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There was a hitch in his breath. He felt his heart start to beat faster, a loud ringing in his ear came to be as he slowly faded away from the conversation. His gaze was fixated, glued to the ground as his mind raced elsewhere. Blurs of red, blue and green were vaguely blocking his vision, a snap of someone’s fingers pulling out of his trance- though he still wasn’t all there.
“Purple? Are you still with us? We still need your help!”
The shorter stick called out in front of him, a desperation on his face that wasn’t seen too often on Green. Suddenly, Purple remembered why his friends were here.
Not even a week ago, he had decided to stay once more with Mango after spending some much needed reflective time in his jungle treehouse in Minecraft. It was just a regular afternoon at first- with Mango on his way after having just finished a shift at his newfound job and Purple running some quick errands for the house before heading home. Though nothing spectacular, it was still fulfilling for Purple. It felt good to have a routine, a stable roof over his head, and people that truly cared about him. He thought no one could love him again after his fath- Navy left. And his mother…
He was due to visit her soon too. But before he could dwell on his thoughts for any longer, there was a sudden barrage of knocks on their front door. On instinct, Purple quieted himself as much as possible, small, silent, yet swift steps as he made his way to the door, ready to swing at any point if need be.
“Purple! Purple open up! It’s us!”
The wary glare on his face slowly dissipated. He knew that voice. He’d recognise it anywhere.
“What’s taking so long? What if he’s not home?” an impatient, panicked voice cried. Some more shuffling sounds.
“He has to be . Besides, we need all the help we can get…” a calmer, softer voice emerged. “Green? Are you sure this is the right place?”
The other didn’t bother to turn to look at Blue.
“Yeah , I’m sure! I’ve been here enough, haven’t I?” a sassy undertone escaped his lips, one that he didn’t mean to let slip. But one could hardly blame him- his friends…his best friend was…
The sound of the doorknob finally opening caught the three color’s attention. A wave of relief washed over them as Purple stepped forward, a look of curiosity and worry plain on his features.
He wordlessly ushered them inside, still recovering from the mini heart attack their surprise visit gave him. When the door finally shut however, the interrogation began.
“Green? Guys? What are you all doing here? What’s wrong, why were you- has Blue been crying? ”
The other three still seemed to be in a ‘funk’ from whatever situation they were just in. Red fiddled with his hoodie strings. Green kept fidgeting with the matching ring he wore with Purple. Yet despite his red and puffy eyes and the lump in his throat from all his intense emotion- Blue was the first to step forward.
“We’re sorry, Purple . We know this was so sudden, and so much is going on and-!” his words began to trail off, taking heavy breaths between every other word, Purple stood still, helplessly watching. “ Look , long story short, Second and Yellow have been captured. We need all the help we can get to help them out! We could barely last a minute when they took Yells… ” his voice quieted, a slight whimper in his voice as Blue remembered the blonde calling out his name before being dragged away. But Purple couldn’t focus on that. What he had just heard was still being processed in his head.
Yellow and Second…were CAPTURED?
“Excuse me ?! They were WHAT ?”
Whatever calm, peaceful afternoon and mood Purple had five minutes prior was null and void. His friends were in danger.
“Everything happened so fast! We just wanted to save Second but then Yellow got taken too…” Red said, putting his hand to his mouth as he picked at his nails.
Green tilted his head to that, looking back at Purple.
“Which is why- we need your help.”
Not wasting another breath, Purple immediately nodded along.
“ Of course-! I- ”
Before Purple could say any more than that, he heard the mumblings of Blue ever so quietly under his breath.
“I just don’t understand why…why would The Chosen One just break in and steal Second away anyway? ”
Bump. Ba-bump.
Purple felt his heart drop . He suddenly bit his lip with so much sudden force he could taste the subtle metallic warmth of his blood.
He…he didn’t just hear what he thought he just heard… right?
Moving as if time slowed, Purple looked at Blue who was now facing him directly, concern replacing his previous pondering demeanor.
“Did…you just say The Chosen One …?” uttered, trying to keep as much composure as possible, trying desperately to contain the sudden urge to heel over and collapse.
