One Shot: "Regret."

— "I H4D no_CHOICE. I WAS FORCED TO NEUTRALIZE THAT HUMAN" — The robot exclaimed, with the trash can lid in his hand protecting him from the cowboy’s attacks.

💛 “…you… did… what…?”

Their mind went foggy. The only thing they could feel is their SOUL charging with power.

— "W-WAIT. WHAT'S GOING ON?" —

They felt something out of their chest. It hit something metallic.

— "HOLD ON. PLEASE." —

💛 “You…”

Power was rising through their veins again.

— "I AM SORRY." —

💛 ”You killed them.”

Time seemed to slow down for a second as Axis said his final words.

— "I DIDN'T WANT TO. MY CREATOR OBLIGED ME. IT WAS NOT MY CHOICE" —

Clover snapped out of it as they heard those words.

💛 “Wait, wha-”

But it was too late. The shot charged by their SOUL fired, destroying Axis and leaving him into pieces.

The only thing that remained was a confused Clover, terrified by the action they just committed. They had destroyed something that didn’t even have any sort of autonomy on his actions.

[YOU WON!]

What… was that? Did they really just destroy that robot without reason? No, no! Of course not! It was the one who killed the human! It was brought to justice!

…then… were the other monsters also needed to be “brought to justice”?

The only thing that sent the cowboy out of their mind was Flowey’s voice, talking only to their body. Their mind wasn’t hearing him.

— “-ver... what… Um, okay. No, this is fine. This can be very useful against the Ki-" —

They couldn’t hear anything else as Clover rushed towards the exit of the Steamworks, the last thing being an unintelligible scream from the flower.

💛 “…what… What did I do…? What… Why…?”

The elevator had long reached its destination: Hotland’s Right Floor 3. But no one stepped out of it. The only thing that could be heard was the unstoppable sobs from a cowboy, dust in their clothing and a gun dropped to their side.

Everything was clear now. Clover wasn’t making justice on anyone. They were the ones who deserved it.

Every single monster on their path was just someone with family or ambitions. Someone that was light to one of their kind. Someone that wasn’t responsible for the deaths of those kids. With their mind clear, Clover could see their horrified faces, or their pleas for mercy as the gun’s barrel pointed directly at their heads.

— “Please! I haven’t done anything-” — Dusted.

— “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I won’t get in your way-” — Gone.

— “My kids! They are waiting for-” — Not anymore.

And yet, Clover had made every single one of them disappear…

— “I hope you choke on the dust that fills the air. In the meantime... go to hell.” —

…no, not disappear.

Clover had killed every single one of them.

Tears in their eyes stained their clothes, however, as much as they suffered the consequences, the damage was already done.

They were blinded by a twisted sense of vengeance, disguised as judgement, just like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

And now, they were carrying the consequences of their sins.

Regret.

With the little energy they had left, the cowboy left the elevator, and dragged themselves through the orange floors of the zone, slowly reaching the Underground Apartments. Opening the abandoned resort’s door, Clover dropped to the floor. They were tired. Guilt was tearing their SOUL apart…

And yet, it was their fault. They deserved this.

💛 “…I… I wish I hadn’t… done…”

Then, it clicked. Flowey.

The human raised their head, and they saw it. A SAVE point. Flowey could definitely undo this madness.

Jumping to their feet, they rapidly approached and touched the golden star, and as expected, the flower made their appearance.

— “Howdy, Clover! You sure took your-” —

💛 “Reset.”

Flowey froze. — “What did you say, pal? I don’t think I-” —

💛 “I said reset.” — The cowboy still had tears on their eyes. — “I did wrong. This- these monsters didn’t deserve it!”

Flowey looked disappointed. Seriously? All of this massacre, FINALLY getting out of the script and they got cold feet right at the end? Right on the capital’s doors?

— “Clover, Clover, Clover…” — Flowey said, an unamused expression on his face. — “Don’t you see? Those poor children are still stuck with Asgore… Monsterkind brought their lives to an end! Don’t they deserve your saving justice?” —

Clover looked up for a second, but immediately lowered it back down. The flower sighed. Worth a shot.

