"Wow, Chara! Everything is so beautiful on the surface! This is amazing!"
"It's really not that great, Asriel. You haven't seen what it's really like up here."
I glared at the throne room as it resolved around me. Anger filled every inch of my being. I had hoped that resetting everything would help me feel better, but I still felt just as angry as before. And now I would have to start all over again. Good job, me. I yelled in frustration, summoning a ring of glowing pellets and attacking the defenseless flowers around me.
Asgore spent so long tending to these stupid flowers and all they did was pose as a horrible reminder of everything I had lost. Really, there wasn't any point to me killing them, but I needed something to direct my anger at. The plant-life would have to do. It represented my grief pretty effectively.
Flower after infuriating flower exploded into ripped up shreds, remnants of the golden petals littering the tiled floor. Eventually, I managed to clear out the garden surrounding me. I stood panting, the only flower left alive in the room. I didn't feel any better.
A grin split my face, a deranged, twisted thing. I laughed at the bitter irony of my pathetic situation. Slowly, my expression dropped to a frown and I could feel myself start to cry again. This was hopeless. Above me, shining through the windows, I could see the barrier. It was taunting me. My head slumped and I stared heavily at the ground, shaking with the tears that began to flow from my eyes.
I hated this. I hated everyone. I hated being a flower. I hated feeling so weak. I hated how stupid everything was. I couldn't even beat Asgore into submission like Undyne had. I was useless as a flower. What was the point of being able to travel back in time if I couldn't do anything?! And all the people around me were just as useless. Why couldn't they do what I wanted them to? All I had ever tried to do was help.
Suddenly, a morbid thought entered into my mind. I could always kill them. There were no consequences for my actions. All I needed to do was reset. I could do anything I wanted and get away with it. Nothing would stay the same anyway. Everyone could die and it wouldn't matter. Everything would just get restored with a little bit of determination. Everyone could die.
Everyone should just die...
Memories flooded back. I remembered Chara being in my head, thinking the most horrible thoughts. I pictured those people. All of those humans. I couldn't kill them. I had the power to, but I didn't. I should have, though. All I had wanted to do was the right thing. What was the right thing? Somehow, in all of the confusion, I had chosen wrong. I should have killed them all.
I was laughing again, but I wasn't really sure why. The voice was so high-pitched, it hardly even seemed like my own. I could kill them. I could destroy them all. It didn't really matter. Nothing mattered anymore. This hopeless world couldn't get any worse. I could prove it. I could prove to Chara and to myself that I wasn't weak. That I could kill. That I could take the lives of others. It wouldn't make up for the time I had died, but it would make me feel better, knowing that I could do it.
Just like the dead flowers around me, I could mow down the monsters in the underground one by one. Their useless lives would dissolve into dust and it wouldn't make the least amount of difference in the grand scheme of things. And when I was done? Poof! Everyone would still be alive!
After all, what did I have to lose?
Who should I start with? Who should I kill? Asgore and Toriel were at the top of my list, but I didn't think I could take them on. I had to start with someone small and weak. Someone I could test my strength on. Someone whose death would be so satisfying. So sweet.
Someone like Doctor Alphys.
As I thought of the reptile, my anger for her resurfaced. That fraud of a doctor had been running experiments without even knowing what the heck she was doing. And then, when she messed up, she was too ashamed to tell anybody or try to do anything to fix it. She just holed up in her lab trying to pretend like nothing bad had happened while her little experiments ruined other peoples' lives. She had somehow managed to create me and she didn't even know what I was!
Yes. That slimy little lizard had lived unchecked for too long. It was time she finally faced up to her mistakes. She was the one responsible for my misery. Why not return the favor? And I wouldn't have to worry about her overpowering me. She was far too weak. She'd probably cower at the first sign of violence. And since she spent all her time in her lab, no one would be around to hear her scream.
With my target in mind, I plowed through the earth, letting my rage carry me forward. I bee-lined for Alphys's lab. When I got there, she was in the exact same place she had been when I had confronted her before: sitting at her desk watching cartoons. I surfaced behind her, pushing aside all the thoughts of horror at what I was about to do.
"Hey, Alphys," I growled softly. She jumped a little in her seat and whirled around, her eyes wide. "Remember me?"
"Wh-who's there? How did you get in? How-" She stopped when her searching eyes settled on me. "A... A flower?"
"Not just any flower," I said with a slight chuckle. "The flower you loaded with determination. The flower that you managed to bring to life. The flower that you forcefully gave this miserable existence to." I wanted her to know exactly what she had done to me. I wanted her to feel the guilt, the regret, the pain. I wanted her to be afraid.
