Of Soulmates and Bonds - Errorink

19. Breaking up

Nobody was talking.

Error was stomping at the front, his hands in his pockets; glitches kept running all over him, showing how angry he was.

Ink just held Sans' hand like a lifeline, and never lifted his eyes from the ground.

Sans didn't know what to do.

Everything went so wrong.

He felt the need to help Error, to talk things out with him, but he couldn't: Ink had become extremely clingy, too afraid that Sans'd leave him now that he knew the truth, and having him near the glitch would just be a disaster.
That wasn't the only reason though.

Sans rubbed his throat with his hand; when the strings had wrapped themselves around it, it was the first time Error really, truly, frightened him. When they were in the Antivoid, Sans was too busy worrying about everything to be scared, and he had managed to make the Destroyer listen almost immediately, and then they became friends, and not once had Error tried to harm him. Threatened, yes, made himself out to be the biggest, baddest monster to have ever lived, but Sans had always thought he was relatively safe with him.

But when Error choked Ink, and then him, his tone, his expression...

It was deranged.

So, Sans wasn't really eager to go near him again.

They were entering the Judgment Hall: their journey was almost over.

He should have guessed it was about to get worse.

Pain exploded in his injured shoulder (a bone attack?) and made him cry out and stumble back.
"ᗷ𝔩𝕌Ｅ!(Blue!)"
"NO!"

A brown blur passed in front of his eyes, and ended in the hands of yet another unknown skeleton, who summoned a small gaster blaster and aimed it at the object he was holding.
"Don't move!"
"үσ𝕌 𝓭σŇ't tＥ𝔩𝔩 爪Ｅ Ⓦ𝓱Ａt tσ 𝓭σ, ᵇＡştＡя𝓭!(You don't tell me what to do, bastard!)"

Error got ready to fight and started to conjure his strings, so the other skeleton loaded his blaster.
"ERROR NO! PLEASE!"
Ink's anguished tone made Error falter, and both him and Sans looked at the Creator.

He was terrified.

Ink's pupil were two white dots, and his breathing was shallow: he was petrified, one hand outstretched reaching for something. Sans looked at the enemy, and then froze as well.

He had Ink's satchel.

He quickly glanced at Ink's side: the satchel's straps hang limply, and a sharp bone was on the ground. The other must have used blue magic to take it after cutting it off.

"You better listen to the Creator, unless you want your precious book to be wiped out."
The skeleton smirked. He wore a black armor, red gloves, red boots and a red scarf. He looked familiar.

"Razz?"

Razz scoffed.
"That nickname is ridiculous. Address me as Sans or Captain, if you must." he smirked again. "No matter. Let's cut to the chase: I want the Creator to surrender, and hand himself over to Nightmare."

Sans instinctively put himself in front of Ink, who folded on himself. Error glared at Razz, and growled: "𝓱σⓌ Ａᵇσ𝕌t ι 𝕂𝐢𝔩𝔩 𝕪σ𝕌 𝐢ŇştＥＡ𝓭?(How about I kill you instead?)"
"Are you sure you want to test your speed against the Captain of the Royal Guard? If any of you tries anything, I'll shoot."

Ink started muttering "no" over and over again.

"Though, I must admit I'm surprised." Razz's tone became friendly. "After everything, you'd still defend it? Even after it tricked you and betrayed you?"
What Razz was trying to do was pretty obvious, but that didn't mean it wasn't affecting Error; Sans could see him frown harder and clench his fists.

"Nightmare would be happy to offer you a place in his army, you know, as a mercenary. You'd just have to be reasonably available. As a show of goodwill, the king would honor your old agreement and he'd free your domain; in return he only wants it. Seems a pretty good deal to me: you'd gain power, allies, free yourself from a deadweight, and you'd even get a little revenge out of it." Razz chuckled a bit. "But of course, that's up to you."

