Black And White

The bitter winds of snow storms were filled with diamond dust, inflicting pain on Nightmare as he struggled along the Forgotten Path. The fog and winds combined were so dense that one could barely see anything else past their own hands, yet Nightmare straggled across the Snowdin Lost Peaks, with one goal in mind: to confront the one that they called Death Incarnate, Albertus Black.

He had been once again thwarted, with Ink and Seraphim managing to defeat his Villain Sans Squad and saving his "friend", Dream. His mind laughed at the thought, the only reason why Ink wanted to do it was because of the death of so many AUs and ATs. But he had accomplished his goal. The deal he had made with Bill; to help him reach Albertus Black in exchange for his spot on The Villians Sans Squad. Prior to the recruitment of the multiverse's worst members, he remembered a certain multiversal tyrant, thought to have been killed. He sought out Bill!, who had the power to find anything in the multiverse for a price. He thus started the group in order to create chaos so as to distract the Guardians to reach his goal

His journey here had been a brutal one. His main goal was to find what William was talking about. The tyrant who had almost felled the multiverse. His breath came out of his mouth in puffs of mist as he continued on his journey through the remains of the Barren Wastelands. He stumbled across a mammoth chunk of ice that was along the path, he shrugged his sewn coat and tightened his scarf.

It wasn't that far away that Ink and Dream were hot on his tail. Dream pushed himself against the galewinds, with the diamond dust neutralising his positivity..

"It's c-colder than-n I expec-t-ted" Dream barely managed to utter through shivering teeth. Even though the both had come prepared with both jackets that could easily adapt to the condition, the fierce biomes of the Mirror Realm still posed a challenge. They had passed through the Labyrinth of the Ruins, the Hotland Deserts and the Waterfall Swamps.

"Oh,come on, I know you aren't such a c-crybaby,"Ink said cheerfully, even though it was pretty obvious that he too, was suffering from the effects of the diamond dust. The dust was sapping their strength as well, making it harder for them to go on. "Look, we'll cross this hill and then s-set up camp for the d-day."

Dream could barely manage a nod as they continued across the path of Nightmare's footsteps.

Meanwhile, Nightmare was obviously exhausted, with the diamond dust sapping most of his strength already, but still he persevered, placing one shaky step in front of the other. Suddenly, a massive church appeared out of nowhere. Nightmare stared up at the sudden appearance of the blinding white steeple. "The Astral Palace?" he thought, "No, just an imitation. Should have known Dream would put in here" He teleported in front of the defensive walls of the palace. Nightmare stretched out his tentacles, using them to lift himself over the moat and into the tower. At least the accursed diamond dust has stopped falling, probably because the shield charms repelled it. The journey had sapped most of his strength, with him having to kill the King of the Ruins, the Minotaur, along with Arachane, the Guardian of the Desert, and Pontus, the Swamp Beast. He opened the crystal doors that led into the castle, hoping that his quest would be over soon.

Just a few miles away, Dream and Ink were sitting inside one of Ink's foldable tents, which was an understatement. The inside of the tent was a house, complete with furniture and bedrooms. Dream shivered while stretching out his hands to the fire that Ink had started.

"Hey, here's your chocolate," Ink said as he sat down next to Dream, with two steaming mugs of Hot Chocolate in his hands, filled to the brink with Blue's special marshmallows. "He was a good cook, no doubt about it" Dream thought.

"T-thanks," shivered Dream as he took his mug with shivering hands. He carefully took a sip and felt the chocolate spread through him like lava coursing through his marrow.

Ink sighed as he sat down, the fire roaring before them."You do remember the first time we fought to contain him right? It won't be as easy this time you know. Now we have to face both your brother and Albertus"

Dream's body gave a much more visible shudder at the mere mention of the tyrant's name. It had been at least 3 millennia since that event, however the name still held very unpleasant memories. His mind began to slip into one of his old memories and he slumped over, body twitching as Ink struggled to hold him aloft

—-

Flashback

—-

"Hold him off!" shouted Ink, he was getting ready the necessary materials to seal Albertus into his newest prison. They never had any trouble like this before, not even with Nightmare or even Homicide!.

"I'm trying!" shouted Dream. He was engaged with Albertus in fearsome combat. He was dressed in an emerald green armour, his dual sabres reflecting Albertus's deadly beams away from himself.

"YOU ALL WILL SUFFER," Albertus said with a menacing tone, "NOT EVEN THE PROTECTORS OF YOUR SO CALLED "MULTIVERSE" WILL PROTECT YOU FROM MY WRATH!"

"Ink!"

"I need more time!"

