Mercy, now back at the school, sighed and glanced at a nearby clock. The search had not taken longer than fifteen minutes, shorter than what he had calculated but it wouldn't interfere with his schedule. He let out a sigh.

"Mr. Mercy!" A familiar voice called frantically. Mercy turned around to see Dust, who looked as though he had run a marathon.

"DuSt. WhAt iS wRoNg?"

"It's the students! There's something wrong and it's chaos! The teachers are missing, I've looked through the entire school!"

Mercy narrowed his eyes and scowled, "whErE aRe alL tHe stUdentS?"

"They're all in the cafeteria!"

"TAkE mE tHerE."

Dust nodded and quickly started to run towards a big pair of doors. Mercy quickly followed him but paused. He looked around before entering the doors. No one was there, no one could be watching him at that time.

The moment he entered, screams and shouts entered his non-existent ears and he had to force himself from pulling his vibrant blue strings from his eye sockets.

"QuIet!" He yelled over the children, catching all of their attention.

"SoMeoNe exPlaIn whAt iS gOIng oN."

There were a couple of quiet sobs as multiple different people tried to talk over each other. A teenager that looked eerily like Blue if he played too many video games stepped forward.

"Some of us can't remember each other all of a sudden, and others can't remember where they live." He said, voice barely calm. "I...I can't remember, but I know that I was talking to someone earlier. But...they disappeared. I think."

"Red! You were talking to Red, but he disappeared!" Edge, the brother of Red shouted. Once again, the room erupted into shouts and cries as even more students started talking about disappearing classmates.

Mercy opened his mouth to once again tell the children to calm down but was distracted by the child he had promised to protect.

"Mr. Mercy!" Gradient yelped when someone accidentally pushed him. "L-look outside!"

The ex-destroyer tilted his head and looked out the nearest window. The town outside seemed to be folding into itself, some crumbling into what Mercy could identify as destroyed code. Red threads could be seen everywhere, slicing and cutting into the foundations that held the multiverse together. Both monsters and humans could be seen falling through cracks and holes that were not truly there. Their screams were shrill and they tore at his mangled soul with jagged frozen claws in ways that no normal scream could ever do. Houses flicked in and out of existence, bending in ways that were meant to be impossible both physically and mentally.

Mercy felt his throat clog up, almost as though someone was choking him while wearing a sinister smile. He could almost hear her voice, whispering in the wind like an alluring siren singing about the promises of death and consequences.

"Your arrival caused this." The voice whispered, speaking no lies.

He took a step back, unable to tear his stare away from the destruction. If it hadn't been for Gradient, pulling his attention away from the window, he would have continued to watch in horror.

"Mr. Mercy, we need to go, it's reaching the school!" The child explained hurriedly, "c-come on!"

"GraDiEnt." Mercy spoke, keeping his voice steady. "TheRe'S nOwhERe wE cAn hIdE tO aVoiD thiS. It wIlL ReAch uS nO maTtEr whErE wE gO. It iS oNly a mAtTer oF tiME."

"What are you talking about, Mr. Mercy!" Gradient cried out, "you have to at least try to run!"

Mercy blinked, dazed. Slowly, his feet started to move. Gradient, taking the chance, grabbed him by the hand and started to pull him away from the decaying land. After a moment of stumbling and almost tripping, Mercy went into a full-on run. He didn't know why he was running like this, even though he knew that there was no escape. Perhaps it was the determination the Gradient held that ignited something in his soul.

"Dust!"

Mercy stopped in his running and turned back. There, following behind them was Dust. The destruction was not far from him. Gradient had his arm stretched out, trying to reach his classmate.

"Gradient!" Dust yelled out, also reaching out to his classmate.

Mercy narrowed his eyes and looked down at the other's feet, noting how it was starting to disappear. "GrAdiEnT!" He shouted over the loud noises of crashes, screaming, and snapping code.

"No no no, I can save him!" The child cried back. "Come on! Take my hand!"

Dust glanced behind him and looked back at Gradient. "I won't make it!" He yelped.

"You will! You can do it!" Tears pricked at Gradient's eye sockets.

Dust lunged forward, trying to close the gap between the two. Gradient leaned towards him, trying to hold onto his hand in a desperate attempt to save his friend.

The two couldn't help the smile that emerged on their faces as they realized that Dust was going to make it, surely. The earth split open underneath them and their fingers slipped from the sudden earthquake. Dust's eyes widened as he stared at Gradient. Dust didn't have the time for realization to wash over his face, there was no time for him to even utter a final farewell.

Dust fell.

