The lyrics are not mine, they belong to JubyPhonic. I did have to alter them a bit to fit this story.

Also, I decided to go with a different pairing for this AU...

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"Hey guys..." Cross said, after they returned from spying on JR. Dream had been acting odd lately, he had shut himself away in his office, working on something, but it wasn't the usual Paperwork.

Even Ink wasn't working on his usual Paperwork, the artist had been shut away in his room, working on something.

Even Blue wasn't up to his usual antics, he was quiet and he just sat there.

JR had also gone through a massive overhaul, secrets that had been hidden for a long time were being thrown into the light. The hidden sins of the original Humans that worked there had been revealed, the ones from Nightmare's village, it was like Dream had freed himself from some shackles and chains that no-one had known about.

Innocent Humans and Monsters had been freed and returned to their homes and given what they needed to heal.

Even the bounties on their heads had been removed, no one had tried to capture them for weeks, not even Dream.

"I kinda managed to see what Dream was working on." The Oreo said. "It's a Song of some kind."

"I didn't know that the guy was interested in Music." Error said, while Nightmare just frowned.

"He had a flute when we were younger." The purple eyed skeleton said. "And we used to play together..." His voice died down to a whisper. "All three of us..."

Error and Cross didn't hear what Nightmare whispered but they could tell that it made him sad. He never really talked about before he and Dream ate the Apples, it was like something else had happened apart from them eating the Apples, something sad....

Nightmare just sighed. "Did you manage to get a copy of it?" He finally asked.

"Yeah!" Cross waved around a couple pieces of papers that he pulled from one of his pockets. "He had several copies on his desk, it was like he was expecting that someone would take one." Cross looked at the papers. "It's weird through, all of them were stained with tear marks and they had this message on them."

"What is it?" Error asked but Nightmare didn't understand why he suddenly felt sick about this, an uneasy feeling was growing in his stomach....

"It says, 'This song is dedicated to the one that I couldn't save, the Innocent Soul that I was forced to pass a Judgement on, JR's first victim, before it was established.'" Cross read but he and Error didn't notice Nightmare fleeing the room.

Nightmare ran into the nearest bathroom and he threw up into the toilet what remained of his breakfast before he grabbed the nearest towel, wrapping it around himself as he curled up near the toilet, shaking. He could still hear Cross and Error talking.

'Please, don't let it be what I think it is.' He thought to himself. 'Please, don't make me relive those days, when everything fell apart, please...' Purple Magic tinted tears fell from his eyesockets. 'I don't want to remember it, please, stop, please!'

"The only one who could be called a true friend, the only one who loved my brother. Her name was Chaos and she was the closest thing that both of us to a younger sibling. This is her story and let this be a lesson to you all, this is what happens when we let jealously and hatred control our actions, when we desire what we can't have, especially when someone has a good reason to stop you from having it." Cross stopped reading and he looked at Error. The glitching skeleton was silent and he was messing around with his strings. Cross was confused, should he really continue with this, it seemed to be very personal to Nightmare and did he really have the right to know about it?

'This is someone's story Cross, a story that was cut short before it could begin, it needs to be heard.' X said as he appeared, floating next to Cross.

"Okay." Cross said before he looked at the papers again but X's attention was caught by the glitching figure in the corner of the room. He never told Cross that another Ghost had been following them around, it was mainly Nightmare that they followed around but they occasionally followed Error or Cross around. The glitching and the parts of their body that they were missing didn't help X figure out who and what they were.

"Come now, gather around - Behold such a saddening tale." Cross began to sing.

"Come now, leave not behind your handkerchief - It may keep you well.

One time, long long ago, there lived a young witch in the land.

Ah yes, she came to love a Guardian, so the story goes....

"No need for a magic to stop time, no spell can achieve what I feel.

Love bounding through every hour, joy lights a new day."

"Tied me tight to a cross, I look longing at the sky."

"Penitence for your crime! Penitence and your life!"

