Outer could say that when he took up the task of being a Lookout for the Omega Timeline, he never expected to have to actually report anything to them. Then again, their AU was the least at risk when it came to the Destroyer, since he seemed to enjoy the stars so much. Outertale didn't like rocking the boat with the Destroyer since their AU was liked, it was a hard negotiation to make in the beginning with the Omega Timeline. Outer would report when the Destroyer came by and did anything other than watch the stars, but in return if the Destroyer ever came here no one from the Omega Timeline could pursue him.
There had never been a reason to report before now, however. This had been the first time Error had ever brought someone else into Outertale with him. Outer had only gone to investigate to see if he could distract the Destroyer from his possible prey, but discovering how small the other being was had surprised him.
The being had been too small to be an adult, meaning Error had taken a child from an AU and brought them to Outertale. They had been dressed in a cyan hoodie with a dark green stripe across its middle, confirming further that this was most likely a child, and a pair of dark shorts. They had worn no shoes, revealing that they had skeletal feet. This caused Outer to focus on their hands as well to see tiny skeletal fingers poking out from the slightly long sleeves of the hoodie. He couldn't see their face since the hood was pulled up and shadowing it, but he could see two bright glowing eyelights peeking out at him.
Error had taken a child skeleton from another AU. That had been the only thought going through Outer's mind as he'd asked Error who his friend was. He'd expected to go ignored, maybe even be attacked for interrupting the Destroyer with what he intended for the baby bones. Instead Error had glared at him and said something to the child too low for him to hear. The next moment, Outer was watching in horror as the Destroyer opened a portal to his anti-void and lifted the child with his strings into it.
Outer had moved to try and stop him, despite knowing he'd be useless against the Outcode skeleton, but the fierce snarl to mind his business had him shivering in slight fear as he watched the portal close on the Destroyer and his captive.
"Damn!" Outer cursed, his eye lights staring at the place the portal had been, "Core!"
His call was immediately met with a monochrome human child appearing beside him with a slight smile on their face. However, the child's smile faded at the look on Outer's skull.
"I've got a report to make to Dream and the Council." Outer huffed, feeling tired at the mere thought of dealing with the Omega Council.
"Is everything okay?" Core asked worriedly, receiving a nod from the skeleton.
"Outertale is fine, I'll explain everything when we meet with Dream and the Council." He replied.
Core nodded and led the way back into Starfall and to the first door they could reach. Outer let the small child open the door and didn't hesitate to step through the now open portal that led to the vast ever expanding space that was the Omega Timeline.
"Dream is on his way and the Council is gathering." Core stated as the door shut behind him and the child appeared beside him once more.
"What of the other Lookouts?" Outer inquired.
He hadn't said to call for them, but he wouldn't be surprised if some of them were pulled in anyway.
"Blue will be there as well as After, but the others are busy." Core replied.
"No Ccino or Dior? I'm surprised one of them are normally always ready for a surprise meeting." Outer shot back as they headed for the center of the city.
"Dior is releasing his new clothing line and surprisingly I was informed that Ccino was off dealing with a personal matter."
That was a surprise. Ccino's AU was very peaceful, near bordering on a perfect world compared to some, it never occurred to him that there were ever times that Ccino might need to deal with personal business. Outer silently wondered if perhaps something happened with Ccino's Papyrus, Latte.
"Well, he's missing out I suppose." Outer commented nonchalantly.
They fell silent for the rest of the trip to the Council meeting, running into After along the way.
"Hey." After greeted, waving to the both of them. Outer returned the wave and smiled as After fell into step with them.
After was practically a Classic Sans since he came from an Alternate Timeline rather than an AU. He wasn't entirely sure what the original end of the Timeline was supposed to be since The Human for Aftertale reset and then had the Timeline opened up to the Multiverse as a refuge for those coming from Corrupted worlds. It wasn't long after that that After had joined the list of Lookout's for the Omega Timeline.
This meant his fellow skeleton was dressed very similar to most classic Sans', only instead of the normal white shirt most Sans' wore After wore a white turtleneck. It didn't make him stand out immensely amongst any other Sans, but most recognized it as a unique quirk of After rather than that of a Sans.