"We don't have enough time, damn it!"

"1 minute is all I need. Just divert his attention!"

Dream summoned his staff and used it to launch stars at Albertus. Albertus summoned his axe and swept them all to the side as if they were made of paper.

"YOUR WEAPONS HAVE NO USE ON THIS GROUND" laughed Albertus, "I AM MORE THAN YOU MAN, FOR IN THIS REALM, I AM YOUR GOD."

Dream shot a few more arrows of positivity, which seemed to be the only thing that was capable of harming Albertus. With another sweep of his axe, he knocked the arrows out of their flight path, where they fell to the ground and vanished.

A flash of red at the corner of Dream's eye told him that Ink had finished setting up the ritual. In a flash of black, Ink leapt into battle, sweeping his brush in a wide arc to form a purple tide of paint that rushed towards Albertus. Albertus summoned his blaster to shield him from the tide and get him above the battleground. Ink splattered some ink with his brush, creating 3 ink puddles and summoning Ultra Sans, Seraphim Sans, and Dusttrust, who immediately engaged the crimson-clad warrior in combat.

Ultra let loose a beam of pure energy from his maw while Seraphim summoned a giant scythe and dashed into combat with Dream, who had his knives again. Dusttrust and Ink summoned a massive wall of Ink Blasters and Gaster Blasters firing them all at once. Albertus couldn't withstand the onslaught of attacks, knocking back Seraphim with a blow from his axe and used one of his eyes to shield him while his other eye acted independently, engaging Dream in combat. Dusttrust teleported behind Albertus, hoping to get the kill, but was parried with Albertus's axe and pushed back a few metres at the mere impact of his parry. Seraphim managed to get a clear shot with his yellow magic, catching Albertus in the shoulder, causing Albertus to let loose a roar of fury, unleashing a massive red power blast that knocked all of them to their feet.

"A NICE ATTEMPT, BUT NO ONE HAS EVER BESTED ME I- '' Albertus was cut off by two slashes on his back that had damaged his wings, making him roar in pain. Dusttrust and Seraphim had managed to deflect the attacks using Seraphim's Green Magic, preventing the two from being knocked down.

Albertus quickly recovered from his shock and twirled his axe around, crouching in a fighting stance while staring down the two mortals that were in his way.

"MORTALS, YOU DO NOT STAND A CHANCE AGAINST DEATH." Albertus snarled.

"I think we've had our fair share of what's impossible" Dusttrust quipped back.

Albertus charged in, axe at the ready. Dusttrust and Seraphim ran in opposite ways, making Albertus use his eyes to do a 360 sweep of the area in full crimson. Seraphim used his scythe to redirect the beams while Dusttrust summoned a wall of bones to shield him. Seraphim dematerialized his scythe and summoned a pair of gauntlets, using it to charge into Albertus full on. Dusttrust made Albertus Soul go blue and trapped him in a prison of bones, leaving him to deal with Seraphim's heavy blows. Albertus slammed his axe into the ground, making Seraphim lose his footing and demolishing the bone maze. Dusttrust was blown away by the impact and was slammed into the columns, where he lay unmoving. Seraphim dug his nails into the floor to steady himself. He stood up, both eyes a deep scarlet red, and snapped his fingers. A massive Hypergoner appeared behind him, its massive mouth charged with power. The blaster fired, leading to Albertus having to shield himself again.

Meanwhile, the others were still struggling to get back up. Ultra had managed to shield the rest from most of the damage, but had taken a lot of damage in the process. He was physically tired and could not keep his soul from fragmenting. As his body turned to dust, Ink managed to save his soul in a vial before pocketing it and summoning his brush. Ink and Dream were visibly bruised and their bones were fractured in several places. Ink grimaced as Dream struggled to get up. Ink could see Seraphim in the distance, holding Albertus at bay in the ghoulish blue light of the portal. Ink reached out a hand to Dream, who clung to it and stood up shakily, using his staff as support.

"Alright now everyone, give him everything you got!" Dream shouted

Ink, Dream, and Seraphim charged in, melee mode, attacking him to make sure that his focus was divided between parrying the three different melee attacks. Albertus was forced towards the blinding light of the portal, furiously combating the three entities that stood between his conquest and him. Albertus furiously combated his opponents, as they pushed in nearer towards the edge of the glowing red chasm.

With a final push, the tyrant was finally pushed into the blue void, where it instantly disappeared and vanished, with nothing but a leather-bound book in its place.

"So that's it?" rumbled Seraphim.

"I guess so," replied Ink

"What now?"

