"Hey, Chara, what's it like in the human world? Up on the surface? Is it beautiful?"

"..."

"Oh, come on, don't give me that look! It can't be that bad, can it?"

"It's not as great as you may think, Asriel."

"Well, it's gotta be better than being stuck down here."

"... Maybe..."

I squinted my eyes against the sunlight that brushed across my face. It was such a contrast from the darkness I had just left. Gradually, the white spots that covered my vision faded and I could make out my surroundings. Golden flowers. A great throne stood tall in the midst of the sea of yellow. I was back in the throne room? I looked down at myself. Still a flower. Dang.

How in the world had I gotten all the way back to the throne room? And... Was it my imagination, or had I just nearly willed myself to die?! That was most certainly new. Apparently this body was more frail than I had originally thought if losing the desire to live was enough to make me crumble into dust. And it still didn't explain how I had gotten here.

Rehearsing the last events in my memory, I tried to piece together what happened. I was dying, and then I was back here... Maybe Alphys somehow brought me back to life again? Stuck me into a new flower body? How had they found me, though? I was turning into dust in a river that emptied into a void. There really was no way I could possibly be existing.

Thinking about it didn't seem to be resulting in any clear answers. If anyone knew what was going on, though, it had to be Dr. Alphys. As much as I hated her guts, I needed answers, and she was the one who had them. Besides, I had been meaning to corner her and demand to know what had happened to me in the first place, how she had managed to stuff me into a flower and bring me back to life a month ago.

I plunged into the dark soil and swam my way through the castle, sticking close to familiar corridors just to make sure I knew where I was going. I spotted the king watering some of the flowers inside of New Home and chose to avoid him. I'd rather not have to explain why I had suddenly run off. Eventually, I made it to the lab in the middle of the hotlands. Alphys was sitting at her computer, watching some sort of cartoon.

I pulled myself through the tiles of her lab directly at her feet. "Howdy, Alphys!" It was strangely satisfying watching her scream at the top of her lungs, flail, and fall over backwards out of her chair.

"Wh-wh-what?! D-don't s-scare me like th-that! How did you...?" She untangled herself from her overturned computer chair and gaped at me. "A... A f-flower?"

I narrowed my eyes at the lizard woman. "What, don't tell me you forgot about me already?" She worked her mouth for a second, trying to formulate words that weren't successfully coming out.

"I-is it r-really... Are y-you the flower I... Erm... I mean... Um... A-are you the t-test s-subject? How are you, uh... W-well... Living?"

"Funny, I was just about to ask you that," I stated wryly. "What did you do to me? What test were you doing? Why am I not dead?" The doctor nervously picked herself up off the ground and set the chair upright again before wandering over to me. She clicked her claws together, her eyebrows knotting up in deep thought.

"I in-injected... I f-filled you w-with determination."

"With what?!"

"D-determination. That's... eh..." She scratched her head for a moment, a shy smile pulling at her mouth. "It's what I call the stuff that makes a human soul live... A-after the body d-dies I mean. Uh..." Her head slumped even more than usual. "I d-didn't expect it t-to make you a sentient being! I swear! Uh..."

"Wait. So you weren't trying to bring me back to life?" I was confused.

"B-back...? You mean you... Were alive before?" Now we were both confused. Great.

"Uh... Hello? I know it's been like a month, but you've been hiding from me ever since. You can't seriously tell me that you forgot about the fact that you brought the king's son back from the dead!" Alphys gaped at me again.

"W-what?!"

Despite all odds, it seemed as though Alphys had completely forgotten about our encounter when I had first woken up as a flower. The befuddled look she gave was pretty funny-looking on her reptilian features, almost silly enough to make me bust out laughing. I might have laughed if I wasn't pissed off at her.

Suddenly her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean I've been h-hiding from you? I only put you back in the garden yesterday..."

"You mean after you found me dying, or whatever you did?"

"What? N-no! You were never dying! You were never r-really alive! I grabbed a flower from the King's garden in the throne room, stuffed it full of raw determination and n-nothing happened, so I put you back! End of st-story!" Her expression shifted from anger to concern. "Er... Well... so I had thought?"

