Dysfunction to Refunction

Chapter 26

[And now, to our regularly scheduled programming...]

Nightmare arrived in the meeting place Ink had offered, ready to meet their demands. Taking Error hostage was surprisingly easy. Still, a skeleton who can heal a smashed skull and broken bones is too strong to overcome if they had been more cautious about the meeting.

A small part of him felt a disgusting warmth that felt like being lit on fire from the inside at the fact. Trust in a guardian of nightmares and negativity? How naïve...

The artist walked into view, a tied up Killer still in his grasp.

".... I have Error."

"Great! Hand him over and you can do whatever you want for..... 2 trillion AUs? I keep the other two, of course."

"Right."

Nightmare glanced at the beat up Sans. Yikes, he definitely had been beaten up since the last time he saw them. What was Ink doing with them...?

"..... But I want one more thing."

"Oh?"

"I want him."

The nightmare pointed to the bound Sans.

"Huh? Oh, you want Killer? Sure! I don't really want him anymore so you can have him. It's a bit sad, though. It was fun for a while."

Killer spat out some blood.

"Oh, yeah. Lots of fun."

Ink chuckles and dropped him with a toss toward Nightmare, making a 'gimmie gimmie' gesture toward Error.

Nightmare rolled his eyes and handed Error to Ink.

"Here, now get out of here, filth."

Ink smiles smugly.

"Sure thing!"

   With Cross and Dust...

"You know, you're a real perv, Dust."

"Sorry, squirt, I'm taken."

"Which makes it weirder!"

Dust laughs, pitching forward before forcing himself back up. By now, Cross had finished the shower and gotten dressed, having borrowed Dust's jacket until his clothes were cleaned. It was fine until Dust was having his narcoleptic fits again, stuck between falling to the floor and shocking himself awake again from sheer will. It was a losing battle and he knew he would inevitably lose consciousness...

"Mhm... anyway, see ya..."

Aaaand he was out.

Cross pressed his palm to his face. He better get Dust out of here before Horror arrives. The three of them knew how possessive Horror gets with his stuff....

"Thankfully, Dust hardly weighs like anything."

He picked up the sleeping skeleton and warped them to their bedroom to tuck them in.

"See ya later."

He left.

The halls were strangely quiet despite there being two obnoxious skeletons and one that, unfortunately, has to clean up after them.

He walked out of the room to see if Nightmare had arrived only to find that, yes, he was home, but not alone. A skeleton was being dragged in with a tentacle, their body morbidly still as if killed. It wasn't the case, of course. Monsters turn to dust. They must have just been knocked out cold.

"Cross."

"Y-Yes, Nightmare?"

"Take them and fix them up. N o w."

Cross forced down the need to shiver and gingerly picked up the limp skeleton. He carried them off to a vacant room and started taking their shirt off. What he saw shook him to the core. Wounds. Not like ones Nightmare would make but they look... Almost as if they were done in a certain way. Testing?

The monochrome skeleton began patching breaks and putting salve on spots that were rubbed raw. Taking a look at their face, Cross confirmed they were a Sans, but they looked... wrong. That wrongness made every fiber of his body want to run as far away from them as possible. A Check also affirmed that their LV was much, MUCH higher than his or Horrors. Even Dust's.

"Oh man... We're gonna have another member, aren't we?"

A slimy hand slid to clutch their shoulder.

"Yes we are."