Chapter Text
Cross legitimately didn't know how he ended up here. It was meant to be a simple mission, check up on the positivity levels of some smaller alternate universes and be right back. So how did he get to this point? In front of some random humans interrogating him after he fell into their fake city.
Boss is gonna be so mad...
Cross shuddered as he thought about what kind of punishment Nightmare might give him.
Nightmare could be kind at times, but he was extremely harsh when it came to punishments. And was generally very cold to Cross and the gang. Now Cross wasn't stupid, he knew that Nightmare was basically just using him, he knew that even before Nightmare shedded his nice attitude towards him after he swore his loyalty.
But Nightmare was the only person, besides Ink, to ever show some semblance of care to Cross after his world was destroyed. And unlike Ink, Nighmare gave him a purpose, a reason to continue trucking on despite everything that he's done. Nightmare gave him a way to redeem himself.
He no longer had to stay in his empty void, dependent on Ink for company and waiting for him to come back, if he even remembered him. He no longer had to float in the remnants of his world, feeling sorry for himself. Now he had a mission, to help keep the balance of the multiverse.
That was a noble cause, something bigger than himself. So outsiders like Dream could just shut up about it not being good for him.
How could he understand, someone who's always been in the light. Someone as dark and disgusting as Cross needed this, he needed to feel something other than guilt.
Doing this helped him feel alive, helped him to forget. Ultimately, he was doing good, so that justified his actions and meant that he could be redeemed. It had to.
Who cares that people were dying? Who cares about how many people he's hurt ohmygodivehurtsomanypeoplewhatamidoingwhyamidoingthissomeonepleasehelpme—
...
What was he thinking about? Oh right, he should get back to how he got here.
The mission was easy, and usually Nightmare would be the one to do it but he was busy so he left the job up to Cross.
On his way out, Killer gave him a snide comment which he responded with flipping him off. Dust was sleeping the day away again since he had no assignments and Horror went back home to spend time with his Papyrus.
While leaving ARGtale, he had been ambushed by a Sans he didn't recognise. The Sans had messed with his code, causing him to appear in the universe he was currently in when he tried to teleport away.
When he opened his eyes, he was in what looked to be a city, but it was strangely empty. However, before he could look around, he was almost immediately surrounded by humans in costumes.
He wasn't allowed to kill anyone according to Nightmare's orders and not wanting to risk it, got backed into a corner.
If they were normal humans, he could have easily taken them down without using his weapons, but these humans used magic.
"Magic!" Cross suddenly exclaimed, startling the humans in the interrogation room. "You used magic!"
Now, humans using magic itself wasn't inherently strange, but he had never seen magic used like that before.
"Do you mean quirks?" a hobo asked him.
Cross stared at them blankly before knocking his skull in frustration.
Of course! It's an alternate universe, they're gonna have a different way of referring to magic!
Luckily, the humans ignored that and went on with the interrogation. They asked questions like, 'why did you come here', 'how did you come here', and 'who are you'.
"Uh, I'm... Cross and..." he stated his name and went on to tell them a less detailed version of what happened. It became 'I went on an assignment and was ambushed and accidentally teleported here'.
That just brought up new questions. But before he could answer, the door clicked open. In the doorway stood a giant rat. Cross knew it was rude, monsters came in all shapes and sizes and he really didn’t discriminate but wow that was a big rat. At least it wasn't a cow.
It called the humans outside (oh my god the rat can talk) and they left Cross alone. He looked around in the room, just wondering when Nightmare would come pick him up, if he even knew he was gone yet.
Cross froze as he saw the reflection of himself in the mirror on the wall. It was him... but...
15?! Why do I look like when I was 15 years old?!
No wonder the humans weren't being as harsh with him, it's because they thought he was a minor!
Just what did that Sans do to me?
He snapped out of his thoughts when the door clicked open again, the humans plus rat entering the room once more. The rat took a seat in front of him.
"So, Cross, can you tell me about yourself?" the rat asked as it took a seat in front of him.
Oh right, the rat can talk. Cross blinked at it (him?) for a bit before realising that he should answer.
"O-oh, well I'm..." he stared at his reflection again, should he lie? He didn't know these people at all, and would they believe him if he said that he was 29? Would they be nicer if they thought that he was younger? He stared at them warily before answering.
"I'm 15 and I work for my boss, uh, Night, and I was sent on a mission when I accidentally teleported into your city," Cross said, stammering when it came to Nightmare's name, not knowing if he should give him a faker name.
The humans had a look of concern over their faces at his statement, but it quickly smoothed over.
"And what might that mission entail?" the rat continued to ask.
Ah crap crap!
He wasn't able to think up a lie on the spot, and his previous stammering must have already made him suspicious to some extent.
"It's just scouting out some small, uhm towns and checking their... happiness levels?" Cross replied, figuring that it was better to tell the truth but he still internally cringed.
Checking their happiness levels?! What idiot would believe that?
Well, these idiots apparently, because a majority of them suddenly had sullen looks on their faces as they looked at him in pity.
"Can I ask what your boss usually makes you do?" the rat asked again.
Cross wanted to rip his non-existent hairs out, what was with all the questions?
"Well, to sum it up, I guess it's mostly keeping the balance, like positivity and negativity, so when it's too happy we make it sad...?" he replied, unsure of what to say. It's not like he wanted them to know that he caused chaos in multiple different alternate universes and killed people.
They all looked a bit disturbed at the revelation.
Oh, they're one of those types.
Types like Dream or Swap, who believe that positivity is best and that what they're doing has no purpose.
They excused themselves and he was left alone once again.
---
"That poor boy..." Nemuri sighed softly, wiping her eyes. She hadn't teared up, but the burning sensation she felt told her otherwise.
