Recently I have developed plans. Evil plans. Sun, Nether, Dragon, Dynamite, Rebel... YOU WILL SUFFER!
(Seb won't suffer, though. He will rejoice in the chance to say, "I told you so."
Seriously though, as this story develops, give me your theories on what will happen. (That way, if your idea is better than mine, I can steal it and say it was my idea. :P) But in all honestly, please tell me your theories. Clue: Think about all of those TINY, INSIGNIFICANT DETAILS. THEY ARE EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING!
Sun did what he'd done for months. He searched. For what? No idea.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and jumped, his hands fisting.
"Sorry."
Sun's eyes narrowed and he spun on his heel. It was who he'd suspected. A boy who looked both very young and very old at the same time, wrapped in a black leathery cloak. Dragon.
"You're sorry for startling me?" Sun demanded. "Really? Where were you and your apologies-"
His throat choked up.
"Yes. I know." There were purple bags under Dragon's dark eyes. "And I- I'm sorry about that, too."
Sun turned away. "Why were your people even in the Nether anyway? How did they even get the netherrack?"
Dragon didn't answer. Instead, he said, "A Wither said that Nether wanted you to report to her."
Sun gritted his teeth. "I have to?"
"There would be certain merits to it, yes," Dragon said with a grim smile.
Sun balled his fists and stormed away.
Sun was actually rather shocked when he reached Nether's one fortress and found her.
She was sitting on the floor with her face to the wall. Her arms were resting on the wall and her head was resting on her arms, and she was shuddering with sobs.
Huh. I didn't know she could cry.
Of course, the tears weren't particularly normal. They were boiling and steamed when they hit the floor.
Nether would hate it were anyone to walk in on her in such a state, so raw, exposed, so weak.
So, naturally, Sun knocked loudly on the door, coughed, and entered the room.
Nether glanced up, the usual fire of her eyes drowned in the tears. So this was what she was when you stripped away the power, when you put her through a different sort of hell. She was… almost nothing.
Sun caught himself. Idiot. You're worse. You say that you're only alive now because you're strong, you're still going because you're strong, when you know perfectly know that now it's only your brokenness that keeps you going. For ages you've been relying on your shattered edges to get under people's skin.
Sun slumped. He was broken. As broken as his world was. Maybe more so. For a long time he'd been trying to undermine everyone else, particularly Nether, for a long time. The brokenness was all that kept him alive, the desperation to one day become more than it, to fix it. But no matter what you do, that old, brittle plate will never be quite like it was before it was smashed, no matter how many glue bottles are applied to it.
Finally, Nether yelled, "WHAT?!"
Sun jumped, before letting a mask of calm settle over him while he seethed and screamed inside.
"You did- you said something about- Dragon told me- reports- I was late."
Well, he let the mask of calm almost settle over him.
"So?" Nether asked, one eyebrow raised. "What do you have to report?"
Rebel? And the tree? "Um, not anything- not much really. I, erm, asked around the villages-"
"You're- THAT desperate?" Nether blurted, and hid her face in her hands.
Sun felt incredibly uncomfortable. He knew that everything that happened was mostly his fault, he didn't think to predict Nether's reaction and had thus paid the price. But that didn't mean he could stand to look at her, standing there in this tormented Over-gone-Netherworld.
Nether dragged her fingers down across her cheeks. Her nails dug in. when her hands dropped to her sides, the skin on her face was torn and dripping blood so dark it was almost black.
"At times I still want to kill you," she said. Her voice was wooden.
Sun shrugged. "It's mutual."
Nether closed her eyes. "But let me put it this way. We want the same thing here- me gone." She gave a bitter laugh. "I want me gone. You want me gone. Every damn person, every damn thing here, and not here- it all wants me gone." Nether opened her eyes. She took in Sun's expression- nervous, confused, like a cornered animal.
She scrunched up her face. "In any case, you have to find or do whatever will make me get out."
Sun took that as his cue to leave.
