Author's Note: This chapter is one that I've been wanting to write for a long time. The next one is as well, but this one is something I've been hinting at for several chapters. If you saw the plot twist coming, please tell me in your review! I'm interested to see how good my hints were.

Also, Minecraft still doesn't belong to me.

September 21st, 2017

-Sae-

Chapter 25
Project Gemini

Renee spread the information from the files out across the larger of the two tables in the room, treating each piece with care as she did so. Aquarius watched her with interest, though his mind lingered on the events of the night before. It had been racing to come up with theories about why Zephyrus would pretend to be his imaginary friend ever since he had come to the conclusion that the demigod and Remus were the same.

Aquarius didn't recognize any of the information. From the expressions on the faces of everyone else, Renee was the only who had seen this information before. As she started to point important bits of information, she explained where she had come from. Aquarius listened as attentively as a child does to a bedtime story. She mentioned a human named Tom who was the chosen one to a god named Eras, and a terrifying god named Janos who controlled the darkness.

He didn't even need her to mention that Zephyrus was Eras and Tom's son for reality to strike him with startling clarity. His legs felt weak as she started talking about Project Gemini, which had been running for the past sixteen years and focused on two unnamed brothers that weren't quite human.

"Aquarius?" Liz questioned, her voice filled with concern when she saw the look in his eyes.

He didn't answer her. He took several hesitant steps over towards the table and peered down at the contents of Project Gemini's file. There were two twins involved in it. One was given the smallest attention possible, while the other was raised and showered with affection. The point? To see which would become more powerful and useful. It made him sick reading about the beginnings of the experiment, but he knew he had to be right when he saw the last recorded observation on the first twin.

That first brother had escaped.

He looked back up. The room had fallen silent when he walked over to the files, almost as if they sensed that he shared some sort of connection with them. "I had an imaginary friend when I was little," Aquarius started. He reiterated what he had said back in Liz's room. Once that had been established, he went into territory that he hadn't broached before.

"I'm sixteen," he simply said, pointing at Project Gemini. "I-I think that I'm one of the twins mentioned in there. Zephyrus has to be the other one...He must have been keeping an eye on me all of these years, but I don't think my parents were supposed to know about it."

"Which is why he pretended to be your imaginary friend," Hero concluded.

Aquarius nodded.

"That still doesn't explain the bit about the Ultimate Weapon," Sebastian piped up from the couch that he was sitting on. When he realized that attention had shifted him, he straightened up. "You and Zephyrus were supposed to be powerful, but it wouldn't make sense for them to keep a separate file about your powers."

Renee crossed her arms. Her eyes nervously darted from the file on the table to her best friend. "I was going to explain it before. I was able to look it over briefly, and it looks like this Ultimate Weapon is something that the players here are very familiar with."

Katy's eyes widened. "It's a Wither?!"

Her girlfriend nodded. There was a collective gasp of horror among the room's occupants – apparently, though Aquarius wasn't quite sure what it was, everyone else knew of its destructive capabilities. "It seems like the key ingredient to making it even more terrifying than before is to add an actual soul to it."

Aleks, for the first time since Zephyrus had left, bolted up to his feet. His eyes were burning with a hope that hadn't been there before. "Lex," he managed to get out. "That bastard must have tricked us into thinking that Lex was dead so he could use his soul for the weapon! He probably didn't want us to come after him."

Phoenix rushed to her feet as well. "Let's go find that fortress and rescue him."

Both her and Lex's best friend began to head towards the exit, but Renee called out, "You'd need a better plan than that."
They turned back and stared at her.

"It's guarded by countless tis, and you'd have to fly up there. I know that time is probably running out for Lex, but we're going to have to come up with some way for us to get up there before we can rescue him."

No matter how long Zephyrus thought about it, he couldn't quell the guilt that had been bombarding him since he had left the viewing chamber. He brought his pillow up to his chest and hugged it tightly. Though he knew Eras would call him weak if she caught him crying, he also knew that she wouldn't come into his room. No one would. It wasn't like anyone cared enough about him to.

So he sobbed as he stared up at the fading paint on the ceiling. Saying goodbye to Aquarius had been the first difficulty of the past few days. He doubted Aquarius would ever put the pieces together, but, if he did, he was sure that he would hate him. He would hate him if he knew who he really was.

Then Renee's exit from the fortress resurfaced, and the tears fell harder. He had liked her. He had been happier than he had been in a long time when she was there, even if it was for less than a few days. They could have been friends, but he had blown it by accidentally letting her know what the code was for the records room.

And now he had indirectly created a horrific weapon.

Every action he took part in painted him as the villain he didn't want to become. No matter what he tried to do, he couldn't get anything right. Befriending his brother and his own chosen had led to heartbreak, and he couldn't stand up to his parents. Even if he could somehow stop them from destroying Minecraftia, a soul had been lost in the process.

A sudden idea struck him. It was foolish and would most likely get him killed, but it might be the only way to delay Eras, Tom and Janos from wreaking havoc on the world that he loved. He sat up, still holding the pillow close to his chest. He wiped his tears on his arm. Had he ever done something so risky? Could he actually pull it off?

He gently placed the pillow beside him.

He had to do this, even though he didn't know what would come next.