Searcher whimpered as he and Shades were dragged into the family room by Geno.

And it wasn't even his Geno, would this be a taste of what could happen to him when his Mom got his hands on him?

He didn't want to know....

He couldn't even bury the lower half of his face into his scarfs, since he wasn't wearing them....

Wait.... Could he?

He quickly brought his scarf and Palette's scarf out, wrapping them around his neck, before he buried the lower half of his face in them.

That made him feel a bit better, but it still wasn't enough to stop the trembling of his bones.

He felt Geno place them on what was clearly the love seat.

"Ser... We need to start." Shades quietly said.

"I know." The taller Goth said, looking at Shades when he felt him tugging on his sleeve. "Just give a minute to calm down okay?"

He took a deep breath in and he exhaled, smelling the scent of Palette from his scarf. It helped him to calm down. He looked at Reaper and Geno. "So... Here we are, what do you guys want to know?'

"Explain to me the Error part, since Error has been around since the beginning, long before you two were even born." Geno asked, rubbing in between his eyes.

"Well, do you remember when Shades was taken right in front of you two years ago?" Searcher asked. "Because that is when Fate took us, but the story behind why Fate took us actually begins with Ink.... A long time ago... When he had a Soul."

"Ink... had a soul?" Reaper said in surprise.

"Yes he did, and it still exists." Shades replied, and carefully, he pulled out the two pieces of Soul that he had managed to retrieve. It was definitely a Monster Soul, but it glimmered with a beautiful array of colors that shimmered with a gentle light. "These are the pieces of Inky's Soul that I have retrieved so far."

"I haven't found the Soul of my Ink, but I am finding pieces of a key that should open wherever it is." He carefully pulled out the key piece from his first temple. "I think that I know where the next piece of the key is."

"That's great Searcher, oh! I have carvings from the ice temple to show you! It might tell me where Ink's soul essence is!" Shades said, ever cheerfully.

"Boys, focus.. back to explaining." Geno pointed out, Shades blushed purple.

Searcher blushed as well, he had been about to start asking Shades to show him the carvings from the ice temple.

"Well, Dream isn't the first time that Ink has been in love..."

"Don't you mean obsessed with Dream?" Shades snickered.

"Boys..." Geno said, tapping a foot.

"Okay, basically, as a Child of Fate, Ink had a powerful Soul and his First Love, only wanted his Soul for his power." Searcher said.

"This is where it gets awkward..." Shades moaned. "We call this lover, the False Lover, I won't say his true name, since it might bring their attention to you. You already know about resets... but what we have here is a divergent timeline caused because there was only two ways that it could have ended. But instead of creating a new AU... it literally shattered the Multiverse into two new Multiverses, with each one based on one of the two endings."

"And it spilt everyone in half." Searcher said, holding up his sphere model, which he quickly broke apart, into two pieces. "The piece in my left hand is your Multiverse, and the piece in my right hand is my Multiverse. It is why, Reaper, we register as one person to your senses, because we used to be a single Skeleton."

"What were these endings?" Geno asked, trying not to think of the once one thing.

"Fate told Ink that he could not be with the False Lover, because, you see, Ink had a soulmate but they had yet to be born." Shades replied.

"Soulmates are special." Reaper said with a grin, leering at Geno who blushed, remembering how long it had taken for his soulmate to admit that they were soulmates.

"Papa, in our timeline, Ink denied Fate as they were lonely and they loved the False Lover. But it was truly one-sided, and with that, the Lover struck, stealing and hiding Ink's Soul in temples with Guardians. And as long as they were there, he had it's power, but.. I still don't understand why they haven't used Ink's power from his Soul. I'll probably find that out when I find the essence. Searcher's side of the Multiverse... started when Ink listened to Fate." Shades sighed.

"Yeah, but the thing is, what happens in one Multiverse can and will affect the other Multiverse." Searcher said. "The effect of Shades's Ink losing his Soul was bad on my Ink." There was tears in Searcher's eyes. "And the Split affected my Fate too. She went insane.... Your Multiverse is the more positive side while mine is the more negative side. My Ink went insane, he overfilled and overpopulated my Multiverse with his creations, trying to find what he had lost, unaware of the fact that his insanity was caused by his Counterpart losing his Soul.

My Multiverse was filled to the point where it could have collapsed, because we didn't have an Error to destroy what wasn't needed, and that is what Error... No... We do. We make sure that doesn't happen, but it got so bad that my Fate did a Multiversal Reset and she reset everything back to the beginning, even Ink. She took his Soul and she hid it, because deep down, inside of herself, she remembered what happened and she didn't want it to happen again....

But without a Soul, Ink can not listen to Fate, he can not hear her warnings when she tries to tell him about the Balance... And since she wiped his memory, which is possibly the reason why he has a Swiss Cheese Memory, he can't remember what will happen if the Multiverse gets too full..."

