Chapter 13: Hopes and Dreams

The snow crunches under my feet as I wander almost aimlessly through the biome, weaving my way through the tall spruce trees that loom high over my head. I've been . . . kind of at a loss on what to do for a while. I've been trying to help out the best I can. The girls- Rylie, Guardian, and Eva- have been trying to rally people against the Ender army. Players come and go, but we've a pretty good follower count by now.

The Ender army has stepped up its game, too- they're specifically attacking our allies now, widening their range of effect. What will happen if they find me again? Will they take me in? I wouldn't put it past Shado to do that.

Right now, I'll stay with the girls in case they continue to need my help.

"Rain?"

I stiffen in my tracks, feeling my fingers curl into fists. Speak of the devil.

Looking over my left shoulder, I spot Shado standing next to one of the tall trees that made up the border of the clearing I was standing in. When I catch her eye, she seems to sneak back farther behind its trunk, and I can feel the confused look on my face for a good few seconds.

"What do you want?" I very nearly growl, completely turning to face her and crossing my arms over my chest.

She seems almost offended by my tone and moves out from behind the tree, mimicking my posture right down to the little glare I'm giving her.

"You don't have to be so rude."

"You know exactly why I'm being 'rude'," I retort, but I hold myself back at a distance just in case my hostility will come back to bite me.

She, however, looks rather- worried? Nervous?- and doesn't make eye contact with me anymore. "Well . . . that's not important right now. There's someone I'd like for you to meet."

I'm immediately on the defensive when she looks out over her shoulder towards the trees behind her and calls, "You can come out now."

It . . . wouldn't be someone hostile, would it? Should I flee?

". . . Are you sure?"

Wait, no. I know that voice too.

Shado gives a nod to the unseen figure, and I hear the brunching of the snow beneath their feet before they step out from behind the tree they were lingering behind to face me.

I've always been short for my species, but I really have to cram my neck to look up at them. They definitely look different, but one defining feature is still there- his eyes, that blue-grey color that everyone knows him by.

". . . Hi, Rain. Long time no see."

I realize I'm standing with my mouth open, so I quickly close it and clear my throat while blinking rapidly. "I- what, I- how? You are- you were dead, I-"

"Yeah, actually . . ." Storm gives me a sheepish smile, scratching the back of his neck. "Shado brought me back."

I look over at her, grinning broadly at me, my face reflecting massive amounts of disbelief and shock. "How?"

"I don't know!" she exclaims happily. "I just . . . did!" She strikes a little happy pose here- her arms out, fingers spread- when I turn back to Storm and . . . I'm embarrassed to say that I can only stand and stare. For one thing- Ryan wasn't lying to me. For another- people don't just . . . come back to life.

And since it was Shado who did it, I am both in awe- and very, very scared.

I finally manage to form words together, but they come out as a garbled mess the first attempt, earning me confused and concerned glances from the two. Putting a hand over my mouth and another finger up to say wait, I clear my throat, look back up at Storm, and try again.

"You are so fucking tall."

"Whoa, Rain, who taught you to curse?" Storm laughs, giving me an incredulous look.

"Well, that's our one f-bomb allowed in this PG-13 film," Shado comments soon after, stifling laughter herself.

The two pretty much speak over each other, but before I could respond to either of them, Storm makes his way over to me and gives me a rather harsh noogie. And I scream in shock, flailing wildly while the two howl with laughter in the background.

It's just like the good old days, isn't it?

"Be sure to watch your hands and feet and keep a tight hold on your personal belongings as you exit the portal," Frozen announces in a stereotypical tour guide voice as I step out onto the marble tiles below. Ryan and Rylie follow suit behind me, and as I look back they're both looking around the room in awe. It is a rather grand entranceway, indeed- a completely marble room, the floor interlaced with glass and what seems to be cloud blocks, as well. On the sides are stained glass windows, depicting different figures in their colors- some that seem like mobs, some of people, and some that seem almost like angels- and waterfalls imbedded into the walls flow down through holes in the floor and back to the Overworld. The whole room was topped off by a domed glass ceiling.

The effort people put into things sometimes.

"Welcome to the Aether, Genesis of the Void," Frozen says, taking their place in front of us with that air of a tour guide again. "The in-game combination of bother Aether I and II mods and compatible with every version you might be playing."

"Um." Rylie's voice sounds from the back of the group. "I thought only Aether II was compatable with 1.7 at the most . . .?"

"Oh, hon." Frozen crosses their arms and turns away from us, leading us towards the exit of the building. "You're in Minecraft! Within this game, anything is possible if you know your stuff."

