A/n: today is December 21st! Not only is it Winter Solstice, it is also Nightmare and Dream's birthday today! I really wanted to get this chapter completed today for that reason. Anyway, happy birthday to them, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm not going to say anything about it, it's a surprise :)
♤Nightmare's P.O.V♤
Bill was cackling, then he appeared before my eyes. He was taller than me, wore white gloves, a black and yellow trench coat with a yellow bow-tie. He was a skeleton, a Sans obviously.
His eyes glowed an eerie cyan blue.
"Hello again, friend. Now, this may seem a bit strange, but you can trust me," Bill said. He held his hand out, grinning. I froze. I had chosen to make a deal with this skeleton and I didn't even mean to.
Suddenly, I felt my hand reaching towards Bill's and even though every fiber in my mind was trying to resist, I shook Bill's hand.
Blue flames surrounded our hands, and a strange glimmer appeared in Bill's hand. The deal was sealed.
I was the one to pull away first, almost crying. What was wrong with me? Why did I make a deal with him, why did I shake his hand?
Bill grinned and disappeared, then appeared as multiple versions of himself all around me. He was laughing a laugh that echoed around the forest-- an evil, long, deep laugh that chilled even me to the bone.
"Now, dear friend," said Bill. "Since you've made a deal with me, I can tell you a secret. Hehehe. An answer to the confusion you're experiencing right now." He twirled a cane in his right hand.
I didn't move. What was he saying? What was he going to say? So many questions kept racing in my head. Does it have something to do with what he said earlier, about me not being in my own head...?
"Close," Bill hummed, inching closer. I growled, not wanting him to get any closer.
"You see, Nightmare," he said, his voice strange and dark. "You haven't been in control of yourself ever since little (Y/n) found you. The weaker you, the older you, has been in control. Not the powerful villainous you." I flinched and my eye widened. Bill grinned.
"I mean, there were times where you saw (Y/n) in trouble and didn't help her. Didn't do anything. That was the villainous you," Bill added.
No. No, no, what? How did I never notice I was MYSELF? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?
"Don't lie to me," I growled, my tentacles lashing out. But deep down, I knew he wasn't lying to me. Passive has been here-- I've been here.
Bill chuckled darkly. "Lie to you?" he said. "I never lie, I just alter the truth sometimes, but this time is not the case. You're a strange one, Mr. Nightmare."
I shook my head, backing away. "Don't call me that!" I snapped, my tentacles twitching to lunge at him. Bill's still grin never faded.
I need to get back to (Y/n). "Didn't you say you were going to help (Y/n) remember me?" he asked warily. Bill reverted back to his original self, just one of him.
"Yes! Yes," he said. "Of course, my friend." His eye turned blue again. "And I have the perfect way." He inched closer to me again. "And there's a part of your memories you don't remember."
There was. I remembered a blur at a certain part, but I didn't want to believe anything Bill showed me.
Bill snapped his fingers anyway. I was wrapped in a vortex of gray again, and a picture unraveled before my eye.
(Y/n) was laying on the ground, presumably dead, bleeding from a wound in her chest...
...In front of her stood me, blood splattered on one of my tentacles and one seemed burnt. I wore a grin-- an unsettling, toothy smile that could unravel nightmares.
"No! That's not real!" I cried, pulling myself out of those thoughts. Bill patted my head.
"Of course it's real. You did that to her, she was trying to help you."
Tears welled in my eyes. Bill hadn't let me see what happened before that, but I knew that I had gravely hurt (Y/n).
Good. She isn't important to me anyways, echoed a voice in my head. I tried to shake it away.
L-leave me alone!
Bill tilted his head, staring at me. "Do you want to know how she's still even alive? How she's an 18 year old as a senior? In highschool?"
I couldn't hear him. All I heard was the voice in my head, telling me all the things I didn't want to hear.
(Y/n) was never important. She betrayed me. Dream is pathetic. You're pathetic. You lost her, you killed her.
She's still alive--!
And she doesn't remember you, does she? It's all because of you.
I didn't think anything after that. Instead, I knelt upon my knees, my bones clattering. My hands were shaking and somehow...
I wept.
I wept until my fingers were numb, until I could no longer feel a happiness of thinking of (Y/n). Only darkness.
Darkness...
Darkness...
And more darkness.
I take a deep breath, rising, no longer feeling anything positive. Good. That pathetic whelp is gone.
I can finally be myself again.
Bill chuckled darkly. "There you are."
I grinned at him, slightly tilting my head. "So, how do you want me to join you?" I asked. Of course, deep down, I didn't fully trust him. I wanted to spread chaos throughout the Multiverse, it's just that he could betray me like Dust or Killer did. He could betray me like (Y/n) did. Weird girl. Despite that wildfire of hate for the fire girl, I couldn't help but feel a flicker of weird feelings for her.
Fluttery... disgusting...love.
"Ah, yes." Bill looked excited all of a sudden. " Find me the book of Soulmates, bring me the journal, and find Sans. "
I nodded. Bill narrowed his eyes. "Strange..." He said, tapping his cane on the ground. " I can no longer hear any of your thoughts. "
I didn't say anything. I didn't need to. Bill shook his head.
"Nevermind. Hey, I could give you a parting gift! How about the skull of your dead brother?"
That wiped the grin off my face. "What?" I growled, tentacles lashing again. "How about I take off your head and give it to you? HOW DOES THAT SOUND FOR A PARTING GIFT?!"
" WOAH, WOAH buddy, chill! I was joking! Hehe, how about a skull on fire? " He snapped his fingers and a skull on fire appeared in his hand. "Pretty cool, ay, ayyy?"
"...Shut up. Thanks for the weird gift, I guess." I take the skull from his hand but it disappears.
Confused, I stare at him. He grins.
"Oh, look, time's about up!" Bill said, glancing on a watch that suddenly appeared on his wrist. " Well, anyways. Remember: reality is an illusion. The universe is a hologram. But gold. Remember, I'll be waitiiiing! "
Bill faded from reality, or what seemed like it, and the entire eerieness of the forest disappeared. Now it just felt like a regular but secretive pine forest.
I stood still, staring into the trees. I should thank him for bringing me back, really. Hm...
RUSTLE! GASP! SNIFFLE!
I turn my head sharply toward a bush. A blue bandana was popping out of one of the branches. I snuck my way over there, not at all surprised at who I saw.
"Blueberry" Sans.
He was curled up in a ball, shivering and shaking. Gasps and soft sobs escaped from him. "He was right...He was right!" He said, rocking himself on his feet. Had he seen everything that has happened?
His fear and astonishment satisfied me, and even more so when he looked up at me. His eyes enlarged, if that was even possible, then he sprang up to his feet like a useless twig. He began to run away, like he thought I was going to kill him or something.
I followed him, and he knew it, but he didn't stop running. He led me back to little Gravity Falls, right where Ink and little Y/n should be.
Things were going to be different...
Much different.