Baron emerged on the other side to find an overly protective Error fussing over Nightshade. The two were far off to the side, away from the others, and they had knelt down facing one another. Interestingly, Error seemed unconcerned by the presence of his enemies; all he cared about was Nightshade. Baron shook his head, smiling in amusement. He had read the signs correctly, and his plan worked perfectly. The only thing he had not foreseen was Solar's refusal to cooperate. Oh well. He'll deal with that problem soon enough.

(Me: Lazy bastard-
Nights: You're still salty about that?!
Me: HE HURT MAH BABY!!!!
Nights: You're so petty.... -_-)

Lunar marched up to the pale demon as soon as he saw him, an angry grimace on his face.
"What did you do with my brother, you demon asshole?"

Baron smirked.
"Ah! So that's what I was forgetting."
He snapped his fingers, and portals appeared underneath the intruders to this multiverse. Caught off guard, they all fell through, ending their influence here. At least, for the time being.

"Finally!" Ink hopped down from his perch above them, landing gracefully next to Baron. "I thought they'd never leave!"

"In their defense, they didn't have a guide willing to take them back to their multiverse."

"Would that mean you're from their multiverse?"

Baron shook his head.
"No. And I am not bound to a single multiverse. You would know this if you paid attention and stopped forgetting all the time. Heh."

Ink ignored Baron's sardonic smile. He knew the demon was joking, so honestly? It didn't matter. Not like he could care, anyways. His only interest was finding some event, or place, even a person to entertain him. Although, Baron was sort of right in that he should pay more attention. He did miss the fact that Solar didn't have Nightshade's best interests at heart after all, and that nearly led to the negative guardian's demise. But, since Ink couldn't care about anyone who didn't interest him, much less Nightshade for his association with monsters who wanted to end the multiverse, it didn't affect him.

Contrary to popular belief, Ink didn't have memory problems. Nothing out of the ordinary, anyway. He had taken advantage of a single day when he was more forgetful than usual to convince everyone who knew him that he had the most scattered, nonexistent brain in the multiverse. Quite useful for eavesdropping in plain sight and avoiding unwanted conversations by playing dumb. People assumed he didn't listen as they discussed their plans, but he specifically attuned his hearing to the conversations that seemed interesting. He's also good at keeping secrets. If the person you tell forgets the secret you tell them, it can't hurt them or you, right? He has found out some dark secrets from this flawed logic.

Temerari arrived with Shattered, and knelt down with the guardian in his arms. "-Hey-. -Wake- -up-."

Shattered stirred, and opened his one working eye. He sat up and rubbed his shoulders, shuddering from the same chilling sensation that Solar had felt when his arms were frozen. Something else nagged at him. He felt... aggressive. Angry. Sad. Scared. Frustrated. All negative emotions. His eye widened as he studied them closer. He thought back to how he felt when Nightshade first ate a black apple. There had been a tornado of emotions swirling around their beloved tree, but what made Shattered want to retch was the memory that those same emotions were now swirling around in his own head. This must have been how Nightshade felt when he ate the apple and the darkness consumed him. No wonder he hated Shattered so much! It all made sense, now. And it terrified the poor guardian.

Meanwhile, Error was inspecting every bone on Nightshade's body, carefully checking for any indication that those demons hurt him. Nightshade was getting a little annoyed by Error's behavior, but in the forefront of his thoughts was the deal Baron had made with the glitch. He was scared, now. What hidden strings were attached to their deal? He thought back to what Caligo had said, and gulped.

'/You/ /cannot/ /stop/ /us/ /this/ /time/, /little/ /prince/. /Soon/, /our/ /plan/ /will/ /be/ /complete/, /and/ /no/ /one/ /can/ /get/ /in/ /our/ /way/.'

He had laughed softly in Nightshade's ear, making the negative guardian shiver uncomfortably. He shut his eyesockets tightly at the memory, desperately clinging to his fragile grip on his emotions. He opened his eyesockets as Error tipped his head upwards and looked into his eyelights.

"What's wrong, Night?"

He took a shaky breath, then met Error's mismatched eyelights.
"Wh-why did you agree to Baron's deal? H-he could be planning something, o-or he's just gonna k-kill us anyway, or force us into slavery again-"

"Oh, Nightmare," Error held Nightshade's forehead against his, smiling smugly. "He's an idiot if he thinks he can control me. Or you. He'll have to get past me if he ever wanted to hurt you, and I won't go down without a fight. Besides, we can run to the castle. We know it's safe there-"

"We think it's safe," Nightshade interrupted, but averted his gaze from Error's when the glitch frowned at him. Error sighed, resting his hand on Nightshade's cheek.

"What happened to the Nightmare I used to know? The confident one, the one I fell in love with?"

Nightshade sighed quietly, lowering his eyelights to his folded hands.
"You... wouldn't believe how many insecurities I was hiding under that facade. Grim could sense them, and yet, they still tried to see how I ticked. They wanted to get to know me, even though I- we, wanted to kill them. I just... was angry at everyone. At everything. I wanted to tear it all down, to destroy it, to kill it. But when I saw... my brother... eat a black apple, all I could see was myself. Back before I ate one. I saw the guardian I used to be, scared, alone, desperate, in pain. And I couldn't bear it. I knew that I caused it, and it was my fault Dream was like that. He wanted to... to kill me, and I couldn't blame him. I had pushed him into resorting to something so dangerous in the first place."

He finished and looked Error in the eye. After a short silence, he smiled, suddenly struck with an idea.
"Heh, I've never seen you speechless before."

Error blinked, then shook his head. A grin made its way onto his face, and he was grateful to have a little of the Nightshade he knew shine through, even if it is the flirty side.
"I missed that."

"Missed what?"

