Chapter Text
The explosion rocked the chamber, mountains of TNT exploding one after another. Parrot stood on the steps around the tower, hands trembling. He was free. Wifies was dead. Gone. He could finally see the outside world after being trapped in Paragon for nearly a month. But even as he waited, Wifies’s death message never appeared. Wifies had thrown out all his gear. He had trusted Parrot. So there was no way, absolutely no way, that Wifies had survived that. Parrot turned his back on the tower and walked towards the house they had built together. For the first time, Parrot was truly alone. Not alone in the sense that he couldn’t see anyone, but alone in the sense that no one was watching him. With Wifies gone, Derapchu, JumperWho and Leo would have left already. There would be no one in his way. No one to stop him. He had spent the past week, weeks, planning on how to kill Wifies. So why did he just feel hollow, empty, now that Wifies was gone?
There was a spare set of gear next to a door that he’d never opened before. Probably Wifies’s. He put on the gear regardless. It was still armour, regardless of whose it used to belong to. Parrot hesitated, looking at the closed door. It was supposed to be a private space, but Wifies was gone. He wouldn’t know. Also, if there was anything in there that could explain the missing death message, he’d take it.
The room was neat, a bed, shelf, desk and some random armour stands covered in… oh. Those were all the sets of armour Wifies had taken from Parrot over the past weeks whenever he tried to escape. That explains where the armour went. However, there wasn’t really anything interesting. Nothing that could solve the mystery. Well, okay. Wifies was always better at solving these stuff than him. Wifies made Parrot’s intellect look like a mosquito on a human.
Parrot grabbed some blocks and walked towards the obsidian border. Without looking back, he began pillaring up. Sure enough, no one attacked him. The guards had left. Though, why was this wall so damn highhhhhh? Parrot sighed as he pulled out yet another stack of blocks.
One block at a time, he told himself. Don’t think of running out of blocks.
Parrot checked the chat logs again. Wifies’s death message still had not appeared.
Unease pricked at the bird hybrid. As much as he wanted to escape, something told him that he should go back. Go back and check. It was probably just a bug. The server probably lagged or something. Still, better to check than to let it weigh on his conscience in future.
Twenty minutes of wasted time. Parrot got into a boat and rowed back into the prison.
Stupid, stupid Wifies and his perfect prison.
Wasting all this time.
Couldn’t even die properly.
Parrot spent the whole way down ranting.
Calling Wifies names he will not repeat.
He didn’t mean all of it, though. What he told Wifies was true. He still remembered the person Wifies had been. The one who cared. Not the Director.
Deep down, Parrot still thought of Wifies as his best friend. That’s why leaving stung the most, even though he would never admit it.
Because Parrot cared.
Even after Wifies changed.
Parrot still cared.
And he never stopped.
Maybe it’s because he never lost hope.
Maybe it’s because it was Wifies.
Maybe it was because he li–
Parrot walked straight into an obsidian wall. He hadn’t realised he’d made it to the tower. Rubbing his head and cursing faintly, he started climbing the stairs. Recalling the first time he’d ever walked down these. When he’d thought he’d escaped Paragon. Sometimes, when he wasn’t telling himself he hated Wifies, he wondered how long Wifies had spent gathering resources.
The tower looked fine, but the inside probably wouldn't. Parrot could only imagine the state of the chambers below the platform. Torn apart by the brute force of a million TNT rigged to the same pressure plates. And as for Wifies... with that much firepower, and no blast-resistant armour, he was gone. This was not something small, something survivable. They were talking about one million pieces of TNT (author note: guys i really don't know how much wifies placed so i will assume).
Parrot looked at the sea of lava, at least what remained of it. It was still there, but Parrot knew that the lava would be pouring into the chamber below, breaking open the weakened ceiling and flooding the basement of Paragon with liquid fire. Parrot has experienced it before, and it is nothing like he'd prepared himself for. Burns that would last weeks, searing your skin like a grill on maximum heat, always there, always flowing. Almost inescapable. Then again, who saved him? Obviously, Wifies. If Parrot didn't hurry up, and if Wifies wasn't dead yet, he would soon burn in the lava anyways.
