Chapter Text
Outertale. A normally peaceful AU whose residents live among the stars, had become the place of a battlefield. The moon that held the civilization of Outertale’s residents was now covered in craters and scorch marks from the constant stream of attacks that occurred throughout the battle. A part of the moon had been completely shattered, causing rocks, both large and small, to float around the area that it had once been fully intact. Several Sanses and a single Chara stood on the larger of the floating debris, some were staring in horror, some in acceptance, and some with bored expressions.
Error could not find himself caring about the destruction that surrounded him. While Outertale was one of the Au’s that he found tolerable, it had been ages since he was able to destroy something. He found himself reveling in it. Unfortunately he could not think of that right now, as he stared at the blank eyes of a normally lively and annoying skeleton. Ink, the asshole Protector of Au’s himself, was trying to destroy the worlds he vowed to protect. The situation would be laughable if it weren’t for the Creators.
At the beginning of the fight the Creators had been relatively silent, content to watch the action, but as the battle progressed and nothing was done to truly hinder Ink’s actions they began to become riled up. Now they were practically screaming, it made Error only want to cause more destruction to hopefully get them to shut up. Error was getting ready to release some more attacks when Ink spoke up again.
“It’s just that…” Ink spoke in a low and empty voice as he lifted up the hand that held the purple vial “I don’t want to regret it now.” Error watched as Ink dropped the vial and it smashed on the ground, effectively shattering the glass of it and releasing what was inside it.
Half a soul appeared from the vial’s remains and a large Gaster appeared in front Ink. XGaster’s appearance made all of the Creator’s shout in loud angry tones. The sudden rise in volume and the appearance of XGaster caused Error’s anger level to rise higher. XGaster looked up at the crowd as Error spoke.
“You entrusted your own soul to Ink, trying to survive somewhere in the multiverse with just a fragment of DETERMINATION…?” Error said with a mockingly incredulous, trying to keep himself from laughter “I’m glad to know how scared you are of me.”
Error spread his arms out and the starry sky of Outertale disappeared from behind him, replaced by the golden glow of the Doodle Sphere. Error’s blue strings were wrapped around several pieces of paper that represented the different Au’s, whether Genocide or Pacifist, Undertale or Underfell, incode or outcode, he was going to destroy them all. “If you’re expecting me to join you in that GAME you were talking about in my dreams…” Error declared “Lemme tell you something.” A thin piece of string fell by his side “I DON’T WANNA PLAY WITH YOU.” Error gripped the string with two of his phalanges and was prepared to pull on the string when suddenly the feeling of the world shifted and time seemed to slow to an almost complete stop.
The voices of the Creators were suddenly no longer in his head but all around him. Error looked back at the others behind him. Blue was staring at Ink and XGaster with slight horror on his face but he did not move, neither did Red or Classic. Nightmare was completely still, not a tentacle moved, and Killer stood next to him, as unmoving as everyone else. The XChara was similarly frozen in place with the face of anger and barely concealed fear. Error peered back up towards Ink and XGaster to see that Ink was still mobile like himself, but XGaster was stationary. This unnerved Error, as the Creators had never taken this kind of action before. He had thought that they were not able to interfere with the Multiverse outside of creating their horrendous Au’s and speaking to himself.
Error continued to glance around at everything and everyone, trying to figure out what was going on, when in a near instant Ink was yanked into the air by a seemingly invisible force. That's when Error began to take more notice of what the voices that seemed to come from the sky were saying.
“ I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT THEY WERE ACTUALLY GOING TO DESTROY THE AUS, I WORKED SO HARD ON MINE! ” One of the voices boomed, Error clenched his hands so he wouldn’t cover his head in what would be a futile attempt to block out the noise.
“ I know! When they said that this Multiverse was going to basically be Underverse but different I had assumed that meant that they wouldn’t actually erase the Au’s. It took me HOURS to get the shading right on the comic for my Au, and it actually turned out good! ” Another voice, sounding very exasperated, joined the other.
“ I think that the Original Creator of this Multiverse did say something about what would be different in this Underverse Multiverse, but I can’t remember what it was, I’m gonna backtrack and see if I can find it. ” The third voice to join the others sounded a lot meeker compared to the other two, and yet Error felt fear begin to settle in as he heard these three speak to one another.
