I had been with Nightmare's gang for three years and two months by the time we finished the plan to save the skeleton that was being forced to fight us. It was honestly a jumbled mess that a three year old could come up with, but we were counting on the fact that it could be so dumb that it would work. I was glad that we came up with a plan this quickly, because I wasn't lying when I said that the skeleton could counter all my attacks; he had even learned to block some attacks that I didn't know existed until I tried them. He was a strong opponent, and I had almost died every time I faced him, which I didn't exactly enjoy; the good thing was that this time around, we were going to rescue the skeleton and his ghostly companion from Ink's contol. Huh, that kind of made it sound like we were the heroes of this story; I guess that made Ink the villain- who would have guessed? We were currently in battle, ready to initiate the plan we had created. I was in a pretty intense battle with Ink and the skeleton at the moment, while Papyrus was talking with his friend; I wasn't doing so well in a double team.

We had started this as an independence test, since we didn't want Dream to be involved; he wouldn't come unless Nightmare came with us. Nightmare was with Error, watching us through a portal, and was ready to step into the universe at any time. When I gave the signal, which was dropping a knife (terrible signal, by the way), they both entered the universe, and immobilized the skeleton while I kept Ink busy; he didn't seem too happy about this, which was understandable, given the fact that he wanted this skeleton to fight us. I didn't get more than a glance at Error's handiwork, but from what I did see, it was actually incredible; I should have gotten somebody to record that. Killer, Horror, and I managed to force the protectors to flee without the unfortunate skeleton. When we walked over to Nightmare and Error, Nightmare quickly opened a portal home, in case they came back, and laid the skeleton on a couch, allowing Error to finish his work. I did record this, and it was a spectacle indeed; Error really knew how to move his magic inside a soul.

"So how is he?" Nightmare was curious.

"Ink probably made him from scratch, and put a lot of time into him, by the looks of it." Error looked a bit stressed. 

"How so?"

"Other than the fact he wrote every line of code by hand, he also wrote them in different languages, which doesn't change the functions at all if done correctly, but it does make it harder to remove anything because I have to remove it in every language."

"Code?" Killer was confused. "Like a computer?"

"Hm, somewhat. Everyone has lines of code in them, but I'm not exactly sure why; it makes it easier to manipulate someone if you can access their code. If you'll take a look here, you may notice binary, hexadecimal, base 64, and I think Ink even used Morse code to make him, which is annoying."

"So we're walkin' computers?"

"No, we're very much real beings. We just have those characteristics; I believe it somehow relates to the fact that we have healthbars."

It was a shame I wasn't listening to this conversation; I could have probably given some information, but Paps and I were too interested in the welfare of the skeleton to pay attention. Although I had lost the magic that formed dust, healthbars, check boxes, and apparently code, I still had the last three as a part of me; they just didn't work properly. Along with my inevitable fate of not turning to dust, my healthbar and check box didn't work at all, and I had no idea what my code looked like. The skeleton had fallen asleep and looked rather peaceful as Error sorted through his code. I hoped that he would be a friend, but even if he wouldn't, I would be nice to him; being under someone's control probably wasn't the nicest experience. After a few hours, Error had finally sorted through and edited the code in the sleeping skeleton, and we just had to wait for him to wake up. We decided to place him in the guest room so he didn't have to wake up on the couch; plus, we hadn't actually used it since I first got there, and a guest room was for guests, after all!

We all gathered around the bed in the guest room, waiting for the skeleton to wake up, and hoping we weren't too intimidating to wake up to. I had been fiddling with my hood for a while, just for something to do, and listening to Paps and the other ghost as they talked about general things. The ghost seemed really happy that they were free from Ink's control, which made me worry about their past. When the skeleton finally showed signs of waking up, the ghost began telling him about how they weren't with the other side anymore, but he seemed more interested in the group of skeletons he had around him. Nightmare began talking first, catching his attention.

"Hello there." Nightmare gave a soft wave.

"Um..h-hello?" The skeleton responded. He seemed afraid.

"There's no reason to be scared; we're not going to hurt you."

