".......... We have to take him to Sci," Ink mumbles in shock. Oblivious to anything being wrong, the baby stops to play with a flower poking out of the grass.

"He doesn't seem..... stable," Dream winces.

Ink raises his brush up and quickly creates a plastic, bowl-like structure. As an afterthought, he makes a pillow and a small stuffed bunny to drop into it. Dream walks a step forward to pick the baby back up. He's scared that his hands will just go right through him, but the baby is solid and dry when he's picked up. His liquid state seems like some sort of ability that he has little power over. Dream is quick to set him down into the bowl. The baby quickly becomes distracted by the bunny toy. He grabs it and starts to chew on the ear.

"Did you get all of him?" Ink asks sheepishly.

"Maybe?" Dream looks around in the grass for any sign of missing goop. He spots a few black droplets, but they're sliding quickly through the grass. The droplets climb right up the side of the bowl. "I don't wanna say it first, but this baby is a little strange."

"That's why we're taking him to a doctor," Ink shrugs. He bends down and picks up the makeshift crib.

Sci's AU is very unique. The AU resets without a human. Sci himself is a younger version of the original Sans. Like his name suggests, he's one of the best scientists in the Multiverse. A regular doctor probably wouldn't know what to do with living goop. Hopefully, Sci will have some advice on what to do with the baby.

Dream creates a portal for them both. It drops them right outside Sci's house. It's common courtesy to not be spotted by AU residents who have no knowledge of the Multiverse. Since Ink's arms are full with the baby, Dream knocks on the door without being asked. A large crash from inside the house makes both Dream and Ink flinch. The baby in the crib freezes for a moment, but then giggles a bit at the loud sound. He squeezes the bunny toy and keeps a constant watch on what's going on.

"What can I help you with?" Sci is already talking before he has the door open and before he even registers who knocked. The younger skeleton monster brushes off his lab coat and looks up only to lock eyes with the baby. Sci then looks between Ink and Dream, alarmed. "Did you two have a baby?"

Dream can feel his face burning with embarrassment almost instantly. He stutters for a reply, but Ink beats him to it.

"On, no! It's Nightmare's," Ink says.

"That's even worse!" Sci yells in shock.

"We didn't kidnap a baby!" Dream shouts before taking a moment to calm down, "Nightmare doesn't even know he exists. We can explain everything......." Sci gives the baby another apprehensive look, but opens the door wider to let them in.

In general, Sci's home is very messy. The living room is actually the only area without various inventions or parts scattered about. Baby gates are set up in the three doorways leading out of the room. Sci's younger brother, Papyrus, is only two and half years old. He looks up from his building blocks in the corner when Ink and Dream walk in.

"Who them?" Papyrus asks, tilting his head.

"Don't worry, Papyrus. They're just some friends of mine. I gotta help them with a problem of theirs, but shout if you need anything, alright?" Sci says. Papyrus quickly nods his head and returns to focusing on the blocks. He's become used to his brother always working on something. The baby in Ink's arms leans over the rim of the crib to find the other voice, but Papyrus doesn't see them as Sci leads the group deeper into the house.

One of the baby gates blocks off the stairs that lead to the basement. Sci steps over the gate and descends the stairs without a glance backwards. Awkwardly, Dream and Ink follow. Ink nearly trips over the baby gate, but Dream steadies him. Sci's basement is really just his lab. A dozen different rooms of various sizes contain a variety of projects he's working on. Sci would be more annoyed with other AU's constant requests, but he loves the work. He wouldn't think up half the inventions he has if not for all the problems he's asked to solve.

"You've heard the drill before, but I'll say it again," Sci starts as he leads the group down the tiled hallway, "I don't do harmful weapons, I don't do unethical capture devices, and I don't pick sides. I don't know why you brought a baby here, but I'm not taking responsibility if Nightmare storms the place looking for him."

"Nightmare would have no way to know he exists," Dream points out again.

"I'm not sure how that would work, but why bring a baby to me, anyway? I'm not a doctor." Sci stops in front of a mostly empty room and glances around before motioning the group in. Ink sets down the crib on an empty work table.

"This baby is a bit....... unique. I'm not sure what a normal doctor could do for him," Ink shrugs.

"What's wrong with him?" Sci asks, becoming concerned.

Without saying anything, Ink reaches over and picks up the baby. He's careful to hold them above the worktable. Sci starts to question it, but stops himself as the baby simply falls apart. They melt right out of Ink's hands before pooling on the worktable. In moments the baby reforms from the mass and looks around as if nothing happened.

"......... That's not a baby," Sci mumbles, horrified.

"Well, it is a newborn! I just don't think it's actually a skeleton," Ink chuckles nervously.

