Chapter Text
“You know what to do, don’t you, Ash?” Wifies turned his gaze to the leader of the Mafia with a sharp smile that didn’t touch his eyes.
“Of course,” Ashswag waved him off dissmissively, “you’ve only said it about a hundred times,”
“You forget who you’re talking to,” Wifies warned, taking a step closer with a threatening hiss. He smirked as Ash took the tiniest step backwards away from him.
“My apologies,” Ash muttered, “Director,”
Parrot froze, his eyes fixed on the invisible player in front of him.
“Wifies?” the avian murmured, taking an involuntary step towards the Mafia member. To his disappointment, the player remained still and silent, watching him with that same quiet blankness that all Mafia members had. “Wifies, please,” Parrot pleaded, “can’t you say something?” his brow furrowed, “you said you wouldn’t turn out like them. You promised me,” He scrambled after the invisible player as they marched past him and stepped out into the snow. Parrot slid in front of the player, arms crossed, “Wifies,”
The player paused, for just a fraction of a second, but then turned their eyeline upwards towards the roof of the cabin. Parrot followed their gaze, then felt his blood run cold as he spotted a glitched man in a suit watching the two of them with the attentiveness of a cat picking apart its prey.
“Wow,” Ash was scrunching something plastic up between his hands, hopping down from the cabin roof with an easy grace, “wow, wow, wow,” he gestured to something around him, and a diamond-trimmed player dropped down beside him; mace in hand. “Well, I have to give it to you, Parrot. That was truly a stunning performance,”
“Ash,” Parrot’s eyes narrowed, then stole a glance at the untrimmed invisible player. Is this why Wifies was refusing to talk to me?
“I mean, it’s just so entertaining to watch you,” Ash continued carelessly, “to watch you beg him. ‘Oh Wifies, you promised’ blah blah blah,” he laughed; a rough, mocking sound, “or is that even Wifies? I guess you’ll never know,”
“So that’s just it,” Parrot tried to ignore the aching fear in his heart. Fear for the server, and fear for his best friend, “the only reason you have power over your players is because they’re afraid to disobey you,”
“Exactly,” Ash snorted, “I’m glad you’ve come to realise that, Parrot,”
“What do you want, Ash?” Parrot sighed, rubbing his face tiredly even as his body remained rigid and tense.
“I’m here to offer you one last chance, Parrot,” Ash tossed him something, smile widening as Parrot barely caught what appeared to be a glass bottle filled with swishing silver liquid. An invisibility potion. “Splash that on yourself,” Ash ordered gleefully, “and I’ll let you live,” he glanced at the invisible player from before, “you see, Parrot? Wifies has come to realise the Mafia’s righteous cause. You could too,”
Parrot hesitated, the potion in his hands weighing more than anything he’d ever held before. He stared at the player he thought was Wifies, eyes begging his best friend (if that was him) to give him some sort of indication that Ash was wrong. That he was still fighting and hadn’t given up on who he was. Parrot’s hands started to shake, the potion wobbling dangerously in his grasp. Out the corner of his eye, he saw the slightest of movements that made him stop dead. Wifies - it had to be Wifies, who else could it be? - shook his head at him, a small, frantic movement. Relief flooded through Parrot’s veins, a new sense of resolve settling in him.
“Did you-” Ash was watching the two cautiously, his voice dropping to a dangerously low tone, “did you just shake your head at him?”
“Yeah, he did,” Parrot crowed triumphantly, confidence taking over his entire posture.
“You just defied me,” Ash murmured, tone venomous, with the undercurrent of something a little more excited.
“Because he’s tired of following your orders!” Parrot snapped, “because he- because we’re all tired of you and your scummy Mafia ruining everything,”
Ash ignored him, his hands reaching for something. A fishing rod. Parrot’s heart dropped, watching in horror as Wifies backed away just a little, the first show of emotion Parrot had seen from his best friend.
“You wanted to know if this was Wifies, Parrot?” Ash smirked, addressing Parrot as if they were discussing Wifies’ life over lunch.
“Ash, please-”
The leader of the Mafia cast the line, and Wifies vanished before his eyes.
Wifies fell into the void.
Parrot’s knees buckled beneath him, his breath hitching even as his mind raced with denial. No, that can’t be-
“Now you know,” Ash shrugged, then laughed, “I guess that was Wifies after all,”
Everything after that was a blur, really. Parrot remembered running away; his breath a hot puff of smoke against the cold air of the snowy mountains. He remembered flying as fast as he could back to District 13. He remembered the beacons. But he didn’t remember beating the Mafia. Because he didn’t. Parrot hadn’t beaten the Mafia. There was no winning in this war. He’d lost. All he could do was move on.
