Hibana was humming as he kicked his legs while he was playing on a swing, while the other kids were running around a park. It was one of the very rare days where their caretakers managed to get them out of that AU, to visit an AU that had actual sunshine and fresh air.

The tiny child was happily playing by himself, on a swing, with Yami watching over him. It was a warm and sunny day, and most of the children were happily playing together, apart from Hibana...

He just couldn't explain it, he just had these days where he just wanted to be left alone... And he wanted a book, but no one had brought a book with them... 

"Mew?" Yami said turning, his velvety black ears turning as something caught his attention.

"Yami?" Hibana asked him, as he stopped playing on the swing. "What's wrong?"

Thunder rumbled in the sky, as lightning lazily snaked across the sky.... A few drops of rain began to fall, and the other children quickly began to run inside a building... Those clouds looked wrong, too... Orange.

A ragged tree caught fire as a raindrop hit it.

Hibana jumped, even as Reaper started to herd the rest of the children inside the building, where Skulduggery was working on opening a portal...

Yami peered at the sky as he followed his light towards the building, that storm was not normal.

It was searching, seeking...

He did not want it to find what it sought.

Hibana started to shiver, he did not like this storm... Something about it was wrong...

Yami screeched and he pounced forward, somehow pushing Hibana inside the building as lightning struck the place that they'd been moments ago.

Hibana yelped as he tumbled to the ground, and Reaper quickly helped him to get back onto his feet.

Yami mewed apologetically and he rubbed against Hibana's ankles, glaring at the scorched earth outside the door.

That had been close, too close... if that had hit them, it would have teleported his light away, but it would make the others think that he died. His other self had to get here, fast, he did not like this.

Reaper gently hugged Hibana. "You're going to be okay... Everyone's going to be okay." He told him. "Skulduggery's working on a portal to get us out of this AU... We'll be back in our base in a few minutes, where this lightning can't hit, or hurt us."

Hibana nodded his head, and he wrapped his arms around Reaper, letting the one legged Death God gently pull him closer to where all of the kids were huddling together while they waited for the portal to be opened.

Yami watched all of this, with his fur still on end... Jumping up, he curled up against his light's neck and he licked him on the cheek, gently.

Hibana slowly reached up, and he started to gently pet Yami, even as the Fell Papyrus started to sweat. "Whatever's attacking us... It doesn't want us to leave..." The Fell Skeleton growled.

In the body of Yami, Shades frowned, Searcher was definitely not safe here... He might have to use some power, as difficult as it would be, for him, in this body.

Hibana was shivering.... He was scared...

Ser...' Shades whispered to his other, hoping for a reply, as the building shook and people screamed as a part of the roof was ripped off of it.

'Shades...' Searcher whispered, as he started to shake.

'I might have to pull on more power here, can you focus on making sure that Hibana doesn't panic?' He asked, hopefully, because he was going to be focusing on what he had to do, to keep his power hidden from Fear. More and more of the building was being torn away, and the wind rebuffed their bodies. The rain was fading, but the rest had not.

'I can try... Without the constant draining of my Magic, I was able to recover a bit of it, but it won't last for long... The best that I can do is to negate Gravity for a few seconds, Hibana always did feel better when he got a floating piggyback ride from this Multiverse's Goth or Reaper.'

'I'll see about giving a bit more Magic, carefully, later, Umbra's getting closer and then, we can officially look into things.' Shades responded.

'Yeah, and the closer that Umbra gets, the faster that Solas can heal.'

Hibana started to hum when he became weightless for a few seconds, but a few seconds was all that was needed... Shades heard Searcher screaming over their bond as the wind suddenly changed, and Hibana was suddenly tumbling about in the air. Searcher was being pushed to his limit for Magic, and thanks to the small amount of Magic that he had, the backlash for that, as he tried to fight against the wind, was painful and harsh.

The adults panicked, as the Magic from the unnatural storm and winds prevented them from grabbing him without putting the other children in danger. Shades moaned, he knewwwww it.

