404 stirred in his sleep rising from the depths to feel the pulse and thrum of the Multiverse in his bones.  Something had changed, he drifted listening to the codes whispers waiting for the lullaby Nightmare used to sooth him into deep sleep whenever this happened. Time passed and Nightmare didn't come.  404 reached out to the codes where was, dad with his stories and lullaby?  The codes whispered new stories to him of ambush and battle of a balancer shattered a final time and seeking eternal rest.  Of a love that would not die.  Of Nightmare following Error refusing to let him go alone.

He sunk back into the depths of a now troubled sleep, rising to the edge of waking to listen each time a quake shook the Multiverse.  He suspected he would have to wake soon if there was anyone left who could lift the seal.  404 was sure Inky had not meant to make him so attuned to the Multiverse.  He just wanted him to hear voices and have weaker versions of Error's magic.

When the new tree of feeling was planted he rested easier then the whispers from the anti-void spoke of a promise made on powerful magic and a deal made.  He would wake soon.  He considered what was planned for him as he sunk once more into the depths and found he approved soon he would never be alone again.

-Unstable verse Garden of Slumber-

Fresh stood over the mound of leaves and flowering vines that hid the body of his soon to be host, the knee high crystal marker with his name making it look all to like an old grave.  He glanced around counting markers and shook his head.  Scratch that it was a graveyard full of the undying.  Well almost while looking around he has found a marker that was half embedded in a tree that was carved with stars and the name Rêver that one held no life.

The Glory of Love floated in the air and Fresh took out his cell looking around to make sure no one heard the sentimental ringtone, not that it mattered he would never experience what the song promised. "Yo!  What up ma diggity dog!"

"Hello, Fresh, we are reaDy when you are."  Fresh dropped the pretense when he heard Cobalt.  "Come on through then."  He closed his phone looking again at the resting place Error had made for those who couldn't die then glanced to an empty space with his name on it.  Error had once told him there was a place waiting if he ever got too tired to keep going.  How tired was his glitchy bru to have chosen the VOID?

A cobalt blue portal opened and he turned to face it in time to see Cobalt drag Inky through by his scarf followed by Don G.  He let his blank shades slide down so they could see his sockets. "Ya sure bout this bru?"

Cobalt pulled out a knife and started cutting away the vines to reveal a crystal pod with a skeleton with black tear marks, blue teeth, blue and black phalanges.  "I am sure tHat it needs to happen. I am also sure that beinG willing to do this does not maKe me a good person."

"Why exactly am I here." Inky folded his arms pouting.

"Because you ungRateful brat to ensUre those resTing here lasting peace Nightmare aNd Error made three part seaLs.  It takes a glitCh, a skill, and the apology oF someone who has wrOnged them to unseal and waKe those resting here."  Cobalt turns a glare on Inky. "We haven't wroNged him yet so that lEaves you Mr. I will maKe someone just to torTure and experimeNt on."

Inky flinched and tried to back away only to have Don G grab the back of his shirt.  "You mentioned a skill, what skill?" Don G looked down at 404 in his crystals pod.  Noting the thin delicate bones that indicated youth for all he was tall this Sans was little more than a half grown kid.

"Music boTh Nightmare and Error loVed music. Nightmare onCe told me that every memBer of the team haD to learn an instruMent because music helPs heal the SOUL."  Cobalt rested a hand on the crystal marker and concentrated it soon started to glitch and fizz until a crystal lyre took its place. Picking it up he got strings from his pocket stringing and tuning it with long practice.  "The markers forM to the instrument you knOw."

Don G looks around counting markers.

Cobalt watches, "most are lone suRvivors of AU's or mini-verSes that collapsed of natuRal causes, ouTcodes. They are either danGerous or just too traumatiZed to function properly." Cobalt lightly plucked the strings starting to play the sweet notes of My Heart Will Go On weeping through the air as the crystal slowly opened leaving the young skeleton inside just at the edge of waking.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Don G poked Inky when the last notes faded.  Glaring at all of them with a pout Inky faced the sleeping skeleton, "I am sorry I made you."

Fresh snorted and picked 404 up as soon as he started to stir, setting down with the younger skeleton across his lap and started talking softly. "Hey yo broseph sorry to wake you but Error fell into the VOID.  You wouldn't happen to be interested in his job would ya?"

