Archive of Our Own

“We’ve got maybe a day or two before the Emerald Host sweeps down and Bdubs takes our heads and our lives,” Bigb says, head tilted back to stare into the sky. It’s midday in the desert, so nothing aside from the five of them is moving. The mobs living here are clearly smarter than them. But they don’t have much of a choice in the matter. Preparations need to be made.

“We might be best digging straight into the plateau,” Grian comments as he stares up at the massive sandstone structure with bloody red eyes. “With all your terraforming, Pearl, it’s pretty spooky. And the lava gives us defenders a distinct advantage.”

What was once just sand and sandstone has long since been transformed, the result of many long hours both in the hot desert and the hotter Nether. Pearl has truly left a mark on the server. Red sandstone and netherrack and magma blocks coat the sides of the plateau and spread into the surrounding landscape in an imposing oasis of heat and death. Nobody can miss the Wastes.

“We’d cook in there,” Pearl counters. “And while I’m more than happy to watch Cleo and her ilk take a swim in some lava, I’d prefer to do it comfortably.”

“The whole thing’s full of tunnels anyway.” Bigb should know. He’s the one who dug them all. A veritable maze of a mineshaft, from the plateau’s surface all the way to deepslate and below. “Too many opportunities for someone to get behind us, if they find a way in.”

“We’re sure they’re coming here?” Mumbo this time, fiddling with the sword in his hand. Iron instead of diamond, but enchanted somehow, so it’ll have to be enough. They don’t have time to mine for more diamonds anyways. “No chance of them simply letting us coexist peacefully until we all die of old age?”

Pearl shakes her head. “Bdubs put himself on red so he could do this.” BdoubleO100 was slain by ZombieCleo using Creeping Dread. It’s hard to forget a deliberately-crafted death message. Her red eyes flash. “And after what they did to our base? I want them here. Let them meet their deaths in my Wastes.”

“Some of us can’t just attack them full-tilt like you can, Pearl.” Scar gestures to his pale yellow eyes, colored like the desert sand. Mumbo nods, also yellow-eyed and limited. Bigb is worse off (or better? He thinks it’s better), green-eyed and unblooded. Grian and Pearl have no such weaknesses.

“Ah, pull a Joel,” Grian scoffs. “Lots of TNT, a button, and you’re all set to claim the lives of everyone around you. Fair and legal according to established precedent.”

“Precedent Joel set,” Bigb counters. Three deaths, all attributed to a yellow-eyed Joel in one fell swoop. Against the spirit of the game, maybe, but they’re still playing so clearly no foul. “It’s irrelevant anyways. Where are we going to get enough TNT for that? Impulse and Skizz surely aren’t going to share the gunpowder from their farm, and in fact are likely part of the group coming to kill us dead.”

“We kill one of them and get the TNT from their inventory?”

The conversation devolves from there. They scrap the idea of digging into the plateau, but it’s agreed that they need some kind of defensive structure. As Bigb and Mumbo begin digging sand to make sandstone, Pearl ascends back up the plateau to the ruins of their base and returns with a stack of magma blocks, apparently missed by the looters. 

Bigb passes most of his remaining wood planks off to Grian, who has decided to do something involving pit traps. Bigb wants to stay as far away from whatever that turns out to be as he can. Grian’s new red eyes still send shivers down his spine. Meanwhile, Scar is supposedly collecting cactus, but the area has been pretty well cleaned out of those so it’s slow going.

Eventually some sort of bunker takes shape. They build it into a nearby sand dune, close enough to the edge of the Wastes to be able to potentially take advantage of the lava flows. Part of it is set into the ground to give them better angles on approaching enemies, and the other part is a sandstone tower, tall and wide enough to hold two of them with bows out of sword range. 

They aren’t sure who they’re going to be facing. Bdubs and Cleo obviously, the Lich King and his undead Blade being the ones with real stake in this conflict. And with Bdubs on red, he’s going to be out for blood. Other than that, any of Mossdeep Hold’s allies are possible. Impulse, Skizz, Scott, and Jimmy are all equally likely.

Later, on watch in the tower with his bow at his side and a quiver of arrows easily accessible, Bigb is the first to spot movement on the horizon. Below, Grian and Scar continue adding little elements to the outside, small things designed to make approaching the structure as annoying as possible if someone doesn’t know the safe route. Pearl and Mumbo are resting inside the bunker itself, taking a much-needed break after a long hot afternoon. Bigb hates to have to wake them up, but-

“We’ve got company,” he calls down, and Grian and Scar immediately halt. Bigb looks back towards the approaching figures. Hard to tell how many with the sun going down at their back, but definitely not just one person. On horseback, maybe? They’re coming from the right direction to be from Mossdeep.

“They couldn’t have waited another couple of hours?” Grian says, exasperated. “It’s almost night-time! Just a few more creepers and I could’ve made a TNT cannon.” Bigb thinks he’s pouting. But after watching Impulse use a cannon to destroy his and Pearl’s base, Bigb isn’t too bummed out about not seeing another one put to use. 

Scar disappears inside the bunker. “I’ll get Mumbo and Pearl ready.”

Bigb stays put. From his position, he’s got the best view of whoever’s approaching, and he’ll be the first to know if they’re friend or foe. At this point, foe is likely. There’s few on the server who still look at them as friends who aren’t already here with them now.

Bow now in his hands, he readies an arrow. Not time to draw back and aim, not yet, but he’s prepared. Whoever is coming is heading straight for them, drawn like a magnet to the eye-catching landscape of the Wastes. 

Closer now. Seven people, a larger group than expected. Two on horseback, and one person who carries aloft a banner. Even from this distance, Bigb can see the banner is green. Mossdeep then. Enemies.

All that gets relayed down to the rest of his alliance. Pearl and Mumbo have staggered out of the bunker by now, still pulling on armor and getting gear ready. Grian doesn’t say anything about the numbers, but his arms cross and his wings pull in tighter. He’s worried.

The two on horseback are Bdubs and Cleo. Cleo’s hair and Bdub’s spiky crown stand out now, and Bigb recognizes the horses from the last time he’d been up in their neck of the server. He can also make out Scott’s blue hair and Tango’s flames. Scott’s no surprise and likely means one of the others is Jimmy, but Tango is unfortunate. Bigb wonders what Mossdeep promised him that got him out of his iron construct workshop (though he’s glad none of those constructs appear to have accompanied him).

“Crap, Tango? Really?” Scar says, groaning. “I thought he didn’t like those Emerald folks and they didn’t like him right back. We certainly haven’t done anything to him!”

“Bet a diamond the last person is Impulse,” Grian comments. “Or Skizz, maybe. One or the other.”

“Skizz is preferable,” Pearl says. “Yellow instead of green. If they have a spawn set up nearby, things won’t be fun for us.”

Bigb calculates the distances in his head. “They’re within range,” he calls down. “I can take a few shots, maybe make them scatter.” Or drive the horses into the Wastes. Or into trampling those on foot.

“We’ll talk it out first. See if perhaps they’re not here for what I think they are.”

Bdubs and Cleo rein in just outside the edge of the Wastes, the others spacing out around them. Bigb was right. Scott, Jimmy, and Tango are all there, with Impulse as the fourth. Six versus five is good odds. 

“As promised!” Bdubs exclaims once they’ve come to a halt. “We have come for your heads, you desert heathens, to pay for your many crimes! Submit to death at our hands, or prepare for a walloping!” He looks fierce, in his mossy green clock and his spiky gold crown dripping with lichen. Full regalia.

“It’s in your best interests. You’re outnumbered.” Cleo inclines her head to where Grian, Mumbo, and Scar have gathered, weapons at the ready. “You three, we have no real quarrel with you lot. Leave and you live.”

“No one’s dying here today!” Bigb calls down. Cleo’s head snaps up, and really, Bigb doesn’t have the patience for this. They’ve made their stance clear. He fires his arrow right at Cleo.

It’s slightly too low, so it bounces off their diamond armor with a ting. Their horse shies back, and Jimmy and Impulse have to quickly sidestep to avoid getting stepped on. Bdubs yells, and the fight begins in earnest.

Bigb had planned on remaining in the tower, but that’s clearly not going to work. They’re already outnumbered, him remaining up high leaves them even more so. He leaves his bow behind, and slides down the tower’s ladder as quickly as he dares.

Grian exchanges blows with Jimmy, grinning wildly and holding his own. Scar and Mumbo face off against Impulse and Tango, with Scott skulking around the edges waiting for… something. And Pearl, she’s-

Bdubs and Cleo are still on horseback. Cleo’s evidently gotten control back after the arrow shot, because the two of them are riding circles around Pearl, swords out and doing their best to land hits. And Pearl’s trying her hardest, but she can’t keep both in her line of sight at once, and sooner or later someone’s going to land a lucky hit. Which they aren’t allowed to do.

Decision clear, Bigb sprints and aims a swing at Cleo’s horse. It’s pure black, not a speck of white or any other color to be seen. It stands out starkly against the desert, even in the fading light. It’s not wearing any armor.

The horse screams and rears up as Bigb stabs into its shoulder. Cleo, unprepared, curses and fumbles with the reins, but it’s too late. Another stab and the horse vanishes, spilling its saddle and Cleo within it to the ground in a heap.

Now facing only one mounted opponent, Pearl can engage Bdubs in earnest. Bigb keeps his eyes focused on Cleo as they struggle back to their feet. 

“I’m going to take all three of your lives,” she promises, yellow eyes laser-intent. Her diamond sword points straight towards his chest. “And then I’m going to take Pearl’s last life just for fun. You’ve screwed with me too many times, Bigb. Shall we end it?”

She yells and brings her sword down in a heavy slash. Bigb blocks, but she swings again and again, twirling it as if it was feather-light instead of solid enchanted diamond. There’s no way he can time a crit, but he manages a slash or two when she has to pause to reorient. She’s still pushing him back, away from Pearl, and his back begins to warm as they approach the edge of the Wastes and the lava bubbling within.

He tries to dodge, spin, parry, anything to get away from the danger he knows is drawing closer. Cleo is relentless, but her swings are more wild than focused. He should be able to find an opening, but he just can’t. 

The ground under his feet turns from sand to netherrack. He’s running out of time and space.

Suddenly, a crack of lightning, followed by a cry. Scar, screaming a denial. In his pocket, Bigb feels his comm buzz. The noises of the clash die down, and even Cleo pauses.

Grian was slain by SolidarityGaming. 

“One down,” Cleo comments after looking at their own comm. “Pearl next, maybe?”

Over their shoulder, Bigb sees Scar lash out with his sword, and Jimmy vanishes. No thunder rumbles, so it’s not permanent, not like Grian’s death. Then catches sight of Mumbo, facing off against Impulse, placing down some obsidian and- 

Smoke blankets the battlefield. Bigb doesn’t, can’t hesitate, and sprints past Cleo while she’s distracted and her sight obscured. He makes it to where Scar and Mumbo are easily, past the glassy patch of sand where Impulse once stood. There’s not even a pile of items left. Scar is on his knees, staring at the ground where Grian had been. He looks up with blank eyes as Bigb approaches.

Pearl is soon to join them, standing beside Bigb in front of Scar and Mumbo. Before them, Bdubs and Cleo stand together with Tango off to one side, bleeding and distracted. Scott is nowhere to be seen, but Jimmy’s items have vanished.

“Get inside the bunker,” Scar says suddenly, low and serious. Pearl looks back, incredulous, but Bigb keeps his eyes trained on the enemy. Bdubs and Cleo are eerily still. “Pearl especially, go. You too, Mumbo. Grian-” His voice chokes. “Grian showed me how to detonate his trap, if the worst happened. I’ll bring this desert down around them.”

“How long do you need to set it up?” Bigb asks. Pearl ushers Mumbo inside the bunker as Scar looks up at Bigb with dead eyes.

“Only a minute or two.”

“Long enough for them to stop you,” and Bigb hefts his sword. It’s only fair, if this trap will do as much as he expects from something Grian rigged.

Scar doesn’t reply. He busies himself digging in the sand, looking for something. The trigger, maybe. Bigb fixes his eyes back forwards.

Cleo and Bdubs haven’t made any moves. They’re outnumbered now, with only Tango at their back, but they haven’t retreated. Both still have their swords out.

There isn’t any warning, when Scar activates Grian’s final trap. The desert is just… gone. The last thing Bigb sees before he dies is Cleo, throwing themself in front of Bdubs. Then everything is black, and Bigb wakes up in the ruins of his and Pearl’s base. Everything is red, but from the sun or the after-effects of the explosion he doesn’t know.

No time to feel anything about his first death. Sand is still drifting down to the ground as he steps outside, atop the plateau now instead of beneath its shadow. The damage is immense. One side of the Wastes is gone, and the battlefield he just stood on is now sandstone and stone and exposed coal. The tower is gone, but the bunker beneath still stands. From his vantage point, Bigb can see Bdubs and Cleo retreating back across the desert. No sign of Tango.

Getting off the plateau hasn’t been difficult for some time after all his practice, and Bigb finds it’s even easier with the lava and magma blocks gone. He touches down right as Pearl exits the bunker, followed by Scar and Mumbo supporting each other.

Neither of the remaining members of Flower Power Incorporated seems to be in the mood to chat. Mumbo and Scar quickly take their leave after Bigb assures them that Bdubs and Cleo are gone. Mumbo does quietly offer aid for their next attack on Mossdeep, which Pearl and Bigb easily accept. But that’s all, and when the two leave they take the sun with them.

“That could have gone better,” Bigb comments once they’re out of sight. With the sun gone, the desert turns cold.

“Much better,” Pearl agrees with a sigh. She gestures up towards the plateau in a wordless question, and Bigb nods, leading the way back up towards their beds placed carefully in the ruins of their base. “Mossdeep needs to go. No more of this Lich King, no more of his Blade. We’re taking them out.”

“You’ve got a plan, then?”

Pearl’s eyes harden. “They brought the fight to us. So now we’ll bring the fight to them.”

<<<<<<

Bigb is in the middle of a conversation with Grian and Scar when he gets the ping.

“-would really brighten up the desert where you are, you know. I hear sunflowers are all the rage nowadays. Or poppies! A nice splash of red against all that yellow,” Scar says enthusiastically, leading Bigb through the flower fields of his base. It’s peaceful, which Bigb finds surprising considering it’s home to Scar, Grian, and Mumbo, but the surrounding cliffs isolate the area and the flowers everywhere are just so calming. 

“Well, Pearl’s in the middle of turning the area around our base to netherrack,” Bigb replies. Netherrack and lava and red sandstone, that is. One part deterrent, to keep enemies from easily sneaking up on them, and one part just because Pearl wants to. She’d spent the last several days either in the Nether gathering materials, and had waved Bigb off when he’d offered to help with placing things. He’d read the implicit ‘stay out of her way’ and had promptly decided to go chat with some of their allies.

Scar hums. “Maybe not red, then. But the sunflowers would look gorgeous! A pop of bright yellow against the dull netherrack sounds just like what you need. And lucky for you, I’ve got plenty growing in these fine fields. You just take your pick, and we can work out prices afterwards,” Scar winks. “You’re our ally, so of course I’ll cut you a deal.”

Bigb is working out how to explain to Scar that no, really, flowers surrounded by lava doesn’t sound like a great idea, but then his comm dings. It’s not the gentle buzz of a chat message, muted as he has them. It’s the sound of someone taking a death.

Grian, perched nearby atop the small house he’s supposedly building, gets to it first. “Huh. Oh, Bigb, you aren’t going to like this.”

