Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The ring of an incoming call from the console startled Philza from staring out at the stars that flew past the window of his spaceship. He'd only just taken off from the small planet - he couldn't quite remember the name - where he'd restocked supplies, but the flight was going well so far, and the Aeolus was already set to autopilot, leaving him free to accept the call.

It was from Tommy, as he'd suspected. His fellow elytrian made sure to message him at least five times a day to make sure he wasn't dead. Philza appreciated the effort; space travel got lonely sometimes, and as someone with a less-than-legal job, it was nice to talk to someone who wouldn't turn him in for a couple hundred credits, or whatever the current bounty was.

"PHILZA MINECRAFT!" came the enthusiastic voice as soon as he accepted the call. Only the top of Tommy's head was visible, his eyes comically wide on the screen of the console. The downy white feathers behind his ears poked through his unruly blond hair. "I have some amazing news for you."

"What's that, mate?"

"Tubbo and I just landed on Essempi! We're headed over to the town center right now, gonna pick up a replacement transmitter for the Boreas while we're here."

Philza nodded along. "Sounds fun!" It sounded fairly normal, actually, if not a little boring. Not something he would've expected from the excited opener.

Tommy squinted at him through the screen. "... you are on Essempi, too, right?"

Dammit. So that was the name of the planet he'd just left. Tommy must've seen the sheepish look on Philza's face, because he immediately rolled his eyes and launched into a whole dramatic monologue about how it had been forever since they'd seen each other, and of course he'd forgotten about the meet-up (never mind that Philza hadn't been aware of the crossover in their flight paths).

"Yeah, I just left," he interrupted apologetically, trying to stifle his laughter at Tommy's dramatics. "Sorry about that. Maybe next time?"

"We'll be at Logstead in a few days. Right?" Tommy said, looking over the top of the screen. There was a faint agreement in the background; that would be Tubbo.

Philza checked the map on the console, mentally calculating how far away Logstead was. Only about a day's detour after Greater Essempi, as it turned out, which was the next stop on his list. "I think I can do that. How have the deliveries been going?"

"Eh, they're alright." It was a very casual tone, and definitely a joking charade, given how excited Tommy had been to start running his own illegal smuggling business. "We're gonna get a nether star engine core pretty soon, though, and that'll be fun. I was thinking-"

He glanced down, then broke off suddenly. The video turned dizzyingly head over heels and there was a sharp curse, followed by a string of unintelligible words as a hand covered the screen. Philza's first assumption was that Tommy had dropped his communicator, but then he caught a snippet of the words.

"-behind you-"

He disconnected from the call before thinking twice. Law enforcement on various planets could be a real problem, and if Tommy and Tubbo got themselves arrested for whatever reason, it would be better for all of them if there wasn't a connection between the three of them.

At the same time, though, something crashed behind him. He startled, wings flaring out on instinct, and spun around, already reaching for his blaster.

Unfortunately, he'd left his blaster in the other part of the ship during takeoff, figuring he wouldn't need it. He found himself staring at the person who'd somehow managed to sneak on his ship. He couldn't tell what sort of alien they were at first glance; two arms and two legs, no visible claws or tusks or spines, a bandage wrapped around one of their upper arms, and pink hair of all things.

They were also pointing his blaster at him.

Philza tucked his wings in closer to himself, hoping that maybe he'd only scared the intruder. Maybe if he looked smaller and less threatening, they'd put the blaster down. If they didn't... well, there wasn't much space in the cockpit. Certainly not enough to dodge.

Thankfully, they did lower the weapon after a moment, though they were still looking at him with a wary expression. The pause gave Philza time to identify them; a human. Which- that just made the whole thing weirder, honestly. It was strange enough that someone had managed to sneak onto his spaceship without him noticing. But not only did humans tend to be assertive and loud (as far as he'd heard, at least), which didn't lend itself well to sneaking aboard a ship, they were also incredibly well-monitored by the various governmental systems throughout space. One human disappearing tended to lead to a search party, or an official investigation, or any number of other things governments would rather avoid.

All that was to say: humans didn't usually visit other planets unless it was on official business. Essempi was a very small planet. There was no logical reason for this human to have been there, but there was also nowhere else they could've come from.

"Hey, mate," Philza started, trying to go for a non-threatening tone. "How'd you get here?"

The human didn't say anything, just took a careful step backwards. It was then that Philza noticed: they didn't have a translator. Translators were little devices that were generally placed near the throat and automatically translated anything the person said into Common. The other half of the system was an earpiece that translated Common back to the person's native language. It wasn't a perfect system, to be sure, but it worked well enough in most cases.

That being said, he didn't exactly have a spare translator set just sitting around. Those were pretty hard to come by. New solution.

He tucked his wings even closer, carefully stepping past the human to get to the main part of the ship. His reading tablet was half-buried under the blankets of his nest where he'd left it. He picked it up, noting how the human seemed more curious than worried about what was going on. Thank goodness.

There was an unused translator app still on the tablet from when he'd gotten it. He'd never bothered to uninstall it, something that he was now very grateful for. He scanned through the available languages. Unfortunately, the translator was an older version, and he'd never bothered downloading more dialects and variations of languages, so the selection was sparse. And none of them seemed to be labeled "Human". That could be a problem.

"Can you read Common?" He asked the human, only realizing belatedly that they still wouldn't be able to understand him. Shoot.

There was a loud ping from the cockpit. It wasn't an alarm, so he ignored it in favor of typing a question in the translator before handing the tablet over to the human.

Another ping. And another.

It was probably unimportant.

The human handed the tablet back. They'd set it to "Español" on the other side of the translator, which sure was an odd name for a language, but Philza wasn't going to judge on that. "Techno, he/him" read the words in Common. He'd asked how to refer to the human, because that seemed like a good first question to defuse the tensions. A little less aggressive than "Why the hell are you on my ship", at least.

The ping sounded again, and Techno gave a questioning look to him. It was then that Philza realized it was the sound of an incoming call.

He cursed, hurrying back to the cockpit and accepting the call. "Sorry, mate-"

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"

"Stop yelling, it's fine," he hissed softly, glancing back at Techno, who seemed wary about the shouting.

"It's not fine, you disappeared on us and didn't come back-"

"Yeah, we were worried!" Tubbo added, peering over the side of the screen. His antennae nearly ran into Tommy's face, and Tommy scrunched his face, dramatically attempting to push Tubbo away. "Did you kill that guy?"

Philza sputtered for a moment. "Wh- no? No, I didn't kill him, he's still here. He's a human and his name's Techno."

Tommy gave him a look that was both disapproving and mischievous. "Philza, if you name them, you're gonna get attached." The words were nearly exactly the ones Philza had used when telling him that no, actually, they weren't going to bring an allay on the ship as a pet. Or a racoon. Or a moth, though that one had ended up on the ship regardless (and been gently shooed off at their next stop).

"He already had a name," Philza argued back. "And I can't just throw him out into space."

"You could if you weren't a coward," Tubbo piped up.

"I'm not throwing him out into space, mate. I'll just drop him off at Greater Essempi or something."

Tommy shook his head with a grin. "Good luck with that. Humans are really clingy, I've heard. You're not gonna get rid of him anytime soon."

Philza sighed, smiling despite himself. It was lucky that the situation wasn't too bad. He'd stocked up for a longer trip, so he wouldn't have to worry about feeding an extra person, as long as humans could eat the same things elytrians could. He should probably look that up, actually.

There was motion over his shoulder, and Techno leaned over, looking at the screen with interest. Tommy squawked unintelligibly in surprise. The video shook around again as he presumably dropped the communicator.

"Tommy, I swear," Tubbo said faintly from the other side, and Tommy retorted with, "Look, it's not my fault they keep startling me-"

"That's Tommy and Tubbo," Philza explained to Techno, gesturing at the screen as the video returned to a somewhat more normal state. Tubbo waved as Tommy brushed off the screen with a complaint about dust. "They're friends of mine. I was on a call with them when you showed up." Once more, it took a confused look from Techno to remember that he didn't speak Common. "... do either of you have a spare translator, by chance?"

"We literally just got assigned a shipment of those," Tommy said excitedly. The frame of the video bounced around wildly. "They're not programmed yet, either- we can set one up to speak Human!"

"Human's not a language," Philza corrected. "I already checked on my tablet. They've got a language called 'Español', though, and I think that's what Techno speaks."

Techno pushed the tablet into view, a question visible on the screen. What?

They're friends of mine, we're going to get you a translator, Philza answered through the app.

Techno took the tablet back, squinting at the screen for a bit before nodding slowly in apparent understanding. Philza turned his attention back to the call. "Right, I'll see you guys on Greater Essempi. Stay safe."

"Never," Tommy chimed in with a sharp grin. "I'm gonna get in so much trouble. Mortal peril, if you will. I'm gonna do the most death-defying stunts anyone's ever seen and go up in a fiery blaze-"

"Not with me there, you won't," Tubbo interrupted. "No fiery blazes on my watch."

"Thank you, Tubbo-"

"Death-defying stunts, though? Absolutely. I've got the perfect idea for that, actually."

"Really? Let's go-"

The call ended a second later to the sound of Tommy and Tubbo cackling. Philza smiled to himself; the pair was chaotic as hell, but they were good at looking out for each other. They'd be just fine.

He turned to Techno, motioning for the tablet so he could explain more of what was going on. That would probably help calm any anxiety the human might have. It only took a minute or so to type in a basic summary, then he handed the tablet back.

Techno stared at it blankly for a moment. Deleted the words. Typed something else instead.

I don't know Español

Phil blinked, thoroughly thrown by this turn of events. "What do you mean?"

The confusion in his voice must've translated well enough. Techno rephrased the sentence: I read a little

Phil nodded slowly. That... that was a small problem. Not a large problem, of course! They'd be meeting up with Tommy and Tubbo in a few days, and they'd be able to get an actual translator at that point. Still. Communication was hard enough as it was, and he kept forgetting that Techno had no idea what he was saying, and that probably didn't help anything. For all Techno knew, Philza could've been planning on tossing him out into the depths of space. Not that he would, of course, but the human was probably worried about the possibility.

Speaking of which, Techno was no longer awkwardly hanging out in the cockpit. Philza went back to the other room to see him gazing out at the stars from one of the windows. The human turned, gave him a small smile, and returned to staring into the void.

... he seemed remarkably chill about everything, actually. That was a bit of a surprise, but altogether, not the worst outcome! Things were going to turn out just fine.

Chapter Text

For some reason, when Philza thought about having another person on the Aeolus, his immediate assumption was that things would get a lot louder. After all, there would be a whole other person who would be going about the ship and doing things, not to mention any conversations that might arise. He especially would've expected as much given that said person was a complete stranger he'd never met before; communication was essential, even when it mostly took the form of "why the hell are you on my ship?" and "back off or I will stab you".

Of course, the last time this had happened, it was Tommy who'd decided to move in, and he was a lot more talkative than most people. And more easily excitable. And more likely to attempt to use the weapons system at any and every opportunity.

It made sense that things would be quieter the second time around, actually.

Still, Techno was almost scarily quiet. Especially for a human. Philza hadn't been around any in his travels, necessarily, but he'd heard enough to know that humans were generally pretty talkative, regardless of whether or not anyone else actually understood what they were saying. Including talking to inanimate objects. Techno hadn't seemed to do that yet. Philza would've been worried, except that he also didn't say much in general, and stayed out of the way to such an extent that sometimes Philza forgot he was even on the ship (quite an achievement given the small space).

Maybe it was just something about the fact that Techno had only been there for a day and a half. That seemed like a reasonable explanation.

In all honesty, Philza was a little bit relieved they hadn't been able to actually have conversations. After all, if they could, he might get attached to the guy. And that would cause all sorts of problems. Like, what if Techno decided he wanted to stay on the Aeolus? That would be an absolute mess of paperwork, Philza was sure, not to mention the fact that he generally preferred to avoid anything vaguely related to the law.

... still, it would be nice to have someone to talk to. Philza usually made a point of calling Tommy as much as possible, just to check in, but space was pretty big and the connection tended to get a bit spotty sometimes, especially farther out from any major planets. That left him with a lot of time to just sit in silence, going over the flight checklists a dozen times over. Which was totally necessary. Sure, he'd programmed the autopilot himself (or, well. Mostly by himself. He'd also gotten a lot of help from Tubbo when he'd been around last, because he knew his limitations), and yeah, it was almost foolproof, but you never knew what might happen.

It was then, almost at the end of the second day since Techno had shown up, that the other ships appeared.

He'd been going over the regular checks on the control panel for what had to be the fifth time that hour. Most of it was just making sure no buttons had been pressed and no switches had been flipped since the last time he'd checked, so it went by pretty quickly, but then he glanced at the radar to make sure it was working properly-

And noticed three dots on the screen, blinking slowly closer.

The ping of an incoming call echoed through the cockpit a second later, and Techno looked up from where he was looking at one of the ship's instruction manuals. He seemed to like those. Philza wasn't entirely sure why; they were in Common, of course, and filled with enough fancy tech words that even he tended to just look at the pictures whenever he had to reference them. Still, the human was persistent at reading them, and Philza didn't particularly care about the manuals, so it was all fine in the end.

The call wasn't from Tommy. Philza was sure of that much. They were in a dead zone at the moment, too far from the closest planet to get a signal to anything other than another nearby ship, and Tommy and Tubbo would likely still be about a day's journey away. That left the ships - all much larger than the Aeolus, with weaponry clearly visible - that were now closing in as the only possible people who might want to talk.

Very ominous.

Philza accepted the call, trying not to seem too nervous at the prospect of talking to what had to be some sort of local law enforcement. If anything in the depths of space could be called "local", of course.

"State your name and registration," came an immediate, monotone voice over the speakers. Damn. Not even a "hello". This... probably wasn't good.

"And who are you, exactly?"

There was a brief pause, then, "Human Safety Committee. We've received a report that a human has disappeared from one of the nearby planets, and we would like to get them back home. Your ship was recently seen in their last known location."

Philza swore under his breath as quietly as he could manage. Techno looked up again anyway, giving him what seemed to be a questioning look. Philza just waved it off. Time to lie like hell.

"Where was this again?"

"Essempi."

"Oh! I see." As if he hadn't already known. "Well, I don't know about any disappearances-"

"The human was seen boarding your ship," the caller interrupted.

Dammit.

"That's- that wasn't a disappearance, mate," Philza lied, trying to sound confused. "He asked for a ride to Logstead. I contacted the people there and let them know about it. We've got all the official paperwork filed and everything." They most certainly did not have any sort of official paperwork; that being said, there was one good thing about the fact that they were currently in a dead zone. The ships around them would be entirely unable to verify that until they got back to a connection, and by that time, Philza would be long gone. Hopefully.

There was a moment of silence, broken by a low mumble from the other end of the line. That... wasn't promising. Philza quietly went to flick the controls off of autopilot. If it came down to a chase, he was confident he'd be able to outrun and outmaneuver the other ships, but the autopilot wasn't exactly designed for that sort of use, so he'd have to do it himself.

A shot fired without any further communication from the other ship, and on instinct, Philza pushed the Aeolus into a dive to avoid it. It just barely glanced off the top of the ship and a warning light blinked briefly.

