Oh, God.

Oh, oh no.

"Y-you're serious?" Horror asked shakily. Killer nodded. "Half of his SOUL- as a damn souvenir- and he's just- Oh, God."

Killer nodded again, glancing away. Horror slumped down against the wall, sitting back on his heels as he buried his face in his hands.

"No wonder Cross was so terrified," Horror muttered.

"That's all you have to say?" Killer snapped. He started pacing back and forth, flicking one of his knives out of its sheath and spinning it anxiously. "He's sitting in there, virtually unmonitored, Cross is almost dead and Mare's completely exposed, and all you have to say is wow, Cross is scared of the guy who tried to murder him!?"

"I'm trying to think!" Horror replied snappishly. He exhaled sharply, closing his eyes and clenching his fists. "I don't- Killer, this is horrible, but-"

"But what?" Killer cried. "We have to do something! We have to-"

"We have to what?" Horror asked, cutting his friend off as he stood up. "Go in there guns blazing? Try to fight Error? Explain to Mare why we would attack a guest- no matter how begrudging of a guest he is?"

Killer started to say something, then stopped, closing his mouth with an audible click.

"As much as I hate it, and as much as you hate it, Error is here under Mare's protection," Horror said. "We can't do anything. It's not our problem to solve." He took a deep, shaky breath. "All we can do is wait."

"How can you say that?" Killer demanded. "He tried to kill Cross!"

"Dust tried to kill me."

Killer balked, startled by both the words and the blunt tone. "He- what?"

Horror shrugged. "It was before you met us. He was in a terrible frame of mind, and saw all three of us as threats. One night, he walked into my room and pulled out a knife. Broke my wrist, too."

Killer looked surprised, furrowing his bonebrow in a frown. But he stayed silent as Horror continued.

"Some internal argument stopped him, thankfully," Horror said. "So there we both were, sitting on the floor, crying after attempted murder, and it turns out Mare had been standing in the doorway the entire time. Just watching. Not interfering or trying to stop Dust. Not doing anything to help. Naturally, my response was something along the lines of 'what the fuck?!'. And you know what Mare responded with? 'The only way to get Dust to feel safe is to let him realize himself that we aren't a threat'. Attached to a long, sentimental speech, of course."

Killer snorted. "Of course."

"Anyway, the moral of the story is that Mare didn't interfere because it wasn't his problem to solve," Horror said gently. "If he had tried, it would have only convinced Dust we were threats. Nothing would have been fixed. It's the same here, Killz. If we rise to Cross' defense, nothing will change. It has to be his decision, because it's his grievance."

"And if Error gets off scot-free after what he's done?" Killer asked quietly.

Horror met his gaze evenly. "Then we respect Cross' decision, and trust that he was right."

Killer hesitated, glancing away. "I don't like it," he snapped. But that anger wasn't there for Horror.

"I'm not exactly ecstatic about it either," Horror said with a shrug. "But it's the only way for things to get better."

"Fine," Killer said with a small huff. "You're right. But for the record, I don't like it."

Horror put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to. The important thing is that you've decided to do the right thing."

"And that I agreed you're right," Killer said teasingly.

"Well, that was just a given, so there was no point in pointing it out." Horror grinned as the black-eyed skeleton huffed with irritation.

"Dumbass."

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

Error watched.

There wasn't exactly much else to do, to be honest. Killer and Horror had left, Nightmare was still healing Cross (honestly the most surprising turn of events so far), and the other skeleton just sat there, staring at him intently. This skeleton looked about two seconds from either vehicular manslaughter or a mental breakdown at any given moment, and Error didn't want to deal with either at the moment. So waiting and watching was the only thing to do.

There wasn't much to watch, actually. Nightmare looked to be in a sort of trance, focusing on nothing but the flow of magic from his hands to Cross' SOUL.

Healing magic was absurdly complicated. First off, there was intent, like with attacks. If there was even the slightest faltering of intent, a lapse in focus or brief wish of "do I really want to save this person?", the monster in healing would almost certainly die. Another thing to worry about was magic overload- if the monster healing gets too much magic in their fragile state, their SOUL would overload and they'd dust. Same with too little magic. Healing was as stressful as walking a tightrope, where even the smallest wrong move could lead to death. And, of course, that stress could lead to a faltering intent, which led to dust.