Gradient couldn't wail, there was no pause for him to shout and scream, no time to even process what had happened before the ground faltered and shattered into a million pieces of fragile glass.

Mercy grabbed onto Gradient and hugged him as if trying to protect him from the horror that had just happened, ignoring the way his own body glitched and roared in pain.

The abyss reached up hungrily, eager to claim another hopeless soul. It pulled and pulled, distorting reality itself until it was able to clamp its jagged jaws around the two monsters.

They were swallowed whole.

======== ========

Dream sat on the soft beanbag and let out a sigh. He glanced over at Killer and decided to finally speak.

"Do...don't you want to wake up?"

"Wake up?" Killer echoed. "Wake...oh. Right, how long have I been asleep?"

Dream stared at him for a moment or two and realized that Killer was serious. "I forgot that time didn't work the same way here as it does back in real life. It's been a couple of weeks now since you've fallen into a coma. I've been here for a couple of days now." he muttered.

Killer blinked at him before immediately standing up. "What?! I've been sleeping for how long? Oh, stars, Boss is going to kill me when I wake up, Error is going to be so worried, Horror is probably not going to let go of me, Dust will pretend to not care but actually be happy on the inside, Cross will cry, Oh this is a disaster...Wait, how are you here anyway?! Nightmare would have already dragged me back to the waking realm if he could come here."

Dream chuckled dryly, "I wish I knew. I saw an angry Blue and a second later, I woke up here with you."

The other skeleton teleported in front of Dream and held him by the shoulders, his skull a couple of centimeters away from his own. Killer's empty eye sockets stared into his golden eye lights. "Is there any way for you to wake me up? Surely there's something you can do, right?"

Dream stuttered out an answer, surprised at how oddly difficult it was to talk properly. "Y-yes!" He shouted before stopping and talking softer than before, "I-I mean, no. I can't wake you up, but I can give you a..kickstart, I guess. You would have to do the rest yourself."

"Alright, what do I need to do?" Killer agreed with no hesitation. "Do I need to murder someone? Muster up my inner Boss? Claw my way out or do I just wing it?"

Dream contemplated the options for a moment. "Winging it would work. I've never tried this before, but when I was younger, Nig...my brother used to tell me a bunch of theories."

The guardian paused and smiled awkwardly.

"..." Killer stared at him, "so my entire mission impossible thing is actually a mission that might literally be impossible and is completely based on a theory thing?"

"...yeeeeeesss?" Dream replied nervously.

The silence that filled the room was suffocating and honestly made Dream rather scared. The survivors of Killer's attacks weren't wrong when they said he was intimidating.

"Nice, just the way I like it!" Killer beamed with a dopey grin.

The illusion of a fearsome murderer cracked.

"Beam me away, Banana Boy!"

The positive being held in a sigh of utter disappointment. Perhaps there was a reason why Nightmare always looked so tired. "I'll...I'll try to find you once we're back. Someone will tell you about the current situation out there, I'm sure."

Dream decided to try and spare the rest of the Killer's reputation by immediately pushing him into what could only be described as a mix between a lucid and nightmarish state (or so he assumed, he had no idea how it would turn out for Killer). After a moment or two of waiting, the telltale signs of someone waking up started to show, causing Dream to let out a sigh of relief.

Now that the first issue was solved, he now had a second to face. Blue.

Dream opened his eyes, not quite sure about when he had closed them in the first place. A blue delicate and silky blanket had been placed over him and the ceiling was familiar. He wearily got up from the bed and moved the blanket away from him. He looked over at the nearby desk where a certain short skeleton was sitting. Dream eyed the other, searching him up and down. The other sans was no longer glitching, switching between different horrific forms like it had before. Now, he was back to normal. To the seemingly innocent Star Sans that despite being seen as someone weak, would go through many different hardships to protect those he loved and cared for.

"Blue." he spoke, startling his 'friend'.

"Dream! You're awake!" Blue beamed.

"You knocked me out." Dream stated.

Blue smiled sheepishly, "sorry? In my defense, I was really angry at the time."

"I could tell." Dream deadpanned, it was true. Perhaps it was partially his own fault that Blue had been able to feel anger to that level. Dream had known for a long time that the small skeleton had been keeping his emotions to himself, locked in a tight jar. It had only been a matter of time before it exploded, harming those around it (or, in this case, him).

"Listen," he sighed, "we... we need to talk. About Ink, about Error, about you...about how you somehow have access to someone's dream while they're basically in a coma."

Blue winced. "Alright." he agreed, "ask away."

