The first day in the new world, the Empires, was spent in relative safety. Gem, FWhip and I built starter bases, and although we were far from each other, we could still communicate with separate devices: me with my watch, FWhip with his shiny new Admin communicator, and Gem with her bracelet.

I settled in a swamp, near Jimmy. We met up to draw boundaries and decide who would get a monopoly on slime so that we wouldn't start a war over it. I let him make a slime farm. I didn't even know how a comparator worked, so a farm was far out of my ability.

Gem built her base in the side of a cliff in the mountains. She named her area the Crystal Cliffs and started work on her empire, putting spells into various objects and structures to help the place run a little more smoothly. But she also started disappearing, frequently enough that it couldn't be for resource gathering. When I confronted her about it, she acted like nothing was wrong. I saw through, but I knew that she would never tell me, so I dropped it.

Oh, by the way, Gem was magical.

She called herself a wizard. No matter how many times FWhip and I told her that a female wizard was a witch, she insisted that she was a wizard. Apparently she saw a difference.

She got her powers one night in a dream. Gem had told us later that she had seen a grey silhouette that offered her an orb of purple light. She accepted it, and had woken up with magic. Since then, she had had more dreams explaining how to control the power and use it. Gem was really good at enchanting items, particularly crystals, to harness the power of the moon, or communication magic. But she had other skills as well.

FWhip settled close to her, in a place he called the Grimlands that was on the edge of the mountains as well. He immediately got to work on a castle and a TNT factory for all his explosive needs.

I named my area the Dripleaf Marsh. I started with a small hut on stilts in a pool of water. When a wandering trader came along, I traded with him for some dripleaf and planted it throughout my empire. I made farms, paths, mines, and houses for the native villagers. I allied myself with the Wither Rose Alliance, so FWhip, Gem, and Sausage. I didn't like Sausage very much, but he and FWhip had clicked instantly, so I had to deal with him.

It was peaceful, with the only deaths being from monsters and cliffs. But things escalated quickly.

Sausage Mythic, one of the new people, was the kind of guy to say something mean and then add in "kidding" and call it good. Of course he didn't mean any harm, but it seriously offended some people. Namely, his neighbor and also my neighbor and fellow Third Lifer, Jimmy the Codfather.

It turned out Jimmy had stolen some resources from Sausage right at the beginning. Sausage retaliated by stealing Jimmy's special music record.

Of course, Jimmy was not very happy about that. So naturally, he retaliated for Sausage's retaliation. But he had an ally this time.

I was at Jimmy's house, negotiating a treaty between the two swamp empires, when Pixl Riffs flew in and landed right in between us. "Hello!"

"Hi, Pix," Jimmy said, a little startled.

Pix also didn't like Sausage. The latter had put Illagers in both the his and Jimmy's bases recently, to annoy both them and any guests they might have.

I hadn't noticed it before, but ever since I returned from Third Life, Pix had been disappearing quite a bit. And once, when I needed copper, I had accidentally barged in on him writing some sort of script. I only caught the words "End Crystal war in Boatem. Participants: Mumbo Jumbo, Impulse Esvee..." There were more names, but I couldn't read them because Pix stuffed the papers into a drawer in his desk and made a lame excuse as to why he couldn't negotiate at that moment.

I wasn't sure what Boatem was, or who Mumbo Jumbo was, or why the heck there would be an end crystal war, but Impulse Esvee was a name I recognized. I didn't know how Pixl knew Impulse existed, because as far as I knew, he hadn't been told. I was pretty sure that the only people outside of our little Third Lifer circle who knew what had happened were Gem and FWhip, who were my siblings, and Lizzy, who was Joel's girlfriend. All three of them would have quickly noticed if Joel or I tried to hide something.

Gem had said she would find a way to meet people from other Realms in person. If Gem had figured that out, why hadn't she told me? And how did Pix have it?

There was definitely something suspicious about Pix. I decided to go back to my own side of the swamp when he arrived at the Cod Empire.

