Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Children hold more power over their parents than they realize. A child holds their parents hearts, or, SOULS, in their hands, and they can either crush it, or take great care of it, wether it's intentional or not. An example, if a child get hurt really badly in a way that causes mental scars, the parent could be hurt worse, thinking that they could've done better to protect their child, or if a child lives a life of prosperity, making their parents proud.

CQ knew this all too well.

Her eldest is suffering from a magic deficiency that causes him to be prone to getting hurt, and trouble breathing, and walking. His soul is down to 1/3, and is constantly trying to stop his younger siblings from fighting each other. He's like the step-mother of the two, for how much tries to make them get along and stop fighting, failing to do so. He would have some good days and some bad days, and those bad days were when his magic deficiency would cause him to have random pains, which last from hours to days.

Her second is, in a way, the stereotypical, forgotten middle child. His mother only really pay attention to him when he's in trouble, the only other time was when he had a really bad panic attack when he was still very little dude to being bullied, which also caused his magic to manifest, and whenever he crashes. Even though it's not intentional for her to be giving him this little attention, it still affects him, with his constant worry for his older brother, he results to violence towards the younger, as his mother is too focused on the eldest and youngest to comfort him and tell him everything is alright.

The child also suffers from Pixilation Syndrome, which causes him to constantly glitch and, when being pushed over his limit, causes him to crash and reboot, which is painful in itself, and that is the cause of other bullying him. It doesn't help that he has a slight fear of being touched by people who aren't his mother, older brother, and best friend, who practically forced himself onto the second child, and refuses to truly enjoy himself, preferring to always worry about his older sibling than his own mental health.

Finally, her youngest, who doesn't seem to carry any emotions at all, and it's what causes the second child to lash out on him. The youngest has learned to pretend to have emotions, but becomes confused when a certain situation happens, for example, the eldest would be in sever pain, and he would just sit there, unknown to the "glory" of worrying over him, and this would seriously tick off the second child. He's had moments of having emotions, such as the incident that happened at his oldest brother's friends birthday, when he was tripped, the youngest, for the first time, felt emotion, anger, absolutely PISSED at the person who tripped his already weak brother. It's been a long while since he's felt like that.

It was safe to assume that this family was filled with problem. What could be worse than all of this?

...

The second child sat in the corner of his room, hugging his stripped pillow tightly. He was crying in worry over his older brother. Earlier that day, his legs gave out on him, and he collapsed onto the floor, leaving him temporarily bedridden. The child didn't want to be in his brother's room, feeling a crash coming, so he grabbed his comfort pillow and ran out the room and into his room, where he chose the corner as his little hiding spot.

He muffled his already quiet sobs with the pillow, not wanting to be seen like this towards anyone besides his eldest brother. He trusted him more than anything in this already screwed up life of his, and doesn't want anyone else to see him so vulnerable, especially the youngest.

How much he wanted to punch him and tell him to screw off. Was it jealousy of not having to worry about his brother being at deaths door so many times? Or was it because he truly hated him for not caring about their brother's cursed condition? The child went with the latter. Even so, despite all of his hatred towards the younger, a small part of him still cared for him, after all, he is the youngest of the family, and his brother, though he will never admit it out loud.

"Hey Error-brah! Howzit hanging?" The youngest spoke, entering Error's room casually. Wether he was oblivious to the clear signs that the pixelexic child wanted to be alone, or he sinply didn't care was unknown, but he seriously did not want him barging into his room.

Error immediately began to dry out his tears and silenced his sniffles, refusing to let his pride be tainted by him. When he thought he was done, he looked up at the 90s nightmare that stood in front of him, cringing at his out-of-style look. The bright colors burned his eyes, and the fake smile plastered on his face making it worse. If he were to take off the sunglasses that had the word "YOLO" printed on, his empty eyes would be more than noticeable.

"Go away." Was all Error responded with, but the youngest didn't leave. He sat down next to his brother, much to his dismay, and continued to speak.

"That ain't how ya speak to ya bro, bro!" The youngest continued, making the glitchy skeleton tighten his hands in a fist, still hugging his pillow, not in the mood to get in trouble again from beating his brother. Why wouldn't he just leave him alone? Why is he so close? He wanted him to be far away from him, at least a foot. Error turned away from the youngest, grumbling incoherent thoughts.

"So mah home skillet, why aren'tcha with our bro? He wants to talk with cha!" The youngest spoke, gaining his brother's attention. The floor became of a sudden interest to Error, no longer looking at his little brother. He didn't want to crash, having to see his older brother in bed like that, but he sighed and got up, making his way towards their room, not wanting to worry his brother for not going to see him.

He made his way to his brother's room and opened the door a little to peek inside. There, he saw the sick child sitting on his bed, reading whatever letters and words there was on his orange medicine capsule.

Creak

The eldest of the three looked up and towards door, seeing his younger brother, he smiled and gestured him to go to him. Error did as his brother said, with the extra steps of getting on the bed and clinging onto his brother. The eldest chuckled and pat his head. The child then turned his head to the door in front of them, simply staring at it, dozing off into a daydream of what all of their lives could be like in the future. They stayed like this as the silence felt congenital, just the both of them.

