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Theo doesn't like this.
A meeting between the two sides of this stupid war sounds great in theory, everyone talks like adults and come to a compromise that doesn't end in the death of thousands of innocence, but in reality it just means that all the biggest players in the fight are in the same place at the same time and with all the paranoia and tension directed at each other. It's a perfect opportunity for an outside entity to make a move against both sides, and it's making Theo twitchy.
"Flame, why are you even helping them?" Parrot sounds as monotone as always, and if Theo wasn't used to him, didn't hear the emphasis on them in the macaw's words, he'd almost believe the other was as unaffected as he was pretending.
His wings shift against his back, the rustling of feathers against netherite sounding loud in his ears. He almost expects the others to look at him, make a comment about the noise, but no heads even twitch in his direction.
"Honestly, I'm just here because of Lomedy." Flame leans his weight to the left, away from the man standing in the middle of the group and closer to the one on the end. His tail flicks out, sharp and snapping, a clear sign of Flame's that he's uncomfortable with everyone's attention on him suddenly.
Wait.
"Lomedy's here?"
Theo doesn't even realized he's spoken out loud until Reina hisses at him to "Lock in" under her breath and he sees Parrot's wings twitch towards them.
But no, Theo is, was? Confident that he knew all the people here, and Lomedy hadn't been in the group.
Parrot's in front and a little to the left of Theo, his wings almost scraping the ground and the color dulled from all the dust that had been kicked up in the last fight. Reina is directly to his left. Even if he didn't just hear her talk, the white ribbon tied to the end of her trident gives her away.
Wemmbu, off to the side and up on a small wall, still has his mace in his hands. Theo couldn't tell if it was Gambit or Crucible from this distance, but both of them have recognizable purple and white grips on them. Plus, the long purple hair helps in identifying him.
Flame is almost directly in front of Theo, with his stupid lion tuff tail and the fire tattoos up his arms. The blood clone to the right of Flame doesn't give much away, rocking back and forth on their feet, and since no names had been exchanged, Theo has to only assume that the person to Flame's left is Saparata from the way that Parrot has been talking to him.
Shoebilly is closer to Wemmbu (and far too close to Parrot for Theo's liking), sitting on the wall too, positioned to see if they had any backup stationed around them, like they'd do tha-
Wait, Blood clone?
He subtly looks over and yep, there's a blood clone standing beside Flame like it belongs there. Wow Reina is right, Theo really does need to lock in because how did a blood clone get so close without him realizing?
Both sides leading up to this armistice had agreed to no spies, and unless something big changed that Theo hadn't heard about, Cindercrest doesn't use blood clones in general, so one shouldn't be here.
He almost groans, just stops himself because he doesn't want to interrupt the seemingly productive conversation happening between Parrot and Saparata, and starts mentally flipping through the information he has on blood clone.
1. They're puppets, controlled remotely and filled with blood and bolts. Perfect for spy work because of their ability to impersonate someone with a visual illusion if they have some of that persons blood. Inconvenient for long term spy work because they need a constant supply of live blood from the person they are impersonating.
2. Like any clone, they have a spell line in their body connecting them with the ones actually in control. Where blood clone differ from a regular clone, is the fact they have two spell lines, and if even a fraction of one of those two remain active, they can repair and heal themselves from what should be fatal injuries.
3. These spell lines are on the brain stem and heart.
4. Theo only knows of three groups that use blood clones, two of which are currently fighting each other a few hundred thousand chucks from spawn, and the other one Theo knows very little about, only that he had helped decimate their numbers five years ago.
This is going to be so annoying, Theo knows. The amount of effort it takes to decapitated a person is so much more then people think. Theo can do it, has done it a dozen times and will probably do it a hundred more. But man is it going to be annoying after having already fought today.
He shakes out his wings, loosens his body and gets ready because he knows he'll only have one shot at this before the blood clone starts fighting back.
It's a practiced motion, getting in the air. Kick off the ground at the same time as you throw a wind burst under you. Snap your wings into a wide spread, make them big and use the wind under you to launch as high as possible. instincts trained and ingrained into Theo's body, kept in the same place as has how to swing a sword and nightmares about lake houses. Needed reminders on how to survive given to him by the same person.
Once he hits the right height, Theo stops just long enough check over the group before diving.
It happens in a second, even if it feels like a lot longer then that in the moment, too quick for anyone to react, just how it should be. One second Theo is on the ground behind Parrot, and the next, he's over a body without its head and a hole through its heart.
He shakes the gore off on his hands (putting anything through someones chest isn't a clean activity, and putting your hand through one makes for an especially messy cleanup) and looks to the rest of the group to give an explanation in the oppressive silence that has fallen.
Theo turns and is face to face with Flame, who has a hand, which is shaking Theo notes, stretched out like he was reaching for the blood clone.
"Lomedy?" Flame brokenly whispers.
Oh.
Oh.
Lomedy, with his recognizable bunny ears who was supposedly in this group, despite Theo being confident that he knew where everyone, and who everyone, was. Lomedy, who is Flame's best friend. Lomedy, who isn't even close to the strongest fighters and could have easily been overpowered by someone looking to use him as a spy.
