Given An Unwanted Second Chance

Chapter 22

Error made the rest of us "Bad Sanses" sit on the floor while they sat on the other couch.  Error kept his strings tight, making sure we didn't do anything.  I didn't really PLAN on doing anything crazy right now...especially because I was still tired.

Horror looked over from where he sat next to me.  "Are you...okay, Eclipse?  You...seem tired."

"Exhausted."  I muttered.  "Just...bad dreams."  I added, not elaborating further.

Dream tilted his head slightly, looking curiously at me.  "Can you talk to my brother outside of your dreamscape?"

I stayed silent, not wanting to talk about Nightmare.

Cross glared a bit at Dream.  "Invading someone's dreamscape is extremely rude, you know."

"Didn't stop Nightmare from doing it, though."  Dream said quietly, looking a little peeved with Cross.

"L-Look, can we just...can we focus, please?  This isn't about me or Nightmare or dreamscapes.  This is about Gradient.  How are we supposed to find him? "

"I think this is a good time to talk about you in particular, Eclipse...especially because we have all of you here."

I glared at Ink.  "I already told you there's nothing special about me.  Leave it at that.  Besides, there are far more important matters to think about, like...ohh, I dunno, YOUR FREAKING KID."

"I'm starting to think Ink doesn't care about his kid."  Cross said casually, leaning back against the seat of the couch where Killer laid, still unconscious.

Ink's still-reddish-orange eyelights became more red.  "How dare you---"

"Guys, please, for the love of everything, FOCUS!! "  I exclaimed.  "I know I have attention problems, but this is ridiculous! "

Dream glanced at me curiously again but remained silent.  Ink growled before turning his own head away, crossing his arms.  Error rubbed his temples.  "How did I ever come to work with this group...?  Ugh.  Anyway, there is a way I've only heard of to locate someone whose bond is closed.  I never thought I'd need to use it, but here we are..."

My soul gained a spark of hope.  "I just want Gradient to be safe.  Aside from dying, I'd do anything to make sure he's okay."

"Glad you volunteered, cuz it was gonna be you or the monochrome soldier over there."

"Why me?"

"That can be explained in better detail by the one we need to go to."  Error replied, standing up.  He made us stand by tugging at the strings.  Horror growled softly, and I sensed annoyance from him.  Be yanked around by strings made one feel very inferior, I suppose...

"Ink, watch over the anomaly while we're gone."  Error opened a portal and went through, pulling the rest of us through before Ink could reply.  Dream followed, looking worriedly at Ink beforehand.

I sensed a spark of agitation from Ink before the portal closed.  I glanced around, noticing that we were behind a house.  A very...familiar house.  Of course, that didn't tell me exactly WHERE we were in terms of AUs.  Just that we were in the town with Sans and Papyrus's house.

I extended my senses a bit, noting that the AU we were in was neutral-positive.  Error pulled us around to the front of the house and knocked on the door.  There was a moment of silence before the door opened, and there stood Sci.

Ah.  Okay, it'd make sense that he might know how to find someone whose bond is closed...science-y magic stuff or something...

Sci tilted his head at the scene before him.  "Error?  What's going on?"