Chapter Text
Wemmbu didn't want to admit it to himself, but he was worried. Really, really worried. Worried that they had run out of time to save Egg. That Manepear wouldn't be strong enough to distract the diamond Mafia member for long enough, let along beat him. That when they arrived at the coordinates that Egg had sent him, Egg would be dead or die just as he got there. He wasn't sure what was worse, watching his best friend die in front of him and being unable to help, or Egg already being dead when he got there. He needed to stop thinking like this. He had to keep his composure, he couldn't afford to break down now, he would find Egg first then react to what he found.
First Prince Zam betrayed him, blew up his small settlement (that Zam had asked him to build) twice, and now his mentor, his friend, had sold Egg out just to pick a fight with some random diamond Mafia member. What is wrong with his luck when picking friends, why can none of them be loyal, why can none of them put him first? Egg is the only person in this current world that sees him as a friend, that cares about him as much as Wemmbu cares for Egg. Well, at least he has Egg. For now, at least, unless they don't make it in time.
Once Wemmbu and Manepear restocked and made sure they were ready for their respective jobs, they left the treehouse instantly. They glided out over forest after forest, dessert after dessert and plains after plains, until finally, they arrived just behind a small hill or mountain for cover near the coordinates. Before engaging with their enemy, they scouted out the area as much as they could without getting seen. They pinpointed the locations of both where Egg was being held and where the diamond trimmed member was. After a small discussion, it was decided that Mane would go in to fight the diamond person and lure him away from where Egg was being held, while Wemmbu would break Eggchan out of his obsidian box. This would be the easiest prison that wemmbu had ever broken into. Well, as long as Manepear managed to not screw them over again.
Mane went in first and played his part flawlessly, the diamond trimmed Mafia member took the bait like a fish to a hook. Wemmbu quickly but carefully took the chance that was provided for him to break egg out. It was a successful mission on Wemmbu's end, though he didn't have any doubts once he saw Egg standing there, safe. All he did was mine the obsidian as efficiently as he could while the fight was going on between the other two. It was far enough away and made plenty of noise to cover the sound of his mining.
Once Eggchan was free, Wemmbu hurried him into a little hole in the mountain behind them, hoping to get more cover from the still ongoing fight. They were far enough in the hill that if something happened to explode near them, they wouldn't be found but they were close enough that they could still hear everything that was going on outside. Once he blocked up the entrance he placed down a torch and inspected Egg. He looked as if he hadn't been harmed too much, there wasn't a single drop of blood on him, just some light bruises that could have been from the training they did with Mane. Wemmbu could feel a knot that had gone almost unnoticed loosen at the sight of his best friend unharmed and mostly okay.
Before hiding away in the hill wemmbu had looked over to where he could still hear the sounds of the fight going on. Metal glinted in the sunlight as it slashed through the air. Both participants of this duel were almost too good to keep up with, even when just watching. Clearly while training him, Manepear had been going easy on Wemmbu, maybe his advice about not fighting him over and over again had some truth to it and wasn't just Mane getting bored of him. Though one thing he did notice was that it didn't look like they were trying to kill one another. He knew the type of violence that would intentionally leave a corpse and a ban message behind. This wasn't it.
And as much as he wanted to, Wemmbu couldn't leave just yet. He wanted his mace back, but he didn't trust Manepear to bring it back to the treehouse for him. He tried telling Egg to go back without him, so that he would get away from the fight and the people who sold him out and kidnapped him, but his friend could be stubborn. He refused. And despite Eggs absolute faith that it was safe for him in the hole, let it be known that Wemmbu once again had to remind Egg to crouch so that his name couldn't be seen. Honestly, this guy.
You whisper to Eggchan: yo bro i dont think we should go back once i get my mace back
"Why are you messaging me? I'm right here?" Egg wasn't even whispering, just plain talking. It was almost as if this guy had the survival instincts of a moth attracted to the light of a lava pool or something. Jeeze.
You whisper to Eggchan: shut ip egg he might hear you
Eggchan whispers to You: i see i see
Eggchan whispers to You: also why wouldnt you want to go back? Dont you still have things to learn?
You whisper to Eggchan: well yea but we cant trust him
You whisper to Eggchan: he sold you out remember
You whisper to Eggchan: how do we know he wont do it again
Eggchan whispers to You: i mean
Eggchan whispers to You: i dont think he did it out of malice?
Eggchan whispers to You: he aggreed to let you come with him to save me didnt he?
