Chapter 23

(The photo for your ask wouldn't load, @T-dude, so just enjoy this part written for you -w-)

Two deities talked to each other stories about what had happened since they last saw each other. "So...Kindness was murdered" Myriad muttered numbly, staring at the floor. "oh...She...who did it?"

"They believe it was Merciful" Ancient sighed, "they didn't even let Merciless be the judge. Fate is now in control of the Realm". The deity of magic blinked, flabbergasted. "Fate? But she never wanted to be the leader, it was Destiny that dragged her into the council anyways!" He exclaimed, "how did they manage to get her into the leader role?!". Ancient shrugged, "I am unsure. She's been acting off for a while, constantly keeping to herself and staying in her room. Destiny has also refused to talk to Fate for tormenting her choosing child. Everything has been spiraling downwards since you left. Why can't you come back?"

"You know that I can't. I'm trapped until my Au's story is over, but that doesn't mean I won't be here for you." he smiled comfortingly, patting the girl beside him on the back. "Just hang on, i'm sure it'll get better soon."

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"Who would have thought?" Reaper hissed. "Ink has control over the portal systems in this AU!"

"It makes sense though" the other sans hummed, "he made the AU and he always had this weird knowledge of always knowing where everyone is". "What?" Lust asked, turning his head to stare at the god of death.

"He always knew where everyone was? How has he not found us yet then?"

"I suspect it's because he can only track us by our portal that each of us can make. It leaves behind a magic signature and a specific code that he can recognise" The god explained, "It also explains how Error can avoid us so easily".

"How many AU's are there anyways?" Lust mused, remembering when the frustrated creator couldn't find his rival. "We have no idea why Error enjoys destroying, in fact, the way he words himself can suggest that he actually doesn't like being the destroyer"

Reaper gasped. "What if he's destroying the AUs to piss Ink off? I would do exactly that if I was him, especially after figuring out how he really acts"

"But Error never said that he liked or even enjoyed destroying in the first place. If he was indeed destroying to anger Ink, he would verbally and openly say he enjoys it for it would frustrate the creator. Though, he did mention it being his job before..." the two went silent, thinking carefully. "Didn't you say there was a balance before?" Lust questioned.

"Balance? Yeah," Reaper nodded. How would he not remember the balance? His lover had researched the subject for him, after all. Geno had found out about its purpose and suggested that there may be more than one sort of balance that keeps the multiverse stable before he had even met Dream and found out about the emotional balance. "Wait...are you suggesting that there's a creation, destruction balance?" Everything seemed to suddenly make sense in the god of death's head. "Of course! That explains so many things! Too, many things... how didn't we see it before?"

Lust nodded, an odd glint in his eyes. "Because we had a mental block. We believed what Ink said to such a degree that we had formed a mental block, where we wouldn't notice something till we focused on it. You could say that it's similar to selective hearing but with your mind."

Reaper nodded in understanding. "I can also guess that perhaps Ink doesn't know about the balance?"

"But we can also easily assume that Error has tried to explain it to him, at least once." The other argued, "he could be purposely feigning ignorance." Lust hummed. "But Ink is the god of creations and the protector of AUs. It wouldn't make sense for him to pretend to not hear or understand Error, the destroyer of AUs''. "But, if that's the case..." Reaper narrowed his eye sockets, "his actions would be considered odd. We are part of AUs yet he had shown no consideration of mercy or 'protecting' us, hell, Ink even pushed the Sanses of original AUs to fight one person! The one person who could have ended all our lives yet didn't murder any of us. In fact, he hadn't even damaged any of us at all. Most of us have only one HP. That so-called monster could kill any of us and thousands of copies and the original AU would go crashing down into the void, aka, one of the absolute worst ways to die. Having every atom of your body being pulled apart and put together again on repeat for practically eternity."

"Don't forget that the void is exactly how Error had died." Lust added quietly, "though. You bring up a good point. Seeing how many copies there are, I can presume that the balance for creation and destruction is tipping. At this point in time, from what I have gathered and seen, Error is more of a protector than Ink which shouldn't be right. That is, of course, if we judge them based on their Titles. There's something up for sure, and I know who might have the answers we need."

"Nightmare," Reaper said with a nod. "He has the highest chance of telling us what we need, and with the right evidence, we can bring Ink down and avenge Error. Is there anyone else who might have answers?"

The other skeleton thought for a moment, closing his eyes. "What about...Blueberry? He always defended Error and said that he had a reason for destroying the AUs. Though, Stretch did say that his brother had Stockholm syndrome. I doubt that's true."

"That's right," the god of death agreed. "Most victims of Stockholm syndrome do indeed act similarly to Blue but Blue adds too much logic that most of us had pushed aside. In fact, he even defended the bad sanses, all of which we have no info on other than Ink saying they're all bad". "It's unbelievable that we believed him so easily" Lust growled, "it's almost like he knew that we would believe him no matter what we thought". "Odd" Reaper mumbled, "Well, we should keep searching, maybe we'll find someone who can open a portal for us" "alright" the two smiled and nodded in agreement before continuing forward, unaware of a single red eye light watching them from beside a tree.

"R-Reaper? Lust? W-What are you two doing here?"

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Mercy sat in the classroom, knitting silently. The room was bland. There were a couple of shelves at the back of the classroom where the equipment needed for the subject sat as well as tables and chairs. A clock was positioned near the ceiling where everyone could see it and a row of strange machines sat at the side. Compared to many other rooms and buildings that he had seen in his multiverse, this room and school were incredibly plain and insignificant.

