It had been one month since Ink was convicted, and nobody had seen him since the trial. There was occasionally a rumor that he had been wandering in some random universe, but he never stayed for long, if he was in those universes. Since Dream had previously lived with the monster, he was forced to move out; he now lived with the swap brothers, since he had nowhere else to go. Overall, Ink was being forgotten; I hoped it stayed that way, because I didn't want to hear about him anymore..just the thought of him made me shudder. As for us, we continued to spread negativity; I had recently started joining the others on runs again, and it felt nice to have things at least somewhat back to normal. Since Ink no longer fought us, we ended up winning many more battles than we had before, and our job was made much easier. We were actually able to go out less! As for me, I was feeling a little bit better, and my family hadn't left my side since the trial; they were the best family ever. I still had those bad dreams, but my family helped me greatly; I loved them so much. We were currently in the living room, where it was Cross's turn to cuddle me; they took turns, since I didn't want them to devote all their attention to me..I didn't deserve that..

"I'm bored.." Killer groaned, lying down on a couch. "Anyone wanna jump off the roof or somethin'?"

I shook a bit; a vision of Ink pushing me off his three-story house came to mind..

"N-not now.." Cross rubbed my skull softly to make the memory go away.

"Sorry, Dusty.." Killer never knew when something he said would bring bad memories to mind, and he felt horrible when it happened. 

"I-it's okay.." I hugged Cross a bit tighter. "I'm fine.."

"Wanna play backgammon?"

"..Okay." 

So it began. Killer got out his trusty backgammon board, and I met him in board game combat. I actually had a lot of fun playing against Killer, even if I did lose every game I played; I even managed to forget about the abuse I had been through a few months ago, and that was a miracle. Cross allowed me to sit in his lap as the games went on, occasionally suggesting moves to help me win, but Killer was always the victor; it was just accepted as fact now. I would have probably cried if I had won, since that meant that Killer had changed for some reason, and I didn't want him to change..I wanted everything to be normal, just as it always was! I was happy when Killer won game after game, since that meant that he hadn't changed, and if he hadn't changed, everything was absolutely fine! After a few hours of board games, Nightmare entered the living room, finding Killer winning another game of backgammon, as always. He gave us a smile as we finished up our game.

"I win!" Killer exclaimed happily.

"Good job, Killer!" I grinned; I liked losing more than winning when it came to playing with Killer. 

"D-do you need anything, D-Dad?" Cross wondered.

"Yes, I do." Nightmare confirmed. "We need to go out again."

"O-okay, Dad." Cross nodded.

"I'm ready!" Killer held up a knife.

"I-I.." I didn't know why, but I had a horrible feeling about this run.. "I'm ready, too."

"I sense unease, Dust; nobody's forcing you to go if you can't take it, you know." Nightmare reassured.

"No..I want to; it's just worry."

"If you're sure.."

"I am." I wasn't..

"All right, then..let's go."

At that, our quartet - Horror and Error weren't with us at the moment - went through a portal to a different universe to spread negativity. It had been a bit difficult to get back to work at first, since Ink had taken me to different universes to torture me occasionally; he had called them "walks." Those "walks" were pretty much his way of showing me off, almost as if he were saying, "Hey, look at who I've got in my possession! Isn't it great how I've been torturing him?" I sometimes tried to run away and hide during the walks, but those occasions usually ended in a broken bone..or several. It was worse if we were in a Snowdin..the cold was just..overwhelming. I didn't want to think about that right now. We were in a Snowdin forest at the moment, but I had to ignore the snow..it was just snow..that was all! When the others noticed my hesitance, they gave me a reassuring hug; I was okay..I had my family. We then went to work, spreading negativity throughout the nearby town to restore the balance to its former glory. It took but five minutes for our adversaries to sense our presence and come, but we were ready for them; I had already gotten used to not seeing the artist with them.

"Nightmare, please stop!" Dream's pleads for his brother to come back were often longer now, since Ink wasn't there to cut them off after a few sentences.

"I can't do that, Dream." Nightmare sighed, hoping this conversation would be shorter than the others; that was the only good thing Ink ever did in his eyelight.

"Brother, I know you're still in there! You've shown us all that you can care! My brother is still in there!" Dream believed that the fact that Nightmare cared for me after my captivity was a sign that he wasn't truly evil..that wasn't good for his image.

"Will you stop harping on that?!" Nightmare didn't like saying things like what he was about to, but he knew that I didn't mind; I knew that he really did care, and that was enough for me. "It was only to get the artist out of the game! He made a mistake, and I took advantage! There's nothing more to it!"

"Then why did you hug Dust when it was over?"

"Because.." Nightmare couldn't think of an answer that would make him seem evil; hugging was a fairly straightforward way to show affection. 

"'Cause ya didn't want him to leave." Killer whispered, receiving a silent thank you.

"Because I didn't want my team to be a member down!" Nightmare was relieved that Killer had an idea for him.

"You..called it..a team!" Dream squealed in joy. "You think of them as equals!"

"N-no, I don't!" Nightmare was annoyed at how Dream twisted his words like that.

"You do!"

"You're extremely annoying, Dream!" Nightmare began to whisper to us. "Somebody start a fight before he convicts me of being a loving father, please.."

"I will save you, brother!"

"Ya can't even save yourself, Dream boy!" Killer yelled, taking the attention off of Nightmare, who was infinitely relieved.

