Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He was exhausted. The kind of exhaustion that settled in his bones, the kind that sleep couldn’t fix. He was out of Clowns psychotic game, the prison and the escape room, finally trudging back into his old, run down base at spawn. The one he hadn’t been back to since he teamed up with Zam to handle Spoke, there wasn’t much there, hell most of it had been destroyed, but there wasn’t much in the crater he’d once called a civilisation he built with Egg.

And that was another thing. Egg. Wemmbu had no idea where to find him. He hadn’t seen him since he left that stupid prison Clown locked them in, he escaped and swore to get back in to save Egg, but when he had returned, the prison was being torn down.

He found out why later on, when Leow0ok approached him in the ruins of his empire to enlist his help. According to Leo, the prison had been redesigned after Wemmbu escaped, and in the redesigned prison, his team, Rekrap, Derapchu and JumperWho, were stuck inside alongside Parrot, Wifies and Kenadian. Wemmbu’s job? Go in as a visitor for Parrot, set a stasis that the group inside would build and then bring in gear for them to escape.

With nothing better to do, and not particularly wanting to just…leave Parrot stranded in a prison to be apart of some sadistic game orchestrated by Wemmbu’s least favourite jester, and frankly hoping that he’d find some trace of Egg, he agreed.

When he was visiting Parrot, the avian informed him he’d heard Eggs voice coming from some solitary confinement unit. He’d brushed it off, told Parrot to give him some half-baked message that he wasn’t really paying attention to, more focused on trying to figure out how to get Egg out of that situation. When they were imprisoned together, there hadn’t been a solitary confinement.

Scratch that, there had only been one cell in the first place. Wemmbu had no clue what to do there, but Parrot was…well Parrot and he usually had decent plans. Better than Wemmbu’s plans of…swing sword, hit players.

In the end though, it hadn’t mattered because when he was brought back to the prison via the stasis he set with Parrot, he was told that Eggs cell was empty. There wasn’t much he could do about that, so he’d given the team inside the prison what he could manage with what remained of his empire and what he managed to steal from Zam’s. They seemed decently prepared, and had seemed fine with him leaving them on their own so he could try and locate Egg, so he did.

Unsuccessfully! He might add. Because Clown found him. Again. And locked him in an escape room with PrinceZam of all people. At least Wato had been there to make sure he didn’t starve to death when Zam left him behind. He had no idea where the ex-emperor went after they went through the end portal, just that Clown was waiting for him and had taken the mace he found.

Not to mention he’d lost all his original gear when they entered the escape room and the ender chest in his spawn base was just gone so he didn’t have access to any of that.

All of that to say, that he was exhausted and he wanted to make sure his friend was safe, but he couldn’t do that right now because he effectively had nothing except two almost broken pieces of armour, a sword he didn’t particularly like and an assortment of random items from Wato’s stupid puzzles.

If he was ever stuck in one of their escape rooms he was going to blow everything up. Including himself and Wato.

Whatever. He couldn’t do anything right now. Right now, he needed to sleep and then find an ender chest to restock, then go and track down Egg. As much as he kind of wanted to kick that jesters teeth in, he was at least smart enough to know he would not be walking out of that fight with all his limbs in tact. And finding Egg was more important.

But, he couldn’t even get into bed when he heard a voice behind him. “Wemmbu, right?”

His hand flew to the sword on his hip, pulling it from the sheath with a sharp noise that filled the silent room. The blade was pressed to the mans neck in an instant, the purple gleam of enchantments reflected off his skin.

He was wearing no armour, not that Wemmbu was in a much better position himself, he only had a helmet and leggings, his boots and chest plate broke in his fight with Clown. He wasn’t alone, though, Wemmbu could see three people with invisibility on in full netherite outside. The chest plates all had the same trim, the eye trim, if he remembered correctly. Two gold, one diamond.

Wemmbu knew he wasn’t that much of an intimidating sight, battered and bruised, armour hanging off him practically begging to be repaired. His tail whipped behind him in a way he knew showed his annoyance, Egg had always told him it was a dead giveaway to how he was feeling.

He stared at the man for a while longer, the clothes he had could only be described as regal, it reminded Wemmbu of how Zam dressed, except his clothes were made up of purples, blacks and golds. His hair was dark with streaks of purple, and his left eye seemed…glitched. That was the only word that came to his mind, to be honest.

“Who are you?”

“Call me Ash.” He responded with a small smile that seemed condescending. “I have…an offer, I suppose you could call it.”

Wemmbu only continued to stare at him, eyes narrowed and tail whipping. His head hurt and this guy was not helping at all. The weird glitch kept pulling his attention and it was only making the faint throbbing in his head worse. If he was being honest, it probably wasn’t that glitch, it was the fact that he still hadn’t gotten used to the difference in weight and just the general bodily trauma on his head because Zam decided to snap one of his horns off.

He groaned, rubbing his temple. “An offer? Who even are you anyways? I’ve never even seen you before.”

“I’ve never wanted to be seen before. But now is the right time, you see. I’ve heard of you, I’ve seen you fight. You have potential, you could be an even greater warrior than you already are with the right training.” This guy liked talking, huh? Wemmbu’s head hurt. “I want you to join my mafia.”

“Mafia?” He mumbled, rolling his eyes. “That sounds corny as hell. Why would I do that?”

Ash’s lips twisted into an almost satisfied smile as he tilted his head, pushing the tip of Wemmbu’s sword away from his neck. Lowkey, he forgot he was still holding it there. “You seem like the type of person who wants power.” He said, wringing his fingers together. “Joining me will get you just that.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Wemmbu muttered, shaking his head. “Thing is, I don’t really want to work under people. Last time I did that I ended up in a prison.”

Ash chuckled. “Yes, yes, Clownpierce mentioned that.”

“You talked to Clown.” Wemmbu deadpanned.

“Well he’s working for me.” He responded casually. “Though I could understand your hesitation about working under someone after what happened with the Zam Empire. A shame, really, that could’ve been a wonderful addition to my mafia.”

Wemmbu stared at him blankly. Ash continued. “Look, you’re decent with a mace in your hand, no? I could give you one. I could even give you that Clown had you surrender. You'll be trained as well.” He continued to stare. “My mafia controls all the trial chambers, nobody else can get a mace ever again.”

Sure, a mace sounded appealing, but he didn’t really want to be stuck doing some guys bidding instead of looking for-

“I could give you any resources you need to find that angel friend of yours.”

Well. That was probably the most tempting thing he could’ve been offered. “Do you know where he is?”

“No, but anything you need to find him, I’m sure I could provide for you.”

“What’s the catch?” Wemmbu shot back. Because this? This didn’t come without a price.

Ash chuckled quietly. “A fair question, I suppose. I wouldn’t call it a catch, persay. But, you would have to do missions for me, though I’m sure someone like you would have any problem in a fight with the right gear, so they wouldn’t be much of a problem there! Other than that…” He sighed, gesturing out the door to the invisible players behind him. “Keep quiet, stay invisible. Make sure nobody knows who you are.”

Wemmbu raised an eyebrow. Resources to find Egg, a mace, and gear to fight. And all he had to do was fight and…stay anonymous? It was almost too easy. “And if I do find Egg?”

Ash hummed, shrugging. “Well, he could join as well.”

“Egg isn't a fighter.” He deadpanned. “So, if you’re planning to make him fight, he's not getting anywhere near your stupid mafia.”

“Well, I suppose…there are other things he could do, other than fighting. I have lots of missions; building, mining, gathering. Lots of other jobs! He would be safe.”

Wemmbu considered that. Resources to find Egg, they would gear him, he presumed restocks included since Ash implied he’d be fighting a lot, and a presumably safe place where Egg could just. Enjoy the server like he always wanted to do.

“Egg is my priority.” Wemmbu stated.

Ash nodded. “Of course.”

“If I find him and he joins, and something happens to him, I’m gone.”

Ash smiled like he knew something Wemmbu didn’t. “I don’t doubt that.” He inhaled, clapping his hands together. “So, you’ll come with me, then?”

Wemmbu’s tail cut through the air behind him, the tip of his tail morphing and changing with the movement, the cool air of the void brushing against his ankles. Familiar, comforting. Not for most people, he supposed, but for a creature born from the void, it was to him. The air from the broken walls blew through the room, brushing Wemmbu’s bangs out of his eyes and tickling the scar above his eye where his snapped off horn had been driven into his skull.

He was exhausted. The kind of exhaustion that curled around inside of him and sunk into his bones, weighing him down, the kind that sleep couldn’t chip away at and made him want to sink to the ground, hide himself in his wings and lay for days on end until even some of that exhaustion melted from his body.

“I’ll come with you.”

Chapter Text

Wemmbu learned a few things about Ash’s mafia as he was walked through the city the man had built.

One, communication was done through signs and books, which made sense since Ash wanted their identities to stay hidden. So, everyone was invisible, and everyone was silent, except Ash, Clown and Ferre. Who were also there! Wemmbu was having a wonderful time, and he definitely did not want to tear that stupid, sadistic little jester limb from limb.

Two, the mafia had a hierarchy beyond Ash is the leader. The trims on each players chest plate had a meaning. Those without a trim are the lowest ranking players, like foot soldiers, Wemmbu thought, they played guards and messengers for Ash. Copper trims were just above them, but played a similar role, just…slightly better foot soldiers, but they outrank untrimmed players which means they could command them if the need came. Iron trims outranked both of them, and usually carry wind charges with their kits, they also use fire works to communicate. Gold trims were sort of like…sergeants, yeah that works, they gave orders, handed out and led missions for lower levels. Top of the food chain was diamond, the highest rank below Ash and Ferre made up of the most skilled players in the mafia. Ash told him that the number of diamond players was set at a certain number and most of the time to get to that level, he’d require a gold trim to kill one of the current diamond players. Though, he was one of two exceptions – Ash didn’t see the need in testing him and apparently one other person because he’d seen Wemmbu fighting before, so he was automatically given a diamond trim chest plate.

Three, when in the city, the players carried an item in their off hand to identify themselves. Wemmbu had picked an ender eye. Fitting, he supposed, for a demon born from the void and related to Endermen.

Four, the city was separated into levels for each different group of the mafia, diamond trims being housed at the top just under Ash’s castle.

Five, Ash knew who all the diamond trims were and because of their skill and importance, their anonymity among each other wasn’t exactly necessary. There was an arena far underground and away from the city for them to just…exist without their invisibility.

Six, Ash wanted him to set a stasis.

Wemmbu had a bad feeling about that, but he was sure he could handle whatever it was later, so he set a stasis.

Then, Ash brought him to the diamond level of the city. Including Wemmbu, there were ten diamond trims – or, nine? Ash said someone was away but would be back soon. Wemmbu didn’t dwell on that. He was given a house, and enough restocks to fill his ender chest twice over. Whatever he couldn’t stuff in his e-chest, he stashed away in various chests, barrels and pots in the house he was given.

The house was nice, admittedly, spacious even. The main area had more than enough room for him to stretch his wings all the way out without knocking things over. His primary set of wings weren’t necessarily big, just bigger than most hybrids on the server, so most places indoors didn’t give him the luxury of not having them tucked away around himself or under his cape.