You whisper to Eggchan: yeah but only cause he didnt have your coords
Eggchan whispers to You: its not like you have to trust him to learn from him tho
You whisper to Eggchan: i guess bro
You whisper to Eggchan: and i think i remember him saying something about there being more about the mace i dont know
Eggchan whispers to You: then we only stay as long as it takes for him to teach you
You whisper to Eggchan: wait
You whisper to Eggchan: do you hear that bro
Eggchan whispers to You: hear what??
You whisper to Eggchan: i cant hear the fighitng anymore
You whisper to Eggchan: but i didnt see a death msg
You whisper to Eggchan: come on but be careful otherwise im never taking you anywhere again
Eggchan whispers to You: ok
They made quick work of digging themselves out of their little hidey hole and didn't bother with patching it back up. In the distance Wemmbu could make out where the two figures were fighting, though it no longer looked to be a physical fight, more like a rather heated argument. Both participants were lively with movement, pacing around each other and flailing their arms about. Despite the lack of true aggression, Wemmbu could not say with confidence that their argument was friendly either.
As he and Egg made their way towards the duo, he could make out two names. The first was one he expected to see, his teacher, Manepear. The second name, however made him pause. Of course, Mane would sell them out for Flamefrags. He really should have known. It's not like Manepear was in any way successful when trying to convince others that he no longer cared about Flamefrags. That he didn't care about how he left things. Manepear would probably Kill Egg in front of his eyes with no remorse just to satisfy Flame for an hour. Egg nudged Wemmbu forward, breaking him out of his slow but sure decent into anger.
As the two friends made their way towards the other pair, Manepear and Flamefrags noticed them at the same time, putting their argument on hold to wait for their company to arrive or something like that. Manepear still had Wemmbu's mace in his hands, having yet to put it away into his inventory. By this time Flamefrags had stopped watching them approach and instead had his eyes on Wemmbu's mace. It was clear what he wanted out of this interaction. Wemmbu had absolutely no intention of letting Flame get his hands on his mace.
"Wemmbu? Egg? I thought you would've gone back to the treehouse by now." Manepear stared him down. It wasn't as if Wemmbu had broken another one of Mane's rules, so why was he looking at him like that. It's not like Manepear had told them that they had to go back immediately after saving egg. It wasn't even mentioned when they were planning how they would do this. Besides, either way, he wasn't going to leave there without his mace, something that had yet to be given back to him despite being in close enough proximity that mane wouldn't even need to move to give it back. He did not want his most prized possession in the hands of someone he could no longer trust to have his back.
"You got what you came here for Mane, my mace for the fight with the diamond trim. You guys clearly aren't fighting anymore so I want my mace back." The prolonged eye contact between Manepear and Wemmbu was broken by the voice of the only person in the group he hadn't yet heard speak that day.
"Umm... actually bro, I kinda need that for something." Despite the almost sheepish demeaner Flame had, he was absolutely ready for a fight. He had not let his guard down one bit. "You see, I'm not actually supposed to tell any of you guys any of this but bro, what can you do? Anyway, I was tasked with collecting a mace specifically from you, cause that's the only one we know of that isn't tied to another diamond trim member and then I need to give that mace to Clownpiece." As he went on to explain, he got into a more ready position, as if bracing himself for another fight.
Wemmbu's jaw tightened. He felt his body move forward, as if moved by anger and incredulity instead of thought and reason. He always had been a bit impulsive. "So, what, you want to take my mace and not even use it for yourself?! Why should I give it -" But wait. He had forgotten. Wemmbu didn't have the mace, and neither did Eggchan. No matter what he did here today, the only person leaving here with a mace would be Flamefrags. When Wemmbu looked at his (Ex?) mentor he saw that Manepear was already looking at him. His face was blank but the mace in his hands showed his intention clearly enough.
"Look, bro, you can always get another mace. There are like, I don't know, 19 diamond players with one or something. I'm sure you could probably kill one eventually. They're all bad anyway. And I've already made a deal with Manepear - I don't kill either of you two, I get the mace and I help you take down the Mafia" Hang on. Didn't flame work for the Mafia? Why would flame betray them for a mace that they asked him to obtain in the first place? Wemmbu couldn't come up with a reason that made sense, so he did what he usually did when he didn't know something. He asked.
"Why would you betray the Mafia for a mace that they asked you to get in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense for you to just not give them the mace?" The intended accusation in his voice didn't do its job because a hint of true bafflement and curiosity made their way in. But before Flame could even try to respond to his pathetic questioning Wemmbu turned on his heal and faced Manepear, face going from wary to furious. "And don't you dare think that you can just go around making bets, wagers and deals with other people's things, especially not with things that belong to me."
