TW: No major ones (Reminder: Check A/N for general ones)
POV: Hermitcraft!Grian
Grian was pacing. Again.
The Rift puzzled him beyond belief. How did it work? It seemed beyond their powers. Besides, who would make a contract to do this sort of thing... It seemed dumb, to agree to a contract to just make a loophole into a single server...
He turned back to the rift. It flashed, blinding him temporarily. He opened his eyes to see someone walk through, silhouetted against the magenta glow of the rift.
"H- hello?" Grian spoke, flicking through his inventory until he held his sword - Although it likely would be little help if it was them. But it made him feel better either way. Maybe that should be disturbing, but honestly, giving how many enemies he possibly might have, it wasn't all that surprising.
The person looked up at him for a second, and scrambled away to a corner of the quarry in panic. They processed collapse onto their knees, hands hitting the stone hard.
"Oh- oh my!" Grian ran up to them, caution still high, but afraid they might be hurt. The stone on the floor was rough, and might have town whoever that was's skin up. But, as he got closer, he froze.
Standing before him... Was himself. Except for a major fact, they had a few scars across their face, and they didn't have wings. They were crying, tears falling onto the rock under them. They collapsed again, hitting the stone, again. As the stranger coiled into a ball, Grian noticed their hands were bloody. They must have been torn up by a sharp rock. But this stranger didn't seem to react to the blood, even when it smeared across their face.
Grian was about to move to comfort them when the rift flashed again. He blinked a few times, only to see another stranger run out of it, slowing into a walk.
They had Cyan hair, a blue jacket, a white shirt and jeans, with gray crystals circling their head, and a similarly shaded strip on their shirt.
"Oh hello, I wasn't expecting..? Grian? You're alive?" The figure tilted his head. "... And who's behind you?"
"H- How do you know me? And I... Don't know. They came through the thing you did..." Grian was very confused as to what was going on. A bunch of strangers kept coming out of the rift probably made by them, the beings he refused to even think off.
"Oh, well, If you don't know me, I should introduce myself. I'm Scott, or Smajor, or Dangthatsalongname." The figure spoke.
"Oh, Pearl told me about you... You're on Empires SMP, right?" Grian tilted his head.
"...What's Empires?" Scott looked very confused.
"Another SMP..." Grian was almost sure Gem and Pearl had said Empires SMP... But maybe he was misremembering "You know, the one with Pearl and Gem."
Scott blinked cluelessly. "I've only ever been on Last Life, and I don't know a Gem... But I do know a Pearl. We were allies-"
Grian was about to speak, when another flash filled the room. Grian and Scott blinked away the temporary blindness to see a red cloaked figure fly through, smacking on the stone floor, landing on their back with a thud, followed by three wolves, who also hit the ground. Grian winced at the impact, it must have hurt.
Scott jumped on guard at the sight of the figure. "Their outfit is a red name outfit- Be ready, they can attack us."
"Scott, it's fine." Grian spoke, staring at the stranger. "If they did end up killing me, I can just respawn... "
"But you'd lose a life-" Scott said quickly.
"Not how it works here." Grian shook his head a tiny bit, still on guard. The stranger wasn't one of them, they didn't have wings... But that didn't mean they weren't working with them. He still didn't quite trust Scott either, but he felt like he should at least try to not be overly paranoid and threaten a possibly innocent bystander.
The figure pushed themselves up, the wolves circling them. From the impact on the harsh ground, Grian figured they'd probably have bruises, or at least be in pain. But this stranger didn't react to any of the pain she should be feeling. This made him even more on edge...
"Orchid, stay back. Violet, Jade, protective maneuvers." The strange called out as if the wolves could understand them. They pulled out a diamond axe and shield while the smallest of the three wolves slid behind the figure, the other two flanking forwards, seemingly obeying what the stranger said. But there was something familiar about her voice...
Wait... It couldn't be... He suddenly recognized that voice, and Scott apparently did too, as they both called out at the same time. "Pearl?!"
"Scott, is that you?" Pearl's eyes widened, before she narrowed them again. "Wait... Scott... You're meant to be dead! The TNT blew you up..."
Scott smiled, speaking the same time as she did. "Pearl- You're alive- Wait... why are you wearing your red name skin? Your a grey name now, not a red one." Scott called out, running towards her, before hesitating.
"Heh... Scott, you know why I'm wearing my red skin..." Pearl began to smile widely, a bit too wide to be normal, in his opinion, before she stepped back. "Wait... did they save you too? Are you working with them?"
Grian froze at the term 'Them'... It couldn't be, right? T- That was the term he used for them, it was unlikely the strangers would use the same terms. But- If it was them... What would he do- He should interfere. But he was frozen, frozen by the terror that they might have their hands on these players, that these strangers, or his friends and friend's-friend, whatever they were. might be puppeteered by those primal-cursed beings.
