So the Evolutionists are gonna be WAYYY out of character
~~~
We all walked through the narrow tunnels of the Watcher fortress in a single file line: Grian at the front to navigate, me in the back to handle any rear attacks if they happened, and all the trapped Evolutionists in the middle. I had my borrowed iron sword drawn.
Every time we came to a dead end, Grian simply put his hand on the wall and it melted away. But I was still sweating from the tiny space and the danger.
"Here," Taurtis said. The entry hall was big enough for all of us to stand in it at once with some elbow room. Good, because I liked my personal space.
In front of us was a large Dreamstone door, shimmering like mother-of-pearl. But at the same time, it seemed to draw the shadows to it.
Grian tried the door. It was locked. So he tried using his magic.
The door stayed in place.
"Why isn't it working?" Zee asked, peering over Mini's shoulder.
Grian frowned. "I don't know."
"It should work," Tomohawk said. "It's still Dreamstone."
"But it's stronger than the rest of it," Grian said. "I can feel it."
"You just need to try harder, then," I said.
Grian put his hand on the door and concentrated. "It's fighting me," he said, gritting his teeth.
Then the door silently swung open... into another maze.
"Oh, no. I thought this would lead out!" Salems said.
"It'll just take a little longer," Netty comforted her with a shaky voice. "We know this is the door the Watchers use."
We went through another maze of hallways, occasionally coming across a door that we peered inside, found nothing, and moved on.
We had no way of knowing where the exit was, so we were wandering blind as the walls shifted around us.
We came to another door identical to the last thirty. We just bypassed it, sick of seeing empty rooms.
Then a voice drifted out through the door.
"I can hear you walking. I told you, I'm sorry, I know I failed, could you please go away and leave me to suffer in peace?"
We exchanged glances. The voice was familiar - usually, I heard it with a joking tone, and I never knew when it was being serious. But it held no humor in it now. It just sounded sad.
Grian and I, and probably most of the Evolutionists, knew who it was.
"Should we leave him here?" Grian asked.
"Stop imitating people!" the voice yelled. "You've punished me enough!"
"Of course not!" Netty said.
"Nobody deserves to rot in the Downside-Up for the rest of eternity, no matter who they betrayed," I said.
Grian looked reluctant, but he pressed his hand to the door. It swung open.
Curled in the corner, refusing to look at the door for fear of what he would see, was Martyn.
"Is this what you think this is?" Netty asked gently. "A punishment?"
"Stop pretending to be them!" Martyn yelled, still refusing to turn around.
"Martyn, I'm not a Watcher. I'm not pretending to be me."
"No, I'm not looking, you're not real," Martyn sobbed.
Grian and I exchanged glances. Compared to how he had been at the Battle of the Final Life, he was pathetic.
"We do have a way out," Grian said. "You don't have to come if you don't want to. You certainly don't deserve it. But the Watchers can't imitate eight people. And why in the world would they imitate their least favorite person in the entire universe, namely me?"
Martyn finally glanced at Netty's hand on his shoulder, then squeezed his eyes shut. "No. You can't hurt me anymore."
"He doesn't care that all the Evolutionists were never dead in the first place," Zee huffed. "Let's go and leave this miserable lump of a traitor here."
"No," I said fiercely. "I don't care that he murdered his own best friend and fooled everyone with the best acting skills in the world. Nobody deserves to spend eternity here."
"Martyn, please," Netty begged. "If the Watchers can't hurt you any more than they already have, how will this make it worse?"
When Martyn didn't respond, Tomohawk said, "You're coming with us or so help me I will drag you out of here. We're not leaving you."
Martyn finally turned to look at Netty. Then his eyes drifted away from hers and scanned the rest of us: leaning against walls, standing in the doorway, sitting on the floor.
"They... they told me you were dead," Martyn said, his eyes wide.
"Think about it," Mini snorted. "Nobody, not even the Watchers, can bring back the dead, except maybe zombie magic, which is worse. And we're more valuable to them alive, as a bargaining chip for you."
