False frowned, losing focus and letting her sword clash carelessly onto the silver armor of the armor stand she was practicing with. Tommy and Tubbo had been gone for an awful long time. What could they be doing? I only wanted some fireworks...

False sheathed her sword. She needed to know where her apprentices had gone. She pushed opening the door, again noticing the elegant engraving on the metal.

(what the metal carving looks like... wow grian fancy handwriting you have) (future echo is here to remind you that it spells TQE, not T2E)

TQE, standing for their name, The Queen's Entourage. Tommy had come up with that name, False remembered, amused. It was an interesting choice, but she went along with it.

False walked down the hallway, soon reaching the room where the fireworks were held. "Tommy, Tubbo, what's taking you-" She stopped in her tracks as she saw that the room was empty. "Tommy? Tubbo...?"

False stepped further into the room, blinking at the dim light. She jumped back as her boot crunched on a firework, scattered carelessly on the floor. Dimmed sparks flew out of them, and False wrinkled her nose as she picked the firework up, wondering who left them here.

Obviously it was Tommy and Tubbo. But why? Did they think it was funny? Were they playing a prank?

False wasn't quick to assume things though. Years of fighting and experience told her that things weren't always as simple as it seemed. And here, something seemed off.

False took a closer look at the firework. It was flattened, and not just from her stepping on it. The paper around the gunpowder felt... damp. Why would they be wet? False asked herself, and, still frowning, opened a chest.

There, she found her answer. The chest of fireworks was wet, with a pool of water at the bottom.

False frowned. There was something going on here. Tommy and Tubbo were both gone, and there were wet fireworks where they were seen last. They wouldn't have messed with the fireworks, would they? False questioned. They know how important they are to the war.

False stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. "Tommy! Tubbo!" She called. She continued down the hallway, and as she exited the door on the other end, emerging into the sunlight, False spotted Philza, with a very distressed Tommy.

"Tommy?" False speed-walked to the young boy. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"It's Tubbo." Tommy whispered. "I-I can't find him."

"Is he with you, False?" Philza asked.

"No." False said. "I haven't seen him or Tommy since I sent them to fetch fireworks. Where did you go, Tommy?" She turned to ask him.

"We... I went to the storage room to fetch Tubbo, as you said." Tommy explained. False felt pity as she saw Tommy shaking a little. "And there, we found that the fireworks had been damaged. We both thought that they had been sabotaged."

"So that's why they were wet..." False murmured to herself. Louder, she addressed the other two. "I found the fireworks too. They were damp."

Tommy nodded. "We found them wet." He said. "I wanted to tell Dadz-Philza about the fireworks, because obviously there is a traitor among us, so I ran ahead. I thought Tubbo was following me, but when I found Phil by our nether portal-" Tommy broke off.

"He wasn't there." Philza finished for him. "Tubbo wasn't with Tommy, so we thought he was with you." He said to False.

"He's not." False said softly. "I'm sorry. I don't know where he is."

Tommy shook his head. "It's not your fault."

False backtracked. "Wait... did you say... traitor?" She asked cautiously, not wanting to mistaken Tommy's words.

Tommy and Philza shared a long look. Finally, Philza spoke. "False, Tommy found the fireworks, wet."

"There was no leak in the roof, and the lid of the chest wasn't wet either." Tommy added on.

"Someone sabotaged them." Philza said quietly. "Messed with them on purpose, knowing how important they were to the war."

"Who?" False asked. She was just realizing the severity of this act. Someone is a traitor. She thought.

Philza only shook his head. "I don't know."

"Whoever it is, they must be the person who took Tubbo as well." Tommy said, a dark look in his eyes. "And the thing is, we can't trust anyone." He sighed. "As far as we know, you could be the traitor, False." Tommy looked at her, his cyan eyes full of stress.

False sighed. "Yeah, I get you." She said. "It's true, I could be the traitor. I know I'm not, but there's no way to prove it to you." She murmured. "How are we going to figure this out?" False asked.

"Call a meeting." Philza said. "Tubbo is our only lead. Only he can provide details of the wet fireworks, and he's gone. Obviously he figured something out."

"But Tubbo's not here." Tommy pointed out.

"If someone took Tubbo, they would have needed time to get him away from our base." False said, almost to herself. "Calling a meeting and gathering the people, seeing when they arrive, will give us a hint." She said. "We should call a meeting."

