Work Text:
What if Parrot had never abandoned Wifies?
After the explosion, Parrot was already far enough to not get hit, but the part of the debrie and dust from it did get to him. He started coughing, turning back to look at how the place had blown up in smithereens.
And that's when he saw it, in the middle of the rubble, part of Wifies’s body, a panel from his face. He had known since they met that Wifies was a mechanical being, a clone from another greater being, he knew he wasn't human.
He approached the broken part, holding it in his hands, the cables all jumbled up behind it, yet the face itself so, so beautiful...Wifies was attractive, he must say, but it was time he moved on.
He left the face panel on the side of some rock, turned around to look at the sky, at his new freedom.
“Parrot, you'll be mine forever.”
He suddenly heard from behind him, a familiar mechanical voice, almost distorted beyond recognition, it gave him chills down his spine.
He turned around to see more parts of Wifies now that the dust had cleared up a bit, his voicebox, part of his head, some other parts, etc. It was his voicebox which was speaking.
If Wifies was still talking after getting blown up like that, it meant he would never really die.
Parrot had the urge to run, yet, seeing the state of the place, and how Wifies would probably stay broken up forever like this... He'll return for him, eventually.
Almost a month passed after what had happened in Paragon, and Parrot had made friends with another bird hybrid like him, Theo. They lived together in Parrot’s new base, and he was clearly less controlling than Wifies.
Parrot felt safe, and somewhat happy.
As he organized the chests in his house, Theo on a mission somewhere, he stumbled upon something odd, it was that faceplate he had found when he got out of Paragon. He didn't remember bringing it with him, but still.
Parrot got reminded of something crucial, he had left the rest of Wifies there. Did he really want to go? He missed his friend dearly, but what he had met back then was far from his friend.
Parrot found himself going back, even if he wasn't sure what he'd do.
Eventually, the destroyed place came into view, all the debrie and destruction was intact, as if no one in this unstable server had passed by.
Parrot landed near where he had seen those parts of Wifies, and they were still there, the voicebox was quiet, but it was there.
As if possessed by something even him didn't understand, he started collecting pieces of Wifies, everything he found, he'd put it in his bag.
He wasn't sure if he'd be complete, but with the electronics he had at the base, he was sure he could rebuild him.
Eventually, it got dark, and he had collected most of the parts he needed, he was still missing the other half of his face though, but he'd figure something out.
Parrot returned home to a relaxed Theo, sprawled on the couch, half asleep. Wifies would've been deathly worried about him, asking him where he had been, what he had done, yet Theo didn't even care, he understood Parrot’s liberty and respected it.
It wasn't until he noticed that Parrot had returned with a big bag with mechanics poking out that he was pulled out of his half dream.
“Whatcha got there, Parrot?”
He asked in curiosity, and Parrot left the bag on the floor, sitting down on the other side of the couch.
“It's Wifies, or what's left of him at least.”
Theo froze, Parrot had told him everything about Wifies, about how he had gone mad in the last few weeks and had imprisoned Parrot just to ‘‘keep him safe”.
Yet Parrot had a very different idea of Wifies, he missed his friend, not The Director, or whatever Theo was viewing the mechanical remains as.
“Are you going to fix him? You're sure of this?”
Theo was visibly uneasy with all this, if Parrot was going to fix Wifies, this could escalate fast and very wrong.
“Yes, or I'll try to, at least.”
Parrot replied with conviction, he was sure he'd rebuild Wifies.
“Parrot, he imprisoned you.”
“So? He was my friend, and I’ll make sure he doesn't go mad like he had gone.”
Theo was left quite confused, but he didn't say anything, just let Parrot do what he wanted.
“If you're sure, then go ahead, if you need my help just tell me.”
Theo watched as Parrot nodded, grabbing the bag and dissappearing down the hall, probably towards his own room.
Parrot had severely underestimated Wifies’ mechanical complexity, it took him hours just to reconstruct that one part of his face, his neck and connect it to the power source that was his brain, and make it all work, of course.
When he turned on what he had made, the eye opened and closed, then opened again, it was working, Wifies was back, sort of.
The eye looked around, he must feel odd not feeling the rest of his body, not even his voicebox. But Parrot was sure that thing recognised him, as his red pupil dilated when it fixed onto him, his lips curling slightly up.
*Wifies didn't try to speak, as if he knew his voicebox wasn't connected yet, he just smiled there, watching Parrot.
Parrot had just froze when he saw that half face of Wifies smirking like that, and immediately disconnected it, almost forcefully. He didn't break the cables, but that was coincidence, he could've as well broken them.