Bigb’s stomach drops. Surely it’s not Pearl. It’s one of their other tentative allies, obviously, or maybe a friend who he’s not allied with. Jimmy, maybe. It definitely can’t be Pearl. She was safe at their base working with safe materials like sandstone. And lav- and netherrack. Red sand. 

He pulls out his comm with hands that are not shaking. PearlescentMoon fell from a high place. He needs to get back to the desert.

“Scar, we’ll talk more later, okay?” he says, the words seemingly coming from far away. Is he saying them? But Scar’s nodding, a worried crease in his forehead, and he’s already guiding Bigb back towards the entrance to the base. 

Bigb is beelining for the gate when Grian drops down from the roof and grabs his arm. It takes more effort than expected for Bigb to not rip his arm away. Grian’s hold is strong.

“Bigb. Think about this,” Grian urges. Like Scar, he also looks worried. But unlike Scar, there’s also a tightness to his mouth, and his wings are puffed out behind his back. He looks scared. “You can’t go rushing back.”

“Pearl just died! I need to know what happened.”

“Pearl just became the server's first red name,” Grian counters. “You remember the rules for red names, right? She can and will kill you, Bigb! No hesitation. You want to go running back right into a death or two?”

“She wouldn’t do that.” He sounds confident, but Bigb doesn’t pull his arm from Grian’s grasp. “No. She wouldn’t. We’re allies. I owe her.” Pearl wouldn’t kill him. He’s useful, they’re friends, being on red won’t change that. The thought rings hollow.

Grian pursed his lips, but he and Scar let him leave, reluctantly. Grian’s wings are still puffed up, more than Bigb’s ever seen them before. Scar pushes a pink tulip into Bigb’s hand as he leaves. He’s not sure if it feels more like a good luck wish, or a goodbye. 

The trek back to the desert is long. He checks the chat logs on his comm, curious as to what other people are saying about Pearl’s second death. A lot of joking ribbing, underscored with genuine apprehension. There’s only two other people who have died at all by this point, so Pearl dying again is surprising. Cleo is in there once, moaning that they didn’t get to kill Pearl themself, followed by Bdubs vowing to take Pearl’s third and final life from her. Any other time, Bigb would laugh at the audacity. Right now, it just sends a spark of anger down his spine.

The desert is quiet, as it always is. It’s easy to spot the location of their base, even from a distance. The bright red easily breaks up the endless yellow of the desert.. Pearl’s made significant progress on her project since he’d left, Bigb muses absently. He wonders if she kept working on it after her death.

Gone is the simple sand and sandstone that made up the outside of the plateau. Or, mostly gone. The colors peek through in places, but the majority of the cliff has been replaced by a mixture of netherrack and red sandstone, dripping with lava falls. He… actually doesn’t see an easy way up to the top, where their stone tower looms over all. Which is good, defensively-speaking, but inconvenient right now.

He draws a breath to call out for Pearl, see if she’s nearby and can show him how to scale this monstrosity, but- hesitates.

It’s irrelevant. “Bigb!” Comes from the top of the plateau. Pearl, excited, waves down at him. At this distance, with the sun behind her back, he doesn’t notice anything different about her appearance. 

Pearl gestures towards one side of the cliff-face, then drops over the edge to land precariously on a single jutting piece of sandstone. She points again, and this time Bigb can make out what she means. Between two of the lava falls is a narrow path, mostly netherrack, and with a few careful jumps he can make his way about halfway up. From there, if he hops a lava stream he can reach some regular sandstone stairs, and then it’s a straight-shot to where Pearl is perched.

He has to redo one jump on the way up, but thankfully the miss only results in some minor burns from landing on a magma block. It’s blisteringly hot, the combination of ambient desert heat and too much lava, but hopefully that should deter anyone from trying to attack them. 

This close, Pearl does look different. She’s pushed her typical red poncho back into more of a cape, now appearing bare-chested. And her skin… Pearl has always had a healthy tan glow to her skin, exacerbated by the desert sun. But somehow now, her skin has become a warm gray, a surprising complement to the bright red of her eyes. 

“Pearl, you-”

“Yup, died,” she says, grinning ruefully. Her eyes are bright, almost manic. “Fell off the cliff trying to install some of the new sandstone. But it’s alright! I can kill now, isn’t that exciting?”

Not the word he would use, exactly, especially not with how she’s looking at him. “You’re… not planning on killing me, right?” He tries to make it sound like a joke, but the words came out more serious than planned. “Not! That I think you would, of course. But, uh, in case you were considering it? Please don’t?”

Pearl laughs. It has teeth. “No, no, I won’t kill you. We’re friends! This is just,” another grin, pointed. “This is just a new advantage.”

“As long as you don’t kill me, you can do whatever you want.”

“I can, can’t I?” she muses. Her gaze goes distant, looking out over the landscape over Bigb’s shoulder. Her enchanted armor, just leggings and boots right now, glimmers in the sunlight. “Anything I want, hmm…”

They lapse into silence, there on the sandstone on the side of the plateau. The heat from the lava is moving from uncomfortable to painful, but Bigb is loath to disturb Pearl when she’s like this. They’re in new territory, with her on red. He’s strangely hesitant to push.

“Well!” Pearl finally says, always first to jump right in. “Who should we kill first?”

>>>>>>

They end up standing before the great wooden door of the Lords’ Tower. Despite having visited the Lords and their Lady before, every time Bigb is impressed anew by the tower itself. It reaches grandly towards the sky, a single central column that branches off into three peaks almost like a trident. Unlike his and Pearl’s former tower, this one is made of more than stone; dark deepslate creeps along the base, while mossy cobblestone litters the upper floors. The windows and balconies are dark oak, and the roofs of the three peaks are a striking mangrove. It’s simultaneously overgrown, intimidating, and modern. 

Mossdeep Hold is visible from the Lords’ Tower. The remains of the mossy enchanting table still hang in the sky, and the tops of the huge deepslate walls peek over the hills. It’s hard to escape the wide gaze of the Lich King. Bigb can’t say he’s on good terms with the Lords, but he knows their relationship with Bdubs is even worse. And this had been Pearl’s first suggestion as to where they could find more allies.

Smoke drifts out of the valley where Scar and Mumbo live, visible even at this distance. It’s been present ever since Bigb and Pearl left the desert. 

Hostilities had persisted throughout the night, despite Bdubs and Cleo retreating from the desert. After midnight Bigb had been awakened by a ping from his comm, followed soon after by another. First had been Gem’s second death, then Etho’s first. Three more deaths occurred at various points after that: Scott first, blown up by a creeper, then Skizz and Lizzie almost in the same breath, both falling from a high place.

Bigb wonders about that one. Hopefully Lizzie’s in the Tower and can explain. 

But Skizz’s death brings the total number of players on red up to five. A check of the comm confirms it. Most of the server is on yellow, with five on red and two on green.

The wooden gates to the tower slowly swing open, revealing a grand entrance hall that is sparsely decorated. In the center stand the Lords and their Lady, all fully kitted out. Most people are, these days.

“Welcome. To the Lords’ Tower,” Ren says dramatically. One hand goes to his chest and he bows. “Waste-dwellers, I cannot say I am pleased to see you. You bring war to our doorstep.”

“War was already coming,” Pearl replies briskly, stepping inside. Bigb follows close behind, focused less on Ren than on his allies. 

Lizzie stands at Ren’s left shoulder. Her armor is unenchanted diamond, possibly a result of her earlier death, but her hands are clasped politely in front of her instead of gripping a blade, so there’s that. The same can’t be said for Martyn, at Ren’s right. A wicked-looking axe is hefted over one shoulder, starkly contrasted against his still-green eyes. They’re a study in dichotomy.

“War could have come a little later,” Lizzie shoots back at Pearl, unexpectedly sharp. “Bdubs and his followers are targeting anyone they aren’t directly allied with, now.”

“You leveraged red-eyed intimidation too early too strongly,” Martyn adds. “Then after your little stunt in the desert, what do you expect Mossdeep’s going to do? You made yourselves too much of a threat and now the rest of us are paying for it.”

“We didn’t ask Bdubs to start killing people,” Bigb says.

“You gave him an excuse,” Martyn says, grave as the dead. “You took advantage and then you threatened and stole and you made the whole world his enemy.”

“It’s in the past, my dudes.” Ren’s words ring with finality. “To business. Why do you come to our Tower?”

Bigb and Pearl exchange a glance. Pearl takes the lead, as she has the entire time they’ve been together. “We want you to help us destroy Mossdeep Hold. End Bdubs’ reign once and for all.” She bares his teeth in a facsimile of a smile. “We want to kill the Lich King.”

The Lords don’t take much convincing. There’s little love lost between neighbors, and Bdubs has long overstepped.

They’re in the middle of planning when a huge boom echoes. Bigb makes it to the door first, and is rewarded by a massive plume of smoke rising in the distance.

“That looks like it’s near Etho’s game,” Lizzie comments as she comes to stand beside Bigb. Another huge boom, and another pillar of smoke rises, further away and closer to the border. “Oh. Scott’s house, maybe? Good riddance if so.”

“You had a problem with Scott?”

She laughs. “Oh no, with Jimmy. He’s stolen from my chests several times. Scott’s an enabler, though.” Her smile turns vicious. “I hope whatever that explosion was, hurt.”

“Looks like someone is getting a head-start on the ‘target Mossdeep allies’ thing,” Martyn says from behind them. Bigb hadn’t realized Etho aligned himself with Mossdeep. “Maybe we’ve got more allies than we know.”

“Or Scar and Mumbo got their hands on some more TNT and went for revenge for Grian,” Pearl says wryly. “Or just wanton destruction. Scar’s the type.”

“Whoever it is, they just accelerated our timeline,” Ren says. It’s a little jarring, to see the normally-friendly dog so serious. But the game has been getting to everybody. Not Bigb, though. He’s completely normal. “Scar or not, if this leads to Bdubs running out of the Hold to aid his allies, that is the perfect opportunity for us to get inside and prepare an ambush.”

Just what Bigb and Pearl have been waiting to hear. The Lords take a moment to ready themselves and gear up, and Bigb stations himself at the entrance to keep an eye out for any other new developments. Smoke continues to rise from multiple places, but there are no other large explosions.

They’ve made it halfway to Mossdeep when their comms all buzz simultaneously. No thunder, so it’s not a permanent death, but-

“There goes Jimmy!” Lizzie cheers. “Chest-thieves get what they deserve!”

It becomes clear that Scott’s base is currently an active fight. Between whom, they can’t decipher, until the next death is Mumbo’s. A second, smaller twist of smoke snakes up to twine around the first coming from that area.

“Seven reds,” Martyn comments warily. Bigb doesn’t miss how his eyes drift towards Pearl. “It’ll be more before the day is out.”

Mossdeep Hold is indeed empty. The gates are shut tight, but it’s easy enough to craft some ladders and climb their way over the high walls. Luckily, they even pick a section without dripstone spikes at the top. 

They work quickly from there. Martyn has some TNT, which he rigs underneath the gate, the entrance to the main building, and, in a stroke of genius, the gate to the horse pen. The one remaining horse there, Bdubs’ spotted brown mare, watches the events unfold with passive interest.

Bigb sets himself to checking out Mossdeep’s storage. There are plenty of chests scattered throughout the many rooms of the Hold’s main dwelling, but most are full of junk or just too unorganized to be of any use. He grabs any arrows he sees and any food. A single room has a wall of double-chests, but they’re full completely of moss and green and lime concrete and lichen.

There are no chests on the second floor. In fact, the whole floor looks totally unfinished. There are no walls dividing the space, just an expanse of bare wood. Holes in the stone walls and deepslate roof are likely supposed to be future windows, but for Bigb’s purposes, they’re entrances to a better vantage point. He steps out onto the roof.

Smajor1995 was blown up while fighting GoodTimesWithScar.

Martyn is the last green, Bigb muses while staring down at the message. And Scar clearly isn’t dealing well with losing Grian first. Man’s not even on red and he’s already made more kills than most of the rest of the server combined.

Distracted as he is, Bigb misses the arrow shooting towards him until it strikes his upper arm. He yelps and drops to the roof, but there’s no cover and another arrow hits his thigh. Back into the Hold, then. He pulls the arrows out with a wince.

Clearly there’s more than one archer, because he hears both Martyn and Lizzie exclaim, then Ren starts barking orders and Bigb needs to get down there to help.

He limps out the main doors of the Hold to find Pearl and Lizzie sheltering behind a hastily-constructed dirt wall. “Impulse is shooting,” Pearl gets out, chancing a peek around the wall before lurching back behind cover. “And Cleo’s here. I think maybe more, because Ren’s fighting someone, but I can’t-” she peeks back out, then curses. “-See whom!”

Even after getting a sense for what large-scale battles would be like after the desert, this is still overwhelming. Everyone is saying something or screaming or both, arrows whizz overhead like huge deadly bugs, and swords and axes clash in a jarring thunder. Something is on fire, filling the air with smoke. 

Both Pearl and Lizzie duck out to fight in earnest, Lizzie with a battle cry as she leaps towards Impulse, who has Martyn on the backfoot, and Pearl quietly as she tries to sneak an attack on Cleo. Bigb finds himself back-to-back with Martyn, free from Impulse but now facing down a manic-eyed Bdubs. 

“We meet again, forsworn!” Bdubs cries as he makes eye contact with Bigb. The red of his eyes looks sickly. “An attack in my own home? Well I won’t stand for it! Prepare to meet my blade!”

He means his literal blade in this case, not Cleo, who’s still crossing swords with Pearl. And Bigb spares a worried glance at his friend, but she seems to be doing alright. She can hold her own. It doesn’t stop his eyes from flicking back over towards her.

Bdubs makes the first move, which would be good if any of them still cared about following the rules of the game. But they don’t, and Bdubs just moves before Bigb. Their swords lock.

LDShadowLady was slain by impulseSV.

Bigb lands a slash on Bdubs’ face. The weeping cut drips blood as red as his eyes.

Lightning strikes. Heart in his throat, Bigb chances a look towards where he saw Pearl last. He almost sways in place when he sees her, bleeding but holding her shield strong against an attack by Cleo. Someone else is out, then.

“That was Jimmy!” Martyn hollers victoriously, having backed away from the fighting to check his comm. Lizzie cheers, and Bdubs’ face pales. One Mossdeep ally down.

Another ping on his comm, but he doesn’t have time to check. Two more pings in quick succession, but still no lightning. 

Bigb almost trips as he steps back to dodge a blow and his feet slide against a pile of dropped potatoes. His knees buckle, but he keeps his balance by a hair. No idea whose stuff it is that he’s trampling over. He has to watch his step, though. The ground is littered with the contents of peoples’ pockets.

Bdubs is, at least, similarly hindered. Bigb takes the opportunity to kick at the potatoes on the ground, sending them flying towards his opponent in what is absolutely a dirty move, but there’s no valor in war.

“Asshole!” And it pays off, because Bdubs is forced to slow his assault and shield his face against the starchy projectiles. 

Lightning flashes once more, farther away this time. Clearly another battle is taking place somewhere else on the server.

“Bdubs!” Impulse yells across the battlefield, catching everyone’s attention. “Retreat! Regroup at backup headquarters!” He spins, disengaging from Martyn and Lizzie and breaking for the entrance to the Hold.

Lizzie follows, hot on his heels and death writ on her face, but she must’ve taken some kind of leg injury, because she can’t catch up. Impulse makes it out the gate. Bdubs is clearly sizing up his chances, but Bigb circles to put himself between his opponent and the gate. 

