Hola! Salve! Guten Tag! Bonjour! Hello! Ciao! Oi! Salaam! Konichiwa! I don't know hello in any other languages, so sorry. I decided, "Heck, why not post another chapter, just for the heck of it!" Here's to hoping for SOPA to be stopped! I've taken down the note about sopa, but you can still find the link to the petition on several other people's profiles (I found it on coldstone4815's). But enough of that. In this chapter, I'm making up for not having an awesome cliffhanger last chapter and. . . I've said too much already. Also, THANK YOU PEEPSLES SO MUCH FOR OVER 1,200 VIEWS! YOU ARE AWESOME, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!
Reviews!
BlazetheDragonite: Yes, he is, and I have talked to Coldstone4815 about using Bodil in the story. Don't worry. Thank you for reminding me to go back and put in the credit.
ZZefyre: You seem to have a lot of cookies. Where do you get them?
Madiigamer: Glad you're excited, but please don't die. There's so much more to come.
Guineapig126: Poor you with no spring break... :'(
Ultimategeek: You'll find out a bit more about the Bodil situation in this chapter.
Blue Power1: I know it was short, and I'm sorry about that. I promise: Nelly WILL be in here more. I haz plans...
Walking in moonlight: I share your hope and love of fanfiction.
Emde13: Somehow I knew you would say that.
Spectral beats: Sounds good.
Bren: Glad you like it so much!
Owl Goddess: I honestly have no clue. Maybe three more this week, but that might be different for you since sometimes it takes a while for Cat to get chapters up on Quotev.
Anyhow. . . On to the chapter!
~What is life without a mystery or two to solve? Problems are the spice of life, and they are how we learn best~
Chapter 9
Mitch POV
I came back to my senses as Jerome shook my shoulder. "Mitch, buddy? You're finally awake! You ok?" I shook my head. Now I had a helluva headache and I was laying on the ground. I blinked one more time. My normal senses were slowly returning. I sat up and groaned. Immediately I was pulled into a hug by Shadin, who was kneeling on the ground beside me. I slowly wrapped my arms around her, my head still pounding. "I was so worried about you," she whispered into my shoulder. A small smile lit my face.
"I'll be ok." After a few moments, she let go of me and sat back on her heels, smiling. Notch, she was beautiful.
After taking a moment to gather my thoughts, I looked around me and noticed that we were no longer in the forest. The terrain around all of us was very hilly, most likely an Extreme Hills Biome. "How long was I out?"
"It wasn't too long. Maybe a day or so," replied Adam, who was standing off to the side. Holy crap, a whole day? I shook my head again.
"How did we get here?" I asked.
"Seto teleported us," said Jerome, standing up. "Apparently this was the site of one of Team Crafted's backup bases at some point."
I swept my eyes around the landscape again. I didn't see anything that resembled a base. I did notice, however, that Seto and Lexia were nowhere to be seen. "Where did Seto and Lexia go?" I asked.
A thickly accented voice from right behind me said, "Seto is working on the demonfire burn on her arm, and he said he wanted not to be disturbed, so they're over some hill close by. The more interesting question right now, though, is what did you just remember?"
I turned to regard the owner of the voice. It was the angel from my memory, but his wings were folded up behind him. "How do you know I was remembering something?"
He took off his sunglasses to reveal shimmering eyes the color of fire. "Because you recognized me. You sat up straighter when I spoke," he said simply. What kind of answer is that?
Adam spoke up. "Now that you seem to be answering questions, since when are you an angel, Bodil?"
Bodil. Yes. That was his name.
The angel grinned, but it was humorless, and made even more so by his flickering eyes. "Technically, I'm not an angel anymore." He unfolded his jet black wings. "I'm a Fallen. If I were an angel, I would have white wings and sky blue eyes. As you can see, I have neither of those things. But, if it makes it any easier for you, feel free to continue calling me an angel. To actually answer your question, I have been an angel since I was created, two centuries ago. I could bore you with the process of how an angel is created, but I'd rather not. There are much more interesting things to be discussed, and there is not much time to do so. Oh, and I thought you might want these back, Mitch."
