Guess who's back with another feels-breaker chapter? Oh boy. I've used the power of flashbacks to break your feels. I don't regret it. You're welcome ;P

I totally did not have this completed days ago, and I totally was not too lazy to update this, and I totally wasn't using the time between last update and this update to work on my secret project.

So, yeah, this was suggested to me by Firelover123. He/She suggested that I make one where Drake cries, so I've went through and made one half-enderman cry because I'm evil and insensitive. Yay for insanity.

I started writing this during the wait between 12 and 13. Obviously this did not happen. Still, I like the special side effects I included in this chapter.

I'm going to recommend listening to some sad music while reading. After reading at a normal speed for other people, I've concluded that the best music to listen to while reading are these things:

-"The Last of Humanity" by Machinimasound

-"Dark Times" by Kevin Macleod

-"Virtutes Instrumenti" by Kevin Macleod

-"Disintegrating" by myuuji

You can listen to these in any order, but I used "Disintegrating," "Dark Times,"Virtutes Instrumenti," and "The Last of Humanity." Those are the top four that I decided would fit this one-shot. Who knows, you might recognize them ;D

Broken

Drake's POV

"Screw it! I've had enough of this!"

Armen ran forward straight towards Herobrine. I reached out to stop him, but it was too late. The sword Grayson forged for him hit Him. Both fell into the bubbling lava below.

"NO! Armen!" I dashed forward, but by then both of their bodies were under the magma.

"He's gone! He jumped into the lava!"

Somehow Grayson appeared next to me. Neither of us could really process what was going on other than the fact that Armen's dead.

I heard Grayson groan in pain, but I couldn't focus on anything but Armen's sacrifice. "He attacked Herobrine...They're both gone."

"Drake, are you okay?" Grayson slowly edged towards me like a hunter would to a wounded animal. I stopped moving and was just standing there staring off into space. If I could see my face, I'm sure that it was clear that I had zoned out for several minutes.

"Are you having another headache?" Mia asked, already reaching into her backpack for a water bottle.

I shook my head no. This was far worse than a migraine. Armen's dead. He's gone. It felt like that day four years ago. The only difference is that there was no other way to save him now. For the past four years, I have been under the delusion that I could somehow bring him back. I was wrong. Armen's really gone.

"Drake, what's going on?" Grayson sounded worried now. "Is there anything we could do?"

"No, there isn't! He's gone. This time, he's really gone!"

"Who's gone? What are you talking about?" Mia asked.

"Armen's dead! He is not coming back!" I felt the tears now. I've been holding them back for so long. I didn't want to believe it, but Armen was really dead this time.

Grayson and Mia stood there staring at me. I don't like people looking at me like that. They didn't know what they were supposed to do about what I was telling them. They don't understand what I was feeling. I had the chance to save Armen, but I declined. Armen's gone.

I suddenly ran at the wall hard. Maybe physical pain can mask the mental pain inside. Frustrated at the lack of distraction, I looked around for something better, something that will keep me from suffering like this any longer.

"This may be the end." Armen's face was downcast. We've worked so hard to survive, but now we were trapped in the Nether.

"He's not there anymore," I said, looking up to where He stood just minutes ago. "I hope this isn't the end."

"We've sacrificed our life," Armen bitterly confirmed. He walked towards me in accepting our fate.

I nodded grimly. The ghasts were gone for now, but they'll come back. This time, there is nowhere to run.

"I hope it wasn't in vain," I said encouragingly. Armen reached out his hand, and I took it. If there was anyone I wanted to spend my last moments of life with in the Nether, it was Armen.

Perfect. I took my diamond sword and held it over my wrists. Armen. I was doing it for Armen.

"Drake, don't do it!" Mia screamed.

"Drake, stop! You're going to do more than hurt yourself!" Grayson begged. He put his hand on my right arm and gripped it to stop me from doing harm to myself.

I tried to shake his hand off. "Don't touch me!"

He held on tighter. "No. Listen. Drake, listen to us. Hurting yourself won't help, man. It won't bring Armen back. We'll find a way to help him."