Faced with little choice, Bdubs once again raises his blade. “No quarter, no surrender. You going to kill me here, Bigb?”

“With you dead, this finishes,” Bigb replies. The Lich King falls, Mossdeep Hold falls. With their greatest enemy vanquished, he’ll be able to breathe again. 

And Bdubs looks… exhausted. His hands and sword are steady, but tiredness slumps down on his shoulders like a boulder. The dark bags under his eyes are pronounced. The escalation of hostilities has been weighing on them all. Bigb is sure he doesn’t look much better, after a long day and several longer battles. But Bdubs dies here, and then they can both rest.

“It doesn’t end with me,” and Bdubs bares a flash of white teeth. “You strike me down here, and my spirit and my blade haunt you until your last breath.”

“I won’t remember you,” Bigb lies.

And that gets a response. Mossdeep Hold has grown still as the Lords leave to chase after a fleeing Impulse, and Cleo and Pearl clearly are having their own tense conversation, with words instead of swords. Bdubs draws his sword back for one last, mighty swing.

Bigb is quicker. Or reacts faster, or his sword is longer, or he aims for just the right spot. Because with Bdubs’ sword raised all the way back, his torso is wide open. And Bigb moves just so, gets his sword in just the right spot to feel it slide in perfectly, and then he’s being thrown back by a crack of lightning.

The first thing he hears when his ears stop ringing, but before the spots fade from his vision, is Cleo’s devastated scream. It abruptly cuts off. When his vision clears, Bigb looks around. He is alone in Mossdeep Hold with Pearl, several scattered piles of items, scorched earth, and the invisible ghosts of the dead.

He sits down, right there in the dirt. Bdubs left no items behind except his sword, planted point-down in the spot where he stood last. The Lich King’s crown rests over the handle. It’s over, but it doesn’t feel like it is.

Pearl collapses down beside him, then throws an arm over his shoulders. She doesn’t say anything, but the weight of her against his side is reassuring. They survived. Somehow. 

He’s not sure how long they remain there, on the ruined grounds of Mossdeep Hold. He’s sure things are still happening outside the walls, finds himself a little curious as to how the battle at Scott’s base is progressing. There’s a sound that may be another lightning strike or an explosion, feels his comm buzzing and pinging in his pocket, sure proof that the game continues, but finds himself… unwilling, to learn more. He just needs a minute. Or two.

When finally he nudges Pearl’s arm off his shoulder and checks his comm, the damage is immense. Yesterday in the desert, facing off against Bdubs and his allies, that had seemed like the climax of the game. The turning point battle, where things would be decided once and for all, with the first permanent death. But yesterday pales in comparison to the slaughter of this day.

Ten people remain alive. Of their allies, there’s only Ren and Martyn left. Scott survived, evidently the only person left after the fight at his base. The chat shows he’d perma-killed both Scar and Mumbo in doing so. The Lords had run down and killed Impulse, but lost Lizzie along the way. Cleo still lives.

Bigb clambers up onto the wall surrounding Mossdeep in an attempt to get any kind of information. Line of sight on a friend or foe, better vantage to spot fires or smoke or anything else that indicates where people are, something. 

Scott’s base still smolders, but the fires must be weakening because the smoke disperses gently in the wind instead of billowing up furiously. The Lords’ Tower has a new hole in the side and no roof, but the plains surrounding it are still. In the distance, smoke still rises from the valley where Flower Power Incorporated was located. None of them are left to put out the fires. Hopefully the flower fields are alright.

They leave Bdubs’ crown and his sword in the ground. It can be a marker, of sorts. Some kind of monument to the end of the Lich King.

Pearl convinces Bigb that they should split up to look for other people. They’ll cover more ground separately, she argues, and won’t take no for an answer. She hasn’t put her sword away. He thinks she wants to go hunting for kills.

They agree to meet back at the Lords’ Tower at sundown. Disgruntled, Bigb picks a direction at random and starts walking. He keeps his sword drawn, in case of an ambush, but from the walls he hadn’t spotted any signs of battle in this direction. He tells himself he’ll go until the world border, then head right back.

And true to form, he finds nothing and nobody on the way. Not even a stray mob, strangely. But the landscape starts to feel familiar, and soon he finds himself facing the corner of the world, intersecting atop a stony hill with a small door set in the side.

The torch is still lit, somehow. It’s been a long time since he’s set foot in this place, his temporary shelter that night when he was new to the world and alone and lonely. It’s easy to get out a crafting table and make a small wooden chest and a bed. The bed goes against one wall, and the chest filled with some food and basic gear. After a moment of hesitation, he pulls a slightly-crushed dandelion out of his pocket. It goes atop the chest lid. A reminder, of sorts.

After sitting on the bed, he starts heading back towards Mossdeep. The crunch of a twig snapping draws his attention, and there’s nothing in these woods except hostile mobs now. Whatever this is, it probably wants him dead.

He’s proven right when Cleo steps out from behind a tree. They’ve clearly seen better days. There are tear tracks down their cheeks, new rips in the clothing under their armor that definitely weren’t there before or intentional, and a cut on their collarbone is still bleeding sluggishly. 

“Are you happy now?” she asks without preamble, flat and tight. Bigb tightens his stance, preparing for a potential attack. She doesn’t look okay. “He’s dead. You’re not, Pearl’s not, despite my best efforts.”

He waits, but she doesn’t continue. “... Why are you here, Cleo?”

“Revenge, I thought,” she says airily. “I could kill you here, could’ve killed you easily this whole time. You’re not as alert as you think. I could have taken my sword and plunged it straight into your back before this. You wouldn’t survive that.”

“And why didn’t you?”

She laughs. “Would there be a point? My king is dead. What’s a blade without a guiding hand, anyways? And you’d just come back, and maybe I could kill you again, but I can’t kill everyone. I know when I’m beaten. Bdubs didn’t, but we still tried our best. I-” She trails off.

Sundown illuminates the forest red. Fire in her hair and blood in her eyes, Cleo looks for all the world like something supernatural. A spirit made flesh, avenging and intent.

“This is all a game, you know?” They say finally. “But I want you to hurt like I’ve been hurt. I want you to feel the futility of your actions, like you’ve tried everything you can and it wasn’t enough to save you. I’m already dead. I hope you don’t join me.”

“You want me to win?” he asks, confused. 

She shrugs. “If that’s what hurts you the most.” Pulling her diamond chestplate off, she gestures towards her torso. “Go ahead. I’m dead already. Better at your hands than Pearl’s.”

Bigb tries not to understand what she means. She’s psyching him out, throwing off his mental. One last hail Mary before she breathes her last. He won’t let her words linger.

And he doesn’t hesitate. Just like Bdubs, his sword slides into their bared chest with barely any resistance. Their death is less explosive than Bdubs’. The lightning strike doesn’t throw him back, only sends spots dancing across his vision. And when it clears, the only thing left of the undead Blade is a section of scorched earth.

Bigb does his best to keep his thoughts from straying to Cleo’s words, her grim promise. He knows what she meant when she wished him victory. He can’t think about that now. He does anyways. The walk back passes in a daze. 

When he hears voices coming from the forest not far from Mossdeep, he immediately heads that way. The voices are loud, but not shouting. And it’s just voices, there’s no clash of sword on sword or axe against shield. A respite, then.

He stumbles into a clearing to find Gem and Joel facing off against Ren. No weapons drawn, but tensions are high. And, there. Off to the side, leaning against a tree. Pearl, looking no worse than she had when they split earlier. 

She immediately turns towards him as he breaks the tree line, drawn like a magnet. The other three quiet as well, easing back from each other slightly. 

He finds his words somehow, exhausted and dazed and swaying on his feet. “Cleo is dead.”

<<<<<<

After laying low around the desert for a few days on the off-chance Bdubs and Cleo want revenge for the enchantment debacle, Bigb and Pearl decide it’s time to venture out again. With enemies beginning to accumulate, it’s time for them to make allies of their own. 

They don’t take Froggy, this time. The donkey is safely corralled in a temporary pen atop the plateau, and she’d been happily munching on the bale of hay Bigb had put together from their first crop of wheat. Disturbing her seemed mean. And after the debacle with Etho and Skizz, they’re leery of bringing her anywhere other people might get ideas.

Bigb picks a random direction and off they go. Instead of back towards the savanna, they instead head towards the center of the server. Desert sand eventually fades back to dirt, and cactus and dead bushes become strong, healthy trees. The forest presses in tightly around them, but despite the lush growth no animals can be heard. It’s off-putting, in more ways than one.

He sees signs of other players all around him. Floating leaves from chopped trees, kept aloft by the surrounding forests. Bare dirt in holes in the ground from creeper explosions (he quickly steers Pearl away from those). A molding pile of rotten flesh at the base of one tree. They pass several large cracks, either entrances to cave systems or true fissures. Any visible ores have been decidedly excavated. 

Eventually, they chance on a small, homey cottage. The wooden walls and roof have the brightness of fresh-chopped wood, and moss has been artistically arranged to apparently mimic natural growth. The small garden off to the side has crops in the beginning stages of growing. There’s even a small cat napping in the window. 

“Hello the house!” Pearl calls, striding straight for the door. The cat peeks at them, but evidently doesn’t see a reason to get up and let them in. But the sounds of someone moving approach the door. 

The door swings open to reveal Scott, a streak of pink dye across one cheek. “Hey Pearl!” he beams, then sees Bigb over her shoulder. “And Bigb! Good to see you both, come on in.”

Of all the people they could have come across first, Scott is a good choice for an ally. Maybe not the biggest threat in a fight, but he’s no slouch. And he’s willing to play dirty. He’d fit right in.

Inside is just as cozy as outside. Scott’s clearly been focusing his energy on his house, because everything is arranged picture-perfect. They settle at a small wooden table in what appears to be the designated kitchen. As Bigb looks around, he spots two separate rooms, each with a bed.

“Are you basing with someone?” he asks. Two people as allies is better than one. How fortunate.

Scott hums, then notices the second room and snorts. “Yes, actually. Jimmy up and begged for a place to stay one night after the mobs got a little much to handle. And I couldn’t turn the poor man down. He’s out right now, but if you two are interested in staying for dinner you might catch him.”

Pearl takes over the conversation from there, asking Scott about how he’s found the server so far. Bigb makes sure to pay attention, but it’s easier to let Pearl talk. He sits and takes sips from the water glass Scott offered and chimes in occasionally. 

“You know, I heard the funniest thing from the neighbors recently,” Scott eventually says when the conversation lulls. He’s not looking at either of them, Bigb notices, instead swirling the water in his drink around the glass. “About two thieves. Going around using things that don’t belong to them.”

“Well that sounds bad,” Pearl says, a faux-innocent lilt to her voice. Well, Bigb can tell she’s faking it. “I can’t believe anyone would do such a thing. Do you know who it is? And whose stuff they’ve been taking?”

Scott meets her eyes with a knowing look. “Cleo was quite clear on who the culprits are. And as my closest neighbor, it’s in my best interest to keep good relations with her and Bdubs.”

Of course Bdubs hasn’t forgotten the incident with the enchanter. Bigb can respect the grudge, but only when it’s not directed towards him. 

“I’m sure we don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says. Scott muffles a snort. “Stories like that are always such exaggerations anyways. And you don’t look like the kind of guy who puts much stock in rumors.”

“Oh, you two can do whatever you’d like, just be aware that I’d like to stay in their good books,” Scott says promptly. He shoots a glance at Pearl. “And maybe watch your backs. It’s all Bdubs can talk about. He’s insisting on performing enchantments for people instead of letting them do it themselves, hit to his levels be damned. Mans is pissed.”

That’s… a stronger reaction than Bigb would have expected. From Bdubs, maybe not, but definitely from Cleo. Maybe their grudges are raising each others’ to new heights. 

“I’d like to see them try anything,” Bigb replies eventually. 

“Yeah, we can handle those two. All that green would really stand out against the desert, they aren’t getting anywhere near us without us noticing.” Pearl’s confidence is infectious. And really, what could those two do?

They leave Scott not long after that. He promises non-aggression, as much as he can manage, but warns that for now, his and Jimmy’s loyalty is to Bdubs and Cleo. Bigb takes that as a small win, and he and Pearl head back out into the forest in search of others.

Their next stop is a lonely-looking house atop a hill, where an iron construct wanders the property aimlessly. Despite the mumbling and clanking coming from inside the hill, nobody appears to be home, and they move on.

“-probably like Impulse or something,” Pearl is saying as they crest another hill.

“Makes sense. Or Tango, maybe? I’m just surprised whoever it is managed to get the iron for the construct. If they’ve got any more, they’re going to be deadly towards the end of the game.”

Pearl shudders. “Yikes. Oh!” She points towards a plume of smoke rising above a nearby peak. “Let’s try over there.”

‘Over there’ turns out to be a sizable walk followed by an even more sizable climb to reach the summit of what had to be a small mountain. But once there, Bigb looks down into the valley and is greeted by flowers.

A veritable rainbow of color stretches from one side of the valley to the other, bisected in the middle by a gently-flowing river. Poppies, dandelions, tulips in all colors, aliums, orchids, daisies, and cornflowers blanket the ground randomly, with no apparent organization. Thin paths wind through the fields, and then in one corner is a small vegetable garden. 

Built into the opposite cliff-face is a wonky-looking structure, ostensibly a dwelling. Compared to Scott’s picturesque cottage in the woods, the visible parts of this house are… unique. Mangrove and what looks like crimson wood from the nether make out the bones of the structure, striking against plain gray stone. There’s a half-finished roof over the entrance, and an attempt at stairs leading from the ground up. A llama grunts, and Bigb looks to see two in a simple pen next to a tall gate.

“Apparently there’s a main entrance,” he comments to Pearl, pointing towards the gate. It’s set in the pass between two of the peaks, made of wood and stone and very intimidating-looking. Using it also would have stopped them from scaling the mountain.

“Well that would have been simpler.”

“We’ll use it on the way out.”

Pearl shoots him an incredulous look. “I certainly wasn’t planning on another hike today.”

They carefully begin picking their way down the side of the mountain. It’s steep, but the stone is solid and the jumps aren’t difficult. Frankly, climbing their base is more difficult. Much more crumbly.

About halfway down, two people appear out of the red wooden building. Mumbo and Scar both wave, the latter excitedly and the former more nervously. It takes the two of them longer to get out of the building and down to the ground than it does Bigb and Pearl to finish descending the cliff-side, but Bigb’s not going to mention it. Seems rude.

Scar reaches them impressively fast. “Hello hello, welcome to Flower Power Incorporated, where the flowers are plentiful and the benefits innumerable! What can we interest you in today?”

“Flower Power Incorp-?”

“Slow it down, Scar,” Pearl jumps in, cutting off Bigb and his confusion and also Scar, who appears to be ready to continue the pitch. “Just here to say hi. Hi, good to see you.”

He beams. “Oh, good to see you as well, Pearl! How have you been? Those yellow eyes look very dashing, shame that you have them.”

“Blame my friend here,” she gestures towards Bigb, and he huffs. “But I’ve been well! Despite, you know, causing my death, Bigb’s been a stellar teammate. We’re set up in the desert a ways that way, you should come visit!”

And Bigb can’t not cause a little trouble. “Can’t guarantee I won’t kill you like I did Pearl, however.” He’ll never kill Pearl again, of course, he still feels terrible about it. Scar he has no particular fondness for, and as such can be threatened a bit. Just so he doesn’t take advantage.

