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They were gone.
Michael was curled up in the corner of the cabin, doing his best to stay away from the several new holes in the walls and ceiling that let in the snow and frozen wind. He clutched his sword tightly to his chest as he shivered, his eyes frantically darting around the partially destroyed cabin. It had all happened so quickly, and he couldn’t be certain that they wouldn’t bust back into the cabin at any moment.
Tears were still rolling down Michael’s cheeks, and it was a miracle they hadn’t frozen to his face yet. It was getting colder by the minute in the partially destroyed cabin, which in turn left Michael in his human form, the weather far too cold for him to stand it otherwise. Pa had once said something about his human form being a good thing, Michael remembers. He’d said it would make sure people wouldn’t mistake him for a mindless zombie, that it would keep people from hurting him.
But he’d been human when they arrived. He’d been human, and they hadn’t seemed to care. The one with fire in his eyes had dragged the girl with the pretty flowers in her hair over, and the one with an almost crazed smile and round glasses had backed him into a corner with a blade far too sharp. Michael hadn’t said a word, his panic closing around his throat and leaving him with only frightened whimpers that quickly turned into involuntary angry snorts as the glasses one had sliced his sword across his arm, and instinct took over.
It was all a blur from there. He could remember vague shouting, a sudden sharp slash of pain across his cheek, a pair of sturdy arms wrapping around his torso and pulling him backwards. Other than that, all he could remember was anger and fear mixing together into an awful instinctual roar that demanded to survive by any means necessary.
Michael wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but he had come back to himself inside the destroyed cabin with egg yolk stuck in his hair, next to a baby chicken. There was blood streaked across his shiny gold blade, and he didn’t think it was his. Despite that, he pulled the sword closer to himself, his little grip as tight as he could manage it. His sword was all he had now, without the cozy protection of his room. He could protect himself, if he needed to. He’d already done it once.
But he didn’t want to. He wanted Pa. He wanted Da. He wanted to be scooped back up into their arms, held and warm and safe, until everything all seemed like a bad dream. He wanted Pa to be there to promise it would be okay, for Da to ruffle his hair and tell him he was proud of him for being brave. He wanted to hide his face in Pa’s shoulder while Da brandished his own sword with worlds more experience than Michael had, and the both of them drove the monsters away.
But they weren’t here. They weren’t here, and those other people were going to come back with their weapons and their laughter and their cruelty, and maybe this time they really would kill him like they promised–
“Michael?”
Michael jumped, a squeal escaping him as he noticed the person now stood in the doorway. The first thing Michael saw was the sword hanging at their side, and he froze. They were back. They were back, and they were here to kill him, and he’d never hear another one of Dad’s bedtime stories or get to ride on Pa’s shoulders and feel extra tall again, he would be gone and he wouldn’t even get to say goodbye–
“Oh, thank Primes, you’re still here.” The person sighed in relief, and started towards him quickly. Too quickly, and Michael’s panic came back in full force.
“Go ‘way!” He shouted, his voice finally coming back to him as he pointed his sword in the person’s direction, and they immediately stopped. “Go ‘way! ”
“Hey, hey, it’s alright.” The person said, and stopped in their tracks. They put their hands up in surrender and crouched down slightly to Michael’s level. “It’s just me again. I won’t hurt you.”
Michael frowned, confusion momentarily diluting his fear. There were bits and pieces about the person that were familiar, yes. Uncle Techno wore a long red cape when he went outside, just like the new person did, and the crown nestled in the person’s hair looked a lot like Pa’s. That, however, was where the familiarity stopped. The person stood up straighter than anyone Michael knew, in a way that made Michael feel like the shiny gold crown on top of their head truly mattered, and the pretty jewels in the crown were all a mix of rainbow hues. Their hair was dark brown, in carefully-styled curls as opposed to Da’s untamed ones. They stared back at Michael, their eyes entirely shielded by a pair of dark sunglasses, but even the glasses couldn’t hide the faint white glow that came from behind them.
Michael didn’t know this person.
So why did they say again ?
“Liar.” Michael said, and tried to scoot back further, but his back was already against a wall. “Don’ know you.”
