Archive of Our Own

It started as most things did for Kenadian, with a message pinging on his communicator. Assuming it was just for a commission or a question about some glitch he and Wato had found a while back, he lazily opened the device, watching the screen blink awake equally as unmotivated. Instead of a boring commission, the message was a plea for help, one that created a pit in his stomach.

ParrotX2 whispered to you: I need help. Wifies is stuck in a chunk ban, and I don’t know how to get him out.

You whispered to ParrotX2: On my way, send coords.

Ken pocketed her communicator with trembling hands after memorizing the set of coordinates that Parrot sent. She ran a hand through her uneven coppery brown hair and glanced over to where Wato was working on a greenhouse to keep the snow from the mountains off of their future crops. Her bicolored green and yellow cat ears were pinned back against her head in distress, as her similarly colored tail swayed in an agitated manner. 

As she approached, Wato’s own pair of mismatched green fox ears perked up, disrupting his normally well-kept dark brown hair with their twitching at the quiet crunching of the snow under Ken’s boots. When he turned to look at her, the smile on his face quickly fell as he zeroed in on Ken’s anxious expression, and he paused his building.

“I need to go. Wifies is stuck in a chunk ban and I don’t know how long he’s been in there…” Ken’s tail whipped behind him, worry mounting for his friend. The fox hybrid’s demeanor immediately changed, his ears standing straight up in distress as Ken continued. “Wato, we don’t know what effect being in a chunk ban will have on him. He’s a clone; we don’t know where he’s ended up or if he’s just disappeared forever. Nobody’s heard from him since he’s been temporarily banned.”

“Then go. I’ll hold down the fort. Just make sure Wifies’ okay, and that he knows not to be a stranger,” Wato reassured Ken, waving off the cat hybrid’s concern for him and his own problems of being left in solitude. Wato hopped off the half-finished build and motioned for Ken to remain where she was standing before sprinting into their shared cabin. When he returned a couple of moments later, a shimmering compass was nestled protectively in his hands along with a note. “Give this to Wifies when you free him. It’s connected to the lodestone in our house. Just so-”

“Just so he knows we mean it when I say he still has a place with us?” Ken asked, tilting their head. Their ears lifted a bit, and a fond smile broke across their face. A momentary reprieve from the worry that was still digging a deep pit in their stomach. “Good idea. He would forget, wouldn’t he?”

Ken took the gift for Wifies, making sure it was safely stored in his inventory, and equipped his elytra. He flew to the coordinates Parrot had sent as fast as he could, which still wasn’t fast enough. Wifies wasn’t like a normal player, and the three of them didn’t know what a chunk ban would do to his body. The trees below him turned into a blur, with the occasional river cutting through the green expanse below him as he shot more fireworks to keep top speed in the air.

When Ken finally arrived, his tail was still thrashing behind him in worry. Parrot was the first to greet him. The red macaw hybrid appeared just as stressed as Ken when he introduced him to the other people he’d have to work with and around. Mostly work around. The team consisted of 6 people, including Parrot and Ken, and much to Ken’s relief, one of the others had managed to record the prison's inner workings and gave him a copy of the video. 

It was a basic enough prison. Structurally similar to the numerous other prisons Ken had broken in and out of for fun. Just a regular obsidian behemoth with a mob in the center that held the chunk ban shulker. The only realistic problem was the partially self-imposed time crunch, partly because the guards were in their own banned chunk that could be released at any moment, and partly because Ken didn’t want Wifies to be banned for longer than necessary. If anything went wrong, it would mean more time in the banned section for the clone and whatever was happening to him in there.

Ken opened the various shulkers around the group and checked the supplies. Stress began to mount as she attempted to cobble together any semblance of a plan. Gathering the redstone, pistons, honey, wither skulls, soulsand, and whatever else she’d need to create a wither bore. She turned towards the towering mass of obsidian and lit a firework, gliding up to the spot where they’d begin to dig in.

The plan failed. It was a simple machine she had made countless times, but the one time it needed to work, the Wither escaped the contraption, and they had to waste valuable time killing it. With stress continuing to mount, she switched gears to a safer, if a little slower, method of sending in hundreds of TNT minecarts. The longer it took, and the more things that went wrong, the higher Kenadian’s agitation grew. 

Ken’s ears twitched at every small noise, and she dug her claws into her sleeves, unable to force her more animalistic traits back down. Which, in turn, forced her to have Parrot take the lead in order not to accidentally cause more problems with her stubborn claws. Then, eventually, the mob holding the shulker, which had turned out to be a baby piglin, was killed.

The team celebrated, cheering at a job well done. With the task completed, everyone else left the vicinity of the prison, but Ken stayed. His ears were back to being pinned against his head, this time in anticipation rather than anxiety, and his claws had finally retracted. Parrot shot him a questioning glance before focusing back on the large obsidian structure. Minutes passed, and finally, finally, Wifies’ join message pinged on Ken’s communicator. He let out a breath he wasn’t even aware he was holding, tension bleeding out of his frame as his bicolored ears perked up.

When the clone stepped out of the prison, he looked a little shaken up, squinting at the sudden light, but physically unharmed. Ken beat Parrot to the freshly released Wifies, and she put her hands on his shoulders, looking over him, this time in more detail, to try and gather where he’d been. After tossing a glance behind herself to make sure Parrot was out of earshot, Ken asked the question that had been burning in her mind in a hushed tone. “What happened in there?”

