Glen glared at Error. "Weak, dude. What, you just watched while Flowey tried to kill us?"714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcWcneV3Mxd
"Better you than me." Error laughed and shook his head. "Just kidding; I could've killed that monstrosity in an instant. Almost did, actually, but then I realized 'hey, why waste the energy? Why not let the people who've been a serious pain in my spine tire themselves out?'"
"Cute." Glen said, inwardly berating herself for not suspecting this would happen. She knew Error was tied to their universe, but hadn't spared him a thought.
"Do you see now?" Error asked as he looked around at the others. "Do you see how insane things get when they don't go the way they're supposed to? The Monsters either escape the Underground, or they're all destroyed. But here you are, adding to the mess!"
"Ah-" Glen said, more glowing strings gagging her the moment she opened her mouth. There was no resisting this time; the threads bound her and held her firmly in place.
"Oh, no; You don't get to talk anymore." Error snapped. "You need to listen. You need to understand. All these realities, all these possible futures and alternate histories and yadda yadda blah! Do you see how impossible it is to keep anything in any semblance of order?"
Error looked over the group. "Warehouse 13, The SCP Foundation, the UNDR-Ground …" Error spun about to glare at Glen. "And you … you Dreamers and your Dream Realm and your damn J-27 universe. You make what should be a simple story so damn complicated! And why? Curiosity? Boredom? Sheer stupidity?"
Error gestured to Mister and Missus Grillby. "And now look at what your carelessness has done! The Underground all separated and kept in containment by this SCP Foundation! Papyrus turned into a damn machine!"
"Actually, I feel fine now." MetalPapyrus said, his tone as perky as ever. "Miss Glen's kiss really did the trick."
Error sighed and rubbed his eye-sockets for a few moments. "That's not the point. I've dedicated myself to bringing some order to the damn multiverse, only for you to go kicking your clumsy feet in the middle of it!"
The strings gagging Glen fell away, though they didn't disappear. Swallowing, Glen asked, "You talk like you're blaming me for all this. It's not like I made these realities, you know."
Error held up the crystal holding the fragment of the Inverse Harmonius. "Did you think using this was harmless? Did you think, hey, I can poke holes in the fabric of the universe and everything will be just hunky-dory?"
Glen felt the blood rush from her face. "Well, to be honest, yeah. It's what the rune does."
"What it does is spread the chaos! Don't you get it? The Underground was never supposed to exist in the same Universe as the Foundation or the Warehouse! The closest the SCP should have ever gotten to the Underground anywhere was SCP-1230, and then only as a created fantasy! Anywhere, that is, except your J-27. Something about your reality is different, and that difference is creating echo realities mirroring aspects from those that make up J-27. At first, I thought that idiot Ink had something to do with it, but it's you. Everytime you shift realities, more pop up around you like weeds."
"I don't …" Glen stopped, remembering the conversation she'd had with the Creator so long ago. Glen whispered, remembering what the Creator had told her so long ago; "A patchwork universe made of bits of other universes, cheating the nature of the cosmos."
"There's enough chaos on my plate with Ink, CoreFrisk, and Gaster without you making it worse!"
"Gaster?" Glen said, glancing at everyone else and finding that most of them seemed confused as well … though she did notice that none of the Sanses were meeting her gaze, Error none-withstanding. "Who is Gaster?"
Ignoring her, Error continued, "I mean … look at your little team here! You've got people from six different realities, and that's not even getting into the multiples like Abomination Seventy-three."
Error gestured at AgentSans, who could only glare back at him.
"This has to stop." Error said. He tried to raise his hand only to falter. A look of annoyance fell over his face as he tried to move.
"Problems?" Glen asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Shut up!" Error said, his form. "Just stop talking!"
A small cough cut through the air, drawing Error's attention away from Glen. It was Artie; the bunny man gave Error a brief bow of the head and said, "You know, I could get that rope off of you."
"Yeah? And you'd help me why?"
"Just being friendly." Artie said with a smile.
Jinks looked at him, but before he could open his mouth, Claudia managed to swing close enough to kick him in the backside.
"Or I could do it." Sans said, catching on. "I mean, hey; how could you not trust this face?"
"Very easily." Error said, eye-sockets narrowing at his other self.
"I'll help!" Both Papyruses said simultaneously, followed by King Asgore, who added, "We should have a nice cup of tea before we do anything rash, yes?"
"I don't want your help, any of you … you abominations!" Error snapped, "I'll get out on my own, after I've dunked this universe once and for all."
Glen stared at him for a few moments before starting to chuckle. Those capable of moving their heads turned to stare at her as her laughter echoed through the chamber.
