Chapter Text
Everybody knew that messing with gods was not a good idea. They knew that they would be immediately killed or worse, be cursed forever. There were many gods. Some were good, but most were feared. People knew how dangerous they could be and tend to stay away from them, even though gods were people once. It wasn’t known how they became gods. Some thought that they got blessed from above, some had a theory that they got some sort of mutation. They appeared a few thousand years ago. Slowly over the decades they got followers. Temples were build, people started to pray for protection, amulets were made for luck and they were worshipped. Especially since some of the gods started to rescue them and do good deeds. Four gods started to work together. They were seen as a family.
Philza, the god of family, life and death also called the Angel. Technoblade, the blood god of war and revenge. Wilbur, the god of music and brainwash. And the youngest Theseus, the god of Chaos and freedom. In every country appeared a temple with their statue’s.
For some reason the group slowly started to disappear a few hunderd years ago. At first It was only Theseus. The other three became corrupt after they couldn’t find him. They became feared. They did everything that they wanted and didn’t care what would happened to the world. They started to use their power for their own good, but they never stopped the search for their youngest. After a century the Angel also disappeared. And then the blood god. Till there was only one of the four left. But he also disappeared a few decades ago after starting a nation. No one knows why they disappeared. Now after the last one created L’manberg and vanished, the new ruler; Schlatt, changed it to Manberg.
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It was a sunny evening. The sunlight of the setting sun shined through the city skyline. It was beautiful from the cliff on the edge of the woods. The two teens were laying on the ground while swinging their feet of the cliff. The brunet almost fell asleep.
“Tubbo, don’t you think its time to go back?”
“Nahhe” Tubbo whined.
“We will get in trouble for this and you know it. Schlatt will murder me and then he will murder you.”
He rubbed his eyes. “Just a few minutes more. Its beautiful here. I won’t get the chance to see this again. We are teens, we need to rebel more. It will be fine.”
Ranboo signed. He sat up and poked Tubbo in his stomach. He shrunk. “Uuughh…alright…..” they stood up.
“Do you remember the way back?” Ranboo asked. Tubbo shook his head and bit his lip. “I think we came here from this way.” He said pointing a small path going down.
It was the first time they ever snuck out. Normally it wouldn’t be possible, but since today Schlatt had a meeting in the Kinoko kingdom, they saw the opportunity to sneak out. It was the first time that Tubbo was outside the city. It was the first time they walked through the woods. They heard the birds sing as they made their way down. “Hold tight or we’ll fall.” Tubbo said while carefully stepping on the next stone. “Euuhhh, Tubbo?!” He clenched. “Yeah??” He looked down. Ranboo was standing normally even though they didn’t made it till the solid ground. “There is a cave here!” Tubbo jumped down, trusting Ranboo to catch him. And indeed, he catched him. He looked slightly terrified. “Please, don’t do that again.” Tubbo smiled. “sorry.”
Ranboo placed him on the ground. They looked around them. This place was well hidden. It looked like a normal cave. It was dark, but they could see some bats flying around. “Ranboo, do you still have the lighter I gave you?”
Ranboo looked uncertainly. “I don’t think this is a good idea. It is probably dangerous, there could be monsters. And we really need to go back if we want to have a chance to sneak back in.” Tubbo raised his eyebrow. “We probably missed our chance already. Let’s explore the cave. If we see any monsters, we’ll just run back!” Ranboo looked defeated and pulled the lighter from his pocket. He looked around for a stick, but he found a old torch. “Do you think this thing will still work?” Tubbo shrugged. “There is one way to find out!” He lighted the torch and indeed, it still did the job.
They waved around the cave to look around. It wasn’t big, maybe as big as a classroom. But it was deep. They made their way inside. They looked around the walls. “Ranboo, come here! There is something written on the wall. Can you read it?” Ranboo walked over to Tubbo. And indeed, there was something written in Endrian. “It says; up, down, up, right, down, left.” “It’s probably some code, let’s look around some more. Maybe we can find something.” Ranboo nodded. They stated searching the corners. Tubbo soon found a hole in the wall. “Ranboo, come here I need your long arms to see if there is something here.” Ranboo was scared of the unknown. Especially if it was about some hole where a spider could sit and wait for their next target. “Don’t be scared! It looks pretty clean, like someone used it not too long ago.” “shouldn’t that be a sigh that we shouldn’t try this?” Tubbo looked at him with his exited eyes that slowly started to become puppy eyes. Ranboo, again, signed in defeat. He rolled up his sleeve and put his arm into it. To his surprise there was a handle. “What was the code again?” Tubbo’s eyes started to sparkle. “Up, down, up, right, down, left.” Ranboo followed and soon they heard something moving. “let’s take a few steps backwards.” The wall started to move and slowly there appeared a entrance to some stairs.
“Let’s go!” Tubbo grabbed Ranboo’s arm and ran downstairs. It was quit a long run but he couldn’t care less as the excitement grew. They ran till they finally reached a room.