“Now there’s no need for such harsh words!” Scar shakes his head. Mumbo finally joins them, and Scar throws a friendly arm over his shoulder. “Why, who would ever want to hurt the two of us? We’re harmless! Have a flower.” And he passes Bigb a dandelion. 

“Why are we talking about hurting us?” Mumbo asks nervously. “You just got here. Surely Scar hasn’t had time to do anything egregious. Unless it’s Grian you’re after? Fair game on that one, I suppose.”

“Currently no plans to harm either of you,” Pearl reassures. Yet, Bigb adds mentally. Maybe it shows on his face. Mumbo doesn’t look reassured, but Scar is already moving on.

“Anyways! Flowers, am I right? Pearl, like I was saying, the yellow eyes look lovely, but you can do better than a simple blue hoodie. You said you’re in the desert, didn’t you, so blue stands out a lot. If you want a better color scheme, look no further than our expansive flower fields!” Scar gestures grandly. The flower fields are certainly expansive. “Sunflowers are just what you need. A lovely bright yellow, blends in with all that sand, makes you stealthy and really makes you feel at one with the land.”

Scar gestures again, more pointedly, and this time Mumbo plucks a nearby sunflower. It really is a lovely yellow. Pearl is looking at it consideringly, head cocked to the side.

“Not at all what we came here for,” Pearl takes the flower, “but you’re really selling this. Maybe not yellow? What reds are on offer?”

“Oh, all the reds,” Scar assures her. Mumbo dutifully turns back to the fields and picks a few different options as Scar continues. “Red tulips, roses, poppies. My favorite, by the way. Finest flowers you’ll find on the server!”

“Tulips, I think,” Pearl finally decides after examining all three. Mumbo presents her with the flower, and the other two get tossed into a nearby composter. “What are you charging?”

“First flower is a freebie,” Scar says with an affable grin. He looks smug. “After that, well, we’re flexible. Flower Power Incorporated barters with the best of them.”

Mumbo jumps in. “But if you’ve got sand to trade that would be appreciated.” Scar pouts, but doesn’t contradict him. 

“Oh, I think we can work something out,” Pearl says. Both her and Bigb always have sand on them, after all. Not by choice. Simply as a result of living in the desert, sand gets everywhere. Between the two of them, they should have enough to trade.

“Excellent, glad to hear it!” Scar turns expectant eyes on Bigb, who jolts back a half step at the intensity. “B, Bigb, my good man. Are you interested in upgrading your wardrobe? Joining in on this flower extravaganza?”

He hadn’t even considered it, to be frank. “Uh, I’m pretty happy with my clothes, sorry Scar.”

“But Pearl’s getting a colorful new look, don’t you want to join in on the team spirit?”

“I’m not really in the market for new clothes-”

“Aw, Bigb!” Oh no, Pearl’s joining in. “We could make matching ponchos!”

A poncho would be nice. He’s sweated through his jacket more times than he can count in the past days. They’ve got spare materials, crafting such a basic piece of clothing isn’t that difficult. And Pearl seems to want to…

“You have cornflowers?” Stupid question. Scar and Mumbo seem to have every flower. But Pearl looks so excited, and Mumbo is already running to grab a cornflower, and Bigb just resigns himself to new clothes. It’s in the spirit of the game, he supposes.

“Same deal applies,” Scar says once Mumbo has handed Bigb a beautiful cornflower. “First one is free, second and any after you need to trade for. My esteemed associate has requested sand, so if you want to begin any further transactions now, I sure hope you’ve got some on you.”

After assuring Scar that yes, they live in the desert, of course they have sand, Pearl barters a half-stack of sand for five tulips and five cornflowers. More than enough to dye a square of fabric each, but the sand wasn’t exactly a loss. Bigb still feels like he got scammed, though.

They make their excuses after that, leaving through the front gate this time with promises of friendship from Scar and Mumbo and Grian (promised in his stead, though they had assured Bigb he wouldn’t mind). It’s significantly easier to begin the trek back to the desert without having to go over the mountains, and with the sun beginning to dip towards the horizon Bigb is thankful for the timesave. 

“That was a productive day,” Pearl comments as they walk. “Shame about Scott knowing our misdeeds, but Scar and company are good allies.”

“He definitely scammed us.”

She laughs. “That’s just what he does. Better he does it while we’re friends than try to get something from him when we’re enemies.”

“Oh, true that.”

They’re almost at the edge of the desert when a voice from behind hails them. It’s Gem, jogging out of the trees and waving excitedly.

“Pearl! And Bigb! Hey guys, what’s going on?”

Pearl returns the greeting enthusiastically. Gem isn’t even out of breath when she slows to a stop opposite them. She’s got a diamond chestplate on, and Bigb remembers that advancement pinging the chat a day ago. She sounds friendly, but he’s suddenly on edge. 

“Just saw you passing by and wanted to say hello. You should come see our base sometime,” Gem says to Pearl. “Joel’s going a little overboard, but it looks good.”

“When I get a chance I’ll swing by,” Pearl nods. Bigb’s even more on edge now. Is she totally confident Gem is trustworthy enough to visit on her own? No, Pearl’s a grown woman. She knows how to be safe. But it still sounds risky. 

“You’re always welcome to brave the desert,” Bigb adds. Home field advantage. “We’re not hard to spot, but good luck getting there.”

“Hah, will do! Anyways, I just wanted to say hi, good luck getting home you two!” Gem waves goodbye and starts jogging away, backwards in order to keep facing them. It’s not long before the trees swallow her up. The whole interaction takes maybe two minutes.

“Scary that those two are still together,” Pearl comments to Bigb as they resume the trek. “Another good team to be on friendly terms with.” And he has to concede that point.

>>>>>>

“So what now?” Joel asks. He wipes his axe carelessly against the damp grass, leaving a streak of blood flecked with darker bits of dried blood. It’s a fine weapon, sharp diamond through a sturdy spruce handle glimmering with multiple enchantments. But Bigb thinks it’s unnerving that he waited this long to clean it. Bloodstains cover the back of Joel’s shirt now, from where the axe rested ever since the server-wide fighting died down.

He doesn’t seem bothered. There’s a manic look in his red eyes, not unlike the look Pearl gets when a conversation takes a turn for the worse, or when someone raises their weapon at her. The look of someone who’s barely waiting for an excuse to show how sharp their teeth are. Bigb isn’t used to seeing Pearl’s war face on someone else. 

Beside Joel, Gem is similarly cleaning her sword, but slower and more carefully. There’s a second diamond sword dangling at her hip which she absolutely didn’t have when he saw her last. Bigb briefly wonders who the sword used to belong to: an enemy or an ally. It’s a strange thought, though. After the events of today, do those designations even matter?

Bdubs is dead. The Lich King’s bloody crown rests on his sword in the center of Mossdeep Hold, the only remaining monument to their greatest enemy after his body vanished in the flash-rumble lightning strike of a permanent death. It had been at Bigb’s own hand, his sword the one that struck the final blow. 

Including himself, five people remain. The only person he trusts is Pearl, bloodied but grinning and triumphant after their successes of the day. Gem and Joel stand across from them. Off to one side, Ren watches them all faux-casually, carefully cradling a diamond sword like it’s something precious. All allies turned rivals in the eleventh hour.

“Now we all hold hands and skip in a circle,” Pearl comments, tone sharp instead of joking. It gets a snort out of Bigb, but nobody else seems to be in a laughing mood. Five players left and the moon begins to rise. 

Spiders hiss in the treetops, awakening after sleeping for the day. Gem spins to put her back to Joel, facing out towards the rapidly-darkening forest.

Bigb exchanges a glance with Pearl. The night endangers them more and more as time goes on, the mobs hitting harder and harder with better weapons. Enchants flash in the distance as a skeleton moves between the trees. The sounds of spider hissing get louder.

Gem’s shield is up, but Joel keeps his body facing the rest of them. Trusting, for the notoriously distrustful red player. “I’m almost tempted to see who’s left after the mobs swarm,” he says. His teeth flash white as he bares them in a savage grin. “Almost, that is.” He raises his newly-cleaned axe.

An arrow thunks behind him as it connects with Gem’s shield. “Not the time, Joel!” she calls as another arrow streaks from the forest, this one glowing from an enchanted bow.

“Oh for the love of-” he spins to help his partner, and Bigb doesn’t miss the unconscious step Pearl takes towards his exposed back. 

It would be worth it. Joel and Pearl are distracted by mobs. Pearl has her sword drawn, but it can be easily switched to the bow and arrows on her back. She’d have to time it right so that the blows kill, because against Gem’s dancing movements and Joel’s heavy rage they will lose.

But then more movement, this time to the left, catches Bigb’s eyes again. Ren draws a bow of his own. And Bigb can’t tell who he’s going to turn it on.

Bigb grabs Pearl’s arm as her hand slowly raises her sword. “We have to go,” he hisses. Gem and Joel outclass both of them in a fight, and Ren’s a wild card that could easily turn against both sides at the drop of a hat. “Don’t give me that look. You want to fight Gem and Joel?”

“I could take them,” she grumbles, but obligingly follows his next tug. 

“Look, if or when we end up fighting them, we need the advantage. Or a distraction. Or for them to separate.”

They make it several meters before there’s a loud cry and a crack of thunder. Both of their comms ping. Pearl makes an interested noise and slows to read it, but Bigb’s grip is stronger and he keeps them moving. No matter who just died, someone else will follow soon. They have to go.

Bigb’s heart jumps straight out of his chest when something stumbles out from behind a tree, but it groans lowly and he relaxes slightly. Zombie, and not armed. Pearl spins him behind her and decapitates it. 

More and more mobs spill out from the shadows. More than he’s ever seen in one place, actually. More than there should be on a server set with normal difficulty. Maybe with four of them left, someone’s tinkering with the settings (Grian, he knows it was Grian, the man still able to cause trouble even from beyond the grave). 

A ping. Another crack of lightning behind them. Three left. 

“Gem and Joel are out,” Pearl murmurs, low surprise coloring her voice. She’s chosen to disregard the mobs surrounding them and has pulled out her comm, scrolling frantically on the screen. “Ren killed Joel, and Gem was shot by a skeleton.”

Bigb’s mind whirls rapidly. The better option, surely. Gem and Joel beat him and Pearl in a fight every time, hands down. And on red, neither has the capability to make it a swift or clean death. Ren still mourns his lost lord and lady, which can be used against him. He’s alone, vulnerable-

A spider leaps for his throat, hissing. It gets batted aside, then a blow from his sword sends it back to dust. Her comm put away once again, Pearl raises her shield and advances on a trio of skeletons taking cover behind some nearby trees. 

Ren will be coming for them, mourning or not. They have to prepare.

<<<<<<

The dirt feels strange under Bigb’s feet, after days of slippery sand, smooth wood, or rough stone. He hadn’t thought spending all his time either in the desert or underground affected him so much, but the first time a pig oinked from behind a tree, he’d jumped. Killing it and getting two pork chops had felt like a fair trade for his dignity. Pearl had laughed at him.

She’s riding Froggy right now, and he’s walking in front holding the lead. They don’t have a saddle yet, just the two chests strapped to the donkey’s sides with rope. They’re filled with sandstone, cactus, and some ores he’d mined and been willing to spare for the trade effort. Bdubs and Cleo are going to want something in exchange for letting them use their enchanter. It was a business, after all.

Along the way, they passed a small house built into a hill. They’d gone up to see if anyone was home, but it was empty. The torches were lit, however, and an orange bed sat lonely in one corner. Pearl had wanted to rifle through the two chests against one wall, but Bigb had dragged her away. No point in antagonizing whoever lived here. Yet.

Thankfully, Bdubs and Cleo’s base is easy to spot. It’s nothing special, just a stone and wood structure surrounded by low deepslate walls. What makes it stand out, however, is the large green… thing, carefully balancing atop the roof of a second, smaller building, right beside the first but still within the walls. After minutes of carefully squinting and tilting his head this way and that, Bigb concludes that it’s an attempt at an enchanting table. Made of what looked like moss. And a single piece of oak wood, balancing on what turns out to be an iron bar, clearly supposed to be the enchanting book all tables had.

“Definitely Bdubs alright,” Pearl comments as they get closer. “Moss and a large thing of some kind. Has his signature written all over it.”

There’s an obvious entrance to the compound, so Bigb leads Froggy towards it. Once inside, his attention is immediately drawn to the garden growing off to one side. Neither Pearl nor he have spent any time getting a sustainable food source going. They’ve been living this entire time off whatever meat they manage to kill during the day (and raw flesh, an unfortunate necessity of caving). Surely Cleo and Bdubs won’t notice a few little potatoes missing…

Froggy is kind enough to remain in place long enough for him to snag some ripe veggies. The whole garden is in a varying state of growth, so he feels confident enough to grab and replant. They’ll never know. The veggies go straight into Froggy’s saddlebags, and Pearl doesn’t say a word. Just gives him a wink and a small thumbs-up. Good thinking. They never know who could be listening.

He leads Froggy a few more steps into the compound, away from the garden and the evidence of his little crime. “Hello?” he calls when they’re a safe distance away. “Anyone home?” His voice isn’t loud, but the base is small. Surely someone could hear him.

“If they don’t show up in the next few seconds I’m enchanting for free,” Pearl says. She swings herself down from Froggy’s back and marches straight towards the smaller building with the moss creation looming overhead. It’s large enough to cast the building in shadow. Bdubs certainly has interesting priorities in a death game.

Bigb follows, slower. Partially because he’s leading Froggy, who only agrees to do what he says half of the time (she listens to Pearl always, but Bigb supposes he can’t blame the donkey for that), and partially because he’s doing his best to scope out the base. The bigger structure, clearly the main dwelling, appears single-story from the outside, though there’s evidence that someone’s trying to build either a second floor or a small tower. What is it with everyone and building towers? Where’s their originality?

Aside from the house, the enchanting room, the garden, and the deepslate wall, there isn’t much else. Though of course that doesn’t mean much in the long run. There’s time aplenty to add all kinds of horrifying traps. Or another, larger, garden.

Pearl makes it fully to the enchanting building without getting stopped. And sure enough, she opens the door and the enchanter is just there, in all its glory. Not quite fully powered up, there’s not enough bookshelves yet, but that doesn’t matter. Their game doesn’t allow for some of the more powerful enchants anyways. Pearl strips her diamond chestplate off without any hesitation, laying it on the table and beginning to thumb through the glowing book.

“Is there lapis?” Bigb asks, already looking around for a chest or a barrel or something. No sign of anything. The room is bare aside from the table and bookshelves.

“Well crap. Guess that’s how Bdubs and Cleo have been keeping control of the business. They must have the lapis on them. Man…”

“Not to worry, my dear Pearl,” Bigb reaches into a pocket. He knows it’s in here somewhere, he put some just in case… Well, it was supposed to have been for his iron enchants, but Pearl’s chestplate clearly takes priority over some iron boots. “Aha!” He hands over a small leather bag, filled with most of the lapis he’d found.

“You’re the absolute best,” Pearl says seriously as she takes the bag, before turning and dusting some of the lapis over the chestplate. She’s already gone through the book, she knows which of the options to pick, and it’s the work of a moment to trace the runes onto the chestplate. The diamond flashes, once, twice, then settles with a faint glow glimmering on its surface.

Pearl slides the armor back over her head, before trying to peer closely at the new runes embedded in its surface. Bigb takes the moment to gather the lapis dust back together and then back into the bag. He’ll pull it back out once he’s had a chance to see the enchants for his boots. 

Footsteps thump outside. Shoot-

“Now, Cleo, what do we have here?” Bdubs’ drawl echoes through the small room, despite the windows and that the building is made of wood, and… Well, his voice just has a presence, that’s all.

