Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ren was running. Plants were nipping at his feet, trying to get a bite and tear off his flesh. Every step was one more stab.

The cult of Pluto had suddenly attacked their camp. How they could have found them, Ren couldn’t tell you.

“There's an old temple up ahead!” Etho called back towards them.

“Okay, we'll rest there for the night!” Ren ordered.

They charged through the doors and into a ruined hall. Despite the overgrowth on the outer walls, the inside almost looked like it was well maintained.

The walls were absent of cracks and vines, in fact the decorations that had been painstakingly carved into them were still clear. Crooked paintings were lining the walls, far too faded to be recognizable.

The columns were carved to include figures of people, likely whatever god this temple was dedicated to. The faces of the sculptures were violently broken. Probably by the people who had abandoned this place. The weird part about it was that there was no debris inside.

On the other end of the hall, there looked to be an altar. A place of worship for the people who celebrated this god.

The sound of several footsteps was replaced by the heavy breathing of four. Those were the first sounds that this hall had heard in years. Only four. Ren’s ear twitched and turned around quickly. Impulse wasn’t there.

Skizz was the second to notice and he was a lot less quiet about it, “We left Impulse! We gotta go get him!”

His voice echoed around the chamber. He quickly reached for the door.

“No, we can’t. If we go out there then that’ll only put us in further danger! Impulse will find us.” BigB said, always the voice of reason in their little group.

Skizz still looked unsure but even he knew better than to go searching for someone without any backup.

“For now, we need to figure out how Pluto’s followers found us,” Ren suggested. He had to stay calm even though he too itched to go find Impulse and bring him back safely.

Etho, who had been quiet until now, spoke up, “It’s obvious that they have eyes everywhere, it isn’t possible to avoid them.”

“There’s a way, there must be.”

“B’s right, we can’t keep running forever. I say that we fight back!”

This was the part where Impulse would sigh and shake his head before explaining to Skizz that fighting Pluto’s followers was impossible for a group of five people. There was a second before anyone spoke, Impulse’s absence weighing heavy on each of them.

“They have a god backing them, fighting may as well be a death wish,” Ren was who spoke instead. Skizz grit his teeth but didn’t argue the issue any further.

“We should stay in this room. We don’t know if this place is trapped or not,” Etho said before everyone spread out. Most people were tending to any wounds they had from the man-eating plants they had to run through to get here.
Ren had already healed from any bites he had taken. However, that was because he was lucky enough to be a hybrid. B and Skizz weren’t as lucky.

That’s why Ren had expected to see them tending to any wounds when he looked up. Skizz was but BigB wasn’t. He was looking at the walls. It was almost as if he was looking for something.

“What are you doing, B?”

BigB jumped at the sound of Ren’s voice now right next to him. “Ah- I was just trying to figure out who this temple is dedicated to.”

“What’s the point of that? The gods hate us. I’m surprised they haven’t smitten us for even setting foot in one of their temples.” Skizz sounded bitter. Or maybe the rest of them weren’t angry enough. Ren could understand that sentiment.

“Maybe I’m trying to figure that out so that we don’t get smitten.” B fired back.

“Children, children, don’t fight..” Etho said. Ren would bet that he was smirking beneath his mask. “Besides, Skizz is right.”

“Sorry, can you say that again, Etho?” A grin spread across Skizz’s face in an instant.

“Say what?”

“That I was right!”

“What? I said that? That doesn’t sound like me at all.”

Skizz began to pout. BigB was chuckling, unable to contain his laughter. Ren was only slightly more successful.

Etho continued, “But seriously, the gods won't listen to us. If they want to smite us, they'll just smite us.”

“Pluto hasn't smitten us yet,” B pointed out as his laughter died out.

“That’s because they enjoy watching us struggle.”

“We don't know that for a fact,” Ren interjected, his voice echoing over the rest of theirs.

It was dangerous to have hope in these times. That was why the followers of Pluto hated them so much, because they tried to save and help people instead of allowing it to be survival of the fittest like Pluto had intended it to be.

Most of their little group was able to keep their own hope, Etho had never been able to do that.

BigB continued studying the walls, no one bothered to stop him this time.

There was a tense silence but it wasn’t as bad as it had been when they had first gotten here. Impulse was the glue that helped keep them all together, the voice of reason. Every moment that he wasn’t here was a moment that he could be dying and there was nothing any of them could do.

Ren hated this feeling, helplessness, and yet it always seemed to haunt him no matter how hard he tried to get rid of it.

Hours passed and the room seemed to only grow more tense. Skizz was now pacing the room, causing everyone to be on edge right along with him. BigB was still studying the wall and Etho was leaning against the wall pretending to be asleep.

Ren was watching over all of them and wishing that he had agreed to go with Skizz to find Impulse.

“We need to go after him.” This wasn’t the first time they heard Skizz start this tangent and Ren was almost ready to agree with it. “I mean, he could have been captured! He could be being tortured for freedom’s sake! And who are we if we leave one of our own behind.”

“Look, Skizz, buddy, you know I agree with you but it’s been long enough that if he’s still out there then it’s likely he’s dead. We both know he would rather die than be captured,” Ren spoke up. He was the first one to voice the thought that everyone was having.

Time seemed to stop. Everything froze and color seemed to drain from the surroundings. But just as soon as it happened, time resumed and everyone was looking at him.

“Don’t you dare say that, Ren, we can’t just give up on him!” Skizz sounded so desperate. He was the optimistic one, the one who always wore a bright smile no matter the circumstances they found themselves in.

Ren was about to apologize, about to suggest that they go and look for Impulse in the morning but then three things happened all at once.

The first was the front door bursting open with a beat up Impulse pushing through it before slamming it closed behind him. He was beaten up, bruises scattered around his face and one of his pant legs being covered in blood.

Skizz and Etho rushed towards him in order to give him support.

“You guys are okay, thank I don’t know who, but thank you,” Impulse slurred, as he fell into their arms before passing out.

The second was the least noticeable of all three. It was BigB’s eyes widening and him finally taking his attention off the wall. It would’ve seemed as if it had been because of Impulse bursting through if Ren hadn’t picked up B’s muttered words, “I figured it out!”

The third was someone starting to clap slowly. They all looked at the altar, finding a stranger sitting on it, one leg perched atop it and the other hanging off of it. “Well, you five sure are interesting. I’m just wondering who you think you are, trespassing into a gods temple.”

Chapter Text

Martyn was aware of the mortals as soon as they entered his temple. He didn’t give them much mind, easily tuning them out in favor of trying to figure out what he had been for the last few hundred years. The secret to evolution. He had been able to speed it up for humanity with his power over time but that didn’t solve the question of what evolution actually was.

What caused the mutations that fueled it? He had figured out why they stuck, but he didn’t know why they happened in the first place and it infuriated him.

Everything was there for a reason and gods had control over most of those reasons in some way but evolution was an outlier. Sure, things needed to adapt to live in their environments but it didn’t make sense when their environments were made for them.

It made those things imperfect, it made them different from what they had been intended to be; And he loved it.

Of course, that would be his answer if somebody asked him why he focused on this issue so much instead of literally anything else and that would be the truth.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, his thought process was getting off track. It was harder to focus while you were also focusing on tuning people out. Wait, was that Anthony’s voice he had heard?

He listened for a bit longer, hearing two of them argue. One was definitely Anthony.

If those people were going to be in his temple, then he may as well take the chance to study them a bit and say hello to an old friend as well.

He froze time for a moment and teleported into the room. He studied the facial expressions of the people who were there with him. Anthony–or did he go by BigB these days–was studying the carvings on the walls, trying to figure out whose temple this was no doubt.

The white-haired hybrid was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. Briefly, Martyn wondered if he was a fox or a wolf hybrid. He could never tell the difference between the two of them.

The human had been midstep when Martyn had frozen time. He looked worried and irritated. He also couldn’t help but notice all the scars that had collected on his body. It made sense considering the harsh environment. Honestly, it was impressive that he had survived this long, especially if Cleo didn’t like him.

Then there was the brown-haired hybrid that was sitting slouched in the corner. His ears were different to the other hybrids but Martyn still didn’t have any clue the specific type of hybrid he was, just that he was of the canine variety. He was the most interesting. His expression was one of regret.

Regret was as interesting as it was useless. It was an emotion that served to do nothing but cause you to torture yourself. You couldn’t do anything about the event you regretted, it had already happened. There was nothing that you could do about it now unless you could reverse time which was impossible considering not even Martyn, the god of time, could do that.

He could speed things up, he could slow things down, he could stop time in its entirety but there was no hopping around time, that was only a myth that was perpetuated by a majority of the gods history being erased.

He stepped next to one of the columns in the back and hid behind it. Then time played on.

The next few hours was a repeat of the human ranting before someone said something to shut him up. Rinse and repeat. Over and over.

It was getting boring if he was honest. It was too peaceful. Too quiet. He tried to focus on the people around him but really, seeing how they interacted and even occasionally joked around, it just reminded him of how lonely he had actually been over these years.

He was about to leave when the human had started ranting again. It would just be the same argument about going and getting their friend Impulse.

Then something changed. The brown haired canine hybrid told the human, Skizz, off. He froze time for a split second, just to test it. Even without it being a long time, he could tell the hybrid–Ren, Skizz had called him–noticed that there was a change.

Most mortals wouldn’t have noticed it at all or they’d think that it’s some weird trick of the light. That was because most people couldn’t process when time ceased around them so their minds would ignore it and make excuses.

Every cell, every atom, everything stops moving at once. It’s hard for anyone’s brain to think when time stopped around them even if they weren’t frozen because it was wrong to beings who were bound by it. He knew Anthony could but that was because Anthony was only mortal by the loosest definition of the word.

Then another human, based on everyone’s reactions, this had to be Impulse burst into the room. But that didn’t matter, what mattered was that Anthony had figured out this was his temple and once that was revealed, Martyn’s chances at introducing himself to these people peacefully decreased significantly.

So He froze time and sat on top of the altar. Funny how this could be interpreted as him offering himself to himself.

He started clapping in order to get everyone’s attention. They all looked at him. Most out of suspicion and hostility. Anthony’s eyes shone with recognition. Martyn slowed their reaction time to give them time to chat before they all went and attacked him. “Well, you five sure are interesting. I’m just wondering who you think you are, trespassing into a gods temple.”

“Who are you?” Ren asked, his face filling with confusion. He noticed the slowed reaction time. Martyn’s smile widened, this one really was special in some way or maybe it was because he had been exposed to it before.

“I’m the god you’ve angered by entering this temple.” Martyn watched as their reactions turned into a mix of anger and despair. Anthony looked like he was trying to decide how to feel. Then Martyn started to laugh, “Sorry, just your faces. You look terrified! As if I could actually be a god, I mean surely a god wouldn’t wait this long to kill you! Oh.. I crack myself up.”

There was a moment's relief for everyone but Martyn could only seem to catch suspicion from the white-haired hybrid. “Really, I’m just a traveler. A normal guy who doesn’t spy! No, that’s more suspicious, I’m seriously not a spy, I was just trying to make a rhyme!”

Has he always been this awkward around mortals? He could’ve sworn that he used to be better at this type of thing. He was pretty sure that they weren’t going to attack him so he sped their reaction times back up to normal.

Anthony was instantly chuckling, though trying to hide it. Skizz and the white-haired hybrid (he seriously needed to learn this guy's name) put Impulse up against the wall. They were both looking at Martyn like he was a spider and they couldn’t figure out whether he was dead or not.

Ren didn’t bother wasting any time and walked straight up to Martyn, hand on the hilt of his blade. “How long have you been watching us?”

“Started a bit after you got here. Quite honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t see me sneaking in here.” He smiled at Ren, it was the most innocent smile he could muster which meant it looked incredibly devious.

“And you didn’t think to come out before now?” Ren was suspicious, even if the suspicion was well placed, Martyn couldn’t help but be slightly hurt. How dare he insult his acting skills by not believing them.

“Well, no, I wanted to see the guy you were waiting for before I came out. I didn’t want to have to introduce myself twice.” He looked at Impulse's form, Anthony bandaging his leg while Skizz hovered worried. The white-haired one was watching from next to them, as if waiting for some sort of signal. “But I suppose I’ll have to do that anyway, won’t I.”

“That’s assuming that we let you stay,” Ren pointed out.

“You wouldn’t throw a helpless traveler out into the night! It would be a death sentence so far from civilization!” Martyn widened his eyes and let his smile fall in an attempt to look scared. Apparently it worked because Ren’s gaze softened.

Ren sighed and dragged his hand over his face, finally putting an end to it hovering over the hilt of his blade. “You’re right. We’re leaving first thing in the morning anyway.”

“That’s idiotic.” Martyn said, Ren raised a brow at him. “What? You definitely can’t leave with your friend’s injury. There’s no way you’d find a place to stay by daylight.”

Ren was silent for a few moments, he looked back at the others, “I hate to say this but you’re right.”

“Great! It’s lovely to meet and temporarily live with you, Ren.”

“You know my name.”

“Yeah, I heard it while I was listening in,” Martyn explained.

“I don’t know yours,” Ren said expectantly.

