Chapter Text
Niki has been having a really shitty night. She has been in her own body, doing and saying things she doesn’t mean to, for almost an hour and no matter how much she tried not to do those things, she did them anyway. There was no room her consciousness was locked away in, nor did she feel some evil presence taking over instead. She was in her body, and it moved and acted as if by her own will and the only disconnect was she knew she wasn’t doing those things on purpose. It was sort of like writing, where you don’t have to think about the shape of the letters anymore, you simply think the words and your hand does the rest, it’s just that they weren’t her words anymore.
She was fully in her body and therefore she could hear just fine. Emotions got a bit odd, because no matter how angry she got, she didn’t feel the anger, not in her chest, not in her tone of voice or a hand balled into a fist, for once her feelings were fully cut off from physicality. That didn’t mean she wasn’t really fucking pissed off, though. She doesn’t know how she did it. She doesn’t know how her actions became her own again, but she couldn’t fucking stand listening to Tommy and all of his not-knowing and finally her thoughts turned into words and Niki, despite not having had a plan before, knows exactly what to do. Maybe she’s impulsive enough this thing didn’t see it coming, maybe it merely sensed she was angry enough to use that knife and didn’t bother to look closer than that, because she’s not planning on using that anger to kill Tommy. She doesn’t feel like she’s fighting for control of her body, she doesn’t know if she’ll lose control any moment, she feels fine. She feels normal, just very pissed off. She’s now shaking with anger, and crying a bit too, and her body is responding to her thoughts, but other than that there is no change, no sign of occupation or absence either, so, she has the knife.
Niki’s mouth opens in a restrained gasp of pain, and then she looks down at the knife in her leg, right between the two chauses and definitely fucking up her knee. “Fuck!”
“That was– Why’re you worried about dying if you stabbed yourself in the leg?!” Tommy laughs, barking and sharp.
“I told you to shut up!” Niki snaps. She is so fed up with this entire night and if Tommy says another word she might decide to go the other way and stab him instead. “I was trying to stab myself in the stomach, but I didn’t think I could make myself do it, but if I can’t chase you, then–” Niki fumbles in her pocket before tossing Tommy a key. “Get the chain off, and start running, because otherwise I might end up killing you, I have… no idea, actually, if I will or not, so, go!”
Tommy grabs the key with shaky hands and scrambles with the lock. He manages to stand and he turns to run, but he stops.
“Tommy, run, I’ll be okay–” Niki stops. She’d assumed he’d felt nervous about leaving her, but Tommy didn’t stop and pace from foot to foot, panicked with indecision, he’d just stopped. She reaches for the knife in her leg, because that’s not Tommy.
Jack sees Tubbo frown, as this thing must surely see through Jack’s eyes, but it registers it just a second too late. Ranboo has wrapped a chain around Tubbo’s torso, pinning his arms to his sides.
“Ranboo! Please, please stop! You’re hurting me!” Tubbo immediately screams like he’s being burned instead.
Ranboo wavers for only a second before wrapping the chain around him again. “How’d you know it was me, huh?” He looks a bit worse for wear, his voice scratchy and a scar marring his cheek. His words come out a bit slurred, and there’s another scar splashed across his temple, an entrance wound stark red on one side and an exit wound spitting green on the other. Obvious signs of a hard respawn, and Jack feels vaguely impressed that Ranboo had dragged himself back out here at all.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Jack asks.
“Tubbo,” Ranboo says flatly.
“Ah. Hope you’ve got some more of those… ‘cause I am also at risk of turning into a nutcase… I think…”
“Um. No. The other one you guys used was gone.” Ranboo looks alarmed.
“Oh, yeah. Niki has them,” Tubbo says brightly. “Also, Jack, please put your head in the fire! Thank you.”
“No!” Ranboo lunges forward and tackles Jack to the ground.
“T-Thanks…” Jack wheezes, the wind knocked out of him, but thankfully he instead has just hit his head quite hard on the floor instead of shoving it inside the lit fireplace.
“Tubbo!” Ranboo exasperatedly turns to see Tubbo, who is no longer able to use his arms as they’re pinned to his sides, but he is currently struggling to nudge the broken door open, probably to make a break for the water where Ranboo will not be able to follow. Ranboo grabs him and carries him back to the chair by the fire, unlocking the length of chain for a moment so he can loop it around the back of the chair.
Jack has also started crawling toward the door.
“Not you too!” Ranboo says helplessly, going to grab him again.
“Not… not killing myself… I am just… so fucking hot right now, a-and… and snow…” is how Jack explains. He’s stopped crawling a few feet away from the open door as the weight of lava starts to entomb him and he finds he is no longer able to think or feel or move.
Ranboo is about to go help Jack and is forced to pause because Tubbo is furiously trying to tip his chair over into the fire.
“Not happening! Nuh uh, no, nope! Not happening!” Ranboo drags his chair away from the fire and then lies him back on the ground so Tubbo is unable to give himself head trauma either.
Tubbo looks up at him, staring intently at his eyes. “Oh, you’re a complicated one, aren’t you, Ranboo?” Tubbo smiles. “Tubbo has got some… interesting thoughts about you, d’you know that? And he’s not so sure–”
Ranboo covers up Tubbo’s mouth. “Trust me, I’m… aware,” Ranboo says awkwardly. “We just… we just haven’t actually talked about it yet.”