It was big. Almost like a hall. It was also beautiful as there were flowers hanging from the ceiling. Light was coming from few holes in the walls. In the middle was some sort of big crystal. “Tubbo look, there is something inside of it!” And indeed, they could see something, but not clearly enough. The giant crystal was standing on some sort stone holder. Tubbo looked closer. There was a name written on it. “Theseus..” Was there a person inside of it? They needed to save him! “We need to break it!”
“Wait, what?!!! Listen Tubbo, it’s one thing to break into someone’s…. Lab?? But it’s a whole other story if we wreck it! Maybe its someone’s life work! We can’t just break it.” He pointed to the crystal. “There is someone in it. We need to save him. Who knows how long he was kept here.”
Ranboo started to get angry. The whole time they were doing what Tubbo wanted. And he wasn’t even listening. “For all we know it could be a monster or something. It could be dangerous!” He said but it was already too late. Tubbo found a grenade somewhere or maybe brought it with him and trowed it up to the crystal. As fast as they could they jumped to the other side. A big ‘BOOM’ went of and the whole room filled up with smoke.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?!!! WHERE DID YOU FIND THAT THING?!!!” Ranboo ask while coughing and trying to see through the smoke. After a few minutes there was enough smoke gone to see something. Tubbo was laying on the floor. Ranboo ran to Tubbo to see if he was injured. “Did it work?” Tubbo ask coughing.
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Ugh… how could he do that?! He almost killed us. “How could you be so reckless? You almost got us killed! Why are you smiling?” Tubbo chuckled. “Look, it worked!!” He said while pointing to the remaining smoke. Ranboo looked and indeed there were parts of the big crystal shattered around. In the middle of it al was a boy laying on the ground. Tubbo stood up an approached it carefully. It was a boy, around the same age as them. He Had golden shiny curly hair and two little red horns on his head. His eyes were closed and he wore an old tunic with some old trousers. Like he came from the middle ages. “Be carefull, he has horns. Maybe he’s a demon.” He nodded as he poked the body. “Maybe he is dead.” Tubbo shook his head. “No, look he is breathing.” And he was, but very slowly. “We have to help him. Let’s take him with us.”
“How? In a bag? We can’t take him home, you know that. Where do we leave him?” He started to rattle. “Don’t worry. I know somebody. He can help us. The big question is, can you teleport us to the city gate just out of sight?”
Ranboo could, but there would be some side effects. Most of the time it would be nausea and a spinning head. After hesitating a bit he gave in. If Tubbo got an idea in his head, it was impossible to convince him not to do it. “Fine.”
Ranboo picked up the boy in bridal style and Tubbo hold his arm. “Oke, are you ready?” Tubbo nodded. 1, 2, 3 and he jumped into the void. He started to get dizzy. He just needed to make it to the portal. He pulled Tubbo and the boy with him as he made it through the force. Even though it was a literally a void, there was always a force that was pulling him back, where he came from. As he reached the destination, he threw Tubbo into the portal before he jumped with the boy. They landed on grass next to the wall. “Hey, could you be more gentle next time??” Tubbo said standing up. “Sorry.” He murmured. They could easily climb over the wall. It was not that high. He didn’t know why they hadn’t removed the wall since top of it broke down in the war.
“Hold up, let me call Jinx.” Tubbo said and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Jinx was an old acquaintance. He used to work with Schlatt. But Something had happened a few years ago. And they both refused to explain what. Since then Jinx and Schlatt we like enemies. Jinx still cared about Tubbo, that was obvious. If Tubbo had asked, he would even take him in. Jinx was not some random guy, he was the owner of Las Nevadas. A big casino and resort city on the edge of Manberg. His power was almost as equal as Schlatts. It didn’t matter how much Schlatt wanted him gone, he couldn’t do anything against him. Ranboo an Tubbo were sure that Jinx wasn’t his real name. He was very deceiving. But with a deal, he stayed true. The rules of Manberg didn’t apply to Las Navadas. It was a natural ground. Almost like a church, but more on the wrong side. If you escaped to it, Schlatts man couldn’t hunt you down.
“What’s up, tubbo?” Jinx said. “Hello Jinx, I have a favour to ask.” They heard some rumble in the background. “And what may that be?” they could almost hear him smiling. “So…. We have found someone. And he needs a place to stay.” They could hear purpled say something. “I would need some more information on him. Where are you right now?”
“Outside the city walls near the mean gate.”
“Alright I’ll send slime. He’ll be there in 20 minutes.”
Tubbo nodded even though Jinx couldn’t see him. “Thank you, Jinx.” He said and hang up.
It didn’t take long for Charlie to come. They put the boy gently in the car and rode off. “Hello Tubbo and Ranboo from the Green tower. Where do you need to go?” “Just to Jinx.”
Charlie nodded. “Ride to Las Nevadas.”
The ride was quite so Tubbo turned on the radio.
