A Shadow of the Past

Why...?

A few moments earlier....

Dream was alert. That's weird. He felt two sets of emotions in the Anti-Void, and both were happy. Ink was hiding behind a hastily drawn tree in the blank universe he'd created to lure out Error, while Dream had chosen a bush as his hiding spot.

"Hey, Ink," Dream whispered, catching the artist's attention.

"What?" he whispered back.

"Something doesn't feel right. I can feel two people in the Anti-Void, one of which I'm guessing is Error. They feel happy. Do you think he'll ignore this universe if he's doing something else?"

"I dunno. Maybe we should check it out."
Ink made a portal to the Anti-Void, hoping to find out what's was delaying Error.

The pair of guardians were just a tad too late to catch Error leaving, but they found Blueberry. The smol skelly had perked up at the sound of a portal opening, expecting it to be one of the Bad Sanses, but quickly stood up in surprise to see Ink and Dream.

"Oh, my stars, how did you guys find me? I thought you were dead.... w-where's my brother?"

Ink and Dream had not expected to run into Blueberry; honestly, they assumed Error had killed him.

"Sans? How did you get here?" Dream asked.

"It's... Blueberry now," he said, frowning. "You d-didn't answer m-my question..." He began to fidget with the cuff of his glove. "I-isn't Papy with y-you guys?"

Dream and Ink looked at each other sadly. The positive guardian looked down, while Ink explained what had happened. Blueberry was in tears, the news he'd hoped he'd never hear drowning out everything else in his mind. Dream slowly put a hand on the shorter skeleton, who sprang to hug him. They held each other there for about a minute before Ink spoke.

"Y'know... not everyone from your universe is dead, Blueberry. Maybe it would cheer you up to see them?"

"Why are you in the Anti-Void anyway? Did Error bring you here?" Dream was still holding on to Blueberry, but he let go to look at his "twin."

"... Yes..."

Dream gave Ink a look, then looked back at Blueberry. There was no way in hell they were leaving him there. For all they knew, Error was keeping the poor skeleton there as a prisoner for who knows what!

"C'mon, Blueberry. Let's go to the Omega Timeline." Ink created a portal to the location and waved for them to follow. Blueberry smiled, grateful for the chance to see his friends again.

"Thank you."

"No problem, Blueberry!" Dream gave him a closed-eye smile. "I'm sure they will be overjoyed to see you alive and well!"

Back to the present....

Error sat down on the "floor" of the Anti-Void, holding his knees to his chest. Why? Why? Why???

Was he not a good enough friend? Was he too mean, too distant with Blueberry? He wasn't all that surprised that Blueberry would abandon him at some point, but with Ink and Dream? Somehow, that hurt worse. Much worse. Someone he'd grown attached to had abandoned him for someone who considered him an enemy. Deep down, Error suddenly felt so.... alienated. Isolated.

Alone.

He hated being alone. He had tried to fit in with people like him, aka, the Bad Sanses, but not even Nightmare was close enough to Error to be a source of comfort. He was always too busy talking to his jewellery.

(Nootmare: hOW DARE YOU-!
Me: *holds him back* Whoa there, bucko. Don't take it personally, he just doesn't know the significance of that necklace to you-
Nootmare: IT'S AN AMULET!!!
Me: Whatever ->-)

He buried his head in his arms. He cried for what seemed like hours, when he heard a voice.

"Hello there."

Error looked up, his eyes widening in surprise and joy.

There, standing in front of him with his hands behind his back, was Blueberry! He couldn't believe his eyes- well, his eyesight was pretty bad, but how could he mistake those bright, baby blue eyelights? Error smiled, relieved to see his friend safe and unharmed.

Blue looked at the familiar skeleton with amusement. Had his puppet missed him this much? This new skeleton wasn't the same one, though. Sure, they were similar, but this one was more.... broken looking. Blue streaks ran down his face, a darker shade than the obvious tears. A black-faded-to-blue jacket hung on his frame loosely, black sandals showing his bare, skeletal feet, and long-ish shorts to match the jacket. The skeleton smiled at him, seemingly relieved and happy to see him, as if they were already friends. 'Hmm,' Blue thought. 'This could work to my advantage.'

He had heard from Pale about other multiverses similar to their own, but he didn't expect to find a portal pop up out of nowhere, and a strange skeleton stumble out of it. That skeleton had been wearing an aqua and magenta jacket, orange shorts, shades, and a baseball cap turned backwards. He'd introduced himself as Fresh, though Blue could barely catch what he was saying through the mess of slang words he used. It was annoying, but he'd been able to tolerate the freakish skeleton as long as he could extract information from him.

Apparently, Fresh had been skateboarding around on the surface of Undertale - the "original" timeline - and came across a black disk. It was thin, flat and small, just big enough to fit in his hand, and looked like a fun frisbee.

(Nights: Yeah, just ignore the sharp edges that look like saw blades....
Me: Wouldn't you throw it too, just to see if you could get it to stick to something?
Nights: .... Good point.)

He went to a park to try and throw it as far as he could, but the disk started to expand as soon as it left Fresh's hand. It circled his head a few times, then landed vertically in front of him. It had grown to about a foot above his height, and the sharp edges turned on the black oval like a gear. Fresh had stepped up to it, and reached out his hand. It went right through the thing, sending Fresh tumbling into the portal. He ended up in an abandoned variant of Outertale, though it wasn't completely devoid of life. It was home to a single person: Blue.

Normally, he wouldn't get involved in the affairs of strangers, but Pale's story of another multiverse intrigued Blue enough that he just had to satisfy his curiosity. That, and he thought gaining information on this multiverse would attract Solar's attention.

Hah! That stiff, pompous goodie two-shoes wasn't good enough at his alleged "job" to get rid of a major source of negativity: his own brother! If Blue had his way, Lunar and his buddies would be dead, and voilà! His troubles were over! The Meme Squad was better off dead anyway, since they can never get a break with Solar constantly on their tailbones.

In the span of a few seconds, Blue had concluded this skeleton has mistaken him for, possibly, a dear friend of theirs.

This was going to be fun....

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Plot twist! My favorite! Mmmm, I can taste a hint of side ships in there, as well as a trace of misunderstanding that leads to-! Uhm, I bettet not spoil your appetites~