making her feel excluded..." Penn whispered with a sarcastic edge to his voice.

"Would you have preferred I invite her along?" Undyne muttered as they sped their way up the path. "Shield." As per her request, a shield materialized beneath her feet, letting her leap the last few stories up to the plateau. The two of them stood there for a second, peering into the dark. She could make out the broken places in the stone and dirt that the roots must have come through to capture Sunset.

"Undyne, if we start this fight, Flowey has at least six times the soul power we do. We're going to be outnumbered, outgunned, and most likely letting him dictate the field of battle. Any one of those can tip the scales of a fight."

"YEAH. It's kind of reasonable to at this point! But I don't want you to rush in without knowing the risks. Saving Sunset isn't your job, it's mine."

"So am I!" Undyne brushed down her clothes with a sigh. "I just wish I had my armor, I hate going into a fight naked..."

"Yeah. Besides, you think he's gonna stop with Sunset Shimmer? He sat and watched Frisk slaughter monsters and thought it was funny, remember? If we don't take him out now, it'll just be a threat to everyone later..."

She reached out, letting a spear materialize in her hand. She blinked as she realized that it was different from her normal spears. Normally, her spears were glorified arrows, just a simple shaft and a sharp point. That was all she had been trying to create, but this one was more complex. The head was a wide blade of energy, with pointed barbs facing backwards to rip apart anyone who tried to remove it. The shaft was heavier and sturdier, counterbalancing the increased weight of the head until it was perfectly balanced.

"Woah..." she muttered, taking a closer look. "This isn't just a spear... it's a freakin' harpoon!"

"Well, only if you're using it specifically to hunt marine life and- Never mind."

Undyne tightened her grip, feeling energy coursing along the surface of it. "Do YOU want to do this? I'm not going to drag you into this fight."

Undyne smiled and hurled the spear into the dark tunnel, sending a pulse of light down into the heart of the mountain to guide their way.

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Penn had let Undyne take over completely as they ran through the underground. They moved as fast as they could, even in what now felt like a cramped and confined space, speeding down open roads and leaving impact craters on walls as they bounced off of them when they changed direction too slowly. Occasionally he'd provide a shield for Undyne to step off of to facilitate a shortcut, but he focused on another task:

He could remember dialogue, game mechanics, cutscenes, and most importantly: attack patterns. There were six different special attack patterns to worry about on top of his outright terrifying standard attacks, each one fueled by a different human soul. There was, of course, going to be a major difference in translating it from pixels on a screen to a real-life assault.

He was only passively paying attention to the outside world, but he felt a growing sense of trepidation as they passed through Waterfall. He couldn't help but pause when they passed by the point where they had both died together. Undyne barely registered it, still focused entirely on getting to Flowey as fast as possible. As he shared her eyes for a moment, however, one detail jumped out at him, making his blood run cold.

He cringed as Undyne's voice cut him off, roaring with a rage that he definitely did NOT want directed in his direction by distracting her.

He turned his attention back to the work of remembering everything he could about Flowey, but the question HE thought was important never left the back of his mind.

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She was stronger than this. When she was angry, she'd practically turned into a walking forest fire, and now she couldn't so much as muster a few sparks to burn through the vines holding her in place? It was ridiculous!

"Come on... get determined! Get mad!" she whispered to herself. "Think, Sunset... what triggered it before? If you want to reproduce the results, recreate the experiment..."

It wasn't hard to think of the moment it had begun. She had been right here, in the DT extractor, thinking about her friends and how much she cared about them. She'd been thinking about Missy and how much she wanted to save her, about Isis's careful care as she watched out for them, about Penn fighting to keep them safe-

The memory came crashing down on her like a ton of bricks: the moment she'd surrendered control to her emotions and unlocked what felt like her full potential.

That smile on Frisk's face. The moment all her worst fears had become real, staring at Penn's lifeless body. She'd wanted revenge, to make them pay, as if that would somehow balance the scales and return what she'd lost.

But now, looking back, her anger paled in comparison to the colossal sadness she felt.

She hadn't wanted to believe it. Then, she'd wanted revenge, as if evening some imaginary score. She'd tried finding solace in his soul's presence in Undyne, but it had felt hollow when she couldn't even talk to him directly.

Denial, anger, bargaining... She felt her spirits fall as she realized the source of her earlier strength. The five stages of grief. This world's magic responded to my emotions, and they fed back into each other in a loop...

"So what am I supposed to do?" she whispered. "It's not like I can just shift through the stages of grief like a car shifts gears..."

She looked up at the image of her soul, which had been casting a red glow over the interior of the extractor. The fiery aura had long ago been snuffed out as its strength was sucked away by the extractor. It looked so much smaller now, feebly beating once every few seconds with a pulse of brighter light.

"Awww, what's the matter? Running out of determination ALREADY? And here I thought you were SOOOO strong! Why not just give up and hand over that soul of yours, already, so I can become GOD?"

Sunset WAS able to muster up some ire for that voice. It was shrieking, grating, and had teased her relentlessly ever since he'd taken her captive.

"Not a chance..." she muttered, pulling at her bindings again. "When I get out of here, you're going to wish you'd never tricked me, you little-"

Sunset's eyes widened and she gasped as she came to a realization. She was mad. At Flowey.

"You know WHY I'm not going to give up?" She muttered, rolling from side to side in an attempt to loosen her bonds. "Because you didn't just trick me... You used me. You came to me when I was hurting, when I was upset, and you took advantage of it!" She smiled as she felt a pulse of heat wash through the interior. The light from her soul was growing brighter. "You used my grief, my FRIENDS, against me! And you think I'm just going to sit here... and let you get AWAY WITH IT?" She watched her soul shudder and grow in size, sending a shower of embers down onto the vines holding her. The red specks hissed and bore into the plants, leaving them riddled with holes and smoldering. Her grunts of effort grew into a roar as she pushed her muscles to their limit. This time, she felt the plant matter give way, shredding under the pressure until she was free.

With her arms free, she didn't hesitate to rip away the vines holding her legs in place before turning her attention to the doors of the extractor. She braced herself against the back of the machine and kicked with all of her strength. The doors only slightly budged, parting just enough to let her see even more plants tied around the outside holding it shut.

"Let's see how you like a little wildfire..." she muttered. She closed her eyes, focusing on remembering what Weiss had taught her about channeling her feelings into her weapon. While it was true that she didn't have her saber...

"HI-YAH!" She shouted. She grinned as she watched her fist tear through the metal door, leaving the edges of the metal glowing and searing the vines on the outside.

She saw Flowey's counterattack before she felt it. The light inside of the chamber turned bright green, coating everything in an emerald glow. Before she could turn to look for the source, an overwhelming sensation covered her entire body. Every single muscle that she had in her body had locked in place. It was like the sensation between a limb falling asleep and entering the pins-and-needles stage, that brief period where everything felt like it had been wound too tight, and any movement would cause an unbearable ache to travel through her whole body.

A second later, the light shifted to deep blue, and Sunset was flung onto the back of the machine by a crushing gravity. She couldn't move or even speak, barely being able to breathe from the effort it took to make her chest rise and fall.

