Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ahhh.

Peace.

Headcanon list:

1. Multiverses can be crossed by those who are given permission.

2. Ummmmm idk.

~~~~~

Credits for Characters~

Toby Fox.

Dust ~ Ask-Dusttale blog

Ink ~ Myebi/Comyet 

Error, Geno, Fresh ~ loverofpiggies 

Nightmare and Dream ~ Jokublog 

Cross ~ Jakei 

Horror ~ Sour-apple-studios

Killer ~ Rahafwabas 

Underswap, Underfell, Outertale ~ Community 

Idk who owns bitties but they had to be mentioned at some point-

Bitties ~ Community

Template and Pale ~ Unu-Nunium 

Sci ~ (Sc)I dunno

Scink ~ Meeeee!

Dreamswap ~ OneBizarreKai

Revolution Tale ~ Alamort-Blatherskite

~~~~~

Started April 14, 2021.

Chapter Text

Ooh no prologue?

This story revolves around three multiverses in particular.

ATE - In the land of ATE, Ink has taken a full dictatorship over the multiverse, and everyone is under his complete control. The resistance is powerful, but not even they seem to be able to stop him. He has taken the original Dusttale Sans and made him into his stress reliever and personal experiment; that involves a lot of torture. (Story published)

FDIR - FDIR stands for Forced Destroyer in Reverse. Unlike typical Forced Destroyer stories, this Error came from a peaceful multiverse and fell into a Forced Destroyer multiverse! He has accepted an offer from the Nightmare of that multiverse to get back home in exchange for..some pretty odd things. Wearing a tutu while fighting? Really? He's willing to do that and so much more if he can just get home.. (Not published)

UD - UD stands for Unbridled Dreams. In this version of Dreamtale, Nightmare never ate the apples, but, rather, Dream ate one. Unlike some variations, he only stopped at one, but that doesn't make it better. Nightmare was forced to try to stop his brother, but only ended up being placed under his control like everyone else. At least the villagers are nice now.. (Not published)

As for other things, this story will involve torture, trauma, hopelessness, and angst, along with cuteness and beaniness.

Enjoy!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust. (Probably most will be ATE!Dust's point of view since he's got the most backstory lol)

~~~~~

I had been in Ink's power for roughly eleven and a half years; it was..hard. Ink had taken over shortly after executing my family, and I was only alive because of a reset..I missed them. Error was still alive, but Ink had locked him up for eternity. After being reset, I had joined the resistance with my brother - he led it - and tried to rescue Error, but..the plan failed, Error was still stuck in that dungeon, and I had been captured. Instead of treating me like a regular prisoner, Ink had decided to use me for a different purpose: I was his toy. What was that, one might have asked? His toy was the one he saw the most. His toy was the one he would go to when he was angry. His toy was the one he would beat if he desired. His toy was the one he tortured to no end. His toy was myself, and I hated it! I couldn't show that I hated it; he would have hurt me. I lived in his room, right where he could see me; I hated that, too. I had just woken up from my sleep, finding myself in an empty room..that was odd; Ink had made it a habit of waking me up every day. I looked around for a few minutes before the door to the room was opened and Ink walked inside, smiling when he saw me.

"Good morning, Dusty!" He called me Dusty.

"Good morning." I was obliged to respond to avoid potential pain.

"I hope I didn't disappoint you! I just had to grab some things!"

"Why?" I asked questions sometimes; Ink liked that, and I did it more because of it.

"Dusty, I'm taking you on a trip today! Do you know how I go out once a year for a week and you sometimes starve to death because nobody feeds you during it?"

"Yes?"

"Well, I'm taking you with me this time! Are you ready to go?"

"Yes.." I could never say no.

"Good! Just hold on for a minute, I need to get something."

Ink painted something on the ground, which solidified into a rope. After it had hardened - which happened quickly due to the paint's formula - he tied one end around my wrist and the other around his.

"There!" Ink smiled. "Now we won't get lost! Come, Dusty!"

Ink opened a portal, and I followed him through. Ink had taken off in such a hurry, however, that I dropped my Hope! My Hope was the only thing that Ink allowed me to have, and I needed it! It had been a gift from Error; it was a doll of Killer, who had been killed by Ink..I missed him so much. I needed my Hope, and there was only one way to get it back; I cried. It was babyish, and I knew that it looked stupid, but my Hope was the one thing that I relied on to keep my fagile sanity. When Ink noticed my tears, he responded.

"What is it, Dusty?" He questioned. 

"D-doll.." I didn't call it my Hope with anyone else; it was my Hope to me, and only me.

"Oh, you dropped it?"

I nodded.

"That's no good, Dusty." Ink reached back throught the portal and grabbed my Hope, giving it to me; I wiped my tears immediately. "Now you hold onto that."

I nodded once more, and Ink started to lead me to a long line. I looked around the room we had found ourselves in; it was huge. The room didn't have many decorations, but it didn't need to; I didn't imagine that there would be many decorations that would make the design stand out among the ridiculously long lines of people. There were about ten lines, and each one was longer than any other line I had ever seen! There must have been over a hundred people in each one! I held my Hope tightly as Ink promptly joined the shortest of the lines, which still had more people than I had thought possible in a single room. At the front of the room, there were desks - one desk for each line - that had different judges sitting at them; some were Sanses, others were Papyruses, and a few were even humans..human judges were nearly unheard of in the place I was familiar with. When we reached the end of our line, after about thirty minutes, which was impressive, we were met with an Underfell Sans, but he wasn't the Underfell Sans that I knew. His bones were a bit thicker, and he had a noticeable feel that said, "I don't want to be here." He greeted us.

"Welcome to the annual villlain conference; are you staying for the entire period or a portion?" He started.

"The entire week." Ink replied.

"All right." The Underfell Sans wrote something on a piece of paper. "Please state your name, multiverse, and any valuables you brought that you aren't keen on losing."

"Ink, 473, and I brought my paintbrushes-" Ink was cut off.

"How many paintbrushes?"

"Um..a lot?"

"Please put all of your items on that table, and I'll write them down."

"Okay!"

Ink began to place all of his paintbrushes on a nearby table; there were over fifty, if I was counting right. When he finished with the paintbrushes, he put a few other items on the table before lifting me up and putting me on the table; I wasn't sure what to say to that.

"All right." The Underfell Sans didn't even flinch. "Sixty-four paintbrushes, food items, magic suppressors, paint reserves, a doll obviously made by an Error, and one Dusttale Sans?"

"Yep!"

"All right, you're free to collect your things, but you'll need to check in your Dusttale Sans at the captive lounge; we can't allow him to run around freely."

"I understand. Come, Dusty!"

Ink gathered up his supplies before pulling on the rope that connected us and leading me into what looked to be a very large convention hall. He started to lead me in one direction as I looked around. This room was much more decorated than the other, and there were various styles represented in it, but that wasn't what I was focusing on; there were signs labelling different areas. Some areas seemed harmless, such as "Conference Room," while others seemed more dangerous, such as the hallway labelled "Torture Rooms"; I despised that plural. I had a feeling that I would end up there sometime during this and wouldn't have been able to fight it. When Ink signalled that we were nearing our destination, I looked up to see a sign that said "Captive Lounge"; that was where we were headed. I noticed another, although shorter, line in front of the area, but it was moving slower; we waited in it for another half hour. When we reached the front, we were met by an Underswap Sans who didn't exactly look cheery..he wasn't the swapped Sans I knew. He halfheartedly gave us a smile before speaking.

"Welcome to the captive lounge." He sighed. "Who's the captive?"

"He is." Ink pointed to me.

"Very well. Please make him sit him on this table."

"All right." Ink cut the rope that bound me to him, took my Hope, and set me on the table; I wanted my Hope, but he wouldn't have given it back if I wasn't quiet. He set my Hope on the desk in front of the Underswap Sans.

"What's his name?" The Underswap Sans picked up a pencil.

"Dusty."

"A Dusttale Sans?"

"Yep."

"How old is he?"

"True, chosen, or literal?"

"Whichever you prefer."

"Oh, then he's absolutely ten!"

"Height?" 

"Three feet exactly."

"Is he broken?"

"Yep!"

"What is his role?"

"Role?"

"Is this your first time?"

"With him."

"What role does he play in your life?"

"What are the options?"

"Slave, pet, or toy."

"Oh, he's my toy."

"Very well. Does he have multiverse identification?"

"No? Does he need that?"

"He needs some form of identification to signify which multiverse he's from. There are hundreds of stolen captives every year that have never been recovered because of the lack of identification."

"I see.."

"Most prefer a brand." The Underswap Sans had scary suggestions; I didn't want that!

"Hmm.." Ink looked at me, smiling at my scared expression. "I think that'll be just perfect."

So it happened. It hurt worse than I would have liked, and I had officially had my last sense of individuality forcefully ripped from me; Ink said it would even stay through a reset, which I dreaded..

"Does this belong to him?" The Underswap Sans acted as if he hadn't just seen someone's bones being charred..at least it was on my humerus; I didn't have to see it very often. He gestured to my Hope.

"Yes, that's his sole possession." Ink confirmed.

"Would you like him to keep it or not?"

"He can keep it."

"All right. Would you like a regular, luxury, painful, or custom space for him to stay in?"

"Custom."

"Okay. Would you like him to be fed?"

"Yes, please."

"How much?"

"Hmm.." Ink thought for a moment. "Seven thousand magic points every three days."

The Underswap Sans looked at Ink incredulously. "That's toxic."

"Dusty is special..just do it, please."

"Very well..it will be done. You may take him to the designated multiverse spot and put this in his space." The Underswap Sans handed Ink the paper.

"Thank you!" Ink took the paper happily.

After that, Ink took my hand and gave me my Hope before leading me through a door, which led to a hallway. The hallway was long and dark, and on each side, there were small spaces separated by fences; I believed they were each only nine square feet. Each area had a pole sticking up from the center, and each was decorated differently. Some had metal cages, and others had soft pillows. Some had a flat floor, while others had sharp spikes. There were numbers in front of each area, no doubt indicating the multiverses from which the poor souls came from; yes, there were people in those areas, and some were forced to lie on those spikes..I felt bad for them, all the while wondering what Ink was going to do to me. When we reached the one behind 473, Ink set me on the floor and posted the paper up on the pole. After completing that action, he stepped out of the area and started pressing buttons on an electric screen that popped up. Within a minute, the floor of my area had turned to a blue shade, and a small lantern hung from the pole I sat against; that was surprisingly not painful. As soon as Ink was done, an electric barrier formed to keep me inside the area.

"Have fun, Dusty!" Ink waved before walking off.

Well, that wasn't as bad as I had first thought. I noticed that I had neighbors to each side; that was interesting. I looked to my left first, finding a small - although not as small as myself, as Ink loved to point out - sleeping skeleton partially wrapped in a purple blanket. He wore what seemed to be a purple outfit to match the blanket, and he wore a crown on his skull with a purple crescent moon symbol engraved in it; I had never seen a skeleton like him before. To my right, there sat..Error; he wasn't my Error, but he looked similar. He was no doubt taller than my Error, and he looked rather uncomfortable in the small space. His multicolored eyelights were trained on the lantern that Ink had left; he seemed interested in it. It was at that moment that I realized how quiet the hallway was; nobody was speaking..it was too quiet. I decided to look at my Hope for a while; that would have made everything better. I loved looking at my Hope; it reminded me of my family. After ten minutes of silence, I felt lonely..I looked to my right, finding the Error now looking at my Hope.

"Do you like it?" I asked.

"Shh!" The Error shushed me; I flinched slightly. "We're not allowed to talk." He whispered.

"Oh.." I lowered my voice. "So..do you?"

"...Yeah."

"Why aren't we allowed to talk?"

"Rules..can't change them. They'll beat you for it.."

"Who?"

"Anyone who walks by and cares..some of them walk around here just for fun and look for it.."

"Oh.." I frowned. "Want to be friends?"

"Not allowed."

"Secret friends?"

"I don't feel like having my bones broken today."

"...What if we were allowed?"

"Then maybe."

"Okay.."

The Error soon went back to looking at the lantern, and I looked at my Hope, trying to figure out some way to change the rules..maybe Ink could bend them? He was pretty persuasive sometimes. As I got lost in thought, I didn't hear the footsteps coming down the hallway; before I knew it, I was faced with Ink, and he looked fairly happy.

"Hello, Dusty!" He greeted.

"Hi.." I returned, holding my Hope closer.

"I'm going to take you for a walk; isn't that fun?" 

I nodded, knowing it would have been more painful if I had refused. 

"Good." Ink chuckled. 

Ink proceeded to take down the barrier keeping me inside the area, and he promptly removed me from it, leading me down the dark hallway. I normally wouldn't have been so hesitant - I didn't dare show it, though - but I had decided to assume that Ink was taking me to the hallway with the label "Torture Rooms." I was right, of course. We spent about three hours "visiting" the wretched place, and I suffered; Ink liked that. After the three hours, Ink decided that it was time for me to have a break, since I couldn't stand too much torture before passing out - sometimes, a chronic disease was a good thing..sometimes. During the break, I decided to make my proposal; I wanted to have a friend..

"What?" Ink noticed that I was staring at him. "What do you want, Dusty?"

"..." I needed to phrase it correctly.

"Well?"

"I..want a friend.."

"A friend? That's interesting; I thought you had friends." 

"..Here."

"You want a friend here?"

"Mhm.." I nodded.

"Did you meet someone?"

I nodded again.

"Who?" Ink directed his full attention to me.

"Th-the person..n-next to me.." I was afraid that Ink would hurt me..I shouldn't have said anything, but I couldn't back out now.

"A captive?"

"U-uh-huh."

"What would be your benefit?"

"S-someone to talk to.."

"And what would be my benefit?"

"Y-yours?"

"Dusty, I don't think I've said it in quite this way, before, but..I own you. I am considered your owner, your master. I am responsible for your actions, and I am responsible for your well-being; just because I abuse you doesn't change that. If I go through the absolute hassle of getting you a friend, I want to see benefits. If I don't see them, you don't get a friend."

"Y-your benefits.." I had to think..what did Ink like? "Would be..h-having someone to drag me a-away from every year..."

"Huh.." Ink seemed like he was considering it. "All right, Dusty; I'll see what I can do."

"R-really?" I was surprised that he would actually do that!

"Yep! So, the person next to you, eh?"

"Mhm." I confirmed.

"To the left or right?"

"R-right."

"So that would make it..multiverse 474? Yeah, 474. Follow me, Dusty."

Ink stood from the table we had been seated at, and he started to lead me to a different place - specifically, a room labelled "Captive Options"; that sounded rather odd. When we entered the room, there was barely anybody there aside from one Undertale Sans at a desk; I wondered why there were so many people at desks. Upon coming to the desk, he looked up at Ink. 

"Welcome to options." He seemed a bit more cheerful than the other two Sanses that I had seen at desks, but he was still unhappy. "Would you like to sell, buy, trade, loan, punish, reward, or something else?"

"I'd like to speak to the owners of number 474." Ink knew what he wanted.

"Very well." The Sans pressed a button on an intercom. "Multiverse 474 to captive options, please, 474 to captive options. Thank you."

At this, Ink took me to a couch that was against a wall in the back of the room and sat on it; I sat on the floor. We waited for about ten minutes before five people walked into the room: a..Nightmare's gang. They reminded me of my family..I missed them so much. There were a Nightmare, Killer, Horror, Cross, and another me present. Soon after their arrival, Ink began to talk to the Nightmare, and the rest of their group came over to me.

"Dude, this guy's so tiny!" The Cross chuckled.

"I always knew you'd look good as a baby." The Killer snickered.

"Shut up!" The Dust glared at the Killer.

"You're just jealous that he's adorable." The Horror teased.

"I wanna take him home!" The Killer whined.

"He's someone else's property." The Cross reminded.

"We steal everything anyway."

"I don't like the looks of his owner." The Horror hummed. "He seems like the type that would fight to keep him."

"You're right." The Dust agreed. 

"We can ask." The Killer plotted.

"Boys, come here for a moment." The Nightmare ordered.

The others went over to speak with Ink, and I hugged my Hope. I wondered if I would be able to talk to the Error I had met; I hoped so. When they finished their discussion, they came over to me; Ink was smiling.

"Dusty, we've reached an agreement." He knelt down beside me. "These very nice people are going to take care of you for two weeks every year, and I'm going to get to play with your new friend while you're gone. In essence, you'll be swapping lives in exchange for being friends - oh, and you can't take it back. This is final. Do you understand, Dusty?"

I nodded.

"Good." Ink stood up, making me follow suit. "Let's go deal with that pesky system."

It took a few hours - long, boring hours - for everything to complete, but at the end of it, I had been granted the privilege of speaking with the Error next to me, and that was all I had wanted. After a couple more hours of torture - Ink wouldn't have let me off that easily - I was ready to meet my new friend, and when Ink left me in my area, I did just that.

"Hello!" I waved at the Error.

"Are you trying to get caught?" He obviously hadn't been told that we were allowed to speak.

"You said if talking was allowed you'd be my friend."

"Yeah?"

"My owner met with yours and said we could."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Uh-huh!" I grinned.

"...You are one crazy kid."

"I'm Dusty, what's your name?"

"Call me Glitch. Nice to meet you, Dusty."

"The same to you."

"How exactly did you manage to get them to let us talk?"

"Luck." 

"You must be pretty lucky."

"Not really..where do you come from?"

"I come from a multiverse different from the one I'm currently living in..I fell into the void and ended up there. I'm trying to get back home, but it's hard."

"How do you get across multiverses? Isn't that impossible?"

"Apparently not, but it's rare for it to work out, hence why I'm stuck. Nightmare's trying to find a way for me to get back in exchange for my services for as long as I stay..also known as, 'I'm a slave until Nightmare gets me back home.' Honestly, with the pace he's working at, I doubt I'll ever get home.."

"That's sad.." I felt bad for Glitch.

"How about you? Got a past you're willing to share?"

"It's complicated.."

"We have time."

"All right..it started about twenty-five years ago, when I joined Nightmare's gang. They needed to keep the balance, and I was willing to help. When I joined them, Ink immediately hated me, and it just got worse over time; he literally sent me into a coma, once. We had managed to avoid attempts to capture us..until one succeeded. We were captured and executed, and while everyone was celebrating our defeat, Ink started conquering. He started with obscure universes, and he worked his way to the larger ones; before anyone knew it, he had taken Undertale, and by then, it was too late. I was reset four or five years after the execution, and I joined the resistance against him; I was captured while trying to rescue my Error, and Ink decided to punish me in the worst way possible.." I was tearing up. "I-I'm sorry.." 

"Hey, it's okay! Everything's okay!" 

"N-no, it isn't.."

"How about we talk about something else?"

"O-okay.."

We talked for hours, becoming good friends along the way.

I was glad to have a friend.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dusty bean and Glitch bean friends!

Thanks for reading my friendly writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust.

~~~~~

It had been a few hours since my meeting Glitch, and all seemed well. Since my return to the area, a couple of "workers" - I had figured out that they weren't here because they wanted to be (more like ripped out of their multiverses and forced to work here) - had visited Glitch and me to give us special "talking cards"; they looked like surface identification cards, sort of, but they really just said, "This captive is allowed to speak to others." In any case, I was happy, and so was Glitch. We had lots of stories from our multiverses to share with eachother, and it felt like we could spend forever talking about them! Alas, it was not that simple: our captors had other plans for us. Glitch and I were in the middle of a conversation.

"What did he do next?" I asked.

"After that, the game pretty much went into a stalemate." Glitch explained. "Can't play the game without the pieces, after all."

"What about your Killer?"

"He ordered a new shipment of advanced weaponry and vowed to get his revenge."

"Wow! Did he?"

"I don't know; I fell before I could see the outcome."

"Dusty!" Ink shouted from down the hall. 

I turned my skull to see my captor with a smile, running over to see me..I had a feeling that this was going to be painful. I mentally prepared myself for whatever horrors awaited me as Ink approached. I closed my eyesockets tightly as the barrier fell down and Ink came closer, and I waited for whatever he was planning to do. To my surprise, he..blindfolded me? Maybe he wasn't going to torture me..he liked it when I saw my wounds. 

"Dusty, can you see anything?" He questioned.

"N-no." I hoped this wouldn't hurt..

"Good. Now, hold this." Ink handed me something, which I held. "Okay, move your other hand to your left." 

I did so, and Ink put something in my hand before it was removed.

"All right." Ink did something, judging by his voice. "Now let go."

I did; whatever I had been holding fell onto the ground.

"Perfect!" Ink took my blindfold off, introducing me once again to light.

I looked at Ink oddly; what had happened?

"Now I can cross 'Making Dusty do something meaningless' off my to-do list!" Ink giggled. 

"Wh-what..did I do?" I honestly had no clue.

"I dunno! Go find out, will ya? I'll be back in a while!"

Ink then put the barrier back up, leaving me to figure out what had happened. I grabbed my Hope, ensuring its safety, before looking to my right, seeing Glitch without that weird fence, and to my left, seeing the purple skeleton with still no fence. That seemed-

No fence.

"Glitch?" I stuck my hand out to him, finding no electrical obstruction.

"Dusty, this is amazing!" Glitch scooped me up in a hug, and we hugged eachother tightly. "Are you sure your owner isn't somewhat good?"

"Nah, he just likes to make me happy before tearing everything away from me, but we can enjoy this, at least."

"Oh..hello?" Glitch looked to the purple-clothed skeleton who had realized that there wasn't a barrier anymore; he was holding a talking card..had Ink made me give it to him?

"H-hi.." The other seemed nervous..

"There's no need to be scared; we won't hurt you."

"Wh-what about.."

"Hey, if your owner gets mad, Dusty's can convince almost anyone of anything; besides, he was probably given permission anyway."

"R-really?"

"Sure! I was allowed to talk before anyone told me about it."

"Oh..who are you?"

"I'm Glitch!"

"I'm Dusty." I joined. "What's your name?"

"N-Nightmare.." He didn't look like Nightmare..

"There are about two thousand different Nightmares here..got a nickname?" Glitch hoped. 

"Oh..um..how about Umbra?"

"That sounds cool..what does it mean?"

"It's Latin..? Don't you know Latin?"

"Nope."

"Oh..weird. It's Latin for shadow, then..do you like it?"

"I think it's awesome, Umbra!" I grinned at the prospect of having a new friend.

"It's more creative than Glitch." Glitch admitted. "I didn't actually put any time into thinking that up.."

"How'd you get your nickname?" Umbra looked at me.

"Oh..I didn't get to choose..my name is Dust, but he wants me to be called Dusty.." I sighed.

"Oh, I get it."

"So, where did you come from?" Glitch decided to learn more about our new acquaintance. 

"I come from, uh..Dreamtale?"

"So does every other Nightmare. Got any special story?"

"O-oh, um, not really.."

"Nonthing to do with the apples?"

"W-well..I guess I can tell you.."

"We're listening."

"So..my brother, Dream, ate an apple..and now he doesn't like me, but the villagers have realized that I wasn't actually evil. The end?"

"Huh..usually, one ends up eating, like, 999 of them, and the other saves the last one."

"Um..he only ate one.."

"Interesting."

"How long would it even take to eat all of those?"

"Some take hours, others take days."

"That's kinda overkill."

"I agree."

"Is that how Nightmare becomes all goopy?" I assumed.

"Yep." Glitch knew a lot of stuff. "Umbra is an example of a Nightmare who hasn't been corrupted."

"Ooh. So, wanna be our friend?"

"Well, I guess it would be all right." Umbra nodded.

"Yay!" I hugged our new friend.

"Heh, you're pretty excitable, aren't you?"

"Have to be."

"Why?"

"Hehe.." I just realized that I didn't want to talk about that subject. "...Nevermind.."

"Okay..so, wanna talk about something?"

"Sure!"

We then began to talk about random things, such as our pasts, favorite colors, and even friends! It was weird knowing different versions of my family members, but I enjoyed it thoroughly; I was really..happy. I didn't remember the last time I had been truly happy, since Ink was constantly trying to break me down, but I felt it now, and I loved it! We managed to talk for three hours, and they were some amazing hours! It turned out that Umbra loved to meet new people, and we got along great! Unfortunately, our talking was interrupted when our captors approached us; it seemed that we weren't the only ones who had new friends, and I was afraid that our captors did not have the same views on things as we did. I noticed that alongside Ink and the other Nightmare's gang, Dream stood? Perhaps it was Umbra's version of Dream; he had said that his Dream had only eaten one apple, which would have made him no different from the Dream that I knew. Although, this Dream was more..elegant; his clothes seemed almost regal, and his decorated crown completed the look. In any case, Umbra seemed to see danger, and I followed suit, knowing that if his Dream wasn't looking to harm anyone, Ink was.

"Hello, Dusty and friends!" Ink greeted, smiling; I clutched my Hope, hoping he wouldn't hurt us. "Guess what we've got planned!"

"L-leaving?" Umbra hoped.

"Nope!" Ink chuckled, turning to the regally dressed Dream.

"We've decided to see which of you handles severe pain better." The Dream was definitely not nice..I hoped that it wouldn't have lasted too long..

"Do you honestly think we'll just submit to that?" Glitch was brave..

"Well, my brother and the little one will.." The Dream was right.

"That's insane!"

"Yo, do you want me to break him?" Ink offered. "My going rate is absolutely free."

"We might consider it.." The other Nightmare shrugged.

"This wasn't part of our agreement!" Glitch was very brave.

"You should have asked for a contract if you wanted agreements. I'm only helping you get home, not healthy - mentally or physically."

"Contract." Glitch scoffed. 

"Well, we've rented a room for the rest of the day." Ink revealed. "That only gives us ten hours, and I don't want to waste them."

"Very well." The Dream motioned for Umbra to follow him, which he did.

"Come on, Dusty!" Ink gestured, and I came. 

Glitch was eventually coerced to join us, after Ink had whacked him on the skull with his paintbrush - I knew for a fact that it had hurt, but Glitch took it well - and we were all headed off to the room that Ink had spoken about earlier. As we walked, I noticed some odd looks pointed towards our group; I just tried to keep my skull down and hoped that ten hours was some sort of code for ten minutes..I knew it wasn't. When we reached the area that housed the rooms, aptly named "Private Torture Chambers," Ink opened the door to one, and our group entered immediately. The room, much to my discomfort, was filled with various torture devices, including, but not limited to, edged weaponry, medieval torture tools, and blowtorches..I didn't like any of those things, and I was fairly sure that my friends shared my opinions. We had no say in the matter as we were locked to chains on the walls..I had seen and experienced what happened to people who were chained to walls in Ink's dungeon..it wasn't pretty. When we were definitely immobile, the captors went to the other side of the room to talk, presumably about how they were going to torture us.

"Wh-what are they going to do to us?" Umbra was afraid.

"Most likely break a few bones." Glitch didn't seem scared. "I wouldn't worry about it too much; most paint doesn't hurt too much long-term, Dreams aren't usually keen on hurting people, and the Nightmare's gang I know don't typically like to torture people..except Killer and Nightmare..maybe Dust."

"H-how are you so c-calm?" I was shaking in fear.

"Because I've been through worse than torture."

"I-I'm sorry for your l-loss.."

"Huh?"

"All right!" Ink caught our attention. "Now this is what we're going to do: each of us is going to torture each of you in our own ways, and whoever gets the loudest screams wins for us, and whoever screams the least of you gets the title of best at taking pain. Got it?"

Umbra and I nodded, but Glitch just glared; he was so brave!

"Okay, looks like the unbroken one gets to go first." Ink chuckled, pulling out a bucket of paint. "One hour, let's start that timer."

The other Dream pressed a few buttons on a wall timer, and Ink's hour with Glitch began. Glitch was braver than most, but..Ink was stronger. Ink's favorite torture method was forcing one to drink his red paint - the type that burned like lava, yet had no lasting effects on one's body, produced by his best scientists..I hated it - and he used it. I held my Hope close - I had enough motion to do that - as the torture began. Umbra was crying at the sight, and even the other captors were surprised by it; Ink was truly ruthless. When the hour was up, Glitch was still screaming his skull off, and Ink was forced to use a silencing method - forcing him to cough up some of the paint - to calm him. It appeared that it was the Dream's turn next, and he approached Glitch with an air of confidence. Another timer was set, and the Dream beat Glitch mercilessly with his staff; he didn't produce as many screams, but he broke a large quanitity of bones. When the Nightmare's gang's turn came, they tag-teamed their victim, breaking more bones and producing more glitchy screams; I dreaded my turn. When it was over, Glitch was healed by Ink's green paint - he had almost never used that kind on me, unsurprisingly - and sent back to us.

"You know what?" Glitch groaned slightly; the paint hadn't taken away all the pain, although it could have. "I take back what I said; these people are crazy."

"Just be glad the paint isn't toxic..and don't be surprised if you start coughing it up." I sighed.

"Oh, that's reassuring."

"Wh-what does it taste like?" Umbra didn't seem like he wanted to know.

"Paint, what else?"

"There's a hint of strawberry if you pay attention." I shrugged.

"All right, it looks like the young Nightmare is next." Ink declared, after having talked about it to the group.

Umbra seemed terrified as his shackles were removed and he was brought to the floor by Ink. He was, as Glitch was, given the treatment of drinking paint, but he seemed to have found that strawberry taste, which didn't dull the pain, but it made the experience slightly more bearable. When he was finished with that, he was also forced to stop screaming, and his brother proceeded to torture him, breaking more bones than he had bothered to with Glitch and producing louder screams. The Nightmare's gang took the same route they had before, but they might have toned it up a bit. When he had been healed and brought back, he was crying uncontrollably; I felt like that was what I was going to look like when my turn was over.

"W-well, you were r-right.." Umbra admitted, amidst his crying. "I-it tastes..l-like st-strawberry.."

"Dusty, you're up last!" Ink grinned. "I think I'll take final for this."

Then it started. The Nightmare's gang decided to torture me first, and they broke a majority of my bones, which hurt immensely and made me scream loudly. They reminded me of the high ranks when they would beat me..I didn't like the high ranks. Next up was the Dream, who broke more bones and made the previous ones worse, but he had..taken my Hope. My Hope was the one thing that I wouldn't have been able to live without, and he took it..I didn't scream, no matter how hard he had hurt me..I didn't want to, and I couldn't have found a reason to. When it was Ink's turn, he chuckled at the angered Dream and returned my Hope to me, knowing why I hadn't reacted to the pain. Ink's turn wasn't too bad, compared to his usual sessions with me..he only had an hour, this time, compared to the usual nine to twelve. When the "fun" - I hated that term - had ended, it was decided that Ink was the best at torturing, and I was the best at taking pain; I honestly didn't care, wanting to talk to my new friends more without pain. Thankfully, that was what happened next, and we were sent back to our little safe area to talk without threat of being hurt.

"How'd you do it?" Umbra looked to me.

"Do what?" I held my Hope close; I didn't like it when people took it away from me.

"Stay calm?" 

"He took it..I don't make people who take it happy."

"That was impressive." Glitch complimented.

"Thanks."

We continued our talking, sharing more stories with eachother.

I liked having friends.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Umbra bean join bean friendship club!

Thanks for reading my friendly writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

UD!Nightmare

~~~~~

It was day four of the conference my brother had dragged me to every year for what felt like the past century. He had once tried to attend the hero conference, but they denied him because of the way he treated me; the villains just encouraged it. I remembered the first time he had hurt me on purpose..it was the day he ate that darned apple..the day my brother died. I hadn't wanted to fight him when he went for it, but I was the only one who was thinking straight; I regretted ever having attacked him. He had overpowered me in his rush to procure his prize, and he had knocked me completely unconscious. I later found out that the villagers had talked him into it, but it was too late; my brother began to slowly take control of my life, from deciding where I was allowed to go to inflicting penalties when I disobeyed even the slightest rule..I wasn't even permitted to call him brother anymore. About three months after the abuse began, the villagers actually felt remorse for wnat they had done - I hadn't known they were capable of the feeling - and offered to help us keep the tree safe; they didn't want another Dream..nobody wanted another Dream.

In the beginning, he had simply checked in on the villagers and continued helping them in whatever ways he could, as always, but he started bringing me along with him; that was when the villagers realized their mistake. Dream believed in swift and harsh punishments, lashing out at me before even I had realized what I had done; I was terrified of him! My own brother! The villagers witnessed the treatment I had received, leading them to eventually apologize to me for thinking that I was an evil demon. I didn't want to forgive them, but I did anyway; Dream soon caught on. He began to send me into the village alone to run errands and do what he had always done: help the villagers. I didn't get a choice in the matter; the one time I tried to refrain due to a real illness, he just beat me. So I did his job now, while he did other things, such as imposing rules upon the village, claiming he had the rights to do that; he didn't, but nobody had the courage to stand up to him..he was just too strong. He essentially ruled the village as a king, and I was treated as his servant..I missed the days when the villagers would make fun of me and hurt me..it was better than my own brother doing it!

"Are you okay?" Glitch looked worriedly at me; he and Dusty were apparently my new 'roommates'; they were actually very nice, and they had been through similar experiences, although not exactly the same. In any case, we each had some form of cruel authority controlling us, either for a purpose..or just hate.

"Yeah, just thinking." I nodded.

"What about?" Dusty honestly seemed like a child; I didn't exactly want to know what had been done to make him like that..he was obviously older than he acted, despite the fact that he was smaller than even I was.

"Just the past.."

"I like the past!" 

"I assume you had a happy one?"

"Yep! I had a family who were really nice!"

"Where are they now?" I instantly regretted asking that.

"...Error is in the dungeon." Dusty frowned.

"I see..well, I'm sure he loves you very much!"

"He does! I love him too! I still don't know if he's my adopted uncle or cousin, but that doesn't matter!"

"I assume he made your doll?"

"Yep..Error always liked to make dolls..b-but he never called them dolls, j-just puppets.."

"So, do you guys do anything when you're not being injured in some way?" Glitch didn't want Dusty to be sad.

"I talk to my friends when Ink isn't there! They're really nice! Ooh, do you think you'll meet them?"

"Depends on who your friends are."

"Oh, well, my best friends are Fell, Blue, and Dream, but most of the lower ranks are really nice in general, since they didn't want to join Ink. Fell's a lower rank!" 

"So you live in some sort of dictatorship, right?" I wasn't quite sure about everything.

"Uh-huh."

"How does he keep all those universes in line?"

"Fear, mostly. He also forces the judge of every universe to join his army..some join willingly, others don't."

"What do you do, Umbra?" Glitch inquired.

"Oh, I just try to do whatever I can when Dream's not looking..I can sometimes read a little bit of a book if I'm lucky."

"You mean he doesn't let you read?"

"No..he says the stories I read are a cause of my 'insolence and rebellion.' The villagers sometimes let me read one of their books when I visit, since that's being a kind host, and Dream can't fault me for pleasing a host."

"Is he some sort of manners freak?"

"No, but he thinks he is."

"Huh..what does the Ink in your multiverse think of him?"

"Oh, I don't know about any Inks except Dusty's, really..I'm not allowed to leave Dreamtale unless it's on the verge of being destroyed or to come here..I think Dream knows something about our multiverse, but he doesn't talk to me about it. I don't really want to know..I've got enough to worry about, anyway."

"Dream's your brother, right?" Dusty questioned. "Why isn't he nice to you?"

 "We..have a strained relationship..I don't think he loves me anymore.."

"That's sad..I'm sorry.."

"It's all right; you couldn't have known. How about you, Glitch?"

"Well, I have a bit more freedom than you guys do..I usually just stargaze and stuff, or I can make something with my strings."

"That sounds fun.." Dusty wished he had that type of freedom; I did, too.. "Does anything exciting happen during these things? I'm grateful that he isn't torturing me, but..this entire 'conference' thing just seems a bit weird.."

"There are events, but they're usually painful." I shrugged. "Sometimes the heroes break in and try to rescue people, and other times the villains try to capture some of the heroes; it's just a big game to them. They play with lives, and we're their pawns."

"Does anyone ever get rescued?"

"Rarely..someone's usually able to get out - maybe one or two at the least, fifty at the most - but the villains are very..possessive..they'll invade other multiverses to recover what they believe is theirs. The largest rescue I ever saw brought over a hundred captives out. Next year, I saw almost all of them with check marks next to their pictures on the missing board. One escaped successfully."

"Have you ever been rescued?"

"No..the heroes don't usually make it this far, and even if they do, the higher the multiverse number, the harder the lock codes; they'd take at least ten minutes if they were to try to bring down this barrier. By then, it would be pointless."

"How long have you been coming here?"

"I don't know..it's been too long ago to remember.."

"Heads up, someone's coming." Glitch alerted.

Wondering who wanted something to do with us, we looked down the hall, seeing..them. I didn't know why Dream decided to befriend these people, but I would have certainly been hurt if I asked him in a fashion he didn't accept, which led me to just..not ask him. I knew that they were a bad influence on him, but I also knew that he was a bad influence on them..it was a river that flowed both ways. I lowered my skull when they brought down the barrier and began to speak; I had noticed that Dusty's master usually led the talking..I wondered why.

"Hello Dusty and others!" He was weird..I didn't like him. "We've finally decided on the absolute terms of your friendship! In exchange for your being friends, the trio of you will spend two weeks in each of our multiverses, starting with 474, then 472, then ending with 473. While in each multiverse, you will be treated as the property of whichever of us lives there; we aren't vouching for your safety, much less your sanity. We do hope you'll behave; it would be a shame if we had to break one of you down..further.."

"What do you mean further?" Glitch was suspicious; the group chuckled.

"Just that you're in for a ride."

"Nightmare!"

"I think you'll be much easier to handle when this guy's done with you." Nightmare cackled.

"What's your name?" Dusty's master lifted Glitch off the ground.

"Would it even matter?"

"Well, I have to nickname you, silly! Dusty, tell me his name before I crack your neck."

"G-Glitch!" Dusty stuttered, not wanting his bones to be broken.

"Ah, Glitchy. I think that's a suitable nickname, don't you?" Dusty's master looked to Nightmare. "I'll need permission to do a few things to speed up the process; if I could, I'd draw it out, but seeing as we have but three days.."

"Do whatever you want; just don't kill him." Nightmare smirked.

"Thank you for your cooperation; I'll have him back..hmm..probably sometime tomorrow or the day after."

"Thank you for your services."

"I live for it!" 

Dusty's master then smashed his giant paintbrush over Glitch's skull, rendering him unconscious; I hoped he was going to be all right, but I knew better than to believe it. As the artist walked off, dragging the unconscious skeleton behind him, my brother and Nightmare decided to continue the talk; I noticed that Nightmare's followers began to crowd around Dusty, but I didn't dare move.

"I hope he can break him.." Nightmare muttered. "Brat's been avoiding it for too long.."

"Did you see what he did the other day?" Dream chuckled slightly. "He could break himself if he wanted to!"

"I must say, I've never met a version of my brother that I actually liked, but you're a bit different than the rest, aren't you?"

"Assuming the rest don't have brothers like mine."

"Well, now you have me interested..what exactly did this version of me do?" Nightmare looked at me evilly; I shrunk.

"I was innocently pursuing my passion of obtaining a golden apple; that wasn't so difficult, and it was only one, after all. As I pull it off the branch, this twit shoots an arrow at me! I decided to fight back, seeing as he obviously didn't want to be related to me anymore. So we fought, but he always was a weakling; he was out cold within two minutes, but I realized that he cared more for a tree than for me. Being the generous being that I am, I decided to give him one more chance; he really is better for it, and he's improving every day."

"What is this treatment you give him, if I may ask?"

"You may. I merely prohibit the things I don't want him being exposed to, such as vulgar language, violence, and books."

"You keep him from books?" Nightmare was a bit surprised.

"You wouldn't believe what inane ideas he's gotten from those idiotic pieces of paper.."

"Color me intrigued."

"The last time he got one of those ridiculous ideas, he attempted to run from home."

"What did you do to him?"

"I simply ensured that it was impossible for him to run from home; it's a bit difficult to run with broken legs."

"I like your style."

"Thank you."

"Well, I suppose I'll see you around; my boys have been wanting to do something 'fun,' and I don't think they can last much longer." Nightmare glanced over to his gang members, finding the skeletons crowding around Dusty a bit too much..he seemed frightened. "Boys, stop terrorizing the child."

"But he's so adorable!" Killer whined.

"Come on, you can terrorize him all you want in a few days." 

"Fine..do you think we should get him some baby clothes?"

"I don't care what you do to him, as long as he isn't dead in two weeks."

"I can't wait!"

Nightmare's gang left at that point, followed by Dream. I moved over to Dusty as soon as I was sure it was safe.

"Hey, are you okay?" I wrapped my purple blanket around the shaky skeleton. 

"I-I'm okay..I just d-don't like that s-sort of attention.." He pulled the blanket around himself tightly, thanking me softly.

"I understand; I don't like it, either..do you think Glitch is going to be okay?"

"...Ink doesn't t-treat his victims k-kindly.."

"What do you think he's doing to him?"

"..Ink c-can torture someone f-for days if he w-wants to..I-I don't think h-he'll be the same.."

"I guess we'll have to help him."

"Y-yeah.."

I hoped he wouldn't be too broken.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Umbra bean talk.

Thanks for reading my talkative writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

FDIR!Error

~~~~~

He was insane! In all my years of living, I had never met anyone as utterly sadistic as that artist! He was even proud of it! I had spent the past few days in a constant state of agony..the artist was determined to break me, and he hadn't even given me a single moment's peace. It reminded me of how the Ink I knew acted before we had made amends and he learned about the balance..but this one was worse. I remembered how my home was before there was finally peace..my Nightmare wasn't quite as rude as the one I had been forced into servitude by, but he was able to be cruel, if he wished. I remembered how the gang used to prank the entire multiverse as revenge for one person coming across Cross's chocolate stash..those were the days. Peace had just made everything legal, really; the people of the multiverse were paranoid to go out if there had been word that someone had found and stolen from a pile of chocolate in the middle of nowhere. Now? Now I was in the clutches of an insane artist who had every intent to break me down into a sobbing victim; I wished I had never fallen into that accursed void..I wished I had never gone to that accursed birthday party, either..

"You impress me, Glitchy." The artist stated, at one point. "It's been three whole days, and you're still resisting..you remind me of Dusty. Do you want to know what I do to people who remind me of him?"

I shook my skull; I could barely feel my mouth amidst the pain, much less speak.

"I use.." He chuckled darkly. "My special paint."

~~~~~

ATE!Dust. ('Cause nobody needs to see that)

~~~~~

Glitch had been gone for three whole days..Umbra and I were worried about him. We had decided that we were going to give him our attention for as long as he needed; he had obviously never been broken before, which meant that he was likely going to be terrified of anything or anyone that wasn't nice to him. I remembered when Ink had broken me..it had been terrible..I hadn't feared him before that, but I did afterwards..he was the scariest person in the world! I held my Hope tightly at the memories..maybe Glitch would have liked to hug my Hope; it had always helped me when I was scared, and maybe it would have done the same for him? Umbra and I hoped he would have been able to stay strong until the conference ended in an hour, since we would have been going to a multiverse away from Ink..maybe he could have kept his bravery for a while longer! My hopes were shattered when Umbra noticed Ink coming our way..dragging a crying Glitch; with all hope lost, we decided to comfort him as soon as Ink threw him into our shared area. Glitch looked horrible..Ink hadn't bothered to heal his wounds. Without a word, Ink left us to dote over our hurt and broken friend.

"Glitch, can you hear me?" Umbra wanted to make sure he was all right, but asking if he was okay would have been pointless; he was obviously not what some would have called 'okay.'

"Y-yes.." Glitch's voice sounded more distorted than it had before..Ink must have gone very hard on him. 

"Do you need something?" I offered. "We managed to save you some water from the last time they fed us.."

Glitch just whimpered; he wasn't in a good state. I took that as a, "Yes, please," getting a small cup of water we had hidden earlier; Umbra knew exactly how to hide extra food, and he was very secretive about it! Speaking of food, Umbra and Glitch couldn't believe it when they saw the magic content of the food I ate. I had ended up telling them about my magic deficiency, which had been almost as much of a plague on my life as Ink; I missed the days when it was the only plague on my life..but I couldn't think about that. Glitch accepted the minute amount of water gratefully, managing to let out a small thanks amidst his pain. Umbra and I ended up hugging Glitch on the ground, trying to calm him down without hurting him worse. After an hour, the dim lights in the hallway shut off, startling me; Glitch was sleeping at the time, and Umbra apparently knew it was going to happen. He told me that it was just the sign that the conference was over; they didn't use the lights when nobody was going to be there. Pretty soon, footsteps were prevalent in the hallway; people were picking up their captives to take them home. When the barrier keeping us inside our our area was opened, we woke Glitch softly; we knew that our captors wouldn't have been so kind. He was a bit tired when he woke, but other than that, he didn't seem too injured..Ink must have only used paint on him.

"Are you ready to go?" Ink questioned; we nodded; even Glitch just nodded silently..he had definitely been broken..

"Impressive." The Nightmare commented. 

"Said I could break him." Ink chuckled proudly. "I can teach him tricks, too, if you want."

"You're kidding."

"Not at all. Dusty, stand." 

I did so.

"Do a flip." Ink ordered; I did a front flip. "And for time's sake, we'll finish it off with..play dead."

So I fell to the ground. Ink liked to force me to learn useless tricks, but it was better than being tortured, at least. 

"Huh." The Nightmare was impressed. "How many tricks does he know?"

"We're halfway through our fifth book." Ink sighed. "He's struggling with the waltz, but he can at least tango with some precision." 

"He can dance?" The Dream was interested.

"It's mental torture; physical just doesn't cut it, some days, and that's when I break out the books. I had the idea three years ago; he hates it, which gives me clearance to love it."

"I get that, but he can dance?"

"Oh, yes!" Ink laughed. "He can do about twenty different dances."

"Do those include ballet?"

"Oh my goodness, he hates it when I make him do ballet!" Ink cackled. "Dusty, do a pirouette, and yes, you have to." 

I sighed, getting off the ground and performing the move quickly to preserve at least some of my nonexistent dignity. I didn't have anything against ballet; I just wasn't made for it! Ink didn't care. After a few more demeaning tricks, the group of captors led us captives through the now-darker halls of the conference universe, stopping at the captive options room that I had been acquainted with before. The same Undertale Sans as before was behind the desk, but he seemed sadder than he had been a week ago. 

"We'd like to loan." Ink stated, before the Sans could speak.

"Okay.." The Sans pulled out a sheet of paper. "What type?"

"Multi-destination, two-week periods."

"All right. I'll need the names of the multiverses in destination order and the magic signatures of the captives."

"They start with 474, then 472, and end with 473 before being returned to their homes."

"All right. May I have their magic signatures?"

"I think I have mine's somewhere.." Ink searched his pockets, finding a printed copy of my magic signature, presumably for tracking. "Here we go."

"Here's my brother's." The Dream handed the Sans a piece of paper.

