The River-Person let them off the boat at Hotland without another word. Frisk looks at Undyne uncertainly. "Uh… Yeah they're… Unique," Undyne says. "Ugh, it's freaking hot… Let's just get this over with." She walks north then east to Alphys lab with Frisk and Flowey.

It's dark when they enter. Frisk reflexively holds the flower pot tighter. "It's okay, Frisk," Flowey tells them. "The lights are just off, nothing's going to hurt you." But Frisk still was worried.

Undyne looks a little nervous as well. She leads them ahead. "Alphys?" She calls out. "Hey, Alphys?" They all look around the darkened lab until the lights flick on.

A short, yellow, bespectacled, reptilian monster in a lab coat stares at them. "U- Undyne!? Ah, oh no… You didn't say you were dropping by! This place is a mess… I haven't showered… I-"

"Alph, I just got through half of Hotland in full armor, you're fine," Undyne says, crashing in a chair and putting her feet up on Alphy's desk. Frisk sets Flowey's pot on the other side of the desk.

"Y…You did that just to see me?" Alphys asks, looking embarrassed and tapping her fingers together nervously.

"Uh… Sure. Yeah. Also I need you to do your nerd stuff," Undyne says.

"S- science, you mean?"

"Yeah, nerd stuff," Undyne nods.

Alphys notices Frisk. "Uh… Um… H- Hiya…" Frisk isn't responding to her, instead looking at the large screen in the room centered on their face. "Oh, th... that, that's nothing really! Ha..." Alphys looks highly embarrassed, rushing over to turn the monitor off. "I was uh... just... watching y- your little journey is all. It's b- b- been very interesting!" She smiles uncertainly though it flattens when Frisk doesn't respond. "I- Is that... uh... weird?"

Undyne rolls her eyes. "Hey don't worry about what the kid thinks, I need you to do the science on them, okay Alphys?"

"Wait, what?" Alphys asks. "On them? How?"

"I don't know," Undyne replies. "Do I look like a nerd?"

"N…No?" Alphys says uncertainly. "I just don't get what you want for me to uh… do. Can you explain why you uh… want me to 'do science' on them?" She drops to a mumble, "I mean just a little clarification might help..."

Undyne takes a deep breath and starts explaining what happened. Alphys's eyes gradually grow wider, and she covers her mouth in shock towards the end. "And that's about it," Undyne finishes. "Weird darkness stuff, the kid's involved… uh… yep."

"Undyne, are you okay!?" Alphys asks worriedly.

"Huh? Oh yeah, yeah, I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me. But it's uh… sweet of you… that you did… heh." Undyne looks down and smiles.

"Is she… blushing?" Flowey whispers.

Alphys looks over at the sound. Her eyes widen as she recognizes Flowey. "Y- You!" she stammers.

"…Me?" Flowey asks.

Undyne shrugs. "Don't worry about the dahlia, he's just the kid's vaguely annoying pet."

"Pet!?" Flowey asks angrily. Alphys continues to back away, shaking her head.

"Hey," Undyne says worriedly. "What's wrong?"

"Th…the flower from the determination experiments… it escaped but… it's that flower."

Flowey looks puzzled. "Determination…experiments?"

Undyne looks between Alphys and Flowey. "Hold up… is he like… something you made or… something? What experiments are you talking about?"

Alphys looks down, ashamed. "I…"

"You what?" Flowey demands.

"It… was just an attempt to see what happened when… when something neither human nor monster was given determination." She quietly explained her experiments. Flowey stared with dawning realization.

"You…" he says quietly. "You're the one who made me like this." She looks up, then nods. "You made me like this!" Flowey said, furiously.

Flowey calm down. *You didn't know?

"No…" Flowey looks down, anger still in his eyes. "I just… I woke up near my home… I couldn't feel my body. I called out for help but…" He looks heartbroken for a moment before his features shift back to fury. "I can't believe this… you're why I am this way? Some… lizard scientist in Hotland is why I don't have a soul anymore?"

Alphys looks a little afraid. "I… I didn't know the flower would be sentient, let alone… wait…" She pauses. "What do you mean 'anymore'? Flowers d- don't have souls to begin with."

