Archive of Our Own ^beta

“But before you decide who to vote for, let me explain why I think I would be the best king.” Lettuce turns to his guards. “Let’s bring him out here.”

Jaden doesn’t recognize him at first. Wemmbu doesn’t move like he used to, full of life and big gestures. Instead, he walks like there’s a thousand pounds on his shoulders and nearly falls over when one of the guards gives him a shove from behind. He shuffles up next to Lettuce, looking straight forward rather than at the people gathered below. 

His hands are shackled behind him, and his wings are pinned to his back with more shackles. His antennae are curled tightly against his head, forming little spirals that Jaden can only barely make out from this far away, and more than half the length of his hair has been cut off unevenly. 

His expression is blank, his eyes are dull and listless, and his clothes are ripped and torn, stained with his blood to the point that they could’ve originally been dyed red instead of purple. Jaden hasn’t seen him look this broken or this hopeless before, excepting the moment he found out Wemmbu’s identity.

Lettuce is saying something. “This right here is Wemmbu, one of the players responsible for the recent massacre. And I captured him myself.”

Wemmbu’s expression twitches for the briefest moment, small enough that anyone else might not have noticed but Jaden. Then his expression settles back into that blank, distant look, like he’s not even there. He’s not moving around, pacing, or humming, and his wings aren’t fluttering constantly like they're supposed to. It’s as if Lettuce capturing him crushed him.

…

Jaden shuddered, and backed away from the creature. It was slimy and disgusting looking, with huge watery eyes and a wide grinning mouth. “Dude, I hate frogs.”

The mystery player snickered. He and the others Jaden had recruited were following him through the trees, searching for some gear before they raided Ranger Point for clues. “Why do you hate frogs? What did they do to you?”

“Dude, they're like… creepy.” He shuddered again. “Why are there so many frogs on this island?” More frogs were hopping towards them, unnaturally long legs extending. He backed away slowly and carefully to not show aggression. He couldn’t risk them attacking him.

The mystery player laughed. “Bro how are they-” He crouched down next to one of the little monsters and picked it up, bringing it close to his face to examine it. At least, that was what Jaden assumed he was doing. “They’re just kinda weird looking, not creepy though. I guess if they really freak you out that much I could kill them for you.” 

He dropped the frog, and it landed with a squelch. Jaden gagged. “There are an awful lot of them.”

Despite the statickyness of the voice changer, Jaden could still detect the amusement in his voice. He rolled his eyes. “Just you wait until they decide to attack us.”

“Dude, I don’t think they're gonna-” the mystery guy let out a sound that dissolved into crackly noise. Jaden couldn’t tell if it was a laugh or not. “Why are there so many frogs, bro?” Mystery guy knocked off the frog that had jumped on his helmet with his sword, and then killed it swiftly.

Jaden snickered. “I told you! They're creepy evil little monsters.”

“Okay, bro.” He got the distinct feeling that the netherite trim was rolling his eyes at him. “But really, there should not be this many frogs naturally spawning here.”

“Whoever decided to bring this many frogs here must hate my guts.” Jaden glanced at the player. “I’ll call you Myst, by the way. Short for Mystery Guy.”

The mystery player laughed. “Sure, bro, I don't really care. Oh, hey look!” He gestured at the open field in front of him with his sword. “More frogs!”

“Oh, great,” Jaden said sarcastically. There were literally tens of giant, bulbous, slimy greens frogs all hopping around each other and croaking loudly. “Okay, screw this. Let’s get out of here. We can probably raid Ranger Point without extra gear.”

Myst’s laugh glitched through his voice changer. “Whatever you say, bro.”

…

“Now he can’t harm anyone on the server ever again. And if elected king, my first act would be to swiftly execute Wemmbu as a warning to any player who wishes to commit any sort of crime on this server.”

Wemmbu doesn’t blink. He doesn’t seem to even have heard Lettuce. That scares Jaden, it worries him. Putting aside whatever complicated feelings he has for Wemmbu, he always has a plan, always has a way to get out. An Orbital Strike Cannon, a secret tunnel, a hidden ally, a smuggled item, anything. And he never shuts up, never breaks down or stops coming up with quips.

“May this mark the beginning of a new era of the unstable smp. An era of peace, prosperity, justice, and law.” Lettuce blows his goat horn again, and the crowd around Jaden cheers. He refuses to.

Everything about this feels wrong. Lettuce is acting like he’s already king, and as Jaden looks around, he realises that that might be closer to the truth than he likes. He’s already got legions of players, a common enemy, and something – someone – to show off his power. Everyone is cheering for the death of someone who he’d consider- well, not a friend, exactly, but he couldn’t bear to call him an enemy any more. Not after he’d saved Jaden’s life so many times.

…

“How is it just us?” Myst fumed, turning around briefly to throw a wind charge at the people following them. “This is what you get for recruiting an army of broke players, dude!”

“Hey, I didn't exactly have a choice!” Jaden snapped back, breathing hard. They’d been running in circles around the base, trying to find an escape route. Ranger Point was much more heavily guarded than he’d thought, and now they were paying the price.

He ran into another room, desperately hoping that it would have a way out. Instead, it turned into a dead end with the only way out being back through their attackers. “What is this?!”

Myst whipped around, deftly blocking an attack. “Yo, leave us alone! We’ll leave!”

Jaden dodged an axe and nearly stumbled into another player’s sword, but Myst yanked him back and started fighting the one that had tried to skewer him, giving him enough time to chug a gap. 

“Thanks,” Jaden said shakily, trying to calm his hammering heart. He’d been moments away from death; if he hadn’t saved him he’d have died right then.

“Jaden, this isn’t a fight we can take,” Myst said quickly, “We need to get out.”

“Yeah, yeah, dude, I'm trying!” Jaden ducked and wove around the players attacking them. He managed to get a good hit on one of them, splitting his skull open with his mace. His comm buzzed as the death message went through chat. “There’s literally no way out.”

“I’ll draw them away. You find a way out.” Myst called out.

Jaden nodded back, and bolted. There was probably a way out somewhere, if only he could find it. But after several minutes of running through the base, he hadn’t found a single door to the outside. 

Maybe they could mine out and swim away? But their attackers would catch up quickly, because Myst didn’t have a trident and Jaden couldn’t just leave him to be slaughtered. They needed another trident to get away. 

The guy he’d killed in the room probably had one on him. He ran back to the room and realized that while he’d been searching the base, Myst had been basically getting cooked by the whole team. 

He pretty much ran to him the moment he saw him. “Jaden, I need space, I need space. My helmet is-”

“Got it. Oh, uh, get that trident from the dead guy, too!” Jaden whipped out his mace again, and started fighting.

He wasn’t a bad player, but there were at least five people in full gear focusing on him, and none of them were bad players either. Jaden’s respect for Myst increased significantly. He could barely keep himself from getting cut to pieces already, and Myst had held his own for minutes.

“I got the trident and the clue, let’s go.” 

Jaden turned and ran, following Myst down the hallway. Myst had already broken a few panes of glass, water gushing in from the hole. He dove into it, raising his trident up to boost himself. Jaden followed him.

…

Wemmbu never gets caught. He’ll escape by tomorrow, he’s sure of it. But as Jaden watches Wemmbu get led off the stage, his steps almost robotic, he’s not so sure that he could ever escape, not like this.

There are cracks showing in his expression now, he’s more present than he was before. He’s actually looking around, his eyes flicking frantically around the crowd of people cheering. Cheering for his death, for his execution. There’s some sort of wild fear in his face, and an odd resignation in the way his shoulders and wings slump. No, Jaden is sure now that Wemmbu, for once, has absolutely no tricks up his sleeve and no way of escaping.

He swears for a moment that Wemmbu’s eyes land on him. They widen marginally, and he pauses for the briefest moment. Jaden almost opens his mouth to speak. He’s not sure what he’d say, if Wemmbu could even hear him. There’s nothing he feels he can say, nothing that would somehow explain his tangled thoughts.

One of the guards – he recognizes her with a sickening lurch in his stomach, Lopezz – shoves him. “Get a move on!” 

She grabs him by the hair and drags him away from the edge of the platform, deliberately curling her claws into his antennae. Wemmbu hides the pain well, but Jaden knows it hurts. Lopezz must know that too, he remembers that she and Wemmbu used to be friends. His antennae are meant to sense subtle vibrations, and them being handled so roughly has to be excruciating. 

Wemmbu disappears beyond the edge that Jaden can see, and Lettuce retreats as well. Jaden is left staring where Wemmbu was, mouth half open.

Wemmbu is going to die if he doesn’t escape. And if he can’t, then Jaden will have to do it for him.

…

“Hey, uh…” Jaden laughed nervously. “Do you have any  spare sets for me?”

“Dude, you’re asking for a lot.” Myst sighed, rummaging through his e-chest. “I can’t just give out all my armour to anyone.”

“Listen, you can take whatever you gave me from my share of the treasure,” Jaden offered. “I’ll pay you back once we have it.”

“And what happens if we don’t find it?” Myst asked pointedly. Jaden grimaced, and Myst sighed again, setting down several shulker boxes. “Fine. Here, take one of each.” He emphasized the ‘one’.

Jaden opened them and found they were literally chocked full of netherite gear sets. Holy fuck. This guy was not just rich but stacked basically as much as one could possibly get. “What?!”

“One. Of each.” Myst repeated. “And don’t worry about paying me back later, you clearly need it.”

“Where did you get this?” Jaden blurted out. He exchanged his broken, cracked, diamond armour for the gleaming netherite in awe, running his fingers over the chestplate. It was very obviously well-made and well cared for. 

Myst shifted uncomfortably. “Like I said, I'm not really interested in the treasure. I just wanted an adventure. I have enough loot that I don't need it.”

“So, you’re saying I can have all the treasure?” Jaden asked. He knew what Myst was doing, trying to distract him by talking about the treasure in the sea instead of the treasure that was clearly right in his e-chest. He’d play along for now, but it was very clear that however Myst got these gear sets, he didn’t want him to know how.

Myst shrugged, the shoulder plates of his armour going up and down. “Sure. I don't care.”

Jaden blinked. “Wow. Okay, well. Thank you, man. That’s awesome. Genuinely.”

Jaden couldn’t see his face, but from the way Myst was holding himself he could tell he was uncomfortable. He mumbled something unintelligible and recollected his shulkers before retreating away from him. Very strange behaviour. Either he was feeling guilty because he wasn't actually going to let Jaden have all the treasure, or he was embarrassed from being shown thanks. And honestly, on a fucked-up server like this, it could be either one.

“Okay, so.” Jaden looked around. “What’s the plan?”

…

He’s lucky that he still has invis pots stashed in his e-chest, left over from keeping extra for Myst. He splashes one at his feet, and starts to make his way through the crowd to find where Lettuce is leaving. 

