I had been with Nightmare's gang for three years and six months by now. Cross was warming up quickly to the thought of a family, but he still found it weird calling Nightmare 'Dad'; we didn't force him to, of course, but we knew he would give in eventually. Cross had also taken to going to school with me, Killer and Horror, and did well in class with us; he attributed that to the fact that Ink used to get 'angry' when he didn't understand something, which made him understand as much as he could instinctively. He did live in Nightmare's house with Killer and I, since he didn't have a universe of his own; Killer lived there because he didn't want to go back to his universe, and I lived there because my universe was uninhabitable. I had even tried to leave food there in case I went back, but it disappeared by itself; my universe truly was impossible to survive in. At the moment, we were in school preparing to learn about another universe; we did learn other subjects, but this was probably our favorite part of the day. We had already learned about Killer's, Horror's, and Nightmare's universes, only leaving mine, which we would learn about today. Nightmare started the lesson.

"Good night, everyone." Nightmare greeted - it was always night.

"Good night." We responded together. 

"The next AU, as you all know, is Dusttale, from which we received Dust."

"That sounds so wrong." I groaned.

"Sounded wrong for the rest of us, too, Dusty." Killer comforted.

"If I get anything wrong, please correct me, Dust." Nightmare requested, receiving a nod. "Right, then. Dusttale is an AU that diverges from the original Undertale story in which the judge, which is the Sans, takes it upon himself to do anything in his power to kill Frisk after countless genocides after genocides. He resorts to doing his own genocide route, killing everyone he can in order to overpower Frisk, even when they still have the power to reset. Interesting facts about a Dusttale Sans would include these: he can see a ghost resembling his brother, he has a certain harmless amount of determination, and after a while, he begins to actually enjoy resets, because he can kill Frisk over and over. Sound about right?"

"Yep." I confirmed.

"In that case, are there any questions before we move into phases?"

"I h-have a que-question." Cross still couldn't get over his stuttering.

"Yes, Cross?"

"A-are we going t-to take a field tr-trip th-there too?"

"Actually, Dust has requested that we don't visit his AU due to his own reasons and a few he has told me. Anything else?"

"I got a question." Horror announced.

"Horror?"

"Why's i' called Dusttale?"

"That would actually be one of the reasons. Do you mind, Dust?"

"Go ahead." I allowed.

"Dust believes that the sheer amount of dust in the air would probably blind somebody if they stayed for too long; he could only see because he was made that way. Any other questions?"

There were no more questions.

"Very well then." Nightmare moved on. "Phases. The beginning phase: what happens before Frisk falls into the underground. Normal life with his brother Papyrus, just like a normal Sans. The early phase: Frisk falls and the original story of Undertale is started. The middle phase: Frisk becomes purely genocidal and refuses to do a pacifist or neutral run, no matter how much it is pleaded for them to stop. The late phase: Sans eventually breaks and takes matters into his own hands, doing anything to stop Frisk, and becoming attuned to killing. Finally, what Dust calls the too late phase: Sans succeeds in stopping the resets, but only because Frisk wanted to torture him further, and we eventually found him after that; he won't tell us how long that took, but he says it wasn't too long. Any questions about phases?"

"Yes!" Killer was eager.

"Killer?"

"Why was Frisk a meanie?"

"I don't..know? Do you know, Dust?"

"Determination to kill is pretty powerful." I enlightened. "Guess it went to their head, and they just couldn't stop. The same thing happened to me after a while, so I wouldn't doubt it."

"Interesting. Sort of like corruption?"

"You could put it that way."

"Very intriguing. Any other questions before we move on?"

"Y-yes." Cross looked confused.

"Cross?"

"I st-still don't under-understand why Dust h-has to use th-that thing in h-his soul? D-does that rel-relate here?"

"That is to keep his magic flow stable; he has a condition which requires the magic restorer, but I don't think it directly relates to anything here."

"Ok-okay."

"Any other questions?"

There were no further questions.