“This is all news with Stacy. More and more people got missing in the last couple of weeks. investigators think this is a mass kidnapping for something big. President Schlatt however thinks that the reason it that the police is slacking off “
“Do you know something about this?” Ranboo asked Tubbo. He shook his head. “This is new.”
“You all think this is new, but it’s just the police that doesn’t do their work right.” Says Schlatt. “We can assure you that it its save. The police will try their best to prevent any more kidnapping. You don’t have to worry, it’s all under control.” This wouldn’t be the first time that Schlatt would lie like this to the public. Ranboo knew it all too well. Schlatt would tell the public that it went all by the plan, just to hold his power an keep the trust of the public.
They rode into Las Nevadas straight to the main building. They parked in the privet underground garage. “Do you need help?” Charlie asked while getting out. Ranboo shook his head. “I’ve got him, but thank you.” Charlie nodded and guided them to Jinx’ office. They had been here before, but it still amazed them every time. They walked through the privet part so that people wouldn’t see the boy. But it was still an amazing sight. A red carpet was rolled through the entire hallway. On the walls were portraits of important people from Jinx’ team and important business partners. They stopped in front of a door that was a little bit different from the rest.
Charlie opened the door and there was Jinx leaning on his desk. He wore a blue beanie and his usual mask that hid the upper part of his face. “When you asked if I could take someone in, I didn’t thought you bring in a dead body.” He joked looking at the boy on Ranboo’s shoulders. “Do you have a room where I can lay him down?” Ranboo ask slightly tired. Jinx gestured them to follow him back to the corridor. He led them to a bedroom a few rooms further. Ranboo laid him down on a bed. Jinx gasped the moment he noticed the kids face. “Tommy?!” He said. He pushed Ranboo away. “Tommy!” he repeated again. He put his fingertips gently on the boy’s cheek, as if he would break at any moment. “Do you know him, Jinx?” Jinx didn’t answer him, being still in shock. “Where did you find him?” he asked instead maintaining his eye contact. How did Jinx know this person? Why was he avoiding the question? Why was this boy trapped? “Euuh, somewhere in a cave. There was a secret passage.” “I knew it!” Jinx said with full hope. “I knew that he wouldn’t be that far.”
“So you know him.” Ranboo said. Jinx nodded. “He’ll be safe with me. Safer than anywhere else, don’t worry.” He said with full confidence. There was something about Jinx. Something Ranboo hadn’t seen before. He looked happy, as if he got some hope back that he lost a long time ago. It was getting late. Schlatt was properly already back and furious that Tubbo and Ranboo were nowhere to be seen. “Well… thank you Jinx, but we need to go.” Ranboo said pushing Tubbo towards the door. Tubbo nodded looking very confused. And they left.
Charlie brought them back to the car and the rode of. When they arrived at the red tower, Schlatts men were already waiting for them. They got off and thanked Charlie for the ride. They got escorted to Schlatts office. There was Schlatt, sitting in his chair, looking very angry. The guard pushed them inside and closed the door. The was a disappointed silence. Schlatt tapped on the desk. “I thought I made it clear that you both shouldn’t visit Jinx anymore. Especially you, Tubbo.”
Tubbo gulped. “It was just a short visit, I swear. We were there because I and Q- Jinx wanted to catch up. It isn’t Ranboo’s fault!” Schlatt stopped tapping and looked at Ranboo. “Then I suppose my men were lying when they said that they saw Ranboo and you teleport right after lunch?”
“We just went for a walk. You know how I hate it when the guards are following us when we just want to go to a store.” Schlatt signed. “You know that it is for your safety. Its too dangerous to let you walk alone without any guards.” Schlatt said surprisingly gentle. That meant business probably went good. When it didn’t went well Schlatt would get drunk and aggressive. And sometimes abused Tubbo. Even though Tubbo always tried to hide it, Ranboo saw how he always moved stiffly and avoided eye contact after he visited Schlatt while he was drunk. One time, when they were kids, he throwed his hot tea on Tubbo’s face because something had happened with the products that were supposed to arrive that day, or so he told. He still had the burn mark of it, still trying to hide it with his hair.
“Anyway, since you both missed your afternoon lessons, you will have to do them in the weekends and you can’t go to Niki.” Tubbo pouted. “Bu-“ “You know the rules and you broke them. Its your own fault. Now go to your room, you too Ranboo. Someone will bring dinner later. You are grounded for the rest of the week.” Tubbo staired in disbelieve. He grabbed Ranboo’s arm and rushed out of the office. “Ugh, why can he understand?! We’re not ten anymore.” It wasn’t the first time they were grounded this month. The last time was because Tubbo blew up the study while working on a project for “his class”. “Let’s just go Tubs. I am kind of tired. We can talk about this tomorrow.” Ranboo said tiredly. Tubbo signed deeply. “Fine…” Ranboo placed his hand on Tubbo’s shoulder and they made their way to the lift.