On The Surface | An OCTale Sequel

38) The Corrupted Saviour

[Tyler's POV]

Me, Luke, and Guidea have now made it back to the house. Luke is sitting on the sofa next to me, hand on his chin in thought. Guidea is next to him, taking notes in a spiral notebook.

"So...any ideas of where to start looking for the Puppet-Master?" I ask, as Luke looks over at me, and Guidea starts flicking through her notebook pages.

"Well, it's probably best if we wait for her to come for us. Let's just pray to god that she didn't go for Impact, eh?" Luke jokes, before Guidea looks up as if she just realised something.

"What's up, Guid?"

"Well, I was listing out all of the people who have been corrupted by the Puppet-Master before, according to Luke. Have a look." She says, passing the notebook to me. I pull my glasses from out of my pocket and start to read.

Sayonara - Ingested H-4T3. Was angry that Flora didn't come to her show, so attacked her.

Carlos - His sister was murdered. But wasn't his war declaration a bit drastic?

Flora - Puppet-Master regenerated her powers for years by feeding off Flora's self-hatred.

Tyler - Genocide route. Fed off of the spite they had towards everybody.

Lukas - Lukas hated that all of his friends were dying, but the Puppet-Master changed that opinion and forced them to continue the genocide route.

Lukas again - He felt like he didn't deserve Tyler, but when posessed, he was able to trap the Puppet-Master for a few months.

Tyler again - Given visions that caused them to lose Determination for a while, and brought back their Spite to feed off. Didn't last too long.

"Hey, this list is pretty good. What have you figured out then, Guid?"

"Well, since H-4T3 was the thing that caused the Puppet-Master to comr to this world, we'll ignore Sayonara. But haven't you noticed a trend with who the Puppet-Master is targeting?" Guidea explains, and I look back at the notebook again. Luke leans over my shoulder to have a look, too.

"Yeah! They're all related! So if this trend is real, then we've singled out who could be posessed by a ton!" I chirp, gesturing for Guidea to pass me the pen, and I start to write down.

"Well, it can't be any of us, or we would've noticed by now. It can't be Flowey, because flowers can't possess other flowers, that would just be weird." I commentate, writing diwn a possible list.

Asgore - Has pretty bad PTSD. Could be used to P-M's advantage.

Webdings - Lost some of his memories in the void. Could trick him into doing something.

Coral - Hates the world...I think. But can flowers possess ghosts?

I frown, and cross that one out. I doubt it would be any of the fallen children.

Guidea - Perhaps she's waiting for when we're off guard? Guidea had that whole mental breakdown earlier...

Emma - Dealing with all of her memories returning. Isn't aware Luke is back yet, so probably misses her family. Maybe she still feels unhappy with herself?

"Hey guys, do you know where Emma is?" I randomly ask, Luke raising an eyebrow.

"Right...my sister could be a pretty likely target. Maybe we can ask Castellar where she is." He comments, before we hear a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" Guidea calls.

"Hey, it's Emma! Could I talk to Tyler?" I hear Emma yell, and I raise up from my seat to get to the door.

"Tyler, wait...could I possibly come with you? I know I mighy be a bit of a surprise to my sister, but it'll make her feel better if she is corrupted, right?" He smiles, and I nod.

"Okay."

* * * *

Opening the door, I see Emma grin happily.

"Hey Emma. What do you want?" I ask, Luke peeking over my shoulder.

"Hey Luke! Nice to see you again!" She beams, Luke waving hesitantly. "Anyway, I was wondering if we could go talk somewhere private. And alone."

"Wait, Emma, aren't you...excited to see me again?" Luke asks, trying not to sound hurt.

"Oh, of course I am! I said it's nice to see you again, didn't I?" She chirps, but with a bit of annoyance within her voice. I look at her head and see she's wearing a different flower today.

"I'll be alright, Luke. You and Guid stay here to see if the Puppet-Master comes on by." I chirp, and wave goodbye, as me and Emma start walking towards the forest.

"Nice to see you again!"... seems like a weird thing to say to your brother who disappeared...again. Something here isn't adding up...

...Wait. That flower she has in her hair...I swear I've seen it before somewhere...

"Hey Emma, where are we going?" I ask cautiously.

"Oh, just to the clearimg up ahead." She comments.

But she's never even been out to this neck of the woods. How would she kmow about the clearing?

As we approach the clearing, I let Emma walk in front of me a little, and I check her stats.

Emily
LV ???
ATK ???
DEF ???
* Data unavailable.

I use my Copy ability to summon the sword I mimicked before.

"You don't know how much that means to me, Tyler."

I grapple "Emma", and put the sword against her neck.

"Alright, Puppet-Master, enough hiding! Stop cowering inside of other people's bodies and come out and fight me properly!" I threaten, as Emma looks up at me in shock, then her expression twists into a wicked smile as she glitches out of my grip and appears a few yards in front of me, inside the clearing. I walk up towards her, sword at the ready.

I've been waiting far too long for this moment, Tyler! I can barely wait for the moment when I see you give up all hope!

"Well I've been waiting to send you back where you came from!" I yell, as I see her summon - wait, isn't that Carlos's sword? How the hell did she get that?!

Aha. Well, at least you're going to fight back this time. LET'S DANCE!