"Ink... I thought that you was getting some sleep?" Dream asked. "What are you doing here?"

Ink shrugged his shoulders, even as he walked over and he carefully picked up Palette, encouraging the younger Skeleton to cling to him like a sloth. "I don't know...." He eventually said. "Something just told me that I needed to be here..."

Nightmare and Geno frowned as they joined them, Geno was dusting something off of his hands, it looked like Monster Dust.....

The creatures around them had frozen, as it they had been cut off from whoever was giving them orders...

It was too quiet..

Sereval of the creatures had Dream's arrows sticking out of them, along with wounds from Nightmare's tentacles and bone attacks from Palette or Geno...

"Why do I have the feeling that things are about to get worse?" Ink asked, right before the creatures started to collapse where they were standing, turning into goo that started to group itself together.

"INK!" Nearly everyone yelled, before they tried to destroy the goo before it could merge itself together.

They did manage to destroy some of it, but the remaining goo merged together to form a giant version of the creatures that they had been fighting.

Dream glared at his husband. "You're sleeping on the couch when we get home."

"And I will tell Umbra to ground you." Geno growled. "Again."

Ink gulped. He was so screwed.

-------

Two figures walked down a hallway, their footsteps tapping on the black marble floor and polished obsidian walls. The only lights were the golden like runes on the ceiling. The doors that they passed were made out of black metal, but where they went, only the first figure knew.

This was a hallway made in the fragments between realities, hidden between the void and Anti-Void. It crossed both sides of the split Multiverse, and it was where Umbra's Vaults were.

Some vaults contained priceless gold, and others contained information and the codes of the surrounding Multiverses. There were a few that Umbra would show no one, not even Solas or Searcher, because they contained things so dangerous that Fate commanded them to be sealed.

Yet where Umbra was going, was not to a Vault, but to a place where two sealed rooms lay.

Each room was where he would place the Ink’s when they were grounded.

Not that anyone would be able to find the hidden rooms without him, as this was just one of the thousands of hallways in this place.

It was a twisting maze that even gave him trouble sometimes.

There was one white hallway in the entire network, the one that he would not go to, unless he was called.

That was a hallway that led to an audience chamber for Fate.

And while he was no longer truly bound to Fate as the Final Guardian of Shadows, he knew he still had a duty to safeguard this ever growing network.

As they went around a corner, he caught sight of Searcher, who had wanted to see the place Ink feared because of his groundings.

He had asked if Searcher and Solas had wanted to come with him, and they had agreed.

But sadly, Searcher had to be in control, as the shadows where too strong for Solas to even appear as a ghost here.

He hoped that it would be the final time that he went to this place, and if everything worked, his duty as the Error and Destroyer would be over.

He had no idea how he’d kill off the Error, to make people stop seeking that alter ego.

“This is the room.” Umbra said, turning towards his other self.

"It's a shame that Dad had to go and quickly catch up on his Reaping Duties." Searcher had his hands behind his head, his Dad had dropped them off at the closest AU to the Void Core before he had to go and reap some stray Souls. "But still, I can't believe that we are so close to the end of this journey..."

"True, I cannot wait to go home... I am very tired of being Umbra all the time and I wish to sleep, and unless its an emergency, I doubt that you'll see this version of myself." Umbra replied, he turned back to the door and he ran a hand down its center. Glowing runes appeared and the door gave a click.

With a yawn, Umbra pushed the door open, and the room beyond it was revealed to be a very nice medium size room, with beige walls, with a open kitchen, and a door that led to a bathroom. There was a bed with a multi colored bed set, and a bookcase full of books.

But what caught one's attention was the super long desk and black desk chair, and sitting on the chair, facing away from them, was the Ink of Shades's Multiverse, filing what looked like an endless amount of paperwork.

Searcher snickered, before he burst out into laughter, leaning against the doorway.

This caught the Ink's attention.

"Umbra, is it over?" He asked hopefully.

"Yup, let's get you home kiddo." Umbra said, with his smirk hidden behind his scarf.

Ink, amusingly, began to dance.

"Please tell me that my Ink has to do paperwork as well..." Searcher giggled, but he had no idea of the Boss Battle that his Ink was currently fighting in...

“The door across the hallway, it's currently unlocked.” Umbra giggled.

Searcher sniggered, before he went to check out his Ink's room.

Umbra snickered a bit, they had time... the Inks's always took a while with their dances of escape.

Searcher's laughter could be heard from his Ink's room. "He has more paperwork then my Dad!"

