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Sometimes, Dream wondered where it began. The answer, of course, was nearly a thousand years before, with a single lone traveler. The mortal crashed in on his game of tag with Nightmare, and begged to know if there was someplace around where he could bring his village to live, for their last plot of land had been ravaged by pirates. Being the bleeding hearts they were, Dream and Nightmare agreed to allow the small village to live on the very outskirts of their lovely forest.
It got worse from there. Eventually, the Tree of Feelings was discovered, and Dream and Nightmare had to explain their roles as Guardians of Positivity and Negativity. Dream was welcomed into the village with open arms, and Nightmare was regarded with suspicion. But if Dream dragged him in, the villagers were at least cordial. Luckily, the first two generations of mortals were polite at the least. And then, the first nightmare came, and Nightmare was blamed. It got worse from there, for both the Guardians.
Suddenly, Dream was shoved onto a pedestal, and Nightmare was shoved aside. Dream was tugged from every inch of the steadily-growing village- wasn't that bad enough, that they were growing their parasitic village?- as villagers begged to be healed or given dreams or just to be around his positive aura. The positivity that Dream drank in slowly became polluted, not that Dream could tell, with false happiness and greed. Nightmare was abused more openly, but the villagers kept Dream away from how they treated his mate and terrified Nightmare into not telling. This went on for a good few hundred years, before Dream realized what was going on. They were hurting him, and his mate. The villagers wanted the Tree of Feelings for themselves, wanted to eat the golden apples and destroy the black ones. Dream didn't discover this at an opportune moment, when he and his mate could drive the villagers away and burn their wooden homes to the ground. No, it was when Nightmare was beaten to within an inch of his life and thrown into a corner of desperation.
Dream had run away from the leeches and into the forest, into the clearing which housed the Tree, to see bats and dull blades tinted purple from Nightmare's sap, shards of porcelain bone scattered around, and Nightmare feasting on all the apples. Dream could feel the pain Nightmare felt, but as he rushed to stop him, a villager pulled Dream aside, yelping about killing the demon. And Dream saw red, and Dream sat back. The apples, all 99 of them that Nightmare ingested, would not do much good. Dream clutched the hidden golden apple he kept, and watched.
His mate went feral. With corrupted joy emanating from Nightmare, the sap-covered dryad cackled madly as his thick roots speared the villagers through the head, the chest, ripped their limbs apart and gorged on their souls. Dream made his presence known, clutching the final apple in his grasp, singing out to his mate and asking him to stop and calm down. Instead, his mate's single showing eyelight focused on the golden apple in Dream's grasp, and Dream was hit with the knowledge that right now, this was not his mate.
The apple soon made its way past his teeth, swallowed down. Dream's immortality was dissolved as the apple's power coursed through him, and Nightmare-that-was-not-Nightmare howled in pure rage. Blackened bones and inky tentacles reached for him, and Dream tried to escape. He wanted his mate, his Nightmare, he wanted comfort. But the instant that the corrupted dryad made contact with his arm, it turned gray. Horrified, Dream stumbled back and tripped on a still-bleeding corpse of a human. His back hit the Tree, and Dream looked up with horror at his blinded mate, as the stone curse crept its way up his bones. Dream's soul shivered, and as his vision darkened, Dream thought he saw Nightmare's eyelight flicker back into a beautiful, familiar purple, followed by a curse in their old tongue. But as slick hands scrabbled at his body, Dream's own eyelights flickered out, his entire being encased in stone. And, despite himself, Dream slept.
The next thing Dream was aware of, was searing pain. All of a sudden, he was thrown into a world of feeling. Bright lights, loud sounds, the grass was too itchy and grated on his tender bones, his mouth tasted chalky with the barest aftertaste of the golden apple, and Dream curled up and squeezed his eyes shut, weak. An unfamiliar hand touched him and Dream nearly screamed from the contact, but his joints protested any movement. The voices were too loud and everything was too bright and as Dream was lifted up by the mystery skeleton, he could only fall into an uneasy sleep once more.
