Chapter Text
Three months of planning led to this moment.
Flame felt the ground rumble under him, then he heard the TNT explode. That was his cue. He splashed the invis pot onto himself and waited for the dizzines to go away. Another TNT exploded, and he jumped into the ravine.
Three months of stealth missions and spying on The Law. Three months of sleepless nights and restless days. This had to work.
The rain poured, soaking both him and the prisoners. Another TNT exploded, closer to them. Flame scanned the crowd until he spotted Wemmbu. Luckily, the demon was closer to the back, so Flame didn't have any trouble getting to him.
Now came the tricky part. He tapped Wemmbu's arm and whispered in his ear.
' Don't move. '
Wemmbu stiffened, but didn't turn around.
' I'll splash blindness onto the crowd. Pearl out of here when your guard isn't paying attention. Run until you get to my base. '
Wemmbu gave a tiny nod as Flame snuck a pearl into his hand.
He pearled to a ledge, waiting for Parrot to use the potions on the crowd of prisoners and guards. Another TNT exploded, this time right next to the people. Then the pots were dropped. Chaos. Half of the guards let go of their prisoners to rub at their eyes. Flame waited for Wemmbu to pearl out, then followed. He took out his riptide trident and prepared to throw.
Flame glanced to Wemmbu. The demon was running like his life depended on it. His wings were slightly open. He started until he saw Wemmbu's frame flicker, then turn invisible. He let out the breath he didn't know he was holding in and threw his trident as far as he could. The rain was really irritating his skin, but he'd had worse. He kept on throwing until he got to the terraformed mesa he had once called his base. He took out his comm and checked his messages.
SpokeIsHere: exploit working wemmbu shld be there in a few mins
ParrotX2: Okay. I got out. Flame, are you there yet?
He texted:
FlameFrags: yea. i am waiting rn.
SpokeIsHere: wemmbu is pretty close to u i turned the exploit off
FlameFrags: k u fine?
SpokeIsHere: need sleep but ill be
ParrotX2: I am at the base. Theo teleported me. Take care, Flame.
Flame closed his comm, tail flicking nervously. It wasn't realy possibile to hide the worry clawing at his stomach. This could not fail. Hure, he had used to see Wemmbu like a rival, but at this point he'd even forgotten why-
Of course, he hadn't gone that far. He wasn't worried for Wemmbu.He was worried for the... rescue mission. Yep.
His thoughts were intrerrupted by a loud 'thud' behind him. He turned around just in time to see Wemmbu landing a six block fall.
' Finally, bro. ' he said, hiding his relief with annoyance. His tail gave it away, though, because it had stopped flicking. Flame shook his head, rainwater pouring out of his hair.
' Aren't you, like, freezing? ' he asked, and Wemmbu shuffled his wings and shrugged. They walked inside.
' So the pearl cannon is inside here, we just put in a pearl and it tp's us to the others. Has a smart mechanism thing, after being used twice it blows up. Ask Spoke if you wanna know more, I don't know shit about redstone. '. Flame handed Wemmbu another pearl.
Wemmbu raised an eyebrow, but took the pearl.
' Hurry, put it there- ' Flame said. Wemmbu did it, and Flame pushed the button. The pearl launched, and Wemmbu was gone. Flame followed. He pressed the button, blinked and woke up in the main room of their base. He steadied himself against a wall, his stomach twisted into a knot. He waited for the motion sickness to go away.
' Well hello there, ' he said once the black spots in his vision were gone. Theo waved.
' Wemmbu is a bit freaked out, ' Theo said, gesturing to the room Flame assumed he was in. ' His tracker doesn't work here, I'm trying to figure out how to turn it off completely. '
' Okay, bro, that's good. ' Flame grabbed a towel and half-heartedly attempted to dry his hair. His blindfold was soaking wet, but that was a later issue.
' Call us if you need anything, ' he said, heading to the door. Theo nodded.
Flame pushed the it open. Parrot, Spoke and Wemmbu were inside. Parrot was fidgeting and Spoke was glitching.
' Bro, lay the fuck down. ' he said, lightly nudging him towards the couch
' You need rest. '
Spoke flashed him a smile and sat down. Flame walked over to Wemmbu, who was sitting in a corner, wet and shaking. Asking if he was okay was pointless, he obviously wasn't. Flame just settled on giving Wemmbu the towel. The other looked at him, as if asking for permission. Flame nodded and Wemmbu went ahead and dried his hair.
' You okay? ' he asked Parrot, who was pulling at a Yin Yang necklace and staring into the void. Parrot snapped back to reality and nodded.
' Just thinking. '
' Okay '
' You know what, I'm going to go help Theo, ' Parrot said, heading to the door. Flame rolled his eyes.
Spoke laughed.
' Yeah, there goes Pa- uh, Parrot. ' he paused. ' I'm- I'm going to sleep now ' he yawned, tugging at a blanket.
