Set In Stone

by Star_Soldier

Summary:

Gem isn’t sure what she did to piss off the watchers, but she’s pretty sure she did something. Mainly because she’s waking up in the middle of a stone circle surrounded by statues of her friends. And she’s not alone. Nearby a certain brunette and cyan haired man are waking up as well. No one has the answers, but maybe they can figure it out together.

***Set after Secret Life***
Focuses mainly on Gem, but may have a few other people to show the other side of things

Chapter 1: A Stone Circle

GeminiTay let out a groan, body aching from how her season ended. She was expecting to be waking up in her elven castle on Hermitcraft. She was expecting to hear Impulse calling for her or Pearl to come zooming in from across the river. But they didn’t, and it kinda hurt her feelings. 

 

She opened her eyes, being blinded by the bright sun above her. She blinked, sitting up as she allowed her vision to adjust. She sat in a circle made of stone, some loose rocks lying around her. Upon standing up she noticed the design made of obsidian on the floor was the same symbol she recognized from the secret keeper. It made a small whimper slip from her throat. 

 

All around her were statues that resembled her friends, and she winced. A groan came from her right and she saw a brunette pushing himself up off the floor. He wore a black leather vest that was missing sleeves, yellow face paint smeared across his face. 

 

“Impulse?” She said, recognizing him after a moment. He looked up at her with wide eyes, chest heaving. “Are you alright?” She asked in her normal soft voice and he relaxed as tears filled his eyes. 

 

“Gem!” He said and his voice broke. She rushed over to him and dropped into his arms. She shook as tears fell down her face as well, pressing her face into his neck as he wrapped strong arms around her. 

 

She was so used to working with him, on both Hermitcraft and Secret Life that he was a source of comfort. 

 

“What happened? Where are we?” He asked, and a soft voice from behind Gem made her jump. 

 

“I think the watchers are mad,” Gem turned to identify the already familiar voice. He wore a see through cyan jacket, with a blue heart in the middle of his shirt. His cyan hair fell into his face that had a little bit of cyan pain smeared. 

 

“Scott?” Impulse asked and Scott just sat down next to them. Gem moved away from Impulse’s embrace, sitting down and letting them form a small circle. 

 

Gem faced the only open side of the circle, which wasn’t very big. All the statues were members of Secret Life, and so were these two guys next to her. They were her teammates, they were her so called band. 

 

And she trusted them with her life. 

 

There was the sound of whispering that couldn’t be ignored as it filled her head. A book appeared in her hands, and she opened it before reading it out loud. 

 

Welcome Gem and the Scott’s to your punishment 

 

We expected one of you three to win, not Scar, so now if you wish to escape this place then you must free your friends from their stone prisons. 

 

In order to do this you must craft three items. The first using amethyst shards, prismarine shards, echo shards and a diamond. The second using obsidian, gilded blackstone, and a netherite ingot. Finally you will need end crystals, end rods, and an eye of ender for the third one

 

Once you have gathered these three items, you will be given a task related to something in the life games. Once you complete the task then you will free the member that you choose. Once you have freed all the members, then you will learn how to escape. 

 

“Uh,” Impulse was clearly left speechless, and he looked between Gem and Scott. 

 

“Oh my god. This is all my fault,” Gem whispered and more tears filled her eyes. Scott’s face softened and Gem felt her face cupped by his hands as Impulse moved to hug her from behind. 

 

“No sweetie, you did amazing. You did everything you could. I should have stayed alive and not let you kill me. Maybe it would have gone differently,” Scott said and Gem shook her head. 

 

“No. No, this is my fault. I was the one who lasted the longest. It was supposed to be me. Me,” she said and let the tears fall from her eyes. Scott wiped the tears and Impulse tightened his grip on her waist. 

 

“Oh Gem, we could have all done better in so many ways,” Impulse said softly to her. “Right now all we can do is get ready. Night will set soon, and I really don’t wanna be out here during that,” Impulse said and Gem nodded. 

 

“Let’s get going then,” Scott said as he moved his hands away from Gems face. Gem shakily stood up, taking a moment to look at the statues around them. The way facing north was open and their exit, each statue was on a stone block that had an item frame on each side secured to it. 

 

Gem felt Impulse take her hand and lead her away from the circle they woke up in. She blinked at him, but let herself be led to where a birch forest stood. Slowly she gathered her mind and started to take down a tree while Impulse and Scott did the same around her. 

 

They were silent as they crafted tools, gathered more wood, and eventually killed some animals to give them food. After traveling through the woods, which weren’t very big despite surrounding the stone circle, they came across a plains biome where they silently agreed to settle for now. 

 

“I’m gonna head down to a cave. Either of you want to join me?” Scott asked and Gem could tell that he really didn’t want to be alone. “I just figured it’s safer,” leave it to Scott to pretend to be totally unfazed by the life games. 

 

“I can,” Gem said and Scott nodded. They both looked at Impulse, and Gem saw him wince at the idea. The man, who was usually a dwarf in Hermitcraft, didn’t want to go down into the caves and dig. 

 

“Not really in the mood. I’m just gonna stay up here and start farming. Maybe explore a bit and get some other plants?” It was more of a question but Gem understood why. Caving was a long and tedious task, especially without knowing all the rules to this world. 

 

“We’ll be back soon then,” Scott pressed a kiss to Impulse’s cheek and handed a stone pickaxe to Gem. They found a cave and headed down into the darkness that slowly wrapped around them. 

Chapter 2: New Materials

Scott and Gem crafted torches so that they could see, and slowly gathered some coal and iron. Scott was busy breaking away some stone to get a better reach for the iron he was grabbing. Gem was crafting them some iron tools and walked over to the man. 

 

“Scott!” She said cheerily and Scott jumped, turning around and grabbing his stone ax for defense. Gem was thrown off guard at how tensed up Scott was by hearing her voice and froze. “Scott?” 

 

“Sorry. I thought that there was something coming up behind me,” Scott said and with the way his eyes flicked away from her face she knew it was a lie. She wasn’t gonna call that out though, maybe Scott was just jumpy because she had killed him in the last session. 

 

“No, just me!” She said and handed him over an iron pickaxe and a shield. “I’ll worry about making a banner again later. For now, let’s just try to get some diamonds and maybe we can get an enchantment table,” Gem said and Scott nodded. He remained tense though and she worried about him a little bit. Maybe he was just jumpy because there were zombies and other monsters roaming around. Gem would try to give him the benefit of the doubt. 

 

“Let’s head deeper if we can,” Scott said after another bit of them mining in silence. Gem gave him a nod of recognition and they started to head down deeper. “I’m sorry you didn’t win the game. I really thought you had it in you,” Gem looked at him as he climbed down a steep cliff, and Scott glanced up. 

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gem did not like the wording that Scott had chosen to use and Scott blinked at her before he looked back down so he could see what he was doing. 

 

“I just mean I thought you would win. But I guess leaving you to a fight against Pearl and Scar wasn’t very fair of me. It was a two V one, it was unfair,” Scott corrected himself as his voice lowered to a whisper. “And I’m sorry I did that to you,” he said and Gem smiled slightly. 

 

“You did what you thought you needed to, Scott. I shouldn’t have killed you, I should’ve argued against it,” she reminded him as she started to follow him down the same cliff. 

 

“I just…it was your first time playing. You didn’t know any better. I’ve played in every season, I should’ve known it wouldn’t have worked,” Scott said and after a moment of silence. “I’m just stupid,” 

 

“You aren’t stupid, each season is different remember? You didn’t know what to expect, neither did I. And that’s ok,” Scott didn’t respond and Gem glanced down, realizing that he was at the bottom. She made it down not long after him and they started to light up the place, taking down mobs while doing so. 

 

Scott started to walk over to a patch of iron when Gem placed a hand on his shoulder. “Scott. You aren’t stupid and you know it. Me and Impulse know it. You kept us all alive so much longer than we would’ve survived without you,” 

 

“Yeah,” Scott half heartedly mumbled and started to gather the vein of iron he had found. Gem frowned but left him to do that, wandering deeper into the cave they were in. 

 

Then she saw a flash of blue from the corner of her eye and let out an excited gasp. She rushed over to it and pulled out her iron pickaxe, pulling the diamond from the ground. Her communicator chirped at her and she looked at the achievement she just got. 

 

<ImpulseSV> Congrats!

 

“Gem!” Scotts voice echoed through the cave as he found his way over to her. He smiled at her and she gave him a grin right back. “Good job, was it just one?” 

 

“Yeah. But this means that we’re on diamond level,” she said and Scott nodded. They continued on, making small talk every once in a while but mostly they worked in a comfortable silence. 

 

By the time they were done caving and ready to head back up, they had about twenty diamonds, some obsidian thay got with a new diamond pickaxe, and around three stacks of iron plus some other goodies. 

 

They headed back to the surface and were greeted with the sun on their faces. Nearby they saw a starter farm that Impulse had clearly thrown together but the redstone expert was nowhere to be seen. 

 

Gem did notice that Impulse had set up some beds for them, one yellow, one cyan, and one green. She quickly claimed the green one and they started to smelt their things. 

 

“I wonder where Impulse went,” Gem said and Scott shrugged from where he was luring some cows and sheep into a hole. “We also need to build a shelter. I really don’t want to be out here at night if Impulse isn’t here to sleep,” 

 

“We can. We want to do another cottage core vibe?” Scott asked as he climbed out of the hole and prevented the animals from escaping. Gem nodded as a smile crossed her face. “We can each have our own little cottage again,” 

 

“Or we can work to build one place. If Impulse isn’t here to build his own. Besides, I’d rather be close together then separated through houses,” she noticed that Scott tensed up again at the mention of all living together. But his face had a smile that was seemingly forced, and he nodded. 

 

“That’s a great idea,” he said and Gem nodded. She opened the chest that Impulse had left, curious to see what he had gathered so far and saw some cherry saplings. 

 

“Scott! We have cherry wood!” She said all excitedly. Scott gave her a more genuine smile and they planted them so they could hopefully grow quickly. 

 

<ImpulseSV> I’m a while away, but I did find a village this isn’t too far if we want to deal with villagers

 

<GeminiTay> that’s great!

<GeminiTay> Thanks for the cherry wood!

 

<ImpulseSV> that’s no problem

 

In the chest there were also some cherry logs, so Gem and Scott started to collect some birch and oak to go along with the pink wood that they liked. By the time night was falling, they had managed to build a cottage that had three beds shoved against the wall on the upper floor and had room for some storage on the first.

 

Scott and Gem remained huddled in some silence while inside, waiting for Impulse to return home. Gem noticed that Scott was sitting on his bed, knees pulled to his chest and his chin was resting on his knees. 

 

She studied him for a moment, but he seemed so far into his thoughts that Gem decided it was best to leave it. She figured that Scott was just trying to figure out a faster way to free their friends and escape. To get out of there. 

 

Impulse returned home late that night, complementing the cottage and making sure his spawn was set. Scott had curled up and fallen asleep a while back, but Gem was still awake. 

 

“Hey,” she said to Impulse as he climbed into his bed. “How’d it go?” 

 

“Found some spruce. Got some things from a few villages. I saw you guys got diamonds?” he asked and gave her a grin. Gem nodded as she gave him a bright smile back. 

 

“We did. And some obsidian. All we need to do is get some cows and other animals so we can make an enchantment table,” she said. 

 

“I got some books from libraries during my raiding,” Impulse told her. “And we have a lot of wheat and sugar cane from villages and our farm,” Impulse pointed out. 

 

“Oh perfect, we can work on that tomorrow then!” Gem said and curled up on her bed. “Goodnight Impulse,”

 

“Night Gem!” 

Chapter 3: A Closer Look

Gem woke up the next morning to Impulse gently speaking to her. “Good morning Gem. We have a lot of work to do. Scott’s already up and working on expanding the farm. We have animals to wrangle and enchanting to do!” Impulse was grinning down at her and Gem sighed as she got up. 

 

She headed downstairs with Impulse, grabbing some food from the chest, and then headed outside. Scott was indeed working on the farm, making it look really cute as well as planting the spruce trees and some more cherry ones. He flashed a smile at her before turning back to his work. 

 

Impulse and Gem made proper pens for the animals, splitting up the sheep and cows with a bit of work, and gathering some chickens as well. 

 

“Gem!” Impulse called, drawing out her name. She turned to look at him, tilting her head slightly. Impulse came bouncing over from where he was before. “I wanna go to the nether,” Gem sighed at the words. 

 

“I guess we need to go there anyway. Don’t we?” she asked and Impulse nodded. 

 

“I want some quartz. I also want to try and find the fortress if it’s nearby,” Impulse explained. Gem nodded. “If you don’t want to go, I can always grab Scott. I’m sure he’d be happy to tag along with me or I can go alone,” 

 

“Yeah…after losing one of my lives in the nether, I’m not too keen to go back just yet,” Gem said as the memory flickered to life in her mind. She quickly pushed it away, shaking her head and smiling at Impulse. “But definitely ask Scott, he’s really good there. Oh, and make sure to wear a pumpkin!” Gem said and Impulse nodded, heading over to where Scott was. 

 

She watched them talk for a minute before she saw Scott nod. Gem ran inside, bringing out some obsidian as well as a flint and steel for the boys. She passed them all to Impulse and watched as the boys made the portal and went through. Her communicator chirped with the achievement and she sighed, hoping that they would be safe. And that respawn was on. 

 

In reality they didn’t know much about the world they were in. 

 

Gem worked on getting the cows bred up, and slowly she made an enchantment setup for the max amount. She didn’t have a lot of XP but she had a few levels. She enchanted the diamond pickaxe and ended up with silk touch after using pretty much all her levels. They really needed to find a spawner. 

 

Her communicator chirped again and she glanced at it. So her Scott’s had found the fortress. She sent a simple good job message and wandered off from the base. The sun was still high in the sky, and she found her way back to the stone circle. 

 

She found herself studying the statues, because they weren’t just standing straight up like one would expect. Starting on the west side was Lizzie, next to Jimmy, and this continued around in the order of everyone's final deaths. Ending with Pearl, then Scar on the east.

 

Lizzie seemed to be falling, eyes wide and mouth open in terror. Her statue all but hovered above the pedestal it was supposed to be on. Her hair flew up, rising above her head, her hands desperately tried to grab onto an edge that wasn’t there. 

 

Jimmy was running, a silent scream coming from his frozen face. He looked equally as scared, eyes fixated ahead of him. But his body was slightly pitched forward, bow grasped tightly,  eyes not quite squinted but in pain. He was afraid, and hurting when he had died. 

 

Mumbo was in a similar position to Jimmy, but his movements looked like he was caught on something. His arms in front of him, trying to find the thing blocking him through whatever blindness he had gotten, shield in the way and berries crushed in his hand. 

 

Tango had a look of shock on his face, a flint and steel in his hands that he was igniting. He also seemed to almost hover above his pedestal as he had fallen to his final death. His eyes cast downwards and his head was starting to turn to see who had broken the block beneath him. 

 

Skizzleman’s head was tilted up, eyes wide as he shouted in fear. His clothes were burned at the bottom and up to his waist, a fire had left them ruined before he even died. His feet were at weird angles, not broken but clearly hurt, sword drawn and shield on his arm.

 

Etho was moving backwards, shield attached to his arm but not in use. He had his bow drawn, trying to aim while moving away from his attacker. However his eyes weren’t open, squeezed in pain as his attacker delivered the final blow that he couldn’t block. 

 

Martyn was reaching up, climbing up what seemed to be a ladder. He had a determined look to what he was doing, a sword grasped tightly in his right hand as he moved. Despite the determination there was almost a look of regret and fear on his face as he was killed. 

 

BigB had his shield up, blocking his body as best he could. He was moving backwards, away from his attackers. One of which had been Scott. He had his sword drawn, but he seemed to be more focused on defense. There was a look of betrayal on his face and Gem knew why. 

 

Cleo was actively swinging her sword, but looked almost like she was backed against a wall. Her shield wasn’t in use, but there were deep scratches in it. She was angry, fighting for her life against her attacker. 

 

Gem knew this next one very well. 

 

Grian was backing up, trying to get up blocks that he wasn’t looking at. He was stumbling, looking angry and maybe a little afraid. His shield wasn’t engaged, but he was in the middle of swinging his sword in hopes to deter his killer. To hurt her. 

 

BDubs was running, but didn’t seem like he was going very fast. He was chewing, the core of a golden apple in his hand and shield not blocking anything. He was scared, his face showed pain, and his clothes had seemingly been burned as well. 

 

Joel was pulling out his ax, backing away from his attackers. His shield wasn’t very helpful as he wasn’t using it. He wasn’t scared though, he just seemed angry as he yelled something at his attacker. 

 

Gem remembered both their deaths, Scott had killed them both. 

 

Pearl seemed to be falling, her hair barely lifted into the air though. Her shield was up, even as she headed to her demise. She looked shocked though, body tilted slightly back in a way that indicated she hadn’t been expecting to fall. 

 

Scar just had a confused look on his face, an open book in one hand and the other one extended in front of him. The bottom of his palm was slightly flattened, and it looked like he was pressing a button of some sort. 

 

Gem's eyes traveled back to look at Pearl, still frozen in stone. Soon Gem realized that the sun was setting and she headed back to the cottage. Her Scott’s were talking, both looking almost concerned until the door closed behind her. Both their heads snapped to look at her and relief crossed their faces. 

 

“Gem! Where’d you go?” Impulse asked as they both came over to her. 

 

“Yeah, you just left. We messaged you but you didn’t respond,” Scott said and Gem gave them a guilty look. She hadn’t meant to worry them, she hadn’t really thought that they would be worried at all. 

 

“Sorry. I finished what I was working on and wandered off,” she said. Impulse crossed his arms and the look she got reminded her of an older brother. “I was just at the circle. Have you guys actually looked at the statues?” Both Scott’s glanced at each other then back at her. 

 

“Well no, but we've kinda been busy,” Scott reminded her. “What did you find there?”

 

“The statues…they all seem to have been frozen during their final deaths,” Gem explained and looked down. “I think Scar was pressing the succeed button, but he looked confused,” 

 

“Odd. I can always take a look tomorrow if we think it’s necessary,” Impulse said. “But right now let’s get some rest and see if we can get any of the items to start crafting those things,” 

Chapter 4: Underground Exploration

“So what did we need for the things?” Impulse asked the next morning. The three were all sitting on their beds and trying to create a plan on what to do. 

 

“I swear I’m the smart Scott sometimes,” Smajor responded as Gem pulled the book out of a chest that sat against the end of her bed. She flipped it open as Impulse gave Scott an offended look. 

 

“Let's start with the easy one, shall we?” Gem said and saw both boys nod. “I use easy as a loose term. Amethyst shards, a diamond, prismarine shards, and echo shards,” Gem sighed at that last one. 

 

“Maybe we should go caving again,” Scott suggested after a beat of silence. “We can look for a deep dark, look for an amethyst, and maybe get some diamonds and our levels up,” 

 

“We can. There was a whole other section to that cave we were in before. And I have silk touch on my diamond pickaxe,” Gem agreed and Impulse nodded. 

 

“Plus we can try to find a spawner,” Impulse piped up. The three spent a bit gathering tools and such. Impulse managed to get a fortune III pickaxe with his thirty levels, it also had unbreaking III and efficiency IV. Scott got another silk touch pickaxe that had the same enchantments at Impulse’s. Gem only had silk touch on hers. They made sure to have torches, extra wood, and food before they headed back down to the cave. 

 

Gem followed Scott with Impulse close behind her. They reached the split section and headed into the unlit area. While Scott had his shield up and sword drawn for defense, Gem placed down torches behind him. After lighting up a little bit of the cave, the three started to gather resources. 

 

“That’s it. I’m making an iron farm,” Impulse said after a while and Gem just shared an amused look with Scott. “What? You know I don’t like having to gather my own resources. Mostly iron,” 

 

“Says the man who is living in a dwarven base,” Gem shot back and Impulse stuck his tongue out before responding. 

 

“It’s different,” 

 

“Is it?” she asked and Impulse pouted. 

 

“Guys, come here!” Scott shouted from a little ways away, apparently he had gone deeper while the two were bickering. Impulse and Gem came over and saw what Scott was looking at. It was a skeleton spawner, one that Scott had just lit up.

 

“Ooooh, I’m excited for this,” Impulse said as he logged down the cords. “And it's not too far from our base, we can probably make a ladder or a bubble elevator up,” Impulse looked closer at the cords. 

 

“That’s great! After we finish here then we can get this set up,” Gem said and Impulse nodded. “Did you get the chests?” she asked and Scott shrugged. 

 

“I figured that we would come back to make it and I’d rather keep room for other ores,” Scott explained as they started to walk again. They grabbed more diamonds, as well as a bunch of redstone, iron, gold, and a tiny bit of lapis as they traveled over the next twenty minutes or so.

 

Gem saw a flash of white and paused, causing Impulse to literally run into her. Gem shot him a look and he quickly apologized, but Gem walked over to the white block. They had passed a lot of diorite, but this wasn’t the same block. 

 

“Guys, this is calcite,” she said and Scott walked over with interest. Gem broke through it, gasping when she saw the inside of the large amethyst gemstone. “Yes! We found amethyst!” she called out. She saw Impulse log the cords and then he spoke. 

 

“We can make a tunnel or minecart trail or something to this place as well. From the spawner room, it's a bit away but it’s possible,” 

 

“We can, that would be perfect. Then we can come back if we need anymore,” Scott said. While her Scott’s talked, Gem gathered some of the crystals with her pickaxe. They could worry about fortuneing them once on the surface. 

 

“Let’s keep going,” Gem said as they pushed deeper. It took another hour of them walking but when Scott stopped suddenly in front of her, Gem ran directly into him. Scott had flung his arm out, sword pointed at the wall in a way to block anyone from passing him. 

 

“Well, now we know where the Deep Dark is,” Impulse said. “I say we gear up more before taking it down,” 

 

“I’m with Impulse,” Gem said and all Scott could do was nod in agreement. “Come on, once we get back to the surface we can start preparing to hopefully free our friends,” 

 

So the three headed up to the surface. 

Chapter 5: 3/3

It took a while, at least that’s what it felt like to Gem. But she worked relentlessly and so did her Scott’s. They had a small villager hall with the main enchantments they needed, a few villagers willing to give them diamond armor and a few others for tools and weapons, and they had set up a simple wool farm. They also located an ocean monument and got a few shards of prismarine, plus now they had the skeleton spawner all set up. Gem had set up a separate chest for the materials they needed in order to craft the things that would free their friends. 

 

“Alright so…the deep dark?” Impulse asked and both Gem and Scott looked at him. Sure, they had fully decked out armor and tools thanks to the villagers, but that still wasn’t an easy challenge to take on. 

 

“I’d rather go to the nether,” Gem said and Scott looked between them. 

 

“I’m with Gem there. The nether is a lot less scary then the deep dark,” Scott said and Impulse frowned and then gave them both puppy dog eyes. 

 

“Oh come on, don’t make me go alone!” He begged, eyes giving away that he really didn’t want to be alone. “Gem, Scott, come on,” 

 

“I dunno Impulse. I’m just a little nervous about going down there I guess,” she said. “What if respawn isn’t on? Or what if-“ 

 

“I get it, Gem. I’ll head down there. You and Scott have fun,”  Impulse then headed down the bubble elevator that brought them to the spawner, which then would have a hallway to bring Impulse to the deep dark. 

 

Gem ignored the buzzing of her communicator as she stepped with Scott into the nether, earning an achievement herself since she had still continued to refuse to enter the hellish landscape. 

 

She stuck close to Scott, who had already laid out a cobblestone path to the fortress which they currently followed. 

 

“Scott, I’m scared.” She finally said and he turned to look at her, a sorry look crossing his face. 

 

“Go back home then Gem. I’m sure Impulse won’t be mad and I certainly won’t either. Follow the path. I’ll be back with blaze rods and some other things. I’m hoping for some gilded Blackstone and a bastion,” 

 

“But…I don’t wanna not do anything,” she told him and he shrugged. 

 

“Make yourself busy. Gather more amethyst or prismarine shards then. Don’t worry about me sweetie,” he gently nudged her to follow the path back to the portal. She nodded and did, the nether still freaked her out from her death there. She shouldn’t be scared, she died in the nether on hermitcraft all the time but this time it was just…the worst thing she could think about. 

 

Also, was it just her or was Scott acting weird? Almost like he really didn’t want her around.

 

She exited the portal back to the overworld and decided to go back to the prismarine farm. Well, what would soon be a prismarine farm. She decided she would begin the work to drain and convert it. So the endless hours started as she worked to drain small sections of the monument. 

 

Her communicator buzzed and she absently check it, face paling as she did so. 

 

<Smajor tried to swim in lava> 

 

Her heart froze and she couldn’t breath

 

<ImpulseSV> WHAT?!

<ImpulseSV> WHAT HAPPENED?!

<ImpulseSV> SCOTT? GEM?

 

<Smajor> I’m ok

<Smajor> Back at the house

<Smajor> Lost all my stuff though

 

<ImpulseSV> Gem, you ok?

 

<GeminiTay> I’m fine

 

She responded back to the question, guilt eating her mind. In turn this led to her being distracted and not watching where the still spawning guardians were. 

 

She yelped in pain as she was hit and then went tumbling into a dry section of the drained monument. She hit the ground hard, and next thing she knew she was sitting up in her bed. 

 

She checked her communicator to see Impulse messaging 

 

<ImpulseSV> That’s it

<ImpulseSV> I’m coming back

 

<GeminiTay> It’s fine Impulse

 

<Smajor> There’s no need for that

 

There wasn’t another response from Impulse so Gem drug herself from her bed and went downstairs. Scott was sitting at the small table they had there and staring at his communicator, but he was clearly zoned out. 

 

“This didn’t go well, did it?” She asked and then her communicator buzzed again. 

 

<ImpulseSV was obliterated by a sonically-charged shriek>

 

A moment after seeing that, Impulse came back down the stairs and let out a sigh. 

 

“Don’t ask,” he said as he sat down next to Scott. “So I guess respawn is on at least,” Impulse tried to spin it to be a positive outlook but Gem just sighed 

 

“We’re never getting out of there, are we?” She asked and Scott stood up and looked at the two others. 

 

“No, we will get out of here. We have to,” he said. “Next time we don’t split up. We start in the deep dark, then we can worry about the nether,” he said as the other two glanced at each other before nodding. 

 

“You’re right. The more we sit there and think we can’t, the more likely that we won’t. So, let’s gear up again and get moving,” Impulse said and Gem let out a sigh. 

 

“Let’s do this. We’re Gem and the Scott’s after all. This isn’t the most impossible thing we’ve done. Scott hid from practically the entire server during the boogey curse. Impulse has nearly built an entire dwarven keep. And I am GeminiSlay,” the boys both smiled, though Gem didn’t miss the way Scott slightly winced at the mention of the curse. 

