Hey, decided to make a quick little story to hopefully provide some closure to the original story, since I don't wanna work on it anymore and a I regret a lot of the choices I made.
There was actually meant to be a completely different story for the original, but I chickened out and copy and pasted the game's story with almost no changes, so I decided to make this to hopefully show that I've changed in how I approach writing things. I did try to polish up the story by rewriting some of the chapters but I stopped after about three because the writing was still bad and there's only so much you can polish a turd before you realise that, at the end of the day, it's still a turd.
I also must admit I didn't like working on the original, the spin-off (Don't know why I made that one, was just hopeful it would be good once I started) or the rewrite, I only did so because so many people seemed to like it, not really sure why. But hey, to each their own, I won't judge what people enjoy.
Also, while I don't think my writing is good enough to cause any issues for people, there is a bit of a wordy description of a character coughing up and choking on blood in the first bit of the story, it stops after the first line, but I'll put a content warning there incase anyone has any issues with that.
Minecraft Story Mode: Transportation - An Ending
Steven desperately held onto his breath as he was suddenly pulled backward into and flung through a pipe. He didn't have much breath before he was pulled in, and he was feeling desperate for some gasp of air, he didn't know how much longer he was gonna be under the water or how much longer he would survive.
Thankfully, a light at the end of the tunnel seemed to give a sign of hope for an exit. Hope soon became a reality as he was suddenly dropped from the pipe, falling with the rushing water.
Finally getting his head out of the water, Steven took a deep gasp of breath and immediately regretted it when his body lurched forward and he started to involuntary cough.
Eventually regaining himself, he looked around to see the others regaining themselves as small pools of water quickly dried up around them. Silently thanking the oddities of this world physics, he looked around whilst the others talked about something he didn't pay much mind to.
They seemed to be in a storage room, with a low walking glass platform, mob loot being sorted out through water underneath them, and stairways leading to multiple chests with hoppers locked onto the top of them. Steven took his time marvelling at the room. Whoever had built it didn't skim the details and they certainly seemed to want it to look good.
Axel said something behind him. Steven managed to make out something about looting. He would've said something, but it sounded like the others already were.
Content Warning Start
Either way, Steven had something else to focus on. A sudden sense of his chest jumping, which made him instinctively gulp to try and get it to go back down. The odd feeling didn't and instead split and travelled throughout his lungs. The pain in his arm, that had nummed sometime ago, suddenly spiked and he shrieked.
A voice of worry came from behind him. Steven didn't answer and lurched forward with a harsh cough, the odd feeling suddenly turning painful, travelling up his lungs to scratch at his throat fiercely.
Not even able to focus on keeping himself standing, Steven fell to his back, his coughs becoming more and more rapid before suddenly stopping when something got lodged in his throat, although it was starting to loosen up with the rapid coughs. The feeling made him want to try and gag.
Everyone was crying in concern now. Steven wanted to say something, but he couldn't do anything but gag and cry at another spike of pain that went up his arm, travelling all the way to his heart and moving throughout his body, showing no signs of slowing down. Steven's heart started to beat harshly, feeling as if it was about to explode.
With another bad cough, whatever was stuck in his throat finally came through and the horrible taste of copper got stuck on Steven's tongue while something thick trailed down his face. Gasps and cries went through the room. Maybe they were saying something to him, but all Steven could only make out was sound now, not what the sound was saying.
The pressure of more of the thickness came back to his throat and he was barely able to cough it up. It built up faster than he could hack it out and just continued to do so, eventually trying to find other means of escape, Steven could feel it drip from his nose, further depriving him of air. The pressure only got worse and his hearing quickly started to go, the only audible thing soon being his own heartbeat. Steven felt somebody lift his head, and he was slightly relieved that helped the globs of blood get out of his mouth, but relief didn't last long when another shot of pain spiked in his chest, and several more followed.
The pain was becoming unbearable, and his heart felt like it was going to pop. He desperately wanted it to end, the pain made it all feel so slow.
Seconds to minutes.
Minutes to hours.
Hours to days.
Choking on another glurge of blood, Steven tried to gasp and then finally, finally, let his head fall back, the pain mercifully starting to dull. Time seemed to return to normal as his vision further dulled out and blackened. Managing to let out a breath one last breath, Steven relaxed.
Content Warning End
Everyone watched in horror as Steven coughed out goblets of his own blood, cried in pain and then let out one long breath and then… stopped. He remained unmoving, eyes half open, expressionless.
