#hush’s arc is also a little more passive

[sayaratyriea]

tfw i miss my stupid cowboy oc again but my brain won’t even let me write about her

muse pls come home

[prismarine-parrots]

Tree of Life Pt. 3.5

I wrote this as a special thing for Tumblr, just because I felt like it. It’s not one of the original 5 parts, hence the 3.5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 (1) Part 5 (2)

Fair warning: you’re probably going to be mad at me, but I’ll be posting the last parts right after so...

TW: character death, killed by another character

There was nothing but ocean for miles around the group of boats. It would be faster to go by elytra, but no one wanted to get separated and lost because they're too fast and bad with coordinates and then crash into the ocean and drown.

So the group rowed along, skimming the ocean surface heading to their unknown location from the coordinates they had found.

"There's an island up ahead!" Iskall yelled, pausing to point at the landmass. Tango scanned against the harsh sunlight, glad that his demonic eyes weren't as affected by harsh light as the other humans' were.

One of the good things about being from the Nether, he thought to himself. Thinking of the Nether he was technically born in, there was a weird feeling that arose in his chest. He ignored it, not caring about that, whatever it was, as he had learned long ago that not being human meant literally nothing to anyone but himself.

"Should we rest there for a while?" Stress asked, sounding rather exhausted herself.

"I second that," Ren groaned loudly.

"Alright guys, let's take a break," Xisuma called. Tango frowned at how tense the admin sounded. Yes, he was server admin, but was he really the leader here? He was never really too outgoing, preferring to keep to himself and watch everyone else go crazy. While yes, he probably had a brain cell or two more than the rest of the whitelist, this entire situation was pushing everyone to their emotional and mental limits.

I could dispatch them. Have a little fun before putting them out of their misery.

Tango lurched at his own thought that didn't even seem like his own.

"What did I just think? Oh my god, no no," he whispered to himself in shock. How would that help at all?! Where did that come from?! I-I couldn't kill them...

"You alright there, Tango?" Doc asked. Tango stiffly nodded, still not quite out of his head. He had stopped rowing and was coasting, losing speed as the quiet Impulse stopped for his friend.

"Come on, Tango. Let's get to land," the dark-haired human encouraged. He hadn't raised his voice above a quiet breath since Zedaph died. Tango had been shocked as well, but if Impulse was hurting and Zed was gone... someone had to be the strong one and take the blows for Team ZIT. Interestingly enough, while he had shed some blood, there was a strange thrill to it that also scared Tango. Seeing ruby red zombie blood mixed with his own onyx black... there wasn't supposed to be any satisfaction in killing.

But blood is such a pretty color... red like netherrack, black like the void... Tango's thoughts continued after that, but he was not registering them anymore. His actual mind had gone blank, with a small question in the back wondering what was going on brushed into the cobwebs of old memories. Now there was only a feeling. The feeling Tango had felt before in the boats. An instinct, if you will. One that pushed aside Tango and replaced him with a single thought.

Kill.

——————

"Tango? Are you alright?" Impulse asked warily. Something was wrong. Tango had stopped moving, standing like a statue on the beach they had landed on. A wide smile had grown on his face and his ruby red eyes were bright but unseeing.

"Tango...?"

Suddenly the demon man lunged, enchanted diamond sword appearing in hand out of nowhere. Impulse yelled as he jumped out of the way and the other hermits immediately turned to see what the commotion was.

"The heck, Tango?" Iskall demanded, readying his own sword confidently to face off.

Tango didn't reply. That malicious smile was still on his face, showing off his fanged canines and slightly pointed teeth. He glanced around, sword still in hand, and Impulse noticed with a sickening jolt that the gloves that Tango normally wore to cover his finger were gone, showing off wicked hooked fingernails that no matter what he did always grew back as claws that got redstone dust under them. His eyes were alight with a look Impulse had never seen on his friends- where there was normally a happy, warm, excitable energy, there was now a terrifying thrill that even enderman or blazes did not possess.

Tango took a step forward and other hermits took a step back, except for Iskall and Doc, who had readied his trident.

"Not a step further, Tango," Doc growled.

"We don't want to hurt you," Iskall added.

"Tango, calm down love, i-it's alright. Whatever's bothering you, we can talk it ou'," Stress said, slowly moving forward but being held back by the Swede with the sword.

"I don't think he's going to listen," Iskall said quietly to her.