The person raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t remember?” She asked, but a moment later, her face softened. “Actually, you seemed pretty messed up. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
The person glanced down at the sword hanging off of his hip, and Michael tensed as he reached towards it. This was it. The stranger had tried to trick him, and now that he knew that Michael didn’t fall for it, he was going to kill him. Michael watched with wide eyes as the person took the sword out of its scabbard, his heartbeat roaring in his ears, and – set it down on the floor, pushing it out of his reach.
Michael blinked.
“See? Not going to hurt you.” The person promised, and reached into their pockets. They pulled out a flower, a bright yellow dandelion, and held it in Michael’s direction. “I don’t blame you for being scared, but I swear, I’m here to help. I tried to help earlier, but there were way too many of them, and I didn’t want to risk accidentally hurting you.”
A blurry memory comes back to the front of Michael’s mind. The strong arms around him, pulling him backwards. He’d fought against the grip, of course. He wasn’t good with being restrained when instinct took over. But the stranger’s hold hadn’t felt violent or malicious. It was firm, but it hadn’t been painful. It felt the same way that it had felt when Da held him back, when he’d taken him back to Snowchester after the cookie outpost incident.
It had felt protective.
Slowly, cautiously, Michael lowered his sword and reached out towards the dandelion. The person didn’t move, only giving him a gentle smile as Michael took it from her hand. Michael played with the petals, soft under his fingertips, and for a brief moment, the panic subsided.
“My name is Eret.” The person said. “It’s nice to properly meet you, Michael.”
Recognition suddenly flooded through Michael at the mention of the name, and he looked up, the flower forgotten. He knew the name Eret. Eret was in Da’s song, Da’s pretty song that he sang to himself sometimes when he looked especially sad, the one that Pa had told Micheal not to ask about.
“Why?” Michael had asked. “I’s pretty, I wanna’ know the song!”
“I know, kiddo. But the song has a lot of sad memories for Da, okay? It makes him very sad to talk about it. Even if it doesn’t seem like it.”
Michael, of course, hadn’t listened, and the very moment that he’d found Da singing the pretty song when Pa wasn’t around, he had run up, tugged on Da’s shirt, and asked about it.
Da had a strange look on his face before Michael had gotten his attention, a kind of far-off look in his eyes that was startled out of him by Michael. He’d looked down at Michael with a completely undecipherable expression for a few moments, one that turned into a smile tinged with sadness, and something that looked like newfound hope.
“I’ll teach it to you, if you like.”
“You’re in Da’s song.” Michael said, staring at Eret with a kind of sudden awe, and confusion flickered across their face before it turned into a watered-down exasperation.
“I’m never going to live that down, am I?” They said, and quickly looked over their shoulder back towards the doorway. “But I can talk about that with you later, when you’re somewhere safe.”
Eret went to pick her sword back up, sliding it back into her sheath, and pulled out her messenger, glancing at it for a brief moment before turning her eyes back to the door, and then back to Michael.
“...I’m goin’ somewhere?” Michael asked, his nerves suddenly returning to him.
“Yeah, bud.” Eret said. “I’m going to take you somewhere safer, alright? Where the bad people can’t find you.”
Michael tensed. Going away from the cabin was definitely what he wanted, after the scary people had broken in and left it cold and partially destroyed, but he wanted to go with Pa and Da. They hadn’t been here yet. They didn’t know what happened.
Once, Michael had found a way to sneak out through his bedroom window. When Da and Pa had found him playing in the snow hours later, Pa’s face was burning with tears and Da’s hands shook when he picked him up and hugged him tighter than he ever had before. After today, Michael was beginning to understand why.
He hesitated a moment, but firmly shook his head.
“Can’t go. Gotta’ stay.”
Eret bit their lip nervously, and took another look back at their messenger before crouching back down in front of Michael.
“I don’t mean to scare you,” they said, “but we have to get you out of here. Those scary people left for a while, but they made plans to come back, and–”
“No!” Michael interrupted, and shook his head again, more forcefully this time. “Can’t go! Don’ wanna’ scare Pa and Da!”
Michael scared his parents a lot. Sometimes it wasn’t his fault, and he knew that, but if he could help it, he never wanted to scare them ever again. He’d already disappeared from the cabin once, and he’d seen the aftermath. Maybe Eret just didn’t understand because they didn’t see the way Pa and Da had stayed in his room all night afterwards without Michael asking. Michael had eventually fallen asleep, but he knew that neither of them had.
