Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"No it's different. He's gone gone this time. I can't find him anywhere."

"Why would he go anywhere and not tell us? Especially after everything... We need to stick together."

"What if he's dead though? Like-"

"He can't be. He wouldn't die that easily. Come on let's just start searching. We have to find him eventually after all..."

"And leave this all behind??"

"It only holds bad memories anyway. Besides the people have plenty of other gods and immortals to entertain them now."

"I guess you're right.."

"Of course I am. Now let's get going."

***

"Dap me up!"

"Uh what."

"Dap me up!"

Quackity shut his eyes and lifted them towards the heavens, muttering to himself, as if when he looked back the strange slimy creature would be gone.

That fate must not be in his cards tonight, because when he looks back it's undeniably still there. It's even still holding its hand out as if looking for a high five of sorts.

"Who are you?" Quackity asks, hoping the slime knows more than the only three words it's spoken so far.

"I'm meat and bones just like you!" It replies gleefully.

Quackity tries very hard to not scrunch up his face. "Ok... I'm sure you are..."

The slime nods adamantly.

"What are you doing in Las Nevadas?"

"Just human things!"

"Yeah I'm sure," Quackity scoffs. "Now tell me why you're really here? Who sent you?"

"Sent me?"

Quackity was growing increasingly frustrated. "Who told you to spy on me?"

"Spy?"

"Stop acting dumb," Quackity groaned. "You've been watching me."

"I have! For a long time Quackity from Las Nevadas!"

Quackity was in disbelief at his naivety. If someone had sent this creature as a spy they hadn't made a very good choice. They'd have to try harder than that to touch his country.

"I've been watching everything!" the slime continued.

"Listen here... guy, you'd better stay far away from Las Nevadas. Tell whoever sent you that Las Nevadas won't take this kindly."

"Does that mean I have to stop watching everything else?" the slime said, obviously disappointed.

"Everything else?" The slime nodded. "Wait, how much have you seen?"

"Lots of things! I've watched a lot of humans live and love and hurt each other and then they all return to dust."

Quackity's head was starting to hurt. At least the slime creature was probably not a threat. Keyword probably. But if it truely wasn't sent by anyone and was really telling the truth, then who's to say that he doesn't use that to his own advantage. It wasn't the first time he'd twisted someone's arm and definitely wasn't going to be the last. He always felt more comfortable when he was the one dealing the cards.

The sun was setting in the horizon. He's had a busy enough day already, this could wait until tomorrow, right?

"Stay here alright?"

The slime nodded. "This is a very damp hole, I'd be glad to stay Quackity from Las Nevadas!"

"Good," Quackity said dismissively. "Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow. We'll talk more then."

"Ok Quackity from Las Nevadas!"

***

Far away from Las Nevadas, in a place surrounded in pine, two figures stepped as if out of thin air.

"That jump wasn't very pleasant."

"Well we broke through the whitelist of course it wasn't."

"You really think he's here?"

"It's our best bet."

"If I had an emerald for every time you've said that, even in the last thousand years, I'd have so many Sonk Ponkles."

"Yeah yeah I know. What can we do except keep looking though?"

bizly has joined the game.

Condifiction has joined the game.

Chapter Text

"Where are you taking me, Quackity from Las Nevadas?"

Quackity let out a sigh. "For the millionth time my name is just Quackity, none of that Las Nevadas stuff."

Slime tilted his head, confused. "But aren't you from Las Nevadas?"

"Yes, but you don't have to add it onto my name."

Quackity from Las Nevadas was a puzzling individual. "I don't get it."

"Of course you don't. Come on just follow me."

Slime wasn't exactly sure what Quackity wanted from him but he was just glad to be apart of it. After all he was just a human who does human things! He was pretty sure that's what they did. He had seen humans who didn't talk with any of their other meat brothers but in the end they just got sad. He was glad to accompany Quackity so he didn't get sad!

"Hey are you paying attention guy?"

He comes back to the present with Quackity waving his hand in Slime's face.

"Is this friendship Quackity from Las Nevadas?!" Slime blurts out.

"What-" Quackity steps back a bit in surprise. "I don't know about that yet Slime. I mean we just met."

"Oh I see, this what they call love at first sight then!" Slime asked innocently.

"WHAT? NO-" Quackity choked out. "Look here." Quackity shows Slime the back of his hand.

Slime is entranced by the way the sunlight bounces off the circles on Quackity's fingers. He's never seen anything like in the caves he used to call home.

"Shiny."

Quackity pulled his hand back, "hey no don't touch. I can't have you getting your slime on these."

"I'm not slime I'm meat! Just like you, Quackity from Las Nevadas!" Slime said, though he still brought his hand back to his side.

"I don't know why you act like a human. It's not like anyone would judge you. Most of the people here aren't fully human, if human at all."

"I am human!" Slime says proudly.

"Oh come on I bet if I poked a stick through you it'd come out the other end like it was jello."

"Aren't all humans like that? I mean- of course I would know as a human. After all you humans like to poke each other with pointy sticks all the time!" Slime says, smiling brightly.

"Yeah I guess we do..."

There is a strange expression on Quackity's face. It looks sad, but deeper, as if Quackity's eyes could show him the void of the end.

"Well anyway," Quackity says quickly, changing the topic, "my point is I'm already taken so you're a bit late Slime." He shows the shiny circles again.

"Someone took you Quackity from Las Nevadas?"

"Oh my-" Quackity face palms. "Forget about it, it wasn't important anyway."

Slime was still hopelessly confused, but at least Quackity was teaching him. At this rate he would learn all the human customs he needed to know to be one! Why hadn't anybody told him that being a human was so easy? He would have started years ago.

He is startled by a buzz and Quackity pulls a strange rectangle from his back pocket.

"What the-"

Slime peers over Quackity's shoulder, trying to see what was so special about the vibrating brick. It had a smaller square on it that shone like the torches humans brought into caves when they stripped them of ore, except this was more colors than just the orange and yellow of flame. The box itself had many colors too, as well as a few objects dangling off of it like a few oddly colored circles, almost like the coins Slime had seen humans pass around and two pendants that resembled a flame and a strange sort of spiral.

You whisper to awesamdude: did u see that??

awesamdude whispers to you: The prisoner is still in his cell.

You whisper to awesamdude: that doesn't make sense he shouldn't be able to whitelist anyone while he's in prison

You whisper to awesamdude: and the messages just disappeared right after they showed up

You whisper to awesamdude: what's up with that??

awesamdude whispers to you: I'm checking spawn as we speak.

You whisper to awesamdude: yeah yeah just let me know what you see

awesamdude whispers to you: Affirmative.

"Change of plans guy." Quackity turns to face him. "Today's lesson will have to be cut short. I can teach you more about gambling another day."

"Why are you pressing buttons on that strange square Quackity?"

"My comm?" Slime gives him a sheepish look. "Oh come on don't tell me you don't have one."

Slime pondered for a moment. "Do humans all have these comms?"

"Well usually yes but if you don't I can-"

"I have a magic light box! Just like you fellow meat brother." Slime said proudly.

"Uh huh?" Quackity raised his eyebrow, "you mind showing it to me?"

"Uh-" Slime looked around for something that could pass as the colorful brick Quackity had by now put back into his pocket. It was then that Slime had a brilliant idea as he stuck his hand into his slime and pulled out a stone he had absorbed earlier that morning.

"Here it is, Quackity from Las Nevadas!"

The stone was weathered smooth. Part of the way on it's journey to becoming dust like everything does.

It was also covered in slime.

"Eww just- just put it back ok?"

Slime happily obliged, absorbing the rock back into his abdomen where it rested comfortably.

"I'll get you a communicator soon, ok guy? I just gotta deal with a few things first."

Slime nodded excitedly. He didn't know what the strange rectangles were or how they trapped fire behind glass, but if it was a human thing then he'd be happy to add it to his collection of human items.

"Ok Quackity from Las Nevadas!" he said.

Quackity gives a long sigh, "and stop calling me that."

***

"Reveal yourselves!"

Condi just couldn't get a break could he? First Bizly suggested they break into a whitelist only world, which was a thrilling enough ride, especially for his stomach, which wanted to empty his breakfast onto the spruce forest floor, and now the locals were chasing after them. Not some villagers with pitchforks either. Whoever was chasing them was clad in full enchanted netherite. He didn't have the same eyes for enchantments that Charlie did, but he could tell that they weren't any good for whoever crossed the man's path.

"I know you're here," the man continued. His form was strange, almost centaur like and the air was filled with the scent of gunpowder. A creeper hybrid then.

"You deleted the server join messages right?" Condi whispers to Bizly.

"Of course I did!" Bizly said defensively, his voice rising to the point where Condi almost feels the need to shush him. "They must have seen it before I had the time to though."

"Well gee that's just great. How useful of you."

"Oh like you could have done it any faster."

Condi gives a deep sigh. This was all a bad idea and he's ashamed of himself for letting Bizly drag him into it. "Let's just leave."

"What? No. We just got here!"

"And it's already a train wreck!"

"There's something different this time I can feel it."

"Uh huh? Sure it's not just a side effect of the jump?"

"Yes! Well, maybe. But come on! When have I ever led you wrong before?" He stands up and offers his hand to Condi.

"So so so many times," Condi says, but he takes Bizly's hand anyway

A trident whizzes past Bizly's ear.

"Found you."

"Time to run!" Bizly cries.

Condi doesn't have time to protest as Bizly drags him away from the crazy hybrid.

Chapter Text

Technoblade was the longest of Phil's friend by far. They spent time together and apart but in the end fate always liked to put them back together. The thousands of years they'd spent together made them tightly knit brothers in arms.

The last time that Phil had seen Techno before the smp was when they had started a whole empire in Antarctica, like one does. Not to mention conquering the world together. Eventually the server became dormant and players no longer tread it's soil. He and Techno wordlessly parted ways, sure that they would meet again when the universe deemed it.

He heard rumors of a piglin warrior from the chatter of his flock of crows, but that was it before he received the invite for Dreamsmp.

Dream probably mentioned Techno's presence on the server and Wilbur must have mentioned it in his letters to home, but Phil didn't have time to really process that. After all Wilbur was doing the whole destructive spiral thing.

The first time Phil really noticed Techno was when he felt his gaze on him as he pushed the blade through Wilbur's heart. Of course everyone was watching, but in that moment it seemed that it was only him and Techno. Phil couldn't even bear to look him in the eyes in that moment. Phil doesn't know what he thought Techno would do in that moment, but he only solemnly nodded his head in acknowledgement of Phil and turned back to Tommy.

When Techno asked Phil if he would join him in the arctic, he didn't even take a moment to think it over. It's not like he would be accepted anywhere else, not really at least. Phil would always be remembered for the martyrdom of his son, no matter what people said.

He would just have to wait until the knowledge became lost to time or twisted into myth like everything else that was known about him.

"Hey Phil have you looked at the message log recently?"

Phil's eyes refocused on the book he'd be reading before his mind decided to tell it's own story.

Phil turned to face Techno, who was hefting his communicator in one hand and Orphan Obliterator in the other. "No? Why mate?"

"Surely you've felt it Phil," Techno droned on. "It feels like when you joined."

Phil took a moment to breathe in the warm and cozy air of Techno's cabin. It felt electric, as if it had been overcharged. There were only a few beings who could pull this off.

"Look I know chat I'm getting around to showing him," Techno muttered. "Look here Phil."

Techno showed Phil the screen of his communicator.

b̸̧̨̨̖̤̲̙̠̮̼͕̖̣̏̇̃͐͒ỉ̶̡͇̱̽͌̅͆̑͘̕̕͜z̷̨̘̤̬̤͎͔̗͇͎̯̞̘̥̞̈́͋̋ļ̸̛̛͓͚͔͉͈͛̂̔̀̔͌̈́̂̕͝ẙ̵͍̳̟͔̠̖͈̤̦̪̺̆̈́̎͛̌̈́̈́̈́͘̕͝ ̵̨̝̻͖̒̇́̾j̵̨̺̒o̶̥̞͖̦̠͇̮͚̿͂̎̒͋̾̏͑̽͆̌̂̚͝ͅi̶̗̩͕̥̲̪̳͙̟̿ṉ̸̬̱̠̣̩̹̱̒͑̋͋̐̊͝ͅȩ̷̛̤̫̤̼̼̟̼̜̋͐͘͝ͅḑ̵̛̟̳͉͉̇̈̉̾͋̾͑̈́͠͠ ̵̟̪̉̀̋͛̚t̷͔̖̪̘̭̻̦̦̼̜̍̉̔̓͘͜͝͝h̶̨̨̜̩̠̺̼̣̗̅̂̀̉̌͆̽̈̽ĕ̴̱̯̝̎̋͊̈́́̆̐̈͘͝͝ ̵̧̙̺̹̹̱̭͉̙̙̪̙̪̽̀̔̀̌̾̇͑̏̂̓̕͜͝g̴̨̨͔͍͔͎̭̝̞̼̘̤͍̃͆͆̓͆͒̀̅̐̽̑â̵̡̤͓̮̤̫̟̖m̷̬̦̬̭̣͇͇̔̒̓̽͒̇̍̅̚̕ͅͅè̵̻̣̝͕̣̲̜̤̈́̈́̀̉̓͒̒̋̑̄.̴̨̦̯͎̞͕͕̎͂́̈́̔͛͘̚ͅ

̴͎̫̲̑͑C̷̯͇̎̌̇ơ̷̝̟̙͗̈́̎̅̋͊̈́̓̂̋̚͘͝n̷͎͓̳̺͎̝͔̞̋̓͋̈͂̉͜d̴̮̪̣͕͗͒̾̎̀̒͒̃͑̃́̒̎͝į̷̛̛̺̮̭͎͇͍͙̩͚̫̥̳͇̌͊͜f̸̮̕i̶̧̡͇̥̲͛̍̍͂ͅc̵̡̩̘̖̖̪̲͉̟̱͈̃̾͂̾̇̿̅̉̈́ṱ̵̡̡̝̖͎̠̩̮̙̲̻̦̔́̏̎̑̓̽̓͒͆̔͠ȋ̷̧̡̧̪̹͔̲̯͚̖̰̦̘̎̀͘ỗ̸̢̢̢͓̰̮̼̼͐n̴̯͍͕̈́̅͌͋̇̍̌̕ ̴̛̺̉̐̏j̷̼̦̳̺͎̗̪̝͎̠̃͗͌́͒̽̐̉͊̏͒̔̑ͅo̵̧̧͔̗̟̹̣͖̼̗̘̰̎̿̽̀̔͊͐̓͐̓͌͜͝ḯ̴̗̇͐̊̎̑̀̂̍͘͝n̵̨̲͔̪̝͚̫̱̯̫̱̉̑̽̾͆̄͝e̷̡͈̭̫̟̪͈͔̩͓̼͋̇͌͗͑̄̾͋͐̔͜͜͝ͅḑ̶̨̖̭̝̞̒͛͊ ̷̧̺͚̼͇̟̭̹̯̰͈̏̊͋̀̃͜͝ͅṫ̵̨̫͍̗͕͍͕͉̒h̵̪͙̼̖̩̘̤͉̲̋̋̀́̚͝é̸̛̛̻̞̺̮͖͔͔̘̙̲͓͇̩͎̎͗̓̈́̇̎̈͗́̕͜͠ ̴̧̢̡̞̫̱̩̼̅̍̇͑͂̿̊̍̚g̵̲̟̠̭̰̱͎̜͓̜̗̾͛̇̉̽̔a̷̡̢̜͚̹̜͈̠̟̓́ͅm̶̫̈́̋̈̊̓̽̓̾̓e̷̢̛̛͇̰͓̲͚͈̟̳͚̔͗̂͗̅͛̋̂̓́̓͝.̷̡̠͓̘̱̺̘͕̿̌̽̈̕͠͝

"Someone was trying to cover up their tracks..." Phil said.

"Yeah." Techno snorted, "not good enough to get past us though."

It was only natural that gods and immortals were good at picking each other out of a crowd. Mortals were usually left in the dark but many times for better rather than worse. The practices of the otherworldly weren't meant for mortal comprehension.

"So who is it?"

"Me and chat have been bouncing ideas off each other but we can't seem to figure anything out." Techno put his communicator back in his inventory. "We know they're here, but I hate to say they did a good job at masking their identities."

Phil chuckled at Techno's furrowed expression. "And you want to track them down?"

"What can I say Phil? I'm most comfortable when I know what's on the table." He gestures widely, "besides, with the nature of this server anything and everything could be a ticking time bomb."

"You're right about that one mate." Phil moved to his feet, which had been propped up on Techno's table. "It'll be interesting at least, that's for sure."

Techno pulled his cape around his shoulders. "I knew you'd be on board Phil. Might as well get started now."

"Aww but I was so comfortable! Not to mention close to finishing this book." He gestured to the leather bound pages in his hand.

"Oh get up old man," Techno said, flashing a grin. "I don't have your for you to get all grandpa on me."

"That's a low blow," Phil said in mock annoyance, upturning his nose. "I'm coming alright mate? Don't get too ahead of yourself."

"Whatever you say old man."

***

"Oh come on I said not to get in there!"

"But it's so moist Fundy from L'Manberg!" Slime said from the midst of the Las Nevadas fountain.

This was the last straw. Slime had the mannerisms of a toddler and if he called him Fundy from L'Manberg one more time-

He can't believe he's doing this. When Quackity said he had an important task for him babysitting was the last thing he thought it would be.

"Where is Quackity? He said he would teach me about something called gambling," Slime asked.

"I already told you he had to talk to Sam."

"Sam from Prison?"

"Ye- wait how do you know that?"

Slime shrugged. "He's in this prison a lot, just like Quackity is in Las Nevadas and you in L'Manberg before it went boom!"

Fundy was this close yo strangling the guy. "For the last time I'm not from L'Manberg! Not anymore at least."

"That's unfortunate, Fundy from L'Manberg."

"That-" Fundy pulls out his communicator in hasty and frustrated motions. "That's it, I'm calling Foolish. If Quackity thinks I'll just take this sick joke of his I won't do it."

You whisper to FoolishG: ayo r u frre?

FoolishG whispers to you: uh maybe, why do you ask?

You whisper to FoolishG: quackity wanted me to tel u he has something he needs u to do

FoolishG whispers to you: oh well I guess if Quackity said so...

FoolishG whispers to you: I'll be right over

Fundy both makes a sigh of relief and then grins to himself.

"Good news Slime, someone else is coming to entertain you."

Slime's eyes brighten, "another meat brother?"

"Yeah yeah meat and bones and everything," Fundy said dismissively.

Foolish made it over to Las Nevadas surprisingly fast. He guesses that mentioning Quackity's name is the reason. The man is to be feared after all, as little as Fundy wants to admit it.

"What did Quackity need me for?" Foolish asks.

"He wants you to watch his..." Fundy searched for a proper word. "His friend. Yeah, his friend right here."

Foolish turned to look at Slime who was still splashing around in the Las Nevadas fountain.

"That's his friend?"

"Yes. Quackity said that you must watch him and that his safety is of the upmost concern."

That was partially true. Quackity had expressed a large amount of concern for the well being of the slime. Fundy didn't even have the beginning of an answer as to why, but Quackity wasn't always right in the head so maybe this was just another one of those moments.

"Well..." Foolish obviously had better things to attend to than keeping Slime out of trouble but he hesitantly agreed. "Quackity's in charge after all," he said.

"Good," Fundy said, making his leave before Foolish could change his mind. "I'll leave you to it then."

Foolish nodded and gave a nervous smile.

***

Slime had lead Foolish into the nearby forest and much to Foolish's relief, had settled down in a flower patch.

"Look at all these flowers Foolish from a long time ago!"

Foolish would have to ask him about all the 'a long time ago' stuff later, because in the moment he was barely able to keep up with Slime's constant chatter.

"Oh yeah?" he said humorously. "What's your favorite flower?"

Slime seemed to ponder for a moment before pointing to a red flower.

"That one!"

Foolish tiled his head, "a poppy? What do you like about poppies?"

A poppy for you Slimecicle, so when you see death coming at you at high speeds you can think of me and I'll already be dead.

"Hmmm. I don't know!"

Chapter Text

"-and a poppy for you Slimecicle, so when you see death coming at you at high speeds you can think of me and I'll already be dead."

---

"An apple, as red as your sins."

---

"We could have done things differently Charlie."

---

"Charlie what have you done?."

---

"̴̥͈̀̽̈́͗̋̊͘T̶̪̙͎̾̋̋ḩ̶̭̗̘̣̞̪̜̬̗̥͈̈́̑̾̊͒͗̐̄̑͜͠͝ͅì̶̛̲̜͍̊̋͂̑s̴̨̧̧̤̱̖͔͖̻̙͚̆̀̈́̆͜ ̷̧̨̧̯̜̥̰̮̠̣̉̌͆̔͊̿̃̕͝ͅi̵̢͖̼̟͕͕̦̺͈̫̖͊͑͒́̽̓͒̆̓͐́͝͠ͅś̵̢̞̺̝͕̝̼̰̞̩͍̎̿̃͜ ̴̟̦̪̦͎̞͚͕̣̂̔͐̽͌̅̈́͌͐̅̎̔̇̒͜͝a̶̗̳͚͙̳̜̺͉̙͔͊͜ľ̶̗͙̰͗̏͑̿̆͑ͅl̴̠̏͒̔́̒̈́̆̾͘̚ ̴̧̱̝͈͎͖̰̟̏̄̓͜ỷ̶̢̡̧̲̬͍̺̥̫̝͙̾̀͆͋̌̊̓̒͐̎̊̃͝ó̷̡̧͙̩̙̳̥̻͍̟͚̺͙́͝ų̸̜̬͕̅́͒̽̏͋͌͂̕͘̚͜r̷̙̼̮͈̲̘̥̼̦̗̗̜͈̩̎̐͑̕ͅ ̷̡̡̢̦̬͇̟͔̰̫͇͇̤͎̟̎̊̍̽̋͒̔͊̈́f̵̧̝̤̜̤̦̍̽̚a̴̱̤͇̞̤̬͕̼̥̬̞͐̇̂u̷̬̠͕͇͊͂͆̋̆͆̎̈́ļ̵͈͓̱̯̳̰͕̜͉̘̯͉̤̻̿̈́̅̏͂̇̎̉̽t̶͍͇͊̊̕.̶̟̈͊̄̔̿͑̂͊̎̚͝"̴͇̍̋̿

---

"Hey Slime! Snap out of it!"

Slime drearily shook his head. It felt heavy, as if there was some invisible weight pushing down on it.

"Foolish?" The god in question nodded. "Foolish from a long time ago?"

Slime tried to press his hands to his temples but the strange feeling made it hard to maintain their shape and so they more ended up merging with his head.

"Slime you're melting!"

Slime could only manage a curt nod. All he wanted to do right now was find a deep dark cave in which to rest for another thousand years. Away from the light, the noise, and most importantly that cursed red flower.

"Do you think you can walk?" Foolish sounded concerned. "We need to get you back to Las Nevadas."

Slime tried to stand but his legs couldn't stabilize him and he sunk back to the earth.

"Oh," he said. It was almost laughable the state he was in. Foolish ran to his side, his movements sounding echoy and muffled.

"I'm gonna help you buddy don't worry."

Slime gave a bitter laugh. If only Foolish knew what he's done, then he wouldn't be helping him.

Wait. What he'd done? What was that supposed to mean? What did Slime do? What did he do, what did he do, what did he do, what did he do?

W̴͈̹̭͍̝͒̈̃̇̇̓̃̎̋̃͘͝h̷̛̗̰̭̻̩͖̘̹̰̦̰͈̮̜̱̔͌́̃̈́̔̔̉̅͛͋̃̚͝á̸̧̛̬̠̼̼̲̩̳̭̙͍̘̜̇͆̋̈̇̾̓̽͂̏͜͠t̷̢̫̰͕̻̞̫̙̝̞̃͌ ̷͉̜͇͉̝͆̎̎̋̌́͑̋͗̎͜͠d̵̨̮͉͍̩̞͍̻̪̥̦̓̾͐͑̐̊̅͊̒͐̾͋͒̆̕ͅͅͅͅī̵̢̮̠̮͍́̈́͊͋̾͐̍͘d̶̢̮͓̗̫̟͉̖͍̬̦̖̭̦̺͋͐̅̇͌͠ ̶̢͓̪͈̞͈̼̮̋̏̇̄͋͐̌̓̚̕h̵̛̙͇̳͎͔̑̉̐̏̈͊̈́̈̉͘e̸̛̲̬̱͂̋̊͌̿͋̚ ̸̨̮̰̖̳̼̞͎̝̮̒͊̈́͐̉̈́̄d̴̡̧̢̢̻͙̟̩̮̞̓̃͋̾̚͘͘ͅo̴̡̟̬̳͇̳̰͎̯͊̏͗͌̈̓̋̑͝͝?̷̷̷̷̰̟̰̟̰̟̰̟̔̐͑̌͛̒́̾͐̔̐͑̌͛̒́̾͐̔̐͑̌͛̒́̾͐̔̐͑̌͛̒́̾͐̚̚̚̚

***

"Biz you feel that right?"

The man in question gave out a shuddering breath. "It's him." He laughed crazily, "he's here. He's here, he's alive, Condi he's-"

"I know I- we need to find him he-"

"So who're you two supposed to be?"

Bizly pulled Condi to his side. "I'd like to ask you two the same thing," he said defensively.

The first thing Condi noticed was the man's large silvery dark gray wings. An angel was his first thought, but the color of his wings said otherwise. The second thing Condi noticed was the stench of her, of Death.

"You're a disciple of Death aren't you?" Condi asked.

The man's eyes widened. "You're very perceptive mate." He clapped his hands together, "I we need to have a chat with you two."

"We?" Bizly's gaze went to the surrounding trees.

"Right here," a voice said from behind them.

Red flooded Condi's vision as a second man jumped down from the trees behind them. No not a man per say, a hybrid, piglin if Condi's eyes still served him well. The bloody scent of iron accompanied him.

Bizly didn't hesitate to pull out a stone sword, the only thing they'd managed to piece together between being in an unfamiliar server and having the locals chase them. Everyone’s reaction was different in each server they traveled to. Some worshiped them as gods and aided their search in every way possible, but there were others that called for their deaths and hunted them like animals. Most people were uncaring though, especially on larger servers. Condi and Bizly traveled incognito after all. The last thing they were looking for was more followers. They had given that up millenia ago. Honestly, the thought of returning to the way things were before with Molympus and the people that worshiped them made Condi sick to his stomach. He felt unworthy of his godly status ever since Griz fell and Condi just let it happen. Even after the universe gave their sorry souls a second chance Condi was the one to mess it up. Charlie may have been the one to hand him that apple, but Condi and Bizly let him fall.

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary mate,” the Angel said. “My name’s Philza, we just want to talk.”

Bizly snorted, “I don’t think your face will be necessary.”

Condi facepalmed. Bizly didn’t know the first thing about tact. He stepped in front of him, “we’re not looking for any trouble Philza, only a friend.”

The pig-man behind them spoke, “a friend, huh? And who might that be?” The grip on his sword loosened, but he made no moves to sheathe it.

“His name is Charlie, he went missing… a while ago and we’ve been searching for him since then.” Bizly nodded along with what Condi was saying. “We have reason to believe he’s here now.”

“Charlie? I’m sorry to break it to you mate but I don’t think there’s anyone on this server with that name,” Philza said.

The pig-man grunted in agreement. “Your friend ain’t here so you can scram.”

Oh dear, how to explain this one. It would be a little weird to say that they sensed his presence. Mortals couldn’t sense presences, right? Then again these two stank of immortality and the meddling of gods so maybe they’d understand.

Ever since Condi and Bizly had began their search the just starting gods and goddesses had free reign. The majority of them created their own worlds, like this one here, but Condi had heard of many trying to exert their power over the origin world and Molympus. As far as he knew no one had succeeded and it was still a free for all, but knowing some of the gods that roamed about, that could change at any moment.

At least Death herself, the second in power behind him and the rest of the counsel had agreed to not start any mass cults or giant wars in her name. She was much too nice to do anything like that in Condi’s opinion, a strange thing to attribute with Death but true all the same.

“We’re gods alright?” Condi admitted.

“What are you doing?” Bizly hissed at him.

“Figured out that much,” the pig-man said. “Who else would be able to break a whitelist?”

“Oh yeah…” Condi said sheepishly. “Our friend is a fellow god and we’ve sensed traces of his power on this server.”

Philza raised his eyebrow, “you don’t say? I wouldn’t have known because your auras have been choking out anything else on my radar.”

Philza could feel their auras? That would explain how they happened upon them so quickly and so seemingly out of nowhere. So much for hiding their godly status.

“I’m Bizly, god of polar bears.”

Condi had to stifle a laugh. Sure Bizly wasn’t lying, but out of all the godly titles he’d heard ‘god of polar bears’ had to be the lamest.

Philza seemed just as suspicious of the title, but only said, “and I’m Death’s Angel, nice to meet you. This is my dear friend Technoblade.”

The man in question snorted and made his presence known.

“Condi, god of portals.”

“Nice to meet you mate.” Philza sheathed his sword.

“You too,” Bizly said dismissively. “Now if you don’t mind we’ll be on our way.”

“Oh don’t be in such a rush.” Technoblade grinned, “we know our way around this server and you wouldn’t want to deny help, would you? Come with us to our base and we can put together a plan there.”

It wasn’t a request and Technoblade, unlike Philza, had not put his sword away. Orphan Obliterator the name read. Technoblade didn’t seem to be someone you wanted to make an enemy out of.

“Let’s just go with them,” Condi whispered to Bizly, cutting off whatever protests he was about to make.

“Are you sure Condi?” Bizly whispered back.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “We know Charlie is here, let's be satisfied with that for now.”

“Fine,” Bizly begrudgingly agreed.

