Webs And Bones

by KarmaSpidr

Summary:

"Error, what did you do?"

Ink didn't expect there to be AUs beyond the Doodle Sphere. Core Frisk never would have thought that there are things they can never see. Error never thought he would get his ass kicked by a bunch of humans.

The Spider Society should probably have planned first contact a bit more.

Notes:

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/6RP8hAT9fG

Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/karmaspidr

Chapter 1: Breach

"What's the situation, Lyla?" Miguel, the Spider-Man of the year 2099 from Earth-928, asked his AI assistant.

Lyla zipped around the holographic screens of his personal lab, for once in her digital existence looking deadly serious. "You're not gonna like this."

The screens flashed and footage from another Earth appeared. From what Miguel could tell, it seemed to be a basic Earth. There didn't seem to be any defining features that he could recognise at first glance. The live footage showed the Avengers of this Earth fighting a new treat in New York.

At first, Miguel wasn't sure what he was looking at, but then he saw it. Blue strings hung over the street, with civilians being held captive. Red bones protruded from the ground and buildings and even flew through the air. Great black dragon skulls floated around, appearing and disappearing seemingly at random to blast the heroes. All come from one source.

A short black skeleton wearing a large hoodie, with those same strings wrapped around his fingers. He seemed to be throwing a tantrum of some kind.

Miguel growled, subconsciously unsheathing his claws. He knew who that skeleton was and exactly where he came from. He hoped they would never have to deal with them but he had also been secretly itching for a chance like this.

He turned around, the screens disappearing behind him. He typed some commands into a metallic watch wrapped around his wrist and an orange hexagonal portal appeared in front of him. His Spider-Man suit materialized over his clothes and ordered Lyla, "Alert the council and send in a containment team. I want that anomaly in his cell in an hour."

///

Error yelled in frustration when that stupid frisbee hit him again. This was wrong. Everything about this was wrong. He should have destroyed this AU by now, but these humans were stronger than he had ever thought to be possible. He could barely keep up with them.

He stood on his several feet in the air on strings, which hung between the countless skyscrapers that he had found himself in. For some reason, he was weaker in this universe. His clothes were tattered, his arms were heavy and he could feel his joints cracking. These humans had to be cheating. There was no other explanation.

"Damn you, Dirty Hackers!" Error yelled as he reached out. Blue strings shot out of each of his fingers and the Avengers dodged. The strings ended up hitting solid concrete or got tangled with random objects on the street.

Captain America ducked behind an overturned car, hoping to buy enough time to catch his breath. "Status report?" he asked, the message immediately being delivered to each Avenger's ear.

"We're almost done evacuating civilians and the police have finished establishing the perimeter," Clint said as he helped a kid out of a tipped-over car.

"Wish we could say the same, Legalos." Iron Man snarked, blasting out of the way from a beam from those dragon skulls. "This guy's tough. I'm starting to think we might have to throw him through a sky scrapper or two."

"Don't bother, Tony," Wanda said, as she manipulated some rubble to form a wall that protected her from a bone attack, "I've fought my fair share of skeletons. Trust me when I say that we are wearing him down."

"Seriously? I couldn't tell." She-Hulk joked, as she leapt into the air and punched the skeleton, who was standing on some of his strings like a swing, causing more 'Errors' to flash on his body.

"That's good, right." Scott Lang said as he used his giant body to prevent a building from tipping over as Silk webbed it together.

"It's all good, Scott!" she exclaimed when she was done, swinging in front of the Giant-Man and giving him a thumbs up, one that he returned once he let go of the tower. He shrunk down to his regular size, before shrinking again and jumping on a flying ant.

As Silk swung in search of more people to help, she heard a familiar beep from her wrist. She rolled up her sleeve to reveal her personal Goober, which had a call for her. She answered it with no hesitation.

An orange projection of a man wearing a very familiar costume appeared. The identification number on the screen quickly confirmed the identity of this person.

"Hey, Prime. Listen, I'm kinda busy over in my universe so would it be okay if you get another spider handle whatever it is you need help to deal with."

"It's okay, Silk." Peter Parker from Earth-616 said, "I'm calling you to let you know that we are sending in a special task force to capture the anomaly in your universe. I just need you and your Avengers to keep that skeleton in one spot long enough for them to do their thing. Can you do that?"

"He can teleport. How are we supposed to keep him in place?"

"Overwhelm him. Don't give him time to think. Web him to the street. Those strategies usually work for me. Just keep him focused on you guys."

Silk nodded, "Understood, Prime. Over and out." With the call ended, Cindy began to swing back to the main battle.

On her way there, she called the Avengers, "Guys! I just got word to reinforcements are on the way. We just have to keep this guy in one place."

"Why would you receive word that reinforcements are coming and not the rest of us?" Clint questioned as he rode his hoverbike back to the scene of battle."

Cindy smirked as fired a web at the skeleton named Error, "You'll see."

As the heroes of this Earth battled the glitching entity for the preservation of this Earth, another team of heroes that this world has never seen began to appear around the battlefield.

In an office building overlooking the fight, an orange hexagonal portal manifested itself into reality, moving chairs and scattering papers even more than they had been before. And from this portal, stepped out a girl.

The girl was unique as far as Spider-People and their uniforms go. She wore a black suit with a bright red spider that covered her entire torso. A red travelling cloak was seemingly woven into the suit and a red hood hung over her head with a red cape with black web outlines fluttered behind her. The lenses of her mask glowed a bright silver from under her hood instead of the usual white. She also wears a combat skirt, so that's pretty cool.

In her hands was a giant scythe that matched her suit's colour scheme. As she walked through the deserted office to the wind, she dramatically twirled her weapon over her head, and it transformed into an automatic sniper rifle.

She walked to the shattered windows and looked down at the battle. Error was throwing every attack he had in his arsenal, but the Avengers were not letting go. He was covered in bits of webbing, but not enough to restrain him.

Satisfied, the unnamed spider awkwardly kicked away some of the glass shards. Once she was happy, she laid down on her stomach and stuck the barrel of her weapon out the window.

She put her eye to the scope and expertly positioned her weapon to Error's location. She took a breath in, locked in, and breathed out.

She brought her goober to her face and activated it. An orange hologram of a spider person appeared and the girl began filling them in, "Ruby Rose from Remnant-16, in position. I'm locked onto the anomaly."

"You are not required to state your homeworld designation, child." the Spider-Man said, "Not only do we all find it insufferable, but it is also unnecessary. You are the only Ruby Rose in the database."

Ruby rolled her eyes, "Whatever ever you say, Octojerk."

'Octojerk' groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Who told you about that nickname?"

"Peter did."

"...Which Peter?"

"Peter Parker."

"For the love of- Child! Eighty percent of our organization is made up of Peter Parkers! You need to be more specific than that!"

Ruby simply smirked underneath her mask and didn't say anything. She watched with satisfaction as 'Octojerk' became more and more frustrated.

He pointed an accusatory finger at her and yelled, "My point stays the same! You are the only Ruby Rose in our organization!"

"Whatever you say Octojerk."

Back in the streets, Error teleported out of the way of an energy blast from the tin can named Iron Man and responded with a volley of bones from behind. The attack sent the Armoured Avengers into a crater in the street.

As he pulled himself out of the crater, he sarcastically asked, "What was that about us wearing him down?"

Wanda rolled her eyes, as she used her telekinesis to untangle the civilians suspended in the air by the blue strings. "He's clearly tougher than the other skeletons that I have fought, Stark. You can't blame me for that."

"She's got a point, Tony," Silk said as she swung in for another run. She fired as many webs as she could from the tips of her fingers, the substance immidietoy wrapping itself and sticking to the skeleton.

"Why yo-Mmff" Error's mouth was covered in webs as Silk continued her barrage. The other spiders needed this guy in one place. That was something she could give them.

She kicked the skeleton into the air and was ready to follow when- Bang!

Ruby smirked as she watched her very special bullet hit its target. Technically it wasn't a bullet but it was metal and she shot it out of her gun.

The projectile cut through the air at the speed of sound and collided with a still-stunned Error's back. Contact sent a small shockwave that unravelled all the webs on the skeleton's body, but this was only just the beginning.

The moment it made contact, the metal disk activated, with a high-tech-looking spider emblem lighting up on its surface. Metal shot out of it and wrapped around Error, four lengths to be exact. Two over his shoulders and two around his knees. All four pinned his arms to his side. Then with a bright light flashed followed by the skeleton's screams.

Error didn't understand what was happening but the pain that he was experiencing was unlike anything he has ever felt before. It was as if his very code was being attacked by the strange device wrapped around him and restraining him. He crashed into the concrete floor, sending a dust cloud into the air.

The Avengers were stunned.

"What the heck was that?" Scott asked, voicing the question that every Avenger had.

The Avengers slowly surrounded the edge of the crater, not sure what to do.

A small tornado of rose petals dived from above and into the small crater. As the dust cleared, the heroes saw the cloaked girl in red and black standing over the now silent but struggling skeleton. In her hands was a giant scythe taller than her.

She-Hulk asked, "Ok, who is that?"

No one recognized the scythe wielder, except for one.

Silk crawled to the edge of the hole. She smiled beneath her mask and replied, "Reinforcements."

Ruby wanted to jump or dance or do anything to release the excitement going through her system. She had done. She had single handily taken down a destroyer of worlds or whatever this guy's title was. But that wasn't for the here or now. She needed to alert the others.

She activated the goober on her wrist, and a projection of 'Octojerk' returned. In the most professional voice that she could muster, she said, "Phase 1 is complete. The anomaly is secure."

"We're sending in the rest."

Another hexagonal portal opened, this time high in the air, above the sky scrappers and jungle of strings. Another spider fell out of it, but they didn't seem to be panicked about falling from countless feet in the air.

This spider wore early 20th-century Japanese clothes. A red haori with a black web pattern flapped in the wind over a black buttoned uniform. His entire face was covered with a red mask with the same pattern as the haori with white lenses over the eyes. Strangely, he seemed to be wearing modern sneakers.

In his hands was a katana with a white blade. As he descended, the spider muttered to himself, "ヒーローの呼吸、スパイダーフォームエイト：マキシマムスパイダー. <Translated from Japanese with Google Translate: Hero Breathing, Spider Form Eight: Maximum Spider>"

Faster than the human eye could track, the spider began jumping through the jungle of blue strings, spinning webs while effortlessly cutting through the blue strings with his sword.

In less than five seconds, the forest of blue strings was replaced by webs. Objects like cars and lights were suspended safely and the civilians we sitting on web platforms, comfy and easy to reach.

The swordsman spider landed in the crater next to the scythe wielder with a pose. He sheathed his sword and stood straight. Then, in perfect English, he said, "I know, I'm awesome."

Ruby chuckled and lightly, for a spider, punched her ally, "That you are, Slayer."

"You think this over!" Error questioned as he began to slowly pick himself up. His voice was so messed up now that it was practically impossible to understand. Now that the initial shock had worn off, Error was able to endure whatever the device was doing to him, at least a little.

The Avengers and Spiders got into fighting stances, preparing themselves for anything. But before anyone could say anything, a blue beam came out of nowhere and hit Error.

The skeleton stumbled a bit, unsure of what just hit him, then dropped to the floor completely unconscious.

"It appears we overestimated the capabilities of this villain." a weirdly accented voice said.

The heroes turned to face the newcomer. He wore a sleek red and black suit. On his chest, a large spider seemingly merged with the rest of the black on the suit. His mask was similar to the swordsman and scythe wielder, only his lenses were pure black. From his back sprouted four robotic red appendages, the two on top smoking like the barrel of a gun.

He walked past Earth's Mightiest Heroes as if they were beneath him. The additional appendages folded themselves into a container on his back as he dropped down into the small crater.

"We didn't even require the assistance of a full task force. I must say, I'm slightly disappointed. I worked hard on this containment procedure."

Octojerk reached into the utility belt in his suit and pulled a small disk. He tossed towards the unconscious skeleton. From it sprouted a holographic cage that surrounded the skeleton. The Avengers got the feeling that the holograms were solid.

Octojerk turned towards the two spiders in the crater with him and ordered, "You two, take the anomaly back to base and secure him in the cell we constructed for him. I'll stay behind and handle clean up."

"Woah! Not so fast, Octojerk." Silk yelled as she slid into the hole. She stomped towards him while jabbing her finger at him, and while he was much taller than her, she held an aura of strength that matched his.

"You may be a Council member but this is my universe. These guys are more likely to listen to me than a guy who dresses and talks like a villain."

Octojerk growled, "Those days are behind me."

"Keep telling yourself that, Octavious."

Octavious growled. He hated being reminded of his past or being told that he would return to it.

Slayer leaned over to Ruby and whispered, "Should we interfere?"

Ruby shrugged, "I think we should let this play out. Superior's ego is so big that he's practically deaf to whatever we have to say."

Octavius looked like he was about to argue but paused when a beep from his Goober interrupted him. It was a private message which he quickly read through. He seemed to calm down.

He folded his arms and said, "Fine. I am only agreeing to this because I am needed elsewhere. Call the First Contact Division if you need assistance."

The three unknown spiders left the crater through two portals, with the two melee weapon users taking the unconscious and caged skeleton with them.

///

Ink hummed a peaceful tune to himself as he sketched random ideas into his sketchbook as he floated lazily in the endless expanse of the Doodle Sphere. The place that houses all of the AUs, each universe and its timelines housed in the many sheets of paper doting the golden void.

Ink took a moment to peep over his sketchbook. He never got tired of the sight. The embodiment of the hard work of countless Creators. And he had the honour of helping them with some of them.

Ink breathed in, feeling his non-existent lungs with impossible air and sighed. As much as he enjoyed the excitement of his battles with Error, he also took the time to savour moments like these. Because as peaceful and endless as they appear, you can never know when they can end without warning.

"Ink!"

Like right now.

"What's up, Corey?" Ink asked cheerfully as he packed his sketchbook away. When he turned around to look at his friend, he froze.

The face of the omnipresent child was that of fear, anxiety panic and desperation. In all the time that Ink knew the cryptic with a shit-eating personality, he had never seen look so genuinely scared. Sure there were times when they got so scared that their persona shattered, showing to the world the scared kid that they once were.

"What's going on?" he asked, his own anxiety beginning to boil up.

Frisk took a few breaths and began to explain, "Earlier today, Error disappeared from my vision. I didn't notice because I don't really pay attention to him unless he's planning something or watching UnderNovella. I was going to tell you as soon as I realised but then... Come to the Omega Timeline. You'll understand when you see it."

Ink gives them a confused look. In all the years that he knew Core, he had never seen them look so panicked. Or he did and forgot. That is always a possibility. After some thought, Ink shrugged and said, "Alright. See you there."

Grabbing his precious Broomie off his back, Ink painted himself a portal to the Omega Timeline and hopped in.

When he jumped out of the portal in the town centre of the timelines main town, he wasn't surprised to see Core already there, standing by his side. He was surprised that Dream, the Guardian of Positivity was also there.

"Oh hey, Dream." Ink waved to his friend, "Did Core also call you here?"

Dream Sans shook his head, "No. I sensed a sudden spike of negativity in the Omega Timeline, which rarely happens. I came to find out what caused it."

Ink leant on his paintbrush and asked, "Cool. Did you find it?"

Dream pointed in front of him and said, "Them."

Ink turned his head to look where Dream was pointing.

There, not that far away, we're seven figures, most likely humans, dressed in outfits that are both similar and unique to each other. Ink could find only find two constants between all of them. The weirdly shaped eyes, and the spider on their chest.

The shortest of the humans, one dressed in all black with red outlines, leaned towards the human standing at the centre of them all and whispered not so quietly, "That is one short skeleton."

The centre human, whose red and blue outfit seemed to be the most basic out of all of them, nodded and replied, "And that giant paintbrush does not do him any favours."

"Who are you!?" Core demanded, saving Ink from further embarrassment.

The centre spider shrugged and stepped forward, "We're the representatives of the Spider-Society. Our job is to protect the multiverse, and we have a lot to talk about."

Chapter 2: The Guests

Summary:

The guardians of two Multiverses introduce themselves.

The residents of the Omega Timeline stood at a distance and watched fearfully as the protectors of the multiverse confronted these strangely dressed humans that somehow managed to break into their safe haven.

Those who could, and were brave enough to use it, used CHECK on the visitors to have a better understanding of who they are.

Peter Parker

ATK - 600 DEF - 600

"You're Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, here to help."

Miles Morales

ATK - 570 DEF - 570

"The Ultimate Spider-Man, not sure how he got here."

Miguel O'Hara

ATK - 620 DEF - 620

"Spider-Man from the future, quick to anger but means well."

Otto Octavious

ATK - 580 DEF - 590

"The Self-Proclaimed, Superior Spider-Man"

Billy Braddock

ATK - 550 DEF - 550

"Don't offer him tea. He'll tell you if he wants any."

Peter Parker

ATK - 600 DEF - 600

"His indestructible shield does not obey the laws of physics."

Peter Parker

ATK - ??? DEF - 600

"An unknown magic flows through him. He also has a really cool cape."

"Are you three the guardians of this multiverse?" Octavius demanded, stepping forward. His whole persona seemed to be based on intimidation. The way he walked, the way he talked, the very design of his suit. It was all based on intimidation.

Ink actually took a comical step back, but Dream and Core stood their ground.

"We are. And who are you?" Dream asked, gripping his two curved swords tightly.

The basic Spider stepped forward, gently pushing the edgier one back with his arm. "I guess what I said earlier was kinda vague. Sorry about that. I'm... We're Spider-Man but we come from different universes. You can call me Prime. That's Ultimate. The big guy is 2099. The edge lord is Superior. That over there is Uk, he's British, big surprise. The walking flag is Captain America and the floating weirdo is Sorcerer, our magic expert."

2099 turned to Prime and said, "Parker, you do realise that we are not only in a completely different multiverse but also a timeline with a very limited population. There's no reason for secret identities or lazy nicknames."

"The nicknames are cool, practical and you know it."

Miles leaned closer to the conversation, "Yeah, I'm with Pete on this one. The nicknames are pretty cool."

The Brit stepped forward, "Guys come on, now is not the time to have this argument again. We are here for business."

"What kind of business?" Core questioned, "And what do you mean by different multiverse?"

'Wow, Frisk is really agitated.' Dream thought as he glanced at his friend, 'I've never seen them like this.'

The apparent sorcerer walked up to the front of the group and said, "It's actually quite simple."

The masked magician began to wave his hands, an orange light manifesting from them which he effortlessly manipulated into intricate shapes. All of the Omega Timeline residents that hadn't run away watched in awe, as they witnessed this new form of magic."

'This is so cool.' Ink thought giddily.

"Imagine that each universe is a ball... Or a sheet of paper in your case." Sorcerer explained the magical constructs form into these objects, "The balls can be different shapes or sizes or colors and other stuff like that, or the paper could have different things written on it. The point is, the base similiarities are always the same so these universes can be sorted into the same box. But what happens when a universe or rather multiple universes follow a completely different set of rules? What if the ball is square or the paper works best when it is wet? They're still technically the same thing but won't fit in the box with the rest. So what do you do? Get a different box. A different multiverse."

"Oh. I think I get it. That's acually really cool." Ink said, stars in his sockets, "Can you tell us more about how this works?"

"We'd love to." Captain stated, "But we need you to come to our headquarters. It'd be best if we talked there."

Ink saw no problem in fulfilling this request. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To explore a completely new set of AUs, with completely different guardians... He was so excited that he could...

"Bleh!"

The human spiders jumped back in surprise, their body language showing a mixture of surprise and disgust. Core didn't react but Dream awkwardly took some steps to the side, not wanting to make contact with the strange substance.

Unfazed by the sudden vomiting session, Ink gave the spiders a thumbs-up and declared, "We'd be happy to go with you."

Dream walked over to his friend, careful to avoid the puddle, and placed a calming hand on his shoulder, "Ink, we have to think about this carefully. We don't know who these people are and they are asking us to leave our multiverse to make some kind of deal. This a massive risk and we could be leaving all of the AUs unprotected."

"Wait, is it seriously just you three?" Miles asked, "You don't have anyone else to look over this stuff for a few hours?"

Ink rubbed his chin in thought for a moment, "Let's see, Delta can travel between AUs. So does Fresh and a few others. Classic and Blue would also probably be more than happy to help. Plus, Frisk can just tell us if something bad happens and we'll just run straight back. So yeah, I think we're good."

"I can't."

"Wait what?"

Core Frisk sighed and began to explain, "I didn't see them coming. These Spider-Men appeared from nowhere, from beyond my vision. I can't see into their multiverse, so if I were to go there, I probably wouldn't be able to see into here. I'm not sure if I even can travel between multiverses."

Prime answered, "I have a solution. We've been studying the Multi-Multiverse for a while and we believe we can establish a stable enough method of communication the same way that we travel through it. Two of us can stay behind to help watch over the place and can call in case anything happens."

Ink gestured towards the Spiders and said, "See. It's fine. These guys have it all figured out. Besides, you can't tell me that you aren't at least a little curious."

Dream sighed and rubbed his forehead, "Alright, I'll go. I just hope my brother doesn't try anything while I'm gone."

Core sighed, "I'll tell the others about this... Done."

Miles cocked his head to the side, "You didn't do anything."

Frisk smirked, "Didn't I?"

Prime shrugged, "I'm not gonna question it. So, any volunteers for staying behind?"

Sorcerer stepped forward, "The magic here is different than what I am used to. I would love to study it, and if it means protecting this sanctuary, then I have no reason not to stay behind."

Miles raised his hand, "If it's alright, I think I should probably also stay. Talk with the locals, and see how things work around here while Magic Man does his yoga. You know, if that is okay with you guys."

Prime placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and said, "Miles, we've been over this. You are a grown man and have proven yourself more than enough times. You are on this council for a reason. You don't need to look to me for permission. If you want to stay, than stay."

Miles took a moment to absorb the words of his Peter then nodded his head, "Yeah, yeah. Got it. I just forget sometimes."

Before Prime could say anything else, Superior proclaimed, "We don't have time for sappy moments. Need I remind you fools that we are dealing with the fates of two multiverses? We need to take these so-called Guardians back to base so that we can discuss matters properly."

Practically everyone rolled their eyes at the words of the former villain, and Prime sarcastically answered, "Yeah, yeah, Otto. We get it. Does anyone else want to stay?"

Surprisingly, Uk raised his hand. "I have quite a bit of experience in explaining this type of stuff. I did assemble the original Spider Army during the first War against the Inheritors. I feel like I can be useful here."

Prime nodded, "Anyone else?"

No answer.

Prime shrugged, "Alright then. Miguel would like to do the honours?"

It wasn't a question. The largest of the spider people turned away from the three guardians and the silent residents of the Omega Timeline. He lifted his arm and began typing on a metallic device on his wrist but no one could get a good view of it.

Suddenly, a portal with an orange hexagonal frame materialized. Those who were not used to this kind off thing jumped back in surprise and those who witnessed the arrival of the strangers recognized it as the thing that they had used to arrive here.

Miguel gestured to the portal, "You guys coming?"

Ink, Dream and Core assured the locals that they would return and not to worry, while the spiders said goodbye to their comrades and did some final checkups.

After all was said and done, the seven of them stepped through the portal.

As soon as they stepped out, Core, Dream and Ink realised something wasn't right. The three cried out in shock and panic as gravity took hold of them and they began falling into the abyss, only for a hand to grab each of them.

They looked up and saw through the dim darkness the masks of the Spider-Men.

"Are you okay?" Prime, who was holding Frisk's hand, asked, "We don't normally bring non-spider-powered guests and this whole place was designed to accommodate us. Should have remembered sooner. Sorry."

It took a moment for the trio of guardians to realise that they were travelling up, on the underside of an elevator platform. And the only thing stopping them from falling into the abyss was the grips of these humans.

"We're fine," Frisk assured, only to start coughing violently.

Everyone gave them worried looks, not sure what was happening to the omnipresent child. They just kept coughing, salvia shooting out.

"I don't think you're okay, Core. What's happening to them?" Dream, who was held up by Captain asked.

"Even your echo voice thing is gone." Ink, who was held by Miguel, pointed out.

"I'm not sure." Core said, only letting out a blood-curdling scream as their body began ripping itself apart, but somehow holding itself together. The sound of static filled the air and mixed with the screams, as Frisk's arm suddenly broke free of Peter's grip without warning.

They only fell for less than a second, as Prime webbed the monochrome child into his arms and slapped some sort of armband around their wrist.

The pain immediately stopped, allowing Core to hyperventilate in the arms of the spider-themed superhero. It also allowed them to realise just how dark it was. How quiet it was. All they could see was Prime and nothing else.

"Wh-What happened to me?" Frisk asked, scared of the answer, "What did you do."

Before anyone could say anything, Superior began to explain, "You glitched. It happens when you travel the multiverse through unstable methods. But it shouldn't be possible. We perfected multiversal travel. And if it is because we travelled between multiverses, then why are you the only one affected. Your skeleton friends are fine. So what could be the cause?"

"We're lucky I always carry a day pass on me in case of an emergency." Prime said, "Are you feeling ok?"

"...I'm feeling better... I think... And I think I know what happened to me." Frisk said, sounding more like a child then they have in years.