"W-w-what?" she stuttered. "You mean..."
"That's right, Alphys. You did this to me. Your little experiment ruined the life of yet another person. You thought it stopped with all those monsters you melted?" I laughed. "Oh no, it gets so much worse. You see, I'm not just a flower you brought to life. I'm the prince. I'm Asriel Dreemurr. And you managed to stuff me into a stupid flower!"
Her eyes bulged, her mouth working uselessly. Her claws clicked together rapidly, unsure of how to process this new information. "Y-y-you're... But I... I didn't mean... I... What?"
"Oh, Alphys. I know you didn't intend to make any of this happen. But that doesn't change the fact that you did." Little white pellets formed in the air, circling the doctor. "And you cannot hide from your crimes forever." I grinned a hateful expression. Alphys started sweating, a wordless sound of fear issuing from her mouth, the beginning of a scream.
"Die," I spat. The pellets stopped their spinning and collapsed in on the doctor. She cried out in pain and I started laughing, summoning more bullets to seal her fate. I attacked again and again, each time hearing her scream and beg for mercy as her life depleted. I didn't care. I felt cold inside. Numb.
With a final wail, the battered doctor shimmered, her particles splitting apart from all the strain. In an instant, the lizard had dissolved into dust that whipped in the air before settling to the ground. I panted from the exertion, staring at nothing. I somehow felt... stronger. I had done it. I had killed her. She was dead. I had taken the life of another being.
Numb. I felt numb. There was no pain. There was no guilt. There was nothing. I laughed. It was a hollow sound. As empty as my soulless husk. Dust covered every inch of my body. I stared up at the ceiling and howled with terrible laugher. I was free.
"You haven't seen the corruption that lies in the soul of every living person. It's there, and it taints this world until it pollutes everything that is beautiful."
As the anger wore off, I found myself becoming more and more horrified with myself. Had I really done that? I just killed someone. That's not a small thing. I attacked Doctor Alphys and she died. Although I didn't actually feel particularly bad about doing it, my old morals screamed at me, telling me that there was something wrong about what I had done. But it really wasn't that terrible, was it? I was just going to reset everything anyways.
So why wasn't I resetting? The truth of the matter was that I didn't feel like it. Now that I had started this, morbid curiosity dictated that I finish it. What would it be like to kill people? To hurt them? Killing the defenseless doctor had almost been a little too easy. It wasn't satisfying. I almost wanted to try to attack someone who would fight back. But not someone who could kill me. That didn't seem particularly pleasant.
Contemplating who to kill disturbed me on a level I didn't fully comprehend. It was like choosing what chocolate to eat first, but with much more devastating results. This was wrong and I knew it. Yet somehow a part of me still wanted to go through with it.
I emerged from the lab in a daze. Most of the dust fell off the moment I went underground, so at least the evidence of what I had done wasn't obvious to anyone I might run in to. I wasn't really sure where I was going or what I was doing. Without paying attention, I found that I had instinctively made my way to the river's edge. It was the nearest spot where I liked to go to gather my thoughts.
The river person wasn't there when I first showed up, which gave me time to gaze at my reflection. The image of a killer leered back at me. I shivered. What had I done? Had I really descended so far that it no longer mattered to me if I killed or not? When I had refused to kill the humans on the surface, I had been so sure that causing them pain would be worse than getting myself killed. And now I had slaughtered another monster without a second thought.
I silently reminded myself that I wasn't Asriel anymore. Looking at the flower mirrored in the water was solid proof of that fact. And besides, Alphys had it coming. It wasn't like I had murdered an innocent person. It wasn't just my life she had toyed with. She had also royally screwed up the monsters that she'd turned into sludge. She wasn't guiltless. What I had done was justified. Wasn't it?
My contemplation was interrupted by the river person's sing song voice approaching. The monster didn't seem to be in any particular hurry, paddling forward at a slow, decisive pace. When the boat slid to a stop in front of me, I anticipated the river person's usual introduction of themselves. Instead, however, the figure leaned over the paddle and stared intently at me for a long moment, ceasing their babbling song.
"Hm," the hooded monster said at last. "The water is very dry today. That is bad luck." They straightened, turning back towards where the river emptied into darkness. "Where will we go today, young master? Wait. Do not tell me. I think I already know." I gawked in confusion. This was certainly different. Without thinking about it, I climbed aboard. I wanted to see where they would take me this time.
As the boat resumed its steady glide over the water, the river person began to hum under their breath. No lyrics this time. Just tuneless humming. It created a haunting melody when combined with the sound of the rushing water all around us. This was most certainly unusual. It was like the river person could sense what had just happened, or maybe they had picked up on my melancholy. After riding like this for a long while, the river person finally began adding lyrics to the song. I listened intently, now that I had words to distinguish from the music.