"We have to secure the book, hopefully we can at least secure it away from those that hope to unleash chaos on the multiverse." Dream said, walking over to Dusttrust, who had regained consciousness, and helping him to his feet.

"Let us hope this is the last time that you require our assistance. The multiverse will not always have us."

—-

Flashback end

—-

"Another memory?" Ink asked as Dream came back to consciousness. He was sitting down on the couch, Ink sitting opposite him. Ink passed him his mug of chocolate, holding his own and sipping from it.

"Yeah, this one was about the final battle between us and him." Dream said, accepting his mug and taking a long sip from it.

Ink paled, "Tell me about it. It was quite the battle. I remember that King Multiverse himself had to remove the memory from everyone else except the Protectors of the Multiverse."

Dream set his mug down and held his knees. He and Ink didn't always see eye to eye, especially when it came to the multiverse. He knew that the multiverse was always under constant threats, from the usual Error! Sans shenanigans to the rare ones like the X-event and even incursion events.

"I know that we have rarely agreed on anything," Ink said, gazing into the roaring fireplace, "But we still need to put aside our differences you know, especially with you trying to rescue your brother from his corruption"

Dream knew exactly what he was talking about. The events of the Villains Sans Squad had unfolded because Dream and Nightmare had gotten into an argument because Nightmare felt that Dream did not care about him and that Dream never understood Nightmare's pain.

"I guess after all, every Yin needs a Yang," Dream replied, "Maybe Fate had always intended for his corruption, what the creators would call a 'Nexus Point'."

"I guess you're right. After all, every good story needs a villain." Ink heartily replied.

While the two continued chatting as the fire roared on, the church bells began ringing, signalling the birth of a new Alternate Timeline. The clock had stopped its chiming ever since the events of both the X-event and the annihilation caused by Shattered Dream and Nightmare's conquest to kill off every positive feeling (also because of the Villains Sans Squad), so it came as a surprise that the clock had began its function once again.

"The bells are ringing again?" Dream asked. Ink nodded as they rushed to the nearest window to look at the Astral Palace that resided in the distance. They could see that the Palace was glimmering ever so slightly in the never-ending storms of the Lost Peaks of Snowdin.

"But you did move the Time-Keeper to a safer place right?"Ink asked Dream. Dream nodded. "I passed it to KIng Multiverse who kept it in his vault. Nightmare wouldn't dream of breaking into there. I just hope that the mechanication Steam!, Time Kid! and CORE!Frisk made, can keep Nightmare at bay long enough so that he can't reach Albertus. "

Dream continued, " I suspect that it is serving its purpose. The copy of the clock is supposedly in sync with the original Time-Keeper, making it seem more realistic. So the bells that you hear are indeed signalling the birth of a new story, albeit from an extension of the real Time-Keeper. Nevertheless, we do need to move quickly. We never know whether Nightmare could have entered."

Ink nodded, "Well then, finish up your drink and let's get moving. I've already gotten an extra shirt for you." Dream smiled and chugged down the rest of his chocolate.

Not too far off, Nightmare was in the hallway of the Astral Palace, taking in the wonders of the Crystalline Church. He looked in awe of the Time-Keeper, the clock that fathered the AUs and ATs, and kept balance to the universe. The massive machine had gears in numerous places, all embellished with precious materials and gemstones. The ticking of the clock synchronised with the heartbeat of the universe, and was supposedly

The beauty of the clockwork even made Nightmare stare on in awe. This was the Nexus of Creation, and was where ideas were made into reality. He walked up to the face, reaching out a tentacle to examine the godly machine.

"My my, now this is something else" Nightmare said, using his remaining tentacles to lift him up so that he could take in the glorious sight. His tentacles extended carefully to touch the wondrous piece of machinery.

No sooner had he touched it that there was a massive shifting sound that sounded like the gears of the clock rearranging themselves. The halls of the palace trembled as the machinery reformed itself into a coagulating mass of clockwork. Gears rearranged themselves to form joints as the clock started to secrete ink. The machine whirred as its primal code began booting up. Taller and taller the mess of machinery got up to at least 10 metres tall. As Nightmare watchedon, the Time-Keeper's previous form had changed.

The beast's head was the clock, and its arms were massive gears that had reformed themselves into massive fists. Its body had liquified itself into something that resembled a mixture of ink and steel. The presence of electricity was so omnipresent that one could have sworn there was a storm in the building. The beast flexed its hands, clenching them into fists which were rippling with electricity. The name Talos was visible on its chest, and it assumed a battle position in front of Nightmare.

"So this is what is made to stop me, Ink?" Nightmare chuckled to himself,"A mechanication that posed as the true Time-Keeper, or a counterpart? You have no idea what I am capable of."

