Chapter Text
Parrot’s blood was fire. His skin was fire. Every part of him was burning alive, suffocating in smoke and flames that would devour him. The Director stood in front of him. Their armor shone with the weight of enchantments infused into the metal, quartz swirling over their armor like clouds, or streams of water.
Parrot lunged for them. His sword was in his hands, and he was running, ready to kill the person who had taken Wifies from him. The Director jumped back, dodging, and threw a pearl towards the towering ruins of what had once been BAT headquarters. A pearl was in Parrot’s hand before he had fully registered the Director’s action, and he put his whole body into the throw, hoping it would be enough to catch up. Parrot felt part of himself flying through the air with the pearl, an invisible tether, before he was yanked across it to the place the pearl had landed. Parrot stumbled for a heartbeat as he was teleported, his body shivering at the unnerving feeling that came with using ender pearls, but he was running still.
For a few tense seconds, his feet pounding on the cracked marble floors, Parrot believed this was it. That he could catch the Director, that he could end it all, that he could avenge his best friend. But it didn’t last. The Director was faster, the blue particles swirling around him indicating he had drunk a speed potion, and Parrot could only watch as another pearl was thrown, towards a structure he knew was a pearl cannon. He yelled for Leo and Derap to hurry, that they couldn’t let the Director escape, was already throwing his own pearl, but he knew it was too late. He scrambled up the ladder as fast as his body could go, his hands burning from flinging him up the rungs without gloves, but by the time he scrambled onto the platform the Director winked out in a flurry of purple dust, the cannon already firing to send him who knows how many thousands of blocks away.
Parrot lunged for the cannon, another pearl in his hand, ready to load it, but Leo caught him and held him back.
“Parrot, stop! He’s gone!”
Parrot struggled, trying to twist out of Leo’s hold, but his arms were held firmly at his sides and he realized he was completely at the mercy of his teammate. His stomach churned at being restrained, and he wanted to fight more wildly, but Derap was putting a calming hand on his arm, and Parrot realized it was no use trying to fight, at least not physically.
Parrot forced himself to breathe, to think about this logically. They could still catch the Director. He just needed to be smart about this.
“The cannon is still here, it still works- we can follow them. They haven’t escaped.”
Parrot had felt Leo release him, but as he lunged for the cannon again, his hand was caught.
“You’re not going! You will die, Parrot, you’ll die if you go!”
Parrot ignored Leo’s shout. He had to follow the Director. He had to avenge Wifies.
“This is- I don’t care! This is our only lead on the Director, we have spent three months chasing this guy, and you’re telling me that we give up now?”
“And you’re trying to go to a death trap? How is an obvious death trap-“
Parrot couldn’t stand this. He couldn’t sit back and watch as his only chance to kill the Director slipped through his fingers.
“You have five seconds to go first or I go.”
He glared at Leo, sword gripped tightly in his hand. He raised a hand, ready to count down, but Leo was stepping forward, placing his hand on the cannon and preparing to throw his pearl with a sigh.
“You’re gonna get me killed.”
Parrot watched as Leo threw his pearl, watched as it slipped into the cannon, felt the platform shake from the shockwave of the explosion that rolled over them. Derap stepped up next, wordlessly blocking Parrot’s advance, and threw his pearl as well, just as Leo disappeared. It felt like eons until Parrot stepped up to the chamber, throwing his own pearl into the machine-
-Parrot gasped as he landed in a room made of obsidian, the ceiling not far above his head. Leo and Derap stood in front of him, looking around. Parrot shook his head, and turned to see the Director standing in front of a doorway to the outside world, their head tilted as if they were grinning at Parrot. The thought made him feel sick.
“I told you Parrot,” the voice of the Director made him wince, garbled beyond recognition from the voice changer. “But you didn’t listen.”
The Director placed obsidian over the entrance, blocking them in. Parrot took a step forward, the hair on the back of his neck standing up as the Director continued to speak.
“I know exactly who you are. I know how you work, how you think, how you act; you’re too predictable.” Parrot wanted to punch them. Rage boiled inside him. How dare this… this *monster* pretend he knew Parrot. Only one person knew him. And he was dead.
