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Chapter Text

The roses at the front of the castle bloomed a vibrant shade of red. You'd think the inside of the castle would be just as colorful, and if you considered black and white to be so, you would be correct. The walls stayed gray and uniform, the floor remained tiled like a chessboard, and creeping shadows did their very best to add some value to the valueless space. 

Yes, the roses were crimson, like freshly-spilt blood, standing in neat orderly rows stretching away from the grand double doors. Andre had never actually seen them; he rarely ventured outside, and when he did, he typically used a different door. The back door, mostly, since it was closest to his wing. The window, once, but that was when he was very small and very stupid and probably craved breaking his neck on the smooth stone of the courtyard. 

So, what's the deal with these iron doors? Well, the King had ordered it. Very soon, Prince Andre was expected to embark on a journey for the good of the kingdom to defeat a dragon, free the people from it's tyranny, and obtain it's egg for some testing purposes. There was probably more, but Andre was not informed of what would happen when he returned victorious.  

Of course, the King was too important to actually bid his son farewell. His assistant was there instead, reading off all of the proper blessings one was supposed to listen to before a dangerous journey. Andre didn't fiddle with his sleeve like he wanted to, and instead stared at a spot on the assistant's forehead above their nose, hoping he would magically receive the ability to either shoot lasers from his eyes and kill the assistant or to mind-control the assistant away. 

His wishes were not answered. 

Blessings, of course, were important. So it didn't hurt at all that the King was not here. Nor that the assistant didn't even memorize it, as per tradition - they were just reading the proper words off a list. No, Andre did not feel anything about this, and in fact wished desperately to leave so he could come back quickly and return to his monochrome days of staring out windows blankly and attending his classes. 

With a final word prayer, Prince Andre set off into the country to kill a legend. But no, he did not go alone. Honestly, it probably would have been faster if he was, but he wasn't because -

"My Prince!" with a gust of wind and a pair of hands grabbing his shoulders that definitely didn't belong there, Andre was hoisted into the air. Only a life's worth of experience stopped him from flailing in surprise and falling out of the sky.

The hands let him go and he landed heavily on his knees on a red-misted cloud floating a foot off the ground. The owner of the hands beamed down on him like some immature, playful sun.

Andre nobly refrained from groaning in irritation. Instead, he looked at the most chaotic member of his council blankly, hoping his exasperation wasn't visible on his face. "Sidi."

"Are we leaving yet?" Sidi cheered, floating back slightly on the nimbus cloud they'd created, "not gonna lie, I was getting really bored waiting for you to be done! That was...really...enthralling!"

Andre could have used his vocal cords to inform Sidi that it really wasn't HIS fault, he had to receive the blessings same as any important traveler, and it's not like Andre invented the concept of sending someone off courteously, but he didn't. Why? Because he knew he didn't have to. After all, Soup never hesitated to argue with Sidi about anything. And there he was, carrying a traveler's bag and already kind of frowning.

"He had to receive the blessings at the front of the castle," Soup said, irritated already, stopping a little ways behind Sidi and their cloud, "it wouldn't kill you to be a little more patient, Sidi, shaddup."

"Bleh," Sidi stuck out their tongue. Soup's eyebrow twitched.

"Ok let's calm down," Ego walked up behind the feuding councilmembers, their face placid yet with the impression of being incredibly done with the two of them at the same time, "the journey hasn't even started yet."

Sidi shrugged and idly swung their legs in the air. Soup's wings came around his face, hiding it from view. But at least they stopped fighting.

Ego turned to Andre and bowed respectfully, "My Prince, the carriage has been prepared to take you outside of the city."

Sidi let part of their cloud fade out and Andre dropped down to the ground, "Hey, where did Conzer and Feargate go?"  

"They're waiting at the carriage," Ego said, "And we should probably meet them there."

So one prince and three councilmembers headed towards the street out front, Sidi floating in front on their nimbus cloud, the rest of them walking behind. Soup and Ego were chatting about...something. Andre didn't pay attention; he mostly just kept his eyes fixated straight ahead and tried not to think about absent Kings and hastily-scribbled blessings. 

~~

The carriage carried them outside the inner kingdom's walls, dropped them off, and promptly left as soon as the last body part left the premise. Andre sat on a stone ledge and looked over his map and compass, tried to remember all of his geography classes that he suddenly felt he didn't concentrate enough in, and honorably didn't lose his mind. Sidi was trying to coax a bird closer that kept avoiding them, Soup was watching them with his arms crossed disapprovingly (at least he wasn't yelling like he usually does), and Ego and Conzer were studying a crater in the ground.

