~Ink's POV~

THAT MOTHERFUCKING SON OF A BITCH WAS GOING TO HAVE A BAD TIME.

I was pacing back and forth while trying not to hyperventilate. She was gone... just like that. Just like last time. How could I have let this happen?!

"I would try and bully you right now but it almost seems too easy." Blade sneered as she watched me pace and hold my skull in my hands. I had to resist the urge to scream at her out loud since I was still in the presence of Kris, Susie, Ralsei, and Lancer. So I opted to yell at her in my mind.

'THIS REALLY ISN'T THE TIME RIGHT NOW, BLADE!' It was true after all. I needed to think of a plan to get Y/n back before she got hurt. I couldn't live with myself if she got hurt like that again. She's had so many close calls...

"I guess you're right. After all you're already so close to embarrassing yourself in front of the others. Wouldn't want them to think you're a crazy person now wouldn't you?"

I growled at her under my breath. Normally I didn't get like this due to her bullying but everything was just falling down around me. I flinched when I felt a tap at my shoulder.

"Your friend is waking up." Kris informed me before turning back from where he was standing before. I was glad he was alright at least. Cross's victims can sometimes have negative effects from being possessed.

I walked over to where Ralsei was attempting to heal Nightmare. Green magic swirled all around him and he was starting to finally stir.

"Ngh, what happened?" He asked as he rubbed the top of his skull while sitting up from the grass. The tentacles that had been stiff still were starting to sway slowly again.

"Y/n's gone-"

"GONE?!" Nightmare interrupted me, quickly standing up from the ground with the help of his tentacles. He groaned and had to hold onto a nearby tree to not double over. He held a hand to his skull in apparent pain.

"C-Careful! Y-you might need to r-rest some more." Ralsei tried to warn but Nightmare brushed him off.

"I'll be fine. What do you mean she's gone, Ink?"

"Cross... he took her. Susie charged at him and he teleported behind Y/n and took her through a portal. I should of seen it coming... I should of been faster." I criticized myself, feeling disappointed in my own failure to save her.

"I'm sure there was nothing you could've done. I'm not blaming you for it. We just... have to try and get her back." Nightmare tried to console me. How ironic it was to have the literal embodiment of negative emotions try and make me feel better.

"Obviously we do. We need to get the others. If we're not fast in rescuing her then she might get seriously hurt."

"I'll know if that happens. I'm fine-tuned into her emotions after spending 5 years together."

This was a bit of a surprising revelation. "You can do that?"

"Of course I can. It's about the only good thing I can do in this situation... She's asleep right now, probably knocked out if I were to guess."

"I guess that's good... she won't have to experience anything for a while. Now, let's go to um..." I had no idea who to turn to first. We all weren't living in one area now so I had to choose.

"Um... We could see Dream?" Nightmare suggested, unsure.

"Yeah... let's do that."

~~~

It had been a few hours now. We were contacting as many people as we could, the more we got the more brains we had to form a plan.

We were gathered back at the infinite house just like the old days. It felt almost nostalgic to have everybody gathered on the couch again. Dream, Reaper, Error, Red, Poison, etc. The only newcomers to the old scene were Nightmare and Impulse (I suppose Goth as well but he was off doing something else).

"How are we going to find out where she is?" Classic asked the group as he rubbed the temple of his forehead.

"We don't have to, we could lure Cross out and maybe one of us could sneak through the portal he creates." I answered him while thinking as hard as I could.

"Ha! Fat chance, he wouldn't let anybody slip by him like that. He was trained as a royal guard remember?" Blade snickered before realizing she had just been helpful unintentionally. I had forgotten he was a royal guard trainee...

Nightmare suddenly flinched next to Dream and sat upright, tense. He shouted, "She's awake!"

My eyes widened and I instantly went to questioning him quickly. "Is she alright?! What's she feeling?! Is she hurt??" I had stood up, walked in front of him, and put both my hands on his shoulders.

"I-I-I c-can't tell! I-I don't f-feel any initial negative r-response!" Night stuttered and put both his hands up as if trying to space himself between me since I had unintentionally been leaning into him.

I got a grip on myself and let go of Nightmare, taking a step back from him. "Sorry..."

"I-It's alright... you're just worried about her." Nightmare was trembling slightly and Dream put a comforting hand on his brother's arm. I felt awful...

"I can't read anything from her right now, she might be experiencing either a neutral or positive emotion right now. Um, Dream are you able to tune in on her?"

"No... I'm not as adapted to her as you are. I'm not adapted to anybody like that." Dream almost seemed to be on the verge of tears. It was Nightmare's turn to put a comforting hand on his brother.

"If she doesn't feel an initial negative response then she's probably not hurt." Reaper spoke up. He was probably right, but how long until she was going to be hurt?

Nightmare tensed up once more. "I-I'm getting something. S-She's... panicked and scared. But it feels almost muffled. Like she's trying to conceal it. And she's hungry but that's probably not too important..." Night mumbled the last part, realizing it might be stupid to point out. On the other hand, I found every detail important.

"What do you think could be happening?" Blue squeaked as he pressed his knees to his chest. None of us answered, probably assuming the worst. She could be getting hurt right now... but would it feel muffled in that case? I had no clue and I couldn't stand it.

We all waited with baited breath for Nightmare to say more on her condition. He had closed his eyes and seemed to be focusing as hard as he could. He opened his eyes and said, "Well, she's not hungry anymore... And her panic seems to be fading."

That confused me a lot and seemed to as well for the others. Had she gotten food then? At least they weren't going to let her starve.

"There was a lurch of sadness I think? It's a little hard to tell with all of your emotions in the air..."

Suddenly, Error had started to glitch uncontrollably from his standing position in the corner. Weird, he hasn't had a mini crash in quite some time. Had something happened?

The glitching stopped abruptly and Error took a few deep breaths as he recollected himself. He looked up at us with slightly wide eyes and said, "She just tried to contact me."

"What?! What do you mean?!" I exclaimed as I teleported right in front of him without meaning to. I resisted my instinct to grab him by the shoulders as I did to Nightmare (I didn't need him to have a major crash).

"She... We have this thing where if one of us touches our SOUL the other can feel it. Remember how we slightly fused SOULs all those years ago?" Error explained after being taken aback at how close I was to him.

"So you can contact her back?!" I said excitedly, this can be our means of telling her we're going to save her!

"Uh, yeah."

"Well?? Do it! Um, please." I didn't want to seem too demanding since I could feel Blade just waiting to tear me apart later and I didn't want to give her fuel.

Error glanced at the others before shakily extracting his SOUL. He didn't seem to like everybody staring so I slightly adjusted myself so his SOUL would at least be hidden. He seemed a bit comforted by this and he gently ran a finger down the side of his SOUL. He shivered at the feeling and quickly put it back into himself. "There. She should've felt it."

I looked over back to Nightmare and saw him shudder. "Y-Yeah, she definitely felt it. Jeez, that feels weird."

I sighed to myself, at least she seemed to be safe and not hurt. Now, it was time to get back to planning.

~~~