"Of course, that forced our Fate to reset as well, because of the link between the two Multiverses. I do know that other Multiverses and Omniverses have Error's, and I did look into them to see why we were chosen, but set events didn't happen. Only Fate can tell us why we were chosen as Error. But they did unlock our true selves and our memories a while ago, I know why they were locked because technically, we existed in two places at the same time, for a while, and they were unlocked a bit after we were taken. I wanted to go home... but we're still Error, and unless we can repair Ink, we'll be forced to continue to be the Destroyer." Shades said unhappily.

"And the only way to repair Ink is to get his Soul back." Searcher said. "We remembered on the very day that we were taken from our families and thrown back into time, closing the paradox that was caused when we was born, because our Soul was in two different places at the same time."

Searcher was quiet for a few seconds. "But... despite the fact that we still register as one Skeleton, we are different. Our Multiverses may be linked, but what happens in one Multiverse might not happen in the other one and one of the biggest differences that I have found, apart from our height, is that Sorell doesn't exist in your Multiverse..."

A pained look went across Geno's face, and Reaper looked broken for a moment.

"Mama... Papa?" Shades asked, concerned.

"It's nothing dear, we're fine." Geno said, his smile was more sad than it usually was but, they clearly weren't fine....

"Are you sure?" Shades asked, worried.

"We're sure," Reaper replied.

Searcher froze at the look on their faces. "I'm sorry." He said, doing a nervous tick of his, gently rubbing the area around his right eyesocket. "I'm so sorry..."

"It's fine Searcher, it's been a very long time and it's no one's fault." Geno said, clearly not wanting to talk about it.

He nodded his head. "Was it them?" He asked. "He didn't like the union between Mom and Dad back in my Multiverse..."

"Ser... it wasn't who you're thinking, it was literally an unstable Geno from a failed Aftertale copy." Shades whispered, he might have been very young, but he had been there.

"Oh... I see..." He said, sighing, rubbing the area around his right eyesocket again. There was a slight grey tinge around it, it was unnoticeable, unless you was really looking for it.

The taller Goth suddenly hissed in pain, closing his right eye.

"Are you okay?" Shades asked in concern.

"I'm fine." Searcher kept his right eye closed. "It's normal for me, I'm used to my right eyesocket occasionally misbehaving like this, but this is the first time since I was taken that it has acted up like this...."

"Ser, that sounds more like an old injury acting up." Shades said, staring at his other, giving him a rather flat look. He climbed over to the other side of the love seat, and onto Searcher's lap. It was for the best that he looked into this, Ser would probably freak out from his parent's touch. He raised his hands and he lightly tilted Searcher's head a bit, before he frowned. "Ser... your other eyesocket is scarred... I can barely see the scaring on its edges."

"What?" Searcher asked. "A scar? I don't remember getting it and I never was seriously injured in the eyes whenever I was Error..."

"Um.. do you want me to use my magic to see the cause?" Shades asked frowning, still holding Ser's face.

"You can do that?" Searcher asked, before he frowned. "You know, now that I think about it, it always acted up after a nightmare, one that I have been having ever since I was a kid. Mom always said that I used to wake up screaming, with a hand over that eye... I need to know Shades... Do it."

"Um.. just be aware, this can cause flashbacks... To things that people forget." Shades said nervously.

"I'll be fine Shades. Do it."

"Try not to fight it." Shades said, and for a moment, his voice seemed to echo.  His eyelight was no longer purple but a pure determined red with gold specks. He dived forward with his mind before Ser could react.

And he saw the world as no one should.

Everything was codes.

Codes.. Data...

Everything that was and would be...

But what would be was locked from him by Fate, and aspects of the past were locked as well.

He had reached this place by accident as Error the first time, and he learned how to use it afterwards to keep up with Ink and destroy corrupted AU's.

But unknown to him, his body looked like it had golden 'codes' flowing on it in golds and shadows and his normal purple magic.

Yet, he saw nothing of this, for he was centered on Searcher.

Phantom 'hands' of his mind reached forward.

Yes, here it was.

A broken memory, childhood coding...

"Fatal..." He said.

And he yelped as he was forced out by Searcher's sudden fear, back to normal. But it was too late, the memory was free.

"Searcher!" He cried outside of what he called his code state.

"I.... I remember..." He whispered. "Damn it..." He was crying.

"I'm sorry..." Shades whispered, sounding the age that his soul actually was, Geno and Reaper could only watch on, bewildered about this rather private moment.

Searcher was shaking. "I remember now, back when I was Error and before I remembered who I was. Fate suddenly screamed at me one day. She didn't want another Error running around the Multiverse, and she wanted me to calm the potential Error down, but when I got there, most of the Gods that had attacked Mom, Dad and my past self had taken out by Mom. Mom wasn't a glitch anymore. He was Fatal Error. I had to calm him down, but while I was calming him down, I saw... myself, screaming....