"Error..." The eldest began, turning his attention towards the younger one clinging onto him. Error looked up at his brother, eyes wanting to know what his brother needed from him. "I wanna give you something."

The child looked to the side and got a box from his nightstand, a box that Error didn't notice before. Maybe he was too focused on his brother to bother looking anywhere else, or maybe it appeared out of nowhere, he didn't care. The eldest gave the box to Error, who took it, wondering why he was being given this box. It was a galaxy gift box with a small white bow on the right corner.

Error was an astrophile. He was fascinated by stars and loved to gaze at them whenever he got the chance, which was rare due to the light pollution that blocked the beauty of the sky from the view of the young child. Because of this, he would aways stare at the sky in longing to see even a glimpse of them, and it was sad to watch. Sometimes, the eldest wished that he could take Error to a place where he could see the stars every night for as long as he wants to. While also getting enough sleep of course.

"Open it." The eldest smiled, wanting to see his brother's reaction to the gift he got him. Mismatch eyes then began to open up the box slowly, not wanting to ruin the box, wanting to keep it after opening it. Inside the box was a scarf, seemingly handmade by a beginner, which was noticeable due to the inconsistencies in the stitches, some being tighter, while other being looser. The scarf itself was navy blue with glitter in the yarn, a really simple but beautiful scarf in Error's opinion, despite the inconsistencies.

"I know you're learning how to crochet, and I know how much you like stars, so, I made this scarf, with the glitter being the stars." The eldest explained while Error still examined it, "I know it's not the best, the stitches are weird and I made it way too long, but I wanted to make you something."

"Geno." Error began. At this point, the youngest of the three entered the room, possibly wanting to do something with them, but stayed by the door seeing that the boys weren't done yet. Geno looked towards Error, hoping that he liked his gift, despite how messy it was.

"I love it!"

Error hugged Geno, still holding the gift in his small 6-year old hand. The sick child hugged back then noticed his 4-year old brother near the door and extended his hand, gesturing him to come into the hug as well. The youngest of course went over and hugged them as well. The pixelexic child glitched out a bit, and was tempted to pull out of the hug and tell the youngest off, but held himself back, not wanting Geno to be mad at him.

After a while, a crash was heard from the living room, catching everyone's attention. Brotherly instinct kicked in, in both Error and Geno. Geno was about to tell them to stay in the room and not move and wait until their mother got home from work, but Error got up, putting on the scarf he was just gifted, and told them to stay in the room while he checked out what was to source of the noise. The sick child protested, not wanting Error getting hurt, but he ignored his brother's cries and left the room. Geno wasn't having it.

The child with the red scarf had a horrendous feeling about this and began to get out of bed as quick as he could, his little brother telling him to go back to bed, just like his mother told him to, but Geno refused, he wouldn't allow harm upon his brothers. He leaned against the nearest object and began to make his was to the door. Once the 12-year old opened it, he limped to the stairs and held onto the rail for dear life, the youngest near, making sure that Geno wouldn't fall, but when they made it to the bottom of the stairs, they heard something.

A scream

...

Error carefully made his way to the living room, making sure to be wary of his surroundings. When he reached his destination, he saw something, weird. Red strings, similar to his blue ones, that seemed to come a hole in, reality? Some white place seemed to be in the other side of the hole, and the table in the middle of the living room broken. This freaked Error out, so instead of further investigating, he began to walk back to Geno's room. He found out what the crash was and now he'll report it to his brothers.

Before he could make his way out of the living room, the red strings shot towards him and began to wrap itself around his waist and drag him towards the white place the strings came from. He fought and screamed, not wanting to get dragged, hoping to be freed, but the strings were really tight around him, nearly crushing his ribs. Error got out his own strings and tried to get ahold of something so he could free himself, but everything was only moved from their original location or broke from impact.

Mismatch eyes then met with his brother's blue and pinprick eyes. Geno let go of the wall he was leaning on and rushed to get his brother out of the strings that were trying to take him away from him. He tried his best but due to his illness, he wasn't strong enough and began to slip off his feet.

"Fresh! Help!" Geno cried out. Fresh was at the moment, stuck in trying to figure out what to do. A feeling was bubbling inside of him, not wanting to see Error get taken away, not wanting to see Geno being taken as well, a feeling of being paralyzed in place, a feeling of either fighting or fleeing the area, being unable to breathe normally, feeling weak, his knees slightly trembling, wanting to cry, wanting to have never seen this, wanting to close his eyes and pretend that this was all just his imagination. Was it fear, he wondered. He didn't like this feeling, he wanted it to end.

When Geno called out to him, Fresh snapped out of it and ran towards them, grabbed Geno and also tried to pull Error out of the strong strings, but being so little, he could only do so much.

Error noticed how they were slipping, and soon, they would all be dragged away into wherever the strings were going to take them. He couldn't get to his strings, his hands were being held by his brother, he didn't know what to do. Error tried to get out of his brother's grip, but Geno refused to let go, and then, they slipped.

...

CQ came back from work, she just needed to see her kids right now, his job was really stressful today, and yesterday, and every other day. Right now she just wants to hug her kids and tell them how she loves each one. The problem with her plan was, the house felt, quiet, too quiet.

