And of course no one would want to read this because of the 3,000 plus words in one chapter thing...


Chapter 1: Report: Nether

"Unicorn!" Yelled Ji-gu as she pulled up a bundle of her father's hair. She sat on his shoulders as she, her father, and mother were taking a stroll around the settlement. Silk giggled at the sight of "unicorn daddy."

Huang looked up at the small 9 year old. "Deja vu..." Ji-gu was an incredibly small girl for her age, making it easy for her to sit on her father's shoulders without him receiving much strain. The 9 year-old leaned forward to see her father's face, her long silver hair draping over her shoulder's and onto her father's face. "Now who's hair is this?" He asked with a childish attitude. He brushed off the hair and saw two blood red irises looking back at him. His daughter giggled.

"Yo! Rios!" Silk called out. Huang looked towards the direction of the aging blond, but his face turned pale when he saw Rios' face, like one who just saw Herobrine.

"May I talk with Huang for a bit? Important matters." Silk nodded and held out her hands for Ji-gu.

"Let's go Kumo-chan." Ji-gu nodded and held out her arms for Silk to lift her off from Huang's shoulders. They began walking off to the house. Huang gulped when he turned to Rios.

He barely managed to speak his command. "R-report..."

"They hit it..." Huang thought the organ between his lungs was about to fail.

"Where you able to trace them?" Rios nodded. "Tell Axle, 'we leave at midnight.'" Rios mouthed the word 'yes sir' and slowly walked to Axle's home.

Huang POV:

Huang looked at his clothing, White silk formal oriental coat, dark blue silk pants, and his slippers, not the best choice of clothing for fighting. "I guess I'm going to wear that again... I'm too old for it though..." He walked home, trying to regain his composure on the way. When he opened the door of his 2 story home, he looked at the display case by the opening for the kitchen. His bladed bow was behind a pane of glass, and his old coat was hung outside of the display, collecting dust from lack of use. He tenderly unhooked it and held it on his arm. "I'm going to make some changes on this..." He spots a tear mark by the sleeve. "This would make a good excuse..." Huang walked up the stairs of his home, hearing a flute being played by his daughter. She waved through the door as he passed by. He knocked on the door of his room, where he would expect to find Silk, which she is.

"Come in!" Silk called through the door. Silk was sowing a white beret for Ji-gu to wear. She frowned and placed the almost finished hat on her lap when she saw the coat on Huang's arms when he walked in. "Why are you holding that?" She asked with an annoyed tone.

"There's a tear on the sleeve, I thought I might ask if you can fix it." Silk sighed and motioned to give it to her, which Huang did later. "Also, I thought it might be a good idea to fix the short zipper problem to avoid getting any misunderstandings from Ji-gu."

"And WHY are you asking to fix all of this?" She asked with the same annoyed tone.

Huang rushed to think, "I know one of these days, Ji-gu is going to ask me to wear it again, and how can I say no to that cute face?" Silk's eye twitched. "Just saying, she's a curious little girl."

"I know, that's why I TOLD you to put this behind the glass too."

"I was still young enough to wear it without problem... and I did not have any other form of clothing..."

"Just... let me fix it, and get out..."

Huang nodded and left the room and thought, "Why did this have to happen?"

Rios POV:

Axle pounded the wall of his house with a fist.

"No, tell me you're joking, tell me you joking, LIE IF YOU HAVE TO!"

"I'm joking..." Rios, did not look happy when he said it.

Axle's face paled. "That... was a lie... wasn't it?" Rios nodded. "Get out... I need... time..." He left with no debate, no hesitation. The things that are about to happen will be heartbreaking, and terrifying; something that the three men had experienced before, survived, and withered away from. Now they must give that same pain to their families, just to save them. Poor Ria, she would be the only person here who would re-live the same trauma of losing everyone.

"No matter who's life is shattered, no matter if your body is scarred, we have already done our part in the settlement, continuing it's future. We have done all that we can in there, nothing else can be done." The brief speech that scared little Huang had said the day before still rung in his head. Huang knew that going to the Nether in the current situation would mean death. There is no telling what could happen in there; being only that the first person who survived a trip to the Nether would be Steve, who then made only a select few to travel through the portal. No information about the Nether itself was told, but we can only imagine by the horror stories of an insane dying man's dreams.

