The Hermit Journals - Hermitcraft

The Fall - Tango and EX

Read the previous oneshot, Comfort of Chaos if you want to know the backstory. This is another songfic based on the conversation they had. 

TW: Panic, gore

Song: The Fall // Gary Numan

---

Tango's POV

"Oh, Tangooooo..." 

That voice. I knew it all too well... I knew he was a demon as well, but nothing like me. Still, he stared me down with a sickening smile across his wretched face.

"Put your hate in a box, see how it bleeds for you," he growled, clasping his clawed hands together and staring me down, "I've watched you take your life and tear it apart."

No. 

"Put your pain in a box, I'll send it back to you," EX continued, conjuring a metal crate which grew beneath his feet.

I couldn't move. He'd come back to torture me again... was last time not enough? When he dragged his blade-like nails down my skin until every inch of me was covered in my own blood.

"What have you become? A shadow of a man." the demon growled. 

An explosion of smoke obscured my vision, and as it faded, I saw Xisuma's brother mere inches from my face. It made me wonder... why were they so different? 

Before I knew it, a familiar burning sensation tore into my eyes. Everything took on a red hue. I couldn't stop myself. Slamming my foot into the ground, I opened a deep ravine into the Void. 

"Do you fall like rain on the crying? Cold and alone like the bitter and dying?" I cried, bloody tears staining my cheeks, "Do you fall like dust on a ruin? Empty and dead like the life you are losing."

EX didn't even begin to fall. He hung in midair as if suspended, walking towards be on nothing. 

"Put your lies in a box," he said, closing the ravine as he gripped the collar of my shirt, "how have they worked for you? Did they win you back, the things that you lost?" 

Mercilessly, he reached behind my back, pulling me up by the tail I wish I'd never had. 

"Put your shame in a box... how could you be so wrong?"

He looked to Impulse's ocean pyramid. No.

"Did they win you back, the things that you lost?" he continued. 

Black wings of smoke billowed from his back. Dark sludge dripped from the corners of his mouth and obscured the whites of his eyes. His pure white hair lengthened, following the motion of his newfound wings. 

The demon pulled me higher and higher as he flew, placing me by his side at the top of my iron farm's tower. Before I could even think, I felt the wind get knocked out of me as his foot slammed into the center of my spine. 

As I fell, I heard his voice taunting me. 

"Do you fall like rain on the crying, cold and alone like the bitter and dying... do you fall like dust on a ruin? Empty and dead like the life you are losing?" 

I won't die. Not today, I thought, desperation and adrenaline taking over my soul. 

The ground formed a pitch black circle which spun itself into the symbol of chaos, eight arrows extending from a central point. From the center, a gust of red wind caught my feet, allowing me to stand and face my lifelong enemy. He looked shocked, but only for a second before he continued his torments. 

"How does it feel? I'll spare a little thought for the crow. How does it feel? Living in the black of your soul..."

No. I'm practically human if I try.

"How does it feel? Like a beggar out caught in the cold... how does it feel? With nothing but the truth left untold!"

Rage took over me before I knew what I was doing. I'd never seen my hands look like that- clawed and skeletal, like the demon I knew I was deep inside. They grasped EX's white hair, not daring to let go. 

From the points of each arrow, a pit into the void crept towards the center like a sort of corruption. I would save this world once and for all. He was too shocked, his magic would be weak.

Holding my hand over the void, I let go. 

"Do you fall like tears on an ocean, drowning in rage like a poisoned emotion... do you fall like a fading desire, lost and unloved, a forgotten messiah," he shouted as he dropped back to his home in the void.

"Do you fall like rain on the crying? Cold and alone like the bitter and dying... do you fall like dust on a ruin? Empty and dead like the life you are losing," I sang to myself in a wavering voice.

The ground closed itself up, sealing that monster back beneath the world. I put a hand to my face. Dried blood covered my cheeks from those demonic tears. 

Lost and unloved.... he got one thing right.