Divine Lives - 3rd Life and Empires Crossover

Rigged

Jimmy races into the flower valley, panting breathlessly yet not stopping until he has nearly knocked Scott over in an embrace. The elf returns the hug before pulling away and looking all around Jimmy, checking for bruises or scratches or any sort of mark.

"Thank god, they didn't get to you."

"They got you, though," says Jimmy as he takes Scott's necklace in his hands, the heart that was once green is now yellow as it shimmers at him. "Scott, I want to kill them."

"We can't yet."

"Why?"

"We have to get our allies sorted out." The heart hums from within Jimmy's fingers and the hologram appears. Below the many shocked what's and how's, is a new message from Grian.

Grian: Tim and Scott, come to the desert now.

They look at eachother. Jim nods his affirmation and Scott sends a reply. When he's finished Jimmy closes the hologram and pulls away.

"We're walking."

"That's fine, they're close anyway." The ruffle of wings alerts them to Joel and Pearl's return. Pearl lands far too hard and far too quickly; all of them wince as her knees nearly buckle but she doesn't seem to care. "Oh my gosh, Pearl!"

"Are you alright, Scott?"

"Are you?"

"Joel said that someone killed you," she says, almost frantic as Joel lands beside her. He looks angry.

"Blummin' Etho," fumes Joel. "I can't bloody believe it."

"He shot me right out of the air."

"Oh..."

"But I'm fine so we're walking over to see Grian and Scar."

"We'll come too then," says Pearl.

Minutes later, they begin to hear the crunch of sand beneath their shoes. The leaves open up into the open terrain of the desert, the remains of a house still smoldering lay atop the highest dune. The group protrudes farther into the desert until they come across what looks like a bunker at the foot of multiple hills of blowing sand. Grian stands in front of it, arms crossed, looking up towards the remains of their house.

"Grian!" He jumps, but when he turns to see them, a smile crosses his face.

"Hi!" A gust of wind blows the sand up around them, Grian puts his hands over his eyes until the sand stops pelting him.

"How do you live with this?" questions Joel, ruffling his hair up in order to get the particles out.

"It's what Scar wanted."

"Where is Scar?"

"In there," answers Grian, jabbing his finger towards the bunker. Scar pokes his head out of the door and waves at them before exiting it completely. He jogs up to them, grinning ear to ear.

"You're not going to believe what we did," he says straight away. Scott instantly becomes nervous. Who wouldn't be nervous? "Tell them Grian," he demands, to which his best friend just sighs.

"Where we are standing right now," Grian says, gesturing to the sandy terrain beneath them, "is completely rigged to blow up. All of it." Jimmy's eyes widen and he starts dancing around as if his feet are on fire. "It's all connected to a lever in the bunker that Scar will pull on my word."

"Wow," breathes Scott. Pearl looks incredibly impressed as she looks at the two of them. "How?"

"We drained every bit of resources that we had, so if this doesn't do some damage I will be extremely upset."