Tubbo stares at him, uncomprehending and unpersuaded and definitely still not himself.
“Right…” Ranboo sighs. He loosens his tie, one hand still silencing Tubbo, slipping it off and instead tying it around Tubbo’s mouth.
“This one has a mouth too, you know,” Jack says. Not Jack. “A burnt one, but y’know, a mouth. So I can still talk about whatever fucked up thoughts Tubbo–”
Ranboo goes to cover Jack’s mouth before yanking his hand back. “What the hell?! You’re– You’re burning up!”
“Did you think the blisters were decorative?” Jack says with such irritable sarcasm for a second Ranboo thinks it’s actually Jack. “No, but seriously, man, you both are–”
Ranboo cannot touch Jack without it hurting so instead he covers his ears. “NOPE! NOT LISTENING! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Ranboo shouts. “ACTUALLY, WHY AREN’T YOU ATTACKING ME RIGHT NOW?!” He continues to shout at Jack before humming loudly to keep the cover.
Jack seems to be actually replying so Ranboo uncovers his ears for a moment.
“Oh, he’s too weak! Heatstroke. Anyway, minutes man–”
Ranboo covers his ears and keeps humming.
Tommy doesn’t look scared anymore, of course, because that’s not Tommy.
“Holding onto the reigns on this one is harder, we’ll admit it, but not impossible. Especially out here. He can make himself small, if he has to. All we had to do was lock ‘im in a little crate and give him an invis pot’ and tell him to keep quiet or else the monster is gonna get him, works like a charm!” Tommy takes one stumbling step towards her. “Bit gangly, though, inne? Takes bigger steps than all you short little bitches do.”
It was weird as hell to be speaking things she definitely hadn’t been thinking, and even fucking weirder to hear Tommy’s stupid rambling mannerisms coming from them.
“Is it… you can’t take over my brain again, so you had to jump to Tommy?” Niki says slowly.
“Nah, we never said that. You’re just sayin’ shit now! Maybe we’re just trying something out, don’t assume,” he says in that mocking Tommy lilt.
“And you’re still just as annoying, great,” Niki says flatly. She steps back when Tommy steps closer and blood wells up around the knife in her leg and she realizes this reversal is mildly concerning at best. Niki is injured, sure, but Tommy is unarmed and unarmored, and Niki is in Netherite.
“That makes a difference, d’you think?” Tommy’s nose crinkles in irritable disgust and Niki feels a jolt in her stomach at the confirmation that this thing is still poking around inside her head. “This might help you, actually! We can make it help you, so, you’re welcome!” Tommy says smugly.
“I don’t–” Niki stumbles back, “I don’t want your help, I don’t think–”
“Oh my god why are you so ungrateful all the fucking time?” Tommy scowls. “You could’ve stabbed me ages ago but you keep fucking it up! How many times can one person fuck up a murder?”
“You couldn’t convince me when you had actual Tommy annoying me, and you actually think this will work?” Niki scoffs, still stepping back. She winces, but her leg at least doesn’t give out on her. She’s also noticed this thing has fully committed, no more we and dancing around it, it wants her to see Tommy, and it wants her to kill him.
“Oh, but you’ll have to!” Tommy says insistently. He’s stopped following her, in fact, he’s stepped back.
“Make me, then!” Niki snaps. She then realizes what it’s having Tommy get. Her sword. Which is currently embedded in the dirt behind him.
Tommy grabs the sword, wielding it with an easy grace and a grin that reads mischief.
Niki’s frown deepens, and with more than a little irritation and pain, she pulls the knife out of her leg. “I’m not going to kill you, Tommy.” Goddamnit.
Tommy pouts, as if hurt, and takes a few steps closer. “You’ll have to kill me, Niki. You even have an excuse now!” Tommy swings at her and Niki is annoyed to find this thing has stolen Tommy’s skill as well as his voice.
She jumps back, and bites back a cry of pain as blood wells up from the wound in her leg. It’s going to give out on her any second. She cannot keep her weight off of it indefinitely.
Tommy steps forward with far more ease than her. “You had to defend yourself! I just went fuckin’ rabid, didn’t I?” Tommy swings again and Niki raises her arm, the netherite sword scraping off of her armor irritatingly, but hardly enough to even bruise. “You didn’t know what to do besides start fuckin’ swingin’ and shit! No one’s gonna blame you for that!” Tommy targets her bad leg and Niki struggles to compensate. She’s holding the dagger, still slick with her own blood, but she hasn’t used it. “You can get away with it now! No more slow torturing me to death, nothin’ ugly or– or squeamish, nah! Just one quick little stab, and I’m a goner!” She’s already tilting, off kilter from her bad leg, and Tommy, with surprising strength for someone so scrawny, manages to nail her in the chest with a blow hard enough to punch the air from her lungs and finally her knee fails her and she falls back into the sand, having backed herself onto the narrow strip of beach. That will definitely bruise, but Netherite can take a hit. Niki can too, but the fact of it is, she doesn’t think she could stand back up if she wanted to, her knee now sending bitter sharp pain rippling up her leg. Tommy stands over her, sword raised. “Do it, Niki!” He snarls, vicious anger that Niki has never seen turned her way, but he hasn’t brought the sword down yet. “Do it before I hurt you.”
