"So if you don't mind me asking," Geno began, looking rather on edge. "We usually don't get a lot of humans around these parts, it's usually just us skeletons since we're all... linked, I guess you could say. But you're new, why is that?"

Your eyes flickered to Error who had fixated himself in a corner of the makeshift camp that had been set up by Ink's dwindling forces. He seemed fixated on playing some sort of imaginary game with his puppets. You had learned that there was some battle that had occurred a few hours back, during which Ink had been captured and Lust unfortunately being killed. Though you weren't complaining about that, given the stories G often told.

"My universe," you explained. "it randomly disappeared. I found myself in the Void and that's where I met Ink and Error. They said the same thing happened to them, where they used to be in timelines of their own before it collapsed in on itself and threw them here."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"They're not dead," you snapped, your voice going suddenly cold. Before Geno could formulate a response you were already walking away, not knowing whether to apologise or leave it alone. "Why does everyone keep saying that?" you asked, sitting down next to Error. "They're alive, I know it."

"You keep telling yourself that," Error muttered, narrowing his eyes in concentration as he played with some skeleton puppet clad in a red jacket and pointed teeth. "But Blueberry," he whispered under his breath, suddenly oblivious to the fact that you were still within earshot. "I love you!" You forced back laughter as Error continued to play with his two puppets - one being the skeleton you assumed was named Blueberry and the other puppet the skeleton with the red jacket and filed teeth. It seemed that he was shipping the two of them together?

"But Edgy MC Romance, I love you!" Error had the Blueberry puppet wail, kneeling before the emo skeleton puppet's feet.

"But you are in love with another." Error's voice shifted to a deeper tone, trying to imitate the gruff voice of the Edgy MC Romance skeleton. "Your heart belongs to Ink, Blueberry, and you are supposed to marry him tomorrow. If we run off together, it could mean war for all the other AU's."

"But Edgy!" The Blueberry puppet clung onto Edgy's jacket. Error's eyes narrowed in concentration as he continued with the play. "Let us run away together! If war is the price it must take for us to be together, than so be it!"

"Is that so?"

Error conjured a blue string, raising another puppet that he had made which resembled Ink in every likeness. "Blueberry, are you cheating on me?"

What a scandal, you thought, watching silently and doing all you could to refrain from laughter.

Error's voice went up an octave, unnatural compared to his usual gruff and glitched voice that you had grown accustomed to. "Ink!" The Blueberry puppet exclaimed. "I can explain! Edgy is secretly our child, I mean isn't it obvious! He's an emo angsty teenager, he even has your eyes!"

The Ink puppet looked at the Edgy puppet thoughtfully. "You're right," the puppet nodded in agreement. The Edgy puppet trembled in outrage, Error swinging his hand wildly to mimick the emotion.

"You said you loved me!" Edgy wailed and began to throw himself onto Ink. "I will avenge my love!" The emo skeleton puppet tore out stuffing and yarn, a very brutal and bloody scene. The play ended with Ink's mangled puppet corpse on the floor, missing several limbs and an eye.

Error seemed pleased with this and stuffed the puppets back into his pockets before jumping upon realising you were still watching him. "That was certainly interesting," you remarked, smirk only growing as Error shook with an unknown fury. "Blueberry and Edgy? Those seem to be very peculiar names."

"It's canon!" Error shrieked, suddenly defensive. "Don't you dare trash my ship!" He turned away from you, his arms folded across his chest. In a blind state of panic, Error threw off his jacket and began rummaging through his pockets. For a moment you wondered if he was looking for another one of his puppets, but a growing realisation set over you.

"Are you looking for these?" you asked him, pulling out the pair of red glasses that you had picked up a few hours back. Error's expression was unreadable as you slowly put his jacket back on, eyesockets devoid of life and knowing. You wondered if he was going to even take the glasses back at all when he snatched them from your outstretched hand in a deft fluid motion before whisking them away into his pocket.

"What - "

"Enough!" Error snapped, his voice laced with outrage and menace. You shrank back at the harsh tone in his words, wondering how he could have gone from playing with his puppets to the skeleton that was now standing before you. "What would it matter if I told you? We're all going to be dead within the week, so it seems pointless."

"We're not going to lose," you retorted, standing up so that the two of you were eye level. "We're going to win this war and everything - "

"Don't you understand!" Error spat. The wandering eyes of several skeletons were now watching, silent as his rant continued. "Are you all so idiotic that you simply cannot see the truth in front of you? Ink is dead, there is no hope in rescuing him. Nightmare has no need for Ink to be alive, so what makes you think that he's keeping your creator around? He probably bit the dust the moment he was captured.

"And for you," he whipped around to face you, his multicoloured pinpricks blazing in fury. "Nothing can go back to normal. We are all scars on this multiverse, each and every one of us is an anomaly that meets their end in death. Your universe, your friends and your family, they're all dead. There is no hope for us in this war. You all know it," he growled, looking from Fresh and to Geno. "That's why you haven't sent a search party. You know Ink's dead and that's why we're here, prolonging our inevitable deaths."

It stung, hearing those words. A sort of finality accompanied Error's words, the final seal that stamped your dead world into a cold and barren grave, away from any hope of return. You would never see your brothers and sisters again, your friend Frisk. No one would remember them for no one lived to carry on their memories, you were the only one with any evidence that they had once existed. They would not have any funeral nor live in any afterlife, not that there was a realm to live after this anyway. Where would you go when you died? Even your gods had been erased from existence.

