Chapter Text
The Syndicate hasn’t had a meeting in the actual meeting room in months, so when the message said the weekly get together would be in the odd room underground, Ranboo was terrified that something had gone wrong. That someone was dead or worse -- the dread that encompassed his heart for the three days between the message and the meeting could have killed him.
The room is dimly lit as always, the only light coming from dusty lanterns and the lava in the corners of the room. Ranboo sits diagonally from Niki, and Phil sits closest to him, next to a startlingly empty seat. Come to think of it, Ranboo hasn’t seen Techno in a while -- and while that usually wouldn’t be at all unusual, Ranboo is slightly put off by the formal meeting being held in his absence.
So he was right. Something happened.
“Hey, mates,” Phil starts, clearing his throat and cracking his knuckles above the table. Niki smiles thinly and Ranboo gives Phil a half-wave. The man sighs, and Ranboo notices the dark circles underneath Phil’s eyes and the man’s sullen expression. He wrings his hands. “So...I called the meeting in here because we have two problems that I think should be brought to your attention. Partially because we need to help fix it and partially because, well...you deserve to know.”
“...know what?” Ranboo and Niki say at the same time, glancing at each other with slight smiles. Niki continues, “Did something happen? Where’s Tech -- ah, Protesilaus? I haven’t seen him in a while.”
Ranboo is well aware that her concern isn’t that she hasn’t seen him in a bit, but Phil doesn’t seem to know and he snorts. “That’s not the issue. Protesilaus disappears for months at a time, but…” He pauses. He takes a breath, and it shakes, and Ranboo knows something had gone horribly, horribly wrong.
“About a month ago, June 6th, he went to go...visit Prometheus.”
Niki’s face twists into a look of complete concern, but the choked noise that comes from Ranboo’s mouth causes his face to burn from embarrassment. Phil sends him a quizzical look and he flicks his gaze down, staring at the smooth stone that makes up the perimeter of the table.
“Why in the world would he do that?” Niki asks, distaste clearly sewn through her expression and tone. “What would ever...possess him to do such a thing?”
“He said something about Prometheus calling in his favor,” Phil says with an annoyed lilt to his voice. “And also something about getting more viewers -- you know Chat, right. They’re always talking about going on their next interesting adventure, so they probably weren’t much help.”
“Right…” Niki begins, sitting up straighter and tilting her head. “So where is he? You said that was a month ago.”
Phil spreads out his arms in a flippant manner. “No clue. Haven’t seen him since then. Hasn’t called, messaged, given any indication as to where he could have gone. It’s like he’s vanished off the face of the Earth.”
“That’s…” Ranboo furrows his brows. “That’s not like him. He wouldn’t go to the prison and then just leave, he knows that that’d worry us.”
“Exactly why I’m worried,” Phil mutters. “I went to the Warden and he said he came and left on the same day, and that the visit only took about an hour. He looked like one shifty bastard while saying it, though, too stoic, so I’m not exactly inclined to believe him.”
Ranboo thinks back to the last time he’d spoken with Sam -- or, rather, yelled at Sam. He can’t remember too much from that entire day, but he clearly remembers Sam’s stone cold expression for most of the interaction up until the end. He supposes his incessant crying managed to touch the man, but until then, it was quite unsettling. He nods slightly. "So what do you think happened?"
"Right, and what are we going to do about it?" Niki continues. "It's Protesilaus, he can handle himself, but if it's been this long…"
"The only issue is that we only have his last known location. If he's…" Phil hesitates, wringing his hands again. "If he's in the prison, that's going to be an issue all on it's own. Probably harder to figure out how to get him out of there than to find him in some faraway land."
"Do we have any leads on him still being inside?" Ranboo asks. "Aside from Themis...acting weird."
Phil just shakes his head. "I can't get in touch with him and I haven't tried to get inside yet. I probably would have, but the Warden hasn't really been around as of late. I have no clue where he could've gone, given that his only job is to stop one of the most dangerous men on the server from escaping captivity, but I have a feeling that this sudden disappearance isn’t coincidental. My guess is that he doesn't want anyone visiting."
