Archive of Our Own ^beta

“What’s your name?”

“…Ranboo.”

“Hello, Ranboo.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I live here. Obviously.”

“I mean… what are they doing to you?”

“I’ve stopped caring.”

“You’re going to what?”

Purpled gaped at Punz from across the fancy red table they were sitting at. Before they had arrived, Punz had told Purpled that good manners were imperative when dealing with such a highly known gang such as the Red, and Purpled had agreed reluctantly. He had practically broken a sweat over remember which forks to use for which course of meal, but Punz’s sudden announcement had hit Purpled like a runaway speeder.

Purpled clung tightly to his butter knife in his fist, completely flabbergasted at what he was hearing. The other members of The Red were watching with faces of smug satisfaction as Punz stared at Purpled completely impassionedly.

“I’m going to join The Red,” Punz said. He gestured to the people who had hosted Punz and Purpled, and Purpled felt sick. “They’re a reliable group of people, not to mention they have more money than we could ever dream of having.”

Purpled could not believe what he was hearing.

“Are you hearing yourself?”  Purpled stood to his feet, his chair falling onto the floor behind him. He slammed his hand against the table, not caring how he crumpled the table-cloth. “You’re going to join a cult?”

“A gang, Purpled.” Punz sounded bored, as though their years together had meant nothing at all. “I’m joining a gang.”

“They sure act like a cult,” Purpled muttered. He glared at the leader of the gang, Bad. Bad smiled.

“I’m sure to an outsider, our choice in décor may seem… extreme,” Bad said. “But we promise nothing cult-like is at play, here.”

Purpled rolled his eyes. Bad was right, or, at least, seemingly right. Nothing occult was happening in this gang, but that didn’t mean that the organization itself didn’t have cult-like behaviors. Like how hard it was to leave once one had joined.

Besides, there was just something about this situation that didn’t sit right with Purpled at all.

And Purpled could definitely put his finger on it.

“We’re a team!” Purpled protested. “A duo! You can’t undo that. We’ve been together for years!”

“Aren’t you tired of it?” Punz asked. Some emotion finally filtered through his voice. “Aren’t you tired of it being us against the world? Don’t you want some people who can actually support you, who can make repairs faster—”

“I don’t want it to be these people.” Purpled gestured wildly at the group around him. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I’m not joining a gang that only cares about the money—”

“Oh, like you don’t also only care about the money.” Punz scoffed and rolled his eyes. “We’re bounty hunters, Purpled. That’s all any of us are after.”

“I’m only after the money when the target deserves it,” Purpled said firmly. “You know the sort of things these people traffic? Ridiculously addictive drugs that can kill people when unchecked, black market weapons... They don’t care who they hurt if it gets in the way of their precious business. And they strike me as the sort of people who would take a bounty on any old person!”

“Rude,” Bad said mildly.

“I’m just stating the truth.” Purpled glared at everyone sitting at the table, including Punz. “Are you even hearing yourself? You used to say you never wanted anything to do with gangs.”

“Times change,” Punz said. “They pay well.”

“Again, with the money—”

“They’d pay you well too.”

Purpled faltered. No matter what he said, no matter what Purpled would like to believe, money didn’t actually grow on trees. It was hard to scrounge a living from collecting bounties, and the offer of wealth was… tempting. He had been raised by Punz, after all. Money is what made the universe tick, and it was the key to power.

He wasn’t going to get roped into this stupid scheme, no matter how alluring it might seem on the surface. Purpled brought his hands to the table and pushed his chair away from it. It scraped against the floor obnoxiously, and Purpled took grim satisfaction at Bad’s wince.

Purpled stood up and smoothed down the fancy purpled suit that Punz had forced him to wear. It made him feel stiff and vulnerable, and Punz had insisted Purpled not bring his blaster.

Purpled wish he had brought it now. He saw how the members of The Red shifted in their seats, all glancing at their leader for direction.

Bad said nothing, staring at Purpled with a deadly glint in his eye.

“I’m not staying here,” Purpled said stiffly. “I don’t want money that puts me in someone else’s debt. Goodbye.”

Purpled spun around, his hand still grasping for air at the side of his leg. Behind him, he heard a chair scrape against the shiny floors.

“Please reconsider.”

Bad’s voice rang out from behind Purpled, and Purpled bristled. He wasn’t hurt that Punz wasn’t fighting for him. Punz had always been a more withdrawn brother figure. He was more focused on teaching Purpled how to be better than to congratulate him on what Purpled had already achieved. Punz had always emphasized the importance of Purpled making his own tough calls, and it made sense that Punz wasn’t insisting that Purpled stay.

It didn’t hurt. It was completely to be expected from Punz.

Purpled wanted to keep walking, but making a gang as influential as The Red angry was dangerous. Bad had resources. Bad had ways of making Purpled wish he were dead.

Purpled turned around, trying to school his face into the most respectful expression he could muster. Purpled wasn’t all that sure he was successful.

“I will reconsider,” he lied. “Please, just give me time to mull it over on my own. This is a big decision.”

Bad narrowed his eyes at Purpled, but he nodded. Purpled glanced at Punz one last time, but Punz was looking at Bad, as though Bad were the only one expected to handle this situation.

Rage and frustration bubbled up beneath Purpled’s skin, and Purpled spun around and walked as quickly as he could toward the exit. His fancy shoes echoed against the stone floors, and the sound filled the silence of the room.

Purpled could not reach the doors fast enough. They opened upon his approach, and Purpled felt relief come with the knowledge that he did not have to stand and press buttons in order to open a door while the members of The Red just stared at him.

Purpled continued marching down the halls; the doors shut behind him. He let out a small breath of relief, but the tension in his body did not fade. Guards were still stationed in the halls, and Purpled was still without a weapon.

Purpled really just wanted to run, even if it would be stupid. Running would get him out of this place sooner, with its pristine floors and its bright red walls.

Running would make him look guilty, and The Red had no mercy towards those who slighted them.

Purpled finally made it to the landing bay, and he spotted his and Punz’s ship right where they had left it. He walked up to it briskly. If anyone asked, Purpled would say that he was deliberating on his decision inside his ship.

Of course, that was the last thing Purpled intended on doing.

Purpled climbed up the ramp and pressed his hand against a small scanner sitting next to the doors. The screen lit up upon recognizing Purpled’s hand, and the door slid open.

Purpled entered the ship, immediately pulling off the dress shoes that Punz had forced him to wear. They were black and shiny and not at all practical, but The Red had a strange fascination with looking like they were ready to go to a party for royalty at any minute. Purpled undid his purple vest buttons while running into his bedroom. His blaster sat where it belonged, haphazardly on his bed, and Purpled quickly changed into more comfortable (and more protected) clothing and put his blaster at his hip.

Punz still hadn’t returned.

Fantastic.

Purpled ran to the cockpit and settled into the pilot’s seat. Normally, Purpled was the copilot, but Punz had shown him the ropes of piloting a ship all on his own.

If Punz was going to join The Red, Punz could feel free to do so. Punz could even fly a ship owned by The Red.

Purpled was taking his ship, and Purled was leaving.

Purpled started the engines before strapping himself in. he looked around through the window for any sign of someone trying to stop him, but none appeared. Either Bad was choosing to let Purpled go, or no one had realized that Purpled wasn’t meant to be leaving.

Purpled wasn’t entirely sure which he preferred.

Purpled made it off the ground without any difficulty, and he flew away from The Red’s headquarters. Purpled’s hands were tense around the yoke as he pulled it back to make the ship go higher into the air. If Bad chose to fire on him, he needed to be ready. He couldn’t afford to let himself get shot down.

But nobody fired at Purpled, and Purpled made it safely out of the atmosphere. Purpled was alarmed and slightly thrilled with his luck, although tension still tightened every muscle. He wouldn’t feel safe until he was out of this system.

Purpled charted a course on his navicomputer, not thinking too hard about his destination. If he changed his mind, he could always go somewhere else later, but Purpled couldn’t stand the thought of staying above this planet any longer.

His course set, Purpled quickly pulled the lever, and the ship went into lightspeed.

It was an hour since Purpled had made his not-so-dramatic exit, and he was still furious.

As soon as he left, Purpled remembered the tracker that Punz himself had installed in the ship. Purpled had managed to de-activate it, but he could just imagine Punz and his new buddies on his trail. Purpled would come out of lightspeed only for Punz to come out of lightspeed right behind him, and the thought made Purpled’s skin crawl.

As soon as Purpled had de-activated the tracker’s signal, Purpled pulled himself out of lightspeed and charted course for a new destination. He was still too stressed and angry to actually think about where he was going, and he couldn't even remember which planet he had decided to send his ship barraleling towards. Hopefully, it wasn't somewhere that had an arrest warrant for Purpled. Bounty hunters didn't have the cleanest of records, after all.

Now, Purpled was pacing in front of Punz’s bedroom door, deciding what he was going to do.

It was always possible Punz would come back. Not likely, but it wasn’t impossible. Hell, maybe Punz was trying to chase after Purpled right now to apologize for being such a terrible partner.

But, as much as Purpled would like to pretend that was the case, it almost certainly wasn’t. Punz didn’t do something unless he was set on it, and he had seemed pretty set when he tried to justify himself to Purpled. Tried to justify leaving him for some gang.

Purpled grit his teeth and growled. He’d deal with Punz’s crap later. He didn’t want to look at anything that reminded him of his brother at that moment.

Purpled marched to the kitchen area of the ship and perched himself on the counter. He pulled open his laptop and began scrolling through bounties that he and Punz had once considered too high of a risk.

Purpled would show Punz. He didn’t need Punz.

As Purpled searched through a sea of names, his eyes landed on a reward that Purpled wanted to gape at in horrified glee.

Purpled wasn’t actually sure if horror and glee were two things that were compatible, but that’s how he felt in that moment.

Tommy Innit, reward: 1 mil credits.

One million credits. The person who was looking for this Tommy Innit fellow would pay one million credits for his return.

Purpled could hardly believe it.

He clicked on Tommy’s name, and more information filled the screen.

Tommy Innit

Male

Avian

Blonde hair, blue eyes

6’ 3”

Innit is a highly dangerous individual. He has escaped from secure environment and has caused harm to several innocents.

Capture alive.

Purpled frowned as he inspected the picture that accompanied the description. There was a picture of a tired-looking teen standing in front of a gray wall. He was wearing a red T-shirt, and his curly hair had an overgrown quality, reaching his shoulders.

And the bounty was put up by some fancy government official. Purpled could tell by the seal sitting next to their name.

Purpled understood why Punz had never offered up this job as an option before. Money was important, but money was useless if they were both dead. This Tommy Innit was “dangerous,” which would have been all well and good if Purpled were only meant to kill him.

But to capture him alive? That was a whole other story. Not to mention that the bounty had been open for nearly two months now, and nobody had collected the million credit reward yet. Tommy was slippery, and dangerous, and certainly not someone that Purpled would be able to manage on his own. Purpled was rebellious, but he wasn’t stupid.

Purpled hummed in thought, drumming his fingers against the back of his laptop. Even if Punz were still with Purpled, Purpled wouldn’t be confident in their abilities to pull this one off.

Purpled needed a crew. Not just a partner, but a crew. A group of people he could depend on. A group of people he could work with to corner this Tommy Innit and bring him to justice.

And Purpled knew just where to start.

“Purpled,” Aimsey said. They narrowed their eyes at him. “You wanted to see me?”

After resolving to chase after Innit, Purpled had headed toward Pogtopia, a planet that really was nothing more than a hub for people with less than clean records. He had messaged Aimsey and asked if they could meet at the local bar, and now they sat at a dingy round table in the corner of the room. Aimsey had their legs kicked up on its surface, their arms crossed as they regarded Purpled with clear distrust. Purpled leaned back as well, trying to look casual and unthreatening.

Neither of them were fooled.

They hadn’t ordered any drinks. Purpled didn’t want to waste his money on anything so frivolous, and Aimsey clearly felt the same.

“Where’s Punz?” Aimsey asked, not letting Purpled answer their original question.

“Punz is…” Purpled looked up at the ceiling and whistled as he thought about the most appropriate answer. Then, he remembered that he hated Punz, and he didn’t care if he dragged his name through the mud. “Punz joined The Red.”

Aimsey’s eyes widened, and they let out a low whistle. “Punz joined The Red? You mean the scary gang obsessed with the color red? The drug lords?”

“The very same.” Purpled wished he hadn’t been a cheapskate. He could really use a drink.

“Wow.” Aimsey leaned back in their chair. “I’m sorry, man.”

“We’re not hear to talk about him,” Purpled said dismissively.

“Right.” Aimsey’s expression relaxed marginally, but nothing could get rid of the alert glint in their eyes. “What are we here to talk about?”

“I’m looking to form a crew,” Purpled said. “And I was wondering if you would be willing to join.”

Aimsey raised their eyebrows. “Oh, is that all?”

“I can tell you’re being sarcastic.”

“I don’t know if you noticed, purple boy, but I already have my own crew.”

“Funny.” Purpled motioned behind him, even though nothing was there. “I heard that your ship had been destroyed, and your crew had either left you or didn’t survive the explosion.”

Aimsey frowned but didn’t say anything. Their feline ears twitched in agitation. It was all but a confession.

“I was thinking of reforming my crew,” Aimsey said. “Promising it wouldn’t happen again. That sort of thing. Eryn’s still on this planet. He’s trying to join another crew. You should talk to him.”

“I’ll talk to him later.” Purpled tucked that information in the back of his mind for later use. “I’m still talking to you.”

“Well, I think I’m growing rather bored of this conversation—”

“Have you heard of Tommy Innit?”

Aimsey stilled. “You mean that kid they’re paying one million credits for?”

“Yep.”

Aimsey removed their feet from the table and leaned forward, resting their elbows against the table. “You could say I’ve heard of him,” they said. “Tried to track him down for a bit. He’s too slippery.”

“Is he the reason your ship got destroyed?” Purpled asked.

Aimsey shook their head. “I never got a close look at the kid, but he was a scrawny one and was mostly concerned with running. He never engaged with us. Our ship was destroyed by some competing hunters who were fueding with us .”

Purpled nodded. Nobody had said this job was safe. Bounty hunting attracted all types of people, but usually the criminal types, because most bounty hunters didn’t care who they dealt with as long as there was a payday. While Purpled didn’t go after civilians, he didn’t ask any questions about his supposedly dangerous targets either.

“I’m sorry,” Purpled said. “For the record.”

Purpled and Aimsey had met before, usually catching each other trying to collect the same bounties. He and Aimsey had seen it as all in good fun and competition, not begrudging another if one got there first. It was a question of skill, speed, and just a bit of luck, and Aimsey was a fun person to have a chat with over particularly hard to pin-down targets.

“Let’s not get gooey on me,” Aimsey said. They clapped their hands together and smiled. “So. You want me to join your crew so that you can hunt down Innit?”

“Sounds about right.”

“How much of the reward would we be getting?”

“Assuming that none of you are backstabbing traitors,” Purpled said. “I’ll be dividing it equally among us. You’re going to be my crew, not my servants or employees. This isn’t some fancy cruiser with different ranks.”

“I mean, I’m assuming you’re going to be the leader,” Aimsey said. They hummed. “I don’t know how I feel about that. You see, I'm used to being the one in charge”

“No leaders,” Purpled promised. Admittedly, yes, he had envisioned himself as a leader, but he could compromise. “We all speak our mind. If someone thinks they can handle a situation better than I can, they can take charge.”

“Now, every group needs a leader.” Aimsey shook their head. They were smiling as though Purpled had just told a particularly funny joke “I think you’ll make a fine one, Purpled, if you stay true to your word about listening to others and giving everyone an equal share of the cut. How many people are we sharing this with?”

“Hopefully around five,” Purpled said. “You’re the first person I’ve spoken to. So, are you in?”

Aimsey stared at the ceiling, deliberating. The music that filled the bar was suddenly painfully loud as Purpled waited for an answer.

“Yeah,” Aimsey decided. “I’m in. I’ve always liked a challenge, and Innit is certainly a challenge.”

“Undoubtedly,” Purpled agreed.

He held out his hand, and Aimsey grasped it in turn. Aimsey had a strong and slightly painful grip, but the pain held another promise as they shook. If Purpled went back on his word, Aimsey would make sure he paid for it.

Aimsey reminded Purpled of Eryn, who was looking to join a crew himself. Purpled had no idea where to find him, and Aimsey said they had no clue where to look either.

“We’re not actually on speaking terms, since the incident,” Aimsey said. “You might not want to recruit him. Might be awkward.”

“I can handle awkward,” Purpled said. “Can you handle awkward?”

“Depends on how awkward Eryn wants to make it,” Aimsey said with a shrug. “Eryn might not want to handle awkward at all.”

Aimsey reminded Purpled dimly of a petulant child who refused to make up with their next-door neighbor, but he kept that metaphor to himself.

“We’ll see,” Purpled said vaguely.

Purpled didn’t enjoy the prospect of having to deal with tense relations right out of the gate with his crew. Purpled also couldn’t afford the luxury of passing up a potential crew member. Most people were attached to their crews, so someone actively seeking to join a new one was a huge opporunity that Purpled would be foolish to ignore.

After asking around, Purpled found Eryn standing outside the shipyard. He was leaning against a tall building, his arms crossed and looking completely unbothered. But Purpled could see the way his eyes searched the people walking to their ships. Eryn was looking for the face of someone who needed another crew member.

Purpled would spare him the trouble, though, and walk up to Eryn himself.

“Hey!”

Eryn looked up as Purpled approached. His face betrayed no emotion, but his eyes lit up ever so slightly.

“Hello,” Eryn said. “Were you looking for someone?”

“You, actually,” Purpled said. “I’m looking to form a crew. Are you in?”

“Just like that?” Eryn asked. He was frowning, but he pushed himself off of the wall he was leaning against. “You didn’t even ask for my name.”

“Don’t need to,” Purpled shrugged. “But, fine. What’s your name?”

“Eryn,” Eryn said. Purpled hoped he didn't look too unsurprised. “I’m an engineer and mechanic.”

“Great.” Purpled said. He knew a thing or two about engineering, but not enough to handle an emergency. “I need an engineer. You in, then?”

“This is happening awfully quickly,” Eryn said. He surveyed Purpled suspiciously. “Give me a moment to think. What do you even intend on doing?”

“I’m a bounty hunter,” Purpled said.

Eryn raised his hands in surrender. “Oh, hell no. I’m not joining another one of you bounty hunter types again. The last time that happened, I almost died.”

Purpled frowned. Maybe he had come on a bit too strong. “Anything I can do to change your mind?”

“Nope.”

“Bummer.” Purpled stuck his hands into his pockets, trying to look uninterested. “Even if we were going to split a million-credit reward?”

Eryn’s eyes flashed with interest. “A million credits?”

The universe was run by money, and as Purpled suspected, Eryn was no different.

“Well, we would split it,” Purpled said. “But imagine two hundred thousand credits coming your way. Surely that’s more than any other job could give you.”

“You’re looking for Tommy Innit, aren’t you?”

“The one and only.”

“You do realize that he’s impossible to find, right? Everyone’s complaining about it. He’s faster than lightspeed.”

“With a good enough crew, I think we can pin him,” Purpled said. Confidence was key in interactions like these. “Besides, even if we don’t find him, we’ll make some good friends along the way.”

“That’s so stupid. We need to get paid.”

“Fine. I’ll pick up other bounties if Innit doesn’t work out. How about it?”

Eryn sighed. “You know what? Fine. But only because nobody else seems to want another crew member, alright? If I get another offer, I’m leaving.”

“Fair enough,” Purpled agreed. “But, who knows? Maybe you’ll like it here.”

“I highly doubt that.”

They didn’t shake hands. Purpled directed Eryn to his ship, which was in the shipyard. “You can go there right away or wait for me to return,” Purpled said. “The ship’s locked, though, so you’re going to wait outside.”

“Sure.”

“Also, do you have any suggestions for other crew members?” Purpled asked.

Eryn shrugged. “Ask around. You’d be surprised how many people are asking for work in this place.”

Purpled wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

Although one wouldn’t expect it, Pogtopia really did have a marvelous garden.

Tommy crouched down in front of a strange purple plant. It looked similar to a flower, but it was unlike any flower Tommy had ever seen. It wasn’t like the plants Tommy had on L’manberg, and the academy hadn’t had much in the way of greenery.

And the lab…

Tommy didn’t like to think about the lab.

Maybe it was strange, but Tommy gently poked the plant. He didn’t know much about the environment in Pogtopia, although Ranboo might. The sky was purple, which was weird enough for Tommy. In L’manberg, the sky had been blue, and the lab…

Tommy hadn't had much opportunity to go outside when at the lab. There was that brief moment when he and Ranboo had escaped, but that was too quick for Tommy to take in the sky before they were blasting out off the atmopshere frantically.

Tommy hoped he could go to L’manberg again. He missed their purple fields, and the rivers that cut through them. The city Wilbur and Tommy had lived in had the most beautiful river cutting through it, and Tommy could imagine the bridge he used to sit on the railing of.

“Get down from there right now,” Wilbur would say. “If you fall, you’re going to die.”

Tommy would only laugh at him. “I won’t fall,” he said confidently. He flared his wings. “And I can glide.”

Heights had never scared Tommy. As an avian, it was near impossible to fall to one’s death, although Wilbur was always quick to forget that. Apparently, when Tommy was younger and his wings were too small to support anything he did, Tommy had fallen into a smaller river and nearly drowned. One of Wilbur’s friends had dived in and rescued him, but Wilbur had said it was the scariest moment of his life.

Wilbur had become a bit of a hoverer since then. And, considering Tommy didn’t remember the incident, Wilbur really was just a hoverer for the entirety of Tommy’s childhood. Tommy was slightly relieved when he went off to the pilot academy, free from Wilbur and his restrictions.

Now, Tommy didn’t think he had appreciated Wilbur quite enough.

Tommy’s wings itched, and Tommy tried to ignore them. Ranboo had bound them to Tommy’s back as safely as possible, but the fact remained that wings weren’t meant to be bound. Wings were meant to be free.

“Hello strange plant,” Tommy said, still poking the plant. “My name is To—Theseus. Isn’t that an interesting name?”

The plant didn’t respond. Obviously.

“Hey, Tommy.”

Tommy leapt to his feet, reaching for his blaster, but it was only Ranboo approaching him. Tommy let out a small breath of relief while he fidgeted with the mask covering his mouth and nose.

“Warn a man, Ranboo, wow,” Tommy said. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry.” To his credit, Ranboo did look a bit guilty. “I tried.”

“Yeah,” Tommy sighed. “You tried. Anyway, what’s up?”

“Well, I actually came upon some very interesting news,” Ranboo admitted. “And I thought you would maybe like to hear about it.”

“Maybe I would.” Tommy sat down on the ground, and Ranboo followed suit.

“Why are we sitting in the middle of a garden?” Ranboo asked.

“Because it’s nice here,” Tommy said. “That’s why. Now, are you going to tell me about the interesting news, or am I going to be forever in suspense.”

“Oh, right.” Ranboo hummed. He looked very nervous, which was not reassuring in the slightest. “Well, ah, remember how we were looking for work?”

“Yes?” Tommy wasn’t sure why this was such nerve-wracking news. “Have you found us a job?”

“Maybe?” Ranboo’s voice pitched in the way it did when he was unsure about what he was saying. “I… may have… had a discussion… with a bounty hunter.”

Tommy groaned, shutting his eyes and covering his face. “We are not working with bounty hunters.”

“Well, it gets better actually,” Ranboo said. “You know how, uh, there’s a bounty on your head right now.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“The dude, Purpled, totally pitched it like, ‘hey you wanna make a lot of money because I’m gonna find TommyInnit.’”
            Tommy couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh or cry. He settled on clutching his hands tightly together and resting his forehead against his knees.

“What did you say?”

“I said I needed to talk with my partner first,” Ranboo said. “I’m not stupid. I wanna run it by you.”

“You didn’t say no?” Tommy demanded. “Ranboo, you do remember who I am, right?”

“No, I forgot within the last two minutes,” Ranboo said dryly. “Of course, I remember. I just… I have a really stupid idea.”

“You know it’s stupid when even you admit it,” Tommy said. He begrudgingly remembered that Ranboo had called their successful escape attempt a good idea. “But, let’s hear it. What is your stupid idea?”

“Well…” Ranboo rubbed the back of his neck, looking very clearly nervous. “Well, you know how they say keep your friends close—”

“And your enemies closer.” Tommy nodded. “I’m very familiar with it. Surely, you’re not suggesting that we work with the guys who want to hand me over to Dream for a million credits?”

“Well, not exactly…”

“Oh my god, that is exactly what you’re asking.” Tommy  snorted in disbelief. “Are you hearing yourself?”

“I can hear myself just fine,” Ranboo said. “I think it really could be a good idea.

“Please explain to me how hanging out with the people hunting me down is a good idea. I’m listening.”

“Well, think about it this way. They’ll never look within their own crew.”

Tommy ran his fingers through his hair. “And what happens if they catch me brushing my teeth? Or when you preen my wings?”

“We’ll just lock the door. They’ll never know.”
            “They’ll never know,” Tommy said mockingly. He couldn’t decide if he was frustrated or just exasperated with Ranboo, but whichever it was didn’t change the fact that this was the worst idea in the history of ideas. “No. Absolutely not.”

“They have free food.”

Tommy hesitated. Food had been difficult to come by, seeing as both Tommy and Ranboo were flat broke. Free food was actually a very good reason to take the job immediately.

“And it would be funny,” Ranboo added.

It would be really funny.

What? No. Tommy was not going to agree to this monstrously bad idea because it would be funny. That was the worst reason to agree to something in the history of reasons. It was such a terrible reason that Tommy wanted to throw it into the nearest garbage compartment.

“Please, we aren’t doing this,” Tommy said pleadingly. “there will be other jobs.”

“We might be able to find Wilbur.”
            Tommy groaned. The good reasons were starting to outweigh the bad. Somehow. Tommy wasn’t really sure how, actually. This was ridiculous.

“They have beds—”

“Fine! Fine!” Tommy threw his hands in the air. “Fine! We’ll go onto this death trap. But if I get caught, I’m blaming you, okay?”

Ranboo nodded. “Sure. But, you have ot admit, it will be a temporary improvement to our current living conditions.”

Seeing as Ranboo and Tommy had taken to sleeping in alleyways, this was very true. “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Tommy muttered. “I’ll kill you if I get taken back to Dream. That’s not an empty threat.”

“I won’t let that happen.”

Ranboo was telling the truth. He had risked his life on multiple accounts to make sure Tommy had gotten away from Dream. He wasn’t going to stop now.

Or, at least, Tommy really hoped he wasn’t going to stop.

“Great.” Tommy still could not believe the words that were coming out of his own mouth. “Let’s do this. Free food and potentially finding Wilbur here we come.”

Tommy pulled himself to his feet and gave the weird purpled plant a wave goodbye. Tommy hoped that this Purpled fellow had plants on his spaceship, or Tommy was going to be exceedingly cross.

“Where is this Purpled guy anyway?” Tommy asked as they left the garden enclosure and reentered the city. The city was much less pretty than the garden, but it wasn’t as crowded as some cities Tommy had previously been to.

“Somewhere,” Ranboo said vaguely. “He gave me directions to his ship…”

“But you have no sense of direction,” Tommy finished for him. Tommy approached a random adult that didn’t look like they would kill the first person who accosted them. “I’m sorry, but could you direct us to the shipyard.”

The adult complied, and Tommy and Ranboo quickly made their way there.

When they arrived, Tommy spotted a ship with two figures looking like they were having the worst argument in their lives. A teen with a purple sweater underneath protective armor was raising his hands in a placating motion, but the other two continued yelling at each other.

The yelling carried across the shipyard, and Tommy cringed.

“Is that our guy?” Tommy pointed to the purple-shirt kid standing between the two arguers.

“Yep,” Ranboo said.

“We haven’t even left and the family is already arguing,” Tommy grumbled. “Can you remind me how great of an idea this is, Ranboo? I seem to have forgotten the reason.”

“Food. Bed. Wilbur. Funny.”

“Those are all good reasons.”

It was a wonder Tommy hadn’t been caught yet. Maybe all the other bounty hunters were just more stupid than Tommy was.

Hopefully, Purpled would be an equal degree of stupid.

Tommy and Ranboo approached the argument, and Tommy heard the words they were saying get clearer and clearer.

“You had one job!” a fellow with mostly human characteristics was saying, although one of his eyes was red in a very not-typically-human way. “You promised to protect us, and now—”

“I’m sorry, alright?” the other arguer looked to be feline, and their tail flicked in seeming agitation. They glanced at Tommy and Ranboo as they approached, and their angry tone mellowed down. “I tried my best; I didn’t want the others to die. Alright?”

“Look,” Purpled said. “Eryn, if you can’t handle being on the crew, it’s fine—”

“Why the hell didn’t you warn me about Aimsey?” Eryn gestured angrily at the other. “You clearly had already spoken with them—”

“I didn’t want you to say no before you heard me out,” Purpled said. “Can you handle it?”

Eryn crossed his arms. His expression was sour in a way that screamed that he could definitely not handle it.

“Yeah,” Eryn spat. “I can handle it.”

“Great,” Aimsey said. “So, can I.”

Tommy glanced at Ranboo, wondering if there was any chance he could choose the back out now before it was too late. Food and bed really didn’t seem to be worth the trouble of constantly hearing Eryn and Aimsey argue about something Tommy had no context over.

But why did they look vaguely familiar?

“Anyway,” Purpled said. “Ranboo, good to see you’re here. And you are…?”

Tommy held out his hand. He hoped Purpled wouldn’t see the way it shook. Although nobody had caught Tommy when he was in this disguise yet, a part of him wondered if Purpled was going to see right through it.

“Theseus,” Tommy said.

“Hello, Theseus,” Purpled said. He shook Tommy’s hand. “Ranboo told me you’re a pilot?”

Tommy nodded. The thought of flying made him feel almost giddy. Dream had wanted to take that dream way from Tommy, but Tommy wasn’t going to let him.

“I was the best pilot in my class,” Tommy said. Before Dream decided I could be used for more.

Purpled grinned. “Great. I believe we have a functioning crew.”

“Are you sure the five of us are really going to be able to snag Innit on our own?” Aimsey asked. “I mean, the tall fellow right here doesn’t look like they know how to shoot a blaster.”

“I’m a medic,” Ranboo said. “Please, don’t get on my bad side.”

“Oh, in that case…” Aimsey bowed dramatically. “Oh, high and powerful medic. Please forgive me and do not leave me to die when I am injured. Assuming you are not dead from not knowing how to defend yourself.”

Tommy barked out a laugh. Ranboo looked incredibly unimpressed “I also know how to shoot a blaster, even though I don’t particularly enjoy doing so.”

“Well, we have to catch Innit before we can engage him, so you’re in luck,” Eryn said. He glared at Aimsey. “That was something we had never managed.”

“We’ll manage it this time,” Purpled said confidently. “Come on. Let’s get inside, and we can sort out sleeping arrangements.”

Tommy let out a silent breath of relief. Purpled hadn’t recognized him. Purpled hadn’t even blinked at Tommy’s introduction.

He gave Ranboo a shaky thumbs up as they walked up the ramp into Purpled’s ship. Ranboo returned the gesture.

Hopefully, they wouldn’t die a painful death because of this.

Purpled led his new crewmembers through his ship, showing them around. He introduced all of them to the kitchen, the cockpit, the bathroom, the airlocks, the cargo area, and, most importantly—

“Your bedrooms.” Purpled gestured down the hall where four doors stood. Punz and Purpled used to take up two bedrooms for the hell of it, but Purpled had taken his mess to only one bedroom.

Purpled was yet to deal with punz’s stuff, but Punz wasn’t a slob. Nobody would be put off by clothes strewn everywhere in the same way they might’ve if they laid eyes on Purpled’s room.

“My room is right there.” Purpled pointed to the door nearest to his right. “I know there are five of us, so one of is going to have to share—”

“Ranboo can share with me!” Theseus said. His voice was loud and eager, and Purpled jumped at the sudden sound. Theseus shrunk away. It was hard to tell with his face mask, but Purpled was pretty sure he was embarrassed. “Sorry.”

“No, no, that’s fine,” Purpled said. “Makes things simpler.”

Purpled glanced at Aimsey and Eryn. They had taken to not speaking to each other, and Purpled would have hated to imagine the storm that would’ve come down upon them if they were required to share a room.

Everyone picked out a room, even though they were all basically carbon copies of each other. Each room had bunkbeds, which meant that Purpled, Eryn, and Aimsey had two entire beds to themselves. Eryn and Aimsey picked the rooms Punz had previously marked as his territory, so Purpled pulled them to the side.

“My brother’s stuff is still in there,” Purpled admitted. “Sorry. I should’ve dealt with it sooner. Just let me get rid of all of it, and then the rooms will be all yours.”

“Oh, and I have a question,” Aimsey said. “I’ve noticed that we don’t have any personal items on us. My stuff sort of blew up with my ship, and I didn’t see Ranboo and Theseus have any packed bags with them either.”

“You guys need clothes,” Purpled said. Resignation was in his voice.

“Unless you want us smelling like crap,” Eryn said cheerfully. He was looking directly at Purpled, probably not wanting Aimsey to think he was talking to them. “Yes. We need clothing items. And some toiletries, preferably.”

Purpled massaged his face. Why did people need so many items to be happy?  Why couldn’t they just be cheap?

Purpled made a mental note of how many credits he had on his account. Fortunately, Punz and Purpled had agreed not to share an account in case they did happen to split up. It had seemed like an impossibility to Purpled, but he had liked the idea of having his own money.

Purpled was grateful they had done it now.

“I should be able to manage that,” Purpled finally said. “That should be our first stop. Can’t afford to have an unhappy crew.”

“That’s the spirit!” Aimsey shot Purpled a thumbs up. “Now, you go deal with your stupid brother’s stuff.”

“I was hoping to throw it out the airlock,” Purpled said.

“Well, we aren’t exactly in space right now,” Eryn pointed out.

“Wow. I had no idea. And here I thought Theseus had already taken us off the ground.”

“No need to get snappy,” Eryn grumbled. He sighed. “I need something to eat. Can I go now?”

Purpled nodded. “Actually, speaking of airlocks and Theseus, we should probably leave. That gives me time to get rid of Punz’s crap, and then we can start our mission.”

“Love the plan.” Aimsey gave Purpled a mock salute.

Purpled found Theseus and Ranboo lounging in their room. Theseus was lying on the top bunk, but he was leaning over the edge to talk to Ranboo, who was sitting on the bottom bunk.

“… stupid ideas—”

Purpled cleared his throat. Ranboo yelped and jumped, and Theseus fell out of his bunk entirely. Purpled cringed at the crashing sound, but he didn’t make any motion to help Theseus. He was already picking himself up off the gorund, and Ranboo was hovering over him worriedly.

“Sorry,” Purpled said. That probably wasn’t the best second impression to make with Theseus.

“Ever heard of knocking?” Theseus grumbled.

“Right.” Purpled rubbed the back of his neck, now feeling exceedingly embarrassed. “Sorry. I forgot about that. I’m used to just living with my brother, and we barge in and out of each other’s rooms all the time.”

“Apology accepted.” Theseus still sounded very agitated, but at least he wasn’t trying to get into an argument with Purpled over it. Purpled had experienced enough angry yelling for one day. “What did you come in here for anyway?”

“I was just going to tell you that ideally we should lift off soon,” Purpled said. “I have to get rid of my brother’s junk, and I think the easiest way to get rid of it is out the airlock.”

“Isn’t that littering?” Ranboo asked.

“It’s space.” Purpled rolled his eyes. “Their plenty of it. Nobody will notice if they see a pair of pants floating around in there.”

Ranboo didn’t look like he wanted to argue, and Theseus sniggered. “Alright, boss man,” Theseus said. He clapped his hands together. “I can get us off the ground.”

Purpled led Theseus to the cockpit, and Theseus sat in the pilot’s seat. He leaned back in the cushioned chair for a moment, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh.

“What are you doing?” Purpled asked. “I’m paying you to be a pilot, not a professional napper.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Theseus snapped. “I am enjoying this moment. It’s not every day that I get to pilot a ship like this.”

