I told Jimmy about the conversation the next morning. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, he looked about as nervous about the thought of leading as I felt.

Jimmy also had some thoughts on the Joey situation. "He contacted me in a dream once, tried to get me to die and go home. But something seemed off. I don't think Gem would have given a priceless crystal to him."

I nodded. "That's what I thought, too. But then the Listener confirmed to me that Joey couldn't be trusted."

"If he's trying to get us home, then isn't that a good thing?"

"He's working for Xornoth. We'll probably be captured as soon as we wake up. And there would still be people here."

"So we've got a time limit to get Etho and Scar to get along," Jimmy muttered. "Wonderful."

"What do you think the Listener meant when they said that Ren, Martyn, and Tango were too far gone?"

He shrugged. "Ren's been influenced before," he said. "In his home world as well as Third and Last Life. Maybe that's what they meant by that. But I don't know about Martyn and Tango."

That was what I had been thinking, too.

Then I remembered the voice of Watcher Two, talking to Martyn. The reason I had been put into here in the first place.

"The Watchers have been talking to Martyn," I said.

"He wouldn't listen," Jimmy denied, but it sounded like a question.

"When you stole that life from him? The Watcher was talking to him right at that moment, telling him to get it back."

"That's why he was so determined!" Then he frowned. "Why do I not remember seeing you at all before the Wither fight?"

"I was a ghost. The Watchers stuck me in there right after you stole the life."

Then I waited for the facts to click together.

Jimmy's eyes widened. "Were you that voice that came out of nowhere?"

I nodded.

"Thanks for letting me get away," he said quietly.

"Don't think it'll happen again. Stealing is wrong. I only stopped Martyn because the Watchers obviously wanted him to have that life."

Jimmy nodded. We had silently come to an agreement to work together, at least until we figured out all this Listener stuff.

We went to Jimmy's house first, to talk to Scott. I was a little nervous to face him again after the argument, especially since he was red.

But when we got there, Scott only saw Jimmy at first. He yelled at him for running off without telling Scott, and then he yelled at me for hanging out with red names that could kill me at any moment.

"Nice to see you too," I muttered sarcastically, but deep inside the statement was true.

Jimmy laughed.

"Why are you hanging out with red names?" Scott said.

"Because Jimmy said he didn't have any red name urges. And then I had a dream from the Listener that said that you didn't, either."

Scott thought for a minute. "That's true," he said finally. "I don't feel any different."

I felt the bandage around my midsection, where my cut was still hurting, but it had stopped bleeding. Ren did feel different. And he was probably hunting me right now.

I straightened up. "I need to go," I said.

"Why?" Scott asked.

"Ren's after the Nether star," I said, and ran out of the house.

As I left, I heard Jimmy say, "She has the Nether star? How did I not know this?"

Scott replied, "Maybe because she didn't tell you." Then I was out of earshot.

It was a long way home, but I forced myself to run for most of it.

I collapsed onto the floor and pulled off the loose floorboards, then started to dig. When my shovel hit the hard wooden chest, I pulled it out and opened it. I dug through the pile of gems and metals, putting aside a potion, an extra sword, and a golden apple before I found it.

I sighed with relief as I clutched the Nether Star.

A voice drifted in through the window.

"She left, I saw her and Jimmy go but I didn't see them come back," someone said.

I peered out the window. Three robed and hooded figures were walking leisurely toward my tower. They all had cloth masks, two of which were red and one was green.

I wasted no time puzzling over their identities. I ran up the tower, grabbing a few splash potions, and got ready to throw slowness, harm, and poison out the window.

"Why are we even doing this?" The one in the green mask grumbled. "We don't need the star. And Blue doesn't seem to want to use it anytime soon."

"I want it. If we can't get the star, we can't wear masks," one of the red masks replied, muffled by the cloth.

They started rattling the gate, trying to get in.

So I rained chaos upon them.