Rylie falls silent again as we exit the building, coming upon a sight of a sea of clouds, bridges spanning the gaps between them. Little shops and roads crop up on platforms, and some even float along with the clouds. Others were present here- humans, players or otherwise, and even the same angel-like creatures. We had come upon some sort of marketplace.

"This is only one gate into the Aether," Frozen continues as they lead us down into the market area. "Others are scattered across the whole dimension, and there's probably plenty we still don't know the whereabouts of."

"Who put them there?" I ask.

They shrug. "The Valkyries, maybe. The old gods, the creators; they're all said to live up here, you know, but no living human's ever seen them."

Ryan seems to perk up at the mention of the, and I tilt my head to the side in surprise. "Really?"

Frozen opens their mouth, but then closes it again, seeming to remember something. "Rrrright. Yes. Forgot it wasn't common knowledge, whoops."

All three of us stare at them with questioning faces as we continue on our walk through the dimension. By now, we've left the marketplace and are going along a paved path. A glance back shows that a couple of the Valkyries have broken away and started trailing us- one of them even having struck up a conversation with Ryan.

Rylie moves closer to me, holding herself and looking a little nervous- no, nervous isn't the right word. She seems almost pained, as if whatever had happened to her was still happening to her.

"How are you feeling?" I whisper.

She shakes her head. "I'll be honest, it still hurts, but . . . I'm getting used to it, I think." She pauses. "Where do you think they're taking us?"

I shrug. "We'll find out soon enough. It's not like they're untrustworthy, right?"

"We're headed over to the training grounds," Frozen calls from the front. "It's easier to train you guys up here, where everyone's all clumped together in one dimension."

"And who is everyone?" I ask.

"Most Moblords, some Valkyries, players, the usual," they respond with a nonchalant wave of their hand. "Ah, we're almost here."

We trek up a small cloud hill to find an area that looked like an open-air Parthenon. Not quite like a theater, no, but it could pretty much act like one with the amount of people outside. There were pillars- some crumbling, some erect- and a tiled ground, some cracked marble walls doing not much for closure, but that wasn't the point of them. Perhaps this place gets used so much they don't bother with fixing it.

In the center of the area, two players- were they even players?- were sparring. One of them looked like they had cat ears, the other with wither-like spikes from their back.

When we come onto the scene, however, the two break apart and everyone around- players and, yes, Valkyries- turn to look at us. Rylie shies away from the attention, whereas I just stand with my arms crossed.

"Hey, Simon," the one with the wither spikes greets. "Who've you brought us?"

Frozen gestures to all three of us. "Well, there's Ryan in the background, you know him-" I turn back to look and Ryan gives a little wave- "and Rylie, half ender- don't worry, she's trustworthy-"

They're cut off by a rather scary glare from wither man. "How do you know?"

"Excuse me?" I interject, stepping forward next to Frozen was wither man looks rather appalled. "Rylie's been with us since the beginning. She helped sabotage Shado's attack on Colbaltium, she brought Ryan back to health-"

"And what have you done?" he interrupts, annoyance in his eyes.

I stand up tall, the same look in my own. "I've fought back. I've travelled to wherever I could go and defended villages against as many raids as I knew of. What have you done?"

There's a wave of oooooh that rumbles through the crowd of people collected, and the annoyance is replaced with what seems to almost be anger in his eyes as he matches my posture.

"I don't think you've heard of me," he says, his voice low and dangerous. "My name is Bracken, leader of the Aether army."

"Oh? And how'd you get to be leader, impressing everyone with your fancy-shmancy powers?"

"Okay, that's enough." Frozen steps in between us here, and cat-eared person has to almost literally hold back an enraged Bracken. "We got off on the wrong foot here, why we try again? Bracken, this is Guardian." They gesture to me. "Guardian, Bracken. Now, be nice and don't kill each other this soon, okay? Lovely, thanks."

Bracken continues to glare at me, then looks at Frozen. "I'm sparring with her."

"No, you are not sparring with her," they correct, obviously struggling to keep their voice even. "We all know how you get when you're pissed off, and we do not need anyone else dead or undead."

"Why not?" I call. "I can take him."

Frozen turns to me. "Do not."

I glare, but hold myself back.

Bracken stares at Frozen for a few more seconds, before huffing and turning back to me with his arms crossed. "Well. Regretfully, I'm not allowed to spar with you, so we have to find you a partner. And for your two friends as well, if they'd like to join in."

Looking back, I see Ryan has his hand raised as a yes. Rylie seems a bit hesitant, but gives me a nod anyway. Back to Bracken, my answer is "Of course."

