Chapter Text
Upon the precipice of a large tower, in the heart of the monster’s ancient cavern, you will find four people. Two of these people, the ones who wanted to be there the least, found themselves lying unconscious against the tower walls. The other two present found themselves locked in a vicious duel of mind, body and soul.
‘It isn’t the first time they’ve been here…’ the flower, watching from a nearby rooftop, thought to himself, ‘But they don’t know that.’
The taller of the two, a fox-like woman, stands firm. Her eyes shadowed by her hair as she looks away, in guilt, from her friends and from her quarry. Her hands unsteady as she tries to hold up the weight of her collapsing world. Her voice wavering as she tries to give herself the strength, the courage and the determination she needs to do what she knows isn’t right.
The shorter of the two, a young cowpoke, stands stiff. Their fists clenched, a betrayed scowl shot across their face. They watch desperately as their new friend, who had lost so much, spirals helplessly over the edge. They don’t know how to help her anymore.
So instead? They watch, listen, anticipate, and hope.
“Truthfully… I have nothing left in life, so I’ve made peace with throwing it away.”
…
“You’ll fight back, but you can't forever.”
Hearing this, the young child loses what remaining hope they have for a peaceful resolution. They brace for the worst.
“Goodbye.”
Before they can respond, Ceroba twirls her staff around her body, ending in a combat stance, and stares them dead in the eyes. They barely have time to react before catching the sound of magic taking form behind them.
They dive forwards, only for three balls of white energy to fly into the air above them, before coming crashing down right where they are lying. They only just manage to roll out of the way, not being so lucky as to dodge the shockwave the attack gives off, which sends them a few feet back and winds them.
Dragging themselves to their feet, they call out to Ceroba, pleading for peace, but her attention is impenetrable.
Ceroba stares them down, frowning, before glancing off to the side. She raises her staff to the left and swings it across, causing a wall of flame to manifest and fly across the ground.
Clover quickly realizes the wall isn’t big enough to cover the whole tower. They dash to the space the flames can’t reach and pass through, though their assailant is undeterred. She raises her staff again and swings from left to right, before swinging it down and up, summoning more walls of flame.
As Clover manages to weave between the walls Ceroba grits her teeth, sending another wall of flame from right to left. This time the gap was at the far end of the tower, near where she stood. Clover, acting on instinct, runs to the safe area, just managing to dodge the wall, not realizing how close they had come to Ceroba herself, who, without hesitation, sends her staff in an arc that ends in a collision with Clover’s jaw, throwing the kid down onto their side.
Fighting back tears from the pain, Clover pulls themself off the ground, stumbling back to the center of the tower. They take a deep breath in and try to focus.
Ceroba herself seems to be struggling to focus.
She raises her staff and brings it down, conjuring what looks like a flower. Clover is taken aback by the construct, until it spits several rows of fireballs at them. Before they can prepare to dodge, Ceroba points her staff at them and twirls it, casting a white diamond of energy that freezes them in place.
They thrash about but they cannot break free and are pummeled by the fireballs.
The diamond breaks and they stumble out of the way, only for another flower to manifest before them. This time Clover focuses on Ceroba, diving out of the way when she attempts to freeze them in place. They roll back onto their feet and weave between the remaining fireballs. All this weaving and dodging has them exhausted.
Without warning a third flower manifests, only by the sound of its fireballs does Clover notice, but before they can dodge out of the way fully, Ceroba catches their leg with a diamond. The wall of fireballs closes in and Clover can only close their eyes…
There is a scream, a crack, and distantly, a scoff.
‘Well buddy, I guess you’re consistent if nothing else.’ Flowey mused. ‘You could never beat someone as tough as her on your first try huh? That’d be too easy on little old me.’
‘Ah, well, at least you rarely get worse! Try again!’
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“You’ll fight back, but you can’t forever.”
“Goodbye.”
Flowey must have heard it hundreds of times by now. As he sat and watched the battle he couldn't help but grow a bit bored. ‘She is so self-entitled, it's almost unbelievable.’ He thinks to himself. ‘Then again, what does she have left but faith, hehehe!’
In the background flashes of crimson-pink light and sounds of explosions ring out across the otherwise silent underground.
There is a game Flowey likes to play when he reaches this particular part of these “sissy runs” as he calls them, where he likes to try and guess what his little pal is remembering between loads. It helps ease the boredom. Seems this time they have managed to remember not to get too close to the fox lady and not to take their eyes off her. As a result, they manage to more or less make it through the attack that just wasted them, after realizing what her diamonds were by getting frozen and pummeled once for good measure of course. But they can heal after that so it doesn’t matter.
Following their survival, Ceroba hesitates, staring at Clover, she forces out the word “Why..” before spinning her staff in a circle, causing a ring of fireballs to envelop the kid. As they close in, Clover finds the gap and slips through.