Netty stood and held her hand out to Martyn to help him up. "Grian and Blue told me about how you were helping the Watchers. Most of us are doing this against our better judgment. But we do have a way out, and we..." she glanced around. "Some of us want you to come."
She pulled Martyn to his feet.
"I can't believe they lied to me. Wait, actually, I can. They did through all of Evo, until after Grian became a Watcher," Martyn said, developing a sudden interest in his feet.
"I am still mad at myself for that decision," Grian said.
"Out of curiosity," I said. "How did you manage to fool everyone in Third and Last Life?"
"I wasn't lying to everyone," Martyn said, stiffening. "I considered all my friendships real except for the one with Ren."
"The real reason you stayed with him at Renchanting," I realized. "You were going to betray him."
Martyn winced. "No. At that point, I didn't even know he was going to get the Red Crown. I just liked the area. They were going to give you the Red Crown until you refused it." I thought I would have to betray you."
That alarmed me quite a lot. And by the look on Grian's face, I could tell that he too realized how close we had come to a Red Queen instead.
But it also intrigued me. How would Third Life turned out differently if I had accepted the Crown? If I had taken charge, like the Watchers told me to?
The same, I thought. It would have been exactly the same, except all the damage Ren caused would have been caused by me.
I shuddered.
"Can we leave now that we've got the traitor?" Zee growled. "I want to get out of this place."
We all eagerly agreed and continued through the maze.
Eventually, we came to another set of doors, which Grian opened with a few seconds of concentration.
I half expected to see another maze on the other side, but instead there was a long staircase going up. We looked at each other excitedly and passed through the doorway.
Grian turned around. "Is everyone here?"
All nine people were present. We started up the stairs.
At the top was a long hallway lined with doors and doorways. On one end was a door that was larger than the rest.
"If that isn't the exit, I don't know what is," Taurtis said, pointing.
We went down the hallway, our footsteps making small echoes in the large space. We mostly stuck to the wall, hurrying past any doorways we came across.
We came to the large set of doors that was most likely our exit. Grian didn't even have to manipulate them. They just swung open.
"Suspicious," Zee observed, but then his eyes widened at what was on the other side.
Outside of the fortress was a beautiful landscape dotted with buildings. The air itself seemed to be tinted purple, blocking out some of the sunlight that otherwise would have been bright.
"This is Evo," Mini realized. "They built their fortress in the Downside-Up Reality of Evo."
"Since this is the Downside-Up, there will be a portal to the Physical Reality," Taurtis said. "We just have to find it."
"You want to stay here?" Grian asked. "Where the Watchers still have a lot of influence over you? Where their base is?"
Taurtis considered that. "No."
"Now we teleport," I said.
Grian hesitated. "I don't know how," he admitted. "But I will try. Where to?"
"Hermitcraft," I said. "Empires. Anywhere but here, really."
"Hermitcraft it is," Grian said. "I don't really know what I'm doing, though. All the Watchers taught me during my brief time with them was flying, fighting, and taking memories."
"Taking memories?" Tomohawk said, alarmed.
"The spell..." Martyn remembered.
"Yup, that was me," Grian said with forced cheerfulness.
"And he stayed red because of it," I said fiercely. "And then died."
"Because Ren pushed me into sweet berries!" he complained. "Because you betrayed us!"
"Sweet berries?" Taurtis laughed. "You died to a berry bush?"
"It was hilarious," I said. "And I didn't betray you, it was self-defense. We both know you and Joel were going to turn and attack me as soon as I got my kill on Bigb."
"You're not wrong," Grian muttered.
I grinned smugly.
"Bigb?" Salems perked up.
"Boogey kill," I said dismissively.
"Let's get out of here," Mini said, getting us back on topic. "Please?"
"Cross your fingers," Grian said, and closed his eyes. "I'm going to try on my own first, just to make sure I can do it. Then I'll come back for you guys."
I nodded and gripped my sword. "Hurry."
