The two of you are different.

One chose to protect, the other chose to destroy. But yet you share a similar past, experiences and events a direct parallel, thrown into the same Void under the same circumstances, exiled from a dead world with a forgotten name and a forgotten existence. So maybe there was an opportunity here, no matter how different you and Error were, even if there was an invisible balance that was pushing you two in opposite directions.

Ever since Ink had succumbed to Gaster's wrath, given himself up as a vessel for the demented demon, the reality around you had become noticeably sharper, every detail, every aspect of every world that floated in the multiverse called out to you in songs unheard to most. The balance had shifted and you had become the one to secede Ink in full, take over his part as the protector, the guardian of the AU's. And here you stood, in the world without name or place, the void of white where all forgotten souls, where all glitches and anomalies were thrown into to rot, here you stood with their destroyer, the ultimate adversary that threatened the existence of every world and every thing that had ever lived or died.

You were in the Void, no longer trapped within the dead world with Gaster and Ink's corrupted form. Where you stood was unlike a place you had ever seen before, a stark contrast when compared to the serene vastness of the Void. A variety of paintings and portals were strung together in some sort of sphere, chatter and voices ringing out without cease. Some part of you felt drawn to this, relished in the presence of other living things and an instinct to protect them manifested inside you, wanting to save and preserve these worlds so that they would exist for centuries more.

Error seemed on edge in this place. this hub that offered glimpses into every universe and every form of reality that constructed the multiverse. "Where are we?" you breathed, taking in with astonishment the complexity of the place you stood.

"This is the Doodle Sphere," Error grumbled, looking in annoyance at a particular AU that contained extremely graphic content. "Are you sure I can't destroy just this one universe? I mean no one would miss Lusttale."

"No," you snapped, feeling that odd instinct manifest again. Even if it wasn't the best of the universes, every world and every character had a voice that contributed to the song that echoed throughout the Doodle Sphere and the eradication of even one world would be all the difference, the song changing and never again reflecting the grandeur of what it had once been. "Why does everything look this way?"

"You mean all the paintings?" Error's hand flexed uncomfortably, still wanting to destroy the one Lusttale universe. "Ink set this as the default appearance. Where we actually stand is the sort of centre of the Void with portals and rifts that can access every universe that is and will be. Ink chose to have them take on the appearance of paintings for his own amusement, which is really nothing more than a false mask for these anomalies."

You pretended to ignore the comedian and walked over to another universe, the tips of your fingers dancing along the edge of the painting that offered a glimpse into the happenings of the world. Every part of you wanted to throw everything aside and jump into the universe, spend hours and hours learning everything you could about those that lived inside. Every single monster was important, a small spark that when put together, created a large star that would be all the different if even one light were to fade out.

"Gaster wants to erase everything," you mumbled. "When Nightmare captured me, it was all a game of his to isolate Ink and possess him, while using the determination from my soul to give him the power he needed to fully rewrite everything. He said he was planning on having just one universe, one universe altered to protection so that the humans inside would never need to reset or change anything, thus resulting in an impasse where no more alternate universes could create anything." You paused for a moment, looking up at Error wondering how he would react. You still remained uncertain if he would side with Gaster, as he wanted to see the destruction of the worlds as well.

Error grimaced. "That's the difference between us then. Gaster seeks to rewrite perfection, to alter the main universe so that it is his twisted idea of a utopia. If I were to pull the strings," he chuckled at his own pun, "I would seek only to destroy each and every universe until only the true timeline remained. Altering the true timeline itself would just make it an anomaly, it should stay the way it is. That is the difference."

Something told you in the way Error spoke that it wasn't the only reason why he was refusing to side with Gaster, the same reason he had continued to follow you and the others in Ink's makeshift army and why he had followed you in the forest in the world of stars. How long ago that felt.

"What happened to them?" The topic had shifted as all things did.

"When you were captured and everyone realised that Reaper had been the one to betray us, Geno went into a rage and tried to kill the damn fool himself, which was a suicide mission in of itself. With a touch, Reaper killed Geno and was about to do the same for Fresh, but he left before anything could happen. I managed to escape in time, but I haven't seen Fresh since. Geno is dead, however."