Nobody gives him a second glance. The crowd is still cheering, although it’s starting to die down, and he slips between people without them noticing. He’s not that well-known yet, his pirate empire is only starting to gain strength, so he isn’t recognized in the crowd.

Lettuce is easy to find. His camel and horses are parked right behind the colosseum. Jaden sits down in the grass and waits for him and Wemmbu to show up. It doesn’t take long.  

Lettuce steps out, practically strutting, confident and in control. His guards follow him like dogs, shepherding Wemmbu forward with little shoves and nudges. Wemmbu’s limping, wincing slightly with each step. He must be more injured than he’d shown in front of the crowd; attempted to put on a front that’s now crumbling apart.

Lettuce climbs onto the camel. Wemmbu is manhandled into the seat behind him, being unable to use his hands to climb up by himself. A rope runs through a loop on the saddle, and then through the chains of his cuffs to hold them together. No running away, even if Wemmbu was able to with his limp.

Jaden follows them, as quietly as he can.

…

They were caught. It was a surprisingly short battle, considering everything. It was Jaden’s fault. He’d been totally unprepared, and the rangers had quickly and efficiently broken all his new armour and held him at sword point until Myst surrendered as well.

Myst hadn’t even popped a totem once, he’d been more than holding his own. His voice was flat and controlled as he surrendered. Jaden knew it wasn’t from the voice changer, there was no way Myst wasn’t mad at him.

He didn’t blame him, honestly. He’d given Jaden a whole new set of armour and he’d broken it all in less than an hour. Myst shouldn’t have even surrendered for him, he should’ve run away and left Jaden for dead. He didn’t owe him anything, he had no reason to stay other than his own conscience.

Yet, now they were both being boated back to Ranger point, neither of them with anything to break out of the so-called Lobster Pot they were being sent to, barring the crappy helmet they’d given Myst so he couldn’t slip away with his invis.

“Helmet, come with me.” 

Myst didn’t move until the Lobster guy shoved him hard in the back. “Oh. Sorry, didn’t realize you were calling me ‘helmet’.” Even with the voicechanger mutilating his voice, he said it distinctly mockingly. The Lobster man shoved him again.

“Jaden, bro, you got a master escape plan?” Myst hissed at him as they were herded inside of the building. “I’m following you on this.”

Jaden felt his stomach sink even lower. “Alright.” He didn't have a plan. He didn’t even have any useful items to escape. They were doomed, honestly, and he’d dragged down Myst with him. “You should’ve just ran, bro.”

“You would’ve gotten banned.” Myst said, like that was the only reason he needed. 

Jaden blinked. Myst, for whatever reason, had genuinely decided that Jaden getting banned was worse than being stripped of his items and locked up forever. Jaden would never admit that he was touched, but he didn’t know anyone else who’d do that for him, let alone some stranger that he only knew for a few weeks. 

They were shoved through the door they’d broken trying to escape. Although Jaden wouldn’t exactly consider it a door, considering it didn’t open anymore.

“Oh, the door is broken,” the Lobster man said pointedly, stalking up to Myst’s floating helmet and getting in his face. “You know who this door is broken thanks to?”

Myst didn’t step away, raising his head cockily. “No.”

The lobster man punched him, hard. Myst let out a gasp of pain and stumbled back, doubling over. Jaden couldn’t tell where exactly he’d punched him, but judging from his reaction it was definitely hurt.

“Good job, bro.” The Lobster man said contemptuously, striding past him. “Come on.”

Myst leaned heavily on the walls for the rest of the walk through the base.

The leader eventually stopped in front of a glass cage filled with water, and looked at them, grinning. “Ready for the Lobster Pot?” He nodded at Myst. “Little helmet. Come up here.”

Myst laughed in disbelief, the sound hissing through his voice changer. “Little helmet?”

Myst stepped closer to Jaden, and he felt a warm hand grab his. He nearly yanked his hand away but managed to stop at the last second. Myst, it had to be him. A couple wind charges were pressed into his hand, and then he let go to splash invis at their feet. “Jaden, go!”

It all happened in less than a second, the sudden gain and loss of warmth making Jaden’s head reel. The cold of the wind charges stole away the residual heat quickly, snapping him out of his stupor. 

He ran, wind charging up the side of the room and onto the stairs. He could hear Myst’s panting just ahead of him, and strained to keep up. The sudden acceleration had his lungs and legs burning all too quickly, but adrenaline overwrote it, every cell in his body straining to go faster and escape before he was caught.

“That was my last invis,” Myst gasped out to him, as quietly as he could. “We need to get out of here quickly before I turn visible again.”

“Got it,” Jaden panted back, pushing himself to kick into an even higher gear. They needed to get out, and there was no way in hell he was going to let these stupid rangers be the reason Myst was forced to reveal himself. He’d do it, even at the risk of getting captured again.

…

He tells himself it’s because he could be next. Technically, it’s true and valid. He’s not a good person, he doesn’t even pretend to be. He’s broken the law more times than he can count, he runs a fucking pirate civilization, for Void’s sake. So he has every reason to believe he might be next. 

Wemmbu’s just an example, just the little scapegoat for every criminal to project themselves onto and tremble with fear so they don’t break the law again. Jaden would probably eventually be taken to jail as well. But if he frees him, the illusion of control collapses, and Wemmbu might even be able to take out Lettuce once he’s freed.

It’s not the real reason, but it’s the one that he keeps telling himself is the only one that matters. 

Fuck it, fine. He doesn’t want Wemmbu dead. He doesn’t want to see Wemmbu’s head rolling on the ground, he doesn’t want to watch Wemmbu get captured and broken down. And he can’t fucking stand Lettuce lording over him, proud that he took everything that Wemmbu cared about and tore it to pieces. 

He wants Myst back. 

He knows it’ll never happen, but Wemmbu is the next best thing. And part of him thinks that maybe Wemmbu wants Myst back too. He’s clinging to that hope with the mere tips of his fingers. 

He’s not sure how he feels about Wemmbu, still, but he is sure that he wants to figure it out. He wants to reconnect with him, although he’s not sure how. He can’t do that if Wemmbu is a corpse. 

He doesn’t deserve to be a corpse, anyway, he should be allowed to live. Jaden wants him to live. Not just survive, but live. By his side, as his second-in-command, preferably. Wemmbu’s definitely not a good person, but hearing all those people cheering so viciously for his death makes his stomach clench and his mind reel because it just shouldn’t happen. His death shouldn’t be celebrated as a victory.

…

Jaden soared down from the sky, relief rushing through him. Myst was okay. He’d escaped.

“Dude, I've been looking all over for you!”

“Yo,”

“You clutched up, by the way.” Jaden blurted out. “We’d’ve been dead if you hadn’t gotten us out.”

“Well-” Myst shifted around. “It wasn’t really a big deal, you know? Like, I was just-”

“Just accept the thank you, bro.” Jaden couldn’t help but smile at Myst, who looked away and started breaking some ice with his pickaxe, very clearly embarrassed. 

Myst changed the subject. “Here’s your stuff, by the way.” he tossed Jaden most of his gear. “Sorry I couldn't get all of it.”

“Thank you, bro.” Jaden said sincerely. 

“It was just-”

“Bro.”

“Got it.” Myst audibly rolls his eyes. “Yeah, Jaden, I got it. Oh, wait.” He took out a mace from his inventory. Jaden’s mace.

Honestly, Myst deserved that mace. He was the only reason Jaden had escaped at all, and he’d even stayed behind to fight his way out. He’d lent Jaden an elytra so he could escape, too. “You can ke-”

“You know, these things are rare,” Myst interrupted. He stepped forward and pressed the mace into his hands. Jaden reflexively curled his fingers around it. “So you might wanna hold onto it.”

“I- dude!” Jaden tucked the mace into his inventory, blinking hard. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Okay, well.” Myst coughed. “More important things. I’m kinda down to my last invis pot. I’ll run out in less than ten minutes. Did you grab any of my potions?”

“Oh…” Jaden trailed off, his heart sinking. “No. But why do you even care about your invisibility so much? Does it even matter?”

“Yes!” Myst said sharply. “I need to stay invisible! Do you have blaze power, rods, anything to make brewing stands?”

“No, I don't.” Jaden said, as gently as he could. “Listen, it can’t matter that much. We’ve been through so much together, I don't even care. I wouldn’t tell anyone who you are, either.”

“You don’t understand!” Myst’s voice changer glitched, sending static through his words. “You don’t understand, Jaden.”

He was pacing around the iceberg, heavy breaths filling the cold air between them. Jaden heard a strange soft buzzing noise, making him wrinkle his nose in confusion. Probably just his imagination.

“Hey, we’ll get you your invis, okay?” Jaden said gently. “If it’s that important to you, we’ll find some. And if we can’t, you can hide somewhere until I get some for you, okay? I’m not gonna make you un-invis.”

“How are we gonna get some?!” Myst nearly shouted. He turned around and started pacing the other way, a strange sound cutting through his voice changer that Jaden realized after a few seconds might’ve been a sob.

“I think-” Jaden thought. “There was an e-chest on that island we were jumped on, if you have any pots in there.”

“Where?” Myst demanded, “Which way?”

Jaden pointed where he’d come from. “It’s pretty far though, here.” He dropped Myst his elytra back. 

“I’m not gonna make it, Jaden.” He heard the glitchy noise again. Yeah, it was a sob, it had to be. Fuck, Myst didn’t deserve this after everything he’d done for him.

He gestured to the elytra. “Just use your elytra. Why weren’t you using this before?”

“It shows my wings, I can't!” This only seemed to make Myst more distressed. Wait- wings? Myst had wings? Jaden quashed down the part of him that desperately wanted to see. They’d probably be pretty. But also- how had he been with Myst for weeks now and not noticed he had wings?

“Nobody except me is gonna see, and I can look away if you want me to.” Jaden said firmly. “And I swear I won't peek.”

“I-” Myst hesitated, and then equipped the elytra. “Fuck it. I don’t have a choice. Uh, I'll be back.”

He took off, the sound of rockets propelling him echoing through the ice around them. He slammed his eyes shut so he didn’t see Myst’s wings. But, actually, Myst hadn’t told him to look away. And, fuck, Jaden was really, really curious. He wanted to see his wings. He hadn’t been told to look away, and he wouldn’t tell anyone else, so really he had no reason to not open his eyes.

Myst was already far away, but not far enough away that he couldn’t make out his wings. And he was totally right, they were beautiful. Four large, iridescent wings, humming through the air so fast that they were a blur. Sunlight hit them and scattered off in rainbows, the edges practically glowing.

Jaden only realized that his mouth was open several minutes after Myst had disappeared into the sky.

