There are five people surrounding Tommy, Tubbo, Bek, and Hetta. They all are dressed in black with gray accents and red face masks. The outfits are similar, but there are nuanced differences to set each person apart from the others. They each have different statures and physicalities, but they all seem to carry a specific dagger with them. This is none of their main weapons, but Tommy notices it clinging to each of their belts.

"I knew someone would be after the prince," Tubbo murmurs as he presses his back against Tommy's as a safety measure. Bek follows their lead, putting her back against their shoulders with her arms spread out. Realizing what the others are doing, Hetta rushes to Tommy's side. She tucks herself underneath his arm against his side. Tommy lifts a hand up to pet her hair affectionately, hoping to calm her down.

"Do you want me to do something?" Bek asks, looking over her shoulder at her new contractor. Her tail comes to wrap around his leg, keeping him place. The ground underneath starts shifting colors. Tommy is mesmerized for a second, but he snaps himself out of it as soon as he realizes what's going on. Tommy reassesses the situation. Five people, still. None of them have summoned an elemental nor any other contracted being. Two of them have unsheathed their swords, pointing the tip at the group of four. One of them has brought their dagger out. The remaining two carry no weapon in their hands, but they don't seem particularly worried.

"Hetta," Tommy commands as he pulls out his spear. The metal begins to glow a golden color, resonating with Tommy's magic. Hetta climbs up his back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Her body morphs into elemental armor. A white capelet hangs across his shoulders with red embroidery around the edges the same color as her eyes. Tommy feels lighter, and he knows that his jumping abilities have been drastically improved. He isn't much stronger than normal, but he knows he's able to take on the ambushers.

Tommy leaps forward, an aura of red spreading across his body. His spear slams right into one of the ambusher's swords. As the sword slides across the surface of the spear, Tommy raises the end up to catch another attacker's sword. Tommy twists his spear, dislodging their grip on the swords as best he can. Tommy looks over his shoulder. Another ambusher with a dagger tries to attack him. Tommy throws his legs over his head, spinning over his spear like a gymnast with a barre. Tommy lands back on his feet, squatting down. He pulls his sword towards him. The two swords fall to the ground, and Tommy spins around to knock them off balance with his spear hitting their ankles. The attacker with a dagger tries to slam it down on Tommy, but he leaps back. The place where he lands has a red dot that grows larger as Tommy drops into it.

Tommy looks over his shoulder to check on his friends. A drone-like machine is slamming into the attacker's heads and disarming them. Tubbo is standing back, controlling the machine with a special bracelet on his wrist. Bek stands with him to protect his physical body. She uses a ribbon-like weapon, tying up her opponents or twisting them around. The colors of her body and the world around her shift, creating a pattern that distracts both the attackers and Tommy.

A soft breeze races through the alleyway, making Tommy's capelet twirl all around him. Tommy places a hand against it, quietly whispering his thanks to Hetta. He doesn't get a response while she's in elemental armor form, but Tommy doesn't need one. He jumps back into the fray with the three attackers who are right at his doorstep. Golden light spears appear in the air around them. Tommy drops his open-palm to the ground. The spears drop to the ground, creating a temporary barrier that stops the ambushers. Tommy stands back to his feet, running through the dissipating light to hit one of the swordsmen with his spear like a bat hitting a baseball. The swordsman crumples to the ground, their sword landing on the ground. The attacker with the dagger scoops the sword up, dual-wielding.

Tommy raises his spear up to counter a downward sword stroke. The dagger comes underneath. Tommy slides out of the way, bringing his spear with him. The dual-wielder fumbles to the ground, and Tommy sends the spear into the other swordsman's side. The swordsman hisses in pain, but their grip gets tighter on their sword. They lift it up to hack off Tommy's hand from the wrist. Tommy releases his hold on his spear, moving back. The sword clangs against the metal of the spear. Tommy whirls around, seeing the dual-wielder coming up to him. Tommy forms his hand into a fist. He pushes it forward, and a golden spear forms alongside his hand. His fist strikes empty air, but the golden spear embeds itself into the dual-wielder's stomach. He falls to the ground, both of his weapons falling from his grip.

