"Cross, that's Nightmare," Error told the younger skeleton. "He was one of the guardians of the tree of feelings in the AU known as Dreamtale, but don't ask about that, okay? It's a bit of a touchy subject," he added, tugging the younger skeleton over to the King of Negativity.

"So, this is the 'kid' you wanted me to meet?" Nightmare said, his deep voice sending shivers down Cross's spine and filling him with fear.

Something about it felt off, though... not quite real. After all, why would he be scared of this guy? There was exactly one person whom Cross truly feared, and that was X-Gaster.

"Nightmare, tone down the aura. You're scaring the kid," Error scolded.

Nightmare grumbled, but the strange feeling of involuntary fear lessened, and Cross breathed a silent sigh of relief. He would normally complain about Error calling him kid, but he was a bit too preoccupied by the other two skeletons that seemed to be hiding behind the enormous 'throne' of sorts that the goopy skeleton monster- hmm, was he a skeleton? It was hard to tell with all of the goop covering him- sat upon.

"Dust! Horror! Get your boney butts out from back there," Nightmare barked, realizing that the two were there.

Snickering, the pair of skeletons skunk out from behind the throne, and Cross blinked. One of them had a HOLE in his skull... how, in the name of the stars, was he still alive?!

"Hi. I'm Horror," said the one with the hole in his skull, seemingly having noticed the black-and-white garbed skeleton's stare. "Don't worry about the giant hole in my head, it's fine. That's Dust, he probably won't talk to you for a while- he's kinda shy."

Although he hadn't bothered to hover around in a while, X decided to take a look at the new people- and to his surprise, he found himself face-to-face with another ghost.

They both shrieked, and both Dust and Cross winced, being the only ones able to see or hear their own ghostly pals.

'Papyrus?' X asked.

'That's my name,' said the ghostly Papyrus. 'But you can just call me Phantom. I've never met another ghost like me before, this is so cool!'

'I know, right?!' X chirped as Cross and Dust looked on in confusion, each only hearing half of a conversation. 'I'm X-Chara, but you can just call me X!'

"Cross! Cross, are you even listening?!" Error said loudly, trying to get his friend's attention.

"Dust, get your head out of the clouds, we've got things to do," Horror scolded, tugging on his friend's arm.

"Wha?" Cross and Dust said simultaneously, their eyelights refocusing.

"You spaced out again," Horror told Dust, glaring at him. "We're supposed to show the new guy around, c'mon!"

"Okay," Dust said quietly, turning to face Nightmare. "Boss, do you mind if I take him on a tour of the upper levels after Horror does the lower levels? I need to do something."

Although he didn't say a word in response, Nightmare nodded, and Dust sighed a quiet sigh of relief.

"Now shoo," Error said, waving a hand at them. "I need to talk to Nightmare, without you guys here."

Horror immediately ran off towards the stairs leading downwards, and Dust headed to a small hallway leading off of the main room.

"Okay, Error!" Cross chirped, following Horror.

—————

"Papyrus, who were you talking to?" Dust asked quietly.

'His name was X! He's like me!' Phantom chirped excitedly, happier than he had been in a long time. It seemed like he had really missed being able to talk to anyone besides his brother.

"So this... 'X' came with Cross?" Dust asked.

'Yup!' Phantom said happily. 'He's nice, I want to talk to him more- maybe he can tell me about what his world was like!'

"Okay," Dust said. "Just next time, maybe turn it down a notch? I couldn't hear Nightmare over your chatter."

'Got it,' Phantom said, smiling widely- a rather frightening visage, not that he meant it to be.

—————

"This is the basement! It's got all the implements of torture- oh don't worry, I'm kidding," Horror said with a smirk, nibbling on a cookie. "It is the basement, but it's actually just the 'wreck' room. It's great for getting out stress!" He added.

A few seconds after grabbing a giant hammer off the wall, he realized what he had just grabbed, and immediately put it back with a yelp. "Oh no... Blue's going to kill me," he moaned.

"Blue didn't seem that violent when I met him?" Cross said in confusion.

"You haven't seen him fight," said Horror with a shiver. "He wreaks havoc with that giant blaster hammer, it's terrifying."

"I'll take your word for it," Cross replied. "How long has Nightmare been working with Error, anyway? And how do you know Blue?"

"Boss finally found the Destroyer a few months ago, and since then, they've been negotiating terms for an alliance... or something like that," Horror explained. "Error brought Blue with him to one of those meetings in a neutral AU, but Ink and Dream found them there. Blue got into a fight with them... and he won, too. Error and Boss didn't even have to get involved... it was kinda scary, to be honest."

"Do you know what they've been discussing in the meetings?" Cross asked.

"Sorry. It mostly just goes over my head," Horror said apologetically. "I think Dust knows a bit more, he actually pays attention."