Chapter Text
Egg knew something was wrong when Wemmbu didn't come home.
Not because Wemmbu was particularly predictable.
Wemmbu was, in fact, one of the least predictable people Egg had ever met.
He could leave for five minutes and somehow return three hours later with a new sword, a suspicious bruise, and a story that began with the words, "Okay, technically, this isn't my fault."
He had once disappeared for an entire afternoon because he'd decided that walking home was "boring" and climbed halfway up a mountain instead.
He had forgotten meetings.
He had forgotten meals.
He had forgotten where he put his own weapons.
He had, on one memorable occasion, forgotten that he was supposed to be asleep while standing in the kitchen at two in the morning arguing with a furnace.
But he always came home.
That was the difference.
Egg sat at the kitchen table, staring at the chair across from him.
Empty.
The room was quiet.
Too quiet.
He glanced toward the clock.
Then toward the door.
Then back at the chair.
"Wemmbu."
Nothing.
Egg sighed.
"You're late."
Still nothing.
He leaned back and rubbed his face.
It wasn't unusual for Wemmbu to be late.
That was what he told himself.
It wasn't unusual.
Wemmbu had probably gotten distracted.
Maybe he'd run into someone.
Maybe he'd gone mining.
Maybe he'd gotten into another fight.
Maybe he'd decided that whatever Egg had asked him to help with was less interesting than whatever completely unnecessary problem he'd found outside.
Egg looked at the door again.
"You're going to walk in here in thirty seconds and tell me I worry too much."
Silence.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then another thirty.
Egg frowned.
He stood.
The house was familiar enough that he didn't need to think about where everything was.
Wemmbu's room was down the hall.
The door was open.
Egg stopped in the doorway.
The room looked normal.
That was almost worse.
His bed was unmade.
His armor wasn't where it normally sat.
One of his spare weapons was missing.
Egg stepped inside.
"Wemmbu?"
Nothing.
He checked the bathroom.
Empty.
The storage room.
Empty.
The balcony.
Empty.
He returned to the hallway.
For a moment, he simply stood there.
Then he noticed something.
Wemmbu's cloak was still hanging beside the door.
Egg stared at it.
He knew Wemmbu.
Better than most people did.
Wemmbu would leave half the house behind without noticing.
He would forget food.
He would forget tools.
He would forget to tell people where he was going.
But if he was going somewhere dangerous, he took his cloak.
Not because the cloak was particularly useful.
Because he liked it.
Egg reached out and touched the fabric.
Cold.
Unused.
His stomach tightened.
He took out his communicator.
No messages.
He sent one.
Where are you?
He waited.
Nothing.
Another.
You said you'd be back before dinner.
Nothing.
Egg stared at the screen.
Then typed:
Wemmbu.
He deleted it.
Typed again.
Seriously. Where are you?
Send.
Nothing.
Egg lowered the communicator.
He wasn't panicking.
Not yet.
There were explanations.
There were always explanations.
He had spent enough time around Wemmbu to know that.
Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed.
Something small.
Something he couldn't see.
He walked back into the kitchen and looked at the table.
There were two mugs.
One was his.
The other was Wemmbu's.
Untouched.
Egg's eyes narrowed.
Wemmbu had promised he'd come back for tea.
It was such a stupid detail.
Such an insignificant thing.
But somehow it bothered him more than anything else.
Egg picked up his communicator again.
This time, he didn't message Wemmbu.
He called.
The line rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then the call ended.
No answer.
Egg stared at the screen.
He called again.
Nothing.
He tried a third time.
Nothing.
The room suddenly felt much larger.
Egg stood there for several seconds before reaching for his coat.
He was going to find him.
That was all.
There was no reason to be afraid.
Wemmbu was one of the strongest fighters on the server.
He could handle himself.
He'd survived situations that should have killed him.
He'd fought people Egg wouldn't willingly stand ten meters away from.
He'd walked away from battles that left everyone else wondering how he'd managed it.
Whatever had happened, Wemmbu could handle it.
Egg repeated that thought as he stepped outside.
He repeated it while walking down the path.
He repeated it while checking the usual places.
The training grounds.
The market.
The old mining area.
The forest.
The hill overlooking the server.
Nothing.
No Wemmbu.
No messages.
No signs that he'd been there.
Egg returned to the center of the server and stopped.
He looked around.
People were moving through the streets.
Trading.
Fighting.
Building.
Laughing.
Living.
Everything looked normal.
That was the problem.
Egg walked up to Flame.
Flame looked up from what he was doing.
"Egg?"
