Chapter Text
In the snow biome, Saparata continues to gather blocks even in the harsh, relentless, and coldness of the weather. Drops of snow landed on his shoulders, but were quickly shaken off once he fixed his posture. Saparata thought deeply–how exactly did he get here?
Well–first and foremost, his best friend Flux both framed and betrayed him after Saparata was convinced by him that he could be a peace mediator–by using his vacation home as a meeting place for the leaders of Pandora. Saparata wasn’t aware that Flux had intentions of framing him for the murders of multiple Pandora leaders, he trusted Flux–they were friends–or so he thought. Friends don’t do that to each other, don’t they?
Even after Flux was demoted from his position of Luminara’s Vice President, and everyone avoided him like the plague–Saparata didn’t. He welcomed Flux warmly, and made sure to remind him everytime he came by that Flux would always have a place in Saparata’s island. Now, that same island, Saparata’s home–he couldn’t return to it anymore, not for a final goodbye, not to just come back and sleep it off like Saparata wasn’t just framed for mass murder and treason. It wasn’t possible anymore, the possibility of a home to return to.
And after all of this, Saparata just thought himself a fool--an idiot drunk on love, a moron who was foolish enough to love someone so loveable. Gods, Saparata felt like nothing--he felt like a puppet on a string, and now that he had served his purpose as a puppet to Fluixon, Saps was going to be thrown away like nothing.
Flux would swear he did it for the greater good. And back then, when Saparata didn’t know any better, he would have trusted Flux wholeheartedly–that’s how close they were. And even now that Flux has betrayed him and Saparata was a known fugitive across Yggdrasil and Pandora, Saparata still finds himself reminiscing on the days where they were still friends and close-knitted. And even when Theria fell and Flux went to Luminara, they still kept in touch–and now, that bond of theirs? It was gone, burned, severed.
There were…personal feelings that lingered in Saparata’s heart every time they met–he won’t deny that. Flux was handsome, he was charming, and intelligent. Saparata was no one–he still clung to the fall of Theria, and did not choose to join a civilization purely because of the politics–but now, look at where he has gotten himself into! A criminal, a murderer, a fugitive! Running across the islands like he was guilty–but what else can Saparata do other than run and survive? And even if Saparata did indeed have romantic feelings for his best friend, Flux–the possibility that they will ever be on good terms with each other was low.
The fact that things will never return to how it was was gut-wrenching. Saparata hasn’t felt this empty since the fall of Theria. He felt his mind numb–and no, it wasn’t because of frostbite–and his heart felt like nothing. Flux has won. Saparata didn’t find any other reason to keep holding on, to keep living like everything was okay, like it would all go back to normal. Betrayal hurt the most when it comes from someone you trust.
Saparata knew that by doing this, he was basically proving himself even more guiltier to the world leaders–but they didn’t believe him at the trial, did they? What else was this going to possibly change?
Saparata soon found his inventory almost full with blocks, wood, snow, a few carrots, and his armor. After staring at his inventory for an unhealthy amount of time, Saparata felt his legs move, as if on autopilot. He started building–a tower. Saparata loved towers, and it was how he died back then, after Theria fell, and he couldn’t take it anymore.
It took hours to create and polish. And when it was finished, it stood tall, foreign, in the middle of the biome. The only thing keeping Saparata from freezing to death was his armor–but he found no use for that anymore. What use was armor on a player who wanted to be hurt?
As he stared at the tower, Saparata felt his heart clench at the thought of killing himself again–the same way he did back when Theria was still…well, there. After a long moment of just standing there, Saparata finally made his decision–he began climbing the tower’s spiral stairs until he reached the very top. Even under all of his heavy armor, Saparata shivered from the harsh winds of the biome. No wonder why this place was uninhabitable. Saparata stood at the edge of the tower, unconsciously looking down.
He was so high up.
It would undoubtedly make his death even more painful, considering the fact that he accidentally built the tower taller than the last one. He hadn’t even noticed it until now–he knew how tall the tower was the last time, and this one was just…taller.