“I… I was back at the lab,” Wifies admitted quietly after a moment, ducking his head. Ken’s grip on the dog hybrid’s shoulders tightened. Wifies cleared his throat and took a deep breath to calm himself down before explaining again. “It was weird to be back. All the other clones disappeared somewhere. They probably ended up in other escape rooms somewhere, like the one we found on Halloween a few years back. My creator was nowhere to be found, though, so I just started exploring. I can’t tell if he’s really gone forever or if he’s just hiding… while exploring, I, um, found more documents about my creation. I don’t understand everything in it, but I figured you or Wato might have a better idea, y’know, get a fresh set of eyes on it, a new prospective.”

Ken looked down as Wifies took out a book and quill and handed it to her. She took it and put it in her inventory for safekeeping. While her inventory was still up, she took out the compass and note Wato had given to her, giving it to Wifies in return. “Here. I know that we’re not as close as we used to be… but you’ve always got a place with Wato and I. Remember that, okay? We’ll look into these documents, let you know what we find and-”

Ken’s ramblings paused as an idea popped into her brain. There was someone else on the server who knew a lot about clones, someone who could also be less biased, less emotionally involved in the case of something bad happening (and because Ken could not be unbiased when it came to Evilfies and his work, even if it had given him and Wato Wifies). A sheepish smile popped onto her face, and her tail brushed against Wifies’ leg. “Actually, I have someone in mind who might be able to help if you’re okay with someone else knowing about your condition?”

“If it helps us understand what I am… then yes, as long as they can be trusted to keep the whole clone thing secret,” Wifies responded, looking down at the compass in his hands. His floppy brown, nearly black dog ears drooped, brushing his shaggy hair, a shade lighter than his ears, as he held the item close. “Thank you, by the way… I- I know I say it a lot, but seriously… You and Wato are great friends. I promise not to be a stranger.”

“Hey, that’s all we ask,” Ken reassured the clone, squeezing his shoulders one last time before letting his hands drop. Taking out a stack of rockets, Kenadian’s tail swished behind him as he turned away from Wifies and prepared for the flight home. “Take care, and try not to get into so much trouble!”

Ken jumped from the ledge, letting her elytra catch the wind. She pulled out her communicator mid-flight and sent a message to Branzy to see if they could meet. The other had replied almost immediately, letting Ken know that he was free if she wanted to pop over. Ken agreed and switched chats to message Wato, letting the fox hybrid know she was going to make a detour to visit Branzy for a little while. After getting the confirmation that Wato would be fine on her own for a while longer, Kenadian pocketed the device once again. Giving into the nagging feeling in her stomach, the cat hybrid looked back down at where Wifies was, frowning as she watched Parrot begin to approach the clone from above the duo. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Parrot; she just had a continuously growing list of reasons to distrust the avian.

Wifies similarly watched as Ken slowly became a dot in the sky, eventually disappearing from view. He looked down at the glowing compass in his hands, and a partially fond, partially sad smile formed on his face. His ears twitched as a set of footsteps grew louder behind him as Parrot slowly approached. When Wifies turned to face the avian, there was the telltale curious glint in his eyes. Wifies pocketed the compass and note for safekeeping not wanting even more questions to gather in the other’s head. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling the setting sun warm his hair and his tail wagged behind him in a contented motion.

“Bro, what was that all about?” Parrot asked, tilting his head with a wry grin, aviation goggles glinting in the same sun Wifies was warming himself under, effectively breaking the bubble of silence that had enveloped him. “I mean, I knew you and Ken were close, but he literally sprinted over to you. Plus, when I messaged him for help, he didn’t ask questions or even hesitate, just asked for the coords.”

“She was the one who invited me to the server originally,” Wifies explained, one of his ears twitching at the fond memory. The compass in his inventory suddenly felt heavy, Ken’s remark of the trio drifting apart settling like sand in Wifies’s brain, taking the fond feeling with it. “I guess I haven’t been hanging out with her or Wato as much as I used to since you asked me to help you with the scavenger hunt. We actually used to do a lot of escape rooms together.”

“Really?” Parrot asked, his eyes wide with mild shock. Wifies raised a questioning eyebrow, a silent cue for clarification. “Bro, I’m not surprised about the escape room thing, you literally talked nonstop about it when we were doing the scavenger hunt. I’m just surprised about the drifting apart thing. For someone who, as you even said,  you drifted apart from, they stayed longer than the others who helped for even longer. I mean, what in the world were you two even whispering about, bro?”

“Ken was just worried. They always are when someone gets stuck somewhere. It’s a leftover thing from when we were all in the End Barrens together helping rescue Wato,” Wifies brushed off Parrot’s curiosity. It wasn’t a full lie either; he just did not want to explain that he wasn’t the real Wifies but merely a clone, that none of them knew (and still don’t know) how his body would react to being banned or what damage it might cause. To his relief, Parrot let the conversation drop, and the two of them made their way away from the obsidian prison.

--- --- ---

Branzy’s factory on his mooshroom island had finally been completed. It wasn’t the most impressive thing he’d ever built, but it wasn’t terrible. Plus, Clown had agreed to decorate a room in the factory for himself next time he visited, which caused the inventor to finish in an excited hurry, wanting it to be complete in a bid to impress the assassin when that mysterious next visit happened. Did he stay up for multiple nights in a row just to complete it this quickly? Maybe. Was it worth it? Definitely.

He stood at the entrance and admired his base for a moment, the wind brushing through his already fluffed-up white hair, idly petting one of the baby mooshroom cows that had butted its head against his leg, not dissimilar to how a cat would. On the topic of cats, he had one set to arrive soon. Kenadian had messaged him a couple of hours ago, asking if the other had a day in the near future when they could meet, and he had told them that he was available today if they wanted to meet.

While Branzy and Ken had never been the closest, they chatted often enough to be considered friends, or at the very least friendly acquaintances. They were also the only other people who wouldn’t immediately shut down the admittedly insane ideas that would pop up in both of their minds. Branzy was able to ask whether there was a glitch he could implement in his creations, and Ken, in return, could come to him if he had any trouble with redstone.

