Sweat steamed down his face, yet he ignored it. It had been only a few hours since the two Minecraftians had been brought to Anti's underground base, but things had been going smoothly. As it turned out, Anti was also a pryomancer, but much more skilled than Ant was. Sparklez had woken up only about half a hour ago, and was wondering around the establishment. Meanwhile, Anti had offered to improve Ant's recently discovered fire magic, and he had accepted the request. The two were now standing in the central room, with Anti quietly observing the other attempt to summon a flame. The cloaked figure only shook his head when he saw what Ant was doing. "Not like that. Here, let me show you."

Anti gently pushed the other aside, and began to demonstrate. He closed his glowing eyes and concentrated, moving his hands around each other in a circular fashion. When Anti opened his eyes again, a small fire erupted from the palm of his hand. Then, as soon as it had apppeared, the flame disapiated into thin air. The experienced pryomancer turned to the stunned Minecraftian next to him, who suddenly regained their composture. "How was I supposed to know that!?"

The darkly cloaked figure only hinted at a sly smile. "You weren't. Why else would I be teaching you this?"

Anti's smile widened as he heard Ant angrily mumble under his breath. "You never liked it when someone else had a point, and that hasn't changed a bit."

Confused by the other's comment, Ant looked at him suspiciously. "How would you know that?"

Now realizing he had said too much, Anti tried to avoid the question. "Let's just say something tells me that."

Ant gave him a slow nod, still quite skeptical, before beginning to speak. "I'm going to go look for Sparklez, just in case he got lost or something."

The other Minecraftian seemed lost in his own thoughts, and absently stared off into space. "Fine with me."

The 22-year-old started down one of the two hallways, and briefly stopped to look back at Anti. What is he hiding from me? I know for sure there's something he knows that I don't. Ant excused the thought and focused on the current task at hand, which was finding the Captain somewhere within the many areas of the structure. It had formerly been a stronghold, which Anti had adapted into a underground base. He wasn't sure how far into the stronghold it was, meaning Sparklez might be already in the ruins of the base. Ant's footsteps echoed off the walls, amplifying the sound of the steps. The torches placed on the walls had become scarce, and the hallway soon became shrouded in darkness. He couldn't have gone this far. If so, then where the Nether is Sparklez? The mentioned Minecraftian had actually travelled to the farthest reaches of the structure, and was now wondering around the premises of the stronghold, alone with only his thoughts.

A figure hidden in the shadows, quietly watched him. She couldn't risk to be seen by him, if he was still angered by her betrayal. Storm couldn't help it, her sister was helpless and captured, and at this point it seemed Aero would never set her free. The teen let out a soft sigh, which was noticed by the other Minecraftian nearby. She fearfully widened her stormy gray eyes as the teen realized that she had made her location obvious. Storm patiently waited for Sparklez to find her, and hopefully allow her to explain. The 21-year-old's footsteps lightly echoed off the walls, becoming louder with each step. Storm was just beginning to have second thoughts about allowing him to approach her, but before she could do anything, Sparklez pinned her against the wall. The Minecraftian glared at her with pure hatred, but what scared the teen even more was the color of his eyes. Sparklez's eyes were not the normal blue color she was used to, instead they were a blank white that reminded her of Herobrine. The teen tried to pry off the other's hand from her neck, but it was to no avail. She gasped for air as his grip tightened on her throat. "S-Sparklez, why-"

The older of the two cut her off, his glare intensifying. "You're nothing but a backstabbing traitor, so why should I even listen to you?"

The 18-year-old struggled to breathe as she felt her consciousness slip away from her. Storm was so light-headed that she wasn't even able to respond. The edges of her vision were black as night, and the haze threatened to make her entire vision fade into the very same blackness. "P-please, just-"

A scream echoed through the corridor, in the direction Ant was heading. He dashed down the hallway as fast as humanly possible and stopped only when he reached the brightly lit entrance to the rest of the stronghold. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Ant was able to spot two figures, one pinned against the wall, bleeding, and the other pinning the first, carrying a gleaming diamond sword. Ant recognized the two immediately as Storm and Sparklez, with the latter wielding the blade in his right hand. The sight was shocking to him, because there was no way that the Captain would ever do such a thing, even to a traitor, like Storm. Regardless of what she had done previously, Ant decided to help the weakened teenager. He unsheathed his own diamond sword and silently snuck up behind Sparklez. However, before the 22-year-old could strike a blow, the other quickly whipped around, successfully throwing Ant off-guard.

