Chapter Text
Martyn didn’t know what to think of this new server.
He had been disappointed when he first woke up in this world and saw players standing around a spawn for the third time now, but that all changed once Grian explained the premise behind this season.
Soulmates.
It was such a fucking cliche that Martyn had nearly burst out laughing during the explanation, if not for the way others reacted. Cleo, scoffing at the words ‘fate will decide,’ clearly having given up on fate years ago (honestly, he couldn’t blame her). Jimmy, going pale when told that your death would cause your soulmate’s by proxy. BigB, eyes flicking between the grass on the ground and Cleo. Bdubs and Tango awkwardly glancing at each other while Impulse and Joel noticed the absences of Lizzie, Skizzle and Mumbo.
The only other person who seemed to have a positive reaction was Ren, shooting Martyn a smile from across the circle. He seemed happy, despite the circumstances, but Martyn had long grown used to the way that Ren acted from those long nights in Dogwarts that he could tell the happiness was a facade, underneath his sunglasses, there was something in his multi-colored eyes.
Those eyes. It freaked Martyn out a bit, the hues in everyone’s eyes shifting between green, yellow and red as their lives hadn’t been set yet. It looked more unnatural than even the blood red eyes full of bloodlust that Martyn had seen hunting him down far too many times.
Grian finished explaining the rules after not too long. They were pretty much the same as 3rd Life. Greens and Yellows can only kill in retaliation to Reds, no allying with Reds while Green or Yellow, yada yada yada. At least the Boogeyman was gone and they were back to three lives.
Throughout it all, Martyn wished he was able to play that stupid creeper sound and scare the shit out of everyone. That would’ve been good.
Even as the intro seemed to drag on, before they all knew it a familiar 3, 2, 1 showed up in front of their eyes, and everyone yelled before running away in their own directions (but not before Ren managed to send Martyn another smile, Martyn with a matching mischievous grin on his face).
The numbers reached zero and Martyn felt the slightly nauseating shift as his lives were set to three and his eyes went green. But there was a new sensation; his health, hunger and lives linking with someone else’s. Who, he had no idea. That was what bothered him the most. Not the shared pain, but the not knowing just who he was sharing it with.
If he was unlucky it would be someone like Jimmy, doomed by the narrative to die first, dragging his soulmate with him. If he was lucky he’d be with Scott, the previous games winner, someone who knows how to survive. But luck never seemed to be on anyone’s side, and all he could do was hope.
But that didn’t matter. He’d find his soulmate eventually, and they would win this and be done with these cursed games for once and all (he didn’t think it worked like that, but Lizzie, Mumbo and Skizz had gotten out. There had to be a way).
For now though, he had to get resources. They were supposed to go off alone at the start, but Martyn couldn’t help himself from gravitating towards where Ren was. Smiling once again, (Ren really seemed to have that effect on him, didn’t he?) Martyn started punching the tree next to him.
“Dude!” Ren cheered, whatever going on with him earlier seemingly having disappeared from the excitement of seeing Martyn. “Wanna test if we’re soulbound?” Ren was almost bouncing up and down, and there was no way Martyn could say no to him.
“Of course dude, but how?” Martyn questioned. He really should have been paying better attention earlier.
Ren responded in his usual way. “We hit each other! Come on dude, hit me.”
Even as Martyn laughed at the way Ren said things, his mind still went to their first world together, to a test of loyalty inside cobblestone walls. “You gotta stop getting me to do this to you,” Martyn joked, but complied and punched Ren’s arm.
Sadly, even as Ren winced and rubbed his arm (Martyn did hit him slightly too hard), Martyn felt nothing. They weren’t soulbound.
The mood around them dampened, and Martyn was suddenly aware of the fact that neither of them had anything.
“It doesn’t matter that we’re not soulmates. We can still stick together for now, but let’s get some stuff,” Martyn said. Ren just nodded, and turned back to the tree he was cutting earlier. Martyn copied him, and the two stayed in silence until they each had enough logs.
After gaining basic wood tools, Martyn started exploring the closest cave, and Ren followed, still quiet. It was strange hearing the silence from Ren, but Martyn didn’t mind. He never could when it came to him.
They continued exploring the cave, digging deeper and deeper until reaching diamond level. There, Ren found a lava pool and Martyn used his water bucket to create a portal.
“Wanna go in?” Ren asked. He was always fascinated with the purple light that the portal created. Martyn, not so much.
“Always,” And with that, Ren walked in, Martyn right behind him. The Nether heat hit them immediately, always extremely hot, the air thick and hard to breathe. Martyn mentally apologised to his poor soulmate who had to experience this with him.
Martyn stood next to Ren for a minute, observing the grey pillars and pools of lava and magma blocks (they were in a fucking Basalt Delta), before both of them continued on. Slowly the conversation between them picked up, until Martyn and Ren were laughing and grinning once again, cutting down mob after mob without a care in the world. It didn’t matter that they were trapped in a death game loop. It didn’t matter that they were soulbound with other people out in the overworld. It didn’t matter how painfully familiar being with Ren was.
All that mattered was that they were together once again.