Sunset strained harder and harder, managing to pull her head up a fraction of an inch before it slammed back down.

"Don't... mock... my... friends..." she growled, barely able to speak through her gritted teeth. The weight of her own body was crushing her, making it harder and harder to breathe. She could feel her head spinning as the room grew darker... though she couldn't tell whether or not the light was growing dimmer or she was just blacking out.

"Did you REALLY think you could beat ME? Even a soul as strong as yours isn't enough to beat the SIX that I have under my control!"

I... can't give up! Even if it's just to stay alive in here... I have to keep fighting! Sunset thought. She could feel her mind slowing down as she hovered on the brink of unconsciousness. My friends... are still out there...

You called for help...

But nobody came.

Missy... She knows... She'll tell someone... Isis is in my pocket... She has to know...

You called for help...

But nobody came.

Deep in her mind, Sunset felt one last plea rising to the surface, a wish she didn't want to make. It was selfish to ask and impossible to come true, but in her fading lucidity, she made it regardless.

You called for help...

There was an earth-shattering crack, and the entire pod was thrown violently to the side, knocking Sunset against the walls and cutting off whatever blue spell Flowey had been using. She gasped for air as the crushing force was released, drinking in huge gulps of oxygen to pull herself back from the brink of unconsciousness. When she felt like she'd managed to pull herself back from the brink, she finally noticed a fresh intrusion on her prison.

It was a glowing spearhead, having stabbed through the centerpoint of the doors.

Your call was answered!

The spear tilted, then nudged, and finally began to spin rapidly, slicing through the bindings on the doors like a buzzsaw. With nothing holding them shut, the doors swung open on their own, finally revealing where she was: back at the beginning. She was in the same cavern they had entered the underground through, at least six stories above the ground. Far down below her, she could see Undyne catching the spear as it returned to her, glaring up at Flowey with two differently-colored glowing eyes: one green to match her magic, and one violet to match Penn's soul.

"HEY! DIDN'T ANYONE EVER TELL YOU NOT TO TAKE THINGS THAT DON'T BELONG TO YOU?" she called, placing her free hand on her hip.

Sunset hadn't managed to get a good look at what kind of form Flowey had taken given that she was currently inside it, but judging by the mess of tubes, vines, eyes, and teeth that were lining the walls of the cavern and the two gigantic green limbs, she was certain that it was some kind of otherworldly creature multiple stories tall... and Undyne seemed completely unafraid, still wearing a huge, toothy grin.

"Well, well, well! If it isn't the fishy FREAKSHOW! Guess I should have known better than to think you'd stay dead!"

Undyne didn't seem perturbed by Flowey's teasing, turning her attention to Sunset. Her purple eye flashed brighter for a moment, and an identically-colored shield appeared underneath her.

Sunset nodded, not giving herself a chance to think about the height before leaping into the air, aiming to land on the floating surface. Just as she was about to land safely, however, a sharp jerk pulled on her waist. Her body nearly folded in half as she was violently yanked back into her place in the extractor by a fast-moving vine.

Do you REALLY think you two can beat ME? It would be sad if it wasn't so HILARIOUS! Now... this time, I'm going to make sure you STAY dead!"

Penndyne the Unyielding

ATK: 500 DEF: 1000

Kindness, perseverance, and determination make The Selfless Hero.

It's no use to Reason with them.

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"Oh, Missy, if you can't fire a giant laser beam, you're no use in a fight! Go find your older sister!" Missy huffed. "It's not like she's on another plane of existence, or something!" She glanced down at Jiangshi, who simply shrugged in return. They had been walking together for a while, now, not bothering to hurry while they followed the trail Undyne had stamped into the rock and dirt. She couldn't ask for a better listener than Jiangshi, though their responses to things tended to be a bit... stiff. For all of her huffing and pouting, she really wasn't sure what she could do against a gigantic monster like what Flowey had turned into, but that didn't make being left behind any less offensive. "We're both duel spirits, so they just assume I have some kind of express line to her!" She placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest. "I'm an ace monster of my own archetype! I can handle myself!"

She swooped down to ground level, hovering just low enough to kick at the nearby water and send a wide arc splashing into the air.

Missy spun around, pointing an accusatory finger at the echo flowers that were littered around Waterfall, all merrily repeating her words back at her. "CUT IT OUT!"

She narrowed her eyes, turning her glare up a notch in her best impression of her sister before a smirk crept up onto her face.

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"Alright, Flowey, let's do this! NYYYGAAAAAAH!" Undyne roared as she leapt into the air.

Sunset could only watch as Undyne raised her hand up, calling up an army of glowing spears, enough to fill the entire cavern. She mimed the act of throwing one with her hand, and the entire mass of weapons shot forward. Some spun like buzzsaws and drills, ripping and tearing apart the plant matter on the walls, while others simply stabbed directly into Flowey's main body, smoldering and hissing as the offensive magic burned away at him. Sunset could feel the shuddering as Flowey's massive body was rocked by the impact of her attack, and she couldn't help but smile.

In a move that even surprised her, Sunset watched Undyne come to a landing on one of the shields, quickly finding her balance and taking to the air while riding it. Three more of the purple shields appeared, orbiting her in a protective wall as she began to close the vertical gap between them.

Vines shot out from every angle, bursting through every wall with sharpened thorns at their tips. Some crashed and slammed into Undyne's shields, while others were mulched by more of the spears, now on the defensive. Still, Sunset saw a few of them slip through the cracks, slicing and scratching into Undyne's body. She didn't seem fazed, giving up nothing more than a flinch and a grunt in response. The vines that had hit the shields began to grow and writhe, tangling up in one another until they'd formed a sphere of thorns. After a second, Sunset watched them beginning to coil tighter and tighter, pushing further and further inward.

The sheer volume of Flowey's voice shook the room, making Sunset's ears ring with pain. Still, she was able to hear the sound of tearing metal and Undyne's taunting voice as she dove past riding another shield. Sunset could also make out a glowing yellow shape in her hand.

"If you want to catch me, you're going to have to try a lot harder than THAT!"

Flowey growled as the thorn sphere unwound itself, revealing that it was simply crushing the empty trio of shields, which finally faded away now that their work was done.

Flowey's massive clawed arms spread wide, summoning an array of strange-looking nozzles crafted from orange magic. Undyne barely had a chance to throw up fresh shields before they began to spew torrents of crimson flame into the air, completely engulfing her in a blazing fireball. Sunset could feel the draining pull on her own soul, horrified as she realized that Flowey was using her determination as a battery to propel the inferno to new heights of destructive power. From somewhere above her, Sunset watched a storm of four-pointed projectiles rain down into the fire, several of them exploding and crackling as they seemed to strike their target. They only continued to come faster and faster as Flowey cackled wildly.

With one final wave, a flaming object dropped lifelessly from the air and slammed into the ground below. When the dust cleared, Sunset could see that it was indeed Undyne, panting desperately for breath as she laid there. The glow in her eyes was dim as fresh roots sprung up all around her, each with their pointed tips pointed directly at her heart.

