If you take suggestions for redesigns still, may we see redesigns for Demitale Papyrus and Demitale Undyne? It’ll be fun to see the sparring pair together and how much their designs have changed!
Ayy no worries I still do take suggestions, just had a bit of an artblock. I did not draw them sparring but have my new takes on Demitale Papyrus and Undyne:
DEMI!PAPYRUS
The old Demi!Papyrus used to kinda be this cinnamon roll that needed to be protected at all costs. I no longer like that idea. I feel it no longer matches this story and infantilizes the actual character.
Therefore I re-imagined him as part of the royal guard working under Sans and Undyne. He is the most strong willed monster in the underground, as he never falls to become a full Demon.
As a Royal Guard he is forced to do some gruesome things, but he will do anything in his power to avoid violent outcomes. He is keeping the people safe from the tyrant king, even if this is not always possible. In other words, if you get captured by a royal guard you better hope it is Papyrus.
His relationship with his brother is strained due to their situation, but Papyrus empathy allows him to remain patient.
DEMI!UNDYNE
Undynes story remains the same for the most part. She is still the Captain of the Royal Guard who once faced the tyrant king and was utterly defeated. The burn scar on her face a constant reminder of her failure.
Everyday she is waiting for the right moment to strike again, to fight back. But her hope for such a moment is fading and she is on thin ice when it comes to keeping her sanity. Weather or not the fire inside of her reignites depends on the little human.
Least this is the base idea for now :) Do with it whatever you want.
Finally posting all of these here again! Sorry guys, been procrastinating from all of the tagging I need to do for these XDD! Pushing through today to put the rest of MM, then RM and IIIYW! If you don't read on AO3 or Quotev, Reversed Multiverse is another sequel, and Imagine It, If You Will... is a South Park fic I've been working on!
Reality looked around quickly to get an idea of his surroundings after he teleported out of Sci's lab. There was no enemies around him, nor were there any civilians, so he could take a few moments to brace himself before jumping into a fight. When he'd left the lab, Sci and Geno were talking about Knife and Murder's weird... thing, and he'd figured that Red and Edge had things covered in that Undertale timeline, so he decided to get into the fighting for himself. He could sense a fight up ahead, and he approached it, summoning his purple blades from between his fingers just to be safe.
Once he reached the fight, he saw Abyss, fighting these monsters that looked to be a mix of a monster and some kind of demon, chains coming out of cuffs around their wrists and chokers around their necks. Their emotions shows that they didn't want to be doing this, but they had no choice, and they couldn't stop. While Reality felt sympathy and a bit of pity for them, he also knew that he needed to prioritize his allies and his brother's safety more than on whether or not these monsters were upset about this. Dream would of course be concerned with it, but Reality wasn't Dream, and Dream wasn't here, so Reality had his priorities straight.
Reality jumped into the fray, going back to back with Abyss, alternating between shields and blades, and it didn't take too long for the two of them to fight the monsters off. Once they all retreated, Reality turned to face Abyss, the blades coming out of his knuckles vanishing as him and Abyss fist-bumped. In all honesty, Reality had truly enjoyed reading with Abyss and learning more about the multiverse and it's inhabitants. He never really had anyone to read with, so having someone who shared his interests and was willing to read with him... it was incredible. Dream dressing up as an emo made that day even better, too; Reality didn't think he'd ever laughed that hard...
"thanks." Abyss thanked him, and Reality nodded.
"anytime. what's the deal with these guys?" Reality asked.
"best guess? demitale. never seen one of the monsters in person, but from what i've heard... this seems like it's them, and it's not good news." Abyss sighed, looking down, "it means nothing but problems for us."
"i sensed their emotions before. they didn't want to fight, but it seemed like they didn't have much of a choice, and the mutations... is it some kind of spell?" Reality asked, holding back his second and third questions of 'Could it spread to others? Could it spread to Dream?'
"yeah, it's something the asgore did and it infected his au. there's not much information on it, but i think it gave him control over all of them from those chains on them." Abyss grimaced.
"any ways of freeing them?" Reality questioned, "can it spread?"
"no, it can't spread outside of it's au," Abyss, informed, and Reality sighed in relief, "and i think enough hope and determination can break them free. how much, i don't know."
"it's still something to go off of. we just need to focus on knocking these guys out, and then finding shattered." Reality informed, and he tensed as he sensed a dark aura nearby.
Him and Abyss both looked around, the blades between Reality's fingers returning while Abyss's scarf morphed into turquoise wings, strands on DNA in the centers of them. The trees in the area started withering and dying, some dead branches snapping off and falling to the ground, and his jaw clenched as he recognized the aura. A jet of black zipped across the ground, only to form up into Shattered, who sharpened his tentacles behind himself, a smirk on his face.
"i was wondering when you'd show up, brother." Shattered hummed.
"you're not my brother." Reality glared, voice low in anger.
"hmm, maybe not, but calling you that pisses you off." Shattered chuckled, no doubt enjoying Reality's frustration, "we really can't be civilized about this?"
"that possibility went out the window a long time ago." Reality informed, "and no, there's no going back to that."
"i suppose not." Shattered sighed, "oh well, it won't matter once you're back safely in stone."
"that will never happen again." Reality hissed.
"never say never." Shattered smirked, and his theme started as his tentacles stabbed down into the ground, surging up under Reality's and Abyss's feet.
The two of them jumped up, Abyss using his newly-formed wings to fly in the air, sending bones and Gaster Blasters at Shattered in rapid succession. Shattered brought up a tentacle, which expanded into a shield, and the attacks that hit it were absorbed into it like an infinite void.
"abyss! attacking him won't do anything! only positivity can hurt him, just focus on dodging and keeping his attacks off my back!" Reality called out, and he started focusing on cutting down Shattered's tentacles, trying to get close enough to land some slashes on his main form.
He made a mental note to not hit Shattered's left eye socket, especially after the reaction he got last time, so instead he settled for stalling until Dream could arrive and help out. He knew Shattered was probably feeding on his negativity, and while Reality knew he could do the same, he didn't want to find out what would happen if he tried. That much concentrated, corrupted negativity... he didn't want to know what that could do to him. And he never intended on testing it out.
Reality couldn't fly like Abyss, so he had to alternate between running, jumping, and leaping forward in order to evade and attack, Abyss doing a good job at keeping most of the attacks from overwhelming him, with Reality picking up the ones Abyss missed. They overall made a very good team, and Reality could tell that that was pissing Shattered off to no end. That just made this even better, honestly. However, the momentary enjoyment didn't last, as Shattered eventually got the upper hand after Reality got in a few good- but useless -slashes across his chest.
Abyss kept attacking while Reality was pinned by tentacles, which was actually pissing Shattered off a decent amount, and Reality smirked at his irritation. Abyss summoned some Gaster Blasters, blasting them at the tentacles holding Reality down, which allowed him to free himself and get back into the fight. Reality hadn't figured out how to use positivity yet, so all him and Abyss could really do right now was stall Shattered, keep him from terrorizing anyone, and wait for Dream to show up. Reality hated how much Dream had to handle and do, but he was the only one capable of fighting Shattered and that thing.
At least Reality could try and help out as much as he could, like the others did, even though Reality wished he could help more. After a while of fighting, as Shattered sent a tentacle at Reality, a glowing yellow arrow shot through the air, shooting straight through it before it could hit him. Reality looked up at Dream, who was standing on a roof, another arrow summoned, and to Reality's slight disappointment, Dream was back in his regular clothes. Now, if Dream had shown up in those emo clothes, no one would've been able to be serious, there would barely be a fight, and their enemies would have blackmail.
"dream! just in time!" Reality grinned, and Dream smiled back with a nod, sending more arrows at Shattered, firing them after him as he dissolved into a puddle of goop and zipped around in attempts to dodge.
"are you two ok??" Dream asked as he teleported down, looking over the two of them, checking on them.
"yeah, we're alright." Reality reassured, "abyss says it's demitale terrorizing this au this time."
Dream muttered a few curses in Spanish, and he sighed, "that means they worked out some kind of deal. not good."
"not for you, maybe." Shattered smirked as he formed again, sending several tentacles at them from all directions.
Reality, Dream, and Abyss countered them, Abyss summoning eight Gaster Blasters and firing them at Shattered, creating a massive explosion and a brief blinding light. That was probably seen across the AU... . . . And it was a flare to the other Darks that there was a fight over here. Crap.
Sure enough, Cross showed up, attempting to stab Abyss through the back, but the glowing red knife passed harmlessly through him. Reality had barely even processed Cross being there before it had happened, and he was momentarily panicked before seeing that nothing had happened, the knife vanishing. Instead, Abyss summoned several bones with a turquoise DNA-shaped indent in the middle, a glow around it that was the same color. Cross yelped, getting launched back and through several trees. He pushed himself up, looking at Abyss with wide eye sockets, and Reality was smugly pleased that Cross got some karma for that move.
"how?...." Cross muttered, rubbing his skull as he pushed himself up, looking at Abyss in bewilderment.
"simple: i've got no code for you to alter." Abyss smirked, DNA-like tendrils expanding out from his back, sharpening at the tips, and the wings turned back into his scarf as he and Cross started fighting.
Shattered's theme was still prominent, Reality and Dream's mixing into it, and Reality saw Abyss chasing Cross further away from the fight, isolating him and allowing Reality and Dream to focus on Shattered. Someone else showed up, though: A Sans wearing a black hoodie with a gray hood, gray sleeves with two purple stripes on the upper arms, and there was a broken upside-down purple heart on his chest. Under the hoodie was a dark gray turtleneck, and he was also wearing black fingerless gloves and black pants with a white stripe down each side, a chain attached to the left side of the waistband, and he was wearing purple sneakers. He had black liquid dripping from his eye sockets, and his left eyelight was a dark orange rhombus while the right was a circle of the same color. He was giving off a dark aura, and Reality didn't like it one bit.
"who the hell is that?" Reality questioned after a moment, glaring at Shattered.
"ah, right. this, brother, is scoundrel, some of my newest help, and you haven't met him yet. i'd introduce you to him, but he's already well aware of who you are." Shattered smirked, "scoundrel, do me a favor and hold off my brother, i'll handle dream."
Scoundrel nodded, snapping his fingers and summoning black Gaster Blasters with dark orange eyelights and blasted them at Reality. The skeleton jumped back, summoning a purple shield to block the blasts, and he summoned two purple daggers in his hands, throwing them through the shield and at Scoundrel. Scoundrel dodged the knives, creating sharp bones, and Reality created multiple daggers to counter, the two sharp attacks meeting each other in explosions, and Reality teleported out of the shield in a plume of black and gold smoke. He reappeared up in the air, creating purple claws at the end of his fingers and slashing them down at Scoundrel, trying to grab him to swing him around like a ragdoll.
