(Dream's POV)

Dear god, what happened to him?! Nightmare? "Brother NO!!" The half deformed Nightmare lunged up and down the walls toward Lanny. She fired some fire at his face, but he simply rammed his head into her chest. Quetz pinned his arms, trying to calm him down. I dropped my bow to run to him.

"Nightmare, please calm down. I don't want to hurt you-" Quetz got cut off when the skeleton bit into his arm, making it bleed. Distracted, Night picks him up with ease and I got pinned by my uncle's weight. Nightmare coughed up black goo trying to breath.

"Liar!! You want to hurt me!! Some savior, you're just like the rest of them."

Lanny tried to grab him once more, but he dodged and his tentacles thrust her forward. Soon, Nightmare ran away, and we followed. I tried to outrun them first, if Lanny's trying to kill him, I have to get him out of here.

About halfway, I heard screaming coming from Snowdin. This is just getting worse by the minute. I could see most of the au's along with Ink circling him. Nightmare was glaring at them harshly.

"Back off Nightmare!!" Ink yelled at him, he wasn't fazed in the slightest.

"What happened to his face?" Blue whimpered. The folks around the town gasped at Nightmare's appearance.

"Guys! Don't attack him please!" I managed to get between Ink and Nightmare at the last moment. My brother continued to make deep raspy breaths. Ink looked surprised at the very least.

"Dream? What are you doing? Don't be too close to him, you'll get hurt."

"Nobody touch him!" I turned towards my brother. He was glaring at me, the raspy breathing sounded faintly like snarls. The tendrils circled around me and Ink, as if they were ready to crush us. I slowly approached him, not changing my expression. Despite his "new appearance", his purple eye still glowed brightly at me.

"Brother, please calm down. I wasn't aware of this, you got to believe me. I didn't want to...I didn't mean. Just, let us talk this out, we'll find another way." I only got a few inches to him, and he turned his head to the side at me. He spoke softly to me, almost sounding like his normal voice.

"Can we...even go back?"

I couldn't speak when Lanny became visible. "Ink, chain his arms down!" On command, Ink splattered ink on our clothes, and Nightmare couldn't move his arms. Lanny pushed me out of the way, facing Nightmare. My brother didn't look angry or sad, he just looked empty. And that was probably what hurt me the most. 

"I'm sorry all of you had all this suffering to do with this. Let us handle this." She summoned a dark orb of magic. I leaped when I recognized it. It was one of her deadliest magic, capable of killing with a direct hit to the soul. Not even Nightmare could take it. I summoned my arrow and bow and pointed straight to her shoulder, and fired.

"STOP THIS!!" With the opening, I wedged myself between them again. This time, my arms created a border for my brother, protecting. Everyone only watched as Lanny slowly pulled the arrow out, shocked at what I'm doing. I must look like the biggest idiot in the multiverse. I glanced at Nightmare as he did the same, not speaking a word to each other. With one more stare down, he snapped the vines with ease and disappeared into a shadow.

The couple of minutes were the hardest I've had to listen to. It took Blue a while to calm everyone down, Ink couldn't understand, Quetz was healing his arm form Night's bite. But Lanny wasn't happy with me at all. She was giving me the death glare.

"Why. Would you. Do That? Not only did you compromise the mission, you let him get away. We were about to win." Quetz returned to her with a glare.

"I don't remember "murdering family" as an objective, Lanny."

"If I told you, I knew you were going to object."

"Of course I was! I-"

"Because it's naturally your job. You value all lives and protect, including ones that don't deserve it." Quetz's hair started to turn red as he got angry.

"Don't deserve it?! I never thought you could be so heartless toward a child. For your information, despite all the pain he's made, I forgave him a long time ago. Because I love to think Nim would've wanted us to save her children."

"What would you know what Nim would've wanted? She's dead, because of him. You were heartbroken, and so was I. I've hated not being able to do anything ever since her death. And I don't feel comfortable having such a uncontrollable force causing havoc."

I couldn't take it anymore.

"Both of you don't get it!" Ink, my family, and some of the folk watched me. I was shaking from the anger bottling up inside me.

"Dream? Are you okay buddy?" Blue walked up to me, attempting to put his hand on my shoulder. He was shocked when I slapped it out of the way, glaring at him. Probably the first time I ever snapped at him.

"All of you hating my brother for what's he's done. When all of you are blind to what happened to us, and what we even wanted. All I want is for him to come back."

"Dream? You want him after all that's happened. He destroyed her home, killed your mother, don't you think you would be hurt after all that? How can you not feel pain like us?" I yelled at seemingly nothing, scaring both of them. Golden tears poured from my face and I snapped.

"How could be upset about my mother's death? According to her, you guys haven't even tried talking to her for centuries. We were there for her, and she was there for us. And she was there for Nightmare, through all of his pain. Sometimes, I caught him crying and talking to mother for advice. I never hated him for what he's done. Those people turned on me and hurt the one I loved the most. He's the victim, both of us are. The only one I hate is myself."

Blue was on the verge of crying, but I wasn't comforting him. I was just too angry, angry at them, at the world, at myself.

"I've hated myself for doing anything, not saying anything. My naïve mind thought people could change, but it didn't it got worse for us. Mother tried her best, but the pressure was too great. In the end, I've been at pain each day. Every day I've had to fight him, I'm reminded of the poor soul that was pushed. I thought I could save him, to finally have my loving brother back. But I guess all of you won't even give us that, could you? I couldn't save him then, so how could I save him now? Why have you people have to be so...selfish?"

It took a second for me to realize what I said. Quetz looked heartbroken, Blue was crying in his brother's shoulder, Ink stared endlessly at me, and Lanny was unreadable. I turned sharply and teleported away, wiping the tears off my face.

I wanted to be alone, to be away from them.