Ren Dog was slain by Martyn Littlewood

What had I just witnessed?

That was worse than Cleo and me. It was worse than Bigb and Cleo. For both Third Life and Last Life, these two had been allies.

Or so Ren had thought. So everyone had thought.

I had been allies with Martyn through Third Life. Had he been tricking me, too?

This had to be either a brilliant lie or a brilliant actor. I wasn't sure which was worse.

Martyn picked the crown out of the pool of blood that was all that remained of Ren. He placed it lopsidedly on his head and plopped into one of the chairs. "Okay," he said. "Now that I'm boss, we can wait for Joey."

Tango looked at him with horror. "I followed Ren because I was with him in Hermitcraft. I trust him. You're practically a stranger. My loyalty wasn't to the Crown. It was to the person who held it."

Then he ran up the steps, toward where Scott and I were. We pressed ourselves into the shadows in hope that he wouldn't see us. He glanced in our direction, but didn't otherwise acknowledge us as he hurried out of the Shadow Tower, probably headed back to the Roctopus.

Martyn, now alone, said, "You can come out now."

I held my breath. He didn't know we were there.

"I know you're there," Martyn continued. "You can't hide from shadows in shadows."

We didn't move. I hoped that he was just thinking that there might be eavesdroppers so he was trying to get the ones he didn't know for sure were there to come out. But then he shot an arrow that landed right in between my feet.

"There's at least one of you up there. I just want to talk."

I gestured for Scott to leave. He shook his head. I gave him a push, and he finally left to tell the others we had been discovered.

I took a breath and went down the stairs.

Martyn smiled triumphantly. "There you are! Where are the others?"

"Still at camp," I said. "I came alone."

"Probably for the best," Martyn said. "Then Ren would have killed all of you instead of just one."

"Ren's not going to kill any of us," I pointed out. "He's dead."

Martyn shrugged. "I have to be honest, I didn't walk into that meeting thinking I was going to kill Ren. But it was time."

I didn't like the complete lack of remorse that Martyn's voice contained. He didn't care at all.

"You don't deserve that crown," I said, pushing my luck. Maybe I could get a better version of him to rise to the surface.

He snorted. "Who does? You?"

I shuddered. "Nobody does."

"Then I suppose you'd destroy another priceless artifact? Preferably me with it?"

"'Priceless artifact' isn't what I'd call that," I said. "More like 'thing that owns you more than you own it.'"

"I'm in control," Martyn said.

I drew my sword. "Since when are you making deals with the Watchers?"

Martyn turned away, his cheerful facade gone. "Before Third Life. It was a world called Evolution."

I'm pretty sure that he was about to give some dramatic speech about the horrors of that world, but I interrupted him, whining, "Why are there so many Evolutioners here? You, Pearl, Jimmy, and Pearl hinted at Grian being one, too."

Martyn glared at me. "You've been having dreams of the Listener," he accused. "Let me just tell you that they're not going to help you."

"Why not?" I asked, even though the claim fed my deepest fears.

"Because I was chosen," Martyn spat. "The Listener chose me, me and Jimmy. Then they decided that they favored Jimmy's half of the population more. They got that half out and left the others to die."

I tried to go back, The Listener whispered in my head. But the world was cut off. I couldn't save them.

"So many people were deleted... Netty. Tomohawk. Taurtis. They promised I could save them if I destroyed the Listener."

"Are you crazy?" I said. "They're probably the ones who killed them in the first place!"

"They killed them, yeah. But they can bring them back."

I didn't know which was worse: bringing back the dead or helping the Watchers put more people into dreamspace like Third Life.

"If they're dead, leave them be! Would they want this?"

"I don't know, but they'll thank me later."

I pointed my sword at him. "If you think they'll do what they say they will, you're just as bad as they are."

"You don't know what it's like to lose someone you love!" Martyn exploded, his voice full of pain. "Permanently. And then someone tells you you can have them back. What would you do if that happened?"

I will not feel sorry for the bad guy, I thought fiercely. But I couldn't help myself.

"I wish you had brought Jimmy," Martyn continued. "Then I could kill both of the Listener's 'chosen ones' at once."

His statement scared me, sure. But then I heard something else - a slight rustle.

Martyn kept talking, oblivious to the noise. "The others - they're just pawns in all this. I don't really care if they live or die. But I need to get you and Jimmy out of the way before I can get to the Listener."

