Nightmare wakes up to a messy cacophony of voices. The ground is painfully hard underneath him, and he groans at the pain in his body. The voices go silent. Almost expectedly, Nightmare's singular eye is blurry when he opens it. The dim area is easy for his vision to adjust to. The air is damp and sticky.
     "Boss Boss are you alright?" Killer whisper-yells, leaning over into Nightmare's face.
     "Get off me!" Nightmare snaps. He roughly shoves Killer away with a tendril. Nightmare sits up quickly and feels a wave of nausea roll over him. He feels off balance. Something is missing. Nightmare flexes his hands and extra limbs only to abruptly realize that two of them are missing. His defensiveness rises when notices all his boys standing around his own vulnerable position on the ground.
     "We're in FlowerFell copy #13," Cross explains when he notices Nightmare's hackles rising. "We've only been here for about 10 minutes."
     Uncomfortable with looking up at them all, Nightmare struggles to stand up. Horror and Dust immediately move to try and help him up. "Don't touch me," Nightmare hisses. He knocks away their hands with what remains of his tendrils. Nightmare does manage to get to his feet but has to use the wall for support. "Report." Nightmare says the order more out of habit than anything. The others are silent until Dust slowly speaks up.
     "You were sleeping in again," he starts," We looked around for you at 10. but after realizing you were in your room, we waited."
"We waited until noon," Killer buts in.
"You never sleep in like that. We were worried......," Horror says, nervously playing with the hem of his coat. None of them want to say the worst part.
Cross sighs before squaring his shoulders. He just needs to break the news like ripping off a bandaid. "We found you in your room and brought you here."
Nightmare doesn't have the energy for the reaction he wants. His one safe space that no one else has been in is ruined. His bedroom is the one place where Nightmare feels he can completely relax and let his mask slip. What did they see? The handwritten journals dating back to his home AU? The gold circulate tucked away in the drawer of the nightstand? Nightmare wants to rage and break something and make the others understand that this is not okay, but he can't. Nightmare isn't even sure if he can take more than a couple steps. His stony silence and unreadable expression makes the others uncomfortable.
Killer speaks up. "We're just trying to help-"
"Quiet," Nightmare interrupts, leaving no room for argument. The worst of the whole situation for Nightmare is the fact that he was so very vulnerable in front of someone else. Nightmare has to be seen as strong. The weak get prayed upon. Nightmare pledged to himself that he would never be weak again. Only the strong have the power to back up their words. Who would ever follow a weak commander? Anything could have happened while Nightmare was trapped in his sleep. The dream-scape has never been so threatening to him. Nightmare isn't supposed to have normal dreams. He controls the sleeping mind and is free to wander through them has he wishes. To not only be trapped in his sleep, but also to not even recognize the twisted memory as a dream is more terrifying than Nightmare will ever admit. Dream wasn't a figment of his imagination. Nightmare is sure that his twin was walking the dream-scape and witnessed Nightmare's utter lack of control or awareness. Dream knows he is weak.
The silence stretches on. Nightmare isn't comforted at all by it. Cross, Horror, Dust, and Killer aren't at all cowed by Nightmare's awful attitude. They stand in a protective half circle around Nightmare where he still leans against the rough cave wall. Their emotions range from patience to empathy. Nightmare often mistakes empathy for pity. He can't stand being looked down upon.
Killer and Dust start muttering together and playfully shove one another as the slow minutes tick by. Physically, Nightmare does feel better after spending time in such a miserable AU. He purposely avoids causing trouble in a few select AUs like this one. It isn't the first time he's stood in their shadows for a quick boost. 'Quick' is an overstatement. The five of them sit in the AU for another 15 minutes. Cross remains vigilant while the others begin to grow restless and horse around.
"Alright, let's go," Nightmare finally decides as he stands up straight. His legs feel stable enough now to avoid embarrassing himself further. The wound on his scapula is sealed over with corrupted magic and doesn't hurt nearly as bad as before.
Rather than push Nightmare's boundaries further with his concern, Cross instead rips open a portal before his Boss can attempt it. Killer and Dust pause for a moment before deciding to head on through. When Nightmare eyes up the other two, they don't move. After a short staring contest Nightmare growls before giving. He's always supposed to be the last one in as a rear guard. Will this humiliation never end?