Talos roared as it charged towards Nightmare, fists at the ready. Nightmare dodged to the left in the nick of time, with debris and dust cluttering the place he just stood at moments ago. Nightmare's infamous tentacled stretched out from his back, lifting him up to summon more of his appendages to target Talos. The inky black tentacles dove into the ground and burst through the ground below the mecanication's feet, holding it in place and restraining it. To Nightmare's surprise however, the beast merely shrugged off its tentacle chains and fired off a stream of yellow magic pellets at Nightmare. Nightmare used a wall of tentacles to shield himself from the blast, but winced as the bullets began eating into the tentacle's exteriors.

"Damn thing can fire positive emotions as well? Screw you, Dream." Nightmare thought as he severed the now useless limbs from his torso. He summoned an old weapon that he had absorbed a long time ago, his bow, and used it to fire an arrow of negativity that ricoheted of Talos's frame. Talos's joints cracked towards where the arrows had been fired from, swiping a hand towards Nightmare's position. "Oh fu-" Nightmare said before getting found into the North-East wall, where he tried to recollect his splattered remains.

Talos rearranged his joints to form a behemoth blade that stood over twice Nightmare's height. Nightmare used his scattered remains to form clones of himself to use their tentacles to bring him down. The mechanisation took notice of this and swung his blade in a wide arc, scattering the clones across the room.

"Damn thing expecting my every move." Nightmare thought as he tried to recollect himself into his body once again. "All of the previous guardians had a weak point, where is his?"

Then Nightmare spotted it, at the heel of the machine's left joint, a seal that was out of place, made of a different metal than all the rest. However, his remains were scattered all across the room. If he had any hope of defeating this monster, he needed to move faster than he had ever moved in his life.

He quickly used his main consciousness to open up a portal to the opposite side of the room, nearly getting cleaved by the behemoth blade. He quickly absorbed his scattered remains into a smaller, lighter version of himself. He browsed through the few weapons that could penetrate the seal. He currently only had two blades strong enough to slice through the seal, one being Psychopath's Sword (which he had taken after a very brutal confrontation) and the other being the Aegis, the axe of the Minotaur, which he had claimed as a trophy after beating him.

He quickly formed the sword into his hand, having more experience with it. The only problem was that the machine had quickly spotted his new form and charged in, Nightmare had no choice but to block the machine using the sword.

Little did he expect that the force to counteract the machine would be much harder, he pushed back with all his might against the 3 metre-tall wicked steel, and his sword shattered.

Well there went that plan. Nightmare had collectively begun to grow back to his usual height, and increased his size to wield the Aegis. When he was almost 4 metres tall, he summoned the Aegis, its blade shining with bronze and steel.

He rushed in at the machine, who swung its blade at the incoming opponent. Nightmare slid into a dive between the legs of this opponent, running the axe blade through the discoloured seal of the machine. The valve immediately started spouting the mixture of ink and metal, leaving the machine to start crumbling into disorganised gears as the mixture left its body. Nightmare tightened his scarf and picked up one of the gears, absorbing it into his mass. He turned and vanished into the blackness of the Astral Palace.

In the darkness of the cold walls, Nightmare tried tracking his progress. The layout felt different yet familiar all the same. He used his powers to create a torch on each of his tentacles, so that he could see the path. The hallway illuminated with a ghoulish-purple light, allowing Nightmare to read the inscriptions on the nearest walls. Hieroglyphs and runic language covered the entire wall, all having a faint sense of power. He could barely read the old alphabet of the ancient magic language, but could feel that these were restraining spells, designed to keep things out, similar to the green magic of kindness.

He continued along the path until it split into 3 separate paths. Connecting all 4 ways was a large, central atrium, seemingly familiar. The atrium itself was covered in runic inscriptions as well but the markings differed from those that he had seen on the wall earlier. Something was wrong about all of the pathways, he could feel it. The first hallway had the stench of death around it. The second hallway felt very oppressive, as if the darkness itself was an entity that even he was afraid of. The last hallway however, the feeling of something ancient, something that even he considered old. He would not dare go picking a fight with something that had the upper hand in battle experience. He tried to find a way to go back and find an alternative path but the pathway he had come through had closed, leaving him in the atrium

He pondered over the decision, looking at the inscriptions on the walls. Nightmare roughly translated most of what it said, brushing his hand over the inscriptions closest to him. As soon as he had touched the inscriptions did the entire atrium light up with all of the inscriptions, all glaring with the same light that his brother used. Nightmare readied himself, seeing that these inscriptions were never meant to keep something out but in this case, to set a trap.

