"You are an idiot of the highest order."
Alpha frowned at Four. "How?"
Four gave Alpha a blank stare. This went on for about five seconds. "Really? You're going to ask me how?"
"Well, I did just ask, so yes."
Four inhaled sharply. "When I said that we needed to split the two apart, I did not mean by killing one of them! Okay, sure, he's not dead, but he was so close! What the hell were you thinking?!"
"I just didn't want history to repeat itself, I don't think-" Alpha was cut off.
"Woah, okay, stop. You're telling me that by beating him half to death, you're helping to stop it happening again? Alpha, what we're trying to prevent is more Gods dying, and your whole aim there was to kill Error!" Four glared at him. "Is this all about you wanting to 'prove yourself'?"
"No, I-"
The two froze. Behind them they heard slow, obviously sarcastic clapping.
"Ah, here are my two idiots!" King Multiverse teleported in front of them, "So, tell me, boys... What happened?"
Alpha went to speak, but Four talked over him, "Well, Alpha decided to pretty much destroy the destroyer. Had a bone aimed straight at his soul when I got there, had I reacted one second later, I'm not sure he'd even be alive."
King Multiverse sighed. "Yes, I know that, I just don't quite know what Error did to deserve it."
"Error and Ink were in a relationship." Alpha said, despite the warning look from Four. King Multiverse frowned. And did nothing more. He reacted as if someone had just told him something mildly confusing. They waited another ten seconds before King Multiverse spoke.
"I'm waiting for someone to elaborate."
"Oh." Four said, jumping in before Alpha could, "Well... the two accidentally met somewhere and were dating for a few weeks. Don't worry, they're split now, and I don't think they're going to want to get back together any time soon."
"And that was Alpha's doing?" The King asked.
"Yep, that was me," Alpha piped up again. Four smirked at the way he looked almost proud, like he was expecting praise from the King.
"Who do you think you are?" The King asked. It was clearly a rhetorical question, but Alpha answered anyway.
"A God who has power over the Lower Gods-"
"No, you weren't supposed to answer that, you retard!" The King said in an exasperated tone, "But seriously though, what where you thinking? You know that you're not to critically injure a lower God without consulting me first! And what's worse is that you had intended to kill him!"
"How can you prove that?" Alpha hissed.
"Four says you were aiming for his soul. That's probably the quickest way to kill someone!" The King yelled.
"I wasn't gonna kill him!" Alpha protested.
"Really didn't seem that way." Four snarled. Alpha stepped forwards, making Four almost laugh. "What, you're trying to fight me now too?"
King Multiverse sighed. "Come on, Alpha. Start a fight with him and you'll end up on the same ward as Error. And plus if one of us gets to beat the crap out of you, it should be me."
"I wasn't going to start a fight!" Alpha said defensively, "Although now you've said that-"
"Alpha."
"-I could totally beat Four in a fight!"
Four chuckled. "One day we'll have to test that statement. Not now, I can't be bothered. Anyways, I'm gonna go. You two have fun with... this." And with a snap of his fingers, he disappeared.
"You really are an idiot." The King stated, turning back to the younger God.
"Yeah, yeah, you said that already..."
"Look. I'm not gonna do anything about this. But I just want to talk to you."
Alpha narrowed his eyes. "About?"
"The fact that you seem to think you have to be better than Four. I'm not gonna lie, Four is stronger and probably smarter than you. But that doesn't mean either of you is a better God. I see both of you the same." King Multiverse looked at Alpha, but the shorter turned his head away to avoid eye contact.
"How can we be equal if he's both stronger and smarter than me?"
"Well, you're both just beneath me and both above the Lower Gods. There is no fourth category here. We view the Lower Gods as equals, and yet we all know who the strongest technically is. Well, they're all physically capable of being the strongest, but mentality plays an even more important part. I think the same is true for you and Four. He can bring himself to do bad things that you normally wouldn't do. I say normally since your behaviour last night was a little... unexpected."
"So does that mean I'm stronger than Four?"
"I'm not encouraging you to do that again."
"But-"
"No, it doesn't. It makes you irrational and irresponsible."
Alpha was still evading the eyes of his superior, now looking down at the floor. Since he had no comment, King Multiverse continued.
"Has anyone talked to Ink?"
Alpha shook his head.
