Chapter Text
When they reached the surface, they found a particularly fancy enderman waiting for them. A servant, maybe.
The servant, upon noticing the two of them appear, held out what looked to be a written invitation, saying something in a tongue Karl couldn’t understand.
Ranboo, apparently, could, however, and whatever was said to him wasn’t good. As Karl took the invitation, opening it to find more words he could not comprehend, he felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned to Ranboo, tilting his head, and the boy glanced at the other enderman before pulling Karl aside.
“The Queen invited you over for a feast,” he harshly whispered, more fire in his eyes than Karl had seen during his match. “I don’t think you have much of a choice but to go.”
“Will I-” Karl started, before frowning and changing his question. “Do you know if I could bring you with me?”
Ranboo blinked, looking surprised by the question, like he hadn’t thought of that. He took the invitation, squinting at it and reading over it a few more times, then nodded. “Plus one. You don’t know anyone else, I’m assuming-” Karl must have given him a look, because he continued carefully, “-since you’re not from around here and can’t understand endspeak, so she’s probably expecting you to bring me along. Especially since she just introduced you to me.” Ranboo, after speaking, looked back over the invitation, humming with hints of a grimace. “I don’t really know why she’s doing this, but it can’t be for anything good.”
Karl didn’t reply for a moment, staring at Ranboo as he processed everything the hybrid just said. He hadn’t heard him talk that much ever, even in the SMP. He really didn’t expect this Ranboo to talk so...confidently, either. It sounded like he’d been through this before - though that wouldn’t make much sense at all.
When Ranboo gave Karl a concerned look, he hurried to respond. “Oh! Right, uh- right. Yeah,” he said, taking the invitation back and pocketing it, just in case he needed it later. “Alright, yeah, so I’m bringing you, then?” Ranboo nodded. “Cool, great. What- um, what about the plan?”
Ranboo scowled, briefly, and Karl nearly found himself doing the same. What Ranboo had started to explain to him while they were walking couldn’t exactly apply to a dinner-situation; it was likely they wouldn’t be able to continue with the plan afterward, either.
Ranboo hummed, thinking about it. “I don’t know. Adapt and overcome, I guess. We can still go through with the end parts, we just have to survive long enough to get there.” The way he said it so bluntly made Karl wince, not a big fan of dying at dinner parties or arenas, but Ranboo didn’t seem to notice it. “Just...Man, I don’t know. Don’t eat anything unfamiliar? To avoid poison?”
“Everything is unfamiliar to me,” Karl stated flatly, straightening his posture when the enderman from before showed up again. “I’ll try my best not to die. No promises.”
Ranboo snorted at that - and huh, that was the first time he laughed here - and Karl didn’t have the heart to tell him that it wasn’t a joke. He had died far more times than he could count, on his journeys; he was sure this would be just another death.
Still, he wanted to help Ranboo, so he didn’t say anything as they were both lead away from the arena.
.
Whatever Karl was expecting, it wasn’t this.
He had already been taken off guard by the absolutely blank sky. There was nothing , no light, no clouds, no stars. He’d go as far as to call it void. Reminiscent of obsidian, or the center of an enderpearl.
But this was on another level.
He’d never seen a material like this. The bricks were a color he’d never seen naturally occurring in even the brightest flowers, and they were smoother than any stone he’d felt before.
And the structure they were being lead into, for the dinner - he could only compare it to a flying ship. ‘Cities,’ Ranboo had referred to them as, though each structure was apparently its own. They were certainly lively enough to be considered such. Each area was bustling with noise and excitement, contrasting the blankness of the sky.
Eventually, they found themselves in what Karl could recognize as a dining room - an extravagant one at that. Recalling the mansion of one of his past travels didn’t even begin to compare.
At the end of the beyond lavish table, the Queen sat, arms folded in front of her, wings folded behind her. She smiled at them as they entered the room, gesturing to the otherwise empty table with all too much glee.
“Take any seat you’d like. We have no one else joining us,” she invited, voice to cold to sound welcoming.
Karl looked around the table, seeing silverware lined up at each seat in preparation. A waste, he thought as he looked for a seat. He looked back to the Queen, thinking on her words. Any seat, she said.
Nodding politely, he walked over to the seat on the end of the table facing her, not hesitating for a second to sit down. He saw Ranboo tense out of the corner of his eye, and tried to hide his fear at his decision.
He was a stranger to this world, yes, but he wasn’t a stranger to people. To sit in the same kind of spot as the Queen was to put himself at the same level as her; to compare himself to her was either a bold move or a stupid one.
He met the Queen’s eyes in both a challenge and a test - trying to see where the limit was. No behavior for someone who wanted to live, perhaps, but he rarely tended to survive these kinds of things, anyways. He stared at the Queen, waiting for her move, as she blankly stared back.
He heard a chair scoot beside him, and broke his unspoken contest with the Queen to look over. Ranboo, who had been taking out the chair just to his right to sit down in, awkwardly smiled and waved when he realized Karl was looking at him. He offered the boy a smile and looked back to the Queen as Ranboo tucked his chair back up to the table.
