Sorry about the delay. I forgor Dust was also part of the fight.

Happy (late) Christmas I guess, how bad this is not a happy chapter :D

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It was probably a bad sign that his first encounter with the inhabitants of this new world ended in a fight, and he couldn't even say it wasn't his fault, but in his defense, he had panicked!

It had been a shock to suddenly see a stranger at the entrance to the cave they were hiding in, and the second he saw their weapon's flash that he just acted on instinct.

Is not his fault that his first instinct upon seeing a weapon was to attack first, ask questions later!

The bug didn't even move when saw his attack coming and the skeleton-now-bug prepared himself to see the creature's remains fly away at the brutal impact.

That didn't happen.

His ax did not collide with a skull, but with another weapon.

...He's not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing when his eyes met with others as dark as the night.

(A very familiar darkness. But the current situation didn't let him think too much about it).

A bug almost the same as the one he was attacking had come between them. They barely moved at Horror's attack; their expressions as blank as their companion behind them, like almost having their skull brutally open wasn't a big deal. Horror didn't even could see if he did any damage with how dark the cave was and with the light coming right from behind his opponent it just made seeing correctly difficult.

Horror noticed with a shudder, his axe was now showing a dent, a small one, one that he only noticed it from sheer luck. But this was the same ax that had exchanged blows against the brush of the damned Ink without even losing its edge! And now it had a dent caused from what until a moment ago seemed just an ordinary weapon?!

In any other situation, that would have been their cue to flee from there, call Nightmare or Error and wait for them to open a portal to take them to a safer place.

But the only place to run to was to the caves behind them, and that was just begging to be caught.

Neither Nightmare nor Error were around nor had they any way to get in contact with them.

And this dimension was supposed to be the safer place!

Horror didn't even see a way to get out of this just talking, he had already dealt the first blow and had never been in need to be a peacemaker against his enemies, so all he could do was to retreat from this attack and throw himself at his opponent again in hopes that his brothers didn't end up stepping in, Cross was still incapacitated from his recent panic attack and if his axe was already taking damage after only one collision, Dust's knife wouldn't last much against this swords either.

That didn't stop Dust from getting into the fight, much to his displeasure.

But this time the one he originally intended to attack intercept Dust's knife, metal collided with bone, for a moment Horror's strength wavered in surprise but instead of continuing to hold his opponent's attack, Horror's leg connected against their chest, making them back in the direction of the cave entrance.

A plan began to form in his head

If he managed to take the fight outside then there would be a chance to run away or at least have them chase him to get them away from Cross and Dust, if he convince him to let him to deal with these two, they would give priority to him, right? After all, he was the one who started the violence in the first place, Dust only followed his lead.

Without giving time to recover, this time he only used one hand to hold his weapon, pretending to want to attack the legs in a swing making the other lower their weapon to block the attack again, Horror's free hand took the opportunity to forcefully grab one of the bug's horns and with all the strength he could, should've be able to make them back even further.

Or at least that was the plan.

Instead of throwing them, the angle and force with which he took their horn didn't give him room to raise his hand again, instead of going up, his hand kept coming down with full force.

A cracking sound echoed through the cave; the bug's head had smashed into the ground.

Everything suddenly went silent.

Then Horror felt liquid stain his hand.

A terribly familiar liquid that now he recognized, it was the same one that covered his Soul like a warm blanket and was now staining his hand as the definitive proof that he was a bloody imbecile whom his poor mum should have let be devoured by Queen Undyne.

Void was coming out of the head of what he now know had been his sibling, ugly cracks all over the right side of their skull dripping with the liquid that had kept them alive before Horror ruined everything.

He released the horn that he was still holding as if it were burning, and when he noticed their companion approaching with alarm (anothersiblingwhathehaddonehewasworsethanamonster), he moved as far away as he could with his body barely responding, it didn't feel like he had moved even a meter away.

Out of the corner of her eye he could see Dust frozen in place, knife up as if he'd been about to attack before it all came crashing down, if his horrified look told her he'd also realized how much he had screwed up everything.

He didn't even dare to look at Cross, his little brother had been trying to tell them something the fight, probably what he already knew now, he had heard his voice during the fight, but he had ignored it, instead concentrating on fighting what he was supposed to be their family.

