Chapter Text
Flick!
“Aouw!” Spoke recoiled, “why did you do that!?”
Mapicc cackled, “what? It’s not like it actually hurts you, right?”
“Uhm,” Spoke pauses, his hand had drifted up to his horns as if to protect them from a big, bad dragon.
“ …Spoke? You alright bro?” Mapicc tilted his head, putting his raised hand down.
The voidling let his guard down and lowered his hands, unfortunately, he got tricked by Mapicc and he flicked it again.
“Agh!” Spoke jumped out of his spot and ran straight towards MinuteTech.
“—spare armour, building materials, how am I supposed to bring this while…AGH!” Minute yelped when Spoke grabbed his dragon wings, spreading them out like curtains just so he could hide behind them.
Minute whipped his head around only to see Mapicc approaching his own friend in a devious manner; hands raised in the air and his fingers wriggling. MinuteTech’s expression contorted into a disturbed one as he stepped back—along with Spoke who’s still in between his wings.
Minute slightly twisted his body around to observe the younger voidling behind him, his hands being used to cover both of his own horns. Spoke’s mouth was formed into a small line, with his brows up-turned, and all of this gives Minute the impression that Spoke was distressed—which was a very heavy contrast to when he arrived at his base all happy-go-lucky.
“Don’t do that,” Minute closed his wings abruptly, ignoring how Spoke yelled his name in mock desperation.
Mapicc beamed with joy as he hopped closer towards Spoke, hands raised yet again to Spoke’s horns with his fingers curled—
“Wh—hey, hey hey hey, STOP!” Minute screamed at Mapicc.
Flick!
Spoke collapses with a shrill, curling into the wall as he grabs his own hair, gripping them so hard that it looks like he’s going to rip them right off of his head.
Mapicc looks down, a triangular black horn in his trembling hands. When his hand's fingers brushes against his palm, he can feel its tiny broken shards roll on it.
“Why—” Spoke chokes out, “why would you do that!? Why, Mapicc!” No tears are being spilled, not even one tear.
“No, no, no, no—Spoke, Spoke—I, come on…” Mapicc steps back, shaking his head as his hand almost goes limp on his sides.
Another scream rips out of Spoke’s throat, and Mapicc could see the blood trailing down his face as Spoke tries his best to pull his head up to look towards Mapicc. He keeps gritting his teeth and opening his mouth just to let out these painful wails. His fingers had dug themselves into his black tufts of hair around his horns just so he could feel a semblance of a dull ache to distract him from this pain.
“It hurts! Mapicc it hurts! Stop—stop it!” He screams, it echoes into the maze, “god, god, no! Why would you do this—please, Mapicc!”
There’s a constant ringing in Spoke’s ear, it could be from being slammed to the maze’s wall head first, but he knows it’s also because of losing his horn—he still doesn’t know how his own body works. He never bothered to learn.
Another shot of pain from his head made him scream for Mapicc, “Mapicc, Mapicc, please! I need a golden apple—a healing potion—any, anything!”
“Shut up!” Mapicc snaps, kneeling down to grab Spoke by his shoulder just to pull him closer. “Come on, come on, where is it…” Mapicc rummages through his inventory, his hands stumbling left and right as Spoke finds his hand on his armored shoulder, clawing desperately.
“Ah—heugh, just kill—kill me Mapicc, kill me,” Spoke laughs like a lunatic in the middle of his wailing, before it turns into groan and only his crazy laugh remains.
“Of course, of course,” Spoke rasps out, Mapicc doesn’t like how he sounds now, “he wanted y-you to kill me, not Jamato, not Null, Jamato wanted you to ban me off from—from this server.”
When Mapicc found the golden apple, he found that he had crushed it in his own hand.
“I have another one,” he mutters under his breath, ignoring Spoke’s words.
He pulls out another perfectly intact golden apple after discarding the crushed one, handing it towards Spoke who had hunched down in front of him. His hand lingers in the air with the golden apple for a minute, waiting for Spoke to take it.
