Chapter Text
Everything had gone back to normal. After a week had passed since Mapic had been poisoned, the young demon hybrid regained all his strength as predicted. Fully back to his usual self, Minute didn’t have a reason to keep him longer here. Mapic had left with Spoke to return to their mission they were currently dealing with.
During their stay everything was louder and more chaotic. It wasn’t a surprise, after all Spoke was known to bring chaos everywhere he went. In the contrary it was a nice change. Being alone all the time did take a toll on him, even when he wouldn’t admit it. The constant chaos and the loudness were greatly appreciated. It brought change to his daily schedule which was way too repetitive.
Hearing his kids constantly talking or doing something stupid made him smile. It was a rather refreshing change and definitely improved his mood.
Sometimes he forgets that being alone all the time takes a toll on his mental health, forgetting that it wasn’t healthy staying in the never changing dimension for long periods of time, always too focused on his reason being here.
Moments like such reminded him that he was also just a person, that he needed breaks and other people. Sometimes even change. Something to break him out of his repetitive routine he adapted since moving into the end.
Minute was grateful to have five wonderful children that would make time to visit him or even drag him out of the end for some fresh air.
He will be forever thankful for them. His instincts had been less bothering him since his kids allowed him to adopt them all. For the longest time he hated his parental instincts, often hindering him and making him upset. Not being able to control his emotions was something that bothered him a lot.
But since that day his children surprised him on Father’s Day, he no longer had to worry about it. The only negative thing that came with it was his instincts demand for him to check up on all his five troublemakers, but that he didn’t mind. Somebody had to make sure those troublemakers were safe and not out committing crime by accident.
For some reason problems and danger always sought out those five. Most of the time it wasn’t even their fault. Just wrong place at the wrong time and it ended up developing into something much bigger.
With that in mind Minute made always sure that when he was around, that his kids wouldn’t have to worry about being attacked or their problems catching up. After all they deserved a break from the constant danger and to relax and not worry about anything. Minute would guarantee that when he was around that they would feel safe, that nothing could hurt them. He would do anything to ensure that, even breaking his own moral code if it meant protecting those, he considers family.
He would do anything for his children. That was his responsibility as their father.
After Spoke and Mapic had left the end, his routine returned as well as peace and quiet. He returned to patrol the end platform, checking up on the farms and the few animals that resident in the end. To be honest, Minute wasn’t sure how three cows and two chickens found their way into end, but he didn’t mind. After getting them somewhere safe temporarily, he began building them a small stable where they could live.
He had made them a custom island with a pen for the cows and the other one for the chickens, connected to the barn that the animals could enter anytime they wanted. His routine had to add to checking up on the animals and giving them some food.
The positive was that he had now more food in the end and didn’t need to live off only vegetables. Of course he didn’t overbreed them, since he found it a bit to cruel to only view them as food source and reduced to killing to only what he needed. Those poor animals already had to live in the end, without any daylight or fresh grass. The living conditions weren’t great for the animals.
With the help of Planet he managed to get some dirt and grass inside the animals’ pens, so that at least they had somewhere comfortable to stand and eat on. Since grass didn’t naturally grow in the end, Planet had to often bring him some new and fresh grass blocks to replace the old ones.
Minute felt bad taking so much time from Planet, but the alien had reassured him he didn’t mind making the trip, especially knowing he was doing it for the wellbeing of the animals. Planet also said they used that time to catch up with Minute and to spend some more time with the voidling.
In the end it wasn’t a bad arrangement. Seeing Planet made him happy and he was grateful for the company.
Still, he wonders how those animals ended up in the end. For one, he knew that they didn’t accidentally fall into the end portal, since it was deep underground. Also, since the mafia there weren’t many free walking animals around anymore. Every animal was owned by a farmer, and they were held at a barn. It was clear to him, someone had dragged the animals into the end and since they were rare and expensive to come by it wouldn’t make sense to just leave them here and never come to pick them up.
Another thing was clear and that was that the person wanted Minute to have the animals. Minute guessed that one of his troublemakers was the one who dragged the animals into the end. He didn’t know which one, but he wouldn’t be surprised if multiple were in it together. His bet was that the animals belonged to Planet and someone else had got the animals into the end.
But none of his kids would ever admit it and lie straight to his face that they had nothing to do with it. Minute will probably never know whose idea it was. If he ever did find out, he would thank them. The animals were nice companions in the endless dimension.
Minute would sometimes spend a lot of time observing the animals. There wasn’t any natural movement in the end, no wind, barely any enderman, everything was still. Hearing the sounds of the animals and the movements was nice. A change from the silence he experiences. It made him feel a little less lonely.
Some days were better and some not. It had been three years since he moved into the end, abandoning everything he had in the overworld, accepting spending a lot of time alone. On worse day he didn’t do much, only feeding the animals and replanting the crops, returning to his house afterwards to spend time in the library, a way for him to ignore how lonely it was in this dimension.
