AN: Before you even start to read the story, I'd firstly like to say a few words in regards to this. This story was written by three people. These three people include two of my close friends and myself. We wrote this back in August and we'd like to share it with the people here on FFN to see how we did. This is a ProjectPhoenix (MC Server) Fanfiction based on the members and for the members. -ZeldaG2016

1

The Discovery

Betrayal, a ProjectPhoenix Fanfiction.

Minecraft is a product by Mojang. Some settings and names belong to ProjectPhoenix.

Since the beginning of when anyone could remember, there has been an portal linking Destiny and Chaos, two kingdoms on a world called Phoenix. No one knows of the origins, but it has been utilized for transportation between the two worlds for millennia. For the most part, Destiny and Chaos have been at peace for several generations now, settling upon a peace agreement long ago. Though, the portal does link the worlds together, not many of the citizens know of the portal's existence, let alone another whole land. In fact, no one at all, save the royal executives- the advisers-, is allowed to go through at all without facing dire consequences from each main purpose of the portal is used to discuss ideas between the rulers of each world, but as of recently the two leaders, Kat and Tom, have been using it for a little more than just ideas. Which has caused minor issues in the past, but nothing major.

The Kingdom of Destiny, in accordance to its actual name, is a very peaceful and tranquil place to live. The landscapes consist of the richest of pastures and never ending hills of green. Those of who decided to settle down in Destiny liked so because it was a place where they could live their lives at a slower pace. Although, very beneficial to the citizens, this will be sole cause of their downfall, the naïveté of them all. As for their leader, Tomtaru, he is a light-spirited, easy going sort of guy. Tom allows a lot of things to pass by in his world without much oppression, and although kind-hearted isn't afraid to occasionally let the hammer fall down.

On the other hand, the Kingdom of Chaos, is known for its power and umbral activity. In this world monsters roam freely throughout the deserts, most of the members of this society don't mind as much, seeing as they are fully capable of fending for themselves. Many of the people here in Chaos are very strong-willed and seek adventure at its greatest, looking for something to attack at every corner. The people of Chaos, while adventurous and ravenous, are also very careful for one another, helping those in need or in trouble from the ongoing threat of danger because you never know when you might be in trouble. And as for their leader Katya, she's much like the people. Katya while also very courageous, is also relatively strict, rightfully so as in order to control this chaotic world you need somewhat of an iron fist to do so. Truly, at the depths of her soul lays a caring and compassionate person, of which Tom has helped mold her into through their time together.

...

"Deviant, could you call Jam into my chamber in one hour?"

"Alright, should I be concerned for this at all?"

"No, but I want to make sure you come as well."

...

Along the trail to Jam's house, I noticed that it was relatively quiet, as if something was deeply disturbing the creatures of the desert. I had brought along my sword just in case I were to run into anything along the way, but now I'm not sure I needed it at all.

My position in Kat's castle is not the best, but I am very glad to do so. Seeing as I am Kat's sole advisor, I give her advice on large decisions and occasionally tiny ones. While the perks aren't the best they could be, and I do occasionally feel more like her personal assistant, being part of the system that runs a kingdom is exhilarating.

I must have dozed off because in the distance, I thought I saw a man charging at me, possibly thinking of me as a threat, but as we got closer to each other I assumed he realized that I posed no danger to him whatsoever. In fact this person seems to look slightly familiar.

"Hello, Deviant! It's been awhile since I last saw you," greeted the man.

"Do I know you?"

"Has it really been that long? Anyways, it's me, Gopher."

Even with that extra amount of information I still had almost no clue who this 'Gopher' person was. "Oh yeah, how have you been recently? Life treating you well?" I said trying to put on my best excited voice to convince him that I knew of him the best I could.

"Everything's going pretty much okay, although, why are you out this far, the only person I actually know of that comes out here is Jam," answered Gopher.

"Well, as it would seem, I was actually sent out here by ordinance of Katya's request to retrieve him for a meeting she wants to have later on until stopped in the middle of my business en route by you. As little time as I have left, I do have one last question for you before I continue on my way again."

"Oh, what is that?"

"Have you noticed the lack of monsters out here recently?"

"Recently? You sure must have been kept up in that castle for a while, there has been an extreme lack of beasts out here for months now."

"Interesting information, well, I thank you for what you have contributed to me. I'll be on my way now," I said as I walked away from the man who insisted that we meet up sometime again.

It took about 15 more minutes to get to where Jam 'resided' out in the middle of the desert, but the one thing I couldn't shake from my memory was the lack of fiends roaming around. Never once in my life have I ever seen such a calmer time in Chaotic History. Was there something else out there? Was there some sort of environmental pandemic? Did they all run away to someplace else? Either way, this is not a phenomenon of normal standards. This situation is probably on a greater scale that I- or for that matter, anyone else- could come close to comprehending.