"Come on." Philza said.

~~~

False watched Philza press the emergency meeting button. Her walkie-talkie buzzed once as it caught the signal of the emergency meeting.

The emergency meeting button was Grian's idea, and Xisuma had installed it right after the battle. Basically, once pressed, the redstone linked to the button should teleport everyone to the base. This time, Philza was using one of the other functions, which was just a meeting signal. The redstone would send out a signal to all of the Entourage, telling them to come to the base.

Now the only thing they could do was to wait.

The first one to arrive was Xisuma. False had expected this, as X lived the closest to the castle. But the next arrival surprised her. George floated up from the bubble elevator and joined the others at the stone table. Mumbo came, and on Tommy's command-like request, checked the monitoring device that covered their entire territory.

"Nope." Mumbo said. "No one other than our side has entered our side of the territory within the past day." He said.

False's heart sank. She was hoping that it wasn't a traitor, but since no enemy has entered their grounds, it has to be a mole. And there were only two more people, other than Tubbo himself, missing. Wilbur and Grian.

While they waited, Tommy explained the situation to everyone. Xisuma was mad that Tubbo was gone. False had never seen the admin so protective. He was usually pretty chill. He must care for Tubbo a lot. She thought. They do live together.

Time passed in grim silence, everyone wondering where Tubbo was, and who could have possibly taken him. Suddenly, the anticipated sound of the bubble elevator, well, bubbling reached False's ears. Everyone turned to the elevator, eyes glued to the exit.

A pair of black pants. A yellow shirt. A pair of cunning brown eyes and the perfect hair. Wilbur popped out of the elevator. "Hey guys, what's up?" He asked cheerfully before registering the grim tension in the air. "Guys?"

"HOW DARE HE?!" Tommy suddenly yelled. False turned and saw the young boy with fury, anger, and hurt in his eyes. "HOW DARE HE TAKE TUBBO? I TRUSTED HIM!"

"Tommy, Tommy, Tommy!" Philza leaped beside Tommy. "Just because Grian isn't here doesn't mean he's the mole!"

"But he isn't here!" Tommy cried.

"Tommy, Tommy, listen! I saw Grian in the shopping district!" Philza said. "I saw him! There's no way he could have taken Tubbo!"

"Uh... what's going on here?" Wilbur asked.

"SOMEONE TOOK TUBBO, AND WE CALLED A MEETING. GRIAN DIDN'T COME, WHICH MEANS HE TOOK TUBBO!" Tommy yelled.

Wilbur still looked very confused. "Alright, let's sit down and discuss this, alright?" Xisuma said. False and the others filled Wilbur in on the situation.

"Ok, so Grian isn't here, which makes him seem suspicious because the person who took Tubbo would need time, and because this is a group meeting and he should be here." Wilbur said. "But Phil, you said you saw Grian in the shopping district?" He turned to ask the avian.

Philza nodded. "He was building a shop."

"Ok, let's think of it this way." Wilbur said. "Tommy, where do you think you lost Tubbo?" He asked.

"Somewhere in the castle." Tommy responded. "Mumbo checked that only one person had exited the castle when I left.

"And how long did it take you to get from the castle to the nether portal?" Wilbur asked. "Like until you met Phil?"

"Probably around 3 minutes." Tommy said.

"And how long did it take for you to walk from the shopping district portal to this one?" Wilbur turned to Philza.

"The average walk time is around 20 minutes." Xisuma supplied. Being the admin, he would know the best.

"And you saw Grian at the portal?" Wilbur continued to ask Philza.

Philza nodded. "He saw me off at the portal." He confirmed.

"Based on your experience, how long does it take to fly from the shopping district to here?" Wilbur asked.

"10 minutes at most." Philza replied.

Wilbur thought for a minute. "No, unfortunately, that doesn't clear Grian." He declared. "Let's go back an hour or so, back when Phil just saw Tommy. If Phil saw Grian 20 minutes ago, at the shopping district, and the amount of time it takes to fly to here is ten minutes, this leaves a ten minute gap that Grian could have used to commit the crime. Of course, we need to minus three minutes, because the crime was created three minutes before Tommy and Phil met up." Wilbur said. "And there is still a seven minute time period when Grian could have kidnapped Tubbo."

"Well..." Philza paused. "There's one thing, Will."

"Yes?"

"I didn't walk to the nether portal." Philza admitted. "I flew there. It took about two minutes." He fingered his feather uncomfortably, probably because Wilbur had ordered him no flying for two more days.

Wilbur sighed. "I thought I said no flying until Friday." He said. Philza shrugged. "This changes a lot of things." Wilbur said. "If you saw Grian two minutes ago, and the crime was committed three... there's no way Grian could have done it."

"Are you sure?" George asked.

"Positive." Wilbur said. "Grian had negative one minute to travel to the castle, and it takes ten. Grian is off the suspect list."

"So who could it be?"

word count: 1808

A/N: AND YES I KNOW IT ENDS WEIRDLY BUT THE CHAPTER WAS DRAGGING ON AND I HAD TO FINISH IT AND THIS IS PROBABLY THE LONGEST CHAPTER YET IDK (past echo did scream a lot didn't she)

'edited' on Jan 23rd 2022