Gabriel gazed solemnly at Steven, gently lowering his head back onto the ground. Olivia gasped behind him, "Is he…"
The answer to her unspeakable question came when Steven suddenly vanished with a cloud, his items lying uselessly on the ground.
"Steven…" Jesse gasped in horror. Reuben gave a sad whine beside Jesse, rubbing up against his leg.
Axel and Lukas lowered their heads sadly. "Oh man… I can't believe…" Lukas started, barely able to continue through his own shock. Axel solemnly pat his shoulder, barely able to move his eyes back to where Steven had once been.
"I-I know… right…?"
"S-Steven." Petra said, shakily stepping forward. The weight of everything suddenly dropped on her and she fell to her knees, fists clenched at her sides. Her heart felt crushed, one of her friends had just died right in front of her! She owed him her life, and now… he's gone…
Petra still didn't know how to feel about Steven, they didn't get along well at first, and then he saved her. And then she started to feel something for him… a part of her nagged that, that was nothing. Just feeling a bit too compassionate about the fact he saved her and she rationzled that has something more, and Steven may have been affectionate, he did that out of kindness, not romance. She accepted that, but still felt like Steven and her were on the path to becoming close friends, but now… that would never happen.
Olivia sobbed beside her. She wiped away a few stray tears and stepped forward, "How… How could this happen? Why did he…"
Gabriel sighed sadly and stood up from his bow of respect, "Wither." He announced, not turning to the others.
"What?"
Gabriel sadly sighed, and reiterated, "Wither sickness. He got caught by the wither back in the town, and he got infected." Gabriel turned to them, his head still bowed downward, holding Steven's axe with some respect, "It seems as if… he couldn't pull through it."
Olivia, Axel and Lukas gaped in shock at the announcement. Olivia managed to find her voice first, "Why… why didn't he tell us?"
"He… he didn't want us to worry about him…" Jesse said, petting Rueben to try and comfort both him and himself. "He wanted us to focus on destroying the Wither Storm. Not helping him…"
Jesse wished Steven had come to them sooner and been honest. He pushed himself to do everything he could to help, and continued to do so despite his condition, and it got him killed.
"But… but that's stupid!" Axel suddenly exclaimed, glaring at the spot Steven's body had once been, "We could've helped him and taken down the Wither Storm. We would've done that! We would've…" His anger suddenly began to subside and rested his head in his hands giving a sad sigh. "Steven…"
Jesse walked up and side hugged Axel, Olivia swiftly doing the same. A part of Jesse could see Axel had a point about Steven and another part felt angry he would say that so soon after his death, but Jesse knew that what Axel had said was from his own sadness, not maliciousness.
"Oh man…" Lukas sighed from behind them, finally finding the will to say something, "I just… I can't believe it… oh man…"
Jesse nodded, "I know…"
The group's mourning was halted by the sounds of strong churning above them. They all looked at the roof. "Hey…" Olivia shakily started, wiping away any more stray tears, the others doing the same, "If this is a monster grinder, and we broke the thing that killed the monsters…"
Petra gasped beside her and hastily stood up, "Then that means…"
Jesse gazed in horror at the pipes as a legion of monsters suddenly poured out, "Oh no…"
The group screamed in terror and ran as more and more monsters spilled into the room.
Wincing at the fleeing pain of a dulling headache, Steven sat up with a groan, "That was a weird dream…"
Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Steven gasped at the sight of his blocky hand.
"Okay… not a dream…"
Scanning his surroundings, Steven realised he was in a small room, with a floor curving downward, high walls, a roof that curved in the opposite direction of the floor, and lanterns hanging from chains blocks of glowstone illuminating the place. An empty throne sat at the edge of the room, with a double set of doors on at the other side of it. Steven tried to leave through them, but they wouldn't budge.
"What is this place…"
"This is our home."
With a higher shriek than he would've liked, Steven jumped forward and swung around to see two figures.
"Hello." The blank eyed one greeted, wearing a sharp and cocky grin. The bearded one remained hard faced, but gave a similar greeting.
"H-hi…" Steven unsurely said, taking in the sight of the two. Realising something, he gasped, "A-are you…"
"No, we aren't those two." The bearded stated dismissively. "We've just chosen to look like this so the average human's heads won't explode by the sight of us."
"Oh…" Steven waited a moment, before speaking again. "Then what are you?"
