Over the next few weeks, Grian, with the help of Xisuma and FWhip, managed to get Emperors, Hermits, and Evolutionists alike registered for Gateway, with Xisuma as the temporary Admin. Grian, Joel, and FWhip celebrated by murdering Jimmy.

Gem, despite Grian's insistence that her crystals weren't real, went to the Ninth World and grabbed the missing Hermits, including Scar. That shut Grian up, and brought the total of people in Gateway up to 37, including Martyn.

Speaking of him, once Ren arrived he immediately started asking if anyone had seen the traitor so he could "murder him, and then murder him again." Jimmy and a few Evolutionists were completely with him on that, but since only the Admins, meaning Xisuma, FWhip, and Grian, knew where he was, nobody could murder him anyway. Wisely, anybody who knew that Martyn was in Gateway chose not to tell Ren. Otherwise Even More Giga Pies might have turned into a meeting house for a group of angry assassins. I had too much experience with those, thank you very much.

Martyn's trial was pretty much forgotten. Grian, X, and a bunch of the redstone Evolutionists got together to build a prison just for him, and Grian even used his Watcher powers to be helpful and cheated the laws of the world by building with bedrock. Doc was impressed and a little jealous.

Since there were still two Hermits missing, Gem and Xisuma set out to find them with her locator crystal. They came back without anyone, which confused us at first. Then they said that Etho was safe but caring for some family in another world, but TFC was dead. That made the Hermits sad at a fourth death, but they knew it was time to move on.

The pain of Scott and Sausage's loss eventually dulled enough that the Emperors, including me, were able to build things other than tiny starter bases. We decided to leave our past in the Empires behind us and move on to a new life.

Lizzie and Joel settled down together in a tall red house that they built together. Jimmy went there regularly as well, to help Lizzie get her memories back, but we all knew it wouldn't work without another Ocean Orb, which we would probably never find. Joel, FWhip, and I eventually managed to get back into friendship terms as well.

Jimmy, with the help of Gem and Scar, concentrated the magic of the Cod Mask into a crystal that he could wear around his neck. Because of that, he kept his fins, but didn't usually have them on. Now, he mostly used them to keep from drowning in puddles. Rumor had it that his new denim jacket used to be Scott's, but I wasn't so sure. Rumor also had it that Xornoth was still alive in another form. Rumors were untrustworthy. But Jimmy settled in a birch forest - to Gem's delight - with Norman and a new cat (who also hated me), Stanley.

Katherine found a pretty area that bloomed beautifully in the springtime and settled there using her fey magic to help it grow even better. She helped Gem with her magic as well, and the two became close friends.

Shrub and her wolves retreated into the dark forest, and we didn't hear from her again until she died and respawned, then went back into the forest, grumbling about how her dogs were going to be all scattered.

Pearl, being Pearl, adopted an alien-like, science fiction theme for her base. She seemed to have left the Empires behind completely, even dropping her beautiful customized tools, armor, and elytra in favor of normal diamond and elytra.

FWhip kept his medieval style of building and built a village. Not much to it, except all the explosions. I swore that I heard one every two hours.

Gem practiced her plant magic and grew her strength in normal magic so that she could once again cast more complicated spells, although she still needed Scar's help for a lot of it. She tutored him in real wizardry instead of just crystals and magical creatures, which seemed to be all he knew. She lived in her tree, built her cozy home inside the tree, and grew, you guessed it, more trees. So many trees, although none were as big as Scar's tree.

However, not as many trees as Grian planted around Mumbo's base as a "tree farm".

Let's not talk about that.

I settled in a small house overlooking the valley that had the main house and a lot of the resident houses in it, including the village that everybody had started out at. The cabin stuck out of the mountain, with stilts holding up the side that jutted out. It was made of spruce and dark oak, with some birch as an accent. Even when I had to shovel snow out of the pathway, I didn't regret it. The views were amazing, and I was nice and isolated from the other Emperors who still kept their distance sometimes.