This time, as Dream woke up, it was to a dim, quiet room. He was in a bed, actually laying down for once, with a wonderfully soft pillow cushioning his head. He opened his eyes to a small candle-lantern-something glowing against the wall. If Dream focused, he could see that he was in some strangely-shaped bed, a bookshelf filled with colorful books on one side, and a desk with some strange silvery contraption on the far wall. A table filled with odd dolls was near to the bed, and the door opened with a creak. Dream's head snapped to the side, to see an eerily familiar skeleton look back at him. Instead of golden eyelights, however, this skeleton had a cheery smile, blue target-eyelights and a soft cyan bandana. His clothing was odd, but Dream noticed that his own robes had been changed. The new ones were soft and warm. The skeleton spoke, quiet and slow-moving, as he brought in a tray with a bowl of soup and some white things that looked like thin slices of bread.
"Hello There, I Am The Magnificent Sans. You May Call Me Blue. My Friend Ink And I Found You In A Strange Garden, In A Rather Bad Universe, So We Saved You. You Were Very Sensitive For A Long Time, And Slept For Even Longer. Are You Feeling Better Now?" The skeleton-Blue- spoke, setting the tray down on Dream's lap. Dream nodded, his throat scratchy and painful from no usage, as he tried to give his thanks. Blue smiled. "No Need To Thank Us, But Try And Eat Some Soup." Dream nodded his assent, and Blue left, leaving the room in a calm, dim light. Dream ate the soup. It was oddly delicious. The strange bread-things were surprisingly salty, and crumbled easily. They were tasty, too.
Dream knew that time passed, but not how much. Blue kept coming in, sometimes followed by an extremely colorful yet emotionally monochrome skeleton called Ink- his friend, apparently- to help Dream recover. Embarrassingly, the dryad could not move easily, and he had to adjust to stimuli once again. His magic, too, had changed when he ate the apple. No more was his golden staff tipped with a sun. Instead, a white-and-gold bow formed in his hand, bright blue arrows forming when he drew the string back. Strange golden wings were on his back, too, but Blue and Ink seemed uneasy when he called them leaves, so Dream called them feathers.
As Dream trained himself to walk and talk again, he noticed that his new friends would often leave for periods of time and return rather injured. He would, of course, do his very best to heal them, pestering them for answers they would not provide. It infuriated him, how his friends were just so stubborn, but he could see why it remained a secret. If they had enemies, it was probably best for Dream not to draw their attention until he was healed. It was still infuriating, however. But Dream just continued to work on his speech and physical therapy, moving often until there were no more bark-creaks from his movements, and until he could speak as fluidly as before. And finally, the day came when Dream was fully healed. He danced for joy, and when his friends returned- far less damaged than the last three times, progress- he sat them down forcefully, and demanded answers.
Ink, as the leader, began. There were two major forces of conflict in the Multiverse, the Lord of Darkness and Error the Destroyer. Dream furrowed his brow at the Lord of Darkness's name, but allowed Ink to continue. Ink had been fighting Error alone for a long time, but the Lord of Darkness appeared one day, furious and mad, and began enslaving worlds and dooming them to eternal darkness. Error continued fighting, and Ink was outnumbered. So he found Blue, trained him up a bit, and worked alongside the cheery skeleton. The Lord of Darkness gained members at some point- Sanses from worlds gone wrong, called Dust, Killer, and Horror- and Ink had been looking for new members of their own group- which Ink jokingly called the Star Sanses, and it stuck. He had been wandering in random worlds, with Blue, and had stumbled across a beautiful garden filled with foods and flowers and trees of all kind. A stump was in the middle, and a statue was sat on that stump, looking terrifyingly realistic. At Blue's touch, the statue had crumbled to reveal Dream, and the very air shivered. Quickly, Blue had picked Dream up, and the two left before the Lord of Darkness could show up. But oddly enough, ever since then, the Lord of Darkness's attacks had gotten far worse, almost desperate. He was trying to expand his reach to every universe possible, as though he were looking for something. But Ink and Blue could not concern themselves with that- they had to nurse Dream back to health, and continue fending off the Bad Sanses.