Scoundrel, annoyingly, dodged again, using blue magic to pull Reality the rest of the way down to the ground as he fell, slamming him into the dirt before sending bones up at him. Reality jumped up to avoid it, firing several knives at Scoundrel, causing him to lose concentration on his soul, allowing him to teleport behind him. Reality summoned the purple blades from between his fingers, slicing them at Scoundrel, only for him to whip around holding a thick fallen branch in his hands, Reality slicing straight through it instead. With an internal apology to the tree it was from, Reality kept attacking, Scoundrel discarding the branch by summoning a wooden baseball bat with barbed wire around the bat, and he swung it at Reality's skull. Reality created a shield, blocking the attack, and he slashed at Scoundrel through the shield.
Ink was looking over the fight between Shattered and Dream, Scoundrel and Reality, and Cross and Abyss. He wasn't expecting Abyss to get involved, but he really should've been. Abyss had a habit of helping others, and he should've anticipated Abyss getting involved. Ink crouched down a bit further, gripping onto the tree branch he was perched on, feeling the bark beneath his gloved hands, and he readied himself to intervene should Shattered order it. He'd been told to stay back until otherwise prompted to get involved, so he took to watching the scene, hidden by the tree he was using as a lookout. Ink heard motion next to him, and he looked over, seeing Hate manifest himself, looking out over the fight.
"hey." Ink greeted, glancing over at him before looking back at the fight.
"hey." Hate responded, and he settled down onto the branch, legs hanging over the edge, "you're not fighting?"
"boss told me not to unless he called for me." Ink replied, "what are you doing?"
"well, since bill blocked me from being sensed by dream and reality, and my involvement is supposed to be kept secret, i get my entertainment out of these things by watching the fights." Hate shrugged, "it's been nice seeing mare getting his tailbone kicked."
Ink paused, trying to think about what that would be like to feel that, "it probably is, considering you two are bitter exes. would a vacuum work on you?"
"i don't believe so. then again, i haven't used soap on him. i guess there's some lines neither of us cross." Hate said.
"i guess so." Ink hummed, watching Shattered block some of Dream's arrows, silence replacing the conversation for a few moments.
"it's odd." Hate muttered after a moment, and Ink looked back at him, seeing Hate's red eye sockets and eyelights evaluating him.
"what is? that nightmare hasn't used a vacuum on you?" Ink asked, tilting his skull a bit.
"pfft!" Hate was taken off guard, and he laughed a bit, "no, no. different conversation. it's odd how invisible you are. killer at least has something coming from him, but you... you have no soul, no emotions... you might as well not even exist."
The thought of not existing- or his existence being forgotten about, it always used to fill him with dread, followed by the need to be obnoxious or get as much attention as possible. Could he be annoying for it? Yes, but then at least people wouldn't forget about him if he annoyed them in a way no one else could, and he wasn't annoying all of the time. He didn't think. Is that why no one came for him down in Shattered's dungeons? Ink wasn't sure, but the dread and worry that used to exist was replaced by the same thing that replaced him: empty numbness.
"but i do." Ink shrugged, "so not much to think about."
"heh, even that didn't get a reaction. you really are dead inside now, aren't you?" Hate mused.
"i don't feel anything, no." Ink's mind went back to when Shattered let him feel emotions that game night, the fun he'd had.
They were emotions Shattered had generously granted him, and Ink needed to remember to thank him again for that later, just infrequent enough as to not annoy his boss. Shattered didn't like it when Ink annoyed him.
"huh. he really did turn you into his own personal mindless tool." Hate chuckled, and Ink rolled his eyelights, feigning being annoyed.
"i'm not his 'mindless personal tool'. are you just here to mess with me or something? i thought you liked watching the fights?" Ink asked, "you should get back to that."
"oh don't act annoyed, we both know you aren't. i just like poking at that empty shell of a mind of yours; it's entertaining! not as entertaining about shapeshifting into a bird while bill creates a bird, and we drop bird crap on the stars, but it's still entertaining. besides, i also came to tell you that error was looking for you and he might come here, and i don't want to get caught. error does not like me, not to mention how my involvement with you guys is supposed to be a secret." Hate informed, and Ink sighed.
"of course.." Ink mumbled.
'boss? should i go fight error? hate says he's here.' Ink questioned mentally.
'go ahead, just be careful. don't get captured, and if you're about to be knocked unconscious, give me a warning so i can keep you from being kidnapped.' Shattered permitted.
Ink stood up on the branch, jumping up a bit and dissolving into a swirl of paint, purposefully making the branch shake and almost send Hate flying off of it, and he went to another high point in the AU to look for the glitch. Error was never difficult to find, especially not for Ink, who knew everything to look for. Ink surveyed the area around him from his current perch; a spire on the castle at New Home, eye sockets narrowed as he looked around for any signs of him.
"looking for me?" Error asked from behind Ink, and he sighed quietly before turning to look at him, seeing him sitting on a swing made of blue strings.
"yes, actually. don't you have anything better to do? chocolate? undernovella? knitting?" Ink questioned, "all better than playing hero."
"i'm not 'playing hero'." Error rolled his eyelights, doing air-quotes at the last two words.
"you have stars next to your right eye socket, making you a 'star'. who is a hero." Ink deadpanned.
"oh that? that's just me gaslighting them!" Error lied.
"you're such a liar." Ink scoffed, rolling his eyelights.
"i lie less than you do. you lie to yourself constantly, squid. be it about dream, shattered, or something else." Error countered.
"i don't lie to myself." Ink told him, "especially about dream or my boss."
"sure you don't." Error rolled his eyelights.
"are we gonna fight or what?" Ink asked, trying to move this along.
"someone's impatient." Error smirked, summoning several of his Gaster Blasters and firing them at Ink, his glitchy theme starting.
Ink jumped up, doing a flip in the air as he avoided the blasts, grabbing Broomie and slashing it at Error, sending a wave of paint at Error, who brought up a wall of red bones to block it. Their ends glitched, and they became sharp, pointing at Ink before firing. Ink brought up a wall of paint, jumping up as Error shot bones up from under his feet, summoning several Gaster Blasters and firing them at Error. Error summoned his own and fired them, the two blasts meeting in the middle, creating a large amount of blinding smoke.
Ink could hear objects moving towards him, and he brought up Broomie to block several red bones shooting at him, and he spun around, blocking more as they shot at him, using his hearing to predict their directions. Ink brought up a paint bubble as they shot at him from all directions before teleporting out of it and behind Error, slashing Broomie at him. Error teleported out of the way, standing on a platform of red bones before firing more of them at Ink as he fell. Ink blocked them with Broomie, but a Gaster Blaster hit him from behind, sending him shooting up, several other Gaster Blasters forming and blasting at him while he was in the air.
Ink plummeted to the ground, hard, and he groaned a bit, feeling the pain in his bones, which were chipped and scorched. He pulled himself up, albeit shakily, and he looked down at himself, finding his clothes burnt, ripped, and tattered, and he grunted as he stood up. He put his hands on his lower back and pushed down with his fingers, wincing as he felt his back pop. That... had been a good attack, he'd give Error that. He looked around wearily, summoning Broomie into his hand again, looking for the glitch.
He could feel his wounds slowly mending, but he was still bleeding from various wounds, not that that would give Error much of an advantage. Ink wasn't limited by pain. Ink spun around as Error formed and fired another Gaster Blaster at him, and Ink used Broomie to make a shield to block it. Unfortunately for him, Error teleported behind him, and when Ink turned to slam Broomie into him, Error vanished and a Gaster Blaster had taken his place, blasting Ink into and through his own shield.
"stop doing that!" Ink snapped, making himself sound and look angry.
"you stop acting! and stop being a damn tool!" Error shot back as he teleported a bit away from him.
"i'm not!" Ink made himself hiss.
"you are! squid, i know you're not this stupid! you're an idiot, sure, but you're not this stupid! dream didn't abandon you, you know that! shattered is manipulating you like a puppet, and you're letting him!" Error spat.
"dream's using you to fight me because he didn't-" Ink started, but Error cut him off.
"no, he's not! he wanted help saving you, you imbecile!" Error snapped.
"i don't need saving!" Ink responded.
"yeah, you do. you just don't realize it. you can't get it through your damn skull that shattered is controlling you, that he's manipulating and controlling you. you've been reduced to a pet, ink. an attack dog. you're nothing to him but a weapon." Error glared.
"shut up!" Ink lunged at him with Broomie, slashing it at him, and Error teleported out of the way, "you have no idea what you're talking about!"
"yeah, i do. y'know how? because i, as much as i hate it, i know you. ink, look at what he did to you." Error teleported back, and he gestured over at a store window that somehow hadn't broken, and Ink looked at it.
He saw himself, clothed in all dark gray with the amber accents along his shoulders and waist, the light gray tattered scarf darkened from soot and being burned, and his whole outfit was tattered, ripped, or scorched. He still had the black tentacles next to his eye socket, along with some bleeding cuts and scrapes from Error's attacks, and the empty, white eyelights were looking back at him.
"does that look like you to you?" Error questioned, and Ink looked back at him.
"it looks like who i am now." Ink replied.
"but that's not you. this is the complete opposite of you, and you can't even see it because you're so damn brainwashed. look, everyone has said it, not just me. why can't you just listen to us on this?" Error asked, "if not me, why not everyone else?"
"because you're enemies, and you can't be trusted." Ink informed him of the obvious, and Error sighed.
"you're an idiot, ink." Error sighed.
"you're one to talk." Ink countered, lunging at Error with Broomie again, but Error dodged, blue strings wrapping around Ink, and he found himself quickly being swung around the area before being thrown into a building.
Ink summoned several Gaster Blasters and fired them at Error, and Ink made himself smirk as he saw Error get hit. Ink pulled himself out of the wall a bit, having been laying half in and half out of the building, and he used his arms to push himself up, feeling some debris under his hands, some shards of glass stabbing him through his gloves. He grunted as Error teleported next to him and planted his foot against Ink's chest, slamming him back onto the floor with a quiet 'thump'. Ink started to push Ink off, only for him to be met with the paints of two of his vials being forced into his mouth and down his throat.
Ink froze, looking up at Error with wide eye sockets as his theme abruptly ended, seeing the glitch smirking, and Ink immediately knew which vials these were. He forced Error back, bringing his legs up and kicking him in the chest and out of the building, and he felt the emotions forming. He tried spitting the paints out, but he'd already swallowed too much, so the small bits of light blue and purple paints he was coughing up didn't alleviate the quickly forming emotions. His breathing quickened as he felt the pain from before escalate into an agony he hadn't felt since the dungeon.