 

The three walked out of the cottage, and went to where the villagers were. Then they started trading, hearing back up and getting ready. The hardest thing to gather on the surface was the echo shards, after which they’d have enough to complete one of the items. 

 

But when they needed all three for one person, that would just make it so much harder to free everyone. But as she had said before, they were Gem and the Scott’s. She followed the boys out of the trading hall, equipping her diamond armor and getting ready to head down to the ancient city.

Chapter 6: Two Dangerous Places

The three took the bubble elevator down to the skeleton grinder, and Gem followed the boys as they headed to the deep dark. She didn’t like the idea of going down there but they had a bunch of wool from the sheep farm that had been previously thrown together and she had confidence in the boys. Somewhat at least. 

 

They approached the dark underworld-like realm and Gem took a small breath. The skulk was soft under her feet, allowing nearly no noise from their footsteps. They got closer to the city where Impulse had died previously and he paused. Gem recognized that look, it was the same look she swore she got when having to go to the nether.

 

“Impulse?” Scott whispered and Impulse managed a small, shaky breath while closing his eyes tightly. 

 

“I…sorry,” The man said and shook his head. Gem stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. “I guess I’m a little hesitant since my last death,” 

 

“Hey, we got this. Or if you wanna stay up here then me and Scott can handle it,” Gem said and the man with cyan hair nodded in agreement. “I mean…look at us,” Gem comforted him. Impulse took another breath and opened his eyes. 

 

“Let’s do this,” he said and the three headed into the ancient city. They crouched while climbing down skulk and treading slowly across the starry looking blocks below their feet. They blocked whatever shriekers they saw with wool, and slowly started to dig through chests they found. 

 

“Guys,” Impulse’s voice whispered nearby. Gem looked over and saw him holding onto two echo shards. Her eyes lit up, a little bit closer to freeing someone. 

 

“I’ve got two more,” Scott said as he walked over to them. There was one more chest that Gem had yet to finish raiding. At the very bottom she found one. Black, sparkly, and surprisingly pretty light. She pulled it out and held it in her hand. 

 

“Wait, this can’t be it. There has to be more,” Gem said, forgetting to whisper. The work around them went black and Gem realized what had happened. 

 

“Uh oh. Run!” Impulse called and they took off running back for the normal cave. At this point it was better to just get out and get away then dealing with this. 

 

“Void this is bad,” Scott muttered and soon the three tumbled out of the cave. They could hear the warden rising and the blindness still covered Gems vision. One of the Scott’s grabbed her hand and upon her vision coming back she realized it was Smajor. 

 

“Everyone ok?” Impulse called from behind them. Gem and Scott paused to take a breather and both nodded to Impulse in response. “Good, let’s get going,” he said and they headed back to the surface. Once there Impulse and Gem handed Scott their echo shards. 

 

“So, who says we should go to the nether?” Impulse asked and now Gem hesitated. 

 

“I can go. I saw a bastion last time I was there, I just fell before getting to it,” Scott said, perking up instantly. 

 

“Gem?” Impulse asked and everything in her body said to say no. But this time it wasn’t her alone, it wasn’t her and one of them, it was all three going in together. So she nodded. “Perfect. Let’s hit the bastion and then we can get ready for netherite mining,” 

 

“Let’s also get some ghasts while we’re there. We need those end crystals,” Scott said and Gem listened to the boys talk while they got ready for the nether. 

 

“We have blaze rods and ender pearls, or at the very least we can get those easily enough with villagers and the fortress we found. And we can go get sand without problem,” 

 

“We need to get to the end though. In order to gather end rods, or be able to make them,” Scott responded and Impulse nodded.

 

“We can almost start freeing people,” Impulse said. “I wonder who we should free first,” 

 

Gem heard Impulse say that and her brain flooded with the thoughts of finally having Pearl back in her arms. On hermitcraft they were always together, she missed it. But, maybe Grian or Martyn would be better because they might have answers. Then again, Pearl was a watcher like Grian. Maybe she would also have answers. 

 

They finally headed to the nether and followed the path that led them to the bastion that Scott had seen while alone in the hellish world. It was easy for them to get in, using axes and swords they managed to take out whatever piglins came for them. 

 

Well the boys did, Gem busied herself with quickly looting the chests. Managing to find 20 blocks of gilded Blackstone and four scraps of netherite. Her heart hammered in her chest as she gave the boys a signal that they needed to leave. 

 

They rushed back to the overworld and to the cottage. Impulse took the scraps and combined them with some gold in a chest, then they became a single netherite ingot. 

 

While in the nether Scott managed to gather quite a few ghast tears, also known as four, and so those became end crystals. They put the supplies into the chest with the other things that were gonna be used to free their friends. 

 

“So…we have one more place to go. One more thing to do,” Impulses voice rang out through the room and Gem turned to face him. She heard Scott’s breath hitch and she rolled her eyes at the two boys. Her eyes landed on Impulse who was tossing an eye of ender in his hand, catching it before he actually did anything with it. 

 

“Gem and the Scott’s to the end!” Gem declared and walked out of the house. She had her weapons, food, and she was ready. Taking down the ender dragon would allow them to get wings, and allow them to get end rods. And that would bring them one step closer to finding out what this world was. 

Chapter 7: The Next Steps

It felt like forever as Gem followed the boys, they went down into the ground while following an eye of ender. It was a little bit longer before Gem stood in front of the portal with her Scott’s, watching as Smajor placed the final eye of ender into the frame. 

 

“Ready?” Impulse asked and Gem nodded. She watched as Scott gave them a silent nod before he stepped into the portal and vanished. Impulse followed Scott, and Gem took a breath before she stepped in too. 

 

Her communicator buzzed with the achievements the three had just gotten. And as always she forgot how cold the end was. 

 

While the nether was ridiculously hot, and the overworld tended to be temperate, the End was so oddly cold. Despite the diamond armor she was wearing, it was cold, the obsidian under her feet seemed to make her boots cold. 

 

They spawned underground, and so the only way to go was up. She went behind Impulse and in front of Scott. Last time she had been in the end had been when she assembled a crew to go take on the ender dragon for her. And even then. 

 

She paused when she saw the dragon, big black wings bearing overhead as it fed off the end crystals to keep its health up. Gem drew her bow, and Impulse leaned over to whisper in her ear. 

 

“Starting to wish we had Hotguy here?” He asked and she smiled at him, drawing her bow back and letting an arrow fly. It destroyed one of the crystals and the three quickly split up and started moving. 

 

They fired arrows, attempting to get rid of those stupid crystals that healed the dragon. She watches as Scott stacked up to the top of one of the towers, destroying a crystal in the metal cage. It was done, now they just had to take care of the actual dragon. 

 

She watched as Scott pierced it with an arrow, and Impulse followed suit. The dragon focused on the cyan haired man though, and then Scott was launched off the tower and towards the ground. Gem sprinted to help him, dumping her water bucket out in the approximate area of where he would land. 

 

He landed with a splash, eyes wide and shaking. Gem scooped back up the water and ran closer to him, hugging him. 

 

“You’re ok?” She asked and Scott nodded. He had tensed up in her touch but quickly started to relax after a moment. 

 

“Guys!” Impulse shouted and the two figured they should probably go help him out. Gen drew her sword as the dragon landed and dug it deep into the dragon. 

 

The dragon launched back into the air and Gem pulled her bow out instead. She started to fire at it alongside her Scott’s. It was clearly getting weaker but it never stopped breathing its purple breath at them. 

 

The three had split up, determined to do this without dying. And it totally had nothing to do with the fact that they had forgotten to set their spawns outside the portal. 

 

They would never forget to do that. 

 

Ever. 

 

Gem got launched as the dragon grabbed her and flung her, so she hit the side of an obsidian tower and went spiraling to the ground. Fear filled her, no this couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening. 

 

She closed her eyes but no damage came. Instead she felt cold water. She opened her eyes to see Scott with wide eyes, a bucket laying a few feet away from him and dumbed out. He had saved her like she saved him. 

 

He held a hand out to help her from the water, and she collapsed into his arms. She gave him a weak smile. 

 

“I did it!” Impulse’s proud voice came from across the floating island. They both looked over and saw the dragon starting to explode. Impulse wore a proud smile as he came over to them happily. Scott quickly picked up the water. “Why are you both wet?” 

 

Gem forgot that Impulse often didn’t pay attention to things like this. 

 

“We both fell into water, Impulse,” Scott said and Impulse shrugged. 

 

“Come on!” Impulse said and quickly moved on, starting to collect the Xp. Upon glancing at Scott, Gem realized that for the first time ever he didn’t seem to be tense or shut down around her. 

 

It made her happy. 

 

They quickly collected all the Xp and decided to go to the far outer islands via the portal that was now open. Getting wings was a vital thing for them, plus getting those end rods may allow for them to free a friend. 

 

Soon enough they had crossed through the tiny portal and collected some endstone and chorus fruit. But they wanted shulker boxes and wings as well. They decided to go until they got four sets of wings, considering they would be freeing someone soon and wanted the help. 

 

The question still bugged Gem, who would they save? 

 

They found the first city with a boat pretty quickly, and Gem grabbed a set of blocks. While the boys went into the building, she would get her wings before joining them. 

 

She got them and took care of the shulker easily enough, then joined the boys. 

 

Impulse was currently floating in the air, and Scott was laughing at him. The shulker had been taken care of, but apparently the effect hadn’t worn off of her friend. 

 

“Stuck up there?” She called in a teasing tone and then the effect dropped, sending Impulse to the ground and fell face first in front of them. 

 

“Ow,” 

 

“Awww, Impulse,” Scott cooed to him and Impulse only huffed before standing up. 

 

“Shut up,” Impulse mumbled and Scott kissed his cheek, which did make Gem wonder if there was something between the two boys. But, that wasn’t the concern right now. 

 

It took no time before the three of them had wings, plus a few extra wings(5 to be exact). Then they were heading back. 

 

Once getting back they each grabbed their required materials, it was time to make the first pieces to free someone. 

Chapter 8: A New Quest

They made their things. Gem created the overworld item. It looked a lot like a wheel, with a diamond in the middle and purple corners from the amethyst. The prismarine shards lined the top and bottom connectors, as well as connecting to the diamond. The two echo shards lined the left and right, connecting to the middle diamond as well. Gem managed to make two of them with the materials they had. 

 

Impulse did the nether one, which would in theory be fitting considering his normal form had devil wings and horn. In the middle was the netherite I got, carved into a circle, with gilded Blackstone connecting it to the obsidian circle on the outside. It was hot, and Gem wasn’t sure she wanted to touch it. 

 

Scott finished the final one, the end one. There was an eye of ender in the middle, and it seemed to watch wherever you moved. Four end rods protruded from it and connected it to the end crystals on four opposite ends of the glowing outer circle. It was cold, much like the end void. 

 

“We did it!” Scott said excitedly, he was bouncing on his toes and looked happier than he had seemed in a long time. Impulse gave him a soft look, one that Gem noticed even though Scott didn’t. 

 

“Come on!” Gem said and took off towards the circle. The two boys followed close behind and soon they reached the circle. They stopped and looked at everyone, still frozen in their stony prisons. 

 

“So what now?” Impulse asked, “better question, who now?” 

 

“Well, maybe Grian. Or Martyn,” Scott said and he explained his reasoning. Grian was the creator of the game, and Martyn was in near constant communication with the watchers who ran the games. 

 

Gem let her eyes wander to the statue of Pearl, and she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Impulse, but he wasn’t looking at her. His eyes were locked with Scott’s, and Scott gave a knowing look. 

 

“Gem?” Scott asked softly. Gem looked down then back at the boys. 

 

“Yeah?” 

 

“You ok?” He asked and she nodded. She hadn’t noticed Scott handing the end item or the overworld item to Impulse. He turned her to face him and Gem looked away from Pearl’s statue. 

 

“Sorry, guess I’m just a little…” Gem wasn’t sure how to finish her sentence and Scott nodded a little bit. 

 

“Off? I get it, I’ve been a little off since the games too,” 

 

“I’ve noticed,” she said. “You been tense around me,” 

 

“Yeah. I know,” Scott murmured and then he smiled. “And I’m sorry about it. I guess I’ve been tense since the whole boogey curse you had. But I’m good now,” Scott said and then glanced past her. 

 

“Yeah? You aren't afraid of me anymore?” Scott nodded in response to Gems question and then there was a magic sounding chime from behind her. She turned and saw Impulse holding a book, standing in front of Pearl’s statue. 

 

Congratulations, you’ve made a selection. A friend to set free, but remember this challenge includes three. 

 

Three items you’ll look for, collect them and bring them to me. Back in double life, you’ll find the answers you seek. 

 

Pearl was bound and tied to a traitorous soulmate, and items were used to insure damage was done, collect a chest and she will be won

 

“What in the name of the void does that mean?!” Impulse asked after he finished reading it. 

 

“Oh,” Scott said and he looked at the ground. Gem gave him a confused look and Impulse crossed his arms.

 

“What do you know Smajor?” Impulse asked and Scott let out a sigh. 

 

“This isn’t the hardest task we could get. All it is asking for is what me and Pearl used to harm each other on purpose. Three items. Easy, a diamond axe, a bucket of powdered snow, and probably a fishing rod,” Scott said. 

 

“That should be easy,” Gem said and felt excited. Then she paused and turned to face Impulse. “Hang on, why Pearl? I thought we were gonna do Grian or Martyn,” 

 

“Don’t worry about it. Pearl is a watcher, she might have answers. Besides, it’s too late now,” Impulse said and Gem crossed her arms. 

 

“You two planned this, didn’t you?” 

 

“Yup,” Scott said and slung an arm around Gems shoulders. “Let’s get to the house. We can worry about getting snow in the morning. We can easily make the axe and rod,” Scott squeezed Gems shoulder before removing his hand from her and starting to head back to the cottage. 

 

Gem knew they would need to worry about getting Pearl a bed later, but for now all she could think about was how excited she was to see her best friend again. The soup group would be back together again!

 

Gem went back with the boys and they let Scott get the axe and fishing rod, which he simply dropped in the same chest as the rest of the materials for the items. 

 

The next morning they took to the sky, thankfully it was never hard to get rockets since they had made a creeper farm a while back, along with a sugar cane farm. 

 

They flew across the skies, looking for snow. They spotted a mountain with thick snow on the ground and landed. Impulse landed wrong and started to sink into the ground, but thankfully Scott and Gem managed to pull him up and scoop the snow from the ground. 

 

They flew back home, landing and heading inside. Scott put the bucket in the chest and they headed to bed for the night. Gem could barely sleep, so she was up early in the morning and couldn’t help but smile when she saw her two Scott’s. 

 

Impulse was laying on his bed, but on top of him was Smajor, both boys were fast asleep. 

 

They woke up a bit after her and Scott gathered the items so they could get back Pearl. 

 

Then they headed back to the stone circle to hand the three items to the watchers.

Chapter 9: A Full Moon

Gem watched as a chest appeared in the middle of the circle, and Scott easily dropped all three items into it. Then in a flash of black it vanished and they stood there in confusion. Gen started to feel disappointed, thinking they didn’t get it right and she would have to wait longer before seeing Pearl. 

 

It happened a minute later, Pearls statue went from stone to obsidian before it started to crack. All three watched as the obsidian coating fell to the floor and dissolved, and they all ran to catch the collapsing watcher. 

 

Impulse ran behind Pearl and she tipped back, landing in his arms and groaning. Her eyes were closed and she was limp, so the three figured that bringing her back to the cottage was the best choice. 

 

Impulse carried her and they walked, and Gem studied Pearl’s unconscious figure. Her wings were tightly chained together, signaling she hadn’t been in the end yet. They hadn’t appeared on the statue and Gem didn’t remember them showing up in the game, maybe Pearl and Grian lost their wings during the games? 

 

“We can put her in my bed for now. I can wait with her until she wakes up,” Gem offered and the other two agreed. They would work on getting more items for the things to free their friends.

 

So Gem sat and waited for Pearl to wake up, she busied herself with making food and farming, checking up on Pearl every little bit. It would be nice to have her back. 

 

Another thing Gem had noticed was that the shield Pearl had been holding in the statue wasn’t there, it was more likely that everyone lost their inventories upon spawning into the world. Like any true Minecraft world. 

 

Gem put the wheat in a chest and dipped inside again, the boys were currently in the going after netherite and things for end crystals. Gem held a bowl of mushroom soup, and she dropped it when she reached the top of the stairs. Soup spilled everywhere, but that wasn’t what Gem cared about in the moment. 

 

“Pearl!” The girl called in excitement. Pearl was sitting up, looking really confused but she jumped back when she heard Gems' voice. Pearl's hand instinctively went to where her sword would be, only to look confused when it wasn’t there.

 

“Stay back,” the Australian accent said and Gem paused before tilting her head. They were the soup group, why did Pearl…

 

Oh

 

“Hey, I’m not here to hurt you,” 

 

“Yeah right,” Pearl hissed and Gem sighed. They had been on the opposite side of the last battle, enemies despite everything that had ever happened to them. 

 

“This isn’t a life game. I promise. I swear,” Gem still made no move, not wanting to spook Pearl more than she already had. “Pearl, it’s me. It’s Gem, the elf who lives across the river,” Gem tried again to convince Pearl and Pearl looked her up and down. 

 

“You still look like the Gem I fought, but somehow I do trust you,” she said and Gem took a small step forward. Pearl stood up and walked over to her, hugging her and Gem happily returned the hug with a tight grip.

 

“Welcome back,” 

 

“Where are we?” 

 

“Uhhhh…we don’t know?” Gem phrased it like a question and Pearl sighed, black wings shifting close to her. “It’s weird, me, Impulse and Scott woke up here after dying,” 

 

“Huh, I…odd,” Pearl said and went silent in thought. Gem handed her the book they got on day one and Pearl opened it. She looked so confused, but she read it and her face twisted into even more confusion if at all possible. 

 

“Do you know what it means?” Gem asked hopefully and Pearl gave her a look that Gem understood. 

 

“I do not,” Pearl said and Gem sat down on the bed with her. “How did I get here?” 

 

“Oh…uh…long story short there’s a stone circle where all our friends are statues and we have to craft these things to free you guys,” Gem said and Pearl nodded slowly. 

 

“And you had the choice of anyone in the games?” 

 

“Anyone in secret life,” Gem confirmed and the watcher looked at her with an unreadable expression. 

 

“As much as I appreciate being freed, I think, don’t you think Grian would’ve been a better choice?” 

 

“I thought that’s who we were going to awaken, but Impulse chose you,” Gem explained and Pearl nodded. 

 

“Sorry I’m not more help. But hey, maybe we can free Grian quickly,” Gem nodded in agreement with the Grian thing and her communicator buzzed.

 

<ImpulseSV was doomed to fall> 

 

Gems eyes widened as she read the note and a moment later Impulse was sitting up in bed. His breathing was ragged and Gem was instantly by his side and checking on him. 

 

“I’m fine…just spooked I guess,” Impulse said and Gem smiled softly at him. “Ghast got me. We were heading back. We got enough for a few crystals, but netherite is something we still need to touch on,” Impulse told her. 

 

“Well, on the brighter side of things,” Gem said as she stepped to the side to reveal Pearl, who was still sitting in her bed. “Look who’s awake,”

 

“Pearl!” Impulse cried out with relief. He got out of bed and hugged her. Pearl hugged him back and for a moment Gem wondered if Pearl felt safe after realizing they weren’t in the game or if her original fear had been caused by Gem alone. 

 

“Hey Impulse,” she said with a crooked smile. 

 

“I’m glad you’re awake,” Impulse told her and the three chatted for a while while waiting for Scott.

 

By this point the three moved downstairs and were just waiting for the pretty Scott, as the joke went. Gem glanced over at Pearl when a hand grabbed hers but Pearl kept talking with Impulse. 

 

Eventually Scott walked in and smiled seeing Pearl. They hugged and Gem really hoped that Pearl just felt safe knowing they weren’t in the games. 

 

“So nothing then?” Scott asked and Pearl confirmed that she had no clue what the watchers were planning “Void!” Scott cursed softly and Impulse put a hand on his shoulder 

 

“So what? We have enough stuff for the end crystals, but we still need netherite,” Gem said and Impulse nodded. 

 

“How about we make it a game? Boys versus girls? We spend a day getting ancient debris and whoever has more gets to choose who we help free next,” Impulse proposed and all of them liked that idea. 

 

Night time came down pretty quickly so they made Pearl a bed and shoved it in a little corner. They would need to expand the house or make something else later down the road, but for now that wasn’t an issue. 

Chapter 10: A Nether Race

The next morning rolled around and Gem woke up to another body squeezed into bed with her. She was greeted with brown hair in her face and arms around her neck, she took a moment to realize it was simply Pearl. 

 

Pearl started to wake up, letting out a small noise as Gem locked eyes with her. 

 

“Good morning Pearl!” Gem greeted sweetly and Pearl smiled right back at her. 

 

“Good morning Gem,” Pearl said and Gem glanced at the other two beds. Scott was starting to wake up in his own beds. Gem wasn’t even sure how Pearl had gotten into her bed, but apparently it had happened. 

 

“Wake up, we’ve got a race today!” Impulse said as he came up the stairs, holding four bowls of soup. It was impressive that he could balance four bowls like that. He handed everyone a bowl and they ate quickly. 

 

They then proceeded to make sure Pearl was geared up, including getting her wings unchained. They grabbed shulker boxes and beds to get ready to go collect netherite. 

 

It took a bit to get to the nether but they set a timer for a few hours, then they split up and got to work. The boys took off and the girls stayed near the portal, heading into a netherrack that was above the portal. 

 

“Alright Gem, are we ready?” Pearl asked and Gem put a hand to her forehead in a salute. 

 

“Yes we are!” She replied and they decided to stick together. While they did this, Gem caught Pearl up on everything that had happened to them in that world so far, and they searched for ancient debris. 

 

“Wow. I thought we would just return to hermitcraft after Scar killed me,” Pearl said and Gem gave her a soft look. 

 

 

“So did we. Imagine our shock upon waking up here,” Gem said. “And that circle, waking up there and seeing that was rough,” Gem explained and Pearl gave her a look. 

 

“I can imagine. But you’re doing good so far. I mean, I’m here,” Pearl said, clearly trying to be helpful. 

 

“Yeah. And thankfully the challenge that came with it was easy. But who knows what else we’ll face to free everyone else,” 

 

“Maybe it won’t be that bad,” 

 

“I don’t know Pearl,” Gem stopped what she was doing and looked at the watcher. “I mean, these challenges are supposed to be from every game there was. I’ve only been in secret life,” Gem said and Pearl placed a hand on her shoulder. 

 

“And you have Scott and Impulse. Those two have been in every game, and the only one I missed was the first one,” Pearl said and Gem nodded, it made her feel a little better. 

 

“Thanks Pearl. Maybe we’ll have some answers very soon,” Gem said and Pearl hugged her. Gem hugged her back and they focused on getting the ancient debris from the netherrack. 

 

“Here! Look!” Gem said as she found two directly next to each other. 

 

“Now we’re rolling! We just need to beat the boys,” Pearl gave her a cheeky smile, and Gem returned it. They collected the debris and kept moving, using beds to clear the way. 

 

They were cautious but they knew the world had respawn, they just didn’t know if there was a limit. Plus losing all their stuff would suck. 

 

They worked for another few hours and ended up finding three more pieces of ancient debris. 

 

Her communicator buzzed so Gem pulled it out and checked it. The boys had messaged on it and she showed it to Pearl before replying. 

 

<ImpulseSV> Times up girls 

 

<Smajor> Meet us at the cottage and we can find out who won

 

<GeminiTay> We’ll meet you there

 

They headed back to the portal, beating Scott and Impulse back to the cottage and waiting downstairs for them to show up. The two came in and Impulse grinned, dropping a few pieces of ancient debris on the table. 

 

“Nice try,” Gem said as she counted how many her Scott’s had collected, it came to four, and she gave them a sweet smile. 

 

“I hate when she gets that look,” Scott murmured and Pearl dug out their five pieces and laid them on the table. 

 

“Fine, alright. You girls win,” Impulse said and he received a smile from both Gem and Pearl. 

 

“So what was the deal? They choose who we free next?” Scott asked and Impulse nodded. Gem and Pearl shared a look and there was a silent conclusion that there was only one person who had the answers. 

 

And that was Grian. 

 

“We choose that pesky bird,” Pearl answered the unasked question and Gem nodded. 

 

“Grian might be able to get us out of here early. Maybe free our friends without much hassle,” Gem told them and Scott nodded. 

 

“You’ve got a point. Grian’s probably the best person to help us. Besides, having someone else that’s played every game, and won the first one, is probably a good thing,” Scott said and Pearl posed a question.

 

“What if we free all the winners. I mean that’s you, me, Grian, Martyn, and Scar,” Pearl pointed out. “Do you think the watchers will give us anything for that?” 

 

“Knowing what watchers are like, probably not. I wouldn’t trust them,” Scott said and Pearl looked down. “Well, most of them,” Gem frowned at Scott for the comment and he gave a guilty look. 

 

“Well, maybe that’s something we work towards. We get Grian, Martyn, and then Scar,” Impulse told them and they all agreed. The sun outside started to set so Impulse put the ancient debris in the furnace and they headed upstairs. 

 

Maybe they would craft some pieces tomorrow and be a step closer to freeing the other watcher that played in the life series. 

 

Instead of Pearl going to sleep in her own bed though, this time she just climbed into bed with Gem, and Gem happily accepted the cuddles and she quickly fell into a relaxed sleep. 

Chapter 11: A Collection

Notes:

Thanks for everyone who’s stuck with the story this far! Things are about to get more hectic in a struggle to free Grian

The next morning rolled around really quickly, and very soon the four players had woken up and gotten ready for their day. They still had one overworld piece, and Gem watched as Scott crafted two more end pieces and Impulse made two more nether pieces. They placed the extra pieces in the chest and Gem picked up the overworld one. 

 

“Well then, off to free Grian I guess?” Pearl asked and they all nodded. 

 

“I wonder what the quest will be this time,” Gem said out loud as they flew the short distance to the stone circle. Gem glanced at Pearl after they landed. 

 

Pearl had frozen and was looking around in shock, and Gem remembered this was her first time seeing the statues. 

 

“Oh my goodness. That’s…that’s horrifying,” Pearl whispered, and Gem knew she noticed how everyone was posed. “I was like that?” She asked and Impulse nodded. 

 

“But don’t worry Pearl, we can do this. I hope,” Impulse then walked forward with the nether piece and placed it onto the pedestal, and Scott followed his lead. 

 

Gem finally approached, placing the overworld piece down on the pedestal. She hadn’t gotten to see what happened the first time since Scott had been distracting her, but she watched as they all started to glow. 

 

Gem stepped back, using her hand to shield herself from the light. A book appeared in a flash of purple and black, hovering until Pearl reached out and grabbed it. 

 

“What does it say?” Scott asked and Gem peered over Pearls shoulder. 

 

Quickly done, soon you’ll have quickly won. This challenge though needs a ton. 

