A blaster's beam rang out in the middle of the battlefield. Dream dodged the red beam, sending his own beam of light magic from his golden staff. It barely missed Cross, instead burning a hole in a ruined building behind him. A glitchy laugh echoed from somewhere to Dream's right, showing Error, the destroyer of worlds, fighting Ink, the protector of AUs. They fought each other with ferocity, neither backing down from the other, but they were too evenly matched. No matter how much ground Ink gained over Error, the glitch would fight back harder, regaining lost territory.

A black tendril shot out in Dream's direction, but he rolled to the side just in time. Out of the dust and smoke stepped his brother, Nightmare. Still dressed in his old attire, he looked like an evil prince, the gold crown atop his head glistening in the mid-afternoon's bright sunlight. He despised it, loathing it's seemingly positive, cheerful aura.

Dream shot a beam of light at Nightmare, but missed. Nightmare chuckled darkly.
"What's wrong, brother?~" he mocked.
"Losing your touch?"

Dream growled. Nightmare always seemed to know how to press his buttons. It wasn't much of a surprise, considering they spent the majority of their lives together as siblings. This made it all the more difficult to fight Nightmare. It saddened him that his brother, his only living relative, wished his death. He had tried to shrug off his feelings, knowing Nightmare didn't care and was only getting stronger from them, but Dream couldn't help it. He was willing to go great lengths to protect the multiverse, as it was his first priority, but he was going to do as much as he can to save him until Nightmare goes too far. Then, and only then, will Dream be willing to do what he must to protect the multiverse, despite his attachment to his brother.

Nightmare shot another tendril at him. Dream dodged, but didn't notice Cross' knife before it grazed his shoulder. He hissed, pulling his staff up to defend himself from another blow from Cross. A tendril tripped him up, causing him to fall to the ground. Cross lifted his knife up and stabbed it into Dream's left arm, earning a cry of pain from the positive guardian. Nightmare walked up to them, amused by how easily Dream had been taken down.

"Wow, that was easier than I thought," Nightmare said, gleefully absorbing the negativity around him.

"Hey tentacles!"
A splotch of red paint hit both Nightmare and Cross, earning pained shouts from them, as they staggered away out of Ink's line of fire.

Ink raced toward Dream, having knocked Error out by a convenient stroke of luck.

Me: Brushstroke!
Nights: Puns, puns everywhere!)

He held out a hand for Dream and helped the wounded guardian up.
"That wound looks bad, Dream," Ink said, studying the injury.

"I know."
Dream looked over at Nightmare and Cross, who were quickly recovering and preparing another attack. He debated whether or not it was a good idea to continue the fight. He looked back over at Ink, who didn't seem tired at all, and decided since it was two on two, he figured they stood a good chance at winning.

Dream picked up his staff and took a defensive stance, nodding to Ink. The artist nodded back, readying his paintbrush. They dodged to opposite sides as Cross sent a flurry of bone attacks at them. Dream swiped his staff in front of him, sending rays of light toward his opponents. One hit Cross, but Nightmare avoided them, sending his own destructive spells at Dream.

It's been three years since Dream and Ink lost their main defense against Nightmare's dark magic. This defense came in the forms if six powerful beings. Their leader had offered them aid in their fight against Nightmare to protect their own interests, but all of them went missing three years ago, along with Fatal Error. He had been their main threat for a few years, having... persuaded Nightmare and his group to work for him. But, one day, he and the six beings suddenly vanished without a trace.

As if they'd been erased from existence.

Without them, Dream and Ink were outnumbered, despite Killer and Dust leaving the group. Nevertale Sans, another skeleton in Nightmare's group, left with them, following them around like a lost puppy. They had nicknamed him Terror because of his fearsome appearance. His right eyesocket had been shattered, leaving his left eyesocket the only functioning one. His only working eyelight was a bright red in color, almost a pink, and he wore a red jacket with two white stripes down the sides. His shorts matched the jacket, and his white tennis shoes completed the outfit, not counting the plain white t-shirt he wore underneath his jacket. He carried around a stolen machete, and had severely limited magical abilities; he couldn't teleport, his blue magic was very weak, gaster blasters were a no-go, can't create portals, and he could barely summon a bone. To make up for his lack of magic, he was fueled by DETERMINATION to get things done.

You see, Terror had been treated like a lab rat in his AU by Gaster, who had been trying to figure out how to free monsterkind from the underground. Gaster had conducted a series of experiments on his fellow scientists without their knowledge (immoral, I know, but FOR SCIENCE!), and had figured out that Terror was immune to the effects of DETERMINATION. So, he gained Terror's cooperation to absorb a human child's soul to see if this monster could shatter the barrier without dying. Unfortunately, the memories of the child, drove Terror insane, and he somehow ripped himself out of his AU after attempting to kill Gaster. He ended up in the Anti-Void, where he met Error.

Error was not happy to find an intruder in his territory, so he tried to kill him. But, a monster with a human soul is difficult to beat, even for him. Nightmare had appeared on the scene, and since Terror was still crazy, he tried to hack the two of them to bits with his machete. Nightmare got bored eventually, so he separated Terror and Error, causing the fight to end. Long story short, Terror had become part of Nightmare's gang as a sort of wild card, unpredictable and dangerous. In the end, though, he left to follow the leader of the beings who sided with Dream because they had been kind to him. This left Nightmare, Cross, and Error to deal with. Not a fun combination, but in order to protect the multiverse, Dream and Ink would have to suck it up. Sorry, boys....