Dream sat through the story, stunned. For just the two of them, Ink and Blue, against terrible forces strong enough to destroy worlds alone, to continue to survive, it must have been very difficult. Dream drew himself up to his full height- even in skeleton form, Night had always been just a bit taller- and declared, "I will help you two fight! Please train me!", much to Ink and Blue's surprise. A welcome surprise, by the twin grins sent his way, and one that Dream would never regret.
Even though he had only recently regained full use of his limbs- not counting the bad days, of course, where he just wished he could spread his wings wide to soak up light and positivity and root himself to the ground to grow because the soreness and pain was too much- Dream threw himself into training. Luckily, with his bow, he became a long-distance fighter. He improved his aim and control over his magic, working hard until he felt his skeletal form was simply going to crumble from the strain. But he was finally deemed ready to defend with the Star Sanses.
And then there was nothing. No Lord of Darkness, no Error, no nothing. Not for months. And despite that, Blue had his own world which needed his attention, and Ink kept going off somewhere alone- leaving Dream by his lonesome in a special place made to keep others out. And he was incredibly lonely. He missed his mate, his Nightlight, and his thoughts were soon consumed with the other dryad. His soul ached, magic seeped through his eyes- tears, he remembered- and even his flowering in spring didn't seem as cheery. No reason to sprout his flowers and antlers, when Night wasn't there to do the same and blush, the two spending the entire coming week entwined with the other. No reason to cry out for his mate, when he wasn't there. And Dream missed him terribly so, and selfishly hoped that Night missed him too. But it wasn't enough, and Dream had to resort to burying himself in dirt and mud just to focus on something else. He wanted to flower so, so badly, but without his mate, he didn't want anyone else to see the flowers and think they could just take him. So he waited.
Dream's waiting paid off. Eventually, Ink crashed into the world, yelping something about the Lord of Darkness attacking but no Error, and Blue was fending them off but help was needed. A puddle of paint became a portal, and Dream leaped through, landing on the top of a hill. A battle waged below, three figures being blocked by a lone blue figure, soon joined by Ink. Dream climbed a tree, a pang going through him at the familiarity, aimed his bow, and fired.
One of the figures fell, coughing up some black liquid, and Dream instantly felt terrible. He scooted down the tree and started running to the battlefield- he could probably help heal them- when an overwhelmingly strong aura producing nothing but fury made his knees buckle. Dream fell to the grass with an oomph, trembling at the sheer power the anger had. But underneath the hatred, Dream could feel something vaguely familiar. He hadn't felt it in a long time, but he couldn't forget his mate's own aura, could he?
He raised his aching head, looking around for the source of the aura. Slowly stalking closer, vines thrashing angrily behind him as he strode to Dream's friends, was Nightmare. Dream knew it was Nightmare, but his mate was off. He was still covered in sticky black sap, but his eyelight was flickering between an unfamiliar blue and the comforting purple. Night was fighting for control, even though he didn't show it. A small whisper made its way through Dream's throat, his own aura far too weak to penetrate Nightmare's aura. "Nightmare..." He murmured, struggling to his feet. Every step through the anger was agony, but he had to fight.
He stumbled closer, gathering the attention of the strange new skeletons, but not Nightmare or his friends. Mystified, the three new skeletons watched as Dream slowly made his way to Nightmare. Dream sent out a call through his soul, but Nightmare didn't even twitch. Tears welled in his sockets, and Dream willed his aching body closer still. Finally, he got within hearing distance, and drew up his strength. "Nightmare!" He cried out, falling to his knees once more.