 

Across the games, Grian has made his name, his claim to fame. Representations are a must if you want him back, look into what he never lacked. 

 

Collecting stacks should be easy, but can you recall all the alliances that should have made him queasy? 

 

“It wants us to collect something for each alliance he had?” Gem asked suddenly wishing that she had paid more attention to all the stories Grian had shared with her about the games and his experience. 

 

“It seems like it,” Scott said and frowned. “Let’s get a list together, come on,” Scott launched into the sky and took off towards the house. Gem and Pearl launched themselves up as well and Impulse followed. 

 

They made it back to the cottage and sat down, Impulse fished out an empty book and joined them. 

 

“Ok. So what alliances has Grian had?” Gem asked and Scott quickly answered. 

 

“Desert duo, the southlands, Scar in double life, the bad boys, and he teamed with Etho and Cleo in this last one,” Scott said, listing things off as he thought. 

 

“He also had BigB as a secret soulmate,” Impulse reminded them as he wrote that stuff down. 

 

“So we need…sand and dark oak for 3rd life,” Scott said out loud and Impulse nodded. “A stack of each, right?” 

 

“The southlands, we had the spy glasses. So maybe five of those,” Impulse spoke up as he wrote it down. 

 

“Bamboo for double life,” Pearl stated quickly, “plus cookies for the secret soulmate stuff,” Gem listened as they talked, feeling useless. She didn’t know this stuff, she didn’t play in those seasons. 

 

“Limited life they had the bread bridge,” Scott continued. “And didn’t they set loose a warden and wither in secret life?” 

 

“They did. So maybe three skulls as well?” Impulse got the confirmation nod from both Scott and Pearl so he wrote those down and set the book down. “So what’s the best way to handle this?” 

 

“Maybe we split up? Some of us go tackle the wither skulls while the other two gather everything else?” Scott suggested and they all agreed. Gem remained quiet, not quite caring what was going to happen. 

 

“Me and Gem can go do the wither skulls. Pearl, Scott, can you two handle everything else?” Impulse asked and they both agreed. Gem nodded in some form of acknowledgment to Impulse, not wanting to ignore him. 

 

“Alright. We do that tomorrow. Are your swords fully enchanted?” Scott asked and Impulse nodded. 

 

“I think so. As long as they have looting three, which they do,” he sounded proud of himself with that. They all split up and Gem went outside to do some of the farming. 

 

“Gem?” Scott’s voice cut through the air after a while. She turned to see him coming towards her and she smiled at him. “You were quiet today, you alright?” 

 

“Yeah. I guess,” he didn’t look convinced so she just sighed. “I’ve only played in secret life, and filled in during limited life once. Seeing you all talk about past alliances and representations made me realize how…” Gem wasn’t sure what word she was looking for. 

 

“Left out?” He filled in for her and she nodded, glad he understood where she was going with it. 

 

“Yeah,” 

 

“Oh Gem. GeminiTay,” he sounded amused almost and his hands cupped her face. “You don’t know how much we all wanted you to play before. But it just never happened. Don’t worry about that, most people haven’t played in them all-“ 

 

“You and Impulse have. And Pearl played in all but one,” 

 

“Maybe, but Mumbo or Lizzie have only played in two. You don’t need to worry about only playing in secret life,” Scott was a comforting presence, he always was, but it didn’t help the feeling of loneliness in her stomach. 

 

“This hasn’t happened before. Maybe I was better off not playing. If I didn’t play then we wouldn’t be here,” Gem gestured to the world around her. Scott sighed and shook his head. 

 

“I don’t know what I have to do to convince you that you belong with us. Besides, the watchers do what the watchers want,” Scott reminded her. “Truth be told, I bet they’re just mad that Jimmy didn’t die first,” Scott whispered and Gem giggled a little bit. 

 

“Thanks Scott,” 

 

“Anything for our lead singer,” Scott threw an arm around her shoulder and Gem gave him a genuine smile. 

Chapter 12: Withered Skulls

The next morning Gem woke up before everyone else and got ready for her day. She made sure to have her armor on, an ender chest with her, and her wings in case they decided to use them for the nether. 

 

Impulse woke up shortly after, and they decided to leave in silence before the other two woke up. After stepping into the hot air of the nether, Gem downed a fire resistance potion and they set on their way. 

 

She followed Impulse, both walking in silence across the harsh climate but thankfully the fortress wasn’t too far away. They climbed up to a flat area and set up a small base where they placed down a respawn anchor. 

 

“When did we get that?” She asked and Impulse looked over as he placed glowstone in it. 

 

“I made it before coming here. I didn’t feel like having to make that walk back without armor if one of us died,” he explained as he set his spawn and Gem did the same. Her communicator buzzed with the achievement and she didn’t bother to look at it. 

 

“Great. So we’re ready then?” Gem asked as she finished the last of the preparations by putting down the ender chest and setting up a three high blockade thing to prevent the wither skeletons from getting them. 

 

“Yeah. I think so. Ready?” He asked and she nodded. It would actually be nice to hang out with Impulse, it felt like it had been quite a while since they had done anything together. 

 

“Have we actually done anything just the two of us since we got here?” Gem asked, racking her mind for an answer that came up blank. 

 

“I don’t think so. I’ve either been alone, with Scott, or with both of you,” he said and Gem was a little thrown. 

 

“Huh, I guess that explains why I’m not getting anything in my mind,” she said and Impulse laughed. They both put on their chest plates and got ready to take on some wither skeletons. 

 

“Yeah. I figured Scott needed the time,” Impulse said as they exited the little safe haven they made. Gem swung her sword towards a wither skeleton and glanced at Impulse. 

 

“You knew he was having issues with me,” she accused him, but she wasn’t angry. Far from it actually, it was nice to know that those two were close. Maybe to close for friends if you asked her. 

 

“Yeah. He talked about it when we first entered the nether,” Impulse said and picked up some coal and bones. “He asked me not to say anything so I tried to let you two spend time together-“ 

 

“So that he remembered I wasn’t someone who wanted him dead?” Impulse nodded as she finished his sentence. “Comforting,” she muttered and Impulse made it to her side. He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. 

 

“But you heard him while in that circle, when we were freeing Pearl. He’s not scared anymore,” 

 

“How do we know he wasn’t just saying that?” 

 

“Because it’s Scott. And he isn’t mean enough to lie about that,” Impulse reminded her and she nodded a little bit. That did make her feel quite a bit better if she was being honest. 

 

“Thanks Impulse,” she said and he departed from her side again, going back to fighting the wither skeletons. He got a skull from one of them and she flashed a bright smile towards him.

 

While they took on the skeletons, they continued to just talk the entire time. It was nice, and for a while Gem forgot she was anywhere but hermitcraft. 

 

“So, what’s going on between you and Scott?” She eventually asked and he froze for a moment, then gave her a weird look and spoke quicker than he normally did. 

 

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said and impaled another skeleton. “Nothing is going on. That’s right nothing,” 

 

“Uh huh. Sure it’s not. That’s why you two keep ending up in the same bed. Keep sharing secret glances,” she said and gave him a look. “I’m your best friend Impulse, you can tell me,” 

 

“No. I mean there’s nothing right now. I like him, I do,” Impulse was more relaxed when he spoke this time. “But I just…he’s always had a thing for Jimmy. Or Martyn during limited life. Or anyone but me,” 

 

“Oh Impulse. Why don’t you just talk to him?” She asked and he stopped fighting for a moment. 

 

“I…I don’t think I can,” he mumbled and Gem frowned. 

 

“Of course you can,” she tried to tell him when he let out a loud yelp. She turned to see he was struck and his hand went to where he was hit. He steadied a grip on his sword and slammed it into the skeleton before making a break for it. 

 

“Uhhh, I’m low!” Impulse called and she turned to follow him back to their mini base. She didn’t pull her bow out fast enough and she watched as a wither skeleton sliced him again. Impulse made a noise of pain. 

 

“Run! I’ll cover you,” she yelled back and he stumbled the rest of the way to their setup. Gem made it over there a moment later and Impulse didn’t look so good. “Impulse?” She asked and he pulled out some food to eat. 

 

“I’m sorry,” he murmured and then he just collapsed and his body disappeared in a puff of gray with his stuff scattering. She didn’t worry about it too much, ignoring the buzz her communicator gave her. 

 

But when the respawn anchor flashed and activated, instead of seeing Impulse collecting his stuff, she was faced with a stone statue of him. 

 

He was on his knees, mouth open slightly as he tried to breathe. His face was sunken in from the wither disease, and part of him looked like it was starting to decay. All frozen in stone.

 

Gem shakily pulled out her communicator and glanced through the worried messages from Scott and Pearl before typing her own message out. 

 

<GeminiTay> He turned to stone

 

<Pearlescentmoon> What? 

 

<GeminiTay> He’s stone. He’s stuck in the nether 

 

<Smajor> Stay where you are, I’m coming for you

 

And Gem couldn’t help but sit down and listen

Chapter 13: A Stony Prison

Scott arrived shortly after that, landing in the little safe area quickly. He stopped to dump all of the items into a chest, and check the wither skulls before he knelt down in front of Gem and hugged her. 

 

“What happens now?” Gem whispered, becoming more aware of the fact she was shaking. Impulse was stone, she hadn’t been able to help him. She had failed at keeping him safe, both here and in Secret Life. 

 

“Well what happened?” Scott asked and Gem took a small breath. She looked up from the ground and met Scott’s eyes. He looked worried, and for a moment he glanced behind her to see the statue of Impulse. 

 

“He died. Or he was supposed to at least. A wither skeleton hit him…” her eyes traveled to the unmoving statue and then landed back on the brightly colored man in front of her. 

 

“Three,” Scott muttered and Gem tilted her head. “Of course, it’s not just respawn being on. That would be too easy,” 

 

“What do you mean?” She asked and Scott held up a hand before holding one finger up. 

 

“One, death by warden,” Scott held up a second finger. “Two, doomed to fall. And three,” Scott signaled around and Gem understood what he meant. 

 

“So we just don’t escape the three lives? We live in fear of dying?” She asked and the feeling in her chest made her feel helpless. Scott sighed and pulled Gem to her feet, the girl tilting her head. 

 

“Did we live in fear of dying during Secret Life? I mean other than the final battle,” he said and Gem shook her head. She hadn’t been afraid of dying at that point either, she just wanted to kill. “So we don’t pull that shit here. We get these skulls, we free Grian, then we worry about Impulse,” Scott reminded her and she nodded. 

 

“We have two. We just need to get one more,” she whispered and Scott nodded. Gem grabbed her sword again and took a shaky breath. “Stay close to me?” 

 

“I will,” he promised and the two took on more wither skeletons in order to get that final skull. Gem was distracted though, not that she could really be blamed. 

 

Scott kept his word, sticking close to her and keeping her safe. And in turn she did the same, kept him safe. 

 

“I got it!” Gem called over to Scott and grabbed the skull from the now dead wither skeleton. “Can we get out of here now?” She asked and Scott nodded. They rushed back to the safe area to gather what they could, and Gem changed back into her wings with rockets in hand. 

 

Scott took to the hot sky of the nether and Gem cast one last glance at Impulse's frozen figure before she followed him back to their portal. 

 

Gem went in first, letting the cool air wash over her. When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by Pearl taking her hand and pulling her close. Gem leaned into the embrace, unmoving as she tried to process everything that had happened. 

 

“Come on Gem,” Pearl said gently and tugged her towards the house. Gem glanced over her shoulder and saw Scott step out of the swirling purple portal. Pearl tugged her all the way upstairs and Gem just leaned into Pearl's arms once on the bed. 

 

“He’s gone, Pearl. I couldn’t help him,” Gem finally broke down, starting to cry and Pearl tightened her grip. 

 

“He’s not gone forever. We will get him back. It’s not your fault Gem, you did everything you could,” Pearl whispered and stroked her hair, gently tugging fingers through whatever little knots she came across. “I promise,” 

 

“I was distracting him. I didn’t mean to, but he wasn’t fully focused. I couldn't get the wither skeleton away from him in time. Couldn’t reach my healing potion to throw at him,” Gem was spiraling, thoughts clouding her mind. 

 

“Oh GeminiTay,” Pearl shushed her and held her tightly. Scott eventually came up and sat on the edge of the bed, and Gem glanced back at him. 

 

“I’ll go get Grian tomorrow. You two can stay here-”

 

“No, I’m coming with you. I lost Impulse, I want to see Grian,” Gem cut him off and Scott nodded. 

 

“We can all go. Maybe spending more time in the circle will give me some answers. If its a watcher thing at least,” Pearl told him and Scott sighed. 

 

“Alright. We have what we need to free Grian, meaning that afterwards we need to find another deep dark, for some more echo shards,” Scott murmured. “We can strip mine until we find a second one or we can fly in a random direction until we find one,”

 

Gem knew what he was doing by focusing on the next task at hand, it was a distraction technique. 

 

And she was very glad it was working. 

 

“Maybe we see what Grian has to say too. I’m still sure that he or Martyn will have answers,” Pearl told them. “They have both always been closer to the watchers than I have. At least for the Life Games,” Pearl murmured. 

 

“We’ve got this. A minor setback-,” Gem winced at Scotts words. “But nothing hard or impossible to fix. We really only need echo shards,” 

 

“So we free Grian then we look for a deep dark?” Gem asked but Scott was looking past her and a glance at Pearl revealed that the two were having a silent conversation. 

 

“Alright. I’ll locate an ancient city tomorrow. You two free Grian and make sure he’s ok,” Scott said and Gem felt panic spike through her. 

 

“Alone?” 

 

“Yeah. I think I can handle it,” Gem had the worst mental image of Scott being frozen in stone somewhere and them not being able to find him. Scott used warm hands to cup her cheeks. “I’ve only died once Gem, so even if things did go bad then I would reappear right here. Unharmed,” he reminded her and Gem gave him a shaky nod in response. 

 

Gem then went limp in Pearls arms as the weight of the entire day hit her, and she quickly fell asleep. 

Chapter 14: A Pesky Bird

Notes:

Imma try and update every 3 days, hopefully. I have so many chapters actually written already, so here’s me trying to get them out of my system.

I also just fucking love this book so much, it’s been so fun to write

The next morning Gem woke up in a tight embrace. Pearl was still holding her, and so she pressed herself closer. Pearl's wings provided a natural blanket of sorts, covering Gem from the outside world. She heard movement and recognized Scott’s footsteps as he moved around the room, hearing himself up for his job. 

 

“Scott,” Gem said and slowly moved off of her bed with Pearl. Scott froze and stared at her, tilting his head for a moment. “You getting ready to go?” 

 

“Yeah. I did the math. Heading in the opposite direction might be best. Majority of them spawn within two thousand blocks from spawn so I’m planning on heading past the circle and hoping for the best,” he explained as he turned to look at her. “Are you two going to be able to get Grian ok?” 

 

“Yeah. We’ve got the easy job. Be safe Scott, if you can find the coordinates then just come back,” she whispered and he hugged her tightly. Gem leaned into it slightly and Scott just gave her a confident smile. 

 

“I’ve got this Gem. Relax. Just worry about getting the pesky bird back here safely,” he told her and kissed her forehead. “I’ve got rockets, food, potions, I’ll be fine,” he said and walked down the stairs. Gem heard the front door open and close and she sat down on her bed next to the still sleeping Pearl. 

 

It was still dark out, meaning that Scott probably hadn’t slept and was antsy about trying to find the ancient city. Which also meant it was incredibly normal for Pearl to still be asleep. 

 

Gem slipped downstairs, keeping her footsteps as quiet as she could. She found the shulker box with everything in it and double checked that everything matched the list Impulse had previously written. 

 

A stack of sand, a stack of dark oak, five spyglasses, a stack of cookies, a stack of bamboo, a stack of bread, and the three wither skeleton skulls. 

 

The same skulls that had been the death of Impulse. 

 

Eventually she just sat down at the table, a bowl of soup sitting in front of her. She finally regained her mind as she decided to prepare things for Grian. They could properly worry about him having a house later, maybe he would even build it(and as long as he finished the back she wouldn’t care). 

 

She stepped outside where the sun was starting to rise, setting fire to the few zombies and skeletons that were out and about. She deflected arrows with her shield, and she approached the wool farm. She grabbed some red wool and walked back inside. 

 

There she crafted a simple red bed, and brought it upstairs. She surveyed the room for a moment. Impulse and Scott had pushed their beds together at the beginning of them being here, probably because they both liked to cuddle together. 

 

Her bed sat in the corner opposite of the boys, having been moved since Pearl had arrived. Right next to her bed, Pearl's dark blue bed had long since been pushed from the other corner. 

 

Gem placed Grian’s bed in the corner where Pearl's bed had originally been, the fourth corner being the home to their staircase. They would seriously need to expand into another cottage. Maybe her and Pearl could do that while Scott looked for the ancient city, after they freed the pesky bird of course. 

 

Glancing over at the watcher showed that she had woken up. Pearl was now sitting up in bed, watching Gem silently before smiling slightly. 

 

“Good morning Pearl!” Gem chirped and Pearl got out of bed. 

 

“Good morning Gem. Looks like someone has been busy,” 

 

“Yup. Scott left early this morning and I figured I would make sure that Grian had a place to sleep. I also figured that after getting him we could probably get working on another cottage,” Gem admitted and Pearl nodded. 

 

“It is a little cramped in here when you add a fifth bed,” Pearl said and Gem couldn’t help but smile as Pearl hugged her. “So, let’s get going then,” Pearl pressed a quick kiss to Gems cheek before leading her downstairs. 

 

The moment they stepped outside they took to the sky. Pearl's black wings allowed her to glide a lot easier than Gem, but it wasn’t like Gem didn’t know how to fly. She just used rockets while Pearl didn’t need to. 

 

Gem landed a second after Pearl, the flight being quick like before. Reaching into her pocket, Gem pulled out the shulker box and put it down. She clutched the book from the watchers, and in a flash there was a chest sitting in the middle of the circle. 

 

Silently they emptied their pockets into the chest and it vanished in a bright flash. The book in Gems hand started to glow, and it slowly lifted into the sky before exploding in a flash of black and purple sparkles. They didn’t have Pearl's book when they freed her, so it caught Gem almost off guard. 

 

Like before the stone turned to black obsidian before peeling off and revealing Grian. His sword and shield vanished from his hand as well, leaving him unarmored. Gem realized that Grian had been backing up and she rushed to catch him as he fell backwards. 

 

She laid him on the ground and took note that he was unconscious, much like Pearl had been. Pearl walked over and studied him, then smiled at Gem. 

 

“Let’s get him home, yeah?” 

 

“Yeah. Let’s,” Gem replied. “Help me carry him?” She asked and picked him up. She honestly expected him to be heavier than he was, but he was a watcher and a bird so he was incredibly light. “Never mind, I got it,” Pearl laughed and the two ended up walking back to the cottage. 

 

Gem laid Grian down on the bed she had previously put in the corner and she pulled her communicator from her pocket. 

 

<GeminiTay> We got Grian

 

<Smajor> Good job

<Smajor> I’m about to enter the ancient city I found

 

<PearlescentMoon> Good luck

 

They didn’t get a further response than that and both girls looked at each other. 

 

“I guess let’s build a cottage while we wait,” Pearl said and Gem broke into a grin.

Chapter 15: A New House

Gem and Pearl spent a few hours gathering materials for the next cottage they would build. Hopefully they could put the next few people in it. For now at the very least. The girls alternated who checked on Grian every while, yet the watcher remained out cold. 

 

While gathering materials they also spent some time getting together a shulker box of gear for Grian, so that they didn’t need to worry about that in the future. 

 

Soon they were building the new cottage.

 

In Secret Life Gem and the Scott’s had built three cottages with the same types of wood. Cherry, oak, and birch. Each alternating between using one for the walls, one for the roof, and one for the floor. So Gem decided to use that as how they built this cottage. 

 

The first cottage her and Scott had built together had a birch floor, cherry walls, and an oak roof. This new one however would have birch walls, a cherry roof, and an oak floor. 

 

Once again they made sure it was two floors, the bottom one for some storage and a kitchen, while the top would have room for maybe three people without cramming them. 

 

The cottage was slightly smaller than the original one, but Gem also didn’t really want to cram everyone into a single cottage or two. Maybe they could make a small village and let people pick where they lived. 

 

She’d have to talk to Impulse and Scott. 

 

Once Scott got back, and once they freed Impulse. 

 

She shook the dark thoughts creeping into her mind and kept building with Pearl, finding she could almost forget they weren’t in hermitcraft or somewhere they knew. 

 

She did check her communicator, relieved as Scott seemed alive and fine since there hadn’t been any death messages, but also felt worried as he hadn’t said he was coming back yet. She hoped he had just forgotten to say something, she hoped nothing would go wrong. 

 

“Gem,” Pearl's voice startled her from the worry and she looked at the watcher. Pearl's black wings flexed and she wore a concerned expression as she studied Gem. “You alright?” She asked and Gem gave her a weak smile. 

 

“Yeah. I’m ok,” she responded and Pearl didn’t look convinced. Right now they were inside the new cottage, detailing the downstairs to make it a little more cozy. “I promise,” 

 

“Fine, if you insist. I think we’re done here, should we go check on Grian?” She asked and Gem nodded. They stepped outside where the sun was setting, Scott had been gone all day and Grian hadn’t woken up yet. 

 

“When was the last time we checked on him?” Gem asked, realizing she didn’t remember seeing him since they started to build. Pearl frowned and then gave Gem the equivalent of the yikes emoji. “So not since we were grinding for materials. Got it,” Gem mumbled and they walked into the original cottage. 

 

Gem closed the door behind her and Pearl, and then movement in the kitchen caught her eye. Grian was standing there, staring at them with wide eyes. Excitement filled Gem and she quickly moved towards him but paused when Grian took a step back and looked defensive. 

 

Gem froze, was he scared of her? 

 

Of course he was going to be scared of her, and once again she felt like an idiot. She had been the reason he lost his third and last life, of course he would be defensive. Grian had worked with Cleo and Etho, and despite their little alliances throughout the series she was still the one to eliminate him. 

 

She remembered cornering him underground, Scott and Impulse backing him into a corner, Grian pushing past them, Scott breaking Grians grip on his shield, and her cutting through him as he tried to escape. 

 

He had done a lot of damage to them during the three vs one fight, but his teammates were already dead during that fight. And they had taken over eight hearts away from him, ending his game and taking whatever win he could have possibly gotten. 

 

“Grian?” She asked softly and Grian gave her a very untrusting look, remaining silent while his black eyes remained wide and almost panicked. “We aren’t going to hurt you. We’re friends here,” she said and took a small step towards him. 

 

“What in the name of evolution is going on?” Grian demanded finally, still looking ready to bolt. 

 

“We don’t know yet. That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Pearl explained. “And I know right now it’s all a little overwhelming but I promise you’re safe,” she said and Grian scanned the two girls in front of him. 

 

“Me and Pearl have been on opposite sides the entire game, Grian, if this was the same series we would be against each other. Right?” She asked and his shoulders just sagged. 

 

“Right,” he mumbled and Gem dug in her pockets before finding the shulker box. Grian flinched as Gem tossed it to him and gave him a small smile. 

 

“Something to help you get started here. There’s a lot we need to explain, and there’s a lot we hope you have answers for,” Gem explained and Grian nodded as he set down the shulker box and opened it, equipping the armor and putting the sword on his belt. Gem ignored the buzzing from her communicator as Grian got a bunch of achievements, and the chains around his black wings melted into thin air upon touching the elytra wings. He wouldn’t actually need them but in order to free his real wings he needed to touch them, much like how they freed Pearl's wings. 

 

“I guess you better start explaining then,” Grian said, stretching his wings out while Gem signaled for him to sit at the table. Her and Pearl sat down with him and Gem explained everything he knew. 

 

“Wait, can I see that book? The one you got originally?” Grian asked and Gem nodded. Impulse at some point had put it in an item frame on the wall, probably so they didn’t lose it in their slightly messy storage system. 

 

They should make a proper, organized, storage system later.

 

Grian was silent as Gem handed him the book and he slowly read it over, lips pursed together and frowning as his eyes scanned the words. 

 

“Well, you certainly made them mad and I can’t help but feel a little responsible,” Grian said and both Pearl and Gem gave him confused looks. “I created the games, it wasn’t supposed to be like this though. It shouldn’t matter who wins, but apparently they care,”

 

“Hang on, you don’t mean that you feel responsible for us being here?” Pearl asked and Grian shook his head.

 

“Not being here, not exactly,” he said and stood up, starting to pace back and forth. “The watchers love to rig the game. The canary curse for example, but they also like certain people to win. In this case you and the Scotts,” 

 

“But how does that make you responsible?” Gem tilted her head and Grian gave her a sheepish look as he stopped his short-lived pacing, “Grian?” her tone sounded a little dangerous when she spoke and he looked at the ground, kicking at it a little.

 

“I knew they wanted you guys to win, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t care who won. Though maybe Scott wouldn’t win since he already got one but anyway,” Grian explained, shaking his head when he started to go off topic. “In our little fight where you killed me I dealt a lot of damage. Damage that was indirectly responsible for Scar’s win,” 

 

“Hang on, that wouldn’t make sense. That’s like saying that by helping Scar kill Gem I was somewhat responsible for Scar's win and ending up here,” Pearl sounded almost offended in her accusation. 

 

“No, because I was well aware of what I was doing. I knew who they wanted to win and I knew that damage would make it unlikely, if even possible, for them to win,” Grian quickly defended his statement and Gem felt like her head was spinning. “I just wanted my games back, and I thought that by changing the winner then…”

 

“They would give it back?” Gem asked softly and Grian nodded. 

 

“I’m sorry. This is mostly my fault,” he said and Gem looked at him, hating how guilty he looked. 

 

“No, it’s not. This is something the watchers did, not you. I lost, they’re mad, and now we have to live with it all,” Gem told him and got a small smile from Grian. “Right now, It’s about us trying to free Impulse and then the others,” 

 

“Then what are we waiting for?” Pearl asked and the three started to figure out what to do while waiting for Scott's return home. 

Chapter 16: Alarming Message

Gem checked the chest with all the pieces for the artifacts, as that's what she decided to call them. They had one end artifact, one nether artifact, and zero overworld artifacts. Finding materials laying in the chest she added two more end artifacts to the collection. 

 

“We need more ancient debris if we want to make more nether things. Maybe more gilded blackstone for later but that's easier to find and get. Scotts getting the echo shards…” Gem trailed off and stood up. 

 

“So a trip to the nether?” Grian asked and Gem nodded slightly. That was honestly the least appealing thing to her. After the incident with Impulse and him being trapped in stone in that dimension. 

 

“If we go then we can also get more ghast tears for end artifacts, which ironically are the easiest things to make,” Pearl muttered the last part and Grian chuckled. 

 

“I don’t really want to go to the nether if I’m being honest. With everything that happened…” Gem whispered and Pearl gave her a concerned look.

