Affection Faded Blue - Inking Love sequel

Dungeon

Dream's POV

I was rapidly getting more and more worried about Blue and Ink.
Ink's screaming, though he hadn't been fed or given water the entire time we were here, seemed to have gotten worse. I could tell his sanity was draining more with every day we spent here.

Beside me, Blue also seemed to be getting weaker. He got the brunt of Marvel's daily punishments, and it was really taking a toll on him. His tattered bandana had fallen onto the floor and his battle body was so torn it could barely be called a battle body anymore. More like small scraps of fabric hanging from his torso. He was battered, bruised and bleeding magic. He had cracks in his rib cage, arms and skull and he barely woke up anymore.

I wasn't much better. I had cuts and cracks littering my body, my clothes were ripped, and I had all but lost hope that we'd be rescued. Unlike Blue, I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I'd be plagued by nightmares of being stuck here forever, about being killed by Marvel, about my friends being killed.

Marvel had just left from another one of his punishments, and Blue has lost consciousness about halfway through. Halluciv looked at the small skeleton from where he was chained up. "I wish I could do something," he muttered. "I should've done something."

"You did," I croaked. "You risked everything to tell Error and.. and Cross."

"But they haven't come," Halluciv wailed.

"But you tried," I pointed out. "That.. that counts for something."

After finishing what I hoped would stop Halluciv from beating himself up about the situation further, I dissolved into a coughing fit. These were becoming more regular, and more painful.

Halluciv sighed forlornly as I coughed. "Castor should be here soon.. I can have them give you my water."

"N-no," I said, "you need it."

"You need it more than I do!" He protested.

"Half and half?" I suggested, coughing one more time.

"Yeah.."

From then on, we hung from out chains in silence, waiting for Castor to bring food for Halluciv, who in turn would have them give some to us.

Castor had stopped unchaining Halluciv for food, partly because they were nervous about getting caught unchaining him, and also because Halluciv was worried about the same thing. None of us wanted Castor to get hurt.

After a minute, I started to drift off. I was exhausted from Marvel's visit, and I didn't know how many more 'visits' Blue and I could withstand. It was too painful. I was worried that when I closed my eyes, I wouldn't ever wake up.

Nightmare's POV

"Dream's close," I whispered to our group. "I can sense his negative emotions."

"Can you sense Ink?" Error asked, and I shook my head.

"He's soulless, and it's not like they'd let his have his vials," I replied. "I can't sense anything that doesn't feel anything."

Error didn't seem happy with my response, but he kept quiet.

We kept running, looking out for anything that looked like a door to a dungeon. After a few minutes, I saw something silver coming towards us.

"Error!" I whisper-shouted.

He nodded, and blue strings picked us up and hoisted us up to the ceiling. We stayed as silent as we could, hoping that whoever was coming wouldn't look up.

The figure got closer, and I let out a sigh of relief as I recognized who it was. The kid was walking to where they last left us, with a tray of food in their hands.
Just as they were about to pass us, I whispered, "hey! Kid! Up here!"

The kid jolted, and looked up with wide eyes. "W-what are you doing up there?" They asked.

"We thought you were one of those swap idiots," Dust explained as we were lowered down from the ceiling. The kid looked down.

"R-right. Well.. follow me, misters. Mr. Dream, Mr. Blue, Mr. Ink, and Halluciv are this way." They kept their head down as they led us.

"Hey kid," Killer whispered, running quietly up to their side. "You know our names, what's yours?"

"Castor," they mumbled. "I'm swap Cross! Chara."

"You're a swap idiot?!" Dust questioned incredulously.

"Stop calling them an idiot, idiot," Horror glared at Dust.

"Don't call me and idiot, dim-bulb!"

"Don't call-"

"Shut up," I ordered. They quieted pretty quickly, and I smirked.

"Here we are," Castor said after a minute. "Be quiet. The others think I'm just feeding Lucy, so you need to be quick."

We all nodded and Castor unlocked the door. Before they opened it, they turned to us again. "Also.. about Mr. Ink.. he.."

"Just open the door," Error glowered. Castor shrunk away and pushed open the door.

"Quick," they murmured.

We rushed into the room, and our eyes widened. There were the Star Sanses, chained up like Castor said they'd be. But they no longer looked like the confident fighters we'd grown to hate.
Dream and Blue's clothes were utterly tattered. They were bleeding magic heavily, and they had cracks everywhere in them, Blueberry more so.

And Ink.

Ink was completely chained head to toe, unable to feel. He had strange ear-muffs on his head, blocking his ability to hear. He was blindfolded and newly gagged, judging on how fresh the gag looked, and there was some sort of shimmery cream under his nose.

"They.. they cut off his senses," Error whispered.

"Uhhhh..?" We peeled out eye sockets away from Ink, to see Dream looking at us weakly. "C-Cross..? Br-other?"

Cross' hand were at his mouth, and tears were springing to his eye sockets. Dust looked like he was holding back tears of his own.

"Dreamy.. it's me," Cross whispered, running up to Dream and kissing his forehead. Dream winced and Cross pulled away. "We're going to get you out of here."

A dark chuckle from the doorway made us all turn around in alarm. A black and white clothed skeleton, looking scarily like Cross, stood in front of us. A smirk was on his face and his arms were crossed.

"M-Mr. Xcellence!" Castor yelped, dropping his tray.

"Castor. I thought you were better than a traitor," Xcellence laughed sadistically. "I guess you'll just have to die with the ones you betrayed us for."

With that, Xcellence drew his rapier and charged.