The vines all struck together, and Sunset couldn't force herself to look away even as she unconsciously screamed out to them. "PLEASE, UNDYNE, GET UP!"

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Come on... That can't be all the fight I've got in me... Undyne thought, even as she laid gasping for air on the ground. She felt exhausted, shriveled in the heat and parched with thirst. It felt like every inch of her skin was ready to crack and shatter, like a dried-out sheet of leather.

"I'd hoped he wouldn't figure out our weakness THAT fast..." Penn added as they watched Flowey's tendrils rising up all around them. "And using Sunset's determination was just fighting dirty..."

Undyne could feel the yellow human soul pulsing in her hand. Penn had put a small barrier around it to stop her from absorbing it into her body alongside his, but it was still brimming with power that was pouring into her arm, making it tingle. She could feel what it wanted, the wish it was begging her to fulfill: Justice.

She could hear Sunset begging her to get up, her desperate cry echoing and reverberating off of the walls.

"Hey, what if we- She could sense that Penn had an idea, but if she waited for him to explain it to her, they'd never be ready before Flowey had ripped out her heart.

So, for the first time, Undyne purposefully let go. She chose to trust completely, giving herself over and letting go of the reigns.

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When Flowey struck, the sheer force of the blow sent up a cloud of smoke and dust. As total silence fell, Sunset watched with baited breath.

There was Undyne, still alive and already back up on her feet. She had raised one arm, catching all of the vines in one fist. Her eyes turned upwards, and Sunset felt a chill run down her spine.

Both of her eyes were practically on fire with purple light as she glared upwards. This wasn't just any glare, either... It was Penn's glare. It was the same glare he'd given before completely destroying Joshua hard enough to kill him twice over. It was the same glare that Sunset had felt directed at her when she and Missy had stumbled their way into his trapped entryway, and when he'd seen what had happened to the Angel of Mischief here in the Underground. It was the same unspoken promise of punishment that sent anyone with half a rational mind running. Even on another person's face, she could recognize the cold fury behind it.

Flowey didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence before the counterattack. A yellow spear appeared over Undyne's- Penn's shoulder, radiating bright enough to rival the sun. With hardly so much as a gesture from Penn, the spear took off like a bolt of lightning. At first, it was traveling straight towards the wall, only to stop and suddenly change directions. It repeated this what felt like dozens of times in less than a second, leaving behind a crackling trail of energy behind it. It was moving so fast, Sunset didn't even have time to flinch when it made a beeline for her.

Just before it pierced her heart, the bolt changed directions again, dashing down one of the hoses of the extractor. She could hear the sound of a collision, followed by the afterimage of the projectile moving past her nose again, into another area of the inner machinery. It continued the pattern, repeating the motions faster and faster until it seemed like one continuous attack weaving a web around her every time it completed a circuit through the machine. Far, far below, Sunset could see Penn directing it with a simple movement of Undyne's finger. From her left, Sunset could hear the sound of something shattering, and the web lost a line as that point was dropped from the circuit. She gripped tighter as understanding dawned on her.

Flowey's body rocked unsteadily and began to slip lower back into the cave as another soul shattered.

Penn didn't seem to hear him, their eyes narrowing as the lightning-fast attack grew even more furious, tearing apart the inside of the machine to expose the souls directly. The next one to shatter was the green, leaving Flowey with only the purple and cyan souls. The attack bounced back and forth between them like a pinball, mercilessly hammering away. Sunset could already see the cyan soul beginning to crack.

FILE 3 LOADED

"Alright, Flowey, let's do this! NYYYGAAAAAAH!" Undyne roared as she leapt into the air.

Sunset blinked, her entire mind suddenly feeling jolted and disconnected from reality.

The DT extractor was still almost completely intact, aside from the torn-open doors. Undyne was spotless and fresh, starting her offensive again from the beginning. She desperately looked to the tubes of the machine, hoping that she was wrong.

The colored light making its way to her from the other areas made it clear that all of the human souls were present and accounted for.

As the battle repeated itself outside, a vine near her separated from the wall, sprouting a fresh flower with a face.

"Oh, I know what you're thinking!" It transformed into her own face, blinking her eyes at her in a pleading motion. "HOW is he alive? What's with the déjà vu?" The flower floated in closer, changing back to Flowey's usual face and jeering grin. "As long as I have enough determination, I can save and reload this world as much as I please! And guess what you're giving me PLENTY of?" He licked his lips. "Oh, it's going to be delicious sucking your soul dry!"

Sunset fell back, unable to believe it. She watched as Undyne fell into the same trap, but this time, Flowey followed up the flamethrowers with a punch from his giant paw, completely crushing Undyne into dust.

FILE 3 LOADED

"How do you like being on the OTHER side of the resets?" Flowey whispered in her ear.

This began a cavalcade of resets as Sunset was forced to watch the battle play out over and over again. Sometimes it ended in seconds, with Flowey easily swatting Undyne out of the air like a fly. Other times, Undyne would almost begin to get the upper hand, only for another reset to crush any hopes Sunset had begun to have.

Undyne was thrown into a massive flytrap, unable to escape as the acid inside reduced her to a vaguely blue-tinged pile of goo.

Undyne was thrown into a giant green-tinged frying pan, Flowey's magic frying her alive.

Undyne was blown to smithereens by a hail of bombs with Flowey's face printed on the casing.

Undyne was completely disintegrated in some kind of gigantic laser that fired from just below the extractor.

Soon, Flowey was repeating himself, cackling madly as he seemed to repeat his favorites of the many killing methods at his disposal over and over. Every time, Sunset watched it until she could no longer bear it and covered her eyes. That didn't stop the sound she dreaded most from always reaching her ears: the shattering of a human soul, confirming that both Undyne and Penn had truly died and making it impossible to ever bring them back.

As it repeated itself over and over, Sunset gripped at her head tighter and tighter until the pain became unbearable.

There was one more sound of a soul shattering, and then silence fell. Sunset hesitantly cracked one eye open, finding the flower once again staring at her with a wicked, twisted smile.

Sunset looked down as the hopelessness of her situation set in. They couldn't win. Without her friends, there was no beating Flowey. No rainbow lasers, no last-minute rescues... they were locked right here, at this point in time, any time Flowey so much as suspected he was starting to lose. The best she could do was try to save the ones she cared about, no matter what it meant for her.

FILE 3 LOADED

This time, Flowey didn't go on the offensive, simply doing his best to block Undyne's initial attack with his oversized arms. Undyne landed on the shield, instantly beginning to fly up towards Sunset.

She reached out, pulling the doors to the extractor shut. When Undyne reached her, she already had a spear ready to pry it open again.

Undyne did hesitate, heeding her warning for a second to make a check for a trap from Flowey. When she realized she was safe, she continued, closing the distance to the extractor in a single jump. The doors, being unlocked, opened easily to her, and she offered a webbed hand to Sunset.

Sunset wanted to go. More than anything, she wanted to leap into their arms and run away from here, but... she knew she wouldn't get more than a single foot out of the extractor before Flowey had reset again.

