Chapter Text
“Parrot. Bro. Where the fuck are you?”
Parrot yawned, running his talons through his fluffy hair. He kept his eyes closed, trying to delay the inevitable waking-up he would have to do.
“Spoke, what it is? Lemme sleep bruh.”
“Bro, it’s Mapicc. Remember me? Your teammate?”
Parrot coughed into his hand, sheepishly peeking his feathered head out of his nest. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and saw Mapicc stomping to the foot of his roost, looking pissed.
They were in Parrot’s room in the Gucci Gang base, the team that had started as just Baconwaffles and Mapicc, but Parrot had joined a little while ago.
Mapicc was wearing his iconic red hoodie under his armour, though it was ripped in many places. The fabric was stained with patches of a dark burgundy and, judging by Mapicc’s slight limp and the blueish-black bruises on his face, he had been in a fight. His armour was heavily dented, indicating that it had been hard won-or-escaped. His red eyes were glowing slightly, possibly in anger or stress, his demon side shining through.
The iconic Gucci Gang eye trim was at Parrot’s eye level, glaring at him.
“You were sleeping? We just got attacked by Planet again. He’s insane. I’m lucky I got away.”
“What? Why didn’t you message me?” Parrot asked, tapping the communicator on his wrist.
Mapicc whispered to you: bro
Mapicc whispered to you: weve ben jumpefdg
Mapicc whispered to you: spawm
Mapicc whispered to you: get ur feathrd ass overf here noew
Parrot grinned sheepishly. “My bad bro, I was kinda sleeping.”
“And dreaming of Spoke? Come on, lock in bro.”
“Dude, I wasn’t dreaming of Spoke,” Parrot defended. “I just was out of it.”
He really was out of it. He usually woke up the second someone messaged him, the unnecessarily loud bing impossible to ignore. But his body felt strangely heavy and his brain was poking at him with strange, muddled thoughts he was too exhausted to decipher at the moment. But he could tell that something was off.
“Parrot, you’re a part of this team. You really need to start acting like it,” Mapicc said with a frown. “Look, I know you’re still hung up on what Spoke did last season, and that’s fair, but you need to move on. You’re missing out on everything. You don’t want Spoke to ruin this season for you too, right?
“Right.” Parrot nodded, his heart twisting slightly at the words. “I guess I have been a pretty lousy teammate. I’ll make it up to you and Bacon.”
“You better, ‘cause Bacon just got killed by Spoke’s teammate.”
Parrot groaned, placing his head in his hands. “Another Planet kill? Bro, he’s like a completely different person this season. I wonder what changed.”
“Maybe teaming with Spoke?” Mapicc shrugged. “Though from what I’ve heard, Spoke hasn’t done much of anything, just farming and shit. Apparently he’s a pacifist now.”
Spoke, a pacifist.
Parrot snorted in bitter amusement. What a funny thought. Knowing Spoke, he was probably slowly manipulating them into letting their guard down. “I don’t buy it. He probably has an angle, some crazy scheme he’s going to pull off after we underestimate him.”
Mapicc nodded, adjusting his hoodie strings.
“It’s not like him to be all quiet and peaceful though. He’d get bored of that too quickly,” Parrot thought aloud. “It’s in his nature to go around causing chaos and destruction.”
“Yeah,” Mapicc agreed. “I wonder what’s going on in that head of his.”
“Genuinely, I don’t think we’ll ever know,” Parrot said with a sigh. Spoke’s brain was a mystery he’d never be able to solve. He used to think he knew every thought in Spoke’s head, but he’d never been proved more wrong.
His depressing thoughts were interrupted by Bacon stalking into the room, looking pissed. His floppy, bacon-resembling hair was perfectly arranged, his clothes pristine and his body uninjured. He looked perfectly normal and put-together, besides the fact that his skin was glowing slightly and a faint aura surrounded him. Telltale signs of a respawn.
“Parrot, where in Lifesteal were you? I’m down to eight hearts now!”
“Uhhh… I was kinda sleeping. Sorry bro.”
“Bro!” Bacon groaned, dragging a hand roughly down his face. “Me and Mapicc were fighting for our lives, and you were sleeping?”
“Yeah, I needed to catch up on some Z’s.” Parrot stretched backwards dramatically, a loud pop escaping from his shoulder. He then stretched his large green-aqua-blue wings, though his right wing hit Mapicc directly in the face. The demon cursed and spat out turquoise feathers, glaring at him.
“Sorry,” Parrot said with a laugh, folding his wings again before Mapicc enacted vengeance.
Mapicc looked like he was contemplating his existence, or whether or not to attack Parrot. “Dumb bird.”
Parrot just grinned in mockery at him, sticking his tongue out in a very mature manner.
“I can’t believe these are my teammates,” muttered Bacon, dragging them back to the matter at hand. “Parrot, you are going to grind all day to make up for sleeping through us getting our asses beat.”
Parrot chuckled. “Yeah okay, I guess that’s fair.”
Though honestly, he didn’t mind. He would appreciate doing something calming and repetitive after the very chaotic week he and his team has had fighting Planetlord.
