Broken Grace

Broken Grace chapter fifteen.

Nightmare gave a sad chuckle, stroking the phalanges of one hand over the same marks, chips, and cracks Null and Void kissed the day before. "Monsters like us need to stick together.... If we don't look out for each other who will. The others never really understand. They mean well here they do but they still don't live the places we survive or see the things we witness. They are not left broken in the dark to save themselves or fall. Of course you who else here understands and would be comfortable in my arms. I know my aura makes others uncomfortable."

Geno leaned back against the wall by the doorframe and rubbed his chest wanting to cry. Knowing Nightmare was right his friends helped pick him up and helped him stop the fall but he had always known that they didn't understand what it was to watch their loved ones fall over and over and be able to do nothing. It was why he didn't go back to the save screen if he could help it. He couldn't stand to watch anymore.

Tick looked up at him then snuggled close ticking. "Mine." No one argued with him this time but the kids and Orbit looked thoughtful.

Cloud looked up, "Why would anyone hurt Error?"

Nightmare met his eyelights, "Fear." Orbit cleared his throat, hoping to everything they didn't screw this up and wishing that Nightmare wasn't right about his being scary when you noticed him. "Well, monsters and humans alike fear power, and fear those that have it." Orbit paused, then decided to go a different route. "You know that Error and Nightmare are from a different Multiverse right?"

"Yeah." Gaz nodded with the others with a frown. "But what does that have anything to do with this? Wouldn't it be the same as here?"

Orbit shook his head. "Different AU's have different codes and rules, different cultures. It is the same with Multiverses, different sets of checks and balances." Orbit blinked, trying to think of a way to explain Error's job, before shrugging and deciding to wing it. "Our AU's are stable without any help needed, they fix and work themselves. This is not the case for Error's Multiverse." Orbit's face and voice turned grim. "From what we gathered from his SOUL and how he acts out, he was forced into being a part of the balance. Meaning he had no choice in the matter. Error was picked and formed into the destruction, making sure that his Multiverse is not too full. Our AU's and Multiverse know when an AU has to stop growing, how many there can be. Error's does not, so he must.... Take care of it himself." Orbit's frown grew tighter just thinking about it.

".....But don't you always have a choice?" TK quickly asked, face worried and scared. He was smart enough to read in between the lines, he knows what death and killing are. He couldn't imagine being forced to do that, he would have said 'No..' "Couldn't he have said no?"

Nightmare stopped Orbit with a raised hand. "Yes you always have choices but they are not always good choices." Orbit frowned down at his hands not liking this lesson, but nods at what Nightmare said.

Nightmare took a deep breath, "Let me tell you about Error's choice then you can tell me what you would do." Nightmare hugs Tick closer. "Error wasn't just chosen FATE ripped him from his AU, his home, destroying it in the process. Error was trapped in the Anti-void where there is nothing, just cold white emptiness. He did everything to escape, he used all his weapons, all his magic he ran and ran and ran." Nightmare didn't seem to notice he was crying. "He screamed and begged for help for mercy until the screams started screaming back at him. FATE had come to give him his new fate, his job, and she had brought all her furies with her. They abused him mentally and emotionally while the Anti-void warped and twisted his code until he was as he is now a glitch in the system." Nightmare had to stop as he shook with silent sobs.

Tick tried wiping away Nightmare's tears surprising the others who didn't know he could be gentle.

Sniffling Nightmare gave him another hug. "By the time Error could get out of there he knew that if he didn't do his job the Multiverse would eventually collapse, everyone would die. Take into account that there is another half to the balance, creation." Orbit never thought he would ever hear or feel such bitter disgust at that word until now. "Ink's counterpart, called Inky, is the other half of the balance, was created by FATE to make AU's. Error was more than a little crazy and really angry at FATE and Inky back then, but he still cared and that was a double edged blade because to save some others had to go and that caring was a blade to his SOUL. So to answer your question if one side keeps creating without care, the balance can be tipped too much. If AU touch they self destruct possibly impacting others close to them and causing a chain reaction, even if it is only two it still results in Multiverse quakes, that trigger earthquakes within the AU's. Billions die."