Happy endings were the works of fiction, mere delusions written by authors who wanted to relive in their own works in hopes of escaping the hell of reality they were trapped inside of, no way out. That's what stories were in their essence, not written to entertain or provide leisure for those that picked up the book, but rather for the author's own personal enjoyment, forging their own reality, their own safe haven when the blunt truth of real life got in the way.

But this was not a story and for that there would be no happy ending. A resolution did not spontaneously appear without warning, every conflict and battle resolved at a moment's notice as most stories ended. Your victory, your happy ending for a better world, that would never be handed to you, no matter how many times you prayed to your false gods or pleaded with invisible forced. None could shape your future but you and that was your burden.

It was this you knew and this you realized as you beheld the sight of the leafy tendril wrapping around the comedian's ankle, the green serpent slowly climbing its way up his leg. Was it possible for life to be so unfair, so unfair to that when you managed to save the comedian from the brink, from the edge of his death, something new, something more foul rose to stand in the way between you and the ending you strove for?

"Oh boy," the flower gurgled, sadistic hysteria lacing its every words. Sans had just begun to realise the true extent of the danger he was in, how unavoidable the fate that now waited for him was, how hopeless and hapless the situation was. How could you even manage to fix this, you could see no end in sight even as the problem just began, seeing no end to the gathering mist. "I should have done this a long time ago!"

With a scream you charged, though nothing, truly nothing could alter the events that were about to transpire. You reached into the very depths of your mind and summoned forth a spear, caring not for the deplete of energy, fatigue taking its toll. You were so close to victory, so close to your happy ending and these damn creatures would not take it away!

Todd's face broke into a grin and he leveled his ebony blade, the tip seeming to beckon, to call you as you zigzagged across the field, the [F/C] spear trailing behind you. pulsing with the energy of a thousand suns. But your focus was not directed towards your adopted brother, but to the flower.

The vines were wrapping around the comedian's chest, squeezing the life from him, as much life as a skeleton could have anyway. Flowey was slowly loosening his grip upon Undyne, the anger and rage building at the sight of her mutilated corpse. How fair was it that one could live, be so alive and full of vitality only to die a needless and forsaken death a minute later? Were the living truly that weak that ever minute, every second posed a thousand different ways in which you could be killed and the fact that you lived was merely luck?

You were close, so damn close! The knife was in your hand and the plant was only inches away. You would slice and kill until it was nothing more than a shred of petals and vine, rip the wretch apart until nothing more than a bad memory remained of the plant. This was nothing, they were nothing.

"We're going to win!" Todd shrieked and launched himself from where he stood, barreling into your chest and sending you spiraling away from Flowey. A string of curses left your tongue and you shifted your position on the spear in hand, narrowing your eyes at the sight of the human.

"You have had your chance," you spat, no longer trying to conceal the venom and hatred laced in your words. You were sick of playing the hero, sick and tired of living up to the expectation that you were supposed to be the true protagonist of this world, that you would always strive to act in mercy and spare those even when they harmed you. Because damn that, damn them all. It was so much easier to slice and kill, burn and destroy than to spare. "I have tried a thousand times to save you, to steer you in the right direction. But no more."

And you grabbed Todd by the hand, jerking the bone to the left as tendons snapped from the sheer force of it all. The creature offered no howl of pain, for his lack of a soul rendered him capable of feeling anything at all, for pain was the trivial things of humans and Todd was no longer a human, something else entirely. He broke into a fit of hysteric laughter as you slammed your foot into his chest, muscles and jaw tightening from the wet thud of the impact.

You walked towards Todd, the tip of your spear trailing against the pavement of the road you walked on. "There is no happy ending," Todd wheezed, blood streaming from his nose and mouth. He let out a wet cough and sprayed some of the fluid on the ground before staring back at you defiantly. "We have won you arrogant fool, look around! Your world is dead, the few humans and monsters that remain will pick each other off one by one. Nothing remains of this world, nothing at all. You may kill me, but we will still have won. Even after this battle is over."

You were sick of hearing Todd's voice, blind rage blocking out any emotions, any emotion at all except for the desire to kill. Perhaps you and this bastard were the same, for Todd had no soul, only the desire and want to kill every living thing. But you had a soul, a poor excuse of one, and the only sense that raged through your veins was the want to end the life of the foul wretch that was hobbled before you, trembling in sadistic glee as the tip of your spear brushed against the lump in his throat.

"Save a spot in hell for me," you snarled and plunged the shaft of the spear into Todd's eye and pulled the point out in a deft motion, blood and brain matter spewing from the gaping hole in his head. Todd let out a strangled gurgle and collapsed to the pavement, sprawled across the ground.

But the human was not dead yet. Todd slowly got to his feet, one eye staring emptily at you. "You're going to have to try a lot harder than that," the snarl left his broken windpipe, sounding neither human nor animal, something from a completely different world. Your gaze darted back to Sans and Flowey, the weed staring in triumph for their victory was at hand.

Your grip tightened around the spear and you flung it towards Todd's abdomen, the tip burying into his skin. And yet your adopted brother continued his march towards you, the spear still buried in him, offering neither pain nor remorse for the events unfolding. You took a tentative step back in fear, where was there to run? How could you kill something that was neither alive or dead? How could you kill nothing?

"My King," Todd wailed, trembling as he pulled the spear from his gut, intestines wrapped around the tip. "My King, I do this for you, I have been your loyal servant ever since the beginning, have I not? Everything I have done, I have done for you alone. I gave you my soul and surrendered myself unto you and I ask you to look upon me as I slaughter this human in your name, as it was and always shall be."

