From Murder to Dust

FD - 1 - Saving

The stupid dedication thing won't work, so this is dedicated to mg39771

*Attempted "commit self-delete" in this chapter. Avoid if you aren't comfortable with that, please!*

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Nightmare's gang had been doing well recently..too well. Usually, we would savor some time to ourselves, but..this was different. There had been a steady increase of negativity for a while, but Nightmare thought it was just a death or something; it wasn't. We eventually realized that we needed to find the cause for this negativity sooner rather than later, in case it was something serious. As such, we looked around the multiverse. It was currently my turn to search a few universes, and Paps was accompanying me - he's the best - to help me look faster. We were currently in one of the many Undertale copies, one which Nightmare had sensed a large amount of negtivity coming from. We had already searched the Hotland, Waterfall, New Home, and other various places; we only had Snowdin and the forest to search now. So far, we hadn't found any source of large negativity, but we were determined to find it. We had just stopped at the bridge.

"Anything in the Ruins, Paps?" I questioned, as Papyrus had searched the Ruins.

"Nothing, brother." He replied. 

"Okay, well, that only leaves Snowdin and here. You're the best, Paps."

"I am the Great Papyrus!"

"So, do you want to take the forest or the town?"

"I shall search the town, brother! I can be more stealthy, since I am invisible to most! You will have more luck searching the forest, and there will likely be no uncalled-for chaos."

"That's a great idea, Paps - just like you."

"You flatter me, brother!"

"Heh, let's get searching."

"Right!"

At that, Papyrus floated over to the town, and I took to the trees. I could have walked on the ground, but I felt safer in the trees - less chance of scaring someone, anyway. So I went, from tree to tree, balancing nimbly on the small branches, but not really having too much trouble, due to my lightweight body. I searched for about an hour, and I was about ready to give up and return to the bridge - our rendezvous point - when I heard a sound..it sounded like..crying? Well, crying was negative, all right. I decided to move closer to the crying, making no noise as I moved from tree to tree, trying to find the source of the crying. I eventually found it, but I was a bit startled at the sight: it was Dream! There he was, the Guardian of Positivity, crying his eyesockets out in a cold forest..I knew it was bad to eavesdrop, but Nightmare would have likely wanted a reason as to why his own brother was possibly the source of the negativity strain. So I hopped over to the tree Dream sat against and listened closely, making out the words that the Guardian was muttering to himself.

"I'm so sorry, Nighty.." He sobbed. "I've let you down..I've hurt you so much..you deserve so much more than me. I'm weak, Nighty; I let you make the mistakes you did, and I didn't even care! I'm a terrible brother, and I realize that..I'm so sorry for hurting you. After today, though..you won't have to worry about me messing up your life anymore."

I silently wondered what Dream was up to; was he going to leave the Star Sanses? Why wouldn't he be talking to them about it? Or..had he already? What was he planning..? Papyrus floated up to me, and I papsigned for him to listen to Dream as well.

"Heh..I remember when we used to play together as kids.." Dream recalled; I was curious as to what he could have been doing. "You would always rather read books, though..I wish I had known what they did to you sooner..maybe I could have stopped them. Sometimes..I wonder if you're even in there anymore..have I been trying to reason with a monster? I guess I'll find out on the other side..goodbye, Nighty..I love you.."