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Martyn woke up to darkness outside his window, with his body numb and his head ringing as he sat up in bed. Once his eyes refocused, the humble sight of the small village house became clear. Rubbing his aching forehead, he lamented the nature of his game, where unless you craft your own clock, there's no way to tell what time it is.
With stiff movements, he slowly dragged himself out of bed and did a few stretches to shake off the pain in his joints. He crouched down next to a chest and opened it to confer its contents. It had his armour and tools, some materials he'd gotten from mining, and other random junk he didn't want to keep in his inventory. But what caught his attention the most was the Nether Wart, which reminded him of something he wanted to do. Hearing a door open from somewhere in the village, he quickly shoved it in his pocket and went outside.
"Hey, Martyn." Pearl stepped out with a yawn. "I wanna say good morning, but… you know."
"Well, we don't know what time it is." He shrugged. "For all we know, the sun could be about to rise at any second now."
"Hello!" Lizzie stepped forward. "Did either of you get a good night's sleep?"
"More like evening's sleep," Martyn chuckled before looking at Pearl. "Yeah, no, I don't think so."
"Something is better than nothing," Pearl added. "How long have we been up by now?"
With clarity returning to his mind, the events of the past few days started replaying in his memories. He'd spent the first day collecting iron in a cave, then exploring the Nether. That night, he was up the whole time straining his body build their wall. And when he was supposed to use the day to sleep, Tango came over and had most of the server involved in a game competition that lasted the whole of the afternoon. It was unlikely that this nap they'd taken had lasted 8 hours, either, so it was no wonder he didn't feel exactly well rested.
Wandering the village, the group eventually settled in the bottom-most section, as the moon shining over the ocean around it gave off a nice calming atmosphere. As Lizzie set up a campfire, Martyn stared at the scoreboard left behind from the games, and the remains of egg shells and yolk still spilled around the wooden box in front of it. The light starting from the fire turned his attention back to the other two, and he and Lizzie watched as Pearl took out a few pieces of raw mutton and began cooking.
"So is this just our life now?" She asked while spinning the meat on a stick. "Doing stuff while everyone else is asleep?"
"Well, yeah!" Martyn said. "We're the Union of the Night, so I thought it should be our thing! Plus, it gives us a unique game advantage."
"Does it?" Lizzie narrowed her eyes.
"I dunno about that," Pearl said, "I tried looking for Cleo's cows but I didn't wanna wake them up. And they still found out I did it anyway."
"And it also didn't really help us during the challenges today." Lizzie added.
"Okay, fair…" Martyn conceded. "That one came out of nowhere though. Wasn't much we could do about that."
Lizzie rubbed her hands together and held them near the fire. "Well, even if we did poorly, I think we can say that we all had fun."
"I agree!" Martyn said. "Like, genuinely, that was such a good idea by Tango to decide who to give the Angel life for."
"Yeah…" Pearl looked up from what she was doing. "Would've helped if Martyn didn't try to keep arguing all the time."
"Oh, right, sorry about that!" He laughed. "After that first time, I just thought it would be really funny to see how far I could push it."
"Martyn!" Pearl scolded.
"What? It was just a bit!" He held his arms against himself defensively.
"Yeah, but the games weren't! I needed that life, you know!"
"Okay, yeah, I get it… Call me biased, though, but I don't regret as much that Ren was the one who got it."
"I knew you'd say that." Lizzie rolled her eyes teasingly.
She knew him too well. Even at the start of the series, he'd somehow found himself paired up with Ren again like almost every time. He really wouldn't have minded if it had happened again, but their separation that day ended up being so sudden. After having been burned by the Blazes, Martyn didn't have as much strength to jump in and defend him from that Wither Skeleton…
Then, he was virtually peer pressured into joining this group. He'd hoped that Ren would've come along, but he understood his decision to not want to go out at night after the events of that day. Above all, he regretted not having the chance to apologize for letting it happen, and now it would no longer be becoming of his role to do so.
Pearl finished preparing the food and handed it out to the others. Martyn wondered about their perspectives on this edition of the games as well. Lizzie had been the one to spend the most time at the village on the first day, and Pearl was the source of their unifying motivation against Cleo and Gem. All he had done was arrive last minute and come up with the name, though regardless they seemed to be looking up to him for a leadership role.