Mom was holding me close to him, trying to calm me down but my crying wouldn't stop. I was just a year old... Mom eventually became Mom again and Dad had nearly lost a wing....

But now, I remember that attack as a baby, it took..." He traced the scar around his eyesocket.

"An eyelight... you were born with it..." Shades said sadly, his eyelight still had flecks of gold. He didn't tell Ser, that the Multiverse itself had probably forced the issue to keep the fragile balance between the two sides as there were too many differences already. He closed his eyes, he could hear a whisper of their voice.

Yes... the darker Fate had done it.

When he opened his eyes again, his eyelight was it's normal purple shade again and it was glimmering with tears.

Geno exchanged looks with Reaper, mouthing words to his mate. Neither of the Goths noticed.

But if one saw it and they lip read the words, they would have seen 'screaming nightmares', 'child' and 'eye infection' for some unknown reason.

He wiped the tears away from his eyes with his left hand.

"Let's talk about these temples and Guardians.." Reaper said, trying to ease the tension and the cuteness of the scene of tiny Goth in his larger counterpart's lap.

"Okay..." Searcher tried his best to put a smile on his face. "I just need to get a glass of water."

"You sure?" Shades asked worriedly, back to his normal, less otherworldly self. His code self could be a bit too much for some people.

"Yeah, it would help me a lot."

"Okay," Shades said, slipping off his lap so Ser could get some water.

He got up, and everything seemed to be fine.

The first sign that something was wrong was the room spinning around him. His legs shook as he leaned against a wall.

He couldn't breathe, he tugged at the neckline of his shirt and the scarfs around his neck, trying to move them so that he could breathe properly. His eyelight was shaking...

His legs gave out on him and he fell to the floor with a crash, he was still trying to breathe, sweat started to roll down his face as he coughed, gasping for air.

Everything around him was so fuzzy, he couldn't hear or see anything properly, he could see the spots covering his vision.

And then, there was the voices, trying to break through the static that he was hearing, but it wasn't enough....

The last thing that he saw was his shadow twisting...

-----

Searcher was now a crumpled mess on the floor, Shades and his parents were rushing over to him, when Reaper suddenly held them back. "No! Don't go near him!"

"Reaper!" Geno was about to yell at his Husband, when a soft, haunting music filled the room.

"Papa?" Shades asked, confused.

Searcher's shadow was twisting and morphing, into a form that they all knew. The eyelights were glowing as it cradled it's son close to itself.

"Another Papa... kinda?" Shades said confused, edging slightly closer.

The Remnant glared at them all, until it's eyes landed on Geno. Reaper let go of him. "You can go near him now, but be careful, it will attack you if it thinks that you are going to hurt it's son."

It was now soundlessly crooning to Searcher, wrapping it's wings around the unconscious skeleton.

"Um... Mr.Reaper? Is Searcher.. your Gothy okay?" Shades asked worriedly, slowly getting closer.

"Goth, when my scythe was forged, I infused it with my Magic and Marrow, sealing an Remnant, an Echo of myself within it. His Reaper must have done the same thing, but for it to be here with the Kid and not the Dad... something must have happened to his Reaper, and because of that, the Kid must have his Dad's scythe now."

"He's missing, I felt an echo of him vanishing all the way in our multiverse. Ser found it and some of Mr.Reaper's things when he returned to his Temple's remains later." Shades whispered, and by now, he was right in front of Ser and the Remnant.

"But right now, it doesn't seem to trust any of us." Reaper watched as the Remnant tried to get a reaction from Searcher by nuzzling him. "Apart from Geno, because it thinks that you are his Geno, the Remnant won't know anything about what the Kids have told us until it's Reaper can update it's knowledge, it can create memories of it's own, but it can't understand them without it's Reaper to explain what happened in them...."

The Remnant looked at Shades, before it reached out and it patted Shades on the head.

Shades giggled, he couldn't help it. It felt just like Papa doing that. Then he yawned, it wasn't even lunchtime yet and he was exhausted. Ser had accidentally pulled energy from him in his panic, whatever... he'd just eat more later.

"It will only trust the only other skeleton here that doesn't have a double, you Geno, because it believes that you are it's Geno, but it seems that you did something to make it trust you a bit Gothy."

The Remnant nuzzled it's son again, it could sense just how fragile it's Baby Bones really was. He needed time to rest and recover, time that he didn't have. It looked at it's Baby Bones's friend before it pulled him into the cuddle.

"Apparently it's naptime, I can take the hint." Shades giggled, he cuddled closer to Ser and he allowed himself to fall asleep.

It was just that kind of day.

The Remnant soundlessly chuckled, carefully rubbing the back of it's Baby Bones before it looked at Geno.

"Let me get them back to bed then." Geno said, striding forward, more questions could wait until the two of them were mentally ready to continue.

The Remnant handed Shades over to Geno, but it kept Searcher in it's grasp. The taller Goth looked younger then he actually was when he was sleeping. The Remnant covered him with a wing.