Error gasps in agony, feeling fire broil across his entire body. He curls up into a fetal position, panting and whimpering as the cracks worsen. He struggles, feeling like a crushing weight is resting on his chest, the air burning his throat as he tries to breathe.

"W-why?"

You have not done your job.

"F-fin3. I'm g0ing!" Error gasps as the pain ceases.

Get going.

Error slowly gets to his feet, opening a portal to the AU below him, falling into the AU. He barely has the energy, but wanders through the AU, looking at the coding of the AU.

"D4mn 4U. D4mn Inky. D4mn F4t3. D4mn 5tupid cr34ti0n. D4mn 5tupid b414nc3." (Damn AU. Damn Inky. Damn Fate. Damn stupid creation. Damn stupid balance.) Error mutters under his breath, his magic sparking up and destroying any hills, trees, and other natural formations the world has without his control.

Error pauses in the spot he was in when Reaper touched him, and opens the coding, beginning to pull the fragile code apart.

"Error?!" Error pauses in his destruction of the AU to face the source of the voice, finding Ink standing a few feet away from Error, with Dream slightly behind Ink, and Blue standing a ways off.

"Wh4t?" (What?)

"You...you're injured. What happened to you?" Error shrugs, turning back to the code.

" 'm n0t 5'p053d t0 t311 y0u. 50rry, Inky." ('m not s'posed to tell you. Sorry, Inky.) Ink narrows his gaze, pulling his brush free.

"Fine then. I'll kidnap you and make you tell me." With that, Ink lunges toward Error, who dodges to the side, slowly reaching his hands up to his face, but has to dodge away again as an arrow of positivity fires between Error's hand and his face. He sighs.

Fine. Dodging Simulator. Error sighs internally. He just has to work faster then. Error moves the code box, working fast, but Ink and Dream both land hits rather easily on the distracted and injured Destroyer.

Error drops in a heap to the ground as the world slowly begins disintegrating.

"The fucking king has arrived, and I'll be taking that." A tentacle grabs Error before Ink and Dream can get to him, the unconscious and badly wounded Error now in the delicate hold of Nightmare.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nightmare has been searching ever since. He's been funneling his admiration of Error and his frustration at being beaten by Error into finding said skeleton.

Not the hardest job in the world, since Error is a negativity beacon. He spends long enough in an AU, and Nightmare will find him.

"Uh...Boss...shouldn't you eat?" Nightmare looks at Killer, shrugging in response.

"I'll eat when I find that black skeleton."

"And 'make him yours'? Cool." Cross walks over, grinning maliciously.

"We don't even know his name, but I ship them so hard already." Nightmare glares at Cross' statement of shipping, and a tentacle smacks the back of Cross' head.

"Don't even joke about that, you walking X. I will throttle you over a joke one day." Cross just hums softly as he walks away while rubbing his skull.

"One Day is not Today!~" With that, Cross starts running through the mansion. Nightmare sighs and goes back to focusing, sensing Killer's watchful gaze on him but having enough practice ignoring Killer to tune out that feeling, finally feeling something proc his senses, an overwhelming amount of negativity.

"Killer." Cross had rejoined the two at some point, as Nightmare opens his one Cyan eye to focus on Killer.

"Found him?"

"Yes. Let's go. Cross..." Nightmare sighs.

"Gonna need you too. God knows those two are kinda...not useful in a fight." Nightmare jabs a thumb at Horror, who is eating a table leg, and Dust, who is just watching in confusion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nightmare didn't know what to expect, but what he was met with was most definitely NOT what he expected. For starters, the black glitch from before is wounded in ways Ink and the Star Sluts can't possibly do. Secondly, the AU is crumbling as they fight. And thirdly, the glitchy skeleton is pretty much knocked unconscious.

Then Nightmare didn't think about his next actions. His mouth moved, his tentacles grabbed his prey, but he never once thought of any action. It was only once the glitch was resting in his arms that he regained consciousness in a weird way, and came to find Cross going against Ink, not the most surprising matchup all things considered, and Killer fighting Dream, which was weird as Killer only ever versed Color with any ferocity. Nightmare shook his head, focusing on Blue, only to find Blue kinda chilling, leaning on his blaster and watching the fight.

"Shouldn't you... you know?"

"Be attacking you? Probably. But they seem pretty distracted to me." Blue focuses on the skeleton, cracking a smile.

"He trusts you. It took me a solid month of being around him for him to even sleep around me, much less let me touch him when he was so vulnerable. You're lucky." Nightmare shrugs.

"Why aren't you attacking me?"

"Short answer, long answer, or the easy answer?"

"Uhh?"

"Short Answer: Bad Day, Don't Care. Easy Answer: I THE MAGNIFICIENT SANS DO NOT ENGAGE IN SUCH CRUDE ENDEAVOURS, FOR I AM A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS AND HIGH ONES AT THAT. Long Answer: Stretch, Ink, and Dream got on my nerves so I just want to not have to pretend to be Baby Blue when I'm more than that. They'd never understand though." Blue shrugs, smiling when he sees Nightmare's confusion.

"Oh, GOLLY! Am I confusing the King? Sorry. I thought you knew people weren't one-dimensional."

"I do know, it's just...you are very convincing. I could never feel negativity from you, not even now." Blue gives a thin smile.

"I only became this good to hide from overprotective younger brothers and controlling 'friends', though if I were being honest, Dream is more following Ink than actually believing that I need to be treated this way. He wants to obey and love Ink because Ink understands positivity, but not the real kind. Everyone is using Dream for his Aura, and they don't care if it hurts him or not. Even Ink. Ink can only feel via the fake vials, but with Dream's Aura, he really feels positivity, so it's addicting."

"What about you?"

"I can feel it, but I don't want to feel fake emotions someone else says I should feel. I'd rather feel real anger than feel fake happiness."

(1079 words.

Fate's a bitch and Blue's intelligent.