“I thought you said you were a pilot.”

“I am.” Theseus opened his eyes with a huff. “I went to the academy and everything for it.”

“If you came from the academy, what in galaxy’s name are you doing on Pogtopia?”

Theseus groaned. “A man can’t get a bit of privacy around here, can he? That’s private.”

“Also, if you came from the academy, shouldn’t you be more used to ships—”

Theseus glared. “Look, I’ve had a bit of a break from flying, but you don’t have to worry about me, alright? I’ve got this.”

“You’ve got this,” Purpled said dryly. He crossed his arms. “You still haven’t started the engines.”

Theseus rested his hands on the yoke, glancing at the dashboard. “Admittedly, this isn’t quite the same as the fighters I trained with.”

“We’re all going to die,” Purpled muttered. He ran a hand across his face. “We are all going to die.”

“That is a terrible attitude.” Theseus turned on the engines and pulled up the ramp. “It’s going to be fine. See? I know what I’m doing.”

Purpled sat in the copilot seat, his entire body on edge as he watched Theseus start up the ship. Admittedly, he wasn’t doing too bad of a job at it. At the very least, he had gotten all of them off the ground with very minimal amounts of jolting.

“There we go,” Theseus muttered. “Nice and easy.”

“Easy is not the word—”

“If you’re going to keep sassing me, I’m going to ask you to leave my cockpit—”

“I’m sorry, you’re cockpit?” Purpled demanded, flabbergasted. “This is my ship!”

“You can’t even fly your own ship?” Theseus asked as they exited the atmosphere.

“No, I can, I just, you know what? I don’t’ have to explain myself to you.”

“No, you don’t,” Theseus agreed. “I already know the answer.”

“Excuse me?”

“Look, I would love to debate how good you think you are at flying, but I’d prefer to get going so that I can go back to minding my own business. Where do you want us to go?”

Purpled opened his mouth to continue arguing, but Theseus was right. As soon as they jumped to lightspeed, both Purpled and Theseus could leave the cockpit, and then, they could start avoiding each other.

“Right, um…” Purpled searched his mind for a planet that they could quickly buy supplies at. “Do you know where any nearby city planet is?”

“Maybe,” Theseus said. “Actually, no. Not really. I’m not well traveled. Can you just give me the coordinates?”

Purpled pulled out his data pad and fished up the coordinates to the nearest planet with a wide variety of markets. It should be crowded enough there that nobody took note of them, and they could collect supplies there.

Purpled supplied the coordinates, and Theseus inputted them into the navicomputer. It rather quickly calculated a course, and Theseus grinned.

“There we go,” he said. “Let’s get moving.”

Theseus pulled the lever that sent them into lightspeed, and the dark view of space suddenly turned to one of bright blue.

“And you thought I couldn’t fly,” Theseus said, getting to his feet. He cracked his knuckles.

“You literally only did the bare minimum,” Purpled said. “This is the sort of thing you teach a teenager how to do.”

Theseus gave Purpled a confused look. “Aren’t you a teenager?”

“Yes,” Purpled admitted. He crossed his arms defensively. He had no idea how old Theseus was, but he knew it couldn’t be that young. “I mean, I’m legally an adult, though. By human years. Sort of.”

“Wow,” Theseus said. “Eloquently said. “

“I’m sorry, how old are you?”

“Old enough.” Theseus’s voice was smug, and Purpled wanted to strangle him. “Didn’t you have stuff you wanted to chuck out the airlock?”

“Oh yeah, I did,” Purpled said. “Do you want to help?”

“And hang out with you?” Theseus scoffed. “Not a chance. Although, admittedly, it would be fun to chuck stuff out of airlocks.”

“I mean, I don’t want to hang out with you either.” Purpled rolled his eyes. “Has anyone told you you’re annoying?”

“All the time,” Theseus said proudly. “It’s my best thing. Dre—my mentor absolutely hated it.”

“Which is why you kept it up?”

“Precisely.”

Purpled snorted. He still didn’t quite know what to make of Theseus, but he certainly wasn’t the worst company in the entire world.

“Well, maybe it’ll grow on me,” Purpled said as they exited the cockpit. “Don’t count on it, though.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Theseus said. “But just you wait. You’ll soon grow attached to my devilish charm.”

Theseus wiggled his eyebrows, and Purpled lightly shoved him aside. “Alright, alright, whatever. Let’s just get my brother’s crap together.”

“Wait.” Purpled couldn’t see Theseus’s face, but his brows were furrowed. His eyes looked confused. “You’re throwing out your brother’s stuff?”

Purpled made a noise of affirmation as he entered Punz’s old bedroom. “Yeah? What’s the big deal?”

Theseus followed Purpled into the room. “I mean, it’s your brother.”

“He left me to be with a gang,” Purpled said tersely. He could understand Theseus’ concern, but he wasn’t about to appreciate it. “I don’t care about him anymore.”

Theseus didn’t say anything for a moment, and Purpled stubbornly ignored his silence. He opened up Punz’s drawers and pulled all of his clothes out of them, letting them flop into a dramatic pile in the middle of the floor.

“Shouldn’t you at least sell the stuff?” Theseus asked.

“That’s less therapeutic,” Purpled said. “Also, while I am a money motivated person, I don’t want to go through the effort. I can afford to throw all this junk away.”

Theseus bent over and picked up a piece of armor plating Purpled had just added to the giant pile of clothing. “This is literally nice armor. Can’t we repurpose this?”

“No.”

“But—”

“Look, if you’re going to keep judging me, please leave. If you’re going to help, feel free to stay.”

Theseus audibly huffed. “Fine, fine. I’ll help. Are we getting rid of everything?”

“Everything.”

“Even this super nice bounty picture of Technoblade?” Theseus asked. “Damn, he grew his hair out.”

Purpled spun around, snatching the piece of paper from Theseus. Sure enough, it was a printed copy of one of Technoblade’s wanted signs. Technoblade’s capture nearly paid as much as Tommy Innit’s did, but Punz and Technoblade had a truce. Purpled wasn’t going to infringe upon that.

Still, it was strange that Punz had this in his room. Was he planning on going back on his truce?

“Huh. Strange.” Purpled gave Theseus a confused look. “You know Technoblade?”

“I know of him,” Theseus said vaguely. “His hair was shorter the last time I saw a picture of him. That’s all.”

Purpled peered at Theseus. He didn’t trust that explanation for a minute, but it was better than nothing.

“Sure.”

They continued gathering up stuff, and, when they were done, they placed it all down right outside the airlock. Both Theseus and Purpled clapped their hands together in satisfaction, and they stepped away from the pile to close the inner airlock bay doors.

“Good work,” Theseus said. “I can really feel the revenge in our actions right now.”

“I know, right?” Purpled grinned as he pressed the button to open the airlock. The doors opened, and he watched all of Punz’s stuff get sucked into the black void of space. “And now it’s gone. Forever.”

Theseus shook his head. “I wonder… do you think that one day some poor ship is going to come out of lightspeed with a pair of pants on its front windows?

Purpled scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. That doesn’t happen in like… ever. It doesn’t happen ever.”

“It might happen,” Theseus said. “That’s what things in space do, right? They just go on forever.”

“I’m not thinking about that,” Purpled said. “Now you’ve got the mental image of all of Punz’s stuff just floating in space for all of eternity, and I have you to thank for that.”

Theseus looked very smug. “Maybe, in like, a thousand years, some poor soul on the other side of the universe will find Punz’s clothing—”

“Shut up, shut up, please, I don’t want to think that I’ve immortalized Punz. This is supposed to be revenge. Revenge, remember?”

“Oh, right.” Theseus scratched the back of his neck as Purpled closed the airlock doors again. “Well, you’ll definitely be inconveniencing someone, which means he will be blamed?”

“Just stop.”

“Yeah, that might be for the best.”

Purpled rolled his eyes good naturedly as Theseus exited backwards from the airlock hall and headed back toward the bedrooms. Purpled himself would like to flop onto his bunk and fall asleep, and it wasn’t as though he didn’t have time to. It would take a few hours yet before they got out of lightspeed, probably more.

Theseus was already securely in his bedroom before Purpled got to the hall, and he delivered the news to Eryn and Aimsey separately that they could settle into their own bedrooms. Aimsey was sitting on the kitchen counter, eating shamelessly from Purpled’s pantry. Eryn had been sitting in cargo hold, reading a book that Purpled thought looked somewhat familiar. He didn’t remember what it was about, though.

“What are you reading?” Purpled asked.

Eryn hummed, turning it over in his hands. “Just a manual on your ship. Must be old to come with a paper manual.”

“Well, it’s easier to fish it out from underneath the dashboard than to frantically start looking it up on your data pad only to forget what model your ship is,” Purpled said. Purpled was pretty sure Punz had printed it out for that express purpose.

“I mean, it’s pretty standard ship stuff,” Eryn said. He shrugged. “It has a layout on the ship, though, as well as on how some of the functions work. It’s always good to know, in case things go very south.”

“Sure,” Purpled agreed. “Well, you keep doing what you’re doing, I guess. If you want privacy, though, you can retreat to your bedroom. I’ve removed all of the signs of previous ownership.”

Eryn grinned. “Oh, that’s fantastic. I’ll go up there later.”

Purpled glanced around the empty cargo hold. “You like it down here?”

“Yeah. It’s spacious. And quiet. And away from you know who.”

Purpled had definitely made a mistake in his choice in crewmates. He supposed he could always fire Eryn or Aimsey, but he had a feeling that would just create more problems than solutions.

Besides, it had been hard to wrangle this crew together. Most people laughed in their face, saying they weren’t going to be a part of a crew run by a “child.”

They weren’t impressed with Purpled’s insistence that he was legally recognized as an adult, and that he could probably take them in a blaster duel anyway.

That was probably for the best. Purpled didn’t need to die from poor decisions and reckless behavior. It would be a very embarrassing way to go.

With the news about the bedrooms delivered to all parties, Purpled went to his own room and flopped on top of the bottom bunk. He was exhausted, and a part of him wondered what he was thinking, trying to accomplish such a task. Finding Innit? It would be impossible. Or, at the very least, more than Purpled was used to accomplishing.

But spite was a powerful motivator, and so was stubbornness. Purpled had told his new crew that they were going to find Tommy Innit, so that was what they were going to do.

Besides, a challenge would be fun.

Hopefully.

Tommy was sixteen years old when he met Ranboo. He had been sitting in his room, which was really just a glorified cell. There was one-way glass that served as Tommy’s entire one wall, and Tommy knew that people could look into his room from the hall. Tommy was also very aware of the cameras in the corner of his room. Tommy wasn’t sure what they expected. Did they think he was able to escape? Doubtful, after all of the times Tommy had already attempted it.

For a cell, however, it was fairly comfortable. There was a bed with proper cushions, a sink, and even a bean bag. What else could a prisoner ask for?

One day, the door to Tommy’s room had opened. Tommy thought it was one of the scientists to take him to his tests, but, to Tommy’s surprise, it wasn’t a scientist who entred the room. Instead, an enderian entered the room.

“Don’t make him angry,” someone said behind the new kid. Tommy didn’t know who. The scientists all blurred together at this point.

The enderian turned around with their mouth open, probably to ask some very important clarifying questions, but the door shut behind him. The new person jumped with a small squeak. Tommy couldn’t blame them. Tommy would also be very displeased if he realized that he was stuck in a room with a theoretically dangerous prisoner.

The enderian was tall, but not quite as tall as some adults that Tommy had seen of their species. Their heterochromatic eyes were glancing all over the room, probably looking for potential escape routes.

Tommy glanced at the uniform his visitor was wearing. It seemed to belong to a medical officer, although this person didn’t hold nearly enough confidence to be a professional.

His guest was still staring at Tommy like Tommy was about to bite him, and Tommy glared.

“Uh, hi!” the new person said. Their voice pitched awkwardly.

“Roar,” Tommy said in a bored tone.

Funnily enough, this seemed to put the medical (trainee? new hire?) at ease. Their shoulders slumped, and they took a step forward. They gave Tommy a small wave, but Tommy didn’t wave back.

“Welcome to my cell,” Tommy said. “I’m sure you’re truly terrified to see your test subject face to face.”

“Oh, well, uh, they made you sound scarier than you actually are. Right now, at least. I’m new here. Hi. Again.”

Man. This person was really awkward. No social skills at all.

Tommy decided he might as well do half the work for him.

“What’s your name?” Tommy asked.

The new person stiffened, as though Tommy were some sort of creature of legend who could steal names. Or maybe they just didn’t expect Tommy to have manners. “…Ranboo. He/they.”

“Hello, Ranboo.” Tommy stood up on his bed, clapping his hands together. He wasn’t too stunned at Ranboo’s appearance. “I’d give you my name and pronouns, but I have a feeling you already know them already.”

New hires came to visit all the time, when new hires came, which was not often at all. Tommy was under the impression that he was a super-secret project in an already super-secret facility, which really made Tommy wonder why they would bring such a young-looking person. Didn’t they know that young people couldn’t keep secrets to save their lives?

Ranboo still looked confused. Tommy would probably be confused too. He was certainly confused when he first arrived at this place.

Well, confused was only a third of it. Tommy was also extremely angry. And scared. The confusion was only the cherry on top of a very bad cake.

“What are you doing here?” Ranboo asked.

Tommy rolled his eyes. Was Ranboo paying any attention during orientation? “I live here. Obviously.”

Ranboo was still frowning. He was probably staring at all of the scars on Tommy’s arms. Which was fair, but also very rude. “I mean… what are they doing to you?”

Tommy flopped down on top of his bean bag. The beans, or whatever they were, made a crunching sound underneath Tommy’s weight. “I’ve stopped caring.”

Ranboo looked extremely distressed at that. “But… you’re hurt.”

Tommy scoffed, rolling his eyes again. He wasn’t that hurt. It didn’t physically hurt at the moment, at least. Sure, his scars had bad days, but that day was not one of them.

“That’s why they have medics. You’re a trainee, aren’t you?”

Ranboo looked visibly uncomfortable with that question. Tommy made a mental note of that. “You’re deflecting.”

“I’m coping.” Tommy gave Ranboo a winning smile. It was the same smile that made the scientists extremely angry with him, but Ranboo only looked more distressed.

“I don’t think you should be trying to hide from something like this.”

As if Ranboo had any authority to talk about this.

“Oh, you mean my problems?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah.” Ranboo shifted from where he was standing. He looked like a kid being confronted by their school principal for steeling candy.

Tommy stared up at the ceiling. “I have so many. Hiding is easier than trying to confront them all.”

“Oh.”

Ranboo still seemed oddly uncomfortable with this entire situation, and tommy wondered if Ranboo had even chosen to be in this facility at all. It wouldn’t be terribly unlike the SMP government to just thrust teenagers in situations they didn’t like. Tommy certainly didn’t volunteer to be turned into a pincushion.

He looked back down from the ceiling and stared at Ranboo in the eyes.

“Hey, Ranboob—”

“Ranboo.”

“Whatever. Are you allowed to go to the outside world? Other planets and all that? Or are you another prisoner?”

Ranboo’s eyes widened, as though the thought had never occurred to him. Maybe it hadn’t.

“I, um… I don’t know?”

Tommy hoped that Ranboo was. It would make Tommy’s life the slightest bit easier.

Tommy was kidnapped. Tommy could afford to spend some time on minor rebellion.

“Well, if you are, could you look for someone named Wilbur for me? He thinks I’m still in pilot school. Extended program for prodigies or something like that.”

“How do you know that?”

“I overheard Dream talking about it. Do you think you could find him?”

Ranboo nodded.

“His name is just Wilbur?”

Tommy shrugged. He didn’t actually like thinking about Wilbur too much. It made him sad about things he couldn’t control, and that was just a massive waste of time. “Well, Wilbur Soot. I guess. He’s my brother.”

“Dream called you Tommy Innit.”

Tommy scoffed.

“It’s a nickname. My real name, according to Dream, is Tommy 1nn1t. experiment, remember?”

Tommy did not rest his fingers against the back of his neck, where a cereal code had been printed into his skin. The hairs on the back of his neck did prickle uncomfortably, however, although Tommy was sure it was just a coincidence. The brain was very suggestable.

“Why are you so calm over this?”

Tommy laughed bitterly “It’s been two years. I’m coping, remember?”

Ranboo looked like he had many more questions, but, fortunately, he kept them to himself.

“Sure… so you want me to find Wilbur Soot?”

Tommy nodded quickly. “Yeah. I came from a small planet called L’manberg, but he’s probably moved on from that place. He wasn’t much of a farmer.”

L’manberg was a beautiful planet, but it was mostly just full of farms. It made practicing flying easy, but it didn’t give much in the way of dreams of fame and greatness. There was a reason Tommy went to a pilot school off planet.

“Alright… I’ll find him.”

Tommy felt palpable relief, and he almost wanted to cry at this random stranger’s kindness. He wasn’t sure why he felt so overwhelmed, especially since Ranboo could easily go back on his word. Still. Hope was a rare thing. Tommy wanted to hold onto it as much as he could.

“Thanks, Ranboo.”

Ranboo nodded. His expression was solemn. “You’re welcome.”

Someone knocked on the door, and it slid open. Tommy resisted the urge to rush forward, and a hand rested on Ranboo’s shoulder.

“Enough visiting,” a voice said roughly.

Ranboo was dragged out of the room, and Tommy looked miserably at the security cameras. He had forgotten about them, and Tommy realized he probably had just doomed Ranboo to being trapped at this facility just as much as Tommy was. If not trapped, thoroughly bugged if Ranboo ever left. Dream couldn’t afford to have his precious secret get out.

Guilt and bitter disappointment filled Tommy, and he flipped off the camera.

The camera only blinked its incessant red light at him.

Truly a masterful work of science.

Tommy was now sitting on Ranboo’s bottom bunk. Ranboo was preening Tommy’s very bent up feathers, being careful in spots where they were most irritated. They had locked the door so Purpled couldn’t walk in on them again, because that would certainly have been disastrous for them both.

“I really wish you didn’t have to bind your wings like this,” Ranboo fretted.

“You know an avian’s wings is one of their most identifiable features,” Tommy muttered. “It’s not like we all have the same colors.”

“I know, I know, I just… I’m worried.” Ranboo removed one of Tommy’s feathers and put it in a bag they were using to keep them hidden. The last thing anyone needed was a bunch of loose feathers on the ground. “It’s really unhealthy for your wings to be like this.”

Tommy stretched his wings out as far as he could. One of his wings hit the wall before Tommy could do so, but the other wing stretched out easily enough. His muscles were stiff and sore, and Ranboo wasn’t exactly wrong.

There just wasn’t anything they were able to do, so why bother worrying?

“Look, I think we have bigger things to worry about right about now,” Tommy said. “Let’s just focus on not getting caught. I’ll worry about my wings when I have to worry about them.”

Tommy instinctively relaxed as Ranboo smoothed out a section of his feathers. “Has it occurred to you that in procrastinating like this you’re only going to let them get worse and worse?”

“It’s not procrastination if there is literally no other option.”

“You could just keep your face hidden—”

“Ranboo,” Tommy snapped.

Ranboo shut his mouth, his hands stilling on Tommy’s wings. Tommy sighed guiltily. “Sorry. I just… I can’t risk it, alright? I couldn’t risk it out in the streets, and I certainly can’t risk it now. They’ll figure me out in a heartbeat, and back off to Dream I’ll go.”

“We’ll go,” Ranboo corrected.

“I’ll go.” Tommy fastened Ranboo with a glare. “I’m not going to let them know you’re involved, and you aren’t going to let them know either. They are going to be wholly ignorant of your criminal record, and you can live a nice happy life not on the run.”

Ranboo looked incredibly unimpressed. “You seriously can’t be expecting me to stand and watch while you go back to that hell?”

“I can and I do.” Tommy crossed his arms, his feathers bristling. “I don’t want you getting locked up again, Ranboo. It was my fault all of that started anyway.”

“They weren’t going to let me out, and you know it.” Ranboo’s words were frustrated, but his hands were still gentle. “I don’t understand why our conversation makes you think any differently.”

“I told you to tell Wilbur—”

“They had me sign an agreement not to leave,” Ranboo interrupted. “Like an a non-disclosure agreement, except worse.”

Tommy sputtered, absolutely flabbergasted. “You agreed?”

“I signed it before I arrived.” Ranboo leaned forward and rested his forehead against Tommy’s shoulder. “I didn’t read the fine print. I mean, who does? That thing was pages long. But when I asked if I could go home a few weeks later, they acted all surprised and pointed to the section of the contract.”

Tommy hadn’t been hoodwinked by any legal contracts. Well, actually, maybe he had. Maybe there had been something vaguely written in the fine print of his enrollment papers to the academy that said that at any moment a government official could kidnap him and proceed to ruin his life. Dream did seem to be running whatever he was doing through official channels, after all.

The thought was pretty sickening.

“I’m sorry they did that to you.” Tommy said. He stared at his hands, tracing one of the scars on his palm. “They suck.”

“They really do.” Ranboo sat back up and continued preening Tommy’s wings. “It’s fine, though. We’re out, yeah? What else is there left to do but pray that we don’t get put back in there?”

“I don’t think you’re in that much trouble,” Tommy mused. “They can always get a new medic. You were only ever training anyway. There’s only one of me.”

“Unless they’re trying it out on some other kid,” Ranboo said. Tommy stiffened at the thought. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much, though. The fact that Dream is willing to pay a million credits for you is pretty telling.”

“Dream probably has hundreds of millions of credits.”

“I don’t know,” Ranboo said. “I think he put some of those credits into his, uh, project.”

“The government funded Dream’s project.

“Oh. Right.”

Tommy grimaced and shuddered. “Okay, this conversation is getting really weird. Let’s move on to something happier.”

“Alright.” Ranboo sounded audibly relieved. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Did you know that I dumped a bunch of Purpled’s older brother’s stuff out of the airlock?” Tommy asked. “It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.”

Ranboo laughed. “Are you thinking about throwing all of Dream’s stuff out airlocks now?”

“You know?” Tommy tilted his head, grinning. “I think I am. I think I’m going to destroy every single one of Dream’s precious items, especially that mask he wears.”

“He has to wear that mask to breathe,” Ranboo said.

“Exactly.”

Tommy sometimes got a bit murderous when thinking about Dream. In his defense, Dream had sort of ruined his life forever. Tommy thought he had the right to be a bit murderous.

Ranboo finished preening Tommy’s wings, and he helped Tommy bind his wings to his back as safely as possible. The strain in Tommy’s muscles hurt slightly, but Tommy had long since grown used to the pain.

“Alright,” Tommy got up from the bed and put his mask back on. The door was still locked, but he felt safer with it on. “Thank you very much for your help, Ranboob.”

“You’re welcome.” Ranboo smiled. “What are you going to do now?”

“That depends,” Tommy said. “What are you going to do?”

Ranboo shook his head. “Oh, no, no, no. We are on a ship with three people you don’t’ know. Go make new friends.”

“I did make a new friend!” Tommy protested. “Purpled’s my new friend, remember?”

“Fine. Make friends with Eryn and Aimsey.”

Tommy rolled his eyes and groaned. “I don’t want to make friends. You’re my friend. Play chess with me.”

“I hate chess.”

“So, do I.”

“Then, why are you asking to play it?”

“Because you’re like probably the only person in the entire galaxy that I have any hope of actually beating in that cursed game.”

“Or, and just hear me out on this, we play something else.”

“That sounds incredibly boring.”

“It sounds better than chess!”

“You know what?” Tommy crossed his arms and spun away from Ranboo. “I’ll find someone else to play chess with me. Someone so dismal that even you could hope to defeat them.”

“That’s great,” Ranboo said. He sounded almost bored as he stretched out on his bunk. “Go do that.”

Tommy frowned. “You okay?”

Ranboo nodded. “I’m fine, Tommy. Don’t worry. You go find someone who wants to play chess with you.”

“Alright…” Tommy stepped toward the door and unlocked it. “Well, I’ll see you later, then.”

“Yeah.” Ranboo rolled over to face the wall. “See you.”

To say Tommy was worried as an understatement, but there wasn’t much he’d be able to do. Ranboo had a habit of keeping his problems incredibly close to his chest. Tommy would have about as much prying whatever was wrong from Ranboo as he would going up to Purpled and convincing him not to go after Tommy.

Tommy left the room and shut the door behind him. He felt suddenly very lonely, standing alone in the hall of bedrooms. Hopefully, someone would be willing to spend time with Tommy and indulge him in a game of chess.

Tommy went into the living area, where a table already sat. Tommy sat down on one of the cushioned chairs. It was the sort of cushion that only really looked like a cushion. The outside was pretty plasticky and the cushion part itself was rather hard. But it was better than nothing.

Tommy found the setting for chess, and a bunch of holographic figures appeared on the board. Nobody else was around for Tommy to challenge to a game. Tommy sat staring at the board, thinking of the best move.

Tommy moved one of his pieces forward, and he walked to the other side of the table, sitting down where his opponent should be sitting.

Tommy was a master at playing games against himself. He had to do it plenty of times when he was alone in the labs, and even when he was younger, Wilbur didn’t always want to play with him. As a matter of fact, Wilbur was the sort of sibling that would get rather upset if Tommy even dared grace his bedroom to ask if he wanted to play.

Wilbur got better about it though. After their parents died and Wilbur was the sole one taking care of the two of them, Wilbur shed the appearance of the older brother desperate for his own space and started acting more like the busy parent who simply couldn’t afford to spend any time with their kid.

Not that Tommy saw Wilbur as a parent. Wilbur was Tommy’s brother, through and through, but he did have to take on some of the responsibilities that their parents had left behind.

Tommy was just getting into the game against himself when he heard footsteps approach. Immediately, Tommy stiffened. He forced himself to slowly look up at the newcomer’s approach. He didn’t want to generate suspicion.

It was that Eryn bloke. He sat down next to Tommy, inspecting Tommy’s chessboard.

“This is the messiest chess game I’ve ever seen,” Eryn said. He didn’t sound particularly polite about it.

“I take offense to that,” Tommy said.

“I’m just telling you the truth!” Eryn said defensively. “I mean, you have multiple pieces hanging out in the middle of nowhere, completely undefended!”

Tommy couldn’t argue with that, and he hated it.

“Fine.” Tommy crossed his arms. “Maybe it is the messiest chess game known to history. Maybe that’s part of its charm. Maybe that was my entire goal this entire time.”

Eryn tilted his head. “I could do better.”

Tommy sputtered. “Oi!”

“Again, I’m only telling the truth.”

“Aren’t you the engineer?” Tommy demanded. “Shouldn’t you be doing engineering things right about now?”

“Aren’t you the pilot?” Eryn countered. “The ship is currently flying and you’re over here playing a disastrous game of chess.”

“We’re in lightspeed,” Tommy said. He rolled his eyes. “Everyone knows that the pilot doesn’t have to be behind the wheel during lightspeed.”

“And everyone knows that engineers are only required when there are problems with the ship.” Eryn made a move on the opposite side of the chessboard, and Tommy squawked offendedly. Eryn was ruining his perfectly good chess game. “Except for you, clearly.”

“I knew that.” It was true. Tommy did know that. “I just don’t want you messing with my game.”

“Too bad.”

Tommy huffed and grumbled, but he was secretly glad that he finally had company. Eryn hadn’t noticed that Tommy wasn’t who he said he was. And he made for good company too. He helped Tommy fill the once quiet room with noise, and Tommy made sure that he gave beating Eryn his all.

Tommy did not beat Eryn.

“You keep leaving your pieces hanging!” Eryn exclaimed in exasperation. “It’s too easy!”

“I don’t even know what you mean when you say that,” Tommy said. He pouted, even though Eryn couldn’t see his mouth, and he shut off the chessboard.

“It’s when you just move a piece and leave it undefended.”

“But, I mean, it’s not like I can shove one of my pieces in front of your piece right before you’re about to take my other piece,” Tommy said. “That’s not how chess works.”

Or, at least, Tommy was pretty sure that wasn’t how chess worked.

“Do you know anything about chess?” Eryn demanded. “Because I will be the first to tell you I am a complete amateur, but somehow I know more than you.”

Tommy shrugged. “In my defense,” he said, “I was taught by a family friend like five years ago and then I haven’t touched it since.”

Technoblade hadn’t been too impressed with Tommy’s chess skills, and Tommy hadn’t wanted to learn anyway. It had all around been a terrible venture, and the two of them agreed to never attempt it again.

Tommy wondered how Technoblade was doing. The last he saw him, he was mentioning starting an anti-government organization.

“Sounds like an excuse to me.”

Tommy grimaced.

“I don’t need excuses, Tommy,” Dream would say time and time again. “I need results.”

Eryn must’ve noticed he said something wrong, because he quickly added, “But a good excuse. A marvelous excuse, even. I’ve never heard a better excuse—”

“Alright, alright, you can stop doing that,” Tommy muttered. “It’s stupid. You’re stupid.”

“That’s not remotely true.”

“Sure. Can you explain this hanging thing now?”

“Oh, right.” Eryn turned the chessboard back on and set it to a new game. He moved a few pieces forward. “Alright, see this piece in the center of the board?”

Eryn pointed to the piece in question, and Tommy nodded. “Yeah?”

“If you were to take that piece—” Eryn moved a piece from the other side of the board and took the original piece in question. “—I can retaliate by taking your piece.”

Tommy’s eyes widened. “Oh. So, you’re saying that I never had pieces to retaliate with.”

“Yeah, exactly.” Eryn grinned. “That’s what I mean by hanging. It’s just hanging out in the open with nothing to get revenge on it.”

“I think we need a new name for it,” Tommy said. “What about “revengeless” pieces.”

“Revengeless isn’t a word,” Eryn pointed out.

“And that’s going to stop me how?” Tommy asked. “I didn’t realize we were law abiding bounty hunters.”

“You know, you make a very fair point,” Eryn said. “Revengeless pieces it is. No revenge for those poor guys.”

“Indeed.”

Later, after Eryn had left and Tommy returned to the cockpit to be ready when they came out of light speed, Tommy thought about what Eryn had said. He wondered what it was like, to be like a hanging piece in chess. Without anyone to take revenge for them.

In a sense, Tommy probably already was. Well, he used to have Wilbur. And now, he has Ranboo, even though Tommy had strictly told Ranboo that any revenge taking was very prohibited. Tommy had a feeling Ranboo wasn’t going to listen, but Tommy wanted to pretend that maybe he would.

But in between that. Back when Wilbur thought Tommy was safely at the academy. And tommy didn’t know Ranboo. Tommy was like those revengeless pawns. Just alone. With no one to know what happened to him.

Purpled stepped out of his ship and waited for the others to step outside before he locked the doors. Aimsey was standing at the bottom of the ship’s ramp, staring at Purpled’s ship and tilting their head. Purpled was eerily reminded of the way Bad had inspected Purpled that one time. It was as though Aimsey had no idea what to make of Purpled’s ship.

Purpled shuddered and looked away. Ranboo and Theseus left the ship next, with Eryn trailing behind. His arms were crossed as he glared at Aimsey, and Purpled had half a mind to tell one of them to wait at the ship. But the last thing Purpled wanted was to return from a terrible shopping trip only to find out that he had gotten things that nobody wanted.

So, everyone was going, and everyone was going to be happy about it.

Actually, everyone could be as unhappy as they wanted. As long as they were happy with what they bought with Purpled’s credits.

“Please, only buy essentials,” Purpled said with a hint of exasperation. “Please, please, don’t waste all of my money on a fancy rock.”

Ranboo nodded, looking like this were something he were actually in danger of doing, and he was glad for the reminder. Aimsey pretended to be disappointed, and Eryn continued glaring in their direction.

Theseus had already grabbed Ranboo by the hand and started dragging him away.

“Wait!” Purpled cried out. “I haven’t given you money yet!”

Theseus stopped short. “Oh. Right. Duh.”

Theseus marched back to Purpled, and Purpled handed out a check to each of them. He pointed to the giant building nearest to the landing platform.

“That’s the bank,” Purpled said. “Exchange the checks for credits and have fun. Please, again, use the money wisely. And if you have leftovers I will be wanting that back.”

“Sounds good.” Aimsey grinned at Ranboo. “All the more reason to spend it all.”

Ranboo looked slightly puzzled, but Theseus clapped his hands together. His eyes flashed mischievously, and Purpled was beginning to regret all of his life choices.

He locked the ship and went to the market district. They were on a city planet, and Purpled had intentionally parked nearest to the best stores. They were cheap, but they sold nice enough stuff. Nice enough that people wouldn’t complain, at least.

Purpled didn’t really have a list of things he needed to buy. Except for maybe food. He thought he’d look around for any potential leads on Innit, though. It wasn’t likely he’d find any, but giant cities were the go-to hiding spot for criminals. It never hurt to check.

Purpled had started asking around with virtually no success when someone was finally forthcoming with information.

“I haven’t seen any Innit,” they said. “But someone was asking about him a few minutes before you did.”

Purpled frowned. Another bounty hunter? Or maybe a friend?

“Do you know where they went?” Then, as an afterthought, he added, “What do they look like?”

Purpled got a vague direction to just keep going down the sidewalk, something he did hastily. He didn’t run, that would draw too much attention to himself, but he walked swiftly. Apparently, Purpled was looking for a human wearing a red suit of armor and—

Purpled’s heart dropped when he spotted Punz questioning some random shopkeeper.

Of course. Just… just marvelous. Fantastic, even. Purpled’s day was absolutely made.

Purpled had half a mind to turn around there and now, but if Punz was searching for Innit, that was serious. Punz couldn’t rip away the one thing Purpled was using to one up him. Punz couldn’t do that on top of everything else.

Purpled pulled the hood of his sweater over his head and leaned against the wall as innocuously as possible as Punz talked to the shop keeper. He looked in the opposite direction as them while he eavesdropped.

“I see a lot of avians come and go, but none matching that description,” the shopkeeper was saying. “Hard to believe a kid that young could be a criminal.”

“Anyone can be a criminal,” Punz said coldly. “Thank you for your time.”

Purpled heard Punz’s footsteps start to join those of the crowd, and Purpled quickly followed him. He tried to keep his distance as much as possible, and it wasn’t hard to blend in with different groups. Punz didn’t turn around once, which was a good sign that he didn’t realize Purpled was following him.

It went on like that for a while. Purpled would follow Punz. Punz would ask someone questions about Innit. Nobody would be helpful. Punz would keep walking.

Eventually, however, Punz took a hard right down a different alleyway. Purpled frowned, but followed. The alley was much less populated. As a matter of fact, nobody else was in it. It led to a dead end as well, and Punz was just staring at a random poster that looked as though it had been pasted to the wall for years.

“Hello, Purpled,” Punz said.

Purpled didn’t make any indication of surprise. His heart picked up pace a bit, but not enough to really make note of. Punz had turned into a completely abandoned alleyway for no discernable reason, and purpled had followed him. It was no surprise that Punz had caught on to Purpled’s following him.

“How long have you known?”

“Nearly as soon as you started,” Punz said. “Not bad, though. Try to be slightly more subtle next time.”

Purpled glared. “I didn’t come here to get advice from you.”

“And yet, I’m giving it.” Punz turned around and leaned against the wall. It was strange to see him wearing the red of his new employers. “how’s my ship?”

“It’s my ship now,” Purpled snapped. “I’m sure you have a lovely ship provided to you by your new best friends. As well as a fantastic crew that could do no wrong.”

“Can I at least pick up some of my stuff?” Punz asked.

“No.”

Punz rolled his eyes. “You’re going to be this immature about this? I thought you’d be old enough to understand—”

“I’m old enough to understand that I wasn’t enough for you,” purpled snapped. “And no, you can’t get your stuff, because I already chucked it all out the airlock. Maybe you can hope to catch some of it when you come out of light speed.”

Punz furrowed his eyes in confusion, and Purpled regretted saying anything.

“Forget it,” Purpled muttered. “inside joke.”

“You seriously threw my stuff out the airlock?” Punz raised his eyebrows. “really?”          “I needed to make room for my new crew,” Purpled said dismissively. “You were taking up two perfectly good bedrooms.”

Now, Punz looked really surprised. Purpled wasn’t entirely sure what the big deal was. “you have a new crew?”

Purpled shrugged. “I don’t really see how it’s any of your business.”

“We’re brothers,” Punz said.

