Niki, Skeppy, and all the Hermits helping them were walking to the portal at a pretty casual pace. They had somewhat split into groups to talk, with a bit of space separating each one. Grian and Etho were discussing traps and pranks, and Iskall had joined too when Grian started to explain the trap he had used twice on Iskall. Stress, Cleo, and Xisuma were talking about flowers and tea, respectively. What flowers smelled the best, looked the best, and which made the sweetest honey. All of Xisuma's bees got excited at that topic, buzzing around him a little more frantically.

Niki led the group to make sure they were walking in the right direction, and Skeppy lagged behind, probably to make sure no one accidentally split off. The box on his head was expressionless, set to the default of the tongue sticking out, and his hands were stuffed in his pockets tightly. It was obvious that he was a little tense, and that the relaxed state from earlier had faded quickly when his mind was left to wander on its own.

Niki figured they were walking in a straight line and it couldn't be that hard to stay on track, so she fell back from the group a little to talk to Skeppy.

"Oh uh, hey!" Skeppy said.

"Hello, how are you doing?" Niki asked kindly, letting Skeppy open up only as much as he wanted.

"Ok..... I'm a little stressed but I think I'm fine. It's just two people right? And we'll all be together." Skeppy said sort of quickly. He looked surprised that he had admitted that much so quickly, and paused his walking before shaking his head and doing a quick step to catch back up. Niki patiently waited.

She gave a comforting smile. "I'm sure it will all be alright. It's ok to feel nervous too; So do I."

When he didn't answer, she continued. "This will probably only be a day or two. Relax a little, we probably won't even have to do anything. Honestly I'm just tagging along because Puffy is."

He nodded, understanding.

"How's it uhm-.... How's your side feeling?" She asked carefully. Puffy had mentioned to her over text that it was pretty bad, and the potions hadn't done as much as they were supposed to. Niki remembered the fight all too clearly, Dream hitting Skeppy's side played through her mind on a painful repeat. Wilbur had passed out, and Skeppy was way too far away to make it in time. Velvet had told her to open the portal, letting Bad and Ant through, but if she had screwed up, or hadn't opened it in time-....

"It doesn't actually hurt too much." He said, snapping her out of the memory.

"I thought I would constantly feel it and breathing would hurt, but it's sorta acting like a bruise, where it only hurts when I press on it." He said a little hopefully.

"Oh that's good! Maybe it's healing up a bit more then?" She offered the idea.

"Yeah maybe..." He said with uncertainty.

She turned her head towards him and noticed a splash of color on his sleeve.

It looked like a make-up stain, just foundation accidentally getting on his loose hoodie sleeve, common for amateurs. 

"By the way, I recommend dish soap to get foundation out of your sweater." She chuckled a little, trying to switch the topic.

He turned his head towards his sleeve and looked in surprise like he had just noticed it.

"Oh uhm- thank you- for the tip." He laughed it off and his shoulders relaxed a little.

"And uhm-" He started, before getting quickly cut off.

"Iskall you have to let me do your nails!" Stress exclaimed, interrupting whatever Skeppy was about to say.

"Yeah Iskall, Stress did mind and I look amazing!" Etho said, showing off his black painted nails. The others admitted they did look pretty fine.

"Only if I can have a green color?" Iskall asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I have 5 shades of green to pick from!" Stress smiled.

"-Thanks for talking to me about it." Skeppy continued, referencing his scar. "Everyone else seems to be avoiding the topic like the plague." Skeppy said much more quietly so only she could hear. "Nice to get it off my mind a little."

Niki smiled. "Any day." She whispered.

"Skeppy, do you want your nails painted too?" Cleo asked. She showed off her own bright orange nails that matched her hair. Stress had no doubt done them too.

"I think I'll skip for now, but maybe after we get back?" He suggested. Stress agreed to that and they continued to walk and talk together.

As they neared the cafe, they passed a different portal on the way.

Skeppy glanced away from the conversation for a second, and saw the portal sitting there, open and unguarded. He stopped walking and glanced around quickly, catching the attention of a few of the group members, and didn't see anyone that looked remotely like a guard in sight. It reminded him of how he'd screwed up big time as a guard with the Earth portal, but forced the thought away as he decided to investigate. 

"Hey are you ok, dude?" Iskall asked, pausing whatever he was saying.

"No one's guarding that portal-...?" Skeppy mumbled and peered closer over to the gate. He changed his direction and quickly walked over to it without saying anything else.

The others shrugged and followed him over.

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit- how long has this thing been open?" He started to mumble to himself a little louder.

"What's wrong luv?" Stress asked. 

"This portal is open and unguarded." Skeppy explained. "Guards need to close portals between shifts so no one unauthorized gets through. It's not really safe to leave it so open like this..."

