Archive of Our Own

Fluixon and Saparata were the closest of friends. They would spend every passing day with each other; whether they were exploring, mining, running away from bandits, or simply frolicking around, it mattered little. 

Saps, admittedly so, harbored some other, more romantic feelings for his friend—though he was perfectly content with his current life, and never felt the need to express them outwardly. The pair had always enjoyed each other’s company, and they were living contentedly up until ParrotX2 had been announced as the new king of Unstable. 

At first, the two believed that he might actually bring good to the server—that he might actually succeed in ending all the anarchy and destruction. But these hopes were quickly shattered when the king naively decided to open up Spawn to everybody. Saps had never minded this idea, he always thought ‘What’s the harm in letting more people join the server?’; but Flux clearly had contrary beliefs. 

You see, Flux was a relatively interesting character. Whenever he and Saps weren’t together, the latter would often catch him conspiring with some of his other friends—Thomas, Snowbird, Hvyrotation, Gotoga, Seraphim, and Newkids. 

Not that Saps ever tried to interfere or eavesdrop, though he sometimes would overhear a few things. Due to him occasionally overhearing a sentence or two on accident—he knew that Flux never agreed with the idea of opening up Spawn to everybody—he had always thought that the reason the server still worked was because Spawn had never been fully opened to the public, thanks to the Withers some random spawned. He would often call Saps foolish for believing that opening Spawn would bring anything but harm.

“If Spawn were to ever fully open, there would be a famine.” Saps remembers overhearing.

True enough, upon the king’s decision to open up Spawn, countless people had begun dying due to a lack of sufficient food supplies. It had even begun to affect Flux, Saps, and all their friends. 

“Do you guys have any more bread? I ran out.” Thomas said, staring at the now-empty farmland in front of them—all their crops had been stolen not too long ago.

“Yeah, here, have some.” Flux said, handing the other two pieces of bread. 

Saps noticed this and deduced that they were running out of bread rapidly; some of them even began to stand as still as possible to slow down the rate of their hunger depletion. Saps, considering he still had around 10 pieces of bread and a decent number of hunger bars, suggested that he leave to scour for food. After mulling it over for a little while, the group eventually agreed, considering they had no other option, anyway—wishing Saps a safe return as his figure slowly drifted further and further away.

—

That was Fluixon’s last memory of Saparata. 

In truth, they hadn’t yet begun running out of bread—far from it, even. Really, he hadn’t expected Saps to be so naive; to play into their scheme so blindly. You see, the past few months, around when the elections were announced; Flux and his Conspiracy had begun planning. Planning for situations that might not ever happen, yet even still, it was best to be prepared, no? 

One of these hypothetical situations ended up being ‘if the new king opens up Spawn’, and true enough, it happened. Their plan was as follows: 

-Gather a secret stash of food: as, if Spawn were to ever fully open, there would be a famine.

-Find a way to abandon Saps. He would simply hinder us, given that he doesn’t agree with our ideals, much less our means to meet said ideals.

-Conspire a plan to either overthrow the king or close off spawn again, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

It was a rough plan, as at the end of the day, all of it was hypothetical, but it would do when push came to shove nonetheless. And clearly, it worked. Like a charm, even—Saps hadn’t expected it in the slightest, and now he probably thought his ‘friends’ were long gone, killed by the famine.

Flux almost felt bad, Saps had placed so much trust into them, only for them to betray him in the end—but he had it coming. To survive in this world you needn’t something as extraneous as morals; something Saps clearly had no shortage of, hence, why they had to leave him.

—

Around a year and a half had passed since they betrayed Saps, and tragedy after tragedy struck the Conspiracy—Hvyrotation had died protecting Snowbird from a big group of bandits, only for Snowbird to die to the same group of bandits anyway; Seraphim and Gotoga died to some huge explosion in Capitol City; Newkids had gone missing, though he presumably died to starvation, given that he hadn’t yet returned or tried to contact them; and Thomas was now all Flux had.

Even still, they had accomplished quite a few things over the course of the past year. They had managed to kill multiple groups of new players through dripstone traps and the like. They had an entire contraption hidden away along the path between Spawn and Capitol City, one of them would confirm the coast was clear, another would pull the trap and collect food from their dead bodies. They would then either keep the food for themselves—depending on whether or not they needed to resupply, or, they would give it away to people they deemed deserving—like older players on the verge of starvation.

They had been out of the loop of recent happenings for the past few months—as more of them died; they grew busier, as a result, they lacked sufficient time to go out of their way to keep up with the latest happenings of society and the recent projects of ParrotX2. In fact, they weren’t even sure if their friends were dead for a fact—they had only assumed them to be dead due to their absence and deduced their cause of death based on their last known location and rumors that they would overhear when visiting Capitol City.

Consequently, this meant that Fluixon and Thomas were currently completely unbeknownst to the fact that ParrotX2 had recently gotten overthrown.

The pair only realized that something had changed when they next set off to run their trap, only to find death messages after death messages begin to register. They decided to check out Spawn—since that was the most likely location of all said deaths. 

Sure enough, upon seeing Spawn in the distance, the old, pristine, white castle with elegant, blue spires had been completely revamped. Gone was the pure and pristine white color of the castle walls—replaced instead by mixtures of blackstone and the like. Gone were the elegant, blue spires—replaced instead by a deep shade of red that invoked a sense of unease. 

While ParrotX2 could have just wanted a change in aesthetics, both Fluixon and Thomas knew that that was certainly not the case—the king of Unstable had gotten overthrown. But by who? How long has it been? Were they closing off Spawn again?

Judging by the fact that they still hadn’t stopped receiving death messages, they assumed as such. But now, the two were more curious than ever to discover just who, exactly, overthrew the previous king.

