((This is another one of my favorite chapters. ^^))

"And this is the latest pattern we've invented." Trianna introduced a veil to Nasuada as Error stood behind her,  a little tired, but grinning all the same. He really enjoyed the work, it was so quiet and peaceful. He didn't like dealing with people- but it was a cheap price to just sit down and throw up random designs or marvel at their creations- art he didn't need to destroy.
That alone thrilled Error, the ability to appreciate art and let it lie for more to enjoy.
And humans liked his creations.
They wanted more.

And he didn't mind indulging that.
As much as he was convinced in the fact that he was not that good in what he did- there were AU's literally created to be the best in those- but he was willing to admit that he was definitely amazing to the humans in Alagaësia.
He was the only weaver in Alagaësia of such caliber.

"You've done well." Nasuada spoke. Error blinked, studying her. The woman was smiling. "Far better than I had hoped. Tell your spellcasters how pleased I am with their work. It means much to the Varden."
Trianna nodded. "I will convey your message to them, Lady Nasuada."
"Have they yet-"

Something happened outside the doors, guards swearing as metal clanged, guards crying out. Error didn't think, he recognized the starchild outside in only a moment and knew.
He threw himself at Nasuada, giving her time to only blink until he'd covered her in strings, holding her to him as the child burst inside, Trianna prepared to fight already when Error saw the blind compulsion in the girl's violet eyes, grunting as something buried itself in one of his ribs.

The guards snatched the girl and held her in place, at least giving her permission to gag. Error released Nasuada, ignoring his pained breaths as he stepped aside.
"What is the meaning of this?" The leader of the Varden demanded.
Elva gagged again, retching over the rug before speaking. "Have the God of Destruction remove his coat, O Daughter of Ajihad, and see if I have not fulfilled my promise to you."

They glanced at him in time to see blood drip off him. He coughed. "I've endured worse; the important thing is the leader of the Varden is safe; that is, you."
Red teleported into the room, Lust bursting from the servant's entrance with Chaos in tow.
"The hell happened?" "I heard a commotion." "Daddy you're hurt!"
"Error?" Trianna asked. "What is the child speaking of?"

He sighed, coughing slightly as he felt something wet come up and color his already yellow teeth.. red, probably. The others gasped. Error rolled his eyelights and swept the corner of his jacket aside, taking it off his left shoulder as he unveiled the weapon embedded in his rib, pinning his shirt to the bone. Lust's hands shot up to his face as Red choked, humans wincing while Chaos shivered.

His gaze flicked to Elva as she stumbled. He faced her. "I will heal this, but first- who?"
"The assassin.." She shivered. "Is about to suffer great pain. He stays in the hotel on Fane Street, in the last room, on the top floor. You had better hurry, or he'll get away… away." She groaned, holding her stomach. "Hurry, before Eragon's spell forces me to stop you from hurting him. You'll be sorry, then!" She then spewed her bile all over the floor. "You can't breathe." She wheezed to Error.

He glanced at Nasuada, Red and Trianna already moving as the woman spoke. "Tell Jörmundur what's happened, then take your strongest magicians and hunt down this man. No skeleton is to engage in him alone. Do you hear me, Red?"
"Damnit, I can handle one fuckin' mage!" Error grabbed his arm as Nasuada continued with her orders. "You can't risk it." He shook Red slightly, blood seeping out of his mouth as he glared sternly. "Don't." He let go then, seeing Red's honest fear and concern before it was gone again in an irritated mask. "Fine." He grumbled, jerking his hands to his pockets with a scowl.

Lust was suddenly tugging on Error's jacket, Chaos beside him. "You need help. Would you let me heal you while they barricade us in?"
He shook his skull as Geno appeared in the room, eyelight absent as he took in the scene, Fresh opening the servant's entrance to jaunt inside.
"I reject healing magic." He murmured, looking away from Geno.

