There was nothing more that he could do here.

Goth closed the last of his borrowed books and he sighed. This AU was a dead end too.

Because he had been forced to become the Destroyer, Goth knew the names and the locations of the oldest AUs of the Multiverse, he had steadily been working his way through them, in the hopes of finding something useful.

He avoided Reapertale, his Father would recognise him right away and drag him home, which Goth didn't want, or need right now.

This was his third one since he had started this quest. Goth sighed, before he brought the Palette puppet out of his jacket's pocket. He had created a Goth puppet to go with it, being careful to make it look like him before he was taken.

He mentally went over his current supplies, he didn't need to worry about Gold right now, he had more than enough, thanks to his small online website that sold clothing and items that he had made. He would have to close it down and restart it when he got to the next AU on his list.

Food, however, was another issue. Goth was still recovering from all of the time that he didn't eat, he was an unhealthy weight for a Skeleton his age, but just like what caused the problem, only time and food would fix it.

He had devoured the last items in his cupboard and fridge a few hours ago.

This meant that he had to go shopping, yay!

-------

It was getting dark as Goth made his way back to what would soon be his former apartment. He had brought enough travel food to last him a few days, and some more wool as well.

He was passing by an alleyway when he heard it.

The sounds of a fight.

He couldn't get involved, it could draw attention to him, which he didn't need right now.

He was about to move on when a familiar voice came from the fight.

Palette.

Goth stopped right where he was, before he threw everything into his Subspace pocket and he rushed into the alleyway.

Palette was a pretty good reason to get into a fight.

----

Palette yelped as he was thrown against a wall, he had been minding his own business, getting ready for the next AU, when he had been ambushed.

He recognised the patch on their jacket.

Recently, just after Goth had been taken, a group of various different Monsters and Humans had branded together to get rid of Ink.

They hated him because he tended to poke his nose into their business and messed around with them, not to mention his position as the 'Creator and Protector of AUs'.

Privately, Palette thought that they were jealous of Ink and they wanted his powers for themselves.

He tried to summon his Roller but one of the Monsters held a knife to one of his neck bones, pressing the blade against it, leaving a small nick in the bone, causing narrow to bleed from it.

The marrow dripped onto Palette's scarf.

One of the other monsters smirked. "Palette Roller, son of that interferer Ink, we have hit the jackpot boys!"

The rest of the group laughed as they brought out metal pipes and baseball bats.

"Let's see if your Dust will finally get that interferer to stop boy.."

Palette closed his eyes as one of the Monsters went for him, only to open them when the hit didn't happen.

The Monster that was going to hit him had a scythe blade going through his Soul.

'Mr.Reaper?' Palette thought as the blade was yanked out of the body as it Dusted, there was a flash of light and suddenly, the Monster holding the blade to Palette's neck had a blue Soul.

Palette took the opening that he had been given and he pushed the knife away from his neck before he moved, getting out of the way.

The Monster was then yanked back into the path of the scythe as it's user swung it around again, Dusting this Monster.

Palette couldn't see them clearly but he knew that this was not Reaper, the shape and the style of the scythe blade was different and it was a lot shorter then Reaper's. He could feel his head spinning and the burning from his neck wound. His vision was going in and out but before it gave out, he saw the red scarf following the path of his rescuer.

"Gothy..."

-----

Goth was glad that Palette had passed out from shock, he didn't want him to see this.

He swung his scythe around, glaring at the Monster's looking at them. He had heard of this group, they were not the first group to rise up and try to push their way into the main conflicts of the Multiverse but most of then eventually gave up and moved on. He had seen it happen many times.

But this group had crossed the lines by getting Palette involved in their mess.

Goth frowned, before he made his eyelight glow and allowed the blue tearmarkings to appear on his skull. He smiled, right before a group of them rushed right at him.

He spun his scythe around in a circle before him, catching the chains that this group had been swinging around, before he used them to pull them towards him and his scythe.

These Monsters were Dusted as Goth rushed forwards, a spinning cyclone of Death and Destruction.

There would be no Mercy.

----

Palette found himself in someone's arms as he woke up. They were warm and they seemed to be moving too.

He looked up as his vision adjusted, to see the face of his rescuer. It was older, having shred some of it's child like innocence, but Palette could recognize that eyelight and that scarf, anywhere.

"Gothy..." He mumbled, reaching out with his hands.

"Go back to sleep Palette..."

Even his voice had changed, it was older now, it was more like Mr.Reaper's now, but it was still his voice, a voice that Palette had missed so much.

Palette then realised that Goth was carrying him like a bride. His green-yellow blush bloomed to life on his skull.

