Chapter Text
Webber had heard it first.
It’d been a normal morning- everyone splitting off into groups to do their own things. Besides Wurt and Wicker, who were off gathering reeds, everyone was gathered around camp as they did their tasks.
It had rained the previous night, leaving the grass dewy and the air humid. Black furred fingers ran through the ground, searching for the perfect flower for their bracelets, when the half-spider suddenly shot up, declaring something that nobody wanted to hear that early in the morning:
“Doggies!”
It took only a few seconds for the rest of the group to react- Walter scooped up a frightened Woby, Wolfgang dropped the steamed potatoes he was eating, Wigfrid reached for her spear- everyone pulling out whatever weapons or armor they had.
“‘S too soon to see the hounds again” Muttered a catapult-readying Winona.
A few heads nodded In the crowd- she was right. It had only been but a few days since the last attack, which was definitely odd.
“It is quite unsettling for them to be back so early.” Wilson chimed in, mimicking everyone’s thoughts.
“Perhaps Charlie is upset with us.” Said Maxwell, who was frantically flipping through his book.
The conversation lulled as everyone finished their preparations and began to wait in tensed silence. Distant barking sounded through the air. Then- louder.
And louder .
“THEY ARE CLOSE.” Stated WX-78, who was staring off into the distance at the chance of seeing them early.
They were apparently very correct, as Willow suddenly shouted a panicked “HERE!” a saliva-dripping hound right at her heels.
Wolfgang jumped forward, getting the beast off of Willow with a blunt hammer to the hound’s head.
Hounds had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, waves of the creatures barreling their way towards the camp. They were disgusting looking things- black, rough fur sticking out in all directions and huge teeth that constantly snapped at anything that got close. Winona and Warly were firing the catapults as fast as they could manage- but they only protected one side of the camp.
A few of Webber’s spiders, combined with a couple other of the survivors, covered the east side of the camp.
Luckily, the hounds seemed to mostly be coming from the two adjacent directions, letting the survivors all focus on the one area. They easily fell into the rhythm of battle, all very used to dealing with the creatures.
Wendy shrieked suddenly, her shrill voice ringing through the air. Her, WX and Abigail had stayed behind to take care of the few stragglers coming from the south side, but now a hound had gripped onto her arm roughly and had no intentions of letting go. As Abigail was already occupied, WX-78 shot forward, angrily stabbing a spear repeatedly into its back until it went limp.
The blonde haired girl stumbled back, gripping on her bleeding arm with her other hand. WX-78 looked back at her for a moment, just to get jumped on by another hound.
It made a chill-sending metallic crunch sound, biting right through the robot’s torso. They let out a mechanical scream out of shock, turning around to stab the creature wherever they could reach.
Wendy watched helplessly as the hound began to shake the robot around, leaving them flailing as they attempted to free themself from the beast’s jaw. Abigail was still occupied with two hounds, so here she was- either she could try and help out despite her injury and poor battle skills, or she could watch WX-78 struggle longer.
Turns out, she didn’t have much of a choice after all.
The hound bit hard , eating through tough metal and right into WX-78’s core. A shock of electricity was sent through the hound as the robot began sparking, letting WX be dropped, but it was already too late. Both the hound and WX-78 were now limp on the ground, in a mess of fur and purple blood and gears.
She looked back to the others. The hounds had mostly been dealt with by now, the strongest fighters were now taking out the last ones. Wanda was helping patch up Wes, and Woodie was also nearby, wrapping his own injury. She ran over and began searching the chests for something to wrap her arm with, wincing at the throbbing pain as she used her hurt arm to prop the chest open.
“Wendy?” Wanda called from where she was sitting. Wes gave a thumbs-up, and was gone as quickly as he was there.
She looked up to the older woman (she noted the amount of grey hairs she had- she was getting older again) before Wanda spoke up.
“Come here, let me get that wrapped for you. It won’t be easy to do that yourself.”
She sighed, complying and walking over to where Wanda was. They sat in silence for a moment before Wendy said something.
“WX saved me.”
Wanda chuckled. “That’s out of character for them, is it not?”
“Yes, but they are dead now.”
Wanda stopped at that, blinking in surprise at this information. “Oh. That’s no good. We used our last heart on Maxwell the last time…”
Right. They had only been attacked a few days ago. Wolfgang and Wigfrid were already back in camp, meaning the last of the hounds had been dealt with.
