TW for broken bones, just in case.

There was a terrible weight in BDubs' limbs. He'd been scouting out the server for the past week, acting as eyes for the monster. It hadn't let him sleep, and it was seriously starting to break the guy. He was half-hoping that someone would notice that he was online but not sleeping, and realise that something was wrong, and come drag him out of this nightmare.

It didn't happen. And he was dragged all over the server, until he found himself wearily approaching the edge of a jungle. A part of him cringed with fear, but he was, for the most part, too exhausted to react. He staggered forward, step by step, just begging for all of this to end. And, eventually, it did. BDubs crumpled to the ground, too tired to move on, and he slowly drifted into blissful unconsciousness.

He woke up in a comfortable bed, and for a moment, he thought it had all been a lousy dream. He realised his mistake when he went to sit up and found that his arms still weren't obeying him.  He lay there for a moment more, and then he was slowly, smoothly, Un-BDubs-ish-ly sat up, his legs swung over the side of the bed. He spotted Etho in the corner of the room he was in, who looked up at the movement.

"BDubs!" He greeted, the shape  of a smile forming under his mask. "You're awake! What happened? I found you passed out on the edge of the Jungle... are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Etho!" His voice assured, as he stood up. "Just forgot to sleep, ya know?"

"Alright, well, you should probably rest up." Etho suggested, his expression shifting into something unreadable.

"No, I... uh... have a project that I need to get back to, uh, but, thanks for the suggestion!" BDubs' voice desperately tried to weasel him out of this situation.

"Alright, alright, I understand." Etho assured BDubs, as his legs walked him out of the room. "Just one thing before you go," Etho's hand suddenly landed on BDubs' shoulder, squeezing it tightly. "Who are you, and where's my friend?" He hissed, dragging BDubs back.

"I-I'm right here, Etho!" His voice protested, causing the spark of hope he'd felt to begin to fade.

"Liar." Etho accused. "The BDubs I know pays attention to his sleeping schedule, would rest up if he needed to, and would take any opportunity to avoid a jungle. Now tell me. Where. Is. BDubs."

BDubs' voice didn't answer. Instead, BDubs felt his legs moving, running off and breaking Etho's death grip on his shoulder. He was vaguely aware of Etho following in pursuit, but he couldn't look back to confirm it. He bolted towards Etho's nether portal, escaping into the hellish dimension.

He only ran a dozen or so blocks in the nether before stopping and standing very still. He heard the wooshing of multiple nether portals - wait. That wasn't right. And then BDubs realised. On being found out, the monstrosity had set a trap, and Etho was sprinting right into it. BDubs winced as he heard Etho run up behind him. Etho grabbed onto BDubs' arm, spinning him around and grabbing him by the shoulders.

"Where's the real BDubs?" He pressed. "Where... where is my friend."

"You'll see." His voice replied, a twisted smirk contorting onto his face. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ren and Stress approaching, sneaking up behind Etho. He felt a twinge of guilt: he'd led the two of them into a similar trap. Before he could beat himself up about things outside of his control too much, however, Etho turned around and saw the two.

The guy didn't have time to react properly. Ren grabbed both of Ehto's hands and pulled them behind his back, kicking out Etho's legs so he fell to his knees. Etho yelled and struggled, to no avail. Stress paced around in front of him, crouching down to make eye contact.

"Don't worry, luv." She purred. "You'll be alright." She then rested a hand on the side of his neck, and delivered a Vulcan nerve-pinch. Etho blacked out.

Meanwhile, hidden behind the obsidian pillar of a nearby nether portal, a man in a pharaoh costume gasped and turned away, shocked at what he had just witnessed, and hoping against all hope that he hadn't been noticed. He waited a minute or so, checked that the coast was clear, and made a mad dash for his pyramid on the nether roof. He had to get back to his base. He had to consult the Vex about this.

-Jack of Clubs, Queen of Clubs, Queen of Diamonds, King of Hearts, King of Diamonds-

Etho woke up in a small, pristine room of white concrete, with blue glass looking out into some kind of body of water. There were iron bars and a locked iron door looking into a similarly-designed corridor. Tango was slumped against the opposite wall, staring at his knees and clearly thinking deeply about something. There didn't seem to be any obvious threats, so he opened his other eye and made a faint groaning noise to let Tango know that he was awake. Tango instantly looked up and rushed over, helping Etho stand.

"Look, there's no time to explain." He began, speaking in a rushed whisper, like they were being listened to. Odd. Etho hadn't noticed any bugs or cameras or anything of the like. "You need to fight it off, okay?"

"Fight what-" Etho half-asked, but Tango interrupted him.