“Looks like some thieves, your majesty.” Cleo somehow makes the title sound mocking. But she stands solidly at Bdub’s shoulder, hand on her diamond sword and looking for all the world like she’s just waiting for an excuse to draw it.

“Thieves! In my place of business! Have they no respect for the rule of law? For basic human decency?”

“Seems like they just have no respect for you.”

And at that, Bigb can’t help but jump in. “Now hold on a minute there,” he says, surreptitiously sliding his lapis back into his pocket. It’s his, after all. And Pearl had already gotten her chestplate enchanted. “We have plenty of respect for you. And we clearly didn’t mean to break and enter. But we wanted to use the enchanter and no one was around to help us out. And we thought to ourselves, well, they won’t mind, we’re paying customers after all, we’ll just settle up when we see them next.”

“And it’s not like we could do anything without you here,” Pearl adds. There’s a grin attempting to steal across her face, but she makes a valiant effort to subdue it. “No lapis. I was just,” she looks down at the iron sword laying across the table. “Checking the enchants. And hoping you’d get here soon.”

Pearl’s enchanted chestplate shimmers in the fading sunlight. Both Cleo and Bdubs have turned their attention to Pearl, and Bdubs points at her chest accusingly. “Then what’s that there?! That looks enchanted to me! Doesn’t it, Cleo?”

They nod. “Sure does, your majesty.”

“So explain that!”

“Ah, well,” Pearl pauses. “I found it like this. No enchanter use today, not for me.”

“You found it?!”

Bigb’s mind races. Enchanted diamond… “In an underground city,” he jumps in suddenly. Yeah, there’s good enchanted stuff down there. Never mind that they haven’t been to an underground city. Bdubs and Cleo don’t need to know that. “Yeah, it’s just Blast Protection and Mending. Which is nothing to scoff at! But Pearl’s right, not enchanted here in this building.”

Pearl’s new chestplate is enchanted with Protection and a lucky roll of Thorns. And yes, that is obvious if one gets close enough to actually read the enchantments. But Bdubs and Cleo won’t look that closely. Surely.

Bdubs sputters. “Blast- Blast Protection and Mending and from an underground city at that? What kind of a humble brag flex is that? You both survived the freaking warden with your lives?”

“I thought I remember Grian saying there weren’t any major structures within the bounds of the border,” Cleo sounds skeptical. And they’re right, Bigb remembers Grian saying almost exactly those words. He’s been more smug, though, sniping the words back at Tango before the start of the game when the latter had been bragging about his warden-wrangling skills.

“Guess he didn’t check under the desert deep enough,” Bigb lies. Cleo still looks disbelieving, but Bdubs seems convinced. And when Bigb chances a glance at his ally, Pearl’s face is turned away. But he can still see the barely-suppressed grin on her face. “Anyways, uh, we’re interested in enchanting some… gear.” He gestures back towards Pearl’s iron sword on the enchanting table.

“Oh, well why didn’t you say so!” The previous topic of discussion seems forgotten as Bdubs enthusiastically procures some lapis, and begins to walk Pearl through the basics of using the enchanting table. She’s nodding along patiently, as if she hadn’t used that exact table not five minutes prior.

“So what do you guys charge for enchanting?” They’ve got goods to trade in Froggy’s storage, but if the price is too high he can hold off for now.

“Diamonds!”

Cleo sighs. “We’ll trade for a variety of things, but enchanting isn’t cheap.” Bdubs pouts, but doesn’t contradict them.

“How about coal?” Bigb offers, pasting a winning smile onto his face. “Potent stuff from the mines under the desert. You’re never going to find anything better.”

Bdubs puffs up, turning away from Pearl momentarily. “You raided an underground city and you’re offering us coal ? The nerve! Fork over some diamonds or things are gonna get ugly real fast!”

“We’d also accept skulk sensors,” Cleo adds, milky eyes glinting. It’s a scary look. “Or shriekers. Lots of fun to be had with shriekers.”

And his lie comes back to bite him in the bum. “Oh, well, those are some high-dollar items you’re asking for,” Bigb says, stalling. High-dollar items they don’t have. “Definitely not something we just travel around with. Have you seen the kind of security donkeys provide? Certainly not enough to trust them with goods like that.” He gestures towards Froggy in the distance, who only flicks her ears and doesn’t stop grazing. 

Both Cleo and Bdubs are focused on Bigb. Cleo is intent, leaning forward like she’s ready to either haggle or take his heart straight from his chest. Bdubs, meanwhile, has coincidentally, let Pearl out of his sight. Over Bdubs’ shoulder Bigb can see her dust her iron sword with lapis, quickly thumbing through the enchanting book. Sneaky. He’ll play his part, then.

“So coal’s off the table,” he hums, faux-consideringly. “Well, I guess we can figure something else out. Anything you all need from the desert? I brought some cactus and sand, that’s pretty valuable.. Especially with your whole… green thing, you’ve got going on.” He gestures up at the roof, over which balances the mossy enchanting table.

“Oh, we could use some cactus,” Bdubs says. He may have meant to whisper that to Cleo, but he doesn’t bother lowering his voice. She slaps a hand over her eyes. “Ah. That was supposed to be between the two of us. You didn’t hear that!”

Bigb casually waves a hand. “Oh no, no, of course not. I’d never eavesdrop.” 

“I think we’ve reached a deal,” Cleo says, dead hand over their face muffling their words. They peek through their fingers. “Cactus, then. For an enchantment.”

“One cactus, one enchantment?” Bigb shakes his head sadly, then gestures at his iron boots strewn atop a nearby barrel. “It’s not just Pearl, you know. Four cacti and sand to grow them on, and we can enchant all the gear we have on us right now.”

Twin denials spring from Bdubs and Cleo. Behind them, Pearl’s iron sword glows faintly. She shoots Bigb a glance, then quietly begins to divest herself of more tools. Bdubs had kindly left his supply of lapis on the enchanting table, and she doesn’t hesitate to help herself.

And really, Bigb doesn’t need to take the haggling quite so seriously. With his offer of cactus and sand denied, he tries iron buckets next. He’d thrown a couple into Froggy’s saddlebags on a whim, crafted with all the excess iron from his caving trip. Cleo immediately nixes the buckets and Bdubs tries to get cactus back on the table. In response, Bigb offers an acacia sapling. Bdubs brings the conversation back to the cacti.

In the middle of listening to an increasingly-frantic Bdubs try and weasel his way into getting cacti in the deal, Bigb sees Pearl shoot him a thumbs up. She’s done, then. Time to go.

“You know what-” he interrupts the tirade, and Bdubs perks up instantly. “I think we’re all good on enchantments, actually. Changed our minds, underground city, you know. All kinds of good gear there. Maybe even some diamonds, we can make our own table!”

Cleo’s face is darkening, while Bdubs’ seems to be turning red with rage. “Wait a minute-”

“Ah, well. Sorry this didn’t work out and all. If you ever want to come trade for some cacti, you know where to find us!” Bigb begins backing out the door of the enchanting room. Froggy is somewhere behind him. Pearl can jump out a window. “Lovely place you have here, by the way. The deepslate wall, very cool.”

“HEY!” Bdubs turns and sees the lapis strewn across the table. Pearl, hands now firmly blue-stained, freezes, then bolts for the window. “THIEVES!”

That’s his cue. Bigb doesn’t waste a second and turns on his heel to begin sprinting for Froggy and the gate. Cleo gasps, there’s the rasp of a sword being drawn, but Bigb keeps his gaze on Froggy. Almost there-

“I’m going to destroy everything and everyone you’ve ever loved for this,” Cleo hollers as Bigb and Pearl make their clean getaway. Bigb looks back and sees Bdubs beside her, shaking his fist in the air. And it should be intimidating (Cleo is not someone he wants as an enemy), but Bigb’s still high on the exhilaration of a clean getaway and can’t bring himself to feel anything other than that. It doesn’t help that Pearl is still cackling in her newly-enchanted diamond chestplate, so Bigb decides the day has been a big success and leaves it at that.

Somehow he’s ended up astride Froggy as Pearl runs in front holding the lead. And it’s not the most comfortable situation he’s found himself in (Froggy is just a little too small for him to sit comfortably; he’s always sat better on true horses), but the exhilaration pumping through his veins makes it easy to disregard. And Pearl’s happy so he’s happy.

Cleo and Bdubs don’t pursue them, though a backwards glance shows the two picking their way in the opposite direction with some haste. “Pearl!” She looks back and slows her pace. And he thinks about warning her that they’ve made an enemy, or trying to strategize their next move, but her face is flushed and glowing and he can’t bring himself to ruin that happiness. So, “That went well, right?”

“That went so well. I got me a good chestplate, so it’s a win all around!” She does a little spin before switching to walk backwards, facing him and Froggy. “Shame to make an enemy of Cleo, but what’cha gonna do. Oh!” She looks closely at Bigb. “You didn’t get to enchant! Did I use all your lapis, I’m so sorry.”

“Nah, it’s all good. That was our lapis, not just mine. And your chestplate takes priority of course, it’s diamond.”

“Well, here!” She offers up her iron sword and her bow. “In that case, you can have these! The sword’s not diamond, sorry, but you should have enchanted gear as well! We’re a team, after all.”

>>>>>>

In the end, Ren finds them. Just appears out of the darkness of the forest, covered in blood and guts and who knows what else. Bigb doesn’t hesitate to raise his nocked bow to Ren’s throat, yellow life or not. But Ren doesn’t look so good. His face is wet, but his red eyes are manic. 

Bigb keeps his arms steady. The rules of the game feel far and away, right now, because standing before him is a once-ally sometimes-friend, but always a threat. Pearl’s diamond sword, still crusted with the remains of the mobs she’s slaughtered, flicks up and straight for Ren’s chest. There’s even a convenient hole in the chestplate. Lizzie’s final fate, not repaired since her death.

“You made a deal with Martyn, Pearl!” Ren calls suddenly, sounding as wrecked as he looks. He’s cradling Martyn’s sword like it’s precious, but the diamond blade is sharp and enchanted to kill. It’s not pointed at them. Yet. This close, the wetness on his face is tear tracks, and there’s a bloody hand-print on one cheek.

“And what deal would that be?” Pearl asks. She sounds amused. And yes, she’s tired and dirty and some of the wounds on her body still bleed, especially a nasty slash across her stomach that looks like it hurts. The golden apples that would close that right up are long gone. But… she stays her blade.

Bigb keeps a wary eye on Ren. He moves, he’s getting shot. The arrow he’s readied almost has Ren’s name carved into it.

“Your protection pact? You swore before the Lords that at one instance of our choosing, you would turn any aggression you had towards us aside.”

Oh, that’s news to Bigb. And it’s fair, Pearl certainly traveled around more than he did. Many opportunities for her to make deals like that. But-

“With three of us left, you can’t be claiming non-aggression now, Ren,” he says. His bow remains undrawn, but ready. He can’t make the first move. “I won’t turn on Pearl, and we can’t end in a stalemate. You’re dying here. Accept it.”

Ren shakes his head. “The deal wasn’t with you, Bigb. It was with Pearl. Now,” he meets her gaze fearlessly. “Will you honor it?”

“I turned away from you already, Ren,” she replies slowly, consideringly. “When Grian tried for your life upon the sands of my desert, all those days ago. Our deal is done.” But her words do not sound final. She does not raise her weapon.

“Pearl?” Bigb asks, at the same time as Ren says-

“You turned from me in that moment, yes, and Lizzie when she too knelt before your blade, but- you never granted the same to Martyn. I would have you honor his deal in this moment now.”

“Claiming a favor given to another?”

But Ren is unwavering. “It was given equally to the three of us, and I would claim his in his stead.”

“Pearl!” Bigb’s not asking, this time. “He needs to die! Then this all ends.”

She doesn’t meet Bigb’s eyes, for all she has no hesitation to meet Ren’s. She breathes in deeply, then- “I will honor my words to Martyn.” A pit opens in Bigb’s stomach, dark and yawning. “This once, I step aside.” Now she meets Bigb’s eyes briefly, and says, reluctantly. “We need to all be red. The game ends in blood. We knew this going in.”

And...

There’s blood on the ground and on his hands and his sword and his armor and Bigb feels nothing. The wetness of his boots is a minor inconvenience, nothing compared to the buzzing in his head. Even the tangle of emotions warring for dominance in his stomach can be overlooked. There is just the buzzing of his head and the red glow of Ren’s eyes across the pond and the weight of Pearl’s red gaze on his back.

“I’m sorry it has to be this way, my dude,” Ren calls, sounding genuinely apologetic. He takes a step forward, but then reconsiders and begins to pick his way around the edge of the pond. “I’m sorry it can’t be both of us. But I’m going to win this. For Martyn and Lizzie, and the life we shared. The loyalty I owe them for their own loyalty to me.”

And there are many things Bigb could say in response to that. His own dedication to Pearl, his own loyalty tried and tested and true even after his first death, because what they had built together was worth it. How he deserved this from Pearl , and the betrayal at her even offering for this to be a contest. What right does Ren have to stand here? If he misses his knights so much, he can join them as a spectator to the end of the world.

“I can’t concede just because your friends died,” is what he ends up saying. It’s not perfect, and nowhere near conveys the sheer depth of his emotions, but in this instance, words fail. Ren is halfway around the pond by now, and Bigb hasn’t decided if he’s going to run or stand his ground. But he can’t run, not with Pearl watching from the trees ready to jump whichever one of them shows weakness.

It’s been a while since he’s felt genuine fear over having red Pearl at his back.

Ren’s prowling closer, furry ears pinned back and sword raised (it’s Martyn’s sword, Bigb realizes now that he’s closer, the diamond chipped from hacking blows Bdubs had rained down on it in that last battle). And the buzzing in Bigb’s head overtakes all, and he raises his own sword and steadies his feet. In the back of his head the rules of the game scream that he can’t be the aggressor, can’t make the first swing, but does that really matter now? After everything that’s happened?

Pearl watches, quiet. In the distance, a lonely dog howls for Etho, who’s long dead.

<<<<<<

The initial gathering at the village naturally disperses. Impulse claims dominion over the entire village, villagers included, to the dismay of both Gem and Joel, who reluctantly head for the hills. Jimmy is still in the process of trying to beg a single house and bed from Impulse when Bigb and Pearl take their leave. Pearl picks their direction: back towards the outer border Bigb had originally come from, but continuing on in the direction he hasn’t yet explored. She’s looking for spruce, she explains as they walk, the one sapling she hasn’t yet acquired and the origin of her fateful argument with Jimmy. No one else had spotted any of the distinctive trees in the areas they’d already explored, so she’s decided to head for unexplored territory.

Bigb remains committed to her quest, and keeps his eyes peeled for spruce trees. He also keeps a weather eye out for any mobs lurking in the shadows of the sparse forest they find themselves in, while Pearl keeps a running tally of animals they pass. It’s been mostly pigs, with the occasional chicken.

But the forest doesn’t continue forever, and soon the two find themselves on the edge of a new biome. A savanna, large and flat, that stretches all the way to the world border. Acacia trees scattered across the dry yellow grass stab at the sky. Beyond the border, the tall, colorful peaks of a mesa draw the eye. But there’s no terracotta to be found within the confines of their game, just patches of red sand.

“I’m not seeing any spruce,” Bigb says, and Pearl sighs.