"...Right. Well, Alpha. I need to speak to Four. Can you round up the Light Gods and tell them we're putting everything on hold for a day or so?"
"Why can't I be there? Let me guess... I'm not intelligent enough to understand?" Alpha's voice was venomous he sent King Multiverse a death glare.
"We've just been through this. I'm not playing your childish game anymore. Now, the Light Gods. You're going to tell them they've got a few days off. With no Destruction, and I think we're missing Negativity due too injuries too, we need the balance to just... Well, we need to keep it equal. If anything goes wrong, Four's Destruction. I don't know what you are- don't look at me like that, you'd cover a Light God, and we don't actually need that right now," The King clicked his fingers and a portal appeared behind him, "Off you go."
Alpha ignored the portal the other had summoned and just disappeared. King Multiverse rolled his eyes. "Idiot..."
**
"No." Geno pushed Nightmare away from the door to Error's room, "He does not need you here right now."
"But-"
"No, Nightmare. He doesn't want anyone in there, he's in a hell of a lot of pain. His morphine has worn off and I need to give him more. Just leave him for a while." Geno walked off down the corridor. Nightmare hadn't actually seen any doctors with Error yet, just Geno and his brother. and Error wasn't even Dream's patient.
"Nightmare. Your phone." Reaper said from beside him.
"Wh- oh, right." Nightmare looked confusedly at the phone. "Uh... It's Ink's Latino friend..." He answered it, "Hello?"
"...Hey. So, uh... Ink kind of ran off somewhere in the hospital and is asking me where Error is...I told him to ask you but he's refusing and wants me to ask you instead..."
"No, I'm not doing this. If he wants to talk to me, tell him to grow up and call me himself. Using a mortal as a messenger is... Well, it sounds totally normal if you say it out loud. But he's being childish."
"I've told him to do it, he won't. Says he wants to see Error first."
Nightmare paused. "..Oh. He's... Oh."
"What?"
"...I just totally blocked out the fact that Ink's in the hospital the first time you said it."
"Oh. Let me guess, you're not happy? More God drama?"
Cross' tone of voice almost made Nightmare laugh. "Wow, I almost feel bad for you. You're mortal and dealing with God problems. Hey, I give you bragging rights: 'I was pretty much the God of Negativity and the God of Creation's slave!'"
"Look, Ink's screwed me over so many times lately. I just want you two to sort this out amongst yourselves, because this is not my problem. I'm not a God. Deal with your shit."
Cross hung up and Reaper burst out laughing. Nightmare smirked.
"Wait, what's funny?" Nightmare asked, realising he wasn't entirely sure that there was any humour in the phone call he'd just had.
"I don't know! The fact that you tried to make a joke and he totally ignored it?"
"...You are an absolute...I can't even think of an insult right now, I haven't slept in two days."
"You can call someone anything, as long as you add the words 'you absolute' on the start!"
Nightmare looked at the desk where a nurse was writing something with a pencil, "You absolute... pencil."
"Nailed it."
**
Cross looked up from his phone. He could see Nightmare walking towards him. Eventually they'd agreed to meet by the entrance of the hospital.
"Right. Tell me what's actually going on right now. I don't want to be here."
"You smell like weed."
"Yeah, it's called 'I haven't slept and I have a migraine'. That and we've established that I smoke it anyway." Cross sighed, looking at the taller.
"Why would you smoke weed when you have a migraine? Just take painkillers, my God."
"I've found it helps better. Now, when you've finished judging me..."
"I'm not judging you."
"You quite obviously are."
"Well yes, but-"
"Shut up." Cross pulled something from his pocket. A lighter.
"Let me guess, you're gonna smoke a joint of weed now and tell me again not to judge you?"
"You guessed it." Cross grumbled, raising the joint to his mouth and clicking the lighter at the end of it.
"Okay but just take some paracetamol and-"
"Shut the actual fuck up."
"Okay then..." Nightmare muttered, watching Cross close his eyes and inhale it. The monochrome skeleton sighed, smoke forming a cloud around him. Nightmare watched and narrowed his eyes. There was something... weird about this skeleton. He seemed fine one day, and the next he seemed ready to stab someone. He didn't know Cross, maybe he was just having a bad day? But why? It's not like he was the one who had come off worst here. Sure, he'd be annoyed, he'd been dragged into all this, unwillingly helping multiple Gods in some sort of childish war. Nightmare could feel a strong negative aura coming from the mortal. One that was a combination of stress, annoyance...no, more like anger. Nightmare stared for another few seconds before deciding to bring it up, "What's up with you?"