"This is hopeless," Andre's brain said. Andre's mouth, however, didn't say anything. He just rolled the map back up, clipped his compass back onto his belt, and set out in the vague direction he was supposed to be going.

He commandeered the supplies of a blacksmith for tools and took some wood as well from a nearby pile and continued walking. It was almost completely dark by now, the forest emitting spooky noises that Andre had to take special care to not jump at. He heard footsteps - an animal, maybe, or one of his council - and turned around, but saw nothing.

He kept moving.

His destination was kind of strange, even by heroic journeys - in order to even enter the realm the dragon resided in, Andre needed to get to the Nether, which required another type of portal. He'd found iron in the chest for a bucket and filled it with water, and he could create the portal if he had a lava pool. No village would build near a lava pool, so he had to go out of his way. It's fine, won't take too much time.

This will all be worth it in the end.

Andre finally found a lava pool after a bit of exploration and begun building his portal. He could have been faster, though. At least his flint luck was good. He knew this because Soup loudly yelled "FLINT LUCK" while Andre was breaking gravel.

Oops. Andre had kind of forgotten about his council. He didn't tell them about where he was going or what he was doing, and for some reason Feargate and Conzer were losing their minds over something - some guy they saw in the forest, apparently. Ego was also trying to talk to him about something different, so four out of the five councilmembers were talking in some capacity. Andre registered nothing except a feeling of mild irritation. At least Sidi wasn't trying to talk to him too. Andre wished he could have left them behind for good.

He settled for ignoring everyone instead.

So Andre sparked a fire and the portal lit up in shades of purple. He stepped through it and his vision swayed and collapsed into itself.

He thought he saw a moving shadow within the trees heading towards him before everything went dark. 

Chapter Text

The first thing Andre saw after getting over his portal-induced disorientation was a row of human-sized dolls, which was pretty obviously not supposed to be there. Each doll was lined up relatively neatly, though a bit floppy, and each had strikingly blue hair. Hair that was very familiar to Andre.

There was also a sign in front of the doll-mannequins, but Andre didn't read it, running past the sign and the row of dolls and into the wild Netherlands beyond.

The warped screech of the Nether portal sounding behind him alerted him that someone had gone through it. It was probably Sidi since they tended to be the most reckless and the fastest overall. It also helped that Andre could hear them start to freak out about the line of dolls and call out for him to "get his ass back here", whatever that meant. As with most things said by his council, he ignored it. He needed to find a fortress, and the terrain in front of him opened up wonderfully.

He could very faintly hear the rest of his council entering the Nether - mostly from Feargate's absolutely soul-rending shriek - but decided to not wait for them. They could stay by the dolls for all he cared. He had to hurry if he wanted to complete his mission in a respectable amount of time.

He could hear Sidi rapidly approaching his location on their nimbus cloud, so he ducked under an overhang and waited for them to pass. He looked around and saw nothing of interest, except maybe a few signs nailed into the walls and discarded on the floor.

He heard Sidi pass and ducked out of the alcove, heading in a different direction.

If running away from all of his problems wasn't the answer, then why does it work so well?

He continued sprinting across the blood-red stones, the Nether heat slowly baking him from the inside-out. He stopped a few times - once to get blocks, and a couple times to reorient himself and remember where his portal was. It would be major time loss if he forgot where it was. He just needed to find a fortress.

The Nether fog proved to be unhelpful. It stung his eyes and made everything that red murky haze. At this point, the fortress could be right in front of him and he wouldn't see it.

Maybe if his eye wasn't -

                                                                - but does it even matter -

He'll remain "like this" no matter what he thinks or feels.

The grunt of a zombie pigman startled him and he jumped back, boots skidding on the stones. He realized he'd stopped, too busy ruminating in his thoughts to continue forward. He mentally cursed himself and forced his legs to keep moving.

And it was with this cheerful mentality that he finally spotted the fortress, rising above the bright lava. He almost cheered out loud. As it was, he just ran to the side of the lava pool and began building up. Out of habit, he kept checking around him for anything that might make him fall. Sidi, mostly, but in the nether ghasts or skeletons or a comically-timed blaze could also shoot him down.

He blinked, balancing on the pillar precariously and really looking back the way he came for the first time since he started running.

...He hadn't heard Sidi or his other councilmembers for a while. He wondered what they were doing.

~~

"-can't believe that little twerp -" Ego heard Sidi's voice, faint yet growing louder, a few seconds before a red nimbus cloud crashed to their right. They jumped. Soup jumped. Feargate let out another shriek and became half-invisible out of shock. Conzer startled, but not nearly as much as the rest of them. He was busy checking over the sign and the surrounding area for any clues or signatures or something.