"The hell was that, mate?! I've got a human onboard, you can't-"

The call ended with a click, cutting him off, and another ship opened fire. Philza cursed, turning his focus entirely to the controls. Three on one was not good odds. He'd have to make a run for it, but... well. It wasn't going to be easy. He was still certain he could outrun them, but that would require him to not get hit in the meantime, something that he hadn't factored in originally.

Some "Human Safety Committee" this was. They knew full well there was a human on the ship. And actually- it almost seemed like they wanted Techno dead. At least, they hadn't started firing until after they'd learned he was aboard the Aeolus, and that on its own was pretty damn telling.

"Hold on, mate," Philza warned Techno belatedly, hoping he hadn't gotten thrown about by the sudden movements. "We've got a bumpy ride ahead."

There was no response. Not that Philza had been expecting one, of course, because he definitely hadn't forgotten that Techno wouldn't be able to understand the warning. He could probably figure it out based on context, though.

Another shot cut close by the window, the flash of light nearly blinding, and Philza cursed, pulling the controls to the left as fast as he could and diving again. The warning light on the control panel flashed again, once. It wasn't anything important, as far as he could tell. Probably.

One of the other spaceships was directly ahead of them, now, and Philza almost reached to fire the Aeolus's weapons before remembering he'd moved the controls for those. Back when Tommy was learning to use them. They were on the other side of the cockpit now, just barely out of reach. He'd been meaning to move them back, but he hadn't expected to actually need them anytime soon, so he'd been putting it off for as long as he could.

Which was fine! This was totally fine. A completely survivable situation, actually. He'd just have to hope he could keep dodging around the bullets until he could get out of range. That, unfortunately, seemed to be proving difficult, as the enemy's ships were slightly faster than he'd anticipated and kept boxing him in, but it was fine-

One of the Aeolus's guns fired, and a blast hit one of the enemy ships in a weak spot between panels on the side. The spot caught fire, then miniature explosions traveled along the hull until the whole thing blew up into a ball of fire.

It took another near-miss from the enemy for Philza to break his attention from the explosion and realize he had other things to be concerned about at the moment.

One of the enemy's ships was behind them, so he swung the Aeolus up, swooping around so they were facing the ship. He'd originally planned on darting past them, but another shot fired from the Aeolus's guns. Not as deadly as the last one; it glanced off a particularly well-armored part of the hull. Still, it was then that Philza finally took a second to glance over at the weapons panel to confirm what he'd already guessed.

Techno was sitting at the panel, hands hovering around the controls, gaze fixed on the fight outside with an intense stare that Philza recognized as complete concentration.

That changed things a bit. Philza wasn't sure he trusted the human's accuracy (he didn't seem to have any previous experience with firing large weapons, and the first shot had likely been beginner's luck), but at least they weren't completely defenseless now.

He increased the power to the engines ever-so-slightly, hoping to get away through an apparent gap in the remaining two ships' defenses, only for one of them to cut him off again with a new volley of blasts. He cursed aloud, veering in a different direction and immediately coming face-to-face with the other ship. Techno fired again, two shots in quick succession; the first didn't seem to have any effect, but the second must've hit something important, because a fire flickered into existence on the ship's side. It broke off, starting to spin as it fell away.

One left.

It didn't seem to be backing down, which was a little concerning. If Philza had just watched a spaceship take out two larger ships in the span of a few minutes, without receiving more than a few glancing hits in return, he'd get the hell away as soon as possible. Apparently these guys were really confident.

Techno didn't seem to know exactly how to change the direction the guns were pointing, so Philza increased the power for another brief moment in order to get ahead of the other ship, then swooped around, only to realize they'd expected that. Several shots darted past the windows and one hit the Aeolus solidly; the warning light blinked on, this time with an accompanying "beep!". Techno fired, then, a quick succession of bullets that left a trail of dented metal before hitting the outside of one of the engines.

By some miracle, the engine sparked, then cut out, and the ship was left sputtering, spinning very slightly as it continued its path forward. They didn't seem to be too interested in taking down the Aeolus anymore. While Philza didn't entirely feel too happy about the idea that they might get away and cause trouble later, the warning light was still on and the beeping had increased in tempo, which meant something needed to be fixed pretty fast.

Reluctantly, he turned away from the retreating ship and activated the autopilot again, setting it to go towards the nearest planet, then slumped backwards in his chair, letting out a breath. "That was insane."

No response from Techno, as was usual. Ah well.

Philza sat up again, tapping at one of the screens on the control panel to pull up a diagnostics screen. If the warning light was for something on the outside of the ship, there wasn't much they could do about it at the moment (it was generally considered difficult to do repairs while in the midst of space), but there was always a chance something on the inside had gotten screwed up during the fight.

... it appeared that the diagnostics screen was incomprehensible. Dammit.

Different colors lit up different parts of the ship, which would've theoretically been helpful, except that different parts overlapped each other. And there was a lot of red. The red - which was supposed to indicate which parts were damaged - rendered it nearly impossible to distinguish any of the parts, which seemed like a design flaw, honestly. Also, Philza was pretty sure that not all of the parts that appeared to be marked red had actually been screwed up. He'd just have to mess with random things until something worked.

Techno appeared at his side, then, and he startled. The human was really good at sneaking up on him. Philza watched as he tapped at the screen, maneuvering around the miniature model of the Aeolus and zooming out on different pieces to examine them. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Which- at least one of them did, Philza supposed.

As he'd suspected, most of the things he'd thought were marked in red had just been overlaid by the damaged outer panels, so there wasn't much of anything to repair from the inside. Techno seemed to come to the same conclusion, nodding almost to himself before leaving the cockpit, presumably going to read more of the ship's manuals.

What a strange guy.

Strange for at least a few reasons, actually, one of which was the fact that someone seemed to want him dead. At least the whole manual thing sort of made sense; it had turned out to be helpful, too. But the "Human Safety Commission" deciding to open fire on them? That was just insane. Although- Philza wasn't entirely sure he'd ever heard of them before. They could very well have been pretending to be an official government agency.

... this was a mess.

The next planet was only about an hour's distance away, at least. He could check in with Tommy and Tubbo then (as long as they weren't in a dead zone, of course) and tell them what had happened. They'd probably end up being late to their planned meet-up, so it was only fair to give a warning of that.

Chapter Text

Despite the fact that the Aeolus's diagnostics systems had said the ship was mostly undamaged, the ship was making a concerning rattling sound by the time they were within sight of Snowchester, the next closest planet. Philza was very glad to see solid ground approaching.

That being said, he wasn't entirely confident in his own ability to make any large-scale repairs that might need to be done, and Techno certainly wouldn't have that sort of knowledge. Which presented a problem. Someone else would have to come fix the ship, and in that case, they'd likely see Techno. The human. Who most definitely was not supposed to be on Philza's ship.

He'd lied about it earlier, of course, and said that of course he'd filled out all the right forms and called ahead and done whatever one was supposed to do when taking a human from one planet to another, but the people here would be able to fact-check that. And then he'd be screwed.

All of this presented a problem. Even aside from all of that, though, Snowchester wasn't exactly the most hospitable planet in the world. It was pretty cold. There was always snow on the ground (which was probably where it had gotten its name) and from what Philza had heard of humans, they weren't too good at handling lower temperatures. Elytrians weren't great with cold either, for that matter. If either of them were to go outside the ship, they'd need warmer clothes. Philza had a coat for himself, and he was pretty sure he could find one of Tommy's sitting around somewhere, but it might be too small for Techno...

The console pinged with an incoming call, and he answered it absently. "Snowchester Space, what's your registration?"

"Philza, code seven-eight-four-three-eight. Here for repairs."

A brief pause, then, "You are cleared for landing. Enjoy your stay." The call ended with a click. Philza switched the controls over to autopilot, and the Aeolus flew towards a nondescript landing dock. It wasn't exactly out of sight, but it was pretty good, considering Snowchester didn't really have any major smuggling networks. The code he'd given was one that would allow access to more remote docks on any planet that didn't outright ban smuggling.

Now all that was left was the waiting.

It wouldn't take too very long for them to reach the ground, so Philza went to the back of the ship, passing Techno as he did. Techno was reading one of the ship's manuals again, apparently oblivious to the fact that they'd be landing. Which was fine. Philza had to find a coat for him, anyway, or maybe just somewhere to hide him until the repairs were done and they could leave. Or- a disguise, maybe? A disguise could work, and then they could both stay in the ship instead.

He was still looking through the drawers when there was a knock at the door. When he opened it, someone - a technician, probably, with an extra two sets of limbs that marked them as an arachnid and at least three layers of various jackets - waved at him with a smile. "Hey! Just checking in to see about those repairs. Looks like you've got some panels that are a bit loose and some scratches to the paint, but there might be some more internal damage. Is it alright if I take a look at the diagnostic screen?"

Philza glanced back to see if Techno was still there. The human wasn't in sight, at least, and didn't appear to have retreated to the cockpit, so he nodded. "Sure, go ahead. I checked it earlier, but it's all just red. Couldn't tell what was going on with it."

"Yeah, that's fair. Diagnostics are hard to read if you're not used to it," the technician said with a laugh, following him up to the control panel and tapping a few buttons to pull up the screen. Philza watched as they zoomed in and out on various pieces, mouthing words to themself as if taking note, and resisted the temptation to check if Techno was hanging out nearby. It would only make him look suspicious if he kept looking around.

"Right then, shouldn't be too bad," the technician declared after a moment, turning off the diagnostics panel. "Give me about half an hour and it should be good. Except for the paint, I don't fix paint."

Philza nodded acknowledgement, then followed the technician back to the door so he could shut it behind them. The cold was already starting to seep into the air and he wanted to keep it out as much as possible.

Now, on to the other important thing he had to do: call Tommy and Tubbo and let them know he'd be late.

They picked up the call almost instantly, which was surprising. He'd almost expected it wouldn't go through; after all, they were probably in the depths of space by now, still on the way to Logstead. Regardless, they somehow managed to have a connection, and Tommy's face filled the screen a second later.

"Philza! So, you know how we're supposed to meet up in a couple days, yeah?"

"I was actually just calling about that- we got in a bit of a fight and had to stop at Snowchester for repairs. It shouldn't add too much time, the repair guy said it would only take about half an hour to fix everything up, but-"

"You got in a fight? Without me?!"

Philza snorted a laugh at the interruption, because of course that was what Tommy took from that. "It wasn't that big of a thing, some government people just decided to shoot at us out of nowhere. You should've seen Techno- he took down two of them and got a good hit on the other, it was insane."

Tommy squinted at him, but before he could say anything, there was a crash from offscreen, followed by rapid cursing. Tommy craned his head away from the screen and shouted, "SHUSH, I'M CALLING PHILZA."

"Was that Tubbo?"

"Yeah. He's been working on programming the translators we got. Speaking of that, though-"

"PHILZA," Tubbo interrupted loudly, half-shoving Tommy out of the frame. "Thank goodness you called, I am going to murder someone." Tommy slunk further away at that, dramatically mouthing "help."

He didn't sound any more serious about the murder threat than usual, so Philza just asked, "About what? The translators? Are they not working right or something?"

"No, the translators are working fine," Tubbo grumbled. "It's the language programs that aren't. So first off- every single official human language translation program is behind a lot of security. I couldn't get to them if I tried. So I thought, hey, it can't be that hard to code one myself! Most languages are pretty standardized, so as long as I can figure out how it's structured, I should be able to get a basic program up and running pretty quickly."

"... but it's not working?" Philza guessed.

"No, it's not working, because English is the stupidest language I've ever seen and it just-" Tubbo hissed wordlessly, wings flapping so furiously Philza was surprised he didn't start lifting into the air. "I hate everything about it and I never want to look at it again."

Philza nodded slowly. "I don't want to discourage you or anything, mate, but we still don't know what language Techno speaks. He might not actually speak- English, was it?" Strange name for a language, honestly.

"So funny story, actually," Tommy interjected. "We... kind of found a human. On our ship. And he wouldn't leave so now we're stuck with him, but he does speak English, which is why we're trying to figure out the coding thing for that."

"You mean I'm trying to do the coding thing," Tubbo corrected.

"Eh, same thing. So where's Techno?"

Philza blinked, only then remembering that he hadn't seen Techno since the technician arrived. "I... don't know, actually."

Tommy gasped dramatically. "Did you lose your human? How could you!"

"Shut- I didn't lose him, I'm just not sure where he is." Philza stood, shivering slightly in the cold that was drifting in from outside. He should probably close that before either of them froze to death or got hypothermia or something. "Hold on, I'm going to go find-"

He broke off, the sudden realization sinking in that something was definitely off. Because he had closed the door. The door was supposed to be closed, and Techno was currently unaccounted for, and that was not good.

"Philza?"

"I'll call you back," he said quickly, disconnecting from the call and bolting to the other side of the ship as quickly as he could. It wasn't hard to search the few places big enough for a human to hide; Techno wasn't there. He cursed under his breath, then hurried to put on his coat, practically flying out the door.

The dock wasn't quite as deserted as before; another ship had landed, which meant more people wandering about. It was hard to pick out any individual people, and large boxes were stacked about the area, effectively blocking his view. At least Techno had pink hair. That would be pretty distinctive and easy to see, if he happened to be looking the right direction at the right time.

And if the human hadn't somehow ended up on the other ship instead.

Philza shook off that thought, instead lifting off the ground to perch atop one of the stacks of boxes. From the new vantage point, he could see to the farthest walls of the dock. It seemed to run up against a line of buildings; alleyways were cut into the walls, leaving far too many places for a human to potentially explore. Light snow was falling outside, but the dock itself had a high roof, so there wasn't any on the ground that he might be able to track footprints in.

He scanned the dock carefully, trying to pick out Techno's pink hair. He wasn't anywhere near the ships, and most of the alleyways were empty, except-

There he was! One of Tommy's old coats was wrapped around his shoulders; it was definitely too small for him, as Philza had thought it might be, but it was something. He didn't seem to be in imminent danger of death, so that was good.

Philza jumped off the boxes and started gliding towards him almost before he realized there was someone else in the alley, too, apparently in a conversation with Techno. Which- that was probably difficult, given that Techno didn't have a translator.

The other person - a lacertilia if he had to guess, given the sandy golden scales and the long, slim tail - started waving an arm around, almost casually, but the motion moved their cloak to reveal a blaster holstered at their hip. They were slowly reaching towards it with their other hand.

Philza suddenly regretted not thinking to grab his blaster before leaving the ship.

He kept flying towards them regardless, flapping his wings harder and hoping he'd be in time to stop whatever the lacertilia was planning to do, because that did not look good. "Techno!"

They started to pull out the blaster, only to freeze as Techno pulled out a blaster of his own, stepping backwards to put more space between them. Or- no, that was his blaster, Philza realized with a start. Techno stole his blaster! Again!

He landed a few yards away, very aware that there wasn't exactly much he could do in this particular scenario. The lacertilia looked to him regardless and trilled, tail swishing furiously. "Oh, thank goodness- this guy's threatening to shoot me!"

"Don't think I didn't see you trying to do the exact same thing," Philza snapped back. "What's going on, anyway?"