Flowey looks away from her angrily. "Forget it. Just forget it."

Alphys is quiet for a moment. "Well uh… those… things you saw, they sound kind of like something that shows up in the lab basement sometimes.

"Really?" Undyne asks. "Take us to the basement."

"What? No I can't do that," Alphys protests, shaking her head.

"Is it through here?" Undyne asks, going through what was presumably a bathroom.

"No!" Alphys yells. "I mean… Yes! It is through there but please don't go!" She chases after Undyne. Frisk follows quickly with Flowey who is uncharacteristically silent and blank faced. Undyne is already in the elevator pushing buttons. Alphys runs in, and the second Frisk steps through the doors close. "...Oh no," Alphys whispers.

There is a crash. "OHHHHH YES!" is the muffled reply elsewhere in the lab. "…HELLO? ALPHYS? …WASN'T THAT MY CUE? HELLOOOO?"

The elevator begins to descend and Alphys is pacing and fretting over the situation. "Undyne, this is a bad idea, a really really bad… idea…" She sighs and looks away.

"Why?" Undyne asks.

"It's just that… I'm not… who you think I am, I've done things you don't know about. …My greatest failures are in here."

"Failures?" Undyne asks. Alphys sighs quietly as the elevator stops and opens. Everyone steps off of it. "Before we go anywhere… I have a lot to tell you."

Undyne is quiet once Alphys finishes speaking. "I… see," she finally replies. "Let's just find what we need and get out." Her short response leaves Alphys looking even more upset.

Flowey finally speaks again. "She said there are reports about… me? I want to see them."

"I just fed the Amalgamates… they should be docile. It's probably safe for you to look around. I think they're mainly in the north hall," Alphys says flatly.

"Yeah, okay. Hey Frisk, can we go there?"

*Yes. No.

"Thanks Frisk." They walk away from Undyne and Alphys, venturing into the north hall. "I… I can't believe I'm from here… well… not from here originally but as I am now." He looks around. I don't like this place." It wasn't surprising. The halls of the true lab were cold, dim, and lonely. On their way there an Amalgamate had spotted them, staring Flowey down while standing perfectly still until they passed by. A ominous feeling hangs over the two as they look through reports. As they read them, Frisk squeezes the flowerpot more closely to themselves.

"Heh," Flowey laughs humorlessly. "A creature neither human nor monster with no soul… My parents must've scattered my dust over the very flower Alphys experimented on. …What luck." Frisk looks at him.

This is weird. *I think you act like you have a soul.

"You never saw me at my worst, Frisk," Flowey says darkly. "Well… you did, but you don't remember. And I'm glad you don't… I'm really glad you don't. I was a terrible person. I was a terrible, terrible person over and over again. I'm still that way deep down, I'm sure." His voice is shaky.

Yes, you are. *No, you aren't.

He shakes his head. "I killed you, you know. I killed you so many times. And I didn't even care, because I couldn't feel anything at all and I knew you'd be back." He laughs, though it sounds much more like a sob. "And this is why… I never knew, I just… woke up one day and thought I… " he trails off, looking uncertain. "I don't know what I thought… but I had new power, and I used it in the worst way I possibly could have. What do you think of that?"

Say nothing. *You don't act like that now though.

"Well, no," Flowey admits. "It's because of you… You showed me kindness and forgiveness… and the last time we fought, I felt… a lot of people's love for you. And maybe that changed me… I don't know. But there's no forgiving what I did." Frisk is silent but hugs him. "I guess this explains a lot but… it doesn't really matter, I was doomed to be evil from the start."

*But you're my friend. Say nothing.

"…Heh… you're… such an idiot," Flowey says. "No offense. But why be friends with someone as heartless as me?" Flowey doesn't give Frisk a chance to answer. "Let's just see if Alphys and Undyne found anything." Frisk takes him to them, Flowey doesn't speak at all on the way there, looking pensively at his roots.

When they find them, the two of them are looking over photographs of the Memory Heads. "Those things are definitely the same as the ones that chased us," Undyne says.

"Really?" Alphys asks. Undyne nods. "Those are… well I call them Freaky-Face-f- uh…facey face, uh…. Okay I don't call them anything since no one else knows about them. But they're sort of... different from the other Amalgamates. Sometimes they just... disappear. I don't know where they go."

