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A blast of lightning came from the Square Hole. Gem glances down to see Martyn’s body impaled upon a spike next to Jimmy and Scott’s. A gasp comes from Grian behind her.
”It’s just you and me.” Gem’s lips move before she can comprehend it.
Grian’s eyes dart between Gem and the whole wildly. Then, he calms, and looks up to the sky. He turns his back to her, his shield slips down his arm, just resting in his hand. His sword, limp and loose.
He is entirely vulnerable, and the only thing standing in her way to victory.
The thought doesn’t even cross her mind.
She steps forward, and takes his hand. They’re on the bridges, and coming down off of a fight. Grian’s bound to have jelly legs by now, Gem certainly does. She gently pulls him off the bridges, back over to safer ground. The chest is there, the one he keeps almost opening, so maybe it isn’t safer.
She pulls him there anyway.
Gem doesn’t know what to do now. They’re here, they made it. Grian hasn’t stopping looking at the sky, totally silent.
She doesn’t drop her sword, not yet. Grian would turn on her if she turns her back, she knows that. She’s not stupid.
Pearl’s shoulder is surprisingly soft for how strong she is. Her loose locks tickle Gem’s forehead, and her breathing felt in Gem’s bones. “No, I wouldn’t trust him.”
She pauses. “You… you wouldn’t trust Grian? But he’s a Villy!”
”He’d betray you if it came down to victory.” Pearl’s face doesn’t lose the smile, but it does become tighter. “Remember why he came to us. He wants to win. He’s going for it.”
Something in Gem’s stomach twists. She thought they were in it forever. Villys till the end. “Do we just… is he still one of us?”
Pearl gives her a strange look. “Well of course he’s a Villy. Just don’t look away from him when it’s the three of us left.”
Gem pulls Pearl’s tattered red cloak around her. It provides no warmth, not really, but it provides all the warmth Gem needs. “I’ll watch your back if you watch mine.”
”Of course.”
The three of them should be here. It should be the three of them together. Pearl should be here to watch her back!
It hits her then that Grian’s been staring at the moon this whole time.
Maybe she is here after all.
”So… are we gonna duel?” Gem asks after a few moments of silence. “We could do it at the bottom. Or at Pearl’s grave?” She suggests. “Anywhere is fine by me, really.”
Grian still doesn’t answer.
”We could do it at spawn.” She tentatively adds.
Nothing. He just keeps staring at the moon.
Gem stares at it. It’s beautiful. A full moon this time, not a new moon. Not what Grian keeps calling a full moon.
She can feel the ghosts getting angry. They need to hurry up.
She’s about to take his hand again when he speaks.
”We should go to Pearl’s grave.” His voice is low and quiet, unlike the excitement he had before.
They walk in silence. Gem wants to take his hand, just for comfort, but she can’t bring herself to. She needs to kill him. For Pearl. She can’t afford to be weak. She shouldn’t have before.
The grave looks just like they left it. The moon is all the way in the sky now.
Gem makes her way to one side of the cliff, and takes a peek down. It’s a long drop. It will kill her if she’s knocked off. Her throat gets a sudden swell of bile, heart pounding through her arms and wrists. This is it now.
She turns back and prepares her sword to find Grian just standing there.
His armor, in a pile.
His sword and shield, on the floor.
A smile on his face, and teartracks down his cheeks.
The inky blackness of his eyes that she’s gotten to know so well swirl with an emotion Gem can’t quite place.
“I want to win this time.” Grian blurts out as they set up the base of the lighthouse. “I want to win, I want to do it. I want the glory.”
Gem and Pearl exchange a glance at each other.
”To a Villy goes the crown!” Pearl shouts out, raising her sword to the sky.
Grian looks at her. “Uh, yeah. To a Vily goes the crown.
Gem couldn’t quite shake the way he said that.
”Grian, what… Grian?” Gem’s voice shakes.
He takes a step forward. “For Pearl.” Grian speaks loudly and clearly. There’s nothing in his voice except pure elation. “To a Villy goes the crown!”
