#dserror

Nightmare waited with bated breath whilst leaning against a few bins, hidden between two warehouses in a random au. He had a stolen laptop, rope and various wires on hand, intending to hack into the various mechanisms that were fused to his friends. Nightmare had managed to figure out how his friends were being controlled, they seemed to have some sort of device that was wired to their minds, controlling their every move. 

He grimaced, thinking about the past few weeks he had spent preparing for this risky move. He had no choice but to go to Blue for help. Blue proved to be quite helpful despite how uncomfortable it felt to be around him, something about him just seemed off to Nightmare. Through Blue’s help, Nightmare managed to learn how to hack into systems and had figured out how to get his friends back. Now all he had to do was wait, and hope that what he does is enough.

He snapped out of his thoughts as he heard heavy footsteps nearing him. They knew he was there, and that was exactly what Nightmare had planned.

He momentarily peeked over the bin, immediately catching sight of the artificial eyes that seemed to be scanning for him. They glowed a soft yellow against the darkness of night, making them easy to spot. But despite that, Nightmare could tell it was them. He thanked whatever deity was above for Dream sending them out instead of someone else to catch him. He swiftly ducked down once more as he heard them getting closer, taking a moment to mentally prepare himself for what was about to happen.

He held his breath, waiting until he heard them move right up to where he was hidden. The moment he heard the metallic feet hit the floor mere inches away from him. He leapt out, intending to tackle one or both of them to the ground. 

It all seemed to pass in slow motion to Nightmare, he soared above them, arms out and ready to push them to the hard concrete ground. He watched as their eyes followed him, impassive eyes staring blankly up at him. Error’s arm moved, seeming intent on wrapping Nightmare in his strings. Cross had his arm out, ready to summon knives. But Nightmare was already in the midst of tackling them. Time sped up once more as Nightmare slammed into them, forcing them both to fall. He could hear a sudden clank and the scraping of metal against stone as they fell over, Nightmare now sitting on top of them. The force of the fall was enough to momentarily knock them out. 

Tackling them had left Nightmare a small window of time to act, he couldn’t afford to just sit there and so he wasted no time, hastily tying them up with the rope. He quickly grabbed the laptop and wires, struggling to set it all up as Error and Cross thrashed against their restraints. Nightmare shoved the wires into the laptop and the back of Cross and Error’s heads , Yep, they literally have USB ports in the back of their heads, and began to aggressively type on the laptop, pulling up a hacking program that had been installed prior to this risky action.

It didn’t take him long to bypass all of the security put in place by JR, which in hindsight was slightly worrying as it meant that anyone with basic hacking skills could take control and cause chaos with this. But, it was also helpful, as Nightmare didn’t have so much trouble saving his friends. They had soon gone from aggressively thrashing to sleeping as Nightmare scrolled through the lines of coding. It was all so sickening to look at, how many restrictions JR had programmed into them to make them obedient. Nightmare took a good few minutes disabling certain things and activating others. Eventually, he found the main bit of coding that he needed to alter, the bit that removed their ability to do what they wanted. 

[ ENABLE FREEWILL? Y/N ] 

[ Y ]

[...]

[ FREEWILL HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY ENABLED ]

Nightmare carefully removed all of the wires. He held his breath in anticipation, tapping Cross’ shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked at Nightmare for a moment, then his eyes shifted to look at the surroundings. He squirmed a little when he realised he was tied up with ropes. “What the fuck? Why are we here and why am I tied up with Error?” He looked at Nightmare. “Explain” He said. “Just take a look at yourself” Nightmare said. Cross did so and his eyes soon widened. “WHAT THE FUCK?!” He yelled, waking up Error in the process. “WHY IS MY ASS METAL?! WHO DID THIS?!” Cross asked. “The winged glowstick did it” Nightmare answered. “That asshole? I’m… not even surprised actually” Cross said. 

It had been a while since Nightmare had woken up. In that time he came to realise that the multiverse was a very different place now. And it didn’t take him long to realise he seemed to be the only person left in the entire multiverse, or what was left of the multiverse. There was only a few au’s left in existence.

He’d spent days wandering through the au’s, looking for any signs of someone out there, but it all seemed futile. Every au he’d ventured to so far was abandoned and left in ruins, and with each visit to these au’s he was losing hope and growing more and more lonely. He just wanted things to go back to the way they were. He just wanted to go home to Cross and Error, play mario kart with them and pretend that none of this had ever happened.

He stared up at the night sky with a look of utter dismal. He couldn’t even tell what day it was or how much time had passed, his only indication of time being where the sun was in the sky.

A gentle breeze brushed past his shoulders, prompting him to shift closer to the crackling campfire he had made. The warmth and glow was comforting, causing Nightmare to yawn drowsily. He closed his eyes and sighed, lying on the soft grass and curling up close to the warmth of the fire. He silently listened to the sounds of distant crickets, rushing gusts of wind and owls as he felt himself drifting. Soon, it all faded into a familiar silence.

Nightmare shuddered as he found himself now sitting alone in a cold, dark cell. Dread weighed heavily in his soul and he felt his stomach churning with sudden nausea.

He was frozen in place, too afraid to move. He could feel his soul racing as a cold sweat ran down his forehead, his breath was rapid and he struggled to keep himself calm.