"Have you seen Wemmbu?"
Flame frowned.
"Today?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Earlier."
Flame thought for a moment.
"No."
Egg's expression tightened.
"You sure?"
"Pretty sure."
Flame studied him.
"Why?"
"He was supposed to come home."
"How late is he?"
Egg looked at the sky.
"Late enough."
Flame's expression changed.
Not much.
Just enough.
"You think something happened?"
"I don't know."
That was the first time Egg admitted it aloud.
He didn't know.
Flame put down what he was holding.
"Where have you checked?"
Egg listed the places.
Flame listened.
"Then we'll check again."
Egg looked at him.
"You don't have to."
"I know."
Flame stood.
"I'm coming anyway."
Egg didn't argue.
They searched together.
The second search produced nothing.
The third produced less.
They asked people.
Nobody had seen Wemmbu.
They checked the roads.
Nothing.
They checked the usual fighting areas.
Nothing.
They checked the places Wemmbu went when he wanted to be alone.
Nothing.
By the time the sun had begun to sink, Egg had stopped trying to convince himself that this was normal.
Flame noticed.
"You haven't eaten."
"I'm not hungry."
"You haven't stopped walking either."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
Egg stopped.
Flame stopped too.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Egg said quietly, "He's never done this."
"I know."
"No. You don't."
Flame frowned.
Egg looked toward the horizon.
"Wemmbu disappears sometimes. But he doesn't disappear."
Flame didn't understand.
Egg swallowed.
"He always leaves something."
A message.
A weapon.
A note.
A joke.
Something.
There was always something.
This time there was nothing.
They returned home after dark.
The house felt wrong.
Egg hated it.
Wemmbu's room was still open.
His cloak was still there.
His bed was still unmade.
His mug was still sitting on the table.
Egg sat down.
Flame remained standing.
"What now?"
Egg stared at the mug.
"We find him."
"Where?"
"Everywhere."
Flame hesitated.
"And if we can't?"
Egg didn't answer.
Instead, he picked up the communicator.
He opened the server list.
Then the private messages.
Then the records of recent activity.
Nothing.
No messages.
No recent battles.
No trades.
No purchases.
No movement.
It was as though Wemmbu had simply stopped existing.
Egg's fingers tightened around the communicator.
"That's impossible."
Flame looked at him.
"What?"
Egg turned the screen toward him.
"Look."
Flame did.
Wemmbu's last recorded activity was earlier that day.
Then nothing.
No movement.
No communication.
No transaction.
Nothing.
Flame's face hardened.
"Could he have left the server?"
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because he would've told me."
That answer came instantly.
No hesitation.
Egg looked at the empty chair.
Something cold settled in his chest.
"We're going to Parrot."
Parrot was not particularly pleased to be woken up.
He was even less pleased when he saw Egg's face.
"What happened?"
"Wemmbu's missing."
Parrot's expression changed.
"What?"
"He hasn't been seen since earlier today."
"How long?"
"Most of the day."
Parrot immediately became serious.
"Who knows?"
"Flame."
"Anyone else?"
"No."
"Good."
Egg frowned.
"Why is that good?"
"Because if someone took him, we don't want whoever did it knowing we're looking yet."
Egg stared at him.
Parrot was already moving.
"We need to figure out exactly when he disappeared."
"We've tried."
"Not enough."
Parrot grabbed his equipment.
"Who saw him last?"
"We don't know."
"Then we find out."
They spent the next hour reconstructing Wemmbu's day.
It wasn't easy.
Wemmbu had a habit of moving through the server without leaving much of a trail.
Eventually, though, they found something.
A witness.
Someone who remembered seeing him.
Near the eastern road.
Alone.
Walking away from the main area.
That was all.
Egg stared at the location on the map.
"That's it?"
"Apparently."
Parrot looked toward the road.
"Did he seem injured?"
"No."
"Was anyone with him?"
"No."
"Did he look like he was in a hurry?"
"No."
Egg frowned.
"So he just walked away."
"Apparently."
Parrot's eyes narrowed.
"That's not necessarily what happened."
Egg looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"People don't vanish."
"They do if they die."
Silence.
Flame looked at Egg.
Egg didn't move.
Parrot's voice softened.
"That's not what I meant."
Egg looked away.
"I know."
But the thought had already entered the room.
Death.
He hated it.
He hated that it had become a possibility.
He hated that Wemmbu's absence was now something they had to explain.
He hated that the longer they searched, the more possibilities disappeared.
They returned to the eastern road.
The area was quiet.
Trees.
