Chapter Text
Outside of the volcano, Scar, Iskall, and Cleo had made land at the spot Scar had pointed out. It had been a little bit farther away than the entrance the others would be using, but that was okay. Whether they got soaked by the rain or by swimming underwater didn’t make too much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. Still, all three of them ached to get going, if only because then they wouldn't feel as though they were doing nothing. All three of them recognised the importance of waiting a moment, though. If they were the first team to come barging in, then all eyes would be on them, invisibility or not. If any enemies inside were distracted by the ground teams, though... Well. That would mean any noise the water team would make would be masked by the sounds of running footsteps and battle.
Cleo looked around her little group, keeping half an eye on her communicator. Stress would signal them when they could get going, and the zombie was not going to be throwing any kind of potion before that very moment. After all, she didn't know how much time they would be needing to get inside, nor how long it would take to get the prisoners out, but they might well end up in a situation where every second of speed or invisibility counted. The same went for water breathing, although that one was slightly less pressing. They were going to have to splash a potion of water breathing on whoever they could get out anyway, and as such, running out of that after they had gotten inside was not as much of an issue.
Scar stood hopping from one leg to the other, rubbing his hands over his arms to keep himself a little warmer. It was a problem Cleo no longer experienced, which was one of the minor benefits of being undead. Certainly, she still got cold or hot, but the limits for that lay a lot further than for your average human being. Assuming that Scar was close enough to fully human to be compared, that was. After all the time she had known the landscaper, she still wasn't completely sure, especially not after the shenanigans with the ConVex. After all, how was she even supposed to start a conversation to ask about that? 'Hey man, are you human? Completely human, I mean?' It was awkward, definitely, not to speak about the game of defining what fully human was afterwards. It was easier to just assume that since he looked like a human, sounded like a human, and acted like a human, that he actually was a human. So far, it had worked well enough.
"You know, I think we should go and huddle for warmth! I think that would be nice, yes, wouldn't you guys agree?" the man asked, a slight tremble in his voice. Cleo just gave him a deadpan glare in return, and Iskall... Well, it looked like the swede was halfway through the process of zoning out, his hand gripped tightly around the pommel of his sheathed sword.
"I think that's a no, then... Such a shame! You don’t know what kind of warmth you’re missing,” he pouted, wallowing in exaggerated self-pity. The zombie wanted to say something in return, but just then, her communicator buzzed to life.
<Stressmonster101> got em distracted, it's safe to come in now luv
<Stressmonster101> be careful tho, arachne is still hanging around out back
<ZombieCleo> Alright! We're on our way!
With a nod, she put the device away again, instead grabbing a few potions from her bandolier.
"Alright kids, gather 'round, it's splashing time!" she said in a bit of a sing-songy voice. Scar stepped closer immediately, muttering something about women and changing their minds like the weather, while Iskall just stared off in the distance, uncaring about the rain that was blowing into his face.
"Hey? Iskall? Everything alright? Iskall?" Cleo tried, waving her hand through his field of view. It seemed to do the trick, and he blinked a few times, getting back to the present.
"Whoopsie, sorry, I just..." He trailed off, shaking his head once as though trying to get rid of some thoughts. "What's happening? Is it time to go?"
Cleo just nodded, holding up the bottles.
"Yep. Just one more thing before we leave, and then into the water we go."
"Right. Okay. Yes. Okay. Let's get this over with."
The trio stood in a small circle as Cleo threw the bottles onto the floor, the bottles scattering and the potions within washing over them. Almost instantly, she could no longer see the other two, save for the subtle yet visible particles floating around in the air.
"Good! Now we're ready. Scar, lead the way! Oh, and make sure you hold something so we can actually see where you're going," Cleo spoke, hoping the other two hadn't moved yet and she was talking in the right direction.
"Oh! Right, of course!" Scar spoke, and half a second later, she could see a light blue mask floating in the air about a metre away from her. It moved towards the water at a steady pace, then, pausing a moment before a splash sounded and it went in. Cleo followed it quickly, but not as quick as Iskall, apparently, given that a second large splash came not two seconds after the first, just a little to the left this time, undoubtedly so he wouldn't land on top of the landscaper.
Then she hit the water herself, the sea drowning out a large part of the sounds of the storm that was raging above them. Still, she could hear the sounds of the waves crashing into the edges of the island, and the rain drumming onto the surface. It was just muted and warped, as everything below the surface seemed to be. The flowing water played with what light came from both outside of the volcano and inside, leaving some patches of the seafloor in twilight and others illuminated in shifting orange patterns.
Cleo looked around, having to squint before being able to find the Vex mask again, already in the process of diving deeper to get properly under the island. There was nothing else to do than to just follow it and to trust Scar to know where he was going. He had built the place, after all, he should be all means know the layout.
She swam on and on, letting the water into her lungs as she breathed, feeling the feeling of drowning without actually drowning. Despite having felt it many times before, she would never get used to it, and one of these days, if she had time, she wanted to figure out a way to make the potion work differently, more pleasantly. Still, it was better than actually drowning, she supposed.
