Us. Always.|karlnapity|trans quackity au

Chapter 22: what..?

(Editor Error: hello! I just realised I posted this without a chapter name, so I fixed it!)

Tw:

- Quackity pov, the present -

My wingbeats drown out the sound of Karl and Sapnap worriedly shouting, drown out my phone buzzing in my pocket, drown out the sounds of mobs below waiting to strike. 

The wind drowns out the pain from flying. 

As the adrenaline drains, I realise that I really shouldn't be in the air. I look for a clearing to land in, and once I find one I nosedive, landing on my feet with a bit more force than I wanted. 

A panicked figure bursts into the clearing.

 "Bad? What are you doing out at this hour?" They stop in their tracks.

 "Who's Bad?" A decidedly FEMININE voice says. "Who are you? And where am I?"

 "Bad? Y'know, BadBoyHalo? The only void demon in the kingdom?"

 They gasp. "Halo..." They look at me with anxiety in their eyes. "Take me to him."

 "Who are you talking about?" I'm confused. "Nobody here goes by that name."

 "His aura is close, though. It has to be him."

 "Okay. Back up. Who are you?"

 "Who are YOU?" 

 "My name's Alex, I go by he/him."

 "Okay. Where am I, Alex?"

 "The Greater Dream SMP, near Eret's Palace."

 "That really doesn't help! All of my maps are outdated..." They hold out a map, etched with various countries and provinces that no longer exist. 

 "Okay. According to your VERY incorrect map, you're near Mizu."

"Okay, THAT I can work with. Now take me to Halo."

I put two and two together.

"Wait, Halo and Bad are the same person, aren't they?" 

"How should I know?! Do you have a picture of him?"

"Oh- yeah-" I pull up his profile picture on my phone.

 "That's him.."

 "Okay. Why are you looking for him?"

 "I can't say. I'm sorry."

 "Okay-"

 "ALEX! ALEX WHERE ARE YOU?!" Karl shouts. He's quite close, too.

 "Shit. Okay. Mystery person. I can take you to Bad, but we're gonna have to detour. Come with me. Now." I start running.

They follow close behind.

 "Why is that person looking for you!?"

 "It's complicated. What pronouns do you use?"

 "She/they- That's not the point though."

 "I'll tell you when we get there, okay?!"

 "Get WHERE?!" 

 "Just trust me!" I whisper-shout.  I pull out my phone and activate voice typing and text-to-speech.

                           Their Majesty the Crown Fruit ✨

Quack: I'm coming to the palace. Like, NOW. Somebody's with me.

Eret: What?! Why?! Who?!

Quack: Coming to the palace. Something happened. They won't tell me.