It had been three months since Ink took me back, and I assumed my family would be ready with their plan soon; I didn't think I could hold out any longer. I was definitely at the end of my rope, with Ink shattering my bones and holding them together with mere paint. That was my life: cracking and paint. I was in fact allergic to paint now, which only served to worsen my situation, and Ink responded by giving me more; he really hated me, didn't he? Speaking of Ink, he was back; he walked over to my many-times-broken body and lifted my skull so I was looking at him; this action hurt, making me yell out in pain - everything hurt.
"Aw, you're so happy to see me!" Ink giggled. "Are you excited for another game?"
"P-p-please.." I coughed up more paint.
"I couldn't quite hear that; would you speak up, please?"
"D-don't.."
"I still can't hear you! Are you excited or not?"
"..Yes.."
"That's what I like to hear!"
Ink then began our torture session, as always, with paint. I despised paint; it tasted horrible, it burned, and it covered me from skull to phalanx! I never wanted to see another drop of paint again! I could stand the kid's killing, I could stand being battered, and I could even stand Ink himself, but I couldn't stand paint. Maybe I was being a bit harsh. I could stand some paint, like gray, black, and blue, but red was out of the question; I would be disposing of anything that I owned with red that wasn't a picture with my family in it - we couldn't control that. When Ink was done with this session, he sat beside me and drank his own paint. He didn't seem to burn or dislike the taste - he actually enjoyed it! I didn't understand Ink; he understood me perfectly: he knew what I hated, and he used it. I would have been glad when he was overthrown, and I would have probably avoided anything about him for the rest of my life. I hoped Cross didn't go through this when he was under Ink's control. When Ink finished his drink, he turned to me and smiled, running a phalanx over my broken bones, making them hurt worse.
"That was fun, wasn't it?" He asked, expecting a certain answer.
"Y-yeah.." I cried, giving him his desired answer.
"Hmm..those guards should have been here by now.." Ink put another crack in my skull out of frustration, making me cry harder. "I wonder what's taking them so long."
I hoped my family was the cause, because I wanted to go home.
"I guess we can play a little more while we wait for them; you don't mind, do you?" Ink traced over the new crack.
"N-no.." I whimpered; I didn't want to play.
"Great! Are you thirsty?"
"No!"
"Oh, you must be! Tell me again, the truth this time. Are you thirsty?"
"N-no.."
"I sense a lie." Ink pressed down on my shattered radius, making me scream. "Are you thirsty?"
"Yes! P-please stop!" I begged.
"I knew it! I know just the drink!"
Ink began forcing me to drink his red paint, the same that covered my shattered body; it burned me. After three hours of this torture, the door opened; it was my family - they looked angry.
"What are you doing to him?!" Error was in shock.
"Oh, he likes it." Ink threw me down on the floor as I coughed up some paint.
"We're stopping you right here, Ink." Nightmare declared.
"And what makes you think you can do that? I have an army. You have nothing."
"What army would that be, exactly?" Killer scoffed.
"What do you mean?"
"We jus' had a lil' 'greement." Horror smirked; they had done it.
"You what?!"
"Surrender, Ink." Nightmare demanded. "You're outnumbered, and the entire multiverse is against you. As much as we want to, we won't hurt you if you give yourself up."
"S-seriously, I-I'm for h-hurting you." Cross admitted.
"That's cute." Ink laughed. "Well, I guess I know when I'm down; I certainly won't give you the satisfaction of inflicting pain on me."
"Lucky." Error growled, restraining Ink with his strings. "Let's get this miscreant where he belongs: away from Dust."
"Dusty!" Killer rushed over to me, holding my shattered body in his arms; I refrained from screaming, but I could have. "You're safe now, Dusty. Ink can't hurt ya no more."
I cried as I was brought back to the house; Ink had hurt me more severely this time, and everybody knew it. He was stripped of his magic and forced to watch as I was being cleaned off this time, since we had nowhere to put him yet; Error held him tightly, and he wouldn't escape. Nobody liked this arrangement, but we put up with it. Classic Sans and Dream were assisting this time, since they also wanted to keep an eye on Ink, and Dream had a certain expertise with healing magic that would come in handy. Ink was laughing at my screams while everybody else was crying; he didn't care about me - I knew that. Even the kid seemed upset about it. Papyrus wasn't allowed to see me for a while, since it would break his soul; it certainly broke everyone else's - not literally, of course. There was a strong feeling of hatred in the room; you didn't have to have any special powers to know that. When the paint was mostly off, the scars, cracks, and chips in my bones were evident, and they were plentiful.
"Oh my.." Dream wasn't happy; he was definitely sad - crying, in fact. "How is he even alive?"
"If I wanted to kill him, I would have done it." Ink chuckled.
"You be quiet; it's bad enough you even have to be here." Error tightened his strings out of anger, but Ink didn't care, laughing harder.
"Dust, does it feel any better?" Nightmare asked, hopefully.