The inventor turned his head when he heard quiet boots land behind him. He was greeted with the sight of Ken’s grin as the cat hybrid took off his elytra, replacing it with his chestplate. “Branzy! Just the man I was looking for. Look, before we get into this, I need you to promise me something. You can’t tell anyone about what I’m going to reveal to you. Not Clown, not Rekrap, not Kaboodle, not someone on a different server, nobody. This isn’t my secret to tell, and while I got permission to tell you, he doesn’t want this spread to anyone further.”

“As long as it doesn’t put me or anyone else I care about in danger… I can keep this one between you and me,” Branzy reassured Kenadian. Was he actually going to tell Clown? Probably… eventually. But if anyone could keep a secret, it was Clown. Besides, what secret stayed that way forever?

“Wifies is a clone,” Ken told him, and- wait, what? Branzy’s inner monologue stopped with a record scratch, and he blinked a couple of times. To Ken’s credit, she waited until Branzy’s brain visibly finished rebooting before she continued. “Wifies is a clone of himself. His creator made him solely for content. He was going to be recycled after he’d finished the escape room he was made for.”

Branzy stared at the cat hybrid across from him and quickly moved this secret from the ‘will tell Clown eventually’ section of his brain to the ‘perhaps I shouldn’t tell Clown’ section of his brain, as bare as that part was. His mind ran in circles as he attempted to connect this to reality. He’d only met Wifies a couple of times, but he seemed normal enough. Nothing had tipped the inventor off that he wasn’t the original. “How’d you find that out?”

“I was attempting to debunk the actual Wifies. When I arrived at his newest escape room, I saw there were two of them. It’s a long story, one I don’t want to get into at the moment, but the takeaway is that I found out that Wifies was a clone, killed the original Wifies, who was evil, and that Wato had created the escape room under… unfortunate circumstances. So when Wifies was released from his chunk ban, he gave me these documents,” Ken explained in an increasingly quick manner. She pulled out the book and quill from her inventory and held it out to Branzy.

“So you want to go over the contents of this together? Why?” Branzy couldn’t help but ask. Ken was no doubt smart enough to figure this out on his own, especially if he was working alongside Wato, so why bring Branzy into it? He carefully took the book and quill from Ken and flipped through it, skimming over the pages. Sure, it looked complicated, but that still didn’t explain everything. If Ken needed help, he could just ask a couple inconspicuous questions or search it up and eliminate the risk of Branzy telling Clown, Rek, or anyone else.

“You’ve created clones, though, right? You told me Patches was a clone,” Ken reminded Branzy. The inventor crossed his arms, unconvinced at the weak, convenient explanation. After a few seconds of a staring contest, Ken relented with a sigh. “I need someone who’ll be more objective than I will be when looking through the documents. I also need a second set of eyes. None of us know if or how the chunk ban affected Wifies. We don’t even know the whole extent of what he is, what he can do.”

That was more reasonable in Branzy’s opinion, and more importantly, the actual truth. The inventor’s expression softened with sympathy, and he nodded towards his facility. “Lucky for you, I just finished my base. There should be enough room to go over everything and begin experiments.”

Ken followed Branzy in, and the two began to pore over the notes Wifies brought back that had been, presumably, written by his creator. Branzy didn’t know if he ever knew the original Wifies or had only interacted with the clone of the man, but he couldn’t help but feel that, for all the atrocities the scientist had supposedly done, Branzy, and perhaps Rekrap as well, would have found his company enjoyable.

The two of them spent the afternoon and late into the evening writing on sticky notes to put on a board. No names were ever written down on the off chance that someone would snoop around the duo’s work. When they finally called it a night, Ken took the book and quill back, putting it into his inventory. The cat hybrid promised to message Branzy to arrange another time to continue their research before bidding the other a goodnight.

When Kenadian finally touched back down on the snow-covered mountain, the greenhouse had been finished, and there were already some sprouts popping up in the dirt, all of which were undoubtedly Wato’s doing. Ken’s tail swayed behind him as he felt himself relax from all the accumulated stress of the day. He opened the door to his and Wato’s small cabin, and the sound of a fire crackling made his ears perk up as his eyes landed on Wato reading on the sofa near the fireplace.

Toeing off her boots, Ken made her way over to the sofa, flopping over the arm and face planting into the cushion. Her actions earned her a quiet laugh from the fox hybrid, and she couldn’t hide the smile that wormed its way onto her face as a hand began to brush her hair. Ken lifted her head to look at Wato, her smile slipping slightly into something more somber. “Wifies’ is out. He’s… okay, he’s okay. Physically, at least. Wato… he was back in the lab. He was there for I don’t even know how long.”

“He has the compass, though, right? Plus, we can always check on him if- or when we get worried.” Wato reasoned, flicking Ken’s forehead. Their bicolored tail swayed behind them as Wato’s calm reasoning washed over their frantic thoughts. “How was everything with Branzy?”

“Wato, you wouldn’t believe what we found in the documents! We’re not even finished, but there’s so much about Wifies and the other clones. Control devices are implanted into his head, Wato. Wato, Wifies can’t dream. He can’t dream, can’t taste, can’t grow his hair.” Ken rattled off, his ears flicking in distress. Wato gently reached out for the other, pulling him in for a tight hug, brushing her thumb over the right side of his face in an attempt to calm him once again.

Ken leaned into the touch like a lifeline, the rhythmic pattern of Wato’s thumb against her cheek keeping her grounded. “We have to do something about it. We’ll figure out how to help, right?”

