(This is a special one-shot dedicated to the ending of H3M upon TBNRKenWorth's channel, and most likely PeteZahHutt's as well. This series is where I found Pete and Kenny, and where my ship for them was founded. Please enjoy, my final farewells, to Red Team.)
The wheat was overgrown, the harvest overdue. The water had dried up, and our spirits had left with it. The land was dried and cracking, the grass full of weeds, and the buildings abandoned.
We found Choco nearly two weeks ago. We knew this was hard. It was for all of us… but for Choco… He should've said something. He should've ranted. He should've cried and screamed and gotten revenge and so much more, just like Kenny and I… He didn't need to die…
"Without you two here, I don't know what I'd do." I remember the broken words as tears fell from his eyes. I remember the pained look on Choco's face, but I never thought… "I love you both, so very, very much…" I remember Kenny and me taking Choco within our grasp then, as he had begun to sob. "I want you both to remember that, okay? Never forget it. I love you. I love you two so much. Never forget it…!" His voice had dropped to a whisper, like he couldn't speak anymore. It had brought us to tears. He knew that Blue might attack us again. He knew that we were in constant danger. But Kenny and I didn't think…
Though Kenny had offered him a bed within the walls, Choco had refused it. We should have made him stay. We could've watched him then. I had gone home, and had put out the torches, and had surrounded myself in silence as I slept upon the hardened clay floor of my cluttered home, or, what I called a home. Choco had left the base, back to his watch tower, the lava within it serving as light for him… And the next morning he hadn't shown up for breakfast. Of course we'd been worried; we'd immediately gone out to check on him… And…
We found Choco asleep. His diamond sword lay within his grasp, his hand having weakly fallen from the bed, both things bloody. The blood staining his feathers came from his hidden wrists… and chest… Choco had slit his wrists, and stabbed himself in the gut. We hadn't heard a thing. An empty bottle of what was once poison lay on the ground within his trap, having rolled away from him and off the edge of the land, into his pit. His eyes were closed. He went peacefully. He had left us a note.
I love you both so much, and so dearly. You're not only my family. You're my brothers. My friends. I love you both and hate to do this to you, but I can't bear the thought of losing either of you just to be so weak as to abandon the other. Take care of each other, you both deserve to live. Go and win this war. Never forget me. – Choco
Kenny took it the hardest. I had to be strong. I didn't want to be. We'd lost so many people. So many friends… brothers. Before Choco, it had been Jerome. Jerome had fallen in love with a member of Blue. They'd gotten together sometimes, in secret. When both sides found out, Jerome never saw Mitch again. He'd snuck over to Blue's half of this land, and had searched for his lover. Mitch had been poisoned. Jerome had come back devastated. He thought he'd lost his lover. Apparently so had Blue, they thought Mitch was a lost cause. In turn, seeing as Jerome was the last person to be alone with Mitch, a few members of Blue snuck over and sought out revenge. Jerome was murdered in cold blood in the middle of the night, his white diorite floor stained red while his body lay there, cold, his eyes opened but dull. Choco had found him. Blue had stuffed Jerome's body into his basement. We hadn't known… Mitch had survived the poisoning, evidently caused by bad food. When Mitch found out about Jerome… he walked straight up to a skeleton and let it shoot him right between the eyes.
Before Jerome, it was Landon. Landon's death was something none of us had actually expected. A creeper had snuck up on him, and though Landon was a rather careless guy, we never thought… that he'd actually get killed… Before Landon was Lachlan… Before Lachlan was Preston… and before Preston were so many others… Our team dissolved… and now…
Now it's just us.
There's wheat everywhere, dead or dying. The cows are starving, and soon, they won't be able to provide us a food source any longer. The fish died long ago. Game in the woods is near to nothing… and the creatures have overtaken any land that isn't within these walls. Choco wants us to win this war. But will we truly win? Everyone is dead. All of our brothers, all of our close friends, they're all gone… And now Choco has gone as well… By this point, this war isn't worth fighting any longer. Kenny and I both know it. But Choco's right… We have each other… And though we'd never admit it, there's something there… A spark, that's what Choco would've called it if…
Sitting within the armory fence, I can see Kenny. His horses are dying and he knows they won't last much longer. Everything around us is falling apart. I stand, wanting to speak to him. What should we do now? There's not much left to do, so… do we… do we go? Go with Choco? I'd stripped my armor off this morning. Choco's grave, we'd dug 11 days ago, after finding him. As I leisurely walk toward the stable Kenny had made before… As I walk toward the stable, I can just barely see through the stained glass Kenny's form, as it leaves the building. He'd donned his armor to the armory that Preston and Lachlan had called a home earlier today as well.
As I follow him out, I watch him quietly walk down the hedged, fenced up pathway, and soon I'm following. The bridge that connects us to the mainland isn't far from the base, in fact so long as you can avoid the stray creatures you could run away, live at the mainland… but Kenny isn't going to the bridge. As I follow quietly, I watch the man as he begins down a path we'd made long ago, down to the edge of our world… our floating island within the sky. How it was here, no one knew. But no one wanted to know.
The path was astray and broken up. Kenny's thin arms were wrapped about his thin, weak looking form. He hasn't eaten since the incident with Choco, no matter how much I ask him too. All he's done is cry, with me… by himself… at the grave… anywhere. I'm following him, though now I find myself concerned.
"Kenny!" I call weakly, though he doesn't seem to hear me. "Kenny!" I call again, louder this time. He continues to walk towards the edge, though glances to me now, signifying he could hear me. His eyes are dull, full of tears and sadness. I know now. I know the look of a dead man so close to the end. I can feel the tears in my eyes beginning to spill. I'm running now. Kenny looks away, and even from here I can hear him crying. He spins around, balancing dangerously on the edge as I stop, so close and yet so far. He smiles for me, the tears staining his precious skin as he tries one last time, to look happy for me. "Kenny, please…" He lightly shakes his head. "Please, no… Don't leave me Kenny… Please…" I take a step toward him, reaching out. I can feel his cheek, wet from crying, skin smooth as I stop, no space left between us. Neither of us can stop crying.
"I love you…" Kenny chokes out, silently sobbing. "I love you so much more than anyone else, never forget that… I love you Pete…"
"Kenny, please…" I beg, choking upon my own words as well.
"Tell me," Kenny begs in reply, beginning to loudly sob as the tears break apart his words. "Tell me you love me!" He demands, pulling me close. My arms are instantly around him, our foreheads pressed together as we silence our sobs, breathing shakily.
"I love you Kenworth." I whisper. A genuine smile faintly traces Kenny's lips as he pulls away slightly, cupping my cheeks. "I love you so much more than a brother should." I chortle with the last of my breath before inhaling shakily. Kenny begins to sob loudly again, as do I, but smiles are upon both of our faces.
"I love you all the same…" Kenny declares, hands still cupping my cheeks. "Never forget that. Never forget me." He whispers. My smile falls. Kenny releases me, and in my moment of weakness, he steps back, and vanishes into the endless pit, disappearing from sight as I scream his name at the top of my lungs, sobbing loudly, uncontrollably. And soon, I'm following him, in a last, desperate attempt, to hold onto what I cherish in this lifetime.