"Just... just go, Undyne. Get out of here..." Sunset muttered. She grabbed hold of one of the vines and squeezed, driving one of the thorns into her palm to distract herself from the emotional pain of those words. "You can't save me from this."

"I SAID 'GO!'" Sunset lashed out, driving her fist into Undyne's cheek in a right hook that left her hand stinging like crazy. "I DON'T WANT YOU TO SAVE ME THIS TIME! JUST RUN AWAY BEFORE FLOWEY KILLS YOU!"

Sunset shoved Undyne with both hands, pushing her off of the extractor and sending her falling through the air. Her floating shield flew over to catch her, but it put plenty of distance between them.

Sunset only saw the look of hurt and betrayal on Undyne's face for a second before the doors slammed shut again, which she was honestly grateful for. She couldn't see outside, but the lack of any sounds of battle made it clear that her message had been received: she didn't want their help.

Now that they couldn't see her, Sunset let herself cry. Giving up on rescue, pushing away her friend for their own sake... it was one of the hardest things she'd ever done. Every problem she'd ever encountered had been solved by working together with her friends, and forcing them away went against everything she knew.

"Of course... I need SEVEN human souls to become a god. Six souls and a lot of determination is nice, but..."

Sunset froze as she heard what sounded like something extremely heavy hitting the stone wall, and a strained gurgle in Undyne's voice.

"NO!" Sunset's cry was lost in the uproarous laughter of Flowey's numerous faces and mouths all across the surface of the cave. Everything around her began to shake and rattle as she watched another soul float into the capsule with her: this one was purple, but with an inverted white heart inside of it. She reached out, snatching it and holding it tight as she wept, and the shaking of the world escalated. Sunset was thrown around violently in the chamber, cutting herself on thorny vines and torn metal, but she refused to let go of her grip on Penn's soul. She felt her head strike something hard, and then the world went white.

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Asriel rushed over to the fallen human, inspecting them for injury. It looked as they had fallen into the mountain from above. It was a long drop, and if it weren't for the spells his parents had put to redirect the rain, they almost certainly would have perished.

As it was, they seemed to have manage to land with only a few bumps and scratches, and were already sitting up and staring wide-eyed at their surroundings by the time Asriel reached them.

The two of them stared at one another, human and monster meeting for the first time in ages. Asriel had heard stories before of humans and the bloody war that had driven monsterkind into the mountain, but... this human didn't seem like that. They were a kid, just like him, and they were hurt and scared. Asriel raised one hand in a friendly wave, trying to calm their fears as he kept a small distance between them.

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"Haha! Come on, Chara! You'll never catch me like that!" Asriel laughed as they chased each other in circles around the tree in front of their home. Every time Chara would run in one direction, he would respond by running in the other. They were locked in a stalemate, keeping perfectly in equilibrium with each other.

Chara seemed to assess the situation, then smiled that odd smile of theirs that signaled they'd had an idea. They slowly walked straight to the trunk of the tree, and Asriel walked away at the same rate. Chara smiled, then swung their fist into the tree, sending a shiver all the way up the trunk. With a heavy, dry-sounding rustle, the world went red as a heavy rain of red leaves fell all around them. Asriel tried to push away the ones in front of his eyes, but by that time Chara was already practically on top of him, pressing their hand to his chest.

Chara seemed to have miscalculated, though, as they careened together onto the ground, giggling and laughing in a heap as the leaves continued to fall.

"Asriel! Chara! It is time for dinner!" Asgore called from the doorway to the house. "Your mother has made her special butterscotch pie for dessert!"

Asriel and Chara both looked at one another, eyes wide with anticipation as they confirmed with a glance that their ears weren't deceiving them. The two of them practically ran over each other to be the first ones back into the house, but they both calmed the instant that they passed through the doorway. Their mother wouldn't tolerate roughhousing anywhere but outside or in their room, after all.

And somehow, even though their father was the King of Monsters, Toriel managed to be the more frightening one when she was angry.

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The two siblings sat together outside of their Father's door. It was a tradition their parents didn't know about, a secret just between the two of them. They would sit there and listen when their parents talked about the kingdom. Sometimes they were boring talks about the infrastructure of their world under the mountain, or the allocation of resources between the different areas. Other times, it was exciting things, like territory disputes or cave-dwelling creatures that threatened the monsters' safety. It was a rare treat when Doctor ______ would come, talking about the core or his experiments. It usually involved a lot of big words he couldn't understand, but he didn't feel bad. After all, his dad couldn't understand them, either, and the doctor would always sigh and explain it in a way they could understand.

Tonight, however, wasn't one of those nights. Tonight, the king and queen were talking about a matter that came up a lot: hope.

"Do not 'Tori' me! They are children, OUR children! I will not let you turn them into figureheads!"

"Toriel, whether or not we encourage it, all of the kingdom is proclaiming them the hope of monsterkind. A human and a monster, living as equals, with no hostility? How could that NOT give them hope for when we return to the surface?"

"Of course not. Doctor ______ is still working on a way to bring down the barrier without human souls. But progress is slow, and our subjects need hope to sustain them until then. If we lean into the image, we can control it..." Asgore paused. "Toriel, some monsters are even whispering that Chara may be the angel of the prophecy. If we do not take measures, would you prefer THAT rumor grow?"

"...do what you will, Asgore. Clearly, I cannot stop you." The two of them each rushed to their preferred hiding spot when they heard their mother's footsteps approaching the door. If she noticed them, she didn't show it, storming to her room and slamming the door.

The two of them each stepped back out, and Asriel shook his head. "I- I think we should head to bed, Chara..."

Chara was deep in thought, barely humming to acknowledge Asriel's statement. They stayed that way as they snuck back to their room. Asriel laid for a while, trying to wrap his head around what his parents were arguing about. Finally, he couldn't keep the question contained any longer, rolling over to look at their sibling.

"Never gets less funny, either." Chara smirked, peeking open one eye to look at him before propping themselves up on one elbow. "What is it?"

"Well, it's about what Mom and Dad were saying earlier... About us giving people hope. Why would that be a bad thing?Isn't giving people hope good?"

Chara paused, returning to that pondering look for a few seconds. "Maybe... Maybe Mom doesn't want to go back to the surface?"

"What?" Asriel laughed, though less out of humor and more out of the sheer absurdity of the statement.

"Well, most humans aren't that great." Chara laid back down to stare at the ceiling, and Asriel did the same. "Maybe Mom knows it's better down here, without them?"

"But the surface has so many cool things, you told me, yourself! Airplanes and stars and oceans and orchards!" He let out a dreamy sigh as he settled more into his pillow. "Even if the other humans aren't like you, aren't those things worth living on the surface for?"

Chara stayed quiet for a while, and Asriel had to glance over to see if they'd fallen asleep. They were still awake, but they had that smile again, the one that sent shivers down his spine (usually because it preceded them getting in trouble).

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"THE BUTTERCUPS! IT WAS THE BUTTERCUPS!" Asriel wanted to scream the source of Chara's mysterious "illness" to the doctors.

