Philza and Techno weaved through the crowds to talk to Sam. The Hermits who agreed to be guards were standing around the area, but mostly talking amongst themselves, while Sam stood a bit farther away and scanned the area. He had just told everyone they could leave, but surprisingly quite a few groups remained, planning what to do and where to meet up to prepare after they had gotten their shops taken care of. Philza and Techno were already prepared, but they had a different topic on their minds to talk about. Ranboo.

"Hey Sam!" Phliza said with a nervous smile and a small wave.

"Oh hey Phil, Techno," Sam said waving over. Ponk was talking to the Hermits a few feet away, while Sam paused and split away from the group to say hi.

"We were wondering if you'd seen Ranboo this morning. He didn't come home and so we assumed we'd see him here or on his way home from here. Is he still in the prison, working?" Philza asked.

Sam's face fell. "Wait, he didn't go home?" He paused. "My other guard said he wasn't there when he clocked in. I thought he went home early on accident."

Techno's and Philza's hearts dropped. Ranboo was lost again, but this time with two insane people on the loose and no clue on where to even start looking.

"Can we check the cameras?" Techno asked quickly.

Sam nodded quickly. "I have two guards checking those right now. If they found anything, they'll tell us immediately. Wait for me at the side entrance and I'll be there in a minute." He said, pointing around the corner to the side the door was on. Philza and Techno nodded and made their way over quickly. Both of them were trying to think of any place he could be. Like last time, maybe he just stayed at some place longer than he should have? Got locked in a building and was waiting for someone to unlock the door? Waiting for the cafe to open, and Niki would tell them she saw him on her way in? It was probably nothing, just like last time. Either way, Philza was considering getting him one of those fancy phones Fundy had, just in case.

They passed Tommy, Niki, and Tubbo with a few of the Hermits in a group chatting happily. Philza stopped to Techno's dismay, seeing as they would have to wait for Sam anyway.

"Are you three good with supplies and gear?" He asked kindly, shoving the fear to the back of his mind temporarily. They turned their attention to him and he continued, "Me and Techno have extra weapons and armor if you need any."

"Thanks Crow father!" Tommy accepted in an exaggerated british voice, referencing the time Philza had a flock of crows follow him for about a day after giving them bread crumbs. It seemed random to the situation, but Philza shrugged it off and looked at the others.

"Can I take the bee there?" Tubbo asked the man in the bee suit next to him. Xisuma was it? A little bumble bee swirled around Tubbo and landed on his finger resting there for a bit. Philza raised an eyebrow but didn't question it. Out loud at least.

X smiled and shook his head. "I'm afraid bubbles won't be able to survive over there, but I can watch over him while you're over there, and then you can meet me at the flower shop and say hi to her again before you have to leave. She'll bee waiting here once you're back from your adventure." He said, laughing a bit at his own pun. Tubbo frowned but nodded, still cooing at the bee nestled on his finger.

Philza looked to Niki for an answer

"Oh me? Thank you so much!" She smiled, "I first have to go over to my shops though."

"Just meet us when you're done, we have to do some things in the prison right now anyway."

Niki nodded and all of them gave a thank you before they turned back to the conversation and Philza and Techno went towards the door.

After they were out of earshot, Philza said quietly to Techno "I'll replace what doesn't make it back."

"You better." Techno huffed. "The gear took me a long time to get."

Philza chuckled, trying to relax a little as they got closer. Ranboo would be fine. It was just like him to wander, and sometimes it led to little things like this where he wandered too far or too long. Even still, investing in one of those phones might be worth it.

When they had made it to the door, Sam was already there struggling with the keys. After a third attempt, he finally got it right and opened the door, letting everyone in before walking in himself. He nodded to both of them as they walked through, and everyone heard the click of the lock before they continued.

"Ok Doc, the armory is down that hallway and has a sign on the door. The cell door that needs fixing is uhm-" Sam paused to think, "- down this hallway and the farthest cell at the end of it. He pointed to his left and it was pretty clear which one needed fixing. Yeah the sparks on the circuit board kinda gave it away in the dim lighting.

Mumbo and Impulse started to walk down the hallway to the broken cell, while the others made their way to the armory. It was pretty dark in the dim light of the lava, so Impulse grabbed out a flashlight and flicked the switch, only flickering to his annoyance.

He sighed "Hey Goat Father! Did you bring any extra flashlights, mine's dead!"

