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“T-this is it,” Alphys breathed. “This should g-give you emotions again! And, uh, it should probably help you take your original form, too!”
Before the trio floated a single monster soul, white and pure.
Frisk smiled at Flowey. “Are you ready, Asriel? Go ahead, take it.”
Flowey wasn’t smiling. This was what he'd been hoping for, wasn’t it? The chance to feel again. He should be happy. But he didn’t feel anything. And not in the normal soulless way, either.
Frisk was grinning, Alphys looked proud. Flowey felt numb.
Frisk’s smile slowly faltered and turned into a look of concern. “Asriel?”
He had to stop himself from flinching at the name.
What was wrong with him? He wanted this. He WANTED this! He shouldn’t be scared.
Everyone was waiting on this. On him. He should just take the soul and get the whole thing over with.
Toriel would want this. She wanted her son back, and Flowey couldn’t be that son.
Asgore would want this. One mistake off his back.
Alphys would want this. This was her crowning jewel, her opportunity to make up for her past errors.
Undyne would want this. He’d probably make a more fair sparring partner with a soul.
Sans would want this. One enemy off his back for good.
Papyrus would… Papyrus would get over it.
Everyone would be happier this way. They’d love Asriel more than they could ever love him as he was now. What did he have to be scared of?
He reached a vine from out of his pot, ready to grasp the soul.
If he grabbed it, he might lose his vines.
Flowey hesitated. Asriel didn’t have vines. Asriel was pretty short, and he didn’t have vines to make up for the lack of vertical reach. How was he supposed to steal cookies now?
Asriel didn’t steal cookies, Flowey reminded himself. That was just a Flowey thing.
Now both Frisk and Alphys were staring at him in concern. He had been thinking for a while now, hadn’t he? All the more reason to grab the soul now.
“What are you looking at?” he snapped instead.
Frisk sighed in response. “Flowey.”
Right. Asriel didn’t yell at people either.
Asriel was shaping up to be a Grade A goody-two-shoes.
Flowey suppressed the thought. Perhaps not a good thing to think about the person he was about to become.
Alphys smiled at Flowey nervously. “A-asriel, I know it seems a bit scary”—simultaneously the understatement of the century and wholly untrue—“but I swear, I’ve tested this! It’s completely safe.”
Ah. Yes, that was an absolutely reasonable fear. He’d love to chalk up his trepidation to that, but though Flowey was an excellent liar—another thing Asriel was the better for—he wasn’t very skilled at lying to himself. And Flowey knew his fears pertained to rather the opposite.
He couldn’t just back out, though, people were counting on him to do this. And Frisk had been so excited about bringing Asriel back, they’d been almost scarily focused on the single task of his restoration.
But Flowey had to admit that this wasn’t exactly what HE wanted. Asriel wasn’t him, after all. His hesitation at all was proof enough of that.
“Asriel,” Frisk started, beginning to grow impatient.
“Okay! Okay, I’ll do it, I’m doing it!” Flowey grew his vine closer and closer to the soul. Asriel would be happy with this.
A millimeter away, he stopped once more. Flowey wouldn’t.
“What if this is wrong?” he said quickly.
“..What?” Frisk said.
“I don’t… I don’t want to do this,” Flowey said quietly.
“Of… of course you do!” Frisk said frantically. “You want to feel, don’t you? What have we been waiting for if not this?”
“I… I don’t know! I changed my mind! I don’t LIKE this plan. So leave me alone. I don’t need a soul, not if…”
“Not if..?”
“Not if it means I lose myself.”
Frisk paused. “You really believe that?”
Flowey nodded, slowly, relieved they seemed to be understanding.
Frisk sighed. Their eyes narrowed. “I didn’t think you’d be so selfish, Flowey.”
“What?”
“You’d really want to go soulless just so you could ‘stay yourself?’”
“I—”
“I really thought you’d learned something from being Asriel, back in the Underground. But I guess not. You’re just Flowey. You’re just a villain.”
“But—”
“Don’t bother trying to lie. I tried to be nice! I thought maybe that would let the Asriel inside come out. But you’re still heartless. People love Asriel, you’d keep them from him?”
Flowers weren’t capable of shedding tears. Flowey had learned this pretty early on.
“Alphys.”
“Y-y-yes?”
“Does Flowey need to want a soul, in order to absorb it?”
“W-well, no, b-b-but! The separate p-p-personalities won’t merge at all, the s-soul’s will probably take full dominance…”
“Good.”
Before Flowey could react, Frisk shoved the soul toward him.
Frisk smiled. “How are you feeling?”
Asriel returned the expression. “I feel great!”