The plan we had in mind to break Error out of prison was one of the craziest plans in the history of the multiverse, but it had to work. The kid was going to fall in one day, and we had to be ready; Ink had already taken control of my universe and given a notice that the Sans and Papyrus were missing - we had the worst luck, but we had to get the kid on our side. We already had a portal ready to be created straight into the ruins, where we would take the kid and leave. As much as I would have loved to see the kid thrown in a prison cell, they were an experienced fighter, and we could have used some help. At the moment, Papyrus, Chara, and I were in the living room, staring at my birthday cake from four years ago.

"Do we eat it?" Paps wondered.

"Monster food doesn't go bad.." Chara pointed out.

"Should we wait?" I pondered. "What if the others want cake when they come back to life?"

"That is a valid point, brother." Paps hummed.

"This is boring." Chara complained.

"Usually, Killer would be..dragging me around.." I sighed.

"Don't be sad, brother!" Paps pulled me onto his lap and hugged me tightly. "They will be back soon!"

"Yeah..you're the best, Paps."

"We have a few hours until the child is due to fall; what should we do?"

"We could take a nap.."

"When is the last time you slept, brother?"

"Um..when I finished our Last Hope."

"You need sleep, brother."

Papyrus laid me down on the couch we were on and bid me sleep; I was honestly really tired, and I fell asleep rather quickly. Going without sleep for these periods of time was really taking a toll on me. As I descended into a dusty nightmare, I still wasn't bothered, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I usually did, since I was going to do something that went against everything I had ever done; I really did despise that kid, but I would have had to curb my murderous tendencies in order to save my family. I had spent most of my life fighting and killing the kid, and now I was supposed to save them? I would do it for my family, and only for my family; I would have done anything for my family, including putting up with the one being I hated the most. I mentally prepared myself for the moment when I would have to refrain from killing and hoped I wouldn't ruin it. I couldn't ruin it; it was our only chance to save Error. When I awoke, Paps was carrying me; we were in the ruins.

"Ugh..is it time?" I pulled my hood further over my skull.

"Yes, brother, it is time for us to save the child." Paps enlightened.

"I'm going to hate this, aren't I?"

"Be quiet and save your kid." Chara ordered.

"It's not my kid!"

"Your universe. Your kid."

"I have the insatiable desire to stab something."

"Please don't stab the child, brother." Papyrus reminded.

"Fine.."

Paps put me down right next to the flowerbed, where I was stared down by golden flowers; I didn't acknowledge them, opting to look upward, towards the ceiling. It was actually a steep drop, and I wondered how the kid survived every time; I guess they were lucky. Before long, a figure began to fall from the sky - the kid. I positioned myself under the figure and prepared to catch it - unwillingly, of course. When the figure fell into my arms, it was surprisingly light. I summoned every ounce of self-control I could muster in order to not kill the kid right then and there.

"Aw, did you miss me, Murder?" The kid smirked; Chara already knew my old name. "You always were weak like that."

That brought me to release the kid, allowing them to fall on the ground.

"That was rude." The kid commented.

"You want to know what else was rude?" I wasn't going to kill the kid. "Leaving for twenty-five years and making somebody live in complete isolation. That is rude."

"Surely it wasn't so bad."

"I want to kill it."

"Brother, control yourself." Paps picked me up.

"Can't I just summon one bone? Please?"

"No."

I groaned; I hated this already.

"Letting your brother push you around?" The kid scoffed. "You really are pitiful."

"Brother, the child may be annoying, evil, murderous, and an absolute pain, but we need them, remember?" Paps put me down.

"Fine.." I sighed.

"Wow, you need me?" The kid chuckled. "Why would you ever need me?"

I exhaled before extending actual attempted kindness to the kid. 

"We need you to help us." I shuddered at those words. "If you leave these ruins through the door, you will be arrested and thrown in prison for the rest of your existence, which I doubt you want. We are planning on breaking our friend out of said prison; if you want to continue your pitiful existence, I suggest you come with us."

"Wow." The kid giggled. "That actually sounds fun! I guess I was wrong: even the worst people can change!"

"You're going to listen to every order I give or I swear I will cut you down where you stand."

"Fair enough."

"Come, brother." Papyrus opened a portal to Nightmare's house. "We have some work to do."

"Okay, Paps." I pulled the kid through the portal.

When we were in Nightmare's house, the kid looked around the living room, using some childlike curiosity; no matter how much I ignored it, the kid was still a child.

"Nice place you got here." The kid complimented. "Is it yours?"

"No." I briefly answered.

"Whose is it?"

"My mentor."

"Mentor? What did you even do after I left?"

"You wouldn't feel guilt for it; why should I tell you?"

"You seem different. Usually you would have killed me by now."

"Usually you would have killed my brother by now."

"Brother, I do believe there should be some sort of agreement between you and the child." Paps suggested. "You cannot go on hating eachother."

"Yes we can." Both of us harmonized.

"Brother."

"But Paps.." I whined.

"We are not going to be able to save Error if you two keep fighting."

"...I will if it will.."

"Sure." The kid shrugged. "I've been wanting something new."

