"Ugh, just start the meeting, Mumbo is always late." Iskall rolled his eyes, drumming his fingers on the table in the meeting room. The air in the room was crisp with the sun still hiding behind the early morning fog. The server wasn't quiet very often, but foggy mornings like these sent a hush over everything.

"Hm?" Grian's head snapped up from the table, his hair matted to the side of his head and dancing wildly on top. Iskall cackled, watching as Grian struggled to straighten his wrinkly sweater. "Bug off."

"Bro, why are you so sleepy? You're never like this!" Iskall gasped through his laughter.

Almost instantly, Grian's expression soured. "Stayed up late restocking Dig Straight Down. Let's start the meeting already."

A frown creeped across Iskall's face. "Sure... Our first point of business is Sahara sales. They've dropped by 43% in the last two weeks. My proposal is that we have a sale on all wood products. It won't be much, but the idea of a sale will get people thinking about Sahara again."

Grian nodded lazily. "Sounds good, you're in charge of that."

"Okay, second point of business is what the heck is wrong with Grian. Our local expert Grian has something to say on the matter." He held an imaginary mic up to Grian's mouth with a raised eyebrow.

Grian didn't seem to find the bit very funny, simply staring at Iskall blankly. Sighing deeply, he glanced away. "I shouldn't say much, but you know it's about Ren," he muttered.

"Well I wasn't gonna ask, but what's the tea? I heard that you were the one who found him!" Iskall perked up in his seat.

Grian cringed, painful memories from mere nights ago flashing behind his eyes. "It's too early in the morning for this. Yeah, me and Stress were there."

"Okay, so what's the scoop? The whole server is in the dark man, we wanna know!" Iskall inched to the edge of his seat, eye wide. Grian knew he meant no harm, but his excitement about the morbid tale made Grian squirm under his gaze. Plus, the vendetta had become personal to Grian; he didn't want Iskall butting into his detective case, even though deep down he knew that if it was one person's problem, it was the whole server's problem.

"Long story short, we found him all beat up. Xisuma's doing research to find out what happened. Cub, Stress and I are taking turns taking care of Ren until he wakes up. That's about it."

Iskall blinked. "That's it?"

Grian shrugged.

"But I heard rumors that Doc did it. Is it true?" Iskall asked in hushed tones.

"I'm not saying yes or no, but there's some evidence that says maybe," Grian admitted.

Iskall stewed over that for a second. "Obviously I don't know all the details, but with Doc going missing, and this happening right after... I'll admit it's suspicious."

Grian nodded. "Exactly. Everything lines up."

"Well, what is X doing about it?"

"I mean, nobody wants to admit Doc did it, so Xisuma is doing his best to search in the code for something." Grian shrugged. "I dunno."

"I mean, this reminds me of last season with the nHo, yknow?"

"That's what I said! Nobody listened to me cause I wasn't around last season."

"No, you're right. Last season the jungle definitely possessed all of them to do what they did, but Doc was the only one to actually hurt another hermit."

Iskall stood, pacing across the meeting room. Grian traced his movements with his eyes, a heavy atmosphere filling the space. Beams of cool dusk light streamed through the windowed wall, and the foggy shopping district below shone with a mysterious morning glow. After watching idly for a few minutes, Grian stood slowly as well. He slid back the glass door on the bird cage, a gentle chirping filling the room. His features were pulled into a solemn, thoughtful frown as he stroked one of the birds mindlessly.

Iskall mumbled silently to himself as he paced the floor, his combat boots on the concrete echoing loudly in the quiet room. He knew he should be worried about Ren, and obviously he was.

He and Ren had been friends since as long as Iskall could remember, and were quite literally brothers. Anyone that had been around during season four could vouch that the pair had been inseparable since they met on the first day, which had led to countless late nights talking, pranks, La Revolution, and Renskall island in season five. This season however, they had decided to take a step back. Living on the same island last season had been a little too much quality time, so for season six they agreed to only hang out on weekends.

Iskall could never forgive himself for what happened to Ren. If he had only been with Ren at the time, he could have prevented it. Iskall would do anything for Ren- there was a reason he was a hitman after all. Ren was his little brother, and Iskall would do anything to protect him.

Thinking about Ren made Iskall scowl even deeper, his mind turning to Doc. It was obvious that he did it, and Iskall didn't care why. Doc hurt his brother, and Iskall was going to make him pay.

—

"Hey," Mumbo whispered as he peered in the doorway of the meeting room. Grian was sitting in the bird room, petting his parrots, and Iskall paced the room with a deep frown. "Did I miss something important?"

"Take a guess," Iskall snapped, his pacing growing more aggressive.

"Did Sahara break that bad?" Mumbo chuckled, trying to lighten the crushing atmosphere. He sat delicately in Grian's chair at the head of the table, watching the pair closely.

"Ren," Grian mumbled.

Instantly Mumbo wilted. "Oh. Right. How is everyone doing?"

"Everyone's fine. Stress, Cub and I are taking turns watching over Ren until he wakes up, but it should be fine."

"So we won't know what happened to him until he wakes up, hm?" Mumbo frowned. "I hope he gets feeling better soon."

"Me too, I have a lot of questions for that dog," Iskall grumbled.

"And you want him to feel better, right?" Mumbo asked, mildly upset. "It's not all about your little mystery, a real person is injured here."

"I know, and that's why I want him to wake up! I wanna know who did it so I can hunt them down. That's my job as a hitman, right?"

"You're planning on assassinating Doc?" Grian piped up with concern.

"I guess!" Iskall stopped his pacing, throwing his hands in the air. "What happened to Ren isn't okay! He's my brother, I can't let this slide!"

Iskall's outburst made Mumbo stand, the chair squeaking loudly across the floor. "You're not murdering Doc! Grian, what is this about Doc hurting Ren?"

"We're not certain, but I don't think it looks good." Grian stood as well, the trio locked in a tense circle.

"But it's not him, because Doc would never do that." Mumbo spoke through gritted teeth. A tense silence fell over them, eyes darting back and forth in a showdown on who would speak up first.

Mumbo noticed the briefest glance between the other two, and he quickly realized it was two against one. He couldn't believe that they really thought Doc would do that to Ren, and he couldn't figure out how to show them they were overreacting. The last time the server had been this tense things hadn't ended well, but these two weren't around when it had happened. Iskall had only been around since season four, and Grian only this season. Despite being younger than both of them, Mumbo sometimes felt like the adult of the Architechs thanks to his extra years of experience. "What can I do to prove you're wrong?"

Grian shrugged, and Iskall narrowed his eyes. "Only thing that will change my mind is Ren's word, and until then..." Iskall shook his head.

Mumbo could only watch as Iskall jumped out the window, shooting into the sky. Turning back to Grian, Mumbo caught him deep in thought, a mixture of emotions flashing across his face before settling on exhaustion. "I'm sorry about Iskall, I..."

"It's okay Grian. Just make sure not to do anything you might regret later, alright? We're all friends, and I don't want anything to change after all this blows over." Mumbo put a gentle arm around Grian, but he didn't react.

After a second, he sobbed, throwing his arms around Mumbo. They stood that way for a long time, Grian crying into Mumbo's shoulder until the racking sobs trailed off into weak sniffles. Once Grian had calmed down enough that he could breathe evenly, they silently flew back to their bases together.

I meant for this chapter to be 2000+ words, but it's been driving me up the wall for the last couple weeks, so here it is. Hopefully the next one will come to me easier 😂

Love you, my little stars!
-RaeTheStar