Tall Tales - An Ink Sans x Reader Story

21

The two doors before me are dark and menacing. The real fight begins now, I say inside my mind, taking out my paintbrush. With a deep breath, I shove the doors ajar.

I am immediately attacked, Horror Sans' axe flying towards my face. I yelp in surprise and throw myself to the ground, the axe barely missing my head. A gaster blaster fires across the room, blowing through a wall like it's nothing. I immediately recognize the blaster as Error's, the grey exterior, glitched form, and red eyes sticking out like a sore thumb.

Horror recoils his arms and brings his axe down behind me with a yell. I teleport out of the skeleton's way and kick him in the side, stunning him for a brief moment. Taking the chance presented to me, I swipe at him and snap my fingers, entangling him in a length of unbreakable chain. He struggles to free himself as I break his axe in two, darting away to assist my friends. Dream fights a heated battle with his brother, neon blue arrows flying gracefully across the room at (seemingly at the speed of light).

I'm entranced by the fight, so much so that a figure shoves me away from an attack. I recognize Dust Sans by his signature faded jacket and dust-covered knife. He turns to me and furrows his brow. "Be careful," He warns, "Someone really cares about you." He jumps back into battle, leaving me confused as to why he'd help me.

Nevertheless, I race into battle to defend my team.

~~~
(Third person P.O.V)

"You will contain yourself, you weak little anomaly!" The young human hissed to nobody in particular. "How dare you try to overthrow me?!"

"You can't contain me forever!" The voice of a teen cries inside of their head. "Ink will save me!"

"That skeleton will die at the hands of Nightmare before he is able to free you. I'll become stronger by the minute, and soon, you will be nothing but a thought in my mind, your memories gone and your code a whisper in time."  The voice did not reply to this, out of fear it might be the truth. They did not want the painter to die. The thought of that is something they could not bear to think about. They knew in their heart that their friends would help, that they would figure out the code given to the painter and kill the shadow that threatened to damn them to whatever afterlife there was to come, if it existed. Perhaps they would just disappear in the end, whether it be by the hands of the monster or the hands of fate. The thought of death scared them either way.
How comforting it felt, though, to think of the painter. The warm feeling in their heart that appeared when they thought of him could not compare to anything, and they knew what it was.

It was love.

"Stop that," The entity growls. "Stop thinking of him! He couldn't love you. It's impossible for him to."

The voice doesn't respond. They just stay silent.

"We're going to assist Nightmare. Don't try anything."

~~~

(Ink!Sans' P.O.V)

I push Blue away from an attack and shield myself from it, throwing an attack at Error at the same time. He dodges the attacks and wraps his strings around one of them, flinging it back at me with brute force. I duck to avoid it and continue to battle, wanting to wear him out and hit him in a moment of weakness. 

The doors slam open and a figure walks inside, stopping us all from fighting for a single moment. 

"Now is the time," Y/N grins. "An hour has passed. The Doodle-Sphere's billion year life-cycle now comes to an end by my hand!" They hold their hand into the air, allowing a shadow-like mist to emerge from it and swirl upwards. Nightmare snaps his fingers, opening a portal above them. 

"Feed." They whisper, sending the mist into an uproar. It swirls towards the portal quickly, it's objective to tear apart all universes. 

"No!" Dream yells. As if on command, the mist stops, glitching in and out of focus. Y/N's eyes widen, the white pinpricks filled with fear and confusion.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" The shadow yells to thin air. "I told you not to try anything, goddammit!" Their figure glitches, their hand seeming to move on command. It swipes to the ground, dragging the mist away from the portal. The creature of mist screeches as Y/N's fist closes tightly, strangling it away from the world. It writhes and yells as it fades away, much to the dismay of Nightmare and the shadow. Y/N looks up at Blue, Dream, and I with a weak smile, their eyes no longer black and white, but a brilliant E/C. 

"What did you do?!" Nightmare asks, stepping back a bit. "What are you?! How is that possible?!" 

Y/N shudders, hands shaking, as the shadow begins to regain control. "Not this time," They whisper, straining to keep a hold on their form. I force my feet to move, dashing towards them and holding them up. They smile at me, their skin still grey and their hair still black, but eyes as vibrant as they've ever been. They look at Nightmare with a determined smile, forcing themselves to stand up straight. "Your shadow is pitifully weak!" They shout, grinning ear to ear with determination. 

"How are you doing this?! You're only a human!" Nightmare steps back once, twice, three times in fear. His hands shake, his eyes are as wide as saucers.  

"The shadow is struggling to control me, but I have it by the scruff of the neck!" They yell bravely, their voice losing it's tremble. "Which means I control it! I can do this..." They swipe their hand upwards,  bringing forth coils of shadows. They take a hold of Nightmare's wrists, immobilizing him.

"And this..." They grin, snapping their fingers with a glare at the glitched skeleton to our right. The shadows wrap around Error as well. "And for my final trick...!" They push their arm upwards, bringing out the souls of Nightmare.

"Say hello to Satan for me, will ya?" They wink, closing their fist. The soul shatters into many fragments. Dream gasps as Nightmare lets out a scream, his body disintegrating into dust.

"No! What have you done?!" Dream cries angrily.

"Trust me on this, D-Dream..." They stutter. They open their other hand, revealing a white soul in the palm. "He's right h-here."  Dream takes the soul in his hands, astonished. 

"You... You took away the corruption..." He gasps, tears in his eyes.

"Yeah... I can't wait to see what he really looks like when he regenerates his body..." They murmur, looking at the soul with pride. 

"Y/N...?" I ask worriedly. 

"It's... regaining control, I can't stay like this for much longer," They gasp. "Listen to me. It's only a matter of minutes before the shadow takes over. The fountain you took me to, the one place where evil can't be. You need to get me there, but the shadow won't go willingly," They look at me with wide eyes, obviously terrified. "Open a portal and push me through -- But only after you activate the fountain."

"How do I do that?" I ask, trying to steady them.

"...I kn-now how."