“We were brothers.”

“I don’t see why that has to end.” Punz sighed. “I wanted to contact you anyway.”

It was Purpled’s turn to be confused. He didn’t enjoy it. “Contact me? About what?”

“I wanted you to reconsider,” Punz said.

Purpled groaned. “For the last time, Punz. I’m not joining a crime syndicate. I’m not getting trapped in that sort of thing. I’ll do something to make them angry, and, boom. No more Purpled.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen.”

“Yeah, you say that now, but you were the one who didn’t even consult me before dropping the news on me while in their headquarters!”

Punz shuffled, actually having the decency to look guilty over it. “They said to wait.”

“Exactly!” Purpled waved his hands in the air in exasperation. And frustration. Maybe even a bit of anger. “You care more about what they have to say than you do about me!”

“That’s not—”

“It’s true and don’t you dare lie about it.”

“You’re not even letting me try to defend myself,” Punz protested. “Stop shouting and let me actually make my case.”

“I’m not shouting.”

“You know what I meant.”

“I don’t want to hear your case.”

“Purpled.” Punz sighed. “You’re great. You are. But I want something more than the lonely life we’ve been living. I wanted a community. Now, I have that.”

“So, you don’t need me anymore.” Purpled looked away. He wasn’t going to cry.

“That’s not what I said.”

“I am perfectly capable of reading between the lines, thank you.”

“No, Purpled, it’s not the same without you,” Punz said. Purpled sucked in a breath, staring at Punz with wide eyes. “I have a crew, but I want you there. I want you to be second in command.”

“Oh.” Purpled couldn’t decide if he was relieved or disappointed. He knew Punz had been wanting him to join The Red with him, but he hadn’t realized it was because of Purpled himself. Purpled thought it was about his skills. Or even because Punz felt like he had to, after everything they’d been through together.

Maybe it was for those reasons. Still, the way Punz said it… it implied something else to Purpled.

Maybe Punz really did care about Purpled like family.

But the bitterness remained.

“You don’t’ want me enough to leave your new friends,” Purpled pointed out.

“Purpled, you refuse to look at this with any amount of impartiality at all—”

Purpled was getting tired of this conversation. They were going to loop around in circles for hours, and Purpled, quite frankly, had better things to do.

“You were looking for Tommy Innit,” Purpled interrupted. “Why?”

Any vulnerability that might’ve been on Punz’s face instantly shut down, and Purpled was back to staring at his completely detached ex-brother.

“The Red know I’m a powerful bounty hunter,” Punz said. “They gave me a ship and a crew, and, in exchange, I need to find Innit for them. A million credits is no joke, even to them.”

“Great. Just what I need. Competition.”

Punz’s eyes widened. “You were looking for Innit?”

“Why do you think I was following you?” Purpled snarled. “I thought you had information. Which you still might, by the way.”

“I’m not telling you anything that might give you the edge above me,” Punz said. “You might be my brother, but I can’t afford to lose this bounty.”

“Why?” Purpled demanded. “Joining a bunch of rich crime lords is turning out to be a bit more than you can chew? You have a debt to pay now?”

“It’s none of your business.” Punz pushed himself off the wall, looking ready to leave, but Purpled pulled out his blaster.

“What do you know about Innit?”

Punz raised his arms in surrender, eying Purpled’s blaster with a certain degree of mistrust.

“I know nearly as much as you do,” Punz said. “I had someone do some digging through government files, though. Apparently Innit has a brother. Wilbur Soot. I tracked him down, but he has no idea where Innit is either.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” Purpled said sarcastically.

“I am sure,” Punz said. “If Soot really had Innit’s location, would I really be telling you this?”

“Maybe you’re telling me for old time’s sake.”

“Maybe I’m telling you because you’re aiming a blaster at me,” Punz said. “Look. I don’t know anything about Innit. I haven’t even seen him. Just don’t get in the way, and I won’t have to hurt you.”

“Oh, so you’re threatening me now?”

“I’m telling you the truth; there’s a difference.” Punz lowered his arms and started walking away. “Shoot me if you want. I don’t’ have anything else to tell.”

Purpled kept his blaster pointed at Punz, but he only watched as Punz exited the alley, leaving Purpled alone.

Purpled let out a breath and put his blaster back in its holster. It had been set to stun the entire time, but he hadn’t on planned on shooting it either way.

Soot was a lead, albeit a pretty dreadful one. If Punz could be trusted, and something told Purpled that he could, Soot didn’t have any clue where Innit was. It would be a complete waste of time to try and seek him out.

Well, maybe not a complete waste of time. It was a lead, which was more than what Purpled had a few minutes ago.

Purpled hated that he was following Punz’s advice all of a sudden.

Purpled turned on his heel and left the alley, looking both ways as he did. You never knew who was watching, even if Purpled was confident that nobody was trying to seek him out. For the moment, at least.

“Hello, Wilbur,” Tommy said. It was their weekly call, and Tommy cherished every moment of it.

Unfortunately, Tommy was still recovering from some pretty bad injuries, which meant that Tommy couldn’t take some of the strain from his voice.

“Hello, Tommy.” Wilbur’s voice was already concerned, which was a bad sign. Whenever Wilbur asked too many questions, Dream would make the call end before the designated time.

Speaking of Dream, he was sitting right next to Tommy. His breathing echoed from behind his mask, but Tommy could only hear it because of how quiet the rest of the room was. It was just Tommy, Dream, and Wilbur.

“Are you alright?” Wilbur went on to say. “You don’t sound the greatest.”

“Something wrong with my voice?” Tommy said jokingly, cracking a smile. Dream liked it when Tommy acted as normal as possible. Tommy liked it too. It meant he could genuinely have a good time for once in his life.

Tommy didn’t have any hopes of being able to send any secret codes to Wilbur. Dream had made it very clear when this arrangement had been made that if there was any sign of Wilbur being warned about Tommy’s situation, Dream would have Wilbur shot himself.

Tommy wasn’t going to take any risks.

“Nothing’s wrong with your voice, you goof.” Wilbur’s voice had shifted from concerned to fond, but only for a brief moment. “No, I’m talking about how pained you sound.”

“I’m not pained,” Tommy said quickly. He tried his hardest to make his voice sound normal, but somehow, he only made it sound even more fake.

“You can’t fool me,” Wilbur said. “I know a pained voice when I hear one. What happened?”

Tommy did not glance at Dream. He could fix this. “Got in a bit of an altercation with one of the kids at school,” Tommy said. He intentionally said “altercation” dramatically. It would make it seem less bad than it actually was, and it was a very in character thing for Tommy to say. “So, I’m a bit sore from that. I guess.”

“An altercation—you got into a fight?” Good news. Wilbur was no longer a bit concerned. Bad news. Wilbur was now significantly more upset. “You’re hurt? Who started it? Please tell me you’re not starting fights—”

“I’m not starting fights.” Tommy forced himself to roll his eyes and scoff. It was technically true. Tommy hadn’t started this specific fight. “They were being pricks, Wilbur. And they punched first. I didn’t even punch back!”

“You’re allowed to defend yourself,” Wilbur said. He was back to sounding concerned, although there was a sad agitation to his tone. “I should contact the school—”

“Don’t!” Tommy blurted out. “It’s fine! It’s dealt with! They expelled the guys responsible and gave me extremely nice medical care. There’s no need to contact anyone.”

“Tommy, as your legal guardian, I really think I should—”

“I’m fine, Wilbur,” Tommy said. “Seriously.”

Wilbur didn’t say anything for a moment, and Tommy held his breath. Dream’s breathing now sounded painfully loud, and Tommy tightened his hands into fists.

“Alright, Toms,” Wilbur said. He sounded defeated. “I won’t contact them. You promise they had the situation under control?”

“I promise,” Tommy said. “I’d pinky swear, except that we’re not in the same room right now.”

“Very funny.” Wilbur sounded as though he were trying to inject laughter into his voice, but it didn’t seem to be working. “Let’s change the subject. Are they feeding you well?”

“Yes.” Sometimes. “Doesn’t taste very good, though.”

“When do you think you can come home?”

This time, Tommy did glance at Dream. Dream had his shoulders propped against the table, and his head was sitting in his hands, tilted slightly to the side. He gestured for Tommy to go on, and Tommy took a deep breath.

“Wilbur, this program is really demanding,” he said. “I really think I should stay here so I can keep up with my studies.”

“Toms… I haven’t seen you in nearly a year,” Wilbur sounded like he was about to cry. Tommy shut his eyes tightly. He didn’t want to start crying too. “What sort of program is this that you can’t even visit?”

“It’s… big,” Tommy said lamely. “I promise I’ll come back; I just don’t know when that is.”

“I miss you.”

“I miss you too. I promise I’ll come back. I promise.”

Dream made a cutting motion across his throat, and Tommy realized that maybe he’d been a bit too fervent in his promises to leave the facility. Tommy shook his head desperately, but Dream made the motion more fiercely.

“Wilbur,” Tommy said. His voice was choked, and he swallowed. “I’ve got to go. Homework and all that.”

“Already?” Wilbur asked. He sounded fairly surprised, and Tommy couldn’t exactly blame him. “But we’ve only just started.”

“What can I say?” Tommy smiled one last time. “I’m a busy man. Bye Wil.”

“Love you!”

“Love you too.”

Dream snatched the comm from Tommy and hung up. From behind the slightly opaque helmet, Tommy could see him glare.

As Tommy had suspected, Dream had been none too happy with Tommy’s promises to return. He made Wilbur and Tommy’s calls every other week, after that.

Eventually, Dream cancelled the calls entirely. Tommy hadn’t been sure what reason Dream had given Wilbur for the sudden lack of calls until he overheard him talking to another scientist.

“I told his pestering brother that Tommy doesn’t want to talk to him,” Dream told Sapnap. Tommy was meant to be training, but he couldn’t help but to strain his ears and listen anyway. “He got even more finicky after that.”

“What are you going to do?” Sapnap asked.

“If I have to, I’ll have Innit call him and tell him himself that he wants nothing to do with Soot. Hopefully, it doesn’t come to that. You know how Tommy is about his brother.”

Rage-filled grief filled Tommy when he heard those words, and he destroyed half of the training room.

Unfortunately, Dream was pleased at that level of destruction, and Tommy accomplished nothing except let off some steam. He was still boiling with rage when he returned to his room, but he refused to give Dream the satisfaction of destroying everything there as well.

Tommy ended up planting his head into his pillow and screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Tommy?” Ranboo asked, shaking Tommy out of his thoughts. “You good?”

Tommy was staring blankly at the clothing selection, fingering a yellow jumper that looked a lot like the ones that Wilbur used to wear. It was soft, but not the same texture as Wilbur’s jumpers.

“Yeah,” Tommy said quietly. “I’m fine.”

Tommy had never told Ranboo about the phone calls. He probably never would. It was easier to pretend that Wilbur didn’t care enough to ask questions about the suspicious circumstances of Tommy’s new pilot program. It was easier than knowing that Wilbur probably thought Tommy hated him.

“Do you want to buy that sweater?” Ranboo asked. “We can afford it.”

“Yeah, maybe…” Tommy sighed. “I don’t know. Is it really me?”

“It could be, if you wanted it to be.”

“You’re as helpful as ever.” Tommy yanked the sweater off the shelf and placed it in his and Ranboo’s shopping cart. So far, the only items in it was a few toothbrushes, a tube of toothpaste for Tommy and some special toothpaste for Ranboo, since Ranboo couldn’t use water to brush their teeth.

“We should get blankets when we’re done with clothes,” Ranboo said.

“One thing at a time.” Tommy moved on to the t-shirt section. “Don’t forget to buy some stuff for yourself.”

“You should buy some masks,” Ranboo said. They pointed to a bunch of cloth masks hanging on a wall of hooks. “Hide your face with style, you know?”

“Not a bad idea, actually.”

Tommy walked up to the mask hangers, admiring the different patterns. Eventually, he picked one with a bunch of spiders on it and another covered with angry faces.

“The spiders are for when I’m sad,” Tommy explained. “And the angry faces are for when I’m angry.”

“Why are spiders connected to sadness?” Ranboo asked.

“Do you see these spiders?” Tommy gestured to the spider pattern. “They’re all trapped, on a tiny little mask together. Look at their eyes, Ranboo. They’re in despair.”

“Yeah, alright.” Ranboo was laughing, and Tommy’s face went slightly red. “I’m sorry for the spiders. Let’s just keep shopping for clothing.”

They got all of their clothes and moved onto blankets, as Ranboo had previously decreed. Tommy had a great time choosing the softest and most aesthetically pleasing blankets he could find, which were mostly just yellow and blues.

“We should build a blanket fort!” Ranboo said. Their eyes sparkled in excitement. “We can tell each other spooky stories!”

“Did I hear blanket fort?”

Tommy and Ranboo both jumped as Aimsey popped up between them suddenly. Tommy’s heart pounded as Aimsey turned toward Ranboo, still grinning widely.

“I love blanket forts!” they said. “Were you going to tell me about this?”

“Uh, I was just… having an idea,” Ranboo said. “But you can help, if you want! You might have to buy a few more blankets, though.”

“You do realize you need more than just blankets to make a blanket fort, right?” Tommy asked. “You need something to actually put the blanket on?”

“Purpled said to only buy necessary things,” Ranboo said, glancing forlornly at a table that would make a very good blanket fort base.

“Purpled also said we have to give him all of the money we don’t use back to him,” Aimsey said. A mischievous smile was on their face. “I say that this is a very necessary expense.”

They ended up splurging their money on blanket fort supplies.

They did not buy an entire table, though. The three of them agreed that buying an entire piece of furniture might be considered going a hair too far for a fort, even though they were all severely disappointed with themselves over it.

“It was the right thing to do,” Ranboo said sadly.

“I hate being moral,” Tommy said. “Aren’t we bounty hunters?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want Purpled to kick—” Aimsey froze, staring up ahead. Tommy and Ranboo froze as well, trying to follow their line of vision.

Tommy saw a couple of somewhat well-dressed individuals walk towards Aimsey. Their hands were headed toward their blasters, and Tommy reached for his blaster in turn.

“You know, what?” Aimsey asked. their voice as full of faux cheerfulness. “I think we should just go back to the ship. Yeah? I don’t think we have anything more to buy anyway.”

Aimsey hurried back in the direction of the ship, blending into the crowd so well that Tommy struggled to keep up with her. He could still feel the strangers following them, and, once, when Tommy turned around to see, he saw that their blasters were now drawn.

They weren’t shooting, though. Maybe they wanted to avoid a scene.

How kind of them.

“Who the hell are those guys?” Tommy demanded in a panicked whisper. Had they realized who he was? Tommy was always so careful in public spaces, but Ranboo would sometimes slip up—

“Some gang members I may or may not have made very angry.” Aimsey was visibly tense, and they glanced behind them. “Just keep trying to lose them in the crowd.”

“The crowd is thick and yet we are not lost,” Ranboo huffed. “They’re moving too fast.”

Tommy clenched his hand more tightly around his blaster. His heart was hammering, but there was comfort in knowing that they at least weren’t coming after him specifically.

“Look, as long as we’re in public, they probably won’t engage,” Aimsey said. They sounded more hopeful than certain. “We’ll be alright.”

“Are you sure?” The strangers were getting closer, and Tommy saw one of them aim their blaster at their backs. “Because I think they’re planning on engaging momentarily.”

Aimsey swore, and they hurried up to a transit station. Their pursuers were getting closer and closer as a cab stopped in front of them.

The three leapt into the speeder. “Landing platform 130 B,” Aimsey gasped. “Now. Hurry.”

Their driver didn’t even look surprised that Aimsey was demanding haste. The strangers were now running after them, and they began shooting. The driver swore at the top of his lungs. Aimsey ducked away, and stun blasts flew over their head.

The driver slammed his foot on the pedal of the speeder, and they sped away. Wind whipped at his hair as Tommy looked over his shoulder. Their attackers were now nothing more than specks on the horizon, and Tommy let out a breath of relief.

“Damn,” Tommy said. “What the hell was that all about?”

“You make a lot of enemies in this business.” Aimsey shrugged, tugging their hair away from covering their face. “Surely you two have your own fair share?”

Tommy and Ranboo glanced at each other. “You could say that,” Ranboo said slowly. “We’re kind of new to this, though.”

“At least we didn’t get into an actually shoot out,” Tommy said. He patted their shopping bags. “I would’ve hated to have lost all of our stuff.”

“Very good point,” Aimsey said. “We’d better hurry that inside before any other accidents could befall it. And keep it all away from the edge of the speeder.”

“I’m not stupid.” Tommy rolled his eyes.

“And yet there is a sign on the inside of this speeder that says keep hands inside the speeder at all times,” Ranboo read out loud. “I really hate to think about some poor kid who—”

“Please stop talking.”

The speeder driver stopped in front of their landing platform. Tommy, Ranboo, and Aimsey hopped out, although Aimsey had to use some of their credits to pay for their ride. Purpled was already standing on the ship’s ramp, pacing back and forth.

“You three took long enough,” Purpled said. “Eryn already made it back. What were you guys doing?”

“We had an—” Tommy tried to say.

“Nothing,” Aimsey said at the same time.

“Birds,” Ranboo said.

Purpled narrowed his eyes at the three of them. “You do realize that I need to be able to trust you guys for this crew to work, right?”

Tommy glared at Aimsey. “Well, I was trying—”

Aimsey stomped on Tommy’s foot, and Tommy cried out.

“—to say that we were just goofing off,” Aimsey said. “Goofily.”

“Goofily?” Purpled put his hands on his hips, reminding Tommy eerily of Wilbur. “Seriously?”

“I think we should go to the ship,” Ranboo said suddenly.

“Not until I figure out what’s going on between you three,” Purpled said.

“No, I really think we should go in—”

Ranboo was rudely interrupted by a blaster bolt flying past Purpled’s face and scorching a small, smoking circle on the ship’s doors.

All four of them pulled out their blasters and turned toward the direction of the attack. One of the strangers from before was shooting at them, and Tommy looked around frantically for their friend.

Unfortunately, he got a bit distracted by more blaster fire headed toward his face, and Tommy ducked down, trying to shoot at the guy himself. He dodged with eerie ease, and Tommy took a few steps backwards toward the door.

Purpled slammed his hand down on the door controls, and the doors slid open.

“Get inside!”

Tommy didn’t need to be told twice. Dodging from yet another barrage of blaster fire, Tommy ran inside the ship, and Ranboo quickly followed behind. Aimsey and Purpled were stepping backwards inside, still trying to get a good shot in. Their singular attacker had now been joined by friends, unfortunately, and Tommy saw a ship coming toward their landing platform.

“Alright, time to scram,” Tommy observed. He sprinted to the cockpit while Purpled shut the doors. Purpled followed right behind him.

“Everyone else to the ship guns!” Purpled commanded.

Ranboo, Eryn, and Aimsey all dispersed, all going to the separate turrets of the ship. Tommy slid into the pilot’s seat, quickly powering on the engines and not bothering to strap himself in. Purpled was much the same, putting more power in their shields.

Tommy lifted them off the ground which much more ease than he had the first time around, although it was greatly marred by the fact that another ship had begun shooting at them. Purpled’s shields were holding up well enough for the moment, and Tommy grimaced as he struggled to pick up speed and dodge the attacks. It didn’t help that city planets actually had traffic, and Tommy carefully sped around traffic lanes.

The ship following them was smaller, and glanced at the screens that showed a live video of the ship weaving around other ships behind him. Tommy yanked the yoke upwards, flying straight up toward the atmosphere. Both Purpled and Tommy were slammed backwards into their seats, but Tommy didn’t stop.

“Are you trying to get us killed?!” Purpled shrieked.

Tommy yanked the yoke to the side, dodging a barrage of blaster fire headed right toward their engines. The entire ship spun around in the air, but the artificial gravity kept them from falling upside down.

“On the contrary—” Tommy pushed the yoke down, forcing the ship to be level suddenly. Their pursuers failed to change direction in time. tommy grinned as they continued shooting straight up in the air. “—I’m trying to do the opposite.”

They were making it out of the planet’s atmosphere. The ship still hadn’t appeared on Tommy’s rear cameras, but--

The ship shook at a sudden impact. Tommy hissed as alarms indicated that blaster fire had hit them from above. Clearly, their attackers had recovered from Tommy’s sudden change in direction.

“What did they hit?” Purpled demanded.

“Nothing vital, I don’t think.” Tommy swerved out of the way of more fire, but one blast hit their engines. Tommy grit his teeth. His hands gripped the yoke of the ship more tightly. “That was vital.”

Purpled slammed his hand on the intercoms. “What are you guys doing back there?!” he demanded. “Watching?!”

“This guy is smaller than us!” Eryn said defensively. He sounded just as tense as Purpled. “He dodges really good!”

“It’s well—”

“Now is not the time, Ranboo!”

Tommy would have calculated the route to light speed, but it was everything he could to keep the ship from getting hurt any more than it already had. Purpled was now jotting coordinates into the navicomputer.

A cheer could be heard from the intercom. “I hit them!” Aimsey cheered.

“Hit them more!” Tommy screamed.

He yanked the ship to the left, making it spin around in dizzying circles again. Purpled’s ship wasn’t he largest ship in the world, but it was large enough to make space battles incredibly difficult. Tommy already greatly missed the small fighters that the academy had them use.

The navicomputer was still calculating their path. Tommy wanted to smack the thing, but he heard more cheering through the intercom. Maybe the others could just destroy the ship, and—

“It’s done!” Purpled shouted. He didn’t even wait for Tommy to respond. He grabbed the lever and ferociously thrust it forward.

Tommy and Purpled were once again pushed back into their seats as the ship yanked itself into lightspeed. Alarms were still blaring throughout the ship, but Tommy let go of the yoke, breathing heavily in relief. His hands were shaking and sweaty, and he rubbed them on his shirt shakily.

“We’re alive,” Tommy gasped.

“Barely,” Purpled huffed.

“Their ship was smaller,” Tommy said. “They had the advantage.”

Purpled pulled himself to his feet, running his fingers through his hair. He looked about as clammy as Tommy felt. “No, no, you’re not wrong,” he said. Purpled clapped Tommy on the shoulder. “You did good. I’m impressed.”

Tommy did not feel his chest warm at the praise. That would have been horrendously embarrassing, and it was certainly not what had happened. Tommy was just glad to be appreciated. That was all.

“You think?”

“Oh yeah,” Purpled agreed. “I don’t typically make enemies that try to fight us ship to ship. Punz was more of a ‘shoot them in person’ sort of guy, but when we did get into space fights, we always took more than just a few hits. You’re right. Our ship is too big to ever really be at an advantage.”

“Well, thanks.” Tommy took a few more deep breaths. The constant beeping throughout the ship was making his head hurt, but at least they weren’t all dead.

“I’m going to have Eryn run a diagnostic to the ship,” Purpled said. “But we’re going to have to land to do full repairs.”

“Assuming we make it all the way through light speed,” Tommy muttered. No warnings were happening on the dashboard that indicated that their ability to make it through lightspeed was impaired, but if something was truly wrong with the ship, it would automatically take itself out and tell you to land wherever you were.

“We should,” Purpled said. “We’ll see.”

Tommy just shook his head in exhaustion. He could hear shouting coming from further back in the ship, but he just let Purpled shut the cockpit doors behind him.

It only really muffled the sounds of the oncoming row.

“This is your fault!” Eryn was screaming.

Purpled would really like the chance to just have a peaceful day. No arguments. No near-death encounters. No stupid older brothers. Just a peaceful, ordinary day, free of strife.

Nice things were apparently a thing of myth, however, because none of those things came his way. Ever.

“It is,” Aimsey agreed. “But I couldn’t have predicted—”

“You shouldn’t have led them right to our ship!” Eryn looked furious as he paced back and forth in the living area. Aimsey was leaning against the wall, their arms crossed. Ranboo was standing awkwardly between them, looking as though he wanted to say something but having no idea as to what.

“I was trying to lose them!” Aimsey’s expression hardened. “Look, Eryn. I’m sorry. I really am. Nobody forced you to be on this crew—”

“You literally recommended me to Purpled.”

“You make that sound like that’s a bad thing—”

“Alright, alright, enough!” Purpled raised his voice, and both Eryn and Aimsey shut up. They looked at Purpled with mirroring expressions of annoyance, and Purpled felt this strange feeling as though he were some sort of parent. “One person at a time. What’s going on here? And who the heck were those guys?”

Eryn and Aimsey both opened their mouths at once, and Purpled raised his hands to silence them.

“One at a time,” Purpled said. “Eryn. You can go first.”

“Aimsey—“ Eryn practically spat out their name like it was poison. “—Has once again endangered their entire crew.”

“You make it sound like I was trying to lead those guys to us.” Aimsey rolled their eyes.

“It’s still Eryn’s turn to speak,” Purpled said. He was now feeling significantly more exhausted. “Continue, Eryn.”

“Those guys are the same group of bounty hunters that destroyed our ship the last time around,” Eryn snarled. “I don’t understand why you didn’t just kill them—”

“You wouldn’t have gone for it either.” Aimsey pushed themselves off of the wall and stalked toward Eryn, pointing at them furiously. “We were in an area surrounded by civilians. None of us were willing to get people hurt.”

“Oh please, you just didn’t want to get arrested.”

“Both are perfectly valid reasons--!”

“Guys, please.” Purpled pinched the bridge of his nose. “Aimsey was right not to cause a scene. It would’ve made things worse. Ranboo, you look really uncomfortable. Maybe you want to give Theseus some company?”

Ranboo visibly brightened. “Really?”

Did Ranboo seriously think he had  stand there awkwardly until Purpled dismissed him?

“I’m not actually your parent,” Purpled said dryly. “Do whatever you want.”

Ranboo hurried out of the room, apologizing awkwardly. The three of them watched him go silently.

“Okay,” Purpled said as soon as he was gone. “So, these are the same guys who want you dead, Aimsey. Is that right?”

Aimsey nodded. “Yep.”

“And you didn’t’ think warn us that they were still after you?” Purpled wasn’t sure if he was exasperated, angry, or just extremely tired.

He had a feeling it was a healthy mixture of all three.

Aimsey raised their eyebrows. “I really thought it was a bit of a given,” they said. “I mean, considering that I never said they were dead, and I’m not dead, and there you are.”

“Great, because we need more complications right about now,” Purpled muttered. He directed his attention back toward Eryn. “Alright, Eryn, what would you do if you were in Aimsey’s place?”

“I’d track those guys down and settle this,” Eryn said. “And I’d stop putting my crew in jeopardy because of my own stupid decisions.”

“Stupid decisions?” Purpled said sharply. “You mean this was more than just competition going too far?”

Aimsey looked visibly uncomfortable, and they stared at a stain on the wall. Eryn looked smug, and Purpled wanted to go back and time and get a different crew.

“Okay, okay, you know what? I don’t even think I want to know. We’ll deal with those guys if they show up again. For now, Eryn, Aimsey did the best they could with this specific situation. Aimsey, I want a full explanation on those guys later. We clear?”

Aimsey and Eryn didn’t look pleased, but they nodded with muttered words of confirmation.

Was this how Punz felt when he kept catching Purpled being up to no good when he was younger? Well, the type of no good that Punz didn’t like, at least. Once, Punz claimed he caught Purpled coloring all over the ship’s windshield, and it had taken ages to get all of the stains out.

There was still a tiny splotch of color against one of the corners of the windshield, but you had to know it was there in order to see it.

The reminder of Punz made Purpled’s skin crawl, and he suddenly remembered the groceries he had bought after the strange encounter. He had left all of his shopping bags by the entrance of the ship.

Purpled went to collect his food, and he spotted Aimsey grabbing a couple of bags as well. Aimsey very clearly made a point to say nothing to Purpled as he passed, and Purpled returned the favor.

Purpled was still frustrated with Aimsey for keeping secrets about the people endangering his ship, though. He’d need to get that story out of them soon.

Purpled returned to the kitchen, quickly organizing all of the food into their respective places. When he was done, he sat down on the counters and listlessly scrolled through his datapad. He had half a mind to watch some mindless drama so that he could forget about Punz, but his mind kept straying back to their conversation.

Sighing, Purpled typed up the name Wilbur Soot on the holonet, curious to see what would come up.

Multiple names appeared, and Purpled recalled that Tommy Innit was apparently the brother of Wilbur Soot. It was a strange thought, but it might narrow down his search.

Wilbur and Tommy Soot

This time, an old article from about four years ago popped up on his search results. When purpled clicked it, he realized it was just the records of who had gotten accepted into some sort of fancy pilot school for the Essempi system. Apparently, Tommy Soot had gotten full marks. Wilbur Soot was listed as his primary caretaker.

Strange. It was weird to think that a dangerous criminal once had a normal life. But, then again, most dangerous criminals had normal lives. Babies weren’t typically born and branded as dangerous criminals right off the bat.

Purpled tried to figure out where Soot lived, but all he could discover was that he used to live in L’manberg. Purpled had a feeling that his wasn’t the case anymore, seeing as Punz had to actively track down Soot. If he was living at home, Purpled couldn’t imagine it would have taken that much work to do so.

It would be stupid not to check L’manberg anyway, even if nothing came up. Purpled made a mental note to add that to the itinerary, after they got their ship fixed up.

Aimsey, Tommy, and Ranboo made their blanket fort in the living area. They used the chess table as one of the props for their blanket, and Aimsey fished a chair out of the closet to use for the other side. It wasn’t the best blanket fort in the known universe, but it was certainly better than nothing.

Eryn had wanted nothing to do with it, which was disappointing to the Tommy, although very unsurprising. Eryn was still mad at Aimsey, and even Aimsey didn’t seem too thrilled while building the fort. Not in the same way they were earlier, at least.

“It’s a good fort,” Aimsey said. They smiled, but their eyes werne’t happy. “I think I’m going to go to sleep, actually.”

“you’re not going ot actually go into the fort?” Ranboo asked.

“Yeah.” Aimsey sighed and put their hands on their hips. “I would, but… I’m really not feeling up to it today. Sorry.”

“you’re all good,” Ranboo said quickly. “More room for us, right?”

Tommy laughed and nodded. “For sure.”

“Have a good rest, though!” Ranboo said. His voice was as cheerful as ever.

Aimsey nodded and left, and Tommy and Ranboo crawled into the fort themselves. They had left a few extra blankets over to wrap around themselves, and Tommy felt properly comfortable back inside the warmth of a soft blanket.

“That was pretty crazy back there,’ Ranboo said. “I thought we were going to die for a moment.”

“I wouldn’t have let that happen,” Tommy scoffed. “I’m…”

Who?

Theseus, to Purpled and the rest of the crew. It was a good name from a myth that Technoblade would keep telling to Tommy and over and over again when he was babysitting.

Tommy Soot, to the people who grew up with him. He was the bright-eyed kid who was always eager to go out among the stars and explore the galaxy to its fullest. He was Wilbur Soot’s little brother.

And, of course, Tommy 1nn1t. Tommy Innit. The nickname had been a joke on Tommy’s part, actually, although Dream took the credit for it. He was the experiment. The success. The weapon. The escaped convict.

Tommy didn’t want to be any of those things, though. Tommy didn’t want to be Theseus, the man of mystery and deceit. He didn’t want to be known as Wilbur Soot’s nice little brother. He didn’t want to be an escaped government experiment.

Tommy was all of those things, but he didn’t have to like it. He didn’t want to be defined in his core by those traits.

But who was Tommy, if those things didn’t make up the whole of who he was?

It suddenly occurred to Tommy that he didn’t know.

The thought was a bit terrifying.

“I’m Tommy,” Tommy finally said. He made sure to lower his voice into a whisper. “Tommy Danger Kraken, pilot extraordinaire.”

Ranboo snorted, but he peeked out of the blanket fort nervously. “Be careful.”

“I am being careful,” Tommy said. “You’re the one who is using his own name.”

“I’m the one who doesn’t have a giant bounty on my head.”

“Let’s talk about something else,” Tommy said suddenly. He didn’t want to think about the bounty on his head. He didn’t want to think any more deep thoughts about his identity. It made his head spin, and Tommy didn’t want to feel sick. “how was your day, Ranboo?”

Ranboo snorted. “It was the same day you had.”

“But from a different perspective,” Tommy pointed out. “You should tell me it detail by detail.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“But you could—”

Tommy quieted when he heard footsteps.

“Wh-why is there a giant blanket contraption in my living space?”

It was Purpled speaking, because of course it was. Purpled was bossy and annoying, and Tommy had more than a few choice words for his blanket-fort judging.

“It’s a blanket fort,” Ranboo said helpfully.

“I can see that.” Purpled knelt down by the fort entrance, and Tommy could see the very confused expression on his face. “I meant to ask what it was doing in my living area.”

“It just suddenly appeared,” Tommy said. He shrugged. “Sorry. These things grow like weeds.”

“Oh, well in that case, why are the two of you sitting in it?”

“Because it’s a blanket fort?” Ranboo’s reply was more question than answer, but Tommy thought it was the obvious conclusion as well.

“We’re supposed to be hunting down a dangerous criminal, and you’ve decided to sit inside of a blanket fort that may or may not have sprouted out of nowhere.”

“Exactly,” Tommy said. “Even dangerous criminals can be found in blanket forts sprouting out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Okay, okay, whatever,” Purpled sighed. “I’m not here to judge what you guys do with your free time, but please remember to clean up after yourselves.”

“Alright,” Ranboo said. “Would you like to sit in our blanket fort?”

Purpled snorted. “No, thanks—”

The ship rocked beneath them as it pulled itself from lightspeed. One of the blankets fell from the table and smothered both Ranboo and Tommy. They wrestled their way from it as they tried to get to their feet, completely destroying the blanket fort in the process.

“This day just keep getting better and better,” Purpled muttered.

“You tell me,” Tommy said.

Tommy ran to the cockpit, looking for any sign of impact. Fortunately, nothing was flashing at him that angrily, all though the ship’s damage from before was still blaring on the mini diagnostic screen.

There was however, some sort of creature scratching at their windshield. Whatever it was wasn’t actually doing much damage, fortunately, but it was very clearly trying to destroy the ship with every fiber of its being.

“We seem to have crashed into some kind of animal,” Tommy observed as Purpled entered the room.

“That never happens,” Purpled said. He sounded dumbfounded. Tommy couldn’t help but to sympathize.

“Do you want to see if it’ll come inside?” Tommy asked.

“Are you kidding?” Purpled demanded. “Just put the windshield wipers on. “Whack it off.”

“Oh, but it’s just a—”

Purpled looked Tommy dead in the eyes as he pressed the button for the wipers. Tommy let out a cry of destress. Instantly, the large windshield wipers began hitting the creature trying to destroy their ship. The creature looked as though it shouted rather angrily at the windshield wipers before it set to work to attempting to destroy those as well. Tommy felt like he was watching some sort of nature documentary as he watched the creature dodge the wipers like it was some sort of predator.

“It’s not going to give up,” Tommy said. “We should just let it inside.”

“Theseus, do you have any sense of self-preservation?” Purpled demanded. “We’re not letting a random creature into our ship. That’s how horror movies start.”

“Horror movies aren’t real,” Tommy said. “Real life is much more scary.”

“this is real life!” Purpled let out a breath of exasperation. “I’m not going to let in some sort of creature that’s going to try to kill us all as soon as we let it inside.”

“Maybe it’s just cold and trying to get in,” Tommy protested. “Are we going to leave this poor thing outside in the deep dark cold of space in its hour of terrible need?”

“Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying.”

Eryn stuck his head through the cockpit door. “What’s going on in here?”

“A creature is attacking our ship,” Tommy said. “And I think we should rescue it.”

Eryn walked closer, tilting his head at their new guest. “Aw, Purpled, we should rescue it. It’s adorable.”

“It’s feral.”

Tommy shook his head. “No, no, Eryn’s right. Thank you, Eryn. Shall you or shall I go rescue the poor thing?”

“You can do it,” Eryn said. “I’m not the biggest fan of floating out in space.”

“Hey, I’m the one in charge here,” Purpled said. “You are not allowed to have pets on my ship.”

“Too bad,” Tommy said. “We’re getting pets. Eryn, do you know where Purpled keeps the space suits?”

“Yeah, I do, actually,” Eryn said. “They’re in a compartment near the airlock.”

“Marvelous.”