A few moments went by with nothing but an eerie silence that made him shiver. Though the silence didn’t last as a sudden rumbling echoed and caught Nightmare off guard, he squinted his eyes shut briefly in a panic. The rumbling ceased after a minute and the silence continued. He hesitated for a few moments before opening his eyes, flinching when he saw the now collapsed cells. He had somehow been moved to the other side of the cell bars in the process.

He blinked, seeing something strange poking out from underneath the rubble. He shifted closer and crouched down to inspect it, nearly falling backwards from shock when he realised what it was. A pale hand that was holding a darker hand, equally as bloody as each other. Both arms seemed to be in separate cells, though they somehow managed to reach over to each other, and hold hands. “No….no no no no no, w-why…. Why am I being f-forced to see this?” Nightmare asked as he felt tears begin to slide down his cheeks. Before he could even move to stand, everything around him shifted once again, so fast that if Nightmare blinked he would have missed the sudden shift. He started to sob as he forced himself to stand up.

It was almost as if he was standing in a world frozen in time, flames and falling roof tiles frozen in place. It was both interesting and horrifying to witness. He started to walk slowly through the broken world, seeing many innocent people with faces stuck in a permanent scream of terror as they watched the ground crumble beneath them. Nightmare briefly glanced up at the sky above which was black with thick ash. His nausea worsened as he continued to walk and take in every detail of what was around him, imagining the sounds of screaming, thick ash filled suffocating air  and the smell of charred flesh that would follow, had this world not been frozen in place. He stopped when he saw Dream a short distance away. Even though Dream’s expression was frozen Nightmare could still tell that the other was regretful and distraught in the moment. He felt so conflicted, not knowing whether to feel hatred or sympathy towards Dream. He decided to approach Dream, staring intensely into the other’s eyes once he got closer. He was about to touch Dream when a sudden light blinded him, and the sounds of chirping birds broke the silence.

He grumbled as he sat up, feeling a little rough from the nightmare he just had. He squinted his eyes at the brightness of the sun that poked through the trees and got to his feet, wobbling slightly as he gradually regained his bearings. “Stupid fucking nightmares.” He muttered to himself.

He stretched his back in an attempt to shake off his sleepiness. He started to think more intently about the nightmare, it was the first time he’d ever had a nightmare like that. He started to question whether what he saw was something from the past or whether it was all just made up, it seemed too vivid to have been made by his own mind. “If only there was a way for me to…?” It was as if some unknown force had planted the thought in his mind right at that moment. “Is time travel even possible?” He hesitated, it seemed too crazy to be possible. “Nah.” He shrugged as he realised how stupid it was to ponder about it.

---

Nightmare had just finished eating a fish he had managed to catch from a nearby river he had found. It was difficult and frustrating to catch but he managed it. He sat by the newly built campfire, staring at the fish as it cooked over the fire on a stick he had poked through it. Watching it cook reminded him of the grim nightmare he had woken from only a few hours ago, and the thoughts of time travel he had pondered over. In that moment he felt a sudden strong desire to travel to other aus. He lifted the now fully cooked fish off of the fire. Biting into it as he thought about where he should go.

After he was done eating, he gave in to the strong urges and opened a portal to a seemingly random au. He hesitated as he stared at the portal he had just opened, though he didn’t hesitate for long. He felt as though something invisible was intentionally pulling him through as he stepped into the portal.  

The place he had been taken to was dark and unlike the other aus he had seen so far. Unlike the others, it didn’t appear to be in ruin but it’s atmosphere gave off an ominous feel. It appeared to be some kind of dark corridor, the stone walls and floor were an inky black colour that seemed to swallow the light from the torches that burned with strangely violet flames. The air felt oddly damp and heavy. Though despite the appearance of the place, Nightmare continued to move. He brushed his hand along the walls as he made his way further down the corridor.

At the end of the long corridor was a large door with strange runic markings lining the edges of it’s frame. The runes seemed to glow in the same violet colour as the torches. Nightmare stopped as he made it to the door, running his hand along the carved runes and feeling a strange warmth from each one. He didn’t even hesitate to push the door open, curiosity overriding his nervousness. “Woah.” His eyes widened at the sight of the room as he entered, gasping as he glanced up towards a strange humming large orb of magic. It glowed cyan that lit up the dark room as it levitated slightly above the floor. The glow was mesmerizing and Nightmare couldn’t tear his eyes away from it was he approached it. Below it was a rounded stone base with roman numerals engraved into it counting from one to ten, each glowing cyan much like the orb itself.

“What the heck is this thing?” Nightmare whispered to himself as he stepped closer, lifting his arm up towards it as he felt drawn to touch it. “You wish to reverse the mistakes of the past? Touch the time orb and let yourself be led to where you wish to go.” A strange reverberating voice whispered from all directions, causing Nightmare to shiver and turn around, though there was no one else in the room. He turned back to stare at the orb “So this thing can take me back? Good, maybe I’ll finally get to kick Dream’s ass for causing all of this shit.” He pressed his palm against the orb and his breath hitched as he suddenly felt weightless, the world around him fading away as he felt himself being pulled along by a strong force of magic.

Nightmare awoke lying down with his face pressed against the dirt. He quickly pushed himself up and gasped for breath, he frantically looked around wondering whether he had actually time travelled. His eyes widened in shock as he saw... himself? In the distance. He smirked as an idea sparked in his mind.

“Who the hell are you?”