"Y-yeah..a l-little." I coughed up more paint, which was quickly wiped away.
"How much paint didjya make him take, Ink?!" Killer cried.
"Well I didn't keep track.." Ink cackled. "But..I'd say at least...oh..many...many..kiloliters. Maybe a couple thousand of those? I don't know."
"Jus' let me at 'im.." Horror had his axe quickly taken from his hands.
"Let's not do anything we might regret." Classic Sans spoke up. "Ink can't do anything but taunt at the moment, so let's just all stay calm.."
"Fine..."
"I-isn't there a-any way to get this p-paint off his soul?" Cross looked at my soul with pity.
"Oh, well, I could remove it, but..I don't want to." Ink smirked.
Everybody's glare shifted to Ink; they weren't pleased. I couldn't glare, though, because I couldn't physically move my skull to do so. Ink simply laughed. He didn't care whether we lived or died; he only wanted pain and suffering.
"Is there anything that will make you want to?" Nightmare hoped.
"Hmm..." Ink thought. "Nope, I just wanted to give you false hope!"
"You're sick, Ink." Error was disgusted.
"Yep!"
"Maybe we could use paint remover or somethin.'" Killer suggested; Ink's eyelights widened slightly - Dream noticed this.
"Paint remover?" Dream studied Ink's expression. "Ink is allergic to paint remover, aren't you, Ink?"
"That's ridiculous!" Ink kept his cool outlook.
"So you wouldn't mind if we..gave you some..would you?" Nightmare caught on.
"Of course I'd mind! You shouldn't make somebody drink that! It's completely inedible!"
"You didn't seem to mind forcing Dust to drink paint." Error reminded.
"Well he's not allergic to it!"
"A-actually, I did develop a-an allergy." I input. "I t-told you about it."
"Well, thank you for the information, Dust." Classic Sans looked to Ink. "I think we've reached a conclusion. Remove the paint from his soul, or we're going to make you drink paint remover until you do."
Ink growled, until finally deciding that he didn't want to be forced to drink the accursed paint remover. He was allowed to come close to me, making me afraid. He wrapped his hands around my soul, and performed the action; the paint was removed from my soul. A wave of relief flooded the room as I showed comfort in the lack of paint, and Ink just looked mad about it - he was restrained again in Error's strings. After this, Dream and Nightmare began to heal my shattered bones - I wasn't joking when I said they were shattered - which took quite a while; most of the others were allowed to leave the room, excluding Ink, Error, and Classic Sans. During this, a few conversations were had.
"So, Classic Sans?" Nightmare had a question.
"Yeah?" Classic Sans looked intrigued.
"May I ask you a question, for a friend?"
"Sure."
"How would one go about..adopting another?" I lit up inside; I liked this question.
"What, is Dust planning on adopting his little monster?"
"No chance in heck!" I quickly stated.
"Ah, no." Nightmare snickered. "A different friend."
"Well, to adopt someone, it's a pretty simple process." Classic Sans started. "It really depends on how many kids, I guess."
"That would be four."
"I see. Well, your friend would need to have enough room, a way to provide for the children, and a suitable living situation, along with a sufficient way to get them to school."
"He certainly has that."
"In addition, the kids have to want to be adopted, since some people may just not be the right match for the kids; I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen an adoption fall through because the kids weren't happy."
"They show a definite interest."
"Not to mention the adopter has to be older than the adopted."
"Certainly."
"There used to be a certain limit pertaining to income, but it seemed that some families just did better with less, so it was pretty much dropped; does your friend live in the same AU the kids were born in, or is it an AU exchange?"
"Definitely an exchange."
"Ah, those are a bit harder. The parents of the adopted children may not have completely severed ties for some reason, so they would have to be consulted."
"The parents of all but one of them are dead, and the other completely severed ties."
"I understand that, but the parent would still have to be consulted."
"Hmm..all right."
Nightmare took a deep breath.
"Ink." Nightmare looked to Ink.
"What?" Ink looked unamused.
"Can I adopt Cross?"
"What?!" Everyone but Error, Nightmare, and I exclaimed.
"I want to adopt Cross. I am consulting you."
"No way!" Ink chuckled. "That would make you happy!"
"This is a special case." Classic Sans stated. "Forget consulting with the parent."
"Wow."
"What else is required?" Nightmare questioned.
"Not much else..I'd just need the approval from the adopted and a few signed papers." Classic Sans shrugged.
"I'm Dust Sans, and I approve this message." I responded, making Nightmare chuckle as he healed me.
"In that case, I'll get the approval from the others - uh..Killer, Horror, and Cross, right?"
"Correct." Nightmare confirmed.
Classic Sans left the room.
"Brother." Dream spoke up. "Are you really planning on adopting?"
"Yes." Nightmare smiled.
"I can sense that this makes you..happy. Brother..I've never felt this much joy from you.."
"I guess..I'm just happy."
"I like you this way." Dream grinned.
