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“Experiment number 3, attempt number 56: potion combo.”
Pure concentration, and maybe a bit excessive protective equipment.

Zedaph stood very still, trying his hardest not to shake as he continued to narrate his movements, checking and double checking in his head that he had everything prepared.

“Alright,” He began, voice barely above a whisper. “Potion mixture, check. Lab coat, check. Glass shield face protection, check. Gloves, check. Clipboard and other recording devices, check and check…uh…”

Zed lowered himself closer to the floor, kneeling eye level with the table and potion brewing station he’d somewhat modified on the fly. It wasn’t anything great, but it certainly did the job: two different modified potion brewing stands atop a quartz table interconnected by tubes and several other glass containments all leading to a final flask at the very end where a mixed number of browned potion liquids awaited Zed’s final addition.

Here he was, prepped and ready to conclude a potion hypothesis he’d been practically obsessing over since yesterday morning.

It started as an idea, the thought of what would happen if he were to mix a set of pre-existing potions together. After some extensive research, he found that no one had thought to try a very specific combination of potion into one bottle, it seemed as though most times most combinations turned into what many people deemed an “awkward potion”; but he was sure this combination would work with his calculated adjustments.

Though some considered extensive potion mixing a taboo, Zed’s want for knowledge was too great to consider the consequences of his actions in that moment. He just had to know.

Trying hard to steady his shaky hand, he tipped the small glass vial of healing potion he was holding just so a single drop would escape into the flask.

“Steady…steady…” He whispered.

With a silent plop, a single drop fell into the potion mixture, absorbing into the liquid instantly.

Quickly, Zed placed down the rest of the vial into a nearby holder, watched intently and tried not to blink for fear he would miss some sort of reaction. He held his breath as he stared.

Though, after a few long seconds of waiting, nothing seemed to happen. Zed was starting to feel a bit disappointed that there was no visual display after all his work. He wasn’t expecting a fanfare per se, but at the very least, he was expecting a colour change, or even a small puff of smoke? Maybe even a-

BANG

Zed fell to the floor with a thud as he yelped in surprise, attempting to shield himself from the sudden explosion and spray of glass shards that followed. He’d fallen hard enough onto his backside he was sure it would leave a bruise.

He sat up and began to pat himself down to check for any serious injuries. Thankfully it seemed his over-excessive protection had done a great job; especially his face shield which had cracked but stopped several glass shards from entering his face. So carefully he took off the face shield, lifted himself off the ground, and faced the blast zone.

As the remaining smoke cleared, Zed could make out the nearly obliterated mess that was his modified potion brewing machine. The area around the exploded flask was still smoldering from the initial blast, a charred indent into the table below.

“Oh man…” Zed muttered in disappointment, placing a hand behind his neck as he frowned. But, despite the destruction, he had to admit the explosion was kind of cool.

But for now, this experiment would have to be deemed a failure. Maybe the reason nobody had mentioned this potion combination on online forums was because this is what happened to them as well. Zed was just thankful he’d been able to protect himself from his own demise.
 
——————
 
Zedaph took a moment to take in a long inhale of fresh air, exhaling any stress that had crept up on him prior. With a warm smile directed at the mountain standing in front of him, he couldn’t believe he’d already made so much progress on his newly constructed section of the laboratory.

Since the failed potion experiment from earlier that morning, he figured he’d distract himself from his disappointment by starting work on other sections of the lab to help prep for future ideas.

It wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, just a few adjustments to the large windows that let natural sunlight in and an added room he planned to be turned into a larger tower much later for his villager hypotheses. His plans for the lab were still far from over, but it was such a good start already he couldn’t help but feel excited for the future.

The sun had set already, signalling the closing of the day and a much needed rest for Zed, but even despite heading for the door as the night approached, he was still energized enough to at least write out his future plans for his base.

It was too bad his enthusiasm was a little hard to keep too high right now.

Unfortunately, for the latter half of the day he’d had this ongoing chronic headache which had slowed down his pace quite a bit while building. The pain seemed to hit him in waves throughout the day after they started at around noon. It was even still bothering him now, just simmered down to a quiet lull but annoying nonetheless.  He hoped it would have gone away fully by now, but perhaps a good nights rest might clear it when he head to bed later.

Zed began toward the laboratory door, taking out his trusty keycard from his lab coat pocket before sliding the card into its slot on the door’s card reader device.

bzzt .

“Uh…” Zed looked at the red light on the card reader, signifying a bad read on the card. He tried again.

bzzt .

And then again.

bzzt .

“Ugh,” Zed groaned to himself, “I really need to fix this dang thing,” He waved his keycard around in the air and then rubbed it on the edge of his lab coat as if it were dirty. Though to be honest, the only thing wrong about it was the card reader itself. It was one of those standard ones that you can make on the fly, nothing special and certainly not good. Zed mentally noted that he’d have to modify the design later so he wouldn’t get stuck on his own front door.

beep !

Finally, after the fourth time, the card reader worked and allowed Zed inside. He quickly slid through the iron doorway and into the confined space inside with a sigh of relief, greeted by bright cool lights and the distant smell of something clean.

His relief was suddenly cut short by that annoying subtle ache in his head growing then fading after a moment. Seemed his headache was getting worse again. He’d have to check on that soon if it kept up.

With a sigh, Zed shook it off and began to head for what he liked to call his Research Room, a simple small room containing a single desk with some stacked writing paper and an old computer both illuminated by the only warm-toned lamp in the entire building. The desk had a set of drawers on one side as well, set aside for any trinkets or small supplies may have needed while in this room.

With a small comfortable sigh, Zed pulled out the small blue-cushioned rolling chair from under the desk and plopped down on it, sinking a bit into the cushion as he swivelled around to face the computer. Reaching behind the computer’s monitor, he pressed the power button and the machine whirred to life, the screen flickering a moment before a bright red logo screen appeared with capital letters reading “mojang” in white; the brand of the computer.
Seconds after, the screen flickered to a new set of text on a blue background. “Welcome back, Zedaph ” it said. Just below was a blank text box, awaiting a password to be written in its place. Zed put the password, though with a slightly slow pace. He was still getting used to it since the password was still somewhat new to him ever since the new season had started.
After a long loading screen, the computer opened up to the main Home Screen.

bing !

The small jingle caught Zed’s attention, a small pop up in the corner of the screen which read “you have 7 new messages” showing up. Oh, that was right.

For some reason, Zed had decided not to use the classic handheld server communicator this season, insisting that he would be fine without it since he would basically be confined to his lab for most of the season anyway. And instead, messages would go through his desk computer. And yet, the lack of a communicator seemed to make things all the more stressful. Zed wondered if it would be too late to ask Xisuma if communicators were still available  so he could see world chat and direct messages the normal way. Usually they would only be available at the beginning of the season, and the longer he waited the less likely they’d be available.

Shaking himself out of his regretful thoughts, Zed clicked on the pop up, launching the communications window.

To Zed’s surprise, the new direct messages were all from one person, Tango.

Of course.

With a quiet chuckle and a bit of relief, Zed clicked on Tango’s message box, scrolling to the most recent messages:

Tango 6:45pm -  hey! how’s the base coming along?

Tango 7:00pm - Uhhh guess you’re busy

Tango 7:17pm - ohh wait I forgot you didn’t get the communicator thingy this time

Tango 7:18pm - when you get this let me know

Tango 7:18pm - just wanted to hang out and talk :)

Tango 7:20pm - also don’t know where your base is yet sooooo
 
Zed looked at the time, seeing that it was almost 10 p.m. Well. That last message was almost three hours ago.

Holding his breath and hoping that Tango was still awake, Zed typed out a message.
 
Zedaph 9:59pm - Dang lab computer isn’t as good for chatting as I thought haha

Zedaph 10:00pm - Sorry I didn’t respond

Zedaph 10:00pm - Are you still awake? I know you don’t usually stay up this late
 
And it was true, Tango had seemed to become an earlier sleeper lately so their late night chats/calls weren’t usually long anymore, if at all. But to Zed’s surprise, a chat bubble popped up, and a message came in not long after.
 
Tango 10:02pm - yeah I’m still up, just barely finished building something and was about to head to bed

Tango 10:02pm - i’m pooped
 
Zed chuckled lightly at the message before responding.
 
Zedaph 10:03pm - You still up to hang out?
 
There was a long pause, and nearly no response for the next few minutes. For some reason, Zed felt a strange feeling of annoyance, one that he wasn’t used to. He was usually a patient guy, so it confused him a bit why he was feeling this way all the sudden. This somehow made his headache feel more annoying too.

Thankfully, a message popped up after a moment.
 
Tango 10:09pm - aw man I’d love to but I’m too tired rn, really busy day today

Tango 10:10pm - maybe tomorrow?
 
Zed shrugged one shoulder giving a half smile and nod to the screen.
 
Zedaph 10:11pm - All good, tomorrow then :)
 
Part of him was a little bummed about that, but there really wasn’t anything he could do about it. So instead, Zed just sort of sighed and slumped into his chair. Guess tonight was going to be another full planning night for future projects in his lab after all. Still, Zed had this lingering sense of annoyance in his gut. Or was it something else? Whatever it was, he tried to ignore the feeling.

Zed sat up straight and reached for the stack of papers next to the computer. Pulling out a lined piece of paper from its stack, he grabbed the pen tucked in the front of his lab coat pocket, clicked the pen’s tip open, and placed it at the top of the page. Maybe if he just cleared his mind a bit and wrote down his plans, he’d maybe get rid of his light yet still lingering headache.

But out of nowhere, before he could even place the pen tip to the page, a huge wave of pain seemed to strike Zed in the head. The massive oncoming headache seemingly from thin air caught him off guard, causing him to reflexively grab at his skull and squeeze his eyes shut. He grunted at the rapidly growing intense pain, his pen clattering to the floor as a high pitched noise rang in his ears. Zed could barely gather himself, attempting to stand but failing as he sank to what might’ve been the floor. But he couldn’t tell amidst the pain.

It was so loud, everything hurt.
Incoherent voices from nowhere echoed around him, blackness threatening to close in at the edges of his vision, the colour red seeming to— 
…
 
Zed jolted awake, gasping for air as he shot up from where he laid on the desk. His sudden movement caused the rolling chair he sat in to roll backward into the wall behind with a loud slam, startling him even more. His mind suddenly felt cloudy as he caught his breath, eyes darting around frantically as he took in his surroundings. He was still sitting near his desk, the computer was still on, and his paper sat in its place.
“ Zedaph… ” said a distant echoey voice.
“Who…!?” Zed shook his head, looking around him at the sound of his name, his voice surprisingly raspy. Yet as soon as it happened, it seemed there was no response. Despite his cloudy mind, he felt confusion and a sense of paranoia.

That pain—excruciating, unbearable—had seemed to have disappeared as if it hadn’t happened at all. He felt oddly fine.

Was that headache real? Had what he just experienced even happened? Whose voice was that..?

Zed glanced at the paper again, realizing that there was writing on it. Upon closer inspection, he recognized the handwriting as his own, written exactly like he would intend. But this stirred even more confusion in his mind. He was sure he hadn’t written anything before that episode happened.

Weakly rolling the chair closer to the desk, he hesitantly read the paper.
 
LAB PLANS

recalibrate time recording device
sheep wool wall (disguise)
Initial villager analysis (on clipboard outside)
remastered potion brewer
begin building first test chamber
capture the
 
Everything on this list seemed mostly normal to Zed up until he read the last two things.

“Test chamber? Capture…?” Zed questioned quietly to himself. He had no clue what that was, let alone if he’d written any of this list in the first place. He was sure he hadn’t. The oddest part was the very last item on the list. It was obviously not a finished sentence, and the way it was written was shaky, the end of the ‘e’ trailing off the page.

bing !

Zed jumped into the back of his chair, startled by the sudden notification sound that emitted from his computer next to him. It was a message from Tango.
 
Tango 8:35am - I’m at ur base where are u
 
Wait, what time was it? Zed blinked, looking at the timestamp on Tango’s message and then looked at the time at the corner of his computer screen.
8:35 a.m .
“What the hell…?” Zed whispered. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, looking at the time again, expecting it to be some sort of hallucination. Yet the time still remained the same; early morning. He had sworn is was still night time.

Shoulders tensing, Zed, scooted closer to the computer and clicked on the communications window, opening the tab to see Tango’s recent message. There was a string of several other messages beforehand that Zed never recalled reading or typing.
 
Tango 10:15pm - Oh! before I head off could you give me the coords to your base so I can come over tomorrow?