"I said there was no time to..." Tango trailed off, staring in horror and hatred at something in the window. Etho turned around, and saw the fish-monster. Before he could really register the horror of the sight, however, something else distracted him, a strange buzz running through his nervous system. "Please. Fight it off." Tango begged, in a hushed voice. And Etho tried. And Etho failed. A dark chuckle — not his dark chuckle — slipped out of his mouth.

"Why would I ever want to do that?" Etho's voice laughed. Tango gasped, and backed up, instinctively raising an arm defensively. Etho grabbed that arm, and pulled Tango closer. A breath hitched in Tango's throat. "Why would you try and keep me from this? It's liberating!"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you don't know what that word means..." Tango chuckled, trying not to panic.

"No matter. You've been a thorn in my master's side for far too long." Etho sighed.

"Etho, please, think about what you're doing." Tango begged, trying to break free.

"I don't need to think, not anymore." Etho chuckled. "What you need, on the other hand..." he pulled Tango even closer. "Is punishment." Etho slammed Tango into the iron bars. Tango met Etho's eyes, but quickly looked away when he saw that they were full of dangerous intent and shining with tears. Etho pressed Tango's arm against one of the bars, and pushed, until suddenly-

CRACK!

Tango let out a bloodcurdling scream. Etho let go of him, and he crumpled to the floor clutching his arm to his chest. Someone opened the cell door for Etho, and let him out. If whoever it was noticed how Etho was trembling, no remark was made about it. Tango was, once again, left alone.

-Queen of Clubs, King of Spades-

Cub hadn't slept. Instead of being helpful and giving him answers, the Vex had just given him a dusty old tome and told him that he should really figure it out for himself. Cub didn't even see what the book Horrors of the Oceans had to do with what he'd witnessed in the nether. Still, he'd stayed up all night reading it, and, as the dawn broke, all he had was a good idea of what kind of horrifying water flora there were out there. He'd never go swimming again.

But tediously, tiredly, he'd reached the section on horrifying water fauna. He was on the second entry under A, 'Aboleth'. He skipped past the various gunk he'd deemed unnecessary, like the anatomical diagrams and stuff, and turned to the list of its abilities. And that was when Cubfan135 realised the magnitude of the situation. 

He gasped, and turned back to the beginning of the entry, reading up on every little detail about the thing. What it could do matched the situation he'd seen perfectly, and so he needed to find a weak spot. After scanning the chapter thoroughly, he began to devise an attack plan. He then gathered his things into a shulker box, and took off.

The first place he went was X's base. He left a note behind, letting X know what was going on, just in case he didn't make it out with his own mind intact. He sighed, and took off, looking back once as he was terribly afraid that this would be the last time he'd see X's base of his own free will.

Cub had traced the possible locations of the Aboleth, and figured most likely be either at Impulse's base or Jevin's base. Considering how he'd spoken to Jevin less than a day before and the guy seemed as relatively alright as he usually was, Cub went to Impulse's base first. 

He landed lightly, softly, trying to keep himself hidden, ready to face something with the faces of his friends. After a couple minutes of exploring, he spotted Ren coming out of some kind of hidden trapdoor, and gasped, quickly darting into the shadows before he was spotted by anyone. And then the voice spoke into his head.

"Those can't hide you. You think far too loudly." It was insidious, clawing at the crannies of his mind. Cub quickly shunted it out, just in time to see Ren turn to stare directly at him. It was kinda ominous, in a way that made Cub's heart leap into his throat. Cub carefully backed away, hoping that this was all just his paranoid mind playing tricks on him - and bumped right into Grian.

Cub gasped, and made to run in the other direction, but Ren and Grian quickly cornered him, perfectly coordinated. It sent a shiver down his spine. He defended himself fairly well, and only had to resort to magic twice. Still, in the end, Grian and Ren got him pinned against the wall, his hand unable to move to cast any more life-saving spells.

"Join us, Cub." Grian suggested. Cub felt the feeling of being taken over trying to run rampant through his nervous system. He squashed it with a quiet grunt.

"Never." Cub asserted. He started struggle, just trying to get his hands free so he could cast a spell to teleport himself outta there. All his efforts, however, just left him out of breath. He looked up, and met Grian's eyes. "I'll never join you."

Even as Grian's face twisted into one of anger, Cub caught the briefest twinkle of relief in the other's eye. That was when the realisation hit Cub: they were awake in there. Everyone under that monster's control was conscious and aware of what was happening to them. The shock hit him like a bullet, so hard that he didn't even notice a second attempt at taking him over until it was far too late for him.

-King of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds, King of Hearts-