TW: As the title suggests, self harm is shown.

I Commit Swordicide

I didn't have a plan for what I would do after I killed that pigman.

Sure, I saved Phoenix. But that would prove to be pointless if they just sent in more pigmen to murder us. I began to get nervous, growing more and more anxious as the crowd chattered.

"This has been…an interesting turn of events," a voice boomed throughout the arena.

I glanced around to find the voice, and saw that high above, there was a podium where a fancy looking pigman dressed in a red suit stood, speaking into a mike.

"Since our brave warrior has defeated one of our pigmen…" the pigman said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "let's see if she can fight TEN MORE!"

I dropped my sword, pale. Ten? I couldn't kill ten more. Heck, it took me all that effort to kill one!

Phoenix was back to trembling. He clung to me, and I put my arm around him as I stared up at the podium.

"What have you done?" an angry voice said. I turned to see Jin.

"You see what you've done, you moron?" Jin yelled. "At first we had a chance of living. Now we're all going to die, and guess whose fault it is!"

Is that true? I anxiously thought. Is everyone here going to die because of me?

"Would you rather she have let me die?" Phoenix said angrily, which made me stare at him. That was the most he'd talked since I'd met him.

"Cal saved my life," Phoenix snapped. "I trust her."

Jin sighed in exasperation. "Yes, but that means nothing if we DIE, you brat!"

Phoenix flinched, and I stepped in front of him, angry. "Hey, you've crossed the line!"

"And now…we will SEND IN—" the pigman suddenly stopped, and I turned to look at the podium, ignoring Jin.

I saw a second, bulkier big man whispering into the other pigman's ear. The pigman on the mike nodded and stroked his chin as the bulky one kept speaking.

Finally the bulky pigman backed off, and the one on the mike said, "Due to some…special…circumstances, we cannot send any more pigmen into the arena."

The crowd booed, and the pigman on the podium raised his hands like it's not my fault.

"For the first kill in a long time, Cell 647 shall receive compensation in the form of food. The show's over! Everyone back to their dens, or spawner rooms, or whatever. Go on! Go!" the pigman said, waving his hands.

The crowd groaned, but I couldn't have been happier to leave that dank arena. I brushed past Jin, who was spluttering like a stalling car, and pulled Phoenix along with me.

"That was so cool, Cal!" Phoenix cheered. "The way you put that tree in the ground and then went all 'boom, it's a full sized tree now!' And then the pigman was all like 'nooo, don't kill me,' and then you were all like—"

"Alright, alright, calm down." I chuckled as I ran my hand through his hair, making him giggle.

He sobered up when we met Jerry and Jaiden, who eyed me like I was a lion and they were gazelles. When I tried to make eye contact, they looked away. Jin especially had an air of 'I can't believe you've done this' all around him, and when I looked away he crossed his arms and stared at the ceiling with a scowl.

Seriously? I just saved this kid's like and you all act like that?

It felt frustrating, but I held back my annoyance until we were back at the cell. The pigman escorting us to our cell pushed us in and locked the door, and then I was finally able to let out a breath of relief.

The pigman came back and slid a few plates of food into our cell—actual good food that wasn't slop, or even red.

Actually, I take that last part back—there were five apples on one of the plates, which we all split up evenly.

I savored every bite of that apple. In fact, I even ate most of the core.

There was also other food, like some stale loaves of bread, and a few limp vegetables, and some water I definitely would not have drunk back in the Overworld.

"Ah," I sighed as I laid back in the cell. "That hit the spot."

Jerry and Jaiden glanced at each other, but Jin said loudly, "How can you act like that after what you did?"

"What I did?" I said, taken aback. "You mean saving Phoenix's life?"

"There are ways to save lives without resorting to murder, you know." Jin snapped.

"Oh, low blow." I snarled. "It was self defence, you dunce. Maybe you should just be grateful we weren't massacred. Maybe if I'd saved you, your opinion would be different. Although I don't know why I would save you out of everyone here, because you are insufferable."

Jin stood, his fists clenched. "Repeat that."

"You want to fight? I just killed something, but I wouldn't mind doing it again." I warned.

"Oh, please. The tree did all the work." Jin scoffed.

I also stood. "Listen here—"

"Stop!" Phoenix cried, putting himself between me and Jin. "Don't fight. Please."

I turned away, letting out a huff of fury. Jin crunched one of the paper plates with his fist.