But he'd promised. He'd sworn up and down to Chara that he wouldn't tell, even as they'd shoveled the poisonous flowers into their mouth.

"I don't like this plan any more, Chara..." Asriel whispered, reaching out and taking hold of their hand. "P-Please, wake up... I won't tell Mom and Dad that it was your idea!" He sniffled as the sight of Chara's motionless body refused to change, no matter how much he wished it would. "W-We can say it was mine! I just-" he buried his face in the bedsheets and shook his head. "I don't want you to die, any more!"

He didn't leave that spot, even when he'd cried more tears than he thought his body had in it. All he could do was sob and keep mumbling pleas to Chara to wake up for hours on end. He was such a crybaby.

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"NO!" Asriel forced back their hand, stopping Chara's attack. Sharing a body wasn't THAT strange, they'd always shared everything else. "Chara, I don't want to do this!"

"We NEED seven souls to break the barrier, don't we?" Chara shot back. "Besides, this is self-defense!"

"STOP THAT MONSTER!" one of the humans from the village shouted, refusing to let Asriel run away unnoticed. The mob was hot on his trail. If he fought, Chara would kill them, he could feel it, and he didn't want any more blood on their hands. "IT GOT OUT AND KILLED THAT KID!"

Asriel wanted to explain, to tell them that Chara had just wanted their body to be buried by their favorite flowers... But they refused to listen. The only place left to go was back to the mountain...

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Asriel was dying. The wounds were too much, even for a human-monster hybrid. They'd managed to reach the top of the mountain and fall through back into the underground, but it was too late. Still, he did have one last thing he could do.

"This is your fault..." Asriel could feel Chara's disappointment and disapproval of his pacifism. "Why couldn't you just let me PROTECT us? Protect YOU? Like a good sibling should..."

"I-I'm sorry, Chara..." He wept as he used his paws to pull away a section of the earth, gingerly placing the golden flower in the hole. This spot had sunlight, rain, even fresh air. It would be perfect.

Asriel sunk to the ground, unable to speak another word as he watched his parents rush in, catching him in his last moments. With one last sigh, his body dissolved away on top of the flower, and their joint soul shattered to pieces.

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Sunset gasped as she returned to the present... or, at least, what she thought was the present.

She was standing in a black void, feeling a cold breeze blow across her face. Far off in the distance, she could see a few colored specks of light, but they were barely more than pinpricks so far away.

There was Penn, the REAL Penn, standing right in front of her. Undyne was just behind him, giving her a tired-looking smile. "What's a girl like you doing in a place like THIS?"

Sunset rushed forward, wrapping her arms around Penn and refusing to let go. They stayed like that for a while. He was warm, pushing away the chill of the breeze as he wrapped her up in his arms. She almost collapsed, feeling herself finally let down her guard for the first time since Missy had disappeared. The one thing Penn's hug always gave her was the thing she needed most. She was safe. Sunset pressed her face against his shoulder, wiping away the first round of tears.

"Oh, I knew that no matter what happened, you'd be fine. If anything, I'm the one holding YOU back out there for the sake of caution..." Penn nodded, giving her back a reassuring pat. "You know what this is, right?"

"HA!" That managed to get a laugh out of Undyne. "If you died, you'd know it! Take it from someone who's done it before!"

"This is... Well, I'd hardly call it a dreamscape, but..." Penn shrugged. "It's somewhere inside Flowey."

Sunset paused, letting go just enough to poke her head up and look around at the complete emptiness. "But... What about-" She paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase her question. "Does that mean the memories I saw... were Flowey's?"

Penn and Undyne glanced at each other, and Sunset felt him push her away to finally break off the hug. He rubbed his hands together, which glowed brighter and brighter until they produced a spark. When it touched the ground, the spark blossomed into a softly crackling campfire, and Penn and Undyne each sat down beside it cross-legged (Undyne keeping several inches further from the fire than Penn). Sunset complied when Penn motioned for her to do the same, sitting down beside him and on the opposite side from Undyne. She knew what this meant: It was time for a campfire story.

"After Asriel and Chara died... Many, many monsters lost what little hope they had. To save them from despair, Asgore made himself the center of their attention, declaring war on humans and proclaiming that he would kill any others that entered the underground. Toriel left the throne, staying in the ruins after Asgore moved to New Home, where she would care for any children who fell into the underground like Chara..." Penn reached behind his back, producing a trio of roasting sticks with marshmallows already pre-speared. Undyne stared at hers for a second before it turned into a miniature version of one of her spears.

"When the previous royal scientist..." Penn cleared his throat. "👎✋💧✌🏱🏱☜✌☼☜👎... Alphys took over and-"

Undyne seemed equally confused, leaning forward to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Dude, how did you do that with your mouth?"

"You said he...blarggharabl..." Sunset tried her best to imitate the strange noise that had come from him.

"I said he disappeared." Penn reached out, feeling her forehead. "You doing okay, Sunny?"

"Penn said..." Sunset tried to grasp her train of thought, but it didn't seem to want to get back on the rails. She made a few feeble attempts to remember what they'd interrupted the story for, but for the life of her she couldn't tell. "Uh... never mind..."

Penn and Undyne both shrugged, going back to roasting their marshmallows. "Over the years, Alphys experimented with determination, including extracting it in a physical form, which she called DT. She used the DT on a flower, something that's naturally soulless... Somehow, some of Asriel's essence had stayed with the flower, and even without his SOUL there... the flowers in what eventually became the Royal Garden managed to hold on to it. When Alphys injected the DT, it created Flowey, a soulless creature with Asriel's memories and essence. Without a soul, he lacked the ability to feel any love or joy, a sociopath."

"And since he had the most DT around, that sociopath could save and reset," Undyne added, eating her marshmallow straight off of the stick. "Nobody remembered it, but he must have done it hundreds of times, either looking for a way to get his old life back or, eventually, just keeping himself entertained..." she examined the cleaned mini-spear, then began to use it at a toothpick.

"It still leaves a few questions, of course..." Penn muttered, examining his marshmallow more closely. "But that's the bulk of it."

"But... what happened to Chara?" Sunset asked. Looking at her marshmallow, she realized that as it oozed and melted, it was kind of shaped like Marshmallon.

Penn shrugged. "Couldn't say for sure, but... I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little of their essence laying around, too..."

"It's so awful what happened..." she whispered, finally pulling her marshmallow off of the stick and popping it in her mouth. It was strangely softer than most marshmallows, and almost sickeningly sweet. She guessed that it might have something to do with this being a "dreamscape," as Penn had called it. "They were just kids..."

The fire was already starting to lose steam, settling down into smoldering embers and tiny wisps of flame.

"Flowey, or should I say Asriel, is going to use the seven human souls to wipe out everything. The whole timeline. Start from scratch..." He sighed. "Normally, Frisk would stop him, but..."

Penn and Undyne glanced at each other, then turned so they were sitting back-to-back.

Undyne grinned as she leaned her head back enough to look at Sunset and wink. "Man, if only there was some determined soul out there willing to fight for all her new friends!"

"EVERYONE! He doesn't call himself the 'Supreme God of Hyperdeath' for nothing!"

