The Stage is Set

Run Blue! Run! pt1

Run like a Rebel - The Score

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Nightmare carries Dream on his back, mindful not to have any feathers in his grip. Dream holds the key tightly in his hand. Not willing to let it go. Not when it is the one thing that leads him back to his home. His Blue. He doesn't dare let it go. What if the key disappears as fast as it shows up? He won't let it happen. He can't let that happen. He still needs to propose to Blue, for being his everything. Dream needs to find his blue bird before anything wrong can happen to either of them. There's too much to do together. Dream wants to grow old with Blue, and to do that, he needs to find Blue. He has the key that goes to the door hiding his love, he will not let go of the only lead he now has. Cross smiles as a door comes into focus.

"Look." Killer smiles. "There's the door out of this hell."

Nightmare sighs with a tired smile. "Out of this one, into the next."

Cross rolls his eye pips. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

Error levels a stern glare at the back of Cross's skull from his place on Cross's back. Cross shivers and wisely keeps his mouth shut afterward. Killer sighs as he reaches for the door handle, wary that it will just melt away from them. His hand grasps the handle, and he smiles as he turns it. Pushing the door open wide enough for the others to come through, he holds it open for the others. Killer grunts as Dream accidentally hits him with one of his wings. Dream glances at him apologetically as Killer closes the door behind him. Killer waves it off before sighing. They look around the room that they find themselves in.

"We're back here again." Cross looks around at the familiar room of doors. Each one leads to somewhere new; somewhere that they can't trust would lead them to the other Stars. He frowns as he looks around. "Now, where do we go from here?"

Error sighs, shifting to get off Cross's back. As his feet touch the cold floor, he realizes that he's lost his shoes. He frowns before looking around. "Well, we need to find the door with a lock."

Cross grunts in frustration. "I know that. But there are two doors with locks, Error. Which one are we looking for? We can't lose time by looking at all the doors here!"

Error's brow bones furrow as he scowls. "I get that, but we have- WOAH!"

Everyone stops to see what spooked Error before freezing in their paths. They stare at the hand coming from the floor. They watch in morbid fascination as one hand becomes two. The two hands push on the ink, pulling a body out of the floor. Their skull forms halfway, and the other half melts back into their body. All of them stare in horror as it clicks in their minds. This is Ink. Their Ink is still trying to help them. Error steps forward before hearing a chuckle. It's wet with ink and holds a note of tired adoration. Error feels weak at the knees at the sound. How long has it been since he's heard that sound?

"My boys..." Ink gasps for a breath as he looks between them all. It's a weak smile. One that says he can't stay, but he offers it to them anyway. He can't pull himself out of the ink, but he heals all their wounds before falling back into the ink utterly spent.

"Ink..." Dream shifts as he tries to lean over Nightmare without toppling them over. "Thank you so much! We're coming to get you! Just hold on a little longer!" Dream sniffles as the ink ripples on the floor. A distant purr fills the hall, gently shaking the floor and echoing out for a minute. "Hold on a little longer."