Work Text:
Wemmbu was getting increasingly suspicious of the fact Theo was still fighting him while Parrot was nowhere to be found. His entire body felt like it was about to collapse anyways, with wind charges being the only thing pushing him forward and providing momentum. That being said, his resources were also running quite low- which he’s pretty sure was the duo of brain and brawn’s intention.
The elytra on his back was weighing him down whenever he switched to it. Wemmbu noticed the wings response to every single movement he made. Normally, you shouldn’t even be able to sense your elytra that often- aside from the swift motion of putting it on and the occasional adjustment, although Wemmbu was used to both of those, so why did it feel like he was holding up a set of netherite on his shoulders?
“I actually hate you!” A quip said by Theo after the avian’s elytra broke. For some reason, the basic insult hit kind of hard right now, but Wemmbu chose to continue ignoring this strange feeling he held in the back of his mind. It wouldn’t matter if he simply didn’t think about it.
“You’re the one hunting me… so…”
Kind of obvious you hate me. Wemmbu retaliated back.
Banter was easy.
Banger while fighting was also easily.
He could do both of those. What he apparently couldn’t do right now was keep his arms from giving out, as he missed another mace hit on Theo while the bird was fully caged in cobwebs.
Wemmbu rushed to craft more wind charges as he was rapidly running through the ones he had on hand. He tried to grab breeze rods from somewhere on his utility belt, though it was quickly too much to hold and he ended up dropping a quarter stack of valuable breeze rods onto the ground. The sixteen sky blue items shimmered at him with mockery.
He quickly wind charged his way up the wooden pillar to a somewhat familiar cobblestone platform keeping the pearl cannon on top. Well, as quick as he could with how sluggish he was feeling. For Mojang’s sake, why did his head have to start pulsing now? And why could he feel his heart beating?
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Okay, he needs to get a grip on that. Wemmbu threw the iridescent enderpearl up with as much force as he could muster, praying it would be enough to activate the pearl cannon- teleporting him somewhere far away.
And as the redstone machinery above him worked its magic, with all the pistons and powered rails triggering, the slime blocks in a flutter of retraction-
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Wemmbu’s breathing was… wrong. And it felt like he was about to plummet straight down to bedrock and through to the void.
His pearl teleported him. Wemmbu’s vision started to fade out at edges, and he could barely look up. But when he did, he saw-
Oh.
~~~
Parrot stared at him with triumph in his eyes- the avian’s plan had worked, after all.
The room- although spacious, felt empty as the void stretched below him, laughing at the pathetic form of a demon. Mojang, half of what he was seeing being void didn’t exactly help his deteriorating condition. In fact, the void only made him feel more suffocated.
Wemmbu was carrying his netherite sword in one hand, and it felt so heavy he was about to let it fall to the ground with a clatter that would echo through the whole room.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t The Invisible Knight himself.” Parrot muttered, as if he was ridiculing the guy with every word he said.
A swirl of wind blew right in front of the demon’s face, his invisible eyes widening in shock. Right, his invisibility seemed to be having some weird effects on him too. Wemmbu remembered feeling nauseous sometime back when Parrot confronted him in the stronghold. Mojang, maybe it was affecting his memory too.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
He looked around the ginormous quartz room in a daze, hastily chugging golden apples while he was at it.
“Unfortunately for you, the enderpearl cannon you just took… isn’t really the escape route you thought it was.” Parrot said with some sort of a teasing tone like this was all a game and he was the circus’s director. Or ringmaster, whatever they’re called.
“And more importantly, this is going to be the end of your fake identity, Wemmbu.” Parrot declared.
He doesn’t remember exactly how it went after that- Parrot mocking him some more, and explaining his own identity to him. Again, like he was the ultimate director of this sick game Wemmbu was forced into playing. And Parrot… was directing things. Wemmbu’s resources were running extremely low now, due to Theo. And most importantly- he was completely out of fireworks while standing just blocks away from the fatal void.
“I do have one question though, why did you do all this? You faked your own death for what? Power? Did you want to like get revenge on Flame somehow- was that your idea?” Parrot asked, still with a jeering tone.
Wemmbu almost scoffed.
Parrot didn’t get it.
At all.
“This is a lot of assumptions you’re making, with not a lot of proof.” Wemmbu uttered, as it didn’t feel worthwhile to explain his thoughts to the avian currently mocking him.
But he had to fight back, and even if Wemmbu’s resources were drained down to the bone, he couldn’t let Parrot get away with this. Besides, he knew how to lie and bluff like the back of his mace.
“So, what makes you so confident that I won’t just kill you now?” Wemmbu remarked.
“I mean you’d technically be right, if I… didn’t bring a little friend.” Parrot replied tauntingly.
Wemmbu picked up on the sound of a milk bucket being chugged.
“Flame, you wanna come out?”
A full set of netherite being equipped could be heard behind him. The immortal demon swiftly threw an enderpearl that landed right in front of Wemmbu as he turned around, and his eyes immediately met the center of The Invisible Knight’s gaze with no hesitation.
“So Wemmbu, how’s it going man?” Flame questioned him rhetorically as the nether demon circled around The Invisible Knight and held a confident stance when he eventually stopped walking.
“Faking your death and stuff?”
Wemmbu breathing was uneven, unstable- how was he even breathing right now? It didn’t feel like he was.
“Yo get on this platform right now before I kill you. I’ll just throw you into the void. Let’s have a real fight bro, come on!” Flame urged Wemmbu as he threw another pearl onto the larger platform Parrot himself was standing on.