"He'll have to if he wants to get himself out alive," Watcher One said, appearing in the doorway. "For the rest of you, it's too late."
Grian's eyes snapped open.
"The Listener can't help you now," Watcher One said, sounding terrifyingly human. "She's busy trying to save the Empires from civil war."
"What?" I yelled.
"All it took was planting the Red Crown among their ranks, and FWhip Tay was inspired. Even now, the Last Lifers prepare to leave, and two Emperors prepare to abandon home with them, to the world they didn't tell you they knew about."
"No..." I said weakly, lowering my sword. "It was destroyed. I destroyed it. And you... FWhip..."
The Watcher smiled (or at least, it seemed like he did under his mask) and turned to Martyn. "You'll never be accepted. The ones you fought for reject you. The ones you befriended worry that you will betray them, too. They think you deserve to be here."
"Martyn, that's not true!" Netty said.
Martyn did not respond to either statement.
"You're destroying my home," I said, my voice deathly quiet. I was holding my sword so tightly that my knuckles were white. "You corrupted FWhip and then forced Gem and Pearl to leave."
The Watcher knew exactly what to say to trigger my anger - at Gem for not telling me she had a vacation home in Hermitcraft, at Grian for not using his power to help people, at Martyn for being so cowardly that he helped his enemies, at the Listener for not contacting me except with vague instructions.
But most of all, at the Watchers for ruining my life.
"My family is already divided," I said. "And you're making it worse. You're trying to trigger anger at my friends, and you are, but who caused them to do those things that I don't like?"
Watcher One realized his mistake as I growled, "you."
Then, losing all reason to the blazing ball of suppressed fury in my stomach, I attacked.
"Blue, no!" someone yelled.
Watchers couldn't be killed. They were immortal, according to Grian. But they could be wounded.
My first blow should have hit the Watcher. I moved too fast for a normal person to block. But the Watchers were not normal people. My blade clanged against metal.
Watcher One fought with inhuman speed and strength, but despite that, I still saw a pattern. A pattern that I had spotted Grian using during practice fights in the Crastle back in Third Life.
I jumped backward to avoid a blow and smiled. I knew how to fight this.
"Grian, get everyone out of here!" I yelled.
"I can't!" He replied, panicked.
One of the Evolutionists tried to attack Watcher One, but passed through him as if he wasn't there. Watcher One grunted and slashed his sword at the inconvenience. Tomohawk flew to the side with an ugly gash across his chest and landed on the ground, unmoving.
They couldn't hurt the Watchers. But the Watchers could hurt them.
How unfair was that?
I parried a blow that would have hit my head, and retreated back a few steps. I got a running start, slid, and slashed at the Watcher's ankles.
I got my first hit. Blood like liquid moonlight oozed out of the wound.
I dimly heard a scream, then someone yelling, then saw a brief flash of light.
"Almost!" someone said. "Try again!"
"I- I can't do it! I can't!"
The Watcher got sick of playing with me. He swung his sword in a deadly arc, but hit me with the flat of his blade. I flew backward and landed near Tomohawk, groaning.
"Enough," the Watcher said. "You can't kill me. Don't even try."
He pointed his sword at me. "She's a good fighter. I'll give her that. But nobody can best a Watcher. I could delete any one of you if I wanted to."
"But you don't want to," Zee said.
My vision was going black around the edges. I couldn't move. I was pretty sure something was broken.
"I prefer not to delete people," Watcher One agreed. "I prefer to punish them by putting them in dreamspaces. It's entertaining how you try to live without realizing who the true enemy is."
"Grian, you need to teleport," Salems said, but my vision was fading and the voice sounded far away.
"Don't even try," the Watcher said, amused. "He's never going to accept who he is."
"I can't," Grian whimpered.
"You can," Taurtis said confidently. "You are a Watcher, whether you want to be or not. You have to stop being afraid of that power. Embrace it, and it'll work for you."
"It's like your wings," Mini said. "If you try to take control of them, then you'll go off course and crash. But if you trust them and let them do the work, then you'll end up safely at your destination."
