"The Void of Abandoned Children"

Chapter Nine: The Scared

AHHHH SORRY FOR PUTTING THIS OFF FOR SO LONG!!

I'll try to update more often (idk how true that is) and I've been drifting away from this fandom, but I'll still try and finish this book for you guys!
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-=Ink's POV=-
Finally, we were going to have the meeting. I've been putting it off for some time, as I've been busy with AUs and such. Error's been less consistent with the destroying, but I think nothing of it. If I'm busy when I'm not creating, I'm sure he's busy when he's not destroying.

Either way, I was sitting in the Meeting Room with Dream and Blue, waiting for more people to show up. We've already sent out memos to everyone who we want to see there, so they should be here pretty soon. I looked at my scarf making sure all the notes I had wrote there the night before weren't smudged or ruined.

"Ink, they're here!" Blue said, making me look up and see the portals slowly showing up. The most vibrant portals were Outer's, Fresh's and Red's. Outer's was bright with stars, and Fresh's was very colourful, while Red's was a deep and vibrant red.

It took less than 20 minutes for everyone to get around the meeting table. There was about 20-30 AUs present, which made me happy. One of my most favourite things about these meetings are the people. I like seeing unity throughout the multiverse, it makes it seem like a better place than it actually is.

"So," I started. "Anyone have anything to share to start us off?" I asked, looking around the room, seeing Red's hand go up.
"I have something." He said.

-=Goth's POV=-
I wish I could talk. I only know certain words, but Sprinkle seems to understand me the most, next to Mommy of course. Mommy is always super busy when he's not with us. He sometimes comes back home hurt, which makes me sad. I don't like seeing people hurt.

Jammy, Plum and Sprinkle are scary sometimes. They all get angry easily, especially Plum. I'm confused on why they all enjoy tackling each other, it's scary.

Right now, we're all in a circle. I think we're playing a game. I'm sitting next to Sprinkle, who's sitting next to Plum, who's sitting next to Jammy, who's sitting next to me. Instead of playing the game like I thought we were, Jammy started telling us the plan before Mommy comes back.

Uh oh.

-=PaperJam's POV=-
I started telling the group my plan.
"So, you know how I've learned to make better portals, right?" I started, looking mischievously into Plum, Sprinkle, and Goth's eyes.
"Right...? Where is this going?" Sprinkle asked. I smiled at the question.
"We're gonna visit an AU!" I said happily, standing up. Goth looked confused and a little frightened, Sprinkle looked intrigued, while Lulu looked ready to go.

"What AU are we going to?" Sprinkle asked.
"Don't know, but it might involve hurting someone!" I said, hoping to get him to come.
"I'm in." He said, standing up and picking up Goth. Plum was already on his feet by my side. I opened a portal and looked through it.

Plum ran past me and into the portal.
"Plum!" Sprinkle called, and ran in after.
"I wanted to go- never mind." I said, sprinting in after them. The portal closed behind us, and I looked around. I noticed that Sprinkle had put down Goth. We were in some kind of town, but it looked empty. Further down the road you could see some people, but where we stood, there was no one.

I looked around some more, until I heard Goth trying to say something.
"Tere! Tere!" He said, pointing to an alleyway. He started going towards it, but Sprinkle stopped him.
"We aren't going in some sketchy alleyway." He said, reaching for Goth's hand.
"No! Lisen!" Goth said, avoiding Sprinkle's hand.

All three of us didn't move, didn't speak. Whatever Goth was trying to say was important. We waited for a while more before I heard something from inside the alleyway. It sounded like crying. Terrified crying.
"I hear it! There's crying coming from there!" I said, pointing in the same direction Goth had pointed in just moments before.

We all went into the alleyway to find a scared, crying skeleton.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked. He looked up at me, looking terrified. Although, he did look older than all of us.
"S-stay a-away! P-please don't h-hurt me!" He stuttered out, shielding his face with his hands.

Goth stretched out his arms towards the scared skeleton.
"It okie!" He said. We all stretched our arms out and knelt down.
"It's okay!" We all said at different times. We weren't very good at synchronizing...yet.

"Y-you're not here to h-hurt me?" The frightened skeleton asked.
"Why would we?" I asked him. He smiled at us and wiped away his tears.
"I'm Palette, who are you?" He said.
"I'm PaperJam, but you can call me Jammy! That's Goth, Lulu or Plum and Sprinkle!" I said, pointing to each of them.

Palette smiled and stood up.
"C-can I stay with you guys? I have nowhere to go..." Palette asked us. I nodded eagerly.
"Yes! Of course! We just have to make sure Mommy is okay with it!" I said.

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-=No One's POV=-
The kids had just gotten back from the AU and came back to an angry Error. The kids apologized and introduced the new member of their family, Palette. Error couldn't abandon Palette and upset the other kids, so he agreed to let him stay. The kids were overjoyed by the fact that they had another skeleton to cause mischief with.

Except Palette was the opposite of what they thought he was. Palette was older than all of them, being 7, and spends most of his time keeping everyone in check. By the end of the day, Palette is almost as exhausted as Error is when it comes to the other kids. He tried to stay positive as well, which is a nice contrast to all of the negativity surrounding the Anti-Void.

Palette eventually started calling Error "Mom" and took care of Error whenever he was hurt from his "missions." Error never told the kids exactly what his job was, but he was sure some of them already knew.

Ink on the other hand, had figured out Error's secret. Well, he thinks he did. Red had talked about the whole encounter he had in the shops a few months ago and Ink had talked about the weird paintbrush findings around the multiverse. Everyone knows that Error is hiding something, but no one knows what.

Nightmare and the other Bad Sanses couldn't figure out who the kids on the battlefield were, so eventually, they gave up. Error was thrilled when he heard the news, but expressed no emotion on the subject. If he did, he would be a suspect, and that's never a good thing.

Not good in the slightest.

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Hello wonderful people of the internet! Finally, another chapter! I'm hoping to wrap up this book soon, since I'm not enjoying it too much, but I hate it when books go unfinished. I'm not gonna be one of those people, so expect more soon! (Hopefully)

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