"So I take it something happened with the Prince," Ego said blandly.

"He ran away from me!" Sidi raged, zipping Ego at impossible speeds, their voice coming out distorted, "When I find him again I'm going to beat him up- "

Soup came up while Sidi was distracted and, before Ego could frantically signal for him to not do anything, stuck his foot out in front of the cloud's path. He was probably trying to trip Sidi but miscalculated, as both Sidi, Soup, and cloud ended up in a heap on the ground. Also two out of the three were yelling now.

To end their argument, Ego hit both of them on the head. Soup winced and stopped talking. Sidi didn't react because their head was probably made of metal, and was about as dense too, but they stopped talking too.

"That's enough," Ego said tiredly, "Soup, that was completely unwarranted."

Soup scowled, but didn't argue. Good enough.

"Sidi, did you say the Prince ran away from you?" Conzer came over from where he was investigating, Feargate trailing behind him, "How'd he do that?"

Sidi pouted and hugged their knees to their chest, "I'm sure he hid in the wall or something and waited for me to pass!" They turned and punched a wall, which did not seem to affect either of them, "I am going to PEEL HIM when I see him again - "

" - and that should probably be soon," Conzer cut in, looking uncharacteristically serious, "Did you all read the sign?"

"Yeah, it says, like, 'I don't need these, Andre', right?" Sidi said, "I mean, why would some stalker need five human plushies of the Prince when the real deal is right there - "

Soup hit Sidi in the back of the head. Sidi tugged at his ear. Ego hit both of them over the head again and they subsided.

It's like dealing with bread starter, Ego thought with dull amazement, the prince never acted like this and he's younger than both of them.

"I think someone might be following the Prince," Conzer continued, preemptively clapping a hand over Feargate's mouth, "The detail on the dolls is crudely done, but...strangely accurate."

Everyone stared at Feargate. He didn't screech again, thankfully, just stared back at them with wide black eyes.

"Wait," Sidi sprang up, floating over to one of the dolls, "did you check under the - uh - " they motioned over one of their eyes with their hand, "the bangs?"

Conzer shook his head. Sidi reached out and flipped the felt hair to reveal-

                blank fabric.

Soup blinked. Sidi let the felt fall back to it's original position and giggled.

"I guess the stalker got lazy," Ego couldn't help but comment dryly.

Sidi rubbed their hands together, "Hey, what d'you think we should do with the plushies?" they asked cheerfully, "I vote we burn them! Or- ooh, we could keep them! There's five - one for each of us, right?"

"No," said Soup succinctly. Whether he said this because he thought having a life-sized doll of his Prince would be weird or because he almost always disagreed with Sidi remains unknown.

"Yeah, I agree with Soup on this one," Conzer looked over the dolls again, "We still don't know what this person's motive is for doing this. Maybe the mannequins are poisoned, or they're voodoo, or something."

"I could try kicking it," Sidi offered. This was also hastily denied by the other members of the council.

Ego noticed Sidi's mood improving and used the opportunity to ask, "Sidi, could you go and find Andre again? I think-"

"On it!" And with Ego not able to get a word in edgewise, Sidi hopped back on their cloud and flew off into the dark.

Ego stared at their retreating back with judgement, but decided to let it go.

Hopefully Andre was fine.

~~

Andre was fine.

Everything was going alright. Not great, not terrible - he'd found some stray blazes, but only two dropped blaze rods and he still had to find a spawner. Also, most of the chests in the fortress were filled with plush versions of his head, most of them torn apart and leaking stuffing and ambiguous red substances, which meant the other things that would normally be in them were gone and he wasn't able to gather as many resources. Outside of that this fortress run had gone smoothly. Maybe he could have placed better scaffolding - using gravel to bridge was definitely not his brightest moment - and he was slowly realizing he probably needed food. He'd overlooked that part.

It was while he was brooding over this latest issue that he missed the whistle of air headed towards his location like a bomb deployment. As such, he hit the ground with a thud, a suspiciously cloud-like presence digging into his back.

"Ok, so turns out you didn't travel as far as I thought," Sidi commented, hopping off of Andre's back and allowing him to roll over and sit up straight, "You really had me worried there! I thought you were really speedy or something. Oh well, everything passes."

Andre brushed himself off. He was about to walk off again but hesitated.

...He really did want food. He turned and looked at Sidi, tilting his head and hoping they got the message.

"You want something? Like, armor? Directions?" Sidi put their hand on their chin thoughtfully - or mock-thoughtfully, that was more likely - as they pondered this wordless request, "C'mon Princeling, you can just talk to me, y'know? This silent game is starting to get old - ok, ok, I'm thinking!"

