Chapter Text
The portal would take her away from Hermitcraft.
It was the only thing Gem was certain of anymore. The world she knew and loved crumbled around her; the Moon sank her teeth into it and slowly tore it apart. There was no way to stop it. There was nothing left untried, no sacrifice left unmade. The hermits could only run.
Gem didn’t have a particular destination in mind when she built the portal. All she wanted was to go somewhere safe, somewhere with her friends, somewhere where the moon didn’t loom in the sky, slowly, crushingly coming closer and closer. Maybe she would arrive in Season nine. Maybe she’d find herself in a lonely single player world. As long as it wasn’t here, in the ruin of everything she knew and loved.
Time was running out. Half remembered magic guided her. Her hands acted on instinct. They seemed to know where to place the blocks, what gestures to make, what words to whisper into the suffocating silence of the world. Gem built her portal of amethyst, moss, glow stone, and sea lanterns. She lit it with desire and fear.
Gem took one last look at the burning world. Her deer stood proudly arched against the moon. Her beautiful base that she had worked so hard on seemed almost peaceful.
“Goodbye,” she whispered. Tears stung her eyes. Gem turned to the portal and stepped through it.
She was falling.
It was dark.
She was falling.
Falling.
Falling.
Falling.
Darkness and void.
Gem began to panic as it didn’t end. She tried to breathe but couldn’t. She tried to scream but the void muffled her. Gem flailed wildly as panic set in.
Her eyes struggled to see something that wasn’t black. They rebelled against the void, searching desperately for anything that wasn’t more emptiness. Then she saw the eyes. Huge, purple eyes, with rectangular pupils. One moment nothing and the next they surrounded her. They stared at her, through her. Their gaze pinned her like a struggling insect against the blackness.
She could feel the emotions, the thoughts, the horrible hurt malice searching seeking-
It hurt. Searing pain radiated through her. No escape, pinned to the darkness by the eyes eyes eyes-!
Gem blinked and they were gone. An aftermirage from staring too hard at nothing.
Below her in the void, something glimmered. Light! Pale blue, struggling and dim, but still, something that wasn’t void and terrible eyes. Gem angled herself to fall toward it.
With a burst of fresh air Gem left the black void behind, falling through the air of a fresh world. She took a deep breath, which turned into a gasp. She was still falling. The ground was rapidly coming nearer. She scrambled to open her inventory. It was empty. No elytra, no water bucket, nothing to break her fall. Gem gave a half scream before her body connected with the ground. She blacked out.
Gem's whole body screamed in pain. She could feel bruises all over. She moved slightly, cataloging her injuries. As far as she could tell nothing seemed to be broken. Gem opened her eyes, blinking at the light of the sun. Hazily she could see three figures above her.
Gem blinked again. The figures resolved into faces and people. Two of them were very familiar.
“Pearl? Cleo?” Gem exclaimed. She sat up. The sudden motion made her head swim and throb. She rubbed her forehead.
“Who are you?” Pearl demanded.
“Don’t move,” Cleo threatened. Gem froze. She hadn’t noticed they were armed. Pearl aimed a bow at Gem’s throat. Cleo pointed a sword at her chest. The stranger held a sword as well, this one in glistening diamond. It matched his hair and eyes. Both were bright teal. His face was a hard mask.
“Guys, it’s me!” Gem said. True to instructions she didn’t move. Pearl was deadly with the bow when she needed to be. Not that it required much skill to hit something at point blank range. “I’m so glad you made it! Pearl, I knew you had the Boatem rocket but Cleo, I was so worried about you!”
Pearl and Cleo’s brows wrinkled in confusion.
“What are yeh talking about mate?” Pearl demanded. Her aussie accent came through stronger, as it always did in times of stress.
Gem frowned. “Guys. It’s me. Gem!”
“I’ve never met you before in my life.” Cleo snapped. Their sword stayed aimed at Gem’s chest.
“She’s probably a spy,” declared the silent man. A Scottish accent added a pleasant lilt to his speech. “Probably from the southern lands. Or BEST.”