Things were really not adding up here. I was pretty sure that my face was almost an exact mirror of the confused look the doctor had so recently worn. Clearly, accusations were not helping, and somehow the information I knew was not matching up with what Dr. Alphys knew. I was going to have to try a different line of questioning.

"Alphys, what does determination do?"

"Uhhhhh..." She looked very uncomfortable about that question. "I'm... Not... Really sure? Th-that what all the experiments were for..."

Ooookay... Very helpful. Not! "So you injected a bunch of it into a flower. Why?"

"I-it was supposed to be a surprise for King Asgore!" I did recall her saying something like that before. "I needed s-something to put the monster souls into, since monsters can't absorb the souls of other m-monsters. I thought it might be k-kinda cool to use the king's f-favorite flowers... As a present... I guess..." She took a seat in the chair, leaning forward so her elbows rested on her knees. "What did you mean about b-bringing King Asgore's son b-back to life? Y-you're not... Are you...?"

I took a dramatic bow, bending so low that the petals on the top of my head brushed against the ground. "Prince Asriel, at your service!" I straightened and planted my fists on my stem. "Now I would really like to know what happened to me and why the heck I'm a flower."

To my great surprise, the doctor suddenly fainted, toppling from her chair for the second time that day and nearly smooshing me on the way down.

"How's this? Tell me your favorite part of being on the surface."

"Hm... I'd have to say the flowers."

"Flowers?! We've got flowers down here!"

"Not like what's up there. In the spring, they'd cover the hillsides. It looked like paint, there were so many colors."

"Wow! Sounds beautiful!"

"It was..."

The table I was lying on was very uncomfortable and the giant machine above me was doing nothing to calm my anxieties. Dr. Alphys fidgeted nearby, sorting through containers, tools, and other scary looking medical equipment. Having my roots fully exposed to the air and not tucked away safely in the dirt made me feel vulnerable. The sooner I could get off this thing, the better. At last she wandered over to a computer monitor that was hooked up to the machine looming over my head.

"O-OK, Asriel. I'm starting the sc-scan now. Hold still. This should only take a s-second." The machine hummed to life. I eyed it warily, but didn't actually feel anything. "Done!" The doctor had a determined look on her face as she poked at the screen, reading whatever data had started to appear.

Honestly, I had not previously known that this portion of the lab even existed. The place seemed a lot older and more run-down than Alphys's shiny lab upstairs. It was probably left from the previous royal scientist and Alphys had simply inherited access to it along with the job. The doctor insisted that she bring me to this place so she could run some proper tests.

I neglected to mention to her that she had already run a few tests on me when I had first appeared as a flower, but only because she seemed to have zero recollection of the event ever happening. I decided that trying to bring it up would only delay getting the answers I needed. It would be best to find out what she knew first before pointing out to her what she didn't seem to know.

Dr. Alphys stuck her thumbnail in her mouth and gnawed on it unconsciously. "Huh. Weird," she muttered. I did my best to sit up so as to get a better look at the monitor, though it was faced mostly away from me. "It seems, uh, you no longer have the ph-physical properties of a plant anymore. You're like... An in-between thing? Like, you're a flower, but you're also a monster..."

"How does that work?"

"I'm not actually sure... You're mostly a plant, with the, uh, mostly m-made of water thing... A-and you probably still need sunlight and n-nutrients to survive because of photosynthesis and stuff... But you're also made of magic?"

I frowned, a bit confused by what she was talking about. I knew that monsters were made mostly of magic and so had just assumed that plants were the same. I didn't really know that much about what a plant was made of or any sciency stuff like that.

"T-technically what you are is impossible," the doctor stated, shuffling her feet a bit. "I'm pretty sure that the only reason y-you're still living is b-because of the determination. A-and I'm still not even sure how or why you're Asriel... My only theory is that because the flowers grew from your... uh... dust... that somehow your essence got put into the flowers?" She really did not look confident in that explanation, but it made a sort of sense.

"Ok. So I'm a flower that grew with me in it, then when you filled it with determination it somehow fused me with the flower?" Her look was pitifully uncertain and she gave a halfhearted shrug.

"Again, this i-is all just g-guess work at this point! I really wasn't expecting anything l-like this to happen! I mean, y-you don't even have a soul or anything... I thought at best I'd end up with a hard-to-kill flower. At worst, it w-would melt..." Again with the melting thing. What was that all about?