They drifted back and forth to imitate pacing while Andre wished for an audience to direct a glance at meaningfully.

"What do humans want? Water? Didn't you drink from that lake - and humans only need to be watered, like, twice a day," Sidi rambled, "So the other option is - food!" they pointed at Andre triumphantly, "You want food!"

Andre nodded. That had taken them a long time. It was probably considered Andre's fault, another time loss, but at the same time -

"Uh, unless you give me your bucket so I can burn hoglins to death - " to which Andre shook his head, " - ok, so I guess I'll make you mushroom soup. Wonderful." Sidi pulled a face.

Andre walked off.

"I can't believe this! I'm a part of your council, not your babysitter! Ugh, you're lucky I - " Andre heard Sidi take flight and the rest of their words fade into nothing.

And Andre continued forward, into the dark.

Chapter Text

Andre sipped at his soup as he walked through the fortress, sword in hand and Sidi trailing behind him, yammering about some inane thing.

The fortress had went fine. He hadn't even been lit on fire that many times, and wins were wins no matter how ambiguously normal they were. On top of that, he'd gotten his blaze rods and his axe wasn't even that close to breaking. All was turning up well. Now if he could maybe ditch Sidi and the rest of the council, succeed in killing the dragon, and finally go home, he could finally figure out the reason why he had to go on this quest in the first place.

Maybe it's that. He's useless around the castle. And he's here to unlock his potential, so he can stop being useless. The King would know. Maybe he would finally tell Andre, and the reason wouldn't even be as bad as he thought.

Because he knew he was once a - a bad person, a really stupid, hyperactive kid (kind of like Sidi) who liked - jumping out windows, and stuff - but he'd calmed down, learned how to sit still, how to zone out when a situation didn't need him, which was all the time; he'd figured out how to fix himself, finally, and he was proud of how he is now.

So he had to finish this. For the good of the kingdom, his kingdom, and also, just - for himself. His own peace of mind.

He broke another sign, this one placed at the edge of a decayed bridge. Sidi noticed and flew over, hovering over the edge and the lava. Andre refused to flinch at that.

"There's a lot of signs around, huh?" they commented, "Makes you wonder who placed them. What'd this one say?"

Andre shrugged.

"This is why you READ SIGNS before you break them," Sidi scolded playfully, reaching out and pulling at Andre's hair until he skidded near the edge as well. He pulled Sidi's hand off his head and glared. Sidi held up their hands in mock surrender and backed off, coincidentally further over the lava.

Andre decided not to dwell on it. He shook his head and walked in the other direction to where he remembered his portal was, Sidi following close behind.

"Also, you know what was written on that sign in front of the plushie things?!" Sidi ranted, laying on their stomach and kicking up their feet like some excited teenager, "It said something really weird, like - "

That marked the point where Andre stopped listening.

He walked forward, not even bothering to cue that he was listening (because he wasn't). Sidi didn't need encouragement because they were really yappity and could probably talk for hours locked inside a brick room with a really loud echo. Made Andre's job of existing unobtrusively easier.

He saw the black and purple portal and ran forward, failing to realize Sidi had halted behind him.

Soup was there, as was Ego, but Feargate and Conzer were not. They probably left the Nether and were waiting by the portal on the other side, was Andre's best guess.

He stood by the portal, making sure he had everything he needed and didn't leave anything behind, like his pickaxe or wood or something really important, like his blaze rods.

"My Prince...where is Sidi?" Ego asked tentatively. In other good news, Andre had everything he needed. As for where Sidi went -

He glanced behind him, and when red terrain failed to yield a redder nimbus cloud and it's rider, he shrugged. Maybe they'd gotten distracted by something shiny, or they were flying circles around a ghast, or something. It wasn't really Andre's problem either way. He made a motion to open his mouth and convey just that.

And then the ground exploded.

Andre staggered back, more on instinct then in pain, and looked up to see some dark...liquid (?) seep through the netherrack and open into small white holes (???). Some sort of figure, the same darkness as the black water was also headed his way.

"hello andre," the figure said, or hissed, or transmitted directly into Andre's brain somehow. It reached out for him, closing the gap -

A rock hit it in the head hard enough to make it stagger in pain, the white holes (eyes, they were eyes-) swiveling to focus on Sidi, holding another rock, this one comically large. At the same time, Soup's hand closed around Andre's shirt collar and bodily hauled him through the portal.

And Andre would have half-heartedly flailed in token protest, but the left side of his face felt stiff, and so did the rest of his body, like his nerves were put on hold. Like he was a spectator watching his own body react.