On and on and on they swam, deeper at first as the shape of the island curved above them, and then back to the surface once more when they got past the initial lower ring of stone. From there on, the trio moved through a series of smaller rooms, their edges ending just below the surface of the water, and the air in them stale after not having been in contact with the outside since they were built. Nevertheless, Cleo found it somewhat nice to breathe in normal air in between the stretches of swimming. Having water in her lungs always pulled at some of her deeper instincts, to give in to her nature and to sink to the bottom, to turn blue and green and to pull an unsuspecting victim down to drown them. As such, it came as more than a nice surprise when they broke the surface again, this time inside of the main cavern of the volcano. The sounds of battle sounded on the other end, and if she looked up, Cleo could see some of the others circling in the air high above, shooting arrows at this enemy or another.
The combination meant that no one, spider nor person, was looking in their direction as they moved closer to the shore, pulling themselves up to the side of a bridge of stone and moving in. The first few paces, they still left wet footprints, and Cleo was acutely aware of the sounds of dripping water that surrounded them. Still, she could hear more dripping water, thanks to the rain coming in through a hole in the ceiling, which put her a little bit more at ease.
Scar sped up as he moved, judging by the speed of the mask, and the zombie followed, heading straight for the middle of the volcano. According to the landscaper, there would be cells there, although she couldn't quite make out where they would be. All she saw was dark stone, like there was all around, some bits at this angle, some bits at another angle. If she hadn't known there would be cells there, she would have probably written off some of the cries she heard from within the stone as the howling of the wind outside. She did know, though, and as such, she was able to recognise the voices. Mumbo seemed to not be having a great time, and neither was Xisuma, and Wels... Wels was just silent. She didn't hear him at all, but that didn't have to mean anything. That man could be damned stubborn if he wanted to, so it wasn't weird for him to be silent in the face of adversity.
Cleo moved on until she could press her back against the warm stone of the volcanic core, feeling some of the water in her clothes sizzle away and turn to steam. Then she carefully moved around the core, looking for any kind of indication as to where the cells were exactly.
Instead of that, though, she was greeted by the sight of Arachne ducking away from an arrow, shot evidently by Joe, who was in the process of diving down towards them. What his plan was exactly, she didn't know, but it was Joe, so it was probably something daft, out of the box, and questionably efficient. Probably not as daft as a plan cooked up by Grian, or as questionably efficient as a plan made by Zedaph would be, but whenever Joe thought of a solution to a problem, it was never quite as conventional as it could be. Usually, it was one of the many reasons she liked the poet, but right there and then, it made her heart drop as she worried about him.
It worried her even more that she couldn't just stand there and watch, she needed to just believe that he would be doing something that could be considered smart while she went on with her own mission. At the very least, she now knew she shouldn't be searching for the cells on that side of the volcanic core, not if she didn't want to be caught by their enemy. It could jeopardise the whole mission if Arachne made the logical leap to say that one invisible person sneaking around could mean there were more, and that was not a risk Cleo was willing to take, not in the slightest.
As such she stayed there for just a moment longer as Joe dove past Arachne, shouting some winding sentence that felt like it could be a compliment if it wasn't so filled with words that denounced everything about the spider. It slightly confused Cleo despite the amount of time she had spent with Joe, and it had an even larger effect on Arachne, who stood still for just a moment too long to catch the poet in their claws. He pulled up again, boosting himself with rockets, and was gone from her field of view, and Cleo could see how Arachne was craning their head backwards, following Joe's trajectory with eight glowing red eyes.
Whatever Joe was doing, it at the very least was a decent enough distraction for her to get back to work with the knowledge that she didn't have to watch her back all that much as long as Joe could fly free. As such, she snuck back around the core, one hand stretched out in front of her to feel for Iskall and Scar, one hand gliding over the rocky surface to hopefully spot the edges of some kind of door.
In the end, she needed neither of those options. She found the other two of the water team by the fact they were holding pickaxes, and she found the door to a cell because it was slightly ajar. Inside, she could see Mumbo, a cobweb made of bloody flesh hanging over his head and face like some sort of veil. Dark lines spread over his body, following his veins, and he was staring at the ground, sobs rolling over his lips. His hands were tied up high above him, leaving him on his toes, and what was left of his suit clung to bloody skin. He looked miserable, to say the least, but he was still alive, and still seemingly himself. The lines on his skin didn't look the same as those that Scar had, or the ones that Biffa or Iskall had had, and looked more like Python's markings. Markings of poison, not of control. It was a good thing.
Without waiting for what the others were doing, Cleo got out a bottle of milk and a healing potion, uncorking them both. Then she brought the bottle of milk to Mumbo's lips, gently tipping his head back a little. The sounds of battle around them were loud enough that she dared whisper, and so, she did.
"Just hang on a little bit longer, Mumbo. We're here to get you out. Me and Iskall and Scar will get you to safety. Now, though, I need you to drink this, it'll make you feel better."
Mumbo, though, simply shook his head, turning away from her.
"No..." he muttered, teeth kept closely together. "I- I won't fall for this again. This is a trap."
Cleo sighed, not knowing how to respond. Of course it looked fishy as hell, she knew that, but that was kind of the point. There wasn't really a way to sneak into somewhere that wasn't fishy.
