Chapter Text
Avery runs his hands through his hair, unable to wrap his head around what just happened. For the past few hours he’s just been rereading the letter Derek wrote for him over and over again. He hasn’t even left his room since the whole… thing, just reviewing the footage from the Google Drive folder Derek had.
It couldn’t end like this, it can’t end like this. If he was stubborn enough to slog through what Derek had done easily, then there must be a way to get Derek back.
He had done so much for him, he wanted this to end together, he didn’t want Derek to take the burden alone.
Whatever you do at the crossroads. Keep going forward.
The words etched into his psyche, a wriggling parasite that kept repeating the words to him.
There was something here he can use, there had to be.
Avery uploads his edited footage on his channel, hoping on the off chance that maybe someone could help him. In the meantime, he opens the Google Drive again, rewatching Derek’s footage. He’s at the part with the village with the ground of glass and the barrel hidden in the ground. And the book, that damned book that made Derek sacrifice himself. Avery puts his head in his hands, tired and frustrated all over again. If it wasn’t for that spell that merged the King and Derek together, everything would’ve…
That’s it… the spell!
Avery wipes the tears in his eyes, pausing the video to stare at the text.
He could summon the King, the King had begged Derek as He withered away. Maybe the King wasn’t all dead, maybe Derek was still alive. Avery was just reaching for straws at this point, desperate for something good to lift his spirits. He could bargain, he was stupid enough to get into this mess, he can be stupid enough to get Derek out of the mess.
Whatever you do at the crossroads. Keep going forward.
He swallows and clears his throat. “I–I stand and give my eyes to you. One by one. Shadowed shore far undone. To you I pour corroded sun. Wake me as one.”
There’s a tingling sensation that rushes over him and quickly disappears, like whatever he had summoned just… failed. Like it had just slipped through his fingers.
He clenches his hands, repeating the words again in a much grander tone. “I stand and give my eyes to you. One by one. Shadowed shore far undone. To you I pour corroded sun. Wake me as one!” He shouts and braces himself.
There it was again! Just a tad stronger this time!
God he felt so stupid saying it out loud, he prays that his neighbors didn’t hear him.
He sighs, staring at the paused recording again, the text written inside of a Minecraft book.
Wait, what if he did it inside of Minecraft?
He had felt something earlier when he said it out loud, maybe he just needs to be in the right place where he could be heard clearer.
He tabs back over to the window of Minecraft, not daring touching it since Derek knocked him off. His heart aches at the death screen, curser hovering over the respawn button. He takes a deep breath and hits respawn.
He’s back in the world, back in creative mode. His first thought is to type in the spell into chat.
<TheMostMayo> I STAND AND GIVE MY EYES TO YOU. ONE BY ONE. SHADOWED SHORE FAR UNDONE. TO YOU I POUR CORRODED SUN. WAKE ME AS ONE.
That same tingling sensation washes over him, stronger this time, making him feel hot and cold all at the same time. And then just like the first time he said it aloud, it fades.
His heart starts to beat faster, eager and delighted. He has something, there’s something there and he can pull it to the surface. Maybe if he were in the King’s domain…
Avery frantically gets as many blocks and resources as possible from creative. Maybe the golden door still works, maybe this can still work, maybe Derek was still here and alive somehow.
He flies through the cave, not dwelling on the awe of the structures until he lands right at the open yellow doors. Avery shakes his hands, hyping himself up as he enters through the doorway, crossing his fingers that the doors still work.
He turns around, exiting the same door he just entered.
Yellow doors and stone bridges stretched out in front of him, his health and hunger flickering in at the bottom of his screen.
“Yes! Oh my god, yes!” Avery celebrates, euphoric and unabashed. He throws his hands up in the air, almost hitting his head against his bed’s backboard.
He copy and pastes the text into chat again.
<TheMostMayo> I STAND AND GIVE MY EYES TO YOU. ONE BY ONE. SHADOWED SHORE FAR UNDONE. TO YOU I POUR CORRODED SUN. WAKE ME AS ONE.
There it was again, the tingling sensation. This time it felt like he was in a whirlwind or tossed around in the waves of an ocean. It was an experience that almost convinced him that he wasn’t tired and on his bed and somewhere in a storm in space.
His heart was pounding against his chest, loud and thundering in his ears.
He shakes his head, focusing himself and placing his hands back on the keyboard, staring straight ahead at the damned yellow door at the end of the long hallway. He turns to the door on the left before pausing.
Whatever you do at the crossroads. Keep going forward.
He turns back towards the large door at the end once again as he looks at the stacks of wool in his inventory.
Couldn’t he just—build across? Skipping the need of going through the doors entirely?
He jumps up on the edge of the bridge and sneaks, placing down a wool block on the side.
“I could’ve done this instead?!” He whisper yells, now shaking his laptop screen before putting his head in his hands. Avery decides to put the blame on the King, since He screwed with his mind and all.
He groans and continues to build.
In minutes he’s at the end of the hallway, staring at the yellow door towering over his player character. Avery takes a deep breath and steps inside.
He turns around, finding himself at the edge of the platform.
Memories flash through his head of Derek hitting him off and he quickly moves his character to the center of the platform. He remembers the multitude of eyes staring at the two of them, the Yellow King’s blocky eyes witnessing the whole ordeal.
He pastes the text into chat once more, bracing himself for whatever comes.
<TheMostMayo> I STAND AND GIVE MY EYES TO YOU. ONE BY ONE. SHADOWED SHORE FAR UNDONE. TO YOU I POUR CORRODED SUN. WAKE ME AS ONE.
He nearly throws the laptop across the room from the sudden rush of cacophonous noise and overbearing sensation.
It starts small like a flame before fully waking up and becoming a large fire inside him. It feels like he’s intertwining his hands with someone else, sharing a burden Avery doesn’t understand. And for a moment, he sees everything. How the cosmos breathes and what human lives are in the eyes of a god. It reminded Avery of the things Derek wrote about in his final letter: seeing things an ordinary human will never get to see or experience. It’s like he could reach out and touch the stars in the sky just from where he sat on his bed.
And then abruptly—like someone covering his eyes—he stops seeing.
He pants, snapping back to reality as he wipes the sweat off his brow. He blinks, afterimages of places disappearing as the sight of his room fades back into its rightful place in reality. Avery slaps his cheeks as he shakes his head, focusing on the blurry Minecraft figure standing in front of his character.
An armored, gold and red skin.
Avery’s breath hitches, hands trembling over his keyboard as his heart pounds against his ears. He rubs his eyes, focusing on what lay behind the screen.
It was Derek’s Minecraft skin.
Quickly, Avery types into the chat.
<TheMostMayo> Derek?
A voice, barely a whisper, echoes around him. Groggy like He’d just woken up.
“…Avery…?”