The last thing his body saw before the purple portal ate him was Sidi with their comical rock and the eye person looking back at him.

Soup dumped Andre on the bank of the lava pool, the latter finally able to control his body enough to shake off Soup's hold and sit on the grass unprompted. He was breathing kind of hard, he faintly noticed. Also Conzer and Feargate were here, so he was right.

He turned to look at Soup, an obvious question in his eye.

Soup waved a hand, "You need to focus on your mission," he said dismissively, and if Andre were maybe four years old he wouldn't have noticed the satisfied gleam in his eyes.

[You just hope Sidi is going to die fighting the thing,] he thought, and tactfully didn't say that thought out loud. Soup wasn't even trying to hide it either; sure, his expression was aloof as always, but his head wings were puffed out contentedly and doing happy wiggles. Or Andre was pretty sure that was what they were. He'd never paid particular attention to the behaviors of wings.

Conzer came over, hand safely clasped over Feargate's mouth, and stood there, looking at Andre (who was desperately trying to seem unaffected), Soup (who was still preening like the smug bird he was), and Ego (who looked faintly worried for Sidi)

"So, I can't help but feel like something happened," Conzer said dryly, "...Where's Sidi?"

As Ego explained the premise of Sidi's possible doom to Conzer and a wide-eyed Feargate, Andre stood up and stared through the portal.

Sidi was...probably not dead. They weren't indestructible, but close enough. "Hardy" might be the best word. Some formless shadow probably wouldn't even affect them.

As if on cue, the portal shrieked and spat out a beaming Sidi who looked a bit banged up but no less worse for wear. Andre would have laughed at the disappointed expression on Soup's face if he didn't feel that slightly himself.

"That was fun!" Sidi cheered, perching on the Nether portal frame, "Although Andre should have fought him, methinks."

"No," Soup said not calmly, "He's not going to fight the eye thing, are you insane? He would probably die! And more importantly, he'd lose so much time!" he crossed his arms, "He should probably just ignore it."

Andre caught Sidi mouthing "more importantly" in awe as he turned and began walking. Where? He had no clue, but surely making some progress is better than staying still. He could check his map and compass later.

He would finish this. No matter how many weird eye things tried to stop (?) him.

This was going to end fine.

~~

First time Sidi met the Princeling, they thought their heart was going to explode. 

His proportions were all funny, his head super big compared to his body, and he constantly tripped on the edge of his cloak. His short cyan hair was tied in a small ponytail away from his face, revealing sparkly baby eyes. 

Basically, a squashy murder face. And boy could the Princeling get angry! Luckily, as far as children go, Andre was well-behaved. Super nice kid, unlike his parents. He could get really excited too, and his face would kind of squinch like he didn't know how to smile properly and run around in circles until he got tired. 

So, Andre was a gem. Sidi thought he was the cutest! So squishy, like a rubber ball, and just as fast when he wanted to be. 

About his parents, Sidi could not say. They knew the King didn't like them. Whatever, the less they said about him, the better. 

And so Sidi spent their days feeding the Princeling apricots and teaching him how to throw the pits at passerby, and the world spun by in a golden haze.

Chapter Text

"I like him," Sidi decided, swinging across the sky like a giant moth of wrath, "I'm gonna call him Assimilation."

Soup scowled up at them, wings pinned back against his head, "It is a danger and a menace to Andre's speed, and you decide to name the thing?"

"Yeah, but - eh, I don't really care," Sidi shrugged, "He's a strappin' young lad, what can I say? And the name totally fits him, what with the - " they faked an action scene, miming fighting and making sound effects, "The whole - 'I'ma assimilate Andre, control his vessel, convict him for the crimes of his family and possibly kill him in real life', the whole nine yards."

"And you named it?" Soup repeated.

Sidi finally frowned and dropped out of the sky, landing squarely on Soup's shoulders and gently trying to claw his eyes out.

"Calm down," they said conversationally, ignoring Soup's screeches of pain and attempts at dislodging Sidi, "I know what I'm doing, right? I got it all under control."

As Soup and Sidi spun past the rest of the group, arguing all the while, Andre tried to ignore them and focus on the path in front of him. To be honest, he was doing poorly. Soup and Sidi were like an explosion waiting to happen in that they constantly attacked your eyes and demanded your attention lest they destroyed everything around them. He just tried to focus on Conzer and a reluctant Feargate being dragged along, and Ego who looked a few seconds away from drowning themself.

"How about let's agree that antagonists can be cool while also antagonizing," they implored.

