Chapter Text
After some long talks over several months, Nightmare finally agreed to allow Dust to go to AUs that seemed to be on the path of… being like his. Nightmare would give him a chance to reverse it, to stop that Sans from trying what he did. In all truth, he didn’t know how well he would do. A few AUs later, he felt he was doing a fairly good job dissuading a few Sanses from trying. Still, time will tell if they hold out.
Yet again, he was at another AU, checking it out to see how far along it was in being like his own. The human was just as vile as his own was. The others he had been at had humans that were just about killing as quickly as possible. This one was enjoying each death way too much, just as his human had. Still, he trailed along, watching, wanting to see how the Sans would react.
This was the Ruins, though, he had a long way to go, and this human was causing him to remember things he didn’t want to. Maybe Dust should give in. Retreat home and try again after he has calmed back down. Or perhaps he should just shortcut and find where the Sans is and see if he’s already trying to kill.
Both options sounded good, and yet, for some reason, he kept an eye on the human. He had seen this from his murderous human before, so why watch it again? Was it morbid curiosity?
Why was he feeling driven to follow?
It angered him that he couldn’t answer that. Well, whatever. He could see how the Sans reacted to the human soon enough. Dust questioned himself long enough to end up outside Toriel’s house. He watched as Toriel dashed downstairs to try to keep the human safe. Little did she know that human child would soon be killing her.
Once the human followed her, Dust broke into the house and quietly made his way down after them.
He didn’t want to see this…
RUN AWAY, BROTHER. YOU ARE TOO SOFT FOR THIS NOW. YOUR COMFY LIFE IN THAT CASTLE HAS WEAKENED YOUR SENSIBILITY.
Perhaps, for once, he should listen…
Toriel was standing in front of the door…
He really shouldn’t be here…
She was talking…
There was still time to leave…
Time was ending…
Combat was starting…
It wasn’t even a fight…
The human was standing over her…
She was screaming…
He heard her screaming as he clawed at the doors, trying to get through to save her.
…
When did he attack the human?
Bones had exploded throughout the room as if a human graveyard had erupted from the ground. The Toriel was safely surrounded by white, cyan, and pale purple bones. Meanwhile, Dust was throwing the human with magic and piercing the fleshy body with a plethora of sharp attacks.
It was like he was acting on instinct, as there was not one thought of what he was doing going through his mind.
This… was the purpose of his existence, right?
All he knew for certain was that he was now kneeling with one knee firmly on the human’s chest and one hand wrapped around the neck. The human coughed and gurgled on blood. Honestly, the human should be dead. Most of the attacks would have been fatal to most humans. Which meant something else was keeping this thing alive.
Hacker, this was a hacker.
“I’ll shred this world apart. You shouldn’t be here!” The Hacker snarled.
“i should rip your soul out and leave it where error could find it,” Dust said darkly.
“Leave me to my fun!” The Hacker snapped.
Dust didn’t even bother to respond. He needed to get soul before the Hacker reset. Using his magic, he searched for the soul to turn it blue and draw it out. The Hacker was hiding it, though.
How annoying….
“Fine! I will burn this world down and move on to a new one!” The Hacker screeched as Dust finally found the soul.
A familiar cracking sound made Dust curse under his breath, hinting time was running short. He turned the soul blue, drew it out, and reached for it. Before his hand could grab it, the soul finished cracking and shattered.
Dust cursed under his breath. A reset was bound to happen. Only it didn’t. The Hacker decided to go through with the threat to destroy this AU. The world shuttered and moaned like a slowly collapsing building.
Looking down the hall he traversed to get here, all he saw was darkness. His body shivered with rage as he stood and walked to the double doors, which he then shoved open. Again, all that Dust was met with was a sea of nothing. A void….
“no… no!” Dust then yelled in frustration, hands to his head, as faced with the fact that his actions destroyed this world and its inhabitants. He dropped to his knees and shivered in the middle of the room filled with bones and spotted with blood.
“I… I do not know who you are, but hold on,” a voice said. It startled him at first, and he looked up as fire magic destroyed the bones used to shield Toriel. In his rage, he had forgotten she was there.
Knowing that she was still alive did calm his self-hatred. While the world was destroyed, at least one was still alive. One who still had strength within her. He watched in awe as she emerged through the opening she had made in the wall of bones. Her entire body was shrouded in blue flames, matching her integrity. At that moment, she looked like a phoenix without wings, and he forgot everything around them as he watched. Even as she stumbled, the sight was impressive.