"Maybe they're pawns," I said, desperately hoping that I was right. "But even a pawn can kill a king."

Martyn's puzzled expression quickly turned to alarm as four people landed on top of him.

It was pure chaos, so much that Scar and Pearl backed out after a minute. But that allowed Scott and Jimmy to grab Martyn and hold him down, similar to the way Martyn had held Ren only a few minutes ago.

Jimmy and Pearl looked at Martyn in a way that told me they had heard the entire conversation about Evo and the Watchers. Sadness, maybe even a little pity, but a whole lot of anger.

There was a moment of silence.

"We were so glad that you were alive," Pearl finally said, quietly. "We didn't think you would be working with them."

Martyn said nothing.

"We thought that since you were alive, the others were too, somewhere. You could have told us. We could have helped you."

"You guys left me," Martyn growled. "Why should I have trusted you if you left me?"

"The Listener promised to get everyone out," Jimmy said, with more anger in his voice than I had ever heard. "They lied, but that doesn't mean that you should team up with the people who imprisoned us in the first place!"

"The Listener didn't lie," I said. "They tried to come back for you, but the Watchers cut off their entry. Did that ever cross your mind?"

"That doesn't change the fact that they failed," Martyn muttered. But I could tell he was surprised.

"We need to talk about all the lies," Jimmy fumed. "You were friends with some of us. Or, that's what we thought. You betrayed your closest ally. And that's not even counting Evo. How much of Third Life were you being genuine?"

"The beginning. Until the Red Crown came into it and the Watchers started telling me to get it."

So up until the tests of loyalty, Martyn had been at least partly himself. That told me that there was still a little good in him, and from all the ah-ha jokes at the beginning of Last Life, I could tell that there was a way to bring out that goodness, even if it was just humor.

"I was the only one left in Evo," Martyn said, staring into space. "Everyone else is gone. And I hope that Bigb and Grian can hear this, too. All the people you left behind are deleted. All of them. And I'm their only hope."

I thought I heard a sniffle out of thin air.

For five horrible seconds, Jimmy and Pearl hesitated. Then Pearl said, "Leave the dead to rest. They wouldn't want this, Martyn."

"I have to try."

Was Martyn... crying?

Jimmy, unlike Pearl, did not look sympathetic or sad at all. He just looked mad. "You're not just a traitor to the Southlands, which I am eternally angry about. You're not even just a traitor to the Red Army, which I am... actually not mad about at all. You're a traitor to Evo and everyone who ever lived there. And you're going to die for it."

Pearl screamed, "No!" at the same time a couple of very angry ghosts (one of them was probably Ren) cheered, "Yes!"

Then Jimmy swung his sword.

Martyn Littlewood was slain by Jimmy Solidarity

"Jimmy, we could have gotten more out of him!" Pearl scolded.

Jimmy just stood there, huffing. Then he straightened and said, "That felt really good."

Scott burst out laughing. Scar also chuckled.

Pearl glared at the three boys disapprovingly, and I had to agree with her. We could have pulled more information from Martyn, maybe even gotten him onto our side.

I picked up the Red Crown, feeling a sudden urge to put it on.

No, I told myself. Crown bad.

I caught Scar eyeing the crown hungrily, so I climbed the spiral staircase and left the Tower to see the cactus patch. It was dawn now, with the last of the monsters just burning away.

I examined the Crown again. It seemed to be made of pure gold, but there were tiny streaks of red in it that I hadn't seen before. A thin crack ran down it from where Martyn had killed Ren the very first time, during the tests of loyalty. It was definitely the same crown.

How had it gotten here?

Scott, Pearl, Jimmy, and Scar joined me. I unceremoniously threw the crown into the cactus farm and turned away. We wouldn't be seeing that again.

"What now?" Scott asked. "Are we just doing a free-for-all or what?"

We all knew that we had been together too long to go into a battle royale.

"What now..." Pearl echoed, staring into the distance.

Now, you all die.

The combined voices of both Watchers rang across the landscape. It gave me a splitting headache, and I could see my friends fighting it as well.

No, the Listener countered.

And then all three beings materialized out of thin air. My allies and I stumbled backward in fear.

The Watchers were like pitch-black voids in a humanoid shape, but above each of their heads floated a familiar symbol, like a rectangle with dots on two corners. It was horizontal, like a halo. I couldn't place where I had seen it before. They were just silhouettes, but I could see the shapes of wings on their backs and hoods on their heads.

