A Shadow of the Past

....and into the Fire

When they arrived, Dream had broken free and was attacking Dust, despite his injury. Dust was definitely losing, ripping an arrow out of his shoulder and being barely able to stand. He still tried to hold his ground, but as an arrow zipped toward his chest, Cross came to his rescue and deflected it with his knife. Cross met the eyelights of his opponent, and his own eyesockets widened. He recognized the light within those golden eyelights as determination, rivalling that of a human's, and the positive and almost friendly aura was drawing him in.

He snapped out of his daze as an arrow whizzed past his cheekbone, and he took a defensive stance. Dream looked a bit weak from the wound in his shoulder, and wielding his bow probably wasn't helping. Cross didn't want to hurt him because he looked too nice to be anyone's enemy; however, appearances can be deceiving.

He lunged for the guardian, swiping at his feet with his knife. Dream jumped out of the way gracefully, shooting an arrow at Cross as he landed. Cross dodged, and summoned a blaster. Its red beam fired in Dream's direction, blasting chunks of dirt and trees to bits. Dream ran toward Blueberry's prison, out of the blaster's line of fire, and broke open the cage. Blueberry looked up fearfully, seeing Dream hold a hand out to him confidently. He took it, and together, they faced their adversaries, Dream's inspiring aura willing Blueberry to fight.

Raspberry stepped up, a bone twirling between his fingers. He smirked at Blueberry, who had summoned a bone of his own, and charged at him with full force. Bone clashed against bone, and the more experienced of the two combatants drove the other back with a series of vicious strikes. Luckily, Blueberry had had his fair share of sparring matches with Cross, since the monochrome skeleton had been a royal guard at one point, and had decided to teach Blueberry to fight properly. Raspberry may have had more experience, (and LV) but Blueberry had Dream's determined aura spurring him on to victory. The smol skeleton drove the other back further, hit after hit, until Raspberry had to fall back into a more defensive stance.

Nightmare ran to Dust's aid as the others fought, and tried to pick him up and support his wounded friend. A stray bone hit him in the shoulder, sending him flying backward. He stood back up, holding his slightly aching shoulder, then yelled for Cross and Raspberry to retreat. Normally, he would've taken them on, but his side had been unprepared, and thus was losing. Not to mention, the fact he hadn't been shielded from the attack had him concerned about his amulet. He pulled Dust's uninjured arm onto his good shoulder, opened a portal, and hopped inside, the other two following close behind.

Dream and Blueberry stood breathlessly in the snow, relieved that they had made it out alive. They still were no closer to finding Ink, but they were not dead, and that's really what mattered. Dream held his wounded shoulder and knelt down in the snow. Blueberry walked over to him and knelt down beside him.
"So... what do we do, now?"

"I... don't know. They won't let their guard down now, so we stand little chance of capturing one of them to find out if they know where Ink is. And it looks like they've got new allies. Do you know who they are?"

"Cross is the skeleton wearing all black and white, but I don't recognize the other guy."

"Hmm, he kinda looked like you. Same color eyelights, definitely, has the confidence of Undertale Papyrus... yep, pretty sure they just got a Swap of their own"

"They..... replaced me, then."
Blueberry looked away as he said that, light blue tears filling his eyesockets. He should've seen this coming. He had been right when he thought he wasn't special, considering there were probably billions of other "Blueberry's" to just pick up from their universe and make friends with them. They'd forget all about him, since he was just one of many, but he'd never forget them. He'd never forget that first dinner they had together, he'd never forget Dust's compliments and teasing, he'd never forget Horror's tips in cooking, he'd never forget Killer's rivalry with Dust, he'd never forget Error's glitchy laugh when Nightmare made a pun, he'd never forget Cross' fighting techniques, he'd never forget Red's unsettling but amused smile....
The memories burned themselves into his mind, almost pushing him to weep pitifully for the memories he had hoped to make, for the friends he had wished to keep forever.