Dream stares up at the planets and stars surrounding him. They twirl beautifully before him on his perch in an outertale universe. He came here to calm down, the stars always bringing a smile to his face and light in his eyes. This time, they only kept him from going completely grey.
He had been trying to find Error because he couldn't get their interaction out of his mind. He wanted, no, needed to know if he was going crazy or if maybe, just maybe, Error wasn't as hopeless as everyone thought.
However, no matter how hard Dream tries, how fast he was, Error was always out of reach. He was just beyond Dreams grasp. It made him mad, the amount of erased universes, hopeless and fallen monsters he had to shudder through, and for nothing. He had even tried asking his brother but had only gotten broken ribs for his troubles. It was almost as if Error was avoiding him, which made Dream feel bad. Was he being too pushy? Maybe that day had been a fluke. Maybe, just maybe, Error was as gone as everyone thought. Maybe Dream really was just as useless as he thinks.
"LOoking a lIttle grey there, drEam." A voice calls out.
Dream doesn't even perk up all that much. What was the point? Error found him once again from just two minutes of sitting still when he didn't even have the time to try and help the falling monsters he walked past on his quest to find Error. How could he have been so selfish?
He looks to the side and there was Error sitting down and stargazing like nothing was wrong. Like Dream wasn't the worst. Like the embodiment of hope wasn't…
They sit in silence for a long time.
"I saw a monster fall down today, and there was nothing I could do." Lies, there was something he could have done, he just didn't try and left. He hadn't felt up to it, Error had still been out of his grasp.
"It happeNs." Is the calm response he gets. It's not the one he wants. "Even thOugh we all wished it diDn't."
"Right, and I'm supposed to believe a murderer doesn't wish for monsters to fall." Dream scoffs out. The calm way Error talked about such a horrible way to die pissed him off. Dream could feel all the death weighing on his back, his sins crawling up and down his spines as new voices are added to those he's failed. "You destroy universes daily, and for what reason? Because they- it's fun? B-because… because why?" Why kill all those people, but not Dream?
For several minutes Dream waits for an answer, for anything. No answer is given, and Dream looks away, sagging. He hadn't really been expecting one, but he had been hoping for one.
"LoOk." Error says after what feels like years of silence, pointing at a planet.
Dream looks. He waits and watches, and before his gaze a planet explodes slowly, almost dramatically. It was gorgeous in all its colorful destruction, reds and yellows and oranges surrounded by the blackness of space. He didn't want to look away.
"Do you knOw what that was?"
"Um." Dream mutters, looking at Error in confusion, "A dying planet…" he says slowly, unsure what Error was saying.
"Yes, but also NatuRe." Error looks from the explosion to Dream. Pools of reds and yellows and whites pull him in, drowning him as they are enclosed by darkness. "Do you undErstand?"
Dream looks away.
"Are you saying that you're nature?" Dream asks with disbelief. How delusional was this glitch?
"No. I'm saying that LiFe cannot exist withOut death; lIght without daRk; yAng without yin. It's how The multiverse works. That's what I've learned, iF a bit too late. I admit that sOme universes were desTroyed that dIdn't need to be."
Dream tugs on his gauntlets, though not as bright as they usually are, they were brighter than they had been before Error found him. How is Error able to distract him from his feelings of hopelessness so effectively?
"Was my universe one of the ones that didn't need to be destroyed?"
"No."
Short and sweet, just a simple 'no'. His had to go. That's okay, he can accept that answer. It had to go. Nightmare hadn't left much behind.
Wind blows by their little spot, weaving through the grass and making the blades dance. Hours pass in silence. Error was the first to leave. Dream doesn't chase after him this time.