"Tra la la. The heart starts to struggle against the tide. Tra la la. Emotions sure are a magical ride. Tra la la. Right and wrong or wrong and right. Tra la la. The dustier doorway, the longer the fight." More nonsense. I guess I should have anticipated that. I felt my anger rising again. Why the heck was I riding on a boat with this idiot? The journey seemed to be taking longer than usual. Was there no end to this monotonous cavern?
"Where are you taking me?!" I demanded of the cloaked freak.
"Somewhere. Or is it nowhere? I cannot remember which it is. I suppose it makes no difference in the end."
I snarled in frustration. "Of course it makes a difference! What's the point of riding in a boat if we're not even going anywhere?!" They turned to me in a long, graceful movement.
"What is the point of riding in a boat if there is a destination?" they asked calmly. I glared back.
"If you have a goal, then at least you're going somewhere and doing something. Without that, we're just riding around in circles!"
"Then choose a destination," the river person said, returning my stare with empty void.
"Waterfall," I stated. I didn't really know what I would do there, but it was certainly better than floating around in the middle of la la land.
"Then we have arrived," they said without turning around. Strangely, the moment they said that, the tunnel opened up and a shoreline appeared. That was freakishly well timed. The boat ground to a halt and I jumped off without a word. "Goodbye, tra la la," the river person sang.
I grit my teeth in frustration. You know what? Screw it. I whirled around to face the monster. I wanted to knock that stupid cloak off his face. I summoned forth my magic, readying it to fire, but the water was empty, the river person gone.
"Monsters aren't like that, though."
"No. You're right. They're a completely different sort of mess."
Rocks and dirt slid past me as I plowed through the earth. I wasn't heading in any particular direction, which kind of proved the river person's point, but that just made me even more angry. A few monsters wandered around in Waterfall above me, but I didn't stop for any of them. Part of me wanted to kill them all, but they were completely innocent bystanders. It wasn't like they had done anything wrong. The person I really wanted to kill was Asgore. That great oaf had stood in my way one too many times, and though it had been nice watching Undyne beat him up, it would be so much more satisfying if I did the job myself. And I wouldn't spare him. No. He was beyond the point of sparing. Unfortunately, I also knew that I was too weak to even touch him. It was infuriating.
I wasn't sure where I was anymore. Without paying any real attention to my surroundings, I had gotten lost. I wasn't particularly familiar with Waterfall anyway. I spotted a sentry stand, so I started heading towards it, just to get an idea of where I was located. There were usually royal guards posted at these things, so if it really came down to it, I could ask them where to go.
When I got there, though, I recognized the grinning monster sitting behind the makeshift counter. It was that stupid skeleton again! It seemed I was cursed to constantly run into Sans. The fire of my rage rekindled, this time directed at the shrubby jerk. I could kill him. Just like I had killed Alphys. And maybe he would put up an actual fight, though I wasn't too sure about that. He looked pretty wimpy.
Sans glanced down from his car magazine the moment I came up to the surface. I hadn't expected him to notice me so quickly, but oh well. I didn't really want to kill him and leave. That was no fun. I wanted to talk with him first, let me see the fear in his eyes before he died. Just as I had with Alphys. "Howdy, Sans," I murmured darkly, a small smile appearing on my face.
"Heya," he responded, that calm grin standing out on his white face. "Haven't seen you 'round here before. 'Sup, little guy?"
I was about to respond with something witty, but a nagging thought suddenly occurred to me. Wasn't he supposed to be in his house right about this time? That's where he'd been the last reset. The timing wasn't exact, but it took a while to bake a pie. What was he doing all the way out here?
"Weren't you baking something?!" I blurted. His eyes narrowed the slightest amount and he looked somewhat amused.
"You been following me or something? That's a little creepy." He put down his magazine and leaned back, putting both hands behind his head casually. He winked at me. "The pie's in the oven. It won't be done for like another half hour."
"So you came all the way out here?"
"Hey, what can I say? I'm a busy guy. I've got a job to do."
I scowled. "Then what were you doing baking in the first place?!"
He seemed entirely unfazed by this. "I wanted some pie, and Grillby's doesn't have any. So I'm making my own. Nothing wrong with that, is there?"
Ugh. I remembered why I hated this guy. His suave "I do what I want" attitude really pissed me off. That being said, was it really worth killing him over? As far as I knew he hadn't actually done anything wrong. He was a royal pain in the butt, sure, but his actions weren't exactly worthy of death.