“Would you like to know it?”

“I would.”

“You can call me Martyn.”

Martyn was getting to know everyone quite well.

Skizz had welcomed him with open arms. Literally. The moment Ren had said they would be staying here with Martyn for a little while, Skizz had hugged him and said, “If Ren trusts you then you’re good in my books.”

Impulse had just accepted that Martyn was a new edition to their group when he’d woken up. “Nice to have a new member!” was his reaction to Martyn introducing himself. Etho had to tell Impulse that he wasn’t actually a new member.

Etho–Martyn had finally found out his name–scared him a bit. He was the silent type who seemed to see everything. He was also eerily silent. So much so that even Martyn could barely hear his footsteps and Martyn’s hearing was much better than a mortals.

Anthony and him had yet to be able to talk alone but he did know that Anthony seemed to be both happy Martyn was here and anxious about it.

Then there was Ren. He was determined to make sure Martyn earned his keep. When they went hunting for food it would always be Ren, Martyn, and one other person who volunteered. Ren was clear that Martyn had to find his own food because they wouldn’t be sharing with him.

He didn’t mind, he even understood. Martyn wasn’t part of their group. He couldn’t even admit to himself that a part of him wanted to be. This was the most fun he’d had in years. It was the most fun he’d had since..

His thoughts were cut off by Skizz, “We should at least do something about those cult people! Look what they did to Dippledop! He said he was barely able to escape.”

It looked like Ren was about to object but Martyn spoke up, “I, for one, agree. Pluto’s followers cause so much damage in a world that’s already hard to live in. Someone needs to knock them down a peg or two!”

“Yeah! See, he gets it!”

Ren glared at Martyn, annoyed. “We don’t have the resources or the people needed for such a big mission. It would be suicide to fight them.”

“Really? Because I don’t think Pluto targets just anyone. You’re a threat to them somehow.”

“We help people, that’s it! The most we’ve done is put a stop to one or two of their plans in the process.”

“That inspires loyalty. Those people would fight for you if you just gave them the motivation and hope to fight back!” A war. It had been a long time since there had been a big one. There was only one major power which made the possibility for war negligible.

“I’m not going to bring civilians into an unwinnable war! No. No way.”

Skizz deflated, “He’s right, we can’t bring more people into this.”

Martyn let out a breath, “Yeah, sorry, I don’t know what got into me.”

The subject was dropped but that didn’t mean Martyn had given up. He was also the god of war. He enjoyed watching the bloodshed of it all.

That was what he told Joel when he had told him about his plans. It hadn’t been much of a hassle to freeze time at night and teleport away. Finding the specific comet Joel inhabited was the annoying thing.

Joel smirked at him, keen to get up to some mischief. “Yeah, I’ll help you out a bit but you owe me!”

“Of course, I wouldn’t dream of you being a good friend and helping me just to help.”

“Oh, shut up, you dweeb.”

What Martyn didn’t tell Joel was that war brought great sacrifice and the god of it would have to be drawn out from such large events happening within his domain.

He had a feeling Joel already knew.

Chapter Text

While Ren was talking to the traveler guy who had suddenly appeared, which was incredibly rude in Etho’s opinion, he watched them. He was searching for any sign or movement that signified that Ren was in danger.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Skizz asked BigB.

“He’ll need a lot of rest, that’s for sure. But otherwise, I think he’ll be fine. The wound looks worse than it actually is.”

Both Skizz and Etho let go of some of the tension they were holding. However, Skizz was much more relaxed than Etho was. He couldn’t let his guard down while there was still a stranger in their midst.

“Do you guys think he’s actually just a traveler?” Etho spoke.

“I mean, what’s the alternative? That he’s actually a god?” Skizz joked.

BigB looked doubtful for a moment, “I mean it’s possible, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, good one buddeh but I don’t think Mr. Rhyme over there is capable of being that powerful.” Skizz patted B on the back pointing behind him at the stranger with his thumb.

“You’re already giving him a nickname. Must be trustworthy then,” Etho said, leaning against the wall. He liked to believe that it gave him a dark and mysterious vibe.

“What!? No! That’s just a temporary nickname, I can do much better than that!” Skizz crossed his arms and they all shared a laugh.

Their laughter died out when Ren looked back towards them, looking as if he had been faced with a decision he didn’t like.

Soon, Ren was coming towards them with the stranger in tow. “Everyone, this is Martyn. We’ll be staying with him in this temple until Impulse heals.”

“Martyn. Like Mars,” BigB pointed out, standing up.

“Yep and you’re BigB like a big bee! Names usually don’t make much sense during times like these,” Martyn retorted.

“You already know our names.” Etho narrowed his eyes at Martyn.

“Yeah, all except yours.”

“And why should I tell you?”

Martyn grinned, “Are you suggesting a game for me to find out your name?”

Etho debated it for a moment. “Nah, that’ll be too complicated. Name’s Etho.”

“Awh, I was hoping for a challenge.”

Etho went back to pretending to be asleep after that.

If Etho were to describe Martyn, he would describe him as someone who sees everything as some sort of game.

When Ren had asked if anyone volunteered to go hunting with him, Etho agreed to go. He hadn’t expected Martyn to also be going with them.

Ren had tasked them with setting up traps around for him to chase animals into. During this, Etho couldn’t help but inquire, “So why are you volunteering to hunt?”

“I’m not volunteering, Ren is forcing me to help you guys. I suppose he wants me to earn my keep. Did you not have to do the same?”

“No but we also didn’t randomly appear. Ren invited us to be part of the red banners.”

“The red banners, that’s what you guys call yourselves?”

Etho shrugged, “It’s a simple name and easily recognizable.”

“Yeah but it’s also boring.”

“Do you have any ideas for a better name?”

Then there was silence. Etho couldn’t help but laugh which caused Martyn to frown at him.

“I’ll come up with something! Just you wait.”

They finished setting up the trap and soon enough Ren came back, chasing a deer so it tripped the trap and was caught by the rope. Martyn hollered and pumped his face in the air.

Etho nudged him and Martyn seemed to realize how over the top his reaction was. An embarrassed blush covered his face and Etho and Ren couldn’t help but laugh.

Impulse had woken up while they had been out hunting. Skizz was sitting next to him, asking about what happened and if he was hurt. “I don’t think I’m ready to talk about it yet, Skizz.”

“Okay dot, but I’m always here when you’re ready.” Skizz and Impulse’s fingers brushed together but their hands didn’t intertwine.

Etho was more invested in Skizz and Impulse’s love life than he should be but the being in love with your best friend thing was something Etho knew more about than he’d like. He just wished that one of them would confess before it was too late.

He followed behind Martyn, he didn’t think that he would try anything with all of them in the room but felt responsible for watching over him now.

Impulse looked up at them and Martyn started his introduction, “I’m Martyn, a lonely traveler who has ended up in the same place as your little group.”

“Well, it’s nice to have a new member of the red banners then. You won’t be lonely anymore, this group is rather eccentric.”

“He’s not a new member, he’s just someone who we’re staying with for now.” Though Etho wouldn’t be surprised if Martyn became a permanent member of their little group.

“Oh! Sorry, for assuming,”

“It’s okay! I’d probably assume the same if I was in your position. Besides, I may as well be one of you while you guys are all staying here.”

Impulse nodded and the two of them began walking away. They needed to help Ren skin and dress the deer before the meet started getting too old.

Etho could still hear Skizz as they walked, “You worry too much Impy!”

“You worry too little!”

“No, I don’t, give me one example of me worrying too little.”

“When you tried to do a trick with your sword and almost ended up cutting your hand off?”

“Hey! I thought we agreed not to talk about that!”

Everyone could hear their laughter echo throughout the temple. Martyn was looking in their direction, “Are they..?”

“Nope. They’re both oblivious.”

“I haven’t seen that amount of cluelessness since…” Martyn got this slightly far away look on his face.

Etho didn’t ask, not because he wasn’t curious but because he probably didn’t know anyone Martyn would end up talking about which ultimately wouldn’t explain anything. “Didn’t take you as the type to have friends.”

Martyn seemed to snap out of whatever daze he had been in and bumped his chest with his fist. “I have many friends. All of them more important than you!”

“I consider myself very important so I doubt that.” Etho deserved to be a bit cocky once every so often.

“Sure, sure, you’re mister important. Let me tell you-” Martyn was cut off by sudden yelling.

“Quit your dilly dallying and get in here or you’re not getting any dinner tonight!”

Etho and Martyn rushed to help Ren skin the deer. They didn’t talk anymore that day but Etho wasn’t as tense around Martyn anymore.

The next few days worked out similarly, different people going on hunting jobs and Impulse slowly starting to heal.

It was weird to be stuck idle this long. Today Martyn, Ren, and Skizz had gone out hunting together. Leaving him and BigB to take care of Impulse.

“I appreciate the concern but I really don’t need all of you babysitting me,” Impulse protested.

“If something happens to you then Skizz will be upset at us. Therefore, babysitters.” Etho chuckled at Impulse’s dejected expression.

“There’s really no way to get you to leave me alone for a few minutes?”

“Sorry dude, I get how horrible it is to be injured like this but we’re only doing our jobs,” B chimed in.

“If your jobs are to make me absolutely miserable then you’re doing great.”

That had both Etho and B laughing, Impulse joined in as well though his laughter was more tame than theirs.

Once they stopped there were a few moments of silence before Etho spoke, “Actually BigB, while you’re here, there’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“Why is Martyn avoiding you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about how when he enters a room you’re usually close behind as if you’re trying to chase him and then leave him alone when he’s around the rest of us. And you’re the only one I haven’t seen him talk to at all.”

BigB was about to speak when Impulse raised his hand and started talking, “Wait, wait, wait. Just to be clear, BigB did something to tick the new guy off and hasn’t been able to talk to him since, right? Or is it that you two know each other from somewhere else?”

“No, no! You guys are blowing this way out of proportion! It’s nothing.” BigB’s words fell on deaf ears.

“If they knew each other from somewhere else, B would’ve told us but he also isn’t the type to be an asshole. If he did something wrong he’d scream an apology rather than staying quiet.”

“Hmm, what if Martyn did something humiliating and doesn’t want to talk to the person he did it in front of.”

“Martyn’s the type of guy who would be over it within the hour. We know BigB didn’t do anything embarrassing because if he had then Martyn would’ve told everyone about it by now.”

BigB sighed, “I would ask you two to stop talking about me like I’m not here but I have a feeling neither of you would care.”

As if to prove his point, Impulse kept theorizing, “I think we should revisit the ‘they know each other’ idea. Maybe BigB just didn’t recognize him because they had spent years apart.”

They both looked at BigB. “Oh so now you two pay attention to me?”

Etho grinned, “C'mon man, you have to tell us what’s going on with you two.”

“There’s nothing going on. He probably just doesn’t like me.”

“If he’s okay with Etho then he has to like you. You’re more likable than him,” Impulse stated, crossing his arms.

“Hey!” They all burst out into laughter.

In a few more days Impulse was healed enough to get moving again. That’s how most people saw it at least.

Etho couldn’t help but notice how quickly Impulse had healed from his wounds. Sure, they hadn’t been too bad but it had barely even been a week. He shouldn’t be in any shape to be walking all day again.

But Etho had checked the wound himself and it was almost fully healed. It seemed like a miracle. The last time a ‘miracle’ had happened, things went to hell shortly after.

He took a deep breath. He had to believe that whatever caused Impulse to heal so quickly was nothing like what had happened with Bdubs.

He needed to focus on what he was doing. Etho was scouting ahead of the rest of the group because he was the fastest. He couldn’t do his job properly if he didn’t pay attention.

Most of the time there was nothing to worry about, if he saw anything then he’d go back to the group and they’d change courses. That’s what he was planning to do when he saw a group of illagers along the path.

Then he saw a guy in the middle of it all, trying to fend off the illagers. He was cornered, holding a shield up to protect himself. It didn’t look like he had any type of weapon though.

Etho only had to think for a moment before he grabbed the axe off of his belt and threw it at one of their heads. It hit cleanly. Black blood shot out from the wound.

All of the illagers stopped for a moment, shocked by the sight of one of their own being so brutally damaged.

“Come on!” Etho called out to the brown haired stranger. He faltered for just a moment and then started running. Etho made sure that the stranger was ahead of him so that any shots fired would be more likely to hit him rather than the other.

Etho could hear the illagers behind them. Arrows were flying through the air. Etho looked over his right shoulder to see how close the illagers were to them. Before he knew what was happening, an arrow was flying straight towards his right eye.

There was no move he could make to spare himself. If he turned away, it hit the back of his head. If he dodged then the arrow would hit the person in front of him instead.

That wasn’t to say that he wanted to die for a complete stranger, but he also knew that if he dodged it wouldn't guarantee his survival. However, the illagers may leave them alone after they got revenge. The other guy was far enough ahead for there to be a chance.

So Etho didn’t dodge.

And for the first time in a long time, a prayer went through his mind. Gods, don’t let me die here. Don’t let me die without talking to Bdubs one last time. There’s too much left unsaid.

The Gods had never been that merciful.

