Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

POV: Tubbo

 In the middle of a spruce forest, lay a small town, named ‘Essempii’, and growing up there, there weren't many people for you to meet.

  The forest around the town had many rumors surrounding it… which I guess made the town itself have those rumors around it, a mysterious place.

  A good portion of the forest had been mapped out already, but there was always more left unexplored, and two young boys had ventured into it often as they grew up, seeking adventure.

  Tubbo Underscore, a shulker hybrid, and at this time having not reached teenage years yet, alongside his best friend, Tommy Craft, or as he liked to call himself, “Tommy Innit”, or “Tommy Innit Craft”, had wandered into the dark forest one night.

  Tommy was too curious to think about the dangers, while Tubbo couldn't convince him how stupid it was to go in unprepared and therefore not go in at all, because of what was previously mentioned, he made sure to try to do his best to keep them both safe.

Besides, Phil would probably kill him if Tommy got hurt.

  Well, he probably wouldn’t, but he’d be upset, Phil was kind of like a father figure to most people in Essempii, so he doubted Phil would actually hurt him, that being said, he was like 90% sure he wouldn’t unless he committed some sort of crime or had murdered Tommy himself.

Which he had no good reason to do.

They were going to come out of this forest, alive, unscathed, perhaps scolded by the adults of the town but they’d be fine.

  “C’mon Tubbo! Who knows what secrets may lie within this forest.” Tommy shouted from way ahead of him, as Tubbo pushed some branches away from his face, then hurrying to catch up with him before the guy found some sort of dangerous cave to recklessly explore, or something like that.

  “Yeah yeah, I'm hurrying. Just watch where you’re going.” He said, catching up to Tommy and grabbing his hood, pulling him back from the pond he was about to fall into.

“I- I saw that there, I knew what I was doing.” Tommy insisted, “I was gonna say hi to the fishes!”

“What fish?”

“The fish in the pond!” Tommy exclaimed, pointing at the pond and looking at the shulker hybrid.

Tubbo glanced at the pond.

“It’s empty.” He deadpanned.

Tommy looked down.

“I knew that! I was talking about the totally existent fish in the pond!” He said, putting his hands on his hips. Stubborn as ever.

  “Okay, sure then. Well, let’s keep going, don’t want to leave the mysteries of this forest waiting!” Tubbo shouted, breaking into a running pace as he sprinted ahead of Tommy.

  Tommy immediately started sprinting after him, catching up quickly. As Tommy ran ahead of him, he stopped and hopped on top of a rock, surveying the land around them.

“This little clearing is nice. Hey Tubbo, what do you say we claim this area as our own little secret hangout spot?” Tommy asked.

“It's nice, could use a treehouse or something though if it’s gonna be our secret hideaway. And Bees. Lots of Bees. and flowers.”

“Hmm… yes, yes, treehouse and flowers, we can do that! Easy as pie.”

“Oh! And can we invite Ranboo?”

“...I’ll consider it.”

 Now, the two stood in the same places years later, both 17, alongside Ranboo, the friendly neighborhood enderman hybrid, of the same age, who Tommy always complained about, saying something along the lines of “Ranboo is a bitch”, but despite this Tubbo had seen Tommy give the hybrid some allium flower seeds once, when guy had been looking for them for awhile. It wasn’t even a holiday yet, either.

  Tommy was rambling about something, standing up on the rock while Ranboo was weaving a flower crown of alliums, sitting on the bench the three had dragged out here, sitting beside Tubbo and he himself had mostly spaced out, his gaze on a bee that was hovering by the garden of flowers the three had first planted together a year or so ago, and had been able to keep the plants alive almost all season long.

Of course they still died in the winter, and the trio had to replant their garden.

  He was only half listening to Tommy’s conversation, Ranboo looking up and adding something every so often, and after a while Tubbo finally took his eyes off the bee and looked in the direction of the human speaking loudly about things.

His eyes caught movement in the bushes behind Tommy.

  He immediately sat up, shoulders raised and eyes darting, searching for whatever it was. Ranboo looked up from beside him, sensing his sudden wariness and looked behind Tommy as well.

  He could’ve sworn he saw something behind him for a split second, some kind of figure, something shadowy….. Maybe something green.. Or was that white?

And then all of a sudden Tommy tripped on seemingly nothing and fell backwards into the bushes behind them.

  “Tommy!” Both him and Ranboo shouted at once, leaping upward and rushing to where Tommy had previously stood, pushing aside the bushes and looking down the hill behind it, looking down…

…To where Tommy had landed face-first in a puddle of mud.

Tubbo let out a giggle at the sight, while Ranboo just sighed slightly, moving to slide down the hill, the shulker hybrid joining him a heartbeat later.

“You good Tommy?” Tubbo asked, one hand raised to slightly cover his mouth in case he were to start laughing.

Tommy raised one hand upwards in a thumbs up, before lifting his head a few moments later. “All good, Tubso.” He stated.

  “Are you sure you’re alright? You did just fall all the way down that hill- and it wasn’t a very short drop.” Ranboo stated worriedly, bending over slightly to survey Tommy’s body and check for any injuries.

  “I said I'm fine, Ranboob. Big man Tommy Innit would never get hurt from such a tiny fall.” Tommy said, pushing himself up in a sitting position before promptly shaking his head rapidly, sending mud splatters all around him, although most hit Ranboo, seeing the enderman hybrid yelp in surprise and attempt to shield himself from the droplets.

  “Shit, I think I got some of it in my mouth.” Tommy said, standing up. “Well that's just fucking great, I'm all covered in mud now. Phil’s gonna be pissed.” He looked around, brushing off most of the mud. “How come we’ve never explored around here?” He asked. “Dunno, probably didn’t explore more after the time you nearly fell off a fucking cliff whilst exploring and Phil scolded you a ton.” Tubbo said, looking around as well.

“Hey! I didn't nearly fall off a fucking cliff! I was going to fucking stop, I knew it was there!” Tommy insisted.

“Uh-huh.”

“Ughh… whatever, I’m gonna explore around here whether you two like it or not.” Tommy said, turning around on his heel and marching forward.

“Hey! Don’t go adventuring without me!” Tubbo shouted, running to catch up with him.

“Or me! Don’t forget me!” Ranboo smiled, appearing at their side in a flurry of purple particles. Enderman teleportation stuff.

  “Yep, totally not leaving you two behind, unless you slow me down. Let’s go!” Tommy yelled, leaving no time for them to react, pushing the branches in front of him aside, then letting out a gasp.

The trio stared at the area now exposed in front of them in awe.

  It was a giant building that laid in the clearing in front of them, broken down and overgrown, casting shadows all around the forest. It was eerie, and dark, like one of those creepy haunted houses. It seemed pretty haunted, or like a long-abandoned crime scene.

“Woah! This is poggers! A whole abandoned building? I’m gonna go explore it.” Tommy said, only to be pulled back by Tubbo. “That’s an idiotic idea. We have no idea what’s in there or any dangers.”

“Tubbo has a point.” Ranboo remarked from behind them.

“He ALWAYS has a point!” Tommy whined.

“TOMMY!” a voice suddenly echoed through the forest.

All three of the trio turned their heads, recognizing the voice.

“Wilbur.” Tommy groaned.

“Tommy! Where are you! Phil says it’s time for dinner! Tubbo, Ranboo, I know you’re out there too!”
  “WE’RE COMING WILBUR, JEEZ. No need to shout for the whole goddamn forest to hear you!”
Tommy shouted back.

  “Uh-huh, Well hurry up before your food gets cold! Cause it sure ain’t getting warmer. And you better be thankful I so kindly decided to let you know before it froze, you gremlin child.” Wilbur shouted back.
“You’re the gremlin!” Tommy yelled, climbing back up the hill and rushing off into the forest towards the sound of his brother's voice.

  Ranboo sighed. “Well, sounds like we’d better head back then. See you in town, ‘bo!” Ranboo waved at him before disappearing, purple particles appearing where he previously stood before disappearing as well.

Tubbo stood there, then alone, and turned his head to glance at the building.

Something… bothered him about this place. He didn’t know what it was, he just knew one thing.

This place reeked of danger, shadows hidden all over where who knows what secrets could be hiding.

  These supposed mysteries he figured could remain unsolved, for now. So he turned back for now, cause he didn’t want to eat cold food, hurrying off into the forest, away from the undeniable enigma laying there in the forest behind him, that one day, he figured he’d check out.

He paused for a moment, looking back.

Was there a figure there in the window?

He blinked.

There was nothing there.

He was probably just hallucinating it, or something.

Chapter Text

POV: Tommy

  Tommy hopped through the town, Tubbo and Ranboo trailing behind him, with Wilbur walking ahead of them some of the time, he and Tommy fighting to be in the lead as they headed back to their home, and as they reached it, Tommy threw open the door, making his grand entrance.

“Hello, boys! The big man has arrived.” Tommy exclaimed, almost simultaneously as Wilbur spoke, “The gremlin child has arrived.”

“What?! I'm not a child! I'm a big man! Nor a gremlin.” Tommy shot back, sending the phantom hybrid a glare.

“Sure, child.” The brunette grinned, ducking out of the way and going intangible as Tommy swiped at him. “You bitch!” The blonde shouted.

  Across the room, standing in the kitchen Phil let out a sigh, muttering something like “chaotic shits”, while Techno was sitting down in the living room reading a book. Probably Sun Tzu or something, Tommy assumed. The piglin’s ear flicked, and there was an amused expression on his face.
 
  Phil looked over them from across the room, the avian letting out a gasp seeing Tommy slightly covered in mud. That being said, most of it had dried by now.

“Where have you three been?” He asked, as Wilbur just barely continued to dodge Tommy’s attempts to attack him, until Tommy was able to smear a bit of mud on his sweater. “Oh ew, have you been rummaging through the trash or something, raccoon?” The phantom hybrid teased, attempting to brush the undried mud off his yellow sweater before it did dry. Unsuccessful attempts, they were. He only smeared it more. The phantom hybrid grunted at the sight of his muddy sweater.

“That’s what you get for calling me a child.” Tommy said, partially ignoring what Phil had asked.

“It’s true tho.” The brunette said.

“How dare you!” Tommy shouted.

 “Phil, for your information we found this cool thing out in the forest. Oh, and Tommy fell into a mud puddle. We found the thing after that.” Tubbo stated.

The crow avian let out a sigh, as Techno looked up from his book. “What, did you uncover some kind of ancient ruins or something?”

“Actually, yes, maybe?? But its more like we found it.” Ranboo chimed in.

“Well, it was pretty overgrown. Seemed pretty ancient to me. But probably not what you’re thinking of.” Tubbo said. “Not really something historical, probably just some old abandoned building from some years ago or something.”

“It kind of reminded me of some kind of old lab or something.” The enderman hybrid beside him pondered.

“An abandoned lab? In the forest? Wait, I think I've heard something about that before- Techno, what was that legend you once told me about the forest?” Wilbur looked over at the piglin hybrid.

Techno closed his book, turning his gaze to the others standing in the room.

“Well, I don’t remember the exact words of the story, but it went something like this:

 There was another town, nearby here, where a different sort of civilization lived. People were generally more greedy or didn’t care what they had to do to get information on things that seemed mysterious or weird to them, that included all sorts of experimentations, resulting in many scientists living there.

 One day, one scientist–they say was one of the cruelest ones– did something that resulted in him meeting his fate, or so they say. After this incident, things started to go terribly wrong in the village, and eventually the town was abandoned, left in ruins.

 Nobody really knew what happened to the previously mentioned scientist, some stories say he was cursed with immortality, or that he still lived, some say he died, or was corrupted, maybe a bit of all of that, depending on who you ask.

But all stories had one thing the same:

Nobody knew his true name, but they all called him by a nickname, given to him by his own test subjects:

Exdee

 That’s about all I know about the story. If you wanna know more, go ask Dream or something, pretty sure he knows something about it.”The piglin shrugged, looking up at the audience listening intently to his story.

“That doesn’t sound like a very happy story.” Ranboo said, his long ears lowering.

 “Well yea, no duh. Sounds like one of those hybrid experimentation stories.” Tommy added, shivering at the thought of them, then noticing Tubbo’s odd expression after the mention of this “Exdee” guy perhaps still being alive.

“You good, Tubs?” He asked, totally not worried at all.

Tubbo blinked, then looked up at him. “Yea, yea, just had a thought.” He brushed it off almost too quickly.

“Hmm… alright, if you say so.” Tommy shrugged, still totally not worried, though unable to interpret the emotions he had seen.

“No need to be concerned over anything, it’s just a legend, right Techno?” Phil glanced at the piglin as he picked back up his book.

“Nobody knows.” Techno said ominously.

“Wow, that’s not very reassuring.” Ranboo said, his tail flicking behind him nervously as he chuckled, presumably trying to laugh it off.

 “Eh, who knows, might just be a story to scare kids or something. But who knows.” Wilbur said, materializing next to Tommy, who jumped as the phantom appeared. “Oh, did I scare you?” He grinned smugly, glancing at the blonde. “No way! I was not scared.” He hadn’t been scared at all, Just surprised at his sudden appearance.

“Mhm. Sure.” The phantom hybrid looked down at the human, doubt shining in his golden-brown eyes as he smirked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Tommy shrieked.

“Nothing, Tommy.” The phantom hybrid sang with glee.

~~~~~~~~~~

(The next morning)

POV: Niki

  There was a small bakery, or diner, depending on who you asked, in the town of Essempii.  It was generally a Cafe, run mainly by Fundy, Niki and Puffy, but also Wilbur, and was called "L'manberg''. 

  Originally Wilbur was the one who came up with the idea of it, and was the owner for a little bit before he decided to transfer ownership to someone else, and held some sort of election-type thing for ownership.

  After a while, with the ownership getting tossed around a bit, and an incident with a ram hybrid, Fundy and Niki ended up taking over as the final new owners of the cafe, later joined by Puffy when she arrived in town, a sheep hybrid who was close friends with Niki. She had helped with fixing up the cafe, after a certain incident, as well as with decoration, alongside a few others.

 Niki opened the blinds of the shop, letting light splash onto the tiles around her, and turned the open and closed sign on the door around, opening the shop for the day as Fundy let out a yawn from the cashier spot, his fox ears flicking as he blinked to adjust his eyes to the morning light. He had dark bags under his eyes.

"Did you have a nightmare again?" She questioned. Fundy nodded. "Yeah. No big deal though."

Niki nodded, still worried of course, but went back to what she was doing.

 It was a beautiful day outside, and Niki could see some people start to emerge from their homes, starting the day and heading to work.

 She watched as the windows started to fog up, and opened one of them, letting the humid morning air leak into the room, thankful for the moisture in the air, as her species did not like the dryness the sunlight brought.

 She was part merling, specifically a hybrid of an angelfish and axolotl merling. Thanks to the axolotl counterpart, she was able to walk and breath on land. Didn’t mean she didn’t need extra water every so often to live, though.

 Axolotls were predators, so were angelfish, but angelfish specifically were able to hide easily, especially among lush, forests of plants, and much like them she was too, able to slip away silently whenever she got into a fight–that being said, it was rare for that to happen, she was always kind to everyone, unless they had hurt one of her friends. 

The last time she had met someone like that was almost a year ago, a ram hybrid named Schlatt–but he died from a heart attack months ago.

 She didn't really use her skill to get away much either when in fights–when someone had hurt someone she cared for, she made sure that they wouldn't do it again. Angelfish were ambush predators, after all. 

 She pushed some hair out of her face, two strands of black and white among her pink and green hair, as a sign of her being part angelfish, as well as feathery gills behind her ears for being part axolotl. 

She looked over as the glass door opened, the bell above it chiming as Jack trotted in.

 Jack was a rare species called a “weather wisp”, who pretty much had control over certain weather things- in Jack’s case, he had control over lightning or thunder–but not like, he could strike someone with lightning, it was more like he could control electricity, and their bodies were sort of like clouds, except a bit more solid. So, he was sort of like a walking thunder cloud.

Niki didn’t know all the details of how weather wisp biology worked, she only knew the basics of it.

  
“Ayup.” Jack greeted.

“Morning, Jack.” Niki said, as Fundy’s ear twitched and he waved at Jack. “Hi.”

“Any customers yet? I know it’s pretty early in the day, but you never know, people come here a lot.” Jack grinned, walking over and leaning on the counter, Fundy sending him a look, glaring at the freshly cleaned counter.

“Yea, it is pretty early in the day, no one's come here yet. Plus, they might be busy.” The fox flicked his tail, narrowing his eyes at the weather wisp.

“Well, fair, I’m gonna go get ready for the job then. The Jack Manifold grind never stops, y'know?” The wisp stepped behind Fundy, pushing open the door marked “Employees only”.

  “I should probably do that too. The garden still needs to be watered.” Niki went over to a glass double door on the other side of the room from where she stood, one that went out back behind the building, to where the phantom hybrid who built this place had planted a small garden with one of his brothers, the garden that was taken care of by a couple different people, regulars at the cafe known as “L’manberg”.

“Alright, have fun, and don’t dry up in the sun.” Fundy joked.

  “I won’t.” She joked back, adjusting the special veil over her face that stopped the sun’s rays from drying the mix of skin and freckled scales that made up her face, before turning the door handle and stepping out into the humid daylight.

In the past, merlings had been only underwater beings, unable to breathe above water--but eventually, over many years, they evolved enough to wear they could breath above water, but still needed plenty of water to keep themselves healthy--severe amounts more than most species. It was also important that they swim a bit or are underwater for a few hours, at least every few days--though, usually it was every other day.

But due to them mostly being an underwater species, they still had some weaknesses--one of them being the sun. While it didn't straight up start burning then like it did for phantoms, who were forced to either cover all exposed skin or carry around a parasol, merlings only needed to wear a special veil to protect their scales and slow down the sun rays from drying them out--as well as things like lotion for the rest of their body.

Niki picked up the watering can sitting on a box next to the door, walking over to the side of the building and turning on the hose, setting it inside the can and letting it fill up, briefly brushing her fingers through the running water while she waited for it to cool. The moisture felt nice, which made sense, as it was her nature to be in water most of the time.

  The main reason her species were able to walk around in the daylight safely for so long was thanks to a special material discovered years ago, as well as a bit of technology, to create a fabric that protected the wearer from the sun’s rays better than any other fabric. It was especially worn by Merlings, especially in red or blue, as they were colors said to protect them better from the sun’s more harmful ultraviolet rays.

 Suddenly, she heard a rustling noise in one of the bushes on the edge of the tile patio the garden was on top of, and her head snapped towards the noise and movement, and as she focused, she swore she could hear someone–maybe two people–mumbling, or maybe whisper fighting.

She let out an exasperated sigh.

“Tommy, Tubbo, I know you're there.” Niki spoke out loudly, her voice ringing around the small clearing, to make sure they could hear her.

The leafy plant froze for a couple of heartbeats, before a pair of hands reached out and pulled the branches away, the duo stepping out from their hiding place, picking leaves out of their hair.

“How’d you figure us out?!” Tommy said without delay.

“Your whisper-fighting was quite noisy, I might have to teach you some lessons in stealth.” She smiled.

“ We weren’t that loud– wait. You will?” A bit of excitement suddenly sparked in the teen’s eyes, and beside him Tubbo’s long ears and antennae perked up.

“Yes, I’ll plan a day when I can teach you two once you stop sneaking up on me when I'm watering L’manberg’s garden.” She said.

“Well, we’re allowed in here, we can do what we want.” Tommy stated stubbornly, putting his hands on his hips and looking away in defiance.

“Well, to be fair, we shouldn’t have been sneaking in the first place. Even if we are allowed here.” Tubbo pointed out, sending the blonde a glare.

“I- well-.”

“Stop being so stubborn and just admit it.” Tubbo elbowed the teen, who let out a small yelp, rubbing his side.

“Alright, fine, jeez. I’m sorry for sneaking around the garden.” Tommy said, although he didn’t really sound very sorry, Niki knew she probably wouldn’t get a better apology. She chuckled.

“I am too.” Tubbo said, going fully into the bit and acting very emotional and dramatic, like he was so guilty that he was about to cry. “ N-E ways, where are the bees?” The shulker hybrid demanded eagerly, his mood entirely different than how it was a few heartbeats ago.

“Hmm, probably over by the patch of flowers over by L’mantree.” Niki pondered the question for a moment, and after a considering pause, she added, “Or by any other of the flower pots or beds.”

 The shulker hybrids eyes darted over to the large tree at the end of the patio, with a sign hanging off the branch, with writing saying “L’mantree” on it. It had flowers all around it, bees hovering over the flowers as they gathered pollen, and the flag-like fabric flowing in the wind from where it was tied onto the same branch as the sign was hung on.

“ Woo! BEES!” Tubbo rushed over quickly, his antennae twitching, slowing down before reaching the flowers, before sitting down as some bees floated over to him. He was here often, and played with the bees a lot, and at this point they seemed to have grown used to him. One bee flew over and floated near one of his antennae, earning a giggle from Tubbo. Perhaps the bees liked his antennae cause they reminded them of eachother, Niki thought.

The two he left behind watched as he ran over, then looked at each other.

“So, Tommy, what’d you come here for? Cause I'm guessing you didn’t come just to visit the bees.” Niki asked, picking up the watering can as it was finished filling, and turning off the hose.

“Well… Me and Tubbo used to sing to the crops. Wilbur said it made them grow faster.”

  She smiled at them. “Well, go ahead, I'm sure they’ll like that. The soil will be appeased, as Wilbur would probably say.”

“Tubbo!” Tommy called to the shulker hybrid, who looked up from where he was seemingly playing with a spinning bee.

“Yea?”

“It’s sing time!”

“Give me a second. Bye Spins.” Tubbo stood up and followed Tommy as he went over to a random flower bed. “Oh, what if we sing that song Wilbur made? The cover? I think it was of like. Hallelujah or something.”

“Yea! That one!”

 Niki smiled as their singing echoed throughout the garden, and she hummed along to the tune as she watered the different flowers and vegetables, feeling at peace in the moment.

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Ranboo

Elsewhere….

 Ranboo paced through the forest, clutching his memory book and holding it close to his chest. He took it everywhere.

 It was early in the morning, and he’d needed to water his allium garden. Tommy and Tubbo had gone off to the L’manberg’s garden, and so he was alone this time.

His tail flicked as he pushed some branches aside, revealing the clearing that was the trio’s hangout spot.

 He walked over to his small garden, the puffy purple flowers waving in the wind beneath the treetops, and he set down the watering can he was carrying.

Enderman couldn’t really touch water, so he had to wear gardening gloves and all other kinds of water-proof things for this. His gardening things were in a box in the treehouse, and he had already been wearing waterproof gloves.

 He turned, and began to walk to the ladder up to the colorful spruce tree house Tubbo, Tommy and Ranboo had built almost entirely on their own, and it was painted in the colors of the trio: Red, green, and purple.

 Although, Tommy’s family eventually found out about their hangout spot, before they had finished the tree house, and there was the whole issue of getting wood to build it, as well as paint and building it, so of course they had ended up getting help from them, and plenty of other people in Essempii. Especially Foolish.

 Ranboo’s skin itched from the humid air and the moisture within it, and his ear twitched, as he heard a noise behind him.

He spun on his heel, tail waving wildly behind him, as he turned to where the noise had come from.

He didn’t see anything.

 After a moment of staring in the direction he had heard the noise warily, he finally let out a sigh and turned back around, continuing to walk to the tree house, a sense of unease washing over him.

Like someone was watching him.

He froze, hearing footsteps.

Ranboo turned his head, just enough to see as a dark figure slipped out of his sight.

But he didn’t react quickly enough as turned fully around to face the figure, and heard more movement behind him.

His memory book fell to the floor, and the world abruptly faded out as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Chapter Text

POV: Tubbo

Tubbo was, concerned, to say the least.

The day before, when he could’ve sworn he saw a figure in the window of the abandoned building, he’d assumed he had been hallucinating.

But now, after Techno had told the story of whoever “Exdee” is, He had an uneasy feeling.

Like something was going to go wrong.

He needed more information.

So he headed over to the building in the center of Essempii, a community building they all collectively called “The Community house.”

  Dream and his friends often hung out over there, sparring or doing whatever they did. He didn’t actually know what they did, aside from when he was with them. Well, he knew they did something they called “Manhunt”, but that’s about it.

  His enderman-like ears twitched as he passed by the ponds on either side of the bridge to the Community house, hearing noise up ahead from within.

  He reached the door, pulling it open and finding the place empty of Dream and his friends- Well, they called themselves the Dream team, actually- Well, at least that's what three of them called themselves. The noise he heard was from other people there.

  He knew where else they’d probably be instead, so he left the Community house, heading east toward the forest towards a clearing he’d seen them in often before, whilst exploring with Tommy and Ranboo.

And as expected, he heard the sounds of swords clashing as he approached the clearing.

  Tubbo walked into the little area, the ground beneath him mostly dirt, bare of grass, with leaves blanketing the ground around the edges, and small patches of trampled grass. He looped up to see Sapnap and Dream sparring, George, a mooshroom, was leaning against a tree messing with his sword, with three others behind them on the sidelines, watching.

  He recognized the three: One, was a demon named Bad, who, despite demons bad reputation, was very kind. He also despised cursing.

 Next to him, was the avian named Quackity, assumingly specifically a duck avian, thanks to the small buttery yellow wings on his back- He always wore a beanie, and he had a scar across his eye.

 Beside him sat Karl Jacobs, a human, like Tommy, who always wore very colorful clothing–he was flipping through a small journal with a swirl symbol on it, while Bad and Quackity were watching the fight.

Dream glanced at him as he entered the clearing, only to get a sword to his throat by Sapnap thanks to the distraction.

“Alright, you win this one.” Dream dropped his sword, letting it clatter to the ground.

  Dream was a mysterious one. He almost always wore a mask, well, always to him, almost always to his friends. He’d never seen him without it himself.

  Most people upon meeting him assumed he was a goat hybrid, but according to Dream, he was actually a dreamon hybrid–Tubbo had heard of them before, but only in what he assumed to be simply myths.

 Although, thanks to Dream’s existence, as well as his sister Drista, the entire town knew about them. Dreamons were rare, Tubbo didn’t really know much about them, much like he didn’t know much about Dream.

And the victor of the spar, Sapnap, was a blazeborn–he knew that much.

“Hi, Tubbo!” Bad waved at him from the edge of the clearing. George looked up at him, so did Karl, and the others greeted him.

“Do you need something?” Dream turned to look at him, tilting his head. “Or did you just come to watch us spar?”

“No, I just wanted to ask you about something.” Tubbo said, hoping Dream would know something more about the legend Techno had told them.

“Oh?”

“Well-” The shulker hybrid told them about the story Techno had told him, something about an abandoned lab in the forest and someone named Exdee, and how he’d been interested to learn more.

 He noticed Karl’s expression changed for a split second when he mentioned Exdee, but he guessed it was probably just him being curious, as it was too quick to tell what emotion it was.

“Ah, that story. I know a bit about it. Mainly because it involves dreamons.” Dream smiled.

“Yeah, you told us this one before, didn’t you?” George asked, looking over at him.

 “I think so. Well, what Techno’s told you so far is pretty much true, I don’t know all the details, but I can confirm what he told you. As well as a bit of Exdee’s fate. All I really know is nobody really knew if he lived or died, but that it had something to do with dreamons. It was assumed he was possessed or something, but never confirmed.” The dreamon hybrid said, his tail twitching behind him.

  “Oh, and the whole thing with Tommy thinking that hybrid experiments happened in the story, I’m pretty sure that did happen. All I really know about that part was that it was terrible, and I'm pretty sure the hybrids involved in it had some doing in Exdee’s ‘fate’.”

“Hybrid experiments? I don’t think you told us about that part.” Quackity tilted his head, seeming a bit uneasy at the idea of it.

“Well, I don’t think anybody likes talking about that. Just goes to say how much this Exdee guy sucks.” Dream said with a shrug.

“Alright, fair, and agreed. I’d probably punch him if I ever saw him.”

  Tubbo’s thoughts began to wander after hearing Dream’s telling of the story. Experiments on hybrids.. What a terrible thing. It was practically torture… And he might not even be dead? Techno did say something about immortality in his story…

  The abandoned lab in the woods.. Could that have belonged to Exdee? He shuddered at the idea of what could’ve happened there. And that figure I saw in the woods…

  His fate involved dreamons, according to Dream. Possession, maybe. They're generally black, white and green, I'm fairly sure. And before Tommy fell down the hill and we found the lab, I swore I saw something with those colors behind him..

“Tubbo?”

He blinked a few times, looking up, snapping out of his thoughts. “ Huh? Yeah? “

  “Oh, sorry, you seemed to have spaced out, I was just wondering if you were alright.” Bad looked at him, a bit concerned. He could probably imagine what kind of emotions were crossing his face as he had thought about the current situation.

“No worries, I’m alright, just a thought.”

…Except it wasn’t just a thought.

He didn’t like what this information implied.

He had a bad feeling. Like something was gonna go wrong.

  “I.. think I’m gonna.. Go head home. Thanks for the story, Dream!”  Tubbo turned, waving to the others, and began to walk away, as they said their goodbyes to him.

He didn’t notice how Karl had seemed to stare at him almost the whole time during the story.

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Karl

Karl pushed open the door to his small library, setting his journal down on his desk.

Ever since Tubbo had asked Dream about Exdee, he had an uneasy feeling.

Exdee.

Exdee.

XD.

He knew him from once when he had been travelling, but he didn’t want to think about it.

And Tubbo seemed more than just simply curious about him. He was a bit worried, to be honest.

He wanted to believe he was dead, but he couldn’t be sure.

If anyone got involved with Exdee, he knew it wouldn’t be good.

He needed to make sure that didn’t happen.

Tubbo had talked about an abandoned lab in the forest. He hadn’t said where it was, but Karl knew he needed to find it and check it out.

Just to confirm his belief.

To make sure.

So he grabbed a couple of things, threw it into a bag, and headed out to the forest.

He had a bad feeling about this, but he tried to shake it off.

~~~~~~~~~~

A while later, and Karl still had absolutely no idea where he was going.

He probably should’ve asked Tubbo where it was… or would that have made his intentions too obvious? No, no, he was probably overthinking it.

He had been walking for hours, and to his misfortune, had found nothing.

He hadn’t found anything of use, or anything interesting, which was both a good and bad thing.

Eventually, Karl pushed some branches aside, and looked up…


.. at the giant abandoned building in the clearing ahead of him.

He froze at the sight of it. It was familiar. He didn’t think too much about that.

After a couple of heartbeats, he pushed forward through the forest and stepped into the clearing.

It truly was creepy, the building was completely wrecked–nothing like how he reme–

…

Anyways, it was totally in ruins and completely overgrown.

  He treaded carefully through the ruins, watching where he took each step to make sure he didn’t step on a piece of glass or debris, or who knows what kind of plants could be growing all over this thing, which didn’t seem very familiar to him, although he wasn’t really a plant expert anyways.

  Everytime he heard a noise, he froze and glanced around. He was entirely on edge since entering this area. He had an idea why—it was probably because of how eerie this place was. Who knows what could’ve happened here….

Who knows…

  He reached a more built-up area of the wreckage, where there were actually proper walls and roofs, even if some had holes in it, or were cracked, or was tilted off balance.

In summary, it looked like it could collapse any moment.

Safe to say, he wouldn’t go very far in.

It’d probably be a death trap if he did.

So he paced around the outer edges of it, and a little bit on the inside, but stayed where he could see an exit nearby.