"Why would you be worried about me melting?"

"N-no reason! Y-you d-don't need t-to worry about that! I just checked you to m-make sure! Y-you've got enough ph-physical m-matter to hold the determination w-without... Without... Uh... Melting..."

That didn't sound very reassuring.

"Did other things melt when you stuffed it full of this determination stuff?" The doctor didn't respond for a while, her expression alternating between fear and embarrassment. She took a deep breath and let it all out.

"I first tried injecting th-the determination into m-monsters... A-and it worked for a little while, but... I guess their bodies didn't take too well to it, and... They... M-melted..."

"And you're absolutely sure that's not going to happen to me, right?"

Abruptly she shed her uncertainty and gave a stiff, solid nod. "Yes. I am positive that you are going to be just fine." Then her body slumped again and all her nervousness was back. "B-besides... If y-you were going to melt, you would have done so by now." Good to know.

"So what kinds of things can I do in this body? You said I still have magic, right?" No need to tell her that I had already discovered my fair share of magic abilities that came with being a flower.

"Uhh. I don't know... I guess w-we should probably find out... Let me run a few more tests on you... Try, uh, casting fire magic. Like what you used to do."

Sure thing, doc. I focused in my mind what used to enable my fire magic. A small pellet of energy appeared in the air, glowing faintly before vanishing in a puff of smoke. I tried again. The pellet came back and I made sure to keep my magic flowing into it to keep it from vanishing. Then I summoned another one. Then another. I tried mentally forcing the tiny dots to burst into flames, but that only made them all fizzle and vanish. I sighed. That seemed to be the extent of my old powers.

Dr. Alphys watched the entire display with keen interest. When the pellets finally disappeared, she let out a little humph. I glared at her. Her eyes went wide when she noted my sour expression and she immediately began apologizing.

"I'm sorry! I guess I sh-should have expected something like this. B-because you have less magic than you should, it seems that your fire magic doesn't r-really work anymore. S-so. Um... But I'm sure you probably have other things to m-make up for it. More, uh, plant like things? Like... Um... The ability to... Um... Grow?"

Way to go. I already discovered that much on my own. It seemed as though Alphys wouldn't be much help in regards to what I could or could not do as a flower. I faced the wall, abruptly feeling very discouraged.

"Hey, Alphys?"

"Y-yes, Asriel?"

"What did you mean about me not having a soul?"

A long pause followed. When she did speak, her voice went soft. "Well, th-that's just the thing... Y-you really shouldn't be alive... Because every living things needs to have a soul in order to function. But... You... um... Don't... You somehow kept your sense of self as Asriel, but you don't actually have a soul anymore."

I looked down at my leaves, curling them and uncurling them. "Does that mean I'm not actually Asriel? I just have the memories of being Asriel?"

"Um... I... I wouldn't say that... I-I mean, you can st-still be Asriel without having a soul. Y-you're kind of an anomaly... Nothing like you h-has ever really existed before... So who am I to s-say what you are or what you aren't? Y-you still feel like Asriel, right?"

I thought of how distant I felt from my old family and friends. I thought of how short-tempered I had become, quick to find fault in others. I thought of my new body and all of the changes that came with it. My magic wasn't the same, my personality wasn't the same... No. I didn't feel like Asriel anymore. Who I was, the monster I used to be, was dead. All these memories that filled my brain meant nothing anymore. Asriel died all those years ago in that throne room. What I had become was no longer the son of a king. I was a flower. A flower with memories of being a prince.

Alphys coughed awkwardly behind me. "A-anyway, I don't really know what else I can do for you... Uh... It's really hard to, uh, know anything about you. So. Um. I guess you keep, uh, living... And come back to me if anything weird happens?"

I didn't respond. Dr. Alphys was just another dead-end. No wonder she had hid in her lab before. She was avoiding me because she hadn't wanted to admit to me or the king that she didn't have any clue what I was much less how to help me. I wasn't even created on purpose. It was a freak accident. That just made this all the worse. This doctor was useless.

"I'll... Uh... Be upstairs if you need me." I heard her claws click across the floor as she hastily left. Finally, I was alone to my thoughts.

