I tumbled into the Doodle Sphere. An instant later, Ink came to a summersaulting stop beside me. Smoothly transitioning from rolling to running, he bolted, found his favorite spot a few meters away, and started pacing in a tight circle. I leapt up, stumbling as I readjusted to balancing normally once again, then hurried after him. He was muttering to himself now, occasionally scribbling things on the fringes of his scarf. I waited as patiently as I could, expecting he would give some sort of explanation. When he showed no signs of stopping, I let the questions loose.
"ink! what was that? why did he—who is he? why? why was he after us? and me, why me? what is going on?!" Ink had stopped pacing and now stood still, watching me. He was being uncharacteristically quiet. Pondering for a moment, he sat, then patted the ground in front of him.
"Your jacket's ripped. Let me fix it." Still numb from the near-death experience, I obeyed without question and plopped down in front of him. Ink sighed thoughtfully.
"You visited another world. That was one of the Alternate Universes Dream and I spoke of," Ink explained as he unwove and rewove the threads of my tattered shirt. "Long ago, it was devastated by the other Sans you met today. Error. Destroyer of worlds. I've known him as long as any. He was not always… insane."
"wait, you two aren't family, are you?" I exclaimed.
"No," Ink said. "We're not related in the least. We are as Yin and Yang. I don't actually remember much about my creation. I don't really know how I came to be. I know his story better than I know mine."
"what happened?" I asked. "who… why… what made error insane? and why is he after you and me? and who is 'blueberry'?" Ink tisked.
"Slow down. Too many questions, I won't remember them all."
So, I asked one question at a time, and Ink told me the story.
Error was once quite normal, rather like I was before the hacker entered my world. He too had a genocidal human fall from the mountain. Though I had resisted that part of my coding, he had offered the human mercy in the midst of the judgment fight. They had accepted it, beginning to regret what they had done. But Error was bluffing. Laying down their knife didn't mean the end of the judgment. The human "got dunked on," a display of what it feels like to be shown fake mercy. Error then, as of all Sanses, requested that, if they were really friends, that the human would not come back. The human reset the world and returned.
But, when they reset, it glitched Error. Stealing the human's soul, he destroyed his own world and disappeared into the Anti-void. The Anti-void was the empty space between universes. It was like the Doodle Sphere, except—no color. No bright light. No Wigglers or Windows. Just… nothingness. Error, upon arriving in this white-room prison, slept for almost an age. But then he got tired of sleeping. The place was so suffocatingly quiet that he lost his mind.
Upon discovering how to see into other worlds, Error concluded that they were all glitches—rather ironic, considering he was one himself. He declared that he did a thankless job, destroying universes, for, "there should only be one." Ink said that he himself, along with Dream and Blueberry, had clashed with Error on countless occasions.
Blueberry was yet another Sans. He was from a universe named "UnderSwap." It was too crazy for me to comprehend, but, basically, in that world… Sans's and Papyrus's personalities swapped. There, Sans was upbeat and innocent, and Papyrus was lazy and protective. All the other monster's personalities were swapped with their counterparts, also. It was nearly too much for my mind to handle. Anyway, Blueberry was part of Ink's team, known as "The Star Sanses." Together they protected the worlds… until Error abducted Blueberry.
Blueberry, along with the soul of the human child from UnderSwap, who was named Chara, had been taken by Error. Since it was impossible to track in the Anti-void, there was no way to find Blue. He had been missing for a long time now. And Ink and Dream were ready to do anything to get him back.
"… been searching for a long time. That was the first contact with Error I've had since he took Blueberry," Ink concluded. I nodded slowly, chewing on this.
"so," I asked, "he'll be alright… right? i mean, error said he's fine. it sounds like he doesn't want to hurt him. so, that means you have all the time in the world. that's good," I pointed out. Ink, I assume, shook his head, finishing the last strings of my jacket.
"Even if Error was telling the truth, Blueberry could die from isolation and fear, lack of care, or overtaxing psychological strain long before Error loses his interest and kills him." Ink, taking a deep breath, concluded— "If Blueberry's personality is drastically altered, his sanity broken, or if he is gravely injured… anywhere from five hundred to four thousand worlds could disintegrate."
"5,000?!" I shrieked. Three things happened simultaneously. There was a loud RIP sound, I felt a strange weight at my shoulder blades, and Ink seemed to be slapped back. Confused, I looked behind me.
To my utmost surprise, I realized the teal wings had snapped out. I thought they had disintegrated upon us reaching the Doodle Sphere. Apparently not. Ink sat, awkwardly bending back, pushed away by the sudden force of the wings, which had smacked him right in the face. Turning his head and pushing the wings out of his way, he spat a mouthful of what appeared to be some sort of semi-solid, teal feathers. They disintegrated. After spluttering a few more feathers, he sighed and frowned at me.