The Queen eyed Ranboo for a second before looking back to Karl, smiling with too many teeth to be friendly. “I’m glad you could make it, Karl. I see you’ve brought a plus one with you.” Her gaze, sharp as knives even without the enderian attitude towards eye contact, fell back on Ranboo, who failed to suppress a shiver.
Ranboo didn’t say a word, much quieter in the Queen’s presence than he was without her there. The fact made Karl hum unhappily, nodding to the ruler. “Did the invitation not allow one?” His question could have been seen as snarky, he realized a second too late, but he genuinely didn’t know. Hell, the Queen knew he didn’t know what the invitation said, since she knew he didn’t understand what she’d called ‘endspeak.’
“I didn’t say it was a bad thing,” the Queen said, reaching for her glass and taking a sip. Karl didn’t follow her example. He didn’t trust the drinks for a second. “Simply pointing out an observation.”
Karl just agreed, leaning back in his seat, table manners be screwed. The Queen narrowed her eyes, but said nothing, beckoning for...something.
He wasn’t that well-versed in people.
Ranboo shifted in his seat next to him. He glanced over, not wanting to draw too much attention when Ranboo so obviously did not like attention , and offered a small smile. It was meant to be comforting, though Karl was never too great at that.
His smile was met with a flimsy imitation of it, and he deemed it good enough. Turning back to the table, he saw food being carted out.
So that’s what the hand gesture was for. Huh.
“I had the cooks imitate Overworld cuisine, I hope it’s to your liking!” She said, a certain static clinging to her voice at the mention of the Overworld.
At first, Karl had no clue what that entailed for the dinner - what in the everloving fuck counts as Overworld Cuisine and how scared do I have to be - but was swiftly and thoroughly disappointed. He had expected one of two things: either the most horrific food he’d ever laid his eyes upon, or a feast fit for a king.
Instead, lining the table from end to end, was an array- no, a variety of potatoes.
What the hell.
Karl looked to Ranboo, trying to gauge his reaction to the blandest meal he’d ever seen, only to find the boy absolutely stoked . What had they been feeding him to make him so undyingly excited to see potatoes ? Was this the same person who, no more than an hour ago, warned Karl to be cautious of whatever the Queen served them? Did he miss some big, important event to switch his attitude around so readily?
He warily placed the oddest potato he’d had the unpleasure of seeing onto his plate and waited for whatever else the Queen had planned.
“Well? Is it to your liking?” She asked, a couple potatoes stacked onto her own plate. “I have to admit, I, myself, have never been to your lands, so you’ll have to forgive my chefs if they got anything wrong.”
A glint in her eyes told Karl that his forgiveness wouldn’t mean anything for those chefs fates.
“It-It looks good!” He lied, slapping on a smile.
The Queen, looking pleased with his answer, nodded, and they began to eat.
He had readied himself to spit out any odd-tasting food - a poor plan, now that he thought about it, considering most foods here would be considered ‘odd’ by his standards - but the potatoes just...tasted like potatoes. The odd colors made as much of a difference as the different colors of corn, to him. A minor difference someone else might notice more, but nothing to him.
It was the most mediocre dinner he could have possibly expected from this situation. Even then, it was more of a let-down than anything.
Deep down, he understood that he was lucky, for now. A bland dinner was better than a poisoned one. Still, he couldn’t wrap his head around what the Queen was planning. Something wasn’t right here (hadn’t been from the start) and for Ranboo to be so eager to leave, Karl found the plan justified. Means to an end, and all that.
But what was so bad about the Queen? Obviously, there was something off, but what? How was this story meant to end? What made the villain of this story the villain ?
Murder, abuse, theft, he had seen it all, been a victim of a few, in every story. There had to be something wrong with her rule, but so far, he couldn’t pinpoint anything apart from the arena.
Well. There was the arena, yeah. Big red flag there.
But, usually, these villains would be jumping at any chance to kill him. He...didn’t really know why, but more often than not, he did tend to die in these stories. So every second the Queen didn’t outright try to kill him, the worse his nerves got.
Waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Ranboo broke the silence before either of the them. “I’ve...never had these before, uhm. What-what are they called…?” He hesitated to finish his question, not daring to drag his eyes away from his own plate.
Karl caught the Queen’s glare- almost indignant that Ranboo would dare to speak -and rushed to answer. “They’re potatoes,” he said, cutting his lone potato and taking a bite. Gulping down the bland food, he continued, “they’re really common in, uh, villages? There are a few players that really- they really like potatoes.”
Ranboo nodded, looking like every drop of information he got was worth gold, and kept eating. Quiet fell on the dinner again, only interrupted occasionally by a cough.
Quiet, until a laugh Karl had quickly grown all too familiar with filled the air. He looked up at the Queen in confusion, taking a quick stock of his body to see if anything felt off or poisoned. He felt fine, so what was she laughing about?
“I believe we’re done with the main course, yes?” She asked, looking only at Karl. He reluctantly nodded. What kind of main course was that? “Then, let’s get on with the dessert!”
She snapped her fingers, and Karl felt a tug on his sleeve, under the table. He didn’t dare to look at Ranboo, only offering the slightest tug back as servants came in with unfamiliar dished and set them out on the table.
