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☆☆☆☆☆
MR PUZZLES POV
There was nothing.
I saw nothing. I heard nothing. I felt nothing.
After the massive rift incident, I’d been stuck here in a void of pure nothingness. It had been lonely, agonizingly so, but I’d had some time to think.
About life, about what I’ve done, about… WPNZ.
I was still astounded that, even after everything I did to him, he still risked his life to help me close the rift. I wondered where he was. Maybe he had been stuck in this place too.
Wherever this place was.
Time was strange there, like I’d forgotten how to keep track of its passing. It was just nothing merging into more nothing.
I had accepted it. Even if I wasn’t dead, after all I’ve done, I deserved this fate.
But then I heard something.
The silence was shattered by quiet but deafening sound.
As it slowly grew louder, I was only just able to recognise it.
Was that…
WPNZ?
“Boxhead! Puzzles!”
He seemed distraught, like he’d been calling for a long time. How I was able to hear him?
Why now?
I tried to reach out, but I still couldn’t move.
Everything faded to white as WPNZ’s voice seemed to scream directly next to me.
My senses slowly started returning to me.
I’m almost there, WPNZ.
☆☆☆☆☆
〇〇〇〇〇
MR WPNZ POV
My eyes shot open.
I sat up, breathing heavily and clutching my chest.
What the hell just happened? It’s all a blur.
I remember the war, the rift, the bright lights, and…
…Shit!
Puzzles! Where the hell is he?
He was in the rift with me, he had to be somewhere.
I looked around, scanning the area. The early morning sunshine beamed into my eyes through the leaves of the canopy above.
Then I saw him.
He was laying face down in the dirt, not moving at all.
“Shakespeare?”
I half stumbled, half ran to him. I flipped him over so I could see his screen. It was black. Fully black. A large crack ran vertically down the middle, fragmenting along the width.
“Puzzles! Are you in there!?”
There was no reaction. No twitch of the fingers and no flicker in the black screen. But his chest rose and fell slowly.
Good. At least he was alive.
I searched the sides and underneath the television. There has to be an “On” button somewhere.
“Boxhead! Puzzles!” I continued to call him, hoping he could hear.
I found a small button on the front that I pressed immediately.
His screen turned bright white, his body violently arched against the ground, fingers scraping at the dirt he was laying on. I smiled, letting out some sort of short, relieved laugh.
And it went black again.
“Puzzles…?”
〇〇〇〇〇
Mr Puzzles’ screen slowly flickered on, his digital eyes squinting at the brightness of the environment around him. Mr WPNZ's face was in front of him, a silhouette in the light.
“WPNZ…? Where-?” His voice glitched as he rubbed the side of his CRT. He felt many new dents and scrapes, ones likely caused in the rift somewhere.
He was immediately pulled into a tight hug by Mr WPNZ. The CRT’s screen changed to one of confusion, then hesitation, and then a slight smile.
“Don’t scare me like that, Broadway. I thought you were dead.” WPNZ whispered.
“I don’t die that easily, have a little faith.” Puzzles said sarcastically with that smug smile he loves to do. “However, I do wonder where we are.”
The gunman helped the television man to stand as they both looked around.
Trees towered over them that seemed to stretch infinitely in all directions. There seemed to be no signs of life other than the two, no bugs, no birds, no woodland creatures. It was eerily quiet, only the sound of the trees swaying in the wind. A few small paths branched off from the slight clearing they were standing in.
“I dunno… Some forest?” WPNZ finally said.
“I guessed that far. We must have gotten sent here when we shut the rift.” Puzzles replied.
“We should follow one of these paths. Could lead us somewhere useful.” WPNZ suggested.
“As long as we don’t split up. It doesn’t go very well in horror movies.” Puzzles half-joked.
Mr WPNZ turned to one of the paths and started walking, followed by Mr Puzzles a few paces behind. They stayed quiet, the only thing filling the silence being the mechanical whirring of the gunman's body. The sun slowly arched across the sky as they continued.
“Do…” Mr Puzzles started, trying to find his words, “Do you forgive me? For all I did to you and Toomp?”
WPNZ paused for a moment.
“Yeah.” He finally said, “I’m not mad at you anymore. I know what you did was bad, but I don’t think you’d do it again, y’know? You seem actually sorry, like it isn’t just another act. So, yeah. I forgive you, Boxhead.”
“Thank you.”