Sanscest One-shots (Part 2)

Role Swap

(Just a fun idea)

The first thing Nightmare was aware of when he awoke was that he was not in his own bed. At least, not exactly. He had the strangest feeling that this was his bed, but it wasn't a place he was familiar with.

The second thing he noticed was that he was uncorrupted, which was incredibly strange. Something was going on, but what remained to be seen.

"Good morning Night!," came a voice that he recognized but had never heard so friendly before.

"Blue! What is the meaning of this?!" Nightmare was very angry at this trick.

"What? I thought you liked it when I woke you up for breakfast?" There was no deception that he could detect. The only logical thing to do at that moment was to play along, and figure things out as he went along.

—
Dream awoke to voices outside the door.

"Do you think he's awake yet?"

"You know how Dream is, I'm sure he's just starting to wake up."

That was all of the conversation and right after the door was opened. Cross and Dust stood in the doorway.

Before Dream could even react, Cross spoke to him. "Mornin' Dream."

This was very concerning to Dream, as it wasn't often his enemies were friendly to him. Thinking quickly, he played along. "Good morning, Cross. What's going on today?"

"That's what we were gonna ask you. You said you had a plan to stop Ink and his group from interfering with our plans. We're waiting on you to start the meeting."

"...right...I uh. I forgot my notes. Why don't you two go wait with everyone else, while I find them, I'll be right there."

Somehow that terrible stalling worked and Dust and Cross left without complaining.

—
Nightmare cautiously picked at his plate of food, not entirely convinced it wasn't poisoned. It tasted alright.

Blue looked at him with a very concerned expression. "Is it about Dream?"

Suddenly Night saw red. How dare Blue even mention his brother and in a way that implied he actually cared about him. He pushed himself away from the table and walked off to go be moody somewhere else.

But Blue, being a stubborn friend, followed him anyway. "I know you don't like talking about him ever since he went a bit off the deep end, but he cares about you Night, and I think you care about him too. You might be the only one who can get through to him. Hurting others isn't going to make anyone feel better."

Nightmare could only turn away. That was exactly what he did. Hurting others. He made his tone soft, as to not scare Blue. "I just... need a minute alone."

"Ok, I'll still be around if you want to talk."

—
Dream looked around in confusion. This was some sort of alternate reality, where he had become evil and Nightmare was probably good. Everything else seemed the same otherwise.

The burning question was why? Why would he do these things? All he wanted to do was protect his brother and make people happy. Of course, he failed miserably at both. Turns out emotions are harder to fix than just a hug.

And Nightmare... well...he knew the villagers were only using Dream and just let it happen because it wasn't hurting anyone. He pushed away attempts to help him out of some sort of self-loathing.

In an instant everything was gone. No matter how fake it was, it was something and then it was nothing.

Suddenly waking up years later out of a war zone into an entirely different world, and then being expected to care for it. It was unfair.

Why?

Why should he have to protect them when others brought nothing but pain and sorrow? For praise? For people who only pretended to be his friend to get what they wanted?

Dream wasn't sure when his hands had started shaking.

No, this place was messing with his head. He needed to get out and fast.
———
Nightmare sat and thought. He had figured out this was some sort of alternate reality already. It was strange but nice in a way. The corruption seemed to not exist here, he couldn't feel the shadowy presence that always used to linger in his mind. The crushing weight of all the anger he felt was lifted.

He had friends who cared about him. He had a solid home, and no one seemed to hate him. It was everything he had ever wanted before the incident. Sure, there was the gang back home, but as soon as they got what they wanted they would leave. The only reason they were polite was because they were afraid of him.

Blue and Ink, well this Blue and Ink, weren't afraid at all. They actually seemed to enjoy his company.

Maybe he could stay here. It didn't seem to different, adjusting should be easy.

That was that for Nightmare. He intended to stay, no matter what he had to do.

———
Dream was horrified, ever since he awoke in this universe, it was as if all the terrible things he thought and felt, which had been so carefully locked away were loose. He was always instructed that anything deemed "not good" needed to be hidden.

Emotions felt like a swirling storm and it was somehow freeing.

Just then Dust came back into the room. "Yo, we need to get this show on the road. I don't got all day to wait on you"

"I'm coming," Dream replied. He wasn't used to people talking like that to him. Usually they were very fake polite and almost bent over backwards for him. This was better, more real, for once Dream felt like he was talking to an actual person.

They walked down to the meeting room where the rest of the gang was waiting.

"Took you long enough," said Killer.

"Sorry about that, I will try to keep it brief today," Dream responded, trying to be neutral about the whole situation.

"So what's the plan?"

"The plan?"

"The plan to take out the Stars so they stop interfering."

"Right, that plan." He hadn't expected that. Sure it was very likely that he might have to fight these versions of Ink and Blue, along with Nightmare, but it just being so soon was surprising. Could he do it? Would he be able to hurt them?

Ink and Blue had always been nice, but they just wanted him to protect their multiverse for them. They were no better than anyone else.

And Night, he knew what was going on and let it happen, he was just as much responsible as any of the villagers. Maybe they deserved it, or maybe he just wanted others to feel his pain, whatever the case the next words out of Dream's mouth were "I know where they're hiding, let's take the fight to them."

Maybe he could stay here, where he was respected and could feel and could be free. Maybe it would end in disaster. No matter what the outcome would be, the damage was already done.
———
Ending that one there. I need to get an new laptop it's so hard to type all of these out on my phone. Anyway, see ya imaginary people