“ That’s gonna take AGES! ” The exasperated voice spoke again. “ This Multiverse is several years old and the Original Creator rarely interacts with the chat while we use it all the time. ”
“ Then what do you suggest we do? ”
“ I say we get rid of XGaster and Ink, I would include Error in that list but we did sorta push him to come here and he was also just doing his role. XGaster and Ink would’ve completely messed with our AU’s or even flat out destroyed them if Error wasn't going to. ” The booming voice was now sounding smug with their idea.
Error listened to the conversation with the Creators with increasing shock and fear, though he couldn’t help but feel relieved that he wasn’t the target of the Creators’ wrath.
“ Don’t you think that's going a bit too far? I don’t want to attract the attention of the Original Creator and lose access to this Multiverse. ” A new voice appeared, this one sounded calmer than the others, maybe even knowing?
“ When did you get here? But also I agree with the red creator, the Original Creator did say that this wasn’t supposed to be a normal Underverse Multiverse so maybe they won’t be too angry? ”
“ I don’t know… I’ve grown attached to this Multiverse, I’m worried about being kicked out for messing with the story too much. ” The meek voice spoke again, showing their doubts to the others' plans.
“ Think about it this way, if we let things continue, then all the progress on this Multiverse will be practically reset and everything you got attached to will be lost. ” The smug voice spoke up, trying to convince the meek voice.
“ Not to mention the fact that the original Underverse is not finished yet, meaning we have no idea what will happen to this Multiverse, for all we know the Original Creator of this Multiverse could be planning to delete everything that we’ve done anyway, at least this way we control the storyline a bit more. ”
“ I still think that this is a massive leap. Didn’t someone say that they were going to try to find the message that the Original Creator sent to find out what the difference in this Multiverse was going to be? ” The calm voice interjected the others, the voice of reason.
“ I said that but every time I tried to scroll up to see, I got brought back down to see what the new message was… ” The meek voice said nervously.
“ Really. ” The calm voice said with a sigh.
“ IT’S NOT MY FAULT THAT YOU GUYS WON’T STOP TALKING! ”
“ Whatever, I’m throwing my vote in, we get rid of XGaster and Ink. ” The smug voice pronounced.
“I vote for that as well, I worked way too hard on my Au to lose it like this.” The exasperated voice sounded less exasperated now, and more excited.
“ I think Red Creator and Orange Creator are right, I’m also working on an Au currently that I’m super proud of. I’ve already posted it in this Multiverse as an incode world and I can’t risk any tampering or deletion. I vote to get rid of XGaster and Ink. ” The meek voice said a bit more confidently.
“ Know what, I’m not going to get involved in this, I’m not voting for or against this notion. ” The calm voice sounded angry despite their flippant words before they left.
“ Welp, majority rules! Anyone know how to actually delete these two? ” The smug voice said in a victorious tone.
“ I do, I was once involved in a Multiverse that allowed a lot more freedom with Creator interaction with the story. ” They sounded extremely excited as they said this.
“ Get it over with then. ”
“ Hang on, I’ll need a minute to get the codes right. ”
For a minute, nothing happened and Error almost let himself believe that the creator had left or was bluffing about being able to delete anything-
“Ok found the old codes file, I just need to interact with the characters codes and everything should be smooth sailing from there.” The voice interrupted Error’s thoughts as they returned, filling Error’s soul with an unexpected dread.
“ I’d hurry up and do it, otherwise the Original Creator might appear and we’ll all be screwed. ” The meek voice sounded more nervous than before.
“ Alright alright and calm down they haven’t been here in months. I honestly doubt that they are still active in the fandom anymore. ” The excited voice said in a carefree tone.
“ Just hurry up! ” The meek voice shouted, showing how scared they were about this.
“ Alright everyone, say goodbye to XGaster! ”
Error focused his gaze onto XGaster and watched as he disappeared in an instant. There was no screaming, no dramatic flash of light, not even a visible sizzling out of code. He was just there one moment and then gone the next. Error stared at the place the Gaster once stood, he could take his eyes away from it not until the Creators reminded him that there was still one other person that needed to be deleted.
“ Now do Ink. ”
“ Hold on, I need a second, I’m not supposed to be deleting things in this Multiverse so the codes are being a bit weirder than normal. ” The excited voice said, sounding annoyed.
“ Hurry hurry! ” The meek voice pushed.