"So… what are our plans for the night?" Lizzie looked at him.
"Oh! You're asking me?" He was suddenly brought back from his thoughts.
"Well, yeah! You gave us the idea to make the wall yesterday, so… what's next?"
Pearl swallowed a bit of her food so that she could speak. "We have to do the villager trading hall, right? Now that we're the only ones with access?"
"That's our long-term plan, yeah…" Martyn hunched over. "But there's something else at the moment which I think is more pressing."
"And that is?"
Martyn explained his plans regarding the Blaze spawner. During their trip on the first day, Ren had been the one to gather the Blaze Rods, and he had offered to let Martyn use it at no cost. However, not long after Scar had also come over to him, asking him if he had Nether Wart. Though Martyn refused, a nagging feeling told him that Ren wouldn't be as stingy with it, and suddenly the potion ordeal wouldn't benefit just them.
Their only solution involved going to the Nether, to which Martyn figured it would be a good idea to have their own portal at the base anyways, considering that the only other existing one on the server at the moment was nearly on the whole other side of the map. Near the outside of their wall was a lava pool, which they poured water onto in order to get obsidian. While Martyn knew how to make a portal without having to mine it, he figured it was a safer idea to build it inside their walls. Thankfully, their mining trip from the previous night had yielded enough diamonds to make pickaxes for all of them to work together.
"I wonder what Joel's been up to…" Lizzie broke the silence. "I've not seen him since he left the village."
"Hmm, yeah, you've got a point." Martyn brought out his communicator and looked for any potentially relevant messages. "Him and Bdubs, as well as Scar, all have the same achievement, which tells me they're in the Deep Dark."
"They're what now?!" She stopped what she was doing and leaned closer to read over all of the recent messages, though the lack of a time stamp made them all blend together.
[GoodTimeWithScar]: is there an ancient city on this map?
[Grian]: there might be
[Grian]: …why
GoodTimeWithScar has made the advancement ["Sneak 100"]
[Grian]: oh no
[SmallishBeans]: scar why
[Tango fell from a high place]
SmallishBeans has made the advancement ["Sneak 100"]
BdoubleO100 has made the advancement ["Sneak 100"]
"Oh, what is he doing there at a time like this?" Lizzie slid her hands down across her face.
Pearl joined in. "I can just feel that someone's gonna die from that."
Lizzie shrugged. "Oh well. They're probably asking for it anyway."
"Damn," Martyn laughed. "Even Joel?"
"He's already got a gift life, so he can afford to be reckless. It'll probably just be really funny if it happens, honestly."
"Speaking of, who do you think will be chosen as the Angel tomorrow? Or, later today, rather. I assume it's past midnight."
"I hope it's one of you." Pearl said. "You'd give me the life if that happened, right?"
"Sure, sure!" Martyn teased, sounding intentionally unconvincing.
"Of course we would!" Lizzie insisted.
"Riiiight…" Pearl narrowed her eyes.
They continued their work, grinding away into the night. Despite the chill breeze and Martyn's exhaustion, the comfortable silence exchanged between them made things quite peaceful. He could see a few mobs wandering out in the distance, but none came close enough to bother them. Through the mining, he managed to be the one to collect the last piece, which they all put together in the end to confirm the amount.
"Alright, team, we can set out for our game plan!" Lizzie pointed in the air.
"So, no potions for anyone but us, huh?" Pearl walked back towards the wall.
As he started following them inside, something nagged from the back of his mind. This had all started because someone else had tried to gain potion access. It would be nothing if not beneficial to them to cut it off, from a strategic standpoint. All because he knew that Ren wouldn't let himself refuse giving out the Nether Wart. With a played up selfless attitude like that, no one could disagree that he deserved the life.
Martyn distracted himself by scrolling through the messages in chat, letting it all come back to him. The countdown for the race, how they'd been rudely interrupted by two people's deaths…
LDShadowLady has made the advancement ["We Need To Go Deeper"].
Pearlescentmoon has made the advancement ["We Need To Go Deeper"].
His attention was brought back after finding himself subconsciously walking through the portal. Naturally, only the other two's messages popped up, as he had already been here once before. As he settled into his surroundings, the first that caught his eyes was the warped forest, which he remembered coming to with Ren to collect ender pearls. Serving his memory correct, the bridge they'd built towards the fortress shouldn't be far from there. And sure enough, he spotted it hanging over the basalt delta, as well as the foggy outline of the structure on the other side.
