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Capital city was burning.
Small fires flickered on street corners, embers waiting to become something bigger, to set everything alight. Explosives and gunpowder were scattered across the streets like a giant had thrown handfuls down to the earth. It was eerily quiet, no one daring to go outside or make a sound in fear that it would doom them all. No one except Parrot, that is.
Parrot made his way through the empty streets, careful not to get gunpowder on his boots. He headed towards the center of the city, to the building that towered above everything else, where strange hulking shapes stretched over the walls. The cannons that would be the city's downfall.
Parrot drank his invisibility as he approached, glancing up warily, but no threat leaped out at him. He entered the building, hurrying upwards as fast as he could while still keeping some semblance of stealth. He crept out onto the balcony that overlooked the city, glancing warily down at the drop- too far to survive, even in the best circumstances- before turning to the machine facing the front of the city.
He froze as he recognized the person standing atop it. Their armor was engraved with red, jagged patterns tracing across their chestplate like spatters of blood. Spoke.
Parrot shook his head to clear it, moving to a different machine. He had to destroy them. He had to save the city. He scrambled as silently as he could into a place he could access the internals, pulling out wires and jamming gears and doing his best to stop any systems from working. Several times he was certain Spoke would hear the noise he was making, would look over and find him and set off the cannons and it would be too late. Parrot couldn't think about that.
He moved on to the next cannon. His hands moved faster, adrenaline coursing through him, and earned burnt fingers from grabbing components without looking. Two machines down. His walk to the third was more a mad scramble to make it before Spoke inevitably decided to set the city ablaze. Another wire detached. Another panel crushed. Another wasted second spent clutching hands that smarted in a dozen places from clumsy mistakes. Parrot couldn't afford mistakes. He wouldn't risk the city by pausing to bandage his fingers.
The final machine was the most terrifying. He meddled as softly as he could behind Spoke, trying his best to be quiet and thanking whatever was out there that Spoke didn't hear him. Parrot almost sighed in relief as he broke a final mechanism in the last machine. He'd done it. He'd saved capital city.
Parrot took a breath as his invisibility ran out, shrugging on his armor as quickly as he could as Spoke turned to face him. Spoke didn't have any leverage now. Parrot was in control.
"They're broken. All of them."
Parrot expected Spoke to be angry, to ask how Parrot had done it, to try and find some way to turn the tides in this situation back in his favor. He didn't expect to hear Spoke's breathing coming in ragged gasps in the new silence, a sound he might've called laughter if it didn't sound so broken. Even though he was looking at someone who'd caused so much pain, and was about to destroy Parrot's home and the home of so many others, he couldn't help but feel... worried, for Spoke.
"Are you ok?"
The words sounded odd in Parrot's ears. He waited for Spoke to respond, to snap on his usual mask of indifferent arrogance. But he didn't. Spoke just looked down at the city again, sucking in air as if he were drowning. He stood hunched over, as if he'd been staring at the same spot for an eternity. It felt like eons passed before Spoke turned around, his eyes burning into Parrot with an emotion Parrot didn't know how to describe.
"They sent you?"
Parrot didn't recognize the voice. It was hollow, despairing and empty and oh so very wrong to be coming from Spoke. It was unnerving. Spoke would never talk like this, should never talk like this.
"They sent you."
Spoke laughed as he answered his own question, if you could call the ragged breath he ripped from the air a laugh. He looked back down at the city, staring at it for a long moment, just breathing in that awful, drowning way.
Spoke turned around eventually, walking over to the machine, fiddling with the parts as if he couldnt see them. Wires sparked in a way Parrot knew burned, but Spoke didn't react as they dragged across his hands, too focused on clawing oxygen out of the air. It was as if he didn't see what he was doing. As if he wasn't there. Parrot wondered if he should stop Spoke, prevent him from possibly fixing the cannon, but he didn't move. This pitiful, broken person wasn't fixing anything.
Spoke over to Parrot, stepping close enough Parrot backed away, but he didn't seem to notice. He stared at Parrot for a moment, not seeing him.
"You think breaking these is gonna fix this?"
There was that not-laughter again, and Parrot's spine crawled at the sound. Something was wrong. Something had gone horribly wrong here.
"You think- you think this could be- look, look in here,"
Spoke crouched down, opening a panel to reveal the mechanism that stored what would be launched from the cannon. Parrot didn't look at the piles upon piles of explosives for long, too distracted by the way Spoke's shoulders rose and fell out of rhythm with his breathing.
"I already saw, bro."
Spoke didn't seem to hear Parrot's words.
"Just take a look- take a look inside, Parrot. Look at it. Look in all of them. All of them!"
The look in Spoke's eyes scared him. Not in the way it normally did- in fear for himself, for what he cared about- but for Spoke. Something was terribly wrong.
"Spoke, please,"
Parrot reached out, trying to put a hand on Spoke's shoulder, but he stumbled backwards as if it were a blade. Spoke looked at him for a moment before turning away, walking across the top of the machine.
"Who's with you- are you alone? No, is this- are you alone? Who's here? Who else did they send? Is this how they accept defeat?"
Spoke was pacing, his steps erratic, and Parrot was worried he'd fall off the side of the building.
"I don't- I don't know why they sent you. I don't know if they want you dead, I don't know why. I don't know why I'd kill you. I have no reason to kill you."
Parrot stepped back again.
"I came by myself, bro. What do you mean someone sent me?"
It was like Spoke was talking to himself more than Parrot now, his footsteps uneven.
"Well, you got my message at least, right? Or- or at least someone did. They got it, they- they'll do it."
"What are you talking about? You're about to blow up hundreds of peoples' homes, you're about to blow up my home."
Spoke stared down at the city far below them. Parrot didn't know if he'd even heard him.