Ranboo decides not to immediately rat Sam out, given that that would also rat out the rest of his friends, for the sake of his own innocence and peace of mind. He doesn't need to tell Phil about Las Nevadas unless he's explicitly asked, and that would be an entirely different story all on its own. Then Ranboo would have to start worrying for them and their safety.
Ranboo doesn't explicitly hate government. He never really has -- he thinks, under the right system, under the right people, that it could definitely work out for the best and have a fruitful and prosperous society...but that hasn't happened, yet. He isn't sure it ever will, on this server, where everyone's demeanor is shifty and no one seems to be willing to do things only for others. People that were selfish from the start take advantage of those who are selfless, and those who are selfless learn self-preservation quickly. It's a vicious training that everyone seems to have gone through. Ranboo doesn't think anyone would be able to run a country with a system that puts all the power on one person and a couple of others in a way that wouldn't end up hurting people.
Quackity is different -- not in the sense that he's a totally good leader who can lift the entire server on his back, not at all. Quackity shows resentment to those who he thinks have had it good, to those who he thinks haven't suffered enough (like Ranboo, like Tubbo), but he seems to care -- deeply -- about those he connects with. And since those are the only people in Las Nevadas as of now...it all seems to be running quite well. They haven't really done anything wrong yet.
Don't get him wrong, Ranboo knows it's a "yet," and he's absolutely positive that once that large casino opens up, things are going to go sour, but as of right now, it just seems to him to be broken people trying to heal. He doesn't want to have to destroy that. Not yet.
So, instead of telling on Sam, Ranboo quickly says, "Ah, are you just not receiving responses to your messages, or are they not going through? Because if he's in the prison, he wouldn't be able to receive them -- the obsidian sets up a thick enough signal wall that you'd basically have to be pressed up against the prison for any messages to get through if you're not inside."
Phil's eyes widen as he presses his palms against his eyes. "Nothing has been going through, Lethe, you're a genius." Ranboo's face flushes and he bows his head, catching Niki's smile out of the corner of his eye. "Nothing went through aside from one or two messages I sent when I was trying to find Themis to talk to him, and I was around the prison then."
Ranboo's expression turns grim, darkening a bit. "So he's...probably in the prison."
"Yep."
"How are we supposed to break him out without inadvertently breaking out Prometheus?" Niki questions, her tone growing impatient. The logistics of everything seemingly don't matter to her -- now that she has the confirmation, she just wants to know what to do. "I'd assume we wouldn't want him out, too, we know what he's done. Are we just going to leave Protesilaus to his own devices?"
"Nemesis, please," Phil mutters tiredly. "We only just figured out that he's in the prison, we haven't thought that far ahead --"
"I say we kill him."
The air in the room seems to freeze. Ranboo and Phil's gazes are drawn to Niki's defiant expression, and Ranboo can clearly see, even without making direct eye contact, the just barely subdued anger flickering behind her pale grey eyes. Her posture is straight, defined, as if trying to say with her entire being that she meant exactly what she said and doesn't plan on taking it back.
She looks defiant, even though nobody contested her. Ranboo wonders what made her that way. She wasn't like that when they met.
"Nik -- Nemesis, mate.." Phil begins, but Niki doesn't even give him time.
"No, look," she stands up, splaying her hands across the table. "Think about all the things this man has done on this server. All of it has inadvertently or directly hurt us.” She looks directly at Phil, and Ranboo winces. “ All of us, whether you’re going to admit it or not.”
Ranboo can only look at Phil, who’s expression turns stony. “I’m not sure what you mean, Nemesis,” he says slowly, as if challenging her to continue with what she’s trying to imply. “Personally, Prometheus hasn’t done anything that’s negatively affected me nor Protesilaus.”
“Lies,” Niki snaps, and Ranboo sucks in his breath. Oh God. This is going to turn into a bloodbath. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. You know exactly what destroying L’Manburg did to you -- did to me. I’ve told you all about what I’ve gone through, how much it affected me, and yet you’ve told us nothing and we can still see how that changed you. Especially now that Icarus is back --”
“We aren’t talking about that right now, Nemesis,” Phil says coldly. “You can stop.”