The Listener had the build of a woman and was sort of like them, but they - she - was a grey silhouette instead of black, the color of rain clouds. She, too, had wings, but no hood. Instead, the vague shape of hair flowed down her back. She also had the symbol, but although the Watchers' were deep magenta, hers was more of a pale lilac.

All three beings radiated power, so much that my allies and I found ourselves subconsciously edging towards each other. I had no doubt that the Watchers or Listener could delete us using no more energy than moving their finger. So I let myself be scared. I didn't bother to put on a brave face, because nobody else was.

I saw Tango in the treeline and gestured for him to stay there. He did without complaint.

"These five are under my protection," the Listener said. "You can't."

It took me a minute to realize that her voice was normal and very real. I heard it in my ears, not my head.

"We can and will," one of the Watchers said. I didn't know which one, they looked exactly the same. And I couldn't see their mouths, so I couldn't tell who had spoken. But the voice sounded like Watcher Two.

"I think the people you want to kill should have a say in this, don't you think?" The Listener waved her hand, and suddenly I could see the ghosts.

I counted all of them, which made sense since every Last Lifer still alive was present. They floated in trees, around the sky, and near the ground. Ren was up in his favorite place on the roof of the tower, trying to strangle Martyn, who of course wouldn't die because he was a ghost. Cleo was alone near Scott. Lizzy and Joel held each other tightly in fear. Impulse and Mumbo were next to each other in the cactus patch, not far from where I had dropped the Red Crown. Bigb was also alone, as far from Cleo as he could get. Bdubs and Etho were together with Skiz, switching their gazes between Tango and the Watchers. Grian was pulling faces behind Jimmy and Scar, but quickly backed off and tried to look innocent once he noticed people watching him.

There was a long silence as the ghosts slowly realized that they were visible. Then Bdubs whispered loudly to Etho, "I think they can see us."

Way to state the obvious, Bdubs. Good job.

Ren and Martyn looked around at the sudden quiet, noticed what was going on, and continued trying to murder each other.

Suddenly, a fzzzt sound came from behind us. My four allies and I turned to see what it was and saw a portal, red in color with streaks of gold. When a familiar jungle king stepped out of it, we knew that the time was up for all the Emperors.

Joey looked around, taking in the Watchers, Listener, and ghosts scattered everywhere. Then he said, "Is this a bad time to say that all the Emperors are coming with me?"

Mumbo peered at him from behind a cactus, trembling. "It's a very bad time."

The Watchers didn't answer. One of them raised their hands. They crackled with magenta energy. The other Watcher did the same, followed by the Listener.

Realizing what was about to happen, the living and dead alike scrambled for the portal, the only visible exit. Joey was pushed through ahead of the crowd, protesting that it was just for the Emperors. Even Tango ran out of the forest.

All of the ghosts, being able to pass through people, got there first. They made it through the portal to the Empires.

A flash of light interrupted the flow of people, and one ghost was pushed back - Grian. It happened again for Martyn. As if nothing had happened, the rest of the Last Lifers left. Grian and I ran at the portal at the same time, but we also got to it at the same time, resulting in the barrier that held back Grian also holding me back. We were both thrown backward. I landed a little too close to the cactus patch for my liking.

The Watchers and Listener had mustered enough power. I yelled, "NO!" as light purple and magenta combined, releasing a shockwave that broke the ground and disintegrated the portal. Then everything went black.

------

Muffled sounds and colors crossed my vision and hearing, some clearer than others. Over and over, I saw flashes of purple and red. So much red. Fire. Blood. TNT. Rubies on a Netherite scythe. Crimson eyes in the darkness. The glint of a bloodstained axe. Streaks of scarlet in a golden crown.

Was I dead?

If I was dead, then why did everything hurt so much?

Then I gasped and woke up.

I was floating in a black void, surrounded by stars. The only sound I heard was my own gasping breath, which seemed painfully loud compared to the dead silence around me.

Chucks of land surrounded me. I saw a bit of the Shadow Tower crenellations, a hunk of dirty snow from the Team B.E.S.T. castle, and a floating farm that still had sugarcane on it.

There was no sign of the Watchers or Listener. Who had won?

Had everyone gotten back to the Empires safely? I hoped so, even if they couldn't return to their home worlds from there. It's safer than here, I thought as I dodged an uprooted tree.

My foot would have caught on one of the tree's branches, but it passed right through. I had somehow lost both of my remaining lives in the shockwave. I was a ghost.

