God of Balance

Chapter Three

     Dust nearly punches his teammate when Killer groans for the fifth time in a single minute. Instead, he just grits his teeth and pulls his hoodie strings tighter. This sucks.

The two of them are walking through the Anti-void, following a string high above their heads, to look for any sign of Error. It doesn't make any sense in Dust's opinion. Why would Error be anywhere bit at his hideout? The Anti-void is big, but not infinite. Following one of these strings with eventually lead back to the center no matter which direction you pick. Error just put up these strings so he would know the fastest way back.

     Getting to the Anti-void was a pain in itself. Even Monsters that can teleport across AUs can't get inside without help. Even Ink is locked out. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, there's a neutral Monster willing to help. Fresh has access to every space except for the Doodle Sphere where Ink resides. Dust hates Fresh's guts, especially the way he talks, but 90's nightmare did come through.

     "This is pointless", Killer groans.

     "Boss's orders. You can go complain to him if you want", Dust growls back.

     "Yeah, and get my head ripped off? Nightmare is still just as scary as ever, even if he's a little more patient-", Killer falls silent and abruptly stops walking.

"What is is?", Dusts looks back at him, confused. Killer only wordlessly points to the side. Dust turns to look and is shocked frozen.

A half hour later, all six Monsters are gathered around in a circle. Dust and Killer had ran back to Nightmare as soon as they found it. Fresh breaks the silence first.

"Oh man, that is so unrad, my dudes", he frowns. Fresh's sunglasses have changed to display the words 'Un-Cool'. Fresh is parasite. Much like Error and Ink, he has no home AU. He invades worlds and takes over the bodies of other Monsters to use as a host. The parasite eventually kills everything he touches.

"Nightmare? Is that really Error?", Cross asks in disbelief.

In front of them, a pile of fine dust sits on the floor of the Anti-void. What's worse is that the pile's been disturbed. It looks like someone was laying in Error's dust. Who would be that sick? The bad guys are the worst that there is, and even they don't roll around in their enemies' remains. Well, there was one time......

     "Ink", Nightmare mumbles coldly.

     "I thought that Ink can't get in here", Horror scratches and the hole in his head, confused.

     "The squid must have followed Error through one of his portals", Nightmare growls, angry this time, "Error's soul should be right here! Ink must have stolen it......". His tentacles are writhing around in agitation. Isn't dusting him enough? Why does Ink have to endanger Error even more when he's defenseless!? Nightmare is outraged that one of his own is being treated so poorly. Even Dream can distantly sense his brother's wrath.

**********

       Dream shivers in his seat at the council table. His brother is angry about something. Dream looks around again at the meeting room. Each seat at the table is filled with the original of each AU. The beacons are only used in an emergency, making everyone drop what they're doing and rush over.

     The meeting hall was built in Dream's own broken world. Almost everything here died after the accident that corrupted his brother. In a perfect circle around the meeting hall, healthy green grass grows in a beautiful field full of wild flowers. Ink even created a stream to run through one end. A few birds and butterflies have also found there way here to safety. Everything beyond the circle is dead.