Doc rolled his eyes, smiled, and threw one over. Impulse hardly caught it and almost fell over, rolling his eyes in annoyance, "You could have walked it over ya know!"

Doc smiled and laughed a bit, waving him off and turning to go to the armory before someone else caught his attention.

"Goat father?" Philza asked.

"Heh, the Hermits came up with it after I made a goat statue and adopted a few of the fella's. They even got me fake goat horns for christmas." Doc chuckled, reaching out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, I'm the Crow Father after a flock of them followed me around for a day. They still visit sometimes." Philza smiled, shaking Doc's robotic arm.

False called over to them about the cool armory getting Doc's attention, so he waved behind him as he split off to go and check it out with a quick bye.

Philza, Techno, Sam, and Ponk, all made their way down the hallway to the security cameras, to find the door already cracked open to Sam's relief. He didn't really want to struggle with more keys. Inside, there was only one person to Sam's surprise, Purpled.

"Purpled? Where's Punz?" Sam asked as everyone stepped into the room slowly.

Purpled whipped around and stood up to face them looking shocked and relieved at the same time.

"You're finally here! I have no idea how to use the cameras, Punz never showed up or answered my calls, and I've been freaking out for who knows how long!" Purpled said quickly, obviously a little panicky.

Sam immediately felt really guilty for not checking up on him sooner. He thought Punz was with him, and in all the commotion he just forgot to think about it.

"I am so sorry for leaving you here alone." Sam said, "I thought Punz would be here and sort it all out, but I still should've checked in."

Purpled nodded and looked a little calmer as he fell back into the swivel chair he had stood from, moving it away from the desk.

Sam walked over to the cameras and saw the Hermits near the armory, comparing swords by the door. The footage was live, which was not what they needed at the moment. The others had filed into the room better, but were mostly just standing there as they waited for Sam to sort it out.

"I tried rewinding the cameras but couldn't figure it out." Purpled said, "But I did check the armory and counted the missing sets. Including mine, it was six."

Sam stopped what he was doing and turned to Purpled, "Six? That's a lot of sets. Are you sure you didn't miss count?"

"Yeah no. I counted them over like 5 times because I had nothing else to do while I waited." Purpled said with sarcasm tinting his voice.

Sam didn't respond and just went back to setting up the cameras to rewind them. After a few moments of awkward silence between the group, Sam got it working with an "Aha!" and everyone crowded around to watch. He rewound it super fast until he saw figures on the screen and slowed it down a bit to not go too far. It was black and white, but clear just enough to recognize people in it.

Everyone huddled around the screen as they watched it unfold. It was silent, apart from the clatter of armor in the hallways echoing through the halls, and the buzzing of the screen. They saw Tommy leave quickly and Ranboo wander the halls alone. Philza and Techno paid close attention to every movement he made. His walk was stiff and focused, and seemed unnatural. Sam recognized the hallway before it was clear Ranboo was walking to Sam's office. He unlocked the door easily and pushed it open. There was no camera in the room they could watch, so Sam sped it up a little until there was more movement. Papers were scattered on the floor, a few flying out into the hallway. Sam sighed, knowing he would have to clean those up sooner or later. Ranboo walked out of the room, holding two things. A shiny keycard in one hand and a trident in the other.

"What does he need those for?" Purpled bluntly asked.

No one spoke and just continued to watch. They all knew the answer, but didn't need to say. It would be clear enough soon.

"Ranboo?" Techno mumbled, eyes glued to the screen, unblinking.

Ranboo had reached the hallway they all feared. The one Sam had directed the Hermits to, because the cell was broken, for a now known reason.

With exact precision, Ranboo swiped the keycard, threw the trident to the far wall, and hit the button next to him at the perfect moment so that everything happened at once. It was just perfect enough to open the door.

There were quiet gasps among them. Dream rose from the cell and stood next to Ranboo with a satisfied nod. He stared directly into the camera with glowing eyes and a wide insane smile. He knew.

"Oh jeez.." Ponk whispered. "Have his eyes always glowed like that? I mean it's been awhile since I've seen him but I feel like I would've remembered that."

Sam raised an eyebrow and turned to Ponk, finally moving from the screen.

"Wait, you knew Dream, before- all of this?"

"Yeah!" Ponk smiled, "The dude hung around George a lot, but we haven't talked much or anything." He looked sadly at the screen before continuing "I didn't think he was like this though."