“Of course we will,” Wato agreed, rolling her eyes as if it wasn’t obvious enough. A lighthearted feeling fell over the duo as Wato glanced over at Ken with a grin. “Although, I might leave all of the experiments to you and the other mad scientist.”

“What?! You’d love it though! There’s a board with strings and everything,” Ken told the other with a laugh. Wato, in return, rolled her eyes again with a groan and pushed Ken’s head into the cushions again, who in turn attempted to lift their head up.

“You really think I can be convinced that easily? You’re the cat here, Ken,” Wato joked, continuing to push said hybrid’s face into the cushions while the two of them laughed.

--- --- ---

Parrot stared in confusion at the board covered in purple string, connecting various drawings and writings. It looked like the ramblings of a madman, with one word repeated in the corner of each paper: ‘clone’. Parrot turned to Branzy, his feelings all jumbled up and more confused than anything. To the credit of Branzy, the inventor looked sheepish, like his hand was caught in a cookie jar.

“Are you trying to clone someone?” Jumper couldn’t help but ask when she caught a glimpse of the board as well, her long brown hair swishing as she tilted her head. At least now Parrot knew he wasn’t the only one a little uncomfortable with the idea of cloning experiments happening on the server.

“Just Patches!” Branzy replied with quick reassurance, waving his arms frantically, causing the redstone dust clinging to his gloves to drift into the air and settle on his purple vest. Parrot knew, from his time on a very different server with Branzy, that the other man could be a little strange. He had a weird obsession with chickens, somehow adding them to all of his inventions. He’d also insisted on testing everything on blacksmith villagers, so really, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that out of character for Branzy to be working on the cloning process again.

“Weird obsession with Patches aside, you’re still coming with us,” Parrot informed Branzy, brandishing his netherite sword, effectively getting his kidnapping mission back on track. To which Branzy reluctantly went with Parrot and his companions. When they reached the secondary location, the inventor was forced to sit in the center of the quartz table, twiddling his thumbs until Clown got him released.

It was more of a waiting game rather than a worry game, because he knew Clown would pull through. So when Branzy was released, he immediately left for his island again to make sure none of his experiments were messed with while he was gone. He also messaged Kenadian to let her know the majority of what had occurred. Mainly, the fact that they should move all future experiments to where she was living. Ken’s response was positive, and after explaining that everyone who saw the board thought it was about Patches, all petty hostility disappeared from their future messages. She also agreed to head over to Branzy’s island to help move the experiments ASAP.

Branzy stayed on his island, gathering up the board and the rest of the experiments relating to Wifies's situation. He was in the middle of rolling up the purple string when he heard a quiet jingling of bells behind him. Whirling around, the inventor let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Clown, not something any sane person would do if they got a surprise visit from one of the deadliest assassins on the server. “Clown! I didn’t know you were visiting today.”

“I sent you a message earlier, BranzyCraft. You didn’t respond, so I thought you must have been busy getting back to work on your inventions. Figured I’d stop by, make sure you were returned fully unharmed,” Clown explained, turning the sword in his hands this way and that, a move that would be seen as intimidating to anybody but the inventor he’s talking to. Branzy’s cheeks warmed up at Clown’s worry, but he quickly brushed it off with a laugh and a wave of his hand.

“I’m okay, I’m okay. Just busy packing some stuff up,” Branzy explained as he went back to putting stuff away in shulker boxes. Clown hummed in response, peaking over Branzy’s shoulder and picking up various items as well as notes. Only stopping at the sound of almost imperceptible footsteps stopping at the doorway.

The assassin drew his sword as he turned around to face the person who tried to sneak up on him and Branzy, assuming it was Parrot back with some new delusional plan to harm those closest to him. However, instead of being met with a quick quip and a sword clashing with his, the perpetrator jumped back gracefully with a surprised yelp.

“Kenadian?” Clown asked, confusion evident in his tone despite the mask hiding his expression. The green and yellow cat ears on the top of the hybrid’s head twitched as they stood at attention, but she didn’t make any moves to equip a weapon of her own. Clown tucked away his own sword but kept his hand on the hilt, confident that Kenadian wouldn’t try anything, and turned to Branzy for an explanation. Said inventor smiled sheepishly, fidgeting with the shulker in front of him.

“Sorry, Clown… I forgot to mention that Kenadian was coming over to help move our experiment,” Branzy informed the assassin, a tad too late for it to be effective in the slightest. Most of the awkward tension broke when Clown let out an exasperated, yet fond, laugh. Sauntering over and ruffling Branzy’s hair, moving his hand down to cup the inventor’s cheek.

“No worries here. The more the merrier. I can surely set aside some time to help with a little packing, right, Kenadian?” Clown asked, tilting his head back to glance at the mentioned cat. Ken just nodded quietly, glancing between the two other inhabitants in the room. Clown’s eyes narrowed behind the mask as he watched her back. It was obvious Ken didn’t want Clown there, for one reason or another. He knew word had gotten out about him kidnapping Wifies, but he doubted that was the reason for her apprehension. 

“Right…” Ken reluctantly agreed as he slunk past the duo. He placed down an ender chest, taking out a couple of shulkers to fill himself. Branzy made conversation the best he could between Clown’s naturally taunting personality and Ken’s bristly nature. He didn’t fault Ken for his reaction, though. Branzy knew how it looked; he also knew how much Wifies’s secret meant to the other and how much of a risk it was to bring Branzy in on it.

“Ken, can I have a word with you outside?” Branzy asked, nodding his head towards the door. Clown looked up and tilted his head, the bells on his black and red jester outfit jingling cheerily, no doubt wondering what Branzy had to say that Clown couldn’t be a part of. They trusted each other, though, and Clown knew that if it involved him or endangered either of them, he would have already been told. So the assassin watched as the two left him alone in the room in favor of talking outside.