Normally, it would be Palette that would be the one carrying Goth, but it was clear that Goth was now taller then Palette.

"Gothy..."

"Go back to sleep Palette."

Palette could feel his eyes closing again, but before they did, he managed to wrap his arms around Goth's neck.

"Thank you..."

-----

Goth could feel when Palette had fallen asleep, he was hoping that the shock, the wound and the adrenaline would blurr Palette's memories of him.

"Palette...."

He gently moved his right arm so that he was hugging Palette back as he walked. He couldn't stay here, the Souls that he reaped would have traces of his Magic on them, which meant that his parents would be here soon.

Which was not good! At all!

"Let's see if I can talk my former landlady into letting you stay at my old apartment until you feel better or someone picks you up...."

-----

Reaper paused when he felt the Magic on a few Souls that had just been reaped and sent to his domain. "Goth?" He quickly scanned the Souls and his knees shook, before they collapsed on him, even with his floating ability. He quickly sent the Souls on before he opened a portal, heading straight to Geno. "GEN!"

"What?!" Geno yelled from where he was hanging the laundry, holding a basket. "Aren't you supposed to be working, Reaper..."

"I know, but these Souls just popped up!"

"Yeah, why do you need to tell me this?"

"THEY HAD TRACES OF GOTH'S MAGIC ON THEM!"

Geno dropped the laundry basket that he had been holding. "You found Goth?!"

"I know, hurry up Gen, we need to catch up with him, before we lose him again!"

"Then open the damn portal, you bastard!" Geno yelled, right before Reaper tore open reality.

They landed in the AU, before they followed the trace of Magic in the air, right to an apartment building and up to a certain apartment.

Geno stopped before the door to it, as the wound on his chest started to flare up again.

"We're too late." The Genocide Survivor said through his mouthful of blood. "He's gone, my baby's gone again....."

"Oh Gen..." Reaper said as he hugged Geno from behind. "It's okay, we will find him. This is the furthest that we have gotten in two years. Come on, he might have left something behind."

Reaper phrased through the door, unlocking it for Geno.

The apartment was bare of anything personal, the furniture had been left behind, but anything relating to Goth was gone, apart from a letter on the table.

Geno read it, his fingers brushing over the purple tear stains that had been left behind. Goth had been crying.... His baby was crying...

"Mom, Dad,

I'm sorry.

~Goth.

P.S. Palette's in the bedroom, the Souls that I reaped was from a group attacking him, he's in shock and one of his neck bones was cut. I cleaned him up and my landlady says that he can stay until he's healed.

P.S.S. Tell Mr.Ink to clean up after himself, this group really doesn't like him."

Reaper chuckled at that PostScript, while Geno put the letter down and he went to check on Palette.

He found Palette in the bed, clutching at what looked like a Puppet of Goth. It was well made and Geno almost thought that Error made it, if it wasn't for the obvious mistakes and miscoloring of Goth's eyelight.

----

Palette groaned as he woke up to see Geno.

"Mr.Geno?" He asked.

"Are you okay Palette?"

Palette shook his head. "No, not really, my head hurts. What happened? The last thing that I remember was being attacked and someone saving me." He answered.

"Do you remember anything else?"

"Only that he had a scythe like Mr.Reaper." Palette looked down, only to see the Goth puppet. "Mr.Geno, why am I holding a puppet of Gothy?"

"You was cuddling it in your sleep Palette."

"I was..." Palette frowned, before he looked at the puppet again, he closed his eyes and he tried to remember what had happened to him.

A memory of a voice, attached to a face and a familiar red scarf, came to him, and he blushed once he realised something.

'Oh no, he's hot!'

His yellow green blush covered his entire skull, to the confusion of Geno, who was wondering what happened to make Palette blush that much.

"Palette..." Geno then noticed that something was missing. "Where's your scarf?"

----

Goth found himself walking through Snowdin in the middle of the night, it seemed that this AU had Reset right before he stepped foot in this AU.

This meant that Goth had to find somewhere to hide in the Underground, until the Barrier was broken and most of the Monsters moved to the surface, but after that, he would have most of the Underground to himself.

He found an empty cave and he walked into it, setting up his tent and a small campfire.

He sat down near the campfire, before he brought out Palette's scarf. He didn't know why he took it with him but he felt like he had to....

He wrapped the scarf around his neck, before he buried his face into it, and his own red scarf. He could smell Palette's scent on his scarf.

A tear rolled down one of his cheeks as he muttered.

"Someday, somehow, I will fix this mess and find my way home, to return your scarf, I promise..

Palette..."