"He refused to give us his." The Nightmare glanced at Glitch, who tried to avoid making eye contact.

"Then just give me his name and some other form of tracking." The Sans gave an alternative. 

"This should work for tracking." The Nightmare gave the Sans something on paper. "He calls himself Glitch."

"All right, that should be all. You're free to make your transactions, using this place as a trade point."

"Thank you!" Ink grinned happily, leading the group to a different part of the room. "So you have Dusty's medical info?"

"Yes, we have everything." The Nightmare confirmed. "We'll see you in six weeks, then?"

"Yep!" Ink nodded jovially.

"And I'll see you in two." The Dream reminded.

"Very well." The Nightmare said, opening a portal. "We'll be off, then."

After a short goodbye, Glitch, Umbra, and I followed the Nightmare's gang through the portal, finding ourselves in a quite different place. It was a dark living room with one large couch that faced a fireplace, above which was a television. I remembered my family..we always put our family picture above the fireplace..maybe this Nightmare's gang wasn't much for pictures. There were bookshelves on the walls, along with various weapons; that was expected. As for what we were looking at, it was someone sitting on the couch; it was..an Error. 

"Is there something going on that you didn't bother to tell me about, or are you attempting cloning?" He was as confused as Umbra and I were.

"If you had come with us, you would know!" The Killer chuckled.

"I'm not even a villain; I'm just misunderstood."

"Suit yourself."

"So would you mind telling me why you've brought a purple kid and a baby here?"

"You know how some people have captives as we do?" The Nightmare inquired.

"Yeah?"

"We're doing a sort of loan..they'll be staying with us for two weeks."

"Why?"

"Because we wanted something new. Besides, one of their owners managed to break this guy; it's good to have allies like that."

"Hold up, you mean break as in he'll actually make good on all those bets he owes me?"

"Most likely."

"How much does he owe you?" The Cross asked.

"Seven thousand chocolate bars!" The Error seemed overjoyed.

"Oh, boy, I can see that picture.." The Nightmare shuddered.

"Can we play with the baby, now?" The Killer had been looking at me oddly.

"As long as you don't murder him."

"Fair enough." The Killer picked me up. "Boys, it is time for dress up."

I whimpered slightly as I was taken away from my friends; Glitch needed comfort! But I couldn't argue..Ink would have known if I had argued, and I didn't want him to hurt me worse when I returned to him because of that. I soon found myself in a different room - a bedroom - on a bed. The blankets were warm..I hadn't felt blankets that warm alone in..over a decade. I knew it wouldn't last; I decided to enjoy it while I still had the chance. I took advantage when nobody stopped me from lying down, cuddling into the soft material; one of them took note.

"What's the matter, never seen a blanket before?" The Dust scoffed.

"Rarely.." I mumbled; I had never known how soft something could be after sleeping on a hard floor for years on end.

"Weird."

"Well, his owner is a psycho." The Cross reminded.

"Eh, true." 

"I think this should look nice on our visitor!" The Killer had been looking through different clothing stores in universes for what I could only have assumed to be baby clothes..

"That looks perfect!" The Cross was on board with that plan.

"I have the feeling he's gonna hate us forever." The Horror couldn't stop a small laugh.

"Nah, he'll warm up to the idea." The Killer pulled me up from my lying down position. "Now, we just have to get these old clothes off!"

I didn't fight it when the skeletons changed my clothes; I had been through worse, and it really didn't bother me at all. When the operation was finished, I had serious questions. My questions began with, "What kind of a monster would design clothing like this?" and, "What kind of a monster would actually buy clothing like this for their child?" I didn't receive any answers. I looked into a provided mirror to find myself wearing a duck-themed outfit with a duck hat, a light blue jacket, and a slightly darker blue shirt with a duck decal and letters that spelled "This is Riduckulous!" Along with those, I had been equipped with light blue pants and duck slippers..I wondered why the torture had started in this way. It didn't hurt, and it didn't affect my self-esteem..was it a different type of torture? Maybe this would have affected me if I had been born in this multiverse instead? Well, I wasn't going to tell them that their torture didn't work. I was soon brought back to the living room, where Glitch and Umbra were cuddling on the couch; I joined their cuddle happily, wanting to help my friend. When I came, my friends had odd reactions.

"Um..what are you wearing?" Umbra was very confused. 

"They seem to think I'm some sort of baby." I shrugged. "Their torture methods are odd."

"I don't think that's torture.." Glitch smiled.

"Then what is it?"

"I think they just think you're cute."

"I'm not cute!" I hugged my Hope tightly; at least my Hope knew I wasn't cute.

"Honestly, you're better off acting cute; you might avoid pain."

"Really? How does that work?"

"They like cute things."

"...Ink hurts me worse if he thinks I'm cute."

"Well, Ink is a psychopath.." Glitch shuddered at the thought.

"And these people aren't?"

Glitch paused. "You have a point, but they're a different type of psychopath. At least try my idea..please?"

"Well, okay.." I hummed for a second, cuddling more. "How does one act cute?"

"Just go along with whatever they want and pretend to enjoy it if it would be enjoyable for, say, a toddler."

"Well, all right..do you still hurt?"

"It's a lot better now, but..yeah.."

"Do you want to hold my doll for a while?" I offered my Hope.

"If you think it'll help.." Glitch accepted my offer, smiling.

I loved my friends.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Glitch bean oof..

Thanks for reading my oofy writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

FDIR!Error.

~~~~~

We had been in my temporary home for about one week, and it was..all right? I honestly didn't know. I had been a bit fuzzy for the first day, trying to get my mind straight, but something had happened..I wasn't quite sure what it was..I just felt..scared. I felt much better now, but that fear still lingered..my friends helped, though; they were kinder than most people I had met in my life. I was used to the layout of the castle, but the others weren't; it was exciting to show them around! I didn't actually feel that misplaced, possibly because I had been staying there for the past two years. As for the others, they hadn't been so lucky. Actually, Umbra was the more relaxed of the two; he felt safe in the negative aura of the castle, and he was thrilled that he was allowed to read whatever books he wanted! He had a blast whenever he had a book in his hand, and that was enough for me to know that he was happy. As for Dusty..well, the others had gotten it into their minds that he was a baby, and he barely got any alone time..I didn't know if he did at all. They had been treating him like a literal toddler, and although he didn't seem to mind it, it was a bit weird; they had dressed him up in a panda bear outfit today..I had no words.

"Your friends are weird." He mentioned, at one point.

"You're telling me." I sighed.

"Is there any way out of here?"

"Well.." I pondered the subject. "I could probably convince them to show you Outertale, if you'd feel more freedom there."

"Stars are nice.." He looked down. "My family really liked stars.."

"It seems like every Sans has a liking for them."

"Yeah.."

"Where are the others, anyway?"

"They said something about baby food.."

"I am so sorry you have to suffer like this.."

"It's easier to take than Ink.."

"Doesn't he treat you similarly?"

"He thinks of me as an interesting toy to play with; if it wasn't me, it would be someone else, but considering the fact that I'm still trapped with him, he finds something special about me..something that I don't understand."

"Do you think he'll ever set you free?"

"If he stays in power and nothing changes..no. He's..experimenting..with me. Despite not being the textbook definition of a Sans, he has an extensive knowledge of science - psychology. The worst part is that you know he's doing something to you, but you have no idea what it is..he's a master at it."

"That must be horrible.." I felt bad for the little guy..

"Every once in a while, when he's bored and I can't satisfy him, he'll call in a guard. The guard is different every time. He'll say, 'I'll give you a choice; you may either return to your previous duties and continue to serve me, or you can submit yourself to a trial, and you'll be set free.' It's nearly unheard of for him to actually offer it to someone, but I've seen it happen five times to five different people. One of them was smart enough to refuse and simply go back to work."

"What happened to the other four?"

"They decided that a chance at freedom was better than serving Ink for the rest of their lives. The each received a white robe. He said, 'Make it red, and you'll be free.'"

"What..happened?" I felt sorry for these people.

"All of them went insane.." Dusty curled up a bit. "They've been in solitary confinement, and none of them have completed the task. They no longer serve Ink..they no longer serve anyone." 

"How..do you complete the task?"

"There are three ways.." He sighed. "The victim is locked with the robe in Ink's room, giving them access to anything inside said room. The first way is the simplest: grab some of Ink's paint and dye the robe; that would mean touching his paint, though..the first one lost use of his hands, which led to his insanity. The second was smart enough to know not to touch the paint, but he couldn't find anything else red in the room..until he realized what was red..the third and fourth had similar conundrums."

"Would the paint ever work?"

Dusty nodded. "Ink keeps a pair of gloves in his room that are protective against his paint; nobody's found them yet, though. He keeps them in the top drawer of his dresser. Of course, certain people who have had extensive experience with his paint - such as myself - can touch it without losing use of a body part. If any of them had just asked me, I would have dyed the thing myself, since it doesn't matter who does it, as long is it's dyed; the only reason none of them had done that is because I'm not allowed to speak to them during the challenge."

"What about the other two ways, then?"

"Way number two is.." Dusty looked sad. "There's a knife in the room. The only two things that could possibly make the robe red are paint or..blood. Way number two is using the knife on yourself while hoping both that you get enough blood out and you don't die of blood loss."

"Oh..what about the final way?"

"Using the knife on..me." Dusty curled up even more; I could tell that he didn't really like that way. "Number four tried that..it didn't work out as he had expected."

"What happened?"

"He forgot to get something to put the blood in. It fell on the floor, and it just dried with the paint."

"Does anybody know about the challenge?"

"Only the him, high ranks, and me..I'm not allowed to talk about it, and neither are the high ranks..the one selected has no idea what they've been chosen for.."

"What about the one that refused?"

"He's lucky. He just got a beating instead; he was so lucky.."

"Your owner likes making people suffer, doesn't he?" 

"It's his favorite thing to do. I try to keep him occupied with me to prevent anyone else from getting hurt; giving him the reactions he wants is better than watching another fall to insanity."

"And I thought I was bad.." Nightmare was listening to that.

"Dude, we're, like, little league.." Cross was impressed.

"I wonder what our Ink would say to that.." Killer had an idea. "Boys, we have an artist to tell a story to! Bring the child!"

"Aye aye!" The quartet left with Dusty, who sighed. 

"It's odd." Nightmare stated.

"What?" I inquired.

"He seemed so full of energy and excitable, and even his emotions give off that illusion, but.."

"His entire life is a ball of depression, and he's trying to look on the bright side."

"Precisely. Every time he gets into a conversation, it somehow takes a dark turn, but he's completely fine a minute later.."

"Think he's bipolar or something?"

"Perhaps..if he keeps going at this rate, he'll likely end up with some sort of split personality disorder."

"Yikes.." 

"Indeed..I wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of watching these two for two weeks, but the one is quiet and reserved - perfect for for leaving alone - while the other is..interesting. I wonder how he deals with nightmares.."

"You aren't seriously.." I couldn't believe what I was hearing!

"He's on that path already..why not?"

"You're sick.."

"I'm meant to be that way."

I frowned, but I wasn't going to dwell on it; Nightmare had always been somewhat of a psychopath, from what the others had told me. I decided to check on Umbra; he had gone into some sort of reading coma a while ago, and it was..interesting, to say the least. I made my way to the library, smiling as I recalled the memory of Umbra's first reaction to the place. He had stared at all of the books incredulously before thanking me for bringing him to the "wonderful safe haven of reading" and scanning the shelves for a book that would interest him; it only took him ten seconds to sit down and begin his first book. When I entered the library, I found him in the chair he had chosen, but he wasn't reading; he had an open book on his lap, firmly grasped with his hands, but his eyesockets were closed. He had fallen asleep, no doubt. I smiled at the sight, being reminded of my own Nightmare a bit; it wasn't uncommon to find him passed out with a book in his hand. I slowly removed the book and placed a bookmark in the open pages, setting it aside for when Umbra woke up. I also decided to give him a blanket; a kid like him deserved a warm rest, especially with all that had happened to him. I gave the sleeping skeleton one last look before silently leaving the room and returning to the living room to find- oh, dear.

"What business did you have stealing this precious child?!" Ink - not Dusty's, the one from this multiverse - was mad; unlike Dusty's owner, this Ink honestly tried to do good, but it didn't always end up that way. He was more of a..neutral? No, that wasn't it..he tried to be the hero, but he sometimes ended up causing even more damage..was there a word for that? I didn't know.

"We didn't steal him.." Killer was trying to explain. "We..borrowed him!"

"Yeah!" Dust joined. "His owner- I mean his parent gave us permission to watch over him!"

"..." Ink stared at Dust in shock. "His what?!"

"Um...nothing?"

"Wow, he'll totally buy that, Dust." Cross said sarcastically.

"Thanks for the backup, Cross." Dust scoffed.

"I'm gonna save this child from you crazy people." Ink picked up Dusty and teleported away before anyone could stop him.

"Oh." Horror hummed. 

"Well that was great." Killer coughed.

"His owner's gonna kill all of you if you don't get him back." Nightmare chuckled.

"He'll kill you, too." Dust reminded.

"Yes, but I'll ask him to kill you first."

"Well, Frisk." 

"What are we going to do if he tells?" Horror wondered. 

"Tells what?" Nightmare didn't know.

"Tells about our ability to interact with different multiverses?"

Nightmare froze. If anybody knew that Nightmare's gang could visit different multiverses, they would be deemed a very large threat, and their enemies might have done something..terrible.

"We need to get him back." Nightmare gained an air of urgency. "Let's just hope the Protector doesn't ask too many questions.."

"Coming, Glitch?" Killer asked; they called me Glitch sometimes and Error sometimes. It didn't really matter as long as I knew who was being addressed.

"I guess so; I wouldn't want him to die or anything." I nodded.

"Should we leave the slightly bigger little guy here?" Cross questioned.

"He's asleep."

"Oh..probably best to leave him, then."

"I wonder what would happen if Dream saw him.." Nightmare had a devious expression.

"Oh, we are so doing that!" Killer paused for a second. "But it might be best to leave him here just in case they get angry that we've been harboring one, 'cause..two would be..worse.."

"True." Nightmare nodded; if the other people in the multiverse knew that Nightmare's gang had one child who wasn't exactly considered 'free,' they probably would have been much more angry if they had two, and if they counted me, that would make three. "Maybe some other time..or next year."

"Ink should forget this entire event by next year." Dust shrugged. "Heck, I'd be surprised if he didn't know who the kid was already."

"Should I ask if Error will help?" Cross volunteered to get the me from this multiverse.

"That would be best, thank you, Cross." Nightmare approved.

"All right." 

Cross disappeared through a portal, while the rest of us just waited in the living room. The other me didn't always participate in events, but he was considered an ally; getting him into said alliance was one of the many jobs I had to do to convince Nightmare to help me get home. Actually, it was pretty easy; he hadn't heard of Undernovela yet, and I had offered him his new favorite show in exchange for his joining Nightmare. Needless to say, this event caught his attention, and he returned with Cross to help us find the poor kid..I could call him a kid since I was totally older. 

This was going to be exciting.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dusty bean "saved" ._. 

Is it really being saved if it's just another version of the person who's been keeping you captive for countless years-

Thanks for reading my abducting writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust.

~~~~~

I wasn't sure what was going on. One minute, I was telling Glitch about Ink's torture games, next, I was carried off by the four members of the Nightmare gang who treated me like a baby, and now I was being carried by a shorter - though still a foot taller than me - version of Ink..who seemed concerned about me?! I had no idea what to do; I just held my Hope tightly and hoped for the best. I didn't like the way this Ink was carrying me; I felt like I was going to fall at any moment, but I didn't. He was running with me under one of his arms, carrying me like a suitcase without a handle..I felt like I was going to be sick. I held my Hope as tightly as I possibly could to prevent losing it; I might never have found it again if I had lost it in a different multiverse. Before long, the Ink opened a door to a large building, where multiple judges were seated at a table; it reminded me of my multiverse before Ink took over..he used to hold some sort of meetings, but I had a feeling that those weren't for the same reason as these..the people inside were talking without him, which never happened in my multiverse. Before I knew it, the Ink had placed me on the table, panting heavily.

"Ink, what in the world?!" A..Dream? He reminded me of the Dream I knew before..maybe this multiverse was like how I used to know mine?

"There is something horrible!" The Ink shouted.

"What is it?!" A swapped Sans questioned.

"Um.." The Ink paused for a moment; had he forgotten? "Uh.."

"Why's there a tiny Dust?" A swapped Papyrus was suspicious.

"Oh! Right, well, I found him!"

"So?" Almost everyone in the room harmonized.

"So Nightmare's gang had him! And...they did or said something that caused me to kidnap him!"

"We really need to work on your memory, Ink.." The Dream facepalmed.

"Um..kid, do you remember why I kidnapped you?"

Well, I had two options: act like the adult I was supposed to be..or cry. I decided to cry; I was too confused for rational thought, and crying was easier. 

"You've scared him, Ink.." The Dream came over to me. "Hey, little guy, what's the matter? There's no need to cry."

I continued to cry; oh, I could think of several needs, such as the fact that I was now a multiverse away from my brother!

"Shh, calm down, child." The Dream tried to rub my arm to comfort me, but he brushed up against something I would have rather forgotten; I flinched back, holding my arm. "Oh, I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?"

I backed away a little more, shaking my skull. At that moment, I realized that I had dropped my Hope while reaching for my arm; the Dream had picked it up.

"Hey, is this..yours?" The Dream asked.

Calming a little at the sight of my Hope, I nodded.

"It's a very nice doll." The Dream was wrong; it was not very nice - it was the best doll in the world! "Could you tell me about it?"

Coming a little closer, I nodded. "M-my uncle..m-made it for me.."

"I see..your uncle is very skilled. Do you have any other family members?"

"..A-a brother.." I wiped my tears a little.

"That's nice. Anyone else?"

"..N-not anymore.."

"Oh..I'm sorry."

"I-it's okay.."

"So it's just you, your brother, and your uncle?"

I considered nodding, but.. "I-I see m-my uncle..o-once a year.."

"So you live with your brother?"

"N-no.."

"Oh? Do you live with someone else?"

I nodded.

"Who do you live with?" The Dream asked.

I whimpered, not wanting to answer; I didn't want to talk about Ink to these people..they were too kind to know about him.

"Are you..adopted?" He wondered.

I shook my skull, reaching for my Hope; the Dream kindly gave it to me.

"Did Nightmare have you for a reason?" He inquired. 

I nodded.

"Can you tell us why?" He hoped.

I shook my skull.

"Why can't you?" He asked.

"H-he'll h-hurt me.." I whimpered at the thought.

The Dream seemed more concerned now. "Nightmare will hurt you?"

"N-no.." 

"Someone..else?"

I nodded slowly.

"Does he work for Nightmare?" The Dream was assuming that Ink was from this multiverse. 

"N-no.." I held my Hope tighter.

"Someone..worse than Nightmare?"

I nodded; the Dream became even more concerned.

"What is his name?" He questioned. 

"C-can't tell.." If I told them, they would have lashed out at their own Ink; he didn't deserve that.

"Is he family?"

"No.."

"A friend?"

"N-no.."

"Do you live with him of your own free will?"

"N-no..."

"He forces you?"

"M-mhm.." I held my Hope closer.

"Did you run away?"

"C-can't.."

"Why not?"

"H-he'll hurt me.."

"Who is he?"

I started weeping again; I didn't want to say something that would make them hurt their Ink!

"Hey, hey, don't cry!" The Dream tried to comfort me. "Um..what's your name, child?"

"D-Dusty.." I liked that question better; I wiped my tears.

"Do you like games?"

I fliched back at that; games were harmful!

"Oh, my.." The Dream looked as if he pitied me. "I didn't mean to scare you..I'm very sorry."

"P-please..d-don't hurt me.." I hugged my Hope tightly.

"I won't hurt you; I just want to know who did hurt you.."

I wept, hugging my Hope closer; I didn't want to speak anymore.

"Looks like the kid won't talk.." The Ink sighed.

"Ink, could you get him a change of clothes?" The Dream requested. "I don't think he likes wearing this thing.." He was right.

"Sure thing, Dream!" The Ink left.

"What's wrong with him?" The Underfell Sans of this multiverse wondered.

"I don't know.." The Dream frowned. "I think there's a safe bet that he's been abused at some point, though."

"He looks like he's only three! Why would anyone hurt someone that young?"

"Don't you do it in your AU?" The swapped Papyrus believed.

"Yeah, but this kid didn't come from any fell AU, I can tell ya that much."

"Maybe it's one of those kiddie AUs.." Someone I didn't recognize - he wore all white clothes, with a..slash mark? I didn't know anyone like that in my multiverse - input. "He looks enough like the bigger version..maybe he was abused there?"

"Have any of those AUs lost their version of Dust?" The Dream inquired.

"Not that we know of, but it's always a possibility that Nightmare saw the chance to pick up a new lackey; what better than an abused kiddie version of one of his top fighters?"

"True..that may be the case.."

"Back!" The Ink returned with a small pile of clothes. "Took a minute to figure out sizes, but I think I've got it!"

"All right." The Dream took the clothes. "Do you mind if we change you here?"

I shook my skull; I had been publicly tortured before..being changed wasn't that big of a deal.

"All right." 

The Dream started to take the uncomfortable panda outfit off me. It took a minute, but he figured out the zipper soon enough, and he began to put the clothes that the Ink had brought on me. Everything was silent for a moment before..

"What is that?!" The swapped Papyrus shouted; I hugged my Hope tighter..I didn't like yelling.

"What is what?" The Dream didn't notice anything.

"On his arm!"

"I-" The Dream froze when he saw the brand..I covered it with my hand and cried.

"I don't think this kid has just been abused.." The Outertale Sans seemed angry; was he going to hurt me?! 

"Oh, no.." The Dream shivered slightly. "Child..are you..a slave?"

Everything went silent as I nodded; lots of people were getting angry, and I was scared. 

"Okay, there are a lot of messed up things in this world, but that..is a whole different level!" The Underfell Sans declared.

"That poor child.." The swapped Sans felt sory for me.

"Poor kid.." The Ink sat down sadly and looked at me. "Well, we're gonna make sure you're never treated that way again..you have our word."

"D-don't make promises you can't keep.." I shook my skull, hugging my Hope.

"Kid, you may not know this, but we're pretty strong; if your tormentor shows up, we'll take him down."

"I do know who you are..y-you can't take him.."

"Just tell us his name; we will protect you."

"Y-you'll die..or wish you could.."

"Well..nice to know someone believes in us." The Ink was being sarcastic.

"Do you want to put a shirt on, child?" The Dream offered; I nodded, and the Dream put the shirt on me.

The Ink sighed. "Are there any other people that you know about that have been enslaved?"

"Two.." I nodded.

"What are their names?"

"Not allowed to say.."

"Why not?"

"Different masters.."

"What about..nicknames? Do they have nicknames?"

"...Umbra and Glitch.."

"Will they respond if we use those names?"

"Unless they're told not to.."

"Is..does Nightmare.." I knew what the Dream was trying to ask.

"Glitch." I answered his question thoroughly.

"That sounds like the name of.." The Ink looked like he had realized something. "The other Error. He was a slave this whole time..and we never knew.."

"I don't know about you guys, but if Nightmare ever shows his sorry face around here again, I'm not holding back." The Underfell Sans made his point clear.

"I thought he was better than this.." The Dream was obviously disappointed in his brother.

At that moment, the door opened, revealing the one person whom everyone in this room had received a growing hatred for; there was a small confrontation, followed by a retreating-for-his-life Nightmare. He didn't get me; the Dream refused to let go of me, which I didn't mind. When he was gone, the ones in the room calmed down a bit and turned their attention to me. I decided to put my guard down; I knew that after that event, the Nightmare's gang would probably call Ink, and he wouldn't have been very happy..he would have liked to see me shocked by his arrival. My temporary heroes thought they were safe when the Nightmare left, but I knew better. Nevertheless, I went along with their conversation.

"See?" The Dream looked to me with a smile. "We'll protect you. We promise we'll continue to protect you..who hurt you?"

"...H-his name is Ink." I said; everyone's gaze turned to the Ink in the room.

"Hey, hey!" He defended. "It's not me! There are, like, two thousand different versions of me in different AUs, guys! One of them just ended up evil or something!"

"Then which one is it?" The Underfell Sans wanted to hurt someone.

"How should I know?"

"Ugh.."

"It doesn't really matter, guys!" The Ink assured. "As the Protector, I'm stronger than any half-bit evil version of myself, and if it's necessary, I can erase him from existence!"

"That's a nice thought." The Underfell Sans wanted to do that.

"Yeah, anyways, this kid is going to need a home..I don't think he'll want to go back to..wherever he was." 

"We could take him in." The Outertale Sans offered; I wished that could happen, but I knew it was folly to hope.

"Is that okay with you?" The Dream looked at me, receiving a simple nod; I didn't want to fight it..they might have hurt me.

Over the next ten minutes, the people talked of the multiple ways they would help me recover from my trauma, not knowing that they would never get the chance to truly help me; Ink wouldn't give me up so easily. I listened to their words carefully, imagining what it might have been like if Ink did let them have me, but knowing he wouldn't. I imagined being happy with my brother and family..that would have been the best ending. I wished I could have gotten that ending, but..I couldn't.

"There's no need to be upset, child." The Dream comforted me when he noticed that I had been crying. "Everything will be fine from now on."

"Th-that's impossible.." I whimpered.

"Nothing is impossible, child."

Footsteps could be heard. 

"Is someone late?" The Underswap Papyrus questioned.

They were slow. Light.

"We're all here.." The Underswap Sans hummed.

They echoed loudly.

"Child?" The Dream noticed my tenseness. 

They stopped.

"It's him." I whispered, hugging my Hope tightly; I hoped he wouldn't hurt me too badly for this..

"Oh, dear.." The Dream was worried for me; he should have been worried for himself.

"What are you doing with my toy?" His voice echoed louder than his footsteps; everyone in the room was a bit unsettled, or they got angry.

"Who are you to talk?!" The Underfell Sans was very angry..he just seemed to get more and more irritated.

"His owner, of course." The voice continued to echo loudly; I curled up in fear of the being who made it.

"It's okay, child; we won't let him hurt you." The Dream whispered to me, not knowing that it was pointless to resist the one who claimed ownership of me.

"And..I'd appreciate it if you'd return what is mine...to me."

"As if!" The Ink from this multiverse shouted back at the voice. "Show yourself! Or are you a coward?"

The echoing voice chuckled. The small chuckle soon grew into a mocking laugh, which in turn grew into a devious cackle; it was so loud..

"All right." He finally stopped laughing, but the echoes continued.. "I'll come out, but I will not leave this place without my toy."

A set of footsteps walked out of a corner in the room, surprising anyone who expected Ink to walk in through a door. One blaster fired at him, being thoroughly reflected with a shield that he must have conjured earlier. The Ink from this multiverse stared at his alter-ego with shock; he obviously hadn't expected that. Ink just smirked at his good counterpart.

"I'd like my toy back." He said smoothly.

"Never." The Ink glared harshly. "You're a villain, and as such, we will not let this child return to you."

"Come now, I'm sure we can be reasonable. I mean, I wouldn't want to..kill someone.."

"You'd have to leave your shield to cast spells. You'd be dead yourself."

"Well, being immortal does have its perks.." Ink opened a code bar. "But whoever said anything about spells?"

The Ink was promptly lifted into the air - Ink's code simulation of blue magic. 

"Hey!" The Ink struggled in midair; everyone else watched, uneased at the sight of their protector being utterly helpless. "Put me down!"

"But where's the fun in that?" Ink giggled, twirling his counterpart around in the air. 

"How are you doing this?!"

"Code. It's quite an interesting power, but few possess it. Now..I will only say this once more: give me back my toy."

"He's not yours!" The Dream holding me shouted. "He's his own person!"

"Oh, really, now?" Ink looked at me intently. "Dusty, who is your master?"

"Y-you are.." I mumbled, hugging my Hope closely.

"Speak up."

"Y-y-you are!" I whimpered.

"Quite correct." Ink chuckled. "Come, Dusty; your punishment will only be worse the longer you hesitate."

At that, I sought to leave the Dream's hold, but he..held on. I couldn't escape from the Dream's grasp.

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" The Dream was quite mad, and he wasn't letting go of me. "Tourturing such an innocent child like that!"

"Him?" Ink chuckled slightly. "Innocent? Well, isn't that the lie of the year! He's a Dusttale, for code's sake! He's killed so many.."

"And you find that as an excuse to torture him?"

"Yes. He's lucky he isn't dead." Ink stepped forward. "Oh, he's lucky I haven't locked him up with the glitch. He's lucky I chose him as my toy. He's lucky he gets food. He's lucky I haven't killed his sorry excuse of a brother."

I started crying; my brother is the best! He wasn't a sorry excuse!

"You're sick." The unknown Sans glared at Ink..with his one eyelight that wasn't covered by a sort of glitchy thing..?

"Perhaps. Now, I've tried the hard way, but you people are just stubborn.." Ink unsheathed his brush. "So..let's fight."

Ink left the safety of his shield, being instantly bombarded with hundreds of blasters attacking him; the attack left him with a smirk on his face, despite the fact that he had been hit with enough power to incapacitate a normal being..I wished he was a normal being. He flung his paint at every being in the room - his new paint, since nobody seemed to have lost use of his limbs - and approached me, smiling at the prospect of hurting me some more. He yanked me out of the Dream's - who was currently dealing with a lot of pain - grip, holding me up by my shirt; his expression made it clear that I was going to be in a lot of pain when he next felt it right to hurt me. For now, however, he simply teleported me to the house of the Nightmare's gang, where I would no doubt be treated as a baby for the rest of our time in this multiverse..unless those heroes wanted to try to rescue me again. Before handing me over to the Nightmare, Ink had something to say.

"They're going to realize he's from a different multiverse." He set me down on the floor. 

"I understand." The Nightmare nodded.

"They're more than likely to discover the hero conference; they'll probably try to break the trio out if they can."

"I see. We'll have to be on full alert next year, then."

"Indeed." Ink rubbed my skull softly. 

"Thank you for that.."

"I protect what is mine. But..don't let that happen again..or I actually will kill someone next time."

"Got it." 

"I'll be seeing you."

"Indeed." 

And so it continued.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dusty bean unsaved..

Thanks for reading my confusing writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

UD!Nightmare.

~~~~~

Today was the final day of our two weeks in the first multiverse. I had read about fifty books, the stories of none ever going to reach Dream's ears - well, ear bones..or something. Anyway, I had read more than Dream would have ever allowed me to at home, and that satisfied me for the upcoming year. I had heard of the odd things that had happened while I was reading, but I hadn't been involved with any of it; it had apparently been dramatic, but, thankfully, nobody was badly injured. We had just finished our last hour in this multiverse; I was sad to see the books go, but I would wait a year to see them again. At the moment, we were preparing to go back to the room in the conference area to be traded off to Dream, who would no doubt be waiting for us. I didn't really have anything to bring with me, nor did Glitch, but Dusty had his doll; I didn't exactly know why it was so special to him, but he obviously found it to be necessary for his very survival..I wasn't going to question it. He liked his doll about as much as I liked books, and seeing it in that light made it clear to me that asking why he liked his doll that much would lead to a lecture or a story. I didn't want to sit through that yet.

"Well, this has been an interesting time." Nightmare stated. "We'll see you two," he pointed to Dusty and me, "next year, and we'll see you," he turned his attention to Glitch, "in four weeks. With that said, we wish you safe travels."

Nightmare opened a portal, and the three of us stepped through, finding ourselves in the room where we had been sent off to that multiverse. Dream waited there, sitting on a couch in the back of the room; he smiled when he noticed our presence.

"Nightmare and friends." He addressed; he used my true name instead of my nickname, since he was my brother..not that he..knew that anymore..he didn't act like it, anyway.. "Come along, there's much to do and not much time to do it."

Dream opened a portal home, and our trio went through it. We walked out to a green valley, overlaid by a blue sky and fluffy clouds; this was home. I smiled at the familiar sight, remembering the times before, when Dream used to spend time with me..we would sometimes stargaze through the night and watch the shapes of the clouds during the day..oh, how I missed that! It was a short time, really; the village was built only seven years after our creation, and that was the end of our peaceful existence. Dream befriended the villagers who saw me as some sort of demon. After a few years, the apple incident occurred, and things changed to be how they were now. Nothing would change my mind that the times before were the best; life was so easy back then. I supposed nothing was really that easy in the end. I sighed as Dream led us over to the tree, where we were made to sit as he spoke of the two weeks ahead of us; I wondered how my friends were going to be treated. I hoped they were treated kindly; Dream had brought visitors from different multiverses before, and the villagers were well aware of the fact that we were but a speck in what was now being known as the 'omniverse,' but I had never brought anyone back..I could only hope for the best.

"Now, if you were friends of mine, I would have you treated well by all." Dream began. "Since you are friends of my idiot brother, I will give you no such promise; the people will treat you how they wish. I suppose I should tell you now: I honestly see you as lower beings, and I will not hesitate to keep you within the guidelines I have set for such beings. In my eyes, you deserve to be locked up in a cell somewhere or put to work; you have no true place in society except as workers. Expect no special treatment, as you will receive none. Am I understood?"

We nodded; I had known this from the start. The villains had been a bad influence on him, but he had practically disowned me..I had tried to warn him - I tried to tell him they would corrupt him! - but he didn't listen. I had first lost my brother, and my brother then lost his kindness. He had been kinder before he started attending those conferences, but the influences upon him had torn him to pieces..I no longer recognized my brother, and I doubted I ever would.

"Good." He smiled...the only thing left of his past self..he had even changed his crown. "Now, my brother knows his duty, and you will accompany him; hurry along, now; I don't want to see you until the sun sets."

With that, I led my two friends away from the tree and towards the village; I hoped they would be accepted.

"Why is your brother so mean?" Dusty didn't know. "I thought Dreams were supposed to be nice.."

"He..he's been through a lot." I sighed. "He was different once - kinder."

"What about the inhabitants of this place?" Glitch questioned. "Aren't they supposed to, like, hate you?"

"After Dream ate the apple and became..like he is now, um, the villagers realized that I'm not actually a demon. They were pretty bad before, but they've apologized for it, and we get along okay."

"What did they do to you?" Dusty wasn't exactly well-versed in 'avoiding sensitive topics'; we attributed it to the fact that his entire life was a sensitive topic, and he couldn't distinguish things well. 

"..." The 'burned at the stake incident' flashed through my mind. "Let's just say that they didn't know that immortality exists..and I am immortal.."

"They tried to kill you?" Glitch assumed.

"Mhm."

"Ouch.." Dusty frowned. 

"Dream was immortal once, too, but eating the apples strips immortality from a person - he can die, but it's just hard now." 

"Interesting." Glitch commented. "So if you were to eat an apple, you would gain mortality?"

"Yeah. Honestly, eating an apple - or multiple - would be downright horrible for me. First off, I'd probably taint the golden ones, which would make the only possibilities for me to eat one make me even more depressed, or if I were able to eat a golden one, I might end up like Dream, which is a no-go. Second, why in the world would I want to give up immortality? The only way to regain immortality would be to eat all of them, and that is just asking for cyanide poisoning before the end..y'know, if you chewed the seeds..if you didn't, you might live.." 

"Didn't Dream know you guys were immortal?"

"Nope. Actually, Mom skipped that conversation for some reason; we had no idea."

"How'd you find out?" Dusty wondered.

"I found out when the villagers tried to kill me. It hurt, but I didn't die. If I were mortal, I would have been dead a long time ago."

"Would that be the same for any immortal?" Glitch inquired.

"Yep. Eating an apple is one of the few ways for an immortal to throw away their life, along with void jumping and a few other ways."

"How do you know about void jumping?"

"I used to read a lot before the entire apple incident - one book had some interesting stuff about different realms, which turned out to be alternate universes. The void was mentioned."

"I didn't die or lose my immortality in the void.."

"That's likely because someone on a different plane of existence saved you; that's theoretically possible, and reports of people who claim to have jumped or fallen into the void and survived have been recorded, although most were passed off as insane babble or fever dreams. I got that from a book in that wonderful library in the last multiverse; that stuff is awesome!"

"Darn it, people from different planes of existence.."

"Hey, you might have an admirer somewhere."

"I guess."

"It's fun being immortal, anyway; we can stay underwater and not die!"

"Skeletons don't need to breathe anyway.." Dusty tilted his skull confusedly.

"Too much water in direct contact to a soul can cause death over long periods of time; souls need air to function properly, but they can last about an hour underwater with no problem."

"Oh..so we can drown?"

"Yeah, but it's slower."

"What about an immortal with a soul?" Glitch questioned.

"Strip immortality first, then drown the soul. Drowning it first would just cause the immortal being to be essentially soulless forever, or it would break and stitch itself back together, which is extremely painful, from what I've read."

"You sure know a lot more than it would seem.."

"I focus on what I read carefully." I looked up. "Oh, we're here. Let me introduce you."

"All right." Glitch nodded, followed by Dusty.

We entered the village, being met with smiles and waves, which we returned; the villagers had grown to be more accepting since realizing that I wasn't evil, which I appreciated greatly. Our first stop of the day seemed to be the bakery - Dream had slipped a list in my pocket - where we met with Mrs. Toriel. 

"Hello, Nightmare." She was kind, as well as her children. "I see you have some company today."

"Yes..these are my friends, from different multiverses." I was glad that I didn't have to explain multiverses to any of the villagers except small children.

"I see; are they Dream's friends, as well, or.."

"No, just mine..they're..like me.."

"Oh, Nightmare." Mrs. Toriel knelt down to put a hand on my shoulder. "There is nothing wrong with you. You're a decent individual; you've proved that, even when you shouldn't have had to. You've made a true change in this village, making us realize that one shouldn't be judged immediately; I'm sorry for my past actions."

"Y-you shouldn't apologize..it's fine.."

"But I will. I will continue to apologize until you realize that you do belong here, Nightmare; you are not the outcast your brother treats you as..or the one that we treated you as so long ago."

"..." 

"Now, I'm sure your friends don't want to listen to an old lady's ramblings." Mrs. Toriel stood up with a smile. "What are your names, friends?"

"I'm Glitch." Glitch answered.

"M-my name is Dusty.." Dusty was a bit afraid of the goat lady.

"Oh, a child.." Toriel hadn't noticed Dusty's size until now. "How old are you, child?"

"..." Dusty whimpered, hugging his doll.

"He's not actually a child.." Glitch explained. "His master..he..his mind has..regressed."

"..I'm afraid I don't understand.." Toriel was confused.

"He's an adult, but his mind can only think like a child's.."

"Um.."

"He's basically a child, but he's supposed to be older." I clarified. "If his master hadn't messed with him so much, he would be considered an adult."

"Oh, I see..I was not aware that things such as that could happen.."

"Unfortunately."

"Would he mind it if I referred to him as a child?"

"He would have probably said something at this point if he did; I think he's okay with it."

 "Very well. Would any of you be interested in some treats?"

"What..kind of treats?" Glitch raised an eyebrow; I still had no idea how he, as a skeleton, had eyebrows.

"Oh, maybe just a muffin or a bit of cake.."

"...Do you have chocolate?"

"I believe I know what you're looking for. What about you, child? Would you like something?"

"I-I'm not allowed to eat s-sweets.." Dusty shook his skull. "Th-thank you, though.."

"Oh.." Toriel sighed. "Well, would you like anything, Nightmare?"

"Uh, let me see this list.." I pulled out the list the Dream had given me, finding the "From Tori's" section. "Here we go..a loaf of bread, one apple pie, two blueberry muffins, and a small basket of sugar cookies."

"Anything for yourself?"

"I don't think I have enough for anything extra.."

"Please, take something."

"I couldn't accept charity..you know what Dream will say."

"It's a gift, not charity."

"In his eyes? Same thing."

Toriel sighed. "I'm not getting you to accept anything, am I?"

"No, but I appreciate the gesture."

"All right, then I'll give your one friend something."

"Uh, I can pay-" Glitch was cut off by a motherly look that said, 'Oh, no, you don't.' "Or..not.."

"Good to hear!"

Toriel went to her counter, grabbing the things on the list, with the addition of a chocolate cupcake for Glitch. We soon left the bakery, and I led our trio through the village on our route for today.

I had a feeling that life wouldn't be much different with my friends around.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio in Dreamtale!

Thanks for reading my beany writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

FDIR!Error.

~~~~~

It had been one week since we had arrived in the Dreamtale, and I was honestly stunned. This place looked even more amazing than the Dreamtale in my home multiverse, which had been fixed up to look as nice as before! There was no doubt that Dreamtale was the second most beautiful sight I had ever laid my eyelights on, after Outertale; the grass was the lushest green, the sky was the clearest shade of blue, and the Tree of Feelings (it had been called the Tree of Emotions in my home multiverse, but I had learned that different multiverses did things in different ways) was absolutely shocking: I had never seen a tree as beautiful as that one. It would have been an understatement to say that it was beautiful; it was a dream (pun intended). Of couse, not everything was that good, such as the Dream..he was the cruelest variant of Dream I had seen, which was impressive, considering that entire "Shattered" incident in my home multiverse; that had been scary, but Dream was okay now. This Dream was constantly on top of Umbra's actions, monitoring what felt like every move he made. His punishments were quick yet brutal, and we were treated no differently from his brother. 

"Glitch, fetch some water from the lake, and be quick about it." He ordered.

"Yes, Dream." I sighed, heading toward the lake nearby, which was as majestic as all the other features of the landscape.

I knew better than to fight back at this point. I had already been broken into submission by the artist; if I was told to do something, I would do it. The Dream treated us as servants, bidding us to do his will, whatever and whenever it might have been. I would have expected his brother to get even a little favor, but he might have been treated worse than Dusty and I were! I frowned as I thought of the rift between them. Sure, Dusty was a slave to a master who hated him, and I was a slave to one who saw me as a tool, but Umbra..he was a slave to his own brother! I didn't have a brother that I knew of, but if I did, I wouldn't have wanted to know that he took our brotherhood so lightly as to enslave me! When I reached the lake, I found Dusty staring into the water; I sat next to him.

"Hey, Dusty." I greeted.

"Hi, Glitch.." Dusty's gaze stayed on the water.

"Something on your mind?"

"Just wondering.."

"Mind if I ask what about?"

"Do you think..we'll ever be free?"

"..Yes, I think we will be."

"What's freedom like?"

"Haven't you ever been free?"

"..First, the resets trapped me; I was trapped in that loop for ages - the rest of my AU wasn't freedom at all, not even the killing. When Nightmare found me, he offered me a place in his gang; I considered it a life debt, since he had saved my life. It wasn't freedom, though; the balance dictated how we lived. When Nightmare's gang ended, Ink took me.." Dusty hugged his doll. "What's freedom like?"

"...Freedom is being able to live the way you want. Maybe not with the people you want, but the way you desire. Many places in the multiverses claim to have freedom, but they don't; if they ever did, it was short-lived. Freedom isn't breaking the law just because you feel like it, though..but should there be ten million laws if there is freedom? Most beings, big or small, live in their own sense of freedom..but it isn't true. Freedom would be having the ability to scale the highest mountain out of your sheer will, not letting anything get in your way! A false freedom would be having to go through a test to see if you're 'eligible' to attempt such a feat. True freedom would be being able to have a family with as many children as you want, and being able to give them all the love they need to grow up..true freedom would be being able to make your own decisions, and if you make a mistake along the way, you learn from it. There's hardly a place I've seen where people don't just do what they're told, no matter how ridiculous the actions might seem to a free person. In essence..freedom is whatever you want it to be: it can be watching the clouds on a nice evening, or it could be visiting the arctic in your pajamas."

Dusty chuckled a bit at the end. "Freedom sounds nice.."

"It really does."

"Have you ever had freedom?"

"...When my multiverse was at peace - which I'm hoping is still the case - people had a level of freedom they had never seen before. Yes..I was able to visit the arctic in my pajamas."

"I hope you get it back.."

"I hope you find it one day."

"Thanks, Glitch."

"Thank you, too, Dusty. So, why are you here?"

"Dream wants me to catch a duck."

"A..duck?"

"Mhm. Why are you here?"

"I'm on a mission for some water, which I should be getting to..seeya later, Dusty."

"See you, too, Glitch!"

Without any more hesitation, I pulled out the bucket that I had been carrying and filled it up with water. That soon led me to a trip back to the Dream, who walked up to me with a smile, took the bucket, and promptly whacked me in the skull with his staff, sending me to the ground; actually, he might have slightly cracked my skull.

"When I say, 'be quick about it,' I mean it." He wasn't in a good mood..good to know. "Stand."

I groaned slightly, holding my skull; that was definitely a crack, but I stood anyway.

"Glitch, see why Nightmare isn't back yet; he should be in the village square." The Dream wasn't hesitant about giving us new things to do.

"Yes, Dream.." I started toward the village, hoping that crack wasn't too bad.

It didn't take long to find Umbra. He was certainly in the village square, but he was holding about seven baskets of various things; I decided to help him, half to lighten his load, and half to enable his vision again. 

"Oh, thanks, Glitch." He smiled at actually being able to see.

"No problem, but I think you've got a bit of trouble back at the tree." I warned.

He sighed. "I expected that. In any case, I'm glad you came; Mrs. Toriel has appointed you her temporary taste-tester, which is obviously a way to give you free food without your having to feel bad about accepting it. Dusty's allowed to be your assistant, if he wants. In addition, she's invited the three of us over for dinner tonight."

"She's amazingly nice..actually, everybody here is nice.."

"Yeah, they've always been this way. They were only rude to strangers and me in the past, but after realizing that I'm not bad, they've been nice to strangers they would have immediately shunned in the past; they've learned not to judge, no matter what a person represents or looks like, until you know them better."

"That's a good lesson."

"Yep! Well, looks like I'm dealing with Dream.."

"Good luck."

"Thanks.."

We walked up to the Dream, who was given the news of Toriel, telling us that we were going to dinner and that I was going to be a taste-tester, but Dusty's master had forbidden him from sweets, which barred him from joining me, unfortunately. After that, the Dream gave me the baskets and told me to arrange the items where they belonged. Actually, we had been sleeping on the grass every night; these guys had no house. They lived in the tree; there was a small treehouse, but only the Dream was permitted to sleep and live there. I went up to the treehouse, trying my best to tune out the sounds of the beating below me and sorting out the items in the baskets; the Dream had even labelled the places where things went, just to be nice. When I heard the pain below me stop, I descended from the treehouse, facing the Dream; Umbra was currently on the ground, and I doubted that I was allowed to help him up.

"Glitch, go fetch Dusty; if he hasn't caught a duck, it doesn't matter." The Dream shrugged. "Ducks are rare this time of year, anyway."

"Yes, Dream." I nodded, heading back toward the lake.

