Work Text:
"It's okay, you might not even remember me when you're out of here." d3rlord says, as if that made anything better. "Who knows how this place works?" Yet Avery doesn't want to forget d3rlord, he refuses to let that happen.
Avery trembles, shaking his head. "Even if I don't, my recording will." He quietly whispers, the wooden sword he was holding suddenly felt like an eyesore. He originally brought it out to intimidate d3rlord into telling him, but he already broke the axe.
Even if there was one slight chance that Avery would in fact forget d3rlord, he doesn't want that chance to exist. d3rlord wanted to save him, d3rlord left Avery the book, he was warning him--he was saving him from the King in Yellow.
A faint but somber smile plays on d3rlord's lips, despite the shadows casted around his face. "That'll do." He nodded. "Now leave, Avery." There was a hint of desperation in his tone, something that made Avery not want to leave d3rlord in this place.
And he wouldn't.
The eyeballs, it must be the King's doing. And if something this horrific was the King'a doing, it was all the more reason for Avery to stay with d3rlord. Even if d3rlord lied to him about the golden blocks on the tree.
"No, I'm staying with you, d3rlord." He stood firmly. "You can't stop me--No matter what you say." d3rlord walked closer and closer to him, closing the distance between them multiple times, but Avery backed away every time. He hadn't even noticed how far they were at this point.
Sure, the only thing he knew about d3rlord was that his name was Derek and nothing else, but if they both make it out alive, there's endless chances for them to get to know each other. Avery didn't have many friends in university, and he really could use one, and someone as smart, selfless, and kind as Derek was... it would be nice.
Avery lifted his head high and locked eyes with d3rlord, who had suddenly gone silent with Avery's constant refusals. "You warned me," He exhaled deeply. "You saved me. And if we're doing it together, I don't care"
d3rlord fell silent. Avery was spending his new year's eve playing minecraft, but this wasn't just minecraft--not anymore. With the King out there, and d3rlord, Avery was willing to stay here with d3rlord. He owed it to Derek.
"You're staying." d3rlord deadpanned, taking a step closer, and Avery backing away once more. Why did d3rlord keep getting closer and closer to him every time he spoke?
However, d3rlord kept getting closer and closer, making Avery back away further. A few times, they had gotten so close to the point their faces almost touched, barely a breath away. Avery shook off the way his stomach churned.
Until Avery was on the edge, and d3rlord was a few steps away from him. Avery pursed his lips and nodded. "Yes." He wasn't leaving, not out of his own will. He didn't want to leave Derek, not matter what he says, this world was dangerous, and shouldn't exist anyway.
"You won't leave?" Now he was just asking the obvious. Avery wasn't leaving on his own two feet. He was so close to saving d3rlord and himself from this place.
"No." Avery shakes his head, refusing to look away from d3rlord's gaze. Maybe when they finally deal with the King, he and d3rlord could meet up and have coffee? Maybe taking the King out would help d3rlord not be so dizzy when he looks away from the screen.
d3rlord pauses for a moment, before he balled his fists and sent one message.
"Avery, what's in your inventory?"
Avery raised a brow and tilted his head to the side. "What?" Why did whatever he had in his inventory matter right now?
"What's in your inventory?" d3rlord reiterated. Avery blinked before he opened his inventory. Maybe d3rlord finally gave up on his plan of making him leave, and was trying to find another way to have them both escape together.
Avery couldn't stop the smile on his lips from forming, he opened his chat, but before he could type out anything, d3rlord sprinted forward and hit him--in a split second, Avery was falling into the void. He reached out and yelled--but it was too late. d3rlord look over at him from the edge, face grim and sullen.
"Until next time, friend."
That was the last thing Avery saw before he respawned by the first door again.
Despite Avery's attempts to speed through all of the doors and reach d3rlord, he stopped replying in the chat, instead he seemed to talking to someone else.