Sidi cheered to show their support. Soup was still being mauled, so he didn't show his opinion on this.

Andre shut his eyes tightly, and wished he could do the same to his ears without covering them with his hands like some child afraid of thunderstorms. His council was honestly a headache. A punch to the neck, over and over again.

He was honestly tired. The nether expedition had taken it's toll whether he wanted it to or not. Plus, it was getting dark. It was mid-afternoon, probably, and the edges of the sky furthest away from the sun were already tinted dark blues and purples. There was a settlement a little ways ahead, according to Andre's map, but it seemed to be still a long ways away. It would probably be fully dark by the time they arrived.

It was times like this he wished he were fully digital. Then he wouldn't feel cold, tired, angry, whatever he was feeling right now. It would just be gone. And maybe he could shoot lasers or something, but mostly the first part sounded so appealing, it was almost unbelievable. 

"Sidi, get off of my head!" Soup yelled, still trying to peel Sidi off of his neck. Everyone stopped to mediate the problem (Ego looking two seconds away from writing their suicide note) or smile smirkingly (Conzer, you are not as subtle as you think you are), except Andre who used this opportunity to walk faster.

Let it be known Prince Andre is great at delegating tasks. Fantastic even.

He speed-walked until he could only faintly hear the voices of his council.

Finally, some peace.

He folded his hands behind him and kind of...sank into a daze. He didn't register what was happening around him or what his body was doing, just that he was moving forward. It felt like being back in the castle, walking through winding halls of the same black and white monochrome, only hazily noting what was happening and where he was going. Faint memories of walking forward, forward, in a straight line that never deviated and never changed drifted in his mind.

Unpredictably, this was when the shadows ate him.

He was walking along the slope of a hill, focused on the way the bones in his ankles bent and shifted to let him keep his balance, when the same eye-person entity thing that was in the nether appeared in front of him. Andre barely had time to register it let alone flinch back before it slashed at his head

- passed through the other side -

               -and nothing happened.

"I HAVE YOU NOW ANDRE!!!"

Andre blinked. Then he felt his body being rearranged painfully, which hurt quite a bit. All he saw was darkness ahead. And also a lot of eyes, that seemed important.

Then he was beat up by a bunch of shadows.

He tried blindly to grab for his sword, but he realized suddenly with horror that all of his items, the armor he had 'commandeered', had disappeared. All of his items - his fucking blaze rods -

Filled with a sudden, irrational anger, Andre lashed out at the tiny versions of the Assimilation entity, felt his hand collide with something shockingly real, and the world stopped

              restarted

Andre registered static before he opened his eyes. He was standing on an endless plain, and the void-like sky held no stars. And there was also someone on the plain with him, that was so wonderful. Andre felt so [wonderful].

What is this? Why does he feel so frantic? The static builds around his eyes, his ears, renders his limbs immovable and his heart pounding high in his throat.

It had been so long since he had felt fear in any capacity, really, that this unfamiliar feeling drowned him.

The entity stepped forward. Andre, on instinct, stepped back.

"Welcome to my world, Andre" the entity said.

Something in Andre kind of...gave way, then. Like he was so terrified it went across his brain and looped around to detached apathy again. His fingers twitched without his command, and he surveyed the area around him with more calmness than the situation really warranted. He could feel a haze of curiosity settle around his brain like it belonged there.

The area around him really did seem endless. His body turned away from the entity and walked to check anyways.

Nothing.

"There is no point Andre." He could decide for himself - "It is endless here Andre" - ain't no way?

Just in case, he turned around and checked the area behind the entity. This did not seem to endear him more to it.

Between one breath and the next, he appeared before Assimilation again.

"Are you done yet, Andre?" was all Assimilation was able to say before Andre ran up and decked him.

Honestly, at this point the Prince was more shocked than the entity. He just rolled with it, though, even as his vision blurred crimson red.

It took maybe two received hits for Andre to realize he was not winning this one. His body seemed to not get the memo, though, and didn't stop trying to throw hands. Even as pain blurred his vision and caused his body to stumble, he didn't stop trying. And then he died.

              restarted

and woke up, standing in front of Assimilation.

"You are going to do it again, I know it." it was able to say before Andre was punching him again, and losing, and dying, and

              restarted

coming back.

His body felt like not his own. Like he was reading fairy tales with Sidi again in the stone courtyard, and the characters did whatever the story told them to. Whatever Sidi told them to. They fought and shouted and laughed and cried, collided with each other and drifted apart, all on their own path to their final destination.

So he fought and lost and fought again, because what else was he supposed to do? And maybe he could actually kill the thing. He didn't know if that was even possible, but he could at least try. He couldn't give up, anyhow. And death wasn't even that bad, when the pain became unbearable - just a sudden quiet, and he

              restarted

woke up feeling better.