Techno was holding a tablet - Phil's tablet - and held it out to him, not lowering the blaster. What is the Boreas? read the question on the screen. The word for "Boreas" appeared to have been copied over from Common.

"I don't know," the other guy said defensively. "He just shoved that in my face. I thought he was trying to rob me or something, so I was gonna scare him off. I dunno anything about 'Boreas', either, so don't try and mess with me over that."

Techno slowly lowered the blaster and shoved it into a pocket, glaring at the lacertilia as if daring him to try something, then typed something new on the tablet, hesitating over the words before turning it to face Philza again. Just a question, I don't know why it's angry

"He says he was just asking a question," Philza said slowly. "It seems like there's been a misunderstanding- I'm really sorry about all this, mate."

"'s alright," the lacertilia muttered, glaring back at Techno before looking to Philza again. "... you look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?"

Hmm. Getting recognized probably wasn't good in this particular instance. "I don't think so," Philza said, reaching out to lightly tug on Techno's arm and let him know it was time to go. "We should be getting back to our ship, though; we just stopped by for repairs. Sorry again!"

The lacertilia waved goodbye, seeming a little confused at the abrupt departure. When Philza snuck a glance over his shoulder, though, he saw them typing furiously on a communicator. He looked up, catching Philza's eye, and yep, they'd definitely been recognized. Damn it.

"Right, we're getting out of here," Philza muttered, pulling Techno along faster. Thankfully, the human seemed to be equally happy to leave the situation, and they made it back to the ship just as the technician was climbing down from the roof.

"There you are! I'll just need you to sign here, verify that this price is alright, and attach a method of payment, and you're all set to go," they said, holding out a clipboard and some papers. Philza glanced over the repairs list quickly, just enough to make sure they hadn't added on some ridiculous charge, then signed with a quick flourish before handing it back to the arachnid. "Excellent- hope you have a good flight, and feel free to stop by anytime!"

"Thanks, mate!"

They apparently weren't going to question the fact that he suddenly had a human with him. Not that Philza was complaining, of course. The less people that suspected anything, the better.

Philza had plenty of experience with leaving planets as quickly as possible (due to the not-entirely-legal nature of his job), so after checking to make sure they hadn't left anything behind outside the ship, he closed the door and darted over to the cockpit to set the autopilot for takeoff. As he did, he noticed some notifications on the dashboard. Messages. From Tommy and Tubbo, probably; he'd disappeared pretty abruptly earlier.

He ignored them for the moment in favor of looking out the windows to see where the lacertilia was now. They weren't in sight anymore, which wasn't exactly encouraging, but there didn't seem to be anyone coming to arrest them immediately, so that was one good thing.

Still. Best to leave quickly.

-----

gremlins: imagine losing a human
skill issue
anyway we're about to head out for logstead, so we're gonna be in a dead zone pretty soon
see you in about four days :D
also ranboo says hi
(that's our human :> )
tubbo finally managed to code the basics of the language program lol
took him long enough
wait no I didn't mean that
PHILZA HELP HE'S TRIYNG TO STAB ME
ALMXKCNSDBDES HELPPP
tommy is no more :))
see you soon !! :D

Chapter Text

It wasn't until Snowchester was almost out of sight - only a speck on the horizon of distant space - that Philza remembered the other thing about the encounter that was probably pretty important. He'd set the autopilot for the next closest planet on their route, but after a bit of thought, altered course so they were headed towards a smaller planet a little more out-of-the-way. Easier to throw off any would-be pursuers that way.

Once he'd set the ship on its new course, he stood up from the control panel, then startled upon turning to see Techno just- stood there. Holding the tablet. Philza had no idea how long he'd been there, but the tablet showed the exact thing he'd been intending to bring up.

"How- what do you know about the Boreas?"

Techno blinked at him, and Philza remembered the small problem of translation. He sighed, then took the tablet, actually reading the question this time.

What is Boreas?

Interesting. Techno had likely seen the word somewhere, then figured out some way to transfer it to text... which brought up a very big question. Why go to such great lengths to figure out the name of one ship?

Philza's first thought was that Techno was some sort of undercover law enforcement; the Boreas was a pirate ship, after all. Tommy and Tubbo were careful, sure, but it was easy to become complacent when most planets didn't bother with more than a bare minimum of enforcement. As long as you were good at keeping the illegal stuff out of plain sight, at least.

It only took a moment's thought to disprove that little theory, though. If Techno were undercover, he would definitely have a translator, and the so-called "Human Safety Committee" had opened fire on them seemingly without hesitation.

Not a cop, then. That was good.

"Why do you want to know?" Philza asked anyway, before realizing once again that Techno couldn't understand him. They really needed to figure out a better system. He typed the question on the tablet, then handed it over to Techno.

It apparently took a while to figure out the right words, but finally: I have a friend on a boat

"Boat?" Philza squinted at the words, confused as to what boats had to do with anything. The Boreas was a spaceship, not a-

Oh. Ship. Boat. Synonyms didn't translate well, apparently.

That answered one question, at least. Techno was looking for the Boreas because of a friend, who was apparently on said spaceship. However, that answer only led to more questions. Such as: the only two people who used the Boreas with any sort of frequency were Tommy and Tubbo, and they'd had no clue who Techno was when he'd first shown up.

Who's your friend? He asked via the tablet.

You don't know them, came the prompt and unhelpful response. Philza was about to pry further - though without much hope of getting an actual answer - when the console buzzed with an incoming call.

A quick glance at the radar thankfully showed there wasn't anyone nearby. It wouldn't be a repeat of the last time they got a random call in the middle of space. Still, Tommy and Tubbo were supposedly on their way to Logstead at the moment, and they likely wouldn't even try to call until they met up. It just wasn't worth the hope that both ships would be in zones with any sort of connection. The caller was very much a mystery.

Despite Philza's confidence in that, though, Tommy's face - close-up with eyes opened comically wide - appeared on the screen as he accepted the call. The shouting followed very shortly afterwards.

"PHILZA, I SWEAR-"

"What?!"

Tommy's face disappeared, replaced by a paper scrunched against the screen. The words on it were blurry and far too close to the camera to be read, but the picture was unmistakably one of Philza. "You're on another wanted poster. What have you been doing without me-"

"I'm what?"

"You're on a wanted poster," Tubbo piped in from somewhere offscreen. "It's a pretty high bounty, and it was apparently just posted today." The paper pulled back from the camera then, and Philza could indeed see that it was a wanted poster. That was... a lot of zeros. Wanted dead or alive, too, which wasn't super encouraging.

It didn't make sense, though. He'd been out in the depths of space almost constantly the past few days. "Why are they only now putting that up?" He asked, trying to think of any illegal thing that might've occurred. Or rather, any illegal thing that would've been bigger than any of the stuff he'd been doing for years.

... come to think of it, the new bounty may explain why the lacertilia had been acting so weirdly earlier.

"No idea," Tommy said, tossing the poster aside and squinting at Philza. "What I want to know is, why are you getting in trouble without me??"

"I don't even know what I did, mate!"

"Wait," Tubbo interrupted. "Does anyone know you have a human with you? We got stopped over that earlier. They didn't find Ranboo, but they were really poking around with the translator program stuff I had."

Philza started to deny it, but paused, because that was actually a really good theory. One of the ships that had attacked them had gotten away, which meant they knew he had a human as a passenger- and then, if they'd gotten to somewhere with decent connection, they'd have realized that he didn't actually have any official paperwork. Would they think it was a kidnapping? That could certainly lead to a bounty like that...

Well. They'd also tried to shoot him, so he kind of doubted they'd actually care about the wellbeing of any given human.

"Hey, wait, maybe Ranboo could talk to him!" Tommy was saying when he tuned back in. "Hey Ranboo, get over here-"

"Let me see where Techno is," Philza started, then swore as he turned to see Techno was still just standing there, closer than he'd been before and looking at the screen in apparent interest. He seemed to be trying to avoid the view of the camera itself, though, and backed up a bit at Philza's sudden curse. "It's alright, mate, you just startled me," Philza tried to explain, then was yet again reminded of the lack of actual communication ability.

Thankfully, before he had too much time to dwell on it, a new face appeared on the screen. They seemed to have similar features to Techno - also a human, most likely - just with black-and-white hair split neatly down the middle and different-colored eyes. "This is Ranboo!" Tubbo piped up, pointing to the human. "He's pretty cool. Also, we found out humans' eyes glow in the dark."

Philza hadn't been paying any particular attention, but he was pretty sure Techno did not have glow-in-the-dark eyes. That was definitely a little concerning. Was it a normal thing? Was the lack of glow some sort of health problem? He really was not prepared to deal with that-

His train of thought was interrupted as Techno started talking. It was the first time he'd heard the human speak, he realized, and Techno's voice was a lower pitch than he'd imagined it to be. The words were also entirely incomprehensible. Which- of course they were. Philza didn't speak Human, or Español, or whatever the hell it was Techno spoke. Still, it was a little disconcerting being on the other side of the language barrier.

Ranboo, on the other hand, seemed entirely unsurprised that Techno was talking to him, and immediately responded with more incomprehensible words. Belatedly, Philza realized that Ranboo must've been the friend Techno was talking about. That made one more puzzle piece click into place. One of an absolutely ridiculous number of pieces, sure, but it was a start.

He didn't want to interrupt the conversation, but apparently Tommy had no such qualms. He cut in after a few minutes (which was actually an impressive amount of patience for him). "Are you near a dead zone?"

"I don't think so, no," Philza said, checking their flight path. They were close enough to Snowchester that there should've been a good connection still. "Why?"

"Looks like you're cutting out a bit. Hold on, lemme check the settings he-"

The call cut out abruptly, leaving them staring at an empty screen.

Philza's first instinct was to slam a fist on the console (carefully, with a quick prayer that it wouldn't break anything). The resulting bang made Techno flinch back. "Sorry, mate," he apologized, then cursed under his breath as the screen remained blank. He'd been hoping it was something that could be easily fixed. It had been a while since he'd last checked the comms systems, though, and they'd been working all too well recently. It was about time something went wrong. "Guess we'll just have to wait to talk to them again 'til we get to our next stop." At least Techno had gotten to have a conversation with someone again. That was good enough, Philza supposed.

-----

gremlins: PHILZA [Message Failed. Retry?]
OH FGUCK OH NO [Message Failed. Retry?]
WHY ARE'NT THESE SENDING ARE YOU OKAY [Message Failed. Retry?]
I SWEAR OF YOU'RE NOT OKAY I'M GONNA KILL YOU MYSLEF [Message Failed. Retry?]
TEHCNO IF YOU SEE THIS, YOU'D BETTER FISCDKING WATCH OUT [Message Failed. Retry?]
IF YOU DID SOMETHING TO PHILZA [Message Failed. Retry?]
YOU'RE DEAD OKSY [Message Failed. Retry?]
FUSDK [Message Failed. Retry?]

Chapter Text

Their next stop hadn't exactly been on the route Philza had planned, but it wouldn't be for nothing. Camarvan was renowned for its markets; whatever you were looking for, they probably had it. Law enforcement was almost non-existent, which one would think made it somewhere Philza went a lot. However, the chance of getting shot in a back alley was significantly higher than pretty much any other planet with similar law enforcement policies, mostly due to the sheer number of black market items up for sale.

In other words, there were definitely better places for a human to be, and Philza was pretty sure that with Techno's luck, he'd end up threatening the wrong person within about ten minutes. Fifteen at best.

In the time before they landed, then, he tried to find anything that might work as a disguise for either of them. There were a few spare cloaks laying around, including a dark red one that fit Techno well enough (though it was a little short on him), and he found a scarf half-buried in a random box that seemed perfect as a face covering. It took a bit of creative thinking to communicate the idea to Techno, but eventually, the human figured it out.

Now came the hard part: actually getting any of the things they needed without being spotted.

The landing area was (unfortunately) a lot busier than the one on Snowchester. There was a marketplace fairly close, though, and Philza could already see that some of the stalls sold repair parts. Perfect.

Autopilot had taken care of most of the landing process, so it wasn't hard for Philza to land in the spot that had been assigned over the radio. The traffic control guy hadn't seemed especially concerned about the fact that he was wanted by the law, which... he'd kinda figured that would be the case. It was still nice to not immediately be arrested upon landing.

With that, then, he figured they were about as ready to leave the ship as ever, so he opened the door and stepped out onto solid ground once again. He turned to tell Techno what the plan was, but by the time he turned around, the human had already started out into the market at quite a fast pace. Well then. There was at least one shop Philza definitely planned on visiting - it had quite the reputation, and he might as well check it out while he was there - but it was in pretty much the other direction.

It probably wasn't a good idea to split up... but then again, it wouldn't be for very long, and what's the worst that could happen?

The air was pleasantly chilly, and Philza hummed to himself as he started walking. He was pretty sure there was a shortcut he could take that would avoid some of the bigger market areas; that would help with not getting recognized. He'd have to restock on supplies, too- having two people aboard had depleted their food stores pretty significantly, especially since he had planned on stopping for supplies a little while ago. He'd just gotten sidetracked. It didn't seem like Techno ate a lot, thankfully, although that might also be something to be concerned about... what did humans eat, anyway? He'd just sort of assumed the food he had aboard the ship was edible for humans, but maybe that was the problem.

And then, of course, there was the communications system. That would have to be repaired or replaced somehow. It might be able to wait a while, but Tommy and Tubbo would be worried, and it was probably better to get that done sooner rather than-

He paused, noticing someone standing in the road in front of him. A uniformed saurenox stood directly in his path, quite obviously blocking his way. Philza hesitated, taking a cautious step to the side, but the saurenox copied the motion, a warning look crossing their face above their mask.

"... can I help you, mate?"

"Yeah. I just got a few questions for you. Shouldn't take too long."

Interesting. Philza crossed his arms and asked, "Who are you?"

"Lukas Hounden. I'm with the Human Safety Committee, local enforcement division." Before Philza could ask to see his identification, the saurenox pulled out a badge and held it out for examination. Unfortunately, it did seem real.

That wasn't good.

"Right. And what's this about?"

Lukas nodded shortly, pulling out a notepad. "We're looking for a lost human. Last seen on Essempi about a week ago, although we got an unconfirmed report of a sighting on Snowchester earlier today." He looked up at Philza, one eyebrow raised. "Know anything about that?"

Techno was really turning out to be a lot of trouble. Philza just shrugged. "Not sure. You wouldn't happen to have any more information about this human, would you?"

"Well..." Lukas glanced back at his notes. "I do, actually. Looks like he was caught on video boarding a spaceship called the Aeolus. Oh, and would you look at that? The Aeolus just happened to be at Snowchester at about the same time as the sighting. Crazy coincidence, right?"

Shit.

Whatever happened, this couldn't turn into a fight. Saurenox were natural enemies of elytrians; their blood was acidic, and elytrians tended to be weak to acids and poisons. And of course, that wasn't to mention their literal built-in armor. Saurenox had carapaces that covered their back and chest and pretty much anything that would be a weakness, leaving them invulnerable to most weapons. At close range, he wouldn't stand a chance- and at long range, the only thing that would work would be a blaster, and that only if he was lucky.

