Questions:

Question: Wait, what reason was it again that forbade u from commenting again? Email verification? Parents restrictions ? Aaaah idkkkkkk

Answer: It was my parents ;-; 

~~~~~

It had been about a week since my cover had been blown, and I hadn't managed to get any more information about the search plans; all we knew was that if they didn't know we had Ink before, they did now. As a result, we were keeping a closer watch on him than we had been before; we were not going to let him out of our sights. Ink actually liked the extra attention, as any two-year-old would..probably. In any case, he wasn't complaining about the fact that Error and Horror were around often, and he savored the extra chocolate he received because of it. We were currently playing with him in the living room. Ink was the leader of a rebel band made up of Killer, Nightmare, and me, and we were fighting against the tyranny of Error, Horror, and Cross; Ink hadn't specified what tyranny we were facing, but it seemed like a good cause. We were traversing a desert at the moment, and Ink was leading our party across the endless sand dunes; we were dehydrated, and an oasis was needed for our survival.

"Do ya see any water?" Killer hoped.

"Nope!" Ink hummed, looking for an oasis. "Oh, look! An osis!"

"Oasis." Nightmare corrected.

"Oh-a-sis?"

"Good job."

"Yay!" Ink clapped happily. "I see an oh-a-sis!"

"Where?" I acted like I was severely dehydrated.

"There!" Ink pointed to a water bottle that sat on a coffee table.

"Great work, Ink!" Nightmare praised, rubbing Ink's skull playfully.

"Hehe!" Ink giggled; he was adorable.

"Can we drink now?" Killer was dying of thirst.

"Goopdad drinks first!"

"Why?"

"Goopdad is strong!" Ink picked up the 'oasis' and handed it to Nightmare.

"Thank you, Ink." Nightmare pretended to drink the water.

"You welcome, Goopdad!" 

"All right, I'm done."

"No! More! Goopdad needs more!"

"But I.."

"More."

"Okay.." Nightmare pretended to drink more. "All right, I'm honestly full; I cannot drink any more."

"More!"

"Shouldn't Dust and Killer get some water, too?"

"Nope!"

"Why not?"

"Dusty and Kills aren't thirsty!"

"I thought I was.." Killer mentioned.

"You not thirsty! You de-hy-dray-ted!"

"Ink, that means that they're very thirsty." Nightmare chuckled.

Ink paused. "Then why they no say that?" 

"I am very thirsty." I said.

"Here go, Dusty!" Ink gave me the oasis, which I pretended to drink.

"Thank you, Ink."

"You welcome!" Ink took the oasis and gave it to Killer this time.

"Thanks, Inky!" Killer pretended to drink the oasis, and we were no longer thirsty.

"You welcome!" Ink put the oasis back in its place. "Where we go now?"

"Error, Horror, and Cross are in the attic." Nightmare assisted.

"Then we go!"

The bells rang; they were signaling in the "intruder" form.

"Uh-oh.." Killer looked at Ink.

"Oh, dear." Nightmare picked up the child. 

"What going on?" Ink questioned. 

"Dust, take Ink somewhere safe." Nightmare gave the small toddler to me. "Killer, you're with me."

"Yes, Dad." I nodded, holding Ink close.

I began to head toward the storage room that held paperclips; we had made a hidden panic room in there for events such as this one, and we had enough supplies in there to last months, if we had to stay that long. As we went, the little Ink in my arms grew to be afraid.

"Wh-where we going, D-Dusty?" Ink clutched to me.

"We're playing hide and seek, now, Inky." I had to make something up; Ink would have probably screamed in fear if I had told him that there were bad monsters coming to kidnap him. 

"O-oh..why we running?"

"It's fast hide and seek."

"Ooh!"

"We have to be quiet, too, since Dad's going to be looking."

"I be quiet!" Ink whispered, now smiling.