…

Lettuce leads them through thousands of blocks. Wemmbu doesn’t look up once. He’s slouched forward as much as he can with his shackled hands locked to the saddle behind him, and his hair is blocking his face, the short, uneven strands moving slightly in the wind.

He watches Wemmbu while they walk. Jaden can’t bear to tear his eyes off him in fear that he’ll miss some sign of Wemmbu being alive and present. He nearly trips over his own feet several times.

Over a particularly rough bump, Wemmbu’s hair shifts enough to reveal his eyes. And he’s looking right at him. Jaden stops dead in his tracks before speeding up again with a wince, his feet aching. Wemmbu looks away almost instantly, but he saw that. Wemmbu knows he’s there, and hopefully that’ll mean something to him.

Jaden belatedly notices Wemmbu’s antennae are unfurled again, twitching slightly. Of course Wemmbu knows he’s there, he can sense vibrations with those, even invisible players.

Wemmbu abruptly kicks Lettuce to get his attention. It earns him a jab in his side from the guard right behind him, and Wemmbu shudders with pain. But then he opens his mouth, and realization slams into Jaden. He’s not waiting for Jaden to free him, he’s selling him out. He’s going to tell Lettuce he’s there.

Wemmbu mumbles something, and Jaden has to strain to make out the words. “I think your guy is, uh, falling behind.”

Lettuce twists in his seat to give Wemmbu a sickenly sweet, condescending, smile. “You’re right! We should wait up for him, thank you, Wemmbu.”

Wemmbu snorts with annoyance, clearly not fooled by Lettuce’s niceties, and Jaden nearly goes limp with relief. Wemmbu’s not selling him out, he’s buying him time for a rest, and he’s not fully given up yet. He’s still 

Jaden takes the opportunity to sit down on a rock and rest his feet. He doesn’t have a horse, unlike the lawmen, and he doesn’t have any boots either. It’ll be a long rest of the walk there.

…

“Okay. I have enough pots for a few more days, but after that I might have to go.” Myst closed his shulker box and put it back in his e-chest. Jaden got a glimpse of what was inside, a mace and an odd assortment of almost-broken fishing rods as well as the normal gear people have. It was more than a little strange, but it was none of Jaden’s business.

Besides, he had other things on his mind. Wings, mainly, Myst’s wings. 

Myst looked up at him. “Okay, so. Why’re you looking at me like that.”

“Can I see your wings again?” Jaden said bluntly.

Myst stiffened. “You saw them?”

“Yeah, they're beautiful.” Jaden said. “You didn’t tell me to look away, so I looked, which, I'm sorry, but bro! They're so pretty! Can I see them again?”

Myst laughed. “Fuck no! Dude, are you stupid?”

“What?”

“Bro, they're delicate! And I know there’s a shit ton of people who’d just love to tear them off as well. It’s like-” Myst cleared his throat, and said in a fake, bright tone, “Hey, Jaden! Why don’t you just take off all your armour and then let me tie you up with a sword to your throat?” he cocked his head at Jaden. “No way, bro”.

“I will, if it makes you more comfortable,” Jaden said, already loosening the straps. He didn’t feel as nervous taking off armour around Myst as he should’ve, he trusted him now. Myst could’ve killed him a thousand times over by now.

“Bro-” Myst hissed at him, picking up the armour pieces Jaden was throwing on the ground and putting them back on him. Jaden could feel his body heat, warm hands brushing over his shoulders as he dressed him in the netherite plates. “Put this back on, you’re gonna get attacked.”

“There’s nobody around here, it’s okay.” Jaden said calmly. “The only person who could attack me is you.”

“Okay, that’s just not true. There’s some random chungies on that island behind us.” Myst sighed. “I wouldn’t attack you. You know that. Right?”

“Yeah, that’s why I'm fine with taking my armour off.” Jaden said, smiling at him.

Myst groaned. “Okay, you know what? Fine. You can see my wings again. But don’t tell anyone about them, and don’t you fucking dare hurt them.”

He re-equipped his elytra, and his wings appeared, shimmering beautifully in the sunlight.Jaden vaguely registered that his mouth had fallen open again, but it wasn’t important. What was important was the wings in front of him.

They were in their resting state, folded down. The light ricocheted off them, iridescent and bright. It looked like they were made of little nodes of membrane, being held together with thin, silver nerves, forming a sort of mosaic pattern. They were fluttering and twitching slightly in the wind, almost like they were trying to open and let Myst soar off into the sky.

Jaden reached out a hand and ran it down the length of one of his wings. It jolted half-open under his hand, the surface smooth and cool. “Holy shit. Oh my god.”

“Bro, they're just wings.” Myst mumbled. “Not that big of a deal.”

“Kinda are, though,” Jaden countered, now running both his hands over his wings, keeping the touch feather-light and gentle. “Kinda rare, too. I think I've only met one other bug hybrid before, and that was Wemmbu.”

Actually- Jaden paused. Wemmbu had gone missing, hadn’t he? Allegedly died? And right as he dies, Myst shows up, a new, powerful, rich anonymous player who just so happened to be the same kind of hybrid as Wemmbu? The pieces fit almost too well together, it made so much sense it almost seemed too true. Was Myst actually just Wemmbu in disguise?

“Oh, that guy. Wemmbu.” Myst spat out his name like it left a bad taste in his mouth. “Glad he’s dead. I don’t think there’s anyone on the server who’d mourn him. Good riddance.”

“I guess,” Jaden blinked, surprised. Myst couldn’t be Wemmbu, Wemmbu wouldn’t talk about himself like that. The sheer amount of contempt in Myst’s voice told him that it couldn’t possibly be him.

Myst cleared his throat, and stepped away from Jaden. “Okay, that’s enough touching my wings. We need to get going if we wanna catch up to Parrot and Theo.”

“Yeah, okay.” Jaden started pulling his armour back on. “Thank you for trusting me with that, by the way.”

Myst mumbled something unintelligible. “Uh, they're this way.” he gestured with his sword.

“How-”

“Bug hybrid? Antennae? I can sense vibrations in the air, dude.” Myst said.

That was really fucking cool. He knew where everything was just from sensing vibrations? That was actually incredibly useful, Jaden should actually make use of that. Myst would know if they were getting sneaked up on, and he’d know if they were going to get jumped. “Wait, you can even sense invis players?”

Myst shrugged, the floating shoulder plates moving up and down in the air. “Sure. If it moves, I can sense it. It’s, uh, kinda nice, I guess.”

Jaden grinned. “Dude, it’s awesome, and you know it. You just don’t wanna brag!”

“That’s not-” Myst cut himself off. “Okay, bro. Whatever you say. Let’s go find those pesky birds.”

…

The law prison doesn’t look as imposing on the outside. It doesn’t even look like a prison, it just looks like the exact same law building as before. But Lettuce’s guards are dragging Wemmbu in, so the prison must be under it.

Wemmbu glances at him again as he’s shoved inside, but only barely. He seems to be zoning out again, blinking slowly and unfocusing. He lists to the side and nearly falls over, only stopped by a guard shoving him back up.

The moment Wemmbu disappears down into the maw of the Law base, he’s mining. He packs the stone back up over his head, filling in the hole because he can’t risk anyone finding his tunnel. The mining is grueling, and he works feverishly. He can’t risk Wemmbu being moved to a different location or being dragged around by Lettuce.

He keeps one eye on Wemmbu’s name tag and one eye on the hole he’s digging, in case he falls into a pit or something. He’s making decent progress, at least.

Then it hits him. Mining fatigue. Of fucking course. And he can’t even drink milk even if he had any, because he has to stay invisible. This is going to take forever, even with his maxed out pickaxe.

It does take forever. Each block takes at least twice as long to mine, and his arms perpetually feel like he’s been working out for hours. The only positive is that Wemmbu’s stopped moving around, his name tag is staying in the same general area. It’s probably his prison cell, which means hopefully Lettuce and the guards aren’t trying to interact with him any more, so it’ll be easier to break him out.

By the time he gets close enough to Wemmbu that he can hear him pacing around his cell, his fingers are cramping and there are blisters on his palms. His arms ache and burn. He gets close enough that there’s only one layer of stone bricks separating him from Wemmbu, and then he forces himself to stop. 

He can’t do this right away. He needs to make an escape tunnel, otherwise he and Wemmbu will be sitting ducks the moment the guards notice his absence. And he has no doubt they would very, very quickly.

The most logical thing would be to take a short break, rest so that he can start mining out a tunnel for them. And it has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to rest his head against the stone bricks and listen to Wemmbu walking around his cell. Absolutely nothing.

…

“Yo, Myst, we need to rest.” Jaden called out to him. “We’re not gonna find Parrot tonight.”

“If we stop to rest now, they might get away,” Myst insisted. “We need to keep going.”

“Dude.” Jaden paused to let out a mouth-splitting yawn. “I need to sleep. I’m really tired.”

“I’ll keep watch, then.” Myst said. “Keep an eye out for any birds walking around.”

“No, bro.” Jaden started collecting sticks to make a fire. It was already dark, and they’d been awake for who knows how long. Several days, at the very least. “You need to rest too.”

Thankfully, there was enough dead wood around to make a decently sized fire. Jaden lit it with his flame bow – he didn’t have a flint and steel on hand – and crouched down next to it to blow on it.

Myst reluctantly sat down on a log near him, still holding his sword like he expected there to be a fight. His elytra was equipped, his wings out and folded neatly against his back. His wings were long enough that even when he sat down on the log, they nearly brushed the ground. They were still shiny and iridescent, even if there was no sunlight to bounce off them and make them glow like crystals.

“Sure, maybe, but it’s fine. Someone needs to stand guard, and you just said you’re exhausted. So it’s gonna be me.” 

“No, bro, it’s not gonna be you.” Jaden said firmly. “You were the one standing guard every single night, you haven’t even slept once. You need to sleep.”

“I kinda napped, for like, five minutes the last time we stopped to rest,” Myst offered, “Does that count?”

Jaden sighed. “No, bro, that does not count. Listen, if you really want to stand guard, we can do it in shifts.”

“I’ll do the first one, then.” Myst said quickly.

Jaden studied his body language as well as he could. Honestly, he couldn’t tell much without facial expressions, and the voice changer kind of cooked his tone of voice as well. Myst spoke far more through his actions than anything else. It made it kind of hard to figure out what he was going to do before he did it.

“Okay, fine.” Jaden said, “But you better wake me up halfway through the night, okay? Don’t use this to stay up all night. You need rest too.”

“I won’t.” Myst’s voice glitched through his voice changer. “Go to sleep, Jaden.”

Jaden got the distinct feeling that Myst was lying to him, but he was so tired that he just didn’t have the energy to push it any more. “Fine. Good night.”

