I had been with Nightmare's gang for four years now, and we had just celebrated Killer's and my birthdays a couple days ago. Killer received some knives, as usual, and he seemed to like the one I had carved for him; that was a win in my book. I got a few nice things too, which I really appreciated. Papyrus and I had almost completely restored our bond, and we stayed together most of the time now; I liked having Paps around. We didn't spend as much time together as we did in isolation, but that was a given ever since we left our universe. He's the best. Nightmare had spent most of his time on the device to purge Dream's memory of our location so we could let him go, and Killer had finally convinced him to test the device on him; we were all worried for Killer, but the device had to be tested at some point. Nightmare just hoped he picked the right point. The entire group was currently in the hospital, which was the safest place to test it, since medical supplies were at hand; I was shaking a little out of nervousness, and I had to sit down just to get my bearings. I really didn't want anything bad to happen to Killer.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Nightmare was hesitant. 

"Yes!" Killer jovially answered. "Everythin'll be just fine! I know it!"

"All right...what do you want to forget?"

"What was our last meal?"

"Soup?"

"I'll forget that!"

"All right, then. I guess I can't stop you at this point."

"Good luck, Dad!"

"Why are you wishing me good luck?"

"'Cause ya seem nervous."

"I hope this works.."

"It will!"

Nightmare hooked up the device, which he had termed the 'memory remover.' It wasn't the most creative name, but it was more creative than Ink's terms - he hadn't changed his opening line, even after promising to. When Killer was ready, Nightmare carefully turned on the machine and hoped for the best. Killer didn't seem phased by the machine at all while it was on, but he didn't respond to anything either. When Nightmare deactivated the memory remover, Killer seemed absolutely fine, but he didn't remember what we had for our last meal, which was the exact news we wanted to hear; we could finally release Dream from our hold. We hadn't really enjoyed his imprisonment any more than he had; I believed he actually enjoyed it more, which was weird. We walked to the emotion room, partially wondering what we were going to do with it since it was no longer of any use, and we were also entirely ready to get back to normal; we had had just about enough at this point. We had nothing against Dream being here, but there was just something about the entire event that seemed off to me; I would have felt better when he was gone. When we entered the room, Dream was still there, which wasn't a surprise at all.

"Good morning!" Dream was positive all the time. That creeped me out.

"It's night." Nightmare reminded.

"That's no fun! I declare this daytime!"

"It's still night. We're letting you go."

"You talked for a whole hour about how you couldn't let me go; why are you changing your mind now?"

"We're going to erase our location from your memory so you don't pose a threat."

"Ooh, that sounds like my brother's brilliant mind! I knew he was in there somewhere!"

"Give us one moment, will you?"

"Whatever you need! I'll get you back eventually, Nightmare! I just know it!"

Nightmare walked out of the room and motioned for us to follow him, meaning it was probably important. We went into the next room: the classroom. When we got there, Nightmare sat against one of the walls and began to weep.

"I can't do this.." Nightmare whimpered.

"Don't worry, Dad! We'll get ya through this!" Killer smiled.

"Yeah, no need to cry, Dad." I joined.

"Y-you know i-if you start cr-crying, we will t-too.." Cross lightened the mood slightly.

"It's a'ight, Dad." Horror fingered his skull, close to the hole.

"Do you want a hug?" Error wasn't the best at verbal comfort.

"Yeah.." Nightmare was still crying.

At this, we all gathered around him for an awkward family hug that would have looked ridiculous to anybody watching, but we didn't care; our dad needed cheering up, and it was our job to do it. 

"You're the best boys anybody could ever wish for." Nightmare stated after a minute, although he was still crying. "I love you."

"We love you too, Dad!" We all returned - Error left out the 'Dad' part, though.

"Hey, Dad?" Killer solicited.

"You can ruin the moment now, Killer." Nightmare allowed, wiping his tears.

"Thanks! So when're we gonna start using the classroom again?"

"We'll start using it when Dream has been released and can't..." Nightmare froze.

The same thought came to each of our minds simultaneously; we had just revealed our true natures in the one room of the house Dream could hear. That was bad planning on our part, and now it was a solid possibility that Dream had just overheard the entire thing.

"What do we do?" Error whispered.

"I could break down again." Nightmare softly replied. "Or at least that's what I feel like doing."

"We should probably go back and hope he didn't hear that?" Killer hoped.

"You're right..come on."

We got up off the floor and hoped Dream didn't hear a word of what just occurred. If he had, there would be a lot of explaining, and probably crying, which wouldn't have been the best thing in the world; we had spent the entire time he was here trying to avoid that exact thing, and now that it was a very real possibility, we were a little bit unnerved by it. We didn't know how he would react to such information, since we didn't know him well, but Nightmare was obviously concerned about it. I guess secrets were like that: you kept them for as long as you could, but they'd eventually come out into the open, and consequences would arise. There wasn't any way to stop it, in most cases, since you had probably kept it secret for a reason. I guess I should have been more careful with my secrets; I wouldn't have wanted anyone worrying about my nightmares or my period of isolation. It was easy when they trusted in the fact that you would tell them when you were ready, but it got harder when you knew you were never going to be ready. When we opened the door to the emotion room, our souls sank; Dream didn't look very positive at the moment.

"Nightmare?" Dream asked. "Are you keeping something from me?"

Nightmare looked like he was about to start crying again.

"So you are. Was it really so important that you had to find a way to get me to leave you?" Dream tried to understand.