Both cat-ears and Frozen step away from Bracken as he cups his hands around his mouth and shouts to the crowd of people sitting on the marble bleachers. "Which one of you nerds wants to spar with the newbies?!"

Well, that's certainly one way to do it.

"I do!" a voice calls from the other side of the area, and a small girl in a white dress hops off one of the pillars and makes her way over to us. She has short brown hair and strange, pale grey eyes, and seemingly can't be over thirteen or fourteen. With her approach, cat-ears takes her previous spot with a shrug. Frozen goes to lean against one of the pillars as well.

New girl half walks, half glides over to us and holds out her hand to me. "My name's Sun! Ghast moblord. It's nice to meet you!"

As I shake her hand, I notice Ryan sliding up to us, curious. "Ghast moblord?" he echoes.

Sun nods happily, and I hear Bracken call from behind her- "Anyone else?"

Two more characters slide off the bleachers this time, one with bright pink hair and the other with sky blue. They move in unison behind Bracken, one on either side of him, not bothering to introduce themselves.

When I ask about their names, the pink-haired one responds with, "We're only your sparring partners for today. Our names are insignificant."

"We're only minor characters in this story," blue hair continues. "Most likely, you will never be seeing us again."

Bracken steps away towards the pillars and I notice Sun giving us a sheepish smile. "That's Pal and Dia," she clarifies, pointing at pink hair and blue hair, respectively. "They're twins. They've . . . little concept of a fourth wall, forgive them."

That doesn't help with the confused look on my face at all, but okay, I guess.

"So . . . are you ready?" Sun beams at us.

I glance back at the other two again- Ryan's already summoned his sword from his inventory, and Rylie moves from her slightly hunched-over position and gives me a nod. I give her a look- doesn't she have a weapon?- yet she seems confident enough, so I bring out my own sword and hold it to the side. "Ready as ever."

Sun claps once. "Alright! Rules are: no killing anyone, no fatally wounding anyone, no irreversible damage such as chopping someone's arm off. Other than that, good luck!"

She hops back between the other two and begins to rise into the air. The hem of her dress swishes in a sudden wind- and suddenly, a fire charge is shot straight towards us.

Throwing myself to the side, I hear it crash into the ground where I was just standing moments ago. Voices ring up from the area- yelling, cheering, like this was an arena and we were the gladiators.

Hopping back up, my brain registers- almost too slowly- that Dia is right in front of me, slashing downward, and I raise up my own sword to block the attack. The impact sends a shock through my arms, but I give a push and he stumbles backwards, giving me time to jab my sword towards him. He side-steps to the right, and as I block another slash from him the impact of what I assume is another fire charge sends a shockwave through the ground and up my spine.

Glancing over for just a moment, I see another fire charge launch through the air- and Rylie jump up from her spot, catch it in her bare hand, and throw it back. The surprised "whoa!" from Sun registers a moment later as I stumble back from a sudden thrust of Dia's sword.

"How did you do that?!" I shout, now starting to trade blows with my sparring partner at a quicker pace.

"I don't know!" comes Rylie's response, and a part of me notes that her hands are covered in black- singed? Ender? I can't tell the difference from here. "I just-"

She shuts up as another fire charge heads her way, grabs that one, and launches it back as well.

With my attention on her, though, I barely notice a jab from Dia and try to duck and doge left at the same time, the blade slashing against my cheek as a result. Out of habit, I lash out with an uppercut, striking him right in the chin. He staggers backwards before cracking his head back, wiping some blood from his lips and lifting his free hand.

Around us, time seems to slow and become grey. Everything stops- the noise, the movement, everything. I stare at him in shock, who lowers his hand and looks back at me.

"How did you-?"

"I can manipulate time," he says calmly, flipping his sword back around and pointing it at me. "We're the only two that can move now."

This . . . doesn't make any sense.

After a few moments, I mimic his pose, ready for a round two. Isn't that what he wants?

"Ready."

I blink, and he's suddenly coming towards me, slashing at my chest. I block, but barely, the impact forcing me back a little bit. I push him back again, slashing and having him parry. This pattern repeats within our void of stopped time- slash, parry. Stab, duck, counter, block. Duck and turn, counter. With me behind him, I manage to stab my sword through his left arm- completely accident, of course.

We both drop our weapons- mine still lodged in his arm- and he turns to me slowly, carefully holding the blade in place so that it doesn't harm him further.

"Sun said no doing irreversible damage," he remarks, a grimace clear on his face.

