Location: Dirtmouth

Grimm was… frightened, it was rare that he ever got close to a lord of shades, much less one that was angry- no, furious at him. Whenever there was an area he needed to go to that had a known shade lord, he would send Xym off on an assignment somewhere else as to keep his existence secret and stave off the ire from the ever so powerful gods that seemed to think every human in existence was its child.

However, now he was caught, not just with Xym, but with three other humans as well. He desperately did not want to give up Xym, he was a vital member of the troupe, more than that, he had wormed his way into everyone's heart. However… the troupe's survival did come first… if he had to… he was going to miss him…

"I will ask again you scum, where are my stolen children?" The Shade Lord asked threateningly. His eight glowing white eyes were narrowed, rage burned in his chest. Why couldn't these higher beings just leave his children alone? First it was the Pale King, and his… 'vessel' project, now it was this nightmare troupe, and four of his children, one of which he has already diluted his soul even more. He would need to find a way to fix that of course, but first he had to retrieve them.

"I… uhh, I don't know what you mean Lord of Shades" Grimm said, fear helping snap somewhat out of his tipsiness.

"Don't pretend to be ignorant with me, I know you have them, and I want them back!"

"Ah… do you mean those two with the white heads and black bodies that came recently, if I had known they had come without parental permission I would have sent them back-"

"While those are my children, they were merely here to keep watch over their three diluted siblings. There is now four here apparently, one of them in your possession, one which if I understand correctly, YOU diluted further, so cease testing my patience nightmare god, for I have little for you"

Hegemol was just observing the confrontation between the two higher beings, his detail was as well. In fact it appeared the whole town of Dirtmouth was enthralled with the tensions between the two gods.

Hegemol was thinking of what to do, of course he couldn't really the king's orders upon two higher beings, judging by the feud over the Shade Lord's 'children' he might not be able to get them for questioning, but maybe he could. He just didn't know, he was not prepared for this. He was just sent to question the troupe master, not get involved in a feud between two of some of the most powerful beings he would ever have the displeasure of seeing in his lifetime.

Hegemol took a moment to pay attention to his surroundings, wondering how the townsfolk were reacting to this godly feud.

The citizens appeared frozen in place, mesmerized, or frightened, or some other emotion keeping them in place. Hegemol already knew that this day would be remembered far into the future. After all, it isn't a common occurrence to see higher beings, much less two of them, much less getting into what looked like a custody dispute.

Right now it looked as though observing would be the best course of action, perhaps something would come up.

Hegemol noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, and looked towards the troupe's tent. To his surprise, there was one of those tall beings poking his head out of the tent's flaps, seemingly observing what was happening outside. This one however was different, It wore a strange smiling mask, and was wearing scarlet attire, compared to the white that every description of the tall beings included.

This must have been the fourth tall being the Shade Lord had mentioned.

The scarlet clad tall being ducked back into the tent just before the Shade Lord raised his head and looked towards the tent. The dark giant just stared for a few moments, before looking back down at Grimm, and continuing their dispute.

Xym had his hand to his chest, his heart was racing. It… it was a Shade Lord! He has only ever seen or heard of them in drawings, descriptions, and stories. Grimm has made it very clear that Shade Lord's were dangerous, how they captured any human unlucky enough to get too close to an Abyssal sea. The things had a strange obsession with his kind, and now there was one right outside the tent.

He was afraid, of course he was afraid, those things didn't get the title gods of gods for nothing. The stories he heard of the things depicted them slaughtering coalitions of gods single handedly with ease. How if they got wind of one of his kind being anywhere, they would be hell bent on capturing them. Luckily this one seemed a bit more mellow than the ones described in the only thing that stopped them from dominating the land was that they were wholly uninterested in ruling. They for the most part just wanted to be left alone.

It took a lot to get a Shade Lord to leave it's Abyss, and for some reason the universe decided that his kind would be one of those reasons! He had to think….

Wait… didn't he hear the Lord of Shades mention that the guests with the white heads and black bodies were… oh no…

"Okay Xym… calm down, you are the nightmare prince, the source that keeps the Grimm Troupe afloat" Xym thought to himself. He needed to remain calm, panic would do nothing but make the problem worse…

Those three human guests that Grimm wished to initiate into the Troupe could be of service, maybe they had some gadget or solution that could… slow the Shade Lord enough for the Troupe to escape?