“You need to talk about it, Zephyrus,” Niki hisses, softer than her other quips but still aggressive. “It’s ridiculous how much you avoid talking about it, you’re not doing yourself any good --”
“Nemesis, I said stop.”
“-- you and I both know that Icarus returning isn’t some -- some happy occasion that you only feel good about, you said yourself that he’s still an untrustworthy bastard --”
“Nemesis.”
“-- and the fact that he thinks Prometheus is a good person should be a sign to all of us that he isn’t. It’s Prometheus’ fault that he’s back, and it’s Prometheus’ fault that you can’t look Pan or Theseus in the eyes anymore!”
Phil breathes in through his nose with his eyes closed, and Ranboo can hear the shake of it as he starts to fiddle with his hands. He exhales with his eyes open, and the blue color has never looked so cold.
“Protesilaus and the rest of you have made me feel safer than I have been in months, and now you just want him, who revived the man that has made me feel more unsafe than I have in months, run free! Where’s the logic in that?”
“This isn’t only about you, Nemesis,” Phil snips. “We’re not going to kill a man who’s done nothing wrong to us, it makes us no better than...than a government taking out a figurehead they know nothing about or killing someone because of personal gripes.” The last comment was pointed and sharp, and Niki caught it immediately with a scowl. “It’s against what we stand for.”
“What we -- Zephyrus, are you listening to yourself right now? Did you even hear me?”
“Guys,” Ranboo squeaks. “Please.”
Nobody pays any mind. Ranboo sighs.
“Of course I’m listening, the issue is that I’m hearing you project how you feel about the matter onto the rest of us --”
“How dare you make me try and second-guess myself?” Niki shrieks, slamming her palm onto the table with a ferocity that makes the lanterns sway. She marches up to Phil and his wings bristle, fanning out behind him slightly. “I know what I see and hear in you, Zephyrus. You think he’s just as untrustworthy as I do, as Theseus does, don’t you?”
Phil pushes her away slightly and Niki bats his hand off of her. “The fact that you keep turning this back to Icarus shows just how unfit you are for this discussion, Nemesis.” His words are poison and Ranboo watches in shock and terror as all of the blood drains from Niki’s face, her expression stuck on raw disbelief as she stares at Phil. Phil, who looks on the verge of breaking something but trying desperately to hide it. “I think you should sit down.”
Niki doesn’t respond. Ranboo silently counts down the seconds in his head, awaiting an explosion of fury that doesn’t come.
Instead, he experiences the exact definition of the phrase “if looks could kill.” As Niki turns partially away from Phil, keeping her eyes trains on the man’s face as she hisses, “You know exactly what to say to shut people up, don’t you?” Her mouth presses into a thin line. It almost looks as if she’s trying to smile to make her words hit harder but physically can’t bring herself to do it. Her eyes have disgust layered behind them. Then she chuckles, dryly, humorlessly, and says, “I guess the slimy bastard must have gotten it from somewhere --”
“Don’t you dare speak about my son like that.” Phil yells, his fist colliding with the table as he shoots up from his seat, and it’s in this moment that Ranboo’s hands start to crawl up towards his ears. This isn’t right, none of this is right. How did they manage to fall apart in the first official meeting without Techno? Was this going to happen every time?
“Oh, now you start paying attention,” Niki sneers, whirling back around to face Phil. “Don’t joke with yourself, this has been about him from the start, hasn’t it?”
“You do not have the right to speak of him that way.” Phil continues, darker in tone than Ranboo has probably ever heard him. He juts his finger in Niki’s direction, but she pays no mind.
“You know exactly what Wilbur thinks of Dream, right?” Niki continues, and Ranboo stiffens. She said their real names. They aren’t supposed to do that here. “You just don’t want to kill him because it’ll upset your precious son --”
“It is not that and you know it, Niki,” Phil fires back. Ranboo thought he would correct her on the names. “This entire thing is clouding your judgement, you’re being irrational --”
“I’m being irrational?” Niki echoes in disbelief.
“Hysterical, more like.”
