Chapter Text
"It's all yours." Parrot spoke. He stepped off of the pressure plate with only the front of his right foot still pushing it down so slightly that the chamber wouldn't blow up, so he could place the spyglass on it.
The same spyglass, which has led their friendship from the very start. The same spyglass that they both carried with themselves as a sign of them having a bond so close that some people couldn't even imagine. All the scavenger hunts Parrot and Wifies did together, missions, quests, and the problems they went through. The number of times they parted ways or how often they have risked their lives for each other.
All of that meaning, of when they were so close, was now lying right in front of Wifies, stuffed into a single item, on the pressure plate he was supposed to keep Parrot trapped on.
Why did Parrot even still have it with him? Did he actually still care about him?
The motion of Parrot standing up was slow, thoughtful, as if he still considered doing something else than what he needed to. Sounds of steps echoed across the huge room that lies underneath the ground. Before the bird went up the stairs to his long-awaited freedom that he'd been fighting for over the past days, weeks, and even months, he still shot his former best friend a quick glance.
Wifies' eyes were locked on the spyglass. He didn't move, didn't speak, just stayed still. Not even his best friend leaving him right then and there got him to look away from it, not looking at Parrot for even a second while he walked away.
Slowly but surely, Parrot proceeded to go up the stairs and finally got to know again what it is actually like to be free, to not be locked away by anything or anyone.
He knew that this prison was designed to feel like a paradise, that it was made to function as a safe space for him so he wouldn't need to encounter danger anymore. So he and Wifies could live peacefully with each other.
Yet, he never felt this way about this place. It has always felt oppressive to him. There has always been weight put upon him ever since Wifies has brought him into this cage. Parrot doesn't deny that this place isn't beautiful. Instead, it's so perfectly made, with all the biomes being aligned the best way possible, building terrain so gorgeous that he hasn't seen before that it's starting to feel uncanny to him. It's the kind of perfect that starts to feel weird.
Cherry blossoms were covering the mountains as well as the valley, surrounded by those hills. Their house was also built in that valley, right next to a small lake where Wifies and Parrot used to catch fish together, back when Parrot pretended to have given up to escape.
Everything was silent, the lake was calm, and no wind was brushing the leaves of the cherry blossoms. The silence only broke once the bird arrived at the place. He went up to the farm, where Wifies and him planted a large amount of carrots, in case they ever ran out of food. Parrot decided to take all of them with him, as well as the boat that has been floating on the water's surface for a few days already and multiple stacks of cobblestone to get over the tremendous obsidian wall, as the last step to obtain the life he has wished for the last months again.
He left the valley, leaving it as quiet as it had been before he got there, heading straight up to the wall. This time he knew he could escape. Wifies was stuck, couldn't move or go anywhere or else he'd die, blown up by all the TNT that is built right under that chamber, with redstone connected to the pressure plates to make this whole system work. The guards, or should he say his friends, don't do anything now since Wifies doesn't command them in this moment. This was his chance.
He quickly built himself up the gigantic barrier, placing block after block underneath him. Every second, he is just a little closer to the outside world, to his old life. His anxiety rises, hoping no one will come and hold him up. You can never be sure with Wifies.
Minutes after minutes passed by until he eventually climbed all the way up to the top of the obsidian wall. Seeing the actual outside world, not just the perfectly built one inside the prison, dropped the weight from his shoulders he had been carrying all time long.
He turned around one more time and looked around the built terrain. It has started to feel familiar. And maybe Parrot had finally found the beauty in it after all this time, but it was too late. He had already planned what he was going to do next.
He sighed at the sight. Especially when looking at the building Wifies is still trapped in. "Goodbye, Wifies" the bird mumbled to himself as he turned around. Parrot placed the boat he took with him and sat down in it, steadily paddling off of the wall, right into a swamp. But most importantly, his own life and choices.
Down in the chamber, the pressure plates were still activated by Wifies and the spyglass he's been glaring into for the past 20 minutes.
Wifies miscalculated. He trusted Parrot to not have anything else on him. He knew he didn't. He tracked his entire inventory, so he knew he wouldn't have something with him. So how could Wifies overlook something as important as that spyglass?
As much as he likes to believe that Parrot still cares about him and still sees him as a friend, he cannot be convinced that it's true. But why did he pick the spyglass up again? It's something that shows their already long-lost friendship. Why did he still want to carry it with him? He doesn't know the answer to his questions. But does it even make any sense to stay alive longer if Parrot was the only reason he was here in the first place?
No. Parrot does care about him. Every single second he endured in this cage, he hoped that Wifies would come back to his senses, to realize what he did was wrong. They both knew it.