Ash told him to get used to the house, giving him an instruction to come to the castle on the layer above in an hour to get the rest of his gear, which he assumed meant the mace he was told he’d get.

After whatever sort of induction ceremony or whatever Ash planned, he could figure out how he could track Egg down. Which…he frankly had no idea where to start. He could head back to the old empire, see if Egg had made his way back.

But that doesn’t change the fact that he had no idea if Egg was even out and around the server. Parrot said he’d been in that improved Proton prison, but Clown had said he didn’t know where Egg was. Of course, Wemmbu was less inclined to believe a word out of that jesters mouth, but…Parrot also said Egg had potentially been moved from the prison.

Whatever. Clown had talked about Proton before the escape room like it’d been a failure, so everyone inside it had probably escaped. So, he’d act with the assumption that Egg wasn’t stuck in a prison somewhere.

He wandered around the house for a while, killing time under the guise of exploring. The faster he got to this stupid meeting, the quicker he could get out and search for Egg.

So, he finally made his way up to the upper level, a castle – because of course it was – and found another diamond trim holding a blaze rod in their off-hand. Both of them were invisible, staring wordlessly at each other. Or, he thought they were because the only indication of which direction the player was looking in was the front of their helmet.

“There you two are!” Ash’s voice called, cheery in an almost eerie way. “Come, come.” He waved them into the castle, and they followed without a word. The castle was ridiculously large, Wemmbu never really saw the point of stuff like this. It looked nice sure, but with only one person living there? It seemed overkill.

Still though, his primary wings spread out behind him, still masked by the invisibility potion. He felt them knock against another pair of wings and stepped to the side, casting a sidelong glance to the player beside him. The wings didn’t feel feathered like an avians would. Another demon, maybe? He didn’t know, whatever his wings had brushed against was also invisible.

Ash, who’d been talking about his castle as the walked through the halls, finally spun around to face them and smiled. “You boys know each other, don’t you? Both affiliates of Zam Empire. A trusted guard and a bug he kept under his thumb, is that how he saw you?”

Wemmbu’s head turned to the other player and found them staring back at him. A guard. A trusted guard.

“Bro, oh my god.” The other player muttered and Wemmbu’s shoulders slumped. “Wemmbu?”

He blinked. “Hey…Flame.”

He responded, not…quite sure how to respond to him. So…at least he was right about it being another demon.

“Come.” Ash stated, turning around and cutting whatever sort of conversation they would’ve had. So, Wemmbu and Flame followed him into a large room full of chests. “You’ve received your kits…so it’s just the maces you need, yes?”

“Is that all you want us here for?” Flame deadpanned, Wemmbu could hear the eyeroll that accompanied his words. “I don’t care about getting a mace, I wouldn’t use it.”

Ash raised an eyebrow. “You…don’t want a mace.”

“No. I fight better with my weapons, if you gave me a mace, I would burn it.” Flame responded.

“Can I take his?” Wemmbu asked, half joking, half not. “I can enchant one with density and the other with breach.”

He could practically feel Flames blank stare burning into his skull from beside him. Ash watched the two of them for a moment. “You don’t want a mace, and you want two?” He clarified.

“Yeah.”

“Yup.”

Ash blinked, seeming taken aback, like this hadn’t happened before. “I…okay.” He mumbled, opening a chest and giving Wemmbu two maces. The weight was familiar in his hands, comforting and powerful. His tail whipped in the air behind him like a dog getting a bone. Flame must have felt the cool air of the void from the end of his tail because he punched him away, Wemmbu only snorted, looking back to Ash.

“You said you controlled the trial chambers, so you must have the enchantment books for these? Density, breach and wind burst.” He said, glancing around at the chests. Ash nodded, turning on his heel and heading towards a separate room, he returned with three enchanted books. “Sweet. That’s all I need then. Anything else or can I go look for Egg?”

Flame stared over at him. “That eyeball guy?”

“He’s…he’s an angel. But…but yeah the eyeball guy.” Wemmbu responded, vaguely recalling when he had referred to Egg as eyeball guy when they’d first met.

“No. I have nothing else for you to do.” Ash mumbled, staring at the two of them with a puzzled expression. “Just make sure you’re quiet once you leave…”

–––

Wemmbu’s secondary wings fluttered to slow his fall, allowing his feet to touch the ground with enough grace not to shatter every single bone in his legs. The only thing fully intact of this civilisation was the walls Horace had built. Distantly, Wemmbu felt a pang of guilt for allowing the mans hard work be laid to waste, and for what? For Zam to prove a point? For Wemmbu to prove a point? He didn’t know.

He hopped off the wall, letting his wings slow his fall to the ground, into the crater that remained of what was once a village. There weren’t many people here, but it…had meant something. That people were willing to join, to work with him, even if he and Egg weren’t exactly the best leaders.

It was nice to have something. That never lasted long on this server.

He found himself wandering through the ruined village, peering into what remained of the houses and grabbing whatever crops had survived the chaos, slowly making his way up the path to the city center. Egg wasn’t here. He figured that if he was, he’d have been in the main building up here, and searching through it he came up empty.

Back at square zero. He should find Parrot, see if he’d seen Egg since he got out of Proton.

Distantly, he wondered where Manepear was after betraying the Zam Empire to help him and Egg, he may not have been apart of the Empire when it fell, but Wemmbu had no doubt he felt the impact of it all the same. Flame had joined the mafia, and he knew the two of them had been close. He wondered if Mane joined as well, or if they had parted ways after the empire fell.

If he wasn’t in the mafia, was there a chance that Egg found him? Would Mane have helped Egg if he did?

His head hurt. He knew absolutely nothing, he had no leads, and he didn’t even know where to start. He sighed, making his way down to the vault he and Egg had made after their empire was blown up the first time. Not much remained, he’d taken the left over shulker boxes after he got out of Clowns prison, so the chests just held random blocks and building materials. His armour clanked as he wandered the ruins, glancing down at his arm to check the timer on his invisibility.

With an annoyed sigh, he popped one of the potions off his belt and threw it on the ground, letting the glass shatter at his feet and allowing the potion to sink into his blood through his skin. His tail flicked behind him, and he brought a hand up to adjust his helmet, so it wasn’t sitting so uncomfortably on his broken horn. He hated that, honestly.

Demons had a faster regeneration by nature, less potions and other healing items would need to be used on injuries. Even if his tail or wings got damaged, hell even this horn would’ve grown back if Zam had pulled it from his skull. But he’d only snapped it off, leaving part of it still attached to his body. Which meant that it wouldn’t heal, it would stay broken unless Wemmbu himself pulled the rest of it out.

Even though only part of it had been broken, it still hurt like hell. The skin around his horn was irritated, like it knew it had been broken and was trying to heal something it couldn't.

He never wanted to see Zam ever again, bro. If he ever saw that little yellow shit head he was going to tear him limb from limb.

Whatever.

His comms beeped and he glanced down.

FlameFrags whispers to you: where the hell are you

You whisper to FlameFrags: ???

FlameFrags whispers to you: WHERE ARE YOU

You whisper to FlameFrags: WHY DO YOU CARE

FlameFrags whispers to you: bro im gonna kill u

FlameFrags whispers to you: i don’t even care

FlameFrags whispers to you: get back to the city

FlameFrags whispers to you: mission

Wemmbu rolled his eyes, but tapped the screen to close his comms and he turned to leave the little cave. He took his chest plate off and spread his wings out, flapping them once before hopping down and catching the wind.

The air was cooler, comforting against his skin as he flew through the air. Flying was second nature, wings spread out to make gliding in the air easier, the way they’d flap to allow him to gain height, or snapped open to catch him when he let himself fall through the air. He never had to think about it, his wings moving however he needed them to. So, he let them work, allowing the wind to carry him back to the city.

His feet hit the ground outside the meeting hall on the diamond level, and he replaced his chest plate. Then, he stepped in through the doors. Ash was leaning on a lectern in the front of the hall as he walked through way too many seats than they had diamond trimmed players. The mafia head seemed bored out of his mind, but looked up when he heard footsteps approaching him. “Ah. Good.” He muttered, standing up properly.

“There’s a team waiting in the lowest level for you. I need you to locate a player named Spoke and bring him back here. Your crossbow with spectral arrows, use that to indicate who you’re team will be attacking.”

Wemmbu raised an eyebrow. Spoke, huh? He hadn’t seen the other player since he blew up his and Mapicc’s end base. Distantly, he wondered why Ash wanted Spoke dead, but frankly he didn’t really care.

“Feel free to have any of his allies killed though, like that little demon he’s always with. Let the lower levels kill anyone, you know how desperate they are to climb the ranks.”

The little demon, Mapicc, Wemmbu supplied to himself. He always forgot Mapicc had demon blood, he was much more human in appearance then the other demon hybrids like Mane or Flame. He found that the way Ash had called him a little demon left a bad taste in his mouth, like he was lesser because he looked more human.

Ash seemed to have a particular distaste for Mapicc, from how he spoke, but Wemmbu wondered if that was because he viewed Mapicc as weaker or less than due to his hybrid attributes or if something else had happened to make him dislike the other.

Whatever, why did he care again? He was about to go try and kill them. Lock the fuck in.

Chapter Text

Spoke was, unsurprisingly, with Mapicc when Wemmbu found them in a cave. PlanetLord was also with them, and wearing a turtle shell helmet that vaguely reminded him of Wato. When he heard their voices, they were talking about Bubble Guppies…for some reason.

Though, as he found the cave they were in, their conversation seemed more interesting. Wemmbu shed his armour, loaded the crossbow in his inventory with a spectral arrow and made his way closer to the platform the three were on.

“Wait, who should we recruit now?” Spoke asked as jumped between the sides of their platform. “’cause now we have Planet, but lowkey-“

Mapicc gasped, grabbing his shoulders. “Only our best friend in the world!”

Wemmbu took the volume and distraction as an opportunity to launch himself onto a stone spire with a clear enough shot of the trio with a wind charge.

Spoke stared at him. “Who?”

“You know who I’m talking about.”

“Jepexx!”

“Nope!” Mapicc responded, spreading his arms out. “Builder of castles-“

“Squiddo!” He cheered, turning to Planet. “Dude, Planet, I’m actually so excited dude. Are you excited to see Squiddo?”

Planet nodded along as Spoke hopped onto the ledge he stood on like an overexcited puppy. Wemmbu reequipped his armour. “I am, I’m very excited.”

Spoke was in the middle of starting a new sentence when he turned to the side and noticed the invisible player. Mapicc and Planet noticed him as well as the demon hybrid jumped back with a noise of surprise.

Their hesitance and confusion towards his appearance was amusing, pointing out his crossbow as he took it out. Spoke seemed to take note of the diamond trims on his chest plate. He took in the group, Spoke was the target, but Ash had said to capture him, not kill him, but to kill anyone with him. Logically, Planet would be the quick drop, he was the least geared and if Wemmbu remembered correctly, not a great fighter. Mapicc and Spoke were both in full enchanted netherite and probably decent kits. So, without much fanfare, Wemmbu turned the crossbow on Planet and let the arrow fly.

