Chapter Text
When Wemmbu woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was soaked. The rain overhead pounded down onto him, methodical tapping sounds filling his ears even as he pushed himself up and out of the muddy ground he was lying in.
He groaned, looking down at his front covered in wet dirt, grass, and small rocks from having been lying there for who-knows-how-long. He tried to brush some of it off, but that only made his already dirty hands even worse as he smudged the soil deeper into his clothes.
Wemmbu looked up, squinting into the dark, cloudy, pouring sky, trying to determine what time it was. There was no way to tell, so he instead pushed himself off his knees to look around for any sign of… well, anything.
None of this looked familiar—well, it did. But in the way that any normal plains biome looks familiar because they all look basically the same.
So. Great. He couldn’t tell what time it was, he couldn’t tell where he was, and he was covered from head to toe in mud.
Next step: his communicator.
Wemmbu reached into his pocket, where he always stored his communicator, and felt himself stiffen when he found it completely empty.
Instantly, he checked his inventory for his maces at the thought that he was somehow stolen from, but he found those safe and sound—right where they were always.
“Who the hell steals someone’s communicator but not their maces?” Wemmbu mumbled to himself, looking around again.
With a sigh and no possible way to reliably figure out where the hell he was by just standing there, Wemmbu headed off in the direction of a distant forest. At least that way, the rain wouldn’t keep pounding onto his head and wings.
And god, his wings. They were completely soaked through, completely unusable for who-knows-how-long. It was miserable.
Continuing to walk—because that’s all he could do right now—what Wemmbu assumed was North, he tried to figure out what exactly happened for him to end up here. He wasn’t completely sure it was North though, considering the minor ache in his head. He might have hit it at some point, but he really couldn’t figure out where or more like when he could have.
Last thing Wemmbu remembered, he had gone to sleep in his makeshift house-tree. (It wasn’t a treehouse, Wemmbu emphasised. It was just a house he’s been making inside of a tree he found. It’s different.)
It had been a completely normal and uneventful day—well maybe uneventful wasn’t really normal for Wemmbu, but it was becoming that way!
Either way, he had gone to sleep in his make-shift house after saying goodnight to Egg. Nothing seemed suspicious as he travelled back home after leaving his friend in his library to study. There were no players around that he could see, and there was no reason for him to be on guard. Those guys who had kidnapped Egg hadn’t gone after them for over a week, and he assumed they had given up on recruiting him or whatever they wanted.
Wemmbu wondered briefly if this was them, but he couldn’t imagine why they would kidnap him just to dump him in the middle of nowhere and leave him there. Besides—
His heart raced.
Could they have done this to kidnap Egg again? But why? They got his dumb lore book. What else could they want?
Didn’t they want Wemmbu, too? Why would they only go after Egg? Was it to get to him? Was it all his—
No. That doesn’t make sense still. If they had somehow managed to move him in his sleep—how did they do that anyway?—they would absolutely have taken the chance to take Wemmbu hostage as well.
So who did this, and why?
A glitch? An exploit? No way. All the old exploits had been patched from what he could tell, and even then there was no reason to do this with such a powerful exploit.
Wemmbu’s stomach growled and he groaned in response, taking out a golden apple to munch on as he stepped over a branch on the ground.
How long had it been, anyway?
. ₊ ☾ ✷ ☽ ₊ .
It was hours and thousands of blocks later when Wemmbu finally found something familiar: a one-by-one tower indicating something below. At the base of the tower was a shoddy spiral staircase leading into what Wemmbu knew was a very familiar structure.
A stronghold.
He couldn’t have gotten luckier if he tried, in all honesty. And he was beyond grateful. He had exhausted every possible train of thought as he walked in a random direction for hours on end, and he was bored out of his mind. Thankfully, at the very least, the rain stopped only an hour or so into walking.
Not too long ago, he had ventured the server completely alone most of the time, but after getting Egg back he had gotten used to the constant chatter once again. He missed it.
He wouldn’t tell Egg that, though. Too corny.
He rapidly descended the staircase, beams of sunlight shining down through the staircase, and eventually found himself at the edge of the end portal. Part of him was a little nervous.
He knew, logically, that the only one he would probably see on the other side would be Minute. But the last time he went to the end, he was hunted from island to island by Lawmen while trying desperately to keep Egg alive.
Thinking about it, if it weren’t for Minute and his stash, he probably wouldn’t have made it out alive, let alone Egg.
Cutting off that train of thought, he jumped into the cold void of the portal. That was exactly why he didn’t like being alone with his thoughts for so long.
After being spit out on the other side of the portal, he found himself in a familiar impenetrable box as a wave of mining fatigue fell over him. His heart rate spiked for a moment before he forced it down—or more like forced himself to ignore it.