I didn't exactly enjoy being ordered around everywhere, but I didn't really have a choice; that was my life now, and that was how it would no doubt stay for a while, yet. When I reached the lake, I told Dust of the new engagement that we had; he was glad that he didn't have to wait for a duck anymore. Without hesitation, he grabbed his doll and followed me to the tree, where we were joined by Umbra on our quest. The sun was currently on the verge of setting, which meant that we were promptly sent on our way to Toriel's house; the Dream was strict about being "on-time." We arrived at the door to the house soon enough, and we were ready. Umbra knocked on the door, where we were met by a ten-year-old human; as with most universes, it seemed like, Toriel and Asgore had adopted Chara, but they hadn't broken up in this world, and I didn't think they would. Soon enough, we were seated at their dining room table with them, looking at the wonderful dinner they had prepared; that was a lot of food!

"Feel free to have whatever you'd like; you're free to do so in our house." Toriel insisted. 

"Thank you!" I wasn't turning down that offer; there was chocolate!

Toriel chuckled. "Of course."

"So, I hear you're only staying with us for another week.." Asgore spoke up. "Back off to your multiverses, or..?"

"We're going to spend two weeks in Dusty's multiverse before we go back to our homes." I explained. "Then it'll be one year away before we see eachother again and repeat the trips."

"I see..what is your multiverse like, Dusty?"

"...It's bad." Dusty stated. "Nobody likes living there."

"Oh..how unfortunate."

"Would you like to hear more, or are you done?"

"Would it be harmful for the children?"

"Maybe.."

"Aw, come on!" Chara wanted to hear. "Nightmare's stories of different places are so cool! This place could be cool, too!"

"M-maybe not.." Asriel didn't exactly want to hear it.

"You may tell us if you wish, child." Toriel offered.

"I don't want to say something wrong.." Dusty frowned.

"Child, we wouldn't hurt you."

"..That's what they all say.."

"I imagine your life hasn't been a very good one.."

"Nope..it started when I was..five. My dad hated me, so he threw me out on the streets with my newborn baby brother. Everything went downhill from there."

"Oh, my..where is your brother now?"

"He's in my multiverse..trying to rescue me.."

"What exactly is stopping him?"

"An army.."

"What kind of army?" Chara was interested.

"Judges..every universe has a judge, and he takes every one, forcing them to join his army."

"What if they don't want to go?" Asriel questioned.

"They don't..ever..want to go..except a few..he makes them the higher ranks. The lower ranks are everyone who didn't join willingly; they were forced. If they don't obey him, their brother instantly dies."

"How does he control them if they don't have a brother, or they already disobeyed?" Chara was much too interested..it was to be expected.

"He has other ways..like slavery. Every lower rank is technically a slave, but if they disobey twice, he'll use them in different ways..ways nobody wants to know about..he treats me bad, but I wouldn't want to go through what they go through.."

"What do they go through?"

"...His favorite method of breaking someone - he uses the disobedient ones to test it - is a room. A dark room with one lightbulb in the center of the ceiling, created to always flicker, but never go out..they're just locked in there..for days..weeks..years. The room replenishes magic, so they can't die..the lightbulb is unbreakable, too; some of them beg for death..others go insane. It's worse if you have a fear of isolation, like me, but he hasn't tried that with me; he doesn't want me to go out of my mind..yet.."

"..." Chara was quiet.

"You're the one who wanted details!" Asriel reminded.

"Well..that is very interesting.." Toriel was a bit unsettled. "I suppose you're treated better than that?"

"Oh, yes." Dusty nodded. "I'm only tortured all day; torture is better than isolation, in my opinion, but there are those who beg to differ."

"..I see.."

"Nightmare, do you have any stories from distant lands?" Asgore changed the subject.

"Oh, yes!" Umbra grinned. "In the last multiverse we were in, the different version of me likes books! He has an entire library in his house! I read so many stories! If Dream ever finds out, I'm..likely dead, but still!"

"It's good to know you have a place to read."

"Yep! There was this one story that described two humans that were in love, but they ended up both committing suicide because of mistaken beliefs. The girl faked her death to be with the boy, and when the boy found her, he stabbed himself. She woke up only a short while later to see her love dead, and she decided why fake death when I can actually die?"

"Aw, that's sad.." Asriel whined softly.

"Yeah, but there was this other that was hilarious!"

The night went on with storytelling and laughter.

It was a good night.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Umbra bean share stories!

Thanks for reading my reading writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust.

~~~~~

I had never really thought that I would be reluctant to go home; well, when home was with Ink, I was. We had just finished our two weeks in the Dreamtale, and we were about to begin our time in my multiverse; I hoped Ink wouldn't be too cruel to the others. Glitch and Umbra didn't seem too excited to go to my multiverse either, but that was understandable. I wondered if my brother had tried to rescue me within the past five weeks..I hoped he hadn't; it would have been sad to try to rescue me when I wasn't there..assuming he did still try to rescue me, which..I doubted. The Dream sent us to the conference trade-off room, where Ink awaited us with a smirk. He said nothing before opening a portal and leading us into it, where we found ourselves in Ink's room; I would never forget the sight at this point. He then seated us on the floor, while he took a seat on his bed.

"Welcome, Dusty and friends, to my world." Ink smiled. "To begin, I'll give you a tour of my wonderful home; everybody already knows that you're here, thanks to a little announcement. With that said, who wants a tour?"

Everything was silent for a few seconds, until I raised my hand; a tour was better than torture.

"Thank you for volunteering to lead our tour, Dusty!" Ink giggled. "Now, you show them around, and I'm going to do important dictator stuff, okay, Dusty?"

"O-okay." I nodded, leading the others out of the room.

Normally, I wasn't allowed to leave Ink's room without supervision, but I knew that he would be watching us closely, and if we tried to escape, he would just teleport to our location and stop us. I began showing the others around, giving titles to every room we came across and saying hello to friends - trying to avoid higher ranks, too - until we came across someone very special..

"Hi, Fell!" I smiled at one of my best friends in this torturous world. 

"Oh, hello, Dust!" Fell came down to my level and smiled back. "What're you up to out here?"

"Ink said to give my friends a tour!" I gestured to the aforementioned friends. 

"Ah, I see! Your friends look pretty good! I think you're a good friend picker!"

"Really?" 

"Absolutely. Nice to meet you two, my name's Fell."

"I'm Glitch." Glitch said.

"Umbra." Umbra shook Fell's hand.

"So, you're the two people from different multiverses or whatever?" Fell wasn't quite sure about the entire situation.

"Yeah, they are!" I confirmed. "Did you know that Ink can go to different multiverses?"

"Well, that's frightening to think about."

"He can't conquer other multiverses, though; they're safe from him."

"Oh, well in that case, it's an interesting power. I suppose you've been in different multiverses for the past few weeks, then?"

"Yep! My friends are kind of like me, but Ink is worse than the people in charge of them."

"I see. Well, I have some news for you."

"Really?" I hoped it was something about my brother!

"While you were gone, your brother managed to retake an entire universe; Ink's lost one!"

"Really?!" That was so awesome! 

"Yep! If things keep up, we might be rid of our dictator problem sooner rather than later!

"Thanks, Fell!"

"Sure thing, kid. Got anything special to do?"

"Just this tour; I hope this peace lasts, but..I doubt it."

"As long as you can get."

"Yeah.."

"I'll see you soon, then."

"You, too!"

Fell then walked off, and we were left alone.

"So, that was your Fell?" Glitch wondered.

"Yep!" I nodded happily. 

"Wow..that must have been the nicest version of Fell I've ever seen."

"..Dictatorships change people. No one's the same as before..not even Dream is the same.."

"So..where's your version of my brother?" Umbra was interested.

"He's probably in the guard lounge; would you like to see him?"

"Uh, sure."

"Okay!"

I hugged my Hope as we went closer to the guard lounge, which was where the high ranks lived. It was nicer than the places that the lower ranks lived in, which were more like cells than anything else; they were probably smaller than cells. The guard lounge was a very large room with half being a sleeping space, a quarter being for recreation and meals, and the last quarter being for training equipment. I didn't like going there; Ink sometimes left me there when he was injured in battle, allowing the high ranks to hurt me however they wanted for a while. I would go there for my friends, though. I opened the door to the guard lounge slowly, hoping not to attract a lot of attention, but that was nearly impossible; within a minute, everyone was looking in our direction.

"Well, look who's come to visit." An evil - I had given them titles based on how much they hurt me, and evil was the second highest - guard chuckled.

I tried to ignore the beginning of the taunts and threats, approaching Dream instead, who was seated next to the swapped Sans; they didn't like living in the guard lounge, but they were forced to, due to the fact that they were part of the Star Sanses when the group was still in operation.

"Hello, Dust!" Dream smiled.

"Ooh, are these the other multiverse people?" The swapped Sans gave a grin.

"Yep!" I nodded happily. "Glitch and Umbra!"

"You..look how my brother used to.." Dream frowned slightly at the thought; Nightmare had been dead for over a decade at this point.

"You look like how mine used to.." Umbra sighed.

"Is yours dead, too?"

"No..just changed..for the worse."

"I'm sorry to hear that.."

"It's fine.."

"So, how's life in other worlds?" The swapped Sans inquired.

"Eh, it's okay; probably better than this, though.."

"We ran into your brother the other day." Dream mentioned.

"Y-you did?!" I was amazed. "Is he well-fed? Is he still as awesome as I remember him? Is he taking care of himself? Did you get to talk to him?"

"We managed to slip away for a few minutes; he's doing fine, and he's intent on getting you out of here!"

"..." I frowned, knowing I was never going to be free from Ink.. "Is he as cool as he used to be?"

"Dust, your brother is unboubtedly the coolest skeleton in the multiverse!" The swapped Sans assured. "Even the Brilliant Blue wouldn't dare to try to come near that level of sheer awesomeness!"

"R-really?" I hoped.

"Absolutely!"

"Thank you.." I let a small smile make its way onto my face. "I wish I could see him.."

"Hey, remember timing!" Dream reminded. "He has to time it right so when you least expect it, he'll leap out of the shadows and carry you away!"

"Right..I hope.."

"You're a good kid, Dust; remember that." 

"I will..thank you!"

"Of course! So, are you doing anything special while you're here?"

"I'm giving them a tour! And stalling!"

Dream laughed a bit at that. "Well, we'd love to help you stall!"

"Thanks!"

"Um..why are we stalling?" Umbra didn't know.

"Because there's a sixty-seven percent chance he's gonna try to torture one of you when we go back, and I don't want you going through that."

"Oh.."

We continued to talk to Dream and Blue for about an hour, mostly to stall for time, but the higher ranks received word from Ink about us and began attacking us; that was enough to warrant a quick goodbye. I continued the tour at a relaxed pace, showing them every room on our path.

"What's behind this door?" Glitch walked up to a door with two guards at the sides. 

"Um, that's where Error is.." I sighed. "We can't go in there."

"Why not?"

"Ink said we can't.." I hoped Error was okay. "But I can tell you what's inside!"

"What's inside, then?" 

"Well, right behind the door, there's a big staircase; I think it goes five miles down. Then there's Error's cage, where he's been for a long time. If you were to rescue him, you would either have to climb five miles back up the stairs and get past the guards, or you'd have to run twenty miles down a long hallway with tripping hazards. Nobody's made it yet.."

"Ouch..isn't there any other way?"

"If you're not wearing a special wristband, your magic won't work down there; that means no teleportation and no portals." 

"That sounds unfair.." Umbra frowned.

"It is a prison.." Glitch reminded.

"I guess.."

"Wanna see the courtyard now?" I offered.

"Sure.." 

So we continued, and the tour ended up taking three hours, including the hour of conversation; when I showed them the last room in the compound, an escort returned us to Ink's room, where he sat down on the floor in front of us, gesturing for us to sit as well. We did so, hoping this wouldn't be painful. Without a word, he pulled out a paintbrush with a blade on the other end - he called them bladed paintbrushes - and spun it around on the ground; he was using it as a spinner to see who he would hurt first, no doubt. To my despair, it landed on me; it was like saying, "Welcome home," but so much worse. He pulled me onto his lap and pulled out his newer paint; he had mostly used his older paint while outside of our multiverse, but he had likely used it because the other two couldn't handle the newer. When he was ready, the screaming began; he just laughed, as he always did. The torture lasted for only four hours before bedtime hit, but it was enough to let me know that I was home once again. Umbra and Glitch were horrified when they saw that Ink's form of torture that he had used about a month ago was his usual form of torture. Ink set me aside when bedtime came, and I managed not to cough up any paint.

"Ah, the stars are out, Dusty." He gave a smile; if anyone had walked in and only saw him, they never would have guessed that he was evil. "I suppose you might want to talk to your friends before bed; I've got to check up on something really quick, but don't worry! I'll be back in time to say goodnight!"

Ink then left the room cheerfully, leaving us to talk.

"So..any way to escape this place?" Glitch hoped. 

"Uh.." I wiped some paint from my mouth. "Nope. Windows are unbreakable, door is guarded, locked or not, and from what I've gathered from short trips to and from places, we'd have to cover roughly ten long hallways and avoid guards, although the trip could be cut shorter if we went through a few rooms, but that increases the chance of being seen. Even if we did make it to the nearest exit, all exits are heavily guarded on the inside and outside. I tried it once when Ink left the door unlocked, but I didn't make it far, and he was really angry about it. If you really want to try an escape, I guess we could, but we wouldn't make it far."

"Ugh..this reminds me of that time Ink decided to turn me into a bitty." Glitch lay on the ground.

"A what?" I had never heard of that.

"Um..tiny versions of..monsters..? There's an AU for that?"

"Oh..my multiverse doesn't have that."

"That, my friend, is a pity. I think you'd like the little guys. I might be able to swing a visit next year..if you're interested, that is."

"Maybe."

"Heh, I wonder if there's a multiverse without the parasite.."

"The what?" I tilted my skull.

"Uh, Fresh..parasite who takes host bodies..?"

"Never heard of him."

"..." Glitch chuckled. "I suppose next you'll tell me you haven't heard of Aftertale!"

"Uh, nope." I shrugged. "Haven't got that here, unless it's new. I'm not really familiar with any AUs that have come about in the past decade or so."

Glitch looked at me in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding.."

"Nope, sorry."

"Dusty and friends, it's time for bed!" Ink returned to the room, now wearing pajamas. "Get to sleep!"

"Um..where do we sleep?" Glitch whispered to me, as Ink climbed into bed and turned the light off.

"..The floor?" I thought that was obvious.

"Not another ground-sleeping experience.."

"Well, there's always the possibility that Ink could have a nightmare."

"So?"

"I'm not called his 'toy' for nothing."

"You mean..like a teddy bear?"

"Yep." I nodded; Ink regarded me as something to cuddle with when he had nightmares in addition to someone to torture. "Good night."

"Good night.." Glitch sighed and closed his eyesockets, having already been lying down.

"Night.." Umbra was half asleep.

With that, I lay down myself, hugging my Hope as I drifted off into my dream, which happened to be a nightmare, but that was okay. 

I was used to nightmares.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dusty bean and friends go to Ink.

Thanks for reading my inky writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

UD!Nightmare. 

~~~~~

We had been in hell- Dusty's multiverse for a week. Ink was..mean. Okay, that was an understatement; he was the cruelest being I had ever met, and I wanted to get away from him! I wanted Dream back! Dream was kind compared to him! He made us drink paint! Paint wasn't edible! We also slept on a hard floor, and we were only fed every three days..I wanted to go back home; I wanted the green grass and bright stars back. This was the worst home ever; I felt bad for Dusty. I was glad that he had friends, though; his friends were very kind, even if they obviously had problems of their own. We were currently being woken up by Ink, who had very..convincing methods of waking people up.

"Wake up, Glitchy!" Ink slammed his brush on Glitch's skull; I heard the crack. Glitch sat up quickly. "Now for Dusty!" 

Ink walked over to Dusty, who was sleeping soundly. "Wake up, Dusty!" Ink raised his brush, but he didn't have to bring it down; Dusty was a light sleeper, and he was already awake. "Good morning!"

"Good morning.." Dusty returned; he said that Ink would have hurt him if he didn't reply, but we didn't have to.

"Now, I've sort of put off all of my engagements to spend the entire week with you guys, but I really have to get going. Dusty, your babysitter will be here in an hour; keep you and your friends occupied while you wait, okay?"

"Okay."

"Bye!" Ink left the room.

"...Does this happen often?" Glitch and I didn't know that Ink actually left the room.

"He's a dictator; he's usually busy with something." Dusty shrugged. "Busy days mean less pain, but he always hurts me more when he comes back."

"So what do we do?" I wondered.

"We can play with Thunder and Lightning!"

"Who?" Glitch tilted his skull.

"Oh, did I forget to tell you about them?" Dusty frowned.

"You might have.."

"I'm sorry..Thunder and Lightning are my pet bunnies!" 

"You have pets?" I was interested.

"Yep! Ink meant it as a joke, but I liked them so much that he let me keep them!"

"That's nice." Glitch smiled. "Does he usually do nice things?"

"Um..maybe once every five years he'll do something genuinely nice, but it's not often. My Hope was the first nice thing he did, and my bunnies are the second!"

"Where are they?"

"They're in their home right now; I'll get them!"

Dusty then walked over to a corner of the room and..entered something; it seemed like it was a magically-camouflaged tent, which was likely why we hadn't noticed it before. When Dusty returned, he was holding two bunnies - one was white, and the other was black. He placed them down on the ground with a bag of food.

"The white one is Lightning, a girl." Dusty introduced. "And the black one is Thunder, a boy. Lightning's favorite food is carrot tops, while Thunder likes apple slices, but they like a lot of stuff."

"They're adorable!" I pet Lightning softly; she was so soft!

"You can hold them, if you want; they like contact, since they don't get a lot.."

"Why don't they?" I picked up Lightning, while Glitch pet Thunder.

"I can only play with them when Ink gives me a break or isn't here, and that's not enough contact for them."

"Huh.." Glitch hummed.

So we played with the bunnies for a while, eventually being joined by the one known as Fell, who was apparently Dusty's "babysitter"; I was starting to wonder if Dusty was actually a child at this point..babysitters, cute pets, and clinging to a toy at every possible moment? It seemed as if he was a child! I supposed it didn't really matter at this point; this multiverse was by far the worst we had experienced, and I was looking forward to reassuring Dusty next year..this life wasn't one that anyone would envy. The next week passed slowly, but it eventually did end, leaving us with only a short goodbye and the hope that we could meet again next year. 

I hoped we could. 

~~~~~

FDIR!Ink (multiverse that has been shown already).

Time: one day after Dusty's appearance.

Location: meeting hall.

~~~~~

"We have got to stop this!" Dream was firm. "We cannot allow a slave trade to exist in this multiverse! It's cruel, and it's wrong!"

"So what are we supposed to do about it?" Blue wondered. "It isn't as if we can just stop Nightmare of our own accord! He's been too strong to overpower in the past!"

"You're right. Which is why we'll need to approach this from a different perspective. Ink?"

I nodded, turning on a projector to project an image onto a screen: code.

"After discovering the existence of code from the other Ink, our Ink has managed to trace the code signature of both the child and his..abuser." Dream sighed. "With this, we are able to track both of them, but we need a solid plan before we attack Ink's counterpart. For some reason, either Ink created an AU where he's overpowered..or something else is going on that we need to get a grip on."

"So how do we track them?" Geno wanted to potentially kill someone.

"We have no idea.." Dream frowned. "We tried to track the child's abuser, but we came up completely empty; it's like he's not in the multiverse!"

"He isn't." A new voice stated from the back of the room; it was slightly..glitchy..but..not?

"Who's there?" I was on guard.

"Relax, I mean no harm." The voice stepped out of the shadows, revealing..Error, but..not Error? "My name is Template, and I come from a different multiverse."

"Uh..what?" I had no clue.

"I suppose you've never been aquainted with the omniverse?" He sighed.

"Uh, the what?"

"Oh, boy, I hate explaining this.." Template pulled out his..pen and created what seemed to be a digital screen in the air before enlarging it. "You likely know what a universe is."

"Doesn't everyone?" Outer believed.

"Yep. A select few are privy to the multiverse, which you know as a collaboration of all known universes."

"This is basic." Dream thought.

"Where do you think those multiverses go?"

"In..space?" I shrugged unknowingly.

"Allow me to introduce you to..the omniverse." A very large diagram appeared on the screen. "Now, normally, we'd only show the Protectors this, but seeing your circumstances, I'd say it's safe enough. That Ink that you encountered yesterday left a pretty large disruption in the coding, being an outside entity. There are others still here - three, actually - that are not from the multiverse you know. Now, big thing, you know how you have Classic Sans?"

"Yeah?" I tilted my skull.

"In the omniverse, we have classic Ink, classic Dream, and even classic Template!" Template giggled. "Yes, there's a ton of people who look exactly like you! It's creepy at first, but Classic Sanses already know that feeling! As for how the omniverse works, it's different from the multiverse; instead of having a few powerful protectors and their enemies, we have..a lot. There are a lot of disputes about villains conquering multiverses that they didn't come from, but that's a topic for later."

"Excuse me, but how exactly does this relate to slavery?" Dream wanted to resume with the subject we knew about.

"Oh, I went off track, didn't I?" Template chuckled nervously. "Sorry, I'm excitable! At least that's what my friends say! In regard to..that..most multiverses have completely outlawed any type of slavery, but in the omniverse, so recently discovered..it's a big problem..there are millions of innocent beings who have a lack of freedom, and the villains simply don't care; they only see them as tools, stress relievers..they don't value life, and they more often than not abuse the immortality they've been given to do whatever they want, free of consequences.."

"Is everyone immortal there?" Dream questioned.

"No, only the ones who have had immortality from the start..but it's still a problem."

"What about that Ink?" I inquired. "Are you saying he's a different version of me?"

"Yes." Template nodded. "He is what we like to call a 'corrupt Ink'; usually, unless it's a Forced Destroyer multiverse, Ink is either a hero or a chaotic neutral. In some multiverses, he's one of the worst villains we've come to know."

"What's a 'Forced Destroyer' multiverse?" Blue wondered. 

"Oh, that's a multiverse in which Error is forced to destroy against his will; those can be really sad, especially when they involve attempted suicide. Actually.." Template made a smaller screen. "Oh, wow! This is actually one! You're a pretty nice Ink for this type of multiverse!"

"I..what?" I had no clue what he was talking about.

"..I probably shouldn't have told you that. Oh, well! As for the Ink you want, he's likely in his home multiverse."

"But how could he cross the barrier between a flippin' multiverse?!" 

"It's actually pretty easy, if you've got enough magic." Template chuckled. "Or you could jump into the void and hope you live, but that's a bit risky."

"So, wait, who exactly are you?" Dream wanted answers.

"Ohh, probably should've started with that. As I've stated, I'm Template, the Protector of a different multiverse in our humble omniverse. I'm essentially an Error, but instead of becoming a Destroyer of Worlds, I decided to protect! The Destroyer in my multiverse is a version of Ink known as Pale, but we've gotten along better since we discovered that Pale was only destroying to have emotions..that's still sad.."

"So...what about the slavery thing?" I switched the subject.

"What about it?"

"How do we stop it?"

"..We've been working to stop it for about five hundred years..it's not going to happen overnight."

"Then maybe we can free those slaves instead of the big picture! We have to do something!" 

"Yeah..you're talking about freeing three people, all from different multiverses, and you're expecting their 'owners' to sit back and accept that? From what I've gathered from their codes, that would be, precisely, taking on an entire Nightmare's gang, an unknown, and a corrupt Ink. Do you honestly think that you, an Ink and a Dream, with maybe a Blue, can do that?"

"..." I sighed; that did seem pretty hopeless. "What about you?"

"I was only here to find out the cause of that coding disturbance; if you'd like, I can show you how to access the omniverse, but your chances of finding and rescuing these poor beings within a year successfully would be very unlikely..you're better off getting to know the omniverse before trying to tackle all of its problems."

"..Okay." I nodded. "So what do we have to do?"

"First off, do you have one thousand spare magic points?" 

"Uh..why?"

"That's how much MP you need to create a portal to the omniversal meeting center; it used to be ten thousand, but we've managed to make a ton of advancements in technology to allow less powerful beings to access it. Do you have the magic?"

"I..don't know?"

Dream facepalmed. "He does; he just doesn't remember."

"Good to know!" Template smiled. "Now, this may take a few tries, but I think you should get the hang of it..with written instructions so you remember."

So my training began. In front of everyone, receiving both criticism and cheers of support from them. Mostly criticism..yeah. It took four hours before I created the portal, which only turned out to open to the Anti-Void, which I still counted as a win; I hadn't accessed it alone before! After four more hours, only ten people were left watching me utterly fail at portal making. Two more hours later, it was just Template, Dream, and Blue still watching me suffer. 

"This is impossible!" I whined after another failed attempt.

"Hey, it took me three days to do it the first time!" Template tried to comfort me. "The average for first-timers is at least twenty-four hours of practice! After the first time, it's pretty easy!"

"Can't you just take us there and let me memorize the area? Like normal portals?"

"Nope, sorry! Rules are that someone has to be able to make the portal in order to access the omniverse..it's for safety, just in case. In the beginning, we lost a lot of people who didn't know how to portal between multiverses; getting lost in a multiverse you have no knowledge of is scary."

"Ugh.."

"If you need a break, feel free!"

"Wait..shouldn't Dream be trying this, too? If nobody can enter without portals, what about him?"

"..." Template looked at Dream. "I assumed he wasn't coming. Did you want to come?"

"..Tell me how to do it." Dream sighed.

It turned out that Dream was better at making portals than I was, taking only eight hours to create a proper portal. I took two days, but with a bit of help, I was fine. Blue was upset that he couldn't come, vowing to increase his magic levels in order to join us in the near future, but Template offered him some good tips and tricks for magic increase. With that finished, we went through our portals, finding..a lot of people who looked like ourselves. 

"Welcome to Hero Con!" Template grinned. "The villains have something like it, but they did it, like, one or two weeks ago, in some other multiverse. Now, uh, there's a lot of variety here, and there's no fighting permitted unless there's an attack - that sometimes happens. You're likely to see people you do and don't recognize from your multiverse, such as..myself. Just know that there are multiverses where the people you know as villains are actually the heroes, and you shouldn't judge anyone based on your versions."

"What about the innocents?" Dream wanted to save the child and his friends.

"..It's difficult." Template sighed. "The villains are often stronger than we are; they have armies..we don't. We stand for freedom, friendship, and peace; they just want to use others for their own amusement. Trust me when I say..they care for their 'things' greatly, but that is all they care about. The only reason they haven't taken us out is because they see us as a thing to be toyed with; we've been trying to get stronger to face them, but we need all the time we can get..do you understand?"

"So you're saying it's impossible?" I assumed.

"No..sometimes, we can free someone; it just requires the right set of circumstances. If they see the person as a being with no value, they'll sometimes just let us free the person in question. If they happen to see the person as an experiment or their, 'favorite,' we may never save them. If you'd like, I can introduce you to the head of our science and strategies division; if you want to try to rescue someone, he's your skeleton."

"Who is he?" I pulled out my scarf to write the name down.

"Hey, no need to wander aimlessly; I'll take you."

"Are you sure we wouldn't be a bother?" Dream didn't want to impose.

"Certainly not! I'm always happy to help someone who wants to free innocents!"

"Thank you!"

"Absolutely!"

Template then began to lead us through the halls of the building we had found ourselves in; it was quite large and colorful, and there were rides, games, and even a hallway titled "The Feeling Down Clinic," which apparently helped if someone was recovering from trauma or something else, according to Template. In essence, we had found the epitome of happiness, and it was interesting, to say the least. We eventually arrived in a large room with lots of..sciency equipment, and Template brought us to a section where a version of me was..doing something.

"Sink!" Template called out. "Got someone here!"

"Huh?" My double - who wore a lab coat, apparently - stood up. "Oh, are they new?"

"Yep! They're interested in saving some people who ended up in their AM."

"Our what?" Dream didn't understand.

"Oh, you know how Alternate Universe is shortened to AU? Alternate Multiverse is shortened to AM."

"Ooh."

"Hello, there!" The other me shook both of our hands. "My name's Ink, but that's kinda common around here, so most people call me Sink."

"...Why?" I tilted my skull.

"Oh, right, that requires explanation!" 'Sink' chuckled. "Uh, you guys got a Sci in your AM?"

"A who?"

"Ah, Science Sans. Not every multiverse has that. Most multiverses have a Sans variant into sciency stuff?"

"We have Geno..?"

"..." 'Sink' paused for a second. "Ya might not wana let him get too far in DT studies..just for safety. Anyways, most multiverses have a person named Sci, and I'm basically an Ink who acts like a Sci, and when our names are put together, we get.."

"Inksci!" I thought.

"..." 'Sink' glared at me. "Sink. S-c-i-n-k. Scink!"

"Oh." I chuckled nervously. "Sorry!"

"Anyways, saving someone?"

"Yeah..it's kind of hard to explain.." Dream hummed.

"Do you know who they are? Are they from your multiverse?"

"We're not sure..Ink found him in the custody of Nightmare's gang a few days ago, but..someone took him back. Someone stronger than Ink.."

"A corrupt Ink." Template filled in. "The trace code in the scene of the event indicates that he's likely a coder."

"Oh, those are toughies." Scink groaned slightly. "Do you know what multiverse he's from?"

"No..the child Ink found mentioned more than one of them..we've only met two of the three we know of." Dream answered.

"Oh, boy.." Scink thought for a moment. "Did this child you found have any sort of identification? Numbers of any sort?"

"Um..didn't he have a brand?" I recalled.

"Yes, he did." Dream nodded.

"Do you know what it said?" Scink hoped.

"It was a number.." Dream hummed for a minute. "I believe it was four hundred..seventy-something.."

"That's a big number..I'll look through the 470s, but first, can you describe the child?"

"He was a small Dusttale Sans - very small."

"Got it. Please wait here for a second."

Scink left us there for a while, but he returned within ten minutes holding some files.

"All right, this should be your target." Scink showed us a file. "Multiverse 473 has a corrupt Ink harboring a short Dusttale Sans; does that sound familiar?"

"Yes, that's it!" I confirmed. "How do we save him and maybe his friends?"

"..You mention friends.." Scink looked at us curiously. "Have you seen said friends?"

"An Error, from our multiverse, and all we know about the last is that he calls himself Umbra."

"That sounds Latin.." He chuckled. "For the most part, only Nightmares and the occasional Dream use Latin; with the context of Umbra translating to Shadow, I assume you're dealing with a Nightmare. Anyone else?"

"No." Dream shook his skull. 

"Well, I can plan a rescue, but it'll require research and time; I think that we should schedule it for the villain conference next year."

"Why?" I didn't want to wait so long.

"Because you, my friend, are an Ink! Many Inks suffer from memory loss; if we wait so long, they might think that you've just forgotten about the whole thing and lower their guard!"

"What about me?" Dream asked.

"As for you, you can act as if you've forgotten as well; pester Nightmare about it for a few months, but lower the amount of times you bring it up over time. In six months, just don't talk about it at all!"

"You really think it'll work?"

"Absolutely."

"So..how do you not have memory loss?" I noticed that he didn't flinch even once.

"There is no way I'm letting others catch on to my secret; we'd have a thousand mad scientists running around instead of one!"

"Oh.." 

"Anyways, you guys should go home and get some rest after all this; what's your multiverse nunber?"

"Uh..." I looked to Dream, who shrugged.

"They're 474." Template helped. "You two remember that; it's your omniversal identification number. Ink, write that in permanent pen or whatever you use; that's very important!"

"Got it!" I saluted, realizing that I didn't have that type of tool on me..

"I'll remind him when we get home.." Dream said.

"Good!" Scink smiled. "I'll meet you in your AM sometime soon after I do some research; you can count on me!"

"Thanks, this really means a lot."

"Hey, heroes gotta stick together! Sleep well!"

That night, we did.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean club has a rescue squad!

I flipping made Scink a couple days ago and I love him already-

If you want his origin story, please ask; I have a chapter already ready to go!

I also love how Template just sighs and begins to explain the omniverse with no context and everyone just goes with it-

Thanks for reading my scientific writing!

Bye

Chapter Text

FDIR!Error.

~~~~~

It had been one year since I had met Dusty and Umbra; I had thought about them every day since then, and I had prepared a few things for the next time they came over. I was going to show Dusty some of those AUs that he had never seen before, and I had compiled a list of books that I believed Umbra would take an interest in based on the books he had read last time. In addition, I had located the softest pillows and blankets in the entire castle to make sure that they were comfortable for their stay; they didn't have the comfort and safety provided by a bed in their homes, and I was willing to provide that in the one I called mine. Recently, I had noticed that Ink and Dream hadn't spoken about the incident last year for quite a while; Ink had probably forgotten, but I wasn't so sure about Dream..I had decided not to talk about it. At the moment, I was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching the others scramble around to get their things; it was sometimes better to prepare an entire year for something than to wait until the last moment. I was really only bringing myself and my talking card, since I really wasn't allowed to bring anything else. 

"Horror, where are the cupcakes?" Killer shouted from a different room.

"They're in the third bag!" Horror replied from some other room.

"But we filled the third bag with weapons!" Cross whined.

"Cupcakes can be weapons!"

"I told you idiots to be ready an hour ago!" Nightmare groaned; he had finished his packing last night..or whatever constituted 'last night' in a universe with no day. "I have half a mind to leave you all here!"

"I'm ready!" Dust teleported in immediately.

"That's one." Nightmare sighed.

"I've been ready for the past three months." I mentioned.

"You don't count."

"Ooh, that hurt."

"The only reason I'm not leaving you here is because I know you'd stay with Error and cause more chaos than I can afford while I'm off-multiverse."

"Aw, you know me so well!"

"I wish I didn't."

"And we're back to that hurt."

"Yo redi..co?" Killer tried and failed Spanish. "Uh, Error, how do I say I'm ready?"

I scoffed. "No sabes nada del mundo."

"Hey!" Killer pouted. "I know that was an insult! What did you say about me?!"

I chuckled. "Nada."

"Speak English!"

"No en tu vida."

"What's he saying?!"

"I believe he's insulting you on several levels." Nightmare guessed.

"Ugh! It's bad enough being insulted in English!"

"Don't worry, Killer." Cross was fluent in Spanish. "He only insulted your intelligence."

"..." Killer glared at Cross.

"Estoy preparado." Cross smirked.

"I was close!"

"Sure."

"I'm ready." Horror entered the room with a few bags.

"Good, let's get going; we're already ten minutes late." Nightmare opened a portal.

I hated lines. Especially these lines. They were long, and it was boring. I groaned as the amount of time we were in line to check in grew to ten minutes, resulting in my dramatically falling to the ground out of pure boredom; nobody cared. I felt better on the floor; there was a small breeze that made the ground preferable to the air above. I hummed a small tune as I was dragged across the floor, not caring one iota that I was disrupting the peace in the line; it made it more fun. Then I heard a voice. One I knew.

"I think this will be fun, Dusty!" It was that crazed artist..but that also meant that Dusty was near.. "Don't you think?"

"Sure.." That was Dusty's voice; I looked to my left, finding the small Dusttale Sans standing next to his master.

"Hi, Dusty." I greeted, causing him to look down at the floor with a jump before meeting my eyelights.

"O-oh..hi, Glitch!" Dusty waved happily, clutching that same doll with his other hand.

"Oh..it's you." The insane artist sighed. "Why are you on the floor?"

"It's thirty degrees cooler down here." I shrugged.

"That's because of the poison gas meant to kill any insects, like you!" The artist burst into laughter. "You're an idiot!"

"..." I had no comment.

After that, I stood up, talking with Dusty to pass the time until we eventually were checked in. Then we waited in the captive lounge line for about an hour, but we had a lot of conversation topics to pass the time. Eventually, we reached our shared area, where Umbra was currently waiting for us with his brother, who smiled upon seeing our group approach - although, he didn't look at me or Dusty. The ones in charge of us began to talk after placing me and Dusty into the area, where we hugged Umbra tightly; it had been a whole year since we saw him last!

"How have you guys been?" He inquired. 

"I'm okay!" Dusty smiled. 

"I've been doing just fine!" I joined. "How about you?"

"I'm doing great now that I've seen you guys!" Umbra hugged us tighter.

"That is concerning.." The Dream's voice was a bit loud, causing us to divert our attention to the other conversation..I hoped it wasn't going to end in pain.

"What do you think we should do about it?" The Ink inquired.

"I believe that we should keep a close eye on them..but I am not guarding them." 

"We could just set up a camera." Nightmare suggested; I wondered what they were talking about.

"That sounds preferable to taking time out of someone's day for those worthless idiots."

"In that case.." The artist created a camera inside of our area. "Let's get on with our day. I don't know about you guys, but I want to try out that rollercoaster."

"They have a rollercoaster this year?!" Killer jumped.

"Yep! Big one, too! Line might take a while, but the sooner we get there, the shorter the wait will be."

"Sign me up!" 

"What is a..rollercoaster?" The Dream had a surprising lack of knowledge of modern entertainment, probably because he lived in an old-timey village.

"..." The artist looked at the Dream. "You're riding front car with me."

"Um..okay?"

With that, the group closed our electric barrier and walked away, leaving us to catch up with eachother.

"So, anything interesting happen for you guys?" I wondered.

"My brother tried to rescue Error ten times!" Dusty announced.

"That's a lot." Umbra hummed.

"Yep! What about you?"

"Mrs. Toriel threw a secret birthday party in the village for me a day after Dream's was celebrated! A lot of people came, too! It was at night, since Dream was sleeping, but I liked a birthday under the stars!"

"That's awesome!"

"What about you, Glitch?"

"Eh, nothing much; Nightmare's still taking his sweet time getting me home, but after that incident last year, I haven't been randomly attacked by anyone." I grinned. 

"That's nice!"

"Yeah, it is!"

"Do you think they'll try to save us?" Dusty wanted to be saved.

"I'd say I hope so, but..I don't want to imagine what would happen if they were caught.." Umbra shuddered. "We'd probably be punished, too.."

"Oh..right.." Dusty sighed. 

"Of course, if they were going to try it, they'd have to do it early on.." I reasoned. "But..I doubt it. Who's going to care for us? There are others who are probably in worse situations..they need help more than someone like me..heck, you two should be saved before me."

"Nuh-uh!" Dusty shook his skull disapprovingly. "You deserve to be rescued more! You have people you need to go back to! You have peace to go back to! Umbra should be rescued, though!"

"That's what I mean, Dusty..you and Umbra have never tasted freedom like I have..sure, I want it back, but I'd give up every chance of my freedom if I could guarantee yours.."

"You're a kind soul, Glitch." Umbra hugged me. "But if we ever escape, we're doing it together..no one will be left behind."

"I guess so."

"..." Dusty raised his hand.

"What is it, Dusty?" Umbra questioned. 

"Why are we talking about escaping and rescues in front of a camera?" Dusty pointed to the camera.

There was silence for a moment.

"We're not planning on it yet!" I decided to make that clear. "If you're listening, maybe just disregard that? Please?"

"Aww, Glitchy's begging!" A small speaker on the camera sent out the artist's voice. "Do you think we should disregard it?"

"Disregard it?" Nightmare's voice scoffed. "Like that'd ever happen."

"I've got a wonderful idea for your punishment! Maybe we'll just have that pain tournament every year!"

"I think that's a wonderful idea!" Umbra's brother chuckled.

"We should do that after we get back from the rides!" Killer wanted to go on more rides, thankfully.

"Sure, that'll increase the suspense!" The artist giggled before turning off the speaker.

"I-I'm sorry.." Dusty was weeping.

"For what?" I hugged the small skeleton close.

"I-I started..I.."

"Hey, we all talked about it; you didn't force us to continue the conversation."

"B-but I..I..b-brought it u-up!" Dusty sobbed.

"That's no reason to be upset; we all make mistakes. That was a small mistake, not a big one."

"Wh-what's a b-big one l-like?"

"Well, I once ate three tubs of chocolate ice cream before bed."

That made Dusty laugh slightly. "Wh-what happened?" 

"I had a big stomachache..which led me to wondering, since skeletons don't have stomachs. It turns out our souls are essentially stomachs, and that tiny soul was filled with chocolate ice cream. Silly, right?"

Dusty was giggling; that was good. "Y-you're silly!"

"I know, I know." I chuckled. "I'm a silly monster, but you're a happy monster!"

"Yeah! I'm happy!" Dusty smiled, allowing me to wipe his tears. 

"I don't want to ruin your happiness, but-" Umbra's speaking was cut off by my hand gesture.

"No ruining Dusty's happiness yet; I just got him to stop crying.." I sighed.

"All right..in that case.." Umbra pointed down the hallway, where the artist and the Dream were walking towards us.

"Oh..but weren't they..nevermind.." I held Dusty close, sighing. 

I hummed a tune to calm the two smaller skeletons as the artist lowered the barrier and took Dusty out of my arms, not saying a word. That..was weird. He usually spoke nonstop, but he hadn't made a single sound yet..I was even more surprised when the Dream picked up Umbra, having the same silence. When the smaller skeletons were no longer touching the ground, the artist gestured for me to follow them, which resulted in my obedience; whatever this was, I was either going to like it or hate it, but I hoped I was going to like it. We began to walk down the hallway, going away from the conference hall instead of toward it..this was honestly piquing my interest, but I knew better than to ask. Instead, I watched as Dusty played happily with his doll in the Ink's arms, while Umbra had a confused look on his face, probably wondering why he wasn't being forced to use his legs and walk like the "lower being" he had always been told he was; Dusty and I knew that he wasn't a lower being, and we had told him so on many occasions. He didn't believe us, but he didn't speak about it as much as he had before. As we walked past some of the final multiverse numbers in this hallway, the artist finally spoke up, but I didn't expect what he said.

"So..are you guys wearing trackers, by any chance?" He questioned, making me a bit confused.

"Uh..wouldn't you know that?" I thought.

"Nope! Are you?"

"Not that I know of.."

"No?" Umbra replied cautiously.

"I'm not." Dusty answered. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see." The artist responded.

"I-is it going to hurt?" Dusty didn't want to be hurt.

"Not sure yet; that would depend on what happens in the next twenty seconds."

"What happens..then?" I inquired.

"We rescue you."

"Wh-what?!" Umbra was surprised by that.

"Keep your voice down, kid! Do you want to get caught?"

"N-no, sir." 

"Shh, this is the crucial moment."

When that was said, the artist opened an exit door, where a portal was opened to somewhere else. Without hesitation, our group went through the portal, finding ourselves in a rather colorful room. The three of us were seated on a sofa before the Ink and the Dream left us alone, promising to come back in a couple minutes.

"So..we were just rescued, right?" I asked.  

"Apparently." Umbra shrugged. 

"I give it two days, tops." Dusty, hugged his doll tightly. 

"What makes you say that?" I wondered.

"They can track our magic signatures..they won't give us up that easily.." Dusty was beginning to tear up. "An-and w-we'd never be rescued f-for real..th-they're gonna hurt us!"

"Hey, Dusty!" I pulled the small skeleton into my lap again. "They're not gonna hurt us; they rescued us, didn't they?"

"H-how do you know? Th-they could be pretending..they're gonna hurt us..I-I know it.."

"Okay, Dusty, okay." I held Dusty close to me, and Umbra came closer as well. "If they try to hurt you, I'll protect you, okay?"

"R-really?" Dusty looked up at me hopefully.

"Absolutely. They won't hurt you without getting through me first, and just in case you havem't noticed, I'm a fairly tough guy!"

Dusty giggled, pulling Umbra into the midst of our cuddle. "Thank you, Glitch!"

"Sure thing, Dusty." I would protect my friends even if it meant that I had to volunteer to be tortured for our captors to spare them.

"We're back!" The Ink announced, holding a plate of chocolate chip cookies! I had to hold myself back, though..I had children in my lap. The Dream was right behind him.

"Let's get to the point." I had to make sure that this was safe. "Who are you, why are we here, and do those cookies have natural or artifical chocolate chips?"

"We're..the Ink and Dream you've known for about three years now?" Dream replied.

"So..you discovered the omniverse?" I was impressed.

"Yep!" Ink nodded. "We had a bit of help, but we were determined to save you guys!"

"So we have identity and purpose..what about those chocolate chips?"

"They're your favorite, don't worry." 

"Yes!" I grinned happily, accepting a cookie and biting into the chocolatey goodness. 

"How did you open the barrier so fast?" Umbra wanted to know. "They're made only to open for our masters.."

"Well, it wasn't hard with this." Ink held up a keycard - the artist's keycard.

"How did you get that?!"

"Pickpocketing skills." Ink shrugged happily. 

"A-are you going to hurt us?" Dusty clutched to me tighter, tears still streaming down his face.

"Child, we would never do that!" Dream assured.

"B-but.." Dusty didn't believe him.

"Here, kid, try a cookie." Ink gave Dusty a cookie.

"I-I can't..I-I'm not allowed.." Dusty tried to give the cookie back.

"You don't have to worry about his rules anymore; he can't hurt you here."

"Y-yes, he can.." Dusty put the cookie back and hugged his doll tightly.

"..I guess we'll start slow, then." Ink gave Umbra a cookie. "We need a bit of time to arrange where you'll be staying, so you might be here for a while..feel free to take a nap or something." 

"Thanks.." I smiled. "This..means a lot."

"Sure thing!" 

With that, Ink and Dream left us to sleep, which we did.

I hoped the future would get better.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio "saved"?

It was at this moment that the author realized that Glitch is a Forced Destroyer and Umbra and Dusty are basically children; Glitch is nonofficially adopting them, isn't he?

Thanks for reading my ridiculous writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust.

~~~~~

I didn't want to be hurt. The Ink and the Dream might have rescued us, but that revealed nothing of their intentions; they could have just wanted us for themselves. What we had to offer, I didn't know, but I knew that there was something they weren't telling us straight up, and I wasn't going to trust them until I knew what it was. As for Umbra and Glitch, they seemed satisfied with the prospect that we had been rescued and could relax; I was happy that they could accept what I could not. They had fallen asleep after the Ink and the Dream had left us; I was contemplating asking for nicknames, since I now knew two Inks and three Dreams..that wasn't convenient. I knew that Umbra's brother had taken to calling himself "Lumen," which Umbra had told us was "Light" in Latin; I found it interesting that they both spoke more than one language. The Ink I knew didn't need a nickname; I knew that he would just want me to know him as Ink, anyway. The Ink and the Dream had left us alone for three whole hours, but I didn't sleep; I refused to sleep. If I slept, they might have attacked us while we were sleeping, and I wanted to be awake if they were going to hurt us..

"Hello?" I heard a voice from outside the door. "I'm coming in, okay?"

I held my Hope tightly; was this it? Were they going to hurt us? Were- a swapped Sans? Oh..this must not have been it..unless swapped Sanses were secretly evil in some multiverses. The one in mine was nice. The new swapped Sans sat down in a chair next to the couch we were on and smiled at me; he might have been okay.

"Didn't want to sleep?" He assumed.

I shook my skull.

"Do you need anything, then?" He questioned. 

