"So what exactly needs to be done?" Toriel asked sternly.
Holding hands, Frisk and Toriel stood next to each other back in Alphys' lab, Frisk with Flowey curled in her free arm.
"Yeah, do you just make him eat me or something? Grind me up into a powder and make him snort me?" Flowey teased, Frisk audibly resisting the urge to giggle.
"Nope, nothing like that. And I mean that, you seriously aren't even close." Alphys said. "He's not going to ingest you at all, as a matter of fact you physically aren't even going to be near this body."
"So how will this work?" Frisk asked again on Toriel's behalf.
"Allow me to explain," the doctor began, clearing her throat. "Over these past few years, I've managed to harness a new type of human-like energy very similar to determination, one that's without... uh... c-catastrophic... consequences..." Alphys choked, beginning to sweat. "Ahem, anyway, uh..." she started again, rearranging things nervously on her desk with her back turned, "I call this new energy that occurs naturally and can be harnessed indirectly from monsters..." Alphys turned around quickly, startling the group, "HOPE." she smiled.
"Hope?" Toriel said with a puzzled look.
"Yep! Hope. Like I said, similar to determination in that it occurs naturally like in humans. Think of it as... the monster-safe counterpart to determination." Alphys smiled again. "Determination can't be created artificially, but this is not equal to the power of a human soul but instead, a monster soul. I harness this power from all the monsters in the underground remotely, after I'd called upon them to hope that Asriel will return, hence the name. I didn't ask you or Asgore though because, well, the hope is already there-if not the most potent batch I've collected thus far."
"ALPHYS! YOU'VE CREATED A MONSTER!" Flowey shouted, slapping his leaves up to his face in sarcastic horror.
"Not exactly. At least, not yet." Alphys responded. "I'll need to hook you and Asriel up to this chamber I built that will extract your soul into Asriel's body, where all the HOPE is. Hopefully, the concentration of HOPE within Asriel will accept your soul as a new host, and bring Asriel back to us, alive and well."
"How long will this take?" Toriel asked, letting go of Frisk's hands to clasp her own together in worry.
"A few hours at least, if the process goes too fast the transfered soul might become unstable. It needs to go slow and steady to make sure it transfers everything correctly."
"What will happen to Flowey?" Frisk asked, bringing Flowey to her frontside in both hands.
"A uh... a couple things..." Alphys pulled her collar nervously. "First uh... he'll forget everything he knew as Flowey once the operation is complete..." she swallowed, "and second, he'll uh... well, d-die."
Flowey nearly climbed out of his pot. "Ooooh no, you're not killing me to bring a goat back to life, no way, no how, NEVER."
Alphys hurriedly explained, "Nonono wait! Flowey! You'll be fully articulate again! You'll have a better life! You'll be a better person!"
Flowey scoffed and crossed his leaves. "Who says I need to be a better person..." he murmured.
"You won't have to rely on me to carry you everywhere, you'll be able to take care of yourself and not have to be stuck in a pot every day..." Frisk said, mystified, off in her own fantasy.
After a long silence, Flowey let out a sigh. "Fine. Do it."
Frisk gingerly handed Flowey to Alphys, who then took him over to the chamber, put him inside, and closed the window.
Just as Alphys turned to face the control panel, Flowey knocked on the glass of the chamber. "Hey, if you mess up, you can undo this, right?" his voice echoing in the chamber.
Alphys shrugged and continued toward the control panel, after which Flowey's expression turned to that of pure horror, his face resting against the glass.
As Alphys started turning knobs and flicking switches on the control panel, she turned to Toriel and Frisk. "I'd come back in a few hours, maybe a day at least. Nothing really exciting is going to happen, I'll let you know if there are any developments."
Toriel grabbed Frisk's hand, and the two nodded. Outside, they waved goodbye to Alphys as they crossed the threshold of the lab's entrance door. Hearing the door close behind them, Frisk looked back, then at Toriel.
"Mom? Do you think it's going to work?" She asked.
Toriel balled her hand and placed it at her chest, trying to hold back tears as she sped up her walking.
"It has to, Frisk. It... has to."
