It'll Be Okay

Chapter One

Nightmare was fighting Ink in an Under!Swap AU.

It was already difficult against the Creator himself, but the positive feelings in the AU were slowly sapping his strength. He had tried multiple times to form a portal, but Ink would always get to him before he could escape. It was wearing on him, and he was way past the 'Okay, now I should start worrying' point.

"You're not getting away!"

Ink's tone was fierce and angry as he swiped his paintbrush over the portal Nightmare had tried to re-form to escape. "You won't get away this time!"

Nightmare sprung back, eyes narrowed. His magic reservoir were dangerously low- if he tried to teleport away, Ink could track him, and he might not have enough energy to form another portal to a different AU. That took an insane amount of magic, and he was spent already.

Shards of corruption formed and shot down at the other skeleton, raining down in a deadly black hail.

Ink swept them away from his person with a single swipe of his paintbrush, a sneer on his face. He knew Nightmare was tired out.

"Once I'm done with you, I'll finally be able to take care of Error," he exclaimed gleefully. "After all these years, we'll finally be rid of him!"

Nightmare jolted. "What are you talking about?"

"I can't kill you or Dream will die too," Ink snorted. "But if Error dies... well, I was here long before him, and I'll be here long after, hahah!"

He pulled out a single angry red and black vial.
"I splash this on an immortal, and they'll be pulled into the Void and killed by that. Took me hundreds of years to make, and I don't have enough of my paints left to make another one... but all I need is one, right? The liquid will even re-form in the vial unless it's used on an actual immortal, and it'll come back to me! There's no way to escape this time! Error will come to save you, and then..." He looked genuinely happy about the impending murder.

Ink stopped talking to rush Nightmare, taking vicious swipes at him with acidic paint on the tip of his paintbrush. It was clear he simply wanted Nightmare out of the way to get to Error.

The Guardian of Negativity retaliated with his tentacles, pushing Ink away only to be charged again, and again. His mind was racing.

Error dead- Error can't die, everyone else will die- we can't keep up negativity, I can't keep up anything without him-

The vial was a deadly tool with one target, and it wouldn't stop until it had tasted blood. It didn't seem like there was another option, with no death, and no life spilled. If Ink hadn't been his signature scatterbrain here and now, Error would have been dead soon. He might still die soon.

...But what if it was a different life? What if someone else was the victim?

Nightmare couldn't think, he couldn't do anything but act, using some of the last of his energy to leap forwards and grab the vial from Ink's satchel, tar-like corruption smearing on the rest of the containers. At the same time, he activated an emergency link he kept hidden in his jacket, using the last of his magical energies to send out a desperate S.O.S. call. 

He wanted to see them one last time...

Ink snarled, rushing forwards to try and steal back the vial, hand extended. In his weakened state in this positive AU, Nightmare would have the poison wrestled out of his grasp in an instant.

He clenched harder around the vial purposefully instinctively, shattering the glass and letting the liquid sink into his tendril.

Ink stopped dead in his tracks, mouth open, eyelights gone. It was obvious he had never thought that would happen.

"...You're going to die...."

"Yeah, I know, thanks," Nightmare snarled as forcefully as possible, almost collapsing onto the ground. He was weakened already to almost the point of fainting, and the whatever-it-was Ink had concocted wasn't helping, that's for sure.

Half of him was hopeful that Ink had made an unexplicable mistake- forgotten the real vial at home or made a mistake creating it and it was actually harmless, or at the very least, survivable.

But when he fell to his knees with no warning, he knew it was a futile hope. His magic was already weakening, eyelight wavering, corruption flowing more freely. 

He was dying.

Ink was panicking now. Nightmare couldn't even die in peace...
"Oh Stars, Nightmare is dying, Dream is dying--!" His voice was shaking with dread. "There- I didn't make- there isn't an antidote yet!!"

He opened a portal with a hasty swipe of his paintbrush, presumably to the Doodle Sphere. Nightmare didn't care much anymore, the screaming pains running through his Soul taking up all his attention.

Error... you'll be okay now...