It seemed as though I would have to get used to being a flower. Maybe I was Asriel, maybe I wasn't. It didn't really matter. All that mattered was determining a course of action. I already knew from experience that the moment I lost my determination, I would dissolve into dust, so I couldn't let that happen. But what could I do? How could I stay determined?

My mind immediately latched onto the thought of the six human souls that King Asgore had collected. Asriel or not, that was my goal. That was what Chara and I had planned all those years ago. Collect enough souls to break the barrier and free monster-kind from this hellish place. I could do it this time. I could get the souls from Asgore, return to the surface and gather one more, and then I could free everyone. That was my purpose. My goal. That was how I could keep my determination.

"Oh man! I can't wait until the barrier is broken! Then I could go with you to see those flowers!"

"... Do you really want to go to the surface?"

"Haha, are you kidding?! Of course I do! Everyone does!"

"I think I figured out how we can do it..."

The King was minding his own business trying a new recipe in the kitchen when I popped up beside him. Like with Toriel, I suddenly found myself hesitant, my confidence draining when my brain pulled a blank for what to say. I knew I needed to bring up the six souls that he had, but how would I do that without making him suspicious? And how was I going to explain why I left? Would I tell him about Mom? Because of my delay, Asgore noticed me before I could say anything and his expression turned to one of faint surprise.

"Hello there," he rumbled, "How did you get in here?" That was a lot calmer of an answer than I had expected considering my abrupt disappearance before.

"Through the floor," I stated, not sure what else to say.

"Huh. An interesting ability. Can I get you some tea?" Definitely very calm. Suspiciously so, actually. Hello, son, just came down for breakfast. How's it going? Where've you been for the past couple of weeks? With Mom? Well, that's cool. Have some tea. I sighed.

"I... Need to talk to you..."

"Oh? About what? Have I seen you before? You look vaguely familiar."

What?

Everything that I had been about to say suddenly flew out of my mind. Did he seriously not remember? Having your son come back from the dead wasn't something one simply forgot. Especially not in only a few short weeks. What in the world?

"Uh..."

The timer on the top of the stove took that opportunity to go off, blaring with a shrieking wail. "Oh!" The king reached over and turned it off. He donned some oven mitts and pulled a pie tin out of the oven, setting it on the stove to cool.

"Sorry about that," Asgore said in a far-too-cheery tone. "If you stay for a while, this will be cool enough to eat. Come, we can sit at the table." He strode out of the kitchen and seated himself at the far end of the dining table. I ducked below ground and swam over to one of the empty chairs. I was getting much better at moving and I was able to pull my roots from the ground and use them to pull myself up into the chair. It was weird using my feet to climb with rather than my hands, but then again, there were a lot of weird things about my new body.

"Now, what is it you wanted, my little flowery friend?" The King folded his hands on the table in front of him, appearing very business-like. Even standing at full height on the chair, my head only just barely came above the edge of the table. I felt very small and pathetic. Hardly the appearance I wanted for this particular conversation, but it was really hard to look strong as a flower.

"I want to see the six souls you have," I stated bluntly. When in doubt, just get straight to the point. That way I wouldn't have to deal with any more mindless gibbering from Asgore than was totally necessary. It was incredibly odd that he didn't seem to know who I was, but I decided to take that as a blessing rather than a curse right at the moment. It meant that I didn't have to try and explain everything to his simple little mind.

Then I saw his face.

The look on Asgore's face was not a pleasant one. His eyes were hooded, his expression stern. I couldn't remember a time seeing him so dark. It wasn't cheerful, it wasn't naive, it wasn't anything he usually was. For the first time, I could visualize him killing the humans, collecting their souls one by one. This was a side to my father that I had never seen before.

"Those souls are not something to be taken lightly," Asgore stated coldly. "What do you want with them?"

"I... I want to break the barrier."

"As does every monster. But I have six souls. I need one more."

"What if I told you that we don't need all seven right now? If I can get to the surface, I can collect however many human souls you want." Those words. They weren't mine. They were Chara's. It was what Chara had told me all those years ago.

"A fine idea. But I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to do that."

"What?"

"I have worked too hard to collect those souls to risk losing them. Surely you must understand."

