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He slammed the will on the table. “I… I remember what he said. I know he didn’t want us to come after him, but… I can’t lose him.” Phil’s wide-brim hat was pulled low over his eyes, and his posture was tense in a manner that hinted at the power and rage that simmered beneath Phil’s calm, collected exterior.
To Phil’s left sat an empty chair. They all knew who he was talking about. Protesilaus, the nameplate on the head of the chair gleamed, taunting Ranboo with its visibility.
Niki slid gracefully out of her chair and approached Phil where he sat, slumped in poorly concealed despair. She seized Phil’s hand in a suffocating grip. When his gaze snapped up to meet hers, they caught a glimpse of his bloodshot eyes in the dim torchlight.
“We will get him out,” Niki declared, making searing eye contact with the distraught man. Her tone left no room for argument, no space for questions. It was a conviction that deliberated no ifs, buts, or worst-case scenarios. It was a mindset that Ranboo deeply envied.
Phil looked up at Niki. A beat of silence enveloped them. “You— you’re both on board?” he asked tentatively, almost scared to hear the answer. His gaze wandered between void and Niki.
Niki nodded determinedly. When her and Phil’s gaze landed on Ranboo, he startled a bit before blurting out,
“Yes! Of course.” Phil gave him a single nod and a simple, amused smile spread across his face. He released a low chuckle.
“Thank you,” he emphasized the words with a frank sincerity. “Thank you both so much.”
Ranboo didn’t quite understand what Phil was thanking them for. Why wouldn’t voi want to help? Techno and Phil had given void a home when voi had nowhere else to go—when his possessions were destroyed and his friendships unstable and his mind a torture chamber that tauntingly echoed Dream’s voice back at him. Techno had overlooked Ranboo’s participation in the blood hunt that led to his execution and had willingly ventured across far lands with void. He’d invited him into the Syndicate and, or so it felt to Ranboo, into his family. Ranboo looked after people that showed void kindness, and Techno was indisputably on that list. To come to his rescue was the least voi could do to repay voids debts.
“Let’s plan our move, then.”
---
Phil marched steadily out of the room when the meeting absolved, tensing as he passed the disturbingly empty chair. Ranboo’s eyes drooped as voi watched him go. As much as voi wished to bandage Phil’s emotional wounds, to pry a laugh from his lungs and paint a smile on his lips, Ranboo was helpless to soothe his pain.
Voi briefly locked eyes with Niki from across the vast meeting table. Niki’s gaze softened when it landed on voids tortured expression, and she gave him a small smile—one that barely tugged the corner of her thin lips. She stood to leave and motioned for Ranboo to follow her. He scrambled to his feet, lanky legs knocking against the underside of the table.
“Let me walk you home,” voi blurted out. Niki cocked a disapproving eyebrow at void, but he interjected before she could open her mouth. “Not that I doubt that you can handle yourself, but I— just— it’ll be nice to talk.”
Niki seemed to muse over the idea for a bit before nodding. Ranboo grinned giddily as he trailed after her.
They exited their base of operations in comfortable silence, but when snow began to crunch beneath their feet and the crisp, cold air of the arctic invaded their lungs, Niki turned to Ranboo and spoke.
“Ranboo, how are you?” she inquired kindly. To Ranboo, Niki always radiated warmth and understanding. Although he knew that her temperature could run smoldering, that her anger was fierce and her vengeance burning, she had forever treated Ranboo with cordial affection. Voi adored her for it.
“I’m doing alright,” he offered passively, perpetually unsure how to respond in the face of the human courtesy of “small talk.” After a beat, voi figured that Niki desired a more substantial answer and began to regale her with the last improvements that voi and Tubbo had made to the Mansion. Niki giggled in all the right places, tentatively injecting with her own design opinions, which Ranboo took in stride. Aesthetics were never voids strong suit.
Thinking of the Mansion made Ranboo think of Michael, and he let out an excitable wvoop before rambling about the piglin’s latest foray into the bitter snow. He also extended a jovial invitation to come to visit them in Snowchester. Niki beamed and promised that she’d try to find time to make a trip over there.
