Nether Worry

Part 14

Pairing: Agent Washington/Tucker, Caboose/Church, Grif/Simmons

Description: In which the Reds and Blues come across a lonely Creative Mode dweller, Sarge makes about ten times more Iron Golems than are strictly necessary, and where Tucker learns that Wash is indeed not a replacement for Church and that may or may not be a bad thing after all.

A/N: A big time skip, but I felt it was necessary. Also, it's supposed to be early-spring now in the fic, just in-case anyone becomes confused. Also, looking back I just realized that Sister kinda hasn't had any appearances since Part 8 with little to no explanation... yeah, my bad. Blame my shit writing. So, there's a BIT of an explanation in here, but you can expect that she'll pop up again later on. Please R&R, and I'm sorry for the long Author's Note!

It had been three months since Washington and Tucker had gotten together, along with the rest of the crew finishing up their exploration of the Nether. They stilled visited it every once in awhile- searching mainly for the mysterious stranger- but they had yet to make contact with the Nether-Wanderer, to the point that they wondered if Caboose had imagined it all up, yet it wouldn't explain the note. In the meantime, all of the Freelancers save for Washington had lost a life during their first trip to the Nether- now making it so that Wash, South, North, and Tex were on their last ones- so now the BGC had been trying to keep the listed people out of harm's way at all costs. Wash rolled with it, as he'd been guarded like a lion since his first life had been lost, and North quickly followed his example and stayed out of trouble. As for South and Tex... well, they're weren't exactly excited to be 'sheltered' by their teammates.

"It's scavenging, Tucker. Not a monster hunt." Tex reminded Tucker for maybe the millionth time as she glared at the teal dressed miner, arms crossed stubbornly over her chest. "You can't make me stay in here forever. I'm no housewife."

"Yeah, cut us some goddamn slack, shithead!" South ordered harshly, even more upset about all the sheltering than Tex, as she'd already been sheltered far too many times while living only with her twin brother. "We've been cooped up in this shitty canyon for weeks!"

"It's only been four days since you were out last." North corrected, washing dishes in Blue Team's sink alongside Simmons, who had volunteered to help tidy up the base earlier in the day. "Relax, sis. You could use the break."

"What's that supposed to mean, dick-munch!?" South asked angrily, and North wisely looked away, not wanting to start a fight his sister would surely finish. "Don't forget, I was the best fighter in Creative long before Carolina! I'm no doormat."

"No one said you were." Simmons pointed out, quietly, not wanting to really get involved, but now it was too late because South was giving him that look. He gulped, squirming under her electric blue glare. "I'll... I'll shut up."

"You dudes only got one life left." Tucker reminded the ferocious duo before him, oddly enough brave as he guarded the front door. "We just don't want you guys getting your asses killed. Sorry, dudes. It's our only option until Sarge perfects that Creative potion."

"He's getting closer, he's just missing some ingredients." Simmons explained, sounding proud of his team leader. "He's not sure what they are yet, but Wyoming promised to help him work on it tonight after dinner."

"He needs supplies, huh?" Tex's grin couldn't be any more wicked, and a glimmer in her eyes made Simmons regret even speaking. "Come on, South! Let's go see if we can't help Sarge with those potion ingredients!"

"Count me in!" South replied, glad for the excuse to get out of the drama-filled, boring canyon she now called home. "Later, Blueturds!"

"I'm a Red!" Simmons shouted after her, but South ignored him, favoring to join Tex in slamming Tucker out of the way and bolting out of Blue Base, across the ravine's bridge, and into the forest surrounding the canyon.

Tucker, in the meantime, groaned in irritation as he dusted himself off, none-too-pleased with being manhandled by both Texas and South. "You okay?" North asked, drying off his hands before walking over to Tucker, helping him to his feet. "Sorry about that, she's just tired of being here. I'm sure you can understand."

Tucker shrugged, seemingly unaffected by South and Tex's assault. "Naw, dude, I fucking get it. Shits actually quiet around here and people're getting bored as fuck. Can't really blame 'em, now can I?"

North nodded in agreement, still looking concerned for the younger miner. "Well, still, don't let it get to you. There's no need to start a civil war here, too. Speaking of which, any updates from Carolina on the Nether situation?"

"Nope." Tucker admitted, pulling on a coat from under the table. He had no idea whose it was (It's was Caboose's), but it was the closest one to him so he hardly minded borrowing it for awhile. "But I can check-in with her if you need me to."

"That'd be great actually." North replied, moving to go and help Simmons with the dishes again. "You be careful out there, okay? Just 'cus Andy's around doesn't mean we're impervious to monsters or anything like that."

