Chapter Text
“free food, shelter and clothes? i could get used to this…” Killer surmised as he inspected the dark gray jacket he took from the rack.
He caught sight of the meaningless price tag and sucked in air through his teeth. “sixty dollars?” he muttered. Good thing they didn't have to pay.
“do you always talk out loud to yourself?” Horror questioned, watching him from behind.
“i’m not exactly talking to myself when you and hooded-creep are here.” Deciding the jacket looked cool enough for him, he removed his current hoodie to put it on. He tossed his old hoodie into the shopping cart, adding to the dangerously high pile of clothes.
A middle finger from the other side of the rack rose up.
“but i might as well be talking to myself ‘cus of how quiet you two are. bird flipper, do you ever speak?”
The answer was silence.
“figures…hey i just realized any time we talk to each other, we're talking to ourself.”
Dust tipped over the clothes rack with a forceful shove, causing it to fall on Killer.
“ow, what the heck, man?” It didn't hurt at all and he easily got the rack upright again, but some of the clothes fell off of it and made a mess on the floor. No one here was gonna clean that.
Dust walked out from behind the rack with a few garments in hand and stacked it on the pile.
They were about done shopping anyway, he guessed. Or at least, he assumed so. They’ve been here for a few hours now, but Horror was completely empty-handed.
“hey, crater-head, where's your haul? don't tell me you're not getting anything, you need new clothes the most with your rags.”
“i didn’t see anything i wanted,” he answered simply.
“really? this is a high-end store on the surface. your current getup is from the dump at waterfall.” He pointed at Dust. “look at him, he's all decked out now! covered literally head to toe, can’t even see any bone anymore.”
Horror looked unconvinced. “let's just go. i don't want that freak getting pissy at us for taking too long.”
If he had eyelights he would've rolled them, but he conceded. Not getting any clothes was his loss, but he swore if he ends up taking some of his clothes when they get back he’ll add to his kill count.
The three of them went on their way to the exit.
However, someone—a skeleton monster like them—was at the cash register, expectantly waiting for them to come over. The store was empty the entire time they were here, Nightmare made sure of it.
And the barrier in this universe hasn't been broken.
“Heya dawgs, how’s it hangin’?” the skeleton monster asked. “Yous three gonna pay for all that, right?”
His clothes hurt to look at. They were obnoxiously bright and tacky. His sunglasses that completely obscured his eye sockets literally spelled out “YOLO”. It was like the 90s threw up all over him. What alternate universe was this nut from?
Killer slipped his hand in the pocket of his shorts and curled it around the handle of his knife. He let out a shallow laugh. “what's it to you? you're not the store owner.”
“No duh, homeslice, but stealin’ is totes not rad!”
The way he talked was getting on his nerves. Scratch that, everything about him was getting on his nerves.
It seemed the other two felt the same. At any second, Dust was going to blast that 90’s disaster into the proper century.
“it's not like they're stealing from monsters. this is a human-owned store. i don't think they’d miss a few clothes,” Horror pointed out. “but if it bothers you so much, i’ll be on my way.”
“what?!” Killer exclaimed. He looked at Horror with an exaggerated look of betrayal on his face.
Horror made his way to the door. “hey, i’m not the one stealing. i’ll wait outside.” he said with indifference.
The other skeleton didn't protest at all when he left the building.
“butthole…what the?” Killer narrowed his eyes at his slip of the tongue. That’s not what he meant to say.
“Nah, homie, that chatter don't fly here.” The skeleton shook his head and his shades now spelt “NUH-UH”.
“you censored me?” His wariness skyrocketed at such a small thing. Well it wasn't exactly small when he's able to alter their words. What else could he do?
He glanced at Dust, who looked nonchalant as always.
He sighed, preparing for a fight. “listen, bud, we don't have any money and we're not going to—”
“Aw, no cheddar? You two should probably return those clothes then.” The overly-cheerfulness of his voice dwindled ever so slightly. Almost like he was threatening them.
He stared at him in befuddlement.
Dust decided he was entirely fed-up with this guy and the familiar growl of a blaster rang out.
“Not cool,” the colorful skeleton said before getting blasted.
But he was completely unfazed by the attack.
Killer and Dust instinctively backed up even with the current distance between them and that thing.
“That blast gots a huge kick to it, yo. You should be more careful, you could totes hurt someone with that.” The skeleton stood up—he was kneeling behind the counter the entire time.
He thought he was around the same height as he and Dust. But now it was clear he towered over both of them.
“I shoulda introduced myself, huh?” He asked as if he was talking to himself. He shrugged off his mistake. “My b, better late than never.” He adjusted his glasses as his smile widened dangerously. His golden tooth shined brightly despite there being no light for it to reflect. “The name’s Fresh. I take it that you peeps are sanses? The hooded dude packs a ri-donk-ulous punch tho.”