"I wish I had a second sapling so I could launch a tree through the cell wall," I muttered.

A ball of paper hit the back of my head.

I turned and tackled Jin, knocking him to the ground.

"Cal! Jin! Cease this!" Jerry cried, who hadn't said anything since we'd gotten to the cell.

Jaiden leaped to her feet and tried to peel me off Jin, but I shrugged her off as I slapped at Jin.

Jin was a lot older than me, and bigger, but he'd been cooped up in this cell for a while now while I'd been excelling in gym class.

I pinned him down with my knee as he punched at me with his skinny arms.

"Apologize," I yelled.

"For what? Being right?" Jin retorted.

"STOP FIGHTING!" someone bellowed.

We both froze, and turned to the cell door.

Two pigmen stood there, one lanky and short, the other bulky and strong looking.

The short one didn't seem to know what to do with his hands, fidgeting with them with an agitated expression.

"Like I said earlier, Patch," the pigman said, "You can't take that girl! She's the property of the Nether Prison and—"

"Alright. You, out." Patch interrupted, pointing to me.

"What?" I said, not believing my ears. Phoenix tugged on my sleeve, his eyes wide.

Patch pulled out a key and fit it in the lock.

"Wh—HEY! How did you get that!?" the short one screeched.

"You don't pay enough attention, porkchop." Patch said abesentmindedly. "Makes it easy for people like me."

"T-thief!" Porkchop spluttered. "P-pickpocket!"

Patch snarled and turned on Porkchop. "You're starting to get on my last nerve, porkchop."

He pulled a paper out of his inventory and pretty much stuffed it up Porkchop's nose. "Do you see this!? DO YOU?"

"No, I can't." came his muffled voice.

Patch growled and moved the paper away from Porkchop's face. The pigman squinted at the paper. I got the feeling that if he had glasses, he would have adjusted them.

The pigman's expression changed from exasperated to awed to completely terrified.

"Yeah, that's right. That's Entity 303's Seal." Patch snapped.

At that, Jerry nearly fainted but was caught by Phoenix.

"Which means I have the permission to bust her runty butt out of that cell. From the very top!" Patch shouted.

"I'm still not sure about this," Porkchop said.

Patch scowled. "I'm taking her and I'm leaving."

The pigman opened and closed his mouth like a fish but made no move to stop him.

Patch tossed open the door and beckoned me over.

I slowly began to make my way over to the cell door, but Phoenix clung to me.

"What am I going to do without you?" Phoenix said, his eyes watering.

I let out a weak laugh. "You've only known me for a few hours. Don't be so dramatic." At the sad look on his face, I bent down and said, "You'll be okay here, huh? The others will protect you, okay?" At that I shot a glare at Jin, who at least didn't look away this time. He still looked pissed, but his expression softened just a little and he nodded. I nodded back at him.

"How touching," Patch said with a bored expression. "Move it or lose it. I haven't got all day."

I moved towards the door and Patch pushed me out. I waved to Phoenix, and he waved back. It was almost like I was dropping him off at school instead of me being kidnapped by a pigman.

Slowly the cell went out of view, and I stared forward as I walked to my doom.

?-V-?

I stared at Patch. "You want me to get in a storage room?"

"Yeah," Patch snarled. "So I can tie you up without anyone noticing."

"Why, though?" I said.

"If you haven't noticed already, they don't tie people up here. They think everyone here's too scared to make a move. Stupidly narcissistic, in my opinion." Patch snorted. "Also, something about rights or something. Probably morons like Porkchop over there came up with it."

"You know some big words." I muttered, and Patch socked me in the gut.

"Hey. It may not seem like it, but I'm being nice to you. Other pigmen wouldn't have even asked for your opinion. Now get in, or I won't give you a choice." Patch snarled.

I sighed and walked into the storage room with Patch following close behind.

Patch began to tie me up, and roughly at that. I grunted a few times as he roughly tie the knot.

I sighed yet again and stared at my shoes. They were worn out from all the running I'd done in the arena, and in the village.

Out of everything, why did they let me keep my shoes?

That gave me an idea.

"Can you untie me for a second?" I asked innocently.

Patch stopped. "What?"

"One of my shoes are untied and it's really annoying...I don't like it when one of my shoes are tied and the other isn't..." I said, pretending to be uncomfortable. Which wasn't hard because of how hard Patch was tying the rope.

