Chapter Text
After about a day of searching to no avail and getting no response from his messages to Manepear, Flame finally heard a rumor about where Mane was living. The rumor being a full set of coordinates to his base that some random chungie somehow knew the location of.
It was suspicious, but Flame wasn't going to ignore his only lead, so he decided to go anyway.
Travelling to the coordinates brought him to the entrance to a manmade cave. He entered, looking around the cave, when he spotted one of Manepear's signature banners.
So this was clearly the right place. But where was Mane?
Flame walked into a random one of the houses to look, when he came face-to-face with Manepear. He was at his kitchen table, in a bathrobe, eating a hot pocket. It was weird that Mane was still in a bathrobe since it was like 3pm, but maybe he just had a really terrible sleep schedule or something.
The two of them awkwardly stared at each other for a few seconds before Flame spoke.
"Uh, hey bro."
Mane got up from his seat at the kitchen table, but he continued eating the hot pocket, carrying it with him. He talked in between bites. "Can we not do this right now? I know why you're here, but I'm kind of in the middle of something. I'm tryna eat my hot pocket, as you can tell."
Flame was slightly confused about why the hot pocket meant they had to delay their conversation, but he went along with it. "Okay, bro, I'll leave and wait for you to finish eating and get dressed."
He stepped out the door and started waiting. After a good 20 minutes of waiting, Flame started to wonder what was taking so long. Finally, the door opened, and Mane stepped out in a full PVP kit.
"Sorry I took so long." Mane said. "I ended up eating three hot pockets instead of just one. But now let's do this." He potted up and started trying to fight Flame.
Flame ran in the other direction, trying to get his inventory ready for a fight. "Bro, bro, why are we fighting?! I just wanted to talk to you!"
"What?" Mane stopped. "You didn't come to fight me? This isn't about the Zam Empire?"
"Why would it be about the Zam Empire?!" Flame asked. "Bro, I've been sending you messages all day! I just need to talk to you!"
"Talk to me about what?" Mane asked with skepticism.
Just then, as if perfectly on time, Flame took a tick of damage from no clear source.
"Uh…"
Manepear looked disappointed. "You didn't seriously-"
"Yeah, bro, I did."
"After everything I told you about never taking off the blindfold unless you're completely alone?"
"Yeah, oops." Flame shrugged awkwardly.
"You know you really don't need the blindfold anymore, right?" Mane said. "You can only be linked to one person at a time."
Flame did not know that, but even with this new information, he didn't want to take the blindfold off. "It's part of my identity."
"Fine, suit yourself." Manepear said. "Really, though, I can't believe after everything I told you, that you still somehow ended up getting lifelinked again."
"But it's fine, I know you know the way to break the link, so you just need to tell me what it is and then I can undo it."
"Oh, yeah, that's easy." Manepear explained.
Many years ago…
"Manepear, young man, you are in big trouble!" his mother shouted as soon as he walked in the door.
"Trouble for what?" Mane feigned ignorance. "I didn't do anything!"
"You think I can't tell that you were getting into fights?" his mom asked. "Your health bar is shared with me. I know what you've been doing!"
"Mom, I'm 12 years old!" Mane protested. "I'm basically an adult!"
His mom wasn't having it. "You're not an adult, and as long as our health is linked, you'll always be my baby. I'm not letting you get into any fights ever again! You're grounded, go to your room!"
Manepear rolled his eyes and stomped up the stairs to his room, slamming the door behind him.
He shared his room with his 6 year old brother Flame, which Manepear found annoying, because sometimes he just wanted some privacy. Flame was playing with a toy sword, swinging it around.
Mane tried to ignore him and walk past, but Flame wanted to play.
"Let's PVP!" Flame said. "I'm gonna become a combat master!"
Manepear dodged Flame's toy sword. "Not right now! Our parents will find out, and I'm already grounded!"
Flame looked down at the floor, disappointed. He looked back up at Mane after a second, but now he was pouting and had sad puppy dog eyes. "Pleeeeeaaaase????? I wanna learn to PVP!!!!"
Mane sighed. "No, I'm sorry. Our parents will never let us."
That day, he wouldn't be able to get that sad look on Flame's face out of his mind. Mane was linked to their mother, and Flame was linked to their father, and their parents had made sure that neither of them would ever forget it. There was overprotective parenting, and then there was this. It was obvious to Manepear that neither of his parents were ever going to give him or Flame any freedom.
He didn't want to have to throw away his dream of being a pro PVPer, and he definitely didn't want Flame to have to. Something had to change.
And so, Manepear devised a plan. The next time he was at the market with his family, he managed to quickly slip away and grabbed two enchanted golden apples from a fruit stall before the shopkeeper or his parents noticed. Being the first child in his family born with it, he knew a lot about his family curse, so he had a suspicion that this idea could work.
