Well. I was supposed to get this done last week.
But I was too deep in depression to do much.
And if you have any group name ideas, tell meh. I got Ship Group, Nether Group, and Tragedy Group, but I don't know what to call the group of Luktra, Dawson, Myst and the ---------.
...you'll figure that out by the middle of the chapter
And hahaha I haven't checked in with Myst, Luktra, and Dawson since chapter six...geez I'm a terrible person.
Enjoy.
WAIT WAIT WAIT REAL QUICK:
I published this a couple minutes ago, but Wattpad KILLED ALL OF MY QUOTATION MARKS, so I had to unpublish the damn thing and re-add every freaking quote.
So if you find any mistakes...BLAME WATTPAD. Tell me if you find anything that needs fixing, but DON'T BLAME ME; IT'S NOT MY FAULT.
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"Wake up. We gotta keep moving." Petra said, waking Myst with a kick in the side.
"Ow! Hey!" The black-haired girl protested.
"C'mon. We need to find the others." Dawson said gently. Myst begrudgingly sat up.
"Fiiiiiine. We still don't have any idea of where they might be, though."
"Too bad. We're finding them anyway." Petra snapped. The other girl started to argue, but Lukas intervened. "Guys, do we really want to start up another fight right now?"
"I guess not." Myst muttered, shooting a hostile look in Petra's direction.
"Right. We have enough on our minds at the moment." The redhead said.
"Speaking of which..." Ombrexi started. The others turned to look at her. "I don't think we can stay with you any longer. You're heading towards the crevice, straight into danger. And we...we want to stay alive. Plus, we don't want to jeopardize your mission." Ombrexi said hesitantly.
"Where are you going to go?" Lukas asked. "There's not that many safe places left."
"We'll figure something out. We might not be able to stay safe, but we can at least try." Ombrexi shrugged. "Are you sure you want to follow the crevice? What you're planning to do is practically suicide."
Myst straightened up, squaring her shoulders. "Maybe not. If we find our friends, we have a better chance."
The navy-haired girl shook her head. "You're crazy. But...good luck. I hope you can find the rest of your group."
"Try not to die." Petra told her. Ombrexi smiled, then started to turn away. "C'mon Liv, Kelly. Let's see if we can find anywhere safe."
They started off, in the opposite direction of the crevice. Dawson sighed. "I hope they end up okay."
Lukas rested a hand on her shoulder. "Me too. But we need to find the others before anything else happens. They could be anywhere by now."
"If they're even still alive." Myst muttered.
"Sh. Stop the negativity." Petra ordered. She led the group closer to the crevice, traveling on at a brisk pace. They had only gone a little ways before three people and a reddish-brown dog dropped out of the air, right in front of them.
Dawson shrieked with all her might and hid behind Lukas. Petra let out a surprised yell and reached for her sword.
One of the newcomers leapt to her feet instantly, holding her hands out in front of her defensively. "Whoa whoa whoa! You can put away the sword, thanks!"
"Sword? What?" One of the others asked, also getting up. Petra put her sword away, recognizing the three people. The dog got up from where she had fallen, giving them all a happy, doggy grin.
"Stacy? Dan? Stampy Cat? What are you doing here?!" she exclaimed.
"Wait, Petra? From the White Pumpkin mansion?" Dan asked, also realizing who it was.
"Yeah! But how did you get here? And why?" Lukas asked.
"We have the flint and steel, remember?" Stacy reminded.
Dawson peered around Lukas's shoulder. "Holy cow, hi you guys!"
Stacy did a double take. "Dawson?! What are you doing here?"
The blonde girl ran over and gave each of the three YouTubers a hug in turn. "Long story short, I'm helping to save the world."
"Save the-oh no. Not here too?" Stampy asked.
Petra sighed. "Lemme guess. There's a huge crevice tearing up your world too?"
"Pretty much. We've been hopping through a few other worlds, but almost all the ones we saw had already been claimed by the crevice." Dan informed them.