Standing up from where he fell onto the obsidian floor, he walked to the wall to peak through the hole. He couldn’t see Minute anywhere, and he didn’t think he had noticed him yet—but he also didn’t hear or see any hostile players, let alone Lawmen still bitter about their leader’s defeat, so it was promising.
“Yo, Minute! You there? Can I be let out?” Wemmbu yelled. He heard the words echo off the sides of the chamber, once again leaving himself alone with his own thoughts.
That was, until he could hear armored footsteps approach, a specific pattern to them that he knew very well.
“Wemmbu?!” Minute questioned, peeking down the stairs to confirm it was him before quickly flicking the lever to free him.
Wemmbu let out a small sigh of relief before noticing Minute running toward him.
“Minute?”
“Bro, where have you been? Egg’s been looking all over for you!” Minute said, eyes scanning over Wemmbu as he grabbed his arms. “You don’t look hurt. Your armor is completely fine. What happened?”
He blinked, eyes flicking to the other’s hands. “Dude I was only gone like, one night. Why’s Egg so panicked?”
Minute looked at him, confused. “Egg hasn’t seen you in a month, Wemmbu. What are you talking about? Did you hit your head?”
Wemmbu’s eyes widened. “What?!”
“Did you not know? What happened to you?”
“No, no. We can talk about this later. Where’s Egg?” Wemmbu shook his head, yanking his arms out of Minute’s hold and looking around to see if he was anywhere to be seen in the End.
Minute sighed. “He said he was going to go talk to Parrot. He was going to try and get him to make a search party, but—”
“Perfect, thanks Minute!” Wemmbu said, running past him, directly toward the portal back to the overworld.
“Wemmbu! You better come back to explain later!” Minute yelled, whipping his head around to track him.
The last thing Minute heard was a “Yeah, yeah!” before the sound of someone entering the portal washed over the end. When it stopped, it left him in relative silence once again.
Minute sighed, walking over to the bedrock circle to stare directly into the void-like pattern. His brows furrowed. Staring into the abyss, he took a deep breath before walking away to continue his work.
. ₊ ☾ ✷ ☽ ₊ .
Wemmbu fell directly into his bed in his house-tree, bouncing as he looked around to see his place ransacked. There were clear marks where a mace had missed its target, and gashes sliced into the wood of the walls in various places.
There was a clear sign of a struggle here—not only a struggle, but a fight to survive. Wemmbu’s hands shook.
Yet, when he checked his chests, they were completely untouched. No items were missing.
When he pushed himself through his doors, slightly off their hinges, he continued to find signs of a fight. Craters made by a mace wielder littered his lawn and led into the nearby forest. He followed them. Wemmbu chased after signs of where this battle went, what happened, and who it was against, only for them to abruptly stop in a clearing in the forest.
He looked around, but he found nothing. No signs of struggle beyond that point, no remnants of some special trap, nothing. There weren’t even footsteps to track thanks to the rain—and, if Wemmbu was correct in assuming, the time since this happened.
Because this was him that was fighting, wasn’t it? There weren’t many maces left on the server, let alone mace users. Those craters were exactly like the ones he left behind after he had dominated the battlefield—and there were equally powerful ones both inside and outside. That meant this person didn’t only have one mace, but two. One for indoors fighting, and one for outdoors fighting—Gambit and Crucible.
But most importantly, it started in his house. It started by his bed, where his last memories lay sleeping.
And wasn’t it a terrifying thought, that he couldn’t be sure? Because he couldn’t remember what was apparently the last month. Because his best friend had been looking for him all this time, only for him to wake up alone, in the mud, in the middle of nowhere, with rain pounding on his skull.
These people, they were smart, they had a goal, and most importantly, they had done something to Wemmbu. Something he didn’t understand. Something he couldn’t remember.
Wemmbu was used to not understanding what was going on when it came to this server. He wasn’t the smartest when it came to puzzles or people—that was Parrot’s job. And that never bothered him before, he didn’t care.
But now… now it bothered him. It bothered him a lot. A lot more than he wanted to admit.
Because the one thing he always had was himself.
And now, he didn’t even know if he had that.
. ₊ ☾ ✷ ☽ ₊ .
Egg walked through the Northern Council, books in his hands as he looked around for any sign of purple hair or a crown or something.
Logically, he knew Wemmbu was fine. He was always fine. He was strong, and capable, and even if he didn’t give himself credit for it, he was smart at times. Not as smart as him, but, y’know.
But, at the end of the day, Wemmbu always came out on top no matter what. It didn’t matter if he was imprisoned or his weapons were taken away—he always got back up. Even with Egg by his side, he had always finished the job.
Sometimes he had scars, yeah. Sometimes the aftermath of the situations they got into were arguably worse than the event themselves—but that was what Egg was for. His job in their friendship was to be the one to comfort Wemmbu when he woke up from his nightmares that he said weren’t nightmares, it was his job to crack a joke or trip on a rock to lighten the mood.
