Chapter Text
Wemmbu let out a sharp gasp, shooting up in someone’s hold before strong, warm hands brought him back down to the ground again. His eyes widened in fear and surprise as he felt the pain of his stomach knitting itself together fast- too fast, each individual muscle fiber connecting with each other and tightening, making the next gasp that ripped out of him come out shaky and as a whine. Bright green and gold light blinded him; his eyes were open but unseeing. His hand scrambled for his torso, but another pair of unidentifiable hands held them down and at his chest.
“Easy, Wemmbu,” Parrot murmured, sounding more surprised and relieved than Wemmbu had ever heard him. Above his head, Flame let out a shaky laugh, rubbing his thumbs into where he was still gripping Wemmbu’s shoulders.
Wemmbu swallowed, blinked a few times, and then finally took in the scene around him. Parrot at his left, Spoke kneeling at his right, Egg sitting to the right of his shoulders, and Flame cradling his head in his lap. The last part startled him only briefly, before remembering- oh, right! Shouldn’t I be dead by now?
Minute stood over his feet, brows drawn up in worry. “Are you alright?”
“Wh-” Wemmbu answered eloquently, tugging at his own hands lightly until Parrot got the memo and released them from where he was holding them to his chest.
“Lettuce came back and Minute got a totem from him,” Parrot explained, looking at his hands that were covered in Wemmbu’s blood, sticky and crimson. They shook before the avian could stop it, opting to put them at his sides instead. “I think he thought you were already dead and that’s why he agreed.”
“Minute almost beat the shit out of him,” Jaden added, looking at Minute with a grin. Minute, in response, just looked away shyly.
“Where?” Wemmbu rasped out, still getting the hang of speaking again.
Spoke looked expectantly at Jumper, who cleared her throat and turned to Wemmbu. “Theo’s looking after Lettuce- he’s got an arrow trained at him in the center of the castle.”
Wemmbu sighed in relief, lying his head back and against Flame’s thighs. He swallowed and tried to speak again, voice coming out stronger with each word. “...I don’t ever want to fight that guy again-”
“I can’t believe you lost to Lettuce of all people!” Flame answered angrily, looking down at Wemmbu with scorn. Moving his hands to Wemmbu’s cheeks, he squished his face angrily. “I duel you and you just can’t seem to die- he, LettuceK, goes after you and you just give up?! Bro, he’s literally not even that good!”
“Give up? Give-” Wemmbu scoffed, huffing incredulously, “-I had no resources Flame! What did you want me to do, huh? Spawn in my ultimate weapon, the Orbital 2.0??”
“He’s back to normal,” Parrot deadpanned, standing up from where he was kneeling. Horace stepped off of the wall he was leaning on to offer the avian a towel, letting Parrot wipe off his hands. “Thanks. We’ll have to figure out something to do about Lettuce.”
“Kill him,” Flame responded quickly.
Zam, who had also been standing against the crater wall, stepped forward, concern drawing up their features. “Hold on, we all just fought for, like, hours- shouldn’t we all get a say in this?”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Flame is right,” Jaden spoke up, sending a glare to Flame and pointedly looking at where his hands still rested on Wemmbu’s face. “Lettuce killed all of my pirates and took away everything I had. The least he can do is die.”
“Oh, was that aura?” Wemmbu tilted his head to ask Minute, letting a grin split across his face.
“-Guys, I’m being serious,” Parrot stopped Minute from whatever he was going to reply by holding up a hand, silencing the small conversations happening in the back. “Theo can’t guard him forever- We have to come up with a plan.”
Wemmbu felt the headache coming on already and sighed, shaking Flame’s hands off of him gently. He sat up as best as he could, resting his weight on his arms and meeting the eyes of the players around him.
Lettuce almost killed him. Almost. Definitely the closest Wemmbu has gotten to dying by far.
But-
Lettuce could have ended him a lot sooner. Instead of flying off, he could have picked his sword back up and put it somewhere more lethal, letting it fall into his heart or into his throat. It was entirely true that Wemmbu wouldn’t have been able to stop him.
So, whether that was just negligence on Lettuce’s part—which is a little unbelievable, since Lettuce always seemed to have a reason for doing anything—or an intentional choice to keep Wemmbu alive, he would never know. He could ask Lettuce, but there was no guarantee that the leader would be honest with him.