He slipped out of the building, with only minute specks of Magic keeping his own body from being flung around like a rag doll.He gathered his magic and he roared, as shadowy Magic began to gather around him.

Hibana whimpered as he was being flung through the air, he could feel that the nice soft feeling, that he could feel in his Soul, was hurt. He could feel the other soft feeling that he could feel in his Soul, trying to help the one that was hurt. He didn't know what they were, but they had always been with him, he had never been alone, but it was only after Yami appeared, that he could feel them.... He could barely keep his uncovered eyelight opened, but he could see the Magic that was gathering around Yami. "Yami?"

In the shadowy Magic, limbs grew, and they changed, a form grew taller... less cat like...

Shades/Yami opened his eyes, his dual colored eyes were the only things that could be seen in the darkness. Then the shadowy Magic seemed to flow, and it shifted into silk black and silver kimono... for children. A small figure stood there, their form was that of a Goth with dual coloured eyes, with a familiar floofy black tail, and large velvet cat ears on top of his skull. The last bit of Magic became a floofy black scarf, their mouth opened to show that they had a few feline sharp teeth. 

He would have preferred a more older form, not one that could pass for a five year old. But any more would have alerted Fear, and with that he leapt forward, ignoring both wind and gravity, as claws made of Magic briefly appeared as they literally sliced the storm apart between himself and his other, the jump had also revealed that his feet was bare of footwear. Kimono clad arms grabbed Hibana, using the time, when he landed, to rip apart the remaining storm around themselves."Mew." He said, he was glad that his other was okay, nuzzling their face and purring.. It was a bit weird in a more normal form.Sue him, he was still a cat, but right now, he was just in a different form.

Hibana giggled, and he returned the nuzzles. They were so warm...

"What the hell?!" Reaper yelled, as he quickly floated over to them, Skulduggery was busy fighting through the Magic that was stopping them from opening a portal, but he did have a shocked look on his face, while the other kids were trying to get a closer look at Hibana and Yami. "What just happened?!" The one legged Death God asked them, as he took a closer look at them, and he yelped in shock when he saw that Yami had the face of a Goth. 

Yami didn't care, he just allowed Hibana to cuddle his tiny form in the others's arms.

 "Prrrrrrrrrr."He said, chest rumbling, feeling a lot more safe in a more humanoid form with his other. He internally giggled, knowing that Reaper would probably think his 'Monster' form was based on HIbana's true body, as he was Hibana's familiar.This was comic gold.

Reaper was confused, did Hibana's familiar just evolve to save him, or was his 'Monster' form based on his true body?

Hibana just giggled as he happily cuddled the purring Yami. "Grandpa Reaper, I have a purring Kitty, can I keep him?"

"Hiba..." Shades purred, gosh he wish that he could talk better in this body.

"Yes Yami?" Hibana titled his head. "What's wrong?"

"Hiba... For.... get..." Yami said, having to force the words a bit, he would have to practice more.

"Forget?" Hibana frowned, as Reaper started to frown... Was Yami trying to tell Hibana something that was important?

"Liiight... Shadows.... forgot... cough stolen." He grimaced, he was running out of energy and he would return to his smaller form again, but if he worked on the limited resources of this body, he should have longer transformations in the future.

Reaper sighed... If only they had access to the Multiversal Library, they might be able to understand what Yami was talking about if they could do some research on what he was trying to tell them... But the ability to access that place had been sealed when Ink created the Seal on the Omega Timeline.

"Umbra worry, love you." Yami whispered, and he mentally groaned as he felt his body suddenly reverted back to his kitten form.

"Who's Umbra?" Hibana whispered, as the two nice soft feelings in his Soul responded to that name...

'Well.. I tried....' Shades whispered to Searcher, two more minutes and he might have been able to explain more.

'I know that you did...' Searcher told him, as Reaper ushered Hibana back to the group of kids as Skulduggery finally managed to start opening a portal.

'If Hibana puts a collar on me, while I'm in my hybrid form, I'm hauling ass and leaving. It's bad enough that I know that you're going to be putting that form in bows and ribbons.' He scowled.