The runes began to launch themselves from the walls. Some fired themselves from the walls towards Nightmare directly. One of them landed on his protective tentacles and it fell to the floor writhing, having the rune Kenaz burned into its side. Nightmare used his tentacles to split himself into smaller copies to easily dodge the bullets. However, what he had not expected was for the runes to start amassing themselves into large warriors in golden armour.

Nightmare calculated, there were 5 warriors at the opposite side and he had at least 6 clones, not including himself. He ordered all clones to do combat with one of the soldiers. Each clone drew their own sword and engaged each of the runic warriors in combat. Nightmare summoned his bow and absorbed the last clone into himself. Dodging past the bullets, he landed 3 arrows in the warior closest to him, executing a perfect snipe shot with another arrow through the warrior's head, making it stumble and dissolve into light energy.

"I gotta find a way to deactivate the runes first. Ink must have had a kill switch installed, knowing his style." Nightmare scanned the walls to see if there were any obvious switches that he could pull. One of his clones was slammed backwards into the wall furthest from him. The walls shuddered with the impact and caused all of the runes to deactivate for a moment before resuming their assault.

Nightmare, seeing this, tred to find the codeway that the runes used. Under the assault, he closed his eyes to detect the residual energy that the runes drew their strength from. He could vaguely sense the runes magic pathway all leading to a central pathway like an electrical system. As he dodged, he suddenly noticed a small anomaly in the pathway, he opened his eyes and saw that it was connected to a Delta Rune, the emblem of the Underground. He quickly made his way towards the Delta Rune, slashing and dodging his way across the carnage to smash the rune. The chaos immediately ceased and the energy flow shut off, leaving Nightmare and his clones in the once again dark atrium.

Nightmare looked around the dark atrium as he absorbed his clones back into his true form. No doubt that Ink and Dream had layered the Astral Palace with another Maze of Illusions, very much similar to the one that the Labyrinth was modelled after. NIghtmare smiled, If that was so, his mission would be a lot easier. He turned into the darkness, his solace, walking with purpose and newfound strength.

Meanwhile, Ink and Dream were staring at the broken remains of Talos. They had just trekked the rest of the way here and had just entered the Astral Palace. Ink picked up a random gear piece, turning it over.

Inscribed on the gear piece's back was the shape of a Soul of Hope. Ink clutched it in his palm, holding it to his mouth and whispering a few words before throwing it to the air, where it burst in a shower of radiant sparks.

"He was a good soldier, one of the last inhabitants of an abandoned AU I found at the outskirts. He was the sole survivor of a disease that had infected all its inhabitants and corrupted them into flesh-eating monsters." Ink said.

Dream just stared at the room around them. He could see traces of Nightmare in the demolition of the room. He couldn't care less about what had been in the room, except that Nightmare was now one step close to his goal. He got a vague feeling that Ink was trying to tell him something but he was too distracted to keep focus. His mind had never been the same after the events of Albertus's tyranny. He had been having constant flashbacks to the dark times.

His eyes darted towards the centre of the room, housing a large crystalline cross, symbolising the Angel. He remembered the happier times before his brother turned. He shut his eyes, trying to focus on the task at hand, instead of slipping back into memories. Ink stared at Dream cautiously. Everytime Dream slipped into a memory, he looked progressively worse, as if the effects in the memories had a hold on him as a Guardian of feelings.

"Hey, you okay D?" Ink asked. Dream gave a quick, reassuring nod. He had never hoped to set foot in the Astral Palace again, even if this were just a mere imitation of it. The place held too many painful memories for him. Dream looked around the room, trying not to focus on the Angel sign. He saw the entrance to the second Maze that had been built by him and Ink. He spotted a trail of Nightmare's goop leading on into the darkness. He nudged Ink's shoulders,"Hey Ink, we had better get a move on. NIghtmare may have freed Albertus already."

"Right, let's go" Ink responded, pulling out his inkbrush before leading the way into the darkness of the maze.

Meanwhile, Nightmare punched through a wall, his fist glowing red hot as his goop mended the skin burned with runes. He dusted his jacket as he took a closer look at the sealed gateway.

"Heh, finally made it." he smirked. "Now just to get rid of these…" He pulled up his sleeves, concentrating his power to form his bow and an arrow, gathering all the negative feelings in the Multiverse to form a Megabolt. The purplish energy concentrated around his hand, forming an arrow almost as long as he is. He launched the arrow, the projectile screaming as it travelled. The Megabolt connected with the door, exploding in a burst of purple light. Nightmare waved away the smoke, concentrating at the figure in front of him, bound and chained up with various protection runes and ritualistic circles.