With none of them expecting it, the arrow imbedded itself in the demigods arm and his body was surrounded in a glowing aura, alerting his presence to anyone nearby. With that, he flew off.

He flew out of the cave, landing on a tree and removing his armour again so he could watch the fight without being spotted. Not long after, the three of them flew out of the cave, followed by Wemmbu’s group of invisible players.

Ash told him to let them do the job, he was just there as a supervisor of sorts to make sure they could actually do their jobs. They’d get the chance to be promoted to a higher rank if they completed missions. Wemmbu didn’t really need promotions, he was top of the food chain in terms of positions.

So, he watched as Spoke ran around in circles with a piece of paper in his hand, seemingly trying to find something before he locked onto one direction and yelled to the others to follow him. He’s leading them somewhere, said something about talking in code.

Is he trying to lead them to a trap? Wemmbu wondered if anyone in his group would realize that. If they didn’t, were they really worth the risk of saving? Still, he followed along, listening to three communicate. He heard them mention someone – or he assumed it was a person – named Minute, and how the cords they were headed to were given by him.

Definitely a trap, then. But the invisible players flew after them anyway. Idiots, truly, hopeless little idiots. Wemmbu almost envied the naivety they were displaying. Like a strider with fungus hung over them. He flew overhead, the flap of his wings covered by the jungle and the chaos of battle, and followed the group to a desert.

As they entered, the first thing Wemmbu noticed was the giant patch of flat land; the sand would fall once it was triggered, he was sure of that. He wondered if it fell through to the void or stopped at bedrock. His wings tucked away as he landed on a hill nearby, watching as Spoke ran to the middle of the trap, Mapicc close on his tail and Planet lagging behind. He almost felt bad for siccing the group on the demigod, but regardless of that, they knew who the real target was, they weren’t idiots.

Or, he mused as the ran into the flattened sand, maybe they were.

Spoke shouted for Mapicc and Planet to stand on the blocks, so he assumed there was sandstone that wouldn’t fall. Then, mined a block, causing the sand to fall from under everyones feet. Including Planet.

He glanced down to his communicator, seeing no death messages in the chat and he hummed. Maybe they weren’t idiots. He watched as a few more darted up into the air to keep following the group and Wemmbu sighed, brushing his hair over his shoulder with a slight grimace.

He needed to deal with that somehow. Usually Egg did his hair for him, so recently it’d just been messy ponytails and buns that fell apart less than four hours later. He could cut it, but he never really liked having short hair, it just wasn’t a style he liked on himself.

Wemmbu shook his head, wings flapping to carry him towards the trio as they continued to run off. It was kind of boring, so he found he wasn’t paying much attention. He perched on a desert temple, watched Spoke and Mapicc dive into a lava pool, watched Planet eventually follow. After a few minutes, he heard Spoke and Mapicc below him, they must’ve dug into the temple from below.

Nether portal, he mused to himself as he heard Spoke ask for obsidian. He kept his eyes on the group still after Planet, flying in the sky around the desert temple as they chased the demigod with an almost blood thirsty determination, like a swarm of mosquitos.

He dropped into the temple once the voices disappeared, heading through the portal, stepping out as Spoke covered one side of the portal before breaking it. They tunneled for a few minutes before Wemmbu’s soldiers found them again, Spoke eventually shouted for the others to meet at spawn, and they broke off.

Staying where he was, Wemmbu watched as his players followed after Planet, suddenly regretting his decision to shoot the demigod, because apparently that made the bots he was in charge of forget the entire point of this goddamn mission.

His wings flapped as he lifted himself off the ground, turning to head in the direction Spoke darted off to. Annoyingly, the player seemed to have slipped through the cracks and gotten away, and he could hear his soldiers fighting each other judging by the amount of swords clashing with armour he was hearing. There was too much for it to just be Mapicc or Planet.

 He reequipped his armour and flew back to his group, scanning the crowd for the trims Mapicc worse, finding no trace of them. He huffed, landing on the netherrack above them and lighting off a firework, startling the players who turned to him.

Wemmbu clicked his tongue, equipping his mace, Cosa, and let it hit the ground at his feet. He could tell the players in front of him were anxious at the sight of the weapon, shimmering purple with the enchantments. He only sighed, unequipping his chest plate and flapping his wings once to lift up, then flew towards the closest portal.

He didn’t bother heading back to the city, instead directing his group towards spawn. Spoke wanted them to meet there, he figured he may as well cut them off.

Though, when they arrived, he spotted nobody, and he perched himself of the remnants of his house there. His team scattered around the area behind him as his wings settled against his back, his gaze finding Spokes base across from his.

He and Spoke had never particularly been…on the best of terms. They’d been on opposite sides before the war with the Zam Empire, considering Spoke was using exploits that could’ve sent the server to ruins. Wemmbu wasn’t claiming to be a good person, but Spoke definitely wasn’t either. He never really had qualms about killing people, he didn’t need control like Zam, or have the same morals as Parrot, he didn’t care about blood that covered his hands and his blade. He knew Flame didn’t either.

Maybe that was why Ash wanted them on his side.

“Look up here! Do you see these cobwebs!”

Wemmbu glanced up, finding three invisible players, two with redstone trims – Mapicc and Spoke – and one without. Planet maybe? They landed in front of Spokes base and Wemmbu waited for them to get closer before he pushed off the ruins of his own base to get closer. As he neared, he heard Spoke lamenting to the third person about how they’d been attacked while inside.

“This…kinda looks like it’s part of the generation.” Wemmbu paused, tail whipping behind him. That was Manepear.

He hadn't heard from the other since the Zam Empire fell, hell he’d thought maybe Mane was another of the diamond players as he’d never properly met the other seven. Evidently, he was not. Distantly, Wemmbu wondered if he knew his little brother was in the mafia. Did he know about the mafia? Or was that why he was here talking with Spoke?

He shook his head, tail curling around his wrist as their voices got more distant. Had they left the base? He frowned, wings flapping to carry him over the base, and he spotted the three gathered behind it.

Spoke was still talking about getting attacked, gesturing at cobwebs with his sword as Mapicc hopped around behind him. “And then our best friend ever, Minute Tech,” so that was a person they were talking about before, “he was stuck in a cobweb here, but then he wind charged up and maced one of them, then they flew away.”

Minute Tech. That wasn’t a name Wemmbu had heard before, but if he had a mace and was associated with Spoke, he was probably bad news. Wonderful.

As much as he could just attack Spoke here, it wasn’t exactly a smart idea. Mane was here, and Wemmbu had no idea if he’d fight for or against the wither hybrid, but he did know, he couldn’t win that fight. Mane was stronger than him, they’d fought on the same side for a brief period, but he wasn’t stupid. He was a Zam Empire guard, just like Flame was. They were some of the best fighters around, he wasn’t winning that fight.

Still though, he needed to find out if Mane was working with these two, so he splashed another invisibility potion at his feet before he got closer to the group, perching in a tree nearby.

“Do you believe us now?” Spoke asked.

Mane didn’t answer for a minute, stepping to the sides the way Wemmbu noticed he did because he couldn’t sit still. When he did speak, it wasn’t an answer. “Wait, can I pot up now?”

So, he was willing to bet that Mane was in fact not working with Spoke, judging by how both hybrids immediately protested at the proposition of a fight. They seemed like they were lost for whatever they were trying to explain, or proof if their question of being believed was anything to go off, to Mane. Then Spoke started yelling.

“INVISIBLE PLAYERS! ATTACK US!” He shouted, Wemmbus wings fluttered and he snorted softly.

Mane brushed passed the wither hybrid and pointed across the river. “Do you see that? If you look closely you can see them over there.” When Spoke and Mapicc moved to look, Mane pulled out potions and threw them at his feet.

This dude didn’t even take jumping seriously, Wemmbu mused as he watched Mane attack the other two. It was amusing to watch, considering Mane was mocking the idea of a mafia while Spoke was yelling for said mafia to attack them, all the while Wemmbu was invisible in a tree watching the three of them fight.

Mane only paused in his attack when Spoke threatened to kill Cedrick, who Wemmbu had only heard him mention in passing, even calling Wemmbu himself Cedrick while they were attacking YungWill in his base. He’d never really questioned the lion on who it was, maybe Flame knew…

Of course, the fighting resumed soon after, but the two managed to pop one of Manes totems with a TNT minecart. Wemmbu’s tail flicked against the tree behind him, watching the fight with vague amusement, although it ended pretty soon after as Spoke and Mapicc ran off.

He watched as they flew off to a nether portal and disappeared, shaking his head as he returned to spawn. With Mane after them, there was no real point in pursuing the two of them right now, it’d only end up with Wemmbu’s team getting dropped. So, he perched on top of the TNT arrow Egg made over their message board to think.

Spoke had mentioned recruiting in the cave, so he was making a team. It was more than likely that he’d gotten Planet on their side and this interaction with Mane was an attempt to do the same thing, they’d also mentioned recruiting Squiddo, so if they didn’t show up at spawn, he’d head to her base next.

Chapter Text

Flamefrags whispers to you: dude did ash send you after spoke

Wemmbu blinked at his communicator, frowning as he landed on a tree nearby Squiddos base. With his armour tucked away in his inventory and a fresh invisibility pot thrown at his feet, he wasn’t getting spotted, so he took the time the answer.

You whisper to Flamefrags: yeah

You whisper to Flamefrags: did he send you??

Flamefrags whispers to you: yes bro

Flamefrags whispers to you: he has coords to traps from some guy

You whisper to Flamefrags: minutetech

You whisper to Flamefrags: idk who he is

Flamefrags whispers to you: neither do i

Flamefrags whispers to you: but i don’t like him

You whisper to Flamefrags: do you like anyone

Flamefrags whispers to you: coords rn im gonna kick ur ass

You whisper to Flamefrags: LMAO

Wemmbu snorted to himself as he closed his communicator, shaking off the momentary surprise of Flamefrags messaging him of all people. For something that wasn’t particularly necessary.

Spoke had led Flame and, he assumed, another team to a trap. Probably not the same trap either, because a fall trap like the one they’d used against Wemmbu is a pain in the ass to set back up and they definitely didn’t have the time to do something like that. So they had another one. From the same person.

He had no idea who MinuteTech was, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the guy was bad news. He had traps set up around the server, he had a mace, and he was working with Spoke. It was practically blaring warning signs and yet Wemmbu and Flame had never even heard of the guy. Zam was a person with a lot of connections, she practically knew everyone on the server, keeping tabs on people considered a threat to her empire and Flame was one of her highest-ranking guards, he was trusted and respected in her army. So she didn’t know who MinuteTech was either, meaning he didn’t have some sort of reputation on the server.

That was a little worrying, especially if he had a weapon like the mace and knew how to use it. To have someone like that against them could become an issue. He produced a book and quill from his inventory, scribbling the information down to hand over to Ash once he returned to the city before he tucked it away again.

His eyes shifted back up to Squiddos base, seeing the woman puttering around the building killing spiders. Wemmbu really had nothing against Squiddo, she was sweet most of the time, even if she wasn’t a particularly good fighter, and the only slight he’d had against her in the past was her affiliation with Spoke. He and Zam had chunk banned her and then Parrot freed her, so he didn’t really have any issues with her now.