Impulse grimaced as they came to a standstill. The other hermits versus Tango, one of his best friends, who they all knew was not dangerous... except right now he was. Tango swayed on his feet, light on his feet, and Impulse knew from the amount of roughhousing they did that the demon packed a punch when not holding back.

Xisuma sucked in a breath from behind Impulse.

"What is it?" Ren asked, not taking his eyes off the showdown.

"It's his tree," Xisuma breathed, "It's affected now as well."

"So it made Grian sick, Wels exhausted, and now Tango... demonic?" Jevin summarized cautiously. "This is horrible..."

There was a hum of agreement.

Impulse stared at Tango in pain. In front of him was this prowling, maniacal version of one of his best friends, who they had no way of returning to sanity without a cure to the trees but also obviously couldn't handle in this state.

Python stepped forward. "I want to try something. Doc, put your trident down. Maybe he'll respond better to us if we don't threaten him, and because we're not human."

There as a muttering from someone saying that Tango looked more human than not, but was quickly hushed by Xisuma.

Doc glared at the passive-aggressive demon, but slowly placed his trident on the ground. Iskall backed up, but didn't lower his sword by any means. "Alright, Python, don't get yourselves killed," the hitman muttered.

The red creeper laughed nervously. "Yeah, sounds like a plan." Then he turned fully to Tango.

"Hey man. I know we don't know each other that well, but we're gonna figure this out, alright? It's just us. No need for weapons," Python said slowly, gesturing to Doc's trident on the ground.

Tango's eyes flicked to the trident. Python took another step forward, and Doc slowly moved to the side, giving space between himself and the other creeper hybrid. Impulse wondered if the others noticed Tango's subtle movement. With the red-on-red eyes, it was hard to notice the small changes, but being friends for as long as the golden boy had been with the demon, Impulse read him like the back of his own hand.

He's still looking at the trident. I think Python thinks he's still watching him-

Tango's slit eyes rapidly scanned over the rest of the group and made eye contact with Impulse. Pausing before narrowing and glancing down at the pale blue weapon once more.

He's going for it!

"Look out!" Impulse yelled right as Tango sprung into action. He leapt forward and slid to his knees, arching backward underneath Iskall's diamond blade, rising to one knee in a fluid motion and scooping up the trident.

"Well now we're done for," Joe groaned and pulled out a shield. The other hermits prepared their weapons, regretfully realizing they're going to have to fight. All eyes were on Tango now, waiting to see how the outnumbered one would react.

What do we do? Tango's still in there. What if we can't bring him back? Any of them? What if the trees are permanent and they're all dead and now Tango is... feral? Impulse was scared. Scared of that word, of what it meant, and what would happen to his friend if they act and what would happen to them if they didn't.

This is a no-win situation.

Tango raised the trident and was immediately met by Iskall's sword, the Swedish hitman reacting the quickest with his decent PVP skills.

And just like that, the fight against one of their own was on.

The trident swung around in a wide arc and everyone jumped back, before Tango jabbed the long weapon and Joe stepped forward and ducked behind his shield. The tips of the pronged weapon got stuck in the soft but reinforced wood, and Joe sent a wild look over his shoulder as Tango grunted, trying to pull back the weapon.

"Some assistance would be greatly appreciated so I don't get run through work a fork?"

"On it, Joe!" Cleo gave a battlecry as she did an understand swing, dislodging the trident from the poet's shield and from the demon's grip. It flipped in the air and landed in the long grass of the tiny island.

Doc, seeing his weapon free, made a dive for it. Iskall charged and took another strike at Tango, but his adrenaline was faster and he slid to the ground, grabbing his trident and letting Doc hit the ground harshly, a dull thud and "oof" coming from the cyborg as the air was knocked out of whatever lungs he had that wasn't machinery.

Tango twisted his body and braced the trident above his head just in time to meet Iskall's blade once more. They both grimaced as the forced against each other, trying to get the other to buckle.

Impulse was frozen watching the fight unfold in front of him. Stress and Xisuma seemed to be in a similar state, too scared and worried to know how to react. Ren was antsy watching Doc's and Iskall's moves, clearly wanting to help but not sure how. Jevin and Python has crept away and were making silent eye contact and single hand gestures.

What are they doing? Impulse wondered, but shook his head, keeping his focus on trying to figure out how the heck he was going to help Tango.

"Tango! This isn't you, dude!" Iskall said. The blonde only grinned.