A dark look in his flickering eye-sockets, Error made a sharp gesture with his free hand. Glen flew across the chamber, smashing into the wall.
One of her eyes swollen and she had a nasty cut on her lip, yet she continued to chuckle. "All that power, and a little rope is all it takes to stop you?"
Error gestured at her again, sweeping her off her feet. Error continued smashing her against the walls before finally dropping her unceremoniously in the center of the room.
Glen pushed herself up slowly, feeling as though she'd taken a ride in a tumble dryer. Still, she laughed; out of the corners of her eyes, she could see the strings binding her friends starting to slip away as a result of Error's anger. She just had to hope her physical body didn't die before the others could escape.
He eventually stopped his assault, leaving her still weakly chuckling on the floor. "Fine. Enjoy your stupid joke while this pathetic universe falls apart around-"
After seconds passed without another word, Glen forced herself to look up at Error, whose gaze was now at his side, where Frisk had just untied the rope from Error's bound arm. The rope shifted like a massive snake before falling to the ground at Error's feet. Frisk took a step back, a fearful look in her eyes as Error continued to stare at her. It wasn't just her afraid; everyone in the room was holding their breath.
Without warning, the threads lowered everyone still captured to the floor before vanishing back to wherever they came from.
Sans and Fuku rushed over to the now-bruised and battered Glen.
"You okay?" Sans asked, helping her to her feet.
"Been better." Glen replied, wincing.
Fuku shook her head and said, "Maybe laughing wasn't such a hot idea."
"Hot idea, huh?" Glen said with a smirk. "You sayin' I made an Error in Judgement?"
Sans chuckled and gave Glen a pat on the back. "And I thought I was the bonehead. You're fine."
"You let me go." Error said, kneeling to look Frisk in the eyes. "But I'm going to destroy this universe. Why did you let me go?"
"Because," Said a voice that turned out to be Artie. "She's an incredibly nice young lady. That kind of niceness deserves a reward, don't you think?"
"A reward …" Error said, shaking his head as though his thoughts were muddled. "I … I guess you're right."
"Of course." Glen said, careful to keep her voice low. "Aesop's rope."
Sans and Fuku looked at her curiously.
"Aesop's Rope." Glen repeated, pointing at the coiled rope lying at Error's feet. "I heard Artie call it that, but I didn't realize … you know the story about the mouse and the lion, right? Lion catches a mouse, but shows it mercy and lets it go. Lion gets captured in a trap later, and the mouse comes and nibbles through the rope, setting the lion free."
"Oh!" Fuku said, "The Lion and the Mouse!"
"Exactly. Yeah, well Aesop's rope traps anyone who touches it, at least until one of those trapped is more than half-trapped in it. At that point, anyone can undo the knot by just touching it. The formerly trapped are then bound to obey the person who helped them."
"And if they don't?" Fuku asked.
Glen shrugged. "They're compelled to do it, even if it goes against their nature."
Their eyes fell on Error, who was still looking at Frisk. Frisk herself looked uncertain, understandably so.
"Um … Miss Frisk." UNDR-Papyrus said, stepping forward with an air of nervousness. "I'm dreadfully sorry to interrupt you, but I was hoping to ask … with the imprint gone, is there any way those of us not from this reality can get back home? I miss my cooking show, and my Sans, and not fighting for my life."
"Yes." Error said, nodding. "I could send them home. As long as I'm doing it, it won't create any more problems."
Frisk looked at UNDR-Papyrus for a moment before turning back to Error, gaze narrowed. She leaned forward and whispered something to him.
Error's jaw twitched. After a few moments, he gave her a curt nod. "I promise."
"Promise?" Glen asked. "What did you promise?"
Error glared at Glen before pointing at Artie and the cluster of Warehouse agents. They all vanished before anyone could say so much as a word.
"Hey!" Glen said, stepping forward. "What did you-"
"I sent them back to their reality." Error snapped, pointing at UNDR-Papyrus, who vanished another moment later. "And now it's your turn … you and your friends."
"Wait!" Glen said, raising her hands.
Error let out a groan. Rubbing his eye-sockets, he said, "I'm letting you go and have promised not to harm your realities. Isn't that enough?"
"Sans and Fuku, their realities are functionally dead." Glen said quickly, even as she reached out and severed the connection binding Sans, Fuku, Error, and herself together. "Send them to the UNDR-Ground. That's as good as their home anyway."
"Huh?" Sans said, looking at her with obvious surprise. "Wait a damn-"
Sans and Fuku vanished, their looks of surprise the last thing Glen saw of them.