"All right." Nightmare flipped a page in his book. "Next, we have character attributes. Because there are only two living beings in Dusttale, this shouldn't take too long. First we have Frisk, the eighth fallen child, who thrives on genocide and death - what a nice kid. Nothing special there, really. Last but not least, we have Sans, who became insane after watching everyone die so many times and decided to end it all, and by that, I mean Frisk. He went through the underground, mercilessly slaying every monster in order to gain the LOVE he needed to defeat Frisk every reset. He took an interest in traps and strategy, even creating complex weapons such as-" Nightmare put on his glasses for a minute and looked closely at the page. "I'm sorry, did you actually make a flamethrower?"

"Yes, I actually made a flamethrower." I chuckled.

"Okay, then. Such as flamethrowers, and even using his brother's puzzles as deadly weapons. His favorite things consisted of dust, his brother, and woodworking. His least favorite things consisted of Frisk, Frisk, um..Frisk? Why are all of these Frisk?"

"I happen to hate Frisk with a passion. At the bottom I think there's more."

"Ah, yes. After Frisk, we have sharp weaponry. Ironic. Any questions?"

"Yeah." Horror declared. 

"Horror?"

"Don't Dusty like pictures?"

"That was after he joined us. We're only counting anything between his birth and our finding him."

"Oh."

"Anything else?"

"Me!" Killer jumped. 

"Killer?"

"How do you make a flamethrower?"

"Stop that line of thought."

"Aww.."

"Any other questions?"

There were no other questions.

"In that case, we'll stop here and pick this up with our next lesson. Remember to study for your tests!" Nightmare reminded.

When we were dismissed, we all ran to the living room, ready to do something relaxing. Eventually, a conversation was started.

"How many Frisks were on that page?" Killer was giggling.

"I dunno, but i' went on 'n on!" Horror joined him.

"I-it was p-pretty funny!" Cross chuckled slightly, and Chara accompanied him before starting a private conversation with Paps.

"Cross, ya know how Dust has the nickname Dusty?" Killer had an idea.

"Yeah. Y-you want t-to be called Kills, r-right?"

"Workin' on that, but I have a great idea! We could call you Crossy!" 

"Th-that sounds f-fun."

"Yes! Now we just need nicknames for Horror and Error!"

"Di-didn't Error s-say he never wanted a n-nickname?"

"He'll give in eventually. Eventually. Crossy, can I ask a personal question?"

"S-sure."

"Why d'ya stutter?"

"Brother, tell Killer that was rude." Paps demanded, before continuing his talk with Chara. 

"Paps says that was rude." I repeated.

"Sorry, but I wanna know!" Killer frowned. "You only stutter when your magic's down, but he does it all the time!"

"I-it's okay." Cross sighed. "I-I stutter be-because Ink m-messed up with m-my speech p-patterns."

"Once again, Cross, you're understating it." Chara complained. "You and I both know Ink practically beat your ability to talk straight out of you. It's not irreversible, you know; you just have to try."

"Oh. That makes sense, I guess." Killer accepted Cross's answer.

"Least ya don't talk like me." Horror saw the bright side. "I mean, I got my skull busted an' that's why I don't talk right."

Before the conversation could continue, Error entered the room and greeted us, receiving the same.

"So what are you talking about?" Error inquired.

"Talkin.'" Killer answered.

"You're talking about talking?" 

"Pretty much." I replied. As I did, a thought came to my mind; I looked at the fireplace. "Wait a minute!"

"What?"

"We never took a family photo with Cross in it! We have to remedy this!"

"I'll get Nightmare!" Killer volunteered. Everybody knew never to deny me when we needed a new family photo.

"Wh-why?" Cross was dumbfounded.

"Dust is obsessed with photography." Error responded. "It's best not to question it."

"Um..ok-okay?"

When Killer returned with Nightmare, they were perfectly positioned with the others for a photo, and I set the timer for the camera, releasing it into Papyrus's hold; he's the best. I got into my position rather quickly, ready for the photo. When the camera made its telltale click, the picture had been taken, and it looked amazing! Within an hour, the picture was over the fireplace, and everything was perfect. Error had his job to do, so he left right after the photo was taken. Pretty soon, we had to go out to work as well, and we arrived in a pretty average universe - nothing special. When we began to spread negativity, it wasn't long before our familiar adversaries arrived. Ink began with his cliche opening that even Cross had begun to get tired of.

"Nightmare and gang! Leave this AU alone, or we will use force!" Ink proclaimed.