It was definitely an abandoned lab.

but he already knew that

There was all sorts of science equipment scattered throughout it, though most of it looked broken. Seemingly, even some medical equipment too.

He kept exploring, finding documents on different things, sciency subjects, hybrids, experiments……

He kept going until he no longer dared to explore any deeper, and it was starting to get late. He turned around and started to leave.

He saw a black figure staring at him with green eyes, peeking out from a piece of debris.

He stared for a moment, and then blinked, and it was gone.

  He grabbed his bag and fled back into the forest, towards Essempii, whether out of fear or to tell the others, he didn’t know. All of his instincts screamed at him to run. To get away from that thing.

And so he did.

Chapter Text

POV: Tommy

Tommy had been chatting with Niki when he saw Tubbo.

“Hey! Tubso!” He waved to his best friend.

Tubbo looked up after a heartbeat, his antennae perking up slightly, seemingly distracted.

“Oh, Hey Tommy.” The shulker hybrid greeted, tail and antennae waving in the slight breeze.

“Uh, you good Tubs? You seem… troubled.” Okay, perhaps he was a bit worried for his friend.

 “Yeah, I'm good bossman. Just had a thought.” Tommy doubted that it was just a thought, he had said something similar earlier that day when Techno had told that legend about the abandoned building in the forest.

Wait, didn’t Tubbo mention something earlier about going to ask Dream about that legend?

..Alright, so it was probably something relating to that legend, then.

 Although, he didn’t know what he could do but try to cheer him up. That story wasn’t the happiest story ever, so he assumed that was probably the problem.

“Well.. do you want to go find Ranboob and head to our hangout spot?” Tommy suggested, smiling at him in an attempt to cheer his friend up.

 “Hm.. well, sure. Why not? Wait, where is Ranboo anyways? I haven’t seen him all day.” A curious but also slightly concerned expression appeared on Tubbo’s face, his antennae and ears lowering slightly.

 “How am I supposed to know?" Tommy blurted. But upon seeing the look on Tubbo's face, he continued. "….. Well, I mean. We could ask Niki or Tech or something. He hangs out with them a lot. Or another one of the others.” Tommy shrugged, smiling confidently. He turned to the merling behind him. “Hey, Niki, have you seen Ranboo?”

“Ranboo? No, I haven’t.” She shook her head.

“Well, that sucks.” Tommy let out a sigh, disappointed.

“Then I guess we could ask Phil or Techno or someone.” Tubbo suggested from behind him.

 “Alright then, let’s go find them--They're probably still at the house, Unless Techno is practicing his fighting skills or whatever.” Tommy turned and began to walk down the cobblestone path, in the direction of their home, away from the cafe known as L’manberg. He spun on his heel and waved at Niki as he walked away with Tubbo following him after a second, and she waved back at them, smiling. “Bye, Niki!” Both he and Tubbo said, and she responded with “Good luck!”

 As they walked through the streets, Tommy looked over at Tubbo, a troubled expression was on the shulker hybrid's face, and his antennae were so low they were nearly touching his face. “Are you absolutely sure you’re alright?” He asked one last time, confident that worry was written all over his face.

 Tubbo looked at him, and sighed. “Alright, well, since you keep asking, I guess I’ll tell you the problem.” Tommy perked up, eager for any info that could give him a chance to cheer his friend up.

 “Yesterday, after you guys had left after we found the abandoned lab, I paused for a moment and was looking at the building. For a moment, I could’ve sworn I saw someone in the window–.” He started.

“Wait, you saw someone in the window?!” Tommy interrupted.

 “Yes." Tubbo confirmed. "I saw someone- or something in the window. Just a black figure. Couldn’t really tell. Also, don’t interrupt me.” The shulker hybrid glared at him. “Anyways…”

 “At first I thought I was hallucinating, but after Techno’s story, I wasn’t sure, especially because of how Techno mentioned that Exdee might still be alive. So, I wanted to investigate more, so I went and found Dream and asked him about it. Didn’t really get any useful information though.” He sighed.

“That’s…… Yeah, you have reason to be troubled. So, I’m guessing your thinking that figure you saw–”

“--Was Exdee.” Tubbo nodded.

“You think he’s still alive?” Tommy tilted his head, looking at his friend beside him.

 "Honestly, there’s a chance, if the legend is true, and what Techno said about immortality was too. There's also the chance I’m overthinking it and someone else from Essempii found that place and was playing a prank on us. So, I probably shouldn’t worry too much. Hopefully its just a legend.”

“But if someone was playing a prank on us, how’d they know we were gonna be there?” Tommy wondered out loud, glancing at the shulker hybrid.

 “Dunno, maybe they were just exploring, found it, then we found it and they noticed, and decided to pretend to be some creepy figure watching us to scare us or something.” Tubbo shrugged.

 “Yeah, that’s.. Reasonable enough. Some people in Essempii would do that, that's a fact. But who, I wonder..” Tommy pondered for a moment. "Maybe Wilbur or Fundy. Fundy likes pranks, right? And Wilbur would totally do something to scare us like that." Tommy spoke, confident in his theory.

 “Well, whatever. Who knows if it is them." Tubbo brushed it off, mostly ignoring Tommy's theory and earning a glare from the human. "We shouldn’t worry too much about it. Besides, we’re almost there, the house is right up ahead.” Tubbo pointed ahead of them to their house, a mostly green house that they ended up painting certain parts of in different colors for different people who lived there–two walls were yellow and blue, another was red and white and one was pink. Right next to it was  a smaller, lighter green house--Technically, Sam owned it, but Tubbo was really the only one who lived there--Sam used to live there, but now lived in his own shop, having allowed Tubbo to stay and live in his old home--Sam as well as the Craft family generally took care of all of the payment things for him.

 The area it was in broke off after the road into a neighborhood area, across the road, from where they had just come from, was all of the other buildings, shops, apartments and such. Their house was right on the corner of the street.

Tommy turned to look at Tubbo, and got an idea.

“Race you there!” He shouted, and sprinted off, leaving the shulker hybrid behind him in the dust.

Although, he reacted rather quickly, and started running after him.

Tubbo was actually pretty fast for a shulker, his species generally had smaller lungs and couldn’t run for very long or very far.

Though Tommy still had the lead of course.

They reached the front entrance sooner than he had thought, and it hadn’t been a far enough distance for them to run out of breath.

 "I win.” Tommy gasped as he grabbed the door handle, pulling open the door and striding inside, with Tubbo trailing behind him, who sent him a glare, as if to disagree with his statement.

Tommy looked around the living room, to see Techno, once again, reading.

 “Hey, Blade. Do you by chance know where Ranboob is?” Tommy walked up behind the couch and leaned on it, looking at the piglin hybrid with his nose in a book.

Techno looked up, and blinked at him. “I think he said he was going to your not-so-hidden-hidden-hangout-spot.”

 “Oh. that’s convenient. Guess we’ll meet him there then. Also, it’s very well hidden I’ll have you know.” Tommy glared at the piglin before he pushed upwards off from where he was leaning on the couch and spun around, walking back to Tubbo who was listening from the doorway, antennae twitching.

“Sure.” The piglin argued.

 "Excuse me?!” Tommy whipped around and stared at him. Tubbo let out a sigh, and grabbed his arm and began to walk off, dragging him along, causing Tommy to stumble and nearly be dragged down before he followed along.

After a while, and some chatting, they finally reached the clearing.

“Wait. Where’s Ranboo?” Tubbo looked around, Tommy did too- he didn’t see anyone else besides the two of them.

 “Maybe he’s in the treehouse. Or walked off somewhere to explore.”  Tommy reasoned, and began to walk towards the treehouse, passing by Ranboo’s allium garden.

“He never explored on his own before though– Wait, Tommy stop!” Tubbo shouted, freezing.

“What?” He paused mid-step, one foot raised in the air. Balancing in that position wasn't too hard.

“Look down.”

Tommy put his foot down from where it was, and looked down…

..at the book on the ground infront of him.

Specifically, Ranboo’s memory book.

Tubbo walked up behind him, and let out a gasp at the sight.

The book was laying there, completely abandoned.

“He never goes anywhere without his memory book...." Concern was plastered all over the shulker's features. "Do you think he dropped it or something?” Tubbo looked at him, his worry for the enderman hybrid clear.

“Maybe- wait. Do you smell that?”

“What?”

“It smells kind of.. Like blood.” Tommy squatted down, and looked around.

There were several droplets of what appeared to be red and green blood on a couple blades of grass, not far from where the book was laying.

They both stared at the blood droplets.

“Surely not. Surely not.” Tubbo started mumbling, his eyes widening as he spoke.

 “He- probably just. Fell or something. Hit his head on something and dropped the book and forgot about it. He’s gotta be somewhere around here.” Tubbo looked around frantically.

“Tubbo-” Tommy began, reaching forward to try and comfort him.

Tubbo ran off into the forest, presumably searching for the enderman hybrid. Tommy called after him, worried, but he didn’t come back.

He looked back down at the sight in front of him.

Then a thought passed through his mind.

He recalled the conversation he had with Tubbo earlier, about the legend Techno had told them.

“That’s…… Yeah, you have reason to be troubled. So, I’m guessing your thinking that figure you saw–”

“--Was Exdee.”

“You think he’s still alive?”

“Honestly, there’s a chance, if the legend is true, and what Techno said about immortality was too.”

He suddenly didn’t have a very good feeling about this whole situation.


~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Karl
 

After what had happened earlier, Karl was just a bit freaked out, to say the least.

He had ran all the way back to town, but hadn’t said anything about it yet, not wanting to start any unneeded panic. 

He had probably just been hallucinating or something, he didn't need to spread rumors about something that might not have even been real.

 He ended up stopping by the L’manberg, as he had found Sapnap, Quackity and some of the others there, and so he came in and sat down with them, joining in on their conversation.

He looked over as the “Employees only” sign door opened and Niki walked in, a concerned expression on her face.

“Hey, has anyone seen Jack?”

Chapter Text

POV: Tubbo

Tubbo was concerned, and he was worried. Panicked, even.

He was running through the woods frantically, looking anywhere and everywhere for any trace of the enderman hybrid that was one of his best friends.

He had been terrified of what could've happened to Ranboo after seeing the droplets of blood and his discarded memory book.

 Without thinking, he had ran off in search of him. He had noticed Tommy calling after him, but he didn't acknowledge it, tail thrashing wildly behind him as he ran.

He had been searching for at least half an hour when he heard footsteps approaching.

He whirled around toward the noise, hoping to see Ranboo but instead he saw the face of the blonde, worried blue eyed human that was his other best friend–Tommy.

 "Tubbo– I think I have an idea of what happened to Ranboo!" Tommy said immediately, hurrying towards him, and Tubbo listened, but he couldn't keep his eyes from darting around, searching for any sign of the black and white enderman hybrid.

 "And if it's true, I think I know where to look." Tubbo perked up, staring at him, listening intently. If he had wanted his full attention, he had gotten it. " Where." He demanded. Any idea was a good idea right now, because who knows what happened, and he'd take whatever chance he had to find Ranboo.

 "I'm thinking that figure you saw wasn't someone pranking you–it was actually Exdee. You said Dream confirmed that Exdee did– well. Experiments on hybrids. And I hate to say it, but if he was alive Ranboo would probably pique his interest."

Tubbo stared at him in horror. "No fucking way. You're literally suggesting that a fucking mad scientist who experimented on hybrids is alive, AND might have fucking kidnapped Ranboo?!"

"..I hate to say it, and I hate the thought of it, but basically yes."

 Tubbo gaped at him for a moment before promptly spinning around and hurtling off into the direction of their hangout area, and therefore, also the abandoned lab. Tommy caught up with him quickly, running as fast and as determined as he was. 

If there was any chance Ranboo was there..

He'd find him.

And he'd punch that bastard scientist in the face, if he was really the one behind this.

Whoever it was, was going down.

They reached the hill, and slowed down only barely to skid down it and not trip and hurt themselves.

Finally, they pushed the overgrowth aside and hurried into the clearing where the abandoned lab was.

Tubbo ran a few feet into the clearing, then cupped his hands around his mouth, and inhaled.

"RANBOO!" He shouted as loudly as he could, the sound echoing around the area.

There was no response.

Tommy ran up beside him, beginning to call for their friend alongside him.

Still, there was no response to be heard.

But Tubbo wasn't about to give up so easily.

He ran towards the ruins of the lab, climbing over vines and debris and shattered glass.

 He sprinted down the halls, past science and medical equipment alike, trying to ignore them and the idea of what could be happening to Ranboo, until he realized how far in he had gone.

He could no longer hear Tommy calling Ranboo's name, in fact, he couldn't really hear anything at all.

It was a deathly silence.

 Tubbo looked around at the cracked and overgrown walls and the scattered and broken equipment laced around the halls, as if they had been dropped suddenly or carts and other equipment had been shoved over as people rushed to leave.

 He suddenly became aware of how cold it was. He looked down and spotted what appeared to be vials of pink blood that had fallen off a cart–a few had shattered and splattered across the tile floor. A shiver ran down his spine at the sight.

He continued walking through the hall, slowing down his pace and examining most things scattered around, although some things he'd rather not look at.

It felt like he was living in a horror movie.

 As he paced through the seemingly endless hallways, he had the realization of the sheer size of the building, which he was unable to see from the outside thanks to the overgrowth, and he assumed part of the building was also built into a mountain or something, which probably added to the chill.

Every so often, he came across the occasional doorway and peered inside, and he spotted many different objects.

Jars of.. something, potions, vials of what appeared to be acid, various broken pieces of medical equipment..
 
 He paused in one room that was mostly empty aside from what appeared to be a cart of different objects he had seen before scattered around, like the vials of blood and potions, and a couple splatters of blue blood.

Tubbo paused, surveying the room and realized he could not see everything from where he stood in the doorway.

So he leaned farther in and–

…

There was what appeared to be a hybrid skeleton laying against one of the walls.

Alongside blue blood nearby it on the wall.

He turned around, avoiding eye contact with the horrific sight, trying not to throw up.

He took a break after that, stopping to sit down and lean against one of the walls, taking in all this information, making a couple conclusions in his head.

This was very much a laboratory.

One where many terrible things had happened to hybrids..

He shivered.

And the man who supposedly ran this place, is still alive.

And he might have Ranboo.

He tried not to think about the skeleton he had seen. Or the blood. Or any other things he had seen in here.

He opened his eyes, having closed them to try to ignore all the sciency things around him.

And finally noticed a door in front of him.

It was different from the others.

While the other doors had been made of metal and sealed pretty tightly.. (he hadn't been able to get any closed doors open)

This one was seemingly painted to look like it was made of wood.

But that's not all.

There was a name label on it.

"Exdee"

He stared at the name in fury.

Exdee.

The man in the legend.

The one who supposedly ran this place.

He was the reason Ranboo was gone, wasn't he?

And who knows what could be happening to Ranboo right now?

If that bastard, or whoever did it, hurt him.. 

His fist hit the door with a thud, denting the door and causing it to be pushed open, leaving his hand aching, but he didn't notice the pain.

The door creaked open, revealing the contents of the room for him to see.

It was an office, with desks all around it, vials and potions, files and folders scattered all over the desks.

The weirdest thing was the green strings hanging from the ceiling.

It was dimly lit, and incredibly eerie.

Slowly, he stepped into the room, walking up to the main desk and looking down at the open folder.

It was a file on someone.

"↸╎ᔑリᔑ / Diana - Subject 0016

Species: Some sort of shapeshifter with other abilities. Species name unknown. More research needed.

Status: Deceased

"

There was more, but he didn't read it.

Next to the name were two pictures.

A girl with short dark brown hair and a blue hoodie that had a diamond symbol on it and a yellow hood and eyes..

  and a picture of what appeared to be the same girl with blue skin and hair that matched the hoodie in the other photo, except in this photo she wore something similar to a cape, but without a hood, but this time instead of human-like ears and fluffy hair, the hair was more spine-like and her ears reminded him of moth or butterfly wings.

 Both photos had freckles, while the first one had freckles that were a slightly darker shade than her skin, in the second image the freckles were darker blues and purples and golden yellows. She also had golden eyes in both images. 

The first photo she appeared happier, smiling and chatting with someone.

But in the second one, she looked wary and afraid.

He frowned, sad for the girl who he could only guess what happened to.

Hopefully she could live peacefully in the afterlife.

He turned to examine the other contents on the table, spotting what appeared to be a cassette tape and player. 

He reached for it, curious.

"TUBBO! TUBBO, ARE YOU THERE?? HELLO?" 

Tommy's worried voice echoed through the hall.

He looked back to the doorway, then back at the tape.

"TUBBO?"

Tommy's voice seemed to be growing more panicked and concerned by the second.

Tubbo let out a sigh, making his decision.

"I'm here Tommy!" He walked out the door, pushing the door but not shutting it, leaving it cracked open.

"Oh, thank prime you're alive! I almost thought you got kidnapped too or something!" Tommy rushed up to him, gasping for breath.

"Nah, I'm alright. Was just… looking. You know." 

 "Whew.. well. We should head back. It's getting late. And before you say anything about Ranboo, we should tell everyone what happened. They can help look."

"That's...... Actually a good idea. We can cover more ground that way!" A bit of hope sparked inside of him.

 "Exactly. But to do that, we need to both go back go Essempii, and not just because you need to sleep and regain energy and shit, but also because nobody will listen to just me! So c'mon!" Tommy grabbed Tubbo's arm and started dragging him back down the hall.

"Hey!" He yelped. "I can walk by myself!"

"Okay, then make sure you follow along." Tommy looked at him, letting go of his arm.

"I will, I will." Tubbo glanced back at the office he had exited.

"I said, c'mon! "

The cassette could wait until tomorrow for its secrets to be unveiled.

" I'm coming! " He sprinted after Tommy.

 He didn't see the blue ghost of a dead shapeshifter watching from the doorway of an office.

~~~~~~~~~~

 It was rather convenient that a good portion of the residents of Essempii had decided to come to L'manberg that night.

 All heads turned as the door was slammed open, and Tommy and Tubbo stepped in.

 But before anyone could say anything, the two spoke.

"Everyone! We need to tell you something."

" Something very important."

"Its about Ranboo. "

Chapter Text

POV: Tommy


"So.. basically, what your saying is, the legend about Exdee is true, and he's also alive, and fucking kidnapped Ranboo?"

"That's what we believe, yes." Tommy nodded.

"Before you ask, I looked around in the forest, but didn't find him." Tubbo spoke. He had been silent the entire conversation.

"Well. I think we can at least say he's missing, and Jack too if he doesn't show up soon. We don't know for sure what happened, or who did it, but the least we can do is search." Phil stood up, speaking loudly so everyone could hear. 

"We can send a few search parties out into the forest to search more. Any volunteers?" Dream looked around.

 Several people raised their hands, almost everyone in fact, except for George, Bad, Skeppy, Ponk, Eret, Tina, Beau, and Fundy, who said they wanted to stay back in case the missing found their way back and may have just gotten lost, or a bunch of other examples they gave for scenarios where someone was needed to be back in town for an emergency.

 "Alright then. We'll have a few stay back, and the others can go out and search." Dream said, then began to sort people into groups as they prepared to begin their search.

 "Tommy, you're staying here." Phil looked at him. " What?! Why?! " 

 "I just want to make sure you stay safe. And plus, there's still things to do if you stay here."

 "Hah! There's no way I'm staying here while almost everyone is looking for one of my friends! I can help, and I can defend myself if anything happens!" 

 Phil let out a sigh. "At least for one day, then. Let's see how things go, and maybe I'll let you."

Tommy stared at him for a moment, considering.

"Alright, fine. But only a day."

 "I'm going whether you like it or not. You can't stop me." Tubbo glared at the black-winged avian.

 Phil stared back, pausing, before speaking. "Yeah, I probably won't be able to stop you, but I would prefer if the kids all stayed inside the town. Ones already gone missing, I don't want another one to as well."

"We're not babies , Phil. We can take care of ourselves. Also I’m not a child." Tommy said.

 "I hate to agree with him, but I agree. On the part about us being able to take care of ourselves." Purpled spoke from where he was sitting in the corner of the room.

Tommy glared at the alien-like shapeshifter.


“Still, though. I just want to make sure you're safe.” Phil began again, concern shown clearly in his eyes.


“I understand, you're a dad and shit, that's your job, But nothing will happen! I’ll stay in town for one day, but ONLY , one day. After that, I’m helping search whether you like it or not.”


Phil let out a sigh. “Alright. Stay safe.”


“Of course I will, no fate could ever befall Big man Tommy Danger Careful Kraken Innit Craft.” Tommy spoke proudly. Phil looked at him with an amused expression.


“Alright, that’s all of the groups.” Dream called. “We’ll be doing preparations for the next few hours, then we’ll send a few groups out. My team will explore the abandoned lab, Tubbo, you will lead us there, and Sam, Punz and Phil’s groups will search different parts of the forest.”


The other three group leaders nodded, turning to their groups and preparing to head out, but first they would wait until morning to actually leave, for now it was just supplies preparation. 


The groups were: Dream with Quackity, Karl, and Tubbo, Phil with Wilbur, Techno and Sapnap, Punz with Purpled, Niki and Puffy, and Sam with Foolish, Hannah, Boomer and Charlie.

 Drista was in the cafe as well, but was told to stay in town alongside Tommy, same situation as him. She wasn't happy about it, nor was he. 

 So they were stuck with the others who had decided to stay behind. George, Bad, Skeppy, Ponk, Eret, Tina, Beau and Fundy. Although to be honest, it wasn't too bad. He guessed.

 Though, it was mainly thanks to Skeppy attempting to troll Bad every three minutes or so, with Fundy joining in sometimes, while Tina, Eret, Beau and Ponk were out getting supplies in case something happened–for example, if one of the searchers came back and needed medical attention.

 George, on the other hand, ended up falling asleep. The mooshroom slept a lot. He supposed it fit for him to be a mooshroom, as he always slept for so long Tommy thought the forest's overgrowth would take over him, which some red mushrooms were already doing because of him being a mooshroom. 

 Phil was totally lying when he said there were things to do. There's, like, nothing to do but gather supplies! And talk. But we've been talking for hours!

He sighed angrily, and wondered what Tubbo was doing.

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Tubbo

The group approached the empty and overgrown building, most of them looking at it in awe or wariness, or even wonder.

 Tubbo noticed Karl was one of the wary ones, but his expression had something else alongside it… 

Fear?

He wasn't sure.

 "Woah. You weren't lying when you said this was creepy. It looks haunted. Like someone died here." Quackity said, seeming a bit uneasy.

 "Well, if the legend is true, many people died here. Especially hybrids." Dream pointed out.

"Very reassuring."

"I'm pretty sure I saw a skeleton in there when I was searching for Ranboo last night."

The other three in the group all whipped around to stare at Tubbo.

"I'm sorry, you saw what? " The duck avian, Quackity, asked, eyes blown wide. 

"A skeleton. I think it was a hybrid. Had blue blood or something." Tubbo mumbled, recalling the terrifying sight.

"Ew. If there's complete corpses in there, do I get a chance to turn back?" 

"Nope." Dream said, continuing to head forward, and Quackity huffed.

Absently, Tubbo noticed Karl seemed a bit on edge now.

 "We should be careful when we go in. This place looks ready to collapse. Well, at least parts of the outside don't look stable." That was the first time Karl had spoken this entire time.

"You have a point. I'll keep an eye out." Dream said.

"Yeah, let's try not to die." Quackity joked.

"We won't."

Tubbo stayed silent.

Now that there were more people inside the building, the sound of their footsteps seemed to echo around, mostly canceling the silence, but not completely.

"This place is kind of creeping me out." Quackity spoke, finally breaking the silence. 

"Yeah. I don't like it here. It gives me a bad feeling." Karl said.

 "Uh, I forgot to say earlier but–last night when I was exploring, I found this room–it was an office–that belonged to Exdee. So, that proves the legend, and there were cassette tapes in there, but I didn't get the chance to watch them." Tubbo finally spoke up, remembering the cassette tape from yesterday. 

"Well, we should probably check that out then." Quackity shrugged.

"Wait, uh. We should still have some people exploring. Maybe we could split up into groups? Me and Quackity could go explore more and, Dream and Tubbo can watch the tapes??" Karl said, seeming a bit nervous. 

 He did have a point, but it's not like anything was going to move–surely they had time for all four of them to watch the tapes then explore more? It was almost as if.. he were avoiding something.

 Dream seemed to catch on, noticing Karl's nervous tone. After a moment, "Alright. You two can go explore further, just make sure to stick together and watch each other's backs. This place is unfamiliar, and we have no idea what could be in here. Stay safe."

 "We will!" Quackity said. A moment later, they continued walking until they reached the office labeled "Exdee" , and there they split up, Quackity and Karl continuing down the hall and Dream and Tubbo stopping and entering the office.

 "Wow. It's a mess in here. And what's with the strings?" Dream looked up to the green strings hanging from the ceiling, kind of like a spider web. Weird.

 "I'll be honest, I have no clue." Tubbo shrugged, continuing toward the desk and picking up the cassette tape, looking around for the player before inserting it and starting it.

 The screen flickered to life, and a man appeared on it. He reminded him a bit of Dream, minus the Dreamon bits–his hair was fluffy and long and mostly white like Dream's, which was a Dreamon thing (Drista also had white hair, but it was only her bangs) while his bangs were half dark brown, half black, with a dark green streak in between, while Dream's were dirty blonde. Both had green eyes, but the man's were darker, and there were no light in them.

 He was wearing a black turtleneck and a white coat, a very simple outfit, and there was an X symbol on his left cheek.

Then, the man began to speak.

 "Log 0026, I've found another one of those weird shapeshifters. This one was mostly pink, but the undersides of his hair was yellow–I think it's hair–and yellow eyes like all the others, as well as freckles. Though, this time this one wore a spiral symbol. This one is subject 0027.

 What a sweet coincidence I found another after the last few died, I'd been looking for awhile. This one's especially interesting. I don't know his name, he's refused to tell me, so I've been calling him little moth for now, because of his moth wing shaped ears. 

 Haven't learned anything I don't already know, but I'm sure that will change soon. This species, whatever it's called, is so.. fascinating. They have some sort of magic-like abilities that allows them to create a sort of portal. I haven't been able to figure out what kind of portal, whether it be dimension travel or time travel or who knows what, I'll figure it out, once I get him to speak.

I'll create another log once I learn more.

End of log 0026."

 That was painful to watch–he assumed this was Exdee, and he hated him even more now. He was so.. creepy. He felt bad for the shapeshifter who had been captured, and he guessed he was probably the same species as the girl he'd seen a file on—Diana.

He looked around, there were more tapes below the player, but it seemed all of them were broken or smashed—except for one.

He picked it up and put it in, letting it begin to play.

"Log 0076, the little moth escaped.

 I don't know how, but it seems most of the test subjects started some sort of revolt, led by two of my own co-workers–one of the traitors, Lavender Briar, was killed quickly. The other got away with most of the escapees, including the last of that unknown shapeshifter species–what a shame. He was so interesting, and I didn't get to learn much.

A search is currently in progress for the escapees.

End of log 0076."

Both he and Dream stared in silence, taking in the information.

"It sounds like a group of hybrids escaped from this lab at one point, with help from two of the scientists working here–one of them was named Lavender Briar, and died trying to help them." Dream summarized.

"It also sounds like this Lavender is a hero. That's good that she tried to help. I wonder who the other was." Tubbo responded.


Dream nodded, then turned, seeming to notice a closed folder on one of the desks.

He walked up to it, and opened it.

It was another file.


Tubbo walked up beside him so he could see it.

"Lavender Briar - Dr. Briar

 One of the scientists working with Exdee, Dr. Oracle and subjects 0011, 0013, 0015, 0016, and 0027 – the unknown shapeshifter species

 Killed by Exdee after attempting to help multiple test subjects escape with aid from another scientist, Kai Oracle or Dr. Oracle, who escaped successfully with the subjects."

 Next to it, a picture of a smiling woman with lavender hair, wearing a white coat and a cyan cardigan with an amethyst necklace  as well as a black hair clip.

There was another file, on the other side of the folder.

"Kai Oracle - Dr. Oracle

 One of the scientists working with Exdee, Dr. Briar and subjects 0011, 0013, 0015, 0016, and 0027 – the unknown shapeshifter species

 Successfully aided in the escape of many test subjects alongside Lavender Briar or Dr. Briar, rumored to have been involved with Exdee's disappearance. "

 And next to the name of this one, the photo showed a fluffy-haired dark brown brunette man, with brilliant green eyes, once again wearing a white coat but with a dark green shirt and a gold necklace. His coat had flower and leaf symbols sewn onto the sleeves in a pale gold.

“So this is the one who successfully helped most of the hybrids here escape, and was working with Lavender.” Dream stared at the picture. “Do you seen any files like these on these different subjects?” He turned to Tubbo.

“Oh, wait–I read one file yesterday, about one of the hybrids here–I recognized one of those numbers, number 0016. I’ll find it again.” He spun around, heading to where he had seen the file, and picked it up, handing it to Dream.

Dream took it, and began reading through it. While he read through it, Tubbo noticed there were more files below the one he had grabbed, and so he moved back toward the folder to look at them.

“リ𝙹⍊ᔑ/ Nova – Subject 0011

Species: Some sort of shapeshifter with other abilities. Species name unknown. More research needed.

Status: Deceased

Seemed to have some sort of family-like relationship with the other shapeshifters like them when they came.”

 There was a picture of a person with light brown fluffy hair with purple, pink and blue streaks in it, wearing a purple blue and pink hoodie, as well as a picture of the kind of shapeshifter like the picture of Diana–moth or butterfly wing shaped ears, yellow eyes, freckles. This one wore a star symbol, and was mostly purple.

“ᓭᔑʖꖎᒷ / Sable – Subject 0013

Species: Some sort of shapeshifter with other abilities. Species name unknown. More research needed.

Status: Deceased

One of the more feisty and chaotic subjects, seemed to get along with the other shapeshifters like him. The other shapeshifters called him SQ.”

With this one, a boy with fluffy dark brown hair, wearing a cyan hoodie with a green hood and a yellow square symbol. Then, the picture of his shapeshifter form–this time mostly green, and with square symbols.

“ℸ ̣ ∷╎ᓵ╎ᔑ / Tricia – Subject 0015

Species: Some sort of shapeshifter with other abilities. Species name unknown. More research needed.

Status: Deceased

One of the smarter ones of the unknown shapeshifter species, if not for how chaotic she was when with Subject 0013. The other shapeshifters called her Tri.”

 She had lighter brown hair like Nova, but with parts of it dyed blonde, and she wore an orange hoodie with a pink triangle and yellow hood, Her shapeshifter form was entirely yellow, with golden freckles.

“??? – Subject 0027

Species: Some sort of shapeshifter with other abilities. Species name unknown. More research needed.

Status: Alive

Was friends with the others of the unknown shapeshifter species before they died. They called him by a name, but spoke in another language. Unknown what his name is. Refused to speak to the scientists most of the time, but seemed friendlier with Dr. Briar and Dr. Oracle.

One of the many escapees during the incident with Dr. Briar and Dr. Oracle. A search for him and the other escaped hybrids began but ended after the sudden disappearance of Exdee.

Current whereabouts unknown.”

 The picture that he assumed to be of this one in their more human-like form appeared to have been scribbled over, and he could not see it. But he could see the shapeshifter photo. Same as the others, but this time with a purple hoodie, pink hood and with a cyan spiral symbol. In this photo specifically, he seemed wary or scared.

He couldn’t tell what it was, but something about him seemed familiar.

Tubbo showed Dream where the other files he had found were, so he could look at them next, when they heard footsteps down the hall approaching quickly, as if someone were running.

They both turned as Karl appeared in the doorway, panting.

“Karl? What happened? Where’s Quackity?” Dream stepped forward, looking around a bit outside the doorway to see if he could spot the avian.

“I- I was with him the whole time but then I turned around and when I turned back- He was gone. I looked around a bit for him but I can’t find him!” Karl said frantically.

“Show me where you were when he disappeared.” Dream commanded. Karl nodded, turning and heading down the hallway.

Tubbo followed after them, concerned.

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Niki

Niki paced through the forest, stopping every few steps to call out Ranboo and Jack’s names. Distantly, but not too far off, She could hear the others in the search party she was in calling too. There was no response to any of their calls.

She was worried for her friends.

And if this legend about Exdee really was true, it couldn’t mean anything good.

She was determined to find Jack and Ranboo before anything else went wrong.

“Any luck?” Punz asked everyone, as she headed back into the clearing the party had agreed to meet back in.

“Nope, sadly. I didn’t find anything.” She said, and everyone else said something similar.

“Alright. Well, the day isn't over yet. I think we can go back out a bit further and search more, alright?”

Everyone nodded, and so they headed back into the forest. Niki waved a goodbye to Puffy (And the others as well) as she headed back out to search.

Niki wandered farther and farther into the forest, making sure to watch for landmarks so she didn’t get lost, continuing to call for her missing friends, but her voice echoed around the forest with no responses.

Was it just her, or was the forest getting darker?

It was probably just the sun setting, or the branches blocking the sunlight.

It also felt a lot colder in this part of the forest. Probably because of the canopy blocking the light from warming the forest floor.

Then there was a noise.

She spun around, pulling out the dagger she had in her pocket and going into a defensive position, looking for the source of the noise.

It was just a deer passing by. It was scared by her sudden movement and galloped away into the forest.

She let out a sigh, relaxing and leaving the defensive position..

But she could hear the soft crunching of grass behind her.

She turned around and blocked the bat aiming for her head just barely with her arm, wincing at the pain.

She looked at her attacker, who she couldn’t see the face of because of a cloak and hood sending shadows over their features.

The cloaked person leaped back at her, attempting to knock her out, but she dodged their attempts swiftly, and slipped into the overgrowth, able to hide out of their sight for a bit as she slithered away.

But she also couldn’t really see them in the darkened overgrowth thanks to their black cloak.

Whack!

And the world blacked out.



….



..


….


She opened her eyes to see a pair of red and green eyes looking at her with worry, and unfamiliar surroundings.

Chapter Text

POV: Niki

"Niki?"

 She blinked groggily at the person speaking to her, her consciousness slowly fading in as she took in her surroundings.

"Wha? Who.." Her vision was a bit blurry.

"It's me," She didn't hear the second thing they said. Probably a name.

Another voice began to speak. "She's still just waking up, give her a moment."

She blinked, her vision finally clearing up.

 She was inside what appeared to be a cave–or at least somewhere underground. Parts of the wall were flat stone, so maybe a building underground. It was damp, and cold. 

 But other than that, the only other thing in the room aside from herself was a weather wisp, an enderman hybrid, and an unconscious avian.

Jack, Ranboo, and Quackity.

Jack was staring down at her, particles drifting off his storm cloud-like form.

 Ranboo was pacing in the corner of the room, his head turned slightly to look at them, and Quackity was laying against one of the walls, unconscious.

 " What– Jack?! Ranboo? Wha– where have you been? Where are we? " Niki looked around wildly, searching for some hint as to where they were. She stared at Quackity’s unconscious form, a bit confused. Although, she was able to make the conclusion rather rapidly.

 "We don't know." Jack shrugged. "We've been trying to leave for a day or so, dunno how long it's been. There's some tunnels, we looked in them but there's no exit. Also, it is seriously freezing in this place. We were wandering the tunnels again when we found you and Quackity unconscious."

 "And before you ask, I've tried to teleport out. It's not working. I'm not sure why." Ranboo said from where he was pacing.

" You can't teleport? " She repeated, concerned.

"Nope." The enderman shook his head, his tail flicking behind him timidly.

"My whole 'controlling electricity' thing also isn't working very well." Jack mentioned, shrugging.

Niki paused, staring at them with worry as she began to ponder this information.

 She remembered the legend about Exdee, and how convinced Tommy and Tubbo had been that “Exdee” was the reason behind Ranboo and Jack's disappearances.

The legend said Exdee was a scientist, right?

And Jack and Ranboo aren't able to use their abilities…

 Could it be their affected by some kind of.. thing.. that blocks their abilities? But how's that possible?

 And it looks like Quackity and I are in the same situation as them now. How are we supposed to get out of here?

 "I think I might know something–" She began, and told them about how everyone had begun searching for them, including her, before she ended up here, as well as the story of Exdee and Tommy and Tubbo thinking he was behind this.

"So this Exdee–he's the reason we're here then?" Jack asked.

"If they were right, yes." Niki confirmed.

 "Uhm, this is a bit unrelated but.. earlier I swear I saw something in the tunnels. Some sort of creature or something." Ranboo began suddenly.

" You saw something in there?! Wait, why didn't you tell me earlier?? " Jack asked.

"I don't know, I thought maybe I was hallucinating!"

They all jumped at a sudden noise.

Three sets of eyes turned to Quackity, who had woken up with a loud gasp.

 "Ugh– sorry, I just had a horrible dream--hold up. Ranboo? Jack? Aren't you guys missing–and Niki too? Wait, where are we?" Quackity looked around, confused.

The other three exchanged glances.

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Tubbo

 Dream, Karl and Tubbo hurried through the halls of the abandoned lab, staying in a close distance to each other as they searched for the missing avian. 

 They searched relentlessly, exploring many rooms almost identical to each other (apart from uncleaned blood splatters or placements of carts and other equipment)

 But their search proved fruitless, and all they found was a single golden feather where Quackity had disappeared in the blink of an eye, and a fresh–and large–claw mark across one of the walls near the entrance.

 Dream brushed his fingers across the mark, analyzing it, as Tubbo peered at it from behind him, not knowing enough to identify it, while Karl fidgeted nervously, clearly concerned for his missing lover.

"This is a dreamon claw mark." Dream said suddenly. "If you know where to look, it's easy to tell apart from other species clawmarks."

Tubbo tilted his head curiously. "Dreamons have claws?"

 Dream turned to him, then lifted his hand off the wall, as the color of his hand quickly shifted to a translucent, shadowy black, with sharp claws.

"Woah–is that like, a shape-shifting thing?" Tubbo gaped at him, a little bit surprised, to say the least.

 "Yep. dreamons can pretty much shapeshift into a more humanoid form from their usual form. There are limits of course, as some things we can't change, like the white hair and ears for example, and we can't just freely shapeshift into anything. Just between forms." Dream explained.

Tubbo nodded, taking in the information."Oh, interesting." It was pretty interesting, to be honest.

 "Those examples I gave and the tail and horns are probably the easiest way to identify a dreamon in their humanoid form. The harder way however, is with their face. Which is why most dreamons wear masks. Including Drista and I." Dream lifted his hand up and shifted his mask just enough for Tubbo to see black dots freckled across his cheeks, and a glint of green eyes, but it was only for a small moment.

 "I trust you, so I'm willing to show you that much. And Karl's already seen me without the mask." Dream stated, and Karl nodded in silence from behind them.

“So, you think a dreamon is behind Quackity’s disappearance?” Tubbo questioned.

“I believe so. Or, at least, there was once here. There's no confirmation on if they were behind it or not, or if they're even involved. We’ll just have to find out I guess. The only thing we know for sure is that they were here recently.” Dream answered. “It’s also starting to get late, and we were supposed to head back around this time.”

Karl looked up at him. “Wait- we can’t go back without Quackity!”

“Look, I don’t want to, but we’ve searched everywhere we can, and we need to rest and restore our energy so we can search more. We’ll find him, I promise.”

“Dream’s kind of right. I don’t want to leave Quackity behind either, but we can’t find him.” Tubbo said, feeling a bit bad for Karl and Quackity. He hoped Quackity was alright, wherever he’d gone.

Karl stared at them both, seeming conflicted.

“.. Fine. But I’m going out searching immediately once it's morning again.” Karl finally said, sighing.

“We all are. We want to find him too, yknow.” Tubbo mentioned, glancing at him.

“We’ll find him. We’ll find all of them.” Dream said firmly.