Before they could give their hypothesis, they were blinded by a bright light, along with Ink and Dream. As soon as they adjusted to the light, they were stunned by the view. Below them were fields of grass, tall sky scrappers that seemed tiny from where they were and rows and rows of flycars driving on non existent roads.

They were so taken aback by the view, that they didn't notice the elevator ride ended until the spiders got off it and jumped to floor, allowing them to walk on their own two feet with gravity as a friend once again.

"This incredible." Dream said, as the group walked through the crowd of humans, all dressed in variations of the same costume. He had never sensed so many positive feelings in one place. It was as if this whole place was built on good vibes.

"So many AUs." Ink mumbled, equally mesmerised.

Even Core Frisk was stunned, temporarily forgetting the incident that happened earlier. It has been so long since they were last in a room with so many humans.

None of the spider heroes seemed bothered by the three guests that stuck out like a sore thumb, but they all paused to greet the Council members, who were more than happy to say hello back.

"Always the same reaction." Prime chuckled, "This is only the lobby."

They reached the door, and the three guardians froze, jays practically hanging off their hinges. Before them was a room with a radius and ceiling larger then anything they have ever seen in person. Doors littered the otherwise blank walls, with countless walkers that you should only see in crazy paintings connecting them. And there were so many humans, all wearing equally bright costumes, all defying the basic laws of physics with ease and all mingling like this is a normal day at the office.

"Welcome, to the Spider Society."

Chapter 3: Spider Society

Summary:

The Guardians react to the Spider-Verse.

The Spider Society was, simply put, incredible. It quite literally towered over any other AU hangout both in terms of size and scale. They could see hundreds of variations of the spider heroes, all going about their live and casually defying the laws of gravity. 

Ink was practically bouncing with excitement. He wanted to talk to everyone here. Ask them about their worlds. Learn what made them unique and what connected them to the others. He was growing tired of the same story being told with a different font. This was fresh material and he would love to see if he could recommend anything from these worlds to the Creators.

Dream couldn't take his mind off all the positivity he was detecting. Of course, there was some negativity and the outside world felt pretty average. But this society of spider-themed humans was overall a very happy place to be in. He watched from the edge as the various humans interacted.

"Never imagined myself with ginger hair." a young woman with a suit not much different from Prime's said. She was unmasked and had short brown. In her arms was the cutest baby Dream had ever seen with ginger hair.

A man who Dream assumed to be another, potentially older, version of Prime laughed. He was also unmasked and wore a pink bathrobe over his suit along with a baby carrier. "Can't say brown hair doesn't suit you, Mayday. I'm honestly kinda jealous that my kid got more of her mom's genes."

Surprisingly, the baby seemed to have understood what her father said. She turned to look at him and gave him a frowny face.

Dream decided to turn his attention somewhere else before things escalated.

Frisk felt odd. They felt more solid than ever before, despite almost falling apart a few moments prior. And despite seeing far less than before, they could feel things that they almost forgot about. The feeling of air rushing through their nose to fill their lungs, saliva resting in their mouth, the clothes on their back and an odd gnawing feeling in their tummy that they couldn't place.

A platform flew over to the edge of the doorway at which they were, knowing the foreigners back to reality. It didn't look like something that should have the ability to float, much less fly, at least not without magic. It was a wide metal square with a railing around the edges that

The four members of the Council didn't hesitate to step on the platform before turning to the Guardians.

"I designed this place to accommodate Spiders," Miguel explained, "But sometimes someone who can't crawl on walls shows up, these things make travel for them much easier."

"You call that crawling?" Ink asked, his eyes directed towards a group of spiders casually walking upside down on a catwalk above them. These humans were getting weirder by the minute.

Miguel rolled his eyes, "Just got on..." Miguel paused, seemingly for no reason. He began to rub his masked chin thought.

Before anyone could ask him what was wrong, he pointed at the foreign trio and asked, "Did we ask you guys for your names?"

There was a beat of silence. Time seemingly froze in their immediate area as activity continued around the HQ. Friends from across words greeting each other, workers moving in and out of the base through portals on various missions, villains in their cells far from the main area cursed the spider heroes.

After a full minute of private silence, the four Councillors collectives face palmed, realising their blunder.

"Of all the times..." Prime muttered.

"I can't believe something as simple as names slipped our minds," Octavious growled.

"This is embarrassing." was all Captain could say.

The Guardians blinked, seemingly just now reaching the same realisation. Core had to suppress their giggles while Ink felt a second-hand embarrassment for these humans. He had been in that situation too many times to remember.

Dream at least attempted to make their hosts feel better. He was a guest and felt that gave him an even stronger obligation to make them feel better, "To be fair, we assumed you already knew who we were. You arrived in the Omega Timeline, a place that should be unreachable unless you have Frisk's permission. You claimed to have been studying different multiverses for a while. Seeing as you came to us with a deal, we assumed you already knew our names at the very least."

Prime sighed, "We only know the basics of your multiverse. There are too many to research in-depth. We only came to you because outside forces forced our hand. Let's keep it simple. Name and role. Go."

"Ink. Guardian of the AUs."

"Um, I'm Dream. I am the Guardian of Positivity."

"People call me Core but my real name, which I prefer, is Frisk."

Captain gave a little bow, "Pleasure to meet you. Now step onto the platform. We have work to do."

When the Guardians stepped on the platform, Ink and Core just barely reaching over the railing, a small projection of a woman in a fluffy coat and heart-shaped glasses materialized. 

"Where to, boss?" she asked in a friendly, nearly teasing tone. The question was directed to Miguel and he answered in a far more serious tone, "Take us to Cell Block 0, Lyla."

The trio stared at her with amazement while the other spiders seemed unfazed.

Lyla stuck out her tongue, closed one eye and saluted the stupidly tall Spider-Man, "Aye, aye, Captain."

"Hey! That's my name."

With seemingly no propellant, the platform began to move. It moved quickly yet steadily, guiding the occupants closer and closer to the bottom of the tower. As they moved, they saw more glimpses of other spiders and how they interacted with each other.

One wore a costume similar to Prime but with a giant white spider instead of the smaller black one which seemed to be a popular design choice. He was chatting with two versions of Miles and a woman in a mostly white costume and a hood. One of the Mileses looked like he had spray-painted his suit.

On another catwalk, a younger version of Prime was chatting with a girl in a yellow and blue suit with mostly black lenses that stuck out. Long black hair spilled from behind her mask and she had a belt with a red X around her waist.

"So- how exactly did 'we' work out in your universe?" She sounded embarrassed by the question but her friend didn't seem bothered.

The younger Peter shrugged, "Honestly, I'm not sure. You and your father pulled me and DD into a goose chase against a self-proclaimed 'Demon Lord' and we just bonded over time."

That was all the Guardians were able to hear before the platform took them beyond hearing range.

By an entranceway not too different to the one that leads to the lobby, a group of spider people with more differences than similarities were chatting among one another in a language Ink and Dream didn't recognise. Frisk recognised it as Japanese but they were more interested in the cool robot a girl roughly their age was sitting on.

There were even non-humans. A bipedal pig, a normal cat in another spider's bag, a few robots and cyborgs. Ink could have sworn he saw a car driving up a pillar with no driver

Simply put, the three Guardians from another multiverse were shocked and in awe. This went beyond any Christmas Party or Trios. This wasn't just a place to hang out like the Omega Timeline or that Skeleton Mansion idea which was scrapped. This was an organization. An organization with recruits from hundreds of AUs all working together.

"This is incredible." Ink exclaimed. He could feel the emotions stirring inside him, threatening to spill out. He was starting to feel a bit dizzy but he was going to keep it down. Now was not a good time to puke.

"How did you even manage all this?"

Prime shrugged, "Lots of confusion and lots of infighting. Meeting someone who looks like you when you're constantly dealing with illusionists, clones, shape-shifters etc. tends to put you on edge."

Captain nodded, "We've gotten better at recruitment dives since then. If you want to know more, ask Miguel when we're all free. It was his idea to get us all organised like this."

"Although he should've talked to the ones who had genuine experience in leading our kind sooner. Would've saved us a lot of trouble." Otto said with his arms crossed.

Everyone could imagine Miguel rolling his eyes behind his mask as he mumbled something about 'cannons'. Ink wasn't sure what a superhero from the future would do with a pirate cannon but he wasn't going to judge.

Core Frisk wasn't paying attention. They had spotted someone that stuck out to them. It was one of the younger spiders, one that probably became an adult very recently. He was wearing a suit like Prime's (a very popular piece of fashion around here) and was unmasked. Brown hair, brown eyes, no different to the average Joe.

There was nothing about this version of Peter that should've caught Frisk's attention, except for the way he watched them. It wasn't malicious or spiteful. It was a look of confusion, concern and... recognition?

But how could he recognise Frisk or their allies? They were in a different multiverse. Did they exist here but with smaller roles? Were the other spiders briefed on their existence?

If the latter was true, then why weren't any of the other Spider-People acting like this one? Some swung by to say hi to their leaders and even greeted Frisk, Ink and Dream, even if they didn't know them. None of them acted like this one.

Frisk also couldn't shake the feeling that she knew the answer. It was at the very edge of her reach.

Before she knew it, the platform had descended so far down that they lost sight of the Spider-Man. Before they knew it, they had lost sight of all the Spider-Men. It seemed no one came to this level.

The platform secured itself in front of an opening which led into a dimly lit hallway, more narrow than the ones up top. The four council members stepped off the platform and were quickly followed by the three Guardians.

Layla repeated, this time wearing a mining helmet with a flashlight that somehow illuminated the corridor despite being a hologram. "This way, adventurers!" she declared and began leading them down the corridor like some kind of tour guide.

"What is this place?" Frisk asked, barely keeping up their cool demeanour and suddenly becoming very aware of how real their body felt. Even though they looked exactly the same, Core felt completely different since stepping out of that portal. The band around their wrist was proof of that. 

They could feel their heart thumping, their lungs expanding with every breath, the weight of their sweater and growl coming from their stomach.

Their form was no longer one that they could manifest at will. They weren't going to poof away at the smallest injury only to rematerialize like nothing happened. They weren't omnipresent in this multiverse and that made them vulnerable. Despite how long it has been since they (̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶p̶u̶s̶h̶e̶d̶) fell into the Core, Frisk never forgot what death felt like. How painful it could be.

Almost on instinct, they shuffled a bit closer to Prime.

Captain answered Frisk's question, "This is where we keep anomalies and threats too dangerous to be kept with the other villains. We keep them in cells meant to dampen whatever abilities they may have."

Prime seemed to be squinting behind his mask as he said, "All that technology from across the multiverse and we can't afford to put some proper lighting in here?"

Otto seemingly rolled his eyes, "It discourages any of our lower-rank members from coming in here. Besides, it suits the aesthetic."

"For a villain's lair, maybe," Prime grumbled.

They pass through several security checkpoints before reaching a more lit corridor. The walls are covered with doors leading into different. An army of metallic spiders and humanoid drones with centre pieces that glowed bright blue patrolled the hall.

As he was the only one tall enough, Dream tried to peek through the small windows on the doors into the cells. Most were empty but a small handful contained what looked like humans wearing clothes from the Victorian Era.

These individuals may look human, but the anger and hatred emanating from them was anything but human. Dream couldn't wait to get out of there.

They passed through another door and into a large room. There was a wall of glass reinforced with an orange barrier splitting the room in two. On the other side was what could be best described as a college dorm room.

A bed, a couch, a TV, a laptop, a desk bookshelf. Even a doorway which leads to a private bathroom was also included. Simply put, it was one of the nicest prison cells most people would ever see.

In the cell, lying on the couch and casually reading a quantum physics book was a man who looked like a Dalmatian. Simply put, he was all white and covered in black spots.

The man noticed their entry and immediately put down the book. He stood up a little but didn't get out of the bed.

"Hey guys." he greeted, surprisingly cheerful for someone who was meant to be 'too dangerous to be kept with the other villains'. This was of course ignoring he lack of a face, let alone a mouth.

"Is my new book order ready by any chance?" he asked like it was completely normal.

Prime shook his head, "Sorry, John. We've been really busy but it should be ready by tomorrow."

Johnathon sighed, disappointed by the news but not upset.

"What about fixing... this." he gestured to himself.

"I'm afraid finding a cure for your condition is still a work in progress," Octavious explained, "However, I am happy to inform you that after analyzing samples collected from your variants, we have made some discoveries that I believe will help us help you.

Johnathon nodded, "That's good." 

He turned to look at the Guardians, seeming  to only notice them just now. He did a double-take and jumped out of his bed and rushed to the barrier separating them to get a better look. 

"Are those actual living skeletons? And here I thought I've seen everything."

Ink and Dream jumped back in surprise at the sudden attention. Frisk hid behind Prime's legs, carefully leaning to the side to look at Johnathon with the two empty voids that they had for eyes.

"They're guests." Miguel said, folding his arms, "We brought them here to talk to your new neighbour."

Johnathon had to crane his neck to look at Miguel due to how tall the man was. "Oh yeah, I actually saw two spiders bring him in. A samurai and a girl that looked like Little Red Riding Hood. Gotta say that guy did not look happy about being here."

"They never are." Captain sighed. He turned around and waved the others to follow "Come on. Just this way. See you later, John."

The group gave the strange-looking man their goodbyes which he happily returned.

After entering another hallway and passing another checkpoint, there was only one door left. One door between them and the reason that the Council took the Guardians out of their multiverse.

Prime walked forward and opened the simple mechanical door...

... And came face to face with the glowing mouth of a black dragon skull.

Chapter 4: The Terms and Conditions

Ink reached for his brush as soon as he saw the blaster. He had to do something. He didn't want his new friends to die. He was learning so much and this has been the most fun he has had in a while. It couldn't end like this.

The Protector of the AUs was too slow. 

The blaster fired...

The beam grew brighter...

And was stopped before it even reached the room's halfway mark. The barrier that stood between them flared up, the revolutionary combination of science and magic effortlessly containing the power of the blast.

The beam dispersed and the blaster behind it soon faded away, revealing the charcoal skeleton behind it.

The Guardians had never before seen Error in both better and worse shape. His clothes were in tatters and he was missing a slipper. He was breathing heavily with exhaustion, indicating this wasn't his first attempt at escaping. Oddly enough though, despite the damaged look, Error looked oddly stable. No glitches or 'Error' text in sight.

Core noticed he was wearing the same stabilizing band on his arm as them, as well as two metal bracelets that did not look comfortable.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed, with the Destroyer and the Protector simply staring each other down. Then two things happened, seemingly at the exact same moment. Ink threw up and burst out laughing while Error began to angrily bang against the barrier.

"Ha, Ha, Ha! Error, buddy. How did this happen? I thought you were the 'God of Destruction but that clearly can't be true if you can't 'destroy' that cell."

"Ink! I knew you had something to do with this! All of this has your name painted on it! What kind of abomination of an AU did you create? No human should have anything close to the abilities of the monstrosities I've encountered since coming here!"

The two continued talking at each other, neither really paying attention to what the other was saying.

Meanwhile, the other two Guardians were more concerned by what this situation implied.

"You- You captured Error Sans?" Core started, not leaving the words leaving their mouth or what they were seeing with their two nonexistent eyes.

"How?" Dream asked, equally stunned. 

Prime smiled beneath his mask, "For that, we need to explain everything to you. We also need your full attention."

"Lyla."

The holographic woman flickered into existence, "On it, boss."

Two large metal plates extend from the floor and ceiling, cutting the shouting match between Ink and Error short.

"Oh, looks like I gotta go now. Talk to you later, buddy."

"Fuck you, Ink!"

The pieces of metal collided with a clang and sleaded themselves together. No sound came from Error's cell and he would not hear.

"Well, that was a nice reunion." Ink smiled, not turning away from the wall.

The four Spiders turned to each other and Superior asked what they were all thinking, "Is he deaf or just stupid?"

Core sighed, "Nope, that's just Ink being Ink."

"And he is the primary defender of your multiverse?"

"Yep."

Otto scoffed, "I'm starting to wonder if there is any reason behind this meeting anymore."

Prime whacked Otto across the head, "It's necessary."

Seeing how the conversation was spiralling, Dream figured he should probably get everyone's attention back on track, "So that deal you guys were talking about, I assume it has something to do with Error?"

Miguel confirmed Dream's assumptions, "Yes. We don't want to establish trade, form an alliance or exchange information. In fact, we hope to keep interactions between our multiverses to a minimum. All we want is to get rid of the walking glitch."

Ink raised a non-existent eyebrow, "Get rid of him?"

Miguel didn't respond. Not directly at least. He called for his AI, "Lyla."

"Still here, Miggy."

"Show them what we talked about."

"Show them, what exactly. We talk about a lot of things and as an Artificial Intelligence, I don't do well in understanding ambiguous requests."

Miguel gave his AI assistant a look of annoyance which his mask displayed perfectly, "You have the same deductive reasoning as a human. You know exactly what I'm talking about. We're not doing this again."

"I think we are."

The rest watched as the Spider-Man of the future and his AI assistant 'bickered' like siblings. Prime and Captain watched the scene fondly, Octavious rolled his eyes in annoyance, Ink had stars for pupils and was bouncing on the spot, Dream appeared most worried about the situation escalating and Core just remained a neutral observer.

After roughly five minutes of yelling, Miguel reached his breaking point. He pointed at the three Guardians and yelled, "THE THING THAT EXPLAINS HOW WE DISCOVERED THEIR MULTIVERSE! WHAT ELSE WOULD WE BE TALKING ABOUT!?"

Lyla placed her hands on her cheeks and gasped in what was clearly an exaggeration of surprise. The false shock quickly wore off and a smirk spread on her face, "See. Was giving clear directions so difficult?"

Miguel growled, every muscle in his body contracting in frustration while Lyla flickered out of sight. As soon as she did, an artificial darkness enveloped the room. 

The Guardians jumped in surprise, not expecting to suddenly be transported to The Void. Red lines shot out of nowhere, intersecting, weaving together and forming patterns around all of them. It looked like they were in a cave colonized by a family of red silk-weaving spiders. Images of people in familiar masks were projected in some of the spaces between the strands. Spider Heroes swinging between skyscrapers, fighting colourful villains or doing more mundane things like developing a cure for a supernatural disease or chatting with other superheroes.

Prime Peter Parker stepped forward, "This is us. Every Spider Totem and their universe, all of us connected by the Great Web of Life and Destiny. The Spider-Verse."

The presentation then zoomed out, until the 'Great Web' was a glowing red ball half the size of Prime's torso. And just a few feet to its right was a slightly smaller, golden sphere. 

Prime gestured to it, "And that is you. Your multiverse."

"The Doodle Sphere." Ink said softly.

"Doodle Sphere." Peter repeated, testing the words on his tongue, "Cool name. I like it."

Octavious didn't share the feeling but no one noticed him mutter his opinion to himself.

Prime continued, "Anyway, as you can see, there is nothing between our two multiverses. Except..."

Suddenly, tiny red and gold dots started to appear in the void between the two spheres. The dots closer to the Spider-Verse were more red, while those near the Doodle Sphere matched its golden glow. Each dot was attached to both multiverses by an appropriately coloured line.

"...these." Primes finished gesturing to this new development.

"We call them Crossovers. Worlds that exist between and within the boundaries of two or more multiverses." Miguel explained, now sounding a lot calmer than he was a few moments ago.

Core stepped forward, wanting to get a better look at the holographic representation of the multiverses, "This is how you travelled to our multiverse."

Prime nodded, "We use Crossovers as stepping stones to reach your multiverse. We detected the Omega Timeline almost immediately upon entry and figured it was a hub of some kind. However, our tech was designed based on the laws of our multiverse, not yours. So our travel within it is limited outside of Crossovers."

As Dream absorbed this knowledge, something clicked. He sensed a sudden spike in negativity from the Spiders as if they were about to give some tragic news. Dream sensed a feeling of guilt and mourning within them, and anger directed towards the skeleton locked behind that steel door.

"Error destroyed a Crossover world. That's how you found out about us."

Prime nodded his head sadly. The projection of the two multiverses disappeared, and its place was a projection of Spider-Man with a more tech-based design accompanied by a very familiar ghost. 

"This is the Spider-Man of Earth-192015, and his ghostly companion, Chara. Peter's story followed similar notes as 199999 and his other variants, except for one detour."

"He fell down a hole on a mountain called Ebott, and discovered an underground kingdom of monsters." 

"Sound familiar?" Cap asked.

It did. Ink, Dream and especially Core knew this tale. It was the basis of Frisk's journey in almost every AU.

"Our sensors didn't detect what was happening until it was too late." Octavious explained, not making eye contact with anyone in the room, "How could they? When they were processing the information they had never seen before."

The projection of the Spider-Man and his ghostly companion faded and was replaced by an image that caused the Guardians to step back, even though they should be used to such scenes by now.

A city was burning, the skyscrapers were crumbling. The sky was covered in familiar blue string. Countless humans were dangling helplessly in the air, the strings wrapped around either their necks or their souls.

Error was laughing, standing on the blue strings like a tightrope as numerous heroes charged towards him in a desperate offensive strike.

"That was one of the last transmissions we received before Peter's universe went dark. A quick scan confirmed what we already knew. Error destroyed all of 192015."

The pain in Miguel's voice was like a stab to the metaphorical heart of all three Guardians. This wasn't the first time he or the Society experienced such a loss.

Otto did a better job of hiding his own pain and frustration but you could still hear it through his accent as he continued the story, "If there was a silver lining in such a tragedy, it was that we were now aware of other multiverses. We quickly tracked your one down and used whatever data we could gather to prepare contingencies fir if Error returned."

"He did," Captain said, "And lucky for us, he chose a universe closer to our multiverse, one that wasn't built on the same 'Code' as guys."

"This severely weakened him and allowed our containment team to subdue him in record time. We believe that he was targeting universes at the edge of your multiverse to avoid detection but until we can get the numbskull calm enough to talk, it's just a theory."

The Guardians remained still, processing the story that they were told. The Spider Society had defeated and contained the Destroyer of AUs in what they called record time. The implications of something like that were almost too much to think about.

Eventually, Core gathered the courage to step forward and ask, "What are you going to do now."

Prime answered, "That's why we brought you here. To figure that out."

"Error is from your reality and you three are the primary defence force against his needless destruction. Do you have anything to use against him? Anyway to contain him, neutralize him or at the very least limit the destruction that he causes." 

Frisk felt their empty stomach drop. They didn't have anything like that. Stuff like that never went past the brainstorming phase. After all, how are you supposed to trap a Destroyer? 

"I-I-I'm sorry, but we don't have anything like that."

Prime sighed, "That's okay. It just means that we have more work to do."

"Well, we better work fast," Miguel stated, "I doubt keeping him away from your multiverse for a long period will be good for anyone and we can't let him go under a good conscience if it means letting him continue murdering trillions."

///

Meanwhile, hidden within one of the many AUs in the Doodle Sphere, in a castle built of and surrounded by misery and darkness, a creature of pure evil laughed.

"You seem to be in a good mood, boss." A skeleton with an inky substance leaking from his eyes and a soul that resembled a target said.

"Why wouldn't I be, Killer?" Nightmare, a monster that resembled the Classic Sans the Skeleton covered in black slime asked, "I cannot detect my brother's presence anywhere in the multiverse and I believe even that omnipresent brat is gone. Whether they are dead or somehow beyond my reach, this is an opportunity we cannot let pass us."

"Would you like me to bring the others here?"

"Yes. Bring everyone here. I know exactly what will do."

As Killer walked out of the throne room, Nightmare leaned back into his throne. A cruel smirk spread on his face as he felt the rare urge to laugh. Instead, he focused on one particular source of negativity.

A timeline currently experiencing an unusual amount of anxiety and mistrust, with paranoia running through the minds of all the residents. 

This was simply too perfect.

Chapter 5: Meetings

Sans hated what his life had become. He hated the room he slept in, the clothes he wore, the people around him and he hated himself for letting all of this happen.

One genocide run.

He promised himself one genocide to stop the human... No... The demon. He told himself that he would only gather enough LV to overpower the demon that looked like Frisk and reset the timeline himself, ending the loops.

What happened instead? He got himself trapped in another cycle, this time killing all his friends and family for what he believed to be a just cause when in reality he was just entertaining that stupid demon.

"But you also liked it, didn't you? You love the rush that comes when your LV increases."

"Shut up."

"When will you stop lying to yourself, brother?"

"When you are more than just a manifestation of my madness."

That shut up the Phantom Papyrus, at least temporarily. Sans sighed, grateful for the peace, and tried to relax and fall asleep on the bed that felt like it was made out of boulders. The springs in the mattress were worn and stuck out oddly, making the surface uneven and prone to poking whoever lay on it.

No doubt an effort by Nightmare to squeeze just that extra bit of negativity out of them.

As Sans felt sleep take hold of him, and as he began to prepare himself for the horrors of his past that his mind would contour, he was alerted by a rapid knocking on his door.

When the knocking stopped, Sans heard a voice that sounded like his own but more twisted say, "Wake up, Dust. Boss wants all of us in his throne room immediately."

Dust groaned. A meeting with Nightmare meant another mission of killing his friends. It would also mean he had to be in the same room with all the people that he hated. Just great.