“Why won’t you die?!” Ceroba yells, before invoking conjurations of her bells to fall onto the ground around Clover. They bounce and burst in waves of blue and orange energy. Clover, familiar with this gimmick, moves and freezes as needed, dodg–
They feel a stinging sensation and look down, a crimson patch growing horizontally across their shirt. Perhaps they hadn't dodged as well as they–
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Dodging the energy of the bells seamlessly.
“Why!?” The fox yells, as if being taunted. She points her staff out and focuses, creating a vortex that pulls Clover in. They fight against it, as Ceroba begins sending volleys of fireballs at them.
Not the most intense attack, they manage to dodge while only getting tagged a few times.
“If I don’t succeed, it’s over!” The desperation in her voice is becoming evident. She sends more energy balls at Clover, these ones don’t have shockwaves. Clover expected more honestly, Flowey knows the stupid part is coming up.
Ceroba summons two blades, sending them towards Clover, as they fly, she simply yells “Die!”. The blades pierce the ground next to Clover, almost impaling them. They look at Ceroba, who in turn thrashes her staff at them, summoning fireballs which Clover manages to dodge most of.
“Just… die!!!” Ceroba shrieks, throwing all she can muster at Clover. Four balls of energy circle them, before flailing towards them and colliding in a colossal explosion, which they barely manage to dodge, they look up and see a rain of smaller projectiles of energy falling towards them. They cover their head and roll out of the way, more or less unscathed.
They stand up, and look Ceroba in the eye. She is hyperventilating. Seeing them standing, not particularly injured, her eyes start to twitch.
She slams her staff on the ground, her crimson-pink energy coursing furiously through it.
Without warning she begins wildly swinging the staff at Clover, loosing great blasts of energy at them with every swing. The projectiles move with a ferocious speed and volatility that takes Clover completely by surprise, before they can react they are blown off their feet.
Ceroba only takes a second to retarget them, and in the brief reprise Clover has between getting hit and getting hit again, they barely manage to raise their hands in front of their face.
Clover is hit again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
Each hit brings them closer to oblivion. They want to scream but never get a chance before being winded by the next blast.
They can’t let it end like this…
They know they need to hold on! They muster every ounce of determination and willpower they have and desperately keep trying to continue. They know that with every blast they feel, Ceroba feels herself throwing it at them. They can't let her do this to them, or to herself.
Seeing the child keep struggling, seeing them keep trying to get up kills Ceroba. They clearly are in so much pain and it’s her fault, but she can’t stop. Surely they understand this by now? Wouldn't it be easier for them to just give in?
She hates herself for what she is subjecting them to, she knows they don’t deserve it. But the world has left her with no other choice. They deserve at least mercy from her.
She raises her staff above her head for one last strike. Pouring all her strength into it, the blast pulsates with fury, waiting to be unleashed.
As she draws her staff back Clover glances up at her. Through her arms they catch a glimpse of her face…
Her teeth are bared from exertion, her nose is wrinkled as if she were wincing in pain, and tears flow freely from her eyes.
Seeing Clover staring at her, she hides her face and unleashes her final attack.
‘This ain’t fair.’ Clover thought to themself.
‘This ain’t right.’
‘This ain’t just.’
They won’t let her do this. They won’t let her turn herself into a murderer. She was lost. She needs them now more than ever, just not in the way she thinks. Mustering all that they have left, they meekly raise an arm, pointing at Ceroba.
As they do, she swings her staff downwards in one last desperate attempt to end Clover’s life.
‘There is no justice in this…’ Clover announces to themself. ‘I won’t let it happen!’
They move their fingers into the rough shape of a gun as Ceroba’s execution attack descends towards them. Time seems to slow as their willpower returns to them. Their determination empowering them, they feel a certain energy well up in their soul. They close their eyes and let it flow, and at the tips of their fingers, alongside an energized hum, a force of pure yellow energy begins to muster. Clover knows what happens next. They open their eyes, and…
—----BLAM—----
The yellow energy is fired from their fingers, completely dissipating Ceroba’s grand attack, more than that, it continues, true on its course and collides directly with Ceroba, sending her flying backwards.
She recovers shockingly quick, rising to her feet within a second. Clover too, feels strangely invigorated and pushes themself off the ground. Clover glances over at Ceroba to see that while she did indeed get up quickly, it still takes her a few seconds to fully regain her composure.
Just as Clover is hoping that they scared her straight, that it might be over, she speaks.
“So it has come to this…” She glances over at them, a weary look on her face. “My last resort.”
A mask Clover has seen before is withdrawn from her pocket.
“For Chujin… For Kanako…”
The mask is placed on her face.
“For the future of Monsterkind!”