You felt a stab of pain go through you. With Geno's death meant the ultimate collapse of his world, his small slice of reality since he had been the only living being inside it. One less voice to fill the Void, a deafening silence even with the chatter and converse of the millions of other worlds.

"I don't know where to start or where to begin," you whispered, turning back to the Void. "Gaster is weak still without the power of a soul he can't harness his full ability to use the Overwrite button, but all he has to do is jump into any timeline and steal the soul of the human there. And with that power he'll be unstoppable and it will really be too late to do anything."

What pushed Ink over the edge, what part of him decided to stop fighting and just give up? Surely even with no soul, even with his emotions depleted, was not there still a faint memory of how much he had cared for the multiverse, how much he had fought and sacrificed so that all these worlds might live? And yet he had given himself up as the vessel, the first step towards the destruction of all the worlds. If the painter was here he would have figured out how to solve this mess in a heartbeat. Then again, if Ink was here, there wouldn't be this problem in the first place.

"There's so many universes that Gaster could go to and so little time," you snapped and turned to Error, feeling the hopelessness set in. Without hope there was only fear and with fear would Gaster win. "By the time we even get an idea of where he is, it'll be too late."

"Probably," Error shrugged and leaned backwards, floating in midair.

You rolled your eyes and drank in your surroundings, trying to pinpoint a spot, anywhere, where Gaster may have decided to make himself known. No doubt he was already at work, desperate to get his claws around a human soul and begin his goal of deleting the universes. But that would not happen, you would not allow it.

Error's left eye twitched, something primordial occurring within him. You felt a tremor run down your body as well, thoughts and feelings that were not your own, yet a part of you, racking through your brain. "What the hell?" Error breathed and ran his hand down his skull, strings forming. He shot them towards a painting and attempted to destroy the coding before wincing and pulling the strings back. "Why can't I - "

And yet the same thoughts were inside of you. Even with your attraction towards the universes, there was a lurking sense of repulsion at the noise, the wanting to retreat into the furthest corner of the Void and relish in the never ending silence of things. But these thoughts were not your own, how could they be? And yet the thoughts were a part of you, generated by your own mind.

"I hate these glitches," Error mused, gesturing to the universes. "Just now I tried to destroy one to test out my theory - "

"To test your theory?"

"You didn't let me finish," the comedian groveled and continued. "And even though every part of me wanted to, there was a block, something restrained me. For a second I almost thought of letting it exist, the nerve!"

"It happened to me too." You explained the manifestation that stuck out as a tumor within your mind, the great beast that stirred ever so slightly and murked in your thoughts. "It's my job to protect these worlds, to make sure that the multiverse continues to live and thrive. And yet a part of me is repulsed by the noise of it all."

"Now you know how I feel," Error chuckled and then immediately went rigid, putting two and two together.

"Do you think it's because of our souls?" You brought your own into view, brushing a finger along the ebony black half that was once a part of Error's. "I said that there might be consequences, things that might happen that we never thought of. Do you think this is one of them?"

It seemed that the shared halves of your souls rendered a mental link that coexisted amongst you and Error, linking both your thoughts and feelings with one another. Though you couldn't understand exactly what the comedian was thinking, certain strong emotions of his could push through the connection and reflect onto you and vice versa. You suddenly felt much more exposed, for one's mind was their last sanctuary and to have another share in it was not something to take lightly.

"Maybe after we kill Gaster we can figure out a way to reverse it," you offered. "Maybe - "

"No," Error growled. "What I did, it's irreversible. While my half didn't mix with your soul entirely given the complex nature of human souls, your half mixed with mine and it's virtually impossible to undo the effects. Like it or not, we are stuck this way."

"Maybe it's for the better then," you attempted, hoping to lighten the situation. "This could be the start of something new. If we can look into what another is feeling, then wouldn't that even out the playing field? No more light, no more dark or good and evil, only balance. If I don't want to create and you no longer want to destroy, doesn't that make things better?"

Error hesitated for a moment. "I guess."