I'm not sure what they talked about. But the next time I visited Jimmy and Sausage's empires, Jimmy had a statue of a cod in his lake and Sausage's pristine fields of golden wheat were demolished by a couple of ravagers.

A few days later, I looked for Jimmy to see if I should take sides. I was pretty sure that if I didn't join someone, then someone would come to me. Just yesterday, Katherine had tried to be neutral and nearly lost Jimmy as an ally.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a line of TNT right in between the Cod Empire and Mythland.

Getting closer and circling above with my elytra, I saw four people who should not have been talking peacefully.

FWhip and Sausage on the Mythland side of the line. Gem and Jimmy on the Cod Empire side. Three of them, I wasn't that surprised to see. Jimmy and Sausage lived there, and FWhip was one of Sausage's best friends.

But Gem?

I knew she would never get involved with anything explosive unless she had a good reason. But there were no good reasons when it came to the Wither Rose Alliance. What was going on?

Sausage saw me and pointed. I could fly away, or I could see what in the world was going on.

I landed on the Cod Empire side next to Gem. "What's going on?"

"Jimmy and Sausage are like bickering siblings and they just need to be separated!" FWhip grinned proudly at his reasoning.

"So you're going to blow a trench that they can just fly over anyway?" I said.

"That's what I said!" Jimmy agreed.

"It's the principle, Blue," Gem said.

"Not a very good one," I mumbled.

"There's gonna be peace, though!" Gem said.

She was making a mistake. A ravine would not get Jimmy's music disk back. A physical feature of the land could not stop a war.

"Everyone back up!" Fwhip called from next to a lever.

We all did. Gem and Sausage with confidence and excitement, Jimmy and me with panic and reluctance. FWhip pulled the lever.

The explosion was legendary. When the dust cleared, there was a huge trench separating Jimmy, Gem, and me from Sausage and FWhip.

FWhip flew over to the Cod Empire side, proving my point. Sausage dove straight into the ravine and flew back and forth, narrowly missing jagged outcroppings. "Wheeee!" His voice faded as he got farther away, then he turned around and came back. "Wheeee, this is fun, you guys should try it!"

"See, there's peace now!" Gem said.

"But I don't have my disk back..." Jimmy protested weakly.

"Sausage!" FWhip yelled down into the trench.

"Wheee- yeah?"

"Come up here and give Jimmy his music disk!"

"But this is like, so fun! Come on, Jimmy, this is way better than some dumb music disk!"

"GIVE ME THE DISK!" Jimmy yelled. Gem and I both reached out to calm him down, because even though he was kind of an idiot, when he got mad, he got mad.

"Okay, okay, fine!" Sausage came up and landed next to us. "I have it... right... here!"

Instead of setting the disk down for Jimmy to pick up, he placed a wither rose. Jimmy, being Jimmy, walked straight into it, then jumped back when the poisonous thorns pricked him.

"Sausage!" Gem gasped.

"Fine! I'm doing it," Sausage responded. He threw something down, and this time, it was a music disk.

Jimmy darted forward, picked it up, and then took off, triumphantly declaring, "I've got it! I've got my disk! Yes yes yes, I've got it!"

And that ended the War of the Music Disk. But the Cod Empire vs Wither Rose Alliance shenanigans were far from over.

But then something else started... something worse.

The demon's name was Xornoth, and Scott openly admitted that he and the demon were brothers. Scott had banished him long ago, but now, somehow, he was back. There were rumors that Sausage and his bloodsheep had something to do with how he got from X Life to the Empires, since Sausage, a powerless human, had become a sorcerer somehow.

Xornoth came to every empire, one by one, and frightened and threatened everyone who occupied them. He corrupted everything he touched - plants withered, animals died, life drained away from the world. Gem started to study him, but didn't get far.

What if we had to evacuate again?

What's more, FWhip killed Jimmy randomly and stole his cod mask. Jimmy declared war on the Grimlands.

I flew over to the Crystal Cliffs, where Gem lived. I wanted to get some information on what was going on, since she was part of the Wither Rose Alliance as well. I guess I was, too, but nobody ever told me anything. I assumed it was because I was also allies with Jimmy, but I didn't appreciate being left out.