With a powerful surprise shove of his trident Tango pushed Iskall back where Jevin reached out and caught him, then quickly spun the staff to regain his grip and raised the handle above his head, prongs pointed at the ground where Doc had finally recovered enough to be slowly lifting himself to his knees.

"NO!" Ren yelled out and surged forward, fists raised to go into hand-to-hand combat to protect Doc.

Doc had gotten himself oriented enough to see Ren coming and roll out of the way, propped up on one knee as the werewolf flew past.

At the same time, Python jumped into action, grabbing the trident staff himself from behind and restraining Tango.

Ren tried to skid to stop before he hurt Python, but ended up ramming into Tango.

Impulse watched in horror and the blonde demon's head jerked back from the momentum. His horn that extruded from the left side of his forehead and was just longer than his head that Impulse and Zedaph had learned to avoid knocked into Python's head, the soft, wrinkled, red flesh immediately blooming into a dark maroon. The red creeper let go of the trident and stumbled backward, gripping his head where it had been punctured.

"Python!"

Stress shrieked and coveted her mouth. Joe dropped everything and went into medic mode, scrambling to pull out a healing potion and Cleo was not a second layer pulling out string she kept on her in case she needed to do repairs on her tattered clothes.

Xisuma covered Doc and got him to his feet finally. Jevin was tending to Iskall, who seemed to have been wounded somewhere along the way in the fight and was downing a healing potion himself. Ren was staring in shock at Python, who had grown to a dulled pink color and eyes were fluttering. Joe and Cleo were talking urgently to each other.

"He's not healing!"

"His tree isn't regenerating..."

"There has to be something we can do, Joe!"

Joe silently shook his head. "Just try to stop the bleeding. Creepers don't have strong skin."

Cleo stared at him, a silent conversation happening in seconds between them before they both went back to work.

The only ones left were Impulse and Tango. Tango was staring at Python as well, the tension having left his stance and the ironically clean pronged weapon held loosely in his hand. His left horn was stained red, and there were a few speckles of crimson on the ends of his hair. He didn't seem be as alert anymore, he could have attacked anyone else by now, but he just... stood there.

I really hope that's Tango in there, resisting, and not him being a sadist and watching his victim die.

"Impulse," Xisuma approached. Doc had joined Jevin and Iskall, glancing over his shoulder and eyeing his weapon with a dark passion. Impulse gripped the unused sword in his hand, a grim feeling settling in his stomach seeing the admin's expression.

"We can't help him right now..."

The dark-haired man shivered as that was said. He grimaced and blinked away the tears and horrible feeling as he knew what had to be done.

"I know," Impulse whispered. Xisuma has the same expression that Impulse felt. Their eyes both slowly fell to Impulse's sword, a guilty silent agreement coming to them.

"I'm sorry," X choked, pulling out his own sword. Impulse shook his head and readied his own weapon.

"No. I will. I know how to fight him."

"But he's your friend!"

"And we can't risk losing you as admin," Impulse reasoned. X was surprised by this, jumping at the statement, before giving in.

"I hate that title, you know."

The gold man gave a single, cynical laugh. "I would too."

Then Impulse turned away from Xisuma and stepped forward. One step, two steps, then he called the name.

"Tango Tek!"

The demon at least responded to his name and faced Impulse. He glanced up and down at the human, eyes lingering on the sword and his face. Slowly, Tango started to raise the trident.

Impulse didn't give him the chance to fight back. He thrust his sword up, and it slid smoothly into the warm flesh in front of him. Tango cried out and sucked in a breath of air.

"I'm sorry," Impulse whispered.

"What's happening? What did I do...?" Tango asked, the first words he had spoken since Impulse had first realized something was wrong. Impulse pulled out his sword and Tango crumpled to the ground.

Two consecutive server messages came in on his phone in his cargo shorts pocket. He didn't need to look to know who it was as the realization of what he had just done set in. The sword slipped out of his hand, no longer feeling like a his main weapon now some sort of evil tool, despite having killed players with it before.

But everyone came back during the war. There was no question everyone would respawn. Tango's GONE now....

Joe and Cleo leaned back, giving up in their work at the still Python. Jevin helped Iskall to his feet, and Doc and Xisuma just observed their grief-stricken group.

Stress was quietly crying on the side, eyes wide and hands covering her mouth. Impulse slowly walked over to her, giving her the hug he so desperately wanted himself.

"This is too much. It's not supposed to go like this!" Stress breathed between sobs.

"I know."

They sank to the ground and Impulse cried.

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Word count: 2800