(Above art belongs to Comyet [aka: Mye Bi]... I wanted to include this so more people are aware that Ink has an official redesign and his creator said she'd prefer if people would use it instead of his old design)

Dreamtale was one of the many, many universes Error had tried to destroy, and, for the most part, did. Most of the universe was just... gone. The council's meetings were held in a building built in the remains of it. The council consisted of beings from across the multiverse, led by Ink, and would meet whenever something bad was happening.

Ink had called a meeting with the Sanses of the multiverse (since most AUs had a Sans), along with any similar folk, even forcibly dragging the Bad Guys (Nightmare's team of murderous assholes [which consisted of only Sanses aside from Nightmare himself, who technically didn't count as a Sans) into this, to discuss the current situation:

Two AUs had seemingly collapsed on their own.

Error, local destroyer of universes, had (seemingly) been killed a while ago, so he was ruled out as the cause.

The majority of the multiverse had no clue about the limited amount of space for AUs, so they didn't realize the actual cause of the collapsing was Error's disappearance (since his job was destroying AUs to keep the cap from being reached, since Ink had no clue about the cap and thus kept creating).

"Alright, everyone," Ink said, sitting at the head of the table, "as we all know, Error's dead. That should've meant the end of the destruction... but recently, two AUs have been destroyed."

"And what do you want us to do about it, Squid?"

The question came from the corner of the table, closest to the corner of the room... the corner in which the Bad Guys were designated to sit (away from most of the others since no sane people wanted to sit next to the group of bloodthirsty serial killers [and Cross... and Horror], especially since they were pals with Error [though "pals" was certainly an overstatement. For the most part, the group didn't really care care for anyone). More specifically, it came from Nightmare, leader of the group and known for being absolutely terrifying to all but the most brave or foolish.

"Well," Ink replied, "I want you to help the rest of us!"

"..."

After a long pause, all five of the Bad Guys burst into laughter, much to Ink's annoyance.

"HEY!!! Take this seriously!!!"

"Oh, 'sorry' 'buddy," Nightmare continued, "but if you think we're gonna help you, you've gotta be out of your mind. Why the fuck should we help you? What's in it for us?"

The bitterness was still evident in his voice. Ink guessed he was still a bit salty about Error's (presumed) death.

And indeed, he was.

He had been planning to get revenge ever since he heard the news that Error was likely dead. His only reason for showing up and acting calmly was to keep Ink from suspecting anything.

"Oh, well, it's simple: NOT DYING."

"...what?"

Ink walked over until he was as close as he knew Nightmare would tolerate.

"Well, what if this happens to more universes? What if this happens to one you're in? You guys could very easily die at any moment, just like everybody else."

"..."

The group stopped looking so smug. Dust whispered something to Killer, Horror actually seemed a bit nervous, and Cross got past his ego for once.

Ink had a point.

"We're all in this together, 'buddy.' Might as well cooperate. If everyone dies, including you five, that doesn't really benefit anyone... 'cus we'd all be dead."

"...whatever, fine."

In group matters like this, Nightmare tended to be the one to speak for the whole team (because no one questioned his authority unless they wanted to be killed). So, none of the others had a say in this.

Now, it was obvious that all of them wouldn't be allowed to murder anyone until after the situation was resolved... at least if they could avoid getting caught (which, in all honesty, wasn't too difficult, as skeletons had no fingerprints and, even if they did, none of those present really knew how DNA testing worked [apart from possibly Sci, though no one had ever asked]. They mainly judged based on weapons and wounds, so if someone were to attack another person with a weapon they didn't normally use, they'd likely be hard to catch).

"Alrighty-then everyone, now that we're all on the same page here, let's get going!... wait, what's the plan again?"

Ink had forgotten his own plan... not surprising, considering how bad his memory was. Dream had, in all honesty, been expecting this... and dreading it, as it meant he had to speak in front of everyone... including his brother, Nightmare.

Whom he honestly feared.

However, he knew he had to do something. So, he got up at the head of the table and spoke as loudly and clearly as he could, trying to ignore his twin's presence.

"Ok, everyone, the plan is... pretty much just to keep watch around the multiverse for anything suspicious. It's hard to tell what the cause is currently. I'm sorry, but it's all we can do for now. Keep your guards up at all times and report to Ink if anything bad happens anywhere. I know we can get past this if we work together!"

The more optimistic folk in the crowd cheered at this, while the more pessimistic people seemed less than enthusiastic about the whole ordeal. Some seemed outright terrified of just the idea of more sudden collapses.

...and then there were the miscellaneous versions of Undyne in the crowd (or anyone with her personality in the cases of swap AUs), whose screams/battle cries were likely enough to shatter an entire world by themselves.

As the meeting concluded and everyone went home, Ink approached Dream.

"Hey, Dream, can you do something for me? I've gotta stay here in case anyone needs me."

"Sure! Always happy to help!"

"Well, y'see... I was hoping you could, well..."

He seemed a bit reluctant to speak, likely trying to figure out how to word things (something which he often struggled on), 'til eventually he got something out:

"...could you please go over to Underswap and try to convince Swap to help us? I know we haven't talked to him in a long time, but..."