"Good bye." Glen whispered, still looking at where Sans and Fuku previously stood. Sighing, she turned back to Error and said, "All right. I'm ready."
"Not yet." Error said grimly.
Frisk put her hands on her hips and gave him as stern a look as she could muster.
"You don't have to give me the evil eye, kid." Error told her. "You got my word I'll get her home perfectly unharmed. I gotta have a little talk with her first. All right?"
Frisk still looked dubious, but relented with a sigh, her tiny shoulders hunching even as Asgore approached her and picked her up.
Glen opened her mouth to respond, only for the world to vanish around her, leaving her alone in a strange white void with Error.
"Ah." Glen said, looking around again. "Er, nice place you got here."
"It's the Void." Error said, rubbing his eye-sockets. "It's not supposed to be nice, though there are worse places."
He turned to face her, hands on his hips. "I promised Frisk I wouldn't hurt any of you, and while it goes against my better judgement, I'm gonna stay true to my word. Anything to be rid of that damn rope and all of you little universe-hopping pests."
"What about Site 37?"
"What about it? You just overthrew the SCP, and started up enough of a fight to make it a pain for them to take it back. I think you've done enough; now it's time to send you back to where you belong.
"Wait," Glen said, "You can see into all dimensions, right?"
"Most of them, yeah." Error said, his tone suspicious. "There are … blind spots. Other powerful entites, even more powerful that whatever the hell you are, like to have their little sanctuaries."
"I'm looking for a robot dog." Glen said, "A KEI-9 Unit named Jake, from my dimension. There's also the matter of the shard of the Inverse Harmonius."
"No more imprints!" Error said, anger in his eyes.
"Not an imprint." Glen said, "The actual rune shard."
She raised her left hand, showing him the partial Inverse Harmonius rune. "Now Sans told me he was using the imprint in some kind of machine when it vanished. If you can show me where it is, I can use it to cancel out all the imprints. No more accidental realities created, at least not by me, and you have my word I'll stay away from any other dimension with an Underground."
"You can shift … without the imprint." Error said, eye-sockets narrowing.
"Well, yeah." Glen said, "It's not as focused as when you do it; pretty much just pot-luck if I end up where I want to go."
"I see." Error said, tapping his cheek softly. "Well, that settles it."
With that, he vanished. Glen looked around for a few moments before calling out, "Uh, Error? I thought you were going to send me home."
"Oh, I am." Error's voice replied from all around her. "And once I find your robot mutt and this shard of yours, I will do just that. In the meantime, you are going to be staying in the Void."
"Uh-huh." Glen said, "And how long do you think it will take?"
"Hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Might even be longer. There are a lot of realities to check, and I'll have to work it into my schedule. Still, I'll find it eventually. You'll be completely insane by then, of course; living in a void tends to do that. Then again, I didn't tell Frisk when I'd see you back home now, did I?"
Glen frowned. "Yeah, if it's all the same, I think I'll just continue looking on my own."
She tried to activate her rune, only to find it unresponsive. She tried to use her normal Dreamer powers, but her Anti-ka Marui barely put off a glow.
"You see, I read up on you too." Error continued, "Dreamers; creatures who can alter reality through their connection with Dreams … only there is no Dream Realm here. There is no reality; there's only the Void."
"Really?" Glen said, "Well, I'll be the judge of that."
"If you wish. Goodbye, Glen; I'll see you around … eventually."
Error vanished without another word, his smile the last part of him to vanish.
"Yeah, thanks for that." Glen said with a grimace. She glanced around, though there really was nothing to see but an endless white expanse. She could feel solid ground beneath her feet, but she left no shadow. Running was pointless, as there was no way to tell if she was making any sort of distance. She tried punching at whatever she was standing on, only for her hand to pass through it. Seeing her hand pass through a space where her foot previously rested was definitely odd.
"All right." Glen said, rolling up her sleeves. "You've forced my hand. Here's hoping this doesn't shatter your little Void into a billion pocket dimensions. Anti-Ka Maru!"
Glen's rune flared to life; even with no Dream Realm, it could pull energy from Glen's own thoughts and emotions giving her enough energy to create a doorway in the endless white void. She almost laughed when she saw it still bore a sign that read, "Please Use Other Door".
Glen opened the door to reveal … nothing. No white expanse, no black void … there was nothing behind the door, the very sight of which boggled Glen's mind. She'd never seen nothing before, and now that she was, she didn't like the look of it at all. Still, what choice did she have?
"Well," Glen said with a shrug, "Here goes nothing."
She stepped through the doorway.
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