Wait... I'm Nightmare!? I Thought I Died!?

•Chapter 5•

Which one of the skeletons should you recruit now? That was the question that surged through your skull as you thought about it as you reviewed the au's around you. Your magic having greatly improved over the 4 and a half centuries, you could say. Pondering on your choices, you decided on Cross first. Pretty unusual since whenever fanfics like this were written out, Killer was almost always the one who was recruited first. But you really did not want the X-event to happen, that stuff was crazy and chaotic.

Sighing, you make the rest of the portals disappear and keep the one that has a vast white space behind it and step through it. When you close the portal behind you as you walk through, you hear two voices. One wispy and slightly masculine but still a child's voice with a wisp behind it and then there was a slightly deeper voice talking back to it. Straightening your composure and putting on your own poker face, you search around the white place until you find the skeleton (and ghost child) you were looking for.

"Corrupt and Night, please hide in the mind space, I don't want them to know because since I can see Chara, I'm pretty sure that they'll be able to see you two. And I want to keep this under wraps."

Corrupt rolls his cyan eye light and Nightmare gives you a thumbs up and they both vanish instantly. Thanking them silently, you look back at the two figures and start to walk up to them, hands in your pockets while your posture was straight, head up and looking ahead, no emotion present on your face.

As you walk closer, you see Chara see you with a shocked expression and you see them point to you which causes Cross to turn around and face you with shock as well.

"Who are you!?" Cross growls out as he quickly stands up and whips around, his back no longer facing you.

"Nightmare, guardian and King of negativity and nightmares," you reply plainly with a small glare. You... were going to act tough for now. Not show any weakness and get across your point as plainly and as fast as possible, "I... have come here to strike a deal with you," you say. Ok, now you felt like the devil offering a deal to a mortal. Felt cool but super cliche.
You liked it.

*Cough*- Anyways-. You awaited for an answer as you stared at the sweating skeleton down who now knows who he's messing with. Testing his waters, Cross answers, "What's in it for me?" he says as he slowly lowers his stance and his eye lights waver, untrusting and body tense, ready to pounce or run at any hint of danger.

'Cross, are you serious?!' Chara exclaims at him but Cross ignores them.

You, however, were indifferent in your calm state, tendrils swaying behind you calmly. An interesting thing about them was that they reflected your mood most of the time only when Corrupt wasn't controlling them.

"I can get you out of here," You say seriously and you can see Cross's eye sockets widen exponentially.
"What..?"

"I can get you out of here, give you food, shelter, etc. All I need is your undying loyalty," you said seriously, "So, Cross, do you accept my offer?"
"What will you make me do?"

"Anything that isn't uncomfortable for you to do," you answer simply.

"What does the bastard even get out of this?" Chara snarled, "There's probably something the bastard is hiding."

Corrupt did not take well to being called a bastard and you reigned as much control as you could into the goop before Corrupt could sharpen the tendrils and stab Chara. Even though it would do nothing, he probably would have been pleased to see both of their shocked faces if that happened but you didn't want to raise more suspicion than there was.

It was hard to keep your tendrils calmly swishing behind you as your hand slightly twitched.

Thankfully, the ghost and the skeleton didn't notice, as Cross was thinking hard about the deal and Chara was trying to bring him out of it. After a few minutes of silence, Cross gets a determined look on his skull and despite Chara's growing, panicked protests, Cross takes your hand.