CW: Mentions of Murder & Death

Series: Balancer Origins - Balancer Productions

AU: Sheep to the Slaughter

Characters: Balance, Lava, Box, Box's Avatar(briefly)

Short Description: Takes place in the Steve Realm with Lava fully immersed & Box spectating outside of the game. Balance finally shows Lava what it had done to his past friend. Lava already knew. Angsty stuff.

Is this Canon?... At some point, yes!
When did this happen? Probably around the time Box's Avatar became active.

..... dialogue is hard man :[ apologies for any weird pacin'.

There's a grave in the middle of a grove. A grave with his best friend's name, who is right beside him at this very moment. With his murderer, on the ground, in front of it.

God how he wished that this was a joke.

".. Balance, who was this?" No, he knows who this is. He knows because he had to convince that very same person to be able to even be in this World, who had to quit his job because of how badly his mental health became because of this World.

But he's not telling it that. No, of course not.

The steve's wings laid on himself like a blanket, its head burying farther into the ground. Its tail laid still behind him, the chains on itself faintly rattling.
It was shaking. Oh, really?

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Lava held back a heavy sigh and looked up at the trees above them. It's midday, he thinks. The trees are big enough that the grave is still within shade, despite it being an open space. They were still in the Plains, there shouldn't any big trees like this in normal Minecraft. But this isn't normal. Never was.

"He was my friend." It choked out, with a voice that isn't his. The Player hears his friend's chair being pushed away from him, he doesn't blame him. He.. thinks he told him to use the bathroom downstairs, right?

Breathing in, he tells himself that this was what was expected when he went into this, and asks the question he already knows the answer to. "What happened?"

And silence, again. He turned his head to look at him. Its too big claws digs into the dirt beneath him, curling into itself as its tail moves to curl around Lava. He tries not to flinch when it brushed against his leg.

A quiet breath in, and it answers. "I killed him."

"Why?"

It flinched. It flinched. "I didn't mean to."

Someone took a shaky deep breath in and out, and it wasn't him or the Balancer. Somewhere in his mind, he wants to tell him to leave. For his sake. But he can't do that.

His eyes squirted at the steve, "What do you mean you didn't mean to? You don't just do that-"

The hunter was looming over him before he could finish his sentence, shutting him up for now. Slowly, looked up at the steve, and met his eyes. A droplet fell. He's crying.

"I was a idiot," It growled, and he wanted to be anywhere but here. "I wasn't thinking. I wasn't aware that he was fragile. I thought he was like me. I was wrong."

It dropped back onto the ground at Lava's feet and only now did he realize he could hear and feel his heartbeat in his chest. He moved without thinking and found himself stepping away from the steve, his eyes locked on the other.

He didn't know what to think. He didn't know if he should be comforting the being or walk away, or yell, or... anything.

"I'm sorry." It whispers, and he could almost think it is. "I'm so, so sorry."

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BoxcarAssassin → ItzLava_: do you believe him?

Lava blinks at the chatbox, his glance switching between it and the steve. It- they weren't asking him, aren't they? They're asking their Player.
And their Player...

He hears fingers typing on his keyboard and knows who it belonged to. He lets him. This wasn't his question to answer.

ItzLava_ → BoxcarAssassin: no

Lava wasn't the person who got torn into, after all.

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(677 words)