I found the old memorial to me. Frisk's umbrella fell over.

I put the umbrella back up.

If there's anyone besides me and Sans who really knows what's going on, it's Alphys. I've already read all of her notes, but maybe there's something I haven't found yet. The lab may have the answers I'm looking for.

Finally. Hotland.

Sign's broken.

Ugh.

Now I remember why I didn't like spying on Alphys.

So much of her stuff has nothing to do with her work. Almost everything on her desk is about cartoons and comics.

And it's not just notes or reviews or clippings. Half of the mess is just drawings and her own little stories. She actually writes stories and comics using the same characters in those cartoons… romances and dramas and other garbage. She even writes stories about real people. She puts Undyne and Asgore everywhere… even herself, sometimes. It's just as pathetic as I remember.

Amazing. Some people are so afraid of the real world that it's not even enough for them to live in a fantasy world. They actually write their own dorky fantasies about other people's dorky fantasies.

She even proofreads them, as if she's afraid somebody might actually read them and notice a mistake. What kind of person would actually read any of this? Does she really think anybody would care?

Ha. Ha. Maybe I should start writing my own stories. I guess that's what you do when you're stuck in a painful world and you know you'll never get out.

No, I know better than that. Reality is a fight for survival. The strong kill the weak, until only one person is left.

Only weak people try to escape.

I don't believe it.

She left the door open.

No alarms, either.

That door was never open before. Another barrier I couldn't cross… Every time I tried to break through, it would sound an alarm, and people would come. And whenever I kill too many people, sooner or later, Sans always shows up.

But she just left it open on the way out. Why?

What happened here? What was she hiding all this time?

Wow.

I knew Alphys dabbled in some strange experiments before. But I thought I was her only one.

I'm not the only mistake she made.

Ha. Ha…

No wonder you were afraid. Mom.

Alphys gave determination to other monsters. It did terrible things to them. I don't know exactly what, but it was so awful that she hid them in the lab so nobody would know what she had done. That's what happened to all the monsters who got sent to her lab. She turned them into freaks.

They're gone now. She must have let them out so they could follow the others out of the Underground. I wonder what the other monsters thought when they found out what she did.

It looks like she abandoned everything else. Including a curious machine she used to extract determination.

That's where she got it from. She must have sucked it out of the other humans when they died.

She sucked the determination out of Chara's corpse.

That's why Chara never came back. Alphys took away their determination.

Alphys killed my best friend.

And Asgore let her do it.

I've scoured the lab. That's all I can find. Alphys knows how to extract determination from a human and inject it into something else. And that's about it.

This doesn't help at all. I already have determination, and since nobody else here has any determination to compete with mine, I don't need more of it.

Unless having more determination can help me reset further back.

Maybe, if I'm determined enough, I could reset to before I let go of those souls, and stayed as strong as I was before I turned back into a flower. Or maybe I could even reset to the time before my death, and make things the way they used to be.

I could be with Chara again. And Mom and Dad. I don't remember what it was like, but I know it was good.

And if not… maybe I can use to the machine to get rid of my determination instead.

I've tried so many times to die, but every time, I come back. The determination Alphys gave me never lets me die, even when I want to. It's not like a human's determination, where you can actually let go.

If I got rid of my determination, I could finally go to sleep.

The DT extractor says it has some determination left. She must have stopped experimenting before she ran out.

I turn the thing on. It responds, but I don't know if it would actually work. I'm the only thing to test it on, and I'm not ready to let go of my determination just yet. Not until I know for sure that I don't have any other choices.

I don't fully understand how the machine works, but I've put the things together. It's got the right components in place, according to Alphys' designs, and it isn't displaying any problems. The DT injector works, too. I can increase my determination or get rid of. Either is possible.

Unless the machine malfunctions.

This doesn't change anything.

I need a human soul.

Without a soul, I can't feel love and I'm still just a flower. When I had all the other souls in me, I was the most powerful being in the world… but without it, I'm nothing.

Asriel said love was even stronger than determination. I need love. But you need a soul to feel love, and I don't have one. I'd have to absorb someone else's soul. And that's the problem.

The only souls left in the Underground belong to monsters. And monsters can't absorb the souls of other monsters. The only reason I could absorb monster souls at the barrier was because I had six human souls as well.

I need a human soul. Nothing else would work. But all the exits to the Underground are sealed. Asriel closed the last exit.

No more humans are going to come down here.

There are still some human bodies left. I've seen them. But none of them have souls left. And the determination was sucked out, too.

They're just corpses now.

I have another idea.

I could try and bring back Chara. Even though Asriel said not to.

All I have to do is bring their body up to the lab and inject them with determination. That's how Alphys created me; my dust was in that flowerbed.

Asriel is right about one thing. Chara won't be the same. But that doesn't mean Chara will be bad.

I came back very different. I was a lot weaker. And a lot less nice. I know that much.

And I know that Chara wasn't the nicest person. But Chara was my friend, if no one else's.

So does that mean Chara would come back nicer, because people come back as opposites?

Or does that mean Chara would come back less nice, because that's what happened to me?

And if Chara doesn't have their soul anymore, would they be the same person?

Or would there just be two Floweys, trapped in the Underground forever?

And if there are two Floweys… would we be friends?

I go to the Ruins and dig up their coffin. Their mummified body lies inside, cold and dry.

You were the only one who understood, Chara. The only one I could trust.

You were right. I shouldn't have resisted. We should have destroyed those humans who attacked us, and taken their souls. It was stupid not to fight back.

We could have grown more powerful than anything else in the world. We could still be together.

If we took over the universe, things would finally be okay.