Mane made final preparations, sharpening his spear that he kept hidden from his parents in the back of his closet. Then, he went to go talk to Flame.
"Flame, how much do you care about becoming a combat master?" Mane asked.
Flame was barely able to contain his excitement. "A lot! A lot a lot! I wanna learn to fight! Can we fight right now?!"
"You know that our parents are never gonna let us." Manepear told him.
Flame frowned, crossing his arms in disappointment.
"But," Manepear continued. "If I get rid of our parents, we can do whatever we want!"
"Really?"
"Would you want that?" Mane asked. "We would be allowed to fight as many people as we want, whenever we want, and no one could stop us! But some things would have to change."
"Yeah!" Flame said. "I love mom and dad, but you're basically a grownup, and they don't let you do anything fun, so they're never gonna let me either."
Manepear handed Flame an enchanted golden apple. "Then eat this. What I'm about to do will hurt for a few seconds, but you'll be fine. I have something I need to do." he pulled out his freshly sharpened spear, walking out of the door of their room. He ate an enchanted golden apple of his own and prepared himself for what he was about to do.
First, Mane found his mother, sitting on the couch, not looking behind her at where he had entered the room. He snuck up behind her with the spear, sticking it into her neck. Mane had to grit his teeth and push through as he felt pain in his own neck as he did it, but the extra absorption hearts did what they were supposed to, keeping him alive she fell to the ground, dead.
He had done it. His spear was stained with the blood of his own mother. Mane panted with exhilaration as he looked down at her lifeless body on the floor. She would no longer be able to control him.
The door to Manepear's parents' bedroom opened and his father stepped out, with a look of horror on his face as he saw the body.
"You killed her? You killed your own mother." his face was now filled with rage. "How could you do this?!"
Mane held out his spear and ran forward as fast as he could, driving it straight into his father's heart.
As his father bled out, he opened his mouth to utter his last words. "You always… were a… lost… cause…"
A few minutes later, Mane walked back into his bedroom where Flame was waiting.
"Flame, are you okay?"
Flame was shaking from fear, but he seemed to be fine. "Yeah. It hurt, so much."
"Yeah, I know, but it's over. You're safe with me now."
Flame looked up at him confused. "Mane, why are you wearing a blindfold?"
"It's because of our curse." Manepear replied. "You can never look anyone in the eyes, or your health becomes linked to theirs." He handed Flame a blindfold of his own. "You need to wear this now."
Flame put on the blindfold, and Mane helped him tie it in the back.
"It's hard to see." Flame commented. "Can I take it off if I want to see better?"
Mane shook his head. "Don't risk it. Never take off the blindfold, unless you're sure you're completely alone. You don't want this happening again."
Present day…
"Wait, that's what happened to our parents?" Flame asked.
"You don't remember?"
"I was six, bro." Flame replied. "All I remember is they died."
"Anyway, that's how you break the link." Manepear explained. "All you have to do is eat an enchanted golden apple to give you absorption hearts, and then kill the person that you're linked to."
"Uhh…" Flame stammered. "Is there a way to do it without killing the person?" Even if he could kill Wemmbu, which wasn't a guarantee, he wasn't even sure if he wanted to. He just wanted to take back his title from Wemmbu, not kill him.
"Why? Who is it?"
Flame grimaced in embarrassment. "Do I really need to tell you that part?"
"Yes, you do." Manepear waited expectantly.
"Fine, bro. I kinda messed up real bad, and, well, I sorta got lifelinked to Wemmbu."
Manepear put his head in his hands in disappointment, sighing.
"Look, okay, I was just trying to take back my title after he defeated me, and I accidentally forgot to put the blindfold back on!" Flame explained, as if that made it any better.
Mane now sounded even more disappointed. "So you're telling me, that you somehow let Wemmbu defeat you-"
"Okay bro, in my defense, I had like no gear, and he had a nuke and a mace!" Flame held his hands up, trying to explain.
"But you still lost." Mane pointed out. "Anyway, you're telling me you somehow lost to Wemmbu, and instead of just moving on with your life, you tried to fight him again for a title, and then you somehow ended up accidentally looking him in the eye instead of fighting him?"
Flame had known that it was embarrassing, but he hadn't realized just how embarrassing it was until now. "Uh, yeah, can we like, not dwell on it now?"
Mane continued to rub salt in the wound. "And now, you're either not strong enough to kill Wemmbu, or you actually don't want to kill him. I'm not even sure which of those possibilities is worse. Are you sure you're my brother?"
"Look, bro, I know it's bad! But is killing him really the only way?"
"As far as I know," Manepear said. "Your options are to kill him, or to put up with being lifelinked to him for the rest of your life."
Flame wasn't sure which of those two options were worse.