They chatted insistently as they walked, snow giving way to the hot, hard rock of the Nether and Netherrack fading to the sturdy oak plank of the Prime Path.
As they approached the flower field where Niki resided, their conversation drifted towards Syndicate’s latest agenda.
“I think our plan to save Techno is solid,” Ranboo asserted, attempting to assure both Niki and himself. “Though, I guess you, Phil, and Techno have much more experience with stuff like this than I do.”
Niki let out a hollow laugh. “It’s not necessarily a good thing. If I could never fight another battle in my life, I would.”
Ranboo nodded in agreement. “I’m glad to do it for Techno, though. He doesn’t deserve to be stuck in there. Especially not with... him.” Ranboo spat the last word roughly. The man in question had certainly earned the disgust coating his every mention.
Niki gazed out across the ocean as they passed, a pensive expression upon her face. “Techno’s... quite a character,” she said finally. “Honestly, I’m still surprised that you’ve forgiven him for what he did to Tubbo. Close-range execution by rocket launcher is brutal, and to take one of someone’s few lives isn’t an action easily understood.”
“What?” Ranboo choked out meekly, stopping in his tracks. Blood rushed in his ears, blocking out all sound from the outside world. The birds stopped chirping and the leaves ceased their ruffling in the wind and his own footsteps faded into the static.
“Techno… did... what?” Ranboo heard voidself mumbling, feeling confused and out-of-body.
Niki gave void a glance filled with open guilt. “Tubbo, didn’t tell you?”
Ranboo shook his head ever-so-slowly. “No, he— no.”
Niki nodded once, her gaze falling anywhere but Ranboo and voids expression of disbelief. Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip.
“Why? What... what happened?” Ranboo asked reluctantly, unsure if voi actually wished for an answer. In the midst of voids haze of perplexity, a cold rage shone through, a fierce streak of protectiveness that he couldn’t shake. Ranboo looked after the people who treated void with kindness, but Tubbo and Michael were voids top priorities. To intentionally bring them harm—especially in a manner as savage and intimately personal as execution—would be considered an unforgivable offense in Ranboo’s book.
“It’s not my story to tell,” Niki insisted. Instead of offering an explanation, she simply lifted a hand and lightly slapped his upper arm in a futile attempt at reassurance. “Will you be okay getting home?”
Ranboo must’ve made some noise of affirmation because voi found voidself in front of the main Nether portal before voids mind could catch up to void. He crossed over into the stifling heat of the dimension through the purple haze with a blizzard roaring in his head. Ranboo knew that Tubbo had some traumatizing experiences—anyone as young as him who had been through several wars would—but Tubbo, understandably, didn’t enjoy rehashing the horrors of battle or the overwhelming stress of serving in the previous administrations of L’manberg. Ranboo didn’t push it; they all had their demons. Ranboo just did voids part by logging everything that made Tubbo jump, twitch, and dig his nails viciously into the skin of his arms.
Unfortunately, Niki’s slip-up made quite a few pieces fall into place.
---
//The Fireworks//
He and Tubbo sat on the bench near Tommy’s house, waiting for the other teen to join them. Tommy had promised that he’d stay with them tonight in Snowchester so that they could all hang out, but he was caught up at the hotel running construction errands for Sam Nook. After much arguing—between Tommy and Tubbo—Tommy had officially permitted Ranboo to sit on The Bench (as he insisted on calling it) while he finished. Now, voi was curled up on the far left side, legs tucked underneath void, with Tubbo’s head resting on voids thigh. Tubbo’s legs were sprawled out across the rest of The Bench, ankles hanging off the armrest. His hair was fluffed down over his eyes, and he was all but melting into the unyielding wood planks as voi absentmindedly stroked the small horns protruding from his head.
“Where’s Tommy?” Tubbo groaned theatrically, dragging his hands down his face. “It’s been years.”