Parrot was conflicted, he sat back down on his bed, staring at the now dead eye of what he called Wifies. He had realized he was rebuilding a monster, not his best friend, that look in his eye wasn't of care, nor gratitude, but control.
It was as if Wifies had known Parrot would rebuild him.
Maybe it was just the hours, it was late anyways.
The next morning, Theo was woken up by the sound of some odd sounds coming from Parrot's room, some whirring and other mechanical sounds.
What was even Parrot up to this early? Theo thought as he knocked on the door to Parrot's room. The noises stopped, and a busy looking Parrot opened the door.
“Need anything, Theo?”
“What are you even doing in this hour??”
Theo wasn't unpleasant, just looked annoyed from getting woken up, which was fair.
“I told you, fixing Wifies.”
Parrot opened the door more to reveal now the completed head and torso of Wifies, yet still missing half it's face, thank god it was turned off.
Theo stared at whatever that was, then back at Parrot, not sure what to say.
“You woke up this early to keep fixing it?”
“Yes, it was better than staying up late.”
Theo couldn't debate with that, he was sure anyone would get nightmares when working in something like this up late.
“Okay, bro, I'm going to make breakfast.”
Theo took some steps back from the door before adding.
“Want anything?”
“No, I'm fine, i had some coffee earlier.”
The other bird hybrid replied, closing the door as Theo left for the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Parrot kept working on Wifies, he already knew how the majority of his body worked, and he was swiftly progressing, unlike the first time he had spent hours connecting a face to a brain.
Parrot had restrained himself of turning on Wifies when he connected the voicebox, as he didn't want to hear what the other had to say until he got completely rearranged.
The sun moved across the sky as Parrot kept working on his little project, he had just been connecting everything for now, getting every bit he had collected all together.
The half broken down face of Wifies was looking at him intently, though not yet operative, Parrot felt watched as he worked now on Wifies' left hand, which wasn't in a good state either.
Parrot looked back at the offline camera the automaton had for eye, and held it's lost gaze for a bit, letting his mind wander back to when he had met Wifies. To that one time Spoke had promised them to reveal a secret, then proceeded to chunkban Wifies then himself; back to when he had to unchunkban him with the help of others from the server; back to when they were searching for those lost players and had to gather items together and prevent Boosfer from stealing them; and back to when Ash's mafia kept chasing them around with Dean too...
All those anecdotes, all those memories, all the odyssey they've through together. He wondered if he could ever go back to that, even if he had to modify Wifies' memories for it to work.
Parrot's hand began to tremble as he held Wifies' unfinished hand in his, and he swore it's thumb twitched in his hold.
Parrot froze, dropping the mechanics onto the table, and some piece went out flying, which startled him more and he pulled back from the table entirely.
His scared gaze shifted frantically between the dropped hand and Wifies' half face, and as he lingered on the second, he saw how the unfocused pupil brightened up, the red dot of the camera appearing in the dark iris his eyes had, and immediately turned his way.
Parrot felt like he was living a nightmare, how could Wifies turn on on his own and move a hand that wasn't even attached to the main body? This could not be possible.
Before things could escalate further, Parrot scrambled out of the room, fumbling with the door and slaming it shut behind him.
Theo stared at the deathly scared Parrot from the hallway, his glasses slightly tilted down to let him see his confused expression.
"You good bro?"
Parrot was sat down on a dead log just outside their base, as Theo settled down besides him, the former was still shaken, but not as much anymore.
Theo hadn't known what happened, so he decided to ask, he knew Parrot was quite the scaredy cat, but he had never seen him as terrified as he had been back inside.
"Bro, what even was that?"
Theo asked, still slightly confused about this all, when he had found Parrot, he had tried to calm him down, but the bird hybrid was as tense as a rope about to break. Eventually, he had agreed to go outside and talk about it.
Parrot didn't even look up at Theo, just muttered something that made a shiver run down his own spine as the image flashed on his head.
"Wifies is...Alive, I guess"
"What do you mean by that, bro?"
"He turned on on its own, it is alive."
"We left that thing in our base bro don't say that."
*Parrot gave him a half glare, it seemed the bird hybrid had calmed down a bit and Theo had attempted to be sarcastic, failing in it being funny for Parrot.
"Theo, listen to me, please."
"Okay, sorry, bro."
There was a bit of silence before Parrot spoke again, this time in a more wary tone.
"I don't think that what I'm rebuilding is the friend I knew, Theo"
Theo looked at him, confused, not sure of what to say, or what he meant by that.
"I don't think he's Wifies, but The Director."
