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Minute noticed something was wrong with Spoke the second he appeared in the end. His frame was much lighter, he had deep bags under his eyes making him look like he hadn't slept properly in months, they also looked disturbed and distant in a way he couldn’t place. His fur was disheveled and burnt in many areas, and there were many small injuries that were left untreated.
The most striking thing however was his armor change.
He had a full set of trimmed netherite armor. Which wouldn’t be particularly odd if it weren’t for the fact his chestplate had changed as well. The only times he didn’t wear it was if there was risk of it breaking, which there wasn’t here. The armor was also sharper and looked more for intimidation than practicality. It made him look taller and the armor covered all of the rainbows on Spoke’s normal clothes, helmet even covering his bandana.
He didn’t look like Spoke.
He didn’t act like Spoke either. He didn’t fidget with the strings of his hoodie or whatever random item he found as he talked, wasn’t distracted by builds or snooping through chests. He spoke but it was less energetic, a serious edge to it that was never there before. He stood mostly still, his body language was closed off and defensive, and he kept a firm grip on his totem even though Minute would never attack him.
Really, he should have expected the betrayal. All the signs were there, dismissing Minute’s worries, distracting him from readying defenses, being on guard around him. It was obvious what was about to happen.
Despite everything, even after Spoke made it explicitly clear, even after the other end protectors were killed, Minute couldn’t believe it.
His mind nearly convinced himself this was a nightmare or a trick. Spoke wasn’t actually leading an army to take over the End. Him and Mapicc were in the overworld pranking people and causing problems.
He could see Spoke trapping peoples bases, Mapicc defending him from angry players, the two laughing as they built a base Spoke would probably blow up when experimenting with traps.
Was Mapicc still missing? He heard he disappeared after the law battle; he would have helped but he needed to repair the end from Lettuce’s reign. Spoke would have reached out if he still needed help, right?
He was always disoriented when seeing it was Spoke leading the takeover and not some other voidling who looked vaguely similar.
The thing that unnerved Minute beyond all else was the glitching. Each time was worse than the last.
At first, it was barely noticeable. Minute had to strain his eyes to see the slight shift of his fingers, the shake in his voice confusable for his mania.
By the final end battle, Spoke’s entire form glitched in and out of reality. His tail disappeared midswoop to come back a few seconds later in a new position. Some words were completely indecipherable from overtaking static.
It reminded him of someone else. Someone he was sure Spoke hated. Someone he hated. Someone he had complete faith Spoke would never become.
While in the water he got close enough that instead of reaching out with his sword, he reached with his hand. He tried to pull him back. To what he didn’t know for certain. Maybe to hug him, maybe to just force Spoke to look him in the eyes.
His hand connected with his shoulder only to instantly pull back. It felt like a thousand needles pushed through his hand. He looked down and it was completely fine, residual pain taking time to fade. Did he feel that? Every second of this fight was his molecules being ripped apart and stitched back together?
When Minute looked into the portal caused by the dragon's death all he could think of was one thing. Was Spoke too far gone?
This Purgatory place he mentioned clearly messed him up but whether he was beyond repair he couldn’t tell. Surely some part of his Spoke was there, he just hoped there was something he could do to snap him out of this, but he couldn’t now. First, he needed to save Spawn from having the same fate as the End.
He jumped into the portal, allowing his body to sink through the familiar, cold magic. He would face Spoke again; he just needed help.