“And thats the difference between us. You can’t predict, you can’t know, you can’t win against someone… who doesn’t even exist.”
“What is this.” Parrot’s voice rose at the end, as if he was asking, even though he knew he would get no answer. What did the Director mean?
“Bro, lets just kill him.” Leo’s voice was almost bored as he ran at the Director. Parrot couldn’t bring himself to move, eyes trained on the Directors movements. They raised a hand, pressed a button on the wall next to them, and with their laughter still echoing in Parrot’s mind, they vanished. In the next instant, dozens of figures wearing the Director’s armor, cloaked in invisibility, dropped from the ceiling.
Zombies. Parrot raised his sword, and watched as he and Leo and Derap were swarmed by the mindless dead, dressed in armor that made him want to scream. He jumped for the ceiling, securing a handhold among the mechanical parts that whirred above him, and yelled at Leo and Derap to do the same. They scrambled out of the box, pulling each other up as they went, but the Director was gone. They were gone-
-Parrot stood in the warehouse he’d come to know too well at this point. The Director stood in front of him, and he could feel the eyes of Jumper, Leo and Derap on him. They watched from the surrounding woods, perched in trees and behind ruined buildings. Parrot hoped they hadn’t been noticed, and hoped more fervently that the spies watching the six people they suspected to be the Director. Now, all he had to do was wait.
He didn’t have to wait long. The Director jumped down from a cracked hole in the roof, and they lifted their head to look at Parrot. He shivered, as if he could see their eyes, their stare.
“Hello Parrot.”
He took a breath, stepping forwards a little.
“I didn’t set a trap or anything like last time.”
The words tumbled out of him softer than he’d hoped. Parrot hated the fear that swelled inside him, hated the other feeling that was stuck in his throat. He couldn’t get Wifies out of his head. He saw him in every slight movement of the Director’s head, in the swirling patterns of their armor, in the way the empty helmet stared into him, as if they could see his very soul.
“I know. Thats why I came.” Their voice was softer than it had been a heartbeat before, and Parrot hated them for it. He hated the way it felt like they *pitied* him. Like this monster could feel pity.
He let out a breath, and pulled out the book, willing his hands to stop shaking.
“You- you didn’t lie in the book. I didn’t actually expect you to show up here.” Parrot stumbled over his first words, curling his hands into fists.
“Did you think I was scared.” It wasn’t a question.
“You know, before you killed him, Wifies told me- that the only reason someone would ever want to stay invisible was because they were terrified of being seen.”
“Oh, Parrot,” There was pity in their voice now. Pity, and something else Parrot couldn’t recognize, didn’t want to recognize. “If I was scared of being seen, I wouldn’t play this game with you.”
His stomach churned, his throat dry. “You know this just as well as I do, this isn’t even a game anymore. This is sick, bro.” Parrot held the Director’s gaze, hating the way he felt completely exposed under it. It was as if his armor had been stripped away and his mind lay thrown open before them. “You killed Wifies, then you killed Nufulli, you ruined the entirety of our team- I don’t even know what else you’ve done. But you know exactly what you’re doing. And thats why you won’t show yourself.”
The Director’s gaze was hard now, and for a heartbeat Parrot thought he had gotten to them, that he had struck some weak spot in their armor. “You have one week, Parrot. One more week to decide who you think I am.” They stepped closer, and Parrot couldn’t help flinching away. “I want you to think. Really think. You have one week to open your eyes and see whats in front of you. And when that week is up you’ll either know exactly who I am,” Parrot felt a hand hover just over his cheek, felt himself tense, screamed at himself to slap them away, but he was frozen before the Director. “Or maybe you’ll see how blind you really are. And trust me,” Parrot wanted to throw up. He wanted to scream, because he could not move in front of this person, who had him in the palm of their hand as if he were a little bird, “One of those will hurt a lot more than the other.”
Parrot raised a hand, ready to strike, but with a spray of purple dust the Director had vanished. He heard his teammates approach, knew they would go back to the base, knew he would have to face them-
-“Go.”
Parrot watched as Derap nodded, muttered an ‘okay’, as he and Jumper left the room. He stood facing Leo, trying to think of why he had sent their teammates away. The lava at his back felt like it was burning him alive.
