Pinto rises back into consciousness very, very slowly. His entire body is sore and he feels extremely cold. Thinking straight is hard. Voices are buzzing somewhere nearby. Pinto tries to listen in as he becomes more aware.
     ".......... th- ...... wrong..... and I can't ....... find Ink anywhere! Something must have gone really wrong when he met with Nightmare and the others. How could this happen?" Pinto doesn't recognize this voice.
"When I was fighting Dust, he was acting really weird. He kept talking about weakness and strength but none of it made any sense. He only responded to my actual words about half of the time." That's Blue talking now. A familiar and friendly presence should relive Pinto, but he feels nothing.
Pinto cracks open his eyes to try and get an idea of where he is. The light is blinding, but after a moment, he's able to open his eyes fully. Although he's on a different counter, Pinto is back in Blue's kitchen. Someone had thoughtfully placed his unconscious form on top of a pillow. Pinto is sprawled on his stomach and facing the rest of the kitchen. Blue is going back and forth in conversation with another skeleton monster wearing a lot of yellow. Something moves slightly, and Pinto's attention shifts to the monster sitting on floor. Tucked against a wall and nearly out of sight, Horror sits with his knees pulled up tight against his body while staring off into space. He doesn't look aggressive anymore.
     Pinto can't bring himself to care enough to follow the conversation. He should be feeling....... some sort of reaction to all this, but everything is hollow. Pinto used to be content with the lack of any drive. Now that he knows there's something better than nothing, emptiness is bad. The bitty slowly sits up.
Dream, the skeleton dressed in golds, is a complicated monster. He's the guardian of positivity and one of Ink's close friends. A peace treaty to end the conflict is something that he's always wanted. This sudden turn and betrayal doesn't surprise him as much he thought it would. Dream finds himself to be angry more than anything. Horror and Dust attacked Blue, Horror is now refusing speak or do much of anything after being bested by a bitty of all things, and Ink is nowhere to be found.
     Blue and Dream are both distracted from their conversation by a strange slurping sound. They both turn to look at the formerly unconscious bitty. Pinto is sitting up with his paint vial sitting in his lap, cap off, and tilted as he sips out of it. Pinto's eyes lights had reverted back to their white color and plain shape. As he finishes drinking, one is replaced with a yellow star while the other switches to  a green diamond. Pinto isn't even aware of his change in eye color.
Dream knows even less about bitties than Blue does. The guardian has never seen one before or given their existence much thought. It's obvious that this one is supposed to look like Ink, so Dream doesn't find anything odd about them drinking paint. After a fruitless search for the Creator, Dream came back to Underswap to meet up with Blue only find the other fussing over an unconscious bitty with Horror nearby, also out cold. Blue had only just begun explaining himself when Pinto woke up.
     "Pinto! Are you okay?" Blue asks anxiously, rushing the few steps over to the counter. Pinto didn't have any obvious injuries when Blue picked him up out of the snow, but it's hard to believe that he got out of the fight unscathed. Horror has small scratches all along his body. He still won't say what happened.
     The bitty recaps the paint vial before answering. "T-tired," Pinto stutters, letting out a big yawn right after. Despite his short nap, he feels exhausted, though more cheery and responsive after drinking the paint.
"....... magic exhaustion," Horror abruptly mutters. The others to turn to look at him with the sudden words. Horror has refused to answer questions or speak up to this point. Horror only looks at the group with his peripheral vision, unwilling to look straight at anyone. "Feed him," Horror says a little louder, more insistent.
     After a moment of silence, Blue does turn back to Pinto and ask him, "Are you hungry?" Magic exhaustion is a serious concern for monsters. Getting too low on magic makes monsters sick. It usually takes many days of intense magic use and little rest to exhaust so much magic. 
     "Yes!" Pinto exclaims excitedly. He really liked Blue's cookies, and he feels like he's starving again despite eating less than an hour earlier. Pinto has been given an incredibly strong gift of magic. His small body isn't able to store very much of it at once. He's much more prone to magic exhaustion that a normal monster, but lacks some of the symptoms due to his artificial body.