He woke up when the birds were chirping and the sun was bright in his eyes, and his heart sank. He groggily sat up, blinking rapidly to get the gunk out of his eyes. He should’ve seen this coming. He should’ve insisted on taking the first watch. “Myst?” 

Myst was still sitting on the log he’d been on last night, facing away from the campsite, his cloak in his hands. He was bent over it, highly focused. Probably embroidering it again, like he did every night he stood guard. The sunflowers were steadily making their way up the fabric, bright yellow and green stems getting more elaborate every night and clashing with the purple of his cloak. 

Jaden stretched and stood up. Myst jolted, nearly falling off his log. His wings snapped open, throwing more sun into his eyes and twitching like they were about to start flying. “What? Oh. Hey, Jaden. Good morning.”

“You were supposed to wake me up halfway through the night,” Jaden said accusingly.

“Yeah. I tried.” Myst shrugged. He didn’t sound very apologetic, and Jaden sincerely doubted that he’d tried to wake him. “You were just so asleep, dude, you didn’t wake up!”

His voice was pretty deadpan, but Jaden caught the sarcasm and scowled slight.

Myst resettled his wings and folded his cloak, putting it away in his e-chest. Jaden never understood why he didn’t wear it, if it was something he cared about enough to embroider so carefully, but he was just weird like that.

“Myst.” Jaden impulsively reached for his hands. He missed, embarrassingly. Myst’s laugh crackled between them, and Jaden tensed. But then Myst grabbed Jaden’s hands himself, still snickering quietly, and Jaden relaxed. 

“Myst. You need to sleep, and if there’s some reason you’re not then you need to tell me so I can make it so you can.” Jaden said seriously. “You don’t even have to tell me why, just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it.”

The floating helmet and mask that represented Myst’s head turned away from Jaden’s eyes, but his warm fingers tightened around his. “Uh. It’s nothing that you could even help with, so just drop it. It doesn’t matter that much.”

“It actually doe-”

“We need to get going to catch Parrot and Theo,” Myst interrupted, tearing his hands away and equipping his chestplate. “I’ll go scout the area again. We have the whole east side to search.”

He walked away before Jaden could respond, so quickly that he was almost running. 

…

He expects to hear Wemmbu mumbling to himself. He expects to hear Wemmbu talking loudly to the guards, taunting them. He hears nothing except footsteps and Wemmbu’s too-quick breaths, gasping for air like he’s in the middle of a fight. His pacing doesn’t match the same speed it usually does, the lazy circle he always does when he needs to think. It feels more like he’s trying to distract himself from the reality that he’s having a panic attack in a cell, about to be executed in less than a week.

If this had happened even a few months ago, Jaden would’ve been thrilled to have his enemy locked in a cell, genuinely terrified for his own life. And now, he can barely hold himself back from breaking in and holding Wemmbu until he’s calm again. 

It scratches under his skin, knowing that he’s memorized how to handle Wemmbu when he’s so angry he can’t breath, when he’s so full of energy he can’t stop moving, or when he’s so scared he can’t speak. Sure, he learned those through Myst, but Myst is Wemmbu and Wemmbu is Myst, and the longer he reminisces on the time he spent with Myst the more he’s realized that Wemmbu never really acted differently. A little calmer, a little less bloodthirsty, but the same personality and the same habits.

The thing is, he liked Myst. He liked him a lot. Which means that he’s faced with the annoying truth that if he didn’t have a history with Wemmbu, he’d like him just as much. But that’s much harder to accept than simply accepting he liked Myst, so he tries his hardest to keep them separate in his mind. 

It’s harder, though, when he can’t see the bright splash of purple that’s Wemmbu. There’s nothing to remind him that it’s Wemmbu who’s in the cell next to him, not Myst. He shouldn’t be this concerned about someone he used to consider an enemy.

He reluctantly gets to his feet. He needs to start mining the escape tunnel, he can’t wait any longer. Wemmbu’s going to die by the end of tomorrow, he can’t afford a longer break. 

And it’s easier when he can’t hear Wemmbu any more.

…

Parrot and Theo weren’t on that island. They were on some different one, apparently. Who Myst had thought were the birds were actually some random broke players. They’d wasted well over a day on this stupid island.

And of course, because Jaden’s trident was nearly broken, they had to boat there, because Myst refused to fly around with his wings visible. And despite Jaden’s protests, Myst had insisted on doing his half of the rowing as well. He was starting to falter, though, nearly falling asleep multiple times. He was so out of it he almost didn’t realize when they’d arrived. Jaden had to gently nudge him until he mumbled something and stumbled out of the boat.

“Listen-” Jaden started.

“No, I'm fine.” Myst said firmly, his words almost slurring together. “We need to find Parrot and Theo. It was my fault we lost a day searching on the wrong island, anyway.”

“Myst, you need to sleep.” Jaden said firmly. “Come on, let’s find somewhere comfortable.”

“I can’t, I have to keep splashing invis every ten minutes,” Myst said, almost pleadingly. “I can't let it run out.”

“If you give me your invis shulkers, I'll splash it for you,” Jaden offered, “I have a clock, too. I’ll keep track of the time for you.”

“I-” Myst sighed. “Fine. Here. Just- promise me that if you find Boomie or Boosfer-”

“I’ll kill them for you,” Jaden promised. “Don’t worry, I'm not gonna let them get away.”

“Don’t let them talk to you, either.” Myst warned, slowly sinking to the ground. “They might- uh, say something.”

“I won’t let them tell me who you are, it’s okay.” Jaden said soothingly. 

It was soft here, damp and squishy with moss and moisture. Which was also why there were so many fucking frogs, too, but he ignored them. Myst curled up on his side and rested his head on the ground. Jaden convinced him to take out his cloak so he could drape it over him, for extra warmth, and Myst was dead asleep in less than a minute.

Jaden watched the clock as carefully as he could while also not boring himself asleep. He mentally counted the ticks and amused himself by punching frogs to death.

After a few hours, Jaden was starting to really get bored. The frogs had learned to avoid the clearing he was in, and he was pretty sure he’d glanced over every rock around here at least twice. And it was more entertaining to watch Myst’s chestplate slightly rise and fall than it was to stare blankly at tree trunks.

Jaden squinted at him. Was it just him or was his breathing more erratic than before?

Myst abruptly sat bolt upright, gasping frantically. Jaden jolted and instinctively threw an invis pot at him, cringing away. But Myst didn’t attack, instead staying sitting on the ground, panting rapidly.

Jaden slowly approached, and then sat down next to him. “Myst? You good?”

Myst shook his head hard, reaching up to clutch his head. A quiet little whimper broke through his voice changer, and Jaden realized his whole body was shaking. “Oh. Uh, bad dream or something?”

Myst didn’t respond or move, his head in his hands, hunched over in front of Jaden. He reached out slowly, intending to rest a hand on Myst’s shoulder to ground him. The moment his fingertips connected with him, he felt a sharp shove and he was suddenly flat on his back, blinking dizzily up at the star-filled sky, his head aching from hitting the ground.

When his head stopped spinning, he realized that there was a netherite sword pointing at his face connected to Myst, who was standing up and facing him in a defensive stance.

Jaden tried to sit up, and the sword moved closer to his throat. “Hey. Myst, it’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Myst didn’t respond. His elytra was equipped and his wings were spread open, rockets held in his other hand like he was about to flee at any moment. The sword point shook dangerously close to Jaden’s jugular.

“Please don’t run,” Jaden said desperately, “And please don’t accidentally kill me.”

Myst’s breathing was quick and panicked. He didn’t move.

“Can I sit up?” Myst didn’t move for a full ten seconds, but then he shuffled backward a few steps, his sword still pointing threateningly at him. Jaden sat up slowly, wincing as a headache bloomed. 

“Hey, you’re safe, Myst.” Jaden kept his voice low and soothing as best he could, holding out his hands palms up. “Take a few deep breaths. I think you just had a bad dream or something.”

Myst’s sword dipped, and then lowered. He pulled his cloak around himself and crouched down, pressing his face into his arms. Jaden crawled up next to him. “Hey. You’re okay. Can I, uh, hold you?” Myst nodded.

He wrapped his arms around Myst and pulled him into a hug. Myst tucked his head into Jaden’s neck, the diamond helmet and voice changing mask forcing him to lift his head awkwardly. 

Jaden tried to pat his back, but his wings were in the way, so he shifted to petting them instead, rubbing the smooth membrane and silently marvelling at it. It seemed to work, Myst slumping more into his arms, his wings returning to resting position instead of fluttering anxiously. 

“What happened, man?” Jaden asked. “What scared you?”

Myst just shook his head. Jaden traced the veins of one wing to the tip, mapping out the little rows and columns they formed. They pressed back into his touch, like Myst wanted him to keep petting them. He pulled away for a moment before leaning back into Jaden, wiping at his eyes.

“You good now?”

“Yeah.” Myst said quietly. “Sorry, it was just… you know. Nightmares.”

“It’s fine,” Jaden said. “We can stay like this for a bit longer, if you want.”

Myst lifted his head from Jaden’s shoulder again. “We have to get going. I’ve slept enough.”

Jaden ever-so-gently nudged Myst’s head back down. “We can stay like this. If you want, I mean.”

Myst laughed. “Bro, you just really wanna keep petting my wings, huh?”

“You’re warm.” Jaden said evasively.

Myst hummed. “Yeah, sure, whatever. We can keep hugging. Let me take off my helmet, though. And no pulling my hair.” 

…

Mining out the tunnel takes hours. He’s not sure exactly how many because there’s no daylight underground, but long enough that he’s forced to sleep. Over twelve hours, then. 

The whole thing is nerve-wracking. He keeps glancing behind himself, anxious about someone accidentally mining into his tunnel and catching him. He knows the Law probably doesn’t think of him kindly, either, and they’d probably jump at an opportunity to get him behind bars.

By the time he’s confident that the tunnel would surface outside of the Law city, he can barely feel his shoulders. His hands are covered in blisters, and his feet are aching so bad he can barely stand. If he tries to break Wemmbu out like this, he knows he’s not going to be able to take a fight.

He’s forced to sleep. Again. It itches under his skin, having to put off freeing Wemmbu for yet another few hours, but there’s really no helping it. And he needs to get a gear set out and ready for Wemmbu as well, so he doesn’t die in one hit if they get chased.

He trudges back to Wemmbu’s cell, leaning against the wall for support. He can barely keep his eyes open, and his whole body hurts from the constant exertion. He’s exhausted in every sense of the word, and yet it’s even harder to make himself sleep than it would be to continue mining.

