Gem woke up at the crack of dawn, opening her eyes to the yellow sunlight of sunrise. She was in her room. In her own house. At Dawn. Her empire. In a world that she was going to protect from the Watchers. She was going to fight for her friends. Her friends that had stayed by her side unlike all the others.
Smiling to herself, she looked at the calendar, but she didn't need to count the number of x marks on the dates to know how long it was until the Watcher attack. There was now only one day left. One free day left until everything went spiraling down. One free day left until she might lose one of her only real friends
Shaking off the bad thoughts, Gem shot a hole in the calendar with her Watcher magic and trooped downstairs. She had chores to do. Funny how she thought about chores when this might be her last day left to live. She didn't harbor any illusions. She knew that even if she was a Watcher there was a chance she could die tomorrow. But she couldn't help but do the chores. It was just something deeply ingrained in her. Even at Tumble Town she'd assisted the sheriff with his own chores as much as possible.
Gem fed all the animals, cleaned out the barn and other buildings, kept an eye out for small maintenance problems, etc. Even if she wouldn't be around after tomorrow, who knows? Maybe the Watchers would be defeated somehow. And even if she wouldn't be alive to see the day, she still had citizens who would appreciate the work she put in her chores.
Smiling wanly despite all of her dark thoughts, Gem rounded a corner and came face to face with Apollo, who immediately tackled her to the ground with a mournful howl. Gem smiled and let him lick her face. "I know, Apollo." She said. "I missed you too and if I die tomorrow I'll still miss you." Apollo made a sad whimpering noise and somehow that made the enormous threatening bear appear like a tiny helpless cub.
Gem got up and hugged him and then reached out and unstrapped his saddle. It fell to the ground with a clunk, its sunrise-red color looking so out of place among the spring green grass. Apollo sniffed the saddle curiously and turned back to Gem. "I might not be riding on you anymore after today." She said and Apollo whimpered again.
"I might only have one last day to live." Gem said. Apollo looked like he was crying and gently headbutted her. Gem made a small 'oof' noise and wondered what he was doing but then Apollo motioned to the saddle and squatted down and she understood. "You want one last ride?" She asked and the bear nodded. Gem looked down at the saddle and considered. "How about we do bareback?"
A long ride of bareback riding atop a bear later, Gem and Apollo felt a little better about how they spent their possibly last day together. Gem nuzzled the bear affectionately and he licked her nose. Giggling, she broke apart. "Okay, I think I should go meet my other friends now." She said. Apollo whined miserably, pawing at her overalls.
"I can't stay here forever, Apollo." Gem said. "I have to help them. Prepare them for tomorrow. We only have one day left to do that. I don't want to lost anyone." Apollo seemed to understand. He gave her one last snuffy bear kiss as a goodbye and then wandered away, looking incredibly sad.
Gem felt tears well up in her eyes and she brushed them away before they could fall. Determined she teleported to spawn... only to find herself at Tumble Town. Facepalming she wondered if the Watchers had made the rift affect her powers on purpose and then wondered why she had even questioned it.
"Oh, hi, Jimmy." She called as she spotted the sheriff leave his house. "And... Scott?" She shot them a significant look as she spotted the Chromian exit the same building right after the sheriff. "Were you sharing a room or something?" Gem asked. "Don't ask." Jimmy grumbled. Gem noticed that he had bags under his eyes. That happened whenever someone got a lack of sleep... was crying... or both.
Deciding not to intrude on their privacy, Gem changed the subject and instead asked if they had any plans for their possibly last day to live. Scott and Jimmy shot her a look. "Could you not word it like that?" Jimmy complained. "We have to be realistic." Gem pointed out. "Any of us could die tomorrow." Jimmy suddenly burst into tears and hugged Scott, who seemed unsurprised.
He looked at Gem in disapproval. "He's been having nightmares about that, Gem. Can you not remind him?" He asked. Gem nodded in understanding. She'd been having quite a few nightmares about that herself. "Don't worry, Jimmy," She started, trying to sound comforting, but the sheriff angrily pushed her hand away. "Don't tell me to not worry." He growled, his voice muffled from where it was buried in Scott's exceedingly colorful clothes.
Gem paused. Jimmy needed to wake up to reality but... he just needed comfort right now. So she just went and hugged him. "Is this a group hug? Can I join?" Gem whirled around to see Scar just standing there and pulling a Sausage. "How long were you there?" She asked, wondering how he just snuck up on the first Watcher. "I don't know." Scar replied. "But can I join the group hug?"
They let him join the group hug and Scar squeezed all of them so tightly that Jimmy finally broke apart and said that he was done being a pathetic crybaby and being mollycoddled. "Gem, I want some more pvp lessons." He said. "Okay." Gem said. She turned to Scott and Scar. "Do you want to spar too or-?"
"I can be with Scott." Scar suggested. "I'll be his partner." Everyone agreed and they spent the next while just sparring. Gem was struck by how ferocious Jimmy seemed to be. He fought with an alarming alacrity and force with his movements. I guess this is a good thing. It might help him last longer in the fight tomorrow.
Eventually Jimmy and Scar were on the floor with Gem and Scott respectively holding their practice weapons at their throats. "We win." Gem and Scott said at the same time. "Yeah, good fight." Scar said jovially, getting up and shaking Scott's hand. Jimmy just sighed and got up without saying a word to Gem.
