I have to admit I always feel a pit in my stomach when I get comments on my fics…I see the notification in my mail and I'm like, oh shit! I mean, I can't be the only one who fears even clicking on the notification…I'm just like…do they like it or do they hate it? Ugh…such anxiety that doesn't need to exist! Also, I have written myself into a corner…I barely know anything about Echotale except snippets…so bear with me.

Strings That Hold Me Together

Chapter 9

Error stopped Ink before he could pull that brush of his out. "Don't waste your power." He said and started making an opening himself instead. He glanced at Ink who just rolled his eyes and follow, god he was really starting to hate being watched by the other so he couldn't do anything. His job was to watch over the multiverse so he didn't really have much time to rest, even if he was injured…and his soul was on the verge of shattering. The only thing holding him together were Error's strings…which were only being pulled away when Error thought certain areas were healed well enough.

Okay, so maybe he was over exaggerating; he wasn't in the best of health as of right now, hell he passed out not long ago after that battle and stuff. Not to mention he was unconscious for who knows how long on Swap's couch while Error and Stretch argued over things, ugh he hated this so much.

"You should really be resting…your HP isn't the best right now." Error said, fiddling with strings as he walked around, keeping an eye out for whatever.

It was things like these that made him wonder what Error was even doing…first he saved him from being killed by that…whatever the hell that thing was. Then of course, he wraps his soul up so he didn't end up falling and dusting…now he's worrying over every little thing and wanting him to rest. "I'll be fine." Ink sighed, rubbing his skull. "Besides, someone needs to watch and make sure you don't destroy other universes, who better than me?" Ink smiled.

This of course, caused Error to glitch a bit, little errors floating around his head as he just turned away from Ink and grumbled in annoyance at his words. "I think the universes need to be cleared about now Ink, considering there's more than you can even count!" Error said, but Ink just ignored his little rant.

If you thought about it, there seemed to be a new universe creating itself almost every day or every hour; it depended maybe since there was no telling. Every universe stemmed off of the Classic Universe, after the fact it seemed Underfell and UnderSwap sprouted from it not too long after the fact. These universes seemed to pop up like weeds, and it didn't seem like too long before UnderSwap and Underfell gathered together and gave birth to Swapfell.

If Error had to be honest with himself, and let's face it…he was always very honest, the whole universe sprouting was going insane. Let us not forget that Horrortale didn't take too long to sprout up, though that wasn't the fault of Ink, no…Classic Frisk was to blame for that one. She asked that it not be destroyed to serve as a reminder as to why the king shouldn't be killed, because, well, obviously, things went to shit after that, didn't they?

It kind of pissed him off that he couldn't delete that disgusting waste of space and put everyone out of their misery, but Frisk was right he guessed. She was long past the genocidal timelines and doing her best to keep it all pacifist, but keeping Horrortale just served as a good reminder to never do it again. To never go genocide or neutral ever again, because she didn't like how things ended when it turned Neutral or just plain genocide in the timelines.

Aside from that…it seemed all the universes just turned out to be one big cluster fuck that needed to be cleaned every once in a while. Then again, that would just end up being some insane little fight between Ink and him, as fun as that would be he didn't think it would be a good idea till he was healed. Either way, that still didn't excuse the ever-expanding multiverse, which again…did need to be thinned out…which was his very unpopular opinion it seemed.

The only thing he hated about Echotale, was that Gaster wasn't Gaster…but Sans and Papyrus, it was very unsettling to see the personality change. Then again, those guys had been known to help on some things that required a fair amount of smarts that even rivaled Sciencetale Sans he supposed. Actually, he took it back…he hated everything about Echotale…the echo flowers everywhere, repeating every little word that didn't need repeating.

