It wasn't the best day. It started on a simple run. We had to spread negativity, as usual, and our adversaries showed up, as usual; it changed at that point. Instead of a normal fight, the other side had decided to..increase membership. We had been absolutely overrun; we had no chance. It wasn't much of a surprise that we were lounging in prison cells only two hours later, and most of us were severely injured. Papyrus took this time to tell me a few stories to get my mind off the pain; he's the best. If Paps hadn't been telling stories, I would have probably been much more bored than I currently was; I was still a bit bored, since we had been placed in different cells to prevent escape. I had no clue what was going on in the cells next to mine, since the walls were soundproof; we couldn't hear eachother. I was lonely, really, but I still had Paps. Paps had always been there for me; he's the best. I couldn't have imagined my life without my brother..actually, I probably wouldn't have had a life without my brother..I might have just died during my period of isolation. I didn't know how long I had been waiting when the door to my cell opened and the swapped Papyrus stood in the doorway.

"It's time to go." He stated.

"Where?" I asked.

"The trial was held without all of you; you're being exiled."

"Where?"

"After careful consideration, the most out-of-the-way AU to leave you in was Dusttale."

I felt my soul skip a beat; Dusttale was uninhabitable.

"You can't do that!" I argued as a couple guards started to handcuff me. 

"Why not?" He questioned.

"There's no food supply! We'll starve!"

"Lying will get you nowhere."

"I'm not lying!"

"Come on."

I continued to oppose the decision the court had made as I was led down a long hallway; we wouldn't have survived..maybe Error would have, but the rest of us needed food..maybe I had missed something in my isolation..there might have been something. I doubted it would have lasted us long if there were anything. My arguing managed to do almost nothing; we had been exiled to Dusttale for twenty years, and only at that point would we have been able to leave..if we lived. Only one thing came of my pleading: we were going to be checked on once a month, and if my claims that there was no food were true, we would have been provided with some at the end of the first month and every month from that point on; we just had to survive that long. When the long walk was over, I found myself standing next to my family, awaiting the inevitable. Nothing was said; nothing had to be said..within two minutes, we had been equipped with special magic suppressors that couldn't be removed, and we were forcefully pushed through a portal to the one place I had never wanted to return to: Dusttale. The dust-filled air convinced us to go inside my house before speaking.

"Could be worse." Error took a seat on the couch.

"Dang, I didn't know there could be so much dust!" Killer shook some dust off himself.

"You'd be surprised." I commented, silently forming a plan to survive for the next month.

"I's dark.." Horror noticed the lack of light.

"You'll get used to it, probably."

"I-is there any chocolate h-here?" Cross hoped.

"I doubt it..sorry."

"Th-that's okay."

"I suppose we can use this for a bonding experience." Nightmare was looking at the bright side.

"Yeah.." I had formed my plan. "So, I'm gonna get the core up and running..again..make yourselves at home, I guess."

"Do you need any help?" Error offered. 

"No, thanks, I think I can get it. You just relax." 

"All right, if you insist."

"Right." 

I stepped outside into the dusty street of Snowdin, needing no time to get used to the feeling of dust swirling past my skull; I knew it all too well. With a sigh, I started walking to Hotland, where I would fix the core..hopefully. I turned to Paps as I listened to the crunch of snow beneath my feet.

"You remember how the core works, right, Paps?" I wondered.

"I do, brother.." Papyrus confirmed. "I do.."

~~~~~

Error. (Oooooooh what is this?)

~~~~~

With Dust gone, the rest of us were..kinda bored. So we decided to look around; that was always enjoyable. He did say to make ourselves at home. We started our exploration in the living room, finding what looked to be some old-style movie player and some...

"What is this?" I inspected a small black..box thing?

"That.." Nightmare looked at the weird technology. "I have no idea. We shouldn't touch it..maybe it's important?"

"Right.." I put the box back next to the 'player.'

"Guys.." Horror called from the kitchen.

"Yeah?" Killer looked from a corner.

"There ain't nothin' ta eat here.." 

"Wh-what do you m-mean?" Cross entered the kitchen, and I followed behind; surely there was something!

"There." Horror opened a cabinet. "Ain't." Horror opened the refrigerator. "Nothin.'"