"So I see that you have finally found your way. Took your time." Albertus Black replied. His sharp teeth curled into a grin, looking just like a lion that had spotted its prey.

"Then you already know what I want," Nightmare replied. He couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. After all, this was the most dangerous creation of whatever God was up there. He was an unjust immortal, his power only bested by his cruelty, having no morals whatsoever, and was known as Death Incarnate across the whole multiverse.

His conquest of the Multiverse had been erased from most memories. WIlliam had proved to be a valuable asset, his description of Albertus had not even been close to the Monster that kneeled in front of him. He stared at the Red Tyrant, his long robes of red flowing across his body. His visor gleaned red in the light of the protection runes as the cracks in his head glowed violet. As for his visor, he knew the story, his eyes had been pulled out of his head while he was still sane, and it broke his mind. Now the eyes were his weapons. He hoped he wouldnt have t be on the receiving end of them.

"Of course, of course. Shall we get down to business then?" Albertus rattled his chains, red energy spilling off it.

"Fine" NIghtmare summoned forth the metal that he had absorbed from Talos earlier, using it to form a blade to cut the spun the blade, testing its balance before touching it to the ritual magic surrounding the chains. The runic markings dissipated into red mist, leaving the enchanted uru holding Albertus in place. With one fluid motion, Nightmare cleaved the chains, where they dropped to the floor, clanking uselessly against the marble as Albertus stood for the first time in centuries.

"Much better. Now for the main event." Albertus stretched out his hands, summoning forth his eyes, where they glowed brightly, pulsing off power. He closed his fists, forming the eyes into a single, double-bladed axe. He cleaved the air with the axe, forming a tear to the Doodlesphere along the axe's path.

As they prepared to move forward, a layer of blue and black bones jut past in front of them, sealing off the portal. Albertus sighed with exasperation as he and Nightmare turned around. There, in the frame of the doorway, stood Ink and Dream. Both stood ready for the confrontation that was about to take place.

"Not a minute free and we have to deal with this crap. Let's deal with these two and move on." Albertus twirled his axe, where it formed a pair of swords. He spun them around experimentally before rushing with blinding speed. Dream managed to catch his swords, metal clanging against metal as Dream was pushed back from the raw strength of Albertus's strike.

Ink leapt forward, paintbrush poised to strike Albertus but was restrained by Nightmare's tentacles. Albertus's grin widened, changing one of his swords back into his eye and blasting a red ray in the direction of Ink. Ink raised a wall of Ink bones, absorbing the ray. Nightmare pulled Ink through the air, smashing him into the floor. Ink quickly recovered, summoning an Ink Blaster that pushed Nightmare back as he used his tentacles to prevent being hit.

Albertus caught Dream's neck, lifting him up and throwing him against the wall. Ink pulled a vial from his sash, smashing it against the floor. This summoned forth Dusttrust,fully healed after a few millennia and ready for another fight.

"Back for Round 2?" Albertus sarcastically asked.

"Yeah,if you want your ass to be whooped," Dusttrust snarkily replied. Albertus laughed, rushing in to kill yet another target. Dusttrust didn't hesitate, rushing in to intercept the blade.

Meanwhile Dream struggled to pull himself from the war. Ink was combatting Nightmare's many tentacles, paintbrush slashing through the tentacles as if they were Hydra heads. Dream summoned his twin daggers, grimacing with pain as he pulled his body away from the ruined wall. He threw the daggers at Nightmare's tentacles, operating like a boomerang as they sliced all of Nightmare's tentacles at once before returning to Dream's hand.

Dusttrust and Albertus's blades flashed in a blur of red and purple as both of them crossed blades. Albertus' sword caught onto the hilt of Dusttrust's sword, twisting and disarming him, where the purple blade sunk into the ground. Dusttrust snapped his fingers, flinging Albertus into a bone. Blood dripped from the wound but Albertus just yanked out the bone, stabbing it into the cracks in his head, smiling maniacally as Dusttrust grimaced, throwing a wave of bones into Albertus's chest. They pierced through his chest, but Albertus didn't even flinch, turning his swords back into his Axe and rushing in to decapitate Dusttrust.

"Very good. Very good. Continue your cheap kid tricks." Albertus laughed. Dusttrust just grinned, before teleporting and summoning 3 Gaster Blasters that fired at Albertus. Albertus simply waved his hand, summoning forth a wall of bones that blocked the blasts. An ink wave swept Albertus off the floor, entangling him and wrapping him in ink. Nightmare was trapped in a positivity bubble. Dream was struggling to hold the bubble together as Nightmare tried to puncture it with more tentacles. Ink stepped forward, his paintbrush at the ready to recontain Albertus. Dusttrust stood with Ink, pulling his sword out of the ground, assuming a battle position.

