Pinto has a big smile on his face, kneeling in Horror's cupped hands. "I saved you!" he happily chirps at Dream. Pinto turns to look and Horror and says again, "I saved you!". Pinto feels very strongly that breaking those red strings is exactly what that nice monster in the alley was asking him to do. The bitty is desperate to carry out this wish in exchange for their great gift.
    "Are you okay, Dream?" Blue asks worriedly, steadying the other and helping the guardian back to his feet. Dream can't even put into words what he's feeling. All the oppressive anger that been hounding him, agitating him and pushing Dream to take actions that he usually never would, is gone in an instant. A foggy cloud around his mind has been lifted. Dream struggles to say anything at all in response to Blue.
"Bit-ty broke...... strings," Horror abruptly speaks up, more a statement than a question.
     "Strings?" Dream asks. Even as he says the word, it somehow clicks into place and exactly describes what he's feeling.
"Like a puppet," Horror says. His expression turns pained, and he grips his head with one hand. "Made me so....... scared. And angry. You were going to hurt them." Horror finds it difficult to explain exactly what he was feeling while the string were still wrapped around his soul.
"Someone was controlling you?" Blue asks is shock and concern, "And they had you too, Dream?"
"I don't think I was....... ensnared as tightly as Horror. No one was making me do anything, but I kept getting so angry. I couldn't think straight. I was already preparing to have to call off the alliance and go back to fighting. I don't know what I would've done if it got worse."
"Nightmare and the rest must be under the same influence. That's why everything's gone wrong. Ink must still be trying to fix this," Blue determines.
"....... We killed Ink," Horror states bluntly after a moments hesitation.
     The beat of silence after that declaration is deafening. Comprehending those three words fills the room with a heavy, stunned quiet. Pinto doesn't quite understand who they're all talking about, but he hunches in on himself under the heavy atmosphere.
     "That's impossible." Dream is quick to deny. "Ink can't die. He's a god! He told me so himself."
"Ink has to be okay! He probably played a trick on you and got away," Blue insists.
"I saw his dust," Horror argues, "Ink is dead."
"The Multiverse would have reacted by now if one of its core gods were dead. I would have felt it if the God of Creation was killed," Dream argues.
     Dream's words suddenly give Blue a terrible thought. He sends a heavy look in Pinto's direction. Blue was too busy fighting Dust to concentrate on Horror, but Blue did catch flashes of the fight. Pinto's magic is way too strong for a bitty. Even if Pinto is based off Ink, there is no way something thought of as a pet should be capable of summoning constructs made from magic. "What if the God of Creation wasn't killed, but Ink was?" Blue asks quietly.
"What are you saying, Blue? Ink is the God of Creation," Dream points out.
     "Pinto, is it okay if we check you?" Blue asks, ignoring Dream for the moment.
     "Okay," Pinto agrees easily. Horror is hesitant, but lets the small bitty climb from his hands into Blue's. Pinto isn't afraid at all about being dropped. He sits cross-legged in Blue's hands and looks up at everyone with big, happy eyes. Pinto doesn't yet understand that the 'Ink' everyone is talking about is the same skeleton from the alley. Blue quickly opens Pinto's check box so that everyone can see it.

Artist! Bitty
Name: Pinto
HP: 7/7
DEF: 1
ATK: 53
MP: 93/Error(storage full)

- God of Creation
- A soulless being with an artificial body
- He wants to save you from the red strings

     Pinto becomes a little uncomfortable under the silent stares. He has never seen his own stats before and does not know what is normal. Pinto never cared enough to look. Now, he is delighted to see his new name in the stat block.
Dream can't figure out what he is feeling. As plain as day, Pinto's check box declares him as the God of Creation. There can only be one with such a title. Check boxes don't lie. Dream sinks to his knee, legs too weak to support him. Ink, his best friend, is gone. Dream can't stop the tears that escape down his face. Ink is the first person that the Positive Guardian met after leaving his AU. Despite his lack of a soul, Ink always tried his best for the people around him. Dream finds it difficult to accept the fact that he is gone.
     Blue slowly sits down, still carefully cradling Pinto in his hands. Ink's death is a terrible blow. Blue has come to know the former god as a very good friend. He never looked down on Blue for his excitable and childish nature. Ink took Blue seriously when he said that he wanted to help defend the Multiverse. Ink was so excited to end the fights against the Bad Sanses. It pains Blue to know that Ink will never see the peace he desperately longed for.
     Horror feels very out of place. He's never liked Ink, but neither Nightmare nor Error ever wanted the death of the God of Creation. Horror viewed Ink as just another competitor on the battlefield of life. Horror is grateful, however, for the times when he's noticed Ink hold back. He only ever used his full strength against Error. Horror can remember multiple occasions where Ink had the chance to kill him or one of the others, and yet, they all still live. Ink did not even use lethal force when he was trying to defend his very own life. Ink died while staying faithful to his beliefs. Horror can admire that.
There is something wrong with the numerical values of Pinto's stats. His HP and DEF are both much too low. Both are more compatible to a toddler monster rather than a god. Pinto's tiny body is fragile. His ATK is better, but it is nowhere near Ink's normal ATK of 70. Even Dream's ATK is higher at 65. With such a mid-level number, it is surprising that Pinto was able to beat Horror when his ATK is 55. Pinto's Magic Points are even stranger. As the God of Creation, Ink had an incredible amount of MP, capping out at 200. Pinto has less than half of that. His current number is maxed out since he just ate. Pinto's small body is just not capable of holding as much magic as Ink could.
Dream and Blue have so much to say and ask, but they don't get the chance. Static crackles to life in the air. Pinto turns his head just in time to see a distortion form in the air behind him. Before he can even make a sound, blue strings shoot from the portal and snag the small bitty by the shoulders and torso. Pinto yelps as he's yanked out of Blue's hands in an instant. He can hear Blue and Dream shout before the sound is abruptly cut off.
Pinto finds himself staring out into a massive expanse of nothing but white. The utter brightness hurts his eyes. Pinto is nervous, but not scared. The strings around him are not red. They are only tight enough to hold him. Pinto could wiggle out of them if he really wanted to. Pinto follows the strings and looks up to see a web of the same thread spread out high in the air. Various objects are strung up in the web. Pinto is hanging much lower, but he can't tell how far down the ground is since everything is white.
Furious, distorted mumbling quickly draws Pinto's attention away from the strings. He is not alone. There is a black boned skeleton monster pacing back and forth across the floor of of this white void. He wears a baggy jacket that has been ripped and stitched back up with the same blue strings that are holding up Pinto. Blue, tear-like lines run down their face from both eyes. Pixelated glitches erratically pop in and out of existence around their body. The skeleton has his arms crossed, tightly gripping his sleeves as he mutters and paces. It looks as is he is trying to calm himself down from something. This monster surly knows that Pinto his watching, but they have not yet cared to acknowledge the bitty.
     It is impossible to pick out what the black-boned skeleton is saying. His voice is low and distorted with static. It sometimes raises in volume as if he is arguing with himself. There are two hazy clouds of glitches covering their eyes. The skeleton abruptly stops walking. He growls with pained frustration and starts to furiously claw at his neck and chest. The action is so forceful that it opens up new bloody scratches across the bone, layering over similar injuries that were previously inflicted.
     "S-Stop that!" Pinto shouts, scared that this monster could seriously hurt themselves.
     The black-boned skeleton's head shoots up to look in Pinto's direction, distorted eyes staring right at the fly caught in the spider's web.