"There was one that was almost completely gone. We nearly didn't get out in time." Stacy said, shivering slightly at the memory.
"This world isn't doing much better. The only upside is, we might know someone who could help us stop it." Lukas told them.
"How do you all know each other, by the way? And what's with the dog?" Myst asked, gesturing to Dawson and the three YouTubers.
"Dawson's from our world. Lives pretty close to me, actually." Stacy informed her. "I've known her since she was little."
"As for the dog, we found her wandering in the Portal Network. Figured we'd bring her with us." Dan explained.
Dawson knelt down to pet the dog, smiling. "Aw, I love her already! She's so cute. And friendly, too."
Petra shook her head. "No, no. We do not have the time to worry about a dog on this journey."
"Pleeeease? She won't get in the way. I'll take care of her. We've got to bring her along!" The blonde girl begged.
"It could get pretty dangerous later on. I don't want you to end up getting hurt because you were trying to protect your dog." Petra pointed out.
"I thought you liked animals." Lukas said to Petra, looking mildly surprised.
The redhead shrugged. "I do, I just don't want to have to worry about another thing right now."
"She's survived this long. She's got a will to live. Please, we have to let her come with us!" Dawson pleaded.
Petra looked hesitant for a moment longer, but finally caved. "Fine, fine. But it's up to you to protect her."
"Of course! And she won't get in your way, I promise." Dawson hugged the dog, who yipped happily and obligingly licked her face.
"What are you gonna call her?" Stacy asked. "I think...Ginger." Dawson decided after a few moment's hesitation.
"This is adorable and all, but we should really keep moving." Myst said. "We've got to find the others before the crevice catches up to us."
"The others...?" Stampy asked. Lukas sighed. "Okay Myst, you're right; let's go." He glanced over and the three newcomers. "We'll explain everything as we go."
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A+ ending
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"Marilan!"
"Star?!"
Star stared at the other girl in shocked silence. She didn't look so great. Marilan's black jacket had been torn in several places, and her caramel hair was knotted. But she was here, and Star didn't have to go it alone anymore.
"I can't believe you're alive! When you left for Boomtown, I thought for sure you wouldn't come back!" Star exclaimed.
"Yeah well, I'm good at surviving things that I shouldn't. Where's everyone else? Why aren't you with them? Wasn't Aiden with you? What happened?" Marilan asked, anxiously.
Star's enthusiasm abruptly came to a halt. "We...got separated. The crevice split our group in half, and I...I kinda fell into it."
The older girl raised an eyebrow. "Into the crevice? How are you alive?"
"I...don't actually know. I landed on a ledge, but it...it was pretty far down." Star frowned. She hadn't really had time to think about it before now.
The ground shook, and the crevice expanded further. Marilan turned and jogged away from the gap, with Star following behind her. They walked for a little while before Marilan seemed to decide it was safe.
"So...your group got split in half. And you fell in the crevice. But you somehow survived." Marilan checked.
"Right. I landed on this ledge thing, but I still don't get how I made it through that. It was pretty far down into the gap, so I don't know how I survived the drop. The crevice reaches all the way down to the void now."
Marilan gnawed on her bottom lip, thinking. "Based on what we know about those Author powers..."
"Which is basically nothing." Star cut in.
"Exactly. They could be anything. So there's no reason that those powers couldn't've saved you."
Star frowned. "What, you think some unexplained force hidden inside of me saw that I was about to die, and rescued me? You gotta admit, that sounds a little weird."
The caramel-haired girl rolled her eyes. "Anything sounds strange when you say it like that. And yes, I admit it, it sounds a little unlikely. But it's not impossible, just improbable."
"So what exactly happened to you? All I know is, you went to Boomtown with Axel and then ended up here, alone." Star said.
Marilan closed her eyes and sighed. "Axel was right about one thing. The crevice went straight through the city. It was one of the first places to fall. We barely got there in time to save a few lives, but it was too late for most people." She paused to take a deep breath.
