I had been with Nightmare's gang for ten months now, and it was exciting; I was still regarded as the stealth agent, even though just about everybody in the multiverse knew exactly what I looked like. Nightmare says he thought he was getting closer to having Error join us, but I didn't know about it. Other than Nightmare, we hadn't even actually met him: only seen pictures and videos. Nightmare said he was in bad shape, though; if we could have helped him, it would have been great. At the moment, I was relaxing in some obscure copy of a universe and reading a book in a tree. It was a well-written story, but some of the decisions the main character made were ridiculous: he went back on a life debt! In my point of view, that was one of the most low down things you could do. Either way, Nightmare had recommended it to me, and that was his way of saying: "Read this book or else." In any case, I was reading it.

It was a beautiful universe, with a thick forest suitable for hiding in plain sight, and nobody was going to see me there. Since we were trained in what to do in certain situations and received our  communicators, we were allowed to roam the multiverse, if we were careful; we were known criminals, after all. When I finished the book, I decided that it would be nice to take a nap; I hadn't slept since before I started reading, and it was a long book. I always had Papyrus to wake me up if trouble was around, so it was safe. I lay back on the large trunk and drifted off into a pleasant dusty nightmare, which I knew wouldn't bother me. It was quiet in this universe and absolutely perfect for sleeping in a tree; my spine would probably pay for it later, but that was later.

When I woke up, I was still in the tree, and Paps hadn't woken me up; that was a good sign, which meant I didn't have to rush getting up. I saw Papyrus a couple seconds after I woke, and faced him.

"Heya Paps. Anything happen while I was asleep?" I sat up on my branch.

"Good to see you awake, brother!" Paps smiled. "Nothing too important, but you were asleep for about five hours."

"We should probably head back home, then; Killer will get restless."

"Good idea, brother! Let us go, then!"

"You're the best, Paps."

I opened a portal home and arrived in my dusty bedroom, where I was immediately tackled with one of Killer's hugs. I probably should have checked where he was before coming home, but it was too late at this point to argue.

"Dusty! You're a whole ten minutes late!" Killer complained.

"I fell asleep." I shrugged.

"Okay! Wanna play a game?"

"Sure, what game?"

"How about AU chase?"

"Doesn't Dad have to watch us when we play that so we don't die?"

"Oh yeah! I'll go ask him! Stay here!"

Killer ran off to ask Nightmare if we could play the game; it was a simple concept, but it was made more exciting by the fact that we were wanted. It was kind of like tag, except with different universes, if that made sense. Killer returned quickly, taking less than two minutes to gain Nightmare's permission, and Nightmare came in a minute later, obviously not taking the energy to run inside like Killer often did. 

"He said yes!" Killer jumped like a lantern fly when you're ready to kill it.

"All right, here are the rules. Keep the portals you make open for at least ten seconds, make no more than one every thirty seconds, and keep your trackers on. If you lose the other, return home." Nightmare recited the rules by memory, since he said them every time we played this game. 

"Got it!" Killer saluted.

"Indeed. Who's chasing first?" I asked.

"Hmm..you! Start the countdown!"

"Okay. Prepare yourselves for a chase." Nightmare opened two portals that would follow our locations for safety. "Three. Two. One. Start running, Killer." 

Killer opened a portal, and I waited for my cue to follow him.

"And..go ahead, Dust." Nightmare cued.

I began running after Killer, and the first universe he ran into was Horrortale. We ran past Horror and his brother, who knew exactly what we were doing, and waved as we passed; Horror had a nice brother - not as nice as Papyrus, but nice. After half a minute, our communicators beeped. This marked the thirty-second point which allowed Killer to make another portal. We enabled this so the chaser would know another portal was being opened, and so the runner would know they could open another portal; it was difficult to count to thirty while you were in a fast-paced chase across the multiverse. Killer opened another portal, this time to what looked to be Underswap; I guess he was feeling lucky today, since two of the four skeletons we fought regularly literally lived there. I wouldn't shirk from following him, though: if he did get into trouble, I'd help him.