~~~~~~~~~~

Tommy looked at Tubbo. “Dreamons are involved in this?” He raised a brow.

“Yep. Dream found a claw mark that he said belonged to a dreamon. They can like, shapeshift or something. Sort of.” Tubbo whispered the last bit to him. “Don’t know all how it works tho.”

“Why would dreamons kidnap Quackity? And while we’re at it, did they take Ranboo and Jack too?” Tommy began to ramble.

“Niki too.”

The duo spun around to the one who had spoken; Purpled. Behind him, Puffy was sitting at the corner with a distressed expression, talking to Fundy with worry in her voice.

“Wait, Niki too?!” They both said at once, staring at the shapeshifter. He nodded.

“Yep.” Purpled then turned and walked off.

Tommy and Tubbo stared after him in silence, then exchanged glances.

“So, Quackity, Jack, Ranboo AND Niki are gone.” Tommy said.

Tubbo nodded. “Yes.”

“Hmm.. do they all have anything in common?”

“Well.. they're all hybrids or other species that aren’t human.” Tubbo pointed out.

Tommy sighed. “True. I still believe in the legend of Exdee being true.”

“Same. I don’t think the others do though.” Tubbo shrugged.

“Ignore them, they’re just in denial.” Tommy grinned.

Tubbo returned his grin. “They’ll figure it out eventually. Or who knows, maybe we’re wrong.”

“I could never be wrong!”

“ Sure. ”

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Niki

Niki paced through the tunnels, seeking to find an exit.

The others had stayed behind, Ranboo and Jack hadn’t wanted to search again, and they still needed to catch Quackity up with what happened too. Meanwhile, Niki had decided to go see if she could find anything in the tunnels.

She wandered and observed everything she saw, and it wasn’t any normal cavern.

 Parts of the walls had been smoothed out, and she almost felt like she was walking through a normal hallway. Just, with stone walls. The only difference was the parts where the rocky walls seeped through, or where there were cracks in the walls where streams of water leaked through into tiny waterfalls and rivers.

It was dark, and she could barely see where she was going most of the time. Hopefully she could find some flint and something burnable.

She wandered farther and farther in, still not finding what she needed.

It seemed to be getting darker the farther in she went.

And colder.

Then there was a noise.

Something like..

Footsteps?

She paused, listening.

There was silence.

Niki waited a couple moments, then continued walking.

She heard it again.

It was somewhere above her.

She stopped, and looked up.

Blue eyes met red ones, cloaked by darkness.

She jumped back as the thing leaped down where she was previously standing.

She stared at the creature–it was like a large shadowy cat, but with its ears on the side of its head and horns–the ears and horns reminded her of Dream, but black. It had a long tail that once again was similar to Dream’s. 

She couldn’t tell what it was.

 Then the creature started to shift and change, its shadowy form changing, into something more humanoid–and a red cloak appeared around it, fading from the same dark color as the rest of it to a brilliant scarlet, with a bit of gold. It was like the cloak was floating thanks to the already dark room. 

 Then a pair of red eyes opened and blinked at her from within a void of darkness surrounded by a red hood.

“Greetings.”

Chapter Text

POV: Niki

"Greetings." Jack said. Wait, no, it wasn't Jack.

The one speaking was.. 

Niki stared at the being in front of her, unsure what to think.

 "What- who– what are you? And why do you sound like Jack?! " She asked questions rapidly, staring at the red-cloaked entity who had greeted her.

The being tilted their head, red eyes blinking at her curiously. The only facial features they had were eyes. It was a bit.. unnerving.

"Well, that's rude. The least you could do is greet me back."

She sent them a look. "Well, how am I supposed to react when I meet a strange entity who can shapeshift and sounds just like my friend?"

The being shrugged, she was only able to see the gesture from the motion of they're cloak. "Alright, that's fair.”

 "I am… well, an overseer, you could say." She assumed they were grinning at her, from the smile in their eyes, despite not being able to see their mouth. If they even had one.

"An overseer?" She echoed.

"Yes."

"..an overseer of what , exactly?" Niki narrowed her eyes at the "overseer".

The seer looked around, then gestured to the surrounding darkness with a barely-visible floating shadow hand. " Well, here, of course!"

 "So can you tell us why we are here? Or what this place is? Maybe a way out?" Niki asked, a bit of hope sparking in her. Maybe they could lead them out.

The overseer blinked.

"Ah, that… is complicated. And part of that I can't answer."

She stared at them. Why not?

"Can you at least tell me where I am? Please? "

 The being sighed–at least, it sounded like a sigh–"Like I said, it's complicated, but… you could say.. this dimension is a bit.. different from the overworld." 

 "That's.. cryptic." She stared at them, disappointed. That wasn't the answer she was hoping for. "Wait– dimension? Overworld? Is this a different dimension ?"

 The seer nodded. "Yep! I can't tell you much else. Just watch out for the dreamons, and you'll be fine. I should be going now. Good luck, Niki!" And with that, the red cloak faded back into darkness as the shadowy overseer shifted back into their previous form and sprinted off, too quick for her to react.

"Wha- wait!" She yelled after them, but they didn't come back.

How did they know her name?

What was that about dreamons?

Who do they work for, and what even is this place?

..

Is there a way out?

She had more questions than answers.

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Tommy

 After Quackity and Niki had both gone missing, Phil had decided not to let him join the search. Said it was too dangerous. As if anything would ever happen to Big man Tommy Innit!

Though, he wasn’t able to convince Phil to let him join the search, and was stuck in town.

But Tommy wasn’t about to let it stay that way.

He wasn’t just going to sit around doing nothing! Well, not for any longer, at least.

So here he was, sneaking out of town in the early morning to meet Tubbo at their hangout spot so they could search on their own.

 He was walking through the forest, and it was still quite early. Why did Tubbo pick to meet up at this time? The sun was just rising. Well, at least it was pretty. The morning sun lighting up the forest was a gorgeous sight. Maybe it wasn’t too bad.

 Eventually, he brushed some branches aside to reveal the small clearing with the trio’s tree house, their bench and garden, including Ranboo’s small allium garden-

Oh right. Ranboo.

…

Oh, and Tubbo was there too–pacing around the clearing near the garden. He paused for a moment to stare at the allium garden.

 “Hey, Tubso! Big man has arrived.” Tommy announced, stepping into the clearing as Tubbo turned to face him, whatever he had been thinking about previously, that train of thought was now gone, and his expression lit up.

Tubbo grinned at him. “Hey, boss man! Ready to start our search?”

 Tommy returned his grin. “You bet! I’ve been waiting to explore that place since we first found it.. Imagine what we might find there!” Tommy’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

 “Wellll… actually, I already have an idea of what we might find, and I’ve already looked in there once before with Dream’s search party before Quackity and Niki went missing..” Tubbo said, looking away and rubbing his head sheepishly.

Tommy gaped at him. “You explored the abandoned lab?! Without me?!”

“Yeah, sorry boss man. But hey, at least we can explore it together now! Just like old times, me and you against the world!” Tubbo said gleefully.

“Mmm… alright. I forgive you. But only because you’re my best friend, okay?” Tommy mumbled.

“Okay, Clingy Innit.” Tubbo teased, beginning to head towards the forest.

Tommy gasped. “ I’m not clingy! If anything, YOU’RE the clingy one!” He protested, racing after him.

“ Sure. ” Tubbo began to sprint through the forest in the direction of the lab.

“Oh, is this a challenge?” Tommy grinned, chasing after him and catching up quickly.

“Only if you make it one.” Tubbo said quickly as they raced through the forest, maneuvering past different obstacles in the forest.

 Finally they pushed through the line of trees, breaking through into the clearing where the overgrown and abandoned lab was hidden.

Both teens stopped, panting as they reached the clearing.

“I totally won that.” Tommy exclaimed as soon as he had regained his breath.

“No, I’d say it was a draw.” Tubbo shot back.

Tommy glared at him. “No way, I won that by a landslide.”

“We literally entered the clearing at the same time.” Tubbo argued.

“Shut up.”

The duo walked further into the clearing, the shulker hybrid of the two scanning their surroundings.

“Alright, let’s go in and explore!” Tommy rushed forward.

Tubbo shot after him. “Hey! Wait for me! And watch where you’re going!”

Tommy looked down before he tripped over a piece of debris.

“I am! ”

The two slowed down as they entered the endless-looking halls of the lab.

“ Prime, This place is creepy .” Tommy shivered. Why was it so cold in here?!

Tubbo let out a sigh from next to him. “I know. Yknow, I saw a skeleton in here a few days ago.”

Tommy paused, slowly turning to stare at him. “You saw a what?! ”

“A skeleton.”

Tommy looked at him in shock. There was a goddamn corpse in here?

Okay, maybe this whole situation got a whole bunch more scarier with the knowledge of that.

But he wasn’t scared.

Not at all.

He was a big man, not a tiny terrified child.

Tommy jumped at the sounds of footsteps.

They both whipped towards the sound, then exchanged glances.

“Someone else is in here.” They said at the same time.

“I’ll go check it out.” Tubbo said.

“Not without me, you’re not!” Tommy jumped to his side.

Tubbo chuckled. “Alright, alright. Let’s go.”

 The two stepped silently into the room, seeing a figure looking around the room. The person hadn’t noticed the duo’s presence yet. Guess they were just that good at sneaking. As expected.

“Imma tackle em.” Tommy whispered.

Tubbo sent him an alarmed look from beside him, where the two were hiding behind a cart. “Wait, no-”

But he spoke too late, as Tommy was already moving.

The figure let out a noise of alarm as Tommy tackled them to the ground. Tommy stood back up quickly to look down at the figure, to see—

Karl?!

“Wh– Karl? What are you doing here?” Tommy questioned him.

 Karl looked up at him from where he was sitting on the ground after having been knocked over, rubbing his head. “Ow– I was looking for Quackity–” he mumbled, looking up to Tommy.

“Oh I’m so sorry man– Wait. Please tell me you can keep a secret.” Tommy looked at him hopefully.

The brunette laughed at that. “No worries, I’m alright— and I won’t rat you out to Phil.” He said, standing up.

Tommy brightened, and let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Big man!”

“Mhm. Oh, Hello Tubbo.” Karl waved to the shulker hybrid watching their interaction.

Tubbo waved back. “Hi. What are you doing here so early?” the shulker tilted his head.

“Couldn’t sleep. Wanted to go looking for Quackity, but Sapnap and the others made me stay in town to rest for most of the time.” Karl sighed.

 Tubbo gave him a sympathetic look. “Oh.. I understand. I was pretty restless when we first found out Ranboo was missing.. Do you want to search with us?”

“Sure, why not. The more the merrier.”

“Alright, if you two are done, let’s keep looking! We’ve barely started!” Tommy mumbled impatiently.

“Okay, okay!” Tubbo sighed.

 “Hm.. Although, are we gonna stick together this whole time? It’d be smarter to split up so we can cover more ground.” Tommy began to wonder. That was a good plan.

“I don’t know if that’s safe. From what I’ve heard, all the ones who went missing, disappeared when they were alone.” Tubbo reasoned.

“Okay, you’ve got a point. Maybe two of us can stick together?”

 “Yeah, but that’d be leaving Karl alone. Sapnap would kill us if anything happened to him. So would Quackity, once we find him.” Tubbo glared at the blonde.

 “Don’t talk like I’m not here.” Karl looked at the two as they turned to him.“I’ll be fine, I’ve been searching alone this whole time anyways. If anything happens, I can defend myself. AND, you can just tell Sapnap you didn’t know I was even here.”

“That’s still not a very good idea.” Tubbo was clearly unimpressed.

“I think it is! He’s got some good points. Even if it is kind of unsafe.” Tommy added.

Tubbo turned to stare at him. “ Tommy, You’re not helping! ”

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Karl

After a lot of debate, they eventually decided to split up.

Karl knew where he wanted to search.

One of the reasons why he wanted to search alone was because he didn’t know how to explain to the duo how he knew where some things were.

 And also so he didn’t have to endanger them or anything like that. He’d feel terrible if something happened to them while he was with them. Though to be honest, perhaps it wasn’t a very good idea to leave two children unsupervised in an abandoned lab. Wow, what a great idea he had.

Oh well, no going back now . He sighed.

 So he walked through the halls, the familiarness of this place made every step further in more terrible. The general eeriness and chill didn’t help.

He wasn’t able to generally explore a lot, he only knew where a few places were.

One of them being the file room.

Which was exactly where he needed to go.

 He was hoping there were some documents about Exdee or anything else that could help him with the search or any sort of clue to where the missing had gone.

 Karl reached the door, it was another iron one–thankfully, it wasn’t locked, even if it was closed, and after a bit of struggle, he was able to get it open. Why did they make these doors so heavy?

Well, probably to keep out intruders. Right. Like him.

 He stepped into the room, looking around. There were files and papers scattered everywhere. He felt bad for whoever was in charge of cleaning up messes like these.

He walked over to the wall with all of the drawers containing different files, opening one titled “Exdee” and searching through the file names.

Experiments… sudden disappearance.. Co-workers… random piece of paper…

Wait.

Random piece of paper?

 There was a stray piece of paper shoved in between some of the “experiment” files. It wasn’t in a folder like the rest of them, with a title, it was just.. A note.

He reached for it, pulling it out. It was blank. So he flipped it over.

…

There was a drawing of a little moth, with two letters on either side of it.

X

D

Chapter Text

POV: Tubbo

Tubbo and Tommy walked through the halls of the abandoned laboratory, their footsteps echoing throughout the hallway.

But this time, something seemed different.

 As they walked, every so often, something fell over, giving the two teens a scare, despite Tommy's loud ramblings that he wasn't a scared little child and was a brave man, Tubbo could tell it freaked him out too.

 First it was a cart shifting and falling over, Tubbo reasoned that it was unbalanced, and they were near the outside, so maybe a gust of wind blew in and knocked it over.

Next it was a few vials falling off a cart and shattering upon hitting the ground.

 Things went on like that, small objects or equipment falling over or breaking, but Tubbo continued to reason about why that happened, and Tommy kept shouting about the place being haunted.

It was the final straw for both of them when a vial hit the wall next to them, as if it had been thrown, and the duo was the target.

"That's it! This place is fucking haunted!" Tommy said, looking around wildly.

"Maybe someone's pranking us. Hey! Whoever you are, come out! This isn't funny!" Tubbo yelled, letting his voice echo around the hall.


A couple moments passed in silence.

One.

Two.

Three.

"See? What did I tell you, this place is haunted! " Tommy exclaimed, breaking the silence.

"There's no way–" Tubbo began, as a ghostly-looking brunette in a green hoodie appeared and started laughing at them.

Both teens jumped and yelled at the same time. " WHAT THE FUCK?! "

 The brunette was now rolling on the floor, laughing like crazy, his giggles echoing through the room. " Oh my stars– you should see the looks on your faces!" The ghostly boy said between giggles.

Tommy and Tubbo stared down at the boy, laughing hysterically at them, and exchanged glances.

Then Tubbo realized something.

He had seen him before..

But where?

His hoodie had a square symbol on it.

 “With this one, a boy with fluffy dark brown hair, wearing mostly green and a square symbol."

 He remembered the picture–and this brunette infront of him was identical to the one in the file, minus him being transparent and his skin being practically grey.

 "Wait- aren't you--uh, one of the shapeshifters mentioned in the files? What was your name? Sapphire?" He had read the file awhile ago, not remembering all the names.

 The brunette stopped laughing to stare at him. "It's not Sapphire! It's Sable! And how the hell do you know my name anyways?! " Sable shouted as Tommy shot Tubbo a confused look.

 At approximately the same time, a second person appeared floating next to Sable. She was wearing a hoodie like Sable, but hers was yellow, and it had a triangle. Her hair was a lighter brown than Sable's, parts of it were blonde. She was laughing now.

 " Pffahahhah– he thought your name was Sapphire! Sapphire! Oh my stars I'm gonna bully you about that forever." The new person giggled, and Sable sent her a furious look.

"Shut up, Tri!" Sable yelled, grabbing her ankle and yanking her down to the ground, who yelped as she fell. " Ow! What the fuck?!"

"Stop fighting, you two! Nova is gonna be upset if they see you fighting again." A new voice chimed in.

  This time, a shorter girl wearing a blue hoodie with a diamond symbol, and short brown hair the same shade as Tri. It was Diana. The one in the file. And the blonde and brunette one, Tri, was also in the files.


“You’re no fun, Diana!” Tri and Sable spoke simultaneously.


Meanwhile, Tubbo and Tommy were watching their interaction in both confusion and curiosity.


“What. Who the fuck are you?!” Tommy questioned, and the three turned to look at him. “Are you ghosts?! ”


 Now that Tubbo was looking, they did kind of look like ghosts. Plus, now that he noticed it, Tri and Diana appeared to be floating, their feet not actually completely touching the ground. All three of them had grey-ish skin, and seemed sort of transparent. Maybe a bit flickery. Definitely spirits.


Besides, the files had said all three were dead–so, for sure, they were ghosts.

They also mentioned a fourth–Nova. He remembered they were mentioned in one of the files as well.


The three spirits exchanged glances, then nodded.


“I knew it! This place is haunted!” Tommy exclaimed.


“Haunted by yours truly.” Sable said proudly, then Tri elbowed him. “Hey, we’re here too. ”


“I know you three–I saw some files about you in an office when I was exploring this place earlier.” Tubbo chimed in.


 Diana tilted her head. “Oh yeah, I saw you reading those. You came back later with some.. Uhm.. goat hybrid??? I think?” She mumbled, confused.


“Wait- you saw me? Also, I think you mean Dream. He’s not a goat hybrid.” Tubbo corrected.


The spirit nodded. “Yea! I was looking around there, and I saw you!”


 Tubbo hummed, taking in the information. They’d been here for a while, that was clear. It was kind of weird to know they’d been watching the whole time.


Tommy was watching in confusion. “Okay. Someone please explain.”


Tubbo turned to him, and told him about the files he had seen in Exdee’s office, as well as the tapes and exploring with Dream.


All three of the shapeshifters froze whenever he mentioned Exdee during the story.


After finishing the story telling, Tubbo turned to the trio. “Well, I’m Tubbo, and this is–”


“I am Tommy!” Tommy announced.


The three spirits nodded, and greeted him.


“I’m Tricia, but you can call me Tri.” The one with the yellow hoodie spoke. “Though you probably already knew my nickname.”


“I’m Sable, but you also already know that.” Sable said. He then glared at Tubbo. "Not Sapphire."


“And I’m Diana.” Diana added.


 Tubbo nodded. “Well, I wanted to ask you guys… If you knew anything about him. Exdee. You see… Some people from our town nearby have gone missing recently, Including Tommy and I’s friend Ranboo–We’ve heard legends about Exdee, and we believe he’s behind it. Any information would be appreciated.”


The three nodded.


 “I don’t think I have any especially useful information.” Tri began. “But I know there was a fifth among us–You probably already know about Nova, if you read the files–he was the only survivor, and we believe he’s still alive today. If that’s true, same for Exdee, then I have no doubt Exdee would probably try to go after him. He was always so strangely interested in him..” She shivered.


“Exdee never knew his name, and I don’t think any of us ever actually learned his name in your language.” Diana chimed in.


Then Sable spoke. “I think.. It started with a K?”


“Yeah, yeah, it started with a K.” Diana nodded.


“He might not even be in this timeline for all we know though.” Tri added.


“Not with that attitude he’s not!” Sable exclaimed.


Tubbo and Tommy exchanged glances, both confused about this 'timeline' stuff.


"Well, what's his name in your language?" Tubbo asked.


The three spirits turned to look at them.


Then Diana spoke.


"It's ꖌᔑ∷ꖎ."

Chapter Text

POV: Niki

Niki was once again wandering the tunnels–or were they hallways?--of wherever she was.

To her misfortune, she had found nothing yet. A few times, the others had come with her to look.

Jack and Ranboo had remarked about how it seemed the tunnels had expanded, as there were more than before. (They were only able to confirm there were more because of Jack, with Ranboo being unsure thanks to his memory.)

  This time, they had decided to split up and search in pairs. Niki and Jack were together, and Ranboo and Quackity were searching together in another part of the area.

“I wonder if we’ll see that ‘overseer’ you mentioned who sounds like me.” Jack mumbled.

Niki nodded. “Maybe. And maybe this time they will actually give some proper answers.”

“Like why they sound like me!” Jack said.

“Well. That’s not what I was thinking of, but yes.” Niki laughed.

They continued walking, exploring the tunnels or halls, or rooms (caverns?) they came across. She really didn’t know what they were called.

The duo paused as they heard voices in the distance.

 Niki turned to Jack. “We need to be quiet.” The merling whispered to him. “We don’t know whose there, so we need to be sneaky. I think I showed you a thing or two about stealth once.”

Jack nodded. “Affirmative. And yes, you did. I think we got this.” He whispered back.

So the two crept up towards the voices ahead of them, the words becoming clearer as they neared.

 Jack followed behind Niki as she paused and hid behind an outcropping, ducking so she was hidden out of sight. The weather wisp beside her did the same.

 Niki tried to gesture to Jack to stay down, while she looked for who was talking. Thankfully, he seemed to understand, and nodded.

 Niki poked her head just barely above the outcropping. It was dark enough they wouldn’t see her, if she was lucky. They’d only see her if they had night vision, or were looking for her.

There were two people in the room with her.

 One; a shadowy entity who looked identical to the overseer she had seen before, except their cloak was a pale blue-purple, almost white color, and instead of red, their eyes were a bright, royal blue. They were standing with their back to the duo.

 And two; a man with white hair, his bangs half dark brown, half black, with a lime green streak in between. He was wearing shades, translucent enough you could see his eyes just barely from this view, which were a deep, dark green. 

 He was wearing a dark green, almost black turtleneck sweater, and a green trench coat with a few gold patterns. He was wearing a necklace with a gem that was in the shape of an eye, that was a sort of teal-green color.

 But the most noticeable feature was the black across the right side of his face, covering his eye and seeming to be very slowly inching to the other side, the only hint of that being black dots freckled across his left cheek and the left side of his nose.

The white hair sort of reminded her of Dream.

It seemed the two were just finishing their conversation, the white-haired man saying one thing to the entity.

“Just find him. Find the little moth, and leave him here with the others. I’ll deal with him after that. Go. ” 

The entity nodded, then shifted like the overseer Niki had met, into a different form, and left.

Niki ducked back behind the outcropping as the man turned in her direction.

A few moments later, she heard footsteps echoing off into the distance.

She waited a couple more heartbeats to be safe, then checked the surroundings.

She and Jack were now alone in the area. They exchanged glances.


Niki stood up, and began to walk into the small room, looking around the room–


A single piece of paper appeared.


She walked up to it, picking it up warily.


It was blank. Then words began to appear, as if a ghost was writing it. She gasped, and Jack walked up behind her, looking as well in awe.

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Karl (+ Niki)

Karl was not freaked out.

Not at all.

Okay, maybe the moth thing had freaked him out a little. But it wasn’t a big issue.

He could guess who put that there…

So, he was now continuing to look through files.

