I had been in Ink's custody for three weeks by this time, and I was starting to understand what he meant when he told me his plan. The sense of normalcy had already settled; it was normal for me to expect pain on a daily basis. The next step unsettled me, however; I didn't want my will to break, but I wasn't sure if I had a choice. Ink seemed to enjoy making me yell out in pain, which I didn't fully understand, but I couldn't question it. I had no place to question things anymore; I had failed my family, and that was the worst thing I could have ever done. All of my hope rested on Papyrus; he's the best, and if anyone could rescue Error, it was him. Paps would save Error; I was sure of it. As for me, I would see what happened; I hoped that Papyrus would come for me, but I would understand if he didn't. I was a failure, and I didn't deserve rescuing..I didn't even deserve Paps. I woke up rather early in the morning, being greeted by aching red bones; Ink really liked to use red paint when torturing me - I was starting to dislike that color. When I opened my eyesockets, Ink noticed Ink climbing out of his bed; he always got up early; when he had finished his morning routine, he picked up his brush, which was beside his bed, and walked over to me. He knelt down to see that I was already awake; that pleased him.

"Good morning, Dust!" Ink greeted. "Did you have a pleasant rest?"

I said nothing; I had barely spoken for about two weeks when Ink was present.

"I'll take that as a 'Yes, Ink! I had a wonderful rest!'" Ink giggled. "Anyway, I have a bit of work to do today before we start, which means you're getting a babysitter. Understand?"

I nodded; he had done this before, and it was useless to argue. 

"Good!" Ink grinned. "You're such a compliant toy; I like that. I'll be back later, bye!" 

At this, Ink stood and walked to the door; I wished I could reach it, but Ink had made a point of breaking both of my legs to prevent that action. Instead, I just lay on the floor as he called a guard to watch me. The guards seemed to pity me; I didn't deserve that. They were really nice when they had some time alone with me, and I enjoyed their company; it seemed that they needed attention, and I was in a position where it was easy to listen to their problems to get my mind off of my pain. Of course, a portion of the guards weren't as kind as the others; there were different ranks of guards, and the highest ones joined Ink willingly when they had the choice. They were the cruel ones, and Ink had no qualms against them taking anger out on me; as far as he was concerned, it simply furthered his experiment when he was absent. I didn't even feel like a person anymore..I was just a punching bag. When the guard came, I was relieved; he was a lower rank, which meant he had a higher chance of being nice. He came over and sat next to me with a soft smile brightening his expression; he was certainly nice.

"Heya." The guard helped me sit up; my entire body ached. 

"Th-thanks.." I winced a bit when my legs settled.

 "No problem. Are you feeling okay? Do you want something to drink? From what I've heard, maybe some water would be a nice change?"

"W-well.." I coughed up some paint; that had been happening recently. "M-maybe a little.."

"Here, take as much as you want." The guard helped me drink some water; it got the taste of paint out of my mouth, and that was a miracle. "The name's Fell; we've met before.."

"I r-remember.."

"I'm sorry for what I did..if it wasn't for me, maybe none of this would've happened.."

"Y-you don't have t-to be s-sorry..it w-wasn't your f-fault.."

"I witnessed in the trial. I led the group that used you as a bargaining chip. I laughed when you were dead. If anything, I had as much to do with it as Ink."

"N-no..it w-wasn't anyone's..agh!" A surge of pain flew through my body, making me whimper.

"Are you okay?!"

I couldn't speak; the pain was too much at the moment. I felt tears running down my skull as Fell tried to comfort me; it didn't do much, but it was a nice gesture. When I had calmed down, Fell told me of things that had happened in my absence, such as how Ink took control and the small resistance against him. Apparently, Ink began conquering newer universes first, while nobody was looking. From there, he began his army. Every judge was offered the choice to join him willingly, but few were willing to help a tyrant - unless they were corrupt; in effect, only the meanest judges received a high rank. Their perks included: free roam of the multiverse, localized power over select areas, access to secret information, ability to request Ink's presence for personal matters, ability to issue orders to a maximum of one hundred lower guards, ability to deal out punishments for misconduct, and the one that I hated the most: ability to request access to Ink's current "toy." There were probably more perks, but Fell wasn't aware of them; when given the choice, he declined without hesitation. He said he didn't regret his decision one bit, and I didn't blame him. 

As for the resistance, my brother was one of the leaders; he's the best. He opposed Ink from the beginning, and, having had ties with Nightmare's gang, he had a great enough influence to get on Ink's nerves. Chara preferred to stay unknown, and that was fine with everyone else; a secret ally was another card in the deck. The other leaders of the resistance included Classic, the original Sans, and Dream, and two other influential members were the Outertale brothers. Fell himself used to support it greatly, but he was captured and his code was changed when he tried to rescue Error; he said that I got farther than he did, with his plan only getting halfway down the hallway. When Fell finished telling me about the state of the multiverse, Ink opened the door; that was all the peace I would receive today. Fell was quickly dismissed, and I was left alone with my captor. He skipped over to me, grinning widely; he always grinned like that when he was about to inflict pain on me. Before he began, he knelt down to my level and decided to taunt me a bit; he liked to do that.

