Chapter Text
Flame silently packed some items into a shulker with shaky hands trying to do their best to handle the items with a kind of gentleness he wasn't used to.
He hadn't stopped shaking ever since..
Ever since..
The scent of death hung heavy in the air and the pool of blood underneath him slowly absorbed into his clothes. Yet all he felt was the cold skin at his fingertips—the lack of life that should have been there.
He stared blankly at the floor, just cradling the body.
Because that's all Wemmbu was now. Another body amongst a thousand. The strong, unrelenting elytrian that could fight him toe-to-to while he laughed in that specific tone.
Flame wished he knew more about Wemmbu, wished he could find the words to describe him better.
Flame wished he never knew Wemmbu at all, if just to spare him this feeling of emptiness.
He couldn't cry. He shouldn't feel like this in the first place.
Wemmbu is (was) his rival, his one and only enemy.
Flame had killed him.
He stayed there for an hour, brushing his hand through Wemmbu's hair and trying to make sense of it all.
He was holding Gambit in his hand. Holding was an understatement, though, as it was more like he had the remains of the mace in his hand.
It was funny. It should have been. Gambit had only broken when its owner broke first. Gambit that had killed thousands, had passed from one hand to another but always truly being owned by one, of which caused so much terror in his life.
He can't believe he was drawing a parallel between an inanimate object and Wemmbu.
He would have grabbed his head, letting out the scream building at his throat, but he just couldn't bring himself to move away from that shulker box.
When Flame decided to leave, he did it suddenly and without thought because he knew that if he let himself think, then he would just stay there.
He closed Wemmbu's eyes. He pulled out items from the body's inventory before he started scaling up the walls.
That body wasn't Wemmbu. Wemmbu was somewhere else, exploding bases and making Flame's life worse.
He shouldn't be putting the mace in a shulker. Wemmbu shouldn't have died.
Gambit and Crucible were placed beside eachother, one of which was in better condition. The two maces shimmered in the torchlight.
Last thing he placed was Wemmbu's cloak. Although he hadn't cleaned it and left it stiff with drying blood, it was clear the cloak was intricate, with sewed in designs matching Wemmbu's armor trims.
Flame wondered how Egg would react to seeing the maces and the cloak. Would it be anger or sadness? He hoped it was anger. He knew how to deal with other people hating him, but he was never good at sadness, bet it his own or another's.
Back then, in that quartz prison, Wemmbu had said he became the Invisible Knight to roam the server as a normal person.
And.. Flame took that away from him too.
He wouldn't have done all this if he knew it would end in Wemmbu's death.
If he had just learned to let go then, he wouldn't have go let go for real.
Flame slammed his fist into the floor, falling to his knees and wrapping his arms around the shulker.
The air was different today, Egg noted. Well, the air was different at all times. For someone used to the overworld, the air was always too thin, too thick at some parts. But! He was slowly getting used to it and adapting. It was about time, seeing as he's gonna spend the most of the future here.
He wasn't mad that he was trapped here, he didn't even consider it 'trapped'. He wasn't missing out on much, in fact he wasn't missing out on anything. If he needed to know something, he'd just visit other people's dreams!
Egg hummed as he planted a new batch of grass around the End island.
He was glad it was him, not Wemmbu, who got shot into the portal. His best friend could fret or worry about whether he had enough here, but here was all he wanted. He had all the time to learn about the server, all the safety a chungus like him could have (with The End Guardian and The Flying Death protecting him, of course,) and best of all, whenever Wemmbu came to visit, they could forget about the outside world here.
They could just be together. No empires to be hunted by, no vengeful rival (except that one time, but thankfully Wemmbu wasn't here), and no enemies. Just him, Wemmbu, and Minute.
And maybe that was enough.
Egg was content with the way things were.
But.. something did actually feel wrong. He just couldn't place it.
Did it hurt? Flame wondered, and the feeling of Wemmbu's the body's crushed bones and unusual pliance returned.
He was trekking through a birch forest towards an End Portal. Egg would want to know. And that's what Wemmbu would have wanted.
Was he scared? Flame could never imagine Wemmbu scared, much less defenseless and weak at the same time. (And if he imagined Wemmbu's last expression as the terrified expression he had when Flame was chasing him through a mineshaft under Zam's orders, then so be it.)