"Moot."
The blank eyed one gave the bearded one a side eyed look, or at the least the lowest equivalent to one… "Geez bro, you are like a constant downer, aren't ya?"
"I'm being responsible!"
"Whatever…" Waving his apparent brother off, the blank eyed one turned back to Steven, "We don't really have names, but you can call me Disarray, and my brother, Balance. Or, as I prefer, The Wet Blanket."
"Brother!" Disarray laughed at Balance's anger. Steven watched the two bicker, having to idea what to say or do.
"So… um… why am I here." Steven finally asked amongst the twos back and forthing.
Disarray hummed, "Sorry what? Oh! Right, sorry." He laughed, a long and hearty one. Balance groaned as he did. "Okay." Disarray started, still letting out small mirfs. "So you died."
"What!?"
"You died!"
"Brother he heard you, he meant that…" Balance groaned at Disarray's snicker and stepped forward, now bearing a far more soft look as he spoke to a horrified Steven. "What he means to say is, your body, of that world you were just in, is dead."
"B-but… then how am I here?"
"We made a copy of that body and put your conscious into it." Balance explained simply.
Steven blinked in shock, "Really?"
Disarray nodded, "Yup, and my brother insisted we get rid of that black eye. I thought it would've been funnier to have you still have it in this body, but being the killjoy he is, he wouldn't let me…"
Steven looked surprised and then closed what had previously been his only non-bruised eye to check what had been the bruised one, feeling amazed by the depth of his sight not being off, "Oh, hey. I didn't even notice. Thank you."
Balance smiled, "You're welcome." Walking past Steven, Balance continued, "Now, to the matter at hand, Steven, you need to go home, you've been altering the events of our world."
"You're world?" Steven repeated, thinking it over and then remembered something, "Oh no, my friends! Are they okay?"
"Yes." Balance nodded, "They are fine, calm down."
Disarray laughed behind a clenched fist. The two looked at him, "You're only in this world because my brother here thought it would be 'funny'."
Steven gaped, "What?"
Disarray shrugged, "Eh, it was kinda fun at first, but then you got into buddy buddy with Jesse and his friends, kinda got boring from there. You basically did everything the same, it was super dull. Especially since I had to watch and make sure you didn't roadblock yourself. You didn't even use any of the powers I gave you."
Steven glared at Disarray, "I didn't know that was the way the story was supposed to go." He defended himself, hands raised, "Besides, isn't it better I play it safe? …Wait a second, 'powers', what're you—"
"Well," Disarray cut Steven off, "the 'safe way' is the 'boring way.'" Disarray made a massive amount of motion, with a look of clear disinterest. "You may as well have not even been there."
"Well, I mean… I did some things differently."
"And what a huge difference they made. You saved Petra while Jesse saved Gabriel, and did Jesse and Axel's thing with Boom Town. " Disarray continued to disinterestedly list off the scant amount of things Steven really did, that didn't even really do much in the long run, eventually getting to, "The only thing you did that was even remotely interesting was that whole romance thing with Petra."
"I'm sorry, what?! 'Romance thing with Petra'? Dude, I'm fourteen! And she's an adult!"
"Well, it was romance on the surface, but deep down it was just a close bond of friendship. Also, you technically aren't fourteen, that body is twenty five and I tweaked your mental age to match."
"You, what?!"
"Will you two please be quiet!" Balance's booming voice made Steven and Disarray quiet up and stand still. Massaging his head, Balance leaned back with a sigh, "Okay, Steven it's time to send you home."
Steven shook his head, "I can't go home, my friends need me—"
"No, they don't." Balance bluntly denied.
Disarray nodded, "As we have discussed, you added and changed very little."
Okay, now this whole thing was starting to feel hurtful. "Okay, fine. If you send me back now, I'll do things differently, okay? I'll try and make things better."
Balance shook his head, "That isn't what I want, that's just something my brother did as a joke. And now I want it to end."
Disarray nodded, "It turned out to be a really dull joke anyways."
Steven looked back and forth between the two, "You can't be serious, what am I supposed to do if I can't help my friends."
Balance glared, "Go home and live your life, we'll fix your mental state and block your memories of this whole thing. Your friends will be fine, Mark."
Mark grit his teeth, "I'm not going to abandon my friends."
Disarray very suddenly grabbed his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Mark." Balance said as Disarray yanked Mark forward and raised a fist, "But I never said you had a choice." With Balance's nod, Disarray threw his first forward and knocked Mark out.
