Guardian Angel [UNDERTALE]

N°15 [ Waking nightmares ]

He opened his eyes, lost as to his situation, lost as to the time and space around him. Lost without knowing what he was doing there, what events had brought him here. Or rather ... what had brought him back here.

Nyx stood up sharply, his throat tied, and immediately he knew something was wrong, that something was wrong. His gaze anxiously swept across the room as he recognized without the slightest difficulty the place that had seen him grow up all those years: those .... Those fucking dungeons ... that silent, dark place where he was locked up.

Panic gripped his soul, forced him to throw himself on the bars, to scream without thinking:

"GET ME OUT OF HERE! GET ME OUT!! DAD!"

But these cries were only trifles, one detail among others, something that was ignored without the slightest difficulty, so small was its importance. What did we care if Nightmare's bastard screamed his throat out? He was a dog bred to obey, and a dog didn't have to bark like that. When a dog makes that much noise, we punish it. We punish him severely.

We let him be locked up for example. Even though we know that the dog in question is claustrophobic, that it is terrified of the dark, that it cannot stand silence ... We leave him anyway. We leave him to his fate. Because we think that's how he'll learn. And indeed, he learns well and beautifully.

He learns to fear, to shut up, to obey.

Nyx was just a fucking dog.

=== ===

Nyx screamed, standing up sharply, his body sweaty, his mind in panic. He trembled, trembled as he had never trembled before, and his gaze turned with terror to where he was ... to realize he wasn't in the dungeons. That he wasn't in the dark. That he wasn't alone.

"N-Nyx!"

The cartoonist didn't have time to react, so they jumped into his arms and hugged him tightly. Destabilized, he took time to realize that he was outside, in this deserted UA ... in the company of PaperJam.

"... Jammy ... ?" he asked, before he froze at the sight of his crying cadet.

The child, terrified, clung to him a little more, shaken with uncontrollable sobs.

Nyx hiccup. The events hit him in the face, making his eyes wide open. He grabbed the child by the shoulders, taking him away from him to observe him from all angles with concern:

"Jammy, are you hurt?! Did Nightmare do something to you?!"

The youngest appeared surprised, before suddenly crying more beautifully, shaking his skull sharply:

"B-But no! You're the one who is wounded! Y-You've collapsed! You didn't move, a-and Nightmare left, and I was all alone, and I-I ... I'm sorry, I didn't know what to do, I - ... !"

Nyx brought him back to hug him tenderly, caressing his back gently as he felt his soul hugging with emotion, moved by the anxiety of the smallest child and feeling guilty for having left him so alone and destitute:

"No, Jammy... you did the best you could ... and if you had intervened, you would have been hurt. I never would have forgiven myself..."

The child did not hold back another sob as he shook his head again, as if to say "I don't care, I should have saved you".

Nyx would have liked to take his time, to pamper him, to comfort him ... but the sudden disappearance of his father worried him. Why did he leave like that, without finishing him off or PaperJam? Although, after reflection, the cartoonist suspected part of the answer...