Meanwhile, the rest of the multiverse had been whipped into a frenzy. Despite Dream's efforts to keep it quiet, the news of Ink's absence had spread like wildfire. Faster than that; more like a rumor in high school.

Everywhere Dream went, scared people asked if it was true, how the search for him was going, what was going to happen to them with nobody to protect them from the Destroyer.

Dream tried to calm everyone down, but the best he could do was assure them that if Error came for them, he would do his very best to protect them. Which was going to be extremely difficult with his also having to keep his brother from doing evil, but he didn't tell them that part.

The only person who wasn't scared out of his mind was Blue. Blue seemed to be glad, in fact, if a little worried for Ink's well-being.

"You're taking this very calmly," Dream had noted after Orange, Blue's brother, had gone to hide in his room. Blue had simply smiled and said, "OF COURSE I AM. I HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY FROM HIM, AFTER ALL."

He didn't sound like the naïve skeleton he normally is. He sounded like somebody who was tired of explaining things to people who should know better.

But Dream knew that Blue was wrong. Orange's suspicions had been correct; Error had somehow brainwashed Blue. With Ink unable to stop him, Error was going to destroy everything.

___________________

Blue watched Dream leave, waving after him. But once his 'friend' left, the smile left his face, replaced with a tired frown.

Why could no one see what Error was doing? Once Error had told him about the Balance, it had been obvious. The few times Blue had been able to get out of his AU after Error returned him, he'd seen it. It was clear to him. And he had heard those horrible things that those 'Voices' said. Not directly, of course. But he'd heard.

Even if he hadn't seen or known what he did, what he'd said about him having nothing to fear was true. Error had promised not to mess with his AU anymore. Besides picking up Blue's friend Frisk every once in a while, Error hadn't once touched his version of UnderSwap since.

If only the others could see the Error Blue knew.

___________________

After he'd heard the news of Ink's disappearance, Reaper had immediately warned his Toriel, Life. She seemed both worried and relieved, but Reaper had no time to question it. Instead he put it in the back of his mind as he began to prepare for the onslaught he knew would start once Error learned he no longer had the Creator standing in his way.

As much as he wanted to believe Error was as innocent as Blue believed, he couldn't. Not when he'd seen the carnage himself. Not when he'd heard Error promise to never stop, with his own two 'ears'.

Not when Error made his job a thousand and ten times harder.

___________________

Classic listened to Dream's frantic explanation of the multiverse's situation.

And boy, was he getting pissed.

Why couldn't they all just be left alone for once? It had only been last week (In multiversal time, that is) when Ink had somehow managed to piss off the Fell AUs-again-and somebody had to go tell them to chill before they caused a riot. And before that, Nightmare's gang had almost gotten all the Horrortale variations, including its swapped and Fell AUs, to attack the Council of Sanses if a certain Blackberry hadn't stumbled over them and warned the others.

And now Ink was missing, and the only thing keeping Error from destroying everything was his ignorance of that fact.

Wonderful. Just fricken' wonderful.

___________________

"Brah, what's with the little brotato?"

Error screamed when a weird new guy came out of nowhere behind him while he was trying to rest. The new guy had a colorful and bright outfit with these black glasses that had 'YO' on one side and 'LO' on the other. He had eye brows somehow, too.

"4m 1 n07 4ll0w3d 70 b3 p34c3ful?" He complained. But he was moving away from the colorful skeleton. I guess they don't get along; kinda like Cross and Killer back at NIghtmare's evil lair.

"Aw, brah," the colorful guy said sadly, "I'm just curious~"

Error closed his hand into a fist tightly and growled, "L1k3 h3ck y0u 4r3!"

I covered my mouth. Did- did Error just say a bad word?!?

"Y0u c4m3 b4ck 70 70rm3n7 m3 4941n," Error growled.

I came up behind Error quietly. He didn't notice I was there.

"Welp," the stranger shrugged, "Guess ya caught me. Seriously tho, why's the lil brah chillin' with ya?"

I didn't like how he asked about me. I didn't like how he made Error nervous.

"N0-n0-n0n3 0f y0ur bu1-u1-u15n355!"

"Brah," the stranger chided. "Ya know better than to dis a broseph like dat."

"Fu-fu-funk 0-0-0ff, Fr3-3-35h!"

Fresh stepped closer to Error. I felt cold and scared all of a sudden.

"G-g-go away!" I said. I tried to sound brave but it came out in a squeak. Error and Fresh turned to me, and they stared at something behind me. "Brah, what-"

"You're scarring me," I said, my voice sounding braver as I talked. "And Error doesn't like you either. So just- go away!"

Fresh stared for a second, and then he ran. He made a sound like "FRESH POOF!" when he teleported away.

Something flew past me and almost hit him, but he left just in time.

It dropped on the floor, and Error picked it up.

It was one of the crayons I'd been coloring with before Fresh came. It was all melty and gross, and it was stuck to Error's fingers.

"J35u5 Chr157," Error said quietly. "F1v3 y34r5 0ld 4nd y0u c4n 571ll k1ll p30pl3 w17h 4r7 5uppl135."

"...Huh?"

"D0n'7 w0rry 4b0u7 17." He shook the melty crayon off his hand and used the other to rub the top of my skull. "Bu7 pl3453 d0n'7 d0 7h47 4941n? Unl355 50m30n3 15 7ry1n9 70 hur7 y0u 0r k1dn4pp y0u 0r 50m37h1n9?"

I frowned. "Okay, but what if someone's trying to hurt you?"

Those white bars and 'error' things started to appear all over him again.

He didn't answer me.

I wonder why he gets quiet when I say something nice to him.

___________________

Finally. The last original AU he had to talk to. The Sans and Papyrus seemed as scared as the rest, but the Sans asked, "Hey, have you checked the Anti-Void?"

Dream stopped, about to open a portal, and turned towards him. "I- no...? Why-"

"Well, Error can't kill Ink, right?"

Dream frowned. "No...?"

"So wouldn't it make sense if he found a way to trap Ink in the Anti-Void, where no one would expect him to be while he prepared to kill everyone?"

Dream's eye sockets went empty. "Oh my stars I'm an idiot." Thanking the Sans for his help, he quickly made a new portal to the Anti-Void and jumped through.

...Except, this couldn't be the Anti-Void.

There was nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Surely even Error would have some decorations, right?

Weird.

He'd have to try again.

But his portal didn't even open. His magic seemed convinced that this was it.

Well, either way, Ink obviously wasn't here. If anything had been there, he'd have been able to see it miles away.

It didn't occur to him to look up, where he would've seen a mess of strings, souls, dolls, and a nervous child and anxious glitch waiting for the familiar stranger and enemy to leave.

____________________________________

Ok I acknowledge that I'm bad at creating suspense. It's too fast-paced, too short. I don't really like it, but I've got nothing else.

Also I want to try and update all my stories more so *y e e t*

Don't ask why Dream couldn't see the strings without looking up; either. The answer is plot and for convenience he was too anxious to pay so much attention to his surroundings. And sensing them via emotions...Ink can't feel and Error probably has practice hiding his emotions from him and possibly/probably Nightmare.