"..." Cross was going to say something, but decided against it.

"Well, Dust probably knows where everything is; maybe he's just not a kitchen guy." I rationalized. 

"Mayhaps.." Horror didn't buy it.

"Ya think he's got any blankets?" Killer was cold.

"Probably upstairs." Nightmare assumed. "Shall I check?"

"I can go." 

Killer started to climb the stairs, deciding to check the room nearer to the door first. There was silence for a while after that, until Killer broke it.

"Guys!" He shouted from upstairs.

"Is everything all right?" Nightmare inquired. 

"Ya gotta see this!"

"Okay, then." I decided to see what was up.

After scaling the stairs, followed by the others, I bore witness to..a remodeled bedroom? It wasn't really a bedroom anymore, apparently; there was no bed. A desk sat in the middle of the leftmost wall, but I was more impressed with the amount of books that were in the room; bookshelves lined the walls, and they were filled. There were even piles of books on the floor! Nightmare must have liked that sight. The desk had a single chair in front of it, and there was an open book surrounded by pencils taking the center. The book seemed to be about monster history, but there were words written in pencil between the lines of the book; I wondered what those were for. 

"Anybody else thinkin' there are secrets to be discovered?" Killer looked ready to open every book in the room to find out what was being hidden.

"I'm not sure if Dust would like it if we ransacked his room.." I said.

"Well..we do have a lot of time on our hands.." Nightmare seemed like he just really wanted to read something.

"H-hey, guys?" Cross got our attention.

"Hm?"

"I-I think th-these are...entries."

"Ya mean Dusty kept a diary?" Killer summarized.

"I-it looks like it."

"'Leven years.." Horror whispered.

"What?" I looked at the book on the desk and started to read the words between the lines. "Eleven years in, ran out of food..I guess the kid won. Winning..who really wins, in the end? Winning is just another excuse for claiming you're better than someone else, isn't it? I wonder if anyone will even read these..if I happen to be dead, would you take care of my brother? He's a ghost, but he'll be the best companion you'll ever have; he was to me. In this room, there is a complete history of monsterkind along with all of my research on determination and its various aspects..maybe it'll come in handy for someone..maybe not. There's also a lot of other stuff, but I just can't remember it right now..my memory's been getting hazy. In any case, I don't think I'll be making any more logs; I can practically feel my life force fading..I just want the pain to stop. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't just kill myself; was it honor? Maybe it was punishing myself; life is worse than death..that must have been it. I figure I'll suffer after I'm dead, too; that would be my luck. If the pain would stop for even a second, I'd be content..I just want it to stop..make it stop.."

It was silent for..I didn't know how long. Eleven years? What had happened? Dust had never liked to talk about his past; we had just accepted it..should we have? More importantly, if he had been living with his past..had any of the rest of us been, as well? We had a decision to make.

"Who wants to do some reading?" I posed the question.

"Me!" Killer jumped.

"Me." Horror nodded.

"M-me." Cross walked over to a bookshelf.

"I'm way ahead of you." Nightmare had already opened a book.

The next few hours were quite eventful; it turned out that Dust had stockpiled just about everything, from monster history to an in-depth study of dust magic to an autobiography of his entire life! We all took note when Killer started reading out loud; he was reading the entries during what Dust called his "isolation."

"It's been five years since the kid died." Killer read. "In honor of the worthless occasion, I took a walk to New Home; I wanted to see if the souls were still gone. As I expected, they were; I'm still stuck. I never thought I could hate the place I grew up in, but I do; I hate it with every ounce of my bein'! If a way out ever comes, I'm never comin' back; I don't want to come back. I had to redistribute the rations; somethin' caught fire, and half of one stash is completely charred. The magic isn't there anymore, so it's useless. I'm goin' to fireproof what's left of it; I wish I knew what started that fire. Paps says I'm overworkin' myself, and maybe I am; I just can't stop thinkin' that this is all for nought. I've been survivin,' but for what? So some little fairy can pick me up and fly off with me to safety? No..I'm goin' to die here. I'm never goin' to be able to live a normal life again. I've accepted it. It's weird, lookin' back on things; if I had never decided to stop the kid, I might be livin' on the surface..but I don't regret it."