 But so far, nothing useful. Anything about Exdee’s disappearance simply stated nobody knew what had happened, but he had disappeared when searching for the escapees, quite early on during the search.

Eventually, he stopped. Still having found nothing useful, and sighed.

 He turned as a piece of paper slowly drifted onto one of the tables in the corner of the room. It was the only table in the room, as most of the room was taken up by the drawers of files.

Curious, he walked near it, and looked down at the paper.

It was.. blank?

And then, writing began to appear on it.

 He stared in awe as the words appeared, seemingly writing themselves. Or whoever was writing it, was invisible. Was this place haunted or something?

As more and more words began to appear, he began to read the paper.

At the same time, distantly, Niki and Jack read a different, but similar paper.

“Hello. I know you are reading this, and I believe I know what you are searching for.

Lucky for you, I know the answers you seek. Well, some of them.”

“Greetings, Reader!

 I’m sure you’re curious about all of this… well, I can tell you a few things. Hopefully it can give you a bit of insight on the true villain here, and what this place is.”

“Exdee–his disappearance was caused by his own coworker.” Both papers stated.

 “After I had died, Kai went forward to help the others escape. He went far, and was able to lead Exdee far away from the lab. Close to a mysterious place. He was able to knock Exdee off a cliff, and after that, he believed he had died. But little did he know, Exdee found something.. Special, in those ruins. I cannot say what, as this is as much as I know. But if you see him, please be careful.” Karl read.

 “I am one of the coworkers with Exdee. Do not fear though, I no longer work with him. Not after what he did. I was the one responsible for Exdee’s disappearance, and supposed death. I tried to kill him, and knocked him off a cliff–where he fell–into where you are now. I don’t know what this place is, just that it is dangerous. Please. Stay safe.” This time it was Niki reading.


Both Karl and Niki read these papers, wondering what this could mean.

Karl had a guess who was writing.

So, ghosts were real then.. And she was one.

But… ‘if you see him’?

There was no way he was still alive…


Meanwhile, Niki had no clue who was writing, but now she had a guess who that white-haired man was that she had seen…

She didn’t like this situation.

'Supposed death’.... ‘I don’t know what this place is, just that it is dangerous’...

She needed to find a way out.

Both were wary, and wanted to learn more.

Chapter Text

POV: Tommy

 Tommy and Tubbo were now walking alone through the halls, after having interrogated the spirit shapeshifters a bit more and found out about basically nothing.

 At the same time, they were both on the lookout for Karl. The duo hadn’t seen him since they split up. Maybe splitting up wasn’t such a great idea.

“Do you think something happened to him?” Tubbo turned to Tommy, his antennae twitching timidly.

Tommy shook his head. “Nah. I’m sure he’s fine.”

Tubbo then paused, his ears and antennae twitching, and putting his arm out to stop Tommy from moving forward.

Tommy tilted his head, then began to whisper, a bit warily. “What is it?”

“I heard something”. Tubbo murmured, his voice almost too small to hear.

Then Tommy froze, listening as well.

Distantly, he could hear footsteps approaching along one of the hallways, just around the corner.

They both tensed as the footsteps grew nearer, but did not move.

To his relief, it was just Karl who rounded the corner. Tommy finally let himself breath, not realizing he had been holding his breath.

“Oh. Phew, it’s just Karl.” Tubbo relaxed.

“Oh! Uhm, hello, you two.” Karl waved, not having expected to see them in the moment.

“Hey Karl. Anything happen after we split up?” Tommy asked, curious.

Karl shook his head slightly. “No, not really.”

“‘Not really’?” Tubbo echoed, gazing at him.

 Karl shrugged. “I just found a note. A drawing of a moth with two letters by it. Wasn’t expecting something like that, I.. don’t really know what it means.” He mumbled.

Tubbo paused, but Tommy had no clue what he was thinking.

“What were the letters?” Tommy asked.

“XD.”

 Tubbo stared at him, his tail flicking behind him. “Hm.. X D? Like, Exdee? The person?” He tilted his head, pondering. “Do you think.. he wrote—drew??-that?” 

 Karl returned his gaze. “Maybe.” His gaze drifted for a moment as he paused, but then went back to Tubbo. “I don’t really know what the whole thing about moths was about though.” Was it just him, or did Karl’s voice sound quieter during the last sentence? 

Tubbo narrowed his eyes, paused, and nodded. Did he not believe him or something?

“Well.” Tubbo began, closing his eyes. “We should get going.” He stated, reopening them.

“ Already? ughhh….” Tommy groaned.

 Tubbo grabbed his arm, tugging him in the direction of the exit—and where they had previously been headed. “ Come on, Tommy. We need to head back anyways. Especially before Phil figures out you left.”

Tommy froze.

Oh right.

He almost forgot about that.

 “Okay, boys, let’s go back to Essempii—immediately!” He announced, moving forward, towards the exit, dragging Tubbo alongside him before he let go.

Karl laughed, then followed along.

 After a few minutes of walking, they reached the exit, and then another few moments, and they had reached the line of trees where the forest began and the clearing ended.

The trio paused as a voice rang out through the woods.

“Tommy? Tubbo? Are you out there?!”

Oh. It was just Phil.

Wait.

Oh no.

It was Phil.

He knew.

Yup. He was totally fucked.

 “Okay, let’s.. uhm.. sneak around! Niki may have never done the stealth lessons, but surely we can sneak past Phil!” Tommy whispered. He wasn’t speaking too loud, definitely. So why did Tubbo shush him?

He lifted his head as he heard grass crunching as someone walked toward them. Tommy froze.

Uh oh.

 “Tomathy Innit Craft. Didn’t I ban you from leaving town to search? Especially on your own? ” Phil stared at him, a disapproving expression on his face. Yeah, he was pissed.

 “I’m not on my own!” Tommy started quickly. “I’m with Tubbo! And uh—we found Karl there too! I wasn’t alone!” Karl and Tubbo glanced at him.

Phil sighed. “ Tommy. ”

Tommy stared at him. “ Phillll. ”

 “I seriously would prefer if you stayed in town where it’s safe.” The avian finally said, looking at him with worry. Typical father figure behavior. But like hell was he gonna stay in town any longer, doing fucking nothing!

“But..” Phil began. Tommy perked up, looking at him with hope shining in his eyes.

“I can see now I can’t convince you to do so.” The avian admitted. Tommy grinned. “So I’ll let you join the search.” Yes. Yes. Yes!

“But.”

Tommy froze.

Uh oh.

There was a catch.

 “You can only join a search party every other day. So, only half the time will you get to help. And for sneaking out without my permission and disobeying me,  You. Are. Grounded.” Phil announced, his stern expression staring down at him

Tommy frowned. Well, it was inevitable. Phil paused, then opened his mouth.

Welp. Here comes a lecture.

Meanwhile, Tubbo and Karl found an opportunity to sneak off before Phil began talking. Lucky them.

~~~~~~~~~~

A couple of days later, and Tommy was finally free.

In his time in Essempii, things weren’t as lively as before.

Before Ranboo had gone missing, the streets were filled with people, joking and laughing and smiling.

It was nice.

 But now, while there were still people walking around often, a tense fog seemed to hang over the entire town. There weren’t nearly as many people smiling. Everyone was anxious, or worried, or something along those lines.

 He wished he could tell them all a joke and get them all laughing again. Rile them up a bit, if you will. Liven up the atmosphere. Do anything to make things at least a bit like how they used to be.

He’d never admit it, but he did miss Ranboo and the others. The town was… emptier, without them.  

Without Ranboo teleporting around, occasionally causing chaos with Tubbo, or him trying to stop Tubbo from doing just that..

Quackity’s jokes, Niki’s kindness and pastries, and Jack… well, just being himself. Although he would never admit he missed him.

And Tubbo..

Tubbo was so tense now.

He hadn’t smiled in awhile.

Tommy had tried to joke with him, but his attempts were in vain.

The same was with his family.

No laughter echoed through the Craft family’s household any longer.

Just…. 

Silence.

He hated it.

 The ones who weren’t in town, were out searching. A couple search parties had been sent out while Tommy was grounded. Unfortunately, they found nothing. But fortunately, nobody else had disappeared. That was probably the only good thing that had happened in days.

Well, aside from Dream’s announcement.

 Dream had called everyone to a meeting at L’manberg. Well, not everyone, really just the people searching. Tommy’s luck had finally come through for him, as Phil had given him permission to attend the meeting. Finally, something interesting!

He hoped it wouldn’t be another tense conversation

So, presently, Tommy was treading through Essempii, towards the cafe called L’manberg.

 For once, Tubbo wasn’t at his side. He had gone on ahead, and so had the rest of Tommy’s family. They definitely had only done that because he had totally not been sleeping in. Prime, why did Dream call this meeting so early? Thank prime for Tubbo, he probably wouldn’t had woken up in time. Though, the shulker had still run off when he thought he was still sleeping.

 He paused before he walked into the glass door that was the entrance to L’manberg, breaking his train of thought. That would have been super embarrassing if he’d walked into that. Wilbur would have never forgotten it.

Instead, he reached forward and turned the door knob, pulling open the door and stepping inside. 

A few colored gazes flocked over to him as he entered, the room was mostly silent, aside from some whisper-chatting. Awkward…

“Uh—hello, boys!” Tommy sang, trying to liven up the atmosphere.

To no surprise, it didn’t work.

“Hello, Tommy.” Dream greeted. “You’re just in time. We’re about to begin. Go sit down.” He told him.

Tommy nodded hesitantly, not liking being told what to do, but relentlessly, he obliged.

 Tubbo sent him a small wave, catching his attention, and patted the seat next to him, his antennae and tail twitching as Tommy’s head jerked up and spotted him.

 Tommy shuffled past people sitting down at numerous tables and chairs around the cafe, mumbling apologies when he bumped into one of the people standing—Eret—They smiled at him, saying, “No worries.”, as he walked over to where Tubbo was sat.

 Tommy sat down next to Tubbo, who smiled at him. “Hey, bossman!” He greeted. “How’d you sleep? Last I remember, you wouldn’t wake up.” He grinned, smugly.

Tommy returned his grin. “I slept well, big man.” He answered. “Stop looking at me like that!” Tubbo’s smug grin only grew wider.

 Tubbo laughed, as Tommy swatted at him. Though, they didn’t start full-on fighting each other, because of the sound of someone clearing their throat.

 “Everyone. The meeting is beginning.” Dream announced, his voice echoing around the room. Tommy and Tubbo stopped their fighting to listen intently, and the chatter around the room quieted down until there was complete silence.

 “So, you may all be wondering, what I have gathered you all here for.” Dream began, tail flicking behind him. “I would like to have a discussion—about anything we may have found whilst searching, and any leads we have to the culprit—the one behind the recent disappearances.”

The murmuring and chattering started up again, as Dream paused.

“So, would anyone like to start? Any ideas?” He looked around the room, the chattering going silent.

 Tubbo glanced to Dream, then to Tommy, before he stood up, raising his hand. “We believe we have an idea of who the culprit is.” He announced.

The murmuring continued, all eyes were on Tubbo.

 “This.. might seem a bit far fetched to all of you but.. you may have heard about the legend of the forest, and the abandoned lab—I think you all heard the story when we first met up and began to search. And if not..in summary, a scientist named Exdee who was curious about hybrids once created that lab—and did many experiments—before disappearing, and it was rumored he lived, maybe became immortal or something… I believe, he is alive.”

There were a couple of gasps around the room. Tubbo paused, probably for dramatic effect.

“Do you have any evidence?” Sam spoke up, tilting his head wonderingly at the claim.

 “Not a lot. The best I got is based on the story. As I mentioned, he was interested in hybrids—and everyone who has gone missing so far is one. Both me and Tommy believe this.” Tubbo answered firmly. Sam nodded, and Tommy did too, standing up to stand by Tubbo’s side.

 “While you have a good point, I must point out that it could just be a coincidence that all of the missing are hybrids. Though, it’s unlikely. Just an idea.” Phil mentioned.

 Sam spoke again. “Phil’s right. And as far as we know, the part about him being alive is just a rumor. There’s no saying whether he is or isn’t alive.”

 “While your theory has some good points, and we know the legend is true, thanks to the abandoned lab’s existence--but Exdee being alive is only a rumor. We have no evidence to prove it.” Dream began. 

 “Some rumors aren’t always just rumors. It’s kind of like myths—“ Techno began, before being cut off— “ Please don’t start talking about Greek myths.” Wilbur groaned.

 Dream chuckled at the two, but then turned to Tommy and Tubbo. “Sorry you two, but unless you have some good evidence to prove it, we can’t believe it for now—but we can at least keep it in mind, in case it does turn out to be true.” The dreamon said.

 Tubbo faltered, seeming a bit disappointed, while Tommy was pissed. Come on, it’s the only theory we have right now! It make’s a lot of sense! Just fucking believe it!

 But he kept those thoughts in his head. He wanted to liven up the place a bit, but not by starting a scene. Wow, he was so good at self-control. He had to admit, he was proud of himself. All in a days work for big man Tommy Innit.

The two then sat down, and Dream began to speak again. “Anyone else?” He asked.

 The room was silent. Tommy looked around, and his gaze caught on Karl, who was staring at the floor quietly. He seemed nervous. Next to him, Sapnap was watching him with worry.

 “Nobody? Alright. Then I’ll cover the current evidence we have—a while back, shortly after Niki and Quackity had gone missing—“ A few people stiffened at that, clearly upset for disappearances of their friends and family. “—Me, Tubbo, and Karl found some claw marks in the abandoned lab—fresh ones, near the exit.”

 “I was able to identify them as dreamon clawmarks—and if you didn’t know, we can shapeshift.” Dream stated, and Tommy watched in awe as he lifted his hand into the air and it shifted into a shadowy claw, then back. A couple people gasped, or made similar noises of interest or awe.

  "I don't like to say it, but perhaps that could’ve mean’t dreamons were behind this. But like Tubbo and Tommy’s theory, I have no other evidence to back it up, and it’s mostly just an idea.” Dream admitted, his tail stopping it’s movement and his ears lowering a bit in the beginning.

 “Oh!” Someone burst out. Multiple pairs of eyes turned to them—Sapnap. “Uh, I forgot to mention—been a bit worried and everything with Quackity going missing and everything but—earlier today, I was out searching, and I found what I thought was a trail of… paw marks?” The blaze born tilted his head, seeming confused.

 He shook his head. “I don’t know what it was, but I couldn’t recognize the creature—and uh, based on what you’ve told me about dreamons, Dream—I thought they were from a dreamon, but I’m not sure.”

 Dream nodded. “Well, it’s worth it to check out. If it is the one behind the disappearances, they’d probably try to hide their tracks—so we should head there now. Not everyone of course, but a bigger group than usual—we never know what will happen. Is there anything else anyone wants to say before we continue?” He asked one final time.

His question was met with silence.

“Alright then. Volunteers?” Several hands shot up, including Tommy and Tubbo’s. Dream nodded to them, and all the people with raised hands stood up. “Alright, all of you, we’re heading out shortly, so grab your things and prepare—Sapnap, you will lead us.” The blaze born nodded. 

 Dream then gestured to the people with their hands down. “The rest of you, start preparing supplies and any medical setups—as usual. Just in case.” Everyone nodded. 

 “Okay—let’s go!” Dream spoke, and everyone began to move, rushing to gather supplies and prepare for the journey. Tommy and Tubbo did the same.

No matter what was going to happen, they were ready for it.

Nothing could go wrong. He wouldn’t let it get any worse than it already was.

Chapter Text

POV: Tubbo

Tubbo was unsure about all of this.

He didn’t really believe Dream’s idea.

What reason would dreamons even have to kidnap people?

At the same time, he wanted to believe his own theory.

But he did not have the evidence to back it up.

 And another thing, Karl was acting weird. He could guess what the moth thing was about, and it seemed to freak him out.

Wait, didn’t the spirits say the only living shapeshifter’s name started with a K?

And the name they said sounded sort of like Karl.

…

Probably shouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet. Who knows, maybe he was just worried about Quackity. Or it was another Karl, the world's not that small.

Yeah, that’s reasonable.

Tubbo himself had been pretty worried about Ranboo— and all the others too.

 But at the moment, it was truly time to test these theories—see if either the dreamon one or the Exdee one were true. Maybe it was neither.

 As currently, Tubbo had joined the search party to investigate the tracks Sapnap had found, and they were traveling through the forest.

They had not yet reached their destination though, so Tubbo had been simply.. thinking.

 And occasionally, Tommy chatted with him, laughing obnoxiously, joking around. He could never understand how Tommy could do that in serious situations such as this.

But to be honest, he didn’t mind. Not at all. It was kind of… nice.

 In those moments, it almost felt like he was back at their hangout spot, joking and laughing with Tommy and Ranboo.

It was only until he remembered what had happened, was when that moment faded.

Don’t worry Ranboo.

We’ll find you.

We’ll find everyone.

I promise.

“I think this is it.” Sapnap said, breaking the silence and Tubbo's train of thought.

 The group slowed to a stop, and Dream stepped forward. Tubbo tried to inch out of the crowd towards the edge so he could see.

 It took a little bit, but he was able to find a place with a view of the tracks—and there they were. They did look kind of like paw marks, but also a bit different. It was kind of.. weird. But also interesting.

Dream bent down to look at the markings, analyzing them. There was silence as everyone waited for his statement.

 “Yeah, these are definitely from a dreamon. But whether that means there has been dreamon activity, or they're behind this, there’s no saying.” Dream shook his head.

“So we still don’t know who did it?” Tommy questioned, seeming irritated.

Dream nodded.

 With that, the theory train of thoughts came back into Tubbo’s mind. He continued to think as the group discussed for a bit and decided to follow the tracks, just in case they found something.

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Karl

Karl had wandered off from the group—not entirely on purpose.

Mainly because he didn’t believe the dreamon theory himself.

But also because he wanted to do a little bit more searching through the lab. On his own.

He froze as he heard footsteps—well, they sounded like them—it was really just grass crunching.

 Had someone from the search party come looking for him? He was hoping they hadn’t noticed he was gone already.

 “Sapnap?” He called, his own voice ringing through the trees. Sapnap would probably be the one to realize it first.

There was no response, just the whisper of the wind and the rustle of leaves.

Karl stared into the forest, waiting.

Nothing happened.

Finally, he let out a sigh, and turned back around, continuing toward his destination.

The ‘footsteps’ grew closer.

He whipped around, and he stared with wide eyes.

Behind him stood a shadowy entity wearing a blue-silver cloak. 

“Oh, hello, little moth. ” They greeted.

Karl’s heart was now pounding in his ears. He turned and ran.

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Tubbo

“Hey, has anyone seen Karl?” Sapnap asked, worry apparent in his voice.

A few people began to look around, but with no luck.

A concerned expression crossed the blazeborn’s face.

And then a scream echoed through the forest, before being abruptly cut off.

They all froze in horror. A few people tensed.

Then Sapnap turned and began sprinting toward the sound like his life depended on it, or like someones life depended on it, and a few others followed after him.

Tubbo only had time to think one thing before following.

Was that Karl?

Chapter Text

POV: Tubbo

Many thoughts ran through Tubbo’s head as he ran alongside the rest of the group.


 All of the others wore worried expressions, including himself. Sapnap was running in the lead, and after a moment to think, Tubbo had been able to recognize that the scream was infact Karl’s voice–which explained why Sapnap was so panicked.


 Tubbo had no idea where Karl had gone, and based on what had happened to the others who had disappeared, he could only hope the same wasn’t about to happen to him–He had seemed on edge lately, so it wouldn’t do any good.


But wait.


Karl was human, right?


Tubbo still believed in his Exdee theory far more than he believed in the dreamon one.


Why would they go after Karl?


The theory he had before suddenly appeared in his head, and as he thought more about it, suddenly it all lined up.


 “The picture that he assumed to be of this one in their more human-like form was scribbled over, and he could not see it. But he could see the shapeshifter photo. Same as the others, but this time pink and with a spiral symbol. In this photo specifically, he seemed wary or scared.


He couldn’t tell what it was, but something about him seemed familiar.”


Karl always wore a hoodie with a spiral symbol. And the picture had seemed familiar too.


“I think.. It started with a K?”


“Yeah, yeah, it started with a K.”


The survivor shapeshifters name started with a K.


Karl.


There was also all of Karl’s odd behavior when it came to things about Exdee and the lab.


Tubbo was almost sure he had been hiding something when he told them about the moth note.


The only question was..


How?


According to Techno and Dream, the legend took place years ago.. Karl wasn’t old enough to be alive for that long. Nobody in town was.

“He might not even be in this timeline for all we know though.”


What did THAT mean?


‘Not in this timeline’?

Some sort of time travel thing?


Great, as if there wasn’t already enough magicy things with this ‘immortality’ stuff about Exdee.


Although.. Time travel did explain it well.


But if this was true, and so was Exdee being the one behind the disappearances..


..


This was bad. Really bad.


As trees whizzed past him, Tubbo continued to run alongside the others in the group, and noticed Tommy running up next to him to run by his side.


 And then Sapnap stopped, and everyone else began to stop as well, crowding around him to see his cause for stopping. The blaze born bent down and picked up a book–which Tubbo was able to recognize from here as Karl’s journal. A couple of gasps emerged from the crowd.


Sapnap clutched the book, an expression of rage appearing on his face.


 The blazeborn whipped around, a determined yet furious look on his face. “Everyone, search around the area for any clues, or anything!” He commanded. “But don’t go out of view of this spot. We don’t want anyone else getting taken.” Dream added in.


 Everyone nodded, then began to spread out in the small area, not going too far, each person look around. Tubbo went over to a nearby tree, and that was when he noticed the amount of overgrowth in the area.


 He recalled something Niki had once said. About how overgrowth was always good for hiding in, especially for her species which specialized in just that.


A feeling of unease washed through him.


“Tubbo, are you alright?” Tommy asked, walking up to him.


Tubbo turned to him. “Yeah—It’s just.. A gut feeling. Like something’s about to go wrong.”


Tommy nodded, but seemed concerned.


Then there was a shout, and the sound of clanging blades.


 The duo whipped around, seeing Dream clashing with an unknown, cloaked and shadowy figure, and others begin to pull out their weapons to come to his aid–when more opponents appeared from the overgrowth, engaging in combat with others in the group.


“It’s an ambush!” Dream shouted, before the sounds of fighting overwhelmed his voice.


 Tubbo pulled an axe he had been given in order to defend himself in case of something like this–he had called it bane of bees--that he had in his shulker box, something all shulkers had.


 He heard a noise behind him, and was able to jump out of the way as a cloaked figure grabbed at him, then spun around on his heel and lifted the axe to slash at them. They attempted to jump backwards, but still got hit. Something dark green splattered to the ground. Was that blood?


 Something then bumped into his back, and he looked back to see Tommy with his back to him, but turning to look at him too, wielding a sword. He grinned at him, before turning his head back to face his opponent then stepping forward with a yell and attacking them.


 Well, look’s like Tommy is going all out. Tubbo just barely dodged to the side as his injured opponent jabbed a dagger at him, then quickly attacked again before he could react, cutting his cheek, and he grimaced at the pain spreading on the left side of his face.


 The only issue with fighting with an axe was that it was slow, and his opponent was using a very fast weapon. So he needed to be smart about this. It was a good thing he and Tommy had dueled a few times with teachings from Techno, so he knew a thing or two about combat.


 He ducked as they jabbed at him again, then he kicked their leg to make them stumble, before standing fully up and flipping his axe around to hit them with the non-sharp part of the axe, in the head, and knocking them out. Personally, Tubbo was a pacifist, and would rather not kill unless necessary.


 He looked around, and it looked like they were winning. The cloaked people attacking them were being pushed back into the overgrowth, and he could see people like Dream, Sapnap and Techno haven taken out multiple, but everyone was holding their own and doing well, despite the limited space for combat. Techno was the closest to him.


 And as he watched, something seemed to change in Techno. Phil, who was battling close to him, looked over at him and said something in concern, but Tubbo wasn’t able to make it out with all the sounds overwhelming it.


 Techno stumbled, and his opponent stopped attacking him, instead just froze. But everyone else was too distracted attacking other of the attackers to notice. Phil was now at Techno’s side, wings spread to shield him from any attacks, speaking with worry.


Something was wrong.


 Tubbo ran through the area over to them, and trying to figure out what was wrong with Techno–there were no major injuries, enough to do something like this, as far as he could see. Tommy ran up behind him, “What’s wrong?” He asked.


“I don’t know. He’s acting weird.” Phil said.


And then Techno looked up, dropping the axe he was holding and looking at Tubbo.


There was a green glint in his blood red eyes.


 The piglin stood, shakily raising one hoofed, claw-like hand in the air, before swinging it towards Tubbo. Tommy and Phil both shouted in surprise and moved to stop him, but did not move fast enough, nor did Tubbo.


  A burst of pain spread across the right side of Tubbo’s face and across his nose, another scream rang out through the clearing, before the pain overwhelmed all of his senses, and the world blacked out…


 

Chapter Text

POV: Tubbo

Tubbo awoke to find himself in his room.

His first thoughts were the same as they were every morning when he woke up, and he was simply thinking it was just another normal day.

That was until he felt something on his face, as well as an aching pain underneath it, and reached up to find bandages all across the right side of his face.

That, and also Tommy sitting on a chair across the room, asleep. That'd probably hurt his neck when he woke up.

He was confused for a bit, and then he remembered.

The shriek that echoed through the forest.

An ambush, and battling.

The green glint in Techno's eyes before he attacked him, along side Techno's general strange behavior.

He would've assumed it to be a nightmare, if not for the clear proof of it in the form of what was undoubtedly a scar on the right side of his face.

He moved to try to sit up, and his hand collided with something fluffy. He managed to sit up, and looked at what it was he had touched, grabbing it and holding it.

It was a bee plushie. 

He glanced over as Tommy made a noise, beginning to awaken, and yawned.

Tommy blinked at him groggily for a moment, before his eyes widened. " Tubbo? " He murmured.

"Hey, Tommy." Tubbo smiled at him.

A wide grin spread across the humans features as he stood up, and in a moment he was wrapping his arms around the shulker, hugging him tightly. "You're awake!" He exclaimed. "I thought you fucking died or something!"

Tubbo let him hug him for a moment before he shoved Tommy off him. "One, don't choke the injured guy, Two, I could never die, Three, the bee plushie is now mine." His eyes sparkled playfully as he said the third part. Bees were awesome.

Tommy laughed. "Why do you think it's there? It’s obviously from your best friend." He grinned.

"Which one?" Tubbo raised a brow, purposefully trying to mess with him. Tommy's expression was worth it.

Tommy gaped at him, and boy his expression was fucking hilarious. "What do you mean which one? What other best friends do you got?" 

"Ranboo."  Tubbo deadpanned. 

"I am trying very hard not to punch you right now. I think Ponk would kill me if I attacked one of his patients." Tommy said, sounding very much like he was on the edge of murdering the shit out of someone.

Ah, well that explained a bit–well, the town of Essempii didn't really have a legit hospital, due to its incredibly small size and probably low funding, but there was a doctors office, and a town doctor, but usually they came to peoples homes instead–which was Ponk.

Everyone knew them, since he was the town doctor.

"I would literally skin you if you tried to attack me. Even in this state." Tubbo stared at Tommy, with a murderous look in his eye.

Tommy grimaced. "Okay, uh, anyways– uh, how you feeling?"

Tubbo laughed. "I'm feeling fine. But, do you know why Techno even attacked me?"

Tommy shook his head, a bit of worry appearing in his eyes. "No. But he passed out after that, and when he woke up, he said all he recalled was a nightmare. He's been normal since then but, some people have been scared of him. I know he visited you once while you were still unconscious and felt really bad about hurting you, even without him admitting it."

Tubbo pondered. "He only remembered a nightmare?" His mind began to wander, thinking. He remembered the green glint in his eyes. The look in them. They didn't look right. Not a look Techno would ever have, especially towards him. He didn't know Techno as well as Tommy did, but that didn't mean he wasn't at least kind of close with him.

"Its really weird, I'll be honest." Tommy rambled. "It didn't seem like something Techno would do–to just attack you out of nowhere. " He scratched his head, his confusion and concern obvious.

"As much as I would like to discuss and theorize this," Tubbo started, "I'm kind of tired, and like, injured and shit, so I think I might rest for now. But we will figure this out." He added, determined. Tommy nodded, agreeing.

"We'll figure it out together."

~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a few days since he had first woken up, and the search had taken a break.

Well, that was, most of the search had taken a break.

Ever since the incident with the ambush and Karl going missing, Sapnap had been restlessly searching, despite Dream and others concerned attempts to get him to take a break.

Meanwhile, Tommy and Tubbo had been discussing, trying to theorycraft and figure out what had happened to Techno that night.

They had spoken with Techno himself, who still said all he remembered was blacking out and having nightmares, as well as any witnesses like Phil, who simply just retold of Techno's strange behavior, the same as Tommy and Tubbo had seen. Although, Phil did mention how it happened after Techno's opponent landed a decent hit on him, and after Techno began to act weird, his opponent froze. Tubbo remembered noticing that, and it was strange.

They got the information they needed when the spoke to Dream. 

"Those cloaked figures attacking us?" Dream began, and the duo nodded. "I should've said this earlier, but I'm fairly certain those were dreamons. And if so, they must’ve been the ones behind Techno’s strange behavior.”


Of course Dream would know--Seriously, the guy knew everything when it came to dreamons.


“Dreamons? How would they do that?” Tommy tilted his head, confused. While, Tubbo, who had been researching dreamons awhile back when they found the clawmark, remembered something he had read. “Wait, I think I read somewhere that dreamons can like.. Possess people. Is that it?”


Dream nodded. “Yes. Dreamons can sort of ‘possess’ people, and the way they do it is by sending their consciousness into a dream state–which is where the dream part of their name comes in.”


“Once the person is in that dream state, a dreamon is able to take control of their body in place of them, since their consciousness is dreaming and therefore can’t control their body while they are asleep. Although, me and Drista can’t do it very well, mainly since we’re part dreamon.”


Tubbo nodded, taking in the information. So that was probably why Techno had that strange look in his eyes. It wasn’t him attacking him. It was a dreamon.


But now he was confused.


The fact that the ones who had ambushed them were dreamons, made some problems with the Exdee theory. Infact, it just added to Dream’s theory.


And why would Exdee be working with dreamons?


Or was the dreamon theory right, and Exdee was actually dead?


He must be missing something.


He needed to find out more.


But unfortunately, Ponk had stated he was still too injured to go out of town, incase another attack happened, and he doubted he could sneak away.


He would find it out eventually.


~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Tommy


Ever since the ambush, things had gotten even worse in Essempii.


Everyone was even more serious then ever, and Tommy was sick of it.


Although, he couldn’t really blame them–it was a pretty serious situation. But weren’t they taking a rest from all of that stuff ever since the ambush?


Well, yes, that was true. But people were also still preparing to continue the search, and there was the whole thing with Sapnap. So, yes and no.


Mostly it had just been him and Tubbo who were really taking a break. Although, it should be more Tubbo who was resting, since he was still recovering from Techno’s attack. But despite that, Tubbo was researching dreamons with Dream and Fundy, sometimes even Sapnap when he was in town. Not much of a rest, if you asked him.


But he still couldn’t blame him. Again, it was important.


And to be honest, he had been helping too. He was pretty worried about all the others who had disappeared. He didn’t want anything to happen to anyone else.


But still. Everyone needed a break at some point.


And that was Tommy’s goal.


He knew he couldn’t convince everyone, but the least he could do is help his family.


So Tommy had talked to Tubbo, and had planned what to do, he had talked to Wilbur, he had talked to Techno and Phil.


He had told them all to meet him at L’manberg. Well, except for Tubbo, who already knew his plan.


He had a plan.


Tommy opened the door to L’manberg, seeing everyone already there.


“Hey Tommy!” Tubbo greeted, running up to him. “Hi, Tubso!” Tommy grinned.


“Hi, Toms. What’d you need us for?” Wilbur asked.


“Wellllll…”


“I know everythings been so serious for so long, especially after the ambush, and I thought, ‘hey, everyone needs a break at some point’, but I knew I couldn’t convince everyone, so I thought, I could at least do it with you guys. And before you go, ‘we don’t have time for this, its a super serious situation’, we are doing this, cause as I said before, everyone needs a break, yadda yadda, come with me.” Tommy began to walk through the cafe, towards the door at the back to L’manbergs garden.


Wilbur, Techno and Phil exchanged glances and discussed a bit, before following. Tubbo followed as well.


Wilbur grabbed a parasol as they walked outside, so that the daylight wouldn’t burn him.


They followed Tommy around the cafe and into the forest, to a small grotto, encased by the greenery of the forest and hidden away.


A look of realization crossed Wilbur’s face as they entered, and he lowered the parasol since the tree canopy blocked most of the sunlight, while Techno and Phil looked around in wonder.


Around a year ago, after Schlatt had come to town and everything had happened with L’manberg and it’s ownership, Wilbur and Tommy had found this little area and claimed it as their own, a safe haven from any dangers.


They had named it Pogtopia.


Tommy sat down in the grass, leaning against a tree, and Tubbo came and stood near him. He waved his hand and a small shulker box appeared in a blink, and then one heartbeat later, a few other things appeared and fell to the ground, hitting the grass. The ground wasn’t hard enough for any of it to break.


Wilbur gasped as he saw his guitar as one of the objects that had appeared from Tubbo’s shulker box. “Hey, did you steal my guitar?!” The phantom hybrid ran over and grabbed it.


Tommy shrugged. “Hey, music is relaxing, and I know you well. I know if you wanted to relax, you’d probably want to play one of your songs.”


“So, you wanted me to play you a song.” Wilbur narrowed his eyes at him.


“No, I just know you so well.”


“Did you buy this? Or did you steal this?” Techno questioned, holding up a book of greek myths.


“Yea–wait- I bought it! I didn’t steal it!” Tommy exclaimed. Phil chuckled.


Tubbo sat down next to Tommy, holding some sort of machinery and tools to–well–Tommy didn’t really know what it was, or what he did with it, just that it was some mechanical thingy project.


“So. Basically, I’ve brought you all here so we can just chill and vibe. That sound fine?”


Phil nodded, smiling. “I mean, a break would be nice. Though, how did you convince Tubbo to do this, especially with Ranboo being one of the ones missing?”


“Well, all it took was my amazing charm and convincing skills–”


“He bribed me with the bee plushie and a whole bunch of other convincing.” Tubbo deadpanned.


“..Yes, that too.”

“Ah. I see.” Phil chuckled.


“What song should I play?” Wilbur asked, walking over to where Tommy and Tubbo sat and leaning against the tree as well. Techno came and sat down too, with Techno flipping open the book, and Phil simply began wandering the grotto with some of the crows that followed him around.


“Do Perfume!” Tommy said, excited. It was his favorite, especially cause he had his own small part in it. Wilbur grinned, then began to play. Of course, it sounded a bit different, since there wasn’t Wilbur’s whole band playing, just Wilbur and his guitar–but it was still the song.


Phil walked over and sat with them, having gathered some flowers and starting to make tiny flower crowns for the crows, as the sound of Wilbur’s guitar rang through the clearing.


“It’s 3:45..”


“AM!”

“And I just bite my tongue…


Update me on your life,


And now you’ve found the one….”


Tommy smiled brightly, humming along as Wilbur sang.


It was what he had wanted to achieve.


It was peaceful, they were all enjoying it.


And for once since everything had gone wrong, Tommy had felt at peace.

Chapter Text

POV: Tubbo

Another few days later, and Tubbo had finally gotten permission from Ponk to go out of town. 

His injury had left a scar on his face, and he was lucky he could still see out of that eye–for now he had been keeping the bandage on, just in case. Even though he could only see with one eye with it on, Ponk had insisted on it, so that it could fully heal.

Tubbo knew what he wanted to do when he left town.

Recently, Tubbo had begun researching dreamons, trying to learn all he could about them.

He had found Fundy had also been doing so, and so they made an agreement;

Once Tubbo could leave, they would try to track down a dreamon, and find out why they ambushed them. But the leads of the search group had said it was too dangerous for them to go looking for one on their own.

So they had convinced Sapnap to come with them. Well, it was pretty easy, as it basically lined up with what the blazeborn was already working on.

Sapnap had decided to meet them in a clearing in the forest that he had recently begun searching, so he could look around while he waited for them to arrive.

And that was what they were doing right now.

Tubbo could see the blazeborn moving around the clearing quickly, scouring the area for any clues. He paused as Fundy snuck up on him, and jumped from the overgrowth, attempting to scare him, which his reward for was a knife to the throat–which Sapnap quickly put down once he saw it was Fundy. The blazeborn had pretty quick reflexes.

"Oh–sorry Fundy." Sapnap apologized, putting the dagger away.

"Nah, it's fair. I jumped at you, should've expected that reaction." Fundy responded, smiling sheepishly as he brushed dirt off his jacket.

"So. You all ready for a dreamon hunt?" Tubbo asked, grinning. Fundy returned his grin, the fox hybrid nodding. 

"If this can give me any leads to where Quackity and Karl are, then of course." Sapnap said firmly.

"I'd say we have a good chance of that. According to Dream, the ones who ambushed us were dreamons. So we could assume they were the same ones behind the disappearances." Tubbo said. "Although, I don't believe it myself…" he murmured.

Fundy's ear twitched as he said, "What'd you say?"

Tubbo sighed. "To be honest, I personally don't believe it's dreamons behind it. Alongside a few other reasons, what reason would they even have to kidnap people?" He questioned. 

"You do have a point." Sapnap began to ponder.

"Well, there's the whole dreamon possession thing. Maybe they get something from it, and need to do it? So that's why they did it?" Fundy suggested. "All of the books and articles on dreamons never mentioned why they possess people." The fox hybrid sighed.

"That's a good idea, but I'm still unsure. I guess we'll just have to see."

And with that, the trio began to head out, towards where the ambush took place–to search for any leads.

The clearing they had been in wasn't too far from where the ambush happened, so it didn't take long to get there.

Soon they were looking over claw marks and signs of a battle, and he and Fundy paused at different marks to analyze them.

"I think we can say these were definitely dreamons–this looks like the dreamon claw mark that me, Dream and Karl found a while back." Tubbo stated.

"And based on my research, I'd say these tracks are also from a dreamon." Fundy said.

"So we at least know it was dreamons who attacked us." Sapnap said.

Tubbo nodded. "Yep."

"Do we know where each person disappeared?" Fundy asked. Tubbo shook his head. "The only places I know are where Ranboo and Quackity disappeared–and I've already looked there. For Ranboo, the only sign was some blood droplets–probably from an attack–and his discarded memory book. Any other traces were covered up before we got there."

"But Quackity just disappeared without a trace–and more, he was with Karl at the time. According to him, he disappeared in the blink of an eye–although later, when we began looking for Quackity, I think he said something about seeing something moving before he disappeared, and some colorful particles, but he didn't know if he was just seeing things. He didn't see anything else. We don't know about Jack or Karl, but we know the direction that Niki went in before she went missing."

Both Sapnap and Fundy listened closely, nodding. 

"So the culprit is good at hiding any traces of what they've done–well, most of time. Maybe they are very quick, which would explain the thing Karl saw. Maybe some sort of teleportation ability, so it could be an enderman, which also adds to the particles part." Fundy started.

"Basically, yeah." Tubbo nodded. Then an idea struck him. "Wait–there's still the part that dreamons attacked us, and the dreamon clawmark we found not long after Quackity went missing. With dreamon's ability to possess people, maybe one possessed an enderman and used their teleportation ability, and then let them go near the time of the clawmark, or something else happened." 

Fundy perked up. "You're a genius ! Yeah, that must be it!"

Sapnap nodded. "Only issue is, enderman are kind of rare. The only one I know of that's from around here is Ranboo. The closest town to ours I know has one, but it's too far for us to go on foot–"

"So an enderman could teleport the way there and back!" Tubbo exclaimed.

"Oh. Yeah." Sapnap said. "I remember around the time Quackity went missing, someone said something about how a lost enderman came to town, and was asking for directions to the closest town—that must've been them after the dreamon let them go."

"Yes! Oh my goodness. It's all coming together–it all makes sense now! Well.. Almost everything." Tubbo began to ponder. "We still don't really know why dreamons would do this. There's of course Fundy's idea." Tubbo gestured to the fox hybrid, who nodded eagerly. "But we don't have any confirmation on that being a thing."

"Why don't we just ask Dream? You said he knows a lot about dreamons, right?" Sapnap suggested.

Tubbo nodded. "Good idea! We can ask him."

They began to leave, but the sound of grass crunching made them stop in their tracks.

