Blue had just left for the dungeon. She wasn't in any danger yet.

So why was I so scared?

I stood up out of the chair, forgetting that my cat, Gandalf, was on my lap. He meowed in protest as he was dumped off.

I went to the landing strip on my tower and took off. I couldn't help but think that Blue was in trouble, even though the logical side of me screamed that she was fine.

When I got to the castle that FWhip, Sausage, Joey, and I had built together, they had already entered the dungeon. Or, most of them, anyway.

Katherine was standing under the cover of the forest, but I could recognize her purple armor and crown anywhere. I landed next to her and said, "hi."

Katherine jumped. "I'm just looking. Did FWhip build this place? 'Cause if he did, you'd think that it would actually be in the Grimlands."

"I know they're already inside," I said.

Katherine sucked in her breath. "They know..."

"FWhip and Sausage?" I asked. "No. I haven't told them."

"Please don't, Gem! I know you're allied with them, but please don't!"

"You're forgetting that my sister is in that dungeon. I'm not going to send Sausage in there and get her killed. Plus, I gave them the coordinates to get here."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"I had no idea..."

"I'm trying to bring peace. And sometimes, that means going against my allies. And my brother." I winced.

"Jimmy doesn't understand that at all..." she was referring to that time when she had tried to help Sausage and Jimmy negotiate over the disk, and Sausage had given Jimmy a fake one.

"Well, he's Jimmy."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Do you want to come back to my tower for a bit?" I have some new information about the demon that you should know."

"I would, but I can't... I promised everyone that I'd stay here."

"It won't be long. And it's important."

"Okay..." we took off and headed to my tower.

Almost everything in the Crystal Cliffs was corrupted. The red stuff tainted one of my farm terraces, hung from my cave behind the waterfall, and had almost completely taken over one of my watchtowers. But that didn't matter as much now, because my main tower where I would be living was finished. And every stone, every plank, every crystal was infused with magic that made me stronger.

We went to the terrace at the top, where I had a book that I kept all my research in. I showed Katherine what I had discovered: the demon Xornoth had a strong connection to the Nether and End dimensions. All Xornoth wanted was to kill the Ender Dragon, which he shared the power of the End with. If the Dragon died, then all the power was his. But, he needed others to kill it for him because he wasn't powerful enough to do it himself.

I explained my research to Katherine. Her only response was, "You should probably tell Scott about this. He'd want to know." I had forgotten that Xornoth was Scott's brother.

It was kind of complicated. I didn't know the full backstory, but way back in another world, Scott had had a brother named Xornoth. Xornoth was an elf like Scott and both of them were about fifty years older than the rest of us. Before we were even born, Xornoth had gone dark. He chose power over family. Scott had banished him from the Realm with a heavy heart. We had no idea where he had gone, even after he managed to come to Empires.

Speaking of the elf, Scott came very suddenly and landed on the terrace. "Something bad is happening. We have to go now!"

"What's going on?" Katherine said, a little worried.

Scott held up his communication device, which used to be one of the Admin bracelets for X Life but was now an ordinary communicator. The latest message was from... Sausage. We will free the End.

"Oh, no," Katherine said. "Doesn't Xornoth..."

It was a second before I caught on. "Oh my gosh, yes he does! We need to stop Sausage!"

"I have to get Pearl, and we should probably find FWhip too," Scott said.

So off we flew to stop the Ender Dragon from dying.

"I know where the portal is," FWhip said as soon as we explained the situation. To my surprise, he brought us to the Cod Mask Dungeon.

"It's in there," he said.

"What?" I said. "You didn't tell me we built the vault in the stronghold!"

"Okay, I'm sorry Gem, but we kind of... set it up there so we could trap the Codfather and his allies in the End," FWhip said in one breath. "We didn't want to tell you in case you would make us do something nicer."

I stopped moving forward and just hovered. "So... you and Sausage made a part of the dungeon... without telling me... so that you could trap half the Emperors including Blue, and you expect me to be OKAY with that?!"

"And Joey helped, too," FWhip added, which didn't help his case.

Pearl, Katherine, and Scott stopped, exchanging glances that said, oooooooh someone's in troooubllle...

"AND JOEY TOO? We are supposed to be allies, FWhip! Allies doesn't mean making things behind my back that you purposely didn't tell me about!"

"It was Sausage's idea!"

"Oh, you wait. I'm going to have words with him, too." I started flying again.

The others followed as I plunged into the castle without another word. I stomped through Sausage, FWhip, Joey, and my puzzle rooms, which were already solved thanks to the others. We came to the room that was supposed to have the cod head in it. Instead, there was an already-triggered trap that would have made its victims fall into the End portal. That meant that Jimmy, Lizzy, Joel, Pix, and Blue were in there already, facing the Dragon.

I took a calming breath and jumped.

The Ender Dragon fight was already in full motion. I was pretty sure that everyone else was already there.

I passed End Crystals to everyone. "Use these to heal the Dragon," I said. "And try to convince people not to let it die."

They nodded and took off in separate directions. I also took off and went to confront Sausage.

Behind me, FWhip hesitated, then said, "I need to give Jimmy the real mask." Then he flew toward the Codfather.

I found Sausage on top of an obsidian pillar, shooting at the dragon with his bow.

"Sausage, what are you doing?" I yelled desperately.

"I'm freeing the End, Gem! This dragon needs to die for us to get home!"

"You came here, Sausage!"

"But now I can't get out! So I need to kill the Ender Dragon!"