"I don't know what could've led you to be in this situation, in this state."
At that, Spoke walked up to Parrot. He resisted backing away as Spoke stepped uncomfortably close, his ragged breaths loud in Parrot's ears.
"They- they killed him, Parrot. They killed my friend."
Spoke walked back to the edge, looking out a the horizon for a moment before lowering his eyes to the ground far below them.
"They- they killed him. They killed Mappic- It doesnt matter."
Spoke walked to the very edge as he talked, and Parrot could've sworn he leaned out over the drop. Spoke sucked in more shaky gasps of air, shoulders shaking just a little.
"They- he's not with you?"
Spoke stepped forwards again, close enough Parrot could feel Spoke's ragged breaths against his face. He wanted to step back, to yell at Spoke to get a hold of himself, but something in the desperate, hopeless eyes that met his made looking away impossible.
"I asked them to bring him if he was captured, if he was at least imprisoned. Thats what I was hoping for."
Spoke's voice rose in both volume and intensity as he talked, flinging his arms upwards, yet still staring down the side of the building.
"I have no idea what you're-"
Spoke cut Parrot off as if he couldn't hear.
"You think I want to blow this place- you don't- you think I want to do this?"
Spoke's arms flung upwards and returned to his sides and darted up as he talked, his footsteps getting shakier.
"You think I wanted to kill every-"
"Spoke, Spoke Spoke."
Parrot raised his hands placatingly as Spoke turned to him once again, trying to make his voice sound calm and reassuring.
"Calm down, bro."
Spoke stared up at Parrot for a moment.
"They killed him!"
He was almost yelling.
"They- he's actually dead!"
Spoke's hands grasped his face, digging his fingers into the skin around the edges, and he returned to the edge of the building again. His shoulders shook with ragged, gasping sobs. Parrot took a step towards him, reaching out, but Spoke whirled around before he could do anything else.
"So what now. Why?"
Spoke walked around Parrot, almost like he was circling him.
"You thinking- I'm already this far into this, I- I don't understand why-"
Spoke's voice sounded like he was laughing. His words trailed off, and when he opened his mouth again only a small, fragile sound came out instead of words.
"If they want-"
"Bro, what good is it going to do you if you go through with this?"
Parrot's voice was pleading, for Spoke to listen, to come to his senses, to act normal and unnerving instead of whatever the person in front of Parrot right now was.
Spoke met his gaze blankly, as if Parrot's words didn't register to him for a moment. Parrot felt a cold pit form in his stomach at the empty look in those eyes. He didn't want Spoke to answer. He didn't want to hear it.
"Because they killed my best friend, and now theres nothing left. And they think they can keep getting away with everything. So I'll set them ablaze so I don't have my life ruined another time. They can't hurt me anymore."
Spoke turned back to the edge of the building, but this time Parrot lunged forward, grabbing his arm and pulling him backwards. Spoke struggled for a moment, but Parrot was stronger, and after a moment Spoke was pulled away from the edge.
Parrot wrapped his arms around Spoke, and felt as Spoke buried his face in Parrot's chestplate, shaking, sobbing.
"They- they think they can destroy everything they want with- with no consequences. They destroyed my home, they moved me-"
Spoke's words were punctuated by sobs and gasps for air, as if breathing itself was too much.
"Spoke, listen to me."
"-thousands, upon thousands of blocks, they-"
"Spoke. Stop. Breathe. Inhale with me,"
Parrot sucked in a breath a little exaggeratedly, but it seemed to help, as Spoke took a shaky breath in with Parrot.
"Now breath out,"
They exhaled together, and then inhaled, and exhaled again, until Spoke's shoulders had stopped shaking and he just let Parrot hold him. At some point they'd sat down- well, sunk to the ground- and Spoke's breathing eventually evened out.
"Spoke."
Spoke looked up as Parrot said his name, though his eyes still seemed unfocused.
"It'll be alright. Things are going to get better. Lettuce won't be in power for much longer, and the server will be united."
Parrot couldn't tell if Spoke was even listening. He was looking back at the edge again. Parrot had to stop himself from tightening his grip around Spoke.
"Mappic's your best friend, right?"
Spoke looked back at Parrot, and for the first time, seemed to really look at him.
"Yeah?"
His voice was still shaky, but there was something more in it than there had been ten minutes ago.
"Best friends don't just die on you that easily, bro."
Parrot made himself smile, and somehow, miraculously, Spoke smiled back.
"I'm sure he's still somewhere out there, alive."
Spoke looked away then, but this time, his gaze was turned towards the sky, and the moon dangling above the horizon. Neither of them spoke for a long moment.
"I'm sorry Parrot."
Parrot almost jumped at Spoke's words. They sounded... genuine, more genuine than he'd ever heard Spoke before.
"I... I made a mistake,"
Spoke dropped his head into his hands, and then sat up fully. Parrot moved slightly away.
Spoke stood, looking at the cannon they sat next to, and sighed.
"I- I don't plan on lighting this, I don't plan on doing anything here anymore."
Parrot looked at Spoke cautiously for a long moment before responding, but Spoke beat him to it.
"I just want to go find my friend."
There it was again, that genuine tone that sounded so alien to Parrot. He met Spoke's gaze, and found something he could call hope in it.
"...Alright. But you have to tell him about this."
Spoke looked like he was about to object, and then made a face.
"...I guess thats probably the smart thing to do, isn't it."
Parrot gently shoved Spoke's shoulder.
"You better, or I'll come find you and baby proof everything,"
The threat was affectionate, but Parrot wasn't really joking, and Spoke knew it.
"I will, I will. I'll message you when I find Mapicc."
"Good,"
Parrot stood up as well, and wrapped his arms around Spoke again.
"You have a best friend to find, remember?"