Prologue
So, I was browsing through tumblr a few weeks ago, and I saw some role reversal images of Romeo and Xara, and I immediately got an idea to do this. Not only that, but I also took some AU ideas of mine that never saw the light of day and decided to integrate them into the story somehow. And the result, is a story I call 'Redstone Nightmares'. The reason why I chose this name will be clear later on in the story. This story will contain minor swearing, mainly from Romeo.
(Profile Picture rendered by me in Cinema 4D)
(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)
Romeo was not having a good week.
Fred and Xara were just as distant as ever, and Romeo wasn't having any luck in finding any suitable candidates to be his champion. Damn it, why did this have to be so hard?
Not only that, but tensions were starting to rise between Romeo and Fred. Fred didn't seem to agree with his challenge in Romeoburg, but what Romeo hadn't told them was that he originally built the challenge for the three of them, but it was eventually repurposed into a test to see who was worthy of becoming his champion.
Romeo heard the door open, and a familiar blue figure walked in. Great, the last thing he needed right now, another argument with Fred.
"Romeo." Fred said, getting the Admin in question's attention.
"What do you want?" Romeo deadpanned.
"Listen, Romeo. This recent attitude of yours, it's gotta stop." Fred reasoned. "I'm really starting to worry here."
"Oh, are you now?" Romeo answered rudely in the same tone.
"Yes. All this arguing. Don't think I haven't noticed what's going on in Romeoburg. That challenge you created, it's nothing but a death trap. Nobody's been able to get out of it alive. What is going on with it? What's your problem?"
"What's going on? WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Romeo's voice raised in volume as he finally turned around to look at Fred. "I'll tell you what's going on! I'm trying to find a worthy candidate to become my champion!"
Romeo turned away again.
"Nothing you'd ever understand of course." Romeo bitterly stated.
"What are you talking about?" Fred asked. He had not heard any footsteps from outside the door, which was starting to alarm him.
"You never did get it, didn't you, Fred?!" Romeo snapped. "I'm trying to find a promising friend here. One that will always stick by me no matter what!"
"What do you mean? We're still your friends!" Fred protested.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that." Romeo retorted. He sighed.
"Ever since you and Xara ran off to create your own towns, you've never had time to hang out with me anymore. I'm just trying to keep us together for old time's sake, but when I show up day after day after day and just hearing 'Sorry, I've got a meeting to go to!' or 'Oh, I'm sorry! I'm busy looking after my town!'. It gets really tiring and tedious. That's why I'm trying to look for a champion. Someone who actually understands how to be a true friend!" Romeo ranted.
"Well. I'm sorry. I really am. But you should have said something sooner, we had no idea that you felt this way." Fred reasoned.
"You know what? Maybe you should have continued to schedule adventures with your friends, instead of just abandoning that life entirely in favour of running a community." Romeo said quietly, tears threatening to fall.
"Well. I'm sorry. I really am. But you should have said something sooner, we had no idea that you felt this way." Fred reasoned.
"You know what? Maybe you should have continued to schedule adventures with your friends, instead of just abandoning that life entirely in favour of running a community." Romeo said quietly, tears threatening to fall. He gasped, as if he realized something, before turning to glare at Fred.
"You've been playing me the whole time, both of you." Romeo said, accusingly. "You never cared for me at all! You just invited me along so that you could use me to benefit yourself."
"What gave you that-" Fred started.
"I get what's going on here. Find a guy to pretend to be friends with. Invite him along on some stupid adventures just to make him thing that we are bonding." Romeo seemed to glow in anger.
"BUT THE PART THAT REALLY MAKES ME MAD?! WHEN YOU, KNOWING FULL WELL THAT I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE OF BEING AN ADMIN, DECIDE TO RUN OFF TOGETHER AND DESERT ME! JUST WHEN I NEEDED YOU THE MOST!" Romeo shouted.
"How can you say that?" Fred protested.
"I BET YOU NEVER WANTED ME TO BE AN ADMIN IN THE FIRST PLACE! I BET YOU WERE PLANNING TO FIND THAT ADMIN GAUNTLET YOURSELF AND STAB ME IN THE BACK ONCE YOU AND XARA FOUND IT!" Romeo almost screamed.
Before Romeo could rant anymore, the door opened again, and Xara stepped in this time, holding a glowing Golden Gauntlet. Romeo was about to retort, but the look on her face stopped him and made him feel wary. It was a face, of sadistic pleasure.
"Hey, boys." She greeted, in a tone that sent a shiver down Romeo's spine. He never heard her speak like that before, and to be honest, it was scaring him a little bit.
"Xara, I told you to wait!" Fred growled.
"'I told you to wait!'" Xara mocked, before letting out a high-pitched shrill of sadistic laughter. Hold on a moment, this wasn't the Xara that Romeo knew. Was he missing something here?
Romeo looked into Fred's eyes, and he could tell that Fred understood the situation no better than he did.
"Xara, you're scaring me!" Fred said. "What is your problem?"
Xara slowly stepped towards Fred, who slowly took a step back.
"Now it's been fun! Really, it has." Xara continued. "But this is the part where the adventure ends, for both of you!"
Xara raised the gauntlet, and slowly approached Fred. Fred's face showed a mixture of shock and anger.
"Xara, don't do this!" Fred warned.
Xara responded with another round of her high-pitched laughter.
"Can somebody tell me what's going on?" Romeo asked.
Xara raised the hand with the gauntlet on it, and Fred immediately rose into the air. He began to flash red.
"Xara, what you doing!?" Romeo exclaimed.