***

“They’re lying Phil.”

“I know mate. They didn’t do a very good job of it.”

“They’re powerful aren’t they?” Technoblade asked Phil. “Why hide it?”

“Yes, they are. They’re masking their auras, but power is still leaking out of them like a rusty pipe,” Philza pondered. “Let’s just go along with it for now. If they really are just looking for their friend then once we help them find him everything should work itself out.”

“If you say so Phil.”

Chapter Text

Quackity was getting tired of all this nonsense. First Sam lost them and now Foolish was frantically calling him? Couldn't he trust anyone to do their jobs right?

"What do you so urgently need Foolish?" Quackity hissed over the line.

Foolish swallowed nervously, "well uh, you know how you asked me to watch Slime?"

"What? I told Fundy to do that."

"You did? That son of a-"

"What did you call me for Foolish? I'm a busy man."

"Oh uh well." Foolish paused as if debating his next words. "Slime isn't doing so well..."

"WHAT?!" Quackity shouted at his communicator.

"I- I don't know what happened he just-" Foolish's voice was rising.

"Oh just shut up the excuses!" Quackity clenched his fist. "I'll be over there as soon as I can so don't you dare let anything happen to him."

***

Foolish grimaced as the line with Quackity went flat. The next time he saw Fundy he was going to make sure the fox hybrid regretted pulling a fast one on him.

Foolish turned back to his main concern, "Slime you're still with me right?"

"Just... Just meat and bones Foolish from a lot time ago... Just... Great..." The slime creatures words were slurred but he gave Foolish a goopy thumbs up that he couldn't help but crack a smile at.

Despite his words, Slime was obviously not great. Foolish thankfully had a few buckets in his inventory which he was currently using to keep Slime from having his slime melt away into the ground, but Foolish could do little else for him at the moment.

"Quackity is coming alright? He'll be able to help you out."

Slime's eyes brightened, "Quackity? Quackity from Las Nevadas?"

"Yeah buddy, so just hang on for me."

Even if Foolish had been doing everything to keep Slime out of harm's way he didn't think this was something anyone could have seen coming. One moment he was fine, and then the next his eyes were unfocused and his form deteriorating. That did make Foolish wonder though.

"What brought this on Slime?" Foolish looked back to the flowers that decorated the ground. "I don't know much about slime creature biology but is this something normal for you? I mean, there are a lot of smart people on this server, surely someone can help you."

Slime glanced at the poppy from earlier with a look in his eyes that Foolish had never seen before, even in his short time with the man, fear.

"I don't know Foolish," he said sadly. "I was hearing voices from people I don't know and for some reason they made me really sad..."

"Hearing voices? Are you sure you've never met the people you saw before?" Foolish didn't exactly specialize in curses, but he's been around for long enough to know what they looked like.

"I think I recognized them for a moment, but then my head started hurting really bad." Slime furrowed his eyebrows, "is that bad Foolish from a long time ago?"

Foolish grimaced at his answer but reassured him. "No no, I just want to make sure you're ok!" Of course memory loss was concerning, but he couldn't tell Slime that now. "When did you join this server Slime?"

"Join?" At least the question seemed to distract him from his worries. "I just was here one day Foolish from a long time ago."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well it was really bright so I just glooped into the nearest cave," Slime explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

Well that complicated things. With the cryptic way Slime spoke it was hard to tell if he was a player entity or just a mob that had gained sentience. It was basic knowledge though that mobs couldn't spawn in bright places so that was ruled out, but if Slime really was a player then that just brought up more contradictions.

As Foolish had soon found out after meeting him, Slime didn't have a communicator, which wasn't something easy to miss, seeing as each player got one each time they joined a server.

Normally that is...

Foolish may not be a powerful god, but he definitely wasn't mortal. He'd felt the changes in the air recently, and if what he'd managed to piece together was right, someone had gotten onto the server, despite the whitelist and Dream being cut off from his admin powers in prison. Joining a server despite all that wasn't just some accident.

Foolish wasn't sure of it at first, but it would explain a lot of things. The presence he felt from Slime just now. So brief it could have been his imagination, but Foolish had a feeling that Slime wasn't what he seemed to be.

Why and what Slime was was an entirely different matter.

"Foolish?" Slime asked softly. "Is there something wrong with me?"

"What?" Foolish kneeled down next to Slime, "of course not! You're just... a bit sick!"

"Sick? What's that?"

"Well you see sometimes humans, and slimes too I guess-"

"You forgot Foolish from a long time ago, I'm not slime," Slime weakly protested. "I'm meat and bones just like you."

"Oh," Foolish chuckled, "of course, my bad. Anyways, sometimes humans don't feel so good and they have to rest for a bit."

"Is that all I need to do to make this feeling go away?" Slime asked hopefully.

"Yeah! And we'll help you get through it so you don't need to worry!"

Silence was the only thing that greeted him.

"Slime? You there?"

Foolish had never seen a mob sleep, but it seemed that Slime had simply passed out cold, soft snores coming from the slime creature.

"I guess that makes sense," Foolish said to himself, "you've had a long day after all."

After a bit of trial and error, he managed to scoop up the majority of Slime's, well, slime into a bucket. He could come back for the rest later.

"For now let's get you back to Las Nevadas buddy."

***

Phil placed a strange mechanism on the table. It looked like a simple compass but what confused Bizly was the purple sheen of an enchantment.

Condi rolled his eyes. "A compass. How thrilling."

Technoblade's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to respond but Phil cut him off.

"It's enchanted, if you can't already tell," the Angel said, grinning, which only earned him a groan from Condi. "It'll help us find your friend."

"The compass can be enchanted to point to a certain person or place," Technoblade said. He placed his had on a strange block. "This compass is linked to this lodestone."

Surely enough, no matter how the compass was turned, it pointed towards the lodestone.

"Alright tell us how it works," Bizly said.

"Do you have something that the enchantment can link to your friend? Something he owned or carried around often would work the best."

Condi looked at Bizly.

Bizly really didn't fully trust these two yet so asking him to give over one of his most prized possessions was going too far, but the desperate look Condi gave him, knowing Bizly was be hesitant, have him no choice.

Bizly handed Phil the stick. Charlie's power and the various enchantments he'd put on it had long faded, but it had still been his, still was his if Bizly had anything to say about it.

"A stick? Really?" Technoblade scoffed.

"It's the last thing I have of his," Bizly admitted. "And it's much more than just a stick, not that I'd expect someone like you to understand."

Technoblade gave a hostile grunt in response.

"I've done it!" Phil said, interrupting their squabble. "It should be pointing towards you friend now."

Bizly took the compass from Phil's hands as if it was some sacred artifact. Finally, they had a way to track down Charlie, and the needle was moving, really moving! He was alive and they was enough to send Bizly to tears 

Chapter Text

The compass swiveled and turned but it was consistent enough that it was clear it was locked on to something. Not spiraling and moving in rapid circles like it used to do in the Nether before people figured out how to adjust the frequency of the redstone to better fit the dimension. Condi was rather baffled when Bizly told him but he mumbled something about being glad people could at least find something useful there.

"Listen Bizly I want you to get a throne just as much as you do."

Bizly brought the compass closer to his chest. He'd already done his share of crying earlier and he'd be livid at himself if he did it again in front of anyone that wasn't Condi or Charlie. Bizly glanced down for the thousandth time at the device in his hand. If it really was leading them in the right direction then Bizly might end up doing exactly that.

Bizly can't say he'd ever been one for displaying his emotions, unlike Charlie or Grizzly who's moods changed on the fly. It's not that he didn't feel emotions, of course he did, but in tough times Bizly knew how helpful it was to have someone seemingly above the waves to pull you to safety rather than one who's drowning with you.

He'd been that person when Grizzly fell, when he died, and when Charlie disappeared. Maybe it didn't make a difference, but Bizly liked to think that it did, liked to think that it helped in some way.

"Move your hands Biz I can't see it," Condi said.

"Oh my bad."

Condi leaned in to get a better look at the scarlet needle. Red was a color of mixed meanings for the both of them, but this time it pointed them towards hope. "How far away are we?"

Bizly could hear Technoblade scoff behind him. "A compass doesn't tell you how far something is, only the direction."

"Of course I know that!" Condi growled. "But surely you two know what we might be headed towards."

Techno shrugged, "maybe your friend is at the world border."

Phil elbowed him, "I'm sure he's closer than that." Techno raised and eyebrow but didn't say anything else. Phil reached into his pack and pulled out a hand drawn map with all sorts of in decipherable notes. "It seems that the only location along the path we're following is Las Nevadas."

"Aw man not that place," Techno groaned.

"No need to worry mate. Like you said there's no saying that's where your friend actually is."

"What's so bad about this Las Nevadas place?" Condi asked.

"A gambling city run by a man who plotted to kill me," Techno said. "Does it get much worse than that?"

"Yeah we don't exactly have the best of relations with the leader of Las Nevadas."

"Exactly," Techno said, leaning over Phil's shoulder to look at the map, muttering something about mountain passes and other routes.

"Wait we're avoiding this place because you guys have bad blood?" Bizly asked. "I don't see why we can't just go there ourselves."

"Quackity is a lying blackmailing scoundrel," Techno said plainly. "You don't want to get involved with him."

Phil pondered for a moment. "They do have a point Techno."

"Don't tell me you're siding with them now Phil!"

"You have a valid point as well, which is why I'm saying we should compromise."

"And how do you suggest we do that?"

"Easy, c'mere mate." Phil flattened the map out on the ground. "You too Condi and Bizly. We have an action plan to make."

***

awesamdude whispered to you: I'm still behind them but I'm following their trail.

You whisper to awesamdude: update me when you figure out something actually important

awesamdude whispers to you: Quackity, they're headed towards Las Nevadas.

And that's fine! Quackity told himself. He wasn't about to let Techno use these two mystery men against him. This just made things easier because he had more info than that idiot pig. If Techno thought that he was going to catch Quackity off guard then oh boy would Quackity show him he was dead wrong.

"Quackity you're squeezing your magic box."

Oh that's right, Slime was still in the room.

"Yesterday Foolish showed me some fruits you could squish really hard to make a drink, but I don't think you can do it with metal."

Quackity gave a deep sigh. As silly as it seemed, Slime's ramble was helping to calm him down.

"I mean," Slime pondered, "metal does taste good but I'm pretty sure humans aren't supposed to eat it. Of course I would know though Quackity from Las Nevadas, seeing as I am meat and bones just like you!"

Quackity couldn't help the smirk that crossed his face. It was hard to keep the stone cold face on around Slime. Honestly it was almost scary the amount of power he held over Quackity, something he'd never trust anyone else with, but maybe Quackity didn't mind this feeling. The bright bubbly feeling that lifted the weight off his shoulders that he never would have know was there otherwise.

"Ok," Quackity started, "listen here Slime."

The creature in question turned his gaze towards him.

"I need you to tell me who did this to you so we can teach them a lesson."

"Ooh! Like how you taught me about gambling?" Slime asked, stumbling over the final word.

Quackity gave a short laugh, "no no, a different kind of lesson. A not nice lesson."

"Not nice?" Slime asked slowly.

"Well when somebody hurts you, you hurt them back. Revenge. Retribution." Slime looked like he wanted to say something but Quackity continued, "of course you have to be careful about it, because if it fails there will be consequences, so you have to know your objective and then get a plan together to obtain it and then get people to do the plan and then-"

"Is it worth it?"

It seemed as if time slowed, the snow taking it's sweet time to fall to the ground.

"What-?"

Slime fidgeted with his fingers, "I've been watching for a long time." He gestured widely and avoided Quackity's eyes, as if he was seeing something Quackity couldn't. "One person lashes out, and the other does... until they're both gone..." Slime released a deep breath and continued, "from what I've seen, it feels like people don't stop taking that revenge."

For the first time in their conversation Quackity looked into Slime's eyes. They weren't bright and foolish like Quackity had always seen them. No, these eyes seemed to belong to someone entirely different, someone Quackity had never met before, yet still, it was Slime. Quackity, despite all his usual endurance, had to look away. Slime's gaze radiated pure sorrow, pure melancholy, pure regret, pure guilt.

Slime seemed to snap out of whatever had it's hold on him, shaking his head a few times, his slime jiggling as he did. "Well, all I'm saying is," his gaze moved to the ground beneath his feet, "is it ever worth it?"

Quackity found the courage to meet Slime's eyes again and to his relief they were back to normal, or at least the normal he knew. Honestly the whole experience made him wonder if it was all in his head, but at the same time Quackity couldn't get rid of that feeling. It clung to him like thorny vines, digging in to his skin and refusing to let go, hurting with every little movement he made.

"No," was the only thing he said in response. "No it's not."

Chapter Text

Sam would have had no trouble at all following and chasing down the new strangers, but their companions complicated things.

There were many people who had the upper hand over Sam in pure strength and agility in battle, but few could match his strategy and the ways he used every resource of his to its fullest potential to aid him, whether it was the ground he stood on or the weapons he wielded in his hands. Where Sapnap and Quackity may rush into battle without a thought other than the drive to clash their blade against their opponent's, Sam, however long it might take, studied his position, his enemy, his escape routes as well as theirs, because Sam knew that strength alone has many weakness and it doesn't matter who strikes the hardest and who moves the fastest, it's whoever's left standing in the end, by whatever means necessary.

So Sam didn't mind waiting for his opportunity, traveling at a safe distance behind the group. It would have to come eventually, when a slip in judgement was made or the watch dozed off or any other number of events to give him the advantage in battle that he needed.

For now though, he waited.

***

Phil didn't know exactly what he thought of Condi and Bizly.

They were odd characters, that was for sure, but their friendship was obviously one that had held strong when after many years. Phil could tell from his centuries of observing and watching people, but their bond also shared an uncanny resemblance to his and Techno's. It was a bond of brothers.

"Bizly!" Condi cried, his voice rising in fear.

"Oh come on I didn't push you that hard."

"YOU PUSHED ME TOWARDS A CLIFF!"

Bizly's laughter echoed in the clearing that they'd taken up camp in. Condi was able to hold a rather upset scowl on his face for a few seconds but even that was eventually broken up by a smirk and a few chuckles.

"You should be glad I'm so forgiving," Condi said once Bizly had near emptied his lungs of air.

Bizly's grin somehow brightened even farther, "yeah yeah whatever Condi," then softer, "it's been a while since we've been able to laugh like this, huh?"

Condi lowered himself to the ground, disturbing the loose dirt of the clearing, "yeah. It sure has."

"Let's keep it this way."

Condi gave a solemn nod.

"You two done slacking?" Techno asked, a bundle of wood slung over his shoulder.

Phil himself had been picking up sticks, rocks, and other debris from the clearing. Bizly quickly joined Phil and in the corner of his eye he saw Techno handing Condi a water flask and directing him towards where Phil knew there was a clean river.

After he'd finished clearing up their camp grounds Phil consulted his map. He didn't have the compass for reference because Condi and Bizly refused to let it out of their sight, but Phil already had a good lay of the land.

Las Nevadas was only over the next mountain range and that didn't do much to help Phil sleep at night. He could tell Techno wasn't happy with it either. His temper was shorter and he was always checking his back as if he expected to find someone there. Chat wasn't helping either. Techno seemed to be talking to them more and more. Phil's crows were accompanying them on their journey as well, but as annoying they could be at times, he much preferred them to the voices that plagued Techno.

As if on cue Phil heard a thump and clatter and turned to see Techno placing the firewood back in it's orderly triangle formation, cursing to himself under his breath.

Phil gave him a minute and then walked over and put his hand on his companion's shoulder. "You good mate?"

"Oh just peachy Phil." The avian in question simply gave him a skeptical look. "Ok fine. I just got a bit frustrated and needed something to punch." He gestured to where the firewood was stacked neatly, "I fixed it though, so it's fine."

Phil chuckled, "I'm not worried about the firewood mate, I'm worried about you."

"If Quackity causes trouble I can deal with him, you don't need to worry about that."

Phil knew that Techno wasn't likely to open up on this, especially in the current circumstances and despite his polite act of not listening, Bizly had his ears open.

"If you say so, but just know I got your back, alright?"

Techno nodded, "I have yours too."

***

Condi didn't so much hear or see Bizly approaching him as he did sense it. A benefit of being connected to the code that held the world together. Of course his connection wasn't as strong as it was at the Origin, but all worlds were connected to the Origin in some way. They were like the roots of a tree, expanding over the cosmos of the void with the power of admins and other godly beings.

Bizly didn't attempt to mask his presence, rather he let it slowly fill the air, comfortably settling into the back of Condi's mind.

"Does Phil need me for something?" Condi asked.

"No."

Condi turned to face his companion, "Technoblade?"

"No, no," Bizly waved his hand dismissively, "I just came to check on you."

"Oh," Condi said.

"You sure took your time filling that flask."

It was then that he remembered the flask sitting in his palm. It was full and it had been for a long time. Condi just got lost in thought, to put it simply. He'd had a lot to think about over just the past few days after all.

"Hey uh," Condi hesitated to finish, "do you think it's really Charlie?"

Bizly sat down beside him, "what do you mean?"

"It's just so hard to believe, that after all our searching we've finally found him. It... it almost feels too easy." He turned his gaze upwards where the starry sky was just barely banishing the sunset. "What are we going to say when we see him?! What if he doesn't want to see us anymore?! What if this was all for nothing Biz?!"

Bizly placed a reassuring hand on Condi's shaking shoulder, "and what if we just live happily ever after, huh?"

Condi gave a chuckle and wiped the tears brimming on the edge of his vision, "that sounds stupid."

"It'll be nice though, right?"

Condi gave a simple nod.

"When we tell Charlie about this he'll just laugh at us and make some stupid pun like he always does."

Condi laughed again, the joyful noise coming out of his throat easier this time, "yeah I bet that's exactly what he'd do, which is good, because it's been too long since I've heard one of his puns."

"You and me both," Bizly said, standing and extending a hand to Condi, "now let's get back to camp."

Condi took one more look upwards where the sky was now entirely decorated in stars. "Yeah, let's go."

Two pairs of footsteps was the only sound to be heard for miles around, only interrupted by a small "Thank you Biz." and a brotherly pat on the back.

Chapter Text

"Focus Slime!" Quackity slammed his wooden sword against the shield in his other hand, making a loud clack that hurt Slime's ears. "You need to learn this stuff!"

The slime creature was holding the same sword and shield himself, albeit with much more reluctance than his sparring partner.

"I still don't understand why I need to know these things Quackity from Las Nevadas..." Slime said hesitantly. His nervousness showed in the way his hands slightly shook, making his slime sway in a strange way like a dish Purpled had shown him called jello.

Quackity sighed for what must have been the hundredth time today. "Listen Slime, I have a lot of enemies and they'll do anything to get an advantage over me." He gestured erratically with the training sword, "that includes targeting you. So, it only makes sense that you need to learn to protect yourself."

"But why would hurting me hurt you, Quackity? Do you share my pain?"

"No, no it's just... I..."

A strange emotion took hold of Quackity's face, one that Slime had never seen before.

"Are you ok Quackity?" Slime asked, worry evident in his tone.

"I'm fine Slime!" Quackity flung his hands in frustration. "I just... I care about you Slime! You're one of the few people here who I really know I can trust, one of the only people who I've let get this close!" The irritation seemed to seep out of his form as he continued, quieter, "I don't want to get you hurt just because you're a good friend."

Slime's eyes brightened, "we're... friends, Quackity from Las Nevadas?"

"Of course! I thought that was obvious by now!" Quackity said, exasperated. "I mean I guess it hasn't been a super long time since we met but I feel like I've known you forever, guy."

"Forever is a very long time Quackity from Las Nevadas."

"We'll be friends forever Charlie."

"Yeah! Nothing will ever split us up!"

Slime felt the grasp of a phantom fingers on his shoulder. "Heh, no pressure Charlie," the voice echoed through his head. "Still though, they're right."

"Lets not get too cheesy guys." That was his voice. Or was it Charlie's voice? "Still though, I'm grateful I have you guys as friends."

The hand around his shoulder tightened, "hey Charlie." No. He was Slime. That's what Quackity called him, the name Quackity had given him! "You ok Charlie?"

"No!" Charlie's no it's Slime's it's His voice echoed as if underwater, as if there was something blocking his hearing, but no matter how much he shook his head side to side reality remained muffled. "Stop it! STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

The hand on his shoulder became two as they grasped him and violently shook.

"Slime! Hey! SLIME!"

The water drained out of his ears and his vision cleared only to meet Quackity's tear filled eyes.

"Quackity?" Slime said weakly. "I'm sorry I didn't mean-"

Quackity pulled him into a hug, "don't apologize idiot."

Slime could never understand why humans leaked water out of their eyes, but now he thinks he does as emotion tears through him and his eyes water. He squeezes Quackity tighter, as if it'll help this sudden hole he feels in his chest.

With everything he's seen, time passes different for Slime. Generations of humans seem so brief, let alone the life of a single individual, but this moment seems to last for forever before Quackity eventually Quackity peels himself out of Slime's grasp and gets to his feet. He's covered in slime, courtesy of his friend, but for the first time that Slime's seen, he doesn't seem to mind.

He takes a deep breath and picks up the practice weapons from earlier, muttering something about 'been a while' and 'a good cry'.

 He crouches down in front of Slime who's still on the floor, "we'll continue this tomorrow alright?" He flashed him a smile. "For now get some rest alright?"

Quackity knew that Slime couldn't sleep, it just wasn't in his biology, but the suggestion still seemed tempting. These last few days had been the most stressful in a very very long time. It almost made Slime wish for the days when he was a blob with a scarcity of sentience in the deepest caves void of all light and occupied only by the few mobs that happened to stumble upon them.

"Yeah that sounds nice..."

***

The dry heat of the desert was an unwelcome change from the coolness of the thickly forested areas they had been passing through. Condi didn't seem to mind, which made sense, the Nether had much more extreme conditions and the air of the End was dry and stale with no wind to push it, but Bizly broke a sweat almost immediately. Couldn't Las Nevadas have been in nicer biome?

Condi's grin sparkled with the light of the sun that was bearing down on them. "Oh come on you'll be fine Biz."

Bizly groaned, "I didn't even complain yet."

Condi laughed, a bright sound. "I've seen that expression too many times to not know what it means."

Bizly sheepishly returned the smile. After a moment he said, "where's Techno and Phil?"

"Gearing up apparently." Condi gestured to the forest still behind them.

Bizly had to shake off the urge melt beneath the shade of the thick branches of the dark oak trees. It wasn't just that, if he was being honest. Sure all biomes had mobs that roamed them but the forests were alive with them. Hives of bees, flocks of sheep, hunted by packs of wolves; Bizly knew that as many times as he'd explained it to Condi it wasn't something that could be conveyed in words.

"We ready to go?"

Bizly tore his gaze from the forest to meet the eyes of Phil that were looking down on him where he had sprawled out on the grass carpet that was quickly loosing ground to the almost liquid sands of the desert. The man looked strange in netherite. Bizly always knew he had it, it was hard not to notice the obsidian black armor coated in a sheen of glowing purple, it wasn't something that belonged to the Overworld, it was forged in the blazing air of the Nether, but he hadn't yet worn it on their journey, unlike Techno who he'd never seen without it. Something he hadn't noticed until now though was the soothing teal gemstones that decorated the set, matching the shine on the underside of his wings and helping to take away from the threatening image of the armor.

"Geez," Bizly said. "How many enchantments do you have on those things?"

Phil shrugged as if that explained anything. The magic was basically tangible, whether he had Charlie's power or not.

Technoblade came up behind Phil, "we don't know what Quackity has planned. We need to be prepared." If Bizly wasn't imagining things, he didn't look like he'd gotten a lot of sleep last night.

"Techno's right," Phil said. "Hopefully none of this will be necessary, but it's better safe than sorry."

Condi offered Bizly a hand and pulled him to his feet.

Bizly took one more longing look at the lively forest they were leaving and the barren desert they were approaching. "Let's get going then. We've stalled long enough."

***

Quackity wasn't going to like this at all.

You whisper to Quackity: They're within 5 chunks.

Quackity whispered to you: well slow them down or something!!

Sam hissed, a sound that would send chills down any players spine and tried to stamp out his mental fuse that Quackity was sparking up.

You whisper to Quackity: What's your plan? The newcomers may be barely armed but Philza and Technoblade are definitely threats.

Quackity whispered to you: just shut up and deal with them sam

Quackity whispered to you: i know what I'm doing

Sam found that hard to believe. He knew full well that Quackity was a clever man, but he was panicked and paranoid, letting his whims control him.

Regardless Quackity was an important ally to have, especially in his one duty of keeping the prison secure. So he unsheathed his sword and drained the bottles that held his potions.

He opened his inventory, checking the timers of the potion effects, speed and strength respectively. He had roughly two minutes until they wore off. Two minutes to defeat arguably the strongest pair of warriors on the server. So much for Quackity's leadership.

He was no longer at a safe distance now, lengthening his stride to catch up to his targets. They had to have heard him by now, it's not like he was trying to mask the sound of his footsteps. If not Technoblade, then at least Philza had realized they were being tailed by now.

As if on cue, feathers of obsidian grey blocked out the sun for the briefest of moments.

"Awesamdude!" Phil landed, but his wings were still held out threateningly and Techno was coming up right behind him. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

Diplomacy first, Sam told himself. If fighting could be avoid then that would be the best for everyone, and besides, with his position he wasn't here to make enemies. With how today was turning out, that was the last thing he needed.

Two more figures came into view. Sam reasoned that they must be the other two he's been following.

"Who's this?" one of them asked.

"Just a friend of Quackity's," Technoblade explained.

Why was it that Quackity always seemed to hold something over him, for better or worse?

"You're headed to Las Nevadas," Sam said. It wasn't a question.

"We're just paying a short visit that's all," Philza said, calm as ever. "You probably already have half the story, but our friends here are looking for someone."

For the first time in this whole fiasco Sam finally got a good look at the two newest faces on the server. The first, had blue tinted goggles resting on his forehead and a grey jacket around his shoulders. His shirt was a pale turquoise color, the same as his goggles, and all of his clothing was accented and edged with pink and black. He also seemed to have some strange device on his head. From the receivers it looked like some sort of com or other communication device. Despite his casual and unthreatening appearance, something in Sam's mind screamed the primal instinct to run. It was the same with the other, who had on a pair of dark glasses and a dark blue hoodie that was embellished around the collar with white and gold furs and covered in complex embroidery patterns done in golden thread. The only strange thing about the second one was that while his brain was screaming danger, some part of him was trying to convince Sam that the man was a friend.

Sam held no ill will for the two of them, but the pair had joined during Dream's imprisonment, which by all means shouldn't be possible. So Sam needed answers for the security of the prison, but he won't deny that his curiosity was sparked. There were a lot of questions he had now that he'd gotten a good look at them.

"You done starting?" Technoblade growled.

Sam rolled his eyes and ignored the question. "Who are they looking for?"

"A dear friend of ours," the one with the tinted goggles supplied. "We got separated a while back and we've been searching for him since."

It was trivial to see that they weren't telling him everything, but Sam couldn't exactly blame them as the first thing he'd done after they joined was hunt them down.

He sighed, "go around Las Nevadas then." In the corner of his eye he saw Philza tighten the grip he had on his sword. "Your friend isn't there."

The one wearing dark blue opened his mouth, "maybe not but we-"

"Can't do that Sam." Philza took up his sword in his unique two handed style. "Las Nevadas has been on our threat list for a while. We'd rather take advantage of this opportunity and stop you and Quackity's plans in their tracks."

Things had turned rather sour for Sam. He pulled the Warden's Will out of his inventory in a flash, but Philza was already on him, hitting him with all the force he'd gathered in his leap with the help of his huge wings. He barely managed to keep his hold on the blade, but he was sent reeling back and Technoblade was a heartbeat behind Philza. Sam angled himself to keep Technoblade's powerful strikes from hitting anywhere vital but he couldn't avoid a few shallow cuts.

In the span of a breath Sam took a look at his inventory. Thirty seconds left on the potion boosts. Thirty seconds to turn this battle on it's head.

He went for Philza first. He would definitely be harder to hit, but if he could, then Technoblade would be easier to deal with... or at least as easy as it can get facing Technoblade.

Phil saw what was happening and darted away, his wings lifting him upwards, but Sam quickly pulled out his Trident and in one fluid motion sent it hurdling towards the avian's left wing. Was it playing dirty to target the wing he knew was still recovering from the day the man first joined? Maybe, but this wasn't a battle for honor, it was a battle for his life.

Phil cried out as the Trident went clean through his extra limb, scattering feathers to the ground below him.

"Phil!"

"I'm good Techno!" The man brought his wing in closer to him.

Technoblade ran at him, his sword held as if to run Sam through.

Fifteen seconds.

Just on time his Trident returned to his hand and he held it up, catching Technoblade's sword on its deadly sharp prongs. Technoblade grunted and pushed his blade harder, tilting the Trident towards Sam.

Ten seconds.

With great effort Sam pulled away, dropping his Trident to the ground, but summoning it back with the Loyalty engraved on its hilt.

Five seconds.

Warden's Will clashed with Orphan Obliterator and Sam had to avoid the sparks.

Four.

"Technoblade we can talk about this!" he shouted in a last attempt.

Three.

"We're far past that point Sam," Technoblade hissed, a grin on his face. He knew how this was going to end.

Two.

Sam saw Philza, his wing hastily bandaged, running over to them.

One.

Using all his strength Sam grinded his blade against Technoblade's. Maybe, just maybe...

Zero.

Sam felt the effects leave his bloodstream almost immediately. Time was up. Technoblade's grin grew wider as he pulled Orphan Obliterator out of their stalemate and brought it in a wide and powerful arc straight across Sam's neck.

And then he was dying and there was too much blood and he felt his body decomposing as the code itself wilted away and then he was surrounded by obsidian.

Right. The prison.