Sans started to feel panicked: Error looked like he was considering it.
"Don't listen to him Error!"
Razz looked at him, a glimmer of triumph in his eyes.
"By all means, listen to him instead, do what he wants, he only wants the best for you." His tone dripped with sarcasm. "It's not like he's taking the Creator's side over yours."
Error glitched harder.
"There are no sides!"
"And yet, he's still defending that soulless being. You tried to warn him and he didn't listen. That thing stole your friend, twisted his mind, poisoned him against you."
"Ink didn't do anything!"
"See? He's too naive to see the truth. Not while he still has that parasite near him."

"I'm not a parasite." Ink said softly.
"He almost got you too, right?" Razz now sounded almost sympathetic. "He thought it would be fun to manipulate you, to play you for a fool. He was probably laughing behind your back all this time"
"It's not true!" It wasn't working, Error and Razz were ignoring him completely.
"He was just toying with you. Doesn't that make you furious? Doesn't he deserve to pay?"

"үＥş.(Yes.)"

Error's tone was ruthless.
Razz smirked wider.
"So you'll let me take it off your hands?"
"ι'𝔩𝔩 𝓭σ 𝕪σ𝕌 σŇＥ ᵇＥttＥя.(I'll do you one better.)"

Error quickly conjured his strings. He trapped Ink's arms, binding them against his body, and caught Sans' soul.
"Error! What are you doing?!" Sans tried to free himself, but he couldn't move an inch. He felt like a living statue.
The Destroyer looked him in the eye with a cold gaze.
"ι 𝕂ŇＥⓌ 𝕪σ𝕌'𝓭 tя𝕪 tσ ştσｐ 爪Ｅ. үσ𝕌'𝔩𝔩 𝕌Ň𝓭ＥяştＡŇ𝓭 ＡⓕtＥя 𝐢t'ş ＧσŇＥ.(I knew you'd try to stop me. You'll understand after it's gone.)"

He then jerked Ink forward, making him stumble toward Razz.
"Error don't do it! Stop! Think about it!"

"𝓱ＥяＥ. tＥ𝔩𝔩 ภ𝐢Ｇ𝓱t爪ＡяＥ tσ ＥŇנσ𝕪 σｐＥŇ𝐢ŇＧ 𝓱𝐢ş Ｇ𝐢ⓕt.(Here. Tell Nightmare to enjoy opening his gift.)"
Ink looked at him, his pupils a teardrop and a broken heart.
"Error-"
"ร𝓱𝕌t 𝕌ｐ.(Shut up.)"

Razz gave him a mocking bow, then took hold of Ink's scarf and started dragging him away.

"Ink! INK! NO!"

He wasn't budging, he couldn't move, and his friend was being taken away. The two were out of the Judgement Hall now. Sans couldn't see them anymore.

He let his skull drop.
"Ink..."
He felt like crying, but the tears wouldn't come. He felt like screaming, but couldn't even begin to open his mouth.

Error waited a bit and freed Blue, figuring "Razz" and the faker were out of the AU by then.

His friend slightly shook his skull and moved his limbs a bit, testing them. He then turned to him. He had a blank expression on his face. Error felt a bit guilty for making Blue upset, but his friend was understanding. Now that the parasite was gone, they could leave everything behind, and go back to normal.

"үσ𝕌 𝓬Ａ𝔩爪Ｅ𝓭 𝓭σⓌŇ?(You calmed down?)"

PAINPAINPAIN!

Error brought a hand to his glitching cheek. Blue had slapped him!
"WHAT THE FUCK ERROR?!" He was screaming and crying, fat tears rolling down his face. The Destroyer was too stunned to do or say anything.
"You let him take him! Just because you were angry at him! Who knows what they'll do to him!" Blue put his hand over his mouth, and started sobbing.

Error felt like a bucket of icy water was dumped on him as the realization hit him. He was still furious with Ink, for tricking him into caring for him, but at the same time, he couldn't hate him: the idea of him being hurt, or worse, made him sick to his non-existent stomach.

He hadn't really thought this through, had he?

"He was our only hope... and now Nightmare has him. And they have the Book too. You doomed us all."

"Now, I wouldn't say that."

That voice.

The Destroyer and Blue turned quickly toward it, and came face to face with CORE. And the parasite was with them. The day just kept getting better and better.