The other three glanced at each other, sharing the same puzzled expression.
“Y..yes ? What’s- what’s wrong Purp?” Green reversed on him, moving closer on instinct and gently brushing the side of Purple’s arm.
He jotted his head upwards, suddenly glaring with an unseen intensity. Even for Green.
“The Chosen One. He broke into your guys’ PC. Why? ” The sudden change in his voice to desperate yet firm caused Green to step back a little. Red glanced between the two of them, his head switching and turning like a lost child.
“He needed Second’s help… I think. He just grabbed him and ran.” Red enlightened a bit. Purple’s face was losing more and more of its composure with each passing breath. A pit in his stomach began to form, and he felt his mind sink further and further in on himself.
He dreaded what he was to ask next, fearing the answer he didn’t want but needed to know.
“And why would he trust Second to ask for help of all people…?”
“Well…they have the same creator...”
And that’s when it spiraled downwards from there. His breathing became laboured, his heart was skipping a beat. Purple wasn’t in Mango’s house anymore. He was standing in the midst of a burning wasteland. Hundreds of his fellow sticks and animations alike were in a desperate race to flee Newgrounds as quickly as possible. So many caught in the literal crossfire, trapped in broken buildings or limping their way across to safety.
His vision was darkening, his balance was off and he was stumbling over himself. There was a hand firmly on his head, fingers intertwined with the hair he was seconds away from ripping from his scalp, and the other gripped tightly to his chest, clutching onto the gold colored brooch that carefully protected his heart. His mother.
“Mom!” a younger Purple wailed in his memories, his father not daring to turn and help and just urged them to follow without so much as a sign of acknowledgement.
In the present world however, Green and the others were stuck observing Purple in the midst of his panic attack, trying desperately to bring him back to reality.
“Purp! Purple! Can you hear me? Can you feel anything?” Blue immediately switching into his therapist friend mode… though he wasn’t getting that much of a response.
Purple couldn’t hear anything other than the ringing in his ears though. Everything suddenly felt so hot…and suffocating.
The Chosen One is back. The Chosen One is back. The Chosen One is back.
And he’s related to one of his best friends.
“Purple? Are you still with us? We still need your help!” Green tried to explain.
Purple glared back at Green, cold and stern.
“No…no, no no. No- I…I can’t. I won’t. I refuse.” Purple kept trailing. He wasn’t even looking at them anymore.
Red, who had been mostly in the background as Green and Blue ‘helped’ Purple with his panic attack, was now pleading with Purple with wide eyes. Blue’s shoulders tensed, looking more heartbroken at Purple’s refusal than anything. But Green… was a whole other story.
His face flickered between all kinds of emotion. Bewilderment, confusion, betrayal, worry.
“Wh..what ? What do you mean, ‘no’? You just said you would!” he snapped back.
“That was before you failed to mention that The Chosen One was involved! I can’t help Yellow or Second if he’s got them!”
Green would’ve scoffed if he wasn’t aware of the growing despair Purple was in.
“Chosen doesn’t have them…he was captured by the same people who got Yellow and Second. We need to help him too.”
What.
They…wanted to help The Chosen One? After everything he had done… his friends wanted to help that…monster?!
“There . Is no way. I am helping. HIM.” Purple emphasised, no longer hiding his detestment.
There was spark lightened within Green now, his fiery nature seeping through, even to the person he admired most.
“What do you mean you won’t help? You know our friends are in danger, right? And how do you even know Chosen anyway? What do you have against him?”
There was a good 5 seconds of silence as Purple gawked at Green in absolute dismay. He took a cautionary glance at the other two, still present and holding each other close, Red clinging onto Blue as the older observed the scene with a shiny glint in the corner of his eyes. Purple was slipping further and further, his distress frightening Green to shrink in on himself.
“How do I know Chosen? Ha! Who doesn’t? “ Purple laughed with a slight hint of manic. “He and The Dark Lord absolutely wreaked havoc across the internet for years! They terrorised countless sites and games, and they created casualties everywhere they went!”