======== ========

Lust stared Reaper. Reaper stared Lust. Horror looked at both of them, completely and utterly mystified.

"Put it on." Lust persisted, menacingly. Reaper narrowed his eye sockets.

"No, I refuse," he said slowly.

Lust let out a frustrated scream, "Just wear the damn thing! You've seen its stats, now put it on!"

"I'm not wearing it because it's a CHOKER! It clashes with my current fashion style; I'll look hideous in it!"

"No, you will not! You look emo enough for it to look fine on you!" growled the magenta-eyed skeleton. He ignored Reaper's offended gasp. "After all, what's more important? Your life, or your sense of style!"

"How dare you! Of course, it's my style!"

"REAPER!

"Priorities," Horror quipped quietly, not wanting to get caught up in the middle of the war the other two were having.

Lust took the choker and checked it again, "see? SEE?! Take a look at it; what does it say? 'It conceals your presence from literal deities.' Are you really going to give up a valuable artifact for your horrendous fashion sense?"

"Yes," Reaper answered with an arrogant smirk, "if a deity is going to be looking for me, let them look for me. It's not like Ink is a deity, what is he going to do? Tattle on me? The deities aren't bothered with stuff that has to do with us, if they were, they would have done something already."

Lust felt his eyes twitch. "Are...are you serious?" he asked in a whisper, "we just ran away from Ink. We just witnessed what he is partially capable of, and here you are, acting like a snobby child! What is wrong with you?!"

"I have to agree on this one" Horror frowned, "you weren't acting like this a moment ago. What happened?"

"Listen, if you're worried about the deities, then why don't you give it to Horror? You're planning to bring him along, aren't you?" Reaper groaned in annoyance, "I don't need it because they, both Ink and the deities, can't do anything to me. They need me to preserve the balance of life and death."

"This isn't about what they need from you! This is about them tracking us down and locking us up! Who knows which side the deities are on, for all we know, Ink may be able to contact the deities!"

The god of death looked away with a huff and rolled his eyes. "Listen. We're dealing with Ink, right? Since when was he a deity? Answer that."

"...he isn't. I know, bu-"

"And why, in Fox's name, would DEITIES ever work with him?! Surely they have better things to do then than to meddle with us lOwer bEinGs." Reaper mocked.

Horror thought for a moment before glancing at Lust. "...he has a point. Why would deities get involved? They haven't in the past when we actually needed them, why would they now? Where did these artifacts come from? Why can't they be traded once put on? Why chokers?".

Lust shrugged, "I don't know. Okay? I found them by a tree and decided it would be a good idea to bring it with us. Like I was compelled to take it. Just...just put it on." he shoved one of the two items to Horror, who, oddly enough, put it on without a complaint. "And anyway, why are you helping us?"

"You ask that NOW?" Reaper sputtered, "we've been in his house for the last hour!"

Lust blushed a bright magenta and looked away. "I was busy trying to convince you to put the freaking choker on and looking out the window. Horrortale is darker than I thought it would be."

Horror raised an eye socket. "Horrortale is called Horrortale for a reason, I'm still not sure how people call Ink a protector when he doesn't even check the Undertale variants."

"It's weird thinking about how you're from an Undertale timeline," Reaper muttered. "Killer and Dust are also from one of those, right?"

Horror nodded and Lust snorted, "most of the Bad Sanses are made out of Undertale Copies. How has no one noticed yet?"

"I think they do" Horror tilted his head, "but they just immediately assume everyone else knows as well."

Reaper and Lust nodded in agreement. "...speaking about Killer, is he...okay?" Lust asked. He remember the last fight he had witnessed that Killer had participated in. Ink had hit him on the side, hard enough for him to go crashing into a wall. It looked as if he had hit his head, and he hadn't woken back up. Even when the battle ended.

Horror's expression became grim and he looked down. "He...he's in a coma," he answered simply. "we're not sure when he'll wake up."

Reaper and Lust shared a look with each other. "why ...don't we go visit him then?" Lust said softly, "to go check up on him."

Horror nodded, "alright. I'll take you to him. Maybe, if we're lucky, he'll wake up." he chuckled dryly, "...no, what am I saying. That's just a hopeless dream."

He grabbed the other two by their hands and pulled, the three of them vanishing in a flash of blue light.

======== Omake ========

Mercy: fffunk! I've wasn't even there for a day-

===

Killer: we're friends now.
Dream: Okay :D

===

Lust: wear the choker!
Reaper: eh, sorry. We're not meant to be shipped together according to the script. Give it to Horror.

Horror: OWO