The bloody glitch stomped forward and yanked the jacket off the destroyer. "You used-" He started balling it up. "Yourself." He threw the coat in his inventory. "As a shield-" He stood in Error's nervous face. "Again!"
"Nasuada's life is more important than my immediate health." He argued.
Geno jerked his skull at Elva. "And when it affects her to have you hurt? What then?"
"I'm sure she appreciates saving the Leader of the Varden more than me getting a little hurt."
"What I appreciate." Elva interrupted loudly in her jaded adult voice. "Is no one getting injured. But I can't have that now, can I?"
Error paused as the guards started ushering them all towards Nasuada's private chambers.

Geno smacked his skull with a loud clack. "You didn't have to hurt yourself saving her, you just had to get her away from whatever was going to kill her!"
"Damnit, my thoughts weren't 'How do I help her without getting hurt'- they were 'Protect the Varden', Geno!"
The bloody glitch scowled at the destroyer as they entered the safety of Nasuada's private chambers. "You need to learn how to use that skull of yours; we all know you can." Error rolled his eyelights and grabbed the metal dart embedded in his rib. His brother took his hand suddenly.
"What."

"You could have opened your scar." Said Geno seriously. "It looks like it's on the bottom edge of it."
"There is a scar that troubles him?" Nasuada asked, lifting one hand. Error took a step back, his phobias returning now that she was in no immediate danger. "It doesn't hurt…. But it is sometimes an issue. It can bleed." Chaos explained mournfully.
"It's a genocide scar, isn't it." Lust spoke flatly, picking up Elva so she didn't need to stand on her own. Error and Geno flinched, Fresh blinking as Red's eyesockets widened, Chaos wincing.

"Is it?" The edgy Sans demanded.
Geno snapped his phalanges at Error, free hand holding bandages. "Are you going to keep them guessing or are you taking your shirt off?"
"H€re?!"
"We don't have time to just wait for a minute. Look at Elva, she's suffering because of your mistake."
He glanced at the girl, who glared at him from under a half-lidded gaze. Error sighed. This wasn't the ideal situation at all. He hugged his arms, the red bones already in full display with his jacket gone. "Please, Daddy." Chaos murmured.
"C'mon, brah. They friendos. Dey jus' wanna help, broski." Fresh reassured him, draping an arm over his shoulder. Error shot him a look, only to be interrupted by Geno. "Now!"

"I thought Error was the older one." Elva commented, unusually calm.
"Of course I am." He glared for a moment, annoyed.
"Maybe, but she clearly recognizes who's the mature one here." Geno snapped in agitation.
"You're hardly so ΠΠature, you always sa¥ you h@te Reaper wh€n you do eve®ythiπg to keep h¡m close!" Error growled, ripping off the shirt and hardly noticing as the fabric tore.
"That's a low b|ow, comiπg from you!" Geno responded in clipped tones that glitched, not even looking at the wound at this point.
"¥ou wo®®y t0o much! All I ever dø is tak€ [)am@ge; øπ€ litt|e $tick of m€tal isπ't g0ing to ma[{e a di££ereπce- €s₱e¢iall¥ in cøm₱ari§0n to that £u¢[{iπg ®€[) ₱@iπ+!" Error was nearly incomprehensible at the end of his outburst, colored glitches flickering all over his form as entirely white squares danced across the other's pale figure.
"That wa§ som€thing I ¢ould [)0 πothing abøut! But that isn't your con©ern an¥more, you n€€d to ta[{e ca®e o£ y0urse|f, becau$e a lot of people actually care about you!" He slipped into Wingdings to drive the point home. Error opened his mouth to reply, but found he had nothing.
Nor could he say anything, he just couldn't gather enough air to respond.

"Broskis." Fresh spoke quietly. "Glitchy brah's not doin' so hot."
Error glanced down at himself and blinked, Geno pausing as he took in the sight as well. There was an old, deep scar that was poorly scabbed running diagonal over his ribcage, cracks radiating from the central break, the bottom right on his last two ribs reopened and raining a bit of dust alongside blood, the red liquid clumping with the grey powder as it spewed out with each inhale.

