Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The end of a server is always bittersweet, and Evo is no exception.

They’ve finally made it back to the latest version. It’s been months of challenges and drama, excitement and friendship, and moments Pearl knows she’ll treasure for the rest of her life. But soon, the exit portal will open, sending them all out into new worlds.

“You’ll keep in touch, right?” Netty asks Jimmy at their final meeting.

“Anytime.” Jimmy leans back against the bench and wraps an arm around Pearl. “You can’t get rid of me.”

“Glad to hear it.” Netty moves over to join them on the bench. The three sit in silence for a moment.

Netty finally jumps to her feet. “I have some last-minute packing to do. See you guys tomorrow?”

“Of course!” Pearl waves goodbye as Netty dashes out the door.

Once Netty’s gone, Jimmy turns to Pearl. “How are you feeling? About all this, I mean?”

Pearl sighs. “I don’t know how to leave it behind. I feel like…” She searches for words. “If I leave Evo… that’s it. He’s gone. I’ll never see him again.”

(Neither of them have to clarify who “he” is.)

Jimmy hesitates. “We’re gonna get Grian out someday. I don’t know how — I mean, I’m not planning anything — but they can’t keep him forever. Heck, we couldn’t keep him in one place for long.”

This earns a giggle from Pearl. “I hope you’re right.”

Jimmy puffs out his chest in mock arrogance. “I usually am.”

They stand up together. “One final tour?” Pearl asks.

“You’ve got it!” Jimmy follows her outside.

They barely get five blocks out the door before a book materializes on the ground in front of them. It’s black, with tattered edges and a portal symbol on the front.

Against her better judgement, Pearl picks it up and opens it. There’s a message scrawled across the first page.

Evolutionists,

The Watchers are too attached to their creation to leave it behind. They’re trying to update the server to an experimental version tonight. I’ve done everything I could to hold them off, but they won’t listen. They don’t know what they’re doing. The code is unstable enough to crash the whole server. You have to get out, now.

Be safe. Please.

-   Gri  Xelqua

Pearl stares down at the book. “They’re going to kill us.”

“No, they’re not,” Jimmy says in disbelief. “They couldn’t.”

A soft ding from his communicator interrupts him.

<Automated Message> Server scan in progress. Minor lag may occur.

“A server scan,” Pearl mutters. “That only happens when…” Her voice trails off.

Jimmy doesn’t hesitate.

<SolidarityGaming> emergency meeting. spawn. now.

The news goes over about as well as they expect.

The Evolutionists are in various states of panic, but just like always, they immediately start drafting plans. Pearl has never been more grateful for her servermates.

“I’m putting out a distress signal.” BigB types something into his comm. “Hopefully someone will notice it in time.”

“There’s a weakness where the End and the Overworld meet,” Martyn says. He doesn’t explain how he knows, but as Pearl hugs Grian’s message to her chest, it goes unsaid. “If the code is weak enough, I think I can slip through. It’s risky, but without help, it’s my best shot.”

“I’m coming with you,” Netty says, slipping her hand into his. “No way you’re doing that alone.”

“The firewall’s probably weak without an admin,” Salem points out. She takes an unsteady breath. “Maybe some of us can try to break through it?”

“That might work.” Mini glances anxiously at his comm screen as though it’ll provide any answers. “It’ll take a lot of power without admin help, but we might be able to.”

Pearl’s antennae prickle with electricity. No one else flinches, so she closes her eyes and hopes she’s imagining it.

Next to her, BigB gasps. “I’ve got a response.”

A wave of relief ripples through the crowd.

“They’re on their way. They say to stay in contact and look for a weakness in the firewall. As long as we stay together, we should be fine.”

“Oh, thank the Aether,” Netty murmurs. Martyn smiles in relief.

Jimmy doesn’t. “Anyone else feel their hair standing on end?”

“It’s probably starting soon.” BigB sends another message. “Updates are supposed to spread out from a central point, so we should have time as long as we avoid it.”

Pearl looks around worriedly. “So where’s it gonna start?”

“Usually around spawn,” Martyn says.