*************

     There are no raids that day. Nightmare spends most the the afternoon cooped up in the library with a book on old legends. He feels much more comfortable now wearing more than just pants. The first few times he brushes it off as a coincidence, but after Dust is the third person to walk past the library doorway in a single hour, Nightmare starts to get annoyed. They're all 'keeping an eye' on him. They're treating him like some sort of fragile doll that could break if not kept under a close watch. After a particularly nasty glare at Killer, Nightmare thinks his point has finally gotten across up until Horror wanders in not twenty minutes later.
     "If you're here to check up on me," Nightmare hisses, "Then you should leave before I throw you out myself."
    "I have a question," Horror says slowly. He's genuinely confused about something, and Nightmare is the most knowledgeable monster Horror knows. The Guardian actually likes answering questions and feeling needed in that regard. Horror isn't supposed to have realized that.
     Nightmare's attention is captured quickly enough. He puts his book down. "What do you need?" A distraction from current predicaments is much welcome.
     "Back in UnderFell, I knew Dust was in trouble. But I couldn't even see him? How did I know?" Horror mumbles. He's not exactly complaining since his foresight saved Dust from a nasty blow, but Horror is confused by it all.
     "What exactly did it feel like?" Nightmare asks. He is also very interested in what happened now that he's been reminded of it.
     Horror struggles to find the words. He nervously fiddled with how own fingers while looking around the room as he thinks. "It felt like........ like Dust needed me."
     "Alright." Nightmare stands up. "Take me to Dust then." Nightmare has one far flung hunch on this.
     "What?" Horror asks in confusion. "I don't know where he is."
     "Make your best guess," Nightmare insist
    Horror can't figure out what sort of test this is supposed to be but eventually turns to lead the way out of the library. Nightmare follows behind like a dark wraith. Horror pauses at the main set of stairs. Dust could be anywhere in the labyrinth of corridors on the second floor. Horror chooses instead to climb down the stairs. He glances into the living room briefly but doesn't stop. Killer and Cross exchange confused glances when they see Horror shuffle past with Nightmare skulking after him. The two quickly get up and follow. Horror wanders through the kitchen but doesn't check the attached dining room. The large training hall in the back of the fortress is ignored, too. Horror uses an old servant's entrance in the kitchen to lead his odd party of followers outside.
     Against all odds, Dust is outside and sitting in the grass as he tries to lure in some stray cats with a bit of meat. He turns around to look at the others as they file out. Nightmare barely tolerates Killer's antics when it comes to the small felines. Killer carries cats home from various AUs and lets them loose on the property. Cats tend to shy away from Nightmare. Before he even gets close to Dust, the cats's attention snaps over the Guardian before they scurry away. Nightmare almost feels bad. He had no problems with stray cats back in his home AU.
"What's going on?" Dust's asks, standing up.
     "I found you!" Horror says happily.
     "Nothing is wrong," Nightmare says to alleviate Dust's growing worry. "I'm just testing a theory." Nightmare turns to look at Killer. "What about you?"
     "Me? What did I do?" Killer pouts.
    "Back in that last UnderFell raid I clearly recall you running off deeper into the town. What drew you back in and made you run into Blue?" Nightmare asks.
     Killer pauses to think about his answer. He hadn't had time to consider his action in the heat of the moment. "I just....... knew someone was in danger. I had to get there." Killer's lack of a sarcastic joke conveys his seriousness.
     "Someone? Who was it?" Nightmare presses. Killer just shrugs his shoulders. Nightmare has one crazy idea of what's going on, but the possibility of it shakes him. "Alright, I have a hunch as to what's going."
"Story time!?" Killer gasps, over exaggerating his abrupt glee. He drops to the dirt and sits with his legs crossed while looking up at Nightmare expectedly. Horror plops down next. Dust is happy to rest back in the grass and Cross is a tad more hesitant before sitting down as well.
"Are you all serious?" Nightmare asks, exasperated. He sighs in disappointment. "You all act like children." Nightmare still sits down much to the other's delight.