There were also healing items, such as specific foods, which were a lot safer due to the fact that there was no intent involved. Nor was there under or overloaded magic. Once the person was healed, they stopped eating. Simple. Another tool to use for healing was a healing focus, which the healer could pour magic into beforehand and then use that pre-existing magic to automatically heal the wound. The only drawback was that healing focuses had their own intent- they could only heal certain injuries. A broken bone focus could not heal a gash or cut. Didn't matter how much or how little magic was required.

Long story short, healing magic kind of sucked when it came down to it. Error had briefly been interested in it and had gotten pretty good at it until he'd gotten bored and turned his attention to the next cool thing.

Not a lot of things could hold his attention for long, actually. He'd tried so many things he could probably be considered a Jack-of-All-Trades (if he'd spent literally any more effort into actually improving his skill rather than leaving everything half-baked). Things like music (he couldn't stand the sound a badly played violin made), scrapbooking (glue had a tendency to stick to his fingers, which he hated), glassblowing (which was actually pretty cool, but he couldn't handle the texture of warm or imperfect glass), pottery (ditto. He hated the feel of wet clay), and various other crafts that he'd abandoned within a few weeks. He'd pretty much hit his stride with knitting and sewing, though, and enjoyed filling the empty hours with the projects he worked on. Sooner or later, he'd probably get bored of it, but for now it was fun.

Error watched absently as Nightmare continued his heading process. Idly, he wondered what would happen if he attacked while the King was distracted. The only person who could really hurt him was the King himself, so if he took out Nightmare and moved onto the other three (Cross didn't count), then...

No, that would be stupid. Most likely, Nightmare would survive, and then Error would be in trouble. Even if he escaped now, the retribution would be swift and deadly. Error wasn't scared of the King's new lackeys, but an injured, pissed off Nightmare seeking vengeance was not something he ever wanted to contend with.

The entire reason Error was still here was to make sure Nightmare didn't come after him. There was literally no point in attacking and having the King certainly come after him. The best thing- the only thing, really- to do was to wait quietly.

Although.

There was one problem.

Error was bored.

Waiting had never been his strong suit. Waiting quietly was even less so. He was the Destroyer of Worlds, for heaven's sake! He went out and did things, not sit there and wait for things to happen to him! And besides, staring at three virtually motionless skeletons was as dull as watching grass grow. Even as Killer and Horror reappeared, there was nothing really interesting to focus on.

He was about two seconds away from chucking the lamp next to him at the TV. Which one would break first, he wondered?

Fortunately, before he was desperate enough to literally start clawing at his own face, Nightmare's flow of magic stopped. The goopy skeleton stood up, rubbing his eye with a quiet groan.

Horror and Killer immediately rushed to his side, but Error stayed where he was, picking at one of the threads on the cuff of one sleeve. It was a sloppily done sewing job, uneven and lopsided. He'd have to redo it later, but for now picking at it provided an outlet for his boredom and frustration.

As he undid the stitching thread by thread, he listened to the conversation that was almost quiet enough for him not to hear.

"Cross... will be fine," Nightmare was saying softly (softly? The King of Negativity?? What???). "He's resilient and Determined. Even without me, given enough time, he'd have survived himself. As far as I can tell, now that his SOUL is stabilized, he's strong enough to pull through almost anything."

"Well, that's a relief," Horror said with an anxious grin. "I can't help but feel like you're about to say however with something really terrible and nerve wracking put in front of it."

Nightmare gave the barest ghost of a smile, tapping his fingers repeatedly. "However," he added sadly. "However, I can't do anything else for him. Cross isn't going to wake up yet. Not for a long time."

"Wh... how long is a long time?" Killer asked shakily. He stared at the King, dreading and hopeful at the same time.

Nightmare shrugged sadly. "I don't know, Killz. I really don't. The thing is, he used to have full control over his SOUL. Chara was more of a ghost or voice- they had nothing substantial to do."

"Chara?" Killer frowned.

"Long story," Horror said. He looked at Nightmare. "But now that he has the human half of his SOUL...?"

"Either one of them can take control," Nightmare finished with a nod. "They're in something of a power struggle, and until that stalemate is broken, there's nothing to do. All we can do is wait, I'm afraid."

The conversation faded away with one last angry mutter from Killer about waiting. Error managed to unravel the last bit of thread from his sleeve as the last, currently unnamed skeleton made his way over to Horror and studied him intently. Horror and Killer glanced at each other, then disappeared, along with Cross. The last skeleton stared at Nightmare for a moment, then turned and walked away.