Parrot gingerly tip-toed down the stone blocks, which were rapidly heating from the dripping lava. He yelped at the pain but continued, scurrying down with an intensity that was unique to him, and him alone. That type of intensity that Parrot had when he put his mind to something. Like now. He had to know. Maybe the Director burned away, but Wifies was still there. Maybe Wifies was dead. Maybe... maybe Parrot was wrong and the Director kept enough blast-resistant armour to survive. But, he had to know. Even if it meant his escape attempt failed, he still had to know.
The chamber, well, Parrot couldn't call it a chamber anymore, was ruined. Completely, utterly, destroyed. The quartz floor was gone, replaced by a giant crater of stone, andesite and ore below ground. The walls of elegant, gold hints to the polished slabs had dark holes peppered here and there, giving light to the stone and deepslate layers behind it. Broken blocks were scattered all over the ground, smaller craters around the edges. The stairwell Parrot was on, even that hadn't been spared. Parts of it was blown off, and Parrot had to place cobblestone as he walked so he wouldn't fall off. One pressure plate was still visible, somehow untouched on a single block, sandwiched between two craters. The other had vanished deep into the crevices of the explosion. Wifies, however, was nowhere to be seen. He must have died. There was no way he could have escaped. There were no tunnels, no redstone mechanism, and Parrot had watched him disable his stasis chamber. He couldn't have flown out, even if he had an elytra. Just as he predicted, lava was pouring from the ceiling, thicker in some places and just a single column in others. Slowly draining the lava lake above.
Then Parrot saw it. The spyglass. The glass was fractured and cracks ran along the sides, yet it was intact. A small sound escaped from his mouth. Half whimper, half squeal. It was damaged, yes, but somehow, it had withstood the impossible. A choked sob slipped from his mouth as he dropped to his knees, picking up the spyglass and cradling it against his heart. Wifies had picked up the spyglass in the end. Parrot knew that. He hadn’t wanted it to despawn. That, at the very least, must have stood for something. Maybe Wifies had realised what he’d done. Maybe Wifies just wanted to salvage what was left of their friendship. Parrot sighed. He just wished that if Wifies had changed his mind at the last minute, that Wifies could have made that realization earlier, before it was too late. But he hadn’t. And now, Wifies was gone.
Another dry sob racked his chest, but he forced himself to stand up. The lava above was still flowing, and he would be burned alive at this rate. He needed to escape. He climbed up the stairs, spyglass in his offhand, knuckles white around it. Even as he regeared and gathered blocks, his eyes were blank and dull, like he was just an empty, soulless shell. Inside, he was mourning, but he refused to let anyone see him break.
(i’m sorry theo, but your darling birdie will never be the same again)
Parrot pillared up against the obsidian walls of the prison, feeling the cool air rush through his hair. He could see the view for miles from the top of the walls, and he blinked back the last of his tears as he got into a boat and rowed off. He looked at the spyglass in his hand. It was shattered and its durability was low, far too low for Parrot’s liking.
But he was tempted to use it again.
Just one more time.
More out of habit than actual need.
No. Bad Parrot. It was already broken. Parrot doubted it’d last multiple uses.
He would use it. Eventually. Just not now.
He had to get back to spawn. He had a decent amount of gear, but it wasn’t nearly as good as what he used to have. Wifies must have predicted this. Every piece of gear Parrot had found all had low durability. It would take quite a long time to gear up fully… unless he could find and ender chest. There hadn’t been one at the prison, and Wifies never left any around. Smart Wifies.
That left him with… two choices. Sneak into the Nether, severely undergeared, or B, spend ages regearing. There was no way he was going to survive a trip to the Nether in this state, and if he spent that long regearing, he would definitely miss the elections. But what else could he do? It wasn’t as if there was a communal e-chest or something on Unstable.
“...Wait” Parrot checked his inventory. His communicator was there. Weird. He was pretty sure it hadn’t been there before. Didn’t Wifies take it from him? Parrot didn’t spend long wondering, though. If he had his communicator, he could contact Theo. If he could contact Theo, he could share his cords. If he shared his cords, Theo could come find him. If Theo found him, Theo would probably have an e-chest on him. Parrot’s eyes lit up. Finally, there was another option. One that didn’t include him suffering too much.