"Do you never get tired of the same line over and over?" Nightmare wondered. "I know for sure that everybody else is tired of it."

"Are you still on this?!"

"Yes. I could have thought of over a hundred lines in less time than it took for you to think of one. Where is your legendary creativity?"

"At least I'm not torturing people!"

"Keep telling yourself that." Chara muttered. "Maybe it'll come true."

"At least we have creativity." Nightmare huffed.

"I have creativity!" Ink argued.

"Then make up a new line to use. Your old one is dead."

"That's enough! Leave this AU or we will make you!"

"Not really feeling up to it, sorry."

"Did you just make a quote?!"

"Napstablook is more creative than you are."

"Stop it!"

"Balance is restored." Nightmare whispered to us, before returning to Ink. "All right, in that case we'll leave, on one condition."

"And what would that be?"

"You use a new line next time. Seriously, be more creative."

"Fine! Just leave, I'll use a new line!"

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Nightmare opened a portal back home, which we entered. If a battle had broken out, Cross would have assisted me in fighting Ink, and if Error were there, he would fight the swap brothers or Ink, depending on the circumstances. We had it down to a science at this point. Now, it was time for a meal, which Nightmare had prepared before we went out. Error had somehow popped in out of nowhere, like he always did, and we were happy to have him. As we ate, we shared a few stories which we had probably told before, but that wasn't important. Error had an intriguing story from his past prepared.

"Okay, let's see." Error began. "Once upon a time, I was in the Anti-Void, and I had to destroy a universe because it was getting too corrupted to live, so I went out to destroy it. Uh, when I got there, it had nothing in it; it looked like a shabby version of the Anti-Void. When I started to destroy it, Ink tried to rush me with a literal army, and it hurt really bad, because they were trying to kill me. Um, when I got back to the Anti-Void, I couldn't really move because a lot of my bones were broken and, uh, then I healed and that's about it. The end. Moral of the story: stay away from blank AUs."

"That is sound advice." Nightmare complimented. 

"S-sounds scary." Cross commented.

"I don't wanna do that, ever." Horror shuddered.

"Next story!" Killer suggested. "Happy please!"

"I have a happy story." Nightmare stated. "Once, there was a lonely skeleton. He had no friends, nor anyone to talk to. One day, he encountered a different skeleton; they quickly formed a friendship, and became quite close. They found another skeleton, and befriended him. They continued until there were six skeletons in their group. They loved eachother and lived happily ever after, the end."

"Is that story about us?" I gathered.

"Yes."

"Do ya really think we'll live happy ever after?" Killer tilted his head.

"We can definitely try." Error beamed.

"Y-yeah, we can b-be happy fo-forever!" Cross agreed.

"Indeed." Nightmare concurred. "I'd say it's been a while without sleep. I'll be turning in."

"Now that you mention it..I'm tired too." I yawned.

"Yeah, I'm off." Killer teleported to bed, not bothering to walk.

"I-I'm not really t-tired." Cross fidgeted. "I think I-I'll stay up."

"Your choice. I'll be out in a few hours." Nightmare headed for his room.

After a few good nights, I started towards my room, talking with Paps as I went.

"So, you're really getting along with Chara." I started.

"Oh, yes!" Paps showed glee. "It is very fun having another ghost to play with!"

"You're the best, Paps."

"I am the Great Papyrus!" 

"I love you, Paps."

"I love you too, brother. Have a nice rest."

"I will, Paps. Night."

"Good night!"

I opened and closed the door to my room and stretched a bit before placing my camera on my dresser. After doing so, I collapsed on my bed and fell asleep into another dusty nightmare. As the dust in my mind floated around, I felt content, and thought about my family; I loved them all so much, living and nonliving. Cross had become another integral part of our little family, and we accepted him right away. At this point, we weren't sure which part he would fit into, but we would love him with whatever path he took. At the moment, the roles filled were as follows: Killer was the youngest, playful and curious; Horror was the brother next door, living in his own house, but one of us all the same; I was the insane, yet mature, child, who somehow fit in somewhere; Error was the cousin or uncle we all loved; and Nightmare was the dad. We were a happy family together.

Oh, and Paps is the best.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean family happy beans.

Thanks for reading my loving writing!

Bye!