Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Player emerged from the library, wary of the missing floor blocks that held the unforgiving void underneath. The Maze always seemed more fragmented towards the end. It could be the force holding the Maze together, weakening as players came closer to reaching the exit, or maybe it was some twisted challenge to keep them from the ultimate thing that will save them.
This particular player was tired. They had spent so long navigating the treacherous puzzles and the mobs that seemed to be present at every turn. While other players rushed ahead, completing the puzzles as they had done them hundreds of times before, in past lives, perhaps when the Maze was a different configuration, possibly just that day, forever determined to reach the freedom that lay within the exit portal. The Player was not one of those players. They had lagged with a few others taking the maze at their own pace. Gradually, as they progressed, more and more players died, taken by lava, void, mobs, spikes, and other means.

The Player watched as the colored dots representing the others on the locator dwindled. By the time they were halfway through, there were only three players left. One was their companion traveling alongside them, but the other was far ahead, though stagnant as if waiting for something. Or perhaps the exit was a lie. Maybe the distant player was at an unpassable wall or void. Maybe there was nothing at the end of the hellish nightmare except the fate of the others, a quiet death only met by a chat message no one would read.
The companions made their way through rooms of lava and twisty rooms leading to pressure plates, until one finally met their end in a spiked cavern that, in a horrid twist of irony, had already been solved. The Player continued to reach the end, to reach possible treasure, and to reach the unmoving player. As they jump down from the library’s doorway, avoiding the holes, they see the landscape before them. There is no impassable wall, no blank void. There is the other player, their skin covered in colors and clouds, sitting by a shulker box that had long been robbed of its treasure.

The Player did not blame this Rainbow, as they seemed to have been waiting for them. When Player approached, the Rainbow sprang to life, gesturing to their right to a chest on the sidelines. The Rainbow vaulted over the one-block gap first, cautious as if they had died to it before. How ironic would it be to die just blocks from the thing that would save them. The Player followed as the Rainbow stepped on a pressure plate, tentatively stepping on it before realizing that it unlocked the chest before them. As the players opened the box, they received the final material prize that they would be gifted from the Maze, as it had a sick sense of humor and locked more glory behind having four players survive its blights.

After the treasures were sealed away in the players' pockets and the pair leaped back over to the main platform, the Player looked to the Rainbow. They could see the line of blocks that would lead them to salvation, but were unsure if the wiser player would go first. To their surprise, the Rainbow gestured them on, pointing in the direction of the portal and motioning for the Player to go first. They had a genuine smile that made the Player feel as if the Rainbow was proud of them. As they took their first steps on the bridge, they looked back to see the Rainbow give them a thumbs up before stepping on themselves.

Throughout the short and long walk, no matter how fragmented and glitched the world around them and behind them became, the Rainbow pushed the Player to keep going. Silent, as the Maze had taken their words a long time back, but encouraging. As the two reached the final room, a room that almost felt like home, with the green grass, the flowers, the tree, all still uniquely digital, as the Maze would never be able to replicate the real feeling of their birthplace, the Player looked back one more time at their friend who to was also basking in the replication of their homeland. The Rainbow waves them on, and so the Player does. Behind them, they hear the Rainbow do the same.

The Player lands in an infinite void of numbers and code. Not their home. They check to see if their friend escaped. The Rainbow did. A button appears before the Player. It pushes itself before the Player even has time to react. Their eyes open to the waiting room again. They are the first player, but soon there will be other players waiting for the countdown that inevitably leads to death in the Maze. As the room fills up, the Player sees many types of people waiting. Some, like they once were, are excited to run for the first time or to go further than their last try, which likely did not get them far in the Maze, as it won't value excitement, solely survival. Others are like the Player, stuck in the loop. Experienced players who got close or even entered the portal. Players who know the puzzles and that the Maze brings only suffering. Players who are good at surviving.

Players like the Rainbow, who showed the Player kindness even in tragedy. The Player never came across their friend again. The maze has many realities, and they can get put into any one of them. That does not mean that the Player never stopped searching. The Rainbow never stopped either. Possibly the pair find each other again, far into the future, far into the Mazes' unending madness. Maybe they see each other and smile, remembering the time one waited and showed the other how it feels to escape with others, as they had to do it alone before. Maybe the Maze will show kindness and the two will once again escape together, possibly even with others. Maybe they will die one final time and become a part of the code.