Zedaph 10:30pm - [message deleted]

Zedaph 10:30pm - [message deleted]

Zedaph 10:30pm - [message deleted]

Zedaph 10:30pm - [message deleted]

Tango 10:34pm - ooookay uh, thanks for the tip?? See you tomorrow morning then
 
Deleted messages? Why would Zed delete his own messages? More questions began circulating in Zed’s mind, this feeling of paranoia seeming to creep up on him, sent a chill down his spine. He felt this sense of unease…and another subtle headache coming on.

bing !

Zed jumped yet again at the notification sound. A new message from Tango.
 
Tango 8:37am - helloooo
 
Feeling frantic, Zed placed his hands on the keyboard and began typing a response. Perhaps Tango might know something he didn’t.
 
Zedaph 8:38am - wait outs ide, I’ll be out in a minut e
 
Without waiting for a response or correcting his typing errors, Zed got up from his computer desk and ran for the door. Quickly he opened it and walked briskly to the front of his laboratory hoping Tango was actually there and not some figment of his imagination conjured by his growing paranoia. Thankfully he could see Tango through the large front window waiting outside, his back turned away from the glass gazing out at the waters and distant mountains attached to the main island.

Pulling open the door, Zed immediately called to his waiting friend. “Tango?”

Tango turned around with a friendly smile at first, but it quickly changed to one of concern. “Oh! Uh, hey Zed?”

“Is..Is something wrong?” Zed asked, crossing both arms over his chest as his nerves grew more frazzled by the second.

“Um, no offense but,” Tango began, brows creasing, “you look like you got hit by a bus dude.”

Zed frowned in return, “Um, sorry what?”

“Like, are you okay?” Tango asked, taking a step closer to Zed. At the same moment, the laboratory door clicked close, causing Zed to jump and gasp in surprise, body turning in the direction of the sound.

“I…!” Zed glanced at the reflection of himself in the glass window next to him. And Tango was right, he did look terrible. His hair was all messy, sticking up in certain places and snarled in others. His wide eyes had light but visible eye bags, and his lab coat was all wrinkled and stained funny at the edges.

“Don’t…Don’t worry about it,” he finally responded, tearing his eyes away from his reflection and turning back to Tango, “I just had a small headache last night is all, made it, uh, hard to sleep.”

“Oh?” Tango questioned, raising an eyebrow, “Must’ve been really rough?”

“Yeah!” Zed responded, louder than he meant to, letting out a nervous laugh after “you know me, always staying up and uh, heh well, yeah…” ‘Rough’ wasn’t technically far from the truth.

Tango kept his eyebrow raised, “Is this a bad time? I can come back later if you-“

“No! Uh!” Zed interrupted, raising and waving both his hands in front of him. “No no it’s ok! Really I’m fine, Tango.”

Tango just kept giving that raised eyebrow look, crossing his arms as his figure became a little stiff. “If you insist…” He finally said, shrugging one shoulder. Zed had the urge to tell Tango what he had just experienced moments ago, but part of him didn’t want to worry anyone right now. It was almost like something in him was telling him not to. Forcing him, almost.

“Um, so I wanted to ask you something…about yesterday night’s messages?” Zed started.

“Yeah, meet you here early in the morning.” Tango recalled. “To write something down for you on a piece of paper I think? Then you said something about not staying in the dark too long…but I can’t remember.” A piece of paper? And a strange tip. Zed mentally noted that it had to be from those deleted messages from last night.

Zed attempted to play along, trying to keep his cool even if he was failing miserably already. His urge to keep his strange experience a secret was upsettingly more appealing for a moment. “Uh yeah,” He said, “about that, I uh, changed my mind, you don’t have to write anything anymore.”

“Oh? I don’t?” Tango inquired.

“Uh, no.” Zed replied. “The truth is, Tango, it was just…” He had to think of something as some sort of excuse. Then the idea hit him, and he wondered why he hadn’t thought to use the excuse before. “I was going to use it for one of my upcoming experiments is all! Yeah that’s it! You know, science things heh.” Zed somehow felt like he was still telling the truth, like in his brain, it was correct.

“Oh, cool!” Tango said, “Are you not doing it anymore then? Wrong hypothesis or something?”
“Yeah,” Zed lied, then backtracked on himself, “Uh wait no, I uh, I am still doing the experiment just, without the whole writing on paper part yet.” The truth was, now that Zed thought about it, he was going to try and run an experiment of some sort on this. Whatever had went on with him wasn’t normal, that was for sure. But he didn’t want anyone else involved in this yet and certainly didn’t want to get anyone else hurt from this either. He decided right then that he’d have to do this alone for now.
“Well, good luck with it I guess?” Tango then said with an uncertain smile.

“Uh yeah thanks,” Zed thanked awkwardly, then added, “Actually I’d like to get started working on that right now, so um, thanks for stopping by but I kinda have to go and do that now so.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Tango asked, “Maybe I could help still? Since I’m here.”

“No, no, it’s ok. Really. You can leave.” Zed responded almost immediately in a firm tone. It was as if Zed spoke before he could process it, like words he didn’t mean had escaped his mouth. Did he mean to say that? He wasn’t sure.

“Uh sure!” Tango said, visibly hesitant to leave. “Um, be sure to take care of yourself first though ok? If you had a rough night it’s probably be best to, y’know, take it a little easy?”

Zed genuinely smiled this time, nodding, “Thanks, Tango.”

After brief hesitant goodbyes, Tango left by elytra, leaving Zed in a sudden fit of loud silence as he stared out at nothing. He figured he hadn’t gotten all the information he could’ve from his brief awkward conversation with Tango, but what he had already gathered was enough for a start. At the very least, he knew one thing for sure, something was very wrong and he had to-
“ Zedaph .”
Zed let out a quiet gasp at the sound of his name from behind him from that voice he’d heard earlier. Yet as he turned to see who or what it was, he was met with nothing. Not a single creature or person in sight.

“Wh-who’s there!?” Zed shouted, tensing up, “Show yourself, this isn’t funny!” Yet his shouts were only responded by the echoes of his own voice reverberating back at him. A sudden chill ran down Zed’s spine as he stared out at the emptiness of his laboratory home. He crossed one of his arms across his torso, reaching and holding the other arm at his side in a tight squeeze as he looked around with unease.

A sudden cold breeze seemed to pick up from nowhere, and gave Zed enough of a reason to head back inside his lab. Backing up slowly to the door, he pulled out his keycard from his pocket and swiped it on the card reader.

bzzt.

Zed cursed under his breath as he eyed the red decline light on the card reader. He tried again.

bzzt.

Again.

bzzt.

And again.

bzzt.

bzzt.

bzzt.
“Please, dammit just open, please ,” Zed begged to the card reader, as if it would respond any differently.“ Zedaph .” That same voice called from behind him, sounding more clear. It almost sounded like his own voice now. It caused Zed to drop his keycard, and as he quickly reached to pick it up, he didn’t dare look behind. He feared that he would see something. His breathing became more frantic as he fumbled to turn the keycard the right way around in his hands and swiped it quickly on the card reader again.
beep!

Relief seemed to flood through Zed as he practically ran through the door, slamming it behind him without a second thought. Taking in a deep breath, Zed sighed loudly in relief as he slumped against the iron door. He stayed there a moment and tried to catch his breath and still his beating heart.

He couldn’t understand why this was happening. It was as if all this had miraculously appeared out of thin air, terrorising him half to death for god knows how long now. Taking in a deep breath, Zed was finally starting to feel a wave of exhaustion hit him. He wasn’t sure how long this entire thing had been going on now, but it was certainly draining him.

There had to be a reason.

He couldn’t be going crazy for no reason could he? It wasn’t entirely out of the question, but he believed there was something that he could have touched, maybe one of those impulse experiments of his, maybe a…potion…?

Zed lifted himself away from the door, eyes widening at the sudden realization.

“Idiot!” He shouted, smacking himself in the forehead. That potion experiment he’d done was definitely the cause, and he hated that he hadn’t realized it sooner. He had made absolutely sure his entire body was covered and protected but clearly it hadn’t been good enough. Was it that his protections were too thin? Had he accidentally touched bare skin? Whatever the case, the idea of something so small making contact unnoticed was terrifying already.

Quickly, he turned and briskly walked in the direction of the potion room as he came up with possible potion combinations that could reverse this effect, hoping that he would be able to fix those destroyed potion brewers to their original state in time. He had to fix this immediately, or else who knows how long these effects would last. For all he knew, the potion hadn’t taken full effect yet.

But as he walked he noticed something strange. Initially, the room where he’d set up the potion experiment in was temporary; small, to the point, no door. But as he looked in front of him, he could clearly see two double iron doors with red tinted windows and a card reader to get inside. He hadn’t thought to look this way prior to running to the front of his lab when meeting Tango.

A sense of nervousness seemed to bubble in Zed’s chest as he stepped closer, thoughts racing at what changes would lie beyond those doors. He’d considered the possibility that more things had changed besides that writing on the paper on his desk. But never had he thought something so extreme as actual changes to his base. Part of him wished it were only the written paper now.

Upon reaching the double door, Zed hesitantly reached for his keycard in his pocket, and slowly swiped it on the card reader on the side.

Beep!

The doors cracked open with ease.

Zed’s heartbeat thumped in his ears as he stepped forward, pushing the doors open into the unknown room before him.

It looked like utter chaos.

On the surface, the room appeared the exact same as it had been before the potion explosion. Only this time, the lights above showered the area in a vivid tint of red, the walls covered with papers of scribbled notes . Zed looked around, eyes wide at the area around him. Each paper pasted on the wall appeared illegible, but as he turned and looked closer in front of him, he could see readable large writing on a paper sitting on the quartz table in front of him.

He stepped even closer, reaching out and taking the paper into his hand as he read it:

“got you :]”

The sudden sound of pistons rang out as the wall just in front of Zed opened up, revealing a line of dispensers. Before Zed could even react, several potions flew out of the dispensers at lighting speed, shattering on top of him and all around him, spraying whatever was in those potions right onto him.

He yelped in shock, falling backward onto the floor as more seemed to shoot out in an endless shower. The room began to fill with a misty haze from all the potions, and Zed began to find it hard to breathe. Out of desperation or maybe confusion, he tried to wipe off the potion’s that absorbed into his skin, in his hair and his clothes.

But it was too late, Zed was drowning. Black spots threatened to close in at the edges of his vision, the air was suffocating, if he could just get out the door—!

But it was already too late.

Zed had blacked out.
 
*****
 
“So, how’s life for you guys anyway?”

It was lunch time. Tango and his other two Big Eye-d friends sat at the curb of the recently built Pass n Gas station eating their respective lunches and enjoying each other’s company. For the most part anyway.

Tango stared down at his sandwich, barely hearing the question that was just asked by Keralis. He couldn’t stop thinking about his interaction with Zed that morning. Part of him regretted not staying longer to make sure he was truly okay.

“Well, I just finished fixing up my base. Hung a big clock at the top so I can always see the time!” Came an enthusiastic answer from Bdubs, who smiled bright like always.

Keralis smiled in return, “Your base is just so wonderful, just like your face!” He then turned to Tango with the same smile hoping for an answer, but it soon dropped upon noticing Tango’s lost expression. Bdubs noticed Keralis’ stare and also turned Tango’s way, furrowed a brow and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Uh, you okay Tango?” Bdubs asked.

Tango hadn’t even realized he’d been spacing out on his sandwich for so long, the subtle tap from Bdubs shaking him from his thoughts.

“Oh, uh, it’s nothing,” Tango responded with hesitance.

Keralis hummed in disagreement, “I’d know that face anywhere if I saw it, something’s bothering you.” Tango’s shoulders slumped, closing his eyes and sighing as he placed a hand loosely on the back of his neck and his sandwich in his lap.
“I just…” Tango started, “I was talking to Zed earlier this morning and he looked really disheveled and messy. Like, really out of it. Looked like he got hit by a bus or something.”
“Woah, is he okay??” Bdubs asked, showing concern.
“I don’t know.” Tango responded, then continued, “When I asked, he brushed it off and said he’d just had a rough night. I mean he said he was okay and shooed me away but I’m not sure I made the right decision to just leave him, you know?” Tango then let out an uncertain sigh. “I don’t know maybe I’m overthinking it but I really don’t think he’s doing okay after how I saw him.”
“Well, I’m not much of an expert on this,” Keralis stepped in, “but people have their rough moments from time to time. Maybe it was good you gave him some space, maybe that’s what he needed.”

“Mmm,” Tango hummed uncertainly, “You’re probably right…it’s just everything else about it seemed weird too.”

“How so?” Keralis asked.