"Who works there? That's pretty irresponsible of them." Xisuma said. Skeppy felt a twinge of guilt at that. He went to the panel board with colorful buttons and tried to focus on closing it instead.

"I'm not sure-.." Skeppy's voice faded out a little as he tried to rack his brain and remember. Nothing came up.

"Nothing I can do but turn it off now and hope no one got through." Skeppy sighed a little. "The next shift can take care of it." He said flatly.

Skeppy clicked the last button, and the portal died down. He felt felt a little stupid for forgetting who normally worked here, since it was the closest portal to his and that seemed like something important to know.

The place was silent, and no one really knew what to say.

"Doesn't cub run one of the portals farther back?" Cleo spoke up.

"Yeah I think it's the sandy-place one." Etho added, remembering too.

"Yeah with the tall golden guy-" Cleo finished, "Maybe they know who works over here?" She offered.

"I think the portals over there have a different headquarters or something. They probably wouldn't know who works over here." Skeppy said. "Honestly I should know, but I guess I never paid attention to that boring stuff." He laughed a little nervously. "Bad always paid enough attention for the both of us."

"Tsk tsk," Grian said, closing his eyes and pointing his finger at Skeppy. "If he knew you slacked off this much!" He accused, lightening the mood.

Skeppy double checked the controls and made sure everything was secure, and then the group went back to walking towards the Cafe and that area.

"Yeah I'm surprised he never asked to switch partners actually," Skeppy said, chuckling a bit."I would annoy the hell out of him. Which is hard since he's a demon and all." Skeppy joked. X was the first to get it and laughed behind his helmet.

"Well it couldn't have been that annoying. Bad refused to leave your bedside in the hospital. Me and Sapnap literally had to force him to rest." Niki added, glad that tensions had lifted pretty quickly.

"Well I trolled him-" Skeppy started before realizing what Niki had said. Velvet had mentioned something about that when Skeppy woke up, but he hadn't paid much attention, focusing on the fact that Bad was okay instead. The Hermits also noticed, and looked confused at the mention of a hospital.

"Wait.... How did you guys force him?" Skeppy asked slowly. Carefully.

Niki kept up the smile to keep the tone more casual, and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear because all of the Hermits seemed pretty curious as well.

"We told him something was in the room and let him go in first. Then we closed it behind him and locked it." She said, conveniently leaving out the part where they bribed Bad with the idea of talking to Tubbo and Fundy to possibly get answers. It was clear enough now that they didn't have the answers, but Niki didn't need to tell Skeppy that and worry him more.

"But Bad can shadow travel. Didn't he just slip under the door?" Skeppy asked.

"We put a towel under so he couldn't. Sapnap thought of that part."

"Hmm that's smart. I might have to try that sometime for a troll." Skeppy said with an evil grin.

"What? No Skeppy you can't do that to him! He's your friend!" Niki laughed, lightly punching him in the arm.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" He said, stepping to the side a little as to not get hit again. "Maybe..." He mumbled under his breath with a smile.

The Hermits didn't get an explanation to the hospital thing, but didn't push for answers.

A few took in the scenery change as they got much closer. There were a few more trees and plants, which kinda made sense for the Earth portal since these trees were native to it. The smell of fresh air and the colorful flowers set a nice afternoon day mood, and Skeppy were both a little disappointed they couldn't just relax all day and enjoy it. Either way, they would just take it all in now, and everyone was walking to a comfortable silence, accompanied by the whistle of a warm breeze.

Then Grian ruined the moment.

"My god how much more walking is there!" Grian exclaimed, breaking the silence.

Stress and Xisuma shot him a subtle glare, but he ignored them both and acted like he didn't notice.

"If you hate walking, why don't you just fly-?" Skeppy started to ask, before turning around and realising Grian no longer had wings?

He stopped in his tracks to get a better look and the rest of the group stopped too.

"W-w-w-wait- what?" Skeppy stuttered as he shook his head and rubbed his eyes to see if he was seeing things correctly. As he opened his eyes and the world blurred in front of him before they adjusted again, Grian stood there with an amused and confused smile, still with no wings.

"Didn't you have wings a minute ago?! Wait you did-, you used them to fly earlier while I fell on my face!" Skeppy thought out loud, while the Hermits just giggled and laughed around him. Niki looked confused next to him, but let them explain instead of going crazy like Skeppy.

Skeppy looked up to see if the others were seeing this too and noticed they were laughing. He paused his confused panic to see if they would explain. When the laughter died down after a moment, Grian turned around to show tiny little versions of the wings he had.

"Whaaaa...." Skeppy tried off, just staring at them.

"I just shrunk them down for awhile!" Grian smiled as he turned back around.

"That's so cool!" Niki commented.

"Thanks!"

"Wait so you can just make them big or small whenever you want?!" Skeppy asked. 

