CreaseTale 0.4 (ErrorInk ~ Undertale AU)

Chaos

"Dream?" Nightmare repeated, his voice strained and suddenly... not so cruel.

Error felt his expression shift slightly, felt himself glitch - a shudder racking his spine, his bones suddenly jumping and twitching. Ink's arm brushed against his own; it was stiff, yet the touch felt strangely... soothing, in a way.

No.

No it did not.

It was just Error's mind messing things up again - probably something to do with his increased glitching.

"Yup," chirped Ink. "We'll hand Dream over to you, unharmed."

The skeleton, dripping his tar-like substance all over the lime grass, which shriveled and died at it's touch, got to his feet. He took a deep breath, then murmured, "Dream, or... broken Dream?"

Error swallowed.

Nobody replied.

The silence stretched from seconds to minutes, until Fell (who had managed to struggle his way out of the thick branches of the Tree of Feelings) grumbled, "Well? Will you help them, or not?"

"What, exactly, do I have to do?" snapped Nightmare, the familiar viciousness in his voice returning.

"Just open your portal to where I tell you to, and come in with us, then open another one." Ink said to Nightmare.

The skeleton simply blinked. "What's the catch?"

"No catch!"

Grumbling to himself, Nightmare rolled his one visible eye and scowled. "Fine." he rasped, his tone gravelly and reluctant.

Error's gaze flicked to Ink. The skeleton seemed determined, a crease had formed between his brows and his mouth was set grim, yet the corners of his mouth twitched upwards. Over the months Error had gotten to know Ink, he'd also learned to read his expressions. This one was... hard to understand.

"It's a deal then!"

"Shake on it." growled Nightmare.

Ink extended a bony hand.

Fell's scowl deepened.

Frisk's eyelids fluttered as she fixed her shy stare on Nightmare.

Error found himself positioned slightly in between Ink and Nightmare, almost... protectively, even though he refused to admit it.

Nightmare shook Ink's hand.

...

They were ready.

"Can you sense anyone feeling lonely, sad...?" Ink asked Nightmare.

The dark skeleton flashed a moody look. "Who am I looking for?"

Grimacing, Ink debated telling him about what he'd done to get to the Space Between Worlds. The place where they'd been trapped, where Cure had died and Fizz had been injured, where the building had crumbled around them, where that second beast had erupted from the chaos and tried to kill them.

He desperately hoped that the beast was otherwise occupied.

Sighing, Ink told him about the gaster blaster beast - a second one, he said, with dark grey bones and glowing blood-red eyes.

Nightmare stared at him, brow furrowed. "So you want me to open a portal... to a darker, scarier, more evil looking version of that beast that... killed the red guy?"

By the red guy, Ink assumed he meant Cure. A flash of that crimson hoodie stained Ink's thoughts like a pool of blood.

Ink nodded.