The Altar of the Fire Temple was small.

He had never seen an Altar this small before, even though the ruins around it, suggested that this used to be a grand Temple....

What had happened here, to cause this much Destruction?

He sighed, he wasn't looking forward to this, but he couldn't back out now, he had to keep on moving forwards, no matter what.

He placed a hand on the Altar, waiting for something to happen, but when nothing happened, he sighed and he turned away from the Altar.

He was about to remove his hand when he felt something dig into it. He yelped, and he yanked his hand away from the Altar, hearing a distressed mewl.

He looked at his hand, seeing the bite mark on the bone, marrow was leaking from it and the wound itself was slightly burned.

His vision started to become fuzzy...

"What the..." The colours around him were fading, dying out, he couldn't see his hand anymore.

His eyelight flickered a few times, before it went out, and he was left in the dark.

"Damn it!" This Guardian had some kind of status effect too.

He was just glad that during his time as Error, he had been forced to fight blind sereval times. He summoned his Dad's scythe, but he didn't let the excess Magic trigger his Wings, he forced that Magic towards his legs instead. He had been working on this for quite some time.

If he could see, he could have seen the silver sheen that spread over his legbones....

The Guardian, whatever it was, seemed to have four legs. He could figure this out from the way that it's legs hit the ground, each leg had it's own unique sound, telling him which, and when, each leg was hitting the ground.

He waited until he heard the sound of all four legs leaving the ground, it was going to pounce on him, before he moved out of the way.

The semi Power up did what he wanted it to do, it increased his Speed, allowing him to dodge the Guardian.

If he could see, he would have seen the silver blur that he had become, skidding to a stop on the opposite side of the arena.

-------

Goth winced when he felt the pain from his leg bones, channeling and forcing out this Magic through them, hurt him a lot. He just had to hold on until this status effect wore off.

Or Shades showed up. He could really use an extra set of eyes right now....

He felt the heat from the fireballs before they reached him, using the Boost again to dodge them, running straight towards the Guardian. He dove to dodge a swipe from a leg, sliding underneath it's stomach and using several bone attacks to strike the stomach of the Guardian.

It yowled in pain as he got back up, but he didn't sense the tail until it was too late, it wrapped itself around him, forcing him to drop his Dad's scythe.

The tail was wrapped around him tightly, Goth could feel it crushing his ribs. He tried to break free, doing whatever he could. He summoned bones attacks, he tried to use his own scythe and he even tried to summon his strings, but no matter what he did, he couldn't get himself free from the tail.

------

The small Skeleton looked up at the big door, his Big Brother was going to be so mad when it found out about this. He had snuck out from his home to do this.

He carefully knocked on the door, before he placed the letter on the doorstep and he ran away.

------

Geno opened the door, but he didn't find anyone there. He was about to close the door and blame the knock on being a prank when he looked down and he found the letter.

He picked it up and he carefully opened it, only to freeze when it saw the information inside of it.

"Lotus! Raven! Look after Shino and Sorell!" He yelled as coding started to develop in his good eye, before he took a shortcut.

He had left the letter behind in his haste and it floated down to the ground. The information that it had was simple, but it was so important to Geno. It was the coordinates for an AU, along with a simple message.

'Goth is here.'

------

Goth coughed, he could feel his ribs cracking as the Guardian squeezed him tighter with his tail.

Was this it for him?

No, it couldn't be....

He reached out with his Magic, trying to summon his Dad's scythe, even though he couldn't see it. "Dad... Anyone... Help me... Please..."

But the darkness of the world around him was breaking up, he could see something white... Was that his hand?

He focused on it, as his vision started to brighten up, he could see the vague outline of his Dad's scythe. It was moving slightly.

"Come on. Please..." His vision was coming back to him and he could see that his shadow was twisting again, just like that time in Shades's home, before the creature yowled and Goth yelped, since he was suddenly falling.

Someone caught him and when Goth looked up to see who it was, he gasped at who he saw. "Dad?!"

But something was wrong with Reaper, Goth could see right through him, it was like it was an Echo of his Dad, but it was here and as it removed the tail that it had cut off from the Guardian from around Goth's almost crushed ribs, it looked pissed off.