He'd lost. Not too surprising, but it was hard to get used to dying, however many times it happened.

He looked to the scarlet bedsheets that he was lying on and down at his shaking hands resting in his lap. Surely it'd be fine if he rested a little bit, right?

***

"What in the world was that!" Condi shouted.

Technoblade lifted an eyebrow, "what did it look like?"

Condi's traitorous eyes fixed themselves on the crimson staining Technoblade's sword. Gods he hated that color. This wasn't the bright delightful red of the poppy that lulled you gently to sleep, it was the corrupted crimson of fire and bloodshed and his realm was tainted by it and his friend wore it like a cloak and he couldn't breathe.

Bizly placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "In for four," Condi latched onto the words, digging his fingers into each syllable, "hold for for four. You with me?" Condi gave a weak nod. "Ok. Out for four," with a shudder Condi let the air escape his lungs, "hold for four."

"I'm good now Biz." That wasn't true. He felt like his ribcage was being torn apart and his organs were being decomposed in a vat of acid. "You can stop now."

Bizly barked out a laugh. "You look anything but good. Here let me help you up."

Oh. Condi was sprawled out on the ground. Feeling seemed to return to his legs as he suddenly became aware of the heated desert sand they were lying on.

"Oh." He said it aloud. It'd been so long since something like this had happened. In the early days of their journey Condi was kept awake by nightmares and haunted by memories of the past. Bizly was too, none of them had left unscarred, but he never talked about it, never let Condi worry about him, but it wasn't just Condi's crying to blame for Bizly being awake in forsaken hours of the night to calm him down and on lucky nights, help him fall back asleep.

They'd gotten better though. They'd left the past behind and focused on the present, of each step they made, but their legacy still clung to them, was still a part of them.

Bizly squeezed his hand. "You think you can stand?"

"Yeah."

Bizly leveraged his weight to help Condi stand. The latter stumbled with his legs somehow still shaking, despite the will power he was exerting over them to just for gods' sake be calm.

Bizly stepped out of his field of vision and Condi was able to assess his position. Phil was speaking in a hushed but worried tone to Technoblade, who held a angry scowl on his face, refusing to make eye contact with anyone other than Phil. He looked to Bizly for an explanation but he only shrugged.

Eventually Technoblade came up to Condi. "If you're recovered now then let's get moving."

Condi clenched his teeth, "that's all you have to say?!"

But Technoblade had already turned his attention back to his pack.

"He doesn't mean it like that mate," Phil said reassuringly. He was holding his wing off the ground, but the injury had been treated at looked like it wasn't bleeding anymore, at least not heavily.

Condi scoffed, "it sure seemed like he did."

Phil sighed. "Techno isn't so great about expressing himself, and I think we can all agree that these last few days haven't exactly been stress free, especially for Techno. Most times he comes off as cold or uncaring, but I've known him for a long time and trust me, he's glad you're ok."

"I can't speak for Techno," Bizly started, "but he was the one who caught you when you fell."

"He was?"

Phil nodded. "He wants you to find your friend just as much as I do."

Condi looked back to where Technoblade was still busying himself with his equipment and inventory. "Let's just get going like Technoblade said."

"You sure you don't need to rest more mate?" Phil asked.

"I'm fine really," Condi waved his hands dismissively, "I've already rested enough."

Phil and Bizly didn't complain any longer, but Bizly kept looking over at Condi when he thought Condi couldn't see him.

The desert was hot. The delay Awesamdude had caused made it so they were traveling in the middle of the afternoon with the sun bearing down rather than in the cooler early morning. Bizly made sure to complain about that every chance he got. If anything the heat helped Condi out, relaxing his muscles and calming his nerves.

It wasn't too long before they could see Las Nevadas, or at least what Condi assumed was Las Nevadas, seeing how it was the only piece of architecture one could see across the horizon. If that didn't already give it away, the giant sign proclaiming "Welcome to Las Nevadas" pretty much sealed the deal.

As they approached the gate Phil fished four bottles out of his pack, handing two to both Condi and Bizly. He read the labels, swiftness and invisibility.

"If things go south, I want you guys to drink these and regroup where we last set up camp, alright?" Phil said.

"But this is just a safety precaution," Bizly said, swirling the colorful liquid in the bottles, "right?"

"Well of course we hope that Quackity will listen to reason and we can talk things out, but the odds of that..." Phil trailed off. "I just think you'd better not lose those."

Bizly gave Condi a look and all he could do was shrug.

Technoblade led the group, his netherite enforced boots clacking along against the stone paths that wormed their way through the city. Condi couldn't help but notice where he kept his hands, one clenched around the hilt of his sword and the other ready to reach into his inventory and pull out a crossbow or potions or whatever else he might need. Phil held himself in a more relaxed manner, his hands resting at his sides, giving a more passive appearance, but Condi knew that the avian could have the blade out of it's sheath before Condi could blink.

"Technoblade! How lovely of you to visit Las Nevadas!" The words may have been sweet, but the tone was bitter as ever.

The speaker walked towards them and Condi beheld who he could only assume was the Quackity he'd heard so much about. His attire was on the edge of formal, something a businessman would wear, but contrasted by the woolen blue beanie that rested on his black mop of hair. The most startling of his features was a crude scar across his left eye, leaving it an unpleasant milky white color.

Condi thought it was a strange sight to see Technoblade afraid, with the way his form was shaking, but he realized that it was not with fear that the man shook, but with an unrelenting fury towards the man facing them. It could have been Condi's imagination, but he would have sworn Technoblade's eyes were more red than usual.

Quackity cackled. "Did you come to have some fun?"

Chapter Text

Slime nodded towards Quackity, who was sitting across the table from him, "so the chips are like the green paper?"

They were sat on the top floor of the Needle and Quackity was trying to explain poker.

"No not exactly," Quackity said. "They just represent it. So we don't have to get a bunch of money on the table, we can just get chips that represent how much."

"Oh! I get it now!" Slime didn't really, but he liked the look on Quackity's face when he said that he did. Besides be did understand it... kinda... Ok maybe he didn't, but he was getting there!

Fundy burst into the room, reasonably out of breath, seeing all the stairs he had to run up. "Quackity! It's Sam!"

Fundy flashed the screen of his communicator and Quackity jumped from his seat. He muttered something like 'Useless, useless."

"Fundy get Purpled and take Slime somewhere safe." Quackity hastily typed out a message on his communicator's keyboard. "Stay with Slime and then send Purpled back. I'll need his help."

Fundy scoffed, "and not mine? What does Purpled have over me?"

Quackity's hands curled into fists. "Well he wouldn't be complaining for one! Just shut up and do what I say!" He muttered a string of curses under his breath. "Listen here Fundy," the fox stood at attention, "Slime's safety is your upmost priority. If anything happens to him you'll be the one paying for it."

Fundy must have been satisfied by that answer because he ran off to find Purpled.

The mention of his name made Slime remember that he was part of the conversation too. After so much time spent watching he wasn't used to being an active participant. Quackity told him that just staring at people was creepy so he was working on that.

"What's going on Quackity from Las Nevadas?" he asked.

Quackity put a hand on his shoulder, "everything's gonna be fine guy, I just need you to stick with Fundy."

"I'm good at sticking!" Slime exclaimed, showing his fingers that were webbed with slime.

Quackity chuckled. "Thanks Slime."

Fundy returned, even more understandably exhausted as this was his second time up the winding stairs of the Space Needle, with Purpled behind him. Slime looked over to Quackity, who's serious expression had returned.

The next few minutes were a bit of a blur. Everyone, well everyone besides Slime, had equipped their netherite, enchanted sets shining beneath the desert sun. Quackity had ran off to the entrance of Las Nevadas. Slime wanted to follow him but Fundy and Purpled took him in the other direction. They ended up entering a cellar of sorts that held stacks of chests for storage. Slime liked this room. It was nice and dark and damp. Perfect for someone like him.

Purpled hesitated in the doorway and glanced behind them. "You know Fundy," he said, "I can stay with Slime."

The fox's ears perked up, "really?"

"Yeah! I mean you seem eager to prove yourself. Quackity keeps giving you all the lame jobs but if you ask me you're way strong."

"You really mean it?" Fundy's eyes sparkled.

"Uh huh.  Now don't keep Quackity waiting."

Fundy nodded and practically skipped out of the cellar. Purpled waited until his footsteps faded into the distance and then closed the cellar door.

"I didn't think it'd be that easy." Slime felt a shudder go through him as the alien laughed.

"Purpled from outer space what are you talking-"

Slime found Purpled's blade at his throat. "Shut up and I'll make this easy for you. If I have to listen to your yapping one more time I'll lose it." When Slime stayed silent he sighed and pulled his sword back to his side and then pointed it at the slime creature. "I'm gonna make an example out of you," he said. "I'm gonna make Quackity regret his actions. I'm gonna teach him a lesson."

"But Quackity already knows lots of things!"

"Shut up!" Purpled cried. "He ruined my home! My UFO was the last thing I had left of my people! And he blew it up!" The alien laughed manically. "So I'm going to take something from him that he can't replace."

"But can't you replace your UFO?" Slime asked with his usual innocence.

"SHUT UP!" Purpled screamed. He gave Slime a paralyzing look and then lunged.

***

Techno didn't wait for Quackity to make the first move. He threw all manner of splash potions at his feet until the particles coming off of his figure could have made a rainbow. Phil quickly moved to his side, ready to have his back.

Bizly loathed anyone who had to face the pair. Even in his short time with them he knew that they worked together like a well oiled machine, and a very effective machine at that.

"Get out of here!" Phil shouted across the soon to be battlefield. "Now!"

Bizly gave Condi a nod and the two pulled out the potions Phil had gifted them. The potions even tasted sweet. Of course Phil would make them with sugar. Bizly looked over to Condi, or at least at the particles that were left in his wake. He fumbled in the air for a minute but eventually he found his brother's hand.

It'd been a while since Bizly had the effects of swiftness running through his veins, but soon his stride evened out.

Las Nevadas seemed like an oasis in the desert. It had tall buildings and even a fountain in it's main square, not to mention the polished streets. It looked like a place made to attract people to it, and if Bizly didn't know the lunatic who was running it then he'd say it was doing its job.

"Over here Biz," Condi said.

Bizly chuckled, "uh, I can't see where you're pointing ya know."

Bizly felt Condi's hand shift in his. "Oh... forgot about that. Here let me lead you."

Condi tugged on their shared grip and Bizly followed. Soon enough he could see where Condi was leading him. It was a standard oak door embedded in the side of a sand dune.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Who knows," Bizly guessed that Condi was shrugging, "but it seems like a good place to hang out until things blow over."

Bizly cringed at the loud creak the oak door made, but Condi was already dragging him down the cobble stairs.

"Condi I think I hear people maybe we should-"

"It'll be fine. We're invisible. We just need to stay quiet."

Bizly was worried, but if anything at least he would keep Condi safe, and he did have a point as the potions were still in effect.

Their steps hastened at the sound of something being smashed. He'd never tell Condi, but he almost fell down the stairs a few times.

They entered into a wide room with a short ceiling and stacks and stacks of chests. A few of the shelves were smashed though with jagged slash marks in the wood.

"Stop moving around so much!" Another smash.

"Someone's fighting here Condi," Bizly whispered, "let's just leave."

"I know it's just... there's something here."

Now that Condi mentioned it, there was something here that stood out.

"Purpled from outer space maybe I can help you if you stop swinging that at me!"

And gods if Bizly didn't freeze at that. If that voice didn't stop his thoughts in their tracks.

"Condi that's-"

"Yeah."

And Condi ran.

***

Slime was running out of options. With each chest Purpled smashed that was one less hiding place. There was actually one point at the beginning when Purpled stabbed his blade through him but it had just gone straight through his slime. Despite that it still burned with the fire aspect enchantment until Purpled pulled it out. Since then he'd resorted to slashes rather than stabs, saying that he was going to cut Slime down.

Honestly Slime thought this was it. He'd seen humans die, over and over again. Some went peacefully, some went in sorrow and some left with a fury. Legacy, Quackity had told him. It's what you leave behind after you're gone. Slime pondered the mark he'd left on this world. Despite all his time here he could only really think of a few mossy corner in caves that he used to call home. He wished he could at least apologize to Quackity for not helping him with his legacy like he'd promised.

Purpled held his sword high, "finally! Got you!"

Slime braced himself for the unnerving feeling of splitting apart but it never came. He looked up to find Purpled struggling to pull his sword from another man's grip.

"Who's there!" the alien yelled.

An iron shovel materialized and hit Purpled over the head, knocking him out cold on the dirt that made up the cellar floor.

And Slime looked up to meet his rescuers in the eye.

***

"Who are you?"

The words cut through Bizly's heart like a crossbow bolt. This is a joke right? It's a rather cruel one, but Charlie's always been a jokester.

"Bit uncalled for Charlie," Condi said for him, laughing a bit. "It's... it's really good to see you man."

Bizly looked down at his still very much invisible hands. "Wait how can you see us anyway?"

"I just... can?" Charlie said after a moments pause. "Am I not supposed to?"

"Oh of course you can," Bizly said. "You can't hide anything from Charlie with effects," he explained.

"You keep saying that name," Charlie said.

Both Bizly and Condi turned to face him.

"What name?" Condi asked.

"Charlie."

"Well that's your name Charlie," Bizly said.

"No it's not," was all Charlie said.

Bizly waited for some sort of punch line or even a 'I got you so good, just look at your faces'. He would take anything at this point, but Charlie just started at them as if there was nothing wrong with what he just said.

"What do you mean?" Condi asked hesitantly.

"I'm not Charlie," Charlie explained, "I'm Slime. Well I'm meat just like you, but Quackity from Las Nevadas calls me Slime."

Bizly knew that if he could see Condi he'd be giving him a look. Speaking of which though, the effects were starting to wear off and Bizly could see himself, albeit rather transparent.

Bizly's heart paused, "Charlie this is a joke right?"

"Quackity didn't finish teaching me about jokes, but no I don't think it is..."

Learn about jokes? The man might as well have invented them.

"Charlie," Condi started and gods above Bizly wanted to tell him to stop, to let him live in this moment of hopeful innocence for just a moment longer, "do you know who we are?"

The words left Condi's mouth and it was as if time slowed. Bizly's lungs stopped breathing and his eyes were plastered open, both in anticipation. Bizly prayed to every god he knew the name of, even Condi, that Charlie's response wouldn't be what he thought it was going to be.

"Nope!" Such a cheerful voice for such a crushing line.

And with that Bizly's hope shattered. Charlie had forgotten. More importantly, Charlie had forgotten them. After everything they'd been through and all his and Condi's searching this was his reward? Fate had a twisted sense of humor. He felt Condi squeeze his shoulder but everything except his thoughts seemed so far away.

"Biz! Your form is getting unstable!"

He looked down at himself, his hands flickering in front of him like a mirage. He risked burning away his mortal form at this rate, which would be rather inconvenient if he didn't have his mortal form to travel in.

"Let's go Condi," he said softly but firmly.

"What we're just leaving!?" Condi shouted.

"No, no of course not! We're taking Charlie with us," Bizly said reassuringly. "We'll just..." Oh gods what were they going to do? "We'll just have to make him remember."

It was a dumb idea. Even Bizly knew it wasn't just going to work like that, but believing that it would was all be had right now. Condi, bless him, just nodded and started to pull at strands of code.

A swirling pink and blue vortex opened in front of them, courtesy of Condi.

"Woah what's that?" Charlie exclaimed.

"It's the hole we made in the whitelist," Bizly explained. "Don't worry Charlie, we're going to get your memories back."

Charlie stiffened. "But... I'm not Charlie, I'm Slime. I- I'm Quackity's best friend I can't just leave him." He clutched his head, "you- you have the wrong person."

It may have been a while, but if there was one thing Bizly would never forget, it was the face of his brothers. This was definitely Charlie. Sure he was in his slimy mortal form, but there was no doubt in his mind that this was his brother.

Charlie fell to his knees. "Please," he muttered weakly, "please just leave me alone. You make everything hurt so bad."

Bizly took a step back, admittedly a little hurt, "what do you mean Charlie?"

No response. The slime was in an unconscious heap on the ground like whatever alien it was they'd smacked over the head earlier. Speaking of the alien though, they probably had to get going. Bizly picked up Charlie, slinging the man over his shoulder, too focused on his actions to notice the slimy mess all over his hands.

Condi took the first step through the portal, his form looking like strands of code as it flew through the opening of the tunnel. Bizly made sure Charlie wouldn't fall off his shoulders and entered the vortex after Condi.

***

Techno couldn't think straight. Not that he needed to, he knew he could take Quackity in his sleep. His vision was rimmed in red and his hands were stuck clenched around the hilt of his Axe of Peace. Chat was enjoying this, that much was for sure.

"You've been the top dog for too long Technoblade!" Quackity screeched in his ever annoying voice.

Techno scoffed, "I think it's easy to tell I'm a pig, not a dog," he said between strikes.

"Why do you always have to undermine everything I do?" Quackity demanded. "Las Nevadas wasn't doing anything to the Syndicate!"

"The Syndicate? What's that?" Techno said with a grin.

"Yeah I know about your little book club Technoblade!" Quackity said triumphantly.

"Sorry," Techno shrugged his shoulders in mock apology, "but I don't know what you're talking about Quackity."

"Oh just shut up already."

Techno for once obliged, dashing forward and embedding his axe in Quackity's shield. The wood splintered as the blade of the weapon cut through the outer wooden layer and dented the inside iron one. Quackity grunted in effort and pulled his shield away. Phil followed up soon after with Hiasobi Benihime's sharpened tip sliding into Quackity's unprotected armpit. Quackity cried out and jumped back.

Phil gave Techno a nod.

The song and dance was easy. His footsteps fell in line with Phil's, parrying and slashing in turn. They'd done it a thousand times, each step lead by instinct, brotherhood, and the guiding hands of their patron gods. Technoblade's voices cried for blood, and Phil's crows brought the omens of death.

Quackity cursed under his breath. "Foolish get over here already!"

"Coming Quackity!"

"Where's Purpled? He should be here already," Quackity hissed.

"I'm here Quackity!" Fundy cried, coming around the corner of one of the buildings.

"What?! Where's Slime!? And Purpled for that matter?"

"Don't worry sir!" Fundy said happily. "Purpled is watching him.

Techno watched as Quackity's muscles stiffened and he froze. He took advantage of the moment and rushed towards Quackity, the Axe of Peace held high and Phil right behind him, but Foolish jumped in between them, bringing up his shield to take the blow.

"Go help Slime, Quackity!" the demigod shouted. "Me and Fundy can hold them off!"

Quackity looked back at Phil and Techno but then ran off in the other direction.

Chat's cries grew louder as Quackity's form grew smaller and smaller. Fine then. If Quackity wanted to run then Techno would just have to deal with his goons first.

***

Once Condi saw Bizly enter the tunnel he started directing it. Bizly didn't need to tell Condi where they were going. It's not like they had anywhere else that could be called a home.

The Origin.

Condi would be lying if he said he wasn't anxious about returning. The world wasn't what it used to be, and even then held bad memories. At the same time though, Condi reasoned, it held the best years of his life. They wouldn't have to stay there forever after all. They just needed to get Charlie's memory back and then they could find somewhere to settle down on some obscure server far out from The Origin.

"Condi look!" Bizly cried.

Condi shifted his floating form to look back at Bizly. His eyes widened when he saw green energy arcing out of the man slung over his shoulder. It'd be so long since Condi had seen, or even just felt Charlie's power. It was thick in the air, bringing the scent of poppies and golden fields of wheat and Condi paused to admire it. Suddenly the loose magic gained a purpose and sunk into the walls of the tunnel, making it shake.

"What's he doing Condi!?" Bizly shouted over the loud tremors.

Condi used the code to pull up several menus in front of him. "It's altering our course!" he shouted back.

"What? To where?"

"I don't know. I'm trying to fix it, but Charlie's magic is pretty strong."

"Well you'd better hurry up before-"

The tunnel pulled away to reveal a blue sky. Clearly Charlie's magic had won this battle. Just one issue, they were several chunks off the ground. Didn't exactly bring up the best memories.

"Condi!" Bizly cried over the air hurtling around them.

"I'll be fine! Just make sure Charlie lands safely!"

They ended up in a birch forest, knocking against a few branches as they tumbled to the ground. Not the best landing he'd ever had, seeing how they were all lying in a bruised heap on the ground, but at least they'd made it safely.

"Oh my god. Charlie is that you?"

Condi pushed himself up to his knees. On the other side of the clearing stood a woman, no, a nymph, if Condi's eyes were to be believed.

She had copper gold hair that just barely graced her shoulders and reflected the sun in just the right way to show the entire spectrum of colors in fall. Deep rich purple in the shadows and bright pale yellow where the sun was the brightest. She wore a knitted scarf and a cozy looking sweater that was adorned with small mushrooms and various vegetation both growing off of her limbs and making homes in the threads of her clothing. Her eyes were like a stormy sea, a dark blue gray covered by round lenses of bronze framed glasses.

"Are you guys ok?" she asked, offering a hand to Condi, because Bizly was no where near getting up with Charlie on top of him.

Condi took her her hand and pulled himself to his feet, brushing the dirt of his pants. "Uh, yeah?" The nymph had already moved over to Bizly, helping him get up. "We had a bit of a crash landing, but I think we're fine."

The nymph paused for a moment, as if pondering her next words. "Are you two by chance Condi and Bizly?"

Bizly raised an eyebrow. "Yeah that's us," he said slowly. "How'd you know?"

"Oh Charlie told me all about you two!" She gestured to the man in question who was all but gracefully face planting in the forest dirt. "It's good to meet you!"

"You know Charlie?" Condi asked.

"Yep! Though I'll admit I didn't know if I'd see him again..." she said longingly. "Speaking of which, is... he ok?"

Bizly chuckled, "I think he just did a bit of passing out earlier."

"Is that so..." she said worriedly. "Here follow me. You guys can crash at my place and we can talk more there."

She started down a dirt path through the trees and Bizly picked up Charlie again, starting to follow her.

"Wait!" Condi said. "What's your name?"

"Oh where are my manners?" the nymph said. "I'm Grace!"

Chapter Text

Grace led them through the forest. The area the had landed in was mainly composed of birch trees, but they could soon see that this forest held every type of tree. There were even groves of acacia and jungle trees. All of them were just starting to transition into fall and it was as if their leaves had all been dipped in reds and oranges.

Grace seemed to understand Bizly's awe. "Isn't it beautiful?"

Bizly nodded.

Grace's eyes lit up when she saw a signpost stuck in the ground. "Here we are!"

Bizly paused to read the sign. It was overgrown with roots from the giant trees that surrounded it and the ink used to write the words was faded, but it read Grace's Place and had a crudely carved smiley face next to it.

Grace had already ran ahead of them into a vast clearing of dappled sunlight. A small cottage sat in the center of it, looking as if it hadn't been built, but rather grown. A patch of ground next to it was tilled and surrounded by a fence, accompanied by another sign next to the fence gate that read Grace's Garden in the same faded ink. Before he could get a good look at the garden though Grace gestured for them to follow her inside the cottage.

"Wow. It's bigger than it looks," Condi remarked as they entered.

"And still very cozy!" Grace said proudly, hands on hips. She gestured to a mossy looking couch on the left wall of her living room. "You can put Charlie there."

Charlie wasn't exactly the heaviest, but Bizly had been hauling him around like baggage for long enough that his muscles ached and was glad to oblige, gingerly setting his friend down on the couch.

"Alright now I'll put some tea together," Grace said, turning to what must have been the kitchen but then she turned back to face them. "Wait. Would you two like coffee better? Or I think I may even have hot cocoa if I search my cupboards."

"Ooh that sounds nice," Condi said.

Bizly barked out a laugh. "You're ever so childish Condi."

"Hey she's offering!"

Grace only laughed. "And anything for you Bizly?"

He pondered for a moment, "coffee is just fine, thank you ma'am."

"Yes thank you miss," Condi added.

"Oh no need for any of that. Please just call me Grace. You're good friends of Charlie after all."

Bizly sat next to Condi as they waited for Grace to return. She came back with a simple tin platter holding three mugs which were clearly not designed with the others in mind. One had pastel painted colors and was carved in flowery designs, another used brighter colors with a more basic design and abstract shapes fitting together like puzzle pieces and the last just said "Tuesdays, am I right?" in plain black font.

Once they all had their beverages Grace sat down on an armchair across from them.

She savored a sip of her tea before speaking. "So let's start off by addressing the elephant in the room: what happened and how did you three end up here?"

Condi laughed nervously, "it's a really really long story, are you sure you want to hear it?"

"Oh don't worry I have all the time in the world." Grace smirked, "don't cut corners, I want to know it all."

Bizly wasn't one to hand out his trust lightly, but everything pointed to Grace telling the truth. She was on a first name basis with Charlie and even knew their names before they told her. So he explained everything about their search to her. Charlie's disappearance, the DreamSMP, how'd they'd found him and ended up here, everything. Condi chimed in where Bizly might have forgotten important details. Grace didn't react much to anything, even getting them refills on their drinks halfway through but Bizly caught her glancing at Charlie's unconscious form with a look of sorrow and concern.

"Well that sure was a nice story," she said sarcastically once Condi and Bizly finished. "You two really have been through a lot."

Condi gave a bitter nod.

"So how did you meet Charlie?" Bizly asked. "He's never mentioned you before..."

"Oh yes, I almost forgot." Grace set down her mug, "it was a while ago. I couldn't tell you how long because when you live forever time passes differently, you two probably already know that, but it sure was a while back. Now that I think about it, he showed up similarly to how you did just now. Well, without all the falling from the sky stuff." Condi grimaced. "He was a mess when he showed up." She hesitated, "I could tell he hadn't been taking care of himself... He wouldn't respond to any of my questions but thankfully I was able to bring him here under my roof. The first few days I could only hear his muffled crying. After that he started to hang around me a bit more, albeit still silent as ever." She gave a short laugh, "honestly, the first day he spoke, I thought I must have been dreaming. He just told me thank you, can you believe it? It's a good thing I have my ways of making people open up."

"Grace," Condi started, "do you... know who Charlie is?"

Grace laughed, a bright and vibrant sound. "Of course I do! I think you'd both be surprised how much he's told me. I'll never forget the first time I saw his magic. I was trying to save my berry bushes that had been wilting in the current drought, but he simply walked by them and touched them each gently and bam! They were thriving and their leaves were the greenest I've ever seen them! Oh and they grew these juicy ripe berries too that tasted heavenly. I wish you two could have tried the pies we made with them. That does remind me of the one time that I smashed-"

"Grace," Condi said patiently.

"Oh!" She shrugged, "my bad. I just have so many good memories with Charlie." She stood and gathered all the mugs back on the tray she brought them in on. She looked out her small window at the sun that was starting to fall behind the trees. "Speaking of Charlie, would you two mind taking him upstairs?" She scratched her chin for a moment, "oh I know! You can put him in my bed, it's the first room on the right, then the guest bedroom is the second one and I'll sleep on the couch down here!"

"Oh no," Condi said, "we can't just kick you out of your room. Me and Biz can sleep down here."

Grace waved his concerns away, "it's no problem at all! You two are guests, and besides, technically Charlie is the one taking my comfy bed so if anything I'll just get mad at him when he wakes up," she laughed.

They both went to protest again but she quickly shut them up, pointing to the stairs and hurrying off to her kitchen to put away the mugs.

Grace really had no shame. Bizly could see why Charlie had opened up to her. Her joy was contagious and she brightened the room when she entered.

Bizly carried Charlie upstairs, easier this time with Condi's help, and into the room Grace had told them. They placed Charlie on top of dark green bed sheets. Just looking at his brother resting made Bizly tired. Condi must have been thinking the same thing because they both entered the guest bedroom. The beds were less lavish, and understandably so, and sat on opposite sides of the room. They ended up pushing the beds closer together because after all the time they'd spent together it was weird to sleep even the room's length apart, but to his surprise, Bizly drifted right off to sleep after that.

***

Quackity didn't know what he expected as he panickedly ran down the stairs of the storage room Fundy had told him about. The silence unnerved him. It pointed to a worst case scenario but even then he found it weird that it was completely silent, not even a single sound of Purpled's gloating or triumph.

He near blasted the door off it's hinges when he reached the base of the stairs. He could be sure there was some kind of skirmish here. Chests were smashed left and right, scattering materials all across the rough cobble floor. What he surprised him was Purpled's unconscious body also on the floor. He had a large lump on his head that Quackity couldn't help but grin at. The alien finally gotten what was coming for him. That did beg the question though, of where Slime was.

He communicator buzzed and he pulled it out. A hastily typed message from Fundy.

Fundy whispered to you: check chat logs

"Who's that idiot to tell me what to do?" Quackity muttered to himself, but he still scrolled up anyway.

Most of it was nonsense, Niki asking if anyone had some spare gold, Tommy spamming curses in all caps after dying to a creeper, nothing out of the ordinary, but in the middle of it all there was a system message he'd never seen before.

Slimecicle left the game.

It had to be him, right? He couldn't think of anyone else who would put slime in their com name. The message created more questions than it answered, like since when did Slime have a player status? When he'd been asked about it, he'd been confused and asked Quackity what it was. Quackity was sure that Slime was just a mob that somehow gained sentience, whatever that means. The name assigned to him by the system though, it had a familiar ring to it, as if Quackity had heard it before...

***

Condi's dreams, or maybe nightmares was a better word, were erratic and feverish, but all of them focused on Charlie in some way. Poisonous words his mind thought it would be funny to use his brother's voice for.

Which was why it was weird when he woke up and still heard Charlie's voice. He sat up instantly, because oh my gods Charlie was here, but then yesterday's events caught up with his sleep addled mind and he let out a deep breath.

He was hearing it from the other room and it was muffled and quiet, but he was sure it was Charlie's. His brother must be awake, finally.