Eret was quiet for a very brief moment, some expression flashing across her face that Michael couldn’t quite understand with the glasses blocking her eyes.
“Michael, I promise you won’t scare them.” They said. “They’ll be much more scared about you staying here. Those bad people are coming back, and I can get you out of here before they hurt you. Okay?”
Michael hesitated, looking once more around the cabin. It felt as if it were getting colder by the second, the freezing winds leeching any lingering warmth out of what had once been Michael’s safe haven. The idea of the scary people coming back and hurting again made Michael’s stomach turn. He didn’t want to be hurt anymore, and the idea of running away and hiding where he couldn’t be found was one he very much liked – if it weren’t for Pa and Da.
Michael stared at Eret again, his good eye meeting Eret’s sunglasses. Eret was fidgeting a bit, looking back and forth between the door, his communicator, and Michael, but he had yet to come any closer than Michael had shown to be comfortable with. And he was in Da’s song. Surely he at least knew Da, and would tell Da what happened.
“...you promise?” Michael asked. “Not gonna’ hurt?”
The smile that came over Eret’s face was a strained one, clearly full of anxiety, but she held out her hand in Michael’s direction, her pinky extended.
“I promise, no one will hurt you as long as I’m around.”
Maybe it was just Michael’s own fear talking and convincing him to listen to his instinct to run, or maybe it was his longing to be protected, or maybe it was something entirely different altogether. Either way, a moment of hesitation passed before Michael reached out towards Eret and looped his small pinky finger around theirs
Some of the tension immediately melted out of Eret, and they sighed in relief as they let go of Michael’s pinky to pick him up. They held him gently but securely, and as Michael closed his eyes, he could almost pretend he was with Da or Pa.
Eret shifted his cape to cover Michael’s shoulders as he walked out the front door, just in time to block the full force of the cold Snowchester winds. Michael huddled closer, grateful for the warmth. Eret’s cape was like Uncle Techno’s in more than just color. It was just as soft as Uncle Techno’s, and despite only meeting Eret that day, Michael felt almost as safe with him as he did with Techno.
“Don’t you worry.” Eret said. “We’re going to get you someplace safe and sound, okay? Somewhere safe and sound where the scary people won’t find you.”
Michael was jostled slightly in Eret’s arms as they picked up the pace, and he opened his eyes, squinting against the sunlight reflecting off of the white snow. They were headed towards the ocean, and the closer they got, the easier it was for Michael to make out a small wooden rowboat parked right where the ocean water turned into a thick layer of ice. Worry suddenly bubbled up in his gut, and he turned around, looking over Eret’s shoulder to spot the remains of his cabin in the distance. It was getting smaller and smaller, and Michael couldn’t hold back a whine as he watched his home disappear.
No. No, no, no, take me back, I don’t wanna’ leave home, not again–
“It’s alright, Michael.” Eret reassured, her voice gentle even as she sped up. “You’re safe with me.”
“I want Pa.” Michael whined, tears once again beginning to well up in his good eye. “I want Da.”
“I know.” Eret said. He was careful to keep a firm hold on Michael as he climbed into the boat. He set Michael down on his lap, needing both hands to grab a hold of the oars, and normally Michael would insist that he was big enough to sit in the other seat (he was turning four soon and was very proud of it), he definitely preferred the warmth Eret’s cape provided. “You’ll be back with them soon, buddy. When it’s safe.”
After he had made his mini-escape from his room, Michael had overheard a conversation between Pa and Da that he wasn’t supposed to hear. They’d thought he’d fallen asleep long before he actually did, and he’d heard them whispering back and forth in that worried way that made Michael nervous that something was wrong.
“We need to find him somewhere safer, if we can. Too many people know about Snowchester already.”
“There is nowhere safer. Nowhere on this server is ever really safe.”
Micheal tried not to think about those words as they rowed further and further away, and his cabin disappeared over the horizon line.
Wherever he was going, he hoped Pa and Da wouldn’t wait until it was safe.
***
Sapnap was usually a light sleeper. Had to be, really, given the hobbies he chose to indulge in. The early days of the SMP had been particularly thrilling ones, going head to head against Fundy, slaying pet after pet and spending quite a few nights sleeping with one eye open in preparation for retaliation. He loved the thrill of war, craved it, instigated it himself with innocent blood across his blade and a smirk in response to his opponents’ abject horror.