He remembered the signed book still sitting in his inventory, untouched despite the chaos around him. The gentle, swooping letters of Lettuce’s handwriting were visible in his mind.
With everyone’s eyes still on him, Wemmbu shrugged. “I vote to keep him alive.”
Before anyone could respond back, Egg shot his hand up. “What he just said.”
“Wh- What?” Jaden sputtered, “He literally hunted you down for months! You were there when he killed everyone at the Great Sea-”
“Also Egg shouldn’t get a vote,” Flame interrupted, looking entirely displeased that he was siding with Jaden, “He’s just gonna agree with what Wemmbu says-”
“Wemmbu, this guy hates democracy or something,” Egg shook his head.
In response, Wemmbu dragged his hands down his face, groaning. “Just-” he huffed, waving them away, “-go. Kill him, don’t- I don’t care at this point. You know my vote and you know Egg’s, what you do with that is actually not my problem.”
“Wemmbu,” Parrot started, tension drawing up in his face. If Wemmbu was still delirious from blood loss, he’d almost mistake the avian’s look for concern. “Are you-”
“Fine,” Wemmbu finished for him, confirming Parrot’s question before he was even done. The last thing he needed was Parrot of all people worrying about him. Pushing himself to sit up fully, he looked up to see Spoke’s outstretched hand, smiling for a moment before he took the help. Hefted up, he patted Spoke on the shoulder, “Thanks, I guess.”
“I guess?” Spoke lifted an eyebrow.
Wemmbu shrugged. “Yeah.”
Spoke’s smile grew, stretching across his face. “Never change, Wemmbu.”
In response, Wemmbu fake saluted and did his best to walk toward Egg, trying to keep the wobble to a minimum. Turns out, he might still be dealing with the effects of losing a large amount of blood—who would’ve known? To hide it, he threw a hand around Egg’s shoulder in a friendly gesture, hopefully disguising the weight he was putting on the player to the others in the room. “We’re leaving, by the way.”
“Don’t you wanna-” Zam narrowed his eyes, at a loss for words, “-like, know what happens with Lettuce?”
“Nope!” Wemmbu popped the ‘p’ in the word, feigning nonchalance. In truth, part of him kinda wants to know whether or not they slime the guy out, but leaving sounded like the best option right now. How mad would Lettuce be if he knew that Wemmbu was not only alive, but didn’t even care enough to see the guy who tried to kill him? Would Wemmbu sparing him without even saying it to his face be more satisfying? Or maybe a little part of his brain knew that if he stayed to talk to Lettuce, he might be convinced to change his vote.
“Just send us some mail, or something,” Egg shrugged, completely unbothered by Wemmbu’s nonchalance. Whether Egg knew his reasoning or not, the player started walking to the mouth of the crater, taking each of Wemmbu’s stumbles in stride. “We’ll be around, right?”
Wemmbu turned to him, grinning, “Probably not.”
Egg turned back to look at the group, shrugged, and walked with Wemmbu out of the orbital crater, lifting him as best as he could. Before they could get far, Wemmbu tapped Egg on the shoulder and did his best to turn around, watching Parrot climb out.
“Hey, take this,” he held out Lettuce’s book, watching as Parrot took it suspiciously.
“What is this?” The avian opened the small journal and looked back up at Wemmbu in confusion.
Egg turned to look at him too, not aware that Wemmbu had it either. “Just give it to Lettuce- oh, and- say it was from me,” Wemmbu grinned, the tip of his tongue sticking out.
Parrot looked back at Wemmbu like a puzzle, studying the lines of Wemmbu’s face and tracing the patterns of blood like it would tell him why Wemmbu does what he does. But the avian didn’t seem to find anything, instead hesitantly nodding.
“Oh, and- good luck. Being king, and all,” Wemmbu added, turning back around and slinging his arm over Egg again.
Parrot’s soft voice travelled to him. “Thanks, bro.”
Wemmbu sent a halfhearted wave over his shoulder, matching his steps with Egg as they walked past mounds of debris and craters. He didn’t know where they were going just yet, but he let Egg lead the way out of what remained of the Northern Council. Wherever they went, though, Wemmbu was going to make Egg keep watch while he took a well deserved nap.