Condi quickly pushed aside the bed sheets and rose to his feet. He had some nagging questions he wanted answers to. Bizly stirred in the other bed and reminded Condi that it was still early in the morning, the sun hadn't even shown itself, and everyone else was still asleep so he softened his steps as he headed down the hall.

As he got closer to Grace's room he heard another voice, which with Bizly not being an option, must have been the nymph herself. He hesitated with his hand hovering over the door handle. Not able to get over the worried knot sitting in his stomach, he resigned to just listen in instead.

"Do you remember that time you tried to help me with the stew and it exploded?" A giggle, "now that was an interesting day for sure."

"Uhhhh," the voice was unsure. "Nope! I'm sure your stew is just as great as it sounds though."

A deep sigh, "you know, when Bizly and Condi told me you don't remember anything I was somehow hoping that wouldn't include me, but I guess not..." The other voice stayed quiet and silence thickened the air.

The moment seemed like forever before there was a soft "Sorry."

"No no!" Grace's voice was brimming with tears and Condi almost went back to the guest room after hearing the broken sound of her voice. "Please, don't apologize for something that wasn't your fault. Let me introduce myself. I'm Grace."

"It's nice to meet you Grace! I'm Slime!" The bed creaked as someone shifted their weight. "Or- er- I was Slime? The other two told my that my name is Charlie."

"Well what do you want to be called?"

"I'm not sure. I..." A pause. "How to say this? I didn't want to know who Charlie was before and I was just happy with being Slime, but all the stories you told... You've convinced me that he was a good guy."

"Charlie I have to warn you, not all of your memories are going to be good. There were a lot of difficult things Charlie went through."

"But," Charlie's voice wavered, "there were a lot of good memories too, right? I want to at least learn who Charlie was before I decide to be Slime. And... uh... what were their names again?"

"Condi and Bizly," Grace said gently while Condi felt his heart wither.

"Oh yeah! Well Condi and Bizly seemed really happy to find me, and I don't want to make them sad. I think I already did..."

"Oh they'll be fine!" Grace said. "They've waited long enough, they can surely wait a bit longer. I just want you to focus on taking care of yourself, alright? It's been an exciting day, hasn't it?"

The bed creaked again. "Yeah I guess it has." Another pause. "Hey Grace? That's your name right?"

Sniffles and then a bitter laugh, "yup. That's right Charlie."

"Good. Well Quackity tells this to me all the time, in between getting mad at me for gooping up the fountain, and I just wanted to say thank you! You've helped me so much already."

A small sob echoed through the room. "I- I need to go. I'll be just right down the stairs at the end of the hall if you need anything." Condi quickly moved back from the door. "Thanks for letting me talk with you Charlie."

"Of course Grace!"

Condi quickly rushed back to the guest room, making his footsteps as quiet as possible while still moving fast enough to avoid an awkward conversation with Grace in the hallway. To his surprise he entered to find Bizly sitting up in bed.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "What's got you in such a hurry?"

It would sound too great if he said he was spying on a private conversation so instead he said, "Charlie's awake." Technically true after all.

"WHAT!? And you didn't think to wake me up immediately!?" Bizly started to rise from his awkward kneeling position.

Condi help up his hands. "Wait Biz! He's... I think we need to give him a minute." Bizly raised an eyebrow. "I mean we did kidnap him and all."

Bizly, stubborn as ever, wasn't having any of it. "He's had enough beauty sleep Condi! I want answers!"

Condi let out a sigh of relief when Grace cracked open the door and said, "oh hey. I thought I heard you guys. I'm going to start making breakfast downstairs if you want to come help." She glared at Bizly, "and Condi's right, give Charlie a break."

It might have not been obvious to Bizly, but when the rising sun peaked over the horizon Condi could see tear streaks adorning Grace's face.

Bizly made a sound close to a growl but Condi shut him up, hastily saying, "that sounds wonderful Grace! We'll be down there as soon as we can!"

"Condi," Bizly sat back down, "he's right here, he's literally on the other side of that wall, and you're telling me that I can't talk to him?"

"He's not going anywhere Bizl," he said reassuringly. "We'll get our chance."

He held out his hand and Bizly grumpily took it.

Grace was already busy making the pancakes, so Condi helped to set her oak table while Bizly went about opening the curtains over the windows and letting the golden morning light filter through the trees and into Grace’s dining room. Condi didn’t realize how hungry he was until the smell of the ever growing pile of pancakes wafted over to him. He wondered when the last time he’d eaten was. Godly forms didn’t require food or drink, it was more of a luxury. Mortal forms were different of course, as they were maintained the same way all other mortals kept their forms, but it was hard sometimes to remember to eat or drink when your mind wasn’t driven by the same instinct of mortals that kept them alive.

Grace finally finished her mountain of pancakes and placed them on the table. “You two sit,” she said, “I’ll go get Charlie.” Before they could even process her words she was halfway up the stairs.

The table had two chairs that looked like they had been made for it, with two others dragged over from other rooms to accommodate all four of them. Condi sat down and Bizly sat next to him, both of them trying to ignore the temptation of the food on the table.

The sound of footsteps echoed down the stairs and Grace popped around the corner, dragging a hesitant Charlie behind her.

Grace clapped her hands together. “Let’s start with introductions. Slime this is Bizly and this is Condi.” She gestured to each of them in turn. “And Bizly and Condi, this is Slime, or as you know him, Charlie.”

Charlie gave them a hesitant wave which they both returned. His movements were different than Charlie's usual "have fun first deal with the consequences later" attitude. The way he held himself was hunched and his eyes, while still bright, lacked the shimmer that Condi always loved when his own met Charlie's. It felt so wrong to see his brother like this, bearing a name different than the one they associated after all their years together, that he had first introduced himself with. He knew Bizly was thinking the same thing.

Nothing else interesting happened over breakfast except the tense silence, only broken up by Grace, who refused to be stopped by their awkwardness, making banter with each of them, and also when Charlie shoved a stack of pancakes, syrup, plate, and all, into his chest where his slimy form suspended it there. Safe to say there were a few stares, to which Charlie simply gave a shrug.

Condi soon excused himself, dragging Bizly along with him for what must have been the billionth time just this morning and leaving Charlie with Grace.

"Hey!" Bizly said once they were back in the guest room. "I wasn't finished yet!"

"We need to start figuring out how to get Charlie's memory back."

"And where do you propose we start?"

Condi pulled a scroll out of his pack, one of the few relics left from the glory days of Molympys. "I say we find Charlie. Our Charlie."

"Condi that magic was extremely experimental you know Griz never finished it. It could just make everything worse."

"What's the use of being one of the most powerful beings around if we can't solve a stupid memory problem!" He sighed, trying to ease his frustration away. "Listen, if we pour enough power into it we should be able to get it to work, even if it's not perfect."

"I don't like this Condi..."

"Well if you have anything better I'm open to suggestions." When Bizly stayed quiet he continued, "listen Biz. It's so hard when he's finally here but at the same time he's not. It's like fate thinks it's funny to watch us suffer."

Bizly looked to the ceiling as if it would give him an answer. "Fine," he finally said, "we'll try it, but if anything goes south we pull out immediately."

Condi nodded and opened the scroll on the table. The title was written in Grizzly's neat cursive font. Anima Channeling.

***

"Step on the platform and make sure you move with it."

"I know what I'm doing Sam. I've been here enough times for the obsidian to become an eyesore." Quackity contemplates the rough black stones. "Well actually I guess that wouldn't have to be too many times."

Sam nodded along like he was listening and pulled on the levers to send Quackity over to the maximum security cell. Once he got to the other side he stepped off the moving platform with as much grace as he could muster and watched as the netherite barrier lowered to reveal the target of his visit.

"Hey Dream! Long time no see!" When the prisoner didn't respond he kicked at his shin. "Speak."

"Hello sir," Dream muttered, his words sliding together into a garbled mess.

"I have some questions for you, and if you answer them quickly and honestly," he grabbed Dream's hair, the man giving a short yelp as Quackity tugged, "today might just be easy for you."

"Yes sir." The response came faster this time. Quackity grinned.

"Now tell me, have you ever heard the name Slimecicle?"

Chapter Text

Grace gave Condi and Bizly a look. "So you're planning on using this untested and unfinished magic to talk to Charlie's subconscious, assuming it all works and doesn't cause permanent mental damage that overall defeats the purpose of getting his memories back in the first place?"

"Well when you put it that way..." Condi started.

"Not happening," Grace said sternly.

"But Grace!" Bizly stammered. "This might be our only chance! I know you want Charlie back just as much as we do!"

Slime wasn't sure what was going on. Condi and Bizly had shown Grace a circular piece of paper and now they were arguing over something. In serious times like this Quackity usually didn't want him around, so he decided to wander out to the garden.

Grace said that she'd show it to him at some point during his stay, but she was busy right now and Slime was impatient. He pushed the gate open and stepped inside.

There were tall trees decorated with orange and red spheres and vines with smaller purple ones. Some of the plants were green while others were a dark velvety color. There were wide leaves that came out of huge stems and thick roots that held the tilled ground together.

Hearing a familiar noise, Slime lifted up the broad leaf of a plant labeled as kale. Underneath he found a small slime, looking at him with wide eyes. It seemed to take a minute to process what it was seeing and then let out all manner of squelches and squeaks.

"Oh no I'm not Charlie, I'm Slime."

The slime looked confused at this and retreated into the overgrown part of the garden. At first Slime thought he might've scared it off, but to his surprise it came back with even more slime creatures at its tail.

"Oh! These are your friends?" Charlie exclaimed.

The lead slime gestured proudly to his brothers.

"I have a friend too! His name is Quackity, have you met him?"

The slimes jiggled as if to say no.

"That's too bad. I hope he isn't worried that I'm missing."

***

Quackity grabbed the collar of of the prisoner's orange suit and slammed his skull against the wall. "Talk. Or else."

The man only laughed, cutting Quackity's patience ever shorter. He pulled out his shears, ready to make a few of Dream's fingers shorter in turn when the prisoner spoke.

"You got really lucky Quackity."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Dream laughed again and Quackity was inclined to cut out his throat if it didn't prevent him from telling Quackity what he needed to know. "Few people get to meet a member of the counsel."

"The counsel? You're making stuff up and you know I don't appreciate that Dream."

"People have many theories about where they disappeared to all those years ago, I just didn't think it'd be on my server of all places."

Quackity's hand clenched around the shears. "It's not yours anymore Dream. I think your sentence here proves that."

"Whatever, that's not-"

Quackity pulled back his fist and brought it down on Dreams nose, surely breaking it from the crack it made. "You don't make the calls here Dream," he whispered with his voice lined in poison, "I do. So you're going to tell me all about this counsel of yours."

Dream looked to the blood streaming down his face and then back at Quackity. "Well everything had to have started from somewhere and the records suggest that it started with the a counsel of four at The Origin."

"The Origin?"

Dream waved his hand dismissively. "It's all no man's land now, a dead world. But apparently it's what every world, including this one, branches off of."

"That still doesn't explain how Slime is involved in any of this," Quackity said.

"Come on! Open your eyes Quackity!" Dream said with a hint of mania. He grined, his teeth grinding together. "Your 'Slime' character is a member of the counsel!"

"Ok, so what?"

"You have a very powerful ally Quackity. Honestly, I'm envious! If I'd known Slimecicle was around I would have tracked him down years ago. Finders keepers I guess," he said with a shrug.

"Why are you talking about him like he's a tool?" Quackity growled.

"Well isn't he? What else is he supposed to be?"

"How about a friend?" Quackity spat, "but I guess you wouldn't understand, seeing how you drove away anyone who ever cared about you."

Dream seemed unbothered, but Quackity knew he'd struck a nerve. "I learned that friendship doesn't last. Maybe you should too Quackity."

Quackity took a deep breath. "I'm done here Sam," he shouted over the lava flows.

The lava eased away to reveal the platform and Quackity stepped on it, watching behind him as the prisoner grew smaller and smaller.

***

"So you guys were made by Charlie?"

The slimes nodded energetically.

"Well anyone who likes slime is cool by my standards," he paused. "Not that I'm slime though! I'm meat and bones, just like Quackity."

All the slimes stared at him like he was crazy, even the ones who didn't have obvious eyes. The largest one gooped over to Slime's feet and made a squelch.

"Of course you can!" Slime said, carefully picking up the small slime and placing it on his shoulder. Once the rest of the slimes saw this they clamored in protest, not stopping until Slime lifted each one of them onto his shoulders. "Comfy now?" he asked, and the slimes glooped in pleasure.

He continued to explore the garden, the slimes sometimes answering his questions, like explaining to him what the different plants he saw were.

"Corn, huh?" Slime liked the yellow plant. It grew tall and stood high above him. He'd never seen it before though. Now that he thought about it, most of the plants here weren't ones he recognized, even in all his watching.

He asked the slimes and they told him how Charlie had created new plants just for Grace's Garden.

"Wow! That's really nice of him!"

After he'd exhausted all the exploring he could do, Slime settled down in a section of the garden that was shaded by what the slimes said was an pear tree. He made sure each slime still had a secure grip on his shoulders and then leaned back against the trunk of the tree.

He hesitated a moment, unsure of himself before saying, "hey, can you guys tell me more about-"

"Charlie!"

Slime was startled by the voice and immediately felt back as the slimes had to hold on tight not be flung off.

Bizly and Condi ran up to him, Grace following behind them, eyes widening anytime their boots neared one of her plants.

"We're gonna get your memory back!" Condi panted.

Slime tilted his head to the side, a bit thrown off by Condi's enthusiasm. "How?"

He unrolled the circular paper he'd seen earlier and shoved it in Slime's face. Slime looked over the strange curly writing on the page but couldn't understand what Condi was trying to tell him. "I don't get it."

"We'll explain it as we go," Condi said hurriedly, clearly excited about whatever the circular paper said. "Just follow me."

"Sorry, I have to go." Slime apologized to the slimes and placed them back in the shade of the kale plants.

"Oh you met my little garden friends?" Grace asked cheerfully.

Bizly knelt down in front of the slimes. "Been a long time since I've seen these guys," he said while entertaining one by letting it swallow up his finger into it's goo. "Didn't think they'd be here."

"Yeah," Grace said, "he left them here when he... you know."

"I can't imagine why. They were like extra eyes for Charlie. They'd watch and then report back to him if they saw anything." A smile spread across Bizly's features. "He always had one with him. It didn't matter where we were going, whether it was the depths of hell or out on a morning walk."

They engaged the slimes a bit longer before bidding them goodbye as they disappeared into the undergrowth. A strange warm feeling grew in Slime's chest, which was weird, because he usually liked things cold and damp, but this warmth was pleasant.

When they could no longer see the slimes, Condi led him through the forest for a minute or two, Bizly and Grace following closely behind, until the trees opened into a clearing.

Bizly looked around a bit. "This is as good a place as any."

Condi told Slime to stand in the middle of the clearing, which he did, but he couldn't help but squirm as Condi and Bizly drew out a set of circles and other strange symbols around him in the dirt. Grace gave him a reassuring smile, but he could tell she was nervous as well.

"You get on that side Biz, I'll take this one."

Bizly crossed the circle, taking extra care not to mess up any of the patterns that now adorned the ground. Both Condi and Bizly nodded to each other before each placing a hand on the outer most ring of the circle. The lines lit up as if set on fire, dark blues and bright teals and pinks lighting up the clearing.

Slime blinked his eyes a few times to adjust them to the sight but it felt like the colors were burned into his vision and flooding his mind. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the magic rear its head and turn its gaze on him.

He held up his hands in front of his face and braced for an impact, but surprisingly, it never came. He hesitantly opened his eyes, each of them widening in turn when he saw the purple shimmering magic that surrounded him. It looked like the glow that Quackity had on his armor. He could even see runes floating in the air. They were written in a language that Slime had never learned, but he could read it none the less.

Mending

Unbreaking

Thorns

As if on cue the purple forcefield surrounding him grew sharp edges and retaliated against Condi and Bizly's magic, forcing it to dissipate. It gave out a roar as it fell into nothingness and the lighting in the clearing returned to the warm colors of the setting sun. When did it get so late? He hasn't noticed. Time seemed to pass so quickly.

Slime's knees suddenly grew weak and he sank to the ground. He could distantly hear the sound of footsteps, but all he wanted right now was to rest.

"Are you ok Charlie!?" That was Grace's voice.

"I'm not ok!" he exclaimed instinctually, "I'm meat!"

Grace stifled a laugh and pulled him to his feet. The goo in his legs quivered a bit, but Grace supported him.

Condi and Bizly were standing around him as well, each with a concerned, yet relieved look on his face.

When he looked down at himself, he could see that the runes from earlier were fading, but if he looked closely enough, he could still see them there, floating just inches off his slimy skin.

"Charlie do you remember?" Condi said frantically.

"Uh..."

"Don't pester him!" Grace said. "He's obviously exhausted."

"No I'm fine I just-"

"I wanna know what the hell just happened," Bizly said sternly.

"Isn't it obvious? He must've remembered!"

"I didn't!" Slime said quickly before they could cut him off again. "I didn't remember." He saw the disappointment that crossed all three of their faces and added a, "sorry."

"Well at least we're getting somewhere," Bizly said hopefully, "better than nothing at all."

"So if it wasn't you, then where did the magic come from?" Condi asked.

"Well there were just these magic letters that said weird words floating around me," Slime explained, waving his hands to get his point across.

Bizly grinned, "I think we gleaned something out of this after all." His hand glowed with a strange blue light as he ran it over Slime's arm, making the purple shiny letters more visible.

"Enchantments?" Grace puzzled.

"Charlie's always been a bit of a madman, but this is crazy!" Bizly said. He laughed a bit before declaring, "the lunatic enchanted himself!"

Condi squinted at the magic Bizly had revealed, still glowing with a strange power over still hanging over Slime. His eyes widened. "I don't believe it! He enchanted his mortal form?"

"Exactly! Or at least I think that's what's going on."

Slime glanced between the two of them, albeit a bit delirious. Maybe they wouldn't mind if he just took a quick nap here on this soft, damp, shady ground...

Grace tugged on his arm, slipping at first but then getting a solid grip. "Sorry but we can't let you go just yet. Hold on for a little longer."

Slime groaned, but he kept his eyes open, or at least the best he could as they lead him back to Grace's cottage.

***

Quackity nervously glanced at the Kinoko Kingdom flag billowing in the wind as he waited for someone to answer the door. After standing awkwardly for a moment or two Quackity decided that they must not be home, not too far fetched as it was getting late, and started to leave, not at all because he was scared of them actually answering. Before he got far though, the door creaked open. Quackity froze.

He prayed to whatever god might be listening that it was Karl and not Sapnap. He didn't have the energy to engage with both of them today. He was worn thin as it already was. To his surprise though, it was George. Quackity let out a sigh of relief.

"What do you want Quackity?" George said in a bored tone of voice.

"Heyyy George!" Quackity opened his arms in a friendly gesture. George just lifted his eyebrows, clearly unamused.

"Well if you don't need anything..." George started to creak the door shut.

"No wait George!" Quackity said desperately. "I just need a small favor."

George rolled his eyes. "Of course you need something. You'd never come visit if you didn't have something to gain," he says bitterly. "I don't know why I hoped for anything different."

Quackity stuck his foot in the door. He knew George must not have the highest opinion of him, but Quackity needed this. "I'm just looking to borrow some books from Karl, that's all."

George seemed to contemplate his choices before opening the door. "You owe me for this," he said.

"Of course! I'll do anything! Thank you George!" he said, putting his arm around the other man.

"How about you talk to Sapnap and Karl?"

Quackity's steps faltered. "I- I've been meaning to, I just-"

"I don't want to hear it," George said, cutting him off. "You should be telling your excuses to your fiances and hope they'll believe you."

"Well, thank you for the advice George," Quackity said as he slid past him.

George watched him until he disappeared down the stairs where Karl's library was. Quackity felt his muscles relax as soon as George's gaze left him. He hurried down the steps and quickly found the books he needed. Myths, histories, anything that would prove what Dream told him was wrong.

Once he'd placed them comfortably in his inventory, he found the handle of the back door. It was meant to be hidden, but it seemed Karl hadn't moved it. He didn't want to encounter George again, so he took his leave as silently as possible.

"I'll find you Slime. Don't worry. I'm coming buddy," he told the night sky, and the stars, and anyone who dare tried to stop him.

Chapter Text

The groans of the undead overwhelmed Bizly's hearing. They lumbered towards the two of them, their mouths wide open as they slobbered and hungered for flesh.

"Uh Charlie? We've got a bit of a situation over here."

"What? Did you eat the yuck meat?" Charlie gave him a friendly glare.

"No! They all just spawned naturally," Bizly said defensively.

"If you say so mob guy." He scratched his chin. "Can't you just tell them to leave us alone? You have control over them, right?"

"Charlie that's what one would call cheating," Bizly said in mock righteousness. "We agreed that we'd come down here as mortals and not use our godly powers except when absolutely necessary."

"Even if we have no tools or even a crafting table?"

Bizly snickered. "Isn't it your fault for making it so we need a furnace to make a crafting table?"

"Touche," Charlie said, nodding in defeat. "Well if that's the case," his hands were illuminated a bright green, "I'll take care of this!"

Bizly's eyes narrowed upon seeing what his friend now held in his hands. "A meat sword? Really?"

Charlie shrugged, "it was the only thing I had enough of in my inventory." He swung at the nearest zombie. "Don't worry, these guys are about to meat their maker!"

Bizly chucked and stepped back to let Charlie deal with the horde. It was a long battle and the undead never seemed to stop, but eventually their numbers thinned. Charlie clumsily put the sword back into his inventory.

"You need to work on your swordsmanship," Bizly said.

"We both know you're just jealous of my raw power!"

"Oh shut up," Bizly wheezed out between his laughter. "Condi and Griz are probably waiting for us at the village."

Charlie nodded and fell into line behind him. They walked in silence for a while, their steps illuminated only by starlight. Bizly turned when he heard his brother's steps falter.

"That's weird," Charlie said, his head tilted towards the sky. "This is usually when you wake up."

Bizly froze. "Charlie? What are you talking about? Did one of the undead bite you?" He glanced over Charlie, but he couldn't see any obvious wound or injury.

"No I'm perfectly fine," Charlie said dismissively. "Honestly I'd be more worried about yourself, not some fragmented memory."

Bizly laughed as if it would drown out the unease spreading through his body. "We'll have to have Griz take a look at you when we get back."

Charlie's mouth twisted in a foreign emotion as he looked back towards Bizly. "Yeah..." Bizly was shocked to see tears running down his brother's face. "Maybe this time-"

As if to prove him wrong, the starry skyscape around them disappeared and gravity dragged them down.

"Charlie!" Bizly cried, but his fellow god was already gone. "Charlie!" he screamed again, this time to the void surrounding him, as if it would give him back his brother.

***

Bizly woke with a start. The sun in his eyes was glaringly bright in comparison to the gentle night sky of his dream. After a moment of catching his breath, he got out of bed. When did he lay down? He couldn't remember. The last thing he was doing was-

"Condi?" he said hesitantly. Much to his relief, there was no response. He needed a moment alone.

He shoved the papers on the room's sole and small desk into his pack. His didn't want to think about them, not after-

He ran his hands through his hair in exasperation.

"Biz? Are you awake?"

He pulled on his hair now, enjoying the grounding feel of his scalp being tugged off of his skull. He didn't want to deal with reality right now, he couldn't.

"I'm coming in." The door squeaked as it opened.

It's not like the universe ever waited for him to catch up, ever gave him a break, why should he expect any different? So he turned to face Condi, and turned up his expression.

"We need to talk about it Bizl." Condi put an arm around his shoulder to steady him. Since when had he been shaking? "Why don't you sit down?"

"I'm fine Condi," he said in the most reassuring way he could muster, but it just ended up coming out as a whimper. Gods, why did he sound so pathetic?

Condi eased him down onto the bed and sat next to him. "It's... a hard blow to take, that's for sure."

Bizly would laugh if he chest didn't feel so heavy. "You think?" he said sarcastically.

Condi shrugged and said, "I'm not sure of much anymore, but after everything, all we've given up, we can't just stop here, right? I mean that'd just be..." he cradled his face with his hands, "I don't know..."

Bizly knew what Condi meant. "It'd be letting fate win."

Condi nodded. "I refuse to believe that it's our destiny to never have a happily ever after." A heavy pause. Tears slowly trickled down Condi's face,  "I can't believe that Charlie-"

Bizly reached around his brother's shoulders and pulled him close, squeezing him tight. In the silence between them, every sound was amplified: the birds chirping, the leaves rustling, the stream flowing. The world's own melody. A duet between the two member of his family he'd so foolishly lost.

Except Charlie wasn't lost, or at least not unable to be found. The real question was if he wanted to be found. The enchantment runes were written shakily, but the power embedded in each stroke was overwhelming. A god's final act.

Unbreaking

Curse of Binding

C̷̨̦͓̮͚͚̼͐͑̂u̶̮̥͚̟̓ṟ̵͓̰̠͌ŝ̷̨͖̜̽ê̸̘͐̒̿͛͝ ̷̦͕̜̫̞̅͌͐o̸̡̺̱̠͖̥͙͗̆̏̄̈́͊͂f̴͍͖͓̠̭͔̮̿͆͑͘ ̵̥̻̽F̷̛̞̝͚͖̄̈́ǒ̵̢̳̻̲̠̘̞̒̓r̷͔̘͖͎̪͙͗͒̀̎͗g̶̺̱̖̭̓e̷̖̼̭̪̩̿͂t̴̡̖̠̙͕̍̓̽̂͋͝t̷̡̟̜̜̄̕i̶̟͖̰̫͔̟̐̿̄̍̉n̵̛͍̳̼̝̖̓̂͛͌̾̉g̶͙͎̯͉̍̏͂̾͐̒

It's safe to say that Bizly now owed Grace a new table, seeing as he'd broke it in half and splintered the polished wood upon seeing the condemning purple runes. He thought of the intricately carved wood an groaned. He'd have to pick up carpentry at this rate. Honestly it didn't sound too bad at the moment. Anything to distract him from the reality of the situation was welcome.

Still, he knew it wouldn't get rid of this feeling of being torn apart from the inside.

"I don't care if he doesn't want to remember us, I want some answers out of Charlie," Bizly said suddenly, rising to his feet.

Condi's eyes brightened and he flashed Bizly a smile. "Yeah! He must've not been thinking straight if he didn't think we'd come after him."

Bizly returned his grin. "Yeah."

"That does beg the question though," Condi said, "of how we're going to go about breaking the enchantments. I mean, they're Charlie's, a standard grindstone isn't going to do the job."

Bizly nodded. "The only one who can do that is Charlie himself."

Condi laughed. "Well that puts us in a bit of a predicament, doesn't it?"

Bizly looked at the ancient papers scattered in the bottom of his pack. "That may be so," he started, "but there may be another solution to this."

"What do you mean?"

"We need to visit Molympys." The word felt strange in his mouth and he saw Condi's expression turn sour. "If it hasn't already been torn apart by scavengers and bandits, then Charlie's original records should still be there and maybe, hopefully, that includes a way to remove these enchantments."

"I don't like heading back there..." Condi trailed off, knowing what Bizly's response would be.

"But it's our best bet."

Condi nodded, even if his face was still twisted in unease. "I'll go talk to Grace, you just worry about getting packed."

Bizly didn't try to hide his sigh of relief upon knowing that he wouldn't have to be the one to deliver the news to the nymph. He wasn't sure he'd be able to take it at the moment. Just another time Condi has looked out for him, even if Bizly knows for a fact that this is hard for him too.

He'll have to give Condi first pick on the rations for a week after this. He chuckles to himself at the thought and starts fingering through his items.

***

"What!? You can't just leave! You-" Grace frantically behind her, relieved to see Char- no, Slime still in the kitchen, enamored with the soap bubbles in the sink.

Condi held his hands up in front of him. "Well, if everything works out, we should be back?"

Grace turned her gaze to her floorboards, ashamed of her outburst, as if they'd somehow be less judgemental than the god standing before her. "I know that, it's just..." she gripped her sweater tightly, "it's hard to say goodbye to him again."

Condi hesitantly placed a hand on Grace's shoulder. "I understand. I'm sorry we have to be the ones to take you from him, but I promise we will also be the one to bring him back to you."

And Grace melted at that. Charlie hadn't said a word when he left, no final goodbye or anything, let alone a promise. He'd disappeared without an explanation, leaving Grace with nothing to mend the hole he left in her heart and now here Condi was, promising that he'd be back, that Charlie would be back.

She wiped the tears out of the corners of her eyes. "You mean that?"

"I swear on my life that I'll do everything in my power to bring Charlie back to you."

Grace pulled Condi into a brief but tight hug. "Thank you," she whispered. A sob escaped her tightly clenched lips. "Thank you so much."

***

This was getting much more out of hand than Quackity had anticipated. His worst fears had come true and Dream's story matched up with Karl's myth books, or at least the little information they had to offer. In comparison to other famous gods, the counsel barely had a few pages between the four of them. It wasn't that they weren't interesting, the numerous scholars credited for their section of the books said otherwise, but despite that, there was a sorry lack of info beyond the basics. Quackity suspected that most of it was just guess work too, seeing the shattered legacy they left behind.

In the end, none of it was much help for finding Slime. His only lead was the so-called Origin. It was definitely out of the way and a long trip, but Quackity wouldn't be able to face himself if he didn't search every nook and cranny for his best friend. No that wasn't the difficult part, that was finding someone to run Las Nevadas in his absence. After recent events he didn't trust Fundy's judgement and of course Purpled was sent running. That only left Sam and Foolish. Quackity would much prefer to leave Las Nevadas to the former, but he knew that Sam would refuse him and make up some excuse about keeping the prisoner locked up.