I never went into the caves or mines alone, and when an expedition went to the End to raid a few cities and get some elytra for the few people who didn't have them already, I opted out. I wasn't eager to have more visions. Even so, I had to stay away from ender chests, the end portal, endermen, chorus fruit, and ender pearls. Oh, and Grian. You can't forget the actual Watcher. He didn't understand why I avoided him, and it made me kind of sad, but nobody else, not even Gem and FWhip, knew about my curse. They couldn't tell him, and I couldn't risk getting close enough. Eventually he stopped trying, because the amount of power radiating from him was enough to make me queasy when he simply flew overhead.

I looked into the Watchers, even to the point of going with Gem, Jimmy, and FWhip back to the Empires to revisit the library. After making a quick stop at the Crystal Cliffs to see how it was functioning (very well now that Gandalf the wizard who did not hate me as much as his cat form), we went to the library.

Jimmy veered away from our course, then came into the library a few minutes late. He confirmed that Scott was in fact dead. That just brought back the pain. However, it was nothing compared to what Jimmy was going through. Scott had been one of his closest friends.

Now that I looked back, maybe a little bit more.

We spent hours in the library, but found nothing. However, we didn't get through much.

The next time we came (still avoiding the destroyed empires), we brought most of the Emperors and a few Hermits and Evolutioners as well. The elves of Rivendell were fine with it, after all, they had lived this long without that knowledge. Then we started to move all of the books and scrolls, and the important information they contained, into Gateway.

The project took several days of work to complete. Once we were done, the empty library was kind of a sad sight to behold, but then we left with the last of the books.

The best builders were elected to build a new library. Eventually, Scar, Grian, Gem, and FWhip were chosen for the job. I came to the site that they chose every day to make sure that the three pranksters and one sane person didn't start a war. They came very close once when Scar stole a few stacks of copper from FWhip, but once Gem came into it she managed to keep them from starting a larger conflict.

She was probably the only person I knew who could sometimes control FWhip, previously Sausage, and their shenanigans.

Also, watching Scar and FWhip work together made me realize that they were very close to the same person. They were both copper-obsessed terraformers who had prankster frenemies with a demonic laugh (or FWhip used to, until I killed that frenemy), and their voices got hilariously high-pitched when they got scared. They had precise attention to detail and were great at putting aesthetic and life into their builds.

Eventually, the library was finished, and it looked awesome. It combined elements of Gem's simple cottagecore, FWhip's organic and detailed, Scar's deepslate-copper-spruce steampunk, and the original elven style, all on a flat area on the side of the mountain which FWhip and Scar had gotten together to terraform. Then Gem added peonies, because peonies warded off pillagers (or so she said).

A day after the library was finished, Gem lent Sausage's dream communicator to Impulse.

The next day, Tango was awake and building a base of his own. I decided not to get revenge for Last Life. There were much bigger enemies out there, and after Sausage, I had completely lost my will to fight.

All in all, the month after the end of the Empires was relatively peaceful.

But just like any period of peace, it didn't last long.

—---

Unknown POV... :)

I felt extremely guilty about what I was about to do, but the book was too important to leave behind.

Or, that's what they said.

I thumbed through the pages, wondering what was possibly so important about a book of prophecies that nobody could understand. I passed predictions that had already come true, and then I got to page thirty.

I swore it had been blank before.

Don't read them, they whispered.

But I wanted to.

People got mad at me for being impulsive and acting without thinking.

Things was one of those times.

30. Residents of destroyed worlds will meet together in a gateway between worlds.

31. The warrior, the terraformer, the peacemaker, and the cod will join together in an unlikely alliance to fight an ancient foe, but their leader is not who they seem.

32. A betrayal will separate those who have been together for years.

33. Grey will clash with black in an epic battle that was planned since the beginning of time.

34. A noble sacrifice will end a great war but leave many shattered hearts behind.

I wasn't sure what many of those meant. Well, some of them, definitely, but others, no.

