Ace was covered in blood, standing over a body that didn't have a face or any distinctive features.
His nemesis turned, their eyes meeting. The shrike avian had blood on his face, a crazed look in his visible eye.
But the villain smiled at him gently, one hand holding a bloody knife and the other being held out to him.
"Songbird," he said, voice echoing a loving tone.
Wilbur's hands were just as bloody as the villain's. He could feel the red substance on his face, still warm from a fresh kill. It seeped through his hero costume, visible even on the reinforced black and blue fabric of his jumpsuit.
He wasn't wearing his mask.
And for some reason he was crying.
Ace continued to hold his hand out, patient. Still giving him that loving smile, visible eye softening the longer the villain looked at him.
For some reason, he felt safe.
When was the last time he had felt truly safe?
Wilbur's body moved on its own, reaching out and slipping his hand in the shrike avian's.
His nemesis looked overjoyed, loving smile turning into something more cheery. The villain dropped the knife he was holding, using his now free hand to wipe at the tears on the hero's face.
It smeared more blood, but the tears were gone now.
"I've got you," Ace said, locking their fingers together. "It's okay."
The body wasn't faceless anymore.
It was Techno.
His twin was bleeding out, the stab wounds in his chest and stomach not stitching back together with his regeneration. The younger twin's brown eyes were lifeless, he had been dead for a while now.
Across his neck was a distinctive talon gash mark.
Ace didn't let him focus on the body for very long, tilting the hero's head away from it so that Wilbur's eyes were on the villain instead.
It was unnecessary, he didn't feel bad upon seeing it was Techno.
"Do you feel guilty?" The shrike avian asked. "For hating him? For wanting to hurt him?"
His mouth moved on its own, answering without his permission.
"No," he said.
Ace's smile never dropped, but shifted back into the loving one from earlier, "But you try to force yourself to feel guilt. Why?"
Wilbur didn't have an answer for that.
"We're a lot alike, my dearest songbird," the villain hummed.
The hero leaned into the shrike avian's touch, slumping into his nemesis.
Ace caught him, holding him steady.
Wilbur felt safe.
Wilbur shot up in his bed in a cold sweat, breathing deeply.
His wings wrapped around him as he slumped over, catching his forehead in his hand.
The ever growing collection of notes weighed heavy in the back of the magpie avian's mind.
The most recent ones have been more letter-like than note-like.
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You Were Never Meant to be a Hero (Quackbur Superhero AU)
FanfictionWilbur was tired of being a hero. He liked to believe that he was a good hero, but being a good hero wasn't enough. It was never enough. Always compared to his twin brother, the golden child of the Minecraft Hero Family. Wilbur lived in Techno's sha...
