=Something Different #0=
Dream looks up from his chess match with Killer when the multiverse portal generator rumbled up from the steady hum of an idol to the full deep rumble of full power before a opalescent vortex blossoms over the landing platform.
Killer jumps up with a grin that fell into a look of horror as the generator's deep rumble escalates into a high pitched shriek. Flower, Bit, and Outer stumble through looking ill.
Horror scrambled through and kept going, scooping up Bit as he hit full stride passing Flower and Outer.
The next few moments were pure chaos as Nightmare was literally flung from the the destabilizing portal barely managing to reform his goop into an protective cocoon around Error, Nibs, and himself before hitting the ground and rolling.
Dream brought up a golden shield around Killer, Flower, Outer, and himself just before the generator exploded and the portal collapsed.
Outer holds Flower close watching smoke billow around the shield, "what the hell?"
Killer tries to stab the shield screaming for Nightmare, Error, and Horror until the smoke clears. Horror huddled with Bit in between an intact wall and a blast door. A bubbling ball of Nightmare's magic was across the room.
Dream drops the shield rushing towards Nightmare with Killer. "Brother!"
The ball melts away dripping onto the floor first revealing Error with Nibs clinging to him, then it all splatters to the floor revealing a slender delicate gray boned skeleton with the left side of his skull badly damaged and the socket on that side completely shattered.
Flower stumbled towards Error and the strange skeleton. "Error? What happened?"
Error scrambles towards the strange grayed out skeleton and reaches for him only to stop hands hovering just over fragile bones. "Night? Why? You never..."
Bit squirms in Horrors hold, "Dream don't! Nightmare strength comes from negative energy!"
Error's strings snapped into place around Dream and tossed him to Horror instantly. "Night damn it."
Horror catches Dream and tucks him next to Bit. "You might want to brace yourself whenever dad is hurt. Error stops locking down his aura."
Killer slides to a stop next to Error, "dad? Error, what happened? How can I help?"
Outer approaches slowly, "that is Nightmare without the goop? But he looks way more fragile than that Efiáltis guy. What happened to his skull?"
Dream whimpers as a tsunami of negative energy hits him as Error slowly looks up from Nightmare's delicate bones barely held together by a thin tracing of goopy magic. Pain, rage, grief, disgust, hatred, and resentment hammer at him in waves.
"What happened? His AU and his useless brother happened. Nightmare is a good guardian who did his job instead of running off to play and catering to a bunch of leaches. And he kept doing it no matter what was done to him, even when his oh so useless brother turned his back on him to side with his so called friends after all no one needs negativity do they." Error sneered at Dream, "never mind that no one would have anything but genocide runs without it. Never mind that cruelty is a twisted form of positivity. Never mind the real consequences of not having negativity in the world."
Nib flinches under the sheer force of Error's rage and ducks down into his pocket now is not a good time to draw attention. He trusts Error but big folk can be careless when highly upset.
Horror passes Dream to Bit who just gives him a look as they are almost the same size. "Watch dat drag 'im out if e passes out." Horror didn't even glance at him standing to hurry over to Killer and Error.
Slowly under the pulsing waves of negativity Nightmare's goop slowly grew and coalesced into a supportive film over his fragile bones.
Killer kneels next to Error not taking his eyes off Nightmare, "mom what can we do to help?"
Error glances at Killer before gathering Nightmare in his arms and standing bones creaking and grinding with the occasional alarming pop. "I don't know it depends on how his balance is. I will take him to Lady Life."
Flower stands watching, "we will talk with Dream. An Horror can call you, about the positive - negative balance."
Dream squirms in Bits hold, "what is wrong with Nighty? Why did his goop come off? Why did he look so fragile?"
Error opened, a glitchy portal and nods to Flower, "listen to Horror he is smart even with that crater in his skull. Come on Killer let's go." He pauses only long enough to glare at Dream. "If you didn't matter to him." Error steps through the portal without finishing, Killer right on his heels.
Bit watches the portal close, "congratulations the guy who doesn't have the emotional energy to hate anyone, even Ink. Hates you, and loves your brother enough to spare you."
Flower frowns at Dream, "what did he mean about your AU and you Dream? I thought you were like a swap or something instead of him having a Papyrus."
Dream slumps looking up at them with teary sockets, "I am a terrible guardian. I was never as diligent or perceptive as Nightmare. Always running off to play and leaving the work to Nighty. I don't know exactly what happened in our AU. Nightmare and Error have hinted over the years but never given details. We were children. I wasn't paying attention, or maybe I just didn't want to see anything wrong in my world. Nightmare was always a good diligent guardian. I just forgot why that was necessary."
Horror walks back over and pats Dream on the head. "Children should not have to carry that burden." He pauses trying to find words, "what happened as a child would only make Error mad. Your real crime was everything after you grew up. You replaced dad with a false image and the past with a fancy. You abandoned him and rejected him. You hurt your brother."
Bit winces standing and setting Dream on his feet. Watching Dream wilt under Horror's gentle touch and kind but straight forward words. What a way to rip a Sans a new one.
"Wait, does that mean Nightmare is the swap? Isn't he too tall to be a swap?" Outer watches remembering the confrontation at Error's stargazing spot. "You mean you don't know what he meant when he said he bled for you?"
Flower turned sharply to Outer, "w'at da fuck da ya mean he said dat?"
Dream flinches and hugs himself, "I don't know okay I just don't. I may suspect now but I was clueless as a kid. I just remember Nighty being clumsy when he used to be more athletic than me."
Bit's sockets widen the puzzle pieces snapping together all too easily in his mind. "Dream tell us did Nightmare ever like to play with your friends?"
Dream shook his head, "Nighty wasn't social he always insisted on staying right by our tree and reading."
Flower looks from Outer to Dream and Bit feeling queasy, "why a tree and not at home if he was just reading?"
Horror picks Dream up patting him on the back like an upset child, "dad told us that story. The Tree of Feelings was a pillar of the multiverse regulating the flow of positive and negative energy. It bore golden apples of positivity and midnight apples of negativity. As such it had a guardian named Nim a dryad. One day a human came seeking the golden fruit. Nim refused because the fruit and its energy were to grate for any mortal and meant to flow to and from the multiverse."
Outer looked down and clenched his fist then opened his hand, "I have heard the story of Nim. Error once told it to my Frisk. The human enraged by Nim's refusal struck and mortality wounded the guardian."
Dream rubs his sockets, "Nim struck down the wicked human but too late to save herself. So she used the tree's magic to form two spirits to take her place."
Horror nods along, "she needed vestals to hogreatuse the spirits. First she copied the humans from but it could not contain the magic of the guardians so they burst. Then, frantic as her strength was waning, she reached into the multiverse to find a form that could contain them. An what she found was the original swap Sans she copied his form to make the twins. Their magic could flow through and around their bones instead of destroying their new vestals. Then she merged with The Tree of Feelings so that she could guide the newborn guardians."
"Unfortunately I couldn't really hear her. Nighty could but he said it was more like feeling and impressions, but that was okay she was our mom and home." Dream lays his head on Horror's shoulder.
Bit frowns looking away, "you and Nightmare took the tree's place somehow didn't you something happened in your AU and now you are guardians of the positive negative balance instead of the tree."
Dream nods looking sad, "not that I should have ever had such power, I am really bad at it."