~~~~~~~~~~

POV: Niki

Niki had come back to the main cave where all of them had been staying. All of the others except for Ranboo had been out searching, and Quackity was in the next cave down with Karl–who was still pretty freaked out and on edge since he had first gotten here, and Quackity and occasionally some of the others had been trying to calm him down or comfort him. None of them knew exactly why he was so panicked, but they could guess.


As she moved to sit down against the wall across the room from a sleeping Ranboo, the enderman hybrid began to move, opening his mouth and beginning to yawn before he froze, opening his eyes wide.


Niki stared, wondering what had happened, but trying to avoid eye contact–knowing how endermen dislike it, even if Ranboo didn't mind it as much as other endermen.


But she couldn’t help notice.


Both of Ranboo’s eyes were green.


And then the enderman hybrid disappeared in a flash of purple particles.


~~~~~~~~~~


POV: Tubbo

Sapnap spun around, unsheathing his sword that had been strapped to his belt. "Who's there?" He yelled. "Show yourself!"


Tubbo summoned his axe from his shulker, and Fundy unsheathed a sword he had, like Sapnap.


There was movement in the trees, and Tubbo froze as he swore something moved from tree to tree, closer to them. Sapnap looked around, still holding his sword, ready to attack the potential threat. 

The trio waited, and nothing happened for a couple heartbeats.


Fundy's ears flicked up as a cloaked figure peeked at them from behind a tree.


It was sort of creepy, with the way they tilted their head curiously at them. They didn’t move.


A heartbeat later, as Tubbo studied under the hood, trying to make out any features but ultimately failing, the figure turned and dashed away.


“After them!” Tubbo yelled, sprinting to catch up to the figure. “It might be one of the dreamons who ambushed us–they wore cloaks like that!” Sapnap and Fundy followed after him.


The trio chased the person through the forest, until they finally entered a cave. The three of them stopped, it was too dark to see. The one they were chasing stopped as well, almost completely submerged in the darkness.


Tubbo took a step towards them, and they didn’t move. So he went up the them, and pulled the cloak off.


He gasped.


The person turned their head to face him, and a freckled face with a smiley mask on the side of their head and green eyes stared at him.


It was Dream.


But something was off.


The look in his eyes..


A green glint…


It was like the look in Techno’s eyes before he attacked Tubbo during the ambush.


“What– Dream, what are you doing?” Sapnap questioned, stepping forward with confusion and worry written on his face. Fundy watched with the same expression.


“Don’t go near him–I think he’s possessed–like Techno was when he attacked me.” Tubbo said rapidly, warning them.


Sapnap turned his head to face him, confusion spreading across his face. “How does a dreamon get possessed by a dreamon?!”


“I don’t know how it works, but I know it’s possible.” Tubbo said.


Fundy nodded. “Yeah, according to some articles I’ve read, that can happen. Especially with people who are part dreamon.” The fox hybrid added.


“So what do we do?” Sapnap asked.


Tubbo and Fundy exchanged glances, then nodded.


Tubbo summoned two hoes from his shulker–according to his research, if he made a line or anything in the ground with this, dreamons could not pass the line or whatever shape he drew--He tossed Fundy one, and he caught it.


“What– why do you have those?” Sapnap questioned. Tubbo and Fundy stepped out of the cave and into the grass, and began to draw a large circle in the ground around them with the hoes. “Sapnap, step into the circle. Dreamons shouldn't be able to pass through it, so it means we’re safe.”


Sapnap nodded, seeming suspicious of all of this, and stepped inside the circle. “What do we do now?” He asked.


“Well, according to our research, dreamons hate iron, something like that–I assume it’s probably because its a weakness to them or something.” Tubbo said, pulling three iron swords out of his shulker and tossing two to Sapnap and Fundy. “Only issue with using it, is Dream himself is also part dreamon–so we need to be careful not to hurt him too much, if at all–I’d say just try to scare the dreamon.” Fundy chimed in. Sapnap nodded. “Alright.”


Dream began to move forward, the odd, dazed look in his eyes with the green glint stayed the same–it was sort of eerie. Eventually, he stopped in front of the circle they had drawn, but did not move past it. He began to stalk around the circle, never crossing the line they had drawn.


“It’s working!” Tubbo said gleefully, smirking at Dream. As Dream approached the side where Fundy stood, Fundy glanced at Tubbo, and he sent him a nod. Fundy then jabbed the iron sword near Dream–not close enough to hit him, but close enough for it to be a warning. Dream jerked back, away from the sword, and made some sort of growly noise at him. Fundy blinked at him, retracting the sword a bit.


“So, are we just suppose to.. scare the dreamon out of him?” Sapnap questioned, a confused look on his face.


“Pretty much–I didn’t have enough space in my shulker or my bag, or the resources for the things for an actual dreamon exorcism.” Tubbo sighed. “So this is probably the next best thing. Also, try to whisper. We don’t want them to know our plan.” He murmured.


“Maybe we could try to.. Tire them out? Yknow, play the long game? Or try to knock him out? Without hurting Dream too much, of course.” Fundy offered quietly.


“Thats a good idea, but no guarantee if it will work. And if we tried to tire it out, that’d be pretty much impossible–there was a book in the library that said dreamons have a boost in energy when they possess someone, probably cuz they are in another's body–and adrenaline and shit-the only way you could tire them out is to wait for the adrenaline to end, or for the person who is possessed to already be tired.” Tubbo whispered. “And knocking him out might be too risky.”


“But it’s the only idea we have. Any other ideas?” Fundy asked, looking at the two of them. Both Tubbo and Sapnap shook their heads.


“Alright. Then I guess we’re gonna have to go with that. Uhm, but how are we gonna do it?”


“Maybe one of us could leave the circle and fight him, and try to knock him out.” Tubbo suggested.


Fundy shook his head. “I’m definitely not doing that. Have you seen how skilled Dream is? There’s no way we could beat him! Even if he is possessed by a dreamon, he’s still strong!”


“I could do it.” Sapnap offered. “We duel all the time, and a few times I’ve won.”


“Alright. Go ahead.” Tubbo said. Sapnap then began to move towards the edge of the circle, where Dream was watching them. “Good luck.” Tubbo whispered. Sapnap smiled at him, then turned, and adjusted his grip on the sword and charged toward Dream.


Dream pulled a netherite dagger out just in time to block the attack. Tubbo had noticed how Dream always seemed to use weapons that weren’t iron when in combat—whether that be stone for more calm duels with his friends, or netherite for more serious combat situations, such as the ambush.


Sapnap and Dream began to battle, the sounds of their blades clashing filling the clearing as Tubbo and Fundy watched, hoping Sapnap would successfully knock him out, even though with a dagger Dream was faster. But as Sapnap continued to attack, without putting full force behind the attack, Dream continued to parry his attempts.


This continued on for a while, but then Dream moved to dodge one of Sapnap’s attacks, and then jabbed his dagger towards Sapnap, slicing a cut in the blaze born’s shoulder. Sapnap winced, and stepped backward, but held his sword back up in a defensive position.


As Dream was about to attack again, Sapnap charged forward, turning his sword a bit in his hand and bonking Dream with the flat side of the blade, hard enough to knock him out and only make a small cut of the sharp part if the blade ended up hitting him.


Dream then collapsed, falling to the ground, and a shadowy entity appeared where he was standing, before dashing away into the forest before any of them could react. Tubbo frowned as the escaped, knowing he wouldn't get the chance to interrogate them like he'd hoped-and figure out why dreamons had ambushed them, or anything about where the missing had gone.


“Dream!” Sapnap shouted, move to his friend’s side. He checked his pulse, and let out a sigh, then checked where he had hit him. “Well, he’s just unconscious. This will probably bruise though.” He stated. “Is the dreamon gone?” The blaze born turned to Tubbo and Fundy, who let out a sigh of relief after the entity had sprinted away.


“Yep. That shadowy thing we just saw was probably them. We should take Dream back to town.” Tubbo suggested. "And also, you should probably get Ponk to look at that." Tubbo gestured to his injury, and grimaced. Sapnap nodded, and grabbed Dream, carrying him on his back, and they began to head back in the direction of town.


Tubbo froze as he heard the vwoop sound of an enderman teleporting, and spun around to see Ranboo grab Fundy’s shoulder, before disappearing in a flash as Fundy yelped in surprise.


He appeared and was gone too quickly for any of them to react, aside from Tubbo gasping and letting out a, “Ranboo?!”


But Tubbo had seen Ranboo’s eyes before he had vanished alongside the fox hybrid who had been with them previously.


Ranboo’s eyes were both green, with a dazed look in them.


Just like Dream and Techno’s eyes with the green glint in them.


A million thoughts went through Tubbo's mind as he began to process what had just happened.

Chapter Text

POV: Niki

Some days had gone by, and Karl had mostly calmed down. He was still on edge, and reasonably so–Niki had been trying to stay calm for most of the time, and so was everyone else, but of course it was scary in a situation like this.

On top of that, three more had joined them in the past few weeks.

Fundy had been teleported here by Ranboo when Ranboo’s eyes had gone green, he didn’t know what had happened though, none of them did.

And sometime afterward, the ones of the group exploring the tunnels had found George and Foolish.

There were now eight of them here, and Niki wondered how many more would end up here before they found a way out–or were rescued.

Fundy was among the ones of them who were more freaked out, but he had been trying his best to stay calm. Foolish was being optimistic, and George… well, whenever he wasn’t sleeping, he was pretty chill.

Ranboo was also pretty freaked out by the situation, but had been trying not to freak out. Though, that had all gone down the drain after Fundy had gotten here. He had felt really bad about it, although none of them even knew what happened.

Though Ranboo had mentioned he thought he fell asleep or blacked out, had a nightmare before waking up and then Fundy was there. Which just made more questions.

Niki was currently wandering the tunnels alone, seeking some sort of answer to her questions.

She didn’t know if she’d find them.

They had recently found a new branch of tunnels (Which hadn’t been there earlier. Ranboo had started theorizing based on what that ‘overseer’ guy had said, that they were in some other dimension or realm and the place was constantly shifting or changing, or just expanding. Probably the last part.) and Niki had planned to explore them.

They were relatively close to the last place Niki and Jack had found something… notable.

It was the time they overheard a conversation between an entity similar to the overseer she’d met, and another man. That area was pretty far in, and very dark.

The farther in she went, the darker it became. A while ago, early on when it was just Her, Jack, Ranboo and Quackity, they’d been able to find some resources–a lush cave with glowberries, which were edible, meaning they wouldn’t starve, and some water in there as well, and they had found some gravel and flint and later iron, and eventually were able to make torches, and then when Foolish and Fundy showed up, they helped make some makeshift lanterns. That was the main reason she was able to see.

As they explored more, it seemed like a normal cave system, and the darkness they assumed was just because they were underground, and there was no natural light. Ranboo had been worried they’d run out of glowberries, especially with the growing number of people in these caves, but they’d fortunately been able to find another, larger lush cave.

Things were decent for now.

The group had set up a makeshift base in the cavern she had first woken up in, and Foolish had begun working on using some of the limited resources they could find in the cavern to make it look a little nicer, she’d noticed the other merling liked doing things like that. (Foolish was a shark merling hybrid. Hybrid, as in, he had some golden scales/freckles. He wore a blue veil, unlike Niki’s currently red one.)

He had done a good job making it more homely, making some beds out of moss and trying to carve out outcroppings in the rock with a handmade picaxe for shelves and places to store things, and even in this situation, things were.. Alright.

Her only issue was with torches.

Both she and Foolish had trouble using the torches, so before Foolish had made the lanterns, usually she had paired up with someone to hold the torch, as the fire dried her out too much and was just generally not great. The lanterns on the other hand, whilst still produced some heat, the glass he had been able to make with some sand he’d found somewhere and lava was able to trap most of it inside, and made it at least bearable to use.

She waved the lantern around, reaching it up to light up the tunnel as she walked, looking around for anything.

The light lit up a few mushrooms, and she sighed, continuing on–wait.

She paused, staring at it.

The mushroom was not a color she’d ever seen.

It was some sort of.. Blue-green color, with orange spots.

Some story she’d once heard Bad tell them all over a campfire came to her mind. Of a blazing hot world, with red and teal forests.

He had called it the nether.

Teal forests.

The mushroom was pretty much a teal color.

She knew other dimensions were a thing, but nowadays, getting to those other dimensions was expensive. Or dangerous, if you were willing to go through the effort to get a bunch of obsidian. Nobody really went there anymore.

Curious, Niki picked up the mushroom, setting it in a jar she had in her bag when she had been with the search party.

She’d see if any of the others knew anything about it when she got back.

She wondered how all the others were.

She continued to walk onward, not finding anything else remarkable, until the tunnel expanded out into a large cavern. Some glowberry vines grew from the ceiling and hung down, lighting up the area. So she set down the lantern, the berries providing enough light.

But then she sent a second glance at the vines, and something seemed different.

..

Those… weren’t glowberries.

They were some sort of… glowing green… strings?

She looked forward.

Infront of her, the room was swallowed by black.

She picked up the lantern and stepped forward, lifting it to light up the shadows.

The shadows didn’t budge.

It was like.. An abyss. She stepped forward, cautiously yet curiously, and set the lantern down on it.

It was still dark, but solid.

The tunnel in front of her was completely enveloped by the void, aside from the occasional green string things hanging down or pooling in small knots on the floor.

They seemed like the only way to tell where one was going in there.

So, she walked over to where several of the strings were hanging, and pulled her knife out of her bag, and reached up to cut it off, and tied the two strings together.

She tied one end of the string to a stalagmite near the abyss, and the other end around her wrist. This should be long enough for her to explore a decent bit.

She had come this far, and while she could reason she should probably tell someone before venturing into unknown danger, she just had a feeling that there was.. Something in there.

Well, that just added to the “you should tell someone” thought process.

It was more like, some sort of voice in her head urging her to go in alone.

Which was pretty concerning.

But yet she still listened to it.

She left the lantern behind, knowing it’d be useless, and began to venture into the abyss.

As she walked, watching around cautiously, thinking, this was a bad idea, she couldn’t really see anything except for the string and.. Herself.

It was really like a void. She could see her own hands and feet, and the string, and the darkness didn’t seem to affect that.

It was so weird.

She reached forward with her other hand, the one that had not been tied to the string, and felt it touch something. There was some rock in front of her, although she could not see it. Was it even rock? What was it?

The room seemed to be getting smaller here, into a small tunnel, and she continued to walk, with one hand trailing along the wall.

Eventually, her hand moved into open air as the room opened back up into a big cavern.

She peeked around the edge, peering around and–

There was a man there.

There was someone standing in the darkness, with their back to her.

She recognized him.

It was the one she saw speaking with that entity. About finding some moth.

“Greetings, Merling.” A voice echoed around the void, and the man turned his head, just enough so she could see the side of his face– the left side. The side without the black spread across it.

He knew she was here.

“Who are you?” She questioned, stepping into the room. The string pulled at her wrist, it had reached its limit–so she untied it, leaving it where she knew she could see it–for when she had to leave.

The man chuckled. “Well.. most people call me..”

He turned, so she could see the side of his face. He smiled.

“Exdee.”

Niki froze. She remembered that name.

She had heard it after Ranboo had first gone missing.

When they were beginning to search.

Tommy and Tubbo had spoken of a legend, with someone..

Named Exdee.

She shivered as she recalled the story.

“And you are?” He turned fully, asking. The other half of his face, the right side, was completely consumed by black–it blended in perfectly with the void around them.

She narrowed her eyes. “..Are you the reason why we’re here?” She asked. She was wary of him, based on the story she had been told….he was not a good person. Her hand itched to reach into her bag and pull out her dagger, but Niki did not move. She didn’t want to cause a scene.

“Well, straight to the point. Won’t even tell me your name… you remind me of someone I know.” He smiled. The look in his eyes as he spoke.. A cruel smile. With every minute that passed, she grew more and more certain that what Tommy and Tubbo spoke of him was true. 

“Just answer the question.” She snapped. “I’ve heard about you, and it’s not good things.”

Exdee hummed. “Heard things.... Not good things? Some people don’t like me I guess.” He sighed. “But yes.”

She froze. “You are the one behind all of this?” She repeated.

He smiled that same smile, a taunting look in his eyes as he smirked. “It's a bit complicated, but yes. It’s rather lonely down here, thought I’d bring myself some company. And why not let them be something.. Interesting?” He grinned.

She scowled at him. “ Interesting? ” She echoed. He nodded. “Yes. Hybrids like you are so… fascinating. Learning about interesting things is always nice.”

“‘Interesting’? ‘Fascinating’? Is that all you see us as? Something to learn about? A science project?” She said, upset. This guy was seriously getting on her nerves.

“Perhaps.” He shrugged. “I can’t help but be curious though.”

Niki reached into her bag, pulling out her dagger and jabbing it toward him threateningly. “Tell me how to get out of here.”

She didn’t like making threats, but it felt necessary in this situation. I mean, they had no idea where they were, or how to get out. And based on what she’d heard.. She did not like him. His general behavior so far wasn’t helping.

It almost reminded her of the situation with Schlatt. He was cruel–a horrible man. These two weren’t the same, but similar enough.

“No can do.” Exdee shook his head, still smiling. She narrowed her eyes. “I’ve made.. A deal, you could say. It’s part of the reason why I’m alive, infact.” He laughed. “I’m not about to break that deal.”

“A deal? Is that the part in the legend about ‘immortality’?” Niki asked.

“Sort of… again, bit complicated.” He shrugged. “Didn’t know they wrote legends about me though. Guessing that’s the story you heard. Tell me, who told you this legend?” He titled his head.

“Why would I tell you that? After you’ve trapped me and my friends here?” She scowled.

“Fair point.” He stepped backward. She held her grip on her dagger firm, stepping forward. “Although, I think I have an idea of who first spread the story.” He smiled.

“I’m guessing you know most of my story if there’s a legend. Scientist, lab, went missing?” She nodded. “You forgot the detail about how cruel you were.”

He smiled sheepishly. “Wow. Guess he really hated me.” Niki stared at him. “Who?” She questioned.

“One of my old co workers. He was the one who got me stuck here. Also one of the ones who helped all of the test subjects escape..” He mumbled, and a furious expression crossed his face for a moment and he scowled. “Including the little moth..”

“Moth?”

He looked back up at her, expression returning back to that same taunting smile. “It’s a nickname I gave to my favorite subject. He never told me his name, and so I nicknamed him based on his moth or butterfly wing shaped ears. I guess I just liked the sound of Moth more then butterfly.”

Exdee continued to talk, rambling a bit. “He was a shapeshifter–a new species of them, an unknown one that me and two of my coworkers were researching. They could create these portals… portals that bended time. It was so.. Strange.. And fascinating.”

A strange look crossed his face. “Oh. and Funfact; The little moth is alive, and used those portals to time travel to the future.”

“In fact, to your timeline.” He continued.

She stared at him. “What are you saying?”

Exdee chuckled.

“He’s already here among you.” He smiled.

She stared at him with wide eyes. “What–”

“Oh, and look at the time, I’ve got to go–good night.” He waved, and Niki felt something grab her wrist. She whipped around, the silhouette of a shadowy creature barely visible, reminding her of the overseer in their other form, but with green eyes. All of a sudden, she felt sleepy. The green eyes blinked at her, before closing and fading into the darkness.

Niki turned back, blinking sleep from her eyes, and Exdee was gone. Tired, she put her dagger in her bag, and grabbed the green string, following it back, but her eyelids grew heavier as she walked and..

She yawned, and when she opened her eyes again, the green string was gone.

She was floating in an abyss.

She blinked again, and suddenly she was in a desert.

She could feel the sun rays beaming down on her. She reached up to her face–her veil was gone. It was horrible. She began to run, looking for any source of water, even though it was probably fruitless if she was in a desert.

How was she here? Wasn’t she in a cave moments ago?

On the horizon, she saw a town.

She hurried towards it. It seemed familiar.

As she approached, Niki recognized the town.

It was Essempii. But instead of surrounded by trees and greenery, it was in a desert.

She hurried into town, panting. She saw people walking around as usual, going about their day. It was like the times before Ranboo had gone missing. When everyone was cheerful and not worried about all of these things going wrong. Only difference was the forest was gone.

She searched for the nearest water source, and her eyes caught on someone.

Wilbur.

She hurried toward him.

“Wilbur– what’s happening? How are we here? Why is Essempii in a desert?!” She asked rapidly.

The phantom hybrid didn’t respond. He just kept walking as if he never heard her.

Was he ignoring her?

She reached forward and grabbed his hand. “Wilbur! Listen to me!”

Wilbur turned, and looked her in the eye, and slapped her hand away, and continued to walk away.

She stared after him, astonished.

Wilbur had never been like this to her.

Did she.. Do something wrong?

She looked as another person passed by. Tommy.

“Tommy! Hey–” She shouted, trying to catch his attention. He shot her a look, and scowled. “Fuck off.” He hissed, and stomped away. She stared at him. Tommy was never like that to her either.

Niki continued to try to talk to everyone she could, trying to figure out what was going on.

Everyone she spoke to reacted similarly.

They either ignored her, or told her to go away.

Something was wrong.

What’d she do?

Why did they all seem to hate her?

She had only ever been kind to them.

She jumped as someone bumped into her, turning around to see a black and white enderman hybrid.

Ranboo looked up at her. “Niki? Wake up!” He shouted, concern clear in his voice.

“What– Ranboo?” He wasn’t acting like the others. “Wake up!” He repeated.

“Niki!”

Niki gasped, her eyes opening. Her blue eyes met red and green ones. She looked away, not wanting to make the enderman hybrid uncomfortable.

“Wha– What happened?” She asked, rubbing her head.

“I don’t know. I found you wandering the tunnels. I thought you were coming back–but something seemed off about you. And then you collapsed. I was able to wake you up.” Ranboo said, nervous.

“Hey, I’m here too!” Jack waved from behind Ranboo. “You were acting kind of like Ranboo was when he disappeared and reappeared with Fundy.” He stated.

She stared at him, and she couldn't help but wonder...

What happened?

Chapter Text

POV: Niki

“So let me get this straight.” Jack began, staring Niki straight in the eyes.

“One of us is some kind of shapeshifter, who is also a fucking time traveler, who lived through the whole legend of Exdee, and then time traveled into our timeline, and this person is one of us?!” The weather wisp exclaimed, a bit of electricity crackling in the already tense atmosphere.

“According to Exdee, yes.” Niki nodded, her feathery gills twitching as the electricity sparked.

“Do we even know if he’s telling the truth? He could just be trying to mess with us.” Ranboo chimed in, tail flicking back and forth.

“That’s a good point. I mean, the legend did say he was, like, a terrible person. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did something like that.” Fundy said.

Niki shook her head. “You guys have good points, but I think he was telling the truth–especially based on what me and Jack overheard from him and the overseer-looking guy. Either it’s true, or they’re taking very far measures to trick us.”

“Well, if it is true… We can try to figure out who it is?” Quackity suggested. “I mean, as far as I can tell we’ve had no luck getting out soo. We have all the time in the world pretty much.” The avian shrugged. “It’d be kind of fun.”

Foolish nodded, grinning. “Investigations are always pretty fun.” George yawned, the mooshroom seeming about to fall asleep. “Do I have to be awake for this?” He asked sleepily.

“Nah, Gogy I think you’re fine. I think we can immediately cross him off.” Jack grinned. They all nodded, agreeing.

“Alright, wake me up if you make any important discoveries.” The mooshroom mumbled, before standing up and wandering over to the cave where Foolish had put all the moss beds.

“Alright.” Fundy clapped, everyones eyes moving to him. “Let’s start with a few questions; Who got here after Jack and Niki overheard the conversation with Exdee and the overseer-looking-person?”

“I think.. Right after was Karl, then you, then Foolish and George.” Niki said, counting on her fingers.

All eyes went over to Karl, who was asleep with his head on Quackity’s shoulder—he hadn’t been sleeping well, mainly due to all of the nightmares they all had been seeming to get recently. He seemed especially freaked out by them, so they had agreed to just let him rest through the meeting. (Well, mostly Quackity insisting to not disturb his sleep. Although he had just let him sleep on his shoulder rather than moving him to the room with the actual beds. Well, moss beds.)

“You think it’s him?” Fundy tilted his head.

A concerned expression crossed Quackity’s face. “Honestly, I’d hope not. What happened in the legend sounds horrible. But I guess maybe it makes a bit of sense.. Karl’s the only one here who is human. Could always be he shapeshifted into that form..” He shrugged.

“Although, we have no evidence to prove that.” Fundy stated. “We’d have to ask him, and well- he’s asleep. For all we know he could actually be human, and it was just a coincidence that he ended up here. It could be someone else. It wouldn’t hurt to investigate each person anyway.”

“Good point.” Niki smiled. Fundy turned to Ranboo. “Are you this time traveler guy?” He questioned, narrowing his eyes at the enderman hybrid. “Cause you seem like the kind of person who’d be like that. I don’t know, just a hunch.” The fox hybrid shrugged, and Ranboo grinned nervously. “Plus, we have absolutely no clue what your other half is, and if you were the shapeshifter, that could be a lie you made up to hide your identity as a shapeshifter!” Fundy exclaimed, seeming excited by the theory. It only seemed to make Ranboo more nervous.

The enderman hybrid shook his head. “Nah. Believe me, I would tell you something like that right now if i was them. I don’t know what the other half of me is, it’s no lie.” He corrected.

Fundy studied him for a moment, but then nodded. “Alright, you seem to be telling the truth. And also, you don’t seem like you could keep a secret.” He remarked.

Ranboo sighed. Fundy then turned to Foolish. “What about you? It could be the same as my Ranboo theory. You’re a shark merling, and have some cool weird golden scale things. That could also be a shapeshifter thing!” He theorized.

Foolish laughed. “As cool as shape shifting and time travelling would be, It’s not me. The golden scales are just a family thing, I’m pretty sure. Although, I don’t actually know where we got them from.”

The merling put on a more serious expression for a moment. Foolish was different from most shark merlings Niki knew, as most had blue-grey scales–and while he did have those color of scales, he also had golden ones and golden strands in the brunette's hair, and remarkable emerald green eyes. It was different, but she had always thought his different look was nice.

She herself had pink scales, and a few minty, pale blue-green colored ones here and there alongside the pink scales freckling her cheeks.


Fundy nodded, listening. “Alright then, that’s two people down..” He scanned over the rest of the people in the room, staring intensely.


Eventually, the fox hybrid shrugged, and sighed. “I’ve got nothing. Nobody else out of all of you seem.. Out of the ordinary. Uh, no offense you two.” He sent a sheepish glance to the two he had just previously questioned, Foolish and Ranboo, and they just said it was fine.

“So.. what now?” Quackity asked. “Do we go around and ask each person one by one? Do we just assume? Wait until Karl wakes up to ask him?” 

Fundy shrugged. “I don’t know, but probably that last one.”

Fundy’s ear twitched as the sound of wind echoed through the cave, and then the small flames in the make-shift lanterns flickered, and faded out, plunging the group into darkness.

They all jumped to their feet, a few panicking at the wind in the cave, or being hopeful some sort of exits opened up. Niki blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness as the others, aside from Ranboo and Foolish, stumbled around in the dark, trying to find flint and steel and the lanterns to relight them.

She could only just barely make out the silhouettes of everyone. Which was.. odd.

There was more and more loud chatter, and people tripping over each other, or different objects, things getting knocked over.

Niki began to make her way past the mess, towards where she knew was one of the lanterns, and pulled flint and steel out of her pocket.

And then a spark as she scratched the flint and steel, and then another, and a small flame lit up the room from a lantern.

Many people let out sighs of relief.

That was the first thing she noticed.

The second thing she noticed, was that Karl was awake, and very confused about what just happened.

The third thing she noticed, was someone gasping, and then she turned around and saw—

Ranboo’s eyes were green again.

On top of that, Foolish was nowhere to be seen.

And then Quackity, who was in the tunnel inbetween the main cave and the cave where they all slept was, shouted, “Where’s George?!”

Ranboo tilted his head, and blinked green eyes, and a dazed expression at them all, swaying a tiny bit in an odd motion as if in some sort of trance or something, and then disappeared in a puff of purple particles.

Niki spun around, and began to form a plan in her head.

“Whatever this is—is happening again. Everyone, pair up and look for Ranboo and whoever else is gone!” She told them. Everyone nodded. They had usual pairs for searching the tunnels, but with a few people gone, there ended up being a group of five as Fundy joined her and Jack, and Quackity and Karl went together.

Chatter arose as the groups began to move and gather supplies, preparing for a small search mission, and whatever happens along the way.

Chapter Text

POV: Tommy

A week had passed, and new search groups had formed.


They had decided to group up in bigger numbers, and search in pairs, after a few had gone missing while searching alone, even if they weren’t far from the rest of their group.


Tommy and Tubbo were apart of Phil and Sam’s team.


The two of them had wanted to pair up, and Tubbo had wanted to go to the lab to speak with the shapeshifter spirits.


It took a lot of convincing to get Phil and Sam to let them explore together–since they were both “children”--which he wasn’t a child–it wasn’t safe. But after a lot of convincing, they had been able to search together.


Their group had ended up exploring the area near the lab, since Phil and Sam’s old groups had explored elsewhere, and Dream thought they should move to a new area to look.


So they were currently heading along a familiar path in the forest, to the lab.


They reached it quickly, entering the clearing, and then into the lab.


They walked down the halls, and when nobody appeared, Tubbo began to call for them.


“Diana? Sable? Tri? Hello? Are you there?!” Tubbo shouted, his voice echoing around the room. No response. Tommy began to join in as they called the three spirit’s names.


After a bit of yelling, someone appeared–They were clearly of the same species as the three species, except this time they were purple, with blue and pink freckles, and streaks in their hair, with the same yellow eyes–They, and the other three spirits wore a sort of cloak thing that was the same colors as the hoodies they wore in their human forms, but with a button with their symbol on it–This one had a star symbol.


“Hello–Are you two.. Tommy and Tubbo? The others told me about you. I’m Nova.” The spirit greeted, holding out a hand to shake, before retracting it. “Ah– right, you can’t really touch me. Habit.” They chuckled.


“Nice to meet you Nova! I think the other three mentioned you. Yes, We’re Tommy and Tubbo!” Tubbo nodded. “I’m Tubbo, and–”


“I’m Tommy.” Tommy finished for him, grinning confidently.


“Nice to meet you two as well.” Nova smiled. “What did you need the others for?” They tilted their head, curiosity in their golden eyes.


“We just wanted to ask some questions.” Tommy said. “Well–Tubbo did. I’m just here along with him cuz’ we had to pair up.” He shrugged.


Nova nodded. “What about?”


Tubbo began to speak then, as well as walk–Tommy and Nova followed him. “I wanted to check the files in Exdee’s office as well–and ask about him and the other shapeshifter–the one who lived.”


Nova’s eyes widened a bit. “Oh– him.” They looked down for a moment, many emotions crossing their face. “Exdee—there’s a legend about him, right?”


Tommy nodded. “Yeah. Basically told about how terrible he is.”


Nova hummed. “Well, that’d give you an idea of what he’s like. There’s not much I can add to it. But…”

“But?” Tubbo echoed, glancing at them.


“I’m fairly certain he’s alive.”


“Well. Guess that confirms things. We were already guessing he was alive.” Tommy rolled his eyes.


“I still don’t understand the part with dreamons though.” Tubbo thought outloud.


“Dreamons?” Nova repeated. “I’m not sure about that either.” The spirit murmured, floating alongside the duo.


“Oh–we’re here.” Tubbo stated, and they looked at the wood-looking door to an office, with a name written on it; Exdee.


Tubbo reached forward, and turned the knob, pulling open the door, and stepped inside.


Tommy looked around the room at the different things splayed on the desk, and the green strings hanging from the ceiling. “What’s with these strings?” He reached up and pulled down one of the strings, and examined it. “Weird. It’s like yarn, but.. Is it glowing?” He narrowed his eyes at the string. Nova floated up next to him. “It.. does look like it's glowing. Or just.. Standing out in the room?.. Somehow.” They tilted their head, their confusion as clear as day.


Tubbo glanced over at the string, furrowing his brow. “Hm. That is weird.” He walked over, looking at it. “It is strange.” He hummed, then turned back around toward a file on one of the tables.


“Watcha looking at?” Tommy asked, walking over to him and looking down at the file. One of the pictures was scribbled out. There was no name stated for the person, only ? ? ? and Subject 0027.


“Oh! That’s the person you talked about!” Nova said. Tommy jumped, shouting, “When did you get there?!” Nova chuckled. “Sorry.”


“Do you know their name?” Tubbo asked.


Nova looked down at the scribbled over image. They lifted their hand, and brushed over it–the scribbles, which Tommy could now identify as some sort of..liquid..or powder..or.. something.. was brushed off.


Tommy and Tubbo both let out a loud gasp, with Tubbo’s antennae and long enderman-like ears shooting up.


“The other spirits–they said his name started with a K, right? I’m pretty sure his name is Karl , in your language.” Nova stated.


Tommy recognized the person in the photo as Karl Jacobs.


“Wait- so- Oh my prime , it all makes so much more sense!” Tubbo exclaimed. “With how weird he always acted whenever Exdee was mentioned!”


“You know him?” Nova asked quickly. Both Tommy and Tubbo nodded. “He lives in the same town as us. Karl Jacobs. I thought he was human until now..” Tommy said.


Tubbo nodded. “Same.”


“But how is he even here ?? Didn’t all this lab stuff happen, like, I don’t know, decades ago?!” Tommy exclaimed.


“I think the files mentioned your species have some sort of.. Time travel ability?” Tubbo said, gesturing to Nova, who nodded. “Yeah. If he is really alive in your timeline, he must’ve travelled to this timeline and stayed.”


Nova then paused. “Is.. there a chance me and the other spirits could see him?” They asked.


Oh shit.


Karl had gone missing not long ago with the others–and they had even heard a scream before he was gone. That wasn’t a good thing to tell them. Tommy glanced at Tubbo, and he guessed he was thinking the same from the expression on his face.


“Uhm.. how do I put this..” Tubbo began, speaking carefully. Nova listened intently. “You.. know how some people from our town have gone missing? Been kidnapped?” Nova nodded, a worried expression slowly beginning to form on their face. “And that we suspect they were taken by Exdee?” He continued. Nova nodded, more worry beginning to appear across their features.


“He’s kind of been kidnapped too.” Tommy blurted out, finally breaking the tense silence. Nova started at him with wide eyes, and Tubbo shot him a look.


“He’s– What ?!” Nova exclaimed.


“Don’t freak out–we’re gonna figure out where they are! It’ll be fine!” Tubbo reassured quickly, sending another look to Tommy. Oops. That was his bad. It seemed Tubbo was trying to not cause the ghost to panic.


Nova froze for a moment, panic still clear in their eyes, but they eventually let out a breath, calming down. “I’ll.. try to be calm, it's just.” They paused. “This is just a.. tough situation.”


Tubbo nodded. “I understand. I was pretty freaked out when Ranboo–one of my close friends–went missing. He was the first one to go missing..” Tubbo’s voice quieted to nearly a whisper.


“Hey, don’t worry, Tubso.” Tommy elbowed him, trying to cheer him up, earning a smile from Tubbo. “We’ll find him.” He grinned, confident in his statement.


“We’ll find all of them. Promise."

Chapter Text

POV: Niki

Niki, Fundy and Jack paced through the tunnels together–they had been searching for a day now, taking a moment to rest before going back out to look the next day for Ranboo, George and Foolish. No luck so far.


Yesterday, when they had first disappeared they had been able to cover most of the nearer tunnels, and now they were heading out farther–near the area where Niki had met Exdee and where she and Jack saw him talking with who she assumed was probably another overseer, like the red one she had met.


“Is this the ‘void-like cave’ area you mentioned, Niki?” Fundy asked, glancing at the cavern up ahead that faded into an inky darkness, with the green strings laced around it, the only thing visible in the black. Niki nodded. “If we’re going to go in there, we should use the strings so we don’t get lost–that’s what I did.” Fundy and Jack nodded.


They headed over into the darkness, using different things to cut the strings–Niki used her knife from before, Fundy had an iron sword and Jack had been given a handmade iron sword that Fundy and Foolish had made together.


They tied the strings to eachother, making a long line of string and tying it to the same stalagmite from when she had been here, and around each of their wrists, and the trio headed into the darkness.


They walked for a long while, going along a different path than Niki had gone on the last time, and found nothing but more of the same strings for most of the time–until they rounded a bend and saw someone.


Niki recognized him immediately–a tall figure, with half black and white hair, and enderman features, like the long tail with fluff on the end, horns, and long ears–It was Ranboo. The black half of him completely blended in with the darkness, same with his dark vest.


“Ranboo?” Niki called, but the enderman hybrid did not respond. He was stumbling through the black, moving in a tired sort of way, perhaps like a zombie.


The three hurried over to him, and he still did not respond to them saying his name or trying to get his attention. Niki saw his eyes were both the same shade of bright green. A green color that matched the strings tied around the wrists of her and the other two she was with.


“Ranboo!” She called, grabbing his wrist and causing him to stop. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”


Ranboo then paused, and turned and stared with the same old dazed expression–like he was in some sort of trance. He blinked at them blankly, and then took a step back, for once showing a bit of emotion by narrowing his eyes, and disappearing in a flash of purple particles.


“Gah–He’s gone again!” Jack shouted.


“The way he moved.. It was like Dream when he was possessed by a dreamon!” Fundy exclaimed.


“Dream was what?” Niki and Jack both shouted, and Fundy turned to them. “Oh, yeah, I haven’t told you about that. The search party got ambushed by a group of dreamons right after Karl disappeared–Then one possessed Techno and he attacked Tubbo during the ambush. Maybe a week later Dream got possessed by one and Tubbo, Sapnap and I was able to help him. Ranboo’s acting a lot like Dream did and what I heard Techno was like when he got possessed.”


Niki and Jack paused, taking it in.


“Techno.. Got possessed… and he attacked Tubbo?” Niki repeated. Fundy nodded. “Is he okay?”


Fundy nodded again. “Yep. Last I saw him, he was up and about like always. Although, he had some bandages on his face. But I think he’s fine.”


“And Dream was possessed too?” Jack said. Fundy nodded again. “Yes.”


“So, based off what Tubbo told me about Techno’s behavior when he got possessed, and what I saw from Dream when he got possessed, I’d say Ranboo probably got possessed by one.” Fundy stated.


“You’d be correct.” A new voice spoke. Well, it wasn’t a new one, It sounded like Jack, but when Niki and Fundy turned to him, he shook his head. “I didn’t say that!” He said.


Niki’s eyes widened. There was only one other person she knew of–well–two–who sounded like Jack. “Overseer?” She called, turning around, looking around the darkness for any sign of their red eyes and cloak.


And soon enough, red eyes blinked at her in the darkness, and she blinked, and there stood the overseer—shadowy entity with a red cloak and eyes.


“Hello, again, Niki. Greetings, Fundy and Jack.” The overseer greeted.


“This is the overseer? Woah–He does sound like me! You were right about that Niki. Wait, how do you know our names?!” Jack said.


“Well, I oversee this realm. I know everyone who enters here.” They stated simply.


“What, are you watching us or something?” Fundy remarked. The overseer nodded, and the fox hybrid stared at them. “Creepy.”


The overseer chuckled at him. “It’s just my job, I can’t help it. Anyways.. You were right about your friend being possessed by a dreamon.”


Fundy’s ears perked up. “I knew it!”


“Ranboo’s possessed?” Niki repeated, concern evident in her voice. The overseer nodded.


“I might as well explain a bit about where you are.” The overseer began. They sighed. “This realm is the home of dreamons. Especially this area. Those strings,” They gestured to the green strings tied around the three’s wrists, “Are a sign of dreamons having been there. Probably the biggest clue you could find, that basically confirms a dreamon has been there. Maybe even multiple.”


“They are something that originates from this realm, and are created by dreamons after they possess people. Dreamons basically control people by putting their consciousness into a state of sleep, and controlling their bodies like a puppet–with these strings, but invisible–afterward, the strings are leftover. They are basically just to make sure the person doesn’t try to take back control of their body, and keeps their consciousness asleep–so that the dreamon can control their body instead.” The overseer paused.


Niki felt a chill run down her spine at the realization of what these strings were–but they were the only thing they could use to find their way back at the moment, so it was either this or they got lost.


“Although, I must mention, your enderman friend isn’t the only one here who is possessed.” The overseer continued.


Niki tilted her head, concerned. “What do you mean?”


“The other two you are looking for–they are as well. Possessed.”