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Flowey recognizes those words as his cue to stop paying attention. ‘The kid and the fox both get more powerful here. They’ll have their little fight and then. Finally, Finally! Something new might happen.’ He exclaimed to himself with glee. He didn’t know how much of these endings were based on random chance, but Flowey will have you know there is NO WAY he would allow the kid to do the same, boring, run 27 times if it didn’t change slightly each time.
‘And besides, doing random things here and there seemed to have some kind of effect on the kids' behavior. Maybe this would finally be the one where they actually keep that power of theirs when they confront the king!’
‘Oop- wait, they’ve been roasted alive…’
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“For the future of Monsterkind!”
Like reversing an old clock, the sounds of fire, pain, magic lasers and explosions fill the air again.
Flowey once thought he would never tire of seeing these two fight, although he wasn’t particularly surprised to be wrong. Now it was just a chore, an obstacle, like so many other things. The kid’s power boost keeps them alive, sure, but the fox? Hers makes her already unnaturally powerful self all the more dangerous.
Flowey glances over to the battle just in time to watch Clover spinning around, trying to keep track of Ceroba’s fireballs, before getting shoved forward by her after wandering too close. Landing on the ground, she pummels them with magic and-
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‘Anyway, these fights typically take way longer than most other fights on account of how much the kid needs to “remember”. Honestly, if they could just remember normally these runs would get so much easier.’
Flowey thinks about this for a second. ‘Oh who am I kidding, they’d just find a way to make that suck for me too.’
‘Besides… don’t want ‘em to remember too much now, do we?’
One of Ceroba’s skull-like mask apparitions glides past Flowey’s head, startling him out of his thoughts.
“Ugh, what are these nutjobs doing?!” He shrieks to no one.
Focusing in on the battle he sees Clover running in practiced circles to avoid the fireballs coming from Ceroba’s mask idols. He wants to yell out to Clover that they can just shoot them, but he holds his tongue. They’ll figure it out soon enough anyway. He glances to Ceroba’s shield, seeing it half broken already. Good. At least they figured out that much.
As Clover runs, Ceroba throws out two golden bells, one exploding in a burst of orange energy, the other blue. Clover isn't poised to dodge them both properly and gets hit. Their timing thrown off, the fire from Ceroba’s idols homes in and–
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Deaths pass.
Sometimes Flowey peeks in to see the kid take a deep breath in, before being flooded with yellow light, their injuries mysteriously healed. He wonders why it is that they can only do that in this fight…
Ceroba stares onward, cracks now evident in her mask as the war of attrition continues. He never can tell how she feels during these fights. The only way to see her face is through the eyeholes, and even then the darkness within obscures all but her freaky magicked-up eyes. She could be wearing the most intense death stare he had ever seen, or she could be bawling her eyes out. He really didn’t know. Or care for that matter. She is an obstacle.
One of Ceroba’s mask idols flies around the battlefield, fireballs passively orbiting it. The distraction causes Clover to mess up their footwork before a ring of fire is conjured around them. Normally they would dash out of it, but right now? Well…
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Flowey is starting to lose his patience.
Make no mistake, that is a normal part of how these fights normally go, but this time it was different. Clover had died just over 20 times. That was typically around their limit. And make no mistake the fight was close to over, her mask was smashed, almost crumbling. But Clover? It was like with every death they got… well not worse… otherwise they wouldn’t be progressing, and then he’d have to reset, it’d be a whole mess. No, it was more like ‘worse off’. With every resurrection, their legs got less stable, their hands shook more. This didn’t happen normally.
Now this on its own wouldn't be an issue, but Flowey was starting to get concerned about performance efficiency. One of their past deaths had come about specifically cause they couldn't hit a damn mask and it burned them to death! Once this fight is over he is going to have a serious chat with them about this…
As Flowey thought this to himself, he heard the sound of a torrent of water erupting from something. Looking over, he saw a jet of black, presumably magic, liquid had fired upwards from under Clover's feet. When it subsided, Clover dropped dead.
“Hhhhhhhhhhh…” Flowey exhaled as hard as his floral body would allow.
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He had reached his limit.
Turns out it was about 43 deaths in.
Clover’s focus becomes notably worse after reading Ceroba’s thoughts for the second time, it was leading to an unprecedented amount of deaths. But, luckily for everyone involved, it would seem that they have finally gotten the upper hand.
Clover’s weapon is pointed at Ceroba’s shield, specifically at the last bell lock holding it together following the young kid’s desperate assault. Clover held their shooting hand steady with their idol hand. Flowey knew that once it was gone this fight was over.
So Flowey waits for the shot.
And he waits…
And it does not come.
‘Wait. WHY!?’ he screams in his head, scowling at the pair. When he looks closer he sees just how bad Clover has gotten. They literally cannot keep their arm still, their dodging has turned to crap. ‘What is WRONG with them?!’ he ponders, ‘This has literally never been a problem before!’