He fished around in his pocket for something. With a look of triumph, he pulled out a set of golden dogtags. MY golden dogtags, a voice in the back of my head whispered. My eyes widened as Bodil dropped them into my hand. My fingers closed around the cool metal.
The Fallen continued. "I can't stay for any longer since I am being hunted by the remaining angels, but there are some things you need to know. First off, Shadin: you and your sister are key to upcoming events. Don't ask me how, but just know that you are important. Second, your attempt to overthrow Herobrine will fail if you can't find him. You also need to find the true heir to Minecraftia. Most importantly, though, you should know that Notch is not dead. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to be away from here before the other actual angels show up."
He turned to leave, spreading his wings to take off.
"Wait!" I cried. He stopped for a moment, turning his head towards me. "What happened that day to make you Fall?"
He sighed. "You can't just tell a guardian angel not to do his job. Even if–" he stopped himself. The blood drained from his face and his flaming eyes widened. "I've said too much already." He turned and took off, his inky wings pumping as he got a running start and leapt off the ground. "Just remember: NOTCH IS NOT DEAD!" Bodil shouted over his shoulder as he flew away.
"I think we have more questions than we started with," said Shadin once Bodil was out of sight.
"No kidding. And what do you mean, 'that day,' Mitch?" Jerome said.
I explained about the memory and about Bodil's wings changing.
Just as I finished my story, a shout came from the other side of one of the hills. "Guys! You can come over here now!" Seto shouted. We all exchanged glances. Shadin and I stood up together, our hands entwined. All four of us began climbing a nearby hill. When we reached the top, Seto was waiting for us with a strange expression on his face. It almost looked like guilt...
"Lexia is this way." He led us down the side of the hill to a small cavern. Inside, Shadin's sister lay on the floor in the center of a complex-looking pentagram. She was looking much better than before. Her left arm was stretched out beside her, and the open wounds swirling over it had faded into black scars in the twisting shapes of runes. The gaping wound in her shoulder was healed, and a mark that resembled a rose adorned the spot where the flesh had been seared away. Her skin had a much healthier look to it, and she appeared to be peacefully sleeping.
"That demonfire was some nasty stuff," said Seto. "If you had come to any other sorcerer, Lexia would be dead right now. It's actually a miracle that she's made it this far. I wasn't able to scrub the runes, but I was successful in purging the poison. I did, however, make the runes harder for the person on the other side to draw energy from. They will have to consciously make an effort to get any power from Lexia. She should wake up any time now."
What did he mean by "If you had come to any other sorcerer?" Something about that seemed very strange to me.
Shadin let out a sigh of relief, and I squeezed her hand reassuringly, keeping my misgivings to myself.. Jerome smiled (I don't know why since he didn't know her). Adam had a relieved, almost giddy, grin on his face and a light blush on his cheeks.
Wait a second. Is there something there I am not aware of?
Jerome noticed too and elbowed Adam gently. "Sky, I haven't seen you smile that big since you discovered butter!"
Adam sheepishly looked away, and his face turned crimson. Shadin, Jerome, Seto, and I all burst out laughing at his reaction. "Shut up!" Sky exclaimed.
"Hey, you got to laugh at us, now we get to laugh at you!" Shadin said defensively.
Seto looked confused. "Wait, what?" Oh crap.
Jerome explained, "Adam and I caught Mitch and Shadin making out in a tree back at the bacca village." The sorcerer turned to where the two of us were still holding hands with his eyebrows raised. Now it was Shadin's and my turns to blush.
Seto shot Shadin a "We'll talk about this later" look. I had to hold in my mirth as she shot back an innocent "What do you mean?" face. He rolled his eyes at her.
"On to another matter," continued Seto through jokingly clenched teeth, "one of our old backup bases is somewhere around here. That means food, weapons, and a new change of clothes."
"Thank Notch!" Sky exclaimed. "Our current clothes stink!"
We laughed a little. It may not seem too funny, but in times like this, there's not really much to laugh at.
After our laughter died down a bit, our bacca friend spoke what was on all our minds. "Well, where is it?"