"Hey, you OK there, buddy?" He asked suddenly, dropping his relaxed charade. His eyes knotted in concern. "You don't look so good. You're looking a little... 'bushed'." He winked again.
Was that supposed to be another joke? This guy... "Maybe you should come back with me to finish that pie. I could always use a little more 'flour'."
I glared at him. Tell another one and you're dead.
"Let me help you 'weed' out the 'root' of your problems. I be-'leaf' I know how I can help."
That's it. You die now.
Coldly, I summoned a ring of pellets and threw them at his stupid face. Faster than I had ever thought possible, he was suddenly standing to the side of the sentry stand and the pellets pinged off the wall behind where he had just been sitting. What?
"Whoa, there! Violence ain't necessary. I'm just joking with ya. Seriously, what's your problem?" I grit my teeth. How had he dodged that? Ugh. He did have a point, though. I had no solid motive to kill the guy, other than the fact that he annoyed the crap out of me. Part of me didn't care whether or not I had a reason. I could always just reset. Take out my anger, then start the timeline over. I wouldn't actually be harming anyone. Not in any lasting way.
Just then, a voice called from behind me. I turned to see Papyrus jogging towards us. "Sans!" he shouted. "What are you doing outside your station?!" Sans stuffed his hands in his pockets and gave a little shrug.
"Chatting with a flower," he said nonchalantly.
"What? Don't be silly! Everyone knows flowers don't talk! Except echo flowers, but those don't count! Nyeh heh!" The taller skeleton suddenly caught sight of me staring at him and stopped in his tracks.
"Howdy, Papyrus," I grinned.
"Oh my God it's a talking flower!"
"Told ya," Sans stated. He shifted his weight between feet. "What about you? How'd your cooking lesson go?" Papyrus instantly stood up straight, placing a hand on one hip while lofting a plate I hadn't noticed before with the other.
"Behold!" he boasted. The contents of the plate only vaguely resembled spaghetti. Remembering how he and Undyne had gone about creating the tomato sauce, I didn't even want to know what they had done to the rest of it to create such a culinary disaster.
"That looks, uh, pretty good, Papyrus. You gonna put it in the fridge with the others?" Sans was clearly trying to not hurt his brother's feelings.
Papyrus suddenly looked contemplative. "Actually, I still have to finish it," he said morosely. "Undyne got a phone call from Asgore and left in a heated rage. She didn't even tell me what was up. Such a sad time when she does not trust her troubles to me. Alas, what am I to do?"
Asgore called her? What did Asgore want with Undyne? I hadn't done anything to him this time. Fear filled me. Had he somehow discovered Alphys? That didn't seem like him. I could see him calling and being concerned when she didn't answer, but going to check up on her? He couldn't possibly know what I had done, could he?
Whatever the case might be, sticking around with the two skeletons didn't seem like a good idea. I still didn't have any solid goals in mind for what I wanted to do, but staying here was not an option. My blood-lust for Sans had strangely dissipated the moment Papyrus had shown up. Although Papyrus was an idiot, the idea of killing his brother in front of him bothered me. The poor fool didn't deserve that. I would have to get the shorter skeleton another time.
Sans and Papyrus were still chatting when I left. I didn't bother listening to the rest of their conversation. It didn't really interest me. Sans glanced down at me when I ducked below the rocks, but he made no move to stop me. Without a proper goal in mind, I moved on to some unknown destination, far away from the brothers.
I found that I was ashamed of myself. With all of my indecisiveness on whether or not I should kill, I had basically accomplished nothing so far. I had killed Dr. Alphys, but that was it. And considering how useless she was, it didn't really make that big a difference anyway. The river person was right. I really was heading nowhere. I needed to make a decision. Either I was going to kill people and see what happened or I was going to need to stick with my old good-for-nothing morals and try to solve everyone's problems. No more of this in-between crap.
While I was trying to find my way through Waterfall, I noticed more activity up above. It was like the time when I had gone missing and Asgore had sent his royal guards out looking for me. The amount of normal citizens had decreased, but the place was crawling with guards. I stopped when I spotted Undyne patrolling, clad in full armor. I moved beneath her feet and followed her. Maybe I could figure out what was going on.
Undyne certainly looked angry. I had to swim at a fairly fast pace to keep up with her as she practically ran through the underground. Her one eye was sharp, scanning every nook and cranny of the caverns she passed. Her teeth were grit in a permanent scowl.
After a while of me following her, Papyrus jogged up, looking slightly panicked. "Undyne, I got your message!" he called. "Is it true? Is she-?"