This was not his job. He’d take it with stride, just like he did when Wemmbu was slammed a million blocks away from the battlefield and Jaden had been captured. He would search the whole server if he had to, follow every lead, all to repay his friend who had done the same for him before.
But… that didn’t mean he was good at it.
He thought he would be, considering all his knowledge he’d built up in his brain even with his lore book gone, but that didn’t seem to be the case after all.
For the past month he had followed every trail he could, asked everyone he could think of about where his friend had gone, but there was nothing.
Jaden hadn’t even heard from him, but the pirate had waved him off anyway—he thought Wemmbu probably just got distracted and hadn’t thought to leave a note before following some grand quest. Egg wondered if he was confusing Wemmbu with himself. Jaden only agreed with his worries when Egg explained the craters surrounding their home.
The pirates were sent out to search, stopping all previous plans for treasure hunting to try and find the captain’s friend.
Before even Jaden, Egg had gone to Minute. They became closer when he was staying in the end, protecting him from intruders and even indulging him in his hobbies as time went on.
As expected, though, Minute hadn’t heard anything from Wemmbu either.
Egg urged Minute to come with him to help with the search, but Minute made a good point: if Wemmbu was out there, it wouldn’t be unlikely that he would find himself in the end at some point to make his way back to their houses.
Minute faltered slightly when Egg brought out Wemmbu’s communicator that had somehow been left thrown on the floor of his treehouse, but he steadied his resolve despite Egg’s best efforts. He knew Minute was right, but it still made him feel uneasy.
Egg rejected Minute’s offer to stay in the end until Wemmbu returned.
He was thankful for the reminder to pearl through the portal and not just jump through, though, when he had almost done just that.
The search for Wemmbu didn’t cease after he had informed their closest allies. Egg continued to ask around. First spawn, once he had fallen through the portal, but they weren’t very helpful given most had barely even seen the castle yet—Egg stopped for only a moment to admire the new building before continuing onwards.
Next, Egg asked around Capital City. Nothing again. The people there were already on edge from the recent trial and subsequent exposing of their corrupt guard system, and his questions about a missing person whose description was rather familiar to a few old players didn’t help.
After all, if someone could kidnap Wemmbu of all people while leaving little to no trace, so much that his borderline roommate didn’t know where he went, what else could be happening throughout the server?
Merchant City wasn’t much help either. They only offered up information in exchange for valuable materials, and Egg had quickly exhausted even the gear on his back for just about nothing helpful. The one helpful thing they did give, was the advice to seek out an appearance with the king.
Egg figured that wouldn’t be too hard. He fought alongside him in The Six-Day War, and Parrot and Wemmbu had made up for the most part. Not to mention anything that could take Wemmbu down would inevitably be a threat to his kingdom, right?
So it should have been easy, right?
But no. It wasn’t. When Egg walked up to the front gates, he was greeted by two guards at the entrance.
“Uh. Can I like, talk with King Parrot? You’re not going to slime me out if I walk past are—”
The guard, xBraveFragmentx, sighed and blew a horn. Egg flinched at the sound. He wasn’t exactly fond of horns anymore after the whole Law fiasco, but he could see why a horn system would be the best way to call someone out from the castle.
And call someone out, they did.
TheobaldTheBird sauntered to the front of the council, a scowl visible on his face as he groaned. “What now?!”
Egg blinked. Well, the best he could with his eyes hidden behind his hair.
“Oh. Egg! What’s up, man?” Theo greeted, his face turning happier—still not fully happy, but getting there. The lines under his eyes and the tensed body showed that well enough. “Please tell me you’re not here to ask for something big.”
He winced. “Well, bro. Sorry to tell you—”
Theo groaned. “Not you, too! What is it? Does Wemmbu want materials? Cuz he can’t have ‘em!”
At the mention of materials, Egg couldn’t help but slump. Gods, he missed his best friend. Wemmbu would call him cringe for it, but he really did. They hadn’t been apart this long since—
“Where is he, anyway?”
Egg tensed his fists and tried not to scream. He wasn’t usually loud or violent, he didn’t like to be. But this was getting frustrating. Why does a single person, not even some of the most powerful people on the server, not know where the hell Wemmbu is?
“Wemmbu is missing. I need to talk to King Parrot,” Egg explained shortly. “Please.”
Theo’s brows furrowed. “You sure he didn’t just—”
“No!” Egg shouted. He was sick of this. “It’s been a month! He’s nowhere to be seen! I’ve been searching the entire time and no one has found him. Not even Jaden’s pirates have been able to—”
Theo suddenly walked forward, body even tenser than before—his eyes cold and serious beneath his sunglasses. Egg felt himself being pulled forward and into the castle before he knew it.
“Come with me, Egg.” Theo turned to look at the guards. “Make sure the perimeter is safe.”