She seemed quite peaceful, as peaceful as an oddity like Squiddo could be, of course. If he was closer he’d probably hear her speaking to herself or the llama she had with that affectionate lilt she used for her pets. He stayed where he was, though, no need getting closer than he needed to if it was just Squiddo, he wouldn’t disturb her unless Spoke showed up, he’d caused enough grief for her.

It wasn’t long before he heard the whistle of rockets and glanced up to find Spoke and Mapicc flying towards the castle. Wemmbu sighed, cursing silently to himself at the idea of bothering Squiddo when she was honestly just trying to exist. He stretched his wings out and pushed himself off the tree, touching back on the ground of Squiddos second floor where the three had gathered around a fireplace in the mess that was…whatever was going on here, Wemmbu had no clue.

“We’re not here for coords,” Spoke was saying, waving his hands, “we’re here to ask you to join us.”

“Oh?” Squiddo responded, tilting her head. “Join you? Wow! What lovely pursuit could you want me to join?”

Mapicc and Spoke exchanged a look before the wither hybrid responded. “We’re currently at war with hundreds of invisible players.”

“Wait, invisible players? What are you talking about?”

Mapicc looked at Spoke with an unconvinced expression. “She’s gonna die if we bring her.”

Spoke ignored him. “They’ve been terrorizing the server, without you knowing.”

Squiddo tilted her head, fixing her glasses. “Have they been terrorizing farms by any chance?” The two gave quick affirmatives and seemed relieved at being believed, except… “Well…yes, but. I witnessed the whole thing and in fact, I saw two players there who weren’t invisible. And it was you two.”

Wemmbu covered his mouth to avoid laughing aloud at the look on Spokes face.

“And I definitely remember you guys getting the coordinates to my farms from my secret diary.” Squiddo continued.

Wemmbu leaned against a block beside him, watching the three argue for a moment before Squiddo brushed past the two of them to go downstairs, the demon followed, dropping down to the first floor. Spoke and Mapicc were going through some of her barrels, giggling like idiots as she explained.

Spoke proceeded to go on a rant about the mafia, how they’d been attacked repeatedly and how nobody else seemed to believe them while Squiddo explained that she couldn’t trust the two of them on account of the two being at the scene of her destroyed farms.

Wemmbu pushed himself back from the door as the three approached, landing on a tree away from the house and watching the three of them talk. He really didn’t want to bother Squiddo, he really didn’t, but…

He equipped his armour.

“Look, we have a really small team right now.” Spoke said, running a hand through his hair. “We have a friend, we have Mapicc and me. And maybe Planet.”

“And the guy with the turtle helmet stuck to his head.” Squiddo murmured, looking over to Wemmbu.

“That’s Planet, yeah.”

“And that guy.” Spoke and Mapicc turned as Squiddo nodded in Wemmbu’s direction.

He didn’t move, just stood there, staring. “Mapicc, he’s back.” Spoke hissed. So, he hopped off the tree, heading towards the door while Spoke stressed about getting Squiddo out, yelling about an elytra and fireworks, running upstairs with her.

So, Wemmbu focused on Mapicc, the sound of blades clashing was satisfying in a way he didn’t know he missed. Mapicc was a good fighter, so he was able to dodge and parry a lot of the attacks thrown at him, but playing as defensive as he was, he wasn’t landing any hits on the voidling, or he’d get hit himself.

Spoke urged the other to come upstairs, blocking the hole in the floor with obsidian. A pain, but manageable, Wemmbu lamented to himself as he dug out his ender pearls, throwing one at the crease between floor and obsidian, landing on the second floor with ease. The two of them were arguing about elytras – Mapicc gave his to Squiddo in a split second decision – and without one they couldn’t get away.

Except Squiddo apparently hadn’t left, and she dropped an elytra to Mapicc, who grabbed it. The two managed to shoo her away again, focusing their attention on Wemmbu who was still very much trying to stab them.

He could attempt to mace them, but the last time he tried to mace Spoke and his goons he’d ended up losing. He needed more practice with the weapon and he hadn’t gotten it just yet, so he stuck with a sword.

“There’s only one of him.” Mapicc said, sword clashing against Wemmbus shield as he dropped water to break the webs he was stuck in. “We can definitely take them.”

And honestly, he didn’t need backup, he just thought it would be really funny to make Mapicc eat his words. So he lit a black firework and watched the two of them scream, panic and run off.

Wemmbu snickered as his team flocked into the house while the two ran off, tail lashing behind him with an exhilaration he hadn’t felt in a while. He hummed, watching as Squiddo flew off as well, grabbing one of the untrimmed players by the chest plate that was trying to go after her. He placed a sign, explaining to his team that they wouldn’t follow them. Then, he opened his comms and typed a message he honestly didn’t think he’d be typing for the third time that day.

You whisper to Flamefrags: spoke & mapicc just left squiddos base

You whisper to Flamefrags: dunno where theyre planning on going but they went east

Flamefrags whispers to you: east from squiddo base?

Flamefrags whispers to you: ill find him

Wemmbu sighed, adding to the sign that they were going back to the city before removing his chest plate and spreading his wings to fly off, his team following him. The sun was setting and they were a decent ways out so the flight would be an hour or so, he didn’t really know. Flame was on Spokes tail so he didn’t need to be, he supposed, and he had information to give to Ash either way.

Spoke was trying to put together a team, he had Mapicc, Planet and maybe Squiddo. Then, he had another player named MinuteTech, who seemed to be the biggest concern of this group, and he had a feeling in the back of his mind that Ash knew something about this guy.

His feet touched the ground on the lowest level in the city and his team dispersed rather quickly. As he walked, most people shuffled out of the way, making space for him to walk through like he was some sort of royalty walking through the town. Once he was closer in the town he flew up to the higher levels, stopping in the meeting hall on the diamond level only to find it empty before he went to the top to find Ash.

The man was in his castle with Clown, walking through the halls when Wemmbu came in the front door. Clown only stared at him blankly, not seeming to realize exactly who he was, and Ash watched him expectantly until he offhanded an ender eye to identify himself. “Ah, Ender. I see you’ve come alone without Spoke…you were unsuccessful in capturing him then?”

Wemmbu stepped forward, handing over the book he’d been writing in, about his attempts to get Spoke, how he got away and the team he was creating. Ash took it from him, flipping through the pages while Clown hovered over his shoulder, his eyes weren’t on the book though, the demon could practically feel his gaze boring into his skull from behind that mask. Did he know it was Wemmbu? Would he attack him if he did?

“Hm.” Ash drew his attention away from the jester hovering behind him. “They talked about a player named MinuteTech?” Wemmbu nodded. “Interesting.” He closed the book, handing it to Clown and waving a hand. “Dismissed. Go.”

With a final glance at Clown, he left, tail swishing in the air behind him. He needed to find a place to train away from this stupid city, so he swung by his house to grab food and a couple armour stands before he was off again.

He ended up finding an arena underground a few thousand blocks from the city, deep enough underground that he wouldn’t be noticed even if his invisibility ran out, so it was decent arena to fight in. The ground was obsidian like it may have been a lava pool once, and the area was lit with sea lanterns under black stained glass among the obsidian. A proper fighting area, he mused as he lowered himself into the cave, secondary wings flapping to slow his fall, the braces on his legs absorbing the rest of the fall so he didn’t feel any pain as he landed.

Armour stands and targets got set up around the area and Wemmbu dropped a shulker with speed pots, he didn’t need strength since he was only attacking armour stands and not another player, but the speed boost was something he needed to practice with or he’d be off balance in a real fight. For extra measure, he swapped his diamond trimmed chest plate for a bare one, just in case someone did happen upon him down here, he didn’t feel like answering questions.

Cosa, his breach mace was good for indoor combat, it negated armour, the sharpened points on each side meant to puncture. But Nostra, his density mace, was good for outdoor combat, when Wemmbu could get up higher. The higher up he was, the heavier the mace fell down, and with the additional enchantment of wind burst sent him back up in the air once he landed a hit.

Using Cosa against an armour stand was basically useless, so he used Nostra instead. Launching himself up into the air and bringing his weapon down on the armour stand, repeating the motion to better his aim.

Except he didn’t notice that someone was sitting on the ledge above him.

Chapter Text

“Your stance is horrible.”

Wemmbu almost jumped out of his skin, wings flapping as he tripped over his feet, barely managing to keep himself from falling as his head snapped up to the opening of the cave, at first he thought it was Clown, who’d figured him out and come to actually kill him, but it wasn’t.

Not that it was a particularly better outcome.

Flame was sitting on the ledge, his invisibility having run out like Wemmbu’s had who knows how long ago now, his tail flicking lazily beside him, thumping against the stone he sat on quietly, his own wings folded neatly against his back. The diamond trim on his chest plate glimmered in the dim light of the arena and the flames that perpetually clung to his tail. It was then that Wemmbu noticed the temperature had gotten warmer, though it wasn’t quite as noticeable. Heat radiated from the nether hybrid while cold radiated form the voidling, clashing in the air between them.

“What are you doing here?” Wemmbu asked, tail lashing anxiously behind him as he stared at Flame.

“Thought nobody would be here.” Flame responded, pushing himself down off the ledge and falling into the cave, wings catching him as he did so to slow his fall and stop him from breaking bones with a fall from that height. “Why are you here?”

Wemmbu stared blankly at him, then to his sword and the armour stand that was hanging on for dear life after being a victim of several mace slam attacks and a barrage of sword slashes. “Wow, I wonder.” He muttered, frowning at the tiger hybrid as he processed the words that’d caught his attention in the first place. “Did you say my stance is horrible?!”

“Yes, bro.” Flame responded, probably rolling his eyes behind the blindfold. “You leave yourself way too open when you use a sword. It makes you easier to hit, why do you think you could never beat me?”

“Oh, okay.” Wemmbu responded, spinning his sword in his hand. The sword felt wrong. It wasn’t weighted right, a little too heavy, and the handle was too perfect. He missed Nightrider, his old sword fit perfectly in his hand, like it’d been made for him to wield. Of course, he had no idea where on earth it was because Zam took it when he pretended to surrender himself. “I couldn’t beat you because I…what? Left myself open?”

“No, you couldn’t beat me because I’m stronger than you.” Flame responded, drawing his own sword with ease, the shimmer of it’s enchantments reflected off the demons skin, and horns that vaguely reminded Wemmbu of the gilded blackstone in bastions. “Have you even had like…proper training?”

“Dawg who would train me?” Wemmbu shot back, raising an eyebrow. “Everyone on this server expects me to be some pyromaniac who wants to kill everyone I see.”

Flame didn’t respond right away, just stared at him. Or, at least that’s what he assumed was happening, the other demon was hard to read with that blindfold over his eyes. The two of them didn’t particularly have a good history, but Flame hadn’t tried to drive a sword through his chest yet, and they’d been communicating at least a little. They’d been civil, Wemmbu concluded.

“I guess that’s true.” Flame muttered, tapping the tip of his sword against the floor, tail swishing behind him mindlessly as his ears twitched. “You’ve never been trained?”

“No.” Wemmbu responded, scowling at him. Why did this matter?

“You taught yourself?”

“Yes? How else would I have learned, bro.”