'That can wait for when I can actually take my birth form long enough for me to do that...' Searcher whispered. 'But I won't use the collar.... Shades... That storm...'

'Was Fear's. I don't think that they knew that it was you, I think that they were looking for large sources of light based Magic, which you are. It didn't have a mental tag on it, it wasn't the type that you need to use when you are seeking certain people.' He responded. 'Do you want 'Yami' to keep taking on the hybrid form, to be with his master, to play?'

'I would like that, Hibana would love that, and Solas would love it too... I'm sorry that I couldn't do more.'

'Hey, you're improving. You're responding more, and Hibana is starting to respond to you too. By the way, did you realize that Hibana and Yami are true aspects?' Shades asked, he was curious, and half of the time he did let Yami live on his own, without interreference from him. Yami, like all cats were like, was more separate from Umbra and Shades, and while Umbra and Shades would one day, become one again....Yami though.. he doubted, cats would be cats.

'Yeah, I have.... They're starting to become more than what they are now.... Hibana is starting to identify themselves as Gender Neutral, and their own form of Magic is starting to develop...'

'Yami is also pretty gender neutral when I'm not controlling the body or tagging along, but I have noticed something awkward. Umbra hasn't noticed, mostly because he's in our true body, that's pregnant, and it's growing unstable due to both of us being separate, and unbalanced, in your case, and as balance counters.' Shades unhappily said.

'Shit.' Searcher cursed.

'Ser... there is no Fate, No Destiny.. no Deities, other than the fragment of Fear here,' Shades finally told him, worriedly.

'Deities like that don't disappear without leaving something behind... Deities don't leave a Multiverse alone, without having a Plan B, unless they have no other choice...'

'I don't like this, if there was a Fate here, Fate would have denied Umbra and I access here. There is no balance, heck... I think that the only balance that is semi functional is the one that we brought with us, when we came here.' Shades said, mentally poking at the Multiverse's codes, wondering what the heck was going on.

'But there is an Error here, Dad is here, and from what I've learned, Ink is still around too... This Multiverse's Dream and Nightmare are MIA... Wait a minute...'

'What is it Ser? A reason why they have no balance even though the balance keepers are here?' He asked.

'Nightmare and Dream became their balance after the Tree of Feelings was destroyed, they don't just keep the balance, they are the balance... What if after what Fear did here, that applies to all of the balance keepers in this Multiverse? A last ditch effort by the Deities to save the balances... I don't think that Fear would be stupid enough to kill the balance keepers, not if he wants this place to stick around.'

'Either way, it's screwed up. I'm going to have to let the aspect of Yami run by itself for a while Ser, I'm going immerse myself in this Multiverse's codes to see what I can do to keep it from collapsing. As it is, Umbra should be here tomorrow or the next day.' He replied, thoughtfully.

'Okay... You know, I wouldn't be surprised if Fear had something to do with the Deities here going missing, he would have had both sides of him, here, when he took over this Multiverse.'

'And.. Yami just used the control that I gave them to shift into the bigger form, because fingers.. why not.' Shades sighed, of course their cat self would have more control over the new form. 'Anyway... it looks like that I'm sill doing parts of the Job Fate stuck Umbra and I with...' Aka fixing code so out of wack that it's amazing that it's still working.

Searcher giggled. 'I would help you if I could join you, but I can't leave Solas, or Hibana, alone. Solas is still cocooned within my own Soul, and Hibana is safe where they are.'

'Its fine, and until Umbra gets here, we can't get rid of the crystal safely. Just have fun the next day or so with a child, and the cat that shapeshifts some.' Shades gently teased Searcher as he hugged his other self, and mostly blocking off his senses from Yami, and Umbra, so that he could concentrate. Of course he still kept Magic going to Ser, but that was easily done by his subconscious.'Now... how does one reinforce a AU's core code so it doesn't implode in five months.' Shades thought worriedly, yeah.. best not to worry Ser over this.