"Yes," Undyne snarled. Then she sighed, looking abruptly sad. "Yes, Papyrus. Alphys is dead." So someone HAD noticed! I sank a few inches further into the earth despite the fact that I knew that I was safe so long as I was underneath them.
"What... happened?" Papyrus seemed hesitant, dropping all of his normal bravado.
"We're not entirely sure. Asgore found that someone had trashed his favorite garden. He went to Alphys's lab to check her security cameras and see who could have done such a thing, but when he got there, all he found of Alphys was a pile of dust." She looked away. Was she... crying? "The security cameras picked up the guy who did it. The bizarre thing is that he looked like one of Asgore's flowers, but with a face."
Oh crap, I didn't know there were surveillance cameras!
"That's weird. Sans was talking to a flower like that just a little bit ago," Papyrus interjected.
"I know," Undyne said. "I already talked with him on the phone. Seems that flower attacked him, too, but then it ran off the moment you showed up. All of Waterfall is on high-alert. He should still be in the area. And when I get my hands on him..." She growled deep in her throat, clenching her fist.
"Oh no! It attacked Sans?! Stupid brother, he didn't say a thing about it to me!" Papyrus seemed legitimately perturbed by this. "It's weird, though. I'm pretty sure I've never seen that flower before, but it knew my name."
"Sans said the same thing. He seemed to think the flower had been following him for a while. Not only did it know his name, it also knew exactly what he had been up to. We have to be careful. This flower guy apparently moves underground which means we might not be able to see him."
Papyrus stopped dead in his tracks. Then, strangely, he looked down, his eyes somehow managing to lock directly onto me. He couldn't possibly know where I was, could he? I froze. His gaze seemed to pierce the very soil. The moment passed and Papyrus looked away, catching up with Undyne again.
"Good thing he's not here under our feet right now! Imagine if he were listening to this very conversation! That would just be embarrassing! Nyeh heh!" His voice faded as the two of them continued their patrol ahead of me.
What the heck just happened?! I didn't think Papyrus could see me, but just in case, I should try to avoid him. It would probably be best to avoid his garbage brother, too. Sans had proven to be equally capable of finding me when I thought I was hidden.
I turned and slid the other direction. This entire timeline had proven to be an absolute waste. I couldn't really do anything now that the entire Underground was searching for me. Really, I should just start over. But I wanted to try something first.
When I had fought Asgore previously, I had been in an emotional rage. I hadn't used any strategy, simply launched all my attacks rapidly from the same angle. Granted, I had also been trying to get myself killed at the time. I wanted to face him again. Maybe I could actually get him to fight back. Then I could really try my own strength against his. I already knew that I couldn't die, my determination was too strong for that. So why not? It sure beat sifting through all the other monsters and trying to decide which ones were worthy of death or not.
Having a solid destination and goal in mind did wonders for me, sparking up my determination again. It made me feel alive. With the renewed energy, I headed straight for the castle. Asgore was going down!
"I'm glad we're here now, though. Together we can rid this world of hatred and evil. Monsters and Humans will finally live together in peace."
It took me a frustratingly long time to find Asgore. He wasn't actually in the castle like I had expected him to be. When I did locate him, he was in Alphys's lab, hovering over the shoulder of two smaller monsters that probably worked in the core. The lights were off and they were all pouring over a gigantic computer screen that had been divided up into a large number of smaller segments, each showing the location of a different area in the Underground.
I tried to get a better look at the screen so I could figure out where some of those cameras were so I could avoid them in the future, but it was hard to do while remaining below the floor with Asgore's hulking frame blocking most of my view. I had rather hoped to catch the king alone, but oh well. It made sense that he would be actively searching for me, considering what I had done to his Royal Scientist. They had clearly swept the dust from the floor, but traces of it remained in the crevices between tiles.
Now how to get Asgore alone... I was considering a plan of trying to lure the other two monsters outside somehow, but chances were that Asgore would go with them. Idiot. No, I was far too impatient after trekking all this way to be subtle. The poor souls would have to die.
It was a piece of cake since they weren't expecting me to appear behind them so suddenly. I quickly surrounded them with energy bullets and attacked. They were much easier to kill than Alphys had been, going down in only two or three hits each. They barely had enough time to scream in surprise before exploding into clouds of dust. That instantly got the goat king's attention and he whirled around, summoning his blood-red trident. I probably could have attacked him while his back was turned, too, but that took most of the satisfaction out of his death.
"Hiya!" I cooed with false cheer.
There it was. The anger. The hate. The frustration. Asgore's nostrils were flared and his brow wrinkled in a knotted glare. "Why?" he breathed. "Why?!" The final one came out with a deafening roar. I only smiled back, soaking in his hatred. That's right, father. Now you know how it feels. Now you know what it's like to lose everything.