“Clown doesn’t know,” Branzy quickly spoke as soon as the two of them were under the shade of a large red mushroom. Now out of Clown’s hearing range, the inventor continued to explain. “He showed up unannounced, but he has no clue what the experiments are for. I swear I won’t tell him Wifies is a clone. His secret is still safe.”

“Thank you… I’ll admit, I was a little worried you’d tell Clown, since you tell him basically everything,” Ken replied earnestly, his shoulders relaxing at the knowledge that Branzy hadn’t gone back on his word. The two of them continued to chat quietly about how to keep the assassin inside out of the loop, unaware of the quiet footsteps slinking away from the duo.

Once the invisible player was far enough away and was guaranteed to be out of sight, they slipped on an elytra to begin the journey back to their home. They glided over the large expanse of ocean that surrounded Branzy’s island, and their invisibility potion finally wore off, revealing long purple hair a shade darker than his equally purple skin. Wemmbu let out a disbelieving laugh at what he had just gotten away with as the demon made his way back home.

When he touched down, a giddy smile stretched across his face, which only increased in mischievous nature when he spotted Egg working on fixing up their villager trader hall. The angel turned around when he heard the other’s footsteps increasing in speed and volume. “Egg! Dude, you would not believe the information I have.”

The seraphim’s single eye that could be seen narrowed in suspicion. “Bro, we cannot handle even more drama. We already have to deal with Zam and his empire. I don’t want to know what else you’re trying to drag us into.”

“We’re just going to be messing with Parrot, it’ll be fine,” Wemmbu reassured, rolling his eyes. Egg crossed his arms as he remained entirely unconvinced. “C’mon, dude, we won’t even be fighting. I was just flying around and happened to notice something interesting. Kenadian was hanging out with Clown and Branzy. I also just so happened to hear a little secret. Wifies is apparently a clone. He’s not the original guy.”

“So what? Don’t you think Parrot already knows? Dog, those two are literally attached at the hip. Also, what do you mean by ‘just so happened to hear a secret’? You were eavesdropping again weren’t you? Do you seriously not remember how that worked out last time?” Egg argued back, the wings framing his head flared out in a visible display of his annoyance. “I just wanted to play on a server. Why do you keep dragging us into stuff like this?”

“You have to admit all of this is fun, though, right?” Wemmbu continued to pester his friend with a laugh, his thin, pointed tail waving around as he jumped back and forth, expelling some of his pent-up energy. “Besides, I feel like we need to get Parrot back somehow for Clown showing up and messing with all of our crap.”

“Fine, whatever. Just message Parrot,” Egg finally relented with a deep sigh. Both of them knew it was inevitable; either Egg joined in on the drama or watched his friend run off with a higher chance of getting killed with his inability to keep his mouth shut. Wemmbu grinned as he hopped up onto a double chest and pulled out his communicator.

You whispered to ParrotX2: Yo, bro

You whispered to ParrotX2: You’re like, best friends with Wifies, right?

ParrotX2 whispered to you: Yes? Why?

You whispered to ParrotX2: I have a secret to tell you about him.

ParrotX2 whispered to you: Bro, what do you mean?

You whispered to ParrotX2: Just come meet me at my empire ruins.

ParrotX2 whispered to you: ???

ParrotX2 whispered to you: Fine bro.

With the messages sent, Wemmbu tucked his communicator back into his pocket. He jumped off the chest and began to pace around again. It didn’t take long for the sound of fireworks to be heard, quickly followed by footsteps touching down nearby the duo. When they saw the avian, Wemmbu couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face again. “Parrot! My good buddy.”

“Bro, Wemmbu, what do you want?” Parrot asked, crossing his arms, already done with the demon’s shenanigans. “What kind of secret could you have possibly acquired? Much less one you had to tell me in person?”

“Oh ho ho! Big words for the big bird,” Wemmbu taunted, ignoring the disappointed sigh from Egg. “Well, I heard a rumor, a very reliable one at that, that Wifies is a clone, he’s not the original one. Although I’m guessing you already knew that. I just wanted to know if it was true or not.”

Parrot stared at Wemmbu as the words dripped into his head like molasses. The avian’s face scrunched up into a confused expression as he was genuinely unsure if he had heard the other correctly. “What? Bro, what are you talking about? Wifies is just Wifies, there’s no other one.” 

“Wait, you seriously didn’t know Wifies was a clone?” Wemmbu asked, a laugh bubbling out at Parrot’s confused expression. Always the one to begin taunting, pushing at things that really should be left alone. “I thought he would have told you, seeing as you’re best friends.”

Silence reigned supreme as everything began to fall into place for the avian. From the board in Branzy’s base that disappeared, to the hushed conversations between Kenadian and Wifies. His best friend was a clone. Wifies was a clone, and he’d lied to Parrot. He felt betrayed, angry, confused, and worst of all, just plain hurt. Why keep something like this from him? Hadn’t he earned the dog hybrid’s trust by now? No. It had to be a lie, this was Wemmbu, of course, it had to be a lie.

“Yeah, sure bro. Like I’m just going to take your word for it?” Parrot shook his head and recentered his emotions. Wifies would have told him something as major as being a clone. Wemmbu tilted his head in response, the light glinting menacingly off of the man’s horns that curled back and towards the sky.

“You don’t want to believe me? Your loss, I guess,” Wemmbu replied with a shrug, motioning for Egg to follow him as he made to leave. He’d spread the news and Parrot’s reaction was sadder than the demon thought it would be, this revenge wasn’t fun anymore. Before he could get very far, Parrot’s hand shot out and grabbed the demon’s shoulder to stop him. 