That only left the ever so radiant and golden demigod. Quackity groaned and typed out a hasty message to Foolish.

You whisper to FoolishG: get over here i need to talk to you

The response was quick, Quackity will give him that.

FoolishG whispers to you: On my way!

Soon enough, Foolish arrived in Las Nevadas, the sweltering afternoon sun reflecting off him in a way that hurt to look at.

"Listen here Foolish. I'm going on a short trip, and I need you to watch over Las Nevadas while I'm gone."

Foolish's eyes sparkled. "You want me!? Really Quackity? Wait..." he paused. "This isn't some cruel joke, is it?"

Quackity sighed. "Unfortunately not..."

"Yes!" Foolish practically jumped a foot off the ground in joy. "I mean-" he quickly corrected himself, "I'll be sure to keep Las Nevadas safe while you're gone!" He gave a frantic salute to Quackity.

"You'd better." He started pulling up the server connection module, but stopped himself. "Hey," he told Foolish, "if that no good son of a gun Wilbur shows up," he grinned, "punch him for me."

And with that he pressed the button to disconnect from the server and disappeared in a flash of blue code.

***

Technoblade's communicator buzzed in his pouch and he begrudgingly pulled it out.

Quackity left the game.

He yawned and sunk further into his armchair. Couldn't Quackity wait just a little bit before resuming his shenanigans? I mean between insomnia, Chat, and that menace of a duck, he was nowhere near getting his full eight hours.

"Philll," he said, cringing at how much he sounded like Tommy.

The avian in question poked his head around the corner. "Yeah mate?"

"You saw chat, right?"

"Sure did," Phil said as he nodded. "Guess we can't take a break just yet."

Technoblade pushed himself to his feet. Chat was causing a ruckus; he wouldn't be getting in a comfy nap today. Part of him wondered why he ever joined this server. It never settled down. He supposes that's a good thing in most cases, but inexperienced people like Tommy and Tubbo, and not to mention Quackity, made him spend all his free time cleaning up their messes.

And now he was heading off to deal with whatever trouble Quackity was looking to stir up. And there was absolutely no other reason. And nobody that he wanted to see again. And no mysterious gods that he hoped to see along the way. Absolutely none.

haha L

techno wants more friends than just phil? #notmytechno

"You don't give me enough credit Chat. I've been grinding out my social skills recently."

L

lies

We all know you don't want friends

friends = lame

Why would you need friends when you have us??

The voices continued to buzz but he'd turned his attention away from them. Or at least the best he could. They were really adamant about their opinions today. Such a nuisance.

It's a good thing Techno always carried a bell in his ender chest. He pulled it out of the starry void and rung it loudly.

"Sellout time chat!"

Chapter Text

The first impression Quackity had of The Origin was one of rot and decay. Sure the trees were growing and mobs were about, but on a level other than physical, they lacked the life he'd seen everywhere else. He'd never describe the DreamSMP as lively, but after seeing this, even those war torn lands seemed in better shape.

His eyes brightened when he saw crafted wood planks that could only be the sign of another player. He increased his pace and came into a heavily forested spruce village. This was great! He could get a head start on materials and maybe they even had a diamond or two he could borrow while they weren't looking.

As he walked along the dry dirt paths though, he started to see that the village was abandoned. Spider webs stretched between the shards of broken window panes and roofs were close to caving in. He found the distinctly shaped blacksmith's building and sure enough, the chest contained two glittering diamonds, but among the rotting food next to it and the muted sunlight highlighting the dust he'd kicked up, it didn't feel nearly as exciting.

He made himself a diamond sword though and continued past the village. He wanted to use his remaining hours of daylight to their full potential. He thought about finding a cave and suiting himself up in iron, but he didn't plan on being here too long so a dirt shack until morning would have to do. He did chop down a few spruce trees though and made some make shift tools.

He traveled along for a few hours before a voice stopped him.

"Hey!"

Quackity jumped. After getting used to the silence, the voice was startling.

"Over here!"

Quackity turned and saw the person who was speaking. He wore a mixture of chainmail and leather armor and carried an iron sword on his hip. He was old, the wrinkles on his face said as much, but he held himself confidently.

"Uh, yeah?" Quackity said hesitantly.

The man approached him. "You're new here aren't you?"

Quackity shrugged. "Yeah I guess."

"Oh that's exciting! We don't usually find new people!" the man beamed.

"We?" Quackity asked warily.

The man's face became serious. "I lead a group of survivors. We're in need of more able bodied fighters like you."

"Survivors? From what?"

"Surely you've noticed that these lands are not normal," the man said. "They've been twisted by powers beyond us mortals. Thankfully we're far out from the center so it's liveable at least."

"Well why don't you just leave?" Quackity asked. "If it's so terrible then surely you can find somewhere else to go."

The old man laughed loudly. "I wish it was that easy youngster! Nearly all of our people aren't fit for travel. Children, their mothers, the elderly, the works. All the people who were healthy enough to leave did so ages ago and everyone left behind has accepted this as their home and final resting place."

"Oh... I see..." Quackity said, feeling a bit naive.

The old man gave Quackity a warm smile. "Don't worry son, we're getting along just fine for now. Besides," he said, "since we're on the outskirts it's far less likely that some crazy god or other being will decide to go out of their way to mess with us."

"Gods? What would they want with you?"

"When some people get power, they like to show it off, to make people weaker than them cower in fear." He sighed. "I'll never understand it."

Quackity thought of Slime and the kindness he'd shown him, the kindness that so few people have out so freely. "Not all of them are like that though! Some are really nice!"

"You must've gotten lucky with whoever you encountered then. Whether or not gods are capable of good, all the 'good' ones aren't here anymore," he gestured to the land. "I can't imagine why any of them are here to begin with. Honestly we'd all be better off without them."

Quackity clenched his teeth but didn't say anything. The old man had obviously been here a while and had the wisdom that comes with that, but if Slime really was a god, or something other, Quackity refused to believe that he was evil deep down, that he had some ulterior motive. Honestly the concept was so out of character for him that it was laughable.

That reminded him why he came here in the first place: not to have philosophical discussions with some old man, he came to find his friend.

"Can you point me to the center of this world?"

The man's eyes widened. "Why would you want to know that?" He stepped closer and put a hand on Quackity's shoulder. "There's things in life worth living for son. We can help you find them."

"What? No!" Quackity said, pulling away from the man's grasp. "That's not why I'm here. I'm here to find a friend of mine."

The old man seemed to ponder over this for a moment. Eventually he said, "you're sure about this?"

Quackity gave a firm nod.

The old man gave an exasperated sigh and pulled something out of his pocket. He placed it into Quackity's hand and he could now see that it was a compass.

"It's Southeast from here," he pointed in the direction in question, "about 40 chunks out or so. You'll know when you're coming up on it. It's a big mountain and the center is on the top of it."

"Thank you," Quackity said as he placed the compass in his inventory.

"Just hurry along son. I sense it's going to rain soon..."

***

Slime had always marveled at rain. It fell out of the sky after all. He'd asked Quackity one time if it was the stars crying. Quackity had explaining something complicated with water melting and going up in the sky and making clouds, but Slime didn't really understand that.

He liked rain though. It was moist and wet and damp, just like his mossy cave corners. It made the ground wet and goopy too and goopiness could never be a bad thing. The slime on his shoulder agreed, absorbing the water droplets into its slime happily.

"Charlie! Come on!"

It took Slime a minute to realize that they were talking to him. He wasn't used to responding to Charlie yet.

"Uh, yeah?" he said, letting the water that was accumulating in his palm fall to the muddy ground.

Condi gave him a nervous smile. "You're falling behind buddy."

"Oh..." Slime said. He took one last look up at the cloudy sky and then bounced after Bizly and Condi.

The two walked ahead of him, talking in hushed tones that made it hard to hear them, but Slime didn't mind. He liked watching them. He was starting to pick out each step of Bizly's gait and the way Condi always liked to use his hands when he was talking.

"I think I like them," Slime whispered loudly to the creature on his shoulder. "I know Quackity told me I shouldn't trust people, but something tells me they're nice."

The slime gooped in agreement.

Slime looked back and saw that Bizly had disappeared and only Condi was leading them now. He quietly sped up to stand next to him.

"Where'd Bizly go?"

Condi let out a cry and jumped back. Slime moved backwards as well, worried he'd hurt him somehow.

After catching his breath Condi saw the look on Slime's face and said, "sorry! You just scared me." He gave a reassuring look. "Bizly went to find us shelter from the rain."

"Shelter? But the rain feels so nice!" Slime said, gesturing upwards as if to prove his point.

"Maybe... but you're kinda melting..." Condi said sheepishly.

Slime was, in fact melting. It was hard to tell, but his slimy skin had been getting less and less green with each rain drop that hit it. "Ohhh," he said simply.

Condi gave a small chuckle. "Yeah that's why we're looking for a place to settle down for the night."

They stood around in silence for a bit longer after Condi lead him to a tree where he could stand under to reduce the amount the rain pelted him. After a few minutes, Bizly finally returned and took them to a small cabin in the thick of the woods.

"I've already lit the fire and everything," Bizly said proudly as they entered.

"Woah," Slime said, reaching out to touch the flames.

"Charlie no!" both Bizly and Condi shouted simultaneously, pulling him away from the red hot firewood.

"He's like a child!" Bizly said, obviously exhausted.

"That's why we're here, right Bizly? We just need to get to Molympys."

"Yeah I know it's just-"

Slime didn't care to listen to the rest of what they had to say. It gave him a heavy feeling inside. Instead he gently cupped the slime on his shoulder and placed it onto the dry wooden floorboards. Once it'd properly settled, he gave it an affectionate pat on its head.

"Catch!" was the only warning he got before something hit him in the face, temporarily blinding him. He pealed it off his slimy skin to see that it was a big piece of cloth. Too ashamed after recent events to ask what to do with it, he watched as Condi and Bizly spread theirs out in the ground and laid down on top of them. He tried the same, which was a bit difficult with the blanket sticking to him at every opportunity, but eventually he managed.

Condi and Bizly just sat there though. Not even talking to each other.

Eventually his curiosity was too much. "Uh, what are we doing?" he asked.

"Sleeping, Charlie," Bizly said shortly.

"Oh..."

Slime had seen Quackity do it before. You just closed your eyes for a really long time and didn't move until the sun rose, right? He did exactly that for a good hour or two before getting tired of staring at the back of his eyelids. Careful not to make any noise, he sat up.

He watched the other two in the room. Their chests slowly rose and fell as breath escaped them, but otherwise they were doing a really good job at sleeping.

Something shiny caught his eye and he slid across the floor towards it. It was peeking out of Bizly's pack so he reached in to pull it out, but was startled when pain bloomed across his hand. He lifted the lid to see that it was something sharp. That would explain the cut now on his hand. He pulled it out by the not sharp bit and marveled at the blade he now held.

It glimmered in the moonlight, reflecting it as if it was a mirror. The odd thing about the sword was how long it was. Quackity and everyone else from Las Nevadas has theirs the same length, about the length of their arm, but this one was far beyond that. It was just on the edge of not being practical to wield as a weapon.

Slime noticed letters carved into the hilt and read them slowly, speaking each syllable aloud.

"Eks-scay-liber?"

The metal was also inlaid with a bunch of the purple symbols from yesterday and that made him happy for whatever reason. They weren't written very well though. Or at least Slime knew they could be better. Like if the Thorns enchantment was moved farther away from the hilt you could stop it from poking you and if you drew the lines thinner, you could pull more power out of the Channeling runes.

Slime didn't notice, but the room glowed with more than the moonlight and the runes rippled and danced across the blade as if partnered with the flickering shadows.

"What are you doing?!"

Slime turned to see Bizly standing over him.

"I-," he started, but Bizly cut him off by snatching the sword out of Slime's hands.

Slime wasn't trying to do anything wrong, but he couldn't help but shake a little as Bizly glared down at him. The man could be scary when he wanted to be.

"Don't ever touch my things," he glowered. "Got it?"

Slime gulped and nodded meekly.

Thankfully the man didn't say anything else, simply put the blade gently back into his pack and dragged it over to where his blanket was and laid down again.

Even after that, Slime still sat frozen on the floor for a bit, his hands clutching the air. Bizly triggered some instinct deep in his mind that maybe if he didn't move, the predator wouldn't see him. It was an odd feeling that made his fingers tremble against his will.

After what might've been another hour or two, he was losing track at this point, the small slime glunked over to him. It gave a small questioning squeak.

"Yeah I'm fine," he said in response, "just a bit shaken up."

The slime didn't say any more. It just crawled into Slime's knee and got comfy there. He laughed quietly and leaned back against the nearby wall to wait for morning.

***

For the first time in ages, Condi's dreamscape was peaceful. So peaceful in fact, that it made him nervous, at least until he saw the figure in the distance.

He took a deep breath, but his knees still grew weak as he approached the Harvest God.

He was sitting on a cliff's edge, bathed in the dark blue of the midnight sky looking over the land below and towards a tall mountain in the distance. It was a beautiful scene, to say the least. It'd been so long since Condi had seen his brother like this. Himself, at peace, not terrorizing Condi in feverish nightmares. It felt foreign, but it was very much a welcome change.

To his surprise, Charlie spoke first. "Hey Condi."

Condi sat down next to him. "What're you doing here?"

"Can't an old friend come and say hi?" Charlie said with a smile.

"You can save that for when we get your memory back."

"I guess you're right..." Charlie shrugged.

Condi felt his throat tighten. Why was he hesitating to ask? You don't want to know, his mind supplied. But he needed to know. Because if it was because of him, then he couldn't... he wouldn't... he doesn't know what he'd do with himself.

"Hey Charlie?" his brother turned to face him for the first time in their conversation, "why did you do it?"

"What do you mean?" Charlie asked, and for some reason the made Condi feel like he was on fire.

"Why did you chose to forget us?"

"Oh that." Charlie looked away from him. "I don't know."

"That's all you have to say!?" Condi demanded.

"Hey, cut me some slack Condi!" Charlie said, grinning. "I'm just your brain's memory of Charlie. I don't know anything you don't."

Condi felt the anger in his veins slowly diffuse. "Oh..."

"Yeah sorry about that," the memory said sheepishly. A beat of silence passed between them. "I do know though, that from what Charlie told you, you were his best friends."

"But what if he was lying?!" Condi shouted. "What if he hates us now?!"

The sun started to peak over the mountain in the distance. With the light illuminating it, Condi could now see that the mountain was none other than Molympys. He could almost see it's shining white halls and vine covered pillars from here.

"Looks like our time is almost up," the memory said, rising to its feet. He flashed Condi one more grin as Condi's vision was overtaken by the rising sun. "I think you should have a little faith in Charlie."

As if that line was a cue of some sort, the land his dreams had conjured vanished around him and the memory disappeared.

Chapter Text

Condi woke to the distinct feel of someone watching him. He sat up quickly and checked his surroundings. Sat in the corner, looking like he hadn't blinked in hours, was none other than Charlie. Last night's dream popped into his head. Besides that, the sun was barely peaking over the horizon and just starting to decorate the floor with it's beams. It's also worth noting that Bizly was still very much asleep if his mouth hanging open and the drool slowly trickling out of it had to say anything on the matter.

"Uh," Condi said, "what're you doing Charlie?" The man didn't respond so he walked over an waved a hand in front of his face. "You in there buddy?"

Slowly Charlie's eyes became more focused and he craned his neck to look up at Condi. "Hi?" he asked in an unsure tone. "What's up Condi?"

"You don't seem to good, are you alright Charlie?"

"Yeah! Of course I am!" he said hurriedly.

Condi knew he was lying, he didn't do a very good job of it, but he went to pack up his makeshift bed anyway. Bizly woke up soon after and groggily mumbled something then went about packing his things as well. Charlie just sat and watched as he hadn't brought anything except the little slime that was following him around. Honestly Condi didn't know how he got it. One moment it wasn't there, and the next it was. However it got there, it did a good job of entertaining Charlie.

Exiting the rundown cabin, Condi was met with the sight of the place that both brightened his dreams and haunted his nightmares.

Molympys.

They would reach it today. It was only a couple hours trek away. For most people, getting up the mountain would make that time double, but even now Condi knew the trails by heart. Despite the fact that they were still miles away, Condi could still pick out the ridge where he watched the sunset with Grizzly every morning and the once rough edges that had been smoothed over by centuries of weather.

Bizly came to stand next to him. "It's still just as beautiful as when we left, huh?"

"Yeah..." Condi said wistfully. "How long ago would that have been? A hundred years? A thousand?"

"What?" Bizly said loudly. "Now way. My bet is on at least a hundred thousand."

Condi thought over the last years of his life. "Yeah I guess your answer is better." He shrugged, "I've never been good at keeping track of time."

"You bet! Remember that one time you booked us to go to a play that one time and when we showed up they said it was last year?"

"Hey! That's pretty close for me!" Condi said defensively.

"True," Bizly mused.

"You guys used to live up on that mountain?" Charlie said, his mouth hanging open in awe.

"Well, you did too. You just don't remember it," Condi explained.

"Really?" Charlie beamed, seeming in a much better mood than he was earlier this morning. "Did I have a house? Because Quackity said the house always wins!"

"The house always... what?"

"It's part of gam... gama..." Charlie struggled to sound out the right word. "Oh! Gambling!"

Bizly's eyes widened at that. "Who was teaching you about gambling!?"

If Condi didn't know better, he would say Charlie shrunk down a little when Bizly addressed him.

"It was Quackity..." he said hesitantly.

Bizly groaned. "I'm gonna have a nice chat with Quackity the next time we see him."

Slime shifted nervously, but didn't say anything else.

Once it clicked what was going on, Condi pulled Bizly to the side, gesturing for Charlie to stay put when he tried to follow them.

"What'd you say to him?"

"I didn't say anything! It's just he was-" Bizly said before cutting himself off.

Condi simply gave Bizly a look and waited for him to continue.

Bizly gave out an exasperated sigh. "Last night, he was messing with Excalibur."

Condi felt his heart stop for a split second. He'd known that Bizly had it all this time, but they never discussed it. It was hard to talk about Grizzly after all.

"Well it's technically his, isn't it?" Condi reasoned. And it was true. In their final battle against the Ender Dragon, Grizzly had gifted Charlie with his weapon of immense power. At first Condi hadn't wanted anything to do with the last gift from his brother as his memory was still left paralyzed by the time it had been used against him, but eventually that was replaced with the memory of Charlie wielding it for their cause.

Still though, the weapon hadn't been used since then. Though they didn't notice it at the time, Charlie slowly spiraled over the loss of Grizzly and soon after they beat the Ender Dragon, he disappeared, starting their search. So the blade was left to collect dust instead. It felt almost like an insult to Grizzly to let his greatest work lie dormant, but neither him nor Bizly dared to use it after everything that had happened.

"I just can't accept that that's Charlie!" Bizly cried. "Charlie was the person who vouched for me from the first day he met me! He has an infectious laugh that brightens even the darkest of times! That, that thing isn't my brother." Bizly choked back a sob, but he couldn't help the tears leaking from his eyes.

"Biz..." Condi said, reaching out to comfort him.

But Bizly pulled back. "This is embarrassing! I'm supposed to be able to deal with this!"

"Bizly, you don't need to take things silently!" Condi said, his voice straining. "You don't have to always act like you're fine! You're always looking out for me, but care about yourself for once you dum-"

Bizly squeezed Condi tightly, practically collapsing his lungs. Condi squeezed back. They stayed like that for a moment before Condi felt like he was on the edge of turning blue. Condi didn't realize how long it'd been since he embraced Bizly this tightly and for this long. It felt foreign but at the same time all too familiar.

"Thank you Condi," Bizly whispered. "I didn't know I needed to hear that..."

"Of course Bizly."

It was silent. Too silent in fact. Condi whipped his head around.

"Charlie?" Condi called out. Relief shot through him when the slime poked his head out from behind a tree.

"Yeah?" he asked. His slime was laced with dirt and leaves. Condi realized that they were being digested, of at least decomposed. Charlie's mortal form was definitely strange. He could see why it felt all wrong to Bizly, but if this wasn't his brother, then what else was there to keep him moving forward?

The words from last night's dream entered his mind.

"I think you should have a little faith in Charlie."

So instead he said, "sorry to make you wait. We're going to keep going now."

"Ok!" Charlie exclaimed, coming to stand beside them, albeit as far away from Bizly as possible.

They'd have to deal with that later, but as of now a much more immediate struggle stood before them. The mountain towered over them as if daring them to take a foot on it's once holy grounds. Today was going to be a long day.

***

To say Phil didn't like the origin would be an understatement. The whole place was vile. It was as if someone had gone and cherry picked the worst of the bunch.

It made sense why they were here, the origin flowed with power. Even this far out Phil could sense it. It he looked close enough, it almost seemed like the itself world was breathing. If that was the case though, then this breathing was labored and more like a shudder than anything else. The land that was carefully crafted by four pairs of hands was on its deathbed.

He remembered a time when he was much younger, not yet made wise by the tempests of life. Man, was he really that old? Maybe Tommy and Wilbur has a point... he'd never admit that to them of course. Phil had seen this place in it's prime and it sure was a sight to see. Sure, he'd never met the counsel, it wasn't exactly easy to after all, but he did meet Kristen soon after.

He chuckled to himself, thinking of their first meeting. He'd been so shocked to learn who he was standing before. A goddess who people only spoke of in hushed whispers and the things they said weren't exactly flattering. But Phil didn't think there was a more perfect woman in the world.

"What's so funny?" Techno asked him.

"Oh nothing, just reminiscing," Phil said with a wave of his hand.

Techno snorted. "Whatever you say old man."

"We need to head to the center. That's where Quackity must be going," Phil said.

Techno simply nodded as Phil pulled out his compass.

"It should be this way. Let's go."

***

And somewhere, deep below the mountain tall, the ever burning flames of the nether flickered and almost blew out. And a god bathed in the red of the sunset and the scarlet of blood and the blooming of poppies woke up.

And the world woke with him. And the sun and moon and even the soil that covered the earth sang for the first time in ages.

And in his mouth there was the distinct taste of apples.

Chapter Text

It was all meant to be fun and games. So where did things go wrong? Grizzly couldn't say. Was it when they found their first chicken? When the first found that the water froze then to their cores and the lava simply warmed their bones?

When he woke he felt distinctly mortal. Not being immortal was strange. He felt fragile, breakable. His skin could tear and his bones could crack. He didn't know how mortals did it, but he started to understand just a little when he saw all his brothers standing beside him.

Condi was being chased down by Bizly while Charlie yelled after them and wheezed out laughter. They'd been here for maybe a minute or two at most, and already things had devolved into chaos. He chuckled at the thought and came to stand by Charlie.

"We should probably stop them... right?" Grizzly asked.

Before Charlie could respond, Condi materialized a few feet behind them.

"-AIT DON'T-" He stumbled forward a bit before catching himself and sinking down to the ground. "When Bizly gets back I'm gonna kill him!" he cried, obviously out of breath.

With a laugh, Grizzly offered his hand and Condi took it. But the scene around him shifted and the air thinned. It only took him a split second to recognize the scenery. His beloved home of Molympys. The atmosphere was tense though and Grizzly looked to his still outstretched hand.

He was holding an apple.

It was pristine on the outside. Not a blemish or bruise to be seen. Of course it was, Charlie was here. But Grizzly knew what power it was imbued with. Condi and Bizly knew too. They were shifting nervously from foot to foot, but they didn't say anything.

Grizzly had only felt Charlie's power like this once before. It was the day he first discovered it; the day they'd finally gotten rid of Schlatt. Grizzly didn't like to remember that day. It arguably left them better off, but the events of it were best not dwelt on.

They'd thought Schlatt was gone. They'd thought they were finally free. But the horned god just came back with a menace. The sky was black with ash as he descended and the three of them trembled. In what must have been a cruel joke, god decided that he would pummel them to death with his fists, and he went for Charlie first.

Grizzly averted his eyes, but he still heard the first few blow connect. He forced his eyes open though when the air grew cold, a quite surprising event seeing how they were only a chunk or so away from a volcano, and they widened when he saw Schlatt cowering in front of Charlie. Words fell from the latter's mouth in a strange language he couldn't understand as if he was possessed and he watched as Schlatt screamed. It was a horrible sound. It tore through even the raging of the storm above and Grizzly wouldn't be surprised if his ears were bleeding now.

And Grizzly watched as Schlatt withered right before his eyes. His form bent over and he gasped for breath, more than he did already. Charlie's chants grew louder and Schlatt went into a coughing fit, his last one, before his body turned into dust and the wind carried it away.

In that moment, Grizzly remembers he stood dumbfounded for at least a minute. Charlie did too. It all made sense in hindsight though. If a god could make trees grow and flowers bloom and give life to the world, then why couldn't he take it too?

It was a shock to all of them. They'd never thought for once that they were anything special, but when Condi accidentally opened a portal in their living room and when Grizzly unknowingly held the sunset in place for hours to watch it with his brothers, it proved otherwise. Charlie had been more than relieved to find that he could give, not just take. It was never in his nature to rob the life of others. Even without his powers as a god, he breathed life into everyone around him with his jokes and laughter.

So they never talked about what happened to Schlatt, not really at least, and it was fine that way. Charlie never used that side of his powers and it wasn't really brought up again.

But standing here on Molympys and looking at the apple in his hands, Grizzly wishes they did. Because he knew what was going to happen when he bit into that ruby red fruit, they all did. But Condi and Bizly stayed silent and Charlie's condemning and lifeless aura said enough.

So he bit into the fruit and let Charlie's decaying magic spring forth. He near gagged from the sour and tart taste it left in his mouth. It tore apart the ground around his feet and made the vines circling the pillars of Molympys shrivel.

And just like Schlatt, Grizzly screamed.

And Grizzly fell.

And, strangely enough, he woke up.

The boiling netherrack had left blisters and burns on his skin. Every joint in his body ached, like he had been pulled apart and put back together again over and over. He felt like trash, to put it simply.

At first it didn't seem real. His brain couldn't process what just happened. Was that even real? he questioned himself, the universe, any soul willing to listen in this desolate place.

What was the first stage of grief again?

When the shock wore off Grizzly felt his heart warmed, no burned by hatred. A fury that shone brighter than all the flaming netherrack that surrounded him.

If he couldn't go to his brothers, then he would just bring them to him. Simple enough. So he brought his magic to life and tore away at Condi's realm, carving himself a throne. How ironic. And if he'd looked a little closer, maybe he would have noticed his magic just as twisted and corrupted as Charlie's.

Anger. That was the second one, wasn't it?

It seemed so simple. He linked the shattered portal and left the necessary materials to repair it. When he looked down on them as he watched them discover the portal, he felt a strange feeling. Regret? Envy? Whatever it was, the hatred, still burning, choked it out.

"Hello ex-friends!" It was almost in singsong, but the words were ripping him apart and he embraced it, enjoyed it even!

Charlie reasoned with him, Bizly bantered with him, Condi pleaded with him. The searing edge of his anger dulled and his heart softened. They could move past this, couldn't they? Like they'd always done. Isn't that what he'd wanted all along?

Bargaining? Why did that sound so familiar?

But Grizzly saw the 'surprise' and something in him snapped. Was this what Charlie felt like the day he killed Schlatt? He felt like dog straining on it's chains, so close to freedom but at the cost of gnawing off it's legs.

"YOU WILL TAKE NO STEPS FURTHER!" he screamed.

But his heart wasn't in the words he spoke. Where the flames of fury had once resided, now there was only left a gaping hole of which Grizzly couldn't see the bottom. It tore him apart too, but not with the same burning of a wildfire, rather like the tide slowly pulling him into the ocean to drown.

Depression. He'd heard that somewhere before...

He fought, but he couldn't say he was really trying, at least not as desperately as they were. Excalibur swung in wide arcs, but each time it would have come down on one of his opponents, his finger slipped or his grip loosed. Was that an accident?

But in some point during the chaos, Charlie offered him an apple.

It was an insult, a mockery, but he accepted it anyway because he was above it now. He'd gained so much power and not even this could stop him now. Didn't he actually want to be stopped through?

"You think this is going to work," he laughed manically, "on me? Fine... I'll play your little game..." he spat.

As he brought the apple to his lips Charlie quickly backed away and gestured for Condi and Bizly to do the same.

He spared one more glace at his once friends, once brothers, and then sank his teeth into the apple.

The apple was sweet. Sickeningly so.

Grizzly doesn't remember what happened after that. He remembers the feeling of going limp and falling, just like that day, but he doesn't remember hitting the bottom. Instead he wakes up on Molympys.

It takes him a minute to gather himself, but his brothers, they were always his brothers, are there to help him. Even the tiniest movements send rivers of pain through his body though and there's a lot of blood that's coming from somewhere that he can't see.

He gives his goodbyes, he says his final words and then after the ringing sound of a gunshot, he allows himself to rest.

Acceptance. Finally it's over.

So why has he woken up for a third time?

He looks over his body. No wounds, let alone bullet holes. Part of him is grateful, but another part of him is just confused and exhausted.

"Hello?" he says after a minute or two of just lying on the ground. "Charlie? Condi? Bizly?"

No response.

His eyelids feel like bricks. Surely his friends wouldn't mind waiting for him a little bit longer, right...?

***

The climb up Molympys is hard, that much is for sure, but it's even more difficult when Slime sees places that feel so familiar yet aren't, and it just makes his head hurt.

"Are we there yet?" he asked.

Bizly sighed. "Not yet Charlie."

Slime was still wary of the man, but at least he hadn't made and moves to attack him... yet. He still stayed out of his way just in case.

The trail had vanished several times, but Condi and Bizly always knew which way to go, and strangely, Slime thinks he could too if he tried. It was a weird experience, knowing that you've been somewhere before but having no memory of it.

"Hey what was Charlie like?" he asked suddenly in a moment of silence.

