The following few weeks were hard on all residents of the Castle. Killer and Nightmare found it hard to leave without being faced with a sobbing baby bones and it often resulted in Dust having to hug him close as they left. It didn't stop Ink from having panic attacks and crying until Nightmare returned and curled up with him for several hours.
Horror and Dust had it a bit easier in the sense that they didn't cause the episodes, but almost had it worse by the fact they had to handle them until the other two returned. And in Dust's case he'd even had to try and wrangle a completely distraught and unconsolable Ink when Horror had to do a drop off of food for Horrortale at the same time Nightmare and Killer left to speak with Edge in Underfell. Needless to say the other three returned to an exhausted looking Dust and a very upset child.
It was nearly two months before Ink finally began to resettle into the routine they had previously had, but he would still have brief episodes whenever Nightmare himself had to leave the castle. Dust had managed to begin distracting him by allowing him into his Doodlesphere more and more, even going so far as to give the baby bones a bit of freedom by allowing him to explore it alone as long as he promised to not go through any doors.
Nightmare hadn't been happy at first, the Guardian's protectiveness towards their resident child having amped up alongside Ink's anxiety and episodes. However, he had accepted it reluctantly when he'd left the castle and for the first time in two months Ink didn't immediately break down due to the baby bones being too distracted with running off to explore his domain.
This slow return to their routine gave them all a false sense of security, because the moment the Gang began to relax once more something just had to happen.
Dust stepped into Nightmare's office unsurprised to find their resident baby bones curled up with his Nightmare plush. While Ink was doing better, he still tended to sleep on the couch in Nightmare's office where he could easily wake up and find the Guardian. This also meant that instead of retrieving Ink from his own room, Dust often retrieved both him and Nightmare for breakfast from the office.
"Morning Boss." Dust called softly, smiling as Ink blinked at him sleepily.
Nightmare looked up from the papers he had in front of him and nodded in response, before marking something down and standing from his chair as a tentacle stretched over to the groggy child. Dust stepped out of his way as the Guardian walked towards the door, Ink now dangling from his tentacle, and then followed him out of the room.
"Is Killer still off in Underfell?" Dust asked as they made their way towards the castle.
"Yes. Last he reported, he was making progress with speaking with Underfell!Sans about an alliance." Nightmare replied.
"I believe we agreed to call him Edge to make it simpler." Dust commented, receiving a shrug from the Guardian.
They entered the kitchen and were greeted with Horror making what appeared to be French Toast, bacon and scrambled eggs. Horror had been set on making more breakfast items that Ink liked, probably due to his own distress over having left the baby bones alone so long, but none of them had complained since they weren't really picky themselves.
They settled down for breakfast and Ink immediately began chattering away to them, the baby bones never liking silence. The three adults would ask questions and pitch in where they desired and Ink was more than happy to talk away about anything and everything he came up with or they asked about.
After breakfast, Dust followed behind Ink as they headed to the library while leaving Horror and Nightmare to their own chores and business. Horror had updated them about the common area he had found and Nightmare had been assisting with any repairs that required heavy lifting, but it was close to completion. Once that was done Dust intended to move everything that they kept for Ink's entertainment into it except perhaps his plushes, of which Ink carried the Nightmare one everywhere. He even planned to move some of Ink's favorite books to the common area, but they could always go to the library directly if he grew bored of them.
It was as they stepped into the library that their day went sideways. Dust was just stepping through the library doors when Ink yelped. Dust's head and gaze snapped to the baby bones and he felt his SOUL stop as he watched Ink disappear through one of his portals. He dived for the child, but it was too late as Ink vanished through it and his panic skyrocketed immediately drawing the attention of his Boss as the Guardian manifested into the room with his tentacles poised to strike.
"What happened?! Where's Ink!?" Nightmare demanded as he realized Dust was practically clawing at the floor where Ink had vanished.
"He fell through a portal! I wasn't quick enough!" Dust exclaimed, his anxiety growing at the thought that he'd once again failed to keep Ink safe.
Nightmare appeared to immediately focus more inward, most likely trying to find Ink through his emotions. With how attached he'd been to all of them, it shouldn't be too hard to track him. Or so he thought. When a few moments passed in complete silence and no movement from his Boss, Dust's panic grew tenfold.
"I can't find him…" Nightmare muttered, his vision refocusing on Dust.
Dust's eyelights pin pricked at those words and he grabbed Papyrus' scarf in a tight grip to keep from hyperventilating.