"Ink accidentally brought Nightmare's goopy corruption to life," Dream explains.

"And what exactly do you want me to do about it?" Sci asks. Now that the shock is wearing off, he's becoming curious of how this being actually functions.

"Could you just make sure he's healthy, I guess?" Ink suggests, "Oh! And do you think you could make something so he's not so gooey? He kinda falls apart when gravity is in play, or, when anything touches him, really."

"I guess I could try a basic checkup," Sci says, looking over the baby again. Sci turns away and pulls out a notebook from a drawer before flipping to a blank page and grabbing a pen. "Alright, what's his name?" Ink and Dream both give him a blank look. "You didn't name him!?"

"We came straight here! He hasn't even been alive for an hour yet," Ink says in his own defense.

"Well I need something to title my notes, and you won't like what I come up with," Sci rolls his eyes. "Do you wanna name the baby, Dream? You're his uncle, in a way."

The thought of that hasn't even occurred to Dream. This baby was made almost entirely from his brother's magic, so that does make them family. Dream has a baby nephew. He never thought he'd have any other family besides Nightmare, who hates Dream with a passion. Dream looks back down at the baby and meets their big, purple eyes. Most Sanses are named after their AU or what they represent, but Dream doesn't want to name his nephew 'goop' or 'corruption'. He continues to stare at the tiny monster for several moments while thinking.

"Vestige," Dream says out loud. Vestige babbles something back, getting the syllables wrong, but it sounds like he tried to repeat the name. Sci hums in approval and writes the name down at the top of the page in the notebook.

From there, Sci sets up a few different pieces of equipment to run a few basic tests. The first thing he does is get Vestige's weight. Sci brings over an electronic scale that he usually uses for beakers, but it will work just fine for Vestige with how small he is. When Sci picks up Vestige, he tries to set him on the scale as quickly as possible. Some of him still drips off and onto the table. Sci is fascinated when the drops move and run up the scale. Vestige's body may just be more of a hive mind on a microscopic level. Sci has so many questions and ideas he wants to try, but he's no phycopath. He won't do anything that might hurt Vestige. Sci's question will just have to remain as theories.

Vestige weighs more than his size might suggest, but this doesn't alarm Sci. The goop that Vestige is made from is denser than water. Sci only writes the observation down and keeps going. He also measures the baby's height and responses. Sci has no idea how Vestige might grow. He grabs a small flashlight and shines it in Vestige's eyes to look for dilation. To his confusion, Vestige doesn't react to the bright light. He stares right at it with no noticeable reaction.

"That's...... interesting," Sci says out loud.

"Is something wrong?" Dream asks.

"No, but I do want to try something. I'll be right back," Sci says quickly before leaving the room. He returns a moment later with a small container. Sci keeps a lot of snacks for his brother around, but Papyrus has outgrown the soft, chewy crackers that Sci still had laying around in storage. Baby skeletons are born with teeth, so Sci's not worried about Vestige choking, but then again, Vestige isn't really a skeleton. Sci has a theory that Vestige could probably mimic whatever form he likes. Right now, he's just doing what is familiar.

"Are you hungry?" Sci says in a slightly higher voice as he talks to Vestige, "I've got something yummy for you!" Sci dumps a few crackers on his hand before offering one to Vestige. The baby is confused and unsure of what Sci is doing. He's never eaten anything before. Vestige only stares at Sci. The older monster feels suddenly embarrassed with Ink and Dream looking over his shoulder, but keeps trying to get Vestige to eat. Sci takes a cracker and actually runs it along Vestige mouth to try and get him to smell and taste the cracker. Vestige leans away at first, but then quickly becomes interested. "You want it?" Sci asks him. This time when Sci brings the cracker closer, Vestige opens his mouth. He seems to like it, but Sci never noticed him chew, which is mildly concerning. Sci sets another cracker on the table, and Vestige grabs it and eats it without fussing.

"Okay. Now, Ink, I want you to close the door and turn off the light," Sci orders.

A little confused, Ink obeys. The room is plunged into near complete darkness. None of the adults can see a thing. Sci uses his empty hand to find the work table. When he does, he dumps the remainder of the crackers in his other hand onto the table. He sets them in a different spot away from where Vestige is sitting. After a moment, Sci hears shuffling as Vestige moves.

"Alright, you can turn back on the light," Sci says to Ink. When the light flips back, Sci immediately looks to Vestige. He's crawled across the work table and is happily munching on crackers as the black streaks he left behind move to catch up. "Fascinating."

"What was that for?" Dream asks, confused.