Niki laughs, panicked but still genuine, because Tommy? Hurting her? Maybe, but stabbing her in the chest? Niki knows that’s beyond him; she doesn’t know why she holds onto that when she knows it’s not really him.
Tommy smiles at her, because he hears that thought too. “Then why are you so angry with him, Niki?”
Niki’s anger flares again, and while she cannot stab Tommy, she can kick him in the shins. Tommy falls back too and does not have the instinct to catch himself.
“Oh. Pain stops the body… even when we’re here,” Tommy says breathlessly, the wind knocked out of him and probably in a considerable amount of pain considering he has once more fallen back onto two open wounds. He, unlike Niki, was not lucky enough to land in the sand.
Niki struggles to even sit up, unable to put any weight on her right leg. She definitely fucked up her knee.
“You’re angry again,” Tommy grins, voice ragged and still breathless. “You… you thought it yourself! How’s little old me… gonna hurt you? So what the fuck are you so pissy about?”
“You don’t fucking know! You don’t know, do you?!” Niki shouts at him, she can’t help it, those words are meant for Tommy, even if she knows he’s not the one responding.
“We can give you the reasons, Niki. Better ones. The ones he doesn’t see, but we know, don’t we?” Tommy says smugly. “This stupid fucking brat killed your best friend. Arguably, he’s culpable in the deaths of both of your best friends! But that doesn’t even cover it–”
She covers his mouth with her hand, sort of slapping him, really, but she honestly didn’t mean to. Yes, Niki wants to hit him so badly right now, get that smug, obnoxious fucking look off of his face. Niki is pissed off. She is tired. She doesn’t think she can stab herself. She stops covering his mouth and reevaluates. She cannot stab herself outright.
“Oh, right. Killing yourself. How original. Y’know, he pussied out, but that there tower is–” Tommy is interrupted by Niki grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him off the ground, and Niki isn’t totally sure if holding onto her anger is the thing keeping them out of her head or not, but staring at Tommy is definitely adding to the anger. Tommy’s eyebrows furrow together and he scowls as those things currently occupying his head know what she’s planning on doing before she does it. “That’s so stupid–”
At which point, Niki slams her skull into Tommy’s and the kid goes limp. Niki is left dizzy but she is still conscious. “Fuck…” Niki says weakly. She’d hoped that would do it. The ocean is blurring in her vision, the stars smearing into the water, but it’s not enough. Niki’s hands tremble as she fumbles with the straps of her chest plate, but eventually she can tug it off and toss it onto the sand. She fumbles for the dagger again, holding it behind her back, staring down at Tommy, unconscious and helpless in front of her. He wouldn’t even feel it. Niki twists back and digs the hilt into the sand behind her as she glowers at him, because she cannot just stab herself. She stares at Tommy and lets her irritation simmer for a few more seconds. “This is such bullshit…” Niki offers one more very much warranted complaint, before falling back onto the blade.
Ranboo eventually digs up some socks from Jack’s things, gags him with that, and, heatstroke or no heatstroke, he carefully navigates unwrapping the chains around Tubbo only until he has enough leeway to chain the two of them together. Which worked quite well for all of two minutes before Jack started burning up and Tubbo started burning with him.
Ranboo hadn’t planned on sleeping that night, but routinely dumping buckets of snow on the pair of them to try and keep them both from dying wasn’t how he had planned on spending it either. He doesn’t know where Niki and Tommy are, but he cannot leave these two alone for a second. He wants to ask someone for help, anyone at this point, but what would that do? Hey, if you see Niki and Tommy fighting to the death, please stop them. Ranboo can only wait and hope for the best, but what else is new?
The snow stops melting around sunrise. Tubbo and Jack begin shivering instead, looking at Ranboo with frantic urgency, trying to talk again.
“Please don’t make me regret this,” Ranboo wearily goes to Tubbo and takes the gag out.
“It’s gone. Right now, it’s gone, and I dunno how long it’ll last, but you need to go out to the beach where Tommy was exiled, that’s where Tommy and Niki are, and I’ve got no fucking clue what’s happened to them, but if this bullshit is anything to go by–” Tubbo is looking up at him and he looks at the new scars on Ranboo’s face like it physically hurts him. “Oh my god, I am so fucking sorry, bossman, I didn’t– I mean, you know I didn’t– A-And the water bucket! I kept on trying to get the water bucket but I didn’t want to because I knew what was fucking happening a-and, and when I stopped doing that, I thought that was it, I thought I beat it, and I– I couldn’t fucking think and then the crossbow, like, holy shit I just– I just fired! I didn’t mean to, but I– Fucking hell, I’m just so fucking sorry, god this is such a mess!”
“Okay, um,” Ranboo stares at him, wide-eyed. “How do I… how do I believe you?”
“I have no fucking clue. It’s in our heads, it can copy the way we talk, and I– I’m having a hard time thinking and talking because my hand really fucking hurts right now,” Tubbo’s voice starts to shake and Ranboo can hear that Tubbo is fighting back tears. “Like, really really fucking badly, so, can you just get me a health pot?”
