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The civil war was at a standstill. Both Cindercrest and the Royal army were recovering after a particularly nasty battle that ended with both armies mutually retreating. It’s been two days since, and neither Saps nor Parrot have made a move. The tension and uncertainty of the pause can be felt throughout the castle. It’s as if the air itself knows the weight these two days have brought, carrying a feeling akin to a bow being strung, the string pulled back and held taught as the command to fire is held.
Sooner or later, Parrot is going to have to call that command.
The king himself sits at a cluttered table, head resting in the palms of his hands as he closes his eyes and tries to squint away the budding headache that’s been trying to make itself known for the last half hour. In the background he can hear Reina speaking, and he tries to focus on what she’s saying, he really does. Even so, it isn’t until he feels a hand on his shoulder that he realizes she asked him a question.
”Huh? Sorry, can you say that again?” Parrot asks, raising his head up from his hands and wincing at the light that hits his eyes as soon as he opens them to look at her. Rather than repeating her initial question, Reina’s eyebrows draw together as she watches him try to blink the dark spots out of his vision.
”Parrot, are you alright?” She finally asks, making sure to lower her voice a bit from its original volume. The king nods, mumbling a reply that gets lost in his palms as he drags them down his face. Reina frowns at this; herself, Parrot, and Theo had been talking strategy for hours now. Trying to theorize what Cindercrest was planning, how they could counter whatever attack they made, if they should be the ones to attack first rather than waiting for Cindercrest to break the stall, what resources they’d need for each plan, what they’d have to do to get everything . . . needless to say, it was a bit exhausting.
Theo had already stepped out for some fresh air a few minutes ago, leaving Reina alone with an exhausted macaw who she hadn’t seen sleep in days. Not that she was doing much better, but she certainly knew how to hide it well enough.
”Maybe we should turn in for the night, get some sleep. I’m sure Cindercrest isn’t going to make a move at this time, and if they do we have guards posted everywhere.” Picking up someone's mug of cold, half finished tea from where it sat dangerously close to the edge of the table, she looks for a place to put it down, only to realize that the entire rest of the table was covered in maps and other papers. She couldn’t even remember what half of it was, only that it was all too important to risk a stain. Deciding to just hold the mug until she finds someplace to put it, she looks back over at Parrot, who had yet to reply to her suggestion. As it turns out, that was due to him already beginning to doze off, if the way he was starting to lean precariously to the side was any indication.
Before she can move to wake him, the sound of boots against brick flooring draws near, quicker than a walking pace. By the time her sleep deprived mind registers it as sprinting, the door has swung open to reveal an out of breath Theo.
“Theo? What happened, are we-“ she’s interrupted by him waving off her concerns of an attack as he takes a second to catch his breath.
”No, no- ah, not an attack, uh. Phew that was a lot of stairs, oh my code. Parrot, there’s- is he asleep?”
Both of them focus on the king, who’s still leaning dangerously far to one side, a bit of drool visible on his hand. There’s a beat of silence, before Reina looks back at Theo.
”How important is this?”
”Very. C’mon Parrot, wakey wakey.” Theo walks over to Parrot, grabbing his shoulder a lot more suddenly than Reina had earlier, startling the king awake. Parrots wings puff out in surprise as he looks around with a panicked expression, eyes landing on Theo, who stands above him.
“Theo? What’s happening? Are we-“
”No no no- codes you both just jump to the worst possible conclusions don’t you?” He absentmindedly pats down some of Parrot's feathers, and Reina’s gaze focuses on that contact. She’s noticed Parrot tends to avoid any contact between his wings and other people, even being slow to let Theo touch them. The fact that neither of them react to the contact goes to show how out of it they both must be.
”Mapicc and Jumper are here, they said they need to talk to you, like, now.”
Parrot frowns, going to rub his eyes before noticing the drool on his hand, grimacing as he wipes it off on his pants. “Wasn’t Mapicc missing? Don’t answer that- is this really important right now? They do know we’re in the middle of a war, right?”
Theo shakes his head. “No, they had no idea what was happening right now on the server! They said they’ve been in some kind of prison for ages, and I mean, not to be rude or anything but they definitely look like it.”
That gets Parrots attention, and he sits up straighter. Reina also steps closer. She doesn’t recognize either of the names, but this sounds strange regardless. If these are people Parrot is (seemingly) close to, how could it be possible that they didn’t know anything about what was happening? If they weren’t prisoners to Cindercrest, has someone else been abducting players while everyone was distracted by the war?
”A prison? What do you mean a prison?”
“Exactly that! They said it was in the farlands? Or the nether- they said both but the nether doesn’t work in the farlands so I don’t know if they got something mixed up or what, but-“
”Take me to them. Now.” Parrot interrupts, standing up from his seat. Theo nods, taking a few steps backwards before turning and rushing out the door, Parrot close behind. Reina pauses only to glance back at the table, before sighing at the mess and tightening her hold on the mug of cold tea. She’ll just have to be careful not to spill it while she runs.