Condi almost tripped but managed to catch himself. "What do you mean?"

Slime shrugged. "I guess I just wanna know more about Char- uh, myself. Because I don't remember and all."

"He was the glue that held us all together." Bizly looked back. "Well uh, maybe slime is a better word?" He waved his hands dismissively and turned back to the path ahead of them. "Anyway, he was very charismatic. He always managed to cheer us up when things were looking bleak, even if it was a stupid pun."

Slime tilted his head. "What's a pun?"

A sad look flashed across both of their faces and Slime felt back for asking.

"It's hard to explain," Condi started. "Maybe an example would help? Do you know any good puns Bizly?"

Bizly laughed nervously. "Well uh... Oh! How about I'm rooting for you?"

"Aw thank you Bizly!"

Condi chuckled. "I don't think that's how they work."

"Yeah I guess that one was only funny because we were talking about trees at the time..."

"So puns are about trees?" Slime asked.

"No it's more like you make a joke based off a word that sounds similar to another word," Condi said slowly.

"Oh so is it like..." he shuffled through his pockets and pulled out a stick, "I think you're fantas...."

Condi and Bizly just stared at him for a moment before realization dawned on their faces. Bizly was the first to laugh, a surprisingly bright sound. Condi followed soon after.

"Yeah! Exactly like that!" Bizly said. "How'd you come up with that?"

Slime shrugged. "I don't know, it just came to me?"

"Heh, maybe you do have a bit of Charlie in you."

"Charlie is in my slime?!" He glanced down to his goop, but there wasn't any meat people in it.

"Nevermind. Let's just get your memories back Charlie," Bizly said with a smile as he turned back to the path.

***

Bizly was the first to set foot in the halls of Molympys. The vines once carefully tended to by Charlie had grown into the cracks between the marble tiles and pretty much everywhere else they weren't supposed to be. Condi ever so gracefully tripped over a rather large one and fell flat on his face. Normally Bizly would have laughed, but something about the familiar scenery put a damper on everything. Birds spooked from their nest high up in the rafters, scaring all three of them.

Unsurprisingly, the vines only became thicker as they got closer to Charlie's accomodations. It basically became a jungle and it reached towards the skylights, almost leaving them in complete darkness. If they didn't own this place anymore, then the plants surely did.

A low growl echoed through the chamber.

"Uh, what's that?" Condi asked.

"It sounds like a dog!" Charlie says cheerfully. "Oh wait, I forgot dogs don't like me because I'm slimy."

"Wait-" Bizly said before being cut off by the clack of claws against the floor.

Bounding into the room, was a large white furred wolf. It snarled and flashed yellowed teeth that didn't look like fun to be impaled by. It was a monster of a dog. It stood at twice Bizly's height, and he wasn't exactly short. Where it's fur was thin, he could see the bulging of muscles and it's claws were wickedly curved. He would never forget that collar though.

He let his mortal form melt away like the flowing of a waterfall. The wolf lowered its head and started growling, barking even, when Bizly took a few steps closer. His godly form felt strange after all these years in his mortal one. He remembered the days when it would have been quite the opposite. His godly form wasn't too much different in regards of physical appearance, it was more like a dull blade compared to a sharpened one. His magic filled his body and made him feel alive. Bizly had forgotten how much he'd missed this.

Once he'd left all traces of mortality behind, the wolf bowed it's head so that it's fur just graced the floor.

"Oh come on don't be like that Beewee!" Bizly said joyfully.

Condi's eyes widened. "That's Beewee?!"

"Uh, I guess he hit his growth spurt?"

"Not just that though, didn't Charlie-" he glanced over to the slime in question, "didn't he die?"

Bizly walked up to Beewee and nested his head in his thick white fur. "I thought so too."

Just another burning question he had for Charlie. He knows that his friend was grieving, but he couldn't exactly just forgive and forget. Seeing Charlie's blade cut through Beewee's neck was something he couldn't ever forget. Just add it to the list. He could still see the scar resting above Beewee's collar bone, but it was nothing more than a line of skin pinker than the rest.

Time heals all wounds, huh?

"Well this is a surprise," Condi remarked. "Guess it's not an unwelcome one though."

Bizly searched through his pack and pulled out a bone. Beewee's tail was already wagging. "Fetch!" he said as he tossed it.

Beewee dove as the bone sailed through the air, crashing into a pillar on the way down. It shook for a minute before falling to the ground with a huge thud. Still though, the bone was happily clenched in his massive jaw.

Bizly grimaced. "I guess you're not exactly puppy size anymore... Still just as energetic though."

"Charlie you can come out. It's ok!" Condi said.

Bizly turned to see the slime slowly come out from behind one of the pillars. He warily glanced at Beewee and his slime wobbled. Beewee himself seemed tense, a low growl, almost too low to hear, emitting from his throat.

Bizly decided that this wouldn't do. "Come here Charlie, and stop that Beewee."

"But-" Charlie protested, but Condi pushed him forward.

"Come pet Beewee," Bizly said. It wasn't a request.

"But dogs don't like my slime-"

"I'll make sure he doesn't bite you." He held out his hand to Charlie. "Do you trust me?"

Charlie chuckled nervously. "Well, if I'm being honest, not really? Well it's not like that!" he quickly corrected, "I just-"

"I get it," Bizly said as he took Charlie's hand, almost instinctively letting go because he forgot how slimy it was. "I scared you last night, and I want to make it up to you. So will you trust me just this once?"

After a second, Charlie nodded. Bizly, still grasping his brother's hand, brought it closer to Beewee. The dog started to bring up another growl in his throat, but Bizly made him quiet with a look. Charlie had his eyes closed the whole time, not being able to look, but eventually his hand was resting on the top of Beewee's head.

Beewee stayed perfectly still, probably waiting for some sort of command from Bizly to attack the hostile mob in front of him, but it never came, so instead he stepped forward, nudging his head against Charlie's palm.

"That's a good boy," Bizly said as he scratched Beewee's neck. "You can open your eyes Charlie."

"Did it eat my hand yet?" Charlie asked.

"Nope," Bizly said with a chuckle.

Albeit hesitantly, Charlie opened his eyes, pleased to find that his hand was still attached to his arm. A smile spread across his face as he gently scratched Beewee's fur.

"Good dog!" he exclaimed happily.

"You said it," Bizly agreed. He leaned in towards Beewee's ear. "I owe you some steak later for this boy." Beewee's tail thumped against the ground as he recognized the word.

Condi came over as well and rubbed Beewee's back. He gave Bizly a grateful look, to which he replied with a grin.

Condi stepped back from Beewee. "We should probably get going now, right?"

Charlie was now trying to help Beewee in pinning down his tail. A warm feeling bloomed in Bizly's chest.

"Heh, yeah. Let's go."

Beewee lowered his head as of offering to carry them. Charlie was the first to hop on, slipping a bit with his slimy fingers, but Condi and Bizly helped him get his bearings after which they mounted themselves.

Beewee started at a neck breaking pace, darting between the quartz collums and over the vines. Even Bizly had to cling tightly to his fur in order to not fall off. He skidded to a halt in front of a large door.

"That's-"

"Yeah," Condi confirmed, "we're here."

Condi slid down Beewee's back and put his hand on the door.

"It's locked."

Bizly dismounted. "We should be able to override it if we both direct power towards it."

"Here goes nothing then." Condi's form flickered like the flames of the Nether, glowed like the crystals of the End. He shed his mortality as easy as if it was a fur coat, and before him stood Condifiction, the god of the Nether and the End.

Bizly smirked and Condi returned it. He placed his palm flat on the door and let his energy run through the runs etched into it's steely surface. Condi did the same and their powers met in the middle, illuminating the large engraving that operated the door. The mechanism let out a loud squeal and creaked open, displacing a large amount of dust in the process.

Bizly coughed a bit and fanned his hand to clear his vision. Eventually he beheld the room of his fellow god, or at least what was left of it. The vines covered everything, ate everything, it was like he was in the stomach of some sort of plant beast. Under all that though, there were distinct landmarks. A bright green bed, a rotting desk, it was all how Bizly remembered it.

"Woah!" Charlie exclaimed. "Is this my house?"

"Well it's not exactly-" Condi started.

"Yup, this is it Charlie."

Bizly was just as happy to see this room as Charlie was. Somewhere in here, even if it was buried under vegetation and dust, there was the key to getting his brother's memory back.

All they had to do was find it.

Chapter Text

Of course. Of course they were here! This was just Quackity's luck. Every single mothe-

"How's it been Quackity? How are the husbands?"

"WE LITERALLY SAW EACH OTHER THREE DAYS AGO TECHNOBLADE!!!"

Technoblade shrugged. "You'd be surprised what can happen in there days. Like when Phil left me in prison for three months instead."

"It was an accident!" Philza protested.

Technoblade chuckled. "So what brings you here Quackity?"

Quackity barked out a laugh. "Oh wouldn't you like to know you dimwit pig."

Technoblade spread his hands wide. "Come on Quackity, there's no need to be racist."

Quackity's grip on his sword grew tighter. "What do you want!"

"Well since you asked so nicely, we want to know what you're planning."

"What I'm planning? I'm not planning anything!" Was that the only reason they'd followed him?

"So this is just a cherry vacation then?" Philza asked. "You chose a bad place to visit."

"Listen, I'm just here for my friend. He disappeared when you guys attacked. Speaking of which," he glared at them, "I still haven't forgiven you guys for that."

Technoblade ignored the last part and walked forward, pushing Quackity's blade aside, a surprising gentleness to his actions, with his armored hand. Gods Quackity wanted to stab him through the gut so bad.

"If you really are looking for your friend, then you wouldn't mind any assistance, would you?"

"What are you trying to pull?" Quackity snarled.

"We're trying to make this less of a hassle than it already is." Philza's posture was relaxed and easygoing, but Quackity saw the hand resting on the hilt of Benihime. "We can help you look for your friend and at the same time keep an eye on you. Assuming you're telling the truth, that'd be the easiest for all of us."

"Traveling with you? Easy? You're just going to stab me while I sleep!"

Technoblade scratched his chin. "What if we pinky promised?"

"Don't mock me," Quackity hissed lowly.

"It's not ideal for us either, but we don't want a skirmish either Quackity," Philza reasoned.

Begrudgingly, Quackity sheathed his sword. As much as he wanted to kill them both and wipe those smug looks off their faces, he didn't like his odds. Dying here wouldn't do anything to help him. It'd only get him farther away from Slime.

"You'd better keep your end of the deal," he said.

Technoblade snorted. "The same to you."

They kept up good pace, Quackity walking behind them because he refused to be backstabbed, but eventually they came to the foot of the large mountain that Quackity had seen ominously looming in this distance. It was the center the old man had been talking about, it had to be.

Philza looked like he itched to just fly up the mountain, but he stayed by Quackity and Technoblade as they all traveled by foot. The wind near blew Quackity off the mountain. It cut through his armor and froze his core.

Quackity had placed his foot on a outcrop, testing to see if it would hold his weight when a particularly strong gust of wind came directly at him. His hands, his face, and most of all, his heart froze as his grip slipped and he fell off the face of the mountain.

The first thing he did was shout a string of curses. Oh gods, those were going to be the words on his tombstone was his first coherent thought. But everything came to a shuddering stop when his hand finally found traction and suspended him, hanging above what must be a lethal fall, but he couldn't bring himself to look.

"Pull yourself up a bit further! I'll grab you!" Philza shouted over the roaring wind around them.

Times like now are when he wished that his wings weren't so weak and disappointing and even remotely resembled the strong, powerful, and even graceful ones that rested on Philza's back. Then he wouldn't have to be relying on other like this.

"Are you kidding?! I'll just fall!" he screamed. Blood was pounding in his temples and if the fall didn't get him then a heart attack might. How he would hate to go out in such a pathetic way.

Philza said something to Technoblade, but Quackity couldn't hear. "I can almost grab you, you just need to be closer!" he shouted again.

"No! I-" Quackity felt his throat tighten, "I can't!"

"For gods sake," Technoblade muttered.

Quackity was startled by the piglin landing beside him, his hooves grinding him to a halt. He jammed his sword into the rock below Quackity's feet, finally relieving the strain on his wrists and giving him a small platform to stand on.

But Technoblade was slipping now, he could see it clearly. He looked between his sworn enemy and the chasm that awaited him and his body acted without thinking then. He got to his knees, as quickly as he could in the precarious situation, and grabbed Technoblade's arm. A split second later, his hooves slipped and sent a collection of stones down the chasm, but not Technoblade himself, thanks to Quackity's hold on him.

"You- why-" was all Technoblade could muster in his breathless state.

 Quackity tightened his grip. "You're really heavy, you know?"

"And you're an idiot!"

"At least I'm not a pig you-"

"So you admit you're an idiot?"

He considered his options. If Quackity's grip simply slipped, would Philza blame him?

Speaking of Philza though, the man was carefully navigating down towards them. He used his wings to guide the wind around him and to make his footsteps look graceful. Quackity felt just a bit of envy at the sight. It took a while, but eventually he stood face to face with Quackity.

"We'll pull him up together," he said.

So Quackity pulled. Quackity pulled like he was trying to save the man's life, like he was going to. It didn't make sense. How could the bridge between them be crossed like this? But between the adrenaline and the screaming of his muscles he hardly had time to dwell on it. Save Technoblade now, deal with the consequences of his actions later.

After what felt like thirty minutes of thinking either his arms were going to fall off or he was going to fall to his doom, they were all back up on the trail. Quackity sprawled out on the ground, arms spread wide. The dirt tasted disgusting, but he bets it tasted better than whatever was at the bottom of that ravine.

"We're even now," he told Technoblade. He didn't dare owe the man a favor.

"Sure, whatever." He was clearly winded, not that any of them were any better. There wasn't even a sarcastic quip with the comment.

They all sat there in silence together. Philza mustered the dignity to sit up off the ground and pull out his canteen, but Quackity and Technoblade wouldn't be moving for a while.

"Why'd you save me?" Quackity asked as the sun was setting.

Technoblade was quiet for moment. "Good question."

Quackity didn't even have the energy to curse at him. His chest was still heaving and his heart was still pounding.

Technoblade rolled over to face him. "I could ask you the same thing."

"I was repaying the favor, that's all," Quackity huffed, turning away.

Technoblade sat up. "We're gonna have to make camp for the night. No sense in climbing in the dark."

"Already on it mate!" Philza said cheerily.

He'd set up sleeping rolls and a small tarp to protect them from the weather. The plan was to get to the peak today, but things hadn't exactly gone according to that. Sure, the big temple Philza had said was up there sounded great, but he also couldn't bear to hike another step. So instead he crawled into his sleeping bag and, after cussing out Technoblade a few times when he kicked his foot, closed his eyes.

***

Grizzly woke up.

It wasn't even morning, in fact the sun was nearly gone from view, but what was his sleep schedule supposed to be like after however long he'd been dormant? Speaking of which though...

He reached out and said hello. Not really, not verbally at least, but the world heard him all the same. The sun peaked it's head out from atop the mountains and the earth rumbled in greeting and the rivers sang their melodies. Joy spread through him as the sun's rays warmed his skin. He'd never noticed how cold he'd been.

"Tell me," he whispered, "where are my brothers?"

The land in front of him parted, creating a clear path that lead to the mountain whereon Molympys rested.

"I see." He stretched, grimacing at how sore his muscles were. "No time to start like the present." He placed his hand down on the soil and smiled. "You'll help me, right?"

The ground shook in answer and the path continued. After a deep breath, Grizzly took the first step.

And if he closed his eyes he could almost hear his brother's voices on the wind.

***

Slime knew this place, there was just something in the way. It felt like how he'd seen slime gunk up the circuits for Quackity's gambling machine. They were grinding against each other but in the end getting nothing done besides making a horrible scraping noise.

Beewee licked Slime with his big tongue, getting slobber all over the clothes Quackity had given him. He patted the dog's head. That's where Bizly said he liked to be pet. Slime had never had a dog be this nice to him before. Usually they attacked before he could even introduce himself. When he asked Quackity he'd said it was something about mobs and how wolves acted, whatever that meant, but Quackity knew a lot of things, so Slime trusted him.

He really wished Quackity was here now. Surely he'd know what he needed to do stop the ringing in his ears and the throbbing pulse of his head. It made his eyesight blurry and it was hard to focus. He'd near tripped and fallen flat on his face but Beewee was sticking by his side and supporting him. So he resigned to just sit off to the side while Condi and Bizly looked for whatever it was they were trying to find.

"What's up Charlie?"

Slime whipped his head around to see someone he'd never met before, but he had, hadn't he? He worse a comfy looking red shirt with a pug on the front and a black turtleneck sweater underneath. His hair was a soft brown color except for a distinct white streak.

"You died- I-" Charlie's head hurt so bad. What did he mean the man had died? Obviously he was alive and well standing right in front of him. But Charlie could only see a marred corpse with a hole through the center of its heart when he looked at the man.

"Charlie are you ok? I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you!"

Just as Slime's mind was burning with terrible images and memories, it went blank. He brought himself back to reality and saw that he had fallen over and the man was looking at him with concern. What had Slime been worrying about? He can't remember.

He smiled at the man. "Hi! I'm Slime! Who are you?"

"What-?" the man stuttered. "Did you hit your head or something?"

"Uh, I don't think so. Why do you ask?"

"You're just acting real strange."

"Quackity tells me that too!" Slime chirped. "Do you know him?"

"Quack...ity?"

Slime nodded. "Quackity from Las Nevadas!"

"Ok where are Condi and Bizly? We need to talk about this," the man said as he looked around.

Condi and Bizly? Where had he heard those names before? Even the vowels were familiar as he sounded them out. No. He knew them. They were his friends! They'd been nice to him like Quackity from Las Nevadas! Right? His mind felt fuzzy.

The man grasped Slime's shoulders. "Charlie I need you to focus. Where are Condi and Bizly?"

"They're..." he trailed off. Where was this anyway? How had he gotten here? Where was Quackity for that matter? The sun was starting to rise and all he wanted to do was find a cave to sludge into. What did this meat person want from him?

Someone came around the corner. "Charlie where are you-" A sharp inhale. "Grizzly?!"

"Bizly what-" The footsteps came to a halt, making a squealing noise as they slid. Slime didn't like that noise.

"You- what- how-"

The man in red sighed. "I wish I knew too Bizly."

"Why are you here?! Why now?!" Condi shouted.

"I thought I was dead for sure, but I think I was just sleeping. My power went dormant to keep me alive."

Bizly poked Grizzly's shoulder. "Like a grizzly bear in hibernation?"

The man's face was red now too, just like his clothes. "Don't insult my kind!" He trailed off. "But yes... a lot like that."

"Well then what woke you up?" Condi asked.

"You guys! I mean what else would it be? Three of the most powerful gods of all time in one place is sure to cause disturbances."

"Hey man," Bizly put his arm around Grizzly, "we're happy to..." He buried his face into the front of Grizzly's shirt.

"Bizly? Are you ok?" Grizzly asked with concern.

"Y- yeah... I'm just," a sniffle, "it's really you, right?"

Grizzly gave a short chuckle. "I don't know who else it would be."

Bizly said nothing, only used his other arm to pull Grizzly into a tight hug. He sobbed and howled then, tears running down his shirt freely. Even though it was muffled by the fabric of Grizzly's shirt, Slime would bet you could hear Bizly's bawling from a mile away. Condi wiped the tears falling down his face and put his arms around Grizzly as well, creating a near strangling group hug.

After a long while, Bizly eventually calmed down and his wails turned to quiet sobs. "It's really you Grizzly..."

The man flashed a grin, a brilliant contrast to the near rivers flowing past his checks and down to the floor from his eyes. "I've come back home."

Condi chuckled. "Knowing you I thought you'd show up in a much more... dramatic way." That brought out a few laughs from the other two.

The sun showed itself fully over the horizon then, painting the sky breathtaking shades of blues, quartz, and golds. The light itself may have been irritating to Slime's eyes, but even he had to appreciate the beauty of the scenery.

"So what's going on with Charlie?" Grizzly asked.

Slime turned his head to see that they were all looking at him. He gave a sheepish wave.

"He's an amnesiac," Condi explained. "He doesn't remember anything with us."

"What?!" Grizzly said, his voice raising in surprise. "Nothing at all?"

"Nope," Bizly said, confirming the worst. "But that's why we're here. His memory loss was caused by an enchantment so we're trying to figure out how to break it. Best case scenario is that after that he'll remember everything."

"But an enchantment..." Grizzly started. "You don't think Charlie..."

Condi have a solemn nod. "The enchantments are Charlie's."

Grizzly kneeled down and embraced Slime in a hug. "I'm sorry Charlie. I'm so so sorry."

Slime tilted his head back. "Who are you?"

Grizzly stepped back. "Aw man! What an emotional rollercoaster today!"

"Charlie, this is the other god of the counsel, Grizzly," Condi supplied. "He's the god of nature and tools."

"Oh I get it now." He grinned. "So who are you two then?"

Condi and Bizly froze and turned to look at him.

"It's me Condi! And that's Bizly!" he said as he pointed to the man in question.

"Nice to meet you!"

"Uh, I'm guessing there's something wrong with this?" Grizzly asked.

"We've been traveling with you for the last few days Charlie, do you not remember any of that?"

"Nope! Sorry," Slime said with a shrug.

"Well what could have caused this?" Condi asked.

"Now that I think about it, when I first found Charlie he seemed to be shocked but then went like a stone statue when the purple glow of an enchantment showed up. I assumed he was just enchanting something, but... would that be the enchantment you two were talking about?"

"So you're telling me," Bizly said with exasperation, "that the enchantment activated another time, and now he's forgotten us all over again?!"

Grizzly shrugged. "Seems so."

Bizly punched the wall, bruising his hand, but leaving a nasty hole in the quartz. Condi didn't show much of a reaction, but it was easy to tell he'd been hurt.

"Guess there's no where to start except square one," Grizzly mused. He offered his hand out to Slime and smiled wide. "I'm Grizzly, and we're going to get your memory back!"

Chapter Text

"So tell me more about this whole counsel thing Charlie."

"Well, we're all gods, right?"

Grizzly nodded along.

"So why not get together and make a group?" Charlie said with excitement. "We could make our home base..."

"Ooh, wait! I have an idea," Grizzly exclaimed. "How about up on a mountain?"

"Uh... what mountain?"

Grizzly's face spread wide in a grin and he lifted his hand into the air. The earth shook and then rose as well, mimicking Grizzly's motions as it formed sheer cliff sides and winding cafe systems.

"Man I still don't know how that power is fair," Charlie said behind him with a chuckle.

"It won't be pretty until you do your work on it."

"You're right, it doesn't really amount to much," Charlie hummed. He opened his palm and grass sprouted on the dirt hills and vines wormed their way into the caves and the gnarled roots of trees broke forth from the earth and reached towards the heavens. "What are we going to call it though?" he asked.

"How about... Molympys?"

"Molympys?"

"Do you have any better ideas?" Grizzly huffed.

Charlie laughed. "Molympys it is."

***

"Uh Phil? You wanna come check this out?"

"What's up mate?"

"Something's wrong with my crafting table."

Phil gestured for him to continue.

He placed the materials for a fishing rod onto the marks on the workbench, string he'd gotten from a spider spawner they'd found a while ago and sticks he'd gotten from the trees adorning the mountain, but they didn't do anything. Usually crafting making would take over and he'd be left with a perfectly made tool, but instead they just sat there as if accusing him for trying to make them into a fishing rod.

Phil leaned forward to get a better look. "The recipe looks right."

Techno glanced over his inventory to see what else he had the materials to craft. He ended up putting the string away along with a couple of the sticks and pulling out two pieces of cobblestone. A simple recipe for a stone sword. He didn't need it of course, with his netherite one, but it was a nice test.

Surprisingly, this recipe did do something, just not what Techno expected. The sticks disappeared in a puff of smoke and the cobblestone was smelted back into stone. Just like a-

"Why's it acting like a furnace?" Phil asked.

Techno pulled the now smooth stone off the crafting table and inspected it. It looked no different than what you would get out of putting cobblestone in a furnace. That did bring up the question then of what a furnace would do. He pulled one out of his inventory, suddenly grateful he'd brought it along and placed it next to him and Phil.

He pulled up the menu using the code and placed the same materials as before, two pieces of stone and a stick, and to his surprise, they merged into a stone sword.

"Well that's quite strange," Phil mused.

Techno sighed. This journey was just getting weirder and weirder. "Tell me about it."

"Must be a side effect of the magic here."

"Who could make magic strong enough to disrupt crafting magic?"

Phil chuckled. "Well how about the gods that created it?"

"What? They're still alive?"

Phil scratched his chin. "Alive? Who knows. This is just the remnants of their magic."

"And it still has this much effect?" Techno asked.

Phil shrugged. "If anyone's magic would be able to stand even after this time it'd be theirs."

Techno paused. "What do you think they were like?"

"The counsel?"

Techno nodded.

"Legend says they created this world. They disappeared a long time ago though. Before I was even born."

"Woah they must be really old then," Techno said with a chuckle.

Phil narrowed his eyes. "Haha very funny mate." He shook his wings out, scattering a few feathers to the cave floor. "Anyways, no one has heard from them for millennia. Kristen told me she met them once, but that was a long long time ago."

"Wonder where they ended up," Techno hummed.

Phil muttered something about 'never knowing' and then turned back to whatever he was doing before. Techno turned his curiosity over to the new third member of their party. Quackity was sitting in the corner of the cave furthest from him and Phil. He was pretending to busy himself with the clasps on his armor, but Techno had seen him watching them out of the corner of his eye.

haha the duck is sad

L he should get some friends

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD

E

I got a bad feeling about this chat...

"What's your friend like?" he asked Quackity.

Quackity looked up. "Huh?"

"The friend you're searching for. Unless you know, that's a lie."

"It's not!" Quackity immediately protested, but then he realized his outburst and settled down. "He's real and he's somewhere here."

"What if he's somewhere else though?"

"He can't be!" Quackity clenched his knee until his knuckles turned white. "He has to be here!"

"Woah," Techno said as he backed up a step or two. "I didn't mean to hit a nerve."

Quackity only grinded his teeth. "He's naive," he said after a minute of silence, "but he's kind. I hate to think that he's hurting because of me."

"Why would he come here anyway?" Techno countered. "It's not like there's much left of this place."

"It doesn't make sense for him to come here on his own. So I think he was kidnapped by someone."

"Kidnapped? Why?"

"To get back at me! Obviously!" Quackity shouted.

"Well if that's the case then who?" Techno asked.

Quackity shrugged. "I don't know yet, but when I find them, I'll tear them limb from limb," Quackity said with a hiss.

Techno didn't think it would be a good time to ask about Condi and Bizly so he left the man alone instead. Phil was absorbed in his work, inlaying runes in the stone in a circle around him.

"What's this for?" Techno asked as he approached the avian.

"Oh! Don't step on that mate!" Phil said quickly.

Techno pivoted his foot and the ankle to get a good look at the runes he had been about to step on. Some lines very wavy, some were straight, but they all glowed with a purple magic that he knew was gifted to Phil by Kristen. Sure he had magic of his own, but Kristen's power helped a lot.

"My bad. But what's it for?"

Phil finished carving and stood to marvel his work. "Just a few protection runes is all."

"Heuh? You never thought that'd be useful in all our time on the SMP? Like, I don't know... when they tried to execute me?" Techno said, waving his arms to get his point across.

"This place is basically breathing magic so it's easy to empower the runes. Besides," he said with a gesture to the runes, "they only protect against magic, which not many people on the SMP have."

Techno diffused a bit at that. "Fair point." He watched Phil a bit more before saying, "you're gonna teach me that now, right?"

Phil beamed. "If you wanna learn, then of course mate!"

score chat

phil kinda cracked at the craft?

philza minecraft is the bravest man I've ever met

Quackity sad moment

Speaking of Quackity...

"Are we ready to go now Phil?" Techno asked, turning back to his partner. "We're losing more and more daylight the longer we stay here."

"About that," Quackity said suddenly, "is it just me or has the sun not moved in a few hours?"

The sun was in fact still telling the time of about eight am, but Techno knew that it had to have been at least an hour or two until then. Long enough for the sun to have noticably moved, that's for sure.

Phil chuckled though Techno wasn't sure what was so funny. "Looks like we've got our work cut out for us mate."

***

Once Quackity saw the temple on the mountain's peak, his limbs found sudden strength and his lungs stopped aching, even for just a moment. Slime was in there, he had to be. If he wasn't then this was all for nothing and Quackity wouldn't know-

Ok, none of that. His brain had been put through enough stress in the last week to last him months. Technoblade's insults and banter didn't help either.

He was trying to ignore Technoblade's talk about how mobs kept ruining his redstone door when he saw it. The temple glowed but it didn't look like it was from the sun. Rather, it seemed that the quartz gave off it's own light. He quickened his pace, his curiosity getting the better of him, but he came to a halt when he slammed into something. He recovered and looked to see what he'd run into, but there was nothing there. He tested it again, wondering if he'd finally gone insane after too long of listening to Technoblade, but I happened again. The air solidified and make an invisible wall.

"A ward," Philza said behind him.

Quackity's temper was getting shorter and shorter by the day. "Well get rid of it!"

Philza grabbed a chain around his neck and the charm on the end of it shined. "We don't need to. It's already been torn apart. It's like swiss cheese at this point." He gestured to the left of Quackity. "There should be a hole there."

Quackity grumbled at his luck and took a few steps to the left. Just like Philza had said, the magical wall wasn't there. Quackity should have been relieved, but seeing the fraying and broken magic only sent chills down his spine.

Entering the temple didn't feel as triumphant now. Sure it was still a marvel of craftsmanship, intricate designs lining the ceiling made from gold and finely chiseled quartz pillars, but despite that it still felt run down.