Niki lets out a bark of laughter, completely humorless in nature and sharp with anger. “Phil, I cannot believe how much Wilbur has -- has managed to fuck you over.” She stares with an intensity Ranboo doesn’t think he’s felt before. She isn’t even looking vaguely in his direction, but he can feel the telltale crawling up and down his skin all the same. You can’t see through the smoke he set off in front of you, not unless you’re willing to admit it.” She bitterly spits, “No one is.”
Phil merely scoffs. “Admit what? Wilbur and I have barely even spoken -- I’ve said it before, you’re projecting. Hell,” he adds, and the glint in his eyes makes Ranboo preemptively squeeze his eyes shut. “I’m sure you’re exaggerating, anyways.”
Niki freezes. “Excuse me?”
“Wilbur only spoke highly of you when we talked, Niki. All genuine.” Ranboo can’t bring himself to listen. “He cared about you more than anything, there’s no way he hurt you as you say.”
A strangled noise falls from Niki’s mouth, and gathering from her expression, Ranboo thinks she might be hysterical now if she wasn’t before. “You -- exaggerating? Y-You asshole!” She jams a finger into Phil’s chest and Phil stumbles back. “You are not allowed to speak on how much he hurt me -- maybe you can try that when you get your head out of the sand and figure out how much he hurt you!”
Just when Ranboo thinks the anxiety building in his chest has garnered enough pressure to shatter him into billions of pieces, his mouth moves on his own. “Guys! Stop, please.” Niki and Phil turn to look at him, and he shrinks. He can only faintly imagine how pathetic he must look, hands over ears, one slightly tugging on his hair, but he can’t find it in him to move them. Just in case they start fighting again. He talks without thinking again. “You can’t use people’s real names. Just ‘cause...um, Protesilaus isn’t here doesn’t mean we can start breaking the rules. Remember?”
Niki and Phil glance at each other, flushed faces paling out a bit. They stand in silence before Phil stutters out, “Y-Yeah, Lethe, you’re right,” as he sits. Niki backs into her seat as he says, “We got out of hand. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry, Lethe.”
It’s silent, and in that quiet, Ranboo lets his hands fall from his ears and his body loosen. He clears his throat. “So, uh...I-I think the best course of action is to let Zephyrus focus on the prison for now. Maybe try and figure out, like, just how far away from the prison you can be before the comms stop sending messages. Maybe monitor the area for a few days and see if Themis has different shifts...or if he's just abandoned the prison entirely." Ranboo bites the corner of his mouth before looking at Niki and adding, "Unless there was something that you wanted to do too --"
"No," she says shortly. "Nothing."
"-- I think we should move on. Maybe."
Phil blinks, shakes his head, and says, "Aye aye, captain. That took a while to get to."
Ranboo wonders whether Phil wants Niki to strangle him.
"Anyways, the second thing we had on the list was, ah…" His brows furrow together. "Las Nevadas?"
Ranboo sucks in a breath. Crap. Niki's expression just turns confused as she says, "I've heard about that place. Run by…Dionysus, right?"
Phil shrugs. "Don't ask me, I have no idea. I just heard it was a country on the rise from Icarus, so I figured that we should probably talk about it." He turns to Ranboo, politely keeping his gaze focused to the side of his head, and says, "Lethe? Do you know about this place?"
"Um," he says smartly. Well, there's nothing he can do now. It's not like he's going to lie about it. At this point, his best option is to pray that Phil and Niki don't see it as too much of a big deal. "Y-Yeah. It's run by, uh…” Ranboo digs around in his mind for Quackity’s codename (Niki literally just said it, come on, come on) before giving up and just saying, “...him. It’s, like, focused around...gambling, I think?”
“Gambling?”
“Gambling.” Ranboo says with a nod. “It’s, um, it’s pretty big, it has a hotel that’s still being worked on, this really big tower he calls the “needle,” I think he lives up there, um, it has...a couple of restaurants, I think? Oh, and the strip club!”