Flame continued to stare at him and Wemmbu lowkey wanted to mace him for this conversation. He didn’t, but he wanted to. “Do you have pots?”

Wemmbu stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Pots, bro, where are they?”

“Why the hell do you want my pots?!”

“So we can spar, are you stupid!?”

“Oh.” He pointed to the shulker off to the side. “It’s only speed.”

Flame walked over to the shulker, opening it. “Do you not have strength?”

“Brother, I was fighting armour stands what on earth would I need strength for?”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess.”

Wemmbu rolled his eyes, opening his ender chest and grabbing the shulker of strength pots to place beside his other one. Both he and Flame grabbed a few pots from it and started getting set up. Wemmbu didn’t spar, the only mock fight he’d actually done was with Mane at his empire, the rest of his fights were life or death.

Sparring wasn’t much different than an actual fight with Flame, the same clash of swords, shields and temperature. The main difference was the tiger wasn’t just barking insults, he was shouting advice, though it was just as vicious as it normally was. Did Flame actually know how to be nice? He didn’t think so.

Wemmbu managed to dodge and parry Flames attack in a way he couldn’t have without the advice being slung at him, but that didn’t change the fact that he wasn’t able to attack. Whatever, learning defense was better than nothing, he supposed.

“So, what happened to your horn, bro?” Flame asked, landing another blow against Wemmbus shield. The voidling scowled, tail whipping behind him, which obviously didn’t go unnoticed as the tiger snorted. “C’mon it can’t be that bad.”

“Zam.” Wemmbu hissed in response, lunging forward and slamming his sword into Flames shield. “Zam happened.”

Flame didn’t answer at first, letting Wemmbu’s sword clash against his shield instead of answering his strikes with a sword. His ears twitched with the clash of netherite on wood and iron before he spoke up again. “Zam broke your horn?”

“In Clowns prison.” Wemmbu grumbled. “Snapped it off and stabbed me in the eye with it, popped a totem.”

The blaze demon sighed, knocking the voidlings sword out of his hand, sending it clattering across the floor. “Okay. We’re taking a break.”

Wemmbu stared at him blankly. “What.”

“You’re agitated.” Flame pointed out dryly. “Fighting like this, you aren’t going to learn anything because your head is too clouded.”

He sighed, wings fluttering behind him as he turned around, picking his sword up and settling on the ground, Flame sat down across from him, tail thumping against the ground. He said nothing, neither did Wemmbu. What were they supposed to talk about? They weren’t friends, a majority of Wemmbu’s time allied with the Zam Empire was spent getting attacked by Flame.

He glanced up at the hybrid who was cleaning his sword, unbothered by the flames that licked the blade with the enchantments he had. Flame wasn’t a full blood demon like Wemmbu was, but his appearance didn’t reflect that much. He had the blaze-like wings, the dark horns laced with gold, dark hair alight with embers and a flaming tail, but his tail was orange and black like the ears buried in his hair.

It was odd to think that he and Mane were brothers.

Mane’s horns were buried in fluffy hair that matched his own ears and tail, and his wings were smaller than Flames. Though, Mane’s tail did have a tuft of flames at the end, much like Wemmbu’s did with the void.

“Have you talked to Mane?” The words fell from his mouth before he could think about it and Flame paused in cleaning the blade in his hands.

Wemmbu realized he should probably consider the things he said to the other demon, especially when he was in possession of a sword that he could absolutely murder him with at any given moment without any sort of hesitation.

Flames shoulders were tense, tail snapping against the ground the way Wemmbu’s did when he was annoyed. “Not since he left Zam.” He returned to cleaning the sword. “I have nothing to say to him, bro. I don’t talk to traitors.”

Ouch.

“Fair enough.” Wemmbu mumbled, glancing down at the sword laying in his lap. It even looked wrong compared to Nightrider. It didn’t have stupid little eyeball charm hanging on the hilt.

“Have you talked to Mane?” Flame asked, voice a little terse like he was only asking because he thought Wemmbu wanted to know something.

“Not since the war.” Wemmbu murmured, bringing his tail to his lap to fidget with it. “I just…Spoke tried to recruit him. To whatever team he was making.”

Again, Flame paused in cleaning his sword. “Did he say yes?”

“No, he started attacking them. He thought they were lying about the mafia.”

“Oh.”

Wemmbu let his eyes fall to his tail again, the soft crackle of flames from the others sword and tail filling the silence between them as he continued cleaning a sword that probably didn’t need it anymore. “Did Ash ask you to join?” He asked, looking up at Flame who met his gaze through the blindfold.

He was quiet for a moment before he sighed. “Yeah. Found me and Sohrin in the empire after you and Zam disappeared. Sohrin didn’t, I don’t know where he is, think he said something about the farlands, I don’t know. But I had nothing better to do, and with Zam’s empire gone…” He shrugged. “What about you?”

The voidling groaned, tail snapping up into the air as he leaned back. “So, after the war, Clown found me and Zam and he put us to go to this prison, Proton with three totems. Zam immediately started attacking me and popped all three totems.”

“Hence the broken horn.”

“Yeah. I managed to get away from her and eventually Clown put Egg and Pangi in the prison with us.”

“Pangi went with Zam immediately.”

“Obviously bro. Let me tell my harrowing backstory.”

“Oh my god bro.”

“Okay, so Pangi sided with Zam and Egg was with me. We started planning on how to escape, but the walls went up to world height and had chunkbans in it so the only way we could’ve gotten out was an ender pearl canon.”

“Of course.” Flame murmured, nodding along to his words.

“Right, but eventually Clown got bored and sent Ferre in to attack us and said he’d leave if we popped his totem. So Egg and I decided to try and team up with Zam and Pangi, which didn’t really turn out well at first but eventually it did, and we got through the Ferre attack.”

“Right.”

“And then Pangi tried to go to the nether and got chunkbanned.”

“Damn, for real bro?”

“For real. So then Zam joined us for a bit, but Clown got bored, bombed us and sent Ferre back in but fully geared.”

“That’s actually insane.”

“Isn’t it!” Wemmbu responded, throwing his hands up, tail whipping against the ground. “We used TNT carts to beat him, but it threw insane suspicion on us.” He didn’t think the timeline was entirely correct but honestly he didn’t care that much, so he continued. “He also sent in a bunch of new people in, and we started building a pearl canon, but then he pulled all of them out again and they had a bunch of our pearls so I only had one, Egg made me leave without him.”

Flame watched him quietly, tail swishing in the air. “And you did because you thought you could go back and get him out.”

Wemmbu exhaled through his teeth and sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah. But when I went back the prison was being changed. I found out later on Clown changed the design of the prison, kept Egg and put Parrot and a bunch of other people. Leo wanted me to help break them out.”

“And you did.”

“Obviously, why would I want Parrot stuck in Clowns stupid game?”

Flame frowned, raising an eyebrow. “Bro what do you mean? Since when did you care about Parrot?”

“Since when have I not? I mean we may not be the best of friends, but we aren’t like…enemies.” Wemmbu responded. “I mean he helped us when you guys were attacking us. So, yeah, I mean I trust him, so why would I want him to be stuck in there dawg.”

The tiger let out a low hum, leaning back. “Huh. I guess I never thought about that.”

The silence hung between them for a while as Wemmbu shifted to lay on his side, peering up to the opening of the cave. “Do people expect you to betray them?”

“What?” Flame sounded caught off guard, almost baffled.

“Like…” Wemmbu huffed softly, cushioning his head with his arms, “Zam did all of what she did because she couldn’t trust me. Because she expected me to betray her.”

“Is that why?” Flame mumbled, tilting his head back. “I thought you said something about betraying her.”

“I made a joke about how I wouldn’t betray her unless it benefited me.” Wemmbu shot back. “And she took it seriously.”

Flame hummed quietly. “She’d always been paranoid about betrayal.”

“Yeah well, maybe she should’ve been if she treated all her allies the way she treated me.” Wemmbu grumbled, covering his body with his wings.

They stayed quiet for a while before Flame hauled himself up off the ground. “Alright, bro, get up. You’re still horrendous at fighting and it’s a miracle you’re a diamond trim.”

“You’re such a dick.” He complained, glaring at the demon. He got up.

Chapter Text

The end was cold, freezing, even, and he hated it. The cold wrapped around his body, pierced through his clothes and armour, curling into his muscles. The cold in the end wasn’t like the cold in the overworld, he couldn’t hide from it with his wings and a jacket. He hated the cold.

For the life of him, Flame couldn’t figure out why he was sent to the end when he was given the mission with Wemmbu was right beside him. The end was Wemmbu’s homeland, he was quite literally a demon born from the void he was flying over, and as a hybrid from the nether, Flame’s body couldn’t function for long term in the end. It was too cold. His wings were already starting to hurt from the chill, he’d have to stop somewhere and warm them up before he continued.

Fortunately, Wemmbu mentioned there was an outpost for the civilisation not too far from his current coords, so he diverted from the path he was on to stop there. It was still cold inside, but because he wasn’t moving through the air, his wings could warm up a little bit. The flames on his tail flickered and popped in protest to the cool temperatures as he settled on the highest platform.

You whisper to Wemmbu: bro

You whisper to Wemmbu: why was i sent to the end

You whisper to Wemmbu: its so cold

Wemmbu whispers to you: do you think ash mixed us up lmfao

You whisper to Wemmbu: how would he even

You whisper to Wemmbu: you hold an eye of ender

You whisper to Wemmbu: and i hold a blaze rod

Wemmbu whispers to you: i never said he was that smart

You whisper to Wemmbu: oh my god bro

As annoying as it was, Flame found himself smirking at the voidlings message. In the past, he and Wemmbu didn’t get along, although that was on account of being on opposite sides of a war neither of them particularly wanted to be apart of. Flame didn’t really care, to be honest, he didn’t mind, Wemmbu wasn’t exactly a threat, he wasn’t a great fighter but he was strategic in his own way.

He wasn’t really expecting Mane to leave Zam for him though. Flame was aware his older brother didn’t care for their leader and was quite bored hanging around the empire, in fact he was pretty sure the only reason Mane stayed was for him. He never liked leaving Flame on his own. Until now, apparently.

When Pentar first told him Mane left, he didn’t believe him. Why should he have? What reason would Mane have to leave Flame behind for some void demon? But, of course, it was true. He was kind of on autopilot the next time he saw his brother in the ruins of Wemmbu’s empire, wearing Zam’s armour and fighting against them.

He didn’t know what was worse. The fact that Mane didn’t have the guts to tell Flame himself and Pentar was the one to do it, or the fact that he didn’t even have the decency to tell him why while they were fighting.

He’d been furious, Wemmbu trapped in an obsidian box, Egg god knows where and Mane standing above them watching it all go down like he wasn’t a traitor! He’d snapped, lashing out at the guards standing beside him and Mane had just watched, tail flicking in the air behind him.

Flame, if you want to do something about it go ahead.

And he did. Mane had left that fight without his armour, flames licking at his tail the way they always did when he was frustrated, and Wemmbu wasn’t far behind.