“We need to talk bro.”
Leo’s voice was cold, hard. Parrot didn’t want to do this. He exhaled, steeling himself.
“Now?”
“Now.” Leo’s voice didn’t leave room for arguments.
The walk to the meeting table felt like an eternity, even though logically Parrot knew it only lasted a few seconds.
“Parrot, I have.. I have a serious question. I need to know this- I need you to be truthful too.” Parrot’s acknowledgement was quiet, subdued.
“In this entire time you’ve been with BAT, has there been a single moment you’ve actually cared about any of us?”
Parrot froze. He stared at Leo, unable to speak. Had he cared? He’d practically been forced into this team, dragged along, his ideas pushed aside, mocked. Apparently his silence was all the answer Leo needed.
“Alright. Thats what I thought.”
Leo sighed, and at that moment Parrot felt mining fatigue wash over him, weighing his limbs down, and suddenly Leo had thrown a pearl and had lunged at him, and with only a heartbeat to spare Parrot leapt back, shield up, as Leo detonated an explosive that would have knocked him into the void if he’d been just a second slower.
“Leo, Leo what are you doing?”
Parrot’s voice was high pitched, frantic, and he scrambled back as Leo detonated another explosive at his feet. The void seemed to giggle below him, and the glass he stood on suddenly felt unsteady. Parrot yelled for Leo to stop, desperation rising in him, but Leo was moving too quickly, and Parrot felt his armor strain and begin to crack from the third explosion.
“You’re dead bro.”
Parrot ran, ran for the lava, not daring to look back. “Think about what you’re doing, Leo please!”
“All of this, for what- for what Parrot?” Parrot felt the next explosion catch him, blowing him off his feet and into a wall, and his armor made a worrying crack. Parrot threw a pearl, trying to escape, knowing he couldn’t. He ducked into a vent, swimming as fast as he could, trying to ignore the feeling of Leo’s sword striking him.
“I can’t let you live, Parrot. Nufulli died for you.”
Parrot felt Leo’s sword cut his arm, deep. Blood turned the water around him red, dripping onto the floor as Parrot scrambled out of the vent. The next explosion stunned him, throwing him across the room, and Parrot felt the wind get knocked out of him as he hit the far wall. He desperately bit into a gapple, feeling the cut on his arm start to knit together as the healing swept over him. He kept running, Leo’s footsteps gaining on him.
“You leave a trail of death and destruction behind you. You corrupt everything you touch. Wifies died because of YOU.”
Parrot felt himself freeze at Leo’s words. No. No. The Director had killed Wifies. It was their fault he was dead… Right?
In his moment of distraction, Parrot had slowed down. He realized his mistake as Leo pearled in front of him, and blew up the floor under his feet.
Parrot threw a pearl, desperation clouding his mind, and nearly fell when the pearl landed safely.
“Leo, please, just think about what you’re doing. Leo, please-“
Leo brought his sword down on Parrot, and Parrot’s arm shook under the attack, his shield splintering in his hands. “You should have thought about what you did long ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
Parrot ducked into a vent, boosting himself with wind charges. He pulled himself into a spy room, grabbing a totem from a chest, clutching it tightly as he began to swim again. Leo’s sword cut against his back, and Parrot felt himself grow weaker, blackness creeping into the corners of his vision. The totem in his hand popped, new energy flooding him, his back stitching itself together in a shower of green and gold dust.
Parrot lunged out of the vent, blocking it off behind him. He ducked into a hallway, hurrying as quietly as he could towards a spy room, hoping to find something, anything to help him survive. Parrot ducked into a vent, starting to swim, when he heard a sound behind him. Twisting, he saw Leo lunge at him, and desperately blocked off the vent, trying to swim faster. He pulled himself out of the vent, running again. His legs ached, his lungs were on fire, he was running on desperation and terror. Another explosion blasted into him, and Parrot stumbled, almost falling. He ran, trying to pull out his elytra, wishing his wings could support his weight.