“Actually it’s been about 20 minutes,” Ranboo responded, curling a strand of brown hair behind Tubbo’s ear, who just let out another ragged sigh.
“Stop trying to be practical when I’m in despair.”
He shrugged, trying to fight the smile pulling at his mouth. “Now, it’s been 21 minutes.”
Tubbo swiped his fringe away from his eyes to hit him with an upside-down, deadpan stare. “You’re upsetting me.”
Voi just barked out a laugh, running a hand through Tubbo’s messy hair. “You’re just saying that.”
Tubbo huffed, crossing his arms and puffing out his cheeks. “I mean it this time. I’m inconsolable.”
“Sure you are,” voi shot back in a patronizing tone. Tubbo didn’t respond, just allowed the atmosphere to settle back into the serene silence they were previously enjoying.
Ranboo turned to look out across the server lands and tapped Tubbo lightly so that they could both watch the setting sun.
On the far side of the SMP, from an unknown origin point, a trail of color shot into the vibrant, orange sky before exploding into thousands of small sparks with a resounding bang. On Ranboo’s lap, Tubbo flinched violently and dug his fingernails into voids calves. Voi jumped at the sharp pain in his leg and looked down to find Tubbo shaking, his eyes screwed shut. More fireworks went off, lighting up the dimming sky and cruelly illuminating the fervent panic on Tubbo’s face.
“Oh. Oh.” Ranboo mumbled, staring wide-eyed at the boy shivering on his lap.
Voi lent down, bringing voids mouth to Tubbo’s ear. “Bo, can you hear me?” he whispered gently. Tubbo just whimpered, flinching again when another explosion echoed throughout the server. Ranboo lifted a hand and hesitated before resting voids palm over Tubbo’s left ear. With voids other hand, voi warily pushed Tubbo’s head towards voids torso, coaxing the boy into burying his face in the cotton fabric of voids button-up. He then curled his other hand over Tubbo’s right ear and pressed down carefully, hoping to block out the jarring bangs that the fireworks made. Tubbo was heaving, his chest compressing and elevating rapidly, each breath a laborious effort.
“You’re okay, Bo. It’s gonna be okay,” Ranboo whispered reassuringly. Tubbo curled into voids lap further, shoving his face hard into Ranboo’s stomach. His fingers still had a death grip on Ranboo’s lower leg, his hands trembling furiously but unable to let go.
Finally, there was a lull between the fireworks. A serene silence filled the atmosphere once more. Tubbo’s grasp on Ranboo began to slack and his breathing began to even out.
“Wanna go inside?” Ranboo asked. Tubbo nodded slowly, cheeks rubbing against Ranboo’s shirt. “Alright, let’s go inside.”
Voi scooped Tubbo off the bench, hooking arm under his knees, and carried him into Tommy’s house. Praying that the fireworks wouldn’t continue.
Later, when Tommy and Tubbo were both sound asleep on the floor of Tubbo’s living room in Snowchester, Ranboo would stare at the pages of his memory book with sad eyes as he added to one of its many pages.
Humans like to use fireworks to celebrate positive things, but Tubbo doesn’t like fireworks. Don’t let people set them off where he can see or hear them.
---
//The Claustrophobia//
He and Tubbo had gone out into the snowy forest behind Snowchester to search for a cave. Now that the bitter winter months were closing in and the temperature was dropping even further, they needed to replenish their coal supply, so a little mining trip was the perfect solution. Ranboo had suggested they head to the strip mine that he’d dug out near his house, but Tubbo insisted that a nature cave would serve them well enough.
The one that they found was nestled at the base of a cliff. The imposing darkness at the mouth of the cave beckoned them, and soon, Ranboo was lighting up torches and striding into the cave with voids shield up. Voi swept the area cautiously, swinging his torch to and fro, trying to identify if there were any mobs in the vicinity. The cave appeared empty, though, so Ranboo lowered his shield and signaled to Tubbo that everything was alright. Tubbo nodded, nailed a holder into the left wall, and propped his torch there before lighting another one. One could never know how many exits or how deep a cave would be when venturing in; that torch would serve as the first marker of their path.
