Divine Lives - 3rd Life and Empires Crossover

Flower Valley

The pink dies away from Pearl's eyes, almost like an ominous smoke snaking into the ground. She is greeted by a warm breeze that lofts her hair up from her shoulders and the kiss of the lovely fresh air. Flowers bloom against her feet and all across a mass of rolling hills. The sun crawls up behind a bordering wall that cuts between higher cliffs; locking the area in a valley.

"Oh no," wimpers Jimmy, looking around. "Oh god."

"What?" Pearl asks, spinning to look at everything. She admires the flowers, marvels at the hobbit hole tucked into the cliffside, and gapes at the little pond at its side. "Where are we?"

"No place good," says Scott darkly.

"What are you talking about? This place is amazing. Look at all the flowers!"

"Pearl, trust me, there's nothing good about where we are."

Pearl notices that Scott now has a necklace around his neck, a heart that shimmers a dark green. She sees that Grian has one too, green light leaks through his fingers as he tugs at it anxiously.

Jimmy has one as well but his is red. He taps his with two fingers, and it lights up. A hologram jumps out at her from the heart, and on it little text scribbles itself into existence. Jimmy groans.

"Everyone's here."

Scott runs a hand through his hair, tapping his own heart. Pearl swipes at the screen and watches as it melts around her fingers and reforms. The same text runs along his as well.

"Look at us, Scott," says Jimmy, holding his arms out and spinning in a circle as the hologram fizzles away. Scott looks down at himself, he feels the familiar weight of his wings pulled against his spine. The clothes on his body are the ones he'd woken up in, not the ones he always switches into upon entering the games. Jimmy has his Makeshift on, scales run down his cheeks and neck.

"We must have accidently forced this session to start."

"That would make sense."

"This is the world you guys were talking about?" wonders Pearl. She wanders over to the pond and dips the tips of her fingers into the water. "I don't understand what's so bad about it."

A shadow soars through the sky, blocking out the sun for a few seconds, before tipping into a dive and cutting towards the hills below. It lands easily, the powerful wings atop its back folding in on themselves. The person immediately ducks into the shadow of the mountain and looks around frantically.

"You're alright, Joel," calls Grian. "It's just us!"

"I hate this place so much!" he fumes, then he looks at Grian, almost sadly. "Scar's on his way over here." Grian's heart drops into the pit of his stomach and he brings his hands up to his face and sighs into them.

"You guys... I have to protect him."

"Why?" questions Pearl.

"Grian owes Scar his life."

"He saved your life?" she asks, eyes widening.

"Well, no. I accidentally got him killed."

"Oh..." She looks away from him, suddenly finding a particular cloud in the very opposite direction incredibly interesting. Jimmy takes Scott's hand and pulls him away from the group. They pass through a cluster of vines beside the pond and enter a separate room within the cliff.

"Ok, look," he says, pulling Scott away from the opening. "They  weren't expecting us to come back here."

"Who?"

"I'm not sure exactly." That's a lie. "But I think we've caught them off guard."

"Are these the same people that told Martyn to attack Grian?"

"They aren't people. Not really." Jimmy looks down at his hands, he scratches at the scales lined against the backs of them. "But I think so, yes." Scott bites his lower lip. Jimmy's holding back on him, he can see it in the way that he plays with his fingers, the way that he stands, avoids eye contact, all of it.

"Jimmy?"

"It's just that... they really hate you, Scott." His eyebrows furrow. This was of course, not what he had expected Jimmy to say. They look at each other. "I think they want to get rid of you."

"What do you mean? How do you know that?"

"Because I can hear them. Not the way that Martyn does, they practically control him, I think. But I just listen."

A few moments of silence pass.

"Why do they hate me?"

"Because you have morals."

"We all have morals."

"But you maintain them like the rest of us can't. You saw what Grian did. What Martyn did. This is a battle of survival, whoever comes out on top survives while the others die."

"I don't want it to be that way though."

"That's not the point."

More silence.

"Who else can hear them?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Another lie. Scott nods, looking out of the little opening in the rocks. He sees Grian there, looking around at the hills, no doubt watching for Scar.

"Why did they bring Grian into our world then?"

There is a crashing sound. Instinctively Scott reaches for his sword but he finds it's not there. Groaning, he extends his other arm in front of Jimmy to block him from the opening.

"Scar!" screams Grian from outside. They can hear Pearl cackling as her laughter floats along the breeze. "Oh my goodness, Scar!"

"Scar, get up!" cries Joel, his voice positively shaking with amusement. Jimmy steps around Scott and jogs outside, Scott follows. A man lays sprawled out in the grass, face first. Flowers licking the sides of his face.

"How has he fallen?" asks Jimmy as Scar picks his face up from the dirt.

"He tried to get over the wall."

"It's fine, I'm totally alright!" declares Scar, bounding up and putting his hands on his hips. Joel breaks down laughing and has to look away from them to calm himself down. Grian brushes the dirt from Scar's shirt and looks him over.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm sure." He sees Pearl and he perks up. "Who are you?"

"This is Pearl. Pearl this is Scar." Says Grian, nodding at the two of them. Pearl smiles at him and holds out a hand. Scar ignores it, not out of bitterness, but because he has just seen the wings on her back. Astonished, he points at her, then looks at Grian.

"Those are so cool!" Eagerly now, he takes Pearl's still outstretched hand and shakes it. Now he sees Scott and Jimmy. "Scott has them too! And so does Joel!"

"We were born with them," says Scott with a nod. Scar looks at Jimmy, his makeshift strapped to his shoulders.

"We have those at home!"

At home. This feels weird to Scott. Nobody ever talks about their homes here. He supposes nobody wants to think about that sort of thing when in the back of their minds, they're scared for their life. And nobody asks, because nobody wants to grow too close to anyone else.

"We call them Elytra," says Grian. Then he looks Scar up and down. The man wears a suit, different from the ragged clothes they all usually appear with in this world. Grian recognizes the suit. "Where is your Elytra?"

"I took it off, I was just about to go to bed."

"Everyone must have come in what they had on in their worlds."

"That could mean more Makeshifts," says Jimmy looking at Scott worriedly.

"We'll have to be careful."