-----

But what Goth didn't know that because he was in his Multiverse, the Remnant of his Dad was much more powerful here, then it was in Shades's Multiverse, it was now able to appear and interact with it's son more often, and it could protect him in battle, and it had done that.

It had cut off the tail of the Guardian, saving it's son from having his ribs crushed, but Goth's vision was still too hazy and weak for him to see the Guardian properly.

"Well, what's next?" He asked. "Shades showing up and landing a blow on the Guardian?"

He suddenly gasped and he fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around his ribs, they hurt so much.... Was this how Shades felt in his first Temple when his ribs were damaged?

"I'm sorry that we're late!" He looked up in time to see the fuzzy form of Shades attacking the Guardian.

"Shades?" He whispered, just as someone pulled him away, out of sight from the Guardian. He looked up to see the fuzzy form of a Palette. "Truth?"

"Hi Searcher." Truth placed his glowing hands on Searcher's crushed ribs and the Goth took a deep breath as his crushed ribs started to heal. He soon was able to breath without flinching in pain. "I need to tell Shades something!"

"What is it?" Truth asked.

"You can't let the Guardian bite you." Searcher held the hand up with the burnt bitemark. "It has a Blindness Status Effect."

Truth's eyes widened, before he started to yell. "Gothy! Don't let it bite you!"

"Like I'd ever let one do that!" He heard Shades yell back. "Do you know what germs cats have in their mouth?!"

Searcher coughed again as the last piece of his ribs went back into it's rightful place. He carefully pushed Truth down, deeper into the hiding spot. "Stay here." He said, before he picked up his Dad's scythe again. "And watch out for the fire."

He forced the excess Magic into his arms this time, watching as a silver sheen spread over his arms. "Shades, you might want to get out of the way!" He yelled as he ran out of the hiding spot, swinging his Dad's scythe, becoming a sliver blurr that was heading for one of the horns of the still fuzzy Guardian.

"Pfff.. Fire, yeah, I noticed that." Shades cackled as he slid away from the guardian in a dodge.

And despite his fuzzy vision, Searcher managed to chop off one of the Guardian's horns, landing right behind the Guardian. Steam was coming from his arms and they were trembling.

The Guardian roared in pain, right before a burst of fire erupted from the stump of it's horn.

“Nice and clear cut.” Shades giggled. “It's horned for battle.”

Searcher couldn't help the laughter that came from him. "Seriously Shades? Did you have to do that in the middle of a fight?"

"Bleep!"

Searcher looked at the Guardian. "Did it just..."

"My Temple Guardian looked cute and tiny at first, and it went Mu... kill it before it goes cute." Shades muttered. "And yes... it had to be said."

"Yeah, we better do that..." Searcher said. "And at this point, I'm glad that I'm still half blind due to it's Status effect."

He winced as the silver glow disappeared from his arms, before his wings burst out through the slits in the back of his hoodie. He flapped them a few times before he grinned at Shades.

"So, all out then, hmmm..." Shades said, with his semi powerup going active. "And one of these days, I'm going to find out who Fate used to build your Temples and your Guardians."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Palette getting further away from the battle, to his relief.

"Yep... I also found out something interesting..." Searcher grinned. "Hey Dad, do you wanna help me?"

A haunting melody begin to play, and Searcher's shadow began to morph, forming the Remnant, who hovered behind it's Baby Bones. This was their home field and they had a bit of an advantage in their Multiverse...

"Ohhhh..." Shades said at the scene, and amusingly, he was still keeping the Guardian busy with the superior speed of the powerup. He was also using his strings, and his own scythe, to hurt and slow it down.

Searcher grinned and the Remnant grinned too, before Searcher summoned a Gaster Blaster, which began to charge up, even as Searcher took to the air, so that he could attack the Guardian from the air.

He swooped down and he sliced at the Guardian, causing it to yowl in pain.

The Remnant grinned, before it summoned a wave of Bone Attacks to harass the Guardian.

"Burn the burn... how much of a time limit does this have Ser.. also.. we will be having words. Cuz you know, this was still supposed to be a Vacation!" Shades called, enjoying the Guardian's frantic yowls.