 

“How about me and Pearl go? You wait here for Scott and you two figure out a game plan for what the next step is,” Grian offered and Gem found herself relaxing at the idea of not going. 

 

“I can, but I feel bad for having you two go there alone,” Gem explained and Pearl shrugged. 

 

“It’s fine, Gem. Besides, me and Grian are expert flyers and going through the nether should be easy,” Pearl sounded confident but it did little to settle the fear in Gems chest. 

 

“Be safe?” she asked and Grian smiled at her. “Please? I know you have all three of your lives but still,” she said and Pearl nodded. 

 

“We’ll be safe,” Grian promised and soon enough Gem was watching as they entered the portal. She walked back into the original cottage, figuring she could move Grian’s bed later if he wanted her too. 

 

She went upstairs and pulled out her communicator. She scrolled through the log of achievements from Grian getting his shulker box and heading into the nether. A message did sit there from Scott, which seemed to have been sent in the group of achievements from Grian. 

 

<Smajor> I got one city with 8 shards

 

Gem frowned, not liking the fact that Scott hadn’t returned home after all this time. Unless he set his spawn somewhere else then dying would’ve brought him back here. She checked back for any death messages when a new notification popped up. 

 

<Smajor was obliterated by sonically charged shriek>

 

Her stomach twisted as she looked up, staring at the bed where Scott didn’t appear. A sinking feeling in her chest and she started to shake. Scott had only died twice, he couldn’t be stone. She had no clue where he was. 

 

<Grian> Scott?

<Grian> You ok?

 

<Smajor> I’m fine

<Smajor> I set my spawn next to another ancient city

<Smajor> the echo shards I already collected are in my ender chest

 

<PearlescentMoon> Don’t turn yourself to stone

 

Gem felt the relief flood through her as Scott responded to the other two, at least that meant he was alive. She typed on her communicator for a minute before sending Scott a message. 

 

<GeminiTay whispers to Smajor> Please come home

 

<Smajor whispers to GeminiTay> I’m on my way

<Smajor whispers to GeminiTay> I lost most of my stuff so it might take me a bit

 

<GeminiTay whispers to Smajor> Coords? I can bring you extra wings

 

Scott sent her the coords to a village he was nearby and Gem gathered a shulker box of items, including a set of wings and rockets. Giving Scott this set would dig into their spare amount again. Impulse had one of the spares since he lost the original set when he died to the ghast, and now Scott would need an extra set. 

 

It was lucky that Grian and Pearl didn’t need the wings or Gem might be a little more annoyed than she was at the moment. 

 

This would leave them with three extra sets, meaning another trip to the end at some point. Which would be fine, getting more wings and shulker boxes might be nice. Plus more endrods, not that those were hard to get or make. 

 

Gem flew over the vast set of land, over the mountains and just let the wind blow her hair around. Soon she spotted a village that seemed to align with the coordinates she had been given so she angled down and let the elytra soften her landing. 

 

Her feet touched the ground in the middle of the fountain by the well and she looked around for a familiar cyan haired man. The sun was starting to set anyway so she needed to get inside at some point. 

 

A door opened and closed behind her and she turned to face it. 

 

“Gem!” Scott called, absolutely armorless and weaponless. Gem couldn’t help but smile as she ran towards him, not that it was more than a few blocks, and she tackled him in a hug. 

 

“You are never allowed to do this by yourself again,” she told him and Scott let out a soft laugh with a fond smile over his face. 

 

“Ok, ok. I get that,” Scott said and led her inside the house. “Thanks for coming to get me,”

 

“It took forever to get here by flying. I can’t imagine having to walk the whole way home,” she said, considering she flew over an ocean and multiple mountains and rivers. “Even riding a horse might take forever,” 

 

“Yeah, I thought about that. I guess I should’ve brought an extra set of wings,” he admitted and Gem rolled her eyes. 

 

“Or come home. What were you doing down there anyway?” 

 

“I handled the first one fine, got eight shards from it. Guess I got a little to cocky and decided to take on another one if I could find it,” he explained. 

“You promised you would be safe. You were supposed to come home after the first one,” she said, as they were now over ten thousand blocks away from the cottages. “We were waiting for Grian to wake up,” 

 

“I know and I’m sorry. I finished the first one and I was going to go home, but I got this instead,” he said as he pulled a book from his pocket. Gem gave him a confused look as he passed it over. “It was from the watchers, I…” Scott trailed off and Gem opened the book. 

 

Eight shards from an ancient city, impressively done. Another one lies within a few thousand blocks, can you face it alone?

 

Gather the eight shards from the new city and we will free a friend of your choosing without a challenge or issue, die and you must live with the guilt of failing forever. 

 

The challenge is yours Scott Smajor, good luck or good riddance. 

 

“You did this-”

 

“I wanted to free Impulse. I knew I had two lives left, I wouldn’t have done it if I only had one,” he whispered and Gem stared at him in shock as she handed back the book. “I was scared that if I told you before I attempted the challenge then the watchers would do something bad,” 

 

“Scott. I’m sorry, I didn’t know-“ 

 

“It’s alright. I’m ok, you’re ok. I saw Grian went into the nether, I assume Pearl went with him,” Scott said and Gem would allow the change of conversation happily. 

 

“Yeah. For netherite, gilded Blackstone, and ghast tears. I didn’t want to go, after…” she trailed off and was thankful that Scott knew exactly what she was talking about. 

 

“Hey, it just allowed you to come save me. Oh,” Scott popped up and dug in his ender chest, glancing at Gem over his shoulder. “Just because I died, doesn’t mean I didn’t save these,” he held out a handful of echo shards and Gem took them. 

 

She counted more than eight, he had managed to somehow gather thirteen of them. “How did you-?” 

 

“I ran out of wool while I was down there. When I realized that I decided to keep going in hopes I could still get everything, but I kept my ender chest in my hand,” he explained and Gem nodded a little bit. “The warden heard me and came after me so I dug myself into a hole and started to put things into my ender chest. I only managed to get the shards in before I was killed,” 

 

“That…Scott, do you know how many overworld artifacts we can make now?” She asked, eyes lighting up in pure excitement. 

 

“A lot?” He questioned and she nodded. 

 

“Exactly,” 

Chapter 17: A New Type Of Game

They waited until morning, checking their communicators whenever they buzzed. Mostly with achievements from Grian, but sometimes Pearl got them too. Like when the two entered a bastion. 

 

Thankfully there were no death messages. 

 

Scott and Gem took quick naps before gearing up and taking to the sky once the sun started to rise. Phantoms would thankfully stay away from them because they had slept recently, meaning the flight back should be easy. 

 

“Seven,” Scott finally said as they flew over the ocean. Gem gave him a quizzical look and Scott laughed. “In terms of what overworld items we can make. I got thirteen shards, we already had one if I remember correctly. It takes two for one artifact right?”

 

“Nailed it,” Gem said and Scott flashed a brilliant smile towards her. “Oh, I guess I should tell you what Grian said,” Gem glanced at him and Scott looked a little startled. 

 

“He knows something?” Scott asked and Gem hummed a little bit. 

 

“Kinda,” she said and then explained what Grian had said the day before. Scott was silent for a few minutes after and Gem gave him time to let the information sink in. 

 

“Interesting. It does make sense though. After we free Impulse, the question is do we think Martyn might know more or less than Grian?”

 

“Has he ever known who they wanted to win? Has he ever tried to interfere?” Gem asked, considering that Secret Life had been her first time playing in the games. 

 

“I guess not. So maybe someone else?” Scott asked and Gem shrugged, glancing at the ocean water below her. 

 

“Maybe we talk to Grian and Pearl. It’s possible that Martyn has other information. Plus if we do what Pearl mentioned a while back, freeing the winners, he’s included,” Gem pointed out. Scott nodded and they fell into a comfortable silence the rest of the flight. 

 

Soon the two cottages came into view and Scott let out a small laugh. Gem gave him a quizzical look and Scott nodded his head towards the new cottage. 

 

“Decide our cottage was getting too cramped?” he teased and Gems only reply was sticking out her tongue, which just made Scott laugh harder. They touched down outside and Scott led the way into the original cottage, where Grian and Pearl were talking. 

 

“Gem! Scott!” Pearl exclaimed and walked over, hugging Gem before giving Scott a brief hug. 

 

“Welcome back,” Grian said in a sing-song voice and quickly hugged both Gem and Scott as well. “We have good news,” Grian wore a smile and Gem was never quite sure if that was good or bad. 

 

“Should I be afraid to ask?” Scott asked and Grian gave him a fake offended look. 

 

“Afraid? Of something me and Pearl did-“ 

 

“Oh well, if Pearl was involved I'm sure it can’t be that bad,” Scott sounded sarcastic and Pearl smacked his shoulder. Scott yelled and stepped away from her with a small glare. 

 

“For your information, we got things from the nether,” Pearl said and that caught Gems attention pretty quickly, she perked up and gave them hopeful looks. 

 

“Yup! Four tears, nine ancient debris, and eighteen gilded blackstone,” Grian sounded proud of them and Gem felt her heart soar in excitement. They could free Impulse and probably a few others. 

 

“Where are they?” Scott asked and Pearl signaled over to the chest that everything was usually in. Scott nodded and glanced at Gem. “Come on,” he told her and she followed him to the chest where they gathered what they needed in order to make the artifacts. 

 

It took a few minutes for them to craft the artifacts but they ended up with a pretty good amount of the stupid things. Seven of the overworld things, three of the nether things, and four of the end things. 

 

“So that’s it? Now we get to go free Impulse?” Pearl asked and Gem broke into a smile as she placed the final artifact into the chest. 

 

“Yeah! We get Impulse back!” Gem cheered and looked super excited. They would get to reverse their mistake. Her mistake. 

 

Her and Scott grabbed the three artifacts, and then the four of them set off into the nether. They made it quickly to where Impulse was trapped in stone. Upon landing though they all froze. 

 

Hovering there was a book, directly in front of Impulse. They all shared confused looks, and Grian hesitantly stepped forward and grabbed it. The moment he had it in his grasp it stopped hovering and Grian stepped over to the group. 

 

“Scott, you had a book for the ancient city. Right?” Gem asked and Scott stared at the book in Grian’s hand like it was going to kill them. 

 

“Yeah…” he trailed off and tilted his head. “But mine appeared in my inventory. I wonder if this one is different,” he reached out and touched the book, hesitation crossing his face. 

 

“Open it!” Pearl said and Grian opened the book. He began to read it and Gem just watched his face as he did. 

 

We offer a challenge for the four of you, a chance to make it easier on you. 

 

A friend lost all three lives, now turned to stone. A task is usually required per person but let’s change this game. 

 

If someone was once free and has been turned, all that requires is the three artifacts and they will return as they once were. But only if you can complete this group challenge. 

 

A new place has been added, dangerous with its copper components. Go in with all of your gear and traverse it. Defeat the mobs, find the Third Heart and bring it back. Then the challenge will be complete, and your friend will be free.

 

“A trial chamber? Those aren’t supposed to exist yet,” Grian said and closed the book. “Plus the Third Heart, that’s not good,” 

 

“What is the Third Heart?” Pearl asked and Gem didn’t like the fact that Pearl didn’t know what it was despite being a watcher herself. “If it’s that dangerous for the watchers to have then we can always not do the challenge-”

 

“No, we need to do the challenge. We don’t know if the watchers will be angry if we turn this down. Besides, it’s our safest bet, it’ll make it faster in order to save them,” Grian said but he ignored the previous question. Gem glanced at Scott who was currently keeping a cool gaze on Grian. 

 

“You know what happens when we hand that over, right?” Scott asked softly and received confused looks from both girls. “Assuming it is what I think it is,”

 

“It is,” Grian responded and Scott gave a solemn nod. “And I do know. But I can figure out the consequences later,” 

 

“What does the Third Heart do?” Gem demanded to know and Scott ran fingers through his hair, sighing when Grian just looked at the ground and didn’t offer a response. Scott then took it upon himself to answer

 

“It will give the watchers full control of the Life Games,” 

Chapter 18: Heart To Heart

Notes:

When I first thought of this story, I didn’t think it’d get this long. Plus my drafts, this might be way more than 30 chapters my friends

“What?!” Gem and Pearl cried at the same time. Pearl's wings tucked tightly and her eyes leveled on Grian. 

 

“Full control of the games? Are you crazy?” Pearl asked and Gem was confused. 

 

“How does it do that?” she asked and Scott sat down on the chest. Gem looked at him, hoping he would answer. “And why is it here,” 

 

“Most games in minecraft have a heart of some sort,” Grian explained and Gem turned to look at him. He slowly looked back up at them before his eyes leveled on Impulses’ statue. “MCC has the Nox Heart. The Life Games have the Third Heart,” 

 

“But why does it control the games?” Gem asked and Scott spoke up this time.

 

“The hearts are what keeps the games spinning and working, the worlds alive. The Nox Crew is very protective of their heart, unlike Minecraft Mondays where someone was so angry that in the middle of a tournament they got ahold of the Mon Heart and destroyed it,” 

 

“It being destroyed was the reason Minecraft Mondays ended,” Grian continued when Scott paused. “When I started the Life Games, I was given the Third Heart. Since I wanted to play I sent it away, somewhere where the other watchers couldn’t get ahold of it,” 

 

“Here?” Pearl asked and Grian nodded. 

 

“I guess it landed here. The trial chamber is a bit of a shock but I guess it hid itself from the watchers when they brought us here,” he said. “I can’t do anything to get it back except to take on the trial chamber as the book said,” 

“If you get it, does that mean you get control of the games again? Could you get control of this place?” Gem felt hope flood through her that Grian quickly squashed when he shook his head with a nearly helpless look on his face. 

 

“No, not this place. Since it’s not part of the games, no matter how the watchers tie it into my games,” Grian said. “Handing it over might be for the best though. The heart is the only reason I knew who they wanted to win,” 

 

“Handing over control of the games to watchers who already seem pretty in control doesn’t sound like the best idea, Grian,” Pearl pointed out and Grian shrugged. 

 

“It means they’ll control the twist next season, they’ll also be able to interact more directly if they wanted to,” Grian explained. “Like in limited life when Jimmy fell from the Skynet and ended up dying first, they pushed him off,”

 

“They can do that?” Gem asked and Grian nodded. 

 

“They could do that without the heart, they can curse people as well without the heart. With it they could actively break blocks, interact with players,” Grian hesitated on the last part before continuing. “Possess them if you will. They never wanted the Third Heart before but they’ve always had someone win from the faction they wanted,” 

 

“Until this time,” Scott said and Grian nodded. 

 

“Until this time,” he confirmed. “I’m sure they’re also mad because so many curses were broken. The canary curse being broken, Skizz living past session seven, the winner not being allied with Scott, just to name a few,” Grian explained. 

 

“They want to be able to more directly control us,” Pearl got her confirmation when Grian nodded. “And we want to hand the heart over to them? Why don’t they get it themselves anyway?” 

 

“They can’t,” Scott responded and the girls both looked at him. “Grian sent it away and it ended up here. They knew it was here, probably another reason they brought us here. But they can’t get it without players handing it over,” 

 

“And since Grian and Pearl are both registered as players despite having watcher blood-”

 

“They can also get it,” Scott confirmed Gems thought. The four fell into a few minutes of silence while still deep in the nether. On the fortress roof to be more exact. 

 

“Not taking this challenge could do multiple things,” Grian finally broke the heavy silence and he looked at all three of the others. “They could increase the task difficulty, not let us go home until we hand it over, or they could even make it so we lose the ability to revive someone,” Grian explained

 

“Which would put us in a bad position because Scott is down to one life and Impulse is already frozen,” Pearl breathed out and Gem looked down at the ground. “So we don’t get a real option? We just have to do it?”

 

“By the sounds of it, yeah,” Scott said and they all looked over towards Gem. 

 

“I don’t like this idea at all, but what can we really do about it? Saving Impulse and making sure we can save anyone else if something happens should be our top priority,” Gem said and Grian nodded. 

 

“Like I said, I’ll face the consequences later and figure out what to do about it after we deal with whatever messed up world this is,” Grian said and then glanced down at the book in his hands. “We accept, we’ll bring you the Third Heart,” he said and nothing seemed to happen. 

 

Then Gem could see it bright as day in her mind, the tuff brick walls, the copper floors made of both weathered and regular copper, the vaults, the spawners, the monsters in the chambers. She saw clear as anything in her head, a spawner with weathered copper on the corners and a key with three heads and a weathered copper shaft. 

 

And then a set of coordinates filled her head. 

 

“Gem?” Pearl asked, looking concerned as Gem came back to where she currently was. It took her a moment to realize she was sitting down with her back against Grians chest, Pearl cupping her face, and Scott watching her closely. 

 

“I know where to go, I know where the trial chamber is,” She whispered and the other three all glanced at each other before nodding. “There were also these weathered copper keys-”

 

“Ominous keys, the heart must be in an ominous vault,” Grian said and Gem was pulled to her feet. 

 

“I have a feeling that these might be important then,” Scott said and pulled out four black potions with a purple tint to them, red eyes sitting on the front of the glass bottles. 

 

“Yeah, just a little bit. Me and Pearl can explain more about these chambers on the way. Lead the way Gem,” Grian said and so she did. 

Chapter 19: Trial And Error

Grian and Pearl explained a bit about the chambers as they got closer, considering that as watchers they knew more about what would come as the universe updated itself. They had crossed back into the overworld a while ago and were now underground, currently setting a spawn station with a bed, enderchest, and regular chests. 

 

They had very briefly stopped at the cottage to make sure they were geared up and had as many shulker boxes as they could need. Hopefully. 

 

“So what does this Third Heart look like?” Gem asked as she set her spawn. 

 

“You’ll know it when you see it,” Grian muttered and they all took a hold of the ominous potions that Scott passed out. Gem glanced to her side, she could tell Scott was hesitant about going in and considering he had one life left before stone she couldn’t blame him one bit. 

 

“Ready?” Pearl asked and a silent response was given as they all downed their potions. Then they entered the trial chamber. 

 

The spawners around them whirred to life and a wave of zombies came at them. The four had put on their chestplates before entering the chamber meaning that none of them could fly, which made things a little more difficult sometimes. 

 

Gem ran towards a ladder, scaling it and drawing her bow. Scott spotted her and quickly joined her while Pearl and Grian remained on the floor fighting the zombies. The zombies had armor on but it wasn’t an impossible fight despite how many there were. 

 

It was a smaller chamber but apparently going up the ladder had activated another spawner, which set free a bunch of skeletons. 

 

“Hey! Could we not activate everything at once?” Grian called up to them from their ledge and Gem gave him a guilty smile. 

 

Gem, despite using her shield, was still taking damage from the mass amount of skeletons who seemingly enjoyed firing at her and Scott. Scott had given up on firing things back, instead focusing on keeping his shield up to block the arrows. 

 

That was working well for him, and as much as Gem would’ve loved to follow his lead, it didn’t seem that fair to make Pearl and Grian take on both sets of mobs by themselves. Even though they were doing good on the base level against mostly just the zombies.

 

Gem realized she was getting really low on health, lower than what she would’ve liked, so she switched her bow for some food. Though eating required her to lower her shield, she was hoping she could eat quick enough to not get shot. 

 

Luck was not on her side. 

 

An arrow pierced through her and Gem was suddenly sitting up in the makeshift spawn point bed they had set up. It dawned on her that she was down to her last life, and currently didn’t have anything on her. 

 

In order to get her stuff back she would have to run straight through the zombies and skeletons unprotected, and that sounded like a death sentence. She sat in the dugout room for a bit, trying to regain her senses and figure out a plan. 

 

“Gem?” Pearl's voice rang out and Gem looked up quickly. Pearl entered through the small opening and looked relieved to see Gem sitting on the bed. “Come on. We took down the first two spawners and have your stuff,” Pearl said and Gem gave her a grateful smile.  

 

Gem followed Pearl back and gathered all of her stuff from Grian and Scott as they handed things back and checked up on her. 

 

They had a shulker box on the ground and it was full of random things, none of which were the keys they had come looking for. So they continued on. 

 

They faced down spiders, slimes, strays, and a mob Gem hadn’t seen before called a bog. Each time they completed a spawner they got an assortment of random things, but none of those things were the ominous keys they were looking for. 

 

“There’s another spawner down here!” Scott called while Gem was digging through a chest. Pearl and Grian headed in the direction of Smajor, and Gem followed behind them. They weren’t close enough to activate it yet, so they all made sure they were all healed up and ready to go. 

 

Blaze-like creatures spawned once they were close enough, but instead of the molten yellow rods they were all used to, these ones were made of wind. It was kinda scary so once again Gem took to her bow and ducked behind a pillar. 

 

“These are breezes!” Pearl cried, and Gem struggled to hear her. The breezes pushed the wind around her head, it was loud and drowned out the majority of the words her friends yelled. They collected the rods as the mobs fell, and soon the breezes were no more. 

 

This time four ominous keys came from the top of the spawner, and all four players grabbed one. 

 

“Up there,” Grian pointed to an altar-like area with an ominous vault. 

 

“Lets get that heart,” Pearl looked determined and Gem gazed at her for a moment before following the others up to the altar. 

 

Grian stepped to the vault first, placing his key into it. The kay vanished and the top of the vault opened. Wind charges, diamonds, and an armor trim popped out from it. Gem felt a little worried that they would need to find more keys and another vault. 

 

Pearl stepped up next, sacrificing her key to the vault, receiving a music disk, emeralds, and a banner pattern. Gem shared a worried look with Scott, who slowly pulled out his own key. 

 

Inserting it into the vault caused it to vanish and out came a block of diamonds, a few loose diamonds, and a glowing golden apple. A notch apple, an incredibly rare item. But not the one they were looking for. 

 

She was their last chance to get the heart without having to find and face more ominous vaults. Or wait for these ones to reset. She inserted her key and turned it, holding her breath as she silently prayed to whoever was listening. 

 

The top opened and first a golden apple popped out. Then five arrows of slowness. When the third item popped out, her breath caught. 

 

It was shaped like a three dimensional heart, one shown on their communicators. It was green on the left, a sliver of yellow in the middle, and the same red hardcore heart on the right. Gem picked it up, staring at it silently for a moment. 

 

“So this is it?” She asked before turning to look at the others. 

 

“This is it,” Grian reached his hand out and the heart floated over to him. He took it and let out a sigh, staring at the very thing that kept control of the Life Games. 

 

“Let’s head back to free Impulse then,” Scott said, placing a hand on Grian’s shoulder and giving him a sorry look. Gem understood why, she knew Scott was very much attached to MCC and if he had to give up the Nox Heart he would probably break down. 

 

“Let’s go,” Grian pocketed the heart and started to leave the trial chamber, and Gem followed him closely. 

Chapter 20: Brought Back

The four of them made it back to the nether and to the statue of Impulse. Gem stared at it again and then Grian pulled heart out of his pocket. He gripped it tightly for a moment, knuckles turning white around it. 

 

“Grian,” Pearl said softly and gently pried the Third Heart from his hands. Grian let her and stood for a moment before he pulled the book from his pocket. The moment he had it in his hands it started to glow purple and black while floating into the air. 

 

The heart in Pearl's hands flashed through red, yellow and green, the light rapidly changing color randomly as it floated up next to the book. In an explosion of black and purple the book vanished, and the heart seemingly just faded from existence. 

 

Grian wore a heartbroken and almost pained expression as he watched it, so Gem hugged him tightly. They stood there for a bit, until Grian finally broke the silence. 

 

“I gave up that heart. Free him,” Grian said and Gem nodded. Scott reached into the enderchest, pulling out the end artifact and the nether one. Gem reached into the enderchest as well, retrieving the overworld one. 

 

Scott handed the end artifact to Grian, who took it with a small smile. Pearl positioned herself to catch Impulse if he were to fall forward, which it looked like he might. 

 

The moment the artifacts were placed on the pedestal, the stone turned to obsidian before cracking and falling off, the pieces melting into the floor. Impulse tumbled forward, groaning. Gem expected a little bit of wait time but almost instantly Impulse was sitting up and looking around. 

 

“Uh, what happened?” He asked and Gem all but dove to hug him. He wrapped an arm around her waist in response, using the other one to keep himself propped up. 

 

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Gem let apologies fall from her mouth before she finally looked up at him. “You died a third time and turned to stone because I couldn’t protect you-“ 

 

“I’m fine Gem-“ Impulse started to insist before looking startled. “Wait, I turned to stone?!” 

 

“Yeah, apparently that’s a thing,” Scott said and knelt down next to them. “But we have Grian, and now we have you back. So it all worked out,” Scott told him and Impulse nodded. Then he looked up towards Grian and Pearl, who at some point had moved. 

 

“Well thanks for helping them, and I’m glad to see you moving Grian,” Impulse told the two watchers and Pearl gave him a quick hug. Gem pulled back from Impulse's arms and Grian helped the redstoner to his feet. “So now what?” 

 

“I just wanna go to sleep. After everything, I’m tired,” Grian told them. Impulse took a few minutes to gear up, and Gem was glad they had gotten all his stuff into the chest, then the group was flying off towards the overworld. 

 

When they got back, Grian moved his bed from the original cottage to the second one. Since it was in fact night, they all went to sleep. Gem smiled when she saw Scott was cuddled up against Impulse, and smiled even brighter when she was pulled close to Pearl.

 

Gem woke up in the middle of the night though, after only a couple hours of sleep. She glanced around and realized that Impulse wasn’t in the room, so she slipped downstairs and found him. 

 

He was sitting at the table, staring at a bowl of soup like it was suspicious. Ignoring the fact that it was a suspicious stew, Gem sat down across from him and he looked up at her. 

 

“Did I wake you?” He asked and Gem shook her head. “Sorry, I just couldn’t sleep. I tried but you know,” he signaled to his head and then let out a sigh. 

 

“Wanna talk about it?” She asked and Impulse just let out a frustrated noise. 

 

“It’s not anything in specific. I guess it’s more of having no clue what happened during that time,” Impulse explained softly. “Nobody told me anything when I was rescued, we just came here and went to sleep. I have no clue how long I was stuck for, what happened during that time…nothing,” his voice got impossibly soft at the end and Gem felt her heart ache. 

 

She hadn’t realized that before, he was right. They hadn’t actually told him anything other than how he had died and that they had freed him. They hadn’t even told him about the Third heart. 

 

“Want me to tell you?” she asked and he nodded. So she told him everything, from how Scott came to find her and put the pieces together about their lives, to how the watchers could give them secret tasks, all the way to the trial chamber and the fact that Gem and Scott were both on their last lives. 

 

Impulse’s face changed as she talked, betraying the emotions he felt as the story went on. They sat down there all night, until the sun started to peak over the land and there was movement from upstairs. 

 

“Morning,” Scott said as he sat down with them. “Why are you two up so early?” he asked and Impulse gave a sheepish smile. 