Move on, that is, until he met with Ash in the Farlands again.
“Why?” Parrot demanded, his voice quiet, body exhausted from the days of endless fighting. Fighting that Wifies had told him on multiple accounts to stop. “Why did you kill Wifies?”
Ash smiled, the charismatic spark of the former Mafia leader returning to his eyes for a split second as he said the words that would haunt Parrot for the next few months.
“The Director made me do it,”
Wifies expected to die. He expected to fall into the void and never see the server ever again. What he didn’t expect, however, was for someone to be waiting for him when his stasis was pulled. Someone who looked like the perfect mirror of Wifies himself. Someone he’d hoped he’d never see again.
“Hello, Wifies,” his creator waved at him with a dark smile, “long time no see,”
“No,” Wifies breathed, stumbling backwards into a wall, “not you,” He could see where he was now; it wasn’t the massive room he’d placed his stasis in - no, it was somewhere else. They’d transported his pearl, Wifies realised. He was in a dark, secluded room somewhere he didn’t recognise. Obsidian surrounded him in every direction except one, and he was beginning to notice the awful heavy feeling of mining fatigue sinking into his bones.
“Miss me?” the original Wifies appeared calm; almost amused to see Wifies so agitated. He was sitting in a chair casually across the room from him, leaning back as if lounging in some sort of luxury sitting room.
“How are you here?” Wifies hissed, trying to mask his internal panic, “last time I checked, you were dead on that server you made to experiment with your clones,” he spat out the last word like it was venomous.
“Last time I checked, that wasn’t a hardcore server,” his creator shot back with half the amount of heat in his voice, “I must say, Number 306, I’m impressed. You managed to evade me for longer than I’d care to admit,”
“That’s not my name,” Wifies muttered through gritted teeth.
“Oh? Is it not?” the original Wifies tilted his head slightly, a sly smile playing at his lips, “then what is your name? ‘Wifies’?” he scoffed, “that’s my name. You’re just a clone,” his sneer widened, “I’m surprised you elected to keep such a name that would remind you of me. Sweet of you,”
“I’m not afraid of you,” Wifies lied, his body tense and stiff.
“You see, I’m inclined to believe otherwise,” the other Wifies leaned forwards, his eyes glowing the same cold purple as the obsidian surrounding them, “you have no power here, and I have everything,”
“I could kill you,” Wifies’ hand flew to his sword, eyeing the lack of armour on his creator’s body. As far as he could tell, the original Wifies had no armour and no weapons on him.
“Could you?” The other Wifies laughed, “I created you to be a soft-hearted person,” he smirked, “you could never. It’s ingrained in you to do no harm,”
“I did it last time,” Wifies protested weakly, his hands trembling. Dammit, Wifies, why can’t you just do it?
“Kenadian did it last time,” his creator corrected, “as far as I’m concerned, you just answered a few questions and stepped away,”
Wifies fell silent, a heavy sense of dread creeping in. He was right. As much as Wifies wanted to kill the thing in front of him right now, he just couldn’t bring himself to. “So what now?”
“All your armour, weapons and tools,” the original Wifies ordered, “everything you own; give it to me now,”
“But-”
“Now,” the other Wifies’ eyes hardened as he pulled out his communicator. Wifies’ blood ran cold at the sight. He knew that his creator had planted some sort of chip in his brain, although he wasn’t sure what for. Wifies wasn’t particularly in a mood to find out either. If he wanted to get back to Parrot, he had to stay alive long enough to do so. And sure, surrendering his only chance of fighting back didn’t exactly seem like a step in the right direction, but Wifies was willing to take the chance.
With a defeated sigh, he slipped his armour pieces off and threw everything he had onto the ground in front of him, except for a few pieces of food. He doubted the other Wifies would give him nearly enough. Once he was done, Wifies took a step back, pressing himself against the cold obsidian wall behind him; eyeing his creator warily.
“You know, I’m glad you found your way here,” the original Wifies commented, picking up a few of Wifies’ items and pocketing them. He pulled out a flint and steel and burned the rest.
“You- you are?” Wifies blinked, baffled.
“You’ve surrounded yourself with good people,” his creator shrugged, “it’s almost a pity I have to do what I have to do,”
“What do you mean?” Wifies’ fist clenched tightly, his untrimmed nails digging into his palms and drawing blood.
“Oh Wifies,” the other Wifies’ hand brushed against his cheek, almost lovingly. If Wifies didn’t know any better, he’d think his creator was comforting him, “you’ve worked so hard to create an identity for yourself. A reputation on this server. You have friends who care about you and people who would die for you,” he pulled away, wiping his hands on his shirt like Wifies was some dirty thing, “how do you think Parrot would react if he found out his best friend Wifies faked his own death and was out to kill him? Or how Ken and Wato will feel when they see you turning into me?”