When I entered the portal, I sincerely questioned Killer's sanity: he had opened the portal to the center of Snowdin, and the swap brothers were watching us play tag. That must have been awkward for them. It probably got even more awkward when I actually caught up to Killer, and we stopped for a second.

"Tag." I said. "You're it."

"Aw man! Well, start running!" Killer waited for me to open a portal to a different universe, which I did.

I opened my portal to a copy, which was much safer than Underswap, and in the middle of a forest. As I ran through the forest, the air passed by my skull, which gave me a feeling of nostalgia. I wasn't as fast as Killer, so he caught up to me pretty quickly. It was honestly sheer luck that I was able to catch him in Underswap, and maybe the fact that he tripped. Okay, maybe it was entirely the fact that he tripped, but I still caught him that time.

"Tag!" Killer yelled. "Take your rightful place as it!"

"Okay." I surrendered.

Killer ran off once more, opening a portal to Underfell. He must have been feeling really lucky today. I followed after him, knowing that he was on a danger streak, and joined him in the cruel universe. Killer must have been feeling really insane today, because he ran right past the brothers of this universe, coming within a foot of them, and not even stopping! I guess his plan worked, because they were simply dumbfounded at what they were witnessing. I ran right after him, taking advantage of the others' shock to slide by them, but not without snapping a picture. Killer decided to try his luck even more, not opening a portal out of Underfell when the timer went off. I felt like this would end badly, but I couldn't tell him that, since he was too far ahead of me. To add to the madness, the brothers of this universe were now chasing us as well. I believed Killer was taking this too far.

When he finally opened a portal, we ended up back in Underswap; now I was sure Killer was more insane than usual today! Nightmare was even contacting us on our communicators.

"Killer, are you crazy?!" Nightmare sounded like a concerned parent; as far as we were concerned, he was.

"I am very crazy!" Killer replied.

"Stop being crazy! Dust, you're looking tired."

"I would sit down, but the Underfell brothers are chasing after us.." I stated. "And now the Underswap brothers are too...and Ink and Dream. Killer, can we go home now?" 

"Are ya kiddin'? This is awesome!" Killer ran faster.

"No, it's not! Killer!" I ran faster as well. "You almost just ran into a tree!"

"Killer, come home now!" Nightmare ordered.

"All right..Dusty, I'm pullin' a Beta!" Killer exclaimed.

Killer's favorite escape tactic: the Beta. A simple yet complex strategy for getting out of tight spots. The user opens a portal to a different universe in front of his enemies, making even the best either fall in or stumble before it, while also opening a portal for himself and his allies while the others are distracted. Killer liked to use a large portal on the ground to be less conspicuous and catch more enemies off guard. The only ways to avoid the Beta trap were being warned ahead of time, having agility and reaction time faster than just about anybody in the known world, or being trained for situations like it. Nightmare was currently in the process of training us for various situations, but we weren't close to being ready, so we still had to warn eachother. When Killer opened the portal, I was ready, and jumped over it; our pursuers never saw it coming, though, and were only confused more by the fact that I jumped. Most of them fell into the portal while Killer and I made our escape.

After the portal home closed, we were in the living room, and I collapsed on the closest couch, rather out of energy. Killer probably could have kept going for hours on end without stopping, but I was not Killer. When Nightmare entered the room, he started scolding Killer for his recklessness and disregard for both my and his own safety, and asked me if I was okay, to which question he received a shaky affirmative; I was shaking pretty badly, but not from fear, just stress. When Killer noticed my condition, he looked sad; I guess he felt bad for putting me in this situation. He didn't have to be sorry for it, since I didn't think it was his fault.

"Dusty..are ya sure you're okay?" Killer felt bad.

"Y-yeah..I just need a nap, probably." I hesitantly responded.

"Brother, your magic levels are low. When was the last time you ate something?" Paps questioned.

"The last time I ate something? I d-don't know.."

"Are you hungry?" Nightmare wondered.

"A little."

