Chapter Text
Dream was stuck on the ground, unable to process anything. His skull felt like it was about to detach from his body. His hands shook, he couldn’t process anything.
Dust stained the ground and his clothes. Why? There was a pair of goggles in his hands, but he couldn’t process who they belonged to. Everything was so blank.
“Awww. Can Dream not handle another death? By now I thought you would be used to it.”
A dark and cold voice is heard from behind Dream. Negativity making the the world around him cold and familiar. He was able to recognize it. Nightmare .
Dream took a shaky breath, trying his best to ignore the parasite’s comments. Looking down at his hand. In his hands, a pair of goggles were placed. The accessory was adjusted to fit a small head, it seemed goggles were newly cracked. But why was there some dust on it?
They were TK’s.
Everything came back to Dream like a flood. His worst emotions taking control. The Guardian's breath hitched, his eye lights becoming blurry as his eyes stung from the tears being held back.
TK is dead.
A child had died, young and innocent. Dream couldn’t save him. He failed, again. He failed for another he really cared for. He failed for someone many people care for. He failed his friend. Just like he failed his brother.
Dimmed yellow tears dripped from his eye sockets, his voice shook, his breathing becoming unstable. His SOUL felt so heavy, he couldn’t bear to look at the dust anymore.
“What’s wrong, Dream? Are you really that sad that another one of your “dear precious friends” died? Come on… You know better than to mope around in battle.”
Nightmare’s voice echoed, it was cold and empty of emotions. Dream hated that voice. It would make his feelings boil with anger and pain. But now, he couldn’t feel anything but regret.
As Nightmare taunted Dream, he would start getting a better look at the environment around. Oh how he wished he couldn’t.
Epic was still on the ground, knocked out cold. Ink and Abyss were away in another location, fighting the Destroyer. The other goop skeleton was out of view, most likely causing more havoc. The others were farther away, still putting up a fight.
Nightmare stood a few feet away from Dream. His malicious grin grew the more tears fell down his “brothers” skull. He found the negativity and lack of positivity coming from Dream, interesting.
The entity had the chance to kill the other off, getting this stupid war over with. Though, instead of just killing Dream then, he wanted to make things worse.
“I honestly don’t understand. The kid jumped in front of you to block my attack. Only to end up dying and saving you. Leaving you with me and his pile of dust, oh, as well as his little goggles.”
Nightmare shifted around Dream, slowly circling. Dream didn’t move, he sat on his knees with the goggles still in grasp. Slowly, the taunting words would become more apparent to him.
“What did he accomplish besides his own death? You could have survived that attack, only resulting in you becoming weaker. What do you think “mother” would say about you crying over a mortal?”
That last sentence did it. Dream couldn’t take those words anymore. He couldn’t take Nightmare anymore.
“Shut up..”
Dream’s voice sounded exhausted and powerless, though there was a new sense of anger. Nightmare just rolled his eye, not giving a damn, and moved right in front of Dream, staring at the hopeless Guardian.
“Dream, your little words don’t work.”
Nightmare took a step back as his tendrils slithered behind him just like a snake. He was getting bored at Dream’s lack of reaction, he wanted to see Dream suffer more.
The entity’s tendrils got ready to strike once again, but something caught him off guard.
The other stood right in front of him, just a few feet away. He moved so fast Nightmare didn’t see it at first.
Dream’s eyelights were empty. He had fresh marks and scars from his skull to the holes in his clothes. The only thing that stood out from his regular stance and appearance were the goggles that hung around his left arm like an oversized bracelet.
He had an arrow aimed right at Nightmare. It didn’t glow blue or gold. It was a fiery orange. It was made of his own anger. Toxic emotions that had been building up for decades, centuries even.
Nightmare laughed; he thought Dream wouldn't pull it.
He thought wrong.
Very wrong.
The arrow was shot right towards Nightmare, hitting him with a burning pain. The entity tried to shift away, taking several forms in seconds just as the arrow was sent. It was too late. He was sent back by the strength of the arrow hitting a tree.
A loud crash and a sudden shift of negativity got everyone's attention.
Killer was seen teleporting over to his boss, followed by the others. Before any of the other Stars could attack or even stop them, Nightmare's Gang left. Error even left soon after.
That left the Star Sanses and others with their "victory" .
Dream stood right in the spot where he shot Nightmare, panting and trying to catch his breath. His body was unstable. All he could hear was ringing in his ear. A pain everywhere. It all hurt, but he tried to push through, keeping a steady stance.
Unfortunately, despite the Guardians' attempts, his bow fell to the ground, followed by his own body and consciousness. He laid flat on the ground with TimeKid's goggles held close.
Swap and Fell saw Horror and Dust leave, both leaving the scene in a rush. They were both relieved, but very confused to say the least. Though first, they needed to help each other before trying to be some detective and trying to figure out what the fuck juts happended.