Reluctantly, Dust picked himself up from the poor excuse for a bed that he had been lying on. He dragged himself to the door to his room, his cell, picking up his brother's scarf along the way. It was the only article of clothing that he owned that could be considered to be in good condition.

He wrapped it around his 'neck', using it to cover the lower half of his face while his hood covered the top half. He hated it when people could see his face, especially himself.

He opened the door and stepped out into the equally gloomy castle hall with barely any light to fill the neverending darkness. Dust looked around but couldn't find Killer or the red glow of his exposed soul. Must have run off to call the others.

Despite the lack of knife-wielding lunatics, there was one other Sans in the area. Dust found it ironic how, despite coming from a timeline where Monster kind was starving, Horror was the tallest Sand in the castle. Dust's theory was that Horror's LV manifested in making him more intimidating to his prey, much like how his appearance reflected his goal to gain Determination and Killer being twisted into something he wasn't before.

"Hey Dust," Horror greeted him.

They didn't make eye contact. It was always so difficult to look into the eyes of someone who was you but at the same time was so different.

When the two had met, it wasn't pretty. Horror didn't like either him or Killer which Dust thought was reasonable. Horror was the only Sans in this castle that never killed his brother in some way. So he naturally detested those who did. Dust never bothered to defend himself after that first meeting.

He hated himself for what he did as well.

Over time, the two had gained a sort of tolerance for each other. They realised that despite their differences, they were likely the two most reasonable individuals in this stupid castle.

"Did Killer tell you what the meeting is about?" Horror asked, absently scratching the spot beneath the hole in his skull.

Dust sighed as the two began walking together to the throne room, "No, but he sounded excited. Depending on what stage he is in, it's probably about attacking another post-Pacifist world. Boss might have come up with a new way of maximising negativity."

Despite popular belief, Nightmare's Gang didn't just kill random people wherever they went. Nightmare had a system that everyone had to abide by. Minimum deaths, maximum damage. Nightmare wanted to make as many people miserable as possible to increase his own power. Killing everyone wouldn't accomplish that goal because corpses don't feel things.

A strategy they commonly use to achieve this is simply assassinating Asgore or whoever is the ruler of the Underground in the AU. The entire population of Monsters is encompassed by sorrow with minimal negative emotions being wasted. Sometimes if they're feeling daring they let someone see them do it and have the Sans of that AU take the blame.

Horror growled, "I hope it's not. I hate sabotaging other worlds to be like mine."

"You two are always so sour when we're not killing people."

The two paused, silently preparing themselves for the coming conversation. They turned around, not fully ready to face the pink abomination behind them.

"Noire" Dust reluctantly greeted her.

Bête Noir smiled at him. It was an innocent smile that went well with the rest of her appearance of a little girl fresh out of a princess tea party. Just a shame it was all an act that the slithering blob wrapped around her gave away.

"Please, Dust. I told you to just call me Betty. There's no need for formalities. We're friends after all."

'Friends'. Dust almost felt like laughing. Friends aren't forced to feed the souls of their families to each other. The worst part, the creature knew it.

"What are you doing here?" Horror asked eye sockets narrowed at the little beast resting on Betty's shoulder.

Bête's smile dropped. She cocked her head a bit to the side and put on the mask of a saddened child, "Well that's not a very nice question to 'axe' someone."

The mask crumbled quickly, as she began to grin, showing off a set of sharp teeth.

"Besides, I'm doing the same as you guys. Heading to the throne room."

"Your quarters aren't anywhere near here."

Betty shrugged, "I'm allowed to wander. This isn't a prison."

'It is.'

Betty skipped passed them, humming a tune from a song that always unsettled Dust, despite all that he had seen.

"Come on, Boneheads. We don't want to keep our boss waiting."

Dust sighed while Horror growled. They began to follow her, shuffling through the dimly lit halls of the castle they were forced to call home. Of to the throne room where they would meet up with the rest of the murderous psychopaths.

'I swear to any Gods that aren't me, no one can be attending a worse meeting than this'

///

Well, this was certainly one of the worst meetings Peter had ever attended.

After he and the others gave them their terms for Error's release, they had gathered in the Council's meeting room so they could all chat properly.

The room was large and spacious, almost everything being in a red, blue and black colour palette. The room's ceiling and walls were littered with paths and doors no regular human could reach. The centre of the room housed a circular table with seven chairs. There was a classic spider emblem on the table along with a web pattern. It could also act like a holographic screen, capable of projecting 3-D images of whatever needed to be shown. The chairs were arranged so that only half of the table was being used, with the unused half being where a large screen on the wall was, currently displaying a save screen of a rotating logo of Peter's mask.

Anyway, Peter should have expected that this meeting wouldn't go well. Otto had warned him about the potential dangers of trapping a powerful entity outside their own multiverse, even though he had taken part in those studies and was well aware of those risks. They understood how different alternative multiverses could be based on what they could learn from the Crossovers. He should have predicted that this wouldn't be easy.

"That's pretty much all we know about Error. We have no idea how to kill him and if we did, he's too important to remove."

Error wasn't just some overpowered maniac with a twisted hatred of the multiverse. He was also a vital part of the balance between creation and destruction and removing him could risk their entire multiverse collapsing in on itself, even if the glitching bastard didn't know it. Or maybe he did. Who could know for sure?

It was just the type of wrench that Parker Luck threw at what was supposed to be a simple matter. Or as simple as inter-multiversal negotiations could be.

The four present leaders of the Spider Society were all either rubbing their chins or simply resting their heads in their hands as they mulled the information over.

"Have you ever tried to come up with a compromise with Error?" Captain America Peter, which was concept Prime was still internally freaking out over, asked, "Maybe make some sort of deal like, he only destroys dead universe or worlds beyond saving?"

Ink chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head, "Error and I tried to make a truce once. No more creation, no more destruction. It didn't necessarily end well. Mostly because of me."

Dream stepped up, hoping to prevent any mistrust from arising, "Ink and Error are essentially hardwired to fight against each other. Even if they understand the importance of Balance, it is nearly impossible for either of them to let the other do their thing."

"So if we do find a way to convince the walking glitch to destroy only broken worlds, we can't trust Paintjob to not rush in and start a fight." Miguel summarised with a light growl.

"Pretty much. Sorry."

Prime Peter Parker sighed. Sometimes, he really hated this job. He wished he could go back to a time when his biggest concern was how many of his enemies would break out of prison this week.

Core observed the four humans carefully. They still weren't adjusted to having their full attention in one room but they were taking full advantage of it.

Each Spider-Man could be described as tense and deep in thought. They didn't seem to be the type to easily compromise while lives were at stake. Frisk could tell that they felt strongly about their values and only leaned away from them when there was no other option.

Dream could feel the anxiety emanating from everyone in the room. He could also feel other emotions mixed in among the Spiders.

Octavious seemed annoyed by everyone in the room. Miguel was angry, with a lot of that anger being directed at himself for some reason. Prime was more frustrated than anything while Captain appeared to have the most control over his emotions, almost appearing neutral about the situation to even the Guardian of Positivity.

The silence was deafening, no one being sure of what to say or do until someone decided to stand up.

"As difficult as this situation may appear, I doubt we will ever come to a decision by sitting here." the Superior Spider-Man started, standing from this chair, "I will be returning to our prisoner, see what I can learn from him. Perhaps he, or his 'code', will hold the answers we are looking for. I recommend that all of you find something to do as well. Or simply return our guests to their home."

No one answered, they all simply watched as Octavious leapt onto one of the walkways like a stiff board on a trampoline before walking towards one of the exits as if nothing had happened. No one said anything until after Otto left the room.

Once he was gone, Prime clapped his hands together before stating, "Ock is right. There is no point in sitting around and doing nothing," he then turned to face the Guardians directly, "But I doubt you guys want to go back just yet so, what do you want to do."

Ink immediately jumped out of his seat and began waving his arm around frantically, "Ooh, ooh. I want to learn more about your AUs. You wouldn't happen to have some sort of  place that acts as a physical manifestation of the multiverse that allows you to easily view each individual universe?"

The three Spiders look at each other, holding a silent debate about if this is a good idea.

Dream spoke up softly, "I'll try to keep him from doing anything... Dangerous."

Captain shrugged, "I mean if he's the sole protector of his multiverse then it can't be that big of a risk. Besides, Karn might have an idea on what to do."

A few seconds pass before Miguel caves. With a groan, some his face onto the palms of his hands before getting up from his seat. He begins adjusting something on his watch and as he does says, "I'll take you two to the Web. We can talk to Karn and maybe some of the more knowledgeable Spiders about this issue."

Captain stood up, "As much as I would love to tag along, I need to hop back to my universe. I've left my team alone for longer than usual and I don't want to come back to see the Tower on fire."

Prime waved him off, "That's fine. We'll call you if you're needed."

Captain nodded and saluted the group. With that goodbye, he opened a portal and stepped through, with the gateway shutting behind him.

'Maybe we should research portal tech.' Core thought, 'It would save a lot of hassle.'

Miguel turned to look at the previously omnipresent child, and asked gently "Are you coming with us?"

Frisk's stomach answered for them. It out a growl so loud that the Hulk would feel ashamed.

"Well, that's new."

The Guardian of Positivity elbowed Ink for the comment.

Frisk could feel their cheeks warming up. Were they red? It's been so long since they had any colour on them that Ink hadn't forcefully painted. They felt inclined to ask. Hunger, blushing, being able to look at only what is in front of you. So many new but familiar sensations that they haven't truly experienced since... How long has it been since the accident?

"I... Think I'll say here." Frisk finally answered softly.

Prime nodded, "That's fine. If you want I'll take you to the med bay, we'll figure out what exactly is going on with you  and then we'll grab a bite. How does that sound?"

Frisk smiled, "That sounds nice."

///

The Omega Timeline was a place that guaranteed safety to everyone across the multiverse, even from the Destroyer. However, that guarantee was now being called into question. All because of a handful of humans from seemingly beyond the multiverse itself.

"Humans claiming to be spiders? Whoever heard of such a thing."

These 'Spider-Men' had seemingly broken through every bit of protection the Omega Timeline had to offer and walked in, claiming to come in peace and that they only wanted to speak with those in charge.

"I just don't understand why all three of them had to go."

Ink, Dream and Core Frisk. Protectors of Aus, Creation, Positivity and the Omega Timeline. They arrived to their protection and instead of warding off the invaders, they followed them through their odd portal. No one has been able to reach them since.

"Have you seen their Stats? Not even a soldier with a hundred LV would have that much power. If there are more like them..."

Nonetheless, the residents had a lot of reasons to feel uneasy.

"Someone should probably go talk to them." an Undyne dressed in leather clothes and with both of her eyes said.

The residents, and some of the substitute defenders Core had brought in, were observing these Spiders. They were new, in more ways than one, and it made the Monsters uneasy. More so when you consider the common history that monsters and humans have across the numerous timelines.

These humans weren't doing anything malicious, at least based on what they could see.

The one dressed in robes and a cape was meditating, floating above the ground near the area where they arrived like a monk in old movies. Those more in tune with their magic could feel great power emanating from him, circling him and being absorbed by him. As unsettling as that was, the residents chose to simply leave him alone.

The youngest one, dressed in black and red, was the most talkative. He tried to strike up conversations with many of the Monsters only to be nervously brushed off. Unsurprisingly, it's the humans who have the easiest time interacting with him. This Spider-Man was currently in a game of tag with an army of human children trying to catch him with the older humans watching in amusement.

Then there was the British guy. That's what people called him since British accents weren't common in the Omega Timeline.

He seemed to be the one doing the most 'work'. He pulled out an entire computer system, with satellites and beeping lights, from seemingly nowhere and was currently typing away on it. The robed guy didn't seem bothered by the noise coming from a few feet away from him and just continued to meditate.

"What is he doing anyway?" a Muffet with a small pair of rectangular spectacles and dressed in a professional outfit, not the type Muffets are known to wear, asked. She was eyeing the self-proclaimed spider wearingly.

"H-he's probably gathering data," an Alphys dressed in dark blues and bright yellows suggested, "They're from an entirely different multiverse from our own so it would make sense for them to study it."

"Just makes them more suspicious in my book," Undyne growled, glaring at the stranger.

"Now, no, dear. I understand that you are stressed but there is no need to glare at our, eh, guests like that." Toriel, dressed in a flowing skirt, said attempting to calm her friend.

This little group of ladies had met at the local Grillby's, which was co-owned by Muffet and the Grillbys. Troriel worked there as an entertainer while the Alphys and Undyne were simply customers. This is just one example of the many Cross-Au friendships formed in the Omega Timeline.

They were sitting at an outdoor table outside a café which gave them a good view of two of the three spider people.

"We do have a right to be suspicious though." Muffet defended her fishy friend, "Seven humans appear in the Omega Timeline, which is supposed to be impenetrable to anyone that isn't let in, and take our three main protectors to who knows where while leaving three of their own behind. It makes sense for us to worry."

"From where I'm standing, I don't see any reason for you to worry."

The group turned away from the guests and towards the new yet familiar voice next to them. He was a Sans but lacked the signature hoodie. He had dark marks running down his cheekbones, reminiscent of tears, and hands that resembled orange gauntlets with hearts carved into them which acted as his distinguishing features.

"After all. I'm here."

This Sans was known as Delta. He had 'lost' his world after Chara absorbed Frisk's soul, removing their ability to RESET. Now he travelled the multiverse alone, with only the Soul of Bravery beating within him for company.

He is also known as one of the more arrogant Sanses, always entering a fight expecting to win.

He was one of the people Core had called in to watch over the Omega Timeline while they were gone.

"Oh, hello there Sans." Toriel greeted him.

"Hey, Tori. Alphys, Undyne, Muffet. It's nice to meet all of you again. I couldn't help but overhear your conversation and I decided... Bravery decided to come over and join in."

Undyne rolled her eyes, "Right. I'm assuming you have something to add to the conversation then."

Delta smirked, "Of course I do. This whole situation is obviously fishy but we've goat to help ease the tension, otherwise one of the more rash individuals here will do something stupid. Luckily for us, Dino just what we need to do. We need to weave a conversation between the two parties to break the ice, but it needs to be a Monster since the humans seem to be getting along with them just fine already.

As Toriels giggled at Delta's numerous puns, Alphys asked "Any suggestions on who should do it?"

"I've got a few candidates in mind." his eyes directed towards the one with the most eyes to meet his.

All eyes turned to Muffet.

"Are you guys kidding me?!"

"I mean, you're both spiders. It makes sense for you or one of your alternative selves to talk to them."

"They are NOT spiders!!"

Chapter 6: The Infinite Web

Summary:

Core and Prime have lunch, Miguel gives Ink and Dream some backstory and Nightmare shares his plan with his gang.

"This is delicious." Frisk groaned in satisfaction as they chewed into the hamburger, "I honestly don't remember the last time I had proper food."

Peter chuckled nervously, "Because you were an omnipresent being with no true physical form or..."

The two were sat at a lunch counter in the Spider Society's main restaurant. Countless heroes dressed in variations of the same costume, some practically identical to each other, surrounded them. Some ate their own meals. Some walked by while chatting. Some swung over their heads. After taking Frisk to the med bay and being given the okay, Peter immediately took them to get something to eat. 

Both were eating a meal of cheeseburger and fries, although Frisk's was much smaller. Frisk wasn't sure but if they had to guess, Prime was eating enough food to feed at least three people. He didn't even take off his mask. He just lifted the bottom of the mask to his nose to uncover his mouth. 

Superpowers were weird.

"Mostly the former," Core answered before taking another bite. They understood Primes's silent question about their past "Maybe a bit of the latter as well."

"Would it be okay if you told me what the latter was?"

Frisk turned to face Peter, making eye contact through the lenses of his mask. That was when Peter noticed that Core's empty, void-colored eyes now had a speck of light in them. This made him do a quick scan of them. Their skin was slightly more saturated, brown roots were fading into their hair and their breathing was becoming more natural, more real."

"Is there a particular reason you would like to know that?" Frisk asked softly.

Peter shrugged, "It's not every day you meet an omnipresent child, even in the same multiverse. I'm just curious. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to."

Frisk turned back to their food and seemed to consider answering. Their face remained neutral of any emotion, even when they answered, "I don't think I will."

Peter snorted a laugh, turning back to his food as well.

"What's so funny?"

He shrugged, "Long story from another universe."

As they ate, one of the cooks came up and placed a full meal by an empty seat next to Frisk. Frisk was confused by this action but Prime seemed to know exactly what was going on.

"Another pre-order?" he asked casually.

The masked cook nodded, lifting his watch and surprisingly using it as a regular watch, "She should be here in fifteen seconds."

As the cook went back to the kitchen, Frisk turned to Peter and asked, "What was that about?"

Peter simply pointed to the empty seat next to Frisk. The moment they turned towards it, a bluish-grey mist began to form from seemingly nowhere. Frisk looked around to see if anybody else was seeing this.

Some of the Spider-People did notice the strange phenomenon but didn't pay it any attention.

Then, without warning, something (a person?) manifested out of it. Her body was stretched so much that she might as well have been rubber. She was dressed head to toe in a green suit with purple accents and a scarf. Frisk was also able to spot what looked like a curved purple lightning bolt on her torso.

It wasn't like the suits the majority of the Spider-People wore. It was looser in some areas and had bulky equipment. The helmet covered her entire head and from the brief look Core was able to get off her face, it was covered by a bright blue mask of some kind that displayed a very simple facial expression.

Her body began to contract into more natural proportions as if she were an elastic band as she sat on the stool, with the cloud disappearing behind her. Her helmet completely retracted into the suit she was wearing, revealing the face of a young brown-skinned girl with hair that reached past her shoulders. Frisk also noted two peculiar scars on her face. Two straight lines that went from her forehead, over her eyes and to the bottom of her face.

The girl didn't notice Frisk staring at her, as she rubbed her hands together while eyeing the delicious meal before her.

"Future me always knows what to get me," she exclaimed happily, licking her lips, ready to dig in.

"Hey, Kamala." Prime greeted her, putting a name on the face.

Kamala jumped slightly and turned in the Spider's direction, "Oh, hey Peter." she greeted him with a wide smile.

It was then that she spotted Core. Just like almost everyone in the Spider Society, she didn't seem to notice or care about Frisk's strange appearance. She simply offered Frisk her hand and said, "Hi, I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting you or a variant of yourself yet, at least on my timeline. I'm Kamala Kang."

Frisk awkwardly took her hand, "Frisk."

Kamala's smile seemed to grow, "That's a nice name."

She let go of Frisk's hand and began eating her food, but didn't turn away from the duo.

"So Kamala," Peter began, "How have you been?"

Kamala shrugged, "Oh you know, same old same old. School, boys, fighting world-destroying villains, spying on the Council of Kangs, exploring different time periods on different worlds. Honestly, the hardest part is timing all of that in a way so I don't age ten years every other week."

Peter chuckled, "Things can never be simple when it comes to time travel."

Kamala groaned and pinched her nose, "It never is," she then leaned closer to the two and almost whispered, "I think one of the other Kangs on the Council is hitting on me. And like, 'Gross. I know my name isn't Nathaniel Richards but we're still at least 50% the same person.'"

Peter sighed, "Variant Incest. Hate it when that happens."

Core blinked, "I'm confused. What are you guys talking about?"

Peter gestured to Kamala and explained, "Kamala comes from an amalgimate universe. This means that everyone in her universe is actually two or more people merged into one. In her case, she's a fusion of Ms Marvel and Kang the Conquer."

Kamala hit some buttons on her arm and a blue holographic screen appeared. In it were two pictures. One was of a girl in a red and blue suit with a similar design to Kamala's and the other was of a man in a green and purple high-tech battle armour similar to parts of Kamala's suits as well.

"Kang in pretty much every universe is a world-conquering time traveller. Some of the biggest assholes you could meet." She explained, disgust clear in her voice.

Peter took over, "The Council of Kangs is one of the greatest threats to our multiverse. The Spider Society is always interfering with their conquests when we can. The Spider-Man of Kamala's universe, Arachknight, brought Kamala here to help. Luckily for us, most Kangs are too self-absorbed to realise that one of their own is working for us."

"Cheers to that," Kamala said, raising her milkshake before taking a sip.

Frisk turned around to face Prime again, "Are there others who work here that don't have spider abilities?"

Peter nodded, "There are a few. There's Strange Supreme, some Reed Richards and Tony Starks who found out and offered their services, I think we have a Doctor Doom running around here somewhere, Octavia Otto, some Deadpools and a GwenPool broke in and the Watcher.

Frisk cocked her head to the side, "Watcher?"

"He's a fifth-dimensional being who observes the multiverse." Kamala explained, "Pops in from time to time warn us about upcoming threats but rarely does much else."

"Huh."

Frisk turned their attention back to their food, tuning out Peter's and Kamala's voices as they discussed life in their respective universes.

'I wonder what it would be like to meet someone like me.'

///

When Ink and Dream stepped through the portal, their eye sockets grew in size. They were standing in front of a magnificent palace, with chunks of metal pipes and entire rooms straight out of science fiction sticking out of it. Even the sky was breathtaking. It was straight out of Outertale, with stars, galaxies and planets decorating the background.

Miguel walked forward, his holographic cape flowing in a wind that shouldn't exist, "Welcome to Earth-001, Loom World. Home to the Web of Life and Destiny." He turned his head to face them and beckoned the two skeletons to follow him, "Come on. We don't have all day and I don't want you two to get lost."

The two protectors of another multiverse snapped out of their daze and quickly followed the local. The inside was nothing like the HQ they had just been in. The Spider Society HQ had been specially designed to accommodate all the different Spiders. This place looked like just some random old building that they found and took over, integrating advanced technology into its ancient walls. Even the population was as different as day and night. While the previous HQ had twenty different Spiders in every corner, this place was practically empty, with the trio only bumping into someone after crossing two or three different halls.

"What is this place?" Dream asked cautiously. There was a stain of negativity in this place that no amount of positivity could wash out. Like blood on a carpet. He could sense a level of unease in Miguel and every other person in this quiet AU and it made him feel sick.

Miguel sighed, "I wasn't there when it happened but... This place used to be home to the Inheritors. The first army of Spiders, the Web Warriors, kicked them out during the Totem War. Prime, Superior and UK were the ones to lead the charge. After that, they took over and used it as a headquarters to fix the damage the Inheritors had caused."

"And uh, who are the Inheritors?" Ink asked, much too casually for Dream's liking. This was a sensitive subject for Miguel, and potentially ever Spider in this multiverse.

Dream felt the anger in 2099's soul spike as he clenched his fists and his muscles tensed. It was at that moment that the skeletons truly realised just how large Miguel O'Hara was. He towered over them like an adult compared to a small child. He was much broader than most of the other Spider-Heroes. The two felt a shiver go down their spine as they got this feeling that the human in front of them could rip their skulls off their sockets if he wanted to. 

But that couldn't be true. They were essentially gods after all... Right?

"The Inheritors were a family of vampires who fed off the life force of animal totems,  basically anyone with animal-based abilities. Spider Totems, we are... They considered us a delicacy. They enslaved the Master Weaver and used his power to hunt us like deers for sport. No one was safe. A single Inheritor could easily slaughter ten average Spider-Men. I've seen the footage. It was horrible."

The uneasy feeling within the skeletons worsened. Not even Ink's soulless self was immune.

"Only one Spider Totem who isn't considered to be on the level of gods has fought an Inheritor by himself and not only survived but also won."

Ink couldn't help but ask, "Who?"

Miguel didn't hesitate to answer, "Prime. He fought an Inheritor named Morlun four different times and came out on top every single time. The first two are why he was chosen to lead us against them during the Totem War, which is now considered to be the first major Spider-Verse Event."

"Wow."

"What happened to them?"

Miguel sighed, as he pushed open a pair of doors larger than others in the palace, "That is a story for another time."

He walked through before stepping to the side, giving the two skeletons a clear view of what lay beyond. It was a grand room, likely a dining hall at some point, but was now filled with countless beeping computers and machines run by a handful of men and women with lab coats over their suits. In the centre of it all was a giant web.

It stretched across the entire room, touching every corner and every edge. It gave off a yellow, almost golden glow. At the centre was what appeared to be a man, one of the strangest Ink and Dream had ever seen. His face was hidden by a brown mask with four red lenses on both sides. On his torso was a white shirt, a black vest and a blue Victorian-era jacket with gold accents. But the area below his torso was likely the strangest. His legs, if he had legs, were encased in a mechanical golden sphere at least twice his size. Protruding from the sphere were eight mechanical spider legs, carefully manoeuvring the individual across the Web.

The man spoke, his voice clear as day despite the mask and almost echoing through the room, "Welcome back, Spider-Man. I see you brought some new guests, not only to my eternal home but this very multiverse."

Miguel nodded while the two skeltons could only stare in wonder, before gesturing towards the man and saying, "Ink. Dream. This is Karn. Former Inheritor and the eighth member of the Council. It is his job to maintain the Web of Life and Destiny as the Master Weaver."

///

"Good, you're all here. I was beginning to think that I would have to drag some of you here myself."

It took all of Dust's determination to look Nightmare in the eye and not say something that would get him killed. He hated that he had to restrain himself. He hated that he was kneeling, he hated the people around him who were also kneeling, he hated that some of them were proud to do so, he hated how smug that stupid octopus looked on his throne and he hated that the bastard definitely knew how he felt and was relishing in it.

