Chapter Text
"Hey! Hello? Wake up! Anyone up there? Hello?"
A groan tore itself from Wifies’ throat. Peeling his eyes open took a monumental, agonizing effort. Fuck. What happened? Where was Hummer? A heavy, dizzying fog weighed down his skull, and the blinding glare of the midday sun forced his eyes shut again.
"Oh, there you are! Do you have my redstone supplies?"
Ignoring the voice, Wifies shoved himself upward. Sand clung to his soaked clothes, but dusting it off was the least of his concerns. He managed three staggering steps before his knees completely buckled. Nausea violently seized him; he collapsed back into the dirt, hacking and coughing up seawater until his chest burned. His limbs felt like lead, refusing to support him. The sky spun in sickening circles, and the tide lapped at his boots–as if the ocean was returning to finish the job.
"Are you… okay?" Who– oh. Wifies squinted upward from his miserable heap on the beach, fighting his blurred, feverish vision to read the hovering gamertag. Para... meterization, or something like that. It reminded him painfully of Parrot.
All Wifies could manage was a pathetic shake of his head. He despised this lack of control. He hated the all-consuming weakness that left him utterly powerless at the feet of someone who, just hours prior–or days? time was a fractured mess–had wanted to drive a sword through his spine. This wasn't Unstable. Here, he wasn't the architect of a massive, inescapable prison. He wasn't the one holding all the power over his former friend.
No. This Wifies was shivering on a sunbaked beach, fingers clawing at the wet grit, stripped of his armor, his weapons and his dignity.
Distantly, he heard Parameterization sigh, before an outstretched hand was shoved into his vision. Right, okay. With trembling fingers, Wifies reached out to take it, latching on tightly. The grip was warm. It was solid. Real.
It grounded him, anchoring him to the waking world just long enough to be hauled upright. He didn't have the energy to protest when those hands didn't let go. Instead, strong arms hoisted him effortlessly off the sand. Wifies vaguely registered the sharp clank of armour, the rough texture of fabric, and the sudden, radiating body heat of his captor–or saviour. He was being carried. His head lolled limply against a solid shoulder, his legs swinging in the coastal breeze.
Darkness crept in from the periphery of his vision. The violent tremors wracking his body finally began to subside, his ragged breathing evening out into shallow sighs. Surrendering to the suffocating weight of his exhaustion, Wifies let the blackness take him, falling completely limp.
~~~
"Hummer! Hummer, where are you? I found it! I found the Leviathan!" Wifies shouted, his knuckles turning white as he hauled himself over the gunwale of Hummer’s ship.
"I found Levi! Hummer?"
His voice cracked, the sound swallowing itself against the empty deck. He scoured the vessel frantically, searching for the familiar, grounding scent of vanilla and pine. His ears strained against the heavy quiet, desperate for the distinct, static-laced hum of his friend's voice.
Nothing.
The ship was dead silent, save for the bitter whistling of the wind and the monotonous, rhythmic slap-slap of waves against the hull.
Wifies gritted his teeth, a blinding pain pulsing behind his temples. Hummer had to be somewhere. Hummer wouldn't just–
Oh. A sudden, frantic clarity struck him. How stupid of him. Of course Hummer wasn't on the deck. He was down in the ocean, searching for the Leviathan. Where else would he be?
Taking a ragged gulp of sea air, Wifies threw himself over the railing and plunged into the abyss.
The freezing water struck him like a physical blow. He forced his eyes open despite the agonizing sting of the salt, kicking furiously down into the dark, towering forest of kelp. His lungs were already beginning to tighten, screaming for air, until–
There.
Wifies' eyes widened, gaze latching onto the cold, unusual light pulsing from behind a pile of gravel. Surely, that'd be Hummer, right? He kicked harder, propelling himself deeper toward the light as his heart hammered wildly against his ribs. He ignored the suffocating pressure in his chest. He ignored his body's violent protests. Just a few more yards. A few more seconds. He could take it.
What did it matter if seawater filled his throat? What did it matter if his vision frayed into darkness, or if his limbs burned and failed him? None of it mattered–not as long as he reached Hummer.
"Hummer?" The name dissolved into a useless stream of bubbles. The light was right there. Hummer was right there, just beyond his fingertips. "Hummer!"
His lungs spasmed painfully as he inched closer. He couldn't breathe, couldn't swim. Wifies opened his mouth, gasping, but it would do no good. He felt his eyes close as he lost control of his body, felt himself drifting away from Hummer's warmth.
Please, he begged the sea, the Leviathan, the universe–Hummer. Please... just let me find him again.
~~~
"Stop thrashing! Wifies! That's your name, right? Stop that! Are you mad?"
Gods, his skull felt like it was splintering. Wifies blinked through a watery, blurred haze, the violent shaking of his shoulders finally registering. It was his so-called saviour, leaning over him with wide, frantic eyes.
"I'm awake,." Wifies managed to rasp, his throat raw and throbbing. "Stop assaulting me."
What had happened? He had been so close to Hummer. Just a few more seconds, a few more desperate clawing motions, and he would have made it. He would have seen him again. It couldn't have just been a dream–it felt too viscerally real. He could still feel the phantom pressure of the water rushing against him, the agonizing burn in his lungs, and the strange, pulsing warmth radiating from behind the gravel.
Parameterization let go of his shoulders, looking at him warily. "Who's Hummer? And why were you screaming his name? I'm like… ninety percent sure that you just woke half the neighbourhood up with your yelling, dude."
Wifies let out an embarrassed, hacking cough, his head still spinning from the undertow of the vision. No–not a dream, he corrected himself fiercely. It was real. It had to be.
"Sorry," he murmured, as he pushed himself up, the bed groaning in protest under his shifting weight. "Bad dream."
The words tasted like ash on his tongue. Calling it a nightmare felt fundamentally wrong; how could it be a nightmare if Hummer was in it? Yet labelling it a simple dream felt like a betrayal of the terror he had just relived.
"Right. I brought you some medicine."
Wifies eyed the dark, viscous concoction Parameterization handed him. He sniffed it warily before taking a tentative sip. It was lukewarm and intensely bitter, heavy with the scent of crushed herbs and earth. Not entirely unpleasant, but it made him wince as it coated his bruised throat.
He tuned back into Parameterization's rambling. "Look, dude. I don't know what happened after you stole my redstone supplies and ran off on your own, but you seem a little shaken up."
Wifies shook his head, gripping the mug tightly in an attempt to ground himself. "Nothing. Nothing happened."
A sharp pang of guilt pierced his chest. It felt like a crime to reduce Hummer's apparent death to nothing. In that single, suffocating moment, Wifies had lost another friend. If anyone deserved to witness the Leviathan, it was Hummer. Hummer, with his fierce, almost fanatical devotion to the myth. Not Wifies. He had doubted his friend at every single turn, dripping with scepticism right up until the impossible truth was laid bare before his own eyes.
He swallowed the rest of the bitter draught. He needed to find Hummer.