He can hear Wemmbu, at least. It’s sort of soothing, hearing him breathe and knowing that he’s still alive, he’s not dead yet. He’s not pacing right now, probably too tired from walking in circles for- who knows how long at this point. At least a full day by now.

They should both try to sleep. Chances are something will go wrong tomorrow, and they need to be ready for it.

…

“Hey, guys, we’re just an unrelated third party! You don’t even really gotta be attacking us or anything!” Myst shouted, pearling away to gulp down a gapple.

“Yeah, guys, go get Parrot and Boomie,” Jaden added. He whipped out his mace. At least it was raining, he could still trident-mace them.

The stupid players from Ranger Point had found Parrot and Theo first, and Boomie was with them. And of course, the moment they’d decided to make a break for it, the rangers had noticed Jaden and Myst sneaking up from behind and attacked them instead.

Myst was holding his own, and Jaden knew he could for a while still, but Boomie and Parrot – and the treasure by extension – were boating away, and they needed them dead, Myst especially.

Jaden cursed silently, realizing he didn’t have a trident. “Myst, give me your trident!”

Myst pearled over to him, nearly into him. Jaden reached out, fumbling for his hands. A ranger shoved them away from each other, and Myst groaned. “Pearl away, dude! I can’t pass it when there’s others around us.”

“I don’t have any!” Jaden protested. 

Myst groaned again and pearled, this time right on top of him. Jaden only barely had time to register Myst falling out of the sky before he landed right on him, knocking him to the ground. A sword stabbed down at them, and Myst knocked it away with the fork of his trident before shoving it at Jaden. “You better not be lying about being good with trident-macing.”

He nearly missed it, fumbling the weapon with cold, wet hands. The rain blurred his vision, but he still managed to notice the sword aimed at Myst’s neck. His mace snapped the blade in two. 

Jaden launched himself up in the air with the trident and fell back down, cracking someone’s skull open with a satisfying crack before tridenting away again.

Myst said something that was definitely praise or congratulations, but Jaden was too far up in the air to make it out properly. His next hit didn’t kill, but it did shatter the shield that the player had been cowering under. Myst swiftly slaughtered him before he needed to mace him again.

They were a good pair in fights, Jaden realized. Myst could draw them on him, weathering hit after hit until Jaden killed them with one mace hit. They were winning, easily.

“I have to go after Boomie and Parrot,” Myst shouted at him, pearling on top of a tree for a short break. “I need a trident. Can you drop someone who has one?”

Jaden ignored his disappointment. Of course Myst had to go chase after the clue and Boomie, it made sense. He’d get other chances to fight alongside him anyway. Myst needed to kill Boomie if he wanted his identity to stay a secret, and Jaden wouldn’t be the reason it got out.

So he nodded, and turned his eyes to search for anyone holding a trident while he launched himself up in the air. 

There, someone almost directly below him, trident raised to protect himself from the onslaught of Myst’s attacks. Jaden slammed his mace on him, feeling bones crack and muscles give before running away again, aiming for the next person with a trident. He saw Myst out of the corner of his eye wrench away the trident clenched in the corpse’s dead hand. 

He landed on the ground again and scanned the nearby players, looking for an easy target. He nearly didn’t recognize Myst when he wrapped an arm around his chest from behind. 

Jaden tried to twist around to look at him. “Why are you holding me, bro?”

“No reason,” Myst said, squeezing him tightly. “Uh, good luck. You’re not half-bad with trident-macing, I guess.”

Jaden laughed. “Okay, bro. I’m not gonna die. Don’t worry, you’ll see me again.”

The way Myst didn’t respond for half a second worried him. “I only have one more invis after this. And that’ll be used up by the time I get back.”

Oh. Myst was saying goodbye now before he left, knowing that he might not be able to come back. Jaden felt like his whole world was crumbling to pieces.

Someone tried to approach them, and Myst shot them away with a bow. Jaden just stood there, trying not to cry. He might never see – or hear, really – Myst again. This might be the end of it.

“Come back anyway,” Jaden croaked out, blinking past tears. “Please.”

Myst scoffed, but it sounded weak. “Yeah. I will, dude. I just don't think you’ll want me to stay after you see who I am.”

“I will,” Jaden barely heard his own voice. “Just come back, okay?”

Myst let go of him, and tridented away without responding. Jaden just stared blankly ahead, barely registering the people who were trying to attack him again. Myst had left, and he might not be coming back. 

Well, not if Jaden could help it. He gritted his teeth and launched into the air again, ready to kill the remaining rangers. He’d figure something out. He’d do anything to keep Myst with him even a few moments longer. Anything. 

…

He can’t sleep. Not when he can hear Wemmbu crying as quietly as possible only a few blocks away from him. It’s impossible.

He hears Wemmbu’s breath hitch, and a quiet whimper. He frowns, trying to keep his eyelids open despite how heavy they feel. His eyes are literally burning from keeping them open for so long, but he simply can’t let himself sleep, for some stupid reason that he refuses to acknowledge.

“Shut up,” Wemmbu’s voice is quiet, and he sounds exhausted and scared and so oddly sad that Jaden, in his sleep-deprived brain, almost responds thinking he’s talking to him. 

He’s not, he knows he’s not, but he still wants to respond and reassure Wemmbu that he’s not trying to upset him. 

“You’re not real,” Wemmbu mutters. Jaden can hear his bed creaking, maybe he’s rocking back and forth on it? “Stupid fucking hallucinations, bro!” He forces out a too-loud laugh. “So this is what solitary does, huh? Make me hallucinate dead people? Great. Thank you, bro.”

Jaden’s heard about players that have gone mad from being alone for too long, and he – like every other player – is aware that hallucinations happen as well. He just didn’t think it would happen this quickly.

“Shut up!” Wemmbu groans, and then the next words come out muffled slightly. “Bro, I swear. This- this fucking sucks.” He almost sounds like he’s about to cry.

Jaden lightly knocks his knuckles against the stone, trying to get Wemmbu’s attention. This is so stupid, and he knows it could jeopardize the whole mission, but he can’t sleep when Wemmbu’s talking to himself. He needs Wemmbu to know he’s not alone, if only to make him shut up.

It’s not the only reason. It’s definitely not. But he doesn’t want to admit the others.

It works. Wemmbu goes silent, and he stops breathing for a few seconds. Then he laughs, but his voice cracks halfway through it. “Nah. Nah. I’m really losing it.”

“You’re not.” Jaden’s voice is low, words slurring slightly from his mouth moving too slow. He’s so fucking tired. He can’t even keep his thoughts straight in his head anymore.

Wemmbu falls silent again, his breathing starting to pick up speed. “Yeah, right. Don’t believe it.”

“I’ll break you out tomorrow, m’kay?” Jaden’s eyelids are closing. He can barely even keep his mouth moving. His tongue feels like lead. “Promise.”

He almost misses Wemmbu’s response. 

“Okay.” He still sounds like he doesn’t believe it’s true. “I’ll- I'll hold you to that, then.” Jaden will swear until the end of time that he heard some flicker of hope in those words. He knows it’s only because he wants to hear Wemmbu happy again so badly.

…

“Jaden?”

Jaden’s heart soared when he heard Myst’s voice. “Yo.”

He sounded to be behind him, maybe a chunk or two away, but he didn’t want to risk accidentally seeing him, so he squeezed his eyes shut. He fumbled for the tree behind him, using it to orient himself.  “Hey, where are you?”

There was a pause, long enough that Jaden started to wonder if Myst had simply left. But he wouldn’t, Myst wouldn’t do that to him. “I’m, uh… out of invis.”

“Oh.” So then Jaden had been right to close his eyes. “The guys I killed dropped some potion materials, so I made you some potions.”

“Wait, really?” Jaden wasn’t sure what that emotion was in Myst’s voice, the voice changer made it hard to tell. Relief? Surprise? Gratitude?

He mentally plotted out where Myst was in relation to himself, and started carefully walking away from him, testing the ground in front of him with his feet in case it went down a block. “Yeah, it’s over there in the brewing stand.”

“Okay.” 

“I- you said you wouldn’t have any left, so I made some for you.” Jaden said. “I can just walk away, and you can grab it. Ow!” He’d collided with a tree, of course, smacking his head hard into the unforgiving trunk. “Dude, this stupid tree. I can’t see shit with my eyes closed.”

Myst snickered. “Uh, duh.”

Jaden kept walking away with his eyes closed, this time with his hands held out in front of him to prevent any more collisions. He heard Myst walking as well, slow, careful footsteps that practically yelled to Jaden how anxious he was.

“Are your eyes open?” Myst asked. 

“No, I can't see you.” Jaden repeated patiently. He heard Myst take in a deep, shaky breath. “I can go in a hole underground, if that’ll make you feel better.”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Myst sounded more like he was trying to convince himself. “I’ll be fine.”

He heard blocks being placed and broken, Myst making his way ever so slowly to the brewing stand. There was a soft buzzing of his wings brushing against each other, the edges of the top wings rubbing against the bottom wings the way he did when he was unsettled or nervous. Jaden traced the ridges in the bark of the tree he was next to, wishing he could do something to calm him. But it was fine, he’d get his invis soon. Myst would be okay.

He heard glass shatter, and relaxed. 

“Alright.” Myst paused to clear his throat, his voice strengthening. “I’m good now.”

Jaden opened his eyes – blinking a little at the sudden light – and turned around to face him. “Good.”

Myst was crouched over the brewing stand, wings open but relaxed, taking out the other invis pots and putting them in his inventory. “Thanks.”

“Of course, dude.” Jaden picked up the remaining potion materials, and started reloading the brewing stand. “I can maybe make another round of invis, if you want.”

“Uh. sure, yeah.” Myst sat down next to him, half-heartedly poking the ground with his sword. “Thank you.”

“You already said that,”

“Well, yeah, but, like…” Myst trailed off, and then put his sword back into his inventory, reaching out at Jaden.

Jaden held out his hand, trying to guess where Myst’s was in the air. He was off by quite a bit, but Myst still managed to catch his and give it a tight squeeze as thanks.

“I didn’t think I'd be able to come back.” Myst said, by way of an explanation. 

“Dude, you’re always welcome back, invis or not.” Jaden said. He knew Myst wouldn’t believe him, he never did whenever he tried to convince him he really didn’t care who he really was. 

But he really didn’t. There was no way Myst was doing all this just to mess with him, and if he wanted Jaden dead he could’ve killed him a thousand times over by now. So, obviously, he was trustworthy, and Jaden would care about him just as much, regardless of who he was.

Myst laughed. “Yeah, right. I don’t think there’s anyone on this server who’d genuinely want me to come back.”

That… sounded strange. Almost familiar, like he’d heard something similar before. Jaden frowned to himself. Plus, it was weird how bitterly confident Myst was that nobody would like him. That Jaden wouldn’t like him, if he knew who he was.