He could only watch as his curly-horned sibling (hedidn'thavetherighttocallthemthat) carefully lifted the head of the sibling he had hurt.

The sibling he had killed, because Horror was used to not measuring his strength when fighting, because his opponents either didn't die or come back after a simple RESET.

But this multiverse didn't have that, did it? It was one of the first things they were warned about and Horror had still devoured those helmeted bugs without a second thought; now he had done something much worse and there was no magic button to fix everything.

(Maybe Papyrus had a point when he handed him over to Undyne, none of his brothers would be hurt if he hadn't been here, he deserved that and more).

And as if summoned, pain bloomed against his skull as dozens of the insects he was shamelessly devouring earlier stampeded out the other side of the tunnel, one of them seemingly throw a pick at him.

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'That's going to hurt tomorrow'. Was the first thing that came to Den's head when they saw Kin's head crash into the ground.

The next thing that came to their mind as soon as they saw the Lost One's horrified expression and the void leaking Kin's shell was a series of emotions and thoughts intermingled with chaos that were the own emotions of all their siblings but that could be summed up as 'oh shit, I have to fix this NOW!'

It was clear that the Lost Ones hadn't intended to break their masks, at least not since the first attack, the taller one definitely looked sorry for what they did and the one with the knife had also ceased their attack giving Den a chance to run to their fallen sibling's side.

He carefully picked up the damaged head, beginning to pour out Soul to prevent their Shade from coming out due to the injury, seeing that would only make the red-eyed Lost One feel worse and they already looked too upset about it (They were crying and Den wanted to hug them so bad).

(Den could feel the moment their Father began to share eyes with them, worried about what had happened to Kin and to check on the Lost Ones at the same time).

And of course, because nothing this day could be easy, a herd of miners emerged from the tunnels, picks and sticks ready to fight, one of them wasting no time in throwing a bloody pick at the head of the red-eyed Lost One. A cracking sound came from the impact and Den was already on their feet after pouring a lot of Soul into Kin's wound, ready to defend their little sibling from what could only be a huge misunderstanding.

...

A short confrontation and a long talk later, Den had figured out several things.

1. The miners believed that the Lost were Infected with the "Orange dreams", which was not hard to believe given the color of the lights in their sockets.

2. What he had thought were mere rocks turned out to be the dismembered bodies of several unfortunate miners, eaten by at least one of the Lost, if not all of them. So, the rest of the miners had even more reason to want to attack them.

3. They were under the idea that the reason Den stopped them from finishing off the Red-Eyed Lost was because they wanted to finish him off themselves or take them to their Father to do so, given the god's overprotective nature.

This last was convenient for Den, since it avoided having to enter in conflict with the miners, something he would rather not to do alone, and it gave him a convenient excuse to take their Lost Siblings away from there.

It didn't take long to appease them after that, the miners headed back to their tunnels, but not before shouting obscenities and threats towards the Lost Ones that Den was glad they still couldn't understand.

Finally taking a look at them they could feel their chest ache at what he found.

Kin, now healed thanks to the Soul, was trying in vain to check the wound of the red-eyed Lost One, who seemed torn between wanting to run away and looking at Kin as if they were going to disappear at any moment. Tears still falling down from one eye but it didn't seems they were aware of that.

The other two were on both sides of the red-eyed, Den could see them move their mouths and although they couldn't understand it was clear that they were trying to convince them to let themselves be checked.

With a sigh Den approached the group, the red-eyed Vessel finally taking their eyes off Kin and looking at them as if expecting to be attacked.

Den just held out their hand in their direction and nodded towards the exit of the tunnel.

A few moments of silence passed before a trembling hand took theirs, the red-eyed didn't seem to know what to do except follow Den (they sadly realized that they still expected to be hurt), the little one and the one with the knife followed suit taking Kin's hands soon after and so they started their way home.

Maybe it hadn't started off in the best way, but Den promised themselves that as soon as their little siblings were safe and able to understand them, they would do everything to make the rest of their lives happy and free from horrible thoughts about being hurt.

It was the least they could do.

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And officially the last group is on their way to the Abyss, with a bit more of trauma but they're gonna get a well deserved hug soon don't worry.

I'm honestly not sure if I should go directly to the reunion in the Abyss (I already have the new names for the Crew) or go back with Ink and Co. and their thing in Undertale. Any preference?