Shooting up with a gasp, Mark looked around in horror, and then at the computer screen and saw the title card for the first episode of 'Minecraft Story Mode', with the next episode ready to start.
Taking some calming breaths, Mark closed the tab and stood up, "That was… a strange dream…" It wasn't very clear what the dream even was now that he was awake and he was already starting to forget it. Seeing it was still early, Mark went to get a drink, shaking away the lingering memories of his sleep. "Whatever, it was just a dream."
Rolling a flower between his fingers with a hum, Jesse stepped into the artefact room and expressed surprise at seeing someone was already there, "Herman?" The man himself looked away from a banner and to Jesse with a jump. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."
Herman waved him off with a small, weak smile, "It's okay."
Jesse walked up to stand beside Herman and place a flower in front of the banner. Looking up at the grinning faces of Steven and Reuben with a sad sigh, Jesse spoke to Herman without facing him, "Hard to believe it's been three months since that whole Wither Strom thing, huh?"
Herman hummed with a nod. 'Hey, um…" Jesse started, waiting until Herman's attention was on him, "I know you didn't really know Steven or Reuben, or even know the rest of us that well, but we really appreciate you willing to come here to pay your respects for them, especially with the rest of us."
Herman didn't seem sure how to respond at first, looking back and forth between Jesse and the banner, "It's… not a problem, really, Steven seemed like a nice guy and Ruben seemed like a great pig."
Jesse smiled sentimentally, "Yeah, they were great friends."
The two stood in silence for a moment, still waiting for the rest to arrive. Eventually Herman sadly sighed, "I wish I saved Steven sooner."
Jesse turned to Herman to see him staring at the ground solemnly.
"What?"
Herman didn't look back up, "When I saw Steven get grabbed by that Wither Storm, I was scared, and I only managed to convince myself to save him because I thought the Wither was gonna kill him. Maybe if I didn't hesitate, he wouldn't have died."
"Oh…" Jesse muttered, "Herman, don't think like that, Steven wouldn't have wanted you too."
Herman shook his head. "I know, I know… it's just that, I keep thinking that if I managed to save Steven sooner he wouldn't have gotten sick, and he would've made it."
"You don't know that. None of us do." Jesse spoke firm and sure, "We don't know if saving Steven any sooner would've stopped him from getting sick, and besides, he pushed himself to help even after finding out he was sick. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's his own fault, but I do think he might have survived if he rested. But he didn't, because he cared more about saving the world and helping us." He reassured, gently placing a reassuring hand on Herman's shoulder. Herman flinched but didn't shrug Jesse off. "It doesn't matter what happened, there's nothing you could've done and even if there was, no one's blaming you for not doing it."
Herman felt a few stray tears fall, but he didn't stop them and looked up to the memorial. "Maybe you're right."
Jesse nodded and looked up as well, "You know, sometimes I wonder…" Jesse started, feeling a bit wistful, "About how life could've been different… about how life would've been different, if we just made some different choices." Jesse looked away solemnly, thinking over the entire adventure that changed their lives, "About how Reuben would still be here with me, and how Steven and the rest of us could've become incredible friends. How all of us would've been able to push through anything, both good and bad…"
Wistfully looking up at the last thing Reuben left behind before he died, Jesse had to choke down a sob before he was able to continue speaking, "I miss Reuben everyday, and I always have this small hope that, one day, I'm gonna wake up and realise it was all a dream, and find Reuben sitting right outside, sniffing around for carrots, waiting for me to finish getting ready so we can go out and have fun together. But I know that won't happen…"
Turning back to a teary Herman, Jesse took in a deep breathe and went on, "And sometimes, I think that Steven might just pop back up one day and that we'll all have the chance to be friends, without a giant monster chasing us, and that all of us, Olivia, Axel, Petra, Lukas and Reuben, will have fun going on our next big adventure… And, it's a nice dream, but it won't ever happen, and I just need to accept it…"
Jesse couldn't choke down his next sob and looked back to Steven and Rubens painting.
The two looked happy. Steven was standing proud, sporting a determined and gleeful grin, his axe ready in hand. Reuben stood beside him, looking as if he was ready to run forward and take on any obstacle that stood in their way.