"Oh, you foolish old man," I chuckled. "You wouldn't begin to understand even if I explained it to you in the simplest of terms." He rammed the butt of his trident into the ground hard enough to shatter tiles.
"You. You told Alphys that you were my son. But you are not him. Asriel would never harm another monster, even if it meant sacrificing his own life for it." The words hurt more than they should have. My face drooped the slightest bit, turning my false smile into a sad one.
"That was the old Asriel," I spoke softly. "The one that died when I refused to fight those humans." I couldn't tell what his reaction was. He was panting heavily from his rage, but he didn't move from his position. "I am a new Asriel. One that was reborn as a flower through Dr. Alphys's pathetic experiments. Face it, Asgore. Your son is dead. I have his memories, but beyond that, I can never be the person I was before."
I let the room drop into silence, waiting for the king's reaction. With the only light coming from the computer screen behind him, Asgore's face was in full shadow. "Good," the old goat muttered at last. "Then I will have no remorse when I kill you!"
Abruptly, he swung into motion, slashing his trident at me full-force. I had to duck below the ground in order to avoid the unexpected attack. A ring of fire leaped from the tips of the spear, blasting aside bits of junk Alphys had stacked against the wall. All the papers on her desk exploded into flames, turning to charcoal that drifted in the air. I swam beneath Asgore's feet, surfacing again so I could summon more bullets at him.
Unfortunately, it seemed as though I could not attack and move at the same time. It was a frustrating disability since it would have been so much easier to kill him if I didn't have to worry about him killing me back. Asgore caught sight of the glowing beads of energy at the last second and whipped around to bat them aside with his trident. In one fluid motion, he brought his other arm up, throwing out a wall of pure flame in my direction. One of my leaves got singed before I could duck out of the way.
I started laughing uncontrollably, throwing another swarm of pellets at him from a new angle. He was fighting back! I had finally got old King Fluffybuns to use his full force against me. The thrill of the fight was strangely freeing, even as I danced with the flickering fires of death.
A wave of my attacks finally hit their target and the king growled at the pain, but it was clear that I would need to do a lot more damage than that to take the big guy down. His trident came point-first at my face, wreathed in fire. I dove to the safety of the dirt and immediately moved to a new location behind him, feeling the heat as weapon met floor only a few inches above my head.
I needed a new strategy. He was getting faster at spotting me the moment I resurfaced, predicting my movements. One false move and I'd be dead. All it took was one well-place flame and I would be turned to soot.
I waited beneath the surface for a moment, watching and thinking. Asgore clutched his trident close to him, ready to swing. His head swiveled back and forth, anticipating where I might pop up. I was a little bit frustrated at the lack of plants anywhere in the room that I could use to my advantage.
"Come out, come out..." he muttered in a low snarl. I maneuvered to situate myself underneath Alphys's desk for cover. Once I was free of the soil, I summoned a ring of pellets surrounding him.
"Dodge this," I chuckled. The king tried to swat the attack away, but there were too many of them coming from too many directions at once. He grunted as the glowing seeds collapsed on their circle, cutting through his armor to hit his soul.
With a pained growl, he held up his hand, engulfing the room in flames. His counter-attack was far flung as he tried to knock aside furniture and other trash to reveal my location. I howled with laughter before returning below-ground. The desk I had been hiding under was blasted back by Asgore's magic and a resounding crash followed as the stack of dishes that had been balanced atop it shattered across the floor.
I surfaced behind him and repeated my last attack. It seemed to be the most effective. Asgore predicted the move though and swung the trident full-circle, dissipating pellets as he went. In an instant, he had recovered and located me. One of the points of his trident nicked me as I tried to dodge his attack, tearing a hole in one of my petals. Pain went through my system and I cried out in agony.
"No!" I screamed internally. I wasn't ready to die yet! I didn't want to start all over! I wanted to kill him! I was determined to kill him!
I resurfaced a few feet away and launched a new attack at him in a blind rage. The king swatted them away, though one grazed his shoulder slightly. He jerked one arm up and suddenly a ring of fire erupted around me. I was too late to react and searing heat engulfed me. I cried out in frustration, feeling my body become consumed by the flames and my vision filled with blinding light. No! Not Yet! Noooo!
"Yes, Asriel. We will finally do it. We will eliminate everything that is wrong in this world. Everything."
I clutched at myself, feeling as though I was still on fire and in pain, though the actual ordeal was over. It felt as though I had just awoken from a horrible nightmare and the phantom pains of dying still carried through to haunt me. I breathed heavily for a moment, checking to see if there was any lasting damage. There wasn't. I was whole.
