When the Stars Die

Chapter 12

Crescent and Betty were on one of the couches in one of the many living rooms, sitting together like how they always did.

Their sides were leaned into each other, so they kind of made a 'V' shape with the way they sat. One of Betty's legs was crossed over her knee, and Crescent had his dangling over the armrest of the couch. They were on their phones, Crescent scrolling aimlessly through social media while Betty was trolling people on Reddit. Just their usual stuff.

There was a thick tension hanging over the room. Had it been one of her first weeks of her being in the gang, she would've been on edge from it. Now it was just another thing in the background. Kind of like when Dust snored, or when someone-- who she still couldn't figure out-- decided to let one rip in the middle of the night. Crescent had a feeling it was Paperjam and Palette playing pranks on them all, using that whoopee cushion trick that the smiley trashbag always did.

Betty didn't know how she felt about that, but it was the best lead for now. From what Crescent had told her about the other kids their age, Paperjam and Palette were Ink's kids. One of them was Error's, and the other was Dream's. Apparently PJ had been formed from a mixture of Ink's ink and Error's strings, and Palette... they didn't actually know how he'd been made. But there wasn't any kind of relationship like that between Dream and Ink, so it couldn't have been... biological. Or the chances were very low, at least. Anyway, he'd said that Paperjam was the most anti-social of the bunch, aside from Gradient.

Horror was still a very big suspect of the midnight farts, though. Could skeletons even fart? They could eat, she knew that much, but where did their organ-granted capabilities reach a limit? See, these are things that she's been wondering, but she knows she shouldn't be wondering about these things. She couldn't help it though. She had no organs of her own, and she couldn't even fart. Why did the skeleton monsters, who were made of nothing but a bunch of bones and some magic that kept them together, get to be able to fart? Unless it wasn't one of the skeleton monsters at all.

Yes, it was true that Nightmare and the other four had gone to confront that Chara who used to be in the gang, but they would be fine. The five of them were no pushovers, even if Dream was a big baby and Ink couldn't do math to save his bones. So, while they weren't in any imminent danger whatsoever, Betty would occupy herself with her theories and investigation of who was stinking up the castle late at night.

"EVERYBODY GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!!"

Blue threw the doors to the room open with a very panicked look on his face, startling everyone in the room. Dust and Horror, who had been getting quite close on the couch they were on, looked over at him with annoyance. But he paid no attention to them, instead using only a little bit of strength to shove all of the furniture pieces out of the way. Betty was a bit impressed. Blue was the smallest skeleton monster she'd ever laid eyes on, aside from Ink, and yet he still had so much strength in him. He could easily snap Horror like a twig.

Not even seconds after Blue jumped out of the way, a portal opened up in the middle of the room. He'd moved in such a blurring speed that Betty almost didn't see Nightmare come through. The sound of a loud crash made her turn her head, and she was able to see him jump out of the giant hole he'd made in the wall. Error was quick to follow behind him. In his arms was a very limp, unconscious Ink.

It took a moment for them all to process it. The one who was quickest to get up and move was Blue, who followed after Error and Nightmare through the hole. The portal closed a moment later, but no one else had come through. Where were Reaper and Dream? Unless.... no, they couldn't have gotten left behind. They were pretty quick to go through portals. Besides, they could always make their own.

"Something's wrong," Crescent said, breaking the silence. He stood up and grabbed Betty's arm, pulling her up. "The negativity is strong-- it's too strong to be normal."

Betty didn't have time to say anything before they, too, were jumping out of the giant hole in the wall. She fought down a scream as they descended towards the ground at a fast rate, having done this a million times before. Besides, it wasn't like she'd actually get hurt from the fall. She had no bones to break, and even if one of her limbs snapped or broke open, she could always have either Crescent or Nightmare heal her back up with some negativity magic.

Betty followed behind Crescent as they ran across the dark grass, over to where the other four had disappeared to. It was pretty easy to figure out where that was, considering yet another giant chunk had been blown out of the walls. As they got closer, the smells of different medicines and bleach made her nose scrunch up. They'd run into the medical bay, which hadn't really been used much since they made their Truce with the Star Sanses. She'd forgotten how awful it smelled in there.

They came to a stop by Blue's side, who was standing in the open "passageway" to the medical bay. The Star Sans didn't even spare them the smallest of glances, his eyes glued to the scene before them. Ink and Dream-- who she assumed had been getting carried by Nightmare-- had been placed on the empty beds in the medical bay. Neither of them were conscious, or at least didn't look like it, and they looked absolutely horrible. Betty had never seen the two look so bad.

"What the hell happened!?" Blue questioned, his voice more panic-stricken than angry. "Where's Reaper!?"

"ChArA hAd SoMe TrIcKs We WeReN't ExpeCtInG," Error said, pressing his fingers to Ink's neck. He was glitching terribly, his words taking forever to come out. "StAy WiTh Me SqUiD, dAmMiT!"

"Where's Reaper!?" He repeated, this time more firm with it. "Is he still fighting her!?"

"No, no. He chained her up and took her back to Reapertale." Nightmare shook his head. His tentacles were tensed up and shaky. They never shook like that. "He's getting Life. He's gonna bring her here."

"What-- holy shit...." Dust's voice came from behind them, and Betty looked over to see him limping very slowly towards them. ".... Yes Betty. I jumped."

"Idiot."

The proper doors to the medical bay were thrown open, revealing a very confused Killer and Cross. As soon as their eyes landed on the two unconscious Star Sanses and very panicked baddies, their looks turned to shock, then a mixture of fear and concern. Especially in Cross's eyes. In his rush to get over to Dream, he nearly had lost all sense of reality and almost shoved Nightmare out of the way. That wouldn't have ended well.

"What happened to them?" Killer asked, directing the question to Nightmare the most. "Dream didn't try using mass arson as a strategy again, did he?"

Nightmare didn't even crack a smile. He'd always at least grin or let out a small chuckle whenever they poked fun at Dream for his pyromaniac tendencies.

"No, he didn't. Chara used that god forsaken scythe." Nightmare started to pace back and forth in front of the beds. "She-- Ink-- they--"

Killer grabbed Nightmare's arm and pulled him over to the side, shushing him gently. Killer knew how to calm the king of the castle down the best, though this was far worse than any angered state he'd ever been in before. He started to pull Nightmare close, to let him listen to the sound of his soul, but the goopy man pulled away almost instantly He shook his head, going back over to Dream's bedside.

"I want to hear his soul." Nightmare reached out like he was going to grab him, but he froze his arms in place. Like he was fighting against himself. "It's the only way I'll know if he's still...."

Killer sighed quietly, but he understood what he was trying to say. It was oddly sweet to see Nightmare be this caring about his brother. He was always so closed off and criticizing of the younger twin, hardly ever showing him affection. He was showing concern now, probably only because Dream was so critically injured. The Guardian of Negativity dragged a chair over, sitting down on it and resting his chin on the bed.

They all stayed there, in tense silence, until Reaper and Life showed up.

(AYO I FINALLY GOT AN UPDATE OUT YAS)