"Then Axel and I got separated. He ended up on one side of the crevice, and I wound up on the other. He looked back at me and told me to find you. He said that at least one of us had to get out of there alive. Then he turned and ran back into Boomtown, and I didn't see him again."
"He's...gone, then?" Star asked meekly. Marilan nodded resignedly. "If I had been able to stop him, I would've. But it was too late, and I was too far away to do anything. So I followed the crevice, and eventually found you."
Star didn't know what to say. "I'm...I'm sorry."
Marilan just shook her head. "There's nothing any of us could've done. And that's the worst part, in a way." She shook her head as if to clear it, adopting a brisk tone. "You said you have no idea where the others went? No clue what happened to them?"
Star nodded. "We got separated, I fell into the crevice and went unconscious." She realized something right as the words left her mouth. "Oh my Notch! They must think I'm dead!"
Marilan shook her head. "Not something we need to worry about right now. We can continue following the crevice and hope we find the others."
They traveled along the crevice for a while, finding no sign of their friends or any other survivors. Star was feeling more and more defeated as they went along.
"I wish I knew how long I had been knocked out. That would at least give us a hint of how much of a head start they have." Star remarked.
"Well, we don't necessarily have to find the group you were with. I mean, I'd like to, but finding any of the others would be a step in the right direction."
Star found her gaze drifting towards the crevice, and her thoughts drifting back to how she had survived the fall. It didn't make any sense. She abruptly snapped her head up, shoving the confusing thoughts from her mind. There would be a time to think about that, but the time wasn't right now. Besides, looking at the crevice was just scary.
Instead, she looked to the side, just in time to see several girls fall out of a Nether Portal hovering slightly above the ground.
"Holy fr-Marilan look!" She cried, pointing to the portal. The two of them hurried over.
Athena, Megan, Wolfe, Olivia, and two other girls had come out through the portal, most of them tripping over each other and the gap between the portal and the ground.
"Why isn't that stupid thing on the ground like every normal portal ever?!" Megan snapped, brushing herself off.
Lila also stood up. "Whoops. The crevice probably made it shift." she guessed, looking at the slightly cracked ground below her feet.
"Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's you guys! You have no idea how happy I am to see you!" Star exclaimed. Wolfe grinned at her. "Same here."
Marilan, on the other hand, frowned. "How did you wind up in the Nether? And who are they?" the older girl asked, pointing to the two newer additions to the group.
"Oh, right. This is Lila and Cindy." Athena informed her, gesturing to both of them in turn. "We met them in the Nether, and they know about a place that might give us a big lead to stopping this."
This caught both of their attentions. "They do?!" Marilan asked, looking eager.
"Yeah. We know about this ancient castle thing at the edge of the world, and there's definitely something suspicious about it. Whatever's in there could help to stop the crevice." Lila said.
"Or it could've potentially caused the crevice." Olivia pointed out. "Either way, that's where we were planning to go. What happened to you guys, by the way? I know you weren't originally on your own."
"I...kinda got separated from the others." Star admitted, reaching up to rub the back of her neck.
"And the whole Boomtown plan kinda fell apart. Long story short, we were too late, a bunch of bad stuff happened, and I had no choice but to come here to find everyone else. Me and Star were trying to find the others that she was with." Marilan added.
"Oh. That...doesn't sound great." Wolfe said. Megan looked worried. "Sure hope they're alright."
"Wait, hold up. Wasn't there more people with you guys?" Star realized suddenly. "What happened to Jesse? Or Maya? Or Ruby? Or whoever else was with you?"
The Nether group exchanged a worried look.
"We hoped you would know where the others are." Athena admitted.
"You don't?" Marilan exclaimed, blue eyes going wide from surprise.
"No! We got tricked into going into the Nether, and then we were stuck there. We've got no idea where they went." Megan told her, waving her arm for emphasis.