Run. Run, keep on running don’t look back. Don’t look back even as you hear the sounds of portals tearing the overworlds code apart as they open. Don’t look back even as the clatter of armour grows louder. Don’t look back, because if you do you won’t be able to keep running. If you look back now you’ll see him, dead or alive you don’t know. He’s at the very least hurt, you’ll see him so so hurt and you’ll stop because he’s your FRIEND. Despite everything you still care about him and you can’t leave him like that. But he told you to. Asked you to, BEGGED you to with a rasp in his voice that left a pit in your stomach, in your heart in your lungs in your head because he’s giving himself up so you and Jumper can escape. Giving himself up even though he knows that Jamato’s patience has run out, that he’s not going to spare him this time. He’s giving himself up for YOU and if you don’t keep RUNNING it will all be for nothing he’ll have died for nothing and you can’t live with that, you don’t know how you’re supposed to live with yourself as it is but if they catch you, if it was all for nothing, it will be so much worse. The blood on your hands and your arms and your legs is still wet, staining the fabrics and your skin and your bones. But you run. You run, you run you run you run, because the blood spilt can’t be for nothing. It can’t be. It can’t, it can’t it can’t it can’t it can’t it can’t it
”Jumper! Mapicc!”
The pair, who had been sitting in heavy silence since Theo had led them inside, both stand up at the call, looking towards the doorway. Parrot rushes in, quickly followed by Theo and a girl who neither of them recognize. Jumper covers her mouth, choking back a sob as Parrot walks in. Maybe it’s the exhaustion, but seeing a face she’s known and trusted for years after everything that had happened makes her break in a way she didn’t expect. Mapicc just continues to stare at Parrot- at the King. Because that’s what he is now, even if Mapicc hadn’t made it to the end of that fight, he knew they had won it.
But he doesn’t feel any relief in seeing Parrot. If anything, the pit only seems to grow deeper as Spoke’s words from earlier ring through his mind.
“We just have to get to Parrot. He didn’t really help us last time, but we have SO much more proof now, we- this is so much bigger than just a few bandits and trappers going missing. We can convince him this time,” He pauses as a sharp ledge emerges out of the darkness in front of them. Taking the cobbled blackstone they gathered earlier into his hand, he starts to bridge over it. Jumper breaks the blocks behind him as they go, while Mapicc keeps his eyes up, crossbow in hand.
“Jumper, we got him to at least hear us out when we had nothing. He’ll help us now, he has to. We can- we can come back with a whole army, we can do this. We can beat them, we- we just have to get to him.”
When Spoke speaks again, it’s quiet, barely above a mutter, almost as if he’s speaking to only himself. But Mapicc catches what he says. Of course he does.
“He’ll help us. He has to.”
A sharp sting in his palms brings Mapicc back to reality, and he slowly unclenches his fists, choosing to ignore the blood that is probably starting to well up where he dug his nails harshly into skin. It won’t be noticed beneath all the rest of the red that coats his hands, anyways.
Jumper is sitting back down, a mug in her hands as the girl whose name they still don’t know gently rubs her back. The set of arms that aren’t being used to hold the mug are wrapped tightly around Jumper’s midsection, hugging herself as she tries to speak. Every time she opens her mouth another sob threatens to spill out. Mapicc has never seen her like this before, and Parrot seems equally caught off guard, standing awkwardly beside the girl with the blue scarf. When he notices Mapiccs gaze on him, he turns to look at the demon.
“Mapicc, what happened? Where were you guys?”
The words are said with genuine concern, but it doesn’t stop the flash of rage that tears through Mapicc’s body.
Tears, like the arrow through his shoulder as they ran. Like their clothes on every sharp stone from the walls of the narrow passage, or on the trees that reach out as if to grab them. Like a muscle or a tendon or something else in Jumper’s ankle, causing her to stumble. Like the sword through Spokes clothes and skin and flesh as-
His hands collide with Parrot’s shoulders as he shoves the other harshly against the nearest wall. The action is followed by yells, and someone grabbing him by the arms in a tight grip which he quickly pulls against. But the escape from Purgatory and the journey here have weakened him, so he can only writhe as Theo pulls him away from the King.
”Where were we? Where were WE?! WHERE WERE YOU? HE CAME TO YOU, HE ASKED YOU FOR HELP AND YOU IGNORED HIM. MY BEST FRIEND IS DEAD BECAUSE YOU WERE TOO WORRIED ABOUT SOME STUPID KINGDOM THAT HE BASICALLY WON FOR YOU!”