Chapter Text

“‘Find something to be attacked by,’ Martyn said. ‘It’ll be easy and fun,’ Martyn said! Then where are all the blummin’ mobs!” Joel complained, kicking at some dirt. Of course, most things didn’t come out during the day but still!

It didn’t help that most things didn’t dare to mess with Joel. He looked too alien for them. From the extra set of eyes to the antenna. On the rare occasion he met a human, they assumed that he was some sort of bug hybrid.

He didn’t know what type of bug he would be but it would have to be something pretty sick.

Back to what he was actually doing, if he didn’t find anything soon then he was going to tell Martyn to go and do this shit on his own.

Maybe he should make himself look more normal. He closed his second pair of eyes. There was nothing he could do about the antenna unless he could find some sort of hoodie which was impossible because he’s stranded in the middle of nowhere.

So he would complain some more, “Curse you, Martyn! Giving me the piss poor job nobody wants.”

Joel tripped and fell face down on the ground. He groaned. He could be doing literally anything else right now.

He got up after a few minutes and then paused. There was a group of illagers surrounding him. “Where did you lot come from?!”

Well, time to run. He scrambled to pick up his shield and put it up. He supposed that stage one was complete, now he just needed to figure out how to get these guys to Martyn. Preferably without being pelted with arrows.

Then one of them toppled over, an axe sticking out of the back of its head. Inky blood spilled from it. All the illagers around him paused in trying to attack him. Joel did too. Surely they hadn’t gotten this far along the trail yet.

“Come on!” The hybrid called to him. He obeyed, it definitely made it easier to lead these guys to where he needed them. The problem was that Joel didn’t know how to run at a normal human speed.

That meant he got a lot further in front of the mortal than he had meant to. It was probably fine, the illagers were terrible shots anyway.

Then Joel heard a prayer. It wasn’t sent specifically to him but when anyone prayed to all of the gods, it was the loudest for the closest ones. And that voice sounded familiar.

Damnit, damnit, he was never agreeing to do what Martyn asked him again.

Luckily, he was technically asked to intervene which made it so much easier to explode the arrow with his mind. Literally. He grasped the point at the middle of the air and put a vortex there, effectively creating a coin-sized explosion and destroying it.

Now he had a mortal who owed him his life and it was all Martyn’s fault.

He paused in his running, pretending to be out of breath to allow Etho to keep up with him. Honestly, Etho looked better than he had expected for someone who had almost died. Or he was as good at acting as Joel was.

“We need to keep going.”

Joel was about to nod and say something about how he was so incredibly scared before he was lifted up into Etho’s arms. What. The. Hell.

“I can keep going on my own! PUt me down!” Joel didn’t shriek. He would never do something as humiliating as that. Even when a random man picked him up and immediately started running with him in his arms.

“It’s easier this way.”

“How is-” Joel sputtered, “this is in no way easier!”

“I’m faster than you.” The hybrid darted to the right, an arrow narrowly missing him. “And it’s easier to dodge when I don’t have to worry about you taking any stray arrows.”

“I’m not some damsel in distress, I can keep myself safe.”

“You seemed very distressed when you were surrounded by illagers.”

“Even if I was a damsel in distress, which I’m not! You’re definitely not the knight in shining armor. I mean you’re joking around while you’re supposed to be saving me!” Despite his words, he was struggling less now.

“Can’t I do both at the same time?”

“I hate you.”

The hybrid didn’t respond, instead another voice called, “Etho, dude! What’s- oh.”

“Yeah, we have a problem.” Joel was finally put down while Etho spoke to another hybrid. A few other people were there as well. This included Martyn. And he saw Joel being bridal carried. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to him. Wait, Anthony was here too? It was getting worse by the second.

The other hybrid, Joel was going to refer to him as not-Etho, said “How many?”

“A group of seven. They won’t be too much of a hassle to take care of.”

Joel tuned out that conversation, sitting down and pretending like he was beginning to panic. He had broken character for a moment with Etho but he could say that joking was a coping mechanism.

He looked up when he heard footsteps coming towards him. It was some guy with brown hair. “Hello there, I’m Impulse.”

“You aren’t going to go and fight with the rest of them?”

“Eh, I’m not really the fighting type. I’m more the one who talks us out of situations we can’t fight our way out of,” Impulse said.

Joel hummed in response, not entirely convinced. He started scrutinizing Impulse, Impulse started scrutinizing him. They then stared at each other until Impulse broke.

“Okay, fine. They wouldn’t let me help because I was injured recently. But I am now fully healed which means I should a hundred percent be let back into the field!”

“Oh, yes, I absolutely agree. How dare they keep someone so useful benched.”

“Finally, someone gets it.”

They didn’t talk anymore after that. Mostly because neither of them knew what to say. It's not like they knew each other personally.

Besides, it really didn't take long for all of the others to get back. They were all stained with the illagers inky blood, one of them was more covered than any of the others.

Not-Etho spoke first, “Okay dudes, we need to find a place to stay for the night soon so we have enough time to set up camp.”

“My house isn’t far from here. You guys could always stay there for the night. I mean, you did save me from those stupid illagers back there so I owe you at least that much.” Stage 2 was now underway.

“Really?” Anthony asked, he sounded suspicious, which, fair.

“I don’t see why not. I mean that’s the safest we could get for staying the night somewhere and Impy needs to be made as safe as possible.” This guy, the one who was absolutely drenched in the black blood, would be not-Impulse in Joels mind.

Not-Etho looked at Etho, seeming like he was asking for his judgement. “You think I would’ve carried him in my arms if I thought he was dangerous?”

“Fair point. Okay, lead the way…?”

“Joel.” He stood up and immediately tripped. He needed to stop doing that but in his defence, he was used to lower gravity.

“You want me to carry you again?” Etho sounded so smug.

“I will kick you if you try.” Joel could hear Martyn snickering.

Not-Etho then introduced everybody. His name was actually Ren apparently and not-Impulse’s name was Skizz. Joel was not changing how he referred to them in his mind. That would just get confusing.

He did start leading the way, now paying attention to how he was walking so that no one could offer to carry him again. Seriously, did the universe get off on him being humiliated?

“You’ll all probably have to sleep in the living room. No way am I sharing my room and I never thought I would need a guest room.”

“It’s still a safer place to sleep than what we’ve had in a long time.” Not-Impulse said.

“Then that’s just sad.”

That got laughter from a few people but Joel didn’t miss how Anthony’s eyes were trying to burn through his skull. No doubt trying to figure out what he and Martyn were planning. Which, it was more Martyn’s plan and Joel going along with it for some reason that involved Martyn owing him a favor.

He opened his doors, showed them where they would be staying, and offered them tea. Anything that a good host would do, really. It was just too bad that this place wasn’t as safe as any of them were expecting.

Him and Martyn shared a look.

Not-Etho was looking at the wildflowers around Joel’s house, “Do you mind if I take some of those.”

“Go ahead, I have plenty.” And any that weren’t collected would be gone by morning. But they all didn’t need to know that. “Why do you need flowers?”

“We carry a banner but because of recent circumstances, we needed to leave it behind. I just need dyes to make a new banner,” not-Etho explained.

“Okay but you don’t need that many roses for just one banner.”

“Of course not, we give them to the people we help as well.”

“Does that mean you're planning on giving me one?”

“Actually, that’s a great idea. Martyn! Come here, I’m gonna teach you how to make one of our flags.” Not-Etho then started walking off to do that. Honestly, he was surprised Martyn was so willing to play the role of lackey considering how much he liked being in control of the conflicts.

It didn’t matter, he was sure Martyn had some sort of plan to take over after the war was started.

He went upstairs and into his room to find Anthony waiting for him. Joel closed and locked the door. “What do you want?”

“What are you and Martyn up to?”

“Okay so immediately starting with interrogation. Got it.” Joel rolled his eyes, “This is Martyn’s show, not mine. If you want information then go and ask him.”

“He won’t talk to me, he’s been avoiding me since he got here,” Anthony pleaded, “just tell me that he isn’t going to start a war.”

“He’s Martyn. Asking him not to start a war is like asking snow to be warm.”

“Is there any way I can get you to try and convince him out of it?” Anthony sounded somewhat hopeful.

Joel scoffed, “Even if I could, I wouldn’t.”

“But what do you even get out of all of this?”

“I’m the god of madness, does what I do need to make sense? No. It doesn’t.” He unlocked the door and opened it. “Now get out. I need my beauty rest.”

Anthony looked like he wanted to say more, but he knew there was no arguing with madness so he left the room. Joel wondered if he would try and warn the other mortals. Likely not. Warning them meant also revealing who Anthony truly was.

Chapter Text

Skizz may not be the brightest guy on the planet but he was really good at telling when something was going on with any of his friends. The only one he couldn’t get a good read on was Martyn but that was because he’s new.

That is to say, Skizz noticed that when Etho got back to camp, something was most definitely wrong. He was further proved right when they started going in the direction Etho had come from in order to find the illagers. Etho was usually up with Ren, leading the pack because he knew he could dodge whatever came their way.

This time, Etho was hanging back slightly, hesitant when he was normally so confident in his abilities.

Unfortunately, Skizz was unable to ask about it before he was forced to duck behind his shield because arrows had come from behind the trees. He could hear Ren yell from the front, “They’re ambushing us! Etho, Martyn, you guys go and get the archers!”

A few illagers came charging towards them from, Ren gestured forward. BigB and Skizz charged at them. Etho and Martyn ran to the sides, getting as close as possible in order to get a clean shot on the archers firing at them.

Skizz’s sword met the illagers axe, them struggling against each other. He pulled one of his hands off of the hilt which allowed its axe to get closer to him until he punched it in the face. He could feel the bruises already starting to form on his skin.

What mattered though was that it took the illager off balance. Skizz was able to get a good slash on its chest because of that opening. His tactics may not be conventional whatsoever but they worked.

Black blood soaked his arms and he stabbed his sword into its dominant arm. It dropped the axe as it cried in pain.

Skizz ripped his sword out of its arm and landed the finishing blow. But he wasn’t done. No, no, no, no. He sprinted at the one attacking BigB, it was almost dead at this point but he need to kill one more. Just one.

One turned into three. He had killed four illagers in total. Well, killed wasn’t the right word. The right word was brutalized. He had taken one of their axes and used it to hack off their fingers one by one. It felt good to hear their bones crush, to feel the snap of when the limp came off.

This was how he took out his anger. The anger at Pluto’s followers for hurting Impulse, the anger for whatever these things had done to Etho, the anger of knowing he couldn’t save everyone.

That’s why he was soaked in more of this inky liquid than any of the others. They all already knew that he was like this of course. Except for Martyn.

That’s why he expected shock or disgust to be what he received when he looked over at the newbie but all he saw was pride.

Yeah, Skizz believed that they would be perfectly fine.

The problem with these little sprees was that Skizz had more trouble focusing afterwards, or more trouble than usual. He could vaguely hear himself talking about how Impulse would be safe somewhere.

Then Impulse laid a hand on his shoulder and everything became easier. Impulse’s hand ran down his arm, his touch lingering on all the scars from different fights over the years. His hand stopped at Skizz’s wrist.

They had never held hands. There was a terrifying line there that if crossed meant things between them had to change. But in times like this, Skizz wanted nothing more than to take Impulse’s hand and promise to stay by his side no matter what happened.

He looked at Impulse’s face, still slightly bruised from what Pluto’s followers had done to him.

It had taken a few days for Impulse to tell him what had happened.

(“They were trying to kill me, Skizz. I just kept talking, trying to bargain for my life. I was only able to get away because I convinced them that if they let me-” Impulse took a shaky breath, “if they let me go then it’d send a message for us not to mess with anymore of their plans. I thought I was going to die.”

Skizz had both of his arms around Impulse, running his hand through the other’s hair. He needed the people who caused this to pay.)

Ah, he had lost focus again. Impulse’s hand was still on his wrist, caressing it. Here. It reminded him that he was here, still with Impulse still but not back in the temple. They were walking somewhere. He didn’t know where and he didn’t need to because he trusted these people. They wouldn’t lead him into danger while he was like this.

He slowly came back to himself over the course of the walk. The fog in his mind cleared away and he looked at Impulse. “Dippledop! Now your hands are all bloody.”

Impulse laughed at that, pulling his hand away from Skizz’s wrist. If Skizz didn’t know any better, he’d have said Impulse was hesitant to pull away. Impulse rose his hand, it wasn’t nearly as bad as Skizz’s were.

“Now we match. Kind of,” Impulse said.

“Awe, you’re the best, buddy. Now where are we going exactly?”

“The person Etho saved, we’re going to his house for the night.” It didn’t go unnoticed that Impulse didn’t comment on how Skizz definitely should know where they were going.

Speaking of Etho, wasn’t something wrong with him earlier? Skizz would need to check on that when they weren’t all out in the open. “A house? When’s the last time we slept in one of those?”

“It is a nice change of pace though. No chance of being woken up by a stray skeleton.”

“You’re telling me! Maybe if I get lucky then I’ll get to rest on the couch.”

“Skizz, man, you’re great and all but you’re currently covered in illager blood and no one wants to have that on their couch.”