"How are you alive?" Lust questioned in horror. "The wound looks like it should have killed you." Nasuada added. "What on earth caused that?"
"I don't exactly remember." Error admitted quietly. Geno scoffed. "He was me before I existed. Got taken by a higher deity and forced into godhood- it didn't heal him properly but made him capable of being actually alive."
"But that does open up the question.." Lust trailed.
Geno was wrapping a bandage around the reopened wound as Error averted his gaze. "What question?" Responded the bloody glitch.

"How are you alive? You're no god, yet you share an identical wound- except it's fresh." Nasuada elaborated. Geno paused, looking to the side. He sighed, then returned to dressing the injury as he answered. "I'm too Determined to die."
"That should kill you, too." Red stated flatly.
"It should, but the shard of a Soul I have constantly produces Determination and this slash- and technically my face, too- constantly leaks. This isn't blood, guys. There's a reason it's so bright and doesn't clot or dry or dust."

"But if Error's like you and his scar is healed- well, not bleeding anymore- then is he still Determined?"
"My bones are red." The glitch stated simply and vaguely. There was a moment as everyone tried to understand.

"I still don't get it." Red responded. Error pinched the bone between his sockets. "My magic is completely saturated with Determination and some... Integrity." The lines on his face flashed with the word.
"So you're red-boned because Determination literally filtered into you and your magic?" Lust asked seriously.
"Yes." Both glitches replied.
"Then what caused the black?"
A pause.
"....Are you hateful?" Lust asked softly.
"A little."

Error stepped away from Geno before he had quite finished, earning a sharp huff as the other merely followed him. The destroyer ignored him in favor of approaching the others, holding out his arm. "The black isn't hate, though. I know I don't have enough- not even towards myself. It's just the corruption of the Anti-Void. Look. I'm actually red beneath the codes."

True to his word, the black color was only a thick layer of black code coloring his bones, hints of hue glowing beneath innumerable numbers.
"Actually, I see some yellow and blue as well." Lust pointed out. Error raised a non-existent eyebrow at him. "Really."
He pointed at the destroyer's blackened ulna beside his vivid red radius. "It's dark blue unlike the almost Patience hue of your.. lines and strings." He then pointed at Error's humerus. "And there's yellow under there."
He glanced at his own arm curiously. "It was all red before."

"Does that mean you're losing Determination?" Red asked as Chaos peered at her own greyed arms.
"I don't know."
"Even if you're not as Determined as before, parts of you are technically saturated with the other two, maybe three traits. Justice and Integrity, and maybe some Patience mixed in it too." Lust reasoned. "Those are all common Sans traits when they can handle the human magics, and you're so full of it- literally. It's completely altered your appearance. Before I met you guys the most Determined skeleton I'd ever known was you." He glanced at Red, who lifted his non-existent eyebrows.
"Fuck, Lust. I barely have any compared to Dust alone. I'm just fuckin' angry at shit."

"What point are you trying to make, Lust?" Nasuada asked. The sexualized skeleton blinked, glancing up blankly before his thoughts caught up with him. "Oh! Yes, that. What I'm saying is, Error. Doesn't that make you inherently far more powerful than the rest of us without the godly destructive magic adding to it?"
"I thought it was obvious. Yes."
"…Oh."
"Wait, it just occurred to me that.." Red hesitated, glancing between the two glitches.

"If y'all both got near-human levels Determination, then what about you?" He pointed at Fresh. Everyone blinked. The parasite gestured to himself, scoffing slightly.
"Brah, I'ma disease. I gots no humie traits." He shrugged. "Kinda spicy, doe." He regarded Error. "Crossy brah kinda did a dum dum givin' me his 'termination, cause he don't have a lot. But I can't judge their choice. But it coulda been better if he jus' talk wit' one a glitchy bros. Ya dig that?"