As Parrot hopped in a minecart and sped down to the mines, diamond pick in hand, he wondered what in the world was going on.
The avian could tell something wasn’t quite right. The feeling of offness from earlier had only increased, and his head aching with something he couldn’t identify. There was something strange buzzing in his chest, like a question he should already have the answer to.
A deep feeling of wrongness had settled into his bones, and Parrot had no idea what it meant.
Parrot spent the rest of the day in the mines, hacking away for the smallest glimmer of diamonds and then trading with the villagers, who were charging an outrageous amount as always.
“30 emeralds for prot 1,” Parrot groaned as he looked at the list of prices tacked to the wall. The Librarian raised an eyebrow at him, judging him silently like he was the problem. Who would ever pay 30 emeralds for protection 1? Genuinely, villagers were so dumb.
After he finished grinding, their base was restocked from the fight, and his teammates were slightly less annoyed at him. The trio then decided to return to their respective rooms, all currently lacking the energy to deal with one another.
Once in his room, Parrot removed his armour and changed into comfier clothes. He slipped into his nest, curling up in the soft straw and attempting to sleep; his wings wrapped around himself like a blanket.
But something was still off.
Parrot could feel his nerves buzzing through his skin, a creeping feeling of anxiety twisting in his gut like the aftermath of eating rotten flesh. The strange feeling trailing after him all day had grown stronger, and Parrot didn’t know what to think. He’d been trying to ignore it, because nothing seemed wrong, but clearly something was trying to tell him something; an internal message that he needed to listen to.
Parrot closed his eyes, trying to place the feeling, the wrongness lingering in his body. It was so familiar; it was definitely something he’d felt before. But when?
He sat up suddenly, a flashback of Season 4 flashing in his mind.
He remembered feeling that beating wrongness in his chest during the entirety of the Wormhole, how the code being ripped apart had left his body aching like his own blood vessels were being torn up. Everything had felt wrong and horrible and messed up, his physical form reflecting the agonized state of the server. And especially when tens of people had joined who didn’t belong, pulling at the lines of code that connected their universe until they were just tattered strings.
And that’s when Parrot realized what was happening.
There was a problem in the code.
He, being the admin of Lifesteal, was tethered to the very code of the server, so when something was wrong with it, he knew.
And something was very, very wrong.
He could feel it pumping through his heart, taste it like bile in his mouth, and felt it vibrating through every feather on his wings. He could practically see the unravelling tapestry of code in his mind’s eye. The server was stuttering and bouncing like someone was playing jump rope with its code, and Parrot had no idea why.
He was attempting to ignore the situation like he’d been doing all day, as he was ridiculously tired. But as he was finally drifting off to sleep, he randomly felt a tight pull in his chest, like a cord connected to his heart had been pulled taught. What the hell?
That must be the code again, but now it felt like it was pulling him somewhere, like he was being summoned by the server itself. It probably was going to lead him to the issue so he could work some admin magic and fix it, but sadly for him, that meant getting out of bed.
Parrot sighed. All he wanted was a boring, peaceful night before another chaotic day of Lifesteal began. But nope, the server was in peril apparently.
He tapped the communicator on his wrist, pressing the F3 button and angling it in the direction the code was telling him to go. Northwest, the direction of Spawn.
He tiredly shrugged a cloak on, manoeuvring his large wings through the holes he’d sliced into the back. He then quietly exited the base, slipping silently through the hallways as to not awake his teammates. They didn’t need to know about this.
He stepped out of the Gucci Gang base into the crisp night, the stars filling the sky like shards of broken glass. The February night air was cool and soothing to the anxiety in his gut, and he breathed it in like it was a drug. He followed the path out through the garden, beside sculpted azaleas and cherry trees, flowers arranged in complicated patterns, and the fireflies flitting around the air like glitter.
He left the premise feeling much calmer, just by being outside in the silence. Lifesteal was almost never quiet; there was always people and fights and general chaos. But at night, everyone was asleep. Everybody had returned to their bases, resting and preparing for another violent dawn. So it was generally peaceful; no one out but the stars, the animals, and the odd strangler. That’s why Parrot loved the night so much, it was the only time he could just exist alone with his thoughts.
He followed his F3 compass and the code towards True Spawn, trailing through the woods and trying not to draw attention to himself. Though it’s true that Lifesteal was generally safer at night, sometimes opportunistic people would roam around under the cover of darkness, trying to catch someone unaware.
Parrot shivered at the thought, paranoia prickling at his spine. The fear was only reinforced by the leaves rustling above him, though it was probably just an animal. The silence was becoming unnerving, and it made every sound seem 10 times louder.
Parrot was travelling through the underbrush of an oak forest, stepping around ferns and through knee-high grass. The trees draped darkness over the forest floor, and the faint moonlight did little to illuminate the way.
It was so dark that Parrot walked straight into a thick branch, bonking his head.
“Ow,” he groaned.
As he dragged his fingers across the new bump on his forehead, he heard a faint sound, a muffled snicker coming from above.
Heart racing, Parrot squinted up into the dark canopy, trying to catch the culprit of the sound, but the thick leaves were impossible to see through. His wings fluffed up in fear as he started imagining the worst-case scenario.
