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For years, things have been going neatly in Nightmares hideout. Missions were going succeesfully, more often than not managing to push Dreams group back, to the point where they had to retreat.
Even the Gang members didn’t fight all that often. Or rather, Dust and Killer were the only ones fighting. Once every blue moon had one of the two other members gotten involved in said fights.
Honestly, that’s all Nightmare could ask for from his subordinates. As they always, and emphasize on always were causing trouble. Ranging from something simple as holding a grudge or a prank, to some more.. destructive ways.
So, with all honesty, Nightmare felt content. He knew it wouldn’t last forever, so why not enjoy it till is lasted?
And that’s where Nightmare realized he was wrong Or rather, he felt as if he had this coming, considering the fact he knew things won’t be this peaceful for long. So after a small mental debate, Nightmare just assumed he jinxed it.
And the ‘wrong’ feeling he was just contemplating about was some kind of energy entering the pocket dimenstion his castle was located in.
And he indentified this energy as a portal.
That wasn’t good.
Nobody could just.. Come here without his permissions. Not like anybody other than the residents of said castle knew the location of the pocket dimension.
That’s why Nightmare was feeling very suspicious, but it was quickly overshadowed by confusion tinted with irritation.
Who in their right mind would enter his dimension? It had to be someone with the ability to open portals, so it greatly decreased the amount of possible suspects.
But that didn’t help. There still were many monsters who could use such complicated magic.
Nightmare just Hoped it wasn’t some powerful entity. He hadn’t felt this type of magic before. But then again, mostly the ones who opened said portals in Universes in Nightmares presence, were Dream or Core Frisk, with Error on very rare occasion.
But the Destroyer is not someone he wants to encounter. But some of such encounters were inevitable, so they just had to focus on escaping the Universe, and fast, unless they wanted Error on their tail.
Error is an insane murderous maniac. Nightmare knows the Destroyer liked to play with his victims and he did not want to become one of them. It would not only disrupt the stability of the Multiverse, but would take Dream to the world of the dead with Nightmare. Which would destabilize everything completely, leading to the easly avoidable end.
Nightmare didn’t necessarly care about his ‘brother’. He could die for all he cared. But unfortunately he couldn’t without Nightmare dying with him. So all they could do was battle it out to claim Universes (Or rather in Nightmares example that happends) for their own territories.
And this is why it concerned him. This wasn’t any of the magic he was familiar with. And doesn’t know if he should be grateful or not.
This meant that anyone could be here. Powerful or not, it’s enough for Nightmare to be wary of that ‘someone’. While they might not be powerful in battle experience or other types of magic, they were powerful enough to find this place.
But only after a few seconds, the portal closed.
Nothing entered his dimension.
Just as if someone opened a portal accidently, looked what’s on the other side, and knew it wasn’t worth it nor the right place.
Nightmare haven’t felt that energy for another couple of days. So just assumed it was a one time thing. But it wouldn’t hurt to look out, just incase.
But aswell as expected, Nightmare wasn’t the only one to detect it. Other members of the Gang could feel it aswell.
So it raised some panic around the castle. Nightmare wasn’t exactly complaining about bonus negativity, nor will he admit he actually admit he cares about the dinguses, but the overawareness during missions got in the way, so he attempted to dislodge it.
It worked.
For a bit.
Until it happend again.
They looked around the castle, left and right, but couldn’t find anything new or missing. And the person didn’t enter the dimension hence Nightmare couldn’t feel the intruders emotions and locate them.
Another few days, another portal.
Nothing.
A week later, another portal.
Nothing.
Or rather, it was nothing until Killer reported missing some of his stuff, like one of his knifes from an useless collection, or the glitter jar he had in there. Nightmare did not question as to why would Killer have the latter, and choose it was the safest option.
Nobody took him seriously, as he was known to trick others, and his tendency to loose his stuff around the castle.
But it kept happening again and again, but with the others aswell.
Some of the food Horror had made had gone missing. And he made sure it wasn’t one of the others trying it.
Dusts telescope was gone, and he had checked the castle all over for it to no avail. So it was assumed it went missing aswell as the other things.
One of Cross’ shirts had gone missing along with a few chocolate bars.
Nightmare hadn’t lost anything, but knew it was mostly a matter of time before something would. If the ‘portals’ had anything to do with the missing items, then Nightmare was sure of that fact.
And he was right. He was just about to make some tea for himself, but there was no tea.
Of course, the development of such pest, that wasn’t even revealing itself and commiting thievery from Nightmare of all people.
That literally sounds like a death wish to whoever thought of that as a good idea.
But not like they could do something about it when they couldn’t see it.
While the mysterious intruder didn’t seem like a threat, considering all they did was steal random items, they still couldn’t exclude it from that category. If they as much as wished to, they could just reveal where their hide out is.
That’s why they have to either get rid of such force before it becomes a problem. Or if it’s not possible, then atleast make an agreement or deal, if they turned out to be too powerful or important. Nightmare couldn’t risk such power go free.
After some days passed, and the strange portal hadn’t opened, Nightmare got tense. He knew it would be anytime now.
Nightmare was literally just looking down at his paperwork, his pen laying on the desk in his sight, until it was snatched up by a while skeletal hand that came from a portal.
Said portal was similiar to his in looks, but.. Didn’t feel similiar to his own at all. But of course it felt as the same portal they had been trying to atleast see for weeks.
While the action was taking place right in front of Nightmare, who couldn’t do anything but stare at the place the portal used to be in growing rage, but along with interest he hadn’t felt all that much.
