Chapter Text
Nacho couldn't find his mama.
This was a big problem because he needed his mama now. But she wasn't anywhere to be found.
He stood in the middle of the Polish cave with his little sign clutched in his hands, staring around at the various structures. Normally, finding Mama Katie wasn't difficult. She was loud. Very loud. You could usually locate her by following the sound of her beautiful singing or loud yelling.
But today there was no singing and no yelling.
His little hand tightened around the picture of his mama as he waddled deeper into the cave.
He found Graf and the polish tried to help him but he noticed how he went away when a message came through.
He checked behind buildings, starting to feel some nervousness but no mama.
The only thing he found was evidence that several Polish people had recently been doing something deeply concerning with redstone.
After another ten minutes of searching, Nacho came to a terrible conclusion.
Mama wasn't here. Which meant he had to expand the search radius.
(Nacho was innocent enough to go on in his personal adventure, forgetting how much the federation members were distrusted.)
The Dutch area was next. Mama liked them and he knew his uncle was Dutch. So they surely know where mama is!
Nacho spent several minutes peering into houses.
He found Dutch guys fishing and building, he also found the pink haired Brazilian friend of mama but he also didn't know where mama was.
Nacho stumbled into a room just filled with cheese and left unattended, and he spent several minutes munching on it before continuing his search for mama.
Nacho scribbled on a sign as he approached uncle's friend:
have u seen mama
The Dutch guy looked at it.
"No."
Nacho stared.
and uncle?
The Dutch guy stared.
"Also no... Eh… good luck?"
Nacho continued onward.
The Pantheon was much bigger than the previous locations.
Also significantly more intimidating.
Nacho shouldn't be there. The regime was against the federation and wanted to kill them all, but... Uncle was also here.
Nacho climbed stairs…
And more stairs.
And somehow even more stairs.
His little legs were beginning to file formal complaints when he finally reached the top.
He noticed the purple skin and the royal clothings and his heart shook.
Nacho let's put little excited noises as he runs towards him.
Uncle Ash looked down from whatever Regime thing he was doing (his work was as silly as those pictures he had hanging around. Why did he have such a mean painting of mama's Tomate?)
"...Nacho?"
Nacho immediately held up a sign.
where is mama
Ash stared.
His eye twitched.
"I dont know… Why are you alone?"
Nacho tilted his head, but gave no answer back. He was alone a lot! That's why he wanted mama!
Ash looked around, as if Katie might suddenly appear, but she didn't.
Ash pulled out his communicator but found no messages related to her or her son.
"You shouldn't be wandering around by yourself."
Nacho nodded.
Then held up another sign.
ok where mama
Ash sighed through his nose.
He was the leader of the regime. The faction fighting for their freedom and against their captors. Ash was a professional.
He absolutely did not care that Katie's kid was wandering around unsupervised.
Absolutely not.
…
"Fine."
He stood.
"I'll help you look."
ok:D
After thirty minutes of searching, Ash regretted every life decision that had led him here. Starting with his sister's bullshit.
All of his friends ignored where Katie was, and nobody could recall when did they last see her. Tina's eyes had widened when he told her they hadn't seen Katie in a while and started typing quickly in her communicator but at the end no member of the North could share any valuable information.
Ash's jaw tightened when he saw the 'hope she died' that came from Juan and made a mental note to tell Don to give him a little visit.
They were running out of places.
His mind nervously ran scenarios of his sister trapped by the Federation. Which is why, against his will, he reached the reactor as their last attempt.
Nacho bounced as they get near and tried to open the door but Ash pulled him back.
"No. You're not going in. Your mom is going to kill me if you do."
Nacho blinked, and his eyes widened as he pouted. Even though he wasn't biologically Katie's, the expression was shockingly similar.
But he wouldn't fall for that.
"No, Nacho. I said no."
He let out a little whine as he kicked his foot down.
"Absolutely not."
Nacho looked at the giant reactor door, then back at Ash, then the reactor again. When he looked back up at Ash he had a little devious smile.
Ash narrowed his eyes.
"Don't you dare-"
"FUCK."
The reactor door had opened for less than three seconds and that was all it took for his nephew to slip through the doors.
He tried opening the door but the communicator called "personal no authorised. The player 'ashswag' is forbidden from entering the reactor."
"GOD DAMN IT, MULTI!"
Ash yanked out his communicator.
ASH: We have a problem.
A response came immediately.
DON: What happened?
ASH: Your nephew.
DON: What did he do?
ASH: Reactor.
There was a long pause.
DON: Fuck.
