Warnings: past child abuse, past child neglect, past child abandonment, past character death, past domestic abuse/violence, and current emotional abuse.

Memories are in bold/italics, and outside talking(they're in a mindscape of sorts), is in plaid bold. Navy's talking is in plain italics

He was expecting a betrayal.

He clutched his bag tighter, his other hand already reaching for his knife.

Silver took something out of their pocket. Purple's heart dropped, and his eyes widened.

I fucking knew it.

"Nope." They threw it full force it Purple.

That's the last Purple remembered before he blacked out.

He did notice King and the others jump in shock and terror, and then the box was cloaked.

He did remember hearing Silver speak into their microphone. "Detain Victim and the others, and pull the lever. We're gonna be celebrating a fourth of July out here tonight."

Purple blacked out right after.

He should've seen that coming.

Silver, you fucking bastard, I knew you couldn't be trusted.

Purple made contact with hard ground mere seconds later, bringing him back to reality.

What the fuck happened? Silver had thrown something at him, and then he blacked out.

What the hell had Silver thrown at him?

"Silver, what the fuck did you do?" He whispered to himself, glancing around his surroundings. He was back in the city, but something felt off about it. It seemed like it had been thrown back a few years, maybe even a decade, in time.

It felt like he had traveled back in time a few years.

Had Silver...thrown him back in time.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck. How did I..." Purple was straight confused. Everything looked normal, he felt normal, but it wasn't normal.

He was stuck in some alternate reality or some shit, and he was confused.

And his head hurt.

"Silver, I swear to God, I'm kicking your ass when I get out of here." Purple grumbled, trying to find anything familiar.

"I honestly don't care if I get Gold and King, just something that's familiar to me! Come on, stupid simulation!"

Getting no type of response, Purple started walking. He had a bad feeling about this.

"Sec...Second? Second? This isn't funny!" Purple yelled into the darkness of the trees.

Great. Just great. How smart of them to get separated in a forest filled with years of trauma.

"Okay, okay. Just get out of here and..."

Purple trailed off hearing familiar voices.

"Mommy, daddy, look! Pretty flowers!" Suddenly, a small child, smaller and darker than him, ran under his feet and into the trees.

Purple let his curiosity get the better of him and followed suit.

But instead of trees, he was met with a small flower garden, lining the sides of a small, run-down home.

His childhood home.

"Mom? Dad? Where are you?" His childhood self asked, ascending the steps into the house. Purple followed suit.

And was met with loud yelling.

"Why do you coddle such a weak, insufficient being?!" His father snapped.

Man, even years after the words had been said and they still stung.

"He's not weak and insufficient!" His mother yelled. "He will get somewhere in life, and you forcing him to do this kind of crap discourages him finding other possibilities of happiness! Your...forcing an unwanted career on someone who barely knows what he wants to do for himself."

"I want him to be able to protect us! Protect you!"

"This isn't the way to do that! Your seriously injuring him! One of these days, you will break something!"

"It'll toughen him up! Stop being so overprotective!"

"No, your obviously incapable of feeling any remorse for the injures Purple is sustaining. So either drop this entire fighting and training shit or get out!"

His father growled, slapping Orchid across the face.

"MOM!" The younger Purple screamed.

His father's eyes seemed to settle on the older one, not like he could see Purple.

It was a memory.

What could that do?

His dad sighed loudly and hardly. Purple flinched, feeling the rage of his father steam off of him. "Fine. I'll leave. But I'll tell you something, son. Your nothing without me. You'll never, ever, find someone who will actually care about you. Ever!"

And with that, his father opened the door, stepped out into the cloudy night-time, and slammed the door shut.

They didn't see him for a few weeks after that.

Purple sighed. If only his dad had just backed off, knowing forcing these types of skills were going to get him nowhere.

Look where that got him.

He was alone, with no real friends, in a world where the adult he thought he could trust betrayed him and left him for dead just to avenge a kid who was already long gone.

What would King think now?

Fuck.

Not this memory.

"Come the fuck on! Of all things!" Purple shouted.

A blur being thrown past him startled him.

Oh, and this memory. Great.

"NAVY! WHAT THE HELL?! YOU COULD SERIOUSLY INJURE HIM!" Orchid suddenly screamed, gesturing to the young stick.

"Oh, relax, he's fine!"

"You could've killed him. Do you realize how fragile his bones are at this age?! He's only seven!"

"He's not that fragile!"

"You could've broken a rib, Navy! Do you have any care for your son whatsoever?!" Orchid screamed.

Navy slapped her so hard she fell to the ground.

"MOM!" Young Purple screamed, desperately trying to get to his feet.

"Why can't you just be happy with what you've got?! Purple doesn't need to be a fighter!"

"He needs to learn to be a fighter! Right now, he's learned that he's NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" Navy screamed.

"Purple's always gonna be good enough! If only you could realize that!" Orchid snapped.

"He's not good enough! How do you think he's going to do in life without these skills! My father did this exact same thing and I believed it! If you don't know how to fight, your not good enough!"

Orchid pushed Navy to the ground.