He raises his hand, but he doesn’t have a sword in it.
”What are you doing?” She blurts out. “Grian, you wanted to win. Why- why aren’t you fighting, why are you making me do this!”
Gem can’t help but cry. He can’t do this to her. She can’t take this from him, not after Pearl. Not after she died. She can’t lose him too. Don’t make her lose him too. She can’t lose him. He can’t lose to her. Not like this.
He takes another step forwards, and the quiet crying quickly turns into frantic sobs as she falls to her knees. Her shoulders shake, her mind goes numb. Tears pour out of her eyes until the world becomes blurred and nonsensical. There are no words here, no ways to loosen the pain. To make it a bit easier to breathe.
Grian’s arms wrap around her, and he’s not quite Pearl, he’ll never be Pearl, but he’s got the same family scent, the same texture of hair, the same red, and that’s enough right now.
They stay like this for whoever knows how long. All Gem knows is when she brings herself to, the moon is nearly across the sky.
”You know what you need to do.” Grian says plainly, because she does, and he knows she does. She understands. She understands way too well.
Gem has a thousand words to say, and doesn’t trust herself to speak. There was a world where they could’ve won together, and they didn’t have to watch their backs. There was a world where they could all be happy. There was a world they could all live.
If only that world was here.
She unsheathes her sword, and plunges it into his gut.
He lets out a soft gasp, because the pain is overwhelming. Because he didn’t actually want her to do it. Because he hates her, and he wishes she killed herself, and maybe she would’ve been better killing herself instead of stealing what he so clearly wanted-
“Thank you.” Grian whispers.
His arms are still wrapped around her shoulders when he lets out his final breath. His chest is pressed up against hers, and she can feel his final heartbeat. Gem screams when she realizes that he’s truly gone, barely heard above the strike of lightning.
She drags his corpse over to Pearl’s grave. She needs to make him one too, next to hers. It’s only right.
A flicker of silver catches the corner of her eye. Martyn. What’s he doing here?
Gem whips out her sword, but Martyn doesn’t look phased. And that’s Scott there, and Joel- there’s Scar as well.
Grian stand there, staring at her with the same expression he had before.
Pearl stands behind him.
Gem drops everything to embrace Pearl, the soft feel of the cloak, the tickle of her thin hairs, the warmth coming from her chest, and maybe there’s no warmth, and Pearl’s as cold as rock, but Gem’s as warm as she can be right now. Her scent… her scent doesn’t fill Gem’s nose, but she can imagine it, and that’s enough.
”You’re here.” Gem cries out. “I won, Pearl. I won!”
Pearl smiles. “Well of course you did!” She grabs Gem’s hands. “Won’t you dance with me?”
Gem falters. “Well, I- I need to bury Grian.” She glances back at the body. “I can’t just leave him there!”
”He’s fine.” Pearl says. “Let’s dance.”
Pearl leads, because of course she does. Gem doesn’t know the steps, but that’s okay, because she knows Pearl doesn’t either. There’s no music, but that’s okay, because the sound her footsteps make on the floor, the cloak brushing past the ferns, that’s all the music Gem will ever need.
There’s no thump of her heartbeat, no breathing to grace her bones, but Gem can do those things for the both of them if she needs to.
Gem spins, and twirls, and she can’t help but laugh. Laugh, in this desolate place of suffering and pain. The idea of laughing in a place like this is funny in and of itself.
The sky turns a shade of orange, one as fiery as Gem’s hair. One as intense as Pearl’s focus, one as angry as Grian’s spirit. It’s not day, it’s not night. How could it be either, when they’re both gone?
Pearl whispers to her. “Do you trust me?”
Gem doesn’t even hesitate before she speaks. “Always.”
The two of them swirl around the ground, and Pearl dips Gem back in the final move of their dance, holding her so that she doesn’t fall.
But Pearl wasn’t real enough, and the both of them knew it.
A sound of thunder rings out, unheard and forgotten.
Gem’s lays at the bottom of the cliff, in a bed of roses, at the break of dawn, with a smile on her face.