"Your castle is a big place, boss," Killer stated almost casually, "Nevertheless, I'm sorry it took us so long to get here."

Nightmare casually waved him off, "Apology accepted. We have more important matters to attend to. We have been given an opportunity that we must take advantage of."

"Sounds fun," Betty said with a toothy grin. 

Nightmare's slimy smile stretched, "Four of our biggest nuisances have vanished off the face of the multiverse, including my dear old brother."

"What!?"

Dust couldn't stop the outburst from leaving his mouth. Luckily for him, neither could many of the others. Voices of disbelief echoed through the chamber. Nightmare paid it no mind.

"Dream, Ink, Error and Core have disappeared. I cannot sense their presence. Of course, the artist might have just forgotten his paints but I find that hard to believe. I've also sensed a rise in negative emotions in the Omega Timeline which further supports my theory that they haven't simply found a way to... Hide their presence from me."

"What does this mean for us, boss?" the tallest member of the ensemble, a figure dressed in blood red battle armor asked.

"I think it's rather obvious. Until something says otherwise, we have free reign over the multiverse. We will take full advantage of the freedom that we have been given, for as long as we have it."

If Dust was a human, he would be chewing the inside of his cheek right now. It wouldn't be that simple. Ink, Dream, and Core weren't the only people who protected AUs. Just two weeks ago, he had a run-in with a human, not one he recognised. He was armed with a gun and used a combination of metal chains and fire magic to fight. He kept asking Dust very personal questions. The skeleton barely made it out alive.

Taking a major risk, Dust glanced over towards Horror, to see if he could decipher what the larger skeleton thought. He could tell similar thoughts were running through his mind.

These thoughts were interrupted when Nightmare spoke again, "We will use this opportunity to do something I've been itching to do for a long time. We will stack the Omega Timeline."

As cheers from those truly loyal to Nightmare echoed through the chamber, Dust felt a heavy weight pull his soul. If he were human, he would have swallowed every bit of moisture in his mouth.

This wouldn't end well.

Chapter 7: Friendly Guests

Summary:

What the Spiders in the Omega Timeline are up to.

Humans and Monsters are more alike than anyone gives them credit for. They are both social creatures who yearn for a sense of community. They both fear what they don't understand, either avoiding the unknown like a plague or launching the full power of their hatred against this.

Of course, differences do exist. These can range from the obvious such as the make-up of their souls or plain old biology. However, there are also more subtle differences which become clear once you know what to look for. For example, how humans approach danger.

Most Monsters, despite their magical abilities, aren't what could be described as strong, especially when compared to the rest of Earth's animal kingdom. Because of this trait, they evolved to avoid danger when possible. Run and don't fight. This is why the residents of the Omega Timeline are so cold to the visitors from beyond the borders of the multiverse.

Humans, as a species, actively seek out danger. They love the feeling of adrenaline pumping through their veins as death claws in vain to catch up with them. They had to compete with more powerful predators for their entire evolutionary period after all. Due to this, humans are more open to new things and potential risks despite their natural instincts to fear the unknown.

"Come on, is that the best you kids can do?"

Thanks to this trait, and several other factors, the humans of the Omega Timeline warmed up to their guests far more quickly.

Miles laughed as jogged out of the reach of a dozen hands sprinting after him. Behind him, a library worth of kids were chasing him, filling the streets to the brim and laughing their heads off. This white void lacked any sky scrappers for him to swing off but he didn't mind. These kids would need every advantage they could if they wanted any chance of catching Spider-Man.

Case and point, Miles jumped at the side of what looked like a restaurant, letting orange electricity from his Venom dance around his costume simply for show. Already out of the reach of any of the kids, he leapt off the wall and at a lamp post. He gripped the pole and spun around a few times before letting go launching himself even higher. Miles performed multiple pirouettes, orange and yellow dancing around him to create a star of light.

The children 'Oooh'ed and 'Ahhh'ed at the spectacle until Miles landed on the tip of the lamp post, striking the famous Spider-Man crouch and allowing the electricity to disperse to the cheers of the children below him.

Miles laughed and stood up, effortlessly balancing on the tip before taking multiple bows.

"Thank you. Thank you. I'll be here for as long as business allows it."

"You're amazing." One of the children with a particularly manly bandana declared.

"Told you that would be fun, Chara." an out-of-breath girl dressed in a blue and purple striped sweater said to her friend.

"Shut up, Frisk," Chara replied, trying to sound annoyed despite the massive smile on his face.

The duo was surrounded by so many variants of themselves that it was a bit of a surprise that they weren't mixing each other up. 'Frisk' and 'Chara' probably made up at least 65% of the gathered kids.

Miles was practically beaming beneath his mask. He may be one of the leaders of a multiversal organisation of spider-based heroes but little things like this, playing with the neighbourhood kids, that was what being Spider-Man was all about. And he loved it.

Meanwhile, a few meters from the playful gathering, a young man sat on a bench, watching the game of tag with a small smile. In fact, he had been watching these visitors ever since they arrived.

He was dressed in blue jeans and an open brown leather jacket, accompanied by black boots, a yellow shirt and a brown fedora-type hat which cast a shadow over his eyes. Holstered by his side, was a shiny revolver. A weapon which he had used to slay many and would likely use to slay many more.

But right now, he was content to simply relax and watch the playful antics of this particular Spider-Man and the human children surrounding him.

Suddenly, the voice of an angel cut through the tranquil sounds of this beautiful day, "Golden Flower Tea for the Sheriff."

Clover chuckled, his smile growing ever so slightly. He turned to the voice's owner, a beautiful woman who gave off a comforting glow which lifted the shadow covering his eyes.

He took the disposable cup from her outstretched hand and took a sip of the steaming drink as she took a seat next to him. When he swallowed the enchanting liquid, he turned to her with that same small smile and said, "Thank you, Marine."

Marine smiled back at him, the light of unknown origin perfectly reflecting off her pale skin and blonde hair, "I just got us our drinks, silly. You don't need to sound like I just saved your life."

"Sometimes I feel like you did."

Marine was the second to fall in the Underground and Clover was the second last. In most realities, it is impossible for them to ever meet. However, the Omega Timeline wasn't just any reality.

When Clover first came, he was a mess. He was broken emotionally and spiritually, having come to a world-shattering realisation mere hours before Error ripped his whole world apart. He was distant. He was aggressive to anyone who came too close. He was borderline insane, which isn't all that surprising since he had just escaped from a never-ending death loop by compromising the very moral ideals that made him who he was.

Few tried to approach him, less stayed for long and all left when he pulled out his gun. All except for Marine. The girl dressed almost completely in white except for the blue blouse over her frock and a red ribbon tied to her hair. Only she had the Patience to help him.

She laughed at his comment and gently elbowed him, almost causing both of them to drop their drinks.

"Stop being such a romantic. We've been together for years. You won."

"Who said it was a competition?"

"Every book or movie involving romance."

"I wouldn't know."

"Of course you wouldn't."

The two laughed again, content simply being together. A pair of lovers which wouldn't have been possible if not for the little town in a white void they lived in now. It was nice but every moment of tranquillity would reach an end.

"Did they tell you anything about them?" Marine asked.

When Clover turned to look at her, her face was uncharacteristically neutral. He sighed and answered, "Core told me the same thing as they told everyone. Humans from an entirely different multiverse showed up in the Omega Timeline and they wanted me and the others to watch over it while they and the two boneheads are gone."

"What do you think about all of this?"

Clover cocked his head to the side, "Why are you asking me?"

"I trust your judgment more than anybody else."

She said it so confidentially. She sounded so sure of it. Clover felt a pit form in his stomach. Memories of what he did for 'justice' flashed before his eyes. She knows what he did. She knows what he is willing to do. Why should she trust his judgment when he didn't?

'Perhaps it's because, despite your mistakes, she believes that you are truly good and will make the right decisions.'

"They have good intentions," he replied calmly, taking another sip of his tea to quell the rising panic, "But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be careful."

///

"Would you care for a Spider Donut, dear?"

William Braddock turned his attention away from the computer screens and to the owner of the voice. She was one of the anthropomorphic spiders that he had seen wandering around. She was dressed in a purple barkeeper outfit and wore rectangular glasses over one pair of eyes.

He turned his attention to the platter of doughnuts held up by her centre right arm. On it were half a dozen purple doughnuts with black icing in a web pattern. UK felt his stomach grumble slightly, erasing any plans to reject the offer.

He partially lifted his mask with one hand while reaching for a doughnut with the other, "Don't mind if I do."

He picked up the pastry and immediately bit into it. It was good. It was sweet, soft and just the right texture, soft but not chewy. However, it also had the peculiar quirk of melting away before reaching his stomach. Odd.

But, food is food. He took another bite, humming in delight.

"This is quite good." he stated, "You wouldn't mind sharing the recipe, would you?"

Muffet clapped all three pairs of hands together, after placing the platter on the computers, "Oh, I knew you would enjoy them. After all, they're made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders."

Billy froze while in the middle of his fourth bite. Did she just say..?

"I'm sorry... But are you saying that these doughnuts were made with... spiders?"

To his surprise and slight horror, the spider lady began to laugh, "Ahuhuhuhu. Oh, don't worry dear. I've made sure not to give those pastries to anyone unless I know they will appreciate them. Although it is a shame you don't seem to be one of those individuals, seeing as you and your friends claimed to be part of our kind."

UK sighed in relief, "Sorry, ma'am. Most of us are only 50% spider but I'm not sure how accurate that number actually is. We should probably look into it."

"No need for such formalities. Muffet is fine."

UK shrugged, "Alright," then threw the last piece of the doughnut into his mouth. A silence filled the air between the two. Billy could sense that Muffet wanted something from him but was clearly either feeling too nervous or awkward to say.

'Guess it's up to me then.'

"I appreciate the doughnuts but I get the feeling that you came here for more than to just share pastries and laugh at my expense."

Muffet sighed, her smile stretching further and revealing a pair of fangs, "Well aren't you perceptive? Yes, you are correct. I'm not sure if you noticed but things have been rather tense since you and your friends appeared, at least for the Monsters. My colleagues sent me to... break the ice, spider to spider."

Billy nodded, "Understandable. Look, I'm sorry for any trouble we might have caused all of you. I promise that we mean you all no harm and we'll be out of your hair as soon as the others return."

Muffet waved him off, not looking in the least bit interested in his apology, "Yes, yes dear. I believe you made that clear. Honestly, if it was up to me I would just give you the pastries and leave. However, the others insisted that I bring them some new information. If I don't they'll either send me or a different me to try again and believe me, the other mes aren't as civilised as I am. So, we're going to keep this brief and you will answer one simple question for me."

She leaned against the computers, "What exactly is a Spider-Man?"

Billy blinked, surprised by the question. Then, he smiled and slowly lowered his mask so it would cover his face.

"Spider-Man is... this mask that we all wear... it means something different to whoever wears it. It can be both a gift and a curse. But as a whole, I think the vast majority of us can be described with just one phrase. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility."

"Most of us weren't born with our powers. Most of us got them by accident, at least it felt like an accident. Most of us didn't have the most noble intentions when we first got them but each of us would go on to experience... an event which would open our eyes to our destiny."

"We fight to protect. We laugh so others don't cry. We stand so those relying on us aren't broken."

"We're heroes not out of choice, but duties. I believe that's what Spider-Man is."

///

The magic here... It was so different from his own. Peter could feel the way the 'code' that made up this multiverse reacted when he reached into it. Mystical webs stretched across an endless expanse of ones and zeroes, like a live worm digging through a computer program. It was like being in Matrix but also nothing like it.

Despite how easy it would be for Peter to call this reality a simulation, he couldn't. Despite how openly similar this place, these people and all these other worlds were to computer programs, they were anything but that. There is no mainframe, no hardware, no programmers beyond these 'Creators' that he can sense watching them from the edge of his vision.

These people were real, sentient beings with a true conscience and soul, he wouldn't be able to destroy them with a computer virus, Bluetooth wouldn't connect to any of them and the laws of physics were too complex and precise to be a simple physics engine.

This entire multiverse simulates being a computer simulation.

'Fascinating.' was the word running through Peter's mind as he scoured and absorbed everything he could about this new reality, as he reached further into the inner workings of these worlds. He went in deep, deeper, yet deeper into the code.

Until...

He phased through the borders of the map.

Peter 'blinked' but he didn't need to. He looked himself down. He was in his astral form, translucent and glowing a slight purple for some reason. He was still dressed in his modified robes but the Cloak of Levitation was gone along with his mask. But he wasn't bothered, just intrigued.

Peter's body was safe in the Omega Timeline while his mind was free to roam this... Void. That was the only way to describe this place. A realm outside time and space. An endless, empty expanse of eternal darkness exists only in between true existence.

And because it was so empty, it made what little that was here so much louder.

"You should not be here."

It sounded like two voices were speaking at the same time, one in perfect English and the other in a language Peter never heard before and he had heard and mastered a lot of languages, many sounding like a broken record player to most.

The translucent form of Peter Parker turned around to face a peculiar figure. He eyed him up and down. This person looked like they were literally melting into the darkness around them. Peter wasn't sure what exactly the man before him was until he noticed that his face had a bony texture.

'Another skeleton?'

"From the looks of it, neither should you. You look like an ice cream that's been burnt to a crisp. ...Your friend shouldn't be here either."

The man tilted his head to the side, "And here I was... trying so hard to keep him hidden."

From behind the goopy skeleton, looking like they were stepping into reality because of how seamlessly the man blended into the darkness, was a Frisk. His colours were faded, but he wasn't monochrome like Core was. This Frisk also looked older than the omnipresent child. He was also far more open with his emotions.

Peter offered the scared kid a friendly smile, "Hi, I'm Peter, Sorcerer Supreme and your friendly interdimensional Spider-Man. I'm not here to hurt you."

"But your presence will."

Peter sighed, turning his attention back to the melting skeleton with cracks across his skull, "Mind at least giving me your name so I can insult you properly?"

The man frowned, his face unnaturally malleable for a skull, even compared to Ink, Dream and the other skeletons Peter had seen so far.

"Gaster."

Peter nodded, "Cool name. Now, tell me what you know about me and my friends."

"You came from beyond... the boundaries of the multiverse itself. You took... our Destroyer before bringing the Guardians of Creation and Positivity with you to where you came... along with Frisk. You have single-handedly tipped over the scales of balance. That is not accounting for the destruction that will come... simply from your presence."

Gaster's voice was filled with displeasure as it echoed through the abyss but it also sounded haggard. Tired. Peter figured that's what being in a place like this for too long does to you.

"Look, I'm not an idiot." he explained, "I know the risks of me being here."

"Yet you still came."

Peter rolled his eyes. The utter nerve of this man. Sure, he and the others were strangers to this multiverse but they weren't incompetent. They had taken precautions and were gathering as much data about the inner workings of these worlds as humanly possible.

"Alright, Marshmallow Voldemort. You're clearly the expert here." Peter extended his arms, gesturing to the Void around them, "Teach me about where we are right now. Go on."

Surprisingly, it wasn't the melted skeleton who spoke. It was the Frisk.

"The Void is a place outside time-space, disconnected to the AUs but still an integral part of their existence. It's an endless abyss practically nothing within it. You could wander this place for millennia and never find anything. This is where people who were... erased from their timelines end up."

That last part was clearly hard for him to say. Frisk flinched at his own words before breaking what little eye contact he had with Peter. Peter sighed as he watched Gaster's goopy form inch closer to the child, the darkness that he blended almost wrapping itself around Frisk in a hug but not quite.

"It is a fate many Gasters across the multiverse suffer." Gaster explained not as emotionally, "We all fall into the Core, our greatest invention, and are shattered across time and space."

Peter nodded, "Can I ask how the kid ended up here?"

"He had his Gaster overwrite his existence with another... to give his friends a fighting chance against a powerful foe."

'A heroic sacrifice. Classic.'

Peter walked towards the duo and reached out with his right hand, with the appendage glowing a bright orange and yellow light instead of the faint purple which coated the rest of his body.

"What are you doing?"

Peter kneeled, forcing Frisk's pained red eyes to look into his comforting brown ones.

"Offering my help."

Frisk's gaze lowered to the glowing hand in front of him.

"You must truly be confident in your abilities if you believe that you can free us from this purgatory. Few have ever escaped."

"That's because no one like me ever came here before."

After a moment of hesitation, Frisk took his hand. The illusion of physical matter made contact with the projection. Immediately, Peter was bombarded by Frisk's code, filling his mind with knowledge about this kid's life.

His triumphs and his falls. His sins and his sacrifices. His friends and his enemies. Every little detail flew through Peter's mind, all the way down to the code of his hair. But Peter tuned out all this knowledge, he wouldn't invade what he didn't need.

Eventually, he locked in on what he needed. The exact AU, timeline, place and period.

The pair stood up, still holding hands and Peter reached out, both literally and spiritually. There were no webs for him to grab onto. No Great Web for him to effortlessly travel across like second nature. All he could find was paper and string.

So he latched onto the nearest string and scoured every page he could before moving on to the next batch. He repeated this cycle maybe a hundred times before he found what he was looking for.

Glitchtale 24, Timeline 56.

The portal opened within the Void not even a second later, a tsunami of colour where there should have been none. Frisk gasped, Gaster's sockets widened and Peter smiled as the orange glow faded from his hands. The rules may be different here but they were familiar enough for him to manipulate.

On the other side of a portal, three skeletons, one of which seemed to be Gaster and the other looked like a variant of the two skeleton Guardians, were fighting what looked like a little girl fused to a pink version of the Carnage symbiote.

Frisk let go of Peter's hand and took a step towards the portal. He reached for it, his fingers brushing against the border to the other side.

"What happens when I step through?" he asked, turning around to face the sorcerer.

"If I'm right, and I usually am, your body will reform the moment you step through. It'll probably take some time for your friends to remember you though. You might have to try and remind them."

"What about Chara?"

Peter shrugged, "Your sacrifice won't be erased when you return so your friend will still be around."

Frisk nodded, "Thank you." He turned to Gaster, "Both of you. Thank you for everything."

Gaster remained silent, too stunned to speak because of what he had just witnessed. That level of power, of control, it was unfathomable. And the magic that this human wielded was unlike any Gaster had ever witnessed. However, that should expected when dealing with a being from a separate reality from your own.

Peter shrugged, "It's no problem. Just helping where I can. Now, I think you should get a move on. It looks like your friends could use a hand."

Frisk nodded and gave Spidey a determined smile. He turned his attention back to the portal. Back to home. He stepped back, took in a deep breath, and then ran it.

The portal shut the moment Frisk stepped through, leaving both Gaster and Peter alone in the darkness once again. Peter sighed, letting the majority of the knowledge he gained about Frisk fade from his mind.

The Sorcerer turned to the skeleton once again, his expression now far more serious, "Alright, I'm gonna need you to tell me everything you know about how things work around here. After all, I clearly have no idea what I'm doing."

Gaster scowled before facing the human once again.

"What do you wish to learn first?"

Chapter 8: Master Weaver

Ink and Dream stared in awe at what could only be the Web of Life and Destiny. The all-powerful construct that every Spider-Man and Spider-Woman was connected to. The very thing that held this reality together, kept the countless futures and histories from falling on top of each other.

The physical embodiment of this multiverse. 

It was beautiful.

Dream could feel countless emotions radiating off it. Billions upon trillions of people living their lives, laughing and crying. There was so much anger that it could shatter a galaxy but also enough calm to heal the scars of the most brutal wars. Dream knew that what he was sensing was only a small fraction of the Web's population and yet it already felt grander than his own multiverse did. All this from simply being in it's presence.

He couldn't possibly imagine how overwhelming it would be if he attempted to form a genuine connection.

'It's beautiful.' 

Those three words kept repeating themselves within Ink's skull. While yes, the web itself was pretty to look at, it was what lay beyond it that had captured Ink's unbreakable attention. 

He wasn't sure how he could see it, perhaps because of his role in his multiverse, but Ink could see past the Web and into the worlds that it held within its strands. Ink could tell that what he was seeing was only a small fraction of this multiverse but that didn't change just how magnificent it was. 

Countless stories about heroes and villains, good battling evil. Some with wars that saw no end and with eras of peace so long that they overwhelmed him. Gods wandered these worlds, either simply observing like Ink was now or fighting tooth and nail for their cause. 

Humanity was at the centre of all of it, leading the charge against the forces of evil or being consumed by their own sins. The humans were surrounded by countless other intelligent races, both local to the Earth or from beyond the stars, but all foreign to the artist. Some of these alien beings were undeniably superior yet it was humanity that stood above the rest, the protagonists of almost every story.

Ink found it to be a welcome change of pace.

As he watched thousands of these stories unfold before him, utterly incomprehensible or even maddening to anyone else, Ink couldn't help but ask, 'Is this how it feels to have a soul?'

At the centre of the Great Web of Life and Destiny was a man, lower body confined in a golden, robotic exosuit that made him look more like a spider than any spider-powered individual that they had seen thus far.

The masked man gave Miguel a nod before lowering his head so he could face the spiders before him, "Please leave us. I would like to speak to our guests in private."

No one argued. They simply dropped what they were doing and walked away. Some headed to the doors, disappearing into the halls of this palace. Others activated their Watches and stepped through the portals, vanishing into the strands of the Web before them.

The two skeletons were so engrossed that they didn't notice a very familiar individual walking up to them until he spoke, "So, these are the couple of glitches that have been causing all the fuss."

The two skeletons forced themselves to break their attention on the Web and properly face the man in front of them. Their eyes widened, as they realised it was 2099 but... not quite.

This one was shorter and way leaner. His suit was also different. It was a far darker blue, almost black, and the red skull-shaped spider on his chest was a different design. His cape was made of webs instead of being holographic. In fact, his entire suit looked more solid, looking almost like some sort of liquid metal.

The similarities and differences between the two Miguels were unnerving.

"616." Miguel greeted the other Miguel like it was normal to refer to others as numbers.

"929." The skinnier Miguel responded. He offered '928' his hand which was accepted.

Ink blinked, "Wait... I thought Prime was from 616."

The two Miguels looked down on him, the height difference between them making his own lack of it even clearer and annoying. The shorter of the two turned back to his counterpart and asked, "Seriously?"

Miguel sighed, placing his hand over his head, "616 is the designation for the universe that they come from. Peter, Miles, Octavious, this glitch, they're all from 616. Earth-616 actually has one of the highest concentrations of spider-based heroes."

"Doesn't that get confusing?" Dream asked. He'd seen AUs with more than one Sans before, with himself and his brother being the primary example, but those were rare and with more than one being even rarer.

616 shrugged, "They're too different to be mistaken for each other. And if it's a situation of multiple variants of the same person, without a unique nickname like now, that's when we use the numbers."

Dream nodded, "Okay, that makes sense."

The two Miguels turned back to face each other and the shorter one asked, "So what's the situation with the literal glitch? Haven't heard back from any of the others."

928 sighed, resting his hands on his hips as he explained, "It's complicated but simply put, the anomaly is more important to the integrity of their multiverse than we realised. We were hoping to get some advice from Karn."

616 nodded, "I see. Good luck then. If you need help, call."

This Miguel then lifted the arm with his watch up to his face, tapped some command into it, and opened the portal to what the skeletons assumed to be his home universe.

Once the portal closed, the Miguel that they knew stepped forward and gestured for them to follow him, "Come on. We don't have all day."

Ink and Dream gave each other and followed Spider-Man to the Web. 

Each step that they took towards it unleashed a greater wave of images and emotions respectively.  Each step made it harder for them to focus on the here and now. Angel, why was this multiverse so big? They were suffocating just by being near it. 

But they grit their teeth and move forward. They could work with it. It was like being the only student in a class trying to do the work while the others goofed off while also wanting to join in. It was torture but they could withstand it. They were the Guardians of their multiverse after all.

Karn lowered himself as the trio reached an acceptable distance. The golden spider legs released a constant whir of pistons and levers moving along with the sound of metal banging against metal. 

He didn't leave the web, but he lowered himself enough that the trio didn't have to strain their necks to face.

The many eyes of his mask scanned the two skeletons, likely searching for any bit of information. Dream couldn't sense the man's emotions and he wasn't sure if it was because he didn't have any, if he was immune to empaths like himself, how overwhelming the Great Web was or if it was because of some other thing that Dream wasn't aware of.

Karn spoke, "I would like to say that it is an honour to meet the defenders of an entirely different multiverse, especially ones so unique. As you can guess, the company that company that I keep isn't very diverse."

"Hey!"

Dream did a short bow, "The honour is ours. Your multiverse is... beautiful."

Karn seemed to smile behind the mask, "Thank you, but I cannot take much credit. It's the people who live within it that make the multiverse such an incredible place. And if I'm being honest, I haven't done much to help it. I was an enemy of the Spider-Totems before I took the role of the Master Weaver as penance for my crimes. That change was relatively recent so it will take a long time before I can be satisfied with my work." 

Ink and Dream raised their nonexistent eyebrows. There was a lot of context from that statement that they were missing. Context that they probably wouldn't get for a long time, if ever.

Miguel sighed and muttered, "We don't have time for this." 

