Alphys stepped back into her old lab and looked around. She was having trouble handling the events that had occurred over the last few days, and the worst part of it was that now she was doing it alone. She hadn't seen Sans in almost a full 48 hours, ever since she'd chased him off in her distress and rage.

She couldn't rule the Underground like this. It was true that there were only about 25 monsters in the Underground who legitimately wanted someone other than her to rule, but that represented almost a third of the total head count. Worst of all, she feared, it was possible that Sans was among them.

She had been wrong, she now realized. Sans wasn't perfect, but when compared to her imperfection, he appeared that way. Sans was the only one left who she cared about, and now he hated her too.

She had nothing left. The only thing that kept her going was her responsibility to the survival of the Underground. And even that was slowly going out the window as more and more monsters decided that Queen Alphys wasn't the miracle worker that ASGORE had apparently believed she was.

"You can't honestly believe that she's the one who deserves to rule."

"fuku, it doesn't matter who deserves what. the fact is, of all the monsters alive, the only one who could possibly pull the underground out of this hole is alphys."

"She's a coward. She's never accomplished anything in her life. Her greatest achievements were all lies. She ignores the needs of her people and simply forces the monsters to obey her every whim. She may be smarter than most of them, but that doesn't give her the right to dictate their every action."

"actually, she does have the right to dictate their every action, because she's the queen. on top of that little piece of information, she isn't dictating anyone. she's forcing us all to work, sure, but we get to choose what we want to work at and when we want to work, and the simple fact is that she doesn't have a choice. the underground has to get rebuilt somehow."

"Well, apparently Snowdin doesn't."

"you can't grow food in snowdin."

"You can't grow food in Hotland either."

"Somebody's gotta run the CORE, and you sure as hell can't do that from snowdin."

"Stop being so reasonable."

"not gonna happen, fuku. alphys is the queen that we need. you can't argue with her results. despite the fact that 90% of the underground's homes were destroyed, there is not a single homeless monster down here. it's been six days. nobody's starving, the undernet is back up, and the CORE was running at 60% capacity last time i checked, which was a few days ago. she's actually getting things done. i'm sorry that your business is hurting. nobody loved this place more than me, and it hurts to see it dying like this. but the fact is, these are dire times. the same human that killed my brother and your grandfather also mortally wounded the entire underground. alphys is a miracle worker. she's bringing this place back from the brink. but you can't expect it to happen in a day, you can't expect it to happen in a week, you can't expect it to happen in a year. but it will happen."

"You... really do believe in her, don't you?"

"yeah. i do. even if she doesn't look like, alphys should've been made queen years ago. sure, she's scared, and sure she's made mistakes. but it's the things you don't hear about that prove she's the one we need. sure, she didn't build the CORE, but she turned it from a building-sized heat sink that might as well have made electricity as a side-effect to a massive complex that powers the entire underground and has plenty of energy left over. sure, she didn't really make an artificial soul, but that distracts from the fact that she did make the most advanced and powerful robot ever created. sure, the amalgamates... didn't work out too well, but nobody mentions that she successfully brought dozens of monsters back to life after they fell down, and she successfully revived another monster years after he died. alphys is a genius, but the only thing anyone focuses on is her failings, not her successes. she's got real guts and real brains. unlike us, i guess."

"Hah. But I really don't see how any of this makes her a real leader. Sure, she's smart, but... she isn't queen material!"

"fuku, listen. you can be real hot-headed, but you've gotta calm down and think. yeah, alphys has made mistakes, and yeah, she's the reason your business is struggling in the moment. but in a couple of years, you'll be a big deal again, the underground will be saved, and everyone will see their mistakes. but the problem is the people who aren't gonna let her last for a couple of years. we just need some help. alphys and i need to know we've got somebody in our corner."

"... Damn it, Sans. I know... I know that I... you know what? You're right. I'm being stupid. Listen, I'll help you two. But don't expect me to be all buddy-buddy with Alphys or anything."

Sans' smile grew exponentially.

"huh. didn't see that coming, to be honest."

"Well. You're very convincing."

"well, thanks. i can't tell you how much i appreciate this."

"Just pay your fucking tab."

"i'll get around to it. here's 200 GOLD, by the way."

"Thanks. 5 payments down, a thousand to go."

"workin' on it. workin on it."

Alphys jumped when he popped out of the ground. The motion was sudden and unexpected. Flowey had revealed himself since the Human died, but she'd never seen her Vessel face-to-face until now.

"Howdy!"

"F-flowey, r-right?"

"That's it! I was just wondering how things were going with you as Queen! Just curious, of course."

"Y-you really want to know?"

"Of course. I've got all the time in the world."

"Alright. It's... n-not going well. I... I tried to help the Underground, but..."

Despite the air of causality that Alphys was trying to give off, she was absolutely screaming inside. She didn't know how to react to this.

