I've Always Been Alone

Chapter 2

[Rewritten as of  August 22, 2023. The beautiful art is by Code12710 . Thank you so much for that!]

*Nightmare's POV*

Nightmare knew he should feel guilty. At least a little. But, he didn't and he found that he didn't care either way. Instead, he found himself grinning sadistically as the monsters around him screamed, trapped in a vision of their worst nightmares.

For a second, he wondered if it was bad that he was enjoying this so much. He shrugged it off. It's not like they were dying or anything. He needed the negativity for energy anyways and it's not like they would be using it for themselves.

He decided to stay for another half hour before moving to the next au. As gruesome as it sounds, you can only watch the same monsters scream for a certain amount of time before it got boring.

Time went by quickly. He opened a portal to an extremely negative au and stepped through. This would be a good last stop for the day. He wouldn't even have to spread negativity. The occupants had done enough of that themselves.

He was a little surprised at just how dreary the place looked. He checked the codes of the au and found that its name fit it nicely: "Horrortale." Surprisingly, this au wasn't even a genocide one like usual. It was a neutral run.

Nightmare heard the sound of conflict and wandered over to watch. He blinked in shock as he was met with the sight of unashamed cannibalism. How.... interesting to say the least. He couldn't help but be curious of what the Sans of this au would be like. They usually had the most interesting designs and/or backstories.

As he made his way over to the sentry station, he wonder what happened to this au to make monsters stoop so low. After all, this was only a neutral run. It could've been so much worse. And not to mention, eating monster- and no doubt human as well given the chance- remains doesn't sound very appetizing.

As the Sans came into view, Nightmare couldn't help but stop short. How was the Sans still alive? He had a gaping hole in his skull, one single bloodshot eye, and a large amount of pain and hunger radiating from him. Nightmare had been under the impression that Sanses only had one HP. With a wound like that, this Sans was clearly a different story.

Nightmare couldn't help but feel curious. How much negativity could this one monster alone provide? Nightmare guessed it would be quite a lot based on what he was currently feeling from his aura. With an unhealthy amount of mental detachment from others' pain and a painful amount of boredom to kill, Nightmare decided to approach him.

"Greetings.... mortal..." Nightmare said rather awkwardly. He cringed inwardly. He never was good at socializing and he had deprived himself of it for years since the... incident. Clearly, he needed more practice. A lot more.

The Sans looked amused. "....uh, greetings I suppose.... what's a kid like you…. doing around here? i…. don't think i've ever seen…. anything like you.... around here before....."

Nightmare scowled. "I am not a child. I am the guardian of negativity." He paused. Considered. Inwardly cringed once again. "You currently have some of the strongest negativity in the multiverse. Would you like to become a member of a team I am creating?"

Sans was clearly caught off guard. "....what? why me? what.... would you need a team for?" He questioned.

"Besides providing me a steady stream of negativity? Helping me spread negativity crossed the AU's," Nightmare explained before pausing yet again. "....You do know what an AU is don't you?"

Sans nodded. "yeah, i know about.... the multiverse theory.... what would i.... get out of this?"

Relieved that he didn't have to explain what the multiverse was with his admittedly small amount of knowledge about it, Nightmare took a moment to think of what exactly Sans would get out of this. He... actually hadn't thought that far ahead. Clearly, this AU was short on food, so he could probably offer food either to just him or to the AU as a whole. Maybe Farmtale?