Leaving Error and the King alone.

Joy of joys.

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

"I'm surprised you're still here."

Error jumped, then frowned at Nightmare, as if surprised he could talk so calmly and non threateningly. Mare held back a sigh- the destroyer was so afraid of him, even if he hid it quite well. It saddened him to think that even another immortal would be afraid of him like this.

Error did hide it very well, though. Whenever the red skeleton felt nervous or anxious or sad a sort of defiant, irritated wall would go up around his other emotions. Consciously trying to get a read on him was like trying to poke at a cactus. The sharp bristles of Error's fallback emotion made any real, deep study ineffective and somewhat painful.

"Y0u think I want t0 be?" Error snapped. He put his hands on his hips, frown deepening. "Thi$ wa$ a kidnapping, wa$n't it? Y0u're lucky I even b0thered t0 bring back Cr0$$ bef0re I de$tr0yed the place."

A lie. Error wasn't planning on destroying this AU- or, at least, he was too scared of the consequences to do so anytime soon. The destroyer was testing him, seeing how far he could push before the "King of Negativity" lost his patience and snapped.

Mare had a feeling that the King would have murdered Error for his behavior a long, long time ago. Luckily for all parties involved, Mare had no desire to ever be like that King.

"I'm glad you saved him," Nightmare said with a small smile. Maybe, if he acted nice for long enough, Error would start to trust him. "Without Chara's SOUL, he would have died even with my intervention. Thank you for giving him a chance, Error."

Error looked both extremely taken aback and deeply confused. He mumbled something along the lines of, "Wanted t0 be left al0ne."

"You can be," Mare said, tilting his head. "You won our bet, didn't you? You can leave freely, and I'll never come after you again."

"N0, but in$tead y0u'll ju$t $end y0ur fucking hitmen after me," Error snapped angrily. "They're fair game when y0u y0ur$elf "w0n't c0me after me"." He put air quotes around the last few words, glaring at Mare.

Ah. Nightmare hadn't thought about that- how Cross' presence might have been seen as an attack in Error's mind. No wonder the destroyer was still hanging around- he expected to be attacked or betrayed at any moment.

"I..." Mare hesitated, wishing briefly for his brother to be here. Shattered was excellent with words. "Cross had- has?- a grievance against you," he said after a moment. "What you did hurt him, virtually irreparably, for what were probably years. He needs that closure that he'd only get from talking to you. Him following you had nothing to do with our bargain. I only asked him to talk to you so he could get better."

If it was possible for Error to look more shocked and confused, he did. "Get better?" The destroyer echoed, startled.

Mare shrugged. "Anyway, the point is, you can leave anytime, if you want," he said. "Although, if you'd be willing to come back to talk to Cross once he wakes up, I'd much appreciate it."

Error simply stared at him incredulously, emotions warring inside him. Shock and confusion and incredulity and fear and a strangely bitter sadness bounced around his SOUL until it all simply shut down, replaced with that prickly, defensive irritation. Mare almost winced at the sudden feeling of sensing the emotional equivalent of a cactus.

"Y0u're in$ane," the glitchy skeleton huffed. He hesitated for a brief, almost unnoticeable second, glancing at the living room, then huffed again and added, "Y0ur $weater ha$ a h0le in it, by the way."

"Ah, that's because Dream shot me and I keep forgetting to get it fixed," Nightmare explained, holding up the sweater to study the tear in the fabric.

But Error had already disappeared.

He'll be back.

Haha, Error's short attention span go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

All of my characters are neurodivergent because I'm neurodivergent and I say so (also I have no idea how to write neurotypical people sooooo...)

Anyway, I do in fact have something to say to y'all. It's important, so don't skip this, please.

I've been writing this story since about March (I think). So it's been a while. Recently, though, I've kind of lost motivation for this story. I still love the characters, and I'm definitely going to finish the book (don't worry about that), but I haven't actually written any chapters for this story since August. I've just had pre-completed chapters I was posting.

But now I've run out of pre-completed chapters. And I haven't had motivation to continue the story for a while.

I am coming back! One hundred percent, I'm going to come back to this book. But it might be a while. Maybe three days, maybe three months. I don't know.

Like Error, I will be back, but for now, I'm taking a break. That's all for now.

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