Stone.
A few scattered blocks.
Nothing unusual.
Parrot crouched near the road.
"Wait."
Egg stopped.
"What?"
Parrot pointed.
There was a mark in the dirt.
Not much.
A disturbed patch of ground.
Egg knelt.
He recognized the shape.
A boot print.
Wemmbu's.
Another print sat beside it.
Different.
Egg's stomach dropped.
Parrot noticed it too.
"Someone was with him."
Flame looked around.
"Who?"
"No idea."
They searched the surrounding area.
Another print.
Then another.
Then a broken branch.
Then a small piece of fabric caught on a bush.
Egg pulled it free.
Black.
Familiar.
His hand shook.
"Wemmbu."
Parrot's expression darkened.
They followed the trail.
It lasted less than a hundred blocks.
Then stopped.
No body.
No weapons.
No blood.
Nothing.
Just an abrupt end.
Egg stood in the middle of the road.
His mind raced.
"He fought."
Flame looked at him.
"What?"
"Someone came after him."
Parrot shook his head.
"Maybe."
Egg pointed at the ground.
"Those aren't normal footprints."
Parrot looked.
The spacing was wrong.
The marks were too deep in some places and too light in others.
A struggle.
Maybe.
Or something else.
Egg looked around.
"Wemmbu would've fought."
Flame nodded.
"Definitely."
"Then why isn't there more evidence?"
Nobody answered.
Egg looked down.
There was one final mark.
A shallow line across the dirt.
Like something heavy had been dragged.
His face went pale.
"We need to search farther."
They did.
They found nothing.
No body.
No dropped weapon.
No sign of where the trail ended.
It was as if the earth itself had swallowed him.
By midnight, Egg was exhausted.
He refused to stop.
Parrot finally forced him to sit down.
"You aren't going to find him by collapsing."
"I can't stop."
"You can."
"I can't."
Parrot crouched in front of him.
"Egg."
Egg looked at him.
Parrot's voice was quiet.
"We will find him."
Egg's eyes stung.
"He could be hurt."
"I know."
"He could be alone."
"I know."
"He could..."
Egg stopped.
He couldn't say it.
Parrot understood anyway.
"We don't know that."
Egg looked away.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Flame said, "We should check the medical stations."
Egg looked at him.
"Why?"
"If someone found him injured, they'd take him somewhere."
It was reasonable.
Logical.
Egg clung to it immediately.
"Yes."
They went.
One station.
Then another.
Then another.
No Wemmbu.
No patient matching his description.
No record.
Nothing.
At the final station, the medic frowned when they asked.
"I haven't seen him."
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
Egg stared at the records.
"Check again."
"I already did."
"Please."
The medic sighed and checked.
Nothing.
Egg's heart sank.
He thanked them.
Then turned away.
His communicator buzzed.
Egg froze.
A message.
He looked down.
Not from Wemmbu.
From Minute.
Have you found him?
Egg stared at the message.
He typed:
No.
The response came almost immediately.
I'm coming over.
Egg closed his eyes.
Minute.
Of course.
If anyone had a chance of knowing where Wemmbu might go, it was him.
They returned home.
Minute was waiting outside.
He looked exhausted.
His eyes immediately went to Egg.
"Tell me."
Egg did.
Everything.
Minute listened without interrupting.
When Egg finished, Minute was silent.
Then he asked:
"What's missing?"
Egg frowned.
"What?"
"From the house."
"Wemmbu's cloak."
"Anything else?"
Egg thought.
His eyes widened.
"His main weapon."
Minute nodded.
"Anything else?"
"Some supplies."
"Armor?"
"Some."
"Food?"
"Probably."
Minute looked toward the house.
"So he didn't leave completely unprepared."
Egg shook his head.
"No."
"That means he expected trouble."
Egg's throat tightened.
"He wouldn't go somewhere dangerous without telling me."
Minute looked at him.
"Unless he didn't choose to go."
Nobody spoke.
The sentence hung in the air.
Minute looked toward the road.
"We need to assume someone took him."
Egg nodded.
He had already known.
But hearing someone else say it made it real.
Minute continued.
"And if someone took Wemmbu..."
He paused.
"They knew what they were doing."
Far away from the server's central settlements, a door opened.
Minute's words would have been correct.
They had known exactly what they were doing.
The facility did not look like a prison.
That was intentional.
Its entrance was clean.
Its walls were reinforced stone and metal, but the corridors were brightly lit.
There were laboratories.
Offices.
Storage rooms.
Medical bays.
Workshops.
Research chambers.