After my moment of panic wore off, I began to notice that my surroundings were different. I had thought I would end up in the throne room like I usually did, but instead it looked like I was back in Waterfall. What?
Footsteps approached and I quickly burrowed into the rock and watched as Undyne ran by, decked out in her armor. I stared after her dumbfounded for a moment. Had I not started over all the way back at the beginning this time? Undyne looked exactly the same as when I had left Waterfall to search out Asgore. It appeared as though I had managed to reset time just far enough to undo the battle with my father. How had I done that?
Whatever. If I was right, it meant that I had another chance to try and kill Asgore. I grinned, chuckling under my breath. This determination stuff rocked. And now that I knew where the king was this time, I wouldn't have to traipse all around the castle in search of him. It was a little annoying that I started all the way back in Waterfall, but it was better than starting in the throne room again.
When I got to Alphys's lab again, the two monsters were there again, sitting in the dark room staring at the television. Asgore was pacing back and forth while they did all the work, scanning the screens for any sign of activity. I growled in frustration. I had to kill those stupid idiots again. And this time I had to do so without getting noticed by the king.
I surfaced between the massive machine holding the screen and where Asgore stood so I could kill off the other monsters with ease. Pellets formed and destroyed the two bystanders in an instant. It was a little strange noting how disconnected I was becoming each time I killed. It hardly even mattered to me anymore. The king cried out at the deaths of the monsters in the room and summoned his trident, scanning the room for me.
"Flower. I know you're there. Come out to where I can see you," he growled. I chuckled before responding with a wave of bullets directed at his face. His eyes went wide for a second, but his reaction speed allowed him to slash the attack out of the air. "Come out and talk to me, you coward!"
I laughed darkly. "What's the point of talking, Dad?" I spat the last word out, letting the emphasis of it sink in. The king fell silent, growing cold.
"Don't you dare disrespect the memory of my son by using his name as your own. Whoever you are, you could never live up to the person my son was." Ooh, burn. Asgore was moving, walking calmly through the lab, searching for my hiding place. He spotted me the moment he came around the corner I was hiding behind and I shot more energy at him before ducking into the ground to find something else I could hide behind. I popped up behind a bag of dogfood stashed in a corner of the room.
"Do you remember the time Chara and I accidentally used buttercups instead of butter that one time and you got really sick?" I was taunting him, bringing up memories that only I would know. "Or how about the time when you and I went fishing and accidentally caught a monster on our line and Mom got really mad at us? Or the time-"
"Stop!" He interrupted. "Enough! I can't take this! You are not him! You cannot be him!"
I continued with a wicked grin on my face. "Or the time when you tried to make dinner for Mom, but you messed up the recipe, so you fed it all to me before she got home so she wouldn't know? That was always our little secret. That sauce was disgusting, by the way."
The goat king roared in disbelief, sending a wave of fire in the direction he could hear my voice. I managed to pull myself below the tiled floors just before the flames hit, knocking dishes to the ground and setting the furniture alight. "Why?!" He demanded. "If you are really him, why are you doing this? Why did you kill Alphys? Why have you attacked innocent people? Why, Asriel? What has happened to you?"
I came up a few feet in front of him and looked up into his eyes. He was crying. I smiled innocently. "I don't have a soul anymore," I stated with a false cheer. "Alphys took that away from me when she revived me and stuffed me into a flower. That's why I killed her, y'know. This is all her fault." Asgore looked betrayed as he gazed down at me.
"But she revived you. That is a good thing, is it not?"
I scowled at him. "How would you like to wake up one day to find that you can't move your arms and legs because you don't have any?! How would you like to look down at yourself and find that your entire body has been replaced by a stinking flower?!" Tears fought to escape my eyes. "How would you like it if you woke up to a world where everyone has forgotten you? Where your own family is broken apart and there's not a dang thing you can do about it?!"
The king seemed taken aback by my burst of rage. I continued in a softer tone. "No, Dad. It's not a good thing that I'm back." Asgore stood in stunned silence while I tried to regain my composure. Somehow I had ended up having another emotional outburst. I should be killing this guy, not gushing to him like a little kid.
"But... But... Now that you are back... We could live together again... We could be happy... We could be a family again." Strangely, the king was crying, too.
I laughed, starting as a low chuckle that elevated to a sound that was almost maniacal. "You think that if your son came back that things would magically fall back into place again?! The world doesn't work that way! You still have to face the consequences of your actions. I've already talked to Toriel. She hates you! She isn't coming back for anything!" I shook my head in hopelessness. "No, Dad. Things can never go back to the way they were. It is far too late for that."
