Dreamcrash

Seventeen: Something's Missing

The figure approached me, muttering to himself, grinning insanely. He had a light grey jacket that went down to his knees and dark grey loose shorts, both with dark green diamond patterns on them. The hood was covering his face. He also had a grey turtleneck and dark green and grey shoes. The figure raises his hand and I'm thrown into the air, hovering a few feet off ground.

"Who are you and what do you want?!" I yell, hoping someone will hear.

"Oh, you really don't remember me? That's... disappointing. I really thought you'd be strong enough to break my magic. With that, might I say, very interesting Soul of yours," The figure says, looking up at me. I see grey eyelights with black holes in the center. "But it seems I was mistaken."

"Look, I don't know who you are, or if I'm supposed to know you or not, but let me go before you get hurt!" I say, trying to sound stronger than I feel, because right now I'm scared out of my nonexistent skin.

"Haha, don't lie to me. You don't have any powers. You can't fight back."

"You don't know that," I stutter.

"Yes I do." The figure's voice goes stone hard. "So don't even try it."

I struggle, trying to get out of what I now identified as some sort of Blue Magic. The more I talk, the more my head hurts, like I'm trying to remember something that's just out of my grasp. Maybe, if I caught it, this could make sense. I reach for the memory...

"So, since you can't remember me, I should introduce myself. Again. My name is-"

"Three," I said, the name popping into my head. "You're Three."

The figure, Three, and I stare at each other for a moment before he breaks out into almost insane laughter.

"Oh, so you do remember! Ahahaha, I knew you were strong enough to break my magic! Good job, Night!" 

"That's all I can remember, and I don't even know how I know you! Now, if you don't mind, I need to get going!" I say, anger starting to build up. This guy walks in, pretends we're best friends, and refuses to tell me anything.

"No, I don't think you will be going anytime soon. I need you for something, Night."

Something in me clicks, and a bit more of that memory is retrieved. Anger. Burning anger for something this guy did. I take a deep breath and feel my left eye flare.

"WELL TOO BAD!" 

There's a whizzing noise and something cuts through Three's hand. He flinches and releases me from the Blue Magic. Another whizzing noise and something cuts in front of his face, missing him by inches and causing him to lose his balance and fall over. I hold out my hand and all the emotions I can feel around and in me solidify. I needed to defend myself. So I needed a weapon.

There's a flash, and a silver arrow pointed straight at Three's chest appears by my hand.

"Get out of here," I say, only wanting to be done with this guy. Three looks at me, grins slightly, and sort of... glitches. Then he's gone.

I hear static behind me.

I whip around just as Three glitches into existence behind me and aims a glitching Gaster Blaster at me. I dodge and the arrow leaps from my hand, right at him. He slides out of its path and reached a hand out, streaks of lime appearing in his left eye. The arrow freezes, and I was reminded of something Patch did whenever he would Codewrite something.

I put two and two together as Three Codewrited my arrow and copied it, sending a ton more at me. I focused my energy on something to block it with and found some positive feelings in the area, which I used to make a transparent silver barrier around me. I then teleport behind Three and make another arrow, grab it, and bring it down straight through his rib cage, pinning Three to the ground. Three pauses, then chuckles, which slowly turns into a maniacal laugh.

"Wow, I really did underestimate you! You're much stronger now that you can use your powers! This is very, very interesting!" Three grinned, and I wondered for a moment if this guy was truly sane. "This has been a wonderful experience. Thank you so much for helping me. Ciao!"

Three glitched and disappeared, leaving me to figure out what the heck just happened.

I roamed around my home for a while, steering clear of the village, waiting for Patch or Pen to come pick me up. After a while, nobody came, so I decided I'd teleport to the Art Dome myself. Upon coming back, I saw Seed was up, limping through the Art Dome. He smiled and waved at me when I arrived, but I could sense he was hurt and exhausted.

"Hey Seed, are you okay? You seem injured," I say, walking up to him. 

"Yeah, I'm good. Just had to go finish up a neutral run in Crashtale," He says like I'm supposed to understand that. Once he sees my confusion, he explains. "At the end of a neutral route, I'm supposed to take the six human Souls and try to kill Frisk, the human. They normally win, so I'm not sure why I keep trying, but to be honest it's pretty fun."

I try to wrap my head around the fact that Seed, the only decently calm and collected person here, just said attempting to kill a human is fun.

"It's because you're coded to keep doing it, it's not like you have a choice," Patch says, appearing behind us. Pen follows not long after.

"Oh, hey you two." I wave as Patch heads over to me, flicking his head at Seed in a 'You can go rest' motion. Pen floats up to other papers in the Art Dome and inspects them.

"What's up Night? Anything new?"

"Well, actually, something very odd, and possibly bad, happened in my home."

"Something bad? Let's hear it," Pen groans at the same time Patch rolls his eyes and says "I bet I've heard worse."

The two look at each other. 

"15 G," Pen says. Patch nods.

"Let's hear this odd thing."

I explain the whole thing that happened with Three, leaving out some minor details. By the end, Pen looks a bit worried but I sense fear and concern from Patch.

"Did you say he was glitching?" Patch says, voice trembling.

"Yes. Is something wrong?"

"And he could Codewrite? And had Blue Magic?"

"Yes." Pen and I look at Patch, confused. "What is it?"

"Can you remember his full name, or did he just go by 'Three'?"

"I'm not sure."

"I'll... I'll be right back. I have to check on something." Patch disappears, leaving Pen and I confused. Patch returns a moment later, looking like he's seen a ghost.

"Patch, what is wrong," Pen says.

Patch says nothing, but digs through his pocket and pulls out 15 G, which he gives to Pen. Pen mutters a curse word. "The person you're talking about is most likely an alternate version of Error 404, one of Error's helpers in the original multiverses. Which can only mean one thing. We have another Destroyer on our hands."