Such days were a rare case and only happened rarely. Most days he didn’t even feel lonely, always working on some little projects or just relaxing. He had picked up a new hobby during his stay, a recommendation from Egg. The angel suggested that he could begin writing stories for passing time. At first, he didn’t believe he would enjoy that but quickly learned that it was quite fun.
So yeah, some of the books in his library were written by him, mostly crime stories where a detective had to solve a crime. Whenever Egg visited, the angel requested to read the books Minute had written, sometimes even borrowing them when he hadn’t the time to read them.
It filled Minute with some sort of pride seeing the younger enjoying the stories he was writing. Mapic and Planet also began to read the books he wrote. Eventually even Spoke and Wemmbu opened his books out of curiosity. It was a lot for those two since they had zero interest in any books. For them reading made up stories was a waste of time. So, when he caught Wemmbu actually reading what he wrote, made him incredible happy. He was also sure that Spoke ‘borrowed’ one of his books and later returned it.
Today was one of his good days, when he wasn’t alone. A day he could spend with his children, getting caught up on what they were doing, spending some nice quality time together or playing some board games. After he made it clear to all five of them that he didn’t want any fighting inside his house, they began bringing board games from the overworld with them, so that had something fun to pass time. They had brought that many that it filled up an entire chest by now.
When he woke up today, he hadn’t expected any visitors. None of his kids had given him a heads-up.
He was out patrolling the end when he heard multiple people enter the end. At first, he thought the end was under attack, since most groups of people entering the end were after it. With his weapon out he approached the spawn platform, surprised seeing three of his children patiently waiting to be let out.
“What are you three doing here?”
“Oh, hey Minute!
“Hii!”
Mapic waved his hand in greeting, smile spread wide across his face. The other two besides him showed more energy, especially Spoke was bouncing from excitement. With a soft chuckle he let them out and they all headed towards their home.
Once they reached the house, they quickly put their armor away and got comfortable on the couch in the living room. Minute left to go get something to drink and some snacks from the kitchen while they get themselves comfortable.
He didn’t have much to offer, not being informed ahead of time didn’t allow him to prepare anything special. Minute gathered some leftover snacks from last time and began heating up some tea. Returning to the living room he was met with chaos, cushions from the couch spread across the room.
“How is there already a mess?” The three looked up at him before Planet and Mapic pointed at Spoke, who looked offended. “Mapic also threw a pillow and it’s also Planets fault!” The two immediately began defending themselves and blaming Spoke for the mess.
“Dad, there teaming up against me! They can’t do that!” Spoke protested as he put on the act of being upset. Minute knew him all too well to know he wasn’t actually upset and most likely the reason why the cushions were thrown around.
Minute let a sigh out when he placed down the snacks. “What do you want to drink? I have water and some tea.” Spoke let out a gasp at Minute ignoring him, he was about to say something when he was interrupted by Mapic asking for a glass of water and Planet for a cup of tea. Accepting that he lost this battle Spoke went and asked for water as well.
Once everyone had what they needed and had settled into the living room, Minute asked why they had shown up so suddenly. “Well, you see, we were nearby an end portal and realized none of us had visited you in a long time, so here we are!” Minute loved listening to Spoke explain things with such energy and expression. Spoke had a naturally lively way of speaking.
“I see. It was a nice surprise and as you all know you are always welcome here.” Minute was debating if he should ask what the three of them were up to before deciding to visit him. By the way Spoke was speaking, it was clear that the younger voidling was trying to hide something. If he had to guess those three were dealing with some trouble.
The way he knew them, it could be anything, from robbing a person to accidentally creating a cult. It was better to know and stop it before it escalated.
“So, what were you three up to. Did you three just ran into each other or?” At his question all three froze, sending panic looking at each other. Guess something more than just robbing a person.
“Uhm, we just kinda ran into each other and yeah...” Planet wasn’t a great liar, since Minute knew there was more, they were hiding. It appeared the three of them were working together to make sure he wouldn’t find out.
“Mhm…what did you do beforehand?” None of the three dared to make eye contact, suddenly more interested in the walls and the floor. What could possibly have happened to them not to say anything? In the past no matter what happened, they would tell him parts of it, followed by some half lies.
“Did you kill somebody?” That got their attention back.
“Nooo, it was Planet’s fault. Mapic and I just saved him.” Spoke immediately cracked and began telling him. Planet in an attempt to make him shut up, sprang out of his seat and went to cover Spoke’s mouth. For a moment there was chaos and a small fight happening until Spoke managed to overpower Planet, pinning them to the floor.
“Planet joined a cult and we saved him!”
What? When earlier he thought about them creating a cult, he meant it as a joke. Not for one of them joining one. At least, it didn’t seem like Planet was the leader of it.
“Sorry, what?” Minute waited for them to explain what exactly happened. There was no way he was going to just drop it. Planet had given up on pushing Spoke off, accepting that they had to tell Minute.
Mapic, who had been quietly watching, spoke up. “Planet met a stranger some time ago who led him to that weird well. I think they already told you about it.” That was true, Minute knew exactly which well they meant. The younger had mentioned it during his last visit. If Minute remembered correctly, he had told Planet not to follow strangers to strange places anymore, especially since he was sure that man was part of a cult.