The two of them began to leave the cockpit, but Purpled seized them firmly by the back of their shirts.

“You are not rescuing that thing.”

“So you admit that it needs rescue?” Eryn asked.

Tommy tutted. “I can’t believe our boss is so cruel as to let a helpless animal die from lack of care in the terrifying depths of space.”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Purpled muttered. “I can’t believe a glorified animal crashed into our hypserspace lane.

“Hey, it survived!” Tommy said cheerfully. “It’s a very strong little thing.”

Purpled sighed and let go of tommy and Eryn. “You’re in charge of making sure it doesn’t wreck my ship. I won’t hesitate to dump it out the airlock if it causes problems.”

“Got it!” Eryn and Tommy said in unison. They ran out of the cockpit before Purpled could attempt to stop them again.

“What’s going on?” Aimsey asked, sticking their head out of their bedroom.

“We’re adopting an animal!” Eryn said cheerfully, for once not glaring at Aimsey. “I think it’s a cat.”

Aimsey’s eyes lit up. “Oh, really? Can I come?”

Tommy glanced at Eryn, but he nodded. Maybe he decided that arguments weren’t worth it.

“You can go out with Theseus,” Eryn said. “That way one of you can catch each other if your line breaks.”

Or maybe Eryn just didn’t want Tommy to get jettisoned into the terrifying unknown of space.

“Good plan,” Aimsey agreed.

They all went to the airlock, and Eryn showed Tommy and Aimsey the closet hiding the proper space suits. Tommy and Aimsey struggled to put on the bulky suits, and Tommy felt incredibly bulky as he put on his helmet.

“This is weird,” Tommy said. His voice echoed against the glass.

“I don’t often wear these things,” Aimsey admitted. “Alright, Eryn. I think we’re good to go.”

They attached their lines to their suits, and Eryn stepped out of the airlock room. The doors closed behind them, and Aimsey pressed the button to open the airlock.

The airlock was kind enough to give them a countdown before the doors slid open. Tommy gasped as the vacuum yanked them out into space. For a terrifying moment, Tommy thought they’d go backwards forever, but their chords tightened, and they abruptly came to a halt.

Their space suits came equipped with small jetpack thrusters on their back, and they used them to move back toward the ship. The chords holding them to the ship should be long enough to let them maneuver around the space ship. While Tommy would love to take off the annoying string that tethered them, Tommy knew it would be stupid to do so. Their jetpacks could easily break, and then they’d just be stuck floating in space.

“I love space,” Aimsey said, their voice echoing through the comm installed inside the suit. “It’s so cool.”

Tommy nodded, staring out into the dark expanse full of stars. It was cool, but it was also kind of scary. As much as Tommy loved the stars, he would hate to be trapped in space forever. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to turn. Unable to change direction. Just floating. Forever.

Tommy pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he followed Aimsey to the front of the ship. The creature, which looked more like a cat the more Tommy looked at it, was still in the middle of battle with the windshield wipers.

It was strange. The maybe-cat’s fur was purpled looking with a lot of white spots, but it was almost as though the spots glowed. If Tommy were a fanciful sort of person, which he was not, Tommy would have thought that the creature was made stars.

Too bad Tommy was the most boring person in existence. He was not creative. At all. Nobody would hear Tommy saying that the cat attacking their space ship was made of stars.

Probably.

“Aw, poor thing,” Tommy cooed. He approached the cat slowly, waving. The cat didn’t even look at him. “Hello, darling.”

“I don’t think she cares about you,” Aimsey observed.

“Oh, she’s just shy.” She was definitely not shy.

Tommy carefully reached to scratch behind the cat’s long tufty ears. As soon as his gloved hands brushed against the back of her head, she spun toward him. Her three tails shot straight up into the air, and she opened her mouth in such a way that implied she was hissing.

Too bad there was no sound in space.

“You’ve made her mad,” Aimsey said.

“Some people find me annoying at first,” Tommy said. “But then they realize that— oh my stars!”

The cat had launched itself on top of Tommy, clawing at Tommy’s helmet. Tommy shrieked very impressively as he tried to push the cat off of him, but it was blocking his entire line of vision.

“Evil cat, evil cat!” Tommy shouted. “Aimsey, help!”

Aimsey was giggling. “I don’t know—”

“Get this evil creature off of me right now or I will kill you!”

“Oh, I’m terrified.”

Aimsey wrapped their hands around the cat’s body and pulled her off of Tommy’s helmet. Tommy let out a sigh of relief when he could finally see more than star-covered fur, and he glared at the cat.

“You’re evil,” Tommy informed her. “You should be left out to float in space.”

The cat was sitting quite comfortably in Aimsey’s arms for some reason. Aimsey was scratching her belly in a way that she clearly liked, and Tommy felt all the more bitter.

“She’s just scared,” Aimsey cooed. “Come on, sweetie. Let’s go inside the nice warm ship.”

“Evil,” Tommy whispered.

The cat stared at him smugly.

They returned to the ship, and Tommy peeled the stupid space suit off of him. Aimsey was a little stuck. The cat had latched her claws onto Aimsey’s suit, making it impossible for them to get their suit off.

Eryn was laughing hysterically at Aimsey’s plight.

“The cat… oh my god.” Eryn wiped a few tears from his eyes. “This is amazing.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” Aimsey said. They were glaring at Eryn. “You’re right, Theseus. This cat is evil.”

“Well, she’s here now,” Eryn said. He scratched the cat from behind the ears, and she purred. It wasn’t the same kind of purring sound that Tommy was used to from most cats, however. It almost sounded like a melody of soft contented cat sounds.

“I think we should name her Aria,” Tommy said. “Aria the evil cat.”

“Why Aria?” Eryn asked. “That’s an awfully nice name for such a menace.”

“Because she makes music sounds,” Tommy said. “And Aria is another name for song. I think. My brother used to be a musician. Or maybe he still is. Whatever. Aria the evil cat.”

“Aria the evil cat,” Aimsey echoed. They grinned. “I like it.”

They managed to pry Aria off of Aimsey’s suit, and Aimsey quickly got out of it before Aria could latch herself back on. Aria, however, had taken to stalking the halls of the ship, inspecting every corner as though she had just taken over a new domain.

“I’m a bit afraid, now.”

“I regret every decision we have ever made,” Eryn agreed.

Purpled was not impressed when they reported that they may have just adopted an evil cat planning on taking over the entire ship.

“I literally warned you that this would happen,” Purpled said. “But did you listen?”

“In my defense,” Tommy said. “I thought she would be less powerful.”

Purpled pinched the bridge of his nose. “I will still not hesitate to chuck your cat out of the airlock,” he said. “Make sure it stays out of trouble.”

Aimesy, Eryn, and Tommy all glanced at each other with dread.

At least, Aimsey and Eryn were still temporarily getting along.

Purpled was nervous that putting the ship back into hyperspace would strain its already damaged parts, so they landed at the nearest planet. It wasn’t the most impressive looking place in the world, but Tommy located what seemed to be a mechanic’s shop without issue.

“I can fix the ship up myself, you know,” Eryn said.

“Yeah, but it can’t hurt to have an extra pair of hands,” Theseus pointed out. “Besides, they’ll have any supplies that Purpled might not happen to have.”

“Fair enough.”

Purpled was glad that at least some peace had been restored to his ship, although there was a killer cat on the loose. So far, no murders had been reported, so Purpled was going to pretend his ship was cat free for the moment.

They landed on a platform in front of the mechanic’s shop. Purpled spotted an apian kid who looked to be around their age. They were approaching they ship, and Purpled, Eryn, and Theseus all hurried outside to greet them.

“Welcome to my shop,” the kid said. “My name is Tubbo. How can I help you?”

Tubbo was wearing a badge with his name and pronouns, and Purpled quickly introduced himself, as well as Theseus and Eryn.

“Our ship got a bit damaged,” Purpled explained. “We already have a mechanic slash engineer slash whatever you want to call him of our own, but we would love to be able to have access to your supplies.”

Tubbo crossed his arms, raising his eyebrows. He didn’t look very impressed, but he closed his eyes and sighed.

“Very well,” he said. “You’ll still be paying, though. I’ll be there if Eryn needs a helping hand.”

Purpled wasn’t surprised in the slightest. It was a money driven world, after all. “Of course,” he said. “We’ll crunch numbers when we’re done. Sound good?”

“Yeah.” Tubbo gestured back to his shop. “Well, it’s all yours. Have fun with it. I’m going to stand in this corner and brood while you guys sort out your ship.”

“Well, seeing as we’re paying this guy, I think I’ll use his help,” Eryn said. “You and Theseus can return inside, if you want.”

Theseus was very eager to head inside the ship, and he bolted as soon as Eryn gave permission. Purpled wasn’t much of a handyman, and he didn’t want to stand in the way of repairs. That being said, Purpled would like to keep an eye on repairs. He got fidgety when his ship was badly damaged.

“I can watch.”

Tubbo and Eryn worked together to repair the damaged engines, as well as some damaged parts of the ship’s exterior. They seemed to get along rather well, and Tubbo used his insect-like wings to fly up to harder to reach spots of the ship. Purpled let out a breath of relief upon realizing that the damage to his ship hadn’t been as bad as it had seemed earlier. Theseus’s flying skills had really saved the day.

Ranboo stepped outside the ship, looking curious to see the day’s proceedings. There was also a slightly worried expression on his face, and Purpled approached him. It was his job to make sure that all of his crew members were happy and well-adjusted, and Ranboo’s face was neither of those.

“What’s going on?” Purpled asked.

“Oh, nothing…” Ranboo said. His eyes landed on Tubbo, and it became suddenly clear that it was not nothing. “Tubbo?”

Tubbo was mid-air, tightening something, but he looked in Ranboo’s direction.

“Hm?” he asked. His eyes landed on Ranboo and widened. “Ranboo?”

One normal day. Purpled just wanted one normal day.

“Since when did you own a mechanic’s shop?” Ranboo asked. He sounded quite stunned.

“Since when were you working with bounty hunters?” Tubbo asked back, sounding quite snappish. Ranboo grimaced. Purpled watched with his mouth slightly open.

“How did you know—”

“It’s obvious,” Tubbo said. “I’m not stupid, you know. Your ship is damaged, and there’s clear signs of blaster fire hitting your hull. Besides, I looked you up on the holonet after you first arrived, Purpled. No offense. Apparently, you’ve made a bit of a name for yourself.”

“Wow,” Purpled said dryly. “Thanks.”

He wasn’t thrilled with this turn of events, but it wasn’t as though he was going out of the way to keep his status as a bounty hunter a secret. As long as Purpled wasn’t actively breaking any laws, law enforcement wasn’t going to go after him, especially considering part of Purpled’s job was returning their own escaped convicts to them, Innit being a prime example.

“Tubbo always was good at that sort of thing,” Ranboo said slowly. “I thought you wanted to get a job with tech, though?”

“Life has other plans.” Tubbo shrugged. He landed on the ground, and his wings folded behind his back. “Schlatt died, and I couldn’t afford to send myself to school like you did. I had to get means somehow, so, here I am.”

Ranboo pursed his mouth together. “That makes sense,” he admitted.

“And what about you?” Tubbo asked. “I thought youw ere meant to be training to become a doctor?”

He sounded almost angry, and Purpled was really glad that he wasn’t recruiting. He couldn’t stand to have more tension between his crewmates than there already was. Although, Aria seemed to have brought Aimsey and Eryn together, which was a bit of a relief.

“Well, I was, but—”

“But what?” Tubbo sounded especially aggravated now. His arms were crossed, and he strode up to Ranboo with authority. He almost seemed to tower over Ranboo, which was ridiculous, seeing as Ranboo had to have been three feet taller than him. Tubbo compensated for this by flying in the air until he was a head above Ranboo. “School was too boring? You decided that living a nice and privileged life was too much for you—”

“No, it wasn’t that—”

“Well, then, what was it?” Tubbo snapped. “I’m waiting.”

Ranboo glanced at Purpled and Eryn, looking visibly uncomfortable. “Look, I can explain.”

“How is that an explanation?”

“I… I have the right to talk about this in private,” Ranboo said. His voice raised in volume slightly. “with Tubbo.”

Purpled nodded. He wasn’t going to force his crew mates to air out all of their dark secrets. As long as one of them wasn’t hiding Innit under their cloaks, or as long as they didn’t have a secret that was going to put them all in danger, Purpled couldn’t care less. They all did things or experienced things that they would rather not talk about ever again.

“Fine,” Tubbo huffed. “We can talk in my quarters.”

“I, actually, might need to get someone first,” Ranboo said. “Why don’t we talk in the ship? If you don’t mind, that is?”

Ranboo looked incredibly nervous as he looked to Purpled, and Purpled felt like a strict teacher that nobody could trust to let them go to the bathroom. Fortunately for Ranboo, Purpled wasn’t a jerk, and he nodded again.

“Try not to take too long,” he said. “And don’t let him steal anything.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Tubbo said, in a voice that implied he would have no shame in stealing anything from them.

As Ranboo and Tubbo walked inside the ship, Aimsey stepped outside. Aria was sitting in their arms, fortunately not hissing angrily. However, Aria seemed to have once again latched herself to Aimsey’s clothing, which Purpled grimaced on their behalf.

“Hello, guys,” Aimsey said. They avoided eye contact with Eryn as they approached Purpled. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Yeah?” Purpled asked. “What have you been thinking about?”

Aimsey grinned. “Our ship needs a name!”

“Our ship?” Purpled asked.

“Dude, you’re going to gatekeep your ship from us?” Eryn asked. “We literally live there now. We settled into our bedrooms. It’s our ship.”

They made a pretty good point.

“Fine, but we’re not naming our ship.” Purpled gestured at it. “It’s perfectly fine the way it is!”

“It’s boring the way it is,” Aimsey said. “Naming it will add character.”

“I hate to agree with them on this one, but—” Eryn made a face and tilted his head toward Purpled’s ship. “—the facts do kind of speak for themselves.”

“I swear, every time you two decide to get along, it’s only to gang up on me.” Purpled pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine. And what would you name our ship?”

“Oh, don’t let Aimsey name it—”

“Purple,” Aimsey said. “We should name the ship the Purple.”

Purpled could not believe his ears. He stared at Aimsey, dumbfounded. They were grinning stupidly, as though they had come up with the most unique name out there.

“I told you not to let them name it,” Eryn said. “Don’t you know what their last ship was named?”

“I don’t really want to know,” Purpled sighed. “We’re not naming the ship after me.”

“Oh, come on. Please?” Aimsey brought their hands together in a begging position. “It doesn’t have to be purple. Magenta? Violet?”

“Mauve,” Eryn offered.

“I thought you were against Aimsey picking names,” Purpled said.

“I am.” Eryn shrugged. “The Mauve sounds pretty bloody cool, though. You have to admit it.”

Purpled did not want to admit it, but it was kind of true.

“Rhymes with maul,” Aimsey said. “It makes it sound like your ship name is threatening other ships.”

“Well, in that case…” Purpled said sarcastically. He sighed. “You know what? Fine. I’m tired. And Punz will be ticked if he finds out I named the ship without him—”

“We named the ship,” Eryn corrected. “You just stood there and shook your head—”

“Same difference,” Purpled said. “Fine. The Mauve it is. Do you want to paint the words on or what?”

Aimsey grinned, and they ran into Tubbo’s office without any regard for what they were allowed to mess with. Eryn didn’t move to stop them when they located a can of purple-looking paint. Purpled watched with grim satisfaction as Aimsey spray-painted the words “The Muave” in poor handwriting. It was truly horrendous, but that made purpled all the more satisfied.

Punz was going to be so pissed.

“You spelled mauve wrong,” Eryn said. “It’s mauve not mwave.”

“Too late.” Aimsey shrugged. “New universal spelling. Right there. Memorize it.”

“I’m good,” Purpled said. “Thank you for vandalizing my ship—”

“It wasn’t vandalism,” Aimsey interrupted. “It’s my ship too. I was decorating it.”

Purpled was about to say that Aimsey did not legally own The Mauve, and then he remembered that legally, Punz was the one who owned it.

“Thank you for decorating our ship.” Purpled rolled his eyes and sighed. “I’m not paid enough for you guys.”

“Aren’t you paying us?” Eryn asked.

“Exactly.”

Tommy was minding his own business in his room, having a marvelous time, when the door slid open to reveal Ranboo and some random dude.

Tommy didn’t particularly take kindly to random dudes, especially when Tommy had been taking a breather from his mask.

Maybe that was foolish. Tommy was certainly regretting it now as he frantically turned around and pulled it back onto his face.

The stranger’s jaw dropped, and Tommy wanted to melt into the floor in shame.

“The door was unlocked,” Ranboo said. They sounded very disappointed in Tommy. Tommy stared at the floor and curled his shoulders toward his ears. Ranboo wasn’t Dream, but some habits were hard to break.

“Sorry,” Tommy muttered.

“What-no-just don’t be stupid.”

Ranboo’s flustered attitude got rid of the disappointment, and Tommy relaxed. He sat back down on his bunk and crossed his arms. Ranboo shut the door behind them, bringing the stranger along.

“So,” Tommy said. He eyed the stranger warily. “I assume you took a random dude into our room for a good reason?”

“He’s not a random dude,” Ranboo said. “This is my friend, Tubbo.”

Tommy’s eyes widened. Ranboo had mentioned Tubbo from time to time. Mostly, Ranboo just lamented over how they could probably never see Tubbo again. Tommy had sympathized. He didn’t expect to see Wilbur again in his near future either. Still, it was surprising to see the person Ranboo had talked so frequently about in person.

“Oh, you’re him?” Tommy asked.

He pointed at Tubbo. Tubbo leaned against the now closed door, still looking shocked, but clearly trying to be cool about it.

Tommy could respect that. It was better than Tubbo shouting for Purpled to put him behind bars.

“Y-you’re Tommy Innit,” Tubbo said. “You’re that ‘dangerous criminal.’”

Tubbo did air quotes with his fingers at the last two words.

“I like the air quotes,” Ranboo said.

“I am very dangerous,” Tommy admitted. “And I think technically I’m a criminal. The air quotes are unnecessary.”

“Dude, you’re not running around killing innocent people,” Ranboo said. “Please, don’t act like whoever was in charge of putting up your bounty was in the right.”

“Right, right. Sorry.” Tommy looked back over to Ranboo. “So, you were going to spill my secrets to your childhood friend without asking me?”

Tommy wasn’t exactly angry. Tubbo seemed to be taking the news in stride, although anyone with any amount of brains would pretend to not mind the bombshell that Ranboo had just dropped on them. Then, when they left the room, they could be a snitch to Purled or any of the others.

“I wasn’t planning for it to go like this,” Ranboo admitted. “You were supposed to be wearing your mask.”

“You should’ve knocked—”

“Only I can be mad at Ranboo right now,” Tubbo interrupted. “Sorry, Tommy—”

“I go by Theseus around here,” Tommy said. “Please, don’t call me Tommy when we’re in a public setting.”

“Theseus, got it.” Tubbo nodded. “But can I still call you Tommy here?”

Tommy glowered. “You have to earn Tommy privileges.”

Tubbo barked out a laugh, but didn’t argue. “Anyway, I’m mad at Ranboo because they abandoned me at Snowchester and forced me to figure out my life for myself.”

“I thought your home planet was colder than this,” Tommy said, frowning. “Did the planet go through some serious climate issues?”

“This isn’t Snowchester,” Ranboo said. “Snowchester is this planet’s moon.”

“Oh.”

“As I was saying,” Tubbo said. “Ranboo is explaining why he didn’t even so much as call me while he was gone.”

“Yeah, I was getting to that.” Ranboo sat down on the bunk next to Tommy. “Look, Tubbo. I’m sorry. When I got to medical school, everything was so shiny, and I admit I forgot to contact any of my family and friends during that time. After that, well…”

“He got kidnapped by the Essempi government to become a medical trainee for some very immoral experimentation stuff,” Tommy interrupted. “He wasn’t allowed to contact you after that. And then, after that, we were sort of criminals. Sorry.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened. “Oh. Man. I’m sorry. That’s an actually a good explanation.”

“I told you I could explain,” Ranboo said. “I really am sorry—”

“It’s in the past.” Tubbo’s voice was brisk. Now that he had gotten his explanation, it seemed that Tubbo didn’t want to even think about the last few years. “Though, I will note that we are still currently in the Essempi system. It seems kind of foolish to me to be here.”

“Our ship was pulled out of hyperspace here,” Tommy said reluctantly. “And we needed repairs. Besides, I’m sure Purpled will end up searching around here more, just because this was where I was born.”

“Yeah,” Tubbo said slowly. “Actually, Tommy. Question. How were you involved with Ranboo?”

“I was immoral experimentation stuff,” Tommy said bluntly. “I’d demonstrate, but it kind of hurts like crap, so I’d just as much rather not.”

Tubbo’s eyes were wide, but he shook his head quickly. “Don’t worry, I can manage without seeing what the evil scientists did.”

“Great!” Tommy said cheerfully. “Well, I’m Tommy, but please remember to call me Theseus, and if you tell Purpled who I am I know where you live.”

“For now,” Tubbo said cryptically.

Tubbo left the room, and Tommy and Ranboo looked at each other.

“That went poorly,” Tommy observed.

“You shouldn’t have taken your mask off when the door was unlocked.”

“You’re right,” Tommy sighed. “Knock next time, just in case.”

“Yeah. Fair enough.”

Tubbo and Ranboo left the ship, and Ranboo cheerfully informed Purpled that he and Tubbo had resolved their argument. Purpled wished that all of his crew members had such maturity. In spite of their previous alliance to change the name of their once nameless ship, Eryn and Aimsey were back to not speaking to each other. Aimsey had marched inside of The Mauve, and Eryn was looking sullen, his arms crossed.

“I’m happy for you,” Purpled said. He focused his attention on Tubbo. “Shall we talk numbers?”

Tubbo calculated the amount of time they took up his docking bay, as well as the amount of time it actually took to do the work. Fortunately, it hadn’t taken too long, which meant that Purpled didn’t lose too much money to Tubbo’s business.

There was an extra expense for using the purple paint can without permission, though. Purpled was only somewhat regretful over it.

“Thank you for your business!” Tubbo said cheerfully. “Even if I did almost none of the work.”

“We are still extremely grateful to you,” Purpled said. He meant it. “We’d also be grateful if you didn’t bring up us being bounty hunters to other people. We may or may not have some people following us.”

Tubbo nodded, his face solemn. “Of course.”

Purpled climbed inside the ship, and Ranboo and Eryn climbed in after him. Purpled found Theseus already sitting in the cockpit.

“You’re ready to go,” Purpled observed.

“Yeah, well—” Theseus huffed. “—I’m going through some stuff.”

Purpled sat down in the passenger’s seat, spinning it toward Theseus. “Wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

Purpled nodded. “Well, let’s get this ship off the ground before Tubbo calls the authorities on us for loitering.”

“Yeah, fair.” Theseus slowly began starting up the ship. “So. Where to next?”

Purpled frowned. He needed to find Wilbur, but he had no clue where to start.

“Do you know someone by the name of Wilbur Soot?”

Theseus froze. “Huh?”

“Wilbur Soot,” Purpled said. “He’s a dude. He’s Tommy Innit’s older brother, actually. I’m hoping he could help me out.”

“I really doubt Soot knows where Innit is,” Theseus said slowly. He was visibly uncomfortable, and his knuckles were white from how tightly he was holding onto the ship’s yoke.

“But you know him?”

Theseus didn’t look at Purpled for a long moment. “Yeah. I guess you could say that I do.”

Well, that was better than nothing. “Great! Do you know where he is?”

Theseus shook his head. “No. Sorry.”

Purpled tried not to look too disappointed. It wasn’t Theseus’s fault that he didn’t know where Soot was, and it was still a lead.

“Do you have any guesses, at least?”

Theseus shrugged. “I mean, he’s from L’manberg,” he said. “We could check there. Is there any reason he wouldn’t be there?”

“Punz implied he wasn’t there anymore,” Purpled admitted. “But it’s a start.”

Theseus flew from the planet and set their destination for L’manberg quietly, and Purpled didn’t say anything. It was clear that Theseus wanted to be left to his thoughts, and he did everything in such careful precision that Purpled was almost afraid of interrupting him.

As soon as the ship was pulled into lightspeed, Theseus stood up and left the cockpit. He didn’t even look in Purpled’s direction.

As the cockpit door began to slide shut behind Theseus, Aria slipped inside. She had clearly grown bored of Aimsey, and she climbed up onto Purpled’s lap, making Purpled her next victim. Purpled sighed as he began to pet Aria’s strange, glowing fur.

“It’s hard to run a crew,” Purpled lamented. “Do you wanna know a secret?”

Aria mewed.

“Yeah, maybe you don’t,” Purpled said. “But, you know what? You’re a cat, and you can’t talk, so I’m gonna tell you anyway.”

Aria’s meow sounded more reproachful this time. Purpled wasn’t very sorry.

“I miss Punz,” Purpled said. “it was easier when he was there to make all the calls. And there was a lot less drama.”

There was a lot less fun, too. Punz wouldn’t have insisted upon adopting a random cat that interrupted their route through hyperspace. And, as much as a nuisance Aria was shaping up to be, Purpled thought he might begin to grow fond of her.

Punz had never bothered to name their ship.

“The Mauve,” Purpled mused allowed. “You’re kind of a mauve color. Did Aimsey name the ship after you instead of after me?”

Aria made a smug sound.

“Mr. Soot, could you follow me to the front office?”

Tommy stiffened. They were in the middle of a battle strategy’s test when one of the school officials stepped inside the room and asked for Tommy. The other students sniggered.

“Tommy’s in trouble,” one of the kids sitting beside him crooned.

Tommy’s face warmed as their teacher told everyone to shut up, not in those words. He had already completed his test, although he had no idea how well he did. He stood up, placed his paper on the teacher’s desk, and followed the official out of the classroom.

The official didn’t say anything as he walked Tommy toward the front office, the headmaster’s office, to be precise. Tommy felt dread continue to grow inside of him as the official opened the doors to the office and stood outside, gesturing for Tommy to enter.

Tommy gave the official a nervous glance, but he stepped inside anyway. He really hoped he hadn’t done anything stupid enough to get expelled. He didn’t want to return to L’manberg and tell Wilbur that his money had been wasted.

Tommy just couldn’t think of anything he could possibly be in trouble for.

The headmaster, Eret, was sitting behind their desk, wearing a warm grin. Someone wearing a scientist’s uniform was sitting on one of the chairs in front of the desk, and Tommy recognized him as Dream. Dream had reviewed one of their trainings, although Tommy wasn’t really sure why. It had something to do with the government.

“Mr. Soot, please have a seat,” Eret said. They gestured the chair next to me, and Tommy lowered himself into it. It was cushioned, and rather comfortable, but Tommy couldn’t shake the unease he felt.

“Am I in trouble?” Tommy asked.

Dream chuckled, and Eret let out a bright laugh, shaking their head. Tommy didn’t think it as that funny, but he laughed along nervously.

“Not at all,” Eret said. “As a matter of fact, Dr. Dream has a very big opportunity he’s offering to you.”

Tommy’s eyes widened. “What sort of opportunity? Sir?”

Tommy wasn’t the best with manners, but it was probably important to start exercising them. He didn’t want Dream to change his mind because Tommy didn’t know how to be polite.

“There’s a new program I’m in charge of,” Dream explained. “For a talented young student such as yourself. It’s a boarding school, just like this one, but it will teach you things that most students wouldn’t dream of learning.”

“Is it expensive?” Tommy asked. His wings bristled nervously. Wilbur was doing everything he could to keep Tommy in this school, and he didn’t think Wilbur would be able to pay for a even cooler school.

“Not at all,” Dream assured him. “It’s fully paid for.”
            Now, that was a good offer. “Really?” Tommy asked. A wide grin formed on his face. “That’s huge!”

“Right?” Dream slid a few papers over to him. “Of course, you would have to sign these, and we’ll contact your guardian to sign some forms electronically.”

Oh, right. Guardians.

“I should probably consult my brother first,” Tommy said reluctantly.

“Perhaps you would like me to speak to him?” Dream asked.

“No, no, it’s fine.” Tommy smiled. “He’ll probably agree; money’s thin at the moment.”

From beneath his mask, Dream smiled. Tommy felt an eerie feeling of dread begin to crawl beneath his skin. Maybe this free school wasn’t worth it after all.

Tommy promised to call Wilbur, and during the rest of his classes, Tommy debated just throwing away the admissions forms and saying his brother hadn’t agreed. Tommy had a strange feeling he was about to sign a deal with the devil, and, as Tommy read the forms, the more he was beginning to feel that was the case. If Tommy didn’t know any better, he’d say that this other school was training a bunch of super soldiers.

When Tommy got to his dorm that night, he threw away the papers. It wasn’t going to be worth—

A sharp pain landed in the back of Tommy’s neck. Tommy reached for it, and his hands enclosed around a small, metal dart.

Tommy’s heart beat frantically as he yanked the dart from his neck. His vision blurred as he inspected it in his palm, but—

“He’s waking up.”

“Administer the anesthetic…”

Tommy groaned as he opened his eyes. He seemed to be in some kind of hospital room, and he was lying on a table. There was a breathing mask over his mouth. He tried to move, but his wrists were clamped down by some sort of cuffs.

That’s when the panic truly settled in.

“Where am I?” Tommy demanded. There was some sort of doctor coming toward him, and Tommy yanked himself away from them. “What the hell are you doing?!”

Someone stuck something in the crux of Tommy’s elbow, and Tommy screamed. It didn’t hurt that much, but it did startle him. He felt like he was about to be performed surgery on, which was ridiculous, because he didn’t need surgery—

When Tommy woke up next, he felt absolutely dizzy. He was still cuffed to the hospital bed, and tears welled up in his eyes. He had no idea what was going on, and he was scared, and he didn’t agree to any of this.

“Hello, Tommy.”

Tommy yanked his head over to Dream, who was staring at Tommy with his head tilted. It was incredibly creepy, and Tommy informed Dream as much.

Dream only continued to stare.

“You didn’t behave very well,” Dream said. Now, he was really creepy. “Not signing the forms. Struggling. I’m embarrassed for you.”

“What’s happening?” Tommy demanded. He couldn’t think quite clearly thanks to the drugs, but he did know that he didn’t consent to any of this. “What are you doing to me?”

“I’m improving you,” Dream said simply. “Don’t worry. You’ll thank me one day.”

And Tommy’s life had been ruined.

“They’re looking for Wilbur.”

Ranboo looked up from where he was lying on his bunk, frowning. “Huh?”

“Purpled’s looking for Wilbur,” Tommy elaborated. Tommy climbed up onto his own bunk and lay face down. “He thinks that Wilbur knows where I am.”

“Oh.” Ranboo seemed at a loss for words. Tommy couldn’t exactly blame him. “What are you going to do?”

Tommy bit the inside of his cheek. He honestly wasn’t sure.

“What do you think I should do?”

Ranboo hummed. “You’ve been wanting to see him, haven’t you?”

“You and I both know why that can’t happen.”

Ranboo didn’t argue. They did both know why it couldn’t happen. Alerting Wilbur to Tommy’s presence would only put Wilbur in danger, and it wouldn’t change the fact that Tommy was being hunted down by multiple parties.

Tommy would never forgive himself if Wilbur died because of Tommy’s own selfishness.

“I already told Purpled to go to L’manberg, but Purpled doesn’t think he’s going to find him there.” Tommy ran his fingers through his hair. “I can’t see him, obviously. Wilbur would recognize me even with this disguise.”

“Yeah, probably.” Ranboo gave Tommy a concerned look. “How are you feeling?”

Tommy exhaled. “I don’t even know. I don’t… I’ve resigned myself to never seeing Wilbur again, and now we’re going to look for him? It’s just… it’s not fair.”

Ranboo brought a careful arm around Tommy’s shoulders, and Tommy leaned into his warmth. “It’s not,” Ranboo agreed. “I’m sorry, Tommy.”

“I miss him.” Tommy’s voice was a whisper now. “I wish I had never wanted to leave L’manberg.”

“Yeah.”

There wasn’t anything else to say. Ranboo preened Tommy’s wings, and Tommy climbed up onto his bunk before falling into a restless sleep.

Eventually, Purpled managed to get up from where he was sitting, and he decided that he was overdue for sleep. He had no idea if it was evening, or how many hours it had been since he had originally woken up, but Purpled was tired. He needed sleep, and all of this had felt like one hellish day.

After his rest, they had made it to L’manberg. They had probably been hovering near the planet for a while now; it wasn’t as though the place was any significant distance from where they were before. Theseus wasn’t in the cockpit, though, and Purpled made a mental note to remind him that it was his job to land them on the planet safely.

A few hours wasn’t too bad, and it gave Purpled time to put himself together.

Purpled headed to the kitchen for a bite of breakfast, but, as he was walking past the ladder down the the cargo bay, he heard a loud crashing sound. The sound was followed by some harried whispers, and Purpled felt a large wave of exhaustion wash over him.

He just wanted one painless day. One. That was all Purpled was asking for.

Apparently, Purpled just wasn’t allowed to have nice things anymore.

Speaking of not nice things, Purpled still needed to ask Aimsey about the people following them.

Purpled slid down the ladder leading to the cargo bay. He was really hoping he’d just find Aria trying to destroy something in there.

“Quick! Hide!”

Yeah. Cats didn’t talk.

Purpled looked around the cargo bay, and he was surprised to see that Aria was in fact there. She was sitting on top of a pile of crates that had been knocked over. Fortunately, the crates hadn’t had anything in them, but she looked very proud of herself anyway.

Trying (and failing) to crouch behind the crates was none other than Ranboo.

“What are you doing back there?” Purled asked.

Ranboo jumped to his feet, looking far too guilty for a pile of knocked over crates. “Um. Nothing?”

“Nothing?”

Ranboo nodded. “Yep. Yep. Nothing. Nothing at all—”

“I hear you’re looking for Soot.”

Tubbo stood up next to Ranboo, and Purpled gaped. He blinked, waiting for Tubbo to disappear. But no. Tubbo was still standing next to Ranboo, his face looking solemn.

“Okay, okay, one thing at a time,” Purpled said. “What are you doing here?”

“I snuck in.”

“I figured out that much,” Purpled said. “Why are you doing here?”

“I don’t think that’s grammatically—”

“It’s not your turn to talk right now, Ranboo,” Purpled said. “I would really like some answers from Tubbo.”

Ranboo sighed. “Right. Sorry.”

Tubbo crossed his arms. “Well, you see, running a lonely little mechanic’s shop is pretty boring, so I thought, you know what would be less boring? Joining a crew of bounty hunters. And now I’m here.”

“I’m not splitting the reward with you,” purpled said. “Seeing as I didn’t recruit you.”

“But I can stay?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” Purpled said. Ranboo looked hopeful, and Purpled would hate to separate friends. “We don’t’ have any supplies for you.”

“I packed earlier.” Tubbo held up a small bag that Purpled assumed had all of his essentials. “Also, what is this reward?”

“We’re bounty hunters? Rewards are what we do?”

“Yeah, yeah, but you said reward like it was big,” Tubbo said. “What is this reward? Sounds very not boring.”

“Something you’re not getting,” Purpled said irritably. “that’s what I was saying before. I didn’t recruit you—”

“What if he helps?” Ranboo interrupted.

“The fact remains that I was only willing to split one million credits between five people, not six—”

“You’re looking for Innit?” Tubbo blurted out. He gave Ranboo a very strange look, and Ranboo just shrugged.

“Yes, we’re looking for Innit,” Purpled said. “We’re going to find him, too. But you don’t’ get any of the reward money, okay?”

Tubbo nodded. “I don’t need it. I’ll just have Ranboo and Theseus give me some of their cut.”

“I don’t think Theseus will do that,” Ranboo said.

“But you will.”

“Maybe.”

Tubbo didn’t argue. “I can still help, though. I know Eryn is already your mechanic, but I’ve got some mean hacking skills.”

“Is that how you got onto the ship?” Purpled demanded.

“Oh, that was easy.” Tubbo shrugged. “You should really work on your security. Your ship’s lock was very easily manipulated.”

“It’s literally hand activated,” Purpled said. He had shifted from frustrated to genuinely baffled.