"If I pray, who will hear? I am drowning in their cheers."

"Devotion turned to dusty tombs."

"If my love was just a curse, then I have only tears to shed."

"Penitence for your crime! Penitence and your life!"

"Let it light, let it burn out bright, and with it all your spite."

"Feel now the weight of death and soon..."

Come now, open your eyes, look up to flames in the sky.

Come now, do not forget those embers are the final judge.

One time, long long ago, there lived a young witch in the land.

Ah yes, she came to trick a Guardian, so their story goes.

"She kept all the magic out of sight, how else to achieve what he feels?

Love burning the final hour. She'll light a new day."

"Hear the witch crying louder, as she's tied up to her eyes."

"Penitence for your crime! Penitence and your life!"

"Right before shouting curses that may take away your life."

"Virtue you couldn't keep turned to vice."

"If that love was just a curse, then I have only tears to shed."

"We will do what we must! Let it all turn to dust!"

"Let it light, let it burn out bright, we only do what's right."

"No hand to help her find her way."

"Can't believe all the fools I see! You fed him dirty lies!"

"Penitence for your crime! Penitence and your life!"

"Searing flames rising higher as the sun begins to die."

"Feel now the weight of death and soon..."

"No need for a magic to stop time, no spell can achieve what we feel.

Love bounding through every hour, joy lights a new day."

Cross then suddenly screamed, before his knees gave out on him and he collapsed to the ground.

"Cross!" Error yelled, before he tried to help his friend get up, only to freeze when he saw what Cross was currently seeing.

A field, underneath an Apple tree, with the sound of three children laughing as they ran around playing tag. Two of them were clearly skeletons, identifiable thanks to the golden crowns that they were wearing, but the third was clearly a human child, with brown hair and blue eyes.

A powerful memory, trapped within the song, Cross continued to sing.

"Tied me tight to a cross, I look longing at the sky."

"Penitence for your crime! Penitence and your life!"

"If I pray, who will hear? I am drowning in their cheers."

"Devotion turned to dusty tombs."

"If my love was just a curse, then I have only tears to shed."

"Penitence for your crime! Penitence and your life!"

"Let it light, let it burn out bright, and choke on all your sins!"

"No god can help her find her way!"

"Like a flame burning bloody red and tearing into sky."

"Penitence for your crime! Penitence and your life!"

"Take these tears, tell their story and please don't forget to cry."

"Feel now the weight of death and lies!"

Cross was silent after he finished singing, tears were steaming down his face. "How could they do this to an Innocent girl?" He eventually asked. "The only crime that she committed was the same as ours. She saw through the lies and she reached out to someone who needed a friend."

Error was crying too, what the villagers did to Nightmare and Chaos, reminded him of Blue did to him, but at least Blue knew how far he could go without killing him!

He could also hear the silent crying of someone else. He quickly started to follow it, with Cross right behind him, and they came across Nightmare in the bathroom.

He had wedged himself in the space between the toilet and the wall, and he had been crying, the towel wrapped around him was covered in stains from his tears. He looked at Cross and Error with sadness in his eyes.

"Nightmare.... What really happened on that day?" Cross asked. "Please, we need to know, this story needs to be told, it's time for the truth to be known..."

Nightmare looked at Cross before he reached out for Error. Error quickly took Nightmare into his arms and they headed for his room.

Cross split off from them and he returned with armfuls of pillows, blankets, sheets and quilts before he build a nest from them in the middle of Nightmare's room.

Error wrapped Nightmare up in his own quilt before all three of them curled up in the nest.

"It was just like any other day..." Nightmare began.

--------

Nightmare yawned, he had been woken up early by Dream, his brother wanted him to get some fish from the next village but Nightmare had not slept well that night.

He had a nightmare, there was fire everywhere and he could smell burnt flesh. The smell still stayed with him after he woke up.