Harming came first, followed by slowness and then poison. They all yelled in surprise. Most of it was directed at the first guy, in a red mask, who had told them that I was gone.

Those were all the potions I had, so I stuffed the Nether star in my pocket and used my pickaxe to bash a hole in the wall. I ran the opposite way that they had come from, all the way back to Scott and Jimmy's house.

They didn't seem to be home, but I barged in anyway. I needed a place to hide until... well, I didn't really know. It was obvious that the masked people would keep coming after me as long as I stayed on the surface. But I wasn't about to go underground again.

A knock came at the door, probably someone coming to see Scott or Jimmy. I peeked out the windows in the door and was surprised to see Scar.

I didn't want to open the door, in case the Listener was wrong and he was out to kill people.

Scar waited another minute and then peered into the window, his crimson eyes glinting. I ducked.

Scar knocked again, then after a few more seconds, left. I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding and stood up.

I waited another half hour before leaving. I wasn't quite sure where I was going, probably the Roctopus or some other abandoned settlement. Or I could build a new one.

I thought about moving around the world, taking my stuff with me everywhere I went so I could always have everything I needed. I would never have to worry about reds attacking my home because I didn't have a home.

That sounded like the best option.

For my first destination, I headed to the secret base. I needed to make up with Pearl.

I had everything I needed: full diamond gear from Joel's death and my own mining sessions, a supply of steaks and carrots for food, Ren's sunglasses and axe, and of course, the Nether star. I also had the Enchanter, which Scar had dropped when he turned red. They couldn't steal from me if I kept moving.

Night fell, and I sped up to a slow jog to avoid monsters. Even so, I did get a few cuts and scrapes here and there. I got a large red welt on my leg from a spider bite, and a bruise from a skeleton arrow hitting my armor. But I made it through with only minor injuries.

I stepped down the staircase into the bunker. I hadn't heard anyone yet, but that didn't say much. Pearl was a heavy reader, and Etho was pretty quiet anyway.

When I got down there, I found Pearl sitting in the living room. As I had expected, she was reading a book, but Etho was gone.

Pearl looked up as I came in. "How many apples- Blue?"

"Hi, Pearl," I said. "Am I still allowed here?"

Pearl's eyes brightened. "Of course!"

"I'm sorry about Scott. And Scar."

Pearl set her book down. "How did Scar die? He died, and then you killed Ren, so I assumed you were there."

"Well, Scar and I were talking, and I let it slip that I had the Nether star. Then Ren came out and threatened to kill Scar if I didn't tell him where it was."

"Oh no," Pearl said.

"I distracted him and then we ran. We managed to get down the mountain and part way up the hill to my tower before Ren shot Scar. I grabbed the Enchanter and ran inside. Ren tried to get in, but I was waiting and killed him." I showed her my three trophies from that battle: the Enchanter, the sunglasses, and Winter Shadow.

"That is... quite the story," Pearl said. "So now that you've had your break, are you staying?"

I shook my head. "I think I'm going to travel around, build temporary shelters in a lot of places. It'll help me stay alive longer."

Pearl nodded. "Well, I think we'll have to leave the bunker anyway. There's more than-"

Then our communicators buzzed.

Etho Slab was blown up by a creeper

"Dang it," Pearl said. "I was going to kill him."

I sucked in my breath and scrambled to get out. In all the action, I had forgotten that one of the yellows was a Boogeyman.

Why was it always the Scottage? The second selection, Joel had killed Scott, followed by Pearl killing Joel and starting a rivalry. The third selection, Pearl had been killed. The fourth, Cleo had been killed and a new member had joined the Scottage, followed by her blowing up. The sixth, Scott and I had been chosen. The seventh, Pearl had been chosen. The eighth, Scott had been chosen and turned red. And now Pearl was chosen again.

Etho respawned and stomped into the room, both of his eyes red now instead of just one.

"My place. Get out," he said.

Pearl grabbed her book. "How did you die to a creeper?"

Etho glared. "I was an idiot. Now leave."