“Well the whole reason I was over there to begin with was because Zed had asked me yesterday night to come over early in the morning.” Tango explained. “Something about an experiment he was doing? His messages were weird last night too.” Tango then reached down into the side pocket on his pants, pulled out his communicator and shook it lightly in his hand. “Agh I wish I could show you guys the messages, but these dang communicators this season don’t show message history from previous days.”

“Yeah that does seem a bit weird...” Bdubs said, then added, “..but I think I’ll agree with Keralis on this one. Maybe give him some space for now, yeah?”

Keralis then said, “Though I don’t think it would hurt to send him a message either. See how he’s doing now that it’s been a few hours?”

Tango nodded, feeling a bit better, “Yeah., that sounds like a good idea.” The other two smiled and nodded in return. Tango had decided it. After he finished his lunch, he’d message Zed. At the very least it would relieve the rest of his doubt and worry for his friend.

After that, the three finished their lunches between bits of small talk, catching up on each other’s progress on their bases, future plans, and life in general. And for just a little bit, Tango felt relief distracting himself from his worries.

Soon, Tango found himself waving to his friends before heading for his home turned into a makeshift shop just toward the shore of the island. It wasn’t everyday Tango was satisfied with building something, but he did feel proud looking at his starting base for this season. A part of him felt like things were going to go well for him and his friends in Big Eye if he kept up like this, and he was more than excited for the future.

bing!

A sudden jingle erupted from Tango’s pocket as he reached the steps of his home’s shop entrance. He reached down into his pocket and took out his handheld communicator, seeing that he’d gotten a direct message from someone.

Quickly, he spun around and sat down on the top step of the staircase just before his shop’s entrance, clicking on a couple buttons to open the message.

It was from Zed.
 
Zedaph 1:05pm - Hello Tango :]

Zedaph 1:05pm - How are you?
 
Tango hummed in surprise. It was quite the coincidence that Zed would message him considering that he was about to send out a message himself. Though it was better timing than ever, he now had his chance to talk to Zed about that morning and ask if he was alright. Maybe if he had the chance, he could meet Zed and talk in person.

So quickly, he typed a response and sent it.
 
Tango 1:06pm - hi, doing alright

Tango 1:06pm - how are you doing? feeling any better?
 
Almost immediately, another message from Zed popped up.
 
Zedaph 1:07pm - I’m doing just fine, Tango.

Zedaph 1:07pm - Can I ask for a small favour?
 
A favor? Tango recalled Zed sending him a  similar request last night. He typed out a response.
 
Tango 1:09pm - uh sure? as long as you’re feeling okay, I don’t want to bother
 
Zed immediately sent a series of messages almost simultaneously.
 
Zedaph 1:09pm - I promise, I’m very eager for you to fulfil this task.

Zedaph 1:09pm - Come over to my laboratory, there’s something I would like you to help me with.

Zedaph 1:09pm - And do not tell anyone else where you’re going. My newest experiment must be top secret, ok? :]

Tango felt strange, like this subtle feeling in his gut was telling him that something about Zed’s messages was off. More strange than yesterday night’s messages even. Sure, Zed had always been a strange guy, but his weirdness stemmed from something more lively and whimsical. He’s known the guy for a long time now. So these messages Tango was reading almost felt nothing like Zed. He was reminded of their interaction earlier that morning, and how messed up Zed looked.

But if Tango truly wanted to know, he felt he’d have to talk to Zed in person. Maybe then he’d know what this weird feeling was. Maybe he’d be able help Zed with whatever he was going through.
 
Tango 1:12pm - ok, I’ll be over in a bit
 
Taking in a deep breath and sighing, Tango stood up from where he sat on the steps and went inside his house to search for his elytra. Once he found it, he draped it over his shoulders and headed for the front door. As he opened the door he glanced back at the interior of his home, a strange empty feeling washing over him briefly as he stared. Something told him he wasn’t going to see this place for a little while. Perhaps the rest of the day.

“Hey Tango!”

Tango yelped and jumped backward in surprise, turning to find Bdubs practically in his face.

“Bdubs! You scared me!” He cried, heart racing from being so startled.

Bdubs let out a small giggle, “Heh, sorry didn’t mean to.”

Tango blew out air, “It’s okay, just didn’t see you.” He briefly laughed in return.

“Uh anyway, I was hoping to buy some candles if that’s ok, saw you were selling them.” Bdubs said, leaning over and looking into the open door. “Are they in stock?”

“Oh! Uh yeah just head in and you should see them.” Tango responded, finally calming.

“Thanks!” Bdubs said with a smile. Just then, he spotted the elytra on Tango’s back. “Oh, are you headed off somewhere?”

Tango remembered the message Zed had sent about not telling anyone, debating with himself whether or not to tell Bdubs. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to tell at least one person where he was headed, no harm in that right?

So, he responded, “Uh yeah, I talked to Zed, so I’m headed that way.”

“Oh! Cool! Tell me how he’s doing when you get back.” Bdubs said with a smile. “I know you were worried.”

Tango nodded. “Sure thing.”

With that, Bdubs nodded and went inside, leaving Tango who faced the outer shore with a look of determination. He knew he wanted to see Zed, but still felt nervous about going. Would he be faced with the same disheveled form of a man he’d talked to earlier that morning? What if he looked worse? What if he couldn’t help Zed? And those messages…

Taking in a deep breath, Tango shook the thoughts from his head and decided it best to just go and find out.

The journey felt surprisingly shorter now that he knew where Zed lived. It was still quite a distance away from other people’s bases though, on a part of land that almost split off from the main island were it not for the skinny piece of land connecting the two larger land masses together.

Carefully, Tango landed near the front door of the laboratory looming before him. The afternoon sun seemed to shine from behind the large surrounding mountains, shading the small lab entrance he remembered Zed entering from in a light shadow.

As he approached the lab door, he noticed something different about how everything looked. The lab itself seemed relatively normal, but something about it seemed bigger, maybe better built.

Earlier in the morning he had only glanced inside the large window to the lab, but he could have sworn the interior was a lot smaller than it appeared now. Just looking at it, he could see several organized rooms, pathways and completed redstone contraptions that he was sure weren’t there before. It seemed strange. Had he really missed that much when he was talking to Zed earlier in the morning?
Tango knew he wasn’t usually a very observant person as it was, but he was sure that the lab didn’t look this well built in a short amount of time. It had only been a little over a month since the hermits had even settled.
“You’re here.”

“Wh-!?” Tango jumped and turned in surprise at Zed’s voice from behind him.

Zed looked surprisingly normal. No messed up hair, or eye bags, or anything really. He looked completely fine, almost better than before. Though Tango couldn’t tell for sure. Zed’s safety glasses seemed to glare in the light, so he couldn’t see his eyes.

“Good,” Zed then said with a blank smile, “I was almost worried you wouldn’t come.”

“Well you asked for me,” Tango said, then added, “Um, by the way, how are you feeling? From this morning I mean.”

Zed gave him a quizzical frown, “I already told you, didn’t I?”

“I know I know, I just,” Tango glanced again through the lab window, “This morning you-“

“Oh it doesn’t matter, we’re running out of time.” Zed interrupted as he approached Tango and started pushing him toward the lab door. “I need to get started on the experiment.”

“Uh, right.” Tango said, stepping with Zed as they went toward the lab door. Zed then quickly took out a keycard from his right pocket and swiped it on the card reading device. The door made a beep sound immediately and opened. “What’s the experiment I’m helping with by the way?” Tango then asked.

“Oh you’ll see,” Zed responded in an eager tone as he pulled Tango through the door. “Just follow me.”

“Ok…” Tango obliged hesitantly, letting Zed lead him.

Zed’s hand felt cold when he grabbed for Tango to follow him. He wasn’t exactly holding Tango’s hand either, but instead kept a tight grip on his wrist that seemed to grow tighter the further into the lab they went. It didn’t hurt, just felt a little uncomfortable. But he wasn’t focused on it as much as he was focused on the interior of the laboratory itself. He noticed several contraptions as they passed through the lab, moving mine carts, pistons pushing things, a wall of sheep’s wool, and other odd rooms that became obscured as they descended down a set of stairs.

“We’re here.” Zed said finally as they stopped in front of a blank wall toward the back of the lab on the lowest level. “Stand like this for me.” Zed let go of Tango’s wrist, redirecting him so he was facing the blank wall just a few meters in front of him. Zed was out of his view somewhere behind him.

“We…are? What are we doing here exactly?” Tango asked glancing to the side of him. But Zed didn’t respond. Confused, he began to turn around, “Zed did you hear m-“

A cold hand unexpectedly and quickly placed itself onto the back of Tango’s neck and a syringe came into view as it suddenly stabbed straight into the side of his jugular. The sharp pain from the large needle began to register as he reflexively grabbed at the hand holding the syringe, letting out a quiet gasp. He ripped the device from his neck and it clattered to the floor. But as he looked it appeared whatever was in it had already been injected.

“Z-Zed…?” He turned around wide eyed to see Zed with an eerily wide smile upon his face.

And his eyes.

Red. Glowing bright and ominous through his safety glasses with a look so intense he almost looked insane.

Tango’s vision suddenly grew foggy, losing his balance as the ground seemed to sway beneath him. He tried hard to fight the feeling but only ended up falling to the floor, seeming to lose control of his body. “Zed..!? Wh…what did…yo…u…” His words were nearly incoherent, vision growing blurrier and doubled. Zed stepped closer, kneeling on the floor as he grabbed one of Tango’s weakening hands into his icy ones, those glowing red eyes seeming to be the only clear thing in Tango’s vision.

“Don’t worry,” Zed said with an insane smile, “I’ll make sure you make the perfect experiment.”

Tango felt his whole body go limp, before everything suddenly blacked out.

Two words echoed in his mind before he lost consciousness.
 
“Sweet dreams.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Bdubs sat at the doorstep of his home resting his chin upon one of his hands as he stared out at the ocean shore. His brow furrowed with worry.

It was late now, the sky was dark. Normally he would have gone to bed by now, but this strange feeling in his gut wouldn’t go away. It had been several hours now since Tango had left to go meet Zed, or at least Bdubs assumed he was still there. Wherever that was.

And while he wasn’t someone who usually worried, something about it all gave him a weird feeling. Maybe he’d message Tango again? But all his other messages hadn’t even been read.

Still, he decided he’d at least give it one more go before he went to bed.
 
BDoubleO100 10:30pm - Tango are you there? Everything ok??
 
He stared at his message as it sent through and glanced at the other previous ones from the last nine hours with a look of disappointment in himself. His initial messages were just to ask Tango about candle prices since he’d forgotten to label them. But those messages slowly divulged into more concerned question marks as the hours had gone by. He was holding onto the hope that maybe he was just worried over nothing and things would be fine in the morning. But after all this time it still felt bothering.

Several minutes had gone by now and still no response.

With a heavy sigh, he reluctantly placed the communicator back in his pocket and got up from where he was sitting, heading for the door of his base. As he opened the door and went inside, he quickly came to a decision. He’d check if Tango was home in the morning. If he wasn’t he’d message again. Maybe Keralis would have seen him by then too.

Whatever the case, he could feel his tiredness crawling up on him as he eyed his bed. It had been ages since he’d stayed up so late. At least in this instance there was kind of a reason, regardless of how dumb it may have felt to worry about his friends so much.

Bdubs quickly slipped into something more comfy, then plopped into bed and sank into the covers. Letting out a long yawn, Bdubs stretched his arms above his head and decided it best he shouldn’t worry himself over everything so much. Worrying only got him in the wrong places it seemed. It would surely all be okay in the morning.

So, he buried himself deeper into the covers of his soft bed, closed his eyes…

…and…

It was cold. So cold.

A sudden wind seemed to pick up out of nowhere as Bdubs found himself standing out in the middle of the woods. The trees loomed over him casting a dark shadow, stretching high into the sky they appeared as tall as skyscrapers. He didn’t know how he’d gotten here, how did he end up here!?

“Hello!?” Bdubs called out through the darkness of the trees, only met with silence as the echoes of his own voice faded into the darkness. A chill ran down his spine as he took a step backward.

He grabbed at the clock hanging from his belt, looking down at it to see the glass was cracked, and the dial underneath was broken. Eyes widening, he let the clock drop his his side again and frantically looked around to figure out where he was and how he possibly could have gotten here.

The ground suddenly began to rumble, a low drone picking up out of nowhere as the sky lit up bright red like fire. Bdubs’s eyes darted upward, the moon filling the entire sky as it came barrelling down toward the earth burning through the atmosphere.

He gasped in shock, frozen in place. When suddenly he fell backward by some mysterious force, the ground beneath him shattered like glass and he fell through.