It was clear that the flower wasn't completely furious, given that she was still alive. But it might just be an act, and she couldn't think of anything better to do than simply give him a straight answer.

"I can't. T-they... won't let me. T-they blame me for e-everything. Not j-just what I've actually d-done, but thing's I h-haven't. But y-you... I'm so sorry."

"Huh?"

"I... I'm the one who made your life hell, ASRIEL. Y-yeah, I'm not that stupid. I k-know who you are. And I k-know what you were. I know... what I m-made you."

Alphys was filled with BRAVERY, KINDNESS, and INTEGRITY.

"I... I'm not asking for f-forgiveness, and I'm n-not asking for you to change your opinion about me. I'm not asking for anything. I just want you to know that... I'm sorry. And if you'll let me... maybe we could find you... a better vessel? I know nothing I can do could ever make up for what I've done to you, what I've probably forced you to go through. But I want to do my best to make it right. I'm the Queen of the Underground, and people believe I shouldn't be. I want to do my best to prove them wrong. I had no choice but to become queen. I want to do my best to make sure it wasn't a mistake."

Flowey was absolutely flabbergasted. This was not the Alphys he knew. Not the Alphys whom he'd tortured, played with, broken, over a million RESETS. The Alphys who was so cowardly, never taking action. The Alphys who never cared that she had hurt him.

But this Alphys didn't seem to be doing any of those things. This Alphys was decisive, almost confident. This Alphys cared. That didn't make any sense.

Flowey raised himself by lengthening his stem, bringing himself up to Alphys' level.

"That's... why would you do that?"

"Do... what?"

"Why would you want to help me?"

"... To make up for what I did."

"But it doesn't make sense. You'd be accomplishing nothing by placing me in another vessel, and I've done so much to hurt you people."

"Hm?"

"I... I was egging the Human on and on. I'm half the reason this all happened!"

"Oh, don't give yourself so much credit. I was watching on the cameras, the Human would've killed you too if they had wanted to. You thought you were in charge, but you were never in control. ASRIEL, listen. I've hurt you more than anyone else. I want to make up for that."

"NO! That doesn't make any sense! Why are you being so nice to me!?"

"Because... I need to."

Alphys reached out toward Flowey, who actually growled at her a bit, but somehow allowed her to touch one of his petals. Suddenly, everything went white for a moment.

Alphys saw herself, Undyne, Sans, ASGORE, Papyrus, and some female Boss Monster tied up in vines, at the mercy of Flowey. She saw the Human, being attacked by Flowey, and she felt love for the human, and feared that they would be harmed. She used her electric magic to protect them from Flowey's bullets, and watched as Undyne did the same with her spears, Papyrus and Sans using bones, and the Boss Monsters using flame.

She didn't understand. Why would she want to help them? Even Undyne wanted to help them. It didn't make any sense.

It was at the very moment that Alphys had whited out that Flowey had experienced an equally strange sensation. As Alphys touched him, it felt as if a shock of electricity had passed from her to him. He felt sensations running through him, so familiar, and yet so unfamiliar. Sensations that he knew he'd felt before, but that he couldn't put his finger on.

He and Alphys regained their composure at nearly the same instant.

"Whoah."

"Y-you said it. D-did that happen to you too?"

"Yeah. And... yeah. I'll... I don't..."

"You're trying to tell me that you accept? P-perfect! I'll meet you in the lab, 12 noon exactly, two days from now. I should have a vessel ready by then. Got it?"

"You... yeah, I understand. I, err..."

"Your welcome. Now get out of here, OK?"

"Sure."

With that, Flowey popped into the ground and Alphys let out a massive breath she'd been holding for some time at that point. She couldn't believe how successful that had been, despite being interrupted by that strange vision. Not only had she managed to somewhat sway Flowey to her side, she'd also massively reduced the risk of the flower LOADing or RESETing.

She couldn't honestly claim that her decision to move ASRIEL's essence into a new vessel was entirely selfless. She planned to reduce the amount of DETERMINATION in this new vessel's body, making it incapable of manipulating the timeline. But despite these ulterior motives, Alphys actually felt good about her decision, and she felt that perhaps she was really helping ASRIEL by doing what she planned to do.

Flowey reappeared miles away, in Waterfall. He was absolutely shocked by the sudden turn of events. Not only had Alphys decided to help him, not only was he getting a better vessel, but he had felt something. When Alphys touched him, it was like some of the energy from her SOUL passed into his body.

For just a moment, Flowey the Flower was filled with KINDNESS, BRAVERY, and INTEGRITY.

How had that happened!? What was going on?! First he'd felt a hint of happiness when he recognized the human as Chara, then a bit of fear when they killed Undyne the Undying. And now he was filled with more emotions than he'd had in hundreds of years.

This wasn't supposed to be happening. This was all wrong.

Or was it right?