"R-really?" The skeleton seemed to have a stutter. "W-what ab-bout Ink?"

"What about him?"

"He s-said you were m-mean..and d-dangerous..and..he would.."

"Would what?"

"H-he said if I-I ever got ca-captured, he would k-kill me.."

"He can't kill you here." Error assured. "He has no power over you anymore."

"Wh-what do you m-mean?"

"He could only control you through your code, which I modified, making it impossible for him to access any of the source codes without direct approval from you, and even then, you could closely monitor and regulate whatever he does do. You have complete control over your code, which is how it should have been from the start. Unfortunately, most beings have their codes locked away from them, but I've been perfecting a technique that allows the user full control over their code and what happens with it. They can't directly modify it, but they can control who does, which is better than nothing."

"I-I have n-no idea what you ju-just said."

"You're free from Ink's control."

"O-oh. Sh-should I not ask h-how?"

"Probably for the best."

"O-okay."

"I don't believe we've been formally introduced." Nightmare stated. "My name is Nightmare."

"C-Cross. N-nice to m-meet you."

"It's a pleasure. Other than myself, we have Killer, Horror, Error, and Dust, respectively."

"Do I get an introduction too?" Cross's ghost crossed his arms.

"I'm sure that if he doesn't give you one, my brother would be more than happy to!" Paps smiled.

"Who's your brother again?"

"This one!" Paps floated around my head, making me giggle. He's the best

"Th-this is Ch-Chara, if you can s-see him." Cross pointed to his ghost.

"I can't, sorry." Nightmare admitted.

"Another ghost?" Killer was happy. "I wanna see!"

"Thought we only need one o' 'em." Horror sighed; he had enough trouble with Paps as it was. 

"I'm sure he's nice, even if I can't see him." Error tried to look at Chara, but ended up just looking at Cross.

"See one ghost, see them all, I suppose." I said. "Nice to meet you, Chara."

"One out of five's good enough for me." Chara grinned slightly. 

"Well, now that you're free, you can really do anything you want." Nightmare offered. "You don't have to stay here if you don't want to; it can get a bit dreary. We were only interested in saving you, and now that we've accomplished that, it's up to you."

"Y-you're n-nicer than Ink said." Cross confessed. "H-he wouldn't l-let me do that."

"How long were you being controlled by Ink, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I-I don't m-mind. M-maybe a y-year?"

"How could you have been kept hidden for a year?"

"I d-don't know. He w-wouldn't let me le-leave my room."

"Hm. So, do you need time to make your decision? Most do, for something like this." 

"We-well what is th-there to do?"

"You could stay here and join us, explore the multiverse, live in your AU...there are really endless possibilities."

"AU? W-what is that?"

"Short for Alternate Universe."

"I d-don't have one o-of those."

"You don't have a universe to live in? Where did Ink find you?"

"H-he created me a-and Chara al-alone. N-nothing else."

"I see."

"Wh-why does Ink th-think you're bad? Y-you seem real-really nice."

"Well..."

"Ooh! I can explain!" Killer volunteered.

"Go ahead, Killer."

"We spread negativity to save the world!"

"How d-does that save an-anything?" Cross didn't understand.

"Well, if ya never feel sad, ya can't be really happy!"

"Wh-what?"

"If there ain't sadness, happy's relative." Horror explained.

"Oh. I s-see. Th-they think y-you're bad be-because you have t-to make others s-sad?"

"Yes." Nightmare answered. "That's correct."

"D-does Ink do that t-too?"

"No. Why would you think that?"

"We-well, he always g-got mad when I w-was happy, an-and s-somet-times he would h-hurt me."

"That's an understatement." Chara revealed.

"How so?" Paps was intrigued.

"Ink's a jerk. He'd take a cheap shot at Cross whenever he could. Glad he's finally gone...might not want to tell the others that, though."

"My brother is good at keeping secrets like that. Ink hurt him in the past too, but he wouldn't tell anyone."