It takes a few seconds for that to sink in.

“We need to go,” Jimmy tries to say, but he doesn’t get far. The ground shakes, the air prickles with electricity…

…and spawn explodes.

Everyone is thrown in different directions. Martyn clings to Netty, Jimmy narrowly escapes hitting a wall, and it’s all BigB can do to keep hold of his communicator. 

As everyone shakily stands again, they’re met by an awful sight. The ground around them crawls with flickering strands of green binary. It spreads rapidly from block to block, eating away at the ground until all that remains is dust. Pearl, who was standing closest to the spawnpoint, lies motionless in the center.

Jimmy races over to her. “Pearl, get up, we have to go! Please, you have to get up…”

Pearl opens her eyes and stumbles to her feet, clinging to Jimmy for support. Her ears are still ringing from the explosion. “Oh, void, oh, void…”

“It’s okay,” Jimmy mutters. “It’s okay, let’s go…”

The corrupted code spreads faster, cutting Martyn and Netty off from the others. With no other choice, they race towards the stronghold.

Strands of binary cling to Pearl and Jimmy’s feet, making it harder and harder to walk. Another strand thickens and threatens to form a chasm between them.

Two chunks away, a blue-haired admin tears a small portal through the firewall. A woman with pink hair and a sailor dress reaches out a hand. “Come on!”

The ground crumbles apart. The path away from spawn is only getting smaller. Pearl is slowing Jimmy down, and she knows it.

The makeshift rescue team helps a few more Evolutionists through the portal. “Jimmy! Pearl!” Salem screams.

The chasm deepens. Tears pour down Pearl’s face. “Jimmy, go.”

“I’m not leaving you!” Jimmy takes another impossible step. “You can’t die like this. This isn’t right!”

Corruption creeps towards the portal. The admin takes a few steps back. “We don’t have much longer.”

“I love you,” Pearl murmurs. “Always have, always will.”

Jimmy feels his grip on Pearl’s hand slipping away. He struggles to hold onto her. “Pearl, no. Don’t do this.”

“Hurry!” the pink-haired woman calls from the portal. “We’re running out of time!”

Pearl closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and shoves Jimmy onto the last remaining patch of stable ground. A wall of corrupted code crackles into being around spawn, obstructing it from view. “Go!” Pearl shouts.

With an anguished sob, Jimmy takes off running.

He beats the corruption to the portal by mere pixels. A woman in a striped shirt grabs his hand and pulls him through. “I’m so sorry,” she whispers. “We’ve got you. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

The admin stumbles back, breathing heavily, and the portal slams shut. The pink-haired woman blinks back tears. “How many did we save?”

“All but three.” The woman in stripes wraps her friend in a hug. “But they might’ve found another way out. We don’t know for sure.”

“I hope so,” Jimmy whispers. “Martyn said he had an idea, but Pearl…”

“I want to have hope,” the woman in stripes says. “She’ll be okay.”

Pearl has never been more afraid in her life.

Any hint of familiarity has been replaced with corrupted code. There are burns on her hands and arms. She can barely move her feet.

Pearl knows she’s going to die.

“Grian, I’m sorry,” Pearl murmurs under her breath. “You tried to protect us. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.”

It hurts, but Pearl can’t help but think of the last time they were at spawn together – Pearl eating a fresh-baked cookie, Grian with his hands buried in that same green code, both of them happy. He’d shown her admin mechanics and how server portals worked in the same tone he’d once used to help her learn long division as a kid. Pearl watched as Grian took a handful of woven code strands, tugged at the edges to loosen them, and then guided the tiny opening into a full portal. The code was more stable then, and much neater, but it looks more familiar now than Pearl would expect.

The firewall’s probably weak without an admin, Salem had said.

“You always tried to protect me,” Pearl whispers again. “Thank you for saving my life.”

Pearl takes a deep breath, plunges her hands into the corrupted code, takes a handful of strings, and pulls.

It burns her skin like lightning, but Pearl refuses to let go. She pulls harder, feeling the binary tear beneath her grip. A gap opens – small at first, then with effort, just large enough to slip through. She sobs in relief. She might actually survive this.

