Nightmare's gang was doing okay at the moment; we had been in somewhat of a neutral period for a while. It wasn't too bad, but it also wasn't that good, either. In any case, we were glad that Nightmare wasn't on the verge of death or anything; that would have been terrible. Unfortunately, while we had no problems in the balance aspect, we definitely had problems in other areas, such as..Ink. A few months ago, he had decided that his grudge against me was going to become even more of a problem than it used to be, and he was going to hunt me down until he had me alone, most likely to torture me in some form. My family obviously didn't want that happening, and that led to a series of events which led to my hiding in the Anti-Void until Ink calmed down; last time we were in the same universe, he had almost killed me, which added the restriction that stated that I was to stay in the Anti-Void until further notice to prevent possible death..I had been there for a month. Error was usually there to keep me company, but he was currently out with my family, taking my place in battle..I wished I could help without worrying the others. At the moment, I was talking with Paps; he was going to stay with me while I was stuck here.

"What happened next?" I questioned, staring up at Error's strings; it was boring here..no wonder people went mad.

"The heroes saved the day, obviously!" Paps finished the story beautifully.

"Another amazing story, bro. You're the best, Paps."

"I am the Great Papyrus!"

"How long has it been since Error left?" I wanted some more company; Paps was amazing, but the entire white atmosphere was a bit..unnerving..the only reason I was here was because Ink didn't like the color white.

"About two hours, brother."

"ETA?"

"He should return in about an hour."

I sighed. "Thanks, Paps."

"Of course, brother! Would you like to hear another story?"

"Sure, bro."

"Right! Well, once upon a time-" 

Paps stopped when a portal opened; it didn't look like any portal I had ever seen..it was..dark..so dark. I was worried that someone had found the Anti-Void by accident; that would have been a bit awkward. I became even more worried when Error fell out of the portal! That wasn't a stranger! I rushed over to him, noticing the cracks in his bones before anything else; that was bad. The second thing I noticed was that..he was shorter? Granted, he would have still towered above me, but he was a whole foot taller when I last saw him! Quickly, I requested that Paps get a first aid kit; I couldn't leave the Anti-Void alone - Ink had shown up immediately the first and only time I had tried that - but Paps could! He's the best! I decided to check Error to see his healthbar; usually, nobody could see his health, but Nightmare had spent three years perfecting a device for that specific purpose, and it worked wonderfully! Nightmare really was an amazing inventor; he had even installed one in each of our watches, just in case only one of us was in a situation such as my current one. I quickly opened the checkbox, looking directly at his health. It was glitching at first, but the device in my watch soon made it clear.

"Oh, my gosh.." I froze when the numbers showed up; he only had half a health point! 

"I have returned, brother!" Papyrus showed up just in time; I quickly thanked him, reaching inside the first aid kit for something that would have increased Error's health. "Is everything all right?"

"Not by a long shot.." My concern lessened when I noticed Error's health rising; I hoped that would have been able to do the trick until further help came. "Do you know where the others are?"

"I believe they are battling Ink in a universe, but I have no idea which universe."

"Thanks, Paps.."

"I am sorry I cannot help further, brother."

"It's okay, bro; we'll just have to wait."

"Ugh.." I turned my skull quickly to see Error waking up? Maybe he was okay! "Where..?"

"Hey, Error!" I smiled, glad that he was well enough to wake up. "We're in the Anti-Void." 

"Huh..?" He squinted to see me; I noticed that his voice was more glitchy than normal. "Dust?"

"Yeah?" I tilted my skull.

"What're you doing here?"

"You must have been hit hard, huh?" I was worried about my uncle (or cousin) figure. "I'm staying here until Ink doesn't want to kill me anymore, remember?" 

"Um..no?"

"That's weird..what's the last thing you remember?"

"Um..I was in Outertale.." He held his skull. "Someone..no, I..I think I jumped.."

"You what?!"  My eyelights widened; what in the multiverse had happened in the past couple hours?!

"I guess I failed again.."

I had nothing to say; had my family member been suffering without saying something..or was this not my family member? Well, there was only one way to find out..

"..Are you Error?" I knew that the question sounded odd, but I didn't have any other way to put it.

"What do you mean?" He didn't seem to understand. "Of course I'm Error!"

"I mean..who created you?" If he was my family member, he would have known the answer.

"What do you mean? I don't..I wasn't created..you know this.."

"..You're not my Error.."

"Are you going loco again? And since when did Ink hate you? As far as I know, I'm his main target.."

"I think we have a problem.." I turned on my communicator, calling Error. "Hey, Error?"

"Need something, Dust?" The familiar glitchy voice responded; the one in front of me jumped back slightly. 

"When do you think you can get here?"

"Why? Is there a problem?"

"I think we- agh!" I was cut off by a sharp kick to the spine.

"Dust?! Are you okay?!" Error hung up his communicator when I didn't respond, presumably to get the others here quickly.

"Well, well, isn't this an interesting situation?" Ink..he must have sensed the foreign presence..

