Another co-chapter with Firehedgehog

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Shades was probably in a spot that he shouldn't be in, sitting on top of one of the super high bookcases in the Library with his legs over the side. He was feeling a bit depressed to tell the truth, he hadn't been able to find anything on the temple and AU information was scarce.

He missed his mom.

He missed his dad.

He missed his siblings.

Sure, he had gotten to see Palette even if in disguise, but his soul hurt so much with how much he missed them.

He was jealous of Ser, Searcher who got to speak to one of his parents... even if Ser's dad was missing.

He wanted to go home.

He entered the Library, he had made a quick stop in a Birdtale AU to get his top and his jacket adjusted so that he could use his wings without destroying them every time that they came out when he was using his Dad's scythe but right now, he wasn't here as Error or Searcher, he was here as Goth, a big brother who sensed that a younger sibling was upset.

"Shades?" He asked, his jacket was tied around his waist and he was holding his travel bag by one of it's straps.

A sniffle was heard, from above.

He looked up.

Shades blinked and he looked down, their eyes met.

He had been trying to find Shades but when he found him, he started to panic, because how did he get up there without wings?!

He had discovered that he could no longer float anymore, a side effect of his Dad's scythe, he was using the Magic that he usually used to float to help him control it.

"Shades!" He yelled. "Get down here before you hurt yourself!

Shades yelped, startled and he lost his balance, he fell forwards, falling a few feet... and stopped.

"Ser... why would you yell, you scared me?" Shades asked, a bit teary eyed as he floated down, before he safely landed on the ground.

He ran towards Shades and he scooped him up into a hug. "I was worried, I didn't know if you had any floating or flying abilities." He said. "Don't scare me like that again."

"I'm sorry Searcher, I didn't mention it because it's still pretty new to me and it's a bit wobbly when I use it." Shades replied.

"Okay." He didn't let go of Shades. "Anyway, I have some good news and some bad news."

"Searcher... all our news is either good or bad news." Shades replied dryly, wiping the tears away.

"Yeah... I think that I know what the masonry is for."

"Go on." Shades said, he had quickly realized he wasn't about to escape the hug of doom, even though he had a migraine quickly building up from them being too close as always.

"Well, I did a charcoal rubbing of it so that I could look at the carvings without having to pull it out of my inventory every five minutes, and the symbol in the middle of it, cut into pieces, is an AU symbol."

"Great... there’s like a zillion of those." Shades moaned, thinking of the pile of them he'd come across just looking into one AU.

"Sadly, I can't check my temple, it's buried. I don't even know if my ice temple has any... but i did find a book for them.  Apparently our linked multiverse shares the same AU Symbols." Shades sighed. "I'm guessing you already tried the temple with the snake guardian for more?"

"Yeah, mine wasn't so buried..." He frowned. "But, Dad must have gotten there after me...."

"What! Your dad?! You found something from what happened to him!?" Shades asked worriedly, as Ser's arms tightened briefly around him.

"I found his scythe and his phone but he wasn't there."

"I'm sorry." Shades whispered.

"I know, but the Temple, it seemed to tell the story of Ink and Fear, my Ink must have gotten Broomie right after Fate took his Soul." Searcher frowned. "And I was there too, as Error and as myself, but the carving of me had wings."

"Ser... I hate to tell you, we both have wings. We just haven't unlocked them yet as we've been sealed as Error, Dad did say we should reach them when we are older then what our true forms are... even if they technically don't age." Shades sighed.

"I couldn't leave Dad's scythe there, but it came with a price."

"Price... are you okay?" Shades asked worriedly, finally having managed to pull Searcher to the coach in their hideaway, while he was still stuck in the hug of doom.

"I can't float anymore, I'm not ready to use Dad's scythe, the Magic that I use for floating, is now being used to help me control it and the excess Magic from the scythe, has a very weird way of manifesting itself."

"Ser..."

He brought out his Dad's scythe and the fluffy silver wings spread from his back, going through the slits in his top, before they wrapped themselves around the two Goths.

Shades's eyes widened as he reached out and he gently touched the silver feathers, they were very soft but he could tell that they weren't mature yet, as the wings had been forced out early and they were still technically baby bird soft. If Ser learned to fly with them, he would probably be using the scythe as support to them. He also had the feeling his were probably a lot like this... if he could summon them that is.

"They're so pretty." Shades said, petting them.

Searcher smiled. "Yes, they are..."

"Don't fish for compliments dork." Shades snorted.

"They remind me of when I was a kid and I couldn't sleep, Dad would sit on the bed, hug me and wrap me up in his wings, and I would fall asleep to Mom singing a song."

"He'll do it again Searcher, we'll make sure of it. We'll beat Fear, put Inky's soul together and we'll both go home to mama and papa." Shades said, leaning forward and resting his head against Searcher's chest. He ignored the pain that his body was broadcasting from staying too close to his other.

"Yeah, Mom wasn't happy when I hung up on him. I am so dead when he gets his hands on me." He rubbed the back of Shades's head. "But for once, I'm not the one who needs to cry."

"I want to go home... I want to talk to mama and papa and Raven and Shiro, Nightmare's like another dad, but he's not really papa. I hate Fear, I want to hate my Fate but I can't. We can't even really ask for help." Shades whispered, and he began to sob into his much taller counterpart's chest.

"I know, I know..." Searcher said. "But I do know one thing, just like when you was there for me when I needed to cry, I'm here for you now. We are going to be okay Shades, we have to stay determined. We're the children of Death and someone who refuses to die, it's time to use the stubbornness that Mom gave us."

"Mom... sniffle.. is going to ground us for eternity." Shades said with a half sob, half giggle.

"And wash our mouths out with soap, I could probably distract mine with Dad for a bit but he'll get me eventually."

"We could always hide with Palette, I have a feeling that mine is only pretending not to see through my disguise." Shades giggled.

"Yeah, we could."

"Ser, thank you. I needed that," Shades said, wiping away his tears.

"You're welcome Shades."

"Soo... I did definitely find a temple on that Ice AU, all that paper and books on the table is about it. But, I don't have a clue on what the temple looks like under all that ice or if it has a temple guardian. And I was thinking, our temples seem to be opposites. My first one was in a forest filled with life but underground, and yours in a lifeless dessert above ground. This one is an endless ice AU, could this mean that yours has fire in it.. or lava?" Shades said, wanting to change the subject a bit before they both got depressed.

And he didn't feel like being a Depresso expresso again today.

"It could have fire or lava in it, I'll have to look closer at those AUs." He winced. "That is not going to be fun."

"With our luck, it's going be a live Volcano." Shades moaned.

"Yeah..."

"Soo... Do you want to look at what I found on my temple's AU? You're better at research then me and I'm worried that I missed something. I can look up lava/fire AU's or Volcano ones for you if you do that for me." Shades asked hopefully, because he'd noticed all the elemental AU files/books were way high up and Ser probably probably could use those wings in the library... if he could use them...

"Of course I can do that for you." Searcher smiled. "Is there anything that you need before I do that?"

"You might want to let me out of the hug, " Shades giggled.

"Oh, okay." He let Shades go.

"Freeedom!" Shades shouted running off.

He laughed.