There was darkness at first as Bdubs landed onto a cold hard floor beneath him. He could barely catch his breath, as if he was being suffocated. A vaguely familiar sounding voice let out a low menacing chuckle from behind him.

With great hesitance, Bdubs turned around.

His vision began to fill with the colour red, strange voices and screams of agony blaring through his ears as visions of blood filled his mind. Red eyes, bloody scalpels, large syringes, a maniacal laugh so LOUD-
 
Bdubs gasped as he shot out of bed with a loud cry, heart beating a hundred miles a minute as he tried to catch his breath.

“Nightmare,” He told himself, gasping, “It was just a nightmare.” But his hands still shook intensely, heart thumping loudly in his ears. Bdubs hunched over himself, bending his knees closer to his chest as he hugged the comforter draped on top of them. Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply and let out a long exhale afterward. He was finally able to calm down after a few minutes.

Bdubs always hated his dreams. Actually they weren’t even dreams, more like premonitions. Most of them never came true thanks to his avoidance of what happened in the dreams, but some of them would still happen, especially when they were unclear. It was part of the reason he would always go to bed early. It seemed like whenever he did, those premonition dreams didn’t happen. And the later he stayed up, the more vivid they’d be, as strange as it was.

His dreams this time were too abstract to tell what it meant.

He couldn’t make any sense out of them. The moon barrelling toward the earth, burning the sky? That couldn’t literally be possible could it? And those grotesque images flashing through his mind of things like looked like bloodied medical devices. And someone’s insane laugh, still echoing in his mind like a broken record. It didn’t make any sense. These dreams couldn’t be real.

Bdubs shook his head and decided to shrug it off, trying to convince himself that it was all just some bad nightmare.

He turned to his side and grabbed his clock laying on the night stand next to him, relieved that it wasn’t cracked. It appeared to be be very early in the morning. The sun was probably barely peeking over the horizon. With a sigh, Bdubs decided it was better to just get out of bed early than try to go back to sleep, even though he still felt tired.
 
———
 
“Tango?”

Bdubs knocked on the door of his friend’s house again for the third time. It was still a little early, the sun was just barely above the horizon line now. Though he was aware Tango usually slept in the lower basement section of this house, he also sometimes fell asleep in the shop during particularly busy nights. After seeing that he wasn’t in the former area, Bdubs found himself at the shop entrance instead.

He knocked one more time, harder than his last knocks, “Tango? Are you-“ The door suddenly clicked and creaked open on its own from how hard he’d knocked, opening into a dark room beyond.

He stepped closer with hesitance, pushing the door open fully and peered inside. Bdubs felt his stomach sink as the door creaked wider into the room. It didn’t look like anything had been touched or moved since he’d last been inside yesterday. The candles he’d been meaning to buy didn’t have any price labelled like he’d asked. The entire interior felt barren of life.

His brows furrowed and he began to frown, feeling strange. Shaking off his worried thoughts, decided he’d at least look around.

“Tango…?” Bdubs called as he stepped past the door’s threshold, looking around the dark interior. The floorboards creaked under his footsteps as he turned and looked around, echoing against lifeless walls. After many sweeps he was sure there wasn’t anything here, no hidden doors to other areas either. He tried the stairs to the second level, which lay barren all the same.

Keralis.

Maybe Keralis knew something.

Bdubs walked briskly out of Tango’s house with hope and began in the direction of Keralis’s base; a house on a small island just off the shore. In a matter of minutes, faster than he’d ever rowed a boat before, he arrived and ran to the large modern house, hoping Keralis was awake.

Bdubs knocked loudly three times on the door. “Keralis? You awake?” He called.

No response.

He knocked loudly again with worry, trying to calm his nerves. This time he heard a shuffle from the other side, the door’s handle jiggled,  then turned, and opened.

Keralis peered through the doorway with a tired face, apparent eye bags under his eyes. “Bdubs?” He muttered groggily in confusion. Keralis leaned heavily against the doorframe.

“Woah,” Bdubs said, taking a step back, “Are you ok? You look like you haven’t slept.”

“That’s because I haven’t.” Keralis yawned out, “I’ve been up all night gathering supplies together to stock our gas stations.”

“Oh!” Bdubs realized, “Sorry, I didn’t know we were doing that so soon!”

Keralis gave a weary smile, “Don’t worry about it, I should have said something.” He then opened the door a little more and leaned out. “So, did you need something?”

“Oh, right,” Bdubs refocused his train of thought, “I was just wondering if you’ve seen  Tango? I’ve been trying to get ahold of him since yesterday and he’s not home.”

Keralis looked down deep in thought and hummed, “Mmm, no I don’t think I have. Not since having lunch together yesterday. Sorry.”

Bdubs let out a quiet sigh of sadness, “No it’s okay, just thought I’d give it a shot.” That tangle of worry deep in his stomach began to creep up on him again. “I’ll uh, ask around and see if anyone else has seen him. Thanks though.”

“Sure,” Keralis said, with a look of concern. “I’ll keep an eye out for him and message you if I see him.”

“Thanks,” Bdubs smiled, “but you get some rest first, okay? And don’t worry too much about it, I’m sure it’s nothing and Tango and I will be back in no time.” Bdubs began to turn to leave, but felt Keralis place a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Hey B?” Keralis said, brow furrowing.

“Uh, yeah?”

Keralis paused for a minute, then looked down, “Sorry, I was going to say something, but I forgot.”

With that, Bdubs departed from Keralis’s base, and soon found himself back inside his own house pacing, thinking of possible places that Tango frequented. But nothing seemed to hit him. Tango hadn’t really been many other places besides Big Eye territory recently that Bdubs knew of…

Maybe he should message Tango again.
 
BDoubleO100 7:45am  - Hey are you there?

…

[MESSAGE FAILED TO SEND]
 
A failed message? Since when did that happen?

Bdubs tapped a few buttons on the screen to try and resend it, hoping it was just some weird connection error. But even as that little spinning circle came on screen each time, every attempt to resend was met with the same error. After many tries, he checked the world chat connection, but it seemed that was fine.

So why Tango?

He had never felt so lost. It was like he couldn’t shake this strange feeling that something was wrong. Maybe it was his nightmare from earlier that morning, or that he hadn’t gotten any response to his messages. Or that this recent message wasn’t even sending through. Whatever it was, he had to know Tango was okay. If he had answers, he’d finally be able to ease his mind about all this and put it behind him.

“C’mon, B, think!” Bdubs whispered to himself as he paced around the room. Was there anywhere else he could look? Anyone else he could ask? Maybe even asking for help wouldn’t be a bad idea either…

…-wait.

Just then, Bdubs recalled that Tango had told him he was headed over to Zedaph’s place. It had somehow slipped by his memory since yesterday night. It was a stretch, but it was better than nothing. He swivelled around on one heel and faced his front door with a look of determination.

Bdubs paused when he realized something.
…where even was Zedaph’s place? 
*****
 
“C’mon Beef, it’s nothing! It’ll go away. It has to.”

Vintagebeef—or just Beef as his friends called him—stood in front of a pane of glass, staring at his semi-visible reflection through it with a look of worry.

It was honestly a miracle he’d lasted so long staying around this alien ship he’d found without any issues. But of course, he inevitably ended up with some sort of strange infection. He wasn’t quite sure how it had happened either, it could have been any of those strange steam pipes he accidentally got sprayed with, the rust gathering on the metal beams or that weird black bottle that was lying on the ground not too far away. But whatever it was, things appeared to be getting worse by the day.

At first it was only his eye, which had grown yellowish in color, but now he noticed the skin around the eye was growing darker and had a scaly look to it. The tips of his fingers also had that strange skin texture now too. It was worrying. Part of him wondered if he should talk to someone about it, maybe a hermit familiar with exotic issues like this.

At the very least, he still felt okay.

After many more long seconds of examining his reflection, Beef decided to just back away and try not to think about it. It was never good to worry about things that were basically out of his control. He couldn’t do anything about it right now.

“Okay.” Beef said with a loud sigh.

He decided it was best to just refocus his attention back on the space ship and gather materials for his next break in attempt. He’d set camp just outside the perimeter of the space ship in a tent, big enough for him to stand in and store any items he’d need. So as he approached his tent, he came up with possible ideas that might help him.

Even still, he hadn’t had any major progress on getting inside for a while now. The only recent one he’d had was a couple weeks ago. One of the doors opened for a split second before closing immediately. Since then, it had been failure after failure. It wasn’t helpful that the entire ship was still floating above a smouldering crater, so just getting to any part of the ship was a hassle. And breaking the ship apart was too much of a risk.

“Let’s see here,” Beef muttered to himself as he rustled deep through some chests trying to find a few things.

“Oh, hey Beef!”

Beef jumped at the sound of someone else’s voice from behind him, bumping the back of his head on the edge of the chest’s lid just above him. “Ouch!” He cried, grabbing the back of his head reflexively as he turned his gaze to see who was there.

“Uh oh, sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you.” Said Bdubs, who approached gingerly.

Beef quietly laughed it off, “Oh, don’t worry about it, it happens.” He then turned fully to face Bdubs who suddenly had a spooked expression.

“Uh, your eye—um.” Bdubs looked with hesitation, “Are you okay?”

“Oh!” Beef exclaimed with realization, placing his hand on his temple, “it’s ok! Don’t worry it’s just a random thing, I promise it’s not contagious or anything.”

“Uh, you’re sure?” Bdubs looked with concern.

“Positive.” Beef stated with a firm nod. Bdubs just stood in silence a moment, clearly still not convinced. So instead, Beef stood straight and placed both feet together in a single spot. “Uh listen, I’ll just stand right here okay? I won’t come any closer. Is that better?”

“Yeah,” Bdubs said, un-tensing his shoulders, “That works.”

Beef couldn’t help but notice Bdubs seemed a little off, like he was stressed. “So uh, what brings you here anyway?”

“Oh, I was just on the nearby path.” Bdubs started gesturing behind him, “I’m trying to find Tango. I haven’t seen him anywhere since yesterday so I decided to go around and ask people if they’ve seen him anywhere. You haven’t happened to see him, have you?”

“No,” Beef said with a frown, “Sorry, I haven’t. I’ve been too busy with my own thing so I haven’t really been anywhere except my place.” Tango was lost? It wasn’t exactly the first time something like that had happened with any of the hermits, but still, it was always concerning.

“That’s okay, I figured as much.” Bdubs sighed.

“Have you looked around his base? Or somewhere he’s started a big project?” Beef suggested, recalling some places people had found the guy. “Maybe he got stuck in some of his redstone again?”

“No, I’ve already searched around possible spots.” Bdubs said, looking nowhere in particular as he crossed his arms in thought. “But you wouldn’t happen to know anything about where Zedaph’s set up his base would you? It’s the last place Tango mentioned going when I last talked to him.”

“Hmm…” Beef suddenly remembered Zed mentioning something away back at the beginning of the season. “You know? I’m not entirely sure where it is, but I think I overheard Zed mention something about a distant set of small mountains he was hoping to claim at the beginning of the season. It’s possible you might have a better chance searching for its coordinates the directory log at the spawn town.”

“Oh man! You’re right!” Bdubs said, eyes brightening as he placed his fist in the palm of his other hand. “Thanks Beef! I’ll go check that.”

“No problem!” Beef said with a smile, leaning an elbow against the edge of a nearby chest.

With that, Bdubs left from out of the tent, and as Beef peeked from around the tent’s flap, he caught a glance of Bdubs disappearing around the corner.

Well, that was certainly an interaction.

Beef found it strange that a hermit was missing. And Tango of all people? Usually he was very easy to find, or at least as far as Beef understood. He wasn’t around Tango very often but he gathered enough about him over a passing conversation here and there. All he hoped is that Tango was alright, considering how concerned Bdubs looked when he first arrived.

Sure, hermits went “missing” sometimes, but usually people would find each other within a few hours. Whether through regular searching or messaging, it wasn’t hard to find anyone nowadays. But a whole day? It did seem a bit strange.

Beef recalled his mention of Zedaph. That’s right, wasn’t he going to start working on science stuff this season? And with Beef’s growing concerns about his strange eye infection…

…maybe he’d consider giving Zed a visit too.
 
*****
 
A couple hours had passed now, and Bdubs wasn’t quite sure what had happened. He was sure he hadn’t taken a wrong turn to the spawn town, had he?