“Unfortunately.” But as she casts her head around, she brightens. “Oh! There’s something!” And points to the far edge of the savanna, where dry grass turns to sand and flat ground becomes rolling and uneven. A desert, vaster than the savanna, stretches to the horizon.

“That’s still not spruce.”

Pearl flaps her hand disdainfully. “Hush you. It’s perfect.”

“It’s a desert.”

The sun is firmly in the sky as Bigb makes his way into the desert, alone. It takes some time to get used to the way his feet slide on the sand, the way the sun scorches the back of his neck, but it’s quiet. There are few mobs in the desert normally, and even fewer when the sun is high and unshielded.

Pearl decided the desert is the best place to set up their permanent base, and Bigb hadn’t been able to disagree. But she’s wandered off to explore the savanna more, so he decides to get a head start on the location of their home. He’s committed to Pearl at this point, and as such, they both need to stay alive.

The desert is full of hills, windswept dunes, and jagged sandstone peaks, but one plateau in particular catches his eye. It looms over the landscape of the desert, most of it exposed sandstone covered in a fine layer of loose sand. And it’s tall. A perfect vantage point and easily defensible. He gets closer, and yep, climbing that thing will be a struggle. Both for him and Pearl, and also for anyone trying to kill them.

He eyes it for a long minute. It’ll… definitely be difficult to climb. But- the longer he looks, the clearer his path up the side becomes. There’ll be some jumping involved for sure, and maybe a scramble or two, but it’s doable.

And it is, though not without a serious scare. One handhold hadn’t been as stable as he’d thought, and what had appeared to be sandstone crumbled into sand the moment his fingers grazed it. The fall hadn’t been too far, but he is sporting several new scraped holes in his pants, along with a nasty bruise on one knee.

Looking out over the desert from the highest point around makes all the pain worthwhile. The sun beats down mercilessly (he needs to make a shelter) and he’s hot and thirsty and sore, and none of it matters. He can see everything from up here, even the edges of the desert where sand fades back into grass and, even further out, small trees. Nobody will be sneaking up on the two of them.

From this height, Bigb catches sight of a small figure picking their way through the dunes. From the length of the hair (and the fact that nobody else should be out here), it’s Pearl. And she’s not alone. Behind her, connected to what’s likely a lead, is a gray equine of some kind. Possibly a horse, though more likely a donkey based on its size in comparison to Pearl. The two are heading straight for the plateau he’s claimed, so thankfully it appears Pearl’s seen him. Though, Bigb isn’t sure how the donkey is going to ascend the cliff.

He considers the sand in his pockets, gathered randomly during his trek through the desert. It’s the work of a moment to make it into sandstone. It takes the work of several more moments, but as Pearl is strolling up with her new donkey (definitely a donkey), Bigb meets them on the ground, a somewhat less-treacherous climb constructed up the cliff behind him that is hopefully donkey-safe. And there’s no need to talk about the additional scrapes and bruises and cuts he’s gained. All necessary in his line of work.

“Well hello there!” Pearl greets him cheerfully. She’s somehow acquired an iron chestplate, and leather pants and boots that are both dyed red. The donkey is indeed on a lead, and it has two chests strapped to the saddle on its back. “I’m guessing you’ve picked our base location? I like the looks of it.”

“Yup, highest vantage point around. Who’s your new friend?” And Bigb steps over to let the donkey smell his hand, which it does with disinterest. He tries to pet its nose and it huffs and shakes its head. Guess it’s not interested in becoming friends.

Pearl throws an arm over the donkey’s neck. “This is Froggy! We met in the savanna and I just had to bring her with me.”

“I guess if we’re living so far from everyone else, transportation will be useful.” Pearl nods at that, so Bigb then gestures towards the cliff. “Shall we? I’ve hopefully made it safe enough for all of us to get up.” He pauses, then fervently, “You do not want to know how I got up there the first time.”

The climb is mostly silent, only punctuated by heavy breathing and occasional curses from the two of them as loose sand causes problems. Froggy the donkey seems to struggle the least of all of them, but she’s also at the end of their little conga line and can see the best places to put her hooves. … Bigb may be assigning her too much intelligence.

Once they’re all safely at the top, Pearl doesn’t hesitate to drop Froggy’s lead and get to work. Bigb has placed a single double-chest off to one side, and Pearl adds another two on top. Then she starts emptying her pockets. Dirt, saplings, sticks, cobblestone, it all goes haphazardly into the chests. She says she’ll organize it later.

They decide on a cobblestone and sandstone tower, with a smaller building at the bottom to act as the functioning part of the base. The tower was an easy decision; both of them want to keep a weather eye on their surroundings, for all its empty yellow desert. Bigb had then argued for the living space, where Pearl had been content keeping their stuff at the top of the tower. He’d prevailed, in the end, but accepted responsibility for building the lower structure while Pearl tackled the tower.

And so pass their first several days of the game. Before any construction can start, they need to gather both building materials and other necessities. Bigb goes down, caving underground in search of ores and mineral deposits and returns with respectable amounts for the both of them. Pearl, meanwhile, travels abroad in search of those things they can’t find in the desert. Bigb frequently laments their choice of biome, but never where Pearl can hear. He will not cause fractures in their burgeoning team with his words.

One day, Bigb discovers a massive cave after digging down from the main room of their base. Or, once he gets through the sandstone he does. He’s digging carefully, so he avoids the drop of about forty blocks straight onto deepslate, and can instead stare down through the hole in awe. Below is dark, but he can see bright lights to one side; a lush cave, maybe?

Actually getting to the floor of the cave is a precarious affair. He doesn’t yet have enough iron for a bucket (one of his goals on this mining trip, actually, buckets for Pearl and himself), so he has to mine sideways towards the wall of the cave and get down that way. It works, but he’s not looking forward to the trip back up.

The cave is scary. He’s brought some torches, but not nearly enough to light up a cavern of this size. And mobs keep sneaking up behind him. He takes massive damage from a creeper at one point (karma for what he did to Pearl?), but a quickly placed block shields him from enough of the blast to survive.

But oh, the resources he finds. A full stack of iron ore, some gold, some redstone, a single lucky vein of lapis, and, reward upon rewards, nine diamonds. Maybe Pearl wants a chestplate?

Pockets nearly splitting at the seams, Bigb starts the arduous climb back up. Well, it’s less of a climb and more of him pillaring up the side of the cavern wall to his initial peephole, pulling himself into that, and then gratefully using the stairs he’d built.

He’s dirty and tired and the weight of the ores is dragging him down, and so Bigb is not especially excited to hear multiple voices coming from inside the partially-completed base as he nears the start of his mine. He’d wanted to share news of his goodies with Pearl! So, a little annoyed and more than a little curious as to who’s up there, he lingers just behind the final curve in his staircase. Out of view, and hopefully whoever’s there didn’t hear him huffing as he climbed.

Pearl’s voice is clear in the conversation. It sounds like she’s giving someone a tour, talking about her plans for the tower and the design she’s planning for the walls. And the other person (people?) are humming at the right moments, clearly interested, but they aren’t speaking and giving away their identity. Curses.

He tunes back in to the conversation. “-any goodies to trade?” Pearl is asking, sounding curious. “Especially after I went through all the trouble to bring you back here, sharing my water and my blocks and my rope.” The last word is pointed, but it still sounds like she’s smiling.

“Oh Pearl, you’re charging me for a tour of your base?” It’s Etho, laughing. “Cruel! You know I have nothing. I’ve spent the entire day just looking for someone to spare a few iron ingots and here you are swindling me out of house and home.”

“Well, this is my house,” Pearl says. “And you followed me! But no, I suppose I’m not gonna take you for all you’re worth.” Her tone implies she absolutely would, under different circumstances. “Just curious if you’ve got anything worth anything. And if you’re interested in maybe creating a little goodwill. Between friends, of course. Because friends are nice to each other, and share things.”

“Oh, I see how it is,” Etho replies. There’s a creak, as if someone is leaning against something wooden. “Goodwill, she calls it. I see how you are. First yellow on the server and you’re already leveraging it.”

“That implies I’m threatening you,” Pearl drawls. “And I would never threaten people who are my friends. Are we friends, Etho?”

Bigb has to work to keep his chuckles contained. Pearl’s good at this.

“You know, I think I left a furnace running at my base. Better go check to make sure it didn’t burn anything down. Forests are so flammable, you know?” More creaking, which makes Bigb think Pearl managed to get some wooden flooring down up there. Etho’s clearly beating a quick retreat.

The door squeals just as Pearl laughingly yells, “You don’t have a base yet, Etho! That’s why you followed me back here!” But rustling sand from outside the base is her only answer.

Now that Etho’s gone… “You know, you’re pretty scary, Pearl.”

Pearl spins to lock eyes with Bigb, finally stepping out of his hole completely. “Cripes, dude, you scared the crap out of me! Were you there the whole time?”

“Oh no. You both were already inside by the time I got close enough to hear you. But I got to hear the last part of the conversation, which was a real treat.”

“Ah, well,” Pearl rubs the back of her neck. “You know how it is. Etho’s just too easy to mess with. And I’m still the only yellow on the server, so it’s fun to lean into that a bit.”

Bigb chuckles. “Just wait until you’re red. Everyone will be so scared of you they’ll leave us alone forever.”

“Where’s the fun in that, though? Can’t have a death game without other people to fight against.”

“I guess.” Unconvinced, Bigb changes the subject. “Take a look at what I found. There’s a massive cave right beneath our base and I got a ton of stuff. Well, not right beneath our base. It’s like a hundred blocks down and there’s a huge drop that’ll absolutely kill you if you’re not ready for it, but I saw it in time and it’s easier to just pillar down the side of the cave walls. We need water buckets, I think, but I’ve got so much iron that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Iron?” Pearl perks up. “Did you… maybe find some more goodies? Shinier than iron, I mean.”

“Oh you know it.” And Bigb pulls out the nine diamonds. “Behold.” And places them carefully in Pearl’s hands.

While she’s marveling, he divests himself of his loot. Pearl did indeed get wooden floors down in the base, a checkerboard of oak and birch that looks lovely. The place isn’t fully kitted out yet, but there are three furnaces stacked against one wall, and three double-chests against another. Iron into two furnaces, gold into the last, and all three stuffed with coal.

“Bigb, this is phenomenal!” Pearl exclaims, looking up from the diamonds. “And- oh goodness, that’s so much iron. And gold?”

“All the ores except emerald,” he confirms. Lacking a better option, he plops himself down on a nearby oak plank. “So, what’s the word on the rest of the server? Did you meet anyone on your quest besides Etho?”

“Yup, sure did,” Pearl says, twisting and turning as she adjusts to the new diamond chestplate. “Etho was the last person I ran into, actually.” At Bigb’s encouraging gestures, she elaborates. “Yeah yeah. So, closest people to us that I could find were actually Grian, Scar, and Mumbo. They’re looking for somewhere nearby, but nothing permanent decided yet. Mumbo seems to be doing his best to keep the lot of them out of trouble, but I doubt he’ll be able to hold out forever. Ah, who else? Saw Joel again. He’s still basing with Gem. Didn’t get too close to that for obvious reasons.”

“Yikes,” Bigb replies. “I was hoping they’d kill each other before teaming up. Any other fun tidbits?”

“Oh! Martyn, Ren, and Lizzie, saw their base from over a hill. They’re also putting a tower up.”

“No. Not someone else building a tower.”

“Right? What gave them the right?” Pearl says, laughingly mocking. “Obviously we’re the only tower folk in this game. Enemies, I tell you. We can’t let that stand.”

“When one of us goes red, we should kill them,” Bigb says. And really, that trio seems a little silly. Two of the most dramatic guys he knows plus the most dramatic lady, and they’ve got a tower to spur on their nonsense. This game creates the most interesting pairings. Those three will never be normal about each other again.

Pearl laughs. “I like how you think, but hopefully that’s a ways off. Gotta let someone else die around here first, it can’t always be me.”

And Bigb cringes a little inside at the reminder. “Pearl, I’m never gonna let you die again.”

“Oh, don’t make promises you can’t keep.” And she’s smiling, teasing, but Bigb meant every word. He owes Pearl too much. His vow may have only been until his first death, but even after that he doesn’t think he can kill her. They may go their separate ways (and he hopes not), but he won’t forget this.

“I would never.” It echoes in the emptiness of their partially-constructed base. Too serious too soon. Change the subject, Bigb. “So, uh, anyone else? That you saw?”

“I’ll be real, after seeing Gem and Joel I decided to hightail it back here. Etho just accosted me on the way, and who am I to tell the poor man no?” Pearl taps her chin thoughtfully. “Well, actually. I didn’t see it, of course, but Etho mentioned that Cleo and Bdubs set up an enchanting business. It’s not a bad idea. An enchanter, that is.” She looks down at her new chestplate a little ruefully.

An enchanting business? It’s an interesting idea. The game could go fast, it might be worth it to head to Cleo and Bdubs instead of using diamonds on an enchanter of their own. He doesn’t need much enchanting right now, of course. His chestplate, golden though it may be, is good for a while. Maybe if he manages to get some diamond tools…

“I might mosey on that way after this tower is built.” Pearl inclines her head upwards, to where the desert sunlight is streaming in through the roofless top of the stone tower. The floor already has a light coating of sand. And the wind gets cold at night.

“I think I’ll join you, if you don’t mind.” He can make some iron leggings and boots to enchant, even if they don’t end up being his final gear. “I need to get out of this desert for a bit.”

“We’ll make an outing of it then,” Pearl says excitedly. “Take Froggy for a bit of a walk. Get the lay of the land.”

“Literally and figuratively.”

>>>>>>

In a burst of speed, Ren closes the last bit of distance between them, sword crashing down in an overhead strike Bigb manages to block. He’s got height on Ren and they’re evenly matched in weight, but Ren’s strong from the plentiful food growing in the hills around the Lords’ Tower and Bigb has been living on barely-roasted rabbit meat and beetroot soup ever since the base blew sky-high. Any food he’d looted from fallen players had gone to Pearl, in the hopes that the two of them would make it out alive. A mistake, in hindsight.

Ren disengages and begins swinging wildly. Bigb can only briefly note how his eyes glow, up close as he is. Ren bares his teeth in a snarl, and if he’s not careful Bigb’s sure he’s going to get bit. But that becomes a concern of the past as all his attention focuses on blocking the wide slashes of Ren’s sword. He’s forced to retreat, stepping further and further back away from the pond.

Ren’s desperate. It’s clear in how he moves, the lack of care that goes into his defenses in favor of overwhelming offense. Bigb just can’t capitalize on it. If Pearl were here, and the two of them faced Ren together-

But Pearl watches and doesn’t move, not even when Bigb chances a glance at her and finds her perched in a nearby tree. She looks… curious. Like she’s not even invested in the outcome. And that-

Instead of just blocking Ren’s next swing, Bigb deflects it down the length of his sword and tries a counter-stab. It doesn’t connect, but it puts Ren off-balance. And he has the gall to look surprised, as if he thought Bigb would just lay down and let death come to him with no struggle! This world isn’t kind enough for him to be comfortable with that.

Ren bares his teeth again, more a smile than a snarl, but still a threat. His next attacks come with greater ferocity, and with more thought behind them. More and more attacks break through Bigb’s defenses, and his armor isn’t perfect. His stolen diamond chestplate has only the most basic enchants, and against Martyn’s beloved weapon it stands no chance. He can feel himself slowing. More and more blood on his clothes…

The final attack, when it comes, goes straight through his throat. He’s thankful, in a way. It’s quick. And Bigb dissolves into the welcoming blackness of death, tinted red this time. It would be easy to sink further, to seek the whispers in familiar voices he hears just outside his conscious, but… Ren lives. And he’s a threat to Pearl. Ren cannot win the game.

