Shades of Time

Chapter Four: Meetings

The ceiling was out of sight, that was one of the first things noticeable. The next was that the isles of books, there end could not be seen. The floor seemed to be made of the same stuff as the ground of the Anti-Void. If there were walls, Goth had never found any.

This was a multiversal librarby that was on the edge of several multiverses. He'd discovered this place on accident a few years after his transformation into Error.

Here, one could run into several versions of your multiversal counterparts, so it could be confusing if you didn't understand the omniverse.

Goth had a lot of time to study it due to his duty as the destroyer.

He'd even met other versions of himself here, both as Goth and Error, and he wouldn't even talk about Ink.

The true gods he met weirded him out, a being who had asked him to refer to him as Shell, and a version of US!Sans- Blue- who hadn't been giving his own nickname, other then God Blue.

And that group that skipped away from their set of multiverses to set up a new home in an empty multiverse still had him scratching his skull in confusion sometimes.

And he would not speak of the skittle-obsessed Axetale Temmie that had somehow found her way there.

Due to this, it was a rule here that if you came across another visitor not to ask them about their multiverse, or ask if they were from your own.

Which why it was a shock when he ran into Reaper, his father, literally.

His multiverse's Reaper.

He hadn't even known his dad knew about this place.

Well... now he was glad he was dressed as Librarian Goth from the NaJ multiverse.

OoOoO

Reaper hated entering this place.

He'd run into too many copies of himself to be comfortable.

But he was running out of choices.

Goth was still missing.

Oh, he knew his only truly immortal child was alive, he would've felt if Goth died.

But Goth was a very young Death God, and as his parents, both Reaper and Geno should have been able to trace him anywhere, at least until Goth was a hundred.

But they couldn't.

Which should be impossible, as nothing should be able to destroy or block the link between a parent and child skeleton monster.

Thus why when he turned into an isle, it was a shock he ran into someone and didn't kill them by accident... or that it was a Goth counterpart.

He knew right away they couldn't be his Goth, they were what he'd leaned was Librarian Goth from one of the NaJ multiverses, and he looked older then his Gothy even if he was still a lot shorter then most L. Goth's.

"Are you alright, Mr. Reaper?" L. Goth asked, getting up.

"I'm fine, kid," Reaper said with a grin.

"Is there anything I can do to help you? I don't work here, the admins keep it all straight. But I do know where a lot of things are?" L. Goth asked, picking up the books he'd dropped.

"Don't worry, I know my way," Reaper said, waving the help away.

"Well, if you're sure," L. Goth said, scratching his chin.

Reaper blinked, and for a second, he swore he saw glowing markings on the other's bones.

"See you about, kid," Reaper said with a grin, walking deeper into the library, reminded of his own missing child.

OoOoO

Goth let out a sigh as his father left, his soul pounding heavily in his body.

He wanted to go home.

Wanted to go home so badly it hurt.

"So... you're having the same issue I am," a voice said.

Startled, Goth spun around to see... another Goth.

A freaking taller Goth.

"Is... that Palette's scarf?" he asked in bewilderment, and a faint purple blush covered the other's face briefly.

"Yes, it's his," The other said.

"You said we're having the same issue?" Goth asked.

"Yes, we're both Goth, but an incident caused both of us to be taken by Fate to be Error in our chosen multiverse. Do you mind if I call you Shades? It's in your multiverse's code, and calling each other Goth will get awkward pretty quickly. I go by Searcher outside my multiverse," the other said.

"Sure," Goth said, not really caring.

"Thanks, thankfully our type of timeline isn't popular yet. But I was hoping to speak to you about our Inks' missing souls, maybe trade ideas on what we could do. There aren't many other people that would understand this problem," Searcher said.

"There's a private area a few minutes away, we can talk there," Shades suggested, and the other nodded.