"Well then, your father obviously was just as big a piece of shit as you are," She said angrily. "I wish you could see how proud you'd be of Purple when he's older and living his life the way he wants to be."

Navy growled.

"You know what?! I'm done! I'm leaving! You can rot here with our stupid, useless, worthless son who will never be good enough for anyone in this world!"

Purple flinched as the door slammed. This was not what he was expecting.

"Guess I was right."

Purple blinked. That voice was back.

Suddenly, he realized who the voice belonged to.

"Dad..?"

"Yep! Took you long enough! No wonder your stupid!"

"Shut the fuck up. You have no influence on me."

"Oh, really?"

"You and Silver mean nothing to me anymore. I don't know how in hell you can't understand that, but you can't, and it's pissing me off."

"Awww, the little baby is trying to stand up for himself?"

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Why? Is it because deep down, you know I'm right? Deep down, you know he doesn't really care about you."

Purple knew who he was talking about. "Bullshit. If you mean King, I guess you weren't around to realize that he actually came for me."

"Come on, King. Your kid is in danger. It's either watch him suffer or prevent more of it."

"Relax. Your kid is fine."

The voice, coming from the second cell to the right, was the voice of Purple, staring at King like he hadn't seen him coming.

"Purple! Thank goodness!"

"Oh, that poor, lonely man. Having to deal with a horrible kid like you."

Obviously his father was deaf. "If I have to tell you to shut up one more goddamn time, I'm going to make sure you have no control over me for the rest of my life!"

"Aww, and how are you gonna do that?"

A memory from long ago hit Purple like a Locomotive.

"Yeah! We did it!" Red cried as he and his friends were thrown from the Nether portal.

"The world is saved!...Right?" Green asked.

Nobody got to answer before the white laser shooting out of the portal dissipated as soon as King Orange was shot out of it.

Just him.

Second and Purple were still yet to be found.

"What...where's...Purple or Second? They're still missing!"

King slowly sat back up, hearing Green's confused question.

"Purple was just...here..."

Everyone was confused by this point. King had just been with Purple barely 5 minutes ago, and now he and Second had gone off the radar.

"What the-Where'd they go?!" Was everyone's question in a second.

"I hate to tell you this, but...I don't think they made it out alive." Herobrine spoke.

"What?! No! They had to have! I'm sure they're just...somewhere out here in the Nether! They've gotta be!"

King was panicking by this point. Green, knowing King hadn't cared about almost anything up until now, was stunned at how quickly the tall stick figure had begun worrying about Purple.

"Please. They have to be alive. Purple has to be alive!" King begged.

"My condolences, King Orange. But I'm certain they are dead. I am very sorry, all of you."

Herobrine clapped his hands, teleporting him and his students, including the newly allied Warden, with him.

Leaving the sticks alone with nothing.

"Do we just...go home?" Blue asked.

"What do we tell Alan?!" Green snapped. "Do we just say 'Hey Alan! So we just narrowly escaped death just now, but Second's dead!' Do we just say that?!"

"Green, relax. It's gonna be fine."

"No! It's not gonna be fine! My two best friends are dead!" He turned on King. "And it's all your fault!"

"Hey! He's just as heartbroken about Purple as you are! Don't turn this on him."

"But it's his fault! King doesn't give two fucks about Purple, I can tell you that much!"

"I cared about him, you stick of celery!" King snapped. "I cared about him more than all of you combined, so don't try and say I didn't put my life on the line to save him!"

Green silenced whatever else he was going to say.

"He's dead...Purple's fucking dead! And it's all my fault!"

Ah yes, the self blame. Green felt guilty for King now.

They were stuck with this, and it was going to suck more than they realized.

Yellow stepped out of the portal first. They'd agreed to take King with them, as much as they didn't want to. They'd have to learn to trust him, which was going to take a while, but they'd manage.

None of them were expecting The Chosen One himself to be on the computer.

"Chosen?! What the-what are you doing here?" Yellow spluttered,, clearly shocked as the others walked out.

"Well, I was coming because I sensed something was wrong with Second. But when I got here, you guys were missing. So I waited until you guys got back to make sure Second was safe." He pointed to the two Minecraft blocks and the discarded staff. "And figure out what those are about."

"Oh...about Second. He's uh...he's dead."

Chosen stared at Red in disbelief. "He's what?!"

"See, those two blocks were originally one not too long ago, and Second was trying to destroy them. Our best guess is he and another friend died while trying to destroy it."

"So he's dead?" Chosen asked.

"Sadly, yes."

"Oh..."

"Yeah, sorry. Where's Alan?"

"Went to bed not too long ago."

"Thank god! More time to try and explain where we've been."

Green sighed. "As if he'll care. We'll all be too busy mourning to give a decent explanation."

"Green. Have some faith. If anything, they're-"

"THEY'RE DEAD AND THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT!" Blue screamed.

King buried his face in his hands, sinking to the floor.

He should've told Purple he loved him while he had the chance.