Spoke’s forehead weakly collides with Mapicc’s chest plate, before he slowly slides off to the side.
Mapicc catches him.
His arms hung limp, and Spoke’s head had tilted to the side. Mapicc can’t see his eyes, they’re being covered by his messy hair.
“Spoke, …damn it, I didn’t even get to ask you where the exit was…” Mapicc groans, settling Spoke back to his arms so he won't get cold.
Mapicc tilts his head up, then looks around, checking which direction Spoke came from so he could probably get out of this place with Spoke—no, no. Spoke can just …stay here and bleed by himself, because why should he care? He’d be a lot safer with Spoke banned.
He still hasn’t let go of Spoke, though. Instead, his fingers twitch and his hands hold onto Spoke more firmer, his nails creasing the dirty fabric of the voidling’s hoodie.
Mapicc lowers his face, his forehead resting on Spoke’s limp shoulder as his own breath hitches. His mouth opens hesitantly, as if he’s trying to form words, but no noise comes out of his throat.
Slowly, but surely, Mapicc slowly fixes Spoke’s head so it settles on his shoulder too, imitating a hug.
It took Mapicc a minute to realize that he, himself, is trembling.
***
What should he do when he gets out of this place with an unconscious Spoke? Mapicc thinks as he steps forward, while fixing Spoke who he had set over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Set him down in the farlands? Who would take care of him? Who’s he kidding, without Mapicc, Spoke would probably get caught by the Nulls as soon as he wakes up. Though, Mapicc is hesitant about putting him back to spawn too, because …he’s just going to drag everybody down with him to get what he wants—and Mapicc knows that Spoke would probably try to reach out to him or Jumper by any means necessary.
Mapicc could threaten him to never touch spawn ever again after he gets better. Yeah, he can do that.
When Mapicc turns around to check if there's any other path in the maze that he could take, he’s met with a nether portal.
Mapicc grits his teeth and stumbles back, eyes widening as he shakes his head just a smidge, as if saying; not now, fight with him anywhere and anytime, but not now! Not when an unconscious Spoke is burdening his shoulder with his weight.
“Oh, great,” Mapicc curses himself, this is what he gets for being a little nice towards Spoke once again.
Without hesitation, Mapicc unsheathes his sword once again as multiple Null soldiers emerge from the purple pool of the portal, the Null soldiers also pull out their swords in response to Mapicc. The fighter steps back, his hold on Spoke tightening, then he curses Spoke silently under his breath, was this his plan too?
“Great job, great fucking job, SpokeIsHere,” Mapicc rolls his eyes, then, he’s forced to fix his posture as one Null soldier lunges at him.
Mapicc hops back as much as he could, while still making sure Spoke is safely secured on his shoulder. He swings his free arm so he can parry the attack from the first Null soldier.
The swords scrape against each other before Mapicc twists his sword up—before quickly parrying another attack from another Null soldier that sneaked behind his back.
Clank!
Mapicc turns around yet again, only to get his feet swept away by a Null soldier’s foot.
He loses his balance and eventually falls to his knees, when he tries to stand back up, the Null soldiers had already surrounded him in a small circle, each of them knowing what to do as their hands reach out like a bunch of disgusting tendrils. He notices one of them yanking Spoke by his hood, making Mapicc bare his teeth at them—and right before he lunges at them, they hold him back by clawing at his shoulders like he’s a wild beast.
They manage to lift Spoke off of his shoulder, even with all his attempts to thrash around to prevent them from touching the two of them. Then they swiped his weapons, his armors, and all of his useful items off of him.
When he reaches for Spoke again, he gets pushed back down to the cold mossy stone floor of the maze, he recoils instinctively before he gets his face shoved back onto the floor. Mapicc grunts, pressing his palm against the wall so he can push himself off of it—only for his hand to also be yanked away and pinned against his own back.
“No!” Mapicc grunts, trying to kick them off as he lifts his head to look for who took Spoke.