Bigb sits bolt upright in his hidden base, atop the red sheets of the bed he remembers from a dream of a more peaceful time. The room is bare except for the bed, a chest, and the torch. There’s a door on one wall, set against solid stone. Inside the chest is a set of iron armor, a diamond axe, some baked potatoes, and, most importantly, a bow and a quiver with three arrows. He’s glad his preparations paid off. He barely notices as the dandelion flutters to the ground.

The buzzing that filled his head during the fight is gone. Emotions are still distant, faint things, but his head and his goal are clear. Ren dies, and then he and Pearl win. They win. The game ends.

He gathers up the items in the chest, takes one last look around the stone room, and then opens the door. The warm golden light of the sun barely crests the horizon. He walks out the hole in the hill. Directly behind him, the world border hums a warning. Smoke rises in the distance everywhere a battle has been fought, faint pillars of white and gray wisps like monuments to fallen comrades and enemies.

Making his way back to the site of his death takes no effort. He walks through the silent forest almost in a daze, except for the crystal-clear clarity of his purpose. Find Pearl. Kill Ren. Win the game.

He crests the final hill.

=>=<=

Bigb’s body vanishes. His items drop to the ground in a haphazard pile, and normally Ren would scoop them up in a heartbeat, but he- waits. There’s blood on Martyn’s sword, and that just won’t do. He wipes the blade against his pants. Clean again.

Martyn… What he wouldn’t give for his partner to be here beside him. The rightful wielder of this blade. Ren’s blade was lost, dropped and picked up by someone else upon his yellow death, and he’s not sure where it ended up. He’d gotten so caught in up the fight, the chase, the exhilaration of facing down Cleo and Bdubs in their last stand, the chance to get revenge, his sword had been an afterthought. But this sword, Martyn’s sword, is all that remains. With Lizzie’s chestplate a comforting weight against his shoulders, it’s almost like the two of them are there beside him. If he can take them to the end, it would be like winning with them.

A soft thud, and he tears his gaze away from shimmering diamond to see Pearl, down on the ground again and walking towards him. He raises the blade instinctively. She may have been an ally, once, but now there are three people and Lizzie and Martyn need him to win. He faces one who would stand in the way of that.

“And so there were three,” she hums, swaying slightly. The red of her eyes has always been bright. Even now, at the end of the game, after Ren’s seen so many of his other friends turn red and pass on, her eyes have always been the brightest. “What now, Ren?”

“Bigb has been slain,” he proclaims. “For now, at least. We are all red. Is it to be an honorable finale, Pearl of the Wastes?”

She cocks her head. Like a curious dog who’s seen something she wants to chase. He feels his ears flick back in response. She’s no canine, but she moves like one. It’s not a compliment. She moves like she’s hungry.

“An honorable finale. Commendable,” she muses. She meets his eyes directly, red to glowing red. “I’m surprised you think I’m an honorable player.”

Ren’s hackles go up, and Martyn’s sword, which had begun to slide downwards, goes up in a flash. But Pearl still has no weapons drawn. Her bow remains on her back, her sword sheathed at her side. “You-”

“I’d think very carefully about your next moves, Lord Ren.” Mocking. “Your partners are dead. And mine returns this way with all haste.”

“Martyn and Lizzie died for your crusade!” Ren spits, suddenly and dangerously angry. “Mossdeep Hold stood against you, not us! But you spread your poison and convinced us of your righteousness and we stood with you!” He heaves a breath. “A mistake they paid for. I will not do the same.”

And he readies his blade, levels it at her throat, the easiest spot unprotected by her armor. She won’t be able to get her blade out in time, and even if he misses he’s faster. The Lords will have their revenge.

But just as he starts his lunge, Pearl swivels her gaze to a point over his shoulder, and a smile begins to steal across her face. Dread rises, sudden and urgent, because that means only one thing, but he’s already moving, can only desperately try and change his trajectory, but it’s too late-

He feels three distinct thuds jolt his body. There’s no pain. Only numb lightness, and he suddenly feels floaty and his vision narrows, goes black…

The last thing he hears before succumbing to the darkness of death is Bigb’s voice, crying out for Pearl.

=>=<=

Bigb lowers his bow and his voice, casting the weapon aside. It’s served its purpose. Ren is dead. He feels almost like collapsing to the ground, but… not the time. He needs to see Pearl.

She’s picking curiously through Ren’s fallen stuff when he gets there. Like everyone at the end, he’d only been carrying the essentials, and as a red he’d had nothing worth taking. Good food was already eaten, good armor and weapons lost on battlefields to time. And really, there was no need for her to take anything. It was just the two of them now.

“You let Ren kill me,” are his first words upon entering earshot. Pearl looks up once, but then returns her attention to Ren’s items. “Pearl! Why did you let him do that?”

“I made a deal,” she says. “And… you lived too long. Yellows have no place at the end of the world.”

“I would have accepted death at your hands rather than his!”

And that gets her full attention. “You would have let me kill you?”

“Always,” he says without hesitation. Then thinks about it, really thinks about it. Because… that’s not true, now. He wants to win. But it’s Pearl! He owes her, if she asks to kill him then of course…

Does he? Owe her, that is. It feels like a lifetime, is in fact two lifetimes ago when he stood by and let her become the game’s first sacrifice. And with everything that has happened since, their war with Mossdeep Hold, the Emerald Host and the Lich King and his undead Sword, all the deaths and alliances and betrayals (Pearl’s betrayal, just now, leaving him to die by Ren’s sword, but he killed Ren and they’re both here, alive, and-) and through it all-

He’s conflicted. His brain says that Pearl is his ally, his first ally, and his unwavering friend. Yes, she may have caused his deaths, indirectly and directly, but he’s okay with that. She’s been there for him. And in the same breath, every instinct in his body is screaming that she isn’t holding a weapon, her guard is down and neither of them have shields, and it would be so easy to bring his sword up and end this game on his terms. He won’t , can’t, but he wants.

Pearl’s deep sigh breaks his train of thought. “It can’t end like that.” Her comm buzzes frantically, and she raises it to show him. Her voice is wry as she says, “The dead don’t rest easy.”

And sure enough, the chat is absolutely filled with messages from names grayed out. All of them are calling for blood.

“We- we can just, not listen, right?” Bigb stammers. Why is he so frantic? “We both win. Easy. Grian’s the one in charge, he can change the rules. It can end like this!”

A new message fills the chat, repeated until it’s the only thing visible on the screen, and the other ghosts quiet. The game isn’t over yet.

Everything in Bigb tells him to kill Pearl now. Everything except his brain, which is seriously considering throwing down his weapons and baring his throat.

“Welp, that’s that,” Pearl says. She meets his gaze as confidently as she always has, even in this moment where they’re supposed to kill each other. She hefts her sword. “You’re not going to give up here, are you? I think you owe me a fight.”

<<<<<<

The sun continues to creep over the sky, uncovered by clouds and stark against the blue sky, and Bigb still has seen neither hide nor hair of another person. He’s not alone in this world, he knows that for a fact, but the confines of their game are not large. It’s strange, to already feel alone.

He’s taken the opportunity to craft basic tools and fish some salmon from the river. And as he walks along the riverbank, black and purple suddenly break up the monotone gray of the rocky cliff that is the opposite bank. A closer look, and, yes, a ruined portal. Half buried in stone and lava, but the treasure chest is visible. And really, why wouldn’t he check it out?

His reward is an enchanted golden chestplate (Curse of Binding is unfortunate, but Projectile Protection II Thorns I more than makes up for it), a handful of iron nuggets, a fire charge, two magma creams, and, to his great delight, a golden apple. Not enough iron to make a pickaxe, so the block of gold resting over the portal will have to remain behind. The chestplate is a reassuring weight, despite how it sticks to his shirt and skin. Everything else goes into his pockets.

Onwards.

Bigb finds one edge of the world border before he encounters another soul. And it’s strange, because he knows how many people joined this game. He knows how loud many of them can be, so even if he can’t see them he should definitely be able to hear them. But there’s nothing.

It’s beginning to get to him, really. Especially as the sun begins to set and the noises of the world around him turn more ominous. He’d been hoping to find someone else by now. Someone to watch his back, ideally, but minimum someone else there to stand against the night. Without that, he’s exposed.

The corner of the world border rests at the peak of a rocky hill, all stone and gravel and patches of andesite. At this point, it’s too late to turn and resume his search. So, pickaxe in hand, he hollows out a small cave. Some wood makes a door, a piece of coal and some sticks become torches, and then he’s settling on the hard stone floor as the last of the sunlight fades into murky twilight. He’d not chanced upon any sheep, so unfortunately a bed is out of the question. The hiss of a spider outside his door heralds another option, but it’s one fraught with danger so he keeps his butt parked.

There he remains, before shouts outside his makeshift base indicate-

“… up there! Can you let me in before these monsters do any more damage?”

-someone coming up the hillside.

In a flash, Bigb has his sword drawn (stone, he has those iron nuggets, why didn’t he make an iron sword?), and he’s out the door. There, flat-out sprinting towards him is a familiar face. Tango’s got two arrows sticking out of his back, the two skeletons that shot them hot on his heels. Three zombies shamble out of the woods in pursuit, one of which is steadfastly ignoring a spider chomping on its leg.

Skeletons first, and Bigb realizes as he bears down that he hasn’t yet crafted a shield. He takes an arrow to the chest for his mistake before he lands two good hits on the skeleton with his sword. It’s not enough, but it’s one less mob for Tango to deal with.

The man in question turns on the other skeleton, and it evidently has taken some damage already because it goes down to a single hit of his iron (iron? Already?) sword. Tango then hefts his shield and faces off against the approaching zombies.

Bigb takes one more hit from the skeleton before it too goes down. His chest aches where the arrow had impacted, but the golden chestplate and its enchantments did their job admirably. And, wonder upon wonders, the skeleton has dropped its bow and two arrows, alongside a single white bone. Already a better weapon than his stone sword. It’s the work of a moment to draw the bow and nock an arrow, aiming straight at the zombies slowly approaching Tango’s defensive position.

He aims true. The arrow goes straight into the zombie’s head, knocking it back a pace and giving Tango an opportunity to lash out and take it down with his sword. The second zombie falls in the same way, Bigb’s arrow in its eye the last thing it sees before Tango finishes it off.

“Thanks man! You really saved my skin.” Tango’s got a big grin on his face as he cleans zombie guts off his sword, then slides it back through a makeshift loop in his belt. Despite being away from the torches in Bigb’s makeshift shelter, the area is lit up by the orange flames waving gently on Tango’s head. Useful, especially at night or in caves.

“No worries, just glad nobody took a death on the very first night of the game.”

“Hah, yeah. That’d really suck.”

“Anyways, uh,” Bigb gestures up towards his shelter. “Can I interest you in a safe place to spend the night? I don’t have a bed or much food, but surely it’s better than getting eaten alive by the monsters of the night.”

Tango nods. “That would be great. I need to get these arrows out of me anyways.” They make their way back up the stony hill. Bigb makes sure to grab the three arrows lying near where the other skeleton had died, and Tango snags the bones to stick in his bag.

“You know, you’re the first person I’ve met so far,” Bigb comments once they’re inside and the door is safely shut. There’s nowhere to sit, not really, so they both settle against the stone walls. Once again, he briefly mourns not finding any sheep or a village.

“Really? That’s strange, I feel like I’ve seen basically everyone at this point. It’s not that big a world, after all.”

“Oh man, what’ve I been doing wrong?” Bigb keeps his tone theatrical, like it’s all a joke, but inside he’s reeling. Tango’s really seen that many people? Maybe sticking along the outer edges of the world border was a mistake? But some of the people in this game absolutely seemed the type to run for the edges of the world, see how far they could make it before being stopped by the game.

Tango laughs. “Guess you must’ve spawned further out than the rest of us. Heck, I basically spawned on top of Mumbo, the poor lad! Surprised you couldn’t hear Jimmy and Joel going at it, though. They both spotted the same village at the same time and couldn’t agree over who got to kill the iron construct. I swear their yells echoed down to bedrock.”

“Wow, yeah, I’m surprised I missed that.”

“Anyways, only people I haven’t seen yet are Etho, Pearl, and Martyn. But I guess since it’s those three, it’s not that surprising. Maybe they’ve found each other?”

Eighteen people agreed to join this game of Grian’s. The rules are simple. On a new, empty world, they would each be given three lives, with the goal of surviving the longest. Die once with no problem, but die twice and gain the ability to kill the other players. Die three times, and you’re out.

Bigb joined because why not? It sounded interesting, and he doesn’t spend enough time with these friends. And Grian had looked so excited when he’d told him about it, an almost manic gleam in his eyes. His friend had never looked in better health.

“People seem to be gathering at that village Jimmy and Joel found, or at least that was my impression before I decided to explore some more,” Tango offers, breaking the light silence that had dropped upon them. “It’s southwest of here, if you just follow the river back up you’ll hit it sooner or later.”

“Thanks Tango, yeah I think I’ll head that way in the morning.” He pauses. “Are you going that way too, or heading off?”

“Ah, probably not, more corners of the world to explore!” Tango pats his sword confidently. “I’d like to find a nice big cave, maybe get some diamonds out of it. I love my trusty sword here, don’t get me wrong, but diamond just has a certain look to it, you know? Intimidating.”

“You know, I already look at you and think, intimidating. I can’t imagine how scary you’d be with a diamond sword in hand.”

Tango laughs, the torches flicker, and despite the darkness outside, Bigb feels at peace.

The next morning, Bigb watches as Tango strides off, following the curve of the river as it winds on. Tango’s going the way Bigb had originally came from, so it’s easy to give him some tips, landmarks to watch out for by what seemed like it could’ve been a nice-sized hole in the ground. Bigb, on the other hand, has his sights set in the opposite direction.

He leaves the door to his shelter in place, and the torches with it. There’s nothing else inside, but maybe someone else will find use in a tucked-away little hole in the wall. If anyone ever comes to this corner of the world, that is. Or maybe he’ll be the next one to use it, later in the game when the stakes are higher and having a little hidden base could mean the difference between life and death. Who knows?

The river is teeming with fish, and Bigb can’t help but stop to fish some up. Salmon is good food, especially when cooked. New food source in hand (and in his bag, dried and wrapped for later), he continues on his quest.

Soon the stony shores of the river turn to mud and dirt. The forest is larger here, older; towering trunks of dark oak replace the lighter birch and oak he’d become accustomed to. But the river meanders on, and still no sign of the village Tango had talked about.

It’s several hours later when he finds it. He’s taken several breaks, passed several promising-looking caves in favor of walking on, and finally he can see the treeline. Beyond the trees is a wide green plain, and off to the side, the green is broken up by blocky wooden shapes.

It’s not a large village, Bigb notes as he gets closer. It’s a collection of five small wooden houses, one larger rectangular structure that’s likely the inn, and one farmhouse with a single wallowing pig. In the center stands a simple stone well, and behind the houses are two raised plots of dirt. The gardens are completely empty. Likely looted by whoever had gotten here first. There’s no sign of the iron construct.

Voices rise from one house in the corner of the village, so Bigb heads that way. And sure enough, six people are crammed inside the little building (well, five inside, Impulse has broken the window and is outside the house leaning through it).And it’s Impulse who is the first person Bigb sees, cutting a distinctive figure even from the back.

So Bigb takes a breath and walks up to the house. “So, how’s it going, everyone?”