However, the place may not be interesting in the slightest (except for those odd machines), the people were incredibly eye-catching. They weren't like the copies who looked almost identical. Here, everyone was easy to pick apart. Their favorite colours, way of thinking, and even activities were shown through their actions and clothing and all of them were unique in their own way. These people weren't restricted to one simple fate, one simple coding that would never change in the thousands of resets each AU would go through. These monsters and humans got to choose how they acted. Each decision they decide to take, in each step in their life, their destiny, and therefore code, would change. It was so very...very...interesting.

"U-Umm....M-Mister?" A small, timid voice interrupted his thoughts, causing the destroyer to look up from the slowly forming doll. There in front of him was a short teenager that wore a pair of glasses, the familiar eyelights being the only thing that Mercy was able to recognize. "T-This is the...s-sewing classroom, right?" The kid asked nervously, slightly intimidated by the scar-covered adult that looked oddly like his PE teacher. "YeS," Mercy nodded, "yOu arE DuSt, corRect?".

Dust nodded, slightly started that the stranger had been able to recognize and remember his name.

"I aM MerCy, iT iS a pLeasUre to mEet yOu. YoU maY siT whEre yOu WisH." the black-boned skeleton smiled, gesturing to the large grey tables. The smaller quickly scurried over, sitting on a chair near the front of the large classroom.

Dust looked the new teacher up and down, unable to stop himself from imagining the horrific ways those scars could have found their way onto his teacher's bones. The pain he must have felt. The student watched the teacher knit, uneased by the silence. It was a relief when someone else finally entered the classroom.

"Hello, Mr- Mercy?" The newcomer stated, sounding startled. "I-I didn't think you were serious when you said you were applying to become a teacher...." Gradient mumbled.

Mercy nodded. "YEs, I bElieved thAt iT wOuld bE mOre bEneFiciAl fOr mE tO bE aBle tO watCh oVer yOu. ThE waY tHe ErRor oF tHis MulTivErse tReAted yOu tHis mOrninG is aN inDicAtion To mE tHat mOre acTioN mUsT bE tAkeN tO prEvenT it fRom ocCurrinG agAin." He spoke in a 'matter of fact' way. "WHy else woUld I tAke a jOb suCh aS tEaching wHen I clEarlY kNow thAt I Am a dAngEr tO tHe soUls tHat lEarn hEre?"

Gradient paled when his apparently new guardian mentioned multiverse, his eyelights darting over to where Dust was sitting.

"Mr. Mercy?" Dust raised his hand and spoke up once the older skeleton nodded at him. "What do you mean by multiverse?"

"A mUlTivErse is, iN a wAy, an AreA oR SpaCe that Contains oNe oR mOre uNiverses."

The student nodded. "Alright, and can you please explain what you meant when you said 'the Error of this Multiverse'? Are you implying that there may be multiple of these Multiverses?"

"YOu aRe cOrreCt. THerE are mU-"

"ENOUGH!" Gradient shouted, voice higher by an octave. "E-enough...."

"WhAt dO yOu mEan, GraDient?"

"I-I mean that...um...the other students will be coming soon, maybe you should start preparing for what we will be doing today?..." Gradient drawled, hesitant, and careful to steer the conversation away from the topic of Multiverses. He could feel the gaze of Dust searing into the side of his skull.

Mercy's questioning state lingered for a moment longer before he gestured to the tables and seats in his classroom. "SiT anYwheRe yOu liKe gRadiEnt. I dOn't hAve mUch of A pLan FoR tOdaY oThEr tHan alLowiNg yOu GuYs tO aSk quEstiOns abOut mE."

Gradient hurried over quickly, unwilling to have Dust's gaze on him any longer. It was well known that there was something....off with Dust. Rumours of changes with his personality that happen in an instant and how he may be the murderer or a student who had gone missing spread like wildfire. Gossip such as those were what the girls in the newspaper club craved for, it hadn't been long before the entire school knew. Fortunately, not many had been too unhappy. Swapfell was not the best person, one could say. He was bad enough to make those around him yearn to get away. In short, the teenager had been a complete jerk, pervert, and absolute asshole, to put it kindly. However, no one deserved death (if the rumours were true, that is). He may have been a terrible person but he wasn't bad enough to deserve to die, or whatever happened that day. Gradient simply couldn't forget the heartbroken wails and sobs of Swapfell's parents when they had been given the unfortunate news, how desperate and sleep-deprived they looked when the police stopped the search for their child. He didn't think anyone who had witnessed it forgot. Still, he most definitely did not wish to be on Dust's bad side. Doing so would only bring him more pain and trouble than he already has, hopefully, the other would simply forget what had happened moments before.

Slowly, students began the trickle into the Classroom. From monsters to humans, Sanses to frisks, recognizable to unrecognizable. This was his home room, some would call it tutor class, meaning that these students he would see more often than others. They all talked between themselves, taking short glances at their new teacher. It wasn't hard to differentiate each group from the other. There were those classified as nerds and jocks, popular and loners. Mercy glanced up at the clock, eyeing it as the longer hand slowly edged forward. The bell was going to be ringing soon, and he was not prepared for what would occur. The destroyer was to teach children. Children like the young souls he had been forced to shatter when he had been back at home, doing an unappreciated job. Who knew how he would screw this up. He could kill them all by pure accident if he was angered too much. If there was one thing Mercy could not control, it was his temper. Sure, it had mellowed out throughout the centuries of having to deal with Ink and his followers, but he could still lose it and snap at any moment. If anything urgent was to occur, he might have to flee to the anti-void, but that will be the last resort. Considering that the beings of this multiverse no longer had access to any magic, other than those who can do a weak check.

Soon, the ringing echoed through the halls, sounding much too like Mercy's crash for his comfort. With a sigh, the destroyer stood up, cold eyelights eyeing the curious students. "HeLlo StuDenTs, i aM MerCy. I apOlogISe fOr aNy iNciDenTs tHat mAy oCcUr."

A/N:

I'M ALLIIIVVVEEEEEEE