"He never wanted to come back.." Nightmare sighed. 

"And yet, here we are.." I looked through a few books.

"Didn't think some'un could suffer so much.." Horror frowned. 

"It makes me happy that he's been able to be happy.." Nightmare looked around. "But I don't think he ever intended to return."

At this point, the lights flickered on and off for a second, before going out once again.

"I hope he's doing okay.." I said.

"H-here's something.." Cross spoke up; he had been looking through a few random books he came across. "D-determination. In the e-event of gaining d-determination, monsters a-are likely to be more happy i-if they just k-kill themselves. H-humans don't seem to h-have this problem. M-my personal experiences with determination h-have made me look o-on it with disgust; i-it is nothing l-less than a d-drug. One which, i-in the right circumstances, n-needs but one dose t-to ruin your life. Wh-when I first g-got it, I th-thought it was u-useful, but I-I see n-now that I was wrong. D-determination causes the v-victim to continue w-with any path they m-may have chosen, whether i-it be killing o-or picking flowers. B-before I start, i-it is recommended to s-stop using determination f-for just about anything; i-it won't help. A-a way to overcome d-determination is to r-replace it with strong e-emotion. I-if that doesn't work, th-there are other ways listed i-in this book, but l-life is hard with a-any of them."

"What's so wrong with determination?" Killer wasn't sure.

"I-I don't know, b-but Dust wr-wrote a book on it."

"I remember Dust once saying he would have rather been stuck in the endless loop of ignorance forever than have his determination.." I mentioned. "Maybe he found something he didn't like.."

"He's never shown any sense of joy towards it, if that means anything." Nightmare stated. 

"Told me once he hates i.'" Horror added.

"Huh.." I found something interesting in the book I had picked out; it was from his 'isolation,' once again. "It's been ten years and three months since the resets stopped. Rations are getting more spaced out; I haven't eaten in a week. I sometimes daydream about the past, when everything was still okay; the memories don't always come. Along with the loss of magic, my memory has been getting worse; I can't remember a lot of what I used to be able to. I'm sure it'd come back if I ate a natural amount of food, but I'm not going to die just so I can remember the name of a stupid yellow flower. I don't think I'll ever be able to forget the kid, though; it'll just haunt my memories forever. That reminds me of the last pacifist..those were the good days. I'm not going to write the account again; it's in the resets book, if anyone ever reads this. Paps used to scold me so much for lying down all the time; now he scolds me for walking too much. He would probably be happy if I just went to bed for a while, but I can't do that; I can't sleep as easy as I used to. I don't mind the constant nightmares anymore, either; the screams don't scare me as much as they used to."

"Dusty has nightmares?" Killer could hardly believe it.

"I guess so."

"I found that account it refers to." Nightmare was looking at the book entitled Past Resets. "The last pacifist was an absolute dream - not to say that it was a dream, but with resets, it might as well have been. The kid actually did me the favor of breaking the reset button right in front of my eyes; I let my guard down. Paps ended up getting a degree at Tori's school, and I was somehow roped into teaching history there. He went on to travel the world, and he was honestly probably more popular than Mettaton, the so-called superstar; my bro's the best. I just stayed local, enjoying the peace I finally had. The kid, as always, was considered a child prodigy, somehow knowing rocket science at such a 'young' age. It decided to join the army, and its battle plans were only matched by me in private. It was a general, and it grew up to be a nice adult..mostly. It sometimes lapsed into a sadistic state, but only prisoners of war were affected. It died of old age at..eighty-nine, I think. Mostly everyone else had died by then, but Paps and I were still alive. The funeral was honestly sad, since I had trusted the kid..never again. Genocide started the next day, and I found myself stuck in the same loop I thought I had been free of."

"But..how could i'?" Horror didn't understand. 

"Old age or not, the kid must have had determination.." I sighed. 

"I don't think I'll ever be dissatisfied with how much Dust writes anymore.." Nightmare muttered. "He's probably written more than I have.."

"Worst surprise ever." Killer didn't like the end of that story.

The lights flickered once more.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Ooh Dust bean doesn't know what bean gang is doing!

Thanks for reading my unknowing writing! 

Bye!