The king looked genuinely hurt. Like he was on the verge of collapsing to his knees. Sometimes words could be just as effective at tearing someone down as bullets were. His hand trembled where it held on to his magical trident. I could just barely make out his features in the flickering firelight, his eyes wide in emotional agony.
"And you," I continued. "You've murdered, too, you know. Six human children? Sound familiar? You've been reaping their souls and you don't even want to use them! What kind of a sick monster does that?! You have everything you need to break the barrier and free everyone, but you won't." For once, Asgore actually seemed to be listening to me. Oh, of course. Now I finally managed to get through his thick skull. Right when I was about to kill the old man.
"Give me those souls. Let me go to the surface, and I'll collect the last soul, and I'll destroy the barrier. Since you're too weak to do anything about it anyway, I'll be the one to free all the monsters!"
Suddenly, Asgore shook himself out of his guilt, awoken by something in the tone of my voice. "N-no," he stuttered. "I... I can't let you... It will destroy you! Asriel! My son!" I laughed again.
"Destroy me?! Ha! I'm already broken beyond repair. Face it, Asgore. I may have your son's memories, but the person who was Asriel Dreemurr is dead! All that's left is this soulless husk of a flower." I grinned. The last time I had said something similar to that, he had attacked me. I prepared myself, tensing to move the moment he swung.
To my astonishment, Asgore dropped his trident, letting it dissipate into the air. "I cannot believe that," he murmured. "If you're in there, Asriel, listen to me. Heed the words of your father." He looked directly into my eyes, pleading with me. "The Asriel I knew would never harm another soul. He was innocent. He was free. If you really are him, think about what you are doing." He smiled, looking hopeful. "Come back to me, my son."
I scowled at him. "What did I just tell you, you moron?! I'm not Asriel anymore! Asriel is dead! Now give me those souls! You want the barrier broken, don't you?! Let me do it! Let me retain at least a little bit of my dignity knowing that I was the one who freed all monsters from the Underground! Please! Don't let me die as a stinking, stupid, good-for-nothing flower!" I was crying again. I couldn't help myself.
The king dropped to his knees. "Oh, my son," he whispered. "I'm so sorry." He leaned forward, arms held wide, ready to embrace me.
"Get away from me!" I shouted. I dove into the ground and surfaced a few feet back. "Get away from me, you stupid old man!" I probably could have taken the opportunity to hit him while his guard was down, but I found that I was crying too hard for that.
He turned to the side, staring into the darkness. The embers in the room were dying down and I could no longer make out his face. "Please forgive me for what I have done. I know that I have acted like a fool. I did not intend for any of this to happen. All I wanted was to give everyone hope again. When you died, it was like the whole world had ended. When everything is taken away from you, where do you begin to pick up the pieces? Truthfully, I do not want power. I do not want war. All I ever wanted was to have my children back. To be a family again." He sighed deeply. "I cannot give you those souls, Asriel. Now that I have you, I do not wish to lose you all over again. You claim that Asriel is dead, but I can see him in you. It's buried deep, but it is there. So please. Let us put this misery aside. Let us return in peace."
I growled, feeling my rage burn inside. "You stupid idiot!" I roared. I summoned forth the strongest attack I could, throwing all of my hurt and pain at my father. The magic hit him square in the face, his eyes wide in shock.
"Asriel," he murmured. "My son..." His form began to waver. "Do not be afraid, my child..." His words were growing slower, shakier. "You've got to stay determined..." A faint smile crossed his lips and the light caught a single tear that ran down his cheek.
To my horror and frustration, Asgore dissipated into dust. His soul hovered in the air for a trembling moment before it, too, shattered to a thousand pieces. I stared at the pile of dust that was all that remained of my father. This was what I had come to do, but now that I had succeeded, I did not feel any better about it. Instead, I felt sick. Horrified.
In agony, I howled to the shadowed room. I cried out wordless pleas to the empty darkness that I knew would not respond. It wasn't fair! Life wasn't fair! Why did everything have to turn out like this?! Why?! Why?!
When I had finally cried myself dry, I let myself collapse to the floor, shuddering all over. I felt my own resolve start to slip away. What was I doing?! What the hell was I doing?! I pulled my roots from the ground and curled into a tight ball. This was not the way I should do things. This was not how it should end. This was all wrong!
I squeezed my eyes shut and silently resolved to myself that this was not the end. I would go back. I would do better. I was not going to die as a good-for-nothing flower! No matter what! When I was ready, I poured my determination into resetting back to the throne room to try again. And this time, I would be the hero everyone deserved. I would not let the life of Asriel Dreemurr die in shame.