"It's the pages that they are supposed to fill out for Fate every time that they create, fix AUs.... etc... but with no Soul they never remembered to fill it... so there is a backlog. You should have seen it before I started grounding them and once they have their souls back, Fate will just dump the work on them, to do it properly and not just in here." Umbra said quietly.

Searcher giggled again, and once the Inks's did have their Souls back, hello vacation, for him and Shades.

"Well, let's get this idiot back home, and then, we can decide on how to give them their souls back." Umbra said, walking towards Ink, who was still in his own little world.

"I wanna shove mine down his throat..."

Umbra giggled, and then, he blinked.
"Something's going on with your Ink, some type of battle... I'll push the Ink here back home through a portal, and thankfully, while I can't shortcut in here. I can use a portal and shortcuts to get out." Umbra said, and he literally shoved his Ink through a shadowy portal home.

Searcher frowned. "Where is this battle?"

Umbra didn't answer and he summoned another Portal, and then, he walked through it, leaving it open behind him.

Searcher ran into the portal.

-------

"What the fuck...." Searcher whispered when they saw the goopy thing in Outertale.

"Language!" Geno yelled, even as Ink dodged another attack, with Seeker clinging to him like a sloth, before he dumped some of his acidic red paint on it.

The creature had several of Dream's arrows stuck within it, and Nightmare was leaving several weeping slashes and stab wounds within it's arms.

"That's definitely one of Fear's golems...." Umbra muttered.

"Mom?!" Searcher yelled. "What are you doing here?"

Geno teleported over to his oldest child, before he smacked him on the head. "Get in that fight right now Goth!"

"Yes Mom...."

Umbra giggled a bit, and since Fate could no longer force him to watch, he created several shadow barriers to stop the Golem from getting away. He muttered a spell under his breath and he tossed it at the same time his barriers formed, and jagged ice froze half of the ooze.

"I need to improve my ice spells, but light spell are stronger against his Golem... But are they not easy to use. It's too bad that Solas never wanted to learn ice spells... snow yes..." Umbra muttered to himself.

"Do you just say that you needed Light spells?" Searcher asked.

"This is  a abyssal Golem type, the ooze is weak against light spells. I know one spell... Ice, which I suck at. Solas doesn't know Ice spells, but he does know a lot more light spells..." Umbra pouted, never admitting he only learned Ice spells because Solas wanted to see if his big brother could build an ice palace like the one in Frozen.

"Mom! I'll be back in a bit!" Searcher yelled, before he poofed, causing Geno to shriek in distress.

"Hi Grandma!" Solas jumped out of the smoke to hug Geno.

"Solas sweetie... Grandma can play later... once he understands what's going on." Umbra said, throwing ice lances at the golem.

"Okay!" Solas smiled, before he let go of Geno, who had crashed.

The tiny Guardian giggled before he summoned several light lances that he threw at the Golem.

Ink was the first one to notice them.

"U-U-Umbra?"

"Yo Kiddo, guess who is allowed to interfere now." Umbra said with a wicked grin. "You remember Solas right, my cute little brother, who if anyone ever hurts, will be doomed to the void because of their crimes?"

There was a lovely silence at that.

Even the Abyssal Golem was silent.

"Solas here, as adorable as he is, can use Light spells, which that thing is weak to.. try to keep out of the way..." Umbra continued, projecting the 'Bro con' vibe of doom.

Solas giggled, even as Seeker scooped him up into a hug. "Oh my stars, he's adorable!"

Umbra coughed, looking at Seeker, and then, the battle.

"Palette. Put the kid down." Dream told his son.

Umbra's Shadow aura began to show wisps of red, he didn't share Solas well.

Solas pouted. 'Mama! Your Seeker won't put me down!'

'Give me five seconds...' Searcher said, before he floated over to Palette and he pulled out his hat from his inventory.

Palette was staring at the floating hat. "No! My hat!" He put Solas down so that he could run after his hat.

Umbra happily snatched up Solas, totally ignoring the ghostly Searcher with the hat.

"Well Little Light, shall we join the battle?" Umbra said, his aura normal again, he even had his shadow like wings summoned, in case Solas wanted to attack from the air.

Sure, Solas could summon light wings, but the counterparts were more comfy together.

He swore that he heard Shades facepalm in their head.

"Yep!" Solas giggled, even as Nightmare used his extra limbs to slice one of the arms like sushi.

Umbra spread his wings and they became more solid like, with swirls of gold hidden inside them, and a few seconds later, he was in the air, and above the golem.

"Fire away little one." Umbra cackled.
He might be still a bit over stressed, and the pain from the Fates using his body as an avatar had returned once Shades changed into himself again. At least it was slightly better then before, it was too bad that Life hadn't been able to heal all of it.