... very lucky, considering he didn't actually have a blaster. It had been mysteriously missing when he was getting ready to head out to the market, but he hadn't pressed the issue to Techno, figuring the human was much more likely to get into this kind of trouble. Damnit.

"Now that you mention it, I did see him," Philza answered carefully. "He stowed away on my ship. I didn't notice until we were already in space, and he left once we reached Snowchester. No idea where he is now."

Lukas didn't say anything for a few seconds, just gave him a deadpan stare. Then- "I know he's here. Stop lying and this'll be over with faster."

"If you already know where he is, why-"

"Because I don't know where, exactly," Lukas snapped. "There's a lot of people here and I lost track of him. That's why I'm asking you."

"I really don't know where he is, mate," Philza said hurriedly. This was not going well. And also, why had someone bothered to track Techno this far? It seemed like a bit of overkill, even as far as humans were concerned. "He just wandered off. I think he was planning to stay here, so he won't be back at the Aeolus, either. He could be anywhere."

Lukas sighed, then looked back to his notepad. "Great. In that case, I have one more question. Does anyone know you're here?"

That was definitely suspicious. Philza was suddenly very aware of how quiet the surrounding street was. No one was around, not even random passersby. That's what he got for taking shortcuts, he supposed.

The only problem was, he had no idea how to answer the question. Technically, no one knew where he was, but that answer seemed the most likely to get him killed on the spot, if that was the bad outcome here. On the other hand, lying wasn't necessarily a good idea... but at least it would let the Human Safety Committee guy know that someone would be looking for him.

"Yeah, actually. I've got some friends on the Boreas. Talked with them just before getting here."

Lukas scribbled something down on the notepad, then flipped it shut with an abrupt motion. "Alright, thanks. You've been very helpful." Without a single change to his expression, he reached for his blaster, pulling it out and pointing it at Philza as casually as if it was a normal occurrence for him to be shooting people.

Probably was, honestly. Government agents sucked.

Philza didn't even give the matter a second thought before jumping into the air, flapping his wings furiously. The blaster fired and the shot clipped one of his wings. It didn't do any actual damage, fortunately, just threw off his balance for a split second. He kicked out at Lukas' face as he passed, and the saurenox ducked away, then fired again, and then-

The second shot tore through his wing, hitting close to his shoulder. Searing pain shot through the joint and his wing buckled. His momentum carried him forward, though, and he fell behind a large dumpster sitting against the wall. That put him out of sight - and out of immediate shooting range - of Lukas.

That was the good news. The bad news was that, as far as cover went, it absolutely sucked. It would take about two seconds for Lukas to move around the dumpster and shoot him again.

Tommy was absolutely going to laugh at him for going out like this.

Before he'd entirely resigned himself to his fate, though, there was a muffled clang, then another, and Lukas gave a wheezing screech. Then came two blaster shots. Specks of something a poisonous green flew through the air and Philza ducked back against the wall to avoid it. It certainly looked like saurenox blood, but who would even try-?

When he finally got together the strength to stand up and look around the dumpster, Techno was standing over the limp body of Lukas, poking it with the point of an extremely heavy-looking sword. There was a spatter of green across his front, eating little holes in his cloak. He didn't seem to be paying any attention to it at all.

All in all, very concerning.

Philza approached carefully, trying not to startle him. "You alright, mate?" Techno just looked up at him, then glanced towards his wing, a concerned expression flickering across his face. And- yeah, this wasn't good. Lukas wasn't moving at all, and based on how much blood was starting to spread across the ground, sizzling as it went, he was probably dead.

It was actually pretty impressive. Or rather, it would be, if Techno hadn't just killed a government employee. And if it weren't for the fact that saurenox blood was very dangerous for humans, but Techno was either unaware of that or simply didn't care, and either way Philza was pretty sure he didn't have access to anything that might help with acid wounds.

Footsteps echoed faintly from behind him, and he turned quickly to see a hooded figure with a mask drawn up over their face. They were staring at the dead body with a completely blank expression. After a second, their eyes flicked up to meet his.

"'s he dead?"

Philza nodded slowly. Unfortunately, it would be pretty obvious if he tried to lie about it. He'd just have to hope whoever this was wouldn't immediately turn them in.

The person sighed, then, and motioned to the side with their head. "Right, follow me. You're not gonna want to be seen around here anytime soon." Without waiting for an answer, they turned and headed for a nearby doorway, swiping a keycard over the locking mechanism and opening the door.

... well. It wasn't like they had any better options.

Chapter Text

The door led into a space that was larger than Philza had expected, given the unassuming entrance. It had a cozy atmosphere, with about twice the floor space as the Aeolus, and was lit by strings of lights that draped along the tops of the walls and crisscrossed the ceiling. Shelves covered with boxes and assorted loose items lined the walls, except for the far side of the room, which was taken up by a computer monitor and a large flag of some sort with words in an unfamiliar language on it.

Their mysterious guide tapped a few keys on the keyboard, then turned, pulling down their mask to reveal a scattering of shimmery scales on their face and sharp teeth set in a cheerful smile. "Right then- we're gonna want the door shut pretty quick here. Someone's going to investigate the shots sooner or later, and none of us want to be there when that happens."

"Hold on, mate," Philza interjected. Now that they were out of the street, it was once more occurring to him that this was a terrible situation to be in. Techno had a weapon, yes, but shooting this guy would cause even more problems in the long run, and they really didn't need more problems. "Who are you again?"

"Name's Barry," the stranger said simply. "Can't really tell you much more than that, unfortunately, but I'm sure you understand." Which explained everything, clearly, and also gave great reason for Philza to trust this random person with his and Techno's wellbeing.

"Understand what?"

Barry shrugged, as if it were at all obvious. "The need for secrecy. I'm not about to go around telling everyone who I am. That's how they get you- you can't let your guard down for even a second." They paused, then added, "Not sure why I'm telling you that, though. You're literally the best at avoiding the government."

... so this person was insane, then. Philza glanced back at Techno to see that he seemed just as confused. On making eye contact, though, the human hesitantly raised his blaster.

"No, don't shoot them," Philza hissed quickly, gently knocking the blaster off-target to hopefully communicate that they would not, in fact, be shooting their way out of this one.

Barry gave them a curious look then. "For no reason at all, who are you? I mean- I'm pretty sure I recognized you, but just to be sure. It would be kinda awkward otherwise."

For a second, Philza considered lying, but if Barry already knew who they were, it wouldn't help their case very much. "I'm Philza," he introduced himself, then nodded to Techno. "And this is Techno."

"I knew it!" Barry exclaimed, and Techno startled, raising the blaster again. "Oh- sorry. Didn't mean to yell. It's just that- gods, you guys are so cool, and like- you're actually doing something, and I'm so happy to actually be a part of it."

"Nice to meet you too," Philza said automatically, entirely unsure of how to respond to the sudden enthusiasm. "What are we doing, exactly?"

"... uncovering the government's lies."

"Which means...?"

Barry gestured to Techno. "You're a human, right?" Techno didn't answer, just looked at Philza and slowly started raising his blaster again.

"He doesn't have a translator," Philza explained quickly, once again using a hand to brush the blaster off-target. Diplomacy was apparently not his strong suit.

"Oh. That makes a lot of sense, actually." Barry darted over to one of the shelves, digging through a box. "Give me a second, I think I have a spare somewhere."

While they were searching for the translator, Philza took a moment to look around a little more. The flag on the back wall particularly caught his attention; it seemed almost out-of-place in the otherwise cozy room. The design was simple. White background, black text, black silhouette of something that was circled and crossed out in red. The text was in a language Philza didn't recognize, though, and the flag wasn't one he'd seen before, which made it a strange choice to have as the room's centerpiece. If he had to guess, based on how the interaction with Barry had gone so far, the slogan was probably something along the lines of "Overthrow The Government" - but in that case, why would they use a language that most people wouldn't understand?

There was also the fact that Techno was staring at it very intently. He seemed more generally perplexed than wary or murderous, and actually slipped his blaster into a pocket instead of holding it openly, which was a good sign. Probably. Maybe it was written in a human language?

"Aha!" Barry retrieved a tablet from one of the boxes, holding it up triumphantly. "There we go. Just gotta set this up really quick, then we should be good to go. Do you know what language he speaks?"

"... no. Is it still going to work?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I'm sure he can figure it out." Barry presented the translator to Techno, who took it cautiously, tapping at the screen. "It should automatically pick up our words and translate them in real time, like a normal translator would," they explained. "The main difference is that the program might not be up-to-date. And I can't get the text-to-speech working. And the translations are a bit funky at times. But other than that, basically the same!"

Philza was barely listening to the explanation, too focused on the flag to really care. The lights seemed to be dimming and flickering, making it nearly impossible to see any details, and for some reason it felt absolutely essential to ask something about the flag. Maybe he could ask Techno if he recognized it? Or... or maybe Barry could give the translation.

Something bumped against his arm, lightly, and he looked over to see Techno holding up the tablet.

You got shot

It was blunt, and quite honestly, Philza was a little annoyed that Techno thought it was necessary to remind him of that. However, he was also reluctantly grateful, as Barry's rambling introduction had distracted him entirely from the blaster wound in his wing.

Blaster wounds, in general, were sort of weird. Philza had been shot at least twice before, and each time, the worst part was the initial impact. After that, the wound would sort of go numb, unless he were to move the injured appendage in some way. Something about burning away nerve endings - he was pretty sure Tubbo had done research on it once, but that had been years ago.

It was also entirely irrelevant at this particular moment. Now that he was aware of it, he could tell that the dimming of the lights was a symptom of blood loss, not bad electrical work.

"Do you have a first-aid kit, mate?"

Barry blinked, scanning him as if to check for injury, before swearing violently and darting to a cabinet on the back wall. They slammed a drawer open, furiously rifling through. "You didn't tell me you got shot- that really should've been the first thing you mentioned, actually. Sit down, you look like you're about to fall over." Philza did, because he was, in fact, feeling pretty light-headed. The movement jostled his wing and he hissed a breath between his teeth at the sudden spike in pain. Within a few seconds, Barry produced a first-aid kit, tearing through the pockets until they found what they were looking for. "If either of you have any other life-threatening injuries, please tell me now, because this is the last medpatch I have."

Philza glanced up at Techno, suddenly worried that the human had gotten hurt in his fight against the saurenox and just hadn't shown any sign of it. By some miracle, though, he did seem to be entirely okay, aside from the small amounts of acidic blood that were still gently sizzling on his cloak. He reached out, though, taking the medpatch from Barry.

Well, shit.

"Both of you got shot??"

At Barry's exclamation, Techno glanced at the translator, then shook his head, kneeling so he was at the same height as Phil's wing and glancing between the medpatch and the injury.

"I can help," Barry offered, hesitantly holding out a hand. Techno just glared at them until they stepped back again, wringing their hands together. "Fine. Fine! You don't trust me, and I guess that's fair. Can I at least tell you how to use it?"

"I know how to use a medpatch, mate," Philza tried to say, and was entirely ignored as Techno carefully followed Barry's instructions to apply the medpatch. It took longer than was strictly necessary, but the relief was almost immediate as the numbing agent in the patch started to work. Thank the gods for anesthetics.

Once Barry had recovered a crate for Philza to sit on (and confirmed about a dozen times that he was not, in fact, imminently about to bleed to death anymore), they returned to the first-aid kit, starting to reorder the items they'd thrown out in their hurry. "Alright- now that that's out of the way. I have some saurenox antidote here, if that's something either of you need. Otherwise, we should absolutely start coordinating on our plans to overthrow the government. I think it's fair to say that this is a last-straw sort of thing, right?"

"I think you've got the wrong idea, mate," Philza said cautiously. "We're not trying to overthrow the government. I just want to get to Logstead and meet up with my kids, and Techno..." Hmm. He still wasn't entirely sure what Techno wanted to do. The lack of translation ability had sort of halted any attempts at figuring that out, and while Philza had assumed he'd vanish as quickly as he appeared as soon as possible, he'd chosen to stick around, both on Snowchester and now here. Hell, he'd literally murdered a guy purely because Philza was in danger!

Barry was frowning, though. "So... hold up. I thought you were uncovering the government's illegal experimentation on humans. You guys are literally the reason I figured out it was a thing in the first place. And, a government official just tried to silence you! And you're not going to overthrow the government for it?"

"Illegal experi- what?"

"I'm not sure what they are, exactly- I was hoping you knew what was going on. I suspect genetic alterations, probably something testing their strengths and weaknesses..." Barry shrugged awkwardly. "Things like that. It's just- okay, there's all these rules around humans, right? A million rules and regulations you have to follow to be able to travel as a human, all supposedly for the safety of humans. And yet! First off, there doesn't seem to be much reason for these rules to exist in the first place. And second, a lot of them could easily be twisted for the detriment of a human who doesn't go through all the bureaucracy shit."

Between the blood loss and the seemingly nonsensical conclusions Barry was drawing, Philza was beginning to realize that none of this made any sense at all, actually, and he was just tired. He wanted nothing more than to get back to the Aeolus, set the ship to autopilot, then take a nap until he got to Logstead and could meet up with Tommy and Tubbo.

Come to think of it, actually, he really needed to fix the comms systems. Lukas had interrupted him before he could get to a shop. Their last video call had ended rather abruptly, and with everything that had happened since, it was definitely a top priority now.

Barry was looking at him expectantly, and Philza realized they were waiting for some sort of response. "Sorry, mate, I really don't know what's going on. The government sucks, yeah, but I've never planned to take over the government. And Techno's just a regular human who stowed away on my ship. I don't know how he got there or where he's going, but- government experimentation? That's not- someone would've noticed a long time ago."

"That's the thing, though," Barry started, clearly about to go on a rant. They paused, though, looking over at Techno. "Oh... oh gods."

"What?"

They waved a hand at Techno, and Philza glanced up, just in time to see him pull his cloak over his arm and glare at Barry. "His arm. He's got saurenox blood- that can't have been from today, it hasn't even been an hour, and it's really bad."

"Can I see?" Philza asked, and Techno hesitated, then reluctantly let the cloak fall away again. And-

Well. Barry's reaction hadn't been overly dramatic, all things considered. Saurenox blood was especially dangerous for certain species, elytrians and humans included. It had a tendency to stick around and keep causing problems if not attended to with the correct antidote.

And on Techno's upper arm, where he'd always kept a bandage tightly wrapped, was a sizeable area of melted skin, the edges starting to steam as the saurenox blood began reacting to the open air.

Chapter Text

Admittedly, Philza's first reaction may not have been the best in this particular situation. Upon seeing Techno's injury, he stood up abruptly, fully intending to deal with it as quickly as possible. How? He wasn't exactly sure at that moment, but surely he'd figure it out easily enough.

He underestimated the effects of standing up so fast, though, and nearly collapsed as dark spots flickered in his vision. Techno, for his part, startled away at the sudden motion, reaching instinctively for his blaster - no longer easily accessible, since he'd put it in a pocket of his cloak instead of on his belt, thank the gods for that.