Usually when she came home, immediately she would be jumped by her kids tackling her legs and waist in a hug, but they didn't. Maybe they were tired and fell asleep. Or maybe they're already growing up and away from her, and she really hoped that wasn't the case.

CQ walked up the stairs of her house, hoping to find the boys in their rooms asleep, only to open Geno's door and find no one. Maybe he's in Error's room? She check, and yet non of her boys were there. Maybe Fresh? It began to freak her out that she couldn't find her boys, but maybe Error and Fresh were getting along in his room? Once again, she checked, but she found no one. The panic begun.

CQ searched high and low, all over the house, calling out their names hoping that they were only trying to prank her and that they were hiding somewhere, but she couldn't find him. The mother was now terrified, she couldn't find her kids. CQ then rushed into the kitchen, once again hoping to see that her kids were there, but they weren't, but what she was really looking for wad her phone.

When she grabbed it, she unlocked her phone and began typing in a number before putting it up to her ear. She tapped her finger with such urgency and worry while repeating for the person to answer the phone. She couldn't believe that any of this was real, she didn't want to believe it was. Her kids weren't at home, they weren't with her. Were are her babies? She just wanted to see her babies. How could she have lost all three of them? All she could hope right now is that her two ideas of where they could be were correct. This has to be some sort of nightmare, she new her kids wouldn't just leave without telling her, right? She would wake up soon and find her kids home and not lost. Three rings were heard before the person finally picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Answered a woman's voice from the other side of the call.

"Comyet. Please tell me that you have my boys over at your house!" CQ pleaded the other.

"What do you mean?"
"I can't find my boys anywhere in the house! Please tell me you have them!"
"I- I'm sorry CQ, but I don't have them over. Ink hasn't been feeling well—"

CQ hung up, she didn't mean for it to come off as rude, she would wish Ink to get better if she right now wasn't a worried mother who can't find her kids. So she dialed another number and once again pressed the call button. She held her phone to her ear. The phone ringed five times before another voice was heard from the phone.

"Hel—"
"Asy! Please I am begging for you to tell me that my boys are with you and your sister!"
"No. They're not... Are you you okay CQ?"
"..."
"CQ?"
She hung up

...

They were all thrown into the white place, and as soon as they landed, the red strings grabbed both Geno and Fresh and threw them into two separate holes, Geno's was pitch black, and Fresh's seemed to be a snowy forest, and as soon as Error was able to process what happened, he got up and tried to get to one of their portals, same with the other two, trying to get to Error.

"Error!" They both shouted before their voices became static as the holes closed, nothing but the blinding whiteness and the sounds of nothing. Literal nothing. It was quiet, not even Error's slow footsteps had a sound as he neared where both holes just were. Finally, Error fell to his knees, tears falling, then finally, he screamed out.

"Geno! Fresh! Come back!"

Chapter Text

Error waited in the waiting room of the hospital, playing with his fingers in anxiousness, waiting for his mother and older brother to come back from the room they were in. He was stuck babysitting for his little brother who did have a single emotion since brith. But then again, he was only 2 year old, so he can't really complain, maybe it'll change.

He looked up as both his mother and older brother came back, Error quickly slid off the chair and ran to his big brother, hugging him. He didn't even pay attention when his mom told him to be careful with him, he just wanted his brother.

"Gen-Gen, are you okay?" Error asked in his little 4-year old voice, looking up at him. Geno smiles and pat Error on the head, assuring him that he's alright. Error nodded but didn't let go of him, not even in the car or when they got home, he clung onto his brother like a magnet, afraid that he'll leave him if he lets go.

Geno didn't mind Error clinging onto him, he loved it when he did it, but he wished that it wasn't because Error was scared to loose him. Maybe one day, it won't be.

...

The feeling arose once again. The feeling of wanting to return home. A feeling in which he has no clue why he feels this way at all. For as long as he could remember, he's been in this white nothingness, being tortured constantly with the loud voices screaming in his head. How could he miss something he doesn't remember?

Error laid on the invisible and textureless floor of the Anti-Void, completely numb to the insults and the domestic abuse the voices screamed at him in his skull. He was completely tried of it all, he just wanted the break he feels like he deserved. He wants a break that the damned deity Fate will not allow him to have. He wants him to keep on destroying just so that his favorite child, Ink, the golden boy, could do whatever he wanted without worrying about the consequences. The spoiled brat of the multiverse. And despite Error trying his hardest to make Ink see that there is a balance in the multiverse that needs to be sustained, either Ink refuses to believe him, Fate messes with his memories, or Fate completely shuts him up by pulling on the strings that are tied uncomfortably around his soul harder and tighter.

Not only does he want his child to create to his hearts content, but he also wants his entertainment. Making him and everyone who he cares about and who care about him in return all suffer, and no matter what. Even if they were the slightest of hesitant while attacking him and questioning Ink's morals, they would suffer.

Swap was the first, and when he was released back to his old AU, everyone began to baby him, shelter him, and not allow him to do anything he wants. Honey does worry for his brother, but he doesn't shelter him like everyone else does, but he does unintentionally baby him. Before the kidnappings, Swap wasn't aware of the Resets, but after coming back from the Anti-Void with a slightly glitched out code, some things changed. The obvious one being that he remembers the Resets. This made Honey loathe Error, for good reason as well.