"Burn the what?" Searcher asked, even as he swooped and flew around the fire attacks that the Guardian was using. "And well.... Vacation went out of the window when my Pally went missing!"

The Remnant seemed to be slowly fading away, but it summoned one last wave of bone attacks, before it started to return to it's resting place.

"What?! Missing?! And I bet that it was the False Lover too... jerk..." Shades said, striking among the guardians legs. "And it's a old weird joke, just ignore it..."

And at that moment, the Remnant faded.

"Yeah." Searcher frowned, right before he stopped right above the Guardian, as his eyelight flashed blue and four blue bones speared the Guardian through it's paws.

"Pawsome." Shades said, but what might not have been said, was that Truth and Shades had quite a bit of sugary candy that day and thus, the reason for the mass puns.

He summoned more strings, but this time, they were bright white and they cut like razors into the Guardian.

Hmmm.. one of these days he needed to find out if the Guardians had names.

-------

"Poor kitty!" Solas cried.

"Its name is Fissure." Umbra sulked. "Not kitty."

------

He could feel the countdown for his own powerup, and he knew that they had to hurry up.

And what made this even more troublesome, was that he could feel a pounding migraine, and it was getting worse. He had a feeling that it was because they kept getting too close to each other, and they'd both been in each other sides too much to be safe.

"Seriously?" Searcher asked, even as he swooped down to slice off the other horn. "Did you have some sort of candy today?"

"When a Palette offers you candy with hopeful eyes, would you say no?" Shades giggled.

"Nope, even if that candy is the reason that I end up on a sugar high that ends up with the kitchen being destroyed."

In the distance Truth giggled... perversely.

Shades ignored this, knowing Pally would be teasing him about it later.

"By the way.. we really need to end this... We both have time limits, and my Magic has been a bit off since I came to your side. I think that we've been too close to each other lately." He replied with concern.

"Yeah..." Searcher winced as his migraine started to affect him, even as the Guardian yowled and it spat fire everywhere. "Back to the Blaster, it's almost ready to fire!"

“The energy in it's the mouth is a bit of a giveaway.” Shades replied dryly, moving away and using more strings to keep the Guardian in one spot.

"Yeah!" Searcher quickly grabbed Shades, picking him up and flying towards his Blaster, not noticing the steams of Magic that started to connect them. "Just keep the Guardian in one place!"

He put Shades down once he reached his Blaster and it opened it's mouth, firing it's payload at the Guardian.

“I'm not letting it move.” Shades said, gritting his teeth as he forced the strings not to break from the Guardian's onslaught.

He shivered, not noticing bits of Magic starting to build up around Searcher and himself.

The beam hit the Guardian directly and since so much Magic had been charged up in the beam, it carved a hole into the Guardian as it charged towards them.

Searcher cut off the beam of Magic, and the Guardian's fur started to turn black as the fire died and it's body started to crack.

“Please tell me that's it...” Shades sighed.

The Guardian just seemed to crumble into shards of stone, but not before it mewled for the last time.

“It couldn’t resist a mewl of resistance.” Shades laughed, letting his powerup fade... ooofff.. he was exhausted.

"Yeah..." Searcher sent the Blaster away.

"Hopefully, the Soul is here." Shades moaned.

Searcher slowly moved towards the rubble and he started to search it, only to groan and just kick a piece of the rubble away, before he pulled out another Key Piece.

"More carvings, yay..." Shades said, sitting on a large chuck on rubble, and in the distance, they could see Truth heading their way.

He sat down next to Shades, looking over the carvings on the Key Piece, before he smiled. "Well, it looks like that I am going somewhere with a lot of Stars for my next clue."

“That’s.. not much of a clue.” Shades protested, remembering how many star themed places there was.

"Yeah, but it does mean looking through some of my favourite AUs." Searcher said, putting the Key Piece in his inventory, with his Dad's scythe, before he held the hand that had not been bitten, up for a high five.

Shades grinned, and he put his own hand up in the air.

Searcher smiled, before he slapped his hand against Shades for a high five.

‘CRAP!’ Shades mentally cried as they connected, he fell into darkness.