“It can be cleaned up! But you’re right, if anyone should get the couch, it should be you.”

“That’s sweet.” Impulse was smiling up at him and it made Skizz feel like he was going to melt.

“I’m not sweet, I’m strong and…” he struggled for a word, “heroic!”

“You can be both of those things and sweet at the same time.”

“If I’m sweet then you’re cake. The sweetest and most delicious thing ever,” Skizz didn’t miss how Impulse’s cheeks went pink. Dippledop was never good at taking compliments so he didn’t think anything of it.

When they made it to the house, Skizz had to admire how beautiful it was. It was also easily defendable as it was at the top of the hill. He didn’t think there would be anything to worry about here but it was nice to have that security.

Skizz had finally finished washing up. He didn’t have any other clothes so he was forced to wash his clothes at the same time. It was nice getting all the dirt and grime off after months of only being able to wash blood away in dirty rivers.

He stepped into the living room and sat on the couch with Impulse and Etho.

BigB had gone up to the owner's room to talk about something according to Impulse.

Ren was attempting to teach Martyn how to make a banner. Which was funny because Martyn was picking apart the design, “It looks like the bottom of an extremely long mouth.”

“I can’t unsee that now,” Ren sounded horrified.

However, there was still something wrong with Etho. It was more apparent now that there was nothing else going on.

Etho normally exuded a quiet confidence. Currently, that confidence was gone and replaced with an air of paranoia.

Usually, Skizz would’ve assumed it was because they were in a strangers house but if that was the only reason then Etho would be talking about it by now. That meant something else was wrong.

Skizz tried to subtly shift towards him but Etho was much more observant than he could ever be. Etho turned towards him.

“So what happened before you got back to us?” All attention turned to Skizz after he asked. The sound of Martyn and Ren’s banter abruptly came to a stop.

Etho sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “I don’t know.”

Impulse’s brows furrowed, “What do you mean that you don’t know.”

“I was running from the illagers with Joel and then I got shot at and I couldn’t dodge it because if I did then it would hit Joel.”

The air in the room had changed drastically. Before it had been lighthearted, fun even, now it was stiff. One wrong word and the delicate balance would break.

Etho continued, “I had already accepted that I was dead so I just prayed. Then the arrow, it just disintegrated right before my eyes.”

“But the only god that's been active is Pluto,” Impulse stated what everyone already knew.

Martyn was next to speak, “but why would Pluto help us? Besides, disintegrating is in no way within her domain.”

Silence hung in the room. That meant the only possibility was that another god was at play. “But that’s good for us, right?”

Skizz, as usual, did not think before he spoke. But he really didn’t see how this could be a bad thing.

“The problem is that they’re unpredictable. They want nothing but destruction and chaos. I want no part in that!” Ren stood from his spot, making his position clear.

“Sorry, what is the context behind this conversation?” BigB asked as he came down the stairs.

“A god saved Etho’s life and Ren diggity dog over here doesn’t want to take advantage of it! We might actually have a chance of going against Pluto’s followers now!”

B’s eyes widened and he looked right to Martyn who shrugged, “We don’t know which one it was.”

Ren looked between BigB and Martyn before he seemed to realize something, “B, you managed to figure out what type of temple we were in before right. Maybe it’s whatever god that temple was to!”

“I…” BigB glanced around the room, “thought I had but I misread one of the inscriptions on the wall. I wasn’t able to figure it out.”

“Ren, you said chaos and destruction. Well, what if that’s it!” Impulse joined in. “The Sun, it would make sense. He would be able to completely disintegrate an arrow.”

“Which is exactly why we can’t trust it. No trying to make deals with gods. It’s too dangerous.” Ren’s words were final. No one could challenge them.

That didn’t stop Skizz from getting up and storming out. Why couldn’t any of them see how things would only get worse if they didn’t fight Pluto’s followers. There was no winning if they did nothing!

Eventually, Skizz had calmed down and went back inside. Everyone was asleep except for Etho. “Ren put you on first watch?”

“I volunteered. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.” Etho hadn’t recovered. He probably wouldn’t recover for a long time.

“Okay, but you need to get some rest at some point.” Skizz gave Etho a smile. He stepped over some of the others, unable to stop himself from brushing a hair off of Impulse’s sleeping face.

“I agree with you. We can’t run forever. We’ll have to fight back at some point.” Skizz turned towards Etho. They didn’t say anything else but Skizz was thinking about that for a long time before he managed to fall into a deep sleep.

Skizz felt gass beneath him. For a moment, he just allowed himself to rest on it. He usually woke up on something similar. It took two moments too long for him to realize that he had not gone to sleep on grass last night.

He shot up, his eyes flying open. He was expecting people to be around him or, at the very least, someone guarding him. But no, he was in a garden of some kind. It was majestic. There were plants he’d never seen before around him. It was almost as if he had entered a different world.

Maybe this was what things had looked like before the gods and mortals hated each other.

“Oh, I didn’t realize we had a guest. Jellie, why didn’t you tell me that we had a guest?” A voice spoke before a man appeared before him.

“Come, come. I have tea and water and… well, that’s it really. But I have a bunch of different types of tea!”

“Water would be great but uh, where are we exactly?” Nothing about this made sense, which was a common theme in Skizz’s life but this made less sense than things usually did.

“You’re in my garden! Oh, I haven’t introduced myself. The name’s Scar!” He said as he led Skizz to a table. It was made out of roots that seemed meticulously woven together. As he looked around, he could see that each of the roots led to a different plant within the garden.

“That name’s a little on the nose, don’t you think?” That was insensitive, Skizz realized immediately after saying it. But Scar was more covered in, well, scars than he was!

“Hm? Oh! I forgot about those.” Scar was pouring them both water. “It might be a bit on the nose but I think it just makes it easier to remember my name.”

“Okay, well it’s nice to meet ya Scar! But I must ask, why am I here?”

The smile on Scar’s face faltered before he waved his hand dismissively, “It doesn’t matter, we should just enjoy it while you are here!”

“And how long will I be here?” Skizz felt more clueless than usual. He didn’t think that was possible. He took a sip of the water, it was good. Like, better than any water that he’d had before good.

“Until you wake up, of course.”

That made him choke on the water, after coughing for a moment, “I’m asleep?””

“You didn’t know? Usually people know.” Scar blinked at Skizz, Skizz blinked back.

“So this is some kind of dream water?”

“Kind of! It’s water that only exists here.”

“So water that only exists in my dreams,” Skizz groaned. It tasted so good and he would never be able to drink it in reality.

“No, it’s water that only exists here,” Scar repeated.

“But here isn’t real so it isn’t real!”

“Here is real, you’re just dreaming of it. Dang it, what’s the word. Astral propejection or something?”

“But isn’t that something you have to do purposefully? Not that this place isn’t cool and all, but I didn’t want to come here.”

“I understand, no one knows that this place exists anymore. Other than me, Jellie, and one other person, but that’s why it’s great when people like you come along!” As Scar said the name ‘Jellie,’ a small cat came crawling out between two of the plants.

“Aren’t you a little cutie?” Skizz cooed at Jellie before turning back to Scar, “I mean, if you tell me how to get here consciously then I’d be happy to visit you again.”

Scar’s expression soured, “No. It’s best for you to stay away.”

“C’mon man, surely that isn’t true!”

Scar shook his head. He was silent for a moment, just staring at Skizz, “You need to wake up now.”

Before Skizz could ask why, he was engulfed in darkness.

When he awoke, there was fire.

Chapter Text

Impulse was doing his best not to react to anything. He almost gave the jig up when Skizz moved hair out of his face. It was completely unexpected and random and sure, that was Skizz’s thing but when he’s trying to fake being asleep, having his crush touch him so gently, it was hard not to stir and even harder not to open his eyes even a little bit to see what Skizz looked like in that moment.

It also confused him on where exactly he and Skizz stood, but that had never been clear. Either way, it was a distraction from his actual mission which was to somehow not allow himself to fall asleep after an exhausting day of travel and he had to keep his eyes closed. And unfortunately, Etho seemed very happy pulling an all-nighter.

Which meant he was alone with his thoughts and trying not to shift every two seconds. Occasionally, he could feel himself drifting off and he would need to bite his inner cheek in order to keep himself awake.

Currently, internally screaming was working pretty well for him. He could only do this for so long without it becoming white noise. He was starting to think he would simply have to wait until tomorrow night when he heard Etho’s breathing shift to slower and more even. Impulse peaked his eyes open slightly to make sure.

Etho was asleep. Impulse sat up and began to carefully step around his sleeping friends. Though he didn’t know if he had the right to call them friends when he was betraying them like this.

However, he just needed to get a note to Bdubs, he needed to know that there was another god at play and that it helped Etho. Impulse couldn’t find it in himself to be upset at that. He knew he should be, Pluto hated Etho. He had been put here just to make sure Etho didn’t hatch some plan to hurt Bdubs.

Impulse opened and closed Joel’s door as quietly as he could before pulling the note he had written earlier out of his pocket.

He whistled for the bird, he called her Prim, that Bdubs had given him for communication. The bird landed on his arm, but he heard a rustle in the foliage around him. He turned towards it, seeing nothing.

He quickly tied the note to Prim’s leg and waved her away before turning towards where he heard the rustling.

It wasn’t a mob, a mob would’ve attacked him by now. His breathing got shallow, he could feel his palms sweating as he gripped and pulled out his sword. He didn’t know what he would do if they found out, if Skizz found out.

He almost didn’t want to look behind it, but ignoring this wouldn’t make it go away.

He took one step forward. Another. Another. He could hardly get himself to move. Most of them are light sleepers, it’d be easy for him to have woken any one of them up.

It was directly in front of him now, he just needed to move it out of the way in order to see whoever was behind it.

Then Prim flew straight down into the foliage and Impulse jumped into action. Maybe if he could kill whoever this was now, he could save his reputation with the others.

What if it’s Skizz? They thought passed through his head as he brought his sword to the person’s neck.

“Woah- Impulse, what?”

“Bdubs?!” He was barely able to keep himself from shouting. He lowered his sword, “you scared the crap out of me!”

“I scared you? You’re the one who put a sword to my throat!” Bdubs had Prim on his arm and seemed to have been trying to get the note when Impulse had surprised him.

“I thought you were one of the red banners! What are you even doing here?” Impulse crossed his arms. The last time he had seen Bdubs, it was to allow him to rough him up so it didn’t look suspicious when he found his way back to the banners.

Bdubs continued to struggle to get the note off of Prim, “Pluto wants me to burn this house down for some reason. What are you doing here?” He put emphasis on the word you.

“The red banners are staying here tonight. Can your schemes of arson wait until tomorrow?”

Bdubs finally got the note and began to read it. The smile on his face dropped. “No. No way there’s a god helping them. No god would betray Pluto like that.”

“Etho wouldn’t l-” Impulse was quickly cut off.

“Etho’s a dirty traitor, of course he lied! Just need to figure out why.”

“He gains nothing from lying. You know that.” Impulse’s voice was soft. He reached for Bdubs and lightly grabbed his arm.

Bdubs leaned into the touch. When he spoke, it was so soft that Impulse could barely hear him, “I do.”

“You need to talk to Pluto and get her to figure out which god it was.”

“I can’t talk to them without completing the mission they gave me first.”

“Okay, then it can wait until tomorrow!”

“No, this will kill two birds with one very fiery stone.” Bdubs shrugged Impulse’s hand off and began walking towards the house.

“Bdubs-”

“Why do you want to stop me? You’re not attached to these rebellious dogs, are you?” Bdubs accused, sticking his finger in the middle of Impulse’s chest.

“No, of course not. I’m loyal to Pluto!” Was he though? When he so easily fell in love with someone among them.

“Then stop trying to stop me!”

Impulse paused, he knew that even if he wanted to he couldn’t stop Bdubs when he’d put his mind to something. “Right. I just thought that it’d be better if we managed to avoid any chance of them waking up and us getting into a fight.”

“We’ll block the doors once the fire is set. They’ll have no way of escape!” Bdubs’ smile finally returned. Impulse tried to smile with him but it came out as a half smile. Skizz was in there. He wouldn’t be able to do anything to save him.

“What if we anger the god that’s protecting them by doing this,” Impulse reasoned. He really didn’t know when to stop.

“Oh please, the god’s only been with them for a few days, they’ll find a new group of mortals to get attached to in no time!” Bdubs had already gotten the flint and steel out. “Now, where would be the best place to set this ablaze?”

Impulse couldn’t not answer. He cared about Skizz and the rest of the people in there but he ultimately could never betray Bdubs or Pluto, “One of the corners, it’ll spread to both walls at once which could destabilize the structure. Even better if we get a column or wall inside.”

“Oh! Let’s do that first.” Suddenly Bdubs was running towards the door, about to yank it open.

“Wait!” Impulse whisper-yelled, “If we wake them up now then we’re outnumbered and there won’t be any fire to protect us. Let me go in to set it. You set it from outside.”

Bdubs nodded and gave him a flint and steel. Of course Bdubs always had a spare in case his first one broke and he still had more things to set fire to.

Impulse snuck into the house, he looked over everyone.

