Ink had been free for two months, now, and we were still wary, no matter how many safeguards there were that were keeping Ink from entering Outertale; we were still scared. We didn't shy away from visiting friends in other universes, but we wouldn't stray too far from an adult; we didn't want to risk anything. Ink hadn't been seen doing too much of anything important in the time that he was free, but that didn't mean that he wasn't planning something; we weren't eager to find out. On the other hand, we didn't stop normal life just because of Ink; we played, had fun, and continued being children as always - we pretty much were children, and everyone regarded us as such. We liked being thought of as children; it made us feel innocent, and that was cause enough to make us happy. After the things we had done in the past, we thrived on being seen as innocent, and we didn't want to ruin that for anything. At the moment, we were playing in Stardin forest with Dream and the Outertale brothers, and we were having a blast! We loved playing games in the forest, and it was always so peaceful there.

"No way!" Error whined. "How did I not find you?!"

"You didn't look up." I chuckled, looking down from my tree; we had just finished a round of hide and seek..and I had just realized how high I was.. "Uh..could someone help me get down, please?" I clung to a tree branch tightly.

"Just hold on, Dust!" Outer summoned a blaster and had it fly up to me; I carefully slid onto it and held on as it lowered me down to the ground.

"Thank you!" I hugged Outer.

"No problem, kiddo!"

"What do we play now?" Killer was ready.

"Hmm..I wonder.." Nightmare glanced at Outer's blaster before summoning his own; it was tiny!

"It's adorable!" Dream squealed; it was adorable!

"He shall be named Goopy." Nightmare hugged Goopy; Goopy was certainly goopy, just like Nightmare!

"Ooh, I wonder if mine's small!" Killer summoned his, which was indeed small! "Yay!"

"I completely forgot these things existed.." Error grinned at his tiny blaster.

"I's cute!" Horror giggled when his materialized.

"O-oh!" Cross's tiny blaster circled around him; it was pretty.

"They're cute!" I laughed at the others' blasters.

"How about it, Dust?" Outer encouraged. "What does yours look like?"

"Um..it's probably nothing special.." I didn't want to know.

"I'm sure it's fine!"

"I..just don't want to.."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah..the others are having fun.."

"Well, okay.."

I smiled at the sight of the others having fun; their happiness mattered more to me than my own. When they were all occupied, I sat next to a nearby tree and spectated for a while as the others played; they looked like they were having a lot of fun. After a few minutes, I looked down at my hands, focused my magic, and summoned my own little blaster; it was..cracked. If Nightmare hadn't installed the magic restorer when he did, my blasters would have been the next type of magic to leave me, and it was rather evident in the multitude of cracks littering the blaster's body. Somehow, I found a bit of happiness in it; I just didn't want to waste magic when I didn't need to. After giving the blaster a small hug, I allowed it to dematerialize, and it was gone. I looked back to my family soon, finding that they were coming over to me. They sat next to me and smiled happily; we were having a lot of fun!

"What should we do next?" Error was ready.

"Backgammon!" Killer jumped.

"Um..we didn't bring any board games.." Starstruck reminded.

"I can run home real fast and get it! I know where it is!"

"Are you sure?" Outer was aware of Killer's speed. 

"Yeah! I'll be back quick!"

"Well..I guess..just hurry back, okay?"

"I will!" Killer ran off towards the Outertale brothers' house; it wasn't too far away, and he would probably be back within two minutes at the most.

"Somebody should probably go make sure he doesn't hurt himself." Dream was concerned.

"I'll go." I volunteered, standing up. 

"All right. You stay safe, too!"

"I will!"

I then began to walk towards the house as well, noticing Killer's footprints in the dust that littered the ground; it wasn't monster dust, of course - it was just space dust. Comets sometimes flew around and dropped some debris; Error was hit by some once, and it wasn't exactly pleasant. After a couple minutes of walking, I noticed my pace quicken slightly; Killer should have been on his way back by now! When I finally got within sight of the house, I couldn't believe my eyelights. I screamed; there was nothing else to do. There was a dropped game of backgammon on the ground, and the side of the house that faced me had words painted on it: "One down."

"What's the mat..ter.." Outer was in shock when he looked at the scene.

"N-no...no, no, no, no, no.." Nightmare whimpered; Dream picked him up, but that didn't help much at the moment.

"Starstruck." Outer had the most serious expression I had seen him with for a long time.

"Yes, brother?" Starstruck knew that this was urgent.

"Call Swap and Blue. We have an artist to hunt down."

"Yes, brother." Starstruck ran inside their house and called the swap brothers.

"I'm scared.." I admitted, receiving hugs, which I returned.

"Dream, get them to safest place you know of." Outer ordered. "And don't let them out of your sight for one second."

"I'll keep them safe!" Dream nodded, opening a portal.

"Wh-what about Killer?" Cross was worried.

"We're going to do everything in our power to make sure he's safe." Outer paused. "And if he isn't..I'm not responsible for my actions."

"Come quickly!" Dream gestured to the portal. 

We gave Outer one more hug before following Dream through his portal, which led to the meeting universe; there was a meeting earlier today, and there were still a few judges that had continued their conversations from earlier. When they saw us with frightened faces, they rushed over.

"What's wrong?" Fell asked.

"He took Killer!" Nightmare was crying as Dream held him tightly; the rest of us were either crying or trying our hardest not to.

"Who?"

"Ink..he's after them.." Dream frowned. 

"I think I found someone to fight." Fell was going to defend us from our attacker.

"Uh..usually, I stay out of conflicts.." Classic Sans was present. "But..I'll make an exception."