We managed to reach the paperclip storage room without any problem, and Ink was intrigued when I locked the door behind us. Upon his asking, I answered that it was locked-door hide and seek, which the toddler accepted. I guided him around the many boxes of paperclips that were stacked in the room, ending up at a wall; Ink was especially surprised when I pressed a secret button on the wall, opening a secret passageway. Actually, the house had a lot of passageways; it could have been qualified for a haunted mansion, really..it sort of was. In any case, Ink enjoyed the few we had given him access to, but he didn't know about most of them; not even Nightmare knew all of them. I had accidentally stumbled across a new one once while cleaning my room; it had taken half an hour for me to realize why I was suddenly in a storage room, but everything had worked out in the end. The panic room was behind another locked door, and Ink became even more curious when I locked it behind us, but he didn't ask this time. The room was equipped with food, first aid kits, toys, and other things; it was absolutely perfect for hiding with a two-year-old, and I was taking advantage. As soon as I heard the passageway close, I sat down next to Ink and relaxed a bit.

"Why we hide here?" Ink wondered.

"It's a new hiding spot." I replied, wrapping Ink in a blanket; it was a bit cold in there.

"Dusty, why we here?"

"Because we're playing hide and seek."

"No, we not." Ink was too smart for me..

I sighed. "You really want to know?"

"Uh-huh!"

"I guess I should tell you..there are people out there that want to take you away from us."

"Why?" Ink didn't like that idea.

"Well, they want to be your friends."

"Why that wrong?"

"Because they won't be your friends. They'll say they're your friends, but they won't help you when you need it."

"Why they do that?"

"...They just do. You need to promise me that you won't trust anyone unless Dad or one of us tells you it's okay, all right?"

"Okay! I promise!"

"Thank you, Ink." I hugged the small Ink. 

"We hide from them?"

"Yep, we're hiding from them."

"They want take me 'way?"

"They do, but we won't let them."

"Yay!"

"Gotta be quiet, though; they might be able to hear you."

"I be quiet." Ink whispered, hugging a teddy bear closely.

"Good." I made sure I had my daggers on me; I did. "Ink?"

"Yeah?"

"If they come in here, I want you to hide in that blanket and don't come out unless I say it's safe; they shouldn't be able to see you under it."

"I hide if they come!"

"You'll do perfect."

"Can we play?"

"Quiet game."

"Teddy is scared; he wants hugs."

"Oh, then I guess I'll have to hug Teddy." 

"C-can I hug Teddy, too?"

"Sure, Inky."

Ink practically leaped into my arms; I could tell that he was scared, but I knew that he was trying to pretend to be brave to make me happy. He really was an amazing little skeleton, and I was going to protect him to my dying breath. It was quiet for a few hours, actually, but I wasn't going to chance it; if my family wasn't coming, I wasn't going to leave Ink alone. After three hours of silent playing, Papyrus floated up to me; he hadn't been with us, opting to help the others.

"Brother, you must hide Ink!" He warned. "They have found the entrance!"

"Thanks, Paps." I took Ink to a corner full of blankets and pillows and covered him with them. "Okay, Inky, this is it."

"I be quiet now?" Ink asked. 

"Yes, you be quiet. Whatever happens, do not let them find you." I heard footsteps coming down the passageway.

"I won't."

"Good." I smiled, wrapping the toddler up tightly yet comfortably.

"Love you, Dusty."

"I love you too, Inky."

After I was sure that Ink was hidden, I ducked behind a box and unsheathed two of my daggers; I hoped that if the intruders saw nobody present, they would simply leave, but I was willing to fight them if they wouldn't. When the door was kicked down, I was glad that it didn't hit Ink's hiding place; that would have been a disaster. I heard voices speaking as I made no sound.

"How many secret rooms does this make?" The swapped Papyrus's voice seemed irritated.

"Um..thirty." The swapped Sans responded.

"At this rate, we'll never find him.." Dream whined.

"We still have to search this room, my friends! We shall find Ink!"

"You're right; let's start looking."

The trio began to search the room, but they searched in such an inefficient way that I was beginning to doubt if they'd even find me. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and I eventually found myself pointing a dagger at three of the most powerful adversaries my family had, but I wasn't going to back down; a child's life was at stake, and I was going to protect him if I had anything to say about it.

"Go away." I ordered, still pointing my dagger at the enemies.

"Where is he?!" The swapped Papyrus demanded an answer.

"Would it help if I said a million miles away?"

"That wouldn't help at all!" The swapped Sans took my wording literally. "Could you at least give us a hint?"