Sunset folded her arms. "Okay, I get it, you want me to fight him. But how am I supposed to beat a GOD?"

"I dunno... throw a calculator, a dragon, and a ghoul at him?" Penn shrugged nonchalantly, closing his eyes as if he was going to take a nap leaning on Undyne.

"THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" Sunset jumped to her feet and stamped her foot. "If he's going to wipe out everyone, then that means all the monsters YOU TWO died saving, Missy, Isis, the rest of my friends, wherever THEY are, and Asriel STILL doesn't deserve any of this! I don't WANT to fight him, even if I could! He's just a hurt kid!"

"I think she's Sunset Shimmer. She was born ready." Penn chuckled to himself. "She's going to do just fine on her own."

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Sunset was woken up by the urgent shaking of her shoulder and Missy's voice calling her name.

The entire world as she knew it was GONE. Instead, she was surrounded by a plane of shifting neon colors, all bright enough to hurt her eyes for a few seconds until she'd become accustomed to it.

Sunset looked up, shocked to find herself face-to-face with Asriel, now looking more like a young adult and wearing a set of regal-looking robes. His horns had grown out, curling back and over his head, and dark tattoo-like marks marked his cheeks. Even just looking at him, Sunset could feel a tsunami of magical power threatening to wash her away. He was floating in the air, arms spread wide as he basked in his newfound power.

ASRIEL DREEMURR

ATK: ∞ DEF: ∞

Legendary figure of the underground. Wields seven souls.

Sunset couldn't do anything but stare at him as he floated there for several seconds, but eventually she found her sense and began to push upwards. She could feel that her body was weak, making it clear that the earlier drain from the extractor and her rough handing inside it hadn't been a dream.

She felt her spirit beginning to waver as she felt herself staring into the infinite. She couldn't understand what she was supposed to do in the face of this.

This monster was heartless. He'd tortured her, killed her friends over and over, and locked her in a box to literally drain her soul for power. It was HIS fault that all of this had happened, in the end. He'd been the one to pull Missy down into the mountain.

She wanted to scream at him, yell and pound her fists into his face over and over until the rage and despair had been spent. She wanted to make him regret everything he'd done, even when he had already won and gotten everything he wanted. She could feel her earlier rage beginning to bubble back up, pushing heat and strength back into her limbs.

"I don't want you to die, any more!" She heard Asriel's voice sobbing in her mind. She had seen what had made this child into the monster standing before her. He was a child, one who was the product of awful circumstances. In the face of fading hope and growing fear, he had just tried to do what was right. Who he was now was the direct result of that choice, a choice he had made while ignorant to the consequences echoing across time and beyond the bounds of life and death.

And as quickly as it had come, Sunset's rage petered out, leaving her once again feeling weak and empty.

She'd let rage drive her before, and this was where it had brought her. She had refused to forgive Celestia and herself for what had happened, and it had almost broken her relationship with her mentor for good. She had let herself give in to rage when Penn had died, and she'd nearly destroyed the only chance she had at speaking to him one last time.

And now Asriel was letting himself make the same destructive mistakes she once had, when she'd also stolen something that didn't belong to her and ran away through a mirror. She'd also done everything she could to gain power and claim something she'd thought was stolen from her.

And that was when she felt it. The spark of an idea. She didn't like it, and for a second she almost dismissed it entirely, but the longer she thought about it, the more she realized that it was the only way she'd ever moved forward. Now she was on the other end of it, looking at someone threatening to make the same mistakes... who needed to be led to the same solution.

Asriel grinned, looking at her with a curious glance. "And just who do you think I am?

"You're a child... who had the weight of the world on your shoulders." Sunset looked down at Missy, who had floated under her arm for support. She was looking fearfully back at Asriel, but a quick glance up at Sunset seemed to reassure her, and they began to walk forward. Even from the first step, Sunset felt a surge of power flow into her as she ponied up, and it only grew from there. "The hopes and dreams of the entire underground felt like they were on your shoulders... Or at least, they ought to have been."

Asriel's curious expression settled into a displeased one. On the ground in front of her, Sunset saw a box appear with an exclamation point inside. A second later, a bolt of multicolored lightning shot down from the heavens, very nearly obliterating her and leaving a heavy scorch mark where the box had been. Missy yelped in fear, but Sunset didn't flinch. When the attack had finished, she continued walking towards him.

"You are a child who lost someone. Someone precious to you, your best friend. Like a second half you didn't know you were even missing until you met them..." She smiled. "A sibling. A best friend. Someone you shared everything with, for better and for worse."

"Stop RIGHT there!" Asriel held out his hand. Sunset refused, continuing to walk unabated. She watched as two massive stars fell from the sky. When they struck the ground in front of her, both of them exploded into a rain of star-shaped fragments that flew at her.

She didn't have the strength to dodge, even just standing firm in the aura of such power was almost more than she could take.

That was when another figure stepped in front of her. The projectiles simply seemed to bounce off of them, including launching a few back at Asriel. Sunset blinked, no longer sure she could trust her eyes.

When he turned around, Sunset almost wanted to vomit. His skin was pale and tinged green, and he moved stiffly, as if his body were resisting every motion. The worst part, however, was that, where the scorched hole had been burned into his chest, a furious red eye was staring out at her.

"Oh! By the way, I found Big Sis!" Missy chirped, as if that would disperse all of Sunset's fears and questions at once. Sunset swallowed, trying to shake off the image she knew would be haunting her nightmares for the next... well, eternity, probably.

"The fabric of reality here is like mosquito netting. When he died, something punched a nice hole in it, so I came through. I'm just here because I want my partner back..." It was a grudging mumble from someone who clearly didn't want to be there. "Don't think I'm here to save YOU, Shimmer!"

"And who are YOU?" Asriel asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. "How were you not hurt by my attack?"

"Penn" turned back with a smile, waving his hands as if he were standing behind an invisible wall. "Well, considering I'm arguing with a kid, I guess the best explanation would be an everything-proof shield?"

"DON'T MOCK ME!" Asriel screamed, bringing both of his hands together. His next attack seemed to ripple through the very fabric of spacetime, a cannon of rainbow-colored light. Sunset watched as the beam struck Penn's body, only to be ripped into two halves, each one moving in a different direction on either side of them. Missy's sister simply yawned, unamused by the attack.

"As for WHO I am? I'm just another monster looking for her human half... Same as you." She shrugged. "If you gave Penn back to me, I'd happily be on my way."

"R-right, you're not here to save me..." Sunset corrected, receiving an affirmative nod in return.

Sunset sighed, turning her attention back to the goat-god currently threatening all of existence.

"Asriel, you're not the only person to lose someone like that, see?" She held out her hands, motioning to the three of them. "And I KNOW how you feel, like any world rotten enough to let that happen ought to burn to the ground! That kind of outrage, that hate... it can destroy everything, but the first thing that it'll destroy is YOU! If you let it control you-"

"ENOUGH!" Asriel barked, sending a shockwave that almost knocked her over. "NONE OF YOU could understand me! You're nothing but ants squabbling in the dirt in front of me! Unlike you, I CAN destroy this world! I can purge the evil, reduce it all to nothing, all so we can play again from the beginning!"

