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Gem sat on the dirty mattress in the corner of the cell, anxiously tapping her fingers on her leg. Sausage and Joey had left them alone a while ago, and Scott had stopped trying to start a conversation.
Respawning was never fun, let alone that many times in such a short period. Plus, being high on whatever had been in that 'Potion of Sleep' probably added even more lightheadedness to the nausea that made the room spin.
She had nothing. No tools, no food, no staff .
Of course, she was a great wizard, and she could use her magic without her staff, but it sure was a lot harder. The exhaustion that washed over her wasn't helping, either.
"Someone will find us," Scott said, the sound of his footsteps telling her he was pacing the room, even though, if his cell was as big as hers, there wasn't much room for walking around.
Blood stained her clothes. Her hair was a mess. She could barely see anything through the blurriness of her headache and the tears clinging to her eyelashes.
"Gem?" Scott asked. They hadn't laid a finger on him. They had stabbed Gem, killing her over and over until her clothes were a bloody mess, but they hadn't even touched Scott.
She was hungry, and absolutely exhausted. But when she closed her eyes, all she saw was Sausage, swinging his sword, his unnaturally red eyes not even meeting hers.
The cell was claustrophobic and gross, and the basement dark and humid.
"I'm okay," she whispered, more to reassure herself than Scott. "I'm alright." Her voice was rough, exhaustion seeping into her tone.
Respawning had never felt this awful before.
She just needed to clear her head, and find a way out of this place. She was a wizard . She could escape.
*** *** ***
The mattress was stained with dirt and blood and so many tears, and she cried herself to sleep for what she assumed was the fourth day in a row. It was hard to tell, with no windows anywhere in the basement. Sausage or Joey came in whenever they pleased, and there was no telling when the next bowl of watery soup would arrive.
Scott wasn't very optimistic anymore, either. His voice sounded defeated when he spoke, which he did less and less every day.
More and more blood covered the floors of Gem's cell whenever Joey left, and she pleaded with Sausage whenever he came in, but they were stuck.
Xornoth had been there at one point, but she barely remembered it, all she remembered was writhing on the floor, tugging at her hair as Xornoth made sure her magic couldn't be used anymore, at least not for a while. Someone had been screaming. Maybe it was her, maybe it was Scott, or maybe both of them had been screaming.
When she woke up, it felt like a knife had been stabbed into her skull, and that headache had not yet gone away.
She was losing hope. Scott was losing hope, too. She could tell by the way his prayers to Aeor became more frequent, more desperate .
"Please help us," he begged his god at least once every hour. "Please get us out of here."
*** *** ***
Gem woke up because the floorboards upstairs were creaking, dust raining down on her.
"Sausage? Are you home?"
"Jimmy!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, wincing at how it made her headache so much worse. "Jimmy, help us!"
Scott was pulling at the bars, the rattling of chains echoing through the basement.
Jimmy barged through the door, stumbling as he almost fell off the stairs. "What are you two doing here?"
"Oh, we just wanted to spend the night in this beautiful, five-star hotel," Scott said, and Gem could almost hear him roll his eyes. "We've been kidnapped , Jimmy."
"Oh. Do you… need help?"
"That would be great ."
It took him a while to find the keys, and it took Scott and Jimmy quite a bit of struggle to drag Gem out of Mythland when her legs had stopped supporting her.
She was sitting on Jimmy's bed now, staining the sheets with flakes of dried blood. He was preparing some food, and though the pans he was cooking the steaks in looked anything but clean, eating anything other than soup sounded like a dream, even if that meant spending her precious energy on chewing.
Jimmy had messaged fWhip, even allowing his enemy to visit for Gem's sake, and the Count of The Grimlands had let them know he was on his way.
They couldn't deny that Sausage had turned into a monster for any longer.
Scott had told Jimmy everything while he was cooking, and they had eventually messaged Katherine, to help Scott get back home, and maybe bring some potions for Gem.
She got there faster than fWhip did.
Gem flinched when Katherine's fingers brushed over one of the many scars Sausage's sword had left, but her touch was gentle, her voice calming and patient.
The door burst open when fWhip arrived, but all the anger in his eyes faded as soon as they landed on his sister, quickly replaced by worry and fear.
He helped Katherine give her a potion, allowing her to slip into a dreamless sleep once the bitter taste left her mouth. It was nice, sleeping without having to watch your best friend torture you over and over again.
*** *** ***
Scott and Katherine had already left when she woke up, and fWhip told her Jimmy was working at the slime farm because it was a full moon.
"How are you feeling?" he asked. His goggles were around his neck, instead of on top of his head like they usually were. It was easy to see how worried he looked. fWhip, maker of explosives, creator of the most dangerous pranks anyone has ever made, was scared .
"I'm okay," Gem whispered, squinting at the bright light coming from the one singular lantern on the opposite side of the small hut. It was dark outside.
She was wearing clean clothes, the soft fabric a welcome contrast to the bloody dress she'd gone to sleep in.
"Katherine got you a clean shirt," he told her when he saw her puzzling look. "She said you were covered in scars, but had no visible injuries."
Gem nodded, wincing at the way it made her headache flare up ten times worse. "Respawning healed me. I'm just very dizzy." Her voice was weak, her breathing heavy.
"He killed you?" He. Sausage .
"Yeah… so many times."
She tried to blink away the tears from her vision, and fWhip was staring at her. They couldn't deny it anymore. Sausage was too far gone.
"Can we go home?"
"It's the middle of the night, and I doubt you'll be able to stand , let alone fly home."
Gem nodded slowly, trying not to worsen her headache.
fWhip stared at her, his brows furrowed, his eyes full of pity.