Immediately Quackity noticed the dull thump of footsteps. But these were different. They had the galloping gait of a horse or something else with four legs. Before Quackity could even wonder what it was he got his answer as it came barreling around the corner.

"What is that?!" Quackity screamed.

It looked like a wolf, if you ignored the fact that it was probably three times Quackity's height and snarling at the three of them. Since when did dogs get this big? Sure Technoblade had bred a whole pack of them for strength and power, but none of them held a candle to the beast in front of him.

"Beewee what are you-" The voice cut off as it's owner came around the corner.

It wasn't anyone Quackity recognized, but he felt that if he held eye contact, or even just looked at the man too long his brain would melt.

"Techno?! Phil?! What are you guys doing here?"

Quackity turned to the two. Technoblade only gave a casual shrug and Philza did the same. Honestly, was this some inside joke that Quackity hadn't been told about?

"We were following this fool around." Technoblade jabbed his thump at Quackity.

"I am not a fool!" Quackity shouted.

"Isn't he that guy from Las Nevadas?"

Philza nodded. "Unfortunately, yes."

Quackity was about to resort to punching someone when out of the corner of his eye he caught someone else enter the room. He whispered something to the other newcomer.

"It's fine Condi! They were gonna find out anyway." Another whisper, but this one a bit more worried. "They held us. It's only fair that we be honest with them."

And in that moment, it clicked what was going on. They were the ones who took Slime. He remembers Sam said they were traveling with Technoblade and Philza. If not them, then who else would have been in Las Nevadas at the time?

The tension that had been building up in Quackity's muscles over the last day snapped and in a split second he was behind Philza, his sword at the winged man's throat.

"Where's Slime?!" he demanded.

Technoblade, being the man he is, had his crossbow trained on Quackity before anyone could blink. The rocket was loaded and the fuse resting by the ignition. What did Quackity expect? But as his fingers clenched around his own weapon, he knew that he had the upper hand.

"We can talk about this mate-"

Quackity pulled the blade closer to shut him up. "You're going to tell me what you did with Slime, or I slit his throat!"

"Slime? You mean Charlie, right?" The man in blue asked.

The person standing next to him nodded. "I'll go get him." They hurriedly ran off into one of the halls.

Quackity backed himself into a wall, not wanting anyone to have a shot from behind and holding up Philza like a shield.

"Tech I have a totem it'll be fine, just-" he started.

"Like I'd let Quackity kill you!" Technoblade spat.

The man in blue looked anxiously to where his partner had fled. "If all he wants is to see Charlie then-"

"Quackity from Las Nevadas?"

The voice released the tension in Quackity's limbs that he didn't know he was holding. He let Philza go, the man shaking out his wings and arranging the feathers with annoyance as Technoblade came to his side, but Quackity didn't notice.

"Slime? Is that you?"

He flashed a grin. "Slime? I think you forgot Quackity. I'm a meat person just like you!"

Quackity ran at his best friend, almost forgetting to sheath his sword before doing so. That would have been an awkward circumstance, skewering his friend. He pulled Slime into a hug but then remembered people were watching and pulled out of it. He looked over the slime creature, who looked unharmed, but Quackity couldn't be sure.

"We're going home Slime," he said sternly. "Leave these idiots to do whatever they want here."

Slime rocked back and forth on his feet. "Where's home Quackity from Las Nevadas?"

"You hit your head?" Quackity asked it playfully, but the blank look Slime gave him was concerning. "Home is Las Nevadas."

"Ohhh," Slime said with a nod. "I guess that makes sense."

"Slime, you know Las Nevadas, right?"

"Of course I do!" he exclaimed. "It's in your name!"

His gaze instantly turned to the two that had taken Slime and it narrowed. The second one stepped forward.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Condi, and this is Bizly."

Quackity looked them over briefly then asked, "what did you do to Slime?" It wasn't a request, it was an order.

"He's forgotten a lot of things. We don't know how much," Bizly explained.

Quackity cackled. "You expect me to believe that he just miraculously had a bout of amnesia?"

Condi shrugged. "I mean, no? But we're not lying, I swear."

Quackity put his arm around Slime and pulled his netherite sword out.

"You guys have a lot of explaining to do."

Chapter Text

Slime is happy to see Quackity, he really is! But why? There are so many holes and gaps coming up in his memory and he should be freaking out really, but something in the back of his mind is calming him down. No, it's more like it's stopping a reaction all together. So he just sits there with a smile as Quackity cries.

In his rage at hearing the situation, Quackity got a good punch on Bizly and now Condi and Phil are trying to hold them back while Techno keeps chanting for them to fight. Slime giggles a little at the sight and that causes Quackity to calm down a bit and look at him with something in his eye. Regret? Sadness? Fury? Slime can't tell, his mind doesn't want to. It wants to act like everything is fine and no one is hurting.

"So what do you remember?" Quackity asks him, surprisingly quiet.

Slime ponders that question for a moment. It's hard for him to describe what's been left of his memory. It's more feelings than actual events.

"We were... friends?" Slime says slowly.

Quackity's eyes brighten at that. "Yes! We were!" He grips Slime's shoulders and would probably be violently shaking them if it wasn't for Condi and Bizly giving him looks. "We were best friends! Do you remember that?"

"Uhh, maybe?"

Quackity's face falls at that, but at least he isn't crying anymore.

"Well Charlie," Bizly interrupts. That's supposed to be his name, isn't it? Or was it Slime? "This is Phil and this is Techno." He gestured to the guy who looked like a pig and the guy with the big wings on his back. Slime waved. "And you already know this is Quackity."

"Yes! Quackity from Las Nevadas!"

Quackity raised his eyebrow towards Bizly. "So who are you three then?"

Condi stepped forward. "I'm Condifiction, this is Bizly, and that's Grizzly."

Phil's attention piqued at that. "And what are you the god of Grizzly?"

"Oh, I'm the god of nat-"

Bizly quickly jabbed the man with his elbow.

"Ow! What was that for Biz?!"

Bizly hissed something between his teeth and Grizzly mouthed an 'o'.

"Sorry about that! I'm the god of uh... natural ores?"

Phil smiled but it didn't exactly reach his eyes. "I don't think I've heard of you before. Did you enter godhood recently?"

"It's not like you're a god yourself!" Grizzly said defensively. "You're just following around a patron."

Techno walked forward so he stood between the two. "Let's skip all the formalities." He pointed to the trio and Beewee who was looming over them. "Who are you?"

"We already told you," Bizly said with a scowl. "I'm Bizly, that's-"

"Now I remember where I've seen your name before!" Quackity exclaimed. "It was in Karl's book! But that would mean..."

Phil chuckled. "Have anything you're not telling us mate?"

Bizly snorted. "Nothing much, just that a few immortals sticking their nose where it doesn't belong."

"If we're going to be working together then we don't need any secrets," Techno said as he spread his shoulders wide.

"Yeah? Well we didn't ask for you guys to tag along!"

Condi stepped forward. "What Bizly means to say, is thank you for your help so far, but we'll be fine now."

Quackity quickly ran over to Slime and grabbed onto his arms, his fingers clutching his goop tightly. "You're not taking Slime away from me again!"

Bizly gripped his other arm with ferocity. "Get your hands off him," he growled.

"Uh oh!" Slime said as he looked between the two. "At this rate, I'm gonna be splitting early!"

"I didn't want to do this, but there's no other option." Phil spread his hands wide and the sound of wind echoed through the halls. No, it wasn't wind he realized, it was the beating of wings.

Before anyone could register what was happening, the larger murder of crows Slime had even seen flooded the room. They came from the door, from the holes in the ceiling, even from the gaps in the shattered glass of the windows. They swarmed everyone except Techno and Phil, grabbing onto the seams of clothes, nipping at skin, anything they could do to get a hold on their target.

In any normal circumstance, being restrained by a flock of birds would sound preposterous, but these were Phil's crows after all and they possessed an uncanny strength as well as ability to annoy. Their vocal chords must have been pretty strong too because their calls were deafening. The ones that weren't mobbing people were fighting over room on Phil's shoulder, who just had the face of an exhausted parent.

"Ow!" Slime exclaimed as one of the crows bit into the slime in his arm and promptly started gagging and trying to fling the goop off of it's beak. The other crows warbled in what sounded like laughter.

Everyone watched as, despite everything, Bizly stepped towards Phil. The crows hovered around him, but they glanced at each other nervously, as if waiting for someone else to make the first move. Slime didn't blame them. Bizly's eyes glowed with a terrifying power. It swept over everyone and froze anyone who dared to meet his beastial eyes, slitted in anger. Slime thinks even if the musty sunlight didn't filter down into the room, Bizly's aura would have illuminated the room enough.

"Bizly," Phil said formally, "god of mobs and fourth member of The Counsel."

Bizly said nothing, only growled.

"Wait a minute," Techno said. "Are you being serious Phil? This guy, the guy we casually traveled with for like a week, is a member of the most powerful group of gods that created the world? You have to be joking. They're dead. There's no way they're alive... right?"

Phil only shrugged. "Why don't you tell us Bizly?

"I don't have anything to explain to you. Let us go and then go home." Bizly's eyes narrowed. "Or I'll make you."

"Biz don't-" Condi started but the crows bit at his ears.

Bizly didn't hear him, or perhaps he was just ignoring the comment, and instead cracked his knuckles. "It's been too long since I've done this."

Techno unsheathed his sword as Bizly did the same, although Techno's shone much brighter than Bizly's iron one. "Phil be careful."

"No need to worry about me mate."

Slime knew what he had to do. Sure, his brain was screaming warnings and sirens were going off, but he forced his limbs to move.

Maybe he was blinded by anger, but Bizly didn't see him coming until the last moment. He'd drawn his arm back and was driving the sword forward in a thrust, but instead of hitting Techno, it went cleanly straight through Slime's chest.

There were a multitude of alarmed gasps as he doubled over. There was no blood to be spilled, not in this form, but his instincts still wanted him to clear his airways and so he went into a sputtering fit of coughs.

"Charlie!" Bizly screamed in horror.

The blade burned. He could barely feel the sensation in his fingers it was so overwhelming. But still he managed to steady himself by grabbing onto Bizly's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Biz," he said softly. He didn't know where the words were coming from, but he knew Bizly needed to hear them. It was agonizing to push the air out of his lungs as if it was too dense to fit down his throat and in that moment Slime wondered if he was going to suffocate.  "I hate to see you upset. You've always been better at protecting people than hurting them."

"But-" Bizly stuttered, "this is protecting them! Protecting you!"

"Arguing with me right after you've stabbed me? Now that's a real low blow." He managed to wheeze out a laugh.

Bizly shouted something, but he couldn't hear. The sounds he made wouldn't come together to form words. Black clung to the edge of his vision and he was on his knees now. Oh yeah, he got stabbed. How inconvenient. But he knew there wasn't anything he could do to stop it, so he let go of awareness and let his mind drag him to the bliss of unconscious.

***

Condi let out a strangled cry as Charlie collapsed on the ground. What an idiot! What had he even been thinking!? He could have-

No, he wouldn't let that happen. He wouldn't lose Charlie a second time.

He and Grizzly ran forward, not caring for the rubble that scratched their calves and pierced their feet. Bizly was holding Charlie's limp form, muttered a continuous chain of 'sorry's. Condi quickly pressed his ear to Charlie's chest, relief flooding through him when he heard the wheezing breath and weak beating of a heart.

"What do we need to do Bizly?" Condi asked sternly.

Bizly managed to take a few deep breaths with Grizzly's guidance, but he was clearly still in a state of panic, which sucked, because he was the only one who would know how they could help Charlie in his slimy form.

"Come on Biz!" Condi was shouting now.

There was a tap on his shoulder and his muscles tensed, somehow more than they already had, and he whipped around to see Quackity. The man let out a cry and Condi instantly felt bad for scaring him. He was letting the stress get to him.

"What is it Quackity?"

"I think I can help?" He asked it like a question, as if he was afraid Condi wouldn't like his proposal.

He took Quackity's hands in his, partially to steady his shaking legs but also to beg. "Anything you can do to help."

Quackity kneeled down next to his fallen friend and pulled a few bits of slime rough shaped into balls from his inventory. Bizly watched the man's every move as he pressed them to the wound, filling it somewhat. To Condi's surprise, Charlie's body reacted, his slime shifting and knitting itself back together.

Condi's legs felt weak, but he managed to keep standing. "Thank you," he told Quackity. "Thank you so much."

"I mean, anything for Slime." He paused for a moment. "You really do care about him..."

"I know it's hard to believe, but we've been friends with this idiot for a long time."

Quackity laughed at that, but his expression soon turned sour. "So, is it true?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is he... like you guys?"

Condi chuckled. "Sorry. You're gonna have to be a bit more specific than that."

"You're all Old Gods, aren't you?" He laughed a little but he was clearly upset. "Not even just that, the oldest gods!"

The three of them didn't try to reassure him, to tell him his suspicions were wrong.

"That's what I thought." He buried his face in his hands. "For gods sake..."

Condi couldn't meet the man's eyes, so he looked back to Charlie, who healing rather nicely. The hole in his shirt would have to be patched, but at least he wasn't in mortal danger anymore.

"What now?" Grizzly whispered.

Condi would like to take Charlie and get back to looking for the key to his memory, but some part of him couldn't bear to leave Quackity without some sort of recompense. It's not like Phil and Techno hasn't already filled in the gaps anyway. He hardly expected them to just leave well enough alone. Beewee still stood above them and Condi wondered if he would listen to him and not just Bizly, but before he had the chance to try Bizly stood up, picking up Charlie as well.

"Are you happy now?" he hissed. "You got your answers, didn't you?"

Techno shrugged "Well not really all of-" but Phil elbowed the piglin, cutting him off.

"You realize you four are legends, right?" Phil said. "There's not a single god out there who hasn't been influenced by your legacy! Why hide yourself? Everyone would welcome you back as kings!"

"And what if we don't want that?" Grizzly asked flatly. "You ever think of that?"

Before Phil could come up with a response, Bizly gave a sharp whistle. Beewee responded almost immediately, his ears perking up. With a heave, Bizly swung Charlie's over the wolf's back.

"Out of respect for Charlie, I won't kill you this time, but don't expect mercy if you keep following us."

To Condi's surprise, it was Techno who protested.

"Come on Bizly. Don't be like that."

"Sorry Techno, but for both our sakes, I hope this is the last time we meet."

And with that he mounted Beewee and before Condi could blink, he was pulled onto Beewee's back as well, along with Grizzly. The dog had to hunch over a little bit to move through the halls of Molympys, but he barely touched the ground anyway, his long strides taking them away from Techno, Phil, and Quackity.

Grizzly looked torn. "Bizl are you sure about-"

"Not right now," Bizly hissed, but after knowing him for so long, Condi could tell it was more out of pain than anger.

Beewee skidded to a stop and lowered himself so they could all dismount. He whined and tried to nuzzle Bizly, but the man mindlessly brushed him off.

"We just need to... we just need to find it. After that everything will be fixed."

Condi knew that finding whatever miracle they were looking for wouldn't fix everything, he thinks Bizly knew too, but clearly it was all that was keeping him going currently, so Condi let it be.

"Yep." He nodded along. "We'll find it, right Griz?"

Before Grizzly could respond though, a strange sound caught their attention. Charlie's shoulder was doing something weird and for a moment Condi considered going back and snapping Quackity's spine if this proved to be his doing, but soon it took a familiar shape. The small slime detached itself from Charlie and crawled over to them.

"Really?" Bizly sounded surprised. "You do?"

"What's it saying Bizly?" Grizzly asked.

For the first time Condi had seen in a good while, Bizly beamed.

"He may be able to help us."

Condi felt a spark of hope light in his chest. The logical part of his mind tried to snuff it out, saying that if hopes were high, the only place they could go was down and he would inevitably be hurting, but for the first time in ages, he let himself believe, just a little bit.

Grizzly tilted his head. "What does that mean?"

With surprising speed, the tiny slime hopped off of Beewee and started sliding along the ground. They all hurried to follow and Condi nearly had to introduce the floor to his face, but Bizly caught him.

"Careful," he said with a snicker.

"Yeah laugh it up why don't you?" he said, but he had a slight grin as well.

The slime lead them back to Charlie's room, not much surprise there, but it went into a seemingly empty corner of the room. That was where Charlie kept his indoor greenhouse if Condi remembers correctly, but he doesn't remember the secret passage behind it. It's tiny, really. In fact, it's only a few inches tall. The slime can easily fit of course, but following it poses a problem.

"Let me take care of this!" Grizzly said proudly.

He pulled up a few menus and began typing. His fingers were too fast to follow. Grizzly had always been the most adept with a console after all. After a few more technological clicks and beeps, Grizzly finished and Condi felt a shudder go through his body.

He blinked a few times. Had the desk always been that big? It wasn't just his imagination he realized, they were actually shrinking. He looked over to Grizzly who gave him a smirk.

"You altered our height variable?" Bizly asked.

"I mean it was more complicated than that but..." he paused, "yeah that's close enough."

Bizly stifled a laugh. "You probably didn't have to change Condi's much. He's already short after all."

"If I had the heart to argue with you right now, I'd alter your life variable," Condi glowered.

They continued to follow the slime, which wasn't as hard as it sounded because of the very visible green trail it left behind. Still though, there were a few times where they had to travel vertically instead of horizontally. Condi had no idea how the slime did it, but he guesses it was something with their... goopiness. They made do with a few spare ropes from Bizly's pack.

"Have these tunnels always been here?" Bizly asked at one point.

Condi shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Grizzly gestured to the tunnel ahead of them. "I think we'll find out soon."

Sure enough, they entered into a room. It wasn't huge, in fact it was rather small, but it whatever it was, it was what the slime had been leading them to. It sat in the middle of the room, looking at them in a peculiar way, probably because they hadn't been tiny just a few minutes ago. Grizzly quickly did his thing and after a few seconds they were their normal size.

Condi immediately turned his attention to the large shelves that adorned every wall. The only other notable thing in the room was a desk that had a few scattered pieces of writing and a small redstone lamp.

"Uh, is there a light in here at all?"

Condi turned to see Grizzly who was running his hand along the wall and squinting as if it would help him see better. Bizly flicked a lever to activate the lamp and Grizzly let out a sigh of relief.

"Sorry about that Griz."

He waved his hand dismissively. "No worries Condi."

Bizly has rather good night vision from being the god of mobs and all, and Condi's eyes were adapted to seeing in the Nether and especially the End, so the Overworld was bright by comparison.

Bizly was the first to inspect the shelves, pulling out a book and fingering through it. Condi caught a glimpse of the cover. It read The Life Cycle of Mushrooms. Not very interesting by itself, but the implications were immense.

"Hey this is..." Bizly started before stopping himself and flipping a few more pages. "These are Charlie's creation records!"

It was common knowledge between them that they all had them, but the actual texts themselves were personal. They had all agreed to keep logs when they were first shaping the world for better regulation. They weren't altered much, except for in extreme situations like what Bizly did to the chickens, but otherwise they just collected dust.

Used or not, they were powerful tools. Thank the gods though that they only work when used by one of the Counsel. One could change the code beyond recognition and turn the world on it's head. Or, in more simple cases, break an enchantment.

Condi felt a sense of euphoria flow through him. He'd get to see Charlie again. His brother wasn't gone forever. He could tell Bizly and Grizzly felt same way. They just needed to find the right book and then-

"Oh gods," he said aloud.

"Yeah it's pretty amazing," Bizly said.

Condi ran his hands through his hair in exasperation. "No. I mean yes, but I just realized. We left Charlie behind with Beewee."

"Beewee will take care of him."

"I know it's just," he internally groaned, "Quackity might still be around."

Bizly and Grizzly stiffened at that.

"We need to get back there," Bizly said a matter of factly.

Grizzly started to tug at the code again. "Condi you stay here and keep looking. I'll take Bizly to make sure Charlie is ok." He handed Condi a small object with a few flashing lights. A mini command block. "Use that once you find it."

Condi nodded and watched as they shrunk again and then disappeared. His mind was racing with worries for both Charlie and the pair that went after him, but he knew he couldn't dwell on those right now. He had a job. He need to find that book. The book that had the answers they were looking for. The book that would bring his brother back to him.

Chapter Text

Quackity didn't care much for gods. He'd never had the blessings of one and he sure wasn't looking for them. The only thing he needed to know about gods was how to kill them in case they got on his bad side, simple enough.

So what about Slime then? Or is it Charlie now? He'd always known Slime was ancient based on how long he'd said he'd been 'gooping around', but he wasn't thinking creation of the world ancient. Honestly he hasn't quite wrapped his head around it. Sure, the story adds up, but in his mind, Slime is still just... Slime. He's the strange creature Quackity found wandering the desert, he's the one who made his duties in Las Nevadas less of a chore, he's the first person Quackity has gotten close to in gods knows when and it's just not possible, there's just no way, that he's a god, right?

Quackity realizes he's been speaking aloud when he words echo back at him from between the marble pillars. Forget this, he needs to find Slime and get out of here. Who knows what Foolish is doing right now. Sure, it helps that Philza and Technoblade are here, but Quackity has more enemies than just them.

"Quackity from Las Nevadas? Is that you?"

Quackity would never forget that voice, if the whole 'from Las Nevadas' bit didn't already give it away.

"Slime? Is that you?"

"Whaaat?" A few coughs. "I'm not slime, I'm meat!"

Well that was him for sure. It was hard to figure out what was Slime and what was echos playing tricks on him, but much to relief he found his best friend. Less relieving, was the giant wolf standing over him. It growled when it saw him, but at least it wasn't nipping at his heels... yet.

"Hey Beewee..." That was what it's name was, right?

The beast responded with a deep bark. At least it'd stopped growling.

Against all of his self preservation instincts, he took another step forward. Beewee only watched. He didn't show any signs of aggression, but Quackity knew that his neck could be in those jaws in seconds.

"What's wrong Beewee?" Slime asked. He got to his feet, albeit shakily, and gave the dog a few slimy pets.

"Hey you shouldn't be standing with your injuries!" Quackity protested.

To Quackity's surprise, the beast not only tolerated him, but it responded. It's ears swiveled towards his voice and leaned in to support him. Quackity thought maybe this would be his chance to approach, with Slime distracting it and all, but as soon as his steel boot clicked against the floor the wolf whipped it's head to face him and snarled.

So much for that, huh?

Slime blinked a few times as if he wasn't sure of what he was seeing. "Why are you mad at Quackity from Las Nevadas?"

The dog growled again as if trying to explain itself.

"He's my friend!" Slime said cheerily.  Clearly the weight of the situation hadn't hit him yet, but he was calming down Beewee so Quackity took that as a win. "Don't growl at him please."

Quackity pulled a bone out of his inventory. Sure, this dog was closer to a monster, but surely it still liked bones. Thank goodness for those skeletons from earlier, even if they made him use up the last of his gapples. He waved it around to get the beast's attention and then threw it past it's head and out a window, shattering the glass as it went, not that it mattered much, seeing how it was already broken.

Beewee gave him a look, but after a second, ran after the bone and Quackity took advantage of the opportunity.

"Come on Slime!" He glanced behind him as if the giant wolf would be standing right there. "We need to go!"

"But Condi isn't-"

"I don't care what Condi told you! We're going back to Las Nevadas."

Slime pondered that for a minute. "Will that fix everything?"

Quackity gave a short laugh, but adrenaline was still running in his veins and he didn't feel in a joking mood. "What do you mean?"

Slime squinted. "Will it make my head stop hurting and get rid of this heavy feeling?"

"Your head?" Quackity sputtered. "Well I don't really know if-"

"Then no," Slime said firmly.

"W-What?" Quackity said in disbelief. "Slime what are you talking about? Your home is Las Nevadas! You're a citizen! You're my right hand man for gods' sake!"

Slime met his eyes. What a mess he must look like right now. "I'm sorry Quackity, but there's things here I need to fix." He gestured but not to anything in particular. "I mean, you can see it too right? The way Bizly sighs a lot and how Condi is uncomfortable around me and Grizzly won't look me in the eyes. I can't just leave them like that."

Quackity clenched his fists. "But you can! Why can't you just leave them? You were fine with it before!"

"I-" Slime turned his gaze downward. "You're right I did. I-" his voice choked up for a moment, "I ran away. But I won't do that again, I ca-" Slime let out a cry of pain and clutched his head.

Quackity was at his side immediately. He didn't know what he could do to help when he saw the purple shimmer of enchantments, but he wants to try anyway. What kind of best friend would he be if he didn't? Schlatt said he could only break things, but Quackity refused to believe that. He could put them back together too, no he would.

"Slime I just-"

A rough bark cut him off. Beewee loomed over him, his eyes seemingly glowing. Honestly, Quackity was surprised he wasn't already made into swiss cheese by those teeth. He let out a yelp despite himself.

The runes fizzled out and Slime shook his head like a wet dog, sending bits of slime everywhere. "Beewee?" Slime asked slowly. "Quackity? Where are we?"

So this was what they'd been talking about. At least they had been telling the truth but Quackity still wanted something, or even better, someone to punch.

Instead be brought Slime into a tight hug. "You're here with me, don't worry."

"Was I saying something?"

"Don't worry about it buddy. Do you know where those other guys are?" They should be able to fix this. That's the reason they'd come here, wasn't it?

"Leave him alone!"

Speak of the devil, here were two of them. Bizly and Grizzly if his memory served him right.

Quackity took a deep breath. He was going to need it. "You can help him, can't you?"

Bizly stopped in his tracks. "I mean yeah, that's what we're working on but-"

Quackity shoved Slime towards them, wincing a bit at the way his best friend stumbled and fell. "Do it then. Fix his memory."

Grizzly fumbled to catch Slime. "What- but why-?"

Every neuron in Quackity's brain screamed to pull his best friend back into his arms and never let him go, to not lose this one like he's lost the others. He has to hold his hands at his side because otherwise he knows they would be digging into somebody's throat.

He lets out a breath, shorter than it's supposed to be. "Just do it before I change my mind."

"Thank-"

"Get out of here!" he shouts. Is everyone just an idiot who can't even listen to simple instructions?!

He doesn't dare watch as they run off. He simply closes his eyes and when he opens them they're gone, easy as that.

"Just... bring him back to me..."

***

"You know, I think you and Bizly would get along real well. Condi would like you too."

"You really think?" Grace chuckled. "Guess I'll have to meet them sometime."

Charlie's breath faltered. "And... Grizzly... he's kind just like you..."

"Charlie you don't have to-"

"He was my best friend Grace, my brother!" A sob wracked his body. "And I betrayed him!"

Grace was silent for a moment. "What if the roles were reversed? Would you forgive him?"

Charlie laughed, albeit a little unhinged. "Well of course I would! He's been with me for so long! Besides, it's only what I deserve for the terrible excuse of a god I've been."

Grace leaned in and put her arm around Charlie. "At this point, I think the more important question is if you could forgive yourself."

"Forgive... myself? Why?"

"Guess we'll have to work on that later. For now, you need your beauty sleep."

"That's not even that funny," Charlie said, but he chuckled anyway.

Grace snorted. "Well forgive me for not being the god of puns like you."

"I told you already, that's not my title."

"Well I think it should be," Grace huffed. "Now off to bed with you. If you're too tired to help me in the garden tomorrow that'll be quite the bother."

"Whatever you say Grace."

"Yes," Grace said triumphantly, "submit to my rule!"

Charlie laughed and paused in the stairwell. "You're amazing, you know that?"

Grace nodded enthusiastically.

"Alright then, just checking."

And for the first time since he'd showed up on her doorstep, his eyes filled with nothing but sorrow and tears, Grace saw Charlie genuinely smile.

***

"Uh, Bizly?"

"Yeah Griz?"

"Have you noticed your horns growing in?"

Bizly grabbed at the air above his head and, sure enough, his fingers ran over rough keratin. He'd known they would have to come back eventually, he shed his mortal form after all, but it hadn't been on his mind with everything happening in the past few days.

"Since when-"

"I noticed them a few minutes ago but judging from their length they're been here for a while." He flicked Bizly's hair. "Must've been hidden since you hair is longer now."

"Is it?" Bizly hummed. "I didn't notice."

"Not even with it hanging in your face all the time?"

Bizly shrugged. "I guess I did notice that, but I never put much thought into why."

"Are you gonna need something to help with the pain?" Grizzly asked.

Bizly turned to face him, difficult with the way he had an unconscious Charlie hanging off his shoulders. How nostalgic. "Huh?"

"For the..." Grizzly gestured to the top of Bizly head.

"Oh." Bizly tugged at the horns once again. "Nah, I should be fine for now." He chuckled a bit. "But just wait until the antlers start coming in..." Bizly meant it jokingly, but Grizzly only looked concerned. "I'll be fine! Don't worry about it."

Grizzly looked him over for a moment but eventually he just sighed and said, "fine, but if anything comes up you tell me first thing."

Bizly hadn't realized how much he'd missed Grizzly 'mother hen'-ing him. You don't know how much you miss something until it's gone, huh? Though not by far with the kind of friends Bizly makes, he was definitely one of the most reckless. He always put other's lives before his own, so it was nice to see someone who cared so much about his.

"Hey Grizzly?" Bizly's breath faltered for just a moment. Did he really want to ask this now of all times? Sure, it'd been nagging him like crazy, but couldn't it wait? Against his better judgement, he continued. "Do you hate Charlie?"

The words hung in the air as if gripping onto each molecule. The look in Grizzly's eyes wasn't surprised, only melancholy. Then everything came crashing down when he opened his mouth.

"No. I-" a sharp inhale, "I don't hate Charlie." His footsteps halted. "It's... it hurt, a lot, but I think that Charlie has suffered too, hasn't he? I mean just look at him!"

Bizly simply nodded as Grizzly continued.

"Even if I was mad, even if hated him, he wouldn't deserve that. Despite everything I've done, I've been given another chance, and you can bet your godhood I'm going to use it to make things right," Grizzly said, and in his eyes Bizly saw the roar of fire and the rushing of water and the quaking of mountains and he smiled.