"..." I supposed I would ask now. "Why did you bring us here?"

"What do you mean? Ink and Dream rescued you."

"..I don't believe that."

"Why not?"

"..Nobody would save me..I waited a really long time, but nobody came..this can't be real."

"Oh.." He sighed. "How long..have you been in captivity?"

"..About twelve years..maybe twelve and a half."

"But..you're so small..Ink guessed that you were five at the most.."

"I just have a medical condition..i-instead of growing, I started to shrink..people say I act like a child..but I don't know how else to act; I-Ink says he likes it..so I don't try to change. Change just gets people hurt."

"Oh.." The swapped Sans seemed sad. "Then..you're not a child?"

I shook my skull. "You can call me that..if you want; I don't mind. M-my dad always said we acted like children.."

"Oh? You had a dad? Was he very kind?"

"Y-yeah! He took care of us, and we took care of him!" 

"And where is he now?"

"..." I bowed my skull. "Ink killed him.."

"Oh..oh, I-I'm so sorry! Please don't cry!"

I decided to keep my tears back; they might have hurt me if I let them out. "I'm okay.."

"Good..so..you mentioned having an uncle last year?"

I nodded. "He made my doll.."

"What's your uncle's name?"

"..Error." I didn't miss the look of surprise on the swapped Sans's face.

"Then..Nightmare's gang was good in your multiverse, wasn't it?"

I nodded again. "We kept the balance..by doing what nobody else was willing to do..and they called us the villains.."

"I'm sorry..that must have been hard.."

"We had a lot of fun, though..when we were together.."

"I'd bet.." The swapped Sans smiled slightly. "It might be a bit difficult adjusting to regular life after what you've been through.."

"What do you mean?" I tilted my skull curiously; regular life?

"Well, you're free now..regular life is just down the road.."

"B-but they'll come for us.."

"That's why we'll be watching you closely and making sure you're safe; we know that they'll try to get you back, but we have safety procedures in store for those situations. I, uh, hope you don't mind being constantly watched.."

"I don't mind..but what is regular life?" I hoped it wasn't torture..I wouldn't have had to get used to it at all.

"It's..living in a house with us..the Star Sanses base in our multiverse would be the safest place that we can easily access. We only have one spare bedroom, but we can make it work for you. We..want you to feel safe."

"..Okay." I frowned, holding on to Glitch's arm. "What are your names?"

"I'm Blue!"

"I mean..I already know a Blue.."

"Ohh! You mean a nickname! Sorry! Uh, you can call me.." He thought carefully. "Call me Berry!"

"Okay. My name is Dusty."

"I know. These two must be Glitch and Umbra, right?"

"Mhm."

"Well, I came here to tell you that everything is set up for your arrival, and whenever you and your friends are ready, you can leave the room; we'll make sure that you'll be immediately brought to our home. We want to make you feel as comfortable as possible, okay?"

"All right..thank you."

"Of course. I'll leave you, then."

With that, Berry stood and left the room, and I looked over at my still-sleeping friends. Despite everything, I still couldn't bring myself to trust the trio who had saved us; it was too good to be true. Even if it was true, I knew that at least Ink wouldn't give me up..ever; if I was ever free, I would have been on the run for the rest of my life..I didn't want that unless my brother was by my side, and at the moment, he wasn't. I wondered if Ink and the others had found out that we had been taken yet; it was a solid assumption that they had. With a soft sigh, I leaned against Glitch and tried to fall asleep; I would need my rest if pain was in my future. I slept rather well, actually, and I woke on my own to find my friends talking about something, but they cut off their conversation when they noticed that I was awake.

"Hey, Dusty." Glitch smiled, allowing me to climb into his lap. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes." I didn't know how many times I had been asked that question before; Ink had essentially trained me to answer with an affirmative, which wasn't always true, but..he would hurt me if I didn't say yes.

"Okay..anything happen?"

"Someone came while you guys were asleep; whenever we're ready, we're to leave the room."

"Oh..that would've been good to know three hours ago."

"I-I'm sorry..I shouldn't have slept.." I held my Hope tightly..I had made a mistake; I didn't want to be punished!

"Hey, no harm done; you need your sleep, Dusty."

"..I guess." Maybe I wouldn't be punished? I hoped that was the case.

"Well, are we ready?"

"I'm ready." Umbra nodded.

"I'm ready!" I grinned, hugging my Hope.

"All right, we're off!"

Glitch proceeded to pick up both me and Umbra, causing me to giggle; I liked being picked up by those who didn't want to hurt me. When we were both secure, Glitch walked out the door into a portal which brought us into a house..living room. I looked around curiously, finding nothing out of the ordinary..there weren't even cans of paint lying around! I wondered where the cans of paint were..maybe this Ink didn't like to put them out in plain sight like the Ink I knew did. Speaking of the Ink, he had been sitting down on one of two couches next to the Dream and Berry, probably waiting for us..I hoped there was no punishment for keeping them waiting..

"Ah, welcome!" The Ink smiled brightly, standing up. "I, uh, know it isn't much, but if you'd like it, this will be your new home..of course, if you don't, I'm sure we could find something else..we don't want you to feel uncomfortable in any regard."

"Are you going to hurt us?" I knew I was blunt, but I had to know.

"..." The Ink seemed unsettled by my question; I whimpered, hoping I hadn't broken a rule..were we not supposed to speak?! "O-oh, please don't cry! I just..didn't expect that! And no, we are not going to hurt you!"

With that, I calmed slightly; maybe they weren't going to hurt us..immediately. The Ink began to talk about the safety measures they had taken to keep us from being detected before beginning to talk about the new lifestyle that was set before us, and I listened half-heartedly. Ink had made it clear to me on more than fifty occasions that I was worthless, annoying, and better off dead..I was bound to ruin this for the others if it was real..I didn't want to ruin it for them. I would just have to be quiet and speak as little as possible to avoid angering our new..whatever they were..captors didn't seem like the correct term unless they claimed ownership of us, and none of them had done so as of yet. When the Ink finished talking, I asked for nicknames - something that I didn't believe would anger them, but I was taking a risk - which resulted in the Ink's deciding to be called - after a lot of debate over what would be considered trauma-inducing to me - Stroke, and the Dream's new name of Cloud. After being fully named, the trio led us to the room we would be sharing - they only had one spare, but we were fine with that - to allow us to get settled in and went about their normal duties.

"They're gonna find us." I said.

"..I know." Glitch sighed. "We'll just have to make the most of the time we've got..wanna try a candy bar? I won't tell."

I shook my skull; I wasn't going to break Ink's rules, even if I was supposedly free of them...perhaps he would go easier on me when the inevitable punishment came. I doubted it, but it was worth a try. 

"Well, I'm going to go find out if books exist in this multiverse." Umbra left the bedroom, followed closely by Glitch, who wanted to see if there was any chocolate. 

I decided not to follow my friends outside; the more I made myself scarce, the less chance I had of ruining our chances of staying longer. I looked around the room we had been given, finding some paper and crayons; maybe I could draw a picture of my brother..if I ever saw him again, he would probably like that. With the last memory I had of him still fresh in my mind, I grabbed a red crayon and began to draw. My last memory of him was from roughly nine years ago, maybe ten; he had been fighting Ink in an effort to rescue me so long ago, but I remembered every moment of it as if it had been yesterday. I recalled the determined look on his face as he summoned every ounce of strength he could to defeat Ink in combat..but Ink fled, taking me with him..

"Whatcha doin'?" Someone was next to me?! I jumped back, finding Stroke..right, he lived here. "Oh! Sorry, didn't mean to scare you! I just thought you'd want to be downstairs with your friends.."

"O-oh..." I hadn't known that I was supposed to be downstairs! If I had known that, I would've been down there in an instant! "I-I'm sorry..I-I'll go down right now.."

"You don't have to..I was just wondering what you were doing up here for so long.."

"Oh.." I decided to show Stroke my drawing..I hoped he would let me off with only a warning..

"This..is really good! Where'd you learn to draw like this?"

"...I-Ink forced me to..it's a game.."

"A game? Would you tell me how to play it? It might be fun on game nights!"

"O-okay.." I hoped Stroke didn't want to play the game with me.. "One person is the judge, and the other is the drawer. The judge picks a thing for the drawer to draw, and the drawer draws it to the best of his ability. At the end, the judge sees if the drawer made any mistakes, and every mistake found is a broken bone for the drawer."

Stroke froze at the end of my explanation, but I didn't understand why..did he not like the game? I decided not to ask, going back to my drawing. After two minutes, Stroke finally found his voice again.

"U-um..I think..I have a better version of your game.." Stroke stated.

"What..is it?" I hoped it wasn't an entire torture session per mistake!

"Maybe we can have a lot of drawers, and the person with the best drawing gets..bragging rights."

"What about mistakes?"

"Maybe...we just point out mistakes and improve upon them?"

"..No broken bones?" I tilted my skull confusedly; weren't games supposed to hurt?

"Nope! Wanna play?"

"Um..o-okay.." I nodded.

"Great! Follow me!"

Stroke then led me out of the bedroom and into the living room downstairs, where my friends were talking with Berry and Cloud; they seemed happy. I hugged my Hope as Stroke explained the game to the others, who decided that it would be fun to try. Eventually, Stroke was picked as the judge, since he was already the best artist in the group, as opposed to the rest of us. 

"Okay, your topic is..a dog!" Stroke giggled, starting a timer.

I decided to draw a small fluffy dog; I liked small fluffy dogs, even if I hadn't seen one in over a decade. I tried not to make any mistakes, even if Stroke said that I wouldn't be punished for them, since he could have been lying; Stroke wasn't Ink, who wouldn't have ever lied to me about pain. That was one of the only things I could count on Ink for: he never lied to me, finding it more exciting if I knew exactly what was going to happen to me if I did something wrong in his eyelights. Soon enough, the timer ended, but I had already finished my drawing; Ink usually gave me only five minutes, while Stroke gave us fifteen. When we were finished, Stroke looked closely at our drawings, humming as he looked over them.

"I'm stuck.." He admitted. "They're all too good!"

"But there has to be a winner!" Berry wanted someone to win.

"Oh...annoying dog wins!" Stroke declared, holding up my fluffy dog drawing; we hadn't marked them with our names to prevent bias.

"Who drew the annoying dog?" Cloud inquired. 

"Me!" I giggled, hugging my Hope happily; I didn't remember the last time I had actually won anything!

"Good job, Dusty!" Umbra laughed, hugging me.

"Thank you!" I was happy.

"Wanna play again?" Stroke offered.

"Sure, but I don't think I'm going to win." Glitch chuckled, holding up a stick dog drawing.

"You mean you created this monstrosity?" Stroke gasped dramatically. 

"Never claimed to be good at art." Glitch shrugged. 

"That's it, you're officially under my tutelage!" 

"Does that hurt?" I didn't want Glitch to be hurt..

"No, it just means he'll teach me how to draw." Glitch assured.

"Oh..okay!" I hoped Glitch was right.

"For now, though, it's nighttime, and you should probably get your rest; you've likely been up for quite a while." Cloud reminded.

"I'm not a child." Glitch crossed his arms like a child.

"..." Stroke looked at Glitch with a frown; was he going to hurt him if he didn't go to sleep?! I had to get Glitch to go to sleep! I didn't want him to be hurt!

"Glitch.." I looked at my friend sadly; I didn't want to make him feel bad if he didn't go to sleep, but I didn't want him to be hurt more. "Will you please come with us?"

Glitch gave a soft whine before nodding and picking me up to take me upstairs; I wondered why Berry had a camera out, but I didn't ask. Soon enough, Glitch had been coerced to go to sleep with us because I was supposedly afraid of Ink showing up if we slept without him; honestly, that wasn't entirely wrong..I was scared of that possibility. So Umbra, Glitch, and I cuddled together as we slept, and I didn't question the presence of Stroke, Cloud, or Berry as they watched us drift off to sleep..maybe they just wanted to make sure that we were safe..but I still couldn't explain the camera.

Maybe everything would be quiet for a while.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio happy.

Thanks for reading my peaceful writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

UD!Nightmare.

~~~~~

We had been staying with those who had rescued us for three days at this point, and everything seemed to be moving smoothly; we hadn't seen our masters since before the rescue. However, we knew that they were no doubt searching for us at the present moment. Our first night here, none of us could sleep very well without thinking of them..which led to our plan. Glitch was the most powerful of our trio, which led to his decision to learn how to open portals between multiverses; he had been working tirelessly in order to perform the task, but he still hadn't done it yet. We hoped that he would be able to do it before we were found. As for me and Dusty, we didn't bother to learn much about that aspect, since Dusty had a magical disease, and my magic didn't enable me to create even universe portals, much less multiverse ones. Instead, we were in charge of relaxing and having fun. I preferred reading books, but Dusty had apparently just figured out that games were meant to be enjoyed, and I wasn't able to say no to him when he discovered a new game that he wanted to play. At the moment, that was what we were doing, and the game was..solitaire.

"But how do we play it with two people?" I..still couldn't figure that out.

"I don't know.." Dusty shrugged, looking at the cards we had set up. "Maybe Cloud knows!"

"They're on a mission, remember?"

"Oh, right.." Dusty had forgotten that our hosts were still the Star Sanses, and they were needed at the moment for something. "Do you think Glitch knows?"

"I don't think we should disturb his training; every second wasted is a second we might need.."

"Right.." Dusty held his doll close to him; I supposed now was as good a time as any to ask.

"So..what makes your doll so special?"

"Huh? Oh, my doll!" Dusty giggled. "My uncle made it for me! He made it so I'd remember my family, even though they're.." Dusty trailed off, but I knew what he was about to say.

"I get it. That was really kind of him."

"Yep!"

"We're home!" Berry announced, jumping through a portal suddenly before taking a deep breath and speaking loudly. "And I forgot something!"

Berry hopped back through his portal before Stroke and Cloud walked through, albeit slower than Berry's entrance. A small crash was heard from upstairs, causing Cloud to go investigate while Stroke sat down on the couch next to us.

"Stroke, how do you play solitaire with two people?" Dusty wanted to know.

"I dunno, just play something else." Stroke waved the small skeleton off, scoffing slightly; I assumed that he had drunk a bit too much of his red vial for whatever he had been up to.

"O-oh..o-okay.." Dusty nodded slowly, clearing up the cards; I helped him. "Wh-what should we play?"

"I don't care what you do, just don't bother me." Yep, definitely too much red.

"How about we go see what happened upstairs?" I suggested, drawing Dusty's attention away from Stroke.

"A-all right.." Dusty's response was almost inaudible; he was too sensitive for even a tiny bit of condescension; his emotions conveyed hopelessness and anxiety..not a good mix.

With that in mind, I guided the smaller skeleton upstairs to the source of the crash, where we found Glitch and- oh, no. Oh, oh, no..

"Well, if it isn't the rest of your happy little trio.." Dream - my Dream - smirked, an open portal behind him and Dusty's master; it seemed as if there had been no conflict yet, but there was a lingering tension in the air.

Well, this wasn't good. I chanced a glance at Glitch, who looked at me with a determined expression; it was now or never. I grabbed Dusty's wrist tightly, and he held onto his doll like his life depended on it; if we were running, it had to be done now. Cloud seemed to understand our silent goodbye, summoning a staff to hold off the two intruders for as long as possible. I took my chance to run over to Glitch with Dusty, and a battle began, but we didn't partake in it. Instead, Glitch was focusing all of his magic into creating a portal somewhere -anywhere - to get us away from our avid followers. Dusty whimpered as I shielded his eyelights from the fight; he didn't need to see that. When the fighting ceased - which didn't take long - I heard the chuckles of Dusty's master coming closer, but I didn't dare look back, opting to look at Glitch, who seemed to be gaining a form of determination to escape..perhaps to protect. And before the dark chuckles could descend upon us, I heard a sound reminiscent of Glitch's voice fill the air, and the chuckles stopped. We had fallen through a portal, and Glitch had closed it as soon as we had entered it. Soon enough, I wrapped my arms around Dusty tightly, realizing that we were now..freefalling. Well, making portals to places one had never been was supposedly dangerous..I should have asked why. Before we came too close to the ground below, I felt a set of arms wrap around me tightly before closing my eyesockets and bracing for impact.

"Agh!" Glitch landed on the ground with the two of us in his arms, and he had taken the brunt of the damage, but I had heard no cracks.

"Are you okay?" I wasn't very injured, thanks to our tall friend, and I could tell that Dusty was mostly just afraid.

"Yeah..just give me a minute.." Glitch sat up slowly, stretching to assess the damage. "We are so lucky nothing was broken.."

"So..where are we?" I looked around the vaguely familiar forest..it reminded me somewhat of home..

"No clue; I was just thinking, 'anywhere but here,' and we're now..somewhere.."

"Someone's watching us." Dusty stated, somehow still grasping his doll.

"How do you know that?" I questioned.

"He's not exactly hiding.." Dusty pointed behind me.

I turned slowly to see..myself. Oh, I was going to hate this explanation, wasn't I?

"State your business!" He demanded. "Do you have a permit to fall out of the sky without warning?"

"...Well, do we need one?" Glitch certainly would have spent several hours getting a permit to fall out of the sky if he needed one - not.

"As a matter of fact, no, but you do need a valid explanation for why you look like me and one of my friends! And who the heck is that? Is this another JR scheme? Has my brother honestly fallen this low?"

"Uh..we can explain!" Glitch chuckled nervously. "Have you ever heard of the alternate multiverse theory?"

"..What the heck is a multiverse?"

"..We're lost. We are very, very lost..and we didn't mean to freefall from the sky!"

"..." The other me just looked at us like we were nuts. "The chicken shall decide your fate."

"Uh..what?" I understood nothing.

"Kevin, decide their fate!" The other me placed..a chicken on the ground..

"Chick, chick!" Dusty giggled happily, petting the chicken, which nuzzled into his hand.

The other me gasped dramatically. "Kevin accepts you! I must bring you home with me! Follow me, quickly!"

That entire affair was weird, but if the other me was offering shelter, we weren't going to decline. He picked up his chicken and began to lead us through the forest, not saying anything until we came upon a small, seemingly abandoned house in the forest.

"Well, this is it; it's nicer on the inside - trust me." He smiled, leading us into the- okay, this place was actually fairly nice. "I have returned, my accomplices!"

"Night, what is it?" A voice that sounded tired came from the couch in the center of the room, where a skeleton in a monochrome wardrobe yawned. "Don'tcha know it's rude to wake people up?"

"Kevin has accepted guests!" 

"Not again.." 

"Yes, again! It isn't a trap this time! Kevin was just a bit confused that day!"

"We lost our base that day!"

"What's the yelling ab-abou-about..?" Another, smaller version of Error turned the corner, immediately locking eyelights with Glitch. "More clones? I swear, Night.."

"They aren't clones!" The other me argued. "They're..who the heck are you?"

Glitch sighed. "I'm not gonna lie, here..we're essentially criminals on the run."

Silence reigned for a good minute before the other me giggled softly. "Well, why didn't you say that sooner? That's what we are! Basically!"

"Where are we?" Dusty wanted to know. 

"Uh, don't you know?" The skeleton on the couch, presumably a Cross, inquired.

"We fell from the sky!"

"It's true; I saw them fall from the sky." The other me backed up Dusty's account.

"You're roughly twenty miles from the city, where JR HQ is." The Cross explained. "If you're criminals, you probably don't want to go there, especially looking like that." The Cross scrutinized me and Glitch with his eyelights. "Nice disguises if you're planning on getting arrested on sight, though."

"I want to go somewhere else." Dusty said. 

"Why?" I asked. "This forest has a lot of cover."

"Ink knows forests..he'll find us.."

"Hold up, did you say Ink?" The Cross was interested; Dusty nodded in response. "What business did you have with him?"

"..He's mad at me." Dusty shuddered slightly at the thought of his master. "He wants to hurt me.."

The trio who lived here were taken aback by that comment; they obviously thought that Dusty meant the Ink they knew.

"..Dream needs to pick better friends." The other me blinked. "I mean, murderer, thief, killer, assassin, liar, and Blue, I see no problem with, but child abuser? Now that is stepping over the line. I'm gonna scold him so bad! You'd better watch out, Dream! The Meme Squad is in scolding mode!"

"Oh, boy, he's in a mood." The Error whistled.

"Righteous anger, though." The Cross nodded. "Child abuse is worse than a lot of things."

"That it is, that it is."

"Look, uh, I think you've got it wrong..he's talking about a..different Ink." I tried to explain.

"You mean there's more than one of that creep?!" The Cross faked fainting dramatically.

"Can this conversation get any worse?" The Error whined slightly.

"Well, sure it can!" The other me chuckled. "So, where did you say you came from?"

"..Let's just say we're from a different dimension and we're strangers to this world." I decided.

"Oh!" The other me seemed to..understand? "That would explain the falling from the sky! That's awesome! So, interdimensional criminals? That must be a fun lifestyle! And it does clear up the entire lookalike thing..yeah, that's believeable. So, what brought you here, of all places?"

"We were..in a rush.." Glitch replied. "Couldn't pick and choose a destination..we should probably get going.."

"Absolutely not!" The other me argued. "You are our guests, and you shall stay here for a fortnight!"

"How long is that?" Dusty whispered to me.

"Two weeks.." I whispered back. "We are not staying here that long."

"Okay."

"Now, since you obviously have no knowledge of our realm, I shall explain!" The other me was very..generous? "My group is known as the Meme Squad, and our enemies are known as the Justice Reigns! I am, humbly, the number one criminal in this world, and my friends are, like, number..fifty?"

"Eighty-two and forty-three." The Cross filled in. "I'm forty-three."

"You look younger." Dusty commented, not grasping the context.

"...I mean criminal." 

"Oh..how old are you?"

"A true man never reveals his age!"

"Correct!" The other me agreed. "Now, while you're here, you will be in constant danger, and the threat of torture and danger will be at every corner! And- why are you crying?"

"Oh, Dusty, please don't cry!" Glitch picked up the small skeleton and began to comfort him softly. "They're not gonna hurt you; nobody's gonna hurt you."

"Uh..do you need a moment?" The other me didn't seem to have knowledge of what the correct response to this situation was.

"Yes, please." I nodded, turning my attention to my friends.

It took a few minutes for Dusty to calm down, but when he did, everything was fine again; he was good at recovering quickly. The "Meme Squad" offered us a place to stay until Glitch could open a portal to a safe multiverse; he had a place in mind that would likely be more than happy to offer protection: his old multiverse. We just had to hope that his falling into the void didn't disrupt the peace that had been established there..that was our only chance. Glitch needed more practice to get the correct location, but we had to hope.

And hope we did.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Beans in Dreamswap :3

I love Dreamswap..but it's hard to determine if you're writing them OOC or not..

Thanks for reading my swappy writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Ink.

~~~~~

"That didn't just happen." I wanted to know that my eyelights were deceiving me.

"..It did.." Lumen stepped back a bit.

"..I'm going to tear someone to pieces." I chuckled lowly; oh, Dusty..that wasn't a good thing to do..

"What do we do with these two?" Lumen gestured to the two insignificant weaklings who had stolen our property.

"I have somewhere to keep them..you go back to the others and tell them that our targets escaped, and I am going to take care of these two idiots. I'll handle their..stay, and you and the others get our things back."

"All right." He knew better than to refuse me at this point.

Lumen soon left me with the two we had taken down - they were in chains made of my paint - and they looked rather afraid of me..good. I took a small breath to calm myself before picking the two of them up and making a portal to my multiverse; I had a feeling that they would like the dungeon..especially the "rooms" I had reserved for those I hated. After carefully stripping the two of their magic, I "escorted" them through the luxurious pathway into my room. I didn't want to draw attention, and I knew that the idiots who worked for me would be interested as to why a "copy" of me was being sent to the dungeon..except one. As soon as the prisoners hit the ground, I reclined on my bed and pulled out my mobile speakerphone; I wasn't going to leave the two unsupervised in my room.

"Testing, testing.." I smiled when I heard my voice come through on the speaker. "Here we go. Oh, Dreamy! Do me a favor and get over here pronto! And dungeon staff, you're all to get out immediately and shut the cells; I want nobody down there, and prisoners to be shut off from anything but their cells - blindfold them if you must. Dungeon staff, you all have a break for one hour, compliments of my undying rage, and resume normal duties after the hour. Now get moving! That is all."

I placed my speakerphone back on my bedtable and turned my attention back to my new prisoners..who didn't seem very grateful that I had bothered to keep them alive! How rude.

"You could at least say, 'Thank you.'" I prompted.

"For what?!" The other me glared violently; he seemed as if he had been drinking too much red paint..what a pity.

"For..not killing you on sight." I smirked, thinking of what ways I would torture these two unfortunate souls..actually, soul.

"Where are we?" The other Dream was confused.

"This is my room. I didn't just want to bring you straight to the dungeon..you're too special for that, aren't you?"

"Let us go!"

"Let you go..? You mean like..how you let Dusty go? Oh, I think not. You see, Dusty is my..favorite; by rescuing him, you are now my least favorites. Oh, I won't kill you; I want you to live to see the wonderful punishment I have waiting for my beloved toy.." I pulled out my weapon of choice. "I think you understand..do you not?"

"Y-y-you're a monster!" The Dream was shocked by the sight of my bone cutter.

"I don't deny it.." I ran a phalanx across the edge of the blade; I couldn't wait to see my toy's face when he saw this! "Skeletons seem to treat these like the plague..but they're so much fun..I suppose it's the superstition. Nasty things, those..I've never been superstitious..have you?"

"Wh-what are you going to do to us?" The Dream wanted to get down to business..fine by me.

"Oh, I have a wonderful line of events waiting for you..have you ever felt flame on bones? My toy has..he tells me it feels like hell..or perhaps that's just what it is.."

A knock on the door; Dream was right on time.

"Come in!" I called out, resulting in my high rank's entry. "You're punctual, as usual. Dream, I find it necessary to confide something in you."

"Y-yes, Sir?" Dream was a bit unsettled by the clones of us.

"But I won't confide in you, because I don't feel like it. Now, these two here are prisoners. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes, Sir.." 

"They are from a different multiverse - don't ask. Dream, you are to take them down to the dungeon and change their clothes into something less..identifiable. I want no one to know that they are not from here. The dungeon will be empty for exactly one hour beginning right now, and in that time, you will do as you need. I want their clothes burned, that insidious crown melted, the paintbrush burned with the clothes, and the ink splotch..I want that to be...removed. Paint over it if you must, but I want it gone. Their magic should only be blocked for so long; I want them under the best magic suppressors we have. Do you understand?"

"Yes, S-Sir.." Dream knew by now that I didn't necessarily like these prisoners.

"Good. Now get going; I want them prepped for torture by the time I reach the dungeon."

"Yes, Sir.." 

Dream grabbed the prisoners and began to use my secret passageway from my room to the dungeon; I knew I would have use for that. As soon as the entrance closed, I opened a viewing portal and sat back as I spied on my prisoners' escort; I wanted to make sure that nothing was done incorrectly..and if something was done in that way, I wanted to know who to punish. 

"So..what did you do to make him so mad?" Dream had a valid question.

"We rescued some people.." The other Dream responded. 

"Oh? That's interesting..who did you rescue?"

"One claimed to be his 'property'..a child named Dusty.."

"D-Dust? Y-you mean you actually saved him?!" Dream seemed happy; I wasn't surprised.

"Yeah..until we got captured..he escaped with the help of his friends, though..we don't know where they are, but we can only hope they're safe.."

"It's good to hear that he's out of here..at least temporarily..I hope forever, but..Ink has ways of getting what he wants, unfortunately..I hope Dust can be happy for a while..he deserves it."

"So..can you predict what he has in store for us?" The other me had his mind in the right place.

"Rescuing Dust probably put you in his bad graces.." Dream sighed. "I'm sorry, but I have no clue, other than torture. Everyone has their ways of coping with anger; I devote myself to other people, Dust talks to his closest friends about his issues, but Ink..Ink tortures people. When he gets angry, the people around him get scared. There was once an incident when Dust had been kidnapped by someone looking to bribe Ink, and the person who had kidnapped Dust had his skull ripped off..literally. If Ink is mad at you, all I can say is..good luck..don't try to anger him further; he knows how to keep a person's HP full and still have them screaming for mercy..it isn't a pretty sight. Oh, we're here.."

Dream opened the entrance to the dungeon, leading the prisoners to the cell he knew I would want them in - he knew me so well - and grabbing a few things before entering with them. He gave them both standard dungeon clothing, which I had decided a long time ago would be a white short-sleeved shirt and white shorts, with nothing else; socks weren't necessary when one was being tortured - in fact, they got in the way. I hated the color white, but it was so..wonderful when red spots began to show in the clothing..most prisoners were wearing red within only a couple days of their arrival as a sign of their torture..I loved it. After Dream had changed them into the attire, he apologized as he went about the rest of his duty, hesitating slightly with the melting of the other Dream's crown; I could tell that it was torture for the Dream already..the tears and screaming made it clear. Of course, my Dream cried too, but I didn't care. It was interesting watching Dream handle the ink splotch on the other me..he ended up using paint remover on it, which worked wonders. By the end, the two were unrecognizable except for their eyelights, which Dream remedied with contact lenses; perfect.

"I'm sorry.." Dream had the decency left to mutter an apology, not that it mattered to me. "I-I have to go now..good luck."

With that, Dream left, and I closed my portal before walking down the same corridor he had used almost an hour ago. By the time I arrived in the dungeon, most of the guards working there had returned, and the screams were beginning once more - good. I approached the cell that held my two troublemakers and entered, locking the door behind me. This was my personal torture room, and it was filled with all of my favorite devices..I wanted to use them all, but I had decided to begin with a simple matchbox.

"It was kind of Dream to chain you up for me..less movement means easier torture..and I think you'll enjoy this." I lit a match.

"What is that supposed to do?" The other me didn't seem afraid..but that was likely because I had forgotten the first step I had planned.

"Oh..thank you for reminding me!" I chuckled slightly. "I had almost forgotten.."

"Forgotten..what?" 

I pulled out the other me's sash, filled with vials of paint..emotions..life. "I almost forgot this..it's yours."

"So?" He hadn't quite grasped my threat.

I sighed, pulling out his yellow vial. "This one is happiness, correct?"

"Well, duh." He glared at me.

"How exactly do you fill these?"

"Well, they refill themselves.." He still hadn't grasped it yet..too bad.

"I see.." I held out the vial of happiness right in front of his eyelights. "Well, I do hope they can be replaced.."

"What do you-" His voice was cut off by the glorious sound of glass shattering on the floor.

"So..how does that feel?"

"Y-you..wh-why?" He had finally realized my goal.

"Because I felt like it." I pulled out the red one before dropping it in like manner.

"St-stop!" He shouted. 

"I don't think so." I grinned, holding his sash upside-down and releasing every vial; the shock and hopelessness his eyelights conveyed was perfect..I was glad that I didn't have to rely on stupid vials for my emotions anymore..torture was much more reliable, and the emotions gained even lasted! 

"Why would you do that?!" The Dream was angry at me.

I giggled. "Oh, you shouldn't worry..those weren't real."

"Th-they weren't?" The other me seemed to gain hope.

"Ha! Of course not! How could I savor your reactions to torture if you were emotionless? That would be ridiculous!" I pulled out my counterpart's true vials..and pulled the lid off of one. "So..have you ever tried drinking them all?"

"Th-that would overdose me.." The Ink was much more on guard now, and he knew exactly what I was planning.

"Explain the side-effects..they may save you from the fate I have planned for you.."

"W-well..I d-don't know!"

"He's only done it a few times, and only on one vial!" The Dream tried to save his friend. "I-it causes extreme emotion..y-you can't do this to him!"

"Extreme emotion." I walked over to my counterpart. "Well, bottom's up!"

It took only a minute to force all of the vials down the other's nonexistent throat, and the results were everything I could have hoped for! I held my smirk as I placed the empty vials into the other's sash and watched him convulse in place screaming; I just loved the screams of others! The screaming eventually turned into crying, and that was all I needed to have before grabbing another match and lighting it. The Dream was also crying as I began my torturing, holding a match to whomever's eyelights I felt like torturing..but the results were a bit undesirable; I needed more. I hummed, exchanging my match for a blade and making cuts in every bone I could, making sure to inflict the most pain possible..now that was satisfying. These two would keep me busy until Dusty was returned, and I would enjoy every second of it!

I knew I would.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Ink sausage hurt the beans ;-;

Thanks for reading my hurting writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

FDIR!Error.

~~~~~

I didn't know how this had happened, and I didn't want to know. We had been staying with our hosts for about three hours before some crazy people in armor burst through the door and kidnapped Umbra and me! I, for one, was getting tired of being kidnapped! At least they didn't take Dusty, who was playing with his doll in a different room at the time. I assumed that we had been mistaken for our counterparts in this world, but I couldn't make a portal or teleport to escape, since our magic had been supressed. This was looking to be a great day..just great. I sighed as we were rudely shoved out of the vehicle we had been forced into earlier, soon being pulled to our feet and pushed through a large golden door. I spared a small glance at Umbra, who gave off the impression that he was afraid; I was, too. We were brought into a large room that seemed oddly like a throne room..or maybe it was. And on said throne sat..the Dream of this world? Oh..great. Large shiny wings adorned the positive skeleton's back! As we were forced to our knees in front of the positive spirit, I silently wondered if this version of Dream was kinder or crueler than Umbra's brother..part of me didn't want to know.

"So, after all these years, I've finally caught you off-guard, Nightmare!" The Dream's tone betrayed a small feeling of sadness..maybe he wasn't as cruel as he appeared; I hoped he wasn't evil. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"U-um..m-me?" Umbra was too afraid at the moment to speak.

"Uh, look.." I decided to attempt the truth. "We're not..who you think we are."

The Dream looked at me with an unimpressed expression. "And why should I believe that you aren't my brother and one of his idiot friends? Haven't you tried this ruse already? Two months ago?"

"For one thing..I'm about a foot taller than the Error in this world..and I'm not wearing glasses."

"..." The Dream looked at us carefully, finding that there were indeed differences between us and the versions he knew. "All right. So who the hell are you?"

"My name is Glitch, and this is Umbra. We come from different worlds, and we are on the run from a threat that will kill anyone who gets in their way.."

"Why should I believe that?"

"..." I frantically thought of ways to prove our claim.

"Look at my sternum." Umbra spoke up. "It will prove that we aren't lying."

"How is a bone supposed to prove anything?" The Dream scoffed.

"Just..do it."

"Fine, fine.."

The Dream sighed, unfastening Umbra's vest to get a clear look at his sternum; when the bone in question came into view, his eyelights flickered out. A sense of rage filled the room as he faced the brand that had been placed on Umbra's sternum; it appeared that I was the only one in our trio that hadn't had a mark of ownership forced upon me. The Dream's outlook changed to one of pity as he refastened Umbra's vest and took a seat back on his throne, presumably thinking of ways to either help or hurt us; I hoped it was help.

"..You are certainly not my brother.." The Dream nodded with a blank expression on his face. "Who..is chasing you?"

"We are being chased by other beings from those different worlds." I had a feeling that the honest truth would be our best option here. "They..have laid claim upon us. If they catch us, I..really don't want to think of what they'll do to us.."

"Tell me everything." 

So we did. I told my story, Umbra told his story, and we both knew enough of Dusty's story to tell it together. By the end, the Dream - and just about everyone else in the room, including the crazy armored people - had begun to cry; I supposed our story was sad..that sounded like something Dusty would have said. The Dream took a few moments to regain his composure, needing to clear his mind for a second. When he was finished, he spoke once more.

"So my brother offered to assist you." He exhaled slowly.

"Yeah..but your world is kinda weird." I mentioned.

"How so?" The Dream tilted his skull.

"Well, where we're from, we don't have these things..I still don't understand the term 'meme'?"

"..Your world sounds absolutely delightful." He smiled softly. "Well, it appears that despite the mistake, some useful information has been gained; it appears that my brother hasn't completely gone to the dark side. With that said, I apologize for the unexpectedness of your capture..we were not aware of this situation." He cleared his nonexistent throat, probably thinking of what to say next. "If you desire, you may leave, or you may stay; if you stay, I can offer you protection.."

"As tempting as that sounds, we really have to go." I shook my skull. "If we stay too long in one place, they'll find us."

"..Do you honestly think they can overpower-" The Dream was cut off.

"Yes." I sighed. "These psychopaths that are chasing us can overpower whatever you may have..they're from different worlds, if you recall. If we put it into terms likened to you, we're talking on the power of one thousand apples..and an army of thousands of skilled fighters, maybe millions..in other words, they could decimate this entire world if they wanted to..I just hope they don't want to. At this point, we only know that we have at most three days..we've only been in this world for roughly five, maybe six, hours, but if they learn to track us faster, we may not even have that."

"..I understand your predicament. If there is anything I can do for you, all you must do is ask."

"You are very kind, but there are only two things that we could ask of you."

"What can I provide?"

The Dream was more than helpful in fulfilling our requests, saying that he gave out things such as our requests on a daily basis through his various charities - we didn't miss the bragging, but we were not going to call him out on that when he was helping us. Within an hour, we had a backpack full of clothes and food, and at the last minute, we attained some rope, which I was going to use for something very special; it would certainly help us avoid any last-minute accidents. Now we just had to find Dusty.

"Umbra, can you sense Dusty's emotions?" I hoped.

"Uh..he's not close enough.." Umbra sighed. "If he gets within a mile, I should be able to get a faint aura, but I can't do anything beyond that."

"Got it..I'll keep an eyelight out."

"I'll stay alert."

We decided to walk back to the forest, where the Nightmare from earlier had revealed his and his friends' hideout; we hoped Dusty was still there. I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching us as we walked, but I passed it off as one of the Dream's soldiers - likely to make sure we were telling the truth - or just my imagination. We needed to find Dusty, though; we weren't leaving this multiverse without him, no matter what happened. When we got within a mile of the hideout's location, Umbra told me that he could feel Dusty's aura, which led to our mutual relaxing; our small friend should have been safe if he was still there. Of course, that didn't mean that we slowed down; on the contrary, we were eager to see Dusty, since our parting had been unexpected, to say the least. We came to the door and knocked on it, not wanting to just walk in; that would have been rude. When the door was opened by the Nightmare, we had a quick greeting before being let in, at which point, we saw Dusty sitting in a corner, hugging his doll tightly; he was too fragile for this world.

"Hey, Dusty." I knelt down beside the shorter skeleton, waiting for him to look up; when he did, I was instantly tackled to the ground with a hug - I didn't know that Dusty was that strong..but I welcomed it. "Did you miss us?"

"I-I-I thought.." Dusty was crying; that seemed to be a common occurrence these days. "I-I thought.."

"Hey, everything's all right now." I soothed my small companion. "We're not going to be taken away again; there's nothing to be afraid of."

"You..are unharmed." The Nightmare said it as if it was a foreign language. "How'd you manage that?"

"We told your brother that we weren't you." Umbra shrugged. "Telling the truth has benefits."

"Huh..cool. I thought we were going to have to launch a super-cool rescue attempt!"

"That's better, Dusty." I held the smaller skeleton closely as he stopped crying. "Good. That's really good."

Dusty seemed to just want to hug me, which I found fine; hugging him made it easier to pick him up in a split-second if we needed to run for some reason. We spent the next hour recounting the events that had just occurred, and we made use of the things we had been given, changing into less-noticeable clothing and tying Dusty's doll to him. If he ever lost it, I didn't want to know what would happen; using the rope to secure it to his person was the best idea I had at the moment, and he didn't seem to mind, instead thanking me for my thought. After using a portion of the rope for that, I put on the backpack and used a bit more of the rope to fasten it tightly to myself, since I didn't want to lose our newly-gained supplies. As for Umbra, he was fine with exchanging his vest for a hoodie, but he wasn't taking off his crown; that was understandable. He hid the crown under his hood. When we were disguised and ready to take off at a moment's notice, we finally allowed ourselves to relax, deciding to cuddle in the room that had kindly been set apart for us by our hosts; we couldn't find words to express our gratitude. We spent the next two days in this world, but we knew it wouldn't last.

"Why's he named Kevin?" Dusty pet Kevin, who seemed to enjoy his touch.

"I named him, obviously!" The other Nightmare chuckled.

"More like he named him after a movie he watched." The Cross snickered.

"You'll never guess the movie!"

"Home Alone!" The Error shouted, causing the Nightmare to groan.

"How'd you guess?"

"You force us to watch it every year and give Kevin front seat!" The Cross made a valid point, even if I had no clue what this movie was..at least it wasn't another meme reference..I hoped.

"Well.." The Nightmare couldn't deny that.

"Does Kevin lay eggs?" Dusty wondered.

"Nah, Kevin's a man." 

"But don't chick chicks lay eggs?" Dusty called chickens 'chick chicks'; that was adorable.

The Nightmare grinned. "Only the chicks."

"Huh?" Dusty tilted his skull. 

"Well, only the chick chick chicks lay eggs." The Cross joked, giggling.

"..." Dusty was confused.

"Only the girls lay eggs, Dusty." Umbra helped.

"Ooh!" Dusty pet Kevin more.

"I never thought Kevin would actually like someone.." The Nightmare mentioned. "He usually scratches wildly and attempts to maim anyone who comes close."

"Well, Dusty's good with animals." I said. "He has two-" I froze as a certain familiar aura hit my senses.

"Uh, you okay?" The Cross inquired.

"That aura isn't you..is it?" I hoped it was just the other Nightmare.

"No.." The other Nightmare felt the aura- auras; we had been found.

"In that case, we have to get out of here." I picked up Dusty and Umbra, since I was the fastest runner and could open portals between multiverses; I was trying to open one right now, but it took a minute. "It's been nice staying with you, but we really have to go."

"Why?" The other Error didn't understand. 

"We've been found, and if they catch us, things won't end well. Thank you for your hospitality."

"Sure thing, soldier!" The Nightmare understood, saluting and picking up Kevin. "Meme Squad, it's time to stall! Get your minds in meme formation!"

"Yes, sir!" The other two giggled and saluted before the trio ran out the door to buy us some time; we would never be able to thank them enough.

Dusty and Umbra held on to my jacket tightly as I gathered enough power to open the portal; the sounds of annoyance outside made it clear that we had to hurry. I would have made a portal to my multiverse quite a while ago, but I was never taught how to pick locations..I had to hope for the best until I figured it out. Before the stalling outside ceased, I had created a portal to a different multiverse, and I went though it without hesitation, knowing that anywhere else was better than in the clutches of our enemies. Unfortunately, we found ourselves once again freefalling, but there was no sky this time. I pulled the two smaller skeletons close, hoping that the backpack would break our fall; we could deal with crushed food, but we weren't ready for broken bones. Unfortunately, luck didn't seem to be on our side today, as a cracking sound followed by a scream of pain rang out as soon as we hit the ground. I looked to my right to see Dusty crying, clutching his left arm; I sighed as I pulled his hand away, finding a small fracture..we were lucky it wasn't too bad, but we should have asked for a first aid kit..maybe next time. 

"Hello?" A voice called out, sounding rather worried. "Is..someone there? The Great Papyrus has heard your screams, and I am willing to help! I-oh!"

Footsteps came closer to us, but I doubted that pain would follow; Papyruses weren't known to attack on sight after offering help.

"Oh, my.." The Papyrus noticed Dusty's fracture almost immediately, examining it closely. "I..think I can heal this for you, small Sans clone; would you like me- oh.." The Papyrus found that Dusty had passed out. "Well..do you believe that he would mind my help, other Sans clones?"

"I don't think he would mind..thank you." I was glad that this Papyrus happened to be near.

"The Great Papyrus would never leave a person in need!" He began to heal Dusty's arm. "What brings you here, Sans clones?"

"Uh, we're just passing through.."

"Do you have a place to stay?"

"..Not..exactly.."

"It's settled, then! You are going to stay with me and my brother!"

"Uh, do you think that's really a good idea?"

"Absolutely!" He'll probably be too lazy to notice your presence, anyway; he's a lazybones to the soul. Come, I'll show you where you'll be staying, and I refuse to take no for an answer!"

Umbra and I exchanged glances before standing and following after the tall - although not as tall as I - skeleton who had picked up Dusty and begun to carry him to his house; it seemed as if we were going to stay with him for a while. 

Perhaps this wouldn't be too bad.

~~~chapter end woot!~~~

Bean trio escape again!

I was gonna do more with Dreamswap but I decided not to because I'm not much of a memer.