Philza and Techno glanced at each other with a knowing look. Sam and Ponk didn't know about the void demon ordeal yet. Philza shook his head ever so slightly to signal that they shouldn't tell him now. It was enough information as it was, and they didn't want to overload him and freak him out. They needed him to be level headed until they all met up at the earth gate. They would explain it to him later with the whole group, that way Tommy could learn at the same time too, since the gremlin child decided to barge in at the last second without any information.

"Guys guys more stuff is happening!" Purpled said to get their attention. They all looked back at the screen he was pointing to, which Sam recognized as the one near the armory. There was another person on the edge of the camera that slowly came into view to meet Ranboo and Dream at the door leading to the armory.

"Wait- Punz?" Sam said with a look of defeat in his eyes. "No no he wouldn't-... he's one of my best guards!" He stared at the screen, focusing on Punz, his best guard, friend even. He felt betrayed.

A fourth person came up and after a second, Philza and Techno recognized him.

"Wait, is that Eret?" Techno asked.

"It sounds like the description Fundy said, and I think I've seen him once or twice." Philza said, "I think so?" It sounded a lot more like a question than an answer, but they assumed so for now. Techno took a picture of the screen. It wasn't all too clear, but it served the trick for now to at least warn the others.

Techno sent the picture to the group chat with the information that they saw the cameras, and now there were at least 4 people they had to capture instead of just 2. A few seconds after he sent it, the messages started to flow in with questions and panic, but he ignored them, putting his phone away in a pocket stitched into his cape. He would deal with them later.

"So that's Dream, Ranboo, Punz, and who?" Ponk asked.

"Eret." Philza said, "He chased Fundy around the lab and um- did some bad stuff. We can explain it more later."

"Ok so Dream, Ranboo, Punz, and Eret." Ponk repeated.

Sam shook off his feelings and took a deep breath. "It's way more than we planned, but we still have plenty of people to make this work."

They hadn't realised, but all four of the people on the screen had walked into the armory for at least a few minutes. They turned their attention back to the screen when they saw them moving out all in armor holding weapons.

"Well that explains the missing armor." Sam said.

"But there are only four, didn't Purpled say six?" Ponk asked.

"Including mine, yes." Purpled confirmed.

"Right there." Philza pointed to the screen. It was hard to see until he turned, but Eret was holding an extra set of armor and Punz was holding an extra sword in his hand.

"Told you." Purpled mumbled.

Sam rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

"Should we check your office for clues?" Ponk offered.

"Clues about what!?" Sam asked, "We already know they're heading to Earth, and they stole the supplies from the armory. Ranboo let Dream out, Punz betrayed my trust, and there are at least four or five people instead of just one!" Sam exclaimed. Ponk stepped backwards.

"It's going to be okay Sammy. Just means you have more time to avoid skiing." Ponk said carefully, trying to lighten the mood a little. Sam sighed and let his shoulders relax.

"Ok, let's go check my office." Sam sighed. "Philza, Techno, you guys should go prepare now that we know more about what happened. And Ranboo-..." Sam trailed off. He didn't want to say it.

"It's going to be ok mate." Philza comforted, patting his shoulder. "If you need gear or help, call us." He said.

"Thanks." Sam said. Philza and Techno walked out and left the building without waving to Hermits.

"That was something huh?" Techno said solemnly.

"Yeah." Philza sighed, glancing down at the bag with the gear for Ranboo. "Let's go meet the others at the ice portal." He said, looking around to make sure they were going in the right direction.

"Hey Phil?" Techno said, stopping the walk. Philza stopped too, and turned backwards to him.

"Ranboo's going to be okay. The kid is tougher than some stupid curse." Techno assured.

Philza smiled at Techno and nodded. "Thanks mate."

They walked in comfortable silence to the ice portal. Everything was going to be okay, probably, and right now, that was good enough for them.

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Well this one took a long time to get out didn't it? Sorry about that, school's just been insane, piling me with so much homework I hardly have time to take care of myself in between assignments. Anyway I hope you liked this, not really my favorite and I kinda think the timing's off just with the whole thing, but I finished and I'm not rewriting it. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're having a good day or night! (also autocorrect on the google doc I'm using caught a bunch of mistakes from previous chapters, but I don't feel like going back and fixing them so sorry about those)