Sky POV—

I sat at the table, staring at my friends. "So... what now?"

"We sent a few people to help out and get Athena. We got Deadlox, Jerome, Ck, Kate, and Sierra," Zhubox replied.

"When will they be back? Do you know?" I asked.

Before anyone said anything else, a startled gasp elevated from the Sky Army recruits. I turned to see something... weird.

There was Deadlox, Jerome, Ck, Kate, and Sierra walking towards us. With them, was Athena, a creeper with a tinted black L on its chest, and a creepy looking guy in a white hoodie with a diamond pick on the front, blue jeans, and budder shoes. Athena looked shaken up, trembling slightly and clutching something tightly in a fist.

I stood. "Hey guys. Athena," I greeted with a smile. I pointed at the creeper and the creepy-looking guy. "Who are these?"

Kate motioned to the creeper. "This is Lignite, and this guy is Blabid."

Lignite nodded. "The Sky! I've always wanted to meet you."

I freaked out a bit, backing into my table. "It can talk?!"

Lignite nodded. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt you. I can't explode."

The guy in the hood, Blabid, spoke up. "I'm a kind of enderman, by the way."

I stared at the guy. He wasn't as tall as an enderman, honestly. Blabid's hood was pulled really low over his face, so I couldn't see face. He must have seen the confusion on my face, and he pulled up his hood a little bit, just enough to reveal glowing purple eyes.

"Wow," I mumbled. "I've seen children of Notch. Children of Herobrine. I have seen hybrids of endermen and many other things. I have almost gone over to The Squids once. But I have never seen a friendly creeper or enderman."

Lignite nodded. "Yep. This world is crazy in so many ways."

I nodded, before turning to Athena. "Okay, Athena. I believe you need to explain these." I motioned to the needles fulled with various liquids. "What were you going to do with these?"

Athena took in a deep breath. "I think I should explain what I am first... or what I was..."

So, Athena explained how Athena was to be a hybrid. Was a hybrid. Apparently, back at the Alternate Army base, Vic had removed the Wither essence from her body, making her a complete human. Her family was composed of hybrids created from her father. After her entire family was killed by The Squids, she decided to take revenge on them by creating hybrid-soldiers in Sky Army and it's alliances. She explained her plan to Notch, and even he agreed it was a good idea, though Notch didn't now she was a hybrid.

Notch gave her the okay to do some tests with different animals using different kinds of essence: Starting with pig, chicken, and cow essence with wolf, ocelot, and bat test subjects to be safe. After the tests with the passive animals went okay, she moved on to testing the animals using the monster essence: Skeletons, spiders, and blazes. It seemed okay until she and Notch discovered something in the animals who were tested with the monster essence: Some of the new hybrids would become rogue and attack their own handlers until they were killed. Notch put a stop to the testing, but Athena continued to do the testing without permission.

She didn't want to hurt anyone, or destroy Sky Army, she just wanted to help take down The Squids and get revenge for her family.

"My brother was a human-Spider hybrid. My older sister was a human-Skeleton hybrid. My little sister was... a human-Blaze hybrid."

I heard the hesitation in her voice when she said that, and I knew she was lying. But I wasn't gonna push her. She seems shaken up already.

"I was a human-Wither hybrid. We were all injected with the monster essence and neither of us attacked anyone. I don't understand why..." Athena sat at the table and looked up sadly. "I then realized Notch was right when I was at the Alternate Army base. I never really wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted to destroy The Squids forever."

Toby, Markiplier, Team Press Start, PBG, The Dwellers, the children of Notch, the children of Herobrine, and all of the Sky Army generals were listening to her story. Snapp and Chance—the leaders of Team Press Start—both bit their lips. "So, why do Marz and Noah have these?" Chance pointed at the syringes filled with the monster essence.

Athena lowered her gaze, her eyes glinting like she was about to cry. "Those were my original samples. I was gonna find a few recruits in the Sky Army or anywhere else that would agree to help me and test them out. But, Notch figured out my plan and stole them. I guess he trusted Marz and Noah with them."

