Dreamcrash

Thirty Five: Goodbyes

I land in the Art Dome and exhale. I feel oddly relaxed. I hear Patch talking in the distance and head towards the noise. As I approach, I realize something is off. Patch sounds angry, and it seems directed towards one of the others. I pause, to listen, and tense up when I hear my name.

"...Night this whole time?!"

"Yes," Pen deadpanned. "Yes I was."

There was a moment of silence. I could sense frustration from both Patch and Seed, nothing from Pen.

"Dear Asgore, how had we not known..." Seed muttered. 

"What do you mean?" Patch asked, sounding rather accusatory.

"It should have been obvious. Pen is Soulless, he can't feel emotions. Night's aura would have influenced him like that."

"Are you siding with him?!"

"Absolutely not, using someone like that isn't a good thing. But it explains why he's been acting so strangely, and why he's barely taken his ink. Night's aura is allowing him to feel emotions normally."

Another pause. I couldn't quite wrap my head around what they were saying. Pen was using me? 

"So you used Night to feel emotions. You used him. And you're okay with it."

"Yup." Pen's voice was flat, devoid of guilt. "He helped me out and it didn't hurt him. I see no problem in that."

"No problem in using him?"

Pen nodded. 

I take a moment to process that. Pen was using me to feel emotions that he couldn't feel normally. Yes, it benefitted him, so isn't it good? It didn't make me feel good. It made my head spin.

"No offense, but that's messed up," Seed said.

"Yeah, you don't say! Pen, you used Night to-" Patch's eyes land on me and panic registers on his face. "Night."

Seed turns to look at me. "Night. You're back."

"Hey," I say, not really sure of what else to say. Both Patch and Seed run over, Pen stays where he is.

"No injuries, must've healed yourself, you look fine... What happened?"

"Well..." I trail off, looking towards Pen. After learning what I just did about him, I didn't trust him anymore.

"You heard all that, didn't you..." Patch said quietly, a bit of frustration in his voice. 

"Look, if there's anyone who can help you out with the whole Three situation, it's Pen." Seed motioned Pen to come over, and he did. "Tell us what happened."

I took a deep breath in and explained everything. How I helped Three make Blackout, how part of my Soul is inside him. I explained how Three tried to corrupt me and I fought it off, I explained how I fought against Blackout in the Dreamscape, using my powers to beat him. How I nearly got the other half of my Soul back, but someone took Blackout away and threw me somewhere else. And then I came back here. 

After I was done, the three stared at me in silence.

"So let me get this straight," Patch said. "You agreed to help Three make Blackout, not knowing Three was a destroyer, he took the other half of your Soul to do so, and blocked your memories of it happening."

I nodded.

"And while you were talking to him, you learned he was trying to corrupt you and Blackout was made to help do that. You, however, fought it off, then brought Blackout to a Dreamscape and nearly killed him. Then someone, presumably another destroyer, stopped you from doing so, forcing you to come back here."