Crumbling Universes

Chapter Two

Flashback time brought to you by OuterTale

Ink sat in OuterTale. He was leaned up against a boulder and was looking up at the stars. OuterTale had become one of he favorites among all of the Aus, even if he'd never say that to someone. It had just been the best place to go to think. Ink drew constellation creating a large picture in the sky only he could see. He sighed, taking in the Environment, he thought about all the wonderful universe he swore to protect. He closed his eyes, letting the sound fill his nonexistent ears, until a small staticky sound came. It was odd, somewhat glitched screaming, or at least that's what it sounded like. Ink quickly opened his eyes standing up, he grabbed he paintbrush getting ready to fight whatever it was. But nothing was not there. Only a small brith light instead. For a moment Ink stared, confused. This wasn't what he was expecting, if anything he though it might have been Error. What is that? It kinda looks like a save point. Why is a save point here? Outer!Frisk doesn't come here. There was silence. No static. No glitch. Just silence. Ink looked at this thing closer noticing that it wasn't a save point. He had never seen this thing before. It was more circular than the regular star a save point looked like. So what is it? Then the static glitching started even louder this time, it pierced through his ears, and Ink clamped down on his skull to quiet the squinting at the strange thing. Little yellow lines began to poke out in random directions as they circled the entire universe. Ink looked around still squinting as the sound grew louder, the entire universe was beginning to glitched. The colors became inverted. The inhabitants's movements were slowed. Each persons voice was glitched. Ink reached out conjuring a menu bar filled with numbers and letters of each AU's code. He quickly scrolled through all of them to he reached OuterTale. Something was off about its code though.

OuT3rtAle
COdeE NuMBer: ]£\8€§}90

The universe began to shake and Ink felt a small stab go through he chest. He fell to the floor of the Au in pain. It was collapsing. As sworn protected and at some points creator of the AUs, when something happened to them it happened to Ink. Ink used his paintbrush as a crutch for him to stand, before trying to quickly fix the Au before it completely collapsed. As he tried to use his paints to fix the universe it only shook more, and the inhabitants didn't even realize what was happening each going on with there own lives. Ink continued to try but the more he tried the worse it got, and the worse it got the closer the universe came to falling down, as did he.

~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Error hanged from the ceiling in his strings, contently playing with two of his puppets. He hadn't seen much of Ink lately, usually the to fought at least every other day, although he hadn't seen him to about two days now it was odd. Even if he barely cared. If Ink didn't come to the anti void the two wouldn't fight, if the two didn't fight Error could be alone. Which he enjoyed, but it still felt wrong. He continued to ignore this fact until one of the puppets above him began to shake Violently. He looked at it confused, this had never ever ...happened.
"What the hEck?" He said to himself. He made his strings hand him the puppet, it was of Outer!Sans. Error growled to himself opening up a portal to OuterTale for himself, but as soon as it was created is dissolved. "What th3." He made it again, this time it stabilized, and he went through dropping the puppet in his Anti void.

'And there's the rainbow himself.' Error thought to himself.

Propping himself up with his paintbrush, Ink stared in horror at the glowing orb in front of him. Ink looked around noticing Error, "Error?" He said, quietly but loud enough for him to hear. Error looked back, grimacing at the loud sound, as strings began to come down from the sky, until they wrapped around the universe completely. Error then snapped his fingers, and the world was ripped to shreds, the loud sound stopped, but instead was replaced with another sound one of Ink's screams. Error looked at the world he had just destroyed, in place now was just a white void and monster dust. Piles and piles of monster dust. Error sighed, he hated all the Aus for a long time, they were just disgusting glitches to him, but OuterTale had been the place he would come to think. He had desided a long time ago before him and Ink's truce that this would've been the last one destroyed by him. It didn't matter now anyway. The truce still stod and the Au was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ink's POV
I can't believe it.

The staticky, glitched sound subsided when Error destroy the universe, but it was replaced by me screaming. I screamed out in pain, it felt as if I had been stabbed in the stomach multiple times. I held my side after I quieted. Error looked over at me in a questioning glance, looking me up and down. I tried my best to stand, or at least get up, but a stumbled and fell to the ground, I could here Error's glitched laugh, as stood again using Broomie as a crutch once more. Error gave me an amused smile, " Y-You d-destroyed OuterTale!" I tried to yell but it came out more like a forced breathe.

"Please, it was going to collapse anyway. I just did it faster." Error said, dismissing what I had said. "What even WaS that thing?"

"We h-have to restore this p-place. We s-said" I said, regaining myself more, but error cut me off.

"i knOw whAt wE saId. BuT if yUo reStore thIs pLace, thaT thIng woUld juSt cOme back." Error said.

"We don't K-know that. Outertale's gone, it needs to be f-fix." I said.

Error opened up another portal, "If somEthing tOok that much ouT of YoU, I thInk yOu shOulD find out wHat tHat wAs firSt." Error said walking through the portal leaving me alone. I sat for a few moment trying to regain myself more but it was hard, I was in a room of white, there was nothing else. Nothing to focus on. I grabbed for Broomie and painted a portal to the Star Sanses base. But it only got me to the entrance of the base. If Dream or Blue we're there it would be a lot of explaining, to tell the everything that had happened. Especially with these...these... viruses. It was the only thing a could thing to call them, Code-viruses. It had corrupted OuterTale code before it collapsed. I started towards the door and opened. I began to walk in one hand was used to hold my side, while the other used Broomie as a crutch.

It was quiet inside, it seemed like I was the only one here. Thank the stars. I began walking toward the stairs that led to each of our bedrooms. We had modeled our base after UnderTale's house in Snowdin. I was at the foot of the stairs when I heard Blue and Dream's laugh coming from the kitchen, as the two walked out they noticed me.
"Oh, Hello Ink. When did you get back!" Blue said, he was holding a plate of tacos and had a giant smile on his face.
"Heya" Dream said, and gave me a small smile, but he face seemed to change afterwords, looking me up and down. "You okay, Ink?" He asked.
"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine" I said, and smiled.
"Oh, I made Tacos for dinner, Ink. Come back down and eat with us soon." Blue smiled as he walked back to the kitchen. Dream stayed for a moment, I knew what he was doing, he was trying to see if he could find any negative energy around me. He did that from time to time, he'd never find any though, since all my emotions are artificial.

"You sure your okay?" Dream said again.

"Yeah. Tell Blue I'll be down in a minute." I said, Dream hesitated but nodded and turned away. I walked up the stairs to my room and closed the door where I dropped.
I stayed there all night, looking through the codes of each Au, nothing was wrong. In the morning I went to the doodlesphere and looked through the Aus again nothing had changed. After that a went back to OuterTale and tried to fix it, but I couldn't. My paints wouldn't stick and it was almost impossible to reset the Au without the Human soul that belonged to it. I headed back to the base I hadn't seen Dream or Blue all day, and the weren't there when I got back. I headed up to my room once more, and I sat on the bed, and for some reason I stayed there for the next three days.