“But where has she been all this time?” Cleo said. “Pearl, Lizzie and I are the only girls.”
“True,” Scott said. “We need to find out more. But we can’t question her here. Let’s take her back to the old base.”
Pearl and Cleo nodded. Gem was too dazed and confused to resist as they dragged her to her feet and tied her hands up.
They marched her through the forest. Cleo kept a firm grip on her arm. Gem didn’t resist. Her mind was racing in confusion. Why didn’t they recognize her? Who was the stranger? Why were they so tense? Why did they think she was a spy? Where were the other hermits?This is really feeling like it isn’t season nine of hermitcraft!
They came up to a wall. Gem’s builder brain eyed it critically. It was made out of tuff and deep slate. Pretty boring.
Pearl and the stranger led the way around it, to a simple entrance. Gem was rather…disappointed at the view.
“Wow. Looks like an explosion happened,” she said, cheerily. Maybe she could connect with Pearl and Cleo…?
“That’s because one did,” the stranger said grimly.
“Oh,” Gem said.
“Oh is right,” Pearl said.
Cleo led Gem to a spruce stump.
“Sit,” she ordered. Gem complied. Her hooves ached. So did her head and antlers. Turns out falling 50 ft through an inter dimensional portal hurts. Who knew.
Cleo stepped away to stand beside the blue haired stranger and Pearl. She crossed her arms.
Gem stared up at three glares.
“So. Who are you?” The stranger demanded.
“I already told you; I’m Geminitay, Gem for short.” Gem answered. “Who are you?”
“I’m Scottsmajor. Call me Scott,” he answered.
“You said you knew me,” Pearl chipped in. “Care to elaborate?”
“Yes, of course I know you!” Gem said. “We joined Hermitcraft at the same time!”
Pearl frowned. “Hermitcraft? What’s that?”
“Our server! Our world! Our home!” Gem said, her voice turning shrill. No she wasn’t panicking, why would you think that? She wasn’t watching her best friend forget her. This was fine. Perfectly fine.
“Wait,” Cleo said. They leaned their hand on their sword. “Are you saying you’re from a different world?”
“Maybe??” Gem squeaked. “I don’t know! The moon was falling and the world was ending and I jumped through the portal and it was terrifying, and there were voices, and my hooves hurt and I just want-“ she burst into tears. Huge sobs wracked her body and Gem wished desperately that she could go home. She buried her face in her arms. The tears soaked into her sleeves. Gem couldn’t find it in her to care.
Scott, Pearl and Cleo exchanged awkward glances. Then Pearl walked forward and knelt beside Gem. She gently put her arm around Gem’s shoulders. Gem shuddered with sobs.
“Deep breaths,” Pearl instructed her.
Gem took a shaky breath through her tears.
“Here, eat this,” Pearl ordered, handing her a piece of bread. “It’ll help you heal from the fall.”
Gem took it and munched on it. The pain in her bones eased. Pearl rubbed her shoulders and Gem relaxed into the touch. Pearl reached over and carefully untied Gem’s wrists. Gem smiled gratefully at her.
“So…” Scott said slowly. “You think you travelled across worlds?”
Gem nodded. “I thought I’d end up in the next hermitcraft world.”
“But instead you’re here,” Cleo said. They uncrossed their arms. Gem nodded and sniffed. Pearl handed her a handkerchief and Gem thankfully blew her nose.
“I have a question,” Pearl said.
“Go ahead,” Gem answered. She pushed her hair out of her eyes.
“You seemed to know Cleo and me…” Pearl said, trailing off as if unsure how to finish her question.
Gem waited a moment then answered. “Yeah, we were friends. You were…in my world.”
“But I don’t remember it,” Pearl said. She stood up and sighed.
“Maybe you’re like an alternate version of yourself?” Gem offered. “Sorry, I don’t really know much about any of this. Just what I heard from living near Ren and Doc.”