Wifies didn’t know exactly what his creator meant, but what he did know was that if he hadn’t already had a burning hatred for the other Wifies, he did now.
“You leave them out of this,” Wifies snarled, “they’ll know something’s wrong. They’ll know that we’re not the same,”
“Funny,” the original Wifies turned his back on him, moving towards what was clearly a piston door made of netherite blocks, “you know me better than most, 306. You know that we’re both actors in our own right. Besides,” he equipped netherite armour adorned with swirling white trims. The original Wifies splashed a potion of invisibility at his feet, “I don’t plan on letting them know who I am just yet,”
The doors opened, then closed, and Wifies was all alone.
Parrot was exhausted. He’d spent the last month running from the one person he was supposed to be investigating.
The Director.
The person who killed his best friend.
From evading PvPers and master trappers to trying to outsmart hackers and even his own team for a bit, it was safe to say that Parrot was defeated. It didn’t help that the Director himself would taunt Parrot endlessly.
“You know who I am, Parrot” And other similar phrases kept getting thrown around. But how could he know who this mysterious player was? It frustrated him to no end. He didn’t know anything about the Director; his identity, his motivation, his end goal, nothing.
By habit, Parrot found himself back at the old spruce cabin in the mountains he’d built with Wifies during that downtime between being chased by the Mafia - and what happened after. He was happy to be back, in a sense. Sure, this place carried a lot of bittersweet memories, but Parrot found solace in the fact that, despite the chaos of Unstable, a special place like this could still remain intact. Parrot could still see the smoke coming out of the chimney from the ever-burning fireplace. There was a little dust here and there, and Parrot was sure there were probably mice and spiders living somewhere in the cracks, but all in all, the cabin was just the way Parrot had left it.
Entering the room, he was almost immediately bowled over by a wolf that licked at his face.
“Hi, buddy,” Parrot laughed, running his fingers through the wolf’s fur. Someone must’ve been stopping by to feed it every day, seeing as the wolf still remained relatively healthy. Parrot felt with a pang of guilt that he’d never come back for the wolf. Wifies had been the one to tell him to tame it, Parrot recalled. He sat there for a while, on the wooden floor by the fire, playing with the wolf, until something caught his eye.
It was a figure outside, standing in the snow. An invisible player with netherite armour and swirling quartz trims. The Director.
Parrot jumped up immediately, ignoring the way the wolf beside him let out a whine of protest. He reached for the door and yanked it open, only glancing back at the white wolf that had followed him to the door.
“Stay,” Parrot ordered, but the wolf padded past him, running out into the snow and letting out a playful bark at the invisible player. For a moment, Parrot was afraid the Director would just kill his wolf, right there and then, but then the invisible player did something he didn’t expect. He laid a hand on the wolf’s head, giving it a small, acknowledging pat.
“You remember you tamed a dog, right?” The Director’s distorted voice cut through the tense silence. He sounded relaxed, almost casual.
“How did you know that?” Parrot frowned, watching as the wolf played around the Director; chasing snowflakes and jumping around.
“You should know how I know that,” The Director spared a glance at him, as if telling him to call the wolf over. Parrot’s brow furrowed, remembering how the wolf had disobeyed his order to stay indoors. Whilst Parrot wasn’t exactly an expert on tamed wolves, he knew that they never disobeyed their owners.
Parrot whistled sharply, trying to call the wolf to his side, but the wolf didn’t budge. It simply stared back at him for a moment, before nuzzling its head into the Director’s side.
“This isn’t my dog,” Parrot realised, moving closer. As if sensing his aggression towards the Director, the wolf growled at him, muscles tensed ready to pounce at him if provoked, “this- this isn’t my dog,”
“You know, Parrot, I was thinking about what you said earlier,” the Director shrugged the topic off like it never happened. He gave the wolf another pat, soothing the animal, “about me being a coward. And you’re right. But sometimes you have to be a coward to get what you want,”
“That doesn’t-” Parrot’s head spun. What is happening? “That’s not- that doesn’t change the fact that you hurt so many people. That you killed my best friend,” he stepped a little closer, wings flaring behind him, “what did you do to him? Why did you kill Wifies?” The Director considered his words for a moment, letting out a long, disappointed sigh, before pulling out a bucket of milk and taking a small sip from it. The invisibility effect cleared, and the player’s body faded back into visibility. Parrot’s eyes widened, his breath catching in his throat. No, that’s impossible. He’s-
“Parrot, I am Wifies,”