~~~~~~~~~~


POV: Tubbo


Tommy and Tubbo were currently on the way out of the lab. After talking with Nova, they hadn’t learned anything else aside from Karl is the one survivor of the shapeshifters who were in the lab, and the confirmation of Exdee being alive.


Tubbo had known something was up with him, that he was hiding something, for a while–he hadn’t guessed he was a shapeshifter, but now he knew.


Now Tubbo’s main goal was figuring out what involvement Exdee had in all of this, as well as the dreamons, and where the missing were.


There was one other thing Nova had told them, though.


They had told them that two more spirits, aside from the shapeshifters, roamed these lands near the town of Essempii.


The two spirits Nova mentioned were the two coworkers of Exdee, mentioned in the files.


Kai Oracle, and Lavender Briar.


Nova said Lavender could sometimes be found in an area near the mountain the lab was built into, in a garden—but they didn’t know where Kai was, but had heard of him from Lavender.


Tubbo wanted to try to meet her there.


Soon, Tubbo and Tommy exited the lab, and Tubbo began to head around the side of the building, towards the mountain–and Tommy followed along.


Near the side, there was a lot less ruins–and up ahead Tubbo could see flowers growing through the rocks and slowly more and more appeared, a lush garden of color in a small area near such a creepy place.


“Woah. This is pretty. Didn’t think plants could grow around here.” Tommy remarked. Tubbo turned to stare at him. “The building is literally overgrown.”


“I meant flowers and stuff! Pretty things.” Tommy exclaimed.


“Mhm. So, when do you think she’ll show up?”


“How am I supposed to know?” Tommy retorted.


Tubbo shrugged. “Maybe we should just wait..?”


“Who are you looking for?” A new voice spoke.


The two whipped around to face the new person.


It was a lady, with lavender hair with a black hair clip in it, wearing a cyan cardigan and amethyst necklace–just like in the photo of her in the files–It was Lavender.


The only difference was she wasn’t wearing the lab coat, and she was slightly transparent, like the spirits.


“A woman!” Tommy exclaimed. Tubbo sent him a look. “Seriously? That’s your reaction?”


Lavender chuckled. Tubbo turned to her. “Are you.. Lavender? Lavender Briar?” Lavender smiled, and nodded. “Am I the one you’re looking for?”


Tubbo nodded back at her. “Yep! We wanted to ask you some things. I’m Tubbo, and this is-”


“I’m Tommy!” Tommy interrupted him, shouting proudly.


“Nice to meet you two. You probably already know me.. I’m Lavender.” She greeted. “So, what do you want to know?”


Tubbo paused. “Well. I wanted to ask about.. Your former coworkers. Exdee and Kai.”


“Oh.” Lavender froze. “How come?”


Tubbo explained the whole situation to her about how some people from their town were missing, the whole thing with Karl, and how they believed Exdee had some involvement in all of this.


“I’ll try to help however I can.” Lavender said. “Exdee.. All I can really say is he’s dangerous. From the legend you mentioned, yeah, that about sums him up.. Cruel, all of that. As for Kai, I can take you to him–he could probably tell you more, and I think he can help you.”


Tubbo perked up. “Really? Lead the way!”


Lavender began to lead them through the forest, and Tubbo and Tommy followed along as they headed through the woods.


Soon, the forest around them appeared to get darker. Maybe it was getting late, Tubbo’s thoughts reasoned.


“Is it getting dark already?” Tommy asked. Lavender shook her head. “That’s just the thing about this area.” She stopped. “I can’t go too much further, but Kai should be around here. Kai!” She called.


A few moments later, and a voice responded to her. “Lavender? Is that you?”


“Yes! It’s me!” Lavender responded.


Soon, a man appeared into the forest, transparent just like the ghost lady the duo was with—It was Kai Oracle–Looking the same as he did in the photo of the files–but the lab coat, like with Lavender, was also gone–replaced with a yellow-green, spring green color trench coat, with similar golden flower and leaf embroideries on the shoulders and ends of the sleeves.


“You’re back pretty soon–Oh? Who are they?” Kai tilted his head at Tommy and Tubbo, standing next to Lavender.


“This is Tommy and Tubbo!” Lavender introduced them before either could say a thing. She retold what they had told her about their situation, which them adding a few details here and there, and Kai nodded, listening.


“I think I have an idea.” Kai spoke.


Tubbo’s face brightened, and his ears and antennae shot up in excitement. “You do?”


Kai nodded. “I know how Exdee… ‘died’. And where too.” Kai began to head into the forest, and they followed him–But Tubbo stopped as Lavender did not follow. “Lavender?” He asked, and the others stopped.


“I can’t follow any further. Ghosts can’t go a certain distance from where we died.” She stated. Tubbo nodded in understanding. He and Tommy waved at her. “See you later!”


She waved as they left, following Kai further into the forest. The forest seemed to be growing darker and darker as they went.


“How come it’s so dark?” Tommy spoke suddenly. Kai turned his head, looking at him as he walked–well, all of the ghosts more so floated rather than walked. Tubbo hadn’t really noticed it until now, most of the time when standing they seemed to be touching the ground–but now that he noticed it, he really was just floating.


“That’s because we are nearing the dreamon’s domain.” Kai nonchalantly stated. Tubbo nearly choked. “I’m sorry- the what?”


Kai stopped. “We’re here.” He pointed to a large hole in the ground below them. It was completely pitch black. Okay, Almost completely pitch black, but it looked endlessly deep, eventually becoming too dark to see down there anymore. “What the fuck is that.” Tommy asked. Kai turned to him. “This is the entrance to the dreamon’s realm–it doesn’t have an official name. It’s the reason why everything around here is so dark.”


“Why’d you bring us here..?” Tubbo asked, trying to stay calm, meanwhile, his mind was racing. Dreamons!? Dreamons were the ones who had ambushed them. They possessed Techno and Dream, and most likely had something to do with the disappearances. Maybe also possessed Ranboo too. Could this be where they had all gone? What’s in there even? Is it safe? Are they okay!?


“Lavender said dreamons had ambushed your search party. That you thought they had some relation to the disappearances, but you couldn’t tell how.” Kai stated calmly. He looked down, seemingly unfazed by how deep it looked—which made sense, he was already dead. He couldn’t fall down and die, unlike him and Tommy. Prime, the man was a ghost, he was literally floating!


Kai paused for a moment, and continued on. “This was where both me and Exdee died. I fled in this direction and found this area. I told the escapees to run and hide in the forest, find somewhere safe and stick together–and they did so. I had Exdee follow me here, and then I shoved him off the cliff–but he grabbed my hand before he fell, and so I fell in too–all I know was that something happened, we both died, but something brought Exdee back, while I was left as a ghost, back up here. I can only assume… the dreamons did something.”


“So…. the dreamons are.. Working with Exdee?” Tubbo suggested. Kai shrugged. “Perhaps, I’m not sure myself.” Tubbo nodded, and turned to Tommy, who was silent the whole time, for some reason.


“We should tell the others–about all of this. The dreamons, Exdee, Karl– and this.” Tubbo stated. Tommy nodded. “Maybe Phil and someone could go down and take a look around? Since, Phil can, fly and stuff.” Tommy suggested. Tubbo nodded, smiling. “Good idea!”


~~~~~~~~~~


It took them awhile to get back to town, the sun was already going down at that point---and then even longer to wait for everyone out searching to come back.


Of course, first Tommy and Tubbo had to wait for the rest of their group, in order to head back. So they waited at their meetup spot. Soon, the other pairs of people searching arrived, and they headed back. The other group took a bit to return, and Tubbo stated they needed to have a meeting–that they had found important info.


After a bit of gathering around everyone and the others who were not out searching, they had all gathered in L’manberg.


Tubbo cleared his throat, catching everyones attention, standing near where the group leaders were at, and began to speak, telling them about all they had learned.


The dreamons, the domain of them, Exdee, Karl.


Many horrified expressions covered the faces of the crowd after the reveal of Karl being the surviving shapeshifter, and the fact that Exdee was alive, and everyone who had gone missing were supposedly in the dreamon place.


Safe to say, everyone was worried for their missing friends.


They began to discuss the best plan of action–and they all agreed to send some people down there to scout it out.


Phil was going to go down, since he could fly–he was one of the few people here who could fly, aside from Hannah, a fairy, who volunteered to come down alongside them. As for who else to come, Tubbo volunteered immediately–being able to convince them to let him come after a bit, thanks to his dreamon knowledge, and they wouldn’t let Dream go instead because he had been possessed before, and they didn’t want to take any chances.


Maybe also they let Tubbo go because of him being a shulker, and able to store items with him easily without needing a bag, something that could weigh him down and slow Phil and Hannah down if they needed to fly back up.


And so the decision was made; Phil, Hannah and Tubbo would go down, and the others would wait at the top. They would use a rope, so they could pull Tubbo out if Hannah or Phil couldn’t fly him out, and also to help lower him down. They had agreed a time to return during.


Now, they just waited and prepared.


~~~~~~~~~~


A few days later, and the full search party, for once, not split up, was ready.


They headed out into the woods, to the lab, and Tubbo and Tommy then lead them through the forest to the pit–Kai appeared along the way, greeting them and showing them the way just so they didn’t get lost—Though Tubbo remembered the way anyways. Well enough, he’d say.


Soon, they reached the pit–that’s what they were calling it for now. They didn’t know its name.


A rope was tied around Tubbo’s waist, and Phil flew down ahead–Hannah sticking with Tubbo incase something were to happen to the rope–and soon Tubbo was being lowered down. They didn’t know if it was a long enough rope, but they had a signal for if it wasn’t long enough–three tugs on the rope, while two was for if they were being attacked, or something happened and he needed to be pulled out.


Soon, the walls around him faded into darkness, and all Tubbo could see was himself and Hannah, the fairy floating alongside him.


As the walls around him faded to black, Tubbo felt a weird feeling, like.. A jolt. As if he were passing through something. He couldn’t find the words to describe it, it was a very foreign and unfamiliar feeling to him.


“Did you feel that?” He asked outloud. Hannah nodded. “That sort of shock thing? Yeah–that was so strange.”


“It’s.. so dark. But.. weirdly dark. Like, I can see myself perfectly as if I’m in the light, but the rooms… pitch black?” Hannah stated, a confused look on her face. Tubbo nodded. “It is weird. I’ve never seen anything like this.” He reached a hand out, trying to find a wall, but his hand only touched empty air. “Are you able to find a wall?” He asked her. Hannah flew over a little ways, and reached a hand out. “Yeah, there’s a wall here.”


“Okay–good.” Tubbo let out a sigh of relief. “For a moment I thought I was being lowered into the abyss or something.”


“It might as well be the abyss, with how dark it is.” She remarked. Tubbo chuckled.


Tubbo’s ears twitched as he heard the sounds of wing beats, a different kind of wing beats, from the sound of Hannah’s fairy wings–It was like bird wings–Phil.


Soon enough, the blonde man shot up from the void and was now hovering alongside them as they went lower and lower. “I went a little farther down, I don’t think the rope will reach down all the way.” He stated. “There’s.. Also a bunch of.. Weird green strings. Everywhere. Like a spider web.”


“Green strings?” Tubbo echoed. Hannah tilted her head in curiosity. Phil nodded. “They were.. Sort of glowing.” He said.


“I think I’ve seen those before.” Tubbo mentioned. The other two looked at him. “In Exdee’s office–there were a bunch of green strings hanging from the ceiling. I don’t know what it was about–but if it’s true Exdee has some relation to the dreamons, maybe even working with them, then I guess that could explain it.” He stated. The other winged two nodded.


They continued like that for what must be at least a few hours, lowering slowly, still not reaching the bottom, the three of them chatting. He could swear his legs were starting to go numb.


Tubbo then noticed green web-like strings starting to appear on the surrounding non-even-visible void walls around him. He reached out to touch one, failing to reach–the walls still too far away. Phil noticed, and flew over and pulled one off the wall, handing it to him. Tubbo mumbled a thanks and began to examine the strange strings once again.


They continued like that for a bit long, until they just stopped going down. They had a pretty long rope, having to take several ones and tie them together to make it be so long, and it looked like it had run out. Tubbo reached up and grabbed the rope, tugging on it three times. Phil and Hannah flew near him, ready to catch him as Tubbo untied the rope. Soon, it slipped off of him and he felt himself falling.


Phil reached forward quickly, grabbing him in his arms. “Alright, since we don’t have the rope anymore, I think we might be able to go down a bit faster.” Hannah stated. Tubbo’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “Yes! Dive down super fast!”


“I can’t fly down too fast. We can’t really see a thing in here, I don’t want to crash into the floor. Hannah, can you go ahead?” Phil asked, turning to the fairy. She nodded, diving down into the void below them. “Alright, get ready Tubbo, hold on tight!” The crow avian told the shulker, spreading his wings and flipping upside down, pulling his black wings that nearly matched the walls in as he went into a dive.


Tubbo could feel the wind hitting his face as they went down at a quick speed. After perhaps a few minutes, he heard Hannah shout, her voice nearly muffled by how fast they were going, her voice whipping past them in the wind; “I found the floor!” She yelled.


Phil flipped back up, spreading out his wings and slowing down, all of the momentum nearly making Tubbo fly out of the avian’s arms, but Phil held on tightly. Phil slowly hovered down, hitting the black void where Hannah was standing, and set Tubbo down, who stumbled a bit, not having stood for hours.