Parrot muttered again, as if angry at the words themselves. Theo knew why, the Wifies that Parrot had last met wasn't his friend, it was The Director, a suffocating turmoil of obsession, posessiveness and fear, dread of Parrot getting hurt, and too controlling to let the little bird even get a taste of fresh air.
There was another moment of silence between the birds, and Theo finally asked the obvious.
"Why are you even doing this, bro?"
"What do you mean? I want to rebuild Wifies."
"But you've confirmed that that isn't Wifies."
"I know, but i want..."
Parrot cut himself off, did he really want Wifies back? Or the nostalgia was just messing with his memories in order to make him want Wifies back, and instead bringing something worse back.
"I think i can modify his brain, his memories, to make The Director vanish and bring back Wifies"
Theo didn't question that, he was sure Parrot knew how Wifies' mechanics worked, instead he just nodded, he still was wary of Parrot's decision though.
"The moment that thing attacks you, I will not hesitate to cut its head off."
Parrot glanced at Theo, then back down at his own hands, he wasn't even sure about what he was doing, if it was wrong or right, if he wanted it or not, he was only driven by the nostalgia of some fuzzy memories with someone that was already long gone.
Parrot muttered a "thank you" that Theo probably didn't hear, and they stayed like that for a bit, together in silence.
Was he making a Frankestein to fulfill that null feeling in his chest? This godlike act would sentence a new explosion.
Parrot had decided to take a break off the project that was rebuilding Wifies. He had dissassembled safely what he had progressed, he had stored it properly in boxes and brought it to the storage room, practically throwing it in the corner. He could retake it whenever, it would never be as difficult as assembling it for the first time.
But getting Wifies' body out of his bedroom didn't get the memories off his mind, not only the beautiful ones with Wifies, but also the terrifying ones with The Director. The duality of the person he so badly wanted back was driving him insane.
He even ended up visiting some of the places he had spent the most with Wifies, that one shack in the snow where they had escaped to during the mafia; the blown up ruins of the Farland civilization; the abandoned hallways of the District 13 base; and even that one annoying as hell ice parkour Spoke had made them go through that one time.
All evoked both beautiful and horrifying memories for the bird hybrid, but mostly made him miss his friend even more, it was just so unfair he had lost himself in the idea of "saving him from dying" that he had turned into a killing machine and a monster before his death.
As the sun was setting, Parrot visited one last place, his old base at spawn, or what was left of spawn. Surprisingly, the base was intact, spawn had been blown up, but not to that extent, it had been mostly Spoke's base.
As he settled down on the bed, which even him didn't believe it was still there, he noticed something within the room that was different from what he remembered.
There was a chest, a single chest in a corner, all his chests were double, he had definitely not placed it himself there.
The bird hybrid was quick to approach it, not caring at this point if it was a trap or not, and opened it.
Whatever it could've been, he didn't expect this.
It was a spyglass, but not just some spyglass, Wifies'.
Of course Parrot used a spyglass now, but this one was very different, the model was older, and Wifies had decorated it with some yingyang stickers, and wrapped a string with a couple of Parrot's feathers at the hilt.
He hadn't even realized he had been crying until he felt a tear fall down to his hand, and dampen a bit of his jacket. His cheeks were already dripping tears even.
He quickly wiped them off, inspecting the chest further without letting go of that spyglass, instead, cradling it to his chest like it would dissappear the moment he let go. He eventually found a couple of papers, folded at the bottom of the chest, the first written in Wifies' machine perfect handwriting.
Parrot,
I do not know when this letter will find you, if it even will, you probably will not even step into this base ever again, not after what is happening. Maybe it will even get destroyed along with this server, as it is what it is called, Unstable.
I want you to know that I am alive and well, Ashswag puny's attempt at making you believe I was dead was a complete lie, and he just did it for you to lose hope, to make you surrender.
I want you to have my spyglass, as I am going down a path that will probably not ever converge with yours again, and if it will, it will not be me who you will encounter. I do not wish for you to come find me either.
In the infinitely small chance that destiny makes us see each other again, whether if it is for staying together or for destroying each other like this server does to friends, I want you to know how to reset me to default. It will be a tough decision, but you will want to do so, as the way I am going is forcing me to become something you will learn to hate.
Farewell,
Wifies.
Parrot couldn't even believe what he was reading, Wifies had written this before becoming The Director, and had warned Parrot about it. But something wasn't quite right, if Wifies didn't want Parrot to find him, as he was literally becoming evil, why did he actually search for Parrot himself?
Maybe the feeling of missing his friend had made him go insane and create Paragon after? Or was it something else?
