A mother's reminiscence

She looked down into her drink, thinking. The new human had recently broken the barrier, and everyone was in the process of moving out of the crowded underground.

She, however, decided to stay for one last drink. She knew the others would wait for her. They always did.

"Another apple juice?" The bartender asked.

Ceroba shook her head. "Nah. This'll be my last drink. At least down here."

The bartender chuckled. "Well, then that'll probably be the last drink I serve down here."

They fell into a comfortable silence, which let Ceroba's mind wander.

It had been four years since Clover had fallen, and a lot had changed. The underground had grown more connected through the combination of the internet and more direct TV shows, pioneered by who else but Mettaton.

Starlo had grown quite a bit, but then again, they all had. Clover might've been a relatively small dot in their lives, but the impact they had left was massive.

Ceroba quit drinking, Martlet quit the guard, Starlo grew up and matured, Dalv had begun to interact with more and more people, gaining the connections he desperately missed. And, of course, they were one soul closer to freedom.

Her mind drifted back farther, to the Steamworks, and how she struggled to decide her course of action. On one hand, her husband's work could be completed, which could mean freedon, but on the other hand, could she really bring herself to hurt this child, who she had been growing more and more attached to?

A tear fell out of her eye, one of many to come. Because every time she envisioned Clover...

They seemed more and more like Kanako. Their smile, their selflessness, their pursuit of the right thing. How could she have ever brought herself to hurt them, someone she thought of as essentially her own child?

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, ornate box. It was covered with blossoms and held the dust of Kanako.

After the Amalgamates were given to their family, Alphys broke the news to Ceroba. Kanako had died, not melted. She didn't know why, but the reaction was different.

But Ceroba knew. The determination must not have reacted well with the serum that had made her go to that stupid lab in the first place. So, instead of an amalgamation, Ceroba was the only parent or loved one to get the actual dust of the monster back.

She stared at it, letting it sit in the palm of her hand, thinking about how everything had ended. Kanako had fearlessly requested to be injected, and Clover had sacrificed themselves, both completely willingly, on the slim hope that monsters would go free.

But the moment that Ceroba left the rampart where Asgore would eventually retrieve Clover's body, she broke down.

Clover, who reminded them so much of her own child, was gone, once again doing the selfless thing. She collapsed over the jar, sobbing her heart out and clutching it as tight as she could, while Starlo rested a hand on her shoulder and Martlet watched with grief.

She had tried to kill them, take their soul, and after all the fighting they did to keep it, they just... gave it up.

Starlo stayed quiet even after she finished crying and helped her stand up. No words were spoken in that moment, just the silence of a caring friend who  could relate to your pain.

It was with that support that she managed to make it to Asgore's throne room without breaking down a second time. The three of them entered together, silently mourning their loss.

"Hey... you do realize you're making a puddle, right?"

Ceroba snapped out of her memory and looked at the bartender. "What?"

The bartender smiled. "Thinking about Clover?"

Ceroba nodded and realized the puddle of tears on the counter. She laughed softly. "Sorry."

The bartender waved her off. "It's fine. Better than you avoiding everything with alcohol, y'know? Besides, I'm moving soon anyway. What in particular were you thinking about?"

Ceroba smiled sadly at the box in her hand. "Mostly memories. But... what I would say to Clover."

The bartender nodded and returned to the dishes, still listening. "And what might that be?"

"That I'm sorry. Every time I think of them, they slowly blend more with Kanako. I began to love them like my own, but I was still misguided in trying to finish my husband's work, so I made a choice I still regret to this day."

The bartender nodded. "That's nice. Say, do you remember the Mettaton show?"

Ceroba laughed, and put the box back in her pocket gingerly. "Yeah. The new human, Fris- Frank? They somehow managed to get Clover's hat and gun. Starlo called everyone over to watch."

The bartender nodded. "That was a good show. I hope that kid gets a happy ending."

"They probably will, considering they made friends with so many important people," Ceroba said somewhat bitterly.

The bartender looked at her weird, and she sighed, looking down again at her drink, staring at her face in the reflection. "I'm sorry. I do wish well for the kid. It just hurts that they're the only human to get a happy ending."

"Well," the bartender said, focusing again on the dishes. "We don't quite know what happened to the humans' souls after the barrier broke."

The door to the bar swung open, and the bartender continued talking, lost in the dishes. "For all you know, they could -"

Her eyes flicked up for a moment, as they normally did after someone entered, and the cup she was cleaning fell into the sink with a clank.

Ceroba looked up. "Everythi -"

Then she stopped, staring in shock at the doorway.

Because somehow, they were being held open by one very alive Clover, who was missing both their hat and gun.