"What does that mean Boss?" He asked nervously.
"It means wherever Ink is it's not a place I can access or possibly shouldn't access. Hopefully his portal just took him to Error again and he'll be back in a few minutes." Nightmare said, his tone calm but his whole body was clearly tense.
Fatal jolted awake at the sound of a cry followed by a thumping sound. Sitting up, he tilted his head in confusion as his pocket of the anti-void became filled with soft sobs and a voice.
"Nightmare!" The voice sobbed, drawing Fatal's attention to the small being that had somehow ended up in his "home".
Fatal slowly rose to his feet before slowly moving over to it. As he got closer the blur that was the small being cleared up and Fatal couldn't help the staticy glitches that overcame him a bit at the sight of a child.
The child was a skeleton like himself and smaller than he ever remembered himself or Papyrus being. Not that he remembered much of Papyrus clearly anymore. The baby bones was dressed in an oversized dark green hoodie with a single cyan stripe across it and in their arms was a doll of some sort of green monster with appendages on its back.
Fatal glitched again as he had a vague memory cross his mind of a fight he'd once gotten into with a similar being. It was gone just as quick, however, a fight not worth remembering he was sure.
"WhAt ArE yOu dOiNg HeRe?" Fatal asked, his staticky voice reverberating through the emptiness of the anti-void.
The child jumped in surprise and snapped their head around to stare at him with wide watery eyelights. Fatal simply tilted his head at the small being, waiting for a response from them. The child blinked after a few moments and sniffled slightly as he hugged his plush.
"I don't know. I didn't want to leave the Castle." The baby bones answered quietly.
"CaStLe?" Fatal inquired, slowly sitting down in front of the child.
"Nightmare's Castle. We live there."
"wE?"
"Dust, Killer, Horror, Nightmare and I. We all live in his Castle together. I was going to pick a book for Dust to read when my portal opened."
Fatal tilted his head in confusion at the child's words. He didn't know of many outside himself that could open portals. And those he did know he'd never bothered to learn the name of, especially not the blue string bastard. However, he didn't think any of them were children.
Turning his attention back to the baby bones, Fatal focused on the code that made up the child and watched the numbers flicker in and out. To most the numbers would've made no sense, but to Fatal it revealed a lot. The child was a coder, but different from himself, he could do far more than copy code. Portals though clearly he had no control. And the child had the ability of basic creation. He couldn't create timelines and worlds, but he could create objects and manifest items at will, at least in the future he would, it appeared to be an untapped ability at the moment.
The sound of sobbing pulled his attention away from the code and back to the child once more and he frowned at the ball the child had curled into.
"HeY, eAsY bAbY BoNeS. iT's OkAy." Fatal soothed, reaching a hand out carefully to the child.
"I don't like being back here! It's cold and lonely and too white! I want Nightmare!" The child sobbed, clutching the plush to his chest in a death grip as he cried.
Fatal had never been good with crying even when he was a normal Sans, he vaguely remembers scrambling to fix things whenever Papyrus would do it and hated it if he was the cause of it for any reason. Now was no exception. The baby bones sobs made his SOUL twist in discomfort and made him glitch slightly worse in distress.
"HuSh NoW, bAbY bOnEs. It'S oKaY. i'M sUrE tHiS nIgHtMaRe WiLl CoMe GeT yOu SoOn." Fatal said soothingly, reaching forward and wiping away a few tears.
The child sniffled and hiccuped in response, before blinking watery eyelights at him.
"ThErE wE gO." Fatal encouraged with a slight smile.
The child returned it with a wobbly one of their own.
"NoW, wHaT's YoUr NaMe BaBy BoNeS?" He asked, letting his hand drop as the child settled.
"Ink."
"WeLl InK, i'M fAtAl. I'll kEeP yOu CoMpAnY uNtil nIgHtMaRe CoMeS."
Ink liked Fatal. He reminded him a bit of Error with all his glitches, but his eyes were interesting. One being blue and one being red and both had some weird words in them. His personality however, reminded Ink of Killer with an obsession with puns. Killer preferred pranks, but his love for them was similar to how Fatal liked to make puns. Not that Ink was complaining, the puns made him giggle and feel less afraid.
He was giggling at another pun when Fatal suddenly changed. His dual colored eye sockets changed to both be red when blue strings suddenly wrapped around Ink and yanked him back with a yelp. He clutched his Nightmare plush desperately trying not to drop it as he found himself dangling from strings behind Error of all Monsters.