Before he went off at Manepear anymore, Wemmbu felt a calming light pressure on his shoulder. He had almost forgotten that he wasn't alone there, what with egg being more quiet than usual. He must be really shaken up from the whole ordeal, despite trying his best to hide it from Wemmbu. He really needed to start training Egg or something, so that he should at least defend himself until Wemmbu could help, considering how Mane wasn't willing to. Egg needed to be safe and Wemmbu wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to protect Egg. It was one close call right after another.
Flamefrags speaking once more broke him out of his slowly spiralling thoughts once again. "I mean it's not like I actually care about what happens to the Mafia. As long as I don't get caught before they're taken down, I have no problem feeding information to whatever little group you make to try and take them down. Well, as long as you give me the mace of course."
"Well, why can't you just get the mace you need from one of the other diamond trims? You mentioned it before and clearly have no problem with killing them." Wemmbu was once again starting to get annoyed. Why do people keep asking for his mace. It was his. It was given to him as a show of trust, and yeah sure he immediately broke that trust but what else could he do? Why do people keep trying to take the mace from him? Honestly, if one more person tried to take something, anything away from him, he might just blow them up. It was getting more and more tempting, that's for sure.
"Well, you know how when you kill someone, the death message and your name gets shown to the entire server?" Wemmbu nodded his head impatiently, trying to get flame to explain faster. "And you know how the diamond trims always go around with a gaggle of other people? Well bro, Ashswag knows who all of his diamond Members are by name, so if by some miracle, he doesn't see the very obvious death message of me killing one of his people, I would still be wary in case one of the other members escape and tell my name to him. If I kill a diamond player, that's basically a death sentence. I'm screwed. You're screwed. Your plan is screwed and the mafia lives on to take over the world." Honestly apart from the Mafia winning and him and his friends probably being murdered, it didn't sound so bad, at least flame wouldn't be around.
One thing that bothers Wemmbu, though, was that while Flame was talking, at certain points he would look to Manepear on instinct, to see how he felt about this situation. However, every time he did look to him, Mane was always looking back. It was annoyingly awkward when that happened. He honestly hated that he still looked to Manepear for guidance. Why couldn't it be over?
"wemmbu bro, you should know this, its common sense." It was once again Eggchan breaking the tension. It was just like him to either try to make things worse for his own entertainment or calm things down so that nothing too bad happened if he could help it.
"Yeah man, come one bro." Flamefrags' statement, however, was received with much less grace than Eggchan's was. Wemmbu did not care about what Flame thought about him.
Wemmbu could feel three sets of eyes on him as he finally weighed his options.
Option 1. He could give flame his beloved mace. He could potentially gain a strong ally and crucial information that would help in overthrowing the Mafia.
Option 2. He could keep his mace. He would make a sure enemy out of both Manepear and Flamefrags, likely strengthening the Mafia’s ranks. This could lead to both his and Eggs deaths.
Option 3. He could try to kill Flamefrags right here right now with a surprise attack or something. This would likely once again lead to Manepear joining the mafia, his death and Eggs death. He didn't even know if he could beat Flame considering how he fought against Manepear, even with a surprise attack.
Or option 4. Join the mafia. This kind of defeated the point of trying to get flame on their side. It kind of looked like they'd win though, and they probably wouldn't absolutely ruin his life too much either.
Well. It kind of looked like he really only had one choice here.
Before confirming anything, before committing to a final choice, he went through his options one last time. He finally looked to Manepear and nodded his reluctant consent, to give Flame the mace. "You better keep your end of the deal, Flame." And with that and one last look to Manepear, Flamefrags was gone, and so was the mace.
"Thank you Wemmbu, genuinely. And... I guess I'm sorry." Manes voice suddenly speaking into the charged silence was the first thing that surprised him. Then he processed the words that had been said. An apology? Manepear would never do that without it benefitting him in some way. He probably wants even more from Wemmbu. Or maybe he was planning something. It was annoying, having to doubt everything that was said now. A few hours ago, he would have been honoured.
"Whatever. Let's just go back. I'm done here." Manepear looked like he wanted to say more before they left but he didn't. Instead, he just led the way back to the treehouse.
It seemed as though Manepear had gained something at the cost of wemmbu loosing something. Thank the non-existent gods that Egg was safe. He didn't know what he would have done if he had died.