Sunset could feel her grasp of Asriel's attention slipping. If he went through with his plan, she wouldn't have a way to stop him. "This isn't the way!" She stepped forward again. "Asriel, PLEASE! Just listen to me!"

"Do you know WHY people kept falling into Mt Ebott?" Asriel asked, leaning down to address her at eye level with a grin. "I was looking for someone with enough determination to take over saving and reloading! Someone so determined, they would do ANYTHING to not die! And I found them! From the moment Frisk saved, their fate was sealed! There's no save points on the surface! Not in REAL LIFE! So every time, no matter how far from the underground they found themselves, no matter how long they lived without using the save points ever again, they would only have three options! Reset, load their save, or die! The save points aren't power, they're a TRAP! An infinite loop they were willing to do ANYTHING to get out of, and their own determination wouldn't let them DIE!" He cackled and straightened his posture again. "It wasn't hard from there to get their help clearing out the underground so I could steal the six souls, and I had planned to take THEIR soul, too, at the end!" He waved his hand dismissively. "Maybe the details got a little jumbled when you all showed up, but I went with the flow! Improvised! And now... LOOK AT ME!"

"That's why Frisk went all 'Michael Myers' on the underground..." Missy whispered. "They wanted out of the loop..."

"So tell me, little Sunny, why should I listen to YOU, who fell right into my trap alongside them?"

Sunset stepped forward again moving around Penn's possessed body to address Asriel directly, having nearly closed the gap between them. "Because I got lucky. When I tried to do this, I had a lightsaber and a whole lot of determination, and that didn't make me unstoppable... If you let me, I want to show you what will REALLY bring you to a better ending."

Asriel raised one eyebrow, clearly suspicious, but with nothing to fear, he settled back down at ground level. "Alright, before I DO wipe it all out, what is this amazing wisdom you have that I don't?"

"I forgive you, Asriel Dreemurr. Penn... wouldn't want me to be miserable, and keep looking for ways to get payback, whether he's gone or stuck or anything. For both of our sakes... I forgive you."

"Wha- What is THIS supposed to be? Some feeble attempt to guilt me into changing my ways?" Asriel huffed. "I'm not sorry for killing your friend, and I never asked for your forgiveness!"

"Nope..." Sunset smiled, feeling a fresh peace settle over her. It didn't make the ache of Penn being dead go away, it still felt like a gaping hole in her chest, but... she felt like she could learn to live with it, rather than letting it dictate her emotions. "Whether you want it or not, this is what I need. To keep moving forward."

With the moment passed, Sunset stepped back, wiping away fresh tears. Asriel was staring at her, clearly confused. Sunset pulled together all of the composure that she had left... and smiled at him.

Asriel was still glaring at her, but a change seemed to come over the rest of the world. The colors stopped shifting so rapidly, and the light surrounding them began to dim. His expression began to change, slowly but surely. He shifted from angry to confused, then from confused to angry again. For a moment, he raised his hand as if he were going to attack, but Sunset could see that he was fighting with himself over it. Finally, the anger seemed to break like a fever, and he sunk down from where he was hovering in the air, tears filling his eyes as his head snapped between the three of them, looking for some kind of explanation.

"Wh- What-" he stammered, looking down at his shaking hands. "What is this I'm feeling? What did you DO TO ME?"

"You've been soulless for a long time, Asriel... Now you've got seven of them. Eight, actually, counting Undyne." Sunset shook her head. "You can't just expect that you can go on feeling nothing but hatred and pain, can you?"

Asriel slowly sunk to the ground, falling to his knees with his eyes wide. His hands gripped at his head, clearly having trouble wrapping his head around what was happening. "I- I- I don't understand..."

Sunset carefully lowered herself to one knee, reaching out and putting her hand on his shoulder. "Asriel... The child who couldn't even hurt someone else in self-defense... couldn't stand by and let someone else hurt someone..." Sunset shook her head, "plans to wipe out all humans and monsters? I don't think you're being honest about what you want, Asriel... What you need."

"I'm not." Sunset shook her head. "I told you, I've already forgiven you. I'm letting go so I can move forward. It will take a long time, but it's the only way to be happy after something like this..."

Asriel continued glaring at her for another second before the entire world went white... and then dark. Sunset felt a small figure wrapping their arms around her neck and heard a choking sob in her ear.

"I- I want Chara back! I don't wanna be alone any more! I don't- I don't wanna be a flower! I want to be able to FEEL things again! I want my familiy baaaaaa-hah-hah-hackk!"

Sunset couldn't see Asriel, but she could feel her way well enough to pick him up. She was surprised at how TINY he felt in her arms. He couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old.

"Forgiveness is all well and good, but that DOESN'T get my partner back..." an angry-sounding voice growled in the darkness.

"I- If I give back the souls... I'll just go back to being a flower..." Asriel whimpered between sobs.

Slowly, the darkness lifted, revealing that they were back where the battle had started, standing amidst the flowers that grew beneath the opening in the mountain.

"Well... what do we do, then?" Missy asked quietly. "Those souls deserve peace, too..."

"Well, th-there's this..." Asriel reached into his pocket. "But I don't know if it'll work..."

It was the spell card Flowey had stolen. Now, Sunset could get a better look at it, and her breath caught in her throat.

"That's not- Asriel, honey... That's meant for duel spirits..." Missy whispered, moving to take the card. "We go in and out of the graveyard all the time, it's not such a big deal for us..."

"B-But look!" Asriel pointed to the text. "It says 'Monster!' I'm a- a..." he trailed off as Missy shook her head. For once, there was no smile, no excitement in the little angel's face. Only pity.

Everyone turned to look at the spirit currently inhabiting Penn's decaying body. Missy's jaw hung loose as she flew up to her.

She held up Penn's hands defensively. "Don't get me wrong, we'd be screwing the rules in a MAJOR way, but... We're in a universe where determination lets people time travel, pun-telling skeletons can teleport, duel spirits that get left behind can pilot a dead body, and human souls are considered a measurement of godhood." She gave another passive shrug. "Honestly, this universe is pretty threadbare. Space is warped and time is bendable. With THAT amount of power..." she pointed to Asriel, "we could probably brute-force it."

Everyone looked quietly at one another, each one looking for some kind of validation. Asriel let go of Sunset, squirming until she let go of him.

"O-Okay, then! Let's do it!" He raised the card high over his head. The seven human souls floated out of his body, rising up into the air around him. Sunset felt a tear well up as she saw Penn's soul dancing with the rest, but she simply gave a grateful nod. One by one, the souls vanished and re-appeared on the art of the card.

"M-Monster Reborn!" Asriel repeated, thrusting the card towards the sky for good measure. "Monster... Reborn?" He turned to face the group, his face sullen. "I guess... rules are rules. It didn't work..."