Back to the present, Dream was almost too slow to dodge a spell Nightmare flung at him. Thanks to his obsession with books, Nightmare's arsenal was jam packed with destructive spells, all based on dark magic due to his affinity for it. Dream couldn't shield himself from it effectively, since aggressive dark magic could overcome defensive light magic, and vice versa. Ink and Cross clashed with each other, their weapons sending sparks down around them from the metal on Ink's paintbrush and Cross' knife. At the moment, the two sides were at a stalemate, unable and unwilling to lose or gain any ground.

That is, until Error reentered the fight.

Dozens of strings sped toward Ink and Dream, wrapping them in their electric blue grasp. Both guardians hissed in pain, their eyesockets widening in fear. This is it. They could die here. They had no known backup, and none of their allies knew where they were. They were trapped.

Just then, something ripped through the air faster than lightning. The strings holding Ink and Dream were severed, allowing them to distance themselves from the three bad guys.

Two feet away from them, a small, black disk stuck out of the ground. Dream's eyes widened as it levitated vertically above the ground, growing in size, until it was big enough to walk through. Dream stood up mesmerized by it, wondering where the portal's creator was.

Ink had noticed, but was too focused on the bad guys to pay much attention. They, however, were frantically searching their surroundings for the person who threw the disk. They knew who it was, and they didn't like it one bit. If those demons were back, Nightmare didn't want to spend another second out in the open where he was vulnerable. He ordered a retreat, and took of into a portal to his castle, Cross and Error following close behind.

Ink sighed in relief.
"Thank the stars, we're alive, Dream!.... Dream?"
He looked around, but the positive guardian, and the black portal, were gone.

Inside the portal....

Dream stumbled into a mostly blank space, resembling the Anti-Void. He looked around in confusion, getting a strong sense of deja vú.

'Phew, thank you, Baron. Wherever you are,' he thought, clutching his wounded arm. He walked forward, searching for some sign that one of his demon allies were present, but it was silent and lonely. The feeling of deja vú became stronger, reminding him of when he had first met those six beings. This place, wherever he was, was so blank and devoid of life, it made Dream feel a little tense.

He continued forward for a couple of minutes, wandering aimlessly and scanning for any life, until he came across something strange. Before him stood a huge window, stretching from the floor beneath his feet, into the infinite expanse of a ceiling, and to both sides as far as Dream could see. Perhaps it wasn't a window, but a mirror, except it showed no reflection.

Until a black portal similar to the one that brought Dream here opened on the other side.

Out stepped a tall skeleton. He wore a golden circlet on his head, a gold jacket with a red sun pendant pinned to the front, brown dress pants, and fancy, dark brown dress shoes. Large, yellow wings protruded from his back, and his eyesockets glowed with light, making it hard to distinguish his eyelights from them.

Dream gasped as the other skeleton approached the window. They stared at each other in confusion, each trying to decide why the skeleton in front of them looked familiar.

Solar tilted his head to the side, trying to figure out who this skeleton reminded him of. He had been busy dealing with his troublesome brother all morning, chasing the negative guardian and his friends throughout the AUs, before finally losing them. Solar had punched a nearby tree in frustration, and was shocked to see the hole he'd made expand into a black portal. Curious, he'd stepped through, emerging on the other side in a blank world. Then, he saw him.

The skeleton was short, almost shorter than Lunar now that he thought about it, and wore a golden circlet on his head, a pale yellow, sleeveless jacket, what seemed to be a black jumpsuit underneath, and scuffed, yellow boots. The skeleton seemed almost afraid of Solar,but he dismissed this as nothing more than intimidation on his part. He was pretty formidable, after all. The skeleton's eyelights shone with positive light, giving the impression of innocence. It could also be interpreted as naiveté, and Solar disliked gullible people. He wasn't totally against them, though; a naive person could be manipulated easily into advancing his goals, making it faster and more efficient for Solar to get work done. He was by no means lazy, but he often worked so much, Pale had to literally drag him to bed because he refused to take a break. Pale ended up being the one finishing the work, which Solar was grateful for of course, but he'd rather do it himself so it got done correctly. His motto was, "if you want something done right, do it yourself." But, Pale was pretty good at convincing Solar to take a break every so often, so it wasn't like Solar could work himself to death with Pale breathing down his neck.

The two skeletons continued to stare at each other, until Dream lifted his hand up. He waved at the other skeleton, smiling cheerfully. Solar gave friendly grin and waved back. The two rested their hands on the window separating them, but jerked back in surprise when they felt a shock go through their bodies.

Dream's vision started to blur, and he shook his head to dispell the fatigue. How had he gotten so tired so suddenly? He looked down at the white floor, noticing that it was sort of getting closer. He fell to the floor with a thud, instantly going unconscious.

Solar put a hand to his skull and closed his eyes, experiencing the same symptoms as the short skeleton. In his disoriented state, he opened his eyes just as the other skeleton collapsed. He wanted to call for help, but his voice didn't want to work. His legs gave out beneath him, and fell face first onto the ground. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was a mist swirling around him and the other skeleton, and a group of hazy figures surrounding them.

Then, everything went dark.

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Love how I'm drawing a blank on what this story is about even though I frickin' wrote it-