I woke up in my bed; I hadn't been in my bed in ages. Did the kid actually reset after all this time? I looked down at my clothes; they were still covered in dust. I looked at my soul; it still had the magic restorer. My universe had reset, but I was unchanged. I guess my code was too messed up to react properly to the reset. I heard a knock at my bedroom door, followed by an opening sound.

"Brother?" I saw Papyrus, alive.

"Paps?" I looked at him; he looked shocked.

"I thought you were dead!" He rushed over to me and scooped me up in his now corporeal arms.

"You mean you remember?"

"Of course I remember! How could I ever forget my brother?"

"But..how?"

"I don't know, and I'm not questioning it! I missed you so much! I never thought you would come back!"

"What do you mean?"

"After you were buried, well, it.."

"What is it, bro?"

"Brother, you have been dead for about four years."

"Oh.." I subconsciously snuggled more towards Papyrus. "I'm sorry..."

"No need to be sorry, brother! You couldn't have known!"

"Finally, something good is happening!" Chara floated into view. "Hey Spec, why did you have to have such a horrible fashion sense in the past?"

"I'll change later."

"Spec?" I wondered. "Am I missing something here?"

"Oh, Chara gave me a nickname!"

"Huh. Pretty cool, bro."

"Indeed! Oh, it's so wonderful being able to see you again!"

"Yeah, it was getting a little boring dodging all the security!" Chara emphasized.

"You like it and you know it."

"So what if I do?"

"Seriously, what happened after we died?" I was confused. "Did you start robbing banks or something?"

"Oh." Paps thought for a moment. "There is not an easy way to express this, brother."

"I can express it simply enough." Chara volunteered. "Ink is a psycho. There."

"That does sum it up pretty well."

"Um..what?" I was growing in my confusion. 

"After you guys were out of the picture, Ink began..dominating?" Chara summarized. "Yeah, basically Ink was a worse skeleton than anybody could have realized."

"You're saying he's conquering the multiverse? Really?"

"More like he already did. The only safe place is Horrortale if you don't count the secret refuge in Dreamtale Spec and I organized, and I guess Dusttale, now, too. I wouldn't recommend hanging around here too long, though."

"Wow."

"Yeah. On the bright side, Nightmare's gang has been recognized as the secret hero group of the multiverse; apparently you were the only thing stopping Ink's plans other than Error, who joined the gang, making him part of it. There's nothing stopping Ink now, unfortunately."

"Where is Error?"

"He's locked away in a secure prison; there have been attempts to break him out, but nobody's succeeded."

"Paps?" A thought came to my mind. 

"Yes, brother?" Papyrus held me tighter.

"Was I buried with the dust of the others?"

"Yes?"

"Do you remember my experiments?"

"Brother, you are a genius!"

"Learned from the best! Do you know where the dust is?"

"Of course I do!"

"Visited your grave enough." Chara remarked. "You guys going to let me in or not?"

"We'll tell you on the way!"

Paps kept me in his arms, despite my arguments, and carried me out into the forest, Chara in tow. He was surprisingly skillful at dodging the newly living inhabitants of Snowdin, which impressed me greatly; he had changed a lot. We eventually reached a slightly darker portion of the forest, in a spot nobody would dare to go; there were enough old legends about the forest to prevent that. Papyrus finally let me walk by myself when we got far enough, and I noticed a few small containers of dust sticking out of the ground. I slowly walked over to them and picked them up; I stared at the containers for a while before letting out a small sigh and silently promising to get them back. I had to get my family back. I put the containers in my pocket and turned to Papyrus and Chara, who looked determined.

"So what do you have to do to get them back?" Chara asked. "Some kind of spell?"

"Not quite." I answered. "It would be more of a mixture of science and magic, but I know we can do it!"

"That's the spirit, brother!" Papyrus smiled; I missed his smile.

"So what did you two do after everything happened?"

"We supported Horrortale, for the most part; the Papyrus there still hasn't gotten over his brother's death.." Chara began. "We didn't need to do anything involving negativity, since Ink basically started doing that for us, with his conquest. We did establish a refuge in Dreamtale, if you want to check that out."

"Who's there?"

"Dream, Classic, and a couple others. Once Ink showed his true colors, there wasn't much time for an organized escape, but we did what we could. Every other AU is entirely under his control, and to top it all off, he has a secret guard force watching everything that goes on."

"This sounds like one of Dad's most cliche books."

"Well, that means we're the protagonists, right?"

"Of course we are!" Paps grinned. "The Great Papyrus is always the protagonist!"

"Should we get back home?" I questioned. 

"I don't think it's safe." Chara looked in the direction of Snowdin. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Listen closely."

I heard something faintly, but I didn't know what it was.

"What is it?"

"They must have sensed the reset." Chara crossed his ghostly arms. "They won't know that it's Dusttale, but they'll take control. We need to get somewhere safe."

"What about Dad's house?"

"Nobody's even gone there since the capture..it would be the safest place."

"Then let us move with haste!" Papyrus opened a portal to Nightmare's old house. "Quickly!"