"But…" Jesse sighed, wiping away his tears. Herman looked at him expectantly, not bothering to follow Jesse's actions and just waited. "I'll never let go of the memory of them, Reuben was my best friend and I'll never forget him. I admit, I didn't know Steven that long, but I'll never forget everything he did to help us, and even though it got him killed in the end, he did all he could to help, and I'll never look past that. I hope wherever they are, they're happy together."
Herman nodded solemnly, looking back up. The sound of someone muttering a sound of amazement made the two whip around to see Olivia, Axel and Petra standing behind them. They all sported a look of sadness, but did their past to mask.
"That was a great speech, Jesse." Petra complained as they all walked over.
Jesse smiled weakly and walked over to hug each of them. "Thanks Petra." He thanked as he got to her hug, "How long have you all been here?"
"We just walked in when you started talking about Reuben." Olivia answered, sparing a sad glance to Reuben's remains.
"Yeah. That was a great speech Jesse." Axel said, lightly tapping Jesse on the arm.
"Thanks." Jesse smiled a bit more warmly and then looked around, "Hey, where's–"
"I'm here! I'm here!" A voice called out as a certain someone ran into the room. "Sorry I'm late guys." Lukas apologised between breaths, staggering over to them. "There was some trouble at the centre of town, Ivor kept building dangerous structures with lava pouring out of them and I had to convince him to cover the lava up with something so he wouldn't set anything on fire."
Axel crossed his arms with some annoyance, "He's still doing that?"
"We should really have a chat with him about that…" Olivia muttered to Axel.
Jesse nodded before turning his head back to Lukas. "It's okay, Lukas, you're not late." Jesse reassured, then quickly added, "Also thanks for taking care of that thing with Ivor."
Lukas smiled, soon gaining an empathic look when he looked up to the main show of the room, "Hard to believe so much time has passed already, huh?"
"Yeah…" Jesse turned back around, and finally placed down the flower he had been holding onto the floor in front of the wall. Axel, Olivia and Lukas did the same, but Petra did something different. She walked forward, pulled something out of her inventory and then gently placed it down.
Everyone looked shocked at the sight, "Is that…"
"Yeah… it's the sword I gave Steven…" Petra answered Jesse before he could even ask, slowly moving back up. "I… held onto it for a while, but I think it's about time I give it back…"
"That's nice of you." Olivia said as Petra walked up beside her.
She took a moment to think over what to say next, before just giving up and saying, "Thank you."
They all spent some time sharing words of respect and giving each other their own condolences over the whole thing before leaving the room, giving one finale goodbye to Steven and Reuben.
Herman paid them goodbye and left, Lukas doing the same as he went off to, as he put it, help a woman with her potato farms, he promised he would try to meet up with them later though.
The remaining four waved them both away before Axel asked a question in his mind, "So what should we do now?"
"Yeah, I've got some time before I need to head back to redstonia." Olivia added, "Anyone got any ideas?"
"Hey guys," Petra piped up, "I read some books and found some rumours about an old temple that holds a really special item. Maybe we could go and find it."
Jesse, Olivia and Axel seemed excited at the idea, "That's a great idea, Petra!" Jesse cheered. "Where's the temple?"
"Hang on," Petra said, pulling out a book, "I have it written down somewhere… here!" She announced, turning the book for them to see.
Making a mental note of the coordinates, they grinned and went off to their next adventure.
Unbeknownst to them however, Aiden was watching as he hid behind a nearby tree grinning to himself as he went to get the other Blaze Rods to tell them about his new plan.
Sitting up from his chair with a stretch, Mark yawned and walked over to his bed as his PC shut down.
He had decided to play more of that game and got a bit more into it then he had expected. He didn't for the life of him know why, but that game left a bigger impact on him then he had expected. He felt hopeful that the main characters would get through the story safely, and felt excitement and pride when they managed to get through any obstacle.
Mark even felt some personal annoyance when some of the characters acted a bit selfishly, a small amount of genuine shock at the plot twist with The Order of the Stone, despite it being pretty obvious, and a twinge of sadness whenever they started fighting or started to doubt themselves. Mark even felt his heartbreak when one of the members of the Old Order of the Stone died, and especially when Reuben had died.
He didn't know why that game seemed to have such an effect on him, especially since the story felt rather cliche… But something about it just stuck to him, and he couldn't figure out why.
Shrugging it off, Mark rolled to his side and pulled a book off of a nearby table and read through it. "It's just a game…" He muttered to himself, feeling sure he'd forget about it in a few days.