"Hi, Blue." Gem seemed stressed. I didn't blame her. There was a demon loose and corruption was spreading. And everyone expected her to fix it because of her powers.

"Gem, I want to end this war," I said.

"Me too, but I don't know how I can get that mask back. FWhip doesn't even trust me and Sausage with it."

"But we're all siblings," I said. "How can he not trust you with it? And how can he not trust me with any information whatsoever?"

"I don't know!"

"Gem, you're trying to do too much at once. You need a break."

"I do, but I don't have time for a break when there's a demon, a war, and two annoying boys who don't know what's good for them! Plus, I have to build up the Crystal Cliffs so I don't fall behind and get destroyed by someone who declares war on me!"

"You know," I said. "There's people who are willing to help you if you give them the chance."

She didn't respond, only grabbed some materials from a chest and headed upstairs to work on the next floor of her tower.

I followed her. "Let me help, Gem! You need to try and solve one problem at a time. We should start with the war, since it will be easiest to end. All we need to do is get Jimmy's mask and then we can move on." I picked up some stones and helped her build.

"Well, you don't know this yet, but I am actually giving Jimmy information. I don't have much yet, but I'm telling him everything I can find."

"That's a good start," I said. "Now, how can we get the mask back?"

"Either we kill FWhip, or we wait for him to hide it and then find it," she said.

"And killing FWhip is out."

"Yeah, so I'll try to get FWhip to find a place to hide it and then give Jimmy coordinates..."

"But it'll have to be anonymously so that you don't lose your alliance."

"Of course, but it's your alliance too."

"I don't care if I'm part of the Wither Rose Alliance. You know Sausage and I don't get along. Who can help you with this?"

"My allies outside the Alliance are Scott, Katherine, Joey, and you, of course," Gem said. "I trust any one of you to help me with this."

"Katherine's allied with everybody," I said. "Scott is friends with Jimmy and Pearl. Joey... well, I don't really know where he stands. I'm allied with Jimmy, FWhip, and you, but I don't have any official enemies."

I decided not to add the yet.

"What if I got Sausage and FWhip and maybe Joey, because he and FWhip are friends, to help me build some sort of puzzle room that has the mask in it? That way, Jimmy would get it back but FWhip will think that it's well hidden."

"I can get Jimmy to grab some of his allies and go there, and then we can get it back. Bam! War over!"

Gem grinned.

The plan was in place.

-----

A week later, Jimmy, Katherine, Joel, Lizzy, and I were gathered in front of a ruined castle, following the coordinates Gem had given us.

We were all obviously nervous. We didn't know what we would find in there. Jimmy stood at the front of the group, staring at the door into the castle. Lizzy clung to Joel, a gold wedding ring glimmering on her finger. They had been married a couple days ago (a rare moment of peace between all the Emperors), but a dungeon possibly stocked with mobs and traps probably wasn't the best honeymoon. Katherine and I stood nearby, watching everyone else and promising each other that we would buy each other cookies and cake if we survived this.

We were just waiting for Pixl. But it wasn't long before he got there.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Katherine said.

"Do you want to stay behind?" Jimmy looked over his shoulder at her.

"I kind of do... but you guys are my allies and I don't want to leave just as we are going in."

"You don't have to come," Jimmy said, but his tone hinted that he wanted her to.

Katherine stepped away from the rest of us. "I'm just going to stay out here, is that all right?"

"Coward!" Joel yelled. I would have hit him, but Lizzy, being next to him, got there first. "Ow!"

Katherine turned bright pink, but stayed out of the group.

The rest of us stepped through the ominous doorway.

~~~

CHAPTER 1 OF PART 2 DONE!!!

I know I took my sweet time with this one. I added a bunch of stuff while I was proofreading. Also it took FOREVER to figure out what to do for the chapter headers, and I still don't have a cover but I'm posting it because I'm sick of having to click not only "Write," "My Stories," and "Broken Hearts," but "Drafts" as well. It's only one more click, but I am a very lazy person so you get no cover for now.

-Indigo