He guided his teammates over the bridge, trying to visualize the layout of the fortress as best he remembered. After having collected the Blaze Rods, he and Ren had taken the opportunity to explore around some more still, and couldn't find any more spawners within the borders. The treasure room was nearly on the whole other side, and the death had happened close to it right as they were on their way out.
The sound of a fireball flew in his direction, and he deflected with his shield. They had reached the spawner location. All they needed to do was clear out the mobs now. Martyn jumped in front first, swinging his axe wildly at the two Blazes. Pearl came in for support, and he saw a flung arrow coming from Lizzie.
"Ahhhh!" A scream came from behind.
Looking back to see Lizzie being charged by a Wither Skeleton managed to distract him for long enough to take a hit, pushing him back rolling down the small staircase. Trying to ground the dizziness, he could vaguely see her backed against a wall, covered by her shield.
The memories of his last time in here came flooding back. Ren's trembling voice begging for help, Martyn trying to run towards him, his body giving up from his injuries, the horrid smell of the withered air emanating from Ren…
Gritting his teeth, he forced his arms to pull him back up. He gripped his axe once more and got back on his feet, charging forwards. One sure strike from behind was all it took to send bones flying in the air, rhythmically hitting the tight walls. Lizzie slid down into a sitting position, breathing heavily. She coughed once or twice before the wither particles faded.
"Are you okay?" He extended a hand to her.
"Just barely, thanks to you." She grabbed his hand and pulled herself back up.
"Guys, I'm done!" Pearl waved over to them. "Is everything alright over there?"
"We're fine!" Martyn called out before turning back to Lizzie, leaning his shoulder to her as they made their way over, settling around the spawner area which now had a torch on top to keep things safe.
"Sorry, guys…" Lizzie sat down against a rail. "I've not been doing so well today. This all-nighter lifestyle isn't too healthy for me."
"That's understandable." Pearl sat down next to her and placed a hand on her back. "I wouldn't expect you to be in top condition after the past few days."
"Yeah… Even during the games, I fumbled the target practice! My vision went blurry and I swear I nearly passed out for a second."
Martyn laughed. "I get you, to be honest. When I tried passing the stick over to Pearl, I kept missing where her hand was."
"Oh god, don't remind me…" Pearl rubbed her right temple. "How hard can that have been, Martyn?!"
"Okay, listen, alright? It's a lot more difficult than it looks to place an object precisely into someone's hand as you're trying to run at the same time!"
"We had the lead and we lost it because of that! I didn't even have time to catch up again!"
"Yeah, I was watching at the end…" Lizzie added. "You were going pretty fast, but the other two were too far ahead already."
Pearl sighed. "I remember at least feeling glad that it wasn't our rivals that won it."
"Oh yeah!" Lizzie said. "Grian somehow crossed it first, right? That was quite funny to watch."
Martyn leaned his head back as he listened to their conversation. Hearing that name again had made him wonder if there was something in the air upon Ren's death that infected people with something contagious that changed their personalities. Even Grian had somehow gotten involved in spreading those cheesy ideals, and he was never one to give up a win for someone else like that.
And yet, when it came down to it, there was no argument. He'd picked Ren over himself despite gaining no benefit from it. He had taken a stand to help out Ren where even Martyn himself couldn't. If Martyn was in that position… if he was the one with the opportunity to let him have the gift life… would he have taken it? Could it be that maybe him not being Ren's teammate this time around was for the best after all…?
With a grunt of frustration, he clenched his fist and tried to shove those thoughts out of his head. Reaching for his pickaxe, he got up and grabbed the other two's attention.
"Right, team, let's get back to what we were here for."
Both nodded in unison, and brought out their tools as well. Martyn began swinging, each strike of the pickaxe progressively gaining more strength and aggression. Not a word was spoken the whole way through. With one final hit, the cage came crumbling apart, leaving only scraps of metal in its place. Only now did Martyn take note of how heavy his breathing was. He stared at Lizzie and Pearl for a brief moment, processing what he had done, and how this would affect the balance of the game moving forward.
He took a deep breath, and put away his tools.
"Our job is done here, everyone." He turned his back to the other two. "Let's go home."