Zoey…

She was his. She belonged to him eternally. No one would take an ender-born's heart-sister.

"I-I'll see you around." Zoey said as she stood in the mouth of the hole that led to the nuke under Blackrock Castle. "I'm pretty sure of that… 95 percent sure of that." She turned to look down into the hole. She flew down a bit and Rythian approached the hole.

"Okay." He said flatly, trying to hide the choked up feeling in the bottom of his throat. "Please, please, please, be careful." He begged.

There was a pause as the ender-mage took a deep breath and Zoey looked up at him. "You know how I feel about you. Don't risk anything." He emphasized. "It's just a castle."

"Careful… careful is… careful is my middle name." The girl said haltingly. "So-"there was another pause, "No, wait it isn't. But, I mean careful is… is… I'll be fine!" She reassured.

Rythian swallowed heavily. He really didn't want Zoey doing this. 'It's just a castle. It doesn't matter, not like you do.' He thought to himself.

"Look and," Zoey glanced down into the hole, "like no matter what happens, I'll- I'll figure something out. It'll be fine."

The mage nodded nervously. "Okay."

"It'll be fine." Zoey repeated, it sounded like she was trying to reassure herself. "It'll be fine."

"Alright I trust you." The boy said.

"It'll be fine. Thrust me." She said as she descended into the hole.

"Alright I'll trust you." He said sulkily.

"Let's go. Whoa!" She said.

Rythian smiled and started to walk away, Zoey was back to her normal over exuberant self. She paused realizing there was something wrong with that sentence. "I mean I'll go! You go as well but in the other direction." She said as she went all the way down into the hole.

"I'll see you Zoey." Her companion yelled as he took off from the ground and turned away.

"Bye, Ryth-ian." She called back haltingly she sounded choked up. "I'll be back! I promise."

Rythian's instincts tingled but he ignored them there was probably an enderman nearby that he would have to smite.

…

It was dark outside and raining but Zoey didn't notice. She was more focused on the bomb under her house.

"Okay, Nukey!" She called to the force-field encased nuke. "You and me have a date with a wire cutter!"

It was false cheerfulness and she knew it but it was the only thing giving her courage right now.

"Which is… quite weird… actually." She said as the sentence registered in her head. She snapped out of the thought quickly though.

"Okay, I lied," she said laughingly, "it's not a date I'm defusing the heck out of you." The nervousness was starting to show on her face. "Sorry, um… tell you what."

She rummaged through her inventory and pulled out the signal jammer. "I'm gonna plonk that jammer down. Fishton," she said to the cooked fish in her hand, "if you just jump on that jammer and absorb that."

Zoey put the jammer down on the floor. "There we go massive, monster, Mama- Jamma. There we go."

She through the fish at the jammer and covered her eyes. "Fishton, Fishton you on that? Oh," She said looking at the now live fish on the floor, "you look, oow. That's fine, that's fine."

The mushroom girl turned back to the jammer. "Um what was the fre-"she snapped her fingers, "1337, there we go." She said as she typed it in.

"Tapped into that," she said, chewing on her hair. She turned to the force-field and began to get to work. "Loop that and, ffft, that worked." She sounded mildly surprised. "That's awesome, so now I just need… whoa."

Zoey looked at the sercutry for the bomb. "Okay, um, tell you what," she turned to the fish on the floor, "let's… Fishton, do you remember what wire it was?" She croaked.

"Uh, it was- it was the red… one." She said slowly. "So I'll… It was either the red one or the blue one." Her voice was panicky and rapid with nerves. "One of those."

"Um," she said bighting her lip, "it's not the yellow one, so. Tell you what, I'll just move that yellow wire over to-"Click. "Oooh, it clicked. I don't know what that was. Um." The panic was starting to take over.

"Fishton, pass me the wire cutters," the fish passed her the wire cutters. They were both sweeting by now, "Um, I'm gonna cut this one." She pointed to the red wire.

"Yeah the red one. Red one. Red is the color of, mushrooms. So, yeah," Her voice squeaked, "that's fine, that's fine."

Zoey was starting to get out of breath. "Fishton, you ready. Totally nothing bad gonna happen." She cut the wire with her eyes squeezed shut.

"Did that do something?" She asked. Beep! "Oooh, it's beeping." She said panicked.

Zoey turned to the fish. "Fishton, it's beeping. Fish- oh." She rushed around the concrete cube trying to get to whatever was beeping. "Ah," she stopped, "I- oh- ah- oh crickey," She glanced around at everything.

"Rythian!" She called in an almost whisper as the machines kept beeping. She whimpered. "I'm sure Rythian's not here." Tears gathered in her eyes.

"Rythian, I miss you." The fuse to the nuke ignited. "Rythian, I need you right now. Nuke is about to explode." She whined.

The fuse burned out.

"Rythian, I-"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

…

Rythian dropped his mug and rushed for the door of the Crooked Caper.

"Rythian, wha' was tha'" The scots-man behind the bar.

"Zoey!" Rythain yelled as he took off from the ground, not paying attention to his Scottish friend.

Rythain flew as fast as he could but when he arrived at the castle there was nothing left. The entire front of the building was blown out and the sides just weren't there. Rythain stood and stared at the castle for a few minutes letting the information sink in. He rushed forward over the front and stared down into the pit that had once been his home. There was nothing left and Zoey had been in the center of that explosion.

"ZOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!"