Etho, the person who found Impulse and suggested he team up with them. He’d told them that he would need time to think about it and then reported back to Bdubs with the suggestion that he could spy on the red banners.

Ren, an amazing leader who always only wanted to do what was best for all of them. He was suspicious of Impulse when he’d first joined, as if some sixth sense told him that Impulse was bad news. Now, a part of him wished Ren had listened to that sense.

BigB, someone who Impulse easily got along with. They were the ones who held everyone else back from making stupid decisions.

Martyn, Impulse still didn’t know much about him but he knew that he was a lot like Skizz in the way he wanted to do things instead of sitting still. He preferred the heat of battle to the silence of rest.

And finally, Skizz. Skizz who, if Impulse was in any other situation, he’d have told he loved. The only thing that was stopping him from even trying was that it would only make everything hurt so much worse when it came crashing down. Which was right now.

He wanted to wake Skizz up and tell him to run as far and as fast as possible and to not come back even as smoke rose above the forest.

But Impulse knew Skizz. He knew that no matter how hard he tried, Skizz would stay. Worse, he would try and convince Impulse that the path he was going down wasn’t right and that he could change. That he still had that chance.

But Impulse had to survive no matter what and the only way to ensure that was to stick with Pluto until the end.

He went over to the wall beside the stairs. It was obviously there to support the structure. All he would have to do is light it and then run out.

The flint and steel clicked together and with a single rub against one another, sparks went flying at the wall. He didn’t run, but rather he walked out calmly. They would all be awake soon.

He didn’t get outside though. Joel was standing in the way. When did he get there? “Joel, I can explain-”

“No need. I’m just wanting to get a little payback and it’ll be more interesting if they don’t know you’re a traitor. Sorry not sorry.”

Impulse couldn’t remember what happened after that, he just knew that he woke up with Skizz picking him up and surrounded by fire. “What’s going on?”

“Someone set the house on fire, we need to get out of here and quickly,” That sounded like Ren but everything was so fuzzy. It was all spinning,

“Where’s Joel?” Etho sounded panicked. Weird that he sounded so emotional over someone they’d met yesterday. Or at least he thought it was yesterday.

“He’s probably outside, let’s go!” BigB called. Skizz already seemed determined to carry Impulse outside himself.

Bdubs. Where was Bdubs?

He tried his best to look around but that just made the spinning worse.

Skizz set him down and kneeled beside him, “You okay buddy?”

“I’m a bit disoriented, it might be because of the smoke.” Lousy excuse, but this was not part of the plan and he was having too much trouble thinking to come up with anything else.

“Well we need to wait for the other’s to get out before we can get out of here. Hopefully it’ll start getting better now that we’re out here!”

Impulse looked at the flames. They weren’t spreading as fast as they should’ve been. Martyn came running out along with Etho. Then BigB, and finally Ren.

Etho looked around frantically, clearly searching for Joel. He wasn’t out here. Why had Joel done that? It helped Impulse, he couldn’t deny that but surely he could’ve gotten out before the fire spread too far. Maybe he’d run further away, or maybe Bdubs got to him.

“Skizz, you know you can put me down now.”

“Right, sorry.” Skizz set Impulse down. It was easier to look around now. It was difficult to see past the leaves of the foliage but once he did, he could see Bdubs watching from behind them. Impulse quickly looked away, not allowing the other’s to see where he was looking.

A crash sounded from inside the house, it was finally collapsing.

“Joel’s still in there,” Etho looked ready to run back in.

“You can’t go back in, it’d be suicide!” BigB called.

“What was the point of saving him if we’re just going to let him die?” Skizz retorted.

“No, B’s right, there’s nothing we could do for Joel now. He’s probably already dead.” Martyn was being reasonable. That didn’t make sense, usually he was happy to rush into danger. Impulse shook his head, people weren’t that simple and he hadn’t known Martyn for that long.

“How did this even happen?” Ren asked, looking at Etho.

“I fell asleep.” Ah so that’s why Etho wanted to save Joel so badly, he felt guilty that he couldn’t stop this when he should’ve been able to.

“You didn’t even wake someone else up to take over? Etho, dude, you’re better than this!”

“I know, I thought I’d be able to stay awake. I didn’t even realize I fell asleep until…” They all look towards the burning building.

Skizz spoke up, “But here’s what I don’t get. How did the fire even start? There wasn’t anything that could’ve started this on its own. Someone had to have done this on purpose!”

Martyn’s eyes widened as he came to the realization, “Pluto’s followers! Those are the only people that could’ve done this!”

“Let’s not Jump to conclusions,” BigB cut in, which earned him a glare from Martyn.

Ren looked unsure about all of this, “It is the most likely scenario. But how would they have found us?”

“They could be tracking us somehow,” Martyn suggested.

“If they’d been tracking us then they wouldn’t have waited so long to attack.” Impulse nipped that in the bud as soon as possible, if they started suspecting that they were being tracked, they could also suspect a spy.

Etho took a deep breath before he began to speak, “It doesn’t matter how or why. They’ve hunted us and now they’ve killed someone who was hardly even associated with us just because they wanted us gone. We can’t avoid fighting forever, and we all know it. Fighting is the only way out of this.”

As Etho talked, he took one step after another towards Ren. Everyone except Ren started talking all at once.

“Fighting will only lead to more death!”

“Yeah! Let’s show those cultists whose boss!”

“We don’t have the supplies for anything like that.”

“We can take those stupid Pluto people anyday!”

And so Ren was left with an impossible choice.

Chapter Text

Ren knew everyone was arguing around him about what they should do but all he could hear was ringing.

War would only make things worse. That had always been his reasoning for avoiding it. But now he was bathed in the light of flames. Flames that were proof of the people he cared about being targeted and almost killed by an enemy who was determined to destroy everyone.

How long could he let this go on? How far could he let them go before he had to retaliate? If he waited much longer, would one of his own die?

The heat of the fire engulfed him, his conflicted emotions being reflected in its dance. It almost seemed to taunt him. There was no one to stop Pluto from winning every single time.

The gods wouldn’t stop her, Ren knew that for a fact. Mortals had managed to kill a god before, what was stopping them from doing it again.

He dismissed the thought, mortals killing a god is what led to this whole situation in the first place. Violence would only lead to more violence, that had been true before and it would continue to be true again.

But standing by and doing nothing was just as bad, wasn’t it? He could justify it to himself all he’d like. It wouldn’t change anything, it wouldn’t change the fact that people are dying whether he steps in to stop it or not.

There was no good answer. No good solution that would allow this to be settled peacefully. He should’ve realized it so much sooner.

He was only snapped out of those thoughts when a hand touched his shoulder. He blinked and slowly turned to who’d touched him. “Hey boss, you don’t need to decide right now. All of this can be worked out in the morning.”

“I’m not your boss, Martyn, you aren’t one of us, and the sooner I decide, the sooner everyone will stop fighting over it,” Ren replied, shrugging Martyns hand off of him.

Martyn let his hand fall, “We- sorry, They believe in you, if you tell them to stop fighting and wait until you make a decision, they’ll listen.” He sounded bitter when he discluded himself from their group.

“Shouldn’t you be trying to convince me to rush into battle? Last I checked, you wanted this war to happen,” Ren pointed out.

“I do, but ultimately it’s your call and I respect that,” Martyn answered. At least he was honest. Ren supposed that he should allow Martyn to be one of the banners, he hadn’t ever done anything but help. Yet there was something off about him.

“Then I guess I should thank you. Can you just tell them to wait until morning for me to make a decision? I need to go for a walk, clear my head.” There was just too much to think about right now. He needed to process all of this away from the others.

“So you aren’t my boss and yet you can order me around?” Martyn raised a brow and crossed his arms.

“Well, I am now unless you don’t want to be a red banner,” Ren retorted as he turned on his heel and started walking towards the treeline.

What he didn’t see was how Martyn grinned and fist pumped before he went and told the others not only that Ren was going to make a decision soon but also that he was now officially one of them.

The cold air brushed against Ren’s skin as he walked. He’d been organizing his thoughts and trying to figure out possible courses of action from there. By the time he actually focused on the scenery around him, he’d noticed that he’d gone a lot further than he had meant to.

He looked behind him, he could still see the light of the fire though it seemed like it was starting to calm down.

In the corner of his eye, he saw something. It looked like a zombie. He pulled his sword out of its hilt, readying himself to fight it when he turned fully towards it.

He almost dropped it. The zombie looked almost stitched together and it had long flowing orange hair with a crown of sticks and flowers on their head. It was like no zombie he’d ever seen.

“This is interesting. Y'know, I’d never expected either of them to be this stupid and yet here we are,” the zombie said.

Ren’s mouth fell open, zombies couldn’t talk. No mob could talk. “What are you? Who are you?”

“Oh that’s none of your concern. What is your concern is staying out of Pluto’s way. I’d highly suggest that you forget about any plans of staging a war. You wouldn’t last a month.”

He was about to respond, but when he blinked she was gone.

There was no doubt in his mind that the zombie had made some sort of deal with Pluto and was probably the one who set the fire in the first place.

Ren had to stop himself from running in the direction he could guess that they’d gone in but that wouldn’t solve anything. It would only get him killed.

It did tell him that Pluto’s followers didn’t want the war. Why try to kill them and then warn them that they would die if they started fighting back?

Maybe Martyn had been right all along and Pluto saw them as a threat that needed to be eliminated before it became a problem.

It just seemed to be too good to be true. Pluto had thousands of followers and at best, Ren could only scrounge up a hundred people who’d be willing to fight. Not to mention people who were actually able to fight.

So all that was left was whether or not he truly believed that was a bluff or an honest warning. By what the zombie had said, a few could’ve gone rogue and set that fire, meaning Pluto didn’t actually want them dead that badly.

Or it was all a ploy in order to keep them from going to war because Pluto didn’t want war. The only reason they wouldn’t want war was if they weren’t likely to win.

Ren started walking back towards the fire. He’d made his decision.

By the time he got back, the fire had been entirely put out and Etho was pulling a body out of the rubble. It was entirely unrecognizable. All Ren could think about was how this could’ve happened to them.

Colors were splayed across the sky in reds and yellows as the sun rose in the distance. They all silently dug out a hole and laid Joel’s body to rest. Etho still had that look of guilt on his face after they were done.

The silence hung over them, everyone awaiting Ren’s decision. It was clear where everyone stood. Impulse and BigB believed that fighting wasn’t the answer but Etho, Skizz, and Martyn were eager to step into what could very well be an unwinnable war.

“Alright dudes, I’ve made my decision. And I think it’s about time we bring the fight to those damn cultist people!”

Chapter Text

Martyn looked back and saw Ren walking into the trees after having told the others that Ren would be making a decision in the morning. He already knew the result. He knew because he could feel Cleo watching him through the flames.

They were her domain which meant she could use them to manifest herself or even teleport here. If they did that then all of Martyn’s plans would be ruined.

“So what should we do about this fire?” Skizz asked, “We can’t just leave it, it could spread to the trees!”

“We put it out. Any smaller fires that spread we can put out by smothering with dirt. I think I saw a river around here so we could take water from that in order to put the fire in the house out! Etho, Skizz, and I will go for water. B and Impulse stay and smother the other fires,” Martyn commanded.

The other red banners just nodded and got to work. None of them even questioned him at all. A warmth surged in his chest, it felt like belonging and he hadn’t felt that in a long time, not since Pearl was killed.

They weren’t able to fully put out the fire but they did keep it from spreading. It burned out, as all things did eventually.

“We should bury him, he at least deserves that much,” Etho suggested. It felt weird seeing all these people grieve a person whom he knew wasn’t actually dead. Now he had to hope that Joel had been smart enough to leave a fake body somewhere around here.

They all nodded, Martyn only hesitating a second before going along with them.

He was digging through rubble when he came across a piece of it that just wouldn’t move. In situations like this, having power over time didn’t help.

He tried to move other rubble off of it, he tried getting better footing, he even tried lifting it from different angles, no matter what he did he couldn’t get this stupidly large piece of burnt wood off the ground.

Skizz came up to him, “You need some help over here, buddy?”

“I’m sure I’ll be able to get it.. Eventually. Help would make it faster though so I suppose you can do it,” Martyn said.

“You know it’s okay to ask for help, yeah?”

“Psh, of course it’s okay to ask for help, I just don’t need it!”

“Whatever you say, but I think I’ll lend a helping hand anyway.” Skizz helped to push the large board off of the rubble and it revealed a heavily burnt body that was laying crushed under it.

“We found him!” Martyn called. Etho rushed to pull the body from the rubble. It was then that he looked back and saw Ren walking towards them. It was morning.

Anthony had started digging a hole for the body to go in. They helped him dig it the rest of the way. Martyn couldn’t help but notice how Anthony glared at him, suspicious that he was up to something but ultimately having no way to prove it.

Etho lowered the fake Joel’s body into the ground and it was done. They buried it and then it was time to move on. Everyone could feel the shift in the air, they all looked to Ren for his decision.

Martyn held his breath while Ren spoke the words that would either push everything into motion or leave things stagnant, “Alright dudes, I’ve made my decision. And I think it’s about time we bring the fight to those damn cultist people!”

