I Found Peace in Your Violence

Yeah, I'd rather be a lover than a fighter (Fighter)

'Cause all my life, I've been fighting

Never felt a feeling of comfort, oh

And all this time, I've been hiding

And I never had someone to call my own, oh nah

I'm so used to sharing

Love only left me alone

But I'm at one with the silence

"I CARE!"

Is the last thing Philza hears his partner shout before their world is irreversibly changed, crimson and forest blood blooming from Ranboo's chest where The Warden had impaled them.

Technoblade, a hulking piglin warrior known as the Blood God, watched something precious to them slip away again, just out of reach. Letting out an enraged cry, he wields a netherite axe shimmering with enchantments at the giant creeper hybrid who just murdered their dear friend, throwing a splash potion on the ground while glaring at the gold-armour wearing Warden of the Dream SMP Prison.

The crow's chest seized impossibly tight watching the lanky enderman collapse towards the water below among the scattered armour pieces they stripped off at Sam's demands, Techno's voice shaking with rage when he engaged the Warden to get him further from his pupil.

Phil tossed a tear filled gaze towards Niki who is looking on in horror, frozen in place watching their fourth member fall. The crow reaches over to shake her elbow, telling her in a choked up voice.

"Let's help Techno, we need to stay focused." He barely believed his own words himself, focus slipping to the moment of watching Ranboo be slain over and over again with that morbid repetition of disbelief.

Niki wiped her face and nodded, watery caramel eyes looking towards where his partner battered the creeper hybrid in attacks. Phil pulled another arrow and strung it, making sure his diamond sword was within easy reach if he had to switch. Sending a prayer to Her, he begins to run to where Technoblade fought.

The others were too busy trying to chase down Dream, that laughing bastard far up the shoreline at this point. He took one look at the ransom situation the Warden threatened and mocked it, putting the final nail in the coffin that Phil would ever consider helping that man again. Rotten to the core, he regretted agreeing to help break the first one to walk the server out. He only heard Ranboo's name in the quest given and agreed, realising after he just threw his lot in with saving Dream too. Techno owed him a favour, the man refused to deviate from such transactions no matter the side being a man of his word.

Phil splashed into the water, Ranboo laying face down where they had collapsed. The crow fell to his knees, left wing singing agony as it attempted to balance him and failed.

Turning the bi-coloured soul over, Phil's heart ceased to beat. Their eyes were staring at nothing, ruby and emerald eyes missing the light that would once warm them. With a shaking hand, the crow closes their student's eyes and lets out a deep sob. Niki comes to his side, slowly combing her hands through their wet strands as she shares his grief, tears streaming down the proud woman's face.

It was never supposed to end like this, another ward slipping through his ancient fingers. Lost to the perils of mortal flesh and conflict, this world is just as strife with violence as the others they had fled from. Here, both partners had hoped they would be left alone in their sheltered commune in the arctic cold, spending their days with Ranboo and Niki.