Everything was organized.
Everything was labeled.
Everything had a purpose.
Most of the people working there believed they were doing important work.
Some were.
Some studied rare diseases.
Some developed medical equipment.
Some researched unusual materials.
Some worked on improving treatments for injuries caused by combat.
Some had never seen the lower levels.
Some didn't even know the lower levels existed.
That was the point.
The organization was divided carefully.
Information was compartmentalized.
People saw what they needed to see.
Nothing more.
A researcher walked down a hallway carrying a stack of documents.
He passed another researcher.
They exchanged greetings.
They talked about a new medical device.
They complained about their workload.
They laughed.
Neither looked toward the security elevator at the end of the corridor.
Neither knew what was below.
The elevator doors opened.
A different world waited beneath them.
The lighting was dimmer there.
The walls were thicker.
The doors were heavier.
And the people working there did not wear the same badges.
A security officer checked a clipboard.
"Identification?"
The person standing beside him gave a number.
The officer checked it.
"Approved."
The doors opened.
Inside was a room with a single table.
A monitor displayed a file.
A photograph appeared on the screen.
Wemmbu.
The photograph was recent.
Very recent.
The person standing in the room looked at it.
"He's awake?"
"Not anymore."
"Good."
A pause.
"Any injuries?"
"Nothing significant."
"Resistance?"
"Extreme."
The person looked at the file.
"Expected."
Another screen displayed information.
Species: Unknown.
Classification: Unknown.
Threat level: High.
The person frowned.
"Still no classification?"
"No."
"Not Ender Dragon?"
"Negative."
"Demon?"
"Unconfirmed."
"Void entity?"
A pause.
"Possibly."
The person leaned closer.
"Interesting."
They turned the screen off.
"Begin preliminary containment."
Egg did not sleep.
Nobody did.
They searched until sunrise.
The first light of morning turned the server pale.
Egg stood on the roof of his house, staring toward the horizon.
Flame stood nearby.
Parrot had gone to speak with others.
Minute was inside.
For the first time since Wemmbu disappeared, Egg allowed himself to stop moving.
His hands were shaking.
He looked down at them.
Then closed them into fists.
"Wemmbu."
He whispered the name.
Nothing answered.
Egg looked toward the eastern road.
He had a terrible feeling.
Not fear.
Not exactly.
Something worse.
Recognition.
The evidence didn't make sense.
There should have been something.
A body.
A weapon.
A trail.
Anything.
Instead there was nothing.
That meant someone had cleaned it up.
Someone organized.
Someone capable.
Someone who knew exactly what they were doing.
Egg's communicator buzzed.
Parrot.
Come downstairs. We found something.
Egg's heart stopped.
He ran.
Flame followed.
Minute was already waiting.
Parrot stood beside the table.
There was a small object sitting in the center.
Egg recognized it instantly.
Wemmbu's communicator.
Cracked.
Broken.
Dead.
Egg stared at it.
"No."
Parrot looked at him.
"We found it near the road."
Egg stepped closer.
"No."
"Egg..."
"No."
He picked it up.
The screen was shattered.
There was a dark mark across the casing.
Egg's breathing became uneven.
"Where?"
"The eastern road."
"That's not possible."
"We checked the surrounding area."
"Then check again."
"We did."
"Check again."
"Egg."
"CHECK AGAIN."
The room went silent.
Egg looked down at the communicator.
He knew that communicator.
He had bought it.
He had watched Wemmbu complain about it.
He had repaired it twice.
He knew every scratch.
Every dent.
Every stupid sticker Wemmbu had put on it.
And now it was broken.
Empty.
No signal.
No response.
Nothing.
Minute slowly reached for Egg's shoulder.
Egg flinched.
"Don't."
Minute stopped.
Egg's eyes remained fixed on the communicator.
His voice was barely audible.
"He's alive."
Nobody answered.
Egg looked up.
"He's alive."
Parrot's expression softened.
"We don't know that."
Egg's jaw tightened.
"He is."
"Egg."
"He is."
Flame looked toward Parrot.
Neither of them argued.
Minute did.
Not because he believed Egg was wrong.
Because he knew Egg needed to hear it.
"We're going to find him."
Egg looked at him.
Minute held his gaze.
"We're going to find him."
Egg swallowed.
Then nodded.
He didn't believe himself anymore.
But he believed Minute.
That was enough.
For now.
Three hours later, the search expanded.
People were sent in every direction.
Messages spread quietly.
Nobody announced Wemmbu's disappearance publicly.
Not yet.
Parrot insisted.
