It's very quite when Alloy steps into the next AU. Almost suspiciously so, but then again, Aftertale's Save Screen isn't know for being very busy.

He's beginning to tire. Alloy may be a higher being then anyone in this Multiverse, but that's not what he had in mind when he sacrificed so much to travel his Multiverse. He gets tired and hungry and disheartened. This new Multiverse is draining him. Alloy's making progress with the individual Sanses, sure, but he's found more and more bad blood between the groups. How will this cycle of violence ever stop?

Geno's save screen is very different than Alloy expected. The usual empty, black landscape is now coated in blooming echo flowers. It would be beautiful if Alloy couldn't see all the detached closed floating around aimlessly. The codes are from dozens and dozens of different AUs, but hardly any of the pieces are intact enough to make out what they once belonged to. What really chills Alloy is the fact that he's almost certain that most of these came from living monsters.

Hearing a footstep, the god does the first things that comes to mind: drop. Alloy throws himself to the ground and hides among the echo flower's tall stems. He's not sure why he's suddenly become so jumpy, but Alloy has learned to trust his instincts. Whatever moves before is silent now. Not even the echo flowers have a nearby voice to copy.

     He's laying down in the flowers when Alloy notices that some of them are crushed. He smashed some when he dropped, but there's a clear path where someone crawled through the flowers. Geno? No, that doesn't make sense with the current situation. Who else would be here? It gives Alloy an awful sense of guilt. The sound of static and a high pitched ringing makes up his mind. Alloy stays low as he begins to army crawl through the flowers, following the crushed path. The echo flowers are not endless. They only cover a small area of the save screen. It surprises Alloy when he makes a turn and suddenly finds that they give way to the usual emptiness.

     "Deja vu," Alloy mutters under his breath. Another teenage outcode is standing at the flower's edge, staring intently into the field. They don't even notice Alloy until he stands up.

"W-Who are you?" they jump in surprise, stumbling a few steps back from the flowers. He wears mostly white, with a small scythe on his back. Goth is similar in age to Pallet, but he seems more timid. His face is stained with tear tracks that he tries to hastily wipe away.

"My name is Alloy! And you would be Goth, I presume? I'm here to check up on Fatal Error. See what I can do for him."

"His name's Geno," Goth retorts instantly, gaining a little fire before looking away again, "and...... and what do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. I've only heard rumors, but it seems Fa- er, Geno's been out of sorts for a few months now. I'm traveling though the AUs and seeing what good I can do. Yeah, most everyone isn't getting it right away, don't feel bad," Alloy tries to be as transparent as he can without going over the entire story once again. "Anyways, where is Geno? He should be trapped in here at the moment."

Goth stares, trying to take in what the other is saying. Alloy is a stranger, with a suspiciously strong magical presence, and seems to be the one responsible for sending him to the save screen. Even so, Goth has been becoming more and more desperate. Nobody seems to be able to help his mother at all. Something terrible happened to Geno. Ever since, he's been running around the Multiverse and tearing code from monsters regardless of who stands in his way.

"You can really help him?"

Alloy nods, confident that he can do something.

"Okay," Goth exhales, "I've been watching Geno for a while, and it doesn't seem like he leaves the area with the echo flowers, or even sees beyond them. I'm not sure if he can see anything, actually."

"That gives us some space to plan, at least. So where is he?" Alloy asks again.

Goth gives him a confused look. "He's....... right there." Goth motions to the flower field.

"Where? I don't seem him. All I can see are a bunch of co-," Alloy abruptly stops talking. If he focus enough on one particularly large bunch of code, Alloy can tell that's its moving in a slightly more uniformed manner, going all around the flower field. "Wait, is that Geno?" Alloy asks, pointing at the code.

"Yeah, who else would it be?" Goth is a little annoyed by this, "The blue and red glitches don't make him that unidentifiable."

"I can't see him!" Alloy chokes on air in shock. "Th-there's so much missing! How-Who? Geno is missing so much code that I can't even recognize him as an entity. How could someone ever......... this has Fate's name over it!"

"Who's Fate?" Goth asks. He doesn't quite understand it when Alloy says he can't see Geno. Goth sees him just fine. Geno is walking around aimlessly in the field, body shaking and jerking as he tries to find a way out of the save screen.

"Fate is a Deity. They have the power to alter Multiverses," Alloy sighs, "She's done a lot of wrong, and I'm here to fix it. Fate created Ink and Error. From the look of it, she tampered with Geno and tried to do something similar. He fought back somehow, but broke himself in the process."

"No!" Goth gasps, covering his mouth.

Alloy panics when he realizes that he's scared the kid. "Oh, it's okay, it's fine, I can fix this. I've just gotta repair his code and figure out his dive."

"Drive?"

"His drive. The reason that he's collecting code," Alloy elaborates, "though I may already have a guess on that." Alloy spends a moment carefully looking between Goth and all the loose code scattered about the save screen. "I think......... Geno thinks that you and Reaper are dead."

"What!? Why would Mom think that?"

"Memory is the first thing Fate took from Error. I bet Geno's pretty confused. He's dead set on finding someone who he doesn't quite remember. All these code fragments are pieces that match up with you or Reaper."

     "I don't see any code," Goth shakes his head, "Only certain gods can see codes, right? So you must be......"