"Vestige can see perfectly fine, but he doesn't exactly have eyes," Sci explains, "No matter how bright or how dark it is, I think it's probably impossible to blind him."

"That would be really useful for the next time I drop something underneath the bed," Ink jokes.

"As far as I can tell, there isn't anything obviously wrong with Vestige's body besides his....... makeup. He's perfectly aware as any baby skeleton. I'd just like to double check his soul." Sci takes a moment to ensure he has no ill intent, not even annoyance, and then CHECKs Vestige. The baby would be able to feel any anger directed towards him since he's being CHECKed.

"Vestige"
LV: 1
EXP: 9#%6*
ATK: 1
DEF: 1
HP: 05 / @5#3

*Vestige doesn't know what he is, and neither do you
* Unstable

Ink squeaks out an unintelligible noise when he sees the soul. Not only are Vestige's stats glitched up, but pieces of his soul are missing. The small, glitchy heart is partially melted with holes speckled throughout the deformations.

"Is he okay?" Dream gushes.

"How can it even look like that? I've only ever seen this in amalgamations, and even then, the problem is usually too much soul matter," Sci says, examining the soul with worry. He leans in very close, and Vestige reaches out and pats Sci's cheek. Vestige seems surprised when Sci's face isn't squishy. The older monster jumps and backs up with a sheepish smile.

"The soul is usually the first part of a monster or human I make," Ink says with a frown, "I've never started with the body. It's lucky that he has any soul at all."

"Can't you fix it?" Dream asks. He's already becoming attached to Vestige, and feels awful that he might be in pain.

"I don't know what would happen if I tried to mess with his soul after he's already alive. I could change something without meaning to, or even kill him." As soon as Ink says that, a dark thought comes to mind. Would it matter? Since Vestige is so 'new', he has no experiences or personality development. Does it matter if Ink fixed his soul by changing what he could become? Ink shakes his head and curses himself for the thought. That would be a horrible thing for him to do! He has to find some other way. Ink glances down at his sash where all his paint vials used to be. His emotions are starting to fade.

"Having only part of a soul could cause Vestige all sorts of unforeseen mental problems as well as trouble with magic control. That's probably part of the reason why he falls apart so easily," Sci explains.

Ink stares at Vestige and tries to come up with a solution. Despite his soul being in such bad shape, he doesn't seem to be bothered by it. That could change with very little notice if Vestige is somehow injured or exerts too much magic. With his soul still on display, Ink tries to get a read on Vestige's magic. Not only does he look like Nightmare, but their magic feels extremely similar. Ink might get nervous from it if Vestige wasn't so cute! Vestige and Nightmare might end up similar in some ways, but Ink of all people knows that life shapes people much more than origins. As Ink stares at the soul, he gets an idea.

"I could copy Nightmare's soul!" Ink says out loud.

"Would that work?" Dream asks. Sci quickly echoes the concern.

"I wouldn't copy Nightmare's soul exactly, but just pieces," Ink explains, "Just a few little patches to fill in the holes. Vestige and Nightmare are similar enough that Vestige's magic should accept it and adjust without any problems."

"Can you do it now? Would it hurt him?" Dream takes a step closer to Ink as he talks.

"It shouldn't hurt him at all! Though to copy Nightmare's soul, I'd probably..... have to..... see it....." Ink trails off, realizing the biggest flaw of this plan. The three adults fall into silence. Getting Nightmare to agree to meet with them, never mind help, is an impossible task. Ink has no idea where to even begin. How would Nightmare even react to being told about Vestige?

"Well, I have something that might work for now," Sci speaks up, "There's an Undertale copy where the human doesn't reset anymore after a pacifist ending. The Sans of that AU asked me to make something to help the amalgamates." Sci turns away from Vestige to dig through a box on another table. A moment later, he pulls out some sort of dark green bracelet or hoop. "This should keep his body together. It condenses the magic in an amalgamates's body. It helps them maintain their shape. It'll help, but it's not strong enough to pose any danger." The bracelet swings open on a hinge, and Sci snaps it closed around Vestige's neck. The baby grabs onto it but quickly loses interest when Ink drops the bunny toy back into his lap.

"Thank you very much for your help with him," Dream thanks Sci. Dream picks up Vestige, relieved to find that he feels solid. Dream sets him against his left shoulder and chest. Vestige squirms a little at first since he's not used to being held. After a moment, the sound and aura of Dream's soul beating calms him. Vestige rests his chin on Dream's shoulder and is content to watch everything else. Unlike before, he doesn't melt. Ink grabs the toy bunny before they leave the room. Before long, Ink and Dream find themselves out on the front porch after Sci ushers them out the door.

"So.... what now?" Ink asks.