Parrot heard Leo behind him, and sprinted for the potion brewer, his hands desperately pressing the button for slow falling. Leo laughed as he grabbed it, blowing up another minecart behind him, and Parrot felt his armor begin to crack and break. He couldn’t survive much longer.
Suddenly, as Parrot readied himself to jump over a section of the floor that had been blown up, he felt Leo behind him, and then he was being shoved, into the inky blackness.
“No!” Parrot threw an ender pearl, trying to save himself, but it hit the floor of the base, leaving him stranded in the void.
“Leo, Leo please!” Parrot’s voice was desperate, panicked. Leo was laughing. “Please, Leo- please, I’m going to die here,”
Leo wasn’t listening. “Is that it Parrot?” His voice was mocking. “You’re going to regret this!” Parrot shouted. The cold of the void was in his bones. It called to him, hungry, and Parrot remembered that Wifies had died here too. The same thing that had claimed his best friend was going to kill Parrot, and there was nothing he could do, no way to escape-
-Parrot opened the door of the cabin. He felt exhausted, and colder than he’d ever been before. He was alone now. As alone as he’d been when he lost Wifies.
Leo had saved him, in the end. But Parrot couldn’t trust him. He couldn’t trust anyone. He’d been abandoned, betrayed. Now all he had left was a long empty cabin, and the echoes of a ghost.
Parrot went to sit down at the couch, head in his hands. What was he going to do. What could he do? How could he kill the Director without BAT?
Suddenly, he stood up, walking to a small room in the back. It had a large window overlooking the valley by the cabin, and a bed sat against one wall, a chest of drawers opposite it. Parrot dug through the top drawer, searching, until his hands brushed against something small and metallic. Parrot pulled it out, cupping it in his hands. The ring.
It looked the same as it had so many days ago, when he’d found it in this house. The place where the emerald was supposed to be seemed to look up at Parrot, and he felt a matching hole in his chest.
Wifies.
Parrot saw a drop of water land on the ring, felt his vision blur. He sat down against the foot of the bed, wrapped his arms around himself, and cried. He hadn’t let himself cry for Wifies. It had felt like it would make it more final, as if Parrot would be dooming his friend a second time.
Now, he didn’t hold himself back. Sobs wracked his body, and he shook with them. If only Wifies were here. He’d take Parrot by the hand and pull him up, give him armor and tell him it’d be alright. Wifies would know what to do.
Parrot pulled himself upright and schooled his face into a neutral expression when he heard fireworks. He turned, watching as the door opened, and Jumper and Derap walked in.
“Parrot?” Jumper looked him up and down, as if checking for injuries.
“What are you guys doing here?”
“Well, we were looking for you, but-“
Jumper’s voice trailed off, and Parrot spoke in the silence. “How did you find me all the way out here?”
“You know my spy team, Parrot, but- where’s Leo?”
Parrot felt cold. He didn’t want to tell them what had happened, but he had to. He watched as their expressions changed from shock, to anger, to confusion as he explained how Leo had attacked him.
“So, does that mean he abandoned, like- the entirety of BAT?”
Parrot just turned away. He didn’t want to answer their questions. He opened his mouth to tell them to leave, but a soft sound brought his attention to the window.
It was the ringing of a bell.
“The Director- they’re here.”
Parrot ran for the door, ignoring Jumper and Derap’s questions, and swept his gaze across the valley, searching for a figure dressed in netherite armor. He turned around to check that the other two were following him, and froze.
Parrot locked eyes with the Director, standing just under the eaves of the cabin. He heard Jumper and Derap talking, but he couldn’t take his gaze off the Director.
“Parrot. I’ll say it again. I wrote this story. That means I know everything about you, especially where you are at all times.”
Parrot tried to keep his voice steady as he spoke. “He’s bluffing, he just followed you guys.”
“Oh really? Then tell me why, Parrot; tell me why I know about that ring in your pocket.”
Parrot froze. The other two looked at him, Jumper made a suprised exclamation, but Parrot couldn’t move. How could they know?
“Lets kill this guy.” Parrot unsheathed his sword, running for the Director. They threw an ender pearl, dodging his strike. Parrot turned, chasing them further into the valley. Snow swirled down around them in the beginnings of a blizzard, making it harder and harder to see the retreating figure.
