Ember slammed open the door at the end of the hallway she'd just dragged Ty down. Herobrine raised an eyebrow approvingly at Ember as she flung her prisoner to the ground at the god's feet. "He has failed," she said shortly.

Ty struggled to rise. He'd bit his lip when he'd fallen, and now blood was filling his mouth, choking him. He coughed, his arms slipping out from under him. Ember placed her foot on his back, holding him down.

"Delightful," Herobrine murmured. "Hold him still for me."

"Of course." She knelt down beside Ty, catching his arms and holding them behind his back.

"You know," Herobrine started, "there is no real reason for him to have wings."

Ty gasped involuntarily, trying to pull out from under Ember's foot. "No reason at all," Ember agreed.

There was a hiss of metal against leather as Herobrine drew a knife out of its scabbard. Ty flinched as the cold steel touched the base of his wing. "Exactly," the god smiled, increasing the pressure until Ty's blood sprayed over the blade.

Ember increased the tightness of her hold as Ty thrashed, trying to pull away. He couldn't let this happen to him. He couldn't. This wouldn't happen to him. He swung his foot around, managing to hit Ember in the back of the knee. She hissed, and he growled back, pulling his wing out of Herobrine's hold and smashing it into her jaw.

She fell with a shriek of pain. Ty shrugged out of her grasp and whipped his wings out. "Stay. Away. From. Me," he snarled at them both. There had to be a way out of here.

The ceiling! The ceiling was made out of glass, and he'd be able to break his way through it. Ty steeled himself, and then jumped, his hands over his face so as to catch the worst of the impact and the subsequent rain of glass.

The ceiling shattered, and Ty yelped in pain as the millions of tiny shards scored their tracks down his arms and neck and face and over his wings and pretty much everywhere. The blood coursed over his body in what felt like gallons, gallons and gallons of blood pouring down every inch of exposed skin.

But… that wasn't what was making him wet. It couldn't have been blood, because there wasn't that much in his body.

Oh. The ceiling had been holding back an… what seemed to be an ocean. How was that here in the End? That didn't matter, though. What mattered was that he was at the bottom of an ocean, and couldn't even see were the water's surface was. The pressure was making his ears ring, and he felt his wings dragging him down. Ty thrashed, trying to close his wings.

There was too much water, and he was almost out of air. He was going to drown here, here in the depths of an ocean that shouldn't exist. Ty struggled harder, succeeding only in rising a few feet and using almost all of his remaining oxygen.

No. This can't happen. This can't. This can't. I'm not going to drown… But he couldn't fight the impulse forever. Ty took a big gulp of seawater, and almost choked, breathing more and more in.

This can't happen. This can't… this… can't… this… is… not… h-happening…

EMBER

Ember gasped as cuts appeared all across Ty. "What's happening, do you guys think?" she asked worriedly.

"I don't know. I mean, what sort of fears does he have?"

"He hates the dark, and confinement, and isn't so good about heights," Ember recited, staring at the prone form of the green-winged boy. "Then he's super protective of his friends."

"Maybe he was breaking out of something," Wispice suggested.

"Probably," Ember agreed.

Just then, Ty began to twitch, his lips turning paler and paler by the second. His arms clawed at the air feebly. Well, only one did; the other was frozen to the stone, as it would be for as long as the simulation lasted. "What now?" Aradyn asked anxiously.

"He's underwater, I bet," Ember said. That had been one of her fears. She'd had to get out of an ocean. Of course, swimming was no use; wings were too heavy to make it an option. You had to spread your arms, relax, and float, or you'd never reach the surface.

All the tasks in the simulations were doable, but the tricks to complete them were counterintuitive. You'd want to try to swim if you were drowning, but it couldn't save you when you were in your trance. It was the fear of the inevitable that led to a fear of drowning. Ember understood this now, after having gone through her simulation. You had to make yourself surrender to the inevitable to beat those fears. It was terrifying, obviously, but that was the whole point: learning to control your fears.

But Ty didn't seem to exactly know how to do that. He kept thrashing, his wings whipping around wildly like two hurricanes. And then he started choking.

She knew without a doubt then that he was in an ocean, because the bigger the breaths he took, the more he gasped and sputtered. Ember could only watch in horror as his body relaxed slowly into a deathlike stupor. "No, Ty," she ordered. "You can't give up. Don't die on me. You can't die on me."

"He's out," Rose said. "I knew it."

Ember sank back onto her heels, crouching beside him. There had to be a way. She let her hand glide down to his wrist, feeling the weak pulse there. So he was still alive. But… But then it was gone. His heart had stopped. He… he was dead.

"No," she whispered. This wasn't how it worked. She wouldn't, couldn't stand to see someone else die in the simulation.

"It's over, Em," Aradyn sighed, putting her hand on Ember's shoulder. "Come on, guys, we need to go."

"You're on housecleaning duty, Ara!" Rose called gleefully. "Let's make some popcorn!" Ty's death hadn't fazed her at all, it seemed.

The other girls slowly filed out of the room. Wispice hesitated at the door. "Are you coming, Ember?"

"I… yeah, just give me a minute." She couldn't stop staring at Ty. He'd trusted her enough to do this. And now he was dead. It was all her fault.

All.

Her.

Fault.

"Okay. Well… see you in a minute, Ember," Wisp said, scampering after Rose and Aradyn.

There had to be a way. She had to find a way to save him, bring him back somehow.

And then an idea came to her.

No way.

Yes. Zariah, it's the only chance he has.

You're hitting a new level of stupidity with this one, and I thought that that was impossible.

Thank you for your feedback. Ember took a deep breath. She was going to need the air.

And then she slapped her hand down on the stone, sending herself into Ty's fear simulation.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's... EMBER TO THE RESCUE!?

Thank you guys for all the reviews; it literally makes me want to run around screaming. I'm as light as a feather, I'm as giddy as a bird, I'm quoting... Charles Dickens, I think. And I would be running around screaming, if I didn't have a terrible cold. Yay. I hate flu vaccinations; I always have a stuffy nose for at least a week. But seriously though, THANK YOU!

SOTC: "Maps" by Maroon 5