Searcher was the first Goth to wake up. He groaned, it felt like he had been thrown through a wall again by Ink. He just wanted his headache to go away.

The room was dark, it had to be very late in the night or early in the morning. He pushed the blanket off of him and he sat up, someone had partially undressed him, removing his boots and his coat. He could barely see the outlines of them on a nearby chair.

"Where am I?" He asked himself, before he remembered that when he had fallen asleep, he had not been alone.

"Shades!" He yelled, getting out of the bed. The floor was cold but that didn't matter to him. "Shades! Where are you?!"

His counterpart was missing. He was not here.

Suddenly, hands came out of nowhere, and he panicked as they pushed him back onto the bed.

"It's alright, breathe... if you're looking for Goth, he's on the other side of the bed, if you turn around." A voice said, a familiar voice.

He looked at the other side of the bed, only to see Shades there. He reached out and he touched one of his hands, to reassure himself that this was real.

"He's okay, oh thank the scythe that he's okay." He was calming down.

"Go back to sleep, we can talk once both of you have gotten some rest." The voice said, gently shifting him and tucking him back under the covers.

"Okay." He felt his eyes slowly close as he curled up closer to Shades.

"Thanks..." He was half asleep. "Mom..."

He fell asleep.

Geno sat back down in the chair next to the bed, continuing to keep watch.

He wasn't losing Goth again.

Searcher mumbled something in his sleep.

Geno reached out and he gently rubbed the skull of the alternate of his son.

"Shhh... all's well." He said.

He calmed down, falling deeper into sleep.

"Mama?" A confused, tired voice asked.

"I'm here Gothy." Geno said, as Shades opened his eyes, seeing the sleep hazy figure of his mama.

"This has to be a dream." Shades whispered.

"Why's that?" Geno asked, Shades felt himself falling back into sleep, cuddling closer to his counterpart.

"Because Fate never allowed it in the past, had to.. do... duty.. zzzzz." Shades mumbled exhausted, and he fell back into sleep, dead to the world.

Geno clenched his hands and he gritted his teeth, of course Fate was involved.

"Fate's a Meep." Searcher said in his sleep, and even in his sleep, he knew not to swear in front of his Mom, or a counterpart of his Mom.

------

Reaper peered into the room, taking in the sight of an exhausted Geno, their sleeping offspring and an alternate Goth, who was using his Kid as a Teddy bear.

“Did they wake up at all?’ Reaper asked softly.

“A few times, I think that they thought they were dreaming. Reaper... Gothy said Fate was involved.” Geno said, Reaper swore softly.

Things were starting to make sense, and not in a good way.

“I’ll get Shiro and Raven to school, and set out breakfast for you all.” Reaper said.

“Thank you dear, I have a feeling that we will not like what we will hear." Geno said, looking stressed.

-----

Searcher twitched as he woke up. He was still curled around Shades, using his counterpart as a Teddy bear. His headache had become a migraine from hell.

"Mph.." Shades said, making a cute sound in his sleep.

"Owww..." He winced as he opened one of his eyesockets, closing it quickly when the light hit his eyelight.

"That sounds painful, stay there, I'll get some water and a bit of monster food to tide you over." A voice said, and then, there was the sound of someone walking away, and the sound of running water, probably in another room.

He slowly untangled himself from Shades, before he opened his eyesocket a bit.

"Who's there? Mom?"

The footsteps slowly came back, and the sound of a glass being put down was heard.

"Do you need help dear, I'm afraid... I'm not your mother." Came the voice, who he was now able to recognize as Geno's.

"You're Shades's Mom?" He tried to get up.

Strong arms reached around him and they helped him to sit up.

"Shades, is that his nickname then?" Geno asked.

"It's how we tell each other apart." He slowly leaned into the gentle touch. "From each other and all of the other Goth's who know how to travel to different Multiverses."

"And I thought that multiple copies in other AU's was bad enough, now what do we call you?" Geno asked, and he carefully passed the glass of water to Searcher.

"Searcher." He carefully sipped at the water. "But I can be called Ser too."

"It's very nice to meet you Searcher, now, let me get the cuddlebug up." Geno said looking at Shades, who was still in a deep asleep and he had rolled closer to Searcher's side again.

"Gothy, its time to get up. Reapapa made pancakes for you." Geno said simply.

Shades popped up, his eyesockets were wide open, and he was not even wincing from the pain that he too, was clearly feeling.

"Pancakes!" Shades said, for all hail the Pancake King Reaper. Then, he was pulled into the arms of Geno who began to cry.

"Don't you dare vanish like that ever again Goth, or you'll be grounded till the end." Geno said through his tears.

"I'm sorry Mama, I'm sorry." Shades cried into his mother's chest.

Searcher looked away, trying to hide the tears in his eyes. He missed the touch of his Mom so much...

Geno with that sixth sense all mothers had, grabbed Searcher and he brought him into the Mom hug of doom.

He gasped, before he started to cry, wrapping his arms around Geno.

"My Mom's going to give me the exact same speech, because I vanished in front of him like Shades did in front of you."

-----

In Searcher's Multiverse, Geno stopped in the middle of making breakfast for his children. One of his baby bones was crying. Goth was crying.

"Where are you Gothy?" He asked. "Where are you Baby Bones?"