It unsettled him.

…

He doesn’t feel as refreshed as he hoped the next morning. Is it even morning? It doesn’t matter, really. He sets up a shulker box with everything Wemmbu might need. Regen pots, armour, gapples, pearls, totems, and his only extra sword.

He presses his ear to the stone bricks and hears Wemmbu pacing around. Okay, good, so he’s awake. He starts breaking the bricks as carefully and quietly as possible. He pauses after every swing to listen for any possible alarms going off or guards closing in. There's nothing, thankfully, and he breaks the top brick without any trouble.

The moment it breaks and drops down as an item he sees Wemmbu. He’s facing away from him but he whips his head around to gawk at him. The first thing Jaden notices is that he’s in even worse shape than he’d thought. He looks like he hasn’t eaten anything in weeks, and like he’s gotten beat up even more since Lettuce’s speech. His wings are still pinned to his back with metal bands running around his torso, and his antennae are curled up tight again.

“Jaden?” Wemmbu sounds like he’s going to cry. “That was you?”

Jaden ignores him and breaks the second block keeping him and Wemmbu apart. He steps into the cell and tosses Wemmbu the shulker. “Put the armour on and let’s go.”

Wemmbu hastily places it down and starts putting on the armour as quickly as he can. The chestplate catches on his bound wings and he hisses with pain and yanks it off again. “Can’t.”

“Just do the others then.” Jaden says. He’d rather die than make Wemmbu crush his delicate wings under netherite, and it’s his own fault he didn’t leave slits for them. Then again, with the way they’re bound he couldn’t have predicted where exactly he needed to cut.

Wemmbu nods, and reaches for the helmet. He almost puts it on, but then he stops with a grimace. “Can’t either.”

Right, his antennae. Jaden wants to hit himself, because that was fully his fault. “Great.”

Wemmbu takes the leggings and the boots and sits down to pull them on, so he’ll have some protection at least. Still, he’ll be far easier to kill than Jaden likes. 

Wemmbu’s hands are shaking so badly he can barely pull the straps tight. Jaden wishes he knew whether it’s from fear or pain. He hopes it’s the latter, but Wemmbu seems to be curling into himself and blinking away tears, and he’s not unfurling his antennae. 

He tries to distract himself by looking around the cell. It’s even more depressing than he’d thought, nothing except a flimsy bloodstained cot in the corner. The lighting is tinted blue, and it’s cold. Jaden hates it.

…

“About the treasure. I wasn't able to get it. Parrot got to the treasure before me.” Myst said. “I killed Boomie, though.”

“That’s good, at least.” Jaden tried not to be too disappointed. It would be okay, he’d get his pirate empire another way. And, honestly, it was more important that Myst stayed safe than to gain power he didn’t necessarily need. 

“So, uh,” Myst cleared his throat. “What’d you say you even need it for, again? Because if you need, like, money, I can give you that.”

“What?” Jaden’s mouth dropped open. “Dude-”

“I mean, what do you want to do with the treasure?” Myst talked over him. 

Jaden only let the change of subject slide because it was Myst. “I wanna rebuild my pirate civilization, dude. I need a giant build, I need pirates, I need gear for them, too. A treasure would’ve been perfect.”

Myst was quiet for a few minutes, obviously thinking. He paced around the clearing, flipping through chest and making little thinking noises that made Jaden smile. Eventually, he stopped and sat down again, opening his e-chest. “So you need a build, pirates to serve you, and gear for them, right?”

“Yeah,” Jaden said slowly. “You don’t have to pay me back for not getting the treasure, Myst. It's fine, I doubted we’d even get it anyway.”

“Shut up. I’m counting.” Myst said, not unkindly. He mumbled numbers under his breath, taking out shulker boxes and organizing them with quick, practised movements. 

“Okay.” Myst looked back up at him, and threw several shulker boxes into the ground in front of him. Jaden could hear the grin in his voice. “Here. That’s enough for at least ten gear sets. It’s all I could spare, ‘cause I still need to, y’know, not die. That with the gear from the dead rangers is probably enough for a whole civilization.”

Jaden shook his head. “I can’t just take all of this, bro. It’s too much, you don’t have to pay me for not getting the treasure.”

“Okay, well.” Myst shrugged. “Either you pick those up or they’ll despawn, because I'm not taking them back.”

“Dude.” Jaden said incredulously. “Are you serious?”

Myst ignored him.

“Myst,” Jaden repeated, “You can’t just give all of this away to me.”

“Just take it.” Myst said bluntly. “In case it wasn’t clear, I want you to have it. And it’d be used better by you anyway.”

Jaden reluctantly picked up the shulker boxes. They were heavy with netherite and gold and practically screamed how valuable they were. Myst was either rich beyond belief, felt unbearably guilty, or just really, really liked him. Jaden tried to convince himself that he didn’t want it to be the last option. 

“Why, though?”

Myst requipped his elytra to stretch his wings out, splaying out in all four directions. “Uh, I just said, I want you to-”

“No, like actually.” Jaden interrupted. “What’s the other reason?”

Myst made a sound that his voice changer twisted into something he couldn’t decipher. “I don’t know, man! I just wanted to. And now you’re happier, and it works out, so who even cares?”

Jaden tried to tell himself that this didn’t mean anything. Myst could be just making stuff up, or this could be just something he was doing out of obligation. But it didn’t feel like that. It felt like Myst wanted to give him a gift, something that would help him get the pirate civilization he wanted, and didn’t know how to say it. 

He was suddenly, vividly reminded of Myst offering to kill the frogs for him on that horrible frog island. Myst had killed any that had tried to jump onto him, without even Jaden asking him to. Myst hadn’t needed to give him that netherite set, either. He hadn’t needed to help him escape, and he hadn’t needed to come back when he ran out of invis. 

“Okay. I’ll take the gear. Thank you. Seriously, Myst.”

“Okay,” Myst said nonchalantly, his wings fluttering happily. Seeing that settled something inside of Jaden, making his chest bloom with warmth. “So, about the other thing. A big build. I think you already have that. Or, at least, you can get it really easily.”

“What do you mean?”

Myst laughed, and pointed in the direction of Ranger Point. “Pretty sure now that you’ve killed them all, we could just waltz in and take it!”

‘We’. Myst said ‘we’. Meaning he was coming with him, maybe even planning to stay longer. The joy that surged up at just that small word was almost overwhelming. 

Jaden grinned at Myst and blinked rapidly, because for some reason his eyes were getting blurry. “Then why don’t we go and get it?”

…

Wemmbu suddenly hisses in pain, dropping the armour straps to try to twist around to touch his wings. They're straining visibly against the metal bands, fluttering as much as they can. 

“Here.” Jaden gives up trying to ignore him and crouches down next to him, running a hand over his wings to calm him down. They're so thin and delicate, feeling almost like silk under his fingers, and it makes Jaden want to tear off the bindings. But he doesn’t have the time to do it as carefully as Wemmbu needs, so he’ll have to wait until they're out.

It does manage to calm Wemmbu down enough that he isn’t accidentally shredding his wings to try to free them, so Jaden starts tightening the armour straps for him. Being so close to his former enemy makes his skin prickle uncomfortably. He’s so close he can feel his heartbeat. 

Wemmbu also feels the uncomfortable proximity, looking anywhere except Jaden’s face and trying to hold as still as possible. “So. Uh. Why?”

Jaden doesn’t know how to respond to that, so he ignores him again and finishes up tightening the armour. “Okay, come on. Can you run?”

“Sure.” Wemmbu says. Jaden helps him to his feet. He hunches over, an arm pressed over his stomach. “Not for long, though.”

Jaden presses a stack of gaps into his free hand. “Eat.”

He does. Some color returns to his face, and his focus sharpens. Jaden breathes a sigh of relief and gently nudges Wemmbu to the tunnel. “Come on, bro. Let’s get out of here.”

Wemmbu takes a stumbling step towards it, but then he stops and looks back at Jaden. “I thought you hated me.”

“I did.” Not anymore, but Wemmbu doesn’t have to know about that. It’s too complicated to explain to Wemmbu in a few short words, and he’s not sure he could even if he had all the time in the world. He almost wishes he’d been kept in the dark forever, blissfully unaware that Myst was Wemmbu. 

Wemmbu looks so tired. “Dude, if you’re breaking me out just so you can put me in your own prison-”

“I’m not!” Jaden says. “M-Wemmbu, just go. Come on, we can talk about this later.”

Wemmbu nods, and starts running down the tunnel.

…

They were camping on the frog island again. It was too far to boat all the way to Ranger Point in one day, so Jaden had reluctantly agreed to stay the night on the frog island if Myst promised to kill all the frogs they saw. 

So now Jaden was trying to start a fire while Myst went around murdering amphibians, except it had rained quite a bit recently, and the wood was soggy and inflammable. Jaden gave up after his fifth try, and sat back to watch Myst clear out the rest of the frogs, scraping the carcasses off his sword a few chunks away so they wouldn’t have to deal with it.

Myst came back and sat across from him, glancing down at the soggy, slightly singed, firewood. “We should sleep. I’ll stand guard.” 

Jaden gave Myst a look. 

“What? You sleep, and I'll stand guard.”

“Myst, you need to sleep too.” Jaden said firmly. “We can sleep in shifts, so then you get some rest but don’t sleep long enough to have nightmares.”

Myst groaned. “Listen, it’s not that big of a deal. If you really don’t want to sleep so bad then we can both just stay up. I don’t care.”

“Fine!” He’d wanted to get Myst at least a little bit of a rest, but it clearly wasn’t working. So he’d stay up out of spite, if nothing else. 

Myst let out a scoff that sounded more happy than annoyed, opening up his e-chest to take out his half-embroidered cloak. “What’re you gonna do for the two or so hours until you fall asleep?”

Oh, so Myst was making this into a competition. Jaden flashed him a confident grin. “It’ll be longer, because you’re the one that’s gonna fall asleep.”

“Really?” Myst sounded amused. “We’ll see about that, I guess. Because I have something to do, and you don’t.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Jaden said dismissively, waving it away with a hand. “I can stay awake out of pure will alone.”

Myst laughed, and Jaden let himself smile. Still snickering, he rummaged through his e-chest until he found the thread and needle he needed, threading it easily and starting to work on a new sunflower on the cloak. Jaden simply watched him work. 

He clearly knew what he was doing, each stitch careful and planned. It was soothing to watch the sunflower slowly take shape, petals defining themselves, leaves crawling up flower stalks. 

“Can I ask why you don’t wear the cloak?” Jaden said, breaking the silence between them. “Because obviously you care about it if you’re spending this much time on it.”

