Okay, I kinda hit a writing block with this chapter so I asked the gang on Discord to vote for what they wanted to happen and I got outvoted on my original plan, but I might write that later as an alternative path that could have been taken.

And thanks Lunar_Dreamcatcher for suggesting a rather interesting idea for this chapter....

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Nightmare couldn't help but realise that something was off about Cross, the skeleton had been twenty two when he and Error had found him, right after Dream had taken away his friend.

Cross was now twenty four and even Error had realised that something was off about him, and they weren't talking about X.

Nightmare and Error had known each other for about five years now, they had found out that they were Soulmates three years before they met Cross. Nightmare remembered the shovel talk that Blue had given him, that Swap!Sans was scary when it came to Error.

But even Error had noticed Cross's habit of staying up 24 hours in a row, before he slept the day after that away, when they didn't have any plans for those days.

They had agreed that Nightmare would follow Cross in the Dreamscape when it happened again, they needed answers for what was going on with him, after they calmed him down after Dream's latest PR move involving his Queen. That really seemed to piss Cross off.

Nightmare was walking by the training room when he heard Cross yelling, he slowly opened the door to see Cross venting on one of the training dummies.

"Damn you Dream!" Cross yelled as he started to stab the dummy. "My Soulmate is not a puppet that you can use to make it look like everything is okay in your perfect little world!"

Nightmare gasped, placing his hand over his mouth to muffle it. He had been suspicious about Dream's Queen for a very long time, but to find out that Dream was using the Queen like a Puppet and that she was Cross's Soulmate....

'Damn you brother!' Nightmare thought. 'How many lives are you going to destroy just so you can play your little games?! Wasn't mine enough for you?! Why did you have to do it to Chaos too?! And not just her, but all of the Humans and Monsters that you tricked?! And now, I find out that it's not just Cross, one of MY minions that you have targeted recently, but his Soulmate as well?! How many lives will it take to satisfy you brother? How many?!'

He shook his head and he moved away from the door, before Cross could see him, heading to the living room.

He was shaken by what he had just learned, Dream had not just taken Ink from Cross but his own Soulmate as well... He needed to think about this and there was only one room that he could go to when he wanted to think about things like this.

This room was virtually empty, apart from the typical bedroom furniture, the Soul Locket on the desk, the Star embroidered bed covers, the few books scattered around the room and the small shrine in a corner of the room.

Everyone thought that this room was where Nightmare went to calm down after experiencing too much social interaction with them, he was still adjusting to having minions, no, friends, again...

Nightmare never told them that he had set this room aside on purpose, it was a memorial, to someone who should be here now. He walked over to the shrine to see the small portrait that a travelling artist had drawn of a younger him and a human under a apple tree, lighting the tiny stick of an apple blossom scented incense in it's holder.

"Hey Chaos." He said, taking his circlet and his cloak off. "It's been a while, hasn't it? I mistook Cross for you again a few days ago, I just couldn't help it, he reminds me of you and your Locket reacts to him." He sighed. "I miss you and a part of me still holds onto the hope that somehow, I'll see you again, one day. My new minions are great, you would have loved them so much...

When are you coming home Chaos, it's been about 100 years now since Dream ate the apples and I know that you should still be around, so, where are you and why is it taking you so long to find me, you promised me that you would be right behind me but when I looked, you weren't there....

Am I just fooling myself into believing that you are alive, when you are dead?"

Nightmare felt himself starting to cry as he stared at the shrine, wrapping his arms around himself. It still hurt, the pain was still there and it was not going away, it would never leave him.

He wiped away his tears, blowing the incense out, before he put his discarded clothing back on. "Goodnight Chaos." He stood up and he left the room, turning the light off on his way out.

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Error woke Nightmare up once Cross had fallen asleep, the Oreo has collapsed on his bed, holding onto his Soul Locket. Error waited a few minutes before he went to get Nightmare, just to make sure that Cross really was asleep.

Nightmare took a deep breath, he had to be careful in the Dreamscape, because if he made a mistake then Dream could find him. He closed his eyes and he entered the Dreamscape, finding Cross quickly because of his unique soul.

Cross was quickly making his way through the Dreamscape, following a ribbon that was leading him somewhere, to a personal Dreamscape that was so far apart from the rest.

The door to this Dreamscape was sealed shut with Dream's magic, Nightmare was wondering why it was sealed like this when he spotted Cross walking through the magic.

What the hell?!

Nightmare frowned, before he went to look for another way to enter this Dreamscape, the only reason why Cross could do something like that was if he had a link with the owner of that Dreamscape, because there was certain magics that allowed someone to bypass or go through magic designed to seal something or someone away....

A Soul Link.

So, that actually explained a lot, Cross just wanted to spend as much time with his Mate as possible, when he could, which meant...

Nightmare's eyelights widened, this was an opportunity that couldn't be missed! Dream's false Queen would have access to information that not a lot of JR's members could access. If he could get her to agree to a deal, one which would allow her to be with his minion, he could gain a useful spy!

Nightmare found another way in and he went through it, only for his plans to be derailed when he saw the tree.

It wasn't covered in apples but it was covered in apple blossoms, under a starry sky. The starry sky that he remembered from his old home.

He could hear Cross laughing and singing something.

"You'll be back, time will tell, you'll remember that I served you well.."

The voice that responded to Cross caused him to drop his staff.

"Oceans rise, empires fall, we have seen each other through it all!"

Nightmare ran, he almost tripped over his staff and his own feet, but he kept running, it couldn't be...

He went around the tree, only to see Cross running after a pale skinned, barefooted human with blue eyes, long brown hair, wearing a white dress.

"See me fall down, watch me die here slowly!" She sang. "Nothing goes right, not a trace of honesty. I'm to blame, so I'll remain, black, white, day, night, it's all the same!"

He couldn't help it. He screamed.

"CHAOS!"

He could deal with the fallout later but right now, he just wanted to hold his best friend in his arms. The little sister that he thought that he had lost forever. He ran towards her and he crashed into her, wrapping his arms around her as he buried his head into her shoulder. A hundred long and painful years had finally come to an end. He finally had her back in his arms.

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Chaos could feel Nightmare shaking. "Nighty?" She asked, trying to wrap her own arms around him. This was real, he was really here, this wasn't a dream...

His grip on her tightened, right before she felt the tell tale signs of someone crying on her shoulder. "Oh Nighty..." She finally managed to wrap her arms around him. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!" Chaos started to cry. "I wanted to protect you but instead, I caused you more pain! I'm so sorry!"

Both of them felt a pair of arms wrap around them and they looked up to see Cross looking the other way on purpose but he still had his arms around them.

Nightmare chuckled as he tightened his grip on Chaos. "Nighty." She said. "I understand that we have a lot to talk about but--"

"No." Nightmare said. "Don't talk, just, let me have this moment, let me hold onto you a little bit longer Chaos before I have to let you go, just let me have this moment, please... I need to prove to myself that this isn't a dream and that you're really here, please..."

Chaos sighed. "Okay Nighty, if that is what you want, then I can wait, I've been waiting for a long time, I can wait a little bit longer."

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My original plan was that Nightmare and Chaos wouldn't meet again until Chaos was rescued from Dream, but I was outvoted, so that the reunion was bumped up to this chapter. I actually don't mind that I had to move the reunion and have it earlier then I originally planned for it to happen, I think that they deserve a little bit of happiness together after how they were separated.