It had been one week since Ink started the timer, and we still hadn't found a way to break the link when our worst fear was realized. We were attempting to break it by replacing it with a stronger, harmless link. Papyrus volunteered for this; he's the best. Nightmare was in the process of channeling the magic to form the link, and it seemed like it was working pretty well.

"Can you feel Ink's presence?" Nightmare inquired.

"Actually, no." I was impressed. "I can't feel him at all!"

"That's perfect; let's finish this."

Nightmare finished establishing the link between us, and Paps and I felt a bit closer than before - of course, we were always close.

"I hope this works." Nightmare hoped. 

"So do I. I really don-" My eyelights widened.

"What is it, brother?" Papyrus questioned.

"H-him."

"Oh no.." Papyrus held me in his lap.

"It didn't work.." Error sighed. "Can't we just not take him back?"

The pain spiked after he said that; we couldn't simply not go back. We begrudgingly went to the basement door with the entire party that was at the meeting a week ago; they might have been needed. As we descended down the stairs, the pain I was in waned, and it eventually dissipated; Ink knew we were coming. We walked down the dimly lit corridor slowly, hoping never to arrive at the dreaded cell that held Ink. We did, unfortunately, have to arrive at the cell, and we regretted every step. Ink looked pleased that we answered his call; we couldn't exactly ignore it.

"Nice to see you back again so soon!" Ink grinned innocently; we didn't fall for it.

"Why can't you just leave Dust alone?" Error wasn't pleased.

"Because he's the easiest to manipulate." 

I buried myself in Papyrus's shirt, and he held me closer. I didn't want anything to do with Ink, and everyone knew it.

"It's only that way because you tortured the poor skeleton!" Classic Sans was angry.

"You're the one who sentenced them to death, you know." Ink chuckled. 

"I've made amends for that." 

"I want to take control. Now." 

"We-we're not l-letting you n-near him!" Cross stood between us.

"Aw, that's adorable. My old victim protecting my new one."

"Ya gotta lotta nerve." Horror was ready to do a lot of things.

"Well, what would you possibly want other than Dust?" Nightmare tried.

"Absolutely nothing..unless one of you would be willing to take his place.." Ink made an offer.

"How would you even do that? You made a link in his soul!"

"Well, I could transfer it; that would be excruciating, however, and Dust would probably die."

"I guess that leaves us with one choice.." I sighed. "I'm really sorry."

"You mean you're really going to let me take you?" Ink smirked.

"No." I replied. "I'm not going to let you take me."

"Then what exactly are you going to do?" 

"I'm going to ignore you."

"That's going to be pretty difficult, especially when you're screaming in pain all day."

"I'll live with it."

"You're pretty brave, aren't you?" Ink grinned. "But I'm afraid I haven't been completely truthful."

"What do you mean?" Nightmare immediately reacted.

"Oh, I made up that little story about how I had to touch his soul; I've always had the control."

I gripped Papyrus tighter; I was scared. I was very, very scared, and Nightmare and Dream could feel it.

"Then why did you lead us on this wild goose chase?" Nightmare took Ink's attention away from me.

"Oh, it was so much fun! Seeing your desperation to save your friend was so..inspiring. I guess enough is enough; any last words?"

I felt my grip on Papyrus relax against my will; I couldn't move my arms.

"Brother?" Paps was worried. "Brother, can you hear me?"

I could hear him; I just couldn't respond. I felt my hand move towards my knife sheath; I didn't want this! Before I knew what was happening, I struck Papyrus; he was on the floor. No, I couldn't have done that! I loved Papyrus! Why would I do that? I felt tears running down my face, but I could do nothing else; I could only cry as I looked at what I had done. Ink was controlling me, and I was not; Ink was in power, and I was not. Ink hit my brother. I didn't. My family didn't know what to do; I wished I could just tell them to knock me out or something, but I couldn't. I could only watch. I watched as I was forced to fight them. I watched as they were forced to fight me. Oh, if only I could have been at least somewhat in control; my tears were the only things letting my family know I was there, and they only served to sadden them. They made a plan to restrain me; that would have worked! They grabbed my limbs so I couldn't move, and I didn't hurt them more.

"That was fun." Ink commented. "I suppose you won this battle; however, it will happen again."

I was freed from Ink's control, and I dropped the knife, fell on my knees, and cried. The others knew I was free, and they released me, but I was still crying; I had hurt them. I had hurt Papyrus. I felt a soft hand on my shoulder and turned to see him; he looked sad. I made Papyrus sad! I was a horrible brother! I couldn't face him; I turned, and cried harder - I had hurt Papyrus, and I couldn't forgive myself.

"Brother?" Papyrus hugged me. "It wasn't your fault."

"B-but..I h-hurt you!" I couldn't face him.

"You're sick, Ink." Error glared at Ink. "Really sick."

"It was only a few scratches; next time, I plan to make it more." Ink laughed, and he was promptly stabbed in the arm by none other than the kid; I didn't know how they were there, but I didn't question it when Ink yelped in pain. "Little brat!"

"Usually there would be consequences for stabbing a prisoner, but I think that was justified enough." Classic Sans passed it off.

"Nobody makes Sans cry." The kid growled. "Not even me."

"Quite correct." Papyrus picked me up, despite my silent arguments. 

"Well I do." Ink held his arm.

"Oh no you don't." Error retorted. 

"Ink, you're just cruel." Dream grimaced. "I don't know how I ever fell for your tricks." 

"That goes for just about the entire multiverse." The swapped Sans joined.

"Well, you can't win 'em all!" Ink chuckled. He really was sick.