He didn't seem to care that I was there, which was fine by me.

Pearl got up. "Let me pack first. Jeez."

Etho stepped aside so she could enter her room. Then he turned his masked glare at me. "What are you doing here? You left."

I shrugged. "Maybe I planned on coming back."

Etho rolled his eyes.

"I didn't," I admitted.

Etho snorted. At least he had enough human in him to laugh sometimes.

Pearl came out of the bedroom with a backpack slung over one shoulder. I gave one last dagger glare to Etho before we left.

Pearl squinted at the sudden sunlight after days of being underground. I helped lead her to the cover of the forest, where she could see a little better.

One more red.

We sat down on a few rocks while we let Pearl's eyes adjust to the light.

"I honestly thought you would be in the secret base," the heavily accented voice of Scott said from behind us.

We turned around. Jimmy was there as well.

Pearl yelped and drew her sword. "No, they're fine," I told her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Jimmy nodded in agreement. "We don't feel any killing urges. Major ones, anyway."

Pearl did not laugh. She lowered her sword, but didn't put it away.

"So, why were you going back to the secret base?" she asked.

"We need to hide," Scott said, glancing around. "Tango and Ren tried to kill us."

"Oh, no," I gasped. "Why?"

"Well, Ren offered us a place in the new Red Army first," Jimmy said. "But we refused, so he and Tango tried to murder us."

Pearl's eyes widened. "Did you say they're chasing you?"

Scott nodded slowly. "Yes."

"As in, right now?"

"Uh-huh."

"THEN YOU JUST LED THEM STRAIGHT HERE! We have to warn Etho!" Pearl ran toward the entrance to the base, hidden by a pile of dirt.

"Etho!" Pearl screamed down the stairway. "You have to get out of there! Jimmy and Scott accidentally led Ren and Tango straight here!"

She listened to his answer, then turned around and shook her head. Etho did not want to leave.

"Pearl, we have to go," I said.

With one last glance at the entrance to the bunker, she covered it up and ran with us.

We got far enough away that we could slow down. Then the four of us walked, checking our communicators every few seconds to see a death message.

It didn't take long.

Etho Slab was slain by Tango Tek

Pearl sniffled. Scott looked guilty for leading the reds there. Even I felt a little sad, even though Etho was not my favorite person. Jimmy shrugged and kept walking.

Pearl kept her distance from Scott and Jimmy, no matter how many times I assured her that they were on our side.

We talked about Pearl's Boogeyman situation. Since she didn't want to kill me, the only available target was Martyn. And nobody had seen him in a while.

"He'd be at the Southlands or the Shadow Tower," Jimmy said when we asked him about the location of his fellow Southlander. "But if he's at the Southlands, the Boogey kill's going to have to wait, because that traitor isn't welcome there anymore."

"Neither are you," I reminded him.

Jimmy shrugged again.

Since we were all Emperors, I also told them about the Listener's update on Joey. "They said we don't have much time."

"We need to find Scar," Scott said randomly. "If Ren and Tango get him on their side, it won't end well for us."

I nodded in agreement. Scar was very persuasive, not to mention his magic.

We started the journey to Magical Mountain.

It wasn't far. The hills that the secret base entrance was in were the same hills that Magical Mountain rose from. But it still took an hour to get there and another two to climb it.

"This guy needs to make a staircase or something," Pearl panted.

I silently agreed, too tired to say anything out loud.

We finally got to the top and sat in the grass for a minute to rest. I gulped down my entire water bottle, hoping Scar had a source up here.

We went to the door of the house and knocked. Scar did not answer, and for a minute I feared he was already on the wrong side. Then the door opened.

"Hi! I was just about to go looking for you, Scott! And you have company! Hi! Come in, come on in!"

You can probably tell why that made me fear for my life, just a little bit. And why I let Jimmy go in first.

I barely had any space in the tiny reception room. "Scar, can we maybe take this outside?"

"Sure!"

So out we went.