     "Correct. It seems to be that we're seeing two very different scenes here. I'm not sure I can fight if I can't see what Geno's doing," Alloy frowns.

     "Fight? You're gonna attack him?" Goth's body tenses. Even if his mom won't recognize him, Goth won't let him be hurt.

     "I just need to disable him," Alloy is quick to explain, "I can use my strings to just tie him up. He's gotta be still and preferably calm for me to fix his codes. I have to be careful though. My strings could snag some of that loose code if I use my magic to move them." Alloy doesn't touch either weapon on his back, but pulls up some black string and starts to tie a lasso.

     "And you a one hundred percent sure that you can do it?"

     "Yes, I can repair his code, but I can hardly see him well enough to catch him." 

Goth is very worried about this plan, but it's the most anyone has tried before. The fact that Alloy has them both locked in the save screen is enough to prove he at least has some power. "I can help. You can't see Geno, but I can. I'll try to let you know where he's about to hit."

     "You'd do that? Awesome! Just let me know if he's about to impale me, alright?" Alloy laughs a little in nervousness.

     Goth steels himself before taking a cautious step into the flower field. He can't see any of the loose code floating around, but he can clearly see Geno. It hursts to see him like this. Geno doesn't react when Goth steps into the flowers, but as soon as Alloy brushes up against some petals, his head snaps over in their direction.

     "He sees us," Goth mumbles.

     Alloy takes the lead and slowly starts to approach Geno. With all the glitches, Goth can't identify the expression on his mother's face. A low static and ringing sound follow him. At some point, Alloy gets too close.

     "Gaster Blaster!" Goth shouts. He and Alloy throw themselves in opposite directions to avoid it. Alloy can't even see the beam, but he gets chills when he can feel it's heat.

     The game of cat and mouse goes on for quite some time. Every time Alloy almost gets close enough, Geno fires off some savage attack that he has to run away from. A few stray bones give Alloy deep scratches despite Goth's warnings. The god is bleeding. Alloy runs in close once again with his strings bundled up in one hand. He expects Goth to shout something, but instead, he feels a bony hand from the pile of code grab his arm. Alloy can't help the overwhelming fear that suddenly grips him. This feeling is familiar. Fate and Error 404 have both torn him apart before. Geno's own code manipulation tries to sink in it's teeth.

     Alloy is suddenly scared out of his mind, but his mortal form isn't exactly the same as it was before. Geno tries to twist and tear at his codes. Everything that's most important, his soul and magic and personality, are untouchable. Alloy feels Geno's magic graze that border before the god lunges away. The brief contact glitches out the edges of Alloy's codes that aren't so protected. His bones glitch out until his colors are inverted. Alloy skull turns black while is limbs go a bright white.

      "I-I didn't know he c-could do that, but I should've expected it," Alloy huffs shakily. He backs up until he's standing next to Goth again, far from Geno. The echo flowers repeat Alloy's distress.

     "This isn't working." Goth could almost cry. Geno hasn't looked at him once.

     "I just don't get why he's so dead set on me," Alloy scrunches his eyes closed for a moment, "Maybe he only gets angered when someone gets close."

     "Mom," Goth does sob a little this time, the broken sound seeming too loud. The echo flowers around them had previously been shouting out the sound of battle, but they quickly start to repeat Goth's heart broken cry. More and more flowers pick it up until even the ones near Geno drop the sound of static.

     Geno stiffens. The glitches on his body still as he listens to the flowers. Geno then jerks around to look all over. He pauses on Alloy, but his gaze sweeps over Goth.

     "Did you see that?" Alloy asks quietly.

     "He....... he can't see me!" Goth gasps, and then louder, "Mom! Mom can you hear me?" The echo flowers once again take up his call, and Geno frantically tries to find the voice.

     "Talk to him," Alloy whispers. He hands Goth a length of rope, making the teenager wince.

     Goth takes a step forwards, and when Geno gives no reaction, starts walking. Twenty feet, ten feet, five feet and Geno never looks directly at Goth. "Mom?" Geno can tell now that the source is closer, and his eyes jerk to an echo closer at Goth's feet.

     "Mom, it's me, Goth. I-I........... my friend and I are here to help you."

     Geno has to listen to the echo for a few different repeats before he can understand any of it. One thing does get through very clearly: a name. Geno jerks back, scratching at his skull with both hands until he stumbles and falls to his knees.

     "Mom!" Geno yells. He disregards all thoughts of safety and drops the rope. Goth drops the ground and grabs onto Geno's arms. Holding Geno's hands is strange. They have a certain give to them, as if they could crumble if Goth grips too tightly. Geno squeezes Goth's hands in a death grip regardless. He's shaking violently, and for the first time, Geno meets Goth's eyes. The glitches pull back for a moment as he really sees. Geno then collapses.

     Goth starts freaking out, but Alloy grabs his shoulder with hand that has returned to its normal color. "He's okay. It's just a crash. I used to get them all the time. Geno's messed up codes can't handle surges of emotion very well."

     "He's okay," Goth repeats to himself.

     "And I'll make sure he stays that way," Alloy pats Goth's shoulder, "Now then, I'm sure Reaper is worried sick about you. I'll send you over to Reapertale as I get started here."

     Goth is reluctant to leave at first, but eventually, he walks though the portal the god opened. The last thing he sees is Alloy kneeled down over Geno.