They were travelling towards a city in order to get supplies and try to get people to ally with them and help them with going against Pluto and their followers.

“So boss, what changed your mind about going to war?” Martyn asked as they were sitting around a fire in the camp they had set up for the night.

“Yeah, I’m curious as well, you were incredibly reluctant before,” Anthony joined in on the conversation and then everyone was paying attention.

Ren went quiet, taking a deep breath. “When I was out on my walk, I ran into a zombie that could talk.”

Skizz’s mouth fell open, “That’s a thing? That’s possible?!”

“No! It isn’t! How was it talking? Did it tell you?” Impulse asked.

Anthony’s fingers were digging into the wooden log he was sitting on. Martyn would admit that Cleo talking to Ren directly was unexpected but he wasn’t entirely surprised.

“It was talking about how some unknown people are stupid at first and then it started warning me against the war. I assumed that this was the one that started the fire that was trying to kill us so warning me against a war because it would kill all of us is incredibly strange.”

They all were silent for a moment, taking it in. Martyn had to keep a smile off of his face. Cleo had tried to stop the impending war, but they had failed. Of course she could probably still stop the war if she gave away that Joel’s a god and isn’t actually dead but they wouldn’t do that.

Ren continued, “So I figured it was some type of bluff or trick to prevent us from going to war with Pluto, therefore those cultists think that we’re a threat and we might have an actual chance, lads!”

“But it could’ve been some type of trick,” Impulse tried.

“It doesn’t matter if it was a trick, we still need to fight back.” Etho’s determination had returned.

Martyn leaned back and looked at the fire, wondering if Cleo was watching them right now. They probably were. The fire suddenly shot up, burning brighter.

“Holy- did one of you throw extra fuel into it? Martyn?” Ren looked at Martyn.

“Hey! Why am I your first suspect?” They all stared at him.

“Do you really want us to answer that?” Skizz asked.

Martyn was quiet for a moment too long before he spoke, “Well, it wasn’t me!”

They bickered over who did it for a while after that, but by the end of the night they were all laughing and having a good time, the strange activity of the fire easily forgotten.

Martyn was the one who put out the fire kicking sand onto the dimmed light. “Is everyone but us two asleep?”

“It looks that way,” Ren responded, “you should get to sleep as well, I’ll take first watch tonight.”

“Okay,” Martyn was about to leave but it felt like there was something else he was meant to say. He shook his head, it was best not to get too involved considering most of these people would die in what would be the blink of an eye for a god like him.

“Ren, uh-” He had spoken before he had actually processed what he was doing. What was he even trying to say?

“Yeah, Martyn?”

“I just want you to know you’ve made the right decision.”

Ren scoffed, “Of course you think that. You’ve wanted this war since I met you.”

“Not that, I meant you made the right decision about allowing me to be one of you. I won’t let you down, I promise.” Martyn had surprised himself with the sincerity of his words. It was possible he’d already made the mistake of getting too attached.

Ren also seemed surprised, “Yeah, yeah, I think that I did make the right decision there. You’re a great guy Martyn.”

Maybe getting too attached wasn’t that bad.

The thing about starting a war was that you needed people. For some reason, Ren had given Martyn the task of finding said people to join them.

Martyn believed his exact words were something along the line of “You’re the one who suggested we find the people we’ve saved and recruit them, so you can be the one who deals with that.”

Impulse was the only one who had come with him on this recruitment mission because he was going to try and make a deal with a blacksmith in the town. All of the others were going to the city that the town bordered.

“So why did Ren saddle you with this job?” Martyn said, breaking the comfortable silence they had been walking in.

“I’m usually the one who deals with weapons. Where did you think all the guys got their weapons from?”

“I thought some thankful samaritans gave them to you! I didn’t think you had that type of money!” Martyn himself only had an iron sword that he had stolen from Scott at one point. It was beautifully made so he’d thought Scott would be angry, but he just laughed and said Martyn could keep it before going and getting himself another one that was even better.

The more he thought about it, the more a hole opened up in his chest. It was a reminder that the only way he could grasp Scott was through the memories they shared.

“Well, I have a few connections there who are happy to give me a discount and will even pay me if I help out with their gardening and stuff!” Right, Impulse was talking to him. He couldn’t get caught up in these thoughts now.

“Really? Sounds way too easy to me,” Martyn said.

Impulse looked at him strangely, as if he had said something off. “Are you okay, Martyn?”

“Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You just seemed to be somewhere else for a moment.”

“Oh please, I was just trying to come up with a plan to complete the ridiculously large task Ren put me up to,” Martyn lied. He didn’t like that Impulse was absolutely right when all he knew about Martyn was lies. It made him slightly upset.

“Okay, but if you ever want to talk then all of the banners would be happy to listen,” Impulse reassured.

“Why do you think I have something to talk about? Can’t I just be fine?” Okay, maybe Martyn was more than just slightly upset.

“We all have some type of bad story that brought us here, and I doubt you’re any different. This world has done a good job of making everyone miserable in some way,” Impulse offered Martyn a kind smile along with his words.

“Huh,” was all Martyn could think to say.

They made it to the village and Impulse had talked to the fletcher who had wanted him to collect sticks in exchange for emeralds to trade for better weaponry. Martyn quickly left before he got dragged into doing a boring chore as well.

He’d gone around to people, asking them to enlist to fight against Pluto’s followers, but he’d had no luck with convincing any. If someone did look tempted to join, some relative or friend would grab them and pull them away. And now everyone was avoiding him because they didn’t want to be dragged into a war.

In the end, he’d gone to watch Impulse cut the sticks from trees. “There’s just no point, none of these people understand that this is necessary for the betterment of the world!”

“I mean, we’ve all seen how much damage Pluto can do, going against them is a risk not a lot of people are going to take unless there’s actual hard proof that we can win,” Impulse reasoned.

“There has to be some way to convince them!”

“Maybe this is for the best. This whole war thing was already too much of a risk, if we can’t get anyone to join us then Ren will see that this whole thing is impossible.”

Martyn leaned back against a tree, looking around at the village. “Hey, is that one of our banners?”

“Oh yeah, the first time we came through, there were a bunch of pillagers that had raided this place so we killed most of them and left the banner here to be a reminder that we would be there to help if they needed it! That’s probably why I get such a discount if I’m honest.”

An idea sparked in Martyn’s mind. He went and grabbed the banner before standing in the middle of the time.

“Hey everyone! Do you see this banner? These are the people who helped you when you needed it most! We want to spread this banner around the world and help everyone by getting rid of the damn cultists who’ve oppressed us by spreading chaos and confusion!” Martyn raised the banner.

“You’re afraid, and I get that but instead of using it as an excuse to hide, use it to survive while showing how courageous we are! We won’t bow to a power-hungry god anymore!”

A crowd had gathered around Martyn and as he stopped speaking, they started to glance at one another. One person raised their hand “How do I join?”

“All you have to do is come with us and we’ll introduce you to our leader! So come on!” Martyn started marching through the town, hoping that more people would start following behind him. This would be really awkward if not.

Luckily, people seemed to at least be interested by how they followed him.

This war was going to happen whether he led these people into battle or not.

Chapter Text

Anthony was many things. He was a liar, a soldier, a pawn in the games of gods maybe, but a person was not one of them. This name he had taken on, BigB, was strange in nature, but most people didn’t go by their real names. At least he hoped Skizz and Impulse weren’t their real names.

In the end, all that mattered was that it was a name that was his rather than the one that had been given to him by things that barely knew what a name was meant to be. He could still see the face of the person who had said that Anthony suited him. Her brown hair with streaks of a brighter color flowing in the wind along with her red cloak.

Her eyes were grey like the moon they represented, with many hidden depths to her. Roses withered around her as she walked, recognizing how incredibly powerful she was before any other power.

Death herself had been his friend. How ironic that the very thing she commanded had taken her away.

BigB was a human, Anthony was not. Anthony was the friend of powers he had thought he’d understood. But BigB knew that such things could never be understood and it was useless to try.

These thoughts plagued him as he approached the building of a city that had once been much grander, the building where he would make a plea that they should fight against the cult that had ravaged these lands ever since the Goddess of the Moon had died.

Ren had asked BigB to do this, yet Anthony wanted nothing more than to turn around and deny Mars the chance to ruin all their lives with war. A traitorous voice reminded him that he’d be alright. He would survive.

Anthony was many things, but he was not a brave man. He could not bring himself to go tell Ren the truth, that gods were merely playing with them. He couldn’t do it because he was so afraid of losing the only connections he’d had since her.

A vine writhed from a crack in the concrete, splitting the ground and wrapping around his leg and pulling back, forcing him to fall before it let go and slithered back into the ground.

He rolled over, looking up at the sky, seeing the sun. It felt like it was looking at him. “What do you want me to do, G?” he asked. Memories of wings curling around him, feathers brushing up against his face as a blinding yet calming light leaned towards him.

Just one more thing Anthony had lost to become who he was now.

He sat up. There was nothing he could do about that. It was better this way, this way he couldn’t get burned. He slowly pulled himself up, dodging the vine this time as it tried to pull him down again.

BigB needed to focus, he needed to get Ren money and support. If he was going to be dragged into Martyn’s war then he at least needed to be prepared with that, for all the good it would do.

That was easier said than done, his mind wandered back to the Sun, back those multicolored wings that so easily got sand embedded between the roots. It was almost painful to think about that face, those eyes of never ending void, and lips that spoke of time before Anthony could imagine.

BigB was talking to someone, asking them where he could find the mayor. Yes, he had an appointment. Yes, he was willing to wait.

It all felt so insignificant when compared to those thoughts about the brilliance of the sun, but that couldn’t be right. No, this was important. Why couldn’t he focus?!

A flash of blue caught his eye, followed by the chill of ice. Stars danced in Anthony’s eyes for a moment. No, that couldn’t be right either. The Stars had disappeared after his Moon had died.

At the same time, there was sense to it. A sense that his mind fervently tried to deny. The Stars had always been good at manipulating one's mind, one’s emotions into unrecognizable spirals of nonsensical lies of love and hope.

He was cold. BigB latched onto that feeling of being frozen as if the moment he let go of it, he’d drown in emotions of a time long past. A single word was all he was able to gasp “Why?” He could see his breath, more proof of a chill that no one else could see.

He hadn’t been expecting an answer, maybe he even thought he already knew it. Of course the Stars would support Mars even if their relationship seemed long forgotten. BigB knew that Scott wasn’t one to forget the people he held dear.

But he spoke–not in the way BigB would speak. It was more of a feeling implanted into his mind. “I don’t want this war. The rambling of a broken mind who claims to be part of it will keep others from getting involved. It’ll keep more people from death.”

Confusion clouded his mind, confusion that was his own instead of a feeling put there. As soon as he felt it, it drowned. It drowned in the memories of friends and how they told him his voice was similar to Earth’s. The people who spoke, their voices were foreign to him, something different. Now he could identify it as an accent but back then, such a thing didn’t have a name.

Back then, nothing had a name, not even him.

His mind was spinning in circles, now trying to get back to the person who named him and how he was named. He internally begged the Stars to stop this torment, trying to reason that it wouldn’t fix anything, that Martyn’s hands had already gripped it enough that war was inevitable.

At this, BigB’s mind cleared for a moment, allowing him to take in his surroundings. The city center wasn’t anything grand, but even then it was more luxurious than the rest of the bustling city. BigB had walked through it, he could remember walking through it but he couldn’t tell you what he’d seen other than that it’d been messy, with people looking for a single scrap of anything that could be called food. He’d known that they were fighting off the vines that grew around their homes like a cage but were not edible. If anyone even attempted to eat one they’d quickly find out what it felt like to have something growing and writhing inside you until it wrapped around their heart and squeezed the life out of them.

The city center had very little of those twisted vines surrounding it, being surrounded by concrete that had to be fixed every few weeks because of how the plants beat against it from underneath, creating fissures that the vines could slip through. But other than that, it was a normal building if a bit bigger.

But that was just the sort of world that they lived in, that everyone lived in. And only Anthony remembered what it had been like before.

He reeled away from those memories, not wanting to be pulled back into the Star’s reverie. He didn’t know exactly how long he’d been stuck there but now he could see that it’d been much longer than he’d first thought. Had it been when he’d first entered the city?

He tried to search for a clear memory rather than information that he had observed and found nothing. The Star’s icy tendrils had been wrapped around his mind even when Ren had asked him to do this, to come and make their case to the mayor but no one had noticed.

BigB couldn’t see his breath in front of his face anymore. The Star’s had left him without any explanation of where he’d been all these years or what his plan was but BigB had enough of chasing after explanations from Gods that saw mortals as mere puppets for exploitation so he didn’t try and call the Stars back.

Instead, he focused on the mission that he’d been presented with.

The person he thought he had talked to earlier was sitting at a small desk, looking through papers. Likely appointments that had been made to meet with the mayor. Ren had procured an appointment with the mayor the night before.