404 opened his sockets and looked straight into Fresh's.  "I know what you want.  I don't mind,  my Voices are nicer to me than Error's where. I understand the need."

Inky looked away when the parasite lept from Fresh's left socket to 404's, and tried to run away when 404 convulsed and screamed as it took hold and they reformed leaving only Fresh 404 and the dust of Fresh's former host.

They stood dusting themselves off and trying to look themselves over.  Before glancing at Inky who was hugging himself and looking the other way.

Cobalt watched the crystal lyre shiver into dust along with the pod.  "Time tO go," he gave a sad glance around looking at one marker for a long moment then shaking his head.  Opening a portal he waved Don G and Inky through.

Fresh 404 watched them go before moving to one of the smaller pods and brushing away a few leaves to make sure its occupation slept soundly.

Closing the portal Cobalt watched him.  "SomeoNe you know?"

"Ya bru Jammy is from a mini-verse that collapsed.  Inky was trying to figure out Error so he made several mini-verses like the Multiverse only no one told Error about the balance or pushed him to do his job.  And he was based on Inky's ideas about Error and not Error.  They always collapsed. You think Inky would take a hint."  Fresh brushed the leaves back into place.  "I liked the mini-verses plenty of hosts, a place to get away from things, and they tend to be entertaining.  In this one Inky's counterpart couldn't create Inky doesn't have the power to make another creator. Ink and Error dated Paper Jam happened.  They mostly made peace. Error stopped destroying and the mini-verse started collapsing. It was a slow fall because Inky didn't constantly fill it with AU's but he did try to hide some from Error there anyway it  happened. The kid saw the whole thing. I got him out with me. He was too traumatized to function so Nightmare and Error put him here to rest and heal."  Fresh 404 looked Cobalt in the sockets then away before simply walking away.

-Unstable verse OuterTale #0-

He watched the confrontation between Cobalt and the council party that turned into more of an emotional farewell then than a confrontation.  He felt his host stir in protest when the portal closed. "No Bru we got a unrad job ta do."  Fresh could feel his new host's loneliness and frustration 404 wanted to find Error.  What Fresh was unsure of was why he didn't push to follow Cobalt. Fresh himself did not understand the faint fantom feelings he had, had ever since he had touched Error's SOUL only that he needed to protect his glitchy bru.

Stretch picked up a cranking looking Inky and carried him through a portal apparently the babysitter of the day.

Classic turned and looked at the treeline before walking straight towards them. Leaving Outer to stare at the stars as if lost in thought.

Fresh, considering leaving, he didn't really want to talk to Classic at the moment but he could feel his host's urge to do so.  This was going to take getting used to having such an active host normally they just went to sleep.  On the upside he could feel what this host felt so much stronger than his relatively weak emotions.

When Classic found Fresh 404 he wasn't really all that surprised that he had watched.  The fact that he seemed to be a mix of the two was surprising Fresh normally changed his host completely to stay the same.  Classic swept him with his eyelights.  Rainbow sneakers, black socks black shorts with rainbow stripes and fours, black shirt rainbow knee length coat with black piping stripes and circles, black fluff at the neck rainbow hood with more black circles and piping.  White bones except the phalanges tipped in rainbow with black from the second joint to the palm, and the rainbow tear marks.  Blue teeth and right eyelight, SOUL in the left socket, the SOUL's color was surprisingly yellow, purple, and green.  After looking him over, Classic just nods.  "So it will take three weeks to make the contract magic.  Anything you want to added well, a list would be nice."

"We are not obligated to be nice."  To say Fresh and Classic were surprised by 404 speaking up would be an understatement.

Classic shrugs "you could be rude about it if you want.  Still the best way to get what you want out of the contract."

"Bru we will totes make a radical list." Fresh took his sunglasses out of his pocket and tried to put them on only to have 404 crush them.

Classic watched them, "looks like you may need the time the council is taking with the contract to adjust."

Staring at his crushed glasses Fresh nods, "Totes need ta get to know ma new broseph."

"Or to talk like a real person." 404's snark made Classic snort.

"Anyway do you have some place to stay?"  Classic watched Fresh try to fix his glasses.