Feel free to decide whether Dreamswap Dream helped our trio out of the goodness of his soul or because of obligations :3

Thanks for reading my obligatory writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust.

~~~~~

I wasn't quite sure what was happening yet. The last thing I remembered, I was petting Kevin, and now, I was waking up on a couch that felt strangely like one I had felt decades ago..I wondered why. I yawned slowly as I sat up, finding Umbra and Glitch sitting next to me, apparently waiting for me to join them in the realm of the awake; they hadn't noticed that I was up yet. I looked around the room we were in curiously, finding that it looked..exactly like my old..old home..we must have run away again; this looked as if it were an Undertale, or something similar. Grasping my Hope, which was still tied to me from before, I crawled over to my friends, ending up in Glitch's lap; he smiled before greeting me.

"Well, look who's awake!" He chuckled. "Do you feel okay?"

"I feel fine." I replied honestly; I had rarely felt this free of pain.

"Good to know."

"Where are we?"

"I think we're in an Undertale; the Papyrus practically forced us to accept an offer of shelter, and, well, we're here!"

"What about the Sans?"

"We've only been here for two hours; the Sans doesn't know that we're here as of yet, but I'd expect it soon."

"Speaking of that, do we have an excuse for our being here?" Umbra hoped.

"Uh, nope. It really depends on if this universe's Sans is aware of the multiverse. If he is, it'll either be easier or more difficult to explain."

"Why would it be more difficult?" 

"Well, you would probably pass, but Dusty and I were once known as criminals, and from the looks of the omniverse, it's probably safe to assume that most of our kind are criminals, as well."

"Oh..so we wait?"

"Essentially."

"Dear guests!" A voice called from the kitchen. "I have made some food for you to eat!"

"Well, shall we?" Glitch was ready to eat.

"Okay." I was kind of hungry, too.

"I wonder what he made.." Umbra hummed.

Our trio stood up from the couch and made our way to the kitchen, finding the Papyrus - he looked like my brother used to - placing some plates of spaghetti on the table; I hadn't eaten spaghetti in..decades. We sat down, thanking the Papyrus for the meal as he insisted that there was no need. I had always liked other Papyruses, since they were very nice and considerate, for the most part, but I preferred my Papyrus to all others; he's the best, after all! 

"Feel free to eat as much as you want!" The Papyrus offered. "I have plenty!"

"Thank you!" I smiled, eating some of the spaghetti; it wasn't as good as my brother's spaghetti, but it was all right, since nothing would ever come close to Papyrus's spaghetti.

"Is it good?"

"It's better than what I usually eat." I was being honest; another form of Ink's torture was horrible-tasting food, but I didn't have much of a choice in the matter, as it was either eat it or suffer from my deficiency symptoms..I hated my deficiency symptoms..so I was forced to eat the food.

"And..what do you usually eat? A comparison would be nice to let the Great Papyrus know where he must improve!"

"Uh..mostly magic-rich, taste-poor..it's hard to explain."

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand..where exactly are you from? I don't recall any other skeleton monsters in Snowdin, unless you are Sans clones..are you?"

"Um..maybe?" Glitch shrugged, taking a bite of his food and immediately freezing up; I wondered what was wrong with him as I continued eating.

"Are you not sure?" The Papyrus was confused.

"Uh..our memories are a bit hazy at the moment.." Umbra covered. "We should remember soon, though!"

"Oh..that doesn't sound healthy. Perhaps you should eat some more spaghetti!"

"Uh, sure." Umbra also froze when he took a bite of the spaghetti; that was odd..

"Paps!" A new voice came from the doorway. "I'm home!"

"Ah, welcome home, Sans!" The Papyrus went out into the living room to meet with his brother. "We have some guests!"

Glitch and Umbra somehow both found their ways to the nearest trashcan the second the Papyrus left the room and spit out their food.

"Oh, gosh, that's horrible!" Glitch muttered, nearly gagging.

"Why do you say that?" I felt that Glitch's statement was rude; the food was perfectly fine!

"How can you stomach that stuff?!" Umbra whisper-yelled too quietly for our hosts to hear.

"It's better than what Ink gives me.." I shrugged, taking another bite.

"Dusty, I truly pity you." Glitch sighed, sitting back down at the table, and Umbra followed soon after.

"So what are we gonna do if the Sans wants us out?" Umbra questioned.

"We'll just have to find somewhere else..providing there is somewhere else.." Glitch frowned. "I don't know if I have enough magic to make another portal yet..I have a lot of magic, but traversing multiverses takes up so much; I feel drained already.."

"You should eat." I stated the obvious. 

"It isn't just magic, though..it's taking a toll on me. I don't want to make more portals unless we're in desperate need or I know our exact destination; we might not be lucky enough to end up in a universe that's friendly."

"All right.." Umbra nodded. "Let's just see where this encounter takes us before planning more.

"You should still eat." I restated the obvious.

Glitch sighed. "You're right, Dusty."

"Guests, meet my brother, Sans!" The Papyrus returned with his brother, who looked at us as if we were tearing eachother apart limb from limb.

"No." The Sans stated. "No way. Nuh-uh. No way in heck am I letting these..these people stay here!"

"Brother, please?"

"No, Papyrus. These people are bad people!"

"They don't seem bad to me."

"Paps.." The Sans brought a hand to his foreskull. "Just..no. I won't have this."

Well, it was time to use some of my innocent nature to possibly sway the Sans's opinions; being the target of Ink's manipulation for so long allowed me to pick up on a few things. I slowly walked up to the Sans, who flashed his eyelight blue as a warning, but I was an innocent child at the moment who didn't understand such complicated matters.

"Hi, I'm Dusty!" I greeted, smiling happily. "What's your name? I really like your eyelights!" 

The Sans was taken off-guard by my innocence. "Uh..Sans.."

"That's a cool name! Your brother is really nice, too! He makes good spaghetti! Do you have a favorite color? Mine's blue!"

"Um.." The Sans looked at me as if I were crazy.

"Brother, don't be rude!" The Papyrus scolded. "Tell the child your favorite color!"

"Uh.."

"That's okay, you must just have a lot of favorite colors!" I giggled. "One of my brothers once had five favorite colors at the same time! Blue, green, purple, black, and r-red!"

"You're not.."

"Not?" I tilted my skull curiously.

"Sans, you're being rude!" The Papyrus huffed. "They're staying the night, at least! They have nowhere else to go!"

"They can't stay." The Sans settled on that statement.

"Oh.." I sighed; well, I couldn't break a Sans's declaration..those were difficult to overcome, and I didn't want to go through that hassle..we would be okay on our own, I supposed.

"Sa-" The Papyrus was cut off.

"No." The Sans stood firm. "You wouldn't understand, Paps..just trust me on this."

"But.."

"Thanks for trying, mister Papyrus." I smiled. "We'll be okay, though! I've slept in the snow before!"

"You..have?" The Papyrus seemed sorry for me.

"Yeah, it's not that bad!" Ink had made me sleep in the coldest snow he could make before as a punishment..it was the worst feeling ever, aside from a few other various feelings that I didn't want to think about right now.

"Sans, I don't think they mean any harm.." The Papyrus tried one more time.

"..Let me speak to them." The Sans compromised. "If I think they're bad, no buts, okay?"

"..I suppose I can accept that." The Papyrus left us alone with his brother.

As soon as the Sans was sure that the Papyrus had left, he narrowed his eyesockets and glared at us. "What are you doing here?"

"We really mean no harm-" Glitch was cut off.

"Oh, yeah, the Destroyer of Worlds and a Dusttale Sans mean no harm? What a joke."

"I'm not a Destroyer of Worlds.." 

"That's real convincing." The Sans scoffed, not believing Glitch.

"We need help.." I looked at the Sans with a pleading expression. "We have bad people chasing us.."

"Dusty, he won't know how to help us." Umbra walked over and hugged me. 

The Sans sighed. "Look, I was trying to be nice because my brother was here, but seriously, get out of my universe."

"We can't." Glitch shrugged.

"Why not?"

"Glitch's magic is low!" I stated. "And mine is permanently suppressed, and Umbra's doesn't let him make portals.."

The Sans was unimpressed. "Yeah. Right. The Destroyer of Worlds has low magic. I'm not as stupid as you may think."

There was a knock at the door. The Sans gave us a cold glare before going to answer it. Glitch picked me up and held Umbra's hand, probably to protect us if something bad happened. When the Sans opened the door, we overheard the conversation.

"Heya, Classic!" That sounded like an Ink..I hoped it wasn't my Ink in disguise as another Ink..if that was possible..

"Hey, Ink." The Sans returned. "I'm glad you're here; I got something to tell ya."

"Okay, sure, but first, can I please tell you about my day? Before I forget it?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Okay, so, awesome stuff happening today! I literally just convinced Error to take a vacation! Isn't that awesome!"

"..." The Sans was silent for a moment. "J-just? Just as in..?"

"Uh, a minute ago? I went from there to here!"

"A-are you sure you didn't make any stops?"

"I'm a hundred percent sure!"

"...Okay.."

"So what was it you wanted to tell me?"

"..Nothing. You, uh, have a nice day.."

"I'm sure I will! Right after I tell all the other originals! Pass it on, by the way!"

"Sure..thing.."

The Sans closed the door before walking back to us with a different expression than before; it seemed that we had come at a lucky time!

"..You didn't happen to just meet with Ink, did you?" He wanted to make sure.

"Nope." Glitch shook his skull.

"Then..who did you say you were?"

"I'm Dusty!" I introduced again. "This is Glitch and Umbra!"

"..And why are you here?"

"We're on the run." Umbra answered. 

"From who?"

"A lot of different people.." Glitch lowered his skull. "All of them bad."

"How do I know you aren't convicts?"

"Well..what is your defenition of convict?" Umbra wanted to know.

"Criminals? On the run from the law?"

"Does a corrupt law count?" I wondered; if it did, I was a convict.

"What do you mean by corrupt?"

"Look, there's no way we're gonna sugarcoat this.." Glitch wanted to get it out. "We're runaway slaves; it's as simple as that. If you can offer us shelter, we'll gladly accept it, but if you can't, we'll leave now, and you'll never see us again."

"..You're.." The Sans's face turned to a frown of pity. "You can stay as long as you need."

"Thank you.." Glitch put me down on the ground. "With the rate that we've been running, I estimate we have less than two days; there's no time for relaxing. I need you two to be ready for my portal at any moment, okay?"

"Got it." Umbra nodded.

"What if you don't have enough magic?" I asked. 

"Then..it's been a good run." Glitch hugged me. "Let's hope I do have enough magic."

"Paps!" The Sans called up to his brother. "We have company!"

"I knew you would like them, Sans!" An excited voice returned from upstairs. "They can sleep in my room! Yours is too filthy!"

"Got it." The Sans looked to us. "Make yourselves comfortable..I'm sure you deserve it."

For the rest of the day, we relaxed as much as our situation allowed us, but we had to remain alert; our followers could catch up with us at any moment. The Papyrus was eager to show us around the underground, but we politely declined the offer; if anybody other than the Sans was aware of the multiverse, they might have called their Ink, and if he happened to attempt to capture us..we would have been doomed. We tried to stay positive, however; we had shelter and food.

We could make it.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio in Undertale!

Thanks for reading my spaghetti writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

FDIR!Error.

~~~~~

We had been staying with the Sans and the Papyrus for about ten hours. The Sans hadn't questioned our presence after allowing us to stay, and the Papyrus was content with our presence anyway; they had both been kind to us after the rocky start. In all honesty, I didn't expect that we would be able to stay long..our pursuers were finding us faster and faster every time we changed multiverses, and I was getting weaker. It was currently dinnertime, apparently, and the Papyrus..had made spaghetti. Dusty was eating happily, but..he was the only one who was eating happily. 

"Is there something amiss with the food?" The Papyrus inquired at one point.

"Uh, no.." Umbra looked at the 'food' as if it was green slop. "Just..admiring the, uh..scent."

"Oh. How are you enjoying it, Dusty?"

"It's pretty good!" Dusty was likely the only one in this multiverse who could stomach this stuff..

"That is good to hear!" 

The Sans cleared his nonexistent throat to get the Papyrus's attention. "Hey, Paps..maybe Glitch and Umbra are just tired out from their travels.."

"Are you implying that they are too tired to eat?"

"..Maybe."

"Well, I suppose that is understandable! Sans, you can show them to my room!"

"Right. All aboard who's coming aboard."

With that, Dusty, Umbra, and I stood to follow the Sans to the Papyrus's room, where three makeshift beds had been prepared for us; I wondered if we would even have enough time to use them. I sat down on the largest bed slowly, and Umbra and Dusty hopped into my lap, staying close, as I had hoped they would. I didn't know how long we had been awake..it must have been over twenty hours by now; sleep sounded nice, and at least Dusty was beginning to yawn. 

"Well, if you don't need anything else.." The Sans was going to leave.

"We're fine, really." I assured, smiling. "Thanks for everything you've done; I'm sorry that we'll never be able to repay you.."

"Hey, Dusty's actually liked my brother's cooking! That's enough payment for anyone!"

I chuckled softly, noticing that the aforementioned skeleton was fast asleep in my arms. "Good night."

"Night." The Sans left the room, locking the door behind him, as I had quietly requested earlier; if the door was locked, that was an extra couple seconds for us to escape if our pursuers came in the night.

I proceeded to place Dusty into his bed, and Umbra had already lain down in his; I did the same, lying down in my makeshift bed, which was actually quite comfortable. I then closed my eyesockets, and I drifted into a light slumber. Sleeping when on the run was more..difficult than when one was safe at home. Even if the home was abusive and ruthless, it was still home..but it wasn't my home. I supposed that I had it better than the others..they didn't know what it was like to have true peace and enjoy it; they only knew what they had now, and that was imprisonment and cruelty. Umbra had been too young to know how to enjoy his time of peace, and Dusty had always had strife..they didn't know what they were missing; I hoped they could have it someday. I was woken up when someone walked into the room softly, but I knew that it was just the Papyrus's going to bed; I went back to sleep soon after he lay down. I didn't dream; I couldn't allow myself to sleep that deeply. Thankfully, we weren't attacked during the night. I woke the others up as soon as I was certain that they had gotten enough rest, and we went to the kitchen to have some breakfast soon enough; the Papyrus was there already.

"Ah, valued guests!" He grinned. "It is nice to have someone else up so early! Breakfast shall be ready momentarily; please, be seated!"

"Thank you." I responded, sitting down with the others. 

There wasn't too much chatter as the Papyrus plated the food - eggs and bacon, surprisingly - and placed it on the table, giving each of us a plate. I wasn't sure if the taste would be worse or better than the spaghetti we had been..introduced to yesterday, but I decided to chance it; I needed the magic, whether I liked the food or not. I was pleasantly surprised when the eggs and bacon was actually not the worst-tasting food in the world, and it actually tasted great! The Sans didn't know what he was missing out on! Dusty and Umbra seemed to enjoy the food just as much as I did, savoring every bite of the wonderful meal and thanking the Papyrus several times during the meal, as I was; the Papyrus deserved it. All was well..until a sound was heard from outside: a scream. The Papyrus was quick to rush to the window, and the Sans teleported downstairs quickly, the scream probably having woken him up in a fright. More screams sounded out as I assumed that we had been found, and my suspicions were proved correct when the door of the house was broken down, with several familiar skeletons entering the building; I quickly ducked back into the kitchen, now desiring to open a portal as the skeleton brothers spoke to the intruders.

"Who are you?!" The Papyrus was confused.

"Ah, nobody special." Umbra's brother's voice came from the living room. "We are simply looking for a few skeletons; we can give you their descriptions, if that would help?"

"I'm afraid there haven't been any skeletons here but us." The Sans covered. "But if you'd like, I can grab some bisicle sticks and make a skeleton of them!"

"Now isn't the time for jokes; this is a serious situation!"

"We're going to have to search your house to make sure." Nightmare stated.

"Do you have a warrant for that?" The Sans asked. 

"How about this for a warrant?" Nightmare questioned; I could hear his tentacles lashing out at someone..that wasn't good.

There was no more talking as several sets of footsteps went around the house, but I wasn't ready the with portal! Umbra summoned a bow as I tried to gather all of my remaining strength, probably to defend us until we were ready, and Dusty grabbed a kitchen knife, although I wasn't sure if he even knew how to use it..I couldn't think about that right now. I ignored the face off next to me as I tried to summon the portal we so desperately needed, and..it appeared. It appeared directly below Umbra and Dusty, and then it dissipated. They were safe..they were safe. If it was even for just an hour, I hoped they could enjoy whatever freedom they were given, because I hadn't made it with them, and wherever they were now was their final stop. I didn't fight it as I fell onto the ground; I had no more energy to fight. I lost my last flicker of consciousness soon after I hit the floor, and I accepted the sweet peace given from sleep; I had a feeling that this would be my last peaceful rest for a while. When I woke up on a dirt floor with metal bars surrounding me on all sides, I would have been lying if I had said that I hadn't wanted to join Dusty and Umbra..wherever they were.

~~~~~

UD!Nightmare.

~~~~~

Dusty and I had been wielding weapons against one of the members of the Nightmare's gang - Horror, I believed - in order to give Glitch more time to make a portal, but we could only hold him off without fighting for so long; Glitch was forced to work fast. Dusty and I couldn't take our eyelights off the skeleton in front of us, lest he decided to make a move. After about thirty seconds, a portal opened directly beneath us, and we fell through it. I had to admit that I was expecting to be sent into a freefall, and I grabbed hold of Dusty tightly as we plummeted to the ground, but we were lucky, falling into a pile of hay, which broke our fall. It still hurt, though. When we regained our senses, we found that-

"Where's Glitch?!" Dusty and I looked around frantically, finding no trace of our glitchy friend..

"They must have gotten him.." I bowed my skull; this was not a good day. 

"B-but.." Dusty began to cry.

"Oh, hey, don't cry!" I hugged the smaller skeleton tightly and attempted to reassure him that everything would turn out fine, even if I didn't believe it myself.

"Who is there?" A strangely similar..motherly voice called out. "Come out!"

I didn't know whether to trust this person, but my instincts told me to at least meet her. I decided to do so. I held Dusty tightly as I walked out of the alley we had fallen into, meeting..Mrs. Toriel? No, a different version of her..I hoped she was kind. When she saw us, she seemed immediately concerned about us, coming over slowly, almost as if she were inspecting us. Then she knelt down to our level, and she began to speak.

"Oh, my children.." She frowned when she saw that Dusty was crying. "I am so sorry for frightening you..please do not cry because of me.."

"He..he isn't crying because of you, madam.." I hugged him closer, deciding that it would be better to pretend to truly be a child in this situation. "We..we're lost.."

"Oh..what part of town do you come from?"

"We..don't know."

"I see..would you like to stay with me for a while? I..rather miss taking care of children."

"We wouldn't want to be a burden.."

"It's no problem at all, I assure you!"

"Well..i-if you're sure.."

"I certainly am! Come, children; I don't have much, but I have enough."

"O-okay.."

I followed the nice lady into her house, where she set us down at a table and smiled, pulling up a chair of her own.

"What are your names, children?" She inquired.

"I'm Umbra..this is Dusty." I answered.

"And how old are you?" 

"Um..I don't really know.." I wasn't necessarily lying; I didn't really bother to keep track, since I was immortal anyway. 

"You've been on the streets that long? Do you have parents?"

"..My mother is somewhere else..I don't know where. Dusty has some family, but..we can't see them..we don't know where they are."

"So you aren't related?"

"No..we're really good friends, though.."

"I see. Have you two lost your ID cards?"

"..I don't think we ever had any..what are they?"

"They're..nevermind, you probably don't need them if you've never heard of them. Are you two hungry?"

"Uh, no, thank you..we just ate."

 "Are you sure little Dusty wouldn't like something to eat?"

"Huh?" I looked down at Dusty, who was..oh, right..he needed more food because of his condition..and the Papyrus's food hadn't been that magic-filled.. "Maybe for him, but I'm truly fine."

"All right!" 

She walked over to a cabinet and grabbed something that smelled delicious..pie. The smell made me yearn for my Mrs. Toriel's cooking..she made the best pies. I wondered if I would ever taste one again; at this rate, I doubted it. When the Toriel returned, she had a piece of pie on a plate, and she set it in front of Dusty, who gave a small, "Thank you," before eating the pie; I didn't think that he cared if it was considered a sweet at this point..his magic was too low to be picky or follow stupid rules. After ten minutes of quiet, I gave in to the Toriel's silent pleads for me to eat something, also enjoying a piece of pie soon; I supposed that I might as well have enjoyed what could have very well been my last meal - I hoped I wasn't starved as a punishment for this.. - before the inevitable. Dusty and I stayed with the Toriel for a few hours, enjoying the peace she offered us until the time would come that we would be hauled off once again to face several different kinds of torture, unfortunately. I was glad that the peace lasted as long as it did, but when we had been in our final destination for about ten hours, I knew that we wouldn't have been able to escape our fate. 

"Are you having fun?" The Toriel chuckled as we drew some pictures on paper with a couple pencils.

"Yep!" Dusty was happy, drawing a picture of some trees and clouds.

"Yes!" I nodded, drawing a picture of the Toriel to give to her.

She chuckled. "You two are the quietest children I've ever known! You don't have to act in a certain way around me, if you're worried about that; I've dealt with many things in my life, and a child who wants to be adventurous isn't out of my capabilities to handle."

"It's not that, it's just.." I stopped drawing for a moment before continuing. "We don't really know how to act any other way.."

"Oh..I see..well, I would say that this is a good time to go to sleep; children such as you need all the rest you can get, after all!"

"All right." I finished my drawing quickly, since I had almost been done anyway, and I gave it to the Toriel. "This is..for you.."

"Oh, goodness.." The Toriel smiled at the picture, making me happy. "This is wonderful! I-"

There was a knock at the door.

"Oh..I wonder who could be out so late.." The Toriel went to answer the door, and I rushed over to Dusty, pushing him under the Toriel's bed and following suit myself. "Hello, there, how can I help you?"

"We're looking for a couple small skeletons; have you seen any recently?" My brother's voice gave me the confirmation that I needed; we were absolutely doomed.

"Well.." The Toriel paused. "No, unless you mean Sans, but he isn't that short in monster terms; do you have business with him?"

My brother gave a small, yet devious, laugh. "Right, right. What I should have said was..step aside."

"Well!" The Toriel scoffed as some shuffling was heard. "Leave my house immediately! I do not house monsters who disrespect others! Get your hands off me!"

"We'll be out of your fur soon enough, lady." The voice of the Killer from the Nightmare's gang chuckled.

I was honestly scared to death when the Toriel's bed was thrown across the room, leaving us in plain view of the ones we had been trying so hard to avoid..I supposed we didn't try hard enough. Dusty sobbed as the larger skeletons grabbed us tightly, and the Toriel struggled viciously against the ropes she had been bound with, but I just wept softly; we had failed. I gave a sad smile to the Toriel before being dragged through a portal with Dusty into a place where we were thrown into a metal cage..

That was that, then.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio caught ;-;

Wow. Revolution Tale was short, but at least Toriel has drawings to put on her walls for memory.

Haha no Revolution Tale Sans why-

Because Toriel is innocent mama that's why!

Thanks for reading my catching writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust.

~~~~~

Somehow, we hadn't lasted that long on the outside. Three days in multiverse one, two days in multiverse two, about eighteen hours in multiverse three, and ten hours in multiverse four..that made six days and four hours. Tack on the time that the villain conference had been running since we had been rescued, and there were still quite a few hours to spare..torturous hours. I knew what type of cages these were: arena cages. Ink had an arena..I had sometimes been put into it, just for laughs..entertainment, I supposed. This was a different one, but it wasn't that different; I recognized many similarities, such as the fact that we weren't being told a thing. We had been placed in separate cages for ease, since our captors didn't want to have to rip us out of eachothers' grasps; Ink hated it when one of his arena victims became clingy. I doubted that we were going to be forced to fight eachother, but I honestly had no clue, aside from the fact that this was going to be some sort of arena..sport. I had hugged my Hope since my first minute of consciousness - I had gone to sleep at some point - but the only comfort it could offer was the hope that I might have stayed in this cage for even a second longer..I didn't think that that would be happening, but it was nice to fantasize.

"Testing, testing." That sounded like Ink..with a microphone; this was going to be public hell, wasn't it? "Am I on? Good. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, captives brought here to witness these events for trauma-inducing purposes, I welcome you." I couldn't see Ink, but I could practically hear his malevolent grin. "Tonight, we have a special showing, in which three recently-attempted-to-escape-but-failed-miserably captives will be punished for their deeds in proper fashion. Tonight's show will begin with a passive Nightmare who has eaten zero, yes, zero, apples, which means that he's no stranger to danger, but his brother has a bone to pick. Second on our list of disobedient captives is an Error, one who may never use magic again due to learning our complicated portal techniques..so unfortunate. Last, but certainly not least, a Dusttale Sans, owned by yours truly, will have the time of his life while trying to figure out if he's alive or dead. Not to mention..they'll all get to have front row seats! Aw, yes, we're very kind. Without further ado, let the punishments begin!"

I whimpered slightly as I heard Umbra's struggles to my left, but I whimpered more when the metal screen that prevented me from seeing the arena was pulled up, revealing the Dream in the center, with Umbra on the ground next to him, who was attempting to back away, but was ultimately too scared to do much of anything. I grasped the bars that were keeping me out of the arena tightly, knowing that there was nothing I could do to help my friend; I was useless. In the center of the arena, weapons of all sorts lay, and the Dream took only a minute to decide on a familiar weapon among any who knew of slavery: the whip. Instead of just using it as he had found it, the Dream infused the accursed weapon with his magic, which would have made the pain much more potent to a negative spirit such as Umbra. I could only cry as the first crack rang out, accompanied by a whine of pain from Umbra, who had curled up on the ground in fear. It was at this moment that I realized that Ink had said nothing about a timer of any sort..when it came to him, he made everything perfectly clear; there was no timer, meaning that any crack that echoed through the chamber could have been the last..or it could have only been the beginning.

I winced with every crack I heard, that everyone heard, knowing that the positivity in the weapon was hurting my friend more than I could ever comprehend..and it wasn't even private; there was a large crowd surrounding the arena. Some of them were there just for fun, while others were obviously captives as myself and my friends were; they were the ones who were crying at the horrible sight. Three hours continued on, and Umbra was still being cruelly whipped by his brother, who had infused his weapon with so much magic that Umbra screamed every time he was hit. Then it stopped. I wiped my tears away with my already-soaked sleeve, finding that the Dream had dropped his whip, now just standing there, staring at his brother, who was curled up on the ground, shaking and crying in fear. He ran up and kicked Umbra, likely as hard as he could, before grabbing Umbra's arm and dragging him back to the cage he had been in earlier; applause rang out from the stands. I looked at the puddle of tears beneath me, knowing that it was only destined to grow as Glitch was pulled from his cage by the Nightmare's gang that had laid claim over him.

Glitch didn't look very well; he was probably still suffering from exhaustion..those portals must have hurt him in more ways than one..I hoped he would be all right in the end. I covered my mouth with my hands to suppress a gasp of fear when the Nightmare grabbed a familiar tool and placed it onto hot flames; they were going to brand him. I sobbed when the Nightmare took the brand off the flames and positioned the heated metal in front of Glitch's skull; he was probably too tired to even know what was going on! He had a painful wake-up call, however, since the Nightmare didn't hold back with the brand; the scream produced made me want to curl up and die. When Glitch had been successfully roused from his partial-sleep state, each of the members of the Nightmare's gang grabbed a weapon and began to hurt him. Most of the weapons chosen were knives, but there were a few others, such as a taser. It was painful just watching my friend's torture..so many things were happening at the same time, and it was hard to tell if he was even conscious at some points! When five hours had passed, Glitch was barely awake, but his punishment was over. He was dragged back to his cage.

When Ink came for me, I expected a variety of things to happen, but I didn't expect an electric device..especially not a bone cutter. The device looked vaguely like a pizza cutter, but it was much sharper, and it could likely spin fast enough to quite literally saw my bones off; that was probably what Ink was planning. I whimpered as my wrist was grabbed by my owner, but I couldn't fight it as I was pulled into the center of the arena, where a metal table with some straps now lay. I had no say as my clothes were ripped off and thrown to the side; I knew why at this point. Ink picked me up and placed me on the table face-down, since it didn't matter if I saw what he was doing; I would scream anyway. As Ink tightened the straps to a point that could have been considered torture on its own, I only wept, knowing that the worst was yet to come. When I heard the electric buzzing begin, I could only hope that Ink would make this quick, even if I knew that he would never do such a thing. Ink had probably been looking forward to the moment when he could torture me so freely and still receive the applause he wanted; the guards would only applaud him if he forced them to, and he wanted something more real..I wished someone was here to help me..but that was a pointless wish, wasn't it?

He began with my toes. He held my left foot down as he slowly removed bone after bone from my body, but if he had only been doing that, I would have been much happier; he hadn't been. Every bone he came across was removed slowly and painfully as he cut the thinnest pieces he could off of my small frame, savoring my screams as he did so. When I doubted the presence of my left foot, he copied his torture with the right one, moving slowly, yet surely, upward. When I was confident that my feet were no longer a part of my body, Ink began to cut away at my tibia and fibula, one leg at a time, as slowly as he could force himself to go. Then my left patella went, my right following directly after, but each bone still being cut into more than ten pieces, as my screams proved. Ink moved up my legs, ending when my femurs were completely gone, but I didn't stop crying. As soon as my legs were not with me anymore, Ink turned me over, and he forced me to look at his work before slamming me face-up on the table. He placed a strap on my skull to keep me from averting my gaze while he began his work on my fingers. Cut by cut, piece by piece, until he moved to my other hand, moving my skull along to follow him.

Watching Ink tear my body to pieces, no matter how methodically it was done, was both painful and unbearable, including in the mental sense. Being able to see and move a certain bone before watching its demise, until I suddenly realized that I could no longer control it as its pieces fell to the table beneath me..was horrifying. Knowing that I could once move a bone that I no longer had gave the sense of hopelessness as I watched the rest of my arms succumb to the fate Ink had cruelly prepared for them. I watched as my arms were reduced to bits and pieces of, to anyone who wasn't aware of my situation, what seemed like small rocks on a table, with many thin wafers of unidentifiable material lying beside them. I couldn't feel my arms. They weren't there. I couldn't feel my legs. They were also not there. Ink moved on to my ribs. Each one he tore apart felt as if I were dying, but I knew that Ink wouldn't kill me so quickly. The portion of the crowd that had come for fun and laughs were applauding constantly, laughing throughout my torture, while the ones who were being tortured by watching this display were sobbing loudly. I was just crying and screaming; it wasn't unusual for me to do so.

When every rib I had ever had was taken from me, Ink had to look around to find his next bone to torture. He chose my pelvis. It took longer for him to take that apart, but he didn't seem to have trouble with it, since the pain didn't cease for one second! I was glad that he didn't contort my skull to force me to watch this one. I heard it, however. I heard every piece that was large enough to make a sound as they landed on the metal table with the rest of my former body. By this time, I was wondering how little of a body skeletons could still live with, since mine was getting fairly small! When my pelvis and any remaining bits of bone that were connected to it were gone, Ink made me take a look, and I did, to my absolute terror. My collarbones were next, and Ink was careful to keep any falling pieces away from my soul, since, with fewer and fewer body parts, it was becoming more fragile by the second. I didn't know how long I had been screaming; I just wanted it to end! As soon as Ink reached the ends of my collarbones, he turned me over and went straight for my shoulderblades, which would essentially finish the removal of the parts of my body that weren't necessarily necessary for my survival.

I couldn't have ever denied that I sobbed as I was turned back over, and I honestly thought that the torture was over..but I was wrong. I was so, so wrong. I couldn't move my skull due to the strap, and Ink knew that, but he held my skull down anyway as he moved his bone cutter closer to my teeth. Skeletons didn't need teeth to do much of anything, but we liked having them! I whimpered as each and every one of my teeth was cut into ribbons, and I thought it was over..he was done now, right?  There wasn't anything else for him to cut off, right?! I was once again incorrect, as Ink began to cut my vertebrae up, carefully. He didn't cut off the important bits, but any - and every - other piece was up for removal..my hope for this to ever end was wearing thin. When my nonessential vertebrae were gone, my skull was the only part of me that hadn't been touched..but Ink changed that quickly. He began to scratch the surface of my skull off, until it was so thin that it felt as if it were made of paper; he must have been done by now..I was begging him in my mind to stop! I would have been obedient forever! I would never have tried to escape ever again! I would-

He began to cut into my soul. I screamed louder than I had been screaming before, and I cried harder. My soul was being torn apart before my very eyelights, and there was nothing I could do! Ink kept me alive for as long as he could, but my vision eventually faded to black, and I knew that I had finally perished. I enjoyed the release of death, but I knew that I would be reset in a moment. It felt as if it had only been a minute when I opened my eyesockets to see the roof of what had once been my bedroom, and only a second later, a portal opened beneath me, making me fall back into the arena. I curled up and used my newly-restored jacket as a shield from the world, trying my best to fit myself inside it. I wept silently as I was picked up and thrown back into the cage I had woken in, but Glitch and Umbra were now inside, as well. We hugged eachother tightly and cried as the crowds left; the villain conference was over, and I didn't think that we would be getting our time together this year..I hoped we could have it next year. One thing was certain as we were all dragged off by our masters, however.

We would never try to escape again.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio hurt ;-;

Wow, that was ten paragraphs, one long dialogue, and a sentence at the end :3

Ah, yes, what a nice way to start the day.

Why must I torture the beans in this way-

And why was half of the chapter Dusty-

Thanks for reading my terrifying writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

UD!Nightmare.

~~~~~

It had been a year since the accursed punishment. Dream had become more strict with me, and many changes had been made in our relationship. Before the escape attempt, he didn't harm me unless he felt that he had cause; he did it whenever he wanted to, now. He said that I deserved every ounce of pain he could give me, and I eventually found myself hiding from him. I tried to avoid him for days at a time, but I wasn't always successful. If I had feared my brother before, I was terrified of him now, and he knew that. Whenever he was in a bad mood, he would come to find me, and he didn't care who was watching as he hurt me. He would do it in front of children, and he would do it in front of babies; he didn't care anymore. The worst part, in my opinion, was his weapon of choice. After the punishment last year, he had kept the whip; he said that he liked it. He obviously liked it more than he liked me; that much was clear. The villagers could do nothing about his violence, as much as they wanted to; Dream was ingrained so deeply into the story of Dreamtale that it was impossible to force him out of the village without his consent..he would just be sent back to the tree. 

"Nightmare!" His voice scared the life out of me! "Get out here now!"

I was currently hiding in a hollow tree trunk - one which Dream couldn't enter due to his stature - and I wasn't planning on leaving any time soon; this place was safe, and Dream couldn't reach me with any weapons! Not even his favored whip could reach me; he had tried, and he had failed! So what if I had been hiding in a tree for the past week? I didn't need food, and I could quite honestly live out the rest of my days here! It was nice..sometimes a squirrel or some other forest creature came to accompany me in my exile, and there was enough space inside for more than one person to stay here comfortably; the entrance was the only small part - the tree was huge. 

"Nightmare, if you don't come out this instant, I am going to the conference alone." Dream- the conference..was it today? I had to risk it! I had to see my friends again!

"I-I'm coming.." I stuttered slightly.

With that, I crawled out of my safe tree and was promptly picked up by my brother, who glared at me harshly. I shrunk at the look he gave me, silently promising to be good. He must have been in a hurry, since he didn't even stop to give me a light whipping before opening a portal - this must have been a dream, right? - and pulling me through! I felt uncomfortable as I held his hand in the long line; we had always had the holding-hands rule in crowded places..but it just felt wrong now. Dream had made the rule himself several..decades, maybe centuries ago, when things were still happy. The village had just been started, and the villagers were too busy with construction to notice us too much for the first year. Dream, however, was worried that we would be somehow separated amidst all the confusion, and he had insisted that we held hands whenever more than ten people were around us. He had just been a frightened child at the time..now, he was a confident adult. I didn't regard myself as an adult; my body was still that of a child's. After Dream had eaten the apple, he had begun to grow into an adult, losing the immortality he had once possessed, although he still couldn't die from old age; I had never grown.

I was bored in the line, but we eventually made it to the end, where we were finally let into the conference. Now we just had to make it to the "captive lounge," where I hoped my friends would be waiting. Forty-five minutes later, Dream was placing me into the area that I shared with my friends; they weren't here yet. Dream set the purple blanket that he always gave me into the area and waited for the others to arrive as I wrapped myself in the warmth of the blanket, lying down on the floor comfortably. It didn't take very long for the others to come, and within the hour, Dusty and I were sitting in Glitch's lap as he hugged us tightly. Our masters had a conversation that I decided to listen to as I enjoyed the warmth of my friends' embrace.

"Yes, it's certainly a pleasure to see you again." The Nightmare confirmed. "Just one question."

"Yeah?" Dusty's master responded. 

"Where are the Ink and Dream from our multiverse..?"

Dusty's master chuckled darkly.

"..How long are you planning on keeping them?" The Nightmare inquired.

"The real question is if you actually want them back." Dusty's master smiled.

"..Do I?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On whether you actually liked their resistance to your chaos. They, uh, won't be fighting you anymore if you do want them back..they're more likely to end up in a trauma clinic..for the rest of eternity.."

"You really don't do things halfway, do you?"

"Nope!" Dusty's master giggled. 

"I'd like to see them, at the very least."

"Consider it done. You can see them when the conference is over; that'll be the easiest time for everyone."

"All right." The Nightmare nodded. "So, How have you guys been doing since..it..?"

"Oh, Dusty and I have been doing just fine!" Dusty's master looked at us. "He's always been very submissive, but he's even more, now."

"We're doing fine, as well." Dream glanced at me for a second. "I also found a favorite weapon!"

"Ooh, I bet you're really good with it!"

"I have had an entire year of practice."

"Nice! How about you, Night?"

"Mostly the usual." The Nightmare replied. "He's still mad about the brand." 

"Would you like me to see if I can change his attitude?" Dusty's master offered scary things.

"Perhaps.."

"I'll wait. In any case, I do believe we agreed to make the torture games a yearly thing before the little event occurred, didn't we?"

"We did." Dream smiled. 

"Shall we?"

"We shall." The Nightmare lowered the electric fence, and the three of us were taken out of our area quickly.

I didn't like being led to certain torture; it gave off a sense of hopelessness. Despite the fact that I guarded negative emotions, I did not like feeling them. We soon reached a counter in what seemed to be a hotel right outside the conference hall, at which, our masters began to speak to the person behind it.

"Welcome to room rental..how can I help you?" The one behind the counter asked.

"We'd like to rent a private torture chamber." Dusty's master explained.

"We're out."

"..." Dusty's master paused. "Do any rooms have any sort of torture equipment or a place for it?"

"There are a few suites."

"How much per day?"

"Two thousand G."

"Cheap." Dusty's master chuckled, placing a bag of money on the counter. "I love ruling over a multiverse."

"You're in room 586, to the left and up to the fifth floor." The one behind the counter handed Dusty's master a key.

"Let's get going."

Our masters led us to an elevator that was nearby and had us enter it; it was a bit crowded with ten people, but skeletons were light enough that it really didn't matter. When we got off the elevator, we were led to what seemed to be a large and luxurious hotel room, but we knew that it was just another place to be hurt. While our masters set up the torture devices, we sat on a couch to await our fate. Dusty hugged his doll, and Glitch allowed me to sit in his lap.

"Does it hurt when you touch it?" I wondered. 

"Hm?" Glitch didn't understand. "Does what hurt?" 

"The..m-mark.." I pointed to the brand on his foreskull, which he had received last year.

"No..it doesn't hurt anymore." Glitch paused. "Does yours?"

"Yeah.." I had never been able to ignore the pain that constantly emanated from my sternum. "Dream used his magic to make it..and his magic hurts me.."

"That must be horrible.." Dusty hugged me tightly, not getting close to my sternum.

"It's fine..he uses it more as a two-way tracker..the pain intensifies when he gets closer to me, and he senses his magic at the same time..like right now; they're coming back."

"Dusty!" Dusty's master entered the room, followed by the rest of our owners.  

We stood when they arrived, and we followed them silently to the room they had been preparing as we readied ourselves to be tortured. This room wasn't that much different from the one we had been in two years ago, but it was certainly darker. We were all chained to the back wall, just as before, and our masters decided who would torture who first, resulting in Dream's walking over to us as Dusty's master began to set a one-hour timer. Dream, of course, grabbed me, unchaining my wrists before forcing me to my knees on a side of the room; he then turned me around, and I took off my vest before putting it aside..I didn't want it to get dirty, and Dream would have been angry if it dulled the pain even a little. Dusty's master shouted a countdown out before starting the timer, at which point, Dream unlatched his weapon from his side and pushed a large amount of his magic into it before beginning to torment me. He never held back anymore; he used to only put a little magic into his whip, but over time, he decided to put as much as he could into it, if only to bring me more pain. I wouldn't deny that I cried from the first hit onwards, and I wouldn't deny begging for mercy at some point; he didn't give it to me.

When the whipping finally ended, I was returned to my chained position on the wall, still in agony from the lingering positivity. Dream had placed my vest on a table in the corner; I wouldn't wear it until I stopped bleeding. Dusty was next to feel Dream's wrath, but he didn't take his jacket off; he didn't mind the blood, obviously. Dream didn't take away his doll this time, learning from his previous mistake. Dusty's torture seemed more mental; he didn't react too much to the pain, but he was terrified of the prospect of being hurt in such a way..perhaps he had never been whipped before, or maybe he had, and it had been a scarring experience. When it was over, Dusty was chained up again, and Glitch was taken for his hour. Regarding physical or mental pain, Glitch was more on the physical side, but he didn't scream very much; Dusty and I had screamed a lot. As soon as Dream finished up with Glitch, he placed his whip back on his side and rejoined his friends as Dusty's master came to take me for round two. Dusty's master used the same technique he had last time, forcing us to drink his burning paint; on top of positivity burns, the paint was unbearable. The Nightmare's gang also used their previous style, beating us and breaking our bones.

In the end, I was just glad that it was over. Glitch was named the best at taking pain, and Dusty's master was again the best at giving it; I didn't care. When we were finally returned to our area, we cuddled together and fell asleep; we needed it. I felt safe as I curled up closer to my friends under the purple blanket; I felt safe with them, despite the fact that we were in a scary villain conference with danger around every corner. 

They were my friends.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio meet again!

Thanks for reading my burning writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

FDIR!Error.

~~~~~

The conference hadn't been too bad. Sure, the torture was bad, but aside from that, we had a nice time talking to eachother about past events; it was nice to have someone to talk to openly after everything that had happened. Thankfully, we were going to go to the multiverse that seemed as if I would be staying in for longer than I had anticipated today, which, at the very least, meant little to no torture. We were currently sitting in the captive options room, waiting to go, and the artist and the Dream were saying goodbye to Dusty and Umbra. When the farewells were over, Nightmare opened a portal home, and our trio followed the gang into it. Immediately upon entry into the multiverse, the gang began to reach for Dusty, likely to force him into some outrageous outfit, but I picked him up before they could grab him, receiving a small thank you as Dusty wrapped his arms around my neck, intent on staying high above the ground.

"Hey!" Killer whined, upset that I had taken Dusty away.

"Nightmare?" I got the attention of the goopy skeleton.

"What is it?" The aforementioned goopy skeleton responded.

"May I show them around the multiverse?"

"What significance could that possibly have?"

"I..promised them I would."

"You always were a lousy promiser." He sighed. "I suppose you can show them a few universes, but you're taking the mobile portal generator; there is no way in hell you're getting your portal magic back."

"Okay..thanks." 

"Whatever."

"Boss, can't we dress him up once?" Killer pleaded.

"Fine."

"Yes! Thank ya kindly, Boss!" 

"Nobody disturb me for the next five hours."

"Sure thing!"

With that, the gang grabbed Dusty from my shoulders - they had to bring me to the ground to do it - and absconded with him, leaving Umbra and me to sit down and wait for Dusty's return. We waited for ten minutes before they finally brought him back, and he was wearing..a bunny costume. Great. Well, it could have been worse - he said it was at least soft. In any case, Dusty had all but lost all shreds of his dignity before this, and being in public in a bunny outfit didn't seem as if it were much of a big deal for him. Speaking of public, I knew exactly where our first stop was going to be: the Bitty AU. It was a universe so cute and adorable that nobody thought it needed a better name; of course, there were bad things, but we were going to focus on the good aspects today..we didn't need any more sadness than we already had. I hated the portal generator; firing up my magic would have been so much easier, but, alas, Nightmare wouldn't allow me that luxury now that I could travel between multiverses. Instead, I used the generator, and a portal to the AU I wanted was presently in front of us. We entered it quickly, finding ourselves on a seemingly abandoned sidewalk; that was good. I placed the portal generator in my pocket and looked to my friends.

"Where are we?" Umbra questioned, looking at the tall city buildings around us. "Where's the grass?"

"You're probably not going to find any here." I explained. "This is a city, but there's probably a park of some place nearby." 

"How do you have a town without grass?!"

"Um..this is a world vastly different from yours."

"Oh, right.." Umbra frowned. "You live in a weird world."

"Yeah..so, who wants to see some bitties?"

"What's a bitty, again?" Dusty wasn't sure.

"Tiny versions of monsters that are basically pets."

"..." Dusty looked at me in fear. "Y-you mean..l-like us?!"

My eyelights widened as I realized what a poor choice of words I had used. "U-uh.." I just needed a way to explain the concept of tiny pet monsters that were totally not sold into slavery at adoption centers and to avoid any topics that might have brought up questions about the darker aspects of this AU..yep. "People are very kind to them, though; a lot of them get to live happy lives!" I had messed up, hadn't I?

Dusty processed my horrible explanation in his mind for a minute. "Oh. Okay."

"..." That went better than I had thought it would. "So wanna go see some?"

"Yay!"

Dusty hopped up and down happily before following after Umbra and me. I wasn't exactly sure about any locations of good adoption centers to visit, but I figured that one that allowed interaction with the small and adorable bitties would be one of the better ones; I wanted my friends to have a good experience. We received a few odd looks from passersby, probably because of Dusty's ridiculous outfit, but we ignored them on our way to our destination. On the way, Dusty was skipping behind us, and Umbra was looking for any trace of green he could find, coming up rather empty. I noticed that several people walking around had tiny beings on their shoulders or other places; my friends were intrigued by that. After thirty minutes of walking around the city, I found the perfect adoption center to visit; it allowed supervised playing, and it was colorful. Without any further delay, I entered the center, and my friends followed me inside. When we were inside, we were met with soft happy music and quiet giggles; this was absolutely perfect. Before doing anything, however, I walked up to the front desk, where a human employee was playing with a small skeleton happily. 

"Hello, how may I help you today?" This one seemed nice.

"Good morning." I returned. "My friends and I were wondering if it was all right for us to play with the little ones for a while; they've never seen bitties before."

"Oh? That's interesting. You can certainly play with them, but please remind your friends to be gentle."

"Don't worry; one of them has pet bunnies, and he treats them like glass."

"That's good to know. Enjoy, then!"

"Thank you."

After that was finished, I walked over to my friends, who were looking at the tiny people, seemingly awestruck. I couldn't blame them; I had been the same way when I first discovered the tiny beings. Umbra was the first to snap out of his cuteness-induced trance, and I gestured for him to enter the play area, where he was instantly surrounded by more than two dozen playful bitties. I contemplated waiting for Dusty to come back to life, but after a few minutes, I decided to just let him come out of it in his own time, walking over to Umbra and joining him in play.

"So, what do you think?" I inquired, allowing a tiny version of a Grillby to crawl onto my skull and pretend I was a mountain.

"This place is amazing!" Umbra whisper-yelled, probably not able to raise his voice any more than that due to cuteness overload.

"I told you that you'd like it!"

"Yeah..but it could still use grass." 

I chuckled at Umbra's undying desire for grass before continuing to play with the small beings. Most of them were skeletons - the universe just preferred skeletons, for some unknown reason - but there were a few others, such as tiny humans! Umbra and I played for about ten minutes before realizing that Dusty had likely snapped out of his trance, but he was..missing? I looked around the room rapidly, calming when I saw Dusty on the floor nearby, looking at a small bitty that had crawled into a little nook in the corner. Without making any noise, Umbra and I walked over to the small - although, right now, he was probably feeling fairly large - skeleton, coming close enough to hear a conversation with the bitty he was..talking to.

"I'm not gonna hurt you; I promise." Dusty said. 

"That's what they all say!" A tiny voice came from under the bitty-sized hole. "Promises mean nothing!"

"..Who hurt you?"

"What does it matter?" The bitty sounded irritated; I tried to get a better look at what type he was, but he had turned his back to Dusty; we couldn't see him. "You wouldn't understand; nobody understands!"

"That's good."

"..What kind of dumb creature are you?! How would not understanding be a good thing?!"

"Well, if I understood what you were going through, I'd think you were like me, and I don't want anyone to be like me. If I don't understand, you must have a nice life."

"..What is your life like?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me about yours."

"..All right. I've been 'adopted' three times by three different people. The first was kind of nice, but I was only adopted to make their final days happy..they were critically ill. The second time, I was taken by a human who didn't know thing one about caring for our kind; they were always working, too, and the neighbors had to save me from dying of neglect. The third time, I was forced to fight others in some sort of arena..I almost died so many times.."

"Wow..that's sad.."

The bitty scoffed. "It doesn't matter anymore; I'm not letting myself be taken again. So, what about you? What makes your life so much worse than mine?"

"My friend says most people here are nice to you guys..but I know he was only trying to make me feel better. Where I come from, people only legally adopt children..but some people are really bad, and they treat other people like pets, but they're not nice to us..the one who owns me is really mean, and he hurts me for fun. I can see that this place is sort of like that, except there's a clear line between those who own and those who are owned..I'm glad that you're able to stay away from being hurt again..I wish I could have that chance.."

"...You mean..they treat their own kind like..us?" The bitty sounded horrified.

"Only the bad people do that, but..yes."

"You're..like me?"

"Sort of.."

The smaller being hesitantly left the nook he had hidden in, revealing himself to be a tiny version of..Dusty. I almost laughed at the irony of Dusty's helping a Dust bitty, but I kept quiet. The bitty walked over to Dusty slowly before climbing onto one of his hands and hugging it; that was adorable. Dusty seemed happy that the bitty wasn't hiding from him anymore, waiting for him to do whatever he wanted. I smiled at the scene before us, chuckling as softly as I could when Dusty allowed the small being to make himself comfortable in his hand, which was likely smaller than most, but the bitty was comfortable, nonetheless. A few minutes later, Dusty finally noticed our presence, and he gave us a smile, still comforting the bitty in his hands. I didn't quite know how Dusty was always able to give comfort to others when he might have been the one who was most in need of it at a given time; he was just able to, I supposed. Returning a smile, I went over to Umbra, who had gone back to play with the dozens of tiny beings who were now covering the giggling skeleton; I was glad that he was having a good time. We spent the next few hours playing with the tiny bitties and having fun.

It was nice to relax every once in a while.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio meet bitties!

I was so close to making one stow away with them-

Should I?

If you guys want that to happen, tell me, and also tell me which type..

Or don't, if you wanna spare a bitty's sanity. I understand.

Thanks for reading my small writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust.