In the flickering firelight, Ranboo whorled around to face Tubbo and grinned.
“Bet I can find more coal than you,” voi boasted, shouldering his netherite pickaxe cockily.
Tubbo let out an incredulous huff. “That’s not a fair bet. You literally have night vision, asshole.”
“Mild night vision,” Ranboo corrected in a sing-song tone. “I still need the torchlight. But fine, we’ll work as a team.” Voi pretended to fake a gag after uttering the word “team” as if the concept were preposterous.
“We’re married. We’re a team all the time,” Tubbo remarked dismissively. He began walking deeper into the cave, holding his torch out far in front of him in order to see the opening ahead. Ranboo fell in pace next to Tubbo, stunting his steps so that they were in time and ducking at the more low-hanging sections of the cave. Low-hanging for a nearly seven-foot enderman hybrid, that is.
“Lame,” Ranboo countered, extending the last vowel comically as voi dodged a stalactite. “I want a divorce.”
Whirling around to make scathing eye contact with him, Tubbo deadpanned, “I will literally break your bones.”
Ranboo faked a wary chuckle. “Ha ha, no divorce. No divorce for me. I am graciously and eternally devoted. Mhm, that’s me.”
Tubbo just shook his head and laughed warmly at void. He faced forward again, and his eyes lit up with childlike excitement when he saw it. Ranboo rolled his eyes but smiled at Tubbo’s back fondly as he pulled ahead of him.
Dutifully, Ranboo approached the chunk of coal ore and swung his pickaxe at the powdery, black rock, hoping that the vein was larger than the measly deposit that was exposed. Voids pickaxe collided with the rock again and again, breaking off one chunk and then the other. Voids labor revealed a plethora of ore deposits behind the originals, and voi continued hacking away with Tubbo working alongside void.
As they were approaching the end of the vein, Ranboo lifted his pickaxe above his head and brought it down on the rock with a mighty swing. Voi missed voids mark, though, and accidentally embedded voids pickaxe into a loss pillar of stone to voids left.
When he yanked his pickaxe out of the stone, a few pebbles tumbled out of place. Then, a couple of larger rocks. A distinctive rumble began to assault Ranboo’s ears as more and more rocks flooded the cave. All of sudden, it clicked.
“Cave in!” voi screeched, grabbing Tubbo by the arm and dragging him away from the avalanche of stone. Dozens of loose boulders, barely held in place before Ranboo’s disturbance, came barreling down at the duo. It was as if the world were ending, the sky imploding and the ceiling collapsing down on them. They sprinted deeper into the cave as piles of rock obscured their exit, cutting off all light into the cave.
When the world around them had ceased its trembles, Ranboo and Tubbo found themselves in perfect, eerie silence and perpetual darkness. Dust and rock particles engulfed the air around them, invading their lungs and causing both of them to hack violently.
Squinting through the darkness, Ranboo’s eyes dilated as they adjusted to the complete lack of light. Voi had ditched voids torch in a panic when the rocks had begun tumbling down upon them; all voi had now were voids pickaxe and the bag of unrefined coal chunks slung across voids back. To his right, he could barely make out the outline of Tubbo slumped against a wall of rock, expelling dust from his lungs in a series of disturbingly potent coughs.
When Tubbo had finally cleared his throat, he let out a relieved sigh before his posture snapped ramrod straight. His head swung from side to side, staring wide-eyed into the all-encompassing darkness.
“Ranboo?” he called out, his voice cracking.
Sensing his distress, Ranboo carefully picked voids way over to Tubbo, remembering that the boy’s human eyes couldn’t see as well as voids in the lack of light.
“I’m right here,” Ranboo replied, laying a hand on Tubbo’s shoulder. The boy jumped out of his skin when Ranboo touched him, but quickly caught voids forearm in a desperate grip.
Tubbo’s eyes were squeezed shut and his chest was heaving as Ranboo extracted his nails from voids arm and pulled him into a hug. “Can you see a way out, Boo?” Tubbo mumbled into voids chest.
