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“Dream and Ink would do anything to help me!” Blue stated with the confidence of a skeleton who wholeheartedly believed it with all his being. “We’ve always been there for each other, and we’re too close for that to change so easily, Error.” Blue’s tone was light and he was smiling, the looks he was getting from his companion doing nothing to sway that. He enjoyed talking to Error, sitting in his anti-void to keep him company despite the memories he had here. It was a distant past now, 4 years later. Blue kept his back to the blank reaches of it and faced Error in his worn beanbag, his box of Underfell chocolate beside it as he worked on his latest project. The glitching skeleton merely scoffed, trying to finish his current glove-knitting project. “Shut up. You shouldn’t put so much faith in those idiots.”
Error was still crocheting dolls these days, but less, Blue thought. Right now he was knitting, working on something small, still in that Neon Blue. The glitched skeleton had very little faith in Blue’s own best friends and didn’t shy away from telling Blue pretty often. It was always the source of squabbles between them, whenever Blue inevitably brought up the events of their recent battles. He and his friends still had to stop Error from destroying AUs…but that didn’t mean they couldn’t sit and talk cordially about things. Blue sighed, looking off through the portal to Undernovela Error had summoned for them. “You just don’t know them as well as I do, but if you could just see them off the battlefield, you’d realize! We are always hanging out, and it’s different than just a work relationship. We look out for one another and I trust them with my life.”That bold statement, however, made Error actually pause in his work, scowling at the Underswap Sans. “With your life, huh? Then you’re more stupid than I thought. You’re the expendable one, I thought you at least knew that and just didn’t care, not that you actually believed you were in the same league as gods.” Blue winced, smile flattening just a little. Okay, that’d hurt, but it still didn’t mean it was true. Though Error sure knew how to cut deep, and he said it so plainly. “That wasn’t what I…that doesn’t matter to them. They aren’t gods, Error. They're strong, and they chose to be heroes for the multiverse, fighting to help people! They’re my friends , and power isn’t the only important thing to us.” Error rolled his eyelights. “Ah, yes, your enthusiastic attitude as you cheer them on in battle!” Blue scrunched his face. “Hey, I can fight! And I’m good at it. Both Dream and Ink told me I fight well and my blast–“
“Yeah yeah, I bet they did tell you nice little lies like that.” Error dismissed him with a wave. “You’ve got average skills for a Sans, even with your flashy blasters. It’s still nothing on those you fight. I’m honestly shocked you aren’t dust yet.” Blue sighed, unable to really get a point in. He begged to differ with how often he had the gang struggling to dodge his attacks. He was skilled at battle magic, he made sure of that. He had to be more than above average to stand with his friends in battle. But Error clearly intended to ignore his protests. “You’re no more than some silly mascot for them. You know Ink hardly cares about anything that isn’t to do with creating or himself,” Error scoffed. “You’re no more than just another copy of one of his precious creations.” Blue frowned at the badmouthing, though probably should have been more attentive to where the conversation was heading. “That isn’t true! Ink isn’t like that. He’s my friend. You’re just saying that to try and upset me.” “You might be one of his favorite abominations,” Error coincided backhandedly, “but if you ever died or got killed, he wouldn’t think twice about finding a new Blue. Hell, he might even just get one made from the creators to save himself the trouble and move on. Dream might cry about it for a few days, but he’d get over it too. You all know who’s the least important if it came down to it. You think they’ll always be there to protect you no matter what? That they’ll just come running to save you because you’re special ?” “Yes!” Blue stated firmly, unwaveringly confident and quick with the answer despite the hurtful words. He knew his friends better. “But it’s because they care about me, I know they do. I matter to them, and I’d do anything to protect them, too. You just don’t know what it’s like and think every relationship has to do with intimidation and using people.” Okay, that had been a bit mean, but Error hardly looked offended. In fact, he rolled his mismatched eyelights at Blue, unimpressed. As if he doubted Blue could do the same for his friends. That was how the multiverse was to him, plain and simple. “You’re replaceable,” Error deadpanned, “You march around like you’re not, as if you’re some powerful immortal like them– and that's what’s gonna get you killed. Which, for the record, they are pretty shit examples to begin with. A goody-goody with family issues whose weakness is what he fights daily? A soulless asshole who has to drink paint to keep caring about anything? That’s just a Flowey with extra steps.” Blue frowned at him in distaste. "They are far more than that, Error. You just won't know them like I do because you're always fighting them! Why can't you just stop and then you would see? That isn't who they are." The glitch smirked, setting his knitting needles aside, having given up trying to get his project done right now. “You’re just …their little doll they like to keep around like I do. I’m honestly surprised you can’t see that, Blue, but I don’t mind making it clear since you refuse to admit it.”
