Feeling Reborn

Progression and Regression

*chokes on spit (again x5 lmao)*

I-

The stats-

Thank you all for the amount of attention for this fic, have some virtual annoying dog fluff-

I have been staring at this chapter for too long lol

artist credit: https://twitter.com/hotokegusari

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Well, planning their somewhat amazing plan hadn't exactly... gone to plan.

Convincing the remaining members of Nightmare's gang to accept Dream and Lust into their circle wasn't the hard part. Of course, the reception was hesitative, but that was to be expected: they were supposedly on the 'good side', the enemy, and loyal to a fault. Actually, Dream was surprised that they even considered accepting Lust and he into their tight inner circle.

No, that wasn't the hard part. The actual challenge was grabbing the leader's spot.

Naturally, Killer or Dust wanted to take that role in the name of the Bad Sanses - also in the name of being Nightmare's past second and the oldest respectively (the last reason didn't make much sense: they were all about the same physical age). Dream, as Ink's mature second, thought of his affinity as a natural leader to be stronger and thus attempted to nominate himself as the Lucid Dreamer's leader.

None relinquished the position to the other.

As for the others, they didn't really care, either sitting and listening to the metaphorical cat fight unfolding before the coffee table or peace out of the room, like a certain 90's skeleton. Blue was probably the only exception to this binary path of actions, occasionally intervening worriedly when things escalated too quickly.

But if they were to duke it out with words in a proper debate, no one could really place an accurate estimate of time, and time was sorely lacking. Ink was unpredictable at his best, and chaotic at his worst. Usually, he hung in a tenuous balance between the two.

With Error gone, it was only a matter of time before Ink managed to tip towards chaos and damage their Multiverse beyond repair.

Ninety minutes in, and a standstill was creeping up around them.

"For the love of Asgore, when have you ever led a successful battle, Dust?" Dream sighed.

"Remember that one time we raided Underfell for EXP and chocolate? Well, that was 40% my plan!"

"Nightmare had to save your ass on that one because of that 40%. I had a much better idea, but you decided to shut my trap, prick," Killer grumbled.

"Well fuck you too, Killer. At least I have some emotional intelligence to guide me through personal decisions!"

"So do I, Dust, so doesn't that make me the best candidate? I've led many fights against you guys when Ink was unavailable, and I'd like to think I did pretty well."

Dust sputtered. "You can't even enter a negative AU! The only reason you can even access this one is because the boss's magic is literally all over the place. How do you expect to carry a plan out when you can't even do that?"

"That doesn't make you a better choice! You're too immature for a role like this!"

"Oh yeah? Says who?"

"Me," Killer spoke up. An echo of voices quickly followed.

"And me."

"Sorry, Dust, but I agree with Dream."