“Sounds like a sound theory though,” Scott said. “The only question is what do we do with you?”
“Can I stay with you for a bit?” Gem asked hopefully.
“What, here?” Cleo asked, raising an eyebrow and gesturing to the ruined base.
“I’m a good builder, I can help you fix it,” Gem offered.
Scott sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not worth it. Grian or Joel or Scar or someone will just burn it down again.”
“I don’t know Scot…” Pearl said. She shifted side to side and tilted her head. “Should we let her…?”
Scott looked unsure.
“If you don’t want to, I could just try to build another portal and leave,” Gem added.
Scott sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “That’s….a bit of a problem.”
Gem frowned. “What do you mean? I did it before, I’m sure I can do it again!”
“It’s…not easy to leave this world.” Scott said. He ran a hand through his hair again. “In fact it may be impossible. No one can get beyond the Border.”
“But I could still try, right?” Gem asked.
“You could try, but I don’t know that you’d succeed,” Scott said. “And you might die in the attempt.”
“What if I set my spawn here?” Gem asked.
“You could do that, but are you willing to risk a life? How many do you have?” Scott asked.
“How many…?” Gem asked, confused. Scott gestured to a bracelet around his wrist. Gem noticed with a start that all three of them wore similar bracelets, with small heart shaped charms on them. Scott had three on his. Cleo had three as well and Pearl had four. In addition they had a tiny charm with a stylized G.
“Each heart shaped charm represents a life,” Scott explained. “At the start of this world we were all granted a random number of them, from six, to two.”
“You have a bracelet, how many charms are on it?” Pearl asked, gesturing to Gem’s wrist.
Gem looked down at her wrist. To her surprise, a bracelet dangled on her wrist next to her communicator. A bracelet with four dark green heart charms.
“Wait. So I have four lives?” Gem asked, startled. Had it appeared there when she spawned in this world?
Pearl nodded and smiled. “That’s a good amount, mate! Dark green!”
“I’m jealous now,” Cleo chimed in.
Gem stared at the bracelet. Four lives. Only four lives. This was…very new.
“Some of us also have markings that change with our lives.” Scott said. “Like eyes, or hair.” He gestured to his face and the green star-like jewels that hovered around his head.
“The flowers in my hair change,” Cleo said.
Pearl shrugged. “I don’t have any changes that I know of.”
This was…a whole lot to take in. “So..I can try to leave but I risk losing a life. Or I can do nothing and…probably end up dying anyway? How frequent are deaths in this world?”
“At least one a day, usually more,” Cleo said.
“Once a day?! And you all have limited lives? what are you doing?” Gem exclaimed.
“It's the boogieman curse,” Pearl explained, trying to calm Gem. Her words did not work their intended effect.
“There’s a curse?!” Gem squeaked.
“Yep!” Pearl said, far too cheerfully. “Once every few days one or more people are cursed as the boogieman. They must kill another person before the time limit or they lose all but 1 life.”
Ok. Ok. This was fine. She was a good fighter, she could protect herself. Gem ran a hand through her wild curls.
“So I could theoretically get cursed and have to kill someone? Even you guys?”
“Yep!” Scott said. “Cleo lost her first life when BigB, her ally, betrayed and killed her while under the curse.”
“That’s horrible!” Gem said.
“Oh it was,” Cleo agreed. They laughed harshly. “When I go Red I’m killing him.”
Pearl saw the questions in Gem's eyes and helpfully answered. “There’s different colors for lives. Dark green for more than three, light green for three, yellow for two, and red for one. Once on red life you become hostile and you must kill other players. All alliances are broken once that happens. Lives can also be traded among players. Just switch the charms.”
“So…if I get boogieman and don’t kill anyone I’ll have to kill anyway,” Gem said. “If I try to build a portal I have three tries before I become red. And if I die on my last life, then what?”
“You’re dead forever,” Scott said. Gem's eyes widened.
Cleo coughed into her hand. “Although…it’s possible you’ll be reborn again. But it’ll be in a new world.”