Saparata swallowed his thoughts and began to empty his inventory–he was on three hunger bars–and even with the carrots in his inventory, refused to consume them. Saparata threw away his diamond pickaxe, the same one he used, chopping wood with Flux before everything went down.
No, even if he was faced with his impending doom, Saparata refused to shed a single tear. He was already giving Flux the upper hand by doing this, and now Flux can just…take over the world, or the island, that is.
He has the intellect to do so, he always did, Flux was always smarter. Flux had always been smart, too intelligent for anyone’s comfort–it wasn’t anything surprising, coming from the Vice President of Luminara, and the backbone of whatever conspiracy they had going. Flux was smart enough to pull it off.
Saparata wanted to forget everything--keep things as they were before, before Fluixon created the Conspiracy--Saparata wanted to stop him, tell him he knew about the traps, but it was already done, wasn't it? What point was it if that event had already finished, there was no use wishing for the old times, there were no other ways to undo something like this.
With everything in his inventory gone, empty, thrown down the tower, Saparata took one last gaze at the moonlit sky–where the brightest stars were scattered all over, shining. Snow kept on falling on him, like it was providing him one last embrace.
Saparata couldn’t even bring himself to smirk, in a way that made fun of his situation. How could he have gone from complete peace to absolute chaos in the span of just weeks? The whole…abstaining from joining a civilization to avoid drama was probably a foreshadowing. That no matter what Saparata did, he would never be able to live his life in harmony.
Saparata sighed–stripping himself of his armor slowly, his fingers trembling as he did. He felt his breath shake unevenly, and his chest heave with each tug–until his body was completely bare from the armor. The chill hit Saparata immediately, making his breath hitch as the hairs on his arms stood up.
He looked down one more time, all kinds of emotions stirring inside him–rage, sorrow, and hurt–he took one last intake of breath before slowly walking forward and feeling as his feet stopped touching anything.
He was falling.
The air was chillier when he was falling down a tower. Saparata shut his eyes, coughing up crimson as his bones cracked, back hitting the ground. Saparata’s eyes widened as he choked on his own blood, his mouth tasted like metal–and soon, every part of his body was scratched or just plain ugly with his injuries.
The pure white snow had his dirty blood seeping into it, tainting the snow’s purity with his own blood. He laid there, unable to do anything–it’s not like he wanted to do anything. Saparata stayed still, the pain of plummeting to the ground was…horrific.
He had never felt such pain until now, not even his previous fall from grace had been like this. Saparata let out a soft groan as the snow trapped him underneath its unbearably cold embrace.
Saparata tried to remember how he had handled it before. Did he cry? Did he regret it?
But he couldn’t even remember that as he began to drift away.
He wanted to start over--forget everything.
Fluixon sat at the dining table in the Conspiracy’s underwater base. He was looking over plans on Luminara, he planned on winning the new election against LegacyAn–and in order to do that, he needed to pull a few strings behind the scenes and make LegacyAn pull out–securing his victory.
All he wanted was to unite Pandora and make all those blind island leaders open their eyes to Yggdrasil’s real plan–taking over Pandora.
Soon, 3belowzero would die, Thomas was working on a new plan to make LegacyAn–a player that Thomas suspects will run–to pull out from the election. Fluixon trusted Thomas, the first player in this world to side with him–well, other than Saps–but Saps wasn’t here, right now. Saps was somewhere…on Yggdrasil or god knows where, on the run, for the murder.. of multiple world leaders.
Well, Saps didn’t actually kill those leaders, but Fluixon couldn’t have the blame placed on him at the moment, could he? Fluixon would gladly betray one person to save a thousand–those thousand players were worth more than just..one life, even if it was Saps.
When Fluixon was demoted from being the Vice President of Luminara, it was Saps who still welcomed him with open arms despite how everyone else avoided him like he had a disease, with how he behaved at the meeting–he just wanted to save them, for heaven’s sake!
They had a few new recruits–those who believed in their cause. Fluixon was trying to rack his brains in an attempt to think of anything–anything that he can use in their plans. He had Thomas bribe the judge in order for Saps to not out them–well, he still did, but made the fatal mistake of accusing the other players, which did not make them happy. Saps…Saparata…Fluixon’s friend, but they haven’t really been friends in a long time.