Seto started fidgeting uncomfortably. "That's the problem. I don't recall where it is. It was magically spawned in, so I never took a really good look at the surrounding area. I just remember that it was underground somewhere."
"You really don't remember?" I asked in annoyance.
"That was five years ago! Be glad I remembered the area and was able to teleport us here. I actually remembered, and that's more than I can say for you!" His finger stabbed into my chest on that last word.
Wow. That was just TOO far. Jerome came to my shoulder and put a hand on it. I shrugged it off, my fists clenching. "You better watch it, sorcerer."
"Or what? I'm the one with the magic." He snapped his fingers and purple and silver mist curled around his wrists. I glared at him as he did the same.
Shadin stepped in between the two of us, exasperated. "Guys, this testosterone-off is getting us nowhere. We need to be finding the base, not arguing!" Seto and I backed apart a bit, still leering at each other.
Sky clapped his hands together. "Okay! Let's split up and look for it. Seto, you're with me. Mitch, you go with Jerome, and Shadin, you stay with your sister. Everyone ok with that? Alright, let's go," said Adam so rapidly that I swear, that guy could be an auctioneer if he wanted to.
Seto and I opened our mouths to protest, but Sky and Jerome took us by the arms and began dragging us in opposite directions. I heard Shadin snigger a bit, so I shot her a playful glare over my shoulder. She stuck her tongue out at me from where she leaned against the hillside, and I couldn't help but smile.
"Go on," she mouthed, making a shooing motion with her hands. I rolled my eyes and turned to leave with Jerome.
Shadin POV
I slid down the wall as I watched Mitch disappear from sight. I came to rest a couple feet from my twin sister. "Notch, I love that boy," I whispered to myself.
I nearly jumped two feet in the air as a familiar voice beside me said, "Which one? Mitch?"
My head whipped around. Lexia was still laying on the ground, but her blue eye was halfway open, looking at me.
"How long have you been awake?" I asked her, artfully dodging her question at the same time.
"About a minute and a half, if I were to judge."
Whew. She missed the whole "Sky has a crush on her" thing. I got the feeling that he didn't exactly want her to know about that just yet, judging from the way he blushed crimson when Jerome teased him about it.
"How are you feeling, Lex?"
Her face twisted into a grimace. "Like crap. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm definitely feeling better, but I still feel like a tired piece of crap." She pushed herself up onto her elbows, both her eyes open now. "How long was I out?"
I thought for a moment.
"A little more than a day, I guess. The others just left to look for some secret base around here."
Lexia frowned. "Weren't we in a forest last time I was awake? And, my arm, wasn't it...?" She trailed off as she inspected her left arm closely. She seemed a bit surprised to see the runes and the black rose. Her finger traced over the jet black patterns. "How did these get here?" she asked.
"Demonfire," I answered. Crap, now it was up to me to tell her that someone else could take her energy and play with it. Why do I always seem to get the hard job? "The flame on the torch was demonfire. It's this magic sort of fire, and apparently this was a really bad type. It burned these runes into your skin, and now you have a link to someone. We don't know who, but we think it is a one way link that allows the other person to drain your power." I cringed, knowing that my sister had a huge temper, or at least she did six years ago.
Lexia's eyes slowly moved to mine. Her eyes were blazing with barely contained anger. "So you're telling me that now that I survived some magical fire, and who knows what else, now someone can just use my flipping energy whenever they want?"
Her eyes closed, and when they opened again, they were dull with weariness.
"Sis," I started, moving closer to her.
She turned away from me. "Thanks for saving me," she said, her voice heavy with bitterness.
I was starting to get a bit ticked off, but I held in my anger as I said, "I'm sorry. I did all I could. I had to find a sorcerer to heal you, but he wasn't strong enough to remove the runes." She said nothing. I smiled as an idea came to me. I was quiet for a moment before saying, "I know someone you might want to see." Maybe I could lift her spirits a bit. I knew she was terrible when she knew there was a mystery and she didn't know the answer. Her head perked up a little. Lexia turned back to me. "Who is it?"
"You'll have to find out! You up for a little hike?" I said, a broad grin splitting my face.