Since the two technically had nothing else to do, considering that their original plans for the day would no longer be necessary, as well as would no longer be possible—considering that, who they presumed were the guards of the new king, were currently Spawn killing countless players. They instead decided to pay a visit to Capitol City—Fluixon knew that the city had gotten blown up not too long ago because of some sort of battle, it was such a widely regarded topic, he kept overhearing about it everywhere—he had also happened to overhear the name ‘Cindercrest’ one time, which he now presumed to be the faction that overthrew ParrotX2.

Upon arriving at Capitol City, the two were greeted with absolutely nothing—it wasn’t even an overstatement, the city had been completely abandoned, and now looked barren and empty. Fluixon’s eyes drifted over to a newspaper that was flailing about in the wind, he hurried over to said newspaper and snatched it swiftly. 

CINDERCREST REIGNS VICTORIOUS AGAINST PARROTX2!!!

Cindercrest has brought upon us all an unsurprising victory, albeit at the cost of Capitol City and many lives; ParrotX2 has been successfully dethroned, and Saparata reigns the new, true king of Unstable. Old players rejoice at this news, knowing Saparata will stop at nothing to keep the new players at bay—Cindercrest has reportedly already killed a good number of such. Rejoice! It’s only a matter of time until Unstable returns to how it was always, truly meant to be.

Glory to Cindercrest! 

Fluixon could not stop the audible gasp that escaped his lips, which seemingly intrigued his companion. Likewise, Thomas was also visibly shocked upon reading the article.

“Saparata?!” Fluixon exclaimed, waving the newspaper in front of Thomas’ face as though the headline had personally offended him.

“Saps?!” Thomas followed suit shortly after skimming through the article a few more times—he blinked once, twice, thrice, in quick succession—as though it would magically cause the name on the paper to change.

The two sat in disbelief for a moment, Flux had begun reading through the other headlines, though none of them seemed particularly as interesting as the one about Cindercrest. Really? Saparata? The one they had betrayed all those months ago, the sole reason being that he was too ‘soft’? Fluixon could truly not believe it, but no matter how much he looked at the pictures or skimmed through the article; there was no doubt about it. 

Fluixon was deep in thought when he was suddenly brought back to reality by a group of players that had begun approaching them. 

“Hey! Are you guys part of Cindercrest?” One of them called out. 

They didn’t appear to have the Cindercrest logo on their shields, so Fluixon assumed they were some smaller group on the server that had banded together for safety. 

“No,” Fluixon said warily, “And you?” he added.

“No, actually. We were looking for players to recruit into our civilization!” One of them explained as they slowly approached the two.

“I see, so you were going to ask us to join your civilization?”

“If you would be so inclined.” 

Fluixon glanced over to Thomas, who seemed just as wary of this group of people as himself. Perhaps it would be a good change in pace. It’s not like they had anything more to do now that Saparata was apparently closing off Spawn again. 

Thomas glanced back at Fluixon, as though to say 'It's your call'. Fluixon weighed his options in his head again, before coming to a conclusion. 

“Okay,” He said, not dropping his guard. “We’ll join. Where is this civilization of yours?”

“Perfect! It’s quite a ways away, since we were trying our best to hide from Cindercrest; it worked for a while, until someone snitched.” The same voice that first spoke explained, already beginning to exit Capitol City—as if to lead them to the civilization.  

“Hiding from Cindercrest?” 

“Yes, our leader.. wait, I probably should have led with this; are you guys new players? Or do you support Cindercrest’s actions in any way?” The group came to a halt, following suit after who Fluixon presumed to be their commander, who turned around to face the pair.

“Well, we’re not new players; but we most definitely don’t condone Cindercrest’s actions in the slightest.” Fluixon lied straight through his teeth—it practically came as naturally as breathing at this point.

“Alright, Parrot should have no problem with that—come along!” 

Parrot? Oh. Fluixon saw what was going on here, and he knew Thomas had probably also begun connecting the dots. Whatever this was—whichever civilization they were being brought to, it was formed by ParrotX2, meaning it was likely created in an attempt to overthrow Cindercrest and reclaim the kingdom one more. Hm. He supposed there was no harm in going—it’s not like Parrot had any means of knowing that they actually fully supported Cindercrest’s ideals.

—

As ParrotX2’s civilization loomed in the distance, the two were left in awe at just how modern and advanced the civilization looked—could this even still be considered a civilization? As far as Fluixon was concerned, this could very well classify as a city or kingdom with just how impressive it looked. Even from afar; countless pure, white towering structures could be seen—some stood independently, varying vastly in height, while others stood connected together by sleek bridges. 

It was breathtaking—even more so as they drew closer.

Step by step, more and more of the civilization came into view. Many more buildings that had a similar structure as the ones they had initially spotted in the distance emerged from the thick fog of clouds that had since been carried away by the wind. Seeing everything this close made the true size and height of the buildings sink in. 

“Oh—! Parrot, hello!” The voice whom Fluixon now recognized as [name] said joyfully as he and his group abruptly came to a halt. He gestured for Fluixon and Thomas to come closer, turning his head to meet their gazes, a polite smile plastered on his face, before turning back to face ParrotX2. “We found some old players, but they share our same mindset.” 

Parrot hummed as the two shimmied their way over to the front of the group, finding a place next to [name] and ever so slightly bowing their heads to show respect.

“Oh, there’s no need for that, really,” ParrotX2 started, smiling at the pair softly as he waved a dismissive hand. “I’m Parrot, feel free to call me as such; what about you two?” He gestured to Fluixon and Thomas. 

“Fluixon.” Fluixon said as he raised his head, his gaze was fixed on Parrot, yet not quite meeting his eyes.