Patch grunted and bent over.

"No, no, no. I can't let you do it. You'd probably tie a granny knot." I said.

Patch scowled. "I'm not a granny."

"So let me tie it."

Patch growled and untied me.

Grinning, I bent over.

Little did the pigman know that I was actually tying my shoelaces together.

Now for step two, I thought deviously.

"EEEEEEKKK!" I yelled, which made the pigman jump and hit his head.

"What now?" the pigman snarled.

"It's a bug!" I yelled. I pointed to an imaginary bug. "Eeeeewww! I hate bugs!"

Patch growled in annoyance. "I don't see any bug. Do bugs even exist in the Nether?"

"Well clearly they do, because I see one!" I yelled.

Patch snarled. "I don't see any damn bug."

"You need to look closer," I said, feigning terror.

Patch bent over to look for the bug.

I discreetly pulled off my shoes.

And now...step three.

I yelled and jumped onto the pigman's back. Patch straightened up and bellowed in fury.

I wrapped my shoes around his neck twice and yanked hard.

This could have easily backfired, considering the pigman was a lot bigger and stronger than me. Also, I didn't know how I would escape with the others, but I would probably think of something.

But surprisingly, it seemed to be working. Patch stumbled around the room, toppling shelves and crushing chests.

He backed up and slammed me into the wall, trying to beat me off.

I gasped as most of the air in my lungs left my body, but still I held on.

Patch was running out of air, and his attempts to wrench me off his back were becoming increasingly feeble.

"This is for Toni," I hissed and yanked the string harder.

"Toni—" gagged the pigman.

"Don't you dare speak her name!" I snarled, and yanked harder.

"Toni—is—alive!" choked Patch.

My grip on the shoe lace slackened. "What?"

Before I could finish the job, Patch reached behind his back, grabbed my arms, and swung me off his back into a shelf.

I felt the air in my lungs leave, and I slammed to the floor as boxes fell onto my body. I tried to stand but was held down by Patch's foot.

"You've just made the worst mistake of your life, miss." Patch snarled.

The pigman stared at me, his expression dark.

Everything went black.

?-V-?

I opened my eyes and found myself somewhere unfamiliar.

I was in a crumbling stone temple, moss lining the walls and the ceiling. The whole place was dark and damp. Grass rustled underneath my feet.

"Where am I?" I wondered aloud.

There didn't seem to be an opening or even a light source anywhere, but a dim light just kind of…radiated throughout the room, almost like the room itself was generating light.

In the center of the room was an idol on a small stone table. I stared at it. He didn't look particularly special—he was just a man in a T-shirt and some jeans.

I picked it up and observed it.

In fact, every part of the small idol was detailed, down to the wrinkles in his shirt and the seams in his jeans. The weird thing was, though, even with all that detail, the person that had carved the statues had left the eyes completely blank.

"Maybe it's just not finished," I said aloud.

Or maybe it was on purpose, a voice in the back of my mind whispered.

I shivered and set it back in the table.

This place…it seems so familiar. Does it not? The voice in the back of my mind hissed.

"Wait," I said. "Are those my thoughts? Hold on."

Toni…Deniara…how unfortunate…

Nope. Definitely not my thoughts.

"Who's there?" I yelled, and then cursed. "Idiot. Not like anyone's going to answer."

But I am answering, the voice said. It was getting clearer and clearer.

Or maybe it was getting closer.

"W-what do you know about my sister?" I shouted.

I know everything there is to know. After all…I technically…am her.

"Okay," I said. "Weird, but okay. What do you mean by 'how unfortunate'?"

The pigman speaks the truth. Your sister lives. However, it would have been better if she had died. That would have spared her the pain…and suffering… I apologize. I truly do. I wish your sister's fate had been brought on another. Yet…I'm afraid that is not possible. She is the only one who can save us all.

"What?" I said, my voice cracking. "My sister's fate? What…wait. She lives? Wait, who are you?"

The time has not yet come for me to reveal my true name, the voice mused. However…I may tell you a…popular nickname of mine so you can truly know who I am.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

The idol's eyes glowed, and there was a rumbling sound as dust fell from the roof.

Herobrine.

The temple broke apart, taking me with it.

?-V-?

I woke up with a scream. I tried to move, but I was tied to a chair.

