"What happened?"

Nightmare took a deep breath in. He did not believe what happened himself, but he needed to say it. "Everyone else already knows, so this is what happened."

~~~

After sending Dust off, Nightmare had something else to worry about. Someone was messing with Dreamtale, or, at least, had visited the broken AU. Nightmare teleported to his former home.

The first thing he noticed was the greenery. The used-to-be flourishing field was still dead with blackened grass blowing in the breeze. The tree he used to protect was also still dead. No surprises there.

He then noticed someone dressed in almost all yellow standing not too far away. It took him a second to register him as Dream. But Nightmare noticed that the usual positive Dream was no where. His aura was completely blocked off by a weird substance-like thing. What the heck is going on?

"Hey Dream," Nightmare said, making Dream turn in his direction. Nightmare almost did not recognize his facial features. His dead eye sockets made Nightmare really uncomfortable. For what seemed like a second, Dream's eyelights glowed a blood red color before returning to golden yellow.

"Wh-where am I?" Dream said. Nightmare just stared at him, not knowing what to say.

"Where do you think doofus?" Nightmare said. He gestured towards the devastated landscape. Dream took one look and flinched.

"No..no...no.... I can't be here..." Dream said, his eyes becoming tiny pinpricks of light.

"What do you mean?" Nightmare wanted answers.

"He said...he said he would-" Dream stuttered before cutting himself off.

"Who? Who would what?"

Dream said nothing. His eyes were replaced by the same red ovals as before. Dream smiled at Nightmare, the smile losing any "good" intent as it continued to widen.

"Perfect," he said. Dream reached into a place underneath the roots of the tree and pulled out a black ball-looking thing. Dream turned to stare at me. It took me a second to realize what it was.

"No," I said firmly.

Dream brought the apple to his mouth. "This doesn't concern you, dear brother." Dream's voice was harsh and unrelenting. Nightmare knew he could not change his mind.

That did not make it any less bearable. "You idiot! Don't do this!" Nightmare was unknowingly transforming back into his passive form.

"You can't stop me." Dream bit the apple. He instantly dropped the apple, letting it roll a few inches before stopping. Dream screamed, black ooze flowing from his mouth. Small, black tentacles generated from inside his eye sockets and completely blocked out his sight. Dream's body slowly became subject to the growing corruption.

Aftera few seconds, his whole body turned into a goopy mess. Four tentacles sprouted from his back. Only his right eye was shown through the layer of pure negativity. He smiled a wicked, twisted smile.

Nightmare was torn, to say the least. He felt himself sink to his knees and cry. He was not used to the emotion.

He choked. A tentacle wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his side and squeezing his neck tightly. "Why are you crying brother?" Dream said, a fake look of concern pasted on his face. "Was it something I did?"

"Dream... Why...?" Nightmare choked out.

Dream looked at him for a solid second then laughed. The laugh carried on far longer than it should have and sounded crazier each second. "You think Dream is still here? I'm not that idiot. My name is Shattered."

Nightmare could not believe it, even though it was staring him in the face. Shattered gave him an innocent smile before dropping him. "Now I have other things to get to. See you!" Shattered left Dreamtale in a blink.

Nightmare knew that he should leave too. He teleported back to his home.

~~~

Once he finished telling Dust the story, Nightmare listened to what happened to him. He noticed that in both of their stories, their eyes turned red. He shared this with Dust.

"You're right!" Dust suddenly realized. "Something must have caused this."

"Yes, but now the question is what." They sat there for a bit, pondering the question.

Suddenly, they heard a loud moan. Nightmare turned around and saw Error bleeding out against the wall. He and Dust rushed over to help him. Nightmare told Dust to get the medical supplies and Dust immediately agreed, rushing out of the kitchen to the living room.

"What happened?!" Nightmare asked frantically.

"INk...iS...hE iS—" Error flinched violently and was out cold. Nightmare stared at his friend.

He thought about what Error was going to say. Then, it hit him. The thought of this happening to Ink created conflicting feelings inside him. He was glad that the tiny Creator was suffering after all that he put Error through, but distressed because Nightmare new how much Error cared about him, even if they fought.

What the hell's going on?