"I'll get you something. Stay here."

"Okay..."

"I'm so sorry, Dusty! I didn't know you were allergic to runnin' too much!" Killer apologized.

"It wasn't the running, j-just a small shortage in magic..I'll be fine."

Nightmare came back in a couple minutes with some soup, which would replenish my magic. I didn't think the effects of my deficiency would last this long; I guess I would have to be more careful from now on. While I was eating my soup, the thought came to me that this was important: I would have to tell them about this.

"So are ya okay now?" Killer inquired.

"Yeah...but I probably need to bring something to light." I admitted.

"And what is that?" Nightmare asked.

"Do you remember my magic deficiency?"

"I thought that healed."

"I did too. I think it might be more than temporary; I only had slightly less magic than usual today, and I broke out into this." 

"That is concerning."

"Would you mind giving me a checkup?"

"I can do that. I guess we were lucky this happened sooner rather than later."

"Yeah..thanks, Killer."

"I'm not sure about anythin' anymore." Killer looked confused.

"Killer, could you wash the dishes while I check Dust?" Nightmare requested.

"Sure, Dad."

Killer took my now-empty soup bowl and headed towards a kitchen while Nightmare took me to our little medical room on the third floor. We didn't have a lot of good medical equipment or supplies, but Nightmare could still do a pretty advanced magic checkup with what we had. The room was about the size of my room, which wasn't big, but it wasn't by any means small, either. I sat on the wooden table in the center of the room that Nightmare used for checkups. He was going to start giving us regular checks soon, so everything was set up almost perfectly. He started out with scanning my current magic levels to make sure I was all right for now.

"You should be fine for a while since you ate that soup, but I can certainly see that your magic was below your recent average." Nightmare stated. "I'm going to let this device work throughout the checkup to see your depletion level."

He gestured to a small device he had made himself, which looked pretty helpful. Most of our equipment was made by him, except for a few pieces, which he most likely had to steal; I wasn't going to assume anything, though. He used a lot of methods to measure my magic levels, but that was because there were so many different types of magic to measure. There was passive magic, blue magic, general magic, blaster special magic, and so many other types that nobody used. The checkup took about two hours because of all the types of magic that had to be measured, but we eventually finished. Nightmare turned off the depletion scanner at this point, and began to compile the levels to give me an idea of what I was going through. After a couple minutes, Nightmare turned to me.

"Well, I'm not going to pull any punches, Dust." Nightmare sighed. "You do have what looks to be a permanent condition. Whatever happened to you in the past has dramatically affected you today. I did notice that you are completely out of one type of magic; I assume this is the type you told me you lost?"

"Yeah." I replied. 

"All right. Now for the rest of it..oh boy, Dust. Your magic levels are going to need constant checking from this point on. You're depleting types of magic without even using them, which is worrying, and your depletion level itself is very concerning."

"Will I still be able to help you?"

"Yes, you will still be able to help us, but I want you to take precautions. Carry some kind of high level magic replenishing food with you at all times. If you start to feel any effects from your magic deficiency, tell me immediately; if I'm not there, get somebody who knows my location or a doctor."

"Okay, Dad. Anything else?"

"The last thing. I am going to give you a checkup like this every week. I was going to start later, but your condition is bad. Take care of yourself, Dust."

"Yes, Dad."

"Now, go play."

"Okay.."

I hopped off the table and walked out, but not without noticing the formation of tears in Nightmare's eyesocket. I didn't think my condition was this bad; I didn't even think it was still here. I guess I was going to have to be more careful from now on; I was too tired to play with Killer, who was taking a nap anyway, so I went to my room and laid myself on my bed. Today had been stressful, and I was feeling the effects. Paps was telling me about how it would be all right, and I listened to him halfheartedly; I wanted to believe him, but I just couldn't yet. I covered myself in my blanket and fell asleep, witnessing another dusty nightmare that didn't affect me in the least.

I hoped the condition wasn't too bad.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean still sick oh noes.

Thanks for reading my depressing writing! 

Bye!