Ceroba, seemingly noticing the opportunity, strikes. She conjures four of her golden tag idols to circle Clover and pelt them with fire. Clover struggles to dodge these as she anticipated, they get hit several times. Intent on dealing the finishing blow she waves her staff in a short circle, generating a white diamond that freezes Clover in place. They stare directly at her when they realize their predicament.
She looks away as a ring of fire forms around them, closing in, and-
“Uuurgh! You’ve got to be KIDDING me!” Flowey was yelling at this point. He didn’t care anymore.
“You HAD it! It was OVER! HOW?? DID you SCREW up THAT of all things!!”
“Whatever. WHATEVER! I don’t CARE! It’s over anyways. They won’t mess up again!
I hope this is one of the runs where they kill you, stupid fox!”
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“For the future of Monsterki—”
Ceroba is cut off when the child she had condemned to death drops to their hands and knees before her.
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Clover felt like death.
Not injured or sore or anything. More… sick. Their head was spinning, full of experiences they don't remember that are a little too real to simply dismiss.
So much fire.
And that feeling? The feeling of dying. It was horrible.
They are so tired.
They manage to lift their head. Directing their gaze to Ceroba. Their eyes were full of tears that refuse to fall. They couldn't muster the energy to frown.
“M-Miss Ceroba…” they spoke, their voices strained and fading.
“Please…”
“I-I can’t-” “can’t-” “keep doin’ this…”
“Please…”
“Don’t do this. I-it won’t… help you…”
Ceroba is confused. She puts her mask away, and approaches them.
Looking down at them, she feels only pity and shame. ‘I have already done more to them than they could recover from in a lifetime.’ She laments to herself.
She struggles to find words for them, but after a moment, they come.
“I'm sorry Clover. Truly. But this isn’t about me...”
Upon hearing this, they lower their head.
They don't know what to do.
They can’t keep doing this.
They are so tired.
"I'll make this as painless as I can."
Flowey can only watch on in shock and disbelief as the fox raises her staff tall above her head, and brings it down with determined fury.
There is a sickening crack…
And the child lies dead at her feet.
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Flowey cannot believe what he just witnessed.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Is someone screwing with me??”
“IS THIS A FUCKING JOKE?!? What the hell was THAT??? Am I MISSING something??”
“Why the hell’d they just lay down and die?!? Are they genuinely that worthless??”
He spends a moment in contemplative silence.
“No, you know what? Screw this! I’m the one supposed to be torturing YOU here, not the other way around?? If you wanna die SO badly, RAT, then STAY DEAD!”
…
“Not like you were ever any use to me anyway. Even when I managed to get you to the king you always just die. And you won’t let me absorb your soul, nooo.”
“Well, you know what, pal?? I don’t care anymore. I’ve wasted more time on you than you’re worth, AND I LITERALLY HAVE INFINITE TIME!”
“Whatever… there’ll always be another…”
The flower disappeared into the ground, leaving a gruesome scene to play out alone.
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Ceroba stands over her prey, her hands shaking worse than they had all battle. ‘D-Did I do it?’ she thinks to herself. ‘Did I win?’ She de-summons her staff.
She looks down at Clover. They aren’t moving. She reaches down and takes them by the shoulder, rolling them over onto their back. Their face holds no expression. She didn’t expect to feel great, but this ‘victory’ feels viscerally, spiritually unsatisfying. She finds that she wants to run away, or just give up and let it end here. But she has come much too far for that now. She would see this through to the end, even if that end was hers. And she would do it for Chujin.
For Kanako.
Following a harrowing period of waiting, Clover’s soul slowly began manifesting from their body. Ceroba held her breath.
She summons the canister she prepared to contain it and waits for it to be in the optimal position.
When it has risen to just the right height, she opens the canister and moves it over the soul, sealing it in place and securing it for her plans.
And… just like that, she’d done it. There she was, sitting on the ground, cradling the soul of a pure human. It didn’t feel real. Not only because Ceroba never believed it would happen, but because now that it had, she wished it hadn’t. She rose to her feet, trying and failing to keep her mind from wandering, and, compelling herself forward, she marches down the path, away from the top of the tower.
Before disappearing entirely, she shoots a glance backwards, driven by pure impulse. The scene she sees, she knows, will stay with her for a long time.
Leaning against the side walls of the tower were her best friend and Clover’s. Both unconscious as a result of her brutality. In the middle between them lay Clover, a substantial amount of blood having formed a puddle around their head, staining their hair and clothes. She had never seen blood before. She knew, of course, that humans didn’t turn to dust when they die, but to witness it first-hand? It was truly a disturbing thing. For a brief moment she considers taking their body with her, but the thought leaves as quickly as it comes. No one would want that. She knows she will see no forgiveness for what she has done.
Turning back around, she flees into the dark, empty streets of New Home…