"And when we save my brother, we'll be able to save all the rest of you, too!" Dream was sometimes..insufferable..

"Doubt it!" 

"And when-" Dream was cut off.

"Nope!" Killer interjected.

"When-" Dream was again cut off.

"Not listenin'!" Killer was intent on continuing.

"When-" 

"La, la, la, I can't hear ya!"

As Killer distracted the slightly annoyed Dream, I looked around to make sure no monsters from the town were watching us; they sometimes caught us off-guard during fights if we weren't aware of their presence. As I scanned the area, I noticed something behind a bush, something blue..a triangle? I tried to get a closer look, but..it was gone..I banished any thoughts that might have led to memories of my captivity..Ink wasn't here..he couldn't hurt me..I was just seeing things, yeah..

"Can I-" Dream was very annoyed at this point.

"Is someone talkin,' or am I just goin' crazy?" Killer giggled softly.

"Will you-"

"Fight ya? Well, that's a mighty fine offer!"

"I didn't-"

"But I think Nightmare might wanna fight ya, since ya kinda got a thing goin'; maybe some other time, though! I'd love to see what ya can do!"

"I just-"

"Wanna fight so badly? Well, shall we?"

"That's not-"

"I get it, Dream boy! Ya just wanna pick up a bow and shoot someone! It's natural!"

"I-"

"Well, then, let's go for it!" 

At that, the battle began. Killer's antics had annoyed Dream, which was impressive, to say the least; it usually took a lot more than that. Nightmare and Dream fought, as always, while Cross, Killer, and I took on the swap brothers; it was a bit unfair, having a three-to-two, but Nightmare didn't want Dream to end up with knife marks all over him. As a result, we fought the swap brothers as a team, and we often won because of it. The battle was actually rather short, and our adversaries retreated quite quickly, leaving us to continue our work; the balance was still off. We returned to the town, resuming our previous destruction rampage, which involved burning down buildings and terrorizing innocents. Today, I took the job of terrorizing innocents, which essentially consisted of picking a few hostages, tying them up with whatever I could find, and scaring them out of their wits. It wasn't the prettiest job in the world, particularly for the reason that I was threatening them with a knife; I had grown used to it over the decades of spreading negativity, but I never enjoyed it. I always kept the stabbing to a minimum, but if I didn't hurt them at all, they would have eventually called my bluff.

~~~~~

Because I am nice, you get a warning.

*Dust acting insane and almost child abuse warning*

*And slight torture warning. Nothing graphic, though*

You have been warned.

Warning end will be noted at a point.

~~~~~

I had about ten innocents tied up today, and I silently apologized - without their knowledge - for what I was about to do. I took out a knife, seeing if it was sharp enough for the job; it was. After doing so for a good minute, which was mostly to put off the inevitable, I eyed up the frightened innocents who were in front of me, noting the sound of a nearby building being blown up. I dramatically sliced through the air, effectively procrastinating for five more seconds and causing some negativity among my hostages. I then located the youngest hostage in the group, since that would have caused the others to possibly try to sacrifice themselves in order to spare a child from being harmed; it almost always worked out that way, and I took whatever chances I could get to spare a mere child from this type of torture. I grinned at the child - she seemed no more than five years old..I hoped someone would step in soon - and approached her, readying my knife in case these adults were too selfish to keep a child from being harmed; some groups were like that, and I took extra care in those to make sure those "adults" were hurt by the end..I didn't feel remorse for hurting people who would let a child suffer just to delay their own torture.

"W-wait!" An adult actually spoke up; the child would be unharmed today, which was good. "D-don't hurt her! P-please.."

"And what is this?" I kept up my insane persona while talking to the woman. "Courage?"

"P-please..sh-she's a child! Have you no soul?!"

I chuckled in an unhinged fashion. "And what are you going to do about it?"

"..." The woman was mustering every ounce of courage she had to say the next words; I respected that more than she could ever know. "Hurt me instead.."

"Well, I'm just going to have to take you up on that offer, aren't I?" I would make it quick and relatively painless; her fear would make it seem worse in the moment, but she wouldn't really be too injured at all in the end.

~~~~~

Warning end yay. Just minor stuff after this and a mean random.

~~~~~

I continued on like that for about twenty minutes, switching victims every once in a while, but the ones who hadn't tried to give themselves up for the child were hurt worse. The child remained unharmed, to my joy; I just couldn't stand to see a child cry..it made me feel like the worst monster in the world. At one point, I accidentally snapped one of the wires holding one of my hostages, and he ran for it, right into the forest. I sighed, knowing I'd have to go after him; he had actually complained that I was hurting everyone but the child..what a jerk. I gave a glare to the remaining hostages before I ran after the other, intending to bring him back within five minutes. I had been running after him for about a minute when I lost sight of him; he was a fast runner, unfortunately. I looked around the trees of the forest, finding no sign of the missing hostage. I sighed, knowing he had gotten away. I decided to look for another minute before returning to the others, but I found nothing. As I turned to go back, something caught my eyelight, making me turn around, hoping it was the missing hostage. It wasn't him; I tripped backwards, and when I realized who it was, I screamed.

I screamed for dear life.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean do things. 

Not even a question who it was so I ain't gonna tell ya.

You already know.

Now that I think about it Imma put a warning before the hostage part-

If I even need it-

I may have ended too early if I did I'm sorry-

Thanks for reading my knowing writing!

Bye!