“Yes, but you know what it also is?” Tubbo asked. “Easily hacked into.”

“Maybe for you.” Purpled ran a hand over his face. “We need a room for you. Ranboo’s already sleeping with Theseus—”

“I can sleep on the floor of their room,” Tubbo said.

“That is not ideal,” Ranboo said.

Tubbo crossed his arms. “I don’t know anyone on this ship except for you.”

“I’m really still questioning why you decided to stow away here if you didn’t know anyone,” Purpled said. “And I mean, technically, you’ve met all of us.”

“It’s not the same.”

“Alright, fine.” Purpled headed back toward the ladder leading out of the cargo bay. “If you want to sleep on the floor, that’s fine. Just consult Theseus first. I really don’t want to hear anymore arguments echoing around my ship.”

“Will do!” Tubbo said cheerfully.

Purpled sighed and climbed up the ladder. He was still hungry for breakfast, and he quickly went to the kitchen to grab something. Theseus was sitting on the table, munching on a biscuit. His mask was sitting over his nose and eyes, which Purpled found pretty amusing.

There was something about Theseus’ chin that seemed… familiar.

“Hello, Purpled,” Theseus said. “How may I help you?”

“I was helping myself, actually,” Purpled said, “to breakfast, in fact.”

“Wow.” Tommy’s voice was thick as he took another bite out of his biscuit. “Deep.”

“Incredibly so.” Purpled fished a thing of yogurt from the fridge and peeled open the cap. “Also, how come we haven’t landed on L’manberg yet?”

“I was sleeping,” Theseus said simply. “And then I woke up and you were still sleeping. I figured I’d wait until you could decide exactly where we should land.”

“I wouldn’t have been upset if you decided for yourself,” Purpled said. “You know more about Soot than I do.”

“Oh. Right.” Theseus’s shoulders rose up to his ears, and he inspected his biscuit as though it were the most interesting thing in the world. Purpled realized he must’ve struck some sort of nerve, and he tried to shake away the uneasy feeling beginning to grow in his gut.

“I’m not mad at you or anything,” Purpled said. “Just informing you that you don’t have to get my permission for everything. As long as you don’t do something seriously stupid, but I think you’re smarter than that.”

Theseus laughed. His voice sounded shaky as he dragged his mask back over his mouth, revealing his eyes again. “Sorry. I forgot that not all bosses were terrible people.”

Purpled tried not to feel hurt. ‘You thought I was a terrible person?”

Theseus shook his head quickly. “No, that’s not what I meant. You’re a nice fellow, Purpled. I just have some bad experiences that have… impacted my impression of the world.”

“That’s fair.” Purpled would be lying if he didn’t have similar experiences where he thought irrationally thanks to some past trauma. “But no. I’m not going to be a total jerk over you taking some initiative. Initiative is good.”

“Hell yeah.”

Theseus hopped down from the table. “I’m gonna land then. You don’t mind?”

Purpled couldn’t see much of Theseus’s expression behind his mask, but Purpled could see a certain degree of anxiety in the way his eyebrows scrunched together.

“Not at all.”

Theseus left the room, and Purpled dispelled the uneasy feeling that sat in his core. He didn’t know where it had come from, and he would very much like it to be gone.

It had been years since Tommy had last been to L’manberg.

The sky was as blue as it had always been. The violet-colored fields were swaying in the wind as Tommy landed. He parked as close as he could to his home town, but he didn’t bother to find an official landing point. As long as Tommy wasn’t landing on top of somebody’s farm, nobody cared if he landed in the middle of the grass.

Tommy quickly left the cockpit and ran to the exit ramp, trying not to feel excitement and anticipation make him feel sick. He opened the door and stepped outside. The wind hit his face, and the fresh air smelled almost like lavender.

It was home.

Tommy stepped outside and laid down in the tall grass, staring up at the clouds as they glided overhead. The sky beckoned, and Tommy’s wings itched. He wanted nothing more than to launch himself into the sky and fly to his heart’s content, but the ship sitting right next to him told him to not be an idiot.

Ranboo and Tubbo were the second ones to step outside, and Tommy tried not to let jealousy churn in his gut upon seeing Tubbo. Tubbo was a nice guy, as allowed to have friends that weren’t Tommy. As a matter of fact, Tommy’s problem was a lot less with Tubbo and more with the fact that Ranboo got to have a friend from before. Tommy couldn’t see Wilbur, but Ranboo got to reunite with Tubbo, hell, even bring him along.

It wasn’t fair.

Life wasn’t fair.

Ranboo and Tubbo had the tact not to say anything as Tommy continued to take in his home planet. He almost wanted to fall asleep, lying in the field with the grass shifting beside him, but Tommy knew it was a bad idea. Walking around with bound wings was bad enough, sleeping with them was disastrous.

After a long moment, Tommy pulled himself to his feet. He combed back his hair, knowing it had gotten a bit all over the place, but the wind ruined it all over again. Purpled, Eryn, and Aimsey exited the ship, and Purpled shut the door behind him.

“Welcome to L’manberg,” Tommy said. “The home of Wilbur Soot and Tommy Innit.”

“Really?” Eryn asked.

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Tommy said.

“Oh, I don’t know. This place just seems a bit idyllic for a dangerous criminal to be born,” Eryn said.

“Dangerous criminals come from all sorts of places,” Aimsey said. “Including the land of purple fields. You fit right in, Purpled.”

“I hate you,” Purpled muttered. “Alright, Theseus. Where to next?”

“Oh, right.” Tommy rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I know where he used to live. I don’t know if he’s there any more.”

“Again. Bad lead is still better than no lead,” Purpled said. “Maybe he left some clues behind.”

Tommy sighed and nodded. He hated the idea of leading Purpled to his old home for it to be ransacked, but Tommy wanted to see the place himself. He wanted to see what had changed in his years away, what had stayed exactly the same.

Tommy led the crew toward the city. It wasn’t too far away, and Tommy’s home was on the outskirts of the city. As Tommy crossed one of the bridges over L’manberg’s lovely river, he balanced on top of the railings.

“What are you doing?!” Ranboo demanded, his voice pitching.

“Seriously, man, you’re going to get hurt,” Eryn said.

Tommy laughed. “I’ve done this plenty of times before.”

“You do realize how high up we are, right?” Tubbo asked. “Get down. Please.”

Tommy huffed and jumped down from the railing. They were right, and this time Tommy couldn’t even say that he had his wings to catch him if he fell.

Tommy tried not to think about Wilbur. Such a venture proved impossible when Purpled was speculating to himself out loud.

“Do you think Soot is trying to find Innit himself?” Purpled asked. “To join him? Or to turn him in?”

“We technically don’t know that he’s not still here,” Aimsey said. “Maybe we should confirm that before we start trying to figure out where he went.”

“It never killed anyone to think ahead,” Eryn snapped.

Aimsey shrugged.

They reached Tommy’s home not long after that exchange, and Tommy stared sadly at the state of their windows. The poor things were filthy with grime, and Tommy drew a frowny face on the glass.

Purpled tried to open the door, but the control panel beeped angrily at him. “The door’s locked,” Purpled observed.

Tommy didn’t have the key, but Tubbo was already stepping forward, cracking his knuckles.

“Allow me.”

Tubbo pulled out a screw-driver looking thing and began fiddling with the door controls. He pulled out his datapad and began typing something furiously. Tommy watched with fascination as the light suddenly turned green, and the door slid open.

“How’d you do that?” Tommy asked.

“Magic,” Ranboo said.

“Hacking,” Tubbo said over him.

Tommy followed the others into the house, feeling a lump of dread form in his throat. It was dark, and Tommy found the light switch and turned it on.

The lights flickered reluctantly to life, and Tommy saw that his home was relatively unchanged in the years of his absence. The living area was arranged the way it had always been. The kitchen was the same, although that was less surprising. There were a few odds and ends scattered on the living room ottoman, and Purpled was already leaning forward to pick some of them up.

“A book,” Purpled muttered. “A pencil. Nothing particularly enlightening.”

“There are other rooms,” Tommy pointed out.

Tommy went down the back hall and found the door to his own bedroom. He hesitated before pressing the button to open it.

The door slid open, and Tommy stepped inside the bedroom.

It was completely untouched.

Well, completely was strong. It had been tidied up in Tommy’s absence, but that was about it. The bed still had the same covers. One of Tommy’s old stuffed animals was sitting in front of its pillows. A book that Tommy must’ve been reading before leaving for school still sat on his bedside table.

“This was Soot’s room?” Aimsey asked.

Tommy yelped, jumping out of his skin as he spun around toward Aimsey. Aimsey stepped inside the room, looking around.

“N-no,” Tommy said. “This was—uh, at least, I think this was Innit’s.”

Aimsey’s eyes widened. “Oh. Wow.”

Aimsey walked across the room and picked up the stuffed animal toy sitting on his bed. It was a stuffed mooshroom that Tommy had fondly named Henry.

“Cute,” Aimsey observed. “I guess everyone starts out as a kid.”

“Hand that over,” Tommy said. He tried not to be too aggressive over it. He didn’t want to compromise his identity over a stupid stuffed animal.

Mooshroom Henry might have been worth it, though.

Aimsey raised their eyebrows and tossed Henry over to Tommy. Tommy caught him with both hands and inspected him. He wasn’t ripped up at all, although he was extremely dusty.

“Oh, look,” Aimsey picked up a picture frame sitting on Tommy’s dresser. “He’s so cute in this!”

Tommy walked next to Aimsey and inspected the photo. Sure enough, it was of seven-year-old Tommy propped up on Wilbur’s shoulders. He was grinning rather widely, and his wings were spread wide. Wilbur was laughing as the photo was taken.

“Yeah,” Tommy said. His voice was hollow. “he was.”

Aimsey gave Tommy a quizzical look. “You’ve been kind of off,” they said. “You okay?”

“Y-yeah!” Tommy tried to make himself sound more cheerful. “I’m great! Never better.”

“If you’re sure…” Aimsey said. “I’m not sure we’re going to find anything good in here. I’ll keep looking, though. Why don’t you go to Soot’s room?”

Tommy hated the idea of Aimsey continuing to search through his room, but he also couldn’t stand the idea of watching them do it either.

Tommy left the room and found Wilbur’s bedroom. The others had already found it, and they were gathered around an old-looking computer that Wilbur must’ve left behind.

“It’s still signed in to his email,” Tubbo said. He sounded rather triumphant, and Tommy understood that he must’ve hacked into it. “There’s got to be some sort of clues in here.”

Tommy sat down next to Ranboo as Tubbo pulled up Wilbur’s email. There were loads of junk mail that Wilbur clearly had not attended to, and Tubbo opened up emails that had been sent by Wilbur himself.

Wilbur hadn’t sent any emails since about six months ago, but the most recently sent one was the most enlightening. The email he was sending it to was just a jumble of numbers, but Tommy recognized it to be one of Technoblade’s emails.

Criminal? Give me a break. Something was going on at that school, and I’m going to find out what it was if it kills me. I’m going to find Tommy too, while I’m at it. And I’ll stop using this bloody email.

There was no reply, but Technoblade probably contacted Wilbur on a more private channel after that.

“Huh,” Tubbo said. “He doesn’t think Innit’s dangerous.”

“Well, I mean, he is his brother,” Eryn said. “Makes sense. I wouldn’t want to believe my brother was a criminal either, if I had a brother, that is.”

They continued looking through the emails, but nothing was all that indicative of Wilbur’s current location. Tubbo gave up on Wilbur’s emails and began trying to connect the computer to Wilbur’s datapad.

Oddly enough, it worked. The screen indicated that Wilbur’s datapad was at Las Nevadas, and Tubbo grinned victoriously.

“I bet you guys are glad you brought me along,” Tubbo said. “Maybe even include me in your cut?”

“No,” Purpled said bluntly.

They collected Aimsey from searching Tommy’s room and returned to the ship. Tommy was extremely reluctant to leave L’manberg so soon, but a little stirring of anticipation churned in him as they departed for Las Nevadas. Tommy knew he couldn’t speak to Wilbur, but a part of him wondered if he could get away with it. If he could get away with just speaking a few more words to his older brother.

It would never work out. Wilbur would recognize Tommy, and even if Tommy put on a mask that covered his entire face, it would lead to Purpled asking uncomfortable questions. Tommy would just find an opportunity to make himself scarce when they finally located Wilbur.

The thought made his chest ache.

They arrived at Las Nevadas the next day.

Tubbo had made himself comfortable in Ranboo and Theseus’ room, and Purpled asked theseus privately if he was alright with arrangement. Theseus only shrugged and said it was “fine” which didn’t exactly reassure Purpled.

Around an hour before The Mauve came out of light speed, Purpled finally pulled Aimsey aside. They stood in the empty cargo hold, and Purpled crossed his arms.

“You have to tell me what’s going on,” Purpled said. “You’re endangering the entire crew, and I can’t help you if I don’t know who or what we’re dealing with.”

Aimsey looked visibly uncomfortable. They shifted their feet, and their tail flicked behind their legs. “Do you really have to know—”

“Aimsey. We almost died earlier. We really have to know.”

Aimsey opened their mouth, looking ready to argue, but they slumped. They gave Purpled a rather sad look, and Purpled felt his sympathy go out to them.

“It was while I was searching for Innit myself,” Aimsey admitted. They sat on one of the empty crates. “There was this group that offered up an alliance with me.”

Purpled could see where this was going.

“Go on.”

“Well, they said that they had good information on where Innit was, and we started working together, that’s the definition of an alliance, obviously. Eryn didn’t like it. He said we shouldn’t have trusted them, and, well, at one point, we had actually managed to corner Innit—”

“Really?” Purpled interrupted.

“Yeah, actually.” Aimsey grinned. “We interrupted him while shopping.”

“Huh. What was he shopping for?”

“A bunch of cloth masks, actually,” Aimsey said. They tilted their head. “Probably to hide his identity. It must’ve worked pretty well, because the last recent sighting of him was when we managed to corner him.”

“Alright, alright,” Purpled said. “You know, this story might’ve come in handy sooner. To like, at the very least, know what to expect from Innit if we do manage to corner him.”

“Well, that’s the thing.” Aimsey’s ear twitched, and they were clearly agitated. “He ran, for the most part. He dropped his bag of masks and just sprinted away. He’s pretty fast, a perk of being an avian, I suppose, but we managed to keep up with him. We got him trapped in an alleyway, and that’s when one of our ‘allies’ decided that it would be a good idea to turn on us.”

Purpled frowned. “What?”

Aimsey shrugged. “A million credits is all well and good until you realize that you’re splitting it between over ten people. All of a sudden, one million credits is just a hundred thousand, and, in these people’s minds at least, they thought they could at least get more cash if we were out of the way.”

“I’m sorry, they couldn’t have waited until after you had apprehended Innit?” Purpled asked.

“Oh, we had at that point,” Aimsey said. “Got cuffs around him and everything. He still hadn’t fought back properly, or, not at least in a way that you would expect from a dangerous criminal. Then, Jack, that was the leader’s name, pulled a blaster on me and said that as much as he enjoyed our partnership, our time was up. Naturally, we fought back, and I managed to land a well-aimed shot to Jack’s chest, killing him.”

“So they want revenge?” Purpled surmised. “And that’s when they started going after you.”

“That’s right.” Aimsey nodded, clasping their hands together. Guilt was evident on their face. “I don’t feel that bad about killing Jack, don’t get me wrong. I make a point to not kill when its not necessary, but it was self-defense. But I should’ve listened to Eryn and not joined up with them to begin with. There was something off about them at the start, and now, I keep putting my crewmates in danger.”

“What about Innit?” Purpled asked. He appreciated the sincerity in Aimsey’s apology, but he also really would like to know more about the person he was hunting down. “How’d he escape?”

“He slipped past the fighting,” Aimsey said. “Jack still chose a really stupid time to turn on us. I think they’ve become more organized even without an official leader.”

It was rare for groups to hold together after the loss of a leader, but purpled supposed if a leader was a particularly bad, it could happen.

“Alright, well, unless they have tracking technology, I think we can manage to steer clear of them just fine. I’ll have Tubbo scan the ship for any signs of tracking devices, but I don’t think they’ve got one on us, seeing as we haven’t encountered them again so far.”

“True.” Aimsey didn’t look that at ease. “I just… this all could’ve been avoided if I hadn’t been so foolish.”

“It’s not foolish to want allies,” Purpled said.

“It’s foolish to not listen to the counsel of a friend. Now half of my crew is dead.” Aimsey sighed, and Purpled pretended not to see the tears forming in their eyes. “I’ve tried to apologize to Eryn, I just… I don’t know how.”

“Have you admitted you were wrong?” Purpled asked. “I find that’s a pretty good place to start.”

Aimsey nodded. “Yeah. Maybe I’ll lead with that next time.”

“Eryn, can I talk to you?”

Eryn and Theseus were in the middle of a chess match, and Eryn was beating Theseus quite soundly. Tubbo was hovering over Theseus’s shoulder, giving advice on strategies, but Theseus was ignoring every one of them.

Aimsey’s chest squeezed. Maybe this was a bad time. They shouldn’t ruin Eryn’s mood just because they wanted to clear the air—

But Eryn’s expression was already becoming cross, and he looked up at Aimsey with poorly hidden contempt. Aimsey couldn’t blame him.

“Maybe this is a bad time,” Aimsey said. They slowly backed out of the room, but Eryn was already pulling himself to his feet.

“No, I can spare a minute,” he said. “It’s Theseus’ turn anyway, and Theseus is trying to figure out the perfect way to get destroyed.”

“That is not what I’m doing!” Theseus protested. He cleared his throat. “But yes. Go have your conversation. I can wait.”

Eryn and Aimesy stepped out into the unpopulated hall, and Aimsey hugged themself. They kept their voice low as they spoke, not wanting anyone else to overhear.

“Look, I think I’ve been going about this wrong,” they said. “You were right, alright? I shouldn’t have teamed up with Manifold. I should’ve listened to you. It’s my fault Freddie and the others are dead.”

Eryn’s face became sad, and he took a deep breath. “It’s not your fault,” Eryn said quietly. “You didn’t kill them. You were just trying to do what you thought was best.”

“I didn’t take you into account,” Aimsey pointed out. They ran their fingers through his hair. “I really like you, Eryn. I miss our friendship. I know things can’t go back to the way they were before, but maybe we could… truce?”

Aimsey held their breath as Eryn tapped his foot against the ground. He looked conflicted, but, eventually, he let out what sounded almost like a sigh of defeat.

“Truce,” he agreed. He held out his hand, and Aimsey shook it.

Aimsey beamed.

Purpled had Tommy land on Las Nevadas, and Tommy’s stomach churned with anxiety as he turned off the ship’s engines. Ranboo was standing in the cockpit, giving Tommy frequent looks of concern, but Tommy ignored him. Tommy was fine. They were on the same planet of Wilbur, but it wasn’t as though they were actually going to find him.

“Okay, we’re here,” Tommy said. “What now?”

Purpled was already getting up from his spot on the co-pilot seat and heading down the hall. Tommy hastened to follow him. “We look around, I guess. I might have Tubbo hack into some nearby security cameras, but I’ll probably just ask around.”

“Oh, is that all?” Tommy asked. He laughed. “Do you realize how many people are on Las Nevadas at a time? A lot.”

“I know, I know,” Purpled said. “But Soot might’ve made an impression. You never know.”

Tommy had to concede that point.

They stepped outside of the ship, and Purpled instructed all of them to split up and search for Wilbur. Purpled also instructed that they all go in buddies. Tubbo instantly paired himself up with Ranboo, which Tommy did not appreciate. Aimsey and Eryn were apparently buddy-buddy again, which was normally a relief, but it meant that Tommy was left with Purpled.

“Great,” Tommy said. “Lucky me.”

“I didn’t realize you hated me that much,” Purpled said. His voice was jokingly hurt, but Tommy felt bad anyway.

“You really hate me, Tommy?” Dream would ask, his voice soft and menacing.

Dream had gotten into Tommy’s head on those days. Tommy would forget who the bad guy in the situation was.

“I don’t hate you,” Tommy hastened to say. “I just… wanted to be with Ranboo.”

Ranboo was too far away to hear this, seeing as he and Tubbo had already climbed onto a transport and flown off.

“I get it.” Purpled shrugged. “But, hey! We can get to know each other a bit more while we look around. Besides, I was just joking about the hating me thing.”

“Sure.” Tommy stuffed his hands in his pockets. Sometimes, he missed the simplicity of the lab. It had been hell, sure, but at least things were simple. Sort of simple. There were clear rules that tommy could follow, and Tommy knew exactly what the consequences were.

Dream had made Tommy’s head hurt, though. Sometimes, Tommy would hate his guts, and, other times, Dream was the only good thing about the lab.

Ranboo had helped Tommy remember who mattered, and it certainly wasn’t Dream.

Tommy and Purpled started asking around near their landing bay, asking if anyone had seen anyone by the name of Wilbur Soot. They had a business arrangement they wanted to make with him, but they couldn’t find him anywhere.

Bizarrely enough, people had seen someone by the name of Wilbur Soot.

“He’s looking for his brother,” someone explained. “That Tommy Innit kid. He was on the news for a while, with that large bounty, although it isn’t really clear what he did—”

“He blew up a government facility,” their friend interrupted.

Tommy bit his tongue and did not say that he only blew up a small fraction of a facility, and it was only to make his escape possible.

“Right. He seems to be under the impression that the kid didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Really?” tommy asked. He had already known this, but it was different to hear it from someone else. It was different to know that even now, Wilbur still believed in Tommy.

“Yeah. Weird, right?”

“not particularly,” Purpled muttered. “did you see which direction he went?”

They got directions, and they followed them until they asked a few others if they had seen Soot. They got a very similar response, and they continued following directions until Tommy spotted a familiar set of golden wings.

“That’s him,” Tommy said. He pointed at Wilbur.

“Really?” Purpled asked.

“Definitely.” Tommy’s heart hammered, and he could see Wilbur turn around to look in their direction. Tommy ducked behind Purpled. “I, uh, might actually not be on good terms with him, so I’m going to hide.”

“Of course, you’re not,” Purpled sighed. “Don’t stray far, okay?”

Tommy gave Purpled a thumbs up. “Gotcha!”

Tommy ducked into a nearby alley, and he watched nervously as Purpled approached Wilbur. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but there was something in Wilbur’s expression that seemed dangerous.

Protective.

At that moment, everything inside of Tommy screamed for him to run up to Wilbur and seek comfort. Tommy wanted to hide in Wilbur’s arms, to be told that everything was going to be okay.

But Tommy couldn’t do that; so he stayed hidden in his alleyway, trying to stem the tears that wanted to break free.

Purpled approached Soot and hoped he looked like any old intrigued civilian. He also hoped that Soot wouldn’t get instantly suspicious at strange questions.

“Hey!” Purpled waved at Soot, who was already looking in Purpled’s direction. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

Soot looked confused, and then he looked suspicious, and then he looked hopeful. The shifting expressions on his face had all happened in the span of ten seconds, and Purpled could hardly keep track of them all.

“Alright.” Soot stepped closer to Purpled, but not too close. The two of them walked up to the outer wall of a store so as not to stay standing in the middle of a sidewalk. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I wanted to know if you had any information on Innit,” Purpled said. He tried to seem as innocent as possible while asking the very not innocent question. “I’ve heard you believe he’s innocent, and I think so—”

Soot’s face darkened, and Purpled stopped talking.

“You’re another one of those bounty hunters, aren’t you?” Soot asked. He practically spat the words, but Purpled was too used to vitriol to shrink away.

“I just want to know where Innit is,” Purpled said, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible. “Any clue is a help.”

“I’m not helping you turn my little brother in to the same bastards who hurt him in the first place!”

Purpled frowned. “Hurt him?” This was the first time he had heard about this.

Soot laughed. “Of course, you wouldn’t think to background check on the person you’re searching for, would you?”

“Of course, I did a background check,” Purpled said. “his background is fairly unremarkable. He lived on L’manberg for a while before going to the Essempi Flight Academy before moving on to be a dangerous criminal—”

“He’s not a dangerous criminal,” Wilbur snapped. “He’s a kid. He’s no older than you.”

“I assure you, people my age are fully capable of being dangerous and criminals.”

“Tommy wasn’t like that.” Wilbur sounded like he was begging. “Something happened while he was away at that school, and if you have any respect for what I’m about to say, you’ll mark my words carefully.”

Purpled did, in fact, respect what Wilbur was about to say. Mostly because he was hoping Wilbur would let something slip about Innit that might be useful. And, since Purpled was competing against Punz, useful would be incredibly nice.

“I’m marking them and I’m being careful about it too,” Purpled said dryly.

Wilbur looked all the more furious, but he didn’t lash out in the way Purpled expected. Instead, he suddenly looked like he was about to cry.

“Call me the in-denial family member all that you’d like,” Wilbur whispered. “But there’s something up with that Dream guy. Surely, you’re not ignorant enough to take everything government officials tell you at face value?”

“There’s security footage of Innit causing severe damage—”

“You don’t understand.”

“Help me understand.” Purpled tried to put on his most sympathetic face he had. “Help me meet him, and then, I can understand—”

“I’m not stupid.” Wilbur’s expression was one of disgust. “I know you’ll turn him in. Or kill him, although the bounty wants him alive. I don’t know what Dream wants to do with Tommy, but I’m getting to him first, and I’m hearing his version of events. If you ahd any sense, you would want to do that too.”

“I don’t have the natural bias that comes with being his brother,” Purpled said, probably insensitively.

“Don’t you have siblings at all?” Wilbur demanded. “Or close friends?”

“This is about you, not me,” Purpled said.

“Answer my question.”

Purpled sighed. “Yes. I have an older brother.”

“How would you feel if he was accused of something you knew he wouldn’t do.”

“My brother would do a lot; I wouldn’t be shocked at all,” Purpled said.

This time, a few tears actually did slip down Wilbur’s cheeks. Purpled almost felt bad.

“Just… imagine,” Wilbur whispered. “Imagine that you haven’t spoken with him in months, and all of a sudden, you see him on the news, destroying a facility when he was supposed to be happy at flight school, and his teachers won’t answer any of your questions, and you don’t know what happened.” Wilbur scrubbed his fist across his eyes. “It’s terrifying.”

Purpled frowned. He did feel bad for Wilbur. He knew this couldn’t be easy, especially since Wilbur had clearly taken on some sort of parenting role for Innit.

“And why are they calling him Tommy Innit?” Wilbur went on to say. He had resumed sounding properly angry now. “His name is tommy Soot. Tommy Soot. They had to change his name too?”

“I was wondering about that,” Purpled admitted.

“Well, maybe that’s something you can find out in your investigations.” Wilbur grinned bitterly. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t be of more help to you, but I’m busy finding my brother. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave me alone.”

Before Purpled could say another word, Wilbur spun around and blended back in among the sea of people. Purpled watched him go, feeling like he had wasted a great deal of time. Wilbur had given him little to no information, other than the name thing, and the name thing wasn’t going to be all that much of a help.

Purpled went up to Theseus’s alley. Theseus was sitting down with his knees cradled to his chest, and his forehead rested against his knees.

“What’s wrong?” Purpled asked. He genuinely had no idea what to do. Theseus had seemed pretty much alright when he went to hide from Wilbur. Had something happened in Purpled’s absence?

“Nothing,” Theseus said, even though he hadn’t moved. “Don’t worry about me.”

Purpled sat down next to Theseus. In spite of what Theseus said, Purpled was worried, but he didn’t want to make things worse.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Does it look like I want to talk about it?”

No. Theseus’s voice was beginning to crack, and Purpled shut his mouth. If Theseus didn’t want to talk about it, then Purpled wasn’t going to force him to talk about it.

Purpled also wasn’t going to abandon Theseus in a random alleyway.

So Purpled continued to sit, staring up at the golden atmosphere of Las Nevadas as Theseus continued to say nothing.

A small hiccupping sound that reminded Purpled of a chirp suddenly forced its way from Theseus. Theseus slapped his hands over his already masked mouth.

“Sorry,” Theseus said. “I’ve got the hiccups.”

Something else was definitely going on, but Purpled really wasn’t in the mood to pry. “It’s no big deal.”

Theseus continued to chirp-hiccup. He was probably half avian or something. It wasn’t any of Purpled’s business to ask.

“Do you miss your brother?” Theseus asked suddenly.

“No,” Purpled said quickly. Probably too quickly. “I hate him.”

“I know that,” Theseus said. He picked his head up from his knees and covered his eyes with his hand. “But do you miss him?”

Purpled wanted to continue denying missing Punz in any variety. He hated Punz. He hated Punz’s guts for what he did to abandon Purpled. And even before that, it wasn’t as though Punz had been the best at showing his affection.

But emotions weren’t logical, and Purpled knew that Theseus wanted, maybe even needed, the truth.

“Yeah,” Purpled admitted. “I guess I do. A little.”

“Really?”

“Sure.” Purpled rested his head against the wall they were sitting against. “I mean, he taught me everything I know. It’d be hard not to miss him.”

“Makes sense.” Theseus’s shoulders shook, and he buried his face back into his knees. “I miss my brother so much.”

“What happened?” Purpled asked, hoping he wasn’t overstepping his boundaries.

“Nothing terrible,” Theseus said in a tone of voice that implied something terrible happened. “Well, something happened to me, and now I can’t go to him, because I’m afraid I’ll put him in danger.”

“Oh.” Purpled frowned. “How would you put him in danger?”

Theseus didn’t say anything.

“You’re not inadvertently putting us in danger, are you?” Purpled didn’t want to be a jerk, but it was a very important question. Between Aimsey making enemies of other bounty hunters and Purpled on the verge of making a gang his own enemy, Purpled really needed to know if someone else was chasing down Theseus on top of it all.

“No, no, no, I’m not.” Theseus shook his head so quickly that his hair bounced up and down. “No. This is just him. And no, I’m not going to elaborate further.”

“I wasn’t going to ask you to.” Purpled let out a small sigh of relief. “As long as you aren’t going to get us all accidentally killed, you’re perfectly entitled to your privacy.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me for being decent.”

“Too bad. I’m thanking you whenever I want.”

Purpled chuckled, and Theseus pulled himself to his feet. “Alright,” Theseus said. “I’m done moping. We should contact the others.”

Oh. Purpled had forgotten about that.

“Yeah, good plan,” Purpled muttered. He pulled his comm out of his pocket and pressed the button. “Guys? It’s Purpled. I found Soot, but he didn’t have anything useful. Head back to the—”

“Um… Ranboo may have gotten arrested,” Tubbo interrupted. “Just now.”

Purpled was going to kill something. “Pardon?”

“Ranboo got arrested,” Eryn said.

“Okay, thanks, I got that part.” Purpled ran his fingers through his hair. “Where are you? How?”

“Those are two completely different questions,” Aimsey said.

“Just answer me.”

“I’m near the fancy building in the middle of the city,” Tubbo said. “That’s where they dragged Ranboo off to as well.”

What the heck was going on?

“How did he get arrested? You were only meant to be searching for Soot!”

“Well, we were doing that,” Tubbo said. “But, then, we asked this person about Soot, and they went on this huge tangent on how Innit should die for being a danger to society, and Soot should die for defending him, and then Ranboo punched them in the face.”

Purpled whistled. Theseus didn’t’ say anything at all.

“I don’t recall punching being a criminal offense,” Purpled said dryly.

“Well, it’s not,” Tubbo said. “But assault is. And, uh, technically punching somebody is assault.”

“Did Ranboo continue punching them?”

“Well…”

“this really shouldn’t be a hard question,” Purpled said.

“Ranboo sort of grabbed the person by the scruff of their shirt and said that they should think before they wish death on people they know nothing about, and that’s when an enforcer spot us—”

“They claimed Ranboo was trying to kill them, and then the enforcers arrested Ranboo,” Purpled finished for him. “Damnit. I hate it when the authorities do their jobs.”

“What should we do?” Eryn asked.

“Meet up by the capital building,” Purpled said. “We’ll bail Ranboo out.”

It was odd for Ranboo to get so aggressive. Ranboo was usually the level headed one, and Purpled had no idea why someone threatening Innit would make him so angry.

Unless…

Purpled stuffed his suspicions away for now. He’d get Ranboo back first, and then, he’d ask about Ranboo’s relationship with Innit. Hopefully, it wasn’t anything too damming. Honestly, Purpled might forgive Ranboo for keeping secrets as long as he had a more tangible lead they could actually go off of.

They reached the capital building pretty quickly. It was a fine building with golden-laced towers and pristine white walls. Shiny windows should theoretically give a look inside the grand building, but the sun glinted off of them too aggressively, and Purpled had to blink a few times to maintain his gaze on the building.

Theseus still hadn’t said anything since their conversation in the alleyway, and Purpled wasn’t sure if he should interrupt the silence to ask him what was the matter.

He didn’t have the chance to. As soon as they started walking up the front steps toward the building, they were accosted by Tubbo, Aimsey, and Eryn.

“Took you long enough,” Tubbo said. His arms were crossed, but anxiety was clear on his face as he hovered over the ground. His wings beat frantically behind him. “What are we waiting for?”

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Eryn said placatingly. “All we have to do is pay for Ranboo’s bail.”

“Right,” Purpled agreed.

They found the entrance to the building that was the least beautified, and Purpled assumed it was the section with all of the prisons. Purpled was proven correctly when they were stopped by two guards.

“No visitors allowed,” the guards said.

“We’re not visitors,” Purpled said. “We’re here to bail our friend out.”

One of the guard’s raised their eyebrows, but the let Purpled through. After a bunch of annoying procedures, Purpled finally had Ranboo back by his side and a few less credits to show for it.

“Well, that was a complete waste of my time,” Purpled muttered as they headed back to the ship. “What were you even thinking, attacking a random civilian like that?”

“They weren’t a random civilian,” Ranboo said. He still looked like he was willing to punch more than a few random civilians. “They were threatening people.”

“they were threatening Innit and Soot,” Purpled corrected. They arrived at The Mauve, and Purpled let everyone inside. “Speaking of whom, I think I would like to have a chat with you.”

Theseus followed Ranboo and Purpled awkwardly inside, and Purpled turned toward him with a frown.

“Sorry, Theseus, this talk doesn’t apply to you,” he said. “You can take off without my help; I hardly do anything anyway.”

Theseus scowled, and his mask moved in a way to imply that he had opened his mouth. But his shoulders slumped and he went to the cockpit. Purpled led Ranboo to his bedroom and closed the door behind him.

“You knew Innit.” It wasn’t a question.

Ranboo looked away. “I mean… I know who he is, obviously—”

“You knew Innit personally.”

Ranboo didn’t say anything. He looked tired, as though there was somewhere he desperately wished he could be, but he knew there was no way of ever getting there.

“And so what if I did?” Ranboo asked. His voice was defeated. “It doesn’t change anything now.”

“It changes a lot of things, actually,” Purpled said. He tried to keep himself from raising his voice, although he really wanted to shout and scream and demand why Ranobo hadn’t told him sooner. “It gives me a lot of questions. Why are you even here? Do you know where he is? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Ranboo glared. “I’m here because I needed a place to sleep. No. I don’t know where he is right now. I didn’t tell you because one, I knew you would freak out, and two, it’s my own private business.”

Ranboo barely raised his voice, but he still looked winded after the calm outburst. He exhaled deeply. “Look, Purpled. I like it here, alright? I’m not here to sabatoge the mission or anything like that.”

Purpled’s chest hurt for some reason, but he had no idea why.

“You’re willing to sacrifice your friend for a million credits?” he asked. The idea seemed atrocious. Horrifying, even.

“No,” Ranboo said. Purpled was about to ask a ton of questions at that, but Ranboo continued talking. “I’m willing to turn in a dangerous person for a million credits. There’s a difference.”

Purpled supposed there was.

“Besides,” Ranboo said. “I barely knew him. We met like… once.”

“Mhm,” purpled said dryly. “You shouldn’t lie to me, you know. You wouldn’t punch someone in the face for someone you met once.”

Ranboo’s face became panicked, and Purpled almost felt bad. “Wh-what? No, I swear. I’m telling the truth—”

“You keep your cool and give some words of wisdom, and then, I poke one hole in one statement you say, and you’re acting like I’m firing you out the airlock.” Purpled gestured toward the door. “You’re fine, Ranboo. Just don’t keep major secrets like this anymore. Well, at least, don’t keep secrets that will affect the crew.”