He didn’t even know where Mane was now. He thought about what he’d say if they did see each other more than he’d like to admit. He wondered if Mane thought about him, where he was, what he’d say to Flame. Did he regret betraying Zam? Did he regret leaving Flame behind?

He shook his head, wings folding against his back as he dropped to the ground. He couldn’t do that right now.

The End Civilisation, according to Clown it was established by Parrot and three of his friends. They called it the safest civilisation on Unstable. What a joke, no civilisation on this server would last very long. As much as Parrot liked to ignore it, this was an anarchy server, nice things didn’t last long.

They must’ve returned to blow the place up at some point, because it was all but destroyed when he arrived, ducking into one of the towers to settle and warm his wings. As he did so, he opened his communicator.

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: here

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: need to warm up my wings

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: fucking cold out here bro

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: still don’t know why they sent you to the end lmao

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: mysteries, mysteries

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: im down at the bottom of the stairs by the entrance when ur all warmed up

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: these guys are like. a little stupid tho cant lie

Flame snorted quietly as he ran his hands along his wings, lighting small fires in his palms to warm them. He could hear the faint whistle of rockets, the thumping of netherite boots against stone and the invisibility potions shattering. After a while, he stood up and flexed his wings, scowling at the instant chill the ran down his spine. He really hated the end.

He splashed his own invisibility at his feet, adjusted his helmet so it wasn’t pinning his ear uncomfortably against his head and started walking. Until his communicator pinged again.

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: FUCKING PANGI

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: what

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: ????

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: bro

Flame stared at the screen for a while, Jaden never responded so he closed it and headed down. There was an iron trim and two untrimmed players milling in the area when he landed. There were supposed to be more. Where was Jaden?

The untrimmed players all but jumped away from him when his feet touched the ground, the iron trim only stiffened but placed a sign. Flame walked over to them to look at the sign they placed. two people lost invis, gold&iron went after.

He sighed, running a hand down his face. Was Pangi one of them? Is that why Jaden said that? Whatever. It’s not like he and Pangi were allies anymore, they barely even spoke when they were. names. He wrote on the sign.

The iron trim nodded and placed another sign. Pangi and Straight. One of the untrimmed players stepped forward and placed a third sign. naparizel. He only knew who Pangi was. Great! Wemmbu told him Pangi had been chunkbanned in the nether while imprisoned by ClownPierce. How he got out, Flame wasn’t sure, but he didn’t care that much. There were at least three people who’d tried to do…something here. It wasn’t clear, but they were likely trying to gain information, it was the only reason Flame could think of that they’d come here.

He wondered if Parrot was within that group, this being his civ after all. Would Parrot be willing to work with Pangi? He wasn’t sure, but he couldn’t really dwell on that. There wasn’t much the avian could even do in a situation like this. He kept glancing to his communicator, for death messages or something from Jaden. He didn’t know where they went, and Jaden would let him know if he needed backup. But someone needed to watch this place and iron trims weren’t trusted to do that.

Flame’s tail twitched, snapping against the ground as he wandered through the city. It wasn’t bad, probably Horace’s work knowing how much the man was involved in the servers builds. His wings flexed out as much as they could with the chest plate constricting them, shaking the chill off them as he did so.

His communicator pinged and his eyes snapped down to it.

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: dog what the hell

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: ???

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: bro was it just pangi, straight and naparizel?

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: no

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: wato, horace and zam for some reason were also there

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: zam?? the hell

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: are you good

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: yeah

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: i got out fine

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: idk about everyone else

Bazinga_2007 was slain by Straight

Bazinga_2007 left the game

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: oh

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: oh

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: so

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: who the hell even is straight bro

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: I DON’T EVEN KNOW BRO

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: im coming back anyhow

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: anyhow

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: bro shut yo bitch ass up

Flame snorted to himself as he closed the communicator, turning around the head to the castle. Zam was with Pangi, which meant that she probably played a role in getting out of the chunkban. He never really…knew what to think about Zam, she was a decent ruler, and he didn’t mind working under her like Mane did, but it wasn’t like she was a perfect boss. She’d been quite antagonistic towards Wemmbu over a statement that – according to the voidling, so he took it with a grain of salt – was an offhand joke. And she’d snapped his horn off which…was never great for a demon. Flame had never had his horns broken, but the way Wemmbu’s head listed to the side like there was too much weight on one side and how they’d need to take breaks from sparring every now and then because he got a headache was enough to tell him that it wasn’t fun.

It would’ve grown back fine if it’d been pulled out of his head completely instead of snapped like it was, so his body wasn’t trying to heal something it couldn’t. But pulling the rest of it out now could pose an issue.

The group that had come to the End Civ…Horace was probably the builder, so he would’ve known where the place was. Could they just be coming here? Or were they going somewhere else? Where else…

He opened his communicator.

You whisper to Wemmbu: r you still at capital

Wemmbu whispers to you: ?? yes

You whisper to Wemmbu: group just tried to infiltrate end civ

Wemmbu whispers to you: oh joy

You whisper to Wemmbu: keep an eye out

You whisper to Wemmbu: they got away from us here

Wemmbu whispers to you: skill issue

You whisper to Wemmbu: kys

–––

Capital City. A mining civilisation overseen by Reddoons until it fell apart. Well, the mining part did, the city itself was fine because Reddoons was disgustingly rich, and he lacked care for other people.

Wemmbu was perched on the peak of main building, watching the little tiny ants that were his soldiers mull about in the city center.  They weren’t really doing anything, mulling around the area and chatting with signs.

Then he saw them fighting. Seemingly for no reason, just chasing each other around the center attacking each other. At least, he assumed it was for no reason until he saw the gold and emerald partials of a totem pop and saw the name Straight. Huh.

You whisper to Flamefrags: group that you saw

You whisper to Flamefrags: straight a name in there

Flamefrags whispers to you: yes

You whisper to Flamefrags: then they’re at capital

With that, he slipped his chest plate off and dove down into the fight, drawing his sword as he glided down and bringing it down onto Straights shoulder, landing a decent hit in the chink of his armour.

“Why did this happen immediately?!” Someone called out. Wemmbu spun on his heel and swung his sword at the sound of the voice, drawling a short shriek from the person as his blade connected with armour.

“I don’t know how you let this happen.” He faltered for a moment, keeping his attention on the person in front of him. That was Wato’s voice. So they were in this little group? How did that happen?

He swallowed his surprise and kept attacking, sword clashing with wood and netherite as the player tried to fend him off. “We gotta go man, there’s too many here!” They called.

They flew off, but Wemmbu managed to stay on one of their tails, eventually pulling himself into the sky so he could use Nostra instead of his sword. Two others ended up on the same roof and he saw them holding water buckets to each other. He was almost positive he just heard Pangis voice also, which was so, so great.

His wings flared out as he peaked in the sky, then curled around him to drop him down, bringing Nostra down on one of the players heads and instantly popping the totem in their hand. Naparizel, not a name he’d heard before but he didn’t really care as the three almost instantly scattered at the sight of his weapon and the damage it inflicted.

As they flew off, Wemmbu chased after them, one of his gold trims following after him from who knows where, though he eventually broke off to chase Straight. Managing to land a hit on him with Nostra in the air and popping a totem. When they landed, Wemmbu clocked they were alone, just the two of them, and he landed another hit, popping another totem and his helmet.

Straight spoke then.

“Wait, wait!” Wemmbu held out his sword, holding it to his throat. “Okay. If you don’t kill me here, I can bring you to a civilisation.”

He stared at him for a while, lips twisting before he lowered the sword. He kept his gaze on the player, holding out his mace as a threat if nothing else and opened up his communicator.

You whisper to Flamefrags: straight offered to bring me to a civ

Flamefrags whispers to you: ?? the fuck

You whisper to Flamefrags: idk

You whisper to Flamefrags: I popped two totems and his helmet

Flamefrags whispers to you: what civ

You whisper to Flamefrags: oh yeah i might wanna ask that lol

Flamefrags whispers to you: I AM GOING TO RIP YOUR OTHER HORN OUT OF YOUR SKULL

Wemmbu snorted at the message, pulled out a sign and placing it. what civ. Straight stared at the sign for a while before he responded. “Skyblock.” That caught his attention. Ash had shown him the desire board in the castle, civilisations he planned to take over. Skyblock civilisation was one that they hadn’t found, not yet at least.

He threw down a book, and wrote on the sign. Coords and I’ll let you go. Straight picked up the book, staring at it for a while before he sighed, opening it and writing it down. He handed it back and Wemmbu looked in. Sure enough, there were coords.

You whisper to Flamefrags: skyblock.

You whisper to Flamefrags: he gave me coords he said were to skyblock

Flamefrags whispers to you: are you serious bro

You whisper to Flamefrags: I don’t know

You whisper to Flamefrags: he said it was

You whisper to Flamefrags: I need to check it out

Flamefrags whispers to you: send jaden

Flamefrags whispers to you: he’s headed back to the overworld now

Flamefrags whispers to you: dm him the coords, have him check it out

You whisper to Flamefrags: if this is skyblock

Flamefrags whispers to you: it’s huge

You whisper to Flamefrags: dude we’ve been looking for so long

Flamefrags whispers to you: I know

Wemmbu frowned as a thought struck him, but looked back up at Straight who was watching him warily. He erased his earlier messages on the sign and wrote a new message.

Is there anyone named Eggchan there?

Chapter Text

He stepped out of a nether portal onto a mushroom top, wings spreading out behind him. Straight – MineManner, he’d learned as they’d been in contact with him – was waiting at the base to this makeshift biome. A civilisation in the sky, huh, this was quite impressive he had to be honest.

He hopped down off the mushroom, walking over to MineManner who handed over a book with coords to the castle where the citizens were, for a meeting according to him. Flame handed over an invisibility potion and waved over one of the gold trims to bring him back to the city to set a stasis.

As much as MineManner had helped, he didn’t get an out of the stasis. If he stepped out of line, he was still dead. Once his gold trim and their newest recruit were through the portal, Flame started making his way through the city.

It was elaborate, full of farms and houses, but something about it was…lifeless. It didn’t seem like a place Flame would ever want to stay, hell it quite honestly seemed like a prison for him.

The castle was something regal and outstanding, looming over the city. Horace’s work, he was guessing, it had the same style the other man used. His boots echoed in the halls as he walked into the castle, distantly hearing the voices of who he assumed, were the citizens. It sounded like they were arguing.

Behind him, his soldiers fanned out. Flanked by two gold trims and four iron trims, along with a myriad of copper and untrimmed players. Jaden was at his left, he assumed at least, since the player to his left was standing closer to him the way the orca typically did.

The chatter died down as the army stepped into the throne room, and Flame found his eyes landing on Yeah_Jaron, the ruler of this civilisation, who stood up straight, staring at them wide eyed. “No. We were supposed to have more time.”

Flames eyes scanned the group of players crowded around him, mostly people he didn’t recognize but he did spot both Loppezz and Lettuce. A former fellow guard of the Zam Empire and…not quite a friend, but an ally. Maybe a friend of Jaden’s, he wasn’t really sure where the orca found the guy and he didn’t care at the time. Actually, he didn’t really care now either.

He tilted his head towards the gold player at his right and they looked back before glancing down.