Scott nodded. “This is my second world.” His eyes got far away for a moment before returning. They were striking eyes, a light green/teal.
“What if I was returned to hermitcraft?” Gem asked.
“I don’t think that’s likely,” Pearl told her.
“But it might be possible?” Gem said. Please, please let it be possible. She desperately needed hope.
“Maybe. But it’s very unlikely,” Scott answered.
“I have to try to get back though,” Gem said. “Not that you guys aren’t great; but that’s my home! My friends and family!” Pearl, Scott, and Cleo exchanged glances.
“Scott, do we let her…?” Pearl asked, trailing off meaningfully.
Scott pursed his lips.
Gem’s ears perked up.
“I mean, it’s gonna take her a while to set up whatever portal contraption she used to get here.” Pearl pointed out. “And until then she’ll need somewhere to stay. Alone and without resources she’ll be prime boogieman or red target material.”
“I can defend myself,” Gem protested. “I’m a really good swordsman.”
“Yes, but. There’s some really good pvp-ers out there. Not to mention the traps,” Cleo said.
“I could take em,” Gem said confidently.
Another long glance was exchanged among the trio.
“Alright,” Scott said. He held out a hand. “Gem, if you want to officially join our group I extend the invitation.”
“Reall?” Gem asked.
“Really,” Pearl confirmed with a smile.
“Yes!” Gem exclaimed. She jumped up and hugged Pearl. Pearl was rather taken aback but smiled. Cleo had a moment to brace herself before Gem bear hugged her too.
“Welcome to the gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss team,” Scott said, holding out a hand which Gem enthusiastically shook.
“Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss, and Gemini,'' Pearl said.
“The four Gs,” Scott agreed. “Alright, Gs, we’ve stood around too long. Boogieman is being chosen in five minutes. Before that chaos I’d like to equip Gem and Cleo with the stuff from this base and start moving things to the new one.”
Pearl and Cleo nodded.
“Pearl, can you keep watch?” Scott asked. “Let us know if Scar or anyone comes poking around.”
Pearl nodded. She turned and scrambled up the wall. She crouched there and pulled out her bow.
Scott led Gem and Cleo to a secret entrance hidden amongst the rubble. It turned out that the real base was underground. Gem looked around. It looked like it had suffered from fire but she could see the remnants of attempted decoration. Charred wood and water stared at her sadly as she passed. Was this what her old home looked like now? Was her grove a charred pile of wood and ash?
She tried to shake off the melancholy as they reached the end of the stairs. A rattling sound caught her attention. She turned to find the source. “You have a skelly spawner!”
Scott nodded and smiled. “Help yourself to a bow and some arrows. Cleo, you too, you should load up on arrows.”
Gem did as instructed, feeling a little more confident as she slung the bow around her waist. All her gear appeared to have vanished in her fall through the void between worlds.
“And we’ve got some potions,” Scott said, pulling our bottles. “Cleo and Gem, each take one speed, one poison, and one fire resist.”
Cleo and Gem took the bottles as instructed. Scott took some iron and crafted a chestplate, leggings, a sword, an axe, and boots. He handed them to her and Gem smiled as she hefted the sword. It felt good to be armed again.
“We’ll try to get them enchanted for you soon,” Scott said apologetically. “I’m sorry it’s not diamond. Our resources are limited.”
Cleo started helping herself to equipment.
Gem organized her inventory and took some chicken out of a furnace.
“Gem!” Scott said. She turned. He held a green cloak and hood in one hand and a small gold charm shaped like a G in the other.
“Welcome to the alliance,” he said. Gem grinned at him. She clipped the charm to her bracelet and tugged on the cloak. Gem stood there for a moment, fidgeting with her sword.
“Scott?” She asked.
“Yes?” He said, looking up.
“I was wondering…I knew Pearl and Cleo in my world…who else I might know? Who else is here?”
Scott pursed his lips. “You’re right. We should give you a rundown of the alliances and factions at the very least.”
