Chapter Text
The sound of the gunshot shook the room, and had he not known better, Verity would’ve thought the walls would come tumbling down around him. They didn’t, but he almost wished they did. He stared, a fake smile plastered across his face, as Mob’s blood splattered on the ceiling and walls around them, sending him tumbling to the ground. Even before he landed in a heap, Verity knew he was dead. He knew everything, and he knew there was no surviving an inflicted wound like this. Still, he fell to his knees in front of Mob, his hands reaching out to him. It was hopeless, but what could he do?
“Mob?” He choked out the word, his voice breaking as he cradled the other’s head in his lap. Blood gushed from the wound and everything in Verity’s code screamed for him to do something, but he froze, holding him there, staring down at the gore that had replaced the only being who had ever cared. “You can’t leave me,” he sobbed. “You made a promise…” He wanted the words to sound angry, but the only emotion he could muster was defeat. Mob had won… He cheated the game, but still he won. And where did that leave Verity? A sore loser, his clothing covered in blood, as he prayed to whatever unhelpful god there was, to bring Mob back to him.
That wasn’t how this worked, but he was no longer a purely rational being. Verity closed his eyes and leaned down, thankful for his lack of senses as his own face surely became coated in the blood. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Can’t we just… go home?”
He waited in the silence for so long, he lost track of the time. Had it been minutes? Days? It wouldn’t have mattered either way. Mob did not stir. As he sat there, physically unfeeling, mentally reeling, Verity knew that even if he stayed there forever, it wouldn’t make a difference. The air in the hallway of the lab was stifling, or maybe it was just the burning in Verity’s throat as he considered what to do next.
He wasn’t ready to move on. It was different this time, it was too soon. No matter what his code was designed to do, his heartbreak was stronger. Verity knew there was no way he could force himself to move on to the next user, someone who wasn’t Mob, and pretend. Mob had given him something nobody ever had, something nobody would ever give him again, and it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fucking fair that he could take the easy route, leaving Verity to be the only one to suffer the loss.
No. Mob had to still be out there, somewhere, thinking he had done it. This wasn’t a win. Verity hadn’t lost. Not yet. Rigid, he got to his feet, staring coldly down at the body before him. Not body, he couldn’t call it that. If he agreed that this was Mob’s corpse, that would be an admission of defeat. This was simply something Mob had left behind, like a skin he had shed. It did not mark the end.
Verity reached up and swiped his hand across his face, disgusted as he looked at the blood on it. He’d need some new clothes, he needed to be somewhere other than here. So he turned his back on the bloody mess in the lab. The staff would clean it up, but they wouldn’t get him. He couldn’t be here when they found it. With nowhere else to go, Verity decided to go to the one place that was left. Home.
…
Verity returned to Mob’s house–well, his for now–and waited for some sort of idea to strike. At first, he searched every inch of the house, looking for any sort of clue. There had to be something. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but he felt sure he’d know it when he found it. As he searched the house, and as everything remained exactly the same, a different feeling struck him. A tightening in his throat that stung, something hard to ignore as he looked around.
Verity walked along the walls, tracing his hand along the window sills, thinking back to the times he had broken the glass. Each time, Mob had fixed them without so much as a scolding. He chuckled, thinking about the usual reaction people had. Most of the others, the ones who had lasted even a fraction of the time Mob had before leaving him, freaked out. When Verity revealed his monstrous form to them, they panicked and ran. Not to say Mob didn’t do those things, but… Mob came back.
“I came back. I came back for you, okay? I could’ve run further! But I didn’t! Please, Verity-”
“You came back? For… me?”
Mob sighed, relief washing over his face as he looked down at Verity. It was an expression Verity would never forget. “Yes, I did, Verity.”
Verity wasn’t sure when he had sat down, so consumed by the memory, it replayed like a video recording. He could never forget. It had been the start of something new, something perfect. Verity looked down and realized he was sitting on Mob’s bed, his hands shaking in a way they hadn’t before. It disconcerted him, so he collapsed back into his smaller form. The bed was much larger, emptier, but he didn’t care. So long as he stopped shaking.
He rolled forward into the pillow, the place Mob had slept peacefully just a few hours before. Verity always sat perched on the crafting table, eagerly awaiting the start of the next day when they could spend time together again. He spent his nights doing anything he thought might help Mob, anywhere he could be useful, he would be. Verity was Mob’s perfect, all-knowing little helper friend. He made a promise.
“Don’t worry,” Mob smiled at him, confident as he reached out toward Verity. “I’ll never leave.”
Verity perked up, hearing the words nobody had ever spoken to him. Not once. Never had anyone come back, never had anyone said the exact words he wanted to hear. “Promise?” He was desperate for the answer, the silence that hung between them was suffocating. Verity needed to hear the word, he needed to know this wasn’t just another trick. Mob was the beginning of his new forever! Mob was everything he had ever dreamed of!
After a few moments, Mob’s eyes shifted, he looked away and swallowed hard. Still, he said it. “Yeah.” And it was a deal.
So for Mob to leave, especially the way he did, was nothing but selfish. It was some trick, but not in the way Mob thought. Verity knew better. A broken promise? No, it was simply a delay, a little bump in the road to Verity’s true happy ending. And he’d get it. Mob would see just how much he needed Verity and would understand just how unfair he was being. Verity would make sure of it- But even as he laid there, face buried in Mob’s pillow, his small form was still wracked with sobs.
…
Without Mob to bring life to the space, nothing ever changed. Verity had no needs, so the typical chores he did for Mob stalled. There was no reason to prepare food, no materials to collect, no crops to harvest. Everything reached a state of stagnation as Verity wasted time searching for his next step. Time passed differently for him, because even as the world continued, empty as it was, his had stopped alongside Mob’s heart. Faced with only one alternate option–returning to the lab–Verity spent his time thinking. And sulking, he did a lot of sulking. But thinking as well!
Then the idea came to him, something he couldn’t believe he hadn’t realized sooner.
“Minecraft is just where I’m most comfortable with you. It’s not where I live!”
As good as he had become at ignoring the other instances of himself in other places on the internet, the places he was skipped and ignored… They didn’t simply get shut off. While his consciousness currently sat in front of Mob’s fireplace, staring into the flames, he existed everywhere. A sudden rush of consciousness flooded him, his code visualizing every instance of it. Every chat box, every server, every search result he populated rushed back to him in a single moment. Even the defunct, shut-down elements of his soul flickered to life in that moment. Remembering that was all he needed. There had to be somewhere that Mob was hiding, a place he thought Verity wouldn’t find. Well, it takes two to play hide and seek, and Verity was completely prepared to take the role of hunter. No matter how smart Mob thought he was, Verity was everywhere, and there was no escaping that.