"I'll be fine, Dad." Tucker sassed back, the word 'Dad' coming out with added malice. "You don't have to worry about me. I've got a kickass sword, remember?" Just in-case, Tucker unsheathed said Diamond Sword, swinging to further explain his point. "See? I'll be fine, North."

"If you say so." And with that, North let the matter drop. He had a habit of doing that: of worrying over everyone in the canyon, but Tucker could handle himself just fine. He had a feeling it would be awhile though before North was convinced of that.

Tucker afterwards left Blue Base, arms wrapped around himself to keep himself warm as a cold breeze hit him square in the face. Outside, the snow had just begun melting, with warmer months on the way. On Blue Base's side of the ravine was the Freelancer HQ as Carolina called it so fondly: it was the Freelancer's home. Although it wasn't said outloud, the other Freelancers made it pretty clear that Washington was welcome to rejoin his teammates and live with them in their base. Hell, there was even a whole bed in-between Maine's and Connie's that was reserved for him. Still, Wash had yet to make the integration back into their team, for obvious reasons of course, mainly being that he and Tucker were now an active item and Junior was still dependent on the both of them.

Thinking now of Junior, Tucker's face lit up with excitement and pride. His little Ender-Human hybrid son had been growing up fast. Not fast enough to reach his height, not yet, but the kid could walk now and reached Tucker's hip in height when he stood. Doc had determined that Junior's growth spurt was far from over, and predicted that by the end of spring, Junior would outgrow his own father in height. Other than his height, Junior was growing in other ways, too! While he HAD learned 'Papa' and 'Dada', he seemed to speak in an entirely different Endermen-like language most of the time. Tucker had picked up on it rather quickly, but he still had no idea where he'd learned it from. Doc was clueless as well, making Tucker even more worried about the whole thing. Thankfully, he could at least understand him. For the most part.

As the aquamarine-dressed miner walked across the bridge, he stopped, yet again hearing someone singing from inside the ravine. The insanity that seemed to be in everyone in the canyon be damned, Tucker was certain that someone- not a something, a someone- was singing down below. As usual, Tucker ran to the edge of the bridge, holding onto the railing as he peered over, squinting as he tried to catch a glimpse of whatever the Hell was down there. But, as usual and following the ritual, the singing stopped abruptly and Tucker was left with nothing. The short miner huffed, shaking his head at himself for acting so dumb. Of course there was nothing down there! If there was, someone else would've heard it by now! Still... Tucker couldn't help searching those shadows for a clue.

And what he found were two. Big. Brown. Eyes.

They stared up at Tucker, the miner only able to stand there, mouth slightly agape as he watched the shadow's eyes blink up at him. Then he saw it- that white-toothed grin. The creature's eyes were already quite intimidating, but that grin... Tucker opened his mouth to scream for help, before the shadow's mouth abruptly closed. It disappeared, for a moment, before something glittering was being thrown from that direction up at Tucker. Whatever creature it was, it had damn good aim, because the glass bottle not only was able to be caught by Tucker, but it didn't break upon impact. Tucker inspected the bottle once he had it, noticing a coiled up note inside, and made to look over the edge and ask what it was, but the mysterious Mob was long gone, leaving no hint behind of it's existence, save for the bottle.

Alone again (And rather disturbed) Tucker examined the bottle in his hands. Surprisingly, a neat little ribbon was tied around the bottle's base, it being the same color as Tucker's armor. It couldn't be a coincidence. For a moment, Tucker considered opening up the bottle, reading the note, and keeping it to himself. However, he remembered something Washington had told him during the first month they'd gotten together- "I know it'll be hard, but we should start telling each other about more stuff going on with us. It might help make this work better."- and it made Tucker reconsider. Sighing, he tucked the bottle into his satchel, gave the ravine once last glance, and then made for the Freelancer HQ.

Washington awoke that afternoon without screaming, surprisingly enough. He'd been sleeping uneasily these last few days, which he considered odd, mainly because he and Tucker usually shared a bed, which miraculously enough warded off his nightmares. Not these ones though. At first, they'd been like his usual ones- a blonde woman who had no mouth or distinct features yet he knew was his mother walked beside him through a plains biome, suddenly, she disappeared, suddenly with gunmetal blue eyes and tears in them as she screamed for him- but, they'd taken a turn for the worst. It seemed like ever since Wash and Tucker had gotten together, he'd been having these truly awful nightmares whenever he closed his eyes. They were so bad, Wash had decided to spend the weekend sleeping in the Freelancer HQ.

He knew already that it bothered Tucker: they were only three months into their relationship and suddenly Washington was backing off like Tucker had the plague. In reality, Wash wanted nothing more than to hold Tucker close after his night terrors and know he was okay, but he was scared that he'd start freaking Tucker out if he acted like that. Maybe this weekend would make the nightmares go away? Wash sure hoped so. As much as he liked kicking it with his old crew, he couldn't help but long for Tucker's company, even when he was having a lot of fun with the others. Sitting up in bed, Wash grabbed his clock from out of his chest, checking the time of day. It looked like the sun had been up for awhile, but not for too long. He still had plenty of time to pitch in and help around the canyon.