You frowned and looked at the universes, once more feeling the protective instinct just as Ink often possessed, the repulsion still remaining all the while. Was this the best thing, you and Error with interlinked thoughts that in turn produced an unbreakable truce? Maybe things would be different this time, maybe there was a chance to end the cycle and forge a better future for the sake of the multiverse. No more creation, no more destruction. If the timelines remained the way they were, functioning pieces of reality playing the same song with no added chords and no missing vocals, wasn't that the ideal haven?

"So," you sat down next to Error, lying down on the floor to admire the universes that swirled above. The comedian let out a grunt in recognition. "Tell me about yourself."

"I'm good," Error grunted and rolled over, facing away from you.

"Come on, it's not like we have anything better to do!" you protested.

When the glitch did not reply you frowned and stared back at the worlds that spiraled above, mind drifting to thoughts of the future to come and if you could truly manage in defeating Gaster and ensuring that the multiverse would get to live to see another day. And what would happen then, when Nightmare and Gaster met their end? You belonged in no universe, yours passed into whatever afterlife lay after this one, and the same went for Error. No matter where you went, no matter how many universes you visited, your home was forever to be in the Void, a place that slowly rotted away the minds of those that lived inside.

"I don't remember much of my world," Error grunted, refusing to look at you, becoming oddly intent in staring at the ground. "It could have been centuries or even a week ago, it gets hard to tell at some points. I assume I had friends as most alternate versions have some sort of family. I slept a lot when I first came here, it was the only thing I could do here. But that got boring. Eventually I started wandering around and screaming because there was nothing else to do but scream, but then the Void started yelling back and there were so many screams - "

Error paused for a moment, his eyesockets a cloud of glitches and errors. "But then I grew to like it here, where there wasn't any noise and no one to bother me. It was predictable and I liked having a routine, knowing that I could always remain in the Void and have silence, nothing to greet me. It was relaxing. But then one day I managed to open a rift, it's one of the powers that you get if you spend enough time here. I remember stepping into this one universe, but I don't remember much."

"What happened to them?" you asked.

"Probably killed them," Error shrugged. "But anyway, I eventually came back here, not wanting to go to another universe again. It was so noisy in that world where everything was just talking and talking and talking. So I slept some more until that got boring again and I began to wander, certain that I wasn't the only one here. And that's when I met Ink." Error seemed to pause for a moment and a part of you wondered if a bit of the comedian had cared for the painter in some small way given their history together. "Like me, Ink was confused and he was nothing like when you first met him. He never said what universe he came from and I never bothered to ask. We walked around the Void together until we found the Doodle Sphere.

"Ink loved it and insisted we stay here, but I hated it. It was so noisy with all the universes and chatter, I wanted more than anything to just go back and sleep in some corner of the Void where I knew it was at least quiet. So I did just that, leaving Ink for a while. But after seeing the Doodle Sphere, it was a nagging part of me that always wanted to go back, to delete those damn glitches because I knew now that there was noise in the Void and there isn't supposed to be any noise at all! So I went back and I deleted a universe for the first time.

"I didn't expect to see Ink there but he made himself visible to me. He had changed, he looked different from the first time I had met him, looking a lot like he did when you saw him. He was furious at me for deleting the universe and fought me right then and there, driving me out of the Doodle Sphere."

You frowned, feeling the sense of anger that burst through your mental link with Error. There was also betrayal there too, giving you the impression that Error had once regarded Ink as a friend and the recollection of their first fight seemed to reveal old wounds.

"But even when I left and retreated further into the Void, the only thing I could remember was how good it felt to look into the coding of that damn glitch and erase it from existence. And I didn't want to stop there, I wanted to continue until it was all gone, erase everything until the true universe remained. Because that was how it was meant to be. And so things progressed like that, Ink and I were always at each other's throats, repeating battles that never ceased to end. And then Nightmare threw up his banners and declared war on all the universes and suddenly our views changed, we were united by a common enemy for the first time. You know the rest."

The tension between the two of you relaxed after Error had finished, you taking his words in silence.

The universes continued to sing their same song above, until the lyrics suddenly shifted, one less voice, never to be heard again.