Jumper and Derap were talking, but Parrot couldn’t focus. His eyes were trained on the Director, who had slowed down, hopping across the field in a seemingly random pattern. Parrot realized why a heartbeat too late, and his cry wasn’t enough to stop Jumper and Derap from running out onto the powdered snow. They fell through it, their yells seeming to echo from somewhere far below.
The Director was still ten steps ahead.
“Parrot, I’ve shown you time and time again that you can’t win against me. Yet you refuse to believe that, and because of your obsession your friends are trapped inside a box. If you try to pull anything funny, they die down there.”
“Bro, let them go. Just let them go. Please.”
The Director didn’t respond for a moment, just watching him.
“I want you to return when the two weeks are up, Parrot.”
Parrot sucked in a breath, feeling the hopelessness return. His voice shook as he spoke. “Bro. Please,”
“You know how this goes. You have one chance. Once chance to guess who I am. And if you’re wrong… you know what happens.”
With a flutter of purple dust, the Director was gone-
-“I’m here.”
Parrot stood facing the Director, both of them in the same places as they had been mere days before. Leo was saving Jumper and Derap, and it was up to Parrot to distract the Director long enough for them to get away.
“Its been two weeks.” Parrot was tired. His voice was tired. He wanted to sit down by the fire in his cabin, to relax, to have Wifies beside him. The Director just looked at him.
“I give up.”
The words lay heavy on his tongue, bitter and hard to say. Parrot was admitting defeat, was letting the Director win. “I- I can’t put my teammates through this any more bro. I give up.”
The Director walked up to Parrot as he spoke. They stared at him for a moment, and Parrot could’ve sworn they were smiling, if that wasn’t such a foolish idea.
“I’m gonna take you somewhere.”
Parrot inhaled. “You’re just fine with that? You’re fine if I just don’t guess?”
Parrot felt himself flinch as the Director walked closer, feeling that ghostly cold on his cheek again, like a butterfly hovering just above a leaf.
“Let me take you- follow me to the house, Parrot.”
It was the first time Parrot had heard the Director stumble over their words. He followed as they walked towards the cabin, a small part of him whispering that this was what was meant to happen. That this was right, that everything was falling into place. Parrot didn’t trust it.
The Director turned back to him, and Parrot was frozen under the stare of someone he could not see. They just looked at him for another moment, before speaking. “And don’t try anything.”
If Parrot didn’t know better, he would have thought their voice was… playful.
“You remember you tamed a dog?”
Parrot stared at the Director as they walked into the house. He trailed behind, feeling inexplicably like a puppy, following its owner.
“How do you know that?”
“You should know that I know that.”
Parrot walked into the house, heard the door close behind him. He stared at the dog, sitting by the fireplace.
“You should know that I know that.” The Director walked up to it. “Theres nothing I don’t.”
Parrot followed them, walking over to the dog, his dog. He expected it to look at him when it raised its head, but it just stared at the Director.
“Call it over to you.”
It was such an odd request Parrot looked over at the Director in surprise. When they made no other move, he held out a hand, clicking his tongue to call the dog to him. But it didn’t move. It didn’t even look at him.
Parrot walked up to it, and it raised its head to acknowledge his presence. He reached out a hand, and it snapped at him, as if… as if it hadn’t been tamed by him.
“This isn’t my dog.”
The Director stared calmly at him.
“What?”
Parrot reached his hand out to the dog again, and it snapped at his fingers, almost getting its jaws around his hand, but the Director pulled it back, letting out a little whistle. The dog sat at attention, looking up at them. That whistle… why did it sound so familiar?
“This is not my dog.” Parrot said again, and then looked up at the Director. “Wait…”
The Director just gestured at him to follow them outside.
“You know, I thought about what you said, Parrot. About me being a coward.”
The dog growled.
“But you know I realized, maybe someone has to be a coward, if thats what it takes.”
Parrot stared at them.
“You realize you’re still a coward, right? You still framed me, you still killed all of these people, and you did it while you were hiding yourself from the server.”
The Director just watched him.
A dozen thoughts swirled through Parrot’s mind. He remembered the ping in his communicator, when Wifies had died. The same ping would have come from the death of a pet.
