An Error's Journey
Chapter 54
Previous - First - Next
“Error…? Ru?” He was gently shaken awake, and he grumbled, turning over, chasing the bliss of dreamless sleep. His eyes felt as heavy as his broken soul, his body weighed down by everything around him. Was it too much to ask for a little more sleep?
He couldn’t even recognize the voice calling for him, the concerned attempts to wake him futile as he fell back asleep.
Before him stood a glitching shadowy figure, someone seeming to look at him with swirling colorful eyes before walking away. The two of them walked across the antivoid, Error running to catch up but never managing to. The shadow stayed forever ahead, and soon he understood that when it wanted him to, it would let him catch up. He slowed, and finally, the shadow did too.
He was allowed only a mere few yards within the other, and he could feel a mixed aura around the other, one that while gentle and stole his negativity-replacing it with a dull light positivity, it also dripped in pain and reeked with death. The shadow wouldn’t let him get much closer, and he never could see their face, their blue scarf covering any redeemable features.
The antivoid leaked and stretched into that of his realm, yet it wasn’t as it should’ve been. The large rock that held Error’s home was split into pieces, the tree torn in half, the lighthouse shattered, the lake frozen through and cracked like a glacier. The sky of space was black and the universe of stars was gone.
The shadow-their hands cold but souls thrumming a burning heat that grilled his back-leaned over his shoulder. He dared not look at their face.
“Wake up…” the ghostly voice called, dripping with the weight of multiverses and crushing him back into the waking world.
Nightmare’s concerned face greeted him, a calm aura drifting around them, stealing his negativity and calming the anxieties of being that close to such a criminally terrifying figure.
“...More memories?”
“No… no. I- just… bad dream. Very. bad dream.” He managed to choke out
“Error, you’re shaking.”
“I honestly didn’t notice.”
“Are you tired?”
“I’m awake, I’m fine.”
“I asked if you were tired.” Nightmare deadpanned, expression much more concerned.
“No- nope. Not tall- at all.” Error spoke, trying not to look Nightmare in his menacing eye. Nightmare grabbed his chin and looked Error in the eyes.
“Error. I’m worried about you. You need rest-and I’m more than willing to put a sleep spell on you and watch over your dreams myself. Even hop into them and protect you from whatever has shaken you this bad. I’ll go as far to grab Dream and bring him with me- …idiot still lets me in his realm.” Nightmare mumbled the last part, but nonetheless, Error caught onto it.
“Yer… you’re still uncorrupted.”
“And? I’m a master of all weapons, love. I will happily let him see me like this and kick his ass if he doesn’t want to help.”
Error didn’t have much more to say, too tired to fight. Nightmare sighed and pulled the two of them out of the realm. The world swirling before they landed on Nightmare’s bed. The curtains were drawn on the many windows but the day clearly peeking through. The room was vast and open, and everything he didn’t need right now. Nightmare was very quick to pick up on this, wrapping his body around Error and pulling the two of them to the closed-off haven under his weighted covers.
Nightmare whispered something, and his eyes fell closed, enchanted with sleep.
After that, it wasn’t Error refusing to leave, it was Nightmare not letting him leave.
Day after day, the figure he nicknamed “Bastard fucker” showed up in his dreams over and over again. It became not only the ripped remains of his realm but the undeniable lack thereof of his team’s realms. The dark night sky of Nightmare’s yet, but the castle was missing. Reaper’s blue countryside, but no country to be seen. The yellow of the doodle sphere, but no islands to be found. Also what he assumed to be Dream’s realm-the white expanse of nothing. Far too close to the antivoid for comfort. Was Core even orchestrating his dreams now?
Each dream he got closer to the bastard, although he still couldn’t tell who or even what he was. They were familiar yet distant. Cold hands equal to that of Death and Ink, yet warm like Dream and Nightmare. They stole away his negativity and left him with a foamy state of dull fake positivity, forcing him to witness the horrors of his dreams and not wake up until that fucker wanted him to. The shadow still wouldn’t let him see more than the scarf around their neck and their glitching eyes. He still held back from telling Nightmare anything.
After nearly a week, Nightmare decided to follow into his dreams, and unfortunately, the shadow was stronger. Error yanked away from the bliss of dreamless sleep and past any point Nightmare had control over. At least, when Nightmare was actively a part of Error’s dreams the shadow refused to show itself, pulling him away with a wisping weapon that Nightmare reported to be a heavily modified scythe.
Nightmare approached him after another restless night, Error had been making coffee in the kitchen again.
“Is there something you need to tell me?”
“...huh?”
