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“Shh, my Angel, it’s alright. It’s alright. I won’t let you die, I won’t leave you. Just relax.”
Trixtin presses down, her hands easily sinking into Philza’s chest. She ignores his gasp of pain, tears gathering in her eyes. She needs to focus, now. She cannot afford to mess this up. Trixtin doesn’t need to breathe, but she does close her eyes as she starts pushing power down, through her hands into her Angel’s heart. She will keep him safe. One last time, she will save him. One last time.
She opens her eyes again when she notices that she’s crying, tears hitting Philza’s face. His eyes are unfocused, looking into the distance. Trixtin does her best to smile, even as more of her very being starts bleeding out of her, into the body below her, into the world that surrounds them. She will protect him, never again will he be hurt like this. Never again. She won’t allow it.
Philza struggles to focus on her, his teeth stained with blood as he tries to return her smile. He opens his mouth, starting to speak slowly, as if the words themselves were escaping his body like the blood pooling under him.
“You’re…beautiful…”
His breathing is ragged, and Trixtin hushes him once more, tears still falling from her eyes. She wishes she could brush her fingers through his hair, soothe him in any other way than with her words, but she can’t move her hands, can’t stop pushing out the very power that makes up her being. So she talks.
“It’s okay, my Angel. You’ll be okay. I promise. Close your eyes, now. It’s almost over.”
He smiles and closes his eyes, relaxing despite the pain he must be feeling. Always so trusting, so willing to take her word on any topic. Trixtin cries, alone, with nobody but her dead Angel next to her.
Then the world explodes into colors so bright they almost seem black. And Trixtin can feel herself unravel.
---
Technoblade has never actually met Philza’s girlfriend, no matter how much his best friend talks about her. Phil met her on one of his travels and for all that they have been in love for years now, Trixtin lives far enough away that Techno has never actually seen her, outside of pictures. But now that the two of them decided to get engaged, decided to move in together, that will change. Somehow, Phil seems more anxious about that than Techno is.
“Phil. Phil! It will be fine.”
Phil pauses in his pacing, turning to Techno in that bird-like fashion of his, eyes narrowed. Techno sighs and raises an eyebrow.
“Seriously. What do you expect to go wrong? You and Trixtin are engaged, man. Like, I’m not going to suddenly tell you to break up with her.”
Phil lets out a sigh, his shoulder slumping.
“I know, I know. Just. What if you don’t get along?”
Techno steps closer and lays a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“Phil, we’ve been friends for years now. I won’t drop you just because I’m not friends with your fiance. Neither of us will make any complications, I promise.”
It takes another minute for Philza to fully gather himself and ring the bell to let Trixtin know that they have arrived. When the door opens, before he can even take in what Trixtin looks like, he is overcome by a single thought.
He cannot look into her eyes.
Immediately, his eyes drop, focusing somewhere behind Trixtin instead, taking in her dark hair and nothing more. Her face is shrouded in shadows and he can’t look, can’t see, can’t comprehend-
“Technoblade?”
Her voice is what rips him out of his own mind, a voice that demands respect, attention, no matter how kind it sounds because peace is a lie, a beautiful lie and that voice promises nothing but death, nothing but the end of things-
Without meaning to, his eyes meet her, dark and black like the void, constellations sparkling in the distance it’s too much too much too much-
Suddenly, Technoblade remembers. His knees go weak because there used to be a world of Gods and monsters and magic and blood, there used to be so much magic that it could choke you, fill your lungs until no oxygen manages to come in, until it’s in your very blood, filling your veins with pure energy.
Techno crumbles to the ground when his head is filled with noise, starting out dull but quickly gaining volume until thousands of voices are screaming, yelling, begging, echoing through his skull. He clenches his eyes shut but even breaking eye-contact with Death herself doesn’t alleviate the sudden pain. Because Techno is magic, is the blood flowing through people’s veins, is the violence of split knuckles and broken bones. He is Blood.
A hand lands on Techno’s shoulder and he gasps, eye jumping open. Philza is kneeling in front of him, face worried and mouth moving, but Techno can’t tell what he’s saying. No, he’s too focused on how the shadows behind him almost seem to move, like feathers and giant wings, like hundreds of crows following him, watching him.
It takes a while for Techno to realize that he is shaking, hands clutching his hair and the oh so familiar scent of blood filling his senses. He licks his lips and is met with iron on his tongue. His nose is bleeding, he can feel it on his face, now.
Techno still can’t hear what Philza is saying, all sound droned out by the screaming masses in his head, but as he gasps for breath, his brain sorts through knowledge it isn’t supposed to have.
BLOOD
BLOOD
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD
Everything hurts. His head hurts. His lungs hurt. There is something missing, something that was always there before. Techno looks up, locking eyes with Trixtin once more. He meets eyes that are human, painfully human, a worried face, confusion and fear and panic. No understanding, nothing of the calm he expects to find there. Death has always been calm, for all that her Angel is not.
Techno looks Death in the eyes and realizes, in that very moment, just what she has done. Because this is not Death, is not her Angel, for all that they are. No, they are Philza and Trixtin, entirely human, ignorant to all things magic.
And Technoblade is afraid. Because there used to be magic, there used to be Gods. And then an Angel fell, again and again and again. And eventually, Death has had enough.
There used to be Gods and Techno is the only one who remembers them. Their absence hurts, like a hollow cave in his heart. The magic is gone.