Ink felt his eyelights turn light blue and purple, and he grabbed at his throat as it closed up, feeling like he couldn't breathe. His eyelights shot around, expecting to see the cobblestone floor and walls he'd come to associate this pain with, along with who he'd come to associate this pain with. His grip around his throat tightened, trying to stop the bleeding he'd had from Shattered's tentacle stabbing his neck, and that had to be the cause of his inability right now, right? Ink had ingested his vials, and now Shattered was torturing him again. Ink had disobeyed, and now he was getting punished again, and he was going to keep getting tortured again for his disobedience. He was-
Ink screamed as he felt contact on his wrists, opening his eye sockets as he instinctively kicked at the source- when had he closed his eye sockets? -and he saw Error crouched there, hands covered by his sleeves and looking at him in surprise. Ink was pressed against the wall now, his back against it, and he could still feel the slick wetness of his blood under his hands, the wound making it impossible for him to breathe, and Error was saying something, but Ink couldn't comprehend it. He could see that he wasn't in the dungeon, though, that Shattered wasn't there, but he must have been, right? He had to be, because this pain was from nothing else, his throat must have been stabbed again, and Shattered was... was.... where was he?!
"ink, my god, calm down!" Error snapped loud enough for Ink to hear him over his own panic, "you're gonna claw your skull off at the neck if you keep that up!"
What?...
Ink felt around on his neck, not feeling a stab mark there, just... scratch marks. Scratch marks from his own fingers clawing at his throat trying to breathe... he'd been hyperventilating, that was why he couldn't breathe... Error moved a bit closer, and Ink whimpered, curling up against the wall with his arms raised over his skull defensively, trying to protect himself, and his bones rattled as he trembled uncontrollably.
"maybe giving you those specific ones wasn't my best idea, but i figured those would be the only ones that could get through your damn skull..." Error mumbled, and Ink curled in on himself a bit more as he heard Error approaching, and he yelped as Error put a covered hand on his shoulder, "hey, idiot. it's fine. i'm not gonna hurt you."
Ink shook his skull no, burying his face in his knees as he trembled, tears pouring from his eye sockets, every single wound he'd received from his fight with Error causing him agony. A choked sob left his mouth, and he wasn't sad, he was just that scared, that terrified that he was about to be tortured again because he'd disobeyed a direct order from Shattered. Shattered had told him to never drink the vials again because he didn't need them, and now he's swallowed the paint and now he was going to get hurt. He was going to get punished for it and it was going to hurt hurt hurt hurt hurt hurt hurt hurt hurt hurt hurt-
Ink lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Error tightly, and he heard him yelp this time, and Ink buried his face in Error's chest, clinging to him for dear life as he whispered frantically, the words pouring out without him even processing what he was saying, "please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please don't let him take me again. please, i'm begging you, please. i don't wanna get tortured again, please. please i'm gonna get hurt, i don't wanna get hurt again, please he's gonna be so mad, please error, i'm begging you, please..."
The words kept coming, Ink not even aware of most of them, and he felt arms around his back, which caused him to yelp and flinch before burying himself in Error's chest even further, tears streaming from his eye sockets unceasingly.
"damn, he really did mess you up..." Error muttered, and he sounded a bit uncomfortable, but Ink couldn't make himself move away from the one source of comfort he had right now, even if said source had beaten the crap out of him a few minutes ago, "look, ink, you're gonna be ok, alright?..."
Ink shook his skull no, "no i won't. he's gonna find me, he's gonna bring me back there, and i don't want to go back there, please, error, please... you can't stop him, no one can stop him. i can't, you can't, no one can, please..."
"how am i supposed to protect you if i can't stop him?" Error asked, and Ink gripped onto him tighter.
"i don't know... i don't know, i don't know, i don't know, i don't know, i don't know..." Ink whimpered, hiccupping a bit.
"saying you don't know doesn't help." Error sighed.
"sorry." Ink whispered.
"not something you need to apologize for, squid. the hell did that guy do to you?" Error questioned. Memories flashed through Ink's skull, and he whimpered, curling into Error tighter as a few more terrified sobs slipped out, and he immediately started to block out those memories. "ok, alright, i get it. it was bad.."
'oh ink, i expected better from you...' Shattered sighed in Ink's mind, and he screamed into Error's chest, clinging to him for dear life.
Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, no no no no no no no no no no no no no no...
"ink, what the hell?!" Error exclaimed.
'shattered- boss, please. please please, it wasn't my fault, i'm sorry, it-'
'enough.' Shattered cut him off, and in a split second, everything went black.
Error was sitting there in stunned silence as Ink suddenly went limp, looking at him with wide eye sockets. Error wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but it hadn't been this. He'd thought that by grabbing the light blue and purple vials from Ink's sash back at the Omega Timeline that he could use them to make Ink realize how idiot he's been, and it might have worked, but... he hadn't expected this. He's expected something to happen, but not that.
Not for Ink to have some massive panic attack/flashback, scratch at his own throat until it bled, and back himself into a corner crying. Not for Ink to lunge at him and hug him, trying to find some form of comfort or safety from the guy who hates him almost more than anyone in the multiverse. None of that even crossed Error's mind! Now as Error loosely held Ink's unconscious form, barely holding off a crash, he was trying to figure out how the hell Shattered messed him up this bad.
Error had seen Ink with those vials before, and that was nothing compared to this. That... Error knew Ink had been tortured, yes, but he wasn't expecting that reaction. He was tempted to push Ink away, but that would probably just make Ink easier to kidna- Error grunted as something wrapped around his waist and threw him back into a building across the street, and as he looked back at where Ink was after pushing himself up from the ground, he saw Shattered there, and in a swirl of black goop, he was gone with Ink. Damnit!
"oh come on!!!" Error shouted, glaring up at where Shattered had been, flipping the location off.
He made a mental note to not tell Dream about this, even though he probably already knew due to being an empath, and speaking of empaths... Error narrowed his eye sockets and clenched his jaw as Nightmare teleported a bit away from him, the strings in his eye sockets already itching impatiently.
"shattered's a real piece of work, you know that, right?" Error remarked.
"oh i'm aware. i've given him some... talks about his behavior, but he's almost as stubborn as you in regards to not listening." Nightmare responded, and Error scoffed, rolling his eyelights.
"sure you have." Error muttered, and he summoned and fired several Gaster Blasters at Nightmare, the goopy jerk's theme starting.
Nightmare raised his tentacles to block the blasts be expanding them into a shield before separating them again, sharpening their tips before stabbing them at Error. Error teleported away from them, using Gaster Blasters to destroy them before sending waves of sharp bones at him, and sure, the fight was futile, as neither could kill the other, but Error liked beating up Nightmare and vice versa. Besides, Error still wanted more pay-back from when he'd messed with his head. Nightmare made tentacles stab up from all over the ground, through the buildings, and they all converged at Error with no wiggle room.
Error opened a glitching white portal to an abandoned genocide timeline underneath himself, dropping through it, and he jumped out of the way as the tentacles followed him, stabbing down at the ground. Nightmare took form from the tendrils once the portal closed, sending more of the sharp appendages at Error, who blocked them with walls of red bones, firing Gaster Blasters at Nightmare past them. He then teleported out of the way as the tentacles went around and between the bones, trying to stab him. Error blocked them with more bones, teleporting from behind the wall, and he summoned and fired Gaster Blasters at Nightmare, using blue magic to keep him in place.
The blasts hit, causing a large amount of smoke, and Nightmare's tentacles shot out of it at Error. Error dodged them, narrowly avoiding getting grabbed/stabbed, and he went through another portal. Nightmare followed after him, the two now in another abandoned timeline, this one in a Judgement Hall with some purple liquid- blood, maybe, by one of the far walls, but Error wasn't concentrated on that. He dodged more tentacles are Nightmare followed him to the AU, Error using more Gaster Blasters to attack Nightmare, and he blasted a large hole in the windows.
Error leapt out of it, Nightmare shooting tentacles after him, the goop merging into a giant wave that descended towards him. Error made another portal midair, falling through it, and he was quick to teleport back as the wave of goop followed him through the portal. Error had gone to another abandoned timeline, this time in Snowdin, and he teleported up to the trees to dodge most of the floor. It all went up, though, making a giant goopy wall with a distorted version of Nightmare's face on it, and several massive tentacles shot at Error, some wrapping around the tree he was on and pulling it out of the ground, throwing it towards the river.
Error teleported away, landing on one of the rooftops in Snowdin and summoning massive Gaster Blasters, firing them at Nightmare. He hadn't used those since before the truce, and it was kinda nice to use them again. Nightmare absorbed the blasts, sending more tentacles at Error, making them thorny and sharp around all sides, and he tried grabbing Error, which he narrowly evaded. Error went to another AU, then another, and another, and another, each time having Nightmare chase him, and they eventually wound up in the Antivoid, Error firing Gaster Blasters and bones at Nightmare, while he tried stabbing him with tentacles.
Error glanced over and saw PJ watching with wide eye sockets, and he sighed. Damnit, he probably shouldn't let that anomaly get hurt. Error went through another portal, Nightmare following him, and Error greeted him with several Gaster Blasters. Nightmare responded with several more tentacles, some coming from his main form, others coming from the ground, and Error got ready to block them, but a black paint shield formed around him, PJ teleporting to stand next to him.
"what are you doing?! i teleported here to prevent you from being around the fight!" Error snapped.
"hey! i can help!" PJ fired back, "i've seen you and nightmare go at it in my multiverse, and it gets ugly."
"he is ugly!" Error said, pointing at Nightmare as the shield and bones vanished.
". . . who the hell is that?" Nightmare questioned, looking between them.
"nightmare, pj. pj, nightmare." Error briefly introduced before blasting Nightmare in the face, earning a snicker from PJ.
The fight continued for a while, Error focusing on attacking while PJ made shields and blocked attacks, and Error got an idea. He spread his strings through the dead AU, descending them from the rock walls that made up the 'sky' of Undergrounds, and countless Gaster Blasters formed throughout the whole Underground, each one the size of The Core, and they fired up, ready to blast down and annihilate the code of this timeline, but he paused. Damnit, he couldn't do this. He snapped his fingers, getting rid of the attacks before going back to firing at Nightmare. His skull whipped to PJ as he felt him tug on his sleeve, tugging his arm out of their hand.
"what the hell? why didn't you do it?" PJ questioned as they brought up another shield around them.
"truce with ink, i can't." Error sighed.