 

“My thoughts were everywhere so I didn’t sleep,” he explained and Scott frowned at him. “Thankfully Gem found me and helped sort through everything. Mostly by explaining what happened during my time as stone,” 

 

“So, question about that. What was it like?” Scott asked and Impulse gave him a confused face. “Like, could you hear anything or was it sorta like-” Scott then snapped his fingers and tilted his head a little bit. 

 

“Like that,” Impulse responded with a snap of his own fingers. “Like one moment I’m dying with just Gem with me. Then I’m respawning except all of you are there with Grian,” 

 

“Freaky,” Gem murmured and Impulse nodded. 

 

“Very freaky indeed. But at least we know that means that nobody is in pain or scared or anything,” Impulse agreed and Scott nodded too.

 

“It also explains the confusion,” Scott commented and bit his lip. “Let’s just worry about getting Martyn today. If he has more answers then great, if not then oh well,” and Gem and the Scott’s waited for Pearl and Grian to come join them. 

Chapter 21: Backup Plans

It really didn’t take long for Pearl to come downstairs and Grian to enter through the front door and join them at the table. They all ate some breakfast and silently geared up for the day. 

 

Gem was soon stepping outside into the sun, smiling as the warm light hit her. She spun a rocket in her hand, before she jumped and launched into the air with ease. She was following Impulse and Scott, with Pearl and Grian slightly behind her. 

 

Landing in the stone circle was never less weird, especially since there were just two empty pedestals that had once belonged to Grian and Pearl. 

 

Scott was carrying the artifacts this time, and so he handed the overworld one to Gem and the nether one to Impulse. Silently the three approached Martyns statue, still climbing up a nonexistent ladder. 

 

Placing the artifacts into the slots allowed them to start glowing brightly, and Gem waited for the book to appear. It did, popping into existence and causing Pearl to reach out and grab it. Grian was looking over her shoulder as she started to read. 

 

A listener has been chosen, to be free of being frozen. Answers are what you seek, get ready for a peak. 

 

The right hand man to a king in charge, a deadly winter settled that was quite large. A deadly war for all fight, all members carried things to protect during night. 

 

Members of Dogwarts, the shields they wore. Recreate them and bring them and you’ll get Martyn for sure. 

 

“The Dogwarts shields? From third life?” Impulse asked, looking a little thrown.

 

“Hang on, are these challenges supposed to be from all the series or does it just depend?” Grian asked and Pearl shrugged. 

 

“Yours was from all. Me and Gem didn’t play in third life, I don’t think I know anything about it,” Pearl said and looked towards Scott and Impulse. Once again Gem felt almost useless, she didn’t know what to do here. 

 

“First things first, does anyone actually remember what those shields looked like?” Scott asked and they all glanced at each other before Grian’s eyes settled on Impulse. 

 

“You worked with them for a bit,” 

 

“I was a traitor though. Because I helped you, remember? Before Bdubs traded my life for a clock,” Impulse reminded Grian, who just started to giggle as he remembered that. “I don’t remember what those shields look like,” 

 

“I do remember that now. Well umm…I guess we need to figure out what to do,” Grian said and crossed his arms. “I mean they couldn’t have been too complicated to make, right? Scott?” He asked and the cyan haired man shook his head. 

 

“Was a little too focused on my dead husband,” Gem saw Impulse wince a little and frown, clearly not happy about the mention of Jimmy. The group didn’t quite know what to do and they stood in the circle for another minute or so. 

 

“We do have enough to free one more person,” Gem said softly, she remembered the numbers. “If no one here knows how to make those shields, maybe we focus our attention on who does. So…who created the Dogwarts shields? Or who would know how to make them?” 

 

“Wait a minute, Skizz was incredibly loyal to Dogwarts. And Etho was too, and BigB I think. They’d be the ones other than Ren and Martyn to possibly remember what the shields look like,” Impulse said and his eyes flickered over to the statue of Skizzleman. 

 

“Ok, so who would it be?” Grian asked and crossed his arms. “Who would be the best option for us to  free?” 

 

“Well, if I remember correctly Etho was there from the start. Or something like that,” Scott said and Impulse nodded. 

 

“Etho spent a lot of time in the swamp though. But he is also a redstoner, he could be really helpful here if we need him,” Impulse said but his heart didn’t sound in it. Pearl spoke up. 

 

“Forget that. Forget who might be helpful if we free them,” she said and they all gave her a confused look. She stepped up to Impulse, who looked a little thrown from her sudden proximity. “You want to free Skizz, don’t you?” She sounded a little accusatory and Impulse had a guilty look across his face. 

 

“I mean of course. He’s my best friend, but that doesn’t mean it’s what we need to do-“ 

 

“We free Skizz then,” Gem said and Scott nodded in agreement. Impulse bit his lip and Gem nudged Pearl away from him before making Impulse look at her. “You gave me Pearl before we got Grian. Something that we knew would set us back a little bit, we knew Grian might know more. But I needed Pearl, and you clearly miss Skizz. So let’s free him,” Gem said and she noticed Scott over Impulse's shoulder. 

 

Grian and Pearl joined Scott and he handed them each an artifact as well. 

 

Ah, so they were doing what her Scott’s had pulled on her originally.

 

She could live with that. 

 

“I know Gem. I know I want him around, he’s my best friend for a reason. But in the aspect of how helpful he is-“ 

 

“Skizz is helpful,” Gem started to counter and Impulse stumbled over his words quickly. 

 

“I know he is but for all this I’m just worried-“ 

 

“Skizz will be fine. He has all of us. Besides that, he makes things a lot more fun and we all kinda need that here. Someone who can really make everything better and bring any moral up,” Gem told him and Impulse managed a nod. 

 

“If I turn around, am I going to see them freeing Skizz?” He asked and Gem gave him an innocent smile. “Using me and Scott’s trick against me, huh?” 

 

“Hey, they did that all on their own,” Gem countered and Impulse let out a small laugh. 

 

“Be lucky I love you. I could’ve argued for Etho to be here,” she said and Impulse just cocked his head a little as Gem let him turn around. Looking over at the statue, which was only like two away from Martyn, revealed a book hovering in the air that Grian grabbed. 

 

“Let’s see what the watchers gave us to free Skizz,” Impulse said and walked over with Gem following him. 

Chapter 22: In The Heat

The moment Gem and Impulse were close enough to the other three, Grian read the book out loud. 

 

A limited time to be alive, Skizzleman had a drive. A station in the sky, words could bring tears to an eye. 

 

A completed list of complements, in order in the documents. What did he say to every person each day? 

 

“I’m sorry, a list of all the things in the affirmation station?” Grian asked with shock in his voice. “Great, that’s helpful. Cause we all totally know what Skizz would say other than what he told us,” Grian sounded sarcastic and Gem shot a look at him. 

 

“I can make the list,” Impulse said and they all looked at him. “I may need some time but I can do it. Skizz is my best friend and I have a rough idea of what he said to each person. As long as it doesn’t want exact wording then I should be fine,” Impulse explained. 

 

“That should work then,” Scott said. “Meanwhile the rest of us need to get some more work done. We’re out of nether artifacts and running low on end artifacts. Meaning-“ 

 

“A trip to the nether,” Gem groaned and Scott nodded. 

 

“So while Impulse stays at the cottage and gets things ready for Skizz and gets a list for the task, we can all head to the nether and gather what we need,” Scott told them. “We could split into partners or stay as a group, either way we need to find what we’re looking for. Plus a stop at the fortress to get some more blaze rods might be helpful,” Scott was muttering now, more to himself. 

 

“Right. To the nether then?” Grian asked and Scott nodded. “Me and Gem can go work on collecting netherite. If you and Pearl want to work on getting ghast tears and heading to the fortress,” Grian offered and they all seemed to agree with that. 

 

They flew back to the two cottages and Impulse made a book and quill before heading upstairs. The other four made sure they were in their armor, had food, rockets if needed, and whatever else might be required. 

 

Stepping into the nether was never something Gem enjoyed. The heat made her skin crawl and the air was always thick and nearly sickening. Pearl and Scott took off quickly to head towards the fortress, while Grian and Gem were left to their own devices near the portal. 

 

“Alright, we can do this,” Grian said with full confidence. Gem rolled her eyes a little bit but they did mine to where they needed to be in order to get netherite the easiest. 

 

They set up a small area with a respawn anchor, and some shulker boxes that were full of wool and wood, plus setting up a crafting table and some other things as a small hub for whenever they gathered anything. 

 

Sticking close together they started to use the beds in order to explode their way through the netherrack they were surrounded by. Gem watched as Grian started to set up another bed and she glanced through the pieces of ancient debris in her inventory. 

 

“Hey Grian, hand me whatever you have and I’ll take it back with me. I’m gonna drop off some things,” she said and he tossed her a few pieces. She walked off, back towards their little hub, and dropped the things into a shulker box. 

 

Right now they had gathered around eleven pieces, considering they had been in the nether together for about an hour it was pretty good. She started to head back to where Grian was when a book appeared in her hands. She paused and frowned at it, confused as to what might be happening. 

 

Then she remembered what had happened to Scott with his book for the ancient city. 

 

So she opened it. 

 

Doing so quickly showed how bad of an idea that was. 

 

Searching through the nether for ancient debris, eleven collected is quite impressive. But a life calls for you to claim. 

 

One of your friends is who you must kill, without warning or reason as you do. You must complete this challenge or the punishment will be fierce.

 

Failure to finish will undo all your work, reset those you have already freed. If you complete this then all will remain the same. This challenge is yours GeminiTay, the blood lust must be quenched. 

 

Gem felt her stomach drop. She had to kill someone, one of her friends. What was with these books that made her want to kill? She didn’t get much choice though, but at the very least Grian had all three lives still. Maybe she should just do it, it never did give her a timeframe and she couldn’t risk losing Pearl and Grian both. 

 

She had made up her mind, she knew what needed to be done. 

 

She drew her sword. 

 

She quietly walked to where Grian was, and watched as he put out whatever fire there was surrounding him. He didn’t hold a shield, his armor was missing his chestplate, and he didn’t have a weapon in his hand at the moment. 

 

His back was to her and he didn’t hear her approaching, and so Gem brought her sword down on his back. Grian let out a yell of pain as he turned to face her. Gem pushed her sword at him again, and it cut deep. 

 

“GEM, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” He screamed as he tried to get away from her. Gem however knew it needed to be done and with a final swing she watched as Grian vanished and died. Her communicator buzzed and she glanced at it while gathering all of Grian’s stuff that was now scattered about. 

 

<Grian was slain by GeminiTay>

 

She quickly ran to the respawn anchor, where the watcher gave her a terrified look as she approached him. 

 

“Gem, stay away,” he said and backed away from her. She felt her communicator buzzing and knew that people were probably freaking out. Grian looked absolutely terrified of her and she froze as she watched him. 

 

“I had to,” she whispered and pulled the book from her pocket. She tossed it on the ground next to his feet and he hesitantly picked it up to read it. 

Chapter 23: Limited Affirmations

Explaining over their communicators was not very easy, but soon Grian and Gem had soothed the others' worries and they were back to collecting ancient debris. 

 

They spent another hour and gathered another five ancient debris before they headed back to the overworld at Impulse's urging. They reached the overworld before Scott and Pearl, so they both went directly into the cottage and joined Impulse at the table. 

 

“Hey guys!” Impulse said as the two unloaded everything into the storage system, which at this point was more of a chest monster more than anything as their materials began stacking up slowly. 

 

“Hey Impulse,” Gem said and he smiled brightly at her. 

 

“You two gave us all quite a scare,” Impulse commented and Gem gave a guilty smile. 

 

“Gave you a scare? Try being attacked by her,” Grian countered and then put a hand on Gems shoulder. “Though it was probably for the best. Besides, I still have two lives so I’m not too worried about it,” 

 

“We’re back!” Pearl's voice called as she and Scott came through the door. After they made some end crystals and Grian got the debris smelting, they all sat down at the table. 

 

Gem did show them all the book she got and Scott tossed it into the chest where he had put his secret challenge book. 

 

Then Impulse placed a book on the table and opened it, allowing them all to see what he had been working on. 

 

“I got it done. I hope,” Impulse muttered the last part and Scott placed a hand on his shoulder with a smile. Impulse seemed to relax into it and then focus again. “We should be able to free Skizz whenever we’re ready. I got a shulker of things for him as well so…” he trailed off. 

 

Gem didn’t bother to actually glance over the list considering she would have no clue as she wasn’t there during limited life, unless you counted the one time she was put into Cleo’s body for a session. It only half counted but still. 

 

Considering they didn’t need everyone to go to the circle to gather an unconscious Skizz, Gem went with Impulse while the other three stayed at the cottages and worked on getting more artifacts crafted. 

 

As they landed, Gem noticed that Impulse was clutching the book tightly in his hand. Gem pulled out the task book that was related back to Skizz and she placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. 

 

“You ready?” She asked softly and Impulse nodded. There was a light in his eyes, one that hadn’t been there during their time in the creepy world. The look was excitement to free Skizz and Gem couldn’t blame him, Skizz may not be a hermit yet but he was still Impulse’s best friend. The two had been playing for so long together, before Impulse ever joined hermitcraft. 

 

The chest appeared in the middle of the circle like always and Impulse gently placed the book inside. 

 

“I remember all the compliments he gave, somewhat at least,” Impulse said as he stood back up, the chest disappearing in a flash. The book in Gems hand took to the air and exploded in sparkles. “Between the sessions he would tell me, he was so excited to be doing it,” Impulse walked towards the statue as it turned to obsidian and cracked. 

 

Impulse seemed calmer now, and Gem couldn’t quite tell if he was just putting on a front or really was that calm. Either way it was welcome. 

 

They approached the statue as the obsidian fell off and hit the floor, and Impulse made his way behind Skizz to watch him as he collapsed. Skizz let out a small groan but didn’t actually wake up, so Impulse picked him up and they started the walk back to the cottages. 

 

Upon entering the cottage, Gem almost laughed at Scott. He was sitting on the floor and sorting out chests, grumbling to himself. Impulse took the unconscious Skizz upstairs and didn’t return, not that Gem blamed him in the slightest.

 

“Where’s Grian and Pearl?” She asked and Scott looked up at her. 

 

“I think collecting things? Pearl wants to make a storage system, which I agree with. These chests are just horrible!” He said and sighed. “Think we could convince them to make it an auto sorting one?” He asked and Gem giggled. 

 

“Absolutely. You should see what Pearl can do though. She sorted one of Scars chest monsters out!” 

 

“You’re kidding? One of Scars?” 

 

“Yeah. The same chest monster he was using while building Scar Land back on hermitcraft…” she trailed off and felt a pang of longing. She wanted to go home. 

 

“I know Gem,” Scott said as he stood up, pulling her close. Gem then realized it wasn’t just hermitcraft she wanted to go back to, she wanted to go back to Dawn on empires SMP 2. She missed her little Sun Empire. 

 

“Do you miss Chromia at all?” She asked him suddenly and Scott nodded. 

 

“Always. Same way I miss Rivendell. But we can and will find our way home, it may just take some time,” he hugged her and Gem gripped him tightly for a minute before leaning back. 

 

“Right. Let’s go see if Pearl and Grian need help. We’ll leave Impulse with Skizz, I’m sure they’ll want time alone when he wakes up,” 

 

“Yeah…right,” Scott muttered and his face darkened before he corrected the look on his face with a smile. Though it seemed really forced. If Gem didn’t know better, and she didn’t, she would think he was jealous. 

 

However she didn’t want to press him, despite knowing how much Scott liked Impulse. Considering it was clear as day. 

 

She grabbed Scott’s hand and led him outside to see what the two watchers were up to. 

 

The two had built an outline of where the storage system would go, which in turn gave Gem an idea of where any other cottages could go. The building would be facing the original cottage but was marked to have entrances on all four sides. 

 

It was in the shape of a barn of sorts and Gem decided that they would build any subsequent cottages surrounding the storage building, like a little town! 

 

Pearl smiled when she looked over at Gem, and Grian beckoned them forward. So the four got to work on building a storage system. 

Chapter 24: Skizzle

The four spent a few hours building until the sun was starting to dip low, so they lit up the empty building and started to head inside. Gem took one last look at the storage place and smiled. 

 

They decided to change things up, since the cottages were all cherry, oak, and birch wood, they used different materials for the barn. The walls were a mix of calcite and smooth diorite, with dark oak standing as supports and highlights. The roof was mangrove wood, outlined with the dark oak, and the floor on the inside would be mangrove and dark oak as well. 

 

Grian slipped into his own cottage, since he still preferred that over the slightly more cramped original cottage. Not that Gem could fault him entirely. 

 

Pearl grabbed her hand and Gem hummed happily as they entered the brightly lit cottage. Scott followed them inside, shutting the door behind all of them. The three headed upstairs and Gem smiled when she saw Impulse and Skizz. 

 

Skizz was sitting up in the bed, talking to Impulse and asking many questions that said man was doing his best to answer. 

 

“Skizz!” Gem called as she made a beeline for him. 

 

“Gemstone! PearlyPop!” Skizz said with a bright smile towards them. Gem made it over to the bed and hugged him, earning a tight hug back. “Smajor!” Skizz called in greeting as the cyan haired man joined them upstairs. Pearl and Scott both did in fact hug Skizz as well. 

 

“I thought you said Grian was here too?” Skizz gave Impulse an accusatory look and Impulse only laughed with a small head shake. 

 

“Grian went back to his cottage. He didn’t necessarily want to be here with all five of us,” Pearl said and Skizz nodded. 

 

“Seriously, talk about a crowd,” Skizz said and it brought a round of laughter from everyone. They settled down into talking, and Gem figured that they would worry about shield task in the morning. 

 

After a little bit Scott stood up. 

“I’m going to crash at the other cottage. There’s too many people here,” he said and was gone before anyone could say anything to him. Impulse looked down at the floor, going quiet as a disappointed look came across his face. 

 

Gem and Pearl both shared concerned looks, but figured that Scott would go talk to Grian. They would check on him in the morning. For now they settled into bed for the night and Gem curled into the warmth of Pearl. 

 

The next morning ended with Impulse and Pearl going to the storage building to get the automatic sorter running, while Gem and Skizz sat downstairs talking. Pearl and Impulse had gotten a very early start, meaning that Scott and Grian may very well not be awake just yet. 

 

“Huh,” Skizz murmured as he read through the book that had given them Martyns task. “And none of them remember the shield?”

 

“I mean, me and Pearl didn’t play in that one and the other three were on the opposite side,” Gem explained and Skizz nodded. 

 

“It shouldn’t be too hard. It was really just a simple red shield with the white spikes at the bottom,” Skizz explained. “And there were five us in Dogwarts, meaning that we only need five shields,” 

 

“That's good. We can easily do that,” Gem sounded excited and Skizz smiled. The door opened and Grian walked in with Scott. “Good morning boys!” Gem called over and they joined them at the table.

 

“Good morning Gem,” Grian said and Scott gave her a quiet response. “Where's Impulse and Pearl?” He asked and Skizz flashed a bright smile. 

 

“Working on redstone in the storage system,” Skizz responded and Gem nodded in confirmation. 

 

“Ooh, I’ll go help!” Grian said and moved to get up. Gem grabbed his wrist and he frowned. 

 

“No. Impulse said that in specific you aren’t allowed in there until it’s done. You’ll break it,” she told the watcher, who in turn slouched down in his chair and pouted. “Oh I’m not wrong,” she said when he stuck his tongue out. 

 

“The shields?” Scott asked and Skizz nodded. 

 

“I can do them. Easy,” he said and Scott just nodded. “Five shields, five banners. Let’s go baby!” Skizz seemed so confident that Gem figured he wouldn’t have any issues. Besides, it was just some shields and banners, Skizz didn’t even need to really leave the cottage area to make them. 

 

It would take a bit to make the banners so they got started. Gem gathered the wool, Grian got the white dye, and Scott crafted up five new shields. In turn they were all handed over to Skizz, and he started the process of making the banners and attaching them. 

 

Gem spent her time with Skizz, considering that Grian and Scott had gone out to the farms while having a hushed conversation. It confused her, she was theoretically closer to Scott but he seemed a lot more inclined to talk to Grian. 

 

Eventually Pearl and Impulse ducked in and out of the cottage, moving things to the storage system. The only things they were leaving were personal items, like armor, some food, and the artifacts and the things to make said artifacts. 

 

“But yeah, that’s all that’s really happened so far,” Gem said as she sat next to Skizz while he worked over the loom to make banners. 

 

“That’s…that’s a lot,” Skizz muttered as he moved to attach the new banner to a shield. “Honestly Gemstone, all of you are super-” he started to say and yelped loudly, dropping the shield and banner on the floor. 

 

“Skizz?” Gem was worried, what was that? “Are you ok?” she asked and he blinked for a minute. 

 

“Are you kidding me?!” he asked and stood up. Gem watched him in confusion, and Skizz turned to look at the door. Impulse came in, sporting an arrow in his side. “Dippledop!” 

 

“So I may have not seen a skeleton,” Impulse said and Gem glanced outside. It was getting dark, she half wondered where Scott and Grian were before she saw a flash of red and cyan enter the other cottage. Scott would stay there again apparently. 

 

“Yeah, I picked that up,” Skizz rubbed his side where the arrow on Impulse was. “We’re connected,” he explained and Impulse nodded. 

 

“That actually doesn’t surprise me,” Impulse said. “It should since this is kinda like a life game just…it’s not so it makes sense considering we’re bonded together normally unless we’re playing,” Impulse muttered as he pulled the arrow from his side. 

 

“Well at least we know how to handle ourselves!” Skizz said with a cheeky grin as he started on attaching the banner to the shield again. 

 

Gem grabbed ahold of Pearl's hand and led her upstairs, much to the confusion of the watcher. Once upstairs Gem sat down on her bed with Pearl and earned a curious look. 

 

“I’m worried about Scott,”

Chapter 25: A Bad Book

“Why?” Pearl asked and Gem sighed. “Because he doesn’t want to be in a cramped cottage? Can you blame him?” 

 

“I just mean it’s weird. Plus him and Grian are having conversations they clearly don’t want anyone to hear,” Gem told her. “And this all started when we got Skizz. I mean Scott clearly likes Impulse, and Skizz is Impulse’s best friend,”

 

“You think Scott is jealous? When Impulse can barely go a minute without glancing at Scott?” Pearl let out a laugh before covering her mouth to muffle it. “Is Scott that oblivious?” 

 

“This is Scott. Plus I think the games have messed with his head a little bit,” she explained and Pearl nodded with a frown. 

 

“I wonder how much of that comes from Double Life,” Pearl muttered and Gem gave her a confused look. “I mean with the whole soulbound stuff. Me losing my mind. Jimmy dated Tango briefly during that time. Granted it’s not like Jimmy remembered him and Scott dating but Scott did. Perks of working with the Noxcrew I guess, he keeps his memory,” Pearl explained, the last sentence sarcastic. 

 

“Maybe I’m overthinking it too. I mean maybe he’s helping Grian, considering Grian did just hand over full control of his games to the very watchers who put us here,” Gem said and Pearl nodded. 

 

The girls remained curled up together until they fell asleep. 

 

The next morning rolled around way too soon for Gems' liking, but she dragged herself out of bed and downstairs. Pearl, Impulse, and Skizz were still asleep when she left so she was alone. She made sure she was geared up and very soon Scott and Grian came through the front door, she smiled at them and earned a smile from both Scott and Grian in return. 

 

“Are we getting Martyn today?” Scott asked and Gem shrugged. “Did Skizz get the shields done?”

 

“I think so. Check the chest,” Grian joined her at the table while Scott did as he was told. “There should be five I think,” 

 

“Yeah,” Grian did some mental math. “BigB, Etho, Martyn, Ren, and Skizz,” 

 

“There’s five in the chest. Therefore we should be getting Martyn,” Scott sounded excited and Gem couldn’t help but smile. Soon Pearl and the boys joined them downstairs and sat down after gearing up. 

 

“Alright, who wants to go get Martyn?” Skizz asked eagerly. “Or is this going to be some sort of group trip?” he leaned back in his chair at the crowded table. Maybe they needed to make the table bigger, or make a whole new table with enough places to fit everyone. That's a later thing for Gem to worry about though. 

 

“We don’t really have much else to do, do we?” Impulse asked. “Unless we split up to search ancient cities for echo shards, go look for netherite, and go get Martyn,” 

 

“I mean…we have four overworld and nether artifacts. There’s not really a need to split up yet. Certainly not with how few people we have,” Gem said and Impulse nodded. 

 

“Let’s start with freeing Martyn and seeing if he has any information me and Pearl don’t have,” Grian told them and soon they were heading to the circle. Skizz had all the shields on him, while Pearl had grabbed the book with the task to free Martyn. 

 

They landed and in a flash there was a chest in the middle of the circle. Skizz walked over and dropped the five shields into the chest before closing it. It vanished and the book in Pearl's hand started to shake, then exploded in black and purple sparkles. 

 

“I do not like how it didn’t float,” Scott said and stepped back. “Something bad is about to happen,” he shifted side to side. Gem stared at Martyns statue, which hadn’t changed. Instinctively she stepped closer to Pearl, who in turn pulled her close. 

 

A book appeared in the air, causing everyone to glance at each other. 

 

“What went wrong?” Skizz asked. “Did I break it?” 

 

“Five,” Scott muttered and he shakily grabbed the book. Everyone looked at him confused. “I didn’t think about it before, but five isn’t correct,” Scott said and then he zeroed in on Skizz. “There were seven,”

 

“No!” Skizz argued and Scott rolled his eyes. 

 

“Yes, there were five of you loyal ones,” Scott emphasized that word yet Skizz still looked confused. “Give me a break,” Scott muttered and Impulse put a hand on Scott’s shoulder. 

 

“Me and Joel. We were both considered part of Dogwarts at one point,” Impulse said and Skizz bit his lip and shifted his weight. 

 

“But…you were both considered traitors. I thought it meant…I didn’t think…” he trailed off and looked down. “I’m sorry. I messed up. I didn’t mean too,” he sounded so guilty that it nearly hurt Gem. 

 

“None of us caught it either,” Scott said gently and Skizz just looked at the ground. Scott let out a yelp and dropped the book, glaring at it. “I think it’s mad I haven’t opened it,” he muttered. “It burned me,” 

 

Impulse picked up the book from the ground and opened it, and as he read it Gem felt almost hopeless at the words that came from Impulse. 

 

A failed task, just what we find fun up here. A replacement is in place, a punishment so to speak. But this one will be ten times harder than before, and revolves around none of you. 

 

Only one person used to hold his heart, and only that person can set him free. Take a guess, free that friend, and only then will Martyn be yours. 

 

“Well…that’s not cryptic at all,” Grian sarcastically muttered as he crossed his arms. “How in the world is that helpful?! That’s like if we freed Scar and he wrote us a letter telling us how to make it home without having to free everyone!” 

 

“Grian!” Gem scolded him, because insulting Scar was not the goal right now. No matter how funny it was. 

 

“What exactly does that even mean?” Pearl asked and walked closer to Martyns statue. “Can we remove the artifacts then and use them for someone else?” She asked and glanced down. 