Pearl tries to step forward, then remembers both her feet are buried in corrupted code. She wrenches her right foot free, but her left refuses to budge. The walls of code creep closer. “Fuck it,” Pearl mutters. She slips her left foot out of her sneaker, letting the code eat away at what remains of the shoe. “Goodbye, Evo.” She takes a shaky breath. “Goodbye, Grian.”

Just before the walls can reach her, Pearl dives through her portal to safety.

The datastream is a void of static. Shapes of code drift by as Pearl travels through it. It occurs to her that she has no idea how to get out. “Hello?”

No one responds. Pearl can feel her energy fading, but she forces herself to keep going. She’s not dying here, not when she’s come so far already. She beats her wings fiercely and flies further. All she needs is a safe place to land. All she needs–

A firewall materializes a few blocks away. Energy floods back through Pearl as she flies towards it. She bangs on the firewall with both hands. “Hey! Let me in! Please, I need help!”

There’s no response. It hits Pearl that the world might not have an admin who can open it. No one can hear her.

No. She has to get in. She can’t give up now.

Pearl kicks and claws at the firewall until her fingers bleed. A tiny rip forms in the firewall’s code, which slowly grows into a gap large enough to fit through. She materializes five blocks in the air, falls to the ground, and collapses.

Her whole body hurts. Her vision goes blurry. Her head swims. Every last bit of adrenaline floods from her body. She can’t tell if she’s dying or already dead.

“No,” Pearl murmurs, struggling to breathe. “Gotta… gotta stay awake. Gotta get out of here…”

The world grows heavier around her. Players aren’t supposed to use admin abilities, and Pearl knows the power she used could kill her easily. She can’t keep her eyes open. She can barely do anything.

Tears burn in the corners of Pearl’s eyes. She uses the last of her energy to fumble for her broken communicator and rest her finger on the SOS button. Please don’t let me be alone. Please.  

Her eyes shut. Her consciousness slips away. She uses all the strength she can muster to press the button and send out an emergency signal — her final act before she falls into an unending sleep.

Chapter Text

When he leaves his starter base to keep working on his village build, Sausage leaves his communicator on the kitchen table.

He doesn’t even realize he’s done it. There’s no point in carrying a comm on a singleplayer server, since there’s nobody to keep in touch with. Besides, if there was an emergency, Bubbles would come to get him.

Four hours pass. Sausage builds three houses and plenty of landscaping, then steps back to study it. He writes down a few notes – farm needs more space, build palette looks better with spruce than oak, no such thing as too many trees – then heads back to his base.

When he walks through the door, Bubbles immediately darts over to him with his communicator in her mouth. She drops it in front of him and barks.

“My comm? What about it?” Sausage picks it up to check – then nearly drops it again out of shock.

<ERROR> UNKNOWN_PLAYER SOS X:152 Y:67 Z:-54

No one else is whitelisted on the server. There’s no admin to let anyone in. Which means someone has hacked into Sausage’s singleplayer build-test world. What could they possibly want?

It hits him after a moment: the SOS message isn’t from the server, it’s from the unknown player themself. Whoever broke in is calling for help.

A quick check of the activity list shows that the intruder hasn’t moved for three hours. The coordinates in the message are nearly two hundred blocks away. “Someone’s in trouble.”

Bubbles barks. Could be a trap.

“I know.” Sausage looks back down at his communicator. “But if it isn’t, I can’t just leave them to die.”

Fine. Bubbles trots away and curls up on her bed. Just be careful.

“Of course.” Sausage summons a diamond sword. “Be back soon.”

The coordinates lead Sausage to a large taiga biome. He cautiously walks into the forest with his sword out in front of him. If the intruder does have malicious intentions, he’ll be ready. “Hello?”

No one calls back. Sausage listens for the cracking of twigs or the sound of footsteps, but the forest is silent. “Is anyone there?”

More silence. Sausage checks his communicator again. The coordinates are just a few steps away and behind a large spruce tree. He walks over, peers around the trunk, and–

Someone is lying on the ground.