"Let them do the work," Grian echoed. "Hold on."
Then there was a flash of light, and I was suddenly falling very fast, and then it stopped with a jarring thump and I slipped into unconsciousness.
------
"Are you dead? You better not be dead. Or in a coma. Gem would kill me if you were dead or in a coma."
The voice sounded distant.
"Blue, wake up."
"Ugh," I said, then fell back asleep.
"Blue!"
The voices faded.
Then they came back.
"I thought the Watchers didn't want to delete people."
"Yeah. This could be an accident. But if she dies, I'll have to avoid her siblings for the rest of eternity or I'm going to die, too."
"She's alive, though."
"I hope she stays that way."
Then there was peaceful darkness for a while longer.
"I know you want to go back to Hermitcraft, but you need to stay here until she wakes up. Otherwise, she'll wake up and not be able to go home."
Home.
Where was home?
In fact, what was home?
I couldn't remember.
"It's been four days."
"Fine, Grian. Go in the morning."
"I'm going to be back soon. After I figure out how everyone else is."
"Hurry, though. Her heartbeat is getting stronger. I think she'll wake up soon."
"Taking on a Watcher with an iron sword... what a crazy thing to do."
"You tried, Tomohawk."
"Yeah, but..."
When I woke completely, it was night.
The groans of zombies filtered through the wooden walls of a large building, probably big enough to house all of the Emperors plus several. A large square of moonlight hit the floor from the window.
"Is anyone up?" I said weakly.
I realized how hungry I was. When had I last eaten? Last Life?
The thought made me dizzy.
I looked around and saw a lantern on the bedside table, long since burned out. I started to crawl out of bed, fell on the floor with a thump, and groaned because I was too tired to scream.
Something was definitely broken. But my stomach was determined to get food.
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to get up and light the lantern. I stumbled downstairs to the basement, where I assumed storage was.
I found a few apples in a barrel and grabbed one. Taking a bite, I went back upstairs to the bed where I had woken up.
I would heal if I died. Maybe if I got someone to kill me...
But it hurts to die, I thought.
Not as much as this.
Whatever part of me was broken had a point.
I managed to get back into bed without too much pain, but I knew I couldn't go back to sleep. I felt too awake.
I held the lantern up and examined the room. I seemed to have my own room in this house, but there were doorways that probably led to other bedrooms.
There was a little bit of yellow torchlight through one of the doorways, now that my eyes had somewhat adjusted. I followed it into the living room.
I found Mini sitting on the couch, staring off into space.
"Hi," I said.
He looked at me and barely gave any reaction, which I appreciated. "Hi."
"Can't sleep?"
"Nope."
"Me neither."
"You've been out for four days."
"Wonderful."
"Are you well enough to teleport? Grian's leaving in the morning."
"I will be if I die."
"There's plenty of zombies outside."
"Yeah, I'd rather not die that way."
"Understandable."
Wincing, I sat down on a chair and joined Mini in staring off into space. And thinking. Too much thinking.
After a few hours of silence and monster sounds, the first hints of dawn appeared outside. We watched a dazzling golden sunrise (that was partly monsters burning) before Salems and Netty came in, yawning.Netty didn't say anything either, just smiled and sat down, but Salems shot me a disapproving glance and said, "You should be in bed."
"I'm fine," I lied.
The front door opened, and Taurtis and Tomohawk came inside, clutching a handful of loot each. They both looked tired from monster hunting as they collapsed on the couch next to Mini.
Martyn came in through the front door as well, but he held various ores and metals. Mining, I assumed. He went and stood alone in a corner, not wanting to deal with the people he had betrayed.
I didn't know why we were gathering. Grian was leaving this morning, so we needed to have a meeting to see him off, apparently.
Zee and Grian were the last to come in. Grian grinned at me and said, "You're up."
"No, I'm sleepwalking," I said, rolling my eyes and then wincing from the pain. "Yes, I'm awake. No duh, Sherlock."