“Someone really needs to put up some signs around here.” Bdubs commented quietly to himself, then stared down to the ground as his foot dug into mismatched patches of grass and stone. “…and make pathways.” When he got home with Tango he might have to consider paving paths around the island himself…
He didn’t remember the direction of the spawn town being so far south. Then again, he hadn’t been to spawn since the start of the season. So he really wasn’t sure. Did spawn town even exist anymore? It was only supposed to be a starter area until all the hermits had settled. It’d been about a month since then. Maybe his communicator could help him? It should have coordinates on it.
Bdubs reached into one of his pockets where his communicator normally was, only to find it was missing. He checked his other pockets, then the usual pocket again just in case, but to no avail.

“Oh no.” He’d left it back at home, hadn’t he.  Bdubs wasn’t the greatest at remembering his things. At the very least he always had his clock with him, which always hung at his side on a chain.

Bdubs sighed and looked at the land ahead of him, then down to his clock which read that it was midday. Well, there’s still no harm in exploring. He just hoped he’d run into something soon before it got dark. Maybe he’d run into Tango by pure chance? Only one way to find out.

With another quick sigh, Bdubs continued forward. He’d hoped to see another Hermit’s base by now, but so far the only thing he’d seen for the past fifteen minutes or so were dense forests and the sandy beach that surrounded most of the main island. His last landmark was the starting construction for one of Big Eye’s southern gas stations.

After what seemed like forever, the path ahead looked as though it was going to stop. Bdubs decided it was probably best to turn back. It seemed there wasn’t anything out here. There wasn’t any way Tango was out here, nor spawn town, and definitely not Zed’s—

That was when he spotted what looked like some sort of white concrete tower poking out from the side of the stony mountain just ahead. Was that…a building?

As Bdubs began to walk closer, more of the structure came into view.

It looked like a laboratory.

The structure seemed to be built against the small stony mountain next to it, the tallest tower nearly reaching the same height as the stone peak. The front had this large blue tinted glass window, and as Bdubs got closer he could see a variety of strange redstone contraptions he didn’t understand beyond the glass.

Glancing over he eventually spotted an iron door. It looked like it needed a keycard access to get in, or at least that’s what Bdubs assumed the strange box next to the door was. His redstone expertise wasn’t exactly anything good.

Bdubs began to get this weird feeling about the place. Whose place was this? How could someone build something advanced like this so quickly?

“What are you doing here?” Someone asked from behind. Bdubs gasped and jumped in surprise as he turned around to be met with none other than Zedaph.
“Zed!?” Bdubs exclaimed, looking from him to the lab and back again, “wait you live here?”
“Yes, this is my lab.” Zed said. Now the lab coat he was wearing made sense, and the pair of safety glasses hanging from his shirt collar. Bdubs noticed something strange about Zed now that he was looking closer. His eyes…were his eyes always red…? Something about it rang alarm bells in Bdubs’s mind, but he wasn’t sure why.

“So you do science stuff here then? What kind of things are you studying?” Bdubs asked, half curious but also to study Zed further. He was sure Zed’s eye color was something else. He was also standing oddly. Did he always hold his hands behind his back?

“Yes, science is what a Lab is for.” Zed responded bluntly, “And my current experiments are quite…lively. Now, what are you doing here?”

“So, do you—“

“I don’t want to have to ask again, what are you doing here, BdoubleO?” Zed interrupted. He looked annoyed.

“Oh! Sorry I was just trying to uh,” Bdubs was taken aback a little bit at the sound of his full name. “I was looking for Tango actually.”
Bdubs noticed Zed’s shoulders subtly tense and one of his eyes twitch at the name. “You’re looking for subj—I mean looking for Tango?” Zed repeated with an apparent stutter. But Bdubs still caught slip on the word “ subject ”. It felt like a strange word to use in this context to him.
“…Yeah, the last place Tango told me he was going was your place.” Bdubs hesitantly replied, nodding. He noticed Zed’s eye begin to twitch more. “So I’ve been looking for your place since this morning. It took me a while to find you but I’m here now. I just wanted to ask if he was still here or if you know where he went?”
“He told you where he was going, did he?” Zed paused for a second, his brows furrowing a slightly as he glanced toward the lab before looking back at Bdubs slowly. “It’s funny you ask. I do happen to know where…Tango…is.” Bdubs began to get this weird feeling at the way Zed had said that. His worry for Tango began to grow again, like this deep twisting knot in his stomach. “But before I tell you…have you told anyone where you were going?”
“No,” Bdubs lied, recalling his conversation Beef. “I, um, I haven’t.” He felt like he shouldn’t trust Zed for some reason. Like in his gut something was wrong with this picture.
Zed looked at him with an ominous expression. “You’re lying to me, aren’t you? Who else have you told ?” Zed questioned. He brought his hands from behind his back to his sides, the tips of his fingers and fingernails were stained red.
“Um,” Bdubs didn’t know how to respond. He was a bad liar. Anyone could read it on his face. He had to steer this conversation somehow. And he needed to figure out this weird feeling. Why wouldn’t Zed just tell him where Tango was? What was with this strange lab and Zed’s ‘lively’ experiments he mentioned? Why would he say ‘subject’ instead of Tango? And more importantly, what did not telling anyone else have to do with—…

oh.

Oh no.

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” Zed said, his tone becoming more urgent as he took a step toward Bdubs.

“Zed, you…said you know where Tango is…right?” Bdubs didn’t want to believe it. “Your experiments…are you…is Tango…”

“You’re too clever for your own good, BdoubleO. I’ve said too much.”

Without warning, Zed lunged at him and grabbed him by the side of his head. His hold was strong. Bdubs could barely react as his whole body was pushed head first with great force straight into the lab’s glass window. The glass shattered as Bdub’s head made contact and he fell through to the other side within the lab, landing with a loud thud onto the cold concrete flooring and shards of broken glass.

The image of him falling to the floor in his dream that morning flashed through his mind for a split second.

Bdubs struggled to get up, ultimately failing as he fell back to the floor in a daze and grabbed at his head in pain. When he brought his hand back down there was  blood on it. He felt more begin to drip down his face now that he’d let go of the apparent wound. Even as he tried to regain focus, his vision doubled then returned to normal in waves, making it impossible.

The sound of glass crunching underneath footsteps came from behind Bdubs.

“Now look what you’ve made me do.” Zed started as his shoes came into Bdub’s vision, “Now I’ll have to repair my window.”

“What…h-have you…d…done with Tango!?” Bdubs struggled to ask. His right eye began to sting from the blood that had dripped into it.

Zed let out a low and dark laugh, beginning to smile creepily wide as he knelt down to Bdubs’s level. He brought out a syringe filled with a strange purple-colored liquid from his lab coat pocket and answered, “The same thing I plan to do with you, of course.”

Forcefully grasping Bdubs by the underside of his jaw, Zed redirected Bdubs’s face and brought forward the syringe toward his neck. But Bdubs wasn’t about to give up. Despite his weakened state, he tried with all his might to keep the needle from getting any closer. With one hand he tried to pull Zed’s icy cold hand off his face while his other hand desperately grabbed at Zed’s arm that was holding the syringe. The point of the needle was barely an inch from his skin.
Bdubs stared at Zed in disbelief as he struggled to keep the syringe away, a million questions flying through his mind all asking why . He couldn’t believe Zed would do something like this, both to him and whatever he’d done with Tango. Zed only stared back with a wide smile, his eyes began to glow this bright red that made him look even more insane.
“I thought you wanted to see Tango?” Zed asked mockingly in between holding in a hysterical laugh, pushing the needle point closer. “Just give up already, it would be easier for both of us.”

“You—!?” Bdubs tried to object to such an insane statement, but his strength had wavered too much as a result.

The syringe’s needle jabbed into Bdub’s neck.

Bdubs gasped, the sharp pain hitting him as whatever was in the syringe drained from its container. Everything in his body instantly  began to grow weaker, his vision blurring, and senses going numb faster than he could think.

He tried to fight it, but ultimately it was too overpowering.

Bdubs blacked out.
 
*****
 
“…Zed…?”

Beef couldn’t believe what he’d just witnessed. Did Zedaph just…knock out Bdubs? Beef stood frozen in place in his spot just before the broken glass window, looking inside to see the mess beyond with both Zed and an unconscious Bdubs on the floor. He hadn’t seen what had happened before this. Before, Beef was only there to ask Zed about his own problem regarding his eye. It was the glass shatter he’d heard first before he found them, but what he was seeing now was enough to get the idea that something was wrong here.

Zed stood up from his spot and slowly turned to Beef with an expression that could only be described as terrifying. Zed’s eyes were glowing an ominous bright red, and his teeth-baring smile was almost inhumanly wide. Beef glanced at Bdubs who had previously been obscured by Zed’s form to see a bloody mess of an injury on the right side of his head.

“Oh, hello, VintageBeef.” Zed greeted with a slightly singsong tone. “Come to join the party, have we?”

Beef spoke with urgency now, “Zed, what did you do!?” He couldn’t put together why Zed would do this.
“Oh, now I see!” Zed chimed as he looked between Bdubs’s unconscious form and Beef. “So you were the one BdoubleO told. This is quite convenient.”
Beef had to find an answer first before he assumed anything. But no matter how he looked at it, this didn’t look like an accident. “Zed, Is he okay? What happened?” Beef questioned, trying to keep his tone calm. As he stepped forward, Zed also took a step toward him.
“Well then, we can’t have any loose ends or witnesses, can we?” Zed said between quiet spurs of laughter, completely ignoring Beef’s question. Whatever Zed was doing, Beef didn’t like it one bit. He was sure now that this was something evil. “I hope you haven’t told anyone else where you’ve gone, have you?”“I-…” At that statement, Beef had realized that he hadn’t told anyone where he was going. Now he wished he had. But he still had his communicator. As beef slowly backed away from Zed’s approach, he began to pull it out from his back pocket. If he sent some sort of emergency signal, maybe someone could—
CRASH

Before Beef knew it, he was suddenly on the ground in a daze. There was a loud ringing in his ears as a pain began to emerge somewhere on the side of his head. When he opened his eyes, purplish particles emitted from all around him, small shards from a glass bottle littered the ground where he laid.
Though muffled, he could hear Zed click his tongue in disapproval, “Now I didn’t say you were allowed to tell anyone. Though your effort was amusing.” Zed walked over to where Beef was, taking the communicator from his weak hand before pocketing it in his lab coat.
Beef grunted in anger, trying to regain himself amidst the purple haze that now clouded his vision. He could barely manage to get himself to his knees. “W…wha…t…did…y…ou…” His words slurred together.

“You thought I wasn’t carrying the rest of that potion on me?” Zed laughed, “Don’t be silly. Unfortunate it doesn’t take effect as fast, but…”

Beef fell back to the ground, unable to hold himself up any longer. “You…bastard…”

The last thing Beef heard before he lost consciousness was Zed laughing.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sometimes regret grows slowly overtime, and sometimes it’s like being punched in the face by the world’s largest fist.
For Mumbo, it was something in between currently.

Here he was pacing around in his potato farm as he contemplated if what he did was a good idea or not. It wasn’t even his idea to begin with either. Scar dared him to do it. His cunning and persuasive nature always got the best of Mumbo.
It didn’t help that he’d also somehow turned into a literal humanoid potato some time ago now. At least his mustache had stayed. But Mumbo’s coordination skills had suffered greatly from the transformation. His only conclusion so far was that his transformation had happened from all the potatoes he’d kept obsessively eating thanks to his recent diet. So maybe Scar’s dare wasn’t an accident, but what happened after definitely was. And his potatoness was to blame.Perhaps he was taking the “plants” in his peace love and plants motto too literally…Whatever the case, he seriously needed to distract himself right now before he started overthinking everything. Maybe he could cook up some potatoes? He was hungry, and since he was at his farm, having something to eat was conveniently right here.
Though as Mumbo approached the automated potato farm he’d built and pulled a lever, he couldn’t help but think he was missing something. As if on cue, the redstone system shuddered and then stopped working. Several redstone wires even popped out of place, exposing the dust underneath.

Oh, that’s right. He forgot he needed to actually fix the farm. It wasn’t working earlier, it was no surprise it was malfunctioning now.

Great, now he had to leave his hiding spot if he wanted to eat.

He knew he at least needed to get some redstone supplies, which were unfortunately sitting in one of his van’s compartments somewhere. Maybe if he snuck out just for a moment to get it, he wouldn’t be seen.

Being careful, Mumbo climbed the exit ladder from out of his potato farm and peeked out to see if anyone was around. It was still a bit obscured by various trees, uneven land and of course, Treeza. Mumbo finally emerged from his spot and snuck over to the base of the tree golem’s leg.

“Psst! Treeza?” Mumbo called in a half whisper toward the tree.
Treeza turned to glance at Mumbo from the side and let out a low grumble response as if to say what? .
“Can you bring down the van?” Mumbo loudly whispered with his hands cupped around his mouth to try and direct the sound. “I need something from it!”