Since I couldn't interact with anything, there was nothing to do but float and try to spot anything familiar in the debris.

If this was my life now, I almost hoped it would end. I got bored after about two seconds.

I wiped away the tears that I couldn't stop from coming. I would never see Gem again, because even if she did make another dream communicator, ghosts didn't sleep. I would spend all eternity in the remains of Last Life until I found release through deletion. My only hope was the Listener.

But what if Martyn was right and she abandoned those Evolutioners?

What if she had abandoned me?

I buried my head in my hands, not sure what to believe anymore.

"Why are you cry- wait, no, I think I know."

I looked up to see Grian. That was right, the portal hadn't let him through either. But spending the rest of eternity with an annoying prankster who pushed people into walls was better than spending the rest of eternity completely and utterly alone.

"Hi," I said, sniffing and wiping away the next wave of tears.

"Hey."

There was an awkward silence.

"So, I guess this is our life now."

I nodded, and we were quiet for another minute

"Well, I suppose I should tell someone," he sighed. Then he launched into a story.

"I'm not actually from the Physical Reality," Grian said. "I used to live in a world in the Dream Void, kind of like Third and Last Life. It was called Evolution. The Watchers ruled us, before we knew they were bad, and every so often they would give us new technology to use. Then they brought the Ender Dragons, plural, into the world."

I looked up. "And you're telling this to me because..."

"You're just easier to talk to than most people. You've probably noticed that a lot of people tell you secrets and things that they don't tell anyone else. It's kind of an instinct to trust you, which would be really bad if you wanted to hurt anyone. You're like Scar, but a lot nicer and with other interests besides diamonds and his cat."

I remembered when Scar had confessed how he had gotten his powers, when Pearl had told me her backstory, and even further back, when Etho had come to me to blow up the Crastle even though they were my allies. I had never noticed before, but people did tend to trust me more.

"The Watchers had us each fight an Ender Dragon, in a different level of reality. It's hard to explain, but we all won our own battle. When we all entered the same level again, we gathered at the portal and jumped in. But as we traveled through the Dream Void back to our homes, we heard the Watchers having a conversation. They said that they were proud of our achievements. They offered one of us the chance to become Watcher Three. That person accepted.

"Right after he did, the rest of us realized that the Watchers weren't who we thought they were. They had us in a death loop where we would die, they would feed off our pain, and then let us respawn and start over. But we had hope, because someone else with power equal to the Watchers helped us. That person was the Listener. They chose a couple people to be messengers. Those people were Martyn and Jimmy. Watcher Three tried to sabotage the Watchers from the inside.

"They didn't get all of us out before the Watchers sealed Evo off from the Dream Void and took the world into the Downside-Up, where they lived. I was one of the lucky people who escaped. So were Bigb, Jimmy, and Pearl. But others didn't make it out and were deleted, or so we thought. Martyn. Several others."

His voice cracked on the word "others."

"Watcher Three, or Xelqua as the Watchers called him, was exiled into the Dream Void, but even though we searched, we couldn't find him. The Void is just too big..

"We were just floating in the Void for a while. We tried to stay together, but we got separated. Jimmy managed to get to X Life, from what I've heard. Bigb made it to a world called Roblox. Pearl got to Legacy. I went to Hermitcraft. It was a few years before Third Life started, and you know the rest."

There was a moment of quiet where I took all that in. It was the most detailed version of the story I had heard yet. "Wow."

"A fascinating story, but not the whole truth," a voice said from behind us.

We turned around to see a black silhouette.

A Watcher.

The knot of fear deep in my stomach grew bigger.

Grian turned the color of the snow on Magical Mountain.

The figure pulled out a sword. With a jolt, I realized that it was the same sword that he had offered me, back when I had lost my memories and didn't know who Gem was - the one with the three hearts in the hilt.

He abruptly pointed it at Grian. A bolt of purple light came out of the tip of the blade and struck him. In a flash of light, Grian was no longer human.

Grian had wings as well now, but they were a light blue-grey. He had the same halo, the same symbol. When he raised his head to glare at the being, his irises were pure white. His hair was mostly dark grey now, with a little bit of normal golden brown at the tips.

"When are you going to stop hiding who you really are, Grian Xelqua Buildoff... or should I say, Watcher Three?"

~~~

Aaand...

That's where the book ends.

HA! TAKE THAT FOR DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING EXCEPT BEING WONDERFUL!

-Indigo