"is it for you not to destroy any aus, or just in general?" PJ asked.
"just me. why-?" Error was cut off as the black paint shield shot up to the top of the Underground, expanding rapidly across the timeline, and it started quickly closing in on them, leaving a void of black behind it.
"come on!" PJ yelled, and Error teleported them both out in a glitching white portal, taking them back to the timeline under siege.
Error had never seen a timeline get destroyed like that, and he was honestly kinda impressed. He looked over at PJ, who was looking off to the side, holding up their left hand, and Error blinked a bit before sighing, giving them a quick high-five. PJ froze, looking at him in surprise before smiling slightly, their left eyelight turning into a star shape.
"that never happened." Error informed him.
"awwwwwwe!" Error flinched as he heard Dream nearby, PJ's left eyelight becoming a circle, and Error turned and saw the skeleton watching, both of his eyelights yellow stars.
Reality was next to Dream, smiling a little as he watched them both, and Error rolled his eyelights, sighing.
"shut up, emo." Error grumbled, but then the ground shook.
Nightmare emerged from a black pool on the ground, his form shooting up and becoming monstrous. Reality summoned the blades from between his fingers, and Dream summoned his bow and arrow.
"i think we pissed him off." PJ mentioned.
"language." Error teased, and PJ huffed.
"you're one to talk!" PJ glared.
"at least we know where they got it from." Reality snickered.
"we've got nightmare, guys." Dream informed, "shattered disappeared earlier and we haven't been able to find him. he's not here anymore."
"uh... heh... about that..." Error trailed off, looking off to the side, and Dream looked back at him, confused.
"what happened?" Dream asked.
"i'll tell you later." Error responded, and Dream sighed.
"ok, fine..." Dream accepted.
"who the hell is that?" Nightmare questioned once there was a break in conversation, looking at PJ, and Error sighed.
"none of your business!" Error responded.
"I wanna know, too!" Bill piped up as he appeared next to Nightmare, floating a bit above the ground, and Error clenched his teeth in annoyance.
"i thought you were at the other timeline?" Nightmare asked him.
"I was, but something happened- No one's hurt! Don't give me that look!" Bill responded as Nightmare started giving Bill a scolding expression, "But anyways, yeah, that one's over, so if you wanted to wrap everything up here?"
Nightmare nodded, and he sent several sharpened tentacles at Dream and Reality while Bill summoned several bones and fired them at Error and PJ. The two groups, PJ bringing up a wall of paint to block the attacks while Error summoned several Gaster Blasters, firing them at Bill. Error hadn't fought Bill in a long time, so this would be interesting. He also never really had help during a fight before recently, so that was another change.
Once they'd split off to fight in separate areas, Error's and Bill's themes were the main ones playing, mixing into a glitchy mess, and neither of them held back. PJ handled blocking Bill's attacks while Error handled attacking Bill, and like with Nightmare, it wasn't a horrible system. That is, until Bill started pulling out his stupid reality altering attacks. Buildings rose up out of the ground, the road shaking under Error's and PJ's feet, and the two of them had to teleport out of the way as Bill started slamming the buildings down at them.
Error managed to wrap his strings around one of them and swing it back at Bill, but he disintegrated it with a Gaster Blaster before it could get close. The pieces of debris from buildings rose up from the ground, wrapped in a blue glow, and they suddenly turned into spears. PJ quickly brought up a black paint shield, blocking the pieces as they rained down at them, and Error gritted his teeth even more from frustration. This was why he hated Bill, this right here.
That stupid anomaly could bend reality to his will; he could turn anything into something dangerous, and there was no way of preventing him from being able to do so. He could make something from nothing, basically, and while Error wasn't weak by any standards... he couldn't beat Bill. Error yelped as the ground suddenly gave out from under him like it was quicksand, and he sank down to his skull before it hardened again, leaving him unable to move. Bill teleported into the shield, looking down at him in a mix of a smug and demanding expression.
"The Rift, Error! Tell me where it is!" Bill snapped.
"no idea what you're talking about." Error responded innocently, and he winced as the ground tightened around him.
"Don't lie! Paint Splatter told me he threw it to you when Shattered got him, and I know you still have it! There's no way that you would just leave something that powerful just lying around! So, where is it?"
"up your coccyx." Error spat, "i'm never telling you where it is. not with what you would do with it."
"Baseless accusations!" Bill acted offended, and Error rolled his eyelights.
"cap." PJ responded.
". . . Ok, seriously, who are you?" Bill asked.
"the all knowing being doesn't know?" Error questioned with a smirk, antagonizing him.
"Shut it!" Bill snapped, and Error stabbed several glitching red bones into the ground around him, cracking the hardened ground and giving him enough room to teleport out.
Error summoned several Gaster Blasters next, blasting them at Bill while he freed PJ, and then he went back to attacking. This was gonna be a looooong fight...
Swap looked out over the Snowdin of this timeline, seeing that almost everyone had thankfully been evacuated by this point and now it was just a matter of fighting the Darks. He could hear explosions from somewhere else in the Underground, could feel the suffocating aura filling the world from Nightmare, along with from Shattered. Swap was still upset with Nightmare after what he'd caused to happen in his timeline- who he'd gotten hurt- killed. Swap didn't let it define his actions, though.
He refused to. He wasn't going to let himself be lowered down to them. He looked around and saw another Sans, and his odd appearance isn't what caught his attention, but his expression. Papyrus had been great at reading expressions, and he's taught Swap how to do the same, especially when it came to recognizing whether someone was a friend or foe. The Sans had horns on the top of his skull, a crack straight down on his forehead, and his eyelights were bright yellow.
He was wearing a black sleeveless vest with a fluffy black hood, and there was dark purple armor over his left shoulder and forearm. His arms past his elbows were wrapped in gray tape, and his hands had black fingerless gloves. His waist had dark purple armor over it as well, spiky and sharp like the armor on his left arm, and he was wearing boots in the same style, black pants below them. He also had a black choker around his neck, a few glowing dark blue chain links coming down from it before they turned invisible.
His expression, though... he didn't want to be doing this, Swap could see it. He could see as he checked houses, looking worried before entering and relieved when he exited when no one was there. He was certainly willing to do things he felt he had to, but he didn't want to do them... So maybe, just maybe... . . . Swap decided to approach him, teleporting down, and he was immediately met with a horned, yellow-eyelighted Gaster Blaster, charging up with a bright yellow light.
"WOAH, WOAH, WOAH! TAKE IT EASY! I'M NOT HERE TO FIGHT!" Swap told him, holding his hands up, "JUST- IF YOU WANT TO FIGHT, WE CAN DO THAT, BUT I WOULD ALSO PREFER WE TALKED FIRST?"
"i don't have that option, kid." The Sans responded, and the light grew brighter, and Swap teleported out of the way as it fired.
"I'M NOT A KID! LOOK, I KNOW YOU DON'T THINK THAT, BUT I THINK YOU DO!" Swap said, summoning a shield of bones to block some incoming ones from the Sans.
"you don't know anything. i don't have a choice." The Sans said, looking at him with a look that screamed 'please don't make this harder for me than it already is'.
"WHY NOT? IS IT THAT CHAIN THING? IT SEEMS MAGIC." Swap guessed, and the Sans looked off to the side before nodding a bit, "WELL THEN LET'S BREAK IT!"
"it can't be broken. look, it's magic. nothing can break it, nothing. if it could be broken, i would've broken it by now, but i can't." The Sans sighed.
"MAYBE WITH THAT ATTITUDE IT CAN'T BE!" Swap replied, and he had to duck as another yellow blast from a Gaster Blaster shot over his skull, "OK, OK, SORRY! I MEAN IT, THOUGH. DETERMINATION AND MOTIVATION CAN BE A POWERFUL THING! IT CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING, BE IT BENDING TIME, REMEMBERING SOMETHING FROM ANOTHER TIMELINE, OR BREAKING SOME STUPID CHAINS! IF YOU BECOME DETERMINED ENOUGH, YOU CAN BREAK FREE! I BELIEVE IN YOU!"
"please, stop." The Sans pleaded, and he sent a large swarm of bones at Swap, and he summoned a barrier of bones around himself to counter it.
"WHY SHOULD I STOP? BECAUSE YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN YOURSELF?" Swap asked, "LISTEN, I CAN SEE THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THIS, AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO! JUST-!"
"stop talking!" The Sans snapped as he used blue magic on his soul, and Swap made a large barrier of bones over himself as several Gaster Blasters formed around him, all blasting down at once.
The explosion shook the shield Swap had created, and he squeezed his eye sockets shut, hearing the bones he'd summoned cracking from the power of the Gaster Blasters. He let the bones vanish, and he saw someone in front of him- it was a Papyrus, a sight that send a twinge of sadness through his soul. He had small horns on his skull, wore a red scarf, and he mainly wore dark purple armor with gray tape wrapped around his arms and legs where the armor didn't cover. The Sans didn't look happy to see him, but he certainly didn't look angry. He looked scared.
"paps-" The Sans started.
"NO, SANS." The Papyrus cut him off, "LISTEN TO HIM, HE'S RIGHT. YOU CAN DO THIS. I... I KNOW HOW MUCH YOU HATE THIS, BROTHER."
"we don't have any choices. papyrus, listen to me, you know what the king'll do to us- to you. we can't just magically break free!" The Sans responded.
"I NEVER SAID THAT YOU COULD. I NEVER SAID IT WAS AN 'EVERYTHING WOULD BE OK' SCENARIO, BECAUSE IT WON'T BE. YOU'VE STILL HURT PEOPLE, BUT YOU DON'T WANT TO. I CAN SEE THAT. SO CAN YOUR BROTHER. ALL I'M SAYING IS THAT YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND LET YOURSELF TRY."
"look, if i try and fail, do you realize what asgore could do? he is evil in my au. he could make me hurt- make me kill my brother as punishment. you have no idea what it's like to-" The Sans started, but Swap cut him off.
"YES, I DO. THE HOODIE AROUND MY WAIST? IT BELONGED TO MY BROTHER." Swap sighed, and he didn't want to talk about this, but this was necessary, "HE DIED A BIT AGO DURING ONE OF THESE SIEGES, THIS ONE ON MY WORLD."
". . . sorry for your loss." The Sans mumbled, "but that still-"
"I TOLD EVERYONE ELSE THAT HE DIED IN MY ARMS AFTER HE TRIED SAVING THE HUMAN OF OUR WORLD FROM ONE OF THE MONSTERS, BUT THAT WASN'T ALL THAT HAPPENED. THAT ISN'T WHY SEEING A PAPYRUS HURTS SO MUCH. . . . IN MY WORLD, I REMEMBERED THE RESETS. ALL OF THEM.
