Given An Unwanted Second Chance

Chapter 29

The yells woke up Killer and Horror, who both looked fairly startled.  "The hell?"  Killer grumbled, sitting up quickly.  Horror was a little slower but still fast in his sitting up.

I looked worriedly at Cross before turning my gaze to Gradient.  "Don't go down there.  It's...probably Dust and Error."

Gradient nodded, worry in his gaze.  "Can you breathe okay?"

"For now.  But I need to go down there."

Gradient wandered over and hugged me tight.  "Don't get dusted.  I doubt Papa would let that happen, but still."

I nodded, patting his hooded head.  "I'll be careful."

Killer stood up with the rest of the group.  Ink started to get up, but Gradient pushed him back down.  "Dad, whatcha drawing?"

"Oh, it's Papyrus from Underswap.  He looks pretty lazy, huh? "

"Can you tell me about him?"

Ink looked hesitant but eventually gave in, talking quietly to Gradient.  I then realized the yells had suddenly ceased, though the negativity did not.

I went over to the door and opened it, my hand going to my chest subconsciously as I drew in a heavy breath.

"Eclipse, don't push yourself.  You're still not at full strength."  Cross said quietly.

I glanced at him.  "I'll...be okay.  I'm almost to full, anyway..."

I looked back down and went down, now noticing the muffled yells.  I frowned, finishing the descent and looking at the scene before me.

Dust was quite beat up and tied up, a band of strings over his mouth to muffle his angry yells.  Error was clearly growing more irritated as I noticed a few injuries on him, too.  The two angered skeletons didn't really help my breathing, but I tried my best to hide it.  "Dust? "

Nothing.  He didn't even glance in my direction, too busy to notice us in his struggles.  "He's not going to answer to that name, you know.  He doesn't have the memories."

I frowned, thinking for a few seconds before trying again, opening the cell door at the same time.  "Sans? "

Dust stopped struggling momentarily, glaring in my direction.  I could sense him trying to summon a knife, a bone, anything to break free, but his magic was fizzing out.  Probably due to the strings.

I ignored the metaphorical anvil on my chest and got closer, putting my tendrils away.  I stopped next to Error, looking at the god of destruction.  "Can you get his memories back? "

"If he'd calm the f*** down, yes.  I can't access his soul with him freaking out like this."

"Why not? "

Error sighed.  "Souls have a tendency to reject any deep actions like coding changes when in a frenzied state.  Doesn't seem to apply to Code, really, but to me...it does."

I looked back at Dust who resumed struggling and borderline panicking.  I could sense a panic attack coming from him.  I carefully got down in front of him.  "S-Sans, can you look at me? "

His mismatched eyes focused on my single one, the glare and anger making the air even heavier.  I took a deep breath.  "Sans, we're trying to help you.  You've been in a bad situation for a bit.  I know Error isn't the best at finessing these things, and I WISH he'd've just waited for us, but you're okay now.  You're safe."