(WC: 2007
Category: Angst
Ship type: None
Warnings: Brief mentions of death, injuries/blood, and swearing

Realized this book has been heavy on the ship chapters recently, so here's a non-shippy chapter :D

This song is technically supposed to be about a romantic relationship, but it gave off Ex and X vibes so that's what this oneshot is about. This is a slowed down version of the original song because it suits the mood more.

I'd also recommend having this song on loop because, as you can tell from the word count, this is a long oneshot.

Enjoy!)

The End was normally a dark and dismal place. Nobody would choose to live there for the fear of falling to the void. The air was toxic to outsiders, and the monsters were lethal.

But there was one family who called the dimension their home.

"C'mon, Ex!"

Xisuma laughed as he ran across the pale yellow landscape, looking over his shoulder at his younger brother. Ex trailed behind, breathing heavily as he tried to catch up with him. "You...slow down!...I'm not that fast, y'know," he panted between breaths, leaning over.

X grabbed his hand and helped him up, then started running again.

"You're a jerk, you know that!?" Ex called after him, even though X could hear the grin in his voice.

"Hurry up, Exy! Last one to the tallest pillar is a rotten dragon's egg!"

Life in the End was pretty simple. You got your food from the chorus trees and tried to avoid being killed by the endermen. Ex raided end cities for the armor and the occasional wings. X stayed at home and helped his parents as best as he could.

The two brothers had been born in the End, but their parents were from another dimension called the Overworld. They didn't talk about it often, and the brothers didn't pry. They were happy right where they were, anyway.

X reached the towering obsidian pillar at the edge of the island and started climbing up the roughly carved-out steps. It had taken him ages to mine out all the obsidian, but it was worth it to get to the very top. The pillar was the tallest out of the 10 that were there and provided a good vantage point of the main End island.

It was also an excellent launchpad for when you had Elytra.

X clutched the gray wings tightly as he climbed up, faster and faster. He glanced down and saw Ex starting to stumble up the stairs, too. He grinned and called down to him. "First one up gets to use the wings first!"

"No fair! You had a head start!" Ex wheezed as he tried to catch up.

X reached the top of the pillar and took a deep breath, taking in the massive island in front of him. Their small hut was just a speck in the sea of endstone. The bedrock portal in the center, which their parents told them to never go near, stood out against the pale yellow of the island. The dark obsidian towers pointed high into the sky. He put on the Elytra he held and waited for Ex to join him.

Almost a minute later, Ex poked his head up from the last step, breathing heavily from the steep climb. X couldn't help but smile at his tired expression. "About time."

Ex just stuck his tongue out at him, too tired to speak.

"I'm gonna go and fly now if that's okay with you." X paused, then added almost as an afterthought: "You look like you need a break anyway."

Before Ex could say anything, X jumped off the side of the cliff and let the wind carry his wings as he glided off. Since he had nothing to boost himself up when needed, he just fell slowly down and landed with a small thud on the ground.

It was always fun whenever they could use the wings, but since they were delicate and they didn't have a whole lot, this kind of fun was rare to have.

"Get your butt over here so I can have a turn!" Ex yelled from the obsidian pillar. X laughed and started climbing the stairs again.

Once he got to the top, he handed the wings to Ex. "Careful, they're about to break."

Ex nodded and launched himself off the pillar, whooping as he glided across the island. He landed with a little less grace than X and waved up at him, the huge grin on his face visible even from where X was sitting.

"That was great! Let's do it again!"

X hurried down the stairs towards his brother. "We have to go now, Ex. It's almost time to eat, we'd better get going. They'll be expecting us, they're probably already in the house."

"Aw..." Ex reluctantly handed the wings over. X took his hand and led him to the house.

As they walked towards their family's hut, they felt the ground start to shake. X glanced around him, wondering what it was. "...Maybe it'll stop soon?"

But it didn't. The shaking grew more violent, and Ex was nearly thrown to the ground from it. He lost his grip on X's hand. "X, what's happening?"

"I-I don't know!" X started running for the house, leaving Ex behind him.

"X! W-wait up!!" Ex yelped as another strong shake knocked him to his knees again. "X, don't leave me here!"

But Xisuma didn't look back.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a large crack snaking its way up one of the obsidian pillars, carving through it like wet sand rather than one of the hardest materials known. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going and tripped over himself, landing hard on his left hand.

Ex was still struggling to get up. X would have gone back for him, but he had another problem.

Namely, the endermen.

They were being more aggressive than usual--X hadn't remembered looking one in the eye. And they were all coming after him, and not Ex.

X leapt to the side as one enderman came charging at him, but another hit him from behind. X landed hard on his hurting hand, sending another jolt of pain through it.