“Dream’s, at least what I can tell your dreams-have a meaning. Typically it’s nonsense that our mind makes up from the day, but not you. Your dreams have always meant something… what have you been seeing?”
“Nim-” Who was Nim? Why did that name jump to his tongue? “Ni’mare, do we really have to do this?”
“Your dreams are telling you something Error, and I believe it’s something you need to get off your chest.”
“Didn’t you never tell anyone about your…” Error attempting to search for a good word, “...stuff?”
“Oh-Stars no. I went through years of therapy during and after my insanity to deal with that. Even now, after I’ve moved past that I visit my therapist every few months. Our work isn’t easy… you’re not only doing our work though. You’re also dealing with the errands you run off to do and the stress of these traumatic memories.”
Error looked away, “...Ru? …Please?”
It was rare to hear such an honest beg from Nightmare, and it clutched onto his soul and didn’t let go.
“I… I’ve been seeing a shadow… and they’ve been showing me my realm-but broken beyond repair… at least at first. Then they showed me your guys' realms. But- but… but they were empty. Just the sky and nothing else.”
“...They’ve been showing us dead.” Error’s skull snapped up, “When Gods do somehow die, our realm stays-but everything in it disappears… It's why some Gods use their realm as a safe. Keep precious and cursed forbidden objects alike.”
It was like a slap to the face, that shadow was trying to warn him. He knew it. “...are you sure there’s nothing else to tell me?”
He gently grabbed Nightmare’s hand and pulled him away, coffee ignored.
Away from the mansion and far away from the base, they sat down just before the forest began.
“Error…?” he let out a deep sigh, “I’ll wait for when you’re ready.”
It was a while of painful silence. Struggling to sort his thoughts and when to start.
“I… I nearly died… ages ago but…” He let in a shaky breath, and his soul blinked before him, covered in the glitches he put around it to protect it. Not even that though. To hide it. To never have to see the jagged scar of his splintered soul. He whisked away the glitches, and Nightmare’s eye widened. In fear or concern, Error didn’t know. “I was nearly free from the save screen… but my soul was still mortal then, I couldn’t visit Death’s realm at all. I died on the spot… guess you could say I owe a life debt to Life.”
Nightmare looked up at him, and he avoided eye contact. “I… I was depressed for a while… Mercy visiting helped, but I was still trapped. I learned to use DT like that fucking… that brat had done and attempted to leave. Life… Death… Mercy… even Magic saw me off. Core was there too… I opened a portal to an AU-and Core changed it to the antivoid. I passed out just as they gave me the name Error.”
“Ru… thank you for telling me.” Nightmare reached out to hug him, but decided against it, instead cupping Error’s soul and bringing it closer, nuzzling it softly and giving it a kiss before handing it back to Error. Nightmare laughed softly at the other’s blush. “So… you’re nearly full circle?”
“Ya- …yeah.”
“Alright… I’ll always be here for you, Error.”
“I know.” He smiled, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.
—--
After a lot of Nightmare’s pestering, he eventually made his way to Reaper’s realm, knocking on the large front doors.
“Ah, Soul. Been wondering when you’d show.”
“Um… yeah about that.”
“I already know.”
“What-? But I- I didn’t even-”
“I. Know. Soul.” Reaper repeated, and Error didn’t know what to say, hesitant silence on his part while Death waited patiently. “Stars, I already told you I know you, soul. I didn’t think it would take this long for you to realize- Come on, come in.” Death grabbed his hand gently, pulling him into the manor and closing the door, leading him away to a living room.
“I… what do you mean you know?”
“I know why you’ve been avoiding me, Gen-Ru, my soul.”
“Oh-oh…” Error laughed awkwardly, “Um… yeah.”
“We’ve all always known. Even more so when you told us you don’t remember anything before the antivoid-or at least, used to not remember.”
“Yeah…”
“I’m having tea with life in a bit… care to join?”
“That… that sounds great.”
He was pulled away again, gently, carefully, not forcefully-over to Life’s realm. Life greeted them with a great hug, pulling the two of them close. Error was paraded about, seeing Mercy again. Seeing Magic again. Telling the other Gods he knew about who he was, explaining what he and Reaper had been.
“Had been?” Reaper interjected, “I still call ya ‘Soul’ for a reason, Ru.”
“Wait what-”
“Oh stars, I kissed you on the cheek not even a month ago- I love how oblivious ya are, but really?”
“I… Yeah, that’s on me. That one is on me…”
“That one?!”
“Oh- I thought I was the one with amnesia? You don’t remember our first kiss? How ya forgot the promise I made ya?” Reaper blushed, his feathers puffing up adorably.
“Hey- it’s been centuries since our first kiss!”
“Uhuh, yep. Blame it on time.”