"Fell! Are You Okay?!"
Swap asked with concern as he helped the other up. With Fell's injury he couldn't stand by himself, so he leaned over on Swap. He still had his salty attitude.
"What does it look like asshole!? I can barely stand..." Fell mumbled the last part to himself, not wanting to actually say it out loud. Swap was used to his response and got straight to helping him.
He brought Fell and himself over to where the others were, leaving the original battle scene.
US!Asgore was currently healing up the last of SS!Chara's last wounds, it seemed they had got a few cuts from flying attacks. Color was just sitting down on the ground, his expression blank. Fresh was staring over at a wall, his glasses set to 'YOLO'. CORE Frisk had just appeared, opening a portal for them to leave through and others to come through so they can help.
Color had gotten up right after, headed through the portal and into the OMEGA Timeline followed by SS!Chara. The OMEGA Timeline is full of other residents who are helping or trying to figure out what is happening, there are medic's right in the center helping and taking injured ones, and then there are all the scared and confused evacuated monsters and humans.
Going back over in the AU, US!Asgore was seen helping to heal Fell just as some other Monsters and Humans come in to help and make sure everything is fine.
That left Swap with the role of helping to find others. He knew it was best to head off to where Dream, Ink, and the others fought Error and Nightmare. Hopefully they were safe.
Just as the skeleton began making his way closer to the others, he got lucky and ran into Epic getting help from Outer. Being the Papyrus version of a Sans, he rushed over to them.
"Epic! Outer! Are You Two Okay?? Do You Need Help??? Where Are Dream And The Others?- Wait- Do You Know What Actually happened? Why Did The Others Leave So Fast????"
Swap got a little off track and started bombarding them with questions. His curiosity and concern taking the best of him.
"Woah- Hey, slow down a little, bud. We are fine. Epic and I are going to head over to the others since there's not much we can do injured and tired." Outer explained as he helped Epic up, he seemed tired and didn't even make a pun. The both of them had some injuries, luckily, they weren't that bad.
"I saw Abyss and Ink fighting Error somewhere near some buildings, I don't know where they are now since Nightmare and some other weirdo knocked me out. Dream should be around here, I don't know if he was the one who did the finishing attack or if he's even okay. So good luck with that, bruh." Epic spoke with an exhausted tone and slightly leaned up against Outer for support. Both of his eye sockets shut to maintain energy. (He was mainly just being lazy)
"Where's TK Then? I Don't Know If He Made It Back To The OMEGA Timeline During The Battle..."
Swap's voice became more concerned, now finally bringing up the kid. The whole battle and even after, he hadn't thought about how dangerous this battle was and that no one was helping TK with evacuating, he felt horrible now just noticing this.
"He's probably with Ink or Dream." Outer shrugged, knowing Swap could find them. He wasn't really that concerned, more tired than anything.
"Alright... You Two Head Back To The Others And CORE Frisk!!" Swap pulled himself together and told the two off. He wanted to make sure they knew what they were doing (Even though they said what they were going to do in the first place).
The two walked away leaving Swap to go find the others. And once again, he ran into some others, to be exact it was Abyss and Ink. And thank the stars they weren’t horribly injured. Ink had a few scrapes and cuts, and Abyss had a few injuries.
"Abyss! Ink! Thank The Stars You Guys Are Alive- But, Are you two, okay?? Is Error Gone Already? Also Where's Dream And TimeKid???" The more he talked, the more questions he had. And everytime he asked, he would stimulate his hands in a shaking motion. The poor skeleton’s stress was at an all time high.
"We're fine and yes, Error left shortly after Nightmare and the others left."
Abyss could tell the blue skeleton was stressed, which was very valid considering the situation. So, he tried to be calm to help Swap. Ink was silent and just walked off, which was unusual for him. Swap would have called out to him, but Abyss stopped him.
"Somethings up with him. I don't know what it is, but I say just give him some time. Also, I unfortunately don't know where TK or Dream are at the moment, but I know you can find them. Good luck!"
And with that, the short skeleton smiled and headed off to the others, leaving Swap to find the last two.
Unlike before, Swap was looking for Dream or/and TK for quite some time. Without the knowledge of where they were exactly fighting, it was a little hard to really locate their last known spot.
He did eventually find Dream. It was not the sight he wanted to see.
The Guardian was found laid flat on the ground, he was covered in wounds and dirt, his bow laid beside him; it wasn't even despawned, there were several areas where an attack had obviously been thrown, and there was a pile of dust close to where he laid.
Swap freaked the fuck out and ran out to Dream. He yelled his name trying to get him up. Nothing worked. That left the Guard to pick up the Guardian. He grimaced at the other’s cold touch.
He then ran. He ran back to the others. Forgetting about finding TK.