Despite the poor state of the city, it seemed that few people were actually making any type of complaint. Probably because this was considered normal if not better conditions than most were in. After all, they only needed to deal with slightly malicious vines rather than the more hostile flora and there weren’t any mobs.

BigB couldn’t do much other than wait. He saw a woman charge out of the office, an angry look covering her face. Whatever her issue was, it didn't get resolved. That didn’t surprise him in any way, there wasn't much people could do in their situation.

He was called up and went in. He needed to get supplies. Weapons, armor, food, and clothes for however many people they were able to recruit but his voice stuck in his throat. They didn’t even know if anyone would join on this, and even if they did, without a solid number it'd be impossible to convince anyone.

He bowed his head in respect. “Hello, sir. I’ve come with a request. Pluto’s influence on these lands has become stronger and more volatile through cultists of hers spreading the seeds of their wicked creations that mask themselves as plants when they’re truly a disease on this world.”

He paused, allowing his words to properly sink in before he continued on, “If we all band together, we can fight back and purge the rot that plagues these lands and many others like them. We’ve already managed to rally a few people to our cause!” A lie, unless Martyn and Impulse had succeeded. “We just need the supplies to make this possible.”

The leader of the city, mayor technically but such titles had been discarded long ago from a time most didn’t remember or even learn about, looked thoughtful. “I don’t know if we have that much to spare. We’re struggling with the recent onslaught of carnivorous plants that have invaded this city. Even if we get rid of the cultists, that won’t get rid of the already existing plants.”

BigB nodded, understanding why anyone would be hesitant to go along with this. “I understand, but the problem will only continue to get worse. You can’t get rid of the vines without them being replanted by cultists trying to cause chaos in their god’s name. Please at least consider helping.”

“I will, but I don’t believe I have what you need at this time,” he answered.

BigB didn’t have anymore that he could say so he left, seeing the woman who’d stormed out earlier staring up at him. There was a glimmer to her eyes. “I eavesdropped,” she admitted immediately, not looking the least bit sorry for it, “so where do I sign up to join this fight against those stupid cultists.”

He was taken aback by this. “Are you sure? It’ll be incredibly dangerous.” The warning passed his lips on impulse. He took a moment to take in her appearance. Brown hair, blue eyes, incredibly tall. It was too reminiscent of Pearl.

“Of course I’m sure, it’d be better than living in this dump! I’m Lissette, by the way.” She wasn’t going to take no for an answer and they needed more people so he nodded and led her to their group.

Chapter Text

The muddy water wasn’t particularly good at reflecting things, yet Etho could still see the milky white of his blind eye in the water. He usually kept it closed as it was a reminder of everything that he’d gone through. But that wasn’t what he was focused on, he was focused on his entirely unblemished eye which should’ve had an arrow stabbed through it.

He wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but he was sure it was divine intervention. He’d seen it only once before that, but once was enough to know what the power of Gods felt like. It felt like pure power radiating from the intervention.

Though, the feeling of power wasn’t the same this time. The last time he’d seen it, the power had sent a creeping sensation across his skin, like a million spiders crawling along his veins slowly until they made it up to his face and crawled into his mouth, ears, eyes, nose, anywhere they could get they would flee into. It still made him shiver to think about, and he hadn’t even been the one the divine intervention had affected.

This one felt like a tornado that sucked him in and threw him around as if he were a ball. It was the feeling of flying without control, without inertia, ever-changing. Yet instead of being pulled apart by the winds, he’d felt like they’d simply pushed him towards something greater. It pushed him towards life.

He wondered if that was what Bdubs had felt when he’d been saved by Pluto. He wondered if that feeling was what caused Bdubs to change himself and devote himself to a God.

“You alright, lad?” A deep voice asked from behind him and Etho jolted. He wasn’t used to being snuck on and the surprise made it take a moment to recognize the voice that had spoken.

Etho glanced at Ren before he went back to staring into the mud. He had advocated to help in starting this revolt against Pluto, one of the Gods that oversaw the world, and he had wanted to go against them for a while so why would a God save him? Did they have a grudge against Pluto? Or was it some trick meant to make Etho trust the God who saved him? “Just thinking on some things,” he answered.

Ren made a noise of agreement and for not for the first time, Etho wondered if Ren regretted his decision. However, as he looked back he could tell that Ren held a steely determination that Etho didn’t believe that he could ever hope to match. Etho stood, “Any word from Martyn and Impulse?”

BigB had returned with the unfortunate news that their journey hadn’t garnered the support from the town that they would need but with a new member whom Skizz was currently attempting to train.

“No, but that might mean that things went well. If they’re leading a large group then it will take them longer to get here.” Ren was still hopeful in most situations, a trait that Etho didn’t have. If Martyn and Impulse died then this whole plan would crumble, and if they live but have failed then it may crumble anyway and with how things had been going so far, Etho didn’t believe that things would go their way.

“What do you think of him? Martyn, I mean,” Etho asked. He wasn’t suspicious of Martyn at all, but he was still new and the way they had met didn’t leave a good first impression by any means.

Ren looked contemplative for a moment. “I believe that he means well, at least. I have a feeling that he’s been hiding something from us, but he’s hardly the only one.”

Etho nodded in agreement. He knew that he was hiding things, big things that he should tell the others for just in case they meet Bdubs on the battlefield. The possibility was so real that it made Etho’s heart sink just at the possibility. “It’s just convenient that he showed up shortly before this all started.” Etho wasn’t suspicious, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find it curious.

“Aye, but it would’ve been impossible for him to have caused any of it. He seems like a lucky fellow, so that’s likely all this was for him,” Ren stated.

“So you’re saying he’s going to be our good luck charm from now on?” Etho teased as he stood. There wasn’t any such thing as luck, there was only chance and skill. If Martyn hadn’t been skilled with a sword or proved to be a liability, he wouldn’t have been allowed to come with them.

Ren paused at that, though, as if actually considering the notion. Etho hadn’t known their leader to be superstitious but it wouldn’t be all that surprising. They were living in a world in which the Gods had ravaged so superstition was hardly unreasonable. As if to spite Etho’s musings, Ren shook his head. “No. As soldiers, we can’t rely on luck.”

They fell into silence after that. The bleak truth was that if they made a single wrong move then they would be cut down, luck or no. Just stepping on the wrong plant's root or getting bit by a plague ridden animal resulted in death. And that was just the plains with little plant life.

The oceans were covered with ice that acted as if it were alive, lashing out to kill any human who dared get too close. The deserts were uninhabitable thanks to the boiling heat that the Sun shone on it. If you were unfortunate enough to get caught in a storm, the lightning would almost seem targeted to where it would do the most damage.

It was common knowledge that these were all effects the Gods had on the world, most being easily tracked to a certain one. Pluto, the God of illness and fire infecting the plant and wildlife to be hostile. The Sun, the God of destruction and chaos wrecking havoc while specifically focusing on the deserts. Jupiter, God of madness and power making the natural disasters and horrid storms more frequent.

Then there were the Gods that were wiped from the world. So few had felt their power that there was doubt they had ever existed at all. The Stars, God of love and loyalty and Earth, God of life and creation. 

Etho couldn’t imagine a reason why any of these Gods would’ve helped him, but he had no choice but to mention the phenomenon at some point or other. “That thing I’ve been thinking on…” He started, continuing when Ren hummed in acknowledgment, “...when I had first come upon Joel and we’d ran from those illagers. One of them managed to aim a shot that would’ve been fatal. Then something stopped it. It-” 

Etho hesitated. Was he actually about to suggest that a God could be supporting them? He took a breath, the feeling of air rushing into his lungs feeling more like water choking out the words and ideas that felt ludicrous. It felt just like it had the first time Etho had hope that Gods weren’t all trying to hurt mortals, the hope that had lost Etho his eye.

Speaking despite the thorns surrounding his heart, he said, “It felt like divine intervention.” His voice was quiet, almost conspiratorially. Ren, to his credit, didn’t immediately reject the idea as most people would.

“Are you saying that a God might be supporting us?” Ren sounded suspicious.

Etho shook his head. “Maybe not exactly supporting us. It could also be a trick. It’d depend on which God.”

Ren nodded, an idea seeming to form in his head. “Aye, BigB has much knowledge on such things.”

Etho shifted, considering it. “BigB’s been acting strange since the temple.” It wasn’t obvious since B was a naturally quiet person but always got more so when Martyn joined the conversation, as if he was holding something back.

“Maybe he found something in the temple? He never did tell us what God reigned there,” Ren speculating, a grimace forming on his face. “Which begs the question of why he would hide it from us.”

Etho couldn’t come up with a good answer for that. BigB had never hesitated to inform them of things before, he usually rambled on about the different types of architecture of the Gods and how the worship of them had evolved over time. The only thing he hesitated to share was history about the start of the New Era when the Moon died and the Gods descended on mortal kind to punish them. Though, Etho suspected that it was more because there were no records of that time than that B didn’t want to tell them.

Before Etho could think of a response, Ren was going for BigB’s tent. Etho stood and followed, curious of what B would say and to mediate because they couldn’t afford to fracture now.

The tents were small, barely able to hold one person and didn’t keep out the cold well. Though for some people, that just gave them an excuse to combine their tents and cuddle for the sake of keeping each other warm while saying ‘no homo’ when it was glaringly obvious the two had feelings for each other.

Impulse and Skizz’s obliviousness aside, BigB emerged from his tent once Ren shouted for him, the others noticed but their gazes didn’t linger, figuring that if this was important then they would be told later.

“What God did the temple belong to?” Ren asked, foregoing any pleasantries.

“The temple?” B asked, seeming confused for just a moment before realization broke onto his features, but the confusion quickly returned. “Why are you asking?” BigB didn't sound defensive in any way, and Etho wondered if they were just blowing this out of proportion. So much had happened that it would be easy that BigB had simply not believed that it was important information to share.

Ren seemingly didn't have the same opinion because his gaze darkened slightly. "You've been acting strange since the temple."

BigB was difficult to read when he wanted to be, and this seemed to be one of those times. It was an indication that they had found something, and Etho didn't like that. Sure, he was pessimistic but he didn't think that they would be betrayed. He dearly wanted this not to be a betrayal.

"I don't trust Martyn," BigB said. That wasn't a surprise to Etho, but Ren seemed slightly taken aback at the admission. "I feel like he's orchestrating this to try and get us to rush into an unwinnable war."

That did surprise Etho. Martyn just didn't seem the type to be an evil mastermind. Etho had literally seen him stage crying over not being able to catch any fish a week ago when the both of them had gone fishing to gather food. "That's a bit of a wild claim, don't you think?"

A small flare of determination lit in BigB's eyes. "You don't think it's weird that we all started considering a war only after he showed up. I mean, Skizz wanted to fight Pluto, sure, but we all only started agreeing after he suddenly appears and claims to be a traveler that just happens to be in a temple of Mars!"

"Mars?" Ren asked, focusing on the part of that statement that made the most sense. "That's the God of War, correct?"

BigB seemed relieved. "Yes! So you understand how Martyn could've managed all this, he might have Mars backing…" BigB trailed off as he seemed to realize that neither Ren nor Etho were buying the story. His shoulders slumped, and he looked like his world was shattering before his eyes.

"I believe that Mars may have meddled," Ren said slowly, reassuringly, but it didn't seem to help at all, "but if Martyn is a part of Mars' plot, he be a pawn like the rest of us."

BigB looked at Ren, sighing. "You're right. He just spooked me with his sudden appearance after Pluto raided our camp, and I was quick to jump to conclusions."

Etho didn't fully believe that, the relief on BigB's face seemed like too much for what he was saying. However, he figured it was just because B had suspected Martyn for so long and was only starting to adjust to the reality that Martyn wasn't secretly an agent for the God of War.

"Mars is also the God of time, is he not?" Ren asked, which did confuse Etho. He didn't know how time had any relation to what their situation was. A god had possibly manipulated them into attempting war, not stopping time.

BigB nodded slowly, seemingly following the same thought process as Etho. Ren nodded and then turned to go to his tent, leaving Etho and BigB to wonder what that was about.

"How long have you just been sitting with that suspicion," Etho asked after a moment of awkward silence passed.

"Ever since we met Martyn. Something just seemed off about him and with how he talked about going to war with Pluto, I just assumed.. I feel really silly for not talking about it now but I didn't think you guys would believe me." BigB tipped his head down and looked towards his feet.

"I don't feel bad about proving you right."

BigB let out a laugh that sounded more like a cry, shaking his head. "No, you're right. I was overreacting."

Etho didn't believe that BigB believed that but he couldn't think of any way to assuage BigB's worries other than what they'd already said. "You could ask Martyn directly when he gets back if you're still worried."

"You think he'd tell the truth?" BigB asked, taken aback by the suggestion.

Etho would die for BigB, but he would not support a crazy conspiracy. "No, but it'd be funny. He always gets really defensive when he's accused of things."

"..If anyone could tell if he was lying, it'd be you, right?" BigB said slowly, as if an idea was coming together in his head.

Etho sighed, feeling like he'd just signed up for something much more serious than he had wanted it to be. "I mean, I guess? If it makes you feel better."

B nodded in agreement, a new determination on his face. Etho just hoped that this wouldn't cause even more trouble than what there already was.