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: we can’t kill loppezz dude

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: and she would hate the mafia

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: my priority is jaron

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: feel free to let her loose if you want

He closed the communicator and stepped towards Jaron, the people around his throne all but scattered as Flame approached. Jaron watched him in abject horror as he stepped up, holding out a book with a simple message.

Join the mafia or you die. It was simple really, this civilisation didn’t need to be destroyed, the only reason the others had was because the rulers fought back. If Jaron complied, his civilisation would be just fine. Under mafia control and not...his, but fine. The castle would probably be used as a base of operations or a stash house and the farms were useful in general.

He was vaguely aware of the others trying to run off, being immediately pursued by his people, leaving him and Jaron alone in the castle. Flame wasn’t worried, even if Jaron for some idiotic reason tried to fight him, he’d win, and Jaron wasn’t getting very far if he tried to run.

The man stared for a while before he handed the book back with a solemn nod and Flame held out an invisibility potion. When it was taken from his hand, he grabbed Jarons arm, leading him back to the nether portal. “MineManner led you here, didn’t he?” He asked as they walked. “I don’t know when he started working with you…but I knew I couldn’t trust him. Something felt off recently.”

Flame didn’t respond, nudging Jaron towards the end portal with his wing. “Go through?” He asked, and the demon nodded, covering the man’s mouth as an attempt to tell him to shut up. He went through the portal and Flame turned away to find the rest of his people.

He found a couple of his untrimmed players on one of the Sky Civilisation, DumbisDumb, and left them to it. His wings flapped as he flew further out, towards a tree with honeycomb on it. He landed with a thump on the wooden planks, tail swishing behind him as his ears shifted to listen around him.

Someone was here. He could hear them breathing. Where were they? Under him? He tilted his head up and sniffed the air, but he couldn’t smell blood, so they’d probably gotten away from his team without being spotted. Good for them.

He stepped around the tree, and something underfoot creaked. His head snapped down, tail twitching as it touched the moss, setting on fire. As it cleared, it revealed two trapdoors and Flame hummed. Smart.

The creak of the trapdoors snapping open alerted whoever was down here, he heard the sharp inhale as he dropped onto a lower platform of trapdoors, crouching down to fit in the small space.

A few inches in front of him was a wolf hybrid, green ears just barely poking out beyond a turtle shell helmet. Flame drew his sword and the wolf held his hands up. “Look, I know I can’t fight you and live here. So do you want something from me?”

Huh, so they were smarter than he thought. He took out the same book he’d handed Jaron, erasing the previous message and writing out a simple come with me.

The wolf nodded and they both surfaced from the small space. They trailed behind Flame without much protest as he walked back towards the nether portal.

As they stepped into the makeshift biome, Flame placed an enderchest and fished out one of the shulkers Wemmbu forced him to carry for gearing newbies because the voidling got annoyed that he kept sending chungis in iron or diamond armour. He placed it down and nudged the wolf towards it with a wing.

“I’m not really a fighter. I’m more of a builder.” The wolf mumbled, but opened the shulker regardless. Flame said nothing, tail flicking as he watched the hybrid replaced their gear with the mafias things.

As they did so, Flame looked at his communicator.

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: is jaron gone

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: through the portal

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: probably setting his stasis now

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: flame my goat

Jaden_Man whispers to you: don’t stab me but I let loppy and lettuce go

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: I expected you to

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: I found one of them hiding under the ground

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: if the rest of them got away I don’t really care

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: they’re not coming back here if theyre smart

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: so just get back here

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: aye aye captain

You whisper to Jaden_MAN: gonna drown you

Jaden_MAN whispers to you: I can’t drown HAHA loser

Flame rolled his eyes but looked to the wolf who was now clad in netherite, and he tossed them a potion which they splashed at their feet. “No more talking, right?” Flame nodded and nudged them towards the portal.

Once his invis players returned to the portal, he ushered them through, except for the one gold trim that stayed at his side, and they returned to the castle. With nobody around and them being so high up in the sky, anonymity didn’t really matter since they both knew each other.

“Wow.” Jaden mumbled as they walked into a room hidden behind Jarons throne. “This is…a lot of stuff.”

Flame hummed, tail flicking behind him as he watched the other wander the room. It was definitely meant to hold riches, the walls lined with diamond, emerald, gold and lapis, tables holding blocks upon blocks of the same thing. According to MineManner, this civilisation…didn’t have access to most materials from the regular server, living off the items the farms provided which was…complete and utter bullshit he’d seen endstone bricks and prismarine which a farm wouldn’t provide. Not to mention the countless other inconsistencies. He didn’t really care how these things got here, all he cared about was packing it all away because Ash would blow a fuse if they came back empty handed.

“So. you got Jaron and another guy?” Jaden asked as they emptied chests into shulker boxes.

Flame nodded, pulling a shelf of diamonds into a box with his tail. “Wato, I think? I didn’t really see his tag. But, I think he worked with Clown for a bit, or he was hired by Clown.”

“Ohh, yeah. He does escape rooms or something I think. Maybe prisons. Or is that the other dude?”

The demon stared at him. “You think I would know?”

“I dunno. Zam knew people.”

Flame paused, lifting his head up. “Wait, wasn’t Zam in that group you chased down in the end?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Bro. The group that came from this civilisation?”

Jaden stared at him, as if he didn’t understand, fins twitching on the side of his head before it registered. “Oh! Yeah, wait where the hell did she go? Pangi was in that group too but I didn’t see him either.”

“Wemmbu said Pangi was chunkbanned. In that prison Clown put the four of them in.”

“Four?” Jaden echoed, turning away to finish filling the shulker he had in front of him.”

“Zam, Pangi, Wemmbu and his angel friend.” Flame responded. “Apparently, Clown tossed in a few more people after, Loppezz actually might’ve been one of them, she disappeared in the middle of that fight like Pangi did…”

Jaden hummed, glancing up at him with a curious look. “Weird.”

“Actually, come to think of it so did Skyer and Dol9hin.” Flame mumbled. “I broke off with Sorhin because he thought he saw Wemmbu, and we ended up separating but…huh.”

His ears twitched and he glanced down at the sword hanging at his side. He could still make out the orange and white paint on the hilt even after the wear and tear of use it’d had. If Clown had almost all of Zam’s guards…would he have tried to capture Mane if he was still with them?

Had he captured Mane even though he wasn’t with Zam? According to Wemmbu, another player who wasn’t associated with either side had been captured as well. Could Mane be stuck in some prison?

He shook his head, tail whipping against the ground as he dug his claws into his palm. Don’t get distracted. Mane was the one who left him behind, whatever happened to him after that was his own fault.

“Let’s go.” He called, packing the last of the shulkers into his enderchest. Jaden nodded, tail flicking aimlessly behind him as he pulled out an invisibility potion to splash on them. Despite himself, Flame wondered what Wemmbu was doing.

–––

The nice thing about maces was that they were powerful, they packed a punch, and they could crush skulls with enough power. With one in his hands, Wemmbu felt unstoppable. The downside? Cleaning them was a pain in the ass and he hated leaving his weapons dirty, especially with blood.

So, he was sitting in the little arena he and Flame had taken up to be their…hangout? He supposed was the right word. Wemmbu wasn’t sure if he could call them friends, but they definitely weren’t enemies, or even really rivals anymore. Regardless, they often spent their free time in the arena sparring or just sitting in a comfortable silence Wemmbu never thought he’d get from Flame.

Occasionally, one of the gold trims, Jaden would join them, being one of Flame’s closest friends and he’d spar with them as well. Currently though, both hybrids were off invading a civilisation, so Wemmbu was alone. He’d been out on his own assassination mission, hence the blood staining his mace, but had returned just before nightfall.

He was sitting on the obsidian ground near one of the sea lanterns, all but fighting with Nostra to get the blood out of the core. As intimidating as a blood-stained weapon looked he really couldn’t stand it being there long term. His tail was flicking around behind him, a scowl pulling at his lips as he started chipping the blood away with his nails.

He glanced up at the sound of wings and saw the familiar sight of a diamond trimmed chest plate glinting in the cool light, the invisibility shrouding the identity of the supposed mystery player from him, but, he knew who it was. “Yo, what’s up Flame.” He greeted, looking back down at his weapon. “How’d the mission go? Get anything cool?”

The tiger didn’t speak for a while and Wemmbu thought he was trying to aurafarm or something, like the loser he was, until he did speak. And it wasn’t the same, familiar drawl Wemmbu had found himself used to. “I’m not…Flame.”

Wemmbu all but scrambled to his feet, tail whipping in the air behind him as he pulled his sword out. What the hell. Something was off about this, not just because the diamond trim in front of him wasn’t Flame, but because Wemmbu didn’t recognize the voice, he wasn’t wearing his own trimmed chest plate and they’d spoken to him.

“Calm down.”

“Why should I calm down?” Wemmbu hissed, tail lashing behind him. “You’re mafia, why should I trust you?’

“I have to assume you’re mafia too.”

Wemmbu paused, still holding his sword out in front of him. “Why?”

“Because this is a mafia arena.” They responded, chuckling softly. Oh. Right. “Look, I’m not here to fight you, honestly I didn’t realize anyone still came here. I thought it’d be empty.”

His stance softened just slightly, not lowering his sword but allowing himself to relax a little. “How did you find this place anyway?”

“I helped make it.”

“I don’t recognize your voice.”

“You wouldn’t.” They answered. “I was in the mafia for a long time, but I left for a little while, and now I’m back.”

Wemmbu blinked, finally lowering his sword with a soft clink as the tip touched the ground. “You’re the diamond trim Ash told me about.”

“Oh?”

“The one that was away.” He murmured, body still taut and ready to fight despite the other not seeming hostile. “Who are you, anyway?”

“MinuteTech.”

Wemmbu blinked once, twice and then raised his sword again. “You were working with Spoke.”

“What. Wait put your sword down, hello?”

“I heard Spoke talking about you. You were working with him.” Wemmbu responded, adjusting his grip on his sword.

“Oh. Yeah, I was working with Spoke for a little bit. Until Ash recruited me back in.” MinuteTech responded.

“Yeah so like…why would you do that to yourself?”

“Wh…what?”

“Work with Spoke like…why?”

At that point, MinuteTechs invisibility ran out, revealing the shadow form of a man who must’ve been born from the void much like Wemmbu himself. “Are you…Wemmbu?” He asked. “Spoke mentioned your name, said he didn’t seem pleased about it.”

“Yeah no he wouldn’t. And I don’t really care about that cause I don’t really care about Spoke.” He murmured in response. “Why should I trust you, anyway? If you worked with someone like him?”

“What do you mean someone like him?” Wemmbu stared at him for a while before he sighed and lowered his sword, still scowling. “Did something happen between you two?”

“Not exactly, it’s not like he did something to me personally. But Spoke has a history with exploits, and he got them here, so…if he knows things like that it’s never a good thing.” Wemmbu muttered, dropping his sword to the side and sitting back down to keep cleaning Nostra.

MinuteTech watched him for a few minutes before he let out a soft hum. “I suppose. Have you considered maybe he’s changed? Even a little.” He asked, his voice wasn’t hostile, like he was asking a genuine question and not something mocking. The shadow creature took a seat on the ground a few feet in front of him, pure white eyes watching him with something akin to curiosity.

