Chapter 8

"Did you change your mind, kid?" the familiar creepy voice said making Frisk freeze in terror as he slowly looked up to see Flowey. "I've been getting tired of waiting. Are those two getting in your way? I could get them out of the way if you wanted me to."

Impulsively, Frisk grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at him. Flowey dodged it just in time.

"Woah," he said mockingly. "Look who has more determination than before. Let's look at your health stats. Shall we?"

Flowey pulled Frisk's soul out to look at his health stats and said, "Look at that. Two whole points. For you, that's pitiful, but what did I expect? You did try to drown yourself in the river after all."

Frisk's eyes flashed in fear, an expression that Flowey had missed.

"Yes, I saw that," Flowey said. "And I must admit that was clever. There was no way I could have retrieved your soul from that river. It would have disappeared long before I could have had the chance to grab it. Too bad that didn't work and it's not going to work again. If only those two hadn't got in the way…"

Frisk looked away to hide his tears, but he wasn't very successful.

"Awww!" Flowey said even more mockingly than before. "I know. You just want all the pain to stop. Don't you? You want all the guilt and sadness you feel to vanish into dust, like they did before you worked your magic. You want everyone to have a happy ending, but it's never gonna happen. No, never, no matter how many times you carve your spell."

Frisk looked down at the scars on his arms, and Flowey looked around to make sure that they were in fact alone.

"Good," Flowey said. "It looks like I'll be able to do what I came for after all. Look, boy, I know that you're HP was 1 when they pulled you out of that river. Now, it's at 2. What happened? Come on. You know you can tell your old friend, Flowey. They raised your spirits. Didn't they? Ordinarily, that would make this game more interesting, but yesterday, I was so close to retrieving a soul. You can't imagine how good that felt. When your determination is completely restored, it will be business as usual and I'll have to wait even longer to get what I want. I'm tired of waiting. So, how about we end this game now, just like you wanted?"

"No," Frisk said quietly as he crawled backwards as quickly as he could and tried getting on his feet to run away while Flowey stretched his vines towards him.

He tried screaming, but Flowey wrapped his vines around his hands, feet, and his mouth and pulled him out into the snow.

"Shhh…." Flowey said while Frisk struggled before he electrocuted him into submission. "Stop making so much noise, child. The adults are busy. You wouldn't want to bother them. Would you? Why don't we go somewhere quieter and have some fun?"

Flowey looked around making sure they were still alone and went underground while dragging Frisk in the direction of the river in the shadows on the surface. For Frisk, it was a terrifying ride as he struggled all he could but could not escape his grip until they made it to the river.

"We're here," Flowey sang out surfacing once they had arrived. "Your last destination. Now, this is the ending you deserve. Getting baptized into the service of the god you tried to defy. Yes, this is just perfect."

Flowey picked Frisk up and held him just barely over the surface of the river so that he was staring at his own reflection. Flowey was giddy with excitement.

"I'm feeling generous, kid," Flowey said. "So, about this? If you drown quickly and don't struggle, I'll spare the lives of your skeleton friends. If not, well, their deaths will be the most painful of…AHHHHH!"

Flowey shrieked in surprise and dropped Frisk into the river. He swam upwards to see what had happened. It was Sans. He had picked Flowey up by his soul telekinetically.

"You call yourself a god who deserves to be served, but you get your energy from people without the will to fight back," Sans said to Flowey with one eye glowing in blue while Frisk just managed to grab onto the root of a tree that was sticking out of the bank. "Toriel was right. You're pathetic. You're just a piece of crap who needs to be burned with the rest of the weeds."

"You don't know what you're doing, Sans," Flowey said quickly regaining his composure while hovering in the air. "You know what that boy is capable of. What I'm doing is really for the best. I think you know this as well I do. I know you remember…"

"Frisk, get out of the river!" Sans yelled looking at Frisk who was frozen in place.

"Come on, Sans. End the threat. I know you want to."

"Now!"

Sans used his free hand to pull Frisk out of the river and dropped him on shore.

"Dry yourself off," Sans yelled while Flowey reached his vines towards Sans' neck and Frisk struggled to get to his feet. "I have to drop this weed off with…Argh!"

Flowey wrapped his vines around Sans' neck causing him to drop Flowey onto the ground. He tangled him up in his vines and gagged him like he did Frisk.

"Okay, human, you're free to go," Flowey said cheerily.