"Fuck off Trash!" Error growled as Ink watched Fatal launch a barrage of bones at him.
Error's strings easily tangled them up and destroyed them with ease as the Destroyer then launched his strings at Fatal with a maniacal grin.
"No! Don't hurt him, Error! He was nice to me!" Ink cried out, squirming to try and get free.
His shout is apparently enough to make Error hesitate and allow Fatal the chance to avoid the strings and launch more bones at Error.
"Shit!" Error cursed viciously, dodging the bones.
His dodging resulted in Ink being swung around a bit with a squeak as Error retreated back from Fatal.
"Damn, he's annoying." Error muttered, rapidly destroying bones Fatal continued sending at him, "Time to leave, squirt!"
Ink blinked as a glitchy portal opened up beside him into an unfamiliar AU. Before he could take in much about the AU, Ink was suddenly lifted into someone's arm and he jolted as he realized Error had grabbed him and leapt through the portal. As soon as he'd leapt through, the portal snapped shut and Error was tearing open another one and throwing the both of them through it.
A few more portals later, Error finally stopped and set Ink down on the ground of an AU. Ink was too busy staring wide-eyed at the AU to notice Error appearing to check they hadn't been followed. They were in an AU that appeared to be based in a space setting. They were on some sort of large floating rock surrounded by Echo Flowers with stars as far as Ink could see that he couldn't take his eyes off.
He'd read about stars, but Nightmare's castle wasn't in a place that had a view of them. Nightmare's realm was located in some sort of pocket dimension of sorts and appeared to have a perpetual sky of storm clouds with the occasional lightning storm. So beyond books and the occasional picture, Ink had never seen the stars.
"How the hell did you end up with that trash, squirt?" Error asked, coming up next to Ink as he stared at the sky.
Ink remained silent however as he tried to take in everything. He heard Error glitch slightly in annoyance before turning to look at him and seeming to stop.
"Oh, I suppose you've never seen Outertale before, huh?" Error asked, getting a shake of Ink's head in response.
"They are one of the rare AU's that get to see the sky. In their case they are located in space instead of under a mountain like the original Universe and most of its AUs." Error explained, moving to sit down as he stared up at the stars as well.
"They're so pretty." Ink muttered in wonder.
"Yeah, I suppose they are." Error agreed softly.
They fell into silence for several minutes, before the sound of approaching footsteps had Error launching himself to his feet. Before Ink could ask anything, Error snapped his hand out and pulled up the hood of Ink's hoodie to hide his face.
"Shit, they normally leave me be when I come here." Error cursed, turning to the approaching footsteps.
Ink carefully peeked out from under his hood to see a skeleton that appeared to be the Sans of the AU approaching with his hands shoved in his hoodie pockets. Ink was curious about the star motif that seemed to be interlayed throughout the other's outfit and silently wondered if he could convince Nightmare to get him one.
"Hey pal, who's your friend?" The Sans asked, his eyelights drifting to Ink as he stopped several feet away.
Error ignored the question and stepped in front of Ink to block the other's view while flicking one of his hands to pick the child up in his strings. Ink saw Outertale!Sans tense at the action and pulled his hands free of his hoodie.
"We're leaving squirt." Error said, his yellow eyelights narrowing at the other skeleton as his free hands reached out to open a portal.
"Easy pal, I ain't gonna hurt ya." Outertale!Sans called soothingly, his eyelights never leaving Ink despite speaking to the Destroyer.
"Ha, don't make me laugh. You couldn't hurt me if you tried trash!" Error mocked, flicking his hand to send Ink through the portal first.
Ink heard the call for Error to stop before the other stepped through behind him and glared back at Outertale!Sans as he closed the portal.
"Mind your own business!" Error snarled as the portal closed on a slightly panicked Sans.
They were once again in the Anti-void, Error's section most likely if all the blue strings were any indication. Error didn't delay opening another portal however, that revealed the entry hall to Nightmare's castle. Ink perked up at the sight of it and wriggled as Error carried him through, only to glitch heavily in surprise and hostility as Nightmare immediately manifested in front of them both.
"You found him!" Nightmare stated, instantly moving past Error to Ink, much like the first time Ink had met the Destroyer.
Ink eagerly held his arms out for Nightmare to pick him up and cuddle him close.
"Found him with Fatal, unharmed oddly enough, but then again a child isn't much of a threat to that piece of trash." Error explained, "I took us through several AUs before stopping for a bit in Outertale. The Sans there noticed I had someone with me, but I covered the squirts face before he saw him."
