Chapter Text
---------- Nightmare ----------
Nightmare was lazing on the couch, the mansion quiet for once. He couldn’t hear any unwelcome noises from his gang- though that may have been due to them all being unconscious in this very living room. Who knocked them out? It may have been Nightmare. It may not have been Nightmare. Who's to say?
The vast majority of the multiverse would assume that they had pissed off the goopy skeleton past the point of no return. Who are they, you ask? They are the most feared monsters in the multiverse, second only to the destroyer of AUs who consequently sought shelter with them when he had a rough week, which happened more and more often as time passed. Back to the topic at hand though.
These monsters were feared by all.
They were despicable, soulless, evil bastards.
One was a cannibal.
Two killed everyone they knew… make that three. And all three carried unnaturally high levels of DETERMINATION.
The previously mentioned destroyer visited often but was oddly absent today. He was forced destruction in its worst form.
The other god that dropped by occasionally was a memorable death given life… ironically.
The resident god was nightmares and negativity incarnate.
The nightmares incarnate was, of course, the one and only Nightmare, King of Negativity. The unwelcome thing that visited you in your sleep. He was covered in his own corruption, a goop that slicked his bones and stained his clothes. It manifested into tentacles of pure negativity that branched out of his back. His brother, on the other hand, was Dream, Guardian of Positivity. But Dream was hardly relevant anymore. Dream just kinda doted on Ink with those worship-y puppy-dog eyes– BLEGH. And Nightmare was the one who needed saving? No sir. Nightmare was just fine as he was. He might be one of the most hated monsters in the multiverse, but he was free. Free-ish if you considered FATE's presence. The King of Nightmares was currently sitting on the couch enjoying a good book while keeping everyone in a dreamless sleep with his magic.
Killer was Nightmare's right-hand man – skeleton. He was probably the most reliable of Nightmare's 'lackeys' being the senior member of the gang after Nightmare and seeing all orders through to their ends. Killer rarely ever let himself feel emotions, resulting with his exposed soul never ceasing to resemble a target. Nightmare had only ever seen the mangled soul's true form once, and guilt ended up reverting Killer's soul and his emotional state back to zero. Nightmare hadn't forgotten what Killer had been like in his natural state. Nightmare had liked that version of Killer. From then on, he fought to bring that state out again, even letting Killer talk to Color again, despite his better judgment. The dark-eyed emo-wanna-be was passed out on the couch right next to Nightmare, his head laying on Nightmare's lap. A single tentacle defied Nightmare's will power and pet the lazybones.
Cross was second to Killer. He was the most loyal skeleton one could hope to meet. He was the youngest and newest member, but he was Nightmare's best assassin. He was a soldier, tried and true. And he had a lot of beef with Ink, something the gang sorely needed and never wanted. It took much convincing on Nightmare's part to stop the X-event from occuring. Nightmare had been shown what would happen should the X-event occur, and he figured that this multiverse didn't need it. X-Chara was the human ghost attached to Cross. His child-like attitude often contrasted sharply with Cross' no-nonsense military demeanor. The two fought far too often, but it was slowly getting better. Cross was strapped upside down on the wall by ducktape clinging to a chocolate bar for dear life. Nightmare had half considered giving him nightmares about cows for shredding a couch in his desperate search for chocolate but decided against it. This one time.
Dust was a sassy little ship. He was lazy. He was rude. He was… he was Dust. But Nightmare kept him around out of principle. (And an emotion he would never admit to the enemy in good faith. It's not like anyone would believe that he actually cared for his teammates like they were his children. That just wasn't possible right?) Dust's Papyrus, who was either a ghost or the manifestation of an advanced hallucination tied to Dust, was possibly worse. At least Dust listened to Nightmare. Powder, the Papyrus, didn't listen to anyone but Dust. Nightmare had fallen victim to Powder's mischief before. The only time the pair would truly behave was when Blueberry was around. Go figure. Dust was, at the moment, conked out and free standing near the hallway door. Nightmare left him there, figuring the sleeping murderer would scare off any unwanted guests.
Horror was the cannibal. He has indeed eaten monsters in his desperation to feed himself. His AU was quite nasty, living up to its name in all its glory. Horror also lived up to his own name, with a massive, jagged hole in his skull, a single bloody red eyelight that filled one eye socket, and a large axe that accentuated his tall, bulky silhouette. Nightmare was not sorry in the least when he pulled Horror out of his AU. The deal was that Nightmare sent food to the people of Snowdin and Horror served Nightmare in return. It had worked out well. The gang finally had someone who liked to cook. Nightmare wondered how they had made it through the years with Killer and Dust's half-ashed cooking. Horror had been knocked out when Dust slammed him into the TV stand, effectively smashing it to splinters.
Those were the "official" gang members. The ones that the multiverse recognized as the Bad Sanses. There were others who would exclusively help the Bad Guys, but they were few and far between. Reaper, Error, Red, Lust, and Blue were among the most notable. There were also the neutrals who stayed out of the conflict. Sci and Ccino were two of the few neutrals Nightmare actually cared for since they were some of the very few who would voluntarily remain in Nightmare's presence. Geno, Fresh, and Outer were a few others on whom Nightmare kept an eye.
Blue was a complicated case. He was dedicated to helping other people, which had initially spurred him to be a main player in the Star Sanses, a group hellbent on ridding the multiverse of the Bad Sanses (the Stars were responsible for the name. Nightmare's gang wasn't impressed, but it wasn't like the multiverse cared about their opinions). After a kidnapping incident that neither Blue nor Error would elaborate on, Blue wanted to help the Bad Sanses. He was currently present in the mansion, and he was not spared. He sat cross-legged on the floor with his back resting on Dust's legs and his head lolling as he drooled.
Where was Error? Reaper, Nightmare could understand his absence due to the unusual amount of death Nightmare could sense (there were certain strains of negativity that Nightmare had learned to associate with the loss of loved ones, so he was capable of doing the numbers), but Nightmare hadn't seen either of the gods in weeks. It wasn't super unusual, though Error had been better about being around recently. Error's sense of time wasn't worth a cent, and the anti-void he lived in didn't know the concept of time anyways. That wasn't the point though. Whenever Error was in the multiverse, Nightmare could track him by the massive amounts of negativity he simultaneously caused and radiated, no matter how hard Error tried to suppress his aura. Nightmare knew those amounts of negativity were dangerous, but it usually provided Nightmare a sense of relief knowing that Error was alive.
The longer Nightmare searched, the more unsettled he grew. He couldn’t find Error anywhere in the multiverse. Every trace of the broken skeleton had vanished. What's more was the imbalance of positivity and negativity beyond Nightmare's little slice of land. Something was undeniably wrong.
"Wake up idiots!"