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“Technoblade has robbed our country. Robbed it of everything that made it special, of everything that defined what it was. He stepped in when he shouldn’t have. He raized chaos, he ruined the government.” The president suddenly looked up to his left as snowballs rained down on him from the rooftops, “Punz is throwing… Right.”
The mercenary jumped down onto the wooden planks that made up the walkway of L’Manburg. The sound of armor jostling was sharp in the previously reverent quiet of the area. Before anyone could make sense of what was happening, Punz threw several potions at the butcher army.
“What is Punz doing?” Tubbo’s voice rang through the air as chaos erupted.
Swears and requests for what was going on were shouted in the air. Quackity felt the strength leach from his limbs as a potion of weakness found its mark. Although there weren’t many people in the nation that day, shouts filled the air and voided any hope of understanding each other. The voices just faded together in the chaos. The only one that seemed to ring through the air was Technoblade’s as he made a questioning noise. At the sound of the prisoner, Quackity turned to see what was happening back up on the podium and paled at the sight.
Punz was rigging a lot of explosives to go off in front of the raised platform. Swearing, Quackity, quickly attempted to distract the mercenary from his task, succeeding by getting a few good punches in. The blonde tried to run, but the raven-haired man simply followed, using his duck wings to gain some speed. At some point he rolled over and out of a bed set up prior to the hunt to set his spawn quickly. Glancing at where the explosives had been placed, he was relieved to see that Tubbo had removed them.
Somewhere behind him, Phil could be heard laughing from where he stood in his house, watching the turmoil that was unfolding. He wasn’t the worry though. No, the worry was the man continuing to attempt to place TnT. Drawing his sword, Quackity continued to chase him.
Jumping into the water was not something he had expected to do today, but the blonde didn’t give him much choice. Swimming after the man, the avian shouted toward his army, “What the heck! What are you guys doing? Go get Punz!” No one responded instead something up above had them distracted. “What is going on?” He continued to swear as the sound of shouting continued above him. Hopping out of the water, Quackity quickly ran up the boardwalk. “No no no, I’m pulling the lever.”
Tubbo was running in the opposite direction and cried out agreeing with him, “Big Q! Pull the lever!”
Techno protested as he pressed himself against the walls of the cage they had corralled him into not five minutes earlier. Ignoring him, Quackity pulled the lever that would signify and bring the end to Technoblade’s life.
“Pull the lever Big Q!”
He shouted back to the president in triumph. “I pulled the lever!”
There were cheers amongst the butcher army as the anvil fell in seemingly slow motion. Techno had his head tilted back as the heavy object came hurtling towards his head, a surefire execution. Confusion and annoyance rang through the man’s voice as he couldn’t do anything about his impending death.
The metal came in contact with the piglin and a sickening crunch could be heard ringing through the air. Everyone celebrated, but they watched in horror as a cloud of green and yellow smoke erupted from the cage, covering the scene they had all been anticipating.
A shrill cackling laugh from the crow hybrid watching split the eerie silence as the army tried to understand what was happening. The smoke cleared quickly, revealing Techno hauling himself over the side of the bars, perfectly fine other than a few new scars that snaked across his face.
An almost unanimous cry of “What?” and confusion broke their frozen state.
“How did he not die?” The quiet enderling’s question rang through the cries of confusion as the butcher army started running towards the path that crossed the lake. Tubbo started to push Quackity toward where Techno was running. “Stop! What?!”
Fundy shrieked out from behind him, “He’s getting away!”
“He’s going to Carl.” Swearing once more as the piglin ran toward where the avian had left the man’s prized horse.
“They’ve got Carl!” The statement was said to seemingly no one.
“Punz stop!”
“We can’t do anything!”
“Punz what are you doing?!”
“I can’t do anything about this, I have nothing!”
These were the exclamations of his army as they tried to fight off the highly trained mercenary that Quackity had left them with. He stopped, sword in hand, looking back to where his friends were fighting for their life, debating whether he should turn and help or continue after the man they were supposed to execute. Phil’s laugh continued to fill in the gaps of silence, along with the sound of weapons clashing.
“Where’s Techno?!”
