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Gem was distantly aware of the rattle of skeletons nearby. Knew that there were zombies still shuffling around, the Sun not yet high enough in the sky to reduce their dried and rotted bodies to ash. None of it mattered though, as she stood at the edge of the Square Hole, gaze fixed on the layers of stone but unseeing all the same. Her vision was instead miles and worlds away, where the sun was likely rising on a different server. She could almost see the way the blazing oranges of dawn scattered over the earthen pallet of a solar-punk base, the way the owner of the base would stretch and throw back the covers, ready to start a long day of farming and finishing builds. Builds that wouldn't be endlessly blown to bits or coated in lava and left to smolder.
She would be there and Gem would be stuck here. Without her.
She thought about how easy it could be to reunite with her Pearl. All it would take is a step forward. A short drop. She wouldn't feel anything even, the respawn would be too quick. Therein lied the issue though. Respawn. If she wanted to leave she'd have to let herself fall more than just the once. She'd have to tip herself over the edge again and again. Someone would have time to stop her. With a sigh, she let the player list manifest itself in front of her, and stared with disdain at the green color spelling out her name. She still had three lives, but what good were they when Pearl had none and there was nothing Gem could do about it.
If it had been back in Wild Life, she could have helped Pearl earn her lives back rather than just send her off to her death. Even in Secret Life they were able to gift hearts to each other, an extra protection to stand in the way of the final end. She'd not spent long on the Limited Life server, her consciousness only being dragged into Cleo's for the single session, but she knew even then that time, the currency lives took on that server, could be earned. But not here, not on this server. They had started with six and could gain no more.
It was like some sick cosmic joke when the memories surfaced of Pearl telling Gem about the first set of games she'd been a part of. They'd strolled through Boatem while Pearl rambled on and on about teaming with Scott and eventually Cleo as well. About the boogieman curse and the silly rivalries. She remembered Pearl mentioning the ability to transfer lives from one player to another, hers often going to Scott and eventually securing him the win.
What Gem wouldn't give for that now. For the ability to give one her own too many lives, maybe even more, to bring Pearl back to them, to her. She wanted to scream at how unfair it all was. With this unwelcome dawn the world would change once more, and she knew this was when They had let the camels into the world. She hadn't been told this, Grian kept those secrets close, but she knew. Deep down in her code she could feel the pull to seek one out.
She wouldn't though. Not without her to ride it with.
"You shouldn't be here, out in the open like this." Gem had heard his approach, despite the distraction of her own racing thoughts, but she didn't turn to her last remaining teammate as he spoke. "There is still a target on both of us. We may have abandoned the lighthouse but they're still likely to look for us here. They could think we'll come back for supplies."
Gem stayed silent for a moment, gaze still unfocused, before she finally spoke. "This is all your fault."
"My fault!" She chose to ignore the indignant disbelief in his voice. "How is losing the base my fault? I didn't sick the entire server on us."
She shook her head before finally facing her fellow Villie, his eyes widening in shock as he took in the red puffiness of her own and the black smudges running down her cheeks. "Not the base. Her being gone, it's all. Your. Fault." Each word was punctuated with a cold wrath.
"Gem-" She hated the softness in his voice, the pity there.
"You were the one so obsessed with being the boogieman you brought it back. You were the one who didn't listen when I told you I was setting up a trap. You were the one who brought the three of us together, the strongest team you could think of." Gem's voice slowly grew louder as she went on. "You're the reason they wanted us dead so badly. It was the only way any of them would stand a chance at winning. And I-" She choked off, holding back the sob threatening to rip through her. "I failed her."
There had only been once before where Gem was forced to grieve for her Pearl. When they had been called to a flat world for one of Their shorter games. It hadn't been the first like it though, and they new at the start how quick it would be to lose people. She had made her peace with it before the games had even started. Even back when she was part of Gem and the Scotts, she'd known the end was coming, had time to prepare herself for the chance of her teammates falling before her. Pearl had been fine though, better than fine, when they'd started the last session. Then she was gone and there had been no time to prepare for the way her heart ceased its rhythm when she saw that lightning strike and heard its thunder reverberating through her very being.
She hadn't even gotten to say goodbye.
"You know this isn't my fault Gem." Grian stepped in front of her, putting himself between her and the pit they began digging so long ago now it seemed. "Its not yours either. We didn't kill Pearl, They did. You have to remember that everything happening is Their fault."
Any other time, Gem might have noticed the resonance around her ally's words. She might have picked up on the whispers that carried distantly on the early morning breeze, wrapping themselves around what Grian was telling her. She could have realized the images of their server-mates flashing through her mind were not her own. "I'm going to kill every last one of them. Win this game. For her."
Grian smiled, sharp grin echoing her own determination. Somewhere nearby they could hear the sizzle of the undead sparking under the sun as it finally crested the trees. "We will Gem, you and me. Who knows, maybe we'll even have a boogie on our side today, huh?"
Gem said nothing in response, instead she turned up her lips. The smile she gave was cold in the growing heat of the Sun, and Grian never noticed the hand that raised to shove him backwards.
Grian fell from a high place.
Gem hummed to herself as she walked away from the hole, and over to the left of what had once been their stronghold of a base. The fire hadn't spread all the way down and it wasn't difficult to pluck a pair of roses, drier than they should have been with some of the outer petals coated in ash. She tucked one into her hair and turned as the remaining half of their front door swung open.
"What on Earth was that for!"
Grian was furious, but she'd been expecting that. Counting on it really. She was all too familiar with the blood lust he certainly had crawling through his mind now. "Oh please Grian, you and I both know you'll never get chosen as boogie. Maybe I will get chosen again as boogie, but I'm not taking chances. I'm still green, for now, and until that changes," She held out the second rose for him. "We need someone on our team who can kill." Grian took the rose, and Gem summoned her sword to the hand that had been holding it. "Now, lets go remind them who we are and why they were so afraid of us in the first place."
Maybe she couldn't go back to Hermitcraft just yet, not until her work here was done first. She'd finish the game, then return home to her Pearl. But first, the server would face her retribution, and from that no one would be spared.