"You kept on saying you killed your past self to become who you are today. Both of us know—you'll deny it, but both of us know that there is some version of you deep down that wishes that you hadn't done this, that wishes that you hadn't faked your death, and that wishes that you hadn't manipulated my friends and killed them. And did all these horrible things to me and wishes that they could go back." were some of Parrot's last words before he left.
When Wifies has thought about everything. About all of what happened between them ever since he pretended to have died. About every interaction he had with Parrot ever since. Not a single time has Wifies felt that Parrot was actually comfortable around him. His emotions have always been laced by caution as well as even the slightest bit of fear.
Now that Wifies thinks about it, he regrets every single thing he has ever done to Parrot. He lost him. Because of him being overly controlling. Every single word that Parrot has spoken was true. He does wish things could just go back to normal, to how they always were before everything happened. Because of him, Parrot is most likely even more hurt than he would've ever been if they were outside, just enjoying their life together with others.
That spyglass. The one which was literally keeping him alive was the last thing he now has left of Parrot.
"Wifies?..." He has heard a pair of voices say warily. It was Jumper and Derapchu, the guards. Parrot's friends that Wifies has manipulated to work for him and keep Parrot contained in this prison.
"Get me out of here," he orders.
The two already being used to Wifies commanding them around and needing to do anything he says, they step on the pressure plates, Jumper being the one to pick up the spyglass.
As Wifies steps off of the pressure plate with Derapchu now standing on it so the chamber wouldn't explode, he immediately goes up to Jumper on the other side of the massive room.
"Give it to me. I can't leave it with you." Wifies ordered Jumper to give him the spyglass that Parrot had laid down on the pressure plate she was now standing on.
She didn't resist as always, handing the spyglass to him.
He grabbed it quickly and ran away, up the stairs just as fast.
He knew it was necessary to apologize to Parrot. But... how? He has just ruined his life and stripped away his freedom. He couldn't just go up to him and say sorry. That would just make this whole already awkward situation even worse. All the ways He thought of didn't sound pleasing for either of them.
God, what even made Wifies become this way? He knows he always wanted to protect Parrot as much as possible and has done some insane things to do that already, but going as far as manipulating everyone to go with his favours was something else. Something he never thought he would do.
"*Whatever...*" he thought at first. It was more important for him to get out of this cramping place at first. What he once thought was the most beautiful, gorgeous-looking landscape he had ever seen, turned into something that only makes him feel guilty of what he has done, and he couldn't take it anymore.
Wifies progressed to go to his secret stash he had hidden deep in the underground of the build jungle in the cage since he threw his entire inventory into the lava. Digging up the hole to it again was tiring and really drained his hunger. Once he was inside of the small room, he opened the chest where he had stored an entire new inventory. Full enchanted netherite armor and gear, an elytra, rockets, and more than enough food for the next few days, as well as blocks, wood, and different ores he could need.
He took everything and geared himself up again. Golden apples were exactly what he needed right now with him almost starving to death. As he ate one, he felt how his body got to heal up better than it ever did in the past time he had lived here together with Parrot. After his energy finally restored again, he flew up to the outside through the hole that he had just dug up.
Once Wifies was so high up that he was able to see over the whole prison and further out into the outside world, he realized something. He realized that he hasn't been out of this perfectly built cage himself, since it was made to keep both of them there together. He as well hasn't seen the outside ever since he closed the hole in the obsidian wall together with Parrot.
But now that he does see it again, it seems so much brighter and more alive than ever. Something he hadn't even thought about for a single second while being in the prison.
"*Is this how Parrot had felt just now?*" he wondered to himself in his mind.
As he flew out of the cage, he had felt an incredibly satisfying sensation. Like he is suddenly the one who had been set under pressure this whole time and now escaped.
He glided across the world with his elytra for thousands and thousands of blocks until he met a jungle. After a while of just floating in the air, questioning the different paths he could take now, he decided to set down right here. Wifies cautiously flies down, landing right on top of a tree.
The first thing he thought of doing was chopping down some of the huge jungle trees to get some more wood with which Wifies continued building a small house. It doesn't really look pleasing, but that isn't a problem right now. He just needed a place to stay at. Once it had been built, he sat down on the ground, rethinking everything again. Not once or twice, but so often he didn't even know himself anymore.
Wifies pulled out the spyglass, staring at it for a few seconds.
"I am not worthy enough to carry this spyglass anymore... after all, it was his, and he gave it to me." He had silently whispered to himself. This item wasn't seen as what it's supposed to be anymore. It's just going to be a constant reminder.
"I need to return it to him."