"Ink thank god!"
Nightmare was stopped from inquiring further as Dust and the others appeared at the top of the stairs. Dust shortcutted down to Nightmare immediately and jerked back slightly as he clearly stopped himself from ripping Ink from Nightmare's arms. The guardian glared at his caretaker for a moment, before reluctantly handing him over to the other, who wasted no time scooping him into his arms and shortcutting back up the stairs to Killer and Horror.
"Inkling, you have to stop giving us SOUL attacks, we can't take much more." Killer commented, reaching out to pat Ink's head as Dust cuddled him close.
Horror followed the other's lead and patted Ink's back as he rumbled a "welcome home" to him. Ink simply cuddled closer to Dust in response to everything, enjoying being home after being in the Anti-void for so long.
"Horror, Ink missed lunch so start working on Dinner. Killer, Dust, take Ink to the kitchen and keep an eye on him. We don't need another portal incident." Nightmare called, pulling all of their attention to where he still stood with Error.
"Sure thing Boss, should we save you a plate?" Killer asked.
"I will join all of you momentarily, so it shouldn't be necessary." Nightmare responded.
The Trio nodded and then turned to make their way towards the Kitchen. Horror took the lead, while Killer fell back to walk behind Dust, the former making faces at him over Dust's shoulder. Ink giggled as they left the entrance hall and cuddled closer to Dust when he felt Papyrus run a ghostly gloved hand over his head. He really hoped his portals would stop opening randomly, he didn't like leaving home without warning.
Nightmare watched his gang walk off before turning back to Error.
"You said, Outertale!Sans spotted you with Ink?" Nightmare inquired, pulling the Destroyer's attention to him from where he'd been watching the group leave as well.
"He definitely knew I had someone with me, but I covered the squirts head and made sure not to use his name. Outer is too close to the Omega Timeline to risk Ink's existence. He most likely believes I took him back to the Anti-void and killed him." Error responded.
"Our saving grace I'm sure, but that will put a target on your back from Dream and his little minion for a while."
"Your brother couldn't properly scratch me and we both know it and he'd never risk that blue scarf wearing trash getting killed by me."
Nightmare nodded in agreement. Dream would probably try going after Error on his own, get thrown around a bit and retreat to the Omega Timeline to recover after. Unlike Dream and the Omega Timeline, Nightmare and Error each understood the necessity for their opposites in the balance of their Multiverse. Dream wanted his brother back, but Nightmare couldn't be who he was in Dreamtale anymore even if he wanted to, and the Omega Timeline hated Error for simply doing his job as the Destroyer.
The interference of either parties in their own jobs was merely a nuisance to the both of them, one that they had each learned the nuances of avoiding as much as possible.
"As much as I hate to say this, especially with how young the squirt is, he needs to start training his abilities." Error commented, crossing his arms.
"Easier said than done. We know he has portal abilities as well as Code abilities, but those aren't simple to train without heavy risks. Not to mention, I don't know any coders who could assist in training so we'll be going in blind." Nightmare responded.
"That's an understatement. I don't understand Code like a coder does, just how to destroy it. But I can at least help with Portal training. My strings aren't easily cut by just anything so I can be an anchor in case of accidents during them." Error suggested, waving a hand and pulling some strings from his sockets.
Nightmare fought the urge to cringe at the sight. He could only imagine how painful pulling his magic out like that must actually be, but Error did it without a thought.
"I suppose we should begin tomorrow then, the sooner the better." Nightmare agreed easily.
"Definitely. He got lucky that Fatal appeared to be in a non aggressive mood when he popped in, but it was still a risk getting him since he immediately jumped to one upon my arrival." Error said in agreement.
Nightmare gritted his teeth at the thought of Ink ending up in such a situation, but kept his thoughts to himself. Error had gone in to ensure Ink was okay, he couldn't blame the skeleton for being a catalyst for a dangerous situation.
"Join us for dinner then. We can discuss when you can come and assist with the training so that we can have as many precautions in place as possible." Nightmare suggested, turning to head for the kitchen.
He heard Error glitch heavily in surprise at the invitation, but said nothing as the Destroyer followed after him. Despite Error's aggressive exterior and words most of the time, it appeared that he had a soft spot for his opposite. He doubted Error would've offered help if he wasn't, but he wondered how fond Ink would become of the other in the future.
Nonetheless, Nightmare would take what assistance he could get when it came to Ink at the moment. The poor baby bones was oddly prone to getting himself into unintentional mischief it seemed.