Lomedy, who the blood clone was pretending to be.
And Theo just decapitated him in front of Flamefrags, the Immortal Demon.
Egg keeps his breath steady, deep in and deep out, like he would when sleeping (Egg knows the exact way he breaths when asleep, him and Wemmbu have practiced faking deep sleep enough for it not to be a struggle to do). He lets his head wings twitch, as if they were reacting to his dreams, and stretches out the wings on his back over the hard stone.
Stone.
That's the reason that Egg is pretending to be asleep.
When he had went to sleep, on day three of being held prisoner by Arachn1d, it was on a bed, not cold hard stone.
His wings bring nothing back to him (nothing? how nothing? his wings, the strongest sense Eggchan has, strong enough to see through any illusion and sensitive enough to feel movement hundreds of feet underground, can't pick up anything??) and Egg tries not to panic. Breath, in and out.
He's fine. He can do this without his wings. He's done it before even. It's no different then when he puts his wings away (except even then they would give at least some feedback, in the same way eyes can see shadows even when closed, and Egg could still use them if push came to shove) during covert missions.
Slowly he groans, pushing both sets of wings out in a stretch like he would when just waking up. He takes his time sitting up, putting on an act of not knowing he's somewhere else, because if there's one thing that Egg has learn from all his hostage situations, it's that you're always being watched, even when you don't you are.
"Well, look who's finally awake." The voice makes Egg jump (fuck, he really hadn't been able to tell that someone was close to him, whatever is stopping his wings from working is much stronger then Egg was expecting) harder then he meant too.
Looking over to the other side of the small room (roughly 10ft by 15ft, unblemished stone for every wall except the one directly across from Egg, that one had a barely visible rectangle carved into it.), Egg makes eye contact with a friendly, unexpected, and missed face.
"Mapicc"
Mapicc, sitting against the wall, looking paler and vaguely worse for wear, but alive and in one piece.
Mapicc, who Spoke had been looking for, for almost three months now.
Egg has a vague urge to hug the other, but before he can, he's interrupted by something moving in the corner of his vision.
Turning at a very chill and not at all panicked speed, Egg comes face to face with another person, this one also known, but in a less friendly way.
Lomedy. With his rabbit ears and dirt on his face and under his nails. Lomedy, who had helped hold Egg captive not three days ago.
"What, is going on?" Egg tries to keep his voice normal, no reason for them to know how unsettled this has made him after all, but the dry rasp of his throat makes that hard.
Mapicc holds out a cup of water that Egg takes a few sips from (there's no reason for Egg to be drugged again, if he was even drugged the first time. Water would be one of the hardest and most inconsistent ways to keep someone drugged, especially in a controlled box. Judging by the fresh water drops on the rim, the cup had already been drank out of by one of the two in the room with him. It was safe, probably.) and hands it back to him.
"You got kidnapped," Mapicc says with more levity then Egg expected out of him. And, Egg might be the first person to every be kidnapped out of a hostage situation, he's not sure if that's something to be proud of or not. "Just like the two of us." Mapicc motions between himself and the rabbit hybrid.
"Hi." Lomedy waves from his corner when he's pointed at. "I'm Lomedy, a friend of Flamefrags. We've never met, but I've heard about you from him."
Egg blinks at him, even if the rabbit can't see his eyes, he hopes the judgment comes through. "..We've met" Because, really? If you're going to lie that boldly, don't do it in front of someone that can denounce the lie. It's not like Egg's going to back him or pretend the last few days didn't happen.
"Really?" Lomedy sounded genuinely surprised, eyes wide and ears perked forward. "I'm sorry bro, I don't remember meeting you."
"You helped capture and hold me for questioning and ransom not four days ago, Lomedy."
"Huh?!"
"What?" Mapicc's exclamation sounded genuinely surprised. "That can't be true."
Egg stares at him. He knows his head wings, all but the ones covering his face, were starting to flare out, but he can bring himself to make them stop.
"He's right!" Lomedy is quick to jump to his own defense. "I've been here almost two weeks bro, I couldn't have help kidnap you."
…What?
Maybe it's stupid, but Egg believes them.
The angel turns to Lomedy, turns everything from his wings, to his eyes, to his body, towards the bunny. "Explain how you got taken."
"Uhh, I was leaving the Mist with Flame and Skrilley, someone that we'd met there, and when we stopped to rest for the night I woke up here."
"That's all? You didn't notice anything odd before hand?"
Lomedy stops to think for a moment, leg bouncing. "Cherry wood."
"Cherry wood?" Mapicc leans forward. "Like the smell of burning cherry wood?"
"Yeah, how did you-"
"I smelt it too, the night before I was taken." Mapicc taps his fingers against his knee in a one, two, three, one, two, three, pattern.
Both of them slowly turn to look at Egg, expecting looks on their faces. "I smelt something, when I was taken. But I had thought it was just something from The Caves." Had thought it was Arachn1d drugging him again, he doesn't say.
They sit in silence for a while after that revelation. After a few minutes, or maybe a few hours, Lomedy breaks it with one question.
"Why would they want to pretend to be us?"