Upon reaching the footsteps of Jam's tiny abode, I knocked on his door. No one came. So I waited.

"I'm out back," replied a familiar voice.

As I walked around the back of the building, I couldn't help but notice the disarray of everything. Apples and bread scattered all throughout the sand, spoiled beyond use. Farming and mining tools scattered about; it was a wreck. And then when I finally reached the backside of this putrid looking house I found a shabby looking monkey, although not just a plain looking monkey. While about as large as an ape and features which resemble a monkey's; this creature look slightly humanoid, but who am I to say, as I look like a dressed up wolf standing on its two hind legs.

"Is that you Jam?" I asked the scruffy monkey.

"Deviant, what brings you here? I don't get many visitors these days..."

"I was sent here on a mission by Kat to retrieve you for a meeting at Capitol."

"Oh, really, I haven't heard of Kat for a while, not since she..." he trailed off into silence, "but anyways, let me gather my stuff and I'll be on my way."

"Actually, I don't think you should pack anything, as this is an urgent rally. Although maybe you should clean yourself up before we head back, you look like a mess."

"You did say it was an urgent meeting, so I think we should just be on our way."

I didn't respond to that last comment as I knew I could never convince him into cleaning himself. I just motioned with my hand to tell him to come along as we had another journey back to Capitol castle.

Again, on the way back, I noticed the monsters, or lack there of, and was dumbfounded by the trouble I had not come into along this long trek. As for Jam, for the most part he was compliant, not saying much. Except for a few comments here and there about my position in the castle. I didn't think much of it and never responded back with anything more than just a 'Mmhmm' or an 'Okay'. Sooner or later Jam figured out that I wasn't in the mood for talking and he fell silent, and when he went silent; I felt as if the whole world did. Little did I know that his constant chattering was distracting me from a silence so great I felt as if I was going to go insane if it weren't for the pitter patter of our feet against the sand.

No monsters in sight, no creatures in sight, not even a single sheep. I did not know how desolate this world was until I had entered its realm. I guess maybe I should have gotten a view of life outside of the castle every now and then. But what's done is done, and we still have to get to the castle quickly. So, I shook off the thoughts of my surroundings and kept moving closer and closer to our destination.

We soon met our journey's end when we stumbled upon the gates of Capitol, I signaled the guards of the gate with the insignia on my badge, and they quickly led us in. Jam and I continued up to the center of Capitol where we finally got to the large metal doors of the castle's entry, and I again showed them my belonging.

As fast as we had gotten into the castle, we had moved into Kat's chamber where she was waiting for us.

"I'm glad you could come on such short notice, Jam," announced Katya.

"Yes, well, sitting in the desert all day isn't the most occupying thing," responded Jam.

"I can imagine so, seeing as I sent you there for that purpose."

"Could we please just get on with the meeting?" I interrupted.

"Oh, yes, anyways as both of you probably know, there has been a disturbing lack of creatures out in the world," Kat started, "Well, I just want you to know that there is something wrong and I need the assistance of you two in order to help me right this wrong."

"Excuse me, but what exactly is going on?" Jam questioned.

"As of now, I can't say because we need to get moving immediately, but I promise you that I will tell you soon enough."

"I understand, when should we get moving?"

"We'll go under the cover of the night, I haven't told anyone else in the kingdom about my plans of leaving as most of them wouldn't understand what's going on, but I will leave them a message before I leave detailing them what they should do once I am gone." Kat explained. "Oh, and another thing Jam, before you go to the room I set up for you, please wash off, I don't need your filth inside my castle."

As soon as the meeting was adjourned, Kat called me back into the room without attracting the attention of Jam as he walked towards the bathing room. I was confused at this action but went along with it.

"You're familiar with the world of Destiny, correct?"

"Yes, I have assisted you into going there many times, although not for a while now," I responded back showing that I was still puzzled by this silent chat.

"Well, about a week ago I went there by myself desiring the urge to go through, and I noticed something strange, the portal was closed," She continued,"The reason I didn't want to tell you of this though was because I didn't want to startle you or perhaps anyone else you may have leaked this information to, in fact, I just thought of this occurrence as a dream because after that point I have no memory of what happened. But it has begun worrying me greatly as of yesterday. One day while roaming the halls of the castle, I saw a shining light in one of the storage rooms, so being curious, I opened the door only to find a man named Sid whom I have met up with many times in Destiny and have known him to be the messenger over there.

