Prison of the dead (Labyrinth of Monsters' sequel) A hermitcraft/3rd life fanfic

Chapter 30 - Grian

'If you're good at fighting, fight. If not, help me look. we need the exit now more than ever!'

'On it, captain Grian!' Skizz yells back. False drops the pile of paper she's sifting through and runs at the Convex. I continue to search, heart racing, trying not to panic. Nothing's organized, and I have no idea what has or has not already been looked at in our complete lack-of system. Hysterically, I wonder if we could make a storage system to put these in before we all get murdered, but it seems the only problem my brain can find with that idea is that I have no idea what style to do it in. 

'Why is half of this just about Hermitcraft recap?!' Beef cries, holding a mass of crumpled scripts and chucking them aside. I continue to search my area, even though it's almost entirely fruitless.

'Map of the maze! Wait, we don't need that! We're not in the maze any more! Wait... that's not the maze! Why would there be two - GUYS I FOUND IT.'

'WHAT?!'

'I FOUND A MAP OF THIS PLACE! SOMEONE FIND A PEN SO I CAN MAP THE ROUTE OUT. NOW!'

Someone gives me what I want and I drop to the floor, scouring for an exit on the map. Tango joins me, and together we look through what actually is a maze, and find the way out. I begin scrawling a line between where we are now and where the way out it, but it's almost impossible. 

'I'll do it, you fight.' Tango tells me, grabbing the pen. I get to my feet and pull out a sword, running into the melee. Beef joins him, while I slice madly at anyone with grey skin and torn clothes. Stress is helping a badly-hurt xB with his injuries, and I almost trip over them as I join in fighting. Someone I realize only after I've killed them is Mumbo pins me to the wall, and I stab my way free, hoping that Tango's good at mazes. I turn as a sword slices my back to see Scar. Remembering my promise to Bdubs, I throw the clock at him. 

'YOU'RE TINY! YOU'RE REALLY, REALLY SMALL! YOU'RE THE SMALLEST PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE! YOU'RE THE LITTLE MAN HERE! BDUBS IS BIGGER THAN YOU! BDUBS IS BIGGER THAN YOU!' I howl. 

'BDUBS HAS BEEN AVENGED!' Beef screeches in response, before being murdered by Cub. I realize I now have to fight both of the Convex, one of which I'm not allowed to kill, and my sword's almost broken. I back out of the chaos, thinking hard, searching my pockets for useful things. Somehow I have a cake in there. 

CAKE! 

YES!

I throw the edible sponge at them, and with a delighted look at each other, the vexes forget about the battle and instead begin eating the cake. I look back at the fighting. Skizz vs Impulse. Cleo vs False. BigB vs Iskall. 

'DONE IT!' Tango yells triumphantly, running out. 'IT'S THIS WAY!' 

I run after, as do the others. There are 6 of us left, but Stress is quickly killed. Now 5. And they've got 5 left too. Skizz is falling behind, so I grab his hand and yell terrified encouragement. 

'THANK YOU GRIAN!' He replies, trying to increase his pace. Tango's in the lead, then False and Iskall, then me and Skizz trailing behind. I accept at this point that I'm rubbish at running, panting, what seems like an oceans-worth of phlegm in my throat. Left-right-right-left-left. Random turns everywhere, but Tango knows where we're going and I trust him to lead us to the right place. 

'Hey, is now the right time to say I forgive you for killing Scott?'

'Uhh... ok?'

'It wasn't right, but I'm not going to be mad about it because we're probably going to die here.'

'Great! I'm sorry for agreeing with Tango when he said you were like Impulse.'

'Tango was right! And I'm sorry about it!'

'Let's be friends again!'

'Sure!'

We keep going, with Impulse's group still  behind. Impulse, BigB, Cleo, Cub and Scar. Me, Skizz and Tango promised that we wouldn't kill Scar, so Iskall or False needs to kill him. Skizz will want to fight Impulse, I don't mind who I fight. 

'It's here!' Tango hollers. 'We've found the exit! It's right here!'

'YEAH!' Skizz turns, slicing at Impulse. 'I'll distract these guys while you get it open!'

Iskall runs at the Convex, solving my Bdubs morality problem. False joins him and, reenergized by the promise of freedom, manage to kill them incredibly quickly. I go of BigB, who used to be my friend, I realize, while False takes on Cleo again. There's the click of a door opening ahead, and I look over to see freedom. But we can't let these guys through as well.

BigB makes a run for it, and I follow after, but he's through what seems to be a portal before I can stop him. Cleo knocks me down as I go past, clawing past me and also getting through. I tell Iskall and False to catch them on the other side and they go, leaving only me, Skizz, Tango and Impulse.

Our enemy is leaning against the wall, bleeding badly. Skizz is covered in blood, his own and his brother's. I nod at Tango, and he smiles back, walking over.

'Don't kill him.' He pleads. 'Don't kill Impulse.'

'Even after all he's done.'

'Revenge doesn't work. We all know it doesn't. So why should we kill him?'

'Because... Because...'

'Because nothing. He was our friend. He was funny, and brave, and kind, and mostly sensible. Well, compared to me and Zed he was. It doesn't matter what he's done. We should forgive him for it.'

'Fat chance.' Skizz interrupted.

'I'm sorry, Tango, why are you thinking of winning this with friendship, when we have perfectly good swords?' I agree. 

'I... fine... Kill him. Be the bad guy.'

'Skizz, kill him.' I order.

'Why should I do it?!'

'Because neither of us want to.'

'Impy?' Tango looks at his friend. 'Can you speak to us?'

'Pancakes.' He smiles, looking at Tango. 'Brother, Feathers.' 

I realize he's saying our names from the maze, and I'm going say something, but he continues before I can. 

'I forgive you. And I'm sorry. And Skizz?'

'Yeah?'

'I love you.'

He coughs, smiles again, and closes his eyes, before dying. Skizz sobs, as does Tango. I feel the emotions welling up. It all ended well. He forgave us. They were together again. For a single second, but that was still all it needed to end on a good note. Tears down my face, I smile. 

'Shall we go?'

They both nod, and we walk off, together, through the portal and into freedom.