As if perfectly timed, Wormwood came running through the camp with WX-78’s body slumped off his shoulder, shouting:“ROBOT FRIEND IS GONE!!”
That got everyone’s attention. Winona ran over, swiftly taking WX from Wormwood, and then placing them on her worktable with a thump.
She made a huffing sound, looking at their broken machinery.
“That’s some real bad damage there. I definitely can’t fix all ‘o that on my own.”
“Cant bring back?!!” Wormwood said nervously, fidgeting with one of his leaves.
“Don’t worry lil’ bean- I just can’t do it myself. We need to use an amulet or sumin’.”
“Hold on,” Wilson spoke, digging through a chest, “There should be one… ah, here!” The scientist pulled out a red, glimmering amulet, holding it up to the light.
“Wendy! Where’s WX’s soul at?” Winona called. Everyone could see the ghosts- just not as well as Wendy could. Especially in the daytime. Honestly, she hadn’t thought about how weird it was that they had a soul in the first place.
“There.” Wendy said- as monotone as ever- pointing to a spot near the workbench.
Wilson tossed the amulet to Winona, who slid the amulet over the shaky form of WX’s ghost.
The amulet began to glow, pulling their form up, light fizzing around them, and then—
Crack .
The amulet split apart, and a figure was left crouching on the grass, shaking somewhat.
Except something was certainly wrong.
Firstly: WX’s body was laid on the workbench, still as broken as before.
Second: the person who had just been revived was decidedly not WX-78.
The person had messy, orange-toned brownish hair, oval shaped glasses, and (most curiously) was wearing a lab coat. They sat up, looking at the cast of people, glasses slightly askew.
“Um…” Walter stepped forward, breaking the silence. “Who’s that?”
Winona furrowed her brows. “That should have- how did it-“
Wormwood looked distraught . “Where robot friend go!? Where!? Why gone still?”
”No… I can’t be…No…” The figure spoke, voice shaking as their hands ran through their hair.
“Whö are yöu!? Explain yöurself!” Wigfrid pointed a spear at them, the latter of which had no reaction to this.
“Here! It’s okay!” Ignoring Wigfrid, Webber crouched down, extending a hand to the newcomer.
At this, the person shot up, slapping away the kid’s hand, still looking as panicked as before- now with a bit more anger.
“Ow!” Webber whined, looking angrily at the person.
“Get away.” The figure spat out, looking more like a scared dog than anything.
“Hey- stop that. We aren’t here to hurt you.” Warly said, voice soft.
“I— I need… Don’t-!” The person was now taking shallow breaths, slowly stepping backwards.
“Deep breaths; here, sit down with me, I’ll-“ Warly started, reaching out a hand, before the person bolted into the forest.
Too shocked to stop them, the crew just watched as they went headfirst into the woods. Walter tried to call them back, but unsurprisingly it didn’t do anything.
The group sat in shocked silence for a moment, unable to say anything, all just trying to process what happened. Wormwood looked like he was about to cry, sitting over by WX’s body.
“Hey! We back!” Called an overly-cheery Wurt, Wickerbottom following behind her. Both had backpacks that were stuffed to the brim with reeds.
Wurt blinked, looking at the somber group.
“…What we miss, florp?”
——————————///————————
“We’ll worry about WX tomorrow— but right now we have a new survivor running around the forest, and nightfall is approaching. I’m not going to let them die out there.”
“I mean, we could…” Wendy whispered, which earned a glare from Wilson before he continued on his rant.
“I need to figure out what happened with that amulet, and I need someone else to go find them.” Wilson turned around, looking to the group of survivors.
“Who’s up for it?”
“I can go! Woby’s a great tracking dog! I mean, as long as there’s no food…” Walter spoke up quickly, holding up Woby like she was a prized treasure.
“Ok. Walter, you two can go.”
“I go too.” Wormwood said confidently, standing up from where he was sitting on the grass. He seemed like he was very upset not but five minutes ago, so it was somewhat odd for him to offer to go, but it wasn’t like Wilson minded.
Wilson nodded, and then turned to Wanda. “Wanda, I’ll need your help figuring out what happened with the amulet. You too, Maxwell.”