Red scowled, eyesockets empty as he struggled to understand what Fresh said.
"It means Cross gave up some of his and XChara's Determination to help Fresh. That was a bad move when they could have contacted one of us or even Nightmare. He knows we both have a surplus we could have given Fresh and his current host."
"Petals." Fresh said.
"What?" Geno faced him, Error picking up his ripped shirt in disdain as he realized what he'd done a few minutes ago.

"Hi' name's Petals." Fresh elaborated. His sunglasses were blank, but he was smiling amiably. It was.. unsettling.
Geno seemed a little hesitant to respond.
"Alright. I didn't realize he had one. You normally don't bother."
"He named 'imself." Fresh shrugged. "Real ice of him."
Error looked afraid for a moment when he glanced at Fresh, but it was gone as soon as it came.
Geno was still a mask of gentle softness.
"I'm glad he's being so kind."
"'Is good."
There was a moment of uneasy silence before Red coughed awkwardly.

"That's pretty great and all, but." He averted his gaze while scratching his skull. "Since we're waitin' for some shit to die and I can't do anything, I got another question."
"Shoot, brah. I'm bored, too."
"I know you're a parasite, but what the hell are you actually? I don't know and I've always wondered."
"That's rather forward of you to ask." Geno glared at him, Error rumbling quietly.

"It's cool, broskis. He don' know and he wonderin'. An uh, answer your Q, I don' really know either." He reached for his shades, hesitating. Then he pulled them off, revealing purple stained sockets as his true eyes peered out at them. "I know I started as a kinda Souling parasite." He admitted, dropping most of his lingo. "Erry's mana changed when he got took, left weird..echoes in da Save Screen." He waved his hands, a few tentacles waving in the eyesocket as well.

"And bleach brah came and that reacted to dat, but 'cause he only got a shard of a Soul and da rest was in da AU and technically Erry's magi was a twisted version of it, it kinda got weird. I apparently couldn't stick to Geno and when Inky came I just thought he had more magic and switched, but he's Soulless, so…." The parasite stuck it's head out and he wriggled the magic brows.
"I got completely screwed up tryna live on paint, far I know. Attacked first livin' thing I saw and it was a octopus kinda monster in some AU. Messed me up even more and I jus' started goin' after skels. Dere's mah story. Dat give ya anything?"

Red stared at Fresh for a solid minute in a full deadpan, Lust's eyesockets blank as they all thought about this.
"Basically." Chaos concluded. "Another thing Ink caused because he visited Uncle Gen-Gen's Save Screen after creating too much all the time."
"Eh." The 90's reject shrugged. "I think it's rad tibia alive, but.." He glanced to the side, his true self peering downward thoughtfully. A reddish eyelight flickered in the empty socket, staring at it before glancing at the rest of them.

They could see the parasite reassert itself before Fresh spoke. "Bein' a parasite ain't real ideal, yo." He sighed. "I coulda been like you, but I'm. I'm not. I kill you 'stead. Pretty unrad of meh, but I can't even… feel anything." He was quiet, a look of existential dread on his face.
"I wanna feel like you do." He spoke seriously. "Love. Hate. Happiness. Sadness. Gratitude. Regret. Envy. I want to understand what you feel, but all I ever have is fear." He shivered, the parasite curling up a little. "I'm scared of dying. All I ever wanted was a chance, but I just.. I don't know. And I'm gonna die not knowing that, in a weirdo world that doesn't get it, all I'm gonna be to the Multiverse was that horrible parasite that cursed everyone or somethin'. They don't know, and now they never will."

"Fresh." Geno murmured. The parasite glanced up, but the face was still as he reached for it. The bloody glitch stopped his hand, drawing him into a half hug as he pet the true form softly.
"You're crying." Error stated, sockets wide and worried.
It was true.
Tears stained his host's face as little streaks painted his true form.

Everyone was silent, unsure how to respond.