“Bro, whoever you are, come out,” Parrot shouted up at the trees, his heart pounding in his chest like an alarm. He drew his sword out of its sheath, pointing the blade towards the tree. He really did not want to get jumped right now.
Then, a lithe shadow of a man fell out of the trees and landed silently in the grass, turning to face him with a smirk.
The man had onyx skin, which was technically just void, condensed together to form a humanoid shape. Well, a humanoid with sharp, serrated claws and gleaming fangs, and a whip-thin tail cutting through the air.
His clothes were stitched together with rainbows, threaded in and out of the black fabric to form the nothingness into something. He had a mess of wavy black hair that was kept somewhat neater by a rainbow bandana, and glowing white eyes that could pierce someone’s soul.
Spoke.
Spoke is here.
Parrot would have rather Clownpierce had fallen out of that tree, bloodthirsty with his scythe drawn.
He would have rather had the entire PMC hunting him down, Planetlord chasing him, and Prince Zam attacking him with doors than to see Spoke.
But here he was, face to face with the monster that haunted his nightmares, and also his dreams. The shadowy figure used to be Parrot’s other half, his only light in the dark world of Lifesteal, until Spoke had betrayed him. And not in the normal Lifesteal way, which was bad enough already. Spoke had brutally manipulated him, stepping on him to reach the top the world. And Parrot will never forgive that starry-eyed demon for destroying everything he cared about.
“Bro, why are you following me?” Parrot glared at his former best friend, clenching his fists. Just the sight of Spoke brought so much anger out of him, along with the still potent hurt he tried to bury under it.
Spoke shrugged, looking slightly uncomfortable. “I was bored.”
“Yeah, sure you were,” Parrot said shortly. “Dude, can you leave? I have stuff to do.”
“What could you possibly be doing in the middle of the night?”
“Bro, it’s none of your business!” Parrot tried not to yell, not having the energy to deal with this. He needed to figure out what was wrong with the code. “Now please leave.”
“No,” Spoke said stubbornly. “I want to see what’s going on. You look strangely worried, and if I know you, something’s wrong.”
“Well, you don’t know me!” he angrily met Spoke’s eyes. “So, leave me alone.”
Hurt flashed on Spoke’s face for a second, before he shook off the expression with a grin. “Well, I would, but I’m going this way too!”
“I swear to God, Spoke! Leave. Me. Alone.”
“Nope,” Spoke said determinedly.
Parrot took a deep breath, trying not to lose the little cool he had left. It was pointless to continue arguing; there wasn’t any way to get rid of Spoke once he decided to annoy someone, and he was running out of fucks to give.
“Bro.” Parrot resisted the urge to repeatedly bang his head against the nearest tree, instead reluctantly resigning to let the voidling tag along.
Parrot continued swiftly through the forest, Spoke keeping pace. Spoke soon filled the tense silence with a ramble of words, about random topics like rainbow sheep and his murderous teammate. Parrot tuned him out immediately, not caring about a single thing that came out of that man’s mouth.
He really hated how Spoke was pretending nothing was wrong, like last season didn’t even happen. Parrot literally had nothing but pure anger and hatred for that man. Spoke had betrayed him, manipulated him for months just for an exploit. He’d sent an orbital strike straight into their friendship, leaving no remnants except for Parrot’s trust issues.
He couldn’t believe Spoke had the brazenness to pretend to care about him after everything he’d done to him. Like he could just fall out of a tree and start yapping and everything would be fine.
They continued trekking through the woods, stepping through swathes of brambles and ferns. Spoke had switched to talking about how he didn’t like how Planet was going around killing everyone, but he didn’t control his teammate so there was nothing he could do.
Parrot didn’t believe him; Spoke was nothing but a liar. Obviously, he could convince Planet to stop terrorizing the server if he wanted to. Spoke was probably mentoring Planet in how to be an asshole, maybe it was the reason the space-being was having his villain arc.
A few twinkling stars were visible through the thick canopy of branches, and Parrot wished on the brightest one there that Spoke would leave him alone. He had finally started to move on from everything that happened last season, and now Spoke had showed up to send him careening back down memory lane.
Parrot was still following the thread of code, eyes on his communicator, when he tripped.
His foot had somehow got hooked around a tree root, and he was now tumbling down a steep hill that had came out of nowhere. The world was rolling with him as he tried to stop himself, grasping at roots and ferns and squishy ground he couldn’t get a grip on. He heard Spoke yell his name and run after him, but then he screamed and it sounded like he slipped too.
Parrot clawed at a tree, at everything near him, trying to slow himself down. But he was unable to get a grip, unable to stop his momentum.
He saw a huge rock in his collision course, and he prepared himself to smack into it, squeezing his eyes shut. He attempted to shield himself with his wings and then collided with it.
Except he didn’t.
Instead, he felt a falling sensation, like he was plummeting through the sky. The air rushed past him and then he felt a strange feeling dragging against his body, like the jagged edges of broken code. Like he had phased through the code itself.
He heard Spoke scream again. Then he hit the ground with a thud, the world immediately going dark.