The siblings nodded. "Yup. That's exactly what happened."

Bajan glanced at the samples. "How did you even extract this in the first place?"

"I just some of the blood from the monsters, then I just extracted the exact DNA," she answered.

Sparklez picked up a syringe with a silvery liquid, which I guessed was either skeleton, silverfish, or ghast essence. "Wow. I don't care what you guys think, but I have to say: a well-created plan."

Athena kept her gaze on the ground. "You guys need to destroy those samples. Burn them. Mix them together. I don't care. Just make sure they can never be used again."

I looked back at the samples. There were eleven in all. I could easily guess which monsters that she had chosen. There was the essence of a ghast, skeleton, spider, cave spider, blaze, silverfish, magma cube, slime, witch, enderman, and wither skeleton. The only one missing was the zombie for ovibous reasons (A/N: If you can't figure out what Sky means: There is no zombie because you would completely become a zombie. 'Nuff said).

I looked back at Athena. "Maybe we can use these to our advantage."

Athena looked up and glared at me. "No, Sky! People can die if we do this! We can't use this to our advantage!"

I shook my head. "What if we infected The Squids? Like, we can infect them with certain kinds of essence, making them attack their own kind."

Athena still shook her head. "No. I only said some of the animals injected with the essence would attack their handlers. Not all of the animals. They could learn to control it and use it to their advantage!"

Point taken. But...

"You were injected with the Wither essence, right? Maybe you can help us break in a kill off The Squids," I proposed.

She nodded. "Yeah, but Vic removed it, remember?"

Ssundee picked up a sample that held a deep orange liquid. Maybe the essence of a blaze or magma cube. "Can't you just re-inject yourself with the essence of a Wither? You could go back to your normal self."

She shook her head. "I can't. It's like ask me to try and ride on the back of the Ender Dragon. It's hard, dangerous, and can get someone killed."

Chance thought for a second. "But if we did manage to get it?"

"Then I would inject myself, and myself only. I had already dealt with the Wither essence in my body and will be in better condition to become a hybrid again," Athena answered. "Then we can go ahead and kill The Squids."

Ck nodded. "That's a good idea. But if we can't we're still stuck on square #1."

I caught Athena tightening her fist around something. I didn't see what the object was, but I knew it was possibly important to her. "Exactly. And if we still manage to get it, it's still risky to try and do."

Seto pursed his lips. "So... what are we gonna do?"

Markiplier and PBG looked at each other, mumbling something to each other. PBG finally spoke, "How about a vote?"

Ruby, Sapphire, and Susan all came to help vote, helping even out the amount of people voting. Dawn—as far as I knew—was still in our quarters. PBG raised his hand first. "All in favor of not risking anyone's lives and thinking of another plan?"

Athena, Kate, Sierra, Ck, Lignite, Blabid, Zhubox, and Minion all raised their hands with PBG.

Markiplier took over. "And all in favor of taking the risk, getting the Wither essence, and destroying The Squids with the plan of injecting Athena?"

Marz, Noah, iAngel, Luna, Polska, Snapp, Chance, Caveman, Seto, Sparklez, Minecraftuniverse, Deadlox, MUDKIPZ, Ssundee, Bajan, Jerome, Markiplier, Kyrak, McJones, Ruby, Sapphire, Susan, and I all raised our hands, easily outnumbering the others.

I smiled. "Well then, I believe we need to collect some soul sand and some wither skulls."

Now! That might have helped explain a few things to some of the readers! I've worked very hard on making this work out, so give me credit!

Also, for the vote part at the end, I had to count up all of the characters (The Youtubers and OCs), and I realized that all of the characters, OCs and all, add up to... er... drumroll, please!

*Ratatatatatatatatatata...!*

35 character in all for the entire story and series (Minus Eris, Calypso, and Hephaestus)!Oh my Notch! I can't believe I can remember that many characters in this series! Wow!

I just wanted to throw that out there! See if you can remember and name them off!

As for now, I will see you in tomorrow's chapter!

-The Awesomer