Parrot took a breath, and then another. His head was swirling. He felt sick. Oh, what a fool he’d been. What a silly fool.
“Wifies is still alive.”
Four words. Four small, insignificant words. That was Parrot’s undoing.
“Thats what you’re trying to tell me?”
The Director didn’t move.
Parrot felt his heart begin to beat faster.
“What did you do to Wifies?”
“Parrot.”
Parrot wanted to scream. This wasn’t fair, this didn’t make sense, except it did. He knew, he knew what was about to happen, he wanted to sob because that voice. Even with the voice changer, none of the little quirks, none of the slight movements of their head, none of the looks Parrot could see without opening his eyes, none of them could be erased. He wanted to run, to back away, to-
The Director pulled out a milk bucket.
Wifies stood in front of him. He was exactly as Parrot remembered him, except- not quite. He was subtly different. The lines around his eyes, the way he held himself, his gaze- somehow, they belonged to someone Parrot didn’t know. Not to his best friend. Not to the only person who had stood by his side no matter what.
“Parrot.”
Parrot couldn’t stop the little rivulet that ran down his face. He had missed that voice so much.
“I am Wifies.”
But he wasn’t. At least, not completely. His eyes were empty, his face expressionless in a cold way, not the way Wifies face was pristinely neutral, yet brimming with emotions if you had stared at him for long enough.
“I… What?”
Parrot could barely force the words out.
“Parrot, there was a moment that changed everything. We were being attacked, in the end. Do you remember that?”
Images flashed through his head as Wifies spoke.
“We were heavily outnumbered, and outgeared, and you separated from us to serve as a distraction. The moment you did that I knew you were in trouble. I tried to contact you, to help you, to save you, but you couldn’t respond to me. I was helpless.”
Wifies voice is layered with emotions, but Parrot cannot understand it. He does not know the way this person speaks, but it is not the way his Wifies talked.
“I had to wait there, not knowing if I would ever see you again. And from that point onward, this happened over, and over again. You sacrificing yourself, for a cause that exists only in your head. And I was unable to protect you. And I couldn’t live with that.”
Parrot doesn’t want to hear this. Doesn’t want to listen to the words they’d left unspoken between them for so long.
“Parrot, you are the only person I care about on this server. If you were to die, there would be no point for me anymore.”
Parrot walks up to him, reaches out a hand and draws it back.
“You’re actually Wifies.”
Wifies looks at him, and doesn’t look at him. His head hasn’t moved since he took away his invisibility. His eyes, those beautiful lilac eyes Parrot could stare into forever, are black and empty.
“So I came up with a plan.”
“You- you faked your own death.”
Wifies steps forward, and they are close, too close. Parrot feels the barrier they had kept up shatter and vanish. It is as if the person in front of him is a stranger, talking through Wifies’ mouth. But that was ridiculous.
“Exactly. I convinced you to tame a dog. I named the dog Wifies, and dropped it into the void at the exact moment that I supposedly teleported to my death. The dog’s death ping appeared for you, and was enough to convince you that I was dead. And in that moment, the Director was born, Parrot.”
“I then had Ash tell you that I was killed by the Director, and I knew that when you learned this information you’d go after the Director, of course, to try and avenge me. But I am the Director, Parrot.”
Wifies stepped back. Parrot could not move, could not breathe, could not think.
“This entire time, you’ve been chasing someone who doesn’t exist.”
“But I still don’t- what?” Parrot clutched his spyglass as if it was a lifeline, as if it was the only thing keeping him afloat. “Bro, this still makes no sense. You- you did this to protect me, yet you were sending assassins after me to try and kill me, you pulled off all these different traps, and you’re saying that- no, bro.”
Wifies’ voice is hollow, almost robotic. Empty.
“Listen Parrot.”
Parrot doesn’t want to. He stumbles back, head reeling, but he cannot break the gaze of those black voids that are Wifies’ eyes.
“You were never in any danger. Trust me, there were many times you could’ve died, but you didn’t. Because this is the story that I wrote. I controlled everything, I told them not to kill you. And now I know everything about you. I know exactly how you think, how you act, how you work. And thats all I need for the next part of my plan.”