Once we were all in the yard that apparently doubled as a storage area, Scar said eagerly, "What happened to the Enchanter?"

Scott crossed his arms. "Seriously, is that thing all you care about?"

Scar looked offended. "No! I care about other things, too. Like copper and diamonds!"

I shook my head. He wasn't helping himself. "I have it, but I'm not giving it to you until you learn to share it."

Scar pouted. "I did share it! For a price."

"Exactly," Pearl said, shooting me a look of approval.

"I also have Ren's sunglasses and axe," I added. "It's called Winter Shadow."

"I don't like winter," Jimmy said. "It feels like it has to go right after the word red now."

Everyone except Pearl and Scar winced. She hadn't been there, and he had died before things really escalated.

"Ooh, I should steal their banner," Scar said.

"No!" Scott looked like he wanted to smack him. "That is how you died last time!"

Jimmy looked wounded. "But that's the voice you always use on me," he said.

Scott kept glaring at Scar. "No, that's the voice I use to keep idiots from getting themselves killed. It never works, though. Maybe because the idiots I'm talking to won't listen because they're idiots."

I coughed to hide my laughter.

Scar agreed to travel with us, but I was pretty sure it was only so he could maybe get the Enchanting table back.

Nice try, Scar, I thought wryly.

The three reds followed Pearl and me to the Shadow Tower to get Pearl's Boogey kill on Martyn.

"What if you fail?" Scar asked.

Very helpful, Scar. Nice job making her nervous.

Pearl shrugged. "Then I guess I'll be red." But her voice shook a little.

"You can kill me," I offered. "I'll forgive you, once I finish sulking."

Pearl shook her head. "Ha, ha, no," she said. "I told you I'm not going to kill you. I'm keeping that promise."

Part of me was extremely relieved. But part of me was worried, because I didn't want to be the only yellow in this group.

I tried not to think about that. I tried to think about going, seeing no reds there, killing Martyn, and happily skipping away with sunshine and rainbows and preferrably no more murder.

Somehow, I couldn't see that happening.

I wonder why.

We arrived at the Shadow Tower. Like the last time I had visited, it seemed darker somehow. The shadows seemed deeper, the shade colder, and an eerie feeling filled the air.

They hadn't filled the crater that had been left in the Battle of Shadow Tower, back when I was Boogeyman. Bigb's hut was still up, but it probably housed someone else now.

We went into his hut first, to see if that was where Martyn was staying. It was rather messy, and several redstone components were scattered around the floor. Redstone dust gathered in the corners and cracks in between the floorboards.

As far as I knew, Martyn did not do redstone.

Scar picked up a piston. "Tango was here," he said. "Don't open any chests or do anything that could trigger a trap."

We found no one inside the hut, so we went out of it, watching where we were stepping.

"Okay, the Tower has a smaller floor space than the hut," Scott said. "Only a few of us should go inside, for stealth reasons."

Pearl was an obvious choice, since she actually needed the kill. Scott volunteered to go in as a red name in case Ren or Tango or both were inside and needed to be distracted. Jimmy wanted to confront Martyn, but Scott shut him down because of his "lack of survival skills." I also volunteered, ducking back into the woods to hide the Nether star, Winter Shadow axe, and enchanting table. I didn't trust Scar not to run away with them, and I didn't trust Jimmy not to die with them in his inventory.

Scar and Jimmy made camp just outside the courtyard while we went into the Shadow Tower.

The tower had gotten some remodeling since I had last seen the inside. The hole that Skiz had fallen down for Ren's Boogey kill had been exposed. The shaft went all the way down, with several rooms carved into the walls. At the very bottom was a meeting room.

We peered down into the meeting room and found all three of our enemies. It clicked that they must have been the three people in the cloaks and masks who had come to get the Nether star, and before that, the three who had killed Cleo and me. I realized that the colors of their masks represented the amount of lives they had.