“Thomas.” His friend said, plastering a polite smile on his face as he held eye contact with the avian.

“Nice to meet you both—all—sorry, and welcome! Feel free to do as you wish for the time being, we have no current need for extra hands.” Parrot said, yet he showed no current want or urgency to leave—perhaps he was in no hurry. “Do you guys have any inquiries? I can even show you all around, I’m in no rush, really. Besides, I’ve been wanting to just take a look around.”

The group nodded—and Parrot began leading them to numerous locations. He didn’t seem to be leading them anywhere in particular, seeming more as though he was meandering rather than touring a group of people. He would occasionally stop whenever they passed a building of importance and briefly explain its use—though everyone seemed to be more caught up in the scenery and aesthetics than listening to Parrot, he never seemed to mind.

“Alright, that should be all—you’re free to go.” Parrot said, seemingly readying himself to leave, until he added “Oh, but, Fluixon and Thomas, was it? Would you mind staying a while longer? It’s not everyday that some old players come by, you know.”

The two acquiesced, not seeing any reason to decline as they followed Parrot to a more quiet part of the civilization. Parrot didn’t speak for a while; he seemed rather at peace with his surroundings, so the pair didn’t make any attempt to break the tranquil state he appeared to be in. 

Then, the avian spoke. “When did you guys join the server?” 

“Well, I’m not quite sure I can pinpoint an exact time period, but before you became king, definitely. Before the Mafia too.” Fluixon replied, glancing at Thomas, hinting him to stay silent.

“I see, did you guys know Saparata at all? Before the whole Cindercrest thing.” 

“I suppose we at least knew of him, though we never quite became more than distant friends.” Fluixon replied, he supposed giving Parrot bits of information he could use against Saparata would help him gain the avian’s trust. Perhaps even a position later on.

“Really? Pray tell, what did you know of him; what was he like?” 

“I suppose he was rather friendly back then, chiming into any and every conversation he could.” Fluixon jogs his memory for any mildly useful information he could give out about Saparata without revealing too much. “Though, if you want something useful… I suppose back in the day he would always talk about how he’d betray a thousand to save one. Who that one person is or was—I wouldn’t know.”

Parrot hummed, he feigned impassiveness, though Fluixon knew better. The ever so slight squinting of the avian’s eyes were enough to tell Fluixon that he was already racking his brain for ways he could use this newfound information to gain leverage over Cindercrest.

Little did Parrot know, the leverage stood right in front of him—right under his nose. Fluixon had planned on keeping it that way, he had long gotten used to plastering a smile on his face and parading around as though he wasn’t using them all for his own sick and twisted plan. 

He already had it laid out in his mind; he was going to gain Parrot’s trust by giving out bits of information about Saparata when necessary, perhaps even directly assist in taking down Cindercrest—if need be, though he was never much of a fighter. Said trust would result in him potentially gaining a high ranking position later on—whether it be as a mayor of a city or directly under Parrot himself, only time would tell. For now, he had v set his sights on gaining bits and pieces of the avian’s trust. It wouldn’t be easy to fully obtain it, he knew that much. 

—

The months after that were a blur of the same routine. After Fluixon gave Parrot information about Saparata, the avian naturally held him close to his chest, and as per his request, Thomas too. 

Whenever Parrot was stuck on what to do, he would turn to Fluixon for ideas; in turn, Fluixon would answer with as much information he could give without making it obvious he was actually way closer to Saparata than he let on. The avian eventually started considering Fluixon his friend—he even picked up ‘Flux’ from Thomas after only a few weeks. Though of course, the sentiment was not shared.

Everything came crashing down, however, when Saparata discovered the secret behind Parrot and his civilization’s totems. 

It was like any other day, Fluixon had nothing in particular to do, so he was simply chatting about nothing in particular with Thomas while meandering around the civilization. 

It was sudden, and they hardly had any time to react when Cindercrest guards began to attack from every angle of the civilization.

At first, no one was worried—they were confident in the glitch Parrot had set up beforehand. Until one of them died. And another, and another, until they realized Cindercrest had found where they kept their little machine. 

Panic ensued and Parrot’s civilians were dropping like flies—Fluixon and Thomas rushed to bring as many civilians they could to safety, though they could not save many. Parrot was nowhere to be seen, and Fluixon could only presume he had gone to the machine to break it. 

Sure enough, less people from their side were dying—meaning Parrot had probably succeeded in breaking the machine. However, said machcine was the only upperhand they had over Cindercrest in the last fight, hence why they had won in the first place. Without it, they were not only severely outnumbered, but also outgeared. 

Fluixon made the decision to run away with Thomas—better the others than the two of them, the former said. They were just about to escape when Fluixon spotted a familiar white head of hair—just his luck, huh? The white-haired man turned around slowly, seemingly noticing the two—a sadistic smirk present on his face as he shifted his gaze from the dead man in front of him to the two players that stood not too far from himself. 

Fluixon noticed the white-haired man's smirk falter for a moment, a flicker of recognition crossing his face. Fluixon took the opportunity presented by the white-haired man's hesitation and quickly grabbed Thomas’ wrist as they tried to flee, though it was to no avail. 

The white-haired man quickly caught up to them, and wasted no time in grabbing Fluixon’s wrist with so much force he was sure it would leave a bruise later. He tried his best to get the man to let go, but his grip was persistent and it was only getting tighter the more he struggled. He had already let go of Thomas and told him to run away, and almost everyone had already been evacuated, so it was only the two of them in the current vicinity.

Fluixon eventually gave up and stopped struggling, and the white-haired man ever so slightly loosened his grip in turn.