The voidling met his gaze with a little frown, tail flicking against the ground behind him. “I guess I didn’t.” He murmured, looking down at his mace. “People on this server don’t usually just change though.”

“No, I guess not.” Minute responded, tilting his head down a little, probably watching Wemmbu struggle to clean the weapon. After a moment, a bottle hit Nostra’s core, for a moment, the voidling thought it was a potion, but when nothing happened other than…his mace was now wet and the liquid hadn’t dissolved like a potion would, he realized Minute just threw a fucking water bottle at him. “What.”

The shadow snickered quietly. “It’ll help you clean it. Dried blood isn’t easy to get out like that, water helps.”

Wemmbu stared at him for a while, blinking a couple times before he looked back down at the weapon. “…thanks.”

Chapter Text

She didn’t know how they ended up here, she didn’t know why they were here, and she didn’t know what to do with herself right now. Everything felt…pointless.

The mace was heavy, the kind of power that could crack a skull with so little effort. Is that why Wemmbu liked them? The power they gave just by holding them, it was deadly in the right hands, and the voidling could definitely make it deadly.

Gambit was carved into the hilt of the weapon, it sounded like something Wemmbu would name it. Pangi had brought her a multitude of flowers over their time in the civilisation hidden far away from the world. She’d used the flowers to make paints to decorate the weapon, where the hilt met the core she painted a crescent moon with a star tucked in beside it. Wemmbu reminded her of the moon and Egg was always around him like a star in his orbit. On the top, she painted a sun, to represent herself.

On the front and back she painted an eclipse, the moon covering the sun. If she was the sun, Wemmbu was the moon, they contrasted each other and yet still managed to work together despite it all. Or they did, until Zam allowed her paranoia to get the better of her.

Maybe it was unreasonable, but Wemmbu’s words from the trial chamber rang in her mind constantly. I’ll never betray you, don’t worry. Not unless it benefits me directly. She’d let those words control how she viewed Wemmbu, let that corrupt whatever semblance of trust the two had for each other. She betrayed the voidling before he had the chance to do it himself.

The way he’d stood there, tail cutting through the air as the civilisation he’d built blew up around him. That pained look in his eye that was so…unlike him. Wemmbu was a person who carried himself with confidence and arrogance, he didn’t care about the overworld etiquette, hell he barely cared about the ends. He was a force to be reckoned with, he was smart and strategic when it came down to it, even if he didn’t always seem like that kind of person.

He was the kind of person that threatened the lively hood of the empire Zam had spent so much of her life building. He was a weapon of mass destruction who would flip on you the moment you no longer benefited him, so long as he was getting something out of it, he would do anything. Or, she thought that’s who he was.

I did tell Flame to come kill you.

But then I realize that you’re too pathetic to be killed.

You are so unbelievably weak.

You’re not a threat to my empire, not even a little bit.

You’re nothing.

Her ears still rang with the explosions sometimes. Flame, Sorhin and Merffin had exchanged glances when they were told to blow the city up, but they didn’t disobey her, they never did. They did as they were told, leaving the empire she told Wemmbu to build as nothing but a husk of what it once was. He’d stood on the hill over looking the destruction with a look she couldn’t quite describe, hopeless was never a word she would’ve used to describe Wemmbu of all people but looking back on it…the look in his eyes, bathed in moonlight on that hill as his hard work was laid to waste. He did look hopeless. Because he knew he couldn’t do anything to save it. Not then, at least.

You think that I’m not a threat, your prisons couldn’t even stop Parrot from breaking into them. You couldn’t hold Spoke for a week, and this is your sad attempt of having control again.

She’d told herself then that he was wrong, that he could never understand a situation like this, that he was only saying that because he couldn’t accept he’d been knocked down a peg. But …was he really wrong? Everything she’d done that day, was it really anything more than trying to regain control? To prove to herself that she had it?

It was never convenient for me to protect your stupid vault! I didn’t go in it until I knew for a fact that you were against me. I was nothing but loyal to you. Egg would ask me everyday to break into the vault because what you were saying made no sense and I trusted you. You made a massive mistake here, Zam.

And she had, hadn’t she? She assumed he would betray her so she knocked him down before he could. But Wemmbu wasn’t the kind of person to stay down, she should’ve known he would come back at her, and she should’ve known he’d come back in the most destructive way he could.

An eye for an eye, right? Zam’s empire for Wemmbu’s.

She wondered where he was.

She wondered where a lot of the people around her back then were. At the end of their fight, it had just been her and Wemmbu, Clown had pulled them along to his prison and eventually tossed Egg and Pangi in. Loppezz, Skyer and Dol9hin had been dropped in momentarily. But Sorhin, Merffin and Flame? She had no idea where they were. Hell, she even found herself wondering where ManePear was sometimes, last she’d seen the lion he was fleeing from a broken empire after a fight with Flame. She wondered if Clown dug his claws into him as well.

The escape room was something…something out of her nightmares if she was being honest. Even more so than the prison. At least in the prison she could have some semblance of control, could do as she pleased in the small area they had. It had been miserable, but at least she could pretend she wasn’t a prisoner if she ignored the walls. But in the escape room she had no control, albeit neither did Wemmbu and the demon seemed about as displeased with their situation as she did.

Maybe that’s why she left him there, maybe that’s why she didn’t try to toss him the bucket. Even with guilt eating at her, she left Wemmbu in that simulated mesa with nothing but spider eyes as food, and she kept going.

Wato had helped him in the end, bringing him food and taking him through the escape room. They’d first arrived when the two of them got stuck in the earlier rooms, seeming bored and annoyed with both of them.

I was paid to make this; I wasn’t paid to talk with people.

She remembered hearing the distant voices of the two of them, Wato expressing some concern about Wemmbu’s relationship with Zam and how much he should trust her. They’d seemed…worried that she would be the demon’s demise in this escape room.

I just worry that you’re going to fall for something like this again. While you might work until the end of this room, I don’t know how much further out of this room they’d be willing to help you. If at all.

It wasn’t long after that Wemmbu arrived, questioning why he was left behind.

She remembered when they first arrived in the end, Clown standing over them ominously telling them to hand the mace over, Wemmbu hadn’t been afraid. His tail whipping behind him like an angry animal, demanding to know where his seraphim friend was. He’d told Zam to drop the armour and the mace, standing between her and the jester above them. He attacked Clown, shouting at Zam to run.

Wato, who’d been behind Clown like a cornered animal, had run off when instructed to respawn the dragon, but the portal was still open and Zam jumped through, leaving Wemmbu behind with one of the servers deadliest players.

She didn’t know if he was still alive.

The first thing she’d done after finding new gear was destroy the chunkban Pangi was in, so if nothing else he was able to be free on the server. He’d refused to leave her side, however, and she’d relented, allowing him to stay. Maybe in another life she’d deny him, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it in this one.

Zam met Wato again when Pangi dragged her up to a civilisation high above the world, hidden in the clouds and if nothing else, far away from Clown. Wato had avoided her, unsurprisingly, only really talking to her if Pangi was around as they seemed fine with him. Unless specifically sought out, Wato kept to themselves, usually tucked away under a tree or sitting in a platform of trapdoors they made to observe the city without being bothered. Zam didn’t really try to interact with them, the only real interaction they’d had was when Wato asked what happened to Wemmbu. They seemed vaguely disappointed when Zam told them she didn’t know.

It didn’t take long before whispers of invaded and ransacked civilisations reached the city in the sky and it sent the leader into something of a panic, sending out a group of them to investigate the invisible players responsible for the destruction.

Horace, who Zam was distantly aware had built Wemmbu’s empire…both times, led them all far out in the end dimension to what used to be an elegant looking castle and city surrounded by a border of chunkbans.

Parrot and Wifies, he’d said, they wanted to make a civilisation for people to be safe in.

Which had backfired, clearly. Nothing they could dwell on there, so they roamed the streets invisible trying to find out what had happened and what the invisible players roaming the city were doing. The chest plates of the players seemed to be lacking trims, with the exception of two, one with an iron trim and another with gold. Although, Zam swore she saw someone flying into one of the castle spires with diamonds glinting against the netherite.

It was going fine, until Pangi and MineManners invisibility ran out. At the same time. Wonderful, just wonderful.

They managed to escape the situation with one death to the invisible players before they were headed to the next place, Capital City. A similar plan was deployed and swiftly deemed useless as a fight broke out immediately. This time Zam was positive she’d seen a diamond trim on the building watching the chaos before diving into the fight themselves.

The worst part? The diamond trim player had a mace, one that they brought down on Naparizels head without hesitation. They’d managed to shake the players eventually, but returned to Skyblock without any information beyond the signs in both cities mentioning the name Ash.

And…life went on. Until Jaron ushered her into his room, frantic and worried, Zam was confused until a mace was being shoved into her hands.

This might not make sense now, but you need to have this, I know I can trust you. You know how running a civilisation can be with traitors and all that.

Zam had been…baffled and Jaron rushed off soon after to start a meeting. In which, Wato pointed out the flaws within the city and how it operated, pointing out that there were blocks they could never have gotten with the farms they had. It devolved into chaos, in which Zam noticed MineManner leaving.

She followed him, still wary of whatever Jaron had been spooked by. If he thought someone had betrayed him…she found him in the mushroom farm, building a nether portal and she knew. She didn’t understand, but she knew what he was doing.

You can stay here and join them. Or you can leave and pretend nothing happened here.

Selfishly, she knew her answer instantly. She flew back to the castle, grabbing Pangi by the arm and pulling his attention from whatever Loppezz was rambling about, gesturing wildly to Arcn and Lettuce who listened with rapt attention.

And they left. They flew millions of blocks out, she was desperate to get away from the chaos and evil in this server, so she flew, and Pangi stayed with her without question.

Eventually, they stumbled upon a new city, hidden in the irregular generation of the farlands. A civilisation built and ran by none other than Horace, who’d greeted them warily when they arrived. With hesitation, he allowed them to stay, putting them through a test to decide which faction the two would end up with.

Zam was a warrior and Pangi was a farmer. Evidently, those factions didn’t get along, and…frankly neither of them cared enough to pretend to be interested in her attempts to reconcile the issue. The farmers rarely bat an eye when Zam slipped into the building to spend the night with Pangi more often than not.

Through Pangi though, she learned one of the other farmers was Kenadian, another builder on the server who she knew was one of the few people Wato worked alongside willingly. And another one of the people Clown had tossed into their prison, though he’d worked with Wemmbu.

Ken explained that he’d been stuck in another prison after Wemmbu escaped the original. In that prison, he’d been alongside Parrot, Wifies, JumperWho, Rekrap and Derapchu, they’d escaped with Wemmbu’s help.

Zam had a feeling said help had come at the cost of Wemmbu being caught and put in the escape room with her.

He went on to explain that he’d helped Parrot and Wifies with the End Civilisation, and also learned that Egg had been with them as well. She wondered if Wemmbu knew about that, she wondered where the seraphim was now.

The farlands was a decent place to stay, and despite everything, she knew that Pangi was happy here, and there was no looming threat of invisible players invading this one. So, she felt safe.