~~~~~

Our time in Glitch's multiverse didn't last very long, nor did our time in Umbra's. In Glitch's multiverse, it was rather relaxing, and we met several interesting beings when the Nightmare's gang wasn't trying to dominate our time. In Umbra's multiverse, we essentially just tried to avoid the Dream as much as possible while having fun; it was painful when we were caught, though. Now, we were sitting in the captive options room, waiting for the Nightmare's gang and Ink to arrive; the Nightmare's gang wanted to see what had become of their Ink and Dream. I knew what had happened; Ink had shown me several times. I held my Hope tightly as we waited for the others to arrive, which didn't take too long, but the Nightmare's gang took an extra ten minutes to get here after Ink had come. As soon as they entered the building, the Dream gave a farewell, not wanting to come along with the rest of us. Ink wanted to greet the Nightmare's gang, of course; he was more of a speaker than almost anything else, but I wouldn't dare tell him that..I rather valued my life, even if it was horrible most of the time, but I had grown used to feeling horrible.

"Hello!" Ink greeted, walking over to the Nightmare and his gang.

"Greetings." The Nightmare returned. "My boys and I are interested to see what you've done to my brother and your alternate."

"I hope you don't mind if I may have done a few..questionable things to them.."

"Questionable as in..?"

"Oh, just a little.." Ink was searching for the right word; when he couldn't think of one, he looked to me. "Dusty, how would you describe it?"

"..." I sighed sadly at the thought of Stroke and Cloud; they didn't deserve what Ink had done to them. "You launched boulders at them with your trebuchet two months ago.."

"Yes, Dusty, that is part of what I mean by questionable." Ink chuckled at the memories.

"..Did they live?" The Nightmare wasn't sure if he should have even been asking that.

"Yes, they're both still alive." Ink nodded jovially. "It was interesting to find out that your Ink is actually only borderline immortal.."

"And how did you find that out?"

"Well, I harness the power of resets to bring people back to life..that's what I do with Dusty, and it works fairly well on them, too."

"What if it hadn't worked?"

"You would have received two jars of dust in the mail. Are we ready to go now?"

"Yes, I believe so; have we seen your base yet?"

"I don't think so..would you like to have a walking tour? I can ensure that none of my guards can see you; my versions of most of you are dead, and I don't want to confuse the poor soldiers."

"That would be perfect."

"All right, then!" Ink opened a portal to the outside of his compound, changing bits of code as our group walked through. "So just about everyone except high ranks can't see you; let me do the talking if one of them asks, and, Dusty, when we reach my room, you take the passage straight to the dungeon and tell everyone down there to clear out until I say they can go back to work, all right?"

I nodded, and we went on our way inside. Ink took great care to explain everything to the visitors, going over what happened in each room and how the rooms were used. We were halfway to Ink's room when a certain high rank caught the Nightmare's eyelight; Dream was walking through the halls.

"Is that who I think it is?" The Nightmare inquired curiously.

"Our version of Dream, yes." Ink confirmed. "Would you like to meet him?"

"I suppose it would be interesting to meet yet another version of my brother."

"I figured you'd say that." Ink smirked, using blue magic to pull an instantly-confused Dream over to our group. "Dream, meet a few of my friends."

Dream blinked, looking at the Nightmare with a frown; he knew that this wasn't his brother. When he had processed the situation, he sighed.

"Hello, there.." Dream halfsouledly greeted.

"Wow." The Nightmare let out a mocking chuckle. "I don't believe I've seen a version of my brother who didn't smile a little."

"That's the way we work here; some people are happy, but it's only a few, like me!" Ink giggled. "Dream smiles sometimes..but now doesn't seem to be sometimes. Dream, tell the class why you're so sad today."

"I killed some people.." Dream mumbled, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Dream, that should make you happy; does death not thrill you?"

"The only feelings produced are negative ones.."

"Poor little Dreamy..do me a favor and torture prisoner eighty for a few hours when the dungeon reopens."

"Yes, Sir.." Dream walked away before he could get roped into doing anything else he didn't want to do.

"Interesting.." The Nightmare commented.

"It's like I said: breaking people is a passion." Ink continued with the tour.

It didn't take long for us to reach Ink's room, at which point, I separated from the group to get to the dungeon quicker. I didn't enjoy using the corridor to the dungeon; it was scary and quiet, and there was barely any light! Ink often turned out all of the light sources when we used it just to scare me, but he didn't do that this time; he wanted me to actually go through the hallway, not have a mental breakdown in the darkness..again. With that in mind, I ran down the corridor, not wishing to stay inside it longer than I had to. I had clutched to my Hope all the way through, but I eventually reached the end, finding myself inside the dungeon safely..or, at least, as safely as I could have been in an evil dungeon. I wasted no time in making sure that the guards were leaving, since I didn't want to be punished; Ink was cruel. As soon as the last guard was gone, I made my way over to the cell which held the prisoners in question, sitting against their cell as I waited for the others to arrive; they shouldn't have taken long. I didn't enjoy being near this cell; having known that the ones inside it were innocent, I had tried a few times to get Ink to release them, but he wouldn't..he had hurt me badly when I tried to help them.

"Here we are!" Ink's voice caused me to stand immediately.

"Oh.." The Nightmare's eyelight flickered out, as did most of the others' eyelights; the sight wasn't a very pretty one.  

Upon first looking at the prisoners, one would see that their clothes were not white, which was the standard dungeon attire; Stroke's wardrobe was black, while Cloud's was gold. Their blood was those colors. Further inspection would reveal cracks along every visible bone, with no doubts as to the integrity of the ones that were out of sight; it was clear that they had been beaten several dozen times, if not more, and they rarely moved because of it. Looking at Stroke, one would find his body surrounded by a rainbow-colored puddle of paints; Ink tortured him by forcing him to drink every vial that he owned, down to the very last drop, and it caused very violent reactions..it was torture just watching. As for Cloud, it was obvious that his torture had been more physical, but Ink had taken a liking to bombarding the poor positive spirit with intense negativity surges; his soul was dimmer than it had used to be. Ink had often forced me to bear witness to their torture, and I had sobbed every time he exacted his revenge..I didn't think that he would ever release them if the Nightmare didn't want to take them back home. Fortunately, ten minutes later, he and his gang were doing just that, and I was glad.

Of course, happiness in Ink's empire was often short-lived, and that was proved when the three of us were taken to Ink's room. But these two weeks were not going to be filled with torture; I had promised myself that, and I had spent the last year creating a plan that would suit everyone's desires. Glitch, Umbra, and I desired not to be harmed, and Ink desired happiness. After living with him for over a decade, I knew his weaknesses, and I knew how to sway his decisions; I had had a lot of practice. So, when he next spoke, I was ready to begin my plot for peace.

"Who's ready for some unparalleled torturing?" Ink chuckled.

"Ink.." I donned a pleading expression. "Do we have to?"

"..." Ink narrowed his gaze at me. "And why would you not want to?"

"Well..don't you want to show them all the neat stuff you built?"

Ink seemed confused. "Dusty, what are you talking about?"

"Well, you built some cool secret places for the high ranks.."

"Oh!" Ink's expression turned to a smile. "That's right! Your friends should totally see that stuff! Thanks for reminding me, Dusty!"

With that, I exchanged smiles with my friends, who understood that I was buying time. As for Ink, he was happy as long as his ego was happy, and showing off detailed architecture that he had created certainly made his ego happy! He showed Glitch and Umbra everything, from the party room to the training grounds, and the tour ended with my personal favorite: the spa. None of the high ranks had found it yet, which meant that only Ink and I used it; I often convinced him to go there in order to get out of torture, since I gave great massages, according to Ink, and I couldn't give them to him if my hands were broken. To end this time of peace, Ink had work, and he left us..unsupervised..in the spa.

"So what do we do?" Glitch wondered.

"We have some fun!" I giggled, leading my friends to the main room, where I found some toys.

"Wow, a rubber duck." Glitch chuckled, tossing the duck around in his hands. 

"There's a pool somewhere in here." 

"How do you know that?" Umbra asked.

"Ink made me learn water tricks; there's a diving board and everything! Do you guys wanna swim?"

"Uh..I don't know how.." Glitch said.

"..Skeletons float."

"Oh..in that case, I don't see why not."

"I didn't know either, until Ink pushed me off the diving board into the deep end."

"Does he do anything gently?" Umbra questioned.

"No." I finished grabbing the pool supplies. "Unless he's faking; he's good at faking."

"Let me help you with that." Glitch lifted some of the pool toys. 

"Thanks!"

"No problem. So, when you say 'good,' just how good is he at faking?"

"..." I thought for a moment as I led the others to the pool. "Well, he fooled the entire multiverse except for a few dozen - at most - people into thinking that he was a true protector, and he managed to get away with the entire conquering thing for about half a year, I think, before anyone realized it."

"Why didn't he just become an actor?" Umbra wondered.

"I don't know; he would have been a good one." I saw the pool. "We're here."

"Wow, that is a big pool!" Glitch's eyelights widened at the sight of it. 

"Ink likes big things."

"Um..we don't have any other clothes.." Umbra didn't want to get his clothes wet. 

"There's some stuff in the corner; I think there's swim gear."

"Cool!" Glitch smiled, heading over to the corner. 

Within a few minutes, we were entirely ready to have some unsupervised fun, which was the best type of fun, in my opinion! We played in the pool for several hours before Ink came back, but he didn't stop us, thankfully! He just sat down and watched us play, which I was happy about. I believed that one reason that he didn't stop us was because I was performing some of the tricks he had taught me; he liked it when I performed tricks. So Umbra, Glitch, and I played in the pool for the rest of the day, and we hoped that we could get away again tomorrow. So the cycle went, for years upon years, and we enjoyed every event that allowed our meetings.

I loved my friends.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio play in pool.

Was that a subtle time skip at the end?

Yes. Yes, it was.

Thanks for reading my subtle writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

UD!Nightmare. 

~~~~~

Another year, another conference. Time had made all of our situations worse. My friendship with Dusty and Glitch grew every time we met, but..our masters hurt us more and more. Dream was a different person..he wasn't my brother anymore; those cruel friends of his had tainted him! I didn't think anything was going to bring him back at this point. Glitch had been abused more often, and he wasn't allowed to fight back, either..he just had to take the pain. Dusty..seemed to be doing all right? He said that his pain tolerance was rising, but his master's torture methods just kept increasing in pain levels to counteract it; he claimed that what his master used to torture him now had put others in comas..I didn't like the thought of that. Nonetheless, I didn't fight my brother when he decided to bring me to the conference, but I certainly wanted to get far away from him as soon as possible. When we got to the captive lounge, however..something out of the ordinary happened.

"Under new regulation regarding frequent rescues, we're going to have to ask that you put this on your captive." The one running the entry to the captive lounge today stated.

"What is it?" Dream looked at the metal device curiously.

"It's a restraining collar; if a rescue attempt is made, that collar will prevent the wearer to leave this universe."

"Is it necessary?"

"It's not optional."

Dream sighed. "Fine. How do I take it off him?"

"It will automatically unlatch when the conference ends."

"And if I want to leave before the conference ends?"

"I have a key that can take it off. Just bring him here."

"All right, whatever."

Dream latched the collar around my neck and began to walk into the captive lounge, where we soon met our respective sets of friends. I hugged Dusty and Glitch tightly, finding that they had also been equipped with the odd collars; Dusty seemed oddly irritated by his.

"Mine itches.." Dusty whined.

"That isn't my problem, Dusty." Dusty's master scoffed.

"I want it off!" Dusty began to cry.

"Quit it!"

Dusty just cried louder.

"Is something the matter with him?" The Nightmare wondered.

"I must've done something to annoy him..because he never acts like this.." Dusty's master glared at Dusty. 

"I-i-it hurts!" Dusty sobbed.

"First it itches, now it hurts, what next, Dusty?! Is it going to torture you for me, too?!"

A crack was heard.

"..." Dusty's master hesitantly pulled down Dusty's hood, finding.. "Well, golly, this thing does torture you, doesn't it?"

"Off, off, off!" Dusty was hyperventilating.

"We're..going to be right back."

Dusty's master picked up Dusty and ran off toward the entrance to the captive lounge, leaving the rest of us to wonder what had just happened.

"I'm beginning to dislike regulation.." The Nightmare hesitantly examined Glitch's neck. "Perhaps only he reacted harshly?"

"It seems that way." Dream found no injuries on me, thankfully. "Do you feel anything?"

"Nothing bad." I shook my skull.

"Eh, you should be fine, then."

So the day continued. Dusty's master returned about an hour later with Dusty, who was unconscious, but he wasn't wearing one of those collars. Dusty's master spoke to Dream and the Nightmare's gang about what had happened, but I wasn't able to pick up on their conversation. When Glitch asked, their answer was that Dusty had suffered a bad reaction to the collar's effects, which put me a little on edge..shouldn't the collars have only affected anyone if they tried to leave? Why would they work passively? I didn't like that thought, but I didn't voice my concerns, either; according to Dream and his friends, my thoughts didn't matter. I decided to remain silent until Dusty woke up, and by that point, our masters had already left us alone. Dusty woke slowly, apparently feeling drowsy from his experience, but he seemed all right for the most part.

"Are you feeling okay?" Glitch wanted to make sure.

"Mhm.." Dusty nodded, leaning on Glitch for support.

"How did it feel?" I inquired, wanting to know more.

"Kind of..familiar.."

"Familiar..how?"

"Sort of like..I don't know..it hurt.." Dusty closed his eyesockets slightly.

"Is something the matter?" Glitch didn't understand the reasons behind my question.

"Well..if he was hurt by the collar's effects..what would it be doing..to us?"

"You mean.." Glitch realized my line of thinking; he and Dusty were the only ones who would have valued my concerns.

"Yes, I mean it could be doing something bad..and seeing as there are beings out there who are stronger than our masters.."

"You think someone's trying to steal us with these things?"

"We've all been around villains long enough to know that any one of them would do something like that if given the chance! Why wouldn't someone try that? They might want to use us as ransom.."

"On the same token..the good guys could have infiltrated this place, and the collars could be working to free us.." 

"..Yes, that could be a possibility, but.."

"But?"

"I don't want to be saved if Dusty isn't coming with us, and he doesn't have a collar, so being saved isn't an option for me! I'm choosing to believe it's a villain plot."

"..Good point." Glitch nodded, hugging Dusty, who was only half-conscious at the moment. "But what are we supposed to do about it?" 

"..I don't know. It isn't as if they'll believe us if we tell them.."

"Hope for the best, then?"

"I don't see any other possibility."

"Then we hope for the..worst?"

"Well, being separated from Dusty would be the worst for me.."

"True..so we hope for the best worst."

"Mhm!"

"Oh..he's asleep.." Glitch moved Dusty slightly to cradle him; he was small enough for Glitch to do that. 

"I think he has the right idea."

"I second that motion."

"Good night, Glitch."

"Night, Umbra."

We went to sleep. Glitch lay on the ground, holding Dusty and I in his arms comfortably, and my purple blanket was draped over us; it always kept us warm. I had a pleasant dream as I slept, and when I woke..my suspicions were confirmed..

We weren't in the captive lounge.

~~~~~

ATE!Dust. No spoilers..at least until next chapter.

~~~~~

I was woken when I landed on the floor roughly..that wasn't a very pleasant experience. Umbra's blanket fell on me, and I assumed that the others had stood up, possibly because our owners were here? I pushed the blanket off me slowly, still a bit drained of energy from my experience earlier with the collar..and that crack still hurt. I rubbed my eyesockets and picked up my Hope, sitting up to see..no one. I turned my skull quickly, hurting my vertebrae, but that wasn't the point! Glitch and Umbra weren't here! I whimpered, wondering if our owners had taken them while I was sleeping; they sometimes only took one or two of us. I was contented to believe that..until I realized that the areas next to ours were empty. I became afraid when the thought dawned upon me..and I looked at the other areas, finding..nobody. Every area in sight was empty. But the lights were on, and that meant that the conference hadn't ended..it had only just begun! I whimpered as I realized that I was the only captive in the entire captive lounge..everyone else was just..gone! That was when I sobbed. Loudly. One of my worst fears was waking up and finding no one there..had everything just been a dream? Was anything real?!

"What in the omniverse?!" A villain from a few multiverses down noticed that his captive was gone; perhaps my life wasn't a cruel joke? "Hey, you, did you see what happened?"

I shook my skull quickly when I realized that I was being addressed, and the villain walked away. As the minutes passed by, multiple other villains heard of the news, and I was asked a lot of questions, despite the fact that I knew as little as they did! Then Ink came, with the Nightmare's gang and the Dream. Ink had a relieved expression when he saw that I was still present, but the Dream and the Nightmare's gang were as worried as the rest of the villains..I didn't think that there were any captives left other than myself. The electric barrier that kept me inside the area was lifted, and Ink picked me up, likely because he didn't want me to disappear as everyone else did.

"Oh, Dusty, I'm so glad you're safe!" He hugged me tightly, and I tried to hold on to my Hope.

"What happened?!" The Nightmare was irritated.

"I-I don't know..I-I was asleep when i-it happened.." I stuttered a reply.

"Can't count on anyone but yourself.." The Nightmare muttered.

"Do you have any ideas?" The Dream tapped his foot impatiently.

"U-Umbra said something..b-before I fell asleep.." I recalled. "H-he said..the collars m-might have been for a r-reason..not for s-security.."

"Which means we've been tricked.." The Killer didn't enjoy that thought.

"He should have said something.." The Dream scoffed.

"Y-you wouldn't have l-listened to him.." I sighed.

"Well, Dusty, we're listening now." Ink looked at me. "Tell us what your little friend said about the collars..I notice that you were the only one without one..and you're still here."

"O-okay.." I tried to remember what Umbra had said before I had fallen asleep, and I also tried to calm myself; I didn't exactly enjoy stuttering every few words. "He said..he said it might have been a villain..or the heroes c-could have planted them..I don't remember anything else."

"Come on, Dusty, anyone could have figured that out by now! Did he say anything relating to the collars?"

"..He asked me how I felt when I had it on.."

"And what did you reply with?"

"I said..it felt familiar.."

"Familiar? As in you've felt that specific feeling before?"

"Yes...I just..don't know where."

"Dusty, you are being about as helpful as a sack of rocks right now! We need answers!"

"I-I don't know anything else!"

"If we can determine what the collar did, we can deduce a lot of important stuff from that!" Ink pulled me up very close to his face. "So you'd better start reminiscing."

I whimpered.

"Dusty, what helps you think?" Ink questioned. 

I didn't enjoy thinking about pain..but I knew what would get answers out of me. At the moment, Umbra and Glitch's lives, along with at least thousands, maybe millions, of others, were at stake, and I seemed to be the only one who could provide answers at the moment..I had no choice. I mumbled my response, holding my Hope tightly.

"What was that, Dusty?" Ink asked.

"..T-torture.." I wept softly; I had to do this, for my friends!

"Thank you for your cooperation." Ink lowered me back down to allow me to lie against his ribcage. "Dusty says torture helps him remember..I suppose I do interrogate him a lot."

"Then let's put some fear into him." The Nightmare was determined to get Glitch back.

Our group began to head for the torture rooms, which were, unsurprisingly, all available. After renting one - I didn't know why that was still necessary, with the new lack of captives - everyone entered the room in question, and I bowed my skull, knowing that remembering something such as this was going to be much more difficult than remembering other things..partly because I had only felt a faint familiarity when the collar hurt me, and I couldn't accurately pinpoint what it was. 

"Dusty, when you remember, drop your doll on the ground, got it?" Ink was ready to harm me.

I nodded.

"Then let us begin." He didn't smile this time, as he usually did before torturing me; this time, there was a purpose.

So I was tortured. Paint, beating, and the ever-present crack of a sharp whip accompanied my memories as I attempted to recall when I had felt the pain that the collar had given me. I reminded myself constantly that I was doing this for my friends, and that all this pain was for a good purpose..I had to remember. Flashes of weapons and broken bones fluttered through my pained memories..until I remembered. Ink's reign, one month and four days after my capture, at nine o'clock in the morning, he tried something different with me, and the pain was the same as the collar. I let my Hope fall, and the incoming pain ceased abruptly. Everyone present knelt down beside me as I forced myself to say two words.

"C-co-code..m-man-manip-nipula-lation.."

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Umbra bean and Glitch bean disappear?

Me: sees comment asking for more.

Also me, a few hours later: "Ooooorder up!"

Hehehe, what do you guys think happened? I wanna know if y'all think it was a villain or the heroes..perhaps it was neither..? 

Thanks for reading my interrogative writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

FDIR!Error.

~~~~~

It had been one week since our capture. It seemed as if everyone here had been forced to wear one of those collars, and everyone had been a slave of some sort. The ones who had been treated well were crying, and the ones who hadn't were enjoying their time of painlessness, but one thing remained: we had no idea who had taken us. We were in cells, each placed side to side, with about ten people in each one; we seemed to be arranged in numerical order of multiverses, since Umbra and I had miraculously been placed together! That honestly didn't help us. We hadn't been faced with our new captor as of yet, but I had noticed that the cells were in some sort of hallway, and at the very end - which was unfortunately hard to see, since we were in the middle of the hallway - was a timer. The time had consistently been counting down for the past week, and right now, there were only five minutes left; Umbra and I had formed the conclusion that we would meet whoever had kidnapped us when the timer ended..or we would be killed, if it we were being held as ransom. In either case, we were going to live, since both Umbra and I were immortal..but we didn't exactly enjoy some of the possibilities for painful deaths that our cellmates had formed. 

"How much longer?" I questioned, as Umbra was the only one who was small enough to see the timer clearly, not to mention the fact that my eyesight wasn't the best..I wished I hadn't put my glasses aside before going on the bungee-jumping adventure of doom..

"Three minutes, forty-five seconds." Umbra, on the other hand, had quite impeccable vision.

"Any ideas on who could have taken us? This is the last chance to guess."

"Well, it certainly isn't the heroes.." Someone in our cell sighed.

"Best-case scenario would be a villain at this point..the heroes would have at least fed us.." Another's stomach growled, as that one actually had a stomach; not every prisoner was a skeleton.

"Do you think Dusty's okay?" Umbra hoped.

"I'd say that he's probably being kept under a very close watch." I replied. "That crazy artist might be insane, but I doubt he's letting Dusty out of his sight at this point..how much longer now?"

"Three minutes, fifteen seconds."

"Ugh..the suspense is killing me."

"I'm kind of glad Dusty isn't here.."

"How so?"

"If we are going to be attacked with intent to kill, he..he wouldn't survive.."

"..You're right.." I hoped Dusty was being treated well. "He probably wouldn't have lived this long, with his deficiency.."

Our cell remained silent. Nothing else was said until Umbra spoke once more.

"Ten seconds." He alerted, walking over to me and hugging me. "This is it, I suppose."

"I'll protect you, no matter what happens." I promised, holding the smaller skeleton in my arms.

A loud buzzer went off when the timer ended, and many screams rang out; the collars began to hurt..badly. It didn't last for long, however, and a few seconds later, the entire hallway was quiet, save for the sound of footsteps, which echoed loudly through the corridor. Umbra clutched to me tighter as the footsteps neared us, and I held onto him, intending to protect him. When the footsteps reached our cell, we found out who our captor was: an Error. His eyelights glanced over to me, specifically, as he passed by, but he did pass by without a word. He went all the way to the other side of the hallway before turning and going down another hallway. At this point, I assumed that there were other hallways, as the footsteps continued, although I couldn't see the other hallways. Judging by the amount of turns I heard, there were about five, maybe six..the Error didn't stop walking, and no one tried to make him stop walking. When the footsteps finally ceased, everyone's collars beeped, and a voice came through on them.

"Good evening." The Error's voice came through. "As you no doubt have figured out, I've captured all of you. Now, I'm not going to waste time telling you everything I've done, but I will crush your hopes that you will be found, because..you won't be. The collars around your necks have, over the course of one week, scrambled your magic signatures and most of your code-related data to prevent tracking; they will also be used as a form of punishment for disobedience from this point on. As for the reason you are here, you are going to work. The collars have evaluated your strengths and weaknesses, and they have sorted you into groups: warriors, servants, and builders. The final will be the most common among you, and you will be forced to construct a building of my choosing; you will not know what it is, so don't ask. The first is for those of you who have high magic; you will be responsible for protecting the build site in the case that someone attempts to invade it. Those of you with minimal levels of strength or magic will be made into servants, and you will provide the workers with nourishment along with obeying my direct personal orders. You begin tomorrow; as of now, you will receive your roles."

A small code box appeared in front of everyone, labelling us; I was deemed a warrior, and Umbra was listed as a servant. We hugged eachother tightly; we weren't going to be separated willingly, no matter what that other version of me did! Umbra slept in my arms that night. When morning came, we were woken up by the same loud buzzer that indicated the end of the timer, and our collars beeped once more.

"Good morning, slaves." The Error's voice greeted us. "Now, if you will be so kind as to stand up and distance yourselves at least one foot away from each other person in your cells, you will be transported to your respective workplaces and receive instructions on what you are to do."

Most of our fellow prisoners did as they were told, but I was not letting go of Umbra! Portals appeared under the obedient, while the ones like us remained. All was silent for several moments, until our collars started to buzz..then the screaming started. The collars began to electrocute anyone who hadn't obeyed, and it was unbearable! I didn't let go of Umbra, however; I wouldn't let him go alone. He must have felt the same way about it, since he only tightened his grip on me. When the collars stopped, the Error began to walk down the hall again, teleporting anyone who decided that they would obey this time, and that was everyone..until us. He stopped at our cell and glared at us, and I glared back as Umbra buried his face in my jacket; he was afraid.

"Let go of eachother." He ordered.

"You're not our master." I growled.

"As of right now..I am. If you don't obey me, there will be consequences."

"I'm not obeying you, no matter what you do to me!"

"..What about him?"

"Never!" Umbra whouted, hugging me tighter. 

"I see.." He turned. "I shall return to you later."

The Error walked away, scaring the other prisoners into obeying him, and we remained silent until he returned, twenty minutes later. He said nothing, only grabbing our arms with his strings and forcing us to follow him; we were apparently the only ones who had blatently refused to obey him, which wasn't a surprise, as captives didn't usually speak or interact with eachother, and, therefore, wouldn't risk their lives for eachother. Umbra and I were different. We were led to a room with a bed and a table, along with a few other furniture items..and I wondered what the Error was planning as he set us in a chair; I refused to let go of Umbra.

"So..you are the only two who are so brave as to disobey, even after experiencing the collars' effects..I thought I would have made them strong enough." He sat down in front of us, with a curious expression. "Do you two know eachother?"

"We're not telling you anything." I responded sternly.

"Fine, fine, I can compromise." He sent us a smirk. "Since I am so very eager to know why you two are different from the other thousands of captives, I'll offer you a deal: I answer one of your questions, truthfully, and you answer mine."

"Truthfully.."

"Indeed." 

"You're that desperate for information?"

"I wouldn't call it desperation; when the building is complete, you'll all know anyway..you'll just be the first."

"..And you're confident enough that no one's going to be able to stop you..especially since most captives are out of practice with their fighting strategies.."

"Quite correct. Shall we begin our game?"

"Fine.."

"I'll allow you to begin, as a token of goodwill."

"What are you building?" I wanted to know why we were here.

"Getting straight to the point, are we?" He chuckled. "It's a machine I designed, meant to..well, this might be better explained with my reasons. In my multiverse, there were two beings that could have been considered evil; our creator simply didn't create AUs with evil beings, even making the fallen children good at soul..and would you like to know how many days it took for the good forces to overthrow two measly beings? One day. We were separated and exiled..but Errors are known for revenge..and so, to answer your question, the machine alters the code of beings..and forces them to be evil. I figure, once I've had my revenge on the creator of my multiverse, I can sell the machine to the villains..I'm sure they won't mind my borrowing their captives for this feat. As for my question, do you two know eachother?"

"..We do.." I felt that I had to answer; there were still unasked questions on my end. "Why do you need thousands of workers?"

"The machine, in order to alter that much code in so little time - roughly half a second - needs to be..large. The collars, at their current size, took one week to effectively alter only ten code mechanics. Despite the fact that I could have changed the code by hand, I would still be only a couple thousand in if I took no breaks right now; the collars were more efficient on multiple beings. How did you meet?"

"We're in neighboring multiverses..our masters agreed to let us associate with eachother on the terms of an alliance. Aren't you afraid someone's master will have a form of tracking that doesn't involve code?"

"That's why I designated warriors. Your code says you're two multiverses apart..are you also associated with the one between you?"

"Yes, but he isn't here. What are you planning on doing with us?"

"..That is a very smart question to ask, especially after knowing my plans.." He smiled. "But I will answer it with a question: are you evil?"

My soul must have skipped a beat when he asked that; the tone in his voice betrayed that he was..he was going to use us as test subjects..

"I see you understand." He resumed. "As for my game question, why isn't your other friend here?"

"..." I had to compose myself; there were still questions that had to be asked. "His code is broken..when the collar first began to work on him, it just injured him physically; it was removed before we were taken."

"Ah, I was wondering why there were only nine in your cell." 

"Is the process reversible?"

"I don't know..it will be interesting to test. Do you believe anyone will be coming for you?"

"...They'll try, but..I don't know if they'll succeed. What are you planning to do with everyone when the machine is finished?"

"I'll return them to the conference hall, after I see if the machine works. If it doesn't, you will all be kept longer. I am finished with my questions, but I sense that you have at least one more..ask it."

"What happens if the machine isn't finished and you're found out?"

"I tell the villains what I've borrowed their slaves for, and I have a feeling they'll allow me to finish..if not, I'll build it myself. With the questions over, I'll be taking you back to your cell; as the test subjects for this weapon, you will be kept safe until it is complete."

We were returned to the cell.

I wanted to be found.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Glitch bean and Umbra bean have a big uh-oh.

Wow this is the first chapter that doesn't physically include Dusty..

Thanks for reading my imprisoned writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust.

~~~~~

The past few weeks had been a mess. With the captives gone, some villains were just going insane..it wasn't pleasant when Ink was attacked because he was the only one who retained his captive..the villains were viciously jealous..and they had tried to kidnap me several times, leading to Ink's decision to carry me around in a baby sling until further notice. They acted as if they were children..and coming from me, that meant something. Aside from that aspect, the villains had eventually decided to ally with eachother to get the captives back - that had led to fewer kidnapping attempts, thankfully - and share information among eachother. After prolonged arguing, it was decided that the Nightmare's gang, the Dream, Ink, and I would be sent to wherever the captives were being held; Ink had volunteered them, of course, since it was likely dangerous, and he enjoyed action..they were also the least likely to kill everyone in sight..a lot of the villains had little self-restraint without their captives. Much progress had been made over the course of the few weeks, however - I believed that it had actually been over a month - including a kidnapping...a few kidnappings. 

"Can't you do anything?" A villain whined at a scientist that had been kidnapped from the hero convention a week or two ago; he had been taken to locate the missing captives.

"Well, excuse me if I'm not readily willing to advocate slavery!" The scientist had an attitude, however, and he hadn't done any work to help.

"We kidnapped you to help!" Another scoffed. "What are we supposed to do?!"

"It isn't as if we can threaten him.." The Dream wanted to threaten the scientist, but that would have been a bit of a hollow threat.

"Hmm.." Ink looked down at me with a smirk. "Dusty, would you please convince this scientist to assist us?"

"I don't wanna.." I didn't like to manipulate people..it was rude.

"Dusty, every second we sit here, making no progress, is another second something horrible may be happening to..your friends?"

I fliched at the thought..if Umbra and Glitch really were being hurt..if I could help..I had to..

"Only for them.." I mumbled.

"Good enough." Ink took me out of the sling and set me on the floor.

I sighed and walked up to the scientist - I was fairly sure that Ink had his eyelights locked firmly on me, just in case someone tried to kidnap me..again - slowly; when I reached him, I looked up at him with a sad expression. In the back of my mind, I was wondering how this Ink became a scientist..it interested me, but I couldn't focus on that right now.

"Mr. Scientist?" I addressed.

"Hm?" He looked down at me indifferently.

"I..I know this is going to sound selfish, but..would you please find them? My friends were taken with everyone else, and..I don't want them to be hurt. They're my best friends..please help find them..I can't imagine not seeing them again.." 

The scientist's expression turned to a frown as he thought about my request, and I walked back to Ink, who put me back into the baby sling.

"..Fine." The scientist nodded, beginning to work, and the villains were overjoyed; Ink rubbed my skull to calm me down, since I wasn't able to properly fake emotions..I had truly become very sad. 

Over the course of a week, the scientist made much progress with locating the kidnapped captives, and nine days after he had begun, he had an announcement to make to the villains.

"I found them." He stated, printing out a sheet of paper; most of the villains verbally or physically cheered, jumping for joy.

"How?" One was curious.

"The collars created portals. All that was necessary was to track the timespace distortion and track the endpoint of that many gateways in mere seconds of time; it was fairly simple."

"If it was so simple, how come it took so long?" Another huffed.

"Can you measure timespace distortion without first checking for anomalies, filtering out distractions, focusing grid values, pinpointing desirable locations-" The scientist was cut off.

"We get it; it was hard!" Ink just wanted to get the captives back to prevent more kidnapping attempts; the last one had almost gotten me! "Where are we going?"

"Multiverse 1874, universe 74,952. It's just a flat desert area; you should be able to see any structures for a thousand miles."

"And if we don't?"

"Teleport. Can I go now?"

"..Do we let him go..?" One villain didn't want to. 

"Unless someone wants a nerd." Another snickered.

"Oh, no, thank you!" Someone else created a portal. "Get outta here!"

"Thank you!" I waved to the scientist, who smiled sadly back at me before leaving.

"All right, let's get going." Ink created his own portal, leading the Nightmare's gang and the Dream through it. 

We came out in exactly what the scientist had said we would come out in: a desert. The universe was barren and dark, but in the distance, we could see a tall structure.

"That must be it." The Dream concluded. 

"Cross, you're good at stealth." The Nightmare turned to the aforementioned gang member. "Go ahead of us and report back; do not engage."

"Yes, Boss!" The Cross saluted, running toward the structure before eventually using teleportation to get closer. 

"So, how far away is it?" The Killer wasn't sure.

"Uh.." Ink opened a code bar. "About twenty miles."

"..Are we seriously going to walk.." The Killer paused for dramatic effect. "Twenty miles?!"

"Heck no, we're teleporting!" Ink scoffed at the ludicrous idea.

So our group teleported nineteen and a half miles closer, getting a much better view of the structure, which was..a castle..? Perhaps it was a fortress. I wasn't sure. A few minutes later, the Cross noticed our presence and approached us.

"It's heavily guarded, Boss." He began. "The captured captives are stationed around the inside, but no one is outside."

"Any trace of my brother, by any chance?" The Dream should have known that it was a long shot. 

"..." The Cross made an unsure sound before speaking. "That's the thing.."

"What is it?" The Nightmare asked.

"..There's a big laser thing in there..and both of them are chained beneath it..right in its line of fire."

"Are you certain it's them?" Ink wanted to make sure.

"I'm positive."

"Then we should hurry." The Nightmare had a plan, evidently. "I say we storm the place. Boys, you know what to do in events of fort invasions. Lumen, I'm fairly sure you can understand the term, 'attack without killing,' and.." The Nightmare stared at Ink silently for a moment. "You probably have a degree in this, don't you?"

"To some degree, yes." Ink chuckled. "Let's attack a fort."

The Nightmare's gang burst through the front exit as if they had owned the place, and a large commotion was enacted. The Dream accompanied them, while Ink and I were going straight to Glitch and Umbra, who were being threatened with a giant scary laser thing. Thirty seconds after the beginning of the break-in, the device began to..power up. I was afraid for my friends; what if that machine blew them to bits?! I whimpered in fear of that outcome; they were immortal, but if their bodies were destroyed beyond repair..I didn't know what would happen! Ink and I weren't stealthy enough to get close to Glitch and Umbra - Ink blamed my whimpers - when we were attacked by an Error..but this one didn't have a collar..he must have either been working for the person who had taken the captives..or he had taken them. It was at that point that I realized how much I hated fighting..and Ink was certainly..fighting. I closed my eyesockets and made myself as small as possible as the battle went on. Despite not wanting to see what was going on, I could certainly hear the events, and..it didn't sound nice. I was essentially Ink's shield, and I did not like that thought whatsoever!

The battle went on for about two minutes, with..I didn't actually know what was going on, but I hadn't been injured yet, which was a good sign..in my point of view, at least. Judging from the glitched grunts of pain, Ink was winning, which made sense; he had a lot of battle experience. 

"You can't stop it now.." The Error spoke, chuckling as I opened my eyesockets to see what was going on; Ink had ceased his attacking.

The Error was covered in paint and marks, but he didn't seem to mind it; I wished I had that type of resistance to pain! Ink..wasn't injured; I expected that. They were both looking at the laser, which seemed to have caught everyone else's attention, as well..it had been powering up for a couple minutes, and Glitch and Umbra were still trapped in the line of fire. It fired. A dark green stream of light fell from the weapon, and..it hit them. I screamed in desperation when they let out sounds of pain, but..the pain didn't last long. I clutched to Ink - the person closest to me - and cried; my friends were dead!

"What..did you do to them..?" Ink's voice had a slight tremble; was he mourning, too? Did he secretly care?

"This entire conflict could have been avoided if you had just asked in the first place.." The Error scoffed.

"I'm not that type of person..so what did you do?"

"The machine, if it works properly, makes a person..evil."

At that, I concluded that my friends weren't dead; they couldn't have been, right?! I turned my skull quickly, finding..life. My friends were alive! 

"Hold on..why didn't you just tell someone?" Ink glared at the Error. "The villain conference would have funded it!"

"Would a real villain have asked for funding?" The Error smirked.

"..Good point." 

"Besides, I'm gonna sell it to them when I'm done; I don't need it for long."

"And you're shrewd.."

"Would you like to call a truce?"

"..Hey, guys!" Ink shouted to the others, who had also stopped fighting when the laser struck. "Get over here!"

It took but a minute for the others to lose interest in fighting, since they were more interested in seeing if the machine had worked; I was the only one who hoped it hadn't. The Error, glad that there was cooperation from his new guests - except for me, but I didn't matter anyway - led us over to Glitch and Umbra, who were lying unconscious where they had previously stood; their wrists were bound with thick chains to the ground. 

"So..how did you say it works?" The Nightmare was intrigued.

"It essentially removes all traces of good that were ever in a person, turning them into a villain in an instant." The Error explained. "Code is a wonderful thing, as I'm sure your artist will gladly testify to."

"I've said it for centuries." Ink confirmed. 

"Here we are.." The Error stopped us about ten feet away from Glitch and Umbra. "Now..I haven't tested it before this..these two are the first. Will anyone volunteer to wake them?"

"Dusty will." Ink volunteered for me, putting me down on the ground. "Go, Dusty."

I didn't like the sound of this, but they were my friends..they wouldn't hurt me; I was sure of it. Slowly, I walked over to my unconscious friends, and I knelt down beside them, deciding to wake Glitch first; he had always protected me, and I was confident that he would never put me in harm's way! I hugged Glitch to wake him up, hoping that he would feel safe if I hugged him; I always felt safe when I was hugged, at least! Glitch soon began to stir, and I hugged him tighter, intending to bring him back to consciousness slowly and effectively. His eyesockets began to open groggily, and I decided to quietly greet him; I hoped that the machine hadn't worked..but Glitch wouldn't harm me, anyway!

"Hello, Glitch." I whispered, smiling at my half-awake friend.

"Dusty..?" He tried to focus on me. 

"Yes, it's Dusty, Glitch; you're safe now, and-"

He grabbed my neck.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dusty bean in trouble ._.

Thanks for reading my cliffhanger writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

Le cover

I hope y'all like it. The beans are a bit small, but I think it's all right.

Small beans are best beans to me.

The next chapter should be coming soon!

As in..a few days at most soon, as long as I don't hit a rough patch.

So..

Have a nice day!

Bye!

Chapter Text

UD!Nightmare.

~~~~~

I opened my eyesockets to the sound of bone cracking..for some reason, I wasn't bothered by it. I looked to the source of the sound, finding Glitch..with his hand around Dusty's neck; Dusty was being held in the air, struggling and crying. That should have worried me, but..I didn't really care. 

"Don't kill him!" The Ink glared at Glitch.

"And what do you plan to do if I do?" Glitch simply smirked.

"Ask if I can beat you to a pulp."

"That'll be hard when you're begging for my mercy for a change!"

"What is that supposed to mean?!" The Ink was angry; I couldn't seem to care. "You're in chains!"

"We can share."

"Okay, I've seen enough." The Nightmare decided. "Change them back."

"..I, uh.." The Error who had captured us chuckled nervously. "We're not quite at that level yet.."

"..You mean you can't change them back?"

"It'll either take time or a skilled code manipulator..who's willing to get close to them." He shrugged. "I'd suggest the former."

"I'll do it.." The Ink sighed, beginning to walk toward us.

"Take another step, and he's gone." Glitch threatened Dusty, and the Ink held his spot; Dusty was sobbing in Glitch's grasp.

"Can't you just reset him if he dies?" The Killer thought.

"Not if he does what I think he'll do..and I'm not willing to lose Dusty today." The Ink stated.

"Then what are we going to do with them until there's a way to fix them?" Dream questioned.

"We could lock them up." The Nightmare shrugged.

"Agh.." Dusty whimpered in Glitch's tight grip.

"Maybe not!" The Ink's quick words stopped Glitch's actions.

"Or maybe we could..ask them what they want to do..?" The Horror thought that that was a good plan.

"Perhaps.." The Nightmare turned to the other Error. "You'd better get to figuring out how to reverse this.."

"On it!" The Error ran off.

"So..." Dream spoke. "Do you two want to do anything?"

"Just have some protection." Glitch pulled the shaking Dusty closer to him. 

"Um..would you like to go to a different multiverse?" The Nightmare didn't seem to like this place. 

"..." Glitch turned to me, shrugging when I shook my skull. "Take us to your multiverse."

"Why are we listening to him?" The Killer scoffed. "He's a slave!"

"That 'slave' is currently holding a hostage, Killer, and if the hostage dies, the immortal artist will have our skulls." The Nightmare answered. "None of the rest of us have immortality."

"..I think we should listen to him."

So a portal was opened, and our chains were broken. The portal led us straight to the living room of the Nightmare's multiverse, and the first thing Glitch did was to create a plethora of strings that held Dusty's wrists tightly, forcing the small skeleton to stay within Glitch's reach at all times. 

"I suppose this means I'm not getting my Dusty back any time soon?" The Ink glared slightly at Glitch, but not enough to irritate the glitchy being.

"Why would I give him back?" Glitch scoffed with a smile. "You'd lock us up..and we can't have that.."

"What exactly are you intending to do?" The Nightmare was curious.

"Not sure yet." Glitch shrugged. "But we'll be sure to let you know.."

"This hurts.." Dusty whined, trying to shake the strings off his wrists.

"Hush." 

Dusty sighed, looking to the Ink longingly..probably because the Ink had his favorite doll. Silence reigned for about forty-five seconds before Dream spoke.

"Do you have anything special in mind, Nightmare?" Dream wanted to know; I simply shook my skull in response. "..Are you able to speak?" I nodded. "Are you going to?" I shook my skull.

"Well, if nobody else is going to suggest something, can we watch a movie?" The Cross hoped.

"..Undernovela." Glitch said.

The Ink started to giggle, gaining everyone's attention. 

"What's so funny about that?" Glitch wasn't in a particularly good mood.

"Oh, nothing.." The Ink smiled, reminiscing about something. "Just reminds me of the time I took my version of Error out on a trip..and forced him to watch as I destroyed every copy of that accursed universe before brutalizing and slowly killing the original. Good times..do you remember that, Dusty?"

"He cried for a week.." Dusty frowned.

"So he did."

"Sit down." Glitch ordered, resulting in everyone's sitting in front of a portal he had opened, which displayed a Spanish universe. 

The Ink was visibly annoyed when Glitch sat on the opposite side of the room from him, likely since Glitch had Dusty on his lap; the Ink preferred to keep Dusty to himself. Despite the fact that we were acting differently from normal, Dusty decided to simply accept his situation, cuddling up next to Glitch and taking an opportunity to fall asleep when his master had no control over him. As for the rest of us, we sat through five hours of Undernovela, and Glitch didn't allow anyone except Dusty to fall asleep. When the show was over, Glitch looked to me for something to do, but I really wasn't interested in doing anything right now..I believed that instead of turning me into an evil being, as the weapon had done to Glitch, it had simply dulled my emotions..I didn't feel evil, in any case. I just didn't care. With that in mind, I decided that it would be best to stay silent, lest I gave myself away. Glitch accepted my silence, thankfully, and he didn't question me.

"Weren't we supposed to report back to the others when we found the captives..?" Dream suddenly recalled.

