The Childrens Rebellion

Damn, you can shoot lightning out of your ass?

"Rae."

And it was Purpled, not Phil or Wilbur or Tubbo, that shook her shoulders and caused her to look into his abnormal magenta eyes. "What do you mean, he's dead?"

Rae shook her head wordlessly.

"Valkyrae—is Tommy dead?"

That was it, wasn't it? The key question.

"No," she breathed out, and Purpled sat down on the desk, relief shining in his eyes. Around her, four more exhalations sounded out. Her hands were shaking. "But—he was thinking about—someone. Being dead."

"Let's fucking hope it was the other members of the Children's Rebellion, his parents, or Snifferish," Purpled said grimly as he returned to his station. "Or else something's about to go really wrong."

There was a tenseness in the air that couldn't be described.

Rae didn't even have to look into Philza's worried eyes as she swallowed down her thoughts and prayed she was dead wrong.

"Coming out of warp," Dream announced—and had it really been that long?

"There," Rae breathed out, her head tilted to the side as she regarded two of the planets within the viewport. Philza was on his feet, pacing by his chair, and he paused at her words. Rae gestured to the second planet—the one in the Goldilocks zone, with mostly blue oceans and expansive beaches bordering the sparse continents. A wave of clouds was centered around one particular continent and half the water—a massive abnormal storm that made Rae nervous and apprehensive at the same time. "That one. Right there."

Philza paced over to where Wilbur was sitting. "Comm Sapnap. Get a response team ready."

"I'm going with you," Rae said, standing up. "I'll—! If he's—" she cut herself off. "I can help them. I know how to fight." As an Avian, she did not want to say.

Philza nodded sharply, not willing to argue with her. "Niki, Sapnap, Hannah," he listed out.

"I'm coming too," Purpled and Tubbo said at the same time.

Philza shook his head. "No fucking way. I already have enough children down on that planet."

"Ranboo's my husband!"

"Tommy's my best friend!"

Two boys. Six words. Desperation lacing their tongues.

"And neither of you have the correct combat training to combatant possible people with phasers," Phil said sharply. "I expressly forbid it. That is a direct order from your Captain, do you understand?" Neither of the boys answered. "I am dead serious when I say that if you disobey that order, I will not hesitate to put your ass right back on Terra and have you, Purpled, complete another major at school, and you, Tubbo, program Operations from the ground. For the next six years."

"Yes, sir," both boys chorused glumly. Rae was secretly glad that they'd done that.

"If I may," Dream said. "I have combat training."

"Yes," Philza said, tilting his head. "Your sister—"

"Drista will want to come as well," Dream said. "Tommy is her friend."

"What?" Tubbo cried out. "But that's not fair!"

"Drista was trained as a spy for multiple years," Philza interrupted, and hell, Rae hadn't known that; because Drista was far too young to have been a soldier. "She can put together a gun in nine-point-three seconds and can use a sword better than anyone on this ship save Dream and Techno."