Parrot opened his communicator and pressed the button on the side. A faint beep sounded and the familiar blue light glowed from the screen. As soon as he opened it, a wave of spam messages from… someone… spammed through the screen from the global chat. Parrot blinked, slightly taken aback. He quickly sent a message to Theo while walking, hoping to get out of rendering distance from Paragon. Theo hadn’t known about it. He didn’t have to. That place was filled with nothing but regret and the ghosts of happier times.
Theo?
Theo!
You there?
hello?
i’m kinda stranded
can u bring an e-chest pls
THEO?
???
WHAT
oh
cords?
FINALLY
um i’m about 6K blocks out
bro what are you doing there
don’t ask
Parrot sighed and shoved the communicator back into the depths of his inventory. Soon enough Theo would come, but until then, he just had to stay alive.
Simple.
Or so he thought.
Ever since he escaped Paragon, Parrot swore the mobs seemed to want him dead. For the longest time, Parrot had never needed to worry about mobs, armour or not. But now, an enderman twenty blocks away suddenly teleported to him. A skeleton that’d spawned in a snow biome half a chunk away walked over and shot him. Zombies spawned around him and nowhere else.
Every time he killed a mob, another spawned in its place. “What the hell?” A zombie smacked him across the face with an undead arm. The smell of rotting flesh permeated his nostrils, making him gag and momentarily pause his swinging. He immediately regretted that as his health bar took the hits from the spawning mobs. To make things worse, every time he tried to pillar up, an enderman would steal his blocks or a skeleton would shoot him off.
Parrot tried shooting them. It didn’t work. More monsters just spawned. He tried running away. They followed like an increasingly creepy army running after him in perfect formation. He tried pillaring up and doing some parkour jumps to get onto a tree. He got shot off by a skeleton with a Punch III bow. Before long, the entire chunk was covered in randomly placed blocks, arrows and a slight trail of blood that soon vanished under the onslaught of zombie feet.
Surviving had never felt so challenging.
Then he saw a speck in the sky. Smaller, then growing bigger every second. A familiar flash of yellow shooting closer like a meteor. Theo.
Parrot slashed down the remaining zombies with a sort of newfound strength. He just had to hold out for… slightly longer. He tried to ignore the pain from the arrows in his shoulder and the bleeding cut on his face. Just… a bit… longer…
Then Theo was next to him with a fully enchanted sword, slashing through the mobs and cutting the millions of zombies down like paper.
Theo paused to examine Parrot. Other than the wounds which a regen potion could fix, Parrot looked fine. Mostly fine. Suspiciously fine for someone who had vanished for three weeks. (author note: guys Parrot spent three weeks in Paragon right) He sighed. “You okay?”
Parrot nodded numbly. He didn’t mention the numerous times Wifies had flashed through his mind as he fought, wondering if it was his fate to die right there and then and be with Wifies. “Emotionally, physically or psychologically?” Theo considered it. “How about all?” “Well, I’m physically fine, just a bit tired, I am NOT emotionally fine, and okay, I don’t even know if I’m going crazy or not.”
Theo grinned. “Great! If you weren’t I’d be concerned that you aren’t the real Parrot.”
Parrot stared at him. “??”
“I’m just saying, you’re never emotionally fine because you’re always worrying about someone, bro. If you said you were fine of course I would think you were an imposter. But it’s fine. You look tired, though. You probably need a break. Unlike me”
“Oh.” Parrot blinked. Then he realised Theo was teasing him. “HEY!”
“Blah blah blah blah blah blah” Theo started running. “Can’t kill me if you can’t catch me!”
Parrot stared for a moment before running after Theo. “COME BACK HERE YOU ABSOLUTE PIECE OF SH*T”
Theo had sort of forgotten to get an enderchest. Parrot didn’t know that. Theo, however, did not want to die. So he thought of a plan. On the spot. He continued running, screaming insults over his shoulder.
Parrot chased after Theo, completely oblivious to the plan.
By the time Theo stopped, he was outside their base.
Parrot paused. “…”
”THEO.”
Theo gulped. He was surely in trouble now. Parrot grinned.
Time for revenge.