It’s a young woman, with light skin and brown hair. She has the fuzzy antennae of a moth, and a pair of luna moth wings grow from her back and drape over her body – one folded at an odd angle, both covered in dirt. She wears a white T-shirt and jean shorts, and her only protection from the cold is a thin, unzipped gray hoodie. One of her shoes is gone, and the other has strings of binary burned into the sole. Sausage almost doesn’t notice any of it at first. He’s too preoccupied with the most important detail: she isn’t moving at all.  

He races to her side and kneels down next to her. Up close, he can see that her eyes are closed. That’s hopeful — she might be sleeping, not dead. He gently shakes her shoulder. “Hey, wake up! It’s dangerous out here!”

She doesn’t stir. Sausage can hear her soft, unsteady breathing, and it’s the only sign she’s even alive at all. He has no idea how much health she has, but it clearly isn’t enough. “Her comm. Where’s her comm…”

A small blue device with a cracked screen lies a few pixels away from the woman’s hand. Sausage prays it still works, picks it up, and opens it. 

The screen glitches and lags, but Sausage gets all the information he needs from it: the woman’s comm tag is PearlescentMoon, she’s the one who sent the emergency alert, she’s experienced substantial code damage, and her health has dropped to two hearts. He doesn’t know who she is or how she got there, but one thing is certain: she won’t survive without help. 

Well, then. It’s lucky that Sausage is in creative mode.

He lifts PearlescentMoon up and carries her back to the half-finished village build. There’s no safe place to leave her yet, so he sets her down on a pile of hay.

Bubbles wanders over and sniffs the odd stranger. When she doesn’t get a response, she climbs up onto the wool and licks PearlescentMoon’s face, then whines. Why isn’t she waking up?

“I’m not sure,” Sausage admits. “I’m building a shelter so she has somewhere safe to rest. Hopefully we can do something to bring her back.”

Bubbles nods and settles back to stand guard over the mysterious mothling.

The makeshift hospital room goes up quickly enough, although Sausage stops a few times to make it pretty. Once it’s done, he puts down a bed, sets PearlescentMoon down on top of it, and adds a blue woolen blanket to keep her safe from the cold. She looks even weaker than before. Her breaths are too heavy, and the color is starting to fade from her skin. Her communicator beeps a warning: she’s down to one heart with severe code instabilities. Sausage is running out of time to help her.

“Potions. She needs potions.” Sausage opens his inventory and scans through it. “Thank goodness for creative mode.”

There’s just enough room in the shelter for a cauldron. Sausage fills it with healing potions, then drops in two iron nuggets, a golden apple, and a brown mushroom. The potion bubbles and turns magenta. A sprinkle of gunpowder turns it into a splash potion.

Sausage pours the code-stabilizer potion into a breakaway bottle and gently drops it on the floor behind the bed. “Please work, please work…”

The mothling’s breathing slows to a steady rhythm. Her skin regains its warm peach tone, and the code burns on her legs start to fade. Her communicator displays seven hearts. She’s not awake yet, but she’s going to be okay.

Bubbles barks. Now what?

Sausage hesitates for a moment, then opens his inventory again. “I’ll make hot cocoa.”

He’s just taken the second cup of cocoa off the furnace when he hears PearlescentMoon’s breath catch in her lungs for a moment. She stirs, makes a soft sound…

…and finally opens her eyes.

Pearl can’t breathe.

Her whole body is on fire. Everything is dark and empty. She tries to move, but gravity weighs too heavy on her every attempt. Her eyes refuse to open. She’s definitely feverish, even as she shivers in the unbearable cold. It’s as though her code is rebelling against itself.

Something beeps next to her. The sound merges with the static ringing in her ears into a desperate alarm. She tries to scream, but her mouth won’t open. The pain grows from unbearable to agonizing. Void, Pearl wants to scream. Since I’m clearly about to die, can the universe just get it over with and fucking kill me already?

Everything is a blur after that.