“Show me your proof. Give me the proof if you’re so confident that Wifies is a clone,” Parrot challenged. His wings were fluffed up in response to his mood. Wemmbu merely laughed again and pushed Parrot’s hand off of himself. This was the reaction Wemmbu was looking for, not the defeated (sad) expression the avian sported minutes ago.

“You’re that desperate for it to be a lie? Okay, why don’t you ask Wifies himself? Or Kenadian and Wato?” Wemmbu pushed back, a grin splitting across his face, egging Parrot on. “Seriously, Parrot, you’re not this naive. I’m just telling you the truth about your friend.”

Parrot’s wings itched in discomfort while the demon and angel duo in front of him took his silence as a dismissal. Wemmbu had to be lying, right? That was the only thing circling in the avian’s head. Wemmbu had to be lying. So Parrot did the only thing he could: he messaged Wato. He knew he wouldn’t get a straight answer out of Kenadian, much less a meeting in person, so Wato was his only hope for the truth.

You whispered to Wato1876: Can you and Kenadian meet with me? I have a really important question for you two.

Wato1876 whispered to you: Sure? We’re heading to spawn. Meet you there?

You whispered to Wato1876: Meet you there.

The avian’s wings snapped out, freeing them of the itch to feel the wind between his feathers. Parrot shot up into the sky and quickly made his way to the spawn area. It wasn’t the longest flight, but anticipation rolled in his stomach. When he touched down on the crudely made path that stretched throughout the area, he immediately spotted the colorful pair of ears both Ken and Wato sported.

He made his way over to the duo, ruffling his wings in an attempt to get them to settle down. He didn’t want to appear as irritated as he felt, especially if he was going to be asking them about Wifies. Parrot knew Kenadian didn’t like him very much, which was part of the reason he was so surprised when the escapist hadn’t bothered to question Parrot when he messaged him for help with Wifies only days ago. If Wemmbu had told the truth however, it would make a lot more sense than it had before.

“If something happened to Wifies, you two would tell me… right?” Parrot asked, cutting to the chase as he looked between the two hybrids across from him. Kenadian and Wato glanced at each other, silent for a number of moments. Eventually, though, Wato stepped forward with a guilty frown.

“Well, it would depend. If Wifies came to us about something and asked us to keep it secret, we would,” Wato explained with a strangled laugh, attempting to lighten up the growing tension. Ken shrugged when Parrot cast a questioning look her way, deciding against adding anything helpful to the conversation as the cat hybrid’s irritation at the line of questioning visibly grew. “Parrot, we know you care for your friends, but-”

“Of course I care for my friends! Which is why if something happened to Wifies, I’d want to know,” Parrot interrupted, hostility on both sides growing. Parrot took a deep breath to try and calm himself down. “Look, just, if Wifies was hiding something big, something life changing from me, you’d tell me. Right?”

“We don’t owe you someone else’s secrets. Even if it’s about your ‘best friend’. Who, might I add, also doesn’t owe you anything. He can keep any secrets he wants to. It’s none of your business unless he wants it to be,” Ken erupted in a bristly tone. Wato sighed next to her as Parrot and Ken began to glare at each other. Ken’s tail flicked in agitation and Parrot’s wings spread out in response. Both hybrids looked one sentence away from being at each other’s throats, much to Wato’s dismay. Always the one to play peacemaker, Wato cleared their throat and stepped up to stand between the two on offense.

“Ken, take a deep breath. I know you aren’t the happiest with Parrot at the moment, but you can’t kill him. Parrot, you still haven’t explained where this line of questioning is coming from,” Wato reasoned, both arms out to keep the other two at a distance from each other. “Let’s get back on track. Parrot, what are you talking about?”

“Wifies. Is Wifies a clone?” Parrot asked, shifting his glare from Kenadian to Wato. Both of whose ears perked up in surprise. Parrot’s heart stuttered with relief at the twin looks of surprise across from him. That had to be proof that Wemmbu was lying. Parrot’s wings closed behind him as his frustration changed target from the two in front of him to the demon who had lied. That is, until Wato spoke up again.

“Who told you?” It was three simple words. Three simple words that clipped the wings of hope that was soaring in Parrot’s chest. Wato’s easy-going, if not gently apathetic, nature was replaced by a stone-cold wall. Quiet hissing could be heard from Ken as her ears pinned back again.

Parrot’s heart raced as he took to the skies again, ignoring the pleads of the duo on the ground. He had all the information he needed to confront Wifies about being a clone and he knew exactly where the liar would be. As the avian flew away, Ken’s frantic yelling was lost to the wind.

Wifies was fixing up the scenery around his house when he heard wings flapping and feet touch down behind him. He didn’t turn around as he focused on terraforming what Clown had destroyed. He didn’t hold a grudge against the assassin, truly, he understood he was in the wrong spot at the wrong time and refused to stay out of it. Clown had even offered to help him rebuild, which was more than Wifies thought he’d do, even if it had been at Branzy’s request.

“You’re a clone?” Parrot’s cold question caused dread to open a pit in Wifies’s stomach, his calm mood from building immediately vanishing. His tail tucked between his legs, and his shoulders hunched up to his cheeks. Risking a look at his friend, Wifies turned around to face the other man. Parrot’s face was scrunched in confusion, searching for any sort of tell that it was all an elaborate lie, some huge setup that everyone else was somehow in. When the avian found none, his expression fell, and he took a step back. “Seriously, Wifies? I thought you were my friend.”

“I am! We- we are friends, Parrot! I just- I didn’t want you to see me differently…” Wifies admitted quietly, his ears drooping as Parrot shook his head in something akin to disappointment. Guilt began to make a home in the pit that had been dug in his stomach. “I just didn’t want anyone to know. I still don’t, it’s a hard topic for me. Please, Parrot, you have to understand.”