“Go on.”
“So, apparently Planet went looking for that man out of boredom and did find him. But it resulted him getting held hostage by the cult and yeah.”
“Me and Mapic were in the area looking for information when we heard about the cult and went to check it out. When we realized they had Planet and tried forcing him to join, we went and saved him.” Spoke jumped in and finished the story.
Minute stayed quiet, processing their very shortened story. Firstly, he was glad that they were safe and unharmed by the looks of it. Still, he couldn’t shake off the feeling they left some important parts out. He also would have to tackle the entire thing with Planet looking for a man that was most definitely in a cult later.
“Okay, I feel like there are somethings we need to address.”
“Don’t worry, the cult has been taken care off.”
Spoke said that way too happily. The way the voidling phrased it didn’t leave much of imagination. By the way he knew the devious duo and their overprotectiveness, he was sure they took out the entire cult. Both of them weren’t afraid of violence.
How Minute managed two adopt three kids who didn’t care about killing other players was confusing, but he accepted it. Minute had his own morals and couldn’t force them on anyone else. Spoke had different reasons than Wemmbu for fighting and reluctantly killing others. Most of the time there wasn’t any option. Unstable was after all a place where you had to fight to survive, were the strong ruled and the weak struggled.
And after all, he knew that none of his children had any vile intent behind it. They were doing it to survive, to protect the ones close to them. The power they possessed wasn’t used to go to innocent villages and destroy them. He wasn’t upset nor will he ever be. Minute knew that his children had good reasons behind their actions.
“Planet, why did you go looking for that man?”
“I don’t know. I was bored and curious…”
Okay, maybe he should really have a talk with Planet and remind them not to go after a cult just because ‘you’re bored’.
Even though Planet made a stupid decision he couldn’t help smiling with the sight in front of him. Planet asked Spoke to move away, so they could go back sitting on the couch, but the voidling refused. Mapic went to help Planet but somehow was dragged to the ground as well and now Spoke lied across both of them, pinning them to the ground. They were acting like brothers.
He will have his talk about joining a cult and following strangers later. Right now, he wants to witness his children acting like siblings. There was no space for a serious talk.
For a split second he was pulled out from his thoughts when he heard someone enter the end portal. Normally he would go and check but right now he just wanted to stay where his troublemakers were. One person entering the end meant most of the time just someone passing through. No need to worry.
The sound of somebody entering the end got the others to pause and sit up properly. “Are you not going to check?” Mapic asked, finally managing to fully push Spoke away from him and getting back on the couch.
“No, I think they are just passing through. One person most likely won’t start a fight.” Mapic nodded in understanding. Planet had managed to free himself from Spoke as well and sat down beside Mapic. “Do people still attack you?” Planet turned to look at the older. “Sometimes.” Planet looked confused for a moment before mumbling something Minute didn’t understand.
“Anyway, have Wemmbu and Egg stopped by? Haven’t seen neither of them in a while.” Spoke was still sitting on the ground, leaning slightly back so his back met the couch. Both Planet and Minute shook their heads.
“Maybe those two are on some mission. Every time I saw them, they looked busy.” Planet said. They weren’t wrong. Wemmbu often was pulled into some trouble and Egg followed him everywhere. For a while now Minute figured those two had gotten into trouble, hence why hadn’t seen either of them in a while.
“I’m sure they are fine. Wemmbu can protect both of them.” Mapic said to the group reassuringly. While Egg wasn’t a fighter, Wemmbu was strong enough for both of them. There was no need to worry, or that was what Minute told himself. His instinct of course didn’t agree with him and demanded to go see the demon and the angel, but he couldn’t do that.
“True, they probably will show up one day and act as if they weren’t missing for five months.” A small chuckle escaped him. Spoke wasn’t wrong. It was a likely possibility for them to do that when they come to visit him.
Their conversation shifted over to how Planet was doing before he joined a cult. The alien had found a rare type of flower, which he was now growing in his back garden.
Suddenly the peaceful atmosphere was broken when the front door swung open, revealing a Wemmbu wearing only a diamond pants and helmet. From afar Minute was able to see the many gashes the demon had, for some he would need stitches.
“I NEED HELP DAD!”
In an instant Minute was out of his seat, joining Wemmbu by his side offering support. Wemmbu was barely able to stand, and up-close Minute saw how severe those injuries were.
Planet had stood up as well, stating they would get the medical supplies and leaving the room.
“Dad, they- I couldn’t –“ Wemmbu’s ragged breaths broke up his words. “I-I lost him.” Minute guided him to the couch, alarmed by the state he was in. Never before had he seen Wemmbu so overwhelmed with panic. The younger was clearly holding back tears. Something terrible had happened to leave him like this.
“I’m here Wemmbu. Who did you lose?”
“Egg.”
Oh no.
Only then did everyone else in the room notice the absence of the angel.