Searcher giggled, even as Hibana started to play with Yami, and the kids that had slowly made their way over to them, to check on them, as the Fell Papyrus finally managed to open a portal back to their hideout. "The portal is stable Reaper, who do we send through first?" He asked the Death God.

Yami squeaked in surprise, as Hibana had somehow picked them up in their bigger form.

Reaper chuckled as he started to herd the younger children over to the portal.

"Mrrrrr?" Yami asked, half meowing, and half purring, looking up at Hibana in curiosity.

"You are so cute!" Hibana giggled as they started to snuggle Yami, stopping the other children from playing with the cat like Goth.

And speaking of Goths...

"Hibana!" Goth whined, as the skirt wearing Skeleton got in the way of him petting Yami. "I wanna pet Yami!"

Hibana stuck his tongue out at Goth, as Palette started to laugh.

Yami hummed, and suddenly, they was a cat again, curling around Hibana's neck. They might not be a bro-con like Umbra, but they preferred their other over other people. Cats were cats after all, even if they were parts of a greater whole.

Hibana giggled, and they snuggled the puff ball, even as Reaper started to herd them, and the older kids, through the portal. 

'Love you.' Yami said licking his face, not caring that Hibana had never spoken mind to mind before.

'Love... you.. too.' The voice was weak, and it was too soft to be Searcher, or Solas...

'Hibana Mine, Yami yours. Solas is Umbra, Ser is Shades.' Yami said, with all the understanding of an overpowered cat.

'Always...'

'Hibana and Yami, wait for Big Brother.'  Yami purred.

'Yes... Big Brother will be here soon... Big Brother can help the Parent and the Light.'

'Yami sorry, Yami can't give back memories.'  Yami said, unhappily, they would need all three parts of the shadowy guardian together to do that.

'Hibana doesn't need past memories, Light needs memories, Parent needs help... Hibana can sense things... Big and scary one has a lot of Parent's Magic.'

'Hibana must remember, can't be true counterpart until then.'  Yami mewed, even sadder as their ears dropped, Hibana was their's... but wasn't, yet, because of the memory issue.

'Okay, but Big and scary one has crystal of Parent's Magic... Hibana can sense that Grandma Geno is in that castle.'

'Yami knows, Umbra comes. Papa comes.' Yami replied, he nudged Hibana's skull with a paw, realizing that Reaper was about to talk to them.

Hibana nodded their head and they looked at Reaper. "Grandpa, what's wrong?"

"Why are you calling me Grandpa now Kid?" Reaper asked them. "You've never called me that before..."

"Hibana is starting to develop the bonds that bind family together!" Hibana giggled, as they clapped their hands. "Hibana could be called the child of a Goth, therefore, Goth's Papa is Hibana's Grandpa!"

Yami kitty laughed.

Reaper started to splutter, as Hibana walked through the portal. He was too young for grandkids!

'Silly Death.'  Yami chortled, 'loudly' enough for Reaper to hear.

Reaper looked at Yami, as he, and Skulduggery, followed the last child through the portal, before the Fell Papryus closed it.

"Mew..." Yami said, as if adding insult to injury.They were a cat after all, and Hibana was their person.

Hibana giggled. 'Grandpa Reaper is funny.'

'Yes.'  Yami purred.

'Does Grandma Geno make those funny faces too?'

'Yami not know, Shades not share those memories. Says that we'll meet them.'  Yami said, they were confused about that.

'Okay!' Hibana giggled as they walked over to the book that they had been reading, before they went to the Park, and they picked it up.

Ser was never going to let him down, Yami, and Shades, just knew it. Let the cat have full control, and they were already trolling.

Hibana hummed as they opened their book.

Yami stretched and yawned, and they happily fell asleep against their person.

Hibana started to kick their legs in the air as they read their book.

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I am so sorry for taking so long to update this story, real life, and my own head, got in the way. I had to work through burnout, writing blocks, and private poisonous thoughts and feelings that I don't want to talk about.

I'm trying to slowly get back to doing my usual updates on Wattpad, so you may hear from me more often, or I could drop off of the face of the earth again...