Ranboo stroked Tubbo’s hair before responding, “No, sorry. It’s really tight in here. We’re right at the end of the cave.”
“Oh gods,” Tubbo whispered, struggling out of Ranboo embrace. “We need to get out of here.”
Ranboo nodded. “I know. Let me—”
“No, no, no, you don’t understand.“ Tubbo took a shaky breath, gripping the handle of his pickaxe firmly. “We need to get out.“
“Yeah, I’ll just—:
“We need to get out. We need to get out the fuck out of here!” Tubbo screamed and swung his pickaxe frantically at the pile of rocks now blocking the mine’s exit. He was panting heavily despite the fact that he could usually handle a pickaxe for hours without breaking a sweat.
“Okay, okay,” Ranboo muttered, trying to remain calm.
Tubbo ran himself out of energy quickly, and when he finally slowed, Ranboo pried his pickaxe out of his hands and set it as far away from him as voi could. Voi gently nudged Tubbo to the ground and crouched behind him. Voi began to rub his back soothingly, urging him to breathe steadily. He explained the plan,
“Look, I’m gonna com Phil, and he can come get us out. While we wait, we can move some of the rocks to make his job easier and maybe make it out without help, okay?”
Tubbo nodded slowly, slouched in a manner that made him appear horribly drained.
Ranboo wanted to allow him a break, but voi knew that Tubbo wouldn’t be able to rest easy until they were out of this cave. Instead, he just offered a hand and pulled him to his feet.
When Ranboo finally found voidself back in Snowchester with a cup of hot chocolate after several stressful hours in that cave, Ranboo laid voids memory flat on the dining table and inked an entry.
We did get out. We’d moved a lot of the rock by the time Phil arrived, and he helped us finally escape. Tubbo spaced out a lot in the hours afterward, and he kept shivering no matter how many blankets we piled on the bed. He doesn’t like enclosed spaces, so be careful. Don’t let anything like this ever happen again.
---
//The Scars//
His body was wrought with shudders from pain and exhaustion, but Ranboo knew he couldn’t succumb to sleep just yet. Tubbo had to patch up voids burns, and the younger boy would lose his mind if he didn’t confirm that Ranboo was okay before he fell unconscious.
Voi’d done it again. While taking a casual stroll along the coast near Snowchester, he’d absentmindedly wandered onto a weak sheet of ice and plunged his entire body into frigid saltwater. Luckily, voi had managed—through the fiery pain—to drag voidself onto a snowbank and message Tubbo on voids communicator, but the overwhelmingly burning sensation that itched at voids skin remained.
Now, Ranboo was lying in Tubbo’s bedroom, trying not to move a muscle. Even though the quilt spread across Tubbo’s bed was luxuriously soft and, normally, Ranboo would be burrowing beneath it zealously, every brush of the fabric against his tender wounds was pure torture. Voids arm twitched involuntarily; voi dug voids sharp canines into the side of voids cheek in an effort to contain a yelp.
The wooden door to the bedroom swung open, and Tubbo marched in, juggling a medkit, a large bottle of burn cream, and Ranboo’s memory book, which he had to quickly dry off by the fireplace so the ink wouldn’t smudge too bad. He disposed his haul at the foot of the bed, close to where Ranboo’s feet dangled slightly off the edge. He was the only one besides voidself who had permission to touch the book.
“Boo, you gotta sit up so I can reach your back,” Tubbo mumbled softly, uncorking the bottle of ointment with a small pop. Ranboo grimaced at that, not wanting to shift and experience another wave of the searing pain he had come to know so well. Gods, how did voi end up surrounded by all these humans and their water?
Ranboo made a sound of affirmation before gritting his teeth and shoving himself into a sitting position. Voids palms tingled from where voi pressed them into the bed, and a scorching wave of discomfort climbed up voids back as voids bare skin slid against the comforter. He blanched when he caught a glimpse of his torso. Grotesque blisters dotted the skin, which was littered with a patchwork of raised scars—rough tissue both new and old. Huge swathes of voids skin were inflamed and burnt through. The dark and light halves of his body were splotched lime green and brilliant red with blood. Ranboo’s head swam just looking at it, and that didn’t even cover the repulsive smell of the burnt flesh. Voi visibly gagged when voi inhaled deeply.