She nodded. "I think so."
I got to my feet and extended my hand to help my sister up. She took it and I pulled her to her feet. She almost fell over, but she steadied herself on the wall of the shallow cave.
"You sure you're ok?" I asked.
Lexia nodded stubbornly, as I knew she would. Taking one step forward, she promptly sank to her knees with a grunt. She sighed. "No. I'm not. Can you please just tell me?" A normal person might be more concerned about their inability to walk than about who the mystery person was, but, come on, this is my twin sister we're talking about. Neither one of us is exactly what you might call "normal."
"No."
"Please! You know I'm terrible with surprises!" she whined.
"Wait here. I'll only be a few minutes."
She huffed and crossed her arms as I took off sprinting in the direction that Seto and Sky had gone.
A minute later, I came across the shape of a butter ingot carved into the ground. I kept running in that direction until I found another ingot shape carved into the soft earth. This was the same symbol Sky used when he was in the forest. I kept following the trail of carved ingots until I heard the sound of voices coming from over the next hill over.
"I keep telling you, Sky, you don't need to carve all these butter ingots into the ground! I can just teleport us back!"
"So? What if you were. . . incapacitated?"
"Then you probably won't be around to follow the trail back. Plus, anyone could just follow it directly to us."
That was when I decided to step in.
"I hate to say it, Sky, but my brother's right. That trail leads right to you guys."
The two guys looked up at me where I stood at the crest of the hill.
Seto called up to me, "Shadin! Weren't you supposed to stay with Lexia?"
I began my descent of the hill as I replied, "Yeah, but she's awake. I need you to come back with me because I told her there was someone she would like to see. Personally, I don't fancy being murdered, so can I have a little help here?"
Seto sighed, but he was smiling. "Okay."
Sky spluttered, "But- But we still need to find the base! We'll lose our progress!"
My brother wasn't listening; he was chanting something under his breath. Purple and silver particles began to appear in the air around us, making a fine mist. I grinned at Sky. "Looks like your butter trail will come in handy after all."
The mist roared as it started to swirl around us, drowning out any reply he might have had. It soon shut me off from the world, threatening to suffocate me. I had a queer feeling, almost like I was floating upwards off the ground while tethered to the mist. I shut my eyes as I fought to keep my stomach under control. There was a rush of coldness, then my feet were on solid ground once again. I opened my eyes to see my twin sister scrambling backwards against the far wall of the small cave.
I grinned at her incredulous expression. "Surprise!"
She blinked at me, her mouth hanging open. "How- how did you- how did you do that?" I stepped aside to reveal Seto, who was standing behind me. Lexia frowned. "You're SetoSorcerer, right?" My brother nodded slowly, seeming a bit disappointed.
I should have known. "Don't worry, your sister didn't recognize him at first either," said Sky from where he leaned against the entrance of the cave. His words seemed to confuse Lexia, and she squinted her eyes. Her head tilted to the side, and she was deep in thought. I saw it the moment the thought clicked into her head: her frown disappeared and a look of astonishment replaced it.
"Jimmy?"
Seto broke out into another grin. "Good to see you again."
He and I moved to either side of my sister and sat down beside her. She was nearly in tears as she threw her arms around both of us. "I can't believe it! After all these years, it's actually you!"
Seto smiled warmly. "We're all back together again. That's all that matters right now."
Mitch POV
Jerome and I were walking through the tall grass of the plains, searching for something we didn't even know the appearance of. Jerome seemed to have something that was bothering him, but he didn't say anything to me. As we trekked through the featureless plains, I tried to start a conversation. "Did Seto seem, I don't know. . . suspicious to you?"
He looked at me with his head cocked to the side. "Whaddaya mean, suspicious?"
"I mean, he seemed uncomfortable, like he was hiding something."
"Mitch, you gotta put things in perspective. He's been locked away in a cell for who knows how long, being tortured and stuff by Herobrine. He just now got out and found out that the two of us weren't actually dead, his two sisters who he hasn't seen in over a decade are with us, one of them is mortally wounded, Bodil is some sort of angel thing, and on top of all that he had to work some magic to save all our butts. Of course he's not in the best shape!"