 

“I doubt it,” Impulse told her and Pearl sighed. Gem could tell she wasn’t really thinking and didn’t have time to react as Pearl placed a hand on Martyns statue. 

 

A flash of light and Pearl was launched away from it, hitting the ground and exploding in a puff of white. Gems communicator buzzed and she looked at it silently before glancing at the spot Pearl had landed a second ago. 

 

<PearlescentMoon was stoned to death>

 

“Ok, Got it. Don’t touch Martyns statue. Any other ideas for what to do?” Gem asked after a moment of silence while Grian and Skizz collected Pearls stuff. 

 

“Let’s just head back to the cottages and regroup. Take a break from this and think,” Scott said and everyone seemed to agree. “Impulse, Gem, meet me in the bedroom. I want to talk for a minute,” 

Chapter 26: Band Practice

Gem and the Scott’s sat in their bedroom. Pearl had thankfully respawned, Grian and Skizz had given back her stuff, and the three had walk off to leave the other three alone. Gem settled onto her bed while Impulse sat on his bed. Scott was leaning against a wall and they both watched him. 

 

“This could be going better,” Scott finally spoke after a few moments of tense silence. “This could be going a lot better. For the first time ever we failed a task and now we have no clue who can even free Martyn,” Scott started to pace. 

 

“Well maybe we take a look at some past games?” Impulse asked and Scott kept talking, seemingly way too stressed with the current state of events. Not that he could be entirely blamed, but he could calm down. Though, Gem didn’t see that happening anytime soon. 

 

“If we do get an advantage from freeing all the winners or whatever, then we need Martyn. Clearly though, that isn’t happening until we figure out who can do that,” Scott let out a frustrated sigh. “That also means we need Scar if the winners theory is right,” 

 

“Ok, so we focus on freeing Scar then,” Gem said and watched as Scott kept pacing. He barely seemed to be listening.

 

“We should’ve just double checked the work. We should’ve just-“ Impulse got up from his bed and stepped in front of the man pacing. Scott paused and looked at him, going silent. Impulse placed both hands on Scott’s shoulders firmly before speaking. 

 

“This is nobody's fault in particular. Yes, Skizz didn’t count right. But we didn’t double check, I certainly should’ve realized it since I was one of the traitors to Dogwarts. We cannot spend time focusing on what we should’ve done, only what we can do. So, let’s think back to some games on who could free Martyn. Or focus on getting Scar,” Impulse sounded firm. 

 

“Impulse is right. Right now we don’t get many options. If you want to focus on Martyn then let’s do that,” Gem said softly and Scott nodded as Impulse led him to the bed and made him sit. “So Martyn or Scar?” 

 

“Martyn,” Scott didn’t even hesitate when saying that, and Gem could understand why. If she remembered correctly then that was Scott’s partner in Limited Life, he probably hoped that Martyn would be a source of comfort for him. Though, Gem did notice the flash of jealousy that crossed Impulse’s face. 

 

“Yeah. Let’s totally focus on the person that we can’t even touch because of a messed up task instead of one of the winners who might be more valuable to us,” Impulse grumbled and Scott gave him a heated look. 

 

“Wasn’t it your best friend who messed up the task? The same best friend that serves basically no purpose for being freed?” Scott snapped and stood up, getting in Impulse's face. Gem had a sinking feeling as the argument started. 

 

“It was not just his fault. Besides, none of us could’ve even recreated the shields since we had no clue what they looked like,” Impulse snapped back. “Don’t call Skizz useless just because you’re pissy that you can’t have your little boy toy. At this rate I’m surprised you aren’t asking to free Jimmy,” 

 

“That’s how you want to play this? Digging into my past teams and relationships with them?” Scott hissed and Gem watched, unable to figure out how to stop them. “At least Martyn and Jimmy were loyal teammates and didn’t hunt me down,” 

 

“Loyal? Yeah, Jimmy was loyal cause he died-“ 

 

“Because of Skizz!” 

 

“But Martyn betray you at the very end,” 

 

“I would’ve given him the win for that anyway and you know it,” Scott hissed and Impulse kept a hard glare. “I’m glad he won Limited Life, and I’m sure glad it wasn’t you,” 

 

“Boys stop!” Gem said but they both ignored her. 

 

“Right, but he killed you before he even came after me. Notice that?” 

 

“Because I could at least kill him if I wanted too. Unlike you who couldn’t kill him in the end. The only reason you made it so far into Limited Life and Secret Life was because of me,” 

 

“What makes you so sure of that?” 

 

“You may think you’re the smart Scott but you aren’t. This was the first season that a winner wasn’t my ally, so what does that say about you?” Scott hissed in his face. 

 

“You want to free Martyn so badly, then good luck figuring it out. I’m sure I can free Scar before you can even figure out who Martyn needs. Cause I’m sure he doesn’t need you and he never has,” Impulse growled and Scott shoved him back. 

 

“Fine, good luck without me. If you turn to stone again, don’t expect me to help free you,” Scott then turned and stormed down the stairs, the telltale sound of rockets singling he had taken off. 

 

“Impulse…” Gem whispered. “What was that about?” 

 

“He started it,” Impulse snapped a little and Gem flinched back. “Sorry…I just don’t understand why he’s been the way he’s been lately. He’s been avoiding me but talking to Grian,” 

 

“Why didn’t you just talk to him?” She asked and he sighed. 

 

“I didn’t know how to, I guess. Besides, I don’t know why he’s so determined to free Martyn. I get it, Martyns a listener, but we have no clue where to start with that,” 

 

“I know we don’t. But I do understand why Scott probably wants Martyn around,” she said and he gave her a hopeful and curious look. “I can’t tell you. It’s not my thing to tell. But I do know he’s hurting right now, probably even more so because of what just happened,” 

 

“I…he…” Impulse sighed. “He’s hurting? He just said I wasn’t the smart Scott, said that I wouldn’t have survived without him, implied that he regrets freeing me from stone,” 

 

“I know. And none of that was ok for him to say, but it also wasn’t ok for you to make a dig at his relationships with Martyn and Jimmy,” 

 

“I know. I didn’t mean it, I was just mad I guess,” 

 

“How about I go talk to him? See what he’s thinking and feeling?” Gem said and Impulse nodded. “I’ll bring him back if I think it’s a good idea, and we can all try this again,” Impulse only managed to nod again before Gem got up. 

 

Gem left Impulse there, sitting in the bedroom by himself, and she left the cottage before taking to the sky and flying off to a place she was sure Scott would’ve headed off too. 

Chapter 27: Talking Reasons

Gem found Scott with ease. She had spent two seasons of Empires SMP with this man, and if she had any guesses to where he was, it would be a mountain. 

 

Thankfully there was a mountain range nearby. 

 

Gem scanned the mountains before seeing a flash of cyan, causing her to angle herself down and land next to the man she had been looking for. He was sitting with his back to her, on a small cliff overlooking a river. 

 

“What are you doing here Gem?” He asked as she approached him. 

 

“I just came to check on you,” she said softly and he let out a scoff. “After that argument I was worried,” 

 

“Right. You aren’t here to lecture me at all,” Scott muttered and finally turned to look at her. “Listen, I know what I said was wrong. All of it. Ok? I’ve just been so-“ 

 

“Jealous lately?” Gem asked and Scott dropped his gaze to the ground. 

 

“Yeah,” he whispered. Gem sat down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder in comfort. “I don’t know why. I shouldn’t be feeling like this, I know him and Skizz are just best friends. But,” he went silent and Gem filled in the blank for him. 

 

“You think Impulse cares more about him than you?” 

 

“I guess so,” 

 

“And freeing Martyn is an attempt to make him jealous?” She asked and he just nodded. 

 

“Which is beyond stupid, I know. I didn’t expect it to turn into a fight. Certainly not one that would cause him to hate me. I said some messed up things, I know I did,” 

 

“Yeah. You definitely hurt him,” Scott gave her a helpless look. “But you’re also hurting. Talking to him would’ve been the best option, you and I both know that,” 

 

“I know. And I was only annoyed at first when he implied it was a bad idea. So I shot back and blamed Skizz and called him useless. I know he’s not useless,” he said. “Then he basically called me a slut. I’m not…I’m not a slut…” Scott muttered the last part. 

 

“Oh Scott,” 

 

“Then I was angry. I brought up the boogey hoard that wasn’t even his fault. Wasn’t even yours,” he gave her a soft look at the way she winced. “And everything kept spiraling. I insulted him when I know he’s smarter than me, I know he’s good at the game. I brought up his Limited Life loss, when I know it bummed him out,” 

 

“Scott-“ 

 

“And to make matters worse, he’s right. Freeing Scar should be the priority, since he probably has a straightforward task. He’s right in that I only want to free Martyn for selfish reasons,” Scott looked even more defeated somehow. “Maybe that’s the issue with me. I try to help and give everything, but sometimes I can’t help being selfish,” 

 

“Scott-“ 

 

“Let’s just free Scar. Maybe if I help out with that then Impulse won’t absolutely hate me. Maybe if I do everything we need and show Impulse that he’s right, then maybe he won’t think I’m a horrible person,” 

 

“He doesn’t think that Scott. He’s just frustrated because he’s confused. And you’re frustrated because you’re upset. Can we possibly try talking to him again, this time calmer?” She asked and Scott pulled his knees to his chest, resting his chin on them. 

 

“What’s the point? Whatever little messed up fantasy I have of him liking me is ruined, and I’m sure he hates me. Just go back to him and help him free Scar,” Scott muttered. “What’s the point in even having me around?”

 

“You’re one of the reasons we’ve gotten this far in this world, Scott. Anyone would agree. But doing this-“ Gem signaled to everything around them. “-running and hiding isn’t how we solve issues. This didn’t fix things in Rivendell, nor Chromia, nor anything else,”

 

“Yeah but-“ 

 

“Either you come back with me and we talk to Impulse there, or I drag him here and we talk,” she more or less gave the threat. “There’s no other option. Ok?” 

 

“Fine. Let’s go I guess,” he muttered and Gem stood up. She held out her hand, which Scott accepted, and pulled him to his feet. He seemed very hesitant and fiddled with the rockets between his fingers before he took to the sky with Gem following closely behind. 

 

Flying back to the cottages was relatively quick, and she could see the gamertags of Grian, Pearl, and Skizz in the storage room. She would question what they were doing later, right now she had a band to get back together. 

 

She brought Scott inside and sat him down at the kitchen table. Then she brought Impulse downstairs from the bedroom, where he hadn’t moved since she left, and sat him down at the table across from Scott. 

 

The boys didn’t look at each other, guilt on both their faces. Gem finally rolled her eyes and realized she was going to have to be the adult in this group. 

 

“Let’s start with a simple apology from both of you,” Gem told them as she crossed her arms. They both remained silent and Gem was ready to reprimand both of them when Scott broke first. 

 

“I’m sorry Impulse. I didn’t mean to say that about Skizz or you,” Scott said and Impulse looked up, thrown off. “I was just annoyed and tired and angry, you really are the smart one. And I understand if you never want to speak to me again after this,” 

 

“I would never be able to stay away from you Scott,” Impulse told him, placing a hand over Scott’s. “Believe me. And I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have said that about you with Martyn and Jimmy. It’s not my place to butt into your relationships,” 

 

“Alright. Now that that’s gotten started, why don’t you two figure out the next step together and I’ll go see what the other three are up to,” Impulse and Scott nodded, so Gem left the cottage. 

Chapter 28: Certainly A Choice

Gem headed to the new storage area, curious to see what the other three were up to. Not to mention she hadn’t actually seen the new building since the storage section was added. Entering through the front showed her multiple chests, each labeled with a kind of category for what it was collecting. Pressed on the inside of the front entrance were two sets of stairs, both leading up and in the same direction.

 

Gem did what any reasonable person would do and climbed them. 

 

It led her to an upstairs area with a mangrove floor, a dark oak table, and some comfy looking chairs. A fence made of dark oak hanging signs blocked the edge, which happened to overlook the storage system and how it was set up. The redstone for the storage had been hidden with some impressively placed blocks. 

 

She smiled when she saw Skizz sitting on the table, not in a chair, with Pearl and Grian adding some finishing touches to the room. 

 

“Gemmie Bemmy!” Skizz cried as she locked eyes with him. Pearl and Grian turned around to look at her and Gem was pulled into a hug by Pearl. 

 

“Hi Skizz,” she managed to get out through her laughter. They acted like they hadn’t seen her in forever. 

 

“So what did Scott want from you both?” Grian asked as he came over and sat in one of the chairs. 

 

“Nothing much. But he and Impulse are figuring out the next step. I got bored and wanted to see what you three were up to,” she may or may not have been lying, and Pearl gave her a distrusting look, but didn’t say anything about it. Thankfully. 

 

“What do you think of the meeting room?” Pearl asked, a perfect change of topic in Gems opinion. The storage system downstairs was already big, considering the amount of things there were to store, but the meeting room was incredible. The table was big enough to comfortably fit everyone that they would eventually free, so she thought it was perfect. 

 

“It’s amazing. And very cozy,” she added and saw the other three smile. “One question though, why is Skizz on the table?” 

 

“He was banned from helping us decorate,” Grian said simply and Skizz stuck out his tongue. “So we put him on the table and told him to stay. Imagine our shock when it worked,” Gem started to laugh again, shaking her head at the boys when they started to bicker. 

 

“This has been going on for way too long,” Pearl whispered and Gem covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing harder. Or to at least stifle it. 

 

It took a bit longer before Impulse and Scott climbed the stairs and joined them, everyone finding a place at the table. Gem somehow ended up at the head of the table, with Scott and Impulse on her left and right. Skizz sat next to Impulse, while Pearl sat next to Scott with Grian on her other side. 

 

“So you boys figure it out?” Gem asked hopefully, they didn’t seem like they had argued anymore. At the very least they didn’t look angry so that was good. She hoped. 

 

“We think so,” Scott said and tossed a book on the table. Gem looked at it and it was a list. 

 

“We’ve decided to split up,” Impulse explained. “At least temporarily,” 

 

“And how are we doing that?” Grian asked as he crossed his arms. “And to do what?” 

 

“Well, Pearl had a thought a while back that freeing the winners might give us some sort of advantage. Maybe the watchers will do something if there's all five of us free,” Scott explained. “And in keeping track, that leaves us with Scar and Martyn left,” 

 

“We already have Martyns' book, so that one’s just hope we can guess right. But we figured that the other half of us could make an attempt to free Scar,” Impulse said and Gem nodded along a little bit. 

 

“I think that's a fantastic idea, Smajor!” Skizz said and Scott just gave him a nod. “But who would be doing what?” 

 

“I know Martyn the best, so we were thinking that I could head that one. That relates back to the list,” Scott said and nodded his head to the book he had thrown on the table. 

 

“I figured that I could head the task for Scar, since he is a hermit,” Impulse explained. 

 

“And what about teams? Who’s helping who?” Pearl asked with a slight head tilt. 

 

“With me in operation Scar, I certainly want Grian. Considering you two teamed for two seasons of the Life Games. And Pearl as well, since we all make up the members of Boatem,” Impulse explained. 

 

“That leaves me with Skizz and Gem. Skizz because of his bond with Impulse, if they have to enter a dangerous situation they don’t need to be together. And Gem because whatever situations this leads us to will need someone who can do everything as well as her,” Scott explained. 

 

“So, Grian and Pearl, let’s go get Scar,” Impulse said and pulled out the three artifacts. “We’ll get the book and regroup at the Bird House,” 

 

“The what?” Grian asked in confusion and Impulse gave him a cheeky smile. Gem had a feeling she knew where this was going. 

 

“The cottage you and Skizz stay at. Technically speaking,” Impulse said as he walked away, referencing the fact that Skizz hadn’t actually slept there yet. Grian made another offended noise and ran after him with Pearl following, her laugh echoing as she left with them. 

 

Gem turned her eyes to Scott, waiting for him to speak. He did so after a minute, 

 

“Impulse will come and share what the task is with us, so that we can change teams if needed. Us three will work out of the Band House,” Scott explained and Gem knew that was the original cottage. “They’ll work out of the Bird House until we get this done. Until they get back, let’s start figuring out who might be able to help,” 

Chapter 29: Task Limit

Gem and Skizz both read over the book that Scott had tossed onto the table earlier, looking over the list that Scott had prepared. It listed all of Martyns alliances from the games, Dogwarts, the Southlanders, his soulbound, the Mean Gils, and the Big Dogs. 

 

Then Gem turned the page and glanced up at Scott. This listed people from most likely to least likely to be able to free Martyn. 

 

“It’s not great, but it makes sense to me that Cleo would have a real shot at it. Maybe Jimmy since they’ve teamed up twice,” Scott explained and rubbed the back of his neck. “The only other person I would put near the top is Ren, but he isn’t an option,” 

 

“I think it makes sense for us to free Clebert,” Skizz said. “I guess we free them one at a time, have them try to free Martyn and move on if it doesn’t work. But what about us, Dippledop and G?”

 

“I’m on my last life, so I’d rather not try,” Scott explained. “Not unless we exhaust all other options. And I think you three just try last if it comes to that. You before Grian, Grian before Impulse, and Impulse before me,” 

 

“Well, Skizz and Impulse are bonded. That will also put them down to one life,” Gem reminded him. 

 

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that then,” Scott responded. “Come on,” he got up and Gem followed behind him with Skizz behind her. They headed back to the original cottage, or Band House, as it had been referred to before. 

 

Scott gathered the three artifacts required to free someone and looked at the others. 

 

“So, Cleo?” Gem asked, she liked Cleo. Cleo was always so sweet and made for an interesting companion. Interesting in a good way, not bad. Don’t get that confused. 

 

“Unless you guys have another idea,” Scott said and Skizz shook his head. 

 

“You’re a lot smarter than me, Smajor. So I’ll follow your lead,” Skizz replied and Scott nodded in response. They prepared to leave the cottage and head to the circle when Impulse walked in with a book. He passed it to Scott, who read it out loud for them. 

 

The Secret Life winner was no beginner. He played through all five seasons, but when time was ticking down he made kills with little or no reason. 

 

A group of items we want from Limited Life, showing how he caused others strife. Represent how he made all his kills, a different way of showing his skills. Only then will he be able to roam, only then can you bring him home. 

 

“Oh,” Gem said once Scott finished. 

 

“I think we’ve got it covered to be fair, but wanted to see what you thought?” Impulse wasn’t even talking to Gem and Skizz, his gaze solely on Scott. Scotts cheeks tinted pink and he nodded. 

 

“I think you’ve got it. We’re about to go get Cleo and see what to do from there,” Scott responded and Impulse smiled softly. 

 

“Good. Let us know if you need any help,” Impulse told him and then left, not even giving any real recognition to the other two. Skizz wore an amused smile and he locked eyes with Gem. 

 

“So…Dippledop is hopelessly in love then?” Skizz whispered to Gem, who responded in a whisper of her own.

 

“Well duh,” Skizz snickered at her response. “And clearly so is Scott,” she said and crossed her arms while they waited for Scott to come back to reality. 

 

“So um…we ready?” Scott asked, finally shaking his head and turning to the other two. 

 

“We’re waiting on you,” Gem replied and Scott shot her a look before leading them out of the cottage. They took to the air and headed for the circle, landing on the stone with ease. Well mostly, Skizz tripped upon landing but he didn’t actually get hurt. So yeah, with ease. 

 

Gem and Skizz each took one of the artifacts from Scott and he held onto the third. They approached the statue of Cleo, who still remained swinging a sword from where she was back against the wall. It made Gem shudder, half wondering who had been attacking Cleo. 

 

They placed the artifacts into the item frames and they glowed, causing Gem to once again shield her eyes. In a flash of black and purple a book appeared, and Skizz grabbed ahold of it before flipping it open. 

 

“Odd,” Scott muttered and Gem gave him a confused look. He shook his head and nodded to Skizz to read, and so he did. 

 

A zombie is what everyone seeks, be quiet and hear the shrieks. An alliance forged in an unlikely friendship, a team of fairies protected in a tower over a fortress. 

 

BigB was a cursed friend in desperate need, a kill that caused Cleo to bleed. A betrayal like no other, within their fort it caused a rupture. 

 

Set in by a breach of trust, what items did Cleo and BigB use to make sure their relationship was sunk?

 

“Last life?” Skizz asked after he finished reading. “That’s a very long time ago!” 

 

“Yeah, and I can’t even begin to help,” Gem said before looking at Scott, who she was pretty sure hadn’t listened to a word that Skizz had read. “Scott?”

 

“Hm?” he looked at them and blinked, receiving expectant looks. “Sorry, I was distracted,” he explained and Gem crossed her arms. 

 

“Clearly,” 

 

“Look,” he said and walked to the statue next to Cleo, which was BigB. He knelt next to the base and titled his head towards it, looking at Gem and Skizz silently. 

 

“The item frames are gone?” Skizz asked, looking shocked. Gem blinked, why were they gone? What had they done wrong?

 

“I bet you we can’t start more than three tasks at once. The watchers like the number three right?” Scott then stood up. “We can tell the others when we get back, but I think I remember Last Life enough to do this task pretty easily. She came to me and Pearl afterwards, which means I may see if I can get Pearl to help if one of you wants to help Impulse and Grian with Scar?” Gem stepped forward and spoke up. 

 

“I can do it,” 

Chapter 30: Trading Tasks

“You sure?” Skizz asked and Gem nodded. 

 

“Yeah, if the goal is to keep you and Impulse separate because of your bond then it makes sense,” she explained and Scott nodded. He took the book from Skizz and they took to the sky, heading back to the cottages. 

 

Instead of going into the original one, Scott walked up to the Bird House before walking in. Gem and Skizz followed, interrupting what seemed to be the end of a meeting between the other three. 

 

“I need Pearl. Cleo’s task relates back to Last Life,” Scott explained as he walked over to the table, placing hands on Impulse’s shoulders. “Gem said she can help with Scar,”

 

“Pearl?” Impulse asked and the watcher nodded, smiling at Gem a little bit as she stood up. “Welcome to our team Gem!” Impulse said, earning a small laugh from Gem. 

 

“Oh, and a warning. It looks like we can only have three tasks activated at once. Just a warning, hope you don’t need anyone to help free Scar,” Scott said before removing his hands from Impulse’s shoulders. “Come on Skizz, come on Pearl,” Scott then walked out of the cottage with the other two in tow. 

 

Gem had to admit she liked it, seeing each of her Scott’s take charge of something. It also meant that, despite being band leader, she didn’t need to be in control of anything at the moment. It was nice. 

 

She joined Impulse and Grian at the table. 

 

“So what’s the plan?” she asked and Grian gave her a smile. 

 

“That's what we were discussing before you replaced Pearl,” Grian didn’t seem bothered by the idea of the girls switching teams. Which was good. “But, maybe you could give us some input,”

 

“Absolutely,” she said and Impulse sighed. 

 

“So this is from Limited Life. But the book says they want a representation of how he made his kills. Which in turn could mean one of two things,” Impulse held up one finger. “One, what items he used to make his kills overall. Or two, a representation of each and every kill. Which requires a lot more items,” at the second option, Impulse held up a second finger before curling his hand into a fist and sighing. 

 

“Can I see the book again?” She asked and Impulse passed it over. Gem read the words over a few times, silently questioning what it could mean. Then she actually looked at the phrasing used before glancing at the boys. 

 

“She knows something,” Grian was whispering loudly, making no actual attempt to hide what he was saying to Impulse. Gem rolled her eyes at the two when Impulse giggled a little bit. 

 

“It just wants us to figure out what kills he made and get one for each type,” she explained and Impulse nodded. 

 

“I figured but after failing Martyns task…” he trailed off for a moment before righting himself. “Guess I’m just a little on edge,” he gave a guilty smile and Gem placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. 

 

“That’s ok. This place has us all on edge,” she saw him give a genuine smile in response. “We got this. So…what did Scar use to kill people? Cause I wasn’t in Limited Life except for one session,” she explained and earned confused looks. “What?” 

 

“You weren’t there,” Grian sounded confused. “Unless…hmmm…” 

 

“Wait, if she was there, shouldn’t you know Grian?” Impulse asked, worry started to overtake his face and he started to tense back up. Gem kept her hand firmly on his shoulder but this time it didn’t do much to help. 

 

“No. I wouldn’t know. Martyn would know, but he’s a listener. That’s something I turned over to the watchers a long time ago. After Third Life, and I think Last Life, I wanted to make sure everyone was always there even if not possible. So I let the watchers pull in extras to replace them, but to us everything seemed normal,” Grian explained. 

 

“Great. So that’s helpful,” Impulse muttered. 

 

“Actually it was just me, at least from what I know. Therefore, it doesn’t actually affect this task at all,” Gem reminded them. It did get a small smile from Impulse so Gem felt good. 

 

“Great. Then let’s start making a list of what we need to collect for Scar,” Impulse quickly crafted a book and they started to talk about what happened during Limited Life. Not that Gem was all that helpful but she did enjoy listening to Impulse and Grian talk. 

 

Eventually they did come up with a list, one that Gem really hoped was correct. 

 

In order to represent the kills that Scar had made they would need a TNT minecart, a shovel, a bow, a crossbow, and a diamond sword. None of it was super hard to get, considering that they could probably get most items from the villagers they had. 

 

“And we can work on that tomorrow, considering that it’s nighttime and I don’t fancy dealing with the mobs outside,” Grian said and Impulse nodded in agreement. 

 

“Yeah…I don’t really think there’s a point in doing it right now. Maybe after we get Scar and have him all caught up then we can see if Scott needs any help,” Impulse pointed out. “He kinda got the harder part to this split,” 

 

“And I’m sure he’s handling it just fine,” Gem said and Impulse nodded at her. “But we can see who else he thinks we should free for Martyn, that’s assuming Cleo doesn’t work out,” 

 

“Let’s just hope Martyn will understand what’s going on and give us a way out,” Grian muttered. Then he stood up and tucked his wings close to himself. “I’m going to bed. Goodnight,” he then vanished upstairs. 

 

“He’s got a good idea. We should get some sleep,” Impulse told her and she nodded. Impulse pulled her gently to her feet and led her to the beds. She was silent as she climbed into the third bed in the room, Grian and Impulse having claimed the other two. She did miss Pearls warmth, but perhaps it would only be for a night or two. 

 

And with that thought, Gem fell into a restless sleep. 

Chapter 31: Watcher Of Stone

Gem didn’t sleep horribly well, so she was up before both Grian and Impulse. Glancing at her communicator showed nothing new, so she didn’t spend too much time thinking about it. She got out of bed and went downstairs, looking over the list from the night before. 

 

It was sunrise, meaning that it was light enough outside that most mobs were probably burning if not already a pile of ash. She figured she would get started on gathering things, and the first thing she wanted to grab was the TNT minecart. 

 

She made sure she was geared up before heading to the creeper farm that sat in their little farm area. It wasn’t big but it produced enough for them to have rockets, and that’s what mattered. She grabbed some gunpowder from the chest, then headed to the storage area. She was pretty sure they had sand and paper in there. If not then she could easily go find them. 