“Come on.” Flame’s voice called from across the expanse of void.
“Honestly, this would have been a pretty smart plan and all, expect for the fact that I have no idea what you’re talking about and I’m not Wemmbu!” He exclaimed.
“Yeah, whatever. So now you’re just gonna- why are you acting so scared all of a sudden bro?” Flame asked with interrogation and mockery edged into his voice.
“Come on, let’s fight.”
~~~
As Wemmbu enderpearled onto the main platform, his presence felt different to Parrot.
It was… off. He looked more fragile. Maybe weaker? Whatever, it wasn’t anything he actually had time to focus on- as they literally has Wemmbu right where Parrot wanted him to be.
Now all The Invisible Knight needed to do was mistakenly throw a wind charge at the dome around them while he was fighting Flame, and-
Wemmbu’s invisibility started flickering. Did he forget to reapply it?
Mojang, they didn’t even get to Parrot’s plan with the dogs and everything.
~~~
Flame could tell something was off when he first landed next to the invisible player. It wasn’t how he had supposedly faked his death to everyone on the server- or his terrible disguise, but instead his sluggish movements, the zoning out and not saying a word, and Flame swore he could almost sense the dark eyebags under all that invisibility.
His suspicions were only proven correct when Wemmbu’s invisibility began to flicker- he must have forgotten to reapply it somehow, and the demon collapsed to the ground.
~~~
Wemmbu was tired. But he didn’t know he was this tired. This tired was different- it was enough to make him pass out right as he was about to rematch Flame. Maybe it was a fight or flight response from something in his head, Mojang- he didn’t even know what he was feeling right now, let alone what the million thoughts that were running through his head were.
But all that came to a stop when his vision blacked out. He thought he heard someone- he guess it had to have been Flame or Parrot, calling to him as he fell to the ground, but he couldn’t quite make it out before-
Before.
Before Rejoice died.
Before Rejoice died, Wemmbu didn’t know how devastating it was to lose someone that quickly. He thought it would be easier to get over someone if you only knew them for a few days.
But it wasn’t.
At all.
Wemmbu tried to ignore it whenever Rejoice was brought up, he remembered when Jaden told him to “say hi to Rejoice for him”. How he felt after that moment was indescribable, but he had still worked with Jaden during his time as The Invisible Knight, and the pirate even knew his identity.
You could say Wemmbu forgave Jaden in a way, but he would never forget Rejoice.
He could never ignore the guilt.
It wasn’t just that though. Wemmbu had lost a good amount of people he used to call his friends.
People like Zam and Mane.
And now Parrot and Flame, he supposes.
And Rejoice. Why was Rejoice different? Deep down, Wemmbu knew why- it was because he couldn’t shake the feeling that if he was just stronger.
Then maybe he would’ve been able to save him.
~~~
A field of wildflowers filled Wemmbu’s vision. The soft, sage colored grass was blowing quietly against the ebbing wind as the sky reflected a pale blue sparse with clouds.
It seemed like the flowers stretched onwards in every direction. But before him- in the distance, was a tree. Wemmbu could tell even from here that its trunk twisted in an abnormal way, in which you could probably sit on it. Next to the weird tree, however, was a tall piece of stone. And as Wemmbu carefully stepped closer, he realized-
That it was a grave.
With Rejoice’s name.
~~~
Parrot didn’t know how to describe what he was feeling right now. Maybe devastated at the fact his elaborate plan would never receive the proper resolution he wanted. Maybe shocked and worried for Wemmbu, as the demon was so tired he passed out right before a fight.
With everything they had been through, he had never seen Wemmbu like this before. Wemmbu with eyebags as dark the night sky, Wemmbu looking this fragile and out of strength- it was the exact opposite impression Parrot had of him.
And most importantly, he had never seen anyone this badly unconscious before.
~~~
Flame was definitely worried. He was worried that he would never get his rematch with the stupid purple demon, he was worried that he would never find another rival like Wemmbu.
Despite everything, Flame was worried that Wemmbu was going to die.
And that worry only grew by the second.
~~~
Wemmbu stared daggers into the gravestone. How..? Why..? Why was this here? How was it here?
Where even was he?
He wanted to shout all of those things at the sky, but chose against it. If this actually was Rejoice’s grave somehow, he didn’t want to disturb the peace.
Mojang, if this was Rejoice’s grave, then maybe he was in the afterlife.
Maybe he had already died too.
~~~
Every minute, Wemmbu moved closer to the gravestone. He swore it was more like something was drawing him closer to it.
Despite talking minutes earlier about how he didn’t want to disturb anything- or anyone, the ashy stone stared back at him, its surface crawling with moss and greenery.
Come on.
It’s not like-
Flash.
Strike.
Flash.
The field of wildflowers surrounding him all turned into sunflowers that were facing towards the tree. The sky had turned a dark, bloody red, and Rejoice’s name on the gravestone was now crossed out.
The horrific sound of a sculk shrieker being activated could be heard, and when Wemmbu looked to see what-
He saw Rejoice.
Sitting peacefully on the abnormal tree trunk Wemmbu had mentioned earlier.
“Remember me?”
“…”
“What a silly question, right? Of course you remember me.”
“…”
“Forgive and forget, Wemmbu.”
“Forgive and forget.”
In that moment, everything in his body felt numb and-
And that’s when he woke up.