"Whoa, hey, easy," Barry said, in a tone that was just a little too panicked to be reassuring. "It's fine. It's okay. I have the antidote, remember? If I can just..." they looked around, muttering curses under their breath.

Philza sat down again, oddly out of breath, then noticed a small spray bottle on a shelf close to the door, next to where Techno stood. The human was already reaching for it. The bottle was labelled with an image of a bottle with a plus on it, and handwritten words in Common proclaimed it to be "Saurenox Antidote". "He's already got it, mate."

Barry paused their searching, looking back. "Oh. Right. Does he know how to use it?"

Probably not, Philza almost said, only to watch as Techno took the cap off, adjusted the spray setting, and carefully applied it to the melted skin, wincing slightly as the spray made contact. He seemed very confident, which was surprising; Philza had met very few people who had ever had occasion to use saurenox antidote.

Was that a normal thing for humans to know?

"... right then. I'd say the next step is to put a medpatch over that so it doesn't get worse, and so it heals up faster, but I don't have any more of those." Barry hummed to themself, then shrugged helplessly. "Maybe some antibiotics and a clean bandage? That's the best I got."

Techno looked at the translator, then nodded once, setting down the bandage he'd been using (had he been planning to re-use that??) and going over to the first aid kit to dig through it himself.

As he did, Barry turned to Philza with a vaguely perplexed expression, lowering their voice. "Look- I don't know all that many humans, but this one seems weird. Not in a bad way," they added hurriedly, "But he seems... quiet. Almost too quiet, y'know? And really independent. Humans don't usually act like that. Where'd you meet him, again?"

Oh gods, so it wasn't normal for humans to be that quiet. Philza really hoped Barry didn't think he was a bad person for not noticing or doing anything about it sooner. "He stowed away on my ship," he explained. "I was leaving for Logstead, discovered him a little less than an hour into the trip. He's definitely quieter than I expected, but I've never met a human before, so I thought it was normal."

Barry hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe it is." There were a few moments of silence, then they asked, "Do you remember what planet you were leaving?"

"Can't say I do," Philza replied after a moment's thought. It hadn't been very long since that day, but so much had happened in the meantime, it was hard to keep track anymore. "Why?"

"I was thinking it might help narrow down where they're doing the illegal experiments. I figure- well, you've probably learned how hard it is to travel with a human. Imagine you're trying to get away from the government. Your best option is going to be getting off the planet as soon as possible, then going underground for a while. You wouldn't start hopping between spaceships, that would greatly increase the risk of getting caught. Meaning whatever your starting point was, that's probably where he was being held."

Annd they were back to the whole experiment theory again. "That's... you're assuming a lot there, mate."

Barry began to say something. Paused, taking a deep breath. Then started again. "Yeah. Okay. I guess I haven't really explained how I know about what's going on, so of course you're not gonna believe me at first."

"It's not that I don't believe you," Philza started. "It's just..." He trailed off, inwardly cursing his lack of reasonable answer. In all honesty, he hadn't even stopped to consider why Techno was there in the first place. Things had just gone so fast and life had become too hectic to really consider it. And was it any of his business? Maybe Techno just wanted to explore the universe without dealing with bureaucratic bullshit, and that was completely valid! But also illegal, and if so, it was better not to ask.

"No, no, it's fine."

They still seemed a bit more distant than their original overenthusiastic cheeriness, and Philza was already regretting saying anything. Techno had just finished rewrapping his injury, though, and was now standing awkwardly, apparently unsure of what was going on. Maybe the translator wasn't picking up on their conversation.

Barry walked over, trading places with Techno, who returned to standing next to the door they'd come in through. Easily more than arm's distance from either of them, Philza noted, with access to an easy escape route. Seemed like a good call. He'd been putting way too much trust in Barry thus far.

"Just give me oneee second," they muttered, tossing the first aid kit back to its original spot and turning to the computer monitor. It was too far away to read the text, but what words Philza could see weren't in Common. He craned his neck to see around them and noticed that the screen was formatted similarly to a message board. They clicked away in a few seconds, though, replacing the message board with what looked like a set of video inputs, including one that showed the outside of the hideout. "There we go. Now it'll be harder to sneak up on us."

"Is there anyone in particular we should be worried about?"

"The Human Safety Committee," came the immediate response. "They're the ones behind pretty much all of the regulations surrounding human space travel. I suspect they're also the ones most deeply involved in the experiments. That being said, any government agency could be suspect... law enforcement's good to avoid in general, obviously. I've also made a few enemies who aren't part of any official system. It's just good practice to be on the lookout for anyone, really."

Very vague and very unhelpful. Still, there was a dead body outside, so maybe that was a good answer after all.

"What happens if someone shows up?"

Barry hesitated, then shrugged nonchalantly. "We'd have to figure something out, I guess. Doesn't really matter. Anyway- I think we got sidetracked, and I'm not sure how best to catch y'all up on what's going on. Do either of you have any questions I can clarify?"

At that, Techno held out the translator, where he'd typed a question. He'd probably been waiting to ask it for a while. Do you think birds aren't real?

An odd question (what were "birds"?) and seemingly off-topic, but Barry lit up regardless. "You know about that? Yes- that's where this all started, actually. Philza, I'm assuming you haven't heard of this?" Philza shook his head. "That's perfectly okay. I was at a bookstore one day, right, and I come across this book. It's written in a human language. I've always been fascinated by humans, so I decided to see what it was about, test out my translation skills, all that fun stuff."

They moved over to a bookshelf on the wall, pulling out a small, hardcover book. A quick look between the flag on the wall and the book cover showed that the words were quite similar, though not exact. "It says 'Birds Aren't Real'", Barry explained upon seeing his expression. "Birds are these creatures from earth- they're sort of like elytrians, actually, but a lot smaller. And without arms. Or rather, their wings are their arms. Or... something like that. They're also not considered as intelligent as humans, though some of them are quite smart."

Techno showed the translator to Philza, tilting it slightly away from Barry. It's not the best description. The birds are definitely real, although they speak of a fabricated conspiracy. Which... didn't make very much sense as a sentence. Maybe that was the sort of translation errors Barry had been talking about.

"Anyway," Barry continued obliviously, "One of the human governments decided to kill off all birds and replace them with drones. Which I thought was insane at first, but this book actually goes into great detail as to how they carried it out. It's got transcripts from high-up government officials and everything. Not sure where the authors are now, but from what I can tell, they now live underground somewhere on their planet.

"Like I said, though, that was just the beginning. I figure, if a human government can carry out a plot of this scale and hide it so well, there's a possibility that similar conspiracies are out there." They gestured at the room around them. "Long story short, I've been working towards uncovering government conspiracies and bringing the truth to life for about... six or seven years now. It's not easy, and it's honestly kinda discouraging how many people ignore anything I have to say, but... I can't just stop, y'know?"

They paused, then, and Philza nodded slowly. Techno seemed to have completely zoned out of the conversation; his earlier message had been cryptic, but maybe he was saying that the book Barry was referencing was inaccurate? That was the option that made the most sense. Philza wasn't entirely sure what birds were, but they didn't sound like the sort of creatures to "speak of a fabricated conspiracy".

"There's other conspiracies?" He asked instead, because questioning further about birds seemed likely to lead nowhere.

Barry nodded vigorously. "Oh, absolutely. You would not believe what the government's keeping from us." They almost seemed about to launch into another rant, but paused, as if biting back the words.

"... like what?" Philza pressed after a moment.

"Too much to explain, really. And it's not exactly the sort of information you want to have," they replied cryptically.

"How so?"

"The government has a tendency to silence people who speak out. It was a whole thing with the Birds Aren't Real plot, and... well. I've had quite a few of my contacts disappear lately. I don't really want that to happen to me, yeah?"

Valid point. Aside from the fact that they still hadn't given any actual evidence for their claim of illegal experimentation on humans, which was sort of the point of this whole thing.

Just as Philza was about to ask for more information on that, though, a flicker of motion on the computer monitor caught his attention. Someone was walking in front of the door. As they walked across the frame, though, the image suddenly cut out, replaced by an image of the empty alleyway. As if the person had simply disappeared.

Or... as if someone had replaced the video feed with a still frame.

He wasn't sure if that was just Barry's paranoia wearing off on him, or if it was a genuine concern, because he wasn't entirely certain he'd even seen the person in the first place. The monitor was a good distance away, of course. Before he could think about it too much, Techno typed something into the translator (a question, perhaps), holding it out for Barry to see.

Then several things happened at once.

The door handle turned from the outside, and something slammed into it, only stopped by fact that it was locked. Barry looked up from the translator abruptly, eyes widening, and yanked the translator away, tucking it into their cloak. "That's it, we gotta run-"

Inexplicably, they grabbed Techno's arm at that, starting to pull him towards the back of the room. Techno pulled back, twisting his arm from their grip and reaching for his blaster.

They cursed, apparently caught off-guard, and glanced between him and Philza. Without warning, they grabbed a weapon from a shelf (he assumed it was a weapon, at least; it looked something like a blaster, but a much older version) and pointed it at them, just for a second, before ducking behind the curtain that hung against the wall at the far end of the room. Philza had assumed it was just for decoration, but the sound of a door slamming a second later proved that assumption incorrect.

Of course Barry would have a back way out. But... it almost seemed like they'd been expecting the interruption, which was incredibly weird. And why would they try and take Techno with them, but not Philza? Were they trying to kidnap the human? And if so, why?

Something - or someone, maybe - hit against the door to the outside again. The hinges creaked under the strain, and Philza cursed, abandoning that train of thought. They'd have to find some way out.

He bolted upright, doing his best to ignore the dark spots dancing in his vision as he hurried over to the curtain Barry had gone through. No luck; the door behind it was locked. They wouldn't be able to get through in time. The other wall, though- there was a curtain there, too, so maybe...?

Techno apparently had the same idea, because he was holding the curtain out of the way when Philza turned to check. The space behind was dark and foreboding, the light from the hideout the only means of illumination. Quite frankly, it seemed like a very easy way to get trapped and - eventually - caught.

However, it was also their only real option. At least it seemed like this passage had a lockable door as well.

With a final look at the room, Philza bolted into the passageway, Techno close behind.

Chapter Text

The passageway was just as dark as it had appeared from the outside. With the door closed, they were plunged into complete darkness, only the thinnest line of light marking the outline of the door.

For a few seconds, there was only the sound of their breathing.

Then there was a loud bang. The people outside must have gotten through the door. Philza startled back, and Techno must've as well, given the faint thump from slightly closer to the door. It was almost inaudible over the sound of whoever was outside going through Barry's hideout, though.

They were safe, for now.

Of course, that was assuming the passage really did lead to an escape. Maybe it was a dead end. If it were, they could be stuck for a while.

He started to walk further down the narrow passage, one hand on each wall, only to pause as a faint glow lit up the space. Wires ran along the floor and looped gently down from where they were stapled to wooden supports. One wall was a smooth concrete, the other some sort of plasterboard. The space was much taller than he'd expected; the light wasn't quite strong enough to reach the ceiling, fading into darkness very rapidly. It might even run the entire height of the building. This likely wasn't intended to be a secret passage; the wires indicated they were literally just in the walls of whatever building they were in.

It would probably be important to know where they were, actually. Philza hadn't been on Camarvan often enough to have a good grasp of the overall layout, and it wouldn't do much good to get out if they didn't know where to go after that.

Someone tapped his shoulder, and he startled, spinning, only to realize it was just Techno. The human presented the tablet Philza had given him back on the ship - so that's what the light was from - with two words on it.

What now?

... damn it.

There weren't really a lot of options here, were there? They were pretty much lost, on a strange planet, and no one even knew they were there. Tubbo and Tommy- gods, they probably thought they were dead by now. Not to mention the fact that Lukas had known about the Aeolus. There was a non-zero chance the ship had been seized by now under some pretense or another. Hell, they wouldn't even need a pretense, what with the bounty on his head.

"Guess we just keep walking," Philza whispered aloud. "There has to be a way out somewhere. Then we can figure things out from there, yeah?"

It somehow sounded less like a solution when he put it into words, and that was only made worse when Techno just stared at him blankly. Because of course he didn't speak Common. Barry had taken their translator back, though, so they were back to using the translation program that didn't actually have the right language, which made this about ten times more difficult.

He was starting to feel a little lightheaded again and sank to the ground, wings pressing uncomfortably against the wall. The medpatch pulled at the skin of his wing and he had to squish his legs close to his chest to even fit in the small space. Take a deep breath, he told himself. Everything would be fine. It would have to be.

The faint glow dimmed even more, moving around as Techno slid to the floor next to him. There were a few minutes of relative silence as Philza focused entirely on keeping his breathing even. Then Techno held the tablet out to him again.

Where are we?

"I don't know," Philza started, then remembered to type it when Techno pushed the tablet into his hands. I don't know.

A pause as Techno took it back, read the answer, deleted it and typed something else, hesitating over the words for a long few moments. So right or left?

It was odd phrasing, but it got the point across pretty well. There were really only two options at this particular point. Go left, back where they'd come from, and risk running into whoever had invaded Barry's hideout. Or go right, towards somewhere with entirely unknown dangers, but also with the potential of safety or some new way out.

Right, I think

Do you need time?

Philza shook his head, taking one last deep breath before standing up again, carefully shaking his wings out to rid them of the dust and cobwebs that were gathered along the base of the walls. Onwards it was, then.

-----

The walk down the passage was a lot more difficult than Philza had initially expected. He wasn't sure how far they'd have to go to find a door (or if there was a door, other than the one they'd started at), and he didn't quite feel like taking the tablet from Techno, which meant the ground ahead was mostly unlit. His wings blocked most of the light, no matter how tightly he pulled them in, and the wound by his shoulder was starting to ache again. He kept nearly tripping over the wires on the ground, too, and occasionally he could swear he heard something scurry past. It was probably his imagination; unless the building was unoccupied, its residents would likely have taken care of any pest problems.

If it was occupied, of course, they'd have bigger problems to worry about. But that was something for future-Philza to deal with.

After an interminable amount time, he finally caught a glimpse of an interruption in the drywall. It wasn't much; there didn't appear to be a door or anything. There was a neat square of plasterboard that didn't quite line up with the design of that around it, and two pieces of wood had been attached to the nearest support, almost like a set of hinges. It looked like it would be pretty easy to get through, at least.

However, it was also leading into the building, not out of it. The plasterboard was likely to be the interior wall. Philza had been hoping the door would be on the concrete wall, because then they wouldn't have to find their way out of whatever building this was.

Still. It was a door, and at the very least, it proved that they hadn't just trapped themselves by taking this path.

He pushed against the wall gently, then harder when it didn't want to move. Techno joined him and a second later, something clattered on the other side and the section of drywall starting tipping forwards. Philza cursed, grabbing at it to make sure it didn't fall as well, only to hasten its descent to the floor.

Techno snorted behind him, a sound that Philza was pretty sure meant amusement. He usually did that whenever Philza made similar little mistakes.

"You try catching a fuckin' wall, mate," Philza shot back lightly, stepping into the room and trying to avoid the drywall. There was a light in the middle of the ceiling, with a pull cord dangling at about head height. He pulled it on, blinking at the sudden brightness, and surveyed the damage.