Tommy looks back at the other swordsman. He holds his sword in one hand and Tommy's spear in the other. His eyes burn with anger. Tommy's capelet trembles against his body as if the wind is blowing around them. Tommy forms a golden spear of magic into his awaiting hand. He rushes forward at the man, using Hetta's powers to give him a little speed boost. The man is fast enough to block the javelin throw with his stolen spear and sword, forming them into an 'x' to protect himself. He is not fast enough to realize what Tommy's plan is. The blonde lets go of his spear, sliding underneath the man's weapons. He grabs the man's dagger, unsheathing it for himself. Tommy twirls around, pushing the dagger into the man's back. The dagger's blow is softened by the man's armor. The man looks over his shoulder at Tommy. The prince kicks his legs up, pushing them against the nearby alleyway wall. Tommy squats against the wall, then pushes forward with Hetta's increased jumping abilities. The dagger slices through the armor. The man falls to the ground. Tommy goes down with him, but Tommy rolls across the ground, popping back into an upright position.

Tommy carefully examines the bloody dagger still in his hand. He does his best to push the blood off the blade. When he's gotten enough off, he sees how some of the blood has fallen into the dagger's engravings. Tommy traces his finger along the engravings. They depict a stylized fish and flower, comparable to the story Niki told Tommy about the founding of Drywaters. Tommy should have known that his attackers would be members of the Syndicate. They saw an opportunity to attack the prince, and they took it willingly. At least, lesser-ranked members did. Tommy doubts the goons around him are high-ranking members. He doesn't even think they're middle men. They have to be beginners to be this weak and uncoordinated.

"Theseus!" Tubbo yells as Tommy's capelet begins flaring around him. Tommy looks up at his friend while trying to push down the capelet. Tubbo and Bek are rushing toward Tommy. Bek has even thrown out one of her ribbons. Tommy doesn't understand why until a shadow appears in his peripheral vision. He glances up, discovering another attacker who was unaccounted for launching themselves at Tommy. They are holding one of the stylized daggers in their hand, ready to stab Tommy in the chest. Tommy barely has time to react, but he doesn't have to. The attacker is thrown off course by a beam of high-pressured water hitting their side. The figure drops to the ground, rolling several feet. Bek immediately ties them up with her purple and green ribbon. She puts a foot on their chest, lifting up the ribbon to tighten the hold it has on the attacker.

Tommy looks toward the entrance of the alleyway. Niki stands there. She isn't wearing the commoner outfit they all decided to wear when coming down to volunteer. She is wearing sunset pink and ocean blue armor with gold accents. Two daggers with golden blades and blue handles rest easily in her hands. Her hair is pushed into an updo, revealing her webbed ears. She is wearing elemental armor from Merling. She looks more like a warrior than a maid like this, and she proves it when she races into the alleyway. Water droplets hang around her body like rain frozen in time, and she uses them to finish off the remaining ambushers, the ones Tommy didn't know were waiting in the wings for their former's failures.

Niki throws one dagger, letting it land in one of the attacker's chests. She slashes another one as she passes, pulling her dagger out of the man's chest. She flicks the blood off her dagger. The water droplets around her form into a beam of water that holds down the two she just struck with its pressure. Niki leaps away from them. In the air, she kicks one of the ambushers in the head. She continues twisting in the air, throwing her daggers to hit two more of them. The two crumple to the ground, and Niki lands on the shoulder of one of them to push off again. She kicks one of them in the chest as she lands, standing on them as another one tries to attack her with a dagger. Niki pushes their hands away using the back of her hands. She gets close, stopping on their foot at the same time she hits their wrist. The dagger falls from their hands, and Niki catches it. She twists inside of their hold, slamming their own dagger into their throat. Niki leaves the dagger there as the man crumples to the ground. With that, all of the remaining attackers seem to be dispatched.

