Cross was not one to hold onto revenge. After losing his entire family to a spiteful, elaborate vengeance plot, he'd lost his enthusiasm for bloody, drawn out suffering. Revenge, he'd figured out, was all well and good, until you were finished, kneeling down in a judgment hall after having killed everyone you loved because they wanted vengeance. The thought of going after someone in retribution was now one that made him sick.

Having said that, there were a few people who deserved retribution. A few people who, if he saw them, deserved to be punished. That number of people was low, but it was there.

Never, though, had he expected one of those people to suddenly drop back into his life next to Nightmare.

Cross couldn't stop an expression of horror from spilling out as he recognized the Destroyer of Worlds, crashed and glitching next to Mare. He managed to get his expression under control, reverting back to his normal deadpan, before anyone noticed.

Well, anyone but Nightmare, who glanced at him with a mix of curiosity and concern. Somehow, the goopy skeleton seems to know exactly what everyone was thinking almost before they did. It-

Cross blinked. Could Mare read minds?

No, that wasn't exactly right. If Mare could hear their thoughts, things like Horror's panic attack would have been prevented. No, it was more like... like he could tell what their emotions were at any given point.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. It was why he was always coincidentally around right when Dust started getting anxious, or why a snack would always be seemingly carelessly left on the table as soon as Horror got hungry. So many small things that looked completely accidental from the outside were really carefully engineered, tiny things to make them feel better or more at home.

He wants us to feel comfortable here, Cross thought, looking at Mare, who was waiting for the other two (Dust and Horror) to actually notice their arrival (the two were playing a very intense round of what Horror called Checkers, but with Dust the game had a suspiciously high level of attempted murder. But as long as Horror was having fun and could deal with the attacks, it was all well and good). But he knows we've been through too much not to be suspicious of no-strings-attached help. But if he presents it as a coincidence rather than a gift he knows we'll take it all the same.

It took a few moments for Horror to stop grappling with Dust and sit up to notice them. When he did, he brightened. "Hey, guys! Good to see y'all! How'd it go? Uh- who's that?" He added, noticing Error.

"Dream and Ink showed up before we did," Nightmare explained. "It was a bit of a mess."

"I got some good target practice!" Killer added with a grin. "Sunny was a bit of an eyesore to look at for too long, though. Hey, Rory! Let's go spar!"

"Call me that again and it'll turn into a muder scene!" Horror snapped. But he was grinning as well.

"Oh my god I knew it was a bad idea to bring you!" Nightmare said, throwing his hands in the air. "Fine, you two can go- But I want no repeats of what happened last week! Go to the courtyard so you don't destroy anything- AND STAY AWAY FROM ANY WINDOWS, Y'HEAR ME? If I see any broken windows- they're gone." He gave a long-suffering sigh as Dumbass One and Dumbass Two disappeared. "So," He said to Cross, "care to explain why Error here threw you into such a loop?"

"I..." Cross folded his arms over his chest, glancing away. "Care to explain why you never told us you can read our emotions?" It wasn't the right thing to say, and he knew it. But at the moment, he was willing to say anything to distract Mare from the conversation topic.

"Ah." Mare's expression changed into a slight grimace, then back just as fast. "Touche. Not what I was expecting, but fair enough. Well! Good of an explanation time as any." He sat down on the couch, not even so much as flinching as a hooded skeleton pretty much tackled him in a hug and immediately sank into the warmth and comfort of Mare's returned embrace. Dust constantly craved physical affection, an anchor to the real world (plus, they all knew Mare was the absolute best at hugs). Nightmare, for his part, automatically moved to provide that affection, unconsciously leaning into the embrace and wrapping an arm and several tentacles around him.

It was small, unthinking gestures like that that made Cross feel like he stuck out like a broken arm. Killer and Horror were a chaos duo, and Nightmare and Dust seemed to know exactly what the other needed at any given time. All four of them were in perfect sync, but what about Cross? The monochromatic skeleton had nothing to provide for this group. He was just dead weight, slowing down an otherwise silent acceptance by having to speak everything aloud because he couldn't understand the subtleties of just knowing. A smear on an otherwise perfect portrait.

"The others feel like that too."

Cross blinked, startled. He looked at Mare, who gave a small shrug.

"Well, since you called me out on my empathy, I suppose that being subtle is useless at the moment," The goopy skeleton explained. He made a strange face, shaking his head. "Ugh. Even saying it like that feels weird. But yes. As you guessed, I'm an empath." He made jazz hands. "Surpriiiiise."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Cross asked.

Nightmare grimaced. "I know, I know. Probably should have, y'know, given you guys a warning of hey, I can pretty much read minds!. It just- never came up well, y'know? Not one of those things you just tell people casually." He hesitated, then added, "It's... only been my brother and I for a long time, Cross. It's hard to adjust to this all of the sudden. Shattered and I- we just- we know each other. I forget sometimes that explanations are a necessary part of relationships." He glanced down, staring down at his hands with a strangely bitter expression.

There's more to it than just that, Cross guessed. But talking about it brings up bad memories that he doesn't want to uncover. "What did you mean by the others feel like I do?" He asked instead.

