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“How do you stop feeling guilty?”
“We had to be villains, Rek. We know too much not to.”
“I mean. I don’t really mind killing most of the time, or destroying spawn—blowing up spawn was pretty fun, actually—but it’s… yeah.” Rek shrugs. “I still want to hang out with people, and just… have fun, you know?”
He smiles, then. “I know it’s not plausible, but y'know. I chose this, Minute. I’m not turning back. I can’t.”
Minute looks at him with something akin to pity.
“I mean. I don’t really care if you’re using me, you know? Or if Apocalypse is just using me for some end goal of hearts, or information. It’s fine, I don’t care,” Pili tells him, one day.
Rek stares at him in horror, uncertainty and guilt flickering behind his eyes. There’s times when he seems like he would never be well-suited for a team like Apocalypse. But the look shutters away behind his determination, stolen away.
“Pili, you shouldn’t—“ he cuts himself off, never the one to weaken his team, even in this regard. He’s so infallibly loyal in ways that Pili imagines very few Lifestealers understand.
“You should keep…doing what you want to do; I don’t want to hurt you. But you know what comes first.”
Rek says this as if it is an admission, as if Pili doesn’t already know. “Oh Rek,” Pili sighs, smiling sadly at him. “You’re one of my favorite people on this server, do you know? I really appreciate our time together.”
Pili says it all as if he hasn't vowed to hunt down Apocalypse with Bing, as if he hasn't spent hours scouring every coordinate for a sign of their bases, their location, revenge. It doesn't make anything he says any less true though. It's just that Pili sounds more convincing and truthful when he's lying.
“…thank you. I like hanging out with you too.”
Pili shrugs. “I’m not on your team, Rek. I don’t think I’ll ever want be on your team, or be invited. But I would want to hang out with you, and Minute, or Clown, if he stops trying to kill me.”
Rek giggles, weakly, looking down at the water lapping at their feet. “And you’ll stop killing SB?” he asks, jokingly.
He snorts. “Never. I’ll see you around, Rekrap. Nice base, by the way. I like the aesthetic you went for.”
“No way. Ugh, there’s no way you just know where everybody’s bases are,” Rek groaned, and Pili grinned back at him, impishly kicking at the ground before he stepped into the ocean, tossing his trident into the air, flying into the distance.
It's not really a shock nobody wants to go on a mysterious, random hangout with him, especially if he's not disclosing the exact reason why.
It's unfortunate, but he supposes it's a part of being in Team Apocalypse, anyways.
It's really unfortunate, when Hannah gets away with the Eye trims, and he fails to kill her; and Clown's there, trying to calm him down but they can't find her and he just let her go—
(Isn't it ironic, that the only person you have left to be with, is the reason why nobody wants to be with you?)
Jojo finds she hates this server sometimes, when all she's been is jumped and killed for what her entire team has done. For being the most active person and holding all the End Events, giving away what they've gotten for free, only to be backstabbed and hunted and killed. She's too reckless and talks too much, only for Rek and Minute to find and kill her. Zam says one frickin' word and all of a sudden Team Bing is on them like no tomorrow.
She sighs, waving the thought away. It doesn't matter now; Jojo has her birthday event to run, whether people will trust her or not, kill her for showing weakness or not shouldn't matter. She should focus on having fun with Woogie and Pangi, pack all the bitterness back into her chest for another day.
Maybe it shouldn't surprise her that Rek is the last person who stays after everyone else has scattered, too scared of the prospect of getting trapped. Woogie told her once, that it wasn't that Rek was untrappable. But once you've sprung enough traps and escaped by skin of your teeth, everybody wants a piece. To poke at the curiosity and paranoia.
("I trust Rek too much, that's the problem," Woogie laughs, as Jojo feels the burn and aftershock of swords tearing her apart, the aftermath of Rek and Minute's attack.)
He's readying his trident, murmuring about an elytra, when Jojo decides today is good vibes only. She'll kill him back tomorrow, if the situation calls for it, but she finds she doesn't want to today.
"Rek," she calls. "Want an elytra?"
He pauses, edging back and forth before approaching, not wearily, but cautious. He always is; and Jojo thinks she should probably adopt that sorta thing too.
"Yeah...?" Rek says, and she grins. He's jumpy but definitely willing to take a deal, or more than a deal—a challenge. When she throws two eggs and they crack on the floor, Rek jumps back with an aborted yell, shield already up; when Woogie offers his help in killing the withers for them, Rek tells him to let him die.
He's an interesting guy, that's for sure. Jojo doesn't like Team Apocalypse, but they aren't parading around like Bing, trying to claim the moral high ground; and Rek is decently nice, even if he killed her. But that's just how it goes on Lifesteal, isn't it?
So there she is, sitting on a tree with Woogie as Rek kills four withers for her, a determined, terrified gleam in his eye as he accepts a fight with death. And afterward, Rek crowns her with a heart and four nether stars, glimmering in the dimly lit cave they stand in.
"Take it," he says, smiling, and Jojo suddenly sees what Woogie means. It's a shame he's so devoted to the big bad Apocalypse, really, but the thought is fleeting. "Make sure it's the real deal, and all that."
Rek's fingertips are stained black (withered, she notes), still faintly shaking with adrenaline, and he laughs as she wings him with his elytra. Jojo's sure he didn't just get wither skulls for her and Pangi's birthday, but it's none of her business today. Carefully, he picks up the shulker boxes and wither rose, placing them in his enderchest before he quickly flies off, no doubt to his base.
Jojo studies the nether stars in her hand, considering. If you don't look carefully, they look just like a heart.