Nia covers her eyes with her hand, squinting her eyes as she tries to adjust to the brightness of the room. Soon, she finds that the room is only white, nothing more to it. No windows, no exit, no furniture. Just a pure white box. A stark contrast to what the void would be.

"Am I dead?" she asks, knowing how stupid of a question that is. Still, she felt the need to ask it, trying to crack the mystery of the white box in which she seems to be trapped.

"Not dead, no," a feminine voice, airy and full of power, says. Nia turns in its direction, coming face to face with a woman in a beautiful black dress. Her face hidden behind a veil. A strange sense of deja vu overcomes the princess.

Death has come to visit Nia.

"You're on the brink of death," says the woman before Nia, lifting her veil. She lets Nia marvel at her supernatural beauty, seeing her tanned skin, shiny black hair, as dark as the night, and brown eyes. No wonder Philza has fallen in love with her.

"On the brink of death?" Nia repeats, her eyebrow arched.

Death nods. "It's not your time yet, darling." Approaching Nia, the woman lays her hand on the princess' shoulder with a smile. "You still have a job to do, so . . . let's just call it a date with me. A date with Death, catchy, isn't it?"

"But— how?" asks Nia, licking her lips. "I don't understand. What can I do? Dream won't give us the book."

Death chuckles amusedly, shaking her head. "Darling, you don't need to be in possession of the book to protect its contents."

Knitting her eyebrows together, Nia stares at Death. "What do you mean?" she asks, confusion lacing her voice.

"Sometime, in the near future, you will get an opportunity to keep the contents of the book safe. I can't tell you what or how, but know that it will be there. I'm certain you'll know when the time comes." Death smiles, her touch starting to burn.

Nia hisses in pain, the hiss slowly turning into an agonizing scream.

Nia screams in pain.

Sitting up abruptly, she examines her surroundings.

She's in a dark cave, sunlight seeping through its entrance. Other than that, there's nothing. The princess reaches to her chest, where the sword went through her. Her chestplate is off, and her wound perfectly healed. The hole in her white blouse is the only remainder of the injury.

Nia stands up, supporting herself with her arms. She stumbles in the dark, catching herself on the wall of the cave. Her head feels dizzy and her limbs are numb, but she pushes through, moving toward the light.

The sight that she's met with surprises her, though it also brings a smile to her face. Whether she looks up or down, all she can see is debris of buildings and stone, a huge crater in L'Manburg's place. It's much bigger than what Wilbur left behind ages ago.

Technoblade, Phil, Sara and Dream succeeded in their mission. They finished Wilbur's job.

L'Manburg is no more.

The euphoria of success makes her momentarily forget that she's going to have to somehow climb up the crater and get herself on the surface. She forgets that her body is too weak, dehydrated and absolutely famished.

She wonders how long she's been stuck in the cave.

"NIA?" shouts a voice that the princess recognizes from the surface.

Looking up, Nia's met with the sight of Niki, walking around L'Manburg's remains, still wearing Wilbur's coat.

It doesn't take long for Niki to make her way down toward the anarchist with a curious and confused look across her features. "Nia, we thought you were dead," she says, relief in her voice. "We spent days looking for you."

"Days?" Nia questions, worry slipping into her tone.

Technoblade must've been under the impression that Nia's dead. For days. She bites her bottom lip, barely holding herself upright. Niki notices, coming to her side and supporting most of her weight.

"Let's get you up first, okay? Then we can talk about everything else," she says with a warm smile, supposed to ease Nia's mind. Though nothing can stop her concern for Technoblade.

"Is Technoblade—"

"He's okay," Niki says at once, cutting Nia off. "I mean, we haven't heard from him ever since all of this was over, but Phil says he's fine. Just—"

"Convinced that I'm dead," Nia finishes the sentence for Niki. The pink-haired woman nods.

"We didn't have much to go on, you know? All we knew was that Tommy saw you die, and then Dream started blowing up L'Manburg bit by bit, and you got lost in the midst of battle. Somewhere in L'Manburg while it was being blown to pieces. Sara and Stela were saying that you couldn't be dead, because they'd feel it, but their hunch could've been wrong. So, we did spend a while looking for you, we just . . . we couldn't find you. So, eventually, we gave up. And Phil had to nearly drag Technoblade away from all the decay."

A frown settles on Nia's lips, her expression heartbroken. She nearly died, met Death herself, and currently struggles to even stand properly, but her biggest concern is Technoblade and the torment he must've gone through.

"There's nothing around here. I'm not sure where to take you," says Niki, biting the inside of her cheek. She helps Nia climb up the rocks, sometimes almost carrying the princess, surprising Nia with her newfound strength.

Raising an eyebrow at Niki, she chuckles, shaking her head. "I haven't exactly told many people yet, but I'm building a city underground," she explains, though she doesn't have to.

"A city? By yourself?"

"Yes," Niki smiles. "It's a lot of work, but . . . you know, it pays off, I suppose." She humbly flexes the muscles on her arms even through Wilbur's coat.