You weren't supposed to see them, they whispered in unison.

"I know. I'm sorry," I said. But we all knew I wasn't.

Sorry isn't good enough. You were supposed to bring us the book and forget about it.

"I can still bring you the book," I muttered. "I can still forget about it. You'll make sure of that."

Yes, we will. Come to the End. We trust you have not defeated the dragon yet. We will be waiting. If you don't show up, remember we can make it stronger. We are merciful, but we may be forced to delete the ones you care for most.

I froze. They had been threatening me with the death of my loved ones for a while now, but that didn't dull the fear.

"I'll do it," I whispered. "There's no need to worry."

Remember, let us punish those who deserve to be punished, and they won't be harmed. Only Hallene and Xelqua need to be casualties in this war.

—---

Blue's POV

Lizzie ran up the path, her eyes wild. "Have you seen my book?"

"What book?" I asked, looking up from the crops that I had somehow managed to grow.

"The one from the library. With the prophecies."

I frowned. "No. Why, did you lose it?"

"Yes!" Lizzie exclaimed.

"We'll find it," I assured her. "Stop panicking."

"It was there yesterday!"

"Where did you last see it?"

"On my desk."

"Did you check there?" I asked.

"Yes," Lizzie said, starting to get a little bit annoyed.

"Do you want to go tell the Admins to keep a lookout for it?" I said, leaning my hoe against the side of the house. Then I spotted Lizzie's anxious shifting of her feet, accidentally trampling my crops. I sighed.

"Sure?" Lizzie said, sounding unsure.

"Come on, then," I said, and led the way down the mountain.

We headed to the town hall, which now that everyone had moved out of it, was actually a town hall. There were offices for FWhip, Grian, and Xisuma, a meeting room, and a room with rules and a large map of the main city.

I knocked lightly on FWhip's door, since it was the first one in the hall. He didn't seem to be inside, which made sense. He was probably off building or pranking or trying to murder someone.

Xisuma was gone as well, and so was Grian, so we went to X's sandstone house, only to find that he wasn't home. We left a note pinned to his door and headed to Grian's house.

He was home, and the minute he came out, I "realized I had something I needed to do" and left Lizzie to talk to him alone. I felt bad about it, but I was struggling just being in the same world as him. The curse was getting stronger.

But even so, I didn't get far enough away before I felt the effects. I started to get dizzy and landed before I could fall out of the sky. The feeling passed after another minute.

I met Lizzie at FWhip's base. "Why did you leave?" she asked, looking a little hurt.

"Sorry," I said.

"Are you avoiding Grian or something?"

I didn't want to tell her.

"Just- never mind. Knock on the door."

Lizzie did.

It wasn't long before FWhip answered. "Hi."

"Hello," Lizzie said. "Have you seen my prophecy book?"

FWhip frowned. "Yesterday."

Lizzie's shoulders slumped. "It went missing today."

FWhip shrugged. "Sorry, Lizzie. I'll ask around. Maybe Jimmy or something has it."

Lizzie pursed her lips and nodded.

"Thanks, FWhip," I said, and flew away. Lizzie followed me.

It probably wasn't a very big problem. It was most likely just a Hermit or Evolutionist who was fascinated by the magic of the book and stole it to learn more. I shrugged it off and got back to my farming.

"I'll keep an eye out for it," I said to her.

Lizzie nodded and flew back toward her house.

That night, I had my first Watcher conversation in over a month.

Hello again.

They noticed the fear that shot through me.

"Leave me alone."

But it's much more entertaining to watch you try to make us go. Your mind is feeble. You can't put a wall between yourself and your curse, why would you be able to put a wall between yourself and the ones who gave it to you?

I tried not to let my anger get the better of me, because that was what they wanted to happen.

"I said go away."

Or what?

When I didn't answer, they continued.

We see that you've discovered the truth about the Listener. She won't help you once this is over.