"I-Ink?" The Error thought it was the Ink he knew..

"I think I'll just have to take advantage."

I tried to fight Ink, but he quickly overpowered me, and I unfortunately blacked out before I could do anything important to defend the Error or myself. Soon enough, I found myself opening my eyesockets to a dark cell, with Paps floating by my side; he's the best. I also noticed that I had no mobility in my limbs; I was held up against a wall with metal restraints, likely courtesy of Ink..great. I didn't even have to wonder if my magic had been supressed anymore; I knew it had been. I looked around, my eyelights adjusting to the darkness after the constant white for so long, and I noticed that the Error I had met a while ago was in much the same predicament as I was, but he was more afraid.

"Hey." I caught his attention. "Are you okay?"

"Wh-what's going on?" He was definitely scared. "Wh-when did you get so short?!"

"Look, uh, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but..I don't think you're from here.."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"We haven't met. The Error I know is currently with Nightmare and the others in the gang, while the Dust you know, as well as anyone else you know, is likely..not here. Do you understand what I'm getting at?"

"...I thought jumping into the void would kill me.." He sighed; I felt bad for him. "Guess I'm not that lucky.."

"Well, it looks like we have some time.." I hoped Ink would wait until the Error got his bearings. "Um..we already have an Error here..it would be weird having two.."

"Call me Hex." He stated; that must have been relating to codes.

"Okay, Hex. So, uh, what was your old life like?"

"Well, there was this person forcing me to destroy AUs to prevent the multiverse from filling up.."

"Oh, a Forced Destroyer?" I always felt bad when we learned about those in Nightmare's school..the Errors sometimes didn't even have Nightmare's gang caring about them..

"Uh, yeah..how'd you know?"

"My Nightmare knows a lot about different multiverses; he teaches us about them sometimes. So, did anyone support you in yours?"

"Just the gang and the Charas..Blue did for a while, but..."

"I'm sorry.." The betrayal multiverses were sad.. "How bad was your Ink?"

"He wasn't that bad unless..he was being controlled.."

"..What's the worst that he did?"

"..Ambush.."

"Should've known..sorry.."

"Why do you want to know, anyway?"

"...Our Ink is worse."

"What do you mean? How could anyone be worse than an ignorant Creator who threatens life as we know it?"

"Heh..you'd be surprised.." I tried to think of an accurate description of Ink. "Ours is..well, imagine Ink, but a bloodthirsty sadist. If I remember correctly, your multiverse's worst being would have been some all-powerful or whatever being named Fate, right?" 

"Yeah?"

"So..in regard to that..our Ink is basically Fate, but worse."

"What did he do?"

"His favorite pastime is torture."

"How do you know that?"

"..I'm his 'favorite victim.' He, uh, hates me..a lot."

"Why?"

"Well, when I first joined Nightmare, I had a slingshot. I shot rocks at Ink, and that somehow made me his least favorite person. It's stupid, but it's the honest truth."

"I find that hard to believe."

"You shouldn't." Ink was standing at the door of the cell; Hex was startled by his sudden appearance. 

"Wh-when did you get here?!" He wondered.

"Oh, I've been listening the entire time!" Ink opened the door to the cell and entered, locking the door behind him. "And Dust is right."

"Why would you hate someone for that?!"

"He ruined my chances of ever being a musician, for one thing!" Ink's fingers had healed since them; he could become a musician if he wanted to.

"So?!"

"So shut up!"

"You're not the boss of me- ow! What was that for?!" Hex had been hit on the skull with a large paintbrush.

"Because I felt like it. Now, little 'Hex,' would you be quiet as I speak to my victim?" Ink walked over to me; I had been dreading this moment for months. "Long time no see, Dust. I hope you missed me.."

I said nothing, just sighing and preparing for the inevitable; struggling would have just made it worse, and I had nothing particularly friendly to say.

"Dust,  you really should at least say hello.." Ink pulled out a paintbrush with a blade at the end opposite the brush before holding it up to my skull. "Now..hello, Dust."

"Like I'd care." I glared at the artist.

He sighed. "One of these days, I'm going to break you..I'm going to break you into tiny pieces, and nobody will be able to fix you." 

"Not today." 

"Fine, have it your way.." Ink was about to stab me with his blade, but he stopped short. "Wait..is that a challenge?"

"..." I hated it when Ink tried to turn my words on me like that. "No.."

"It is! You're challenging me!"

"No, I'm not!"

"All right, Dust! I accept your challenge! If I don't break you before the end of the day, I torture you more tomorrow. If I do..I'll let this weirdo go..how does that sound to you?"

"You act as if I can control when I break.." I didn't exactly want Hex to be trapped in this prison, but that would mean submitting myself to Ink's torture..

"You can, if you want it badly enough..unless you'd like me to torture him instead.."

"..." I looked sadly at Hex; I had only known him for about ten minutes, but I knew enough to know that he wouldn't be able to handle Ink's variety of torture, and I knew Ink well enough to know that he would eventually get to Hex as a torture victim if given enough time.. "Let him go.."