He looked up to Karn and stated clearly, "We need your advice. What do you know about balancing the multiverse?"

The Master Weaver hummed, mulling the question over before giving his answer, "Balance is both simpler and far more complex than you may think, with countless factors pushing the scales in countless directions. The multiverse will survive if the scales are tipped to one side and will naturally change and adapt so it may thrive with the new arrangement. It is only when the scales are essentially knocked to the ground that we are in any real trouble."

He looked between the two skeletons, "I assume that things work a bit differently where you are from."

Before either of the Guardians could respond, Miguel stepped forward and began explaining the situation to them, "The anomaly that we captured, Error, is vital to the survival of their multiverse. He helps to keep creation and destruction balanced, with him handling the latter with the numbskull over here..." 

"Hey!"

"... taking care of creation, obviously. The issue is that they are both hard-wired to instinctually only care about their half of it and the literal glitch is too crazy to be reasoned with. At least the artist is capable of resisting his urge to create until his multiverse bursts. Error is on some kind of mission to destroy every universe in their multiverse, not caring for the people living within it. You can piece together where the issue is."

"You do not wish to release him even though you have to."

Miguel nodded, "Well, that is certainly a conundrum. What do the others think?"

"None of us know what to do. We came up with some ideas but none of us are really fans of any of them. Octavious is currently studying Error, trying to piece together some kind of solution. Prime is taking care of the other guest. Cap is back in his universe. Morales, Sorcerer and UK are over in the other multiverse. We haven't updated them on the situation,"

Karn nodded his head, "I see. This is quite a tricky situation. We will need time to think of a proper solution which satisfies all parties, at least temporarily. But before then,"

Karn lowered himself further, now essentially hanging off the Web of Life and Destiny with only his hind legs clinging to it. He looked the two skeletons directly into their eye sockets, "I believe our guests deserve a proper tour of our multiverse."

Ink's pupils grew until they almost completely filled his sockets, with them constantly changing colour and shapes, perfectly showing his excitement.

He jumped forward, ignoring the doubling strength of the barrage of images and stories coming from the Web, "Yes, please. I want to learn as much as I possibly can."

Karn nodded, "Good. My friend can guide you and teach you all that you wish to know while Spider-Man and I discuss the matter in further detail."

"Are you sure? We could help." Deam offered, not really liking how they were being pushed away from the conversation. This was a matter of the security of THEIR multiverse after all. Shouldn't they be part of these sorts of conversations?

Miguel raised his hand reassuringly, silently telling Dream to stop, "It's fine. You guys have told us everything you know. If you have any suggestions, we'll be happy to take them. But this is still a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you. We already have our guys studying your worlds, it's only fair if you learn a thing or two about ours."

In all honesty, Miguel didn't like the idea of letting these two explore the Spider-Verse without him or someone like Prime to watch over. But, these two clearly didn't have any malicious intent and if the friend that Karn was referring to was who Miguel thought he was, then he didn't need to worry.

Dream nodded, somewhat reassured, "Okay. How do we start." 

Karn began to climb back up the Web of Life and Destiny without saying a word. Silence filled the room, with the spider cyborg simply clinging to the Web and staring down at them. Suddenly, the strands in front of them moved apart, revealing a portal that released a golden, heavy white glow.

"Step through the portal that you see before you. Once you are through, my friend will begin the tour."

"Awesome!" Ink declared and with no hesitation, ran into the light, disappearing in an instant.

Dream swallowed nothing, and took a cautious step forward. While he couldn't sense what Karn was feeling, he could sense that Miguel's intentions were pure, even if his idle emotions would fit Nightmare's domain.

Before he stepped through the portal, an incredibly painful delay due to the barrage of emotions, he turned around to face Miguel, then said, "Thank you."

Because this was an incredible opportunity and Dream was grateful that he had been given it. The Spider Society could have simply captured Error and kept him, never even bothering to contact the residents of the Doodle Sphere. Instead, they went through the trouble of travelling to a separate multiverse and were working on finding a solution that everyone would benefit from. He couldn't NOT be grateful.

Miguel gave him a nod, and Dream knew that he was smiling behind his mask.

With that, Dream stepped through the portal and was engulfed in the bright light.

It was sudden how quickly his environment changed. The most obvious change was how quiet it became. He could no longer sense the emotions from the Web that he had been drowning in before. He could also no longer sense his feet on the ground because there was no ground below his feet. 

Once he could see again, Dream was surprised to see where he was floating. There were at least, two walls made up of blue and purple prisms, with seemingly to end to their height and length. 

Dream scanned his surroundings. He was worried for a moment that he was alone, but then he spotted Ink. He was by one of the walls, looking into the crystal.

Dream floated up to his friend, who didn't react. Dream was worried for a moment that his friend had lost his emotions. This fear was quickly quelled when Dream saw the colour in Ink's pupils and sensed the artificial emotions flowing through him, a sort of excitement, so loud that it was quiet. But the way he was just staring at the wall still worried him.

"Hey, Ink. What are you looking at?"

Ink didn't say anything. He just pointed at a specific part of the endless prism. Dream followed his finger and his eye sockets widened. There, on the other side of the semi-transparent material, was what looked like a scene from a movie.

What looked like a brown wolf Monster wearing Captain's suit and wielding his shield, minus all of the spider decorations, was charging into some kind of battle.

Dream broke his gaze away from the scene and scanned the rest of this... place. Now looking more closely, he could faintly see countless scenes playing out across these walls. 

"What is this place?" Dream asked.

"Welcome to the Nexus of All Realities, Guardians."

The pair jumped and spun around them towards the booming, yet oddly gentle, voice.

Before them stood a man multiple times larger than them. He was dressed in a dark blue cloak and his bald head was so large that it should have been impossible for him to have any sort of balance. His eyes glowed a nice, soft blue but his presence radiated with power.

"My name is Uatu the Watcher. I will be your guide through these vast new realities. Now, let us begin with the basics before we start asking... What If."

Chapter 9: Beginning of the End

"Error found. The algorithm is invalid." 

Octavious cursed as he typed at the many screens holographic screens around him, utilising both his hands and the robotic appendages from his back. 

While the others were busy giving those fools claiming to be guardians a tour of their confidential headquarters, he was hard at work trying to understand what exactly they were dealing with a little better. He was gaining minimal success for his efforts.

He couldn't deny it, an entire multiverse made up of 'Code' intrigued him. It didn't appear to be a simulation of any kind (although that theory remained on the table). It seemed to be as real and natural as their own despite some of its more digital features. 

Otto was sure he could solve its secrets, even if he wasn't currently residing within it. If only had a specimen that wasn't the embodiment of a twenty-year-old personal computer. 

This 'Error' certainly lived up to his name and his appearance wasn't just for show. Otto had managed to access the skeleton's code and had it constantly on display on one of the screens, not that it was of much use.

Most of the lines were just corrupted nonsense, so much so that it was a miracle if the tenth line after a random point was somewhat legible. This wasn't normal in the other world, what little samples that they managed to gather from Crossover Worlds confirmed it. 

He and his AI have been trying to decipher it ever since they captured the 'Destroyer' with no luck. If only he had a more put-together source directly from the other multiverse.

"I wonder if our guests would be willing to volunteer." Otto mused as he typed away at the screen in front of him, rewriting his algorithm, something that was supposed to decipher at least some of the broken lines of illegible digits but has continuously failed to do some.

The Superior Spider-Man was starting to wonder if the bits of 'uncorrupted' code that he found were really just so corrupted that they looked normal, thus sabotaging his work.

Otto growled, rubbing his temples as he could feel a headache coming. He didn't get them as often anymore, his cloned body having a natural resistance against simple ailments like that and due to him growing accustomed to the constant blabbering of all of the Spiders in this organisation.

His growing headache was interrupted when his AI called for his attention, "Doctor. The anomaly's behaviour has changed and he is calling for your attention. Would you like me to display the security footage from his cell?"

Otto swiped away the useless lines not even worthy of being called text and said, "Play it."

A new holographic screen appeared displaying the inside of the anomaly's cell. So far, every time he checked in on the glitching skeleton he was throwing a tantrum like a spoiled five-year-old child, throwing those red bones at the walls, slashing them with his strings and sometimes blasting them. 

Otto had already given himself multiple reminders to strengthen the inhibitors for his kind.

This time though, the skeleton was laughing. His hand covered his eyes, his head was raised to the ceiling as he cackled like a madman. In between his manic laughs, he would make a statement of some kind, varying from "I figured it out," to "You're all idiots."

Otto frowned. A part of him told him that he should ignore the false god and should instead just get back to work but the other half was too suspicious and curious to not ask questions.

He pressed a button on the screen, activating a microphone and letting him speak directly into the cell's speakers.

"What are you laughing about, anomoly?" Octavious questioned, his voice stern and full of authority.

Error calmed a little, his laughter stopping but the grin which revealed his yellow teeth simply grew, "I know what this is. I know who you are. I know what you think you're doing and I know what will happen because of your actions."

"What do you mean, anomaly?"

"This is not my multiverse. I must have somehow slipped into your domain while destroying AUs at the border of my multiverse. I'm honestly disappointed in myself that I didn't figure it out sooner. It's no wonder everything here is so empty. There's no Code for me to read because this multiverse doesn't need it to exist. You can't write this shit."

Otto was going to question the anomaly further but he beat him to the chase, "You are the 'protectors' of this multiverse. You've assigned yourselves the impossible job of protecting every universe out there, even the ones not in your bubble. I'll give you credit where credit is due, you are far more organised than the assholes of my multiverse. How many of you are there? Tens? Hundreds? Thousands?"

"That is not of your concern."

"Heh," Error lowered his skull, "I suppose not but what I'm going to say will be of major concern to you."

"What is it, anomaly?" Superior demanded, which triggered another laughing fit from Error.

"Hahahahaha! The fact that you idiots haven't figured it out yet is hilarious. Or maybe you did but don't care. That would be even funnier."

Otto simply stared at the glitch through the security camera, not saying anything. 

"Ink, Dream, Core and myself. You brought all of us here, away from our multiverse. I don't know how things work here but where I'm from, that's called creating a power vacuum and I have a pretty good idea who will take advantage of it.

///

Chara didn’t like this. This whole situation was fishy and no version of Undyne had anything to do with it. 

Seven (an ironic number considering its importance across the AUs) unknown humans stepped out of a portal and into the Omega Timeline. That alone would have been unnerving as no one should be able to enter without Core Frisk's invitation but they went the extra mile by having impossible Stats and dragging the Multiverse's best protectors to what they claimed to be a different multiverse.

Chara scoffed. As if such a thing existed.

When Core appeared in Storyshift, they gave Chara a brief explanation and asked her to watch over the Omega Timeline while they were gone. Chara tried to argue against them leaving but they were already gone by then.

Which was why they were here now, leaning against a tree in a white void, their green hood casting a shadow over their red eyes as she watched two of the clowns that had decided to stay behind talk to each other over a plate of Spider Doughnuts. It was taking every ounce of Determination in their soul to stop her from simply marching over, knife in hand and demanding answers. 

But one Check told them that it wouldn't end well.

"Humans with spider powers." Chara grumbled, "Who comes up with this shit?"

"Probably the same people that came up with Fresh." an annoyingly familiar voice behind Chara said.

The human turned their head to face who they expected to be either a familiar stranger or an annoyance that she met before. They were surprised to instead see a genuine friend. 

It was Sans, not that the multiverse was short on those. This one was dressed in a white shirt, a blue hoodie, black shorts with a white strip on both sides and a pair of pink slippers. A very classic look for the Funny Boneman.

"Hey, Bonehead," Chara greeted with a genuine smile, "I'm surprised that you came here."

The skeleton shrugged, "I owe the kid a few favours and you know what they say about debts like that. They're just pre-ordered promises. So I figured that I might as well pay them off while doing nothing."

Chara scoffed, their amusement tainted by a reminder of why exactly they were even having this conversation.

"And you're sure that nothing will happen with those guys here and Ink and the others gone?" they asked, gesturing to the two Spider-Man behind them.

Sans shrugged, "They don't seem like any trouble. Heard from Swap that they're actually really nice."

Chara raised a brow, "Papyrus' little bro is also here?"

"Actually, Swap's the older bro."

"I never said anything about age."

The short skeleton blinked before chuckling and shrugging, "Fair enough. As to answer your question, yeah, he's here. Core didn't pull any stops. Called everyone available who also has multiverse experience. Although, I seriously question what they consider 'available'."

"Oh, really? And what exactly were you doing when they called?"

"I was on one of my legally required breaks. You can't just throw those away."

Chara nodded, "Obviously. How much break did you have left when Core came?"

"Two weeks. It's this new thing my Surface is trying out called a 'Paid Vacation'. Crazy, right? I think humans might be lazier than me."

The duo burst out laughing, the nerves of the situation briefly disappearing as they humoured each other. 

Chara, Sans and Underswap Papyrus had met each other when they were ripped out of their respective AUs by an anomaly. They had been brought to some kind of pocket dimension that didn't exist outside of an endless Judgment Hall. There, they were forced to fight the anomaly that had brought them there which looked like a shadowed silhouette with it looking like a different version of the final human for each of them. They were on the brink of being killed due to their exhaustion when Ink saved them, battling the anomaly while Core got them out of there.

That was the most serious Chara had ever seen while still having emotions. At least, they thought he had emotions back then. They were never sure.

"So, uh, you really don't trust them, huh." Sans pointed out.

Chara shrugged, "Not much reason to. And my misanthropy is not one of them. I've working on that with my therapist for months now."

"Hey, I believe you, buddy. I also have my doubts about them. But it's been hours since they arrived. Don't you think that if they were planning something nefarious, they would have done it by now?"

Right as he said that two blurs, one red and blue and the other black rushed passed them, followed by a gust of wind. 

They blinked away their surprise and tried to see where they were going but they were little more than dots jumping between the distant houses of the Omega Timeline, leaving behind a trail of confused Monsters and humans, some of them having been knocked to the ground purely by them passing by.

Chara steeled their face immediately, "We need to go after them."

Sans winked, "Good thing I know a shortcut."

Meanwhile, the two Spider-Men were running with panicked breaths, unsure of where they were running to. While they had been talking, their Spidey Senses had gone off, far stronger than they should have in a place like this. Now they were running, following their senses to where towards the unknown danger.

"Do you think Sorcerer sensed anything?" Miles asked.

"Most likely," Billy answered, "But he seemed pretty deep in meditation the last time I checked. Might be a while before he wakes up."

"So it's up to us to take care of whatever is coming then."

"Don't forget about the locals."

"No offence to those guys, but not a lot of them seem like the fighting type besides the fish ladies and the ones with rosy cheeks."

Billy shrugged, "Fair enough, mate."

Soon they reached the edge of the industrialised area of the Omega Timeline. Perched on the roof of a building at the very edge, where the roads and green grass ended leaving only the natural white void. In front of them, maybe a hundred metres away, was a collection of multi-coloured dots that blended together.

"Are those... doors?" Miles questioned.

"One of the locals told me about this," UK explained, "Supposedly anyone can travel to the Omega Timeline from their home universe simply by thinking about it while walking through an ordinary door. That must be the way back."

"Huh. Sounds easier than making billion-dollar watches for everyone."

"Not as convenient though."

Miles' squinted his eyes, searching the multicoloured mass of doors for a hint of what was triggering their sixth sense. Rather quickly, he spotted something that stood out.

He pointed at it, "Over there," and Billy followed his finger to where he was pointing.

There, in front of the countless colours was darkness. An ever-growing black mass that rippled and shook as it grew. It grew and grew, expanding further out. It spread, taking over the white ground and even covering the doors, blocking those who couldn't teleport to other universes on their own from escaping.

"What is that?" Spider-Man questioned.

"Whatever it is, it isn't good," Spider-UK replied.

Chapter 10: The Start Of A Nightmare

The two Spider-Men walked across the endless white ground. Neither of them dared to speak as they approached the black mass. It was the definition of a sore thumb. Bloated and dark, constantly shifting while looking as out of place in the white void as Spider-Ham in Noir's world.

They tried calling Sorcerer but he didn't respond, as they had expected. It tended to be difficult to contact him while he was meditating and since everything about this multiverse was new, they did not doubt that their resident magician was busy learning all that he could about it.

So for now, it was up to them to investigate. They could only hope that he actually did sense the powerful presence before them and would show up soon.

They stopped a respectable distance away from the mass of black slime. Despite how far they had been when they first spotted it, they could tell that the mass had grown larger. It continuously convulsed, parts of it endlessly expanding and contracting but the overall size continued to gradually grow with no end.

"Hey, UK," Miles said with a hint of fear in his voice, "Please tell me that this isn't what I think it is."

William shook his head, "I doubt that this is a symbiote, despite the resemblance."

"How can you tell?"

"Well for one, symbiotes don't make you feel small and weak without making physical contact.

This... thing... radiated something that could only be described as pure negativity. It seeped into their hearts and slowly turned the valves needed to shatter their souls through emotions alone. To put it simply, something that definitely did not belong in the Omega Timeline.

The two spiders stared at the blob, unsure of how to handle it. There was no question that it was a threat to the residents of this place and yet the webheads felt powerless to help. The town didn't have any built-in defences, not even a wall, as the only defence they needed was the Omega Timeline's 'unbreachability' and their Guardians. But this thing was here anyway and blocking the doors which would be needed for evacuations to be possible unless all of the residents were willing to just run blindly into the endless void.

"Well, this definitely isn't good."

The two Spiders blinked and their heads swivelled towards the voice that had suddenly appeared between them. It was one of the short skeletons with the shit-eating grin. This one didn't have a hoodie like the others. Instead, had a pair of bright orange gauntlets.

Reacting quickly to the sudden appearance, UK offered the skeleton his hand. "You're Delta, right? I'm Spider-Man UK."

Delta's (probably) permanent grin grew a little as he happily accepted it. "Nice to meet you, ya. I'm one of the guys that Core called to look over the Omega Timeline. You guys have caused quite a stir, you know."

Miles chuckled awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, sorry about that. Any idea what we're looking at?"

Delta's gaze darkened a little as he turned his attention back to the goop. "The only one in the multiverse who uses slime like that is Dream's brother, Nightmare, the Guardian of Negativity. And from the looks of it, he's bringing something big," He turned back to UK, "Call your friends back here, now. If Nightmare himself shows up, we're going to need Dream's help. Only magic made of positivity can hurt him."

William nodded, piecing together just how dire the situation was. He lifted his watch up to his face, the screen activating instantly. He brought his hand to the screen, ready to potentially send a message across multiverses. A feat that neither one has ever accomplished before.

But right as he was about to hit the button, the device shattered into scrap metal and broken circuits as a black tentacle pierced through it.

William stared at his arm in utter shock as time slowed and his sixth sense began to scream in alarm. He turned to Miles and he saw the younger Spider-Man already trying to back away, only for another tentacle to cut through his watch as well.

Delta didn't even have the time to process what was happening at the moment.

'How did that happen?' William questioned. "Why didn't our Spider Sense warn us? We should have been able to dodge that. Unless... bloody hell, why didn't we think of this?'

Miles and UK stepped away from the mass of the slime as the tentacles slowly retreated back into the mass. The two spiders looked at each other, both silently telling the other that they had realised it as well.

Delta blinked. The double attack had happened in under a second. He hadn't realised that it had happened until he saw the tentacles melting back into the mass. The Sans' grin grew almost manic with excitement as he raised his armoured fists and got into a fighting stance. Both of his eyes flashed orange as he stared into the eternal darkness. But still, a drop of sweat ran down his forehead.

He understood just how dire the situation truly was.

As soon as the tentacles melted into the mass, a hand seemingly made up of the exact same substance reached out. The hand placed itself against the surface of the bubble and pushed, pulling out a familiar-looking skeleton coated head to toe in slippery darkness. The dark tentacles protruding from his back momentarily stuck to the blob before being pulled free and dancing in the air. The familiar grin was twisted and stretched beyond recognition. His right eye was completely covered by the slime while the left glowed an icy blue.

The moment his foot stepped onto the white floor, an unnatural chill washed over the Omega Timeline. Every resident felt it, even those made up entirely of fire. A clod wave made up purely out of fear and despair. When they looked up at the sky or to the ground at the edges of their small civilization, they would all note that the endless white looked just a smidge duller. Almost grey.

"Well, well well," the Sans said as he stepped out of the mass, "I expected a welcoming party but I didn't expect a pair of clowns."

"Right, because that comparison is so original," Miles said as he balled his hands into fists. "Besides, you're the one who looks like an undead couch potato who got dropped in twenty-year-old Nickelodeon Slime."

Nightmare tilted his head to the side, his smile shrinking slightly, "You even make needless jokes which no one cares for. You're probably the type to make light of a situation by laughing. I wonder how quickly that'll change when I start ripping you apart limb for limb."

"What are you doing here, Nightmare?" Delta questioned, his voice as steady as ever but far more serious. "Attacking the Omega Timeline? You've never been this bold before."

A cold empty laugh left the figure of darkness, his mouth never moving, "You're right, Sans. I've never personally attacked the Omega Timeline before. Of course, that was before the four biggest nuisances to my rightful rule disappeared."

'Shit.' all three fighters cursed to themselves.

"Error, Ink, Core, even my goody two shoes brother, all of them gone," Nightmare snapped his fingers, "Just like that. I can't let an opportunity like that pass by me."

His single blue eye flashed between the two Spiders, "And I have this most peculiar feeling that it's the two of you that I should be thanking."

"I recommend holding off on those thanks." William declared, "If you think you can attack this place unopposed, then you're sorely mistaking. Core had amassed an army of warriors to protect the Omega Timeline during their absence. And my friends and I are not to be underestimated. We've faced idealistic fools who believe that they can take whatever they want like you before, many times even. This is your only warning, Nightmare, walk away."

This struck a cord. Nightmare's stretched smile dropped as his entire form began to ripple. A low growl emanated from him as his tentacles shot into the ground, cracking the endless white. The creature of darkness raised himself to the air, causing the bellow average-height god to tower over his opposition.

"Who... do you think you are, human?" Nightmare growled, "I am the God of Negativity, the true King of all AUs. You are in NO position to warn me about anything. Monster. Human. All of you are beneath me! You pose no threat to me! You're so insignificant that fighting you is a complete and utter waste of my time."

Nightmare paused. Then... his mouth stretched into an unnatural smile once again.

"Which is why I brought along my peons."

The mass rippled once again and multiple hands reached from within it. Six individuals stepped out from the slime, each of them giving off a completely different aura.

The first looked the most human. She looked young, early teens at the eldest. She was covered head to toe in bright pink. She wore an innocent smile that didn't match the massive scythe that she held behind her back or the rest of her companions.

On her left was a Sans but... wrong. The disarming, lazy smile that most worse was stretched beyond recognition, somehow reaching his eye sockets. Multiple cracks littered his skull while blood stained his teeth and his clothes. His whole body twitched continuously, seemingly with excitement. In his left hand was a severed skull skewered by a bone.

'Oh god.' UK thought as he realised the implications, an overwhelming sense of nausea filling him.

He recognised the skull as a Papyrus, Sans' brother in pretty much every universe. He had learnt a lot from Muffet and the other locals. One thing that he learnt was that after a Monster died, their body crumbled to dust. The fact that the head of this Papyrus was still intact could only mean one thing.

'He's somehow still alive.'

Between this monster and Nightmare was another Sans. This Sans carried a kitchen knife in his right hand and black ooze leaked from his empty eye sockets. His hoodie was darker than his counterparts' and a red target glowed in front of his chest. He seemed completely unbothered by who stood on either side of him. He smiled brightly, happy to be here.

On Nightmare's left was yet another Sans. This one seemed calmer than the other two. His face was coated in shadow cast by his hood. His clothes were coated in dust which would probably never be fully washed off. Two lights broke through the darkness, one purely red and the other a light blue with a red outline.

Next to him was the final Sans of the group, probably the largest Sans either Spider had ever seen, despite his slouched posture. His skull was cracked widely open and the eye beneath the hole glowed a dull red which filled the otherwise empty socket. He dragged an axe across the ground and carried a very displeased face.

The final member of this group, and the tallest, was a knight, garbed in dark crimson armour. In their hand was a glowing, bright red spear. Despite the softer colour compared to the armour, the individual was intimidating regardless.

"Your little gang doesn't faze us, Nightmare." Delta declared, summoning a Gaster Blaster above his head. The two Spider-Men followed his example, with Spider-UK getting into his signature while Miles activated his Venom ability, letting the orange and yellow electricity dance around his arms. "You'll need an army if you want to reach the citizens."

Nightmare chuckled as he raised his hand. "That is exactly why I brought them here, brave little soul."

He snapped his fingers and the bubble of slime began to move. The goop retreated into nothing, pulled up by an invisible force, before disappearing and revealing what was underneath.

It was an army.

An army made up entirely of darkness.

Chapter 11: Omega Level Threat

Summary:

Nightmare's gang invades the Omega Timeline. Can out heroes stop them?

Like a tumour, the darkness spread.

The army of shadow ran across the land of white and stole its light. It was like watching a continuous stream of ink spread across an endless sheet of paper and no one could close the valve or contain the stain. The fighters who were there when the army arrived were forced to immediately retreat unless they wanted to be killed.