Cross looked up. "Hm?"
"You seem pretty frustrated."
"Well yeah, you could say that. I don't even want to be here-!"
"Fair enough. But why are you stressed out? It's not like-"
Cross narrowed his eyes. "How do you know all of this?"
"I'm the God of Negativity, in case you haven't noticed. I'm gonna notice if you stand next to me and give off that kind of aura."
"Ugh, first your brother, and now you! What is it with you two?"
"We're sort of both Gods with the ability to-"
"Just leave me alone." Cross inhaled for a good few seconds before exhaling the smoke.
Nightmare watched for a few seconds. "So, has Ink unblocked my number?"
"I don't know, you tell me."
There was a few seconds of silence as Nightmare pulled out his phone to look for Ink's contact. "Yeah, I'm still blocked."
"I can't help that."
"Didn't say you could. In fact, I think you've been as much help as you're gonna be."
"Cool. Now delete my number and I'll block yours later." Cross said in a tone that suggested Nightmare should end the conversation by walking away.
Nightmare raised an 'eyebrow'. "Geez, what's up with you today?"
"What do you mean 'today'? You don't know what I'm like the rest of the time."
"I don't know how someone like Dream is friends with someone like you." Nightmare spat.
"I don't see how you two are even related. I mean, you're just... unpleasant."
Nightmare stared for a few seconds before a faint smirk appeared on his features. "Well, you're not wrong about me, but about Dream? He's my twin brother, of course we're similar. I mean, some of the things I've heard Dream say..."
"At least he's not overly judgy."
"Alright, I'm just gonna say something, Cross." Nightmare sharply, and Cross rolled his eyes and turned away, "You cannot tell me Dream has never told you that smoking that stuff is no health benefit. Anyone with common sense knows there are better alternatives. I don't understand why we're getting into an argument over this, and frankly I'm bored of this conversation. Somehow you just keep managing to bring it back to the same topic-"
"Honestly Nightmare, I'm just sick of being criticised on every choice I ever make." Cross interrupted.
"Why are you getting so defensive, I mean I'm-" Nightmare didn't get to finish his sentence. He instead found himself on the floor, feeling slightly dazed and in pain: his cheek was stinging. It took him a few seconds to realise that Cross had just lashed out at him. "...Did you just punch me or something?"
"I slapped you." Cross said coldly, throwing down the joint and putting it out on the floor with his foot right next to Nightmare.
"...That was a slap?"
"That's what I just said, yes."
"...Wow."
"I didn't actually mean for you to end up on the floor." Cross sighed, offering Nightmare a hand. He took it and let Cross pull him up with surprising strength.
"Didn't you mention doing some kind of martial arts thingy?"
"Yeah, I'm a black belt in karate."
"Oh yeah, that was it. Hey, where are you going?" Cross had begun to walk away from the hospital's entrance.
"Away from you," Cross called back.
"Wait no, we still need to figure out what- Get your ass back here!" Without thought, Nightmare raised his hand and Cross was suddenly stopped with a yelp. Something was glowing in his ribcage. His soul. Nightmare realised what he was doing. "Oh, shit, sorry." He let his hand flop back down, where he buried it in his pocket.
"What the fuck?!" Cross screeched, a look of fury on his face, "You can't just do that! That hurt, you know! And that's just plain disrespectful!"
"I know, I didn't think!"
"I so wanna punch your broken arm right now."
"Please don't."
And then Cross just disappeared.
"Oh. Didn't know he could do that too." Nightmare muttered.
"I mean, he is a skeleton." A familiar voice said from behind him.
"Why is there always someone behind me when I think I'm alone? I'm starting to feel like I'm being stalked." Nightmare sighed, turning around, "Oh, it's you. What do you want, Four?"
Four shrugged. "That was pretty rude of you, just grabbing his soul like that."
"You're one to talk, how many times have you done that to me? Especially when I don't even know you're there. Gee, really does seem like I'm being stalked."
"Yeah, but I can do that."
"Oh, so you can and I can't?"
