Given An Unwanted Second Chance

Chapter 31

Please don't be a memory, please don't be a memory...

I peeked open an eye, somewhat glad to see and feel the familiar concrete under my human form.

I took a deep breath, pushing myself into a sitting position.  "N-Nightmare...?"

It was silent for a moment before he materialized nearby, standing with his hands behind his back.  He looked...somewhat pissed and pained at the same time.  "What did you do."

Oh...OH.

I forgot!  The bond breaking and reforming!

I winced at his tone.  "Oh...um...you...felt the bond severing, didn't you?"

He sighed angrily, stalking over.  "You idiot."

I scrambled back some, my eyes wide.  "U-Uh...l-look, there's more to it than---"

One of his tendrils grabbed me by the neck.  I choked a bit as he dragged me to my feet.  "Not only did that hurt on an unexplainable level, you are SEVERING the little connection I have left to your existence."

"A-Ack...!  I-I'm sorry!  I'm sorry!"

Nightmare scowled at me as I tugged at the tendril.  "Do NOT do that again, do you understand?! "

I blinked, staring at Nightmare.  Was he...scared?

The tendril tightened marginally at my silence and I grimaced.  "O-Okay!  Let me go!"

Nightmare tched, throwing me towards the edge.  I tumbled and rolled, very nearly falling over the precipice.  I scrabbled at the ground as my legs went over the edge.  I gasped in fright, pulling myself away from the dangerous location.

I held my chest, my heart beating a thousand miles a minute.  I took a moment to catch my breath, refusing to meet Nightmare's gaze.

I squeezed my eyes shut, taking another deep breath.  "C-Code is gone.  F...For now, at least."

"You actually managed to take him down? "  Nightmare asked, going from pained and pissed to slightly pained and impressed.

"I thank the wispy memories left behind.  And...something else."  I trailed off warily.

"What else? "

I raised my eyes to meet Nightmare's.  "I can do more than return from the dead...I can reset.  Like...actually reset.  No one remembers but me."

Nightmare tilted his head.  "Explain."

I shifted uncomfortably.  "I...Code killed your group.  Everyone.  Dream was badly injured and dropped somewhere vastly negative.  I was stabbed and died..."

Nightmare narrowed his eye.  "Isn't the balance severely positive right now? "

I nodded.  "I...theorize that the multiverse actually collapsed in my absence.  The buttons that normally appeared never did...I was in the darkness for a long while..."  I trailed off again, remembering the pain of loneliness.

I shook my head, refocusing.  "But after that while, a button appeared.  Reset...  I pressed it, and I swear I heard a voice...but I couldn't understand it.  When I regained awareness back in the waking world, people were speaking lines I'd already heard before.  I...knew things and remembered things that clearly no one else did.  I was...enraged with Code.  I remembered how he killed Dust...controlled Killer and then dusted him...Horror...Cross dying and Chara taking over before also being killed.  Then the memories of how you fought him before.  Using his mild blindness on the one side."