Phil’s laughter turned to gleeful cackling as if he had personally won something.
The sound of metal on metal stopped along with the sound of footsteps retreating. “What the heck just happened?” Tubbo sounded exasperated.
“Where did Techno go?”
“Where’s Techno?”
Ranboo and Fundy could be seen scrambling to get to a higher vantage point looking for the missing piglin.
The laughing paused, “I didn’t see anything.” The words were laced with a smile and humor while still attempting to come off as innocent.
“Philza Minecraft!” The president shouted up at the crow, only succeeding in making him laugh even more. “I’m so glad you’re under house arrest. You have no idea!”
“Philza! Where is he?” Fundy backed up their young leader.
“I’m under house arrest, I didn’t see anything guys. I’m sorry.” The words were broken off by more snickers at their failure.
“You’re literally just watching from the balcony. You are the worst. I’m really sorry about what happened-”
Quackity stopped paying attention. He had slowly been moving back towards the nation center, carefully watching for any signs of the anarchist. The sight of enchanted armor moving in the distance caught his attention as well as Ranboo’s question as he approached.
“Quackity, what happened?” The words were solemn, but not accusatory. At the avian’s silence, he asked another question, “How did he survive?”
Instead of answering, he simply stared at the hole where Carl had been kept in and swore under his breath. He blocked out anything else that was being said, but the pleased laughter still rang through his head. “The horse is gone.”
Tubbo’s voice brought him back to where he was. “Technoblade literally just survived a-a like twenty-block anvil drop without a scratch!”
Cackling just continued to fill the air.
“The horse is gone.” He whispered it to himself and Fundy looked at him with an unreadable expression as he looked off into the distance where he saw the shimmering metal. “Come on.” Turning back to the other people with him, he shook his head slightly. “Fellas, fellas, give me one second.” Before anyone could question it, he ran up the side of the hill that he had been staring at.
As he ran, he noticed something odd sticking out from a seemingly random part of the ground. Stones had been placed seemingly hastily over something. Summoning his pickaxe, Quackity quickly moved them aside, and found a hole. Well, not a hole, a tunnel. A tunnel big enough for a horse to travel through. “What the… What is this?” He walked briskly but quietly down the tunnel, continuing to question what the heck it was and where it led.
The path dipped down pretty steeply and he had to be careful not to skid down the stone that made the flooring. After it leveled out, it just as quickly went right back up, almost even steeper than the way down. Going up the slope, he’s welcomed by the sight of the final control room. What took his attention though was the horse that had been his leverage for the whole ordeal. A person quickly came into view from behind the horse. They weren’t wearing enchanted armor but instead beat up iron. As they stepped into the light of the lanterns, Quackity realized it was Technoblade. “What is this?”
Techno didn’t respond but instead placed a hand on his horse’s neck and it some gentle pats.
“Just on time Dream, just on time. Thank you.” He placed some stone behind him, effectively cutting off the avian’s view of the stead.
“Te-What the heck is this, Techno? What the heck are you doing here?”
“Uhhhh-” He cut himself off with an awkward chuckle, “It’s not what it looks like.”
“How the heck did that anvil not kill you?”
Techno laughed, sharp and amused. “Did you really think, Quackity, that you could kill me that easily?”
“How did you do it? How did you even do that?” He took the smallest of steps back, bracing himself in case the anarchist attacked first.
“You think death can stop me, Quackity?” A grin split his face, tusks on full display. “You know what? I’ve got a lot to say. I was gonna say it at the trial but we got a little bit interrupted, Quackity. Ya know, I tried convincing you guys that government was not the answer. That government was actually the cause of all your problems. Alright? I tried to convince you guys by fightin’ alongside you as brothers. Then you just cast me aside. You used me. I tried to use force, but you still formed a government, and when I went into hiding? When I retired? When I swore off violence? You hunted me down. You hurt my friends.”
“You don’t understand, Techno. You don’t understand what we’re trying to build here, Techno. This is not a simple-”
The anarchist cut him off, “You're trying to build your own power.”
“This is not a simple anarchy thing, Techno. This is what you don’t understand. Alright?” Quackity inched forward, gaining a bit of confidence. “Techno, do you really think I give a crap about the Withers? No. No. You are on the hit list Techno. You are on the freaking hit list.”