"So what is this all about?" After asked pulling Outer from his thoughts.
"You'll have to wait for the meeting. I don't want to explain more than once." Outer replied, receiving a slightly surprised glance from the other.
After didn't press further and followed them into the Council Room where the seven Council members were already gathered. In fact the only ones missing were Dream and Blue, who were most likely on their way back from patrol if what Core inferred earlier was any indication.
"What is this about Core?" Emperor Metaton demanded.
"I am unsure. Outer called for me and informed me that a meeting should be called. We are only waiting for Dream and Blue to arrive before we begin." Core responded, receiving curious looks from the other members as they glanced at Outer.
Outer twitched under the attention, but said nothing. He, like many Sans', didn't like having the attention on him, but this meeting was important. While they had all heard of the Destroyer taking some beings back to his Anti-void, he had never taken one to another AU before doing so. At least not that they had witnessed. If this was something that would be common then it was a concerning change in behavior. Outer didn't believe that the situation he'd witnessed was all that it appeared to be however.
His thoughts were cut off as the Council room doors opened once more and another pair of skeletons walked into the room. Both were Sans', or well Sans based in one's case he guessed. One was dressed in a royal guard outfit that was predominantly blue, while the other wore a uniform bathed in yellows and orange.
"Ah Dream, Blue. Thank you for joining us so quickly." King Asgore greeted cordially.
This Asgore was an Aftertale variant though not After's Asgore, he heavily reminded Outer of his own Asgore which he suppose made sense since Outertale was one of very few AUs that were near identical to the Main Universe.
"Of course, King Asgore." Dream replied, nodding to the whole Council before turning to Core, "What is this about Core?"
"That would be for Outer to explain. He is the one who called this meeting." Core replied, turning their eyeless gaze to him.
Once more Outer had the entire room focused on him and it took all he had not to duck his head and shy away from the attention. Instead he straightened slightly and looked around at everyone before stepping more towards the center of the room.
"The Destroyer appeared in Outertale-"
"Is that all? Why waste our time with this?" Goner Alphys demanded, cutting him off as she rolled her eyes at him.
"If you'd let me finish, he wasn't alone." Outer growled, glaring at the Council member.
The immediate response was a cacophony of noise and questions were fired at him from all sides that he made no effort to answer. It was another couple of minutes before Core interrupted the noise and silenced the Council.
"Perhaps we should allow Outer to finish his report before any of us begin questioning him." Core suggested, turning back to him.
"Yes, our apologies Outer, please continue." Caretaker Toriel said, giving him a kind smile.
"Error arrived in Outertale and at first I thought nothing of it before I noticed he appeared to have brought someone with him. When I approached Error had pulled the other's hood up, but I could tell by their hands and feet that they were a skeleton. The most disturbing part however, was that it was clear this Monster was a child." Outer explained, allowing a moment for some of the Council members to gasp and fret, "I wasn't able to get anything from the Destroyer beyond him telling me to mind my own business before he took the child to his Anti-void. As far as I could tell the child wasn't afraid, in fact Error appeared oddly protective of them."
He stepped back next to After when he finished and allowed the Council to discuss between each other of what they believed this could mean. Outer had his own theories, but he doubted the Council would listen; they tended to view the Lookouts as mindless drones rather than actual beings with critical thought. He'd share his theory with Dream and Core after the meeting though, they would hear him out.
"As terrible as this is and as strange as the action of taking a victim to Outertale first may be, it is most likely that the Destroyer was most likely thinking of going to Outertale after dealing with the child and it messed with his portals. Dream himself has said that his portals can sometimes react more to his emotional based desires rather than his actual demands, it's not far fetched to say Error may experience the same." Emperor Metaton stated, silencing the others as they listened to his words.
Outer glanced at Dream who was grimacing at the comparison, but made no comment against it.
"Emperor Mettaton is most likely correct. Unless this becomes a regular occurrence, we can do nothing but list this as a coincidence." Healer Papyrus agreed.