"I REMEMBERED WHEN THE HUMAN WAS CONTROLLED BY SOMEONE ELSE, FORCED TO HARM OTHERS REPEATEDLY, OVER AND OVER. I REMEMBER WHEN MY BROTHER REMEMBERED THEM TOO, AND HE TRIED TO STOP THEM THROUGH KILLING. I REMEMBER ACCIDENTALLY KILLING HIM TO DEFEND MYSELF, AND THEN THAT'S WHEN ALL THE MEMORIES CAME FLOODING BACK." Swap took a deep, shaky breath, "HE WASN'T KILLED BY THOSE CREATURES, NOT COMPLETELY. AFTER I FOUGHT THEM OFF, I HELD HIM IN MY ARMS, AND HE HAD A FRACTION OF HP, AND WAS IN SO MUCH PAIN, AND HE WOULD DIE IN AGONY, SO I... I..."
"you killed him." The Sans realized, eye sockets wide, and Swap nodded a little as he looked off to the side.
"I WAS TRYING TO BE MERCIFUL ABOUT IT. I KNEW HOW TO END IT QUICKLY. AFTER THAT TIMELINE, THE HUMAN.... THEY STOPPED. THEY RESET. PAPYRUS DIDN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING, AND EVERYTHING WAS PEACEFUL, BUT I STILL REMEMBERED. IT WAS BECAUSE I'D GAINED THE DETERMINATION MY BROTHER HAD HAD, AND THAT ENDURED THROUGH EVERYTHING, SO WHEN I SAY THAT IF YOU ALLOW YOURSELF TO BECOME DETERMINED, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN, IT'S TRUE."
". . . you had a happy ending. after all the pain, you had it, and you lost it. how are you still going? you had everything i ever wanted for me and my brother, if only for a moment, and you lost it. it was ripped away from you. how are you still going?" The Sans asked.
"LIKE I SAID, DETERMINATION IS A POWERFUL THING. I WANT TO AVENGE MY BROTHER AND WHAT HE LOST, BUT NOT BY GETTING REVENGE FOR HIM, THAT NEVER ENDS WELL. I JUST WANT TO STOP ANYONE ELSE FROM LOSING THEIR BROTHERS, AND KICK NIGHTMARE'S GOOPY TAILBONE IN THE PROCESS!" Swap responded.
"HE'S RIGHT, BROTHER. WE NEED TO STAND UP AGAINST KING ASGORE, AND I BELIEVE IN YOUR ABILITY TO BREAK FREE! HAVE FAITH IN YOURSELF, BROTHER! JUST LIKE YOU'VE ALWAYS BELIEVED IN ME." The Papyrus pulled his scarf down, revealing an absence of a collar and chains, and the Sans's eye sockets widened.
"what... when did that happen?..." The Sans questioned, eyelights pinpricks.
"A BIT AGO. I DIDN'T WANT TO SAY ANYTHING JUST IN CASE, BUT I NEED YOU TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, SANS. JUST LIKE I DO, AND JUST LIKE THIS OTHER VERSION OF YOU- SORRY, WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" The Papyrus looked back at him, and Swap noticed one of his teeth was chipped.
"I'VE BEEN GOING BY SWAP." Swap informed, and the Papyrus nodded.
"JUST LIKE SWAP HERE! COME ON, SANS! I BELIEVE YOU'VE DONE YOUR JOB FOR LONG ENOUGH. LET'S GO RAISE SOME HELL AND DO WHAT WE WANT FOR ONCE!" The Papyrus encouraged.
The Sans looked down at his neck, raising a hand to the chains, and he narrowed his eye sockets, tightening his grip around them before he broke through them, the chains snapping and sparking before sizzling out of existence, and he ripped the choker around his neck off, "let's do it."
Swap grinned, and he teleported over to him, giving him a high five, "YOU DID IT!"
"yeah, i guess i did.... . . . thanks." The Sans mumbled.
"YOU'RE WELCOME!" Swap responded.
". . . if my brother were in that much pain, i would've done the same thing. i'm... not exactly happy with what you did, but we've all done some messed up crap, and i know you had your reasons just like me." The Sans told him.
"I KNOW. I DON'T ENJOY HARMING ANYONE," Except for briefly during that timeline when he'd gone a bit.... insane, "I PREFER TO DEFEAT EVIL VALIANTLY- WITHOUT KILLING!"
"AS DO I! I PREFER TO NOT HARM ANYONE EITHER, AND NOW MY BROTHER DOESN'T HAVE TO! THANK YOU FOR BELIEVING IN HIM, SWAP. HE NEEDED IT!" The Papyrus thanked him, "NOW WE JUST NEED TO SAVE UNDYNE!"
The Sans nodded, and Swap said, "AND I'LL HELP YOU- SORRY, UM, DO YOU HAVE ANY NICKNAME IDEAS? SO I KNOW WHAT TO CALL YOU?"
"hmm... what about rebel?" The Sans suggested, "i mean, it's gonna be damn nice doing what i want to now."
"AND I SHALL BE RENEGADE! REBEL AND RENEGADE, THE REBELIOUS DUO OF SKELETONS, FIGHTING A TYRANICAL MANIAC THAT I CAN NOW OPENLY CALL HIM!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!" Renegade grinned, and Rebel smiled a bit, cracking a smile.
"heh, yeah. has a good ring to it, bro." Rebel smirked, "oh, and swap? you don't have lv problems, do you?"
"NO!!" Swap exclaimed, honest, "BELIEVE ME, LV IS SOMETHING I ACTIVELY AVOID! I ASSURE YOU, LIKE I SAID BEFORE, I HAVE ZERO INTEREST IN KILLING!"
Rebel observed his face for a moment before nodding, "alright. let's go then."
"NOT SO FAST!" Swap's skull shot up as he heard another version of himself yell, and he looked up, seeing who he guessed was Violet, looking down at them with another, taller version of himself who was in all red and black armor, and there was a Papyrus with him in black and yellow casual clothes.
"DAMNIT." Swap muttered.
Violet jumped down, summoning a glowing purple scythe, and he grinned at him, "I DON'T BELIEVE THIS LITTLE TREACHARY OF THEIRS WILL GO UNPUNISHED. I HOPE YOU'RE READY TO DEAL WITH THE PAIN OF KNOWING YOU GOT THEM HURT!"
"OH THEY WON'T BE GETTING HURT." Swap responded, "YOU WILL BE."
"OH REALLY? HOW? YOU'RE JUST AN UNDERSWA-" Violet was cut off as a purple sword materialized in Swap's hand for the first time in a long while, and he let his left eyelight turn cyan and yellow with a ring of red around it, "OH CRUD."
"YUP. HEY REBEL? RENEGADE? WANNA BE IN YOUR FIRST FIGHT AS HEROES?" Swap asked, looking at the two of them.
"I LIKE THE SOUND OF THAT! WE'LL BE SUPERHEROES!" Renegade grinned, "DON'T YOU LIKE IT, SANS?"
"sure do, bro." Rebel nodded, and he summoned his own black sword, "let's kick some coccyx."
Swap smiled a bit, and he leapt into action, Rebel and Renegade following behind him.
Anyone could be a good person, if they just tried. Swap was happy he'd gotten Rebel to try. It gave him more hope for himself.
TW! This chapters contains torture, gaslighting, manipulation, Shattered being a jerk, and Ink suffering. Not sure where to mark it, but it's like the first half of the chapter.
Shattered slammed Ink down onto the cobblestone floor of the dungeon cell, the currently terrified skeleton letting out a mix between a grunt and a yelp. The cell was still stained with black paint blood from the previous time Ink was here, and it looked like it was going to get a new coat. Shattered had thought he'd broken Ink enough to where if something like this were to happen, then Ink wouldn't have wanted to run away from him. He'd literally begged that glitch for protection from him, and that... well, that pissed Shattered off.
"i can't believe you, ink." Shattered sighed, "i can't believe you tried to betray me like that!!"
"n-no! it w-wasn't-!" Ink started, but Shattered cut him off.
"then what was it, ink?! you forget something, i'm in your head. every single thought you have, every emotion i decide to give you, belongs to ME. you were going to run." Shattered hissed, tentacles lashing behind him, "and i was attempting to be nice to you! i gave you emotions, ink! i didn't even punish you after you disobeyed me with the sleeping thing immediately afterwards!"
"i'm sorry!" Ink yelped, scooting himself into a corner, looking up at Shattered with those terrified light blue and purple eyelights, and Shattered feasted on his fear.
"are you? you know how i feel about treachery, ink! you have dealt with traitors yourself! you're lucky that glitch is the only one to witness that little incident back there, or things would've been much worse." Shattered snarled, stopping a step in front of Ink, watching and sensing his panic grew as he realized he had nowhere to go.
"no." Shattered told him simply, wrapping a tentacle around his ankle, standing up and flinging him across the cell and into one of the walls with enough force to crack the rocks.
Ink yelped, trying to pull himself up, but Shattered melted into the floor, zipping over before forming again, wrapping tentacles around his wrists and ankles and pinning them to the wall and floor respectively. Ink struggled, clearly terrified, and he tried freeing himself. Shattered sighed, making spikes form on the undersides of the tentacles, stabbing through Ink's bones, and he shrieked. Blood quickly oozed between Shattered's tentacles and Ink's bones, dripping onto the floor in streams, staining the rocks, and Shattered enjoyed the sight, it having been a while since he'd gotten to feed on so much terror like this.
"ink, stop trying to get away." Shattered hissed, and Ink froze, looking up at him while trembling, "trying to escape is pointless. i will always find you, no matter how far you run and no matter where you hide. do you understand?"
"y-yes...." Ink whispered quietly.
"yes what?" Shattered prompted.
"y-y-y-yes, b-boss..." Ink whimpered.
"good." Shattered praised, "now, if you ever do something like that again, i can promise you, there will be dire consequences."
"i-i un-underst-stand..." Ink responded, "c-can you pl-please stop st-stabbing me?"
Oh, how adorable. Ink actually believed Shattered was going to show him mercy... He wouldn't be receiving that until he was emotionless and obedient again. That skeleton was going to learn that being emotional would only cause him pain, and that lesson would last.
"why should i? you tried stabbing me in the back." Shattered spat, and Ink looked down, starting to cry, "oh ink, you were so much better when you were emotionless. do you know why?"
"b-because i w-w-was ob-obedient?..." Ink guessed, and Shattered chuckled a bit.