The white-haired man stared directly at Fluixon’s striking, sharp, amethyst eyes for a long moment; the latter, in turn, averted his gaze—suddenly finding the dirt by his feet interesting.

“Flux?” The man started, his voice clear and powerful—nothing like what it was back then, yet it still sounded so him in a way Fluixon could not explain.

“Who’s that? You must have mistaken me for—”

“Shut up,” The man cut him off. “Don’t try it, I’d recognize you and that voice anywhere.” 

“Fine, what do you want?” 

The man scoffed as though Fluixon had just asked the most absurd question he had ever heard. “What do I want?” He repeated in disbelief, even letting out a slight chuckle as he shook his head. “Fluixon—Flux, really? I thought you were dead. What are you doing here?”

Fluixon said nothing in reply, only rolling his eyes, his gaze eventually landing back on Saparata’s face.

“Fine, if you don’t want to answer then I’ll take you back to Cindercrest until you do.” Saparata said, already beginning to drag Fluixon away until an arrow flew directly past the former’s face—missing by a hair.

“Take who back to where?” A voice said, though Fluixon could easily recognize it to be Parrot’s, He presumed Saparata recognized the voice as well—seeing as his eyes squinted slightly in annoyance and his grip on Fluixon’s wrist loosened. 

“Parrot, hello! Fancy seeing you here, huh? I was just about to take my good friend Fluixon back to Cindercrest to catch up!” Saparata said ever so innocently; as though those were his genuine intentions—’when did he get so good at lying?’ Fluixon found himself thinking.

“Come on, Saparata, we both know that’s not true. Let go of him, and maybe I’ll consider letting him live.” Parrot said, finally stepping out of the trees to expose his location.

Saparata sighed. “Then—wait, consider letting him live?” He looked taken aback for a moment, but he quickly schooled his expression. This time; he scoffed, a smirk playing on his lips. “Then kill him! Why would I care?” 

“Okay, so you’re telling me you won’t mind if I shoot an arrow straight through Flux’s chest? You won’t mind if he starts bleeding out right in front of you as his consciousness slowly slips away?” The use of the nickname seemed deliberate, as though the avian was using it to taunt Saparata.

“I—” Saparata hesitated, his expression unreadable. 

Then, slowly, his grip on Fluixon’s wrist loosened more and more until he eventually fully let go, his hand dropping to his side.

Parrot hummed, smiling as Saparata turned to face him. Before anything else, the former quickly ushered Fluixon over to his side. “How about we talk tomorrow? Bring no one but yourself, I’ll be waiting where you found my villager.”

“...That can be arranged.” Saparata said, barely even finishing his sentence before he turned to leave.

“Okay.” Parrot said, ushering Fluixon to go ahead. After confirming that Saparata was truly leaving, Parrot followed closely behind Fluixon.

—

“So, are you going to explain?” Parrot eventually said. The two had been standing around awkwardly in some random, secluded place of the civilization for a while now.

Fluixon huffed, what could he even say anymore? It was clear as day that he was not just some ‘distant friend’ of Saparata’s after that interaction.

“Fine, I’m not just a distant friend of Saparata’s, I used to be his best friend.” Fluixon reluctantly said after mulling over his options for a second longer. 

“So I take it that means you’re the person he would betray a thousand for, as you mentioned before?”

“I suppose, though, I’m not sure if he still would.”

“He will, he could’ve killed me right then and there, you know? I’m not a very good fighter.”

Fluixon only hummed in reply, he was at quite a loss at what to say.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Parrot asked, realizing Fluixon would give no verbal reply.

“I thought you might surrender me to him, I was.. scared? I suppose...” A lie, of course. He didn’t tell Parrot because his true motives were to use him for power.

“Well, you realize we could use this to our advantage, yes?”

Fluixon narrowed his eyes as he leaned further back into his chair. “Are you going to trade me for Cindercrest?” 

“Don’t you want to be with Saparata?”

“Not at all. I would much prefer to stay here.”

There was a pause. “What was Saparata like?”

Fluixon hesitated before realizing there was no point in lying about it anymore. “He was outgoing and rather persistent—which is why he was able to ‘befriend me’ in the first place.” He scoffed as he rolled his eyes. “Did you know he actually used to share the same sentiment as you? He used to believe that opening Spawn would bring good to the server.”

“He was naive, blindly trusting me and my friends. It really didn’t take a lot to convince him to leave, I just needed to pretend I was running out of food.” “We betrayed him because of that, we had no use for someone so gullible and soft.” He added after a pause.

Parrot hummed. “Did you or do you consider him your friend?”

Fluixon took a moment to reply, until he eventually said “No, I never did... He was insufferable, annoying, never knew when to stop running his mouth, and naive—to top it all off.”

“He’s different now, though.”

“Hardly changes anything.”

Parrot leaned forward, an innocent smile present on his face. “Then you’ll be fine if we use you as bait to trap and kill him?”

Fluixon didn't respond. He could just say yes, but he didn't, despite himself. Perhaps a part of him really did care for Saparata.

Parrot hummed again as he leaned back into his chair. “Okay, I see.” He paused for a moment before saying “Then how about you kill him yourself?”

Fluixon was not opposed to the idea. He would like to kill Saparata himself, anyway. 

“We’ll send the both of you to the Farlands. Kill him there—or don’t, it’s up to you.” Parrot continued “If you kill him, we’ll bring you back here.”

—

“Where’s Flux?” Saparata spoke first, deciding to ignore how ParrotX2 had brought guards despite telling the former to come alone.

“Now, now, no need to be in such a rush.” ParrotX2 said as he gestured to one of his guards. A shadowed figure came into view, covered in loose robes, hands and legs constricted, being tossed around by one of ParrotX2’s guards.

