Nightmare
Death/Reaper
Horror
Killer
Dust
-Pappy-
BLACK
*Red
Cross
*Chara*
ErRoR
Ink
Dream
BLUE
Me

No pov~

You hum happily as you kick you feet. You were waiting for Dust to finish up breakfast. Today was the day you were going to ask about the weird faded out thing that follows Dust everywhere he goes.

Speaking of that you watch as Dust walks in talking to the weird blurry thing floating next to him.
"No, bro. I've explained this to you before: you can't be seen by the others, so when you mess with them they blame Cross's partner or me."

You walk up to Dust nervously. "Mr. Dust? I... I was wondering something." Dust looks down at you and tilts his head. "What's up kid?"

You glance over at the floating mass next to him. "I... Uh... I'm seeing a weird fuzzy thing floating next to you a lot and it's becoming clearer the more I talk with you, I think I can hear a voice from it sometimes, so I was wondering... What is it?"

Dust freezes and looks over at his brother, confusing you more. "You- you can see him?" You tilt your head and squint. "Kind of? Is this what people who have glasses feel like when they aren't wearing them? Because it's like a floating blob of blurred colors."

You swear you can hear a faint 'Neyh heh heh heh' from the blob of color. You stare at it as Dust seems lost in thought. "Dust? Are you okay? Oh no! Did my question break him?!"

Dust shakes his head and sighs. "I- Good Lord... How do I- well, I guess the best way to explain is to start from the beginning. Sit down kid, this will take a while." You nod excitedly and run off to the couch and look over at Dust who gets comfortable on the couch across you.

"I guess you can say it all started the day a human fell into the underground. But this was no normal human, this human had the ability to rewind time with their determination. They killed everyone in the underground, over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and- well, you get the point.

"I was the only one who remembered what they did and... Well, eventually I couldn't just sit back and let them do what they wanted without consequences any longer, so I tried to stop them, but they kept coming back.

"So, the only way I could think to break the loop was to gain more determination. And the quickest was to do that was to raise my LV. My LOVE. My... My Level Of ViolencE. And the only way to do that... Was to kill all the monsters I could.

"I killed everyone I had ever known to try to save them. I killed more and more, until I was the only one left, along with the kid. I guess I didn't really think things through, because no matter what I tried they kept coming back. The LV I gained was not enough.

"By trying to break one loop, I got stuck in another. I don't remember how many resets we went through before..."

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Dust sat in a dead tree waiting for the right moment to strike the demon. Although... They were taking longer than they usually did to leave the ruins.

Sure enough however, Chara did step out of the Ruins. Once again covered in dust. Just like he was. The brat wasn't even paying attention to they're surroundings like they usually do, instead they seem worried and lost in thought.

Dust chuckles lightly to himself as he jumps down off his tree right in front of the demon child. "Ready for a Mad Time?!" Dust cackles as the battle starts. Like usual, Dust changes up the bone patterns to keep the kid on their toes and to get a few kills in before the inevitable true reset.

This time however, when he manages to drop Chara's HP down to zero, and their soul shatters, there is no reset. Dust stands there confused. What... What is going on here? Why hasn't the kid reset yet? Chara has waited on resetting before but, they gave up on that after they realized that it didn't really throw Dust off his game.

"Oh my... I was afraid this would happen." A voice says from further down the snowy path. Strangely, the voice sounded very similar to his own, just a bit more childish and emotive. Dust whirls around coming face to face with an almost identical version of himself.

There stood a short skeleton in a blue zip-up hoodie with a white shirt underneath, black basketball shorts with a white kind down the outer sides, and pink fuzzy slippers. This skeleton did however, have a few features that made him stand out from Dust's old look. This skeleton's eyes had some sort of black substance dripping out of them and had no eyelights. He had some strange circular red soul floating in front to his chest as well. And the final, and most off putting difference was the knife handle that poked out of his right pocket.

Dust's lookalike stood in a relaxed posture and had a small, apologetic smile on his face, he had his hands in his pockets and was looking a bit sheepish. "It appears that myself being within this timeline interfered with your human's ability to reset. I'm sorry about that. My boss just didn't want to freak you out too much by suddenly appearing, so he asked me to confront you myself."

Dust glares at his lookalike, seemingly ready to attack. -Brother, calm yourself. This one seems to know of times and resets as well, perhaps he can help us. As him a few questions, if he doesn't give you good answers then you can end him.-

Dust looks over at the ghost of his brother, a look of confliction on his face before he relaxes his body slightly. "You do have a point there bro, alright. Oi! You! Lookalike, I got some questions."

The skeleton in front of him blinks and smiles after a second, seemingly relieved. "Yeah, alright. What do you need to know?"

Dust sighs and relaxes a bit more, crossing his arms and leaning against a near by tree. "First of all, who are you?" The skeleton laughs lightly. "That's a hard question. Well, my name is Sans, but I was given the nickname Killer, so you can call me that. I'm from a different timeline of events in which the demon tricked me into killing with them. Didn't give me much of a choice and tried to turn me into a demon like them. My boss came along and helped me out by saving some of what I used to be and gave me a job offer. I accepted, and now here I am."

Dust tilts his head back, processing the information, nodding to himself. "Right, next question: Why are you here?" Killer shuffles his hand around in his pocket before pulling out a small vial, about the size of his hand, full of an odd black liquid. "The boss noticed a large amount of negativity from this timeline, and asked that I collect some for him and check it out."

"Collecting negativity? How is that possible? And what could your boss even use that for anyways?"

"My boss is the God of Nightmare's and Negativity. He takes the negative emotions in different universes and timelines and feeds off of them. The boss also kills off timelines and universes with some help of a few friends when those universes or timelines have become toxic to the rest of the multiverse, or if they no longer have any propose."