"Hello, Dust!" Ink unsheathed his brush prematurely. "I have nothing to do for the rest of the day! Do you know what that means?"

I sighed.

"It means that I get to spend the rest of the day with you!" Ink seemed to think that that was a good thing. "That should give us..oh, I'd say..twelve hours?"

I wanted to leave.

"Are you ready?" Ink received no reply. "I'll take that as an 'I'm so ready, I want to feel twice the pain as you usually give me!' Aren't you eager? Well, I'll just have to take you up on that!"

True to his word, Ink made sure that he doubled the pain factor; I was screaming louder than I ever had. He started with his brush, as always, and he managed to break my right arm to a point of immobility; I guess I should have considered myself lucky that I was left handed. Unlike humans, skeletons could move broken bones, but if they were hurt enough, they could be considered immobile; my left arm was only slightly broken, meaning I still had mobility. Of course, broken legs were harder to deal with, since they couldn't handle much weight if they were fractured. After three hours of battering, Ink stopped. He then walked over to his bed and reached under it, pulling out a box of paint cans; he stored paint, apparently, and he found it useful to keep it in an easily accessible area. I dreaded what would happen next as he carried a few cans over to me; before I could do anything, Ink grabbed the back of my skull and pulled it back with haste, producing a crack from my neck - that hurt. When my skull was in position, he began to pour paint into my mouth, forcing out both screaming and coughing; he didn't seem to care that I could choke. He continued this for the remaining nine hours - he had a lot of paint - and by the end of it, I could practically feel my will wanting to break. When he finally finished, he took a seat next to me as I regained my senses.

"That was exhilarating!" Ink chuckled before glaring at me. "You're wasting perfectly good paint; swallow it, don't spit it out!"

I completely ignored that advice, coughing as hard as I could in an attempt to rid myself of as much of it as possible. In response to that, Ink took his brush and slammed the back of my skull, making his point quite clear; I stopped coughing and swallowed the vile substance. 

"That's better." Ink was pleased. "Now, it's bedtime. Get some rest, Dust; we have another big day tomorrow!"

Ink decided to let me go to sleep without any further pain; he occasionally knocked me out just to stop my whimpering so he could get some sleep. I curled up as well as I could on the wet floor, hoping to fall asleep sooner rather than later in hopes that I'd be able to escape the pain quicker. When I descended into my dusty nightmare, some of the pain was indeed relieved, but a lot of it seeped through; I could live with it if it was lessened. I spent my night wondering how Paps was doing; he's the best, and I really hoped he would save Error - and me, too. The longer I was in Ink's hold, the more I wanted to escape. The night flew by rather quickly, and before I knew it, I was being rudely awoken by Ink's ruthless shaking. I ignored it as best as I could, but I responded pretty fast when he began to hit me with his paintbrush, opening my eyesockets in a flash.

"There we go!" Ink sat beside me. "Guess what!"

"Wha..what?" I was still half asleep. 

"Today's the day you get fed, silly!" Ink held up a plate; I was only fed every three days, but he took my magic deficiency into account - he didn't want me to die too easily. "Eat up!"

I wasted little time in beginning to eat; he only gave me five minutes to finish, which meant I would have to savor it later. I finished within my time period, and Ink seemed proud.

"That's a wonderful job, Dust!" Ink paused for a moment. "Dust..y..Dusty. I like the sound of that.."

"D-don't c-call me that.." I was reminded of Killer; he was the one who gave me the nickname, and he was gone.

"Oh? Do you have a problem with it?"

"I-it just.."

"It reminds you of someone, doesn't it?" Ink laughed. "Well, it seems to bring you pain..mental pain. I think I'll call you that from now on!"

I didn't know why, but I simply cried; I missed my family, and Ink was not a good replacement. 

"It's settled then; I'll continue calling you Dusty!"

Ink started his torturing soon after that, and I only missed my family more; I hoped Paps and Chara could find a way to use Last Hope, because even if they were merely alive, it would have lifted my spirits so much. The day went on slowly, and every second felt like an eternity; Ink had a way of making that happen. I wondered if Error had to go through torture as well; I hoped he didn't. Perhaps Ink would let me see him sometime; I could apologize then. I didn't have time to apologize in the hallway, and I really wanted to let Error know that I was so sorry for ruining his chances at freedom; I felt like an idiot. I wouldn't stop thinking that it was my fault, since it was my fault; nobody else was to blame for it.

I was a failure, and I could accept that.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean stop thinking that way >:(

Thanks for reading my unhappy writing! 

Bye!