"Tubbo," Tommy hisses, grabbing the boy's hand. He pulls Tubbo behind him, moving his arms up protectively. Tubbo jolts in surprise. He had been dismantling his drone into smaller pieces, but he stops when he notices how Tommy is still tense and the neutrality of his voice. Niki rises up from where she had been pulling her daggers out of corpses. Niki wipes the blood off her cheek as she looks at them. Her eyes widen momentarily. She looks down at her bloodied daggers, but that isn't what Tommy is protecting Tubbo from. "Pick your side, Niki."

Niki looks up sharply. Tommy grip tightens on the stylized dagger he still holds in his hand. He twists it, flashing the depiction of the fish and flower. The dagger isn't enough for Tommy to come to the conclusion that Niki is part of the Syndicate, but he hopes it's enough that Niki recognizes where he could have gotten the idea from. He really doesn't want to explain that he knew because he remembers his past life where Niki was a member of the Syndicate. Niki's lips fall shut when she recognizes the dagger. She shakes her head, a soft noise almost like laughter huffing out of her lips. "I'm not surprised you knew. You always seem to know more than you let on... I don't have time to explain myself right now, but I promise to safely get you out of the capital."

"I'm not leaving," Tommy argues. He wants to know why the Syndicate decided to attack now. He wants to know if this was a plan from the higher-ups or if the goons around them acted alone. He needs to check all these bodies. He needs to find Jack, and he needs to explain to the people running the blessing and transportation to the eastern lands what happened here. Other people could be attacked as revenge against the empire, sabotage their efforts, or hold hostage as a means of getting back at Tommy.

"We need to leave," Tubbo agrees with Niki, his eyes flicking between her and Tommy with heavy suspicion laced there. Tubbo doesn't know that Niki is part of the Syndicate, but Tommy and Niki's conversation has been a little enlightening. There isn't much Tommy's words could mean.

Niki starts looking around, her grip on her daggers tightening. "Yes, we do need to leave, but not because-"

"Watch out!" Bek yells. Her arms close around Tommy and Tubbo, pushing them to the ground. Her ribbons rise up around them to form a helix, a thin layer of purple and green energy spreading out between each ribbon. Tommy peaks above Bek's shoulder to see a burst of fire race across the surface of the ribbons and the energy. It looks oddly beautiful as purple and green light wash over Tommy, Tubbo, and Bek's bodies, but Tommy feels fear roar to life inside his body, especially when a chunk of the nearby building falls against their protective barrier.

Bek pulls her arms away. She grabs onto the ribbons as they fall. Tommy leaps away from her and Tubbo. He looks around. Niki is a couple of feet away, engaged in conflict with someone while trying to put out the fires spreading around them. Tommy searches the face of the attacker. Instead of wearing a red mask, they left their entire face bare. Instead of wearing black with gray accents, they wear a red dress with orange-gold patterns running along the hem. Tommy's eyes widen, taking a half-step when those black eyes with flaming pupils land on him. Sally, Wilbur's fire elemental, throws Niki across the alleyway, letting her back slam against the nearby wall.

"Sally!" Tommy yells, running in front of her. Sally is looking directly at him. There is no kindness in her eyes, no familiarity as if she hadn't been at Wilbur's side for the past few years, been at Tommy's side for a similar amount of time. Sally raises her hand towards him. A bud appears, blossoming into a flaming flower. The fire roars out of the petals. Tommy raises his hands up to defend himself. A ribbon wraps around his torso, pulling him out of the line of fire. Niki slides into the spot where he once was. The water droplets around her body come in front of her, spinning into a pink- and blue-tinted shield that resembles a seashell. The fire spreads out across the surface of the seashell, reminding Tommy of Bek's shield. The earth elemental is currently forming that shield around Tubbo, but she seems to be nudging Tommy and Hetta into it.

As soon as Sally stops producing fire, Niki's elemental armor dissipates. A new figure appears in front of her. A woman who resembles a mermaid to Tommy with a pink and blue tail. She looks over her shoulder at Niki, but her attention quickly snaps to Tommy. Merling nods at him. Tommy nods back, and Merling twists in the air to tackle Sally. Niki calls out for her elemental to return to her side. Tommy pulls out of Bek's grip. He grabs Niki's arm, pulling her behind him as he starts running away. Niki tries to fight him, but Bek and Tubbo are quick to join them.

