Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Error stood shakily, wiping his eyes with his hands. The tears gathered on his fingertips, stretching into brand new threads, and he sighed, yanking them off a little too hard.

It didn’t hurt much. But it still hurt.

He turned away from Blue, who had just started his next ‘reset’ glitch of fighting with Alphys. Staying here couldn’t help him.

“WhAT cAn I dO?” Error asked himself quietly.

Option one: cry.

Been there, done that.

He huffed, tearing his eyes away from the town.

“What ELSE cAn I dO.”

He should leave. Maybe he could try to find any unaffected AUs. Or the AntiVoid; maybe Fresh or Ink would have had the sense to go there?

Be realistic. Ink has no fucking sense. And Fresh isn’t much better.

Maybe he could find the Omega timeline. Core had never let him inside it, but they’d formed a bit of an alliance. He let them save whoever they wanted, and in return, Core refused to tell the Stars about him. His location or any information he might accidentally let slip.

“Cor3?” He said, glancing up. “I coUld uSe yOUr HelP.”

Error waited.

And waited.

And… waited.

“… C0r3?” Error leaned against a tree, scanning the scenery. They liked dramatic entries, right? Surely they were going to appear directly behind them in three… two… one…

Seconds turned into minutes, and Error grew more and more agitated.

“F!n3, iF yOu won’T hElP mE, I’Ll fIguR3 iT out wIthOUt yOU!” Error yelled into the forest, his voice cracking and glitching. He coughed for a second, touching his neck, then thrust out a hand to open a portal.

Nothing happened. 

He tried again with a frown, then waved his hand to the left, trying to open a coding screen. Nothing happened, and his eyes widened. If he couldn’t open the codes or summon portals, there was no way he could destroy a single AU, let alone fix whatever this was. He couldn’t even hop between AUs now!

Error buried his head in his hands, sagging against the tree, falling to the ground. He really was trapped in the worst way possible. Technically free, with nobody to fight him. But so powerless, and utterly alone.

“I ne3d fO0d,” he said quietly. But as he glanced towards the town, with the shops displaying their grey foods, he felt a shiver run down his spine. Every instinct on his body yelled at him that it wasn’t safe to eat that. It wouldn’t be good for him, because it had been corrupted somehow. At best, it might make him feel unwell. At worst… he didn’t want to think about it. There was nobody who would, or could, save him.

Save.

His mind snapped back to that one word, though he didn’t know why. 

Save.

Should he try to save them? How could he save-

Oh.

“Oh. OH!” Error bolted upright, skull cracking against a low hanging tree branch, which proceeded to dump a shit ton of snow on him, but he was too worked up to care, or even feel the pain that shot through the new crack in his skull.

“Th3 s@Ve Scr3En!”

It wasn’t a part of any universe, technically. It existed beyond the AUs, and wasn’t accessible for most. But there was one who literally lived there. He wouldn’t leave it, he couldn’t if he wanted to.

He wasn’t necessarily fond of Error, and yes, the feeling was mutual. But it wasn’t bad feelings either. It was mostly just awkward as hell, for reasons that neither of them could explain. Whenever Error looked at him, he felt so weird for no apparent reason. It was also why he avoided destroying AfterTale copies as often as possible. Destroying them felt… wrong, somehow, and being there always made him feel like he was forgetting something.

But he knew, he knew that Geno wouldn’t want the rest of the multiverse wrecked and destroyed, and having someone there, anyone, would make him feel so much better.

(Except Ink. He wasn’t ready to forgive him yet.)

Hopefully Geno’d had the sense to stay in the Save Screen, even when things went to shit.

He needed to get to AfterTale as soon as possible. But if his portals weren’t working, maybe due to low magic levels, the only thing he could do was to exit UnderSwap through the entry point. It still took magic, but far less.

He had a plan now, and he pulled himself up properly, glancing back at Snowdin one last time, at Blue.

I wonder if Nightmare told him about the Barrier? Error wondered, a little upset at the thought. He hoped that he had. At least then Blue wouldn’t have thought that Error had abandoned him when… that had happened.

“I’Ll fix th!s,” he said quietly. “I pr0MisEd NigHT thAT I’d c0mE B@cK tO aLL of Us.”

And Error kept his promises.

Pulling his scarf over his face, he began to trudge back into the forest.