The blond crawled out of bed and slipped out of his pajamas, throwing on his under clothes before clamping on his leather armor. Once he checked himself in the mirror, Wash started heading downstairs, only to stop dead in his tracks as he noticed his sister Carolina sitting alone in the den. He crouched down, gunmetal blue eyes peering between the bars of the handrail as he spied on the red-head. Carolina wasn't doing much of anything, sitting patiently on the couch as she sharpened her favorite iron sword; a hand-me-down from mom before she died. Noticing him, Carolina turned slightly, holding eye-contact with her younger brother for a good two minutes before beckoning him to come sit with her.

"Is... something wrong, sis?" Washington inquired as he hesitantly approached the couch, taking a seat beside Carolina on the purple wool-covered couch. "What ya doing here? I thought you and York were gonna be hunting today."

"We were, but I cancelled. We need to talk, David." It was rare that Carolina called him David, so she got Wash's attention right away. "Can I ask you something?" Once Wash nodded, she swallowed, as if afraid to voice her question. "Do you... do you really wanna stay here?"

"Wait, what?" Wash asked, confusion written on his face. "Why are you asking me this, 'Lina? Is something going on? Are we doing something wrong?"

Carolina set her sword down, standing up to stand before her younger brother, almost half a head shorter than her younger sibling, yet she towered over the still seated man. "I'm asking because we want to go home, David. Some of us want to go back to Creative Mode. We came here for you, but it looks like you've already found a new team to call your family. Can't say I blame ya: they're good people. But... you're still my baby brother. And at the end of the day, I want you to come home with us. It would mean leaving this life behind... but it's your choice, Wash. You don't have to decide right now, but I'm putting it out there before someone else fucks it up. We're leaving in a month." With that, she left the base, leaving Washington by himself.

Before the younger sibling could even begin to dwell on his sister's one-sided conversation with him, in came Tucker through the front door. Seeing the aquamarine miner made Wash's stomach do flipflops, but he put on a smile anyways, not wanting to worry his boyfriend. "Hey, Tucker. What's up?" He asked, trying to sound relaxed.

Tucker, on his part, gave Wash an odd look, but made no comment about the blond's awkward response. "I came to show you this bottle I found. Something from inside the ravine threw it at me." He explained, pulling out the bottle and handing it to Wash. "I thought you might wanna read it with me, man."

All thoughts of Carolina's offer washed away as Washington took ahold of the glass bottle, pulling out the note from inside to look over. He had Tucker sit down beside him on the couch before he cleared his throat, beginning to read the letter aloud. "Greets from the ravine, fellow miners! I'm pleased to finally re-meet you all! Now that it seems that some old friends are back in the canyon, it's about time we meet again! Feel free to pop by into the ravine and give me a shout, and I'll be sure to keep my Mob friends at bay. PS, Tucker... bring your sword. I have some friends who'd like to see you." It ended there. Wash, afterwards, shot Tucker an absolutely astonished look, not knowing how to react to the rather odd letter.

"Well... that was fucking weird." Tucker decided, looking puzzled by the odd note. "The fuck should we do? I mean, 'Re-meet'? What the fuck does that mean? And why does it want me to bring my sword? Also, how the fuck does it know my name!?"

"Tucker, calm down." Washington urged his lover, grabbing ahold of the darker man's hands in his own, squeezing them slightly to comfort him. "We'll figure it out, okay? This sounds like some serious stuff though: we should tell the others."

"But they JUST got done with the Nether, like, three months ago!" Tucker argued, not sounding pleased at the idea of them all going into the ravine. "We can't risk you, North, South, or Tex going down there!"

"Then we'll stay behind." Wash offered, as hard as it was to. Personally, he was getting pretty damn stir-crazy in the canyon, but he'd be damned if he died now, while Junior was still young and he was still making it work with Tucker. "Me, North, South, and Tex can stay here and watch Junior while you lead a team into the ravine."

"Whoa whoa whoa- did you just say LEAD!? Okay, no, not happening." Tucker made to stand up and leave the HQ, but Wash still held onto his hands. Tucker turned, giving Wash a baffled and worried look, but the blond only smiled reassuringly back at him. "... Holy shit, you're serious, aren't you?"

Wash nodded. "I am. You're a great fighter, Tucker. You've improved a lot since we first met, believe it or not, and I think you can easily lead them down there. Besides, Carolina'll help you if you need some guidance."