"What the hell are these things?" Miles exclaimed, flipping back and webbing a handful of creatures to the ground. However, he was immediately attacked by twice as many and surrounded by a hundred times more.

"Lost souls that were corrupted by Nightmare," Delta explained, summoning a Gaster Blaster which he fired at an entire swarm before turning around and punching a Shadow that looked like a rabbit Monster. "They're not mind-controlled or anything. They're just empty husks that Nightmare uses as his army. Undead souls with no true body."

"Wait... so you're saying that they aren't alive?" UK questioned as he spun what looked like a human wrapped in webbing and threw him at a collection of shadow creatures.

Delta blinked, slightly confused by the question.

"Yeah? That's kinda what undead means. There's no way to free them the corruption besides depleting their HP."

Miles and Billy grinned beneath their masks. The familiar orange lightning reappeared but it didn't stop at Miles' arms. It spread past his shoulders, poured out of his emblem and highlighted the lenses that covered his mask.

"Awesome."

Dozens of Shadows pounced onto the Ultimate Spider-Man, oblivious to the danger he suddenly posed. In just a split second, they were all engulfed in a sphere of unrivalled electricity. The moment that they made contact, they burst into ash which soon completely vanished.

Unhindered by this release of power, Miles rushed towards the nearest surviving Shadow, orange lightning still coating his arm. He grabbed what looked like a Papyrus by its head and slammed it into the white ground. It immediately vaporised, and another, smaller shockwave was released, which caused more Shadows to drop to the floor.

"What was that?!" Delta exclaimed as he avoided multiple shadows. He could feel the Bravery Soul as well as his own glow with excitement from such a display of power. He watched from a distance as orange electricity moved between the shadows, killing up to a dozen of them with just one strike.

"We Spider-Men always hold back." Spider-Man UK explained with a shout. "One punch from us could kill most people, even if they have some level of enhanced durability. We only ever really let lose when we're fighting high-power villains or mindless drones like this."

As if to prove his point, UK punched a shadow of King Asgore himself. Not only did the Shadow burst on impact, but so did the three shadows closest to them. The rest were knocked back or at least stumbled a little.

"Heh. That's awesome!" Delta grinned as he summoned a village worth of bones and had them rain down on his enemies. "I'd love to spar with one of you guys. Most of my opponents rely on magic. It'd be cool to fight someone as physically powerful as you!"

"Let's save it for after we're done with these nobodies!" Miles yelled with a laugh.

Despite the efforts of the trio, hundreds of Shadows made it to the town. The residents screamed as they ran in the opposite direction of the Doors. Buildings trembled as Shadows, which were still capable of utilising their magic, ripped them apart.

The fighters that had been summoned by Core Frisk did what they could to minimise the damage. They erected walls of bones which, at least momentarily, closed off streets only to falter soon after.

Chara grunted as they stepped back to narrowly avoid the sweep of a blade wielded by one of the Dog Monster Shadows. They retaliated by summoning a vine beneath its feet and tripping it up. From there, all it took was a simple knife to the head to kill it. They wanted to take a moment to catch their breath but were forced to swing their knife at a different shadow immediately after.

They were stationed on the town's border. They and Sans had immediately turned around the moment they saw the ball of slime in the distance and were since separated. Chara did their best to stop the husks from getting past but in the time it took them to kill one Shadow, dozens more ran into the town.

Chara understood that the others, most of which could effortlessly take out multiple enemies at once, were helping but that just made them more frustrated. They felt like they were barely contributing to the fight. They felt useless and they hated it.

Sacrificing a precious second, Chara stopped moving and focused on their Determination and forced it to manifest as a swarm of glowing red knives. With just one swing of their arm, they made the magical blades scatter and impale multiple shadows at once. It barely made a dent in the army of thousands

'Damn it.' They silently cursed, 'If those stupid humans hadn't shown up and taken Core and the others away, none of this would be happening.'

Suddenly, Chara felt a sharp pain across their cheek.

They watched as a knife streaked past them only to stop in between the fingers of a Sans who wasn't in front of them a second ago.

Chara stared at the familiar figure with eye sockets as dark as the Void. They slowly reached for their cheek and touched the wound. They brought their fingers to their face and watched the blood slowly dribble down.

Killer chuckled, "The sight of you bleeding will never get old."

He tossed his knife into the air, letting it spin for a moment before he grabbed it by its handle. The skeleton pointed his weapon at Chara and asked, "Why don't we finish our last dance, partner?"

Chara's eyes narrowed. They don't give the Shadows, which were suddenly leaving them alone, any attention. They simply raised their own knife and pointed it at Killer along with the half a dozen magic knives that they summoned.

"With pleasure."

Across the town, another human was having far more fun than Chara was.

"So many unique souls here! It's like a magical all-you-can-eat buffet!"

Betty laughed as she danced after the crowd of screaming Monsters. Pale pink harpoons shot out of her body from seemingly no specific area. Hands, limbs, torso, legs, the harpoons didn't have any obvious exit, just a surface of Betty's body. They didn't appear to damage her clothes.

The sharp pink lines pierced through the bodies of Monsters like spears going through paper and then reeled in the newly captured souls like a fishing rod. Some tried to fight back but it was in vain. They just became extra food for the Soul of Fear.

"Oh, this is just too easy!" Betê Noire laughed, "I thought this place was supposed to be full of Frisks and Charas. So where are all the Determination Souls that are supposed to stop me!?"

Suddenly, a Gaster Blaster of all things manifested in front of her.

But... since when did Blasters have four eyes?

Energy began to build up in its mouth and Betty recognised that she only had mere seconds to counter. She pulled back all of the harpoons and placed her arms in front of herself. Hot pink goo shot out and moved to form a protective barrier between her and the blast.

A red beam of energy shot out of the skull's mouth. The shield held but Betty was still knocked off her feet. The force of the continuous blast caused her to fly back several meters and crash into one of the buildings. The beam under the moment she broke through the wall, allowing Betty to climb out.

She growled and a jagged frown stretched past her cheeks. Her ruffled hair glowed a bright, ominous, pink. She grabbed onto a loose and splintered wooden board and pulled herself out of the hole. Akumu appeared and helped to pull its other half out.

Betty's and the floating pink blob's eyes narrowed as they stared down their opponent.

Red grinned as the residents behind him ran away. He was undoubtedly pleased with his handy work.

"So, you're the pink brat I was warned about." he said, "The one who controls people's fears, right?"

"I am." Betty stated, "And you're Sans, from the universe where Monsters don't hide their true selves behind bright colours, ridiculous personalities and an oh-so-tragic back story."

Underfell Sans blinked for a moment and then burst out in laughter, slamming his hand over his eyes as his head reeled back, "HAHAHAHAHA! Good one, brat. I'm almost sad that I have to kill you."

Bretty's frown quickly shifted into a twisted grin.

"You? Kill me? Heh. Do you need me to tell you how easily I killed the Sans of my timeline?"

Red shook his head, "Nah, I'm too lazy for lore drops like that. But I already know that I have something he didn't."

"And what's that? LOVE?"

"Nope. Other lazy bastards like me."

The ground beneath Noire shook and she jumped to avoid being impaled by the classroom worth of bones that shot out. As she was in the air though, she felt the familiar sensation of blue magic gripping her soul and Kumu as well.

They were pulled forward and into the line of fire of multiple Blasters that most certainly didn't belong to the Underfell version of the comedian. They were too... basic.

Betty reached out and Kumu shifted into the familiar shape of her scythe.

Three swings.

That's all it took to destroy all of the Gaster Blasters.

As the dragon skulls burst into fading dust and exploding magic, the blue magic holding her let go. Betty plummeted to the ground. Looking down, she saw that her landing zone was littered with sharp bones pointed directly at her.

It wouldn't be easy but she could definitely...

Something grabbed the collar of her sweater from behind. With a ping, she was safely on the ground again.

Looking up, she saw a hooded Sans that she knew all too well.

Her face seamlessly reverted back to cute and innocent as she slowly picked herself up.

"Awww, you saved me, Dust. I knew we were friends."

The Sans didn't even have the decency to look at her as he said, "I only saved you because Nightmare would kill me if he found out I chose not to."

Betty let out a pout. "Well, that's not very nice."

Dust ignored her comment.

"We've got company.

Betê grabbed her scythe as she picked herself up. Looking ahead she saw what Dust meant. Red was no longer alone.

"Heya. You've been busy, huh."

"The boss doesn't give us a lot of room to be lazy, Classic." Dust stated sharply.

"I believe you can make plenty of time to procrastinate!" Underswap Sans declared, pointing one of the bones that he was holding at them, "Especially considering the fact that your 'job' involves hurting our friends."

"That is pretty messed up." Swap Papyrus said, throwing away the cigarette that he had been smoking earlier.

Dust chuckled. With a snap of his fingers, he summoned a Gaster Blaster at either side of him. "Like I said, the boss doesn't tolerate laziness. So do me a favour and make this quick."

Betty aimed her scythe at the quartet, "Please don't. I want to savour this fight."

Classic chuckled, "Sorry brat, but we can't afford to be lazy either. So..." Sans snapped his fingers and dozens of blasters appeared behind him and his friends, some with blue eyes, others with orange and the rest were Red's. "... do us a favour and give up. Nap time started time five minutes ago."

///

The human population of the Omega Timeline wasn't handling the invasion any better than the Monsters. The neighbourhood, made up mostly of humans, was stained red with blood and littered with corpses.

Marine's pretty white dress was soaked in red and most of it wasn't even hers. She looked up in fear at the silent figure standing over her as she tried desperately to crawl away. She's pretty something important in her leg had been cut open. Shadows surrounded them, attacking any survivors and destroying what they had all built.

"P-p-please. You... you don't have to do this." Marine begged as salty tears flowed into her open wounds, like a river flowing into a freshly opened ravine.

"You are in no position to beg for mercy, human." The crimson knight said, the last word being filled with more hatred than anything that Marine had ever heard before.

"Neither are you."

Suddenly, a wall of fire rose between Marine and the warrior, splitting the street in half. The warrior hissed as they backed away from the fire. Marine stared at the flames for a moment before turning around.

"Clover!" she cried happily.

A familiar cowboy hat cast a dark shadow over his eyes and a revolver shined in the holster by his hip. All of the Shadows behind him burnt until they were nothing, seemingly as if his very presence set them ablaze.

He walked towards Marine with purpose. He knelt next to her, moving her to his knees to help keep her steady. Despite the roaring anger that burnt within his soul, he spoke to her so gently that you'd think that they had just woken up from bed and their home wasn't on fire.

"I told you to run," he whispered. One of his hands hovered over her, a green light escaping his palm. Like magic, Marine's wounds began to close, but the spilt blood remained.

"I had to help the others get away," she whispered back.

Suddenly, a red spear burst through the wall of fire. Clover didn't even look at it or reach for his gun. He simply raised the hand that had been healing Marine a moment ago and shot a yellow magic bullet at it, shattering the spear at the moment of impact.

Once the immediate threat was neutralised, he turned his attention back to Marine. As he healed her, he gently stroked her golden hair, now soaked in red. He hated the sight. He hated touching it. How dare these monsters hurt one of the few good things in his life? How dare they try to take away everyone's second chance at life. They will pay. All of them.

He swore on his destroyed timeline that they would.

Slowly but still very quickly, all the damage that she had endured began to disappear. Cuts, punctures, fractures, they all faded until they were just dull aches. But her hair was still ruined. And there was so much fear in her pretty blue eyes.

"Can you walk?" he asked.

She nodded, "Y-yeah. I think so."

Clover nodded and helped her up.

"Run." He said to her sternly. "Go after the others and don't stop. I'll take care of this."

Marine shook her head, tears continued to roll down her cheeks. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it

"Run with me. You can protect us."

Clover shook his head, "No. I can't. I have bigger fish to fry,"

Marine closed her eyes so tightly that she started to look thirty years older. Realising that there was no arguing with Clover, Marine leaned forward and placed her forehead against his.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too. You dragged me out the darkness of my sins, Marine." Clover whispered, "Let me repay you by saving you from the sins of others."

"Please, Clover, live."

"I didn't escape my fate just to die here. Now run. Be patient and I'll find you when it's safe.

Marine hesitated, taking as much time as possible to savour Clover's appearance even with his eyes hidden. Then, with a peck on the cheek and a quick "Good luck", she turned around and ran in the opposite direction of the firewall.

Clover took a moment to savour the sound of her shoes hitting the pavement until they could no longer break through the roar of fire. With a breath to steel himself, Clover stepped towards the fire.

The knight watched him through the flames, from the moment that he had appeared to the moment he walked through the wall. The fire licked his clothes but nothing ever caught, as if Clover chose what the element was allowed to burn.

The knight gripped their newly summoned spear tightly as they stared down at the gun that now hung by his leg and was gripped tightly in his hand.

"So..." Clover started, "You're Nightmare's latest recruit. The one I've heard so much about. The Slayer of Humanity. The Spear of Vengeance. The bitch who tore apart her entire AU for a pointless crusade. Undyne the Unyielding."

"All of you Clovers are the same." the distorted voice of Undyne echoed through her helmet. "You act as if it's your Angel-given duty to judge others but never once give an accurate judgment. Even when you have the decency to die for the right cause, you refuse to acknowledge the truth."

Clover raised a brow beneath the rim of his hat, "What truth? That humans are the scum of the Earth and that we all deserve to die?"

Undyne pointed her spear at him. Shadows began to gather behind her, but they didn't make a move besides that. "Exactly. I've seen what cruelty humanity is made of, and from what I can see now, you have not only seen it, but you also embraced it."

Clover chuckled, "Ain't gonna deny that."

He raised his free hand, his palm flat and open. A yellow, almost golden, heart appeared above it, floating lazily just a few millimetres off his skin. Within that yellow heart was another heart. This one was upside down and was as white as snow.

With a wave, Clover's soul and the absorbed soul of Asgore Dreemur disappeared.

As Clover lowered his left arm, his right arm rose, pointing the barrel of his gun directly at the twisted knight.

"This is your only warning, Undyne," he declared, "Surrender now, and you'll be given a chance to repent for your crimes."

Undyne laughed. She actually had the audacity to laugh.

"And what crimes have I committed, human?" she questioned him.

"Your desire for revenge started properly when Frisk left the Underground without its King and without your precious human souls. You swore to your people that you would kill them no matter what. The moment you were given the chance, you burst through the Barrier and made a beeline for Frisk. By the time they realised what was going on, you had already killed and absorbed enough human souls to be more Determined than them, allowing you to kill them with ease. But you kept going. You never showed any mercy. You never hid how much you enjoyed killing humans with your god-like power. When your friends begged you to stop, you declared them traitors and killed them without mercy. And when Nightmare offered you the chance to kill how many humans that you pleased, you accepted without hesitation, even if it meant giving up your power and bringing more misery to other versions of your friends."

He chuckled darkly.

"That doesn't sound like a hero to me."

Undyne growled. She was very unhappy that this genocidal kid believed he had a right to judge her.

"There is no price to pay for the justice that comes with your suffering."

"I used to believe that once." Clover said, "The fact that even then, I wanted to deny it, while you embrace it shows me just how different we really are. Now..."

Two dozen balls of fire appeared behind Clover as the barrel of his gun began to glow.

"DRAW."

Back at the Doors, Miles laughed as the Shadows continued to swarm him. He punched, kicked, and webbed all of them, each and every husk vaporising at the moment of contact. Their durability was laughable, but their numbers were dangerous, and based on the damage they were causing to the area, so were their attacks.

From the air, Miles fired multiple lines at a bunch of Shadows.

"Alley Oop!"

He pulled and then spun, causing the mindless warriors to smash into each other and even managed to drag some extra up. As gravity began to pull Miles back, he channelled his Venom through his webs and into the Shadows that were still attached. He ensured that the voltage was just low enough that it didn't cause any of them to burst. Then, with all the strength that he could muster, he slammed them into the ground

The moment they hit the ground, the Shadows burst. Orange electricity scattered from the point of impact and spread across the battlefield. Dozens more Shadows screamed as the power travelled through them and ripped them apart from the inside.

Miles landed on the ground with no effort and took a moment to catch his breath. He looked around the battlefield, trying to assess the situation. There were still so many Shadows, some were already running towards the small clearing that he had made, and their master was nowhere in sight.

Sorcerer was also nowhere to be seen. He was the only one left who could contact the Spider Society, and without backup, was there any hope of saving the Omega Timeline?

Miles shook his head.

"Get it together, Morales. You haven't lost yet."

Miles steadied his breathing and let the familiar charge run through his veins again.

'Just like Peter always says.'

"Maximum Spider!"

Spider Sense.

It was slow, and it was dull, but it was still there. Miles leaned to the side and then took a step back, narrowly avoiding an axe to the neck. However, the blade still managed to nick his right cheek.

This new multiverse didn't have a Web of Life and Destiny, the thing that made the Spider Sense actually work. It's why Miles and UK failed to dodge when Nightmare destroyed their Watches. The fact it worked at all was nothing short of a miracle, and Miles was grateful to whatever deities that watched over this multiverse that it did work.

Miles rolled out of the way, stopping in the famous crouch and stared down his opponent.

It was another Sans, only larger than most and with a massive hole in his skull. Horror rested his axe on his shoulders and grinned. The manic smile somehow looked both genuine and twisted.

"Shame." Horror muttered, "I was hoping to make it quick. Now I'm going to have to make it hurt."

Miles stretched his neck a little before commenting, "I can tell that you aren't the sharpest tool in the leaky shed, so I'll explain this carefully. Quick or not, being hit with an axe always hurts, especially if it hasn't been sharpened in a while. Trust me, I know."

Horror's grin grew, "No need to be so blunt about it."

///

Sharp and bloodied bones were everywhere. They were dangerous and unpredictable. Each one was a reminder of what type of monster he was fighting. Fortunately for UK, they also provided him with the mobility that this barren land would have denied him.

He fired his webs at the bones and used them to his advantage, either pulling himself out of the way of an attack or even using those bones to deflect or block a different. There was such a build-up of bones that the two fighters were essentially building a tower out of them.

Billy landed on a Gaster Blaster that was meant to vaporise him and stared down at his enemy. Insanity stood on a platform of bloodied bones. He gave Spider-UK that same unchanging, bloody, manic grin. The sight made Billy's own blood boil. The Papyrus head in the bastard's hand also didn't help.

Suddenly, the Blaster beneath his feet disappeared.

Billy didn't care.

He dropped from the sky with no fear, his feet aimed directly at the skeleton.

Bones and energy beams fired at him, each one with the sole intention of killing him. For a normal human, it would have been enough but it wasn't for him. Spider-Men thrived in the air, even when against most fliers. He swung, he pulled, he slingshotted... even without his Spidey Sense at full strength, UK masterfully weaved his way between the attacks, never losing even a bit of momentum.

Insanity's smile seemed to grow as the human neared him.

Soon, as if the attacks hadn't slowed him down by even a second, the spider was right on top of the skeleton. But before his feet could cave in that wretched skull, the skeleton vanished.

The bones that made up the platform shattered, and some even vanished into dust that was immediately blown away. Fortunately, the platform was thick enough to still provide Spider-Man with something to stand on.

He sighed as he picked himself up. He closed his eyes, using both his hearing and limited Spider Sense to listen out for the next attack.

The maniac was toying with him, wasting his time. People were dying and UK couldn't help because he was fighting the movie definition of a psychopath.

He had to end this quick and something told him that one punch would do it.

Meanwhile, as all these fights started and continued, the final boss watched.

Nightmare stood at the top of his shrinking blob, which was somehow still spitting out more Shadows. Then again, it shouldn't be surprising. Nightmare had over 500 years to build up his army.

He watched all these squabbles from a distance, each battle as clear as day despite happening further than the human eye could see. Sight wasn't something that concerned the King of Negativity.

There was so much Darkness in this once bright beacon of positivity. So much fear, anger, grief... it was all so delicious. It made Nightmare wish that he had done this sooner.

And the best part?

He won!

Even if Dream were to appear right now alongside his pathetic friends and even if they managed to kick him and his forces out, the damage was done.

The multiverse's unpenetrable sanctuary had been breached. So many were already dead and the survivors would never feel safe again. They'd be scared and anxious about the next attack, and all that negativity would just make the Omega Timeline easier for him to breach. They'd realise that was the case, thus boosting their fears and making the timeline even easier to penetrate, creating a never-ending cycle of negativity for him to feed from.

But, just because his victory was guaranteed, that didn't mean that it was going to be smooth.

Nightmare watched his minions struggle to eliminate singular pests, get wrapped up in battles of ideology and even toy with their enemies.

He had not permitted them to play with their food.

If they weren't careful, they'd get burnt, something that would be an absolute hassle to fix.

Well, it's been a while since he had some real fun.

And luckily for him, someone had ordered him home delivery.

Nightmare turned his head slightly to the right and directly into the open mouth of a Gaster Blaster. Nightmare stared nonchalantly as the orange and white beam charged up before it was fired point-blank into his face.

The beam continued for a solid minute before eventually fading and the Gaster Blaster vanished.

When the attack ended, Nightmare wasn't even in the least bit damaged. It seemed that all the attack really did was push him back a little.

Nightmare yawned as he allowed a pathetic display of blue magic to wrap itself around his corrupted soul. He was lifted into the air like some peasant where he was surrounded by an array of blasters and bones, leaving him no room to not get hit.

Bones travelled through him but failed to cause any lasting damage. Beams of magical energy burnt the air but failed to raise his own temperature. All the attacks were futile as they held no Positivity. He could be bombarded and impaled from every which way, and it would do nothing to him.

He could easily end the onslaught, but he felt like giving his attacker some, just so that he could get it out of his system. That way, the fear that he would feel when he actually started trying would be even better.

Nightmare didn't really mind. At least not until a Gaster Blaster decided to BITE HIM.

Nightmare grunted as the blaster's teeth cut through his body. The previous attacks were mildly annoying but definitely worth the fear that would have come once he started actually trying. But THIS was crossing the line.

"Unhand me." Nightmare growled as he unleashed four tentacles from his back.

The four gooey appendages effortlessly tore through the dragon skull and ripped it apart. Bones and more blasters appeared but they were child's play to him. Stabbing two tentacles into the ground, he effortlessly moved between the attacks, sometimes destroying Gaster Blasters before they could fire. A way of showing just how insignificant these attacks were compared to him.

How beneath him they all were.

How useless they truly were.

And the fish caught the bait, just as he expected.

Nightmare caught sight of a flash of bright orange from the corner of his eye. Then, he wrapped one of his tentacles around its neck before its instincts could process what was going on.

Nightmare smiled sinisterly as he brought his attacker closer to him. The smile grows slightly as the Sans' orange glow disappears, revealing yet another lowly peasant.

Delta struggled to break free from Nightmare's hold, trying and failing to grip onto the tentacle and pull it away, but it was futile. Already, his strength was being sapped away. Black lines began to spread across him as his white bones began to fade into a dull grey. But his eyes, the white lights in his empty sockets, still glowed as brightly as Outertale stars.

Well, that was going to change soon.

Nightmare stared at the peasant, who was now not even a metre away from him and asked, "Tell me, bug, what made you think that attacking me was a good idea?"

Delta groaned. The pain and fatigue ate away at his soul, making it difficult to say anything. Bravery's attempts to protect them only ensure their death. Yet he persisted and forced his mouth to move.

"I knew that it was only a matter of time before you joined the fight." Delta breathed, "I also knew that I was the only one here who would last longer than a minute against you."

"So you knew that you would lose?"

"I knew that I could buy time."

"Time for what?"

"For me to arrive."

Slit!

Squish.

Nightmare isn't sure what happened.

One moment, he has an iron grip on the Sans' neck. The next, he's gone... and so are half of his tentacles. It takes another moment for him to realise that it fucking hurts.

At first, he thought that his brother had returned.

It takes him yet another moment to realise that he can't sense any magic made up of positive emotions. He needs another moment to somewhat accept the impossibility of it all.

He was hurt. Something that isn't made of positivity had somehow managed to hurt him. Somehow, some bastard had figured out how to do something not even the Guardians of Positivity, Creation or Destruction could figure out. They hurt him without positive emotions.

HOW?!?

"Up here, you black gremlin turd!"

Nightmare looked up as his damaged tentacle retracted and growled.

One of those costumed humans was floating above him. He wore a red cloak which swayed in the wind despite the Omega Timeline not having any. One of his hand was stretched to the side and floating by it, as if held by a rope wrapped around his torso, was the Sans that Nightmare was holding just a few minutes ago.

Sorcerer looked down at the creature of darkness beneath him and said, "I'm sorry for being late. I got caught up in my lesson."

Chapter 12: The Battle Continues

Nightmare skidded across the white ground which made up the Omega Timeline. He let out a sound which seemed to be a mix between a hiss and a roar as his freshly cut tentacles regenerated. His corrupted soul was a vortex of familiar emotions: anger, hate, confusion, and frustration, with all of them dialled up to eleven and directed at one man.

Sorcerer paid the Guardian of Negativity no mind. He was more focused on swinging a sword of pure energy at the Shadows around him. He flipped and he flew, using both webs and magic to trip up the creatures which severed Nightmare.