' Hey, Wemmbu, wanna eat? ' Flame asked, quieter.
Wemmbu looked up and shrugged.
' When's the last time you ate? '
He shrugged again. He lifted up one finger then mouthed 'week'.
' Last… week? '
Wemmbu nodded.
' Shit, man, you okay? ' Flame said, actually looking at the demon. His ribs were visible through the wet orange shirt that was glued to his torso. His arms were skin and bone. His wings were pinned in a weird position. As far as Flame could see, not eating for a week wasn't a rare occurrence. Did they have, like, rations or something?
Wemmbu gave no answer.
' I'm going to heat up some soup, okay? ' Flame said. He walked to the fridge and took out a pot. He turned on the stove and waited. He touched the pot, feeling the slight burn. He took out four bowls and filled two to the brim.
' Can you come here and eat? ' Flame asked, and Wemmbu did. He dragged his legs towards the kitchen table, looking like a zombie. Flame pushed the bowl towards the demon, who eyed it warily. He only touched it when he saw Flame start eating. Wemmbu took a spoonful to his mouth and blowed on it. He ate a few more, his eyes widening. His wings slightly relaxed. He was eating faster and faster, until he had finished about half the bowl. Then he stared at it for a while until Flame asked if he was full. The demon nodded and got up.
Flame and Wemmbu stared at each other for about a minute, Wemmbu awkwardly sitting up and Flame (somehow more awkward) sitting down. Flame cleared his throat and asked:
' Sooooo, do you feel like, uhm, sleeping or something? We have at least a week of rest ahead of us. '
Wemmbu shrugged.
' Okay- ' he started, then got interrupted by Parrot almost breaking down the door.
' Someone fucking tell Theo that pigeons cannot be classified as fucking cute- ' he hissed, plopping down on the couch, careful not to hit Spoke.
' Dude, they totally can- ' Theo yelled, barging in after him.
' Spoke is sleeping! ' Flame whisper-yelled, stopping the two's bickering. Parrot stared at the sleeping man next to him as if that was the first time he'd ever seen him.
' Sorry, bro. You're lucky. ' Theo snarled, going back into the workshop. Flame rolled his eyes when he saw the slight smile on the cockatiel hybrid's face. He rolled his eyes again when he saw Parrot's grin. Those two were constantly bickering. Old married couple vibes.
' Anyways- ' he started again, looking at Wemmbu. The demon was leaning on a wall, his chest rising and falling really fast. His dragon wings were really tense, shut tight and glued to his back.
' Wemmbu? You okay? ' Flame tried to grab Wemmbu's wrist, but the other jerked back. He stared at Flame with something Flame didn't think he'd ever see in Wemmbu's eyes.
He started at Flame with fear in his eyes.
And for some reason that scared Flame too.
' Hey, it's okay. It's me, Flame, and there's Parrot and Spoke. And Theo. You're in the Farlands, like, literally, we're in a wall. Breathe, bro, breathe, yeah? ' Flame tried to calm Wemmbu (and himself) down. Parrot had now gotten up from the couch, but Flame signaled for him to sit back down.
Wemmbu's eyes were darting around the room and he was clutching his right wrist. His breathing had started to slow down, but his shoulders were still really tense.
' Okay, bro, just count to ten over and over again until you're chill, yeah? Was it the- uh- yelling that triggered you? '
Wemmbu let out a shaky breath and nodded. He pulled the chair with his leg, his left hand still clutching his right wrist, and sat back down. Flame looked at Parrot, who seemed equally confused.
Now, Flame had never been good at dealing with these kind of stuations. A guy like Wemmbu freaking out over a bit of yelling was a clear cause for concern. But Flame couldn't really (-didn't want to-) pinpoint the reason. Something clawed at his ribcage but he wasn't sure what exactly.
Kind of… worry?
Nah. He tolerated these people, but feeling worried for them was too much. It must have been something else.
Wemmbu was sitting on the chair, unmoving. His chest was barely rising.
' Hey, Wemmbu, can I lead you to a- uh- bedroom? You need some sleep. '
Wemmbu got up from the chair again and looked at Flame with a blank stare. Flame walked to the corridor and opened a door that led to a spare room. He quickly showed Wemmbu around, then told him to try to sleep. Wemmbu's wings were still sitting in an odd position. The dragon hybrid nodded and closed the door.
Flame went back into the main room, where he found Parrot waiting.
' What- was that? Did he have a fucking panic attack over meand Theo yelling? ' Flame sighed. Today had brought a fucking lot of information he'd have to process. Sometime.
' Dunno. It seemed like he was reliving something, like when he looked at me he was- scared? Bro, it was. So weird. I need rest. '
' Yeah, it was a long day. ' Parrot scratched his head. ' I'm still in combat clothes. '
' Me too. I guess I'll go to sleep early. See you. '
' Yeah, bro, see you. '
Flame didn't manage to sleep that night.