"Are you okay, Jimmy?" She asked. Jimmy looked away. "Sheriff Jimmy, you are my friend and I respect you and I'm asking if you are okay." Gem said firmly, grabbing his shoulders and whirling him around to face her. "Okay, I'm not okay." Jimmy said. "I'm worried I'm going to let everyone down."
"How can you let anyone down?" Scar asked. "Aren't you always first out so you technically can't?" Everyone wordlessly stared at Scar and this time he seemed to get that he'd said something a bit inappropriate for the situation. "Okay, I'm going to go and pet Jellie." He said, backing away.
"Jimmy," Gem said softly, "I'm not going to say that we won't lose anyone. Because we probably will. But I will say that everyone will do their upmost best to make sure that no one dies. All of us will have each others' backs. Do you trust us?" Jimmy looked deep into her vivid emerald eyes. "Yes." He said quietly.
Gem smiled and let go. "I think we should call a meeting." Scott said. "Meeting? About what?" Jimmy asked. "Just to make sure everyone is ready for tomorrow." Scott said. "And discuss strategy." Gem nodded. She agreed with Scott's logic, and the meeting might also be the last time she'd get to see her friends alive.
Gem and Scott practiced teleporting; Scott was incredibly rusty after suppressing his Listener powers deep enough that the Watchers wouldn't detect it for so long so he needed practice. Eventually Scott got good enough that he could teleport roughly a few meters from wherever he wanted to be whenever the rift wasn't messing with him. They figured it was good enough.
Then they teleported around the empires spreading the news about the meeting and teleported the emperors and hermits they met to spawn so that they wouldn't waste time walking or flying or whatever method of transportation they were intending to take. Soon everyone was at spawn and waiting for the meeting to properly start.
"Okay, so how's the preparations going?" Scott asked, addressing everyone. They took turns answering the question but by the time everyone had finished talking the general answer was that things were going well and if their empires were attacked by the Watchers then they were capable of defending themselves.
Gem stood up to speak. "The Watchers will attack spawn first." She said. "That's what I think they'll do, anyway. I know the way they think. They'll attack spawn first like they did with a bunch of other worlds. Then they'll attack our empires one by one. It stirs up fear in the victims, wondering which one of them will be next."
Everyone was silent as they processed that for a moment. "Then we should be at spawn by tomorrow." Doc said. "So we are ready and waiting for the Watchers to attack." "Hermitopia is really close to spawn too." False pointed out. "Then we'll do both." Grian said. "We'll defend Hermitopia and try to wipe out the whole Watcher invasion, or at least as much of their troops as we can."
"How many Watchers are there, anyway?" Lizzie asked. "The last time I checked there were around a dozen." Gem said. "There might be more of them now, though. Qiron has the crystal that turns people into Watchers. But over half of them have become Listeners now so that's something."
Then Scott spoke up. "The Listeners are going to keep the Watchers busy as much as they can." He said. "So most of the Watchers will be fighting the Listeners in some other world. Only some of them will be free to get rid of us." "Which is why they're making Jimena and False and Martyn fight us." Grian said softly.
Everyone's mood considerably dimmed at the thought of them having to face their friends in combat, maybe even kill them. "Look, we have to fight like respawn has been turned off." Gem said, addressing the crowd. "We don't know that for sure, which is a good thing because the only way to know that is if someone dies, but I think we can tell that Qiron has done that. It's the kind of thing he would do."
The lifers murmured in agreement. "I can't turn it back on." Gem said. "When Qiron figured out how to affect whether someone lived or died and whether they respawned, he didn't tell me how to do it. He didn't tell anyone. He wanted to make sure he was the only one with that power. So if anyone dies... they're gone for good."
There was a hush over the crowd and no one said anything. "But for some good news," Gem hurried on, "The Watchers won't be wearing any armor. They'll be too cocky with their powers to do so. Unless for some reason one of them is really paranoid or something but what are the chances of that. And even though Watchers are gods, they can be killed."
"Gods can be killed." Joel said in response to some people looking at him. "A lot of them have died out by now, actually." "Joel, don't you dare be one of them or else I will raise you from the dead and kill you again." Lizzie threatened. Then she suddenly blinked like she remembered something. "Oh yeah, I know nekomancy."
Everyone stared at her. "Don't you mean 'necromancy'?" Pearl asked. "No, she means nekomancy." Sausage said. "It's a type of black magic only practiced by cats. She can raise people from the dead." The mood suddenly seemed brighter.
Everyone was too relieved about the fact that they had someone to ressurect them if they died to really question why Lizzie knew black magic. "Lizzie, don't you dare die." Joel threatened her back. "Or I will find the goddess of death and have her resurrect you so I can kill you again!"
"Oh, you mean Pearl?" Sausage asked. Everyone looked at him and then at Pearl. "Uh... what?" Pearl asked faintly. "Santa Perla is the goddess of death." Sausage shrugged like everyone knew that. "I thought I was the goddess of sunflowers." Pearl asked him accusingly. "Yeah, Santa Perla is the mother of sunflowers, but she's also the goddess of death." Sausage said. "How come she gets to be the god of two things when I'm only the god of the sky?!" Joel asked in indignation. "You're the god of weather and lightning too." Lizzie pointed out. "Yeah, but that counts under 'sky'!"
Gem rolled her eyes and laughed at the bizarre interaction that everyone was paying attention to now. It was a good enough distraction from the possible horrors of tomorrow. Gem idly wondered if that was her last laugh. If she died and Lizzie died... no one was around to bring them back from the dead. Gem pushed the bad thoughts away, though. That was tomorrow, this was today. And she was determined to make her possible last day alive as happy as possible.