Edd had fallen asleep at the window, waiting for Matt to get home. He's been so tired lately, and he honestly had no idea why. Hopefully it was just due to the temporary insomia he had over Tom's disappearance... Or... Kidnapping he guessed. He was awoken by Matt slamming open the door.
"EDD!" Matt screamed, a six pack of cola in one hand. Edd jumped and fell backwards onto the floor.
"Ow," Edd groaned. Matt quickly put the cola down, careful not to drop it. He ran over to Edd and kneeled down, frantically checking for any extreme injuries.
"Oh no! I am so sorry Edd I didn't mean to scare you!" Matt whined, talking very quickly. Edd sat up and turned to face Matt.
"It's fine Matt, don't worry about it, did you get the cola?" Edd asked. Matt stood back up, grabbing the cola and bringing it back to Edd.
"Yep!" Matt grinned.
"Then all is forgiven!" Edd laughed, hugging Matt.
"Hooray!" Matt chuckled. They eventually separated, Matt noticed Edd staring at him with an expectant look on his face.
"Well?" Edd asked.
"Hm?" Matt had no idea what Edd was waiting for.
"Don't you have something important to tell me? Or did you slam the door open and yell for me for no reason?" Edd asked.
"Oh... Right..." Matt mumbled, trying to remember what he was going to say. Edd looked down and realized his hoodie was wet all of a sudden. He looked up at Matt and saw that his hoodie was soaked! He probably should've looked before he hugged him.
"Why is your hoodie so wet? Didn't you use my umbrella? Wait... Where is my umbrella?" Edd began to grow worried, what happened? Memories began slowly making their way back to Matt. There was a sliding glass door, Edd's umbrella, that scary guy, David... Oh yeah!
"I think I met some of Tard's soldiers!" Matt smiled.
"You met some of Tord's soldiers?! And you're alive?!" Edd's eyes grew wide.
"Mm-hm! They were talking about Tim, apparently he's an adult now!" Matt explained.
"That means he might cooperate..." Edd whispered.
"Exactly!" Matt exclaimed. Edd had a huge grin on his face. He jumped up and kissed Matt out of pure happiness, getting himself wet in the process. Edd quickly separated from Matt and gave him a confused look.
"Wait... That still doesn't explain why you're so wet, or why my umbrella is missing," Edd chuckled.
"Oh uh... The wind caught up to me and it blew away," Matt lied. Edd seemed so happy, and Matt wasn't sure if he could justify helping someone who assisted in kidnapping their friend.
"That sucks, I really liked that umbrella, I suppose it doesn't matter, you're home safe and now we know Tom's back to normal!" Edd laughed. More memories came back to Matt. Didn't David scold that one tall dude, Jack he thinks, about hurting Tom?
"Hm... I don't think they're treating him well anymore either," Matt mumbled under his breath. Edd had a shocked look on his face.
"What do you mean?!" He asked.
"I really need to stop saying things outloud," Matt sighed. Edd grew pale.
"Matt, what are they doing to Tom?" Edd asked again.
"I don't know, all I know is that they mentioned something about hurting Tam," Matt replied.
"Oh no..." Edd mentally panicked. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. Tom was a pretty tough guy, he knew that, Tom could take a beating and get right back on his feet. Whatever Tord was putting him through, Edd was sure he'd be able to persevere.
"Are you alright Edd?" Matt freaked out a little at Edd's sudden silence.
"I'm fine... Anyways, now we can try to rescue him again! We'll still need a good plan though," Edd sighed.
"We can't just use the same plan we used last time?" Matt asked.
"I'm sure they've blocked that window off by now, besides, now that Tom's an adult, Tord probably has him under heavy security," Edd shrugged. Matt thought back to the store. He thought about Jack and David, more specifically, their uniforms. An idea suddenly made it's way to Matt's brain... Hm... What a nice but foreign feeling.
"Edd, I have an idea, but you have to promise to hear me out!" Matt smirked.
"What is it?"
"Alright, so I've actually seen the uniforms Tard's soldiers wear, maybe if we put on some uniforms, we could sneak in and find Tem!" Matt declared. Edd stared at Matt in shock... That was actually not a bad idea, he had heard worse at least.
"But... Where are we going to get uniforms?" Edd asked. Matt got excited and grabbed Edd's wrist, dragging him to his room. He let Edd go and yanked his closet door open. There were dozens of outfits that Edd had never seen Matt wear before.
"I'm sure we can find something to work with in here!" Matt grinned.
"Wow... Matt, why do you have all of these outfits if you've never worn them?" Edd was in awe.
"I've worn each of these at least once! Just maybe... Not in public," Matt admitted. Edd saw quite a few outfits that he honestly couldn't picture Matt wearing, plus some that he kind of wished he had been there to see Matt wearing.
"So what do Tord's soldiers wear?" Edd mumbled, looking through some of the clothes.
"Hm... Well they had the same basic thing on, except they were different colors," Matt sighed.
"How is it that you can't remember most things, but you can remember what color their uniforms were?" Edd chuckled.
"Outfits are important Edd!" Matt protested.
"Okay! Sorry!" Edd rolled his eyes.
"They were both wearing turtlenecks with military coats and nametags," Matt explained.
"What are the odds you have-"
"Here we go!" Matt cheered. He had two red turtlenecks and two dark blue military coats clutched in his hands.
"Matt, what the heck?" Edd said in disbelief.
"I like to buy two of everything," Matt shrugged.
"Well are those the right colors?" Edd asked.
"One of them had black and gray on, but I don't have these in those colors, the other guy had these colors on though," Matt explained.
"What are we going to do about the nametags? And won't Tord recognize us?" Edd frowned.
"Well their nametags didn't have their names on them, just their titles, so we'll make some based on that, and as for Turd recognizing us?" Matt grinned and held up a bag full of makeup and other beauty products.
"Oh no..." Edd groaned.

I'm back from vacation! I was gone for a few days with my family, so I haven't been able to really work on this chapter, but here it is! (I'm actually supposed to be on the beach rn but I'm deathly afraid of the ocean). Anyways, FAN ART!

This cool looking interpretation of the ripper (sorry it's a screen shot) was created by Jdcreationz and I adore it! Even though I was gone for a few days, you all continued supporting this story and I truly appreciate it! Thank you all for reading!