They still wore robes, but their hoods and masks were down. I could only see the tops of their heads, but I recognized Martyn's blonde hair, Tango's curly gold with red horns, and Ren's chocolate brown with wolf ears not unlike mine. Ren wore a familiar golden crown that gave me shivers to look at.

This was all that existed of the new Red Army. But it was still formidable, because they had a combat pro king, his Hand, and a redstone and trap master.

Scott, Pearl, and I exchanged glances. We weren't expecting to find all three of them in the middle of a meeting. One, maybe two. But we couldn't handle three without at least one of us dying.

So we listened in.

"If we can get Pearl or Blue on our side, they could be a mole," Tango said. "I remember we had Mumbo during the Prank War. He was really helpful."

"Until we discovered him," Ren said. "And stole his mustache. Then Molebo Gumbo was just Mumbo Gumbo."

The two of them laughed. Martyn, who was probably not from Hermitcraft, crossed his arms. "Can we please be productive?"

"No," Tango said, at the same time that Ren said, "Fine."

"But Etho said they're moving around now," Martyn said, ignoring Tango. "How do we find them?"

"Wait for them to turn red, then we'll figure that out," Ren growled. "I'm already mad that we had to kill Etho. I'm not turning them red, or they'll never join us."

I breathed a sigh of relief. At least they weren't after us yet.

"Any word on Scott or Jimmy?" Ren asked.

"No. Martyn and I followed them for a long time. That's how we found Etho. But they got away while we were in his bunker," Tango replied.

"Dang it," Ren huffed. "What about Scar? Have you found him yet?"

"We visited Magical Mountain after we killed Etho," Martyn said. "He wasn't there."

Ren threw his hands up in the air. "How are we supposed to grow the army if we can't find any recruits?"

Martyn and Tango were silent.

"At least tell me you got food," Ren said.

The topic of their conversation turned to how many cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens each of them had killed. Martyn stayed silent for most of the report, letting Tango tell their king everything.

"What if we killed Blue?" Martyn said randomly. "I know there's a demon in her home world that would love to get his hands on her."

I felt the blood leave my face as Scott and Pearl turned to look at me.

"I don't want to waste a good fighter," Ren said, shaking his head. "Besides, what do we have to do with some foreign demon? What would he do for us?"

Martyn was quiet for a minute. "He'd get us out of here," he said.

"It's almost over anyway," Tango said. "There's not many people left still yellow and green."

Martyn got visibly uncomfortable.

How did he know about Xornoth? He wasn't from the Empires. As far as I knew, I had never told him about the corruption. I hadn't really talked to him in Last Life, and I didn't remember anything in Third Life.

Was Xornoth working with the Watchers?

No, that was crazy.

But something on Scott's face hinted that he had the same idea.

"Okay, I think that's it for now," Ren said. "Martyn, remember that you can't kill people yet. Stay here and hold the fort. Tango and I will track down Jimmy and Scott, and then Scar."

Sensing them coming up the stairs, I pulled my friends out of the tower and courtyard, into the forest. I found Jimmy and Scar and had them come, too. We watched Tango and Ren come out of the tower, red masks and purple hoods up to cover all but their crimson eyes. But Ren still had his crown on, which kind of made the hood and mask useless.

Once the sound of their voices had faded into the trees, Scott, Pearl, and I went back into the tower.

Scott was the first to drop into the meeting room. "Hi."

Martyn yelled as Pearl and I came in as well. The surprise attack gave him barely any time to pull his axe out.

Pearl dodged a blow and smacked him with the flat of her blade. It clanged against hidden armor.

"Nice cult you've got going here," Pearl said, before bashing his head in with the handle of her axe. I looked away, but I didn't have to hide from the gruesome sight for long, because Martyn's corpse erupted into lime green flames and disappeared.

Martyn Littlewood was slain by Pearlescent Moon

"He'll respawn any minute," Scott said. "We need to get out of here."

Pearl nodded, the guilt taking over even though Martyn had wanted to kill me, and started to climb the stairs. We left Martyn's items on the floor. We weren't mean enough to keep them.