We walked in silence after that. Despite Jerome's speech, doubts still clung to my mind, but I kept them to myself.
So deep was I in my thoughts that I walked right into Jerome's outstretched arm. "You hear that, biggums?" he whispered into my ear. I stopped and strained my hearing. Quiet voices carried from beyond the next hill.
"Why is it always me who gets picked for patrol?" asked a deep voiced man.
"Oh, be quiet, Quinley. At least you didn't get midnight sentry duty," said a girl.
"I told you, call me Quinn, not Quinley!" whisper-shouted the deep voice.
Quiet laughter followed. "Whatever you say, Quinley," said the girl.
Jerome motioned to me and we dropped to the ground, creeping silently up the hill. I peered over the crest of the hill, my bacca friend beside me. There was no one there!
Jerome poked my arm. "Uh, Mitch?"
I turned to him, but my reply died on my lips. A sword was being pointed at his throat by a girl with a scar over one of her eyes. Her other hand held a sword identical to the one pointed at Jerome's throat. The girl looked like darkness made human. Her chocolate brown hair almost covered her other eye, which was the color of a black cherry. She wore a black tank top with purple flames at the bottom over black leggings tucked into black combat boots. She was looking at Jerome and me with a gaze that could freeze the Nether.
Another guy was pointing the tip of a diamond broadsword at my own neck. He was tall and muscular. His black hair stuck up around his head, starkly contrasting his blood red eyes. A green camouflage shirt stretched across his broad chest. He was smirking at me, his eyes gloating.
Behind the pair stood a boy. Well, I say "boy," but he was probably about fifteen years old. Despite his youth, he seemed to be the one in charge. One crimson eye peered at Jerome and me from behind jet-black hair. The boy wore a blue-and-black checkered hoodie over a red shirt, and he had on blue and red armbands as well as dark jeans and blue-and-white headphones.
"What should we do with these guys, Zek?" asked the guy with the broadsword and the deep voice.
The boy, apparently Zek, smiled. "Let's take them to AJ."
I exchanged a glance with Jerome.
"This can't be good" was my last thought before I saw the handle of the broadsword swinging towards my head and everything went black.
Ty POV
Pain. All I know is pain. Excruciating pain. It takes the last of my reserves of strength to not cry out. That's exactly what they want. A sign of weakness. To cry out is to invite more pain. To cry out is to give up hope. To cry out is to forget who I was, who I still am on the inside. To cry out is to forget a promise. It's so hard, though. Every breath, every heartbeat is a lifetime of agony pressed into one second. It has been eating at my resolve for who knows how long, leaving me a mere shell, bereft of my senses. I might have been here a minute, I might have been here a millennium. Even now, I cringe at the thought of what my future might hold in this world of endless pain. My mental palace now prepares to fall. My rationality begins to falter and fade as my mind is washed in another wave of agony. A darkness licks at the edge of my awareness, tickling the ragged bits of my sanity. I recoil from its alien presence as it slowly insinuates itself further into my mind.
Power surges through my veins as the darkness creeps further into my awareness, a corrupt, primal power that I cannot resist. I must bide my time and wait to overthrow the monster that is taking up residence within my body. For now, I retreat into a sort of mental haven, away from the ever-present pain, and let the darkness take over.
My now-violet eyes fly open and a wicked grin spreads across the face that isn't mine anymore.
As if a single cliffhanger wasn't enough. Now you have Ty in lots of pain, plus Mitch and Jerome are in a questionable state at the hands of none other than ZEXYZEK! I couldn't have a fanfic without including my favorite YouTuber in here somewhere. Who is AJ? (Emde13, don't answer that, you know too much.)
The two OCs in this chapter belong to Emde13 and Guineapig126. If your OC hasn't shown up yet don't worry. They will. All will come in good time. Also, I'm so sorry all the OCs keep getting really short parts. They will be in here more, just not at the current moment. Anyway. . . We also have an awkward love triangle that none of the characters know about! Lexia was asleep when we found it, and Sky has absolutely no idea that Lexia and Ty like each other! I feel so evil right now.