Nia chuckles dryly, followed by a cough, grabbing at her chest when it hurts her insides. She supposes that despite being fully healed, the lack of nutrition and water in her body makes everything still painful.

"We need to get you some water. And food," Niki comments, mostly for herself. "I think Tommy's house is the closest to here," she mumbles, wrapping her arm around Nia's waist.

The two women set out for Tommy's small cabin upon a hill in the outskirts of the Dream SMP.

Niki takes Nia inside, settling her down on the bed, which must've been recently made. Arching an eyebrow, Nia wants to ask whether Tommy has been living in his old house again, but she doesn't get to voice her question.

"Some guy, Connor, took over Tommy's home when Tommy was in exile," she says, pursing her lips. "Connor still lives here, but he and Tommy have been fighting over the ownership of the cabin for a while now, since L'Manburg is gone . . ."

"That explains the red, white and royal blue," says Nia, examining the inner design of the house. She wouldn't have thought Tommy to be someone who'd support the United States of America, considering the flag hanging above the bed. "And that . . ." She nods at the bed, the sheets being an American flag as well.

Niki chuckles. "Yeah."

"You know, for two people fighting over ownership, neither of them seems to care about locking the door, do they?"

"Well, Tommy's usually the one who stole around here, so I don't think it really matters to him specifically."

Nia chuckles, another cough leaving her lips. Niki runs up to her with a glass of water, helping her drink from it, despite knowing that Nia is capable of drinking herself. She's just being cautious. Nia doesn't blame her for it.

"I'll look around here and see if there's anything to eat," says Niki with a smile. "Don't go anywhere, okay?"

"Do I look like I can go anywhere?" Nia questions with a raised brow, and Niki laughs.

"I'm sure you'd be capable of leaving, even if you knew that you can't get far." Niki shakes her head, and Nia laughs. This time fully without coughing, her throat no longer dry, the water relieving the scratchy feeling.

"Fair enough."

Niki disappears into a different room, giving Nia space to further examine the room in which she is. A lot of things are uncharacteristic for Tommy inside, most likely belonging to Connor, but Nia does notice a few remainders of Tommy. Like the photo of him and Wilbur high up on the wall, where Connor must've not bothered with taking it off.

Or the amount of red and white shirts in one chest, thrown in with other memorabilia that must've belonged to Tommy. Connor probably just put it in and never bothered to throw it out.

Nia makes her way toward the chest, looking through its contents with a smile on her face. She hopes that Tommy doesn't entirely hate her. Despite all of the hurtful things that have been said between the two, she hopes he doesn't hate her. Just like she couldn't possibly find it in herself to hate him.

"Tommy was actually one of the people looking for you in the rubble. After all the blowing up stopped, and the withers were slain," says Niki from behind Nia. She puts a plate of steak and potatoes on a table with cutlery. "I wasn't there for a big part of the fighting and all, because I— well, I was burning down the L'Mantree, but I think Tommy tried to get your unconscious body out of L'Manburg when Dream's cannons first sounded."

Nia sighs. She's genuinely surprised that she managed to survive.

"Thank you, Niki," says the princess.

"For what?" Niki asks.

"For this," Nia smiles. "For finding me and helping me now."

"Of course, Nia. What else am I supposed to do?" Niki looks at Nia softly. "I don't blame you for wanting to destroy L'Manburg. It's been hurting us so much. Tommy— if anything, Tommy's to blame for all of this. If it wasn't for his stupid discs . . ."

Nia scoffs. "Oh, those discs." She shakes her head.

"People are talking around here. Saying that he's planning to get the discs back from Dream. Which I don't know how he plans to do. He's not strong enough to fight Dream."

"It's Tommy," says Nia. "He'd fight even if the entire world was against him."

"But that's never going to happen," says Niki with bitterness in her voice. "Everyone perceives Tommy as some kind of hero, and everyone just forgets that it's his decisions that hurt others."

"What are you talking about?" Nia furrows her brows.

Niki scoffs. "Don't tell me you don't agree with me, Nia. You of all people know that Tommy's done a lot of bad shit. He just never owns up to it, hiding behind his discs. Discs, discs, discs. Nothing else. He doesn't care about anyone. About us, or even his friends. He just cares about those dumb fucking discs."

"Niki . . ."

"Sorry," the woman takes a deep breath, shaking her head. "I've just— I've been thinking a lot lately, you know? I've had the time. And whenever I search for the reason behind all the bad that's happened around here, it always somehow links back to Tommy and Dream. Always. I'm just fed up with their bullshit."

"Okay, understandable," says Nia, nodding.

"Yeah," Niki breathes out. "But I think Jack and I have a solution."

"A solution?" Nia tilts her head to the side.

"Nothing you need to worry about, Nia. Just . . . a solution."

"Okay." Nia nods. "I hope it works out then."

"Me too." Niki purses her lips.

an apology to those who may have fallen victim to my silly little joke