"Why aren't you guys listening to me? Armen's dead. We could never save him. The only way was for me to sacrifice you guys all along, and that is gone now. I've made my choice, and I'm going to continue making my own choices."

I tried to shake Grayson off. He refused to let go of me. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to even get the sword within five inches of my other arm.

I felt the tears roll down my cheeks. What was I doing? Armen's death was making me go crazy. I dropped the sword, and Mia picked it up uncertainly.

"I just can't believe that he's gone. He sacrificed himself to save us, Grayson, but we could never save him. Maybe if things played out differently, then things would be different."

He opened his mouth to speak, but I didn't let him. "The last time I spoke to him was in a dream I had a couple nights ago. In the dream, he told me to not save him. Armen knew that he was dead from the moment he fell into the lava. Agh, why didn't I listen?"

"Drake-"

Whatever Grayson said after that, I didn't hear. I just continued sobbing. I released that sadness that built up over the course of four years and beyond that.

I didn't know what happened. One moment we were in a peaceful meadow. Then everything exploded. Now suddenly I was in another dimension. In front of me sat Herobrine in His golden throne. He was covered in the blood of someone. Most likely, it belonged to us.

To my left, there was a net of cobwebs. Trapped in the net was Armen. His face was glowing from the light of the lava. The light illuminated the fear in his eyes. What happened?

The white-eyed man didn't even open His mouth, yet I heard His words clearly.

"You must choose like every mortal must at one point in their existence. Death now or life with eternal punishment. If you choose death now, your friend will suffer forever. If you choose life and tortured slowly, your friend may die now and never have to suffer."

I took one long look at Armen. He was terrified because anticipated what I would say. He would have wanted to take the fall so that I didn't have to suffer, but I wanted the exact same thing.

Then I realized something. Something that I didn't even think about until this point of time.

This was not real.

"Herobrine, I choose eternal punishment."

It was over for him. Herobrine waited long enough to break us before exacting His revenge. There was never any way to save Armen. I was His puppet all along.

"Guys, I have something important to tell you. It's not safe here." I felt my body shake from the combination of the forces of the tears and fear.

"What? Of course it's safe. We're at the Magical Library." Mia's words did nothing to make my mind at peace.

"No, no, no. It is not. Herobrine wants us to think that, but in reality, it is not. There is something evil in these walls. We need to take what we need and get out right now before we lose anything else!"

"Now you are talking crazy. We understand that you just lost your friend, but you need to act at least a little sane."

"No, you don't understand! Neither of you do! Herobrine... I was His tool to use all along. We need to get as far away from here as possible."

"Drake," Grayson reasoned, "I understand what you're going through-"

"No you don't!" I snapped tearfully, "You didn't know him like I did. You don't know how I feel! How can you understand what is going on? I've just lost my best friend, and no one can know what I'm going through!"

He didn't flinch. "Drake, I've lost my entire family, remember? I know what it's like to lose someone close to you. Armen wouldn't want you to grieve; he'd want you to go on without him."

"How'd you know? It's not like you've ever talked to him without me around."

Grayson tensed up. "I talked to him in the jungle. He was my friend, too. Drake, you're not thinking straight. If you need to sit down and let out your feelings, then do so. It's taking its toll on you."

I nodded. "Whatever you say, Grayson."

I saw the concern in both his and Mia's faces. They didn't want to see me hurt myself. Even though I knew now that there wasn't a way to bring Armen back, I can still see that.

I then sat down and buried my face into my hands. The tears burned, but I didn't pay attention to the pain anymore. It matched what I felt on the inside. I felt broken.

The sky was dark all of a sudden. The clouds swirled in the air above me. Armen was looking into the swimming waters below. "Woah, wait. Armen!"

He turned around in surprise. His cyan eyes were sad. "Oh, you're back?"

I left? "How long have I been, how long have I been staring at that?"

He was looking back into the whirlpool. "I don't know. You were gone for like five minutes? Five hours? A year? I dunno. I can't tell." His remarks were bitter and cold.

"What? No sense of time?"

Armen gave a really long sigh. I pointed up the path. "We've got to keep moving up."

He moved away from the edge. "Yeah, sure, this is fake anyway." A piece of dirt fell in between us as the dream world fell apart. "Go on."