Wifies emphasizes ‘I’. Parrot doesn't know how to take that. His mind is whirling too fast for him to think straight.
“What is wrong with you bro?”
Parrot stepped back.
“Genuinely, what is wrong with you? Do you understand what you did? Actually.”
Parrot doesn’t want to look at the man in front of him, but he cannot look away. He is trapped there, as stuck as if he were chained down.
“I miss the old Wifies. What happened to you, bro.”
Wifies sighs.
“I guess I expected this reaction, but thats okay.”
Parrot is drowning in those black, black eyes.
“I had to kill my past self to become who I am today. I don’t expect you to understand, I don’t expect you to respect-“
Parrot interrupts Wifies. His mind is spinning, his thoughts a blur.
“Bro, what? Why would I ever understand.”
Parrot’s voice is dripping with disgust, but its as if Wifies doesn’t notice. Or maybe he doesn’t care.
“You don’t have to. But I’m here to protect you. Thats all I care about now.”
“What is that even supposed to mea-
“No one-“
“You send these assassins after me? And now you’re saying that they- that their intention was never to kill me? And now you’re gonna protect me? Wow bro, you really did a great job at that.”
Parrot lets out a small breath of laughter.
“No one will ever,” Wifies’ face is blank, his voice empty. Its as if he’s a puppet, reading off a script. “Hurt you again Parrot. Together, together we are going to build a world, a world where you never have to worry about dying ever again. I just need you to follow me.”
Wifies walks up to Parrot, and holds out a hand.
“Are you stupid?” Parrot is gaping at him. “Are you stupid. You want me to follow you, after what you just told me. After everything you’ve done.”
“No I’m not gonna follow you. What’re you gonna do, kill me? You already said that you’re not gonna do that.”
For the first time, Wifies face has an emotion on it. For a second, there is anger, and then he smiles. And it is not Wifies who smiles. Parrot knows Wifies’ smile better than he knows his own hands, and the smirk on the face of the man in front of him is nowhere near it.
“I know. But I’ll kill all your friends.”
It is said so simply, so calmly, that it takes Parrot a second to register what Wifies just said. He wants to leap back, to let the disgust he feels show, but there is fear rising inside him like a wave and he cannot outrun it.
“What?”
Those black voids stare at him, and Parrot is drowning in them, lost at sea, far from shore. There is no escaping this.
“Wifies…”
Parrot’s voice is quiet, scared.
“Now follow me.”
It is not a request. Its an order. Wifies holds out his hand to Parrot, and Parrot does not want to take it. He does not want to go with this stranger wearing the face of his best friend.
But he has no choice. It is not on his orders that Parrot’s hand reaches out, and once it touches Wifies’ skin Parrot is trapped. His hand is locked in the cage of Wifies fingers, and he follows behind as Wifies turns and begins to walk away. Wifies turns for a moment, his gaze meeting Parrot’s, and-
They pace, footsteps soft against the floor, dark circles under their eyes. They flip through a book, scanning its pages in the dim light, and push it aside.
They mutter to themself, closing their eyes and trying to think. After a moment, they wander to the table, and push through the stacks of papers, before coming across one. It is covered in scratchy, desperate words, and they feel a pit in their stomach as they read it over. They read it again, and again, hoping they’ll come to a different conclusion. No. No, it can’t be. This… it must be something else.
They turn to the wall, fingers hovering over the pictures of two people hanging there. Their hand reaches to their face, coming to rest on their cheek.
They freeze. A faint, desperate, whisper escapes them, as despair crashes over them. “No,”
They hear footsteps behind them. They lunge to the side, trying to make it to the exit, to escape, but two pairs of hands grab them and hold them tight. Their mouth opens to scream, but a hand is clamped over it. They hear laughter, empty and cold.
They struggle, desperate to escape. They try to scream, but their voice is muffled. No. No, no no no, they escaped once, they can’t go back. They can’t do it again.
Two mouths laugh, the same sound emerging from both.
They feel hands hold their head still, and try to bite at them, fighting with renewed vigor, but nothing can save them. It slips onto their face, and-