“ Know what, fine! See what happens when you don’t wait long enough for the deletion to cool down! ”
Error’s gaze turned to Ink, and Ink stared back at him. Even in this situation, Ink showed no emotion. Error wasn’t sure what to feel in this moment, it was finally happening, the destruction of his enemy, so why did he feel so conflicted about it? Was it because he wasn’t the one who was doing it? Perhaps it was because he had “killed” Ink so many times before that, now that it was happening permanently, he was disappointed. Disappointed at the fact that no matter how hard he had tried, he had never been able to kill Ink for good and now he never would be able to. He was powerless compared to the beings that he had been able to hear for all of his life.
Error felt the codes shift this time and he blinked and Ink was no more. A few moments passed before time returned to normal and the stunned silence as the others around him realized that Ink and XGaster were gone before it turned into confused arguing.
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Hurry up and get rid of the codes already!
I’m trying! I told you that the deletion file needed to cool down a bit to process before I could use it again!
What went wrong with it? Why are Inks' base codes still here?
The file was overloaded, it's gonna need a few minutes until it is able to process the rest of the deletion of Inks’ codes.
Minutes!! We don’t have minutes!!!
We’ll be fine, calm down. Like I said before, the Original Creator hasn’t been active for ages, I doubt that they will show up.
What are you guys DOING!
…
Why are you guys tampering with the story! Why did you delete XGaster and Ink!
You said that this Multiverse was supposed to be different from the other Underverse based ones! So far it's been the EXACT same. We didn’t want to lose our Au’s so we intervened.
I told you guys not to put in the Au’s that you didn’t want to be destroyed until after the X-event. The difference between this Multiverse and Underverse was supposed to be Inks’ redemption arc. How did you even delete them in the first place? I never authorized any ability like that.
The Orange Creator was in another Multiverse that allowed other Creators more ability to interact with the story and that was one thing that they saved from there. They used it on XGaster and he was gone immediately but Inks’ codes are still being processed.
Wait, Ink’s codes are still here?
Yeah, but just his base codes.
Stop the deletion. NOW.
Ok, fine……. there it stopped.
Give me Ink’s codes.
Take them, you’re the owner of this Multiverse anyways.
Dammit, I can’t bring him back to what he was with this. It’s basically back to his character file before he was an Outcode.
What does that mean?
It means that all that’s left of him is the time frame before he destroyed his soul and actually took on the role “Protector of Au’s”, I can’t restore him back to where he was.
But you could bring a version of him back?
WHY DO YOU KEEP DISAPPEARING AND COMING BACK RANDOMLY?
Because I do things other than talk the entire time that I’m in this Multiverse.
Rude.
Anyways, yes I could, but I don’t know how his story would work out, this wasn’t supposed to happen.
That could be pretty interesting to see though.
True, alright I’m gonna bring Ink back to this Multiverse. However, I’m changing his story a bit. Also, I’m changing the rules for every Creator in this Multiverse. Any interaction with Au’s exposed to the grander Multiverse is now prohibited, this includes the characters and setting of the Au. No Creator will be allowed to interact with main story characters, so that means not interfering with Dream, Nightmare, Error, Ink, Core Frisk, Blue, etc… This includes as Error’s voices as well.
Wait, you can’t do that!
Yes I can. You broke the rules and now this is the consequence. Now I want you all to leave this area, now.
Fine, bye.
See you around.
Bye.
What are you planning to do now?
I’m gonna bring Ink back, but with a slight twist to things. I can’t bring back the original, his codes are almost gone completely and they might shatter if they try to take form again, but if I copy it I may be able to alter them enough so that they stay whole. Thank you for informing me of what was going on here.
No problem, see ya and good luck!
Time to bring Ink back.
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He opened his eyes and found himself in a completely blank world. The small monster knew not his name nor where he was or why he existed. All he knew was the whiteness and silence that seemed to surround him. Desperate for something else he took a look around and saw some figures in the distance, he quickly stood up and walked towards them. As he approached them, he realized that he knew who they were, or at least who they were meant to be.
The taller one that resembled a skeleton was his brother, a “Papyrus”. There were several others as well, such as “Undyne”, “Alphys”, “Asgore”, and “Toriel”. He didn’t know how he knew this knowledge but he decided to accept that it was simply something that he knew.
As he got closer to them, he noticed that the way that they looked at him held no emotion. There was no shock, no realization, no curiosity. They stared at him as if they simply accepted that he was there and that it did not affect them or anything around them at all.