"Let us go now, brother." Papyrus held me close. "I'll always love you."

"I-I love you too, Paps.." I cried into his shirt; he didn't care. He was the best brother ever.

"This is so corny.." Ink scoffed, receiving a another stab, this time in the leg, by the kid again, and once again reacting.

The group went upstairs and ended up in the living room, where a discussion was had about our next move.

"Whadda we do now?" Horror was unsure.

"It's hard to say." Nightmare admitted. "We need to get rid of that link before Ink makes Dust do something we'll all regret."

"What exactly was it like when he was controlling you?" Classic Sans was curious.

"I was aware of what I was doing..I just couldn't stop it..I could only cry." I hugged Paps.

"Like you were watching and feeling everything, but you couldn't stop it, eh?"

"Yeah.."

"Well, that gives us a little bit of insight." Error sighed. "What would Ink even want to control you for? He knows that the only key to his cell is kept by me, and I'm the only one who knows its location. Wouldn't it be more profitable to control me?"

"He didn't inject  you." I had a thought. "Actually, he only did it after he..broke me. Could that have something to do with it?"

"That's a possibility; perhaps he could only gain the effects if the individual had a specific feeling towards him." Nightmare pointed out.

"Fear. He only did it after I first felt fear towards him." I pulled closer to Paps.

"What if you were to lose that feeling?" Error input.

"But..h-how do you prevent f-fear?" Cross knew the fear well.

"I'm not sure, but it's worth a try."

I felt my hand moving by itself again.

"But how could we do it?" Nightmare pondered.

It was moving towards my sheath. 

"Maybe the emotion panels?" Killer suggested.

I couldn't speak.

"That's a possibility." Classic Sans wasn't too familiar with the panels, but he knew a little. "Or maybe facing his fear?"

My hand grabbed another knife.

"I don't th-think that's a g-good idea." Cross was too familiar with the fear of Ink.

The knife was unsheathed.

"Brother, perhaps a dream about Ink that is not scary?" Dream considered.

I didn't know where it was moving.

"Ink is already creating dreams; I have attempted to overwrite them, but it doesn't seem to work." Nightmare sighed.

I felt a tear form.

"Is there a way to stop somebody from dreaming?" The swapped Papyrus wondered.

The knife was headed for me.

"Perhaps.." Nightmare didn't really think so.

Ink was trying to make me hurt myself.

"I think the emotion panels would be our best bet." Error confessed.

A searing pain overcame me as the knife pierced my leg.

"Yes, that would probably be it." Nightmare agreed.

I couldn't scream.

"So we're agreed?" Classic Sans asked.

The knife went deeper into my leg.

"Yes, I believe we are." Dream was happy.

I wanted to scream.

"That's great!" Killer jumped. 

I could only cry.

"Yeah, we'll get 'im ba' ta norm'l in no time." Horror grinned.

The knife hurt me.

"Y-yep!" Cross was sure. "N-no time!"

The knife hurt me.

"Then we'll do that?" Nightmare inquired.

The knife hurt me.

"Yes!" The rest confirmed.

It hurt too much.

"Brother!" Paps noticed me and quickly removed the knife from my leg.

"Oh no!" Nightmare rushed over. "Dust?"

I was free once more, and I could finally scream, but I didn't, opting just to whimper and retreat towards my brother. Papyrus was the best brother. Nightmare took a look at my leg.

"Ink made you do that?" Nightmare assumed.

"M-mhm.." I whimpered.

"I can heal it.."

"Wh-why does he hate me?" 

"I don't know, Dust." Nightmare sighed. "I don't know."

"Looks like we'll try the plan later - healing first." Error stated. 

Everyone had agreed on this, and we would try their plan tomorrow; today was for healing purposes, and I had to give up all my weapons while Ink still had control of me - my injury was pretty bad. I understood Ink perfectly now, though; if he couldn't torture me personally, he would make me do it. Ink truly lived simply for pain and suffering. When Nightmare finished healing my leg, I couldn't walk, but that was fine, since Paps would carry me even if I could walk; he was being a bit protective while Ink was after me, but nobody blamed him for it. He really is the best brother ever. After the events of the night, Papyrus made me go straight to sleep - I was apparently too tired to argue. The others went to prepare their plan to free me from Ink's control, which I was looking forward to; I didn't like being controlled. It was like watching a movie of my life, except I never made those decisions myself. The paint in my nightmare was less than welcoming, but I couldn't do anything about that.

When I awoke from my sleep, I was still in Papyrus's lap, and he was happy to see me awake. He immediately hugged me and started to tell me a happy story; he knew I loved his stories, and he even attracted the kid sometimes - the kid just did whatever they wanted to, really. After stopping their genocidal streak, the kid actually turned into a pretty cool friend - that didn't mean I trusted them - and was allowed to hang around the school instead of my universe. Actually, my universe was moving on just fine without Paps and I; we weren't needed, and we really didn't fit in anymore. Our old friends understood, and they never saw the kid. Only the flower knew about it, and, well, it wasn't telling a soul. Everything was working out fine aside from the entire 'Ink' situation, and I liked it that way. It made me feel safe. Paps was a real help, too, since he could always help me through any situation, and I had no reason to keep secrets from him anymore; it was wrong of me to keep all those secrets from him before I snapped, and I knew that now. I still had a few things I kept to myself, but those were either for someone's own good, or they were too painful to talk about.

He is the best brother ever.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean control nooo!

Frisk, why is Ink such an easy villain?

I am genuinely disliking him..

Thanks for reading my controlling writing! 

Bye!