“That was awesome!” Tubbo yelled, and Phil chuckled. “But at the same time, I have never been so glad to feel solid ground beneath my feet.” Tubbo stated, and promptly faceplanted onto the ground, and a few moments later, lifted his head up. “Okay, I’m good.” He said, and began to stand up.


Tubbo looked around the room–it was just like the way down, except he wasn’t up in midair. A void surrounded him, completely pitch black, the only things visible were the three people stood in the room, and the green strings going from wall to wall like overgrown vines.


“It doesn’t seem much different from the what down.” Tubbo stated. Hannah nodded, agreeing. However, Phil was staring pretty intensely at the strings on the walls. “Phil? Did you notice something?” Tubbo asked. “Look.” Phil simply stated, and Tubbo glanced over to where the avian was staring.


It took him a moment to notice but--


There was more green on one of the walls beyond the strings, almost covering it up. This green was darker, but still bright enough to be noticed if you looked closely. The marking looked like some sort of symbols, or writing, or maybe drawings.


Tubbo cautiously stepped closer, and closer, until he reached the wall. He reached up and grabbed onto the strings, pulling them down, and away from the darker green symbols.


It was like a mural. Like those old cave drawings in history classes.


He couldn’t read the symbols, but he could try to figure out the drawing. The other two, Hannah and Phil, walked over to him and stared at it too.


At the top, there appeared to be a cloaked figure, with some sort of halo around their head, and two eyes staring at him, the pupils in the shape of X’ s, alongside a smiling face. With the halo, Tubbo assumed this guy must be perhaps a god or something, with the halo. Now that he looked closer, they also appeared to have multiple sets of arms…


Below that drawing, was a drawing of a crowd of creatures below the supposed god. Some of them appeared more humanoid, wearing masks or veils or hoods or anything to conceal their face, while others appeared more animal like, four legs, but all seemed to have matching eyes, fully colored in. More eyes were around the supposed god, but were just floating, watching.


Tubbo pointed to the figure at the top, with the eyes surrounding them. “I think this could mean this person could be a god? With the halo. This looks kind of like those cave drawings in history classes–drawings of history.” Tubbo stated. Phil and Hannah both agreed. “Maybe the ones below are their followers?” Hannah suggested. “They looked like the ones who ambushed us–they must be dreamons.” Phil added. They all agreed.


So the dreamons had their own god.


“We should look around, see if theres anything else like this.” Phil stated. The other two nodded, and spread out around the room, looking for any more drawings hidden under bright green strings.


A few minutes later, Hannah whipped around, shouting to the other two. “I found something!” She stated. Phil and Tubbo came over as Hannah pulled away the green strings obstructing the view of the drawing.


This time, there appeared to be a person–a human, sleeping peacefully. While above, multiple sets of eyes watched. And further above that, was an image, where the same person was walking around in a field, when eyes stare at them from the sky, and an expression of horror is beginning to appear on their face, frozen in the image.


“This top image–could this represent some sort of dream?” Phil suggested. Tubbo snapped his fingers suddenly as an idea struck him, nodding. “That’s it–these are dreamons! When they possess people, they make their consciousness dream! That’s what must be happening to this person. Something like that, or the dreamons are just messing with their dream.” He stated. Phil and Hannah both made an ‘o’ shape with their lips, nodding in understanding.


Afterward, they went to look around again, and Phil found one. 

This one had an image at the top of a lush forest, where bars were blocking escape, or entry, from a large hole in the ground, with a lock on it–and below, the eyes stared up, the figures and creatures crowding around the god from before, who stared up, now frowning, with an expression of anger. Back up above, in the forest, humans and other hybrids and creatures were roaming around peacefully and happily in the sun.


“It looks like they–the dreamons–were trapped down here.” Hannah observed.


“You are correct, little fairy.” A voice spoke from the darkness. The three of them turned around, Phil and Hannah each moving there hands so they could pull out there weapons in an instant, but not doing so, not wanting to provoke someone if they weren’t a threat. Tubbo prepared himself to take something from his shulker box.


Then he noticed how much the voice sounded like Jack.


Just a bit different. Maybe a bit echoy.


“Jack?” Tubbo called.


“I am not your friend Jack.” The voice returned. A cloaked figure, matching the ones from the ambush, minus the cloak being a little bit different and a pale, light blue-ish color, appeared from the shadows.


“Who are you?” Phil asked, wariness clear in his voice and eyes narrowed.


“I am one of the overseers of this realm.” The entity calmly spoke.


“What you have said about the legend these drawings depict is true.” The overseer continued. “We have our own god–named Lucid. With them leading us, humans feared us–until humans and hybrids discovered a way to trap us all in this realm.


That was–until a human fell down here.


He died from the fall, the drop being too far for any mere mortal to survive, but his ghost lingered around. Our god, Lucid, soon met him–and Exdee made a deal with him.


In exchange for being brought back to life and kept alive, given immortality, Exdee would help free the dreamons from this wretched place. Lucid agreed, and Exdee kept to his word–and now we are able to leave in bigger numbers than before, but it is still difficult, and only so many can leave at once.


Lucid has allowed Exdee to do what he likes here–messing with mortals and whatnot. As long as he keeps his end of the bargain. And as a cost for being brought back to life, Exdee became Lucid’s vessel–they are now the same. Two in one body, and thanks to Lucid doing this, Exdee’s mortal body has survived all this time. Grown stronger as well.”


The three of them stared at the overseer, taking in the information.


So Exdee was working with the dreamons–with Lucid. And Exdee is the one behind all of the disappearances. The part about messing with mortals practically confirms it.


It made much more sense now–the strings in Exdee’s office, why dreamon’s ambushed them, why dreamons were even involved in this…


The overseer then blinked, mumbling something like, “I think I’ve said too much,” and turned and began to leave, without even saying goodbye.


Tubbo opened his mouth to speak. “Wait! Don’t just leave after dumping that much information on us and saying practically nothing else!” He shouted, but the overseer was already gone.


Tubbo stared after them, and turned to the others, who were still standing with widened eyes.


It had probably been a while now. They should head back up.


~~~~~~~~~~~


POV: Karl


Karl and Quackity walked through the tunnels, searching for their missing friends.


Karl had been on edge ever since he had arrived in this place.


He had wanted to look for something in the lab–not really thinking much, and just doing it.


And then he had seen the overseer.


“Oh, hello, Little moth.”


The familiar phrase brought back unwanted memories, and he had fled, only to be caught, and wake up here, with the ones who had been missing.


And he had soon realized, he had ended up just like them.


He had been wary ever since Tommy and Tubbo first proposed the idea of Exdee being the one behind this.


Karl never wanted to see him again.


And if they were right, then he had just landed right in his hands.


Which wouldn’t be a good thing for him. He could only hope Exdee wouldn’t recognize him in his human form, if he ever were to see him.


Well, it wouldn’t be good for any of them.


He hoped the other three didn’t see him as they searched.


He hoped none of them saw him.


He really hoped Exdee wasn’t the one behind this.


Maybe he wanted to convince himself he was gone, even though the evidence was practically right in front of him.


He just didn’t want to believe it.


Quackity had been worried about him ever since he had first gotten here.


Upon first arriving, he had panicked, especially with those memories surfacing up again upon hearing the phrase, and the idea that he might see him again–


He probably shouldn’t think about it. He didn’t want to panic again. Quackity was already worried enough for him.


Sapnap must be worried sick for both of them.


He had no doubt the blazeborn was restlessly searching for his two lovers. He could only hope someone was able to get him to calm down and rest every once in a while.


He let out a sigh, and noticed Quackity glancing at him, a bit of worry in the avian’s eyes.


“Are you alright?” Quackity asked him. Karl nodded. “Yeah, just.. Thinking.. About Sapnap.”


Quackity nodded. “Yeah. He’s probably super worried about us.” he responded.


Quackity had comforted him when he first got here and had panicked, and had not pressed him about it, though he could tell the avian was curious and holding back from asking questions.


He was happy about that, as he really would rather not talk about what had made him panic.


Because it would inevitably lead to talking about those memories he did not want to think about.


They continued walking, chatting about some things, wondering what the others who were searching might be doing, both the ones down here with them and the ones back in Essempii.


They continued this until they saw the room up ahead begin to fade into what appeared to be a void.


“Oh–I think I remember Niki talking about this.” Quackity stated. “Some abyss-like place with green strings. She said we should use the strings to find our way back out, cause we can’t really see any walls or anything in there.” He said. Karl nodded, and they did just that–grabbing the longest string they could find, tying it to a stalagmite like Niki had said to, leaving their handcrafted lanterns behind, and heading into the darkness.


Karl wasn’t very used to being in such a dark place.


Of course, there was nighttime, but not like this. He could usually see some things in the night, while this was just so.. Strange. It was pitch black, but he could see himself clear as day. And the strings.. Even stranger.


He was more used to something like this, but with the black being replaced with bright teals, purples and pinks as he travelled between timelines–but even then he had not done that in awhile, as he was very satisfied with the current timeline, and perhaps a bit scared to end up in another timeline like the last one.

The one with Exdee.


Of course, he had been through other situations while travelling, that had not been great, but none had been as bad as that timeline.


One timeline, he had been at a party, and he had watched everyone die, and even died himself.


Another, he had searched some ruins with three others, and watched them all die, and died himself.


A few other travels had been much nicer, but some didn’t end as great.


But none had been as bad as that one had been.


He hated thinking about it.


He had also been in his human form for a long time–his usual form being covered in the same bright colors as his hoodie, and for some reason, his human form could not see certain colors as well.


He had never been out of his original form for so long, and every once in a while he had to change back, as he could not stay in one form forever–but he could for a very long time.


He was surprised nobody had found out yet.


“Oh? What do we have here?” A voice spoke from behind them. Karl froze. Quackity turned around.


“A little bird.. And..”


Karl recognized that voice.


Flashes of a man with white and brown and darker brown hair flashed through his mind, a lab coat, a laboratory, and so much more, flashed through his mind–the sound of laughter echoing around a room.


“A little moth.”


“Karl? Karl? Are you alright?” Quackity asked worriedly, shaking his shoulder. Karl blinked, and looked up at him. He nodded. “Y-yeah– I’m. Fine.” he stammered, trying to shake off the memories.


He turned to the man who he immediately recognized.

It was the same man in the memories that had flashed through his mind.


But black corrupted half of his face, and a fresh green streak was in his hair, and his outfit was a bit different–but it was still, undeniably, him. His voice didn’t sound different at all.


He shuddered at the sight of him, eyes still wide.


Quackity seemed to notice this, and tensed, knowing to be cautious of him if he seemed to freak Karl out that much.


“Who the fuck are you?” Quackity asked. Exdee simply tilted his head, still smiling tauntingly.


“You don’t know me?” Exdee asked. The tone of his voice would’ve sounded almost innocent, if Karl didn’t know better.


“Stop playing dumb and answer the fucking question.” Quackity retorted.


Exdee laughed. A familiar laugh. The sound of laughter echoing around a room. No, a cell. A prison. “Alright, alright. Feisty one, aren’t you?”


“You can call me.. Exdee.” The man smiled at the two.


Quackity’s eyes widened slightly at that, realizing just who this is, but then went back to his previous expression, a scowl.


“You’re the one behind all of this.” He hissed.


“Mhm.” Exdee nodded. Still smiling. He looked between the two, eyes looking them up and down, studying them.


“Tell us how the fuck to get out of here. Right. Now.” Quackity threatened, pulling out an axe and jabbing it toward him threateningly. Exdee threw his arms up. “Woah, now now, calm down. We wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt, now would we?” He smiled at them cruelly.


“Yeah. Wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt. Anyone, minus you.” Quackity shot back. Exdee laughed. Quackity seemed confused about why he was laughing in the position he was in, but Karl knew what he was like. Nothing fazed him. Quackity couldn’t scare him by threatening him.


Besides, if the legend was true, he was immortal.


That idea seemed to make him even more scared. Though, he was being as calm as possible and stopping himself from listening to his brain that was screaming at him to get Quackity and get the hell away from here immediately.


“I like you. You’re funny.” Exdee simply stated. Both Karl and Quackity narrowed their eyes at him, earning another chuckle from Exdee. “Wow, you both really don’t like me.” He turned to Karl. “Especially you. I know you.” He was still smiling. Karl froze as he stared at the man, and the man stared back.


Karl stayed frozen in place, staring at him, with him staring back, until Exdee finally took his gaze away and let out a sigh. “Well, I wish I could stay and chat, but I got things to do. I guess I’ll see you around, Little bird. Little moth.” He smirked.


Karl blinked, and he was gone.


Quackity stared at where the man had previously been.


“What the fuck was that.”

Chapter Text

POV: Karl

"What the fuck was that." Quackity said, staring at where Exdee was previously standing.

Karl was only just registering what had just happened. And as he did so, his heart began to pound in his ears. He didn’t notice it much, too focused on the echoing, cruel, laughter he swore he could still hear. But he didn’t see the one laughing.


Exdee was alive.
He knew where he was.
He knows where Quackity is. Probably Sapnap too. Everyone.
He’s still alive.


This timeline is no longer safe–he needed to leave. He needed to escape. Needed to leave. But he couldn’t abandon all of the others.. There was no way he could take them all with him. Would they even be willing to leave? Some of them would probably rather stay and fight then flee.


These thoughts crowded his mind, a storm of terrified thoughts worrying about everything that could happen with this.


It felt like he was drowning. Maybe suffocating. He couldn’t tell what was happening, but his heartbeat still pounded in his ears and he could still hear the laughing could still hear it all. The sounds of the lab. The screams. He put his trembling hands over his ears in an attempt to block out the sound, but it did nothing.


He blinked at his surroundings, hardly acknowledging them. It was a clean, white, room. Mostly empty. He knew that place. He couldn’t be there again. He could see it all so vividly. No no no–


His vision was slightly blurry. The walls around him were caught between a dark abyss and the white walls of that horrid place.


There was a hand that touched his shoulder, and he flinched, his mind immediately thinking of him, until he was able to notice how gentle the touch was. Diana?


He blinked, trying to make out the blurry figure in front of him. It didn’t sound like Diana. Nor Nova. Tri and Sable probably wouldn’t have been as gentle as this usually–-but the voice still felt familiar. There was a voice speaking to him rapidly, with worry clear in their voice, that was slowly breaking through Karl’s loud thoughts.


“Karl! Breath!” The person said. He recognized the voice, recognized the golden, sunset wings, the avian infront of him. “Please, breath–you’re alright, he’s gone–you’re not–you’re not back in that place.”


Karl stared at the avian, how did he know how did he know about that– his thoughts quieted down, maybe just a little. Quackity took a deep breath, and then exhaled, and looked at him. Oh–he wants me to do it too.


He inhaled, and exhaled, slowly, though still trying to catch his breath, although it probably wasn’t helping being in a cave–or whatever this place was—but after a long, long moment, his heartbeat slowed down to a more normal pace and his thoughts quieted down, and he could more clearly make out the details of his lover who was sitting in front of him, watching him in worry.


And then when Karl’s breathing had finally calmed, the avian reached forward with open arms, and pulled him into a warm hug, spreading out his wings around him, with the feathers puffed up protectively.


When he finally pulled away, Quackity looked at him. "Are you alright?" He asked him, concern written all over his face.

"Y- yeah.." Karl stammered, his voice cracking slightly. "I'm–..Fine. I just.. Got a bit scared.." He managed to mumble. Quackity gave him a look, though worry was still glimmering in his eyes. "Karl, you just had a panic attack. That's more than just 'a bit scared'. You’re also crying." He said, wiping a few tears off of his cheeks. Karl only then noticed the trail of tears running down his cheeks. He sniffed a bit, wiping them away.

Quackity's expression then shifted back into the concerned one, but along with a caring smile. "Karl, if you need someone to talk to, I'm right here, okay? You can tell me anything."

Karl watched the avian, thinking. Maybe. Maybe he wanted to tell him. Maybe just a little bit.

He paused as he saw a knowing look in Quackity’s eyes, and he remembered how Quackity had seemed to know something about Exdee–and him–earlier.


Quackity caught on from his expression, and opened his mouth to explain.

“When you were sleeping earlier—we were discussing what Exdee had said to Niki. About one of us being a survivor from the legend. A time traveler, and shapeshifter. We were thinking it was you—but since you were asleep we couldn’t ask. And then everything happened with Ranboo, George and Foolish disappearing…” he stated. Karl stared at him with wide eyes. They had been able to guess it was him that easily..? Maybe he hadn’t been keeping it a secret that well..

Karl finally let out a long sigh, and Quackity looked at him. “You’re theory is correct..” he started, and the avian’s eyes widened slightly, a sad look in them. “Yea—uhm.. I.. am. Actually. A shapeshifter. I fled to this timeline because it seemed safe. And it was… until.. everything..” he murmured, voice small.

He closed his eyes, and allowed his instincts as a shapeshifter that had been longing to shift to his original form since he had been put down here to do as they wanted, feeling his body change shape, and while the feeling may feel extremely foreign and strange to any others, it was all but normal for one of his kind—the feeling of shape shifting.


His ears, now longer, and in two pairs, two moth-wing-like shaped ears on each side, twitched, as he blinked golden eyes at the avian who stared up at the shapeshifter in awe–who was now much taller than he was previously, and from his view, the avian looked even shorter than before.

Karl looked far different in this form—for one, his skin and hair were both the same shade of pink, or fuchsia, and his eyes were entirely a golden yellow—instead of the white sclera and colored iris like human eyes have. 

The only way to tell where he was looking was from a spiral-shaped pupil that was the only thing inside his golden eyes—while his human eyes, inside the golden iris was the darker pupil, and a spiral within it—harder to see than in this form, where it was almost impossible not to notice. 

Though, his skin wasn't entirely pink, it was different colors here and there, like the hoodie he always wore, different limbs being different colors.


The main similarities were in the colors matching his hoodie, the spiral symbols that he always wore on his hoodie, and the hairstyle and general facial features generally being the same, aside from his eyes being much different, they were still the same shape.

“Woah.. you look.” Quackity paused, tilting his head, looking him up and down. “Different. Not in a bad way—you look nice!” He said rapidly. Karl chuckled lightly.

“Thank you.” He said. And Quackity nodded, grinning. “Also, how come you’re so much taller now?!” The avian said, with an irritated expression. Karl just laughed. Quackity seemed even shorter now.


But then Quackity’s expression then shifted once he had stopped laughing, a more serious look on his face. “Though, knowing that you are.. someone who lived through all of that..stuff.. with Exdee.. I can understand why you’ve been so terrified the whole time here. I mean, I’d probably be too.” He said. Karl nodded quietly. “Yeah, that is why.. for a while I tried to deny that he was alive and behind all of this, but well.. we can see how that went.” He looked away, glancing at the abyss-like cave they were currently sitting in. 

Quackity put a hand on his shoulder, sending him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way out, get us all outta here, and then kick Exdee’s ass.” He grinned. Karl smiled. 

“Though uh..” Quackity turned his head, looking down to the green strings, and to where they lead, the way out. Back to the others. “We should probably start heading back. We don’t want to worry any of the others, with a few of us already being gone.” Karl nodded. “If… you wouldn’t mind.. Can I talk to you a bit more on the way back?” He asked. Quackity gave him a look that said, ‘Is that even a question’? “Of course you can!” He said. “You don’t even have to ask, you can tell me anything, alright? Whatever’s bothering you, I’ll do my best to help.” He said confidently, grinning, his golden, sunrise-colored wings spreading out behind him. 

Karl smiled, glad he was here—even if the situation wasn’t the best. Well, he wasn’t really happy that Quackity had to be stuck here, but.. things were at least much nicer with his company. He didn’t know how well he would’ve handled it if he had been alone here. Especially with Exdee.. he shuddered, thinking of the possibilities, and Quackity sent him a worried glance as they began walking back through the void cave.

As they stepped further and further, heading back to the base camp, Karl began to speak to the golden-winged avian walking beside him—the one who had kept him company and comforted him this whole time, something he was grateful for—he told a tale, another side of a story, of a legend the avian had been told before—a legend everyone both here in the caves and searching up above by now knew..

~~~~~~~~~

It began like any other normal day of traveling.

Karl had been resting back in the Rift, a place unaffected by time, but also affected, in an odd way—the Rift, a rift in time and space, and the home of his people—They went by many names, usually never settling on just one, but from what he’s heard, they generally refer to themselves as “Travailers”.


The skies in the Rift were usually starry, or like cracked glass spreading across the sky, and it was beautiful—the environment and buildings colorful, and odd yet wonderful.

Despite all his journeys through different times, and occasionally other dimensions as well, he’d never seen another place like the Rift.


He’d seen plenty of incredible dimensions and civilizations during his travels, but the Rift was different.


It was a world where the architecture was extremely inconsistent, with different styles of buildings everywhere, many of the buildings inspired by different things other Travailers had seen during their travels.


But in general, the majority of the buildings were most similar to end cities He hadn’t been in that dimension for long, but long enough to see one of its cities, before accidentally looking at an enderman and having to flee back to the Rift.


Although they didn’t have floating ships like the end, But in general gravity did not have much effect on the buildings. It affected the ones who lived there, and long ago, some Travailers had worked together to make it like that, using their time powers to essentially freeze some islands and buildings in place, so that they couldn’t move or fall or collapse or anything, making them pretty difficult to destroy without a Travailer’s help, as well as the creation of several floating islands in the skies.


Wherever there wasn’t the city where most Travailers resided, there were large fields, and plant life. There weren't really trees, or forests, in The Rift, but there were plants. A lot of them were colored with purples, magentas and deep blues, with some brighter pinks and teal, and other colors here and there.


The grass was an indigo color, a dark mix between purple and blue, but here and there it was more of a purple color. It reminded him of the night skies in the overworld. The sky did as well, but while in the overworld the night was more black with white speckles, the sky looked like you were in space, with different constellations, stars, planets, galaxies, and all other sorts of things to see.

He had awoken there in The Rift that morning, his own home being near the outskirts of the city, by one of the only hills in the small world, and he hurried into and through the city with buildings both on the ground and in the sky, or even, seemingly suspended from the cracked glass-like sky itself, and the general architecture of the different buildings was strange compared to other places, but he was used to it. It certainly gave the whole realm a mystical, maybe even magical feeling.

He trailed through the small crowds of other shapeshifters and travelers alike, wandering through the streets in the morning, or what was considered morning for their realm, and soon reached a large gate— The Gate.

The Gate was.. well.. a gateway. It helped the Travailers travel between their home, and other timelines and sometimes even dimensions. While they could travel by themselves, the gateway just helped them out more—and so did the realm where they actually did travel to different timelines and dimensions, or as they called them, paths.

He, himself, was mostly just a timeline hopper—he could travel between dimensions, but didn’t do it often, only when he wanted to mix it up a little from the timelines of the same three worlds he crossed between all the time.

The Gateway was open, and inside, a vast abyss with stars shining above, with a long, winding, white path through the starry void, spiraling off into crossroads and various other trails—easy to get lost in if you didn’t know your way. Karl had traveled through this realm many times, and knew the way around quite easily—this place, was generally called the Crossing—yeah, they didn’t have the greatest names for everywhere. He had no idea who had come up with the names, but they had never bothered changing them.

He stepped onto the seemingly floating platform suspended in the air, like it wasn’t floating in an abyss, which, as far as he knew, would probably have freaked many other species out, but it did not bother him or his people, they all followed these roads, and knew it’d never collapse. He walked along the familiar path, letting himself follow the trail wherever it takes him too—which is where he’d end up. That was how they did things. Occasionally, they had to use their own abilities to see where they were going and, maybe even go to a different dimension rather than timeline.


But the Crossing made it pretty rare for them to have to do that, only when they had to return, it would reach out to them and pull them back, leading them back to the Rift. The Crossing was a realm that had been created by some ancient Travailers, who had worked hard to create the place, with some unknown help, and the place seemed almost alive, with how it guided them all to their destinations, and back. He had no idea how they had done it, or how it worked.


But he knew one way it worked.


He’d heard some old stories of Travailers who had somehow lost their way from the path, and been disconnected from the Crossing–leading to most of them never finding their ways back to The Rift. Disconnected, as in, the Crossing was unable to find them, reach out to them, and bring them back to The Rift.


They weren’t just stories though, he knew that much. They all knew they were true, as it was still happening–even if it was extremely rare, and had not happened in a long time.

He was distracted by his thoughts, as he found the trail coming to an end, and up ahead he saw a bright light, the entrance to the timeline he’d be visiting today. Well, it was now or never. He hoped this timeline would be a good one.

He closed his eyes, and stepped through, into the light.

He reopened his eyes to spiral particles fleeing away from his eyesight as he took in his surroundings.

He was in an alley, and far up ahead, a busy town.

He looked up, the sky was blue overhead with white clouds. A few green leafed trees sprouted from grass in between the trails around the town. He recognized the overworld immediately.

He scanned the crowd. They all looked human. And so he reached up and pulled his hood over his head, and covered his face with a square mask that matched his hair, to hide his features–
He could of course shapeshift to hide his identity, which he did as well, but it was just a safety precaution. To hide his identity.

Just in case he had entered a timeline where other beings aside from humans weren't very welcome–he'd been in one before, and it wasn't the greatest practically being kicked out of a timeline.


Though, this timeline seemed fairly modern, not very close to the present timeline, but far enough for several advancements. This was definitely around the times when hybrids and other beings from other dimensions, like the Nether, had begun to venture into the overworld. Though he didn’t see any.

He stepped out of the shadowy alley way, and into the small crowd. Most people didn't even spare him a glance, hurrying past him to somewhere–but one or two people gave him odd looks as he explored.

So far, this place seemed fairly normal.

There was a large building up ahead, mostly made out of concrete and bricks, and was probably the largest structure around. There were people moving in and out of it, and it seemed like a pretty important place.

"You're not from around here, I'm guessing, from how you're looking at the lab." A voice spoke. Karl turned around, seeing a man with almost completely white hair, pulled back into a mullet, but his bangs were different shades of brown. 

He wore a long white lab coat. He also was wearing a pair of shades that were low on his nose, just enough to be able to see his dark green eyes. He stared at the shapeshifter, eyes narrowed and calculating. Something about him put him on edge.

"Yeah, I'm not, I just got here. What's that building?" Karl said, gesturing to the large structure. The man turned to it and smiled. "That's one of the town's most important structures." He said. "Inbetween Labs. I'm actually the owner of it." 

Karl's eyes widened slightly. "Oh, so you run that place?" He asked. The man nodded. "Yep. You can call me Exdee." The man said, turning and smiling at him. "Nice to meet you." Karl responded, though he didn't say his name. It was a normal thing for overworld beings, and some others from other dimensions tell others their names upon meeting them, and while he would have done that.. something seemed off about this guy. So he did not say his name.

Exdee continued to stare at him, with a smile, and all of a sudden Karl had a bad feeling . Maybe he should just head home. This timeline didn’t seem like much. He could probably just go find a new one.

"I think there's somewhere I need to be. I'll see you later!" He said, hurrying off. He knew he wouldn't see him again though. Exdee waved, a smile still plastered on his face.

Karl hurried back towards the alley, ripping off the mask and shape-shifting back into his usual form, and starting to concentrate his energy to create a portal. 

Then something happened, something that disrupted his concentration and travelling. He froze at the sound of footsteps. He didn’t have his mask or hood on– and there wasn’t enough time to shapeshift before he heard a voice.

"Well, well, what have we here?"

Karl turned around. He'd heard that voice before.. He recognized the one standing there.

"A little moth.."

Exdee now stood in the entrance to the alley, with two more people beside him, blocking the way. He couldn’t recognize them, but they seemed like some kind of guards.

“Where do you think you're going?”


The same feeling of uneasiness washed over the shapeshifter, as he stared into the deep green eyes of the man blocking the exit. There was a cruel smile on his face.


Karl backed up, only to back into the wall.


He didn’t know what was happening, but his instincts were telling him he needed to run. His eyes darted around, searching. There wasn’t much he could do but try to travel back to the Crossing–and even then, he’d need to concentrate, he probably couldn’t do it.


A small bit of panic arose in him. But this was fine. If they were going to attack him, he could defend himself. Probably. He wasn’t exactly the strongest fighter of the Travailers. He probably shouldn’t think like that.


Exdee took a step forward, eyes narrowing and surveying him. “You,” He began. “Are not going anywhere.” He stated simply.


“What do you want from me?” Karl asked, staring at him cautiously. He should probably start carrying some sort of weapon for self defense with him during his travels. Yeah, that's a good idea. He wasn’t too worried about what was about to happen. Even if he got injured, or even died, that’s happened before, and before long, the Crossing always found its way to him and brought him back.


So no matter what happened, he knew he’d get out of this. But that didn’t mean he would just let it happen.


“Nothing much. But you will be coming with me.” Exdee said, the corners of his lips rising in a smile.


“Why would I do that?” Karl narrowed his eyes at him. He definitely did not trust this guy. He did not seem like a trustworthy person.


“Because you don’t really have a choice.” Exdee responded, smile faltering for the first time, before returning quickly. His voice sounded a little bit different. Like another person had spoken as well. Weren’t his eyes a darker green?


He could barely remember what happened next, but he thought maybe he fell asleep. Perhaps he passed out. Or was knocked out.


He didn’t really have a great dream, but it wasn’t exactly a nightmare either.


Though, waking up wasn’t that great.


Especially when you were being shaken awake.


“Hey! Hey! Wake up!” Someone yelled, nearly in his ear. He groaned, having just woken up to shouting and being extremely tired. “Yeah, wake up, this is boring watching Sable attempt to wake you up.” A second voice shouted back at the deadpan remark. “HEY! I’M NOT THAT BORING!”


“Calm down, SQ. Give the guy some space, he just got here. And he’s still waking up. Tri, be nice.” A third voice.


“Uhm, maybe you guys could be.. A bit quieter? waking up to shouting isn't that nice...” A fourth voice, but much quieter, and timid.


“NAH.” The first voice spoke again, shouting even louder. “U-uhm. Okay…” The fourth voice again.


“Sable, be quiet, you're going to make all of our ears bleed. I don’t think you want the new guy’s first impression of you being that.” The second voice again. Hadn’t someone called.. Her.. Tri?


A grumble, and then silence.


Karl blinked, finally opening his eyes, looking around.


“Oh–I think he’s awake!” The fourth voice exclaimed excitedly.


“Hey, SQ, you actually did something for once.” Tri remarked. The one the others had called both ‘Sable’ and ‘SQ’ let out a dramatic gasp. The third voice chuckled.


The first thing he noticed was there were four other shapeshifters, like him, in the room with him.


The second thing he noticed was the walls were pure white. So were the floors. And ceiling. That’s… a lot of white.


The third thing he noticed is he’s in an unknown location with total strangers, even if they are of the same kind.


“Good morning.” A purple one spoke, who sounded like the third voice. A blue one waved, he assumed that was probably the fourth voice, from how shy she seemed. “Hello. Welcome to the worst place ever.” The yellow one, which he recognized the voice as the one they called Tri, deadpanned. “What she said.” The fourth one, green. The first voice. SQ, or Sable. He jabbed a thumb towards her.


“What-” Karl mumbled first. “Where am I?” He asked.


“Hell.” Tri deadpanned.


“Ignore her.” The purple one said. “She’s always like this.”


“Nah, she’s got a point, this place might as well be hell. Wrong colors, though.” Sable retorted.