Grian seemed to find that incredibly amusing. "Sherlock," he mused, testing the word.
"So," Zee said, and looked at Grian expectantly.
Grian cleared his throat. "So. I'm going back to Hermitcraft so that everyone knows I'm still alive. But I will be back. Blue, are you good enough to teleport?"
I shrugged. "If I die. I want to go home, so I don't really mind."
"You could do a healing potion," Salems suggested.
"Oh, yeah, potions," I said, perking up. "I always forget about those. I suck at brewing."
"Salems doesn't," Taurtis boasted.
"I'm not bad," she said. "But I'm not the best at it."
I shrugged again. "Better than dying."
While everyone else went to do their various activities and chores for the day, such as mining, tree chopping, and building, Grian, Salems, and I stayed in to make the potion.
Salems listed the ingredients. "Nether wart, blaze powder, water to make an awkward potion. Then a glistering melon for healing."
"Nobody uses melons," Grian said. "We don't have a farm. But there is a jungle pretty close." Without another word, he left the building, took off, and flew south.
"We have enough gold for the melon," Salems said. "And Zee and Mini went on a Nether trip yesterday. They have blaze rods and Nether wart in the basement."
I nodded and stood up to go downstairs.
"No," Salems said. "You aren't going anywhere. You are going to stay right here until the potion is done."
I groaned and sat back down.
When Salems came back upstairs, she set up a brewing stand and dropped a little Nether wart into each of three water bottles. Then she expertly sprinkled blaze powder into the little funnel at the top for the fuel.
The blaze rod in the center of the brewing stand heated up. After a few minutes of stirring the potions, Salems turned the heat down to keep them warm while we waited for Grian.
He came after a few more minutes, carrying a large melon. We cut it up and coated it in gold leaf, then crushed it and poured it into the awkward potion.
After simmering and stirring for a few more minutes, the potion suddenly turned a violent red color with little ribbons of gold floating inside.
We let the potions cool until they were safe to drink, then I downed one in a few gulps. It tasted like watermelon. Following that was a feeling like a ripple that made the pain disappear.
I got up and walked around, feeling great. "We can go now, if you want," I said to Grian.
"I think I'll wait until tonight, so I can say goodbye to everyone," he replied.
I nodded.
I spent the day exploring the area, helping Netty and Tomohawk mark out places for new buildings, and doing everything I could to avoid going into the mines.
According to Tomohawk, we had landed in a world that was uninhabited by anyone but villagers, who were friendly and had spared some food to get everyone going. I had been put into a villager house before the Evolutionists and Grian, who I guess was an Evolutionist as well, built a place big enough for all of us to stay. Now, they were working on a new village where each of them could have their own house.
Tomohawk also said that once they got set up, Martyn would be put on trial for his crimes. Ren, me, and everyone else he had tricked were invited as well, so they could get a better understanding of what he had done.
They had also decided to name the world Gateway, because they hoped to someday connect it to Hermitcraft and the Empires so people, especially Pearl, Grian, and Jimmy, could get between worlds to see each other easily.
That reminded me that Pearl, Jimmy, and Bigb had no idea that the Evolutioners were still alive. All they had to go off of was what Martyn had said right before the Battle of the Final Life. I had to tell them once I got back.
That evening, as the sun started to sink below the horizon, the combined efforts of the eight Evolutioners and me had two more villager houses built. That made five done, including the three in the days that I had been unconscious. The big one would become a town hall once all of them were finished and they would elect a new mayor, because Mini did not want to have to deal with the responsibility anymore. Or at least, that's what he told me. I didn't have a clue what he was talking about.
We all gathered in the living room of the big house to say our goodbyes. Grian promised that he would come back to Gateway soon. And then we were off.
Since I wasn't in pain this time, I had plenty of time to appreciate how uncomfortable teleporting was. It was a sudden feeling like I was falling, and spinning, faster and faster and faster until it suddenly jerked to a stop.
There must have been a mistake, because this world looked exactly like the remains of...
Last Life?