Despite the disheveled state of the man, despite hardly even being able to see half of the man’s face—all it took was one glance at his eyes. Saparata knew those eyes all too well—those striking, beautiful, amethyst-colored eyes that looked all too sharp, despite clearly not being in a particularly good spot. 

Fluixon.

Saparata visibly tensed up, his facial expression becoming much less condescening—his gaze laser-focused on Fluixon.

“So? What do you say, Saparata? Fluixon for Cindercrest.”

Saparata stayed unmoving for a long moment—his gaze still very much fixated on Flux, not once did his eyes flick in another direction—as though looking away would cause him to vanish into thin air; would cause his very existence to be turned into naught right in front of his very eyes.

“Tell me, Saps, if you had to betray a thousand to save one, would you?” 

“I don’t know, would I?” Saparata’s expression shifted, his lips curved upward into a slight smirk—though it was very clear to ParrotX2 that he was only making his best attempt at masking his obvious contempt for the situation.

Saparata was no longer the same person he was all those months ago—gone were the days where he would blindly believe in the words of his ‘friends’ in pursuit of having what he believed was a mutually trusting relationship. When he saw Fluixon only the day before, it already clicked in his head. His ‘friends’ never died. No, far from it, actually. They had betrayed him. He couldn’t help but let out a scoff at the thought. He had been doing all of this for them, only to find out they had never, truly died after all. 

Yet why couldn’t he bring himself to hate the disheveled, weak looking man laying on the ground helplessly? Why couldn’t he bring himself to stab him straight through his chest the day he found him again? It wouldn’t have been very hard—he was alone that time, and he was never one for fighting. Yet somehow, knowing that his ‘best friend’ had betrayed him meant nothing. Nothing at all, Saparata only cared that he was alive and well; that he could still have him all for himself.

Saparata let out a slight hum, “Maybe I would,” he said thoughtfully, finally shifting his gaze from Flux to ParrotX2. “Hand him over.”

“Break the news to Cindercrest first.” 

Saparata acquiesced—he had to, it’s not like he had much of a choice. “Fine, okay. Do you want me to kill them all or what?”

—

“Cindercrest!” Saparata yelled, his voice commanding authority, as it always did whenever he gave orders to Cindercrest. “I have an important announcement to make.” He continued, as the murmuring of the crowd quieted down.

“I have made the very painful and difficult decision,” His tone was laced with regret and remorse, though both Fluixon and ParrotX2 knew that it was nothing but an act. “To hand over Cindercrest’s leadership to ParrotX2.” The crowd immediately erupted in angry jeering and murmuring, and Saparata only gestured for them to quiet down.

“If you do not wish to work under ParrotX2 and remain under my command instead, step over to the left-most side of the plaza. However, if you will choose to comply, stay on the right side.” He finished, and hundreds of people had already begun shoving others to reach the left side. While there were still a handful of people on the right side, there were evidently a lot more on the left. Not that it would matter in a few seconds time, though. 

The flick of a lever.

That’s all it took to end more than 3/4ths of Cindercrest’s army.

Within seconds, everything Saparata had built up until this moment crumbled—at his very own hands, no less. He should probably be mad. He should probably regret what he just did. But why doesn’t he? No, he doesn’t feel like he wasted any of his time at all. He feels no disappointment that that was all it took to end everything. 

Because of Flux.

It’s always been Flux. He did all of this for Flux, he wouldn’t be here if not for Flux. So it’s only right if he sacrifices it all for him, right? Saps felt no regret, remorse, or guilt. Quite the opposite, actually. He felt rather fulfilled—as though everything he had done was always bound to lead to this moment. 

Saparata wasted no more time thinking about it, he turned his back on all his people—the army he once cared about to face ParrotX2. 

“So? Hand him over.” Saparata said, trying his best to maintain a neutral tone of voice, though the slightest hint of impatience would not go unnoticed by the avian.

ParrotX2 hummed, seemingly intrigued at Saparata’s unique show of impatience. “What’s with the impatience? I always thought you to be a more poised, level-headed person.” He said teasingly, a cocky smirk playing at his lips; though he still gestured to one of his guards despite it.

Fluixon entered the room with a guard following closely behind him, the former’s hands constricted behind his back. The guard shoved him over to Saparata’s side and Fluixon stumbled over—nearly falling in the process. Saparata, on the other hand, seemed more than happy to use this as an excuse to ‘balance’ the former by grabbing his waist and pulling him close.

Fluixon was quick to pull away, though that did not stop Saparata’s hand from lingering near him. “Well, if there’s nothing else, you’ll let me leave with Flux?” Saparata asked.

“You will be sent to the Farlands.” 

“Okay, then can we just.. hurry it up or something?”

With that, Saparata and Fluixon were escorted to a pearl cannon not too far away. Fluixon threw his pearl first, with Saparata following suit shortly after. They stood in silence for a moment, but Fluixon could feel Saparata’s gaze practically burning holes into him the entire time with its intensity.

Fluixon turned to glance at Parrot, who only gave him a curt nod upon noticing. He was really going to be exiled to the Farlands with Saparata now, huh?

Fluixon’s thoughts were cut short as his senses suddenly got off put and his surroundings became unfamiliar. The pearl had landed. He looked around as he began taking in his surroundings. 

The Farlands was quite a unique place, it didn’t look very different in hindsight—save for the oddly generated wall currently in front of him—well, he wasn’t technically exiled into the Farlands, he was only exiled to the border of it. The oddly generated wall in front of him was the Farlands. He was snapped out of his thoughts as a hand fell on his shoulder. Right, he wasn’t alone.

“Hey.” Saparata said casually.

“Hey…”

“So do you want to like.. build a house?”

“What?”