“Technically, this didn’t affect the crew.”

“You made us bail you out of jail,” Purpled said. “It definitely affected us.”

Ranboo laughed, still sounding like he was in front of some sort of enforcer, but he turned around and opened the door.

“Wait,” Purpled said. Ranboo hummed, glancing back at Purpled.

“Yeah?”

“Do you have any ideas on where Innit might try to hide?” Purpled asked. “Any at all?”

Ranboo frowned. His face knit together in concentration, and Purpled held his breath for any answer.

“I can’t think of anything right now,” Ranboo said. “I’ll get back to you if something occurs to me.”

Purpled slumped, but he nodded. “Right. Thanks.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s alright.” Purpled sighed and stood up to follow Ranboo. “I’ll just see if any rumors have popped up, maybe someone spotted him.”

“I have a brilliant plan,” Ranboo said.

Tommy looked up from the book he was trying to read. He had bought it during their shopping trip because he had liked the cover. It was of a space ship mid-way through blowing up. The book itself wasn’t half bad, although it got very wordy at parts.

“What’s your brilliant plan?” Tommy asked.

“Purpled knows I know you,” Ranboo said.

Tommy blinked. “Wow, really? I had no idea.”

“No, no, no.” Ranboo shook his head. “Purpled knows I know you.”

“Oh.” Tommy’s breath caught in his lungs as he finally understood what Ranboo meant. “Oh. Oh crap.”

“It’s okay, though!” Ranboo said quickly, although Tommy could not begin to comprehend how this could possibly turn out okay. They were screwed. They were royally in trouble. “Purpled thinks that I just knew you in the past. He doesn’t know that… you know…”

All of the tension drained out of Tommy’s body, and he wanted to cry from relief. “Oh. Well, in that case, I think I’m going to just… not worry about that. Also, Purpled’s stupid.”

“Be grateful for it,” Ranboo said. “And you haven’t heard my brilliant plan yet.”

“I don’t care about your brilliant plan. Your last brilliant plan landed us in this situation.”

“Hey! You like this situation!”

Tommy was not going to admit that he liked their current situation. He was not going to admit that he liked having friends other than Ranboo that he could spend time with. Tommy was not going to admit that he enjoyed flying The Mauve. He wasn’t going to admit that he thought Purpled’s obliviousness was hilarious.

He was not going to admit any of it.

“You can’t prove that.”

“Whatever you say.” Ranboo rolled his eyes. “Just listen, alright? Purpled wants to know if I can think of anywhere where Innit can camp out.”

“Well, tell him whatever,” Tommy said. “They’re never going to find me.”

“Yeah, but we can find whoever we want.”

Tommy frowned at Ranboo, who was beaming like he had correctly answered the winning question in some sort of game show.

“I don’t think I follow.”

“Okay, okay, here’s what I’m thinking,” Ranboo said. “If there’s anyone you want to see, I can tell Purpled to go to the place they’re at, and then, you can meet up with them! It’s foolproof.”

“Sure,” Tommy said slowly. “Except that I don’t know anyone who I also know the location of. Besides, what would I do? Have a quick visit?”

“I mean, is that so bad?” Ranboo asked. He sat down on the ground, crossing his legs. “Besides… I know you can’t feel safe here. You could go with someone you actually feel safe with.”

“I feel safe with you,” Tommy said.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

Ranboo was right. Tommy was never going to fully feel safe on this ship. He could almost feel safe. He could almost forget that he was amongst people who wanted to hand him back over to the people who hurt him. He could almost pretend that these people were his friends, that they would stand by his side if anything dreadful happened.

But it wasn’t true. Tommy would always have to hide his face and smother his wings out of fear of being caught.

But Tommy liked it on this ship. He liked feeling like he was a part of some sort of mismatched family. He liked Aria the evil cat, and he liked flying again, even if it was flying through ships and not through his wings.

No matter who Tommy went with, Tommy would miss the home that he had started to feel being created on this ship. He wasn’t sure he wanted to sacrifice it for the sake of safety.

It was strange.

“I’ll think about it,” Tommy said. “And I’ll tell you if I think of anyone I want to see. For now, I’m content with going random places until we eventually get caught or they eventually give up.”

“Purpled doesn’t really seem like the giving up type,” Ranboo said.

“I’m trying to be optimistic over here.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Again.”

Tommy wanted to collapse from exhaustion. He was still sore from his surgery the week before, and now Dream wanted to him to do yet another demonstration of his power.

“I can’t,” Tommy gasped. “Please—”

“Again.”

Tommy didn’t have the energy to glare. Instead, he summoned up his power, trying to feel it surge up to his fingertips. Hopefully, if he could just destroy one more target, Dream would let him sleep.

Nothing happened. Nothing at all. Tommy couldn’t even feel the telltale signs of power he had felt moments before.

It was as though something had turned off whatever Dream had put inside of him to begin with.

Dream was stalking toward Tommy, the heel of his shoes echoing against the metal floors. Tommy knew he was angry, but there was nothing that Tommy could do. He was useless. A failed experiment.

“Stars, Tommy,” Dream snarled. He grabbed Tommy by the chin. “You have one job. How hard do you think this is?”

“I’m sorry,” Tommy said. “It’s not working. I don’t know why—”

Dream pushed Tommy backwards, letting go of him. Tommy tumbled onto the floor, but he didn’t stop. The floor collapsed beneath him, and suddenly Tommy was falling, falling, falling.

Tommy tried to stretch out his wings to catch the air rushing around him, but his wings were still tightly bound to his back. It didn’t occur to Tommy to wonder why his wings were bound if he had been with Dream moments before. Dream had never had a problem with Tommy’s wings, although he made it clear what would happen to them if Tommy attempted to use them for escape.

Tommy landed inside The Mauve. Aria was sitting on top of the chess board, and Tommy stood up, glaring at her suspiciously. She meowed in her melodic way, and Tommy tried to pick her up.

She hissed, slashing Tommy’s face open with her claws. Tommy shouted in pain as he brought his hands to his face, but no blood was there. Instead, his mask had been sliced clean off of his face.

“You’re Innit?” Purpled’s voice echoed across the ship, and Tommy spun around to see him standing only a few feet behind Tommy. “You’ve been Innit this entire time?”

Tommy shook his head frantically, covering his face with his hands. “No, you’ve got it all wrong—”

Purpled was already pulling out his blaster, pointing it toward Tommy. “I’m sending you back where you belong—”

But Tommy was faster, and the power rushed back to his fingertips. Without thinking, he thrust it toward Purpled, and he fell backwards.

Tommy sprinted to Purpled, panic taking him. Purpled might’ve wanted to hurt Tommy, but he was still Tommy’s friend. He didn’t’ want him to be permanently injured.

It was too late, though. Purpled was clearly dead, but The Mauve was already permanently heading toward the labs. Tommy tried to head toward the escape pods, but Ranboo’s corpse was there—

“Ranboo!”

Tommy’s voice was a desperate cry as he shot up from his top bunk. His wings, which were not bound while he slept, flailed around him frantically as Tommy accidentally rolled off of his bunk and fell face first toward the floor. His wings were too big to be much of a help to stop the fall, but Tubbo was fortunately positioned just in the right spot that Tommy fell on the floor instead of on top of Tubbo.

Ranboo sat up, looking around. “Huh?”

Tubbo didn’t open his eyes, but he did hum in a way that implied he was awake.

“Nothing.” Tommy climbed back up to his bed. “Don’t worry about it.”

“You sounded worried,” Ranboo said. He still sounded like he was too tired to properly comprehend what was happening. “What happened?”

“Nothing happened,” Tommy said irritably. “Just nightmares. Now please go to sleep.”

“Fine,” Ranboo sighed. “Go ‘way Tommy’s nightmares.”

Tommy rolled his eyes as he laid back down and gathered the blankets around himself. He didn’t want to go back to sleep after that dream, but there wasn’t much else to do except stare blankly at the wall of a ceiling for the next few hours.

He wished he could just be normal. He wanted to dream about things that were nice, like Wilbur. Hell, Tommy would like to see a dream where Purpled was calm and accepting about who Tommy really was, even though that was certainly an impossibility.

Sighing, Tommy got out of bed and snuck out of his room. Just to be safe, he put on his mask and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders to hide his wings. Aria the evil cat was sleeping outside the door, but Tommy ignored her as he walked slowly to the kitchen. He just needed a drink of water or something to clear his thoughts.

He wasn’t expecting Aimsey to be sitting on the counter-tops, munching on a fruit that Tommy didn’t recognize.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Tommy said. He wasn’t in the mood to make a big deal out of seeing Aimsey, although his wings twitched anxiously beneath the blanket he was holding. He tried to keep them as close to his back as possible. “Sorry. I’ll just go.”

“No, you don’t have to!” Aimsey waved their hands frantically back and forth. “I’ll leave if you’d like—”

“We are not going to be doing any back and forth shenanigans while everyone else is sleeping,” Tommy said. He hugged his blanket closer around his shoulders and at down in a seat as far away from Aimsey as possible. “Let’s just… sit quietly and say nothing.”

Aimsey shrugged and nodded, and they resumed munching on their fruit. Tommy stared at the table he was sitting at, regretting everything. He should just sneak back into his room and pretend this conversation never happened, if it could even be called a conversation—

“Okay, actually, this is incredibly awkward,” Aimsey said. They pulled another fruit out of the cabinet and chucked it at Tommy. Tommy was too focused on holding his blanket in place to actually catch the fruit, and it bounced off of his forehead. Tommy grunted in pain, and the fruit rolled onto the floor, looking entirely unguilty of its crimes.

Tommy just stared at it. He was too tired to do much else.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Aimsey sniggered, not looking sorry at all. They slid off the counter and picked up the fruit. “Do you want it?”

“No,” Tommy said. He face planted into the table. “It tried to kill me.”

Besides, Tommy couldn’t eat in the presence of others; it always made him stupidly nervous.

“Fair enough.”

There was a mewing sound, and Tommy looked up to see that Aria had stepped into the room, her three tails swaying from side to side as she looked back and forth between Tommy and Aimsey. She clearly grew bored of them as she stalked toward the fruit and lunged at it, destroying it with her sharp claws.

“Thank you, Aria,” Tommy said. “I appreciate your nosy nature and your refusal to let the fruit get away with trying to kill me.”

Aria ignored him, more focused on actually eating the fruit.

“What are you doing awake at this hour anyway?” Tommy asked Aimsey.

Aimsey shrugged. “You wanna guess?”

“Nightmares?”

Aimsey winked and shot finger guns at Tommy. “can’t have nightmares if you didn’t go to sleep.”

“Ranboo says that not sleeping is bad for you,” Tommy said.

“Ranboo can shove it.”

“Oi, that’s my friend you’re talking about.”

“Fine, fine.” Aimsey rolled their eyes. “I am saying with ever so much politeness that Ranboo is wrong and that I can run off of caffine just fine.”

“You’re going to die,” Tommy said. He was beginning to feel like Ranboo. Was this how Ranboo felt whenever Tommy said something extremely unhealthy?

“Maybe,” Aimsey said. “Maybe not. It’s better than reliving my mistakes over and over again.”

“Fair.” Tommy wasn’t about to judge. He was the one risking his secret identity for the sake of a snack. “We don’t know each other all that well. We should change that, while we sit here not sleeping.”

Aimsey laughed. “Alright, then. What would you like to know about me?”

“Favorite color?”

“That’s classified information,” Aimsey said, their face perfectly impassive.

“Oh, you suck.” Tommy sighed. “Fine. You ask me something.”

“Where’d you grow up?”

“Beep beep. You don’t have the clearance for that, sorry.”

Aimsey gave Tommy a deadpan expression. “You can’t steal my joke. That was my joke. You joke thief.”

“It was a good joke!” Tommy protested. “Besides, isn’t copying a form of flattery—”

“Isn’t plagiarism illegal?”

“Since when has the law stopped you?”

“Since now, actually, since you started plagiarizing me. I’m going to kill you for that.”

“Purpled would not be amused if you killed me. I’m the best pilot on this ship.”

“That can change. You can’t be a very good pilot if you’re dead.”

“Wow. I guess I’m going to have to sleep with one eye open, then.”

“You should.” Aimsey patted their side, where their blaster was still in a holster. “I could kill everyone in this ship if I wanted to.”

“is that foreshadowing?” Tommy asked.

“Is that—” Aimsey sputtered. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You said you could kill everyone in this ship,” Tommy said. He grinned beneath his mask. “Are you planning on killing everyone in this ship, Aimsey? You can be honest with me. I won’t tattle.”

“What? No, I’m not planning on killing everyone in this ship,” Aimsey said. “I’m not planning on killing anyone in this ship, actually. I just have good aim. That was all that I was saying.”

“I’m happy for you,” Tommy said.

“You are so weird.”

“It’s a part of the job.”

“It really isn’t.”

Purpled was beginning to grow extremely exhausted.

He sacrificed sleep for looking into any rumors that might have been spreading about Innit’s location. They followed every single thread they could possibly find, even though there was no sign of Innit anywhere. His crew members were beginning to treat the venture like one massive vacation, and Tubbo had even gone as far as to buy a single object from each world they went to. Ranboo, Theseus, and Tubbo’s room had become a clutter of random junk, and just the other day, Tubbo had bought a fancy looking pair of binoculars that he had taken to carrying around everywhere.

“Tubbo, we are literally in the same room,” Eryn said as Tubbo used his binoculars to watch Theseus and Eryn’s chess game. “That’s unnecessary.”

“it doesn’t have to be necessary to be fun,” Tubbo said.

Theseus laughed. Purpled was beginning to think that they were taking their quest less and less seriously by the minute, but he couldn’t’ exactly blame them. They had only a few more scuffles with the remains of Manifold’s crew, but their numbers seemed to be decreasing every time they had a run-in. Theseus got better and better at dodging their attacks when flying, and they were hardly a threat anymore. This caused Eryn and Aimsey to be in particularly high spirits, and they had gone from agreeing to play nice to even actively chatting away alone about old adventures they had.

So, in spite of their lack of results, Purpled was content with the peace that had come over the ship. He just wished he could finally find Innit and move on, and maybe peace could return for Purpled’s desperate desire to show Punz he didn’t need him anymore.

Despite the crew’s waning interest on capturing Innit, Theseus had taken to helping Purpled try to find any clues. They spent hours in the living area, trying to decide where to go next while the others goofed off.

“Oh, this one person said they saw an avian matching Innit’s description at his local supermarket,” Theseus said. “Oh, but it was… uh… multiple cycles ago. I don’t think he’s going to be there.”

Purpled wanted to fall asleep as he searched through yet another chat forum. “None of these people actually saw Innit, and, if they did, he skips town before we can get to them.”

“Maybe we can try to find a pattern in his locations?” Theseus asked. “I mean, surely there’s some rhyme or reason to where he’s going?”

“There is no rhyme or reason,” Purpled said. “Innit isn’t stupid. He’s just randomly going from place to place. We’re never going to find him at this rate.”

A small part of Purpled told him to just give up. There was very little chance he was ever going to find Innit, and he’d have made more money if he had just taken smaller, easier to handle bounties.

The other part of Purpled writhed at the thought of Punz finding Innit just because Purpled had given up.

“Come on, Purpled, we’ll find him,” Theseus told him. “Look. Someone saw him last rotation in the Badlands system.”

Purpled really didn’t want to go to the system where The Red had their main base, but it was as good of a lead as any.

“Alright, fine. Let’s go.”

They landed on the planet reported, even though Innit probably wasn’t there anymore. They asked around, but nobody had seen anyone matching Innit’s description, and the person who did say they spotted him later admitted that they might’ve just panicked. Purpled had decided that all of this was a marvelous waste of time, and they were heading back over to The Mauve when Purpled saw a ship land on the landing platform three platforms away from The Mauve. Normally, Purpled wouldn’t care, but the ship belonged to The Red. Purpled recognized their sleek red outer hull.

“Wait a minute,” Purpled told the others, who were walking ahead. “Tubbo do you have those binoculars you bought the other day?”

Tubbo was currently wearing them around his neck, and he held onto them tightly. “What do you want with them?” he demanded.

“I just want to see something,” Purpled said.

“You can see the binoculars without touching.”

Purpled gave Tubbo an unimpressed expression. “I don’t want to see the binoculars. I want to see something using the binoculars. I’ll give them right back, alright?”

“Tubbo, do as he says,” Ranboo said tiredly.

Tubbo sighed and handed Purpled the binoculars. Purpled didn’t bother to thank him as he raised them to his eyes, zooming in on the newly landed ship. He held his breath as the ramp stretched out, and Punz exited the ship. A few goons were following him, and Purpled’s blood boiled.

So, Punz was still on the hunt, then. He must’ve seen the same thing Theseus found and decided to investigate as well.

A brilliant idea came to Purpled, and he turned to Eryn and Tubbo.

“You guys can sabotage ships, right?”

Eryn opened his mouth to respond, but Tubbo crossed his arms and said, “I don’t know how to do anything unless I have my trusting binoculars.”

Everyone in the group groaned, and Purpled handed them over. Tubbo grinned.

“We know how to sabotage ships,” Eryn said. “I mean, it’s easy enough to break things, especially if you know how to fix them. Why?”

“That’s my brother’s ship.” Purpled pointed to the landing platform. Punz and his goons were already leaving the platform, which meant now was as good of a time to strike. “He’s also looking for Innit. I say that we sabotage his ship to send a message.”

“There’s some purple spray paint lying around in my room,” Theseus said hopefully. “Can we vandalize it too?”

“Yes.” Purpled grinned. “So, how about it?”

“It’s brilliant,” Aimsey said. “I approve.”

“Won’t Punz be angry at us, though?” Ranboo asked.

“Maybe.” Purpled shrugged. “What’s he going to do anyway? Chase us down? His ship is broken, remember?”

“It will be broken,” Eryn corrected. “It’s still perfectly intact right now.”

“Right.” Purpled grinned. “Look, Punz isn’t going to bother with chasing after us. He’s too busy trying to find Innit. And he’s not one for revenge anyway.”

Aimsey, who had before seemed excited, now looked reserved. “Let’s vote on it,” they said. “I don’t want a revenge scheme to hurt the rest of the crew.”

“Fair.” Purpled crossed his arms. “All in favor of sabotaging Punz’s ship?”

Theseus, Tubbo, Ranboo, and Eryn’s hands went up. Aimsey’s hand remained down, and Purpled raised his own hand.

“Eryn?!” Aimsey sounded alarmed, and Purpled felt alarmed himself. “You’re agreeing to this scheme?”

“I’ve given it thought,” Eryn said. “And, first of all, this will be extremely funny. Second of all, even though it might be a terrible idea, Punz is Purpled’s brother, which might mean he won’t try to shoot us out of the sky. Third of all, I trust Purpled when he says that Punz won’t do anything.”

Purpled tried to shake off the feeling of anxiousness that washed over him at the words. Yeah, he was fairly certain that Punz wasn’t going to try to shoot them out of the sky for sabatoging his ship, but Purpled couldn’t know for sure. The fact that Eryn trusted him so much, especially after what happened to his old crew, was daunting.

“You’re mostly agreeing to it because it’s funny,” Aimsey said. Disapproval was etched all over their face.

“Also, Theseus can dodge blaster fire pretty proficiently,” Eryn said. “But, yes. Mostly, I just agree with revenge schemes.”

“It will be pretty funny,” Aimsey said. “Alright. I’m in. Let’s pray you’re right about your brother, Purpled.”

They quickly ran back to the ship to grab supplies, and then they hopped over to the platform that Punz’s ship sat. it was a pristine thing, not worn by years of use and peril. Purpled scoffed at the sight. Punz had given up on his past life for this?

“It’s a nice ship,” Theseus said. He patted the shiny red sides. “I’d pay money to be able to fly a thing like her.”

“We’re here to destroy it,” Purpled said.

“I know, I know!” Theseus’ hands flew from the ship, and he raised them in surrender. “Just saying.”

If Purpled didn’t know better, he’d say that Theseus almost looked afraid. It wouldn’t be the first time, either. Sometimes, Purpled wondered if Theseus trusted him at all.

They set to work on their vandalism. Theseus, Ranboo, Aimsey, and Purpled all set to work to vandalizing the ship. They wrote crude statements, drew random pictures, and even painted over the windshield. They weren’t complete fools. They didn’t sign their names on it, so the crime theoretically couldn’t connect to Purpled.

Purpled had a feeling that Punz would figure it out anyway.

They didn’t linger too long. Eryn and Tubbo had managed to destroy about half of the ship’s systems, and they carefully replaced the outer-plates that they had taken over.

“it’ll be funnier if Punz tries to fly the ship and nothing happens,” Tubbo explained.

“I really want to put a camera in here,” Purpled said reluctantly. “But that has a higher chance of connecting to me, so it’s not worth it.”

“A fun thought, though,” Aimsey said. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Every time I hear a sound I keep thinking that it’s one of them coming back.”

Fortunately for everyone involved, they returned to their ship without running into Punz and his buddies. Still, their nerves were far more on edge now, and they quickly departed from the planet.

Theseus was still cackling as they went into lightspeed.

“I can’t believe we did that!” Theseus exclaimed. “that was amazing.”

“Aimsey took a picture,” Purpled said.

“I know.” Theseus’ eyes crinkled. “I’m going to get a copy and hang it up in my room. It will be glorious.”

Aria strolled into the room, jumping up onto Purpled’s head. Purpled knew better than to try to get her off.

“We should’ve put Aria on the ship too,” Purpled said. “Let them deal with her for a change.”

Theseus gasped. “Don’t be mean to the poor girl!”

Theseus reached his hands out to pick Aria up, but Aria jumped down and ran away. Theseus let out a sigh of melancholy, but Purpled was mostly relieved to have her off of his head.

“I love Aria,” Theseus told Purpled. “She’s lovely when she sits in your lap and lets you pet her.”

“How often is that?” Purpled asked.

“Pretty often, actually,” Theseus said. “Too often, one might argue.”

Aria must really just not want pets from Purpled, then. Maybe it was because she knew Purpled wasn’t going to bother to pet her, even if she was latched onto his lap.

“I still think we should’ve left her in the depths of space,” Purpled said.

Theseus gasped in betrayal.

“Can I fly the ship?”

Purpled was eight years old, and he looked up at Punz expectantly. Punz looked down at Purpled with his eyebrows raised.

“No.”

“Please?” Purpled crossed his arms. “I can do it! I’ve watched you fly it loads of times!”

“You’re too young to fly a ship,” Punz said. “You’ll barely be able to hold the yoke.”

Purpled sulked as he sat down in the passenger’s seat. “You’re mean,” Purpled said. “Why can’t I help?”

“You can help by not doing anything,” Punz said.

“You always say that.”

“And I’m always right.”

Purpled groaned and rested his head on the back of his chair with a thump. “You won’t even let me help you capture bad guys!”

“You only learned how to use a blaster yesterday,” Punz said. “And it’s a decision I regret greatly.”

“But I can fight now!”

“Just because you can fight doesn’t mean you should fight,” Punz said. “You can help me when you’re older.”

Purpled glared at Punz, but he said nothing as his older brother jumped to light speed.

A few days later, Aimsey knocked on Purpled’s bedroom door. They didn’t sound very happy when they said, “Um… Purpled? You might want to see this.”

Purpled was having a nice nap, but all good things came to an end. Purpled got to his feet and opened the door for Aimsey, and Aimsey pointed to the living area. Purpled sighed and marched to the living area. The others were gathereda round a datapad, looking none to happy about it.

“Alright, what’s going on?” Purpled asked.

Everyone looked up at Purpled in unison, and it was Ranboo who spoke first.

“We shouldn’t have given into the sweet taste of revenge,” they said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Eryn silently handed Purpled the datapad.

Purpled looked down at the datapad, and dread formed in his own chest when he saw that it was a bounty. A bounty on Purpled.

Purpled skimmed what was written down. Something about Purpled interfering with The Red’s business practices, and that a hefty reward would be given for his capture.

“At least, they don’t want me dead,” Purpled said. “They’re not going to try to blow our ship out of the sky.”

“That’s all you can say?” Theseus sounded flabbergasted. “There’s a bounty on your head! For one hundred thousand credits!”

Purpled whistled. “I’m worth a lot, apparently.”

“You’re only worth one tenth of Innit,” Tubbo said. “Does that mean you’re a tenth the person that Innit is?”

“No, it means that they’re not willing to waste tons of money to see me captured when the worst I’ve done is vandalize a ship,” Purpled said. “they must suspect that I’m going to make a habit of interfering.”

“I mean… you were, right?” Tubbo asked.

“Maybe,” Purpled said vaguely. He wasn’t really sure. “If I thought there was a good moment for it, probably. It doesn’t matter anymore. We’ll just be careful not to run into anyone who wants some money. They have to take me in alive to get paid.”

“You’re remarkably calm about this,” Aimsey said.

“I try to make a point of not freaking out over things that are out of my control,” Purpled said. “Besides, it could’ve been way worse. At least it’s only on me, right?”

There were murmers of assent throughout the room, but nobody looked nearly as collected as Purpled was trying to appear.

“We don’t want you to get captured!” Theseus blurted out.

“And I don’t want to get captured either.” Purpled really didn’t want to get captured, in fact. Getting captured would be dreadful on many accounts, and he didn’t plan on letting it happen anytime soon. “But I’m not going to get captured. It’s going to be fine. Fantastic, even. Maybe one of you guys could pretend to turn me in for the money.”

Eryn shook his head. “Not funny, dude.”

“It was a little funny,” Purpled said.

“it really wasn’t,” Theseus muttered.

The room was filled with grim silence, and Purpled sighed heavily. “Well, if that’s all, I think I’m going to resume my power nap. Tell me when we get to our next destination, wherever that is.”

Without another word, Purpled hurried back to his bedroom. He shut and locked the door firmly behind him before marching up to a mug sitting on his dresser. He grabbed it with one hand and flung it across the room, and glass shattered everywhere in all directions.

Purpled seethed in rage, but he didn’t throw anything else. Instead, he kicked the walls, muttering curses from multiple languages.

How dare Punz agree to put a bounty on him? After everything, Punz was going to turn on him even more? Sure, Purpled had vandalized his ship, but surely Punz knew that just because one says capture alive doesn’t mean that every bounty hunter listens to that crap. Purpled’s life was properly on the line now, and it was all because Punz either decided to put a bounty on him, or because Punz ratted on him to his superiors.

It was unthinkable; it was horrifying.

And Purpled wasn’t even sure why he was angry at all.

It wasn’t actually all that shocking. This was a classic Puzn move, in fact. If someone was impeding with his work, he’d make it so that they would be too distracted to do it again. Why would Purpled be any different?

Maybe Purpled had just really hoped that Punz would see him differently. Maybe Purpled hoped there’d be some sort of sign that Punz still cared about him.

Maybe he did. He still wanted Purpled to be captured alive, after all.

Purpled wished that detail could have been as comforting as maybe it should’ve been. Instead, it must made Purpled angrier. At the very least, couldn’t Punz show that he hated his guts. Punz should want him dead, not be this person who could still betray Purpled while still caring—

Purpled let out a shout of anger and kicked his bunk. Nothing happened, except that his toes now hurt.

Purpled sat down nad tried to take deep breaths. There was nothing he could do anymore about it. he’d just have to be more careful and take care not to die. It shouldn’t be too hard; Purpled was good at surviving dangerous situations.

He wouldn’t think about Punz either. He’d keep Punz’s part in this situation completely out of his mind. Purpled had accepted the risks when he sabotaged Punz’s ship; there was no point in acting like some sort of tragic victim now.

Yeah. Everything would be fine. Purpled would be fine.

Taking a few more deep breaths, Purpled stood up and left his room to grab a broom. Nobody commented as they watched Purpled walk past, and Purpled realized that they had probably heard his outburst.

So much for his reputation as a cool and collected leader.

Oh well.

Purpled returned to his room and swept up the glass shards before dumping them in the garbage bin in the corner of his room. Fortunately, the mug hadn’t broken into pieces that were too tiny, which meant that Purple didn’t have to meticulously search the room for tiny glass shards.

When Purpled was done cleaning up, he lay down on his bunk and tried to think clearly, but his thoughts were too rushed, too confused. He didn’t know if he wanted to cry or scream, if he wanted to kill Punz or beg for forgiveness.

It didn’t matter. Punz wanted him out of the picture, and Purpled was never going to grovel to him. Ever.

“Do you want to escape?” Ranboo asked Tommy one day.

Tommy was all too aware of the camera in the corner of his cell, so he shook his head. It was a wonder that Ranboo was still allowed to have these visits, but nobody had put a stop to them. Maybe they thought Tommy would be more complacent if Tommy had a friend.

They weren’t exactly wrong. Tommy was on the verge of thanking Dream for letting Ranboo talk with him, and Tommy hated Dream’s guts.

Sometimes. Tommy sometimes hated Dream’s guts. Now was one of those times.

“No?” Ranboo asked. The surprise was evident in his tone, and Tommy almost thought his complete nativity was endearing.

Almost.

“Have you looked around, Ranboo?” Tommy asked. He gestured around his room. “Cameras. Everywhere. They hear everything we say. They see everything we do. I have no chance.”

Ranboo’s eyes widened. “Oh. Man. You’re right.”

He started tapping the ground. At first, Tommy thought it was a nervous tic, but as the motion continued, Tommy noticed a distinct pattern to the way he was tapping.

Four short taps, a pause, and then two short taps. Ranboo was staring at Tommy intently, and Tommy suddenly realized that Ranboo was trying to convey Morse code to him.

Hi

“Have you learned anything interesting recently?” Tommy asked Ranboo. He grabbed Ranboo’s hand and tapped a response into his palm.

Sup

And so started the long, tedious process of creating an escape plan.

“Ranboo?” Tommy said as both Ranboo and Tubbo preened his wings. It made the work faster. “I think I’ve figured out where you should tell Purpled to go find Innit at.”

“Aren’t you Innit?” Tubbo asked.

“Yeah, but Purpled knows that I know him, which means that Purpled wants to know if I have any insight as to his location,” Ranboo filled in. “And, sure. Where do you want to go?”

“I think Technoblade has a base on that artic planet, what was it called again?”

“Articus?”

“Fitting,” Tubbo said dryly.

“Anyway,” Tommy said. “Technoblade has a base there. We should go there and then I can sneak off to say hi.”

“So, you’ll say hi to Techno, but you won’t say hi to your own brother?” Ranboo asked. His voice was dry, but Tommy could tell that there was genuine confusion behind it.

“Technoblade runs an entire organization,” Tommy said. “He can take care of himself. Wilbur’s going to insist upon getting involved in my life, which will end in both of our lives being miserable, and more likely than not, him finding a quiet death.”

“He makes a good point,” Tubbo said.

“Of course, I do.”

Ranboo sighed. “You’re right. You’re right. So, you want me to tell Purpled that you might be finding refuge with the syndicate?

“Hell no.” Tommy shook his head quickly. “I’m not going to sneak off if all of us are going there. Just say I might hide out near Articus. I’ll make some excuse to separate from the group, and then I’ll say hi to Techno and get him to deliver a message to Wilbur or something.”

“It’s not a bad plan,” Ranboo said. “Do you want me to tell him now?”

“We can wait until we all wake up,” Tommy said. “No need to rush things.”

Tommy repressed some of his oncoming excitement over seeing Technoblade. He was an old family friend, but strangely enough, it was more like a friend of a friend situation. Technoblade was friends with Phil, who was friends with Tommy and Wilbur’s parents. When Phil came around to visit, so did Technoblade, until Technoblade and Wilbur became rather close.

Phil had stopped visiting as often, but Technoblade still came around until Tommy was an early teen. Then, Techno got busy with founding the syndicate, and he found less time to visit L’manberg as well.

Tommy hadn’t seen Technoblade in at least five years now, at least not in person. Tommy couldn’t wait to actually speak to him again.

Hopefully, Technoblade hadn’t turned into some sort of irredeemable monster in Tommy’s absence.

But that wasn’t going to happen. Technoblade was going to be the same old Techno, and he and Tommy can joke about the good old days while pretending that life hadn’t gone terribly.

Hopefully.

Totally.

Probably not.

After Tubbo and Ranboo finished preening, Tommy climbed up to his bunk and lay down, trying to keep the churning in his stomach at bay. He could already imagine how Technoblade would respond when he heard what Tommy had allowed to have happened to him.

“You’re some sort of government lapdog now?” Technoblade would ask. “Why would you agree to that?”

Tommy felt himself bordering on the edge of sleep, which only made his imagination run all the more wild with what Technoblade would say. He would want to kill Tommy, surely, for letting Dream turn him into something so unnatural. Maybe he’d even want to get revenge for Wilbur’s behalf.

Tommy new he wasn’t making any sense, and he tried to dispel the anxiety from his mind as he rolled over. He just needed to fall asleep. He’d think more clearly after he had gotten some rest…

The next morning, Tommy’s anxieties had not gone away, but they had significantly improved over the way they were the night before. At least, Tommy was fairly certain Technoblade wasn’t going to try to kill him.

“Purpled?” Ranboo said as Tommy curled up on a sofa with Aria in his lap. Her soft fur was comforting, and Tommy pet it repeatedly, trying to sooth his irrational thoughts. “I think I have an idea as to where Innit might be.”

It was almost funny how quickly Purpled’s head shot up from the book he had been reading. “Really?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Ranboo rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I was thinking that he mentioned what a good planet Articus was, because it was kind of remote, and cold, and not many people liked going there, but it was populated enough—”

“Theseus,” Purpled said. “Set a course to Articus.”

Tommy glared at Purpled. “I have a cat on me, and I’m tired.”

“Take the cat with you.”

Tommy groaned, but he lifted Aria up in his arms as he got to his feet. Fortunately, Aria didn’t protest, and he marched to the pilot’s seat and set a course with Aria sitting on his shoulders. It made him feel a bit powerful.

“Do you like being tall?” Tommy asked Aria.

She purred.

It took nearly an entire rotation to reach Articus, and when they arrived, Tommy tried not to let his anxiety get the better of him. It would be fine. Admittedly, he didn’t know exactly where Technoblade’s base was, but Tommy would figure it out. He always figured it out. He was a master, in fact, at figuring things out—

“Figure what out?” Eryn asked.

Tommy jumped, and he saw Eryn walking up to the passenger’s seat of the cockpit.

“What are you doing in here?” Tommy demanded.

“I was just going to sit up here while we landed,” Eryn said. “it’s been a while since I’ve done it, and it’s always a pretty neat experience.”

Tommy had taken the experience of sitting in the front of the ship for granted, seeing as he was always flying the thing, but Eryn did have a point. Tommy remembered the first time he sat in the pilot’s seat of a  ship, how powerful he had felt, how much he wanted to sit there forever…

“Anyway,” Eryn said. “What are you figuring out?”

Tommy cursed his tendency to mutter under his breath when he was nervous. He also cursed Eryn’s stellar hearing.

“Oh, nothing,” Tommy said. “Just, um, nervous for when we finally meet Innit.”

Eryn nodded. “Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, he’s fast, and nobody has even seen him in combat, with the exception of the security footage of him destroying that facility. Kind of intimidating, if you ask me.”

“Totally,” Tommy said. He took some deep breaths as he lowered them into Articus’ atmosphere. Knowing Technoblade, he probably had his base somewhere where the weather made it incredibly difficult to reach, but Tommy landed in the main city area anyway. Purpled would have way too many questions if Tommy just decided to randomly land in the middle of nowhere.

Eryn was still staring at Tommy, and Tommy tried his best to sound annoyed. “What are you still staring at me for? Is there something in my hair?”

“What? No.” Eryn chuckled. “I just… I had the craziest thought.”

“Yeah?” Tommy asked. He laughed nervously as he turned off the ship’s engines. “And what was that?”

“Well… this might sound really weird, actually,” Eryn said. “I just thought that you looked kind of like Innit.”

Tommy froze, but he managed to move his mouth in spite of his frantic thoughts. “No way! Really?”

“I mean, I know you can’t be him,” Eryn said. “You’re not an avian for one, and obviously, you wouldn’t join an expedition against yourself if you were. Who would do that?”

