What's Worth Saving (Is Never Worth Letting Go to Waste)

Chapter 19: Before It Falls Apart

Quackity is seldom wrong.

It's simply a fact. He doesn't typically mess up the jobs he's given, as he puts all of his effort into them. He's found his judgment to prove correct over and over again. He's been selected as the right hand man of many leaders because of his intuition.

Quackity is seldom wrong, but there are certainly consequences when he is.

And he sees a dire consequence slowly unfolding as he stares at his communicator, twin messages flickering on its screen.

Karl Jacobs suffocated to death.

Karl Jacobs was slain by Dream.

He turns the device over in his hands, setting it face down against the desk he sits at. After Kinoko burned, Quackity left his communicator off for days. When he comes back, Karl is dead.

Not just kind of dead, but well and truly gone. His third life, sniffed out.

And Quackity should be happy, but he isn't.

He cannot figure out why. But the situation feels wrong, making his skin crawl as he thinks about what he's done. The atrocities he helped commit.

It appears Dream's plan extended beyond the destruction of Kinoko, because Karl is now dead.

Quackity can't wrap his head around it. He should be elated— his traitorous fiancé, dead! The one who forgot about him, forgot to bring him to their home.

But instead he feels dread.

Cold, uncomfortable dread.

He pushes the communicator to the edge of his desk, standing up. His wings ache from the lava, even after weeks have passed since the incident. The feathers have grown back, save for a few— the blackened ends serve as a reminder that trust is dead.

He steps out of his office, desert air piercing his senses. It's windier than normal, sand whipping up around him. The city is dead this time of day; nothing remains besides the straggler or Quackity's own staff.

He walks the city freely, hands tucked into his pockets. He doesn't dare look at the wedding chapel; a reminder of what he's thrown away.

No, no, they threw it away, they forgot—

Quackity sighs, shaking his head. He can only blame them so much. Burning Kinoko was his decision, and Karl's death—

He breaks off that train of thought before it can go any further. Instead, Quackity migrates to the Nether portal, stepping inside the particle and letting himself be absorbed by it. He aimlessly wanders the hellish realm, eyes glued to the trail to avoid the lava raging around him. He doesn't need anymore reminders of what happened to Slime.

He doesn't know where he is when he exits the portal, standing on dying grass and a silent town. Quackity blinks, looking around as his settings come into focus. Oh.

L'manburg. He wandered back to where it all started.

The crater is just a few feet away, looming like a sleeping giant. Quackity ambles over to it, staring in the maw. Plants have overtaken it, grass running rabid as vines twist around a broken spire of a once great flag. A gentle waterfall cascades down, a pool at the bottom of what used to be a city.

Quackity thinks it's rather pretty.

"Ah, L'Manburg. What a shame." Quackity jumps, a new voice penetrating the serenity of his thoughts. He turns suddenly, drawing his weapon as he does.

"Oh, what the fuck do you want now?" He spits at Dream's feet, the masked man standing far too close for comfort. If he wanted, he could reach out and tip Quackity back into the crater.