"Exactly."
The two looked at each other for a few seconds.
"Uh... Is that all, or...?" Nightmare asked.
"Well, you know... I had a question for you, but now hardly seems like the time now I think about it."
"No, you might as well just say it now."
Four shook his head. "Nah, changed my mind. Oh, but while we're here, has Error been questioned by the police yet?"
"Wait, they're actually doing an investigation?"
"Well yes, he was nearly killed."
"And what are they gonna do to Alpha, arrest him? He's a God, one of the Trinity, there's no way they'll be able to arrest him!"
"They'll soon find that out."
**
"Sir, we need to know what happened."
"No you don't. If I don't want to press charges, then you don't. And I don't want to. So go away." Error snarled.
"But we can't be sure you didn't attack this person first. According to the doctors, a tall skeleton monster brought you in here. Was-"
"No, that wasn't him. He's the one who saved my ass. Look, you'd never catch this guy. Besides, it's my fault I got what I did."
"So you're saying that you attacked him first?"
"Wh- no, I'm just saying that- ugh. Look, I'm not doing anything about this, and neither should you. I doubt this guy even exists on your records. Like, authorities probably don't know that he's.. a person."
The police officer looked confusedly at Error. "What?"
"You must have somewhere else to be right now, something more important to do," Geno stepped in, "And I'm going to need you to leave now."
The officer gave them one last look before leaving the room, shaking his head at his female counterpart as the door closed.
"So, Fresh should be here any time now. He's supposed to be working until eleven tonight, but he said he could get away at eight." Geno said, sitting in the chair beside his brother.
"How'd he manage that?" Error asked, frowning.
"No idea. But I assume he's missing three hours worth of pay."
"Well, obviously. You don't get paid for hours you didn't work. But how does his employer even let him do that in the first place?"
"Probably because he usually works from like midday to midnight?"
"No he doesn't, that's ridiculous, those are the kind of hours doctors work, Geno."
"Hey, nurses too. We always end up staying for like four or five hours of unpaid work. And yeah, maybe I exaggerated his hours a bit- Oh look, he's calling me now. Hi Fresh, are you- Oh, you're here? ...Is he? No, don't let him, Error doesn't need that. But how does he even know you-"
"What?" Error cut in.
"...Ink's outside, talking to Fresh..." Geno said hesitantly.
**
"Look, I just wanna see him! I wanna know he's okay! I'm not here to cause any trouble!" Ink tried to push past Fresh, but failed.
"I'm not trying to be the bad guy here, but I just don't think you should." Fresh said, gently pushing Ink back a bit. He looked over at Cross, wondering if he was going to help at all. The monochrome skeleton took out his phone and completely ignored Fresh on purpose.
"Just let me past!" Ink was still trying to get past Fresh and into the hospital. When the skeleton did not budge, he elbowed him in the ribs. Fresh yelped and Ink pushed him out the way, walking into the hospital. Cross, however, lingered by the door. He put his phone away and looked up.
"I remember you. I tattooed your buddy."
Fresh nodded. He watched as Cross pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "So, you're Ink's friend?"
Cross nodded, blowing smoke in Fresh's face unintentionally. Fresh raised his 'eyebrow'.
"Pot?"
Cross rolled his eyes. "Oh, not you too! I've had enough of-" He paused, Fresh was grinning at him, holding out his hand. He pulled yet another joint out and hesitantly placed it in Fresh's hand with a lighter. The younger put it to his mouth, lighting it and passing the lighter back to Cross, who smirked. "Fellow smoker, huh?"
Fresh smirked back. "Don't tell my brothers. Actually, I'm pretty sure Error's figured it out, but Geno, being a nurse, would kill me."
Cross chuckled. "I like you already. I'm Cross, by the way."
"And I'm Fresh." He responded.
"So, you're Ink's boyfriend's... little brother? Right?"
"Mhm. Or ex boyfriend's little brother. I don't think they're together anymore. Sucks, they were good together. Or at least I think they were, Ink made Error happier than I've seen him in a while."
Cross nodded. He was taking in the appearance of the new skeleton. "Cool shades, by the way."