"Neither will you."

True, they huffed. But we are honest about it. We have no anger against you or your friends. Leave us to our battles, and you won't die in them. All we ask is that you stay out of it.

"Why the sudden change of mind?"

This is how it always was. We simply wish to return to our homeland.

"And kill all the Admins while you're at it. If we let you back, you'll destroy us."

We do not lie.

"You have, many times. Did you forget Third and Last Life? Why would I stand by and let you do things like that? Sure, I don't like the Listener. I never completely trusted her. But you're worse."

We can make the curse stronger. We can make it deadly.

"You can frick off."

The Watchers withdrew in anger.

And then because of the interaction, I was pushed into a vision.

The main End Island, with a dragon circling the pillars. The portal was closed. But the dragon wasn't the only thing in the air - about two dozen Watchers soared with it, shooting burst of purple magic at each other. They all wore black and deep purple.

A large group of people raced across the endstone from the Spawn platform, heading desperately for the portal. Their puny power wouldn't be enough, though. Not unless one of them was going to be trapped in the End forever.

"Vlast," a voice said from next to me, and I turned to see Gavran land nearby.

"They're here," she said.

"I saw," I said, amused.

"Their loyalty to each other is admirable," Gavran said, smiling.

I narrowed my eyes. "They brought Xelqua."

Gavran shrugged. "We can kill them both now. Less trouble."

"Why did he bring all of them, though?" I grumbled. "I don't want to kill all of them yet. I want to see if Tay turns the others against Hallene first."

"Whether she has or hasn't, it's too late."

"I suppose," I said, and pulled out my sword.

This sword had killed many of my kind. This sword carried bad memories, but I wasn't one to fall to the past. That was the Admins' job.

Gavran and I took off, flying toward the group on silent wings. Watchers and dragon alike veered out of our way as we surrounded ourselves with violet energy.

The fear in their eyes as we landed in front of them was priceless. They were terrified of us, and for good reason.

"All of our enemies in one place," I said. "Or there will be, soon."

The many Admins and single Watcher pulled out swords. These were either very brave, or very, very stupid.

"Only one of you needs to die today," I said dramatically. "Meet your fate, Xelqua, or your life won't be the only one lost today."

"Gladly," Xelqua said, stepping forward, his hands crackling with purple energy.

He did it like he was no longer afraid of his power. But he was. I knew that much.

"Good," Gavran murmured, taking out her axe - another weapon that had the ability to kill Watchers. She and the traitor started to battle, leaving me to deal with the others.

I turned to our pawn, who had brought them all there even though we only wanted them to bring Xelqua. They needed to be punished.

The other pawn was there, too; the one who had run from us. But he didn't matter anymore. We had driven him to near insanity, and that was enough.

"Now," I said, proud of all the drama I was about to cause. "How about you tell them that you've been helping us the whole time?"

—---

I woke up and had jumped out of bed before I knew what was happening.

I had just had a vision, probably of the future, from a Watcher's point of view.

And one of us was a traitor.

I could hardly breathe, but it had nothing to do with the curse.

Still in my nightclothes, I buckled on my elytra, took off, flew out a window (the Peter Pan window, Scar had called it) and glided above the moonlit forests toward the traitor's base. I wasted about a stack of rockets trying to get myself to go faster, to no avail.

I flew through his window and found him at his writing desk, even this late at night, staring at a familiar leather-bound book - Lizzie's book.

He had told us that he hadn't seen it.

I flew right into him, and he screamed. In an instant, though it almost broke me, I had my sword out and pressed against his neck.

I felt the hot tears coming, and I failed to hold them in.

"FWhip..." I said, my voice as broken as my heart. "Why?"

~~~

Thanks to TheDarkstalker8009 for the idea to make FWhip be a traitor. I know you didn't mean to, but this is what happens when people give me ideas 😈

But in all honesty, it makes the book that little bit better.

-Indigo