The DreamTale twins both suffered in their own way back when they were still very little. Nightmare was constantly told he was a monster and that no one cares about him while also being beaten and harassed constantly without mercy. And when he ate the apple, despite the sweet and addicting flavor of the apple, from what he described his transformation, it was as if he was burning in literal hell multiplied by one hundred. It was more than clear that he suffered greatly.

While Nightmare's physical and domestic abuse seems to be known within the gang and the Star Sanses, what no one ever knew was that Dream also went through a similar abuse, but only domestically. The villagers would always put pressure on him to be perfect, and that he was never supposed to feel negativity, and because of this, he'd bottle up his emotions and then run into the forest near the village to cry, only to put the mask back on and continue on as of nothing happened. As much as Error wants to help him, Dream has been unintentionally brainwashed by Ink, and despite the hesitation Error sees when he attacks him and the gang, he still fights them, so Error leaves him alone.

Killer was constantly forced to watch his brother die for who knows how many resets, but eventually had enough and made a deal with Chara in order to gain the power to end the resets, only to end up joining them and killing everyone on purpose. Before Nightmare was able to find him, he was going through some type of personality or identity disorder where he could go from having existential guilt from what he has done to everyone in his AU, to something Killer refused to talk about.

He prefers to be in what he calls Stage 3, in where he's emotionless and is more willing to kill, but Nightmare lowered it to Stage 2 so that the gang could help him recover so he can be freed from this constant state of readjusting emotions. One can tell if his original personality is breaking through if his eyelights begin to appear, and depending on how bright it is, is how much of that personality is breaking through.

Color (or Gay-Flame as Killer likes to call him) doesn't have problems attacking any of them, as the power of the souls makes him more prone to anger than most, what should at this point be considered a species, Sanses, but he seems more hesitant with Killer, seeming have believed that Nightmare had removed all emotions from Killer, so he tries to "get through" to him. Error wishes he could tell Color that it wasn't like that, but he knew he wouldn't believe him. Even so, the hesitation to fight Killer is still enough for Fate to throw him into the void with his Gaster and leave him to be forgotten while Undyne takes his place as Papyrus's sibling.

Nightmare tells them that despite what he claims of, "being alright with it", and that "Undyne will take care of him", he cries out inside, wishing to go back and hug his brother. No other Papyrus will do, he needs his brother, and only his brother, but he can't.

Horror lived seven years without eating a single human. Reasons why he refused are unclear, as he refuses to talk about it. Though because of all of the hunger he's experienced, he isn't much of a jokester like Sans, and his clothes were (and kind of still are) baggy due to thinning, though asking how a skeleton could become thin is the same as asking how a skeleton could eat and drink without a stomach. The broken skull skeleton was more focused on earning the respect of the people of his Snowdin by protecting them from the tyranny of Undyne and helping them get food to eat.

When Aliza fell down into the Underground, some small things changed, such as Papyrus accidentally calling Aliza his niece, making Horror her father in context. He almost did eat her and almost gave into his hunger and tore her arm off, though Papyrus stopped him, thanks to a note that told him to stop Horror from eating anything that moves. Horror did come to care for her after some time, but it was difficult as he got hunger pains and goes feral. Finally when Nightmare found them, Horror was clear when he said that if he wanted him to join, the people of the Underground must be fed. Error was surprised to have heard that Nightmare, the so called "King of Negativity", accepted this proposal. He's softer now but back when he was recruiting his team, he was a tyrant. Either he was desperate, or it was his old self slightly showing again.

"It was fun to make fun of him." Error thought, chuckling to himself.

Dust and Killer have a similar experience, the difference is that Dust didn't make a deal with anyone or have stages of different personalities, he chose to kill everyone to stop Frisk from all of their Genocides. Dust does show signs of Schizophrenia and hallucinates of Papyrus being there, being called Phantom by everyone. They all want to help him get better but Dust doesn't want to accept it, but despite that, the gang all try to help in any way they can, even if it's subtle.

Cross is the final member of the gang, he is the one who represents past lived in a way. He had lived through 10 timelines before he finally remembered all of them, and ended up unintentionally destroying his universe and fused himself with his Chara in order to Overwrite his world back to how it originally was, only for him being unable to do so, and that's how Ink found him, in a version of the Anti-Void, crying over the loss of his world, and it was then when he decided to go by Cross, instead of Sans. The two were best friends for a while until Ink told him that he couldn't bring his world back, and this is when Nightmare found him, and the two teamed up so they could restore their world, but as time went on, Cross found new purpose than just restoring his world, after all, he doesn't want to bring back that bastard he once called family, XGaster, back.

Violet was copy 363 of UnderLust Sans, and for some reason Ink decided to make this copy where the Sans is female. Sometimes Error wonders what goes on in his head. Why make this one specifically just Sans a female, and not an entire genderbend AU. He will never understand Ink. But basically she (Violet) has been through things that Error much rather not even say in his head, but she hasn't had the best of experiences, especially because of where she's from.