Tasked with something to do that actually makes sense, Blue wants no time making his way over to the fridge. Feeding Pinto more cookies is not an option. It's unhealthy to eat nothing but sweets. Blue pulls out a small container of strawberries. On his back over to the counter, he collects a plate and a small knife. Dream and Horror quietly watch. Soon enough, Blue has cut up a few strawberries and set them on the plate for Pinto.
"This is sweet and all, but there are some really big problems going on," Dream says, agitated as he directs his next words to Horror, "Why won't you answer any of our questions?" Dream finds himself struggling not to raise his voice as he battles with a growing sense of anger. The Guardian is usually quite levelheaded and not prone to anger. Dream isn't sure why he's feeling so angry. Ink's absence and lack of contact could be part of it. The Creator should be here when his treaty has suddenly fallen apart.
Horror adverts his eyes and doesn't answer. This frustrates Dream even more. He turns away with a huff and starts conversation back up with Blue, trying to understand what happened.
     Pinto has already devoured most of the cut up strawberries at this point. When he finishes the small pieces, he stands up and pulls himself into the container with the rest of the berries with the two nearby skeleton monsters none the wiser. They taste amazing. Pinto manages to eat two more while staining his face and hands. It's only then that Pinto notices Horror watching him. The large monster looks away as soon as he realizes that he's been caught staring. Pinto looks down thoughtfully at the next strawberry in his hands. He crawls back over to the lip of the container and drops the strawberry onto the he counter then flipping himself over the edge and landing on his stomach. Dream and Blue are still distracted.
     Picking the strawberry back up and holding it to his chest with one arm, Pinto cautiously looks down over the edge of the counter. The high drop makes him dizzy for a moment.  After eating, Pinto's magic has been recovery quite quickly. It easily warms his hands when he summons it. When Pinto crouches down and places his free hand at the edge of the counter top, it softens up like putty. The unstable material gives way beneath his feet. Pinot gasps in surprise but quickly gets excited as he continues to sink. His bare feet continue to soften the ground. Pretty soon, there's a deep notch carved into the side of Blue's counter. Pinot rides the melting mess all the way to the floor and pulls himself out of the pasty pile with hardly a look back. Horror seems unnerved as the tiny bitty approaches him. Something the size of his hand just melted though layers of stone and wood and is still smiling.
"Want one?" Pinto asks innocently, holding up the strawberry. Horror stares down at the bitty. Hesitantly, he reaches forward but instead pinches the back of Pinto's shirt between two fingers and lifts him up. Pinto giggles a little as feet dangle. Horror quickly sits him down in his other hand and brings the bitty close to his face.
"........ So small," Horror mutters in his deep and guttural voice. He's never seen a bitty before and is very curious.
     "So now you're going to talk?" Dream asks harshly, finally taking notice, "All it took was scrap of food and now you're gonna spill all of Nightmare's secrets?"
    "Dream!" Blue gasps, taken aback by his friend's awful words. Horror lets out a growl. Accusations of his loyalty being so fickle is something that he won't tolerate.
     Pinto isn't smiling anymore. Another fight is going to break out if he doesn't do something. Something isn't right. He sets down the strawberry on Horror's hand. Pinot hen turns around, stares at Dream, and makes grabby-hands at him like a toddler.
     Dream's anger is displaced with confusion at the the strange sight. "You want me to..... pick you up?" The positive guardian steps closer. Horror growls at the approach, but both monsters are caught off guard when Pinto launches himself into the air. Dream gasps and manages to grab him.
"Why would you do that?" Dream asks, lifting the bitty up close to his face. He gets no answer before Pinto dives down Dream's shirt. The Guardian squeals in shock and surprise. Horror flinches and Blue just gapes.
It's not has bad as Horror's, but Dream has a few red threads invading his soul. Pinto grabs onto one as he drops. It breaks in his hands as he falls down the inside of Dream's shirt. Dream stumbles back and only stays upright because Blue catches him by the arms. Pinto's magic disintegrates the red thread. He falls right out of the bottom of Dream's shirt and would have hit the ground if Horror didn't lunge forward and snatch Pinto out of the air.
     Dream is left stunned as all the oppressive anger that's been clouding his mind vanishes in an instant. He manages to speak up after a few moments "...... What just happened?"