I didn't sign up for that shit

There is always something that doesn't go according to plan

For the next few days, Hover kept the children near the tree, always looking a little concerned. In and of itself it wasn't that bad, so no excuse had to be found to stay around the twins. And even Love and Frezh, who initially seemed very against it, were quickly convicted when the extent of the twins' living conditions showed. Error thought that maybe they would just sleep under the tree. And in the end he wasn't quite wrong. Yet he wasn't right either.

Over the centuries, the twins had built a labyrinth of bridges and houses in the surrounding trees. And if that wasn't impressive enough, there was also an underground tunnel system that extended into the village and allowed the little thieves to get what they needed without being seen. It's a stunning sight every time and Error can't get enough of it, similar to when he was in Outertale, although nothing could beat the starry sky of Outertale. There was just nothing like it.

And yet something was going on. Error was the first to see the frown that took over Hover's features. Something was bothering the Guardian, and Error didn't think it had anything to do with their up and coming Guardian positions. It was definitely something else, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Because the quiet conversations between Hover and Despair definitely spoke of more. Especially when Frezh and Love were involved. For days each of the adults wore worried expressions on their faces, as if they were waiting for something, and it began to affect Error and the others too. More and more often he saw Killer playing with his knives, Horror sharpening his axe, Dust, who was influenced by the minor ticks that always occurred when he was nervous, and Cross, who refused to sleep by staying awake and keeping watch. Most of the time, however, one or more of the others kept him company as insomnia plagued them all.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. They weren’t always plagued by insomnia. There were days when Despair took them all into the nest he and Hover shared and it became a big cuddle pile. Everyone slept like a baby on those nights.

It came to a halt when Error woke up in the cozy nest after such a night. It was just a dull ache in his back, not something Error was too worried about. It wasn't uncommon for Error to wake up with a sore body, the result of breaking every bone a dozen times. So he hadn't thought much of it.

The pain rose and fell over the course of the day. But that wasn't something that Error paid much attention to either. After all, it wasn't so rare that his pain worsened and deepened thanks to his glitches. So he continued his day as usual.

Until he couldn't do it anymore.

It started when Killer rounded up the whole gang. It seemed like he wanted to tell them something important, Error could tell. But no matter how hard he tried to concentrate, he couldn't understand a word from Killer. It just seemed like it wasn’t possible for him to focus his attention on Killer for a long time, everything just blurred before his eyes. He wanted to tell one of them, something was wrong, but no matter how many times he tried, he got nothing. It made him panic since he hadn't felt something like this in months, since he was free from F4t3.

Was that it? Did the f4t3 of this multiverse come to force him to destroy? But he didn’t want to destroy anything! He was tired of all of this killing. Error just wanted to finally rest and enjoy this new life. If he had to destroy again... Error didn't think he would survive. At least not mentally. The little sanity he had left would undoubtedly perish.

"Error?"

Error turned his head in the direction he heard Dust say his name worriedly. It turned out to be a bad idea, however, because as soon as he did that his entire head began to spin and everything blurred before his eyes. His sense of balance had passed in the same moment, causing Error to fall on his back. It sparked a great surge of pain that shot like acid through his body.

He didn't know if he was screaming in pain or if it was tears or something else running down his cheeks. Error could only vaguely see splotches of color appearing over him. Did they say something? He couldn't hear anything.. probably because his skull was aching fiercely, two specific spots hurting more than the rest, but it was nothing compared to the pure agony his back was in.

A large golden brown blob appeared over Error and he was sure it was Hover. He felt himself being put up carefully and his sweater being taken off with great care. And yet it hurt. Error was sure that he had somehow conveyed that. But as soon as he got off his sweater, his back felt at least a little bit better. He thought he could hear Hover talking to someone, but he could understand next to nothing. Even so, Error thought he heard them say something about a mutation? But shouldn't it only come through puberty? So why did it come now? It didn't make sense!

A new wave of pain shot through Error when someone touched his back. It sent a new wave of pain through him, especially since it felt like something was trying to break out of his bones, making it as painful as possible in the process. Based on the pain level, it could easily be something Inky would do.

After what felt like hours, all through which a fire was practically running up and down Error's back and not even giving him time to breathe, it was slowly tamed by the coolness of something that felt like healing magic. Error was grateful for that. He wouldn't know how much longer he could have endured the pain. And the more the healing magic eased his pain, the more his consciousness drifted away. After all the panic and exertion, he deserved a rest.

...Why did it always have to be him?