"that's a reason, yes. another reason is because i could trust you. you would never betray me, be it escaping pain that i was kind enough to not show you for a long while, or following orders." Shattered explained, "i am the only one you can count on, ink. the only one who won't abandon you because of who and what you are. you are an emotionless, soulless killer. you have tortured, you have killed, you have destroyed. who would take you back if you left my side?"
"dr-dream?" Ink asked, and he yelped as Shattered stabbed him in the shoulder, and he was clearly holding back from giving Shattered a further reaction as his black paint blood flooded out.
"ink, i thought i got it cemented in your skull already!! dream abandoned you!! he left you to deal with losing your friend alone!!! he doesn't care for you, ink! he never cared for who you were! you had to lie to him about who you were the whole time you knew him!" Shattered snapped, and Ink shrunk in on himself a bit, "and then he goes and replaces blue."
Ink looked down, trembling, and he whispered, "m-m-m-maybe th-there was m-more to i-it?....."
"don't make me strangle you again." Shattered said, and Ink's eye sockets widened before he went silent, "there is nothing more to it. he abandoned you, and then after a while he replaces your dead best friend. i wonder who he's replaced you with, ink."
"h-he w-" Ink yelped, but he was cut off as Shattered wrapped a tentacle around his throat, squeezing.
"he would. i know you're not this stupid, ink. otherwise i don't know what i'm wasting my time on." Shattered sighed, pinching the bridge of his nonexistent nasal cavity and loosening the tendril a bit, "he would. come on, you were right when you were emotionless! why do you cling to this unrealistic notion that he still cares about you?!"
"he- he w-was my fr-friend..." Ink whispered hoarsely.
"he was your friend." Shattered emphasized, "he's not anymore. no, he's replaced you with error, your enemy. someone he's bound to turn on as well. i'm nothing like dream, ink. i wouldn't abandon you like he did."
Shattered overheard a thought in Ink's head of 'that's why I tried running', and his eye socket narrowed, tentacles whipping behind him. Ink was going to regret that.
"oh ink, you should not have thought that." Shattered seethed, and he saw Ink truly terrified in that moment.
"n-no, please! it-it was a-an i-in-intrusive thought!" Ink begged.
"do not lie to me, ink!" Shattered snapped, and Ink squeezed his eye sockets shut, tears slipping through regardless, "i know you aren't that stupid! do not dare lie to me, because i assure you, lying to me will upset me much more than the truth! do you know why?"
"w-why?..." Ink asked.
"you might actually be that stupid when you aren't thinking clearly." Shattered sighed, "it's because lying is betraying me. being anything but honest, obedient, and loyal, is betraying me. and it hurts, ink, it does. you were the most loyal, perfect weapon for me, and now you're a pathetic, worthless mess. it's no wonder why dream abandoned you."
Ink trembled, crying even more despite trying not to, and he whispered, "i-i'm sorry, b-boss... pl-please..."
"you should be. you're immortal, ink, but today that is not a good thing for you. see, i can't kill you, but i can make you wish you were dead." Shattered smirked, "at least until you're emotionless again, and by then you'll have learned that trying to 'escape' me; the only one who actually gives a damn about you, is a horrible idea."
"i-i've l-le-learned, b-boss." Ink whimpered, looking back up at him again.
"oh, ink..." Shattered crooned as he crouched down, cupping his cheekbone in one of his hands, and he narrowed his eye socket before continuing lowly, "i wish i could believe that right now."
Ink yelped as Shattered let claws form at the end of his fingers, sinking into the side of his face and drawing more of his blood, which had already started to pool under him in a black puddle. Shattered pulled away, dragging his claws along the side of Ink's face as he did so, and Ink hiccupped, trying not to scream.
"i-i have!" Ink insisted, voice pained.
"no, you haven't." Shattered sighed, "not like this, ink. this is a problem. tell me why."
"b-because i-i'm not th-thinking cl-clearly?" Ink guessed, shaking.
"good! you aren't." Shattered praised, "not with those emotions. now, tell me what happened with error. why did you drink those vials, ink?"
"d-didn't you s-see-?" Ink started, but Shattered cut him off by stabbing a tentacle into the wall next to his skull.
"do not talk back to me. ever. now answer the question." Shattered ordered harshly.
"h-he forced me t-too... i tr-tried sp-sp-spitt-ting them ou-out..." Ink responded, bones rattling.
"then what?" Shattered prompted.
"i-i c-couldn't, a-and i re-remem-membered this..." Ink continued quietly, "i-i was sc-scared..."
"oh ink, you shouldn't have been scared." Shattered murmured gently, "if you had simply called out for me mentally, i would've come for you, and then we could've waited out those nasty vials. however, that didn't happen, did it?"
"n-no..." Ink mumbled.
"no, it didn't." Shattered shook his skull no, "now i have to put you through it all over again, because apparently i didn't get my point across the first time."
"n-no! y-you did!" Ink insisted, desperate.
"apparently not if you tried to betray me, ink!!!" Shattered snapped, and Ink curled in on himself further, "now i have to do this all over again! and why? because you can't listen! this emotional state of yours is nothing more than a weakness! a flaw! it makes me unable to count on you, and i hate that!"
"i'm sorry." Ink whispered.
"you will be." Shattered responded, tentacles twitching and sharpening behind himself.
"i-i already am!" Ink raised his voice a bit, pained and desperate.
"not enough." Shattered hissed, "all i can sense from you is pain and fear. you're only agreeing because of your emotions. without them, i can count on you to be honest. until then, i can't trust you."
"y-you can! boss, pl-please! i'm sorry! it- it was a mistake!" Ink pleaded.
"it was, and you'll be well aware of that later." Shattered told him, and Ink whimpered quietly, "i still can't believe this, ink. i don't know how you could do this to me."
"i can't be certain of that. there could come a time where i'm forced back to my multiverse, and you're left here, stuck with those emotions of yours." Shattered sighed, "but i wouldn't stay there. i would find my way back, you know. i always can, and should that happen, and should i find out that you told the stars about daybreak, tore down everything i worked towards... oh ink... this would be a mercy. do you know what i would do to you then?"
"t-torture me f-for e-eternity?...." Ink guessed, and Shattered chuckled.
"oh no, you would eventually grow used to the pain, which isn't worth it when i could just wait for your emotions to drain, and then i would have my favorite ally back by my side. then i could make you kill every single one of them." Shattered smirked, and Ink looked terrified, "but i won't do that yet. see, what i would do is i would ensure you didn't exist. i would completely blank out that sweet little skull of yours. every memory, every thought, and i would create someone else to take your place! then i would have you kill them. i don't want that, though- you're my favorite, after all! however, if it was necessary..."
"it w-wouldn't be!" Ink squeaked, "i pr-promise! i won't t-tell a-any of th-them! e-ever!"
"not even dream?" Shattered asked.
"n-no!" Ink insisted.
". . . oh alright." Shattered relented, messing around in Ink's mind a little to ensure he kept his word, whether he wanted to or not.
Ink breathed out a sigh of relief, and he asked, "w-will you s-stop t-torturing me n-now?"
"ha! no." Shattered declined, flinging Ink across the cell again, releasing him from the tentacles stabbing him in the process, the impact with the wall causing him to yelp, "you're still due punishment for betraying me before, ink. you're not getting off easily here. you deserve this after all, and i want you to truly learn never to turn on me again."
Ink looked up at him fearfully, but he didn't try backing away from him this time, frozen in place. Good, he was learning after all.
"now ink, tell me. what are you?" Shattered asked, starting their old routine again.
Ink trembled a bit, before answering quietly, "y-your weapon..."
"and?" Shattered prompted, sharpening a tentacle and hovering it over Ink's clawed-at throat.
Ink shuddered, and he whispered, "ev-everyone a-against you's en-enemy..."
Shattered nodded a little, and he questioned, "and above all else?"
"y-yours..." Ink looked down, and Shattered stabbed his throat.
He let out a choked out yelp, reaching at his throat and starting to try and push the tentacle away, but he stopped, likely realizing he could do nothing to stop this. Shattered withdrew the tentacle, wrapping another around his throat to heal it enough for him to talk before moving it away.
"don't look down like that after you answer. it makes you seem dishonest, and you won't lie to me again, will you?" Shattered asked.
"n-never..." Ink answered, looking up at him.
"good." Shattered smiled, "now, ink?"
"y-yes, b-boss?" Ink responded.
"always address me as that. no matter what. never call me by name again, be it towards me or someone else, unless they are unsure as to who i am." Shattered instructed, "every time you respond to me, i want you to say it."
"y-yes, b-boss..." Ink obeyed.
"do you know why, ink?" Shattered questioned.
"w-why?..." Ink asked, and he quickly added, fearful, "b-boss.."
Shattered stabbed a tentacle into Ink's hand for the near forgettance, and he yelped quietly. That should teach him not to forget.
"so they know who you belong to, of course! we wouldn't want them thinking you belong to yourself, would we?" Shattered smirked.
"n-no, boss.." Ink replied.
"good." Shattered praised, "because that's not the case, is it? it never will be again."
"n-no, boss." Ink agreed, clearly forcing himself to look up at Shattered, "i-it won't be..."
"good. what will you do the next time you see error?" Shattered questioned.
"at-attack him, boss?..." Ink guessed.
"you're just guessing?" Shattered frowned, and Ink tensed.
"i- i wasn't sure if that's wh-what you would w-wan-!" Ink started, but Shattered held up a tentacle, cutting him off with a fearful gasp.
"of course i want you to attack him! he's the reason this is happening! you would've never betrayed me if he hadn't made you drink those wretched vials, and everything would be ok! i don't want to hurt you, but i have to make sure you know how much that upset me!" Shattered told him, putting his hands on his shoulders, "he is to blame for your suffering. this is his fault ink. so, again, what will you do the next time you see error?"
"attack h-him, boss." Ink answered.
"that's right." Shattered smirked, "make him hurt as much as he's caused you to be."
"o-ok, b-boss..." Ink nodded a little.
"and what will you do if encounter those vials again?" Shattered asked.
"d-don't l-let anyone m-make me dr-drink them, b-boss?" Ink responded.
"close, close. you will either destroy them, or you will bring them to me." Shattered instructed.
"un-understood, b-boss..." Ink nodded, and he looked down.
Shattered stabbed a tentacle through Ink's chest, causing him to scream as his bones were broken, "what did i say about looking down, ink? it makes you look reluctant. you shouldn't be reluctant."
Shattered sighed, "how much damn longer will it take for those emotions to wear off? they're getting on my nerves."
As much as it was nice to feed on Ink's fear and pain, Ink was more useful as an unfeeling weapon than a source of negativity, and Shattered was tired of Ink not being what he wanted him to be.