He hadn't slept or rested during the two day journey, or maybe he did. Flame couldn't tell, not when his memories were too deeply engraved with Wemmbu and whenever he closed his eyes, he opened them to have found himself in a new place.
On the rare days he wasn't the library, adding on to the infinite Lore Book, he was helping Minute guard the End portal.
More like Minute was guarding and Egg was catching all the stray gossip from players passing by.
Yeah.. Egg was definitely 'guarding.'
The air hasn't been right for two days now. Even Minute seemed agitated. Egg felt like something was horribly wrong but there was nothing to point towards that conclusion.
He had walked around Parrot's dream, and there wasn't anything except this random island in the ocean with a single tree on it.
Then he went over to Loppezz, and leaving quietly once he saw it full of snow and laughter.
He wanted to go to Flame's dreams, but he was barely there for a second before the dream collapsed, signalling that Flame was waking up.
And Egg would've visited Wemmbu's dreams if they hadn't had a long talk about privacy.
"You're zoning out." Minute broke the silence. His voice was impassive but knowing.
"Not much to do bro. The water don't got fish."
Minute snorted. "What, do you wanna import some fish from the over world, breed them to genetically adapt for the climate, and wait for them to populate just to fish?"
Minute sounded so serious. Egg blinked.
"You're being.. specific, do you have that plan or—"
"That's what Clown did for the Nether's fish."
Oh that's interesting. A whole new population and potentially new species of specially Nether adapted fish.
Egg took down a mental note to check on Clown later.
That small amount of news still didn't satisfy the gnawing in his bones. He felt like he was supposed to be hearing something bigger.
The sound of the End portal whooshing and bringing someone through got Egg to turn to face the entrance.
Minute was already in position, standing infront of the door, seeing whether the person was friend, foe, or stranger.
Egg, though, was standing off to the side just incase it was actually foe.
A red figure stepped out, a distinguishable blindfold wrapped around his eyes.
But the person himself was unrecognisable.
Flame was skinnier, haggard-looking, as if he had just fought a war.
"Minute." Flame sounded tired. He kept his head down, as if he didn't want to look Minute in the eye.
"Flame." Minute greeted, rightfully suspicious.
Something was wrong. There had to be something wrong. Egg's stomach dropped. If even the server's #2 strongest player (Egg fully believed Wemmbu was #1, after all, wasn't that what he kept working for) was this.. affected, then there had to be something going on.
Was Wemmbu safe? He had to be. With his resources, power, and fake identity protecting him, he had to be alright.
"Where's Egg?" Flame shuffled inside the portal's walls, Minute having yet to allow him in.
"He's here." Minute gestured to Egg with his head.
"Yo no need to snitch." Despite the joke that easily fell out of his lips, Egg felt stiff.
He wasn't worried right? There wasn't any reason to.
"Let me out." A hint of Flame's usual voice slipped in, but he still sounded dead.
"Tell me first why—"
"Wemmbu is dead."
Egg's blood ran cold. Flame was talking about Wemmbu's fake identity. He had to be.
Minute visibly relaxed, most likely thinking of the same thing as Egg.
"I know he's the Invisible Knight. I killed him."
Flame's eyes seemed to gloss over.
Minute tensed back up again, grabbing his sword.
His tie felt too tight, so he loosened it. Though, it was like something was wrapped around his throat.
Flame was speaking again.
His clothes felt too tight. The space around them felt too tight.
Minute let him through the entrance, pointing his sword straight at Flame's chest. Minute was saying something.
One of his finger nails pressed against his palm. He was fidgeting—when did he start to fidget?
Flame was standing infront of him now. When had Minute let him through?
"Egg." Flame was saying his name. He couldn't find a reason to reply.
"I'm sorry." The words came hard out of Flame's mouth, but he said them anyways.
Egg turned away.
"Egg—"
"Okay." He couldn't breathe
"Okay?"
"I need to get back to my lore book." He felt heavy as if every step tied another pound of lead on his body.
"What have you done, Flame?" Minute sounded so little, as if he knew this would happen but never knew.
"I'm sorry."
Egg made it up the stairs, but it felt like everything was miles away.
When would Wemmbu come visit? Egg hummed.
He missed his best friend. Egg's hum grew shaky.