(i've used three bases here. one for edd, one for tom, and one for the background. they're by the awesome basemaker EddsWorld-Base and can be found here, here, and here.)
(really getting the plot going with this one, they do be discussing red leader doe. bit long so under the cut again,)
It's around 19:45, a few minutes after Tom was set to meet with Edd in his room, just as planned.
Edd picks up a piece of paper from his desk.
"And this is the article I printed off about the Red Army's war with Denmark, the first they'd taken as a proper country, just after Norway."
"That was months ago."
"Yeah, that's the problem." Edd begins, "It was months ago. Shortly after the incident."
"And not only that - they're theorised to be using some never-before-seen technology in their weapons. Technology I remember seeing sketches for when we were teenagers - you remember how I wasn't the only one of us to be glued to his notebooks in highschool, right?"
"Honestly, I just thought your brother was a bit of a loser nerd."
"You're a dick, anyways, combining this, some documents, some more recent articles, and now that broadcast..." Edd's sentence trails off as he begins to think again.
"...You've, uh, certainly put some thought into this, huh?" Tom asks nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Of course I fucking have, Thomas, we might find him with all this knowledge!"
"Somewhere in Denmark is the first proper 'branch' of this army. Do you know what that means?"
"That you're looking into this too hard?"
"No."
"That you're making connections that aren't there?"
"Wrong again."
"Then... what?"
"It means that if we find some way to get there, we can get closer. We can solve this, I know we can." Edd explains as though this was meant to be obvious.
"But what do we do if it is him?"
"We take him down."
"Seriously? I-I mean, not that I'd argue with that, it's just... surprising, coming from you, is all."
"Seriously. He's taking this all too far. Don't you want to stop him too?"
"Honestly, I just wanna finish what I started." Tom admits, adding "but how are we going to even get to the base?"
"Well, the coordinates to the location are somewhere around..." Edd rattles off some numbers, the lat and long, then continues with "so if we start heading east in about a week, we can maybe make it there in a couple months on-"
A cellphone rings, interrupting Edd's planning.
He answers, pulling it up to his head, and is surprised to hear a familiar voice come through the line.
"Ded? What's got you calling? We haven't spoken in, like, a year! How are your geckos?"
"That's great to hear."
"Missing? No, I was just... busy with some stuff." Edd hesitates, biting his lip. He didn't want the caller on the other side to know what he was actually doing.
Tom listens idly to the conversation, only able to make out Edd's side.
"Yeah, I think I can come over to y'all's place. I've been meaning to take a vacation anyhow - how's next week work for y'all?"
"Fantastic, you notify the others."
"Yeah, love ya too, see ya, buddy."
Edd hangs up, and turns to the side.
"Tom?"
"Yeah?"
"I think we got our ticket, they're out towards the east side of the UK, which gets us at least a little closer. Go tell Matt we'll be visiting our brothers for a while. Don't tell him, or them, why we're actually there."
Tom swallows - were they really going? That soon?
"Alright." he nods, "But promise me this."
"Anything, Tom."
"You're not going to get yourself killed while we're out there."
"Tom, we've been through zombies, we've gone to hell, we've dealt with a ghost, for fuck's sake you're the crazy bastard with the harpoons! We've done a lot and come out the other side alive - I'm going to be fine, as are you." Edd grins, finally feeling reinvigorated. There's a certain tone to the sentence, one that Tom hasn't heard since before the incident, and certainly not since Edd's been holing up in his room for weeks at a time obsessing over things.
Tom smirks, for the first time in a long while, he felt as if things were going to be okay.