Don arrived wearing his heavy armour and swords, his eyes flared furiously through the slits of the helmet.
"WHERE IS HE?"
"In there."
Don stared at the reactor.
Then looked at Ash.
Then back at the reactor.
"How?"
"He's four."
"That doesn't answer my question. HOW DID HE EVEN SLIP PAST YOU?!"
"I DON'T KNOW."
They spent the next several minutes attempting to pry the reactor door open.
It was not going well.
Don brought tools from the Dutch workshop and kneeled by the door trying to pry it open as Ash worked on the screen, trying to guess the password.
He heard Don mention there was just one more lock left when the door opened and both came towering down
Multi looked down at them as they got up. The green eyes glanced through the tools that had clattered on the floor and the swords on Don's back as he raised an eyebrow.
"...Seriously?"
"We need Nacho."
The scientist blinked a few times, glancing between them.
"Oh," he paused, yawning as he scratched his head. "Yeah, he's with me, he's fine. You can go now, bye."
"Give him back?"
"Eh? No, he's my son, fuck off."
Don looked away as he took a deep breath.
"Multi-" he started, only to be interrupted by the Polish.
"Nah."
"Multi-"
"Nope"
"Multi."
"He's my son! He's fine with me"
"He shouldn't be in a reactor."
"Well, I'll give you that, tak. But he's not inside of it, he knows very well he can't go inside with dada to the dangerous area. He's in the-"
"IT DOESN'T MATTER IF HE'S BY THE URANIUM OR NOT! That's not a place for a child."
"Agreed. But that's my son-"
"You don't deserve to call yourself a father."
Ash sudden spat made both pause and look at the shaking leader of the regime.
Multi's jaw tightened, his eyes shaking as those words hit him. That reality is that he felt them to a certain point; he agreed lightly with the statement but he loved Nacho far too much to bring himself to run from his obligations.
"Oh wow."
"I mean it."
"I wonder what Katie thinks about that."
While Ash scoffed a: "she definitely agrees," he wasn't quite so sure of those words.
"That's crazy, she loves me."
Don pinched the bridge of his nose, "this doesn't fucking matter."
It took them over thirty minutes to convince Multi to let them in, after they promised they wouldn't remove the egg from his care. The brothers prepared for the worst, tightening the hold on their swords, structuring what they were going to tell their sister about the fate of her son-
Only to find said son happily lickign an ice cream on a tall fluffy chair. He kicked his little legs as he watched the television (some kid show with bright colours and songs), his shirt and face dirtied with ice cream.
While the sight made them relax, they still have a work to do.
"Nach, buddy, let's get going."
The egg removed his eyes from the screen to shake his head towards them.
"Yeah, buddy, let's go."
He placed a sign in front of himself. A quick: no me stay with dada
They used all their strength to ignore Multi's smug grin.
"Kid, I know you're having fun but we have to keep-"
no :(
"Nacho, he's not fit to take care of you."
Nacho immediately pulled out a knife, dropping what he had left of his ice cream as he spam clicked towards them without hitting.
Don sighed as Ash tried to reason with his nephew, but Nacho only placed another sign
dont be mean to dada
And that was that. Ash couldn't do much more. He looked away as Don kneeled by the little egg.
"Ok, buddy, you can stay with Mul- ugh, dada, but weren't we looking for mama?"
The egg jumped, as if that knowledge had truly gotten past him.
YES MAMA!
"Ok, great -"
"Wait, you're looking for Katie?"
"Yes, that's why Nacho came here. He thought maybe she could be with you.
The smugness disappeared; he rubbed his face, suddenly pale and tired.
"...I know where she is."
Ash and Don froze as Nacho jumped up and down.
"You what?"
"I know where she is."
"WHY DIDN'T YOU START WITH THAT?"
"I DIDN'T FUCKING KNOW YOU WERE LOOKING FOR HER."
The brothers tried to ask Multi for answers, but the polish simply kept repeating 'you'll see' as he lead them across the land. They passed the polish cave then head upwards.
Ash sighed as Don kicked a tree.
On the cliff, surrounded by tulips and under the shade of a tree, sat Katie next to the cockroach-
Next to Ewron.
Just the worst possible fate for the brothers.
The entire group stared. Katie laughed at something Ewron said, and the Polish grinned, pushing his head back to smugly take in all the joy from the redhead.
The 'besties' were back.
The brothers sat slowly, looking at the far away horizon as Multi stared at his platonic partner be fucking stupid.
Nacho ran towards Katie and cuddle in her arms as she cooed at her baby; Ewron stared at the egg with some unease but slowly grinned at the redhead again.