Unlikely, but it was the best he could come up with, they did seem to have strange items that worked in very mysterious ways. Perhaps in one of their fabled travels they found one that could help defend against a Lord of Shades.

In a puff of red smoke, Xym disappeared.

David noted that strange behavior elicited by the vessels, they seemed… cheery, and they were constantly turning their gaze to him, Chris, or Matthew, before turning back to their sibling. He didn't like this sudden change in mood. After the recently received alert, he knew these 'vessels' were going to be a problem. He was half tempted to request a monarch to come over and pick them up, but it seemed unwise.

For one, the bunker only had three monarchs, if the information given about that white bug was true, then he did not want to risk the thing being shot down. Two, it would blow what little cover was left after the gene troop's reported rampage. News seemed to travel fairly slowly in this bug kingdom, and so the only thing most bugs had to go on about the previous expeditions was limited to mostly rumors and second hand information in this area of the 'Hallownest' as the locals called it. David wanted to keep the veil of mystery for a bit longer, gathering as much information as possible, so that the Bunker's leadership could make an informed decision on how to proceed.

Chris and Matthew had gotten noticeably more antsy after the report, Seer seemed calm about it, that made sense David supposed. She was the first to raise the alarm about it, it wouldn't make sense for her to lose her cool over something she already knew or felt she knew.

As of right now, they had to keep their guard up.

Though he really had a hard time believing what he read in the alert. These 'vessels; thought that they were mentally disabled siblings that needed to go to their 'Lord' to be 'fixed' and that their souls were 'diluted' and that was bad for some unknown reason… It felt like something some insane religious cultist would say.

Apparently this 'Lord' was the biggest of them all, video footage showing an eight eyed, four armed, vanta black behemoth. Apparently there was also some incident with a 'psionic probe' which was apparently a thing, he didn't know much about psionics, he had only skimmed an old news article about it being proven to exist years ago… minus two hundred.

He still had to get used to the fact that he was two centuries older than when he went to sleep. Couple that with the bug kingdoms and magical bullshit, it made things weird. He found it best to just not question it and move on, let the egg heads in R&D figure it out, thats what they do after all.

Suddenly a puff of scarlet smoke appeared in the stands in which they were seated. Everyone except for the grimm kin seated with them recoiled slightly in surprise.

Out of the scarlet smoke came Xym… he seemed… troubled, even with his mask hiding his facial features. The way he carried himself changed from confident and a bit cocky, to that of one who was worried and anxious.

"Uh… Friends… guests… we… uhm… oh how do I put this… uhm… we have an angry void god outside… and I was hoping-"

"That thing is here!?" Chris yelled in shock and fear.

"Shit" David muttered under his breath.

"Well… that… that complicates things" Matthew said timidly.

"Oh… oh dear" Seer said.

The grimm kin froze in fear… a void god... With Xym so close… oh this was not good.

"Oh, don't worry, he is only here to bring back to the Abyss" The group turned to look at Hollow who was now standing upright, Lost at his side, looking ecstatic.

"It is merely for your own good siblings, your minds are broken, as well as your souls, please do not resist, Lord will make it all bett-"

Hollow stopped as David raised his pistol to Hollow's shell.

"I am going to make one thing very clear, we are not related, we have been related, if you try to capture me, or any of team mates, there will be consequences" David said with a serious tone.

"Sibling please listen, Lord is here, he is strong, he will catch you, save running for play time" Lost said.

So… that actually was true, the Shade Lord as he called himself actually did believe they were his children… well now he had in person proof.

David started hatching a plan, he also noticed how everyone around him seemed to be still, likely from them being too focused on his little confrontation.

"Run back to your Lord, now" David said seriously.

"But sib-" Hollow was cut off from a warning shot going between his horns.

"I said now!" David yelled, the smoking pistol lowered to aim right between Hollow's eye holes.

With that Hollow grabbed Lost, and disappeared in black mist that disapated almost as fast as it appeared.