💛 “I need to go back again. I need to fix all of this… Please…”

Facepalm, or in this case, Face-vine. They surely were an idiot.

— “You know what? No, this won’t do. I’m gonna convince you right on the spot that you are on the right path.” — Flowey said, angrily, while a LOAD button appeared in front of him. Huh, since when were they able to see those?

💛 “NO! STOP-!”

[ FILE 1 LOADED ]

They were back at the Steamworks. Right in front of Flowey. That dispensing machine with the Gravity Granola on the bottom was right there again, Axis was in the next room waiting for them… Wait, what?

— Clover, before you go… — Flowey started talking. — I just want to remind yo- —

💛 “I WON’T KILL AXIS AGAIN!”

Both of them ended up in silence. Did… did Clover remember the load?

— How- how did you know that-? —

[ * Check ]

[ CLOVER — LV 19 ]
[ * Justice must be delivered. ]

“But, how…? I- I just loaded! This idiot should be back in LV 12!” The once-prince thought.

Clover just stared into Flowey until suddenly a vine pierced through their chest…

💛 “GAH-”

…killing them in an instant.

— There, now I’m sure nothing will happen- —

[ FILE 1 LOADED ]

They were back at the Steamworks. Right in front of Flowey. That dispensing machine with the-... wait a second.

— WHAT?! — The flower screamed in distress. — I- I DIDN’T- —

Flowey looked, terrified, at Clover, who had in hand two buttons: SAVE and LOAD.

[ FILE 1 OVERWRITTEN ]

— H-HEY! WH-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! —

💛 “So… this is how it feels…”

[ FILE 1 OVERWRITTEN ]

— Oh no, you WON'T! —

Vines started to grow from the floor again, but Clover was quicker, and shot the flower in the face, ki-

[ FILE 1 LOADED ]

Nevermind.

💛 “QUIT THAT, WILL YA!?”

— YOU WON’T TAKE AWAY MY POWERS! —

💛 “OH YEAH!?”

[ FILE 1 OVERWRITTEN ]

[ FILE 2 SAVED ]

Clover quickly saved a file, and shot Flowey in the face again…

[ FILE 1 SAVED ]

…as they saved their file again. Now there was no way the flower could return without rese-

[ FILE 2 LOADED ]

-tting. Seems like he can use more than one, huh…?

— Oh, you think you can use THAT trick against me?! —

[ FILE 1 OVERWRITTEN ]

[ FILE 3 SAVED ]

[ FILE 5 SAVED ]

— NOW YOU’LL SEE WHAT’S THIS WORLD IS ABOUT, CLOVER. KILL OR BE KILLED! —

A vine stabbed their chest-

[ FILE 1 LOADED ]

Friendliness pellets shot towards their body-

[ FILE 1 LOADED ]

A well timed punch made the cowboy fall off the bridge-

[ FILE 1 LOADED ]

— Could you stop doing that?! — Flowey shouted, angry. — I’m getting tired! — Looking back at the cowboy, he was ready to-

Suddenly the flower opened his eyes in shock, seeing a new button in Clover’s hand.

RESET.

💛 “Found it.” — Said cowboy had a smirk in their face.

The human went to press it, until a vine stopped their hand on its tracks.

— Alright! But not if I don’t do it first! I won’t let you mess up with my GOD powers! — Flowey said in a pretty noticeable desperate voice, while his vines reached out for the RESET button in front of him.

But the flower messed up, and his vine was barely without enough force to fully contain the cowboy. They used all their strength to move towards the button.

And then…

[ RESET ]

Both of them looked each other in the eyes. They both had pressed their buttons at the same time.

— OH YOU IDI-! —

And then darkness.

“Ugh, another reset. Flowey really is a moron…

…wait.

This isn’t the golden flower bed.”

Those were the thoughts that flew through the little cowboy’s head, as they quickly opened their eyes and went on guard, ready to tackle whatever trick Flowey was trying to pull on them. However… he wasn’t there.

Instead, a new challenge was up ahead, one was not in the underground…

…but on a different mountain from Mt. Ebott.