Albertus grinned, his body glowed red before exploding in a burst of energy. Ink, Dream, Nightmare and Dusttrust were thrown away as the bonds that held Alberutus vanished. Ink struggled to get to his feet at Albertus advanced nearer, axe in hand.

"What, did you think it would really be that easy to subdue me?" Albertus laughed. His mind was delirious with the thought that even the Multiverses' Guardians could not even contain him again. His axe glinted against the light of the room, ready to decapitate Ink.

Suddenly a wave of white light engulfed the entire room, dissipating objects into code. Albertus stopped as the world began to dissolve around the 5 characters. His axe suddenly unwritten itself, becoming a sword, and then his eye, before dissipating into nothingness. Ink and ALbertus stared at the now-empty hand in disbelief.

"What trickery is this!?" Albertus roared.

"I don't know!?" Ink shouted back. He thought that Error or another code-based entity had found an anomaly in time and space and decided to rip it apart, but the destruction was unlike what he had seen before.

Suddenly, Dusttrust burst into strings of code, before vanishing into thin air, seemingly leaving no trace of him. The 4 skeletons looked around at each other, fear in their eyes as they faced a new unknowable threat. None of the 4 had ever seen such an event before. The whiteness spread like an infection, creeping nearer. Ink raised a wall of Ink, seemingly holding back the whiteness before the wall disappeared in the same way, leaving nothing but a mere metre separating the 4 from the everlasting whiteness.

And suddenly, everything went white.

Silence all around.

Nothing existed.

The skeleton woke up in a white, empty space. He sat up, looking around. He checked himself, he was in the nude, all bones.

'Your eyes' His mind told him. 'My eyes', his voice sounded rough, calloused. He felt around his skull. Nothing. No cracks He checked his eye sockets, eyes there. He had the feeling it wasn't supposed to be this way, but he couldn't remember what it was. He couldn't remember anything. His name, his name started with an A, something like Alfred.

Alfred?

Albert?

Albert.

His name was Albert.

He stood up, limbs stretching as tried to make sense of his surroundings. Just white as far as the horizon could go. A walk to discover wouldn't hurt.

Not very long after, he chanced upon something on the ground. A visor, with spikes on it. It was grey in colour, seemingly made of iron.'Mine'

Mine?

His.

He tried to put it on. The moment it made contact with his eyes, a flash of red startled his senses. He decided to hold it rather than put it on, and continued walking.

He walked

And walked

And walked further still

Suddenly, a figure appeared on the horizon. He raced towards it, desperate to ask them what was going on, who he was, and where he was.

As he got closer, the figure made itself apparent. A figure, dressed in a cloak of white with the hood over his head. His right hand was a patchwork of metal of moving joints, a clear difference from the flesh and blood of his left. A sheaf of papers hung around his head as the figure appeared to scan through a similar paper.

"Hey. HEY!" He shouted at the figure. The figure, apparently startled,turned towards him. He ran forwards to him. The person's face was covered with a black mask. Green glasses hid their eyes, but he could sense surprise from the figure.

"You're not supposed to be here." The figure told him.

"But what happened? Who am I? Where is this?" He asked. He was unsure whether he was even asking the right questions.

The figure took off his glasses, revealing two dark brown eyes that seemingly stared through Albert. The person sighed, and seemingly summoned a pair of chairs for the pair to sit on. He motioned for Albert to sit, which he gladly took. He placed the visor on his lap, which the figure noticed with a slightly worried look.

"What had happened here was an incursion, in which two multiverses crash into one another, often only leaving one reality surviving with the other disappearing or simply becoming a blank space, which is what had happened here. Nothing is supposed to be left behind from the smashed universe, but on rare occasions, can leave behind a survivor. You are the first survivor I have witnessed in a long time."

"And you are?" Albert questioned.

"I go by many names, but you can call me 0verr1te." The stranger replied. "I would have no idea who you are, I'm sorry."

"Albert. I think. I have no recollection of who I am, nor why I ended up here. I started journeying across here and ran into you."

0verr1te's eyes widened a little bit at the sound of Albert's name, but did not press any questions. Instead he replied to Albert's last question.

"As to the answer to your last question, this is where your universe used to lie. Now, it just exists as a blank space for the other universe to build on. I found that the incursion happened through the shockwave that rippled through the realities."

"And you come from the other universe?" Albert enquired.

