Reaper and Geno shivered, they knew what this was.

Goth was in the mood to prank someone.

-------

Goth opened another portal after the talk with Shades was over, checking on Underfell.

The timeline had not changed.

But now that he had more information, he knew that he didn't have to stay too long in the AUs and search for the information that he needed anymore.

All that he had to do now was to find that false lover, they had to be looking for Ink's Soul too and they had a head start on him.

Which meant that if he could find that false lover, he could steal anything that they had on this and use that information to help him.

But that was Plan B.

He still needed to find where Fate hid Ink's Soul.

And to do that, he needed to continue with what he had been doing.

Goth looked at his list of AUs. The AU after Underlust was Candytale. He could practically feel the drool that was coming from his mouth.

"Chocolate..."

Well, he did deserve a chocolate break.

He opened a portal to Candytale and he skipped through it, intending to go to the first place that sold chocolate when he bumped into someone.

He looked up and he almost had a Soul Attack. It was Ink!

He was about to turn and run away when someone else popped up.

"Hi Searcher!" It was Retconned, but why did he have a small hedgehog made out of fire on the top of his head and a small dragon in his hood? "I see that you ran into Shell."

"Shell?" Searcher asked, before he looked at the Ink again. "You mean that Ink who is actually a God?"

"A God?" Shell asked. "Where?!"

He looked at Searcher before he winced. "What happened to your coding Kid?"

"It's a long story." Searcher said. He was about to explain when Shell and Retconned grabbed him by the arms.

"She found the Skittles, Run."

------

Searcher stared at what had once been the Underground of Candytale, before he turned his head to look at the guilty parties.

Shell was just whistling, looking at anything that wasn't the Underground. Retconned had, somehow, found the ingredients for cookies and the other Goth was mixing them together, with the fire hedgehog and the snow dragon being his helpers. But the final guilty party was sleeping off the sugar, the Temmie was quite happy to take a nap in what was clearly the remains of this Sans's jacket.

Searcher looked back at the destruction. "Mom and Dad are going to kill me if they find out that I was here when this happened..."

-------

Goth sighed as he moved onto Dusttale, it would be a while before he could go near Candytale again, and Underfell was still stuck in that timeline.

He knew that Dust had moved out of Dusttale a long time ago, which left the Underground here abandoned and empty, which was perfect for what he wanted to do.

His first stop was the royal Library, where he set up his tent, before he started to head for the deepest parts of the library, picking up the books that he needed.

Goth coughed when a cloud of dust that was triggered by him removing a book, covered his skull, it wasn't the Monster kind of Dust but it still went everywhere.

When he got Ink's Soul back, he was going to strangle that Artist for all of the trouble that he had caused him.

----

Goth was heading back to his tent when he heard footsteps behind him. He stopped and he quickly summoned his scythe to block the blow from the one following him.

The creature following him was like nothing that he had seen before. Goth could feel the sweat steaming down his skull and his hands were shaking.

"What's wrong with me?" He asked himself. "Why do I feel so scared?"

He tightened his grip on his weapon, he really wished that he wasn't alone right now, the air around them felt heavy and Goth could hardly move.

He could taste his own fear, wait.... Fear? Would it be....

Goth was confused but he tightened his grip on his weapon again. Something told him that this wasn't going to end well for him. He could barely keep his scythe in his shaking hands.

He shivered, moving his scythe to block another blow, one that could have caused serious damage to his ribs if he didn't block it. The blow did cause him to move back a bit and he winced when his back hit a bookcase.

His arms were shaking again and he could barely keep them straight. His vision was slowly being overtaken by a pink haze.

He could hear the voices again.

"Gothy, why?"

"How dare you Error, to take on the form of my eldest son?!"

"Goth is dead, you are nothing more than an imposter."

"Palette, Mom, Dad, no..."

"And here I thought that you can help me, you are nothing more than a waste of my time Searcher."

"Shades..."

"Glitch!"

"Freak!"

"Why aren't you destroying AUs?!"

"Get back to work you waste of space!"

"No..." Goth dropped his scythe and he placed his hands over where his ears would be if he was a human. "Nononononononononononononononono......." He dropped to the ground and he curled up into a ball, feeling like he was about to cry.

He couldn't breathe, it felt like the world around him was suffocating him, slowly draining away his will to live. His scarfs felt like a noose around his neck! He couldn't breathe! Everything hurt! Someone, anyone, please, make it stop! Please!

'Palette, Mom, Dad, Shades! Anyone?! Please! I can't breathe, my chest hurts, help me! Please!'

The creature made it's way over to him, and it was about to attack him, when it found itself caught in blue strings.

It trilled and it was trying to say something when Shell appeared out of nowhere, waving one of his fingers from side to side and tsking.

"Now, what are you exactly..." Shell asked as he walked around the creature. "I have never seen you before..."

The creature shrieked at Shell, struggling against the strings. Shell frowned, before he snapped his fingers, causing the strings to wrap around the creature's Soul and pull it out of it's chest.