Swap (Underswap Sans) had formerly been a rather close friend of Ink and Dream. However, they had practically cut contact ever since Swap's return after being kidnapped by Error due to their differing opinions on him (Swap thought he wasn't that bad, while Ink and Dream still saw him as a threat to the multiverse and had their own reasons to hate him: For Ink, it was how Error kept destroying his creations, which he cared about a lot. For Dream, it was how Error [mostly] destroyed his home and the homes of others, all while causing fear and pain for many of those who dread also becoming victims, or whose friends and family had become victims). Allegedly, Error had actually been quite kind to Swap, and allowed his universe to go back up after willingly releasing him. However, no one really believed the story (despite it being true), or at least the aspects about Error being kind and willingly allowing a universe to go back up (after all, glitching is a natural side effect of being in the Antivoid for a long period of time. Glitching impacts memory, so, for all anyone knew, he could've been misremembering things, even though he never became... something like Error). They didn't really have an alternative explanation, but they found it hard to believe that the destroyer would allow his own work to be undone.

It had been so long.

"...we need all the help we can get, y'know?"

"...ok, I'll ask him."

Dream was a bit nervous but thought that it was at least worth a shot.

"Great! Thanks a lot, pal!"

Ink ran back to the main meeting room. Dream was about to exit the AU when he was stopped by someone he knew all too well...

Someone whom he dreaded ever speaking to on any occasion.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my worthless piece-of-shit brother."

Nightmare.

"Thought you could avoid me, huh?"

"U-Uh..."

Dream was instantly petrified with fear, as did tend to happen whenever his brother was around. After all, the way Nightmare had treated Dream over the years had been far from nice...

"N-Nightmare, please stop!!!" Dream called out as he struggled in an attempt to free himself from the grip of one of his brother's tentacles. This proved to be in vain, and he remained helpless as Nightmare continued to cut down the population right in front of him.

Dream wanted to look away, but he couldn't. It was too gruesome.

How unfortunate for him that it had to happen while Ink was busy with fighting Error.

"Feeling pretty bad, huh, Dream?" Nightmare said coldly, yet he still smiled. "All because of your weakness... pathetic. Guess I should've expected you to fail, though. After all, I think we both know a certain someone you just weren't able to save when he needed you the most..."

Dream's self-esteem was paper-thin. It hadn't always been this way (...for the most part). His constant positivity used to be genuine, and he used to love himself just as much as he loved everyone else...

However, Nightmare had taken that away from him.

"Useless, aren't you? Hmph. Maybe if you want to succeed, you should actively try to fail. I bet you wouldn't even be able to do that right."

Nightmare slammed Dream to the ground before letting go, about to do much worse...

"Forget that, shithead. I thought I told you not to run away from me. It's annoying."

"Y-Yes brother," Dream responded sheepishly, "wh-what is it that you'd like to talk about?..."

"Just here to remind you of something..."

Nightmare grabbed Dream's arm and pulled him a bit closer. He smiled widely.

"Just because everyone's 'working together' or whatever doesn't mean I'm gonna put up with your bullshit. Don't forget, you're still just as annoying and worthless as always, and no amount of 'cooperation' is ever gonna change that."

"U-U-Um-"

"WHAT?"

Dream had never even thought of what Nightmare had brought up (in truth, Nightmare was just taking the chance to belittle his brother yet again). However, he certainly wasn't going to consider the possibility after this.

He didn't know how to answer.

"TELL ME."

Suddenly, as Nightmare was about to slap him in the face, Dream, as if his fight-or-flight response had been triggered, pushed his brother away, and then ran.

He wasn't even thinking about what he was doing.

He ran and ran, until he was finally able to feel remotely safe once more.

However, then the realization of what he had just done started to sink in.

"...oh my god... h-how could I just...?!... oh no oh no oh no..."

He knew he had to leave quickly, hopefully giving Nightmare a chance to cool down.

He knew Nightmare would be mad at him, and when Nightmare was mad at him, he'd usually...

Dream didn't want to keep thinking about these things.

So, he supposed he'd have to leave as soon as possible.

"I-I'm so sorry, Nightmare..."

And so, he left.

...

Nightmare was certainly... less than pleased at what Dream had just done, but he couldn't let it show too much, as he was still around all the other, powerful people there, still leaving, though some had gotten caught up in conversations and such.

How could someone as pathetic as Dream just do that to him?!

Nightmare knew he had to teach his dear brother a lesson for such disobedience. After all, Dream should've known his place (...at least according to Nightmare's twisted mind he should've). Nightmare thought he had hammered that lesson in by then, but he supposed he had to go an extra step further to drive it home.

But how?

If he were to go attack his brother during this, he'd certainly be caught. There were witnesses all over in almost every place where Dream would ever even think of going, and, even if he were to just force him somewhere, he'd likely get caught afterward once inspected for the crime (obviously, he and the other well-known murderers would be the first suspects, especially someone like him who hated Dream), as... it wasn't exactly an easy task to clean blood off of goopy tentacles.

...however, he had no fingerprints...

If he could get an easy-to-dispose weapon and find the right opportunity to attack, he could very well teach his brother to never disrespect him again, and suffer no consequences for it.

...

He knew that he had to grab something.

He had listened in on Ink's conversation with Dream. He knew Dream was going to Underswap.

It was clear that Swap liked Error, while Dream and the others hated him. There's no way he'd go back to them, ever.

So, there was the possibility he'd find Dream alone...