Nightmare twisted in shock at the voice, turning to see Dream collapsed on the ground. Instinct took over and he rushed over to his mate, distantly hearing the idiotic Star Sanses cry in alarm, carefully cradling the smaller dryad close. "Dream..." He murmured, gently wiping Dream's eyes. The smaller skeleton trembled in his arms, clinging to his shirt. "Night, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to betray you, I just wanted to keep balance, please I won't ever do it again, please forgive me..." Nightmare's heart broke at hearing Dream's pleas, hugging his mate close.
"It was my fault, little Sunbeam. I had gone mad from the power, corruption, and the fact that those villagers touched you. I wasn't myself, darling, and I am so sorry for what I did to you." His hands caressed his mate's face, and Nightmare frowned at how weak Dream seemed to be. He turned on the Star Sanses, vines poised to strike. "Did you not keep him around positivity? Did you lock him away?" The two nodded dumbly, and Nightmare swore. "Hang on my Sunbeam, you're awfully undernourished." Dream murmured that he could have told him that, and Nightmare let out a small huff of laughter. Pushing the corruption to the side as well as he could, Nightmare cuddled his mate close and allowed all his positivity to rise to the surface.
All at once, the oppressive aura hanging over the battlefield vanished, and Dream let out a relieved sigh, sinking into Nightmare's arms. And then, Blue cleared his throat. "SORRY BUT UM, DREAM, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THE LORD OF DARKNESS? ONE OF OUR SWORN ENEMIES?" Dream, coming back to himself, blinked bemusedly at Blue. "Why, he's my mate. We've been mates for as long as I can remember, in fact. Our lives and souls are sworn to each other." None of the skeletons around were prepared for that, evidently, and Ink snickered.
"Wow, a sun and moon dynamic. Did not see that coming from mister goopy oil himself and the literal ray of sunshine." Dream flushed while Nightmare hissed at Ink, so Dream patted his mate's cheek. "Moonbeam, please calm down, he meant no harm." Nightmare grumbled but calmed anyway, nuzzling Dream. The smaller dryad's face flushed a soft yellow with small pink freckles, and he let out a giggle. "Night-Nighty, you know I'm ticklish!" And soon, with laughter replacing anger, the atmosphere lightened up. Finally, Night finally released Dream, only to kiss him. "I thought I lost you." He murmured.
"When I felt the rush of power from the garden I made for you, I thought you had broken free. I was all ready to welcome you back in, but you were missing. Only a paint stain was left, and I knew who had taken you. But despite my best efforts, I could not find you. I worried that you were harmed, that I would never get to see you again. I thought I lost you again, and that I'd never get to apologize for what I did to you." Nightmare rushed out, hugging Dream close to him. His mate's arms wrapped around him in return, and Dream let out a soft sigh. "Nighty, I could never hate you. I was scared, but I knew you were hurting, too. Ink and Blue didn't know about my positivity feeding, so they weren't intentionally harming me. I'm glad I came back to you, Moonbeam." Dream finished, nuzzling Nightmare. The other let out a soft sigh, relaxing. "Let's go home. I made a castle, just for you and I."
Dream lit up. "A castle?! Oh Night, I've always wanted to be able to explore a castle! How wonderful!" Nightmare laughed at his eagerness, then turned to the other skeletons. "Killer, Horror, Dust, go back. Horror, you're in charge of dinner. Make a feast." The one with a hole in his head nodded, forming a portal and leaving. The other two lingered, so Nightmare rolled his eye. "Killer, go get yourself cleaned up." The eye-less skeleton with black tears running down his face nodded and left, and the insane-looking purple skeleton eventually followed suit. Nightmare turned to Dream. "Time to go home, my darling Sunbeam."