"Bru we gonna take over the castle." With a fizz and a pop the glasses glitched back together making Fresh gasp.  "What castle, I wouldn't mind a castle."  Fresh just opened a portal and walked through.

Watching them go Classic shakes his skull.  "What have you left us with Cobalt?"

-Balance Castle-

"Bru why did we name it?"  Fresh looked over the gloomy looking castle. The gardens were in wonderful condition. The walls were solid but dark, the sky was grey, the forest was dark and spooky.

"We are going to renovate this is depressing."  404 opened the codes and started messing with them, the castle glitched turning a little pearly grey.  "Better."

"Bru you are not what I expected." Fresh watches and messes with his glasses.

"Cobalt only knew me before sleep therapy. That was a few centuries ago."  A little more playing with codes and the darkness under the trees lightened and fireflies danced beneath the branches the atmosphere shifted from gloom to light melancholy.

"Want to kidnap Dream broseph?" Fresh looked around again thinking this place suited Nightmare more now that 404 messed with it a bit.

"Why would we do that?"  404 closed the codes curious about what this new partner of his was upto.

"I want him to check on Jammy and he will want to see this place."  Fresh shrugged looking at the garden. "Sides I want to make them work, not just rescue them like spoiled little princesses."

404 nods in agreement, "especially uncle Dream."

"Uncle?"  Fresh stills, "Bru are you related to Nightmare?"

"What I am fourteen and made in Error's image with some of Nightmare's codes so when choosing parents it was him and Nightmare or Inky.  I may have been crazy but not that crazy." The surge of disgust from 404 at the idea of Inky as his partner was enough to daze Fresh.

"Did Cobalt know your age?"  Fresh was surprised, having not realized that 404 was so young or that Cobalt had it in him to set an innocent up for this kind of dirty work.

"I have no idea I am tall enough to pass for an adult taller than most Sans. It is not like we had a real conversation before dad put me to sleep I wasn't exactly in control emotionally,  mentally, or magically."  He looks around then nods. "We have a small village on the other side of the forest."

"Some of Nightmare's rad peeps is still here?"  Fresh glances at the forest with interest.

"Where would they go?"  404 opens a portal and walks through to a surface AU. "Let's look at furniture."

-AfterTale Surface-

Genocide was setting at a patio table outside a café while Reaper drank coffee when he saw an extremely colorful skeleton walk by looking around.  Genocide snapped to attention there was not supposed to be any outsiders in the AU other than Reaper even he was only aloud in when Genocide was with him.  "What the heck?"

Reaper followed his gaze sockets narrowing at the other skeleton that held his Genocide's attention. "I can chase him out if you want?"

"Maybe after I find out who he is and how the funk he got in!"  Genocide froze when he was sencored only one being automatically sencored those around him.

"Well I guess that answers that." Reaper watched as what must be Fresh 404 stopped turning first one way then the other seeming not to be able to decide on something.

Genocide sighed then stood and walked after the parasite, necessary the new Destroyer might be but he could not just roam around this AU without supervision. "Hey buddy you're looking lost."

He turned to face them and blinked, "Uncle Geno, what are you doing here?"

Fresh sighs and facepalmed.  "404 bru that is not the most radical Geno that is the most unrad Genocide."

There was a long awkward silence as they all just looked at each other and Genocide possessed four very important facts, 404 was still very much there, 404 was a kiddo, and 404 had an uncle that looked like Genocide, and Fresh was hostile towards Genocide.

He rubbed his face.  "Fresh drop the nonsense we both know you can talk properly.  And I know who he is but mom called him Geno."

"Fine we can call him Geno but only if you agree to eat.  I refuse to give up eating like Error did and you are still growing."  Fresh crossed their arms settling into a stubborn stance.

Geno frowns and steps forward taking them by the arm.  "I have no idea what is going on but Fresh is right, eating is important and no one is allowed in the AU unless escorted to prevent resets."  Geno gently dragged the taller skeleton into a dinner.

"But mom fixed the AU so it can't reset unless you die." 404 blinked down at Geno not noticing how quiet Fresh had gone or how Reaper went still.

"You must be mistaken Inky refused to help with that."  Geno gently pushes him down in a booth before setting down.

"Inky is no more a parent than Handplates Gaster is."  He glared, "just because mom was willing to forgive him doesn't mean I have to."