"Look, I didn't mean to- got caught up in the heat of the moment-"

"I know. I can heal. Just giving you a hard time." He gives the wound a glance. "Go ahead and pull it out."

I move around behind him and grip the hilt. "You sure?"

"Yeah. Just pull."

I pull the blade out, and he immediately grabs his arm to stop the blood from gushing out. A light begins to shine around it, and after a few moments he removes his hand. Where there was a wound is nothing but a scar now.

Not the weirdest thing I've seen all day.

"I'm going to unfreeze time now, get ready."

"Thanks for the warning," I comment, watching as the world around slowly returns to color. The noises start up again- particularly a "look out!" from Rylie, and I turn to see her dive right in front of us and catch yet another fire charge, the force of it pushing her back and making her crash into me, forcing us both back and into the ground. Now I get a good look at her hands- there's a strange blackness encompassing her hands and lower arms completely, and as the fire charge cools and she switches hands I can see faint burn marks on them.

"Are you okay?" I ask as she stands up.

She nods, holding out a hand to me, which I take and she pulls me up. There's a look on her face that I've never seen before- determination; very fierce determination. The kind where one's willing to do anything to accomplish their goals. I've never seen a look like that on her face ever before.

"That all you got?!" she yells to Sun, who has now landed and is standing a ways away from us. I glance over, past Rylie to where Ryan is- Pal's standing behind him, so they're probably done too.

"Bring it, sister!" Sun yells back, but as soon as Rylie starts to charge at her, a large cluster of white light grows right in her path, forcing her to skid to a stop. The Valkyries in the stands all spread their wings and shoot up into the air at the same time in a blur of armor and feathers.

It takes a few seconds, but soon enough the light dies down to reveal two older men standing in its place. One a very obvious redhead, the other a brunet with a rather magnificent beard and a fedora. A quick glance around shows that the people in the seats were staring in awe. Bracken had dropped to one knew, and with a sweeping gaze so had Sun, cat-ears, and the others who were originally sitting on the pillars, including Frozen. The Valkyries now took their places.

"You decide to come in now?" the redhead asks, exasperation in his voice and his eyes. "You always do this . . ."

The brunet let out a laugh- a deep, hearty laugh, and something within me bubbles with recognition. Have I heard that laugh before? I don't ever remember . . .

"C'mon, Jeb, it's been years since I came down, it's about time that I finally visited again!"

Jeb-? Oh.

Oh. Oh, wow.

I jump slightly at a sudden touch, and glance back to see Rylie clinging to me with a shocked, almost scared look on her face. Where was the determination that I had seen only moments ago-?

I pat her head comfortingly as the brunet turns to us, a wide grin plastered on his face. "Great show you put on just now! Excellently done."

"We weren't done yet, Notch!" Sun calls from across the battle field, now standing, annoyance in her voice. Rylie shrinks farther back behind me.

Jeb turns to her and speaks before Notch can. "Listen, if you two had kept going our ender friend over here would've killed you and that is the last thing we need right now, so we're lucky this guy finally decided to come down when he did."

Rylie mumbles something under her breath that I don't quite catch, but other than that the area goes quiet.

Bracken is the first to break the silence. He's now standing with his arms crossed, leaning against the stands. "So what took you so long? Why'd you come now?"

Notch's face darkens at the question as he turns to Bracken. "It's getting really bad in the Overworld," he explains, clasping his hands together in front of him. "Those you've stationed down there are barely holding on, and more and more innocent people are getting caught in the crossfire each night. We need to strike back against the Ender army as a whole, and soon."

"Do you know how strong they've gotten?" Frozen calls, now leaning against a pillar.

"Regrettably, I can't. There's a force blocking me from seeing into that dimension . . ."

My mind automatically switches to alert once he trails off. He doesn't say it, but everyone else seems as restless as I am. We know exactly who's doing so.

"Anyway." He claps once, turning back towards us again. Looking right at me, particularly. There's something about his gaze that makes me want to shrivel underneath it, but I stand tall. "Since we're out of time, let's make this quick. You have no powers, right?"

". . . Yeah." Alright. Apparently he knows everything about me too.

"Would you like some?"

I shift my weight onto one leg, mulling it over. On the one hand, something would be useful, but on the other, I pride myself in being a strong fighter with no extraneous abilities.

In the end, pride wins. Potions are enough for me.

I shake my head no. Notch gives me a perplexed look, but then shrugs. "Your call, kid. Bracken, come with me."

"Yes, sir." Bracken lifts himself up from his spot and makes his way over to him, the two passing by us. Notch ruffles my hair as he passes, and I glare daggers into his back.

