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Spoke has always been the explosive and out loud person in the home of the empire. Minute never blamed him for that, his laughter and presence serves as a contrast to all the killing and the murder in lifesteal.
It serves to distract when the blood that’s under your nails remind you of the life that you stripped away from its body. Or a failed kill. The sting of scars on skin and the high of adrenaline finally seeps back into your bones leaving deep rooted anxiety in its wake.
Spoke became part of the balance in their team, the empire.
But Minute knew from the start not to underestimate the boy. After all, everyone knew what he was capable of ever since..the wormhole.
The peak of his power, to show others that he was more than capable of ruining the server with exploits, powers unknown by most players, and a deathly knowledge of traps and explosives.
Minute has dabbled in his own parts with such things but never as grand as what Spoke had accomplished.
He always saw him as someone who was unexpected, someone who silently plans and goes off with a loud BANG!.
Minute had been proud. Proud to show him his base, something he had worked hard on. And seeing the glimmer of spoke’s eyes and the smoke trailing off on the top of his head in a way he kind of sees himself in Spoke.
His smile only grew wider when seeing Spokes laugh and admiration to holding the dragon egg in his smoky little hands.
But…
“..to test the exploits I need to do-“
Pause.
Minute froze in place, blinking as he made sure he heard the words correctly. “What..?”
Though Spoke laughed it off as if it was a trick in the wind. Yet he held his words as the two continued chatting about things.
It came to the point that Spoke talked of the server ending…
“A method to end Lifesteal season 6..” he said.
The image that was given to him was….shocking to say the least. The image of a crater so deep, bedrock jutting out from the ground below, shining in the sunlight.
Minute knew Spoke was unpredictable at times. Scratch that, a lot of the time. And this was just another show that he could be dangerous. He is dangerous. He isnt only the light but is literally the dark that stretches and brings nothing but chaos and destruction over the world.
The offer was on the table. The knowledge to build something so powerful that it ends the server, it ends the world. Everyones story and he has the key to ending it all. Bringing the server to another season.
Let them live to not see another day. But another world.
He handed the picture back, Spoke grinning from ear to ear.
A part of him was willing to take it. Let him write the end of this seasons story. Deliver a new beginning to all.
“
Im doing this to find people, Minute. And you are honestly, one of the perfect people that could get something like this done.” He explained, Minutes hands itched for a sword. Spokes aura emitting like his smoke, threatening, chaotic, destruction, destroy destroy destroy.
“And you’ve done it before with the deathstar! See this, this machine im making…its to send a statement.” Spoke says, encircling him as he talked of his plans with eyes wide with need and a tone far too neutral for a scheme this massive.
“The fight with Mane and Flame’s team, the war between Zam and Mapicc, everything else on the server has done NOTHING. To change lifesteal.” Spoke stepped closer to Minutes face. Their white blank eyes meeting eachothers, “This is- if you want to change lifesteal? Forever? Hell this isnt even that perfect! There are still, redstone needed to be fixed, the supplies, the methods, it needs help, and it needs you.”
Minute let out a deep sigh, anxiety seething out of his breath. “I..i am aware. Im not a stranger to what an orbital strike cannon is capable of Spoke.”
He stepped back, looking towards the hall where this base had been built. This base for a competition for a heart that’s clutched in his hands. Spoke’s heart.
Spoke was on one heart.
One beating heart.
“Spawn..” He turned to see Spoke giggling, the lights flickering dimly above them. “hmmm I don’t really care about this..this. spawn. Anything Minute. I just want to bring a simple reset Minute tech.”
Minute nodded, his eyes trailed down to look at his hands, calloused rough hands that had slain and killed. Scars of explosions and arrows, scythes, swords, axes.
Lifesteal Season 6 had been a lot. And it feels selfish to think he was the only one, no. Everyone had a story.
Every individual player had their own story to complete this season. Different aspects, fights and talks, hero, villain, betrayals, it really wasn’t anything new knowing lifesteal.
“A simple reset where everyone can just, redo things! Give another start to life, forget spawn, forget betrayals, a clean slate.” Spoke says, clapping his hands as he floated in the air.
Minute seemed to think about the word reset, pondering over if that was really what the server had needed.. “Spoke.. if we use this machine, this powerful explosion, sending an end towards this season, destroying in the attempt to start something new…
Would there be anything left to love?”
Spoke hummed and groaned “Listen Minute, I feel like there has been..too much. Too much! Happening at our dearest beloved coordinate of zero zero..all these fights, stupid stuff that people do urgh.” He slumped onto the furnace behind him.
