Okay, I'm going to try something a bit different with this one, romance, or the closest that I can get to it.

And I'm going to try a Soulmate AU.

Everyone when they are born, receives a gold locket that is meant to hold a shard of their Soulmate's Soul in it. The locket will unlock and free the Soul shard when they met for the first time. Those with an age difference between them, will receive a silver locket, which turns slowly turns gold the closer it gets to the moment when your soulmate is born.

Nightmare and Dream receive their lockets after they eat the Apples, Nightmare's is slowly turning gold but the state of Dream's locket is unknown.

But sometimes, the lockets are not the only way that a pair of Soulmates can meet each other.

It is also an AU of my Dreamswap!Chaos, in which I ask myself, 'What if Chaos didn't escape Dreamtale in time and ends up as Dream's prisoner?'

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Two sets of footsteps hit the dirt road, followed by a third. Nightmare looked back and he saw Dream running after them.

He gasped and the hand on his tightened, in an effort to provide comfort. He looked at the one that was running with him and he saw that she was scared too.

His grip tightened around Kevin, and the personal items that they had managed to grab, before they had to run.

This was wrong, why? Why did Dream have to eat the apples? Why did he listen to those villagers? Why did he have to curse the one villager that gave a damn about him in order to save her life, because she had been too close to the tree and caught up in the Magic shockwave that Dream had created after eating his first apple, which nearly killed her?

"It's going to be okay Nighty." Chaos told him. "I promise. I won't let anything happen to you."

He nodded his head and they continued to run.

In another timeline, both of them would escape Dreamtale and go on the run for a very long time, until they meet the rest of the Meme Squad and finally, found a permanent place to live, a place that they could call 'Home', without Dream and his group ruining it and friends that they would come to love.

But in this timeline, that would never happen.

The first thing that told Nightmare that something was wrong was him being flung forwards a bit, he turned around to see what was wrong and he saw his friend wrestling with his brother.

Chaos managed to flip them over so that she was on top. "RUN NIGHTY!" She yelled. "AND DON'T STOP! JUST KEEP RUNNING AND DON'T LOOK BACK! PLEASE!"

"But..."

"I'LL BE FINE! GET OUT OF HERE WHILE YOU STILL HAVE A CHANCE! GO!" Chaos removed something from her neck and she threw it at him. Nightmare caught it and he looked at it to see that it was her Soul Locket. "JUST RUN! I'LL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU! I PROMISE!" She went back to holding Dream off. "RUN!"

Nightmare closed his eyes and he ran, straight to the portal that would take him away from Dreamtale and, he went through it, without seeing Dream flip his friend over and to see him begin to strangle her.

'And forget about me.' Chaos thought as she tried to stop Dream from killing her. 'You'll find new friends, that will be even better then me, a new family, to trust and to love, but most of all, you'll find the one that's meant for you, the one who will never leave you, who will always be by your side, to love you and protect you. The one that you might have children with. I wish that I could be there to see it but it seems like that will never happen now... I'm sorry Nighty, I'm so sorry... Brother...'

Chaos could feel the tears steaming down her face.

'I'm sorry, to the Mate that could have been mine, I'm sorry that we'll never get the chance to meet, to talk, to be friends, to decide what we wanted to be, to have children of our own if we choose to take that path. I'll never know your name and you wouldn't know mine.'

She felt Dream let her go and she took a big gulp of air, gasping several times as she tried to refill her lungs with oxygen.

"It's all your fault." She heard Dream hiss at her. "My brother got away because of you and he won't be able to play his part in my prefect world."

"Who says that you have the right to decide that!" Chaos yelled at Dream. "This world belongs to everyone, not you, and I'll do this again, a thousand times if I have to, but I will protect Nighty from you!"

"But you are rather beautiful, I can see why my brother likes you." Chaos shivered as she felt those fingers on her cheek, as she felt something spread across her skin.

Dream hummed in delight at the white floral Moon and Sun Magic markings that spread across the human's skin, before he leaned down and he started to whisper into her ear.

"Sleep, my Puppet Queen, never to awaken again, until your Mate comes for you, which I will make sure will never happen. Sleep Chaos, sleep and wander forever in the dark. No one is coming for you, no one will find you, sleep my Puppet, sleep..."

Chaos looked pass Dream, to the faint blurry images of the stars that were coming out, she slowly reached out with one hand, attempting to reach the stars, one last time.

"Run Nighty, run..." She muttered, feeling Dream's magic wash over her, dragging her down into the darkness. "And don't look back..."

Her arm fell, flopping uselessly on the ground as her eyes slowly closed, leaving her alone in the darkness.

Well, before a baby Oreo crashed into her life.

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But elsewhere, Nightmare collapsed to his knees as a bond that he never knew about, until now, started to slowly become cold and quiet. He knew what this meant, she was gone, she was dead and it was all his fault.

"I'm sorry!" He screamed as he started to cry.

For the Mates that would never met each other.

For the sister that he had left behind, that he had not known about until it was too late.

For the friend that he had abandoned to save himself.

For Dream, for the loveable idiot that had been his twin, who cared for him and loved him.

For everyone that Dream would fool with his lies.

For his own Mate, who he didn't deserve.

For the peaceful days that would never happen again.

For the days to come, where he would have to live on the run.

For every sin that he had committed and those sins that he would commit in the future.

"I'm so sorry!"

"Nighty, no! Please don't cry!"

He could barely feel the warmth wrapping around his Soul.

"Everything's going to be okay! We will see each other again, I promise, no matter how long it takes! I will come back to you! I promise!"

Two souls, separated, yet, united in their grief, crying for what could have been, for what would never be and for the future.

For the small hope, that one day, they would met again...