"That's an unrad thing to say my broski," Fresh replied, his voice unusually grim. But he did not bother to dare counter or rebuke Error's claims nor did anyone else try. You could see it in the statures of everyone else, the way their shoulders slumped, the hollow looks in their eyes that showed they all felt the same mutual understanding, Ink was dead and there was truly no hope for this war.

"So that's it?" You interjected, feeling your blood roaring in your ears. "Ink dies, your leader falls and so does everything you've stood for? When Nightmare crushes us, what will the other universes think? Will they think that their protectors, those with the power to fight and defend the multiverse, ran away like cowards to their holes when faced with an adversary? Because that is what you are doing, right here, right now. If we are too lose this was then let us go down bloody instead of quietly."

Why were you saying this? Unlike the other monsters before you, you had neither magic nor any other special power. You could barely open a bottle of water to save your life, so why was this time any different? Sure, you had survived the destruction of your universe, but you were nothing more than an unimportant glitch, an anomaly without a purpose.

But your words seemed to resonate within those around you. Error seemed on edge and you wondered if the comedian was going to help or simply stay in the shadows and play with his puppets. Like it or not, you needed him, even if he was a pain at most times. He was one of the strongest amongst the group, having been able to rival and combat Ink for centuries. Perhaps longer.

Your eyes fell to the red glasses, the tip of the lens just barely visible from his pocket. How old were those glasses? What AU had Error been before this one? What was he like before the Void had chipped away at his sanity, reduced him to the echo of his former self? It felt strange, looking at him. Ages ago this had been the body of a different skeleton with a different name and personality. Still, it was the same body, but it seemed that an entirely new mind had taken over. It was strange to think that Error had once been so different than he was today.

You realised that the skeletons were staring at you, waiting for your next word. This caught you unawares, having not expected to become a makeshift leader in the group. I can't even fight, you thought grimly, staring at the palm of your hand. What good is a leader that can't even fight alongside those that they command?

"I-I can't lead you." The words fell from your tongue without ceasing. "I'm not like any of you. I can't wield magic, I don't have any weapons."

"Any human can use the magic trapped within their soul [Y/N]," Error groveled, looking annoyed that he had to repeat himself so many times. "It's not that you can't use magic but rather you're too arrogant to comprehend how to use it. Perhaps if you had learned how to harness the nature of your soul, if you had learned how to use your magic beforehand, maybe your universe would still be alive, maybe even Ink. It's funny the way the multiverse pinpoints the anomalies, the few that have any real power. But it seems that we were given one with faulty wiring."

Geno looked horrorstricken at Error's words, his eyes wandering from the glitch and then back to you. The rage was boiling within you, a pure and profound hatred that coursed through your entire being, diluted all other thoughts. It was the same rage you had felt towards him before, during your first encounter when you had tried to strangle the life from him. If only you had done so then, killed Error and maybe you wouldn't be in this mess. But you would kill him now. How dare he, how dare anyone say that your universe was dead? And how was it your fault, how could you have known?

The rage filled your very essence, hummed within the core of your being and became an extension of yourself, an invisible third hand that could leap out ans strike an enemy at a moment's notice. The tips of your fingers were ablaze, small candles that flickered with [F/C] flame, waiting for your command, waiting to attack...

And your third hand struck, the invisible hand, the hand of magic and might, directing all of your fury, all of your hatred towards the glitch, wanting to eradicate him from the face of existence. Not a memory of him would be left after you were done, for he would be nothing more than a scorch mark after this was all said and done.

The world was aflame.

A torrent of light, a flash of [F/C] that pierced through the air and for the first time the Void was alive with colour. It was a light show as the energy rushed through your being, out the palms of your hand and in the direction you willed them, towards Error, towards anything in particular as long as you could kill, kill, kill!

"That's it!" Error chuckled and with a mere sweep of his hand, a black Gaster Blaster materialised in front of him and blocked your flame, the fire curving around the shield before you severed the energy, growling in frustration. You narrowed your eyes and searched for another way, any way around to kill the glitch. You would win, you would kill!

"That's enough my ham slice."

Fresh's voice was oddly quiet as you were lifted into the air, a magical hold keeping your soul at bay. No matter how much you struggled there was no use in moving, Fresh's power keeping you locked in place. "That was quite a show." The glitch clapped his hands. "It usually takes emotion, strong ones as you so demonstrated, to first unlock the magic locked within one's soul. Over time it will get easier and displays such as this can be easier to perform."

So it was a provocation? Had Error meant his words, or was it something he had merely said to instigate the magic? You weren't sure what to feel, how to react, whether you should thank the comedian or stab him, that choice was unclear.

But there was a hollow feeling as you got to your feet, rubbing your forehead. For some reason you felt oddly tired as if you had not slept in days, weeks even. It seemed that using an extensive amount of magic taxed the energy reserves within your body, so it seemed best to only use your magic for dire situations.

"Well what are you waiting for?" You cast a glance over your shoulder, looking back at the group of skeletons behind you. "We're going to find Nightmare and we're going to kill him, or die trying."

There was a firm resolve shared amongst the group, seen through the hard glint in their eyes. You stared back at Error for a moment, your eyes meeting the comedian's, wondering if he was going to join. There was nothing you could do to stop him if Error chose to left, he was perhaps the strongest of the skeletons in your makeshift group. And it wasn't like anything was keeping him here, so why should he stay? You couldn't fathom a reason why he would want to join and risk his life for a sakeless cause.

And as the group of skeletons began to march towards wherever Nightmare lay, guided only by the whisperings of the Void, bound together by their ability to find Ink whether he be alive or dead, Error followed.