The room was small, but not cramped; or at least, it wouldn't be cramped if it weren't for the fact that nearly all the floor space was currently covered in plasterboard and whatever had been on the other side of the wall. A shelf on one side of the room held various cleaning chemicals; must be a janitorial closet, then. Definitely one of the better possibilities as far as secret passageway exits went.

As far as the door they'd come through was concerned... it had certainly seen better days, but the plasterboard was somehow still in one piece! Albeit a little cracked. Chalky dust floated around near the floor, settling on every available surface.

With a bit of help from Techno, Philza managed to push the drywall panel back up and into place, sealing off the wall passageway. The panel fit neatly against the wooden supports on the other side, and when he stepped back to see how it looked (definitely not almost tripping on a broom in the process), it was nearly impossible to tell where the door was.

Aside from the hairline cracks running through that part of the wall.

Which was totally fine, it'd be covered up by the brooms anyway. No one had to know.

"Guess we should probably get out of here," he said aloud, brushing stray drywall dust from his hands. "If we hurry, we might be able to get to the Aeolus before someone else does." Assuming, of course, the government hadn't already taken it. At the moment, though, that was their simplest getaway option, as well as the one that would be easiest to communicate.

He started to open the door, but Techno grabbed onto his arm, shaking his head. The human held out his translator. What do we do?

Right. Back to this.

We're trying to get to the Aeolus, he typed in return. We'll have to figure out where we are first, then how to get to the landing dock. Then we leave as fast as possible. He waited for Techno to look over the translation for almost a minute before the human nodded slowly. Hopefully he got the general idea.

Philza went to open the door again, and Techno didn't stop him this time, just waited close behind. Outside of the storage closet, fluorescent lights reflected off white tile, and he had to blink a few times before his eyes adjusted properly.

What he saw was... quite encouraging, actually, which was a nice change of pace. The door opened into what looked like a hospital. White walls and white tile floor, a sign on the wall pointing to different sections, soft music playing faintly overhead. The air was just a little chilly and smelled of disinfectant.

All things considered, ending up in a hospital was far from the worst outcome. Hospitals were generally considered places of sanctuary. Law enforcement wasn't allowed to make arrests of anyone who was there for treatment, and between Philza's wing and Techno's arm, they'd definitely be safe for at least a little while.

He turned to tell Techno as much, only to realize that the human was still standing, frozen, just behind the threshold of the door.

"You alright, mate?"

At the hesitant question, Techno looked up, locking eyes with him. He looked terrified. It was quite possibly the most emotion Philza had ever seen from him. The human shook his head, stepping back shakily.

"It's safe," Philza tried, taking another step into the white tile hall as if to prove it. "Come on, mate. It's going to be okay." It occurred to him that this was almost like talking to a cat or something, using a soft tone and hoping the reassurance would somehow transfer without understanding of the words. Although... maybe there was a reason the human wasn't following. Maybe there was something in hospitals that specifically hurt humans, like something they were allergic to. Or maybe he'd had a bad experience in a hospital before?

Dammit, they'd have to figure this out first. Philza stepped back into the closet, holding out a hand for the tablet and typing Is it dangerous?

It's very bad here, the human typed back.

We won't be here for long. Is that alright?

A pause, then Techno nodded, slipping the translator into a pocket and taking out his blaster instead. Which- it really wasn't a good idea to be carrying a gun in a hospital, but if that helped the human feel safe enough to actually move, it was better than nothing. At least it seemed Techno's hesitation wasn't based on physical danger; it must be something about the general atmosphere.

As they stepped back into the hallway, though, Philza realized just how quiet it was. Normally, hospitals - especially on a more lawless planet - were constantly busy to some extent. Somehow, though, he was pretty sure he hadn't noticed any signs of life throughout their entire time in the building. The only real noise was the faint music from the speakers. And besides that, the wall falling had made a decently loud noise... and no one had come to check on it yet.

It was probably just unnecessary paranoia, Philza told himself. This might just be a less-used wing of the hospital; the nearby doors were marked only by letter and number combinations, which seemed to indicate they were either individual treatment rooms or storage of some kind. Not exactly a place that would get a lot of traffic, right?

They hadn't gone very far down the hallway, but Techno, walking ahead of Philza, suddenly stopped, then turned abruptly to one of the rooms to the side. The door was closed and, apparently, locked, and he looked to Philza for a split second before going to check the next closest door. Also locked. Philza was about to question him when the click of boots reached his ears. Someone was nearby. A security guard, judging by the sound. There was a corner a good few yards ahead and were certainly out of sight from here.

But also, they didn't have to worry about getting caught. This was a hospital. They were injured. Running into someone who worked here would, more likely than not, be a help to them.

He couldn't exactly communicate that to Techno, though, and the human's strange behavior had put him on edge. He found himself following along as Techno hurried to an alcove of sorts formed by the entrance to a set of windowless double doors, pressing himself against the wall as if to hide from the guard.

This couldn't possibly work.

The guard's footsteps grew louder, and Philza caught a snippet of them humming along to the music. He'd gone to the far side of the door and got to watch as the security guard walked into view-

And kept walking, not even bothering to glance their way.

Techno visibly relaxed at that, but held out an arm to stop Philza from leaving their little hiding spot. He held up a hand, silently counting down on his fingers. At one, another security guard appeared, this one wearing shoes that didn't click and distinctly not humming, but still just as unobservant as the first. The two guards continued down the hall, and Techno nodded, quickly slipping from the hiding place.

Philza trailed behind him, entirely unsure of what to think. He was almost treating this like some sort of heist, as if they couldn't afford to let anyone know they were there. Which was all well and good, but they'd have to find some way out of this place, and for some reason, there didn't seem to be exit signs anywhere.

Really shitty hospital design, honestly. It was almost like they didn't want anyone getting out in emergencies.

Or maybe...

Barry's theory about illegal experiments came to mind, and Philza shoved the idea away abruptly, because that was just stupid. The conspiracy theorist hadn't given a single piece of evidence, and Techno himself hadn't been taking them seriously in the slightest.

From somewhere nearby, a door opened, then closed. The sound of a casual conversation echoed down the hall. It seemed like they were getting closer to an occupied wing of the hospital! Philza picked up his pace a bit, ready to get away from the oddly silent white-tiled corridor behind them. Techno seemed just as eager as him, speeding up into a jog, then a run.

Then the first person appeared from a doorway up ahead, and he started sprinting.

It was at about that point that Philza realized the human was trying to get the hell out. At approximately the same moment, he decided screw it, might as well get out as fast as possible. There was just something off about this place. Besides that, even if this was a hospital, Techno clearly wasn't going to stick around long enough to get either medical treatment or sanctuary.

He started sprinting after Techno, passing by the doorway and counting three or four people in his peripheral vision, all of whom were wearing lab coats and staring in confusion. One of them pulled out a walkie-talkie, speaking into it hurriedly. The only word he caught with any clarity was "Intruders", which pretty much dispelled any chance of this being a hospital.

Techno reached a door ahead and flung it open, and sunlight - tinted reddish-gold, the sun must be setting (or rising? What time even was it?) - streamed into the building. Philza was a good distance behind, and he tried to run faster, but his vision was starting to get all weird again.

Something sharp hit between his shoulder blades. He stumbled, then turned to see one of the lab coat-wearing people holding a gods-damned dart gun. Yep, definitely not a hospital.

He realized the dart was a sedative at approximately the same time as he collapsed, everything going dark.

Chapter Text

"- would appreciate information as to his whereabouts."

Philza blinked, feeling suddenly dizzy. He wasn't sure... of anything, really. What the fuck just happened.

"Philza?"

He was sitting at a table in a room that looked almost like something out of a hospital. The light was bright, almost painfully so, and the smell of disinfectant was strangely familiar. Someone was sitting across the table from him; they had on a uniform, and that, combined with the room's appearance, gave the immediate impression that this was an interrogation.

He tried to think back and figure out what, exactly, had led to this, but came up with a blank.

"Do you need me to repeat the question?"

"What the fuck happened?" He asked bluntly.

The person sitting across from him sighed, clicking a pen in their hand. They were holding a clipboard, tilted upwards at an angle that meant he couldn't see what was on it. "Happened when?"

"Now. And before this. What's going on, and why am I here?"

"If this is your way of avoiding the question, it isn't going to work."

Philza shook his head, immediately regretting it as the world went blurry for a second. "I'm serious, mate. I don't..." he trailed off, unsure of how exactly to approach the situation. Generally speaking, giving out too much information was a bad idea. He tried to think back again. Was there anything he shouldn't mention? Anything that might get him in trouble?

There was the general pirating activities, of course. And- oh, and Techno. Illegally transporting humans was also something he shouldn't admit to.

Wait. Shit. Where was Techno?

The realizations hit a second later. That was where he recognized the disinfectant smell from. He and Techno had been in a... well, it certainly didn't seem like much of a hospital. Not anymore, at least. There was the dart gun, and Techno had possibly (hopefully) made it out, but that left Philza in government custody, apparently.

"I think I need a minute," he said, both because he needed to get his cover story straight and because he still felt pretty out of it, likely thanks to whatever they'd shot him with.

"I apologize, I was under the impression that you'd sufficiently recovered. Please take as long as you need. I'm not in any hurry, I promise."

Philza took a deep breath to see if that would help. It did, though not nearly as much as he would've liked. His interrogator did, indeed, seem to be quite patient, and seemed to be drawing something on the margin of the paper while they waited. And at a quick glance, the room around them seemed a lot less like a holding cell and more like... a hospital room. Which- of course it did. It was totally normal for hospitals to shoot people with tranquilizers.

The table and chairs were bolted to the floor, though, and there wasn't anything throwable or otherwise dangerous in the room that wasn't similarly secured. And that would imply that the room had been carefully secured so as to keep any inhabitants from becoming violent and trying to throw things, or hurt themselves, or hurt someone else.

Which could indicate a hospital. In theory. More likely, though, this was some sort of holding cell, and this was an interrogation, and Philza was not going to trust anything he was told. Or give up information, if that's what they were after.

... what were they after?

He supposed he wasn't going to get an answer to that if he didn't bite the bullet and start the conversation already. It had already been a few minutes and, true to their word, the other person seemed entirely unbothered by the wait, as if they could sit in silence for hours.

"Who are you, and where am I?" He started, because those seemed like the most important questions to ask.

"You can call me Diaz. She/her. I'm a member of the Human Safety Committee and-"

"Oh, fuck off," Philza snapped, almost before he could consciously process the answer. Of course it was the damn Human Safety Committee again. At this point, he wasn't sure what they actually did, but it sure as hell wasn't protecting humans. Diaz didn't respond to the outburst, just raised an eyebrow, so he continued, "You guys tried to kill me twice. Whatever you want from me, you're not getting it."

Diaz sighed, looking down at the clipboard in her hands. "I'm honestly not sure what you're talking about," she started. "We did receive a report of unauthorized actions on the part of one of our members in the past few days regarding the case of Techno Blade; that was... Lukas Hounden, I believe. He was removed from service before the incident involving his death - I believe you may have run into him within that time. He was particularly invested in the case, which led to him using excessive force and overly harsh questioning tactics, and subsequently being removed from his post. We suspected him of continuing work as a sort of vigilante and were in the process of taking him into custody."

Lukas... the name sounded familiar, but it took a moment for Philza to place it. That was the guy who'd shot him. The one Techno had promptly murdered. Saying that Lukas hadn't been following Committee orders just sounded like a cover-up, though.

"I'm not aware of any other instance in which you might have been targeted, either by accident or by vigilante action," Diaz continued. "And I did look. Given your... past, I assumed you would have a hard time trusting an organization such as ours, and wanted to ensure that you hadn't experienced anything that may have prejudiced you against us. It appears I was mistaken. But yes; Hounden was not working with us at the time, and I'm sorry you got the impression that the HSC is that sort of organization."

"It wasn't just that," Philza countered. "Shortly before that incident, three of your ships opened fire on me after they'd confirmed I had a human on board."

Diaz made a note of something on the clipboard, then said, "Unfortunately, that's been a recurring problem. You're not the first to mention it. The Human Safety Committee doesn't have spaceships; we're not authorized for interplanetary missions, and logistically, space fights are a lot more dangerous than simply allowing a suspect to land on a planet first. Did you happen to catch registration numbers? Names? Anything that could help us identify them?"

... that was a difficult question to answer. Because no, Philza hadn't noticed anything like that, partly because they'd almost immediately started a shootout with the other ships, and that didn't seem like a good thing to admit.

"I didn't, no."

"... right. Well, I can say with certainty that the ships you encountered were not ours."

That didn't change anything, Philza reminded himself. This was still a government agency and he had no reason to trust them. There was every chance Diaz was simply lying, trying to smooth over the past incidents to make him think he could give them information.

When he didn't respond, Diaz continued, "Apologies again about the sedation. Aftereffects tend to be different for different people, though memory issues are fairly common. I assumed that you were fully conscious earlier, but I think you missed the first part of my introduction, regarding why you're here."

"I did miss that, yeah."

"Alright then. This is regarding the case of Techno Blade, an escaped convict from one of Earth's holding facilities. Formerly convicted of a decent list of crimes, including two counts of murder; we're currently looking to pursue a third count on that charge, due to the incident with Hounden. You were his last known contact, and as such, we're requesting any information you have on his currrent whereabouts."

Philza blinked. "Sorry, what? He's not a murderer, mate." ... aside from the incident with Lukas. But in that case, Techno had been defending Philza, so did it really count?

Instead of directly countering him, Diaz flipped through a few pages on the clipboard, then pulled something off and placed a few papers, face down, on the table. "Crime scene photos. You don't have to look if you don't want to; it's not pretty. Point being, we have evidence, and he's already been convicted. The HSC's role here is simply to bring him to justice."

He didn't turn the papers over. Not because he trusted Diaz, not in the slightest, but because... well, despite his immediate denial, Philza knew Techno was fully capable of killing someone without the slightest hesitation. It made sense, then, that he'd have killed before, and possibly even been convicted.

Fuck. Maybe Philza was on the wrong side here.

Still, there was something that just... wasn't sitting right. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn't used to siding with the government, on anything. Maybe it was the thought that, even if he did help them out, he hadn't been guaranteed his own safety. Maybe it was something else entirely.

"It would be great if you could help us out," Diaz prompted after a moment, breaking into his train of thought. "Anything works. Names, people, places..."

"What're you going to do if you find him?" Philza asked.

"Return him to his home planet," came the immediate answer. "The HSC doesn't technically have jurisdiction on any matters relating to the human justice system. We do have some leeway in cases like these, since we have several humans on staff to serve as spokespeople for human legal systems. Myself included. This system is designed to ensure no harm comes to humans, while also allowing us to move swiftly and with discretion when necessary."

It seemed like a well-practiced response. Very neutral. Something that set the consequences of this choice firmly out of Philza's hands, transferring them to an unknown human government. If he were to give up whatever information he had (little though it was), he could turn away and pretend not to see the consequences at all.

In other words, Diaz was definitely lying.

Which didn't make all that much difference, honestly, because what was he supposed to do about it? Tell her to fuck off? Refuse to talk? That wouldn't do much, and the HSC had already proved they didn't care if he lived or died- because despite what Diaz may have told him, they'd certainly tried killing him before.