I scowled, baring my teeth at him. "How stupid can you get?!" I demanded. "You already have everything you need to break the barrier! Why would you pass up an opportunity like this?!"

The King slammed both palms on the table, standing over me. "I will not be mocked, especially not in my own home!"

My eyes went wide and I cowered in my chair. I had never heard my father raise his voice like this. Never. His eyes were tight slits on his face, his looming form radiating power and dominance.

"Now, I have explained to you that I cannot allow you to do as you wish. My answer is final. You may now leave." It wasn't a suggestion. I hopped from the chair and fled into the ground.

That had not gone according to plan at all.

"You want to take my soul?!"

"What other choice do we have, Asriel? Only the combined souls of a monster and a human can pass through the barrier."

"But... But... I... I don't want to die. I want to stay with you. Forever."

"You will, Asriel. I promise."

I really wasn't sure what to do or where to go next. I didn't want to go to waterfall. Being that close to the garbage dump where I had nearly let myself die didn't sound like a good idea. Hotland didn't seem particularly appealing either since I was pretty sure that plants were flammable. So instead I went to the little village of Snowdin. Not wanting to hang out in the cold snow, I entered the local diner and relaxed in a corner of the room, completely unnoticed by everyone else there. It was a good place to stop and think about what to do for a while.

My goal was to figure out how to break the barrier, but without those human souls, that plan was pretty well out of reach. What disturbed me most was the rage my father had shown. Eerily, I thought of the words my mother had spoken about how my father had thrown away his compassion. It made me shiver. Had my death really changed my father that much? He seemed normal when I had first seen him, but he had known I was Asriel then.

That brought up the other thought that was worrying me. Both he and Dr. Alphys had completely forgotten who I was. I could no longer deny that fact. Somehow everyone's memories had been erased. Of course, the only way to confirm that would be to try and talk to Toriel, but I really didn't want to face her if my hypothesis turned out to be false.

When had the memory wipe happened? The only thing I could think of was the moment when I had died in waterfall. It seemed really strange to me that rather than ending up a pile of dust being swept down the river, I had instead awoken in the throne room again. And since then, it seemed that no one remembered who I was. It was almost like... Time had reset or something. But that couldn't be. I had never heard of any time magic before.

Dr. Alphys's voice echoed through my head as I tried to recall exactly what she had said about my new form and that determination stuff. Determination. The stuff that's found in a human soul that allows it to continue existing even when the human had died. That just made me think of Chara. She had certainly been determined. She had been so determined to free all monsters that she was willing to sacrifice her own body for it. I slumped against the back wall. I had let her do it, too. It was my fault she was dead now. Just as it was my fault I had died. Twice now.

Determination. The force so powerful that it allows a being to resist death. What if...? Was that the reason no one remembered me and I was somehow still alive? I had been so determined not only to live, but to be in a position to try again. Had that somehow warped me back in time? That seemed odd, but stranger things had happened. Technically my own existence was impossible, according to Dr. Alphys, so who's to say I couldn't go back in time, too? I only wished that I had been brought back further in time, to before I was a flower. Before I got myself killed. That was what I really wanted to do. Go back and make sure it never happened again.

Apparently, I could only go back to as far as when I had been jammed full of determination. I guess that made sense if it was the determination itself that was allowing me to defy the laws of time.

My thoughts were interrupted when the noise level in the crowded room suddenly elevated. I looked up and peeked around the table I was hiding behind to look at what was going on. It seemed that someone had entered and everyone was calling out to him in greeting. Must be a popular guy. What caught my attention was how human he looked. Two arms, two feet, no fins or feathers, he even seemed to be about the same height Chara had been, though it was really hard to tell since my perception of size had been drastically altered. The only odd thing was that his skin was white and smooth, almost like it was made of porcelain. It was only when he turned in my direction that I caught sight of his empty eye sockets and perpetually grinning teeth. A skeleton. Huh.

I had never seen this guy before, but it had been a long time since I died and I wasn't very good at remembering every monster anyway, especially when they lived in a remote spot like Snowdin. I retreated to my corner again, tuning out the noise. The skeleton was chatting nonchalantly to everyone and apparently what he said was really funny because the whole room continually erupted with laughter. Great. They couldn't just leave me to peacefully enjoy my corner in silence, now could they? Thankfully the volume lowered when the newcomer took a seat at the bar and began to order food.

