Chains of Negativity

Chapter 8

TW: blood & injuries (?)

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Dream sat at his desk, multiple piles of papers, each filled with plans in front of him. They've been going over Inks rescue for hours now, but couldn't come up with a reasonable answer. Nothing seemed to work. Everything they came up with would get them captured or killed in the process. It wasn't worth the risk.

Suddenly, alarms went off. Dream deeply groaned, knowing it meant an AU was under attack. The alarm system was put in place for moments like this, when Ink couldn't alert them. He quickly collected Swap and they made their way to whatever au was being attacked, preparing them both for battle. Dream knew this could be just the chance they needed to get Ink back.

They teleported into the au, and immediately they saw the destruction around them. Houses burned, blood and dust spattering the ground. Both were obvious signs that the Bad Sanses were here. They both jumped backwards and drew their weapons when an attack came flying at them from behind the thick treeline. A knife flung out from the depths of the woods, hitting Swap in the shoulder. He cried out and knelt to the ground, trying to remove the object from his body. Dream dodged the second knife and pulled out his staff, turning it into a bow. He began to fire into the treeline, while standing in front of Swap.

The first to emerge was Killer, multiple knives in hand still. Obviously he was the one who was throwing them at Dream and Swap. Dream drew his bow back and aimed it at Killer, letting the arrow fly towards him. It was flawlessly dodged, and wasn't even close to hitting him. Killer started throwing knives at them again. Dream dodged most of them, and managed to get Swap to a safe place behind some rubble that was once a house before jumping back in to fight Killer. When Dream got back to the fight, there was another Sans there. Cross. Dream sneered at his former friend and drew his bow back. Cross glared back, but dodged the arrow before it hit him. He was never happy to see Dream on the field, not after everything he'd done when they were friends. All the taunts and punishments he would get from Dream was too much to think about. Poor Ink got the brunt of it when Cross left. It always hurt him to know, but he had to get himself out of that situation.

Cross threw a knife of his own at Dream, missing horribly after he jumped out of the way. Killer jumped towards him, pulling out another knife and engaging him in close combat instead of throwing his attacks at him. Dream focused on the skeleton right in front of him, and Cross fell to the backburner in his mind. He traded blows with Killer, his bow turning back into the staff it was usually formed as and he used it to basically beat the shit out of him.

Cross watched idly by, waiting for a good time to budge into the fight. Though part of him enjoyed watching the usually snarky and prideful Killer getting knocked down a peg. He did eventually step in, throwing a knife at him and hitting him in his leg, making him scream in pain and fall to his knees. Dream was smarter than Swap and didn't try to pull the knife out of his leg. He instead tried to keep fighting, even though he was like a foot shorter and much less mobile now. He was very quickly overpowered and was thrown to the ground, Cross sat on top of him with a knife in hand.

"You deserve this. You don't deserve me, and you don't deserve Ink." Cross said, his anger weakening Dream and making him drowsy and unable to fight.

Dream screamed-having no time to respond to Cross-as he stabbed the knife into his hand. The blade slid right through the bone and into the dirt below him. Killer stood next to him, staring down at him with a sadistic smile as he watched Cross stab another knife through his other hand. Dream screamed again and struggled against the skeleton on top of him; despite how his hands were painfully pinned to the ground.

He sighed in relief when Cross and Killer jumped away from him, followed quickly by an attack of bones flying at them. He looked to where the attack came from, seeing a bloody Swap standing over him. He yanked the knives out of Dream's palms and teleported the two of them back to their base. They both easily recovered from the fight, especially due to Dream's healing magic. But the entire time, they could feel a looming tension between the two, like they wanted to say something but couldn't quite get it out.

"It's Inks fault!" Dream screamed, kicking a wall in anger.

"How? He's probably chained to a wall, bruised and bloodied," Swap pointed out

"Yeah! But he left us!" Dream continued "If he actually cared he wouldn't have let himself be captured. He's the most powerful out of us. He let himself be captured, or he joined Nightmare like Cross, and left us defenceless!"

Swap wanted to say something he had been holding in for years. It was Dreams' fault Cross left, and everyone knew it. He pushed too much and broke him. Now he may have done the same with Ink. Having given Ink worse treatment than Cross ever had. He felt bad for his friends. But, like always, he held his tongue. He watched as his friend used his positivity to calm himself down. Back to his normal self.

"Ink shouldn't have left us," He said, more calm. "It's his fault we got hurt today."

Swap didn't know what to say. It made sense, but he also didn't blame Ink like Dream did. He knew how far Dream pushed Ink, and just how much he took from him. He understood why Ink left. If Ink left. But he didn't want to debate Dream. It's how Cross ended up on his warpath.

"We will work to get him back, but from now on he is on thin ice. He has a lot of explaining to do."