Fluixon missed the way Saps always greeted him with the biggest bear hug ever when he came to visit his island, and also helped–just like how Fluixon gave Saps a helpful hand in the creation of Theria…before the plot failed and Saps jumped off the tower, making Fluixon the temporary leader before he gave it to Jophiel…he hadn’t thought about her since the day he had her assassinated.
Tricolor as a nation was too strong, Jophiel had to go in order for Tricolor to fly into chaos and his plan to be set into motion.
It’s a shame, really. Jophiel was a powerful woman, and whilst stalking the documents that his subordinate swiped, Emperor Schpood had sent her a marriage proposal, to unite their nations…a shared nation with Tricolor and Westhelm, now that is a powerhouse that Fluixon was glad he stopped.
Some of the Conspiracy members went out to search for Saps. Fluixon’s plan first and foremost was to locate Saps and make sure he has no one to turn to. The most obvious place Saps would go after the trial was likely Yggdrasil, and probably was already there–which is why he had Snowbird go out and search the outskirts of Yggdrasil, since entering Yggdrasil itself as a Pandoran was basically asking for your head to be placed on a pike personally by the leaders.
Fluixon sighed, tapping his finger on the table. Their newest member, NewKids had a mission–and that was to assassinate 3belowzero when he could. Fluixon had it out for the President of Luminara, having ridiculed Fluixon like that, and demoting him–it was shameful. For a few hours, Fluixon was just stuck doing paperwork, greeting his fellow conspiracy members here and there…
“Flux!” The door to their underwater base was suddenly slammed open. Fluixon looked up, a little startled, but before he could say anything, all he could see was Snowbird and Gotoga lifting someone in their arms, struggling to carry them even with the both of them doing so.
The Conspiracy leader narrowed his eyes, staring, trying to see who it was–have they actually kidnapped someone? Fluixon didn’t think they’d have the balls to do so. Gotoga shifted, which gave Fluixon a slightly clearer view of the person’s legs–pale, black and blue cuts and wounds, frostbite clinging to their injuries. Fluixon squinted his eyes, that..build looked familiar.
Painfully familiar.
“We–It’s Saparata!” Gotoga managed to spit out–and Fluixon’s heart skipped a beat. He saw the face come into view–a sticky note with a smile…stained by crimson.
In an instant, Fluixon jumped out of his seat, the paperwork in his hands flying in the air before landing on the ground, discarded.
“What happened to hi–” Fluixon was barely able to contain his shock when he got closer, Saps was bleeding–everywhere, too much, he was going to die at this point. His face was all scarred and cold, and Fluixon was certain that his bones were broken. Fluixon cursed under his breath–how could he have forgotten Saps’s tendency to jump off towers?!
However, Fluixon took the half-dead Saps from Gotoga and Snowbird, he cradled Saps in his arms and flinched from how cold his skin was. His ankle was twisted–oh god, he jumped off a tower again. The alarm bells in his mind start ringing, Saps tried to kill himself, for the second time. Fluixon pressed his ear against Saps’ chest, and he could hear a faint pulse–so faint he almost missed it.
He turned to look at his two comrades. “Get a room ready.” Was all he said, voice almost stuttering. "I don't care if it's a storage room or the meeting room, get a bed and a room."
Snowbird and Gotoga nodded before quickly taking off. They were both–but mostly Snowbird, were covered in what looked like gallons of Saps’ blood. The image of crimson stained on their clothes felt like a punch to the gut, knowing whose blood it was.
And Fluixon’s own clothing was also beginning to smell like the iron of blood. Fluixon held Saps tightly, despite how cold he was, and then Fluixon sped off into a room. He had no idea how Gotoga and Snowbird even got Saps underwater with his half-dead state, but he was glad nobody else found Saps. No one from Yggdrasil…no one.
Fluixon was never able to fully admit it, but he cared about Saps. That man was his best friend, his former leader, and the one he betrayed. Fluixon suddenly felt a surge of guilt enter his body seeing Saps like this–no, he was doing this for the greater good–Saps was going to live…
Fluixon needed Saparata to live.