Somewhere in the emptiness, the beeping stops. There’s the sound of a bubbling cauldron buried amongst the static. Her body is still overheating, but she isn’t freezing cold anymore. The pain begins to dull as she feels herself fading away. This must be what death feels like, Pearl thinks. It’s strange. It’s kind of nice.

And then… something else. The scent of metal, perhaps, and a hint of apple pie. Am I hallucinating? I must be hallucinating.  

The static goes quiet. A refreshing, icy feeling clears the fire from beneath her skin. There’s air in her lungs again. Her body is suddenly calm and empty of dread. The heaviness in her body begins to feel less like death and more like sleep. It finally sinks in – she’s going to survive this.

The warm scent of chocolate registers in her mind. She summons every last ounce of strength she has, takes a deep breath, and forces herself to wake up.

Her eyes flutter open, then glance around wildly as she adjusts to the light. There’s something pinning her down, and she screams and thrashes until she recognizes the texture of a woolen blanket. She’s not under attack. She’s not in a forest. She’s tucked into bed, resting in a softly lit room, and she’s alive.

“Oh, thank goodness, you’re awake! Are you alright?” a man asks from next to her.

Pearl shrieks – she hadn’t realized anyone else was in the room. “I’m so sorry – I didn’t mean to break in – I tried to call for help but no one could hear me and this was my only chance and I’m so sorry, please don’t kill me, I barely made it out, I don’t want to die now, I’m so… void, I’m so scared, I don’t know how to–”

To her surprise, the man interrupts her by pressing a mug of hot cocoa into her hands. “Hey, no, I’m not going to kill you! Why would I do that? Here, drink this, it’s calming.”

Pearl takes a cautious sip. “This is awfully kind of you. I’m sorry to get in your way–”

“No need for apologies. This world’s meant to be safe, you know. Not just for me, for everyone.” Sausage takes some soup ingredients out of his inventory, then stops when he remembers he’s left out a crucial piece of information. “Oh! Right! I’m Sausage, by the way. Mythical J. Sausage. And this is Bubbles.” He points to a small dog curled up in the corner of the room.

“Mythical J. Sausage,” Pearl repeats. “That’s an amazing name.”

“What’s yours?” Sausage asks. “I mean, if you’re okay with sharing…”

“Oh. I’m Pearl. PearlescentMoon.” Pearl hugs her knees to her chest and wraps herself in her wings. “Thank you for the rescue.”

“Anytime.” Sausage takes a playful bow. “Do you like mushroom soup? I think I’m gonna make some for dinner.”

Pearl stares in silence for a moment. “I broke into your world with no explanation, nearly died in front of you, screamed when I realized you were in the room, and now you’re offering to make me food.”

“Yep!” Sausage takes some mushrooms out of his inventory and walks over to the furnace. “So what exactly brings you to my creative mode test server?”

Despite herself, Pearl bursts into tears.

Sausage nearly drops the mushrooms. “Oh, void. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean–”

“No. No, it’s okay.” Pearl tries to stop crying, but it’s a losing battle. “Server crash. I wasn’t expecting it. I had to force an admin command to get out.”

Sausage knows where this story is going, but he still hopes he’s wrong. “Singleplayer?”

Pearl’s brokenhearted expression is more than enough to answer him.

His voice goes quiet. “How many people… I mean…”

“All but…” Another wave of grief washes over Pearl, and she chokes back another sob. “I saw all but three of them get out. Martyn and Netty said something about a second escape route, so they might’ve gotten there. And Jimmy…” She can hardly speak anymore. “He stayed back to try and save me. I could barely convince him to leave. Void, I hope he got out…”

“I’m sure he did.” Sausage sits down on the edge of the bed. “Would you like a hug? Are you a hugger? I can never tell.”

Pearl can’t form words anymore – all she can do is nod. Sausage wraps her in a hug as she breaks down in his arms.

“Listen,” Sausage says. “You are welcome here as long as you need to stay. This world is mostly just to test out some new builds, so if you like that sort of thing, you can help me out if you want. No pressure, though.” He goes back to preparing the soup, but his kind tone doesn’t change. “It’s gonna be okay, I think. And I’m usually right.”