Ugh…they were so annoying, more so when they tried repeating his glitched up words that didn't make sense almost half the time to them. Other than that, just pure hell…that was what Echotale was…well, so were the other universes, but if he had to pick which one was more hellish, it would be this. Underswap just barely made it on the list…and no, it wasn't because he was friends with that damn Blueberry or anything, that Sans could be a little annoying…if not fun to be around…he guessed.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Ink almost trip and grabbed him before he could hit the ground. "You really need to rest." He said. He gave an annoyed grunt when Ink gave a little whine and tried to get away, obviously the other was getting a little tired of being babied or something. "Oh, shut up, listen to me for once. Your soul can't exactly take all this movement, not to mention your damn HP is low." He said and put Ink over his shoulder.

This motion earned him a little surprised squeak from Ink who just then started yelling for him to put him down, ugh…just great! If he didn't stop screaming about this and that, the echo flowers were going to just start repeating just as loudly…and he certainly wasn't in the mood for that headache. Honestly, why did Ink have to be such a whiney bitch when he was injured? This was so annoying….ugh…

Ink was getting very irritated at being handled like a little child, sure he was injured, but at the same time they were on an important mission! The whole of the multiverse and the original universe were depending on him…and Error…to defeat whatever monster this was, so there was no room for this. Despite feeling weak, Ink still felt like he could do some things, and now Error wasn't even letting him do those things; he couldn't understand why he cared.

He sighed and just gave up on trying to struggle out of his hold, his soul was aching from all the moving he had been doing as of late. Okay, so maybe he did need some rest…but this wasn't the time to do that, not with the multiverse in danger from that creature…not to mention Error as well! Yeah, sure…Error hadn't caused much havoc since he had started taking care of him but still; he wasn't sure how long that was going to be lasting of course.

"Do you even know where Sans and Papyrus are at the moment?" Ink asked after a moment, resting his head on his hand while the other carried him.

"I can wager a guess." Was all Error said and Ink rolled his eyes. "You should have dropped us off there so we didn't have to walk Snowdin."

"Who's to say they aren't in Snowdin?" Error replied.

"Now you're just guessing." Ink replied, annoyance clear in his voice.

Error rolled his eyes and set Ink down in the snow, looking around before summoning his strings; he preferred searching this way anyway. It was easier to find someone in this mess of an underground, normally they would just wrap around a soul and once he felt it he pulled them where he was. He could tell Ink looked alarmed but he chose to ignore the look in favor of concentrating on finding the people they were searching for instead.

~~o~~

Sans was currently deep into his work, cigarette clinging between his teeth as he tried to track some sort of anomaly that he hadn't seen before. Frisk of course sleep beside the table; he gave a sigh as he debated on moving her, but let it go for now in favor of figuring this weird mess out. "Somethin's rotten in Denmark." He mumbled to himself, eyes scanning the screen before him, coding was almost being eaten before his eyes but only bits.

He was so deep in concentration and trying to figure out what was causing this he hadn't noticed strings grab at his waist before it was too late. 'The fuck...!" He gave a surprised yell, cigarette falling from his mouth as he was being pulled out of the lab, the skeleton growled as he tried grabbing at things.

Unfortunately, all he succeeded in was knocking a few glass things over which resulted in Frisk waking up and staring at him with wide eyes as he disappeared. Well, if today wasn't shitty enough, this had to be right up there on the shit meter that was for sure…at least that was how he saw the whole thing. He studied the strings as he was pulled and then rolled his eyes, what the hell was Error even doing here when he promised to never be back?

One thing was for sure…someone was going to get dunked on if he had anything to say about it, dammit he was in the middle of something important!

~~o~~

"I really don't think it's a good idea." Ink said as he watched.

"Shut up, it's faster this way, I have him." Error said, smirking as he saw Gaster! Sans coming toward him; his eyes widened when he realized he was ready to attack. There was no way he could stop his strings in time before…SMACK…he gave a yell and fell back when the other's fist collided with him. The other's fist had hit him square in the face, that damn shit eating smirk on his face before Error suddenly found himself on Ink face to face.

It took a moment for Error to realize it; he opened his eyes and noticed he was smack dab on top of Ink, their teeth practically touching each other in a skeleton kiss. Ink was blushing madly and Error screamed as he got up quickly and glared angrily at Gaster! Sans who just smirked and backed away. "That wouldn't have happened if you didn't surprise me with your strings, asshole." He said and pulled out a cigarette from the pack in his pocket.