"I questioned him as to what he was doing here let alone how he got here, and he explained to me that in a last ditch effort, they gathered up as much portal material as they could find to make a small portal lasting for only a very short period of time. At the end of this he just handed me a note with Destiny's seal on the front and went back into the portal. Then as soon as he left, with a great blast of light the portal disappeared. Upon reading the message, I noticed the handwriting to be that of Tom's, you are acquainted with him, right?"

"Yes, you have introduced him to me to be that of your love interest," I answered her.

"Anyways, I was stunned when I had finished the letter and almost broke into tears... Destiny has fallen."

...

Later that day, at around the stroke of midnight, we all met up in the main hall. Of course, the only people on guard at night are those that look over the castle doors, so we devised a plan to leave the premise.

The difficult thing about the castle is that it is perched on a plateau about 50 feet tall, so you can't just jump out the window to get out of the castle. All of us decided that in order to get out we would do something rather clichè; we were going to tie drapes together and hang them out of the window. To our luck Kat's room is full of many drapes we could use in order to escape. Jam being agile, as he is a monkey, went first and succeeded to fall down off of the ledge just barely hanging on to a little bit of dirt jutting out of the side.

"Nice going, Jam," Kat called out after him.

"At least I know I have some support from you guys," Jam sneered.

"Could you two cut the chatter! I don't know if you notice or not, but we're actually trying to escape! Or at least I am..." I reminded them , obviously they both realized that because they both fell silent immediately.

Kat was the next one to go down, and this time we made sure it went all the way to the ground and before sending our makeshift rope over again, tying Kat's hands to the end to ensure she wouldn't fall and slowly lowered her down. As for me, I tied the rope to the lock on the window, making sure it was secure, but in the process I managed to rip the window out of its frame and onto the floor, surprisingly though, it did not shatter. I then decided to tie it to the table by the window, and in all hindsight, this was probably what I should have done first. Jam soon figured out it was safe to go and resumed climbing down again.

When we got to the bottom, considering the gates of Capitol close at night, we took a secret entrance only known to Kat and I, coincidentally to get to the portal with easy access, and instantly set off to the entrance of the forest nearby the castle.

The forest, properly named the Darkwoods, is not a place that many travel through. Before the lack of wandering fiends it was a deadly route to take. The pathway riddled with beasts here and there. However, because of the lack of creatures roaming around this means it is less dangerous, but still perilous because of the natural formations that cause many injuries along the way. Such as the vast canyons, the acidic lagoons, the steep mountain ranges, and many more.

"How long exactly is this walk?" asked Jam knowing that the answer won't be pleasant.

"Usually it takes about 5 days, but under these conditions I expect it to take around 3 days." I answered him sternly, showing him that I still don't have much of a good mindset of him ever since we walked over the desert.

"Well, with me alongside, I'll bet you we get there within 2 days," Jam replied in a pompous tone.

But just as I had done in the desert, I ignored him. I had gotten used to doing this easily without much regret, it was almost secondhand nature. We continued walking along the path for about 1 hour besides finally settling down for the night figuring that they may as well sleep some before heading on in the morning again, not to mention that everyone else was complaining about how tired they were. As for me, I don't really need too much sleep, so for most of the night I stayed up staring into the moon pondering about what lays beyond us on the trail.

...

[Letter: Tom to Kat]

Dear Katya,

It has been ages since we last met beyond the portal for a proper meeting. I have certainly missed your company here in Destiny and I would love to request another visit if it weren't for the circumstances. I'm afraid I have dreadful news that would be worth you reading. I cannot tell much being the short time I am allowed but I will give you as much information as I can regardless of how little it may be.

Do you remember Palmo? He was my trusted adviser during the many visits you had taken to Destiny. I do not know how to tell you this but he has taken my kingdom from me as well as my crown. I was forced to evacuate from my castle the night before the battle had begun. For the time being I am in a safer location. Although, I do not know how long it will be until my location is discovered by Palmo and his minions.

I would like to ask for your help, Katya. I fear that the soldiers still standing by my side are not enough to take back my position. I will not send men to battle that are guaranteed to die. We are severely outnumbered. Palmo has taken over Destiny Castle and my entire military. The traitor will not claim my kingdom forever. No, I will not allow it! The people of Destiny are of peace and I know for a fact that he does not have plans to follow the order of the lands.

Currently, as I am writing this message to you, some of Palmo's men have discovered my hideout, and I fear they will soon find me. So, if I am not there by the time you get here, do not worry, just remember that I'll be waiting for you somewhere...most likely the castle dungeon.

You know I care for your safety thus, if you accept my request, please be careful. I do not know Palmo's motive, but I do know he will stop at nothing to take whatever he wants. Do not put yourself in harms way if you can prevent it. I wish the best to you and all you do, Katya. I always have and I always will.

Sincerely,

Tomtaru.