Despite herself, Pearl laughs. Sausage smiles at the sound, then joins in with her laughter.

You know, Pearl thinks, he has a great build style. And it’s a bit like mine. Maybe ending up here isn’t the end of the world.

(Years later, Pearl is the first person who Sausage suggests should be added to the Legacy SMP. The village has nearly tripled in size.)

Chapter Text

Effectively, Stacy is trapped.

Her Origin as a strider gives her fun new abilities, sure, but spawning in the Nether has thrown her a curveball big enough to block them all out. She has no materials to build a portal to the Overworld, and resources are scarce. Worse, since she never passed through the spawnpoint, her communicator never connected to the server network. Without it, she can’t call for help.

Which is why she’s spent the last three days searching for Nether structures in hopes of gathering the supplies she needs.

Her adventure of the day has taken her through a crimson forest to a ruined portal. It’s less helpful than she’d hoped – nearly half the obsidian is missing, and two of the existing blocks are cracked and dripping with purple magic. Luckily, the portal itself isn’t her only find. There’s a chest at the base of the structure, singed and splintered but still standing strong. Stacy checks for monsters in the distance, then opens the chest and digs through it. Iron nuggets, a fire charge, a piece of flint… they’re all useful, but they can’t help her now. There’s only one lucky find buried among them: an enchanted golden chestplate. She finally doesn’t have to worry about hiding from piglins anymore.

“Alright, Stacy,” she mutters to herself. “One step closer to getting out of here.” She starts to walk back the way she came in search of another structure.

To her surprise, her inactive communicator buzzes.

Ruined Nether portals are nothing new, but Pearl still stops to look when she passes one on her way to gather materials.

She wanders around the obsidian structure, making fascinated beeping sounds. After a moment, she reaches for her communicator to mark the coordinates – she might come back and fix it up later. To her surprise, there’s a message waiting for her.

<Server Network> Unknown whitelisted signal detected. Connect?

Pearl beeps curiously, then clicks the “connect” button.

<PearlescentMoon> hello! you’ve reached copper automaton pearl

<signal_error> hello

<signal_error> this is stacy. strider stacy

<signal_error> how did you reach me???

<PearlescentMoon> picked up your comm signal at a portal ruin

<PearlescentMoon> why’s it off?

<signal_error> oh that makes sense! i just passed a portal ruin too

<signal_error> my comm never connected to the network

<PearlescentMoon> weird

<PearlescentMoon> scott can probably fix that if you give him your comm

<signal_error> no i mean i never passed through the spawnpoint

<signal_error> that’s why

<PearlescentMoon> how did that happen?

<signal_error> strider

<signal_error> i spawn in the nether

Pearl takes a moment to think about this. She beeps in alarm as the implication of Stacy’s words hits her.

<PearlescentMoon> and you couldn’t reach anybody?????

<signal_error> nope

<signal_error> i’ve been trapped here for a couple days

Pearl doesn’t hesitate.

<PearlescentMoon> hold on i’m gonna gather some supplies and come get you

Stacy’s response is near-instant.

<signal_error> THANK YOU SO MUCH

<signal_error> please take your time i don’t want to put you in danger

<PearlescentMoon> stacy, you’re the one trapped in the nether

<signal_error> that is true

<PearlescentMoon> hold tight

<PearlescentMoon> i’m on the way!

It’s much harder than Stacy expects to stay put in the Nether. Her strider-hybrid skin resists fire, but it certainly doesn’t resist monsters. Barely five minutes after Pearl answers her distress signal, Stacy finds herself running from a horde of hoglins.

The angry creatures are much faster than Stacy is, but she has the advantage of grace. She reaches a steep ledge at the edge of the forest just as the hoglin at the front of the pack spots her. A glance down reveals a Nether fortress below her. It’s a one-way exit, and she’s just running into more danger, but–

The leading hoglin growls menacingly. Stacy takes a sharp breath in. “Yeah, that’s my cue.” Before she can talk herself out of it, she takes a running leap over the edge and lands on the bridge of the fortress.

