"Well, Purp. Here we are. The forest where we're supposedly getting traumatized." Second deadpanned.
"You mean the forest where we face our trauma?" Purple corrected.
"Whatever," Second scoffed. "You sure you wanna go in there? I mean...judging by your mom and lack of dad, you've seen a lot."
"I'll be fine. Let's just go in here and get out."
"Alright...if your sure."
Purple knew that he'd be reliving a lot of things, his family struggles being one of them, but he was ready.
He was getting back to the real world, where his friends were.
"Hey, what are the chances we'll find lost souls in here?" Second asked.
Purple stared at him, his uneasy nerves making him feel worse. "Stop it."
"Jeez, so edgy."
"I'm sorry, are you about to face years of buried trauma that you wish you didn't have?!"
"...No."
"Didn't think so. I have a right to be nervous."
"Sorry, Purp. But...what about me? What can I do to help?"
Purple thought for a moment. "...Help?"
"Fine."
As soon as they set into the forest, Purple felt his heart drop.
His trauma awaited him, and he didn't want it to.
Why did they even have this forest?
"Okay, remember. The only standing between us and that portal is trauma. Just focus on the task at hand, and we should be fine. K?" Second said.
"...Got it."
The screams from his younger self filled his head. And he thought Victim's trauma was bad.
His was probably ten times worse.
Just focus on the mission.
Escape the woods, defeat Herobrine, and get home..
"Purple? You okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Let's just get this over with."
Dark swore he heard more voices coming towards him, and he wasn't sure how to feel about it.
What the hell? Nobody was supposed to be in these areas?
That. That was weird about these woods. In the years he'd been stuck here, he'd heard people constantly wander by, probably checking if the stupid surrection thing was true, but never into the woods.
Hearing voices in the woods? That weirded him out.
But the thing that had him even more confused was...why did one of the voices sound like the kid who had killed him?
Second began to panic.
They hadn't gone far into the forest and he and Purple had already been separated.
And it sucked because he hated being alone.
He fucking hated being alone.
"Lost another one, didn't you?"
Second whipped his head around.
"Vic?"
"You just don't know how to protect your friends, do you?" Victim asked.
"What are you talking about?"
"You've lost all your friends. Your all alone. Don't you ever think that...maybe your the reason all of this is happening?"
"What?!"
"You let Blue go into the Nether without proper protection. You let the others lead you to that parkour course. If you hadn't let any of that happen, this wouldn't have happened."
"Victim, stop it." Second pleaded. "Seriously, this isn't funny."
"What's funny is watching you scream and cry while your friends suffer at the hands of the man who tried to stop you."
"Herobrine didn't try and stop us!"
"How do you think you and Purple got here anyway?"
Second froze. "Your...your lying! Get the hell out of here! Your not the real Victim. Whoever you are, your trying to stop us from reaching the Surrection Portal! Well it won't work!"
The stick vanished in a cloud of smoke.
"I'm gonna find Purple, and we're gonna get out of here."
"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?
If only he'd been able to apologize to Purple before all of this.
He knew King would never admit it, but he knew King cared about him, one way or another.
He could almost hear King saying he was sorry.
"Oh, Purple...I'm so sorry..."
Wait, what?
In less then a minute, King was right in front front of him.
"King?"
"I'm so sorry, Purple. I..."
Purple, against his better judgement, runs up and hugs him.
"I know."
"I should've known I was hurting you more..."
"King, it's okay."
"No, it isn't," King is crying, almost on the verge of breaking down in hysterics. "Your dad hurt you more than he needed to, and I picked up where he left off. Your in this whole mess because of me. I am so sorry, kid. For everything thay I've ever done to you. I never meant to hurt you, I promise. I...I cared about you."
Purple froze. "You...cared about me?"
"I still do. Even after...everything I did to you, I still cared about you, maybe more than I cared about Gold. I'm so sorry for not realizing how much you actually meant to me. Because you mean so much more to me than just an assistant."
Purple looked at him. "You..."
"I know I never showed it, but I loved you. So much. I was just so scared of losing another person that I loved that...I just numbed the feeling of caring for other people...until it was too late."
Purple froze. King...loved him?
"You loved me?"
"I still do, Purple. I love you...so much, kid. I don't want to lose you. I'll never forgive myself if I lose the only person that I have left..."
"Who?" Purple was confused. Was King genuine about this?
Or was this just a cruel prank?
"You, Purple. You're all I have left. I can't lose you. Not again..."
Purple hugs him tighter. "You won't. I promise."
"You...promise?"
Purple stared up at him, smiling softly. "I promise."
King presses his forehead to Purple's, returning the smile, clutching his hands tightly. "I love you, Purple."
"I love you too, King."
His final affirmation before everything around him dissipates back into the woods, and he loses his balance.
Falling into Second's arms.
"Purple?! Holy shit, are you alright?!"
Purple hugs him. "Oh, thank Alan I found you!"
Second, albeit a little confused, returns the hug. "I'm glad I found you, too. And guess what?"
"What?"
Second pointed to a gap in the trees, leading to a brighter light. "I found the Surrection Portal."
Purple's eyes widened with hope.
Their key home.
His key to King.
And their key to completing this mission.