"Yes." Nightmare replied, using every ounce of self-control he had to not break down.

"If you are going to erase my memory of this, will you please tell me now?"

"I..."

We would support his decision either way, and he knew that. We were his family, and he could count on us to back him up, no matter what he did; if he was about to make a decision that could have severely impacted the rest of our lives, we would stand by him.

"Please, brother?" Dream begged.

Nightmare sighed. "For the pure fact that you won't remember this...I will tell you...everything."

"Story time?" Killer wondered.

"Yes, Killer. Story time."

"Oh boy!"

Dream looked a little confused at that exchange, but he listened nonetheless; he was determined to know more about his brother. Nightmare got in a comfortable position to start the tale that the rest of us knew by heart, but we would always react to.

"I've wanted to do this for years now.." Nightmare began. "And now that I can, I don't have the words."

"Start with 'once upon a time'!" Killer suggested.

"Isn't that copyrighted?" Error thought.

"What're ya talkin' 'bout?" Horror didn't believe that.

"Th-this wasn't a pr-problem before.." Cross just wanted to hear the story again.

"Here, start with something dramatic, like 'Everybody makes mistakes.'" I input.

"Does it always take this long for you to start a meaningful story..?" Dream was not familiar with our antics.

"Maybe.." We answered together.

"I'll just start my own way." Nightmare decided. "When I ate the apples, I turned into this being before you; you know this. What you didn't know..was that I was never lost to some evil force. I may have lost my mind for a while, but I never became somebody else; I'm still just Nightmare, I only look different. By the time I realized what I had done, I couldn't take it back; I had been linked to a balance, and when you took the last positive apple, you were, too. Now, I have to protect negative emotions from going extinct, and that's why we're always fighting. I never meant for it to happen this way; it just..did..and now, I can't get out of it. I kept it from you because it would only hurt you, and I will continue to keep it from you, because I do care about you, Dream - I just can't show it."

"You mean.." Dream looked sad; I preferred it when he was eerily happy. "I understand now..but I have one more question."

"Yes?"

"Why are they helping you? They must know this already, but do they have reasons?"

"I'll let them decide if they want to tell you that. It isn't my place."

Nightmare looked like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders; at least Dream didn't freak out.

"He saved my life." I confessed.

"He helped me regain my emotions!" Killer beamed.

"He saved my AU." Horror said.

"He gave me a family." Error grinned.

"He pr-protected me fr-from Ink." Cross stuttered.

"Why would you need protection from Ink?" Dream didn't understand.

"Since you're going to forget.." Nightmare decided it best to tell Dream everything. "Ink isn't who you think he is, Dream."

"What do you mean?"

"I believe Cross is a prime example."

"Ink c-created me for the s-sole pu-purpose of killing y-your brother and his f-friends." Cross sighed. "Wh-when they saved me, th-they treated me b-better than he did. H-he..wasn't n-nice."

"I don't understand." Dream admitted. "How could Ink of all skeletons be mean?"

"W-well.." Cross thought for a second.

Cross leaned in towards Dream and whispered something, probably along the lines of what Chara had revealed in the past. I wondered where Paps and Chara were at the moment; usually, they would have been close by. Maybe they were just playing together. When Cross returned to his normal position, Dream was processing what he had just been told; it must have been most of what Chara told me if it could bring the guardian of positivity down to a soft sob. He had been on the verge of crying already, but this had tipped the scale. I wasn't surprised, since the first time I actually asked Chara about the extent to which Ink tortured Cross, I cried for two straight days; nobody could calm me down. Any hopes I had that Ink was nice vanished after I heard Cross's story, and although I wouldn't admit it, I would have honestly rather lived with the kid's version of torture constantly, for the rest of eternity, than think about what Ink did to my adopted brother; I wished I could have taken it for him and kept him safe forever. It wasn't as bad as what I went through, but the fact that I loved the one who went through it made it seem so much worse. I could only imagine what Dream was going through, finding out that someone he trusted was responsible for it.

"I'm..I can't..." Dream was shaken. "Ink? Did that?!"

"I w-wish it wasn't t-true." Cross was remembering too.

"Cross, the fact that the first two people that have learned what happened to you have broken down crying is not a good sign." Nightmare was concerned. "Is it really that painful?"

"Y-yeah.."

"You'll tell the rest of us someday, right?"

"M-maybe."

"All right. I guess we should probably erase this now and move on; it felt good, though."

"I learned what I wanted to know.." Dream stated. "I won't react differently if you tell me again, in case you ever decide to. I love you, brother."

"I love you too. I'm sorry it has to end like this. Maybe someday we can do something like we used to."

"I'm glad we had this, even if I'll forget it."

The rest of us were watching this display in awe and dismay, since this was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. When Nightmare erased the memories that were just made, along with the location of our house, we were saddened a bit, but it had to be done. Dream would continue to stay loyal to Ink, and we would continue like nothing ever happened. The erasure of his memories didn't seem to affect him negatively when we next met him in battle, but he did seem a bit different around Ink, which was promising, assuming Ink hadn't done anything bad to him. Life continued as it always did, and we were hated as we always were; we didn't mind, though, since we had eachother, and that was all we needed. We weren't exactly sure what to do with the emotion room yet, and we just left it as it was. We moved the classroom back to its original spot, and it was like the event never happened; we could laugh, talk, and do what we used to, just like we used to.

This was our normal, and it was peaceful.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dream bean leave Dust bean family.

Thanks for reading my telling writing!

Bye!