"Glitchy bru was kinder than and smarter than Inky. If you just remove the reset completely the AU would destabilize and glitch out. But Geno has enough determination that he was able to move the reset to him."  Fresh looked away, not happy about their company.

Geno set there stunned, Error had fixed his AU so that he didn't have to constantly worry about it resetting. "Wait, Error is 404's mom I thought Inky made him?"

"Uncle Geno you are a Sans you should know making someone and being a parent are not the same thing."  404 frowned at him while Fresh reached for a menu without looking and bumped Reaper's hand.

Reaper froze waiting for them to dust only to get a slight smirk as Fresh took the menu.  "Calm down broritochip we are simi-immortal like Geno."

"Do we really have to eat Fresh? I hate how it makes me feel all greasy and icky."  404 frowns at the menu while Reaper stared at them with wide sockets.

"What are you boys going to do about school and a place to live?" Geno frowns watching Fresh 404 finally pick salad and soup.

"We are taking over dad's castle. I am thinking about picking up a few lone survivors of AU copies that need to be removed.  It would let us build a support system, do our job, and spare a few monsters."   404 glanced around trying to figure out how to order.

Geno waves over the waitress and orders four coffees, and a coco.  "Have you decided what you want?"

"Salad and soup, no grease."  404 put the menu down.  "Bru strawberry milk," Fresh grinned.

Geno placed the order chuckling. "Fresh it is hard to tell which of you is the kid here."

Fresh 404 blinked at him and his voice echoed when they spoke together. "Both of us."

"What do you mean by both of you?"  Geno sat up straight sockets wide.  This couldn't be happening; they couldn't be explaining children to be the Destroyer.

"Bru parasites like me have a very long life cycle. I am not even in puberty yet." They flushed, rainbow looking away.

Clearing his throat 404 fidgeted with a salt shaker.  "I was fourteen when I got away from Inky and mom caught me. I haven't aged physically while asleep."

Sighing Geno rubbed his face, "The council is not going to like having a teenage Destroyer they are likely to want to place you with a family to help you stay sane and in control frankly supervising Inky is straining their abilities."

Death leaned forward, "I suggest asking Life to move her garden to your castle, and picking a Sans as well you will be much more comfortable picking those around you than letting the council try to."

"Interesting advice from someone who used to enjoy carving on my bru so much."  Fresh glanced at Geno.  "Find someone who won't punch you for it?"

"Fresh stop now, or I will break your glasses again." 404 clenched his hands on the table.

Geno's sockets widened and he gave Reaper a questioning look.

Reaper quickly shook his head, "It wasn't like that I didn't know about the balance and was hoping if I made it not worth it to him he would quit killing. I gave up about the time I met Geno because it wasn't working and I had better ways to spend my time."

Their order came and things got quiet while 404 ate Fresh drank his milk not trying to get him to eat more when he stopped halfway through.

Geno glanced at them and waved down the waitress for a to go container for the soup.  "I take it you are not up to a full meal after your long sleep."

"I don't know if it is because I don't have the grace SOUL trait. But I find I dislike Reaper intensely and am not fond of you. We will take your advice about the council under construction but do not wish to spend more time with you currently.  We accepted the choice to make us the new Destroyer because the rest of the Multiverse doesn't deserve to suffer and die for the council's choices."  404 watched Geno waiting for him to stand and let them out of the booth.  His calm while at the same time making it clear he was done with them for now was a little eerie.

Geno met his eyelights then slowly slid out of the booth.  "Okay kids just don't make our mistake of not getting to know others before judging and don't shut us out so that we have the chance to make the same mistake."

They looked at him sliding out and standing as tall as Classic at fourteen they might well end up taller than Error was.  "We will keep it in mind bru."  With that a swirling rainbow portal opened and they walked through.

Reaper stood and wrapped Geno in a hug while they watched the portal close.  "I am sorry love it looks like my sins have come back to haunt us both."

"Not just yours Reaps. I never gave Error a chance either just attacked any time I caught him in my AU or the save screen.  I never once asked why he kept coming back for such a long time then I met you and he stopped coming to my AU or save screen."  Geno leaned into the hug.  "Fox, Cobalt was right 404 hates us, but they have every reason to."