Phil’s eyes widen and Niki suddenly chokes, startling Ranboo. Their expressions look mortified, and he waves his hands in front of him, thinking he said something wrong. “It’s nothing bad, it’s just for stripping wood logs and stuff! I guess it’s kind of like a factory? Or maybe it’s just calming for some people…” He trails off before piping up, “I made a hidey-hole in there a while back just in case!”
Niki and Phil suddenly burst into laughter, and Ranboo looks on with a bemused smile. He’s glad they’re happier, but he has no idea what the joke was. Phil puts his head into his hands and mutters, “I'm going to hell for laughing at this...Lethe, do you actually know what a strip club is?"
Ranboo's expression turns to one of confusion. "Uh...no, I guess not. I just assumed that it was that. Was I wrong?"
"No, and we're not telling him otherwise, right, Zephyrus?" Niki says pointedly. Phil looks at her, and for a brief moment, Ranboo thinks they might start fighting again, but Phil just sighs.
"No, of course not. He isn't wrong." Phil turns back to him, and Ranboo smiles. "Anything else you want to tell us, mate? Do you know anyone that lives there?"
"Mmm...I remember F -- ah, right, sorry, I...I'm really bad at remembering the code names."
"It's okay, mate," Phil says softly. "You don't have to --"
"No, it's okay," Ranboo cuts in. "I have them written down." Ranboo waves his hand and his memory book appears. He opens it towards the middle and flips through the pages, dragging his finger down before landing on who he needs to...before flipping back to his page of where everyone lives. "Right, um...Teumesios, Poseidon, um...P-Purpled and Slime.”
Niki’s eyes widen. “Purpled?”
Phil’s brows furrow. “Slime?”
“Right, Slime, um…” Ranboo thinks, and laughs under his breath at the first memory of him that surfaces, Brother Slime. That sure was an interaction. “He’s -- he’s like, a gazillion year old slime that’s evolved into a human over time. He’s cool.”
Niki laughs, and when nobody laughs with her, her expression turns to disbelief. “You -- you’re joking, right?” No response. Her expression shifts to shock. “That’s possible?”
“Yeah,” Phil says. “Last time it was recorded was, like, a hundred years ago, though, and it was a slime turning into...a sapling, I think. I guess this Slime fellow slipped through the cracks, no pun intended.”
“More than you know,” Ranboo mutters, flipping through his book towards the more recent pages. “He’s seen literally everything that’s happened on the server.”
Phil blinks. “You -- everything?”
Ranboo nods, and then backtracks. “According to him. And -- oh, right, and Theseus, Theseus said that slime said that he saw his exile? And, um, I think he mentioned seeing L’Manburg blowing up.”
Ranboo sees Niki open her mouth, probably to ask “which time,” before glancing at Phil and closing it. Phil hums, tapping his fingers against the table. “That’s...unsettling. Something to keep in mind, I guess he’d be a dangerous one if things turned sour -- him and Poseidon are definitely at the top of that list.”
“Oh, I don’t know…” Ranboo drawls. “Slime is harmless, he’s super naive and...probably the most gullible person on the server. Like, super impressionable. He kind of reminded me of --” Ranboo cuts himself off, curses himself for not thinking about who he’s talking to, and slowly continues, “...a child.”
Phil, seemingly not noticing Ranboo’s mistake, grimaces and says, “That makes him all the more dangerous around the wrong people. He’s not going to question anything.”
“Well, no...I said he’s naive, not stupid. He can learn things -- actually, I taught him a few things about relationships myself when we talked.”
Phil hums again. “You must’ve talked a lot, then. You also mentioned Theseus...?” Ranboo freezes. “Is he spending a lot of time over there, too, or…”
Crap. “Well...w-well, I mean, I don’t, um, really…” He sighs, letting his shoulders slump.. He doesn’t know how he’s so bad at this, but he supposes the cat is out of the bag now. The proverbial beans have been spilled. “Theseus and Icarus have set up some fort right outside of Las Nevadas’ borders, I think Theseus mentioned something about Icarus wanting it to be...competition? I’m not too sure, but I know Theseus was collecting stone for weeks for Icarus, so I’m guess that they’re going to be building something...big.” He pauses. “ Very big.”