"Oh, I only got them to stop people staring at my eyes. My soul is sort of in my eye socket." He said this so monotonously that Cross stared for a full five seconds at his shades before Fresh noticed. Fresh inhaled more of the joint in his hand and used the other hand to remove his shades, revealing that he was telling the truth. There was indeed a soul in his eye socket. He quickly put them back on, looking down at the floor.
Cross didn't say anything. He instead mimicked Fresh and stared down at the floor. After another few seconds, he just said, "Oof."
Fresh choked on the smoke, laughing and coughing at the same time, making Cross jump. Upon realising he was laughing and not dying, Cross joined in laughing. Once the two had calmed down, Cross looked at Fresh and asked, "So, anyways... What are we doing about Ink? Do we bother following him?"
"Well, I'm going in there to see Error, but Ink will probably find him first. I have absolutely no idea how Error's going to react. But I- Oh, someone's coming and I think it's Nightmare." Before he had time to hide what was in his hand, Nightmare appeared around the corner of the building.
"Oh God, not him." Cross sighed.
Nightmare looked down at Fresh's hand, which was behind his back. He rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised? Anyways, shit's going down in there. I heard shouting but Geno obviously wouldn't let me past like the control freak he is."
"Okay, completely unrelated to what you just said, but what's going on between you two?" Fresh frowned at Nightmare.
Both Cross and Nightmare spoke at the same time, however Cross shouted over the other so Fresh only heard what he said, "Nightmare's a complete dick!"
"Okay, so I grabbed him by the soul. Not the nicest thing to experience, but certainly not the worst. Get over it." Nightmare hissed.
"He also-"
Nightmare raised his voice over Cross', "And he slapped me."
"You deserved it."
"As much as you deserved to be grabbed-"
"How?"
"You can't just walk away from someone when-"
"I don't know what you Gods are like to each other-"
"Actually I can't count how many times another God has-"
"-But that's definitely not-"
"Well, I-"
Fresh sighed, stepping in between the two, "I can't tell what you're saying when you talk over each other. Nightmare, you first, what's going on?"
"Well basically Cross walked away from me so I-"
"Grabbed me-"
"SHUT UP! CROSS, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE SLAPPED HIM, NIGHTMARE, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE GRABBED HIM!" Fresh shouted so loudly that the two jumped and took a step back, "God, you sound like five year olds! Grow up!"
"...Why is everyone yelling? I just got sent out here by an SHO to 'kindly tell the public to shut the fuck up', and then I come out here to find my brother, my friend, and Error's little brother screaming at each other." They all turned to see Nightmare's twin.
"Oh, Heya Dreamy, Cross is being a dick." Nightmare smiled sarcastically.
Cross went to interject but Fresh nudged him. Instead he glared at the twins, both of which ignored this.
"...Right, well... Just came to let you all know there's a civil war upstairs, security has been called, so..." Dream said awkwardly.
"So Ink attacked Error?" Nightmare asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Other way around."
Cross, Fresh, and Nightmare all gave looks of confusion.
"Isn't he meant to be crippled?" Fresh asked.
"Well, I thought so. The two talked for like twenty seconds before Error ripped out his IV, threw himself at Ink and somehow tackled him to the floor. So I believe security are escorting Ink out, since they can't really do anything with Error." Dream sighed.
"...So is Error actually okay?" Nightmare asked.
"Uh... I think so? They sedated him just before I left. My shift was supposed to finish by the time this happened, but then I got pulled back by paediatrics since I was still in the building. I'm not working anymore now, but I'm just gonna stick around for a bit just in case." Dream was not in scrubs, but in his normal clothes, confirming that he was indeed not working. He pulled his scarf over himself, shivering. "Well, I'm freezing out here. I'm gonna go buy a drink at the café, anyone else want anything?"
"Coffee," All three said at the same time.
"Alrighty. Cross, Fresh, go inside. You can probably go to Error's room now. I have no idea where Ink is. Nightmare, come get the drinks with me. We'll be up there in a minute, you two." Dream shot a quick smile at Fresh and Cross before grabbing his brother's arm and pulling him inside.
"The reason you want me with you is to interrogate me about Cross, isn't it?" Nightmare sighed.
"Possibly."
"Well, there isn't much to say."
"That so?"
"Yup."
"I can't be bothered right now, you can tell me later..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Y e e t
I'm soooo sorry this took so long to get out, aaaaa!
..
I don't really have anything else to say...
-Brooke