There was one more Sans who suffered, wanting to know why Error suffered, but, he died a long time ago, and Error doesn't really like to think about that time. He was a good guy in the glitch's opinion, even if that Sans wasn't particularly fond of him, after all, he was the one to destroy his timeline, and give him that crack on his face. He liked to call him Flower Boy sometimes. He also found it interesting how he was able to get that Squidiot to actually feel something. He's never seen Ink cry with such real emotions before (Hi, A/N, the nickname for Ink, I got it from someone else, I just don't know who, okay, back to story).

There were a lot of AU's that suffered because they care for someone on the "evil" side, but he would've been there all day if he talked about them all.

Then there were those other two. Geno and Fresh. Something about them seemed familiar, and not familiar as in he's known them long enough to easily identify them, but a familiarity as if he's known them even before he became the destroyer, he just didn't know when. They probably reminded him of someone from his past. Fresh was annoying to him, but he still held this sort of fondness towards him, the same kind of relationship one would see between siblings. Fresh had always felt like a little brother to him the moment they had met, which was weird when he told Nightmare, since apparently those types of relationships come as time goes on, but the two seemed to hit it off, despite what Error says. The two gave off that vibe, somehow.

Meeting Geno was, strange, the look Geno gave was one of recognition, as if they has met before, he even seemed to hold himself off from running up and hugging him, as if he knew of his phobia. The glow in his eyes left when he asked who the Sans was and why he hasn't panicked yet. He really felt an attachment to Geno, like he needed to protect him at all costs and no matter what. This was after a few hundred years of being the destroyer, so as soon as he asked the question, the scared skeleton saw all of the scars and wounds he had and immediately began to panic.

At first Error thought that he was panicking because he realized who he was, but then Geno ran up to him and began asking what happened and how he got all of his scars. The glitch was about to ask the skeleton to worry about his own safety before he realized, Geno was crying. Tears were racing down his cheek, his face full of rue, repeating the words "I'm so sorry" over and over again. Why was he apologizing? He didn't even know the skeleton until today. Maybe he has mistaken him for someone else? Possibly, he was a gnarly skeleton after all.

Error tried to correct the skeleton's mistake, but he said that he wasn't mistaking him for someone else, which puzzled him even more, but eventually, Geno calmed down. He introduced himself and what AU he was in, but unlike the other Sanses he had met, it didn't seem like this one cherished his AU as much as the others did. It didn't really matter to Error.

Since then, he, Fresh, and Geno have been like siblings, Fresh the annoying younger on, Geno the sweet caring older one, and Error, the depressed middle one. He really loved having them with him, and not with the Stars.

The destroyer continued to look back on these memories, the good, the bad, the worse, and yet despite all of that, the feeling of homesickness never went away. Maybe from whatever AU he came from? It doesn't matter anymore, if he even had an AU, it's long gone by now. This white void was proof of that.

The destroyer got bored of the voices, who were screaming insults towards him. He tried far too many times to get them to shut up, from listening to their words, to completely disregarding them, even if he does what they tell him to do, they still insult him for doing it, so in reality, there was no escape from the horrid words they spat out. Error got up from laying on the floor, and went towards his bean bag chair, sat down, opened a portal to UnderNovela, and began to watch it while getting his crocheting supplies.

When he introduced this hobby of his to Nightmare and the gang, Killer said that it was cool that he knitted. It annoyed him and left him going on a rant about how crocheting and knitting were two different things: knitting was hard to do, which he respected Swap for knowing how to do it, and uses two needles, while crocheting is much easier to do and only needs one needle. Killer had only groaned, thinking that it was all so boring, but Error enjoyed it, so he didn't care.

Error had a habit of crocheting the Sans of every AU he destroys, kinda as a way of respecting them and honoring their unwilling sacrifice, so whenever anyone asked him to crochet themselves, he'd deny it. He feels like he has to kill that person if he wanted to crochet them since he does this so often.

UnderNovela is an AU he cares for, since it's story is super dramatic, though according to Cross, nothing can compare to the drama one would find while watching La Rosa de Guadalupe, whatever that was, lots of people die in the show... reminded him of his reality. Though a lot of people would find UnderNovela completely unnecessary and way too dramatic for their taste, Error enjoyed it. It was a great way for him to shut off and just enjoy the ridiculousness that is this UnderTale AU, though he learned a bit of Spanish while watching it, so that's a win.

As he continued to watch the AU and crochet, he began to relax, laughing a nice laugh with a genuine smile, his shoulders no longer tense, which made him feel strange, since he almost never had his shoulders down. It stayed like this for quiet some time, heck, Error was surprised to not have felt an AU being made, until he had jinxed it and felt the pain and tug on his broken soul.

The destroyer cursed under his breath before setting down the scarf he was crocheting, waved the portal to UnderNovela away, got up, made a portal to a random copy AU, checked to see if it really was a copy, then he jumped into the portal, getting ready to destroy.

...

"M-Momma, d-do I have to go? I-I'm scared to go. I don't wanna to do it."
"Error, it's going to be alright. We're going to try it, alright? And if you don't like it. We'll do homeschool. How does that sound?"
"..."