"And I suppose you were sent to check out this timeline to see if it needed erasing?"

"Yup! Wow, you catch on quick. It took me months to understand all the technical stuff. Anyway, since your human is now dead, dead that leaves you with a few options. First, ya can stay here while I reset to before ya killed them and I would leave so that they wouldn't stay so dead. Ya can stay here, but ask me not to reset and I'd leave ya here all alone in an empty underground. Or, finally, you could come with me and I might be able to get the boss to allow ya on board."

Dust stays quiet for a moment. A way out of the loop, just like that? But... This didn't seem right. He killed everyone... On top of that he has no idea what working for this "God" would entail.

"What would be expected of me if I were to join you and your boss?"

Killer shrugs. "Oh... I don't know, he'd probably ask you to come with me to collect negativity, he may ask ya to go kill some people to cause even more negative feelings then kill the human to reset the timeline. He may also bring ya along when he goes off to destroy universes or timelines. Other than that? Just some chores around the castle where you'll be staying at."

Dust goes quiet. He'd love that. But...
"Right. If I do take ya up on that offer, I have one request."
Killer tilts his head and motions for Dust to continue.
"I want you to bring the kids back leave for a minute, then come back and interfere with their reset abilities again. There's something I want to fix before I leave with you."

Killer pauses for a minute before smiling. "Alright." And with that he resets, and leaves. Dust quickly kills the kid and waits. Sure enough, a true reset occurs and Dust does something he should have done a while ago. He opens the Doors to the ruins by blasting them open. He ignores Tori as she asks questions and walks off, loosing her almost instantly. Dust finds Chara, and when he does he sees Killer standing in a dark corner, and he nods at Dust. Dust smirks and his eye lights up as their final battle begins. And, like that Chara's reign of terror over his timeline was ended.

Dust looks over at Killer. "Alright, I'm ready." Killer smiles and holds out a hand. And, like that, Dust disappears from that timeline as well.

////////////////////////////////////////////////

"And, that's my story kid." Dust sighs looking up to see you crying. "Kid? Oof-" You cut off Dust as you jump up and give him a tight hug, sobbing into his chest. "Kid? You okay? Why are ya crying?" "I- I'M SORRY!!" You cry out holding onto his jacket. "I'm so, sorry you got a bad human. You never wanted any of that! That must have been so hard for you!!"

Dust, for the first time in his life, was stunned into silence. He had no idea what to say, or do. He sighs and Pat's your back.

"Thanks kid."

------------

Nightmare walks by the living room and looks in. He smiles as he sees you giving Dust, fast asleep. Dust, also was knocked out. Sure enough, the bond he wanted formed, was formed, although a little shakey. The important part is that it's there and can be built upon later.

Now, to put them to bed...

*********************

Dream stares at Ink nervously. Normally he'd be able to wiggle his way out of these uncomfortable conversations, but Blue had decided to remind Ink of why he was disappointed in Dream earlier.

"Dream, I am going to ask you again to tell us exactly what happened between you and your brother. Every. Single. Detail. I will not stand for this to go on any longer. This stupid sibling rivalry is endangering innocent lives."

Dream shifts slightly in his chair, uncomfortable and nervous. He honestly felt a bit like a little kid getting yelled at by his mom. "O- Okay. So, uhm... I guess it started while we were really little. There were a lot of apple thieves back then. Nighty was the one to scare them off or hurt them if they didn't give up when I tried to talk them out of it. So, I guess the villagers always kind of were scared of him from then on... But, he didn't really try to make them like him either... He always hid away in his books, or talking to me or our mom. He was always very clumsy. He almost always had a few scratches or bruises on him from falling off of a tree, or tripping over his feet. But, one day he started to get really distant, more so than usual. I'd hardly ever see him. It was like that for about five, almost six months. Then I found a small child that was really injured sitting at our dining room table. I was horrified, especially when they flinched away from me when I took a step forward and tried to run and hide from me. I had heard some rumors about a child who ran away from him and went missing their father was looking everywhere for them. I put two and two together and figured out that this was the missing kid. The distancing that Nightmare was doing coupled with how the kid reacted to me made me think he was the one who hurt them, cuz the father of the kid seemed so worried about them. I returned the kid home after putting them to sleep, because they wouldn't calm down enough for me to ask any questions or explain anything. After that Nightmare walked in and I confronted him about it, he yelled at me after I told him I sent the child home, and came back with the child unconscious and even more injured. When I asked him what happened, he ignores me and asked mother to heal the kid. He yelled at me some more and I walked away before I lost my temper and did something I'd regret. When I saw him again he was eating out mothers apples and he became what he is today. He manipulated the villagers into killing each other and fought with me. He turned me into stone, and when I finally broke free, my entire universe was utterly destroyed, save for a few small patches of land. And that's all I know."

Ink sighs and rubs his forehead. "I know you were trying your best to look out for the villagers and that child you found, but I seriously think if you had asked the child, or your brother some questions when you first found the kid, or when Nightmare first started to distance himself this whole misunderstanding could have been avoided and Nightmare wouldn't be out there spreading fear and hate to every universe he can get his hands on."

Dream stays silent, contemplating what could have been. "Maybe... But, it's too late now..." Ink sighs and pats Dream's shoulder. "How about this, we continue looking for Nightmare and this child you think he has, and ask questions first instead of immediately whisking the kid away and fighting your brother?"

Dream nods and looks off. Why can he  still not identity this emotion? It was a horrible feeling and he just wants it to stop...

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A/N: And another chapter done. If you're confused about the chapter order, please check out the A/N labeled Chapter Order.

-Jules