As witches, they always stuck together. That's why he knew the witch of insanity, Gaster. His full name was XGaster, but the skeleton had said Gaster was enough. Nightmare wasn't close to him, but he had talked to him a few times before this meeting.

It was one thing for even Dream to show up to meetings. Some witches didn't like his beliefs, and were annoyed that Dream would throw himself into a pit of weapons and meisters just to feel hints of being normal. Though, it was nice to see his brother during those visits. After their parents were killed by meisters, it was only really them left in the world. And Dream's own beliefs weren't of "killing all other witches", he was only placing himself in danger by attending the school.

But bringing a demon sword and a normal monster meister to the witch meetings? Yeah, that won't do.

"What is this?" Nightmare had been straightforward, motioning towards the scarred skeleton.

The skeleton ducked more into his hoodie, glancing away nervously from the witch of nightmares. Gaster pushed him forward.

"He asked you a question, answer it," Gaster said.

"He's looking at me, they all are," The mysterious skeleton mumbled, pulling his hood over his head more. "They all hate me."

"What's your name?" Nightmare repeated.

"Cross..."

"Hi Cross," Nightmare said, sticking out his hand. "I'm Nightmare."

Instead of shaking his hand, you know, like a normal person, he just stared at it like Nightmare was about to hit him.

"Sorry about him, my son-"

"He's your son?" Nightmare hissed to Gaster.

"Yes, I figured the best subject to experiment on would be a child of a witch," Gaster said, seeming already bored with their conversation. "He isn't a witch, but the experiments have been proving useful. Do excuse his bad manners, his sole purpose has been for the experiments. I doubt he even knows what a handshake is."

"Here," Nightmare said.

He reached down and grabbed Cross' hand, shaking it with his own. It took Cross a few moments, but he started to shake back. Quick learner.

"It's a handshake, you do that when you meet new people," Nightmare grumbled, "You can let go of my hand now."

Cross let out a squeak, letting go of his hand quickly.

"How exactly did you get the demon sword working?" Nightmare asked, "I thought the Grim Reaper trapped Chara into their sword."

"She did, I simply melted down the blade and turned it into a blood, then simply injected it into my son," Gaster hummed, barely paying attention to their discussion. "It's complicated science, I doubt you would understand."

The other witches around them started to mumble amongst themselves, no doubt noticing the skeletons soul. They could tell both the weapon and meister trapped within the same body, and there was no doubt they noticed the weapons soul. It was close to becoming a Kishin. Just a few hundred souls...

He was close. Too close. Nightmare didn't like that. What sanity the boy had would likely be destroyed if he got a few more souls.

"Are you trying to turn him into a Kishin?" Nightmare asked.

"Isn't that obvious?" Gaster asked, returning to the conversation with interest.

"You know Kishins aren't actually on our side, right?" Nightmare said, narrowing his gaze at the other witch. "They kill everything, including witches."

"I am fully aware," The other witch spoke, "I am the witch of insanity, and a Kishin spreads that. It's only natural."

"You..."

Nightmare looked between the two, uncertain. Kishins were born from insanity, from a persons madness for self preservation and their unstable fear of others. That's why they killed other people, because they were so afraid and insane they deemed the only way to keep themself safe was killing others. At least, that's what Nightmare has been told. He hasn't ever seen one, and this skeleton was the first person he's seen in his life that close to becoming a Kishin.

The poor boy didn't even look close to anything like a Kishin, though. Did he even want to become one? Meisters couldn't even eat souls, it was only weapons. If anything, the demon sword within him was the one who was becoming close to being a Kishin. His own soul would probably be destroyed the moment his weapon took over the body.

"Let's go, these people wouldn't understand," Gaster said, grinning to Cross.

Nightmare gave him a soft wave as the poor boy was dragged away, Cross looking back with a look of sadness.