"d3rlord!" He sent in the chat, but he received no reply. At this speed, Avery wouldn't make it to him!
Please don't. The universe has already thrown him bad luck his entire life, and Derek was the one good thing to happen to him, will the universe take that from Avery too? The reason why he was even spending his new year's eve playing minecraft was because he had no friends to chat--no one he could be with.
But d3rlord--he was... different. And Avery, despite not knowing him other than his name, would rather stay in this world with him. He owed it to Derek, for returning to warn him. d3rlord knew who he was, yet Avery barely knew who he was.
"Isn't it ironic, that a King loses to a Lord?" d3rlord sent out in chat. Avery quickened his pace, and after a hellish few minutes, he finally reached the last door and d3rlord. was gone
Gone.
The word rang painfully in his mind.
Avery felt tears stream down his eyes as he pushed the laptop away. This can't be--d3rlord wasn't gone, he wasn't! But no matter how much time Avery spent in this world in search for his friend, he was nowhere to be found.
Then Avery remembered the stuff that d3rlord had been sending in chat before he found him in the last door, that odd spell. He wanted to throw up. Why did he fall for that stupid trick? Because he really thought he and d3rlord could leave this place unscathed? To become real friends and do stuff like meeting over coffee?
With a heavy heart, Avery disconnects from the world. And that was it. He took the laptop with him, he didn't return it to the place he found it--no. He was keeping this stupid device and he would destroy it.
The tears still hadn't stopped, soaking his shirt. Before Avery could leave his room, he fell to his knees and just cried, muffling himself so that his family wouldn't hear. He never got the chance to know Derek's full name, he never got the chance to know anything else about him, he never got the chance to save him.
He failed.
Avery failed him.
From start to finish, he was never the one protecting d3rlord. It was d3rlord protecting him from everything. From the message in that book, to the doors, to leading him to the exit with crafting tables. Wouldn't it have been better for Avery to have been taken by the King instead?
d3rlord was smart. From the footage that Avery watched during the first time, d3rlord though everything through clearly and used his mind, whilst Avery took the easy way out, choosing to break the netherite with just his fist when d3rlord probably cracked the puzzle.
His grades weren't all that good either. d3rlord probably had better. But he wouldn't know that, because Avery knew nothing about d3rlord3.
Nothing.
d3rlord knew him.
Avery didn't know d3rlord.
Months have passed since d3rlord disappeared. When Avery returned to his fifteen-hour footage in a desperate attempt not to forget anything, it was only now that he realized the link d3rlord sent when they first met was another video link.
And when Avery watched the entire thing, he felt empty. So, Derek housed the King and lost his mind. Next, he opened the letter. And by the end of it, Avery was crying like an idiot. He never found out what d3rlord's real name was besides just Derek.
Avery eventually returned to college, but he felt like an empty shell of who he used to be. How can he be himself again when he doesn't even know what happened to d3rlord after the footage? He could he dead, going insane, or simply--he did not even want to speak about it.
Classes were too hard to keep up with and his grades fell--lower than before. Avery left his dorm that night and climbed the rooftop. He was already screwed anyway, with his grades, they would expel him. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed either.
As night cast over, Avery just stood over the edge and his returned to when d3rlord pushed him off the platform. This was high up. That was in minecraft. This was real life. Avery stared at his own hands. They were scarred with how anxious Avery became since Derek disappeared.
"Derek." He spoke out, lifting his head high until his eyes landed on the biggest star there was. Then Avery smiled. "Can you see me?" He whispered. "Did you see this too?" Avery spread his arms wide open and laughed bitterly.
I'm sorry, Derek.
I can't do it anymore.
Not without you.
He can't move forward.
And without hesitation, Avery fell forward and he was dropping to the ground. Pain spread across his body when he landed, voices everywhere and screaming. What Derek felt must have been much more painful than this. His mind was torn with the knowledge of the Gods, after all.
Derek.
Did you see this happen as well?