His throat is raw, from the heat of the nether, from the running and from the lack of water. When was the last time he drank water? Apparently recently enough for hot tears to start running down his face, joining the dried blood on his sweater.
Parrot doesn’t reply to the outburst, he just stares at Mapicc as the demon's knees give out, the only thing keeping him from hitting the ground being Theo’s ironclad grip on him as the cockatiel slowly sinks down to the floor with him. Mapicc sits there on his knees, hunched over and sobbing in a way he hasn’t since he was a child. If he were any less exhausted he’d try to calm himself, to not break down in front of two people he barely knows and a third who’s a complete stranger. But he’s tired. He’s so, so tired.
The only sound other than his sobs are the awkward shuffling of feet against the room's carpeted floors. After a minute or so, a low whine also joins in, as Jumper tries once again to hold back her own sobs. The girl with the blue scarf carefully takes the mug from her shaking hands, which immediately join the other pair in being wrapped around herself as Jumper fails to blink back tears. She watches as Mapicc curls in on himself, forehead against the ground and hair falling past his bandana and framing his face. She shudders as the image brings back an unwelcomed memory.
Spoke on the floor, the glitches which wrack his body at any strong emotion rushing all along his form as he screams from the pain. Not the pain of the glitches, he doesn’t seem to notice them, but rather from the injury. Someone, she’s not sure who, screams at the blood spilling from Spoke like a fountain as he clutches his midsection, spilling onto his knees and onto the ground. Mapicc shouts, rushing towards his friend as the voidling curls in on himself, his colourful headband askew and doing nothing to hold his hair back from his face, an expression of pure agony disappearing behind inkly black curls. Jumper pushes herself off the wall she was leaning against with a nearly animalistic, drawn out whine, ignoring the pain in her ankle as she reaches out for Spoke, for Mapicc, for either of them as the sounds of footsteps grow nearer-
She’s sobbing, her own cries echoing Mapicc’s. The girl - she vaguely remembers hearing Theo call her Reina - tentatively pulls her closer. When Jumper leans into the contact, Reina wraps her arms around her.
”What happened?”
Theo asks, finally breaking the silence. He’s still on the floor behind Mapicc, hands hovering around the other uselessly as he looks up at the others in shock.
”Null- Null got him. They got- all of us, there’s a prison in the farlands, hic through the nether portals, and they caught us.” Jumper says, choking the words out between sobs. Reina begins to run a hand up and down her back again as she continues.
”They have- so many people there, Parrot. So many. Jamato, he- he almost killed Mapicc and me but then Spoke-“ Mapicc’s sobs grow louder at the mention of his friend, and Jumper pauses to try and catch her own breath before continuing. “Spoke saved us, he saved us but Jamato got so angry. There were, there was an arena and, and the games..” She trails off, words dissolving into a whine as her head droops. Jumper doesn’t look back up, nor does she continue speaking, eyes wide and fixed on the ground.
”We escaped. We escaped the games, and Purgatory, but they got him. They killed him.” Mapicc finally speaks up, sitting up just enough to glare at Parrot. “He kept saying we just had to get to you, that you didn’t help him before but that you would now. He wanted to go back for everyone else, to go back with an army and save them.”
Parrot doesn’t reply, his mouth opening and closing as he looks between Mapicc and Jumper with an unbelieving expression. It’s Theo who breaks the silence once again.
”Are you sure he’s dead? Like, did you see that death message?”
Mapicc turns to glare at him so quickly that Theo flinches backwards, hands raised in front of him in defence. “Hey! It was a fair question- Spoke thought you were dead that one time and almost blew up Capitol City because of it!”
Before Mapicc can ask what Theo means, Jumper finds her voice.
“We didn’t see the message. But he- there was no surviving that. I hope he didn’t, it would be so much worse for him if he did.”
Reina looks up from Jumper, over towards the others. Mapicc is upright now, but still on the floor, and the shifting moonlight from outside begins to fall on him in a way that clearly shows the bloodstains coating his sweater, something she didn’t notice before. Theo is looking between Parrot and Reina helplessly, while Parrot . . .
The King stares at Mapicc with wide, horrified eyes. His wings held tightly against his body, genuine fear radiating off of him in a way Reina hadn’t even seen when Wemmbu had shown himself at the battle for HighWater.
“Spoke is dead?” His voice is weak, and he sounds smaller. Maybe it’s because Reina has only ever known him as her King, but it catches her off guard just how human he sounds. She’s brought out of her shock at the scoff that comes from Mapicc.
”Yeah. Hope your kingdom was worth it.”
The demon stands, unsteadily, and Theo moves as if to help him, but Mapicc slaps his hands away. The cockatiel frowns, but says nothing as Mapicc finds his balance, and walks out of the room.
Jumper leans heavier against Reina as sobs begin to wrack her body once again.