Sick silence hung in the air, after the last of the dead had fallen.

Pearl’s ears rang like the screaming of a struck bell. She must’ve hit her head, at some point. At multiple points. She could feel the trickle of blood that ran from her scalp to her neck, could feel the stickiness in her hair and on her lips. Her arm ached- she must’ve sprained it, or broken it- or something. She was alive, though. She was lucky to be.

A few feet away from her resting spot on the grassy ground, was Cleo. What remained of Cleo. Their body. She’d always looked corpselike in that strange, sick way of hers, but she’d never been so still. Only moments before, they’d been full of vigor and life- of anger and fear and drive. Now, she was silent. Silent, and dead.

Pearl didn’t know where Martyn’s remains lay. At some point- in between all his shouting, and accusing, and betrayal, he’d slipped away from her sight. She had the faintest understanding that he’d tunneled underground. It didn’t matter now. He, like his soulbound, was dead. In one fell swoop, she’d rid herself of both her pursuers.

They weren’t always her pursuers. Cleo had never liked her, and might’ve actually enjoyed their chance at sparring, but Martyn- he, at least, was supposed to be her friend. If human soul was to be. Their hearts bore the same wounds. He’d been scorned with her, though, he left her, just the like. They all left her. And in his mad cruelty, he’d taken the only thing that had loved her.

A few of the dogs sniffed at Cleo’s corpse. Other circled around Pearl, standing guard. She could hear the whimpers of a few as they licked their wounds, recovering from the fight just as she was. Tilly wasn’t among them. She- like the foes Pearl had mercilessly slain- was gone to the aether. It hadn’t been enough, to scorn and betray her. They had to take her only friend. They had to rip out her heart, and eat it.

Pearl knew, if she remained in the dirt for long enough, she would submit to the forces of nature. The wind and weather would take her- or, more realistically, her starvation would. In her contemplation of this, she found that she did not mind the thought. Death, at this point, would be a relief. She’d be free of the aches of her body, and of her soul. In death, she’d be reunited with her beloved friend, and the pair of them would disappear into nothingness, together. The world would be quiet. It would be pleasant.

A buzzing at her wrist disturbed her from her pre-mortis musings. Blearily, Pearl opened her eyes, blinking at the harshness of the setting sun. She raised her wrist, and pulled open the message function built into her wristband.

A shining red holographic display popped up, too bright for Pearl to immediately make sense of. She blinked away the dust in her eyes, and the fog in her brain, and stared at the singular message written in chat.

After the stream of death messages- of the final cries of the departed, making their presence known for one last time- was one singular message.

[smajor1996] there can only be one winner. come meet me at the place where it started

Pearl’s heart sunk, weighted by the string of fate she’d forgotted was tied around it. Of course, she wouldn’t be left alone- at the one time she wanted it. She was tied. She was bound, to the man who had done nothing but betray her. As long as she breathed, he breathed. As long as there was blood in her veins, he would be there to hate her. Scott was still out there, somewhere in the eternal wood of this cursed world, and he wanted to meet her.

Where it started.

He could really only be referring to one place. There was really only one place it had started. The center of the world. The clearing where they’d met for the first time, where he’d laid eyes on her and realized it had to be the two of them, and he’d decided that he wanted nothing to do with her. The worldspawn.

Pearl didn’t know what Scott wanted of her, other than her presence. She suspected it might be some sort of closure, or justice, or vengeance. She didn’t have the want or will to ask him.

Pearl did not know what she wanted of Scott, yet something- some drive within her- compelled her to fulfill his request. She becockned a dog forward with a whistle, and stood herself up. Her axe- its diamond blade dulled with blood- was heavy in her hand, but she carried it anyways. She needed its reassuring weight. Maybe, the bother of its heaviness would be enough to drown out her fear.

The ground rumbled as Pearl tread across it, her pack of hounds a swarm around her. Miles below her aching feet, Grian’s warden still rambled, looking for prey. The red-clothed, dove-winged man had become obsessed with summoning the beast in his final days- in some forsaken attempt at victory, or some terrible remembrance of those first fallen. In a sick twist of irony- this world was nothing but sick irony, wasn’t it- the creature he’d brought out of the ground had only brought him his demise- his, and Scar’s. The rest had fallen soon after- some, by Pearl’s hand. Most by her hand. Now, there were only two of them left. Her soulmate, and her.

Pearl tried to ignore the shaking of the earth below her, and the groans of the undead rising in the wood around her. Her dogs growled at the ghouls and skeletons, protecting her from the creatures she payed so little mind to. The sun was setting before her, it’s fading rays like a beacon. She followed them. She knew she’d find Scott there.

