The Valley

that our father's father found

Now Tommy was certainly excited. It had been two weeks, two whole weeks, and he had another target. Monarch said he was a natural but Nemesis kept on giving him weird looks. He didn't know, nor did he care.

He was sneaking through Phil's office again, despite the fact that he really shouldn't. Phil had basically every book on everything and there could be something useful there. You know, for murder.

He noticed a pile of books collecting dust in a corner, along with a covered bin. His interest piqued, he scampered over there like the little racoon he is. He looked through the books first, nothing too interesting, boring old books from an old man.

He picked up one of them, finding it to be remarkably light with none of the dust on it that the other books had. He opened it up, finding the pages had been cut out and a small box was inside.

"Now what are you hiding, Phil..." He muttered, picking up the box and opening it. Inside was a locket and a ring with a small diamond in it. He opened up the locket and there was a picture of a kind looking, dark haired woman.

"Weird..." He mumbled, setting the box back in the book and put the book back in the pile. He turned to the bin, opening it up with a grunt. Inside, there was a dark set of clothing and a mask. He was confused and took the clothes out, finding a folded note in one of the pockets. But he heard someone coming from upstairs, so he quickly put the clothes back, stuffing the note in his pocket before shoving the bin back to where it was.

He went out of the office, seeing Phil coming towards it. He looked confused and a bit put off when he noticed Tommy.

"Toms, you know I don't want you going through my office." Tommy looked down, rolling his shoulders in on himself.

"Sorry, I was lookin' for you..." He mumbled. "But I didn't look through anything!" Phil sighed, ruffling his hair.

"Okay Toms, just don't do it again, okay? I don't go into your room, so please don't go into my office." Tommy nodded, running past Phil and up the stairs.

He burst into his room. Tubbo was at his desk, tinkering with something. The brunette jumped, glaring over at Tommy.

"You made me snap this! I swear to god Tommy..." He muttered. Tommy proudly held up his note.

"I found this on Phil." He grinned, but Tubbo didn't look as happy.

"Tommy, you know how Phil feels about us like, lookin' into his past." Tommy rolled his eyes.

"He's Philza Minecraft! He won't mind if I look at one little note." Tubbo shook his head.

"Look, do what you want but I'm not an idiot." Tubbo muttered, turning back to what Tommy regarded as a pile of junk on his table. Tommy sighed and sat cross-legged on his bed, unfolding the note. He quickly realized that it wasn't a note.

It was a news story.

Beloved mother and member of the community Kristen Watson has gone missing. There was only two things left at the crime scene, a Post-It with a crude smile on it and Mrs. Watson's engagement ring. This piece of evidence has lead people to believe that the notorious vigilante and assassin Dreamcatcher is behind this kidnapping, though some suspect she is dead.

It was torn off at that place, but Tommy felt his stomach twist. Was that the woman in the locket?

"Tubbo?" Tommy whispered.

"WHAT TOMMY, what?" Tubbo demanded, whirling around. Tommy just held up the news article.

"I think I found something bad..." He whispered, before quietly reading out the snippet. Tubbo's face went pale.

"I'm gonna get Ranboo, hold on." He whispered, scurrying down the hall to Ranboo's room, dragging the noodle boy to the room.

"What's going on?" He questioned, very confused. Tommy shoved the news clipping into his hands, and Ranboo read it, having a similar reaction.

"Oh no, oh no... Tommy you should put this back oh no..."

"That's not what I'm talking about! We need to find out who did this." Tommy said angrily.

"I mean, it says someone named Dreamcatcher did it. Kinda a weird name, to be honest..."

"Yeah and we're gonna find this Dreamcatcher guy and get Phil some closure." Tommy said boldly.

"You can't be serious. Tubbo, we can't support this!" Tubbo thought for a bit, his thumb and pointer finger holding his chin.

"I think we should. Phil has done so much for us and this Kristen woman seems to be his wife." Ranboo looked at him with wide eyes.

"You're serious?" He demanded. Tommy and Tubbo nodded. Ranboo just sighed.

"You're gonna need someone to make sure you guys don't do something stupid. Fine, I'll help. But if things look dicey, we're pulling out and sending our research to the police." That was enough for the two, and Tubbo hugged Ranboo.

"Thanks, Boo. We can do this! We're gonna help Phil, since he helped us."

***

Ranboo was up very late, far too late, searching through the web for and strings of the current case he was working to tie it together. No, nothing to do with what the Sleepy Bois were doing, Wil had that covered and the three of them were supposed to focus on school.

He was working on the disappearance of Kristen Watson, trying to find any leads and also find out who this Dreamcatcher fellow was.

There wasn't much, the crime scene was too clean. They hadn't looped the cameras, it was obviously a kidnapping, but it was scary. He had only been able to find out the codenames of the associates of Dreamcatcher. Centurion and Glitch.

He wanted to curse up and down for what he had found on his suspected crimes. Apparently, this wasn't his first time.

His victims were never found, when they were kidnapped. When they were killed, they were placed somewhere. They all had the same note, a lime-green sticky note with a smile drawn onto it.

There was never any blood, they looked almost peaceful, but it was still far too horrific.

He wanted to vomit. Ranboo sighed, slumping down at his computer, resting his head by the keyboard. He didn't hear Technoblade walking in until his hand was on his shoulder. He shot up, looking at the scarred, pink-haired man, who was looking at him with narrowed and concerned eyes. He was thankful he changed tabs to something less suspicious.

"You good, Ranboo?" He nodded, and Techno ruffled his black and white hair. "I think we need to get your roots touched up." He commented.

"Yeah.. just busy with school." Techno cocked an eyebrow, but nodded.

"You should probably get to bed kid, c'mon..." He muttered, picking Ranboo up from under his armpits with remarkable ease despite Ranboo was easily taller than Techno.

He was tucked into bed, Techno ruffling his hair again. "Get some rest, Ranboo. You look tired."

Ranboo was more than happy to oblige.