"Well, of course it didn't work." Sis rolled her chest-eye, an act which made Sunset want to go gargle, drink, and bathe in mouthwash to get rid of the image. "You don't have a connection to a duel spirit. The magic can't make the cross without a duel spirit to act as a bridge. If PENN were here, we could do it in a snap..." She turned a glare towards Sunset. "But SOMEBODY left him to die and get fused with a fish!"

"Wait... does that mean Missy and I could do it?" Sunset asked, choosing to ignore the dig at her.

"If you think you've got what it takes to tie the rules into a pretzel, sure." Sis waggled Penn's hand back and forth. "But there could be repercussions..."

Sunset looked down at Asriel, seeing the fear in his eyes. She could already see hints of gold around the tips of his face's fur, and a green tint on his hands.

Asriel's face lit up with joy before handing her the soul-empowered card. Sunset held it for a moment, letting the power sink in. It was sending an electric tingle through her hands and up her arm. She felt Missy's hand on her shoulder, and the two of them looked into one another's eyes for a second.

"Play to the last card?" Sunset asked. Missy smirked, moving down to put her hand on the card alongside Sunset's.

This time, there was definitely a response. The ground began to shake and the wind began to pick up, swirling around the two of them faster and faster. Crackles of multicolored energy burst out of the card, darting along the ground and walls. Sunset could feel a mounting pressure rising in her arm, like a tourniquet being twisted tighter and tighter, and Missy was making it no secret that she was in discomfort, as well.

"It doesn't like what we're doing!" Missy cried, shouting to make herself heard over the growing storm. "It's fighting back!"

Sunset grunted as the pressure mounted higher, and her entire body began to burn. She could see trails of the rainbow magic traveling along her body, burning into her skin like ley lines. "Keep... GOING!" She took a deep breath, pushing back as best she could.

Her whole body felt like it was alternating between electric shocks and being immersed in ice water, and the entire structure of the cave was rattling and threatening to collapse. She watched as Asriel's small form was picked up by the wind, only to be snagged out of the air by Penn's strong hand.

With that emergency handled, Sunset turned her attention back to the card. "I'm not... going to be dictated to..." her chest began to glow with red light as her determination grew stronger, "about what's possible or impossible... BY A PIECE OF PAPER!"

She felt a spike of heat rush through her body, starting in her chest and flowing up into her arm, pushing back the sensation of the overwhelming pressure. She could see a red glow traveling up and into the card, and the souls in the picture began to dance in a furious ballet. The arcs of rainbow electricity began to widen into what looked like gaps in reality, pitch-black tears that smelled vaguely of chamomile.

All of the pressure vanished, the power spikes disappeared, the tears in reality shut, the wind and lightning stopped, and all of their pent-up energy rushed into the card. Sunset just barely caught herself before she crossed the brink into falling unconscious, and Missy dropped straight out of the air, landing firmly on her butt with an indignant squeak. The card shook and rattled violently in Sunset's hands with a life of its own, as if it were trying to escape. Finally, it seemed to inflate like a balloon before tearing itself to shreds and unleashing a tidal wave of power.

The force of the explosion was enough to lift Sunset off of her feet, throwing her up before dropping her onto the flowerbed. She wasn't sure how long the world was spinning after that, but when it had settled, she couldn't believe her eyes.

Not only was Asriel standing there, as real and alive as anyone, but six other human children were scattered around the room, all unconscious, and one more was laying beside her in the flowers, one she recognized.

"You're telling me!" a friendly voice said. Looking up, Sunset felt her heart leap with joy as Undyne looked down at her and offered a helping hand. She was completely unharmed, with her fused soul intact. "I think you guys mighta overdone it a little, and that's coming from the two of US!"

"Undyne!" Sunset gratefully took the helping hand, wrapping her arms tight around the fishy woman. "You're okay!"

"We knew you'd figure it out... Element of Empathy." She grinned and roughly tousled Sunset's hair with her fingers. "Soon as you decided you didn't WANT to fight, this world was as good as saved." She glanced down at Chara, then at the rest of the resurrected humans. "Still, this is something else... Never would have expected this!"

"CHARA!" Asriel cried, rushing over and practically pouncing on top of their sleeping sibling. As Chara began to slowly open their eyes, Asriel was overflowing with joy, laughing and giggling and crying a torrent of happy tears. Finally, he stopped to look up at Sunset before rushing over and grabbing at her legs with all the strength a child could muster. "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!"

"Chara, LOOK!" Asriel shouted, rushing back to their side and helping them to their feet. "The barrier's gone, and we're alive again! Miss Sunset and the angel DID IT!"

Chara looked around, clearly dissatisfied with Asriel's lack of an explanation. When they finally saw her, Chara stepped defensively between Sunset and Asriel, clearly suspicious. Sunset almost laughed at the sight of what looked like a miniature Penn, right down to a death glare that was simultaneously unsettling and adorable coming from such a young kid.

"It's okay... We're not letting anyone else get hurt today," Sunset whispered before giving them a wink and and a smile.

This seemed to do little to assuage Chara's suspicions, but a gleeful hug from behind by an admittedly oblivious Asriel was enough to convince them to back down.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Missy riding on the shoulders of a now-healed and very-much-alive Penn. Even his clothes seemed to have been repaired by the spell, looking as clean and unharmed as he had been when they started this journey.

"I think we did good!" Missy chirped with a grin. Sunset could tell that she was equally exhausted, though, as her wings were hanging limp and she was leaning against Penn's head to stay sitting up. "How's... THAT for an... angel's miracle?" She pumped both fists into the air. "EVERYBODY LIVES!"

Sunset smirked and passed on the hair-tousle she'd recieved from Undyne to Missy. As she looked around, she could see the children all beginning to stir and wake up.

On the other side of the room, Sunset heard a shocked gasp and a poorly-contained cry of shock.

It was Toriel. Both of her hands were clapped over mouth as she stood at the entrance to the ruins.

"MOM!" Chara and Asriel shouted together before sprinting past Sunset. They crossed the open area in record time, each one latching on to Toriel's dress and hugging a different leg.

Each of the children seemed to recognize her and mimicked Chara and Asriel until Toriel was standing in the midst of a small crowd of children. She was still in shock for several seconds before dropping to her knees and wrapping her arms around as many children as she could, starting with Chara and Asriel.

Sunset's eyes widened as she turned back to Missy. "Wait, when you said 'everybody lives...'"

Missy pointed at the heartwarming scene, equally dumbfounded. "It was supposed to be a celebratory hyperbole..."

"Hey! Great use of the term 'hyperbole!'" Penn cheered, reaching up to give Missy a pat on the head.

"Heh, learned it from listening to yooooooooooooo...." Missy froze mid-word, eyes wide. She and Sunset both looked at each other, each one coming to the same realization.

They looked back at Undyne, who most certainly had Penn's soul still beating away in her chest.

They looked back at "Penn," who definitely was no longer possessed by the vengeful spirit of "Big Sis."

Penn blinked and scratched at his head, as if he were confused. "So... can somebody fill me in on what happened, here? Last I remember, I was in Waterfall with Undyne and things weren't looking so good."

Sunset and Missy both looked at each other one more time, both confirming that the other had reached the same conclusion.

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

Hopes and Dreams