“What hit list?”
Ignoring the question, Quackity moved on without even acknowledging that the piglin had spoken. “I’m building a country here. What we have over there is a country and what we need here is organization and power. I don’t care how long it takes me, or what I have to do to get you Techno, I’m going to freaking kill you. I’m going to kill you Technoblade.”
“I just have one question, Quackity.”
“What do you have? What do you have for me?”
“Do you think you’re enough to kill me? Even unarmed with iron armor? Do you really think you can take me?”
“Oh, I do.” Readying his axe, Quackity backed up and planted his feet in a combat stance, ready to fight. “You know what? Let’s find out, you son of a -!”
He charged and the piglin ran past him into the tunnel that had been at his back. Stone was placed to block the avian’s path, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. “No, no! Now you’re building!”
A sarcastic laugh started to fade as the man started to run, “Sike!”
“Oh screw you!” Quackity maneuvered around the stone and started chasing after the other.
“Get outta here!” The sound of glass breaking alerted the avian to the potions that were being used.
“Oh now you have to use potions, mother-”
Technoblade rounded back and pulled out an enchanted netherite pickaxe. Quackity didn’t even pay it much mind, continuing to try and catch up, but ending up scrambling to a stop as his opponent started running at him.
Shining purple whizzed by his face, barely a blur of motion, before the blade made contact with his armor.
“I have a pickaxe, and I’ll put it through your teeth!” The swings of the tool picked up speed and Quackity tried to keep up and block them with his ax.
“No, you don’t!” The diamond sunk into iron easily, but that didn’t seem to slow the piglin down, if anything, he sped up even more.
“I’ll put it through your teeth, Quackity!”
Another arc of the pickaxe made contact with the gap in his armor where the shoulder lies. Gasping, the avian stumbled back slightly before gritting his teeth and continuing to try and beat the anarchist, strike for strike. “You have caused so much damage to everything we’ve been building all along, Techno! And if there’s one fight I’m planning to win, it’s this one, baby!” He ducked under another strike, trying to find an opportunity to get on the offensive. “So don’t even try me. Come on, let’s go.” Grinning at his luck, Quackity took the one opening that Techno left and hit him in the ribs with the handle of his weapon.
Swinging out seemingly by instinct, Techno missed and rock sprayed from where the tool had skimmed the wall instead. Instead of getting frustrated though, the anarchist simply laughed, and that made Quackity’s blood boil at how unseriously he was taking the fight. “My aim is so bad right now.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know it is!” It was a lie. His aim, though some mistakes, was still good enough to leave several large gashes in his arms and the larger damage from the blow to his shoulder.
The blur of purple was back, but this time it didn’t miss. This time it left a trail of fire down his face. He screamed in agony as the pain began to overwhelm him. The stone was cold as it caught him, and kept him from falling into the void. The temperature seeped through his armor and clothes.
Warm liquid dripped into his eyes, making them sting. Quackity closed them and only then did he realize that Technoblade was gone. That he had failed to do the one thing he had set out to do that day, end the anarchist’s life. End the reign of torture that the man had inflicted upon their nation.
Placing his hands underneath him, he pushed himself up onto his knees. Quackity took a sharp breath as his vision got large black splotches along the left side of his vision. The walk was slow and gave him time to pull his communicator out. Using the reflective surface, he took a look at the damage.
A large gash sliced through his face. The flesh was broken unevenly, and he could tell even now, that it would scar badly. Blood pooled around the cut, and crimson lines streaked across his face from when he was laying on the ground. The spatter around the fissure created by the tool hid its exact location, but the avian was pretty sure the laceration went directly through his eye and was the cause of the large black spot taking over his vision. Sighing, Quackity continued the walk back to the L’Manburg center.
The cabinet stood around him after he collapsed into a chair, asking him questions and if he was okay. Quackity didn’t know what to do. He felt like a total failure, and the pain wasn’t helping.
He finally looked up, ignoring Tubbo’s concerned glances, “Go to the meeting room. We need to discuss some things.”
Standing, he ignored the worried cries from the people around him.