“And I’ll -“ Winona said, stretching out one of her arms, “Start seein’ what I can do about Bolts. Can’t promise nuthin, though.”
“That settles it. Everyone else, just do your normal routine.”
The group all nodded or murmured agreements, not taking long to all split off. Wormwood and Walter made eye contact, and (after a bit of prodding to get Woby on the person’s trail), they set off.
The woods were uncharacteristically calm. Thick roots crawled along the forest floor, dead leaves and branches scattered along the path. Woby and Walter payed no mind to the obstructions, but Wormwood carefully avoided stepping on any roots or growing saplings.
Woby barked, indicating that they were getting close. Walter began to pick up pace, Wormwood trailing behind him, still trying to avoid the plantlife.
Wormwood looked up from the ground, where Walter and Woby had stopped suddenly. He paced up to them, confused.
“Over there.” Walter whispered, pointing across a clearing to where a character sat, crouched down by an unlit campfire.
“What we do?” Wormwood whispered back.
“You go up there. Try not to scare ‘em, I guess.”
The plant nodded- despite the fact he didn’t really understand- and started to walk forward out into the open.
The person had their head buried in their arms. Wormwood stepped on a stick, and their head shot up. He couldn’t really see past the fog in their glasses, but it looked like they’d been crying.
Walter and Woby stayed behind, Walter giving a silent thumbsup.
“Hello!” Wormwood said, smiling, trying to look as friendly as possible. He thought he was quite good at that, even if he didn’t really want to smile at the moment.
The person made a half-hearted growl. “Go away.”
“It okay! No hurt, just help.” He reassured, not daring to step any closer.
“I don’t need your help.”
“Hmm, think you do. It dangerous here!”
“I said I don’t need it.” The person said, sounding more and more irritated.
Wormwood blinked. “We have base! Big house, lots of friends, lots of food. Much safer!”
“I’m not going back there, plantling.”
“Why not?”
They sighed. “It’s- I can’t. You fles- Idiots love to talk on and on, won’t even let somebody… deal with their own maintenance, and I’m not stupid. I’m not telling you anything.”
“Oh.” Wormwood said, simply. Much to the other’s dismay, he sat down.
“Well, maybe I just help then?”
Silence.
“I good helper! I get you food, and you no go to big house. But still dangerous with no friends…”
“ Fine . If it gets you to leave me alone, do whatever you want.”
Wormwood resisted the urge not to smile. He needed to look happy and nice! “Ok… but you promise you come to friends when in danger.”
“Why do you even care?”
“Easy! Because you a friend!”
They almost laughed. “We are not friends. We never have been. You’re all absolute idiots .”The person glared at the plant, feigned smile shifting into a more serious face.
Wormwood frowned. The human words hurt, they hurt a lot- and he didn’t know why. He’d been told how he’s far too emotional. Maybe that was his problem, maybe that’s why he couldn’t even convince the person to go back.
“Go. Leave me alone, for fuck’s sake.” They sighed, leaning their head back down.
“Oh.” Was all Wormwood said. He stood up, defeated at walked back to where Walter and Woby were hiding.
Walter’s face scrunched as he saw Wormwood approaching with a very forlorn expression.
Wormwood said nothing, just walked up to the kid.
“Ok… I guess that didn’t work?”
Wormwood sighed. “No. They not nice.”
Walter made a hmming sound.
“Ok, well, it’s time for plan B! Walter persuasion time! I’ve been planning out how I’ll-“
“No. Bad idea. They not coming to base, very certain.”
“…Ok.” Walter frowned. “Well, what are we gonna tell Mr. Wilson?”
“Made deal. I go back to them, give food… but they not coming to base.”
“Hey, that’s something!”
“I guess..”
Walter put a soft hand around the plant’s torso. “Sorry about them, buddy. But it’s okay! They’re just a mean person, you don’t have to listen to them.”
“I know. Just worried. Worried for new friend, and worried for robot friend…”
“Oh, yeah…” Walter trailed off. “Well, you know what, I bet Winona’s working on WX right now! And I also bet Mr. Wilson and Mr. Maxwell and Ms. Wanda are all working on figuring out how to get the amulet to work.”
Wormwood nodded, putting on a little smile. Walter was a good friend.
“Ok. Let’s go home. Long day.”
Walter chuckled.
“Couldn’t have said it better!”