We entered the portal and found ourselves in a battle-scarred living room; couches were torn apart, walls were scarred, and there was a buildup of dust - it was exactly how we left it, apart from the dust. We started towards my room, where we found the door still open; it was obvious that nobody had been here, especially since there was no sign of disturbance in the dust. I noticed that my camera was right where I had left it, and there were clear signs of my previous struggle, which ended rather abruptly. I noticed that the jars of dust were still there, too, meaning there were now two versions of my friends - weird. I opened my dresser drawer, revealing a simplistic device that I had designed to restore dust to its original form, also known as living. I hoped it would work, since it was basically the only chance for the multiverse at the moment; we also had to find a way to break Error out of prison, which would be difficult, but we were determined. At the moment, I would devote all of my time to finishing my device. Papyrus and Chara decided to clean the house while I was doing that, and apparently Chara could now manipulate gravity too, which was great news! Papyrus was going to train Chara to be the next best ghost ever.

I worked for what felt like weeks on the device, even opening Cross's birthday present to me, which happened to be the parts I was needing; they really were the best family ever. Although I hit a few dead ends and messed up quite a few times, I was nearly done with the gadget - which I was now calling ' Last Hope' - when Papyrus walked into my room, carrying some soup. I noticed that he had indeed changed his attire, now sporting a plain red t-shirt and some sweatpants along with his signature scarf; a perfect outfit for the best brother ever. He seemed a bit concerned when he saw me still hard at work.

"Brother, I do hope you aren't pushing yourself too hard." Paps sat on my bed next to me. 

"I'm fine." I assured. "In fact, I think I'm almost done."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I just need to get a few more things in working order and find a power source large enough to support the magic of the dust while the machine rearranges the flakes in a specific manner which will allow the dust to flow freely. Once the free flow occurs, the magic will begin to react to the specific trigger fuctions I've set up in order to manipulate it slightly and boost the magic intake; the trigger functions are super important for this process. After the intake is boosted, the dust will attempt to siphon more magic, which will come directly from the power source, in order to reestablish the soul; that's the most crucial part. It's a good thing only a small amount of dust is required to establish a soul link, because otherwise, we would be in a pretty bad position. I have a few backup plans if the soul doesn't take the first time, but I think we should be fine. Once the soul and body have materialized, they should begin to link to eachother, thus restoring the dust to life."

"I see."

"You're the best, Paps."

"So where do you propose we get this power source?" Chara had entered the room.

"Not sure yet."

"Well, we'll leave you to your work." Paps stood. "Eat your soup, brother!"

"Will do, bro."

I continued my work on the device while eating some delicious soup. Paps was the best at making soup; Nightmare had given him some cooking lessons when he was a ghost, and he was really skilled at it. Once, Nightmare had let Papyrus make the meal, and we didn't even know until they revealed it! Paps was the best cook. I spent quite a while longer finishing the device than I had hoped, but it was eventually completed, and we were well on our way to bringing the others back. When I completed my work, I took a moment to rest; I hadn't slept since I started, which in retrospect, was stupid. As soon as I hit my pillow, I was fast asleep, in a dusty nightmare; it was nice to know some things didn't change. I woke up some time later to the face of my brother, who looked worried. 

"Ugh, I feel like I was hit by a flying paintbrush.." I mumbled, when I awoke.

"You were asleep." Papyrus mentioned. "Did you finish the machine?"

"Yeah, finally." I sat up. "Now we just need a power source."

"Again, what is that going to be?" Chara was there; I didn't notice him before.

"I have no clue. It has to be something with a considerable amount of magic, though."

"How much magic?"

"More than I've ever had in the span of my life...combined with Paps.."

"Ouch."

"We'll think of something, brother!" Papyrus exclaimed.

"You're the best, Paps." I hugged him; it had been so long since I had been able to physically touch my brother.

"I am the Great Papyrus!"

"So do I still get to call you Spec?" Chara inquired.

"Of course!"

"Cool."

"So how long was I working?" I wondered.

"A couple weeks; maybe three?"

"Hmm..could you fill me in on the state of the multiverse?"

"Sure. Spec's always good for that."

"The multiverse is doing absolutely horrible." Paps gave a great start. "Ink rules unchallenged, there are spies everywhere, and there are few safe places; that's what you know. Ink has tried to take Horrortale a few times, but the residents fought hard - we helped them - and they have managed to remain the only officially known free universe. The refuge in Dreamtale is unknown to Ink - or he just doesn't acknowledge it - and is considered a safe haven for escapees; currently, I believe we have the original Sans, Dream, the Outertale Sans and Papyrus, and a few others I have not memorized. In order to maintain control, a child who resets is taken to a prison as soon as they leave the ruins, which, in turn, makes a reset impossible for that universe; speaking of that, our child is due to fall in less than a week. Error is being held in the most secure place in the multiverse, where only Ink's most trusted guards are allowed to be: the deepest point in Ink's hideout."

"And nobody's been able to break him out?" I questioned. 

"No, every attempt has been foiled by Ink's guards; they are highly trained."

"Then we're going to succeed where others have failed."

"And how exactly do you plan to do that?" Chara was skeptical. 

"I'm going to think of that!"

"You will get a great plan together, brother!" Papyrus hugged me tighter.

"Thanks, Paps. You're the best."

"I still don't think you can think of a plan that was better than Fell's." Chara sighed. "And he got captured during that.."

At that moment, one of the worst ideas in the world popped into my skull, and as much as I hated it, there was a good chance of success.

"Brother, that's your 'I have a terrible idea that might actually work' face." Paps reminded.

"Yeah." I groaned. "I just got a terrible idea that might actually work, and I hate it."

"What is your idea, brother?"

"We need the kid."

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean live yayyyyy

Gosh I just realized how cliche this is...

Thanks for reading my cliche writing!

Bye!