Mapicc’s eyes catch onto the rainbow strings that flow so rigidly in the air, they come from the arms of a Null soldier that is walking up towards the nether portal. Mapicc's eyes widen and he starts thrashing around under the restraining hands of Null.
“No, let go of him this instant!” Mapicc yells at the Null soldier before his face gets pushed back against the stones, “he’s injured—! You can’t just take him away when he’s unconscious like that, that’s—” what is he saying? When did he care so much about the rules?
“That’s dishonorable! That’s vile! You—don’t walk away! Come back here!” Mapicc screams at the rest of the Null soldiers, his legs having to be forcibly restrained by them too from how much thrashing around that he does.
“No! No! Don’t take him there, stop!” he continues, his tone slowly steering off into a desperate one.
Spoke's rainbow ribbon gets engulfed by the purple portal as Mapicc continues to rebel. His black pants and rainbow-colored shoes, too, start fading into it.
“Stop, stop! Don’t take my—” he shuts his own mouth, sharp fangs biting his own lower lip until it bleeds as he stares, knowing that he has no chance.
‘Don’t take my friend away from me’ was left unsaid.
Spoke let out a weak yell as he recoiled, and Mapicc froze in front of the two voidling. Spoke immediately hunched down while he’s massaging his own forehead, then, he turned his face towards Minute with his eyes that are closed shut, before blinking multiple times just so he can focus on Minute.
“What the hell are you doing!?” Minute marched towards Spoke quickly, grabbing him by the shoulders to steady him. Spoke still stumbled.
“What’s wrong? It's not like it hurts, right Spoke?” Mapicc leaned forward, actively trying to look for any signs that Spoke was hurt in any way.
And shortly after, Mapicc ended up becoming as equally distressed as Minute when he couldn't find anything wrong with Spoke. While Spoke himself was actively trying to get Minute’s hands off of his shoulders by shaking them off.
Mapicc’s eyes went thin, “Spoke, bro?”
“It uh, it …it doesn’t hurt, don’t worry, Mapicc!” Spoke gave him a grin to reassure him, but his twitching eye hinted Mapicc otherwise.
Mapicc straightened his own posture, his eyes moved to scan Minute’s expression soon after, just to subtly ask if Spoke was lying or not. Mapicc instead saw Minute with his mouth agape behind Spoke, completely shocked at his words in disbelief.
Minute coughed, which startled Spoke.
“Don’t lie,” Minute crossed his arms.
“Ughmm,” Spoke hummed uncomfortably, before turning his face away from Minute’s eyes that were glaring daggers at him. “It—it kind of feels like that cold feeling when you get your tooth knocked out after a punch and uh… you get dizzy after.”
Mapicc tilted his head up to look at Minute again, Minute nodded in relief.
“Bro, you’ve got to be joking with me,” Mapicc pinched the bridge of his own nose, “why didn’t you tell me!? I’ve been doing this to you for like, weeks—months, even!”
“I know, I know…” Spoke nervously looked away, fiddling with his own fingers.
Minute’s hand went up to press his own forehead, soothing down the upcoming headache as he opened his mouth; “Spoke, I know, you know, and we both know that we can heal and regenerate very fast because we’re from the end—but you have to be careful! Especially when the Mafia is hunting you down.”
“I can slip away just fine! That’s how me and Mapicc survived—”
“Look, Spoke,” Minute grabbed Spoke’s shoulders, then turned him around gently so he could face him. The older voidling leaned down so their eyes could meet on the same level, “just …take care of your horns, okay? Trust me.”
Mapicc’s eyes flickered up to Minute’s hair, finding one of his horns cracked. His hand gently sweeps across his own hair before finally settling it on his wide horns, Mapicc couldn’t feel anything from it.
Spoke could regenerate faster than Mapicc could, he knows, he’s seen it. But it still doesn’t change the fact that Mapicc doesn’t want to inflict any pain onto Spoke in any way, after all, they’re best friends, and friends don’t hurt each other.