Tommy laughed at the absurdity of it all. “Yeah,” he agreed. “That would be stupid.”

Eryn was still staring at Tommy, but he got to his feet and shrugged, glancing out the window. Even the city was covered in a layer of snow. “I really hope that Purpled has some winter coats, because I don’t think I have anything in my closet for that sort of weather.”

Purpled did have a bunch of nicely insulated coats, and everyone took one eagerly. They stepped outside into the brisk cold, and Tommy tried to think of an excuse that would allow him to search for Technoblade by himself.

“Alright, we should split up again,” Purpled said. “But this time, I don’t’ want anyone getting arrested and wasting my money. Theseus, do you think you can make sure Ranboo doesn’t punch anyone in the face?”

Tommy nodded eagerly. Ranboo was in on their plan to see Technoblade, so that would work out nicely.

“Tubbo, you can go with—”

“I want to go with Ranboo and Theseus!” Tubbo protested.

“And yet,” Purpled said dryly. “You go with Aimsey. I’ll pair up with Eryn.”

Tubbo pouted, but he marched next to Aimsey. “this is stupid. I hate buddy systems. I have the right to go with whoever I want.”

Purpled rolled his eyes. “Fine. Go with Ranboo and Theseus. Aimsey and Eryn, you two can buddy up.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Aimsey asked. Their face was set in a frown. “What about you? You’re the most at risk as well, seeing as there’s a bounty on your head. Shouldn’t we just stick with two teams of three?”

“This is getting ridiculous,” Tommy snapped. “Just stick with the original plan. We’re old enough to not have to play partner hot potato.”

Eventually, they ended up with the very unfortunate situation of having the same exact partners as last time, but this time Tubbo promised to stop Ranboo before he punched anyone. Tommy wasn’t happy with this arrangement at all, seeing as he was stuck with Purpled when he was supposed to be finding Technoblade. Unless Tommy found some sort of excuse to separate from Purpled, their entire excursion to this planet would be worth nothing.

Tommy hated everything. He wanted a refund on life.

They followed the same routine they always did. They asked around if anyone had seen someone with Tommy’s description, people would say no, and they would move on. Purpled was looking increasingly disheartened, and Tommy was about reading to suggest that they give up when three familiar figures marched toward them. They were the three remaining members of Manifold’s crew.

Both Tommy and Purpled groaned as they reached for their blasters. Tommy had been hoping these guys had decided to quit, but apparently, foolish stubbornness was their moto.

“Hello boys,” Tommy said. “Maybe we could not fight today?”

“Ha! Don’t make me laugh!” one of the dudes said. He was an avian with purple wings, but Tommy had never bothered to learn his name. “We’re not here to exact revenge anymore.”

Purpled frowned. “You’re… not? I mean, great! Because none of us are Aimsey, but also… isn’t revenge your entire thing?”

“It was,” the purple-winged guy said. “But then, we decided that maybe hunting you down was a waste of our precious time, when we could be getting money.”

“A good philosophy,” Purpled agreed. He was already aiming his blaster at Purple Wings. “What are you doing here, then?”

Purpled was definitely in denial. Tommy knew exactly why these guys were here, although if they thought they had any amount of chance, they were sorely mistaken.

Tommy set his blaster to stun, just to be nice.

“There’s a fine bounty on your head, genius. And we thought cash and revenge might go hand and hand—”

“Wait,” Tommy interrupted. “I thought you said you weren’t going after revenge anymore—”

The three started shooting.

Purpled was already on it, and he shot down the one with purple wings without any difficulty. The other two were shooting with much better aim, and a blaster bolt grazed Tommy’s cheek. It burned, but Tommy ducked behind a rubbish bin for a meager amount of cover, and Purpled ran to a crate.

It happened in slow motion. One minute, Purpled was rolling out of the way and aiming a few more shots at the second guy. In the next minute, a blaster bolt sent straight through Purpled’s abdomen. Another quickly followed, entering through Purpled’s chest.

“Purpled!” Tommy shouted as Purpled tumbled to the ground. He didn’t get knocked out, and he still managed to take cover. Purpled grimaced, clutching his injury, and panic overtook Tommy like a rabid beast.

He jumped up from behind his already half-destroyed barricade and used just the smallest amounts of his power to make the guys fall backwards. He stunned them both before running to Purpled.

“Purpled!” Tommy got to his knees next to Purpled, ignoring how the snow soaked through his trousers. “Can you hear me? Where does it hurt?”

“Where do you think it hurts?” Purpled snapped. His breathing was ragged, which was not at all comforting. “I’m not sure if it hit anything vital.”

Tommy laughed shakily, and he kept his hand tightly gripped Purpled’s shoulder as Purpled closed his eyes. “I think it might’ve. Don’t fall asleep. Come on, we have to get you to a—”

The sound of a blaster went off behind Tommy. Before he could turn around, a bolt of energy ran through Tommy’s entire body, and Tommy’s vision went white.

Tommy woke up in an unfamiliar room. His entire body ached, but the anxiety that spiked through him was far more painful.

Was it Dream, had he found him, was Tommy being taken away? His mask was off, why was his mask off, where was his mask—

Tommy leapt to his feet and ran to the door. He slammed his hand on the control panel, but the door wouldn’t budge. Definitely not freaking out at all, Tommy kicked the control panel. There was a crunching sound where the button had begun to crack, but the door still didn’t move.

“Let me out!” Tommy shouted. He thrust himself against the door. His blaster was gone, and Tommy’s heart was beginning to race. “Let me the hell out—”

The door slid open, and Technoblade stepped inside.

Tommy took multiple steps back. He hid his hands behind his back, although he wasn’t really sure what he was afraid of.

“Techno!” Tommy exclaimed. His voice squeaked, and he shrunk away from Technoblade’s sheer height. “What are you doing here?” A terrible realization occurred to Tommy. “You’re not—”

“I’m not turning you in,” Technoblade said gruffly. “Why would I do that?”

Tears pricked at Tommy’s eyes, and he took more steps back. “What did you do to me?” he demanded. “Where am I?!”

“Tommy, you’re panicking—”

“Of course, I am!” Tommy’s voice was an angry shriek. “You’ve kidnapped me, you’ve knocked me out, where’s Purpled?”

“He’s safe.”

Tommy sprinted toward Technoblade, grabbing him by the collar. Technoblade didn’t move, and Tommy wasn’t sure if that made him more afraid or not.

“Where the hell is Purpled?” Tommy growled. “If you’ve done anything to him—”

“He’s in the middle of getting his life saved by my medics,” Technoblade said. “He’s going to be fine, alright? I’m not going to do anything to him.”

Tommy wanted to wilt in relief. “Really?” He whispered.

Technoblade nodded. His expression was soft. “It’s going to be okay, Theseus.”

The nickname made Tommy shudder, but it wasn’t a bad shudder. It was more of a shudder that let out all of Tommy’s bad emotions and let him believe that maybe, just maybe, Technoblade was telling the truth.

“Why did you kidnap me?” Tommy asked. He still didn’t feel entirely safe, and he clutched all the more tightly at Technoblade’s shirt.

“Kidnapping is a strong term—”

“You knocked me out and dragged me to a place without my consent; that’s kidnapping. I’m a child. Kidnapping.”

“Aren’t you eighteen now?” Technoblade asked.

“Child!” Tommy shouted. “Let me have that for the love of everything that is holy, which might not be much, but still! Let me have that.”

Tommy took deep breaths, but they didn’t make him feel all that much better. He just felt worse, if he was being entirely honest with himself.

Tommy wasn’t the sort of person who hated to be called a child after everything he went to. He would hate to be treated like a child. He would hate to be ignored and disregarded.

But Tommy was tired of being an adult. He was tired of being a weapon first and a kid second. He was tired of being only among people his age, never around someone who could promise to protect him and Tommy would believe them.

Tommy wasn’t sure he’d believe anyone, even Wilbur, but it was a pretty thought.

“Alright, Theseus.” Technoblade sounded tired. “Child. I like that better anyway. It’s easier to make fun of you for it.”

“Hey,” Tommy said half heartedly. His grip on Technoblade’s shirt loosened, and he rested his forehead against Technoblade’s chest. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

“I couldn’t let anyone know where my base is,” Technoblade said.

“You don’t trust me?” Tommy asked.

“Niki didn’t know you were you,” Technoblade said. “I would’ve trusted you, but your disguise isn’t half bad. I let you keep the wings bound in case you don’t want everyone finding you out, but I hope you know that’s really unhealthy. Those things are still growing.

“I know, Techno,” Tommy whispered. “Did Phil tell you that?”

“And Wilbur,” Technoblade said. “I mean, not recently, but you’d always hear Wilbur yammering on about how he was still hungry because his wings were still going past his legal adulthood.”

The mention of Wilbur made Tommy’s chest squeeze, and he inhaled deeply, trying to stay calm. He really didn’t want to break down in front of Technoblade, no matter how tempting the prospect was.

“Well, that’s great, I guess,” Tommy muttered. “Why’d you take off my mask?”

“I was worried you were going to suffocate.”

“Fair.”

Tommy was so tired. All o fhis panic had faded, more or less, at least, and Tommy just wanted to lie down and fall back asleep.

“You promise Purpled’s okay?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah, I do,” Technoblade said. “The medics said that he’ll be fine. I do have a question about your friend, though.”

“Yeah?”

“Why are you working with bounty hunters?”

Tommy almost laughed. “It was Ranboo’s idea.”

“Who’s Ranboo?”

Tommy opened his mouth to explain, but instead, he burst into tears.

Tommy wasn’t sure how it even happened. One moment, he was fine, ready to talk to Technoblade about everything that had happened. The next moment, he was thinking about how much Technoblade had missed, and how much Tommy missed Wilbur and Technoblade and everyone from his old life, and then he was crying.

Technoblade patted Tommy on the back awkwardly, and Tommy wrapped his arms tightly around Technoblade. Technoblade hugged back. It was warm and stiff, but for the first time in years, Tommy felt actually safe. Like nothing could reach him while he was in Technoblade’s strong embrace. If Tommy closed his eyes tightly enough, he could pretend he was still ten years old and crying because Wilbur had gotten another job that would make it even harder for him to spend time with Tommy. He could pretend that Dream didn’t exist, and Tommy was still a random nobody from L’manberg.

The fact that it could never be true only made Tommy cry harder.

“You’re safe now, Theseus,” Technoblade whispered. “You’re safe now.”

“No, I’m not,” Tommy gasped. “I’m never safe. And I never will be.”

“You will,” Technoblade said. “Things will change. I’ll make sure of it.”

“With your—with your fancy syndicate?” Tommy asked. Bitterness suddenly flooded into Tommy’s grief. “The syndicate you left us for?”

“It’s not that simple—”

“It kind of seems that simple!” Tommy was angry, but he didn’t leave Technoblade’s arms. He’d never leave this kind of warmth willingly. “If you had been around, maybe I wouldn’t have gotten—”

Tommy cut himself off. He didn’t want to talk about that.

Technoblade apparently hadn’t gotten the memo.

“Gotten what?” His arms tightened around Tommy, and Tommy held his breath. “What happened to you?”

The warmth Tommy had never wanted to leave had suddenly felt threatening, and Tommy was reminded of Dream’s tight wrist-holds and painful cuffs.

“Let go of me, please,” Tommy whispered.

Technoblade let go immediately, and Tommy took multiple steps away. He almost regretted leaving the warmth as soon as he left, but the glint in Technoblade’s eyes made Tommy glad he had stepped away.

“Who hurt you?” Technoblade asked. “Is it those people hunting you down? Wilbur told me what happened before you went to the ‘specialized academy’—”

“I really don’t want to talk about it,” Tommy muttered.

Technoblade sighed. “I’m not going to force you,” he said. “I’m not. But have you ever talked about it? To anyone?”

“I mean…” Tommy shrugged. “I’ve talked about it with Ranboo some.”

“You still haven’t told me who Ranboo is.”

“Their my friend,” Tommy said vaguely.

“And they know who you are?”

“Yep.”

“How’d they find out?”

Tommy frowned. “Why are you being so nosy? I’m fine, Techno.”

“You don’t have to pretend you’re fine,” Technoblade said. “And I’m being nosy because I want to know who hurt you, and I want to tear them to pieces.”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Just drop it.”

Technoblade nodded, and he gestured to the open door. “Would you like to explore the base, then? Since you don’t want to talk about it?”

Tommy was pretty eager to leave this room, and he nodded.

“Would you like a mask?” Technoblade held out a mask to Tommy, and Tommy took it gratefully. At this point, the small piece of cloth brought such a great feeling of safety that Tommy was reluctant to part with it.

Technoblade showed Tommy around. His base was pretty impressive. It had a nice kitchen area with a small cafeteria. Technoblade had a fancy office he apparently worked at, and the meeting room had a long table with a fancy red table cloth.

“The armory is off limits,” Technoblade said dryly. “I don’t need any mass destruction in my base.”

“Hey!” Tommy clenched his fists. “I’m not dangerous.”

“I never said you were,” Technoblade said. “But you are a menace. You always have been.”

Tommy was going to throttle Technoblade.

In a good way.

Technoblade showed Tommy the training room, though, and Tommy was pleasantly surprised to see Phil beating one of the punching bags into the ground.

“Phil!” Tommy exclaimed, running toward him. Phil had always been less intimidating than Technoblade, and Tommy still associated him with being very young and feeling incredibly safe in Phil’s lap.

It was also probably thanks to avian instincts that Tommy was more willing to trust Phil. Already, chirps burst forth from the back of Tommy’s throat, and Phil made a few chirping sounds back.

“Toms!”

Tommy jumped on top of Phil, and Phil caught him, hugging him tightly. They separated sooner than Tommy and Technoblade had, but it was just as well. Tommy didn’t want Technoblade watching an emotional moment as a third wheel.

“It’s so great to see you again, mate!” Phil said. “I admit, I was getting worried there when I saw how much money was on your bounty, but you’ve managed to pull through.”

“Yeah,” Tommy said. Some might be annoyed by Phil’s apparent lack of concern to Tommy’s situation, but Tommy knew that Phil just preferred to focus on the positives and not dwell on the negatives. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” Phil said. He ruffled Tommy’s hair. “Technoblade told me what you’ve been doing to your wings.”

Tommy frowned. “You’re going to sound like Ranboo pretty soon,” he said. “I have to do it, there’s no working around it. I still get them preened once a rotation.”

“Well, that’s something, at least,” Phil sighed. “Who’s Ranboo?”

“He’s my friend,” Tommy said. “He was training to be a medic, until…”

Phil frowned. “Until?”

Tommy glared at Technoblade, even though he hadn’t said anything. He could hear Technoblade willing Tommy to open up, and Tommy hated how he was tempted to do so. As much as he hated the idea of opening up the wounds of his past, the idea of talking about it to someone was… comforting in a way.

It was also terrifying.

“Until everything was terrible,” Tommy said. “I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s do something else.”

“Just tell me one thing,” Technoblade said. Tommy glared at him. “One thing, please.”

“What is it?”

“Is this Dream guy the one who hurt you?”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Take your best guess.”

Tommy knew he probably looked like a wreck. The mask did well to hide the small scars all over his face, and Tommy appreciated that Technoblade didn’t once think that Tommy hadn’t destroyed that part of the lab in anything but the desperate need to get away. But Tommy was tired of this endless concern.

“Come on,” Tommy muttered. “I want to punch some stuff.”

Technoblade nodded, not saying anything more. Tommy gave him a grateful smile before going to Phil’s punching bag and starting to beat it into the ground himself.

Purpled woke up in a hospital bed.

Where’s Theseus?

Purpled looked around frantically, trying to spot Theseus anywhere, but the only person he found was none other than Technoblade standing menacingly in the corner of his room.

“Technoblade?” Purpled demanded. “What are you doing here?”

Purpled groggily reached for his blaster, but nothing was there.  He wasn’t tied down to the bed, but he was too tired to really move.

Oh well. It could’ve been worse. Technoblade seemed like a pretty decent person when he had met him; maybe he could respect the truce he had with Punz and not turn Purpled in.

“Where’s Theseus?” Purpled asked. “Did you hurt him—”

“You two are cut from the same tree, I swear,” Technoblade said. “Theseus is fine. He’s currently sleeping, in fact. If it makes you feel better, he asked about you too when he woke up.”

“Woke up?” Purpled frowned. “Did he get hurt?”

“No. Niki stunned him before taking him here.”

All of Purpled’s previous tentative acceptance with this situation went out the window, and he ground his teeth together as he tried to sit up. His body flared with pain, and he collapsed down onto the bed.

“Why’d the hell did you stun him?” he growled. “He didn’t even attack you!”

At least, Purpled was pretty sure Theseus hadn’t tried to attack Technoblade. His memory got spotty right before he fell unconscious. But he was pretty sure the only eventful thing that had happened was that Theseus had managed to shoot down the rest of manifold’s gang and was rushing toward Purpled.

“Oh man,” Purpled said. “I got shot by Manifold’s people. That’s so embarrassing.”

“Manifold?” Technoblade asked.

“It’s a long story,” Purpled said. “And you haven’t answered my question about stunning Theseus!”

“I wanted to keep the location of my base a secret,” Technoblade said. “Sue me.”

“I might.” Purpled stared up at the ceiling, feeling utterly exhausted. “After all that money I’ve been spending to find Innit, I could use the extra cash—”

“I’m sorry, what?”

Technoblade didn’t sound angry. He sounded more alarmed than anything else, but Purpled put his guard up anyway.

“I’ve spent money and resources trying to find Tommy Innit?” Purpled gave Technoblade a suspicious look. “I mean, is that all that shocking?

“I didn’t realize you were looking for Innit,” Technoblade said. His face was visibly tense, but it smoothed back out into one of apathy. “I mean, isn’t he kind of a lost cause. No one’s managed to get him.”

“I’ll be different,” Purpled said.

“it seems to me that you’re wasting your life over this. Is this how you got that bounty on your head?”

Purpled glared. “You’re not my parent.”

“You’re right, you’re right, I’m not.” Technoblade hummed. “But why are you looking for Innit? Surely you don’t’ believe the government nonsense about him being dangerous.”

“And so what if I do?” It was more half-hearted than anything else. Purpled didn’t fully believe it. “His capture is worth a lot of money, Technoblade.”

“You’re willing to turn in an innocent person—”

“He’s not innocent.”

“And you know that how?”

“How do you know he is innocent?” purpled challenged.

“I know that I don’t trust government officials who are willing to label children as dangerous criminals,” Technoblade said.

Purpled rolled his eyes. “Please don’t tell me you’re dumb enough to believe that every child is an innocent person who could never hurt a fly—”

“I don’t believe that,” Technoblade said. “But I know Innit personally—”

“You know him?”

Technoblade sighed. “I knew him. I haven’t seen him in years. He’s not the sort of person to do something like that.”
            “People change,” Purpled said bitterly.

“Fine.” Technoblade’s expression hardened. “People change; people aren’t the same as you thought; I could give you the whole spiel. I just think you could better spend your time trying to kill government officials abusing their power to hurt people. I’ll pay you well for it too.”

“You know what?” Purpled asked. “You’re right. After I turn in Innit to the authorities and get my reward, I’ll kill Dream. Is that what you want to hear? Will that make you happy?”

“What’s stopping you from killing Dream right now?”

“Are you listening to yourself?” Purpled laughed. “I can’t get to Dream without getting shot out of the sky without proper clearance, obviously. Besides, I’m not you. I don’t make a point out of killing every single corrupt politician I hear about. I’m a bounty hunter. I’m out here to make money.”

“You know what?” Technoblade walked toward the door. “I hope one day you learn that some things are worth more than a million credits. ”

“Very few things are worth more than a million credits,” Purpled said. Punz was, he did not say.

Technoblade looked almost angry as he opened the door, and Theseus stepped inside. He was wearing a different mask, but he looked relatively unharmed.

“Purpled!” Theseus exclaimed. He rushed up to the side of Purpled’s hospital bed, although there was little to be done from there. Technoblade found Theseus a chair, and Theseus sat down.

“Has Technoblade been giving you speeches on morality?” Purpled asked.

Theseus’ brows furrowed. “No? Has he been giving them to you?”

Theseus turned toward where Technoblade was previously standing, but he was long gone now. A few medics came in to tend to Purpled while they talked.

“Where are the others?” Purpled asked.

“The others?” Theseus’ eyes widened, and he cursed. “The others!”

Theseus jumped from his chair and sprinted out of the room, calling for Technoblade. Purpled listened as Theseus frantically explained to Technoblade that Ranboo, Tubbo, Aimsey, and Eryn were all still out there, probably searching the entire planet for Purpled and Theseus.

“Do you want me to knock them out and drag them here too?” Technoblade asked.

Theseus sputtered. “What? No! Just give me a comm so I can contact them, prime.”

Technoblade obliged, and Tommy re-entered the rom with the comm. Purpled patched into their frequency, and he could already hear the others communicating on their search for Theseus and Purpled.

“I don’t see him any—”

“Hello all,” Purpled said. “I hope you didn’t miss me too much.”

“Purpled!” everyone basically said in unison.

“Where the hell have you been?” Aimsey demanded, their voice furious. “We have been searching out in this cold for nearly a rotation now, and you two are nowhere to be found—”

“We had a bit of an excursion,” Theseus said. “Manifold’s guys attacked us, we dealt with them, and now we’re vibing at a safe house while Purpled recovers.”

“Recovers?!” Ranboo demanded. “Where are you?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s top secret information.”

“We’re your crewmates!” Eryn exclaimed.

“Well, I don’t actually know where we are,” Theseus admitted. “They sort of stunned me before dragging me here.”

“You were kidnapped?!” Aimsey shrieked.

“No, no, no—”

“You were totally kidnapped,” Purpled said.

“Well, yes, but—”

“I’m going to blow up this base,” Tubbo said. “Where are you?”

“We’ve already established that I have no clue where I am!”
            “Then, find out—”

“Alright, everyone, calm down,” Purpled said. “I’ll be back on my feet by tomorrow, and if not, then we’ll discuss blowing up bases, alright? Just go back to the ship and make sure it doesn’t get stolen. Sound good?”

“Sounds terrible,” Aimsey grumbled.

“I like Tubbo’s plan much better,” Eryn said.

“Alright, guys,” Ranboo sighed. “Let’s go. Thanks for finally telling us you’re alive.”

“Hey, I’ve barely just woken up,” Purpled said. “If you want to be annoyed with anyone, be annoyed with Theseus. Apparently, he’s been awake for hours.”

There was the sound of grumbling as the comm cut off, and Purpled sighed.

“You really had to not tell anyone where we were, didn’t you?” Purpled asked. “How did you forget about them?”

Theseus shrugged, looking a bit helpless. “It just… slipped my mind, I guess.”

“Only you,” Purpled sighed. “Only you.”

Contrary to Purpled’s word, it actually took two more days for Purpled to be back on his feet, and even then, it was a very tentative “you are still recovering sir” situation.

Tommy didn’t mind. He was having a great time with Phil and Technoblade, even though Technoblade was trying to convince Tommy to speak with Wilbur.

“Just tell him I’m alive,” Tommy said quietly. “You know talking to Wilbur is a bad idea.”

“Wilbur will understand if he can’t go with you,” Technoblade said. “But he’s worried sick. He’d feel a lot better to see that you’re alive in person.”

“Wilbur will not understand.” Tommy scoffed. “Wilbur will insist he comes with me, and then everyone will know that Wilbur is my brother, and then they’ll kill him trying to get to me. It’s that simple.”

“It’s that simple because you want it to be that simple,” Technoblade said. “It doesn’t have to be that simple. It can be simple in the other direction. Wilbur comes with you, takes care of himself, and doesn’t die.”

“That’s not a guarantee.”

“Nothing is a guarantee.”

“Look, I don’t want to talk about this!” Tommy couldn’t help the bite that rose up in his voice, but he was getting fed up with Technoblade’s meddling. “I get kidnapped, experimented on, and nearly turned into a weapon! I’m allowed to make my own choices!”

Technoblade didn’t say anything, although rage was evident on his face. Tommy shrunk away, trying not to panic, but Phil gently led Tommy away.

“Technoblade’s not mad at you,” Phil said.

“I know,” Tommy said.

“He’s mad at Dream.”

“I know.”

Tommy wasn’t actually all that sure that he knew, but it made him feel better to pretend he did, if nothing else.

“I’m tired, Phil,” Tommy said quietly.

“You don’t have to go back with Purpled,” Phil said. “We can come up with some sort of excuse for you to stay.”

“No.” Tommy shook his head. “I like Purpled, even if he wants to turn me in to Dream. I like all of my crew. As long as the secret stays a secret, it’ll be fine.”

“You can’t keep it up forever.”

“Maybe I can convince him to stop chasing me down before that happens then.”

Purpled finally healed up after about a week, and they left the base blind folded. Purpled commed the others to let them know that they would finally return to the ship, and he was received with various cheers.

Tommy entered The Mauve to find that nobody was waiting for them outside. He frowned, glancing at Purpled.

“Where the heck are they?”

Purpled shrugged. “Sleeping?”

“they were awake a few minutes ago!”

Purpled still seemed relatively unconcerned, but Tommy was all but frantic as he raced down the main hall of the hsip. He rushed into the living area, and he saw everyone standing around a table.

Tommy shrieked in surprise, stumbling backwards and into Purpled.

“Surprise!” the others cheered. Tubbo blew some sort of noise maker used in parties, and Ranboo and Eryn were holding balloons. Aimsey was holding some kind of cake with the words: welcom home.

Tommy quite honestly had no idea how hhe was meant to respond. He stared blankly at the display, his mouth slightly open. Purpled pushed his way in front of Tommy and gave them all a smile.

“You made a cake for us?” he asked. If Tommy didn’t know any better, he’d say that Purpled was touched.

“Of course, we did,” Aimsey said. “You got shot! You needed a cake to feel bettera bout it.”

“I didn’t get shot,” Tommy said.

“You got stunned,” Ranboo said. “Close enough. Would you like a balloon?”

Tommy took one of Ranboo’s balloons while Eryn got to work on cutting the cake. The pieces were horribly sliced, but Tommy and Purpled got the two bigger ones.

“I hope you didn’t miss us too much in our absence,” Purpled said with his mouth full of cake. “Have you seen Innit anywhere while we were gone?”

“OH yeah, we did,” Aimsey said. Their voice was very clearly sarcastic. “We watched him come and go apathetically because we hate your guts.”

“Ha ha, very funny.” Purpled swallowed and sighed. “You actually got my hopes up for a minute there.”

“Well, I hate to disappoint,” Tubbo said. “But Innit seems to have dropped off the face of the galaxy. You might use your energy elsewhere.”

“And let Punz win?” Purpled snorted. “I don’t think so.”

Tommy frowned. He hadn’t started eating his cake yet, not wanting to put his mask over his eyes. Instead, he held it in his hands as he spoke.

“Don’t you think the best revenge you can get is by ignoring him?” Tommy asked. “By chasing Innit as a way to one up him, you’re really giving him the satisfaction of knowing that you still care.”

“I do not still care.” Purpled pointed his fork at Tommy for emphasis, and Tommy winced. “I just think that its more fun to show Punz that I don’t need him anymore instead of just moving on, which is incredibly boring.”

“You have bad coping mechanism,” Ranboo observed.

“Alright, alright, you guys all agreed we were going on a hunt for Innit, don’t turn on me now,” Purpled said. “Please, it’s going to be fine. We’ll catch him in no time.”

“We’ve been searching for way too long for me to trust those words,” Eryn said.

“I’m leaving,” Purpled sighed. “We’re still looking for Innit; we’re going to find him; we’re going to get rich. End of story.”

Tommy watched Purpled go with a sick feeling in his stomach. Would Purpled never give up his quest? Would Tommy forever be forced to hide his face to the point that he couldn’t even eat cake around his friends lest he got recognized.

“Is there something wrong with your cake?” eryn asked.

“Oh no, I just dn’t want to take off my mask,” Tommy said. “I’ll eat it in my room, if you don’t mind.”

Eryn nodded, looking completely understanding. “Don’t worry about Purpled,” he said. “He’ll come around.”

“Who cares?” Aimsey asked. “Sure, we might spend the rest of our lives searching for someone who might never be found, but it’s the journey, not the destination that counts.”

The others didn’t say anything. Ranboo and Tubbo glanceda t Tommy uncomfortably, and Tommy just shrugged.

“I’m going to eat my cake,” He said. “Thanks for the mini party.”

“Any time!” Aimsey said cheerfully.

Tommy returned to his room, sat down, and began eating his cake. It was a good cake, but he wished he had been able to eat it with the others. There was something incredibly isolating about knowing that your friends would turn on you in an instant if they knew who you truly were.

It was scary too. Was Aimsey, Eryn, and Purpled even friends with Tommy? Or were they friends with Theseus, the person that Tommy hid behind?

Logically, Tommy knew that he acted enough like himself as Theseus that theoretically the others would like Tommy just fine knowing the truth. Barring the entire bounty hunting thing, of course. Maybe, if things were different, Tommy wouldn’t have had to hide his face at all, and they could’ve gotten to know each other without any secrets.

If things were different, Tommy would have never found himself in this situation to begin with, and he’d live the rest of his days being a pilot, or with Wilbur on L’manberg.

Tommy wasn’t sure if that would be better. He would give anything to undo the horrors of his past, but did he want to get rid of his friends as well?

The questions pressed on his mind, and Tommy pushed them away. There was no point in dwelling on it. Tommy was in the situation he was in, and there was nothing he was going to be able to do to change it, no matter how hard he tried.

It wasn’t much of a comfort.

When Purpled was twelve years old, Punz sat him down in their living area nad went over the rules.

“What happens if we’re outnumbered?”

“I help you fight,” Purpled said.

“Wrong.” Punz ran a hand over his face. “We’ve literally been over these ten times.”

“I think your rules are stupid!” Purpled glared at Punz. “If we’re outnumbered, then I should stick around to help.”

“You can stick around to help when I know you’re able to take care of yourself,” Punz said. “You’re still on a trial period right now, alright? So, what happens if we’re outnumbered.”

Purpled rolled his eyes. “I hide or run away.”

“Correct,” Punz said. “What happens if I get shot, but you have the perfect opportunity to take in the bounty?”

“This rule is stupid too,” Purpled said. “If you’re shot, I should save you. Duh. What’s one stupid bounty anyway?”

“You can save me after we get the bounty,” Punz said. He frowned, leaning toward Purpled across the table. “Look, I know it’s hard to accept, but these bounties are our livelihood. Money is the most important thing.”

“I care about you more than I care about money,” Purpled grumbled.

“That’s easy to say now.” Punz poked Purpled in the forehead. “Use that brain of yours. How are you going to be of help to anyone if you don’t have the means to provide for them? If it comes down to it, I’d rather you leave me behind so that you could get more credits to heal me later.”

“And what if it’s too late?” Purpled demanded. “What if you’ll die if I don’t go to you right then?”

“Then, I trust your judgement.”

Purpled knew what Punz really meant. The credits are worth more than any one person.

Purpled had hated it. Ever since he was young, he knew how important the bounties and credits were to Punz, but the thought was scary. He wondered if Punz would leave Purpled to die if it meant getting the bounty.

Oh well. Purpled supposed that he’d understand when he got older.

“What if there’s a bounty on you?” Purpled asked quietly.

“That’s different,” Punz said. “You don’t have to turn me in.”

Purpled let out a breath of relief. “Oh,” he said. “That’s good.”

Purpled would have hated to have to turn Punz in for the credits. He also would have hated it if Punz decided to turn Purpled in to whoever had put a bounty on his head, if that ever happened of course.

“Alright,” Purpled said. “I think I’m ready.”

“I think that you think you’re ready.” Punz sighed. “Just be careful, alright? Don’t trust strangers. And remember to duck for cover whenever a fight breaks out. I do not want you getting shot because you were too reckless to find cover.”

“I’m not going to get shot,” Purpled said. “I’m too cool for that.”

“That’s what they all say.”

Punz was right. Purpled got shot about a year into helping Punz out, but Punz hadn’t freaked out like Purpled expected him to. He was clearly worried, but he didn’t get angry at Purpled. Instead, he quietly tended to Purpled’s injury and told him to be more careful in the future.

At the time, Purpled thought he could hear the concern and care in Punz’s tone, even if it wasn’t obvious.

Now, Purpled wasn’t sure.

Purpled had mostly recovered from his injuries, but certain spots still ached from where he had been shot. The others were more than willing to give him more bedrest, with the exception of Aria, who insisted on sleeping on his chest.

Purpled wanted nothing more than for things to go back to normal, so he sat back down with Theseus and began searching for more planets to search for Innit in.

“Purpled,” Theseus said tentatively. “Are you sure you don’t want to give up?”

“Would you give up?” Purpled asked.

“I don’t know.” Theseus shrugged. “Maybe. I just don’t want you to get miserable searching for a dude who might be dead.”

“He’s not dead,” Purpled said stubbornly as he scrolled through his datapad. “We’d know if he were dead.”

“How? Loads of people die and nobody ever knows about it all the time,” Theseus said.

He had a point, and Purpled hated it.

“I have to find him.” Purpled threw his datapad onto the table and put his head in his hands. “What am I if I can’t?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Theseus demanded.

“Punz trained me to be a bounty hunter,” Purpled said. “But I was always used to him being by my side. If I can’t handle this without him, what does that say about me?”

Theseus sputtered. He sounded genuinely baffled. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Not really, no.” Purpled glared at Theseus. “I don’t want it to turn out that I’m completely incapable without Punz.”

“You’re not.”

“I got shot.”

“You were outnumbered, and I wasn’t doing my job well enough—”

“It wasn’t your fault—”

“But it was yours?”

Purpled shut his mouth, and Theseus’s shoulders relaxed slightly. He arched his back from where he was sitting and fixed Purpled with a serious but genuine stare.

“You’ve proven that you don’t need Punz,” he said. “You’ve formed your own crew. You’ve survived plenty of near death experiences, and you haven’t once not managed to feed yourself—”

“I don’t know,” Purpled said. “That one-time Ranboo did the cooking was pretty horrifying.”

Theseus rolled his eyes. “Other than that. My point is that you’re a stupendous leader, and Punz would be a fool to think that you were helpless without him. I mean, we totally destroyed his ship that one time!”

“And then he put a bounty on me.”

“That is not the point I’m making here.” Theseus rested a hand on Purpled’s shoulders. “You’re twice the bounty hunter that Punz is. You don’t’ need to go chasing down an invisible person just for his approval.”

“It was a lot of money,” Purpled muttered.

“There will be other bounties,” Theseus said. “And it’s better to collect money from those than to continue wasting time chasing a bounty you’ll never find.”

Purpled didn’t say anything for a long moment. The ships engines hummed around him as he dwelled on Theseus’ words.

In a way, Theseus had a point. He made a really good one, actually. Purpled was wasting time and resources trying to find Innit, and there was a fairly good chance it would never pay off. There was a reason that nobody had managed to complete the bounty yet, even though it was worth a small fortune. Innit was slippery, and at this rate, Purpled never was going to find him.

And what was he trying to prove to Punz anyway? Purple didn’t need to prove anything to Punz. Purpled didn’t need Punz at all.

“You know what?” Purpled asked. “You’re right. Forget this.”

Theseus’ eyes widened. “Wait, really?”

“Really.” Purpled grinned. “Who cares about Punz anyway? Tommy can continue living his life; he clearly hadn’t caused much trouble since that one incident. We’ll find other bounties to make money off of.”

“Oh wow,” Theseus said. “That’s—that’s great! I’ll tell the others.”

Theseus leapt to his feet and scurried out of the room, looking like he was ready to announce that someone had come back from the dead.

Purpled smiled. A large weight felt as though it had been lifted from his chest, and he could breathe more easily. It would be nice to do a bounty that he could actually fulfill. Innit had been giving more headaches that Purpled would like to admit.

The next few days were easy. Simple, even. Purpled was freed from the constant frustration of trying to find Innit, and everyone else seemed to relax at the prospect of simpler goals.

Theseus, especially, was thrilled that they were aiming lower.

“I think we should have a party,” Theseus said.

“I really don’t think that’s necessary,” Eryn said.

Theseus tutted. “So you’ll give Purpled a party for getting injured but you won’t give him a party for making good life decisions?”

