God of Balance

Chapter One

Not all of Ink's created worlds are nice. In fact, some of them are just downright horrible. Many of these Monsters are scorned for their unfriendly worlds that they have no control over.

     The King of Nightmares is from one such AU, though he has long abandoned it. Nightmare is from one of the few AUs without any copies. Both him and his sibling, Dream, rose to be lesser gods after an unfortunate accident. Nightmare hates his brother for what he did, or rather, failed to do.

     These days, Nightmare is one of the worst forces in the multiverse. His haunting appearance is enough to scare anyone, but with his aura, negative emotions are stronger in his presence, and he becomes stronger for it. Dream is his exact opposite in this way. Nightmare is bad on his own, but the threat is made worse by those he shelters: a troupe of murderers. They live in an AU cut off from any trespassers.

     Nightmare was sitting quietly in the manor house's main lounge when he felt it. His crew was gathered around him chatting together. In a way, the 'bad guys' are family, if a little hard on each other. None of the other AUs would ever believe it, and certainly not Ink or dream. Nightmare's entire body tenses up when he feels the shockwave sputter out. His aura immediately strengthens from his agitation. Nightmare's crew can't feel the shock of energy, but they can certainly feel the aura. It makes them all easy.

     "Boss? Everything alright?", one skeleton Monster stands up to address Nightamre. A chunk of bone is missing from the side of his skull, leaving a bloodied hole. Horror is the only one of them to still have an AU, but he would never go back. Everything there is slowly starving to death. Horror is the original of his AU. Nightmare came to him just before Horror had decided to give up trying.

     "Yeah, what's with the aura?", another asks. This one has their hood pulled up, with one red and one purple eye. Dust is similar to Killer in that they both killed off everyone in their AUs. The difference is that Dust did it to try and give everyone a more merciful death. Killer went insane from the death, and killed everyone out of spite. Black, sludge-like tears trail down his face. Neither Dust nor Killer have AU copies. They are both anomalies from copies of the original. Nightmare took them away from their empty worlds.

"He's gone..... ", Nightmare mumbles in disbelief. The goopy tar that covers his entire body suddenly feels a lot thinner. His strength just took a huge hit. The two pairs of long tentacles on his back are stock still.

"Who's gone, Nightmare?". The last official member of of the bad guys is Cross. His AU was destroyed unintentionally in an accident. He was the only survivor. Ink found Cross first, but refused to rebuild the AU. Cross didn't want anything to do with the Creator after that. Nightmare eventually found him from his negative aura.

     "Error!", Nightmare bolts up abruptly, "Something happened to Error". Although the Destroyer isn't an official member of their group, he certainly hangs around enough to be considered one of them. Error is the one who made this world a safe haven for villains. Intruders can not enter without permission.

The five of them fall into a shocked silence. Error is undoubtedly the strongest of them all, even Nightmare. You can't beat centuries of experience. Knowing that something took him out makes them all fearful even without Nightmare's aura. There's only one Monster who could do it: Ink, the Creator.

"But you've sensed Error die before, right? He'll come back?", Cross asks.

"I don't know. This is different", Nightmare shifts uncomfortably. Error is one of the most miserable Monsters in the universe. Nightmare can always track him if he focuses. Now, it's as if Error just disappeared. When he's died before, Nightmare can sense the echo of pain. Now, there's nothing.

     Nightmare regains composure. "Cross, do you still have that phone", he waits for a nod, "Call the parasite. He's the only one who can get into the Anti-void besides Error". Most of the bad guys cringe, but it might be the only way to find out what's going on.

**********

     A frantic knocking makes a small skeleton look up from their cooking. Many of Ink's creations are slight variations of the original. For this small one, his personality is swapped with that of his brother's in the original. Blue's clothes are the same color as his namesake, complete with a dark blue bandana tied around his neck. In front of him is a plate of half assembled tacos. Blue glances back at them regretfully before rushing to the door. He really wanted to finish them.

Blue opens the door, a cheerful greeting on his tongue, but it dies when he sees who's on the other side. Dream is standing on the other side, out of breath with wild eyes. "D-Dream!? What's wrong?", Blue nearly shouts, grabbing his friend's hand and pulling him inside.

     "I-It's Ink!", Dream stutters. He's still in shock, and can't put words together. Dream didn't know who else to run to. Ink, Blue, and him are are some of the most well known Monsters in the multiverse.

     "Calm down, and just tell me what happened", Blue says gently. He makes Dream sit on the couch. Usually, Blue appears to be very hyper and childish. He is those things, but he also has a rarely seen calmer side. Blue isn't as naive as most think. Although he's close to Dream and Ink, Blue is secretly more neutral in the multiverse. He won't judge anyone without their side of the story. Blue believes that anyone can be good.

"Okay, okay.....", Dream takes a deep breath. Blue gives him a nod of encouragement. "So you know that I can sense positive emotions", a nod, "Well, Ink's emotions come from his vials. They're pretty potent, and he generally only feels one thing at once. He's easy to track because of that. A little while ago.... his presence just..... disappeared".

"Disappeared?".

"Disappeared".

"And you can't track him?".

Dream doesn't answer.

"Alright then, let me find my brother", Blue stands up off the coach, "Go find Sci and make him activate the beacons. We need to call a meeting".