We ran out of the tower and to Jimmy and Scar's camp. "Pack up," Pearl told them. "We need to go. Ren and Tango will probably be back in a few minutes.

Scar and Jimmy nodded and put out the fire. I went to the tree where I had stashed the valuables and gathered them, and then we were ready to go.

We were all silent for the whole trip, except for Jimmy asking once, "So, what happened in there?" But when no one answered, he went quiet as well.

We didn't stop moving until we were at the Roctopus, where we set up a new camp. Jimmy decided to keep watch, promising to wake us if he felt anything seemed out of place, and the rest of us spread out sleeping bags and drifted off.

"I've found a way to get you out!"

Joey's voice came before he did, but once I saw him, I wished I hadn't.

He was wearing a lot of red - like a LOT of red. The only other colors he wore were the gold on his crown and the yellow of his ocelot skin cloak. And he had a diamond in his belt. But other than that, he was just wearing shades of scarlet and crimson.

"Don't yet. We need to do something while we're here," I told him.

"But I can get all of you guys out right now! Why would you refuse that?"

"Because there are other people here who don't deserve to have half their allies disappear right as they charge into battle," I said.

"Who else is here?"

"Just a few people from other worlds," I said dismissively.

"But... don't you want to come home?"

I winced. "More than anything," I said. "But I know there's a certain demon and his certain sidekick, who happens to be right in front of me, who would love to get their hands on me, and I'm not going to let them."

Joey fumed at being exposed. "You're coming whether you want to or not. And when you do come, Xornoth will have all his enemies in one place."

He flickered and disappeared.

Then I woke up.

"We're running out of time," I said as soon as I woke up. "Joey's found a way."

"Did he visit you guys?" Jimmy asked, alarmed.

Scott, Pearl, and I nodded gravely.

"It's none of my business..." Scar said. "But what's going on?"

"There's a demon at home and he's trying to... well, I don't really know what he's trying to do. But he's corrupting our Empires and trying to generally take over. He's got this helper, Joey, and Joey is trying to find a way to get us home so Xornoth can deal with us." Scott explained.

"And we don't want to go home quite yet, because we need to stop that whole Shadow thing that the Listener was talking about," I added.

"But it'll happen soon, so we need to either get this figured out or stop Joey somehow," Pearl said.

"The upside to this mess is that Martyn won't need to kill Blue if we're already going home, where Xornoth wants her," Scott said.

"Wait, what?" Jimmy said.

"That's not an upside," I mumbled.

"Why does Xornoth want to get Blue? And why does Martyn want to kill her?"

"Martyn somehow knows about Xornoth," Pearl said. "And he wants to kill her because apparently that will allow him to get to her."

"Yeah, but why is Xornoth after her?"

"Isn't it obvious?" I growled, staring into the distance. "He considers Gem a threat, but she won't do what he wants so he's going to use me against her."

Scar opened his mouth to blurt something out, then thought better of it and said instead, "Who's Gem?"

"My sister," I replied. "She's a wizard."

"Oh, okay. Like me?"

"Sort of. Except she doesn't sell her magic, she gives it to whoever needs it."

Scar did not get my hint.

The conversation turned to the Red King, his allies, and Pearl's Boogey kill. It still wasn't a good subject, but it was better than Why Does a Demon Want to Capture Blue Tay.

"We have to keep moving," Scott said abruptly. "We don't know where the Red Army is. They could be coming here right now."

We all nodded and started to pack up.

"So... where are we going next?" Scar asked me. I noticed the others looking at me as well.

Was I the leader now or something?

I didn't want to be.

"Where do you guys want to go?" I asked.

"We could go loot the snow castle and Scottage," Scar said.

"There would be some pretty good materials," Pearl agreed.

So we went east to the Scottage area.