----

"Why is Shades so excited about Pancakes?" Searcher asked, a few minutes later.

He was enjoying the Mom hug of Doom. He didn't know how he was doing this, but he was actually purring, thanks to the hug.

"Your Papa isn't a Pancake King?" Shades asked, looking like the world was ending.

"Well, my Mom is the Waffle Queen, so he doesn't usually cook Breakfast for us, and it doesn't help that Uncle Grim makes him take the morning shift a lot." Searcher frowned. "He still takes the time to greet us in the morning but when he does cook, it's normally lunch or dinner."

"Huh... Mama burns waffles, probably one of the split timelines things, then you're in for a treat." Shades said cheerfully.

"Food children." Geno said with a laugh and he got up, somehow carrying both of them to the kitchen, where three plates of pancakes and multiple syrups waited for them. The fact that they were still fresh, was a clue that magic was working at the table.

Searcher was drooling, it smelled so good.

Geno put both of them down in chairs, and then, he sat down himself.

"Dig in." Geno said reaching for maple goodness.

Shades brightened up and he dropped fresh butter, real maple syrup and fresh sliced strawberries on his pancakes.

Searcher dropped chocolate syrup, some freshly sliced bananas and a handful of blueberries on his pancakes, before he started to eat them.

Shades grinned as he ate and waited for the reaction that he knew was coming.

Searcher took one bite of a pancake before he smiled. "This is so good!" He said. "I have to get my Dad to make breakfast more often if he can cook pancakes that taste like this!"

Moments later, Reaper slipped into another seat, with his own pancakes.

"Alright Kiddos, the jig is up. You mentioned Fate in your sleep, and to all my senses, you're registering as if you're one person, even your magic..." Reaper said as he poured his syrup onto his pancakes. "Which is impossible, even for alternates from other AU's and multiverses."

"Wait, you're that Reaper that I met in the Library." Searcher said.

"..." Shades said looking at anywhere but his father.

Searcher put his fork down. "You deserve to know the truth." He eventually said. "Fate was the one responsible for both of us going missing two years ago. It happened at the exact same time. Fate took us, because...." He started to cry and his form started to glitch.

"Ser.." Shades said, getting up and hugging his counterpart.

"No..." Reaper said. "It can't be..."

"It's true." He wrapped his arms around Shades. "We're not just Children of Death, we're Destroyers of Worlds too."

"Dear..?" Geno asked confused, Shades looked at the floor unhappily.

Would this be a rejection.. if it was..

He didn't know what he'd do.

"Who gave Fate the right to turn my Baby Bones into him?!" Reaper yelled, before he rushed over to them and he pulled them into a hug. "I don't care if you're Error! You're still my son!"

"..." Geno said.

"FATE DID WHAT TO MY BABY?!" He screamed.

And he did an actual Error type crash.

Okay... not a rejection.

"Mama!" Shades cried, rushing around the table.

"Why do I have the feeling that Fate is going to die?" Searcher asked, before he froze. "And nearly everyone that has hurt Error, even if we got our memories back at the same time that our past self was taken..."

"Please, don't tempt Papa Searcher, and I have doubts that the other deities are going to allow an Absolution of Fate." Shades said unhappily, as Reaper gently carried Geno back to their room.

"Okay, I won't, but... how are we going to explain about the spilt Multiverse?" He poked at a pancake. "And that we actually used to be one skeleton?"

"I have it all figured out ahead of time!" Shades crackled, and he slammed a book down on the table with the title 'Split Multiverses and you 101.'

"Well, that could work." He ate some more of his pancakes.

Shades gave him a rather dry look. "You made one too, didn't you?"

"Made what?" He asked.

"A book to explain, or a video or something." Shades said, eating his own pancakes, he knew Ser too well.

He smirked, before he pulled out a sphere, one that looked like that it would split into two.

Shades facepalmed, he knew it.. he bet that Ser had overdone it too, when he should have been sleeping.

"Why...." He sighed, and he pushed away his empty plate.

"I had to explain it in a way that Horror would understand."

"Ahhhh." Shades said, as if it explained all, and in some ways, it did.

Searcher finished eating his pancakes.

"Soo.. these will explain it to Mama and Papa, but for some reason, I feel like I'm forgetting something.." Shades said, frowning.

In a dark AU, Nightmare sneezed, scaring the others.

"I really feel like we should be remembering something." He said.

"Me too, I mean, it's not like I told anyone else about you, apart from Papa and the others."

"Leave these here and flee till Papa and Mama cool down?" Shades whispered to Ser.

"Yeah, let's do that. We can come back later."

Suddenly, hands came down on their shoulders and a dark aura filled the air.

"And where did you think your poor grounded souls will be going?" Geno said with a wide smile, a smile that made them tremble in fear. A smile that the Error would flee from, it didn't matter that they were the most powerful being in their own Multiverses, other than the Guardians...

Geno was boss.

"Nowhere Mom!" Searcher whimpered. "We were just trying how to figure out how to explain some of the other things that have happen to us, to you."

Geno's look said that he believed none of that.

"Now...let's go to the family room where we can discuss everything." Geno said, there was no escape.

----

In Searcher's Multiverse, his Geno frowned. Goth had gotten himself into a lot of trouble.

"You are so grounded when I get my hands on you Baby Bones."