“BUT! If you take. Everything away, everything that the people had originally cared about then..” Spoke laughed, sounding like a crazed psycho maniac in the making.
“…hah! Well..thered be nothing left to care about!. Theres nothing left to care about! People can just have fun again! Its what lifesteal is about really. Just that people have been to caught up with things.. and now you! You can have that chance to end those petty silly little pointless fights! Problems just *snap!* gone! And a new slate if you will..”
Seeing the smile on Spokes face ached Minute’s heart. The heart clutched in his hands felt heavier now knowing it meant his friend. The smoke boy who was standing infront of him right now. Spoke wasn’t just anyone.
He cared for him. Despite it all though Spoke isnt a liability, he’s…like the son that he never had. The empire had been someone he was comfortable enough to call family.
The sounds of their laughter was ringing in his ear now, how long had it been that they last were together in that base…
“T…this all sounds so…exciting.” He spoke with a bitter tone, like someone incapable of making the decision. Minute loved the server, he loved the people, his friends, the builds, the memories, everything that led to now.
Spoke seemed to catch on to his uncertainty, sighing knowing another possible outcome of this scenario.
“I mean..you could kill me.”
Minute tensed, no…no not Spoke. Not him. Not like this…
He turned to meet his eyes, dread pooling deep in his gut. His heart, mind, body, and soul telling him not to do what needs to be done.
But Spokes eyes said nothing of regret, which means he meant what he said. “if you killed me right here and now well.. that’s where this path ends, right? Me and my plans, the canon I built, it’ll be over and youll walk out of here, the hero. Of lifesteal.”
Canon. Over. Spoke. Kill. Hero. Lifesteal.
The 6 words circled around his head, his hands curled into fists. What was he thinking? Just say no!
“im on one heart after all”
If it had been any other situation he would say that Spoke was entirely giving him a window to another ending to this scene. Both father and son standing on opposite sides. Same eyes, different blood, yet a father to a son all the same.
A man with the boy he had cared for. And his hands were now on his sides, the hilt of the sword brushing over his finger tips.
It was as if the world around him was telling him there was only one option. One decision to make.
Kill.
Kill him.
Be the hero you so wish to become in this server. Have everyone thank and appreciate you for your noble act. A simple life for peace.
He felt like the sword was driving to his gut.
His breaths were uneven, he didn’t want to do this. This wasn’t his choice. His hands ran to grip onto the potion slung on his belt.
“ive done a lot of thinking the past two seasons Spoke. Everytime I..i do some impulsive act something like this i.. it doesn’t end well for me most of the time.”
Spoke’s eyes seemed to soften as if knowing what was to come and welcoming death in open arms.
“Its because its not enough Minute! The deathstar? To kill one player?! I can help you!” Spoke stepped closer, anticipating his demise seeing Minute’s fingers twitch to the potions.
“What im doing. And what im planning. Is entirely straightforward. And it should be clear what I want, it should be clear what you want, too.” Spoke ends standing again. The smoke from his skin flaring and floating off into the air.
Minute stepped forward, breath hitching in his throat as he grasped the handle of the sword.
“Spoke…
This all sounds..so exciting. But..”
Father and son standing on different stances. One stands for justice, the other, for chaos.
“I cant follow you on this one.” The potion was splashed to the floor and as Minute drove the sword deep into the boy’s chest. Blade going deep , tearing flesh and spilling blood.
Blood on his hands. Blood on the blade. Blood on his boy.
Spoke’s face fell, saddened by the kill or the decision he didn’t really know. Minute couldn’t tell. But he still held him.
Of course he would hold him. Spoke was dying after all.
Minute held him by his back as Spoke coughed out blood that splattered onto the floor of the base he had built all for him.
And now was nothing but a painful memory.
He held his boy, gently laying him on the ground. There were no tears that fell, simply a fathers heart torn to two and the blood of his boy spilt on the floor.
“y..you have made..a grand..mis..take.” Spoke breathed out, eyes searching Minute’s face through the pain of the sword that pierced through him.
Minute sighed a shaky breath,
“I made my decision…” he muttered. But it was only the silence and the guilt that answered to him.
“I made my decision..” he repeated again.
As if it would change the outcome. As if it would forgive his actions. As if the blood that spilled wasn’t the evidence, shining in the flicker of the lanterns to serve as a plea or a statement to who? But himself.
It was the silence as Spoke sighed his last breath and his chest was still. Too still. There was blood on his hands.
And they were the blood of his boy.
But he knew this was only the start. So as he pulled the sword from Spoke’s body and stared down and the slowly dissipating body. He could only pray that things will work out well for the server.
Praying to whatever higher being that he had done the right action. Well..
Only time will tell.