"I'm afraid that this things going to collapse if we don't hurry."

Armen was still upset. I could tell that something was bugging him, but I didn't know what. "Armen, listen."

He didn't look me in the eyes. "Yeah?"

"I know that this must be a lot to take in all of this, but what were you saying earlier about your family?"

"My family?" The topic was getting more personal, but we were running out of time before it fell apart completely.

"I don't know anything about them. If what you're saying is true, then everything I know is essentially as good as a lie."

Armen still avoided looking at me directly. "Well, all I know how to remember, and I god dang remember it perfectly, is that I don't remember growing up with my parents. I...just...kinda remember that moment where...my brother...killed...my parents."

I risked looking at him. Armen's face was pained, but he was trying to stay strong for me.

"What?"

"Yeah."

"Collin..."

"Yeah, Collin. His name was Collin." He used past-tense. Why?

"What, so, what happened to him?" I asked. "Why would he do something like that?"

"I don't know. I don't really know, either. I checked... There was this book I checked... It was just..."

"That's awful."

"I read it. All these other things are just...I don't know why..."

"You're not the only one who's went through something that hard on," I stated, remembering my other friend. "Grayson... He had a life and a family too very similar to how you did. He lost it all."

His voice broke. "I wonder what happened to Grayson. I just met him in the forest. I remember falling, and...I remember seeing a face, then I remember waking up, just in the grass in this cave and there was Grayson. And we talked. Special. He helped me out with everything, though. But, what happened while I was gone?"

"You have no idea how much Grayson has tried to save your life, Armen, even though you may not know it. Grayson's done a lot. He's been helping me ever since I set out to try and save you. Do you remember it all?"

The whole time we were talking, we were trying to reach the exit. Now we were just a few steps away from escaping this dream. Now Armen was looking down again.

He turned around and actually looked at me in the face for the first time in a while. "Remember what?"

"When I saved you a little bit, I took on part of Herobrine onto myself."

"Ohhh, when you trapped me? Yeah, I remember that. You didn't really trap me; I just saw that. I've been trapped in there for so long. I really haven't been keeping track." No concept of time. "I remember all I've been seeing is people dying and dying and dying and burning and killing, but every time, I've just...didn't... but every time, after you...like...no."

I couldn't understand the words coming out of his mouth. I saw the portal frame. "Armen, we're so close!" I pointed out happily. "This must be the exit. At least it must take us closer to the exit."

The ground collapsed into the swirling water of tears far, far, below us. I gasped, "Oh no!"

"Come on. You can make it," Armen said sadly.

I looked at my friend in horror. He can't give up now. "So can you! No, wait! There's no way out. It's just air."

The grass changed to dirt, and I knew what was about to happen. I reached out for his gloved hand. "Armen!"

For one moment, our fingers interlocked. Perhaps I've stopped him from falling this time. Then the ground below us vanished, and he started to fall first. "NO! ARMEN!"

"Drake, wake up! Stop! What the hell are you doing?!"

I was just inches from the ledge above the abyss with no visible bottom. I opened my eyes, turned back around, and looked into Grayson's horror-struck green ones.

Grayson looked at me painfully. "Don't do this to yourself. It's not worth it. I don't want to have to lose two people today."

I froze. "What happened? I must have dozed off."

"Wait, you weren't doing that on purpose?" Mia was the only one not majorly affected by his death since she never knew Armen personally, but she still looked saddened.

"No." I backed away towards the wall. "Of course I didn't."

Then something changed in Grayson's eyes. They went glassy and blank. Then, slowly, his fingers reached for his sword.

"Um, Grayson? What are you doing? Are you okay?"

He didn't hear me, it seemed. If he did, then he didn't acknowledge my words. His sword turned towards his chest. If I was correct, Grayson was going to plunge it through his own heart.

I instinctively did everything I could do to prevent the death of a second friend. First, I punched it out of his hand. Then I slapped him across the face. Even though he was probably older, I was taller than him, so it was easy to reach.

That snapped him out of whatever trance he was in...I think. "What...what happened?"

I replied fearfully, "I don't know. Your eyes seemed to lose whatever made you, well, you. Do you know what you were thinking?"