Mare shrugged, not looking up. "The others feel just as uncertain about their place here as you do. 'I don't belong.' 'If I tell them something's wrong, they'll hate me for being weak.' 'As long as I have a purpose here, they'll accept me, won't they?' 'Why me? I don't belong here.'"

"..."

"I mean... I feel like that, sometimes," Nightmare added, to Cross' surprise. "I don't know if you can tell, but I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm mostly just making this up all as I go. I've never really... had people to care about. I don't know what to do now that I've found some."

Cross tilted his head. "Don't you have friends in other AU's, though?"

Nightmare gave a small, sad shake of the head. "Those are Shattered's friends," He said quietly. "None of them really wanted to meet me. No one ever does," He added, almost inaudibly.

"Oh." Cross didn't know what to say to that.

"Well," Mare said, looking up with only the barest ghost of a grin. "Their loss, I guess. I'd rather be around you guys than any number of indifferent masses. So, your turn, Cross. What's up with you and Error?"

Cross glanced at the red-boned skeleton, but based on the reset progress bar, he wasn't waking up any time soon.

"..." Cross clutched at the fabric on his shirt, right where his necklace would be if he had it.

RIght where his SOUL was.

"Ink wasn't the only Outcode to visit my AU," He said quietly. "Error came once to destroy the place, and-" He screwed his eyes shut.

"All thi$ $pace f0r ju$t 0ne per$0n? $eem$ kinda $elfi$h, d0n't y0u think?"

"$uch an intere$ting $0UL! Y0u d0n't mind me taking thi$, d0 y0u? After all, it'$ n0t like y0u'll need it after thi$!"

Mare didn't say anything, simply putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Ink managed to stop him from destroying it, but-" Cross broke off once more. He lifted his hand from his chest, using blue magic to reveal a broken, jagged-edged half a SOUL and the outline of a red human SOUL half, both parts flickering between pointing upwards and downwards.

"Whoa! Lucky I managed to get back half, huh? Don't worry, I'll go find Error to give back the rest!"

"SOUL? I don't... Oh! Right! You want back that weird human part of it!"

"Uh... what? A SOUL? I think I remember writing something about that somewhere... Lemme check!"

"A SOUL? I don't know if I have any laying around. Error? Wait, did he come here?! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"SOUL? I don't remember any fight. Oh, are you telling stories now too? I didn't know you liked art!"

Nightmare didn't say anything for a long while, but after a moment, he reached out and pulled Cross into a tight, protective and caring hug. As Cross returned the hug, he felt Dust shift and wrap an arm around him, the hooded skeleton resting his chin on Cross' shoulder.

"Y'know, I did sort of wonder why you hate using blue magic," Mare said after a while.

Cross gave a half-sob half-chuckle. "Yeah, it- I can be good at keeping secrets when I want to be."

"Hmm." Mare didn't say anything more, but once Cross pulled away from the embrace, he tapped his chin, looking down at Error thoughtfully. "Well, that brings us to the question of what to do with him."

"Y-you don't have to do anything rash for my sake, Mare," Cross said quickly. He didn't know if he could bear to watch anything drastic, knowing it was because of him.

"It's not that, Cross," Nightmare explained. "I'd love to be able to just get the information I need, then let him leave, but if he's willing to do that-" He nodded toward Cross' SOUL. "-it would be too much of a risk to let him wander free. Plus, he destroys worlds, and I'm not sure how indiscriminately he does so, or if he even can see other people as worth sparing. Overall, it's just too much of a risk to take no precautions."

"Error collects SOULs," Cross said. "At least, that's what it sounded like."

"All the more reason to do something now, before he wakes up." Mare stood up, then thought for a moment. He groaned. "Which means," He said at length, "I need to go bargain with Bill to let me talk to Ford. Damn. I really should have planned this out better."

Cross could tell where this was going, and he didn't particularly like it. But he knew what the right choice was. "I'll stay here," He said, each word feeling like someone was pulling out his teeth. "A-and watch him."

Mare looked at him with a mixture of sadness and regret. "I wasn't going to ask you to."

"I know." Nightmare wouldn't make anyone do something that they didn't want to do. It was one of the things Cross had noticed, in his time here. "But I can't just put Killer or Horror or Dust in danger like that. If he wakes up and hurts them, I- I can't let what happened to me happen to them, Mare."

Nightmare hesitated, then nodded. "I can see that. Well, if you're sure-"

"I am," Cross said. It came out sounding more uncertain than he meant it to, so he repeated it. "I am, Mare. It's alright."

Nightmare nodded again. "Right. And- just so you know, I didn't bring Killer with me because I thought he was more competent than you," He added. Cross gave him a startled look. "Just thought you might want to know. There was no ulterior motive for choosing one over the other. He was just the first one I saw."

Mare shrugged, then untangled himself from Dust and disappeared. The hooded skeleton looked at Cross, then copied the action. It only took a single glance out the window to see he had appeared next to Horror and Killer, who were for all intents and purposes trying to murder each other for fun.

