Chapter Text
“Your outfit is tough!”
“Thanks bro,” Egg says, glancing back at the new player. He can’t truthfully return the compliment, but they’ve been so enthusiastic that he’d feel bad otherwise. “Nice khakis.”
“Thanks!” They’re only wearing unenchanted iron and leather boots. It’s a miracle they’ve made it this far in a place such as Unstable. “I’ve never seen Netherite before. Is it rare on this server, too?”
The opening is just too good, and when you’re stranded in the End Dimension, you get excited over the little things—like spinning tall tales to the new players that come through. “Yeah, it’s rare, but like,” Egg stretches, his wings fluffing out behind him, “I’m the End Guardian, so like I kinda have the wealth of this entire dimension and beyond.”
“I thought there was another guy here?”
“I like, share my abundance with him.”
“That’s so cool! Can I get some?”
“Woah, woah. You’ve got to go through the trials and tribulations, bro. These things don’t come for free.” They’re nearing the center of the End island, Egg spots the button to open the portal. Minute put it in a horrible spot—on the ground in the middle of the pathway—but whatever. “You’ll get there eventually, bro.”
“Nah,” The chipper new player laughs, “I mean, I’d take it, but there’s nothing wrong with good ol’ diamond, right?”
Egg chooses not to comment on how the new player is dripped out in absolutely zero diamond. He just shrugs and steps on the button.
“And from what I’ve heard, Netherite players seem to just be targeted!” Egg is busy thinking about how slow Minute’s redstone is, the door to the portal not even open yet, so he’s partially tuning out whatever the new player is saying until- “Like Wemmbu!”
Egg can hear the piston door open finally, but he doesn’t look away from the new player. “What?”
“Y’know, due to the scarcity of it, I guess-”
“No, no,” The new player seems blissfully unaware of everything, almost walking past Egg and towards the portal if not for Egg snagging the back of his iron chestplate, “What about Wemmbu? He got targeted?”
“Uh-” The new player blinks. “Was he a celebrity? Actually, the news about him is pretty popular right now. I was hearing so much about it while traveling to the stronghold!”
Egg shakes his head, chest tightening. Was? “He’s my friend.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
They’ve been standing for too long that the piston door closes automatically, re-sealing the portal back to the Overworld.
It’s hard to keep track of days in the End. The journaling—at Minute’s suggestion—helps, but Egg sort of gave up on using that for its actual purpose and instead fills the pages with lore as he reminisces on his and Wemmbu’s adventures. The occasional players passing through aren’t the most reliable information-wise, so Egg usually waits until Wemmbu’s visits to update his mental calendar.
Wemmbu’s last visit marked the 25th day since he’s been stuck here. Egg has slept thrice since then. He’d just assumed that Wemmbu’s quest to find Flame was spanning multiple days, as that was what Wemmbu complained about last before disappearing back through the portal to continue his search.
“Are you saying he’s-?” Dead. Egg doesn’t want to ask it, even if that’s his first thought. Never once, in the previous 28-ish(?) days did Egg assume anything bad happened to him. All of Wemmbu’s check-ins were looking after Egg’s well-being—not Wemmbu’s—to make sure Egg didn’t accidentally trip into the void or get dropped by a traveling player. They weren’t worried about Wemmbu’s survival, out in the Overworld. Wemmbu’s recent confidence boost came so naturally alongside his newly obtained shulkers-full of Orbital Strike Cannons that Egg forgot to doubt it—he just nodded along whenever Wemmbu gave an update about how close he was to finding Flame, full of confidence that he’d leave the battle victorious. Egg never thought otherwise after seeing the damage one Stab Shot could do in the Farlands. The crater it dug reached the void.
The new player gesticulates right in Egg’s face, snapping him back to the conversation. “He just straight up vanished!”
Egg bites his tongue. “Huh?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard. But I’ve heard a lot of versions. Some people say after he fought FlameFrags, he was all, ‘OK, I’m done with you’- and then flew away, but this whole group was convinced he literally disappeared in a cloud of-”
“Wait, wait.” Egg rests his hands on the new player’s shoulders. “He fought Flame?”