"And... if I do give you information. I get to leave? No strings attached?"

Diaz nodded. "No strings attached," she repeated. "We've confiscated the Aeolus to leave Blade with one less getaway option. We're not sure if he can fly a spacecraft or not, but better safe than sorry. However, if you provide us with information leading to his capture, we will return your ship to you, as well as dropping all current bounties."

That was quite a tempting offer. It was also incredibly out of proportion to the information he was being asked about, so Philza was pretty sure that this, too, was a lie. Unfortunately.

So giving information was out of the question; it would put Techno in danger, and likely, the only reward Philza would get would be... jail, probably. On the other hand, though, refusing to say anything would likely end the exact same way. Another option was to give misleading information, or to stall for long enough that he could get out of wherever the hell this was. Which- escaping wasn't a guarantee, not by a long shot, and if he failed, it would probably end a lot worse than getting shot with a tranquilizer.

... that did, however, seem to be the best option. At least for now.

"Can I have time to think it over?" He tried.

Diaz hissed a breath through her teeth, giving him an apologetic look. "We're on a pretty short timeline," she said. "You were out for longer than expected, and given Blade's track record, he may already be off-planet by now. If he managed to stow away aboard a departing spacecraft, that is. If he leaves the planet, we no longer have jurisdiction, and finding him again would be a nightmare. Our best chance of catching him is now." Her voice softened, then, almost sympathetic. "You can't let misplaced loyalties or attachments get in the way here. Blade is dangerous, and he needs to be brought to justice for the crimes you know he committed."

"Misplaced-?" Philza knew he shouldn't say anything. Should play it safe and keep his options open. But Diaz was still pretending to be the good guy, and - regardless of what Techno might've done - that was not true. "You tried to fucking kill me, twice, and Techno's the problem?"

"As I said, those incidents you mentioned were not-"

"You said that, yeah, and I don't believe-"

Diaz set the clipboard down on the table, hard, and the sudden noise startled Philza into silence. The facade of careful friendliness was gone. "Listen to me for a goddamn second," she snapped, then took a breath. "I want to be on your side here. Really, I do. But you're not helping your case here. I didn't want to bring this up, but- well, frankly, your other options are a lot worse."

"I'm sure they are," Philza snipped back sarcastically. "You'll what- throw me in jail? Shoot me again? I can live with that, mate. I've lived through worse. And you can't fuckin' kill me. I have friends, and if I go missing, they'll start asking questions."

It was a bluff, mostly. He didn't particularly want to get shot. And depending on how morally bankrupt these guys actually were, torture might not be off the table, and that would suck.

At least it felt good - cathartic, almost - to snap back at Diaz, to pretend he had the upper hand.

"You mean your friends on the Boreas?" Diaz asked, dangerously calm, and that shattered the illusion entirely. "The ones we've had under surveillance for days now?" She paused, as if to allow for a response. "You underestimate how far we're willing to go," she continued, upon not receiving one. Her tone was low and deliberate and nearly chilling. "That's a mistake, and one that I'll allow you to correct, right now, for the sake of your life and the lives of your friends. I ask once again: do you have information on the whereabouts of Techno Blade?"

Go to hell, Philza almost said, but bit it back at the last second. The stakes had just been raised pretty dramatically. He wasn't about to get Tommy and Tubbo caught in the crossfire of this.

Something else had also caught his attention, though. Something that made him realize the question he should have asked long before now.

You underestimate how far we're willing to go.

What were they even trying to accomplish? They were trying to find Techno, clearly, and Diaz had stated they were going to bring him back to Earth to face justice there. But if so- why the threats? Why the surveillance? Why go to such extreme measures, even to the point of attempted murder, for the sake of a single human? And besides all that, they'd nearly killed the human as well in the attack on the Aeolus. None of it made sense. Not if he assumed Diaz had been telling the truth about their end goal here.

That was an assumption he was entirely willing to discard, of course. Still, the problem remained: why was the Human Safety Committee so incredibly focused on one human? Out of however many humans there were in the universe, they seemed hellbent on making sure Techno, specifically, was found.

"Well?" Diaz prompted, and Philza had the brief thought that he could try and attack her. That was short-lived; he was pretty sure his reactions were still screwed up from the sedative, and the chances of Diaz having a weapon were quite high.

"I think we both know I'm not getting out of here alive," he said finally. "And you know I'm not going to give you anything useful. So what's this really about?"

Diaz raised an eyebrow impassively. "That's how you're doing this? Really?"

"Look, mate, I just want to know why you guys care so much. It's one human. He can't be enough of a threat to risk all of- of this. Not if all you want is justice."

"You're really-?" Diaz broke off, glancing to the side. "One second." There were a few moments of silence; she was clearly listening to something. Probably some sort of earpiece system, given that Philza couldn't hear anything. Then she swore softly, standing up. "Right. I'm gonna have to put this on hold for now, something's come up. You have until I'm back to make your decision. Stay right here, understand?"

"What's going on?"

"Nothing you need to worry about, as long as you stay put." With that entirely unhelpful answer, Diaz walked over to the door and pulled it open, clearly annoyed. Philza caught a glimpse of red light in the hall beyond before she slammed the door behind her.

The first thing he did when she was gone was stand up, which he immediately regretted as a wave of dizziness and nausea hit. He leaned against the table for support until the room stopped spinning. Whatever they'd given him must've been pretty strong.

Second thing, though, was planning his escape. Because clearly stalling wasn't going to work, and at this point, Philza was absolutely certain there weren't any good alternatives to be had, so he'd just have to get out of this on his own.

A quick scan of the room showed nothing of value. It was too much to hope they'd left a blaster or a keycard or some other helpful thing lying around, he supposed. Diaz had taken the clipboard with her, which was unfortunate. Would it have been even slightly useful? Probably not, but it would've been better than nothing. And right now, he had nothing.

Which wasn't good.

He had no idea what was outside the small room, so it would be impossible to prepare. Not to mention the fact that he still wasn't sure how to get out of the room in the first place. The best option would be to try the door, of course, so he walked over to see if he could possibly pick the lock or something. If it was a keycard system, that might be a little trickier, but maybe-

The door opened easily when he tried the handle. Diaz must've forgotten to lock it.

That was one obstacle out of the way, but the hall beyond was- chaotic, to say the least. There weren't any audible alarms, but it sounded like there was a gunfight somewhere, and red lights on the walls flashed slowly, brightening and dimming in succession. Many footsteps were echoing nearby, and there were occasional shouts from various people.

Was the place under attack?

Stupid question, it definitely was. In theory, that was a good thing. Philza wanted to get out; this was the perfect distraction. Not to mention, the attackers might be allies of some sort! They definitely weren't fans of the government.

... or maybe they'd assume he was part of all this, shoot first, and ask questions later.

"Hey!" Someone shouted, and he turned to see someone marching towards him, blaster drawn. "You with the HSC or no?" They were wearing a uniform similar to Diaz's, which... wasn't great.

"I am, yeah," Philza lied easily. The hall was too long to run for it, not with the risk of getting shot. Better to try and blend in. "What's going on? I must've missed something."

Thankfully, they bought it. "We're under attack," they started as they came up to him. "Someone blew a hole in the west wing. There's at least four of them, probably more, although-" they paused, giving Philza a closer look. "... hold on."

"Oh shit- behind you, mate!" Philza said quickly, then, when they turned to look, punched them in the face.

It wasn't super effective. All it did was make his knuckles sting and draw a noise of confusion from the HSC agent. Philza hadn't planned on knocking the guy out or anything, though; he was hoping they'd drop their blaster, or at least loosen their grip- and it worked.

He ripped the blaster from their hand and immediately started sprinting away as fast as he could. He was sure the agent would be quick to follow, but they just shouted after him, then apparently decided it wasn't worth chasing him any further. A quick glance over his shoulder showed they'd thrown up their hands in apparent exasperation as they walked the opposite direction.

Fair enough.

Philza slowed his pace a little, scanning the walls for any signs that might point towards the west wing. The hall he was on was lined with doors on one side, with a hallway on the other side that likely led to a different wing of the building. No signs though. Absolutely no indication of where he was. There was a series of explosions from the direction of the branching hallway, though, so he was definitely not going that way.

The best option, aside from that, was to just start going through the rooms to see if there was anything useful. A shield of some sort would be nice. Or a map of the place. Anything, really.

He tried one of the doors and immediately realized a flaw in his plan: it was locked. As was the next he tried. Third time's the charm, though, and the third door opened-

Just as the lights went out completely.

It was a bit of a relief, honestly. The flashing red lights made it really hard to see and added to the general sense of confusion. Still, the power going out meant that the room he'd just walked into was now completely dark, and finding anything was going to be impossible.

There was a curse from somewhere in the room, then a small penlight turned on, illuminating a set of screens and a keyboard. Someone else was in the room. Philza froze for a second, torn between attacking the person or leaving before they noticed him, but the light darted across the room to land on him in the next moment, and there was a startled exclamation.

"Sorry, mate, didn't mean to barge in. I think I'm lost," he said quickly, before they could ask what he was doing there. "Just started here and all. It's a bit hard to get used to. Haven't gotten the hang of navigation just yet."

"You and everyone else," the person muttered, turning the penlight back to the keyboard and tapping a few keys. There was a hum from some sort of machinery. "Damn power outage isn't helping, that's for sure. Give me a minute to get the systems back online and I'll get you where you need to go."

"Thanks, mate! You're a lifesaver."

"Don't mention it. I swear, no one ever knows where anything is, and it's like- put up some damn signs, yeah? But no, everyone just asks me to tell them where to go, because it's so much easier to just ask the security person! She's got this handled! Not like you can't just memorize the damn map-"

She'd mostly trailed off by that point, typing more things with an intense ferocity that was clearly directed at her fellow colleagues. The lights powered back on a few seconds later; they were dim, but it made the rest of the room visible, at least. It pretty much looked like what Philza would've expected from a security room. A few filing cabinets, monitors set up on one wall, a table in the middle with a few papers and a coffee cup on it.

One of the monitors had what looked to be a map on it, and the security guard nodded to it, gesturing for Philza to come take a look. "West wing's been taken over, I think. We've got confirmed sightings of four distinct individuals, with a fifth suspected - maybe more, honestly, it's been a mess. Everyone's been talking over each other on the comms. Did you get assigned somewhere to go?"

"Was I supposed to get a comm?" Philza asked, hoping that wouldn't blow his cover. He was honestly surprised she hadn't questioned him at all.

Thankfully, she just sighed, cursing under her breath and turning back to the monitors. "Yeah, but don't worry about it. They never tell the new guys anything. A lot of the early days is just trial and error and hoping you don't screw up too badly. And I'm gonna be honest, comms are a hot mess right now. Everyone's talking over each other. They keep asking me questions, but at this point, I'm just not answering, because they're not listening anyway."

Philza nodded sympathetically. "Yeah, I get it. It looks like you're doing a good job, though!"

"Thanks." The security guard studied the map for a few seconds. There were dots moving along the various corridors, and Philza realized that the place was a lot bigger than he'd initially guessed. He could've wandered around for hours without finding a way out of the maze. "You'll probably want to go over here," she said finally, pointing to a spot on the map next to a few of the dots. "There's some senior agents over here, they'll be able to help you out." She pointed to another spot on the map, then traced a line. "We're here, so you'll want to go this way. Or- wait, no, that won't work."

"Why not?"

"Diaz is on that route. She's gonna throw you right in the thick of things in the blink of an eye. Honestly surprised she's still alive, the explosions from the west wing are-"

As if on cue, there was another set of explosions.

The security guard squinted at the screen, then sighed. "Still alive. Damn. Anyway," she continued, "You're in a bad spot right now. West wing's just across the hall. Diaz is... somewhere nearby, and if she sees you, she might just send you in to confront the attackers directly."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I know she seems nice, everyone thinks she is at first, but humans are tricky like that. Or- maybe it's just her, honestly. Haven't really met any other humans, aside from..." she trailed off. "You know."

"Right." Philza absolutely did not know.

"Anyway, if you take a left when you leave here, then make a run for it, she can't really stop you," she continued. "Keep going until you reach the first intersection, then take a right. You should find some senior officers over there. They're either setting up a blockade or hoping Diaz'll somehow take care of things before they actually have to do their jobs."

"Great, thanks mate!"

"Anytime."

Chapter Text

Armed with this new information and the blaster he'd found, Philza left the security room and immediately headed in the direction he'd just been told not to go. Because he was nothing if not a rule-breaker.

Like the guard had said, Diaz was at one end of the hall, yelling something in an earpiece to be heard over the sound of yet more explosions (whoever was attacking sure did like blowing things up, apparently). She wasn't paying attention, so Philza darted towards the hallway that supposedly led towards the west wing, hoping she wouldn't turn around in the next two seconds.

And it worked!

... sort of. The hallway had an alcove at the entrance, formed by a set of double doors, which meant he was out of sight of Diaz. However, the doors didn't so much as budge when he tried to open them. Probably some sort of lockdown protocol.

He swore under his breath, trying again to force the doors open and only succeeding at making his shoulder ache at the impact. So much for that plan.

Before he could think of something else to try, though, he caught the sound of voices behind the door, coming rapidly closer, along with running footsteps. His heart skipped a beat and he pressed himself against the wall, hoping that somehow that would be good enough to avoid being spotted.

Unexpectedly, the door swung outwards, towards him, and he realized (with some chagrin) that it was not, in fact, a push door. That would explain why it hadn't opened. "-in this mess, you're going to get them out of it," someone was saying, and it only took a second for Philza to place the voice. Tommy. Which was weird, because he could've sworn Essempi was days of travel away from Camarvan, so it didn't make sense that Tommy could even be there. Unless- how long had he been out?

Tommy was already halfway into the hall before Philza thought to say anything, apparently not seeing him at all (despite how bad his hiding place was). The next person through the door did notice, though.

"Hold on, he's right here," Barry said hurriedly, coming to a halt right outside the doors and giving a nod to Philza. "We should get out of here."

Tommy turned before they'd finished talking, running straight into Philza and giving him a quick, crushing hug that set the world spinning again for a few moments. "I thought you were dead," he declared. Then, without elaborating on that point, "And we can't go back yet, we're supposed to be the distraction."

"Sorry, what's going on, mate?" Philza asked, trying to keep his voice down. Without the explosions masking sounds, there was all the more chance someone might notice something was up and come find them. "Distraction for what?"

"We're burning this place to the ground!"

Tommy sounded far too excited about that, and he had an edge of vengeful glee in his voice that was... concerning. It didn't help when Barry added, "I've been planning this for months. Maybe years, actually. Had the explosives gathered and everything. It was just a matter of timing, and making sure I'd be able to get all the humans out safely."

So this was about the human experimentation thing again. Philza would've been skeptical, but at this point, Barry's conspiracy theory actually made a lot of sense. More than whatever bullshit story the Human Safety Committee was trying to tell him, anyway. Though speaking of which-

"Have you seen Techno anywhere?" he asked.