“O-Oh yeah! Sure, I can do that,” Ranboo nods quickly. “Jack! Do you have health potions?”
Jack’s head hangs limply and for a moment Ranboo thinks he’s unconscious.
“Downstairs. Chests. You look. Trying not to throw up…” Jack says dully.
Ranboo hurries downstairs, rummaging, when he hears a thud from upstairs and almost drops the glass bottle as he scrambles back upstairs.
Standing in the doorway, looking like she had a really fucking rough night, stands Niki Nihachu, pale, shaky, hair askew, in her netherite armor, her chestplate looking like it was half dipped in blood, or perhaps a pool of blood had grown beside it, and the thud Ranboo had heard, is Tommy now lying in an unconscious heap on the floor. Niki steps inside, scans over Tubbo and Jack and then glances at Ranboo. She holds out her hand for a potion. Ranboo gives it to her.
“If fucking dying didn’t get those things out, I dunno what will, but I feel…” Niki is rocking slightly, thumbs fidgeting restlessly in her lap. “I feel… like shit, actually, but I… I don’t know. I don’t know how to know, or if the thing is just… waiting.”
“Get the geiger counter!” Tubbo offers excitedly. “Maybe you’re not irradiated anymore!”
He and Jack are tentatively no longer chained together. The fire has been extinguished, they’ve both had health potions, Jack has peeled off some of his own skin and Tubbo has asked Ranboo to help him cut away the two burnt fingers before they become necrotic, and Ranboo has said he doesn’t think he can do that, so, for now Tubbo has had a gapple for the pain and bandaged what’s left. Jack’s skin is no longer open blisters or peeling away, and instead thanks to the health pot, his skin has taken on patches of dappled scarring, almost like the surface of a pool of lava. He’s not a fan.
“Ranboo, you go. If someone starts acting weird, it’s better you’re the one outside, actually, so you can… run and get help maybe?” Niki says wearily.
Ranboo gives her a nod, rushing off to the lab to get one of the scanners.
“Oh! Get my smelling salts too!” Tubbo shouts from his place on the floor at the foot of Jack’s bed.
Tommy is on the ground beside Tubbo, head resting on a pillow. He has an impressive bruise cropping up on his skull. He is definitely alive, but otherwise he’s been sufficiently dead to the world. Jack has been staring at him, swallowed up by the thought that Tommy had no fucking clue that he killed him. Jack doesn’t know what to do with it. Tubbo hasn’t mentioned the fact that he now knows Jack was trying very hard to kill his best friend, so maybe they’re all just prioritizing for now.
Jack feels sick again. Because you prioritized, didn’t you? Made sacrifices, if you will. Jack had made sacrifices, he thought for a reason, but maybe he just didn’t know any better.
Ranboo returns quickly, passing the salts to Tubbo, the geiger to Niki, staring at all four of them like he thinks they’ll start speaking in tongues any moment even as he sits down against the far wall and tries to give the illusion of settling.
Niki turns on the geiger just as Tommy jolts awake. He sits up and is face to face with a startled Jack Manifold.
“Why didn’t… Why didn’t you tell me?” Tommy’s face scrunches up in something between confused hurt and bafflement.
Jack blusters wordlessly for a moment as Tommy falls back again, dizzy, until Tubbo catches him. “I didn’t think I fucking had to?!” Jack shouts back.
Tommy winces. “Can you not shout?!” Tommy says hoarsely, in what must have been his attempt at shouting back. He gestures dramatically to himself, collapsed against Tubbo’s side. “I’m fucking concussed!”
“Both of you shut up!” Niki snaps. She waves the geiger counter at them. It’s currently on. She is holding it. It is not beeping.
“Gimme!” Tubbo makes grabby motions with his hands so Niki tosses it to him over Jack’s head, where it immediately starts whining. Tubbo still looks disconcertingly fascinated by this whole ordeal. “You know what, boys? And Niki?” Tubbo says. “I think I’m figuring shit out a bit.”
They all stare at him. “D’you want to share with the class or what?” Jack breaks the silence. Share with the class feels particularly apt. They’ve all ended up gathered in a loose circle on the floor of Jack’s cabin, all of them are looking at Tubbo more confused than relieved.
“I think we’re dealing with something that’s trying to act bigger than it is,” Tubbo says proudly. The puzzlement grows.
Tommy squints at him. “I am too concussed for this shit. Explain like a normal person or someone put me out of my misery now. But not Jack and Niki! They’ll probs botch the job, like they fuckin’ always do!” Tommy cackles before stopping, one shaky hand going to his forehead. “Ow…”
“You’re already joking about it, are you?” Jack says irritably.
“Call it coping, Jack Manifold.”
Tubbo ignores them, looking back to Niki, who has leaned against the stone fireplace, one hand resting on her stomach where she knows there should be an exit wound instead of a scar.
“Niki, you had to fall back on your sword to actually kill yourself, because otherwise, survival instinct, yeah? Your body literally wouldn’t let you!”
Niki squints at him. “...yeah?”
