Frisk took a deep breath as he glanced over the room with limited light. A dusty TV, table, and two shelves were placed against the back wall. On the right wall was a yellow power node and against the left wall was a table. Frisk approached the power node and stuck the key into it. It turned on and activated a computer that sat on the table at the left wall. Frisk curiously approached the table and computer. Its screen was mostly black but it displayed a list of log entries in green letters. There were twenty of them. The most recent one was several years old. Frisk tapped enter on the keyboard. The first three entries were typed on the screen. Interested, Frisk read over them.
‘Entry one. This is it … time to do what the king has asked me to do. I will create the power to free us all. I will unleash the power of the soul. Entry two. The Barrier is locked by soul power. Unfortunately, this power cannot be recreated artificially. Soul power can only be derived from what was once living. So, to create more, we will have to use what we have now … the souls of monsters. Entry three. But extracting a soul from a living monster would require incredible power. Besides being impractical, doing so would instantly destroy the soul’s host. And, unlike the persistent souls of humans, the souls of monsters disappear immediately upon death. If only I could make a monster’s soul last.’
Frisk pressed the enter key again. Three more entries typed in green letters. Frisk kept reading.
‘Entry four. I’ve been researching humans to see if I can find any info about their souls. I ended up snooping around the castle and found some weird tapes. I don’t feel like Asgore’s watched them. I don’t think he should.’
Frisk glanced at the TV and shelves of tapes along the back wall. Perhaps there was more information he could get from them. He continued reading for now.
‘Entry five. I’ve done it. Using the blueprints, I’ve extracted it from the human souls. I believe this is what gives their souls the strength to persist after death … the will to keep living … the resolve to change fate. Let’s call this power, determination.’
Frisk nodded in understanding. That machine out there. That’s what Alphys had used to extract determination from the human souls.
‘Entry six. Asgore asked everyone outside the city for monsters that had fallen down. Their bodies came in today. They’re still comatose … and soon they’ll all turn into dust. But what happens if I inject determination into them? If their souls persist after they perish, then … freedom might be closer than we all thought.’
Now Frisk was somewhat confused. She was trying to force determination from human souls into monster souls so they might behave similarly? What exactly did extracting it from the human souls mean? What would that have felt like? Frisk shook his head and resumed reading. Two entries typed up.
‘Entry seven. We’ll need a vessel to wield the monster souls when the time comes. After all, a monster cannot absorb the souls of other monsters. Just as a human cannot absorb another human soul. So then … what about something that’s neither human nor monster? Entry eight. I’ve chosen a candidate. I haven’t told Asgore yet, because I want to surprise him with it. In the center of his garden, there’s something special. The first Golden Flower that grew before all the others. The flower from the outside world. It appeared just before the queen left. I wonder … what happens when something without a soul gains the will to live?’
Frisk found himself staring distantly for a moment. He whispered to himself, repeating some of the statements he had just read. "A vessel to wield the monster souls … neither monster nor human … something special … the first Golden Flower … something without a soul gains the will to live.“ Frisk gasped. "She made Flowey?!”
‘What?’ said Chara.
‘Entry nine. Things aren’t going well. None of the bodies have turned into dust, so I can’t get the souls. I told the families that I would give them the dust back for the funerals. People are starting to ask me what’s happening. What do I do? Entry ten. Experiments on the vessel are a failure. It doesn’t seem to be any different from the control cases that hold the human souls. Whatever. They’re a hassle to work with anyway. The seeds just stick to you and won’t let go. Entry eleven. Nothing is happening. I don’t know what to do. I’ll just keep injecting everything with determination. I want this to work.’
Frisk glanced away to think for a minute. Alphys had injected that flower with determination … human determination … that gave it a will to live and the power to save and restart timelines. It made more sense now. Things were coming together. But there were still questions to be answered. Frisk continued reading the text on the screen.
‘Entry twelve. One of the bodies opened its eyes. Entry thirteen. Everyone that has fallen down … has woken up. They’re all walking around and talking like nothing is wrong. I thought they were all goners. Entry fourteen. Seems like this research was a dead end. But at least we got a happy ending out of it? I sent the human souls and the flower vessel back to Asgore. And I called all of the families and told them everyone’s alive. I’ll send everyone back tomorrow.’
Frisk paused. "She sent the flower back … so it hadn’t done anything yet?“ He started to read on, but the fifteenth entry was nothing but ‘NO’ repeated over and over. The sixteenth was corrupted as if it had been modified or partially erased. He found the next set of entries.
‘Entry seventeen. The families keep calling me to ask when everyone is coming home. What am I supposed to say? I don’t even answer the phone anymore. Entry eighteen. Asgore left me five messages today. Four about everyone being angry and one about this cute teacup he found that looks like me. Thanks, Asgore. Entry nineteen. I spend all my time at the garbage dump now. It’s my element.’ There was one more entry on the next screen. ‘Entry twenty. The flower’s gone.’
Frisk scratched his head. So Alphys knew the flower had disappeared without explanation but nothing else about it. She didn’t know what he had become or what he could do. However, that last entry did seem to cause her some alarm and concern. Frisk had calmed since his encounters with those creatures in the lab. He kind of knew what they were now. They were like other monsters once. Alphys’ experiments with determination had gone wrong somehow and turned them into those amalgamations.
With that, Frisk approached the TV. He wanted to check the VHS tapes Alphys had found in the castle. He glanced over the shelf and picked out two that had only been labeled with a number. Frisk put the first tape into the TV tape player. He pressed a play button and stepped back to watch the screen. The tape played and so did the sound. But he was disappointed that there was no video to be seen. Frisk listened anyway.