"No, I created both your universes, your one and the one that destroyed yours. I suppose what happened here is partially my fault. For that, I am sorry. But the other universe is still very new and you can be given a chance to live in it."

"I'm fine with going anywhere as long as it is not here" Albert replied, his hand throwing the visor up and catching it on his index finger, twirling it around with the wary 0verr1te looking on, his regular hand twitching ever so slightly. The sheaf of papers around his head twirled more aggressively, as if in defence to an attack.

0verr1te raised his metallic hand, seemingly slowing down the sheaf of papers before a green piece of paper fell out of the stack. The instant it touched the floor, a doorway manifested itself on top of the paper.

"This is a faster way to where you want to travel to," 0verr1te said. "It leads to other people from the other universe who can help you. I'm sorry that I can't do more than answer your questions. It is up to you on how you want to dictate your life from now on."

"And what will you do once I leave?" Albert asked.

"As I said, I'm the creator of both multiverses. I will be watching everything from above. Eventually I will dictate how events will go, but right now it is not in my hands. Even creators have their limits." 0verr1te replied.

"Fine" Albert stood up, catching the visor one last time before opening the door and entering. The moment he had passed through, the door shut itself before reducing itself to a paper and rejoining the sheaf. 0verr1te picked up his glasses, putting it on before going back to browse through the sheaf, eventually throwing out two pieces of paper.

The first sheet expanded into a profile sheet. 0verr1te looked over the details, frowning, then checking once again with dishertedness before closing it and returning it to the sheaf of papers as the second divided itself and both pieces folded into the caricatures of humans.

"Paul, Equinox. I hope you are well, but this is an emergency. Another incursion has happened, and we have a survivor."

"Who?" The first one asked in a feminine voice, their skin half black and half white.

"One of my old, dangerous creations. I suppose both of you are familiar with the name Albertus Black."

"💧︎□︎■︎ □︎ ︎ ︎ ︎●︎ ︎⧫︎ ︎ ︎📬︎ 👎︎ ︎ ︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ︎●︎●︎ ︎ ︎❍︎✍︎" The other, hooded, figure spoke.

"No, he seems to have lost his memory. I did not expect anyone to have crossed over from my incursion. This creates a lot of problems. Equinox, can you make sure that Palette will keep him in the Alpha Timeline, we don't want Inkmares to learn of this."

"Sure will do. You're the boss" Equinox replied.

"Paul, make sure you stay hidden, but keep a watch over his upbringing. I can only overwrite reality so much before it collapses on itself. I would entrust the job to Nyx and Hemera, but I don't want to bother them, especially on their honeymoon."

" ︎ ︎■︎ ︎📬︎ ︎◆︎⬧︎⧫︎ ︎□︎■︎ ︎⧫︎ ︎⌧︎◻︎ ︎ ︎⧫︎ ︎ ︎❍︎ ⧫︎□︎ ■︎□︎⧫︎ ❍︎ ︎ ︎⧫︎ ✌︎■︎⧫︎ ︎□︎ ︎ ︎📬︎ 💧︎ ︎ ︎⧫︎ ︎⬧︎ ︎□︎■︎■︎ ︎ ︎●︎□︎⬥︎ ◆︎◻︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ❍︎ ︎ ︎⧫︎⬧︎ ︎ ︎⬧︎ □︎⬥︎■︎ ❖︎ ︎❒︎ ︎ ︎■︎⧫︎📬︎"

"I know, but rebuilding him may be his redemption, even if he doesn't remember it. And make sure he tries not to discover the Darkverse. You are both dismissed. Keep my words in mind"

The piece of paper unfolded and repaired itself before returning back to the sheaf. 0verr1te sighed, snapping his fingers to teleport somewhere where he could clear his mind.

Meanwhile, Albert stepped onto grass, the blades crackling as he took step by step through the place the door had led him through. He looked around. There were similar doors to the ones that he had come out, all leading into the grassy plain that he now stood on.

"Hey there!" A friendly voice called out. "Whoa, buddy. Put some clothes on."

The person that the voice belonged to descended from a tree, nimbly touching the ground. He was a skeleton too, dressed in a white jacket, with black shorts and pink slippers. The right side of his head was covered in glitches and around his neck, he had a red scarf.

"What's your name buddy?" He asked.

"Umm,My name's Albert."

"Well Albert,my name's Sans. But you can call me AD, just to distinguish from the rest of the other Sanses here."

"Here? Where am I?"

"Heh, fret not Albert, you're among friends now." AD! replied.

"Welcome to the Alpha Timeline"

Reality-13

Coming soon