Chapter Text
‘’Boo, I’m spreading my pollen right now. We’re fighting 404, Dream might show up.’’
Ranboo hummed, skipping through the abandoned building. ‘’I’m just making sure all the innocent people have left, Bee.’’
‘’What? A villain that cares about people?! I should divorce you.’’ Tubbo joked in Ranboo’s earpiece.
‘’I know you love me.’’
‘’Nah, you’re just sexy.’’
Huffing, Ranboo grabbed an old yearbook from the floor and started looking through it.
The Syndicate had made great steps in removing all the places with bad memories for Ranboo. While Ranboo had hated the idea in the beginning, he now thrived every time they did it. Most places were training camps or office buildings. If they were gone, no more people could get hurt. Ranboo didn’t really care about what happened to the people who couldn’t escape. He wasn’t going to help some middle-aged abuser anymore. He wouldn’t kill them, because he didn’t know them, but he wasn’t going to save them too.
GhostBoo, the villain was strangely beloved by many. In the poor sectors, where children would often go to bed hungry, his name got whispered around. The villain who cared about morals and not about sides. Ranboo was the villain who had opened many eyes of people and was now famous for never being outwardly hostile unless attacked. It was true. Ranboo never hurt anyone if they hadn’t hurt him. Sometimes he helped civilians, but only if they truly needed it.
He wasn’t a villain with a ‘V’, he was something entirely different. Ranboo had even fought some other Villains who had hurt Tommy. He had saved children from Heroes who needed more children to train. No matter how much The Hero Committee tried to give him a ‘V’, people wouldn’t buy it.
Ranboo didn’t help people who could save themselves but insisted they couldn’t do it. No, Ranboo helped little children whose legs had crumbled. He helped old ladies whose eyes didn’t work anymore. Ranboo helped those who needed it, the people who were looked down on because of their disadvantages.
He didn’t hurt people if they were innocent, only caught up in this world just like he was. But if they’d done bad things, Ranboo didn’t mind dropping them from the highest building in the city. He didn’t kill them, he just made them suffer. The same thing he did to Dream.
People had lost all hope in Dream. Ever since Ranboo’s debut as a villain, civilians refused to be helped and chased the Hero out of their streets. They now got more help them ever from vigilantes, the most famous one being Blaze, or as The Syndicate knew him as, Sapnap. With one of his boyfriends being a Villain, and the other one being a civilian, Sapnap simply wasn’t cut out for normality. He wasn’t a Hero, but he wasn’t a civilian or Villain either. So, he became a vigilante who had become more popular than Dream in months.
Whenever Ranboo saw Dream now, he made his life even more difficult. He didn’t kill him because death was a too easy punishment for the man. Instead, Ranboo would teleport him right into Tubbo’s pollen, making him explode. Sometimes he helped Techno fight him, but he purely just made Dream pay for murdering his sister.
The building they were exploding now had been a training camp. Little children that had been recruited came here to be trained. It was similar to the ones Tubbo had stayed in, only where those in the actual Hero Tower. Those rooms were for teenagers who already had experience, but if you had none, you came here. This meant that most children here were under the age of twelve and that it was literal torture and abuse.
Opening another door, Ranboo scanned the room he had come in. The room was a mess, papers and food items were spilled on the floor. Whoever had been there, he’d made sure to get out of the building.
‘’Dream is not coming, a new Hero showed up.’’
Ranboo’s eyes widened at that information. Now that was interesting. A new Hero hadn’t shown up in a while. They were going to have an exciting meeting after this.
A whimper came from across the room.
Ranboo stared at the seemingly empty room. Yup, that had definitely been a sound. Wagging his tail in excitement, Ranboo’s lips curled into a smile. If there was someone in this room, it had to be a trainer. They were normally the kind of people to stay, too proud to run. Well, sometimes they did run and would cry pathetically if caught. The children were smarter, taking the fastest chance to leave this place.
Walking over to a corner in the room, Ranboo stepped over a thrown-over couch. There was a closet in the corner, and the sound had definitely come from that. Standing still and listening one more time, Ranboo heard muffled sobs and whimpers. Grabbing the handle and throwing the door open, Ranboo was taken aback.
There was a child in the closet. It was hunched in on itself, hiding its face. Their whole entire body shook as they cried. Ranboo could only see pink hair and the clothes the child was wearing. God, the clothes. They were white, dirty, and torn. The child was small, an obvious toddler. At the moment Ranboo opened the door, the child flinched and made itself even smaller.
Biting his lip, Ranboo recognized its behavior. The child must have been training here when everyone started leaving. And now it was on edge. Ranboo had felt that way many times before. Crouching down so he wasn’t as tall, Ranboo cocked his head to the side. ‘’Hello.’’
The child flinched again, scrambling back a bit while still hiding its face.
‘’What’s your name?’’ Ranboo asked, his voice calm and steady. He was going to get this child out of the building before it exploded. But he needed to calm them down first.