Parrot both feared and was glad that he didn't know the answers to either of those questions.
There was a series of printed instructions in the following pages of the folded papers, clearly not made by Wifies, but from other, completely unkown origin, but written in English, of course. Parrot had known Wifies was a clone, but he had never been told that Wifies had literal instructions of use and all that.
When Parrot returned to the base, the sun was setting over the horizon, painting the sky in a yellowish color, and the clouds with a bright pink that made him look up at least once, tightening his hold on the spyglass he had found.
He stepped into his own room, leaving it on the table along with the folder papers, and sat down on the bed, he literally had the instructions for resetting Wifies' mind, for making him forget he was The Director, but that would also probably erase everything else.
He decided to deal with all that the next morning, today had been packed with deep emotions, and he desperately needed to rest.
As his eyes closed, his breathing evening out, he heard someone call out for him, it was Wifies' voice, and he swore he could feel him nearby too.
"Parrot, hey, wake up."
Parrot sat up, unsure if he was dreaming or not, but he soon realized he wasn't even in his room, but the small cabin he had built back in Paragon, why was he here?
He was pulled out of his thoughts by Wifies' monotone voice, who was standing besides the bed, holding a pair of scissors.
This had immediately turned into a nightmare for Parrot, those scissors meant that Wifies was about to clip his wings once again, to cut his flight feathers short so he couldn't escape.
Parrot didn't even get to look at Wifies' face as he was suddenly jolted up from his nightmare. He woke up sweating cold in the dark of his familiar bedroom, completely alone, and immediately collapsed back down onto the bed.
That had been a nightmare, his mind was torturing him both with sweet memories with Wifies, and horrible nightmares with The Director, this wasn't fair, he really regretted taking any of the pieces from Wifies' blown up remains, he regretted even trying to rebuild him, he had gotten over this, he was living peacefully until he decided to ruin it all himself again.
But there was a hope inside him, he turned to look at the desk where Wifies' spyglass was sitting there, the soft moonlight reflecting on the lens, and next to it, the papers that would help him reset his friend, maybe bring him back, or erase him completely.
Parrot barely slept that night, deep in thought about how would it be to bring back Wifies, how would it be to be friends again, or if it will fail terribly and bring back something else, something darker than Parrot had ever intended to.
The next morning, Parrot had taken out the boxes that contained Wifies' mangled body out of the storage, and brought them back to his room. He had read the instructions, and had verified that he could delete individual memories. His mission was to delete everything Wifies' had lived after faking his death in the mafia, and bring back his friend.
He had connected the memory box from Wifies' main thought processor (his brain, though not brain shaped) to a computer, and had started browsing past everything Wifies had there.
The sight for whoever stepped into the room would be...Definitely odd, there was Wifies' body, slumped on the floor, leaning on one of the desk's legs, as a panel in the back of his head was opened and a couple of cables were connected to the device Parrot was working on.
Eventually, he found what he had been looking for, files from when he had already turned into The Director, and, according to the instructions, he would just have to delete them, as if when deleting a file that occupied too much space, or you didn't need anymore.
But of course nothing would be easy for the poor little Parrot, as soon as he hit delete, he was met with a strange screen.
You do not have access to perform this action
What the hell? Parrot immediately went to the instructions, he hadn't read anything about having to have access, or permission, or whatever the heck the machine was saying, this was wrong, how could some random files have been locked down like this? Nobody had accessed to Wifies' mind since he was produced.
As Parrot panicked, he suddenly felt something mechanical shift, he had forgotten why he had abandoned this project, Wifies could turn on at will, which was something else that didn't make sense for a clone to do.
Parrot froze, staring down at Wifies, something had definitely moved.
Parrot didn't even have time to move out of the chair, as Wifies' head slowly moved to look up at him, that cold red pupil of his remaining functional eye staring right back at the bird hybrid.
Parrot should've really searched for the other half of Wifies' face, at least this sight wouldn't be as traumatizing. He had the instinct to run, but decided not to, he didn't know why, but he didn't feel as unsafe as when Wifies first powered on on its own.
"You can't just do that."
Wifies' voice sounded odd, a bit cut out, the voicebox had survived a whole explosion, of course it would sound like that.
Parrot didn't even get to ask him about what he couldn't do when the computer screen started filling up with the same popup with the same message from before repeated across them, as if Wifies hadn't only taken control of his own memories, but now the computer too.
Parrot frowned, and looked down at the automaton, he should have the right to bring his friend back, why didn't he let him?
"Why not, bro? I'm just trying to fix you."