“What I’m trying to understand is why you never told me. I thought you trusted me,” Parrot crossed his arms, and Wifies’ communicator pinged. The dog hybrid’s hands twitched to pick it up, to see who was messaging him, if only to delay the inevitable conversation. Instead, he balled up his fists and continued to stare pleadingly at his friend with literal puppy eyes. “How come Ken and Wato got to know you were a clone? Did they ever get to meet the real Wifies?”

The only answer Wifies had was silence, which was telling enough. Parrot scoffed and threw his hands up in frustration. “Of course they did! Why wouldn’t they? I’m sure the three of them were great friends until you decided to replace the real one. When did you even take his place? Did I ever even know the real Wifies? Or was it just you all along?”

Wifies stared in horror at the vitriol his friend was spouting at him. He was stuck like a deer in headlights. All he could do was listen as insult after insult, and guiltrip after guiltrip was thrown at him. When Parrot finally turned around to take a deep breath and reorganize his thoughts, Wifies took advantage of the moment and equipped his elytra, taking to the sky. He didn’t know how long he flew, just that he needed to get out of there. 

So he did, and he eventually crashed onto a beach, shaking from all the emotions swirling in his head. He didn’t cry, couldn’t cry, that wasn’t something a thing like him got to do. Instead, he lay there in the warm sand, breathing shakily as he tried to calm himself down. He tried to remember the breathing exercises Wato had taught him, but it was getting harder to breathe by the second.

He lay in the sand for another unknown period of time before his com pinged again. With shaking, sand-covered hands, Wifies opened the message chain.

_Kenadian_ whispered to you: Parrot knows, I don’t know how, but he knows.

_Kenadian_ whispered to you: Wifies? Are you okay?

_Kenadian_ whispered to you: Wifies, please respond. Wato and I are getting worried.

You whispered to _Kenadian_: I’m okay.

_Kenadian_ whispered to you: Where are you? Are you safe? Wato and I will pick you up.
You whispered to _Kenadian_: no. I’ll come to you.
_Kenadian_ whispered to you: Okay, we’re at our cabin. Follow the compass home.

Wifies pocketed his communicator and pushed himself up onto shaking arms. He sat there for another couple of minutes, just staring out at where the waves lapped at the shoreline, in a daze. It had been foolish of him to think he could keep being a clone secret forever. There had been too many variables that could have gone wrong for that to be a feasible goal.

That didn’t mean it hadn’t spooked Wifies when his friend had confronted him about his lies though. It had been a foolish dream, but a dream nonetheless. A dream that could no longer exist.

Wifies lit a firework, disrupting his own train of thought as he began to glide once more, only now he had a destination in mind. The shining compass Ken had passed off to him only a few days ago was put into the hand that wasn’t occupied by a firework, and he turned to follow the small red line to the two people with by his side, even when he was at his lowest. The ones that had known his creator and chose him. Chosen him over the original.

They had been with each other through not just Wifies’s lowest, but Ken and Wato’s too. Wifies and Ken had been there when Wato had gotten lost for months in the End Barrens. Wato and Wifies had been there when the Omz mask found it’s way back onto Ken. Ken and Wato had been there for Wifies when he had just escaped and had nowhere else to go, nobody else to talk to, to figure out what was going on.

They’d always been there for each other. How had they grown so far apart in the time that it took for Wifies to get so attached to Parrot. How could Ken and Wato trust him with the location of their home? Had they drifted apart, or had Wifies?

Snow began to fall as a large mountain slowly came into view, bringing Wifies out of his thoughts in an equally slow manner. Through the white particles, smoke could be seen rising from the chimney of a small cabin nestled into the side of the mountain. The closer Wifies got, the more the two colorful blobs in front of the structure took shape into the people he had been searching for. 

Wato was pacing back and forth; the ground under her lacked any snow from how many times she had stepped in the same spot. Even though Ken wasn’t pacing, they were also visibly agitated, their tail flicking anxiously as they kept looking from their communicator to Wato and back again.

Wifies’s boots crunched down on the snow as he landed, wrapping his arms around himself as the attention of Wato and Ken landed on him. “Hey, guys. Sorry for worrying you both.”

Wato’s pacing stopped as he turned and tackled Wifies to the ground in a crushing hug, a quiet whine could be heard from the fox hybrid as she began to apologize. “I’m so sorry! We don’t know how Parrot found out, but it seemed like he came to Ken and I for confirmation and we just gave it to him. The question came out of nowhere, and I tried to ask who told him, but he just took off to find you…”

“Yeah, he uh, wasn’t the happiest when he found me,” Wifies quietly confirmed. One of his arms wrapped comfortingly around Wato as he looked up at Ken with a pleading expression. The cat hybrid’s tail was still sticking up and swaying with anxiety, but her shoulders had relaxed. 

Instead of helping Wifies up, as he had hoped, she just nudged Wato gently with her foot and fell down to join the body pile. Wifies couldn’t help the small whine that bubbled up as the warmth of the other two debunkers seeped into his cold, mechanical-like bones. Wifies’s other arm wrapped around Ken as he tucked himself closer to the clone, burying his face into his chest.

“What even happened?” Ken asked after a few beats of silence. The two on top of wifies lifted their heads to see Wifies’ ears droop as he glanced away from them. Ken’s anger immediately returned as a hiss grew in his chest. Wato’s own ears drooped in sympathy, and her tail thwapped against Ken’s back to get him to stop hissing.

“He doesn’t understand why I didn’t tell him, and he um, he asked if he ever knew the original, when I replaced him,” Wifies revealed quietly. His stomach sank at the reminder of what Parrot had spat at him. 