My thoughts returned to trying to come up with a way to get the human souls from Asgore. I couldn't introduce myself as Asriel again since it was highly unlikely that he would believe me this time. I could maybe get Alphys to vouch for me, but even then, there was no way I could convince the King to let me do anything now that I had angered him. No, somehow I had royally screwed up. But if I was right about being able to reset everything, then maybe I could go back and try to not call Asgore an idiot this time. That would mean that Alphys would forget about me again, but who cared about her? She wasn't much use for anything anyway. Now if only I could figure out how to restart time. I wasn't sure how I had done it before, if that was even what I had done. My theory still remained unproved.

"Heya, little buddy. You didn't even peep when I walked in. Don'tcha know it's rude to not introduce yourself when you're new in town?" I sat up straight at the sudden voice right next to me. The skeleton was kneeling on the ground beside my table, peering at me with dim lights shining from the empty slots where his eyes should be. I hadn't even heard him get up from his bar stool. How in the world had he noticed me?

"Who are you talking to, Sans?" One of the dogs at the adjacent table was leaning backwards to get a better look at my corner.

"Uhh..." I mumbled, caught off guard from suddenly becoming the center of attention.

"Hey, that looks like one of King Asgore's flowers!" This came from a sickly-looking rabbit across the room from me who was using their table as a pillow.

The skeleton walked around the table I had been hiding under and slumped down on the floor against the wall next to me. "Don't mind em," he said gesturing to the diner's other inhabitants. "They're all pretty chummy once you get to know them." He gave me a wink as if he was trying to reassure me or something. It wasn't working. "So what's your name, kid?" I scowled at him. What right did he have, bothering me?

When I didn't respond, he chuckled to himself. "Not saying, huh? Well, then how 'bout I call you Flowey then? Y'know. Cuz you're a flower."

"That's the dumbest name I've ever heard," I spat.

"Well, if you don't want me to use it, then you should just tell me your real name." I huffed in irritation. I couldn't very well go around telling everyone that I was Asriel back from the dead. I didn't have to explain myself to a bunch of strangers anyway. "Flowey it is," the skeleton concluded, his grin somehow growing wider.

Maybe if I ignored him he would go away. I could always just leave, but I really didn't feel like wandering through the underground trying to find a new spot to think just because some jerk decided to bug me.

"Gee, you're a literal stick in the mud, aren'tcha? Can't you see I'm trying to have a conversation with you here? C'mon, work with me." I glared at him. Why, yes, I could see that he was trying to have a conversation with me. Couldn't he see that I was trying to not have one? He sighed and stared up at the ceiling. "Knock knock."

I pointedly ignored him.

"That's usually your cue to say 'who's there'. Let's try this again. Knock knock."

I let out an exasperated groan. Fine, I'll humor the guy. Why not. "Who's there," I intoned.

"P."

"P who?"

"Aw, I don't smell that bad!" He grinned at me, waiting for a response. I gave him my best dead-pan expression. I didn't have to work too hard to achieve the look. A few of the other monsters in the room chuckled to themselves at the joke, clearly listening in to hear whatever this guy had to say.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say you don't want to hear another joke," he said dryly. "Y'know. Just a word of advice. You seem like you could be a pretty good guy, if you tried to be. It really wouldn't hurt to be nice to people now and again. Who knows? Maybe someone will grow on you." With another wink, the skeleton climbed to his feet and turned to leave. "Anyways, I'm late for work. See you around, kid." A few of the others in the room bade him farewell and he paused to wave to them before exiting the diner.

Finally. Peace and quiet. I returned to my musings about how to obtain the human souls, but a little part of me was troubled by what the grinning jerk had said. He was right about me being aloof. I had somehow lost my compassion when I had turned into a flower. I didn't used to feel this way towards other monsters. I had always been told that I was rather empathetic. And now I hated everyone. It was stupid for me to be bothered by such a small thing considering all of the other things that were wrong in my life. I tried to shove down my worry. I had more important matters to attend to.