 

She hummed softly as she entered the storage building, where she saw Pearl digging through a chest that was filled with an assortment of gray blocks like stone. Gem checked a few chests but didn’t see any sand. 

 

“Good morning Pearl!” she chirped and the watcher looked over at her. Pearl broke into a smile as she called her own greeting over. Gem approached and looked over her shoulder, curious. “What are you looking for?” 

 

“Gravel. We need a flint and steel but you guys don’t have any flint,” Pearl grumbled the last part and Gem giggled. “You wanna come with me to find some?” she asked suddenly and Gem thought about it for a minute. 

 

“I do need to grab some sand,” Gem admitted. 

 

“That’s great. Because usually the two are somewhere close to each other,” Pearl slung an arm around Gems shoulders after closing the chest. “It’ll be fun,” Gem couldn’t help the fond smile that crossed her face. 

 

“Ok. Fine,” she said despite sand being nearby. “Let me just tell the others,” Gem pulled her communicator out and started to type on it while Pearl waited rather impatiently. 

 

<GeminiTay> Me and Pearl are going to find sand and gravel

 

<Skizzleman> Be safe!

 

<ImpulseSV> Me and Grian will deal with the villagers then

 

<Grian> Ugh, villagers

 

<Smajor> Be back soon please

 

“Ready?” Gem asked and Pearl nodded. The two exited the storage barn and launched into the air. An easy conversation picked up between them, mostly about their tasks and what was going on at the moment. 

 

“So we really just need a sword, some sand, and the flint and steel,”

 

“Well, I’m grabbing extra sand anyway. So that shouldn’t be an issue,” Gem said and Pearl flashed a smile at her. 

 

Pearl angled down and landed, Gem following her lead. They were pretty close to some gravel and sand. 

 

“Void, it’s hot out here,” Pearl said as they stood on the edge of a small cliff. “Why is it so hot?” Pearl stripped herself of her armor. Gem stared for a moment, shocked Pearl would just leave herself unprotected like that. 

 

“The sun is out,” Gem responded to the question Pearl had asked, and she was right. The sun was hanging high in the sky, beating down on them. And without the wind from flying, it was pretty hot outside. 

 

“Well?” Pearl was giving her an expectant look and Gem tilted her head in confusion. 

 

“Well what?” Gem asked and Pearl signaled to the armor still on Gem’s body. 

 

“Well, are you going to take yours off?” Gem glanced around, there weren’t any hostile mobs around so it’s not like she was in danger. And she would be working near, if not in, the water. And armor was uncomfortable in the water unless you had the right enchantments on it, so she really didn’t see the harm in following Pearl's lead. 

 

So she did, she took off her helmet, leggings, and boots and dropped them into her enderchest. The only thing she kept on was her wings, so that she didn’t actually have to climb up the cliff to reach Pearl again. 

 

“I’ll meet you back up here when I’m done,” Gem said with a smile before dropping off the cliff. It wasn’t hard to dive into the water, which felt nice considering it was hot outside. 

 

The sand was a little wet as Gem collected it from the edge of the water, but she didn’t mind it that much. Pearl was a little higher up on land, collecting extra gravel so they had it for later as well. 

 

Gem finished before Pearl did, so she climbed back over to where she was. Pearl put the last of her gravel in a shulker box, and Gem pulled her rockets out. She was expecting to launch immediately but Pearl grabbed her wrist. 

 

“Hang on, what's the rush?” Pearl asked. Suddenly Gem was pulled in very close proximity and she nearly short circuited, especially considering that Pearl was face to face with her. Her face heated up. 

 

“Pearl…” she whispered, heart pounding out of her chest. 

 

“I never really got to say it during Secret Life, Gem. But you were honestly the best player, and you deserved to win,” Gem couldn’t focus on anything happening around her. “And honestly, I am so glad you aren’t wearing armor,” Gem’s ability to focus was still gone, but the words did confuse her and fill her with some fear. Maybe that's why when pain exploded in her chest she was thrown off her feet, but not entirely shocked. 

 

Pearl had stabbed her. 

 

“Pearl?” Gem was filled with immense panic, scrambling to grab her sword or shield from her inventory. “What are you doing?” she asked and Pearl stepped closer. There was a look, one or regret and sorrow. 

 

“I’m so sorry Gem, just keep that in mind. Ok?” She asked and Gem put her hands up to block the blow, but it only resulted in Pearl driving her sword right through Gem. 

 

And just like that, Gem was stone. 

Chapter 32: Filled In

All Gem knew was that she was sore when she woke up. She was on her back, head in someone's lap. Opening her eyes revealed a very concerned Impulse staring down at her. She tried to sit up but was hit with a wave of dizziness, gentle hands on her shoulders made her lay back down, head in Impulse’s lap once again. 

 

“What happened?” Gem asked before all the memories came flooding back. Pearl had killed her. “Oh,” she whispered and glanced around. Scott was kneeling next to her, a smile crossing his face. 

 

“Welcome back Gem, it’s good to hear your voice,” he said. “Everyone else is at the cottages,” Scott explained softly and Gem nodded. They gave her a moment before Impulse readjusted her so that she was sitting up and leaning into his chest, one of his arms around her. She was still dizzy at the movement but it wasn’t like when she tried to sit up before. 

 

“Right…” she murmured and Scott gently tugged fingers through her red hair. “How long have I been-?” she started to ask but Impulse cut her off with an answer before she even finished the question. 

 

“About three days,” he explained. “Since we already had three tasks going, we couldn’t get you immediately,” 

 

“Thankfully we were close to completing Scar and Cleo. We did that, and they’re currently awake and ok,” Scott finished the explanation. 

 

“Martyn-” she started to ask but went silent at Scott’s head shake. 

 

“Nope. Cleo tried and was killed. So she’s already down a life,” he answered. There was a topic that Gem was avoiding, and apparently her Scott’s could read her with ease. That probably came from Secret Life, not to mention hermitcraft and empires. 

 

“Here,” Impulse said, pulling a book out of his pocket with his free hand. He handed it to Gem, who hesitantly opened it. “Pearl gave it to us in explanation,” Gem nodded and then started to read. 

 

It was a secret task from the watchers. 

 

Helping out to free someone, the winner of Limited Life is quite a choice. But let's make a deal, a life for a life. 

 

Keep the ratio balanced, turn someone to stone. It doesn’t matter who, but take their last life before another one is free. 

 

If you fail to complete this task, then everyone will suffer the consequences. You’ll be turned to stone with no way to be returned, a fate that will seal everyone in this world for the rest of eternity. This challenge is on you alone, good luck PearlescentMoon. 

 

“Oh wow,” she breathed out as it suddenly made a lot of sense. That’s why Pearl had killed her, that’s why Pearl had wanted her to take off her armor. “But why me?”

 

“Well, it was either you or me based on our lives. And considering she would have to kill me in my sleep or hope I didn’t fight back…” Scott said and Gem nodded. 

 

“It was easier to get me alone,” Gem finished for him and Scott nodded. “We all know you can run and hide like nobody's business,” she said, sounding a little accusatory. 

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Scott smiled though. 

 

“And we of course brought all your stuff as well,” Impulse signaled to a pink shulker box that had been set down nearby. “You feeling ok now?” Impulse asked and Gem nodded. 

 

“Yeah, not dizzy anymore,” she gave him a guilty smile. 

 

“I know, the dizzy feeling isn’t fun. And that’s really not something you want to fly with,” Impulse told her and Gem took a small breath. Scott stood up and offered a hand to her, which she happily took. 

 

She was gently pulled to her feet, nearly falling over. She swore Impulse didn’t have this many issues, but maybe it just depended on how you died or something. Scott helped balance her, until Gem stepped back with a grateful look at the man. 

 

She quickly equipped her armor and sighed, grabbing the shulker box while attaching her wings to her back and grabbing a handful of rockets she took to the sky. Impulse and Scott followed, before Scott took the lead to bring them home. 

 

It wasn’t a long flight, and thankfully Gem hadn’t seemed to miss much since she was stone for only a few days. As they flew closer, Gem saw the beginning of a third cottage. It was sitting on the other side of the Band House. She also saw everyone standing there and looking up at them. 

 

Well everyone except Pearl. 

 

They landed and Gem was thrown into a bunch of talking all at once. 

 

“Gemstone!” Skizz called in excitement and she barely got her feet under her before being pulled into a tight hug. She giggled and hugged him back, smiling at him. 

 

“Welcome home,” Grian hugged her after Skizz stepped back. Gem leaned into it, smiling as Grian briefly wrapped wings around her before letting go and moving back. 

 

“Gem!” Cleos voice caused Gem to turn but before she could actually greet them, she was distracted by another voice. 

 

“Gem!” Scar called in excitement and she was pulled into a bone crushing hug. 

 

“Hi Scar,” she giggled and hugged him back. “Good to see you something other than stone,” she teased and he stuck his tongue out. He had a pair of elytra wings on his back, one of their extra sets. When Grian pulled Scar away, Gem was finally able to face Cleo. 

 

“Hey,” Gem said and walked the two steps over, hugging Cleo. They smiled and hugged her back. Gem took note of the wings on Cleo’s back as well. She was pretty sure they would need to go get more wings at some point. 

 

“It’s good to see you,” Cleo said and cupped her face. “Seriously, even if we are in this weird world,” Gem nodded. 

 

“It’s good to see you too,” she responded. She adored Cleo, maybe to the point of having a small crush on her, but right now they weren’t who Gem wanted to talk to. 

 

Who she needed to talk to. 

 

She glanced at Impulse and Scott, both who signaled to the second floor of the Band house. Gem nodded and smiled as Cleo pressed a kiss to her cheek. 

 

Then Gem went upstairs to go talk to someone particular. 

 

“Pearl?” she called as she walked up the stairs. She didn’t get a response, so she sighed and finally entered the bedroom floor. It wasn’t hard to find the watcher, considering it didn’t look like she was really hiding. 

 

Pearl sat on the bed that the two shared, wings quivering a little bit. Gem knew that watcher wings worked similarly to birds, so she knew this was some sort of nervousness or guilt. Which, she wasn’t quite sure. 

 

Pearl also refused to look at her, staring intently at the ground like it could save her from this conversation. And Gem liked to avoid conversations, but this was not one that she could handle avoiding. Not if it meant Pearl was going to be like this when around her. 

 

“Hey,” Gem spoke softly and Pearl only shifted her weight. “I don’t blame you,” she said and crossed the room, kneeling in front of Pearl. She pushed the girl's hair from her face and made Pearl look at her. Dried tear streaks ran down her face so Gem just cupped her face and stroked her thumbs over Pearl's cheeks gently. 

 

“I’m so sorry,” Pearl's voice came out hoarse and broken, guilty with everything that had happened. 

 

“I know you are. But Pearlie,” Gem whispered and watched as Pearl squeezed her eyes shut and let out a shuddering breath. “I’m not mad. Confused, yes. Scared, maybe a little. But never mad,” 

 

“You should be. I killed you,” Pearl sounded distressed and it broke Gems heart. 

 

“Yeah, but I understand why. It wasn’t a fair challenge to place on you, but you did what you needed too,” Pearl finally opened her eyes again and Gem gave her a sweet smile. “It was me temporarily or you permanently, and I would rather it be this way than the other way,”

 

“I promise I won’t do it again,”

 

“I don’t need or want that promise. I just want you,” too. Gem forgot to add the too to the end of the sentence. Whether she forgot intentionally or accidentally she wasn’t sure, but Pearl gave her a doubtful look. 

 

“You want me?” 

 

Well, no point in denying it. “Yeah, it’s always been you Pearl,” she said and the watcher was silent, causing panic to build in Gems chest. She forced herself to remain calm, beating the panic down with a stick. 

 

“I want you too,” Pearl finally breathed out and Gem let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “But I thought…Cleo?” 

 

“I mean yeah, I do like Cleo but compared to you?” Gem told her and Pearl nodded. Gem then took a chance and leaned up, considering she was still kneeling in front of Pearl. She was also glad that nobody had come in because of the implications on this position…

 

Gem didn’t have much time to think about the implications as Pearl met her in the middle and their lips connected. It was nothing like Gem has expected, but everything she has always wanted. 

 

When they broke apart, Gem smiled at her. She stood up and moved to curl up on the bed with Pearl. Pearl pulled her close and Gem pressed a kiss to her cheek. 

 

“You good now?” Gem asked and Pearl nodded. 

 

“I think so, as long as this means we’re dating,” Gem giggled a little at Pearl's statement, but she did give a confirming noise. They stayed like that, curled up. Pearl's wings wrapped around her, providing a safety net of sorts. So Gem fell into a very comfortable sleep. 

 

Chapter 33: The Meeting Of All Meetings

Gem wasn’t sure how long she was asleep for, but when she woke up it was morning. Pearl was still holding her, and it took a moment for Gem to realize that she was being woken up. 

 

“Get up you two. We have a meeting,” Impulse said and Pearl groaned. She tightened her grip on Gem momentarily before huffing and letting her go. “Good morning to you as well Pearl,” Impulse said and vanished down the stairs. 

 

It didn’t take long for Gem to be sitting at the head of the table in the meeting room again, she really needed to figure out why she kept sitting there. She had Impulse, Skizz, and Cleo on her left with Scott, Pearl, Grian, and Scar on her right. 

 

Everyone was silent and Gem realized they were waiting for her to speak. They wanted her to lead the meeting. 

 

Oh boy.

 

“Ok, with Cleo free and unable to release Martyn, we need to move on and free someone else. Scott, list?” she asked and he handed it over. “It looks like Jimmy is the next step, and I think that keeping a task spot open is the best idea,” she was pretty sure she was shaking and none of what she said had come out as confident as she had hoped. 

 

“She’s wrong,” Grian said suddenly and Gem looked at him in shock. She was also a little hurt but more thrown off than anything else. What was Grian playing here? Was he crazy? “I mean, clearly the watchers don’t want us to get him yet. So wouldn’t it be best to focus on someone else?” His voice pitched up at the end and Gem could sense the nervousness. The black wings tucked tightly didn’t help much. 

 

“Hang on, I did not lose a life for Martyn of all people only for you to not want to free him!” Cleo slammed a hand on the table and Grian shrunk back. “You don’t have to help at all but seriously!” 

 

“Hang on, Grian. Who do you want to free if not someone to try and help Martyn?” Impulse asked and Grian shrugged. 

 

“I dunno…” he mumbled. “Tango? Lizzie? Joel? Bdubs?” 

 

“So anyone not on the list basically?” Scott didn’t seem convinced as he narrowed his eyes at Grian. “And why not mention this earlier? Your feeling?” 

 

“I mean if it was gonna be anyone to free Martyn, it would’ve been Cleo. Right?” He asked and when nobody responded he spoke again. “Right?” More nervous. 

 

“Skizz? Scar? Pearl?” Gem asked the three that had been oddly silent. Pearl was currently staring down Grian, and then she let out a sigh before looking at Gem. 

 

“I think we do it. Listen to Grian that is,” she explained and Gem nodded slowly. Pearl understood something she didn’t, and she obviously trusted her girlfriend. 

 

“I’m with Grian!” Scar said happily, and Grian just smiled a little bit. That really didn’t surprise Gem one bit, it honestly wouldn’t surprise her if Scar had no clue what was going on at all. 

 

“Ok, so that’s Scar and Pearl for Grian. Impulse and Cleo for Scott. Skizz? That leaves you,” she said and looked at the man. Skizz looked to be very deep in thought for a moment. 

 

“One Gemstone, you also have a vote. Two, I’m curious as to what G’s thinking. Here’s the thing, we only have one nether and one overworld artifact left. Plus no more extra wings, so whatever happens means we need to split up anyway,” Skizz explained and Gem sighed. She forgot how logical he could be. “And I highly doubt G would lead us on a wild goose chase without a good reason. Maybe he knows something but can’t say anything,” Skizz told them. 

 

It clicked in her head, this had to be a challenge of some sort. And Grian would only do it if it had a really bad punishment. 

 

“Ok. I’ll side with Grian then. Let’s split up again, somehow I think it might be best. We need things for artifacts, we need more wings, and we need to free someone,” Gem said and Scott muttered something under his breath. Gem just placed a hand on his shoulder, she could understand why he was upset. 

 

“So let’s do this then,” Impulse stood up and scanned everyone, placing his hands on the table to lean his weight into. “Let’s go free someone, or at least get a task started. From there we can always figure out who needs to do what. Question is, who are we freeing?” 

 

“Well, Grian gave us four options. Lizzie, Joel, Bdubs, or Tango,” Cleo also didn’t seem super amused but of course she would go with what the group wanted, especially considering everything that was happening.

 

“I say we shoot for someone that’s played in all the series, I mean the more diversity in teams we have the better, right?” Pearl asked and a few people nodded in agreement. “So that does automatically take out Lizzie,” 

 

“I know this is probably biased but why don’t we go for Tango or Bdubs?” Impulse said and everyone looked at him. “Think about it. Joel was alone for most seasons. Bdubs has had more variety in teammates, but Tango may offer more in terms of farms and redstone,” Impulse explained. 

 

“Double Down may have had more variety, but I think he evens out with Top on teammates that are stone,” Skizz said and found a piece of paper. He quickly made two lists, crossing out names of teammates who weren’t still stone. “See?” 

 

Gem took a look at the paper and Skizz was right. Bdubs had more crossed out names but they both had three uncrossed out names. Tango with Bdubs, Etho, and Jimmy, and Bdubs with Tango, Etho, and Mumbo. 

 

“So we either get a builder or a redstoner?” Scar asked and Gem nodded. “That’s interesting for sure, but Bdubs is clearly the way to go,” 

 

“Maybe Bdubs would be better. With having more knowledge and variety on teams,” Cleo pointed out and Gem bit her lip. It was a rough choice, because she adored both of them so much. 

 

“But, a variety in teams doesn’t matter if everyone is no longer stone. We’d need answers on those that are stone,” Pearl pointed out and Cleo crossed their arms at the watcher. “Tango is clearly the logical choice here,”

 

“But Bdubs survived longer in three of the games,” Grian pointed out and Scott let out a small scoff before shaking his head. 

 

“Barely. I think getting another redstoner in here is for the best. But right now that leaves us with a tied vote,” Scott took a breath and steadied a calm gaze on Impulse and Gem. “It’s up to one of you,” 

 

Gem could tell that Impulse didn’t want to make a choice, and she couldn’t blame him. So it was up to her. With everything that had been said and done, Gem knew who the best choice would be. So she made the final vote, one that wouldn’t be argued with. 

 

“We’re going to need Tango,” 

Chapter 34: Who’s Top Dog Now?

Notes:

So as this book went on it got harder to balance characters. Plus I got bored but didn’t wanna really stop writing. So fair warning these next few are gonna be kinda fast!

Thanks for sticking with me, and be prepared for the next book in the series!

She took Skizz, Scott, and Impulse with her to free Tango. It would be for the best, and hopefully cause enough of a distraction for Skizz so that Impulse would actually get together with Scott. Or it could have the opposite effect and make Scott jealous again. But hey, Bdubs would probably do the same thing. 

 

Placing the artifacts was easy, so the boys stepped back once they started to glow. Gem watched as a book appeared in the air. She grabbed it, not bothering to really wait before flipping it open. 

 

Riddle us this and riddle us that, at some point Tango had a weird chat. A break was required so someone stepped in, but can you solve who wore the skin. 

 

Not a leader like before but nothing was a bore, they no longer have an alliance in the shadows yet could still defeat their foes. While considered to be smart, they had a boxed up broken heart. 

Speak their name three times while standing in the middle, good luck trying to solve this riddle. Hope you don’t guess wrong or they might be forever gone. 

 

“Ok, what?” Impulse asked and Gem frowned at the book. 

 

“A riddle? Replaced? Top was there every time, I would know,” Skizz crossed his arms, but Gem looked at Impulse. He wore the same expression as she did, he knew what she knew. “He was my teammate for crying out loud!”

 

“Hang on Skizz,” Impulse said and looked at Gem. “So…nobody here would know, right?”

 

“I don’t think so. Considering what Grian said,”

 

“You two want to fill us in?” Scott asked and Gem gave him a guilty smile. “Because this has to do with seeing through replacements, right?” 

 

“I mean yeah, but…what do you know about it?” Impulse asked and Scott shook his head. 

 

“Not a lot. In MCC we always have backups ready, but that doesn’t matter much when we don’t do the whole disguise thing,” Scott explained. “I’m guessing Martyn is the only one who would know who replaced Tango?”

 

“According to Grian, yes,” Gem said and Skizz groaned. 

 

“Great. So now what? We sit here and try to solve this riddle?” Skizz sounded almost frustrated, not that Gem could really blame him. “None of this stuff even makes sense,” Gem felt someone taking the book from her hands and she let Scott have it, watching as he stared at the page silently. 

 

“Well, it’s not like we can even free someone else. We just used the last overworld and nether-” Impulse was cut off by Scott, who had moved to stand in the middle of the circle. 

 

“Go get ready to catch him,” Scott said and the three stared at him in confusion. “What? The riddle gave us exactly what we needed,” Scott told them with a sigh. 

 

“Huh?” Skizz asked

 

“Can I explain after we get him?” Scott asked and the three nodded. Skizz and Impulse moved over to the statue, who still seemed to be falling and looking behind him. “Thank you,” he huffed and took a breath. Gem watched him, and Scott spoke confidently when he said the name. 

 

Rendog.

 

Just like that there was a flash, but unlike normal the statue didn’t crack into obsidian and fall apart. Instead, the statue turned to crying obsidian and from it fell Ren, who landed in Skizz’s arms. 

 

“See, that easy,” Scott smiled at them. 

 

“I wanna know how you knew!” Skizz said and Scott laughed a little. 

 

“The riddle all but told us. Leader in Third Life, shadow alliance in Last Life, boxed heart from Double Life,” Scott explained and Impulse gave him a fond smile. “I just needed to see the words to make sure I was right,” 

 

“Impressively done, Scott,” Impulse told him as he walked over, gently squeezing Scott’s hand. Scott's face tinted red but he still gave a small smile in response. 

 

“Let’s get him back,” Gem said, glancing at the unconscious dog hybrid. “We might also need another cottage,” 

 

“Of course we do,” Scott let out a small laugh as he shook his head. Gem stuck her tongue out and they walked back, since it was hard to fly with elytra if you had a person in your hands. 

 

They ended up putting Ren in the Band House, where Skizz offered to stay with him until he woke up. Gem nodded as she left the cottage, her Scott’s flanking her from behind. They made it to the meeting room and Impulse sent out a message to everyone, telling them to show up. 

 

They did, minus Skizz for obvious reasons. During this time, Grian came in with a smile and presented them with a book. 

 

A list of people to try and free Martyn, a plan that’s already in motion. But you like to cause plans to go off the rails, so here's a job for you. 

 

Make them ditch the list and free someone else who isn’t written down. Free them from stone and only then will the task be complete. 

 

In a failure to accomplish this goal, all lives will be taken until everyone is on one and nobody wants that to happen when they have no control. A task for you and only you, complete this fast Grian. 

 

“I wondered,” Pearl said and Grian shrugged. 

 

“Didn’t get much option,” Grian responded. 

 

“Be lucky I had taken him off my list since he wasn’t a statue option,” Scott said and Grian winced at that. Scar patted his shoulder and Grian just took Scar’s hand and held it. 

 

“So what's the plan now?” Cleo asked and they were all silent for a moment, “I assume someone here has something,” 

 

“Well, we can’t do much without artifacts. But we also need more wings since we’re out,” Impulse said and Gem nodded. “While we wait for Ren to wake up, why don’t some people stay here and get things ready for him plus a new cottage up. Meanwhile, the others can go to the end and go end busting,” 

 

“I like that idea,” Scar said. “Can I go to the en-”

 

“No,” nearly everyone cut Scar off at once, causing him to pout. 

 

“You will get yourself killed and we want to avoid that,” Grian reminded him. Scar continued to pout and Gem could only shake her head. 

 

“Can I do the cottage? I feel like I haven’t gotten to build in forever,” Scott told them. “Plus when Ren wakes up, maybe we have him try and free Martyn?” 

 

“That should work. Why don’t Pearl, Cleo, Grian, and I go to the end?” Gem asked and saw everyone nod. “That leaves Scott, Skizz, Impulse, and Scar here to get things ready,” When nobody objected, the plan was set in place. 

 

Gem and her team went to get geared up. 

Chapter 35: Into The End

Gem met up with her team outside the storage building, checking in with them to make sure they were ready. They had everything they needed to go to the end, and with a promise from her Scott’s to keep them updated on Ren and Martyn, they set off.

 

Gem led them to the end portal where they crossed through, and in order to open a new outer end gateway they had decided to revive the ender dragon. 

 

“Ready?” Pearl called out. All four stood on each side of the exit portal, end crystals in hand. 

 

“Ready!” Cleo called their confirmation and so did Grian and Gem. With that they all placed down their crystals and took to the top of the obsidian towers. They watched the ender dragon revive, it coming back into the world and starting to fly around. 

 

Watching it for a moment reminded Gem that it was fine if one of them died, none of them were on their last life. She and Pearl had all three, and Grian and Cleo had two, so it was fine. 

 

She hoped.

 

“Take out the crystals!” Gem called out and drew her bow. She first destroyed the one next to her, ignoring the damage she took. She could get that back. She fired her bow at the crystal on the piller next to her, destroying it with ease. 

 

It didn’t take long before Cleo had used her bow to destroy the last of the crystals. They all dropped from the obsidian, meeting in the middle. Grian had brought a shulker of beds for the fight, so they waited for the dragon to land. 

 

Soon enough Pearl had delivered the final blow to the dragon and it exploded in the air. A small cheer went up from the group and they collected the xp before finding the new portal. 

 

Gem rolled an ender pearl between her hands, standing on the now built platform so they could throw pearls through. Gem took the plunge first, closing her eyes and feeling her body vanish from everything for a moment. 

 

The next second she was standing on an island in the middle of nowhere, and soon the other three appeared next to her. 

 

“Let’s go!” Cleo said and took to the air, not even glancing back at the others. Gem wasted no time before following her, rockets trailing behind them both as Grian and Pearl flew using their wings. 

 

The end was cold, basically nothing but a void. There was also no wind, it just felt still other than all the endermen teleporting around. 

 

“So, are we going to get shulker boxes as well?” Pearl asked as they flew, a city coming into Gems view. A boat floating next to it signaled they were getting wings. 

 

“I think so. As long as we think we can handle it, the more shulkers the better right?” She asked as they headed for the ship. They landed and headed for the wings below deck, putting them in a shulker box. 

 

They took what was needed from the ship before heading into the city. Sometimes they could get really helpful things, sometimes they couldn’t. So it would all depend on their luck. 

 

Taking down the city was easy with four of them, and they set off to find more city’s with wings. 