Error scoffed. "It was faster than going all the way into Hotland to find your glitch of an ass!" He defended as the other lit his cigarette and took a puff. God, he hated how the taller skeleton just stood there and took a puff of that little cancer stick of his, like he just didn't give one little shit about things. "Here's the thing Bud, I was kinda in the middle of somethin' when your glitched up ass decided I needed to be here right away." Was all the other said. It was so calm too, like he hadn't just punched Error in the face just then and made him bump…no, it was more of a crash…Ink and…kiss him…ugh…

"Well, whatever you were trying to do, it's not important, because right now, we're trying to save the multiverse from being destroyed." Error said, crossing his arms.

At this little bit of information G! Sans arched his brow bone and took another puff of that damn cigarette and made a 'hmm' sound in response. "I'm having a hard time believing that you, of all people, are trying to save the multiverse from being destroyed." He replied and crossed his arms. "I mean fuck, you've tried destroying it yourself billions of times while Ink works his pretty little ass off trying to stop ya." Ugh…was it so hard to believe?

"It's true." Error looked over to Ink who had just spoken and was currently trying to get up off the ground, though it was kind of hard in his state. After a moment, Error went to him and helped him up, making sure he was okay, though if he had noticed Ink did blush a little. Though, this was Error and there were big doubts that he would notice that kind of thing right away; he wasn't the most observant person exactly anyway.

G! Sans noticed the blush though, deciding to store that in his brain for later, considering he wasn't in the mood to teas Error or Ink at that very moment. "Alright, so Error has a change of heart, what exactly is going on to make something like that happen, because this isn't Error behavior." He said. He knew Error to be an arrogant little fucker who liked to destroy things whenever he got a chance and sometimes kidnapped other Sanses.

"Shut up." Error grumped, crossing his arms.

Ink sighed. "Well, I was in the middle of fighting some strange monster and it really did a number on me…I was about to fall down till Error arrived. He saved me, patched me up…" He said and showed him his soul, the cracks were clearly visible beneath the strings that Error had patched him with. G! Sans went over and inspected the soul a bit before looking at Ink and then Error. "And why the fuck is he still up and running around? He could fuckin' dust!" He yelled.

Error rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Don't look at me that way, I tried but Ink is too bull headed to listen to me!" He growled.

"Seems to me you didn't try hard enou-" G's words were interrupted by a crash somewhere in Snowdin and he looked over, that same damn monster was there, eating code. He cursed, damn…this was the creature that took down Ink, but was this the thing that was causing problems with the code? If not, then he was still needing to search for whatever it was that was eating up the code of his universe and fucking up what could end up being corrupt later on.

"So…how do we defeat this thing…?" He asked, glancing at Error.

"Hard work and determination." Error said, strings shooting out of his fingers and going to wrap around the creature's neck and other limbs, squeezing them. G gave a nod and sighed, summoning his blasters and using them against the creature, it didn't appear to have any HP…that was interesting. So…you couldn't tell whether it was close to dusting or not…this may just end up being a huge problem that may not end good…but he hoped it was solvable.

Ink sighed and rubbed his skull as he watched them fight, deciding to stay out of this one as he made sure his soul was snug back in his rib cage. He really hated being useless, and right now he was very useless, couldn't even fight if he wanted to since he was so drained and tired. The creative skeleton just hoped that sooner or later, whatever this creature was…it would just give up and die completely and not bother anymore universes. Then again, that was just hopeful thinking and right now he doubted even that would work when trying to fight this damn thing.

The multiverse was definitely in trouble if this thing was going to be worse than Error could ever hope to be when it came to wanting universes gone. Every universe was precious in its own way, even if some of them were beyond help of being normal like Dusttale, Horrortale, and a few others. To say the least…he just hoped that sooner or later this thing was just going to run out of steam and give up on trying to kill universes sooner or later, this couldn't go on forever.

Eh…I hope you liked it…G! Sans is probably out of character…honestly I wouldn't be surprised, I can't stay in character for nothing sometimes.