“And enemies,” Cleo added, hefting a sword meaningfully.
“And enemies,” Scott agreed. He rubbed his chin. “It might be easier to just show you the bases and where everyone is. Server tour. We should probably introduce you too.”
“Or, hear me out,” Cleo said. “We keep her as a secret weapon. Nobody knows we have a fourth member of the alliance! With Gem in our back pocket we have an advantage.”
“But how,” Scott said. “News travels fast on this server and secrets aren’t kept for long.”
“If it’s all the same to you guys,” Gem said, “I’d like to be introduced. Remember, they still won’t know what I’m good at. I'm a wild card!”
Cleo and Scott looked intrigued by this line of thought, but before any decisions could be made everyone’s chats pinged.
“Oh!” Scott and Cleo exclaimed in unison.
“1 minute till boogieman,” Gem read aloud. The announcement filled the air with an ominous feeling, like before a thunderstorm.
“Alright ladies,” Scott said. “We can continue our discussion upstairs, if you’re finished gearing up.”
Gem and Cleo followed him back upstairs. Pearl waved at them from her perch on the wall.
“Wow, Pearl!” Cleo said, looking around. “I’m impressed.” Pearl had been hard at work in addition to being look-out. She had tidied away much of the rubble and smoothed out the explosion marked ground.
“Always tidying,” Gem said fondly.
Pear chuckled. “What, was I supposed to leave it messy? There wasn’t much else for me to do.”
“So, we want to sit down and talk plans?” Scott said. Pearl and Cleo nodded.
They gathered in a circle. Pearl summoned a pair of dogs to her with a whistle and snap of her fingers.
Scott started off. “So, originally I was going to build a tower today, but now that we have Gem here I think we should change plans.”
Pearl stroked her puppies head, and nodded for Scott to continue.
“Obviously if one of us is the boogie we’ll have to change things up, but for today I think it would be best if we visited the other factions.” Scott said.
“Oh, introduce Gem to the server, you mean?” Cleo said.
“Exactlyyyy,” Scott said.
Pearl nodded again. “And, it’s a good opportunity to recon, get some information, confirm who’s allies with us, who isn’t and all that lovely stuff.”
“I think that’s a great idea!” Gem said. “But I also think it’s a good idea for Scott to build the tower. Could we multitask?”
“The tour probably won’t take too long,” Scott said.
“Remember, we still have to show Gem and Cleo the secret bases.” Pearl said.
“You can do that,” Scott said. “I could leave you guys and come back here after the tour.”
Pearl nodded. “I wanted to work on the green lives club too.”
“Great! After we give Gem the tour we’ll split up and do that,” Scott said.
“All depending on the fact that none of us gets boogieman,” Cleo added.As if in answer to her words the communicator beeped: Boogieman is about to be chosen.
“Hands?” Pearl said. In answer Scott clasped her hand. Cleo took Pearl's other hand. Scott gestured for Gem to hold hands as well. Gem took their hands. Cleo’s hand was cold to the touch; it had been like that at home too. This Cleo was still so much like the one she knew. Scott's grip was firm. He had painted his nails and had several rings on his fingers. Maybe, maybe, this new world wouldn’t be so bad with friends.
“Ahhhhh,” Pearl said, squeezing their hands as she waited tensely for the moment of truth. “I keep having to alternate who’s eyes I look into,” Scott laughed.
Gem squeezed Cleo’s hand. Ahhhhhhhh-
The communicators beeped.
“You are: Not the boogie!”Gem’s read.
There was a simultaneous sigh of relief.
“Not it,” Cleo said. “Thank goodness.”
“Not me,” Pearl said.
“I’m not it,” Scott said.
“It’s not me either,” Gem said, sighing with relief.
“Right,” Pearl said. She stretched and grinned. “Who do we want to visit first?”
“Ren is just up the hill,” Cleo said.
“Ren might be the Ren I lived near at home!” Gem said. “Could we visit him?”
“Absolutely!” Pearl said.
Together they set out into the forest.