Blue bones rose up and caged Fresh as a half-ring of blasters appeared and fired. The impact of the blasts created a huge cloud of smoke, obscuring their vision.
Killer drew out his knife with a groan. He swore, Dust was so dramatic. He hoped that the dust of Fresh was among the cloud of smoke, but something about his instincts screamed otherwise. He squinted as he looked around. Dust wasn't by his side anymore.
It's gone completely quiet.
“...dust?” he whispered harshly. “where the funk did you go?” Ugh, there went the censoring again.
A hand laid on his shoulder, causing him to jump, but it was only Dust. He sighed and let his head hang back for a second. “you can't just do that!”
“...my bad.”
Wait. He talked!? And to express sorrow out of all things…“uhuh. we gotta put some bells on you or something, jeez.” The hand on his shoulder remained, in fact, the grip seemed to tighten. “you can let go now,” he said, voice laced with annoyance.
He still didn't let go. Was he trembling? His other hand was locked tightly into a fist by his side.
The grip on his knife tightened.
He hasn't known Dust for long, but what he did know was that he wasn't a touchy person.
“i said let go!” He hacked his knife into Dust’s wrist, he didn't put enough force to completely sever a bone but it cut pretty deep.
Dust yanked his hand away in complete silence.
Killer heard footsteps nearby, but there were too many for it to be from just one person.
The smoke finally dissipated.
He was completely surrounded.
There were more skeletons in the store, all of them wore those obnoxious sunglasses with text on them. These weren't just any skeletons, however. He was sure all of them were Sanses. They were stark still when he caught sight of them, like mannequins on display.
“i don’t know what's gotten into you, dust, but you need to snap out of it for once.”
“Oh, I know the answer to that one, broseph,” Fresh said. He adjusted his shades, the text on them saying “IT’S ME”.
Killer put two and two together quickly. All of these Sanses were being controlled by Fresh, and he was adding Dust to the party. Shit, was he going to be next too?!
He brandished his knife wildly like a cornered animal, causing Dust to take a step back. “aw heck no! get the frick away from me!” He couldn't die here, he couldn't even swear properly! He wasn't going to let his last word be a censored f-bomb.
“Don't be like that, homeslice dawg. Join the party, it's the bomb!” Fresh insisted, stretching his arms out to gesture at the still crowd. “Your pal’s waiting for you,” he added grimly.
As if on cue, Dust tackled him to the ground, grabbing his wrist to prevent him from using his knife. He was breathing heavily in a strained fashion.
They were just getting some fucking clothes. They were just going shopping. It was supposed to be a normal excursion, for once. He doesn't even know the next chance they'll have a goddamn break or do something that isn't designed to mentally mess them up even more. Fuck this guy.
He let out a growl as he brought his knees to his chest and kicked Dust off of him. He rolled upright and blindly lunged for Fresh, swinging his knife around like an untrained toddler.
Fresh backed away from every slash. He may hardly look like a Sans but he sure dodged like one.
As the two fought, the crowd surrounded the three, caging them in. Dust hasn't gotten up yet, but random bone attacks of his flung around the makeshift arena.
The exit door flung open, interrupting their fight.
Never in his life did Killer expect to feel relief at seeing that stupid octopus. Horror followed behind him, looking shocked at the sight.
“I told you that I expected you back in three hours!” Nightmare roared. Once he actually registered what was happening, he narrowed his eye in confusion. “Who or what is that thing that assaults my vision?”
“kill it! kill it now!” he shouted with a bit too much desperation.
In an instant, everyone in the building was lifted up by his tentacles and shoved against the walls of the building as Nightmare arose.
Killer thrashed around in vain, “not me too, you idiot!”
“you’d think you'd expect this by now,” Horror, who was held up near him, muttered.
For the first time since they’ve seen him, Fresh frowned. “Bogus, dude! Interruptin’ my meal like that is not cool.”
“meal?!”
Nightmare ignored the two and paid particular attention to Dust. Something was wrong with his soul, his feelings were all muddled. In fact, the other skeletons here with sunglasses on gave off the similar muddled energy. With another tendril he wrenched Dust’s hood off, revealing a huge flower growing in his eye socket.
Killer and Horror gagged.
“what the heck is that?! has that always been there?!” Killer gawked.
“Of course not,” Nightmare grumbled. The same tendril wrapped around the flower as best as it could.
“Oh buddy, I wouldn't do that if I were you,” Fresh said, his glasses spelling “DO NOT”.
“Try me.” He yanked.
The flower snapped off with such a force that threw Dust’s head back.
Nightmare dropped him to inspect the flower, letting him fall to the floor with a loud thud.