'Once this is over, vacation here we come.' He thought.

Solas giggled, even as Dream and Ink returned to the fight, and Mama was distracting his Seeker, summoning the light that he needed for his strongest spell.

The young guardian's eyes were closed, even as the light built up around the Golem.

“Almost there...” Umbra told Solas.

Solas hummed, as the light started to crackle, a warning for everyone to get away from the Golem, who had switched from attacking Ink and the others, to attacking Umbra and Solas.

Umbra smirked, and shadowy whips edged with ice came out of the earth and began to impale the Golem.

“It's too bad that you're a Golem, Earth is both shadow and light magic... but it's useless against Golems.” He scowled.

He was pretty sure that Searcher's Ink still had nightmares from the last time he tried to resist being grounded, there was no escape from the earth.

Heh heh heh....

Dream slowly backed away from the Golem, he could sense the power in the light, dragging Ink with him and Nightmare followed them.

Solas opened his eyes to reveal that they were endless voids, he whispered a single word and the light reacted.

Various light constructs of the Temple Guardians before him appeared, rushing at the Golem, tearing it apart, as the gathered light exploded.

“Hmm.. think it's done?” Umbra asked thoughtfully.

‘Stop jinxing things!’ Shades yelled.

‘Sorry.' Umbra thought back, giggling.

The explosion of the light sent shockwaves throughout Outertale, healing wounds, rebooting Geno and even removing the goo from Nightmare's bones.

The healing light was so strong that several of Nightmare's old wounds was healed.

But Searcher found himself being pulled back to Solas, dropping Seeker's hat back on his head. 'Solas?'

'Tired Mama. Solas wants to sleep.'

'Yeah... I think that all of us need a good rest.'

'Stay awake for now Solas, it's a bit easier for Umbra to carry you, then for him to carry Ser.' Shades said, butting in.

'I can try! I'll just put him in my jacket.' Umbra teased, glad that they all could hear each other while they were this close together.

Gently, Umbra landed by Geno, waiting for the Golem's remains to be revealed.

At this point, they just had to destroy it's core.

"Brother!" Dream yelled, hugging Nightmare.

"Gah! Get off of me Dream!"

Geno shook his head, even as the smoke cleared to reveal the Golem's remains, several holes had been blasted into it, and in the middle of it's chest, a bright light shone, tainted with fear.

Umbra put Solas down and he walked over to the Golem, he leaned over it and he pulled out a grey orb that was  glowing yellow.

“It's strange just how much trouble a small bauble can cause.” He said, and he clenched his fist, shattering the core. Dirty power slipped between his fingers, fading away before it hit the ground. The Golem's remains became powder, the powder vanishing between one second and another.

"Big Brother, what about Fear? Where is he?" Solas asked.

"Does anyone want to answer that?" Umbra asked, walking back to Solas, he gently rubbed Solas head.

Geno whistled, looking innocent, but the smug grin on his face told everyone everything.

Umbra crackled.

Seeker ran back over to them.

"Mr.Geno, did you really have to do that to my kidnapper? He's Dust now..."

"He set the chain of events up that led to Gothy being taken..." Geno brushed off a bit of Dust from his knuckles.

"What?!" Dream yelled.

‘Mom’s hardcore, no matter what Multiverse he is in.’ Shades giggled and Umbra nodded his head, he hoped that his Fear could be defeated this easily.

"Solas... you're tired, I'm pretty sure Ser wants to see his mother." Umbra said gently, with a smile, one that only Solas usually got to see.

"Okay...." There was a small poof and a lanky beanpole skeleton walked out of the smoke.

"Gothy!" Seeker yelled, before he tackled the beanpole, nuzzling him.

"Palette!" Searcher wrapped Seeker up in a hug. "You're okay, thank the stars, you're okay..."

"Goth?" Dream asked, even as Palette returned the hug. "Is that you?"

"Of course it's me, who else could it be?" Goth asked.

Spotting a tree nearby, Umbra went over and he sat down in it's shade.

It was probably for the best if he didn't become Shades right now, their was enough confusion with Solas running around.

This was better then watching it out of phase, Shades snorted when he summoned extra buttery popcorn.

Geno just smiled and he rubbed Goth's head, right before a shadow formed behind him.

He turned around in time to see Reaper appear. "R-Reaper?"

"Hi Gen!"

"You go missing for several weeks and the first thing that you say to me is "Hi Gen!" instead of explaining what happened?!" Geno yelled.

"Gen..." Reaper slowly backed away. His waifu was getting angry.....

"GET BACK HERE!" Geno yelled, running after Reaper the moment that his husband started to run.