"R-Romeo! S-STOP H-HER-" Fred instructed while struggling to breath, before he disappeared in a poof of white smoke, inventory spilling to the ground. Romeo gave a gasp of horror. Xara had just killed Fred.
"Goodbye, Freddy!" Xara said, before bursting into high-pitched laughter again. She turned to Romeo, who started backing away slowly.
"Y-You, you just-" Romeo stammered, at a loss for words.
"Don't mourn him, you will be joining him soon." Xara sneered.
"Fuck that!" Romeo yelled before disappearing into purple particles.
Romeo immediately re-appeared inside their old cabin, and began to rummage around for his notes regarding the removal of Admin Powers. He needed to take Xara's powers away pronto, or else who knows what she might do next.
After a few minutes, Romeo growled in frustration, and simply used his powers to summon the book. It immediately appeared out of white smoke in his hand.
Romeo sat down on his old bed, and tears immediately began to fall. Just a few minutes ago, Romeo was accusing Fred and Xara of betrayal, and it scared him as he realized just how simultaneously right and wrong Romeo was. He was wrong about Fred, but right about Xara.
Romeo raised his hand, and immediately a birch tree appeared outside the cabin, Romeo then spawned a sign, and wrote the following message onto it.
FOR FRED!
"Fred, o-old friend. I'm s-so sorry!" Romeo sobbed. "D-Don't w-worry. I-I'll find Xara, and a-avenge you!"
Now, to break the news. Romeo teleported to Fred's Keep. Immediately, a crowd began to crowd around him.
"Binta, where is she?" Romeo asked.
"Romeo, what brings you here?" Binta asked, stepping forward. "By the way, Fred was looking for you earlier."
"Yeah, about that." Romeo said. "Fred, is dead."
A collection of gasps followed.
"N-No way! How can he be dead? He's an Admin." Binta protested. "I thought they were meant to be invincible!"
"Not from each other!" Romeo corrected. "Turns out Xara was not who we believed her to be."
"Xara?" Binta questioned. "The Admin Redstone Expert?"
"Yes, the very same." Romeo confirmed.
"If, if Xara killed Fred, who's stopping her from killing all of us?" Cam asked.
"I'm going to put it out there, that I'm the only thing between you guys, and her." Romeo answered. "Binta, if I don't make it back in one piece, I want you to go to Romeoburg. There are a few things there that may be of use to you."
Binta pulled out a compass.
"Fred gave this to me before he…." Binta started, before starting to sob quietly.
Romeo inspected the compass, and recognized the direction it was going in. It was pointing towards the direction of Romeoburg.
"That leads to Romeoburg." Romeo said. "Like I said, if I don't make it back, I want you to go there."
"T-Thank you." Binta responded. "Oh, and Romeo? Good luck."
Romeo nodded, before disappearing back to the tower where Fred had been killed just 10 minutes before. Romeo noted that the inventory pile was still there, but Xara was nowhere in sight.
"Xara?" Romeo shouted.
No response.
"Where the hell is she?"
Romeo started to investigate the tower. He went from room to room, but Xara was nowhere. Romeo couldn't detect any residue from her, aside from the residue that resulted from Fred's death, so he knew Xara hadn't gone far.
Romeo was searching the last room, when he heard a set of running footsteps approach him. Romeo turned around and was immediately caught off guard by a punch in the face. Romeo felt pain sear through his body, as his vision began to distort and flash a magnitude of colors. Once Romeo got his bearings, he look up and saw Xara standing over him.
"Hello, Romeo." She greeted sarcastically.
Romeo moved to try and take her powers away, but Xara was too quick, and she raised her gauntlet and punched Romeo again. Romeo felt his body sear in pain and the magnitude of colors flashed through his vision again.
Punch!
Punch!
Punch!
The pain was unbearable. As Romeo got up, he noticed that his body was distorting, and his face and hair were flashing between his own hair, Xara's hair, Fred's hair and a whole bunch of random styles and colors. His skin color flickered between Admin grey, and human pale.
Romeo tried to use his powers to move Xara, away, but the glitching became worse, and nothing happened.
"Having a little trouble there, Romeo?" Xara taunted.
"Fuck you!" Romeo growled.
"Aww, that's no way to talk to a friend!"
"You are not my friend!" Romeo responded through gritted teeth.
Xara gave Romeo another punch, and the pain became even more unbearable. The glitching doubled, and Romeo was sure that one more punch was going to finish him off.
"Well, that's just too bad then." Xara responded cooly, before giving Romeo one last punch. He flew through the air, landed on the wall on the opposite side of the room, before crashing to the ground. He felt one last jerk, before the magnitude of colors just disappeared.
Sitting himself up, he saw to his horror that he was no longer wearing his black admin suit with red glowing lines. He was wearing the grey t-shirt, jeans and sneakers that he was wearing when he got his Admin powers. That could only mean one thing.
Xara had taken away his powers.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Romeo exclaimed, before suddenly feeling himself being lifted into the air by Xara. His clothes were immediately replaced by an orange jumpsuit.
"Now, look out there, because you won't be seeing it ever again." Xara said.
Xara clapped her hands, followed by a huge rumble. Bedrock began to fill the sky.
"What are you doing?" Romeo panicked.
"Burying this sorry excuse of a world." Xara answered. "I'm going to build a new world and start afresh."
Romeo stopped struggling, realizing that it was useless.
As the world was consumed in darkness, and the bedrocking finally stopped. Xara gave one last shrill of laughter, before raising a hand. Romeo felt himself lose consciousness.
Author's Notes: So, just an introduction to the story. Basically, Xara becomes evil in this AU instead of Romeo. Next chapter will skip ahead to Jesse's time.
Oh, and Fred will remain dead in this story.
Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.
More to follow.