Ink smirked. "Not until you break, Dust."

"Send him to Nightmare?"

"Fine. When you break, I shall send him to Nightmare, who will undoubtedly be grieved at the news that you've been broken when the glitch tells him, but he'll obviously be proud of your self-sacrificing, because you have absolutely no sense of self-preservation! Isn't that great?"

"Fine.."

"Perfect. I think I'll just get you out of here.."

Ink made a mistake..finally. He released me from my metal restraints, expecting me to just go along with it, but that was a very obvious mistake. If I had been anyone else, I probably wouldn't have known how to overcome the artist, but I had found myself being tortured by him once on a day when he was just out of it. He made the mistake of telling me that his bone was extremely thin under his ink stain; it was some rant about how he was self-conscious about it. As soon as he released my final restraint and stood up, he was met by a left hook and out like a light; I was glad that I had been practicing my strength. As soon as I was sure he was out, I grabbed his key and began to release Hex, making sure not to touch him; it appeared that he hadn't gotten over his fear of touch as Error had..

"How'd you do that?" He was shocked.

"Ink likes to talk about his weaknesses a lot." I shrugged. "I happened to be there for that one."

"Weird.."

"Heh, we're lucky he unlocked me; if he didn't, I'd probably be in agony right now."

"Does he do that a lot?"

"Do what?"

"Both?"

"He unlocks me if he's feeling happy, and he tortures me..whenever. I don't know about your multiverse, but in ours, soulless beings can feel true emotions if they're in a situation that causes intense emotion in normal people; Ink gets his from torturing people - mostly me." 

"What about other ways?"

"He sometimes gets them from playing board games with Killer, but he always loses, and he ends up angry at the end of it."

"Huh..that's different from my Ink. Mine just wanted to end my 'reign of terror.'"

"It's kinda weird."

"What is?"

"Well, when a Forced Destroyer jumps, they're usually sent somewhere..nicer. There are certain multiverses meant for that purpose, although they don't know that; we call them receiver multiverses, here. If there's another jump to a different one after the initial receiver, we call them end stops, or intermediates, if there is more than one before the end stop. The thing is..we aren't a receiver.."

"Maybe something got messed up?"

"Maybe. In any case, my Nightmare's got an inventing streak; he might be able to help you."

"Cool.."

"So..we should probably get out of here before Ink wakes up; last time I did this, he tried to kill me."

 "Sounds good.."

I smiled and began to lead Hex out of the cell, using Ink's skeleton - ironic - key to open all the doors we found. It took only ten minutes for us to escape, and we eventually found ourselves on the outside, where I spent a good five minutes trying to find and remove my magic suppressor..it was tough, but I did it. When the suppressor was off, I sighed in relief that I wasn't dead yet. I placed the key on the ground.

"What're you doing?" Hex wondered.

"Ink gets mad when somebody takes his keys, and I'm not exactly intent on dying today." I explained. "Anyway, you should probably let me do the talking; I know how to explain your presence in a way that would sound logical to the others."

"Got it."

I smiled before opening a portal home, gesturing for Hex to enter with me. My family were in the living room, halfway through planning an escape that I was sure would have worked.

"Dust, welcome back." Nightmare hugged me, noting that I wasn't injured.

"Guess who I have!" I grinned. 

"Hm.." Nightmare looked at Hex. "A friend?"

"Nope! A multiversal traveller! I think we got mistaken for a receiver."

"Interesting.." 

"He's a Forced Destroyer, so he might not be comfortable at first. He's been calling himself Hex."

"Nice to meet a short me." Error smiled at the foot-shorter version of him. 

"Are ya scared of touchin'?" Killer needed to know.

"Um..y-yeah.." Hex took a step back.

"Aww.." Killer was saddened. "I was gonna give ya a friendship hug.."

Hex stared at Killer's sad expression; that was how we had cured Error's fear. Killer's being sad was the equivalent of a homeless, starving puppy on the side of a busy street corner with nobody caring for him, and the only one who was capable of resisting that that we knew of was Ink. Hex frowned at the sight, fiddling around with his hands for a minute or so before hugging Killer, who immediately smiled happily and hugged back.

"Yay!" Killer grinned. "Friends!"

"...You are so much different than the Killer I know.." Hex mentioned.

"Huh?"

"..." Hex looked around at us. "Nevermind..you're too innocent to know about that.."

"To innocent to know about what?" I questioned.

"..Oh gosh, you're all innocent.." 

"Um..okay?" Even Nightmare had no idea what Hex was talking about.. "Anyway, I can probably link you to the receiver you were intended for..or you could pick a multiverse of your choosing..it might take a while, though.."

"What exactly is this entire thing?" 

"Um..it might take a while to explain.." Nightmare wrote down something. "I'll explain everything to you..in the library.."

So they went.

This was bound to be exciting.

~~~chapter end woot~~~

Dust bean meet Hex bean!

Dust bean can pull a left hook lol-

Thanks for reading my left hook writing!

Bye!