Nightmare growled. He could feel the pressure of the battle and could see the very real risk of him losing. Nightmare wasn't foolish enough to believe that he would win every battle, but this was different. Dream, Ink and Error were powerful opponents, but they were Guardians of their own Balances as well. It was expected for their power to rival his, at least with the current state of Positivity and Negativity in the multiverse.

This though... this fight had no reason to be this difficult.

He was fighting a human, not even one blessed by the Doodle Sphere or other powerful beings. It was a regular human with a smilingly weak soul who somehow held mastery over an unfamiliar arcane art powerful enough to hurt HIM!

This could not go on. Nightmare melted into the ground and rushed towards the insect.

Sorcerer wasn't impressed with this pathetic attempt at a sneak attack. The Cloak of Levitation lifted him from the ground right as a black puddle appeared. The puddle jumped after him, forming what could be best described as a melting ink sac flavoured ice cream shark. The thing's mouth was wide open, and Peter allowed the thing to almost swallow him.

When he was deep enough in its mouth, he cast summoned magical razor blades which effortlessly tore through the beast.

'God, I love that spell,' Peter thought to himself happily.

But the happiness was brief as he quickly returned to the battle at hand.

An airborne Shadow dived towards him, but Peter countered by webbing its eyes and pulling it towards him, where it met its end with a punch enhanced both by magic and the proportional strength of a spider.

His magically enhanced senses trach the sick blackhole that was Nightmare as he moved around the battlefield and spared a few moments to inspect the rest of the battle for the Omega Timeline. Too many souls had been lost already.

He prayed that reinforcements would arrive soon.

///

Chara screamed in pain as they removed the sharpened bone from their shoulder. They hissed as the warm blood rushed out, staining their hoodie and sticking the cloth to the wound. They breathed heavily as they tried to force some sort of healing magic into the wound. They would hate to lose because of fucking gradual blood loss.

Killer was grinning maniacally down at them. He was sat on the top part of the bench with his feet resting on the actual seat. He was obviously taking a lot of pleasure in this.

"You know," Killer began as he stood up, "I remember humans being a lot tougher than this."

He stood up and stepped off the bench. He twirled his freshly blood-stained knife between his fingers as he casually walked towards the collapsed human.

Chara forced themself to stand up even as their injuries screamed at them to stay down. It hurt twice as much to summon half a dozen glowing knives behind them.

"Only because... you're supposed to die when you stub your toe. Remind me what happened to your pathetic stats again, Sans."

The change was instant yet subtle. His grin shifted into a frown and he began to growl.

Then, his oh-so-special Gaster Blaster appeared.

Over the hum of the weapon charging, Killer spat, "You know exactly what happened to me, partner."

Chara smirked, "I do. But remind me anyway. Your pain brings me pleasure."

///

Undyne roared as she plunged her spear into the ground where her target had been not even a second ago. Before she could even pull it out, she was pelleted with bullets, both metal and magical.

This was a rough summary of how this fight had been going.

The genocider was fast. He zipped around Undyne and even through her attacks as if he could teleport. This allowed him to attack her from multiple angles and zoom out of the way before she could even figure out where the attacks were coming from. The fire only added to the frustration.

"Come on! I thought you were the Slayer of Humanity or whatever. Surely you can do better than this!"

Undyne growled as she summoned a cluster of spears where the voice had come from, but she missed. Clover was sure to cement that fact with a fireball to the face.

'How dare he use the King's magic against me.'

"You're a failure! You use the title of 'Hero' to hide from your sins. You turned your back on the people that you claimed you were fighting for. If you truly believe that you did nothing wrong for all these years, then death is the only mercy I can give you."

"Shut... UP!"

With a powerful roar, a shockwave of pure Determination escaped Undyne's soul. The charred buildings shook and crumbled even more. Clover grunted as that wave of power knocked him off his feet. His gun fell out of his hand as he rolled over the cracked streets.

He was bleeding, his bones were cracked, and the magic in his Soul was beginning to dwindle.

But he endured.

Clover carefully picked himself up and stared at Undyne defiantly as her armoured form approached him menacingly.

He had made mistakes in the past. There was no denying that. He had promised many people that he was no longer the soul who tore apart a decent portion of the Underground and willingly left it without their king and only source of hope.

However, the rush of taking a life is not so easily forgotten.

Clover figured that one more kill could be forgiven.

///

Sans was a smart guy. He didn't act like it, but he was quick to figure things out and almost always knew the odds. Stuff like Stats, facial expressions, and deja vu all helped him.

But he didn't need to be smart to know that he and his buddies were at a disadvantage.

Dust and Betê Noire by themselves usually needed a trio of standard Sanses to take down. While they were working together? Classic doubted that the four of them would be enough.

But he wasn't going to let that get to him.

"Heh, missed again, kid." Classic chuckled as he sidestepped the pink spike that Betty had tried to thrust into him.

Betty turned around to face him again after she stopped and the pink around her arm shifted into a scythe. She growled at him, showing off her sharp jagged teeth. She jumped at him with her weapon raised high above her head.

This time, he didn't even need to do anything, which Classic could always appreciate.

Blue magic wrapped itself around the Soul of Fear and she was smashed into the ground. She rolled to the side before the bones could pierce her body and picked herself up. With a flash of grey, white and blue as her only warning, Betty narrowly deflected a melee attack from Blue.

"Mwehehe! That was a close one, not human. But I'm afraid that your troubles with the Magnificent Sans haven't ended just yet.

Noire laughed, "As if someone like you could cause me any trouble."

The sound of multiple Blasters charging caused her to freeze.

"Don't count your Blasters before they charge."

Blue snapped his fingers and the magical beams shot at Betty from multiple angles. Before Betty could raise the needed shields to protect herself, Dust appeared next to her.

He placed his hand on her shoulder and the two of them vanished right as the beams hit the spot where they were standing.

They reappeared on top of the roof of a crumbling but stable home.

"How many more times am I going to have to save you?" Dust asked. The annoyance and frustration were emanating off him like light from the sun, only in the way it does when you're standing right next to it rather than 150 million kilometres away.

Before Betty could give her sarcastic response, someone else answered for her.

"Zero, because you'll both be dead in a second!"

On a roof, a few houses away from them stood Red with a mad grin. His jacket was torn and singed and his arm was raised.

Beneath their feet, the roof began to glow a hellish red. Before either of them could react, the entire roof exploded, sending them and debris flying.

The two didn't scream as they hit the road, each a smouldering mess. They just groaned as they lay on the floor before picking themselves up. They still had plenty of fight left in them.

"Tough day, huh?"

"You have no idea, Paps." Dust replied as he looked up at the lazy version of his brother.

Papyrus smirked before sipping some honey from a bottle. Someone would have seen this action as a sign that he wasn't taking the fight seriously, but Dust knew better. He was trying to recover as much HP as possible.

Looking behind Paps, Dust saw the trio of Sanses doing the same with their own respective condiments.

Dust chuckled as he stood up alongside Betty. With a snap of his fingers, almost two dozen Gaster Blasters appeared. Betty grinned as scythes formed on both of her hands.

Dust laughed as his mind fell deeper and deeper into the fight.

He couldn't wait to harvest their EXP for himself.

///

"Score!" yelled the child as another blob of webbing hit Horror's hole.

The gap in his skull had been covered by the substance long ago, but the human still insisted on targeting it as if their battle was some kind of game.

Horror growled and tossed his axe directly at him. Spider-Man effortlessly leapt over the spinning weapon before firing a web at the handle and pulling it towards himself.

Orange electricity coated the weapon as the air-borne spider brought it down on a group of Shadows before swinging it at another group charging towards him.

The dark soldiers crumbled into nothing as the electricity moved from the axe to them.

Miles spun around and threw the Axe back at Horror. The weapon still sparked with energy so the Sans elected to dodge it rather than catch it. As it hit the ground, Horror sent a wave of sharpened and bodied bones at the superhero.

As expected, he flipped over the wave but Horror didn't let that stop him. He brought his hands down, and a swarm of bones appeared over Miles' head and came crashing down on top of him. However, right as the attack was about to hit him, the human vanished from sight.

Horror swore and reached out with his blue magic. The discharged axe flew back into his grip, and Horror steadied himself.

He had used this trick already, and Horror needed to be ready.

The Shadows immediately around him also stopped moving and began cautiously searching for their enemy.

Horror ignored the ones that looked like his friends and tried to listen for any footsteps that would help him pinpoint the pest's location. Unfortunately, with the sounds of all the battles surrounding him, he just couldn't make out anything of use. It's hard to hear footsteps when the sounds of explosions and hundreds of bones crashing into the ground surround you.

For a moment, Horror let himself peak in the direction of the Doors. There, in the distance, he could see his boss battling another one of those humans. As unbelievable as the idea was, the two seemed to be evenly matched.

Deep in his soul, a piece of Horror hoped that Nightmare would fail.

Another part of him prayed that the Boss was too distracted to sense this small bit of defiance.

Stzzzz! Crack!

There!

Horror held his axe horizontally as he spun around 180°. The smell of blood immediately hit his nostrils as soon as he hit something sturdy. He could always recognise that familiar scent, no matter how wrong it was compared to the rest.

Miles reappeared, and Horror saw that he had buried his axe into his arm, which was purposefully blocking it from reaching the torso. The blade seemed to have somehow been stopped before it even hit the bone.

'How tough are these guys?'

This was the first real damage that Horror had managed to land and yet he couldn't even have this.

He pulled his axe out of the boy's arm and shot another wave of bones at him. Horror was only half surprised when Miles flipped over the bones and even webbed his wound shut while in mid-air.

The Shadows chased after him and attacked the moment hit the ground. Most humans would have struggled to even move after getting an axe lodged into their arm, yet this kid was still going like nothing happened. The only difference seemed to be that he wasn't using his right arm as much.

Horror sighed as he fixed his grip on his axe as the blade dripped blood.

He was making progress, but he still had a long way to go before this fight was over.

Meanwhile, Insanity was enjoying himself greatly as he played with the British Spider-Man.

UK grunted as he narrowly avoided a sharpened bone being stabbed into his chest. He hooked his arm around the skeleton's and tossed him away. Insanity hit the ground multiple times as he rolled away but he didn't seem to mind.

The collections of bones that gathered from their battle began to crumble and fall onto the Spider-Man. Billy moved between the stacks and stacks of raining pieces of the human skeleton and moved after the crowd monster. He fired multiple lines of webbing at the different femurs and humeruses.

Then, he pulled against the lines and threw all of the bones at Insanity.

The skeleton's grin seemed to somehow stretch even further as he reached out and summoned two different Gaster Blasters, both stained with blood. The familiar beams of energy shot out of their maws and headed directly towards UK.

With a powerful jump, he jumped over them and flew in Insanity's direction.

He couldn't see the head that bastard had been holding earlier. Did he drop it? Was he finally at peace? Or did this monster just hide his brother in his pocket?

Either way, he had to stop him.

Billy hit the ground with enough force to make the endless white landscape shake.

Insanity chuckled as Shadows ran past him and towards the red and blue figure. This game was so much fun! He didn't want it to end.

///

Back at the Doors, mystic light clashed with eternal darkness.

Nightmare hissed and roared as the orange energy snaked around his attacks and wrapped themselves around them, burning every bit of him that touched them with their power.

These same coils of foreign magic wrapped themselves around his Shadows. The creatures crumbled into nothing when the least bit of pressure was put on them.

Their numbers were dwindling. Nightmare could feel it and sense it. These humans had killed so many of them that the other protectors of the Omega Timeline could start picking off the rest.

That by itself didn't bother Nightmare. He could easily rebuild their numbers.

It also didn't bother him that this battle was 'unwinnable'. The residents would remember this day and that would fuel him.

These humans, their very existence, were a plight in his kingdom. This sorcerer in particular. Nightmare couldn't let someone with the power to do genuine harm to him exist. Such a power didn't have a right to exist.

Nightmare didn't care if he had to retreat, so long as he got to kill this magician first.

"You are lucky, Nightmare." Sorcerer proclaimed as he lowered himself to Nightmare's level. "Your role in maintaining the balance and stability of this multiverse is the only reason why I will not banish you to the deepest corners of Hell. Be grateful for it."

"Grateful? Grateful!? I do not need to be grateful for anything because everything is rightfully mine! It is you who should be grateful that I was oblivious to your existence before today!"

With a mighty roar, Nightmare threw off his chains and shot his tentacles at the human.

Sorcerer raised a quick shield. He grunted with effort as the tentacles collided against the barrier. While Nightmare's attacks by themselves weren't all that strong, the pure Negativity within them more than made for it. Negativity behaved like a corrosive substance, and Sorcerer was grateful that Nightmare hadn't managed to inflict any significant damage or been able to keep a significant hold on him for an extended period of time.

Fighting Nightmare was like fighting someone dual-wielding two dull swords coated with the strongest poison in existence.

Nightmare moved in for another attack, this time aiming around the shield. Sorcerer narrowly avoided the two tentacles. He was about to counterattack when he noticed a familiar but faint feeling.

His Spider Sense.

Sorcerer swore as a piece of the Negativity goo, detached from Nightmare, wrapped itself around his leg. He felt his worst and most painful thoughts and emotions strengthen tenfold as his body began to grow weaker.

But as the Sorcerer Supreme of his Earth, he had been subject to spells far worse than this. So he pushed through it.

He summoned what resembled a hand fan and sliced the Negativity of his leg but as soon he did, a tidal wave made of Nightmare's very own mass crashed into him.

Sorcerer cursed they crashed to the ground. He was forced to lie on the ground as he and his Cloak struggled to break free from Nightmare's grip. The goo resembling a skeleton was wrapping himself around Sorcerer like water in a pool.

"I launched this attack because there was no one to stop me!" Nightmare roared. "I will not let some humans change that. I am a God and to me, you are all ants!"

"Firstly," Sorcerer coughed as tentacles wrapped themselves around his throat, "We're spiders, not ants. Hank will probably kill you himself if you make that mistake again. Secondly, if no one here is supposed to be able to stop you."

Nightmare suddenly felt pain flare up in his shoulder.

He and the human stopped struggling. At first, he thought that there was another human with the same power to hurt him.

Then, he realised something.

The pain was, for lack of a better word, painfully familiar.

A new tentacle sprouted and it reached for the thing embedded in his shoulder. It pulled it out and brought the thing to his face.

It was an arrow.

A bright blue arrow which glowed with the Positive energy from which it was made up.

"I should have known that you would come to ruin my fun... brother."

"Let him go, Nightmare," Dream ordered as he transformed his bow into two swords.

 

Chapter 13: Return of the Guardians

Dream couldn't believe that he let things get this bad.

Never before had he sensed so much fear, so much panic, so much negativity in the Omega Timeline.

Just ten minutes ago, he and Ink had been in a completely different multiverse. They were in a place known as the Nexus of All Realities, learning about only some of the many stories that the Spider-Verse (what he called the other multiverse) held. Dream had never seen Ink so genuinely happy before.

The Guardian of Creation had been absorbing every bit of information that the Watcher gave them. He kept asking questions that the fifth-dimensional being was more than happy to answer, if only a bit annoyed that his narration kept being interrupted. For a moment, it almost felt like he had an actual soul. Dream figured that the Doodle Sphere was going to experience a Creativity Boom very soon.

While the Watcher told the story of one of the Spider-Verse's many deaths and rebirths (WHAT?!?), during which a man by the name of Victor von Doom gained powers beyond gods, a man that Dream and Ink had never seen before appeared.

He was dressed in dark reds, purples and gold. His facial hair looked very sharp and there were heavy bags under his eyes. A more sinister-looking version of Sorcerer's cloak fluttered behind him. And his soul was filled with more pain and grief than Dream had ever sensed in a single person before. Not even Genocide Run survivors whose AUs were destroyed could compare.

"Ah, welcome Stephen," the Watcher greeted the man like he was a friend. "What brings you here today?"

"Nothing good," Stephen answered. "The skeletons need to return to their bodies. There's an emergence in the other multiverse."

"Oh," Ink sighed in disappointment. He obviously wanted to hear more stories and Dream would be lying if he said that he didn't also want to hear more. However, there were more important matters at hand.

"What's going on?" he asked the sorcerer.

"A creature by the name of Nightmare is attacking the Omega Timeline with an army of corrupted souls. You will return there immediately along with members of the Council to assist the forces already there. The others will follow you as soon as possible."

That was how Dream found himself here, facing his brother once again.

He tightened his grip on the twin swords in his hands.

Nightmare released an angry sound that was like a mix of a cat's hiss and a dog's growl. Dream didn't need his empath abilities to tell that his brother was not pleased by his presence.

"YOU!" he growled. The tentacles on his back shook violently while the slime he was made of quivered with rage. "Why did you have to come back? Why couldn't you have stayed in whatever hole you had dragged yourself into where you couldn't bother me."

Dream sighed. "My responsibility is to this multiverse, Nightmare. My duty is to maintain its balance between Positivity and Negativity." Dream raised his swords as he prepared for the battle ahead. "Nothing's going to change that, especially seeing what you're doing here."

"So be it, brother."

...

"Wait, what do you mean 'this multiverse'?"

A blast of mystical energy struck Nightmare's form. His body was sent flying back as a few pieces of it were splattered around.

Dream turned to look at Sorcerer. When the Spider-Man noticed his gaze, he simply shrugged and said, "What? We can't let him ask these kinds of questions."

Dream sighed. At least he wouldn't be fighting him alone this time.

"Follow my lead."

///

"You're starting to be really annoying. I haven't killed a single thing in ages because of you."

"Good," growled Chara as they struggled to stay upright.

The world around was a blur. They could barely make out Killer's beat-up body through the haze. Maybe if they were lucky, the bastard would drop from exhaustion at the same time they did. Wouldn't that be nice?

Chara would have laughed if they had the energy to spare. Instead, they had to dodge more sharpened bones that flew past them. More cuts appeared on their clothes and skin but Chara couldn't even register them. They were inconsequential when compared to the gaping wounds that had been leaking buckets full of blood earlier. Now they only dribbled what was left in Chara's body.

"Is that... all you've got?" asked Chara with a wide grin.

"Oh, I have much more than that to gi- IIGGGHHHH!!!"

Killer wasn't even given the chance to finish his threat. Chara was barely able to register the dark blue blur which zoomed past them, seemingly taking the skeleton with him. A crash echoed and the ground shook, causing Chara to stumble back and land on their bottom.

They stared in shock at where the point of impact was. There was someone hunched over what they could only assume to be Killer's body. Dark blue with an orange cape that seemed to be made of light. When he stood up, Chara was able to tell, even from their position on the ground, that this person would tower over them even if they stood on a chair.

'A Monster?' wondered Chara. There was no way a human could have that kind of physique.

They briefly spared Killer a glance. He looked like he was unconscious. Dust was flaking off his body but the skeleton would live, unfortunately.

"This is Miguel O'Hara of Earth- 928," the person said. He seemed to be talking to his wrist. "I've apprehended one of the identified hostiles half a click northeast from my point of arrival. Short skeleton in a blue hoodie with a black substance leaking from his eye. Code Name, Killer. I'm restraining him now."

Chara watched as the blurry figure of 'Miguel' crouched again. When he stood about again, they could just barely make out a pair of silver cuffs which covered his hands on him.

Miguel turned around and then looked down at them. Chara couldn't tell if the sharp, hollow eyes were part of a mask or part of his face.

"This is Miguel again. I've got an injured human here as well. They appear to be suffering from severe blood loss. Requesting immediate medical assistance to my location."

'Why are my eyes so heavy?' Chara wondered as the person moved his muscular arm to support their head. Everything looked like a mess of random colours that he couldn't remember the names of. Shapes didn't seem to exist any more.

Maybe a nap would help.

"Hey, kid. Stay with me. Everything is going to be okay. Help is on the way. You hear me? It's going to be okay. We are here."

///

They ran.

All they could do was run.

They couldn't fight because they hadn't had a reason to since coming to the Omega Timeline. Those who could still fight were outnumbered by the Shadows chasing them. So they ran. They could only run and maybe throw a spear of a fireball if one came too close.

They ran, and they ran and they ran. All the while the Shadows chased after them.

The Omega Timeline was meant to be the safest place in the multiverse so there were no plans to combat an attack of such a scale as this.

"Hurry up!"

"They're gaining on us!"

"I- I can't breathe..."

"Stay Determined!"

"They're too fast!"

"I can't keep going."

"Don't stop now!"

These cries and words of similar calibre echoed through the empty expanse, only interrupted by the screams and the roars of the Shadows which clawed after them, managing to sometimes pick off a straggler or two.

Obviously, these cries didn't come from a singular massive crowd. Every human and Monster had been in a different place when the invasion began, so they all ran in different directions. Even as those who ran in the same general direction tried to stick together, their groups would slowly begin to splinter away from each other, making them smaller and easier to pick off.

It was one of these groups that witnessed the ties of this battle begin to shift.

It was a small group made up of mostly Monster just a small handful of young humans. They were chased by three times as many Shadows and there was no one who could fight them off, even for a moment. If any of them tried, they would immediately be swarmed.

A human with a lot of patience was a part of this group.

It had been a miracle that Marine had managed to run into this group of survivors, but it seemed like all of their luck had run out. They were tired from running and even if the battle had been won, it would take a long time for anyone to find time and right now they didn't have the time to wait.

She thought back to Clover, even as the sound of snapping jaws and angry growls filled her ears. She had left him to battle one of Nightmare's subordinates on all his own. Marine had heard of how powerful Undynes could be, even without a bunch of LV to power them up. She wanted to turn back and run back to him but without anyone to clear the way- Who was that?

A flash of brown and white zoomed past the group and towards the Shadows. Marine couldn't help to turn her head to see what was going on, even as she continued to run.

"Seems like Nightmare still hasn't learnt that plagiarism is a serious offence!" Ink laughed as he smacked the Shadows away with his giant paintbrush. The attack left the ones in front with large purple stains going across their front but they didn't seem to notice.

The Shadows just screeched and charged at the Guardian of Creativity.

Ink sighed, "And I see you guys still don't have an ounce of creativity in you, huh? Such a shame."

He jumped over the swarms and hit the back of the group with the same attack as before as soon as he hit the ground. Then, with a snap of his fingers, the purple paint covering their black bodies moulded itself into tight chains which restrained the Shadows.

They screeched and hopelessly struggled to break free. Ink chuckled at their plight before snapping his fingers again.

Black bones made of ink formed out of the ground around the Shadows and shot through the cluster. The screeching and struggling immediately stopped as Nightmare's minions disappeared. Inks's attacks meanwhile dropped usually to the floor, now different to stains on a canvas.

The group had stopped running and now stared in shock. They hadn't expected a rescue from the Guardian of Creativity, even if they had prayed for a rescue of any type."

Ink released a breath as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Phew. Well, that was fun." He then hummed and began to rub his chin. "Although, I feel like I'm forgetting something... OH! Right!"

He suddenly turned to the group and pointed behind them, "GET ONTO THE SHIP!"

The group turned around and released collective gasps of shock as they saw what was descending before them.

What could only be described as a cross between a sixteen-wheeler from the future and a spider was descending from the sky. The ground shook as its long legs made contact and the body in the centre continued to lower. The entire wall in front of them lowered to create a ramp and inside the strange vehicle was... a Frisk?!

The Frisk looked like a classic but there was something off about them. They waved them over and yelled, "Get in!"

They didn't question it. The command from Ink and a Frisk didn't need to be questioned.

As they rushed onto the craft, Marine couldn't help but notice that the Frisk was wearing a red and blue wristband. Something about it felt... odd.

The weird wristband was immediately pushed out of her head as Marine began to worry about Clover again.

///

Clover spat out blood as a metal boot kicked him to the floor. It kicked him a few more times, seemingly for good measure.

"Pathetic," grumbled Undyne as she circled Clover's broken body as he struggled to stand.

"That's... not what you were thinking when I was kicking your ass."

And he would have still been kicking her ass if not for the puddle of blood he had slipped on. It had completely ruined all of the momentum that he had built up since the fight started and, being the trained warrior that she was, Undyne took full advantage of it.

Clover hadn't been hit by so many pointy things at once since he fought Martlet.

He wondered how that Outertale version of her he met was doing.

Clover's snark was rewarded with another boot to the ribs.

"It's a disgrace that I ever let someone like you land as many attacks on me as you did."

"So nothing new, right? Disgraceful can describe pretty much everything that you ever did in your life."

Another kick. Clover was certain that one of his ribs broke in two with that one.

'You have to endure, Clover,' a voice deep in his soul echoed. 'Don't give up.'

'Kinda hard to do that when I get kicked with a metal boot every time I try to stand up.'

Undyne glared at the human at her mercy. To think he had caused such devasting damage to the Underground and his timeline, while his insignificance could be considered the most significant part of his story in almost every other world.

He should have died before he even hit the flowers

"Any last words?"

Clover chuckled. "Yeah... but I'll save them for later."

With a powerful clang, a large metal disk hit Undyne's armour and caused her to stubble to the side a little. Clover watched the projectile bounce off her and return to its sender. A human garbed head to toe in red, white and blue with a spider symbol on his chest. He was marching towards them as if the fires burning the street around them weren't there.

"That's enough! Stand down while you have the chance," Captain ordered.

Undyne growled as she stood up, summoning a spear into her hand.

