Chapter Text
Wemmbu hates the copycat. It makes his skin crawl. The invisible knight was his. He had forged the armor, had hammered in the trims. He had chosen the shitty voice changer because of Minute, because he wanted to look more like his dad for once. The imposter made him sick. It was a shitty impersonation from some creep and it made Wemmbu want to slowly scratch his skin off so he felt clean again.
(Wemmbu was trying to do better. He couldn’t erase the red blood from his ledger, but he still tried to not add to the blood. He was being kinder, he was helping. Why couldn’t he do that in peace?
He just wanted to stop fighting. He wanted to free Egg from the End, he wanted to grieve Rejoice and the what-ifs. Wanted to finish grieving his lost songmates so he could finally move on. Wemmbu wanted the peace he’d been denied after the Mafia.
Wemmbu just wanted to rest, for once).
Egg is silent, brushing slowly through Wemmbu’s hair. Preening, Wemmbu knew, but Wemmbu didn’t have feathers so Egg messed with his hair instead. It was warm, and it always made Wemmbu feel better, Egg’s hands in his hair. It was like a blanket was wrapped around his head and his worries were replaced with little stars. It was home, it was warm. Wemmbu only felt that way among Egg and Minute nowadays. He ignored that, when he traveled with Jaden, he had felt the same way.
“You shouldn’t confront them.” Egg says, setting the brush on the table and replacing it with hands running through his hair. “They’re trying to trap you. They’re trying to figure out who you are.” Or confirm their suspicions, Egg didn’t say but Wemmbu knew.
Wemmbu had tried to act differently as the Invisible Knight. He kept his wings tight against his back, not chained but bound in a way wings shouldn’t be, tried to appear as a Enderman hybrid rather than a dragon, and he’d done quite well.
He knew the shrieks and their meanings, could mimic them near-perfectly because Endermen got their shrieks from dragons, and Wemmbu was a dragon. They weren’t so different, if you ignored the wings and horns.
“I know but-” but the Invisible Knight is mine, Wemmbu can’t say. It’s stupid. The Invisible Knight is him, not a piece of property that he owns. “I don’t like it.” He says instead.
“...You should go to Jaden.” Egg whispers, it’s quiet, hesitant in a way Wemmbu hasn’t seen from Egg in a long time.
Wemmbu gives a hum, an ask, a question. A quiet way of asking why when words aren’t enough.
“You had fun with him. Don’t deny it,” Egg says when Wemmbu begins to open his mouth. “You were happy traveling with him, you had fun, I can tell. He felt warm like I do, right?”
Wemmbu can’t deny it. “Yeah.” It’s quiet, and Wemmbu doesn’t know how to feel about it. Because Jaden had made the trap that got Rejoice killed, had watched as Wemmbu fought through wardens trying to save him, had stolen Rejoice’s elytra and- and it burned, in the deep sort of way betrayal does, but it wasn’t a betrayal because Jaden had never been Wemmbu’s ally.
“He knows your identity. He has access to nearly everything in the server, maybe he might have an idea on how to free me from the End?” Egg says, and Wemmbu knows Egg’s baiting him, knows that Egg is trying to dangle his freedom like a treat to get him away from the threat.
(Egg doesn’t show it often, but Wemmbu sees it. Wemmbu knows Egg better than he knows himself, better than he knows Gambit. Egg cannot fight, cannot protect Wemmbu from warriors, but Egg could guide him away from danger.
Egg never pushes it, never uses the knowledge that Wemmbu would do whatever he asked against him. Egg never makes Wemmbu do anything he doesn’t want to do. Egg prods, pushing slightly towards what choice he thinks Wemmbu should make, but never forces it. He offers choices, makes his own choice well known, but never tries to force Wemmbu to follow.
That’s why Wemmbu made him Song. Because Egg looked at a small hatchling covered in blood, having never had a choice without a cost, and offered him freedom. Egg had been as young as Wemmbu was, and still Egg gave him something all the Elders Wemmbu knew never offered).
“...alright.” Wemmbu gave in, just as Egg finished the braid. “But we’re changing my voice changer.”
Egg laughs softly, and pulls Wemmbu into a hug from behind. “Sure. Got anything specific in mind?”
“Surprise me.” Wemmbu says, sinking into Egg’s hug.