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Spoke has stopped counting the days he’s been in this prison. He stopped seeing the point after he reached a month. No one wants to come for him, not after the truth was revealed to the last people he cared for. Despite his prior beliefs, Jamato has won, truly and irrevocably. Left with no items, no friends, and no hope, Spoke can do nothing but rot.
He knows where it all went wrong. The exact choice he made that brought him past the point of no return: The Mafia. The moment he decided to kill an innocent child with a dripstone trap is the moment that his morals slowly faded away.
Or was it the moment he wanted to kill Wemmbu with the Command Block? Or the moment he decided to trick Parrot into making a ‘best friend’ and then ripping that away from him for nothing but a little anger he wanted to dish out.
Spoke has had a lot of moments. He supposes that he’s just been like this from the start.
Spoke would never admit it to himself, but his sins were bound to catch up with him eventually.
He really misses the times he was truly free. Before Null, before Leo, before Ash, when it was just him and Mapicc destroying duped stashes that Spoke was, admittedly, responsible for.
He doesn’t understand why Mapicc couldn’t just see that they could’ve had the peace they wanted if he had just helped Spoke get rid of all of their enemies. If Jamato was gone, they would’ve been able to explore the server together, just like Mapicc wanted. Someone always has to get in the way.
Nobody is willing to understand him. Nobody is willing to hear him out. It’s why he always has to lie, because nobody can ever handle the truth. Everyone could’ve just been happier, been better off, if Jamato had just minded his business and stayed gone like he was supposed to.
He hears footsteps approaching him, breaking his thought process. The steps are lacking the sound of armor clanking. It’s not one of the Null guards, always geared in Netherite.
The footsteps stop in front of his cell. He looks up, and sees the last person he ever expected to.
“...Mapicc?” Spoke croaks, voice hoarse from lack of use. He hasn’t really used it since the first few days he got here.
For the first time since Spoke was locked up, hope starts to fill his heart again. Despite their confrontation, Mapicc is here. He’s here for Spoke.
“Spoke,” Mapicc nods, a hollow look in his eyes as he looks down at his former best friend.
Spoke scrambles to stand up, trying to stand level to Mapicc. “Mapicc, how did you break out of your cell? We’re in the Underworld, you can’t break blocks here. Did you find a glitch to get out?”
Mapicc shakes his head, “I’ve been out for months. Jamato let me go shortly after they secured you in here. He told me I could visit whenever I was ready, so he could ‘fulfill a promise he made to you.’”
Right. In all of Spoke’s time here, he nearly forgot that he had willingly surrendered himself to Jamato just for the chance to see Mapicc again. It’s not like it would have mattered much. Spoke had no gear, no weapons, no food. Even if he hadn’t surrendered, Jamato would have taken him by force and threatened his life to get rid of his items. The extra hope to see Mapicc was just a liberty Jamato didn’t have to grant.
But it seems that Jamato didn’t plan enough. By following through on that promise, he gave Mapicc the perfect chance to conjure up a plan to break Spoke out of here.
“So what’s the plan, Mapicc?” Spoke asks as casually as he can, “Considering you spent this long coming up with it, I’m sure it’s something good.”
Mapicc looks like he has a hard time holding himself together.
“The ‘plan’ is to say goodbye, right here, right now,” Mapicc responds, holding back a wince at the look of horror that crosses Spoke’s face at the words.
“I’ve thought for a long time on how I was going to confront you,” Mapicc continues, not leaving a moment in between his words to let Spoke interject, “I thought about not coming at all. But ultimately, despite all you’ve done, I still found it unfair to let you live with any kind of false hope.”
Mapicc has thought for a long time about what he might say to Spoke. But in reality, there’s no type of planning for this type of confrontation. He simply needs to be honest, for the sake of both of them. He knows, deep down, that he still cares about the monster in front of him. If he were any more weak-willed, even the slightest, he might have even considered trying to free Spoke. That’s why Mapicc could only come when he knew he was truly ready to see Spoke in all of his weakness and feel nothing in face of that.
“Even despite all of the atrocities you committed," Mapicc stares Spoke down in his cell, "Despite everything you've done, despite how much you manipulated me... I still care about you. That's why I'll do my best to remember the Spoke that I destroyed the duped stashes with. But I can't do this anymore. I won't break you out like you’re hoping. You deserve to be here."
"Mapicc, I..." Spoke chokes out, trembling, "I'm sorry. You're the only person I've ever cared about, and you're not a follower, I'm sorry for everything, just please don't leave me here. I can do better, I just need you to trust me, and-"
He’s spouting empty promises. They both know it. If Spoke was capable of changing for the better, he’s had two years to do so.
"Trust you how, Spoke?" Mapicc interrupts, slamming his fists against the iron bars in a misguided attempt to channel his anger, "You've lied to me for months, maybe even years. You say you'll do better and yet, when Jamato gave you the opportunity for peace, you chose to try to kill him and manipulate me and Zam into following you to hunt Leo. You've had so many chances. Your best chance to do better is to stay here. It's more than what you deserve."
Spoke realizes, then and there, that there's nothing he could possibly say that would change Mapicc's mind. He is set in his decision to leave Spoke to rot. Anything that was once between them is gone forever, and this is all that remains.
“You’re really set in this, huh?” Spoke trembles, the shaking reflecting in his voice, “This is it. The last time we’ll ever see each other. You’re really okay with this, Mapicc? Can you say that?”
"Goodbye, Spoke," Mapicc says, turning around, "For both of our sakes, I hope we never meet again. Because if we do... I will purge the server of you once and for all."
If he lets Spoke get anything more out, his resolve might weaken. Mapicc hardly had the strength to come here in the first place, and he can’t let himself waver now. He can’t do that to himself.
Mapicc pulls up his communicator and shuts off the voice function, drowning out Spoke's desperate cries for him to wait.
Mapicc is free now. He has ties to nobody, and he is not any bit of the ‘follower’ that Spoke once claimed him to be. He will live for himself and himself only, using the good and bad memories with Spoke as a lesson.
It’s time to explore the server for real, like he’s always wanted.
Mapicc takes a deep breath, steels himself, and walks out of the Null Prison for good.