"Now we shall go over the plan." Paps picked me up and placed me on his lap. "Brother?"

"Sure." I rested my skull on his sternum. "Paps is going to cause a distraction with Chara-" I was cut off.

"Chara?" The kid looked confused.

"Oh, there's a ghost named Chara with us; you might not be able to see him.."

"Oh. Continue."

"All right. Paps is going to cause a distraction with Chara to allow you and me a safe way to enter the hideout. We have the job of finding Error and breaking him out without getting caught; we're the ones that are skilled in weaponry. Error has a glitchy voice, black bones, blue tear marks going down his face - you know what, I don't think you'll have a hard time distinguishing him from the others. Oh, by the way, we're going to be surrounded by a bunch of skeletons that look somewhat like me, and you only get one life in this mission. Do you want to come?"

"Of course I do! That sounds like the best thing ever! Killing gets boring after a while."

"What's your weapon of choice?"

"Aww, don't you know this? It's always been the knife!"

"All right, follow me."

I hopped out of Papyrus's lap and started walking towards Killer's room. I didn't want to have to borrow from Killer's knife collection, but I didn't have much of a choice; any daggers or knives I had on me when we were captured were gone, leaving me practically weaponless. Killer probably wouldn't have minded anyway. I knew my way through the house like I knew the back of my soul, so we arrived at Killer's room rather quickly. I opened the door to his room and opened his knife drawer; there were dozens of blades.

"Pick one." I gestured to the drawer.

"Wow." The kid didn't think that many knives could exist at one point. "This isn't yours, is it?"

"No, but he wouldn't mind if we borrowed some."

"Cool."

The kid picked up one of the knives I had carved for Killer; specifically, one I had carved him for his fifth birthday. I really liked making that one, and Killer used it often, even years later. It rather surprised me that the kid would pick a knife that I made, but I regarded it as coincidence and picked a few weapons for myself while we were there.

"So you like knives now, Murder?" The kid snickered.

"I can use them." I answered. "But that doesn't mean I have to like them."

"You're weird, Murder."

"Call me Dust, would you?"

"You changed your name while I was gone? What a pity."

"..."

"So when are we supposed to save your friend or whatever?"

 "Whenever Paps and Chara are ready."

"So, really. What happened to you after I left?"

"Why are you so interested in that?"

"I wanna know."

"Fine, but I still don't understand why you'd want to know; it isn't like you can even feel regret."

"What makes you think that?"

"All you feel is lust for death; I'm unfortunate enough to know that."

"Heehee!"

"You were gone for twenty-five years. During the first eleven years and eight months, I was slowly starving to death. I was about to die when somebody saved me. He became my mentor, and I had friends, too. We had the job of preserving negative emotions throughout the multiverse, and we were hated for it. Eventually, we were captured and executed. We're going to save one of them, who can't die, when we break into the prison. Are you happy now?"

"Very. Nice to know you're actually capable of having friends. I thought you were always an old grouch."

"I'm not old, and how am I a grouch?"

"You're older than me, and the other part is obvious. You were never good at hiding behind a mask."

"You're smarter than you look.."

"You're not as boring as I thought you were."

"Have you ever even heard of the multiverse?"

"Who hasn't at this point?"

"Understandable."

"So..I guess I should probably be cheesy and apologize, shouldn't I?"

"Nah. That would ruin our dynamic relationship and completely ruin your antagonistic nature."

"Oh, I'm the antagonist?"

"Yeah."

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! You're the antagonist!"

"No I'm not!"

"You are!"

"You are!"

"I'm going to be the antagonist if you two can't get along for a single minute." Papyrus looked stern; that was scary.

"Uh..I'm..s-sorry?" The kid was frightened of an angry Papyrus.

"S-sorry, Paps.." I never thought I would be scared of my own brother.

"Now you are going to get along at least until we rescue Error." Papyrus stated. "Am I understood?"

"Y-yes, Papyrus." I shuddered.

"Yeah.." The kid looked more scared than I had ever seen them before.

"Good." Papyrus picked both of us up off the ground. "Now say you're sorry."

"I'm sorry.." The kid sighed.

"I'm sorry too.." I avoided eye contact.

"Ah, yes." Paps was satisfied. "Forgiveness: the first step to friendship."

"Like I'd ever be friends with them." I scoffed.

"Sans. The. Skeleton."

"I-I mean...f-friends, yay?"

"Better."

The kid started laughing until they caught one of Papyrus's glares, quickly shutting them up. Papyrus was apparently scary when he was angry; I had never known that he could be so stern when he wanted to, but he apparently could. I wondered just how much my brother had changed while I was dead. After that scare, Papyrus released me and the kid, letting us fall to the ground, and led us to the living room, where Chara was waiting. I stretched my phalanges and metacarpals in preparation for battle; there was a small chance we wouldn't get in some kind of battle, and a large chance we would. I was ready to get Error back, and I could see the same determination on the faces of the others - including the kid, who was always determined; that didn't surprise me. We were prepared for whatever could have come our way, and that was how we set out.

We would expect anything and everything.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean meet again kid bean- kid sausage. Kid sausage. Yes.

Thanks for reading my repetitive writing!

Bye!