Dust’s eyelights sparked on with a gasp that soon turned into a scream as he reached for his eye sockets as if the flower was still there, not even bothering to put his hood back on.
Killer and Horror’s eyes were wide open and their mouths were agape at the display. They’ve never expected to see Dust lose his cool like this. They weren't expecting to see many things that were happening today.
They were just trying to go shopping. How did it turn into this?!
“Shut up, Dust,” Nightmare ordered. As he inspected the flower, his grasp on Fresh tightened.
“Homeslice, I’m sure this hurts. You mind loosening up a bit?” Fresh asked.
He was answered with a smack on the head by another tendril, which knocked his glasses off. Lo and behold there was a similar flower residing inside his skull.
His glasses were like a mask, once they were off his entire facade crumbled away.
“What are you?” Nightmare asked. He tore the flower up with his hands and let the pieces litter the ground.
“That's not your business.” Fresh slipped out of the tentacle’s grasp with ease like it wasn't just strangling him.
The other glasses-wearing skeletons dug and clawed with their hands into the tentacles holding them up.
Dust scrambled upright to get away from him and closer to Nightmare.
Fresh picked up his shades and put them back on. “Now I suggest you bounce on outta here and let me do my thing. Or things are gonna get not so family friendly.”
Nightmare hardly seemed fazed by the damage done to his tentacles, but if this kept up they’ll be able to escape from his grasp. One thing was clear, he wasn't in control of this situation and Fresh did not want him taking the other three out of here.
He moved Killer and Horror closer to himself in defiance. He could leave these three to rot, find others exactly like them, but he just found these three. He didn't want to go through the hassle of wrangling more Sanses so soon. And he was not going to let someone else mooch off of his efforts.
“we're running, right? we’re not fighting this freak,” Killer whispered to him.
Dust looked up at him, almost pleadingly.
If this was any other time, he would've had them fight for his entertainment, but this was not the time, unfortunately.
He put Horror and Killer down. The three of them were absolutely terrified.
If he portaled right now, there was a high chance Fresh would be able to follow them. They had to get some distance first.
He tossed the other skeletons in his grasp across the store and broke the wall behind him.
Dust, Horror, and Killer didn't waste any time sprinting outside of the store through the broken wall.
Nightmare’s tentacles promptly snatched and threw Fresh to the back of the store for good measure before following after the three.
He opened up a portal to the castle ahead. The millisecond the four of them were through the portal snapped closed.
Killer face planted against the grass as if he was hugging the ground.
Horror brushed himself off, seemingly checking for any flowers on his clothes.
Dust had his hands clenched tightly around the edges of his hood as if he’d die if it was ever off again.
All of them felt like utter shit, and for once, Nightmare didn't particularly enjoy that.
He was…unnerved. His knowledge of the multiverse was even more limited than he thought it was. Before that encounter he assumed the only major threats were Ink, Error, and his brother.
There were so many skeletons under this “Fresh’s” control. How far could his influence spread? Could he control him?
He didn't want to think about it.
“Dust,” he said blankly, “Are you…” How did he want to phrase this? He already knew if he was okay or not, he could sense it. “You are completely free of that parasite’s influence, correct?”
Dust gave a weak nod.
At least it seemed reversible, but maybe that was only because of how quickly it was removed. Needless to say, the second they see that freak again they're out of there.
“fuck man, how’d that thing get you?” Killer asked. “you were by my side the whole time.”
Dust just shrugged. Whether he wasn't actually sure or just too tired to explain, he couldn't tell.
“...god dammit!” Killer yelled. “we forgot the clothes. ugh, whatever. at least i have a new hoodie.” He let out a weak laugh. “i survived an encounter against this parasite and all i got was this sixty dollar hoodie.”
Horror glared at Nightmare. “so you don't know about everything. you're not an all-knowing god.”
“I never said I was.”
“so how much do you know? is there anything else like that out there?”
Nightmare paused. Thinking of a thoughtful response. “I am not aware of everything that goes on in the multiverse. That threat we encountered was entirely unfamiliar to me. There may be more. Cease the image of me as an all-knowing god. I might as well know as much as you.”
“hah! you totally could’ve left us, huh?” Killer pointed out. He knows he would’ve.
“It would’ve been a hassle,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“aw, so you do care about us,” he said.
Nightmare was taken aback. He wasn't sure how true or not that was. “Define ‘care’,” he said skeptically.
Killer wasn't expecting that response. “i was joking. people who care for each other don't put them in shitty situations.”
“...I see.” In that case, Nightmare doubted he had the capacity to care for anyone. “Do any of you three care for each other?”
That made Killer burst out into laughter. He looked at Horror and Dust to check if they were as amused as he was at the question.
Horror just looked offended at the question while Dust was unreadable as he typically was.