"You know, I didn't think my first day with a human that wasn't a slave trader would be this exciting!" Bek declares as they run. Tommy sends a side-long glance both to her and Tubbo. That is something they are definitely going to have to discuss. Later, of course, but inevitably, they will talk about it.

"What's wrong with her?" Tubbo asks, looking at Tommy for an explanation. Tommy is tempted to answer as if Bek was the 'her' Tubbo was referring to, but Tommy knows that Tubbo wants to know about Sally. Looking around, Bek and Niki are just as curious. Tommy knows Hetta well enough to know that if she was out here instead of acting as his elemental armor, she would be asking a similar question.

"I have no idea," Tommy replies simply. There has never been a case where an elemental has gone insane when their contractor died, not in the history of this world or in The Ender Prince. Elementals are unbound from their contracts when the contractor dies. Sally should be in a new agreement with someone, either in this continent or somewhere else. Of course, this never happened in The Ender Prince. Wilbur never died in The Ender Prince, and Sally never indiscriminately attacked the city.

Tubbo puts his hand in front of Tommy, stopping him from running even more. Tommy looks over his shoulder first to double-check Sally isn't on their asses. When he confirms she isn't, he turns to Tubbo to demand why he stopped. Tommy gets his answer when he looks forward. There are three Syndicate members standing there. One of them has blue accents instead of gray, and Tommy assumes that means she's higher-ranking than the others around her.

"Are you responsible for that fire elemental's insanity?" Tommy demands, stepping in front of the others. His capelet buzzes around him as if Hetta is warning him not to do anything rash. A ribbon twists around his wrist, but Bek doesn't immediately try pulling him away.

"What are you doing with the third prince?" The woman in charge hisses, turning to look at Niki instead of deigning Tommy with a response. Niki doesn't answer. She pulls out her daggers. They no longer shimmer with power, but Niki seems plenty capable without her elemental empowering her. Tommy holds back a sigh, preparing his spear for combat since he probably isn't going to get an answer as the third prince.

The air grows chillier than normal. Tommy's attention flings upward, noticing dozens of icicles crystalizing in the sky above them. The icicles drop to the ground at the speed of bullets. The three Syndicate members are swiftly brought down to their knees. As they crumple, a horse made from ice and snow trots into view. Techno sits on the back of the horse with his eyes practically glowing. Jack is on the horse behind Techno, looking uncomfortable in both barebacking a horse and being in close proximity to the second prince. Steve comes into view right beside, the polar bear's mouth pulled back to reveal sharp teeth the color of ivory.

Techno lifts his hand up, another icicle forming. His red eyes narrow at Niki. As Techno launches the icicle towards her, Tommy jumps in front of her. Using his spear, he activates the Art of the Golden Tempest alongside Hetta's wings to strike the icicle with the point of his spear. The icicle fractures, parts of it melting and other parts slamming out like shrapnel. Bek protects Tubbo, and the ice knows not to go anywhere near their king, thus protecting Techno and Jack. Tommy twists his spear back to his side. Techno's hand is still outstretched. The two brothers stare at each other. Tommy glares at Techno, and his brother looks both surprised and unimpressed, as if Tommy's actions were irrational and undignified. Tommy's mouth pulls back into a snarl. Techno raises an eyebrow, making Tommy feel like nothing more than a caged puppy lashing out. Tommy refuses to be treated that way. He takes a step forward, ready to fight the Water Elemental King himself to get a punch across Techno's jaw.

The air immediately rises in temperature. Smoke begins to curl around their bodies. Tommy whirls around. Sally is marching towards them with a smile on her face. She is dragging Merling's body behind her. Niki screams, her hands flying up to her mouth to muffle the sound. Sally chuckles amusedly, throwing Merling's body toward the group. Niki reaches for it, but Steve gets to the body first. He sets Merling on top of him. Merling seems to melt into his fur, her pained expression washing away momentarily. Sally's brighten like floodlights when she notices the entire group. She waves her arms around, doing a bow. All the buildings around them instantly catch fire. Tommy jolts, a cough rising up in his mouth.