A third enderman delivered the final blow, its claws raking across his face, then coming back again for another blow. X turned away at the last second, but its claws still grazed part of his face. X's hand went to his face, and it came away bloody.

There was no time to worry about that, though. Through the haze of pain both from his hand and the enderman's strikes, X gathered that it was too dangerous to stay in the End. It pained him to leave his parents and Ex, but if they stayed in the hut and waited the shaking out, it was more likely they were going to get crushed by the falling obsidian than survive.

X's gaze wandered to the bedrock-lined portal in the middle of the island. His parents had told him to stay away from it--the air would be toxic to him, he wasn't used to the terrain, the list went on. But it was better than staying here and...well, dying.

So he ran for the portal.

On his way, he passed Ex, who was struggling to fend off two endermen on his knees. His eyes met X's was he ran past. "X, please! Help me!"

X hesitated, then bodyslammed one enderman and helped Ex up. Then he started running again.

"X, where are you going??" Ex called after him. "Mom and dad told us not to go there!"

X didn't answer. Ex started running after him, though he couldn't keep up. "X, wait, please!"

And as X jumped through the portal, his brother still calling after him, a large chunk of the obsidian pillar next to their house fell down, landing right on top of it and obliterating it.

It all fell down from there.

»»————-　★　————-««

2 years later

X stepped through the portal and took off his helmet, breathing in the familiar air. The End looked a lot different since he was last here.

As he walked across the island, he surveyed the damage of the disaster that had happened 2 years earlier. The obsidian pillars, once indestrutable, lay in cracked pieces. One large piece had bits of purpur bricks poking out of it. X averted his eyes, not wanting to think about that. The whole island was in ruins, far from the dimension it used to be.

He avoided all of that, making sure not to make eye contact with the endermen. The strikes that enderman had landed on him had left a permanent x-shaped scar over the bridge of his nose.

It hurt just being here again. This was where it had all started. Where it had all went wrong.

X sighed, shaking his head. Getting lost in memories wasn't why he was here. There was someone he had to go see.

He walked up to the edge of the world, looking down at the bottomless void.

And he let himself fall.

Instead of getting lost in the void, he landed hard on a solid surface, even if there looked like there was nothing below him. He started walking forward, his footsteps echoing across the empty landscape.

Soon, another figure came into view. It was someone X knew well. The red-plated armor they wore was similar to X's own green suit. Their white hair stood out starkly against the dark void surrounding them. They turned around, and a pair of red eyes met X's own purple ones.

"Hi, Ex."

A series of emotions flashed across his brother's face--shock, disbelief, anger. He finally settled on indifference, even though it was obvious he was hiding a tidal wave of emotions back. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm here to talk to you."

Ex didn't respond. X took that as a signal to continue.

"Ex, we've been fighting for two years. Ever since that disaster happened. I think it's about time we made up, isn't it? This isn't going to do us any good if we keep going like this. And...I miss you. I miss hanging out with you. I miss the days where we glided around the End with our Elytra. I miss the good old days."

X held out his hand to Ex, silently begging him to take it. "Please. This needs to end now."

Ex hesitated, staring at X's hand. Then he slapped it away.

"No."

X was taken aback. "What do you mean, 'no'?"

"No! What's the big deal!? You come back after 2 years at being at each other's throats, sniveling and begging for forgiveness after all you did to me! You banned me and trapped me in the void where I didn't have contact with anyone. You didn't even bother to visit often! And now you're asking for forgiveness?"

"I know we've had our disputes in the past, but--"

"You say that so casually! Like your life wasn't torn to bits. Everything is gone. And while you found instant friends and gained admin powers, guess what I was doing? Living off of the land and struggling to survive!"

"We lost contact when we jumped through that portal, and you know that," X snapped, getting angry himself.

"Maybe that would have happened if we'd jumped in together. But you left me in the dust, only worried abut yourself."

"Hey, that's not fair--"

"We could have saved our parents, too, and survived together, but no. You left them and me. And now, they're dead. And it might as well be your fault."

X felt like he'd been punched in the gut. "Ex, I--"

"No! If you really wanted forgiveness, you could have apologized when we reunited the first time! Hell, this would be completely different if we'd stuck together. But you went alone and...and fucked everything up! You're a jerk, you know that!?"

Ex turned away, breathing heavily after his outburst.

"You abandoned me once, How do I know you won't do it again?"

X stared at Ex for a moment, then felt his anger flare up again. "Fine! See if I ever ask forgiveness from you again. You can stay here and rot, for all I fucking care. I'd be glad to never see you again!"

Ex didn't respond. X scoffed under his breath and stormed away, his heavy footsteps echoing across the void.

As X left the End, Ex glanced over his shoulder. His eyes had tears in them.

X didn't come back.