He expected himself to be surprised at this but all he felt was a cold acceptance. As if he had already expected this to be the case even though he logically would not know what would happen when he approached them.
Before he knew it, he was standing right infront of them. He had to raise his head quite a bit so he could look any of them in their eyes. As he did he was met with the blank stare again, it felt uncomfortable to be under their gaze and yet he also found a sort of comfort in it. There was no judgement in their eyes or posture, he felt that if he were to fall flat on his face in front of them that there would be no reaction at all. Most importantly though, it reminded him that he was not alone.
He averted his gaze to the ground, if it could even be called ground if it was simply nothing but white, and focused on his surroundings once more to find some comfort in a world of nothing. He knew that sight would fail to bring him comfort so he closed his eyes and focused on his other senses. He listened but there was no noise, not even from the people in front of him. He focused on the surface under his feet but was met with something that was not warm nor cold, not soft nor hard, and not smooth or rough. He desperately wished for some balance that he could find, a noise, a texture, anything that did not remind him of the nothingness around him… but he found none.
He took a breath and looked back up at the monsters in front of him and found himself accepting that these were the only differences in his immediate surroundings that he would be able to find. They stared at him and for a minute he simply observed them before realizing that he had yet to try to speak to them. The small monster awkwardly cleared his throat and spoke.
“Hello…” was all he could think to say, what even was there to say, how can he greet them when he doesn't even know who he is? “Uhmmm… do you know where we are?” He waited to see if they would respond, but all that was returned was that same blank gaze from all of them.
He inwardly sighed. He expected that something like this would happen but had still hoped that they would at least respond to him.
The small monster turned around and walked a few paces away from the others before facing them again and sitting down. He stared at them as he tried to think about ways that he could make them react, to show any emotion he’d even settle for just some sort of reaction to him even.
He sat there and thought over ways for a bit before standing back up and walking towards them again, a newfound determination burning in his soul. He was confident that he could get them to react to him, he just needed to find the right way to do it.
_________________________
He wanted to make them happy…
He told them jokes…
He tried to talk to them and ask them things that might lift their mood…
He was met with the same silence and blank stare.
_________________________
This time he tried to make them sad…
He said hurtful things to them…
Nothing but silence and the same blank stare.
_________________________
He tried to make them angry…
The same silence… the same stares…
_________________________
Please react.
Please acknowledge me.
Please…
Please don’t leave me alone
_________________________
He couldn’t take their silence anymore. He promised himself that he would come back for them. That he wouldn’t abandon them. He just couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t stay in their presence but be virtually alone.
So he was going to leave this area of his world. He was going to look around and try to find something different. Something with sound and color and life. Once he found these things he would come back for them… he promised that he would.
He turned to look back at them and, though he knew there would be no response, he waved goodbye before he looked back in the direction he was heading and he began walking.
_________________________
He walked for a while
Nothing new
He could see the others anymore
_________________________
He was still walking
There was still nothing
Only silence and whiteness
_________________________
Was he doing the right thing?
Maybe he should head back to the others.
…
No, he had to keep going.
_________________________
How far had he walked?
Was there anything in this world?
Is there any point in staying in this world?
… Keep going.
_________________________
…
There is nothing in this world..
…
_________________________
He couldn't take this anymore.
There is nothing here. He has been walking for ages.
How long had it even been.
There is no way to tell time.
Could he even make it back to the others?
Does he even want to make it back to the others?
Was there any point in any of this anymore?
_________________________
There is no point in this…
_________________________
When had he made the decision? He doesn’t remember. This is his choice, his way of breaking free, his way of escape. He grasps his soul, he can feel the action all throughout his body, like the tingling of electricity. It's a warning, a warning that this will cause him pain.
He doesn’t care anymore.
He pulls…
________________________
When he wakes up, his body feels heavy and wet. He first realizes that he is laying down. Then he realizes that he is laying down in a black liquid. “ Where did this come from ?” He thinks drowsily. He looks at his body and can see lines on it, the lines were not there before, he was sure. He can see the liquid slowly trickling from the lines on his body. “ Oh…” He surmises. “ It's my blood.” The thought doesn’t surprise him, just another thing that he accepts without question.
He lays his head back down and stares upward. All that he is met with the same white sky. He sighs and closes his eyes. He has accepted that he will not be leaving this place. But for one last time, he wishes that he could be anywhere other than in this place.
He lays there for a while, before he feels his body begin to sink.