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When Mariana had nearly found his way to the egg’s hiding spot on Green’s base (which seemed more and more likely when he kept running into traps) he was surprised to see Charlie.
“Well, if it isn’t my bitch fucking wife.”
Mariana opened his mouth to fire off some snark back, but quickly fell mute when his eyes fell on the egg.
Coming from a culture that was greatly influenced by catholicism, Mariana was familiar with the idea of purgatory. A penance for your sins on earth. Mariana felt he had certainly fulfilled the criteria for penance. Judgement day had arrived and a test was offered in from of him. A twilight of the soul, an ungodly mix of heaven and hell. This felt like a crucifixion. Because there, where someone else’s egg was supposed to be sitting, was JuanaFlippa.
She shouldn’t be here. She was never supposed to get caught up in his and Charlie’s and the rest of the godforsaken residents’ mess. But constantly, she was the innocent on the altar. All Mariana could do was look at her. Charlie had obviously noticed as well, the only noise he’d made in the past 60 seconds was a sharp intake of breath, certainly uncharacteristically quiet.
What the fuck were they supposed to do? It was supposed to be a temporary egg. So was this really their daughter? Or was she another trap set to torment them? Mariana could secure a win for his team if he killed this egg. If his team won overall, he could choose to save whichever egg he wanted ( JuanaFlippa, it was all for her anyway). But what if this was the real JuanaFlippa? He couldn’t kill her, he couldn’t be responsible for that again. Not again. And what if that killed her for good? No. No. But what if that doomed JuanaFlippa? What if his team lost and she was gone forever anyway?
It was all too terrible. This wasn’t purgatory. This was hell.
Charlie cleared his throat. This would be the first time Mariana ever heard him consider his words before he blurted them out.
“We have to take her away. We can’t leave her here to be killed, she’s our daughter. You and I, we can make our own team. I know we’ve never been good together, but we can do it, for her.” Charlie turned to face him and was clearly trying to make eye contact, but Mariana still couldn’t tear his eyes away from Flippa.
He felt like his breath was held in a fist in his chest, rather than cradled in his lungs. What the fuck were they supposed to do? It wasn’t fair, and everyone knew it wasn’t fair.
A sob broke the fist roughly, it hurt his throat with its force.
“Mariana, we can do it. Hell, we’ll be- we’ll be Purple, alright? We can do this. You’ll build a house and I’ll patrol-“
“We can’t, you idiot. We have to play within the rules of the game. The rules say we lose.”
“Mariana- you can’t be saying- we can’t just leave her here, she’s my daughter.”
Mariana drew his sword. “She’s our daughter.” His voice was too quiet.
“Fuck, fuck,” Charlie took out his own sword and got between Mariana and JuanaFlippa. “You can’t- you can’t kill her. You can’t.”
“She’ll die if we leave her here. You know she will. I’ll- I’ll take care of her.”
Charlie sniffled and Mariana knew that he was crying now, too. But when he spoke, his voice was unwavering and hard. “I won’t let you kill her. Not again.” Without preamble, he struck Mariana. And struck him again. When Mariana stepped back to avoid Charlie’s blows, he fell right into a lava pit. He woke at spawn.
By the time Mariana made it back to Green’s base and JuanaFlippa’s hiding spot, Charlie was on the ground. JuanaFlippa was in his lap. A crack ran down her center. When Charlie looked up there were tears in his eyes.
“We can’t move the eggs.”