"I sent Cross to do it." The Nightmare replied. "They know, and they're excited about it..but, quite frankly, I want the reversal."

"Being ordered around by your own slave must be rough.." The Ink chuckled.

"You're being ordered around, too.." Dream reminded.

"Yes, but I'm used to it..you should see how Dusty gets when he doesn't have his doll..he's a different monster, really.."

"You mean you let him order you around?" The Nightmare couldn't believe it.

"Occasionally. Not often..but he's gotten people killed when he's lost his doll."

"And you don't punish him for it?" Dream scoffed.

"It's difficult to truly punish someone who faces torture every day; isolation seems to be the only way to make him beg for mercy these days."

"I thought you would have kept a tighter leash.."

"His leash is fairly tight..it's snapped his neck a few times."

"..You actually collar him?" The Nightmare questioned.

"Sometimes, mostly on walks..less frequent in torture..but still there.." The Ink hummed. "Dusty!"

Dusty jolted awake, holding onto Glitch tightly as he regained his bearings. Glitch glared harshly at the artist, holding Dusty comfortingly; it seemed as if he hadn't turned entirely evil, then..

"He isn't yours to command at this time." Glitch growled. "Leave him be."

"He's still my property!" The Ink huffed.

"Not right now." Glitch rubbed Dusty's skull to soothe him, but Dusty seemed to have found a purpose.

"..Doll?" He spoke quietly, eyeing his doll yearningly. 

"You only get this under my control, Dusty." The Ink shook his skull, hiding the doll from sight. 

Dusty began to cry. Glitch held him in place as he tried to reach his doll, preventing him from carrying out the action of recovering it, and as a result, Dusty cried harder. 

"Oh, yes, he's an entirely different monster." The Nightmare scoffed.

"Just wait for it." The Ink smirked. "He'll come around."

"G-Glitch, pl-please.." Dusty begged.

"It's a trap." Glitch rolled his eyelights.

"L-l-lemme fall f-for it!" 

"Under no circumstances."

Dusty eventually stopped crying, after eight hours and fifty-three bedtime stories. After that, he simply curled up and stayed still, occasionally moving slightly, but not moving much..until two more hours had passed. By this time, Glitch had decided to take a nap, and I was making sure that nothing bad happened. Unfortunately, Dusty had other plans. In one quick motion, he hopped out of Glitch's lap and darted for the Ink, who gave him his doll and rubbed his skull rewardingly. 

"Hey!" Glitch had woken from the sudden motion, but he was unable to regain control over Dusty; the Ink had hidden the small skeleton behind him. 

"Grab them!" The Nightmare ordered, causing his men to come for us. 

Glitch put up a fight, but I didn't; I knew that we were doomed, and I didn't want to waste any energy. Glitch was taken down within two minutes, thankfully, and he wasn't able to fight against his new restraints. 

"How'd he escape..?" The Nightmare was unsure. "You can't just break those strings.."

"Dusty is very.." Ink picked a piece of string out of Dusty's teeth, which looked as if they had seen better days..he must have bitten through the strings. "Inventive..when he wants to be."

"My mouth hurts.." Dusty mumbled.

"Shut up, Dusty." Ink faced us. "Hold them down; I'm going to fix them manually."

The Ink was considered a master at code manipulation, knowing how and where to insert or delete specific bits of code in order to achieve his desired result, and he fixed both of us within five minutes..although we were in agony. Dusty had once said that code manipulation was usually painless, but some manipulators could make it painful; the Ink was obviously one of them. When the manipulation finished, we collapsed; it was better than screaming, at least. We were soon lifted to our feet and forced to sit on a couch, where our masters glared at us.

"Wh-what happened..?" Glitch held his skull. "I feel like I was hit by a train.."

"Well, that's a new one.." The Ink hummed. "It's usually a car or a bus."

"Do you really keep track of the responses you get?" The Killer wondered.

"Sometimes."

"Do you remember anything of the last few weeks?" The Nightmare asked.

"Um..no?" Glitch shook his skull.

"Good. We'll leave it that way."

I decided to pretend that I had no recollection either, and no one questioned it. There was an "unexpected" beating after a few minutes that lasted a couple hours, but Glitch received most of the pain, since I didn't really do anything bad. Dusty's master spent the time getting the remainder of Glitch's strings off Dusty's wrists. When the beating was over and Dusty was no longer bound, the Ink decided to speak.

"Well, the villain conference has been rescheduled to next week." He notified. "I guess I'll see you then?"

"Yes, but this time, no collars." Dream groaned. 

"I agree." The Nightmare nodded. "If I want my slave collared, I'll do it myself."

"Indeed." The Ink smiled at Dusty. "Well, I have things to do at home; come, Dusty."

The Ink created a portal home, and Dusty waved at us before running through after the artist. Dream followed the Ink's lead and opened a golden portal. After saying a quick goodbye, he pulled me through the portal, and we found ourselves back home, under the tree. I felt rather..happy to be home; I hadn't enjoyed the prison we had been held in for so long, and seeing the familiar green grass of Dreamtale was a pleasant reminder that not everything was bad. Of course, having Dream's shopping list shoved into my face brought me back to reality..where almost everything was bad. I sighed, taking the list into the village and thinking about what to do next week..perhaps something exciting could happen? I wondered if the others had anything planned; perhaps I could arrange for them to see one of the more beautiful views in this universe..there were a lot of them, and Dream would probably let us go for a little bit..I hoped. He was a bit controlling at times, and he believed that a slave's only purpose was to work..I wished he were kinder sometimes. Accepting the reality that he wasn't kind, I resolved to at least try to make my friends happy next week, since they needed it..honestly, we all needed it, but we had to work together to make eachother happy..

And I knew that we always would.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Beans are okie.

I meant for this side story to be longer..but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Thanks for reading my evil writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Ink.

~~~~~

Not many things could hold my attention for long. Torturing a specific person could become boring, and I would have to switch to a different victim. Teaching Dusty new tricks was fun, but if he messed up too many times on the same one, it was just annoying. Dusty was the only person who could keep me occupied. When I had first discovered the villain conference, I hadn't thought much of it; it was just a gathering of weaklings..until I realized that there were others like me..with slaves. Seeing others interact with their lower beings made me want to bring Dusty along..and I eventually did. Now, the villain conference was more than a gathering..I had friends who were like me, and I loved it. I was no longer the strongest being I knew, and I liked it! This year had been a bit hectic, but a simple rescheduling was able to make everything better. Dusty was excited to get some actual time with his friends, which was understandable; he hadn't been able to spend any real time with them as a result of the kidnapping. As for the Error that had perpetrated it, the villains respected the villainous conduct and gave him a medal for his invention..and they bought it for a grand total of ten thousand G and two hundred pounds of chocolate.

"Dusty, hurry up!" I sighed, waiting for my toy to finish saying goodbye to his bunnies.

"C-coming!" He called from his corner, running out a few seconds later.

"Finally." I created a rope around each of our right wrists and made a portal to the conference, wanting to get there early.

Of course, early was relative. If everyone wanted to get there early, it was no longer early. As a result, Dusty and I stood in a line for two hours. After that line, we went to the entrance of the captive lounge, where we stood in a line for another hour. I wished the captive lounge had some form of license or something of that sort to make it so waiting in line every year wasn't necessary, but, alas, that hadn't been created yet. 

"Welcome-" The one running the entrance paused when I cut him off.

"Dusty, Dusttale Sans, ten years old, three feet, he's broken, a toy, he has identification, he can keep his doll, a custom space, seven thousand magic points every three-day timespan." I knew the questions by soul, despite not having one. 

"..All right." The worker quickly wrote down the facts. "Would you like to sign him up for a program?"

"..What kind of program?" I was suspicious..the collars had only been implemented a short time ago, and they had been detrimental.

"It's a class for captives that teaches obedience and other skills."

"Who made it?"

"A Nightmare."

"..One of those teacher types?" I recalled that my Nightmare had enjoyed teaching others.

"Yes."

"How does it handle disobedience?"

"It depends on your preference; if you would like him to be punished severely or not at all, that's entirely your decision, and he won't be harmed if you don't wish him to be."

"...Would you like to do that, Dusty?" I looked to my toy, who shook his skull fearfully. "Sign him up, please."

"How would you like his disobedience handled, then?"

"What are my options?"

"No reprimand, small cuts, non-scarring, small punishments, medium punishments, large ones, severe, and mercilessly."

"..." I smiled at my scared toy. "Mercilessly."

"Would you like an advanced or beginner curriculum?"

"Whichever will bring him the most suffering."

"Advanced, then. You're all good to go; have a nice stay." 

The worker handed me Dusty's form, as always, and I walked Dusty to his designated area, enjoying the sound of his crying; he really didn't want to join that program. When we reached the area, none of the others were there, which made sense; we had come "early." After waiting about an hour, I recognized some familiar figures. After the first year, we had decided to give eachother nicknames, since it was odd to know more than one of someone. Honestly, I didn't mind it, but the others insisted, and I decided to accept it. My nickname was Sable, after the type of paintbrush. The Dream was Lumen. The Nightmare was called Tenebra, and he had nicknamed the rest of his gang in Latin as well..I didn't understand the Latin fixation of Dreamtale twins. The Killer was Neco, the Horror was Pavor, the Cross was Confligo, and the Dust was Pulvis. Honestly, I couldn't keep up with the stupid Latin names, but I tried my best; I could at least remember the names..usually. Tenebra usually just called his gang by their regular names, but Lumen and I were obliged to use the nicknames, just because. I was glad that they hadn't tried to name me in Latin; my name didn't translate well, and I was thankful for it!

"Hey!" I greeted happily, smiling at the arrival of my friends. 

"Hello." Tenebra returned. 

"Hi." Lumen smiled. 

"So, did you guys sign up for the program thing?" I questioned.

"Originally, I wasn't going to, but I changed my mind when I remembered the 'inconvenience compensation.'" Lumen chuckled.

"The what?" I hadn't heard of that.

"Didn't you get anything?" Tenebra inquired. 

"No?"

"Oh..everyone who was parted from their captive or captives received compensation for it - about a hundred G."

"..Dusty, why didn't you get kidnapped like everyone else?!" I sighed.

"Oh, you probably don't need it anyway." Lumen shrugged. "You're one of the richest people here!"

"..True." I grinned at the thought of all the tax G I recieved from my subjects.

"How much do you make each year, anyway?" Neco wondered.

"Oh, let's see..." I hummed in thought. "Excluding costs, I make over one billion G a year - maybe two, with the constant conquerings."

"..You're rich." Confligo muttered.

"I suppose I am. In any case, did you sign up?"

"I signed him up." Lumen smirked at his brother, who sighed.

"We signed ours up, as well." Tenebra confirmed. 

"Cool. Do you think they'll be in the same class?"

"Advanced?" Tenebra inquired, and Lumen and I both nodded. "Then I don't doubt it."

"Well, that's enough hanging around here; I hear they've got some prisoners to use the new weapon on, and I wanna see it up close." 

"Agreed." Lumen nodded, turning to walk toward the exit. 

As we walked, I decided to ask about some old friends.

"So, how are your Ink and Dream doing?" I giggled at the memories of torture.

"They're still in intense therapy." Tenebra said. "I think they're speaking in fractured sentences now, but I don't check regularly; I usually depend on our Error - he sometimes visits, the nut."

"Why would they let your Destroyer in?"

"He claimed that he actually pities them, and after the first few visits with no injuries, they just accepted his visits; he's not evil, you know, although he has an alliance with us."

"Yeah, I know. So, are you unchallenged?"

"Not really." Pavor shrugged. "The AUs got volunteer judges to take the Stars' place."

"Interesting. I think the testing is taking place over here." 

I directed the others in our group into the presentation room, where the large weapon stood in the center of an arena-like area. We took our seats in the very front to get the best view, waiting for the presentation to begin.  

"Sable, do you know who's going to be turned?" Tenebra questioned.

"I think the hero conference was raided." I replied.

"In that case, this should be good." Lumen chuckled in a way most Dreams wouldn't consider..we thought it normal. 

"I hope they beat 'em first." Neco liked to watch beatings. "Teach 'em what they get for messing with us."

"Maybe more than just that." Pulvis smirked.

After a small waiting period, the arena seats had been filled, and we considered ourselves lucky to be in the front row; we definitely got the best view. The prisoners were soon brought in by a few villains, and they were, funnily enough, still fighting against their restraints. They were trapped in a cage which they tried in vain to escape, and I got a good look at them. One of those Templates, three alternates of myself, and two Dreams..perfect. A happy-looking Error - not the one who had kidnapped the captives - stepped up with a microphone to announce today's special event. 

"Welcome, villains, to a showing of the invention that was made by our slaves!" He muttered something under his breath before continuing; many villains were still annoyed that the captives had been kidnapped in the first place. "Now, we have a total of six heroes that we kidnapped from the hero conference, and we're going to be delighted to show off this wonderful invention!"

"Wanna start a chant?" Neco hoped.

"Yeah, let's get several hundred villains chanting madly." I giggled.

"You guys act like children sometimes." Lumen scoffed. "Let's do it."

"Beat 'em!" Neco yelled, which gained a few voices of agreement. 

Within twenty seconds, the entire arena was chanting for the prisoners to be beaten first, and the Error shrugged.

"Well, I guess we can't argue with that." He gave a soft laugh. "Will anyone volunteer to beat these poor heroes?"

Almost the entire audience, us included, raised their hands.

"..We're limiting this to ten people." The Error quickly stated.

So ten people - not us, unfortunately - were chosen from the audience to have the honor of beating some prisoners, and they certainly did beat them..harshly. Honestly, the show was fun to watch, and I found myself captivated by the cracks and screams. Two hours later, the beating ended, and the heroes were in fairly bad condition, but they weren't going to be spared from their evil fates. Their broken bodies were dragged back to the cage, except for one of the Inks, who was instead dragged to a platform and chained to two poles that forced him to stay in one spot. He whimpered as the weapon was powered up, and the entire audience watched intently. The laser fired with a beam of green light, and the Ink screamed in agony, but the crowd didn't cheer just yet; we wanted to ensure that it had worked. Sure, it had worked on our slaves, but what about a soulless being? There was no guarantee. I watched closely at the Ink's expression as the Error went to wake him from his slumber; the Error used a long stick, just in case the victim showed hostility. When the Ink woke from the prodding, he growled lowly. That was when the cheering started. 

"I wonder what it would do to someone who was already evil.." I thought out loud.

"It would probably just make them more evil, or do nothing, I suppose." Tenebra shrugged. "I wouldn't suggest chanting that; they might sign you up, since you suggested it."

"True, true." I hummed as the next victim was chained, screaming for mercy. "Speaking of signing up, I wonder how our trio is doing in 'school.'"

"They're probably strengthening eachother and giving eachother encouragement through the power of 'friendship,' or whatever." Tenebra rolled his eyelight. "I wouldn't let them near eachother if it wouldn't mean that we couldn't call ourselves friends."

"It's more fun to let them be friends; their actions can unwittingly lead to the punishment of another, and their reactions are priceless. Also, Dusty requires company; if he was forced to sit there, alone, it would essentially be isolation, and it would be torture to him. I usually like torture, but isolation can drive him to levels of insanity, and I have to monitor him constantly to make sure he doesn't turn into an animal."

"..How do you know that?" Lumen inquired.

"Once, I left him in an isolation chamber for three months, and when I came back, he didn't remember his name, and he barely remembered his friends; he was covered in blood, too. From that point on, I made sure to monitor him."

"Interesting.." Tenebra hummed, ignoring the crowd's cheers at the turning of the second victim. "Does he fear it?"

"Oh, most certainly; he's terrified of being isolated. I offered him the choice of the most excruciating physical torture I could offer and a day of isolation once; he chose the torture - begged me for it." 

"Wow, a slave begging for torture?" Pulvis chuckled. "I have got to see that!"

"I'll pop the question later for you, then." I said. "Just remind me."

"Thanks!"

"What are friends for?"

"Swindling and unwarranted favors." Confligo answered.

"True. What are real friends for, then?"

We decided to watch as the third victim, the Template, was brought up; he was more verbal than the others.

"N-no, let me go!" He struggled, even with his broken bones. "I-I don't want to be evil! P-please!"

His turning was an enjoyable sight, especially since he was begging for mercy until he fell unconscious; the others had just screamed. The final three went as easily as the first, and before long, there were six new villains in the omniverse. The heroes would likely freak out when they heard of this invention, but, quite frankly, we didn't care; they couldn't do anything.

They were powerless against villains.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Villain sausages do stuff.

Hehe, remembering those nicknames is gonna be fun..

Not-

Thanks for reading my nicknaming writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust.

~~~~~

I didn't like the fact that Ink had signed me up for the program..I sensed pain in my future, as well as in the futures of my friends. My Nightmare had used to teach us about things in a classroom..but I didn't think that this Nightmare would be so kind. A short while after our owners had left us, a few conference workers went around the captive lounge, collecting those who had been signed up. There weren't too many of us, really, likely since most of the villains were hesitant to sign their captives up for anything else that could possibly lead to pain, but there were at least one hundred of us, maybe two hundred. When the workers reached our area, we stood together, and we followed with the rest of the "students." We were soon led to a room that looked nothing like a classroom, and those who had been signed up for the "advanced" class - including us - were taken to an adjoining room, which looked even less like a classroom. I hugged Glitch and Umbra tightly as we were led to places to sit.

"I'm scared.." I stated my fear.

"I know..we are, too." Glitch sighed.

When I was separated from my friends and forced to sit down as they were led on, I hugged my Hope tightly, looking around the scary room. The walls were a dark gray, and the lights were dim. There were no desks or chairs, as one would expect from a school; there were only mats. The room was large enough that the mats were four feet apart; there were only about thirty of us, but it was still large. The walls had torture devices on them, ranging from whips to electric shockers, and I flinched when I saw collars..the recent experiences we had had were enough to warrant a fear of them. The mats were empty, but they were large enough to hold torture devices. In the front of the room was the only desk in the room, a teacher's desk, and a chalkboard was almost unnoticeable on the wall behind it. When we were all seated, the workers left and the door was locked, preventing any attempts at escape. A Nightmare promptly teleported in, sitting down in his chair behind the teacher's desk. 

"Greetings, lower beings." He didn't seem kind. "First off, you will refer to me as sir, and-" He was cut off when I raised my hand. "What?"

"W-well..my master d-doesn't allow me to c-call people that.." I stated; in Ink's world, he was the only 'sir.'"

"..." The Nightmare held his foreskull. "Does anyone else have that restriction?"

No one else did. 

"Very well." He continued. "In that case, you will just call me 'teacher'; is that acceptable?"

"Yes, teacher.." I nodded.

"Good. Moving on, the rest of you will call me sir, and you shall do so in every instance in which you speak; it is a form of respect, and you will be taught to do the same with your masters. Next, there shall be no talking unless you are called on, and you must raise your hand to be called on. Failure to do so, or to fail to refer to me as the title assigned to you, or to disobey or ignore any rule in this classroom, will be met with punishment. Some of you are free of that, since your masters have decided to be generous; I won't harm any of you. As for the rest of you, you likely already know how you are to be treated. According to your masters, you have been put into categories of pain, ranging from small punishments to merciless ones; you may find the devices for those punishments around you. In this class, you will be taught how to act, and you will be taught well, but first, you will be sorted into categories. As most of you know, there are three main types of captive: slaves, pets, and toys. Slaves are mostly meant for work. Pets are often treated the best, but unkind masters do have them; they are usually meant for companionship. Toys, my personal favorite, are meant for anything, and their masters are often..erratic. With that said, toys, stay seated; pets, stand; and slaves, you stand and put your hands in the air."

I stayed seated, knowing that I was a toy. Umbra and Glitch were both essentially slaves, but Umbra's brother liked to classify him as a pet. As I looked around the room, I was a bit frightened..I was the only one who was a toy..and that meant that I would get more attention..attention was bad. 

"All right, eleven pets, fifteen slaves, and..one toy." The Nightmare smirked at me, as I knew he would..attention was my least favorite thing, sometimes. "You may all be seated now."

Everyone else sat, and I hugged my Hope tightly; this was going to be horrible. The Nightmare stared at me before saying the words I dreaded.

"Now, for this class, there will be a necessary volunteer aspect, and I believe that you all know exactly what I mean." He chuckled. "If no one volunteers, I will choose one of you according to a specific criteria..and there shall be no changing my mind. Any volunteers?"

No one moved; volunteering would be hell. 

"I see." He pulled out some paper. "My criteria is the selection of merciless punishments..and I prefer to have toys."

I began to shake as he looked at me with intent; he was going to hurt me..he was going to hurt me!

"I suppose you-" The Nightmare was cut off.

"Wait!" Glitch called out. "D-don't pick him! Pick me!"

"..." The Nightmare shook his skull. "Self-sacrificing gets you nowhere. I'm afraid I've already chosen the volunteer; you may not be chosen. You had your chance; face the consequences."

I began to cry; I was glad that Glitch wouldn't be hurt, but I certainly was going to be hurt!

"What is your name, volunteer?" The Nightmare didn't care that I was crying.

"D-D-Dust-ty.." I stuttered through my sobs, hoping that someone would save me from this horrific place they dared to call school. 

"Dusty..a very nice name. With that done, we can begin our first lesson: knowing your place. Now, some of you here are pets, and your masters may allow you more freedom than most captives, treating you nicely and making sure you're happy. This class won't get in the way of that, I assure you, but you must remember that you are lower beings. Your worth isn't as high as the rest of us. The slaves and toy likely know this already. One ability that comes with knowing your place is one of the simplest, and I shall demonstrate it. Dusty, come here."

I sighed, expecting pain. After putting my Hope down on the mat to spare it from harm, I walked to the front of the class, facing the scary teacher. He wasted no time in pulling my arm behind my back, threatening to crack it. At this point, I was glad about my pain tolerance; broken bones didn't affect me too much, although they did scare me. I closed my eyesockets and prepared for the jolt of pain I would receive..but nothing came.

"..Aren't you going to beg for mercy?" The Nightmare had expected that.

"Was I..supposed to, teacher..?" I tilted my skull; begging for mercy over a broken bone would have been ridiculous, at this point.

"..Yes.."

"Oh..sorry, teacher." I apologized. "I-I'll start over." I took a deep breath and tried my best to look scared. "P-please, mercy!"

"..." The Nightmare sighed. "This wasn't the lesson I wanted to teach, but I guess it's still a good place to begin. Now, students, begging for mercy is one of the core values of an abusive relationship. Your masters want to know that you would stoop so low as to beg them for mercy, because then they know that they are the ones in control, not you. If you don't beg for mercy, it should only be in scenarios in which you won't be very harmed, such as a small slap. If your master threatens to snap your arm, begging is appropriate. Now, the proper way to beg is like so."

This teacher wasn't very kind. If something was done incorrectly, he would punish us. The ones with light punishments were lucky..within the first three hours, I had suffered nine forms of torture..and five of them were for nothing. The teacher liked me..I could tell by the way he didn't hold back. Apparently, the class sessions lasted for twenty hours, but there were only two of them each conference, to still make time for our masters to enjoy our company..or something of the sort. By the eighteenth hour, I was eternally grateful for my pain tolerance..if this had taken place ten years ago, I didn't think I would still be alive. 

"Now, we only have an hour and a half left for this session, students." The teacher stated, at some point. "Many of you have done well..and some of you have done..not so well. Let me remind you that this class will be graded, and your masters will receive a report card based on your performance. With that in mind, I encourage you to work hard to do well in this class. Our last subject for this session will be on the basis of possessions."

I held my Hope tightly when he said that; he was targeting me, and I hated it!

"I see that a number of you have certain possessions that your masters have allowed you to keep for yourselves." He smiled at me. "Now, your masters must be very kind to allow you to have such things; many masters wouldn't think it. That said, you are privileged. But you must remember that anything you 'own' is truly the property of your master, and it is a gift to you. Are you thankful for that gift? Do you show your appreciation for it? Or do you take it for granted..as if you thought nothing of it? Allow me to demonstrate. I see that Dusty is one of the privileged. Come up here."

I whimpered slightly, holding my Hope with all of my strength as I slowly made my way up to the teacher's desk. He didn't try to hurt me right away, thankfully, only looking at me.

"So, Dusty, how long have you had this toy?" He asked.

"Um.." I thought about it. "B-between ten and f-fifteen years.."

"That's a long time. Are you content with it?"

"M-mhm." I nodded.

"Are you thankful for it?"

"Y-yes."

"How do you show your thankfulness?"

"I-I keep i-it safe.."

"What is 'safe'?"

"M-making sure..n-no one hurts i-it."

"I see. What do you do if someone takes it?"

"G-get it b-back.."

"What if you can't?"

"..M-my master makes s-sure I do.."

"So he cares about it?"

"Y-yes.."

"What if he takes it?"

"..." I thought about the last time Ink had done that..it had also been the first..

"Well?"

"Y-you don't want t-to know.."

"..What did you do?"

"..I.." I didn't want to say that. "N-not allowed to s-say.."

"..I see. Were you respectful about it?"

I paused, before shaking my skull.

"And that is what we try to avoid, students." He picked up. "Now, when your master takes something away from you, you are not to cry, and you are not to scream. You accept it. Now, I shall demonstrate." He reached for my Hope! "I'll be gentle with it.."

I didn't trust him..I held my Hope closer, backing away slightly. Allowing bad teachers to touch my Hope was against all laws. 

"This is a necessary part of being a volunteer." His glare threatened me, but I didn't care; my Hope was more important. "You are holding up this class."

He sighed, reaching out and grabbing my Hope, but I wouldn't let go! I wouldn't let the bad teacher take it! 

He pulled roughly, forcing my Hope from my hands.

When the class ended, we were taken back to our areas, and I hugged my Hope tightly as I sat down next to Glitch and Umbra, allowing them to comfort me after my traumatic experience. Our masters came back a while later, and Ink's eyelights widened at the sight of me.

"Dusty?!" He ran up to me, opening the barrier and examining me. "What happened to you?!"

"..." I hugged my Hope tightly.

"He looks as if he's seen better days.." The Dream hummed. 

"Dusty, tell me what happened." Ink ordered.

"..The teacher was mean." I said. "He t-took my doll.."

"..." Ink nearly flinched. "..I should have left a note.."

"What?" The Nightmare questioned.

"Did you at least leave him alive?" Ink hoped.

"..He's alive.." I shrugged. 

"How alive is he?"

"..Mostly?"

"Dusty, what did you do?"

"...I was justified.."

"Tell me, Dusty."

"..I..stabbed his soul..a couple times.." I sighed.

"How many is a couple?"

"..Maybe..ten?"

Ink brought a hand up to his foreskull. "Dusty, you're way too overprotective of that doll."

"I-I can't help it!"

"I know..I know.."

"Is this..what you meant by a..different monster?" The Nightmare was shocked.

"Yes, unfortunately.." Ink wiped a bit of the teacher's goop off my face. "Did he receive medical help?"

"They pulled me off him.."

"I see..are you certain he's alive?"

"They performed SR..it began to beat again, after an hour."

"SR?" The Dream hadn't heard of it. 

"It's an acronym for Soul Resuscitation." The Nightmare cleared up. "Essentially human CPR, but for monsters." 

"Oh.." The Dream didn't know much about monster medicine, since most of the villagers in his Dreamtale were humans or human-like monsters.

"Well..how did class go before that?" Ink wanted to change the subject.

"The teacher was mean..he punished us for nothing.." I didn't want to go back to that class.

 "That's what I was counting on, Dusty. I'll speak with your teacher before the next session..if there will be one..he won't try to take your doll again, okay?"

"O-okay.."

"Hey, Sable?" The Dust in the Nightmare's gang spoke up. "Would this be a bad time?"

"..." Ink thought for a moment. "Oh! No, I don't think this would be a bad time! This is actually..the perfect time. Dusty, stabbing your teacher was a very bad thing to do..I'll have to punish you, I'm afraid."

I frowned..I knew he would punish me. 

"But since I'm kind..I'll give you a choice." Ink smiled. "You can either endure ten hours of merciless torture..or one hour of..isolation."

I froze when he mentioned that horrible word..I didn't want to be isolated!

"T-torture.." I chose.

"Oh, I don't know, Dusty..isolation might be better." He hummed.

"N-no, p-please.."

"Please what?"

"P-please..torture me.."

"Oh..you want the torture?"

"Yes!"

"But that's ten times longer than the isolation..wouldn't you prefer the shorter one?"

"N-no! I-I want..th-the torture.." 

"Very well, Dusty; I'll torture you."

"Th-thank you.." I was grateful that he wouldn't isolate me..

"Of course, Dusty."

"Dang, he wasn't joking!" The Killer giggled.

"Well, I have some torture to perform..does anyone want to join me?" Ink picked me up.

"I'll come; it'll be fun." Umbra's brother volunteered. 

"We'll see you guys later, then." Ink began to carry me away, with the Dream following close behind. 

I hadn't enjoyed that school.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio goes to school ;-;

And Dusty schools the teacher xD

Thanks for reading my schooling writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

FDIR!Error.

~~~~~

The school had been..informative. It essentially laid out exactly how the villains expected us to act, and it did so simply. It gave us a list of standards and tried to force us to obey them, punishing us if we didn't conform. Some villains pulled their captives out of the program when they realized it..but ours actually liked the curriculum. They found that the Nightmare's standards aligned with theirs..almost perfectly..and they encouraged us to pay attention. When we arrived at the second session, there were only half the students there had been before, and when we left..there was only a quarter; many of our classmates had run for their lives when the teacher went through an in-depth punishment simulation..Dusty was the unwilling victim of the scenario. I believed that the teacher was just taking revenge on Dusty for the event earlier..and he did so without a shred of mercy. When the second session ended, I had to carry Dusty out of the class; he had been almost entirely paralyzed. As soon as we reached our area, I laid Dusty down on the ground, and both Umbra and I comforted him as we waited for our owners to arrive.

"Hey, d-don't leave us.." Umbra didn't think that sleep was good for Dusty, especially since we couldn't gauge the state of his soul.

"Stay with us, buddy." I pulled Umbra's blanket over the small skeleton to stave off the coldness of the floor, knowing our friend wouldn't mind. 

"I-I..s-stay.." Dusty mumbled quietly.

"That's good, Dusty; that's very good." 

Umbra and I managed to keep Dusty awake until our owners arrived, twenty minutes later. By that time, Dusty's eyelights were dimming much more than usual..he was dying. To Dusty's owner, that was just a normal part of life, but..I didn't want to watch my friend die, even if he would come back.

"Oh, Dusty!" Dusty's owner skipped happily over to us, but his bright demeanor faded when he noticed Dusty's condition. "..What happened to him?"

"The teacher got revenge.." Umbra frowned. 

"Oh..well, never mind that! I have more important things to deal with."

"C-can't you help him?"

"..." The artist rolled his eyelights. "I suppose..I don't feel like resetting him right now. Hold him still." 

We did as instructed, and the artist used his green paint on Dusty's bones, effectively saving Dusty from an untimely death.

"Th-thank you." Dusty sat up, hugging his Hope. 

"All right, you promised us a surprise when we got here." Nightmare said, walking up with the others.

"Ah, yes!" The Ink smiled happily. "You probably don't know this, but my empire will be having its twenty-fifth anniversary in two months, and you're invited!"

"Oh?" The Dream seemed interested. "Twenty-five years is a lot.."

"I hope for many more." The artist smiled. "So, if you have time, the party will be held in my compound, which is located in the original Undertale, and all you'll have to do is find the giant building in the center of Snowdin, approach a high rank - they have a special insignia on their armor - and tell them that you're my personal guests. Oh, and if they don't believe you, just say, 'Darn you, let us in!' and you'll be fine! From that point, you can ask anyone for directions, and they'll be happy to help!"

"I believe we'll look forward to visiting.." Nightmare chuckled. 

"It's bound to be fun! Dusty's been helping me set it up for the past month, and he's very good at decorating, aren't you, Dusty?"

"N-not..r-really.." Dusty shook his skull.

"..Shut up, Dusty. In any case, he's helped me, and the party looks as if it'll be one of the best we've ever had."

At that statement, one of the conference workers walked up to our owners, holding some papers and handing them to our respective owners.

"What's this?" The Ink hummed, looking at the paper. "Ooh, a report card! Isn't that fun, Dusty?"

Dusty just whimpered, holding onto my jacket. 

"Let's see.." The artist looked over the statistics carefully. "You got a 'Z,' Dusty..which is apparently the lowest possible grade! Great job!"

"A 'B.'" The Dream scoffed at Umbra's grade. "How fitting."

"You received a 'P.' Nightmare shrugged.

"Don't these things usually go from A to F?" Killer thought. 

"Villains don't use that hero logic." The Ink clarified. "We have the whole alphabet, so we will use the whole alphabet!"

"I-Ink?" Dusty spoke up, timidly.

"Yes, Dusty?"

"A-are you g-going to hurt me? B-because I did b-bad?"

"...Heh..ha!" The Ink began to laugh. "Hurt you?! I'll do more than hurt you!" The Ink paused, calming himself. "Let's just say that we'll have a nice trip to the dungeon when you get home..and then some.."

"O-okay.."

"..Aren't you supposed to be scared? Scary dungeon?"

"Not for four weeks.." Dusty thought rationally.

"Eh, true..well, the conference is going to end soon..anyone got any cool plans for our last few hours?"

"We could have another torture session." The Dream smirked.

"Or we could test out fears." Nightmare chuckled.

"What kind of fears?" The artist asked.

"Perhaps...collars."

"I love that idea!" The Ink giggled madly. "Do you have any?"

"No, do you?"

"I don't." The Dream replied.

"I've got it..just pick a color." The artist pulled out his brush.

"Black." Nightmare smiled at me.

"Purple, to match him." The Dream requested.

"And Dusty will have red." 

The artist created the accursed collars, and each of our owners picked one, before turning to us. The recent event concerning collars had gotten many captives to develop a fear of them, and we were no exception. Dusty's owner was the first to wrap a collar around his slave's neck, and Dusty screamed for mercy as the artist tightened it to..extreme lenths. Before the process was done, cracks were heard from the pressure. Umbra was next, having the purple collar locked around his neck in no time, and he cried from the familiar feeling; the Dream didn't tighten it as much as Dusty's owner had. I was last, and mine was tight, but not as tight as Dusty's, and I counted that as luck. As soon as we were collared and leashed, our masters decided to torture us, and we were inside a torture chamber within ten minutes, even with screaming and crying along the way; at some point, Dusty had just laid down and allowed his owner to drag him along by his leash, not moving. We weren't chained up to begin with, as we usually were, instead having our leashes tied to a few nails that were high up on a wall, essentialy hanging us; it hurt.

"Well, who'll go first?" The Ink inquired.

"May we?" Nightmare hoped. 

"Of course. One hour, but you can torture all of them simultaneously."

"Sounds perfect." 

I had never been suspended by a rope above the ground before. The sensation felt as if..my skull was just being..pulled off. It never got to that point, but it hurt. When the gang stepped up, they began to pull down on us, increasing the amount of pain we were in and effectively forcing us to scream out in agony. At some point, Dusty was killed - decapitated from the pressure - but he was reset soon enough, and he was put right back on the wall to suffer more. When pulling down became boring, they began to pull us back as much as they could before letting us go, to ram into the cold, hard stone wall. Dusty died again when one of his ribs broke, shattering his soul, and, as before, he was reset, again. Dusty perished five times from the different torture methods, and by the time it was over, he was tired..he hadn't slept in over a day, with that school session taking twenty hours..in fact, none of us had.

"Stay awake, Dusty!" The Ink slapped Dusty to keep him awake, but Dusty continued his descent into slumber. "..Fine, have it your way." 

The artist pulled out a bucket of paint and threw it at Dusty, effectively sending the small skeleton into mid-air convulsions and ruining any chances of his sleep..his screams were ear-piercing. 

"I hope this teaches you a lesson, Dusty." The artist chuckled at his work.

Dusty was given a chance to calm down before the next round of torture, and it was the Dream's turn. The Dream's weapon of choice was his whip, and he could use it on all of us. Dusty didn't die this time, thankfully, but he did scream..and cry. Umbra and I did, too..the whip had been infused with not only positivity, but also harmful magic..it stung horribly. When the Dream was done with us, the artist stepped up to torment us, and he used paint. Dusty didn't scream as much as he had before; from what I understood, the artist had several types of paint that he used to torture people, but Dusty was the only one who could stand survive his most potent type..this likely wasn't that, which made Dusty's comparable quietness make sense while Umbra and I were screaming uncontrollably at the pain. When the torture ended, we were granted freedom from our collars, but our owners would be keeping them..just to torment us. As soon as we could, we collapsed onto the ground together, glad to be free from the pain of torture for a while. As we lay helpless, our owners decided to talk for a while, listening to our pained whimpers.

"So, how do you guys feel about chocolate?" The artist began with a subject I was familiar with; it was too bad I wasn't allowed to participate in conversation.. 

A couple hours later, a speaker system started up to alert everyone that the conference was over, and they had to go home now. As every year in the past, we were brought to the captive options room, and Dusty and Umbra said goodbye to their owners before entering Nightmare's portal. Dusty, of course, was immediately introduced to a frog outfit, and he soon found himself surrounded by the gang members who liked to pretend that he was a baby. After the first few years, Dusty had gotten used to being treated in that way, simply obliging the gang's whims in order to appease them. As for Umbra, he would likely spend the entire time in the library; this was the only time he would get to read in the entire year, and he liked to make the most of it. In essence, I just made sure that my friends had a good time; their homes were horrible, and mine really wasn't. Sure, Nightmare and the others had developed an uncaring attitude towards me, but that didn't change the fact that they were kinder than the Dream and the Ink; they still had the ability to care, and they did..even if they didn't realize it. They sometimes reminded me of the Nightmare's gang from my multiverse..but they weren't them, and they never would be them. 

I chuckled slightly as I watched the gang mess around with Dusty, pushing him through various rooms in a cardboard box; Dusty seemed to enjoy it, too, giggling happily. It sometimes confounded me how the quartet could switch so easily from torturing someone to playing harmless games with him..perhaps it was just normal. Maybe I was the weird one. Multiverses didn't all work the same, in any case..maybe mine was just an unusual one..Dusty's owner could switch from torture to play simply enough. I must have been the odd one; I just didn't know how to understand life in other multiverses, and I doubted that I ever would. I didn't really want to understand some things; they seemed too cruel to even consider, and I felt that I would have been better off just accepting them without question. I just wanted to make my friends happy while they stayed in the multiverse I resided in; I would be happy if I could do that.

I was glad that it was easy.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio get grades.

Thanks for reading my grading writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

UD!Nightmare.

~~~~~

Today was supposed to be a special day. My brother had always been interested in royalty and their affairs, and when he had met Dusty's master, it had been like a dream come true for him. When he was invited to the anniversary of the empire, he had been very close to breaking his calm composure; I had seen it in his expression, and I was honestly amazed that he hadn't squealed. As soon as I had arrived home without my friends by my side, he had immediately dragged me to the town tailor, claiming that I needed a suitable outfit for the occasion if I wanted to be seen with him..I supposed I couldn't argue. Dream was taking this event very seriously, but I really just wanted to see my friends again; ten and a half months between visits was outrageous! In the end, Dream had gotten himself a nice yellow suit, and I was forced to wear a purple one..I would have rather worn my normal attire, but Dream wouldn't hear of it. I wondered if Glitch or Dusty would have to face the horrors of being dressed up..I hoped not. 

"Hold still!" Dream was frustrated; I hadn't gotten dressed fast enough, and he had eventually insisted upon doing it himself.

"Do I have to wear this?" I whined; I didn't like clothes I hadn't worn before! 

"Nightmare, this is my one chance to prove that I'm able to hold a position of dignity in the omniverse."

"You're one of his best friends!" I tried to reason..

"Do you want to ruin it for me?!" But Dream wouldn't hear me out.

I sighed. "..No."

"Then put this on!"

After two more minutes, the suit had been forced onto me, and my regular clothes were left to hang on a tree branch until our return..I was going to miss them. When I was clothed, Dream opened a portal to Dusty's master's multiverse, and we went through. When we exited the portal, we found ourselves in a snowy cave..it would have been beautiful, if it weren't for the Ink's guards who patrolled the place. In a wall of the cave, a large steel building with what looked to be a sort of target symbol on the front (it honestly looked like Dusty's master's left eyelight) lay, and that was where we were going. After twenty seconds of looking around, another portal opened, and the Nightmare's gang and Glitch walked through. I wanted to run to hug Glitch, but Dream held one of my wrists firmly to prevent that; instead, I waved, and he waved back with a smile. 

"It's good to see that we weren't late." The Nightmare smiled, approaching us. 

"We just arrived, as well." Dream said, letting his hold on my wrist loosen.

"So, what's with the fancy getup?" Glitch wondered, pulling me aside so we could talk.

"Eh, Dream's internally squealing like mad." I shrugged. "He thinks everything has to be perfect, and that includes me. He spent eight hours directing the tailor on how to do his job; I'm surprised he didn't get his jaw dislocated from how insane he was driving the poor guy."

"Did he charge extra?"

"I paid extra him out of my own savings! To be honest, no one should have to deal with Dream when he's in a commanding frenzy."

"That sounds rough.."

"It isn't the half of it, but yes."

"Nightmare, come here!" Dream called.

"Coming!" I shrugged slightly to Glitch before running over to Dream, and Glitch rejoined the group soon after.

"So, shall we go in?" The Nightmare suggested.

"That would be preferable to staying out here." Dream nodded.

"Then let's go."

We walked to the door, where a couple soldiers stood guard, and they promptly addressed us.

"State your business." One of them spoke.

"We've been invited for the celebration." Dream replied.

"Prove it."

"..Prove it?"

"We've arrested eighteen rebels today who've tried to spy, and we're not afraid of arresting more." The other scoffed.

"May we speak to one of your superiors?" The Nightmare requested.

"It's your turn." The first chuckled.

"All right, I'm going." The second walked inside for a moment, returning a few minutes later with a guard that had fancier armor.

"What do these jokers want?" He crossed his arms.

"We would like to attend the celebration today." Dream restated.

"And what makes you think you're going to do that?"

"Darn you, let us in!" The Killer shouted, causing the fancy guard to pause. 

"O-oh..right this way, sorry to keep you fine people waiting.." He held the door open for us.

"Why'd you do that?" One of the lower guards asked.

"It's code, you moron!"

We walked down several long hallways before our masters admitted that they had no clue where we were, and we had to approach another guard to find out, since they didn't want to use the helpfully-provided maps!

"Excuse me, do you know where the celebration grounds are?" Dream asked a different fancy guard.

"Uh, Dream?" He tilted his skull. "What're you doing..with Nightmare's..gang..?"

"I'm afraid you're mistaken; my name is Lumen, and this is Tenebra."

"..Oh. Um, the celebration grounds are down there, take a left, then a right, and when you reach an opening to an outdoor area, you'll be there, but you're a bit early..it doesn't start for another three hours.."

"We were told to come early."

"..Do you know why..?"

"Something about a pre-party?"

"Oh!" The guard seemed as if he understood now. "In that case, you're going to want to get there quick; the pre-party is starting soon."

"Thank you!"

One quick run later, we were standing in the middle of a decorated field, and a couple familiar faces greeted us.

"You made it!" The Ink shouted happily from a table near a large stage. 

Our group walked over to the table, where the Ink stood up and gestured for us to sit; I noticed that he, too, was wearing a suit, but it was a blood red color, with certain designs. When we were all seated, he sat as well, and I saw Dusty sitting next to him; he waved to us, and I waved back. 

"Okay, so who're these guys?" A fancy guard questioned boredly.

"These are my friends from different multiverses, and you will treat them as honored guests." The Ink ordered. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, Sir." All the guards at the table harmonized.

"Good!" He grinned happily. "With that said, I expect you to be nice and socialize with them..except the small purple one and the Error-lookalike; they're..Dusty's friends."

A few of the guards began to laugh at the thought..they must have been the ones who were cruel to Dusty. 

"Yes, yes, very funny, but seriously, make the distinguished ones feel welcome." The Ink urged. "Friends, these are my most trusted high ranked guards, and don't worry; they know how to have a good time."

"By 'good,' do you mean, 'fun'?" The Killer hoped.

"Yes, Neco, fun."

"I like 'em already."

"Oh, that reminds me..Dusty, take your friends out to the field to play; the grown-ups are going to have a little talk."

"Yes, Ink." Dusty nodded.

Dusty quickly hopped out of his chair and grabbed my and Glitch's hands, pulling us into the decorated field before hugging us tightly.

"I missed you!" He giggled.

"We missed you, too!" I assured, hugging him back.

"A month is just too long!" Glitch agreed, letting us climb into his lap.

"Your suit looks nice." Dusty complimented.

"Thanks, Dream made me wear it." I rolled my eyelights.

"Still nice."

"So, what exactly should we expect?" Glitch wanted to know what we were getting into.

"Well, celebrations are the ony time I get sweets, so..cake."

"I love it."

"And the high ranks have permission to hurt me however they want, so probably torture."

"Okay, maybe not love."

"Ink always keeps me on a leash during these, and I'm certain that he'll probably try to encourage your masters to do the same."

"Maybe just like."

"But my friends will be nice, and low ranks might be kind to us."

"Not so bad."

"Essentially."

"Cool, so when does the cake come?"

"When the actual party begins, the cake will be served; right now, it's just a pre-party, for Ink and his trusted."

"Who are his trusted?" I wondered.

"High ranks who have served for a long time or done things that Ink found to be worth his trust, and also me, I guess.."

"So, are we allowed to leave?"

"I'd have to ask Ink.."

"Would that be dangerous?" Glitch didn't want Dusty to put himself in danger.

"Not unless he's in a bad mood, and I think he's in a good one, right now."

"Do you think you can escape without being hurt?" 

"It's likely."

"Will you?" I hoped.

"I'll try."

Dusty stood up, walking over to Ink and requesting permission, which, judging by the smile on his face, was granted; we could leave! Dusty wasted no time in leading us through the compound happily, eventually ending up in a place called the "courtyard," and boy, was it a courtyard! Grass stretched for what must have been a mile in every direction! It was a virtual paradise! Dusty led us to a pond with fish in it, and we decided to speak there.

"What kind of fish are those?" I inquired, never having seen anything like them before.

"Ink likes to play around to see what he can come up with." Dusty pulled a purple fish out of the water. "This type can breathe out of water, for a limited time."

"What about that one?" Glitch pointed to a silvery fish.

"That one is just really shiny." Dusty replied, putting the purple fish back into the water. "I think there's one in here that breathes fire, but I'm not touching it!"

"I don't blame you!" I chuckled.

We played around with the fish for about two and a half hours, until a high ranked soldier approached us.

"Ink wants you back at the grounds." He stated.

"Okay.." Dusty sighed, standing up. "We have to go back now; the party will start soon, and I don't think they'll be happy if we get there late.."