And when Todd turned to face you, there was a look of sadistic resolve in his eyes. Blood trickled steadily from the gaping orifice in his left eye, the blank socket from where you had stabbed out the eye. A [F/C] sword was summoned to your dominant hand and you raised the blade across your chest, blocking in time Todd's attack as the demon raced several yards in the span of a second, his ebony blade clanging with your weapon, metal meeting magic in the fight to end all.

Flowey was watching from afar, a grin on the plant's face as he watched his King's game play out. This was nothing more than the conflicts of mere mortals, bigger things were going on, things that neither [Y/N] nor Todd could even begin to comprehend. For Flowey knew his master's true plan, what was and always shall be. Todd was diluted in his self-imposed fantasies of fame and grandeur, wrapped in the hallucination that rewards and treasures awaited him upon killing the excuse of a human that opposed Error, but nothing more awaited Todd. For even if he did strike down [Y/N], Flowey would kill the human and join his master in the Void.

"There is nothing left for you," Flowey whispered to the skeleton who had long since given up struggling, his limbs no longer able to move as the leafy vines wrapped around every inch of his frame, the comedian no longer having any say or control over how his being moved. "You and your human have lost this war, nothing awaits you. Be grateful that you have been chosen as my vessel, as my puppet that will live long past the collapse of this universe. You will survive while all others die." The flower turned its gaze, watching as [Y/N] succumbed to their rage, fighting Todd with a fury unheard of.

You were flung back several feet as Todd flung himself at you, high-pitched laughter and shrikes ringing through the air as he leaped from building to building with inhuman agility. The sword hummed against your palm, anticipating the moment when it would cut through Todd and finally put an end to the damn creature's life once and for all, if he was even considered to be a living thing. And as Todd leaped from the building, the world around suddenly slowed, every fibre of your being becoming aware. You leveled the sword and swung as Todd neared you, watching as the [F/C] blade lopped off his head with surprising ease.

And as Todd's hand landed on the ground next to you, still shrieking in sadistic laughter, you slammed your foot onto his skull, once, twice until it was nothing more than a pulp. Perhaps Todd was still alive, but he was no longer capable of movement, where he would forever rot there until this universe expired.

What a fool you were!

In the midst of your rage, blinded in hatred and desire to murder your adopted brother did you forget about the flower, the reason you had launched yourself into battle in the first place. Undyne's corpse was freed now, swollen and already in the beginnings of decomposition. You forced yourself to look away from the sight, remembering the times you had shared with her, the hopes you had shared of a better future, one that you, her and Sans would carve together so that all of humanity and monsterkind could exist in unison, throwing away the rivalries of your ancestors in the wake of the new world, a better one.

But that was gone now, eradicated in the blink of an eye just as those nuclear missiles had done all those years ago. Hopes and dreams buried under fire and ash, forgotten in the rotting minds of the corpses that had once conceived them. Perhaps there were survivors in the wake of this calamity, but all was gone now. There was no coming back from this, it seemed that humans and monsters alike within this universe were truly damned to rot in the Void. Maybe the next species that took over this world would do better.

"I must admit, I am very impressed."

If Sans was still aware of his surroundings, that remained unknown. Leafy vines wrapped around every bone that constructed the comedian's skeletal frame, the head of the flower smiling back at you as it popped out of the skeleton's right eyesocket. "I didn't think that you would be able to survive that fight of yours, but it turns out I thought wrong. But that doesn't matter now because within a minute's time you will be dead and this universe will be extinguished from the minds of all. Not a trace of it will exist, everything will simply be gone, do you understand? Isn't it maddening the thought of it, how you can exist and then vanish from reality entirely in the blink of an eye without anyone to care that you once lived and faded from existence? The thought terrifies me."

"You won't win," you growled, the blade still in your hand. Black dots swam through your vision, fatigue staking its hold. "I will kill you and your false king, that I swear."

"That's adorable," Flowey cooed, adjusting himself so that he forced Sans' hand upright, the left eyesocket flaring blue interlaced with yellow. "But you've already lost my dear human and you too will rot alongside this universe. But thank you, thank you for everything."

As the Gaster Blaster fired, you summoned a translucent [F/C] shield, the thin membrane acting as the only barrier between you and the intensity of the blast. As Flowey waved the blaster away, a thin smile engulfed his features. "You're still alive, is that so? What a nuisance, prolonging the inevitable. You will die here and now, in a world where no one even lives to remember your name."

Something caught your eye. The tips of the comedian's fingers were twitching, one part of Sans' form that the flower had not secured over his control tightly enough. A part of your comedian still lived, still fought for his existence despite all of this. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that the skeleton was pointing to an exposed leafy stalk wrapped around his left forearm. You stared into those eyesockets of Sans and despite Flowey's hold over him, Sans was communicating with you, even if silent.

"I can't." The words left your lips. But yet you must, both you and Sans knew it was the only way, lest you risk damnation to all.

"Pointless," Flowey growled and turned away from you, raising the comedian's hand so that a rift appeared within the air, leading to another world, but to where you did not know. "It doesn't matter if I kill you or not, you will perish the moment I delete the code of this world."

And without another moment's hesitation, you flung yourself onto the flower and slashed at the exposed stalk on Sans' left forearm, closing your eyes as the blade dug into the bone marrow, drowning your senses and relishing in Flowey's shrieks of pain and agony.

"You idiot!" The plant howled and summoned an onslaught of bones, digging into your back. But despite this you continued, even with every part of you screaming in protest as your health depleted. You cut through the stalks and the leaves, buried the blade into the flower's head and watched in satisfaction as the damned thing shriveled into dust.

And then the pain became too much to bear, the fatigue and sheer agony of it all ripping through your very core. If the comedian was still alive remained a mystery. But that mattered not, for you collapsed to the ground, next to Flowey's remains and the twitching corpse of Todd, next to the comatose form of the comedian.

The fires of Chicago raged on.