The Stage is Set

Contacting a Past Life pt.3

Who has the soul? Three colors. He stares at their hands as he moves closer. White, no gloves, no other colors. No, not him. Next to him are yellow-gloved hands. No other color, not him. Next are white with a few scars on the bones. No, not him either. Next are white with black smudges on the fingertips. He's wearing gloves too, but they're also black. Only two colors. Not him either. The last has three colors. Yellow fingertips, red to the knuckles, and black gloves covering the rest of their hands... He slowly looks up to make eye contact with the other. They flinch back from his stare. They must know they have something they shouldn't. Did they take it from Ink? Did they hurt Ink? Ink would never give something so important to someone so below him.

There's his lead.

Error has barely any time to call out a warning before Blue ports in front of the shield. He raises a sword that Error's never seen before and strikes the shield. Everyone flinches back from the resounding boom. Blue jumps back with a snarl on his face. He spits something out of his mouth before lunging for another attack on the shield. Error falls backward as everyone else moves away from the wall.

Killer raises an arm, dagger ready for an attack. "What the hell happened?! What's going on?!"

Dream crawls away, he notices that there's no light of recognition in Blue's pips. "Something is controlling him! Like those strings with Ink! That has to be it!"

Nightmare stands in front of Dream and Error, willing to use his body as a shield should it come down to it. "Blue! Snap out of it! Try to fight back! Talk to us! Something! What's wrong?!" Corruption starts to leak out of his socket, slowly covering his body should Nightmare need it. His hand moves down to his staff, in case he needs to grab it, but he's still hesitant to attack Blue.

Blue takes a step back from attacking the shield. His stance is different from the one they know him to hold when a sword is in his hand. He stands back and studies them. He glares at them, "Who are you calling Blue?" He spits out the name as if it is nothing short of disgusting to even say the name. His pips move around to see if there is anyone else outside the shield with him.

Everyone stops in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Cross steps a little closer. "You're Blue. That's what we call you, don't you remember?"

Blue shakes his skull. He glares harder at the group. "You're lying. I don't know any of you useless AUs." Nightmare feels something lodged in his soul at the insult. Blue would never say anything like that.

"No! You are Blue!" Dream stands up behind his brother. "You're Blue! You're my Baby Blue! My Bluejay! Don't you-"

Another attack silences the group. The screech of the sword hitting the ink rings out, echoing throughout the room. Blue stands back, straightening out. His aura makes him towers over them.

Blue snarls at Dream. "Do. Not. Call. Me. That." Dream flinches back, his wings rise and fluff out. "My name is not Blue and I am certainly not yours." He grumbles something under his breath and Cross, standing the closest to the shield, flinches back violently from what was said.

Nightmare puts his hands up. "Alright, we need to calm down to talk this out. Something happened to you, and we need to figure out what." Blue glares at him with a promise of death in his pips.

"Nothing is wrong with me." He turns his whole body to face Nightmare, and his grip on his sword tightens. "I am perfect, watch your tone with me, child."

Error feels something sink in his gut. "There's someone here who wants Ink." Would they want Ink enough to take over Blue? Blue is one of the closest to Ink other than the trio. But... Why Blue, wouldn't Nightmare, Cross, Killer, or himself be a better target? As he stares into Blue's sockets, something clicks. Those pips are not the same blue as Blue. That's a different blue. It's a different person.

It's not that Blue is being controlled, it's someone else in his body.

Error takes a chance. "Who are you?" Everyone turns to him in bewilderment. "If what you say is true, and you're not Blue... Then who are you?" He prays that his theory is wrong. Then more questions come, what about his soul? Where's Blue's soul?

'Blue' thinks for a moment. He stands still. Staring at Error as if there's something that he's trying to kill with a glare alone. He shifts his stance to stand up straight, shoulders back, and chin held up high. He glances at the others with disgust.

"If you don't know, then you must be utterly stupid." He sighs and his sword falls away into his inventory. He makes eye contact with Error. "My name is Swap."