Chapter Text
It's not like Parrot wanted Wifies dead. In fact, it was probably the opposite. With the way Wifies ran for the spyglass, even though he knew it was going to blow up… Parrot knew Wifies regretted Paragon. He knew Wifies didn’t want to die, didn’t want Parrot to leave. Parrot can’t be the only one who loved their friendship. The only one who didn’t want it to end. Why else would Wifies make Paragon to trap him?
But Wifies still did it. No matter the guilt he felt, ignoring everything they’d done together — but was he really ignoring it? Wifies said himself that he knew Parrot better than Parrot knew himself. They’d spent so long together, no wonder Wifies knew everything about him. No, Parrot corrected himself, not everything. Wifies didn’t predict that Parrot would be stupid — or smart — enough to hold on to their friendship. The spyglass.
Parrot forced himself to put one foot in front of the other, forced himself to go back to Wifies’s cherry wood cabin he’d helped rebuild. He grabbed carrots from the farm, ignoring the part of him longing that Wifies was escaping with him. Wifies was gone. He was dead. And he wouldn’t have come with Parrot even if he was alive.
When he reached the obsidian wall, he felt his limbs go sluggish—mining fatigue. It didn’t matter because Parrot wasn’t planning on mining through. He took out the blocks he’d grabbed earlier from Wifies’s the house. He looked behind him instinctively, scanning for any guards ready to keep him trapped. Parrot wanted to smack himself for that. With Wifies… gone, the guards had no reason to keep him here. They were probably long gone themselves. He would be, too, if he were them. The blocks felt heavy as Parrot towered up the obsidian walls.
At the top, he couldn't help but look back. It was pretty — he had to admit Wifies had done a good job with that. God, why did all of his thoughts head back to Wifies? Parrot couldn't catch a break.
He tore his eyes from the obsidian spire at the center, placing a boat to safely float down from the wall. It was over. Wifies was dead. It wouldn't do Parrot much good to dwell on it more than he had to. And did he even have to? The Wifies he'd left behind in Paragon, the one who'd blown himself up trying to reach the spyglass — he was hardly Wifies anymore, was he?
Either way, Wifies was dead.
It was a long trek back to his snowy cabin. He didn't realize just how far away Paragon was from any civilization, but he supposed it wouldn't have been as safe as Wifies had made it out to be if it was closer. His house was just as he'd left it — windows fogged from the cold, the door slightly ajar. He could even make out the faint indent from their footprints.
Parrot pushed open the door, stepping in. He half expected someone to be waiting for him, but it was silent. The bedsheets were still ruffled from when he'd gotten up, the furnace fire finally out. He sat down on the bed, ignoring the cloud of cold air rising from the sheets around him at the disturbance. It was then that his eyes were drawn to the corner of the wall where the floorboards were beginning to crack. And sprouting from the small crevice, pressed against the wall and curling, nearly shriveled, was a small, yellow dandelion. Parrot couldn't do this. Not when everything he saw sent him spiraling back.
He was in denial. He knew it. The same thing had happened months ago when Dean had died to the mafia, but at least he’d had Wifies someone then. He wished he had someone now, too. Grief was always better when you had someone.
He ended up chopping wood until sunset to keep his mind busy. But he had to keep working. If he stopped, then he would be able to think, and if he was able to think... He already knew what would happen if he did.
***
Parrot didn’t want to wake up. It was comfy— he was warm, the sun was shining… Wait, what? Sun, what sun? He was in his and —no, don’t think about him— he was in his cottage in the snow. Snow. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten sun there.
Parrot sat up, looking around. The sunlight streaming through a window, a window he couldn’t remember building. The soft aroma of something that definitely wasn’t snow. And the walls. The light pink cherry-wood walls he knew all too well—he was back in Paragon. But how? He’d distinctly fallen asleep back in his snowy cottage… unless someone had brought him here? But Wifies and the guards were the only other people who knew this place existed. The guards couldn’t have brought him back… could they? Would they? Now that Wifies was… now that they weren’t being blackmailed, couldn’t Jumper and Derapchu leave? They had no reason to stay here, and Parrot remembered Jumper saying she would free him if she could without compromising her spies.
He pushed the covers off, standing up slowly. Parrot wanted to be cautious. Who knew what else was lurking here, now that there was no one to keep it safe?