"Well, we're going to need all the help we can get!" Dream confessed. "The Outertale brothers and the swap brothers are out looking for him, and I'm keeping the rest here."

"All right."  

"'S..'s he gonna hurt us?" Horror was frightened.

"Not on my-" Dream stared at us. "Where's Cross?"

We looked around; he wasn't with us. A piece of paper few through the air; it said: "Two down."

"I'm scared!" I had no problem with admitting that at the moment.

"Okay, let's take it this way: everybody holds a kid." Fell picked me up, and Classic lifted Horror; Error was left, but Fell decided to pick him up, as well. "Now the only way they're getting away is if Ink faces us head-on."

"That doesn't sound too bad!" Ink's voice echoed through the room. 

"You have some nerve, Ink!" 

"I'm not denying it!"

"Where have you taken Killer and Cross?"

"Somewhere. You don't have to worry about them being hurt; I haven't done that yet!"

"And you're not going to." Outer appeared in front of us with Starstruck and the swap brothers.

"I doubt that!" Ink flung some paint in our direction, causing everyone to have to move out of the way.

"Can't you leave them alone?!"

"No...I can't. You know, I don't really feel like fighting, today."

"So give up!"

"No." Ink opened a code bar, and everyone immediately fell to the ground; he was manipulating the code! "I think I'll just win."

Ink walked over to us and forced us from the grips of our protectors; they were powerless against Ink's code manipulation, and, after a couple minutes, Ink had knocked every protector unconscious and ripped every child from their grasps. Once he had done that, he sent us children through a portal, which led to a cage where we found Killer and Cross, thankfully unharmed..for now. When Ink returned, he was carrying Outer, who he no doubt wanted to take revenge on for defeating him in the past. He placed him in a cage next to ours before turning to us.

"It's been so long." Ink chuckled. "Don't worry, kids; we'll have lots of fun together from now on, especially considering the fact that nobody can access this universe but me!"

"Please, don't hurt them!" Nightmare begged.

"Sweet little Nightmare, wanting to protect his friends..how nice. Alas, I have revenge to take, and I'm going to start as soon as Outer wakes up.." Ink tapped a button on a code bar. "Oh wait, he's already awake."

"Ink?" Outer was indeed awake, now.

"I'm so glad you could make it! I do believe that one of these children helped you take me down..and I'm more than willing to let him go first."

Ink pulled me out of the cage, ignoring the pleads of the others. Outside the cage, there was an arena; it seemed abandoned, but that was probably how Ink wanted it. He forced me to my knees in the center, and I prepared for whatever he was planning on doing to me; he grabbed my left arm tightly.

"Now, Dust." Ink whispered softly. "Tell me if this hurts- wait, nevermind. I have a better idea."

Ink pulled out his paintbrush, brought it close to me, and glued my mouth shut; I didn't like that feeling, and I couldn't speak.

"Much better." Ink grabbed my left arm again. "Now, I'll judge from your scream how much it hurts!"

Ink pulled my arm behind me; he had done that before, and I knew what was coming next. With a sole motion, he snapped it, and I let out a sharp cry; it echoed throughout the arena, and Ink loved it. Ink repeated the actions with my other arm, and it met the same fate. When that was done, he pushed me to the ground; he wasn't finished, and everyone knew it. For the next three hours, he switched from breaking bones slowly to hitting me with his brush over and over; by the end of it, I couldn't move. Ink had won this game, and he was making the most of it. I was returned to the cage with my family when Ink became bored, but he only walked over to Outer's cage, where a sobbing skeleton resided. He was taking his revenge now, and he adored every crack that came from both of his victims. Outer ended up in only a slightly better state than I did. Ink gave up his torturing for the day when Outer was returned to his cage, but we knew that he would return soon; he wouldn't pass up an opportunity to hurt people. And so it went, for a week, and Ink had harmed all of us more than twice. He took me five times; I didn't know why he hated me so much. The eighth day started like any other, only beginning with more pain.

"Who wants to play today?" Ink said it as if it were just a game.

Nobody spoke.

"Maybe I'll just play with Dust again." Ink scared me.

"N-no!" Nightmare spoke up; he wasn't going to let Ink take me again..I would have spoken to stop Ink from taking him, but the paint hadn't come off yet, and I was still unable to say anything.

"So you want to play, Night?"

"..." Nightmare didn't want to, but he would allow himself to be taken to prevent the rest of us from being injured. "Y-yes.." 

"Very well!"

Ink grabbed Nightmare and took him to the center of the arena, where Nightmare's cries of pain came from for the next few hours. We thought that the day would continue like that, as it had the other days, but it didn't. As Ink was finishing up with hurting Nightmare, the sound of portals opening gave newfound hope to us.

"Ink, surrender now!" Fell sounded angry - more so than normal.

"Let go of my brother!" Dream demanded.

"With pleasure!" Ink laughed as he threw Nightmare across the arena; he wasn't moving.

"What did you do to him?!" 

"I just..played." 

"Surrender yourself now, Ink." Classic Sans didn't like these types of battles, but he was willing to enter one to protect us.

"Aww, Classy! You're really going to fight me?"

Classic Sans fired a blaster at Ink; he was really going to fight him.

"I see.." Ink was hit by that attack.

And so a battle started, and it didn't last long, since Ink was outnumbered - not to mention the fact that he couldn't access code, for some reason, which was also probably the same reason that the others managed to get there. When all was said and done, Ink was returned to his prison, where he would stay for "as long as it took," which was the nice way of saying "forever or until he got his act together," and we were taken to a hospital, where we would recover.

We hoped that we didn't have to see Ink again.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean family do lots.

Thanks for reading my angsty writing!

Bye!