“I think these things wouldn’t have been able to make you stab yourself either!” Tubbo looks at all of them and is surprised to be met with confusion. “Alright, this thing, I already said it wasn’t all powerful, it’s physical. It needs a vessel, and when someone dies, it doesn’t carry over,” he nods to Niki. So far everyone seems to be following. “And it acts like it can do crazy mind control shit all the time but if that were true, why didn’t it just make us kill each other?” Tubbo waits for an answer.
“Because it’s a sadist..? The fuck d’you want from me, man?” Tommy says when the silence extends too long.
“No! It’s because it can’t. Every action it has made us do so far had to be something we could have physically done before, without like, total revulsion! Think about it, guys! Jack, you shot me in the head only because you thought you were shooting Tommy, correct?”
Jack squirms, wincing. “Yeah? Er… sorry?”
Tubbo ignores the apology and continues. “This thing, it acts all powerful, but maybe it can’t cope with outright defiance. It was trying like, super hard to make Niki want to stab Tommy, yes?”
“Yes,” Tommy gives Niki a wary glance, not suspicious, more like he doesn’t know what to make of her.
“Because if Niki didn’t want to kill Tommy, it couldn’t have made her!”
Tommy sits up. “Hold on a minute. Like, it puppeted Niki around and had her get ready to stab me, but then it stopped. It wanted her to do it, yeah? ‘Cause it… ‘cause it can’t? Is that it?” Tommy looks around at the rest of them, waiting for confirmation.
Tubbo nods furiously. “Yeah! Yeah, and when I tried to kill myself, it didn’t have me jump in the water. It only had me walk onto the ice until the ice cracked under me, I think because it couldn’t make me choose to jump in. Survival instinct!”
“Tubbo, I watched you stick your fucking hand in a fire. It tried to get me to stick my head in a fire. I… I don’t think you could fucking choose to do that?” Jack points out.
“I was suffering from hypothermia, so, yes, actually! It didn’t hurt me! Or at least, it didn’t feel like burning,” Tubbo says excitedly. “And Jack, it had you do that after Ranboo got here. It probably knew Ranboo would stop you and wanted to keep him occupied while it got me back out on the ice!”
“What about… I was running from Niki, and it stopped me, but it… holy shit. Holy shit, man!” Tommy hits Tubbo’s arm giddily. “It didn’t stop me! I stopped me because it made me think I was getting shot again!”
“The hallucinations!” Tubbo said delightedly. “It only got me to walk onto the ice, because it had me half convinced I was still just going to go to sleep!”
“I… I felt like I fell apart in that portal, but I still lit TNT and got myself out. I felt like I was disintegrating, and it couldn’t stop me from lighting it,” Niki says carefully. “Did I… was I ever really like that? Was I not actually falling apart?” Niki had hoped it had been a hallucination before, but now, it feels wrong.
“I think it can impact our bodies, but only to a certain degree. Not so much for me, but Niki with the portal, Jack’s fever, and Tommy, those marks on your back, those are… still fucking scary, but that’s not ripping up our free will or our survival instincts, now, is it?”
“It… it gave me these fucking insane dreams where I–” Tommy stops with a shudder. “I had wings grownin’ on my back like a fuckin’... like a fuckin’ leech, and I got scared it was gonna happen, like, when I woke up, but it never did. Maybe… maybe it’s not strong enough?” Tommy scrunches up his nose, struggling to piece it together. “Couldn’t have gotten the fuckin’ feathers…” he mutters.
“So, why doesn’t it have us all hallucinating or… or melting right now?” Jack frowns.
“That’s my other theory! This thing came from deep underground, right? Bedrock deep. And every night since, it’s done insane shit to us. All the big stuff has happened at night. Except for Niki with the portal, but that was different, ‘cause you weren’t in the overworld anymore, so I’d argue it wouldn’t count as night or day at that point, but I think it’s not as strong during the day, which is also why we’re all able to talk about this shit instead of hallucinating and killing each other right now.”
“But it has made us do shit during the day,” Jack cuts in. “I melted snow, Niki was starting fires, it forced us to keep away from the crater.”
“It made you act all weird and evil and shit when you were getting my blood!” Tommy says accusingly.
“Or it made you more paranoid,” Tubbo shoots back. “But that’s baby level scary shit! Doesn’t have to do with free will, and it’s hardly comparable, you melting a bit of snow, to at night, you melting the lock off your door?!”
Jack opens his mouth to protest further before stopping. “I… I guess,” he says instead. “And… and I didn’t try to shoot Tommy until dusk. Until the sun was setting.”
“And I couldn’t shoot Ranboo until the sun was setting. And that one… that was a bit fucked, ‘cause I wouldn’t let them use the water bucket and I think I focused so hard on that, it like, used that as an opening to shoot you instead,” Tubbo winces.
Ranboo shrugs. “Crossbow was definitely less painful than water.”
“It also said if it tried to make us do shit we really didn’t want to do, our brains would turn to mush,” Jack points out.
“And I’m calling its bluff. I call bullshit,” Tubbo nods like that settles the matter.
“I took back control. I thought it let me go, because it saw how angry I was and assumed I was ready to kill Tommy, but maybe… maybe I just did that on my own?” Niki says tentatively.