"Come on, I just fixed that jacket," he muttered. But I didn't really care about the jacket anymore. I struggled to my feet, craning my neck to get a better look at the wings. I was surprised at how relatively light they were.
"they're still here…?" I balked. "I thought they disintegrated when we came into the Sphere." Ink stood and shrugged.
"It's kinda weird they've lasted this long. This kind of paint magic doesn't usually persist for more than ten minutes or so. I'll reclaim it." He touched the edge of one of the wings… but it refused. Ink seemed confused. "What?" he murmured, and tried again. But it refused.
"ow," I murmured. Ink's eyes went wide.
"You can feel that?" he asked in shock.
"yeah." I shrugged.
Ink started pacing again. I stood stupidly watching him, with nothing but freakish wings at my back to attest to my confusion. Ink stopped pacing, stared at me, then started pacing again, now murmuring unintelligibly to himself.
"would you please tell me what's running through your mind right now?" I asked exasperatedly.
"Did you see dreams?" Ink asked, ignoring my question.
"what?" I asked.
"Before the human fell, did you dream about them coming?"
"that's kinda irrelevant right now…" I murmured.
"Did you?"
"yeah," I admitted. "lotsa other weird stuff, too. probably all wishful thinking, though." Ink gave me an inquisitive glance.
"Wishful thinking, about what?" he pressed. I shrugged.
"imagining what it'd be like to have a kind human fall, if there is such a thing. and what it would be like if we all made it to the surface. that sorta thing."
Ink started pacing again. Just as I was losing all patience with him, he whirled.
"The Angel," he stated simply, a look of revelation on his face, evidently pleased with a puzzle well solved. I stared at him blankly, too confused to even ask. He noticed. "Your world has the legend of The Angel, right?"
"yeah," I agreed, "though i'm not sure we're talking about the same thing. the angel, who's seen the surface, is supposed to liberate all the monsters, either by life or death. what of it?"
"It's you," Ink murmured. I balked.
"what? seriously? no, come on ink, that's impossible! it's obviously referring to a human: seen the surface, liberate the monsters—in my world, by killing all of us—and will 'return' to the underground… this is ridiculous." Ink shook his head.
"Alright, so, it could be the human. But you match the criteria as well: you've seen the surface and you have a chance to return to your world to free it."
"i haven't seen the surface," I pointed out.
"But you did. You saw the routes a human could take: genocide or pacifist. There are other worlds like yours, where the Sans has foresight, but they are rare. Your actions told me you suspected the human's actions beforehand. You dreamt the outcomes, didn't you? They weren't dreams. They were real. You really saw the surface."
"but… but that never happened! we never made it to the surface!"
"It was a possible outcome. It might have been an impossible past, it might yet happen."
"but… but…" I stuttered uselessly.
"It's what makes your world special," Ink exclaimed happily. "I've been wondering for a while. It's so close to the Classic Homeworld: mostly, apart from small things, all the monsters behave and look the same. I wondered what set your world apart. I knew there was something special hidden in this story!"
"i'm the angel," I murmured dumbly, still incredulous and unconvinced. "but… what if you decided to give me something practical, like, oh, i don't know… a parachute? then what would i be? a pro skydiver? and i'm not even supposed to be here at all, i shouldn't even have these things," I insisted, gesturing to the wings. "this has got to be some sort of mistake…" Ink shook his head.
"I was actually planning another protection bubble. But then the paint—or your code—decided to make something else." Ink then seemed to remember my full comment and shook his head again. "Nothing's a mistake. There's a reason for everything, ya know." That stopped me short.
"a… reason?" I challenged. Ink nodded.
"Yeah. Everything has a purpose. Don't you know it?"
a reason? a purpose? was watching my bro die over and over part of this "plan"? what about my deaths? the corruption of an entire world? what about all that?! how… what about error? how is that okay? HOW IS ANY OF THIS OKAY?
"i don't… i don't understand…" I whispered, holding my swimming skull, stumbling a few surprised steps backward… right as a flash of light and a swirly design of gold, sky blue, and white appeared in the air behind me.
"I sensed stress, is everyone alrig—" For a moment, as I pitched backwards, my foot falling through the floor that was no longer there, I couldn't help but think—what a joke…
I tumbled through the lower part of the portal as an oblivious Dream leapt from the top; he was currently unaware of my presence. Distantly, I heard Ink call my name as I was swallowed by the swirling rift in space. The portal snapped closed.