If this really was a kidnapping, whoever had taken him needed to believe they had time.
Egg hated the logic.
But it was good logic.
They checked roads.
Buildings.
Mines.
Battlefields.
Abandoned structures.
Nothing.
Then Flame found something.
A trail.
Not a footprint.
Not blood.
A piece of metal.
Small.
Almost invisible.
It was embedded in the dirt several meters from where they had found Wemmbu's communicator.
Egg picked it up.
He didn't recognize it.
Parrot did.
His face changed.
"What?"
Parrot stared at the metal.
"That's not from the server."
Egg frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"I've seen equipment like this before."
"Where?"
Parrot didn't answer immediately.
He turned the fragment over.
There was a symbol engraved into it.
A circle.
Three lines through the center.
Egg stared.
"Do you know that symbol?"
Parrot nodded slowly.
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Old research facilities."
Egg's heart sank.
"Whose?"
Parrot looked at him.
"I don't know."
That answer wasn't convincing.
Egg knew Parrot well enough to recognize it.
"You do know."
Parrot looked away.
"Not enough."
"Parrot."
"I said I don't know enough."
Egg stepped closer.
"What is it?"
Parrot finally met his eyes.
"A long time ago, there were rumors about an organization that studied rare species."
Egg went still.
"What kind of studies?"
"Medical research. Biological research. Hybrid studies."
Egg looked at the symbol.
"Why would they take Wemmbu?"
Parrot's expression darkened.
"Because he's rare."
Flame spoke quietly.
"He's also powerful."
"Exactly."
Egg's stomach turned.
"You're saying they took him because of what he is?"
Parrot shook his head.
"I'm saying we don't know why they took him."
He looked down at the symbol.
"But if this is what I think it is..."
He paused.
"They may not have taken him to kill him."
Egg's eyes widened.
"Then what?"
Parrot didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Egg understood.
Someone had taken Wemmbu.
Someone had known exactly where he would be.
Someone had left almost no trace.
Someone had broken his communicator.
And now they had found a symbol connected to an organization that studied rare species.
Egg stared at the fragment in Parrot's hand.
For the first time, the possibility entered his mind that this wasn't an isolated attack.
That Wemmbu wasn't the first.
That maybe he wasn't even the first person to disappear.
And somewhere, far beneath the ground, a machine quietly began recording its first measurements.
The room was cold.
Wemmbu was not moving.
A monitor beeped steadily beside him.
A researcher entered.
"Vitals stable."
Another person looked at the screen.
"Good."
"Do we begin?"
"Not yet."
"Why?"
The answer came after a moment.
"Because we don't know what he is."
The researcher looked toward the containment chamber.
Behind the reinforced glass, the unconscious figure lay completely still.
"That's why we're here."
"No."
The older scientist shook his head.
"That's why we're careful."
He looked at the file.
The classification remained blank.
Unknown.
Unknown.
Unknown.
Every test so far had returned results that didn't fit anything in their database.
The scientist smiled faintly.
"Let's find out."
Egg stood alone in Wemmbu's room that night.
He hadn't moved anything.
He couldn't.
The bed was still unmade.
The cloak was still hanging beside the door.
The room looked exactly as it had when he'd first realized Wemmbu was missing.
Except now there was a terrible certainty sitting in the silence.
Egg walked to the desk.
There was a small piece of paper there.
He hadn't noticed it before.
He picked it up.
It was a list.
Nothing important.
Supplies.
Food.
A few things Wemmbu had apparently intended to buy.
At the bottom was a single line.
Ask Egg about the thing tomorrow.
Egg stared at it.
Tomorrow.
Wemmbu had expected to come home.
He had expected there to be a tomorrow.
Egg sat on the edge of the bed.
His hands tightened around the paper.
"You're coming back."
His voice cracked.
He looked toward the empty doorway.
"You have to."
Silence.
Egg lowered his head.
Outside, the server continued as normal.
People slept.
People fought.
People laughed.
People lived.
And somewhere far away, behind walls nobody knew existed, Wemmbu was alive.
For now.
But Egg didn't know that.
All he knew was that his best friend had vanished.
His communicator had been found broken.
A strange symbol had been discovered near the scene.
And someone had apparently wanted Wemmbu badly enough to take him without leaving a trace.
Egg looked at the empty room one last time.
Then he stood.
Tomorrow, they would search again.
Tomorrow, they would find answers.
Tomorrow, he would bring Wemmbu home.
He had no idea that, somewhere beneath the earth, someone had already begun taking notes on exactly how long it would take to break him.