"With a little magic and energy, yeah! Big is fun for flying, but small is easier for walking around, since the weight can hurt my back after a while." Grain explained, rubbing his back a little and massaging his shoulder. The other Hermits nodded behind him like this was common knowledge.

"Can you make them disappear completely? I think I saw Philza do that at the cafe or something." Skeppy asked. He had thought he went insane and hallucinated that too earlier, but now the option didn't actually seem too weird.

"Yeah if I shift to human. But it's much harder than just changing the size of 'em so I normally just make them small unless I really wanna lay on my back or something." Grian explained.

"Huh, cool!" Skeppy said, still in awe.

Grian just smiled and flapped them a little, turning back to keep walking.

"At this rate though, I might actually want to make them bigger to fly. How much longer is this walkkkkk......?" Grian whined.

"Oh come on dude" Iskall said. "It's not that bad, you just need to workout more." He chuckled. Grian frowned and punched him in the arm, and Stress snickered behind Iskall.

"Don't worry, we're almost there." Niki said, looking around to make sure they were heading in the right direction and didn't get turned around when they stopped at the last portal. Yep, right direction!

Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her pocket. Skeppy's phone rang at the exact same time, and they glanced at each other as he pulled it out a little more cautiously. The other Hermits looked at both of them as Skeppy pulled up the messages, while Niki just waited for him to. Her battery was low since she forgot to charge it and didn't have time when she was rushing to the prison, so she let him do the honors.

They had all slowed down to a stop because this seemed important.

Skeppy's eyes skimmed the message quickly and his eyes went wide in surprise. He shoved the phone towards her so she could read it too.

Technoblade: Just went over the cameras. There's at least 4 people to capture now. Dream, Eret, Punz, and Ranboo are working together.

(attached picture)

"Wait what?" She whispered in disbelief.

She walked around him so they could both look at the attached picture. It was a bit fuzzy and in black and white, but it was clear enough to make out Dream and the others. Their eyes, or who's they could see, were glowing, and Dream himself was staring directly at the camera.

"I'm- I'm not sure-" Skeppy started to panic a little. He pulled his phone back to him and started to text frantically. 

Skeppy: TECHO??!!!

Skeppy: EPLAIN!!1

Skeppy: Seriously waht is this!?!?!

Skeppy: techo not funny explsin waht that message meant!

The Hermits just watched them with concern, unsure what to say. Xisuma tried to start to talk but gave up before anything came out. None of them knew what was going on, so it was hard to provide comfort.

Skeppy tried to get Techno's attention again, and his anger was starting to boil a little bit. Techno just bombed a ton of new info onto them and then just didn't elaborate at all!? Skeppy exhaled sharply through his nose and called Techno an asshole in the chat to let off steam. He knew it was fear consuming him more than anything, and raging in front of the Hermits wouldn't help anything.

"He's not answering," Skeppy sighed, annoyed. "We'll have to ask him more when we meet up at 3."

"I'm getting armor from him in a little bit, I'll ask him then and keep you updated." Niki said, nodding towards him.

"Thanks."

There was an awkward silence as they both tried to process what was really said. Skeppy reread the message again and glanced at the photo. To put it bluntly, this was frustrating. Only a few others had actually texted questions and panic too, not the entire chat like he'd been expecting. It didn't really make sense why the others weren't typing anything, but they were probably just busy and would see it soon.

He looked at what the others were typing in chat and noticed Badboyhalo hadn't said anything. He hadn't even languaged him for calling Techno an asshole? Worry tugged at the back of the back of his mind but he tried to shrug it off; He was just being paranoid. 

"Ok ok." He breathed out, trying to relax. "We still have plenty of people, and they're still outnumbered. This is fine, we just have to be a little more cautious." Skeppy said to Niki. He looked towards the Hermits who looked very confused and felt a little guilty since he couldn't really clear much up.

"Uhm, sorry about this-" He started. "We can't really explain much, but let's just say our mi- adventure got a bit harder than we expected. And our friend isn't being all that informative."

"I'm sure it will all work out," X stated. It was pretty generic, but he didn't know much of what was going on so it was all he could really say. It still meant something to Niki and Skeppy though. The kindness in his voice was what mattered.

"And if you ever need our help, give us a call." Etho said and nodded.

"Only one flight away!" Grian smiled.

"Thanks guys," Skeppy said. He sorta wanted to give them all hugs, but he had just met them and didn't want to make them uncomfortable. Still, he knew these guys were trustworthy.

"Thank you," Niki said too. "And the good news at least, is that we made it!" 

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Not super proud of some of the transitions between the dialog, but I tried. Sorry this took a bit longer to write than it's worth, life got in the way (in a good way don't worry) and that slowed me down by a few days. Also a stack of votes on this thing! Thank you guys so much! (Also I tried to upload this much earlier but wattpad was being annoying and just wouldn't let me make a new chapter so blame wattpad for that) Anyway thanks for reading and have a good day or night!