Chapter Text

Ren was now sure that Mars was infecting them, infecting him with whatever twisted ideas had led him here. There was no certainty on who started that fire, it could've been Mars if he had felt so inclined and Ren knew what he had felt at that temple now. He had felt time stop, he had felt all motion, all light, everything leave the world and then resume as if it were only a thought.

At the time, he just believed his mind was playing tricks on him from a lack of sleep or stress, but now he knew that it was the first sign of his life being taken over. Yet, it didn't feel that way. He felt like his will was still his own, his decisions were still his own, and if Mars wanted a war, why wouldn't he be here orchestrating it.

Ren's thoughts went to BigB's accusation, it had seemed so out of place that if B suspected such a thing he wouldn't tell them. It could've stopped Ren from even considering war until he was sure Mars wasn't influencing him.

And Martyn.. he couldn't deny the strange timing but it seemed more that Martyn was another pawn in a long game of chess, possibly between humans and Gods, or between Mars and Pluto. That was something to consider, if Mars was genuinely trying to help them. He wished he trusted himself enough to go out there right now and ask about what Mars had done since the Descent.

Why was he even debating this? It wasn't too late to pull back. He looked down at the ground and then at his surroundings, the tent was slightly better than others but not by much. The cold could still seep in and he didn't have that much room, having to sit still instead of pacing like he wanted to. He realized he didn't want to stop, not when there was so much to gain from pushing Pluto back rather than waiting to be killed by the lands they ravaged or the people who'd sworn loyalty to them.

That didn't mean he'd trust Mars, in fact, he knew of a ruined temple of all Gods. People avoided it because of how it swarmed with Pluto's array of carnivorous plants, keeping anyone who would want to demolish or repurpose it far away. Ren already had plenty of practice cutting those things down.

As he left, he didn't miss the concerned looks that Etho was giving him while glancing between him and BigB. Ren hadn't been thinking much about the chance that Martyn was more than he seemed, choosing to ignore it. He often ignored oddities within his circle because they were his crew—and Martyn fit perfectly into that—but he wouldn't have missed something like Martyn being a crazed follower of the God of War. Just the thought was ridiculous.

Apparently he had been sitting in his own thoughts long enough for night for fall. The city was worse at night, the plants were more active in searching for their meal, and while the place was well lit enough to keep mobs from being tempted to come in, it was just barely. Any plant that deigned to get too close he cut down in an instant. There was a small shriek from something higher up after one of the plants seemed to have a surplus of reddish fluids within it that went splattering all over.

Ren looked up to see a vex. He inhaled sharply and quickly looked around for any illagers only to find absolutely none. When he looked back, it was gone. He should take it as a bad omen on an already bad night and head back but his stubbornness reared its head and he pushed forward. He was getting answers and fate itself wouldn't be able to stop him.

He didn't get into the temple unscathed but he made it and he was not looking forward to attempting to get back out. Unlike the outside, the inside looked completely untouched other than most of the windows being completely shattered. The stone was old but clean, like this place had been well taken care of by someone.

Walking through the halls, he saw the names of each of the Gods below a window that was likely meant to hold stained glass, but there was another word meant to be above those names that were crossed out. Thinking back, he had heard BigB rambling about how the Gods' true names had been lost to time and now all mortals had left to identify them was the astrology at which they came.

Ren passed most of them without a word, old names that anyone could recognize even if not everyone knew what they meant but he did pause at one. "The Moon," he said aloud, lightly touching the stone. The window above it was cracked but not quite broken. It depicted what one would call a mothling in the current day with a red dress on and the moon in the background on a starless night.

The one across from it also had a window, it was a depiction of the Stars, the God of love and sacrifice. He stared at the two for a few moments longer before he continued further into the temple, finding Mars. He looked at the glass shattered on the ground that would be impossible to piece together. He doubted that he would ever see a God in person, even Pluto he would assume never actually came to the mortal realm, preferring to work though her followers.

He wondered if he was actually doing this for a moment before he spoke, "I will not bow to you, God of War, but you will give me answers if you don't want this plot of yours to fall apart before it even starts."

Nothing happened, and for a moment Ren wondered if he was wrong. His initial assumption that he'd just been stressed and tired and that's why the world froze may be right and he could've drawn the eyes of a God who would not be pleased with what Ren had said. Still, he would not submit to this power whether it had started this or not.

As if to spite himself, Ren suddenly found himself propelled into motion. The world flew by and he crashed into a wall but it didn't hurt and he didn't hear any sign of damage. He tried to get to his feet but the ground felt so unsteady when it was being completely still. "Won't bow, you say? Well, that's fine. That's not what I need from you anyway."

Ren felt his ears draw back and his tail stood up straight as his hair stood on end. The voice was echoed, unclear, and held power. Though, it wasn't power in a commanding way, it was more like electricity flowing through it, as if it could crush something with just that voice alone. A million questions swirled through Ren's head as he finally got his balance, but he asked the most important one, "Was it really my decision to start this war or was that you?"

Mars laughed mockingly, as if Ren had asked a ridiculous question. "I don't have any power over the mind, your decisions have been yours since the beginning. I simply gave you a small push in the right direction."

Ren felt himself relax slightly, though he quickly put his guard back up, despite Mars claiming that, he couldn't trust a God. He thought of his next question, it was a tough choice when there were so many to ask but his mouth moved before his brain caught up, "What's your connection to Martyn?"

The God actually went quiet before there was a small "huh" that would've been quiet in anyone else's voice but seemed to burn Ren's ears. "I don't know where you got that, but I have no connection to him. All I did was give him a bit of a push closer to your group because I thought he'd be helpful to you."

"'To me?'" Ren asked skeptically. He firmly believed that they were all pawns in Mars' game. No one would truly be commanded by him when Mars was the actual mastermind behind everything.

"Yes, to you. I'm the God of War because I enjoy watching you mortals squabble, not because I enjoy the fighting. You truly have nothing to worry about on my end as long as you don't back out." Ren grit his teeth at the implication that Mars would do something if Ren did attempt to back out.

"What if I fail?" He asked, looking at the shattered pieces of glass on the floor that may as well be their fragmented world. For a moment he wondered if the Gods were also this broken, just like the people whom they tormented. The thought was worthless, because even if that were true there was no justifying them putting mortals through the same pain of loss that they had felt when the Moon had fallen.

Mars' answer was simple, "You won't." It sounded so simple coming from the echoed voice in this chamber, and yet nothing about this was simple. The world surrounding Ren may have been stagnant but it wouldn't stay that way. Things couldn't be that simple. There was so much that could go wrong, so much that could lead to their downfall.

"Why? Why put in all this effort to against another God?" Ren asked, not truly expecting any answer that he'd like.

"Pluto's needed to be knocked down a peg for a while now. They've gotten too comfortable in their status here and I wanted to give her a taste of their own medicine," Mars answered, and Ren didn't know how he felt about that. He couldn't deny that those were included in his own motivations but his biggest motive was to give the people the freedom not to fear simply walking past their own front porch. Still, he would've been foolish to believe a God would actually want whats best for mortals.

"Very well, I will work with you, Mars." Ren did not bow, just as he'd said before he would not bow to a thing which had no respect for him or the people he cared for. "I don't presume you'll be willing to appear here to shake on it?"

Mars laughed, and this time the noise caught Ren slightly of guard by how genuine it sounded. "No, my form would only serve to burn your eyes but if you need council from me, then you may call upon me."

For some reason, Ren believed the God this time. Though, any reasoning with himself as to why was cut short by the world starting to move again causing Ren to be pushed off balance.

Martyn shot up, he had been lucky that Ren had decided to do all that at night. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to answer at all.

As it was, he'd only been able to be semi-present by pausing time and speaking to Ren directly through transporting his consciousness to that temple.

He looked over at Impulse who'd been tasked with keeping first watch. Martyn hadn’t ever considered how problamatic it would be to travel with a large group until now.

The world wasn't nearly as ruined as when him and his fellow Gods had firsf descended on it, but it was hard to simply live. That's why it was so easy to speed the evolution process up for so many creatures including humans.

They were currently hiding in a cave and away from where any plants ot people could sneak up on them, though he had a feeling that it wouldn’t last. "Hey, Impulse?"

The man jumped, and Martyn couldn’t help but let out a stifled laugh at the strangled sound that came out of Impulse. "Yeah, uh- yeah, Martyn, what did you need?"

"I was just going to ask if you wanted to give your watch over to me. I don't think I'm going to go back to sleep, anyway," he said as he stood up and gingerly stepped over someone to get to the mouth of the cave where Impulse was sitting.

"No, it's really not necessary! You can just chill while I keep watch," Impulse suggested.

Martyn raised a brow and sat next to Impulse. "Alright, we can both keep watch then."

He could feel Cleo watching them, he'd always had a sixth sense for knowing when they were around, though they could hide from him if they wanted to, which meant she wanted to talk and Martyn knew this wouldn't be their normal friendly conversation.

Martyn knew he'd stepped over a line but he did believe that Cleo needed to be knocked down a peg. Mortals worship was disgusting and corrupting, just like the the creatures themselves.

Humanity often forgot that they were the one's to give war a name. They were the one's who altered Martyn's domain from simply being conflict to being war, he just stuck with it.

Maybe he'd needed to remind himself as well, but he needed to start this war for more reasons than one. As soon as he got what he wanted, he'd leave this place. Sure, he liked the few mortals in the red banners, but they were more like strange pets than anything to him.

"So uh.." Impulse broke the silence. "Do you have a personal grudge against Pluto? I mean, you've seemes headstrong about going against them from the start."

Martyn leaned back on his hands, looking up at the stars. He wondered if they were looking north, but it wasn’t possible to tell. Polaris had been gone for a long time now. "Someone I loved was taken from me bu Pluto’s cult." It was nowhere near the truth, but it told of his true motive.

Impulse nodded. "Love makes you do a lot of stupid things." He sounded mournful, and Martyn resisted the powerful urge to verbally slap Impulse because in no way could a mortal understand the pain that came with hundreds of years of loss and grief.

"Right. 'stupid'," Martyn said, unable to keep the anger from reaching his voice.

Impulse paled immediately, "No, I wasn't talking about you, just love in general! Wait, that sounds just as bad." Impulse went quiet for a moment before he spoke again, "I was trying to say that I think I know what it's like to be in love with someone so much that you'd be willing to do anything for them."

Martyn had to stop himself from saying that no, Impulse didn't know what it was like to love like that because Impulse didn't spend millennia falling in love with a person over and over again for the smallest things that they'd do. He swallowed those thoughts and buried them deep into the back of his mind. "You're talking about Skizz, aren't you?"

"Wh- haha, nooo, why would you think that?" Impulse's voice was high as he attempted to lie, but Martyn was sure that the darkness was the only thing hiding the flush that would be spreading across Impulse's face.

Martyn saw that as an opportunity to steer this conversation back into comfortable waters, for him anyway. "I think everyone knows except Skizz," Martyn deadpanned, a small smirk forming across his lips, "but that can change!"

Impulse hissed at him, genuinely hissed at him. It was so shocking that Martyn could barely react when Impulse tried to put him in a chokehold, and that was only because he had a reaction speed that was superior to mortals. "Get back here!"

"Are you sure you aren't some type of cat hybrid, I mean that was a very convincing hiss," Martyn teased as he booked it into the woods. Yes, this was one of the worst places to be running off to but if he woke any of their recruits up by running through the cave, it'd slow him down even more than a few plants could.

Though Impulse did stop just outside the cavern, not as confident in his ability at dodging overly eager carnivorous plants, or maybe it was because leaving it unguarded wasn't a great idea. Which, it really wasn't so Martyn sighed that his fun had been ruined and stalked back.

"You really can't tell him," Impulse said once he got back.

"Why can't I?" Martyn asked, that teasing lilt still in his voice.

Impulse didn't seem to have an answer for that until he cleared his throat and said in a soft voice, "This just isn't the right time. Either of us could die at any time and we don't need distractions."

Martyn couldn't understand that. There was never going to be a right time, but it wasn't anything that he hadn't heard before. People get that illusion that the time that they are currently living in will never end and that they will always have more time to wait for that perfect situation when it'll never come.

Martyn held no such illusions because he saw how time changed people constantly, how people missed opportunities because they felt that they had to wait. That was why Martyn refused to wait for anything to just come to him. He'd rather fail than let something pass. "You should tell him before it's too late. You never know when he'll be gone."

Impulse looked back into the woods, seeming thoughtful for a moment before he nodded, "I'll think about it."

Martyn sat back down, "So, cat hybrid?"

Impulse sputtered at the accusation, making Martyn laugh. As he looked back out he noticed that he didn't feel Cleo's presence anymore. He'd thought they would find some way to leave a message without Impulse noticing but he hadn't noticed anything. It was like they hadn't been here for him and that unsettled him.

He pushed away the feeling, figuring she was simply getting an idea of how many the red banners were rallying to their cause, but Martyn couldn't quite convince himself that was true. Still, he bickered with Impulse as if nothing was wrong.

Hours later when the sun came from over the horizon, it seemed to burn brighter.