"Dream, I am not sure about this, can't someone else go instead of me? I'm worried about the Tree, it is Fire season, what if this is the season that the Tree catches on fire?!" Nightmare asked.

"If you are that worried about the Tree, we could get Chaos to keep an eye on it while we're gone." Dream told him.

"We? What do you mean by this Dream?"

"I have things that I need to do in the village and I'm not going there to play, it's important, most of them are thinking about following the new Religion that's been around recently and those who want to do that, want to give one final goodbye to the old Religion, with a festival. That's why they want the fish and I know how much you hate it when you have to go to them, so if you get the fish, then I won't complain about you skipping the festival, so both of us win in the end."

"Okay." Nightmare said as they arrived at Chaos's home. Dream knocked on the door and after a few minutes, Chaos answered it, rubbing the sleep away from her eyes.

"Guys, the sun is not even up, why are you up so early?" She asked.

"Can you watch the Tree while Dream and I run a few errands?" Nightmare said. "It was the only comprise that we could agree on that allowed us to get them done at the same time."

"And Nighty had a nightmare last night and because of it, he now thinks that the Tree is going to be on fire today." Dream said. "And you can see the whole village from there, we need someone to keep an eye out for fire."

"Okay, but don't you guys have dreams and nightmares when the Tree is trying to tell you something?" Chaos asked.

"Yeah, we do..." Nightmare frowned.

"Hey Chaos, didn't you say that you was going to make good luck charms for us?" Dream asked. "I have a feeling that we are going to need them."

"Oh yeah, I did!" Chaos dug into one of her pockets. "I finished them last night!" She pulled out a Golden Sun bead on a piece of leather and a Purple Crescent Moon bead on another strip of leather.

"Didn't you make one for yourself?" Nightmare asked as she handed them over to the twins.

"No, I didn't have enough left to do that." Chaos said as the twins put them on.

They soon left the house and they headed for the Tree, Nightmare stopped right before the Crossroad, on the path that led to the other village. "Well, I guess that this is were I say 'Goodbye' for the day." Nightmare said, right before Dream pulled all three of them into a hug. "Dream? What's wrong?"

"I have a feeling that after today, everything will change." Dream said. "Nighty, Chaos, if I did something or played a part in something that hurt you to the point that you wouldn't forgive me, would you hate me? Even if I was forced to do it..."

"Oh Dream, you Silly Sunbeam, we wouldn't!" Chaos said. "Even if you was forced to do it or you had no other choice, we would still love you, even if we wouldn't forgive you for what you had done...."

Dream froze for a few seconds before he hugged them tighter. "I'm sorry." He eventually said. "I'm so sorry." He let go of them before he turned around and he ran towards the village.

"What's wrong with him?" Chaos asked Nightmare.

"I don't know...." Nightmare said, right before he felt something familiar, he had felt like this in that dream. He closed his eyes and he saw that fire again, with the tree in the background, but this time, a human silhouette was standing in front of him, saying something, before the fire flared up and swallowed the human.

"Nighty?" He heard Chaos asked, breaking him out of that vision. He opened his eyes again to see Chaos looking at him with a worried expression on her face. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, it's just that this nightmare won't leave me alone." He said. He had a very bad feeling about going to get the fish alone, he knew that he could bring someone with him if he wanted too, but could he really trust the other villagers? The only one that he could really trust was needed to watch the Tree since he and Dream couldn't do that today and Nightmare didn't want any of the other villagers to be near it for too long.

He couldn't even get someone else to get the fish, he was the only one who knew where to get the best fish in the next village and he knew the quickest way back, so he would be back in time for the festival.

He sighed. "I guess that I'll see you later then." He said.

"Yeah." Chaos said, smiling. "I'll see you later then Nighty, love you!"

Nightmare blushed purple, he never did understand why Chaos always said that but it always made him feel happy when he heard her say that. "I love you too." He said before he started to walk down the path.