"So...we're on our own here." Star said nervously.
The same thought ran through all of their minds at the same time:
Oh crap.
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*deep breath*
One more focus switch
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Aranna, Logan, Rush, Aiden, Jasmine, and Kendall had spent most of the day searching, to no avail. To them, it was like the rest of their group had vanished into thin air.
After they had decided that their friends were nowhere near, they went back to where they had originally set up camp. They made a small fire and divided up the food that they had between them.
"We're not that far away from where we got separated. How could they just be gone?" Aiden mused.
"I don't know. This doesn't seem freaking real." Jasmine commented.
The group sat in silence for a while, each of them thinking their own worried thoughts. It was Kendall who finally voiced one of the many thoughts running through her mind.
"Do you guys believe in destiny?" she asked quietly. Rush coughed, choking on the bread she had been eating. She smacked her own chest a few times, still coughing, then shot Kendall a stern look.
"You just *cough* had to say that?!" The green-eyed girl asked indignantly. Kendall laughed sheepishly. "Sorry. That's...not what I meant."
Rush narrowed her eyes. "What about fate? Does that work?" Kendall asked. The older girl nodded hesitantly.
"Okay then. Do you believe in fate?"
Aiden shrugged. "It depends. What exactly do you mean?"
Kendall looked at the ground. "Just...do you think all this was just meant to happen? The crevice? Us being the Authors? All this weirdness with Soren? I mean, I always thought that we each had our own fate and nothing could change that, but this kinda throws a wrench into everything."
"Unless this was fated to happen all along." Aiden added. "In that case, nothing of your fate changed."
"From now on, our fates are intertwined. What happens to one of us happens to all of us." Jasmine said quietly. Aranna closed her eyes. "This is getting way too deep. Let's talk about something else."
Logan turned his head to look at Rush. "Liiiike...why aren't we allowed to say 'destiny'?"
Rush shook her head, causing a strand of blue hair to fall in her face. "It's not exactly that. It was just the way she said it. 'Do you believe in Destiny' is the equivalent of 'useful'."
"Oh. Well okay then." Logan replied, not quite sure how to respond.
The cat-eared girl grinned wickedly. "It would also be like saying 'We will need a Hero, and-'"
Logan cut her off, placing his hands over his ears. "Stop, stop! You are pure evil!"
The others glanced at each other, not understanding. Rush caught their confused expressions and laughed. "It's...a HTTYD thing. Long story."
"Twelve books long." Logan muttered.
"I think I'm just gonna take your word on that." Kendall remarked.
[I regret nothing]
There was a minute of silence.
"Do you have any idea how were going to find the others? We searched all day, and never found a trace of them." Aranna said.
"They can't all be gone for good, right?" Jasmine asked, sounding slightly desperate.
Logan shrugged. "Anything's possible. I mean, uh...maybe were just looking in the wrong place. The wrong side of the crevice." He quickly added, noticing Jasmine's don't-start-that-again expression.
Rush sighed, pulling her knees up against her chest. "This is all so pointless. We might never find the others, and we'll never be able to save the worlds."
"We know, we know. But maybe we will. We've got to keep focusing on the bright side of things. We can't just give up." Kendall said gently.
"Yeah well, its hard. Its just...ugh. You don't understand. I'm just about ready to give up. With everything that's been going on, you haven't been able to slow down and really think about how bad this is. But its all I've been able to think about."
"We're all scared, Rush. That's part of being human, ya know." Aranna pointed out.
"No, you don't understand. I'm not just scared. It's more like...this is all just pointless. We're at a dead end. And why...why us? Some of us might have powers, some of us might have skills, some of us might be special, but I'm not. It was useless to bring me along."
Kendall moved closer to her. "What are you talking about? Of course it wasn't."
Rush slumped over even farther, hiding her face in her knees. Her response was slightly muffled. "I'm not a hero. I'm not cut out for this. I'm useless. I don't have anything special about me. And that's...that's okay. I don't deserve to have anything that makes you a hero. I'm not good enough."