"See that? That's how I know that I'm not alone. So, you can go shut up about you and your whole "not good enough" speech, and Silver can go shut up about their little guilt tripping. You are not my family, and haven't been for almost a decade, so I don't see the point in haunting me in my inner voice, and sending my fucking cousin after me to make me feel worse!"

"Shut up. I'm doing just fine."

"Oh, please, a twelve year old was doing just fine being a servant to some egotistical maniac? I'm surprised you've survived the last three years."

"Of course you are. Nobody in your stupid family came to help, so what was I supposed to do? Move to another city? Kill myself?! What kind of person are you?!"

"Now, now, they're your family too."

"YOUR NOT MY FAMILY!" Purple screamed.

"Why? Because we abandoned you? Because we thought you were weak and worthless?! Because the entire family thought it better for you guys to just die anyway?! God, your dad was doing something right for himself! You and your whore mother were holding Navy back from being something he could be worth living for! And here you are, turning this around on my uncle like he was acting like an asshole?!"

"BECAUSE HE WAS! You weren't there, Silver! You don't know what me and my mother went through! We were abused in more ways than you can think of! I was thrown into a wall so often, every moment felt like my ribs were going to fucking break! He stormed out on us! All of us! Because he thought all of us were weak and undeserving of life! Be grateful that I'm still alive eight years later because I knew that I had a life worth living for! This is you eight years later! Defending an abuser and, if things had gone any more south, a murderer! You're defending your uncle, who walked out on all of us! How long has it been since you heard a word from the asshole?!"

Silver flinched. "Eight years..."

"Exactly! And your defending him when he walks out on you just like he walked out on me! Wow, you really are his sister's child."

Silver snarled. "Your whore mother-"

"Call my mother a whore one more fucking time, I will stab you." Purple snarled.

"You and your mother are just victims of manipulation. You were manipulated." Silver said simply.

It was taking all of Purple's willpower not to go through with his threat.

"The hell are you talking about?" He seethed.

"Your father manipulated you into believing that you were being abused."

Now Purple wanted to fulfill his threat. The hell were they on about?

"No the fuck he was not. You should have seen how we were afterwards. I almost broke numerous bones being thrashed around by that pitiful excuse of a father. My mother suffered the same. We were bruised beyond imaginable belief, and none of you came to help us. I'm surprised mother thought of you guys as family still, even after that. Hell, she expected one of you to take me in after she died."

Silver glared at him. "We tried.."

"Did you?! If you had tried, as you claim you did, would I be here right now, better off than I ever have been, happier than I was before the abuse started, and with friends?! Would I have a guardian who wouldn't hurt me, who swears on his life to protect me, who treats me like I'm a person who deserves to live and be happy?! Or would I be here, working alongside you as a husk for a tyrannical maniac who wants an innocent man?"

"Now, Chosen is not innocent-"

"You sure? Because with how your acting, it seems like your trying to perform your family's trait of guilt tripping. Turning everything around so it's someone else's fault, and not yours." Purple asked, most of his statements laced with as much sarcasm as he had left.

"Now, listen here, you little-"

"Whoreson? Worthless, weak, pathetic brat? Are those the statements about to come out of your mouth?" Purple was already reaching for his knife. He was thankful they hadn't taken his stuff.

Also surprised at how stupid they were for not. He had just threatened to stab Silver five minutes ago, and nobody had the nerves to even comment on it.

Jesus, these guys were stupid. What did they think he had in there?

Silver spluttered. "Now, listen."

"No, I think I've heard enough. Now, King, my friends, and I are leaving. And you and your stupid little plot are going to leave me and my family alone."

"But-"

"No." The word was bit out. Purple stared at Silver with a hardened glare. "Don't even try it. You and the people you love are nowhere close to family to me. King and the others are my family, not you."

"King and the others are my family. Not you." Purple's own confidence echoed his statement from mere hours ago.

"Purple, listen!"

Purple blinked, suddenly alone. His father's voice had vanished from the space, now black. King's voice filled it.

"King?"

"Purple, please answer! It's King and the others. I don't know what the hell your under, but please listen if you can. Navy and Silver are talking shit. Don't listen to what they're saying. Whatever they're saying, they're wrong. Your not stupid, or worthless. And you are good enough. Any one of your friends can tell you, but I know you'll listen to me the most. You are good enough, even if your dad doesn't acknowledge it. Your a good friend to everyone, and your an amazing kid, Purple. I wouldn't have let you come with me if I thought you were a failure. Because you aren't. You are amazing in so many ways. And...I am so, so proud of you and how far you've come, even with everything you've gone through. I wouldn't have begged Mar to help me get adoption papers for you if I didn't love and care about you."

That last sentence was something Purple was not expecting.

King had planned to adopt him? When the hell did that happen?!

However the fuck he could hear King, he didn't know, but he knew what he was doing.

"You mean nothing to me! None of you mean anything to me! King and the others are my family! Not. You!"

Everything seemed to collapse around him. He was still unconscious, so far as he knew, as he still felt light as a feather, but he was close to coming to.

Experience taught him that.

"Purple!" King's voice was closer now.

"Purple, wake up!"