Myst paused and looked up. “Uh, it’s kinda too flashy. It’s bright purple, you know? And I know purple is associated with a certain mass-murderer. I like purple, but if people are gonna be chasing me down because they think I'm Wemmbu, then it’s not worth it.”

Truthfully, it had crossed Jaden’s mind. Purple was Wemmbu’s color, it didn’t make sense why Myst would have a purple cloak if he supposedly hated him so much. But Myst was giving him an explanation, that he just liked purple but didn’t like Wemmbu, and Jaden would rather believe that than theorize.

Jaden nodded. “So, then, why embroider something you’re not even going to wear?”

Myst shrugged. “Dunno.” 

“Can I hold it?”

Myst nodded, his mask bobbing up and down in the air. He’d taken off his helmet at some point. Jaden joined him on his log, sitting next to him close enough to feel his warmth and his wings brushing his back. The cloak was fastened off and then passed to Jaden. He picked it up, running his fingers over the stitches. 

The sunflowers at the ends of the cloak were clearly older, more faded and badly sewn, but the higher up the cloak the better they were and the brighter they became. Jaden traced the stalks with a finger, only barely resisting the urge to lean into Myst. It was comfortable like this, and he wanted to rest his head on his shoulder. But then Myst would probably gleefully make fun of him for acting sleepy.

Jaden looked up at Myst. “Why, though?”

Obviously there was a reason beyond just ‘dunno’, and Jaden wanted to know it. He wanted to know everything about Myst, from his past to what enchantments he preferred to how he liked his steak cooked. 

Myst shrugged again. “Dunno.”

He wasn’t going to share, clearly. Jaden resigned himself to not knowing. For now, at least, until Myst trusted him enough to.

Myst moved a few inches closer to him, so close that their legs touched, and leaned on him ever so slightly, like he was prepared to pull away if Jaden did. Jaden leaned back on him. The hard diamond was slightly uncomfortable, but ignorable in favor of the proximity. 

Jaden reached out to rest his hand over his, squeezing it gently. He felt Myst’s chest expand and contract as he drew in a deep, slow, breath and let it out. Jaden froze as he felt a warm head rest on his shoulder. Then he relaxed, wrapping an arm around Myst’s middle – slipping it in between his chestplate and leggings – and pulled him even closer against him. 

“I need to stay awake,” Myst mumbled. “Jaden. Don’t let me sleep, okay?”

Jaden hesitated. “If you fall asleep, I’m not waking you up unless you’re having a nightmare.”

Myst groaned, but he didn’t make any move to sit up. Jaden closed his eyes as well. He’d be fine with sleeping if Myst slept too. They were both exhausted, and he’d do anything that would get Myst even a few minutes of sleep without nightmares. 

Myst wrapped the cloak around him and Jaden both. It wasn’t the thickest cloak, and the sunflowers were slightly scratchy, but Jaden liked it. It smelled like Myst, familiar and comforting.

He was falling asleep, he could tell. He tried to open his eyes again but failed. It was just so nice, leaning against Myst and feeling him breathe. He could feel Myst’s long hair falling onto his back, the strands moving slightly in the wind. Wemmbu had long hair too, Jaden remembered. 

Myst suddenly gasped, raising his head slightly. Jaden made a disgruntled half-awake sound and shoved his head back down. Myst let him. “I need to keep my invis up. I can’t sleep.”

Jaden grumbled, pulling Myst closer against him without opening his eyes. “Blindfold me so I can't see you, then. I don’t care. There’s nobody else around here, don’t worry. You’d sense them if they were.”

“Fine.” Myst pulled his head out from under Jaden’s, and Jaden blinked, scowling. 

“Shut up. I’m just getting you a blindfold.” Jaden closed his eyes again when Myst gestured him to, a strip of fabric from his shirt in his hands.

Myst wasn’t exactly gentle when he wrapped it around Jaden’s eyes, but his hands were careful and steady, tying the knot cautiously so it didn’t get caught in his hair. “Okay? Can you see anything?”

“No.”

“Good.” Myst sat down and slumped into Jaden again, the sudden weight nearly knocking him off the log. Jaden pulled him back into the position they were in before, Myst’s head on his shoulder and his head on his, arm wrapped around him. 

“Sorry in advance if I hit you in my sleep,” Myst whispered. “The nightmares kinda get to me.”

Jaden mumbled something unintelligible. He didn’t care if Myst accidentally hit him, he trusted him with his life. He’d be here to comfort him no matter what.

…

Jaden catches up with Wemmbu easily, despite having to pause and block up the tunnel behind them every few seconds. Wemmbu’s not running fast, and he keeps leaning heavily on the wall. They're only halfway through the tunnel before Wemmbu’s legs give out and he crumples to the floor, panting hard. 

Jaden nearly trips over him. “Bro!”

“Sorry,” Wemmbu mumbles. “Can’t run anymore.”

Jaden sighs, and sits down next to him. Forcing Wemmbu to keep moving would only hurt him more, and he knows that when Wemmbu wouldn’t be resting unless he absolutely had to. “Fine. We can rest for a few minutes.”

“Thank you.” Wemmbu says quietly. 

Jaden fiddles uncomfortably with his pickaxe. “I know a place nearby where we can patch you up and stuff, once we’re out.”

Wemmbu nods. “Okay. But why? Because you literally admitted you hate me, so why even bother. I thought you’d be happy to see me executed.”

Jaden shakes his head. “Bro, if the law wins they’d come after me next. I run a pirate empire, dude.”

Wemmbu laughs shakily. It sounds forced. “Yeah, right. Forgot about that.”

The conversation trails off into silence. It’s obvious that Wemmbu doesn’t trust Jaden, and Jaden couldn’t honestly tell himself he trusts Wemmbu either. He desperately wishes he could go back to before Wemmbu was revealed, when he could safely fall asleep with Myst right next to him, standing guard.

“Did you really kill one thousand players?” Jaden asks quietly.

Wemmbu closes his eyes and sighs, something like pain on his face. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Jaden switches subjects. “How did- how were you revealed to the server?”

Wemmbu stands up abruptly. “We can keep going now.”

That was an even worse thing to bring up. Jaden should’ve known better than to mention that. He saw Wemmbu’s face when he was revealed to Jaden, he saw that devastated look in his eyes. Why would he have assumed that being revealed to literally everyone else would be less painful? Wemmbu misses Myst as much as he does. 

Wemmbu starts walking down the tunnel again, and Jaden follows him.

…

Ranger point appeared in front of them, massive and looming over the whole ocean. Jaden paused in his rowing to stare at it in awe. 

Myst bumped his shoulder with his, and he could hear the grin on his face. “That’s gonna be all yours soon.”

Jaden laughed happily, and nudged his shoulder back. It felt like everything was falling into place again. Myst was staying, at least for the foreseeable future, and he was going to get a bigger and better pirate civilization than ever before. He was going to find himself a real team, one that would stick with him, once he got everything up and running. He didn’t even need the treasure, now that he had Myst and a build all ready for him.

“Race you to the top!” Myst equipped his elytra and spread his wings, knowing full well that Jaden didn't have one and couldn’t trident-fly without rain. The sky was clear and sunny, light dancing across the waves.

Jaden scoffed, not even bothering to try to race him by boat. He could just elytra to the top in less than a minute, while Jaden had to boat there and climb all the stairs.

The first thing Jaden noticed on top of Ranger Point was that there was someone on the edge of the roof, looking over the water. Myst stepped closer to him, cautiously, and Jaden realized that it was the Lobster guy who’d imprisoned them. Of course. He’d been the only of the rangers to get away from Jaden.

The Lobster man turned around, and slowly approached them.

“Hey, buddy.” Myst said, his voice carefully neutral.

“Hello, helmet.” Lobster responded, barely contained anger on his face. 

Myst tilted his head at him, in a way that Jaden recognized as amused annoyance. “Looks like you’re missing a couple rangers.”

“You mean, like, all of them?!” Lobster snapped at him, getting up in his face.

Myst slowly turned his head to look at Jaden. “Damn. You killed a lot of people, bro.”

Jaden expected some sort of judgement in his voice, some indication that he didn’t like how many players he’d murdered in cold blood. Sure, Myst was also good at fighting and hadn’t been upset when Jaden had killed before, but he never killed anyone. And the fight had been more like a slaughter, after Myst had left. 

But the only thing Jaden detected was amusement and pride in his body language. He grinned back, snickering slightly. “My bad.”

Myst let out a giggle he didn’t even try to muffle. “So, Jaden. You want a build? Why not take this one?”

“No!” Lobster shouted, “No! I lost all my rangers and the treasure. There is no way you’re taking my base from me too!”

Jaden might’ve felt bad for him if he hadn’t tried to kill him. “I mean, what’re you gonna do about it?”

Myst made a sound of agreement. Lobster man breathed hard for a moment, and then took out his sword. “Well, there’s one option.”

Myst moved to stand in front of Jaden, body blocking him. “You think you can fight me?”

Jaden narrowed his eyes. ‘Me’, not ‘us’, meaning Myst intended to fight him alone. “Myst, wait-”

“Every time we’ve fought, you’ve run away from me,” Lobster said confidently. “I think I can kill you easily.”

Jaden winced. He didn’t want Myst to fight this alone, no matter how good he was. He didn’t want to risk it.

“Let’s do a duel, then. A duel to armour break.” Myst said.

Jaden opened his mouth to argue, but Myst brushed his hand with his, and he closed his mouth. Fine, he’d trust him with this. Myst had proven that he was trustworthy and knew his own limits. If he really wanted to take this fight alone, Jaden would let him.

“I’m wearing netherite, bro.” Lobster sneered. 

That was true, though. Myst wore diamond, which was objectively weaker. He’d be at the disadvantage from the beginning. He knew Myst had a dozen netherite sets, it didn’t make sense why he wouldn’t wear it.

But Myst didn’t even try to take out a better set, he just shrugged and said, “Okay. Anyway, if I win, you become Jaden’s second-in-command-”

“Third.” Jaden interrupted. “You’re my second.”

He heard Myst draw in a sharp breath. “Oh. Yeah, okay, you’ll be Jaden’s third-in-command. And if I lose, we leave and don’t come back.”

“Deal.” Lobster sounded so confident that he’d win, smug and insufferable.

It made Jaden nervous. Sure, it was a simple duel, and the worst that could happen was Myst getting a few bad cuts, but it still made him uneasy. Something about the look on the Lobster guy’s face made him reach out to take Myst’s hand again, holding it only for a few seconds before letting go again. 

It wouldn’t be the last time, Jaden reassured himself. There was no way he’d lose Myst.

…

They make it out of the tunnel, far away from the Law base, but Wemmbu looks like he’s about to collapse. He’s swaying on his feet and can barely even focus on the world around him. 