In the depths of the ancient city, there had been a moment where it had been the two of them. Just the two of them. Cleo had been- somewhere else at the moment. Maybe she’d been too busy dying. Everyone was too busy dying.

Somehow, for whatever reason, it had been the two of them. In his desperation, Scott had come to her for help. He needed her, and- though she hated to admit it- she needed him. The world was after them, and they needed each other to live. So they made their amends. They made peace.

”You’re a pretty good partner,” She’d said.

”Thank you. I mean, we tested it out last time, and it worked out pretty well.” He’d said in reply, and she hadn’t known what he meant by that.

Scott had not come to help her when Impulse and Bdubs were after her. He did not save her from his own ‘chosen soulmate’, the one who’d decided to bury their blade in her chest. She didn’t know where he’d gone, after they’d been separated from one another. But he wanted to see her, now, and she was too close to turn back.

By the time Pearl reached the clearing that was Worldspawn, night had fallen. Her dogs circled around her in a frenzy- all howling at the rising moon. The clearing was empty- or, it seemed so. There wasn’t much of anywhere to hide.

“Pearl,” Scott called out- his voice, somehow unwavering, leading Pearl to where he was.

Scott stood at the top of a hill, awash in moonlight. He faced her, his armor gleaming in the luminescence. It drowned out all the color in him- the blue of his armor and hair, the red of his clothes and the blood on them. His hands were bare- he wasn’t trying to threaten her, or initiate some final duel in which neither would be the victor. He was trying to make peace.

Pearl did not let go her axe. She would not let go that easily. “Hi,” She nodded. Her dogs growled, at what threat Pearl didn’t exactly know.

“I didn’t think it would end this way.” Scott continued. Neither of them had, really, Pearl thought. She had not expected it to end this way. Games of lovers were supposed to be won by those who actually played by the rules- but then, it was the two of them. Said her soulbound, “I didn’t think it would come down to the two of us.”

Scott was shifting uncomfortably, trying to hide something with his body. Every time Pearl tried to peek behind him and see what it was, he shifted his stance again. It made him look uncomfortable, nervous. Pearl got the feeling that he was. She didn’t want to think about why.

Pearl didn’t say anything, and Scott continued. He let the sound of his voice fill the silence between them. “I- still don’t know how Martyn and Cleo died. They turned on me-”

What cruel irony this world was made of. “Yeah, they turned on me, they started killing my dogs, so…”

They fell silent again- Scott on his hill, in the glory of the moonlight, and her. She didn’t know what she looked liked- clothed in blood and surrounded by wolves. He shifted around again, unsure of himself.

“There’s many ways I thought this would go. A finale with me and you, I mean, I thought we would win, but-”

“I honestly didn’t have a lot of faith in us,” Pearl couldn’t help but interject. “I had faith in myself, and Tilly- and Tilly’s now passed away, so-”

Her voice broke. Her gaze sunk with her heart- from Scott, to the earthy floor beneath her. Grief was setting in like a flooded marsh- sinking and wet and cold. If fate was kind, maybe the end would be swift.

Scott’s voice broke her out of her wallows, like a stab to the gut ended sickness. “Pearl, you deserve this more,” He said, and for the first time, his voice wavered. The fear on his face infected his words, and he stepped back, so that Pearl could see what he’d been concealing.

A pile of TnT, gleaming silver in the moonlight. Scott fished around his pockets for a moment, looking for a way to light it.

Pearl recoiled at the sight- all her misery could not stop her innate fear of death, She found herself reaching for the bow on her back- if she could stop him, if she could push him away-”

He stopped digging in his pockets. The flint-and-steel reflected the moonglow like a silver star he held in his hand. He angled it towards the explosives.

“Scott, I don’t know what you mean-” She cried.

The flame bloomed to life like a flickering golden flower. It caught the fuse. “You do, but in the same way-”

He breathed in. He smiled.

“Tilly death do us part, Pearl."

He fell backwards.

“Scott, no-”

“Tilly death do us part.”

Pearl did not immediately die upon impact of the explosion. She felt the pain- Scott’s pain, given to her by way of their shared lifeline. She felt the severance of their bond- less like the snipping of a string, more like the breaking of a glass. She felt her own body, crumpled and broken- fall back onto the ground behind her.

She did not have the will or power to get up. Death was near. It was a miracle it hadn’t taken her already.

All she could feel was pain- aching and terrible and all consuming- and the gentle licking of one of her dogs, trying to heal her. All she could see was the sky, and the moon that consumed it.

“Scott…” She choked out, to the dead man that she should’ve died beside. Maybe, she could delude herself into thinking his ghost was listening. “Did you sacrifice yourself- for me? Scott-”

She could not muster more. Death was coming for her soon.

“At least, I forgive you, after all.”