The men stared, wide-eyed for a moment at the seriousness of their captain, before nodding and doing as told. Theo was a strict teacher, he yelled and got frustrated often, but he was never like… that.
When Egg had finished being guided by Theo, who had been looking carefully at every shadow and corner, he was finally let go. Parrot looked up from some sort of map that was laid across a circular table.
“Egg? Theo, what’s up?” Parrot asked. He was clearly tired, dark bags dripping under his eyes. His hair was a mess and his feathers were ruffled worse than he’s ever seen.
Theo spoke up first, Egg too busy observing Parrot to reply. “Wemmbu’s missing, dude. Maybe we should have taken Spoke more seriously.”
Egg blinked. “Spoke?”
Parrot’s eyes went cold. “Egg, tell us everything you know.”
Though hesitant to continue without the context, Egg explained nonetheless. He sat down across the table as he spoke. “Wemmbu suddenly disappeared a month ago. There were signs of a fight, but the trail completely stopped out of nowhere. His communicator was left behind and nothing was even stolen,” Egg said for what felt like the millionth time this month. “I asked around all the major cities and no one has a clue about what could have happened. Minute is staying in the end to see if he’ll come there, and Jaden sent his pirates out to search, but both haven’t come back with anything. There was no death message so I know he’s not dead.”
A heavy sigh was released from the king across from him. “I guess that makes sense with what Spoke told us. Gods, can’t we catch a break?”
“Can you explain about Spoke now?” Egg asked, the tone coming across harsher than he meant it to.
Only slightly taken aback, Parrot explained. “Spoke and Jumper came to ask for help with something about… thousands of players going missing. They had a list of the missing players from one of the people who were apparently conducting the kidnappings. It seemed like they were targeting trappers and other bad people… We spared the men we could, but…”
“But what?”
“We don’t have enough people as it is, man! Shoebilly and them are declaring war and—” Theo exclaimed, clearly frustrated.
Parrot shouted. “Theo! Don’t just tell people about that— Ugh. Whatever.” The avian tapped his foot repeatedly against the ground. “This is… really complicated, Egg. We don’t have much as it is, let alone materials. And this idiot put us in debt too—” He took a breath. “I’m… sorry. But I don’t know how to help right now. The most I’ve—”
Egg stared, dumbfounded. “Seriously? Like, actually? You won’t help?”
Parrot frowned. “Egg, it’s not that I don’t want to, trust me—”
He stood up, eye twitching. “I guess this was a dead end too.”
“Egg—!” Parrot followed his standing to reach out to him.
He released a sigh before turning back around from where he started heading to the door. “I get it. There are more important things than just one person. It’s logical. I get it. It's a classic strategy as a way to conserve resources. I’m not—”
Theo looked between them, confused.
Parrot walked closer to Egg. “Bro. Please. Listen. I don’t know how much I can do, but I will do what I can. Wemmbu is just as much part of my kingdom as everyone else is—just as much as those hundreds of players that have gone missing. Truthfully, I didn’t fully believe Spoke before, but… But I do now. You’d have no reason to lie to me. I mean, maybe Wemmbu would, but— I digress.
“This is serious. This is something I need to take care of. I will absolutely help. But, please. Give me a day or two to get everything in order. Let me—” Parrot looked over to his bookshelf. “Theo, get me those books.”
Theo blinked before walking over to the shelf, confusedly picking at what he thought Parrot was pointing to.
“Not those, just—- Ugh.” Parrot ran over himself, rolling his eyes at a dramatic comment from Theo about being more specific. When he came back, the king handed the angel two massive, heavy books that Parrot was struggling to even hold. “Here. These are records from when Lettuce was ruling over the server with Law. I haven’t had the chance to go through them just yet. There might be some hints in there, maybe.”
Egg took the books, falling forward slightly before adjusting to the weight. There were no specific titles on the spines or covers, just a simple “Incident Records” on both. Parrot was right, these could hold hints.
“All the records from Lettuce’s time are very important to me. I want to be able to learn from him so I can be better—so I can prove to my kingdom that they made the right choice to pick me over him. So, consider this collateral. I promise to help, I really do,” Parrot said, a sincere look on his face. “Just please, give me some time.”
Egg stared up at him in silence for a few moments, fingers sliding over the leather spines in his hold, before he replied, “Okay. Thank you for the help, man.”
Parrot gave him a small smile. “Anytime, dude. Seriously.”
Egg nodded and turned away, beginning to walk out. Over his shoulder, he heard Parrot shout one more thing before he left the large room.
“If I don’t come get you, come back in two days! I should have things put together by then.”
Egg gave a thumbs up and continued out, walking down the halls and grand stairways of the castle. It really was grand, and the renovations after Lettuce’s defeat had added a touch of much needed homeliness too.
He needed to come back here to admire this place more sometime.
Preferably, with Wemmbu.