"I like it this way, too."
"This is boring." Ink ruined the moment.
"You be quiet!" Error tightened the strings.
"Took you long enough." I joked.
"I guess fourteen years is a long time to wait for an adoption." Nightmare confessed.
"I-it was f-fun!" I coughed up more paint; that wasn't stopping any time soon.
"I don't think that was." Nightmare wiped the paint away.
"What are we going to do..when this is over?"
"I hadn't thought of that.."
"Just..do what we used to?"
"I don't see much choice.."
"What do you mean, brother?" Dream didn't know.
"Oh, yes." Ink looked smug. "Tell your brother of the wonderful things you do."
"Dream..it would hurt you too much." Nightmare didn't want to tell him.
"Brother, I can take anything!" Dream wanted Nightmare to tell him. "If I can take Dust, I can take anything!"
"..." Nightmare sighed. "Dream, my job is to make people unhappy; I can't just stop."
"I don't understand; what is that supposed to mean?"
"Dream..when I took the apples, I thrust the job of securing a balance onto myself, and you didn't know it, but when you took that last one, you took the other side. I make people sad, and you make people happy; that's how it was always supposed to work. If one of us were to stop, one set of emotions would rule, and chaos would ensue. I took the entire weight of the balance on my shoulders so you wouldn't have to worry about it."
"Wh-what? You...you weren't simply..corrupted?"
"No. I.."
"You were protecting me?"
"..."
"You were..and I was stupid enough to fight you!" Dream was crying.
"Hey..don't cry like that..you did nothing wrong; you didn't know."
"I should have! I'm such an idiot!"
"No, you aren't. You shouldn't say things like that; you're supposed to be the good one."
"But you were the good one! I was fighting you for something you couldn't control! I let Ink fool me into thinking you were evil..I'm so sorry, Nightmare!"
"Hey, that's behind us now; we'll figure something out."
"Yeah..we-" Dream was cut off.
"Is it true?!" Killer entered the hospital quickly. "Are ya really adoptin' us?!"
"Yep." Nightmare chuckled.
"Oh boy! I love ya, Dad!" Killer hugged Nightmare from behind.
"I love you too.." Nightmare muttered playfully.
"Wait.." Dream had an epiphany. "If Nightmare is your dad..then does that make me your..uncle?"
"Oh boy! This is the best day ever!" Killer jumped.
"Maybe for you." Ink wasn't impressed. "I lost an empire."
"Well, your empire sucked." Error said.
"It's true." Classic Sans agreed, returning with Cross and Horror.
"Y-you're doing i-it?" Cross was overjoyed.
"Yes." Nightmare confirmed again.
"This's great!" Horror commented happily.
"I guess I'm the weird next door neighbor?" Error assumed.
"No way! You're the cousin!" Killer replied.
"I thought he's the uncle." Horror was confused.
"I-I was thinking that t-too.." Cross was unsure.
"I'll just be undecided." Error stated.
"Okay!" Killer could live with that. "How're ya feelin,' Dusty?"
"All r-right." I responded, before coughing up more paint - Ink laughed when I did that.
"You'll get better in no time, Dusty! Right, Dad?"
Nightmare looked at my bones with uncertainty. "I honestly don't know."
"Whaddya mean? Dusty is going to get better, right?"
"We'll see."
"But he has to get better! He has to!"
"He doesn't have to get better; he could just suffer for the rest of his life - I'd like to see that." Ink chuckled at the thought.
"I-I'll be fine." I assured. "Just..need time, 'kay?"
"If ya say so, Dusty.." Killer was a bit saddened.
"We're going to finish healing Dust up and get a few things settled." Nightmare smiled. "You boys go wait in the living room, all right?"
"Okay, Dad!" The trio were off.
"You really shouldn't give them false hope.." Nightmare sighed.
"I just didn't want to see Killer sad..you know how he gets..maybe I will get better soon; we never know." I was hopeful.
"You should rest now, Dust: you've been through more than you should've. We'll be done when you wake."
"Okay, Dad." I shut my eyesockets and fell asleep; I was tired.
As I descended into my dusty nightmare, I felt warm; healing magic was comforting. With Ink out of power, there was a lot of work ahead of us; mine mostly consisted of healing, since I wouldn't have been walking for quite some time. I hoped I would see Papyrus soon - he's the best. He probably had tons of new stories to share about his adventures. Everything looked bright from this point on, although I certainly wouldn't discard the idea of everything crumbling; that was what usually happened in these circumstances, right? I would enjoy the peace while it lasted, though. I was also looking forward to that birthday cake, if it wasn't already eaten - it was only four years old; I wondered how old I was now. I supposed I was around fourteen. Yes, the future looked bright..very bright. I couldn't shake this feeling. Everything looked..bright.
Then why did I feel like I was forgetting something?
~~~chapter end woot~~~
Dust bean family kick Ink bean off cliff. (Jk)
Thanks for reading my hopeful writing!
Bye!