“Oh gods, it’s so gross,” he blurted out, his heart racing. “It’s so ugly. Oh, gods.” Voi took a deep, shuddering breath.
“Shh, Ranboo, it’s okay,” Tubbo whispered, abandoning the ointment in favor of comforting him. “It’s not ugly. You’re just injured.”
“No, no, no, it’s disgusting. It’s so bad. So so bad,” Ranboo rambled. Voi was panicking, voids vision tunneling on voids many wounds. Voi couldn’t see Tubbo and voi couldn’t see the quilt and voi couldn’t see the snow falling outside the window. His hands were shaking again, trembling and prickling and blistered all over.
Tubbo’s hands drifted towards his own, but the other boy halted when he realized that touching his skin would only cause Ranboo more pain. Instead, Tubbo began fumbling with the buttons of his shirt. He inhaled purposefully as if collecting himself, before boldly declaring, “It just means that we match.“
Ranboo stopped. Voids breath hitched, voids heart skipped a beat, and voids brain ceased all thought. Voi glanced upwards, at Tubbo’s face. Tubbo had jagged, leathery scar tissue creeping up his right cheek and running down his neck. Ranboo knew this. It was one of the first things he noticed about Tubbo, after all, but he’d only ever seen the ones on his face and smeared along his right arm. Voi glanced down at the exposed skin between Tubbo’s unbuttoned shirt. Apparently, they went further than that.
Across the right side of Tubbo’s chest, curling around his ribs and blanketing his stomach, was a sea of grisly scars, the skin warped and cracked. Ranboo had never clocked them as burn scars, but staring, dismayed, at Tubbo’s marred torso, it was clear what had caused them. They were so... visible on humans, Ranboo noted. The scars were tinted a pale pink that didn’t match Tubbo’s cream-colored skin and dotted with patches of angry red.
“We match?” Ranboo mumbled, still a bit stunned.
Tubbo nodded solemnly. “Yeah, we match.”
When all Ranboo’s wounds were soothed and his body was half wrapped in gauze, Tubbo slipped into the other room to change into his nightclothes, and Ranboo took advantage of his absence to note down something in his memory book. A quick inspection revealed that all the pages were waterlogged and some of the ink had drifted into unwanted places. Ranboo pouted at the state of the book, but nonetheless, flipped to a new page and nabbed a quill from Tubbo’s nightstand. The note was short but immensely important.
You can’t say that your burns are ugly because Tubbo has them too and you’ve never met someone so beautiful.
---
It all made sense. It all made ridiculously appalling, perfect sense.
The fireworks, the claustrophobia, the scars; they were all physical and mental wounds that were still present on Tubbo. They were all caused by Techno.
How could the piglin have done that? Have committed such an atrocity against a boy barely the age of sixteen at the time? Despite Techno’s role in the destruction of New L’manberg, he had taken in Tommy when he was grievously unwell—both mentally and physically—and cared deeply for his horse, Carl, and would put down his life for Phil and was so pleasant with Michael and treated Niki with a respect that she was rarely shown by other members of the SMP. Techno was a good person. But... was he?
When Ranboo looked up, he found the entrance of his house in the Arctic glaring back at him, the familiar structure jeering at him. Two similar houses loomed just behind void. A wave of nausea rippled through him.
Voi needed to sleep, voi needed to cry, voi needed to shut voidself in voids bedroom and collect the scattered pieces of voids mind and stabilize it once more. He needed answers.
Even though he had just arrived, he turned on his heel and advanced back towards the nearest Nether portal. Voi charged up voids trident and launched voidself into the sky. The frosty ground fell out from under him and the landscape spread out in front of him.
Voi needed Tubbo. Immediately.