The blue one just hummed, sitting next to the purple one, glancing at him every so often. Then she spoke. “Uhm.. What’s your name?” She asked.


He opened his mouth to speak, when Tri slapped a hand over his mouth, then removed it. “Don’t. It’s not worth it having them find out your name.” She said. She turned to Diana, who seemed to shrink on herself. “Sorry- I forgot about that..” She mumbled.


“I.. can’t tell you my name?” Karl asked. Tri shrugged. “Well, if you really want to, you can, but I say don’t. Until we figure out how to break the speaker thingy.” She side eyed a wall, and Sable leaped up. “Can I do it?!” He exclaimed excitedly. The purple one sighed. “Don’t break anything.” Sable shot a look at them. “C’mon, why not, Nova!? Those bastards that put us here deserve to have their equipment broken!” He said.


Nova shook their head. “I’m not saying they don’t deserve it, I’m just being cautious.” Sable rolled his eyes, and sat back down, and flipped Nova off. Nova sent him a look, before turning to Karl. “I’m Nova, and this is Diana,” They said, gesturing to the blue one, who waved timidly. “And these two are–”


“Tricia. You can call me Tri.” The yellow one said, interrupting the purple Travailer with the blue and pink streaks in their hair, and the green one, nearly interrupted her, speaking right after she had. “I’m Sable! But you can also call me SQ.” He grinned.


Karl tilted his head. “Why are you called SQ? There's no Q in your name.” Sable laughed.


“My symbol is a square. Starts with S Q.” He shrugged. Karl’s lips made an ‘O’ shape.


“Seriously? That’s the first thing you comment on?” Tri asked. “Why not my nickname?”


Karl gave her a stare. “Because.. Tricia starts with Tri? It’s.. kind of obvious.”


Tri just stared back at him, and then facepalmed. “It’s supposed to be short for triangle..” She sighed. “Oh.” He mumbled.


“What.. is this place?” He asked. The other four all exchanged glances.


“Dunno what it’s called, some sort of laboratory though.” Tri shrugged. “Like I said, Hell.”  Sable nodded, agreeing.


Karl froze.


He recalled what had happened previously.


Everything with Exdee–that lab.


Inbetween Labs?


Was that where he was?


And then he had a thought, and suddenly he realized why he had not seen any hybrids.


Oh.


Honk.


He had probably just landed in one of the worst timelines possible.


This was bad.


“...annnndddddd there he goes. Panicking.” Tri said. “Don’t even try to reassure yourself that The Crossing will be able to drag you back. It can’t.”


Karl stared at her.


“I’m sorry- What?”


“Tri–you can at least try to be a little bit nicer! He just got here.” Nova said, glaring at her. “You’re gonna make him panic more than he already is.”


Tri just shrugged. “Well, better sooner than later.” “Tri!”


“Sorry not sorry, new guy.” She said.


“The- the crossing.. Isn’t working?” He repeated. She nodded. “Not working for any of us. We’ve been here a while. Doubt it’d work for you.”


“TRICIA.” Nova shouted. “What? I’m just stating facts.”


He couldn't go back to The Rift then-



“She has a point.” Sable added. “SABLE, YOU’RE NOT HELPING!”


-which mean't he was actually stuck here.


Karl had definitely started panicking, and Nova had to put their argument with Tri and SQ on hold as they and Diana attempted to calm him down. Which was difficult, especially with the situation they were currently in.


Things went on like that for days.


The five of them, joking, chatting, trying to deal with the situation, Tri and Sable plotting to destroy the lab's equipment, bickering with each other, a few times Karl even joined in the chaos. A few time’s someone came and left food, or they came and one of them left with them, but they always came back, reacting differently depending on the person.


Diana was always terrified. Sable was always angry. Tri came back in an especially bad mood. Nova just tried to comfort all of them, brushing off whatever they had experienced themselves and caring more for the others. Though, Karl could still tell it scared them.


When they finally took him, he was met with a kind-faced woman with lavender hair. Which.. Was not what he had been expecting. He had been expecting more someone like Exdee.


Or Exdee himself.


She was kind to him, throughout it all, and he met another person, who was also kind, and he later learned their names were Lavender and Kai.


The two of them starting being the ones who brought them food, and were always very kind. They attempted to comfort them.


But they couldn’t stop what they had to do, and so Lavender brought Karl to Exdee–he learned quickly that they both worked for him. That was the only thing he didn’t like about them, but after a while, he soon realized the two were planning something. They clearly didn’t like Exdee, even if they didn’t show it–especially around him.


Though, whenever they had to leave him with Exdee, it was absolutely horrible.


He didn't want to talk about it--much less think about it. Though, he still ended up telling Nova after a while.


Upon arriving there what seemed like so long ago, he quickly learned about what exactly this place was.


It was a laboratory where they experimented on hybrids and other beings. Everyone else he had seen that didn’t work there all hated Exdee. And apparently, that wasn’t even his real name.


Nobody actually knew his name. But apparently one of the others who was stuck here a while back gave him that name. Because the two letters, X, and D, looking like a laughing face together. He laughed, and smiled, a lot. Even in situations that most would consider something horrible to laugh at.


Such as, experiments that were practically just torture.


Exdee didn’t seem to even care, always smiling, laughing. He never knew Karl’s name, he never said it aloud. His name already sounded similar enough to how to pronounce it in his own language, so he didn’t say that in that language either. So instead, Exdee simply made up a nickname. He called him “Little moth”, because of his ears. He quickly began to hate the nickname.


He never answered when Exdee tried to ask him about his home world, or anything else related to his kind. 


The weeks there were horrible, and every day, a new, dreaded experiment.


It was at least bearable with the other four with him, and Lavender and Kai, and their kindness, doing all they could to make it better.


Kai somehow figured out how to hack the systems and break the listening device and cameras in their room for a little while, without being detected. So Karl told them his name. Though, they couldn't call him by it all the time, so they started calling him Jacobs or Spiral when the listening device was fixed. Exdee clearly didn't buy it when he saw him next--the others weren't that good at acting. Or lying, for that matter.


Things were alright.


But of course, things didn’t stay that good for long.


One day, Diana just.. Didn’t come back from the experiments. They all asked Lavender and Kai what had happened, and they just looked at them in horror. They were quickly able to guess what happened.


She was dead.


Nova, still tried to comfort the other three of them, even though he could tell they were barely managing to not break down themselves.


Tri and Sable were sadder than he had ever seen them.


And a while after, Sable was gone too. It hurt Tri the most, they were always bickering. She stopped making sarcastic remarks and deadpanned responses. Nova was just watching the two of them with a sad expression, yet a resigned one.


Shortly after, Tri was gone too. It was just him and Nova.


Lavender and Kai said they had a plan–but they weren’t able to do it until then. They said they had tried to help the other three, but couldn’t–Karl perhaps was a bit upset at them, but he didn’t blame them too much. It wasn’t their fault, they tried their best–it was Exdee’s.


Karl hated him as much as he feared him. Which, was a lot.


It was almost time for Lavender and Kai’s plan, and the worst had happened.


Nova had been lost too.


And then finally, it was only him.


Karl was saddened by the lives the two weren’t able to save, but he had had friends die before–he wasn’t unfamiliar to it. It didn’t mean it didn’t hurt him.


The day came when Lavender finally was able to sneak in and get them. Kai was waiting outside.


Karl really, really, really wanted to leave. He wanted to leave that wretched place, leave it behind, and never ever come back.


As they were heading out, Lavender hurried ahead and began unlocking rooms. Kai had once again managed to hack the systems, and disabled the cameras. The plan was successful so far.


And then they were making it out, alongside a crowd of other people who had been stuck there, when he finally showed up.


Exdee was there, in the forest. Lavender exchanged glances with Kai, and he nodded. He began to lead the other escapees away. Karl watched after Lavender as she approached Exdee, who was watching her in fury. One of the only times Karl had seen him not smiling.


“What- what about Lavender?!” Karl asked, stopping. Kai looked at him with a sad expression. “We can’t just leave her!” Karl said.


Kai looked back. “It- was her decision--–Hey, I’m sure it will be fine.” He said reassuringly. Karl knew how it would go, but he followed anyway.


In the distance, he could hear Exdee and Lavender yelling.


It didn’t take long before he could see the two through the trees.


And Lavender was laying on the ground, dead. In a puddle of blood. Exdee stood above her, holding a bloodied dagger. He lifted his head, staring right into Karl’s eyes. Karl nearly froze.


Kai turned to see what he was looking at, his eyes widened, and he yelled for them all to scatter.


Everyone ran in different directions, and Kai ran over to Exdee, presumably trying to distract him. Karl hurried into the forest, hiding, but not wanting to leave yet. He wanted to know if Kai would be alright--and what would happen to Exdee.


So he silently followed as Kai led Exdee further into the forest, until they reached a dark pit. Kai hid behind a tree. Exdee stopped far from the pit, looking around. “Where are you?!” He yelled, furious.


And then Kai jumped out at him, jabbing a dagger at him, Exdee jumped back, on the edge of the pit behind him. He glanced back.


Then Kai lifted one boot and put it to Exdee’s chest, and pushed, letting him fall.


But one thing happened before he fell.


Exdee reached a hand out, and grabbed Kai’s ankle as he began to fall.


Exdee dragged him down, and Kai was unable to get away.


And they both fell down into the abyss.


Karl watched in horror.


After what he had witnessed in this timeline..


He didn’t want to travel that much anymore. He feared coming across something like this again--he knew he probably wouldn't travel very much for a while. All the other things he'd seen during other travels didn't help either.


So he made a decision.


He didn’t know if he could go back to the Rift.


So he’d just find a better timeline to stay in. It'd probably be fine.


He soon found himself in a timeline in the overworld, far in the future of what happened, too far for any of the ones back in that timeline to still be alive, if any of them survived. If Exdee survived.


He found a town, named Essempii.


He came there as Karl Jacobs, a normal human. Without any secrets he would probably ever tell any of them.


And he met Sapnap, and Quackity. As well as many others.


And he stayed, the Crossing and The Rift no longer able to restrict how long he stayed in a timeline for.


Essempii became like a home away from home, since he had difficulty returning to the Rift. (It was possible, but hard to get back to, to the point he just didn't bother.)


And for once, after all that time, he felt at peace once again.

Chapter Text

POV: Niki


“What?” All three of them shouted.


The overseer just blinked at them.


“You heard what I said. I am assuming you are in disbelief.”


“So.. Ranboo isn’t the only one possessed.. George and Foolish are too?” Fundy said, and the overseer nodded at him. “Well, I can’t say I don’t believe it–at least for George. Since dreamons sort of control you by putting your consciousness to sleep and he’s always sleeping.”


Jack nodded. “True.”


Niki turned back to the overseer. “Can you tell us where they are–” She began, pausing.


Well, she was looking where the overseer was standing.


They weren’t there anymore.


“Did- Did they just leave.” Fundy stammered.


“They just left us! Dropped this huge revelation on us, and fucking left!” Jack scoffed. “Can’t believe it.”


Niki turned to the two. “We should try to find them. Quackity and Karl can probably wait a bit longer–If they’re already heading back.”


Fundy and Jack both nodded. They began to head further into the abyss cave, and she was surprised by how long the strings lasted.


"We've been going for a while now, and we're pretty far in–maybe we should start heading back, cuz' we haven't seen even a clue to where the others are. We'll, aside from seeing Ranboo that one time." Jack mumbled, sounding tired.

"I don't think we could see anything in here if we tried , Jack." Fundy remarked, sending Jack an exasperated glance. The fox hybrid then glanced at his wrist. "Well, aside from ourselves and these strings.."

"We can keep going for a little bit more, then head back." Niki said. They had already gone this far, and she didn't want to stop now–she was hoping they'd be able to find something first. Aside from seeing Ranboo. 

Jack let out a sigh, a few wispy particles drifting off his cloudy form, alongside small bits of electricity crackling in the air for a moment. Fundy's ears twitched at that, and Niki's scales itched a little bit, as they were slightly damp, as they should always be, and water and electricity don't mix.

They continued to walk forward through the inky abyss around them, Jack dragging his feet across the floor, Fundy looking around at everything, eyes darting, searching for any hint of their friends and ears perked up, listening, while Niki marched forward confidently, looking around like Fundy was.

And then there was a small noise.

They all froze, Jack straightened up a bit and Fundy snapped toward the direction of the noise. A wall, the outline of it barely visible in the black–Niki could just barely make out the figure of someone peering out from behind the wall.

And then they leaned sideways a little bit, and Niki could make out more details as most of them was now no longer hidden by the wall–and she recognized the white flannel shirt with the black vest over it and the red tie, and the half black face that blended in with the shadows around them and the other half that was white– Ranboo.

His black and white tail swished back and forth behind him as he slowly blinked a pair of brilliant, emerald green eyes at the group–eyes that were unlike Ranboo's, eyes that were greener than his usual teal-tinted green eye, and an entirely different color from his ruby red eye.

"Ranboo!" Niki called, one of the people behind her turned to him. "Ranboo's here again?" Jack said. 

"Guys, he's not the only–" Fundy began frantically, before being cut off with a shriek as George jumped out from behind a wall and swung a dagger at him, the fox hybrid barely being able to dodge, and then George swept his feet out from below him, the fox falling to the floor, quickly pulling out an iron sword and pushing himself up, brandishing the sword towards the mooshroom, whose eyes you could not see behind the glasses he was wearing.

Niki heard a vwoop next to her, but did not react fast enough, seeing Fundy fall to the ground, as at the same time Ranboo tackled her to the ground.

She felt electricity crackle through the air, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jack moving out of the way of a punch from Foolish, whose usual emerald green eyes were almost the same, aside from the dazed expression in them and something else she couldn't see well enough from where she was.

Niki didn't reach to pull out her dagger, not wanting to harm the enderman hybrid who had tackled her, and so she shoved him off herself, letting him roll to the side as she pushed herself up. Ranboo got up quickly, whipping around toward her and unhinging his jaw, hissing.

"Ranboo--snap out of it!!" She yelled, jumping to the side as he swiped a clawed hand at her face. She grabbed his arm, throwing him over her shoulder and letting him land on the ground behind her. He hissed again, and reached for her ankle, grabbing it successfully and trying to knock her off balance before she kicked his hand away.

He pushed himself back up, and with a vwoop, disappeared in a flurry of purple particles, reappearing next to her and grabbing her wrist in a tight grip.

Niki froze, staring at Ranboo's eyes. She suddenly began to feel dizzy. It was a familiar feeling–she had felt it before, she knew.

It was like how she felt before she had that dream, and was woken up by Ranboo.

Out of the corner of her eye, the other two were still fighting with George and Foolish, but Fundy was swaying slightly, as if he were about to pass out. Jack looked tired as well, but was still moving fine, except a little bit slower.

Then the room began to blur, and she felt herself falling–

She opened her eyes.

Niki was surrounded by sand, and up above, the sun beamed down on her, and she could feel her scales drying. 

She pushed herself up and stood, brushing sand off her clothing and looking around–and sure enough, there was a town on the horizon.

She had a sudden feeling of deja vu--and realized, this was just like her dream.

Niki began to hurry towards the town, slowed down by the sand and the heat, but she reached it–it was almost the same as before.

It was Essempii, but in a desert. But it was empty. There was no one there.

She knew she must be dreaming–she just didn't know how to wake up.

Although, it felt very real. But that was impossible for her to suddenly be in a desert—the closest one was far from Essempii, and why would there even be a replica of the town in that desert?

She began to walk through the town, any places where there were ponds and rivers in the actual town where all dried up.

She paused by L'manberg, and went to the side of the building where the hose was, and turned it on–in some hopes of there being water–she could feel her scales drying out.

A few droplets of water sprayed out of the hose, but it stopped quickly–nearly dried up. Still, she was thankful for the small bit of water–even if it wasn't much, it helped a little bit.

In the garden behind L'manberg, the garden was almost completely dried up–the plants dying.

But what was strangest, was the L'mantree was now a messy, black stump–as if it had been burned down. The smell of smoke lingered in the area. She shivered at the sight–the sign was covered in soot and ash.

She headed back into town, and into the neighborhood part of the town–passing by Fundy's house, which had a sort of tower coming from the roof–it wasn't very tall though.

She froze as a yell sounded through the air–someone shouting in terror.

She looked up to where the sound had come from–the top of the tower–where a window was open. And a moment later, Fundy appeared at the windowsill, gasping for breath.

He looked back, ears pinned against his head, and then jumped out the window, landing on the roof and sliding down, before landing on the sand next to her. He looked up at her in surprise. "Niki?! You're here too? I thought this place was empty–please tell me you're real!" He shouted frantically, grabbing her shoulders. 

"Yes–I'm real–" She said. "Are you real?" She asked him, and Fundy sent her a look. "Of course I am!" He said. Niki chuckled. 

Fundy then turned and looked back up at the tower. Niki followed his gaze. Fundy froze as he saw a figure in a black cloak in the window where he previously was. The hooded person just watched them for a moment, then moved to jump out the window.

Fundy grabbed Niki's hand and started running. "Run!" He yelled, dragging Niki along before she started running as well.

It wasn't long before the hooded figures' feet hit the ground, and they began sprinting after the two of them.

The chase continued for a while, with the figure chasing the two of them through the streets of Essempii–until there was a loud clang behind them, and then a thump.

Niki glanced back and stopped, slowing Fundy down and causing him to turn back as well. "What--we need to keep runnin–" He looked at what she was staring at.

There was now a trident in the ground behind them, pinning the cloak of the person that was chasing them to the ground, the person in question nowhere in sight, and some black dust was scattered around, mixing with the sand next to the cloak and trident.

"What the fuck." Fundy murmured.

Someone jumped down, landing next to the trident and pulling it out of the ground–they were wearing a hood, a light blue one–and Niki couldn't see their face.

"Uh, thank you for saving us!" She said. The person turned to them, enough that she could see beneath the hood–it was Foolish.

"Foolish?!" Niki and Fundy both gasped at the same time. Foolish stared at them. "Oh--you're welcome." He said. "I thought I was the only one here.." the blue and gold merling scratched the back of his head, before looking back at them. "That was until I saw you two being chased by that person."

Fundy and Niki walked up to him, Fundy nodded. "Do you have any idea who that was?" He asked.

Foolish nodded. "That was a member of the Wither cult." He stated. Fundy stared at him. "The what cult?"

"Wither cult. They were a group who worshipped the Wither, a terrible beast–me and Eret used to hunt them down back in the day with some others. I don't know why they were after you though." Foolish said. His golden scales glittered in the sunlight as he pulled his hood off.

He paused, then spoke again. "Though, I think they once worked with dreamons. That was a while ago though."

"They looked kind of like the cloaked dreamons during the ambush.." Fundy mumbled. 

"Well, the ones from the ambush couldn't be the Wither cult–we made sure they were wiped out. So either we're all in some sort of dream space, that was an illusion, or just a dreamon." Foolish said. Fundy nodded.

"Well, since a few other of us are in this..space.. whatever it is.. shouldn't we look for the others?" Niki asked. "Yeah, we should." Foolish agreed. "Yeah!" Fundy nodded.

After a bit of discussion, they decided to wander around the town for a bit–which they did until they spotted something in the distance–an oasis. 

They approached the oasis, pretty quickly (As both her and Foolish were merlings and their scales had been drying out from the heat).

They hurried into the oasis, and as she entered it Niki looked around, and spotted George, the mooshroom was leaning against a palm tree, eyes wide open and awake. He seemed almost bored.

It was much greener around here, plenty of plants, and there were trees around the oasis, with a pool in the center.

"George?" Fundy asked, slowly walking up to him. The moosh room just glanced at him. "Huh? How are you guys here?" He asked, staring at all of them.

"We don't know–we have no idea where we are." Foolish said.

George just stared at him, narrowing his eyes. "I thought that– nevermind." He sighed. "Well, we're trying to find all of the others–we are only looking for Jack and Ranboo now. You coming with us?" Niki asked him. George stared for a moment, and nodded. "Alright. Sure."

"Where should we head next? Continue wandering town?" Foolish asked, sitting next to the pool of water. "I'm not sure. I don't think anyone else is in town, and we'd probably get lost in the desert." Niki responded, walking up to the pool and splashing her scales with it, the moisture making her feel much better after the desert had nearly dried her up.

"Uh, guys." Fundy said. "Yeah, Fundy?" Niki asked, turning to him, and then froze.

"I think we should go that way." He said, turning to them and pointing where he was previously looking, to where on the horizon the desert and even the sky was fading into pitch black–like the void cave.

"..Yeah. Probably." Foolish agreed. 

After a little bit so the two merlings could rest near the water after having nearly dried out, they headed out towards the abyss that was consuming the world up ahead. 

Eventually, after a long track, they reached it. 

"This is so weird. " George muttered.

"It's not much different from the caves." Niki said. George shrugged. "Well, that is a bit different, cause it's just a cave, not the whole sky. " He said, gesturing to the sky above them that was seemingly being taken over by the void, just like the floor below them. Fundy nodded. "True."

"Still, someone might be there." Niki said. "Then it's decided, we're going in." Foolish said.

So the group headed into the abyss, wandering for a while. 

They continued on until the ground suddenly began to shake. 

"What's happening?" Fundy yelled. 

"It might be an earthquake?" Foolish suggested.

"Maybe we should move?" George said.

"Yes, definitely move!" Niki said, she tried to run but the ground was shaking too much.

And then the ground cracked and split open below them, and they all began to fall.

" WE'RE FUCKING FALLING! " Fundy shrieked.

"NO DUH." George shouted back. " WHAT SHOULD WE DO? " Foolish shouted, having to raise his voice so they could hear him over the wind whipping past them.

" wait–IS THAT JACK? " Fundy shouted, and sure enough, Jack was falling next along with them. " AYUP. "

" WE'RE ABOUT TO FALL TO OUR DEATH AND ALL YOU SAY IS 'AYUP'?! " Fundy yelled. Niki sighed--she was surprised Jack was here, but she didn't have the time to think about that--She had a plan.

Niki reached around, trying to find something to grab onto to stop them from falling. " GUYS, TRY TO GRAB ONTO ONE ANOTHER, THEN ONE OF YOU GRAB ONTO ME--I HAVE AN IDEA! "

Foolish was able to grab Jack and George's hands after trying to move through the air a bit, and Jack grabbed Fundy's ankle. Jack reached out and grabbed Niki's ankle with his other hand.

Niki stretched out her hand, reaching for the wall, and after a bit of trying to swim through the air, she succesfully grabbed onto the wall, and they all stopped falling suddenly, the ones on the end of the chain swinging and nearly hitting the wall. Fundy, who was currently hanging upside down, let out a shriek, hitting his head against the side of the wall.

"Well–we aren't falling to our deaths anymore, but now we are hanging onto a cliff for dear life, and Fundy is upside down." George sighed. "I feel lightheaded." Fundy mumbled. "I think I'm gonna be sick." 

"Please don't throw up." Foolish said, who was right beside Fundy, hanging onto Jack's arm. George muttered an agreement, the mooshroom holding onto Foolish's hand.

"Whatever you do, nobody let go!" Jack shouted.

"I can barely hold on myself!" Niki said. "I'll try to climb up, but you all need to help as well." She barely even questioned how she wasn't getting dragged down.

"How are you even holding on? You're either insanely strong or something is making you stronger, cause otherwise you probably couldn't hold us all up." Jack said, looking up at her incredulously. 

"Probably the second thing, I didn't think I was this strong either." Niki responded, sending a glance down at him.

She looked back up. "Okay, I'm gonna start climbing, everyone hang tight!" She yelled.

"We will!" 

"Yep!" 

"Yes, Ma'am!" 

"Affirmative!"

Niki let go of the wall with one hand, there were a few yelps below her as she stumbled a bit, going a bit lower, holding on with one hand–-seriously, how had she not lost her grip yet and fallen?--and reached up, grabbing onto another rock and pulling herself upward, and then again, and again, and again.

Fundy yelped every time they went upwards, and once or twice he hit the wall. Foolish attempted to help him and stop him from hitting the wall with his head, although he wasn't able to help very much.

"I think I'm gonna have a concussion after this." Fundy mumbled. "You'll be fine." Jack said.

Eventually, after a lot of climbing and Fundy hitting the wall, Niki reached upwards and felt no more wall–just open space. Floor.

"We're almost there!" Niki shouted. There were a few cheers, although Fundy cheered the most.

She pulled herself up over the cliff edge, and grabbed onto a nearby rock, pulling herself further onto the floor, and twisting around and grabbing Jack's hand, which was previously holding onto her ankle, and pulling him up—and this continued until everyone was up.

Fundy was dragged back up upside down, and was practically hugging the floor once they got up. (He also threw up.)

"Well, that was. Terrifying." Jack mumbled.

"Jack, you were actually right side up!! I was upside fucking down. " Fundy said. "Prime, that was the worst experience ever." He shivered.

"Well, hey, I was still hanging on for dear life from falling to my death. I was also falling through there for far longer before you all showed up." Jack retorted. Fundy scoffed.

"Alright, guys, that was terrifying for everyone–but we found someone else and we need to find Ranboo, and then find a way outta here." Niki interrupted them. Fundy sighed. "You're right." 

"But seriously, Niki, how did you hold on?? We should've dragged you down." Jack asked. Niki shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I don't know my own strength."

"Okay, Nobody is that strong." Fundy remarked. "It must be this space or something." Niki nodded. "I'm guessing so."

"Well, whatever it was, it kept us alive, so I'm assuming it won't let us get seriously hurt–but we can never be too careful. We should keep moving, so we can get Ranboo and get outta here." Foolish said. Everyone nodded, murmuring agreements.

After a little bit of resting after what had happened, they got up and continued moving again.

They continued until on the horizon, what appeared to be a large sea layed ahead of them in the void.

"Is–is that a fucking ocean ?" Jack asked, staring up ahead at a large mass of water.

"I.. think it is?" Fundy mumbled.

George tilted his head. "This is so weird. First an abyss taking over the world, and then we are infinitely falling, and then there's an ocean in previously said abyss?"

"True. This place is really weird." Foolish agreed.

"Do you think Ranboo's around here?" Fundy asked.

Niki shook her head. "We can hope not, cause he's an enderman hybrid–they don't deal well with water." 

Fundy suddenly perked up. "Wait! He must be here–cause, Niki, Foolish, you are both merlings, you don't do well with heat–and you both woke up in a desert! Ranboo is an enderman, and doesn't do well with water, so-"

Niki stared at him. "If you're right, then–"

Fundy turned to the water. "Okay. That is definitely not a good thing."

Jack glanced at the two merlings. "If he's in there, can't you two.. like.. swim down and get him?"

Foolish and Niki looked at him, then the water, then exchanged glances.

Foolish shrugged, then ran into the water.

"Woah–this gets deep really quickly." He said, before diving in.

Niki glanced at the others, before following in after him.

The water was nice, and cool, and it felt nice to be swimming underwater again–she hadn't been swimming since she had ended up in those caves so long ago.

Foolish swam up beside her, his grey-blue scales blending in with the water around them, which was a similar color, but darker down below–meanwhile, his golden scales and Niki's own mint and pink scales stood out.

"Any sign of him yet?" Niki asked.

Foolish shook his head. "Nope. We could swim a bit deeper?" Niki nodded.

The two swam down deeper into the dark ocean, and she could feel the water moving below her, as if someone were thrashing around.

Foolish seemed to notice it too, and dived down, Niki following after the shark merling.

And sure enough, there was Ranboo, struggling to swim in the middle of the ocean. A bit of hope shone in his eyes when he noticed them, and Niki swam faster towards him.

A bit of steam seemed to float around the water, and tear tracks on Ranboo's face were burning–but only that, and not the rest of his body– This space must be stopping him from getting too injured or drowning , Niki thought.

Although, despite it, it still looked like it hurt.

Niki grabbed one of his arms, and Foolish swam to the other side and grabbed Ranboo's other arm, and the two begin to swim upward, leading the enderman hybrid to the surface.

Quickly enough, they reached the surface, and Ranboo gasped for air–Okay, maybe the space hadn't let the drowning kill him, then.

" Prime –he actually was in there?!" Fundy yelled, pulling off his coat and putting it over Ranboo in hopes it could dry him off a little.

Niki nodded. "Ranboo, are you alright?" She asked. Ranboo nodded.

"It burned when I was in the water, but it doesn't anymore, even though my clothes are still wet– that was terrifying. I– I thought I was gonna die. " The enderman trembled slightly. Niki frowned, and then pulled the enderman into a hug.

There was a long pause as she comforted the enderman, when Fundy finally broke the silence. "Wait-so--you aren't burning anymore?" He asked. Ranboo nodded. Fundy tilted his head. "Huh. It must be this space again.."

Ranboo stared at him. "What?"

"We're in some weird space–this whole area was like a void that just randomly is taking up half the world, and early we fell–and kept falling infinitely until Niki caught onto something, and somehow was able to hold all us up and climb up without us dragging her down–and now you no longer burning or drowning to death." Fundy told. 

"Huh. That's… strange. Interesting, but strange." Ranboo stared at him, blinking. Fundy just shrugged.

"Well, we've found everyone now.. now we just need to figure out how to get out. " Jack said. Niki nodded.

"Is it possible that we're in the dreamon space..?" Fundy suggested. Everyone stared at him.

"What?" Foolish finally asked.

Fundy let out a long sigh. "Yknow? When a dreamon possesses someone, their consciousness is in a dream state. This could be that state."

"Oh–so-we're dreaming?" Foolish asked, and Fundy nodded.

"So we just.. need to wake up." Jack mumbled. "How do we do that." The wisp looked around

"If we've been put in a dream state.. I'm guessing.. we need to.. break out, of that state?" Ranboo said. Fundy nodded. 

"Can we.. like.. break out of it. Like, literally break ?"

Fundy just blinked at the merling. "I don't know how breaking out of it works, but that could be possible."

Foolish grinned and hopped up, stomping on the ground–the abyss below them shattered a little bit, white cracks forming below the shark merlings feet.

"Hey, I think it works!" Foolish cheered. "That, or we are gonna fall again." Jack scoffed.

Niki shrugged. "It's better than nothing–and if I'm right, this space won't let us die."

"Alright then." Jack sighed, and jumped, more cracks forming in the ground.

Ranboo stood as well, stomping on the ground and forming more cracks, and the others followed along–jumping, stomping, or doing whatever else and causing the ground to break.

Niki stomped as well, and one last time, and the ground broke beneath them, a few yells of alarm rang out from the others as they began to fall into the void, and Niki's vision blacked out…

Niki opened her eyes.

She was still in the void–but on solid ground.

There were also green strings hanging from the ceiling.

She was back in the void cave.

She looked around, and all of the others were waking up around her.

Fundy groaned. "What–" He yelped as he saw the void around them, before realizing they were on solid ground. He looked around, and let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, we're back here."

Jack looked up, and had the same reaction as Fundy, except he thought they were falling. "See, I was righ– oh." He blinked at his surroundings. "Nevermind, you were right."

"Huh–did it work?" Foolish asked, glancing around. "Yep, it worked."

Ranboo blinked at all of them, looking around as well.

Fundy glanced at George who was laying on the ground next to him, snoring. The fox hybrid then turned to stare at all of them. "Well, Gogy's fast asleep. Still."

"You would think he would wake up after his consciousness wakes up, but nope, he just goes back to sleep." Jack sighed.

"Uh.. what happened?" Ranboo asked. "I mean–I remember the whole–dream.. thing.. but what was the thing about dreamons?"

"Oh! You, Foolish and George got possessed by dreamons." Fundy stated calmly.