"You don't understand! The demon Xornoth-"

"He told me to come here! He promised me ultimate power, Gem. More power than you have! Don't tell me that you would turn down ultimate power!"

"I would, because I'm happy with what I have and you should be, too!"

"Happy? HAPPY?" Sausage snarled, lowering his bow and turning toward me. "I'm just a simple, powerless human and you expect me to be happy? I will be the greatest spellcaster of all time!"

"I know you want to have magic, but is this really how you're going to get it? From a demon?"

He stopped shooting and turned to look at me. "Yes, Gem. It's the only way I've got."

I pursed my lips, placed several end crystals on top of the pillar, and flew away.

Sausage was working with the demon. He was now my enemy.

Blue had been right; he couldn't be trusted.

I searched the ground and sky for Blue, but I couldn't find her. So I went to another pillar, topped with Joey Graceffa, who was also determined to take the life of the Dragon. I didn't even bother talking to him. I just quietly landed, placed an end crystal, and flew away. If I decided to talk to him, then he would probably give the same answers Sausage had.

I went from pillar to pillar, placing as many end crystals as I could spare. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that our efforts would be in vain unless everyone else stopped fighting. But I still had to try.

FWhip was blocking Pixl's shot at the Dragon. Scott was talking to Joel and Lizzy, desperately trying to convince them to stop. Pearl was flying around and around Joey's pillar, annoying him into shooting at her, a faster and smaller target, and missing rather than shooting at the much slower Ender Dragon and hitting. Katherine replaced end crystals to heal the Dragon.

That left Sausage and Jimmy free to attack. Thankfully, just as the Dragon came within firing range of Jimmy, FWhip distracted him by leading him to a spot near the End Portal. But Sausage was still shooting.

Jimmy cheered, "I'VE GOT IT! WE CAN GO NOW!"

That was followed by many of his allies

Joey hit Pearl's wings multiple times, breaking them, so she was on the ground, mining obsidian from a pillar to put more end crystals on. I still couldn't find Blue. Katherine had taken Pearl's place as Joey Annoyer.

I ran out of end crystals. Pearl looked up at me desperately, and I knew she was out as well. Then the dragon decided it wasn't thankful for our efforts and blasted her with its acidic breath. She collapsed on the ground.

I flew down and landed next to her. She was still breathing, but she was out cold. I looked around for any Dragon fighters on the ground. Jimmy was on the ground, but he was still running around, avoiding blasts of dragon breath and whooping at the top of his lungs. Everyone else was in the air or on a pillar.

FWhip, Scott, and Katherine ran out of end crystals. All we could do now was try to stop everyone else from slaying the Dragon, even if we had to kill them. Sure, they would lose all their customized armor, weapons, and tools, but they wouldn't be able to take down the Ender Dragon, at least for now.

I scanned the ground for Blue again and finally spotted her, crumpled at the base of a pillar. I frantically took off and flew low to the ground over to her, avoiding purple clouds of acidic dragon breath.

It couldn't happen again. Not after last time. Last time she was unconscious for two months. I wasn't sure I could bear that again.

The things I didn't know had been the worst part. I didn't know whether she would ever wake up. For the first few days I feared that the loss of her tenth life meant that she would never wake up. That was why I had decided to make a crystal to enter her dreams. Then I found out that an ancient villain from another Realm had stolen her memories and lured her into not only another world, but another Reality: the Dream Void.

There were two Realities that we knew of: the Physical Reality and the Dream Void. The Physical Reality is where we all lived, built, fought, and generally did our things. The Dream Void is where we go when we sleep, where we see dreams. But some people that I had met had theories that there was a third Reality.

And... I've said too much.

I landed next to Blue. She was awake, but only barely. "What... what's going on?"

"Hang on, Blue, I'll be right-"

Then I heard a loud crackling sound behind me. The Ender Dragon was glowing purple, and rays of white light burst out of her many wounds. She floated up, frozen in a flight position, and exploded in a blast of light, leaving only her egg behind.

The Ender Dragon was gone. Xornoth was back in power. We had failed.

I ran and grabbed the egg. There was a chance that it would hatch in the right conditions, as long as I kept it safe and warm.

We gathered in a waist-deep pool of water to avoid the endermen, to whom water was like acid. Then we discussed what had just happened.

Pearl, now that most of the dragon's breath had been exhaled out of her lungs, was awake and arguing along with the rest of our team. Blue was also up, glancing nervously at an enderman who was growling at her and muttering about how an enderman caused Scar to lose his yellow life.

I knew who Scar was. I had met- wait, no. I can't tell. I'd sworn to secrecy about this stuff until Blue found out on her own. I could only hope that Pix and Pearl were holding themselves to it as well.

We stood in the water and argued about how the dragon deserved to live. Sausage, Joey, and their helpers argued right back, saying that she needed to die for them to get home.

Laughter echoed from behind us.

We all turned around and saw Xornoth himself standing in a pillar. I had done a lot of research on him, but now he defied all the things I had found out. His eyes glowed red, and his horns were tipped with purple. He was even stronger now that the Ender Dragon was gone.

"Thank you all," Xornoth said. "Thank you all for freeing me. I will repay this."

The Emperors looked at the demon in horror.

"Enjoy your return home," Xornoth said. "Or, most of you. Six will have to be taken."

Six will have to be taken.

What was that supposed to mean?

A horrible suspicion grew in my heart, but before I could warn anyone, they were already jumping into the portal. Not knowing what else to do, I followed them.

One question circled around and around in my head.

Has Third Life started again?