"I don't take orders from humans," she said.

"Does it look like I care about your prejudices... Okay, I do. You should really work on those. Just make this easy for both of us and surrender."

"I don't think I will."

Then, to the surprise of both humans, Undyne turned around and brought her blade down to Clover's chest.

But death didn't follow.

The disk, which Clover now realised was a shield, cut through the air and hit Undyne's hand, knocking the spear off course and causing it to fade. The surprisingly offensive weapon returned to the human's hand as he ran towards them. Undyne, recognising that she didn't have the time to kill Clover, turned her back to him and stared down her new opponent.

Spears shot from the ground directly in front of the human but he effortlessly leapt over them. While still in the air, he threw his shield at Undyne. She couldn't dodge it.

The shield struck her chest, denting the armour and forcing her to take a step back. It immediately returned to its user who then fired a web at the ground by Undyne's feet and pulled himself towards her.

The two warriors clashed as Clover could only watch.

A spider who looks like a human dressed like the American flag is fighting a fish warrior.

What has his life become?

///

"Huff... huff... you know... for someone who carries his brother's decapitated head around, you're pretty smart."

"He... he... he..."

Insanity and Spider-Man UK stood across from each other.

The scars of their battle littered the white void around them. Broken bones stuck out from the ground, and scorch marks scarred the land beneath their feet. Yet the two combatants still stood, mostly uninjured, even as exhaustion slowly began to creep in.

"Well, what are you waiting for, mate?" UK asked as he stretched his arms out wide. "Let's have another go."

Sans' grin had already reached its limit but it somehow seemed to stretch even further.

He took a step forward. No one would ever know whether it was to charge Billy down or to summon another wave of bones.

Bang!

Insanity's eye sockets widened in surprise as he watched his right hand, the one holding his brother, fall off its joint. Both it and his brother faded to dust before even hitting the ground.

UK didn't waste the opportunity that was given to him. He fired a web at the skeleton and pulled him towards himself. The mad skeleton didn't have the time that he needed to react before a powerful right hook hit him across the face which sent him flying in the opposite direction.

That wasn't the end of his troubles though.

He was kicked against his ribs and was then smashed to the ground with a powerful elbow to the head.

Billy smiled as he stared at the man who had given him a hand.

"Took you long enough to get here."

The Spider-Man who looked like he had stepped out of a really old detective movie let out a small laugh as he put his handgun back into its holster.

"Moving a battalion 'cross the multiverses ain't a walk in the park, my friend. Count your lucky stars we made it when we did," said as he began securing the knocked-out skeleton. His already cracked skull now looked like it was on the brink of caving in.

"Is the rest of the council here?" UK asked as he jogged over.

"They're here along with the available strike teams who are rounding up all of the civilians. We've brought our fresh pals too, seeing as this is their stompin' ground," answered Noir as he stood up.

The pair shook hands and were immediately interrupted by the sound of explosions.

"We should probably crack on and help the others."

"Lead the way, Churchill."

///

A Gaster Blaster burst into dust as an electrified punch hit it before it even had the chance to begin charging.

"You know, I'm starting to get really tired of those things," Miles said as he flipped over another barrage of bones. "And those bones too. Seriously, where do you keep getting them from?"

"I seem to have forgotten."

Miles and Horror stood across from each other, both of them ready for the other to make a move. The wound in Miles' arm where the axe had struck was covered in webs and bits of his costume were torn. Horror's clothes were charred and most of the webs that were stuck to him had been burnt off one way or another.

Speaking of the axe, its handle had burst into a thousand splinters during the battle and its slightly melted blade was now lying uselessly on the floor.

Miles smirked. "Guess I didn't do a good enough job patching that hole if important stuff like that is still leaking out."

Horror just shook his head. "Nah. It ain't your fault kid. That knowledge was long gone before the spear that did this came anywhere near this ol' noggin."

Miles blinked behind his mask. "I... don't know what to say to that."

"Then do everybody a favour and shut up."

Horror vanished from Miles' line of sight. He felt his Spider Sense hum faintly and moved appropriately. He narrowly avoided a sharpened bone to the head by leaning back. He grabbed Horror's arm and sent a controlled blast of Venom through the skeleton.

The skeleton screamed as electricity moved through him. With his opponent momentarily unable to fight back, Miles pulled and slammed the skeleton onto the ground, knocking him out.

Miles took a few seconds to take a few deep breaths. While the skeleton wasn't necessarily a tough opponent, he was elusive. The warnings that Miles got about these Monsters being more fragile than humans also didn't make the fight easier. Holding back against normal crooks was already bad enough.

"Man, that was something," muttered Miles. "I hope that the others are doing okay."

A low growl interrupted his rest.

Spider-Man looked around and saw a dozen Shadows surrounding him. Human... Monster... They all looked the same at this point.

"Seriously guys?" Miles asked, "You're still going at it? I killed like a hundred of you already."

The Shadows didn't care as they as they all rushed towards the spider. None of them noticed the three portals opening, from which Miles knew backup would jump out.

He smirked as Venom crackled through him.

This fight was as good as won.

///

Sans chuckled as his darker reflection placed his foot onto his ribcage.

"I see you're finally putting your foot down."

Dust chuckled, "I try to avoid it when I can. It's honestly too much effort."

So things weren't going well. Red had been thrown through a wall and still hadn't gotten up. The Swap brothers had knocked each other out after the Papyrus started hallucinating the Genocide Runs in his AUs.

Now it was just Classic fighting against himself and a pink bitch and he honestly was too lazy to try to win a pointless fight like that.

"Any last words, Sans?" Betty questioned as she brought the tip of her scythe towards his jaw.

Sans smiled. "Nothing that'll get the point across I'm afraid. This skull is just dust and cobwebs these days. My tongue isn't as sharp as it used to be. Man, I can't even pink of a good pun-

"One more pun and you'll be following Horror's footsteps!"

"...punchline. I was going to say punchline. Although I guess that counts as a pun. Oops."

"Wait, what?"

Smack!

Betty was sent flying away by a powerful backhand. Dust barely had enough time to raise a wall of bones to protect himself. Alas, the attacker was still able to punch through the barrier and the fist connected with his ribcage, sending him flying away as well.

"Hey, there," Prime greeted Sans as he offered him his hand, "I'm Peter. You must be the original Sans."

"What gave me away? My sansational appearance?"

Prime chuckled, "Kinda. You honestly just look like a blander version of the other guys."

"Thanks, I try."

"So... are you going to get up or..."

"Nah, I'm good. And I get the feel like you can handle those two."

"Yeah, we can."

Some distance away, Betty groaned as she picked herself up. Her body was already stitching itself back together but it didn't offer her any comfort. She had never been hit with so much force before. She hadn't even had the time to see who had hit her.

Could it have been a Monster with a human soul? She couldn't see what other possible explanation there could be.

"On your feet, child," a stern voice commanded. "You're being placed under arrest."

Betty looked up and saw an imposing figure in red and black standing in front of her. His hands were clasped behind his back and his body was as stiff as a board.

"And why would I do that?" she asked.

"Because it'll be painless," Superior answered.

"Is that so? I think you're mixing up which one of us will be the one in pain."

Betty zoomed past the man and raised her scythe. Then she swung it towards his back. The man didn't move a muscle, even as the blade neared his spine. This was too- WHAT IS THAT!?"

Four, red mechanical legs reminiscent of an insect's shot out from Otto's back. They grabbed the scythe and held it and its owner firmly in place. He glared out at Betty from behind his shoulder and said, "Understand this, child, Otto Octavious rarely makes a mistake and you are undeserving of correcting my calculations. In my younger years, I would have killed you for such an insult. Be grateful that carrying the title of Spider-Man requires certain... restraints."

When that last word was said, an electric current rushed through the robotic legs and into Betty. She screamed in pain as the current moved through her. The scythe lost its shape, releasing her from Otto's grip, but by then it was already too late.

Bête Noire had fallen.

Back with Dust, the skeleton glared up at the human in the red and blue spider costume. Even when standing up, he toward over him.

"So, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?" Peter asked with a cheeky note in his voice.

Dust chuckled, "That was a pretty good blow, you managed to break a few ribs even without much violent intent."

"You know, my friends are currently kicking the collective butts of your friends."

Dust waved him off, "Yeah, yeah, I figured as much. I'll probably get into a lot of trouble for this later but... I surrender."

///

Nightmare grunted with frustration as he narrowly avoided his brother's sword, which still managed to cut through a tentacle. However, in his attempt to dodge, he ended up jumping through a portal lined with spinning orange sparkles.

Gravity was flipped on its side and Nightmare found himself falling from a hundred feet in the air. Several blasts of magical energy flew towards him from below. He growled as Sorcerer flew towards him.

Nightmare sent several tentacles towards Sorcerer but the magician avoided each of them, even taking the time to slice through some of them or blast them away. When the space between them became sufficiently small, Peter pulled back his fist, which began to glow with colours that the human eye couldn't recognise.

Nightmare screamed before pulling his tentacles back and using them to protect himself.

The punch connected and released a powerful shockwave.

Nightmare was sent flying back. Bits off him scattered through the air.

He morphed into a blob and began flying through the air, trying to grab as many pieces as possible. He didn't have the time or the energy to regenerate from scratch.

Sorcerer hovered in the air and watched the Guardian of Negativity. Once he was satisfied with what he saw, he reached forward and fired two separate lines of webs, both of which were a soft purple. The strands cut through the sky like bullets, completely unaffected by gravity. They struck Nightmare with inhuman precision and wrapped themselves around him even though there had been nothing like a net at their tips.

Spider-Man pulled the Guardian of Negativity towards him and slammed a Tao Mandala into where his face would have been.

Nightmare screamed and while he was halfway through shifting into his normal form, Dream teleported behind him and fired a positivity arrow directly into his back. Sorcerer then slammed a metal baseball bat against his half-formed skull, sending Nightmare to the ground at supersonic speeds, resulting in a large crater.

"Where did that come from?" Dream asked as they both fell after him. He stared at the plain metal bat with a confused gaze. It didn't look like Sorcerer's other magical weapons, which were made of a golden-orange light. This one seemed to be made out of just regular old metal.

Peter smirked behind his mask as the bat disappeared into thin air.

"Magic," he said.

He summoned a portal directly beneath their feet and they both appeared safely on the ground. Dream pulled back his bow which was now loaded with three arrows while Sorcerer summoned the same shield which he had slammed into Nightmare's face onto both hands.

They watched the pile of black sludge struggle to pull itself back together. Dream's positivity and Sorcerer's foreign magic had done a number on the false god.

"It's over, Nightmare," Sorcerer declared. "Your followers have been captured and your army is on the brink of being wiped out. You've lost. Surrender and you will be spared."

Nightmare chuckled. His mouth was the only part of his face that was visible.

"You can't kill me, human, even with that strange magic of yours." His smile shifted to a frown. "However, I will leave. I know when I've been bested, but I haven't lost."

"What do you mean?" Sorcerer questioned as a sick feeling appeared in Dream's stomach.

"The multiverse's sanctuary has been breached. Now everyone who lives here will know that they will never be safe. Not from me at least. They'll go to bed every night, wondering if I'll show up again the next morning, knowing that their precious Guardians couldn't protect them. I will feed off their fears for eternity."

Nightmare began to melt into the ground, becoming a puddle that would not grow even as more mass melted into it. His head was the last to go, and before it went as well, Nightmare's icy blue eye appeared and stared at Dream with more hatred than usual.

"How can you live with yourself, knowing that you failed, that you weren't here to protect them, brother?"

Nightmare's head disappeared into the puddle which then seemed to flow into itself. It disappeared into an invisible drain, leaving nothing but the cracked ground which he had crashed into behind.

Dream stared at where the puddle had been as Nightmer's words continued to echo through his skull.

Sorcerer just sighed, "Well that happened. Come one, let's go help the others clean up."

Chapter 14: Worlds Apart

Summary:

It's over.

The Omega Timeline... was a mess.

Half the buildings had been destroyed. Dust was everywhere, even miles away from the town, where it may never be found. The Spider Society had put up many medical tents to help the injured, but their lack of knowledge of Monster biology and general lack of natural healing powers limited what they could do.

How could they have let this happen? 

Spiders were everywhere, clearing rubble and comforting those who weren't scared of them. 

Marine rushed into one of the tents to find Clover lying in a cot. He had lost a lot of blood during his battle. The Captain America version of Spider-Man tried to assure her he would be okay, but it is hard to listen when the person you love looks so close to death.

Such destruction, all in less than a day. Frisk couldn't take it. They could see all of it and it hurt more than it always did. They could feel the multiverse trying to pull them apart again but the synthetic glue holding them together still wouldn't let go. 

Even so, they could still see and hear everything happening in the Omega Timeline and they hated it. It hurt so much that they just wanted to gouge out their new eyes. How could they let this happen? Why did they allow themself to leave? Why? Why? Why? Why? WHY?!?!

"I'm sorry."

Core lifted their tear-stained face from their hands and turned to look at Prime, surprised that they hadn't noticed him approaching. He was sitting next to them on the edge of the roof of a half-caved-in house. He didn't have his mask on, showing the world a thirty-year-old human with brown hair.  

Frisk almost forgot that the mask wasn't his face. 

"What for?" they asked. 

Peter turned to look at Frisk. There was no denying the grief behind his eyes. The guilt that looked older than the attack. Frisk wondered what he had gone through to be able to make such an expression. 

There was also... confusion.

"We made you leave. It's our fault that all of this happened," he answered.

Core stared at him for a few moments. 

"It's not."

"It is."

Core shook their head. "No, it's not. You wanted our input on how to handle Error safely. We should've insisted that we do it here. We should've known that Nightmare would take advantage of our absence. You couldn't have known. This multiverse is our responsibility. Not yours."

A momentary laugh escaped Peter. He shook his head and said, "You obviously don't understand how we Spiders think."

Frisk smiled softly, "Actually, I'd say I have a pretty good idea."

A calming silence washed over them, broken only by the sound of work and cries of grief and effort. Both of them were used to it.

"How's the new body holding up?" Prime asked like he was a father asking his kid about a new bike.

Frisk shrugged and began examining their flesh-coloured hand again. They ran their thumb over their palm. They pressed down. When they lifted their thumb again, the skin in that spot was paler than before but it quickly returned to normal. 

"It's... weird," they began. "I can feel so many new things, things that I haven't felt for a long time. Bones under my skin, saliva in my mouth, my heart beating, my lungs deflating... it's almost too much. But... at the same time, I feel like my senses have been dulled. Not surprising since I don't seem to be able to see past the Omega Timeline."

"And thank God that you can still see everything here." Peter proclaimed, cheerfully smacking her shoulder. "Without you, we would still be searching for everyone who ran away from the invasion. You were amazing."

Core's soft smile widened slightly. It felt... nice to be congratulated like that. It's not like when their friends or the residents thank them. Prime sounded so proud when he said it. It wasn't something they were familiar with. Something warm stirred in their chest. Core decided that they liked the feeling. 

"Thanks..." Frisk said as they began to rub the wristband that they were wearing, and suddenly the warmth disappeared. 

They froze and for a moment, it felt like they forgot how to breathe. 

Prime quickly noticed. He bent down to them, placing both hands on their shoulder which anchored Frisk.

"What's wrong?" he asked like a concerned father would.

For a few moments, Frisk didn't know what to say. Tears were building up behind their eyes. Next time they cried, would their tears be black instead of clear? They turned hesitantly to look at Prime and saw the worried expression that he wore. He cared and... Frisk felt like he deserved to know. 

"I'll have to take this off," Frisk said, lifting up their hand which had the day pass wrapped around their wrist, the sole reason why they were suddenly human once again. "I need my omnipresence back. I can't take any risks after what happened  today."

 A broken laugh escaped their lips. "Even then, I probably wouldn't be allowed to keep it. Who knows how thin the barrier between our multiverses is right now? You guys are already packing up to minimise the already high risk of all of us being destroyed."

Peter sighed. He let go of Frisk. "Yeah, we definitely need to get going... and I will need the day pass back."

Frisk bowed their head. They had expected him to say it, they knew they couldn't spend the rest of their life finally growing up and eating all of the foods that they had been missing out on. Then, if they already knew it, then why did it hurt so much to hear him say it? 

"But," Prime continued, "that doesn't mean I'll just let you fall apart without a way to pull yourself back together."

He gently grabbed their chin and slowly made Frisk look at him. He had a gentle, almost reassuring, smile on. He let go of Frisk's chin as their eyes slowly drifted to his open, outstretched hand. There, in the centre of his gloved palm, was a metal bracelet. It was red and blue and didn't look much different to simple jewellery but Frisk had a feeling...

"I had one of my guys make this using materials from this multiverse," Peter explained. "Sorcerer also put a few enchantments on it to help speed up the process." 

Frisk gasped. Tears were now gushing out of their eyes like waterfalls. 

"You mean..."

"I understand that you have a responsibility to watch over your multiverse, but no kid should carry such a burden, at least not without breaks. If you ever feel overwhelmed or maybe a little peckish or if you just want to feel human for a bit, put this one and you will stop looking like Noir's cousin in fifteen minutes tops."

Frisk didn't know what to say. They slowly reached for the bracelet this literal miracle device that they were being given for no other reason than that they wanted it. 

They hesitated.

"What if I break it."

"Did you really think we were going to leave without giving you guys our number?" Peter asked with a laugh. 

He reached into an invisible pocket and pulled out a small, red, spider-shaped object with a red dark blue button."

"Both Dream and Ink have their own. These things will send a signal directly to the Council. If you want to talk, press it once. If you need help with a crisis, press it twice. If the multiverse is ending, press it three times. No matter what, we will see each other again."

This was too much. Frisk couldn't take it. Without thinking, they launched themself at Peter.  They wrapped their tiny arms around his torso and refused to let go. It took a bit for the surprise to wear off Peter but when it did, he didn't hesitate to return the hug. 

"Thank you." Frisk choked out. 

Peter gently patted their head, "It's okay, Frisk. Everything will be okay. I promise."

///

"Their lives are like one giant soap opera! Isn't that fascinating?" Ink asked as he helped with the cleanup. With a flick of his brush, brown splattered across a caved-in wall of a cottage on the outskirts of the town. Immediately, the brown paint shifted to replace the wood that was missing from the house, filling in holes and healing cracks. Without showing the phenomenon any attention, he continued talking excitedly, "They alone must have enough stories to fill up the entire Doodle Sphere!" 

He let out a grunt of frustration. "If only they could give us comics or something about their multiverse to read. It would make learning about it so much more convenient.  We wouldn't have to ask for permission to talk to that Watcher guy."

Dream hummed unenthusiastically as he shifted through the rubble, searching for anything potentially important. He had originally been on healing duty, but his magic was drained very quickly. He never had to heal so many people at once. He wanted to be still useful, but he also wanted a distraction from all of the negativity that was suffocating him, so he delegated himself to scavenging. 

Ink was an... unexpected companion. 

"And the Professor and that magnet guy. I know they're supposed to be enemies but I feel like there's more between them. SO MANY IDEAS!!!"

The Guardian of Creation bent over and released a bucket load of black ink. That was the twelfth episode since they started cleaning.  

Dream honestly wasn't surprised. He had never seen Ink so excited before. It almost made it seem like he had somehow regained his soul. Dream wished he could feel as happy as Ink, but he couldn't see a reason to be positive. 

They had failed. HE had failed. Even now, after Nightmare had left and his followers were put in containment, negative emotions continued to hang in the air like this rotten stench that would never leave. Dream usually didn't mind negative emotions. They had their purpose and he understood that. It's why he fought to maintain his Balance and not force it in his favour.

But the Omega Timeline was supposed to be different! A safe space to heal and mourn what you've lost and then get up to make new happy memories. It should've been different...

This was Dream's fault.

He left the entire multiverse unprotected and let his brother invade the Omega Timeline. If Sorcerer hadn't been there to stall him...

"Hey buddy, you okay?"

Dream looked up from the rubble he had been sifting through, and saw Ink standing over him. His pupils were shaped like question marks and he seemed... concerned.

Dream shook his head and turned his attention back to the rubble. "It's... nothing, Dream. Just... go back to work. You were saying something about magnets?"

Ink blinked. Dream noticed that his friend's pupils were now less abstract. They were still colorful though, so that was good. Dream wasn't sure he could deal with an Emotionless Ink right now. Although maybe that would be better..? 

Ink, to Dream's surprise, placed his hand on his shoulder.

Ink closed his eyes. He breathed in, then breathed out. He then opened his eyes and began to speak again.

"Listen, Dream, I know I'm not the best when it comes to emotions, even with my Vials. It's why they are your department, but I still think I need to say something."

"We made a mistake. I won't deny that. However, going with the Spider-Men to the Spider-Verse is not it."

"How can you say that? If we hadn't gone-"

Ink cut in, "Then Nightmare would have attacked next week, or next month or next century. You know how he works. So do I. He chose to attack the Omega Timeline. That's on him, not us. All of that dust and blood is on his hands, not ours."

"But-"

"No buts!" Ink snapped. His eyes briefly flashed red and returned to normal as he quickly calmed down. He sighed before continuing, "You blaming yourself because you have a saviour complex or whatever isn't going to help anyone. Do you know what WILL help?"

Dream hesitated, "What?"

"If we do what Creators do when they make mistake. We learn from it. Do you really think that Desert Sanctuary was created without some practice? Next time we visit, one of us will stay behind. We'll add some defences that can protect the residents if the timeline itself is breached again. When this is over, we'll be stronger than ever."

Dream wasn't sure what to say. He honestly wasn't expecting Ink to be so empathetic and... wise.

"Feeling better? GOOD! 'Cause I REALLY need to get this off my chest. Why is that Logan guy so determined to take that redhead from One-eye? I mean, it should be a no-brainer for her. Laser eyes are SO much cooler than knife hands."

The sudden change in topic should have surprised Dream. Or at least disappoint him a little. 

Instead, he laughed. It was nice, knowing that even with a second multiverse worth of possibilities being opened, some things would never change.

And... he supposed that Ink had a point.

///

It wasn't long before the Spider Society was packed up and leaving. While there was still a lot of work to be done to repair the Omega Timeline, they couldn't risk staying. They had already worn down the barrier between the two multiverses down to a mere sheet paper at best.

So, the tents went down as quickly as they were set up, and the sound of countless goodbyes and portals opening and closing filled the Omega Timeline. While most of the residents weren't necessarily afraid of the spiders anymore, they weren't exactly upset to see them leave. It meant that things were starting to return to normal. 

The human kids were pretty upset when Miles left though.

Soon, there were only three Spiders left.

And they were having one last conversation with the Guardians, who were a decent distance from the town.

"I guess this is goodbye then." Dream said somewhat awkwardly.

"It's not like we were ever going to stay," Octavious replied. "Us merely opening a portal to your multiverse was already an irresponsible risk. We have pushed our luck far enough."

"It's still kinda disappointing," said Ink leaning against his paintbrush. "There's still so much that I want to learn about your worlds."

Sorcerer smiled. "That's what the Beacons are for."

Ink blinked, seemingly surprised. He then smacked his forehead in frustration and swore, "I knew I was forgetting something."

A still-human Core Frisk, now wearing the bracelet that Peter gave them, giggled while Dream just smiled fondly. Superior rolled his eyes at the foolishness while the other Spiders laughed. They would definitely miss the Guardians.

Even with the Beacons, communication would have to be limited. A real shame.

Prime sighed, "I know this goodbye isn't as... grand or heartouching as it should be, but I've been away from my universe for too long and my wife is going to kill me if I don't get back soon. So..." Peter bent to one knee and offered Frisk his hand, "Until next time kid."

Then, to everyone's surprise, Core ran past the hand and wrapped their arms around Peter. He quickly returned it.

Superior sighed and turned around, activating a portal back home. He didn't say anything, choosing instead simply to step through it. 

"I'll miss you," Core whispered into Prime's ear as he stood up, breaking the hug.

"I'll miss you too, kid," Spider-Man replied, "And sorry for the trouble."

Ink shook his head, "No trouble at all."

Sorcerer snapped his fingers suddenly. "I just remembered something," he declared. "We dropped off the walking glitch in the endless white void that has nothing to do with this endless white void."

"Wait, seriously?" Ink questioned. "What happened to coming up with a solution of making sure that he doesn't hurt any more AUs?"

Sorcerer sighed, "Unfortunately, his actions are important to the survival of your multiverse, even if he has no intention of cooperating. We decided that the safest option for now is to just leave him in be."

"So... all of this was for nothing?" Dream asked.

Prime shook his head. He reached into an invisible pocket and pulled out a USB stick. "Not quite."

He tossed it to the Guardians and Core caught it. 

"Everything that we learned about Error is on there," he explained. "Including schematics for devices that might help you fight him and protect universes. I hope they help."

The three Guardians stared at the USB in Frisk's hand in shock for a few moments. 

They then looked back up at the two remaining Spiders and unanimously said, "Thank you."

The two remaining Spiders simply nodded. They then turned around, back to the portal which would take them back home and said...

"Goodbye."

A/N: When I started this fic, I did not expect Prime and Core to develop a father-and-child bond. I'm glad that they did. 

 

Notes:

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/6RP8hAT9fG

Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/karmaspidr

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Marvel and Undertale