"I do not need fixing, Parrot."
"Yes you do, bro, you went crazy and imprisoned me, if I let you go like this, I am sure you'll do worse, I just want my friend back."
The robot went quiet, but not because Parrot's words. It suddenly stood up, almost bringing the computer with him as he pulled on the cables from his head and detached them harshly, the device indeed falling to the floor, making a noise that startled the bird hybrid.
"Your friend is dead, Parrot, you should let him rest."
Parrot shook his head, backing away from the chair, quickly taking the spyglass from the desk, Wifies saw it and it tilted his head slightly, an amused smile appearing on the half faceplate he had left.
"Parrot, please, give that to me before you hurt yourself."
Those words sounded like a gun was fired, straight to Parrot's head. Last time he had heard Wifies say that, it was seconds before he had blown up. Seeing his expression, he was doing all this on purpose, this was not only still The Director, but it was being vengeful against him, if it let him, he bet he would straight up kill him.
The automaton didn't get to take another step, as, to Parrot's luck, Theo opened the door to check on him.
"Bro you good? I heard something fa-"
Theo had finally processed the scene in front of him and fully stepped into the room, holding the hilt of his netherite sword. Parrot was practically cornered by this mess of hanging cables that resembled his old friend in some ways, but mostly looked like a monster.
"Your friend won't save you, even if you wreck me to pieces, I will still be here, I am The Director, Parrot."
Theo didn't hesitate further, hearing the way it talked, and had attempted to approach Parrot, he was sure this thing didn't mean anything good, and it would be his error to practically ignore Theo.
"Wait, Theo-!"
Parrot's attempt at stopping Theo was futile, as the cockatoo had already charged at the clone, effectively slashing it's head off, the robot wouldn't have fought back anyways.
Wifies' head hit the floor, pieces of its own face flying off, scattering all over the floor, just like when it had first gotten blown up and scattered over the floor of that room in Paragon.
Theo looked back at Parrot's sleeping form on the nearby couch, the bird hybrid deserved to rest, he had gone through too much these past couple of days.
He looked back at the boxes near the entrance of the base, it was The Director's remains. Parrot had told him it was better to just dump them, but Theo still had to do so. He had decided to wait for Parrot to wake up to bring them to the nether and just burn them.
Theo couldn't imagine what Parrot had been living through while attempting to bring back his old friend, maybe he was simple minded, but he really thought that what is dead should stay that way, you really don't know what you will bring back.
Eventually, Parrot stirred on the couch, his dark eyes opening as he sat up, stretching his wings, he hadn't rested much, but it was enough, he had practically passed out after all the ordeal with The Director that morning.
"You feeling better, bro?"
Theo asked in that familiar, slightly worried but just checking in tone, Parrot felt like some psychiatry patient after all what had happened, frail and still afraid, but significantly better.
Parrot nodded, not saying anything as he stood up and put his boots back on, then looked at Theo. The other bird hybrid knew already what Parrot wanted to do.
Dump those stupid boxes once and for all.
The nether was warmer than Parrot remembered, specially after not being there for far longer he could remind himself of, after Clownpierce taking over the spawn of the nether, being in this dimension was asking to get killed or captured.
For both of the birds' luck, Theo knew some portal leading to a secluded place where they wouldn't get caught by the Clown.
They eventually reached one of the endless lava lakes, deep as the void itself, and ever burning like the sun.
Parrot opened the box he carried, and without looking much at the interior as he would hesitate, he dumped it into the scorching liquid, the cables and components quickly sinking and burning up.
Theo then handed him the other box and did the same, watching how Wifies' half faceplate sunk into the lava, both his friend and the monster that was The Director completely gone from the server, even if Parrot didn't feel at peace, he was finally safe.
He would miss his friend dearly, but Theo was true, what is dead should stay that way, you do not know what you will bring back.
Bonus scene:
Meanwhile, back at their base, in Parrot's room, Wifies' spyglass sat inside one of the drawers, along with the letter and the instructions he had gotten from the chest back at his old base.
Even if Wifies was forever gone, Parrot would still remember him, not as The Director, but as his dearest friend that accompanied him on every odyssey, on every trip, and had cared for him so deeply that he had lost himself in it.
Next to the spyglass though a red light blinked in the dark of the closed drawer, it was the memory box from Wifies' mechanisms, still intact, and still operative, as if waiting for the next time Parrot remembered its existence.
The Director would never leave this server, as he directed and controlled every event, every death, everything, hence its name.
But Wifies was dead, all the humanity that the machine once learned to have was long gone. And for that, he could mourn.