"You and me both Griz."

***

Ted flipped the page. "Ooh how about this one? Would you rather never see your best friend again, or meet the person that you've done the most wrong to?" He scratched his chin. "That's a hard one, but I thi- Charlie?! Why are you crying?!"

"I'm sorry Ted," he sniffled. "It's nothing."

Ted scooted across the rough floor of the Palcove to sit next to Charlie. "It's clearly not nothing if it has you like this. I mean come on! I've never seen you this upset before."

Charlie tried to laugh but it just came out as a choked whine. So instead he just buried his head further into his knees. "I'm fine, I swear. Just some old memories."

"You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"

Charlie meekly nodded. He couldn't tell Ted about what he'd done though. What would their friendship turn into if he found out Charlie was a backstabbing fool, only good at ruining things? Even his magic reflected that.

He wiped away his tears. They were starting to dry up now. Sure, he may revisit that place whenever he slept, but as long as he had Ted here when he woke up, everything would be fine, right?

He took the book from Ted's grasp. "Let's just move to the next one."

***

Condi looked the book over for what must have been the hundredth time. This just had to be it, right? Enchantments read the title, tauntingly. It seemed much to simple a solution, but he'd checked everything else that littered the shelves. He'd made quite the mess of them now, and he thought of himself as the organized one? Stress really does change character. Or maybe the other three were just a bad comparison in the first place.

He pulled the command block out, almost dropping it. It was the green button, right? He hadn't used one of these in a long time. In fact, the last time he saw one was when Charlie set it up to deal with their... chicken problem. Surely enough though, he pressed the green button and felt the same sensation from earlier and soon enough he barely stood the height of one row of shelves.

He must've taken a wrong turn in the tunnels though, because he didn't end up where they'd first entered. He clicked the red button now, relishing the feeling of standing taller than most of the trashed furniture lining the halls. He remembered early mornings spent looking down on the village below, competing with Bizly to see who could point out the most between the misty clouds. But the place was hardly recognizable now, just like everything else here.

"Hello?" he called out warily. There was no response except his echo.

That wasn't a good sign, but he still knew his way around here. How could he not after all? The place was practically burned into his memory.

Condi found his feet wandering though, taking him in a different direction than he knew he had to go. He didn't know where his feet were taking him, or maybe he just didn't want to think about it. He didn't notice the chasm until his feet were near hanging off the edge, or maybe that was just him pretending not to see. Not a single vine dared to dip into the hole, but poppies sprang from them around it's edge.

Of all Condi's memories, this one was the most vivid. Honestly, why couldn't it have been one of those sunny afternoons where they chased each other through the forest? Or that one time Grizzly had all the polar bears worshiping him.

He could still hear Grizzly's scream perfectly clear. Even after all this time it'd never corrupted or rotted in his brain. Sometimes he wishes that it did, wishes that he had a worse memory. Maybe that's what Charlie was thinking, but Condi couldn't dream of doing what he did. That would just feel like letting down Grizzly. Those who do not know mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them after all.

He really hated Charlie's face on that day. Even when he felled Schlatt, Condi had never seen Charlie so genuinely angry and upset.

And Grizzly's face... oh gods Grizzly's face...

Condi never thought it was possible to see someone who looked like they wanted to smile and cry at the same time, but in that moment, Grizzly proved him wrong. Knowing him, Grizzly probably did it because he wanted the last time they saw him to be a happy expression, but Condi just wishes that at least somebody showed emotion over the tragedy that happened that day. Something besides Charlie's fury and Bizly's stone faced regret.

He got down on his knees and gently picked one of the poppies, scattering it's petals and watching as they fell down and down and down. That was enough dwelling on the past for one day. He had people in the present depending on him, people who he could still save, people who he wouldn't let fall.

***

Slime woke again, but this time he was moving. His head was bobbing up and down and he wished everything would just come to a stop. But this smell was familiar, he knew it.

"Bizly?" he mumbled.

The man skidded to a stop. "You awake buddy?"

"Maybe!" Slime said with a goopish shrug.

Bizly chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes."

"You might wanna put him down Bizly."

"Oh right."

Slime was lifted and then lowered to the ground. His legs instinctively went out to hold him but they were too weak so Bizly helped him into a sitting position on the floor instead.

Grizzly's eyes were just how he remembered. A pleasant chocolate brown rimmed in gold. Just as condemning as he remembered. A hateful red spreading like cracks and burning like fire.

"You-" was the only thing he managed to choke out before pain flooded his system.

"Charlie!" they both cried.

They both reached out to help him, but every touch felt like flaming sandpaper and every sound like a ear piercing screech.

"Get away from me!" he screamed, cringing at how loud his voice sounded in his own ears. "Just... please leave me alone..."

Everything felt muffled after that, like he was underwater. Slime tried to clear his mind but it was a pointless struggle at this rate. He was dragged down and down a̸̧̞͔̗̲̯̓̀̕n̶̻̮̜͎̘d̷̨̛̞̲̎̅̇̌ ̴̗̠̼͓͙̔̊͝d̸̮̃ȍ̶̪̥̝͙̻̼̊͌͆͗w̷͖̥͉͗̑ň̸͓̇͐ ̴̩̫̠͜͝á̶͓̻̱̳͈̬̍̉̓n̶̛̖̠̳̪͒̍̊̉́d̷̟͆͐-̶̺̭̞̉̋̇̚ͅ

"Charlie!"

He flung his head up to see who had called him. Wait, where was this anyway? Where had he been before he came here? Something like Las...

"Charlie look at me!"

Hey he knew this person, right? He'd met them once before... twice... no three times? That couldn't be right. Not to mention the big dog. What sort of situation was this?

"Just great, now we need to-"

"Bizly?" The words echoed. Wherever Slime was, it was large. Then the speaker came around the corner. He looked familiar too. What were those purple wisps surrounding him though? Slime unconsciously reached out to grab one but it disappeared in his grasp.

"Condi!" Bizly said cheerfully, bringing the other man into a hug.

Slime looked from side to side, but for what, he wasn't exactly sure. "Aren't there normally three of you?"

"That's a good question actually," the newcomer said. "Where's Grizzly?"

"I don't think Charlie should see my right now," said a voice from somewhere. "The enchantment acts up."

Bizly grinned wolfishly. "About that, I have an idea." He pulled off his sunglasses and ducked behind a pillar. After a bit of shuffling around, two people came back out.

Slime knows that he's just met Bizly, but it's still strange to see him without his sunglasses. Instead, the other man is wearing them, awkwardly adjusting them every few seconds because they're obviously not fitted to his head.

"Is this really going to work?" he asked.

"Charlie this is..." Bizly trailed off, "Plays! Yeah that's his name."

"What?!"

"What if your name triggers it too?" Bizly said in a hissed whisper.

Slime couldn't see Plays' eyes, but he think that I'd he could, they'd be glaring at Bizly. "Yeah and this is Mr. Fiction," he said with a playful scowl.

"Hey don't drag me-"

"Hi Mr. Fiction!" Slime trilled.

Plays chuckled. "No fixing it now. He's imprinted on you or whatever."

But then Fiction smiled and Slime felt a chill go down his goopy back, for better or worse he wasn't sure.

He pulled out a strange book. "Maybe we can."

"You seriously found it?" Bizly asked breathlessly. "We can really get him back?"

Fiction flipped the cover open. "There's nothing to do now except try. Try like we always have."

***

"I know I shouldn't be here Grizzly, I don't deserve to stain this soil anymore." He took in a shuddering breath. "I just wanted to say goodbye one last time. I know, how selfish is that?"

The wind rustled and for a moment he got his hopes up. But then again, if Grizzly's ghost was going to show up to anyone, he'd be the last one on that list.

"I know I don't deserve this, a chance to run away, but I don't know what else to do now." Tears fall. He can muster the strength or motivation to wipe them out of his eyes. "Everything was so clear when it was just the four of us. Everything made so much sense! I just-" he buried his head in his hands, "I don't know what to do anymore!"

Grizzly's grave stands silent, no different than the day they put it there besides the moss slowly consuming it. He takes the flower out of his pocket, nearly coming to tears again when he sees the poppy's warm red glow. Kneeling down, he digs a small hole with his hands and slowly lowers the roots into it. He gives it his blessing too, it's the least he can do for the small plant.

After what feels like an eternity of staring at the flower and the words etched in the gravestone, he stands.

"Goodbye Grizzly."

Chapter Text

"Do you ever wish you weren't a god?"

Sitting on Molympys's tiled roof watching a starry cold night, the question took Grizzly off guard. He looked over Charlie's face as if there was some joke he was missing out on, but his brother's lips stayed pursed.

"Well," he started, not sure of how to respond, "sometimes maybe, but in the end I'm glad."

Charlie tilts his head. "Glad?"

"Yes! Because otherwise, I wouldn't have met you guys."

Charlie chuckled a little. "I see..."

***

Slime's skin felt like it had a thousand needles digging into it. Sure, the needle itself didn't hurt much, but with so many of them all over his body made him feel like screaming. Something was screaming alarms, but what? They shouldn't have that book, they couldn't. If they had that then they would... they would...

"Charlie you look pale, are you ok?"

Sure enough, his goop was more see through than normal. What was he getting so worried about anyway? It was just a book... right?

"Maybe you should lie down," Condi, you remember that now, said with reassuring smile.

Yeah that sounded like a nice idea. So Charlie sank to the floor and leaned his head back against the wall. Sure, it wasn't comfortable, but it was better than feeling like his legs were going to give out from under him at any moment. Really, he should talk to Quackity about this, he would know what to do.

Quackity... Who was that again?

The other three were busying themselves with something. Slime could hear them talking, but it took too much of his attention to understand the disjointed syllables. At least Beewee stuck by his side, licking him when he started to doze off.

"Charlie?"

Slime opened his eyes to see Bizly looking at him with concern. Had he missed something important? It was so hard to focus on anything. But Bizly offered his hand and Slime took it.

Bizly slung Slime's arm over his shoulder. "Just lean on me for a bit buddy. We're not going too far."

Slime would have disagreed though, because it felt like hours until they got to wherever they were going. It was the most ornate room he'd seen so far, with two, no three thrones, if the last one could count as a throne. It looked more like a dented bucket. The most startling thing about the room was the gaping hole that burrowed it's way through the mountain and into the ground below it, the sides open to the sky, illuminating it with the red light of sunset.

"Do we really have to do this here?" Bizly muttered.

Condi shrugged. "Do you know anywhere else big enough?"

"Well if we hurry and get it over with," G̷̼͙̖͠r̴̲͂̑͘i̸͚͚͙͙̅̅͋z̷̬̗̓z̷͚͉̆͝ļ̸̻̪̔̓̈́̋y̴̨̟̝͆̄̕ said, "we won't have to be here long."

"Good point," Condi said as he pulled out the book from earlier, placing it on the ground and spreading the pages wide. He wordlessly tossed the other two pieces of blackened charcoal and then started drawing on the ground.

The first thing that was drawn was a large outer circle, only serving to make Slime feel more trapped. His arms bounced nervously but he wasn't sure what else to do with them. Then G̷̼͙̖͠r̴̲͂̑͘i̸͚͚͙͙̅̅͋z̷̬̗̓z̷͚͉̆͝ļ̸̻̪̔̓̈́̋y̴̨̟̝͆̄̕ smiled at him and that must have been the last straw because something in Slime snapped.

"I can't take it anymore!" he shouted.

Condi stopped drawing. "What do you mean?"

"You... I..." he managed between quickening breaths.

His airways felt clogged and his stomach churned. Slime begged for every limb of his to stop shaking and for this disconnected feeling to leave his fuzzy mind.

And the last thing he heard was G̷̼͙̖͠r̴̲͂̑͘i̸͚͚͙͙̅̅͋z̷̬̗̓z̷͚͉̆͝ļ̸̻̪̔̓̈́̋y̴̨̟̝͆̄̕ call his name before his eyes rolled back into his head.

***

Slime woke up. Not too strange, but there was no one else in the room anymore. No, that wasn't the only thing. The room itself was different. The dark evergreen vines that latched onto everything weren't there. In fact, the room was in rather good condition, despite the gaping hole it bore.

"Hey," said a voice from behind him and Slime jumped. But the most shocking thing was to turn around and meet himself.

Well, it wasn't exactly him. The guy had a few slimes on his shoulders that looked like they were sleeping, but other than that he looked more like meat. His face was definitely the same as Slime's though.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya! But then again, how many people get the chance to sneak up on themselves?" He snickered. "I guess you could call it a once in a lifetime doppel-tunity."

"Who are you?" Slime asked breathlessly.

"Hmm, thought that would've been obvious by now, but I guess that's my bad. I'm you!" he exclaimed.

"You're... me?"

He nodded. "Again, it's not something you see everyday."

He must be dreaming. Sure, he can't even sleep, but from what Quackity had said about dreams, this sounded like one. Quackity had always said they were based on your wishes or old memories, like that one time he described how he'd strangled some guy named Wilbur, but that didn't explain what this one meant.

The man, no you know his name, your name, sits beside you. "I'm sorry for how long I've made you wait," he admits. "I... no I won't make up some dumb excuse. I've been scared, still am! Isn't that the most pathetic thing you've ever heard?"

"No," he said firmly. "I get scared a lot too, but Quackity, Condi, Bizly, everyone else I've met, they've been there with me every step of the way."

Hope flashes in the other's eyes but leaves just as soon as it arrives. "It doesn't matter what they think. I know that." His eyes go dull. "It's just like Schlatt said."

"Schlatt?" Slime asks, but images of the horned god flash through his mind, all stained in red.

He flexed his fingers, arcs of yellow magic dancing across them, but quickly turning to an ash gray. "He always said we were the same. Both of us only able to tear things apart." He slams his fist into the ground in frustration, brusing the knuckles. "I can't be forgiven."

"Condi's forgiven you, Bizly has, even..." Slime's throat felt like it was closing up, "...even Grizzly."

For a moment the other was silent and Slime wondered if he hadn't heard him but then he heard a muffled sob. He turned to see tears flowing down the man's face.

"Grizzly," he whimpered, "oh gods Grizzly." He choked down another snivel. "You're sure?"

Slime could only nod, words failing him.

After a minute or two of wiping his tears away, he stood. "I can't believe..." he mumbled softly. His eyes were bloodshot and he had tear marks running down his face, but he was smiling.

Slowly, he extended his hand.

"Let's go home."

His palm was warm and a bubbly feeling spread throughout him. I hole he never knew had been there was filled and for the first time in years, in ages, in millennia...

Charlie felt whole.

***

The trees inhaled. The trees exhaled. And for the first time in forever, their god breathed with them. The slow rise and fall of his chest and steady heartbeat the rhythm of life's song.

Awareness came slowly this time. First the air moving around his fingers tips, then the sun on his face, the hushed whispers in the room, and finally, Charlie opens his eyes.

"Charlie?"

"Five more minutes," he mumbled.

Condi laughs at that. "What? A millennia of sleep isn't enough for you?"

"Well maybe it would've been if you didn't make me hike a mountain over these last few days," Charlie retorted.

"You're dumb, you know that?" Bizly said. "You're really, really," he pauses and a tear rolls down his face, "really dumb."

"Bizly..."

But before he can even think of anything to say, of where in the world to start, Bizly squeezed him tightly and after a sheepish look, Condi and Grizzly joined in too. After what feels like hours but at the same time too short, they step back and Charlie can breathe again and he's left face to face with Grizzly.

"Hey," Charlie says weakly. He can feel the panic start to cloud his head. "I- I ca-"

Grizzly placed a hand on his shoulder. "I forgive you. You messed up, but everything is fine now. There's no good to come from dwelling on it." He flashed a smile. "That's what friends are for, right? To forgive and help you not mess up a second time."

"But what if I hurt you again!" he shouted. "What if I break something that can't be fixed?! You don't understand I'm-"

A blinding white light blossoms on the edge of Charlie's vision and he falls to the ground. Oh. Grizzly punched him. Charlie deserves that, to be fair, and it stopped the downward spiral of his thoughts.

"I may not understand everything you're going through, but what I know for certain is that we can get through it together." He pulled Charlie to his feet. "Do you trust us?"

"Wha- of course I do, how could I not?"

"Then believe me when I say we're here for you. We're here for you Charlie," he said firmly.

Bizly smirked. "Vouch."

Condi snorted. "That makes you sound insincere Biz."

"Charlie knows what I mean, don't you?"

"Haha, yeah man."

Bizly opened his arms again and this time Charlie willingly embraced him.

"Welcome back brother."

***

"What're you waiting for? He's your friend, isn't he?"

"Shut up Techno. Don't act like you understand anything."

Techno laughed. "Do you really want those to be your words in the history books?"

"Huh?"

Techno gestured to the scene in front of them. "I never thought I'd be recording stories like this myself, but someone's gotta write it all down."

Quackity snorted. "Yeah of course you would, you nerd."

Techno leaned his head back against the wall. "So what now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do we all go back to the SMP and resume our dispute except this time you have your godly friend on your side?" He scratched his chin. "Maybe I can make a Dream move and convince Condi and Bizly they owe me a favor. Guess you can have that Grizzly guy to make things even."

Quackity chuckled despite himself, but despite Techno's joking manner, Quackity felt as if there was a pile of stones in his stomach. Slime's words still echoed in his mind.

"Is it worth it?"

"No. I don't want that."

"If that was a joke it wasn't funny."

"No it isn't," Quackity huffed. "At least for now. Another snarky comment and maybe I'll change my mind."

"Better watch your sarcasm then Tech," Phil said from behind them.

Quackity wouldn't have been surprised if the old man was asleep, especially with how he was covering his face with his hat, but apparently he'd been listening.

"Either way, I think we should give those four a moment. They have quite a bit of catching up to do after all."

With a flick of his wrist Phil opened a purple swirling vortex. Admin magic, but Quackity could've sworn that it was usually blue. He didn't care enough to bother though. He's had enough plot twists in the past week to last him a lifetime.

"Home sweet home here we come," Techno hummed.

Phil waved his hand in mock extravagance. "You next Quackity."

"Yeah yeah whatever," Quackity muttered begrudgingly.

He took one last look at Slime, smiled, and then let the code take him away.

***

A gust of wind blew Grace's hair into her face and she grumpily fixed her part. Not too strange of an occurrence normally, but the air had been completely stagnant until now. She looked towards the horizon to see if there were any brewing storm clouds, but it was clear as day.

There were only two times this happened before: once when Condi and Bizly showed up and the other was-

Grace's feet were moving before she'd even finished processing. Her toe stubbed on a gnarled root and leaves got caught in her hair, but all those sensations felt secondary to the one blooming in her heart.

"Charlie?!" she yelled as she stumbled into the clearing. "Charlie is it you?!"

There he was, smiling and everything. "Yup! Hey Gra-"

She dove into him, the sudden addition of weight making Charlie lose his balance and sending them both sprawling to the clearing floor. She adjusted until she was pinning him down by his shoulders.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded.

"Sorry I didn't-"

Grace smiled. She couldn't help it. Her joy was much larger than her anger. "It was stupid!" she declared. "Say it!"

"It was stupid..." Charlie mumbled.

"Good," she said as she let her head fall onto his chest, exhaustion catching up with her.

Charlie chuckled and then picked her up. Out of spite though, she leaned back, almost making them fall over again and then laughed brightly when Charlie struggled to balance them.

He sighed. "Why would you-"

"Consider us even now. Alright?"

"That's nowhere near ev-" he stopped himself. "Nevermind. Thank you Grace."

"Are you going to stay this time?" Grace asked as their entered her home.

"Actually... No wait, it's not like that!" he insisted when he saw her scowl. "I just wanted to visit a few people! I've got a lot of loose ends to tie up."

"Ok. I'm coming with you then."

"W-What?" Charlie sputtered.

Grace smirked. "Did you think you could get away from me again?"

"Well no it's just-"

"Listen here Charlie. We're going to take the world on together from now on. That way we'll be unstoppable!"

"But-" he groaned, "I guess you're right."

Grace adjusted her glasses. "Alrighty then! I'll get my things while you there figure out where we're going first."

"Right now?" Bizly asked.

"There's not much use in wasting time here," Grace explained.

Bizly seemed to weigh their options, but then he nodded in agreement. Condi did too. Charlie looked like he'd already submitted to the majority vote, so Grace basically skipped up the narrow staircase.

She did pause halfway through though and craned her head to listen.

"She knows you waaay too well," Bizly said.

Charlie laughed. "Tell me about it."

"You ok with her coming along and all?" Condi asked.

"She just took me by surprise, that's all. I... I'm really glad she's coming." He paused and sniffled. "Honestly, where would I be without her?"

"Where are we heading first then?"

Charlie grinned. "I'd like to introduce you all to someone called Ted."

***

The second to last thing Ted was expecting today was a knock on his door. First off, he didn't usually have visitors, and second, his house hung in the middle of the starry void below bedrock. You know, just a bit of a road block for his guests. The last thing Ted was expecting today was to open his door and see Charlie.

"Is this a dream?"

Charlie looked around. "I sure hope it's not."

It was too early in the morning to question this, so he waved him inside. "Dream or not, it's nice to see you."

"I brought a couple friends if that's alright."

"The more the merrier," Ted said dismissively. "I might not have enough chairs for all of you though."

Charlie looked entirety different from when Ted had last saw him, but at the same time exactly like he did all those years ago. Maybe that was his brain trying to process everything that was happening. Like, Charlie, his friend that went missing ages ago, that Ted looked for forever, wondering what he did wrong, suddenly showed up at his front door for a nice tea party? Definitely not the only hallucination he'd had of Charlie, but definitely the weirdest.

"So what have you been up to recently?" Charlie asked once they were all seated, Charlie and the other three he brought all squished together on Ted's small couch and, to Ted's insistence, Grace was sat on her own chair, one of the two that he owned.

"Doing?" What a broad question. "Uh, sitting around? Talking to the endless void surrounding me?! I don't know!"

"Charlie are you sure about this guy?" one of his companions whispered.

"Give him a chance Biz."

Ted ignored them and continued. "How about where have you been?! And for that matter, why did you leave?! Was it me? Did I do something wrong?!" he demanded.

"Ted no! It wasn't you at all!" Charlie said quickly. "I just... I made some mistakes, way back, and..." He turned his head downwards.

"I'll explain," Grizzly said, interrupting.

"No," Ted said sternly. "I want to hear this from Charlie."

"I'm so sorry Ted. You were so good to me, but I couldn't let myself get away with my sins. I had to do something or else I- I-"

"Is that all this was?" Ted let a small smirk bloom on his face. He ruffled Charlie's hair. "And you didn't think to pass that decision by me first? Your one and only pal?"

Charlie laughed a little and Ted took that as a win. "I really am sorry I didn't wa-"

"Want to what? Worry me? Because that's exactly what you did."

"Yeah..." Charlie trailed off. "Again, sorry."

Ted spread his arms wide. "Apology bro hug? I can always break your kneecaps instead though," he added.

The other three tensed at that but Charlie just laughed. "I'll gladly take the first one. I kinda kneed my knees."

"That's the spirit," Ted said and pulled Charlie, his dear pal, into a tight embrace.

After a minute or two of nearly suffocating each other, Ted let go and stepped back.

He gestured to the others in the room. "So who're your friends?"

"Bizly, Condi, Grizzly," he said as he pointed to each of them, "and that's Grace."

"Nice to meet you!" Grace said, offering her hand, which Ted shook. "I've heard a lot about you."

"All good things I hope?" Ted asked, shooting a look at Charlie. "Well either way, it's nice to meet you all. How long are you planning to stay? I don't have much room, but I'm sure we can figure something out."

"Oh no we can't take advantage of your hospitality!" Charlie insisted.

Ted's face fell at that. "You're leaving?"

"I'll come back and explain more, explain everything, I just... I need a bit. Time to sort things out."

"You promise?" Ted asks slowly.

"From one pal to another, I solemnly swear." Charlie said dutifully.

Ted laughed. "You'd better."

"We'll do something fun when I come back something like, I don't know, starting a podcast?"

Ted shrugged. "I mean, I'm down."

Charlie beamed. "It's settled then."

***

"So who's next?" Grizzly asked in a moment of silence between the five of them.

"You may not like this, but it's Quackity."

Condi's eyes widened. "Quackity from Las Nevadas?! That guy?!"

"Surely you're kidding," Bizly said.

But Charlie only shrugged. "Not really. You guys don't have to come if you don't want to."

"No way we're leaving you again."

"Calm down boys," Grace said with a smirk. "Maybe you let him alone just this once."

"Grace, this guy is a murderer and a scammer. What could Charlie have to gain from talking with him?"

"I'm not sure, but I'll trust Charlie on this."

The others grumbled, but didn't say anything else. Charlie winked at Grace who just gestured for him to get going already.

Returning to the DreamSMP was strange, to say the least. The time he'd spent here was so long yet in the grand scheme of things so short. Despite that, he'd met some of the most important people in his life here. Quackity was just the first of them. Everyone in Las Nevadas had taken him in like family, no questions asked.

So why was he faltering at the front gate to the gleaming city?

Charlie looked himself over. His appearance was quite different than when he had first arrived here. His "so yeah, I'm a gamer" shirt was back, the three scrawled hearts making him smile. It looked like it had incorporated the overall straps Quackity had given him, so he was glad for that. Sure, it was just a spare outfit of Quackity's that he said would probably fit because they were about the same size, but it meant a lot to him. It was the first time after he'd left the past behind that someone was really and truely kind to him without gaining anything.

Besides that, there was the fur cloak Bizly had given them when they first met, help together by a clasp made from the stem of the poppy Grizzly had given him all those years ago. Then of course there's the obvious fact that he's not made of slime anymore, which is really too bad, because slime is great, but after ages, he's ready to be back in his godly form. Sure, he's not exactly made of meat now, but he can only imagine the look of surprise he'll see on Quackity's face. Charlie tried to look for him after he... woke up, but his friend was missing. He admits he was a little hurt by that, but it's only what he deserves.

He flicks his fingers and twists a small smile into being. It looks at him sleepily before making a small murmuring noise.

"How do I look buddy?"

It glooped a little.

"Of course you would say that."

"Slime? Is that you?"

No going back now.

Fundy watched him carefully from Las Nevadas. Charlie didn't blame him. He must've looked rather strange after all.

"Hey Fundy!" he said cheerily.

Fundy's ears tilted towards him. "What? None of the 'from L'manberg' stuff?"

"Oh! I mean, you never liked it, did you?"

Fundy's eyes narrowed. "You're different, aren't you?"

Charlie could only nod. "I just want to talk to Quackity. Could you do that for me?"

"I don't know guy. Quackity is still pretty mad at me for last time..." he said with a grimace.

"I'll make sure you're not blamed, I just really really need to see him."

Fundy seemed to consider his options for a moment before he stepped aside. "You'd better not lying."

Charlie said his thanks and then started running down the concrete streets. He knew where Quackity would be. The Space Needle. He went there whenever he was stress or worried or just needed to clear his head. Charlie hated to think he was the reason for that, but that's why he was here after all.

As he scaled the building, he rehearsed all sorts of things he could tell Quackity, most of them ending in him pleading for forgiveness, but the moment he reached the top floor all of that seemingly melted away at the sight of his best friend.

"Quackity?" he said softly.

Quackity turned to look at him, obviously surprised. "Why are you here?" he asked.

"I'm sorry," Charlie said breathlessly. "I didn't- I couldn't-"

"You have your memory back, don't you?" Quackity said simply.

Charlie nodded.

Quackity clicked his tongue. "So I'll ask you again, why are you here?"

The question made Charlie's heart sink deep into his gullet. "I wanted to at least say thank you," he whispered.

"Why?" Quackity spat. "Why would you come back?!" Charlie realized he was crying. "Why in Prime's name would you torture me like this?"

"Quackity-"

"You have your friends now, so why don't you run off with them?! Why don't you just leave me here in the dust and-"

Not knowing exactly what else to do, Charlie ran up and hugged Quackity. Quackity squirmed in his grip for a second, but eventually he settled down and they stayed there until Quackity's tears slowed.

"I may be Charlie now, but I'm still Slime. I'm still a member of Las Nevadas. I'm still your best friend!" He faltered. "Well, if you'll have me."

"All that time we spent together, was any of it real to you?"

Charlie winced. Was that really what Quackity thought of him? "What? Of course!"

Quackity took a deep breath. "I don't want to trust you. Everything I've learned, every terrible act I've seen in this godforsaken server, is telling me not to. Yet still, I can't find it in myself to hold a grudge against you."

"Quackity..."

He smiled sadly. "So I'll ask you for the last time, why are you here?"

"I want to stay with you in Las Nevadas!" Charlie blurted. "I mean it'd be nice if the others could stay here too and I'll probably have to-"

Quackity chuckled. "We can work all that out later."

"Wait, so..." Charlie beamed. "That's a yes?!"

"Yeah yeah whatever. Just don't make me regret it."

Charlie squeezed him tightly. "I won't! I swear I won't!"

"Still just as energetic," Quackity muttered under his breath. "It's nice to meet you Charlie and good to see you again Slime."

Charlie nodded enthusiastically. "And you too Quackity from Las Nevadas!"

***

It's been a long time since Grizzly has had a dream. But here he is, sitting on his throne in Molympys. He looks around. The room was empty, empty except for Charlie's throne.

"Sorry to bother you," Charlie said. "Just wanted to tell you thank you."

"For what?"

Charlie smiled, that bright infectious easygoing smile that was so familiar.

"Thank you for finding me."

***

The planets spin, the stars shine, and we meet again after so much time

The road has been long but time feels so short, when I see your face into a smile contort

What thoughts to think, what things to say, when you're the one who took yourself away

As red as your sins, you bear it alone, but still, we'll be the ones to bring you home