The tree grumbled again and brought down the van from where it had been held high above. The run-down car’s metal frame creaked and rocked as it was placed onto the patchy grass below. Mumbo quickly mouthed a thanks before slinking over to the van as sneakily as he could and began rummaging through the compartments to find his spare redstone supplies.

Though Treeza had first been a response tactic to the semi-recent tree war that had happened, Mumbo was actually quite grateful to receive such a nice and docile tree golem as a result. Not only was it a great form of protection for Mumbo’s personal belongings, she was also a generally nice plant-like friend he could understand and relate to. Becoming a plant-like being himself had really made him appreciate all plant life a little more.

Treeza grunted something with a concerned tone.

“What, why am I being sneaky? I just don’t want to be seen, that’s all.” Mumbo explained, but got another concerned grumble in response. “Ok, I know you saw it too, but as long as Grian doesn’t know about it then—“

“Mumbo?”

At the sound of his name, Mumbo jumped and yelped in surprise. He stumbled from out of his van and turned to be met with the last person he’d hoped to see right now.

“Oh, hey…Grian…” Mumbo nervously greeted as he looked toward Grian who had his arms crossed. Maybe he hadn’t found out yet. But Mumbo knew it was only a matter of time until—

“You haven’t happened to see where my egg has gone, have you?” Grian asked, leaning forward with an eyebrow raised. Oh he definitely suspected him, there was no doubt.

“Egg? What egg? There’s definitely no egg here…!” Mumbo said, stumbling over his words. “…especially of the…dragon variety.”

Giving a half disappointed look, Grian sighed, “What did you do with it?”

“I’m sorry, I promise I didn’t mean to lose it!” Mumbo blurted out, “Scar dared me to move it and then it vanished!” The worst part? It could now be anywhere within 100 meters from where it was originally.

“Lost it!? Like full on disappeared?” Grian exclaimed, then sighed, “Oh, Mumbo….”

“I realize it’s a stupid prank I shouldn’t have done.” Mumbo pointed out, maybe saying this more to himself.

“Well, makes more sense that Scar put you up to it. I’ll have to have a word with him later.” Grian said as he uncrossed his arms and glanced in the direction of Scar’s base. “I’m surprised you actually went through with one of Scar’s dares this time?”

“He was very persuasive, I couldn’t say no!”

“Oh? What did he offer you this time?” Grian asked with a half playful smile now.

“…some potatoes.” Come to think of it Mumbo still hadn’t gotten them yet.
“Yeah, that checks out.” Grian chuckled, then put on a more serious look. “Mumbo, you do know I need that egg for the Tag game in a couple days, right?”
“Oh my goodness.” Mumbo hadn’t realized Grian’s island-wide tag game was happening so soon. No wonder Scar was acting so urgent about it. And all for what, some ‘gold-plated’ potatoes? Mumbo was beginning to doubt that they even existed. “I’m so sorry, I forgot you were—“
“Hey listen, it’s okay, I’m not that mad.” Said Grian with his hands extended in front of him, interjecting Mumbo’s apology. “If you want to make up for it you can help me look for the egg. See where it’s gone off to.” Well, it was better than what Mumbo thought he’d have to do to make up for his dumb move.
“Right, ok! I’ll help.”
 
*****
 
The last thing Tango remembered was falling to the floor and Zed’s red-eyed smile.

At first everything felt heavy, like this thick fog engulfing every sense of the body in a deep state of sleep.

Tango could hear somebody’s voice, but the sound was too muffled to tell who it was. His consciousness seemed to waver in and out of darkness too quickly. Things blurred past his vision each time he tried to focus.

Dark-tiled floors, corners of dark rooms, bright blinding lights, the sleeve of a lab coat .

Barely as he was fading in and out of consciousness, Tango could make out the words “two others” said by a voice he vaguely recognized amidst his foggy thoughts. But he couldn’t decipher what it meant or any of the other words that were spoken before things shifted to darkness once again.

Bright white walls, an empty glass bottle, a strange blurry device in someone’s hands, a sudden pinching pain in the side of the neck .

Tango could feel his body being moved somewhere. At first he heard the sound of someone’s footsteps echoing in an open space. Then the shift and sway of his dangling arms. Everything suddenly shifted and he felt his back lay against something cold and hard.

Finally, Tango’s vision started clearing, and at first he thought it had all been a bad dream. He slowly opened his eyes and felt his senses coming back to him. Everything in his body felt stiff with soreness.

“Well well well, looks like someone’s finally awake.” Goosebumps traveled up Tango’s arms when he heard Zed’s voice over an intercom somewhere and he realized that this was in fact not just a bad dream.

This was real.

“Zed!?” Tango exclaimed, his voice straining from lack of use as he spoke. Tango turned his head every which way as his vision focused.

He glanced around, taking in his environment from where he laid on the floor propped on a hand and an elbow. The room around was filled with various large devices in compartments flush against brightly illuminated walls, locked behind semitransparent doors with keycard readers. In front of Tango were also three small modified chests made with a white material he couldn’t identify.

Catching a sudden glance at himself, Tango looked down to see he was no longer wearing his own clothes. Instead, it was replaced by a sleeveless top and long pants made with a white thin cotton material, as well as a pair of matching white socks. The number “01” was stitched to the upper left part of the top.

And then he saw Zed.

Zed stood unmoving on an elevated platform behind a wall of tinted glass bordered with a caution pattern. He still wore that white lab coat, a pencil in his pocket and blue tinted safety glasses that partially blocked out his eyes. But Tango still made out the red color irises underneath. He held an odd smile on his face and held a clipboard and pen in his hands firmly. Behind him were a bunch of different smaller scientific contraptions that Tango couldn’t quite understand.

“What is this? Where are we?” Tango questioned as he began to stand, stumbling to his feet. The action made him lightheaded a moment as he barely managed to gain his balance. He was still trying to get his bearings. He wasn’t quite sure where he was, or how long he’d been out for.

“I figured it would be obvious. You’re one of my experiments now. A test subject, if you will.” Even though Zedaph’s mouth moved, his voice could be heard through an internal intercom somewhere within the confinement.

“Test subject!?” Tango repeated in shock, recalling the fuzzy memory of Zed saying something about an experiment before he was knocked out. He couldn’t deny he was growing scared.
“Such trivial questions. That shouldn’t matter to you now that you’re my test subject.” Zed said, shaking his head as he marked something briefly on the paper on his clipboard. “I’m only planning to do a few tests on you. Completely… harmless .”What did that mean?
“Like I’m gonna believe you? You kidnapped me Zed!” Tango exclaimed, growing angry. Some part of him felt violated thinking about the fact that he’d basically been taken against his own will.

Zed let out a laugh, wiping away an imaginary tear, “Are the details about how you got here really necessary? Come on now, it’s only for a few simple experiments. If you participate, you’ll be out of The Chamber after all my tests on you are complete today.”
Tango blinked, taking in the statement he just heard. It was ridiculous, but the offer that followed was almost believable. “Really? You’ll really let me go?” He asked, raising an eyebrow in uncertainty. There was no way Zed would have gone this far just to let him go…would he?
“You will be out of The Chamber.” Zed stated, narrowing his mouth into a straight line.

Tango thought on it a moment, hesitant as to whether Zedaph was telling the truth or not. Zed was his friend. A close one at that. Surely Zed wasn’t truly going to harm him in any way and this would surely all blow over after this. Tango had to keep telling himself that. “If this is some sort of elaborate prank, it’s not funny.” He spoke, hesitating to continue. “But ok, I…I’ll play your game.”

“Perfect.” Zed began to smile. He then turned and pushed a button on the far right wall, the sound of several mechanisms behind the walls moving into place. Tango glanced around with unease at the noises until they stopped. Zed once again stepped toward the glass, and subtly the intercom picked up the click of a pen through the static as he placed it to the clipboard. “Now then, recording has started. Beginning experiment on Subject Alpha. Baseline Test: Psychological Experiment. Subject, state your name.”

“…Tango.” He replied hesitantly, squinting at Zed as he wrote something down on his clipboard. Zed then looked up to him and  walked backward with his eyes still watching Tango closely. The movement was almost unsettling. Zed made it to the back wall near a set of buttons, pressing one of the buttons on the wall without looking.

“There are three items that will show up in the first chest to your right.” Zed said, stepping back to the front of his platform. As if on cue, Tango heard several clicks from a hidden dispenser somewhere, and then the chest to his right clicked and unlocked. Tango approached and opened the chest, peering inside. He found three very random items had appeared inside. Zed continued and asked, “Can you tell me what they are?”

“Why?” Tango questioned in an uncertain tone as he stared at the items. For being an experiment these tests were certainly striking Tango as odd.

“It’s a baseline.” Zed explained blankly. “All science experiments need a control.”

Tango hesitated to respond, glancing down at the items as he pulled the first one out. “…Theres a cod,” He pulled out the next item, “A beet,” and then the next, “And some horse armor in here.”

“Cognitive function test number one, normal…” Zedaph muttered, the words barely picking up through the intercom system. “Good. Your cooperation is adequate thus far.”

“Adequate!?” Tango exclaimed, placing the items back with force, “As if I haven’t been put in this place against my own will!?” He couldn’t just brush over being kidnapped just like that. It was already hard as it was to agree to these experiments.

The intercom crackled and Zed spoke with a sour expression, “Remember, keep up your cooperation and you’ll be—“

“Let out. I heard you.” Tango sighed. He had to escape this place. Agreement or not he was already getting nervous about being confined.

“Very good. Now, In the second chest in the middle will be a piece of paper and a pencil.” A dispenser clicked again, followed by the chest unlocking. When Tango opened it, he found exactly what Zed had said. “Draw yourself a Friend.”

“Any friend?”

“Any. Real or imaginary. Place it back in the chest when you’re done.”

Tango wasn’t exactly a skilled artist. The best he could offer was some sort of stick figure. He placed the paper down on the flat surface of the chest to draw and an idea started forming in his head. He’d try and use whatever Zed gave him in the final chest to try and escape. Though the plan felt weak considering the previous chests didn’t offer much.

From the corner of his vision he could see Zed back up and press a button on the back wall. Suddenly everything within the room went dark, obscuring Tango’s vision in near darkness had it not been for the dim light coming from beyond the tinted glass on Zed’s side.

“Zed!? Wh—“ Tango yelped in surprise, but quickly the lights turned back on. “What was that for!?”

“Don’t worry, just keep drawing.” Zed said. Tango glared at him as he wrote something down on the clipboard.

After a moment more, Tango was done with his drawing. It wasn’t much. A stick figure at best, just like he’d expected. It was supposed to be an abstract representation of Impulse. He kneeled and placed the paper back, hiding the pencil behind the chest out of Zed’s view thinking it could be used as some sort of weapon or tool. “Ok, it’s done.”

Tango could hear the shift of several redstone pistons and suddenly his drawing was dispensed neatly on the back table on Zed’s side of the glass. Zed turned around briefly, picking up the paper as he swiveled around with it in hand, observing it closely.

“Interesting.”

“Just interesting?” Tango asked. He’d hoped Zed might know who it was. But he didn’t seem to have any expression change indicating so.

“Just interesting. Also return the pencil.” Zed said, and Tango felt his stomach drop. He really wasn’t good at being subtle.

Grabbing the pencil with a frown, he threw it into the chest and watched it vanish instantly. He huffed. “There, happy?”

Without answering the question, Zed wrote something on the clipboard. “Run around in a circle for me. Demonstrate your athleticism.” Tango looked at him incredulously.

“I’m not doing that!” He objected, standing and crossing his arms.

“Do you want to be out of The Chamber or not?” Zed questioned, “Cooperate with me here.”

Tango sighed in annoyance. It was starting to feel like Zed was dangling a treat in front of a dog with how he kept saying it. “Fine.”

Turning, Tango began running in a counter clockwise circle. The action made him feel kind of rediculous. Here he was, in odd medical clothing, in a foreign space somewhere in Zedaph’s lab running in circles in a confined space. Maybe if he tried, he could knock some sense into Zed about taking friends hostage without their permission when this whole experiment thing was over.

After a few minutes Tango felt winded. He couldn’t tell whether from having barely woken up not long ago or the stifling air, but whatever it was he had to stop and take a breath. Normally he could sprint for miles if he really tried. “I’m not sure I can—“ Tango stopped to get another breath in.

“Your effort was enough. Now, In the final chest to your left will be several items you may use at your disposal.” The chest clicked and unlocked. “I will turn around and you will have 30 seconds to hide from me.”

A hiding game? Tango immediately thought there had to be a catch. “What happens if you find me?”