Parrot stepped outside, examining the prison. Everything looked pristine, perfect. What in the world…?
“Parrot?”
That voice. No, he must be hallucinating. He was dead. Parrot saw him die. He saw his ex best friend cradling the tattered spyglass as the world around him exploded. Wifies was dead.
“Wifies.” Parrot turned, and there he was. Wifies. just how Parrot remembered him. With his messy but still somehow styled dark hair, his yin-yang sweatshirt, his purple bandana. the green feather dangling from the scuffed piercing in his ear… Wifies. He was alive.
Parrot wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or terrified. Maybe a bit of both. He didn’t want Wifies to die. But would he really prefer being stuck back here again? His freedom, for Wifies’s life? He didn’t want to think about it any longer— maybe because he already knew the answer.
“Sleep well?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
They stood there, simply staring at each other. Parrot couldn’t look away. His best friend—ex best friend now, he supposed—was alive. Again. That thought made his stomach churn. Was the TNT, the explosion, the last rush for the spyglass all a lie? Was Wifies playing him, again? Making him believe that all escape was hopeless? Parrot didn’t know what he would do if that was true.
“You seem… off.” Wifies stared at him.
Parrot scoffed, internally. His body was still too frozen in shock to actually react. Of course Wifies would notice something wrong. Of course. He was smarter than Parrot, after all. How else would Wifies be standing right there?
But Wifies didn't gloat, didn't mention how stupid Parrot was for believing the TNT. He just stood there, hands in his pockets, his head tilted. Watching. Parrot might have even said he looked worried, but this was Wifies. Why would he worry when Parrot was stuck in his 'perfect prison'? If Parrot supposedly had nothing to fear in Paragon, Wifies had no reason to be worried. Wifies only cared for Parrot to be safe, he didn’t care about how Parrot felt. Wifies wouldn’t be worried. Parrot was imagining things again— but then, when has he not been lost in his mind? Recently, there was always something to worry about, from BAT’s safety from assassins, to understanding this new Wifies, to escaping.
Maybe this was all a dream, enhanced by his hyper-aware mind. Turned into a lucid dream by Parrot’s need to always have the situation analyzed. Maybe… because Parrot couldn’t think of any other logical solution. Wifies wasn’t one to leave loose ends, and Parrot was sure his hiding of the spyglass wouldn’t be left unaddressed for so long. It must be a dream, which is why he still has the spyglass.
Parrot felt a sick sort of pleasure at that, knowing that for once he was in control. Maybe not super consciously, but at least his mind was the one leading the way, not Wifies.
But realistically, there’s nothing you can do alone that’s better than something we can do as two people
But Wifies was wrong. Parrot could survive better, live better as one person. Alone. It may not be perfect, but Parrot was sure it was better than living with Wifies here, trapped, for eternity.
Parrot realized he had been lost in thought for a little too long.
“I mean I’m stuck here. It’s kind of hard to be normal.” Wifies smiled at that. Parrot wanted to roll his eyes. Even in his dreams, he was stuck here. Would he ever be free?
His limbs seemed to finally want to respond to him, and Parrot turned away. Wifies didn’t stop him.
***
Parrot still remembered everything about this place. Well, he supposed, he must know it well if he managed to perfectly recreate it in his dreams. He remembered his fake trap, and the helplessness on Jumper’s face as she tried to convince him to stay. He remembered how Wifies had lashed out after Parrot had been caught. He remembered… Did he even want to remember?
No, he didn’t want to remember Wifies’s death. He had to remember Wifies as who he was, like he’d promised. He’d promised. So why was it so hard?
“Step on a pressure plate. It won’t kill you.”
Parrot blinked, reality shifting into focus around him. The almost ethereal quartz-white of the surroundings made everything weird. Was this how it had felt before? Parrot tried and tried, but he really couldn’t remember. Wifies was staring at him, obviously expecting obedience. But it wasn’t Wifies. Not really. It couldn’t be.
“You will step on a pressure plate.”
This time Parrot’s legs moved without him telling them to. Before he knew it, the soft sound of footsteps was replaced by the click of the wooden pressure plate starting the sequence of pistons. It made him sick.