Shell stared at the bright Pink Soul. "Fear...." He snapped his fingers again and the strings pulled the Soul apart, dusting the creature.

Something was wrong here, Fear shouldn't be this powerful in a Multiverse without Glitchtale, and Fear should not have minions like this.

"Fear, what have you done?" Shell asked, before he turned to Searcher, who was rocking back and forth in his ball, muttering to himself, with tears steaming down his cheeks and his arms wrapped around his rib cage.

Shell knelt down and he began to remove Searcher's arms from his rib cage, but he fought back, kicking and screaming. Shell could see the blue tearmarkings that were coming to life on his cheeks.

But the one thing that worried him the most was that Searcher's eyelight now had a pink tinge to it.

"Searcher! Calm down!" Shell yelled. "Shades sent me! Searcher!"

Searcher continued to kick and scream, he had to get away! He needed to get away!

"Damn it!" Shell cursed before he used his strings to force the kid out of his ball. Searcher was still crying and screaming, even as Shell pulled him into a hug. He winced as he felt Searcher kick and punch at him, until the force behind them died away.

He rubbed Searcher's back, humming the tune that he knew all Geno's sang to their sons.

"Darling, oh won't you please calm your heart.
Just close your eyes...and hear your heartache wisp away...
Let sleep embrace you, don't be afraid of the dark.

Please, allow me to pacify your mind. Just rest, oh rest...and feel your pain be blown away...
And no harm done, oh no pain shall come...for now place your worries aside.

Hush now, hush now,
No one can hurt you now.
See all that you've accomplished, now take a bow!

Everyone has their own battles inside their hearts so please... be gentle.

You never have to fight your battles alone...

Darling, oh won't you please calm your heart.
Just close your eyes...and hear your heartache wisp away...
Let sleep embrace you, don't be afraid of the dark.

Please, allow me to pacify your mind. Just rest, oh rest...and feel your pain be blown away...
So no harm done, oh no pain shall come...for now place your worries aside."

"Shhh....Searcher, it's okay." Shell whispered to the young one as he rubbed his back. He could feel the young one crying into his shoulder. "It's okay Kid, Shades sent me."

"S-S-Shades sent you?"

"Yeah, your fear reached him." Shell pulled away so that he could look at Searcher. The pink tinge was gone from his eyelight but the young skeleton still had the tear markings and the faint traces of tears on his cheeks. "Kid, when was the last time that you had a day off from your search?"

"I take days off already Shell, I'm fine."

"I meant an actual day off, when you did something like going to a theme park or to the cinema..."

Searcher was quiet.

"Searcher..."

"I can't remember..." He eventually said. "The last thing that I did something like that, was a week before Fate took me, I think... I was with Palette and we went on a log flume ride, and afterwards, we caught colds because of how cold it was....

And as Error, the closest thing that I got to a day off was watching Undernovela...."

Shell took a deep breath. "Kid, you need a break, we are going back to your tent, packing it up, and then, I will dump you in the closest Theme Parktale that I can find, and I want you to stay there for a week."

"But Shell! I...."

"No Searcher, you need a freaking vacation, your Ink's Soul has been hidden for a very long time, it can stay hidden for a bit longer, while you take a long, overdue break!"

"Can I...."

"No, the only books that I want to see you reading for the next week, is for leisure, and don't even think about switching the dust jackets for them!"

"Yes Shell." Searcher sighed before he followed the Ink back to his campsite. "But Shell, was the hell was that earlier?! What was that creature and what did it want with me?!"

"That was one of Fear's minions."

"Fear, as in the God?"

"Yes, but Fear is not meant to have minions or to be this strong in a Multiverse without Glitchtale..."

"Then, what the hell is going on..."

"I don't know." Shell said as his strings packed up Searcher's camp. "Unless..."

"Unless what Shell?"

"Has everything happened recently that could cause Fear to be this strong?"

Searcher frowned, there had been nothing that happened recently that could explain that, but.... there was an event that was the only possible explanation to how and why Fear was this strong....

"Fear was the false lover, the one who stole the Soul of Shades's Ink." He whispered. "Having a Soul like that would give him some of the powers of creation, well, the half of Fear in Shades's Multiverse but the half in my Multiverse, he's still looking for it..."

"Exactly, if the Soul for Ink here, can stay hidden for that long without being found, then it will be okay for another week or two, while you take a break. You will have enough time to find it Searcher, but you are close to burning yourself out over this." Shell gave Searcher his supplies back, before he walked around so that he was behind Searcher. "Anyway, have fun on your vacation kid!"

"Wait, what?!" Searcher yelled. "But what about Shades, he has to know about Fear!"

"He's busy right now!" Shell giggled before he pushed Searcher through a portal. "You can talk to him later."

----

Goth found himself arriving in a Theme Parktale, by landing face first, into the sand. He sat up to spit out the sand that he swallowed."Star damn it Shell." He muttered once all of it was out of his mouth.

He looked up to see the fairground.

"This is going to be a long week."

-------

Shell belongs to Firehedgehog