His only son, Bone, a boy with unique traits of blond and silver hair, and irises that form green and grey rings, sat at the foot of the coffee table of the living room. He was studying, oblivious of the situation of the outside world. He should be a scholar, not one to prey on survival when he grows. "Sup dad." He casually said not even batting an eye towards Rios' direction. It really hurt, but it would be confusing to say anything now.

Rios made only a simple reply, hoping that his son cannot tell the dread that would be happening. "Good Afternoon Bone, how's the work going along?"

"Pleasant."

Rios checked his old equipment in workshop. All of his stuff was still there, leather armor with an iron chestplate, and two iron swords. The reasoning of this, Bone tends to steal a few items from the workshop every now and then, mainly being various forms of explosives. Bone was leaning against the workshop entrance. "Okay, I swear I didn't take any today."

Rios closed the chest and went to examine the explosives chest, it seems that none of them were touched. "Well that's good to hear." Rios wanted to check on Yurei now, so when he passed by Bone, Rios gave him a single, firm pat on the shoulder. "Honey! Were are you?" A scream from the kitchen moments later made him knew where she is. Bone tossed his father a bucket of water while it was still in its item form. "I'm coming!"

The kitchen was not in the best of shapes in the current moment; almost all of the wooden items in the stone room in the horizontal building is on fire. Rios placed the water block on the center of the ceiling, drenching both the occupants and the wooden items below. When the water block was back in the bucket, the damage was examined.

Yurei was not very proud, especially in the case of Rios' quick response. There goes dinner... Again...

"Ouch..." Ria said, squeezing the excess water from her apron. "Better luck next time I guess." She laughed when the skeleton punched her in the arm.

"You should really stop trying to get the house burnt down..." Rios protested.

Yurei crossed her arms. "Well I can do a lot better when I'm actually trying!"

"Apparently, catchin' the place on fire is 'trying'" Ria mocked.

Axle POV:

He only sat on the chair of the dining room table for an hour. He only wanted to hang out with Rex. Fun is it? Especially since the young man refuses to do anything else other than sleep and doing whatever it is outside the house. Staring off into space, or the ceiling, was getting him nowhere in the few remaining hours he has in the village. He wanted to take the courage to have the best time with his son, and knocked on his door.

"What?!" Yelled the sleepy grumpy kid on the other side of the door.

Axle took a deep breath, and said with his sane voice. "You wanna play ball?"

"No."

One word hurted him. Congrats Axle, you have achieved a new low and a new high.

"You sure?"

"Yes." Axle does not want to be the strict father that forces you to do whatever he wants, so he went out on his own ways. To where? His body was set on auto-pilot while his mind was bent on imagining all of the "what if's" of what's going to happen.

What if this will never help anyone?

What if someone dies?

What if my family dies while I'm not there?

It drove him crazy, not knowing. It was the first time in ages, or possibly his entire life he had ever been troubled by not knowing anything. Though probably, it would be inappropriate to say that he had lost his cool.

And when he heard the crash from Rios' house, he didn't mind it, he was too busy in his thoughts to think about Rios' house, that and the mere fact that Yurei tries cooking too much.


(That night)

POV Ji-gu: She only heard a sound of broken glass in the darkness. None of her windows where broken, but she, like all unknowing children ran to her parents room immediately after the sound. To her dismay, only her mother ran out of the room to examine the damage. She looked in the room, her father was no where.

"Where's daddy?"

Silk, hearing that, turned around and found only her daughter. She hushed her into the bedroom and locked the door after her, putting a finger over Ji-gu's mouth to make sure she doesn't make a noise. Silk covered the door with some string to cover the door even more and sat next to Ji-gu in the corner, staring at the door for any signs of hostility. And staring, she had, for hours.

Ji-gu wondered about the broken glass, and she falls asleep to her mother's comfort. "What broke?"