~Y/n's POV~

"What do you mean Dusttale isn't destroyed?!"

I flinched slightly at the loud yelling our breaking news had caused. Error, Geno, Reaper, Ink, and I were all gathered in the living room.

"We mean it's not destroyed, somehow. Y/n's been getting timeline jumps to it and I managed to make a portal to it. Simple as that. We're gonna go check it out but I wanted to ask Error something." Ink responded to Geno's exclamation.

Error flinched at the sound of his name, like he had been dozing off into space. The news seemed to have shocked him, if the almost microscopic light in his eyesockets were telling the truth.

"Huh? Oh yeah, go for it." He said, somewhat awkwardly. I could tell he had a lot of thoughts flitting in his nonexistent brain.

"How come Dusttale isn't destroyed...? I mean, you were the one that destroyed it right?" Ink questioned, trying his best to not sound like he was insulting Error by bringing up his past.

"Yeah, and I thought I did a damn good job of it too. I've never failed at destroying before, it's my whole existence. I'm just as confused as you are, to put it simply." He answered, putting his skull into his hands. I could feel the confusion thickening the air around us like a cloud.

"Well I'm going to see if there's any clues. I shouldn't be long." Ink waved his paintbrush across the air, making that dusty gray rift. He tried to quickly go through it, but I grabbed onto the end of his scarf and tugged him back.

"Not so fast, I'm coming with you. It's my universe, I need to see what happened to it."

Ink looked like he feared me saying this, but he could see the determination in my eyes. He sighed and grabbed onto my hand, knowing he wouldn't be able to get me to back down. He knows me too well.

"Ready?" He asked, the hope in his voice I might change my mind.

"Ready." I answered, squeezing his hand as a way to tell him I wasn't going to leave him.

He nodded and we both walked into the portal, which felt like syrup to move through. Eventually though, we got through to the other side.

It was... beautiful.

I recognized the place immediately, like it was on instinct. It was the ledge on Mt. Ebott that my family used to hold picnics at. I can still taste those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The sun was setting in the far distance with golden clouds drifting in front of it. I could see Ebott City a few miles away on the right, the large expanse of the forest that many got lost in (including myself), and on the left was Mt. Ebott's sister mountain. The one I nearly climbed.

I felt Ink let go of my hand while I enjoyed the warmth of the sun hit my skin. I would never get tired of this. Not after all those years without it.

"What the?! The barriers broken already? I suppose we're lucky, this is a rare pacifist timeline." Ink exclaimed, disbelief in his voice. I turned around and saw him rubbing the sides of an open cave. I don't remember that being there...

"So, uh, what are we looking for?" I asked, looking around the small clearing. I saw what looked like a small wooden cross over a mound of dirt... that wasn't there before either.

"Anything, really. I should probably look at the code, though." Ink answered. I was going to question what he meant by that, but a small panel seemingly appeared out of no where.

"Woah... that's cool." I awed, going behind Ink so I could see the words that were displayed. It all looked like a lot of gibberish though, afterall I never learned code except for maybe something simple in middle school.

Ink, on the other hand, seemed to be able to understand every single word. He was able to scroll up and down on the panel with just a flick of his finger.

Since I had no idea what he was doing, I decided to look back out at the sunset. The sun was barely peeking out behind the trees now. Stars were starting to creep into view above and the sky was becoming darker by the minute.

Since that wasn't going to be very helpful into finding out how this place is existing, I decided to check out that cross I saw earlier. It wasn't too far from the mouth of the cave.

The cross looked handmade, I could still see some of the rusted nails. In fact, the whole thing looked rusty. It has definitely been standing here for a long time.

The mound in front of it wasn't very big, about the size of my forearm. This was for certain a grave, and I couldn't help but feel sad for who ever had made it. It's not easy losing someone.

I could see faint writing etched into the wood of the cross, and curiosity took me over. I probably wouldn't know who it belonged to but theres always a chance.

'Here lies Y/n L/n. The shine in our eyes.'

I felt my stomach drop to the deepest parts of Earth. This was... my grave? But I'm alive... this is my universe. Did... did my parents make this? I could feel the fresh tears well up in my eyes again as I covered my mouth in shock.

"Nothing seems too terribly strange, except for some of this code looks extremely new which is odd because this is a very old universe. It doesn't even seem like many genocides have happened and- Y/n? What's wrong?"

Ink rushed over to me and wrapped his arm over my shoulder instinctively. He looked at what had caused me to cry, and I could feel him tense as well.

"B-But... the code counts you as alive. There's nothing in there about you dying." He tried to reason, confusion plastered all over his face.

"...unless someone thought I was dead." I muttered, wrapping my arms around my body in a self-hug.

Ink took a second to think about who I could mean, and the realization popping onto his face almost made me laugh. He used his other free hand to rub the back of his neck, and I could see some thoughts running through his head.

"Y'know... I saw that she's still alive. We could go see her, if you wanted."

I looked up at him, my eyes as wide as they could be. I could see her for real? I nodded vigorously with a wide smile and wiped away the tears falling off my face.

He smiled back at me but I could see the anxiety in his face. Nonetheless, he helped me to my feet and I could feel his magic spark to life. Not a second later, I felt my feet leave the ground and land once again. Except this time, everything was different.

We were standing on the driveway to my parent's house. Not a single thing had changed in the last 11 years. I still couldn't believe it... 11 years. I had missed so much.

I gripped Ink's hand as tight as possible, my heartbeat was quickening, and my chest felt tight. Ink squeezed back, and we began to walk up to the door.

Both of their cars were parked and I could see a light on inside so we knew they were definitely home. I could feel my throat start to close. I leaned against Ink's shoulder, hoping that just his aura could make me calm down. It did help a little, but he seemed almost as anxious as I was.

We had reached the door after what felt like the longest walk in existence, even though it was just 4 seconds. I raised my fist to knock, but hesitated slightly. What if this was a mistake? Ink put his hand on my shoulder in support, and that's all the encouragement I needed.

I banged my fist against the door, just loud enough so they could hear.

"I'll get it!" I heard the achingly familiar female voice call out to somebody else inside. I could barely breathe, my hand was far too tight on Ink's. I was lucky he didn't have any circulation to begin with, because I would've certainly cut it off.

The door swung open.