The fall takes away nearly half her hearts in one shot. She grabs for a handhold, finds the wall of the bridge, and slowly stumbles to her feet. “That was a mistake. That was definitely a mistake.” 

Luckily, she doesn’t have much time to worry about it before her communicator buzzes with another alert.

<signal_error> hello! it’s pearl again

<signal_error> i had to make a new portal so the ruined one didn’t redirect me

<signal_error> ended up a couple blocks away by mistake. where’d you end up?

<StacyPlays> yeah, about that

<StacyPlays> run about twenty blocks north and you’ll find a nether fortress

Pearl is silent for a moment on the other end of the line.

<signal_error> WHY

<StacyPlays> I WAS GETTING CHASED BY A PACK OF HOGLINS

<StacyPlays> I HAD NO CHOICE

<signal_error> ohhh

<signal_error> you said twenty blocks north?

<StacyPlays> yep

<signal_error> on my way

<signal_error> please don’t die before i get there

<StacyPlays> i’ll do my best

Stacy puts away her communicator, looks up, and realizes she might not be able to fulfill Pearl’s request. A few wither skeletons spawned behind her when she wasn’t looking, and from the looks of it, they’ve called for reinforcements. “Shit,” Stacy mutters. “That’s a problem.” She tries to run, but she doesn’t get far on her injured legs. She can only squeak in terror as the skeletons close in around her.

The encroaching wall of skeletons reminds her of a memory she’s tried for years to forget. If she closes her eyes, the sound of rattling bones turns into raging static, the firelight turns green, and she’s standing on the wrong side of a portal she can’t keep open, powerless to help as a player dies in front of her. The acrid scent of wither poison makes it hard to breathe. “Help!” Stacy screams, although she’s sure no one will hear her in time.

“I’m on my way!” someone calls back.

Pearl follows Stacy’s directions through the forest, then freezes when she hears a voice screaming for help. That must be Stacy. “I’m on my way!”

She scrambles faster, dodging fungi and vines, until she reaches the ledge above the Nether fortress. There’s a figure standing on the bridge, surrounded by wither skeletons. Pearl stares at her for a moment. A deep, aching feeling rises in her stomach. There’s something oddly familiar about her.

It takes Pearl a moment to realize why she recognizes Stacy. Her skin is the leathery red color of a strider instead of any human tone. Her hair is short and messy. There are sharp fangs in her mouth. Her appearance on its own doesn’t look like anyone Pearl’s ever seen before… but her fashion sense hasn’t changed.

And Pearl’s seen that blue-and-white striped shirt before.

“I’ve gotcha!” Pearl calls. She grabs a weeping vine on the Nether ceiling and wraps it around her wrist. “Just hold on!”

Stacy looks up to see a copper automaton, barely more than a block tall, inching down the ledge to reach her. She gasps. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to get hurt!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t!” Pearl stumbles but quickly regains her footing. “I’m pretty tough, you know.” She reaches down and grabs Stacy’s hand, then scrambles back up the ledge with her new friend in tow. “There you go. Safe and sound.”

Stacy blinks at Pearl, surprised by the unexpected strength of the little robot. “I don’t… Wow. Thank you so much. You saved my life. I can’t… how can I ever thank you?”

Pearl beeps softly. “No need. I couldn’t leave you stranded, now, could I?”

Stacy gazes at her new friend. There’s something oddly familiar about her. She isn’t sure what it is, but she knows they have a connection. “Have we met before?”

Pearl smiles. “Maybe in another world.” She takes Stacy’s hand. “C’mon, my portal isn’t far. I can get Scott to reset your progress and spawn you in the Overworld.”

“That’s good. I might just pretend this never happened. I don’t think I ever want to see a Nether fortress again.” Stacy shudders. “Thank you for saving me. I was sure I wasn’t going to survive.”

“Anytime,” Pearl says softly. “About time I paid it forward.”

Stacy looks at Pearl as they step into the Nether portal together. A strange sort of understanding dawns on her. “We’re both alive.”

“We’re both alive,” Pearl whispers back.