“We can’t have a party for everything,” Eryn pointed out.

“What’s stopping us from having a party for everything?” Theseus demanded. “A party for everything would be fun.”

“You know what else would be fun?” purpled asked. “Talking about something else. I’m glad you’re happy for me Theseus, but I’d rather not think about Innit ever again.”

Theseus nodded, and they changed the subject to their new target. They had apparently stolen someone’s family treasure, and they were paying handsomely for its safe return, as well as the thief’s capture. Purpled and the others succeeded at both with ease, and it felt good to see the money pour into his bank account. It wasn’t the fifth of one million credits that Purpled had expected, but it was better than nothing. It was added security, if nothing else.

But, of course, Purpled’s life was terrible, and all good things had to come to an end.

It was nearing the time that everyone usually took to fall asleep. Tubbo was sitting in the living area, doing whatever he did on his datapad at this hour. Purpled wasn’t entirely sure. Eryn and Aimsey had already gone to bed, and Theseus and Ranboo had also retreated to their room.

It was a perfectly ordinary evening, as well, except that Aria seemed to be in a very agitated state. Purpled tried to calm her down on his own, petting her and speaking to her soothingly, but she was completely uninterested in him. Instead, she kept pacing in front of Theseus’ room, scratching at the door and mewing quietly.

Purpled sighed. “You really want to see Theseus, huh?”

Aria continued scratching at the door, and Purpled pressed the control panel to open it. It slid open without protest, and Purpled heard Ranboo say,

“—remembered to lock the door—”

Aria sprinted into the room, and Purpled glanced inside.

“Sorry for not knocking…” Purpled froze.

Ranboo was preening Theseus’ wings, which was strange, because Theseus wasn’t meant to have wings at all. Theseus was meant to be a human, last Purpled had checked, and Theseus was meant to be wearing a mask religiously.

Instead of a mask covering his face, however, Purpled had a perfect view of none other than Tommy Innit.

Purpled couldn’t breathe. Ranboo and Theseus, no, Tommy didn’t say anything at all. The three of them were animals caught in headlights, having no idea where to turn or where to go. The only sound in the room was Aria, who was trying to crawl into Theseus’ lap. Theseus didn’t move.

Purpled dimly recalled Punz’s warning to him. Don’t trust strangers.

But Theseus wasn’t a stranger. Theseus was his friend. Purpled had really gotten to know all of the members of his crew over the weeks, and he’d say that all of them were his friends. He’d trust them all with his life. Hell, Theseus even tried to save his life before.

Right?

Purpled’s heart raced as he continued to stare at Tommy Innit. Theseus had lied to Purpled. Theseus had actively sabotaged Purpled’s efforts. He had probably snuck into his room and laughed his head off at how absolutely stupid Purpled had been for not seeing the truth sooner. How could Purpled have missed this? How could Purpled have missed that Tommy Innit had been on his own crew?

Confusion gave way to anger, and Purpled found use of his tongue.

“What the hell?”

Tommy jumped to his feet. Fear was evident on his face, but he hadn’t gone to attack Purpled. Good. Maybe this could be done the easy way.

“Listen, I can explain—”

“I really think there’s very little that needs explaining.” Purpled’s voice was remarkably level for how angry he was, but the rage in his tone was not lost on Theseus, Tommy, whatever. Tommy took a small step back, and his hand reached for his blaster. “You’ve been Innit this entire time?”

“Please, let me explain, I can explain—”

“Explain what?!” Purpled stepped forward, and Tommy flinched back. Ranboo jumped to his own feet, pushing Tommy behind him, and Purpled glared. “You’re a traitor too?”

“He’s my friend,” Ranboo said. “He always has been.”

“He’s dangerous!”

“I’m not!” Tommy’s voice cracked. “You’re my friend, Purpled! I’m not dangerous; I have never been dangerous to you.”

“You’ve been lying to me this entire time,” Purpled hissed. He took a few more steps forward, and he reached for his own blaster. “And you’ve been a pretty good liar too. How is that not dangerous?”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Tommy said. His hand holding his blaster was shaking, but Purpled ignored it.

“Is that a threat?”

“You won’t even let me try to explain!”

“Because I don’t want an explanation!” Purpled pointed his blaster at both Ranboo and Theseus, and they both blanched. “You’re Innit! You’re the person I’ve been searching for for weeks, and you were sitting there the entire time! Was our entire friendship a lie? Have you been congratulating yourself while I run circles trying to find you?”

“I don’t want to go back to Dream!” Tommy was trying to get Ranboo to stand behind him, but it ended up looking a bit like a couple of children wrestling to be first in line. “You can’t take me back to Dream; I won’t let you—”

“Why the hell did you join my crew if you didn’t want to get caught?” purpled grit his teeth.

“It was food and shelter!” Tommy’s expression was shifting from desperation to his own anger, and Purpled welcomed it. If Tommy got violent, he’d feel less bad about what would have to happen next. “Can you blame me for wanting a home?”

“Yeah, I can when it involves playing with my emotions—”

“We’re friends!”

“Don’t lie to me!”

The room fell silent as Tommy and Purpled stared at each other angrily, and Purpled could hear the others rushing over to see what was going on. Ranboo raised his hand, looking almost shy.

“It’s not Theseus’, Tommy’s, fault,” Ranboo said. “It was my idea for us to join.”

“So, you knew the entire time?” Purpled asked. “You willingly decided to make my life miserable?”

“I wasn’t going to let you take my friend away either way,” Ranboo said. “You don’t understand, Purpled. The things Dream did—”

“I don’t care what Dream did,” Purpled said. “I don’t care about any of it. Tommy’s a dangerous criminal, and I want the money. That’s all there is to it.”

“What’s going on?” Tubbo asked, even though it was obvious what was going on. Purpled spun toward him, and he saw him standing between Aimsey and Eryn outside the door.

“Did you know?” Purpled demanded.

“He didn’t!” Ranboo exclaimed before Tubbo could answer. “Theseus always kept the mask on when he was around.”

“It’s Tommy,” Purpled corrected. He spun back around toward Tommy, who had yet to say anything else. His eyes were glistening, and his hand was still wrapped tightly around his blaster.

“You can’t take me back,” Tommy whispered. “I won’t go back. I can’t go back.”

“Too bad,” Purpled said. He still hadn’t shot, which was very dangerous, but Purpled’s mind was too overflowed with emotions for him to care. “You are going back.”

“I don’t want to fight you, Purpled.”

“Great.” Purpled grinned bitterly. “Turn yourself in, then.”

The two stared at each other for along moment, each of them gaging the other’s actions. For one, glorious moment, Purpled thought Tommy was going to surrender. He dropped his blaster, and it landed on the floor with a damning clatter. Ranboo gave Tommy a look of pure shock, but Purpled’s grip on his blaster stayed firm.

“I surrender,” Tommy said slowly as he lifted his hands in the air. Purpled let out a silent breath of relief, and he turned his head to tell Aimsey to get cuffs—

Balls of burning hot energy came from Tommy’s hands and came flying straight toward Purpled. Purple ducked out of the way, as did all the others, and they landed on the opposite door with a scorching crackle.

Purpled began shooting at Tommy, but Tommy dodged out of the way at speeds that Purpled had never seen before. He charged toward Purpled. Purpled narrowly managed to step to the side as Tommy skidded into the hallway. Purpled tried to shoot Tommy in the chest, but Ranboo pounced on him. Purpled stumbled as he wrestled Ranboo off of him.

“Not so fast,” Aimsey said from the hall. Purpled heard more blaster fire as he finally kicked Ranboo off of him. Before Ranboo could get back on his feet, he stunned him, and Ranboo fell limp on the floor.

Purpled tired not to feel too sorry for Ranboo as he ran out into the hallway. Tommy was still blasting those weird energy bolts from his hand, and Aimsey’s long hair was singed on the edges. Tommy’s back was to Purpled, and Purpled tried to stun him from behind.

Somehow, Tommy heard it coming and dodged out of the way. His movements were becoming more frantic and hurried as he began dodging both Aimsey and Purpled’s attacks. One of his energy bolts hit Aimsey’s face, and Aimsey cried out in pain, doubling over.

Tommy tried to make a break for it, running to the escape pods. Purpled chased after him, still shooting wildly, but Tommy was too fast.

Too fast for even himself, it seemed. Eryn was waiting at the entrance to the escape pods, and he stuck his foot out in front of Tommy. Tommy had been too busy dodging Purpled’s stun blasts to notice, and his foot caught on Eryn’s leg.

He toppled forward and fell face first into the ground. Purpled finally managed to land a shot on Tommy’s back, and he slumped, unconscious.

Purpled gasped for breath as he slowly approached TOmmy, his blaster still drawn. Although he knew he had stunned him, Purpled half expected Tommy to jump up and begin running again.

But no. Theseus stayed unconscious, and Purpled sheathed his blaster.

“Took you long enough to help,” Purpled grumbled. “What was that all about?”

“Me tripping him?” Eryn demanded.

“No, you not rushing to my aid.”

Eryn didn’t say anything, his lips pursed together. Purpled was too tired to ask any more questions.

“Just get the cuffs.”

After cuffing both Tommy and Ranboo and locking them up in their own room, Purpled checked on Aimsey. They weren’t too badly harmed, although there was a nasty burn on their cheek. Tubbo and Eryn were already fussing over them, but none of them were trained medics, and the most any of them could do was first aid.

“Avians don’t typically have the power to shoot fire balls from their hands, do they?” Tubbo asked. His wings rubbed against each other anxiously, and Purpled knew that it must’ve been a harrowing day for him to find out that his friends were criminals.

“No,” Purpled said. “That’s new.”

Eryn still didn’t say anything, and Aimsey sighed. “I’ll be alright,” they said. “We’ve got him, though! That’s something.”

“Yeah,” Eryn muttered. He sounded anything but pleased. “That’s really great.”

Purpled crossed his arms and fixated Eryn with a glare. “What the hell is your problem? We finally did what we set out to do in the first place.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t realize that meant we were going to be locking up our friends.”

“They’re not our friends,” Purpled snapped. “They’re nothing more than liars and frauds pretending to be our friends for the laughs.”

The others didn’t say anything, and Tubbo particularly stared at his feet intently. Purpled sighed.

“Look, I know this is rough, but this is how it has to be,” he said. “Theseus isn’t our friend. He lied about his own name.”

“I mean, to be fair, he knew you would—”

“Now is not the time, Aimsey.” Purpled pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do I need to lock the rest of you up as well?”

Nobody said anything, and Purpled nodded. “Didn’t think so.”

The awkward silence that ensued was soundly punctuated by a crashing sound coming from Tommy and Ranboo’s new prison. Purpled grimaced as he heard Tommy knocking on the door furiously.

“Purpled, let Ranboo go this instant, he didn’t do anything wrong!”

Purpled sighed and walked across the hall, opening the door to the bedroom. Tommy tried to sprint out, but Purpled pushed him back inside before stepping into the room himself and shutting the door behind him.

“I’m not letting Ranboo go,” Purpled said. “He’s a traitor.”

“He’s not a traitor.” Tommy sounded desperate. “You can’t take him back there; they’ll kill him.”

“And you think I care?”

“I really hope you do.” Tommy was now glaring furiously at Purpled. “I understand me, at least. You want the money, and you’re angry I lied to you. But Ranboo was only trying to protect me. You can’t let him die.”

“Tommy,” Ranboo said quietly. “I’m not going to let you go in there alone.”

“Well, see, now we all agree.” Purpled gestured at Ranboo. “Ranboo wants to go with you.”

“Ranboo’s being stupid!” Tommy’s voice was beginning to sound properly angry, and energy was gathering at his fingertips. “I don’t want to hurt you Purpled, but—”

“Like you hurt Aimsey?” Purpled stalked toward Tommy, jabbing his finger in his chest. Tommy’s expression paled, and he tried to back away. “You claim innocence; you say that you’re our friend; and then you hurt Aimsey.”

“I was scared—”

“That’s a really crap excuse and you know it.”

If Purpled didn’t know better, he’d say that Tommy was on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to hurt Aimsey. I just… please, don’t take us back to Dream. He’ll kill Ranboo, and he’ll make my life a living hell, and—”

“if it makes you feel better, I’m going to kill him after he pays me,” Purpled said.

“That’s not good enough!” Purpled couldn’t decide if Tommy was more angry or terrified when he screamed in Purpled’s face. “He’ll kill Ranboo on the spot, and Dream being dead doesn’t change the fact that I’ll be stuck in that lab—”

“I don’t care.” Purpled pulled his blaster out and pressed it against Tommy’s chest. “Guess what, Innit? You’re a criminal, and you’ve hurt my crew, and you’ve lied to all of us. I thought you were my friend, and it turns out you were playing me the whole time. How do you think that makes me feel—”

“Don’t kid yourself,” Tommy spat. “You’re only in this for the money. Don’t act all noble on me now.”

“I’m a bounty hunter,” Purpled said. “Being in this for the money is what I do.”

“And you wonder why Punz left you.”

Tommy could’ve said anything else, and Purpled wouldn’t have felt as horribly gutted as he was by those words. He could barely breathe as he slapped Tommy in the face. Tommy tumbled to the ground, and he brought his cuffed hands to his cheeks.

The pure look of betrayal on his expression made Purpled feel sick.

Ranboo rushed to Tommy’s side, and Purpled wasn’t sure if he had ever seen Ranboo look so angry before.

“Screw you,” Ranboo whispered. “You make me sick.”

Purple didn’t know what to do. He should apologize for slapping Tommy, at least, because he did feel the painful twinges of regret pulling at his chest. But he shouldn’t apologize, because Tommy was the one who hurt them first. Tommy was the one who had betrayed them all.

So, Purple didn’t say anything. He whipped his blaster into his holster, turned on his heel, and walked briskly out of the room.

He pretended not to see Aimsey, Eryn, and Tubbo’s looks of horror as he walked past.

Purpled entered his room and shut the door behind him, willing himself to keep breathing. Horror was still pulsating through his veins at the realization of what he did to Tommy, who, in spite of everything, still was Purpled’s friend.

Or, at least, Theseus was.

Purpled had hit Tommy. Purpled had hit his friend.

No. Tommy wasn’t his friend. Tommy was an imposter in his own home, pretending to be someone he wasn’t. Tommy only wanted to see Purpled suffer, to see him never succeed. Tommy hurt Aimsey. He was ready to hurt Purpled too.

Purpled hurt Tommy. Purpled was still hurting Tommy.

Purpled shook those thoughts out of his mind. “Money is the most important thing,” Punz had told him.

Punz had also told him that Purpled ddin’t have to turn Punz in if there was a bounty on his head.

Purpled had actually known Punz though. Punz had never lied to Purpled. Punz had never snuck into Purpled’s life with the intention to deceive. Punz’s betrayal was sudden and unexpected, but Purpled’s relationship with him wasn’t built on a lie.

Purpled pulled out his datapad and looked up a way to contact Dream. He found it pretty fast, and he called him through his holographic display.

An ai symbol popped up first.  “Please state the reason for your call,” it said.

“I’ve found Tommy Innit,” Purpled said.

“Transferring you to Dr. Wastaken immediately.”

Purpled drummed his fingers on his knees anxiously as he waited for Dream to show up. He did within a few seconds, and Purpled held his breath as Dream appeared on the holographic display. He wore a proper helmet with a smiley face on it, and Purpled knew he needed it to breathe. Other than that, he looked like any other government official of the Essempi, wearing a uniform with a fancy insignia on his chest.

“You’ve found Tommy?” Dream asked without missing a beat. There was something off about his tone. Something almost hungry.

Purpled ignored the bad feeling in his gut. “Yep,” Purpled said. “You didn’t mention that he’d be able to spit fireballs from his fists.”

“I didn’t deem it necessary information.” Dream’s voice was now curt and clipped, although Purpled could tell that he was ecstatic. “You wouldn’t be the first to claim you’ve captured Innit, though. I’m going to require proof.”

Purpled nodded. “Do you want me to drag him in here, or…”

“That would be fine.”

Purpled stood up and clapped his hands together, “Alright, give me a moment.”

He left the room and returned to Tommy’s cell. Ranboo was busy muttering reassurances to Tommy who looked out of it.

“What are you doing here?” Ranboo demanded. “Can’t you leave us alone?”

Purpled swallowed down the guilt that was beginning to steadily rise all over him. “I’m sorry,” he said. He was surprised to find he was actually honest. “Dream needs to see him.”

“Like hell he does,” Ranboo snarled. “Leave him alone.”

Tommy buried his face into Ranboo’s shoulder. Purpled had never seen him like this before.

You did this, a snide voice whispered in the back of Purpled’s mind.

“Fine,” Purpled snapped. “I guess I’ll just bring him in here.”

Purpled marched back to his room and picked up the holographic display. “Sorry,” he said. He didn’t care much for decorum around these types of people, but it was better to at least show some manners. He didn’t want Dream to decide that paying Purpled wasn’t worth his time. “They’re not behaving.”

“They?”

“I have his friend too,” Purpled said.

Purpled entered Tommy’s room again, and Purpled pointed the camera towards Tommy and Ranboo. Ranboo bared his teeth and all but snarled, and Tommy looked up from Ranboo’s shoulder.

He looked terrified.

“Ah, Ranboo—” Dream’s voice was disdainful. “—so you were the friend my bounty hunter companion spoke of.”

“Shut up.” Ranboo leapt to his feet. “Shut up, you bastard—”

Dream tutted. “Manners,” he said. “And there’s Tommy, curled up on the floor like the coward he is. Did you miss me, Tommy?”

Tommy was frozen, staring up at Dream with wide eyes. He didn’t even blink, and Purpled no longer wanted to be in this room.

“Alright, you saw them,” Purpled said. He left the room before Dream could protest. “Where do you want to meet?”

“At my headquarters is just fine,” Dream said. “It’ll give them less opportunity to escape than if we met in a middle ground. I’ll give you the proper clearance.”

Purpled wrote down all of the clearance codes that Dream provided for him, and when they were done, Purpled stopped Dream before he eneded the call.

“Actually, I was wondering…” Purpled swallowed. “What’s going ot happen to them?”

Dream laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re falling for their tragic hero façade?”

“Well, I don’t know.” Purpled crossed his arms. “I just want to know what’s going to happen to them. It can’t hurt to be curious, can it?”

“Curiosity killed many things,” Dream said. “But if you really must know, Tommy will be imprisoned for hurting civilians, and Ranboo will serve some time as well for harboring a fugitive.”

“That’s it?”

Dream laughed. “What, did they paint me to be some evil scientist or something? Tommy’s a liar. He hurts people and pretends that he’s the victim, and Ranboo only enabled him. I’m so relieved the know that we can put him in proper custody. I can’t imagine how many lives you’ve managed to save.”

Purpled could smell the crap in those words, but he didn’t argue. He was probably right to a certain extent. Tommy hadn’t hesitated before attacking Purpled and Aimsey, and there was the security footage of the destruction he had been capable of.

Besides, Dream was only going to put Ranboo in prison for a time. That was much better than killing him, like Tommy seemed to believe was going to happen.

“I’ll see you soon,” Purpled said. He ended the call before Dream could respond.

Soon after, Purpled heard a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Purpled said. His voice was hollow, and he tried to wonder why this was bothering him so much. He captured so many people in the past, and he’d never felt so much like two different forces were trying to tear his heart in half.

Aimsey stepped inside the room. Their face was knit with concern, and Purpled felt more shame mix with the anger and confusion he felt.

“Are you really sure about this?” Aimsey asked. “I mean, they’re our friends.”

“They were our friends.” Purpled put his face in his hands. “None of it was real anyway.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“I just…” Purpled took a deep breath. “I think I have a good thing going, and it gets ripped away from me.”

“It doesn’t have to be ripped away from you.” Aimsey stepped inside the room and gave Purpeld a stern look. “You’re ripping Theseus and Ranboo away from yourself Purpled. Can’t you let go of your stubborn pride and let them go?”

“I’ve already called Dream,” Purpled muttered. “It’ll put a target on our backs if I don’t turn them in.”

“And that’s the only thing stopping you?”

No. It wasn’t.

“Just… leave me alone, Aimsey,” Purpled muttered.

Aimsey left the room, and Purpled felt the odd urge to cry. Instead, he called Punz.

To Puprled’s surprise, and maybe even relief, he got a response. Punz stood in the holographic image with his arms crossed, and he looked as though he were ready to kill Purpled.

“Good to see you’re still alive.” The words were a direct contradiction to Punz’s expression.

“No thanks to you,” Purpled snarled.

“I asked for you to be captured alive—”

“So it was you.”

Purpled’s voice was raw, but the entire day had been a culmination of hurt and betrayal, of promises broken and expectations ruined.

“It was.”

Purpled grit his teeth. “Well, give it up. I’ve found Innit; I’m turning him in; and you’re not going to see a single credit of the reward.”

Punz’s expression morphed from annoyance to genuine surprise, and Purpled felt a smug grin form on his face.

“You what?”

“That’s right,” Purpled hissed. “I found Innit. I did the impossible. Now, you can stop wasting your time, and maybe you can take that bounty off of me while you’re at it.”

“Where are you?” Punz demanded.

Purpled rolled his eyes and hung up on him.

Tommy couldn’t believe this was happening.

Ranboo was muttering words of reassurance to him as Tommy shook, trying to make sense of the frantic thoughts in his brain. He could barely breathe, he could barely think.

He knew Purpled would be angry if he ever found out the truth, but that hadn’t prepared him for how angry Purpled would be. He hadn’t been ready for the pure rage on Purpled’s features as he tried to shoot Tommy. He hadn’t been prepared for the slap.

Tommy could still feel the phantom sensation of Purpled’s hands connecting with his cheek.

“We’re going to make it out of this,” Ranboo told Tommy. “We’re going to be okay.”

“No, we’re not,” Tommy said hollowly.

“Tubbo will get us out.”

“How?”

Ranboo didn’t say anything at that.

“I don’t want to go back,” Tommy whispered. He hugged himself tightly, and he could feel all of his feathers stand on end. “Please, I can’t go back.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Ranboo muttered. “We can figure it out.”

Later, Tubbo did knock on their door, muttering hushed plans of escape. None of them were viable, though, and Tommy didn’t want Tubbo to get turned in along with him and Ranboo. Tubbo hadn’t been pleased with that at all, but he reluctantly agreed, much to Ranboo’s relief.

Tommy wanted to close his eyes and forget any of this was happening. Tommy wanted to pretend he was still Theseus to everyone, that he was their friend, instead of some traitor that had to be shipped off to the person who had made his life hell.

“You can’t die,” Tommy muttered to Ranboo. “Promise me you won’t die.”

Ranboo’s expression looked so sad that Tommy wanted to punch him in the face. “I promise.”

It meant nothing. Tommy knew that. Unless Purpled felt a miraculous change of heart, there was no way that Ranboo was making it out of this alive.

The thought was horrifying, and it made Tommy clutch onto Ranboo all the more tightly.

It was just that… Tommy had really hoped that Purpled would be more understanding. He had agreed to stop hunting him down. He had agreed to move on. Things were even looking good. Tommy had been planning on even telling the truth to Purpled himself.

But the truth was revealed too soon, and now everything was ruined.

Purpled tried not to feel too miserable as he piloted The Mauve on his own. It wasn’t as though this was the first time he had done such a thing, but he had gotten so used to Theseus driving his ship that the yoke almost felt foreign in his hands.

A bitter taste rose up to Purpled’s mouth, and Purpled tried to forget about Innit entirely.

It was a little hard when Aria was sitting on the passenger’s seat of the cockpit, reminding Purpled on how Theseus had insisted on saving the thing from the depths of space.

“This is all your fault,” Purpled hissed at the cat. “I could’ve been living in blissful ignorance right now, but you just had to ruin it.”

Aria only tilted her head at him. It wasn’t true anyway.

Aimsey was right. Purpled only had to decide to not turn Theseus and Ranboo in, and he wouldn’t have to lose them. That was all it took.

But Purpled had already told Dream, and he wanted to show Punz he didn’t need him anymore, and the money was too alluring to ignore.

It still made Purpled feel like a terrible person.

But bounty hunters weren’t built to be good people anyway.

After countless security checks, Purpled landed on a remote moon of an already small and remote planet. Armed soldiers surrounded his ship, and Purpled knew there was only one way forward.

After the ship was securely on the ground, Purpled got up and quietly opened the door to Tommy and Ranboo. Ranboo resumed his tradition of glaring daggers at Purpled. Tommy was slumped against Ranboo’s side, looking exhausted. His hands were cuffed behind his back; one failed escape attempt had taught Purpled that Tommy’s hands should never be in front of his body, lest he shoot more energy blasts at them.

“We’re here?” Tommy asked softly.

“Yeah.” Purpled swallowed. “I’m sorry.
            Tommy laughed bitterly. “No, you’re not.”

Purpled didn’t say anything as he pulled Tommy to his feet. Tommy didn’t struggle, but Ranboo fought tooth and nail against Aimsey. He kicked and wrestled and even went as far as trying to bite, but Aimsey managed to keep a firm hold on him. At one point, he tried to teleport, but he wasn’t old enough to have mastered the skill, and Ranboo stayed wehre he was.

“Don’t make me stun you,” Aimsey said. She sounded genuinely reluctant to do anything of the sort.

“Screw you,” Ranboo snarled. “Screw you.”

Eryn and Tubbo followed the procession silently, and Purpled felt incredibly judged as they stared at his back.

They exited the ship, and Purpled saw Dream standing a few meters away, waiting for them. Tommy stiffened as they walked down the ramp, and Purpled himself felt his heart race.

“Purpled,” Tommy whispered. Purpled could barely hear him. “Please. If our friendship meant anything to you, please, don’t turn me in.”

The words shook Purpled to his core. If our friendship meant anything to you. It was as though Tommy thought Purpled was the one who betrayed him, and not the other way around. Was it really betrayal if Tommy had known Purpled’s intentions from the start?

Maybe it was. They had been friends, even if Purpled questioned if any of it was real.

“I can’t,” Purpled whispered back. “Look around, why don’t you?”

Dream was prepared for betrayal. Purpled doubted he could even pull out his blaster without getting shot.

“Please.”

Dream was close now, and Purpled stopped as he spoke.

“And here’s the man of the hour,” Dream said. “I was wondering if you would ever arrive.”

“We were a good ways away,” Purpled said. He felt numb as his fingers clamped around Tommy’s cuffs. “But we’re here now.”

“And it’s quite a relief.” Dream marched toward Purled and clamped his fingers around Tommy’s jaw. Tommy didn’t say anything as Dream inspected his face. “I thought you had actually managed to slip from my fingers.”

Purpled held his breath. He couldn’t take this. He couldn’t do this.

He pressed the finger-print activated button to unlock the cuffs. He held tightly to them so they wouldn’t fall to the floor dramatically, and he yanked them from Tommy’s wrists.

Tommy sucked in a breath and his eyes widened. Dream hummed. “What is it now?”

“Screw you,” Tommy muttered.

Dream tilted his head. “Sorry?”

“Screw—you!”

Tommy thrust his hands out from behind his back, and Purpled took multiple steps back as he saw energy quickly form in Tommy’s hands. Tommy pushed Dream backwards, and a large explosion of red energy set off around him. Purpled and the others were all pushed back by the blast, as were the guards that were surrounding them. Tommy was the only one left standing.

Purpled’s ears were ringing as he pulled himself back to his feet. Aimsey was unlocking Ranboo’s cuffs. Purpled pulled out his blaster as Dream tried to pick himself back up.

He shot Dream in the head. The blaster glanced off of his helmeted mask, which was clearly stronger than it appeared.

Tommy was already sprinting toward Dream, more energy flaring at his fingertips. Purpled ducked away from the guard’s blaster fire, and he began shooting at them. Aimsey, Tubbo, and Eryn had already managed to fell a few of them. Ranboo was completely without a blaster, and he stayed out of the way. It was the best thing he could do.

Alarms were setting off as Tommy tackled Dream to the ground, and a few guards were aiming shooting at Tommy. Purpled shot them down before they could hit him.

Tommy punched Dream’s mask. The glass began to crack, and Tommy grinned. It was a wild expression, but Purpled couldn’t blame him in the slightest as Tommy punched the mask again and again and again.

The glass shattered, and Dream began gasping for air.

“Tommy!”

Tommy spun around toward Purpled, and Purpled tossed him his blaster. Tommy caught it with both hands, staring at Purpled with wide eyes.

“Put him out of his misery.”

Tommy didn’t hesitate before shooting Dream between the eyes.

The rest of the station was still in chaos. Tommy tossed Purpled his blaster back as they dealt with everyone else who was trying to attack them, but most people had the good sense to run away. Purpled didn’t bother to chase after them. If they wanted to run, that was fine by him.

And then, there was the quiet.

Purpled gasped for breath as he searched around for anyone else trying to attack them, anyone else trying to hurt them. But none came. Tommy was sprinting toward Ranboo, tackling him in a hug. Ranboo hugged back tightly, and hot guilt filled Purpled’s entire body.

He looked away.

Aimsey was running toward Purpled, and Purpled stumbled backwards as they pulled Purpled into a big hug of your own.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” they cheered.

“I’m confused,” Purpled said dryly.

“I knew you would do the right thing,” Aimsey continued. Their eyes were alight with joy, and Purpled couldn’t help but to manage a small smile back. “Thank you for releasing Theseus.”

“You could have done it yourself, you know,” Purpled grumbled.

Aimsey’s smiled shuttered, and they nodded. “Y-yeah. I guess I could’ve.”

Aimsey and Purpled glanced back at Tommy and Ranboo. They were still hugging.

“I’ve really screwed up this time, haven’t I?” Purpled said quietly.

“Yeah,” Aimsey muttered. “We really screwed up this time.”

Eryn joined them in their sullen silence, but Tubbo was hugging Ranboo and Tommy. Purpled had a feeling he had actually offered to help them escape, and they had told him not to. There was no other way the two would be so friendly with him otherwise.

Purpled wondered if he should go up to them and say something. Apologize, maybe. He opened his mouth, trying to think of the correct words.

Anything Purpled might have been intending to say was instantly drowned out by the sound of engines roaring toward them. Purpled felt his face pale when he saw Punz’s ship land in front of them.

Ranboo, Tubbo, and Tommy all pulled out of their hug. Tommy got into a defensive position, and the rest of them pulled out their blasters. Ranboo picked up a blaster that was lying on the ground, dropped in the midst of the previous fight.

The ramp to Punz’s ship lowered, and Punz walked down it, flanked by two of his new goons. Punz was already holding his own blaster, and he surveyed the scene in front of him with ill-disguised contempt.

“You killed the employers?” Punz asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Purpled said. He grit his teeth. “Get out of here. I won fair and square.”

Punz didn’t say anything for a moment, and his lips were pressed in a thin line. His fingers played with the blaster trigger, and Purpled tensed.

“You know, Purpled. I really wish you had just stayed out of my way,” punz said slowly.

“You know, Punz,” Purpled sneered. “You have no business being here anymore. There’s going to be no money. There’s no reason you want Tommy. Leave. Now.”

Punz tilted his head, still looking thoughtful. “There’s still a bounty on your head.”

Purpled froze. “You wouldn’t.”

Punz lifted his blaster toward Purpled, and Purpled couldn’t breathe. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

Punz sighed and lowered his blaster. “You’re right,” he said. “I wouldn’t.” He put his blaster back in his holster and turned around, walking back into the ship. “See you around, little bro.”

“We’re not brothers,” Purpled snarled. He wasn’t sure why it felt so much like a lie. “You lost that right.”

“Sure.”

Punz didn’t say anything as the ship ramp was raised again, and Purpled watched blankly as it flew back into the atmosphere.

Purpled… hadn’t been expecting that. He had been expecting another fight. He had been expecting Punz to die at the end of it. That, or Purpled to die at the end of it.

But they were both alive, and Purpled was left with a hollow feeling in his chest.

It would’ve been easier if Punz had just attacked him.

There was another long moment of silence before Purpled put his blaster back into his holster and turned toward the others.

“We should probably get out of here,” Puprled said.

“I actually have a better idea,” Tubbo said. He grinned. “This was all a big secret government program, right?”

Tommy frowned. “Yeah. And?”

“If we download files from this lab, and take pictures, etcetera, and we just leak all of this onto the net, imagine the chaos it might cause.”

“Sounds like a really great way to get arrested,” Tommy said.

Tubbo’s grin only grew wider. “They’d have to find us first.”

Tubbo wasn’t wrong about chaos.

As it turned out, the general population had been properly outraged when they realized that the government had taken to experimenting on school children. The government hadn’t even had the opportunity to arrest anyone before people were marching on the streets, demanding a change.

Tommy was proud of Tubbo, but also very terrified for his own life.

Then again, that was nothing new.

Tommy agreed to stay on the Mauve long enough for them to find Wilbur or Technoblade. He spent most of his time on the ship, hiding in his room, as did Ranboo. It wasn’t as though Tommy hated Purpled…

Well, maybe Tommy hated Purpled a little bit.

Purpled was Tommy’s friend. Nothing would truly change that. Probably. They had been through too much together.

But that’s what had made the betrayal all the worse. Purpled was Tommy’s friend, and he still nearly handed him over to that monster all for a handful of credits.

When they landed on Articus, Tommy heard Purpled knock on his door. Tommy had half a mind to ignore it and continue petting Aria like there was nothing left in the world to do, but he knew that would be both rude and pointless.

“Come in,” Tommy said quietly.

“I can’t,” Purpled said. “You locked the door.”

Oh. Right.

Tommy pulled himself to his feet, his feathers ruffling. It felt good to be able to have his wings out again, but he felt slightly naked. Vulnerable. Like anyone was going to pounce on him at any second.

Of course, nothing of the sort happened.

Tommy opened the door. Purpled was standing in front of him, looking extremely uncomfortable. He couldn’t even look Tommy in the eyes.

“I just… I wanted to—”
“Hurry up and spit it out,” Tommy snapped.

“I’m sorry!” Purpled blurted out. His eyes were wide at the frantic confession, but he didn’t take it back. “I shouldn’t have turned you in, or imprisoned you at all, and I am so sorry.”

Purpled shut his mouth. Tommy didn’t say anything.

This was the first apology Tommy had received from Purpled, but not the first apology Tommy had received. He had already gotten thorough apologies from both Aimsey and Eryn, but Tommy had accepted them with far more grace than he felt equipped to accept Purpled’s.

“Anyway,” Purpled said quietly. “That’s all I wanted to say. You don’t have to accept it.”

Tommy swallowed. “Right,” he said tersely.

Purpled glanced away, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I’ll just go, now. Technoblade’s waiting outside, so…”

“Purpled,” Tommy said suddenly. Purpled looked up. “Look. We’re friends, alright? It just… doesn’t quite feel like it right now.”

The hurt was evident on Purpled’s face, but he didn’t protest. If he had, Tommy would’ve punched him in the face.

“Yeah,” Purpled muttered. “I understand.”

With that, Tommy grabbed his things and left the room. Ranboo was already waiting by the back entrance of the ship, and Tommy nodded at him understandingly.

They had already discussed this. Ranboow as going to stay with the crew and Tubbo. Tommy wanted nothing more than to live a quiet life with Wilbur for at least a few years.

“Stay in touch?” Tommy asked.

“Of course,” Ranboo said.

They embraced, and Tommy clung onto him tightly. “Thank you,” Tommy whispered. “For everything.”

Ranboo laughed. “I owe you as much as you owe me.”

“Let’s just call it even, then.”

They separated, and Tommy grinned at Tubbo. “Keep an eye on him.”

Tubbo saluted. “Aye aye, captain.”

Tommy saluted back before marching down the ramp of The Mauve. Just as Purpled promised, Technoblade was waiting outside.

Technoblade and—

“Wilbur!”

Tommy dropped his bag when he saw Wilbur, and he didn’t hesitate before sprinting toward his older brother. Wilbur sprinted toward him too, and within seconds they were in each others arms. Wilbur clung onto Tommy so tightly that Tommy could barely breathe, but Tommy didn’t care. Nothing mattered at that moment. Nothing but the familiar feeling of being in Wilbur’s arms.

“Tommy,” Wilbur whispered. “Oh my god. Oh my god. You’re here.”

“Hi, Wil,” Tommy said quietly. Tears pricked in his eyes. “You found me.”