"W- Who are they?" Scott said nervously.
"So you ARE working with them! I forgave you for betraying me, Scott!" Pearl shouted, sounding quite hurt. "And you went to betray me again!"
"I- I didn't betray you! I never would! We were best friends! I didn't even hurt you when I was the boogeyman" Scott tried to convince Pearl frantically.
"Ohhh so you call abandoning me being best friends? Besides, what the heck is a boogeyman. They killed Tilly, Scott. She was on her last life, and they killed her." Pearl began to walk towards Scott. "I swore I would kill anyone who would DARE stand near them. I nearly did, if they hadn't teleported away like a coward. But now I get to kill you! We're not soulbound anymore Scott..." She called, and began to giggle, as the two wolves that had moved forwards began to advance on Scott.
Scott quickly pulled out his shield, backing away from the advancing wolves, his attention distracted from Pearl. She took this chance to leap at Scott, getting a strike with her axe off on him. Scott quickly turned his attention back to the advancing red cloaked form of Pearl.
Grian shook himself out of his panic, shouting towards the two. "STOP-" He frantically typed out a message on his communicator.
<Grian> Something weird in the quarry under my house- Someone come please-
<XisumaVoid> Oh my! Do you need help?
<PearlescentMoon> I'm coming over Gri- Hold on!
He paused at the message from Pearl. The Pearl trying to attack Scott didn't even seem to have a communicator. So this... Wasn't Pearl... Or at least not the Pearl he knew. A idea suddenly struck him... These might be alternate forms of the players he knew, all from different places. That would explain the conflicting stories the two were telling. He quickly ran forwards to the fighting players, pausing a few arm-lengths away.
"Pearl, That isn't your Scott-" He shouted. "This Scott's from a server called Last Life! He didn't-" His words got greeted by an axe pointed in his direction, as the red cloaked Pearl reacted to his advance.
He sighed grimly. The strangers only had diamond armor and tools, at best. Maybe he could scare them so they would back off. He pulled out his shield and netherite sword. "Please, calm down. I can defend myself... But I really don't want to."
At this point, the Hermitcraft variant of Pearl glided down into the quarry, landing next to him
"Grian, what..." Pearl he knew looked very confused.
Grian sighed. "Not sure, but appears to be alternate versions of you, me, and Scott- Trying to stop your alternate from murdering Scott's alternate-" He shot back, keeping his guard up. "I'll explain the rest later."
Pearl chuckled. "And I thought it'd be your alternate version trying to commit felonies."
Grian shot a glare at her. "Nope, my alternate is over there, crying in the corner." He tilted his head towards the ball of red jumper still sobbing in the corner.
Pearl tilted her head. "Also on brand I suppose." Pearl replied
"Pearl, we don't have time for this." He called back, a thought crossing his mind. "You and I are whitelisted, but I'm not sure they are."
If the three weren't whitelisted, any deaths would be permadeath. No respawning from it. It was one of the major rules of this world to discourage hackers, as the risk greatly outweighs the reward.
"Oh great-" Pearl sighed. "Okay, everyone. My name's PearlescentMoon, or Pearl, but I'm not the Pearl you guys would know, if Grian's right with the alternate versions thing."
He spoke up. "And I'm Grian, but likely a different Grian you guys know, So, let's just talk this out."
At the sight of another variant of herself, the red-cloaked Pearl hesitated, and stopped, crossing her arms, her axe vanishing into her inventory. "Fine. I'll listen, but I don't like this. Orchid, Violet, Jade, come back." The wolves snarled at Scott as they slowly retreated back to the red-cloaked Pearl. At this, the Pearl kneeled, whispering a couple of words to the wolves.
At this, Grian sighed with relief, and began slowly walking over to the other form of himself, still curled up in a ball in the corner. "Hey... They've stopped fighting now, if you want to come out?" He quietly asked, carefully kneeling.
The bundle of red jumper sniffled. "W- What does it matter..." They choked out. "I ran away from Third life... I should have suffered there! I killed Scar! He never will forgive me..."
"That's not true. If your Scar's anything like our Scar, he'd want you to keep moving..." Grian said softly, resting a hand on the alternate's shoulder, the ball of the jumper almost seemed to melt into the touch. It made him wonder how long it'd been since the other form of himself had a hug. He had related with that. But that train of thought would lead to... Unpleasant memories, so he stopped it there and then. "Please. We need to know what's going on, alright?"
"..."
"I understand if you don't want to but..." He continued.
"... Okay." The alternate form mumbled.
"Huh?"
"I'll... Talk to you... About Third Life... If... I can meet your Scar."
"That seems fair." Grian smiled, and reached out a hand to the other Grian, who retreated from the curled up form, standing up.
A/N:
Motivation to edit went and died in this chapter so editing might be rough, sorry.
Also the music I've been listening to while writing this story has been very random lol-
Wc: 1463
- Xera