After contemplating a course of action, I finally concluded that my plans would all be moot if I didn't actually have the ability to go back in time. There was only one way to test my theory and that

was to confront my mother and see if she remembered me. As much as I hated the idea, I had to know.

I burrowed into the ground and headed for the ruins. I had already covered most of the distance anyway just to get to Snowdin. And if Toriel remembered me, then I would just run away again, simple as that. It wasn't as if I cared about her feelings anymore anyway.

"Hey Asriel, lighten up, I was just joking with you. There's no way I'd take your soul. It's probably too weak to pass through the barrier anyway."

"Haha! As if! I'm way stronger than you are, Chara!"

"Oh, really..."

My mother blinked at me, obviously confused. She hadn't been inside the house, so I had to go into the ruins to find her watering a patch of flowers. It was the same patch of flowers that Chara had fallen into all those years ago. I gazed up into Toriel's eyes. I had never thought that I would find myself hoping that my mother didn't recognize me. After a painstakingly long moment, the goat smiled down at me.

"Hello there, my child. I haven't seen you around the ruins before. What can I do for you?" I breathed out a sigh of relief. I was right! Somehow everyone's memories of me were gone! If I did it once before, I could do it again!

"You have already done plenty," I informed her. She cocked her head, frowning.

"You do seem oddly familiar, though... Have we met once before?"

I gave her my biggest grin. "I sure hope not. Not like this anyway." Before she could give me a puzzled response, I retreated into the soil. I set out towards the garbage dump in waterfall, simply because it was the place where I had managed the miraculous time warp thingy before.

My head broke the surface, surrounded by my smaller counterparts drifting in the water. Now how to use my powers... "Go back!" I demanded into the air. Nothing happened. "Restart!" I shouted. Still nothing. The sound of rushing water filled my ears and the place remained exactly the same.

"I-is someone there?" a tentative voice asked. Oops. It seemed as though I wasn't the only one down here. Well that was embarrassing. From behind one of the garbage stacks, Dr. Alphys poked her head out, both claws nervously tucked under her chin. I grit my teeth and sank down to hide among the other flowers. Oh great, not only was I not alone, I was with the one person who knew who I was.

"I, uh, m-must be imagining things," the doctor said when her cursory glance didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Another person stepped out behind her to get a look. I didn't know the dark-skinned fish monster, but they didn't look like someone I wanted to mess with.

"Nuh-uh. I heard it, too, Alphys. There was definitely someone yelling over here," the other monster said, crossing her arms. She strode over to my location, and despite my camouflage, spotted me immediately. "Whoa! There's a flower with a face over here! What's up, little guy?" She gave me a huge, toothy grin that somehow made her look even more scary.

"W-what? A flower with a f-face?" Dr. Alphys tentatively followed her masculine friend. She stopped when she saw me huddled in the flowers. "A-asriel? What are you doing here?"

"Hiya, Alphys," I mumbled, pulling myself out of the water now that I was caught. I would have run away, but Alphys might be able to give me more information about this determination stuff and maybe help me figure out how to use it to go back in time again.

"Wait, you know this guy?" the taller monster blurted. Then she paused. "Did you just call him Asriel? Isn't that, like, the name of Asgore's kid?" Alphys looked down at the ground and scuffed her feet in the water.

"N-no. I mean. Y-yes. I mean. Th-this is a d-different Asriel? Um..." Wow she was bad at lying.

"Howdy! I'm Asriel, the king's son that Alphys here managed to turn into a flower! Nice to meet ya!" The baffled expression on the monster's fishy face was priceless. Totally worth it. I settled my gaze back on Alphys and addressed her again. "Heya, Doc, I was wondering if you could help me with something."

"Um. Whatever you n-need?"

"Do you happen to know anything about the ability to travel back in time?" Alphys and her companion exchanged looks, the friend looking confused, Alphys looking scared.

"I, um, don't know how to m-make anything like that work. I mean, I've heard of st-stuff like that, but most of those stories... Don't end well... Why do you ask?" I frowned. So she had heard of it at least.

"I think the determination let me reset time once before," I admitted. I hadn't planned on telling her that, but if she had any information that might help me, that was better than nothing. And if I did manage to get this to work, she wouldn't remember me telling her anyway.