This was going to take a very long time, wasn't it?

~~

Yes, it took a long time. Almost nothing interesting happened during the near four hundred battles (honestly, more like spats) Andre and the entity had had. It had tried to talk to him multiple times, but he had already sunk into his ever-comforting daze by the fifth battle and missed almost everything it had said. Sometimes he took note of when a strange red thing made itself apparent on the entity's chest. Mostly, though, it was like watching puppets dance along a cardboard stage.

Sidi used to preform rudimentary puppet shows. The puppets themselves were crudely made, with the ends of string trailing behind each character and the faces all crooked. Andre couldn't help but compare it to himself and his opponent. 

The end had come probably by accident. They were still punching each other when Andre said something. It probably wasn't a word, more like a noise, and it grated over his vocal cords painfully due to disuse, but the Assimilation entity had stopped and looked at him almost questioningly. It's red orb (heart, it's a heart-) showed up again, and Andre had punched it. Hard.

Everything just - kind of devolved from there. The entire world decided to fall apart. And Andre, whether he wanted to be or not, was part of that world. He fell apart too, and while he was busy doing that he almost broke his legs rolling down the side of a hill he was no longer balanced on.

He looked at the green grass, noted that the sky was not pitch-black and was instead still a golden afternoon color, and quietly thought I am so doomed.

"..."

How long was he gone for, in real life? Where even was his council?

Chapter Text

Surprisingly, the first person that found him wasn't Sidi, but Feargate.

Andre hadn't seen him at first, even. He was alone on the slope of the hill, and suddenly Feargate had phased in at the top, a little ways away. He wasn't looking at Andre; rather, at a small divot in the ground in front of him that he seemed to have dug himself. Even from here, Andre could see his nails bleeding, chipped and worn at the edges, black dirt streaks filling in the cracks. He was still doing that weird thing where he phased invisible, flickering like a bad connection, like he couldn't decide whether or not he wanted to be perceived. He seemed to be fiddling with something in his hands.

Andre made his way up to him, footsteps thudding dully on the grass until he casted a shadow over the translucent being. Feargate didn't notice, somehow. Up close, the strange gray of his skin and the dead focus of his eyes were even more apparent. Andre couldn't help but feel a pang of disgust.

He snapped his fingers under Feargate's nose and he startled, becoming invisible again (but not before gently removing 10 years off of the life expectancy of Andre's ears).

Andre just stood at the top of the hill and contemplated his life choices. Truly, he must have done something unspeakably horrible to deserve this. What the hell.

Feargate reappeared, probably just realizing that no, he wasn't being attacked, that was his Prince and not some assassin or other deadly plot device, floating slightly and fidgeting with his fingers. For the sake of his mental stability, Andre ignored him.

"Feargate. Where is everyone else?" He kind of expected them to have caught up by now. What with the amount of times he had died. Also Sidi had a very fast cloud. Does life only exist to disappoint? Andre supposed now he knows. Fascinating.

Feargate's form stabilized. His voice didn't. It's fine, though, Andre could parse out the words "searching for", "fighting", and what might possibly have been "world annihilation." Andre, who is very good at parsing out the details that truly matter, concluded that no, his council didn't forget him, and no, he didn't hallucinate the whole thing. That was good. He was worried for a moment there.

Feargate hadn't stopped winding wildflowers through his fingers. Scrappy little pieces of yellow and purple, with dark green leaves and white roots. They bound themselves to his bleeding hands like they belonged there, sprouting and blossoming from the dirt-filled cracks in his skin.

Andre forced himself to not dwell on it, to walk past Feargate and continue forward, to not stagnate, to not dwell, dwell-

Honestly, his council was so weird.

~~

Andre could pinpoint the exact moment Sidi caught sight of him and Feargate.

Well, first, he heard his name being called in a suspiciously Sidi-like tone, from way over the clouds.

Second, Andre exploded.

Once he was done exploding, Sidi placed him back down on the ground.

"Hey, Princeling!" Sidi beamed, ruffling his hair with more force than necessary, "Where'd you go? I was all worried about you!" Their eyes shone with an almost feverish intensity, reminding Andre of that one instance in his childhood where he had stuck his hand fully in a brazier to see what it had felt like.

By the way, it had hurt. His sleeve had caught on fire, and his skin was on fire, and no amount of tears was able to extinguish either of those pains.

If Andre hadn't known Sidi would never hurt him personally, he should be very wary right about now. As it stands, he just tilted his head to the side to avoid their hand.