The child hiccupped. ‘’M-Micheal.’’
‘’That is a very lovely name.’’ Ranboo complimented. ‘’My name is GhostBoo or Ranboo.’’
The child froze, recognizing the same. ‘’Y-You’re the GhostBoo? T-The one D-Dream…’’
‘’Yes, that is me.’’ Ranboo smiled. The child seemed to relax slightly at the conformation, which was good. ‘’Why are you here, dear?’’
‘’I-I was t-training to become a Hero.’’ Micheal said.
‘’That’s not very good.’’ Ranboo shook his head. ‘’Aren’t you a little too young, Micheal?’’
‘’I’m a hybrid. I’m strong, that’s what t-the people said.’’ The boy mumbled.
Judging by the boy’s pink hair, he must be a Piglin hybrid. Ranboo knew the boy was right, he was strong. Piglin hybrids were rare and had incredible stamina.
‘’You look very strong. But I still think it’s not good that you’re training. How old are you?’’ Ranboo asked.
‘’Five.’’
Ranboo winced. That was way too young. The Hero Committee had crossed another line. This was going to be brutal.
‘’Tell me dear, are you the youngest here?’’
The boy nodded, still hiding his face.
‘’Can I touch you?’’ Ranboo asked, hand in the air.
Micheal twitched and shook his head violently.
‘’Okay, that’s fine. But I’m wearing gold, so do you want some of that?’’
Now that piqued the boy’s interest. Piglin hybrids loved gold, and always wanted loads of it. It calmed them down and made them feel at home. There was a reason Techno gifted Ranboo his crown, it was a sign of love. Slowly, the boy nodded, and Ranboo took off his crown. He placed it on the boy's head gently, careful not to hurt him. At the touch of the gold, the boy slumped, body calming down. He took a deep breath, hands around his knees.
‘’Can I see your face?’’ Ranboo asked, taking the opportunity. While he didn’t want to rush and get the child stressed, this building was going to explode soon.
Tilting his head up, Micheal revealed his face, leaving Ranboo to swallow. The boy's left side of his face was bloody and raw. Ranboo could see his skull, and he had no eye. Green flesh was around it, sectioning it off from the other black eye the child had.
‘’Ow, hun.’’ Ranboo whispered, vwhooping sadly. ‘’Did they do this to you?’’
The boy hiccupped, and tears streamed over his face. ‘’I-I’m w-weird n-now. I’m ugly.’’
‘’No, no.’’ Ranboo shook his head, pointing to his face. ‘’I also look weird, but I don’t think that I look ugly. But it would look better if we cleaned you up, how are you even still breathing?’’
‘’My p-powers.’’
‘’But does it hurt?’’
Micheal nodded, and Ranboo bit his lip. ‘’Can I hug you?’’
‘’Y-Yea.’’
Taking the small child in his arms, Ranboo pulled him against his chest. His tails wrapped around the boy, protecting him from the cruel world. The boy sniffled, and Ranboo cooed, pressing a kiss on Micheal’s head.
‘’The Captain is here, void. We might want to leave. I’m exploding the building when you say you ready.’’
Ranboo tightened the grip around Micheal. This child needed protection. It was terribly hurt and crying in his lap. Ranboo simply wasn’t going to leave him on the streets. ‘’Hun, do you have parents?’’
The boy shook his head.
Outside, he heard people screaming to run. But there was a child here, all alone, hurt by the Heroes. Ranboo couldn’t let him go on the streets, and he also couldn’t leave the child to die.
The answer was quite simple really.
‘’Do you want to come with me?’’ Ranboo asked, shifting so he could see Micheal’s eyes. ‘’I can protect you, together with my husband. We also have a Piglin hybrid where we live, you could learn stuff about your instincts from him.’’
Micheal stared at Ranboo for a second, before he let out a soft ‘Okay.’ And pressed himself against Ranboo again.
Purring with delight, Ranboo stood up, carrying Micheal in his arms. He shifted his arms slightly, allowing the child to hide his face in Ranboo’s shoulder. ‘’Now it might be a bit overwhelming getting home.’’ Ranboo warned. ‘’But if you get dizzy, just shut your eyes and hug me, okay?’’
Micheal nodded, and Ranboo pressed a kiss on his face.
‘’Hey, Bee. I’m teleporting home.’’
‘’Why home, bossman? Can’t you give me a lift back home?’’
Ranboo stared at Micheal in his arms, who was making little noises. ‘’Not today I’m afraid, my love. I found… something precious. I’m out, nuke the building.’’
And with that, Ranboo teleported out of the building with Micheal. The building exploded, leaving only bricks behind. But Micheal was safe, and Ranboo would get Eret as soon as they got home. He would have to do some explanation of how he got a random child and took it to their personal room. The one where he and Tubbo got married, and where the walls were full of pictures of them together. He would explain, but he knew his husband would love Micheal.
After all, Tubbo had always said he wanted his own nest with Ranboo.
Ranboo might have just brought home the honey to glue it all together.