“Build a house.” 

“I heard you.”

“Then why did you say what?”

“It’s– you know what, fine. Do you have blocks?” Fluixon said, giving up on questioning Saparata further. How could he act so casually around him? 

“I have enough blocks to at least make something big enough for the two of us. I can collect more though, this area doesn’t appear to have a particular lack of trees, anyway.” The white-haired boy said, turning away from Fluixon as he began scouting the area for a suitable location to build a house.

Eventually, they settled for a nice bit of flat land not too far away from the Farlands. Fluixon had always been the better one at architecture and building in general, so Saparata decided to hand him the blocks he had before heading off to gather some more. 

The two got to work immediately; with Fluixon skillfully beginning to build an appropriately sized house for the two of them, and Saparata occasionally returning to hand Fluixon more blocks whenever he began running low.

Even back then, the pair were always like this. Fluixon had built their house then, too, while Saparata and some other members of the Conspiracy were made to collect blocks for him. He was even occasionally referred to as ‘the Architect’ by some of his Conspiracy members—he never said anything about it then, though he kind of liked the title.

It seems no matter how much people change, old habits and routines can never be broken.

—

When Fluixon finished building their house, Saparata was quick to shower him with praises and compliment the architecture and design. He was like this back then, too. In Fluixon’s opinion, his builds were nothing special—especially not the building he had just built, it was quite basic and hardly even had a cohesive color pallette. It did not stop Saparata from complimenting him like it was the best thing he had seen all year, though.

But Fluixon refused to be fooled. This Saparata was not the same Saparata he had ‘befriended’ all those years ago. This was not the same innocent, naive, and unsuspecting Saparata from before. This was Cindercrest’s cruel and manipulative general; the king of Unstable who mercilessly killed countless players without so much as batting an eye.

He also had not forgotten his true objective. He was sent here to either kill Saparata, or stay here forever—and Fluixon was not particularly eager to remain exiled in the Farlands until the end of time. For now, he would act friendly to Saparata in an attempt to gain his trust, then, Fluixon would make an attempt on his life when he would least expect it.

“Flux? You okay?” Saparata suddenly said, noticing the focused expression on Fluixon’s face, which usually meant he was deep in thought.

“Hm? Oh, yeah. Don’t worry about me.”

“Do you want food? I still have some chicken—though, we’ll need to make another source of food if we want to survive longer than a few days.” Saparata asked, though before Fluixon could even reply, he had already dropped 10 pieces of chicken to him.

“Thanks.” Fluixon said before he ate a piece of chicken, from the corner of his eye, he noticed Saparata leaving the house. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to make a farm, the chicken I brought won’t be enough to sustain us forever.” Saparata replied as he turned his head to face Fluixon and flashed him a smile.

“Surely this time no bandits will come to steal everything.” He let out a light-hearted chuckle, which slowly faded as his expression fell into something similar to sadness as he turned away. “Ah, actually, I guess it never actually did get stolen, huh?”

Saparata left after that, and for a moment, Fluixon thought Saparata actually still cared about his betrayal. Did he? It was hard to tell. Was this Saparata the Saps he had known before; was he expressing his genuine feelings? Or was this Saparata the merciless king of Unstable; was he using some kind of manipulation tactic on Fluixon? 

He chose to believe the latter for the betterment of his goal. Holding on to things of the past would only complicate things.

—

When Saparata returned, he told Fluixon about the great success of his farm building, and how he was even able to find a beehive nearby and collect some bees. 

They sat in silence for a while after that, neither of them had much to say to the other despite how much there was to talk about. Eventually, Saparata broke the silence.

“So how was your life after.. well, you know.”

Fluixon hesitated for a moment before deciding to give a vague answer. “Thomas is the only surviving member of the Conspiracy—I don’t even know where he is anymore. As for what we did.. well, it doesn’t really matter anymore.”

“I see…” Saparata said, and they fell back into a tense silence. This time, Fluixon was the one who broke it.

“And you? How did you found this whole Cindercrest thing?”

“Well I was under the impression you all had died, so I swore I would avenge you guys. I guess that’s what gave me the whole idea of Cindercrest.” Saparata replied, it wasn’t exactly what Fluixon had asked, but he supposed he also dodged Saparata’s previous question and accepted the answer anyway.

“Why’d you betray me?” Saparata eventually said after a few beats of silence. Fluixon was hesitant to answer, but Saparata, having noticed the former’s expression spoke again. “It’s okay, I’ve put it past me already.”

After mulling it over a little longer, Fluixon reluctantly said “We thought you were naive, so we left you. You used to have the same ideals as Parrot, remember?”

Saparata remained silent for what felt like five whole minutes, and Fluixon had begun to believe he had fallen asleep. He was quickly proven wrong when Saparata replied with “I suppose that’s fair.” and after another long beat of silence, he spoke again as he stood from his seat and waved at Fluixon as he walked over to his room. “It’s getting late, I’m going to sleep, okay?” 

Fluixon couldn’t give a reply before he found Saparata had already disappeared within the confines of his room. 

—

They continued like this for days, a practiced routine of waking up, getting up to their own business, only conversing towards the end of the day, then going back to sleep. It was almost as though the days before Parrot became king had returned—albeit they were much closer back then than they are now, they hardly even acknowledge each other’s presence anymore.

It was almost comfortable. Fluixon had almost thought that perhaps he could finally settle down and enjoy life a little—he never had much time for it back then, as he would often spend his days conspiring and scheming for hypothetical situations. 

But he had already let this drag on far too long, he really had no need for Saparata and killing him would grant him access to Spawn again. Not that he particularly missed the main server, he quite liked it at the Farlands, actually. It’s just that there were some nights where he would lie awake and wonder if Saparata was also planning on getting rid of him, and that was enough to convince Fluixon that he should attempt to get rid of the other first. He has always been a little paranoid.