Jack nods, working his way around to the idea. “It literally said they couldn’t let Tubbo shout at me because he might… he might slip his leash and off himself?” Jack frowns, clawing at memories blurred by pain. “If they’ve got full control, why’d they be worried about that?”
“Okay! Since we’ve got this all out in the open, insurance time– Ranboo, Niki, if one of us starts acting all possessed, put us in a life or death situation so we’ve got to react, cool?” Tubbo says.
“How are we supposed to do that?!” Ranboo says, voice high and nervous just as Niki goes, “I can try?”
“That’s good enough, then!”
“Okay, okay, this is all fine and dandy, Tubster, you’re a fuckin’ mad man, like always, but I got one more q, one more query, per-say,” Tommy finally cuts back in. “What are we doing about all this shit? ‘Cause we can’t have dearest Ranboob and Nihachu as our emotional support snipers 24/7 forever. So, while this is just, very cool to consider, it’s a very cool bandaid. And– And!” Tommy sits up, pointing accusingly toward the bay. “The fish fucking died, the rabbits fucking died, what if– what if when this thing leaves, it kills the host? I mean, Niki dying is what got her out of it, but she still had to die about it, and that is not an option for us boys,” Tommy nods to Jack and Tubbo.
“Well, either they leave, or we die anyway,” Tubbo says, unbothered by the eerie precedent being set. “What’s the alternative? Because I am not letting them fucking win.”
“And how exactly are you planning on… on winning, Tubbo?” Niki asks carefully.
“Oh, that’s the best part. I am going to fix this the exact same way I created this mess!” Tubbo says cheerfully. “Mutually assured destruction. Either they get the fuck out, or I’m going to end the world.”
Silence.
The excitement, the potential for hope, the fervent theorizing, it’s traded for something far heavier.
“Can you… can you do that?” Ranboo finally breaks it, looking at Tubbo carefully, not in the eye, but just at him, taking him in.
It’s not clear whether Ranboo means if it’s possible, or if Tubbo is capable of it, but either way, Tubbo looks back at Ranboo, also not in the eye, but simply him, and says, “yes.”
“We’ve got…” Jack shifts restlessly, running a hand across his buzzed hair, wincing as he seems to put together the last few pieces of some puzzle. He sighs. “Yeah, we could do it. The one we used for the test launch, it was… this sounds fucking insane to say, but it was… small. We wanted to start small, but we’ve got more of ‘em. Some would do more than others, but it’d be enough to stop… to stop everything. Most everything. Enough, I guess.”
“You’d… you’d be dooming the whole entire server. Tubbo, that’s insane. The three of us are all messed up, and I don’t want to fuckin’ stay like this, but that is–” Tommy shudders. “No,” he shakes his head. “I vote no. We’re not fucking doing that. We will… we will figure something else out,” Tommy nods, resolute.
“You vote? You think this comes down to a vote?” Jack scoffs.
Tommy glares at him. “What, you and Tubbo get to pick ‘cause you built the things?”
“No! I’m not saying–” Jack huffs irritably. “I meant more, this should be discussed further. We shouldn’t be throwing around votes right now.”
“Yeah, I’m not voting,” Niki speaks up.
“Right! Thank you, Niki–”
“I’m not possessed anymore, that’s why I’m not. I’m… abstaining. I don’t have to live with it, and you three do, so, you guys can figure it out, and…” Niki shrugs. “I won’t stop you either way.”
Ranboo nods quickly. “I want to… I want to figure out a different way to fix this, but you guys are… you guys are it, y’know? Your move to make, not ours.”
“Well, I said no. I’ll say it again. I will continue to say it many times, if need be, but no. I’m not… I’m not annihilating the server ‘cause me and the boys got a parasite,” Tommy isn’t looking at Tubbo.
“Fine, fuck it, if we’re voting, I vote yes. Obviously. It was my idea,” Tubbo says, and Tommy doesn’t look at him even harder. Until, instead, everyone looks at Jack Manifold.
Jack stammers wordlessly for a turn, staring back at all of them like someone is about to reveal the joke. “This is fucking ridiculous.” Jack looks at Tommy, the stupid, miserable, poor little hero who didn’t know any better, waiting for his word above all else. There’s Ranboo, who has abstained in typical fashion, looking at Jack like he’s embarrassed on his behalf, but he doesn’t say a thing. “The fate of literally the entire server, and I’m the fucking patsy?!” He turns to Niki, who is the only person Jack would expect to be okay with him deciding this, although from the way she’s looking at him, they’re well beyond something as small as a murder plot. And then there’s Tubbo, his fellow mad scientist who figured out how to rip the world apart. Jack can hear the words, not said by Tubbo, but said in Tubbo’s voice, then how does it deter anyone, if they know you won’t do it? You won’t, Jack. This one? This one would. Jack has run out of people to turn to. “I’m the prick who has to choose?”
They decide to tell no one. If this works, no one needs to know what they almost did, and if it doesn’t, it’s not like it will matter if they knew either way. Besides, someone would probably try to stop them. Which would’ve been fair, honestly.