Blue yelped as his SOUL was summoned and yanked from his chest before he could react. He immediately felt panic bubbling inside him and he shook, but he tried not to show it. It was difficult, as Error was suddenly standing over him. He forcibly pulled both the shorter skeleton and his SOUL up and towards him with blue magic. “E-Error, wait—“ Error closed his fist and Blue felt intense pressure on his SOUL. He cried out, struggling and kicking his feet to find something to brace himself on but found nothing as he still hung in the air. “You know, Blue, you should honestly listen to me more.” Error shook his head. “You’re just as naïve as they say sometimes, but some people have to learn the hard way, huh? You seem to only learn by seeing for yourself. Well, fine. You think I’m the one who’s difficult with relationships? I’ll show you just how little your ‘friends’ care. I’ll make you see it.” Blue choked on nothing as Error carefully pulled something from his pocket and draped a thin and glowing red veil over his SOUL. It burned. Stars, it burned, it was searing into his SOUL terribly and he wanted it to stop. His eye lights trembled violently as he pleaded with Error to stop–he didn’t know what this was, but it was agony. He didn't know it could get much worse. Error brought him down to kneel, and if he didn’t still have Blue’s SOUL trapped by the blue magic, he’d be writhing on the floor. Blue didn’t even think he’d be able to crawl away if Error let him go now. He wished his friends were here, but it was too late for them to help him. They didn’t even know he was here today. He regretted that now. He was vaguely aware of Error nearby, barely caught his now glitching words. “Oh stop being so dramatic, Blue. Sure, they’ll save you in battle, or have your little play dates and humor you. But I think there’s a limit for them.” Through the relentless pain that wasn’t getting any duller– Blue felt familiar strings curling up his femurs, and suddenly the pain was the least of his problems. His eye lights vanished and he hissed sharply to keep from screaming. He couldn’t keep that in much longer. “Error! I’m– stop, please!!” He could barely see Error even when the other used his string to lift Blue’s head to look him in the eyes. He was leering, grin wide. “Ah, that’s the fear I look for. What’s the matter? Suddenly realizing what everyone’s been saying is true? Seeing that I’m a threat now? Are you scared of me yet, Blue?” He leaned in closer still, almost gleeful before his tone darkened. “You should be. I’m the bad guy, after all! And I’m gonna show you the excruciating truth you just refuse to accept.” Error’s glitched laugh mocked him as the strings snagged around Blue’s SOUL. Blue whimpered between gasps and pained broken sobs, unable to brace himself or form words in any attempt to beg. He squeezed his eye sockets shut because he couldn’t watch. Briefly, he wished he could apologize. Not to Error, but the first person that came to mind when he faced death. He hoped Papyrus would forgive him for naively trying to help someone so dangerous, for gambling his life and ultimately losing. Hopefully, he would understand why Blue wouldn’t be home anymore and that he hadn’t meant for it to end like this. He thought he had more time…maybe he should have listened to all of them. He didn't regret trying, but was sorry to leave his younger brother so suddenly. He would be alright without him though, Blue thought. Or at least he hoped so. He didn’t have time to think the same for Ink and Dream. ( Would they look for him? ) In one rigid yank, his SOUL cracked in on itself and Blue could not describe what he felt with mere pain anymore. It was something else entirely, brief– probably brief; he could not account for how much time passed– but utterly horrible. It crushed him from the inside and he felt himself caving in on the growing space his body used to take up. His dissolving insides churned as if they were boiling, and maybe that was why he felt like he was evaporating. The culmination of his being tried to resist and hold itself together, but it was like trying to keep sand in a strainer, and no amount of tape or rubber bands could keep it there. He had no mouth to let out his scream, but in his mind, it was deafening. Right up until the red-tinted pieces crumpled entirely like chalk, with no more resistance left. And Error…Error was laughing through it. Blue could still hear so. “Ha... haha! Hahahaha!! Well what do ya know, I guess it is possible to have a crushed SOUL still beating.” Blue felt his very spirit fading, still imploding in on itself within the shell of a body he no longer felt attached to. Blessedly, awareness left him, and with it his fear and despair. ... Blue came to, but it wasn’t to the white of the anti-void. Nothing held him, as if he were abandoned in space, and yet he felt a pressure surrounding him. He was bobbing in place, and each sharp pulse of his SOUL sent dull phantom pain throughout his being. He came back into...Nothing. There was nothing around him but a deep darkness, or what he thought was “him”. Blue almost thought he’d passed on, or at least could no longer see. He remembered the last time his eyes had been open; Error had crushed his SOUL. It’d been enveloped in that thin red veil, and then it had been broken. The memory caused the pounding pain to get worse. Surely, he was dead. This was what death was. The Nothing rang in his ears, assaulting his vision and body. He felt Nothing surrounding him. He could have been falling for all he knew, or floating upwards. He couldn’t even move to check. Every direction looked the same and the not-air didn’t give him any indication. What