Things had been quiet recently, though. Wars were few and far between and meaningless, if they even happened at all. A peace had settled over the server with Dream in prison and the Eggpire subdued, and it left Sapnap itching for a fight that he tried to remind himself he couldn’t have. He had a kingdom to protect now, after all, war wasn’t something that he could just throw himself into with reckless abandon.
But peace was boring, and Sapnap was not one to be bored for long, regardless of what he had to protect. He wanted excitement, he wanted adrenaline, he wanted the feeling of absolute power that came from cornering something helpless and watching the light fade from its eyes. With George beside him, amped up on the high of competition, he came close to getting what he wanted. It had been enough, at the time. As much as he still wanted to find the little piglin brat and finish what they had started, the power in the moment had been enough to satiate the burning longing in his chest for pure, unhinged chaos.
There was another problem with peace, though. It made him sloppy. It made him forgetful. It had been months since anyone had to face the consequences of wars that mattered, and Sapnap had let himself forget all about the events that had transpired as he climbed into bed that night and let himself fall asleep.
Only to be awoken hours later, in the dead of night, with three figures standing over him and a sword pointed at his neck.
Fuck.
Panic momentarily surged through his veins, but he forced it back down as his eyes adjusted to the darkness – more quickly than most, being born in the Nether certainly had its advantages – and he took in the scene around him.
George was there, and while his lips were pressed firmly together in what could have been seen as an annoyed frown, there was a slight tremor in his knees that gave away his fear. He stood in his normal clothes, no armor in sight, and from what Sapnap could see it didn’t seem as though he had any items on him, either. His hands had been forced behind his back, and the blade of an axe pressed tightly against his neck. There were already a few cuts across his pale skin close to where the blade was resting.
Sapnap’s eyes followed the handle of the axe only to find Ranboo on the other end of it, his grip firm and certain. His mismatched eyes glared at Sapnap so harshly that they almost seemed to glow, and Sapnap could see a couple small purple particles buzzing around his head in what seemed to be anger. Sapnap had known Ranboo was tall, of course, everyone knew, but here he seemed to truly tower over Sapnap. He’d never thought to see Ranboo as a threat before. Not Ranboo, who stumbled over sentences when too many eyes were on him and had a bad habit of letting people corner him. Now, though, it was hard to look at him and see anything other than danger.
And finally, Sapnap’s eyes landed on Tubbo, who stood over him with a sword pointed at his chin. Tubbo held the sword with one hand, and with the other, he twirled a small ID card around in his fingers, far too practiced to be absent-minded. Sapnap’s stomach sank as he watched the card as certain rumors immediately resurfaced in the front of his mind, rumors that he’d brushed aside as he’d first heard them because he hadn’t cared what Tubbo Underscore was up to in his free time.
“Project Dreamcatcher, that’s what I heard…”
“...nuclear warheads…”
“Set one off in the forest, nearly did Tommy and Niki in…”
Tubbo watched him with a stare far too calculating for someone his age. Sapnap had fought both against Tubbo and beside him so many times that he knew perfectly well what the boy was capable of, and while normally he would be confident in his own ability to take him out, now, he wasn’t so sure. Everything became less certain in the dark of the night without a sword in reach.
“Evening.” Sapnap said, keeping his eyes firmly on Tubbo. Even with a sword at his throat, Sapnap had never been one to show fear, and he wasn’t planning on starting now. “I didn’t know Ranboo finally decided to grow a spine–”
“I’m going to ask you one time.” Tubbo cut him off, far too calmly. Sapnap had sudden flashbacks to the president in the suit three sizes too big for him, able to send his own best friend to exile without so much as a stutter. “And depending on how you answer, I might reconsider turning your kingdom to fucking ashes.”
Sapnap did not move. He simply glared, and Tubbo seemed to take that as enough. He leaned forward, pressing the sword tighter against Sapnap’s throat, tight enough to draw a small amount of blood. As Tubbo finally spoke again, gone was the calm charade from his words, replaced instead by something that promised danger, death, and absolute destruction if Sapnap were to give an answer Tubbo didn’t like.
“ Where is our son?”