"Your flirtatious side."

"Oh did you?~"

"Oh shit....".

"Aw, is Glitchy getting flustered? How cute~"

"No! Stop that!"

Nightshade laughed and stood up. Error followed, and Nightshade hugged him. They held each other for a moment, relishing in one another's touch, before parting. Nightshade edged closer to Error when he felt people staring at him, and he finally shifted his gaze to none other than Shattered. The corrupted guardian had lifted his head up, and the two guardians locked eyelights. Nightshade began to back up, bumping into Error, as Shattered scrambled to his feet.

"B-brother?" Shattered squeaked, tears threatening to spill from his single, deep yellow eyelight.
"Is this... how you felt... all those y-years ago?"
His voice cracked at each pause, and the tears finally slid down his cheekbones. Nightshade winced at the sight.

"D-Dream?" he said warily. "Is... that really you?"

Shattered nodded, sobbing and sniffling, and lowered his head. He turned away and crossed his arms, trying hard to stop crying. Nightshade started to walk toward him, but Error stopped him.

"Wait! What if he's tricking you? This could be a trap!"

Nightshade glared at him, silencing the glitch.
"That isn't like Dream at all. It isn't natural for him to be like this, much less be comfortable. If anything, I think I would've liked some company, maybe a friend, to help me through a really dark time in my life. It was right after I left Dreamtale that I started to succumb to the overwhelming negativity. A lot of it was just... sadness and feeling sorry for myself. I thank the stars that I found something to be angry at. Otherwise, I think my life would've... ended a lot sooner."

Error nodded slowly, then pulled Nightshade into a brief hug. He let him go, and Nightshade made his way to his brother, and put a hand on his shoulder. Shattered looked up to find Nightshade smiling at him.

"I-it's alright, Dream," he said softly. "I forgive you. And I'm sorry, too."

Shattered's breath hitched, and he threw his arms around his brother. Nightshade returned the hug, squeezing him gently, and they stood there for a couple of minutes. The others had gathered around to watch, and soon, Shattered calmed down. They let go of each other, and Nightshade gasped.

"Dream! You're back to normal!"

Shattered looked down at his arm, and sure enough, it was no longer covered in the tar-like substance. A scar etched its way down his left eyesocket, but the eyelight was working again. He smiled at Nightshade, and the two shared another, brief hug.

Shattered suddenly remembered something. Turning around, he confronted Baron.
"You didn't answer my question, earlier. Why did you name me Shattered?"

The demon smirked.
"It was to symbolize your perspective of things. Your perception of your reality before this was... one-sided. Too focused on what has been the norm for you for too long. This experience has shattered your narrow-minded view of the situation, as I had intended. From now on, try to keep a more open mind. Oh, and before I forget, that name isn't just for this one event. You'll need a name to define yourself should other versions of you appear, again."

Shattered and Nightshade exchanged looks, but before they could start asking questions, Baron dissolved into shadow.

"Tch, of course," Error scoffed, rolling his eyelights. "Fucking coward always vanishes before we can get answers."

"Hey guys?"
Killer caught their attention. He was kneeling next to an unconscious Terror, worried for the normally hyperactive skeleton. He was completely still, and the gaping hole his broken eyesocket had been for so long was healed up. Now, it was little more than a crack snaking up to the top of his skull. Killer poked his cheek in an attempt to wake him up.

"Killer!" Shattered hissed. "Don't wake him up!"

"Why not?"

Before they could say anything further, Terror woke up. He groaned and opened his eyesockets, his pink eyelights darting everywhere curiously.
"Wh-where- What-?"

Shattered knelt down in front of him as he sat up.
"You ok, Terror? I saw Baron give you a nasty blow."

Terror blinked.
"I-I think so. I feel... different. My head is spinning, but... I-I don't hear that voice anymore." He looked around once more, then grinned. "I don't see that kid, anymore!"

Shattered cocked his head to the side.
"Are you saying you hallucinated before?"

Terror nodded and looked down at his hands. He shook his head to try and dispell the dizziness, and it worked, somewhat.
"Wow, I feel like I haven't eaten in days. My memory is foggy, but I think that might be the case with how little I remember of the past few weeks."

Shattered smiled, then stood up. Reaching out his hand, he spoke.
"Then let's go grab a bite to eat!"

Terror blinked, a memory resurfacing.
"Sure." He grinned and took Shattered's hand. Only when he was on his feet did he notice that Error, Nightshade, Criss, Epic, and Dust were present. He took a step back warily, picking up his machete and gripping the handle tightly.
"Uh, aren't we enemies?"

Shattered raised his hands in surrender and ran in front of them.
"N-no! We're all cool, now. Right guys?"

They all nodded in agreement, and Terror relaxed. He slung his machete over his shoulder and shaded his eyes as he looked around.
"If you say so. Where's Grim?"

Shattered's expression turned sad.
"You... you don't remember, do you?"

Terror shook his head and narrowed his eyesockets in suspicion. Why does this sound like it's gonna be bad news?

Shattered sighed.

"Grim is gone."

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Finally! Done with the last chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed this. For those of you who want more of this, don't worry. There's still a lot yet to come. If you came here just for this story and expecting it to be longer, I'm sorry to disappoint you. Like I said in the previous chapter, it wasn't meant to be long. It was meant to be exposition. Blegh, StOrYlInE!!!¡¡¡!!¡!¡¡!! I know, I know. Some people don't like it. But! There is some hope. Next story will be started, eh, sometime this week if I don't get super busy doing something that isn't, like, chores.

Maybe.

I dunno yet.

It all comes down to how I'm gonna pace it, cuz I'll say something now, but I'll change my plans almost as soon as I blink.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this last chapter. Thank you for reading! Bai!