-----

"If I had known back then, what I know now, I would turned around, run back and caught up with her, before I gave her the biggest hug that I had ever given her, and kidnapped her so that we could have run away together. If I had only known... My biggest regret is that I didn't listen to Mother when she tried to warn me, it wasn't a fire that she was trying to warn me about, it was the murder of the other precious person in my small world back then and that... I didn't give her one last hug." Nightmare said, as he wiped away more tears from his eyes.

"You didn't know." Cross said. "And how was you supposed to know what was going to happen? It could have been someone else, the fire wasn't going to happen, the plans could have changed at the last moment, there was too many 'What if's for you to actually think of something that could have saved her. It wasn't your fault Nightmare, it never was."

"It was Dream's fault." Error said but Nightmare shook his head.

"No, it wasn't." He said. "He was given a choice, it was her or me and even back then, if I die then Dream dies too. They practically threatened him with his own life if he didn't do what they wanted him to do. He didn't have a choice. None of us did..."

-------

Chaos hummed as she swung her legs, the sunrise today had been different, it was like the whole world was saying goodbye to someone, by giving them the gift of a perfect sunrise.

But for Chaos, everything seemed to be off today, the Tree itself was warm, not the type of warmth that you would get from a fire but the type that you would get from a hug. It was weird.

The villagers were building something in the town square, she couldn't see what it was from here but it gave her a bad feeling.

It had been several hours since Nightmare had left and he still wasn't back. Chaos just wanted to get this day over and done with, so that Nightmare would stop worrying about that nightmare that he had, Dream would lose that sad shine in his eyes and that life could go back to normal for her.

She looked down in time to see Dream standing there, looking up at her.

"Dream?" She asked, before she noticed the men walking up the hill and the finished building in the town square. She focused as hard as she could on it, to see that it was a cross.

Suddenly, everything made sense, Nightmare's nightmare, why Dream was so sad, the warmth of the tree, why she had an bad feeling about the cross in the square and the sunrise itself.

She slowly climbed down from the tree and she walked over to Dream. His eyes said everything that he couldn't.

"I'm sorry..." He mumbled, closing his eyes. "I'm so sorry... Please, forgive me..."

"...Dream..." She said, slowly walking closer to him.

She pulled him into a hug. "It's going to be okay, you Silly Sunbeam." She said. "Everything's going to be okay..."

"You are going to die and there is nothing that I can do to stop it! Nightmare will never forgive me for this." Dream hugged her back. "There is still enough time for you to run away, save yourself, please!"

"Where will I go? What will I do? How will i survive? And if I run away, would they go after Nighty instead? No, Dream, I can't do that and I never will. I'm not that type of human and I never will be." Chaos pulled off the scarf that she wore, wrapping it around Dream's neck. She gently kissed him on the cheek. "Just promise me one thing Sunbeam."

"What?"

"Don't cry, I don't want to see a single tear fall from your eyes, save them for when everything is over and tell Nighty, that I love him."

She walked pass Dream, heading towards the crowd of Men.

"And Dream, you Silly Sunbeam, I love you too." She said. "And, I forgive you. This is not, and it never will be, your fault."

"Chaos, no!" Dream started to run after her. "Come back, it's not too late for you to run away! CHAOS!"

He tripped over a rock and he looked up just in time to see the small smile that she gave him, right before she was surrounded by the Men.

------

Dream made it to the Village Square in time to see the Men tying Chaos to the wooden cross that had been built earlier, her left cheek was swollen, there was a clear knife mark across her neck and it was obvious that some of the bones in her right leg had been broken from how it hanged uselessly.

No one noticed the Guardian in the scarf, they were too busy throwing rotten fruit and small stones at Chaos. One of them hit her in the left eye and she winced, closing that eye.

Her good eye scanned the square, leaving on Dream, before she smiled, right as the Men started to stack wood around the cross.

'No...' He shook his head, hoping that someone would come to their senses and stop this madness. The madness that he couldn't stop....