Sorrow again gripped him, dragging him back to the here and now as Dust’s attention was drawn to his failures. Injuries all over her body were now visible as the flames died. Each wound was a reminder of his failure. The worst of them was clear to see on her face. Magic seeped from the left eye from a deep cut over the eyelid that hinted the knife gouged out the vulnerable eye below.
Had the Hacker blinded it?
She then paused as she looked around, right eye wide with fear as her gaze fell on him. Self-conscious, he looked down at himself to know what she saw. Blood splatter was all over his bones and clothing. He could feel the familiar feeling of being checked as his disgusting eye lights were turned back to her. Now she knew what he was. She knew what the terrible lights in his sockets meant.
Panic was starting to overtake her as she again glanced around the room. The more she took in the devastation around him, the more she recoiled from him. In terror, she shifted away, and her respirations increased as she struggled to keep herself calm. Thankfully she was not yet hyperventilating, but she seemed on the cusp of a panic attack.
“S… stay back… I... I do not know who you are or why you are here but… but I… I will defend myself!” She yelled while summoning up her flames again. Unlike before, they were wild, affected by the fear in her soul.
“go ahead… i failed…,” Dust sighed bitterly. “your home… your world is gone.” He deserved every bit of wrath she wanted to pour onto him.
“What?” She asked, and he gestured towards the doors he opened. With caution, she moved closer to them and looked out into the nothing.
“i’m sorry…,” Dust watched as she started shaking.
“I… I don’t… I… this is… a dream?” She was panicking. “This has to be… a nightm-“ As she spoke, she turned around only to gasp in shock.
“Dust…,” a voice said behind him. Hearing that voice, the voice of Nightmare, was soothing. It cooled the burning anger at himself, and he looked up at the Guardian, both thankful to see his boss and ashamed at what was done that Nightmare now witnessed. Typical of Nightmare, his voice had no anger as he continued, “I am sorry. I do not know what happened. Cross and Killer came into my office, yelling about something the other did. I tried to keep watch still, but they distracted me for a while. Finally, they agreed to wait until I was free to handle whatever had them upset.”
“... i messed up…,” Dust mumbled, and he looked back at Toriel. She had her back to the wall near the doors, tears in her right eye, and her hands to her mouth.
“Nonsense. This was bound to happen one way or another. And if not in this AU, then another,” Nightmare sighed. “Well, this section will soon collapse with the rest of the AU. Your outside aspect has preserved it for this long. But already what is left is destabilizing.”
Accepting defeat, Dust stood and walked closer to Toriel. She pressed her back even more against the wall. The bricks started to give away, and she began to tip backward. The bricks drifted out into the void and shattered into pieces. She had reached out, trying to grab hold of something, only for what she grabbed to give way under her grasp. That is until she grabbed Dust’s hand. He pulled her back forward before she could drift out into the emptiness and be destroyed.
“i’m sorry… i couldn’t protect your home. but your alive,” He said softly.
“I… I do not know that I want to be…,” She said while shaking.
“i know…,” Dust said. There were still times that he wondered why he continued to remain alive. Nightmare and the others were the only reason he had not faded to dust. She needed to find her Nightmare and her new family. Then she will no longer think that way. “come with us… we can have you meet with someone who will give you a nice place to live.” He then looked back at Nightmare, who nodded.
“What if I stay here? Maybe I should…,” she was still shaking as she looked out at the emptiness.
“Absolutely not. Your world is dead. Only you remain of it. It would be a crime if you also died after your life was spared,” Nightmare said as his tendrils moved around Dust and the Toriel.
… Dust was still holding her hand,… or was she holding his? He didn’t think his grip was that tight, yet the bones of his hand hurt from pressure on them. Nightmare carried both through a portal, grumbling in annoyance towards self-destructive behaviors. Looking back through the portal, Dust watched as that room splintered apart and faded into nothing. Just as the final piece vanished into the darkness, Nightmare closed the portal.
“Dust, would you please go fetch Azalea. Her healing is far better than mine, and I can spend this time contacting Lyra. I will need to speak with Core concerning this Toriel and Lyra can open a path of communication for me,” Nightmare said as he set Dust down.
Dust wanted to curl up and stop moving, so Nightmare gave him an assignment, a job. To keep him from giving in to the sadness weighing down on him. Toriel needed healing, and while Nightmare could tend to most of those wounds now that he has practiced healing magic more, thanks to four idiots, doing that would not give Dust something to do that felt important. Toriel needed healing. Azalea, like all Toriels, is a great healer. So it was now Dust’s job to find her to make up for his mistake.
Finally freeing his hand from hers, he turned and left. He will do what he can for her. After all, thanks to him, her world is now dead. Dust failed. He failed to protect those he loved her home. So, now he had to do what he could to help her.