A dozen pigmen surrounded me, all of them holding swords. Behind the pigmen were two dozen blazes, all floating around and making metallic wheezing noises.

My mind was spinning. My brain was overloading. I couldn't process all of this.

I'll try and process that dream later. I'm a little preoccupied right now.

"Wow," Patch snorted. "Dramatic, much?"

I focused on him and him only. "What do you want?"

Patch smirked. "All we're do are run a few tests and we'll let you go right afterwards."

"Yeah, sure. You'll let me go, right above a lava lake." I said dryly. "You know what I think? I think you should screw right off because I've got an awful headache, and that ugly smile isn't helping."

Luckily, Patch stopped grinning, which was a relief.

However, he did put a knife to my neck, which was a bit of a red flag.

"Listen here, missy." Patch snarled. "You're going to do what we say or else we'll—"

"You'll what?" I said in the most cocky tone I could muster. "By my guess, you can't kill me, because you need me. And I'm not being vain. So what can you do?"

Patch suddenly laughed, and I muttered, "Oh, crap. He's grinning again. Someone get me a bucket."

"You're right—we can't kill you. But we can kill someone else." Patch said with a smile.

That line made me bolt upright in my chair.

"Liar," I said, my pervious bravado gone.

Patch flipped a switch.

I heard some sort of grinding noise that made my eardrums want to die. One of the pigmen turned me around.

I turned pale.

In front of me was a window.

And on the other side of the window was my mom, tied up and gagged.

"Mom?" I said, completely stunned.

She saw me and began to wail, her cries digging into my ears.

A pigman entered the room and pulled out a knife, holding it to her neck.

"NO!" I screamed. "NO! If you hurt her, I will make your life a living hell!" I screamed. "Don't touch her!"

"Not so cocky now, are you?" Patch said with a smirk.

I screamed a few words that I probably can't repeat, so you'll have to use your imagination for that.

"We have reason to believe that you are the reincarnation of Herobrine. So, will you help us conquer the world? Or will you let your mother die?" Patch said.

Needless to say, I went berserk.

I kicked one of the pigmen so hard that the monster slammed headfirst into the glass, cracking it.

In doing so, I propelled myself backwards and by some miracle of fate, got my ropes sliced off by one of the pigmen's sword.

I sprang to my feet, picked up my chair, and smashed it over the monster's head.

The blazes advanced, ready to cook me into a nice Calliope steak, medium rare.

"NO!" screamed Patch. "You can't kill her! If you do, we'll all be executed!"

The blaze's hesitation was all I needed. I picked up a sword and ran one of the pigmen through. A blaze got too close, and I sliced them in half.

The remaining nine pigmen advanced, ready to beat me into submission, including Patch, who looked murderous.

It was nine against one—I was ridiculously outnumbered, and I couldn't fight them all.

Wait. So they need me…alive. So that means…

I knew what I had to do.

"Don't come any closer," I shouted.

"Or what? You'll kill us?" Patch laughed. "Look around you, missy. You're surrounded."

"No. I'll do the opposite." I said, my sword shaking.

"What is the opposite, then?" Patch said suspiciously.

I sucked in a huge breath and turned my sword around so that the sharp end was pointing at my chest.

"I'll kill myself."

The pigmen all looked at each other nervously.

"No you won't." said the big pigman. "She's obviously bluffing. I mean, look at her. Look how afraid she is. Nice try, girl."

He took a step towards me.

I pushed the sword against my chest so hard I drew blood.

He stopped.

"You're insane." Patch said slowly. "Will you truly kill yourself? For what purpose? To save your mother? We don't need her. We can just kill her."

It was a dangerous bluff. If any of them got close, I would have to drop the lie and try my best to escape. Otherwise, I had to keep up the lie.

"No." I said, forcing my voice to stay calm. "You put down that sword. Or else, this girl gets it." I pointed to myself.

"Y-you wouldn't." Patch said, though he looked slightly worried. He then tried for a smile, but it came out more like a grimace. Heck, that ugly expression made me want to stab myself.

I took a step forwards, and they all took a step back. I grinned.

"You're smiling?" Patch asked. "Now I know…you're truly insane."

"I'm not insane. Now let me and my mother—" I began.

Patch lunged forwards, lightning fast.

Taken aback, I stumbled away. I tripped, and the thing I'd been lying about became a truth.

I stabbed myself in the chest.