It was strangely quiet in the living room without anyone else around. Normally the TV was on or he and Killer were arguing loudly or Horror was introducing them to a new game or chasing one of them out of the kitchen because HONESTLY HOW HARD IS IT TO SIT AND WAIT AND NOT COME INTO THE COOKING SPACE or Mare was telling them about a strange AU he'd once visited or describing a spell in detail and how all the runes and symbols fit together and Killer was trying not to fall asleep because YAWN HOMEWORK but seeing Mare so excited about something was worth listening to endless lectures.

It was strange to just hear nothing sitting in this empty room.

But Cross had been trained to be able to sit for hours in silence. Being a Royal Guard had meant more than a bit of guard duty. Sitting here and watching Error for however long (Mare had implied he'd be back before Error woke up, so it couldn't be that terribly long) should be easy for him.

Cross settled back to keep an eye on the Destroyer.

----------------------------------------------------

Sure enough, it only took about a half-hour for Mare to return. Error's reset progress bar had gone up steadily until around 70%, where it had crashed and started inching its way up at about a percent every three minutes.

Maare looked quite a bit more worn and run-down than Cross had noticed before- like he hadn't slept properly in a few days rather than it only being a half-hour. Dragged along were a human (A human!) holding a strange machine in his hands, and a Sans with yellow-golden eyes, a match suit, tophat, and cane, who was grinning at Mare with utter delight. For some reason, Cross got a strange sickly feeling, watching the Sans smile at Mare like he was something the Sans owned. In fact, the Sans' whole demeanor subtly whispered I find it hilarious that you think you can be independent from me. Cross resolved immediately that this Sans was completely untrustworthy.

"Cross," Mare said the name almost inaudibly, and Cross shivered. There was something strange about hearing his name said like that, like he was a rock in an otherwise slippery, choppy ocean. Like everything was okay now that a familiar face was around. "You're still here."

"Of course I am," Cross said, confused. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"The past few days have been rough on him, emotionally speaking," The human said. "Even more so than necessary." He looked at the Sans, who clasped his hands behind his back and smiled innocently.

"Wha- did you say days?" Cross echoed, startled. "It's only been thirty minutes."

"Right. Minutes. Time difference. 'S why I chose to see Bill instead of Tori," Mare muttered, as if to himself. He sounded vaguely distressed, but for the life of him Cross couldn't see why. (He had some suspicions, most of them pointed at the Sans, who he was ready to attack or defend against at a moments' notice) As the goopy skeleton continued mumbling to himself, he started to sound more like himself, less uncertain and more confident. "An hour here was supposed to be a month there, but I must have miscalculated. At the moment, however, Witchtale is running at a much slower speed than here, which means every second would be a lot longer here, and as fast as I could have put together a spell, it would have been to late and Error could have destroyed the place before I even got halfway done, so sadly Bill was the more logical choice."

"Sadly?" The Sans (Bill?) asked, putting a hand over his chest dramatically. "Is that all I am to you? A second choice option?"

"Absolutely," Mare and the human said in unison.

Bill scoffed, putting his hands on his hips. "Brave statement coming from two guys whose lives are literally in my hands at any given moment. Maybe I should remind you how fragile your positions are."

Cross stepped in between Bill and Mare. "I won't let you do anything to him," He snapped angrily.

Bill quirked a metaphorical eyebrow at him. "Aw, how cute. Apples got himself a guard dog. Why don't you go learn to fetch while the adults talk, little puppy?"

"Bill," Mare said quietly. His eye was closed and he was rubbing his temples, but his tone was warning. Not dangerous yet, but close.

To Cross' surprise, Bill rolled his eyes and settled back without another word.

"Ford, can you-" Nightmare started to ask. The human nodded before the skeleton finished and stepped forward, dropping the strange metal contraption in Mare's hands.

"Yes, it should be strong enough," Ford said, eyeing Error with a criticizing look. "So long as you're sure you properly etched in the runes and warding symbols. Maybe it might be best to collect some unicorn hair as well..."

Mare shook his head. "Not enough time. I can take it from here, Ford."

"Hey-" Bill started to protest as Ford nodded and grabbed his hand to leave.

Nightmare rolled his eye. "Yes, I remember. I'll play DnD with you next time I visit. This is a bit more important at the moment."

"Fiiiiiine," The Sans grumbled, then disappeared along with Ford. Cross wondered how such a dangerous person could switch from cunning dictator to whining child in less than three seconds.

Mare knelt down next to Error, snapping the strange piece of metal around the Destroyer's wrist. (The reset progress was now at 98%, which meant he'd most likely wake up soon)

"That should work to keep him from any mischief," Mare said, standing up.
"Now I have more pressing matters to attend to."

More pressing than a multiverse-wide murderer sitting in our living room? Cross thought skeptically. "What... what matters?" He asked aloud.

Mare looked him dead in the eyes, sounding and looking completely serious.

"I really need a fucking nap right now."

Heyo! I'm back!

And by back I mean I'm now in my new town/house. It's very exciting, I know. I'm just happy to be able to post these chapters now. Thank you all for your patience!

Hope y'all have a wonderful day/night, and I'll catch y'all later!