The tension in the crowd seems to settle, and the noise picks back up into scattered conversations as I see the people in the stands start to disperse. Jeb has gathered with Frozen, Sun, and cat-eared girl, and I feel a tap on my shoulder. Dia's looking at me, his hands by his sides.

"It was a pleasure sparring with you," he says, holding out his hand to me.

"Same to you," I respond, shaking his hand. A part of me realizes Rylie's still clinging to me, but I let her, since she isn't doing much else except being a deadweight.

Dia pulls away first, heading off in some direction, and with a glance over I see Frozen making their way over to us.

"Alright, so, new plan," they explain. "I was gonna show you around the Aether and maybe station you guys up here for a while, but that doesn't seem to be happening. We're heading back to the Overworld."

Rylie gives a sigh of relief and Ryan moves closer to the three of us. "We're needed down there or something?" he asks.

"Unfortunately." Frozen makes a face. "We need to wrap this whole war up fast before we lose what control we still have." They pause. "Well, anyway. Off to the portal."

They brush through us back to the path in which we came from. The three of us all look at each other before following behind them.

God, it is hot in the Nether.

My hoodie is wrapped around my waist, and there's nothing in my inventory except for what fits in my hotbar- iron sword and pickaxe, a few pieces of steak, some bread, and an allium flower. It's all I need for a short- and hopefully peaceful- journey.

With the uneven terrain below my feet, I make my way through passageways, breaking down the occasional wall, and over crags right next to vast lakes of lava to my destination- the looming fortress in the distance. According to Frozen, there's another Moblord still there- one that could point me to my final destination.

It takes some time- the Nether is strangely deserted, save for the occasional pigman in the distance; where are all the ghasts? The slimes?- but I do finally reach a tall nether brick staircase leading up to the entrance of the structure and begin to climb it.

Two wither skeletons stand guard at the top, though, and when I reach them they cross their swords, forbidding my entrance.

"State your name," one commands, its voice deep and scratchy. I duly note that these guys aren't immediately hostile.

". . . Ryan," I answer.

Both of them eye me carefully at that- how they're able to do so remains beyond me- and the other one speaks up.

"We've been waiting for you."

The two lower their swords and move to let me pass, which I do so after a moment of caution.

The inside is a maze of winding corridors and passageways, like all Nether fortresses are. There are no fancy embellishments or anything like the Aether had; the place even looks worn down and broken apart. Perhaps whoever's here simply doesn't have time for upkeep.

I don't call out for the person- I don't remember their name. So I simply descend farther into the building, marking places I've already been with a trail of breadcrumbs. Funny how those actually work.

I soon come across a strange passageway made of iron blocks instead of nether brick. The change piques my curiosity and I follow it immediately.

The corridor opens up to . . . a room full of monitors. Yes, monitors. Computer monitors, old and new, all wired together into an amalgamation of parts and either idle or actively working. The ones on show . . . video feeds? Live feeds of all locations, Overworld, Aether, and Nether alike. The only one missing is the End.

"Don't you know not to snoop through other people's stuff?"

The sudden voice makes me jump and I swivel around, seeing a tall, lanky person standing in the doorway with their arms crossed. They look like a boy around my age, with dark skin, short, curly hair, and wearing what seems to be a tattered white lab coat and dark jeans. Burn scars are present almost anywhere the skin shows.

"I- I didn't know this was yours-" I stutter, but he cuts me off.

"You're here to get to the portal, aren't you." More of a statement than a question.

I lie. "No, I was just exploring-"

"Ryan."

I'm taken aback by how he knows my name. "What?"

He squints at me. "You're a terrible liar. Follow me."

Funny, I always thought I was a pretty good liar.

He turns on his heel and starts to make his way back into the fortress, me following behind him. Past my trails of breadcrumbs, we wind deeper and deeper, essentially in just a downwards spiral. The more we go down, the more decrepit this place seems to get. Like the palace seems to have layers, and the farther down we went, the older it gets.

Eventually though, we reach a darkened room, the walls made of end stone and the floor obsidian. The only light comes from the end portal, half sunken into the ground.

I hesitate, take a step forward, and then turn to my guide. ". . . Who are you allied with?"

He shrugs. "No one. I just guide people where they want to go."

I pause. ". . . Frozen isn't gonna hear about this, are they?"

He smiles. "Frozen won't be hearing anything from me. My name's Ash, by the way."

I grin back. "Thanks, Ash. I owe you."

"You're good." He gives me a nod.

I nod back, before jumping feet-first into the portal.