Impulse yelps and bangs his head on the top of the window-frame as he startles. Then he’s turning around with a big grin on his face, waving his hand in welcome. “Hey Bigb, what’s good? How’ve you been?”

“Good, good, hanging in there.” The door crashes open, and everybody that was in the house spills out. “Oh, okay, everybody’s coming out, that’s fine.”

Impulse laughs, and then his chuckle turns into a full-on chortle as Joel, the first out the door, manages to trip on his feet (actually, he may have been pushed, Bigb realizes with some mirth), landing face-first on the dusty path. Behind him, Mumbo and Jimmy just barely manage to avoid the same fate. Once everyone’s out of the way and Joel has picked himself up off the ground, Pearl and Gem amble out together, laughing.

“Wow, Tango wasn’t lying when he said people were congregating at the village,” Bigb comments as he accepts a friendly backslap from Jimmy. “It’s great to see you guys!”

“Right back ‘atcha, buddy!” From Impulse, back to leaning against the terracotta walls of the house. “So you saw Tango? He left last night, said he was going to go wander around.”

“Yeah, well, he made it to the corner of the border, where I was holing up for the night. And he brought a whole host of mobs with him, which frankly wasn’t very nice.”

“Hah, that sounds like Tango! Always too quick to make new friends of the aggressive variety.”

Gem jumps into the conversation. “Your chestplate looks very fancy, Bigb.” He takes notice of her considering look, and of her own red leather chestplate. Oh boy. “Are you interested in trading, perhaps?”

“Don’t do it, Bigb,” Jimmy adds on the moment Gem finishes speaking. “If she gets enchanted, she’ll be unstoppable.”

He’s been here for all of a few minutes. Why’d he leave the solitude of the border again? “Sorry Gem, no can do. Curse of Binding.”

“Easily solved.” She’s grinning, but her eyes are focused and intent. She draws a stone sword and hefts it. “Hey, how do you feel about losing a life on day one?”

Bigb backpedals immediately. Mumbo’s closest, so he jolts that way and puts the other man between him and Gem. “Absolutely not, you keep that sword away from me.”

“Aw,” but Gem does return the sword back to her side. Joel immediately begins poking fun at her makeshift sheathe, and soon enough the two are sniping back and forth, not a care for the rest of them. Mumbo, however, is listening intently, and Bigb can almost see the steam engine that is his brain firing at maximum coming up with hypothetical solutions to the problem of a sword sheath made with limited resources.

Pearl slides up next to Bigb, a casual, mischievous grin on her face. “Care to take a bet on which one of those two will kill each other first?”

“Oh, we should all hope they take each other out, otherwise the rest of us are in trouble,” is his immediate response. Both Gem and Joel are renowned for their swordsmanship, and once this game turns deadly Bigb does not want to face them in battle.

“Hah, true that!”

Then Pearl lets herself get drawn into a conversation with Jimmy, and Bigb takes a step out of the gaggle of people and noise to just… adjust. This is nice, after spawning alone. He’ll let himself soak it all in, before they all eventually have to go their separate ways.

It’s a little while later when it happens. Jimmy and Pearl are still too busy arguing over whether spruce or birch is the prettier block to notice the creeper slowly approaching. Against the green grass of the plains, he can’t really blame people for not spotting it. And it’s midday, most mobs are long gone and burned to ash by now. Bigb sees it, though. 

“Hey, guys?” But it goes unheard over the argument. It’s just Jimmy, Pearl, and Joel left in a group on the outskirts of the village now. Impulse and Gem wandered off to see if they could corral some villagers for later, and Mumbo has fully left, explaining he was going to try and find a permanent base location.

The creeper beelines closer. It’s focused on Jimmy, Bigb notices, but the man in question is busy. He’s pulled out a sapling, actually, and is gesturing wildly with the little tree. Pearl hasn’t lowered herself quite that far yet, but her hand has been inching closer and closer to her stone sword as the seconds pass.

Maybe he can just not say anything. Surely they’ll notice the creeper eventually? Or even if they don’t, Jimmy and Pearl are skilled players. Jimmy even has a shield, they’ll be able to block enough of the damage to not die. The creeper gets closer, and Bigb watches in a kind of horrified awe as it ambles straight past him. Within touching distance, actually. Pearl and Jimmy remain oblivious.

Finally, it’s too much. “Guys!” Much louder this time, closer to an actual yell. He hears real panic in his voice. “Creeper!”

Pearl only has time to spin and lock eyes with the creeper. “What-”

And it explodes.

Flying dirt obscures Bigb’s view. The last glimpse he’d gotten, Pearl had tried to throw herself backwards to escape the blast radius. She surely gotten far enough. But as the dirt and grass begins to settle, Bigb feels the communicator in his pocket vibrate ominously. Only once, and he keeps his eyes focused on the blast zone as one hand fishes the device out.

There’s only one person standing. Jimmy, lowering his shield and looking none the worse for wear except for the clods of grass littering his blond hair. And Bigb looks, but- No. No sign of Pearl.

PearlescentMoon was blown up by Creeper , he reads on his comm. Oh no. No, no no no. But Jimmy is also looking a bit wild around the eyes, and suddenly Bigb finds himself standing on the edge of the new crater in the ground, and there, a pile of assorted items. Stone sword, some bread, a few planks and fewer logs, birch and oak and some darker brown, dark oak-

“-crap, Pearl!” And Impulse and Gem are running over, Impulse with his comm in hand and Gem with her sword drawn, and Joel has hopped into the crater next to Bigb and is pawing through the items on the ground, no shame-

And everyone starts talking, to each other and over each other and their words intermingle in this great vast mishmash of sound, and all Bigb can do is step back and think. Overthink. He’d tried to warn them about the creeper, right? Pearl and Jimmy just hadn’t heard, and sure, Jimmy is fine, but Pearl-

He owes Pearl. He owes her big time. He’d tried to warn the two of them, but maybe he just hadn’t tried hard enough. He could have been louder. They’d definitely heard the second time, when he’d shouted, panicked, so maybe if he’d warned them like that, this wouldn’t have happened. The server is barely a day and a half old and someone has already died! And it’s his fault.

He hears the chatter of his friends die down, so he looks up (when had he looked down at the ground?) and sees- Oh. This is worse.

He sees Pearl, unscathed, jogging over from the center of the village. She’d set her spawn. And in no time she’s there, hopping carelessly into the hole where she’d died to pick up her things, turning a glare on Joel and waving off Jimmy’s frantic apologies (what does he have to apologize for? This is Bigb’s fault) in the same breath.

Bigb takes a breath, steels his spine, and carefully steps back over to the group. “Pearl, I am so sorry about that,” he interrupts, and his voice is more serious than he thinks he’s ever heard it before. Everyone looks at him, and the sudden silence is heavy. “I was watching that creeper approach, and I didn’t try hard enough to warn you.”

“Oh, Bigb, it is what it is-”

“Nope, I owe you one.” Cutting her off is a little rude, but he already feels terrible, so. “In recompense, I give you my life.” She looks confused. “Figuratively, I guess. Whatever you want from me, you can have. Until my first death. No limits.”

And Bigb can see the gears turning behind her new yellow eyes. “Oh, really,” she drawls, and yup, that’s a smirk stealing across her face. “Anything I want?”

“Anything.”

“Well,” the smirk is out in full force. “I’m a little upset about the death, but it seems I get a lovely servant out of it!”

“Oh, well actually I was hoping for allies, business partners, some sort of contractual arrangement-”

“Boo, no fun,” Pearl sticks her tongue out. She’s successfully recovered most of her gear, except for a few odds and ends that she hasn’t yet managed to wrangle back from Joel. She seems to be taking her death well. She meets Bigb’s eyes squarely. “Allies sounds good.”

>>>>>>

They make their way back to the desert. It’s a long journey, and they pass many a ruin along the way (many a bad memory). But then the desert looms, golden and hot and shimmering with heat waves in the rapidly-rising sun, and the memories fade before the knowledge of what is to come. Their base is visible even over the distance. The remains of the stone tower overshadows all, and the red of the Wastes bleeds in the light like an open wound.

They climb the path up the plateau. Bigb remembers the first time he ascended, how the sun beat down just as hot but the climb was much worse, before he’d added steps and ladders and made the jumps less difficult. There’s evidence of his work everywhere, from the cobblestone stairs standing out gray against tan and red, to the occasional peek holes leading deeper inside the plateau, poked out during his many mining trips and maintained as covert watch-holes.

They reach the top, where red and yellow sand mingles with red netherrack and the occasional deepslate slabs, eventually fading to the cobblestone steps and walls of the ruins of their base. There’s nothing left, of course. They’d taken what they could carry during their flight in the wake of that disastrous battle on their front step, and anything left had surely been looted by Bdubs and his army. The small farmland Bigb had carved out is bare, dry dirt.

Pearl has been making small comments over their whole journey, stubbornly filling Bigb’s attempt at a solemn silence. She shares another one as they just stand there, surveying the ruins of their home. “Too obvious if we do this inside, but I suppose the dead may appreciate the poetics.”

“I-”

A phantom hand sticks itself through Bigb’s chest. Invisible and intangible, he still feels it like an icicle, stark against the warm morning desert sun. Cleo maybe, or Ren. Someone who knows what he was about to say. A rebuke against his instant profession of refusal. 

Pearl, as always, seems to know what he’s thinking without him saying it. “It is what it is, my friend,” she says, a rueful cast to her face. “It was always going to end like this.” But then she hardens, and the last, glowing ember of hope in Bigb’s chest dies.

“Pearl…”

“Fists, I think,” she says decisively. “No weapons, no armor, no food. We end this like we started, before we met. With nothing.”

Bigb’s words fail him. He’s always been so good at saying the right thing, at knowing what words to use or how to direct a conversation to meet his goals, but now, nothing comes out. There’s just him and Pearl and the vast desert, and nothing to say.

Pearl is already stripping her dented armor off, leaving her in just her red poncho under the sun. Despite the many days in the desert, her gray skin refuses to darken under the light. It all goes into a haphazard pile, armor then weapons then the rest of her items. And when she straightens to once again face him, her head is high and her red eyes flash. 

And really. What else is he supposed to do except do what he’s been doing for this entire game and follow her lead? She’s always had such a presence to her, some inner drive like fire and steam and lightning. He’s been caught in her orbit since that fateful day he pledged himself to her service.

Bigb divests himself of his gear. All of it, stacked neatly next to Pearl’s own pile. It’s strange to not be wearing armor after so many days of constant paranoia and danger lurking behind every dune. Even stranger to feel the absence of his sword, his bow. But there’s no one left to threaten him (except one, the red-tinged cloud in the back of his mind hisses, but no- ).

They decide to construct a makeshift fighting ring out of cactus from the desert. They wordlessly agree that the fight needs to hurt. The ghosts are silent, so evidently they approve. It’s not a large ring, just large enough to fit on the outcropping of the plateau that ends with Froggy’s gravemarker. It’ll have to be enough.

Bigb places the final cactus down and seals them in. Pearl stands in the center of the ring, at his back (and doesn’t his blood scream at that, but it’s an easy thing to ignore when lost in the churning maelstrom that is his emotions right now). He doesn’t want to turn and look at her, because then this becomes unavoidable.

But he does, and it feels like a betrayal to meet Pearl’s eyes over the short distance between them. She raises her fists to her chest and nods grimly. 

Bigb makes the first move, to his own surprise. He feels nothing as he swings wildly once at her face, clipping Pearl’s hastily-raised guard. But then the numbness gives way to battle-calm, and his next swing is much more targeted. Other hand, a wide hook that slams solidly into her shoulder. She stumbles, then lashes back out with a ferocity that far outstrips that of his first wild blow.

It’s by no means a clean fight. Pearl has never fought fair, not once this entire game, and Bigb knows he’s guilty of much the same though he’d never admit it aloud. He takes several strong blows to his under-guarded chest that steal his breath from his lungs, but he stays standing. In exchange, a blow to her temple and a surprise kick to knock her to her knees. Things devolve after that when Pearl, instead of rising back to her feet, simply bares bloody teeth and lunges for his midsection. 

Their dignified plans of boxing to the death in a proper ring die then and there as their fight turns into more of a grapple. Bigb gets a good grip on her long hair, but Pearl retaliates by sending their next roll into the cactus border, ending with Bigb crying out from the combination of spiky pokes and sand burning on his back. 

It goes on like that. They get bloodier and bloodier, cuts and scrapes and blistering burns from rough sand and rougher sandstone, and punctures from the cactus. One of Bigb’s eyes is swollen shut. Pearl spits and a tooth comes out with it. They’re both panting roughly. The sun rises higher.

For a moment, they’re both on their feet, facing each other. A lull in the fighting, and Bigb chances a deep breath in. His chest aches. Around them, an uncharacteristic desert wind howls. The ghosts, he guesses. The wind swirls again and sends a gust of sand straight into his face. Definitely the ghosts. They’re likely ready for this all to be done.

Once again, Pearl leaps for him with a cry. And normally, normally he’d dodge, circle around, try and get a hit in while her back is turned and she can’t see it coming. But the battle-calm and the red haze slowly descending over his vision as the fight goes on and on and on wins, and he meets her swing with one of his own. 

The ghostly wind circles in, sensing the end. Both of them are swinging weaker, fighting determination drawing only on the dregs on the heels of exhaustion. Pearl’s fist connects directly with his face and his head is only pushed a little to the side. A punch to her stomach makes her grunt, rather than wheeze.

It doesn’t feel like it should end when it does. In the back of his mind, Bigb was thinking that maybe they’d land a punch at the same time, that he could feel the end of their lives coming and get a chance to say something, tell Pearl to her face that he was sorry for all of this. But instead of a bang or a speech, it ends with a glancing blow to the side of her chest and a wide-eyed look before Bigb is blinded by a flash of lightning.

When his eyes clear and his ears stop ringing, the red haze is gone from his vision. The calm gone from his mind. Pearl gone from the desert.

“Oh,” escapes his lips, the first words he’s spoken in… what feels like a long time. A lifetime. And then the words come like water through a newly-broken dam, stuttering into an incoherent flood. “Oh, Pearl, you- That wasn’t supposed to be the end. It wasn’t- We were- There were- That’s-” 

The ghostly wind swirls, comforting rather than heavy. Like it’s trying to hug him. He stumbles through the breeze.

The fighting ring breaks easily. The cactus leaves spines and holes in his hands, but he manages to create enough of a hole to get through. And out of the ring, it’s all he can do to not cry when he sees the piles of their things. Pearl’s diamond sword glitters in the bright sun.

He thinks he would be crying, if there was any water left in his body that the sun hadn’t baked out. Behind the sword, the vast desert stretches to the horizon. The same sight they’d marveled at, that first day they’d climbed up here to set up their base. Bigb grabs the sword, then picks his way to stand in front of Froggy’s grave. Behind the marker, the edge of the plateau calls. 

“I guess I win, huh.” The wind whispers around him. He can almost hear their voices. “I win.” He steps off the plateau.

<<<<<<

Bigb spawns alone, on a grassy hill overlooking a gently-flowing river. It’s peaceful, this world. The forests around him teem with life. Fish leap from the river at sporadic intervals, and from the forest comes the faint lowing of a herd of cows. A single dandelion is sprouting from the ground near his feet. He takes a moment to breathe it all in.

A glance into the river reveals his brand-new green eyes. A visible indicator of this game he’s committed himself to. He takes a moment to admire the bright hue. Brighter than the grass he’s standing on, in fact. Glowing with life.

He grins. “Game on.”