"That poor child, they must have been so scared when Error took them to the Anti-void." Caretaker Toriel commented sadly.
"Keep an eye out Outer. If this behavior happens again, inform the Council immediately." Judge Undyne said, staring the skeleton down until he nodded at her.
The Council allowed them to leave after that, deciding to discuss a few things amongst themselves before disbanding since they were gathered. Outer led the way out and barely took a step out of the building before After turned to him.
"That isn't everything you had to say."
Outer smiled slightly at his friend's perceptiveness.
"No. Despite the Council's idea, I don't believe Error brought the child there accidentally." Outer agreed, crossing his arms as the others also turned to him.
"What do you mean Outer?" Dream asked, leaning closer in curiosity.
"I mean exactly that. Bringing that child to Outertale was intentional. He made a point to hide the child's face as if he was worried about someone seeing them, whether that was because the child would be recognized by me or could be in the future is up for debate, but nonetheless." Outer explained.
"It is odd that after all this time Error would suddenly make a mistake when taking a victim back to his Anti-void." Blue agreed with the idea.
"If that is the case, are you also implying that Error may not have killed the child?" Core asked.
"Yes. The Council may believe the Destroyer just killed a random child, but I don't believe he did. That child didn't even flinch at his strings, there wasn't a single ounce of fear in them. It makes no sense for the child to be unafraid of Error if he had been destroying their AU before he took them and he doesn't just take random Monsters from AUs without destroying it first." Outer said, watching as the others nodded in thoughtful agreement.
It made no sense for Error to have dragged a child monster to Outertale before taking them to his Anti-void. While Outer was under no impression that Error would have compassion or even hesitate if it was a child he was faced with destroying, he had also never known the Destroyer to purposefully drag out a monster child's death by changing their location. If the child had been that of a human child from one of the AUs the result would be different. Error almost seemed to get a sick amount of joy out of dragging out the death of a human child, especially the Frisks.
Nonetheless, Outer didn't believe Error had taken the child to kill them, but he couldn't think of why else he would have a child with him.
"What do we do from here? If Error didn't kill the child, does that mean he's keeping him in the Anti-void?" Blue inquired, pulling all their attention to him.
"It would make sense if he was, but for what purpose." Core replied, a hand on their chin as they thought it over.
"Is he trying to make another Error?" After suggested.
The whole group tensed at that thought. The Omega Timeline knew very little about how an Error came into existence, but each one was unique. While Error was the Destroyer and in turn was aggressive and destructive by nature, not every Error would become like him. The Omega Timeline knew of two other Errors beside the Destroyer himself and one of them made him look like a teddy bear in comparison. Outer was only glad that Error!Undyne always seemed to remain in the Void with Error!Papyrus and that neither appeared to be a threat for any time in the near future. In fact Error!Papyrus was the most chill Error they knew of though most still kept their distance out of caution.
"If it's another Error he wants, the Anti-void is certainly a way to do it. Until we either see this child again or can get Error to speak with us, we are once more at a wall." Core said with a shake of their head.
"Core is correct. We can do nothing more than speculate on what Error intends to do with the child." Dream agreed with a sad shake of his head.
The Lookouts nodded in agreement before saying their goodbyes. Core left to do whatever they did in their down time, while Outer and After waved Dream and Blue off as they both headed for the doors. The two skeletons walked in silence together as they thought over what they had discussed. But as Dream had said, Outer simply found himself thinking in circles and having questions that couldn't be answered.
"I suppose I will see you at the next official meeting Outer." After said as they reached the doors.
"Yeah, I'll see ya then After. Take care of yourself in the meantime." Outer said, waving as he stepped through the dark blue door with gold stars all over it.
Outer let the door shut behind him and allowed the silence of his AU to soothe his tumultuous thoughts for a moment. He wouldn't be able to let this go. Despite being lazy like most Sans', Outer wasn't one to sit back and watch a baby bones possibly be in trouble. He'd keep his eyes open and if he got the opportunity he would try to gather information on the child Error had taken. He would help them if he could, even if he had to push off a few naps to do it.