"Listen, Mumbo, I get that you're trying to be smart here, but really, this isn't working. It really is us. Now, drink the milk before we're spotted." She still whispered, but a little bit more annoyed and angrily this time. They simply didn't have time for these kinds of shenanigans.
Still, the redstoner didn't listen, keeping his head stubbornly turned away, his lips pressed firmly against his arm so he couldn't be forced to drink.
"Cleo? Do you have this under control? If so, me and Iskall are gonna look for Wels. I'm sure he was around here somewhere..." Scar whispered, his voice sounding a whole lot closer than she would have liked.
"Scar! Personal space!" she whispered in response, and she could feel a hand brushing against her back, before she heard foots shuffling backwards.
"Whoops! Sorry, didn't mean to-"
"Whatever. Just... I got this. You go get Wels. As for Xisuma... I don't know where he is, but Arachne is right around the corner, so don't go there, not just yet."
"Alrighty, that I can do."
She heard clothes shift and judging by the movement of the pickaxe in his hand, he was trying to do something that resembled a salute. Cleo rolled her eyes, before refocussing on Mumbo.
"Look, I don't have a whole lot of time, I don't know when they're going to notice we're here. So just work with me here, I don't want to force you to drink but I swear I will do so if you don't cooperate." She hissed the words at him, still keeping her voice down, again presenting the bottle of milk as well as the bottle with the healing potion in it.
Mumbo shifted around, this time actually looking at the bottles.
"Are you... You really are Cleo, then? No tricks?" his voice was weak and trembled, tears still flowing over his cheeks. "I can't see you... Please tell me this is real. Please, please, I need this to be real."
Her heart broke a tiny bit as he spoke, and Cleo couldn't help but dwell on it for a moment. What had Arachne done to him, if this was how he responded? What kind of torture did they put him through?
"Don't worry, it is real. Everyone is here to save you guys. I'll explain it once we get out of here. Now, drink the milk. Please."
She held the bottle in front of him again, close enough for him to drink it should he decide he wanted to.
"Thank the Void..." he just muttered, eyes raising to the sky for a moment before he moved to drink from the bottle. Cleo helped him as best as she could, tipping the milk into his mouth a little bit at a time, letting him decide the pace. The effect was near-instant, the dark lines under his skin clearing up as the liquid entered his system. Still, she didn't stop feeding it to him until the bottle was completely empty, at which point Mumbo leaned his head back and sighed.
"This is so much better already. Cleo, you have no idea how much of a saviour you are."
"Mmhmm... I'm not done yet, though. Health potion is next on the menu," she said, putting the empty bottle back in her inventory. "Also, let me just get rid of whatever this is." She lifted up the cobweb, peeling it away from his head. It left a clear pattern of dried blood on his face, but if that was the worst thing that happened, she was more than willing to make that sacrifice.
"I- I'm pretty sure that's my skin," Mumbo said, his voice trembling as he uncomfortably shifted around in his bonds. "Also, can you like, do something about these?" he asked, shifting his hands and making his bonds clank a little.
"All in due time. Let's heal you up first." Cleo held out the second bottle for him, and he downed it without a second thought. Instead, he breathed a sigh of relief as some of his wounds started to stitch together slowly. It didn't instantly make him completely healthy again, the damage done was simply too great for that, but at the very least he wouldn't die the moment someone looked at him in a wrong way, and that was enough for that moment.
The zombie then put the second bottle away as well, before taking out her pickaxe and a bit of scaffolding so she could properly reach. Then started the tedious job of getting rid of the restraints without hurting Mumbo too much. She knew she wouldn't be able to completely stop him from feeling it, but he'd just have to deal with it for a moment. It was a small price to pay for getting out, and she didn't care what he'd think about it, she'd just go right ahead and do it.
And so Cleo hacked away at the chains and ropes, intending mostly to just disconnect them from the ceiling. The rest she'd take care of later, when they were out of there. Again, it wasn't the best situation, but in the worst case, the zombie would just drag him along underwater, so that he didn't even need to swim with his arms. If that was what it would take to bring at the very least one person to safety, then so be it.
Cleo worked on and on and on, periodically looking over her shoulder to make sure she was still safe, and muttering small words of encouragement to Mumbo, who had finally managed to stop crying and was now just shaking from a combination of fear and pain. He was silent, too, every now and then opening up his mouth to say something before just closing it again, not knowing what he wanted to say or how to say it.
Just as well. If he's too loud, or too obviously happy, he might give us away.
Still, Cleo knew all too well that the sound of her pickaxe against the chains would be louder than any sound Mumbo would be making by speaking, and she could only hope that the raging battle outside was loud enough to cover for that.
It seemed fate was on her side this time, though. The chains snapped before anyone came in, and Mumbo tumbled to the ground, suddenly no longer supported.
"Sorry!" Cleo whispered loudly, jumping down from the scaffolding. She didn't even bother cleaning it up, knowing full well that she didn't have that kind of time on her side. Then she quickly helped Mumbo to his feet, wrapping an arm around him to support him. "Let's get you out of here."