Given An Unwanted Second Chance

Chapter 37

"Now that the wise guy's outta the picture, what's the scoop on the girl?"  Mafia asked after a moment of tense silence.

"WITH THE KIND OF POWER SHE POSSESSES, IT ISN'T SAFE FOR THE REST OF US FOR HER TO WANDER ABOUT FREELY."  Stretch replied, rolling his cigarette between his fingers a bit.

Gradient tensed up a lot while I just kind of sat there.  I was starting to feel a bit numb after have so many panics in one day.

"You've said that about me, yet here we are."  Error said with a tch.

"You can't reset the entirety of the f***ing multiverse whenever you want."

"And...neither can she?  We literally just went over this.  Hell, FRESH went over this."

"And how are we supposed to know if the multiverse hasn't ALREADY been reset a hundred times over by her at this point?"  Fell asked, growing agitated.

"The balance wasn't tipped to the point of multiversal collapse that many times, Fell."  I deadpanned.  "And by the looks of my soul, it's only happened 3 times."

"What do you mean by that, Eclipse?"  Dream questioned.

I closed my eyes, turning my head away.  "I'd show you, but then you'd probably just spear me with an arrow the moment I did."

Swap looked to Dream.  "Her soul looks to be majorly kindness, but there were swirls of determination, bravery, and perseverance."

"Maybe Code was right.  Maybe I have multiple soul traits."  I muttered, hugging myself tightly.

"Okay, so we just...do to her like we did to Fresh?  I mean, she can't hurt us if she's locked away somewhere."

I cringed again as Gradient growled at Ink.  "I will NOT allow you to do that, Dad!  She's been so hurt all over the place, why are you trying to make it worse?!"

"I'm just trying to protect creation, and because of her and Fresh, my job was messed with."

"Fresh was the issue, not her!  Ugh, how many times do we need to say this?!  She is the victim here!"

"And she caused the worst imbalance for creation and destruction I've seen since my own introduction into the multiverse."

"HE caused that, not her!"

Ink leaned against his brush that he still held, staring down Gradient.  "What happened to the obedient child you were? "

I glared at Ink as Gradient replied darkly.  "Obedient?  Not caring, not loving, OBEDIENT?  THAT'S the word you choose?!"

"Gradient, the squid is stupid when it comes to those kinds of emotions."

"Right in the soul, Glitch."  Ink feigned pain, putting a hand to his chest.

"And here I was, naively believing you were the good guys defeating evil around the multiverse.  But no~, how absolutely CHILDISH of me.  Of the three of you who raised me, the god of LITERAL DESTRUCTION cares more about me.  The guardian of negativity cares more about me!"

"Because you apparently knew each other in some other life.  Of course she's gonna care more about you."

"WE DIDN'T KNOW THAT!!"  Gradient yelled angrily.  "We became friends before ANY of that came to light!  Can ANYONE explain how destruction and negativity are being the rational ones??"

Ink scowled deeply at Gradient and Dream crossed his arms, looking away.  The various other skeletons glanced at each other, not seeming to have an answer to that.