Error looked to the side, still unsure. His mom wanted to have Error and Fresh go to school, but he really didn't want to go. He wanted to be with Geno, he wanted to be with his older brother. As much as he didn't like Fresh, he really wanted to be with him at least, but he's only three, and Error's five, so he would have to go in alone. He really didn't want to socialize or be around anyone but his family, but his mom really wanted them to make friends.

Geno really wanted him to make friends.

After that thought, he decided that he was going to do it, but only for Geno, so he went to school. He was really nervous, he and Fresh joined in the middle of the school year, so everyone already had their little groups, and joining one was extremely difficult, what was worse was that the teacher had him introduce himself, he almost crashed.

He didn't want to be seen, so he put his hoodie over his head, hiding his face. He felt almost annoyed and embarrassed when the teacher told him to put down his hoodie, as hats weren't allowed at school. He almost said out loud that a hoodie wasn't a hat, but he complied and put it down.

During lunch hour, his anxiety began get worse. He was never told that lunch hour was the worst hour of the day. There were too many people all cluttered together, almost shoulder touching, it was really loud. He hated it. Error's teacher told them where his class sat and that it's where he'll be sitting (at least it's with somewhat familiar faces). Hands trembled as he made his way to the table and sat down at the most open space he could find, which wasn't that open.

Geno was really excited for Error and Fresh to start school, he even packed him their lunches, despite their mother's worries. Though it was a simple ham sandwich with cheese, to him, it was something special, because Geno made it.

So far the school day was bad, but not too bad for him to stop going. It was until he had reached one part of the day.

Recess, the dreadful hour, especially for those who didn't have friends. It reminded them how lonely they were, not having anyone to hang out with, but it wasn't the reason why it was what caused it all to fall apart.

The pixelexic child (A/N: Broski IDK how it's spelt XD) was simply sitting on a swing, staring off into space. He honestly would have liked this much better if Inky was here, but he was homeschooled, lucky. Suddenly someone pushed him, causing his pixelexia to act up, and almost had him fall off the swing, luckily he had caught himself in time before falling onto the grass. He looked up and saw white skeleton with freckles and blue eyes. She also seemed to be wearing a white sweater with a blue hoodie with two red bones in the form of an X on it.

"Hey! This is my swing! What are you doing in it?" She demanded. The small five-year old just looked at her in confusion. Why did she say it was her's? No one told him anything. He simply told her that his teacher didn't say thing, but she ended up grabbing him by his sweater and began to tell him something, most likely something mean, but he was glitching way so much that all he could hear was static.

He mentally begged her to stopped touching him before he ultimately crashed. Next thing he knew, he was on the grass, missing his glasses, surrounded by two people. He believed that he heard that the girl was named Pepper?. Because of the crash, he didn't remember what had happened, but he already figured he had crashed. Once again, he was grabbed by his sweater, and began to glitch out in confusion, not knowing exactly what was going on. He ended up crashing again due to the sudden zero to a hundred confusion, waking up once again on the grass. This time, there wasn't anything said, just Error being grabbed and punched in the face.

He had no idea what was even going on, all he knew was that he wanted Geno, even Fresh. He began to focus on trying to not crash again, he didn't know how many more crashes he could take before he completely forgot everything. At this point, he tried to beg the girl to not hurt him, but she didn't care, seemingly enjoying it. How? Why? What would cause someone to enjoy hurting others? The multicolored skeleton was confused. Who would take joy in the suffering of others?

Crashing hurts, it has always hurt, even if he's near crashing, it hurts, he couldn't take it any more. He cried out in pain, just wanting it to stop, wishing for it all to end before he subconsciously pulled something out of his eyes, making the pain even worse, and tied up the two kids up, lifting them in the air.

Soon, the teachers came and after a long time of trying to help Error stop using the strings he somehow made, and preventing the students from crowding around, they took him to the principal office. Error was still crying, and the principal resulted in calling his mother. He couldn't stop crying, even when his mother got there.

Geno was with her, as CQ had no babysitter to take care of him. She wasn't going to leave her child alone in the house. When the sick child had saw his brother sobbing with the new marks now staining his face, and heard him quietly tell his mom what had happened, anger had consumed him. He did a good job at hiding it behind a calm, innocent face, but he felt something within him fire up, making him want to protect his little brother.

He left the area and began to look for wherever this child was until he saw her kicking her feet while sitting on a chair. The eldest's eye began to glow into a blue color and approached her. She had noticed him and said something, but he wasn't paying attention, he didn't care. All that had mattered to him at that moment was that this was the skeleton who had hurt his brother. He just wanted his younger brothers to have a life that he knew that he would never have, he wanted to see them have friends, even if it's not a lot, and hang out with them. Error had Ink, sure, but he wanted both to have more than just each other. More people to rely on. But with this experience, he was sure Error would never want to come back here again.

"Are you 'Pepper'? He interrogated. She had said some other things after confirming his question, but once again, he didn't care. He just used his magic to lift her up and bang her head against the roof, causing the roof to crack, and at this point, his emotions took over and he was no longer thinking. All he thought about was the pained look in Error's eyes, how the tears raced down his face, his body trembling, the new marks that stained his face, the magic they all were desperately waiting to come finally arriving in such unfortunate circumstances.