Sidi floated lower, peering at Andre with a critical eye, "Did something happen? I was tracking you and then - boom! Disappeared!" a cloud exploded in Andre's face, "I thought for sure you'd been, like, kidnapped or something!"

This was not a great moment for Andre to notice that Sidi smelled suspiciously like rock dust and was coated finely in powder.

He processed all of that slowly, debating the best way to summarize his brief adventure into void hell. "I did get kidnapped."

Nailed it. He should fire Feargate for running off, though; he had mumbled something about finding everyone else, but Andre knew he just had no faith in his Prince.

Sidi paused, looking uncharacteristically serious, "Ok.. Cool. Cool. So, do I need to kill them?" a thought bubble floated by their head before they slapped it away into fine mist. Pity. The one time Andre actually cared about Sidi's thoughts...

Andre thought about attacking the entity. About swiping his hand through it's chest and colliding with it's heart. Imagined it bleeding, staining his hand, getting his skin and sticking to his clothes in unnaturally warm splotches. That never happened. He checked just to make sure.

His hand was pristine. So he really was losing it. He shook his head at Sidi about the killing part. He didn't really trust Sidi to go out and not blow up the world while he was still living in it.

It was childish to feel so gleeful at the premise, though. That Sidi would kill the Assimilation being they so "liked" because it had kidnapped him for a short while. A sort of smugness at having any effect on his world.

Childish. How disappointing.

Andre had to take a moment because that voice was so Soup-esque it was almost like Soup himself had said it. And he did. Because he was rounding the side of the hill preemptively yelling at Sidi while Ego tried in vain to get him to stop talking. Andre had to admire his hustle.

"I can't even believe you!" he ranted, his chest noticeably heaving, "You can't just leave the rest of the group just to chase your own whims- the arrogance -"

Sidi turned to face him. Their relaxed state contrasted so sharply with his ruffled state that even Andre could notice.

"Wow, chill out," they said flippantly, "Didn't I say it was [important]? And it was! I couldn't be bothered to tell you more, though."

Ego slammed a hand on Soup's shoulder before he could do anything stupid.

And that was about as much as Andre tuned in, anyways.

~~

At least they made it to the inn.

As much as Andre had waxed on about the wonders of dying on physical strain, he knew his council -a small part of it, at least- was human and/or needed sleep. Despite his gripes with each of them (some more than others), he didn't want them to die. Also when they were sleeping and thus not in his way he could collect ender eyes. Ender pearls? Whatever.

He left the actual purchase to Ego because he really couldn't be bothered and tuned into the argument that Sidi and Soup, somehow, were still having. The sheer tenacity of their grudge could probably defeat numerous dragons in of itself.

"- are a strange and dangerous beast - " Soup had lowered his voice, probably because they were in a public setting, but Sidi hadn't bothered, "Wanna repeat that? Do you want another broken leg - I'm dangerous because [you] couldn't even defend against a simple - "

Andre blinked.

"Sidi, you broke his leg?" he asked, mildly curious. He hadn't recalled anything like that happening - sometimes Soup and Sidi's fighting did get physical, but it ended pretty quickly either because Ego intervened or

Or Soup lost.

Hm.

Both Soup and Sidi startled at that, Soup spluttering about - something? while Sidi adopted a grin that seemed easygoing to everyone except Andre, who knew them.

"Uh - yeah. It happened a while ago, though," Sidi said, "Like, a while ago." They turned to Soup and hissed, within full earshot of Andre, "I thought you told him?"

Soup glared back, "No! I thought you did -" his face did something funny and he stopped talking. That was funny. Sidi was also thinking, which was less funny, because that was twice that Sidi had thought (thunk) today seriously.

Ego came back to the group, money pouch noticeably lighter, and both Sidi and Soup immediately turned to - glare at them? That was kind of new. But Ego, possessing the supernatural ability to Not Give a Fuck, ignored both of them and told Andre, "Your room is the 202nd. it's on the second floor." They turned to the rest of the group, "The inn only has one other room with two beds (and the guy at the counter added 'maybe a couch'), so I guess be fast. Or whatever."

Andre split from his council and found his room. It was, indeed, on the second floor. Sidi wanted to make sure he actually slept (an unreasonable worry - when had he not slept-) and was only dragged away from his door by a long-suffering Ego who suggested they go explore the city a bit. Poor Ego, honestly, they sounded like they really wanted to go to sleep.

Give Andre some credit; he did try to sleep. But after laying on the bed and imagining too many weird shapes in the ceiling he decided this wasn't worth it, knuckled at his eyes, and went out to kill Endermen.