"i-i don't know..." Ink admitted quietly, and upon seeing the look from Shattered and another sharpened tendril, he added, panicked, "boss!"
"then let's find out." Shattered smirked, and Ink shivered.
A few hours passed before his eyelights were white again, empty of all emotions, and by that time he was covered in various stab marks, slashes, cuts, broken bones, and he looked utterly defeated, exactly what Shattered wanted.
"they're gone, boss." Ink informed, looking up at him, and Shattered smiled.
"good. come here." Shattered instructed as he sat on the stained floor across the room, and Ink stumbled over, collapsing at his feet with a pained grunt and a complete snapping of his severely fractured leg.
He pulled himself the rest of the way over, fingers digging into the cobblestone floor, and he fully collapsed next to Shattered, panting slightly. Shattered chuckled a bit, lifting him up easily and laying him across his lap, wrapping tentacles around his wounds and starting to heal him. Ink was clearly agonized regardless, but now his sensation of pain was numbed, just like everything else. While Shattered was healing him, he sank more magic into Ink's mind, reinforcing his control over his thoughts.
"better?" Shattered asked him with a smirk.
"yes, boss." Ink answered, relaxing there as his wounds were mended.
"good. never get near those vials again. ok? otherwise i won't be so kind. if you so much as see them, return to my side immediately." Shattered told him, and Ink nodded.
"of course, boss. it'll never happen again..." Ink said, "i'll make sure error regrets what he did. just like you wanted."
"don't you want that too?" Shattered questioned.
"i want what you want, right, boss?" Ink replied, looking for approval, and Shattered smirked.
"yes, you do." Shattered nodded, "torture him for me, will you? i want him to hurt, and you know how to accomplish that, right?"
"of course, boss. how could i forget?" Ink responded, and Shattered chuckled.
"you can't, and won't." Shattered smiled, and he finished healing Ink, releasing him from his tentacles, but Ink stayed laying there.
"my loyalty is yours. i can't believe i was so foolish, boss." Ink sighed, and Shattered grinned.
There was his weapon...
"you know how you get with emotions, ink. it's why you're better off without them. we just had to wait for them to wear off, and i had to ensure that if that problem returned, the same mistake wouldn't happen." Shattered told him, and Ink nodded.
"i understand, boss. i was pathetic, anyways. you were right." Ink said, and Shattered smirked, "i don't know why i would ever want to run away from you. i was an idiotic, pathetic mess..."
"you were, but you're all better now; good as new. now, i have some business to attend to with daybreak. in the mean time, go eat something, you're going to need the energy to stay awake until i return. and clean yourself up." Shattered instructed, and Ink nodded, pushing himself to stand up. He turned and looked at Shattered, and he saw the claw marks on his face had scarred, having healed on their own before Shattered could get to them, "and paint over those."
Ink reached up and felt the scars, and he nodded, paint forming around his body and fixing his outfit, the scars covered up with a blotch of black paint. He started heading to the door, stepping in his own blood, and Shattered reached past him with a tentacle and unlocked it. With a nod back at Shattered, Ink left the cell and started walking down the hallway, past a sleeping occupant of the dungeon who would remain asleep until Shattered needed him and decided to show off what he'd been doing in Predatortale. Shattered stood up and brushed himself off, and he teleported himself out of the cell and to another AU. It was time to start upping Daybreak's production, after all.
Murder wasn't happy to be excluded from helping to fight off the sieges, honestly. He was worried about Dream and the others, and he wanted to help, and he couldn't do that from Story's house. Unfortunately for him, Dream still wanted him to take some time off after the LV thing, and even though he felt fine, Dream wasn't convinced. Knife wasn't happy to be left out either, but not for the reason Murder was. See, Knife got bored very easily, and when that happened, it was in everyone's best interests to find something for him to do to prevent someone from getting hurt, angry, killed, or something getting blown up. Sometimes all of the above happened at once. Knife was pacing on the other side of the room, and sighed for the eighth time in a minute, loud and dramatic, causing Murder to sigh.
"knife, oh my god, just find something not destructive to do and quit acting like a bored child!" Murder snapped from where he was reclining on the couch.
"you?" Knife responded to that, and Murder's cheekbones went blue as he flipped him off.
"we're not messing with anyone right now, cut it out." Murder scolded, and Knife snickered, teleporting over to him and crouching on one of the arms of the couch, old and holey shoes getting some dirt on the green fabric, "knife, get your feet off the damn couch. you know starry hates when you get the couch all dirty."
"fine..." Knife sighed, and he flopped down horizontally across Murder, causing him to go 'oof!'
"knife!" Murder hissed, and Knife chuckled.
"hey, my feet are off the couch." Knife smirked, and Murder rolled his eyelights.
He looked back at Knife's feet, seeing the holes in the soles and how worn down and tattered they were, and the tied laces were decorative. They also stank. Horribly. Worse than a skunk that drank fart spray and ate a ton of chilis.
"how the hell long have you had those shoes?" Murder questioned, poking Knife's sock through one of the holes in the shoe.
"uh.... since i left my timeline?" Knife guessed, and he yelped as Murder picked him up before he started walking to the front door, "hey! where are we going?!"
"we're going to get you new shoes." Murder informed, "you're not fighting in those."
"they're fine!" Knife insisted, and Murder scoffed, teleporting near a mall before putting Knife down.
"they're not. you like new things so much, and yet you refuse to get new shoes." Murder responded, and Knife chuckled.
"i just like these." Knife shrugged.
"and there's probably another one just like it that doesn't look like it survived a nuclear blast." Murder told him.
"you kidding? these are more invulnerable than a twinkie!" Knife replied, and Murder rolled his eyelights again.
"well i'm sure another pair are too. let's go." Murder didn't leave him any room for arguing, grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the doors.
Knife didn't help at all, keeping his feet straight down, making Murder literally drag him to the door. Once they got inside, that didn't change, just the tiles squeaked under Knife's feet, that is until he saw Spencer's, and then Murder was the one getting dragged there.
"knife, no!" Murder snapped.
"oh come on!" Knife pouted, and he smirked, "they might have some stuff there for us~"
". . . i will punch you." Murder stated, and Knife snickered.
"we go in there, there's gonna be a timeskip due to the contents of the store." Knife's smirk sharpened. Murder sighed, and he teleported them both to Hot Topic, and Knife looked up at the glowing white sign, then back at Murder, and he said, "acceptable."
Murder let go of his hand, and he walked into the store, only to turn around to find Knife starting to slowly step back towards Spencer's. Murder sighed, and he turned around, grabbed Knife's hand, and he pulled him into the store, which was playing "Animal I have become" by Three Days Grace, a song he and probably Knife related to uncomfortably well. Inside of the store, there was a lot of pop and emo merchandise and clothing, not to mention a lot of pop culture stuff Murder didn't keep up with all that much, but Knife probably did.
Murder pulled him over to where the shoes were, and he heard Knife gasp, grabbing a pair of Hello Kitty shoes with his free hand. The shoes were actually black boots with red-buckled black straps, red bows on the straps themselves, and they had red soles and stitching. That wasn't even mentioning the Hello Kitty on the sides of the heels of the boots. Nope.
"no." Murder denied, refusing to fight on the same side as someone who wore Hello Kitty shoes.
"killjoy." Knife sighed, and Murder let go of his hand, now more certain that he wouldn't run away, but he watched him closely so he wouldn't steal anything.
Knife eventually grabbed a box from a shelf, opening it and kicking his shoes off, revealing extremely holey and stained socks.
Murder stopped him before he could open the shoe box, and said, "nope, we're getting you new socks first."
"oh come on, they aren't that bad." Knife replied, and Murder gave him a blank look.
"fine..." Knife sighed, and he sat on a chair and removed the socks.
Murder immediately grabbed them and threw them in a trash bin, and he started looking through the socks in this store, trying to find any Knife would wear. Knife had his size, so that made things easier.
"can i at least get cat socks?" Knife requested.
". . . not hello kitty." Murder told him, "we would be a laughing stock."
". . . don't want your boyfriend to embarrass you?~" Knife teased, and Murder rolled his eyelights before flipping him off, looking through the socks.
He found some black socks with red stitching and red Hello Kitty bows embroidered on the backs and across the toes, and he grabbed them, and paid for them without a word. The cashier was a dark gray bunny monster with purple glasses and black hair, a fringe over her blue eyes and the hair was shoulder-length. She was wearing black eye shadow and eye-liner, and a short-sleeved shirt with some form of anime on it, a pale human with black hair and bags or makeup under his eyes, and he was wearing a white shirt.
The bunny was wearing a black skirt and black heels, visible from when she walked over to the register to ring him up. She greeted him, Murder responding with a small wave, and he was mostly embarrassed he was buying this. He handed over the G, and he took the socks back to Knife, grumbling under his breath as he tossed the socks at Knife, who started laughing upon seeing the look on Murder's face.
"you owe me for that." Murder glared, and Knife snickered, taking the tags off and putting on the socks, smiling at them.
"i should let you take me out for clothes more often." Knife mentioned with a smirk.
"don't make me regret this." Murder huffed.
"of course not!" Knife smiled, and he grabbed some black, very high heels that went up to his knees, putting them on with a grin. Murder then saw the Spencer's tag, and gave him a flat look, Knife snickering before taking them off and briefly teleporting away, likely putting them back. "no fun."
Knife then opened the shoe box, revealing some black platform boots with black laces, and the skeleton sighed dejectedly.
Murder gave him a questioning look, and he asked, "what?"
"i dunno how to tie laces." Knife admitted.
". . . you're not messing with me?" Murder questioned.
"no." Knife answered, and Murder sighed, and he crouched on the floor, less than pleased with this.
"put the damn shoes on, i'll teach you." Murder told him, "and don't breathe a word of this to anyone."
". . . thanks, babe." Knife smirked, and Murder glared at him but didn't say anything else, putting the boots on like asked, and Murder grabbed an end of a lace in each hand.
"watch carefully. i'm only explaining this once." Murder told him, and Knife nodded, "you start by making the letter 'x' with your laces." Murder did so, "then pull one end into the bottom gap," Murder pulled one of the ends under the cross, and he pulled it tight, "that starts the loop. got it so far?"
"yup." Knife nodded.
"good. next, you make a loop with a lace," Murder made a loop with the left lace, "and wrap the other lace around it, but loosely," Murder wrapped the other lace around the loop once, leaving space under it, "now take that end, and pull it through the gap," Murder grabbed the end of the lace, and he pulled it through the gap, creating a second loop, and then pulled both loops tight, "done."