"Yeah, he's with Ranboo. They're rigging the rest of the place. Actually-" Tommy paused, pulling out a walkie talkie. "Crimson here, we found him. Can we still do the distraction?"

After a second, Tubbo's voice crackled through. "Yeah, I don't see why not. Should have plenty of time. As long as Philza's up for it, obviously."

"Perfect," Tommy said with a grin that seemed just a little too cheerful given the circumstances. "We just gotta find you a blaster, then."

"Already got one, actually. And what exactly are we doing?"

"Just shoot everything." Barry seemed slightly resigned to say that. "Not the most sophisticated plan, but it'll work. We're just trying to buy time for the humans to rig the other explosives we brought. This place seems to be empty enough, they've just had a skeleton crew recently. Not sure if there were still experiments going on. Seems like this particular location was just on standby, though- some government was poking around recently, asking too many questions, and they decided to quiet things down for a while."

Philza snorted at that. "Quiet? Guess we're going to have to ruin their plans, then."

"Yeah, that's what the TNT's for," Tommy said, completely serious, as though Philza had somehow neglected to notice that fact.

"And you're sure Techno and… Ranboo, was it?" That got a nod. "You're sure they'll be alright?"

"The government's not gonna kill them," Tommy said, with a glance at Barry.

They shrugged. "Most likely not. The Human Safety Committee's already expended enough resources tracking them down, not to mention all the research they'd lose if they killed their subjects. If anything, they'd be recaptured- but we're not going to let that happen, obviously."

"Obviously," Tommy repeated.

That was when an intercom crackled to life overhead. It wasn't particularly loud or clear; still, the voice that echoed through the halls was (unfortunately) familiar.

"This is Commander Diaz of the HSC. We apprehended your human companions trying to further your misguided attempts at disruption. If you would like to ensure their safety, I would recommend surrendering immediately."

"Shit," Barry muttered under their breath, a sentiment that was simultaneously echoed by Tommy, Philza, and Tubbo (over the walkie talkie).

"She's bluffing, right?" Tommy said, somewhere between a statement and a question. "Humans are pretty tough, and there's no way there were enough guards in that section to outnumber them."

It was certainly tempting to think so. And Philza was fully aware that it could be a bluff; in which case, surrendering or jumping into danger would only play into her hands. However, Diaz seemed pretty tough herself, and if Techno and Ranboo hadn't been expecting it-

"Do we have any way of confirming where they are?"

Tommy pressed the button on his walkie talkie. "Bee? Did you hear-"

"Already on it. Trying to find a video feed-" Tubbo broke off for a second. "Oh-kay. Yeah, she's not bluffing. They're not dead, or even hurt really, she's just got them locked in a room. Triggered some remote mechanism so the door won't open. I can try and get it open from here, but no guarantees. You'll have to figure out a backup plan."

Okay. Alright. This was fine.

"Also, Diaz is, like- right down the hall. You'll have to be careful."

Philza wasn't sure how he'd forgotten that small fact. Maybe it was because, instead of yelling over like a normal person, Diaz had elected to use the intercom system. She was almost certainly within earshot; most of the surrounding noise had died down at this point, and sound carried easily in the tiled corridors. That would make it pretty difficult to come up with plans of any sort.

"We have blasters," Tommy pointed out unnecessarily. "We could just shoot her."

Barry darted forward to get a look at the corridor beyond, and ducked back almost as quickly. "Damn, she's right there. She's far enough away to get behind cover, though. She's also not the only enemy in the building. There's nothing to say that if we take her out, no one else can go and hurt the humans in her place."

"Well- we can't just surrender."

Philza was inclined to agree with that. The problem was, they had to figure out a viable plan first, and that wasn't looking likely. The only alternate solution thus far still basically boiled down to "shoot everything".

"Is there a way we could pretend to surrender, then stall until Tubbo gets the humans out?" He suggested after a moment's silence, careful to keep his voice low. "That way she doesn't have leverage."

"And what if she just shoots us?" Barry countered. "The humans at least have some value to them. We're just loose ends, and the HSC really doesn't care how many people they have to kill to keep this stuff a secret."

The silence after that stretched on even longer, to the point where Philza was starting to expect another warning over the intercom at any moment. Then-

"We don't all have to go," Barry started slowly.

"We're not going to fucking sacrifice someone," Tommy hissed, catching onto what they were saying at the same moment Philza did.

"Look, it just makes sense. I go, act as a distraction, you both run. What's the worst that could happen?"

Tommy immediately started to protest, but Philza tuned him out, trying to think of what really could happen. If they sent one person instead of going as a group. And the thing was… it wasn't the worst idea they had. Not by a long shot. Though that was more due to the fact that they still didn't have any good ideas.

"What if she shoots the person?" He asked, interrupting Tommy. "Then we're right back where we started."

"Yes, but we've bought time," Barry emphasized. "And besides, if she can't get us all in one fell swoop, that might give some protection. She might want to use one of us as further leverage. And- we could say we want to negotiate a deal or something. That'd give you time to find the humans, get them to safety- and just like that, problem solved!"

"This building's huge, mate," Philza said. "We wouldn't find them just by wandering around."

Tommy's walkie talkie buzzed. "Guys, you should figure something out quick," Tubbo said, sounding distracted. "Doesn't look like I'm gonna get this door open anytime soon."

"Where are the humans, Bee?" Barry asked hurriedly. Tommy repeated the question into the walkie talkie.

"They're…" He trailed off. "Y'know what, I'm just gonna send you the map, Crimson. Good luck."

Tommy pulled up the map on his handheld communicator (which- why they weren't using that in the first place was unclear, but they'd made it work, apparently). There was a helpful dotted line leading down the corridors, ending somewhere in what looked to be another wing of the building entirely. Not too far away, thankfully, but not nearly close enough for comfort.

Before they could discuss any further, though, Barry pushed past both of them and ran into the corridor, shouting, "Don't shoot! I surrender!"

"What are you-" Tommy started to hiss after them, but Philza pulled him back. "Philza, they're-"

"Sacrificing themself, I know." Philza wasn't sure at what point he'd realized that Barry had already made the decision for them. Still, they'd seemed pretty set on the idea of sending one person, and… well, out of all the things they'd thought of doing, this was the one that seemed least likely to result in everyone dying instantly. "Give them a few seconds to distract Diaz, then we'll go find Techno and Ranboo."

Tommy swore under his breath a few times, but when the sound of conversation (not gunfire, thankfully) reached them from the other end of the hall, he didn't hesitate to follow Philza in the opposite direction. He took the lead once they'd rounded the corner and were out of eyesight.

Running was… not fun. For an indeterminate amount of time, Philza's world narrowed to the red lights flashing, the pounding of his feet, and trying not to simply collapse as lightheadedness lingered threateningly somewhere in the back of his mind.

Somehow, though, they made it to a door that looked like any other in the building- save for the fact that it had been blown completely off its hinges.

"Fuck."

Tommy didn't bother saying anything (smart, Philza was already regretting wasting a single ounce of breath on speech) before turning and starting back the way they'd come. Philza paused, leaning against the wall to try and catch his breath. His wing was starting to ache again, on top of everything else, and for the first time in his life he wished he'd chosen a more boring profession. Literally anything other than space pirate. What was he even thinking with that one-

From somewhere else in the building, blaster fire echoed again. Someone screamed; impossible to tell who. It was coming from the general direction of where they'd left Barry, though, which was not a good sign.

Philza took another second to make sure he wasn't actually about to collapse (and to run through a whole string of curses in his head) before turning to run right back the way he'd come.

He didn't get all the way there before running into Tommy. The teen seemed to be fine, aside from a not-insignificant amount of panic on his face.

"Barry got shot," he said without preamble. "Diaz is dead. Well- I think she is. Didn't check. I need help carrying Barry, though- we have to get them back to the Boreas. Did you see Ranboo or Techno?"

Philza took a second to gather his thoughts and catch his breath before responding. "I didn't, no. Is there any way to find them?"

"Tubbo says the trackers he had got knocked out by some sort of EMP when the doors locked. All he could see was their last location."

"Right." Not ideal. Then again, nothing about the entire situation had been ideal, and they'd somehow managed to figure out something that didn't get all of them immediately killed. They could figure this out, too. "And Barry's alive?"

"Yeah, but not for long if we don't get some help for them. Which is why we have to get back to the Boreas."

"We'll start with that."

Now that he'd been given a specific course of action to follow, Tommy seemed to calm down slightly from the near-panic, and Philza reminded himself that really, Tommy was still technically a fledgling. He'd always been overly confident, and right now he knew more about the situation than Philza did, but having someone take charge seemed to give him a little more focus.

Barry was pretty easy to locate; they weren't far from where they'd met up with Diaz. They'd been shot twice, once a glancing hit to the chest and once in the shoulder, though it looked like they'd been wearing a blaster-proof vest that probably saved their life. They were a little out of it from blood loss and barely protested as Tommy and Philza worked to get them off the ground and start towards the Boreas.

"We should get out of here," Tubbo was saying as soon as they'd gotten aboard the ship. He was tapping away at the console and seemed to be preparing for takeoff. "You guys weren't supposed to take that long."

"That's not our fault," Tommy grumbled, nearly dropping Barry in his haste to get to a first-aid kit. "And we need to get back in there."

"What we need is to be ready to leave." Tubbo kept talking over Tommy's protests. "I lost access to the security cameras, someone must've figured out I was watching. And Ranboo's walkie-talkie isn't connecting anymore. The humans know where the ship is, so they just have to find their way-"

He was interrupted by an explosion, this one coming from somewhere deep within the building.

Before any of them could really react, the Boreas was moving. Philza struggled to keep his balance as the ship started to rise rapidly. The door slid closed, thankfully, so he didn't have to worry that Barry would fall out somehow. The ship had been parked in a street close to the building, and it was only by some miracle that Tubbo didn't hit one of the roofs as he piloted it higher and away from the explosions.

"What the fuck?" Tommy shouted. "You're leaving them behind-"

"Do you want to get blown up?" Tubbo yelled back. "A little thanks would be nice."

There was a window set in one of the walls, and Philza stared out in an odd sort of fascination as the lab disappeared in clouds of dust, smoke, and flames. He almost didn't hear Tubbo asking him a question.

"Where's the Aeolus? We didn't see it at the dock."

"I'm… not sure," he answered slowly. "Diaz said something about returning it to me in exchange for my cooperation. They'd confiscated it, I think."

Tubbo hummed. "So we'd have to stick around if we're going to find it."

"We were going to stick around anyway," Tommy said pointedly. "Since, y'know, we're missing half the team."

"Tommy-"

"You said we weren't leaving anyone behind, remember?"

"I know what I said-"

"Boys," Philza interrupted, and both of them fell silent. Tubbo seemed very intently focused on the job of steering the ship (despite the fact that he almost certainly had a good autopilot set up) and ignored Tommy's intense glaring at his back. "There has to be some way we can track them down. Tubbo?"

"I gave them trackers, but when they got trapped in that room, something stopped those from working. And no, I don't have a way to reconnect. If you'd tried to find them, you could've been wandering around for ages," Tubbo snapped. "And you would've gotten caught in the blast."

Tommy huffed at that. "Well, at least we know they're alive. They had to detonate the charges somehow. So… we should find them."

Tubbo waved a hand dismissively, spinning in his chair. The Boreas continued flying just fine despite his lack of steering. "What if this was their plan all along? You never know- Techno's entire plan last week was killing Philza and taking his ship. Setting off the TNT and running away before the smoke clears would be a hell of a lot simpler."

"He wasn't going to kill anyone, mate," Philza interrupted. And- that wasn't entirely accurate, actually. He'd been pretty willing to kill Lukas, probably because of his connection to the government. "Aside from people who work for the HSC," he corrected himself. "Where'd you hear that from?"

The ship was quiet for a few seconds as Tubbo and Tommy exchanged a glance.

"What?"

"Ranboo told us," Tommy started. "Remember that time he talked to Techno over the video call? They were supposed to end up on the same ship, but since that didn't happen, Techno said he was learning how to fly the Aeolus so he could take it over."

That sounded insane. Techno had seemed perfectly friendly the entire time. Aside from him threatening Philza with a blaster the first time they'd met, but that was understandable, and nothing had come of it, anyway.

… though it would explain why the human had been so fixated on the ship's manuals.

"And then you weren't checking your messages," Tubbo continued pointedly.

"We thought you were dead," Tommy added.

Right, that whole thing. "The comms systems went offline again," Philza explained, shrugging. "I was going to fix it on Camarvan. Didn't really get a chance with all the…" he trailed off, waving a hand vaguely to indicate everything that had happened in the past… what, two days?

No, that didn't sound right, actually. The last time they'd talked, Tommy and Tubbo had still been on Essempi, a good five days' journey from Camarvan. So either he was misremembering, or he'd been trapped in the HSC building for a while.

"How did you get here so fast?" He asked, partly to change the subject and partly to confirm he really was just misremembering.

"Nether star engine core," Tubbo said, an excited grin spreading across his face. "We'd picked it up on Essempi, while I was working on the translator program, and it wasn't that hard to install! Though I do need to check on it once we find somewhere to settle down, I messed with the speed limiter a bit and it was making some weird noises. And might've started overheating at one point. We're fine for now, though!"

"That's not very reassuring," Barry mumbled from the floor. Tommy had finished applying a medpatch to the blaster wound in their shoulder, and they looked a little better already. "We do need to find the humans, though. They were supposed to get the files, remember?"

"Files?" Philza echoed.

"Yeah. Lab reports, system records… anything that could prove the Human Safety Committee is doing illegal experiments, or that could point us to another location."

Tubbo hummed, frowning, and turned to the console, tapping some of the keys. "Ranboo said they'd found an electronic records room before communications cut out, and they were supposed to send a copy of everything to me. I'm not seeing anything come through. They might not have gotten time to send them, and in that case…"

He trailed off, not quite stating the obvious. Whatever evidence there may have been, it was pretty effectively taken care of by now.

"There's always other locations we could try," Barry suggested halfheartedly, though they didn't seem too eager about that possibility. No one else did, either.

"We'll find somewhere safe to land and lay low for a while." Tubbo said after a few beats of silence, turning back to the ship's controls.

"Somewhere on Camarvan, right?" Tommy asked. "So Ranboo and Techno can find us?"

Tubbo didn't answer aloud, just gave a small shrug.

"It's not safe to stay here, mate," Philza said instead. "We just blew up a government building. Someone's going to come poking around sooner or later, and we don't want to be anywhere near here." Despite the planet's generally lenient manner of law enforcement, there were some lines you just didn't cross. One of those being destruction of government property. Especially if that particular branch of the government was an interplanetary organization that didn't have to abide by local standards.

Still, as the Boreas started accelerating away from the planet, he couldn't help but wish that it didn't feel like abandoning the two humans. Even if, as Tubbo had suggested, they'd managed to get away and find the Aeolus, the communications systems were still broken. There was no way to know if they were alright.

Maybe it was for the better. No, it was for the better. What would be the point of trying to find the humans, anyway? They'd caused more problems in the span of a week or so than Philza had experienced in all his years of smuggling. And besides, it would be more risk to the humans, as well, to be associated with pirates.

Yeah. They'd all be better off this way.