 

“Ok, I may not remember my time as stone but god it feels good to do things again,” Cleo commented and Gem giggled a little at that. “I’m just saying,” 

 

“Well now that you’re free, we can have some fun,” Gem responded, spotting a new city in the distance. “City close to us,” she called and they all angled towards it. Taking it on and collecting the wings took no time. 

 

Soon they were back in the sky, searching for a third city. 

 

“Do we think Ren will be able to free Martyn?” Grian asked and Gem spared a glance at him, shrugging a little bit. She honestly had no clue, there was a possibility. 

 

“Let’s hope so. Freeing Martyn is our key to hopefully learning new information,” Pearl said and Cleo laughed. 

 

“You think Martyn will know anything? Just because he’s a listener?” 

 

“I think it’s possible. Besides, it goes along with our winner theory,” Gem explained and Cleo gave her a confused look. “Oh right,” she then had to explain what idea Pearl originally had about freeing all the winners, which got a small nod from Cleo. 

 

“I could see that happening,” Cleo admitted. “But this is also the watchers, for all we know it could be some sort of dumb punishment,” Gems' heart dropped at those words, she hadn’t thought of that. Would the watchers punish them for freeing all the winners? 

 

“I’m sure it’s fine though. The watchers shouldn’t punish us for just freeing people,” Pearl argued back and Grian let out a hum in what almost sounded like disagreement. 

 

“They did try to lead me away from freeing Martyn,” Grian reminded her and Gem shook her head. She really didn’t like this conversation or where it might be heading. 

 

“Can we not do this? I’d rather just focus on getting wings and shulkers,” Gem said and they all lapsed into silence. She was incredibly grateful for that, because even the idea that the watchers would do something to screw them over without warning was scary. 

 

They spent another few hours in the end, managing to collect a lot of shulkers and about seven more pairs of elytra wings. They headed to the nearest portal to bring them back to the main island, which they teleported through with ease. 

 

Gem did check her communicator and saw a message from Scott, which caused a smile to cross her face. She was excited, the conversation from earlier being pushed from her mind as she read what had been sent. She looked at Pearl, Cleo, and Grian before they went through the portal back home and told them what had been sent.  

 

“Guys, Ren woke up. They’ve got Martyn,” 

Chapter 36: A New Assignment

Gem walked outside the Band House, they had gotten back from the end the night before. Thankfully. She took a glance at the new cottage that had been built, and she smiled a little bit. It was on the other side of the original one than the Bird House had been placed, and it stuck with the theme they already had set. 

 

It had oak walls spanning up two floors, the top one she assumed was probably for the beds and the bottom one a little bit of a storage and a kitchen of sorts. There was a cherry wood roof that had been placed on it, and that left her to assume that the cottage had a birch floor. 

 

Not to mention that she learned the night before that Cleo and Ren had moved in there, which meant Martyn probably would too. And before they freed the others, there would soon be the need for another cottage or two but they could focus on that later. 

 

“Gem, come on,” Impulse’s voice startled her and she turned quickly, reaching for her sword before seeing her friend. She relaxed and gave him a guilty smile. “Martyn woke up, we have a meeting to attend to,” he said. 

 

Gem followed him into the storage barn and up the stairs, once again ending up at the head of the table. She would accept her fate, this is how it would be forever. 

 

Everyone sat in their normal places, with Ren sitting across from Scar and Martyn next to Ren. Which honestly didn’t surprise her at all, those two were always near each other. 

 

“Alright, Martyn, Ren. It’s good to see you both awake,” Gem said once she realized that she was starting the meeting. Maybe she should also accept that this was just her new role, not just her unassigned seat. 

 

“It’s good to be awake,” Ren flashed a smile, showing his sharp canines. Considering he was a dog hybrid, it really didn’t surprise her to see the sharpness. “And Skizz has explained a little bit of what’s going on,” 

 

“Yeah, I haven’t been told anything,” Martyn said. “So what is this place?” He asked and with everyone pitching in they managed to make some sort of explanation for him. 

 

“Oh wow, that’s a lot more than I was told before,” Ren commented and Gem shot a look at Skizz. Skizz shrugged. 

 

“I was trying not to overwhelm him!” Skizz defended himself and Impulse let out a defeated sigh and a head shake. “Hey!” 

 

“Alright,” Scott cut through the overlapping voices and everyone went silent. “Martyn, we were hoping you might have some insight on everything going on around here. Why the watchers are doing this and such,” 

 

“Well, they’re mad because Gem didn’t win. They’re mad because the canary curse is broken, as are many other curses. I really don’t have any information, I don’t get told who they want to win. I just play the game and if they happen to tell me to do something, I do it,” Martyn explained and Gem felt her heart drop again. So they had nothing new. “I’ll let you guys know if I get told anything but right now…” 

 

“That’s fine. Thanks Martyn,” Gem said and the man nodded to her. “Alright. We have eight more statues. Eight more people. That means we need to get some more artifacts. We have nearly enough End ones, but zero Overworld and Nether Artifacts,” she said. 

 

“I drew up a plan while I was here. May I?” Impulse asked and Gem nodded. “So the items we need are echo sharps, probably a few ghast tears, gilded blackstone, and netherite,” he sounded defeated at the last one he said. 

 

“So what’s the plan? We split up again?” Scar asked and Impulse nodded. 

 

“We absolutely do. We need to split into three teams. A team to get echo shards, a team to get netherite, and a team to hit bastions for gilded blackstone,” he explained. “And I’ve divided everyone into teams based on where I think they’ll be needed,” 

 

Gem was so thankful for Impulse and his ability to organize things. 

 

“Team one, mining for netherite, will be Grian, Scar, Cleo, and Pearl. That’s going to be the most difficult job and require the most luck. On Bastion duty, Ren, Martyn, and Skizz. That’s going to need the most teamwork,” Impulse started and Gem knew where she was going. “As for the cities, that’s going to be me, Scott, and Gem. We’ve taken on cities together before, so we’re the most equipped for the job,” 

 

“Are we sure this is a good idea? Why not just stick together?” Martyn asked and Scott shook his head this time. 

 

“That’s going to take too long. The faster we get these Artifacts, the faster we free everyone, and the faster we get out of here,” Scott said and Gem took over when he stopped talking. 

 

“The goal is to keep going until we have enough for eight of every item. Gear up, and let’s get going,” Gem said, ending the meeting. “We need to hit about two cities, right?” 

 

“Assuming they each have eight shards, then yeah,” Impulse said. 

 

“Just remember that I’m on one life. I can handle this but…yeah,” Scott gave them a guilty smile and Impulse put a hand on his shoulder. 

 

“We’ve got this. If you feel unsafe at any point then just leave,” Impulse told him and Scott nodded. 

 

“Ok. Then I guess, how ready are we?” Scott asked with a small head tilt. Gem nearly laughed at Impulse's love struck face. These two were ridiculous. “I’m ready,” 

 

“I’m good to just head right out,” Gem said, and got nods from the boys. 

 

“I know I’m ready,” Impulse said after checking himself over. “So let’s just head right out, yeah?” He asked. With that they took to the sky, heading off in a direction they hadn’t been before when looking for a city. 

 

Gem could only hope that this went well. 

Chapter 37: Not So Silent

They managed to find one deep dark, and they entered it silently. It was a scary thing, it would always be scary to take on a deep dark. However, Impulse stopped them before they did anything. 

 

“I have an idea, ok? Just trust me,” he whispered and Gem nodded. “I had this idea on the way over. I’m going to disable any sort of warden spawning,” he said and crept to a nearby shrieker. 

 

Gem watched as Impulse did some redstone things, and blocked the shrieker from summoning a warden while still setting it off. Meaning that none of the other shriekers would be going off while they were there. 

 

Impulse turned and gave them both smiles, and Gem felt relieved. 

 

“You had this idea way before, didn’t you?” Scott asked and Impulse gave him an offended look, one that instantly revealed that Scott was right. “You already had the red stone stuff on you. Not that it wasn’t hot and everything, but void you already knew what to do,” 

 

“Ok…maybe,” Impulse admitted.

 

“So this didn’t need us three at all?” Gem asked and received a head shake. 

 

“I just figured that going through this city would be faster when doing this with three people. And I wasn’t sure it was going to work,” he replied. “Besides, we’ve been doing this the longest out of everyone here, I figured we could use an easy-ish break,” 

 

“Fine, I guess I’m not mad,” she said and walked off on her own to explore the city. She found a few chests, collecting two or three echo shards. And for once she was able to take in how beautiful the city could be when there wasn’t the risk of a warden coming after her. 

 

It felt like forever to Gem as she explored her side of the city. She figured the other two could handle a half together, but seriously it was taking forever. She was about to march over there and find them when she finally heard one of them call out. 

 

“Gem! Ready? We got the rest of the chests!” Impulse called across the cave, something that previously would’ve set the shriekers off and probably brought them closer to death. 

 

“I’m ready!” She called back and headed to where the boys were. She did take a moment to pause and study them, they both looked maybe a little disheveled. Dark marks peeked over the edge of Scott’s shirt, and Gem felt suddenly glad she hadn’t tried to find them. 

 

“Hey Gem!” Scott called as he smiled. 

 

“Thanks for not doing this while me and Pearl are sleeping in the cottage but is now really the time?” Gem asked and watched as both Impulse and Scott’s faces went a brilliant shade of red. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Also, thanks for being quiet about it,” 

 

“Gem-“ Impulse tried to say but she shook her head. 

 

“Let’s go. We have another city to hit. How many shards did you guys get?” She said and they showed her. “So eight total. One more city? Hopefully?” She asked and they took to the air before leaving the cave. 

 

They spent another few hours searching for another city, eventually managing to stumble upon one. 

 

“Alright, let’s split up again-“ Impulse started to say but Gem cut him off. 

 

“Oh no. I am not risking my eyes on the chance that I have to see you two fucking,” Gem cut him off and once again the boys both went bright red. “So we can either stay together or one of you go off on your own,” she said. 

 

They ended up staying together, not that Gem had any real arguments about it at all. 

 

“So are you and Pearl dating or what?” Scott asked after a while of the three just chatting. Gem gave him a look and Scott shrugged. “I’m just curious. You two cuddle together every night-“ 

 

“So do you two,” Gem pointed out. 

 

“Yeah but it’s different-“ Impulse tried to argue and Gem gave him an unconvinced look while digging through a chest. 

 

“Is it?” She asked. “But for the record, yes we started dating. What about you two?” She asked and they both spluttered out before mumbling answers that weren’t really answers. “Oh, you two don’t know then. But you slept together?” She teased and Scott smacked her shoulder lightly. 

 

“Shut up,” he muttered and Gem shrugged. 

 

“I think we’re dating. At least I’d like to be,” Impulse said suddenly and Scott froze, staring at him. “I mean if you’re ok with that-“ Impulse started to ramble, speaking faster so Gem watched as Scott just walked over and kissed him. 

 

“Yes, I’m ok with that,” Scott said softly. Impulse just gave a relieved smile to him and soon they finished clearing out the city. 

 

“So we’re ready to head back then?” Impulse asked and Gem nodded to him. They had gotten eight shards from this city as well, meaning they should have enough to make the Overworld Artifacts they needed. 

 

They headed back, making a quick stop at the guardian farm for the prismarine, and soared through the sky to reach the base. Gem wondered how the other groups were doing and if they had gotten what they needed yet. 

 

They reached the cottages before everyone else was back, meaning that they had some time to hang out. They crafted the Overworld Artifacts, and had just enough echo shards for eight of them to be made. 

 

After which, they started on two more cottages, each slightly bigger than the first three. Mainly so they could fit more people inside them. The one Gem built resembled the second cottage that had been built, with birch walls, a cherry roof, and an oak floor. While the one her Scott’s built had oak walls, a birch roof, and a cherry floor. 

 

It didn’t take much longer before the other two groups also returned, and they managed to craft with Nether Artifacts, plus an extra End Artifact. Meaning that they had just enough for all their friends still stuck in stone. 

Chapter 38: Three New Tasks

All ten members currently stood in the stone circle, Artifacts being held by Scott at the moment. There had been a bit of discussion previously over who they should free, so currently they were going to unlock Tango, Bdubs, and Etho. 

 

They started with Tango, and Skizz plucked the book from the air as it appeared. He read it before they got any other books, to make sure that everyone knew what they were going for.

 

Selecting Tango again, this time can you win? Across all the seasons, he had his many reasons. 

 

For every kill he made and every death without a save, an item represents each of them so step out on a limb. 

 

A collection is to be made and then you will be paid. 

 

“Ok then,” Impulse said and with a nod from Gem they placed artifacts into the items frames on Ethos statue. A book appeared in the air and quickly Ren pulled it from the air before reading it out loud.

 

A second selection as Ethoslab, but don’t think that this task is going to be a drab. 

 

In each season he had a new main faction, seeming to be his center of attraction. A representation of each new one, a shield to protect him from those who won. 

 

Guard these with your lives and soon he might be able to join your hive. 

 

“Alrighty then,” Martyn said with a head shake. Soon they were opening up the third book, and Grian was reading it to see Bdubs’s task. 

 

A third choice and a third task, beware that this might be your last. 

 

Three lives back in third life, once all were lost it caused quite the strife. Ended in different ways, each on different days. 

 

Represent who he ended, and only then can he be attended. 

 

“Perfect. Three tasks. Let’s get going on this then,” Gem said with a smile. “Impulse, Cleo, with me for Bdubs. Ren, Martyn, Grian, Pearl on Etho. Skizz, Scott, and Scar on Tango. Let’s go,” Gem ordered. 

 

She brought Cleo and Impulse into the Band House, where they sat down and started to talk about who Bdubs killed in third life. 

 

“Me and Cleo were allied with him. And he killed me for a clock,” Impulse said and Gem nodded. 

 

“He also killed BigB and Grian at some point. Right?” Cleo asked and Impulse nodded a little bit. 

 

“I believe so. And that would mean a cookie for BigB and probably sand or something for Grian,” Impulse responded and Gem hummed. 

 

“Those are easy enough to get together today, we should actually have all that stuff,” Gem pointed out and Impulse nodded. 

 

“Let me go check the storage. If we can free Bdubs quickly then we can move onto another person,” Impulse said and left the building. 

 

“I’m so glad this is going quicker now. We can go home soon!” Gem felt so much relief from just the thought of going back to Hermitcraft or Empires. Anywhere but staying here would be good. 

 

“You guys really have been here for a while, huh?” Cleo asked and Gem nodded at them. 

 

“We have. Me, Scott and Impulse woke up here with just us three. Everyone else was a statue, it was scary and overwhelming,” she admitted and Cleo nodded slowly. 

 

“I couldn’t imagine,” she said. “That sounds genuinely horrible,” 

 

“It was, but we got through it because we had each other. And it gets easier with every person we retrieve,” Gem explained and soon Impulse came back into the cottage. 

 

“We’ve got it all. Let’s get Bdubs, get him back here, and then we can work on the next person,” Impulse said. 

 

Soon they were back at the stone circle and placing those items into the chest. 

 

Bdubs turned to obsidian and cracked, falling to the ground and barely being caught by Impulse. The three then walked in silence to the cottages, where they brought him to one of the newly built ones. 

 

“I can stay with him to explain everything when he wakes up,” Cleo offered and Gem nodded, leading Impulse from the cottage and back to their own. 

 

“So who next?” Gem asked as they sat down at the table. Impulse shrugged and bit his lip. 

 

“I mean there’s five options left. Besides that, we should see how the other groups are doing,” Impulse said and Gem nodded. So that’s what they did. 

 

Gem found Ren, Martyn, Grian and Pearl in the cottage that had been built second, all sitting at a table and making a list. They all looked over to her when she entered and she waved. 

 

“Hey Gem,” Pearl said and smiled when Gem pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “What’s going on?” 

 

“Just wanted to check in and see how long this might take,” Gem explained and Grian shrugged. 

 

“It’s just shields to be fair. So I think we’ve got this. Maybe like two days?” He said and Gem nodded. She kissed Pearl again before leaving the cottage, meeting back with Impulse at the original one. 

 

“They’re got quite the list, they think maybe four days,” Impulse said as Gem walked in. She let out a sigh and shook her head. 

 

“At least we can start on someone else tomorrow then. For now I’m thinking we go for BigB or Joel,” 

 

“I’d be happy to get Joel, honestly I’ve kinda missed him,” Impulse said with a small laugh. “So Joel it is then,” he breathed out and Gem nodded. 

 

“Let’s just worry about that tomorrow. It’s late. We should get some sleep, then we can check on Bdubs and Cleo in the morning before heading to the circle,” she said. 

 

“Yeah, I guess that works,” he replied and they headed upstairs to the bedroom. Gem collapsed on her bed, watching briefly as Impulse immediately fell onto his bed and fell asleep. 

 

Gem took a little longer to fall asleep. But she was happy, they were making some real progress and would soon be out of this hellhole of a world. 

Chapter 39: Nearly Complete

Gem and Impulse went to go check on Bdubs the next morning, and Gem grinned when she saw he was awake. Bdubs was talking to Cleo, looking really confused in general, and was asking questions that Cleo seemingly didn’t know the answers to. 

 

“Good morning!” Gem called as she entered the room. Bdubs smiled at her and seemed to, somehow, smile wider when Impulse came into view behind her. 

 

“Gem! Impulse!” He called back. “Can someone properly explain what’s happening?” 

 

“Uh, yeah. Right,” Impulse sat down and with Gems help they got Bdubs caught up on everything that had happened so far, and what the current plan was. 

 

“We’re freeing Joel?” Cleo asked and when Gem nodded at them, they only let out a sigh. “Alright, shall we then?” They asked and soon they were flying back to the stone circle with Bdubs in tow. 

 

The man did pause once they landed and started to take a look at all the statues, silently starting in shock at all of them. Gem let him have his time, and while he did that she, Impulse and Cleo placed the Artifacts for Joel. 

 

A book appeared in the air, glistening with watcher magic as Impulse grabbed it and started to read it out loud. 

 

Wanting to free Joel, don’t pause too long before you scroll. 

 

Officially and not, his kills made everything rot. Last Life was a game and honestly was a shame. 

 

What items represent them, isn’t this all a gem. 

 

“That’s a lot to remember from so long ago!” Bdubs said, eyes widening even more than before. “How are we supposed to do that?!” 

 

“Mmmm, I think we need to switch up teams. Impulse, go get Scott. Give them Cleo and Bdubs. I have an idea,” Gem said and Impulse nodded. They headed back to the cottages and Gem waited for Impulse and Scott to come in. 

 

Scott was smarter about this, and honestly he probably remembered all the kills. She hoped at the very least. 

 

“Alright Gem, what’s your idea?” Impulse asked as he sat down next to her, Scott sitting down as well and Gem just smiled. 

 

“I’m the plan, it’s me,” Scott sighed as he received a nod from Gem in response. “So Joel’s kill’s in Last Life?” He asked and pulled out a book. He grabbed the quill with it and began to write down what he could think of. 

 

That took quite a while as Scott was thinking, so Gem entertained herself on her communicator when it buzzed. 

 

<PearlescentMoon> We’ve got Etho

<PearlescentMoon> We also got Mumbo's task

<PearlescentMoon> Grian refused to do anything else

 

“Look,” she got Impulse’s attention and handed her communicator over to him, and he smiled. 

 

<GeminiTay> What’s the task?

 

<Grian> Collection representing hearts he gave during Secret Life

 

Yeah, Grian could do that one himself. To be fair, it was Grian and they were talking about Mumbo. The man was obsessed with him. 

 

“I’ve got it,” Scott tossed the list down in front of them and Gem looked at it quickly, nodding as she did so. They needed a few diamond axes, a few bows, an ender pearl, a firework, and a tnt minecart. All in all not impossible to get. 

 

“So let’s go ahead and get the things and go get Joel,” Gem felt her heart pound in her chest, they were actually managing to do this thing. They might get out of there within the next few days. 

 

The three of them spent the rest of the day gathering what they would need in order to free Joel, and by the time they were done it was night. Gem smiled as she saw Impulse and Scott cuddle up together, and soon enough Pearl came in with a smile. 

 

“Hey,” Gem whispered as Pearl pulled her close. Pearl kissed her and Gem blushed, unable to help herself. “What’s going on?” 

 

“Grian, being Grian, has already gotten all the things together for Mumbo. It took me, Martyn, and Ren to convince Grian to wait until morning before getting Mumbo,” Pearl whispered, and Gem covered her mouth to muffle her giggle. “And I talked with Skizz briefly, they’re also ready with Tango's things,” 

 

“That’s good, we’re ready with Joel’s stuff. We could all go tomorrow and get the last three tasks. Pearl, we get to go home soon!” Gem whispered and Pearl nodded. “I’m ready to go home,” 

 

“Me too Gem, me too,” Pearl kissed her after that before pulling back and tilting her head. “So, are you going to go to Hermitcraft or Empires?” Gem hadn’t thought of that yet. 

 

“I don’t know,” 

 

“Well, I know you’ll come to Hermitcraft at some point anyway,” Pearl whispered. “So if you happen to go to Empires, it’s not a big deal,” that made her feel a lot better, and so Gem closed her eyes and fell into a comfortable sleep. 

 

In the morning it felt like chaos. Gem managed to give a brief greeting to Etho, but it seemed Etho was more caught up in Bdubs so Gem decided to let them be. 

 

The very large group reached the circle, and one by one they sacrificed their items in order to get their people. 

 

Grian went first, letting Scar drop things into the chest and waiting to catch Mumbo, pulling the unconscious man close as he stepped over to Scar and held Mumbo. 

 

Skizz nodded towards his group, and Cleo put their things in the chest. Skizz grabbed Tango as he fell, moving over to the side as well so he could stay out of the way. 

 

Gem went last, dropping everything into the chest and watching as Joel turned to obsidian and cracked, falling to the ground before Impulse managed to catch him. Impulse then passed him to Etho. 

 

“Grian, Skizz, Etho. Take them home, stay with them and explain when they wake up,” Gem ordered. “Everyone else, get ready to be split up,” she said with probably the most confidence she’d had in a while. 

 

The three did walk away, heading back to the cottages with the unconscious people that had just been freed from their stony prisons.

 

Then they got ready to free the last three. 

Chapter 40: Reaching The End

Gem watched as they placed the Artifacts in the item frames for Lizzie, and she waited for the book to appear. She grabbed it and flipped it open, scanning it over before starting to read it out loud for everyone else. 

 

The first one out caused a curse to break, but what if Lizzie could’ve changed her fate. 

 

Three items could have saved her, but instead she was out in a blurr. She fell off the edge of the world, so bring us the items that would’ve stopped what occurred. 

 

If you can show us how she could’ve prevented her death, then you will have her but don’t hold your breath

 

“Oh, that one should be easy,” Martyn said and crossed his arms. “That's a pumpkin, elytra wings, and a water bucket,” he said. 

 

“Go take care of that stuff then Martyn,” Impulse ordered and Martyn nodded, taking off into the air and heading to the cottages. 

 

Scott gave a signal to the next statue, which was BigB. They placed the artifacts and Scott grabbed the book when it appeared. He then read it for everyone else to hear. 

 

It's time to think back to the fourth season, remember how BigB and his partner practically caused treason. 

 

Time was ticking for the nosey neighbors, so they did things to ruin others' labors. Alliances were lost due to mistakes, it's time to represent how they caused them to break. 

 

What things did they mess with that caused their luck to switch?

 

“Oh I can do that. I was the one who caused all of that,” Pearl said. “Ren, you want to help me get a frog?” the dog hybrid nodded and the two took off. 

 

“Ok, let’s see what Jimmy wants,” Impulse muttered and they placed the artifacts. Then the book appeared and Impulse grabbed it and read it. 

 

When Jimmy was soulbound on the ranch, he begged to be let off of the branch. 

 

Everyone refused to give him a goat horn, and oh did it cause him to mourn. He fought for them all, but received nothing and felt small. 

 

Collect one of each horn type, but don’t let us hear you gripe.

 

“Yeah, this shouldn’t surprise us at all,” Cleo commented. “He was really upset that he didn’t get a horn at the beginning,”  

 

“I have seen a mountain range nearby, and I saw goats. This should go faster with all of us working on it,” Scott explained. 

 

Next thing Gem knew, she was on a mountain in the cold. A shulker box sat nearby with a few goat horns already in it. They had been there for around an hour or two, and currently she had a goat charging at her. She jumped up onto the block behind her and watched as the goat horn fell from the goats head. 

 

“And we already have this one,” Gem muttered and tossed it into the shulker box. They needed eight different types, and currently only had three of those. 

 

“Got one!” Scar called and held up a horn, blowing it happily. “Oh, we don't have this one yet,”

 

“Half-way there,” Scott muttered from next to her and Gem gave him a small smile. Another few hours passed and Pearl eventually came to join them. 

 

“Hello!” Pearl chirped as she landed. “We’ve got Lizzie and BigB, plus Mumbo, Joel, and Tango have woken up. So most of them are on the way to help!” 

 

Not a few minutes after that a group landed nearby and came closer to help wrangle the goats. Grian, Mumbo, Etho, Tango, Skizz, and Martyn were there. So hopefully collecting the horns would be a lot easier now. 

 

Gem was correct, with so many of them spreading out through the mountains to find more goats, they only spent another few hours until they had one of each type of goat horn. It was amazing. 

 

She went with Impulse and Scott to the circle in order to grab Jimmy. They sent everyone else back to the cottages, where they had received word that Lizzie and BigB were finally awake as well. 

 

Scott grabbed Jimmy when he was no longer stone, and the three headed back to the cottages. It was surreal, they had finally done it. They had gotten everyone from stone, and now they could go home. 

 

It took a few hours before Jimmy woke up, and he seemed a little bewildered after being told everything that had happened. 

 

But nothing did happen, no portals opened, no books appeared and everyone was at a loss for what to do. Until it dawned on Gem what needed to happen. 

 

“Guys, everyone to the circle. I bet that's how we get out of here,” Gem said and soon they were all in the stone circle. Gem stepped in last, and the moment she did portals opened. Each labeled with a world name, and many people said brief goodbyes before leaving. Certain portals closed after certain people went through. 

 

“I’ll see you on the other side,” Pearl said softly, kissing Gem before heading through a portal. Gem watched her, the debate running strong in her mind over where she wanted to go. 

 

Soon, Gem stood with her Scott’s. Two portals remained open, Hermitcraft and Empires. Impulse stood next to the Hermitcraft one and Scott next to the Empires one. It was time to choose. 

 

And she knew where she wanted to go. 

 

“Scott, can you check on Dawn for me? I think I just want to go to Hermitcraft right now,” she said after a moment. 

 

“I will. Come by Chromia when you get back,” Scott hugged her before vanishing into the portal. It closed behind him, probably because Gem had made up her mind on where she wanted to end up. 

 

“Ready?” Impulse asked and Gem nodded, and as she followed him through the Hermitcraft portal a set of voices spoke in her head, whispering and causing an ominous feeling to shoot through her body. 

 

“Be ready to play again GeminiTay”

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Stony Heart Above