Niki and Ranboo do the heavy lifting on setup, supervised by Jack and Tubbo, as they hoped if they weren’t the ones literally putting together the launch, they’d be less likely to engage in possession-induced sabotage. Tommy does not help, instead he paces the shoreline. They decide to set it up outside, on the roof of the labs. There’s no need for a launchpad, because they think they might as well be ground zero. It’s meaningless. The kind of radius this thing will have, none of it matters. This bomb Jack had viewed almost as a joke, a symbol of their hubris meant to sit deep in some bunker, but then again, Jack had hoped all of these bombs would sit in some bunker. Well. Except for the first one, which he had hoped would destroy Tommyinnit so completely people would assume he was missing instead of dead. Bygones.
“Why haven’t they tried to stop us yet?!” Tommy finally contributes by shouting at them the thing they’re all thinking but no one has bothered to say out loud.
“Dunno! Why don’t you ask them?” Tubbo shouts back.
Jack doesn’t know what to make of Tubbo and Tommy bickering at the end of the world, but maybe it makes perfect sense.
He really fucking hopes it’s not the end of the world.
Jack had said yes, but not for the reason Tommy had refused to say yes, and not for the reason Tubbo had chosen to say yes. Jack thinks that this will work. He trusts Tubbo, and he knows he will press the button, and the things lurking in their brains right now, quiet and peaceable in the final hours, they know it too. That should scare them shitless, he hopes. All of this is hinging on some haphazard theory. They didn’t like the radiation. They need host bodies to navigate the surface or perhaps the sunlight or maybe some completely different reason but they’d only reached them because of all those fish and rabbits so that’s got to mean something, surely. They’re capable of wanting things. Jack thinks, probably, it’s easier to persuade someone to want something than to make them think they need it. Tubbo is a politician, which means he can be quite the salesman as well. All Tubbo needs to do, is make them want to leave. That’s all. And then the server will keep existing.
Hey, if the world ends, at least that means there’s no one left alive who knows it was Jack who made the final call.
It’s almost dusk, but not quite, and on the roof of Snowchester’s not-so-secret laboratory, there is, of course, a button. Tubbo’s mouth is very dry, but otherwise, he doesn’t think he’s scared, really. Either it will happen, or it won’t, and then nothing will matter anymore. Tubbo has rationalized the past three days the best he can, but the fact of the matter is, this type of fear is new. It’s different. Even with their apparent limitations, Tubbo cannot stand the thought of living in a world where his will is not his own. He’s had enough of that with Schlatt, and Wilbur, and Dream, and honestly any other fucking prick who has tried to manipulate him. Jack Manifold gets a pass but only because Tommy did in fact kill him, but he’s an exception and he knows he was a dick.
Tommy looks irritated and very anxious but he still hugs Tubbo so fucking tightly but this time he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t ask Tubbo not to, he doesn’t try to make a joke, he hugs him, and he lets go. Niki hugs Jack too and Tubbo hears her whisper something and he doesn’t think he was meant to, but maybe that doesn’t matter either.
“I feel better now. Do you?”
And Jack, far less quietly, laughs. “Fuck no.”
Ranboo isn’t looking at him, he’s staring at the button on the other side of the roof.
“Whatcha thinking about, bossman?” Tubbo asks.
“I, uh. I’m thinking maybe I shoulda picked a side this time,” Ranboo laughs, and he sounds a bit choked up about it.
Tubbo grabs Ranboo by his tie, which hangs loosely around Ranboo’s neck and probably still has Tubbo’s spit on it from when Ranboo stopped the entity from talking about things that weren’t supposed to be talked about yet, and pulls him down until their faces are inches apart. Ranboo’s cheeks are flushed green and red and his eyes are very wide. “Nah,” Tubbo grins, “I like you just the way you are, sexy.”
“Oh my god,” Ranboo sighs, exasperated and unbelievably fond. He leans forward until their foreheads are pressed together. “Mess them up, bo.”
Ranboo pulls away first and Tubbo is grateful.
“Shall we proceed, partner?” Jack says sarcastically.
“Unless you’re having second thoughts?” Tubbo replies in turn and buries the hope that Jack will say yes.
They walk to the button, and only once out of earshot of the others does Tubbo say it, teasing traded for something cold. “It’s too easy.”
“What?” Jack frowns.
Tubbo stops in front of the button. He doesn’t look at Jack. “Escalation.”
“Ah,” Jack winces. “Yeah.”
Tubbo places his hand over the button, not on it. “Right, then. Jack?”
“Got it.” Jack levels a loaded crossbow with Tubbo’s chest. It’s loaded with a firework. Jack smirks halfheartedly. “See you on the other side, then. Probably.”
“Probably.”
Tubbo stares at Jack and waits for him to stop being Jack. At first Jack just looks impatient.
“Look, I’m calling your bluff. You know I’ll do it. And if you want to stop me, there’s a guy with a crossbow right there. And I know you can’t puppet me around instead, because then Jack fires and that is an immediate threat to my life, is it not? I think so. Not to mention, PTSD, not great, but apparently has it’s uses. I am staring at a rocket level with my chest and I can already feel that fight or flight impulse bitching at me, hence, Jack will be your host this evening, and we’re going to have a chat, all diplomatic-like, just like in Civ-5.”