"You..." Geno began, a slight red tinting the bottom of his eye as he looked at her calmly with clear anger in his eyes as he lifted his hand, blinded by his desire to avenge his baby brother.

"...hurt my brother."

Later that day, both were sent to the hospital, one for a broken leg, the other for using too much magic.

...

Despite for how long he has been doing his job, nothing has changed since he first regained his sanity. He hates it. Despises it. Abhors it. Having to hear the screams for mercy as he rips their world apart little by little, Fate forcing him to make it as traumatizing as possible for those who survive, just so that they could hate him even more than they already do, so that they could hurt him even more, to entertain Fate, to make sure he stays in his place. Error is so close to snapping at this point from all of these years and millennia's of torture.

Error has tried so many times to commit the act of unaliving oneself so many times, but nothing he has ever done has ever worked, he even became desperate at one point and touched death himself, but it didn't work. The destroyer has tried everything, yet nothing has ever worked, he was stuck in this endless cycle of getting abused over and over again, and Error can't tell anyone unless they find out themselves because Fate keeps preventing him from saying anything. It's a wonder how Swap even put two and two together without Fate interfering with it.

Error had two ideas of what could've happened: one, since it was in the Anti-Void, Fate probably couldn't get to him, but then again he's somehow able to get to himself, so that idea was scratched, two, Fate doesn't care about him since he's a mortal, but why? He's one of Ink's friends, but then again, Ink is soulless and Fate doesn't care about anyone but his child and torturing him.

The scarred skeleton finished up destroying the AU, moving onto the next, and then the next, and then the next. Error had kept going until he reached the 15th AU, he wasn't even close to finishing. AU's are huge, and they would only continue to grow and grow as years go by. Each AU Ink creates results in at least 200 AU's needing to be destroyed via the destroyer in order to allow the AU's to grow, and usually having to destroy one AU takes a few hours, it's honestly better than how it used to be.

Back when he first began destroying, Multicolored eyes would take almost a full year to destroy a single AU, due to how huge these AU's were when he first started, and because of how new he was to this job. Now, millennials have passed, and the quickest he has been able to destroy an AU is seven hours. It's difficult having to find an AU, destroy every single living being in the whole universe, double check to make sure that he didn't miss anything, go through the code and take out the parts that will make the AU crumble faster.

At the moment, Error was still killing the humans and monsters, trying to ignore all their pleas for mercy, trying to ignore their cries. The skeleton always gives them quick deaths, he doesn't want anyone to suffer, and this is the best thing he could do. It wasn't long into this massacre when he heard a splash from behind him, then a swish. Error dodged the purple paint that had come his way, doing some crazy acrobatics before landing, getting into a fighting position, keeping the same serious face he had on before.

Ink looked at him weirdly, confused. He stared at Error for a little bit before standing up straight, moving his prized brush to his right hand before speaking to his enemy.

"Alright, what was that?" Ink questioned, using his hand to gesture whatever Error just did.

"Oh, it's a new move I have been practicing for a while now. Did you like it?" Error titled his head slightly, speaking in a slightly serious tone, still with the same face he's had on. Ink just looked at him before nodding a little in agreement.

"Yeah, it's was pretty cool."
"Thanks, it took a while to perfect."
"Seems like it. Where did you even find such moves?"
"I saw Sw— Blue using them last time I fought all three of you Stars."
"Damn, I should ask Blue to teach me some moves."
"It would be cool seeing the creator himself summersaulting in the air, dodging my strings, bones, and blasters."
"I should write this down."

Ink grabbed a fountain pen and summoned some of his ink in his hand, dipping the pen in before throwing it to the side and began writing on his scarf. Error watched as the protector of the multiverse let his guard down in front of the destroyer himself, writing a reminder. The multicolored skeleton for some reason always seemed to somehow get along with the soulless creator whenever he's able to distract him from trying to deafest him, as if old friends were catching up, it was weird.

The soulless creator finished writing and looked up, smiling, but it faded faster than the speed of light as he remembered who he was up against. He readied his brush for a fight. He was here to save this AU, not make casual conversation with the enemy. How the heck did Error even get him to do it again? They have been fighting for millennials, how is he still falling for these tricks?

"Manipulative glitch" was all Ink had thought before he opened his red vial, poured it onto his brush, and charged towards the God of Destruction. Error dodged with clear experience, realizing how sad it was that even with his guard down, it's still up. Error raised his hand to his face and pulled down, strings now appearing wrapped around his fingers, and shot the towards Ink.

Ink jumped to one side, and then the other, only being caught by one string around his leg and lifted up into the air. Unlike everyone else who is caught in Error's string, Ink is able to move around and get free by himself due to being soulless, so he began to swing around, trying to get free. As he struggled, he nearly failed to notice the Gaster Blaster that were summoned, but by the time he did, they already fired.

Error chuckled to himself , but it was short-lived as a pain on his soul began to erupt. He flinched and lot concentration on the blaster and his strings, clutching the area where his soul is. He cursed Fate for once again stepping in for spoiled brat in front of him, loosing his focus on the battle.

