Dream didn't know what to do.

All of this war and suffering had really started to get into his head. He told himself that it was just for the safety of the multiverse, but would the alternate universes appreciate it when all of everything they loved got hurt by the "protectors"? It didn't make sense.

He was currently sitting in a field of flowers alone, looking at the page of a book. Looking as in spacing out and not making any progress, but time to think helped him plan battles more.

And after Swap... he didn't want to think about it.

"Oh, Gaia. What would you have done?" he whispered to himself, crumpling a flower in his hands. The petals flew away in the wind, illuminated by the soft glows of the sunset. "War to save them all, or mercy to enslave them all?"

It was a hard decision, indeed.

His train of thought, however, was stopped by a rustling in the bushes. Dream wasn't concerned, but the sound startled him a little. "Hello? Are you a little critter?" Deers, bunnies, birds, squirrels, and more enjoyed the guardian's company, often visiting just to rest around him. It was like he was the guardian of their lives... though Dream didn't do much guarding anymore.

"More than that," a smooth voice whispered. Dream immediately got up, pulling his staff off its hostler. "Woah, no need to get all jumpy..." Suddenly a large figure phased out of the bush, raising its arms as two bloodred eyes appeared.

"YOU WOULDN'T HURT YOUR BROTHER, WOULD YOU?!"

---

Cross was currently making rounds around the desolated village with no summoned weapons as to leave as little of a trail behind. "Barren as always."

The village of Galla was always a small and insignificant one compared to Punia- where the incident happened, coincidentally- so when the skies turned red and the apples turned black, it was decimated immediately. So when Ink came over to this universe to do damage control, he never bothered to clean this place up.

It looked just like it did during the incident- all rubble and some bodies. All of the buildings crumbled on each other, the dry flaky walls collapsing by themselves. Human villagers who were none the wiser to what was happening, doing their daily routine before they got erased off the Earth, only a shadow of their soul left.

Cross didn't really have any pity towards them. Why would he? It wasn't like he personally knew them, anyways. But the fact that most people thought it just another day in life was pitiable. 

He was about to finish his rounds until he picked up quiet footsteps. Whipping around, he summoned a blood-red knife, pointing the tip at the source of the sound. "Reveal yourself." There was no response, causing him to narrow his eyes. "Or else..."

"Okay fine," Killer mumbled, then crawled out of a crater. It was actually relatively easy finding Cross. He had traveled across the Tundra, planning to search first in the enemy's territory. Dream's aura was painfully obvious, so he found out their general area. Maybe he had overestimated Cross? "Ya got me."

Killer wasn't worried about getting attacked. Cross wasn't the type to be reckless- well unless it was trying to get his chocolate back, but that didn't happen much after he blew up a hole in the wall of the mansion. "W-what are you doing here?!"

"Uhhh-" he coughed awkwardly. "I need your boyfriend's help."

Cross let out an amused scoff. "Oh really? Did things not work out with Nightmare?" Killer somehow made a cat meme face.

"Nah," he laughed, regaining his composure. "Uh- Well, you see..." Then he pulled up his sweater. Cross immediately covered his eyes, looking the other way.

"Sorry, but I don't like you that way."

"UH THAT'S NOT WHAT I WAS TRYING TO DO-" he squeaked, grabbing his soul and pushing it out. "Just open your eyes. I promise I'm wearing a sweater."

"Your word isn't very trustworthy."

"Why does literally everyone tell me that?"

"Maybe it's true?" Cross grumbled, taking a peek. "You should think about- holy fuck." His hands fell from his shocked face, widening his eyes. "Dude, you look like shit." Killer raised an eyebrow, looking down. It shouldn't be that bad.

"Holy fuck is right!" Killer yelled, jumping up and down. "WhaT THE HECK-" It was indeed worse than before. The part of the soul that wasn't effected yet before became cracked too, a large piece of it being crooked and warped. He instinctively jumped on Cross, shaking his arm. "Yo, you have to help me!"

Cross growled in return, waving his arm like crazy. "Get off of me! I don't have to help your ass." This skeleton ruined his life. Why was he obliged to help?

"Uhhh- I'll give you valuable information if you do!" Killer blurted, then covered his mouth. Oops. Suddenly the shaking stopped, and Cross had a big grin. Leaning down to his height, he cocked his head.

"Oh really?"

---

Dream wheezed, clutching his chest. Another hallucination.

Hands shaking, he reached into his pocket, taking out a bottle of pills. "A pill a day makes them go away..." Taking out a pill, he placed it in his mouth and swallowed.

Instantly, he felt relief. "It wasn't Nightmare. It was just a hallucination." Resting against the trunk of a tree, he measured his heartrate. 88 BPM.

(Ok but is it just me or is my resting heart rate in the low 50s? Though a lower heart rate is good, so I don't think I'm going to die earlier haha maybe-)

"Ugh- I should remember to take these pills more," he grumbled, placing them back where he first found them. Hazily looking around, he stared at the nice scenery blankly. Where was Cross? He was supposed to come back a while ago. Maybe he had found something interesting? That gave Dream a slight spike of positivity. Hopefully, they'd get a clue to what the other side was doing.

Knock, knock.

"Dream, are you in there?"

"Yes," he called out, leaning on the tree trunk to get up. Resting his hand on the handle of the door, he was about to open it, but stopped. Instead, he replied, "Red apples."

"Green pastures," Cross responded, nodding.

Creakkk...

"Oh Cross, you're back- who's this?" Dream asked, cocking his head. Suddenly, sparkles shone in his eyes. "Killer, am I right?" Reaching out, he clasped his hands with the other skeleton. "I haven't fought with you in so long!"

Killer let out a slight groan. "Oh yeah. You." Those arrows hurt like hell too. "How have you been doing?" To be honest, he didn't care, but it was polite to ask so. As long as Dream could fix his soul situation, he'd be happy.

"Mm, not really that good," Dream hummed thoughtfully, adding, "We're probably going to die soon or something." Then he let out a slight giggle. "Sorry, I'm a little pessimistic these days. You caught me at a bad time."

Cross sighed. "Yeah, this war has really been throwing me off." He took off his straps, resting them on a tree branch. "Can't wait till this is over so I can rest for like- forever."

Dream nodded, smiling. "Yes. I'd like that." Turning to Killer, he let out a sigh. "Poor you, your emotions are all over the place, aren't they?" The teary-eyed skeleton let out a squeak of surprise, then nodded a lot.

"Y-yeah, can you help me?" It was impressive that the guardian caught on so quickly, but it was his profession.

"Hm... I'll try," Dream mumbled, lost in his thoughts. It would take a long time and a lot of persistence. "You can't go back to Nightmare for a while though. This process might take... at least four days. Is that alright?" The last sentence was laced with concern and a little hint of pity. This skeleton had a lot of appreciation for Nightmare.

Killer gulped, but then quickly nodded.

"Yes."

---

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Alrighty I'm going to work on the next chapter and attend my Chinese class too- it's right now BYE!

~ ethereale 💜