"Psst. Gorey, wake up,” said a female voice. Frisk smiled. He recognized the voice as Toriel.
The deep, kind voice of the king replied. "Hm? What is it, dear? And why do you have that video camera?“
"Shush! I want to get your reaction. Gorey, dearest. What is my favorite vegetable?” There was a pause.
"Hm … carrots, right?“ said Asgore’s voice.
Toriel sighed. "No, no, no! My favorite vegetable is … Eda-mom-e … get it?”
Pause. "Go back to bed, dear.“
Toriel laughed a little. "No, no! Not yet! Now, if I were a dog, what breed of dog would I be?” she said.
"Hm … I don’t know, honey. What kind of dog would you be?“
"I would be … a mom-eranian.”
Asgore laughed. "You sure are excited to have this child. You know, if you keep making jokes like this … one day, you could be … a famous mom-edian.“ Another pause followed.
"Well … I am going to bed,” said Toriel.
"Hey! Come on, Tori! That one was funny!“
She giggled. "It was. I am just teasing you. Goodnight, dear.”
"Goodnight, honey.“
"Oh dear … perhaps it is too dark in here for the video to come out.” The sound cut off. Frisk waited a few minutes but there didn’t seem to be anything else recorded. He ejected the tape. That was probably recorded just before Asriel was born. The Dreemurrs sounded so content as opposed to sad and lonely like they were now. Frisk sighed and slipped the first tape back on the shelf. He reached for the second, put it into the player, and started it. Once again, the screen was dark but this time a young voice was heard.
"Okay, Chara, are you ready?“ said the voice.
‘What?’ said Chara’s voice in Frisk’s head.
"Do your creepy face!” the voice continued. Pause. "Ah! Hee hee hee!“
‘They kept this?’ she added.
"Is this Asriel?” Frisk asked her. No response.
"Oh! Wait! I had the lens cap on,” said the childish voice from the tape. Frisk heard Chara’s younger voice laughing in the background. She said something quietly but he couldn’t make out what it was. "What?! You’re not gonna do it again? Come on, quit tricking me! Haha!“ Frisk could only assume it was Asriel. The sound cut off only to return seconds later. "Howdy, Chara! Smile for the camera!” said Asriel’s voice.
This time Frisk felt extreme discomfort come over Chara. ‘Stop the tape,’ she told Frisk. He shook his head. He wanted to hear it.
"Ha! This time I got you! I left the cap on, on purpose! Now you’re smiling for noooo reason! Hee hee hee.“
‘Stop the tape,’ Chara repeated.
‘Why?’ thought Frisk. He kept listening.
"What?” said Asriel, probably in response to something Chara had said. "Oh, yeah, I remember. When we tried to make butterscotch pie for dad, right? The recipe asked for cups of butter … but we accidentally put in buttercups instead.“ Chara’s voice spoke quietly in the background again. "Yeah!” said Asriel. "Those flowers got him really sick. I felt so bad. We made mom really upset. I should have laughed it off, like you did … Um, anyway, where are you going with this?“ Chara said something else, but what she said still wasn’t clear. "Hu? Turn off the camera? Uh … okay.” The sound stopped again.
‘Stop the tape!’ said Chara.
Frisk shook his head. ‘No. I want to know what happened,’ he thought.
When the sound returned, Asriel’s young voice sounded sad and worried. "I … I don’t like this idea, Chara,“ he said.
This time Frisk could hear part of what Chara said in response. "Are you seriously crying?”
"Wh . . what? No, I’m not … big kids don’t cry.“ Pause. "Yeah, you’re right.”
‘Stop it now!’ Chara shouted.
Frisk listened as Asriel continued. "No! I’d never doubt you, Chara. Never! Yeah … we’ll be strong. We’ll free everyone. I’ll … go get the flowers.“ The sound stopped.
Frisk stood staring in front of the blank TV screen in a dark room. "You … you killed yourself?” he said. "And you forced Asriel to help you do it?“ No response. Frisk gave a confused look, taking Chara’s silence as a yes. "Why?” She didn’t reply. "Were you giving up your life to free monsters? Did you care about them before?“
‘No, I always meant to use them to attain my goal … and that was power.’
"Were you really that desperate? To kill yourself for it?”
‘I’m sure you know by now, I will kill anything that stands in my way. By contrast … you will allow yourself to be killed by anything to get what you want. But guess what. That’s not how it works,’ said Chara. ‘You can’t win without being willing to destroy. Kill or be killed. Fight for your freedom and your life or you will never make it out of this place.’
"Why? Why does it have to be that way?“
‘Remember what happened last time? Remember the pain when Flowey kept killing you?’ asked Chara. Frisk frowned and his gaze drifted down. He didn’t want to remember. ‘Your friends made no difference. All of that for what? To start over and do it again? For what? Convince them to come for you when you’re in trouble? Because that’s all the hope you’ve got, but they won’t even do that! Watch and see! None of them actually care! None of them will be there! And when you call them … no one will come!’
Frisk shook his head and glared. "No. You’re wrong. I know they care about me. Even if they don’t come … it’s okay. I can stay alive.”
‘With what?! Your determination?!’
"Yes!“ he shouted back. Frisk held out a hand in front of him and a flickering, yellow light briefly lit the room with before fading.
‘What? You can’t do that.’
Frisk smirked. "I just did.”