"I know right, being manipulated to join a cult at such a young age," Hizashi muttered.
Stories like Cross' weren't too unordinary, cults typically target people who were easily influenced like kids. but it was still pitiful nonetheless. If Shouta ever found this 'Night' person, he'd slam his head against the wall, or worse.
The way he'd stammered when talking about Night, it was clear that Cross was frightened of him. And the way he talked about their cause, he obviously didn't really like what they were doing, but was convinced he was doing good anyways.
And that scar on his cheek... Shouta wasn't a doctor but even he could tell that it was intentional.
"Well then, you know what we have to do, right?" Nezu chimed in cheerily.
The three of them stared blankly at him before Shouta groaned. Nezu always liked giving him sad kids who he was going to get unreasonably attached to.
---
After a while, Cross looked up as the door clicked open once more, they had taken shorter this time.
Then, the rat dropped a bombshell on him.
"You want me to attend your... hero school?" Cross questioned incredulously. Truly, his offer was suspicious. Cross only had to attend his school and they'd help him find a way back home? It seemed too good to be true.
But they confirmed that it was true.
Cross wanted to reject, he didn’t need help. Except he did. He was in an all new universe, maybe even multiverse since he's never seen anything like this one before.
He's going to need all the help he can get to go home.
Shouta stared as the boy contemplated their offer. Of course, they couldn’t tell him that they intended to find and arrest Night, he didn’t need to know that.
In the end, Cross had no choice but to accept, not that it was the worst thing in the world. It's just that...
"You've never been to school before?" Shouta said.
Cross nodded sheepishly, he had only trained for becoming a royal guard when he was younger, and neglected his studies, later on Gaster just took him out of school entirely.
He knew the basics of how to read, write and do simple equations, but he never learned much besides that.
"How long have you been employed by Night?" Nemuri asked, fishing for information.
Cross counted on his fingers.
"About 3 years," he stated.
The three humans, who were actually hero teachers, paled. The blonde one quickly recovered and patted him on the head.
"Don't you worry, little listener! We'll catch you up to date in no time!" he said in an attempt to cheer him up, not that he was sad.
It was decided that Cross would join class 1-A and live in the apartment next to Shouta and Hizashi, so they can watch over him in case his attacker came back.
---
"So, due to some difficult circumstances, Cross here is going to be joining our class, introduce yourselves as I..." Shouta let out a yawn as he crawled into his sleeping bag.
Cross cursed his new teacher out in his mind as his new classmates surrounded him, shooting questions at him from left and right.
"Is your name really Cross?"
"Why aren't you wearing the uniform?"
"Woah you're a skeleton..."
"Where are you from?"
"Everyone please stop!" a glasses wearing boy yelled out. Everyone quickly calmed down, looking apologetically at him when they realised what they did.
Cross sent him a smile to show his gratitude and turned to look at all his classmates. For the most part, a majority of them looked like normal humans, save for the odd hair colours.
Hopefully none of them had a cow quirk, though he didn't think the powers of a cow would be very useful in hero work.
Cross didn't really know what to say to them, he had never been that good at social stuff, and staying in a white void for who knows how long didn't exactly help.
The school day went on as per normal after that, and since they had no hero training that day it was rather uneventful.
Shouta and Hizashi brought Cross back to his new temporary housing. He thanked them for all the help as he closed the door.
The essentials were there, a bed, bathroom, fully stocked fridge. He sighed in relief, falling against his new bed in exhaustion.
Boss still hasn't come for me...
While a situation like this had never occurred before, Cross had gotten lost a few times when he first started out, and Nightmare always came to pick him up within a few hours. It's been half a day and no sign of him.
Have I been abandoned?
Cross shot up from the bed, hugging himself tightly. No, no way Nightmare would abandon him like this, right?
Even though Cross wasn't necessarily the best fighter in the group, he was the most skilled in terms of actual training. Killer and Dust were definitely more experienced than him though, due to all the genocide timelines they had to endure, and that usually balanced it out.
He was the best at acting as a bodyguard, and was probably the most sane out of the four of them. So Nightmare couldn't just toss him away...
But what if he did? What if Nightmare saw no more use for him and decided that this was the best opportunity to discard him? What if he never found his way home?
He wasn't stupid enough to believe that this hero thing would work out. Him, a hero? The only reason they let him stick around was because he looked like a minor. If they knew what he had done before, they'd probably try to kill him on the spot as punishment.
Punishment...
That's right! Nightmare was probably punishing him!
Of course, Cross groaned, holding his head in his hands. He was foolish enough to let himself be ambushed by some random Sans, and subsequently let himself be teleported to another universe. This must be Nightmare's way of punishing him.
To let him learn his lesson for letting his guard down.
Cross sighed in relief, he hadn't been abandoned, he just had to stay in this alternate universe long enough that Nightmare believes that he's been sufficiently punished.
But even so, now that he knew that, what was he meant to do? Nightmare was probably laughing watching him go to a hero school, maybe he just wanted to see him suffer.
Well...
Cross had long forgotten what it was like to go to school, to have friends and to be a relatively normal person. Maybe...
No! He immediately shook his head, what right did he have to think like that? The life he had now, while not amazing, was what he deserved. How could someone like him dream of something like this.
He just had to stay alert for any sign of Nightmare and not get close to anyone, lest Nightmare wanted to bring chaos to this world. In that case, he didn't want to falter and disappoint Nightmare even more.
Cross sighed, beginning to remove his uniform. Now that he was going to need to wear the UA school uniform, he already missed his current uniform.
He did hate it, but he's had it for so long...
Whatever, he would think about it the next day.