He was planning on killing Saparata today. He had secretly created a trap in the other’s room using dripstone that he had brought along with him from the main server. It was a rather simple trap, as he wasn’t able to bring a lot of redstone along with him, but as long as Saparata doesn’t pay too much attention, it should work.

Saparata had just returned from harvesting the crops. Fluixon watched as the latter made his way to a crafting table and crafted some bread. 

“Do you need food? Take this.” Saparata said as he gave Fluixon half a stack of bread. Fluixon only gave him a nod in reply, as he normally did.

Then, Saparata began making his way to his room. Fluixon watched him from the corner of his eye as he heard a door open then close. If his trap worked, a death message should show up in less than a few seconds.

But it didn’t.

The trap should’ve gone off by now, but it didn’t. He didn’t hear the sound of the pressure plate being triggered either. Had Saparata already known about the trap and disarmed it beforehand? Perhaps it was Fluixon’s mistake for underestimating him. 

After a while, Fluixon had come to the conclusion that Saparata had in fact discovered the trap beforehand and must have done something to tamper with it. Well, if Saparata wasn’t planning on killing him before, he certainly was now. 

How naive of him. How could he think that such a simple trap would be enough to kill the former king of Unstable? He couldn’t stay here anymore, Saparata would surely get rid of him in his sleep—in fact, he could even get rid of Fluixon right now if he so wished; Saparata was always the better one in terms of combat.

Fluixon gritted his teeth as he slowly made his way to his room. As much as he would like to just walk out the front door right now, he left some important items in his room and would much prefer if he was able to bring them along with him. 

Fluixon had to hurry, what was Saparata even doing still in his room? And why did he act as though he had no idea that Fluixon had set a trap in his room? Was it to—

A click.

Fluixon was not quite sure what came over him, but he was able to react just in time to the sound of pistons opening up the roof above him. He hastily stepped out of the room, stumbling to the ground at how fast he forced himself out of the way.

Ah, so that’s what Saparata did with the trap.

Fluixon huffed, still on the floor as he caught his breath and recovered from his shock when he heard the sound of a door creaking open. Saparata had exited his room, his eyes half lidded as a smirk played at his lips. He seemed rather amused at what had just gone down—if the intensity of which he was staring at Fluixon wasn’t telltale enough. 

“Oh my, what happened? Do you need help getting up?” Saparata said with a teasing lilt. Fluixon gritted his teeth, annoyed at the other’s feigned innocence.

“No.” He said as he quickly got on his feet and dusted off his outfit, shooting Saparata a glare as he turned away from him.

They stood in silence for a while—that seemed to be something common in their recent interactions, before Saparata finally spoke. “I take it you had ulterior motives all along? Why didn’t you just kill me right away? Or while I was sleeping?”

Fluixon hesitated before he responded—why did he hesitate? He let out a scoff. “...Too easy, where’s the fun in that?”

“Don’t lie to yourself, Flux.” Saparata shot back, and Fluixon heard the former step closer to him. “Face it, you eventually came to enjoy my company.”

Despite himself, Fluixon gave no reply. Why didn’t he reply? He could have just denied it, it’s not like Saparata’s presence particularly mattered to him. If anything—it made him rather uneasy and uncomfortable. When Saparata realized the other would not give him a response, he spoke. “Did you miss me?”

Again, Fluixon hesitated—he practically had to choke out his response. “...No.”

“...I missed you.”

“I betrayed you.”

“So?”

“I never considered you my friend.”

“Really?”

“I hate you.”

“I hate you too, then.” And then the silence returned. A few moments passed before Saparata spoke again. “Are you going to leave?”

“Yes.”

“I won’t let you.” Saparata said sternly, a hint of possessiveness present in the way he said it.

“I’m going to kill you.” Fluixon deadpanned as he turned his head to glare at Saparata in an attempt to further prove how deadset he was on it.

“Then kill me—or try to, at least.” Saparata deadpanned back as he made eye contact with Fluixon, though there was a hint of ridicule to his voice as he let out a scoff.

“No, why don’t you kill me? You certainly could, it’s not like I would be able to put up much of a fight.” Fluixon said as he turned to now fully face Saparata.

“Where’s the fun in that—as you said earlier, right?” 

Fluixon only scowled at Saparata in response.

“Flux, you know…” He trailed off as his eyes began to wander around the room. “I used to like you.”

“No shit.”

“No, romantically.”

Fluixon tensed at that. He had noticed little signs before, but he never paid much mind to it, thinking that was simply how Saparata acted normally. He swallowed hard before he spoke. “...And what do you want me to do with that information? ‘Used to’ is a past tense, remember?” 

“No, I used to like you.”

“You just said the exact same thing.”

“I don’t like you anymore because… I think I love you, Flux.” Saparata said, his eyes finally meeting Fluixon’s again—a glint of fervor present in them. Fluixon swore he got goosebumps at the intensity of the other’s stare. It was a fleeting moment, however, as Fluixon quickly tore his gaze away from the other in an attempt to ignore it.

Fluixon struggled to find his voice for a moment, his jaw worked until he finally managed to choke out a “What?”.

Saparata chuckled. “Unexpected, huh? Even after you betrayed me and had me believe you were dead for months, I don’t hate you.” Fluixon glanced back at the other for a moment to spot a bittersweet smile on his face—the other was notably no longer staring at him, instead focusing his gaze on the floorboards of their house. 

“Somehow, it only made me like you more—is that twisted?” Fluixon noticed Saparata’s smile shift ever so slightly, seeming more like a grin now.