His face lost its color. "I started having flashbacks involving my family."

Mia froze. "Wait, are you having similar thoughts, Drake? You know, flashbacks?"

"Yeah, only they're about Armen. What's going on?"

Mia muttered something.

"What did you say?"

"I think that you both are having these thoughts because you feel guilty about your choices that you made back there. They are affecting you so heavily that they could destroy you both if we're not careful."

Grayson started shaking angrily. His eyes narrowed as he continued to look at me. The look in his eyes went dark, and he lunged straight toward me.

His gloved hands clasped themselves around my throat tightly. I struggled to pull them apart so that I could breathe.

"Grayson! Snap out of it! We can't have this stuff happening!" Mia did her best to wake him up, but it didn't work.

His grasp became tighter. I had no idea what was going on. He is never like this.

She found something in her backpack, and aimed her bow at his shoulder. "Sorry, Grayson."

He yelped as the arrow hit him. It wasn't deep, so he was able to pull it out without worry. The first thing he noticed, however, was me.

"Oh my god! Drake! Shit, I'm sorry, man! I don't know what happened. One moment I was talking to you guys, then you transformed into the Emperor, and..." He started to cry.

I backed away from him. I know that it wasn't his fault, but after everything that was going on, I just needed a break.

I flinched when Grayson looked at me. He continued to apologize for what was outside his control, but I zoned out. I don't want anything else bad to happen to us. We've been through too much. I am worried that I, too, could attempt to kill my friends.

"Okay, guys, I have one idea. If my theory is correct, and these visions are here because you can't let go, then we need to make you guys not feel guilty. I suggest releasing all that hatred or sadness or whatever you both have. Try and think of your happy memories."

I nodded. "All right. Mia, do you think you can keep an eye out?"

"No promises, but I'll try."

I walked over to an area close by that was far enough away from the ledge so that I don't wander off of it.

Then I started crying. I cried for every year that I was bullied because of what I looked like. I cried for every time I thought Armen was dead. I cried for the moment when Armen truly died, which was at the end of my dream. That was his way of saying goodbye because he didn't have the chance before.

I stuffed the peanut butter sandwich into my face. Armen laughed and did the same. The kids looked at us funny, but I learned to ignore their little quotes about what I looked like.

"Drake, can you promise me something?"

"Sure, Armen. What is it?"

"Can we agree that we'll always be friends no matter what?"

I looked into his child-like blue eyes. They were pained from the repressed memories. "Yeah. Until the very end." Until the very end.

My salty tears formed tiny puddles around me. It was over for Armen. His suffering ended, and he was at peace now. He wouldn't want this for me.

I wiped away the last of my tears. I must stay strong for Grayson and for Mia. Grayson was having another moment, and Mia was watching over him to make sure he doesn't subconsciously do anything to kill himself.

"Are you okay, Drake?" Mia asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I've lost Armen, but I'm glad that I haven't lost you guys."

Grayson stopped his tears and joined us in overlooking the underground lake. "Well, we'll do whatever it takes to avenge him."

I turned away from them and sighed. Because even if we manage to defeat Herobrine, we've still lost everything.

Tada. I've done more insanity stuff. I dunno, I had a hunch that there would be side effects to talking to the monsters. Maybe we've just not seen them yet. Maybe in the next series we'll see them. Oh, there is a bunch of things I'm excited for.

Who is excited for the next series? Woop woop!

JazzTastic: You're welcome! I'm glad that you liked it ;)

CJ: Oh, I have plans alright. There is no way that I'd not do something for the next series. I've got ideas, and not all of them are for the one-shots. Agh, I've said too much! Thanks for the review!

Bravery: You know what, I'm actually going to do that soon. I feel bad for not even thinking about that. Thanks!

My next one-shot will be called The Queen of Hearts. Maybe you can guess what it is about (it's obvious I think)

QUESTION TIME! My sister recommended that I get a Deviantart account. I looked into it and saw that there are two options: a free account and a paid subscription. Since I don't have any money, I'm wondering if the free version is any good. Should I get an account? Is a free account comfortable to use? Tell me please :)

~Lya200~