"huh, that wasn't so bad." Knife shrugged.
"good, because you're doing the second one, just so i don't have to deal with you constantly wanting me to tie your laces." Murder replied, and Knife's shoulders slumped.
"ok, ok..." Knife sighed, and he started repeating Murder's steps, doing surprisingly well.
"you sure you didn't know?" Murder questioned, giving him a suspicious look.
"i didn't, i promise. they usually got pissed if i didn't get something right right away." Knife sighed, and Murder grimaced a little.
"got it... you want anything else while you're here?" Murder asked.
". . . oh my god!" Knife jumped up from his seat, running to something a few aisles away, and Murder tossed his old shoes in the trash before following after him.
"what'd you find?" Murder questioned, and Knife turned around, holding a stuffed toy of a human in an orange parka, the human having large eyes with black pupils, no irises, and their face was barely visible.
"oh my god!" Knife grinned, "they killed kenny!"
". . . what?" Murder asked.
". . . we're watching south park later, murds." Knife stated, and Murder wasn't sure if he should be worried or not.
He was going with yes.
Knife spent the next fifteen minutes looking through this 'South Park' stuff, and by the end of it, Murder and Knife walked up to the cashier, Knife having his arms filled with South Park stuff, a big grin on his face as he put everything on the counter, including the now empty shoe box as he jumped slightly from excitement. Exaggerated or not, Knife was happy right now. Something that had Murder concerned for his own safety. The cashier, the same bunny from before, started scanning the merchandise, smiling a little.
"You like South Park too?" The bunny asked, Knife nodding.
"yeah! favorite character?" Knife replied.
"Butters, easy." The bunny answered, "Yours?"
"kenny, definitely. well, him and cartman." Knife responded, "he hasn't seen the show yet, i'm gonna have him binge some of it with me tonight."
Knife elbowed Murder's side playfully, and Murder sighed. At least this was better than Knife setting something on fire.
"So, how long have you two been a couple?" The bunny questioned, and Knife smirked, hugging Murder from behind with his arms draped around his shoulders. Murder hated being smaller than Knife, if only by a few inches.
"around a month or so, and it's been great!" Knife grinned.
"Sorry, just- can I get a picture of you guys? We have a crazy couples wall here, and you guys are awesome!" The bunny requested.
"well-" Murder started, but Knife cut him off, saying, "of course!"
"Great!" The bunny smiled, taking a quick picture as Murder looked up at Knife, mentally plotting how to get back at him for this.
The picture printed out, and was pinned to the wall with a red pin, and the employees door swung open, an orange cat monster running out of the area, laughing. She had a black shirt with a cartoon light blue character on it, which had two white pieces of hair that acted like bangs, the back of his head having hair which split off into three parts, like an 'M', the top dark blue with a white streak, and the bottom black with light blue eyes. He had a cyan right eye and a dark blue left eye, a dark blue marking behind the cyan eye, and the cyan eye was outlined in black while the dark blue was outlined in white. He had a fluffy white collar with a blue eye pin in the middle, the pin outlined in silver, and large paned slashed sleeves with blue in the centers, the right sleeve white while the left was black, both ending in large white ruffles.
He otherwise wore a black onesie with a few cyan diamonds on it, one on the chest, one on the right foot and two on the left, and he had a split cape, black on the top and dark blue on the bottom, the bottom having more eyes. The cat monster also wore black sweatpants, dark blue sneakers, and was cackling while running away from a dragon monster. The dragon monster had black and red scales, blue eyes, red spikes, and red wing membranes, and was wearing ripped black jeans, a red shirt with a black leather jacket, and red sandals.
"Ali! What did you do?!" The bunny monster asked, turning as the orange cat monster ran past the three of them.
"Your mom!" The orange cat, Ali, replied with a smirk, and the bunny gave her a blank look, "Ok, fine! I hid Cherry's chocolate!"
"Do you have a death wish?!" The bunny exclaimed as the dragon pounced at Ali, who dodged with a laugh.
"Maybe!" Ali responded.
"Yes she does!" Cherry snapped, "Rain, help me! L's sleeping in the back after their all-nighter last night!"
"I can't either! I'm doing my job!" Rain replied.
"Too bad, so sad!" Ali giggled, throwing a Hershey's Kiss at Cherry before running out of the store, the dragon monster chasing after her.
"Sorry, my uh... my siblings can be... yeah..." Rain apologized, scanning and bagging the last item.
"you're alright, don't worry about it. i've seen crazier." Murder replied, handing over the G and paying for it because Knife, of course, would not.
Rain laughed a little before nodding, Knife excitedly grabbing the bags, and Murder hoped he would at least be somewhat entertained for a while. They left the store a few moments later, teleporting back to Story's house, everyone else already there, along with Red and his brother, having likely agreed to the spying mission, and a demon-like pair of another Sans and Papyrus Murder hadn't seen anywhere before. Him and Red went back a while, Red not a stranger to the Omega Timeline, and he'd known him and his brother would accept the opportunity to help avenge their Undyne.
"murder, knife! we were just about to go looking for you!" Dream exclaimed, "where were you?"
"went to hot topic." Murder shrugged, and Knife set his bags down in a corner, still clearly pleased with what he got at the store.
"you actually got him to get new shoes?" Color seemed surprised, "i've been trying for years! how'd you talk him into it?"
". . . ." Murder was silent, and Knife snickered.
"he got me fun socks." Knife answered, leaving the 'Hello Kitty' part out, "i'll show you later."
"wait wait wait, y'all went to hot topic, right? not spencer's?" Red asked, looking between the two of them.
"yeah?" Murder confirmed, looking at him in confusion.
"damn, ya didn't go there to get anythin' for you two ta try?" Red asked with a smirk, and Murder looked away, cheekbones probably blue right now.
How the hell did Red know?!
Knife laughed as he walked over, shaking his skull no, "nah, not this time."
"WAIT, WHAT ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT?" Swap asked.
"well, everythin' wasn't too bad on our end. found somethin' weird in hotland on the core, but mighta just been the timeline." Red shrugged, "the underfell papyrus and sans we took the places of actually let us knock 'em out. they didn't wanna participate neither."
"things weren't too bad for us, either." Reality nodded, "shattered ran off during the fight, then me and dream helped error and pj fight nightmare and bill."
"and that fight..." PJ trailed off, looking at Error, who was laying and pouting on the floor, and they sighed, "bill's a pain in the coccyx."
"yup." Error sighed.
"AND I HELPED THESE TWO! MURDER, KNIFE! MEET REBEL AND RENEGADE! I HELPED THEM BREAK FREE FROM THE EVIL ASGORE WHO WAS ABLE TO CONTROL THEM! WE FOUGHT OFF MOST OF THE TIMELINE TOGETHER, AND VIOLET AND SOMEONE ELSE STORY SAID WENT BY WINE!" Swap explained, introducing the new Sans and Papyrus, and he started walking over to the kitchen, grabbing a bottle innocently labeled 'adult apple juice' and pouring himself a glass.
Murder missed alcohol so much.... He wasn't entirely sure why Swap drank; maybe dealing with the loss of his brother, but there was something else, too. Something he'd noticed right after meeting him, but he was unable to place it.
"yeah, wine's a pain." Karma sighed, "really someone to whine about."
Murder snorted despite himself, most of the room cracking up except for a few of the more serious occupants of the room.
"it wasn't too bad for us, either." Color said, "the murder time trio was there, and me, delta, and epic handled them. they're still such a pain to fight when they work together."
"tell me about it..." Dream sighed, "they're nightmare's top team, and they show it."
"i still wanna kick dust's tailbone again." Murder muttered.
"can always kick mi-~" Knife started, but Murder cut him off, "don't even start!"
"um... murder, can we talk for a moment?" Dream asked, and Murder hesitated for a moment before nodding, following Dream out of the house, and once the door was shut, Dream spoke up, "murder, i know you're your own skeleton, and i respect that, but some of your choices are.... murder, i'll always support you, no matter what, but this with knife... are you sure about this?"
. . . Damn it.
"ok, umm.. there's actually something you need to know about." Murder started, and Dream looked anxious, "we're not really... you know... a thing. we've just been doing it to mess with everyone."
"wait, what?" Dream asked, surprised, and Murder nodded.
"he figured it'd be a fun way of messing with everyone, and it would keep him entertained enough to not do anything stupid. besides, seeing everyone's faces when they think i actually find knife attractive is kinda hilarious." Murder chuckled a little.
"so the whole thing was just a joke? there was no kiss or anything?" Dream looked relieved.
"oh there was a kiss." Murder admitted, and Dream's relieved expression vanished, "but there was nothing behind it! i literally did it to shut him up so i could go back to sleep, i wasn't even thinking clearly when i did it since the lv was still wearing off. nothing romantic behind it from my end or from his. just an innocent way to mess with everyone."
"oh thank nim." Dream sighed in returning relief, "i was going to say i really thought you should reconsider your choices in romantic partners, considering how toxic that would be."
"heh, yeah, that's kinda why the reactions are funny. . . . you won't tell anyone, right?" Murder asked, "i wasn't really invested in this at first but it's honestly really fun messing with everyone."
Dream laughed a little, and shook his skull no, "no, i won't tell. you're having fun with this, and you're getting along with knife relatively well- at least you're not constantly trying to kill each other, so it's an improvement... i hope. still, you're having fun, and you deserve to have some fun with your life, even if that means an elaborate queerbaiting prank. just... tell me if it becomes something more, ok? i don't want you getting into an unhealthy relationship, you deserve so much better than that."
"of course." Dream replied, hugging him, and Murder hugged him back.
"can i help?" Reality questioned, and Murder flinched, him and Dream looking over to see him poke his skull around the side of the house.
"you... you wanna help?..." Murder asked, surprised.
"yeah, why not." Reality shrugged, "i like drama."
"stars, brother..." Dream sighed, him and Murder pulling away from the hug, and Reality laughed a little. Dream paused, and he asked, "has anyone seen aliza?"
"she left with core a while ago, something about finding the sans from her au." Murder recalled, "neither of them are back yet?"
"not that i can sense." Dream frowned, Reality shaking his skull no.
Core appeared a few moments later, form flickering into existence with several wounds, bleeding black blood and clutching one of their arms.
"core!" The three exclaimed, running over, and Dream asked, "what happened?!"
"i... i found axe, and i took aliza there to try getting through to him. it... didn't work, and i got crushed under a building, i barely got enough wiggle room to teleport out, but aliza... i think axe took her with him." Core explained, and Dream, Reality, and Murder exchanged glances.
Then Dream and Reality started swearing in Spanish, Murder in Korean.