“Okay. So, your friend Jack Manifold shoots you in the chest and we don’t control you. What of it? What then?” Jack scoffs in a very Jack-like fashion, except that it’s not Jack.
“Well, he does that, and my hand which is quite close to this button, probably hits it on the way down. Or the rockets do it for me. That too. Be sorta poetic, I guess.”
“And? You destroy yourselves. That could be… that could be very interesting. It’s unexpected, I’ll give you that,” Jack says dryly. He doesn’t look bored, more so sullen. Maybe a good sign? Hell if he knows.
“So, either, you leave me and my friends' bodies, you go back to your hole in the ground, or I destroy the world.”
“You’re the one that woke us up, Tubbo. Feels, well, a bit rude to back out now,” Jack huffs. His finger is off the trigger. Interesting. Maybe they’re hoping it will indicate Jack is no longer a threat to his life, meaning they can possess him instead? PTSD doesn’t work like that. Tubbo can see the rocket, he knows it is death, and he is working quite hard to keep his mind sharp right now despite that.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t mean to, if that counts for anything,” Tubbo offers coolly. “Right, I’d rather not make this a long chat. You say you don’t care, but if I remember correctly, you used my mouth to say the words, the radiation made us a bit restless. Restless has a negative connotation. I presume you know that?”
“That was the intended connotation. Well done.”
“Ooh, you guys are having fun with Jack’s sarcasm, aren’t you?”
Jack’s expression twitches toward amused. “We can’t turn it off, as it turns out.”
“Yeah. That tracks,” Tubbo smiles. “So, gentlemen. You referred to us as mortals, yes? Implying you lot are not mortal.”
“And you’re threatening us with a mortal weapon, yes.”
“Yeah! Which means you never get out of it,” Tubbo says brightly. “You are restless, everywhere, all the time, forever. No one to torment, nothing interesting going on, for an absurdly long amount of time. Radiation can fade, but the timescale for how long that would take is still significant, even for something that is allegedly immortal.”
“Allegedly,” Jack scoffs.
“Well why don’t we test it out?” Tubbo lowers his hand half an inch, and he sees Jack’s eyes widen. Tubbo’s already racing heart seems to skip a beat, excitement instead of fear, and of course, Jack’s expression turns into a scowl. They know that Tubbo has caught them. They can see it inside his head. “You don’t want me to press this button.”
“What if it kills you? What if we leave, and your three bodies die behind us. Wouldn’t you rather press that button? Kill everyone else with you?” Jack says, surprisingly spiteful. Tubbo sees a glimmer of the man who really wanted to murder Tommy.
“You know I don’t. Just like you know I will. If I have to,” Tubbo smiles. “Look, you are restless, I sympathize. I do. So, how about this, you leave us, and presuming you leave us alive, I will go back to that crater, and I will seal it up. Block by fucking block if I have to, we will leave you to your bedrock and your solitude, and we’ll part ways better people– better beings all around, ay?”
“You can replace the blocks?” Jack looks startled.
“Um. Not the exact same ones, but the same… kind?” Tubbo is surprised as well.
Jack looks thoughtful, calculating. “The fish died and the rabbits died because their brains were too small and we were spread too thin to occupy them. Your vessels hold more, so you don’t fry. Otherwise, you all would already be dead and we’d just be puppeting your corpses at this point.”
Tubbo takes this in as slowly as he dares. “Okay. Um. Good.”
Jack nods. “Replace the blocks. All of them,” Jack gets bolder, standing up straighter. “More than all of them! No caves, no hollows. Nothing. Make it dense. And… and cover the top with snow.” Jack stares him down, ultimatum given.
“Yes, but you leave us first,” Tubbo says slowly.
Jack scoffs. “Yeah, clearly. Otherwise how are we going to get buried?”
Tubbo is beating back the part of himself that now wants this thing to stay because this is fucking fascinating.
“Yeah, we’re more interesting than you pricks,” Jack smirks.
“So that’s it? We have a deal?” Tubbo turns his hand over the button, offering it instead.
Jack stares at it like it’s a novelty before lowering the crossbow. He laughs, shaking his head. “You guys really are trying to figure out a way to make yourselves no longer apart, huh? You make… you make your own connections. Like, from scratch, out of nothing. It’s… actually kinda adorable.” Jack shakes his hand. He lets go. He blinks.
“We… did we do it? Did that do it? Are we fixed?” Jack says intently.
“Uhh. Uh. Uhhh,” Tubbo turns around sharply. Tommy fumbles with the geiger counter on the other side.
Tommy waves it over his head, shouting, “I’m fucking un-irradiated, you stupid freaky motherfuckers! Wooo!”
“Wooo!” Tubbo shouts back.
“Oh, thank god, I really thought you were–” Jack is visibly shaky now. He’s already broken the redstone wiring to the bomb behind them. “Holy shit.”
“Have a little faith in me, Jack,” Tubbo teases.
“I have, a fucking ridiculous, stupid amount of faith in you and all of your bullshit, Tubbo.”
Tubbo doesn’t reply, he leans over the roof, puzzled. “...huh.”
“What?” Jack joins him and his mouth hangs open. “Oh. Huh.”
He and Jack watch as the dead rabbits leave the lab one by one, head down to the shore, and start to swim.