Purple wasn’t holding back anymore. He was absolutely handing full control of himself and his words to his emotions. Green didn’t dare speak, his expression morphing into that of absolute horror, Red and Blue following suit.
“They…they what…?”
He rolled his eyes with cartoonish exaggeration.
“What ?! Are you telling me you guys didn’t even know that?!”
Green’s fire was quickly fading, his mind becoming an incomprehensible storm as he tried to gather his thoughts properly.
‘Chosen did all THAT? Sure he was powerful but… he couldn’t have done all that, right? He didn’t seem like a monster, or evil, or anything like that. He helped us. He helped Alan. We have to help him too then, right?’
A hollow, saddened voice filled the atmosphere.
“We didn’t know. Back then, we were still just… trapped in our site. We hadn’t even met Second yet.” Blue trailed off, hugging Red close as he let his emotions win. Green was still rendered completely silent.
“You guys didn’t know … of course you didn’t.” Purple let out an empty chuckle. “You guys spend all your time on your PC and Minecraft. There’s so much you don’t know …”
For a brief second, Green felt himself get defensive once again.
“Oh yeah?! So what? Well, I guess you just know everything about them, huh Purp?”
“MORE THAN YOU, I WAS THERE! ”
….
Utter silence befell the room.
Red perked his head out of Blue’s chest with eyes as wide as saucers.
Blue put his hands over his mouth as he tasted his own salty tears.
Green…
He was left standing as he watched Purple tremble and shake before him, finally allowing the waterworks to flow as he freely wept.
He thought he knew all that he could about Purple. At least, when it came to his history. But there was so much more. He… he was…
“Y..you…” Green uncharacteristically stuttered. “You were there? When they attacked?”
Between his sobs and cries, Purple wiped away at his eyes as he gripped onto his chest once more, still refusing to look at Green directly.
“At Newgrounds. They were merciless.”
‘You’re… from Newgrounds?’
“My mother was on the brink of sickness already. But the attack messed up her code and it only made things worse and…”
Purple didn’t dare finish the sentence, Green….understood why.
“Father was so much more cruel afterwards. Everything fell apart…our family fell apart. Because of THEM .”
Purple confessed the truth in front of Green, not caring that Blue and Red would be undoubtedly confused. His sobs died down. Eventually, Purple was left staring at the ground, his mind lost in his memories.
Green wanted to apologise. To comfort him. To do anything he could to make up for…all the shit he said. But he was so…so conflicted.
They needed help. They can’t just leave their friends behind. Yellow and Second… Chosen.
“Purp… ” Green weakly spoke. “I’m… so sorry . About everything that happened. I- I didn’t know ….I shouldn't have-! I just..!”
His words were failing him, letting out a tired sigh as he glanced at his other two friends who were just in awe and shock.
“We need to help them… he saved our lives. ”
“He ruined mine.”
With a heavy heart, it was at that moment Green knew he couldn’t change Purple’s mind.
He thought that he would help them, he was so sure. He was also sure that he knew everything he needed to know about Purple…. and he was wrong on both accounts.
With a raspy voice strained from the sudden intense cries, Purple stood up as straight as he could once more.
“You should all go … Mango will be here soon.”
Blue looked over to Red, who just gave a little sniff as he dashed for the front door, Blue soon following after.
Green could only give a hesitant nod, still at such a loss at everything that just transpired. He was about to turn around before giving Purple one last glance.
He wanted to rush over and comfort him, apologise all over again. But as he reached his hand out, Purple just flinched away.
The door finally shut, leaving Purple all alone as he could hear the footsteps of the others slowly fade away.
He wishes he could help them. He cares about his friends. Of course he does! He cares just as much as they do.
There's an ache in his heart once more as he lingers on the fact he's leaving them behind again.
But he just couldn’t face him. Not again.
As Purple stared at himself in the mirror, trying to clean his face up before Mango arrived, he thought back to his friends. He found himself pondering for a little longer on a certain orange hollowhead.
He didn’t want to think about the other hollowhead that accompanied that thought, and the resemblance between the two as he sat on it longer.