"R-reset? To what point, Asriel?"

"Back to when I first woke up as a flower. I thought it was strange when no one seemed to remember me, including you. I spent a whole month as a flower before that, but when I woke up again, it was like none of that had ever happened."

"What?! Th-that's unusual. What triggered it? Do you know?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," I growled. "The last thing I remember was..." Dying. The idea suddenly struck me. What if the only way to reset everything was to die? It was a risky move, but worth trying.

"Th-the last thing you remember was what, Asriel?" The doctor's eyes were wide with concern. The fish beside her looked like she wanted to say something, but wasn't sure what she could add to this conversation. No doubt she was confused out of her mind.

I smiled up at the doctor, formulating a plan of action in my head. "Thanks for a whole lot of nothing, doc! See you around!"

"W-wait! Asriel!" I plunged into the ground and made a bee-line towards the castle. Alphys scrambled to where I had disappeared, but I was already far beyond her reach. It was time to face my father again and see just how strong he really was.

"Have you ever wondered what dying feels like? I mean, human souls last outside of the body. Do you think that person is still aware of everything? Would it really be that bad to die?"

A strange, ethereal glow shone through the stained glass windows of the hallway where I had resurfaced. King Asgore stood at the far end, his face cast in shadows. I waited patiently as he approached. It seemed that his moment of anger had passed, but his steps were resolute.

"I told you, little flower, I'm not going to let you take the human souls," he said grimly. "Now please, go home. Live your life. Be happy." I glared up at him, tears suddenly stinging my eyes.

"I have no home anymore," I stated. "And I can never be happy again. Never. The humans took that all away from me." The king closed his eyes in sorrow.

"I know what you mean," he said quietly. "I feel the same way."

"Then let me do it. Let me take the souls. Let me go to the surface, collect the seventh soul, and then I can break the barrier. Then we can get our revenge on all of humanity."

"No!" His eyes flashed open. "I have worked too hard to see those souls go to waste. Don't you understand? Don't you know what it's like?! To lose your home, your children, your wife?! Everything you've ever cared about?! It is me who's going to use those souls! Me!" He rammed his fist into one of the nearby pillars, leaving a large crack in the surface of it. The sound echoed through the hall, fading into silence. The king breathed heavily for a moment, overcome with emotion.

"Then why don't you just do it?" I asked quietly. He straightened and turned away from me.

"You wouldn't understand," he muttered. "The time will come when the seventh human will come down here. And then. And only then. I will take the souls and destroy humanity."

I ground my teeth. "You're just a coward!" I yelled. "You don't actually want to do it, do you?! You're too weak! You could take those souls right now, but you don't actually want to do it! That's why you sit around moping all the time! You're just hanging out waiting for a human that you're secretly wishing will never come! What. An. Idiot! Well, if you're too weak to do it, then I will! And if you won't give me the souls, then I'll take them by force!"

With all my pent-up rage, I summoned forth my magic. A ring of glowing pellets formed over my head and shot towards the king. Reflexively, he summoned his trident-like spear and smacked them out of the way where they pinged ineffectively against the wall.

"I really don't want to hurt you, flower," he growled, "so I must ask you to cease your attack. Go home. And if you don't have a home, make one. It's what all the rest of us have done. Leave my palace and never return."

I responded with a wordless yell, summoning more bullets. Wave after wave I fired at him, each batted aside with ease. Asgore's expression was dark as he rendered all of my attacks useless. After a while, my magic levels were drained and I was left panting on the floor. Seeing that I had stopped, the king dropped his spear to his side and it vanished.

"Kill me," I spat between heavy breaths.

"I will not."

"You useless idiot! Just kill me already!"

His expression turned to one of pity. "Have you really given up all hope, little one? Please. Go home. Pretend this never happened. Start a new life. Make new friends. Make a new family. Do whatever you can. Just don't give up. You've got to stay determined."

Determined. I was determined. I would show him. I would show everyone. I would prove to Chara that her sacrifice was not a waste! I was determined to live! I was determined to make everything right! I would! No matter what it took! With the last of my energy, I poured my magic into that one goal. The one thing that was keeping me going. Determination!

Light filled my vision, obscuring everything. Asgore, the hallway, everything melted into pure-