A Living Nightmare

Chapter Twenty

Dream's eyelights had vanished, and he stared incomprehensibly at his friend.

"What... what do you mean, 'so'?? That's hundreds of millions of trillions of lives on the line, Ink! Maybe even the entirety of the Multiverse at stake!"

Ink's frown deepened. He slipped his paintbrush onto his back, but still remained fully on guard.
"I created them, Dream. I can do what I want."

Blue sputtered, disbelief prominent on his face. "Their lives matter just as much as yours and mine, Ink! What are you saying? Are you serious?!"

"Perfectly serious," Ink said, expression sober. "I thought you knew..."

"We didn't know!" Dream was on the edge of hysteria. "We had no idea! How were we supposed to know that you were the cause of this... this entire thing?!"

"Wait."
Killer was still glaring at Ink, eyes narrowed. "If you know your actions could result in the destruction of trillions, how can you call us the bad guys here?"

Ink pointed at Killer.
"You just kill, steal and destroy. It's painful. Sloppy. If two universes touched, it wouldn't kill the inhabitants. It would just erase their code. It wouldn't leave anything behind. Nice and neat."

"Does that hurt the inhabitants?" Horror demanded.

"I would imagine it hurts them dreadfully," Ink said, not seeing the problem. "However, it's all over like it never happened in about an hour. It's fine."

"No, Ink, it is not fine!!" Dream's eyesockets had tears in them. "Their lives matter! You can't keep doing this!"
This... this all has to be a big mistake. A huge mistake. Ink...

"They're nothing but pieces of code," Ink snorted. "I don't get what the big deal is. I created them, I can do what I want."

He frowned as he looked closer at Dream. The usually bright and happy skeleton seemed shocked and miserable. And he wasn't in the best condition, either...

"We can talk about this later. Right now, I need to get you fixed up, Dream."
The other Monster's HP was down by about a fourth of its normal capacity. Ink turned to the Dark Sanses. "You can go now."

The Dark Sanses' eyelights all shrank or vanished as one. So the gamble didn't pay off. They're still going to throw us to the wolves...

"What?!" Dream did his best to glare at Ink. "You can't just turn them away!"

"What would you suggest I do, then?"

"Help them! They can stay here, we have room! We can work everything out!" Dream's eyelights brightened slightly. "This is the chance we've been waiting for! They don't have to be our enemies anymore!"

"No. Absolutely not." Ink crossed his arms.

"Why not?!" Dream demanded. "Why are you being so stubborn?! Even I can see they're not the bad guys here! Why are you so against us helping them when they've been helping us all along?!"

"They're dangerous." He didn't budge.

"Please, Ink," Dream said, sagging into the couch. His previous exertion had worn him out, and his HP was slowly leaking, like water droplets running down a melting icicle. "Sci is dead. Sciencetale is gone. They could help! How many more of my friends have to die before you realize you can't do things on your own??"

Ink hesitated slightly. "...I don't want to put you in danger, Dream..."

"Killer saved my life, Ink!! Are you just going to kick out? Nowhere in the Multiverse is safe from Nightmare except here! Are you going to send them to their deaths? Is that what they deserve?"

"One good deed doesn't erase hundreds of evil ones," Ink said, tone firm. "I'm glad you're okay, but that doesn't change the fact that they're cold-marrowed murderers. This could all be a trick."

"You're one to talk," Fresh said quietly, a frown prominent on his face. "You were trying to engineer the death of hundreds of thousands of AUs. And don't sugarcoat it, because that's what it is. A slow, painful death."

"That certainly sounds more like a 'cold marrowed killer' than anything we ever did," Killer agreed, voice dry.

"Ink," Blueberry cut in, staring at his friend. "I... I still don't understand what you did, or what you're trying to do. But we can't just kick the Dark Sanses out of here. I... I believe them. We have to let them stay."

The Soulless monster glared from skeleton to skeleton.

"Fine," Ink replied huffily, clearly still angry. "I'll help you. You can stay here. But put a foot out of line, and you're dead."

"Same here," Killer said, hands clenched. "Hurt us without a reason, try to murder us, and we'll tell Nightmare about the Doodle Sphere without a second's hesitation. I can't risk the safety of my family any more than necessary."

Ink looked at Killer with guarded curiosity.
"Your... family? But you aren't related at all. You may be friends, but you certainly aren't family," he said.

"Yeah, shows what you know," Dust growled softly. "Killer's just as much family to me as my Papyrus was."

"Which means very little, considering that you killed Papyrus simply for his LV," Ink shot back, scoffing. "He was just another piece of easy EXP to you."

Dust recoiled slightly, eyelights shrinking. It... it wasn't his fault! He hadn't killed Papy on purpose! It wasn't him... it was the LV coursing through his magic... he hadn't wanted to kill him...
Killer placed a hand on Dust's shoulder before standing up stiffly.

"Say something like that again," He hissed, "and we'll leave. You won't talk to me or mine that way. You were the one that made Dust's world that way. You're in no place to judge."

Ink crossed his arms. "I'm in the perfect place to judge, because I made his AU," he snorted. "I know exactly how I programmed him to feel in that moment. He's a heartless monster."

Killer's right eyesocket began to glow with magic, smoke flowing from the void inside.
"He is not. And you don't know anything about Dust. Or about any of my family."

Dust felt a bit of warmth in his Soul at Killer's words, but for the most part, he just felt... empty. Ink was right. When he had killed Papyrus, a bit of him had felt saddened and horrified... but at the same time, a part of him he couldn't control had felt... happy. Exultant. Powerful.

What did it matter if he dies? it whispered. He's going to die anyway. The kid is going to kill him anyway. This way he doesn't have to suffer, and we can use his EXP to destroy the kid. Stop all this from happening, Sans.

So he had killed Papyrus. Shot a bone attack through his Soul.
He didn't realize that little voice was the start of his insanity.

"Again with this 'family' stuff," Ink scoffed. "They're no more your family than Blue is."

Killer's hand tightened on Dust's shoulder almost painfully, knocking the latter out of his thoughts.
"Yes, they are. You wouldn't know. Being a Soulless being takes that away from you."

"Hhhh. If you say so," Ink said noncomittedly, rolling his eyelights. "Come on. The guest rooms are this way."

After all, he thought, I can always move them out or kill them later.