Tucker still seemed uncertain, but soon sighed in defeat, giving Wash an uncertain smile. "Yeah... okay, sure, I'll give it a shot." He agreed, giving his lover a quick peck on the cheek. "You think you can guard the house 'til I'm home, babe?"

Wash laughed, smiling broadly back at Tucker. "It'll be hard, but I'm sure it'll be okay. At least Tex and the twins can help if I start screwing up, right?"

"Right." Tucker agreed, giving Wash just one, last kiss, before dashing outside to tell the others the big news.

"Like SHIT I'm staying behind!"

Of fucking course she'd say that. Church groaned internally, mentally berating Wash and Tucker for dropping the news on him to tell the teams ("It's because you're a people person, Church. Wh- NO! We're not trying to avoid a fight with the girls! What would make you say that, man?"). Once this was over with, Church had a list of loud, choice words for Tucker and Wash, but for now, all he could do was pray that South and Tex wouldn't murder him for trying to keep them off the battlefield. Actually, Church didn't have much of a problem with them going down into the ravine: Tex can handle herself just fine and South's almost always with her anyways, so she'd probably be fine also. The only one Church even slightly doubted was North.

"Look, Tex, this wasn't my fucking idea, 'kay?" Church made sure to clarify, trying to put the blame on anyone but himself. "It's Tucker and Wash's stupid idea! Which, by the way, isn't THAT outrageous. I mean, you have one shitty life left, and, well, being a Zombie ain't any fun, sister."

"Where IS Sister anyhow?" Doc suddenly asked, sitting on the table of Red Base beside Donut, watching the argument from a safe distance. "Has anyone seen her since we got here?"

That caused a long, cold beat of silence. "... Oh my God, the yellow kid vanished..." North whispered, eyes wide in terror. "Where the did she even GO!?"

"Uh..." Church trailed off, swallowing uneasily. "... When was the last time anyone saw her?"

"Wait, was she the one who stared at my chest and called me hot?" Tex asked, looking perplexed. "Because if that's her, she took off, like, three and a half months ago."

"Where did she go though!?" Donut screeched, terrified at the idea of Grif's little sister being snatched by Mobs when no one was looking. "She could be anywhere! She could be in the desert, or in Creative Mode, or-"

"-Just calm down, Donut." North urged, regaining his composure. "I'm sure she's not far. If we send out a search party-"

"-What good will that do?" South roared, glaring at North hatefully. "You heard Tex! She's been gone for MONTHS! Besides, what if she doesn't WANT to be fucking found? Sometimes you just gotta... go away for awhile." Her voice went low, and full of a certain understanding that was impossible to miss. "I mean, no one noticed she was gone until now, so... who cares if she wants to disappear for a little while?"

"But what if she got taken, South!" North continued to argue, looking angrier and angrier as his sister spoke. "We can't just assume Sister ran off on her own! A Mob probably got her!"

All was quiet, before South spoke up, voice terrifyingly quiet. "... I watched her go." She admitted, after a little bit. "She said she was looking for some asshole named 'Cockbite' or something... then she was gone. She told me if anybody missed her to just play it off as nothing."

Again, it became quiet, before Church inhaled and exhaled rather loudly, shaking his head pitifully. "... So what's it gonna be?" He finally asked, getting back onto the topic of the ravine. "You gonna stay or go? In the end, it's your death-wish."

South and Tex exchanged a look, since they were the only ones arguing about this situation. North pointedly looked away, not wanting to interfere, and eventually, Tex let out a long, labored sigh of frustration. "... Yeah, okay. We'll stay." She promised, shooting South one last, questioning glance. Once the other blonde nodded, she seemed much more sure of herself. "You bring us back some treasure though, 'kay?"

"Will do." Church promised, walking out the front door. North followed him, giving South an encouraging pat on the shoulder on the way out.

Donut blinked, giving Tex a wide smile. "Wow, Tex. That's really responsible of you! I thought for sure you and South would go!" He exclaimed, impressed by the girls.

"Oh no, I'm not about to be stopped THAT easy!" Tex declared, giving Donut a truly terrifying grin. It reminded the man of a shark. "Come on, South. We gotta pack up now if we're gonna follow 'em into the ravine!"

"Right behind ya!" South assured, following after her friend loyally.

Doc and Donut exchanged a look, before they sighed in unison. "Should we stop them?" Doc questioned, a little hesitant.

"Naw." Donut muttered, shaking his head. "I don't thick we could stop them, even if we tried."

A/N: This chapter came sooner than they usually do, so I guess that's good? I dunno, I dunno, I already have the final chapter for the whole fic written, but I need to work up to it and I'm worried I'm not doing well with the content until then? I dunno, let me know in the comments/reviews if ya can, it'd take a load off my mind or at least help me find what I'm doing wrong. Please R&R!

~CabooseHeart.