"Not good enough for what?" Aiden asked.
"Not good enough for anything. Not good enough to live." Rush murmured.
Kendall's voice took on a stern tone. "Rush. Of course you're good enough to live. You've made it this far, haven't you?"
"Barely. But how far I've come doesn't do anything to affect how soon I'm going to die. This is hopeless. I'm hopeless."
Jasmine and Kendall sat on either side of the broken girl, trying to comfort her in any way that they could. "We're here for you. We can help you through it. And we will save the worlds, no matter what it takes."
Rush didn't move. "You're not helping. All of this just happened so soon. I didn't think...I never imagined that I would be tossed straight into the middle of something like this. I can't do this. How am I supposed to help save the world when I can't even save myself?" Her voice cracked on the last sentence, and she lifted her head. Her green eyes were blurry with unshed tears.
"You're not the only one thinking about that." Logan told her. "When the crevice first formed in my world, I ran. I didn't think twice about anything else, just ran to save my own life. I could've helped, but I didn't, and I hate myself for it. I know what you mean. Or at least some of what you mean."
"This isn't new for me, though." Rush admitted. "This isn't the first time my uselessness has come into context."
The ground abruptly shook, reminding them that the crevice was still nearby. The group went silent instantly. And when the rumbling subsided, the faint noise of footfalls could be heard. A brief blur of movement flashed through the nearby trees, then vanished.
"Did you hear that?" Jasmine asked, getting to her feet.
"What? The sound of the crevice growing ever closer to destroying the world?" Logan snapped.
"No. I could've sworn I heard footsteps. And I know something moved over there." Jasmine gestured toward where she had seen motion.
"So? Let's investigate." Kendall suggested.
Aiden shook his head. "That sounds like a bad idea combined with a worse idea."
Jasmine pulled out her enchanted bow. "Too bad. I'm with Kendall on this one."
"Me too." Rush added, standing up and grabbing her iron sword.
Logan hesitated, looking torn. "This doesn't really seem safe..."
"Nothing is safe anymore." Rush pointed out. "Aranna, you in?"
"Duh." The brown-haired girl pulled her weapon out of her inventory: a fish enchanted with knockback 5.
Kendall gave her a dubious look. "Your weapon is a fish?"
Aranna lifted her head smugly. "Le almighty fish of Knockback. Try not to be too jealous."
[I have been waiting to use that interaction since the very beginning]
Jasmine resisted the urge to facepalm. "Let's go. I want to find out what that was."
"You're just paranoid." Aiden remarked.
"It's only paranoia if things aren't out to get you." Logan replied, grabbing his serrated dagger.
They crept out of camp, walking quietly through a grove of trees.
Kendall caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. "Wait! I saw something!"
"Who's there?! I warn you, we're armed!" Jasmine called.
"And so...are we." A sinister female voice hissed back. They all jumped.
The five of them stood in a tight cluster, waiting for a signal to attack.
For a few tense moments, there was no sign of the mysterious speaker. It was as though they had vanished completely into the night.
Then they heard a few soft footsteps...
...and Jacky and Salem stepped out of the shadows.
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Haha this totally wasn't a filler chapter, noooo...
This was just packed with references. Mostly HTTYD. I regret nothing.
I must've used about a billion synonyms for said. I hate having to use that word over and over again.
Yeah, and Bunny? I know Star couldn't survive a real drop all the way into the crevice. I wouldn't overlook something that important :P
And uh...sorry I didn't get this done in time. I was planning to update yesterday, but I just didn't finish in time. I stayed up until 3 in the morning and still didn't get it done.
I'm going to try SUPER HARD to get the next one done on Monday.
That'll be...chapter 9. Wow. Nine chapters already. Or maybe its only been nine chapters.
Yeah yeah yeah stahp ik this is still chapter eight whatever shuddup goodbye
Word count- 3911 something