Chapter Text
Nightmare called a meeting in his office early in the morning. He was working all through the night planning how to deal with the Stars. They had gotten more up his ass as of late.
Nightmare stretched and walked over to his coffee maker. Not anything fancy, just a simple coffee pot. He didn't need anything too complicated to make black coffee after all. The pot was still half full from the night before. Or was that from yesterday? Nightmare didn't care to remember. He poured himself lukewarm coffee into his "World's Greatest Dad Boss" mug. The word "Dad" was crossed out with a red X, and "Boss" was written below it in Shiv's distinct handwriting.
Nightmare grabbed the mug and made his way out of his room, making sure to lock the door behind him. He made his way down the Grand Hall. Which, despite its name, wasn't all that grand. It was big, both in height and width, but that was just about the only thing grand about it. The dark brick walls were scantily decorated. Nightmare scanned his eye over them as he walked. He rolled his eye noticing a bright yellow speck on the wall. Another one of Shiv's stupid ducks from that prank 3 weeks ago. How on Earth was he still finding them? He grabbed the duck and slipped it into his robe pocket.
He got to the end of the hall, turned right, and walked into his meeting room. Vile and Brute were already there on opposite sides of the long table in the middle of the room. Nightmare walked to the end of the table- the head chair- and set his coffee mug down. The rest shuffled in one by one. By 7 o'clock, everyone was sitting at the table. Shark and Vile on the right and Shiv, Glare, and Brute on the left.
Shark and Vile were arguing like an old married couple, Shiv was laughing hysterically at... something, and Glare and Brute were quiet as per usual. Nightmare stood and splayed his hands on the table, getting everyone's attention in one movement. Save for Shiv, Glare had to nudge him with an elbow to get Shiv to realize Nightmare was about to speak.
“I have matters to attend to and will be out today. Though I would not have called a meeting just to tell all of you that. I have to announce that after today, meetings such as these will be held in my office. I have plans for this room.” Nightmare looked at Brute, “Brute, if you would remove the furniture from this room while I am gone.” Brute nodded, acknowledging his orders, already surveying the items in the room he would have to remove.
Nightmare was about to conclude the meeting when he turned to Shiv. "Oh, and Shiv," he grabbed the duck out of his pocket and tossed it to Shiv, "clean up your fucking mess." Shiv caught it and took a second to realize what he now had in his hands. Then he busted out laughing. Nightmare suppressed a smile at Shiv's antics and made his way out of the room.
He walked back to his office and locked the door. He made his way over to his desk on the left side of the room against the wall. He opened the filing cabinet- an entire drawer full of papers- most of them his own notes about the ongoings in the multiverse. Every paper was handwritten by him. Nightmare would hold meetings after every mission and record anything of note he or one of his subordinates saw. He flipped through the papers until he got to the section about the Stars. He skimmed his most recent notes.
"Blue and Ink seen having an argument mid-battle."
"Dream seen presumably getting angry at Blue for not following their plan."
Both of these notes were from the same meeting. Nightmare remembered it well. Blue had always seemed like he was holding back in battle, but not so much that day. He even tried to come toe-to-toe with Nightmare himself.
Brute had been tasked with handling Blue. That usually wasn't a problem, except for that day. Blue had really started putting a hurting on Brute to the point where Nightmare had to intervene. Dream had called out to Blue to back off. Blue didn't listen. Ink ended up having to drag Blue away. Nightmare could see the conflict in Blue and the negative emotions he was holding toward Dream and Ink. Nightmare had taken that as an opportunity to leave and take Brute back to the castle as soon as possible. After getting back to the castle, Nightmare made quick work of healing Brute.
Nightmare sighed, thinking about it. Brute getting downed like that hurt team morale, especially for Shiv and Glare. Nightmare had never seen Blue so enraged. It did give him useful information, though. There were cracks in the Star's team, originating from Blue.
Nightmare had spent all of yesterday finding out where in the multiverse Blue's home universe was. It was just another Underswap universe, nothing out of the ordinary. Nightmare was only a little irked to find out that Blue, who had incapacitated the most physically strong member of his team, was just from an ordinary universe. The Star's last swap Sans wasn't as powerful.
After finding the current Blue's universe, his plan was to go there and corner Blue. Pick out the weakest link. Which, given the sudden rise in animosity that Nightmare sensed between Blue and the other Stars, now was the perfect time.
Nightmare turned around so he was no longer facing his desk. He opened a portal to the Underswap universe. He had been tracking the Star's whereabouts for a while now. They came to this universe more often than any other. Since they both came here often and this was a Swap Universe, Nightmare had made a logical leap that this particular Swap Universe must be Blue's home. Mortals are always so attached to where they came from.
He stepped inside the portal and saw just one skeleton. He looked around and saw he was now standing in the Judgement Hall. Artificial light shone down through the windows, making it annoyingly bright. The skeleton in front of him was sat on the floor, back to Nightmare, hunched over something. He seemed to be... crying? Nightmare felt waves of sadness and heartache emanating from him. Even with the skeletons back to him, Nightmare could recognize that this was the one he had been looking for. Blue.
Blue lifted his head when Nightmare entered the universe. Blue still didn't turn to look at him, though. "If you're here to kill me, just get it over with. I don't... I don't have anything to live for anymore anyway."
Nightmare was slightly puzzled by the sudden lack of a will to live from Blue. Most of the time when he encountered him, Blue's emotions were rather stable. Nightmare stepped around to see what Blue was hunched over. An orange pullover hoodie covered in dust. Ah, Nightmare understood what had happened now.
Nightmare knelt down next to Blue. He could sense Blue's despair waning and giving way to anger. Good. "Use that anger, Blue. My brother and his ilk betrayed you how many times?"
Blue scoffed, "I know your game, I'm not joining your emo band, Nightmare." He spat the name as if it were poison in his mouth just to speak it. Nightmare smirked.
"I am merely asking for a... Ah, a temporary alliance. You want revenge on the Stars, do you not? We have similar goals, Sans. Why not... help each other out." Nightmare made his way to Blue's right side and reached his arm around him. Nightmare hated touch, but he knew it was an effective way to connect to people.
Blue flinched at the sudden contact. He looked up at Nightmare for the first time during this interaction. There was conflict in his eyes. Well, eye. Now that Blue was looking at him, Nightmare could see that Blue's left eye was injured. The left pupil, which used to be blue, was now white. Nightmare had seen this kind of injury before. With Error.
Error had been completely blinded about a century ago when Ink threw, well, ink, into his eyes. That same dead-eye look that Error had in both eyes was now present in Blue's left eye. Nightmare sighed internally. He understood how it felt to be betrayed by the people you trusted. Nightmare shook off the thought, and his face hardened again.
"Sans, I will extend my offer to you once more. This universe will soon come to an end, and you, along with it, if you stay. I can offer you an alliance with a place to stay while you plot your revenge."
Blue's expression was unreadable, but Nightmare could sense the confusion stirring within him, but more so, Blue's anger rolling off in waves. Nightmare smiled a devious smile. Blue's anger was building. This is exactly what he had wanted.
Blue's emotions seemed to settle, and he took a deep breath in and out. He looked up at Nightmare, his head held high with a stern expression. "Fine, I'll accept your offer." Nightmare almost smiled. "BUT, I am not making a contract with you. This is a temporary alliance while our goals align. That's it. Deal?"
Nightmare smiled wickedly and held out his hand to Blue, "It's a deal."
Blue eyed Nightmare's hand and decided not to shake it. Instead, he pushed his hand aside. "I'm not making a contract with you, but yes, it's a deal."