Zed smiled over the clipboard. “Consequences. So hide well, hm? Your time starts now.”

Tango was hoping for a less vague explanation, soon finding himself panicking when Zed turned around with his back facing him now. Not wanting to squander time, he quickly opened the chest and looked inside, seeing several basic items like bits of stone, wood and sand. Nothing looked useful for Tango to escape with, and he quietly huffed in frustration at that. He would have to see these tests on him to the end after all.

Unless…

When the thought crossed Tango’s mind he hesitated. The idea that maybe he could try to find a way to die. “Respawn” was a possible thing within the world thanks to Xisuma’s work as an administrator cultivating the worldspace before the Hermits made landfall. But it was too risky. Because it was basically partial-immortality, some of the setbacks included having to be
revived by others within the world. And the only other person that was with Tango right now was Zed, which was less than ideal. And he didn’t know if he’d end up back home or not.

So he quickly shook the thought away and refocused on the material he’d been given. Time was already running short.

Quickly he worked, placing several structures together with the intention to only hide behind one of them.

“10…” Zed began to count. Tango looked up from the piles of sand he stood on. “9…” Was time already running that short? “8…” Tango moved, frantically looking between his abstract structures he’d built trying to see where he could possibly hide and not be spotted. “7…6…” The stone structure? “5…4…” No, the wooden one. “3…2…” Tango jumped in a direction out of panic. “And 1.”

“Shit.” Tango cursed quietly as he ducked behind the pile of sand.

“I saw you.” Zed said. “Come out from the pile of sand there.”

Tango sighed and squeezed his eyes shut in frustration, standing up from his spot. “You got me. Now what?”

“Nothing. There were never any real consequences, it was only to make you think harder.” Zed said as he wrote something more on the clipboard.

“Oh thank god.” Tango quietly sighed out in relief.

“Well! Congratulations, that’s the end of my baseline tests for today.” Zed said, placing the clipboard down.

Tango looked at him in surprise. “That’s it? Then, can I leave now? Can I go home?” He asked with hope. Finally, this was over.

Zed had this perplexed yet amused look upon his face as he spoke. “Go home? I never said anything about going home.”

“Wait what!?” Tango exclaimed in disbelief, fear seeming to crawl through him as those words. This dirty liar…

“Oh silly me, I forgot to mention something!” Zed said as he theatrically placed a hand to his head as if in disbelief. “Seeing as you’re one of my test subjects now, you’re never getting out of the Lab!”

“But you said—“
“That I’d let you out of The Chamber?” Zed began to laugh. “I said exactly what I meant: You are to be let out of The Chamber . However I never said you were allowed to leave the Lab or how you’d be out of The Chamber. You’re my test subject. You belong here now, Subject T .”
Tango could feel this sense of betrayal within him as he looked at Zed in disbelief, unable to process how or why this was happening. The feeling festered within his chest like a growing storm.
“You’re crazy! Let me out of here you-…you asshole !” Tango shouted as he began banging on the glass as he helplessly watched Zed back up toward a lever on the wall.
“Have a nice nap.” Zed pulled the lever behind him and suddenly panels opened up on the ceiling. Tango’s eyes shot up at the sound and observed several redstone dispensers had been revealed.

Before he could react or object more to such wildly outlandish statements, the dispensers all began rapidly firing glass bottles of dark purple liquid. They all fell faster than Tango could comprehend, shattering and exposing the liquid inside as it turned into a thick mist.

Tango was quick to cover his mouth, understanding almost immediately that this heavy mist was meant to put him to sleep. But he wouldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let Zed win.

He took a deep breath in the remaining fresh air before holding his mouth and nose air tight against the palm of his hand. He glared with as much anger as he could convey Zed’s way. But Zedaph only stared at him with a wide and devious smile. Zed also held his blue-tinted safety glasses in one of his hands now, his red eyes almost subtly glowing.

Tango could already start to feel the sting in his lungs and ribcage from the mere seconds he had been holding his breath.

With his free hand he once again banged on the tinted glass desperately hoping it would break, trying absolutely anything to try and escape. But the glass was too thick and wouldn’t give way. Tango then backed up and looked around, hoping for even a slight idea of where an escape in the room might be. But the walls and floors lay too barren. He had nothing to save himself.

Tango’s lungs burned from lack of oxygen and the ache traveling up his sides grew worse. Darkness speckled the edges of his vision, his whole body practically screaming at him, urging him to take even one breath in. But he couldn’t. He refused.

Tango’s eyes were burning now as the mist traveled higher, particles seeping into his vision. Everything began to look cloudy and blurry amidst the black spots and his mind was growing foggy.

He couldn’t hold it any longer.

With a loud desperate gasp for air, Tango tried to take in as much air as he could through his hand. He coughed when he felt the sting of the mist enter his lungs despite his efforts, sending shocks through his body at the sudden searing pain shooting through him. An all too familiar dizziness began to appear, and the ground swayed beneath him as he lost his balance and fell to the floor.

His vision was blanking out, and before knew it Tango had completely lost consciousness.

*****

It had been nearly four hours of searching now. Mumbo was starting to feel hopeless that they’d never find that dragon egg. For the most part they had split up their searching around their town of Boatem, and met up when they hadn’t found anything. Despite their efforts, it seemed this egg was nowhere to be found.

The last place to look now was the underground caves. The one they now stood in currently was dark and unlit by torches, and the opening to even enter was steep.

Mumbo stood with torch in hand to illuminate their way in the darkness, following Grian closely who held an iron sword as their means of defense.

“Mumbo, remind me again why you don’t fight?” Grian asked, turning to him. “Things would be easier if both of us were fighting off the creatures in these caves. My sword is nearly broken.”

“You’re doing a good job for us both, isn’t that enough?” Mumbo said, half joking.

Grian sighed, brows creasing, “Mumbo.” The firm statement made Mumbo realize Grian had asked a serious question.

“Right,” Mumbo said, then began to explain, “I know I’ve told you about the peace, love and plant’s thing before but I suppose it was mostly the replanting trees thing.”

“Yeah, that’s why we had the tree war.” Grian recalled. Both Mumbo and Grian began to move through the cave again as they talked, both helping each other across a large rock formation before continuing forward to flat ground on the other side.

“Well I’m also a pacifist now, so I’m choosing not to kill things this season.”Mumbo stated. Grian stopped and turned around to face him again with an unchanged expression.

“I assume that’s the ‘peace’ and ‘love’ part of your little catchphrase, right potato boy?” He asked in a snappy tone.

Mumbo looked to him quizzically, “I suppose. At least I think the plants appreciate my efforts. I can’t tell though, they don’t seem to respond to me much.”

“Maybe plants don’t like you, have you ever considered that?”
“…but I am a plant. Am I not plant? I’m a potato, aren’t I?” Mumbo was suddenly very aware of his potato-like appearance again. And Grian still looked quite upset. “Grian, are you alright? You still seem upset at me.” He hoped his honest statement wouldn’t be taken too harsh.
“I guess searching this long has gotten me in a sour mood.” Grian said, looking down with a frown as he placed a hand on the back of his neck.

Mumbo let out a quiet sigh, “Well I guess I can’t blame you.” The two began walking again.

Just then, Mumbo spotted it. Right there in the of darkest part of the cave ahead was a black and purple egg shape sitting snuggly in the creases of the back wall. Eyes widening, Mumbo patted Grian on the shoulder and pointed in that direction. Grian gasped and suddenly ran over to the egg, Mumbo following close behind as he brought the torch in his hand closer to make sure.

And there it was in all its glory. It really was the dragon egg they’d been looking for these past few hours.

“Ok, Mumbo stand back,” Grian ordered, at which he quickly obliged. Mumbo observed as Grian carefully tipped the egg forward with his sword, bringing out a fabric bundle he’d stored in his pocket and let the egg drop inside with a shallow plop.

“Oh thank goodness.” Mumbo let out a sigh of relief he hadn’t realized he’d been holding this whole time, glad to see the egg was secure.

Grian also sighed with relief as he spoke, “There, now let’s get this to the surface before—“

A loud clatter of bones, the groan of undead, and taps of spider’s paws suddenly echoed throughout the cave as a large hoard of the monsters emerged from the shadows, blocking their only exit. Both yelped in surprise at the sudden ambush.

“Grian!” Mumbo exclaimed in fright as he scurried to get behind Grian. Mumbo couldn’t fathom how or why all these monsters had gotten here so quickly without them noticing.

“Stay back, I’ve got it!” Grian said, stepping forward with his sword brandished. “Protect the egg for me!” Before Mumbo could object to hand over something so delicate, the bag with the egg had flown into his arms. As much as he didn’t like holding the egg, he was of no use otherwise. He had no way to defend himself or fight.

Mumbo clutched the bag close to his chest as he watched Grian swing his sword into a skeleton’s ribcage, swiping through it as the all the bones exploded into a million pieces and turned to dust. Then two other creatures came close but were quickly swiped and slain by the sword. A clearing had opened up between all the monsters.

“Come on, run!” Grian called, at which Mumbo held onto the bag tightly and ran through the opening, narrowly avoiding the monsters that reached for him. Grian’s footsteps followed close behind, and beyond were the other monsters who now chased after them. The cave’s entrance wasn’t too far ahead now, only about fifty meters from what Mumbo could tell. They could make it if they hurried.

Amidst the hisses and groans, arrows fashioned from bones flew past the both of them as they ran. He hurried over the rock formation from earlier and one grazed past Mumbo’s shoulder, cleanly ripping open the fabric on his suit jacket and cutting into his potatoey skin. He turned to look back to see where the arrows were coming from and another one zipped past and ripped open a hole in the bag the egg was in.

Mumbo gasped, trying to hold the newly created opening in the bag shut. “Oh no.”

“Hurry!” Grian called and Mumbo helped him over the rock, barely missing the arrows that shot past. Having made it to the other side, they both ran the straight path to the cave’s entrance.

Finally Mumbo made it to the opening, the nearly vertical cliff out of the cave being the only obstacle that stood in the way now. Mumbo began to climb the steep slope, jumping up to the first stone ledge. He looked back to see if Grian was still close, only to see him fighting off another of the monsters that had somehow gotten close again. And more were still coming.

Mumbo wanted to help, but what could he do? His hands were full trying to protect the egg and cover the hole in the bag, and it would go against his moral code to fight as it was. Was there any useful thing he could do right now? In what way would he even be able to help?

A loud snap followed by a clatter of broken metal echoed throughout the cave, snapping Mumbo from out of his conflicted thoughts as he saw the sword in Grian’s hand break in half. Grian suddenly cried out in pain and fell to the cave floor as monsters crowded over top of him and reached up for Mumbo. A sudden thought crossed Mumbo’s mind as this happened.

The egg he was holding. The monsters were after that, weren’t they? That’s likely why there were so many coming after them. If his theory was true, couldn’t hesitate any longer. He had to save Grian.

Quickly, Mumbo landed to the cave floor a short distance away from the hoard and raised the egg bag above his head. As he suspected, the monsters all turned their attention toward it. With much strength, he threw the bag with the egg in it over the crowd of mobs deeper into the cave. All the creatures instantly followed its direction and the egg dropped to the far end of the cave with a loud crack, leaving them alone. With a heavy breath in and out, Mumbo turned to Grian with urgency.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Mumbo asked quickly, looking Grian over who sat and hissed in pain. There were several scratches and bruises as Mumbo looked him over.

He responded with struggle, “I’m not sure, I—agh!” Grian’s hands went down to his lower left leg which subtly bent to the right, broken.

Mumbo gasped, eyeing the apparent injury, “Ok, ok stay still, I’ll help you up to the surface. We need to get out of here if we’re going to fix that.” Mumbo lifted Grian by the arm over his shoulder, keeping him off the broken leg. He looked over and upon seeing that the monsters were still crowded around the spot the egg had landed, he began to slowly climb with Grian at his side in silence.

The journey up to the surface was slow but they eventually made it to the top little trouble.

“Hold on, I…need to catch my breath after that,” Mumbo said as they reached the top, stopping and standing a moment.

Mumbo looked up to the sky, seeing that it was cloudy. It looked like it was about to rain.

Grian spoke up, “Mumbo, you still have the egg, right?”

“I…” Mumbo hesitated to answer, but he had to remind himself to stay firm in his beliefs. “I had to save you, Grian.”

“So the egg is what you threw!?” Grian questioned with a louder tone, letting go of Mumbo as he turned fully to face him.

“The mobs were after it, I had to if we wanted to escape safely, Grian!” Mumbo argued. “You know I can’t kill them, it was the only way!”