“Even when I saw you again that day, I couldn’t bring myself to kill you. I connected the dots in my head shortly after confirming it was you, yet even then, the thought of killing you right then never crossed my mind.” Fluixon scoffed—’And yet you moved my trap and place it by my door instead?’ he almost said, though he bit it back, seeing as though the other seemingly had more to say.

“If anything, finding out that you were still alive only further kindled the flame inside of me. It sparked something in me—something protective.. possessively so, even.” Saparata was looking directly at Fluixon again, and the latter finally found it in him to meet the other’s eyes again. Saparata’s face was full of something Fluixon would not dare to name. Possessiveness? Hunger? Passion? Love? He doesn’t know, but he felt his pulse quicken at the sight.

“I love you, Flux.”

Fluixon, despite himself, hesitated again. Eventually, he quietly managed to say as he flicked his gaze away from the other once more “...I hate you.”.

“Do you?” Saparata pushed almost immediately. “Then why do you hesitate? Even if just for a moment or two, you hesitate.” Fluixon gives no reply—he couldn’t, he didn’t know what to say. He felt the tips of his ears heat up and his heartbeat beginning to pound as he noticed the other had begun closing the distance between them—stepping closer and closer, little by little.

“You don’t have to say anything. You’ve always been bad at being truthful.” Saparata was close now, and Fluixon was doing his best to avert his eyes from the other.

Saparata reached out to grab Fluixon’s arm, and he flinched at the touch. “I meant what I said about not letting you leave.” Saparata said, bringing a hand to Fluixon’s jaw to force the latter to look at him. “We’ll be stuck here together for the foreseeable future, why don’t we just go back to the way things were? Maybe even more?

Fluixon shuddered as Saparata’s grip on his arm tightened. “It’s never that simple.”

“Then I’ll make it that simple.” Saparata said as Fluixon noticed far too belatedly that the former was now close enough to him that he could feel the ghost of the other’s hot breath on his face.

Saparata hesitated—or perhaps gave Fluixon a chance to push away, but he didn’t. Saparata leaned in, pressing their mouths together at long last. The kiss was gentle at first, but quickly evolved into something rougher—something needier, as Saparata pushed deeper into the other’s mouth.

Fluixon pulled away hurriedly, face flushed as he caught his breath—or at least tried to, as Saparata had found himself chasing the other’s lips once he pulled away, leading to another deep, open-mouth kiss.

Saparata found himself wanting more. Wanting to make Fluixon his, and only his. He wanted to mark every part of the other’s body and claim him, make him his. 

Fluixon had to shove Saparata off of him, as it didn’t seem like the latter was going to break the kiss any time soon. He caught his breath as he looked at Saparata through half-lidded eyes. Saparata’s expression was not very different from his; though his eyes had something like a determined glint to them.

“So?” Saparata spoke first as he slightly backed away from Fluixon.

“...I’m still going to kill you.”

“Sure.” 

—

The pair’s relationship twisted into something.. unique after that incident. The two—though mainly Flux, continued making attempts on the other’s life, and failing. Eventually, it became less of a serious thing and more of a little test.

Despite that, however, they continued to act as normal around each other. They would ignore every attempt on each other’s life every time. At most, one of them would leave a remark like “Better luck next time!” or “Nice try!”, but that was about as much acknowledgement it would ever get.

Flux would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy this new life even a little bit. Was it sick to enjoy having your life attempted on over and over again by a man who claims to love you? And despite that, he still melted to Saps’ touch every time without fail. Despite that, he clinged to Saps at night, not wanting him to leave.

Saps, on the other hand, was more than happy to entertain Flux assassination attempts; pretending he had no idea, but when the moment came, he would always avoid it without fail. He didn’t know if Flux was intentionally making all of his attempts obvious, but for someone who prided himself in trap-making and scheming, he was doing a pretty bad job.

Saps was pleased with his life now. He had Flux by his side, and he couldn't leave Saps’ side even if he wanted to. He made sure to keep a close eye on Flux, always observing, definitely not ogling, making sure he doesn’t try to escape—not that he ever would, Saps knows that he secretly enjoys this life, too, but you never know with Flux.

Occasionally, Flux would try to escape—Saps wasn’t sure if it was actually as a joke to rile him up, though Flux always said it was such. Saps didn’t like this at all. When he first saw Flux attempting to climb out of one of the broken windows, he snapped.

Flux can’t leave. He can’t, he’s his. He’s Saparata’s. Flux can’t leave him again, he missed him so much in the months he was gone. He can’t leave again, even as a joke, even if only for a bit. 

It was safe to say Flux never attempted to escape again, as Saparata may have gotten a little too heated at the thought of Flux escaping. Was it weird to say he kind of liked it? He kind of enjoyed the thought of someone wanting him so bad that they refused to let him leave. He kind of enjoyed the thought that someone who claimed to love him would hurt him to make him stay.

There was probably a word for that—a masochist? Was Flux a masochist? Would that make Saps a sadist, then? Whatever he was, he enjoyed whatever Saps was. He enjoyed whatever they were; whatever sick, twisted feelings he was feeling.

And so, they continued like that. A song and dance of never-ending assassination attempts, followed by acting as though none of it had happened right after. Kissing and cuddling like nothing else mattered, never acknowledging the attempts, neither one choosing to acknowledge their rather unusual, toxic relationship.

Perhaps one day one of them would succeed, leaving the one left alive empty and unsatisfied. 

Perhaps one day they will get over all of this and end up opening up to each other and talking it out, ending all of the attempts at each other’s life.

Or perhaps they will remain in this endless song and dance; their twisted, strange feelings growing and developing into something even more sick and deranged than it already was. 

Only time will tell.