Niki lets out a half-laugh of disbelief. “You have to be kidding. Icarus, Icarus, said he wanted to set up a rival faction right next to a country? Again?”
Phil puts his head in his hands with an exasperated, “Oh my fucking God,” and Ranboo winces. He glances at Phil, who’s eyes meet with his for a brief moment, and all of a sudden his limbs lock and he can’t seem to look away. There’s annoyance behind Phil’s eyes. “Ranboo, you knew about this and didn’t say anything? Why wouldn’t you let us know?”
“I forgot.”
He knows it’s wrong as soon as he says it -- he didn’t forget anything. He never had any intentions of telling anyone until his hand was forced, and even then, he would try to soften the blow. It was really only for Tommy’s sake -- regardless, it’s a blatant lie. But it always goes uncontested.
Phil immediately breaks eye contact with a muttered, “Right, sorry,” and as Ranboo’s shoulders slump and he moves his fingers around again, he suddenly doesn’t feel that bad about the lie.
“It’s fine,” he snips in a tone that implies that it definitely isn’t fine, and he watches with... smugness at how Phil shrinks a bit. “What matters now, I guess, is how we deal with it.”
“Well...I think you should be our monitor, Lethe.”
Ranboo’s face twists into confusion, and all the prior agitation under his skin dissipates. “Me? Why me? Monitor what? Icarus or Slime? Or Las Nevadas?”
“Yes, you, everything,” Phil says jokingly. “I mean, unless you have anything else you’re busy with --”
“No!” Ranboo yelps, surprising everyone. He hesitates, then continues, “I-I just don’t know why me specifically, I mean, I definitely wouldn’t be the best for this, right?”
Phil frowns. “I -- think about it, mate. None of us know anything about this place but you, we don’t even know where it is. Neither of us are on good terms with Theseus. I’m assuming Pan is included in this somehow, too?”
“Yeah.”
“You two are literally married. You seem to know lots more about the people there. Everything lines up.”
“Neither of us want to speak with Icarus, either,” Niki adds sourly, glaring at Phil. “Can’t forget that one.”
“That, too.” Phil nods in Niki’s direction, and Ranboo’s eyebrows shoot up.
Niki laughs. “What happened to ‘you’re not allowed to speak badly about my son?’”
Phil’s initial look of distaste shifts into uncomfortableness. He wrings his hands again. “I think...Icarus...is trying his best. Let’s not beat around the bush, here, we all know what he’s capable of. We all know his record with countries. We haven’t had any for months, and yet the instant he’s back, there just happens to be the first one springing up since January. He probably still thinks they’re...okay. Or maybe he’s just doing it for fun, I don’t know.”
Phil crosses his arms on the table and leans forward slightly, gaze transfixed on one spot of nothing, looking distant. “I don’t know him well enough to tell anymore. He seems to have another great track record of lying to me and...apparently Niki. Maybe, since he’s met you after thirteen and a half years of supposed reform, you might actually be able to figure out what in the absolute hell goes on in his mind.”
Ranboo squeaks. That was a lot. Niki is staring at Phil again, he feels that slight weight on his chest coming back, Phil is looking at him expectantly --
“Please don’t feel pressured, mate,” Phil suddenly adds, reaching over and placing a gentle hand on Ranboo’s forearm. “I know it’s a lot, we could always wait for the Techno situation to be over so we can all focus our attention on this.”
Ranboo’s immediate instinct is to give him an enthusiastic, “yes please,” but he bites his lip before he says it.
He doesn’t want to force Niki into this. He doesn’t want to make Phil have to face against the son he had to murder and just got back on good terms with. He doesn’t want Las Nevadas to get blown up no matter how annoying their border laws are, given that that would probably be Techno’s first thought once he returned to a full-blown country with dubious morals and systems being run. He doesn’t want to put his best friends back in the paths of some of the people that hurt them both so much in the past.
...he doesn’t want to have to talk to Wilbur, either, but his want is easily outnumbered by other people’s needs and outweighed on the scale of importance.
He smiles as genuinely as he can muster, knowing he’s doing the right thing, and says, “It’s all good. What exactly do you want me to do?”