'Shades!' Searcher mentally screamed, before there was a flash of light.

The flash of light faded away to reveal a single Goth sitting there, he had Searcher's height, but he was wearing bigger versions of Shades's clothing.

"..." Truth said, his eyelights were super large because of shock.

There was a few moments before this Goth spoke. "Well, this is interesting... What the hell just happened to us?!"

"Gothy..." Truth squeaked out.

"Fusion of selves Searcher, you and Shades are technically one. And due to many things, are the only beings that are capable enough to do this." A quiet voice said.

Goth got off the rubble, looking at the one who just spoke to them. "Umbra..."

“If you are not careful, this will always be your form, I can reverse this. But you will have to code a block into place, so it cannot happen again by accident, or both of you, as yourselves, may be lost forever...” Umbra replied.

“Searcher?” Truth asked nervously, looking at Umbra.

"Truth, this is Umbra and I don't know if your parents have told you this, he is older than Ink and Error. He is also the only one that can ground Ink." Goth said, putting his hands in his pockets. He sighed. "Well, do what you have to do Umbra, we can't find our Ink's Souls if we are stuck in one body..."

“Don’t worry, I can reverse it easily enough. I just have to wait ten more minutes for the magic to stabilize to do it safely.. But as it is, I feel another Skeleton arriving.” Umbra replied.

"GOTH OBLIVION AFTERDEATH!" Someone just yelled. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Mom's here..." Goth said. "Wait, what?!"

Umbra snorted.

A Skeleton suddenly appeared in front of them, his form was glitching and his left eyesocket was blue. You could clearly see coding within it and the glitch over the left eyesocket was flickering...

"Fatal... it's fine." Umbra said, staring at Fatal with no worries.

"Where is my BaBy Healer?" Fatal hissed.

"Well... it looks like he can't read the codes. That's a pity.. and that's ten minutes." Umbra said, and he flicked the fused Goth's forehead.

There was no flash of light, or changes, but suddenly, there was two Goths. One was sitting on the floor and one was unconscious.

"Try not to be in need of my help any time soon kiddos." Umbra said, turning around and walking away, before he vanished into the shadows, with the faint flicker of wings in his shadow.

Searcher blinked a few times, before he looked at Fatal....

"Mama!" He suddenly yelled, clumsily getting up and running straight towards Fatal.

Fatal pulled his son into his arms when he was close enough, as his glitching died down and his left eyesocket slowly became black again.

"Goth!" Geno cried, pulling his eldest's head underneath his chin, not even caring that Goth had a growth spurt. "My baby!" He cried. "It's okay Goth, everything is going to be okay. I've got you now, you're safe."

"Mama..." Searcher cried into his Mom's scarf, not even caring that his Mom's marrow was staining his clothes.

Palette blinked, Gothy would be sad that he missed this reunion.

He pulled out a phone and he started to record it.

Geno kissed the top of his son's head, gently rocking back and forth, humming a song.

Searcher nuzzled his Mom's neck, wrapping his arms around his Mom and just letting go, relaxing into the gentle hold that his Mom had on him. "I missed you..."

"I missed you too Gothy." Geno said. "I missed you so much, let me look at you." He gently tilted his son's head back, running a gentle hand over the slightly more mature features. "Oh Baby Bones, I'm gonna need a stick to beat away your admirers, aren't I?"

Searcher leaned into the gentle touch, smiling.

“Um.. this is nice, but.. Shades needs a better place to rest and we need to figure out how to get us back to our own Multiverse.” Truth finally said.

"Oh, my apologies!" Geno said, before he walked over to them, not even caring about the fact that Searcher was clinging to him like a cat. His husband did the same thing.

He used Blue Magic to carefully lift Shades up. "Would you like to carry him... Palette?!" He was shocked, before Searcher nuzzled his Mom.

"Not my Pally." Searcher said. "He's Shades's Pally. Shades is me from another Multiverse."

"Well, okay then Baby Bones." Geno said. "I'll look after your friends, just get some rest. Your horde of siblings will be demanding hugs when we get home."

Searcher just nodded his head, before he fell asleep, in his Mom's care.