Everything is dark. Crushingly, terrifyingly, comfortingly dark. So why can she see her hands, as she lifts them to her face? Why can she see the water dripping from her uncomfortably wet pink sleeves?
Pink sleeves? She was wearing purple. She pats herself down, feeling her head, her shoulders, her torso, hands brushing across her elbows, her waist, down her legs to her feet. She's not in any pain. She's not even particularly frightened. She just can't see anything except her own body, dressed in the wrong clothes.
There's another girl, one who looks just like her, standing a fair distance away, not facing her.
Lillly - no, that can't be right, she can't be Lillly if there's another Lillly standing right in front of her - opens her mouth. But what can she say? What do you say to get your own attention? "Hey. Lillly."
Have all the lights gone out in the Vault? Did Fix somehow break in and steal all the lava? And the ender chests? It's so dark. Why is it so dark?
More importantly, if it's so dark, why can she see someone dressed in yellow leaning against what she assumes would be her throne, if only she could see it? And why is she so certain she's a 'she,' even though her internal monologue has always been a 'he'?
"What are you staring at?" he asks, keeping his voice clear and steady. This blue person sitting across from him is staring at him like he's the intruder. It's his Vault, for heck's sake. He's the Ghost. He's Viking! He's Viking. He's Viking...
...Pilot. He can't bring himself to finish his name. Whatever. It's still his Vault. "I'll ask again. What are you staring at?"
"Who the hell are you?" Lillly turns to look at this girl who speaks with her voice yet isn't her. Or maybe she is. It's the person Lillly sees when she looks in the mirror, except this girl is completely dry and wearing a blue dress and seems so much more present than she's felt for years.
"Who the hell are you?" The yellow boy looks directly into this blue girl's eyes and sees they're the same colour as her clothes. His eyes must be yellow, then, too. He's not wearing safety goggles anymore, but she still is. And both the lenses are blue. His clothes are simpler than hers, a long yellow roughspun tunic instead of an insulated puffer jacket. His clothes never used to be that warm - where has this girl gotten them from? Maybe she's turning into Taneesha.
"I think I'm you," the blue Lillly says, and finds that she can walk on this oppressive blackness to approach her new pink twin. "But I don't think those two are you."
She points to two people who look like they might actually be twins - fraternal twins - curled up against something invisible in the darkness. The girl is dressed in blue, but a different shade of blue than her. Not-Lillly - because she's quite certain the other girl is Lillly, and she's the fake one, if there is a fake Lillly - is dressed in a darker, peacock blue dress in the same style she drowned in. Except it's completely dry. This strange girl who's sitting next to a yellow boy, she's dressed like Amelia Earheart, with blue-tinted goggles and a warm winter coat and cargo shorts. It makes sense, considering it's February. If February exists in this dark place.
Lillly turns to look at where the fake Lillly is pointing - she's quite sure she's the real one, because she's still full of all the anger and fear and self-loathing that led her to the bottom of the pool, and if she weren't the real Lillly, wouldn't she be more sympathetic to herself?
"What's going on?" she asks, and when the fake Lillly opens her mouth to answer, she adds, "Not you. These two. I want to know what they're doing here."
"I don't know. There's too many things I don't know. What do you know?" the blue VikingPilot says, standing, and she knows she's being more dramatic than is strictly necessary, but she's always had a penchant for making a scene, so what does it matter?
Both Lilllys open their mouths at the same time, but the blue one shuts her mouth. Good. She knows who's more important here. "I just drowned."
"We just read a book," Viking says, rising to join the other person. "We're usually one person. VikingPilot. We're a ghost."
This time, it's the blue Lillly who responds. "We're Lillly MacPherson-Hess. Or at least, she is. I don't know who I am. Maybe I'm a ghost, too.
"You're no ghost," says the blue VikingPilot. Does the first half of their name even apply? If he's Viking, and he's certainly dressed like one, then does that make her Pilot? He supposes it must. Pilot keeps talking though, without regard for the fact that he's currently having an identity crisis. "We can turn intangible."
To prove it, she lets herself fade from the physical world and steps into the other half of the person who used to be VikingPilot. For a moment, they're both visible, overlapping like they used to. Considering she's got absolutely no idea what's happening, she sure is certain about the fact that they're both VikingPilot. Or rather, that VikingPilot was both of them.
Lillly - no, fake-Lillly, she's not the real Lillly anymore, and maybe she never has been - should be scared right now. But she's got a feeling this isn't the weirdest thing about this interaction.
"If you two have just drowned, this must be a new version of the place between lives. Which means the book must have killed us, this time," the yellow Viking says, taking a step to his left, away from his other half. He doesn't fall, even though he should be off the base of his throne now, tumbling to the ground.
"What do you mean, 'a new version of the place between lives?' Aren't you already a ghost? How can you die again?" Real Lillly knows she's being a bit rude, asking all these invasive questions, but the situation calls for it. None of this is making sense. If Lillly was successful in killing herself, she doesn't want this to be the afterlife. Trapped in a dark, formless space with nobody for company except her doppelgänger and these twin ghosts. No. There has to be more to it. This can't really be Hell. Although it could turn into endless suffering, if these people are annoying.
"Yeah, we've died before, but you can come back to life. Unless you're playing Hardcore. Then it's all over. But it's usually just a matter of getting back to the real world and finding all your stuff again." Are these people Hardcore players? Does this mean Legundo turned Dominion into a Hardcore world? Is Legundo trying to kill VikingPilot for good? Does this mean he's succeeded? There's no chance of them ever being able to recover their memories?
No. Legundo may not like him all the time, but they're still friends. Changing the world without telling everybody isn't something friends do to each other. The piglin is greedy and clever, but not mean. Something else must be happening.
"What the hell are you talking about? This is real life, not some video game." Real Lillly knows she's being blunt, but she's never been known to be nice when she doesn't have to be. She's certainly not going to start now.
Fake Lillly walks towards the others. They do seem more... pixellated... than the Lilllys. "I don't think we're supposed to be able to meet. Like, cosmically."
"Screw the cosmos. We have memories to restore," says the blue VikingPilot, although she's not very much a viking and much more a pilot. "We can't stand around and chat all day. We need to get back to Dominion."
"Come on. We have to at least try to help Lillly. And Lillly." Viking says, pleading with his other half.
"I'm leaving you here," Pilot replies. Yeah. Pilot. She likes the sound of that. She closes her eyes and tries to return to life, the same way she always did when she was just half of a person, but it's not working. Goddamnit. She must need Viking to cooperate. Which means humouring him as he tries to save people they've never even met before.
"Concentrate on your bed. If your resurrection mechanics are the same as ours, you'll wake up in bed." Viking watches as the blue Lillly closes her eyes and the pink one does not.
"This is stupid," real Lillly says, but closes her eyes anyway, and follows the viking's instructions.
The Lilllys wink out of existence, and Pilot prods him to do the same. So Viking gives in, closing his eyes and thinking of bed.