Blue grabbed Dream's arm, tugging him to the Stars' side again. "NOW WAIT A MINUTE MISTER NIGHTMARE, HOW DO WE KNOW YOU WON'T HURT DREAM LIKE YOU DID BEFORE?" Nightmare looked both angered and chastised, and Ink picked up the bandwagon. "Yeah, maybe we should come with- you know, to make sure Dream's okay! Just for a bit!" Nightmare puffed up, but Dream gently poked his cheek. "They're my friends Nighty, I don't want them to be worried."
Nightmare eventually relented, of course. It was Dream asking, how could he not? So with a heavy sigh, he opened up a dripping black portal to their home world. Dream recognized the air instantly and hopped in, the other three following. But Dream froze. A once-cerulean sky was now blood red, the sun a dusky orange, and the fog in the distance was a pearl-gray. He clung to Nightmare's arm. "What happened?" He asked, eyes wide. Nightmare winced.
"With the balance thrown so far out of whack, the world changed to reflect that. I'm planning on giving up the apples soon to regrow our Tree, but I couldn't do it without you. So I made a garden around you and the Tree's stump, hoping you would come back to me. You did, but you were taken. Without the corruption or apples, we'll have our immortality back- and, I won't need to conquer other worlds to sate the corruption." The last part was aimed at Blue and Ink, who lit up at the idea of losing a powerful enemy. "Now come, time to explore your new home." Nightmare smiled, guiding Dream inside with a gentle hand.
The inside was beautiful. All blacks, purples, and silvers, the decorations were incredible and the carpet was soft. Dream bounced around, eagerly taking in all the sights. Nightmare simply walked leisurely down to the dining room, the three Stars trailing behind. The Bad Sanses were already at the table, and surprisingly, another one with dark bones came as well. Ink lit up at the sight. "Error!" He crowed, running to his rival. Error grumbled but allowed Ink to hug him- something surprising, according to the gasps of the others- and nodded at Dream. Dream nodded back, sitting down carefully in one of the beautifully crafted chairs. Horror came out with dinner- a roast animal with plenty of fruits and vegetables, and dinner was a surprisingly peaceful affair.
Nightmare set his cutlery down. "Alright, the day has come. Dream and I will relinquish our abilities given to us by the apples, and our world will go back to normal. In exchange for being allowed to do this peacefully, I will give up my control over my other worlds and stop taking more. I have my mate back, and I want to stay with him." Silence followed, before the Dark Sanses began asking questions.
So that was how Dream discovered that Nightmare had saved them from their crumbling and terrible worlds. Love and affection welled up inside him, and Nightmare glanced over at him with a soft smile, no doubt feeling the positivity. They wanted to stay in the world, but Nightmare was uneasy. So Dream stepped in. "Why don't they take over what used to be the village?" All eyes swiveled to him. Dream flushed under the attention, but continued. "I mean, there's bound to be some ruins left- and if not, they can just create new foundations. Making new memories from that land sounds good, and they can help protect us even if new travelers come to try and live here." Nightmare smiled, taking his hand. "Wonderful idea, my Sunbeam." He kissed his hand, and Dream blushed all over again. But the idea was made, and plans were carried out.
Ink and Blue helped create new houses for the Darks- and some other Sanses and Papyri who needed new homes- and a new village was born, of loyal guards. Dream finally got to explore the garden Nightmare made for him, and loved every inch of it. The stump had all one hundred apples placed back on it. The two dryads watched as the stump soaked in the apples, a small sapling growing forth from the stump. It grew quickly, and in a matter of years, it was back to its formal glory- only now, the apples weren't separated by color and instead merged, the entire tree looking like it was decorated in gold and black.
Time passed. Nightmare's sap eventually left, leaving him with silvery-purple bones as a permanent reminder, as well as a barely-flickering light in his right socket. Nightmare wasn't upset by this, though, and had actually expected such a thing. Ink and Blue continued 'fighting' Error- it was more of a formality, eventually- and Dream could relax with his mate. And so, he ruminated on everything- the Before, the During, the After, and the Happily Ever After like in the old story books. He snuggled closer to his mate, and thought that he truly did have the happiest ending possible.