Wifies seemed to almost smile. Or at least something akin to one pulled at his lips. Parrot couldn’t remember the last time Wifies had genuinely smiled. The click of Wifies stepping onto his pressure plate disseminated throughout the room. Parrot was silent. Wifies spoke next, that was how it had played out. There was nothing Parrot could do to change that.
“You left me without a choice, Parrot.”
No. Everyone always had a choice. Wifies had chosen to join Parrot in the search for Spoke’s secret. Wifies had chosen to sacrifice his life by stepping into the chunk ban. Wifies had chosen to be there for him, time and time again.
Parrot chose not to speak.
“From this point on, if either of us steps off — if you try to break a block — the entire chamber blows up with us in it. I told you this prison was perfect, Parrot, I gave you a chance to live freely. And you wouldn't take it.”
“You really have nothing on you?” Parrot wished this would end. He didn’t want to see Wifies die. Not again. Not when it was so new.
“I told you I’d start over on the same footing as you. No items, nothing.”
Why couldn’t he wake up? Why couldn’t he move? Why oh why couldn’t he do anything but watch his friend fade before his eyes? He had to look. Parrot needed to remember what Wifies looked like before he started crying over everything all over again. He needed to see Wifies. One last time.
“Wifies…”
Parrot’s hand twitched, and Wifies’s eyes caught the movement. Before either of them could say anything, or Parrot could even think, Parrot’s fingers clasped around the spyglass as he zoomed in on Wifies’s face.
If only he could freeze this moment in time. Parrot could almost convince himself that everything was normal. Wifies looked surprised, almost… impressed. It looked like Wifies, not the Director or whoever was wearing his skin in front of Parrot.
Then it was gone.
Wifies’s eyebrows narrowed, stiffening. “Where did you get that? I… I tracked your entire inventory, Parrot. Where— how did you get that?”
Parrot let the spyglass fall from his face. “Remember when I threw it off the top of the prison?” A sardonic, mournful feeling made his lips twitch. “I went back to pick it up… after I tried to kill you. I don't know why I kept it.” Parrot looked away. He couldn’t hold Wifies’s gaze. Not when he knew exactly what would happen. “Maybe because it... it reminded me of, like, who you used to be.”
Parrot could hear Wifies’s voice get more and more frantic as he spoke. “I told you before, I killed that version of me, Parrot. I had to.” His voice rose, and Parrot had to hold back a flinch at the pain in his friend’s tone. “Guards, please—“
“Wifies.” Parrot let the words leave his mouth. He couldn’t stop them. He couldn’t stop any of this. “You know what I've realized? I'm not smarter than you. I'm not…” The words fell from his lips. Exactly as he’d said them before. Because this was a dream, after all, and Parrot couldn’t change that. He couldn’t save Wifies, he knew that. Tears clouded his vision, numbing his mind as he drew closer and closer to the end of his speech. It was just a dream. He had to remember that. Wifies was dead, and nothing Parrot could say or do would change it. “…I’m gonna remember you as the Wifies I used to know. The Wifies that cared about other people and was kind to everyone. The Wifies that gave me the spyglass.”
“Please, Parrot, please. Give that to me before you hurt yourself.” Wifies’s hand extended towards him, reaching for both the spyglass and the lingering strands of hope that said Parrot might want to stay.
“It’s all yours.” The spyglass slipped from Parrot’s fingers, and Parrot’s eyes followed the symbol of their friendship on its path down until the glass shattered on impact against the wooden pressure plate. Parrot stepped off, looking up to find Wifies staring at him. Pleading.
His footsteps sounded too loud, echoing around the silent chamber. Wifies was still watching him, but Parrot had to turn away. Even without the spyglass to zoom in on his friend’s face, Parrot knew Wifies was crying.
The dream didn’t end as Parrot climbed the spiral staircase, nor as he heard the explosion go off behind him. On autopilot, he followed the same path he had previously, grabbing blocks from the cherry house before towering out of Paragon. Why wasn’t it over yet?
Surprisingly, his cabin was covered in snow again. Parrot groaned as he entered before he spotted the small, shriveled dandelion poking out at a corner. Hadn’t he gotten rid of that earlier? Or was his mind intent on having him run through the whole day again? Parrot flopped onto his bed, curling up under the thick blankets. He didn’t want to chop wood with only his thoughts. He didn’t want to cry himself to sleep. He wanted his friend back. Was that too much to ask?