I went to my own tower. When the Red Army had come to take the Nether star, I had been in such a hurry to leave that I forgot to hide my other valuables. So when I went inside, the chest was empty. But that didn't bother me much, because I had taken all the weapons and potions out, as well as a full suit of diamond armor for myself. I was fine.

We gathered all the good stuff that remained from the catacombs under the Scottage. The sugarcane farm was destroyed, the crops gathered from all the hidden chests.

We also climbed Magical Mountain to finish what Scar and I had been doing when we were ambushed by Ren.

Scar went to his hidden valuables chest and gathered all that he wanted from there. He had enough diamonds to make a chestplate for himself, but he only actually did once Scott pointed out that he had them. He claimed that he "hadn't realized how many enchantment passes he had sold."

The Team B.E.S.T. snow castle didn't have much. They had stored their valuables in the secret base, and we didn't dare go back there in case a member of the Red Army was looting it. Our goal was to stay alive, which was kind of hard to do when you ran straight into danger.

We stayed the night in the forest near the Scottage. It was my turn to keep watch, which I was actually pretty glad about. I didn't want to deal with another conversation with Joey.

I spent the night reading one of Pearl's books, even though I didn't particularly love reading. I was bored.

The book was a story about a fish-human hybrid brother and sister who were chased from their home by their ancient enemy, the Salmon Ghost. They went on land, where they became full humans and forgot their past. The story was mostly about how they regained those memories and found each other again. It sounded a lot like Gem and me in Third Life.

When I had finished the book, I laid down and stared up at the stars. What was going on back at the Empires? Was Gem okay?

And what was happening in the Shadow Tower? Were they meeting by moonlight, talking about the perfect moment to strike?

I could almost hear the quiet rustle of the grass as they crept up to speak to each other.

Then I realized I actually was hearing it.

I sat up and looked around, all senses on full alert.

I reached out to shake Scott's shoulder and wake him, but drew my hand back at the last minute. It was probably a wild pig or a fox or something.

When it came out of the bushes, I sighed with relief.

A chicken. A freaking chicken.

I spent the rest of the night thinking about how I would roast Joey if he brought us back to the Empires. It made me feel a little better.

By the time everyone was awake the next morning, I had breakfast already made and ready to eat. I was anxious to get moving.

"Why?" Pearl asked when I told everyone to hurry up.

"I don't know!" was my response.

It was the truth.

"So, where are we going next?" Jimmy said.

"Caving! Extra tiny, claustrophobic caves!" Scott cheered. Then I glared at him, and he said, "Joking! Jeez."

We spent the day just kind of wandering around, trying not to go in circles. But I swore I saw that one boulder at least three times.

We came to random structures, like cobblestone towers and tiny dirt shacks, that people had built to ward off monsters and possibly other Last Lifers. We checked the insides of the ones we could go inside for anything useful, but there was nothing there.

It only seemed like a couple hours had passed, but before I knew it, it was nightfall.

Pearl kept watch that night. We were camping in the hills up north, although not the same hills that Magical Mountain and the secret base were in. She sat and played with her pet axolotl, teaching it tricks and giving it fish as rewards. It made me ache for Jell-O, my pet baby slime back in the Empires, or even Gandalf, Gem's cat who hated me with every fiber of his being.

Scar also looked sad when he saw the axolotl. But he fell asleep quickly, muttering something about jelly.

Jimmy stared at the axolotl. "Don't let it die," he joked. "Lizzie would murder you, ghost or not."

Pearl laughed as the amphibian happily splashed water at her from its bucket.

That was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.

You only have a few more days, the Listener warned.

"I know."

They are the Red Army now, but they won't be for long. I sense a betrayal in the future, although I do not know by whom.

"What do we do?"

They will strike first. They are on their way right now to bring Pearl onto their side. Don't search for her. Let her return. Then let her spy for you. They will tell her their plans. But be wary, for they may watch her.

"THEY'RE GOING TO TAKE PEARL?"

Yes. But not to kill her. She will return unharmed.

"How do you know all this?"

Be prepared.