The plan wasn’t all that complicated, really. Especially not anymore, with several steps having been skipped the second Karl had been invited to dinner. It had likely been thrown together by Ranboo in the time he had met Karl to the time he shared the plan itself. Maybe even before, back when he’d just won his right to a name.
(Karl still couldn’t wrap his head around that, but at least the kid had a name now, right?)
Not long after the last dish was placed did Karl abruptly stand up, his chair shoved back on impact. Furious eyes and a pleasant smile made their way in his direction, an unasked question hanging right in front of him. He pushed aside any doubts he had, only hoping for his life to stay intact.
Even then, he wasn’t too confident.
“I’m sorry, your highness,” he said, forcing a false bravado into his voice and slamming his hands down on the table. He could’ve sworn he heard a growl, but he kept going. “It seems I have a prior engagement.”
“Oh?” She looked none too amused, almost snarling at him. “And what would that be?”
A clink of silver, a handful of the tablecloth, and the glint of metal was all the signal Karl needed. He grinned, only wishing it was half as animalistic as it had to be.
“Your funeral.”
He yanked on the tablecloth and threw it forward, not sparing any thought a second glance as he rushed underneath the table. Above him, he heard the thud of a boot landing on hard wood and the clashing of dishes being kicked aside. He didn’t dwell on it; he darted forward.
He paid the rushed feet of servants and the worried shouts of guards no mind, not wanting to waste a second as his target lined up in his sight. He stomped down on one clawed foot and stabbed the other - unfortunate for Her Majesty to set out such sharp silverware, wasn’t it?
A howl of both pain and anger sounded out, and he allowed himself to be proud of the small victory before crawling to the other side of the table as fast as he could.
Emerging into the open-ish air, he spotted Ranboo. The boy was slashing forward with little to no mercy, with a sword Karl hadn’t even noticed on his person. Green blood stained the room and Karl didn’t question whose it was, instead reaching for his discarded chair and throwing it, watching it slam into a guard with a small satisfaction.
As soon as the feeling came, though, it was ripped away as he watched Ranboo fall back, losing his balance with a cry. Dark wings filled the air and a crown fell beside the boy. Karl rushed forward, not thinking to pay attention to the jeweled thing - not noticing the familiar shine of enchantments.
No, what he did was yank Ranboo back, both of them watching in horror as the Queen transformed. Shit, shit, shit , that was a whole fucking dragon. The room was breaking, the walls and pillars caving in, and Karl didn’t have time to think before he was being dragged out into the halls.
“What the hell was that?!” He screamed, adrenaline pumping through his veins as the two ran from the beast. His stamina wouldn’t last for much longer, he realized.
He never did survive these stories.
Ranboo’s grip on his arm tightened, and Karl didn’t think the boy noticed his own claws digging into his skin. “The-the Queen’s crown - I noticed one of the runes on it!” He sucked down any bit of air he could, skidding around the corner to try throwing the enraged dragon off their tail. “She’s - I think that crown changed her shape!”
“What?”
“It was- one of the runes, it was called ‘Changeling’! When the crown was knocked off-”
“-She was a dragon again,” Karl finished for him, the sickening realization kicking in that he was entirely and absolutely fucked .
They turned another corner, and Karl could feel his energy running out. “Karl, there’s a- there’s a portal, in the room right ahead of us, I’m pretty sure!” Ranboo suddenly cried out, sounding nothign short of relieved as he dragged them both through the door.
Karl slammed the door shut, though he knew it would do no good. They didn’t have much time before the Queen caught up to them. “What- portal to what?” He asked, panting. “How do you even-”
“I heard the other arena fighters talk about it. The stories about it are insane, but informative,” he answered, out of breath himself. He had done most of the fighting, earlier. “It goes to the overworld!”
Karl’s heart stopped for a second, before racing to catch up again. He finally turned around, looking over to where Ranboo was, and-
Oh, that was a goddamn portal. This was nothing like the ruined nether portals he’d seen here and there - this was another level. Bedrock coated the entire ring; void filled the otherworldly fountain like water.
They heard a crash down the hall, and both bit back screams. They only had a few seconds.
Karl knew he would make it out alive. Ranboo, though…
“Ranboo, Ranboo, listen to me, okay?” He whipped around, leveling the boy with a stare. He’d done well to avoid his eyes so far, but he didn’t bother. He wouldn’t be seeing him much longer, anyways. “Go through the portal before me.” Ranboo opened his mouth to protest, but he cut him off quickly. “I’ll be fine, alright? I just need to know you can get out.”
Screams grew closer, and he cursed under his breath. Not waiting for a response, he grabbed Ranboo and muttered an apology before tossing him into the portal.
The door bust open, but he didn’t turn around.
He found himself on the other side of the portal in a flash, the edges of his vision blurring as he reached forward and-
The last thing he heard was the break of the portal, before there was a bite in his side. He silently cried out, having no air to do so, and fell back.
As the world around him faded, he caught a hint of green. Huh , he thought, that kind of looks like Dream .
And the world went dark.
.
Welcome back, Karl.