Both conversations went on for a while, and I kept tabs of both. Cross seemed to tell bits and pieces of the story, obviously being sensitive to it, while Chara told the entire thing plainly. At this point, I was beginning to believe that Ink was the villain, with the horrible things Chara had said; if Cross chose to stay, I wouldn't hesitate to accept him into our family and call him brother. I was happy that his torture wasn't as extensive as mine was, but it must have been hard for him, and I understood that. I promised not to tell the others about what Ink did to him, in return for them not telling about me, which was a fair trade. Eventually, Cross and Chara requested to be alone for a while, which was completely understandable, since they were just bombarded with information, so they could talk about their decision. I really hoped that they would be happy with whatever they chose, along with far away from Ink. Killer and I were studying for a test together as we waited.

"Amount of stars in Outertale?" Killer asked.

"What? We haven't learned that!" I gasped.

"Just kiddin'! Nickname for Outertale Sans."

"Outer, that's easy."

"Yeah! My turn!"

"Okay, nickname for Outertale Papyrus."

"Oh! Oh! I know this! It's um..give me a second. It's on the tip of my jaw..um..can I have a hint?"

"Something relating to stars."

"Stars...stars..stars...Starstruck!"

"Yep! Good job!"

"Okay, your turn. Hmm, nickname for Outertale Frisk."

"Umm..Supernova."

"Yeah! How're ya so good at this?"

"I actually study instead of playing backgammon all the time."

"But backgammon is so much fun!"

"Can't argue with that logic."

"Can we go see if Horror wants to play? Studying is boring!"

"I guess we can do it later, but we are doing it later."

"Deal, come on!"

Killer grabbed my wrist and began to drag me to the living room, where Horror and Error were talking about their favorite foods. Killer managed to talk both of them into playing a secret game that only he knew about, which was probably just something he made up, but we were playing anyway. The game involved running in the halls, and only running in the halls; Killer's games were simply made, yet fun at the same time. Nightmare didn't mind us running in the house as long as we didn't break anything, which was easy, since there was nothing breakable in the hallways except the bells, which were elevated to a point where we would have to intentionally try to break them to complete the task. When we tired ourselves out from running - with the exception of Killer - we took a break in the library, and listened to Nightmare's storytelling. When Nightmare told a story of his own, he sometimes made it seem so realistic that we could actually see the characters acting out the scenes; it was like magic without magic, if that made sense. Nightmare was a really good storyteller.

After a while, we fell asleep to Nightmare's story; it wasn't boring, but rather, relaxing. My dusty nightmare was overshadowed by worry for Cross; I really hoped he would be okay. When I awoke, the others were already up and were in the process of waking me up. When I was clearly awake, they brought me to the guest room, where Cross and Chara were staying; perhaps they had made a decision. That proved to be true when Chara told Paps prematurely, who told me, but I wouldn't spoil it for the others. Cross tried to stop his stuttering to the best of his abilities to make this announcement, which I, from experience, knew was hard.

"I..thought about y-your offer and..I want..to help you." Cross confirmed.

"Really?" Killer was too excited.

"Y-yes."

"We would be happy to accept you into our group." Nightmare smiled.

"Th-thank you."

Cross looked happier than ever when he was pulled into a large hug, and the rest of us were happy too; we had a new brother. Over the next few weeks, Cross proved to be among the top fighters in our family, which didn't surprise anyone; he said he had been in constant training for a year under Ink, who was apparently a strict instructor. It was unfortunate that most of the multiverse was under the illusionary belief that Ink wanted to protect them, since it was obvious that he didn't. He had tricked them all; even Nightmare's brother, which hurt just to think about. Cross quickly adjusted to life with our little family, and we welcomed him with open arms - and tentacles. The first time Cross joined us, Ink was angrier than I had ever seen him, which was saying a lot. We would keep Cross safe from harm and those who would want to harm him the best we could, which was actually pretty well, considering the fact that we were all fighters.

We would keep him safe from Ink.

~~~chapter end woot~~~ 

Dust bean witness Cross bean join family yay!

Thanks for reading my accompanying writing!

Bye!