[[Hey guys! So that you’re aware, the delay is due to simple bad timing-real life kicked a few of us in the teeth pretty bad. As a result, I’m taking over writing both my parts and Flowey’s, and I’m sorry for the wait! Let’s end this event with a bang! (Art by @itsmeflowey )]]
Frisk stepped forward boldly. Their teeth ground involuntarily, their hands shook. If they messed up, Chara could take them over again- or worse, they could be wrapped up by Flowey, added to the massive battery that was once Rewind. With any luck, Sans would take the opportunity to slip around behind the chimerical abomination and start breaking Flowey’s ties to the CORE. With any luck, Chara was as helpless as they seemed.
With any luck, Rewind was in there somewhere.
But the monstrosity in front of them bore little resemblance to the kind, tortured old father they’d grown to know through Chara’s research. Rewind was there at the center, a husk of a monster suspended by vines, leaking blood (and god knew what else) from his eyes and mouth, red seeping out from the places where Flowey’s vines had punctured his skin and bones. His eyes were wide, but he did not see. For a moment, Frisk wondered if he was truly dead.
Then there was Flowey. The demonic flower formed the structure that kept the entire timeline alive. From Rewind’s back, far too many of Flowey’s massive omega-form arms stretched, each twitch of muscle making Frisk’s stomach turn and sending a ripple of distortion through the air. The bottom pair wrapped around to hang in front of Rewind, massive claws wrapped up with crimson threads like a nightmarish marionette. At the end of each set of threads hung a puppet- one of Asgore, one of Toriel, and so on. There, a blond woman Frisk only recognized in passing. There, a shattered and damaged Asriel, his face hidden by corruption and his limbs hanging limp. One of the string-sets was broken, its puppet long missing.
Flowey had taken a sick glee in twisting Chara back into his sibling. It wasn’t right, after all- spending so much time in Frisk’s body must have broken them, so he was simply helping, reminding the demon what was really important.
In the process, he’d torn Chara’s code to pieces over and over again. What was left of the demon was an echo of an echo, the rage of a fallen child once again betrayed and destroyed. Inside of Rewind’s chest cavity, hidden away safely near the place his heart should’ve been, one of Chara’s red eyes shone from the inky blackness, a distorted giggle occasionally escaping in reaction to an untold joke.
Flowey had then busied himself getting ready for Sans. He knew when his puppet disappeared that the skeleton would come along soon enough. It was, after all, inevitable- obvious even to his addled mind. He’d nearly crushed Papyrus’ puppet in response to the surge of emotion re-integrating Chara had given him, and it hung limp and damaged from three strings, close to Rewind’s body along with the corrupted fragment of Asriel. Once in a while, he imagined what he’d do to Sans (and, if Frisk had somehow survived, the child as well) and erupted into a fit of gleeful laughter, echoed by his sibling.
He couldn’t have predicted Frisk would show up in front of him so soon.
He’d been busy with Chara. The broken sibling’s code had started to fracture further than he wanted, and in a small panic he was focused on keeping them in one horribly-distorted piece. For that moment, that brief second of distraction, Rewind was vulnerable.
Frisk stood before the good doctor, ten feet from the base of his twisted body. They gazed up at him, their breath ragged and quick. It was like staring into the face of Death.
The human child swallowed their fear and raised their free hand, palm out.
“Hi. Wake up.” They said, their shattered voice barely over a whisper. “Wake up, doctor. Please.”
Flowey screeched into the void, but it was too late.
For the first time since Flowey had dug his vines into Rewind’s body, the good doctor awoke and saw once again.