Frisk stood there in fear and confusion. Sans couldn't say anything.

"I know you heard me," Flowey said. "You're free to go. I have found another soul to play with. I don't want to play with you anymore. You're too boring now. All you want to do is die. Sans is much more interesting."

Frisk looked at the river and back at Sans and back to the river. He could die right there. He could be free.

"End yourself any way you want," Flowey said looking at Frisk. "I won't come for you. Really, this is the best ending you could get. Everyone here will always remember what you did deep down. Those memories mean you'll never get the ending you want, no matter how many times you reset. Go get the ending you need."

Frisk turned away and Sans' heart sank in dismay as he walked towards the river.

"God, he's so stupid," Flowey whispered to Sans. "He's an idiot if he really thinks I'm letting him go. Don't worry. I'll let you go as soon as he drowns…"

Sans didn't listen to the rest. He was watching the boy he desperately tried to save. Frisk hesitated at the river's bank then he crouched down and picked something up. Sans watched as Frisk's HP went up by another point and continued watching while he ran over with a large stick and whacked Flowey as hard as he could on the back of the head.

The blow stunned Flowey and knocked him a few yards away causing him to loosen his hold and allow Sans to escape.

Frisk walked over to Flowey still holding the stick and said, "I may not care what happens to me, but I care what happens to my friends. I will not let you hurt them!"

Flowey sat up with a groan and looked Frisk in the eye.

"There, it is," Flowey said happily. "Yes. It is returning, the fire behind those amber eyes, the determination in your soul. Maybe I was too greedy and tried to end things too soon…"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Sans yelled lifting Flowey telekinetically again and aiming a Gaster Blaster straight for him. "You're going away. If somehow you do escape and try to bother Frisk or my brother ever again, you're going to have a bad time."

"This won't make it end, you know," Flowey said to Frisk. "The game is going to continue, and even if I'm gone, nothing's gonna change, Frisk. You should have let me believe you were her. You should have gone on to the end. We could have gone on to destroy this whole world together!"

"Shut up!" Sans yelled.

"You're stuck in this game like I am," Flowey said. "You'll eventually lose your mind again, and the only way it could be made better is if you made it so you never showed up in the first place."

Frisk's eyes lit up in realization. Flowey knew he got to him. Sans made the Gaster Blaster move right in Flowey's face.

"Your determination is returning," Flowey said looking around it. "I think you could do it. You know what you have to do. Even if it doesn't work, what do you have to lose?"

Frisk immediately took off back to the house.

"Frisk, what are you doing?!" Sans yelled. "Frisk!"

"Frisk?" Sans heard Papyrus yell while he ran past him and Undyne, who was holding bags of ginger ale. "Why are you all wet? Sans? Flowery? What's going on?"

"What the hell is that?" Undyne said looking at Flowey.

Flowey laughed in his creepy, disturbing voice that was all too familiar to Frisk but was beyond terrifying to everyone else.

"That should do it," Flowey said with a twisted smile. "That should end him for sure. Ah, playing mind games with him has been so much fun."

"Flowery…" Papyrus said in disbelief while Undyne dropped the bags and got out her spear.

"What in God's name are you talking about?" Sans asked angrily. "Unless you want to die now, you'll tell me."

"You know how determination works," Flowey said. "Don't you? You should. You're the one who's done all the research…"

Frisk reached the house and stopped at the door to catch his breath.

"Determination lies within the souls of those who can use it. The person with its power can use it to do anything. It can be used to the benefit of the person holding its power to heal, to reach an impossible goal, to create a save file, or to go back to a previous save file after a death…"

Frisk slowly walked to the bathroom underneath the stairs.

"And it can be used to the benefit of the outside world to do things like reset time or create a barrier that monsters can't pass…"

Frisk switched on the lights and shut and locked the door behind him.

"However, doing those bigger things requires a little something extra from a person," Flowey said more maliciously.

"What do you mean?!" Sans asked.

"The magic of determination is made from the tears, sweat, and blood of the person who yields its power. To change the world out here, you need the three outside the user's body, but one of them must be out in enough abundance to spread the magic to make it happen. Now, tell me, Sans. If you're too cold to sweat and you've cried all your tears, what is left to use?"

Sans gasped in horror. Meanwhile, Frisk wrapped the t-shirt he was wearing around his right hand and punched out the mirror.