The pocket dimension they were located in was mostly controlled by Nightmare, hence the others could feel his growing wrath and knew to avoid their leader at the time.
He had seen it happen right in front of his eyes, and yet did nothing! Nightmare didn’t know if he felt anger towards his lack of action, or the intruders act.
But said intruder did pique his interest at the same time.. Despite being the embodient of negativity Nightmare still had a problem distinguishing his own feelings. Hence many outburst had happend from said emotions.
In the following week, such incidents weren’t happening as often. As if the robber had calmed down from their stealing spree for some reason.
But that didn’t mean they still didn’t pay any ‘visits’.
Killer had lost his jacket. Again. But this time to the entity.. Which he had witnessed had normal white pin pricks as eyelights, as he somehow managed to make out their face from the small portal that closed mere seconds after.
Nightmare didn’t know how Killer had managed it, but wouldn’t point it out. What mattered was that he had seem them.
Apparently.. Atleast according to Killer, said skeleton had white eyelights.. Some weird black spots over his face, and they weren’t even paying attention to the portal. Just shoved their hand in, while busy with something else.
Were they just.. stealing mindlessly from him?
That’s absurd.
They had to know who they just messed with, right?
Nightmare wouldn’t let them get away with this.
Except little did he know, said entity was watching his reaction through a one way window only they could see.. They started doing that recently, just finding out where they had gotten all this stuff from. Oh, they will so keep doing this just to see the reactions..
.
.
.
Nightmare didn’t knew if to feel offended or complete fury.
It’s been around a month since their… Discovery.
And recently, the thief.. Maybe wasn’t exactly revealing himself. But, more like teasing them.
As if they knew exactly what to take, and when to take.
It was annoying every resident of the hideout.
Nightmare, who could finally get a look at the emotions of the entity.. But only because they were there long enough for Nightmare to feel them..
They were feeling amused. Not even scared.. Just some sort of glee that burned his bones.
They were doing this on purpose..
So, evidently, this had made Nightmare even more outrageous.
Just why?! What was the point of toying with them! And, why particularly them? What made them so interesting?
Just ‘cause they were the so-called ‘bad guys’, didn’t mean someone could just.. Use them for entertainment like this!
What was even worse, after some weeks they weren’t even surpressing their laughter anymore. They could hear how much ’fun’ they were having.
It angered everyone just a little bit more.
At some point the portals were even open for long enough to get a good look at them.
Honestly, Killer had the worst reaction of them.
Seeing as..
”The little shit is wearing my jacket! And isn’t that Cross’ missing shirt too!?”
They were using the stolen cloth as their own..
Nightmare didn’t know why that angered Killer more than the fact they literally broke into the pocket dimension. But ultimately decided he didn’t want to find out what is going on inside the skewed mind.
The fae just wanted to calm down, and drink some warm tea.. Except he couldn’t. As, once again, it was stolen by the pest.
Nightmare thought he really should poison some of it just for the kick of it. But also got a feeling it wouldn’t do much.. Nor would Horror actually let him poison something edible despite being the Boss.
.
.
.
For a.. while it was going as normal. Or as normal as it could get with the new ‘addition’ in their miserable lifes, that somehow became even more miserable.
It was a classic routine by now. Nothing all that new. They didn’t exactly loose interest, but were more interested with what type of items they were taking.
No matter where they would hide them, somehow they would still go missing. Neither of them knew how, but it kept happening. Even if said items were in their line of view.
The day was going, surprisingly well.
Nightmare was just going through some hall. Nothing special or anything. Just a simple walk around the castle.
Until he felt that. They made another portal.. in the hall on the right of him.
Nightmare could feel the.. stinging curiousity. That came with another surprise. Nervousness.
He was just going to turn back, knowing well that it was probably another trick.
Until he made contact with what.. Looked to be a babybones?
Nightmare just stared blankly at them, until eye contact was made.
They titled their head to the side, looking up at the Guardian with awe and mischief.
He knew they were up to something.. But they never really.. Stepped inside the castle. Atleast not directly, mostly just using their hands, or on rare occasion stick their head out of the portal partialy.
But now..?
Nightmare CHECKed them. Only to freeze up.
Name: Ink
Universe: Data inaccessible
Soul: Monster
Role: Protector
Height: 3.7ft
Stats:
HP: Data Inaccessible
ATK: Data Inaccessible
DEF: Data Inaccessible
Abilities: Data Inaccessible
LV: 1
EXP: Data Inaccessible
*Is amused by your reaction.
*Thought you’d attack him by now.
*Doesn’t trust you.
*Is anxious about meeting a fellow monster.
Nightmare just stared blankly at the data.
The Protector. Was. At. His. Doorstep. All this time.
They didn’t even exist for centuries!
Why do they have to bother Nightmare out of every monster out there he had no idea.
He knew that Dream has been looking for one for... A very long time.
No matter how much Nightmare just wanted to launch at them, rip them to shreds or convince them to stay, knew he stood no chance. So he stood his ground, and inspected the other instead.
If this ‘Ink’ was anything like Error, he would beat the pride out of him without breaking a sweat.
Except.. They looked like a child. But Nightmare could tell from the calculative gaze he received they atleast didn’t act like one.
As Killer had stated, they indeed wore the stolen jacket and shirt.. With some very dark gray trousers.
And he was struck out of his daze as they flipped him off with a wide smirk, before creating a portal underneath them to fall through.
Leaving Nightmare there, who just realized he can’t get rid of this pest.
And the Gang just have to deal with this.. For however long they decide it’s worth stealing from here.
..Just what did Nightmare get himself into?