This wasn't good.

~~~~~~

Dream has made him soft.

Or maybe Nightmare was always soft, who knew.

But he couldn't stand for this. He always knew Gaster was a little crazy, sure, but this was next level. The witches were all in agreement about him; Gaster had to be stopped. This was too dangerous, even for them.

Nightmare had lied to Dream earlier that hour. He did know where Gasters hideout was.

And he was here, now.

It always felt a bit weird, traveling through dreams and nightmares. Of course, it was an ability a witch had, one only Dream and Nightmare possessed. He could feel the boy, Cross, asleep for awhile.

Gosh, was he really going to do this?

This was going to be bad if Gaster caught him. Not that Nightmare couldn't fight him, Nightmare and Dream were pretty strong. Nightmare just didn't trust the witch of insanity, he was a man of both power and science, a deadly combination.

That's why Nightmare had to get Cross as far away from this guy as possible. Nightmare wasn't going to sit around and wait for his enemies to try and stop Gaster, no.

But even Cross' dream was just sad.

There was nothing there. Cross had nothing to dream about, nothing to have nightmares about. All he had was that blank room, where Cross' soul sat on the ground, back to Nightmare when Nightmare appeared. The skeleton was practicing shaking his hand in the air, moving it back and forth like Nightmare had shown him yesterday.

"Hey, Cross guy," Nightmare said.

Cross had turned around so fast it almost looked painful, sockets widening when he saw the witch from yesterdays meeting standing within his dream.

"Mr. Nightmare?" Cross asked.

"I'm in your mind. You're asleep right now, I'm sort of inside of your soul," Nightmare explained, "Do you know where your Dad is right now?"

Cross blinked. "Dad? Do you mean Doctor Gaster? I'm not allowed to call him Dad. He said it's informal to address witches as anything less than formal titles."

"What? No it's not, don't call me Mr. Nightmare," Nightmare said, walking up to him within the white room. "Just Nightmare. And don't call him Doctor Gaster, he's your Dad, you should be allowed to call him that."

One thing Nightmare hated with every bone in his body was family mistreatment. As witches, Dream and Nightmare never got the chance to even try to have more family. Normal humans and monsters tried to kill them, despite the two witches being simple children. Other witches, while they did look out for them, couldn't help them very much. After all, being a witch wasn't about living an enjoyable life, it was about personal survival. A few witch siblings and families stuck together, but other than that witches couldn't adopt in child witches. Child witches were the easiest targets to collect the strongest souls for weapons and meisters, and were prime targets. There were a few good people who let them run, and Nightmare would always appreciate some people still had hope and kindness towards children.

But this? This was disgusting. He would make his own son call him by his name, and would force him to become a Kishin when the boy clearly didn't want to? Even the other witches would disagree with that notion.

"M- Nightmare," Cross said, "Why are you inside of my soul?"

"I'm going to get you away from him," Nightmare said, "Away from your Dad. I've never really trusted him, and I'm not going to let some kid be tortured like this. I'm guessing he's how you got that scar?"

Cross' fingers lingered over the red mark. "... Yeah. But I have no where else to go."

escape." Nightmare pointed to himself.

"What?"

"With me."

Nightmare said down in front of him, his tentacles flicking behind his back. Man, did they get in the way sometimes.

Especially when, during the few rare times Nightmare actually went out with his soul protect on, people asked if he was from those hentai videos. No, he wasn't. Dream kept trying to defend normal people, but if Nightmare heard that question one more time he would actually rip off someone's head.

"I know a place that can take care of you, my brother goes there," Nightmare said, "Or you could stay with me, but I don't think you'd want to go from living in hiding with one witch to living in hiding with another."

"Can I go with you?" Cross asked quickly.

"What?" It was Nightmares turn to ask that question.

"I don't like crowds," Cross muttered, bumping his fingers together awkwardly. "I don't like when people stare. They always judge me. You didn't judge me, though, and you taught me what a handshake was and I'd rather escape with you. I never really liked Doctor Gaster, I don't want to get another scar."

Then, suddenly, Nightmare was being ripped from the dream.

He fell to the floor as he heard Cross suddenly yell, looking up. He was in the real world now, inside of Cross' room. His legs were kicking out as he was being held down, his soul hovering above his body. Gaster stood next to him, hands gripping his red and white soul.

Before he tore it in half.

Cross let out an unholy scream when the red soul half was torn from the white monster soul, the other half quickly retreating back into his body before he could be hurt. When Gaster finally had what he wanted, he tossed Cross to the side, Nightmare moving to catch the boy in his arms so they both thudded against the wall.

"Cross no longer serves any need, you can have him. No need to try and sneak into his mind," Gaster laughed, holding the red demon sword soul within his arms. "The demon sword is the Kishin I wanted to create anyway, I can simply fuse it with my body now that I know one can survive it."

"You think I'm going to let you just create a Kishin? That I'm not going to try and kill you?" Nightmare asked.

"Oh, you can," Gaster said, "But Cross might need some medical attention."

Looking down, Nightmare found that Gaster was right. Cross had just lost half of a soul, he needed to get help fast before it damaged the rest of his soul. Which meant Nightmare would have to get help from medical professionals that dealt with souls. There was some at the academy, right?

"You can kill me now, but Cross won't live if you do," Gaster taunted, waving the red demon sword soul as a goodbye.

With a growl, Nightmare had no choice but to teleport away, giving one last glare at Gaster before his disappeared from the room.

D*mn it.