“Yeah, and won.” The world feels lighter at the new player’s confirmation, even though the only thing that’s actually changed is the new player shoving a bright, happy grin in Egg’s face. “I heard they’ve been rivals for a while, is that true?”
“Yeah man.” His voice is painfully tight and embarrassingly high-pitched—Egg coughs into his fist and releases his stress in a long, strained sigh. “Yeah- you- so like, Flame didn’t kill him…?”
“No? Did I say that?”
“Well- you were making it sound like that!”
“Oh! No, he just disappeared.”
If it’s only been three days since Egg last saw Wemmbu, chances are that he’s just laying low. Or he’s genuinely a cloud of smoke now, or whatever it was this new player said. “Define ‘disappeared’.”
Almost immediately, Egg remembers why he’s only been trusting Wemmbu to give him the date. “FlameFrags said-”
“‘FlameFrags said’?” Egg looks the new player up and down again to make sure he isn’t missing anything. Scuffed leather boots, scuffed iron helmet, chestplate, and leggings. He’s holding an iron pick. “Did he inform you of this personally, bro?”
Egg is pretty sure Wemmbu, if he ever came across this player, would call him a chungy and then mace him for the free XP. It’s hard to imagine a player being chummy with someone as experienced as Flame before having ever even entered the End before.
Egg frowns. “Didn’t you also say you’ve never seen Netherite-?”
“I meant that I heard someone say that they heard FlameFrags say that he saw Wemmbu disappear, like a ghost.”
A beat passes as Egg gathers his incredulity. “So far you’ve said that he’s flown away, he’s turned into a cloud, and now you’re saying that he’s genuinely haunting the server.”
The new player only shrugs unhelpfully. “I’ve been hearing a ton of variations of how it went down. Anyhow, it’s been four days. And no one can find him.”
“So I’ve gathered,” The more he hears, the stranger it gets. Wemmbu’s better at attracting attention than avoiding it—and four days? It wouldn’t take Wemmbu that long to locate a stronghold, even if he had to sneak in. He should be back in the End by now, bragging about his victory.
The new player doesn’t seem like he’s going to be of any more help, eyes wide as he looks over his shoulder at the closed piston doors longingly, so Egg shifts his foot and steps down on the button again.
Egg hears the redstone wiring spark slowly beneath his shoe, traveling towards the boxed portal. “Thanks for telling me this,”
“My name’s Avery!”
The pistons retract the ancient debris as Egg climbs up the stairs with Avery. Minute doesn’t like leaving Egg unsupervised around the portal, which is frankly insulting, but Minute is busy building elsewhere at the moment so Egg takes the time to look down at the swirling depths he can’t enter.
Avery nudges his shoulder, “Are you gonna come with me?”
“Actually-”
“Oh right! You’re The End Guardian… so you can’t ever leave?”
Egg thinks about twenty-something days ago, pulling out an arrow from his own shoulder; Wemmbu and Minute narrowly pulling him back from the End Portal, forbidding him from going through; his spawn set 12 million blocks away from where Wemmbu would end up. He’s pretty sure Lakerek’s death message is still the last thing ever sent in his comms.
For the past twenty-something days, Egg has sat back and written books in the End. His only alternative would be to go through the portal and end up in enemy territory, completely surrounded and alone, but now Egg doesn’t know where Wemmbu is. It’s not certain that he’s coming back, and Egg can’t divine answers from the End—Wemmbu disappeared in the Overworld, ostensibly right after his fight with Flame. Whatever happened to him happened there.
“Nah,” Egg says, making up his mind. “I can leave. Probably.”
“Oh! So you’re coming with me!?”
“...I have stuff I need to do first. But have fun, though.”
Avery’s definitely never going to be seen again. After he jumps into the portal, Egg steps back as the piston door automatically shuts and walks down the path to the potion room. He’s going to need turtle master for sure—seeing as he’s about to be dropping into a room lined with explosives that are, by this point, definitely primed to explode at his arrival. Egg is willing to bet that Serpent somehow knows he set his spawn there.
Egg wants to say that he left on good terms with all the OG players, but considering that his last interaction with them was getting sniped, he’d rather not announce his arrival. He needs invis.