"All right. He's not in this universe, much less this house. We don't have him."

"Then why have you been hiding here all this time?" Dream inquired.

"My reasons are my own, and I don't answer to you. I'll give you one more chance; leave now."

"He has to be here..it's the only place we haven't checked."

"Have you ever considered that he doesn't want to go with you?"

"That's insane! He's our friend!"

"No, he's not."

"Enough talk - his magic signature is coming from this room." The swapped Papyrus revealed. "Show us where he is, and we won't hurt you."

"Never."

A bone flew past my skull; it was time to do things the hard way. I began to attack the opponents with my weapons, hoping to knock one of them unconscious; I was also hoping that Ink wasn't watching. I knew that I could hold my own against the trio for a while, but I didn't have enough endurance to keep it up for too long..I had to try, though. I tried to make my attacks count, since my adversaries were landing more hits than I would have liked; they knew that I couldn't take all of them on forever. Before long, Dream decided to turn his staff, which he had been fighting me with, into a bow..inside. I wasn't arguing, since Papyrus could just turn those arrows right back at him; they might have been made of positivity, but they still had matter, and Papyrus was the best at manipulating matter. Dream ended up simply shooting arrows at himself before switching back to a staff a few minutes later. The fight had been going on for fifteen minutes before the swapped Papyrus decided that enough was enough; he summoned a long bone, and he took the liberty of sticking it right between my right tibia and fibula, cracking them slightly. As one might have guessed, that was absolutely excruciating, and I was grounded.

"Now.." He relieved me of my weapons, but not before I could take one more swing at him; I missed, but I tried. "Where is Ink?"

"We don't have him!" I remained firm.

"That isn't the right answer." The swapped Sans crossed his arms. "Try again."

"We don't-" I was cut off by a sharp bone being pointed at my skull; I could tell that this was serious.

"We'll give you one more chance." The swapped Papyrus offered.

"Why do you want him, anyway?" I wanted that bone away from my face..

"We just want our friend back." Dream answered.

"You won't-" The bone was pushed closer to my skull, but I couldn't give in. "You will never find him."

"We didn't want to do this, but you leave us no choice." The swapped Papyrus sighed, raising the bone. "If you want to change your mind and tell us where he is, feel free to speak up."

At this, the heroes of the multiverse began to do things that I hadn't thought possible. I would have expected the actions from Ink, when that voice had possession of him, but I had never expected it from the trio. I found myself trying to stifle screams as my bones were being quite literally shattered under the pressure put on them; I didn't want to scare Ink..he might have come out of his hiding place. So I held in my screams, and I devoted all of my determination to staying firm; I had to stay strong for Ink. And I did...until I didn't. It took three hours, but they managed to make me scream; unfortunately for me, a small toddler heard it, and he was frightened. One little peek out of his hiding place, and it was all over. Dream noticed the small eyelights, and I wept, unable to stop them.

"Guys, look!" Dream pointed out the small skeleton, catching the attention of the swap brothers. 

"Ink!" The swapped Sans ran over to the bundle, finding a scared child. "Ink..you are small."

"G-go 'way!" Ink sounded like he was crying. "No like!"

"Ink, it's me! Blue! Don't you remember me?"

"You hurt Dusty bad! You no good!"

"Dusty?" The swapped Sans glared in my direction. "What did you do to our friend?!"

I didn't know how I was supposed to answer that; I could barely move, much less form words. 

"No friend!" Ink argued. "You bad! No good!"

"Diagnosis?" Dream looked to the swapped Papyrus.

"They must have brainwashed him..and turned him into a child." The swapped Papyrus was wrong on all counts, but I wasn't able to say that. "We should take him away from Nightmare's gang as soon as possible and hope we can get him back."

"Right." The swapped Sans picked up the little Ink, who started screaming in protest.

"Let go!" Ink cried. "No good! No take 'way! Want family!"

The swapped Papyrus sighed. "They really did a number on him..family. Well, we can save him; this evil plot will not be allowed to work."

"What do we do with Dust?" Dream asked. 

"We can't take him, so.." The swapped Papyrus hit the back of my skull with a bone.

I heard Ink cry out my name as I lost consciousness. 

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Ink bean kidnap!

Thanks for reading my cliffhanger writing!

Bye!