"All right, let's go." Glitch stood.

With that, Dusty led us back to the celebration grounds, where our masters were pleased at our presences, and..the Ink put a collar on Dusty. Dusty sighed, seeming to be used to it, but..our masters were also holding collars. I was glad that Dusty had warned us about this. We were collared and leashed within a minute, and guards began to arrive for the party..this was a big event, judging from the crowds. This was probably why we were leashed; our masters didn't want to lose us in the gathering. When enough guards had arrived, the Ink stepped up to the stage with Dusty, who simply lay down on the stage boredly, and we soon learned why; the Ink was giving a speech. It was horrible, and I almost died of pure boredom! For a full twenty minutes, he talked, and he only talked! When the talking ceased, I nearly jumped for joy, and Glitch actually did, slightly, when cake was mentioned! The Ink and Dusty soon returned to the table, and cake came. It was a wonderful cake, with chocolate! Dusty seemed to enjoy the sweetness of the chocolate, and I was sure that Glitch did! I wasn't as much of a chocolate fanatic, but I still enjoyed it. 

The party was essentially just as Dusty had predicted. We were collared, there was cake, his friends were kind, and those who were not his friends tried to hurt us. All in all, it wasn't that bad..until the five-hour mark came. When that happened, Dusty was cuddling with us in an isolated corner of the celebration, and our masters were bored of it. Dusty's master had already left to do something else, but Dream and the Nightmare's gang decided to stay, if only to keep an eyelight on us. 

"Can't we go?" The Cross was bored of the quiet peace.

"I'm not letting them out of my sight, and I'm definitely not letting you, either." The Nightmare shook his skull.

"Can't we just bring them with us?" The Horror hoped.

"..I suppose." The Nightmare pulled on Glitch's leash, and that was essentially the end of our small time of peace.

Our lives weren't very boring. That was made manifest when a beeping sound filled the immediate area, followed by a laser grid, which formed around us; honestly, I didn't want to be kidnapped again, but I would have preferred being kidnapped without my brother. Before anyone could attempt to lower the grid, a ground portal opened up in the middle of it.

"..Does this happen often?" Glitch wondered.

"No, but I have a habit of walking through random portals." Dusty shrugged. "This might be fun!"

"Are you sure this is safe?" I didn't think so.

"Well, you two are immortal, and I can be reset, so..yes."

"You are not going through that portal!" Dream put his foot down..but he had failed to notice that the portal was slowly expanding, and his foot fell into it, dragging the rest of his body down with a yelp. 

"Hypocrite." Glitch snickered.

"Can we, please?" Dusty hoped, looking to Glitch, who was holding both of us; in answer, Glitch looked to the Nightmare's gang.

"No." The Nightmare was firm.

"So you're going to let him possibly die?" Glitch inquired.

"..." The Nightmare sighed.

It seemed as if we weren't going to have a choice in the matter, since the portal began to open quicker, and, well, it soon swallowed us before closing automatically. We fell through the portal into what seemed to be..a forest. There was nothing around us, and Dream had already found that no magic would work here, which meant that we weren't getting out on our own. Thirty seconds later, a different portal opened, and several beings walked through it. Dusty and I were still being held in Glitch's arms, since he would protect us, even without magic. We were surrounded by people with weapons and magic at the ready, but one person walked up to us, and our unasked questions were soon answered when Dusty laid eyelights on him.

"..Papyrus?"

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Beans and sausages (except Ink) kidnap?

Haha how many times have my characters been kidnapped-

Thanks for reading my kidnapping writing! 

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Dust.

~~~~~

He..he was here! My brother..my real, living brother..was here.

"..Papyrus?" I wished the word didn't feel so unfamiliar as it left my mouth.

"Yes, brother..it is truly...me." His voice..I had almost forgotten what it sounded like!

"Papyrus!" I ran up to hug him, being lifted up into his arms.

I had given up hope of his coming for me..and he still..no..he probably just wanted to make sure the Dream and the Nightmare's gang weren't in league with Ink; he didn't care about me. It was just luck that I was dragged along..that was it. It still felt good to be in my brother's warm embrace; I had forgotten the warmth of hugs..everything had turned cold when Ink had taken me. 

"I-I missed you.." I couldn't stop my tears from falling..but they were happy tears.

"Not a day has gone by in which I have not thought of you.." Papyrus was crying a little, too; I decided to wipe his tears away, since someone as amazing as he was shouldn't have had to cry. 

"This is stupid." The Killer ruined one of the best moments of my life.

Papyrus sighed, before making sure I was entirely comfortable in his hold and turning to face the others.

"Who are you?" He asked, quite simply.

"None of your business." The Nightmare quickly stopped anyone else from speaking. "It would be profitable for you to simply let us go."

"That is not an option. You do not seem to be inhabitants of our known world, and you have been conspiring with the dictator; that is enough to raise suspicion."

"I'm-" Umbra was cut off by his brother, who slapped a hand over Umbra's mouth in warning.

"No one." The Dream finished for his brother. "He's no one."

"Then what does that make you?" Papyrus wasn't going to let up.

"To you? No one."

"Papyrus?" I grabbed his attention.

"Yes, brother?" He responded.

"I know who they are!"

"Don't you say a word!" The Nightmare glared at me.

"Who are they, brother?" Papyrus was willing to listen to me.

"They're from different multiverses!" I revealed.

"You little twit!" The Dream hissed.

"Two of them are my best friends, and the rest of them are really mean..they're Ink's friends."

"Thank you for the information, brother." Papyrus smiled at me, causing me to grin happily.

"You're welcome!"

"So, who are your friends?"

"Glitch and Umbra!" I pointed to them as I said their names.

"And what about the rest of them?"

"..I don't know; they're like Ink."

"..I see.." Papyrus nodded to himself. "We are taking them in chains, then."

With that, the resistance soldiers certainly did chain the Dream and the Nightmare's gang, but Umbra and Glitch were left free, except for their collars, which were locked on with a magic seal, as mine was; Ink had suggested it, in order to make sure we couldn't get lost during the party. Thankfully, Papyrus knew some people with powers that could counteract the effects of the seal, and within ten minutes, we were free of the traumatizing collars! 

"Thank you..so much.." Glitch was very happy; I could see it from his expression. 

"A friend of my brother is a friend of mine." Papyrus chuckled, before sighing. "I am sorry that you have had to go through such hard times..but I hope that this will help."

"You've done so much already.." Umbra felt that it was wrong to ask for anything more; getting away from our masters was already too much, really.

"We have not even begun.." Papyrus shook his skull with a smile. "We have facilities here that are meant for those who have suffered, and that is not limited to those who have suffered from the dictator."

"..Y-you mean..y-you can help us?" Glitch couldn't believe it.

"Of course. It is not right for people to treat others in cruel ways, and if it still happens, there must be help."

"N-nobody..ever said that to m-me..b-before.." Umbra looked as if he were going to cry.

"It is only the truth; you will be safe here." 

Suddenly, Umbra and Glitch hugged my brother tightly, likely thankful for his kind words, and because he hadn't put me down since he had first picked me up, I was added into the hug by default! 

"I told you my brother's the best!" I giggled.

"I believe it." Glitch sounded as if he were crying; I believed that both he and Umbra were..I decided to cry, too, since I didn't want to make them feel as if I didn't want to join them. 

We were given beds in the main base to sleep in, while the Dream and the Nightmare's gang were being held captive in a different universe, to make it harder for Ink to find them. We were aware that Ink was looking for us and them, but I knew that my brother would keep us safe; he had beaten Ink in battle before! I didn't want to worry about Ink; I only wanted to worry about my friends and my brother. Of course, my brother had work to do, sometimes, and I occasionally joined him, along with my friends.

"What's that?" I wondered, looking at a tape that Papyrus was holding.

"It is a recording of the interrogations of several of..well, them." Papyrus knew that the others were sensitive about hearing their old masters' names. "I need to look at them..I am not sure if you would like it."

"May I?" I wanted to spend time with my brother..

"What about your friends?"

"He can go; we'll figure out where all the hallways lead to!" Umbra wanted to explore.

"Well, all right." Papyrus smiled at me as my friends ran off to have some fun. "Follow me, brother."

Papyrus led me into a dark room with a tape player, and he put the tape into the player before sitting down and cuddling with me. When the video played, an interrogation room was displayed, showing the Dream, who was restrained to a chair, and the Outertale Sans.

"Please state your name." Outer requested.

"No." The Dream glared.

"Please state your name."

"Are you deaf? I said no!"

"Please state your name."

"Now you're just being annoying."

"Please state your name."

"Shut up!"

"Please state your name."

"Lumen! Now shut up!"

"Thank you." Outer began to write things down. "How did you meet the dictator?"

"..Are you going to annoy me into answering every question?"

"How did you meet the dictator?"

"..."

"How did you meet the dictator?"

"A villain conference." The Dream seemed annoyed already; he didn't have much patience.

"What is a villain conference?"

"A meeting of villains from different multiverses." 

"So, that means you're a villain."

"More like a misunderstood hero."

"Please explain."

"I ate a golden apple in order to make the world a better place."

"And did you?"

"I reined in my insufferable brother."

"What does that mean?"

"He's the Guardian of Negativity; that's bad. He's just pure evil, really, and he needed to be put under some restriction."

"So you believe that your brother is.."

"Evil. He always has been; I just refused to believe it until I realized that there was no question about it."

"And when was that?"

"I went to get my golden apple. He shot me."

"Were you allowed to take that apple?"

"Doesn't matter."

"According to our Dreamtale story, the Guardians were meant to protect the apples.."

"So I decided to protect them by eating one."

"But your brother tried to protect them from you..?"

"If you want to see it through his lies, then yes, apparently, I'm the villain."

"..If he had tried to take an apple, would you have tried to stop him?"

"Well, obviously! An evil being such as himself doesn't know how to handle the power..he'd crumble, poor thing."

"And so..what restrictions had you placed on him?"

"No reading, no being evil, no being cruel, no disobeying me, and others."

"No reading?"

"He used to fill his skull with all sorts of ridiculous notions, such as freedom; I had to stop it."

"And disobeying?"

"I'm his master."

"He's your brother."

"He stopped being my brother when he went against me."

"..Then why do you care about him?"

The Dream scoffed. "Care? About him?! I couldn't care less."

"But you obviously care enough to keep him within what you believe is a healthy lifestyle."

"Even if I did care, it wouldn't matter; he's pure evil, and the only way to deal with pure evil is forced subjection."

"And..what is that?"

"Slavery. He's my slave, and he spends every minute of his day working; he can't get into trouble if he's constantly working, after all."

"And..if he refuses?"

The Dream chuckled slightly. "I didn't have that whip on me for nothing."

"...I think that's enough for now."

"Oh, finally, can I go now?"

"No..you'll be staying."

"Darn."

The video switched to a different time, with Outer and the Killer.

"Please state your name." Outer began, again.

"Coffee roll." The Killer giggled.

"Please state your name."

"Alligator."

"Please state your real name."

"Sans."

"Please state your given name that you are called by those you know."

"..Hm..Neco."

"How did you meet the dictator?"

"Well, apparently, his toy had spoken to our slave, and so he asked us if they could be friends, and we said yes, and that's how it happened."

"When did this happen?"

"About nine or ten years ago, I guess."

"How close are you with the dictator?"

"Close enough to know that you won't be holding us here for very long." The Killer chuckled.

"..I think that's all."

The next video showed the Horror, but I was too tired to pay attention..I just wanted to sleep. I held onto my brother as my eyesockets closed on their own, slowly losing consciousness as the world faded to a dull black and a dusty nightmare began to play in my mind. I liked dusty nightmares..they made me remember that my life wasn't the worst, and that there were people looking out for me; I wasn't sure how, but those thoughts were still brought to mind, no matter why. I must have slept for a few hours, since, when I woke up, Papyrus wasn't there, and I had been placed in my bed. It was..weird..having a bed. I was used to only Ink's having a bed..but now I had one..and it felt..wrong. I knew that beds were normal, but I was honestly more comfortable sleeping on the floor. I was just..used to it. I didn't really know how I felt about having a bed of my own..I didn't deserve it. My friends deserved it..but not me. I sat up in my bed, sighing; this just didn't feel..right. I was safe! I was supposed to be happy! I wasn't..and I didn't know why. I decided not to dwell on the thoughts; I was just being stupid. My brother had sacrificed so much, and I needed to be more thankful for it. 

"Hey, Dusty!" Umbra's voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?" I looked to him, and Glitch was behind him. "Oh, hello."

"This place has tons of books!" Umbra loved books, and he was holding one close.

"Your brother is really nice.." Glitch admitted. "You're lucky to have him."

"He's the best.." I smiled at the thought of my brother; he had always looked out for me.

"..Are you okay?" 

"Yes, just..I should be happy, right?" 

"This is essentially the closest to freedom we have..why wouldn't you be happy?" Umbra didn't understand.

"..I don't know." I held my Hope close; I was glad that I had been able to keep it with me. "I just..feel like something's missing.."

"..Is it..your family?" Glitch knew that I had loved them..

"..No."

"Well, there's no use dwelling on it." Umbra placed a hand on my shoulder. "We'll be there for you, Dusty."

"..Thank you." I gave a small grin. "I love you guys."

"We love you too, Dusty." Glitch assured. 

"Heh..you guys are the best friends ever.."

"Nah, we're just normal friends." 

Normal or not, I loved them.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean trio safe..

For now-

Thanks for reading my saving writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

ATE!Ink.

~~~~~

This was ridiculous. My empire's anniversary ruined..by that stupid resistance! That Papyrus ruined everything..but that was fine, because I knew how to fix it..I just had to form a plan. The party had been cancelled, obviously, and a plan was well underway within a week. It was rather simple, breaking in and breaking out, but when I tracked the auras of my Guardian friends, I found that they were not in the resistance's main base..only a minor one. Needless to say, that rescue had been simple, and my friends were safe as soon as I could afford, which was two weeks after their capture; it would have been sooner if my guards were competent..

"Do you have any idea where our slaves are?" Tenebra sighed.

"I'd bet on the main base." I shrugged. "But I promised not to attack it, and I don't break promises..so we'll need to think about this."

"Why don't you just kill the one you made the promise to?" Lumen thought that that was a good idea.

"Well, that would be my version of you, and he's too much fun to play with, so no."

"Well..only you promised that." Neco reminded. "None of your army did.."

"..." I pulled out a paintbrush, and I created something.

Neco was slapped in the skull with a sticker that said, "Genius," in brightly colored letters. 

"I stil can't be part of the operation..do you guys wanna lead it?" I offered.

"You mean you honestly trust us enough to give us access to your entire army?!" Lumen was shocked.

"Well, sure!" I chuckled. "If it makes you feel special, you can order my version of you around!"

"This is the best day of my life..I think it's because my idiot brother isn't here to ruin everything."

"Probably." Tenebra nodded in agreement. 

"In that case, I'll gather up some high ranked volunteers, and you'll be off tomorrow morning." I declared. "I don't have anywhere for guests to sleep, but..I can probably put something together; do you guys mind the smell of paint?"

"It irritates me a little.." Pavor admitted.

"Then I'll see if I can find a place for you to stay in the guard lounge."

I was looking forward to having Dusty back.

~~~~~

FDIR!Error.

~~~~~

"You can't catch me!" Dusty giggled, running from Umbra.

"Come back here!" Umbra laughed, chasing after Dusty.

We had been staying in the resistance base for about two weeks, and..we were happy. We had been healing without our owners to break us down, and..it was really..nice. Dusty had told us that the Ink knew the location of this base and that we would be taken back soon enough, but until then, we would enjoy the peace. We were currently playing in one of the rooms in the base, which had been set aside for play and recreation; Dusty and Umbra enjoyed it, and they often played with other children who lived in the base. As for me..

"Glitch, save me!" Dusty grinned, diving into my arms to hide from Umbra.

"That's no fair!" Umbra crossed his arms, before smirking. "I guess I'll teach you what happens when you hide from me!"

Umbra went in for the kill, tickling Dusty mercilessly.

"G-Glitch!" Dusty giggled uncontrollably; he was very ticklish. "H-hehe-help!"

"Sorry, I'm not a part of this debacle." I shrugged, not deciding to help my small friend. 

Umbra continued to tickle Dusty, who constantly requested help, for about five minutes, at which point, Dusty's brother entered the room and initiated the rescue mission.

"Thank you, Papyrus!" Dusty hugged his brother; the bond they shared was clear..I wished that the Ink hadn't come between them.

"Of course, brother!" Dusty's brother smiled happily; despite the fact that Dusty was the older in age brother, it was clear that, with his mental state, Dusty was officially the younger of the two, and his brother didn't seem to mind being the older brother at all. 

"Have you come to play with us?" 

"Untortunately not, brother." Dusty's brother shook his skull. "I regret to inform you that the dictator has rescued those who came with you.."

"Wh-when?" Umbra was frightened by that thought.

"Yesterday. I can promise you that we will do as much as we can to keep you safe.." Dusty's brother trailed off.

"But?" Dusty wanted to know the rest.

"I cannot make any guarantees; knowing the dictator, he will stop at nothing to get my brother back..that will undoubtedly include you."

"But you can fight him, right?" Dusty hoped. 

"Brother..I have spent a long time training to counter the dictator, but if he were to use everything he had against me..I would have no chance. I will do what I can, and it will be my best; I will go back to a perpetual cycle of rescue missions if I must."

"..Okay." Dusty nodded.

"Th-they're gonna hurt us.." Umbra didn't want to go back to being beaten by his brother, and I felt the same with regard to Nightmare's gang.

"We've handled it before." I hugged Umbra comfortingly. "We'll handle it again, if we must."

"With the threat of an invasion on this base, there are several things to know." Dusty's brother began. "In every room in the base, there is at least one safe area. If any entrance or wall of this base is broken into violently, an alarm system will trigger, and anyone who is in a position of authority will lead those nearby to one of the safe areas. If there is no one in such a position, the outsides of the areas glow blue, to contrast the red light of the alarms. They are underground. Twenty seconds after the alarms go off, entrances to all rooms will be sealed with several layers of iron doors, and the walls are already reinforced. Once the iron doors come down, you will stay in whatever room you find yourself in, and you will look for the blue glow of a trapdoor on the floor; you may need to lift carpets or rugs to access it. Once everyone in the room you are in has entered the trapdoor, the last one in - the authority figure or the most mature, depending on circumstances - will close the trapdoor from the inside and seal it. The blue glow will disappear, and the trapdoor will be invisible. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Papyrus!" Dusty nodded.

"What if someone's too hasty and closes it before everyone's in?" I wouldn't put it past a terrified individual to do something such as that. 

"In that case, an authority figure will have a device to manually open the trapdoor for the rest to enter." Dusty's brother answered.

"If there's no figure?"

"..The trapdoor will not open."

"..I understand..you can't take chances."

"Indeed."

"Is there food?" Umbra thought long-term.

"Depending on how many people frequent different rooms on average, a supply of food that will last five years on rations will be provided; the authority figure will handle distribution."

"Is there food for those with.." Dusty didn't have to finish his sentence.

"There are a few we've found with magic deficiencies like you; there is a separate supply of food for those with that condition."

"You're the best, Papyrus!" Dusty hugged his brother.

"What about tracking?" I questioned. "Our..they have our magic signatures."

"The walls around the safe areas are designed to keep magic signals inside; no one will be able to pick up a magic signature from the outside." Dusty's brother assured.

"You put a lot of thought into this.." Umbra noticed.

"Despite the name, the resistance is not a band of rebels whose only goal is to overthrow the dictator; we also find those who have suffered at the hands of the empire, or even simply escaped being enslaved..and we offer them a home. It is far from the best home, but we make do with what we have. In reality, there are far more children and innocents than warriors here..and training those who desire to help us takes time..we do our best, and we do not force those we find to help us; we are simply lucky that a few intelligent minds have come up with our security mechanisms.."

"..How many fighters do you have?" I asked.

"Not including trainees, we have roughly five hundred to a thousand; it is hardly a force to be reckoned with."

"..." I looked down to Umbra and Dusty. "I want to help you fight, when they come."

"..What?" Dusty's brother hadn't expected that.

"I'm too old and capable to be hiding in a hole when I have a chance to help a good cause..and if my friends can last a little longer because of it, I'm willing."

"You would be putting yourself in great risk."

"Yes..but there are two ways this can turn out; either we are recaptured and forced back into slavery..or we aren't. If the former is destined to happen, I want to go down knowing I couldn't have changed it, rather than wonder for the rest of my life if I could have changed something."

"..I understand..I often feel the same way." Dusty's brother smiled. "I will be glad to fight alongside you."

"I can fight, too!" Umbra didn't want to sit down and do nothing, but..

"No." I shook my skull. "You will go with Dusty; he's not in the right mindset to go anywhere without a familiar face..you will protect him."

"..." Umbra looked at Dusty, who..well, if he could once fight, his strength had been sapped by years of endless torture. "All right. I'll stay with him."

"Thank you." I returned my gaze to Dusty's brother, who was holding Dusty close. "Do you have any idea when it'll happen?" 

"..The dictator is not known for hesitation..I could not say for certain." He sighed. "Just be ready."

"So what do I do if I get trapped in a room?"

"That is the goal. Anyone who is fighting stays above ground and waits for the entrance to the room to be broken into; it may not be the most practical, but it is the best we can do with our limited resources..we cannot permit use of magic when the lockdown begins, or our enemies will be more powerful."

"I get it." I nodded, before remembering something crucial. "Do the safe areas block out emotional auras?"

"Dream installed that when he was still with us."

"Then I have no further questions." I smiled. 

"In that case, I will be staying nearby; I want to spend as much time with you.." Dusty's brother hugged Dusty tightly, causing the small skeleton to giggle. "As I can."

And he did. Dusty was happy to have his brother by his side, and it was clear to see why he loved him so much. As the four of us played games together, we enjoyed eachother's company...until the sirens went off. Dusty clutched to his brother as soon as the first one sounded, and he had to be forced to let go. Umbra dragged him into the safe area, while Dusty's brother and I stood guard. As we prepared for battle, whenever it would be, I felt a sense of dread..I wouldn't be getting out of this with my freedom. I jumped slightly when I heard the sound of..some sort of electric saw..outside the door; someone was breaking in. Dusty's brother nodded to me, and I prepared myself to fight to protect my friends; I had to protect my friends at any cost. When the door was burst open, I refused to freeze upon seeing my tormentors. I simply fought with everything I had, and I would accept the outcome. I wished I still had the endurance I had used to have..but I still lasted an hour and a half before falling to my knees with a cry of pain; Dusty's brother continued fighting, but without my help, he was overpowered and knocked unconscious. They didn't look for the hidden trapdoor, but they did take me...and they took Dusty's brother,  too.

My friends would be safe for a while, at least..I hoped.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Glitch bean captured!

Ink is gonna put some dirt in his eye.

My brother did that, the memer.

Thanks for reading my capturing writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

UD!Nightmare. 

~~~~~

We were hiding. The authority figure that had been in the room when the sirens went off was a kind Toriel, and she reminded me a lot of my Toriel. The safe area certainly was safe, and it even looked like it! The room was the size of a small yard, and in the back was a spot reserved for the mentally fragile; it was covered with pillows and blankets, and some games and coloring supplies were also there, to keep everyone calm. In all honesty, it truly helped us to stay calm, and we didn't feel as bad as we would have without it. As we hid, we were told to keep quiet, since the soundproofing of the safe areas wasn't complete yet; although it would have been difficult, people above could hear us if we were loud enough. We could speak quietly safely, though. 

"I'm cold.." Dusty shivered slightly; the safe area was a lot of things, but it was certainly not warm.

"Here, I'll fix that." I smiled, wrapping him in a few blankets. 

"Thank you!" 

"Sure thing, Dusty."

We had been in the safe area for roughly two weeks by now, and it was..difficult. I wasn't used to staying in the same room for that long..I wanted to run around in a field as I could at home..but I wasn't home. Dusty, on the other hand, was very used to it, and he didn't mind the fact that there wasn't enough room to run around..I wished I could say the same. The room was stuffy and a bit crowded, and there was nothing to do! I wanted to play with my friends back in Dreamtale..but I had to take care of Dusty; he needed me.

"So..I guess you didn't plan on spending a lot of time in a hole in the ground.." Dusty sighed.

"I'm all right with it, but I'll be happier when it's over and I can go back to normal.." I frowned. "How long do you think we'll be down here?"

"..I don't know. Probably not long after they find the first one; they'll know to look underground after that."

"Yeah, I guess so.." 

"..Do you think..when they find us..we'll get punished bad?"

"..Yeah.." I nodded sadly. "I think we're in for it.."

"I don't wanna be punished.." Dusty began to cry, and I hugged him tightly. 

"Shh, it's gonna be okay.." I comforted him, rubbing his skull; he liked that feeling.

"I-I'm sorry.."

"Dusty, you have nothing to be sorry for."

"B-but I sh-shouldn't have-" Dusty was cut off.

"No, Dusty." I wiped away some of his tears, gently bringing him up to look at me. "This isn't your fault, just like it isn't your brother's fault. If we get a punishment when we're found, then we'll just have to take it, just like all the other times, right?"

"I-I can't.." Dusty sobbed. "I don't wanna be found..I-I don't want to go back.."

"..I know." I held Dusty closer. "I know.."

The tapping started two days later. The people above us had likely found a safe area, and they had begun to tap the floors to find hollow spots. Three days after it had begun, the safe area next door to us was found, and it was horrible to listen to. It had begun with a drilling, and the drill had pierced the metal that made up the area; the creaking was horrific. The screams had started when the drill had broken through, and they had continued for ten minutes..they had screamed so loudly. Dusty and I had hidden under some blankets to keep eachother as calm as possible, and some others had joined us, as well. After that, it was only a matter of time. Four days after that event, the tapping came from directly above us. The Toriel in charge had ordered anyone who was small enough to hide, and Dusty and I obeyed, getting into a box that had been emptied of supplies; I held Dusty tightly in my arms, and he held onto his doll. When the inevitable drilling came, Dusty began to cry, and I held my hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. When the metal was pierced, people began to enter the safe area, and the screaming began. Dusty was trying to hyperventilate, but I was keeping him quiet..maybe they would pass us?

"They're here." Or..Dream would rat us out; I supposed that the latent magic he had burned into my sternum helped with that.

Long story short, we were forced out of the box, and Dusty was bawling. All that gained him was a sharp kick, and that only made his sobbing louder. I decided to just bow my skull and stay still; doing anything else would have warranted a worse punishment than the one we already had coming. As the soldiers rounded up the rest of the people who had been in the safe area, the Nightmare - he and his gang were also here, of course - opened a portal, and we were forced through it. The destination was a room I was vaguely familiar with; Dusty knew it all too well, undoubtedly.

"Dusty!" Dusty's master seemed happy to see Dusty again; Dusty curled up on the ground, somehow crying even harder than before. "Thank you guys so much! I don't know what I would have done without you!"

"Ah, don't mention it; it was fun." The Nightmare chuckled, reminding me of something..

"Wh-where's Glitch?" I asked quietly, hoping I could get away with this question.

"Don't worry, he's safe.." Dusty's master assured, which made me feel a bit better. "In my dungeon." Okay, maybe I didn't feel better about that.

"..Do you think that might entail 'suffering enough'?" The Nightmare was well aware of what happened in that dungeon.

"Oh, I think that point was passed on day one."

"Then I suppose we don't have to punish him."

"Speaking of punishing.." Dream glared at me, and I frowned.

"You can feel free to use whatever you'd like here." Dusty's master offered scary things. "And you're also welcome to stay for a while, if you're not in a rush to get home; things have been so exciting with you guys around!"

"Thank you for the offer. Have you got any idea on a punishment for yours?"

"Ah, I wish." Dusty's master sighed. "But work comes first. With the resistance leader now in chains, I have to manipulate him into working for me, and then I have to get him to overthrow the rest of his own resistance, and I simply won't have time for any great feat of pain..so I'll just isolate him until I'm done. It should only take a month, at most."

Upon hearing this, Dusty shot up from the floor, and he hugged his master's legs, still crying. "P-please don't! I-I'll be good! I w-won't be b-bad..d-don't put me there..I-I beg you.."

"Zip it, Dusty; you're being isolated, and that's final."

"P-please.."

"Give it up."

"B-but.."

"Now. You'll get it back when I come get you."

"..." Dusty bowed his skull and gave his doll to his master, who tossed it onto his bed.

"Good. Now, go to the dungeon and get someone to put you in your isolation chamber; I'm far too busy to deal with you right now."

"I-is it too l-late-"

"Yes."

Dusty wept, turning to walk toward a wall and opening a hidden passageway, which likely led to the dungeon in question. He entered it, and it closed behind him. 

"So..you mentioned manipulating someone to help you?" The Nightmare was intrigued. "How exactly does one go about that?"

"It's quite simple." Dusty's master chuckled. "Would you like to see?"

"I think we'd love to." Dream nodded. "I don't think I've ever seen anything of this sort before."

"You're in for a treat, then!"

With that, Dream grabbed my hand - I believed that I would be spared from punishment for a while, if I were lucky - and Dusty's master proceeded to lead us to..the dungeon. I understood why Dusty didn't like this place; it smelled like blood, and the negativity that it radiated was overwhelming, even for me! Judging by Dream's expression, he wasn't very fond of it, either; I believed that the negativity was actually making him weaker, but he didn't say anything. Under normal circumstances, I couldn't have cared less about how Dream was feeling, but I had the looming possibility of a horrendous punishment in my near future, and I was going to try to avoid it in any way I possibly could! These thoughts led to my decision to pull on the Ink's sleeve; Dusty's master paused in his walking, turning to face me.

"What?" He asked. 

"Um..I-I think the negativity is h-hurting Dream.." I stated, meekly.

"..." He looked at my brother, who tried to hide his weakness, but Dream failed, and the Ink handed him a bracelet. "This can dilute it..sorry."

"..Thank you." Dream nodded, wrapping the bracelet around his wrist; he seemed much less affected by the negativity, and I hoped that he would remember this event when he decided that it was time to bring bodily harm to my person. 

"Sure thing! Let's continue, then!"

Dusty's master continued to lead us, but he began to speak, as well.

"Now, uh, I don't think I should have to tell you this, but this Papyrus is..not normal." He started. 

"Whaddya mean?" The Killer wondered.

"Well, having an evil dictator with as much power as I..means that his opponents..have to be just as powerful.."

"You mean he's as strong as you?" Dream found that hard to believe.

"..I'm only going to admit this for emphasis on the fact that you need to stand far away from the bars of his cell.." Dusty's master took a small breath. "He's knocked me out cold in battle twice, and I had been fighting dirty both times."

"That's..a very powerful Papyrus.." The Nightmare hummed. 

"I know. Compared to the Papyrus we all know in an average Undertale, this one is stronger, faster, and he can pinpoint all your weaknesses..he isn't one that you want to necessarily mess with, but he's a wonderful adversary. You fought him, didn't you?"

"We overpowered him.."

"Well, in that case, you're one of the few who can say they've done that..but, of course, I wouldn't have expected him to be able to last for long against such good fighters as yourselves."

"But we've fought before, and you've defeated, like, all of us.." The Killer brought up. "If he can beat you, why couldn't he beat us?"

"He knows me..he's been an adversary since before the beginning of my empire - he was a part of our Nightmare's gang, despite the fact he was dead. He learned a lot about me in that time..it isn't surprising that he would be my foremost opponent. Ah, we're here; please stay three feet away from the bars, lest ye be injured."

Dusty's brother was in a cell with steel walls, except for the front wall, which was made of steel bars. There was no door; I wondered how he had been placed inside..maybe a portal. He frowned when he saw me, knowing that if I had been found, Dusty had been, as well. 

"How's my little prisoner today?" Dusty's master inquired, in a taunting tone.

"One, I am half a foot taller than you." Dusty's brother deadpanned. "Two, are you really so afraid of me that you would stand so far away? I am almost inclined to pity you."

"You didn't answer my question.."

"Why are you stepping back?" Dusty's brother came up to the bars, holding them tightly. "I was not aware you were a coward, dictator.."

"I'm not.." Dusty's master growled. "How would you like an old fashioned torture session?"

"Well..I would love it, if you were brave enough to step near me. Alas, it seems you are not."

"That's it!" 

Dusty's master was...very enraged. I didn't see the point in making him furious..until he teleported inside. As soon as the Ink was inside, Dusty's brother..punched him..and Dusty's master fell. 

"..I think I understand why this guy is his opponent.." The Nightmare commented. 

"This is the fifth time he has fallen for that.." Dusty's brother muttered. "Will he ever learn?"

I had a feeling that Dusty would be isolated for more than just a month..

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Beans go back ;-;

Thanks for reading my returning writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

FDIR!Error.

~~~~~

We didn't know what had happened. Our owners had left the artist's multiverse shortly after the beginning of his manipulation; he stated that it would likely take more time than he was willing to keep our owners in his multiverse, since they had lives of their own. After that, no contact had been made, but that was normal, since our owners didn't interact much aside from the villain conferences. Today was the beginning of one, and we were the second group in our trio of multiverses to arrive. Umbra hugged me as I was placed in our shared area, and our owners spoke about how their years had gone; we did the same. They spoke about the events that the conference had this year, and they decided to plan their schedule as they waited for the artist to arrive with Dusty. This would have been considered normal..if there hadn't been a five hour gap. 

"Where is he..?" Nightmare asked.

"Perhaps he's late?" The Dream input.

"Sable? Late?" Nightmare scoffed. "The words can't even fit in the same sentence..something's wrong."

"Maybe he got held up; he could still be waiting in line, especially if he was." Horror offered a good point.

"Cross, go check the lines."

"I don't think I'll have to, Boss; I think he's coming now." Cross gestured down the hallway, where..the artist walked..alone?

"Ah, good." Nightmare didn't notice Dusty's absence..

The artist walked up to our owners, but he said nothing.

"Sable, are you all right?" The Dream was the first to inquire.

The artist remained mute; I was sincerely worried for my friend...

"Did everything go well?" Nightmare wondered. 

"Where's Dusty?" Umbra questioned, causing the artist to..cry?

"Oh, boy.." The Dream sighed. "Sable, tell us what happened; we're here for you."

"I-I.." The artist sobbed. "I-I didn't th-think..I-I sh-should have w-watched him.."

"Calm down." Nightmare ordered. "Then you can tell us what happened."

So the artist was comforted, and he was set in a chair that had been summoned through the area options; I honestly had no idea how that worked, but if it would get us answers as to what had happened to Dusty faster, I would accept it. After half an hour of quiet support - I would have never imagined that our owners were..as close as we were - and encouragement, the artist stopped his crying, and the question was brought up again.

"Are you ready to tell us?" The Dream asked.

"Mhm.." The artist nodded.

"All right. What happened after we left?"

"I had a lot of work to do..I was flooded with it. I worked day and night to convert Papyrus to my side, while also dealing with a large outbreak of riots..everywhere. I was so occupied..I didn't sleep for..I don't think I did sleep."

"How long did it take, Sable?" Nightmare wondered. 

"..I finally broke him last week..and the riots stopped the day after..the resistance is finally gone.."

"So everything is all right..isn't it?"

"I-I forgot about him.." The artist began to weep again.

"Forgot about who?" The Dream questioned.

"Dusty!" The artist broke into loud sobs again, and Umbra and I worried about our best friend..was Dusty okay?!

"Sable, deep breaths." Nightmare suggested. "Now, what happened when you remembered Dusty?" 

"I-I went to his i-isolation chamber.." The artist stuttered, trying to calm down. "H-he..h-he didn't..I left him..I l-left him there t-too long.."

"What do you mean 'too long'?" 

"H-he..he's gone.."

"What?!" Umbra and I hoped that 'gone' didn't mean..gone..

"Sable, is he alive?" The Dream decided to see if our fears were warranted.

The artist nodded, and Umbra and I calmed down; if he was alive, things couldn't have been too bad!

"Do you want us to come see?" Nightmare offered. "We won't mind missing a bit of this silly conference for you."

"P-please.." The artist seemed so..sad.

"All right, let's go to your multiverse, and we'll see the problem."

The artist nodded, and he opened a portal to his home; our owners let us out of our shared area, to our joy, and we all went through the portal. The room we came out into was the artist's bedroom, and sitting in the middle of the floor was Dusty..he seemed fine. The problem arose when his eyelights found us, at which point, he hugged his doll close, beginning to whimper.

"What's wrong with him?" Nightmare didn't see anything wrong with Dusty.

"..He doesn't remember.." The artist said. 

"You mean.." The Dream didn't have to finish his sentence; we all understood, but..surely, he wouldn't fear us!

"Dusty?" Umbra tried to take a step forward, but Dusty flinched, before running to a hiding place..he really didn't remember us.

"I-I tried everything.." The artist wept. "He won't..h-he won't listen.."

"How long has he been out?" Nightmare inquired.

"Three days..my doctors said there's nothing they can do..he won't remember..ever."

"Why don't you start over?" The Dream suggested.

"Wh-what?"

"Well..if he won't remember anything, why don't you just start over? Begin again?"

"..." The artist began to think, and the room was shrouded in silence for several minutes before he spoke again. "I don't know how.."

"We'll help you. It won't be too hard; who knows more about how a toy should act than us?"

"..I don't want a toy." 

"..What?" Our owners stared in awe at the artist.

"I..after what I did..if I make him my toy again..I might forget again..I don't want to forget..I can't.."

"Then..what do you want him to be?" Nightmare asked. 

"..Someone I won't forget about.." 

The artist had an idea, and he claimed that it would be a surprise for his friends..next year. Of course, he would still be attending the villain conference, and he placed Dusty in the care of his Dream. When we returned to the conference, the artist still seemed sad, since he wouldn't have Dusty by his side this time.

"Hey, Sable.." The Dream addressed. "You don't have to worry about not having someone to play with while you're here..our slaves are yours."

"..Thanks." The artist smiled slightly at that. "You guys are some of the best friends I've ever had.."

"Evil insane people have to stick together!" Killer chuckled.

"Yes, and we've already planned out our schedule." Nightmare mentioned. "Shall we?"

"Yeah." The artist agreed.

Our owners left, and Umbra and I looked at eachother, wondering what this meant for us. Dusty wouldn't ever remember us..he wouldn't remember anything we had been through..not the escape attempts, not the punishments, and not the smiles. I wondered if he would be the same..but I doubted it. If that tyrant was going to take advantage of Dusty's frail mind now..he might have been in for something more horrific than ever before..I hoped I was wrong. The rest of the conference was just like the rest of the conferences we had been to, except for the fact that Dusty was absent. We had the pain tournament, and we also went to that school again; it was normal, and we enjoyed what we could. When the conference ended, it was decided that Umbra and I would skip the trip to Dusty's multiverse, since his owner would be busy with his plans for him; we would only go to eachother's multiverses, and, as always, we started with mine. The gang were a bit upset at the prospect of not being able to dress Dusty up in baby clothes, but they accepted it, and Umbra and I were left alone. I had something special that I wanted to do this year, and I had made arrangements before I had been dragged to the conference.

"Hey." Error - the one from this multiverse - met us soon after the rest of the gang left.

"Hello." I returned. "Is everything all right?"

"Everything's fine; I've made reservations, and visitors are being accepted."

"Thanks for doing this; it means a lot."

"Sure thing. You two do what you need to, and just call when you need a portal back here; I have a couple AUs to do away with."

"Bye."

He left, leaving behind a portal, and Umbra looked up to me as I led him through said portal.

"Where are we going?" Umbra wondered.

"Well, you know all those years back, when the Ink and Dream from here tried to rescue us?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"I made arrangements to visit them, but I wanted you and Dusty to come along..I guess we'll have to do without him.."

"I've wondered if they were okay..are they here?"

"Yep."

When that was said, I led Umbra up to the front desk of the building the portal had led to, and a Toriel met us. This was the AU in which Ink and Dream had lived in since they had been brought back, and it was the kindest mental institution the multiverse could find; it was still a mental hospital, though. When they had first been brought back from the artist's dungeon, it had been clear that they would no longer be able to do what they had used to do; Blue had already instituted a volunteer service, since they had been absent for so long, but it was permanent now. It had been several years since then, and the two had made great strides..I had last visited a few months ago, and they seemed to have known who I was, in any case; they could speak, a little bit. As soon as the Toriel allowed us to visit them, I led Umbra to their shared room; they hadn't wanted to be separated, likely due to some sort of fear. When we entered the room, we found the two engaged with a puzzle; it was nice to see them happy for once.

"Hello, Ink; hello, Dream." I greeted them softly, trying to avoid any outbursts.

"Glitch?" Dream smiled, remembering who I was; I was glad that he could do that. "Hi, Glitch!"

"Who?" Ink didn't remember.

Ink had always had trouble with remembering things..it had become worse when he had refused to even look at his vials. When they had been placed in the mental hospital, Ink's sash and vials had followed, but when it had come time for him to take them..he had screamed. The other me had been present for that, and he had testified that Ink was absolutely terrified of his vials; he never took them again, but they were set aside by the judges, in the thought that he would someday desire the emotions granted from them. When Dream had begun to speak, he had explained that every day in their captivity, the artist would purposefully grab each vial, one by one, and he would force every drop into his poor victim, triggering daily overdoses that sent Ink into incredible pain and traumatized him fully. Now, Ink had a different source of emotions; he seemed to enjoy playing children's games. While that sounded odd, it really wasn't; Dusty..Dusty had been the same way. I hoped Dusty would be okay. Ink received his emotions from doing everyday things, and he was learning how to process them better; it was difficult, but he was making great progress.

"Friend." Dream clarified. "Glitch is a friend."

"..Good?" Ink questioned. 

"Very good."

"Hi, good friend!" Ink waved to me, and I gave a smile.

"I've brought another very good friend to visit you." I mentioned. "This is Umbra. Do you remember Umbra?"

"Umbra!" Dream nodded, smiling.

"Who?" Ink..had more trouble.

"Good friend Umbra!"

"Oh..hi, good friend!"

"How have you two been?" I inquired.

"The doctors say I'm doing good!" Dream smiled; his smile was always a pleasure to see. "Ink is doing better making emotions!"

"Happy!" Ink laughed; that was a pleasure to hear.

"Have you spoken to Blue recently?" I questioned.

The rest of the visit passed with chatter; Dream was improving much with his speech, and Ink seemed happier than he had been when I had last seen him. Umbra enjoyed speaking with them as well, and he promised that, if he could, he would visit again someday; I hoped that he would be able to, and so did Ink and Dream. 

They would have loved it.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Bean do things ;-;

Thanks for reading my dual writing!

Bye!

Chapter Text

UD!Nightmare.

~~~~~

It had been one year since we had seen Dusty. Before we had parted ways last year, Glitch and I had promised to support Dusty with anything that he needed when we saw him next..no matter what state he was in. If he had been beaten within an inch of his life, we would befriend him; if he had been ordered not to interact with us, we would say kind things to make him happy. We would do whatever we had to in order to make Dusty's life better, even if we were hurt because of our actions. When the day on which the conference would begin arrived, I woke up before the sun rose, and I got my morning chores over with. I bought something nice for Dream's breakfast (it could also be eaten on-the-go, as a non-subtle hint that I wanted to go now), and I did whatever work I had promised to help with the day before, from fixing fences to collecting eggs; when I finished my work, I climbed up to Dream's treehouse with his breakfast, and I knocked on the door before putting his breakfast on an outdoor table, just in case I fell or something. A tired growl came from inside the treehouse, but I would stand firm; I wanted to get there early. Dream soon opened his door, and he looked at me with a tired glare.

"What?" He was not happy, but I couldn't have cared less.

"Today is the day we go to the villain conference, Dream." I alerted.

"The sun has barely risen. If you want to go sooner, get your chores done."

"I already did, Dream."

"...And my breakfast?"

"Here it is, Dream." I picked it up, presenting it to him.

"..." Dream took the food, and he looked at it for a moment. "Fine. Let me get ready; I need to pack my things."

"I did that for you last night, Dream."

"..You really want to go early, don't you?"

"Yes, Dream."

"Well, I guess I'll grab my bag, and I'll be ready in five minutes, okay?"

"Okay."

"Wait for me on the ground."

"Yes, Dream."

I descended from the treehouse, and I hugged my mother; despite being a tree, she was very sentient, and she could speak, but only to us..well, she could speak to me. When Dream had eaten the apple, mother had felt..betrayed. She had been sleeping at the time, and she hadn't been aware until she saw it. I had begged for her forgiveness in my failure, but she had insisted that it wasn't my fault; she hadn't expected one of us to want to eat an apple, and she couldn't blame me for not wanting to fight my own brother. Dream had stopped speaking to mother after that, claiming that talking to a tree was "ridiculous," despite having done it countless times before..I didn't understand how speaking to one's own mother was ridiculous, but Dream apparently did. After saying a few words in a goodbye (I didn't get this chance every year, since Dream would whip me hard when he caught me doing it), I stood at the base of the tree, and I waited for Dream, who descended after two minutes. Without speaking, he opened a portal to the conference, and we walked through it.

"Wow." Dream stared in awe at the miraculously empty room that we stood in; usually, the check-in center was full..right now, there were only one hundred people - two hundred at most - and that was impressive. 

We soon lined up, and we were admitted within five minutes; the line at the captive lounge was even shorter, and we made it in two. When Dream placed me in the area which I shared with my friends, we were the first ones there, and Dream sat down to eat his breakfast. I decided that I would sleep until the others came; they likely wouldn't be here for quite a while, and I had woken up several hours earlier than I usually did. Wrapping myself up in my blanket, I fell asleep, and I began to dream. Most of my dreams were nightmares nowadays, but I managed to have a happy one with my anticipation for the arrival of my friends. I woke up to the sound of a barrier dropping, and Glitch sat down beside me; I hugged him tightly.

"And I thought we got here early." The Nightmare mentioned.

"He woke me up when the sun wasn't even entirely visible." Dream rolled his eyelights. "At least he's learning to be more responsible; he must have been up most of the night doing chores. He was out like a light when we got here, though."

"Ours was much the opposite..we had to drag him out of bed."

Our masters continued to talk for a while, but they stopped when Dusty and his master came walking down the hallway...something was different. Dusty's master had a smile, and he walked confidently, as normal. He held Dusty's hand, as normal. Dusty's doll was present, as normal. Dusty...was not normal. He was skipping; Dusty didn't skip unless he felt very comfortable, and the captive lounge was not the embodiment of comfortable. Another thing out of the ordinary was the bag; Dusty's master, if he ever brought luggage, forced Dusty to carry it..but he was carrying a bag. Dusty was also wearing new clothes; that actually made sense, since his old clothes were ripped and torn up when last we saw him. Dusty's eyelights were darting around the room, likely because he didn't remember it; I had expected that. I whispered my findings to Glitch as they approached. When they stopped, Dusty looked at everyone curiously, and I got a better look at him; he had several cracks in his bones, but nothing too serious..that was good.