Tommy's capelet transforms back into Hetta. The air elemental spins around the group, her wings flapping as fast as she can possibly make them go. The smoke begins to dissipate. Hetta stops, landing near Tommy. Jack leaps off the ice horse. He rolls onto the ground, his own fire elemental appearing around him. Jack pushes his hands out as far away from his body as he can make it go. The fire stays away from the group. Steve stomps his paw on the ground, and it begins to rain in the area around them. Tommy can hear the people outside of the alleyway begin to freak out as rain pounds against their snowy wonderland. Tommy himself shivers as the cold rain drips across his hair, dampening his curls.

"Stand down," Steve commands, his voice low and rough. Tommy feels the sudden urge to stand down himself, but he knows Steve isn't talking to him.

Sally laughs, smoke pouring out of her mouth as if she's set her heart on fire. She shakes her head. "Now, why would I listen to the Water Elemental King?"

Steve bounds forward in front of the group. Bek unwinds her ribbon from Tommy's wrist to Merling's body. Bek pulls Merling towards her, catching the water elemental. Niki rushes over to Bek and Merling. Jack's arms drop away, and his fire elemental disappears. Taboo reaches forward to grab onto Jack's arms lifting him up. Hetta wraps her arms around Tommy's shoulders, but she remains in her physical form. Techno remains on his ice horse, surveying the area. Sally laughs even harder, but Tommy can't tell what she finds humorous.

Steve tries to attack Sally, but she lifts into the air. She spins in the air. The raindrops turn into steam, covering her escape. Tommy can still hear her laughter ringing in his ears as she disappears. Steve growls out some ancient language as he turns around to reclaim Merling. He puts Merling on his back, and the both of them disappear into their spiritual forms. Bek puts a ribbon around Tubbo's wrist. As she disappears into her spiritual form, the ribbon becomes a bracelet. Hetta doesn't have a spiritual form, so she plops down into Tommy's arms. She closes her eyes, probably exhausted from the long day she's had.

Techno stares at Tommy, and the blonde returns the look for as long as he dares. Eventually, Tommy turns to face Niki. She remains kneeled on the ground. She looks up at Tommy. He avoids her eyes as best he can as he declares, "Niki, you are under arrest for consorting with an organization that acted to harm a member of the imperial family. Please, don't say anything."

Niki bows her head. She lifts her hands. Instead of Tommy, Techno gets off his ice horse. The water elemental neighs, stomping their front feet on the ground. Jack looks between Techno, Tommy, and Niki with wide eyes. His lips part as Techno puts a pair of chains made from ice around Niki's wrists. Tubbo grabs onto Tommy's arm. Jack opens his mouth to say something, but Techno levels with him with an intense stare. Jack pulls back. Tubbo offers a hand to Jack. The man takes it, refusing to look at anyone. Techno gets back onto his horse, holding the end of Niki's chain. She is forced to follow behind the water elemental. Tommy and the others follow behind them. Tommy feels like he's also doing the walk of shame.

Tommy looks at the back of Niki's head. He's going to undo this somehow. He's going to find a way to save her. After everything she's done for him over the years, it's only right.

Tommy's vision continues rising upward until he's looking at Techno's back. A wide valley of silence continues to exist between the brothers, one Tommy dares not cross and one Techno will never willingly cross.

—

"You carry the air of royalty, darling!" Sally speaks, reaching out to pull at Ranboo's lapels. She smoothes out the crease of the fold with her hand. "You must look the part!"

"Uh..." Ranboo murmurs. Sally floats around his body, pulling at the different pieces of his outfit. Ranboo didn't even know he looked horrible enough for Sally to personally get involved.

"Sally, leave him alone," Wilbur orders, sipping out of a silver canteen.

Sally levels him with a stare. "Would you rather me come over there to fix your outfit? I'm afraid I would set it on fire with how much alcohol is on your person."

"One canteen," Wilbur argues, lifting up the silver device. He shakes it, revealing how full it is.

Sally huffs, rolling her eyes. She turns back to Ranboo. She dusts off his shoulder with a warm hand. "Don't ever start drinking, lost one, or might become your namesake in more ways than one."