'Please, don't do this!'

Tears threatened to fall down his face but he remembered his promise and he forced them back.

'Somebody, anybody, please, stop this!'

Someone brought a lit torch to the wood and set it on fire.

'Mother, please, help me! Make them stop what they are doing, please!'

The fire quickly took ahold of the wood, causing bellows of black smoke to start rising to the sky. Dream could barely see Chaos through the smoke, blood was dripping from her neck and she was barely moving.

Suddenly, laughter came from the smoke and it cleared slightly to reveal Chaos laughing hysterically at them, even with the slash across her throat.

"What's so funny?!" Someone asked.

"That you think that by getting rid of me, you'll get rid of all of your sins?! How pathetic! You'll never escape your sins, in fact, I hope that you choke on all on them! I hope that one day, your sins will be revealed, and on that day, I will be there, laughing as they drag all of you to hell! I hope that all of you burn in hell!" Chaos laughed, before the smoke covered her again.

"Nightmare, Dream..." Chaos muttered, feeling the tears at the corner of her eyes as everything started to go dark. "I love you..."

Dream was the only one to notice the gleam in her eyes, right before he heard a scattering noise and Chaos slumped, becoming silent as the flames engulfed her body.

No one heard Dream's screams and cries over their cheers. He just kept on staring at the burning cross where a body slumped, watching as it slowly turned to ash.

He kept on remembering that tiny baby with the too long scarf that followed him and his brother around. The tiny baby that grew into a child, then a teenager, then a young adult that was always loyal to him and his brother...

The villagers started to depart from the village square as Dream slowly stepped forwards. It was empty by the time that he reached the smouldering pile of ash. He silently brought out a small urn from his Subspace pocket, opening it while he used his Magic to collect a certain pile of Ash and Bone chips.

The mixture went into the urn and Dream closed the lid on it, bringing it to his chest as he hugged it.

"I'll bury you, when I feel like I can be forgiven." He said. "But not now, I'll let them think that they have gotten away with this, but one day, when they can't stop me, I'll tell everyone the truth. I won't let you be forgotten Chaos, I won't..."

--------

Nightmare hummed as he made his way to the exit of this village. He had just brought a piece of really good fish.

He stopped when something silvery caught his eye. It was a small star on a chain and seeing it reminded him that while Chaos had made him and Dream good luck charms, she hadn't made one for herself.

He quickly brought the necklace with the Gold that he had left, before he left the village, but he stopped when he felt something crack inside of him.

He looked down to see that the Purple Crescent Moon bead had lost it's shine, something was wrong.

He had to get home as soon as he could!

-----

"And you know what happened the day after that." Nightmare said. "Dream ate the Apples and everything fell apart. I lost everything and the thing that hurt the most? Was not being there when Chaos died.

It got even worse after I finished adjusting to having a real, proper Soul, when I realised that we loved her more than a friend, more than a sister, that we wanted to be with her for as long as she would have us, until the day that she died."

The unspoken confession echoed throughout the small room, X frowned, but then, he noticed the other ghost but it looked different now.

More human, and the only parts missing was her legs. Her left eye was covered by a glitching cloud and she smiled as she pretended to hug Nightmare.

"But do you know what's weird?" Nightmare asked. "Sometimes, I feel like she's still with me, by my side."

Chaos smiled at X and she placed a finger over her lips, an unspoken request to not tell them about her.

X smiled and he nodded his head, an unspoken reply of him promising not to do that.

-----

Dream entered his office, a copy of the lyrics was missing. He knew that they would be, he left them on his desk for that reason.

He walked over to it and he opened a secret compartment in it, revealing an urn. He pulled it out and he hugged it to his chest, with tears rolling down his cheeks.

A ghost appeared behind him and Chaos smiled, pretending to wrap her arms around him and burying her head into his shoulder.

She may be dead, but nothing was going to stop her from keeping an eye on her Moon and Sun.

But they missed their Star....