Frisk looks down at Flowey who's still being silent and pensive. They pat his petals lightly. He looks up and sighs. "I'm alright, Frisk. Don't worry. …Hey Alphys, do all these Amalgamates kinda… look like me?"

"Sometimes," she admits. "They tend to shape-shift a little."

"Hm…" Flowey says quietly. "One of them stared at me a long time… like it… recognized me?"

Alphys nods and keeps looking around the lab. "Maybe the royal scientist before me wrote something about these face things."

"Yeah, probably," Undyne agrees. "Hey Alphys, who was the royal scientist before you anyway?"

"Uh… I'm not sure actually," she admits. "No, I must've worked under him… …uh… hm… I don't remember, weird." She keeps walking through.

After much searching, all they find is a file. "It's just about appointing me, forgot I put it down here," Alphys says. Frisk takes it, taking a look at it. Flowey reads it too. "It's really nothing," Alphys says. "Just official junk appointing me to be the royal scientist."

"'By Royal decree, I, King Asgore Dreemurr, appoint Alphys to replace [redacted] following [redacted]'s incident with the core.' But… who's this redacted guy?" Flowey asks.

"I… don't recall. Still… …That should be something I r- remember, shouldn't it?" Alphys asks.

In the end they don't find anything else of interest. "There's nothing here I guess…" Alphys says. "I… I'm sorry Undyne."

"It's okay," Undyne says, holing her arms as she looks around the True Lab in silence. "We… should go then." Everyone else seems to agree, and they go back to the elevator and stand in silence as it rises. "Alphys… you've been through a lot, huh?" Undyne eventually says. Alphys nods, looking ashamed that Undyne is seeing her in this light. "…Why didn't you tell me?"

Alphys forces herself to meet Undyne's gaze, but she doesn't look mad at her. Instead she looks concerned. "I… I thought you… wouldn't think very highly of me… and wouldn't want to… be my friend," Alphys admits.

"Well that's just dumb," Undyne says.

"I… I know," Alphys says. "I'd… understand if you don't want to… hang out and….. stuff. I mean all this... I just messed it all up, I-"

"Alphys, I still like you," Undyne says. Alphys looks up in surprise. "I just mean it's dumb that you wouldn't think I'd want to know that you've been hurting this whole time."

"Wait… what?" Alphys asks.

"You're my friend," Undyne says. "And… I want you to… you know, be okay…. so if something's wrong don't worry about me thinking less of you. I already know that you're awesome. And I… I don't want you bundling up all your troubles if telling me will help."

"Oh, Undyne," Alphys says, rubbing her eyes.

Undyne smiles reassuringly at her and squeezes her hand. "Still... all these monsters being locked up... isn't there any other way?"

Alphys looks down a little. "You're probably right... I should t- talk to their families. Maybe it's time for them to go home..."

Flowey looks at them quietly for a moment, then whispers to Frisk. "You know, its… weird. I… I don't think I can be mad at her. She didn't mean for what happened to me to… you know… happen. And I guess if she hadn't done it, a lot wouldn't have ever happened, but…" He frowns. "Actually I dunno what I'm trying to say."

I know. *It's okay.

Flowey nods a little. "Thanks… Frisk. I guess… you're one good thing to happen to me. I'm glad we met." Frisk, for once, smiles a little at his words, and stays smiling the whole way back up the elevator.

It opens with a ding when they reach the top. Everyone steps out. There's now a hole nearby the bathroom door. "S- sorry all that was just a waste of time, everyone," Alphys says, going back into the middle of her lab. "I feel like some information must have been there but uh... Guess... I was wrong. Maybe we won't ever know what those things were…"

"oh i doubt that," a voice says. Everyone turns towards the entrance, where Sans leans against the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" Flowey asks.

"hey," Sans shrugs. "i told you guys i'd find you when i found something that could help. well, i found something you should see. and from what i understand, you've found a trace of something i lost a long time ago." He walks to them, smile not entirely reaching his eye sockets. "so… i heard from a certain river-person that you've met the old royal scientist. and now i've got just one question." He pauses, looking over all of them. "mind telling me how my brother's doing?"