David lowered the still smoking gun to his side, and turned to the stunned group, Seer, being the only one without their face concealed, had a clear look of shock across her face.

"Alright, Chris, Mathew, I have a plan, and you are going to have to do exactly as I say" David said.

Chris and Matthew nodded.

"What are you planning on doing friends?" Seer asked

"I would very much like to know that as well" Xym added

"Something stupid and desperate" David said honestly.

Seer looked concerned, but Xym just nodded, who knows, maybe the guests could put on a good performance, if they did he was saved, if not, well at least they tried.

"I know they are in the tent you worthless speck, now I will ask again, where did you find the fourth-"

The appearance of a black mist and Hollow stepping out of it with Lost in tow interrupted the Shade Lords sentence.

The Shade Lord turned to them, and bent down.

"Lord, siblings are uncooperative, and belligerent, threatened us" Hollow said as he put Lost down.

That wasn't good, that wasn't good at all.

The Shade Lord stood up and turned back to the troupe master.

"This isn't over" He said, eyes narrowed.

The troupe master gulped, before stepping aside as the dark giant marched passed him towards th tent.

Before he could reach the tent, he heard noises from within… yelling, he knew this noise, it was… oh what was it? English, yes english the language of his broken children.

"David no, David stop! DAVID!" the voice yelled.

What was going one?

Soon of his broken white clad children emerged from the tent, one had his arm wrapped around another ones neck, one of those so called death tubes heald up to his helmet. Another one was shouting at the one holding his sibling in a strangle hold.

The Lord was just about to rush and grab them, pressing such a dangerous object to your siblings head was incredibly dangerous! Considering that according to julia, two of his broken children were dead, one by something called cancer, which appearently was a disease, another something called a 'nook lee ar siren' was it some kind of weapon? It didn't matter, all that did was that his broken children wouldn't release shades. If their physical body died, that was it, they would be… they would be….they… dead, they would… die. The thought made him shiver.

"Stay back or I am putting a bullet in his head!" The one the other one yelling had called David said.

The Shade Lord stopped in his tracks, was his child… threatening to kill his sibling?! He was… what!?

"Child please! Put the death tube down, come with me, please I can make you better, you aren't yourselves, you need my he-"

"QUIET!" The child known as David yelled.

"David please, you've been through so much with him, don't throw it away just to-"

"Shut up Matthew!" David said to the one now known as Matthew… who gave his children such ridiculous names?

"Now, Shade Lord, was it?"

"That… that is correct my child, now, please just-"

"Just shut up, I will make my demand very clear, leave, go back to your… what was it… Abyss? and never come back." David said sternly.

"I can't just leave you-"

"How much brains do you think will come out of his head when I blow it open? Probably not much, he never was the brightest bulb" David said almost gleefully

"Dear god David, think of what we've been through" Chris was cut off by David tightening his grip around his neck.

"You want me to kill you now?"

Chris whimpered in response.

"David this is going too far-"

"Matthew, if you don't shut up now, your next"

Matthew back away slightly, arms raised in front of him.

"Now what is it going to be oh Lord of Shades, will you go back to your Abyss, or will I be coating the ground with Chris's brains?"

The Shade Lord just looked at his three clearly damaged children wide eyed, he… he didn't want to leave them… but… he couldn't risk it.

"Alright… I… I-I will leave" The Shade Lord said backing up towards the spot where the stag station building once stood, Hollow and Lost followed him, who have up until that point been frozen in shock.

The Shade Lord… 'liquified' was the best way to put it, as he became a formless dark mass that lowered into what Seer had said were the stagway tunnels, Hollow and Lost following close behind.

Once they were out of sight for a few moments, David lowered the pistol from Chris's head, the safety was still on, and let go of him.

"Good work you two, you played your parts perfectly" David said.

"I can't fucking believe that worked" Chris said rubbing his neck.

"Did you see the size of that thing? That had to be at least twenty feet tall!"

They didn't have long to congratulate themselves, as an armored bug larger than most others they have seen approached them, and began making unintelligible noises at them.

David sighed, "Matthew, could you get Seer, I can't understand a damn thing this one is saying."

"On it" Said Matthew.

This was going to be interesting.