Zero Stories Left

6 | Alternative Universe Collector

The training with the black skeleton ensued again after these little "hangouts".

And Zero really got better over the course of the past year. First, it's the speed of the attacks, then their destruction, afterwards concentrating durability and so forth. It was time for...something new.

And once again they were in some AU that Error picked out for their training. Big forest, sun flashing trough the foliage, pretty...peaceful. No life near in sight, not even animals or birds, that seem like they should and would be here or at least make some type of sound. Just utter silence and a slight wind making the leaves move.

"What is it today I wonder? I mean... what can it be in the woods? Precision?" - He looked at Error with a questioning look.

"That would be a good idea, but nah. Today I'm gonna show you...something more crazy. Probably. At least to you. Besides, I doubt you didn't train precision before. The thing is that you seriously have gotten better at concentrating the energy in any part of your body, this will be...both a test of your new, recently developed strength and a new abillity, which will probably be useful later on. What I'll show to you is...a "collecting" AU power,

It uses a lot of..."glitching energy" to "collect" the AU and then also break it apart, so much so that it's just easier to trap the Frisks, Floweys..." - Error sighed. - "The ones that reset, and then kill the inhabitants. This is why I never do this "paper collecting" thing. It's too draining and not great in the long run, capiche? But I'll explain how to do it to you.

Imagine the AU as a rectangle, and move both of your hands to "shrink" it, while imagining yourself going out of the imagined box. Try it out." - The black skeleton finally dared the second. - "Keep in mind that doing this, as a matter of fact doesn't truly scale it down, nor does it make it less "strong" or easy to break, so doing it more than once will be more than useless, don't do it. It's more of...travelling outside the AU...? Generally hard to explain what I genuinely mean by this.

Simply think that this power exists just to be able to grab the AU, because you can't really...grab air. Now try it out."

Zero concentrated on his hands. He imagined himself slowly moving out of the "reality rectangle" to the outside of it. One...two moments and he sees a paper...infront of him.

"Great job." - Error was already there somehow. Now you see the AU, now you feel it. Now...Try to rip it in two.

"Why?"

"Why? To test your strength, of course."

"If...you say so." - For just a monent almost felt like he could...feel sentience inside of it. But of course...He didn't know how to control these powers or how they work...it's probably better just to trust the person that he knows, that is more experienced than him in this regard...Right? One moment...and it really seemed like he did just imagine it. Indeed, he couldn't control his powers, the worry was for nothing.

He concentrated on his hands and ripped it in two pieces, that also started to dissapear out of code. He managed to do it, he was finally strong enough to do it!

"Good job. Thanks for keeping balance."

"What...do you mean by that?" - Zero, asked in confusion...and fear, almost understanding. His eyes widened.

"I mean that...YOU KILLED THEM."

"I...killed them? You mean...the inhabitants of this universe?...but there was nobody around...I...I thought..."

"But do not worry...I understand. It's a bad deed, but it's the one that is needed for the balance of the Multiverse."

Zero tried to run away. Error laughed:"You can't run away from your purpose." - "This is not even the first you have done something like this.

Remember the time when you destroyed your universe? That was fate. Because, I will repeat, it's your purpose. To help me keep balance.
It's not about you want... it's about what you need to do." - Error pointed at him dramatically. - "You wouldn't say that their deaths are all for nothing now, will you, Zero?" - He shrugged. - "I mean, it's your choice after all, you can leave me and act like nothing ever happened. Like all of that time you spent training...like all of THEIR time spent living and hoping for the best was not for the greater good of everything...and just for you to test out your powers. Tell me...why did you even want them in the first place?" -

"I...didn't want to let another incident happen. I wanted to be strong enough...to not let it happen again." - Zero tried to look away.

"Look at me. Do you want to accept this as another "incident" you let happen...or do you want to be protecting the Multiverse, even if it means disregarding what you feel?" - he looked straight into Zero's eyes as he put forward his hand to offer a handshake...with sweat on his face. It was obvious he was battling his phobia, so Zero could see how serious he was about this.

Zero looked at his hand. Did he want this? But ultimately, he had no choice. - "If it's for the greater good...then I'm in." - his hand went forward to shake Error's hand.

And the deal was done.

"What would even happen...if we were not to keep the "balance"?" - Zero eas curious.

"Well, think about it. If the Multiverse becomes overfilled with them...do you think anything good will happen? Obviously not. That's why I really need you right now, for some reason, a lot of them seem to appear lately. Which is where you come in, capiche?"

"Got it." - Zero laid down.

"Oh yeah, if you destroy OuterTale, UnderNovela or UnderCute you should know... I won't hesitate to kill you, even if we're technically co-workers." - Error summoned his strings as to dramatize it further.

"...if you say so."