“When I see that bird-brained idiot next, I’ll tear his throat out and make him wish Clown had gotten to him first,” Ken hissed out, earning him another smack from Wato’s tail and a flick to one of his ears from Wifies. Successfully cowed, Ken rolled his eyes at his companion's refusal to let him engage in a violent manner. “Or, y’know, I guess just threatening him with a chunk ban of his own works too…”

Ken’s refusal to let Parrot go unpunished made Wifies sigh fondly, and Wato chuckle with a good-natured roll of his eyes. When the trio finally got out of the snow and into the cabin, Wifies insisted on tending the dying fire while the other two changed out of their wet, cold clothes. The two reluctantly agreed and separated into their rooms for a few moments, only to return in outfits identical to the ones they had worn before.

Wifies let out a startled laugh at the cartoonish nature of having multiple of the same outfits, missing the quiet look of victory Wato and Ken shared. Wifies was then ushered into the guest room with clean clothes despite the clone’s inability to get sick. 

When he returned in the fresh pair of clothes, consisting of a sweatshirt courtesy of Ken as well as a pair of pants from Wato, a strange, somber mood had fallen over the trio. It was the unfortunate reminder that things weren’t okay, that Wifies’ closest-guarded secret had sprung a leak and now who knows how many people had gotten ahold of the knowledge.

Wifies stood in the doorway into the room while Ken was looking through a handful of notes, flipping through page after page, on a mission that Wato seemed to be aware of. The two whispered to each other cryptically, and Wifies’ tail drooped at the reminder of how close the other two were and how far Wifies himself had fallen from the amount of time he spent away from them. 

Wifies shuffled closer to the couch and cleared his throat, gaining the attention of the other two. Wato’s head shot up to look at Wifies, while Ken’s ears twitched and swiveled to face the dog hybrid standing off to the side, her attention still on the stack of papers in her hands.

“Wifies! Ken’s looking for a surprise for you,” Wato explained, patting the cushion next to her. Wifies glanced between the cushion and the sympathetic smile on Wato’s face. With only a little hesitation, the clone returned the smile and plopped down next to the fox. “Ken’s been working with Branzy on a surprise for you. They found something interesting in the documents you gave her while researching them. Of course, you don’t have to accept it, but I’ll let Ken explain further. If she ever finds it, that is…”

Wifies nodded, his expression scrunching up slightly from confusion. Silence descended once again over the trio, only broken by the flipping of the pages in Ken’s hands. Slowly, even that noise came to a stop when Ken found what she was looking for with the exclamation of “AHA!”

“So, Branzy and I were looking through the blueprints and notes Evilfies had written down about the cloning process, and we noticed something,” Ken began, lifting up the paper he had settled on and handing it to Wifies.

When the clone looked down, he saw all the human experiences that had been taken from him and the inhuman augmentations that had been forcibly added into his body. His ability to cry, to get sick, to dream and be more than he was made to be. The switch in his head that had been added that could kill him at a moment's notice if his creator ever found him again. By the time Wifies finally looked up again, Wato and Ken were already staring back at him with twin excited looks.

“We can give back everything that was taken from you,” Ken quietly told the clone across from him. Wifies’s eyes widened as his ears perked up. The silence stretched on again as all the possibilities flitted through Wifies’ head, the longer the quiet lasted, the more nervous Ken got, her excited expression wavering in fear of crossing an unspoken boundary. “I mean, only if you want to. It’s okay if you say no, I can burn the notes on your blueprints and we don’t have to ever ta-”

Wifies interrupted the nervous rambling as he tackled the other two debunkers in a hug. His tail wagged behind him in increasing speeds as he held the other two close. Wato laughed from where he was squished between them. “I told you he’d like the idea.”

“Yeah, but you can never be too sure!” Ken couldn’t help arguing his own point, resolutely ignoring the purring that was picking up in volume emanating from his own chest. Wifies squished himself closer, affection bubbling up for the two of them. Ken’s hand reached down to gently play with Wifies’s shaggy hair. “So… you really do like our plan? I mean, it’s only in concept at the moment, we’ll have to finish reading the whole thing and then we’ll have to figure out how to actually do it. You want to go through with it though?”

“I do… I can’t believe you would go through all this trouble for me,” Wifies admitted quietly. Wato tilted his head, one of his ears brushing against the dog hybrid’s cheek, prompting Wifies to explain further. “Well, I mean, I haven’t been the greatest friend, especially recently, and you’ve already done so much for me.”

“Wifies, I want you to listen to me very carefully, okay?” Wato asked, gently pushing Wifies off of himself and Ken. Once all three of them were sitting up, Wato put his hands on Wifies’s shoulders, and Ken lay his head on Wato’s shoulder. “We care about you so, so much. Not because it's convenient or because we expect something in return. We care so much because- because we love you. Ken gets so incredibly antsy when we hear about what you get roped into, and I’ll be the first of us to admit that it gets a little lonely without you.”

Wifies felt his cheeks warm up at the sudden confession. His ears shifted back and forth as he stared at the two in front of him. No silence fell over the trio this time, thanks to Ken’s continuous purring. He stared at the two in front of him in awe, and just like that, everything clicked into place for the clone.

It didn’t matter who knew he wasn’t the original Wifies, not when he was Ken and Wato’s Wifies. The one they had chosen. The one they had chosen when given the choice between him and his creator. The world could never be against him, not when his world was made up of the two debunkers who, time after time, proved that they would always be by his side. 

Wifies’s face scrunched up in overwhelming affection for the other two, a whine spilling out of his chest. Wato and Ken must have gotten the message because the fox pulled Wifies closer, and Ken’s tail brushed against Wifies’s own fluffier tail, tangling the two limbs together.