he did know was that he was entirely alone. Blue looked…or rather, could see in all directions, but still couldn’t so much as turn his head or shift in any direction. In fact, he didn’t think he had a body at all. He couldn’t see himself, or feel anything when he tentatively attempted to get himself to stretch. Nothing responded. He could still feel around himself as the space pressed in, squeezing him. He floated in the Nothing that crept in and touched his non-body and he wanted it to stop. He curled in on himself to escape it, but it just managed to seep even closer, chilling and uncomfortable. Was this what falling down felt like? Was this the afterlife or some transition to it? He had the distant notion that maybe he should be scared. Maybe if he’d had the time and the mental capacity to get over his initial shock, he would have been. But then it was like he’d gotten smacked back from the edge, as violently as if he’d been vaporized by a blaster. It was a mercy he couldn’t feel his body because his bones might’ve broken at that. His thoughts were delayed, head buzzing as he came to realize he could feel again. He almost rescinded the relief due to the horrible ache that settled over his…well, this didn’t quite feel like his bones. Or his skeletal body at all. This form felt foreign to him, his being disconnected and scattered in the same general vicinity. He could not pinpoint what was his face from his legs or fingers. He only knew that he was suspended and drifting further apart as his consciousness grew fuzzier and thoughts scattered faster than he could piece together the words that made them, also lost. Then an immense pressure that started to close in, compressing what was ‘him’. It flattened him and had he still occupied his body, he was pretty sure he’d be crushed from that alone, as the weight of the void pressed in. It held him together when he tried to drift further apart, scattered to the void. It didn’t let him and it was honestly uncomfortable. Blue resisted letting go even if he didn’t think he was doing anything. He wished it would let him go now, just let him be gone, if it stopped another experience of the dreadful, mortal pain. Why was he being drawn back after some imperceivable time? He was still piecing together what was happening, memories of the eternal void disappearing fast as the darkness became darker and his weightless spirit with its shattered SOUL reinflated with some of the density that had crushed him. Then lowered into a new vessel, cradled away from the cold. He felt something solid encase him and he knew he was settled in a body, in the world again. It was over in seconds. He could hear now, and the empty plane surrounding him became more three-dimensional again and he no longer felt so compressed. If he could breathe, he felt like it’d be a lot easier now. But he still had no body with which to do so. Blue felt his apparition pulse downward with aftershocks from the pain, and…and he felt paralyzed. He couldn’t move a single limb. He became starkly aware that he was no longer alone. Maybe he hadn’t ever been.
“Little guys like you...” Error began, his voice resounding and too much for Blue’s suddenly overstimulated hearing, ”should be seen and not heard!” Error crouched to scoop Blue up, his massive discolored grin filling Blue’s vision. Blue’s frazzled mind ran its course as it lagged behind the rest of him. Error was huge. And touching him?? Error didn’t like touching. What the heck was happening? Blue felt Error’s loose grip pinning his right arm while the left hung limply over a glitching phalange and— oh, he was in Error’s hand. The Destroyer was huge and Blue was trapped in his grip. Blue’s first instinct was to cry out and struggle. His body didn’t respond. And that became far more alarming. That was when he finally noticed and felt like he really had died. His lifeless body laid out on the floor below, collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Its legs were sprawled, but the torso curled in slightly as if he’d tried and failed to protect his SOUL. Because that was exactly what had happened. The horrifying sight of his empty, still body was enough to make Blue feel faint, as well as ill and numb. The fact he was looking from another perspective was a problem for near-future him; he was too busy reeling and feeling overwhelmed. But he couldn’t act on any of it. In fact, his sense of touch seemed only to extend to…err, the surface of his body. He still couldn’t move at all, and that was the scariest thing right now. Not one part of him responded to his demands, as if he’d been tranquilized and then encased in concrete. Error held Blue in front of a summoned portal that showed a mirror. Blue finally got, well, some sort of view, being that he couldn’t turn and look himself, and so tried to figure out what exactly he was seeing. Error was in the mirror, smug and expectant, and held in his hand was a doll like the others Error crocheted. Though, this one had more detail and looked a tiny bit bigger. It was a doll made in Blue’s likeness, complete with light blue button eyes and a slightly torn scarf not unlike the old one he always sported. He stared at it and the reflection stared back. Slowly, as he realized what he was seeing, the horror set in throughout his new plush body. His SOUL pounded violently and the magic within it, usually a warm presence, ran ice cold. Confusion. Realization. Shock. Terror. Error turned him around, closing the portal and holding him up in his glitching hand. “This is perfect. Now, let’s see if that stupid belief you have in your friends is well-founded, hmm? I’ll show you once and for all, Little Toy Blue.”