Ink saw Error loose concentration, wondering what happened, but shook it off, taking the opportunity to strike. He grabbed Broomie, poured blue paint on his beloved brush forcefully, not caring if a lot of it fell to the floor, and charged towards the Destroyer of Worlds. He swiped his brush, throwing the paint towards the distracted glitch, then proceeded to knee Error before he had time to even comprehend what had just happened.

The blue paint felt as though he was suffocating. The paint made it feel like he was drowning. Error began to choke and cough, trying to breath in, but every time he did, he felt H2O in place of just the O, he couldn't breathe, he needed to leave, but he couldn't focus on anything but the lack of air. He needed to calm down, but in order one calms down is breathing, and unfortunately he doesn't have that.

"Damnit Fate." Error cursed in his thoughts. He attempted to get up to land an attack, but fell back down to the floor, still coughing. He already felt dizzy, he felt as if he was gonna faint. He made a glitched portal underneath him and fell into it, landing into the white place he is forced to call home. Black spots began to appear in his vision, and it wasn't long before it all went black.

...

He woke up, still laying in the same position he fell unconscious, trying to figure out what had just happened. He remembered what had happened and groaned obnoxiously loud, hating how quickly that fight was over. He cursed Ink and his paints for the millionth time. He wasn't able to finish destroying that AU, and Fate is going to be pissed.

As if on cue, his soul began to feel like it was being crushed. Error has a high pain tolerance, an abnormally high one, but no matter how high it is, Fate always seems to make the pain unbearable. He screamed in pain as he heard Fate insult and criticize him and point out all his failures and tells him what he should've done, all while giving him that unbearable pain in his soul. Whenever Error had a chance to breathe, he would apologize and promise to do better, all out of desperation to get it to just stop, and when it was finally over, he'd insult himself for not standing up to him and give in, all just to get some pain to stop.

"Selfish bastard." He muttered to himself, "You always give into him just for yourself." He wished he could just off himself. He shook his head in disappointment. He told himself that he would stop thinking that, it's selfish to think like that, he shouldn't disregard the balance for his needs. He's just one person upon millions of others, why should his wants and needs matter when it puts everyone else at risk? At least it's what the voices always tell him.

He got up and began to get up, his bones making noises, begging him to not move and to rest, but if he were to, he would be risking the balance of the multiverse. He needed to stop being selfish and having a pity party for himself and get back to work, he still has a lot more AU's to destroy.

...

A portal opened in a AU, and out came Error, orange paint following him out the portal. The portal closed as soon as he jumped through, and fell to the floor, shaking from exhaustion. He hadn't had any rest for the past 6 days.

Error's eyes felt heavy from the fatigue, but he refused to give in a fall asleep, afraid of hearing the voices and nightmares. As he panted, he stared up into the sky, the AU was his favorite, OuterTale. This was the only AU he refused to destroy along with it's copies, and the only AU where he would defy Fate and succeed. He never understood why. Fate usually would just end up using like an actual puppet to destroy that AU. Maybe Ink also liked this AU.

The glitch subconsciously put a hand on his scarf. He's had it for as long as he can remember, and he never allowed it to get damaged, even though it has burns and obvious repairs on it. Error refused to throw it out, though he never understood why. It felt like, home.

The scarf was navy blue with glitter on it, making it look like stars, awfully made, but Error loved it. Maybe in his old AU, someone he cares for dearly made it for him?

Error fiddled with the scarf in his hands while staring at the sky, mesmerized by the beauty of this AU. It made him feel at peace, being under a sky full of a zillion stars, though he didn't let his guard down, making sure to be aware of his surroundings. He can never predict whenever Outer could spot him and call for Ink. Still, he was really tired, his eyes began falling on their own, but Error continued to wake up the moment he was aware he was falling asleep. At one point, he did fall asleep, but it didn't last long.

"Wake up, glitch!"
"How dare you sleep when you still have a job to do!"
"Selfish bastard!"
"Why should a monster like you deserve any sleep?"

They jolted Error awake. Right. The voices screams are louder when he sleeps. Even though he never stops hearing them, but they are so much louder when he sleeps. Error has tried so many methods to get them to shut up or block them off while he slept, but it never worked. It was as though the voices were inside and outside his head at the same time, so he gave up on sleep.

The glitch sat up and turned a bit, using his right hand to try and push himself up, with major struggle. He couldn't feel his left arm, but he didn't bother looking at it. Why should he? It wouldn't change anything.

He heard a portal open and immediately got ready for a fight. Pulling strings out his eyes, he began to look around, making sure that no one else would appear. When he saw no one else was going to appear around him, he focused back on the portal. It was goopy and had an eerie feeling to it, and Error knew exactly who it belonged to.

"Nightmare? What are you doing here?" Error asked, and as soon as he did, a goopy skeleton came out of the portal, clearly trying to be dramatic about it. He opened his mouth to say something, but he looked at Error and immediately dropped what he was going to say and focused on the injuries on him. Nightmare pointed to the portal and gave a look your mother would give when she meant business.

Nightmare snapped his fingers that were pointing to the portal "Inside. Now!" He demanded. He didn't need to ask Error who did this to him, he already knew who, seeing the paint on him. Error didn't object and just walked in without a fuss.

As soon as he did, Nightmare walked in behind him, keeping his distance to respect his friend's phobia. The portal then closed behind them.