Grian scoffed, “Oh, so this is about your ‘peace love and plants’ thing now, is it? Well you’re clearly not doing a very good job at that!”

Darker clouds began to roll in.

“Not doing a good job!?” Mumbo couldn’t believe this. “I just saved the both of us from almost dying!” Grian now held an irritated expression that Mumbo didn’t like. 
“I still got hurt, Mumbo! And you left the one thing we were looking for down in that damn cave! We almost had it too!” Grian shouted, stiffly shaking a hand in front of him. “You know, if you hadn’t spent your time faffing about with that dumb gimmick of yours, we wouldn’t be in this mess now, would we?”
Thunder rumbled in the distance.

“Well sorry I tried to save you over some stupid egg!” Mumbo shouted back.
“Some stupid—!? For one, that egg is extremely valuable, one of a kind and irreplaceable!“ Grian suddenly turned, limping on one foot as he pushed Mumbo with anger. Surprised, Mumbo stumbled backward, barely catching his footing at the unexpected shove. Grian also stumbled backward, loudly grunting in pain as he stepped on the broken leg briefly as he spoke, “YOU’RE the reason any of this happened in the first place! Idiot!”
Mumbo didn’t know what to say. He’d never seen Grian so upset before. He couldn’t tell if this response was truly from some egg, his leg injury, or a combination of things. Even Mumbo’s firm personal beliefs began to waver at the sight. “Grian I—“

Grian angrily interrupted through gritted teeth, “I seriously don’t want to be friends with you after this. I
hate
you.”

Mumbo gasped quietly, taken aback at such a statement. It felt shocking that Grian would even go so far as to say something like that at all.  Mumbo’s brows tightened closer together as he spoke solemnly, “Fine. I guess we aren’t then.”

Rain drops began to patter the ground.

Grian’s expression softened and his eyes began to widen. “Wait… Mumbo I didn’t mean—…“

Mumbo turned around and began to walk away, ignoring whatever Grian was about to say next as it was drowned out by the sound of the rain.

He began to head toward his home.

As he arrived, he eyed his van which Treeza hadn’t picked back up yet. It seemed the tree golem was distracted by the ongoing rain.

He opened the van’s door and peered into the darkened interior. He looked toward a specific chest of items toward one of the sides. Opening the chest, he looked inside and grabbed a worn elytra from the chest. It was one he’d meant to borrow temporarily from Pearl. Or maybe it was from Impulse? He couldn’t remember, and he didn’t care. Flipping the elytra around his shoulders, he went out into the rain and took off into the sky with no particular destination in mind.

He was flying high through the sky now. Fast falling rain drops blinded him.

Mumbo found himself getting lost in all his thoughts. Had he done the right thing to sacrifice the one thing their mission had been about to save a friend? Had he really just broken off a friendship? And over such a stupid mistake. He couldn’t believe himself. But how could he apologize? How could he—

Despite the rain and wind, Mumbo heard a snap from behind him.

His elytra had broken.

Wind picked up speed around him as he began to plummet downward from the force of gravity. He was falling faster than the rain now. He hadn’t noticed the elytra’s apparent lack of durability before, and it was too late now.

Panicking, Mumbo turned and looked below him, relieved to see a large body of water.

Mumbo braced himself and held his breath as he grew closer. With a loud splash, he plummeted below the water’s surface, water engulfing his senses.

He realized his momentum hadn’t slowed enough when a sudden pain struck him in the back as he hit the hard edge of a sharp rock. He tried to shout in pain, but the bubbles of air escaped his mouth through the water. Out of panic, he frantically swam up, gasping for air as he breached the surface of the water.

Coughing and gasping, Mumbo looked around, trying to find land amidst the large waves that moved around him from the storm’s strength. Relief flooded through him when he spotted a stony shore only a few meters away and he immediately swam to it.

*****

Bdubs’ head hurt, like a dull throbbing pain that seemed to grow worse as he began to gain consciousness. Grunting at the pain, he placed a hand on his head where it hurt the most to find something soft where the injury was.

Opening his eyes now, he glanced up to see something bulky and white out of the corner of his eye where the injury was. It must’ve been a bandage.

…What happened again?

“Good morning Subject B.”

Bdubs head whipped around in surprise at the sound of Zedaph’s voice over an intercom echoing somewhere in the room.

“Wh-!? Where-!?” Bdubs breathed out, bewildered as he grew more aware of his environment. He was in a small box-shaped room with dark flooring and bright white walls. Against those walls were several strange mechanisms indented in the wall blocked behind foggy glass panes with some sort of lock on them.

His eyes scanned around at the sight until his gaze landed on three chests in front of him. And beyond those chests was a large wall of tinted glass bordered by a black and yellow caution pattern. And even further beyond that glass stood Zedaph himself holding a clipboard, pen in his hands and an odd smile on his face.

Suddenly Bdubs began to remember what had happened.

Zed had kidnapped him.

And he had likely kidnapped Tango too.

“Zed…? Is that you?” Bdubs asked staring at Zed with wide frightened eyes. Bdubs suddenly caught glance of his own clothing, realizing he was wearing something completely different. The garnments were thin and white, a pair of pants, socks, and what appeared to be a v neck tank top with the number ‘02’ stitched to the upper left corner. “…What am I wearing? Where are we!?”

“Hm, can you hear me in there?” Zed asked in return, completely ignoring Bdubs’ questions.
“Yeah, I can hear you.” Bdubs responded, brows creasing with concern. “Zed did you hear me ? Where—“
“Perfect, then we can begin.” Zed interrupted as he wrote something down on the clipboard in his hand. Bdubs began to get irritated at how Zed was clearly ignoring him.
Bdubs spoke with an urgent tone now, “Why won’t you answer me? Where am I!? Where’s Tango? ” Zed finally paused and look him directly in the eyes. His blue safety glasses glinted against the lights but beyond them Bdubs could see Zed’s apparent red eyes.
“The both of you have asked such unimportant questions.” Zed answered, bringing the clipboard to his side. “It really shouldn’t matter to you Subject B, you belong to the Lab now.”

“Subject—!?” Bdubs exclaimed. The name and statement that followed was both shocking and scary to him. He didn’t like it one bit. “What are you talking about!? Are you crazy!? What did you do with Tango!?”

“Don’t worry, I’m due time, you’ll—“ Zed suddenly stopped speaking and turned in the direction of a bright blinking light on the back wall behind him. Bdubs heard a faint beeping noise barely over the intercom’s crackling.

“What is that…?”

“It seems we have yet another guest within the Lab’s vicinity.” Zed said, turning back to Bdubs, smile widening. “In the meantime, familiarize yourself with your environment. It seems I have something I must take care of before we begin.”

*****

The rain was still pouring heavily. Mumbo struggled to reach the top on the steep stone slope, slipping a few times from the slick surface the rain made. But finally, he made it. Upon standing, his back stung and ached from where it had been hit. Just from pressing it gently with the palm of his potato speckled hand, he was sure it was bruised. He’d also realized the elytra was missing from his back. It must have slipped off in the fall.

He wasn’t sure where he’d ended up. He was so distracted by his own regretful thoughts that he hadn’t paid attention to the direction he’d flown. Mumbo just hoped other hermits were close and he could ask for help and directions home.

And then he spotted it.

There in the distance was a building. It was a fairly large structure built with white concrete and blue tinted windows. The specific area he approached had a small door with a modified keycard reader, followed by a particularly huge window. The window itself was broken with a specifically human-sized hole at the middle. And as his eyes trailed inside across broken glass shards, he saw a large spatter of dried blood at the end.

Mumbo began to get concerned at the sight he was witnessing. What had happened here? Did a hermit live here? Were they okay?

Broken glass crunched beneath the soles of his sopping wet shoes as he walked through the opening to get a better look. It was definitely blood. And it looked like there were signs of a struggle.

Thunder rumbled outside, followed by an even stronger downpour of rain.

As much as Mumbo didn’t like the uneasy feeling he was getting, he didn’t want to return to the rain either. The cold made him shiver.

Mumbo hesitated at first, but then spoke up, “Hello? Is…anyone there?”

Mumbo began to walk forward past the shards of glass, deeper into the building itself. Now that he was observing it closer, it almost looked like a laboratory. Several redstone mechanisms moved about and mine carts went around busily. The redstone   almost felt familiar to Mumbo. He was sure he’d seen this style of redstone before from someone…but who?

As Mumbo walked further, he spotted two specific doors all with red tinted windows instead of blue. For some reason it struck him as odd that they were different. He began to walk closer to them until-

“I wasn’t expecting another volunteer so soon. That makes four in just three days.” Someone said from behind.

Mumbo’s heart rate spiked as he gasped and turned quickly in surprise. At first he didn’t recognize who was standing in front of him. The guy was wearing a lab coat with what looked like a brown sweater underneath, as well as blue colored safety glasses beneath blond hair that glared in a way that obscured his eyes. But after a second more, he realized who it was.

“…Zedaph?” Mumbo asked hesitantly.

Zedaph smiled strangely and responded, “Hello, Mumbo Jumbo.” The use of his full name felt odd. Zed only ever called him just ‘Mumbo’ before, didn’t he? Perhaps he was just feeling off from his fall earlier, so be brushed it off.
“Wait, is this your base?” Mumbo asked, turning to glance at the interior once again before looking back to Zed. He then remembered the broken glass he’d walked across. “Wait why was your window all smashed? Are you alright?”“A silly mistake is all. My… experiments …get out of hand sometimes.” Zed explained, his smile unwavering. Mumbo felt in his gut like that statement was suspicious somehow. “Now I must say, you are quite the interesting specimen yourself.”
Zed approached and took one of Mumbo’s hands into his. His hands were extremely cold as he touched and turned Mumbo’s hand and arm every which way. “Yes, I suppose.” Mumbo responded, a little confused by his actions. “I don’t know how, but I’ve turned into—“

“A potato.” Zed interrupted as he observed. “Now that’s fascinating. I must find out why. Perhaps a dissection would do it?” Uncomfortable, Mumbo took his hand from out of Zed’s grasp. Something about Zed felt off to him.

“Um, anyway, I was hoping you could give me some directions? I’ve lost my way and I’d like to get back home now.” Mumbo said. Even if the rain was harsh, he had this feeling it was a better option than here.

“Home? In that weather outside?” Zed questioned with a frown. “You should stay here. After all, it appears you’re quite injured, aren’t you?” Mumbo was once again reminded that he was indeed injured. Not just his back from earlier, but even the cave incident before that. Hell, he was hunched over right now from the pain. He hadn’t taken care of himself at all, had he? In fact, when was the last time he ate?

“I…guess I could stay here until the storm passes.” Mumbo responded with hesitation.

“Very good,” Zed smiled again, bringing something out from his pocket. “Then drink this for me.” Mumbo looked to see that it was a glass bottle or more specifically a potion. The liquid inside was a dark purplish color and nearly opaque, glinting subtly with magic.

“What is it?” Mumbo asked as he took the bottle.

“Something that should heal you right up. I just finished making it an hour ago after… well…never mind.” Zed answered, leaning his head in closer as if to observe Mumbo’s movements.
Mumbo wanted to trust Zed. But everything in him was saying that this was off. From the broken window and the blood on the floor, to the overall peculiar nature he was witnessing from Zed. Something was wrong. He almost felt as if this were an obvious trap of some sort. But no, he shouldn’t be so judging of people. Surely this was all fine.
With a huff of air, Mumbo downed the potion in a matter of seconds.

He suddenly grunted and gagged. The aftertaste was vile, and suddenly Mumbo didn’t feel so good. He began to get dizzy at first, and then his vision swayed and warped. Things began to cloud with a purple haze.

“Zed..!?” Mumbo struggled to speak, “What was…in that!?” He dropped the empty bottle and it clattered to the floor. He suddenly stumbled and fell to the floor as well with a loud thud, struggling to even stay up on his hands and knees as he held his head.

Zed hummed quizzically. “That’s quite strange. I had hypothesized that it should have knocked the average person out by now. Perhaps your potato-like nature is an outlier.”

“Wh—!? Knock me out!?” Mumbo managed to exclaim between loss of breath. Perhaps his judgement was flawed, Zed really was trying to trap him.

“It’s no matter. It should still take effect all the same.” Zed said. Mumbo looked up to meet Zed’s gaze, being met with bright red eyes staring back at him. Zed’s safety glasses were off, allowing him to see the red color glow brightly amidst Mumbo’s wavering vision. “I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting to have another join us so soon, but you’ll still make quite the interesting experiment.”

Mumbo was losing strength quickly and he fell fully to the floor. The last thing he could think before he lost consciousness was his regret that he couldn’t return home to apologize to Grian.
 —