Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

One last day

           Gem woke up at the crack of dawn, opening her eyes to the yellow sunlight of sunrise. She was in her room. In her own house. At Dawn. Her empire. In a world that she was going to protect from the Watchers. She was going to fight for her friends. Her friends that had stayed by her side unlike all the others. 

           Smiling to herself, she looked at the calendar, but she didn't need to count the number of x marks on the dates to know how long it was until the Watcher attack. There was now only one day left. One free day left until everything went spiraling down. One free day left until she might lose one of her only real friends

           Shaking off the bad thoughts, Gem shot a hole in the calendar with her Watcher magic and trooped downstairs. She had chores to do. Funny how she thought about chores when this might be her last day left to live. She didn't harbor any illusions. She knew that even if she was a Watcher there was a chance she could die tomorrow. But she couldn't help but do the chores. It was just something deeply ingrained in her. Even at Tumble Town she'd assisted the sheriff with his own chores as much as possible. 

          Gem fed all the animals, cleaned out the barn and other buildings, kept an eye out for small maintenance problems, etc. Even if she wouldn't be around after tomorrow, who knows? Maybe the Watchers would be defeated somehow. And even if she wouldn't be alive to see the day, she still had citizens who would appreciate the work she put in her chores. 

           Smiling wanly despite all of her dark thoughts, Gem rounded a corner and came face to face with Apollo, who immediately tackled her to the ground with a mournful howl. Gem smiled and let him lick her face. "I know, Apollo." She said. "I missed you too and if I die tomorrow I'll still miss you." Apollo made a sad whimpering noise and somehow that made the enormous threatening bear appear like a tiny helpless cub. 

           Gem got up and hugged him and then reached out and unstrapped his saddle. It fell to the ground with a clunk, its sunrise-red color looking so out of place among the spring green grass. Apollo sniffed the saddle curiously and turned back to Gem. "I might not be riding on you anymore after today." She said and Apollo whimpered again. 

           "I might only have one last day to live." Gem said. Apollo looked like he was crying and gently headbutted her. Gem made a small 'oof' noise and wondered what he was doing but then Apollo motioned to the saddle and squatted down and she understood. "You want one last ride?" She asked and the bear nodded. Gem looked down at the saddle and considered. "How about we do bareback?"

           A long ride of bareback riding atop a bear later, Gem and Apollo felt a little better about how they spent their possibly last day together. Gem nuzzled the bear affectionately and he licked her nose. Giggling, she broke apart. "Okay, I think I should go meet my other friends now." She said. Apollo whined miserably, pawing at her overalls. 

            "I can't stay here forever, Apollo." Gem said. "I have to help them. Prepare them for tomorrow. We only have one day left to do that. I don't want to lost anyone." Apollo seemed to understand. He gave her one last snuffy bear kiss as a goodbye and then wandered away, looking incredibly sad. 

           Gem felt tears well up in her eyes and she brushed them away before they could fall. Determined she teleported to spawn... only to find herself at Tumble Town. Facepalming she wondered if the Watchers had made the rift affect her powers on purpose and then wondered why she had even questioned it. 

           "Oh, hi, Jimmy." She called as she spotted the sheriff leave his house. "And... Scott?" She shot them a significant look as she spotted the Chromian exit the same building right after the sheriff. "Were you sharing a room or something?" Gem asked. "Don't ask." Jimmy grumbled. Gem noticed that he had bags under his eyes. That happened whenever someone got a lack of sleep... was crying... or both.