Jaden moves closer to him, and Wemmbu leans on him as he guides him through the trees to his base. Neither of them say anything about it.

Wemmbu’s antennae unfurl hesitantly, testing the air carefully before curling up again. They seem to be in bad shape, one of them bent at an odd angle.

“Nobody around except us,” Wemmbu says finally.

Jaden nods, and helps Wemmbu sit down. “We can rest here for a bit, then.”

Wemmbu stares at the ground, an inscrutable look on his face. “You never answered my question.”

“Pretty sure I did,” Jaden says evasively.

“Not really.” He looks up at Jaden. “Why free me, bro. Why not kill Lettuce directly, if you want to take out Law? You don’t need me to kill him for you.”

“I didn’t free you to make you go kill Lettuce.” Jaden says. “I just didn’t want to see you die.”

Wemmbu scoffs, but it sounds closer to a sob. “Really? I literally lied to you for over a month about who I was.”

“I think…” Jaden pauses, and then barrels on. “I think neither of us wanted me to know who you were. And I’m not mad you lied.” Not anymore, at least. 

He’d been furious and devastated when he’d found out and Wemmbu had simply bolted rather than explain himself. But it was hard to keep convincing himself that Wemmbu had done it to manipulate him when he’d been just as devastated as him.

…

Jaden almost didn’t realize it when Myst killed the Lobster guy. He stumbled around a little bit, waving his sword weakly before collapsing onto the ground. Jaden’s comm buzzed with the death message. Myst just stood there, as still as a statue, for more than a minute.

Of course. That was why Myst never wanted to kill anyone. Kill someone, and your name shows up on everyone’s comm. Jaden didn’t want to take it out, didn’t want to check the name that would be there.  He owed it to Myst that he didn’t look, and he truthfully didn’t want to know anyway. He didn’t want to think about who it could be.

But his hands moved on their own. It felt almost like he was outside of his body, watching with horror as he pulled it out and read the small, dark, text. 

TheLobsterMan was slain by Wemmbu

The letters blurred, and then Jaden realized he was crying. He blinked, and wiped at his eyes. 

It was Wemmbu. The whole time, it had been Wemmbu. He was so, so fucking stupid. He should’ve seen it. He had all the information he needed, he’d just refused to acknowledge it or put it together. 

Everything clicked. The moment Wemmbu ‘dies’, a rich, skilled, bug hybrid who likes purple and has the exact same goddamn cloak as Wemmbu shows up. Of course, because Jaden could never have anything, could never have a true teammate to count on.

No, he refused to believe it. Chat messages could be fabricated, right? He’d heard of that happening before. Maybe it was fake. Maybe Myst was just someone else. Maybe he could salvage this.

Myst was flying back up to him, wings humming in the air. He landed on the other side of the roof. Jaden noticed the slump of defeat in his shoulders, the way his sword trembled and his wings had folded back, hiding behind him. A bitter taste filled his mouth.

“Dude,” Jaden croaked out. “Did I read that right?”

He wished Myst would tell him he was wrong. He could spill any half-assed lie, any weak misdirection, and Jaden would believe it for him. Anything that would let him keep pretending everything was okay, that he’d still have him by his side as he built his civilization.

Myst’s invisibility ran out as the words died on his lips. He flickered into view, and Jaden automatically pulled farther away, tensing as the bright purple of Wemmbu’s hair assaulted his eyes. His body remembered how much he hated him, how badly he wanted to kill him, and it tore him up inside. Wemmbu pulled off his mask, clenching it in his fist.

“You can have your pirate empire.” Wemmbu’s voice – jarring, compared to Myst’s familiar glitchy tone – was completely bland of any emotion. Jaden had never seen him look so devastated, his expression twisted with anguish and eyes shiny with tears. “I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t leak my identity. Please.”

His voice cracked at the end, and he turned away, wings opening. Jaden felt his heart break apart as Myst took off. 

And then he was gone. Jaden had never felt so lost.

…

Wemmbu is shivering. Probably from the cold and the exertion and the sheer blood loss he’s experienced. Jaden almost wants to ask him if he wants to get up and start walking again, but Wemmbu doesn't seem like he can handle it.

So instead, Jaden places down his e-chest and rifles through it. He wanted to return this to him anyway, and now is as good a time as ever. Wemmbu watches him with disconnected interest, arms wrapped around himself.

“I kept your cloak safe.” Jaden says, his voice jarring the silence between them. He never should’ve put it in his e-chest after that night they’d slept side-by-side. He didn’t deserve it, even if Myst had said he could keep it for the day. He’d never gotten the chance to give it back.

He hands it to Wemmbu, who takes it with something akin to relief in his eyes. It’s folded carefully, the embroidered sunflowers just as bright as when Myst sewed them in. “Thank you.”

“It was the least I could do.” He was the reason Rejoice died, after all. And while he didn’t particularly feel bad about it, it very obviously had affected Wemmbu – and by extension, Myst.

Wemmbu wraps the cloak around himself, tracing the flowers with a finger.

“Wait, I have-” Jaden takes out one of the invis pots he’d kept in his e-chest for Myst. “Here.”

He’s not entirely sure what his goal was with offering Wemmbu invis. It’s not like he’d magically get Myst back, he’d never get that kind of innocent ignorance back. But at the very least it might make them both more comfortable.

Wemmbu accepts the bottle. He stares down at it, his eyebrows drawing together. “Wow, you really hate looking at me that much, bro?”

“That’s not what I-”

Wemmbu speaks so quietly that Jaden isn’t sure whether he was supposed to hear or not. “Me too, bro.” He uncorks the potion with a practised flick of his thumb and downs it in one gulp.

He visibly relaxes as the potion starts to take effect, tension easing and antenna unfurling, waving around lazily. He flickers around the edges, slowly becoming more see-through until he’s invisible and Jaden can only see the imprint of him and the armour floating in the air.

Wemmbu sighs slowly, and Jaden feels a head settle on his shoulder. He leans into it. It’s a little concerning how easy it is to have Wemmbu so close to him, leaning on him, and feel so comfortable and familiar about it. He almost wants to pull away, and he would if he had the nerve to. 

This is his former enemy, someone who he hated with all his heart and would literally go to the ends of the world to track down and kill. And yet he’s letting him rest his head on his shoulder right after breaking him out of certain death, and he feels so comfortable with it all now that he can pretend that it was Myst and not Wemmbu. 

“I wish I never killed that stupid lobster guy,” Wemmbu whispers. It’s jarring, having Myst next to him with Wemmbu’s voice. “I didn’t think he would quickdrop. I thought I might actually get to stay as Myst forever.” His voice breaks. “It would’ve come out eventually, but I wanted to be able to choose when. I wanted to be ready to have you look at me like that.” 

Jaden knows what he’s talking about. He didn’t exactly keep his face emotionless when he saw that Wemmbu was Myst. That probably hurt twice as bad. “I just wish you hadn’t run. You could’ve… explained, I guess.”

Wemmbu scoffs. “You hated me, Jaden. I think you would’ve forced me to leave if I hadn't chosen to myself.”

Jaden has to admit that it’s true. 

“It’s too bad I don't have my voice changer mask any more,” Wemmbu says bitterly. “Parrot kinda destroyed it.”

Jaden mentally notes that down. So Parrot was at least related to Wemmbu being exposed. He’ll make sure to be extra awful to him if he ever comes across him. 

“It’s fine.” He doesn’t exactly enjoy hearing Wemmbu’s voice, but he’ll get used to it. Wemmbu shouldn’t have to change every bit of himself to make this intimacy easier for Jaden to mentally swallow. The invis is more than enough.

“Okay.” Wemmbu rests a hand on Jaden’s wrist, and then curls his fingers to slip them between his. Jaden squeezes his hand. 

It’s so odd. His hand feels so familiar and so strangely right in his, but hearing his actual voice feels so alien. It makes this uncomfortable mix that Jaden supposes he’ll have to get used to. If he can convince Wemmbu to stay with him, that is.

“You can stay invis, if you want.” Jaden’s never very good with being diplomatic. He’s better than Myst at least, but that’s not saying much. 

“I mean, it would help keep you more hidden when Law tries to come after you again. I can make a voice changing mask for you to replace the lost one.” He's being too direct, too obvious about what he’s aiming for, but it doesn’t really matter. Wemmbu’s not a huge fan of people weaving words into nets around him anyway.

Wemmbu just hums. “Everyone knows I'm alive. I don’t think they’d fall for me faking my death twice.”

“You don't have to, you can just disappear. M- Wemmbu-”

“You can call me Myst, it’s fine.” Wemmbu snickers, but it sounds sad. “I kinda prefer that.”

“Myst,” It feels so much easier, much more natural to call him Myst. “You can just disappear. You can come back to the Great Sea and just stay with me.”

Myst doesn’t answer for a few seconds, long enough that Jaden starts to wonder if he’s misjudged horribly. Finally, he does respond. “I can’t. Lettuce will hunt me down, except this time he’ll lock up you as well.”

“Not if you stay hidden. And I can keep you hidden, Myst. I know I can.” Jaden’s not pleading, exactly, but he’s aware of the note of desperation in his voice. He wants Myst back, he wants to have him by his side again. “Even if you’d rather not be invis and just be Wemmbu, I'd still welcome you back into the Pirate Empire.”

“Hm.” Myst squeezes his hands again, rubbing his thumb over the back of Jaden’s hand. “Yeah, okay. I think… I’d like that. I don’t really have anything else to do other than hide away from Lettuce, and this does that. And getting you that stupid Pirate Empire was kinda fun anyway.”

Jaden feels his heart soar before he manages to calm it down to a light flutter. Myst is coming back with him. He’s going to be able to talk to him and hold him and braid his hair again. He’ll have him to guard him and fight for him and be able to take care of him in return. 

He hasn’t fully realized how much he missed him until the possibility of having him back is even feasible. Now, his chest aches from the days he spent without him, and he wants to take Myst back to show him his empire so bad it physically hurts. He has to remind himself that while Myst is invisible, he isn’t, and it’d be really embarrassing if he started crying right now.

He wraps his arms around Myst, careful not to put pressure on his bound wings, and buries his face into the invisible crook of his neck. Myst laughs, tangling a hand in his hair to hug him tighter. “Damn, if I knew you’d be this happy to have me back I'd've come back earlier. If I had the option to, I mean.”

Jaden just holds him tighter, relishing the familiar rise and fall of his chest before letting him go. “Come on. We gotta get to my base. And then we can go back to my Pirate Empire.”

Myst accepts the proffered hand, letting Jaden pull him to his feet. He’s still shaky and injured, and definitely needs at least a month of bed rest, but he’s here with Jaden, and that’s all he really cares about. “Okay, buddy. Lead the way.”