"Sausage-"
"It's not him anymore, fWhip. Sausage wouldn't hurt me."
"But he did ."
"Sausage's eyes aren't red, they're blue. Sausage is… he's gone ."
"But he still tortured you."
"I wouldn't call it torture …"
"You were covered in blood. You got killed . What do you think torture means?"
His eyes shifted to the scars littering most of her uncovered skin, landing on the thick, long scar covering her neck, disappearing under the white shirt and going on for many more inches after that.
She remembered it a little too well, the way Sausage's sword cut effortlessly through the skin, leaving her to choke on her own blood while Joey laughed and Scott begged for them to go away.
It hadn't been long that time, she died only seconds later. Sometimes it would take hours , which she spent desperately trying to keep her hands pressed onto the wound, even though she knew they wouldn't help her before she bled out.
She hadn't noticed the tears streaming down her cheeks until fWhip gently wiped them away. He smiled gently, though his eyes were watering too.
"Sausage is gone…" she breathed, and fWhip moved closer to her, pulling her into a hug.
"I know," he whispered. "We'll get him back. Eventually."
The 'maybe' was left unspoken.
*** *** ***
fWhip came to her empire every day, cooking food and sitting next to her as she fell asleep after a long night filled with nightmares.
Even when Xornoth was gone, and Sausage was back to his goofy self, she barely slept. She did leave the house more, though fWhip could see how tired she was, and he winced every time a noise or mob startled her. He was pretty sure Katherine and Scott noticed it too, and sometimes he wondered if Scott was getting plagued by nightmares as well.
Katherine eventually made Gem some sleeping potions, after she fell asleep during an alliance meeting and admitted that she'd barely slept in days. She trembled every time she took a potion, though, her eyes wide, her breathing on the edge of hyperventilating until it evened out. fWhip knew it reminded her of the moment they got taken, in front of her own embassy in Rivendell.
He barely left the Crystal Cliffs anymore, spending nearly every waking moment with his sister.
Physically, she was feeling better. The headache had ceased, and she could even use some simple spells again. However, she still dreamed of Sausage every night. About playing together as kids, but it always ended with him turning on her, and she woke up with tears rolling down her face almost every time.
Pearl had taken Sausage with her to an alliance meeting once, and it took hours for Gem to stop shaking after the moment she spotted him.
fWhip could see the pain and guilt in Sausage's eyes, too. He muttered apologies, even as Pearl rushed him out of the room, leaving fWhip with his trembling sister.
He had gotten a letter the day after that, Mythland's stamp in the corner of the envelope.
fWhip,
I'm so sorry for scaring Gem. I'm all better now, you can ask Pearl. Xornoth is gone, and so is the corruption. I don't remember much, but I do know that I hurt you both. Please give this letter to Gem, I'm sure you can find a good moment to give it to her.
I'm sorry. I miss you.
Sausage
There was barely any formality in the letter, no signature, just a name. Just talking like they were friends , not just fellow rulers. They had been, once.
He stared at the smaller envelope he'd pulled out of the other one, though this one was addressed to Gem, not to him. Her name was written in cursive, like Sausage had spent ages on just those three letters.
Gem was asleep, and would be for another few hours. So, fWhip grabbed some fireworks, and leaped out of the window, heading west.
He did stop at Pearl's house, letting her know he was heading to Mythland. Just in case.
Sausage's eyes widened when he spotted fWhip flying into his empire.
"fWhip!"
"Sausage," fWhip said, trying to keep his voice from shaking.
He froze when Sausage ran toward him, pulling him into a hug, but he soon melted into the embrace.
"I missed you…" Sausage whispered, his voice breaking, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. His blue eyes. "How's Gem?"
"She's not doing great, Sausage. You really hurt her."
Sausage looked at him. "I'm sorry, fWhip. I don't know- I couldn't- I don't even remember ."
"I know you're sorry. Gem knows, too. She's just… You scared her a lot."
Sausage looked down, and fWhip noticed the scabbard attached to his hip was empty. He wasn't even carrying a weapon anymore, even in a dangerous area like the dark forest.
"Can I… Can I talk to her?"
fWhip nodded slowly. "Come with me to the Crystal Cliffs, and wait outside until I call you, okay? Take your armor off before you come in."
Sausage nodded eagerly, placing down an ender chest to grab his rockets.
*** *** ***
By the time they got back to Gem's house, she had woken up already. She was holding Sausage's letter, which fWhip had left on the desk.
"I want to talk to him."
Those were the first words she spoke when fWhip entered the room.
"Are you sure?"
She nodded. "I'm sure."
"Okay."
She hadn't expected Sausage to be in the doorway almost immediately, so of course she flinched, but he wasn't holding a bloody sword, not even his cloak, so she could see he wasn't carrying any weapons. No sword, no axe, no bow, no potions. He wasn't even wearing armor, or a shield. He was completely defenceless.
fWhip stood in between them, and Sausage didn't come any closer.
"I'm sorry ," Sausage's voice was shaking, his eyes filled with tears.
For a few moments, she just stood there frozen, staring at her friend, inspecting him. His eyes were blue, there were no bloodstains on his clothes, and his smile was genuine, not a twisted grin like the one she'd seen before.
He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could even get the first syllable out, she pushed past fWhip, and threw herself into his arms.
Sure, she tensed when Sausage wrapped his arms tightly around her, but he was crying now, wet sobs next to her ear, tears staining her clothes. She trusted him. He'd hurt her, only it wasn't him . Xornoth was gone, and so was the evil version of Sausage that had held her captive for a week.
The scars, both physical and mental, were far from gone, but slowly healing.