The Captain proceeded to swipe his blade at Ant, who narrowly dodged the attack. Ant quickly got into a defensive stance, prepared to block any strikes that came at him. Another vicious slash from Sparklez nearly caused the other to topple over from its force, but regardless, it was parried. Ant tried to counter, but it was only blocked. Sparklez darkly grinned as the swords were locked in place, and suddenly smacked Ant's sword out of his hand. Ant winced as his wrist was twisted into an unnatural position, but the pain only lasted a few seconds. However, it had meant the loss of his weapon, which was currently in the possession of the Captain. Just before the two blades sliced through his neck, Ant moved out of the way, not even leaving a scratch. He didn't have much time before the next attack as the strikes came much faster. The 22-year-old had managed to avoid almost every slash and strike that was directed towards him. For a split second, Ant had let his guard down, allowing the other to create a gash across his right cheek.

A thin trail of blood streamed from the cut, which gently flowed down the side of Ant's face. His anger towards this side of Sparklez was no longer able to be contained. "Damn it, Sparklez! What is with you!?"

The mentioned Minecraftian smirked, which only resulted in annoying Ant even farther. What happened next surprised even Ant. It felt as if he couldn't control himself as Ant blasted a spiral of flames straight at the other, slamming the Captain against the stone brick wall. As Sparklez's head hit the stone wall behind him, his eyes changed back to their normal blue color, just before he was knocked out from the impact. The two swords Sparklez was wielding eariler clattered to the floor, as he slumped against the wall, unconcious. A few seconds passed before the sound of footsteps began steadily to head towards the group. It was Anti, wearing his cloak with the hood up as always. His face mask still covered the pryomancer's mouth and nose, but if you looked closely, you could tell what his expression was. Anti appeared to have a blank expression, but his bright red eyes betrayed it. He looked as if he was surprised, but there was a slight amount of amusement, as well. Before Ant could even start to think of reasons why Anti could possibly be amused, the cloaked Minecraftian walked over to where the other two were, and turned to face him. "I suppose we should head back to the base?"

Ant absently nodded, his thoughts wondering elsewhere. When the rest of the group, which consisted of Sparklez and Storm, had recovered enough, they headed back up the tunnels to the underground base. While the group was traveling in the darkened tunnels, Ant decided to ask Sparklez about what had happened in the stronghold, but was ignored each time. After several attempts to get an answer out of the Captain, Ant approached Storm, who was in the back of the group. She seemed to be avoiding Sparklez, probably due to being attacked by him. The teen was looking wearily in his direction, and didn't even notice the 22-year-old next to her. Storm studied the structure of the large tunnel, before spotting Ant, which nearly caused her to jump out of the way and hit him. After she recognized the Minecraftian, Storm frowned at him in mild annoyance. "Don't scare me like that," she angrily whispered.

Storm couldn't see it in the darkness, but Ant was smirking at her reaction. The teen let out a faint sigh before talking again. "What do you want?"

"What do you think I'm going to ask you?"

The teenager rolled her faded gray eyes. "I was going to explain at this 'base' of yours, but someone just has to be impatient."

Ant couldn't help but snicker. "This is the first time I've asked. I'm not pestering you like what I did to Sparklez."

Storm didn't answer him, and continued to walk through the darkened tunnels in silence. As the group traveled, the tunnels soon became lit from torches placed along the walls, which marked their short distance from the base. Soon, Ant began to notice a slight pain pulse through his head, but he deemed it unimportant, and probably just a side effect from being hit in the head earlier. As time passed, the pain started to get worse, and eventally got to the point where it was fairly noticeable, judging from Ant's veering steps. He leaned against the stone brick, in an attempt to regain his balance. Everything was out of focus and blurred, even his own hand, which was only a few inches away. The others' voices sounded distorted and far away from the Minecraftian. Suddenly, Ant felt his legs collapse from underneath him as everything began to fade away.

When he opened his eyes again, he was greeted with a pounding headache. Ant weakly got up onto his knees and observed his unfamiliar surroundings. He tried to stand up, but his legs were still unable to support his weight, which meant he had to crawl in order to move around. It looked as if he was in some sort of library, a dimly lit, yet large one. Ant searched for any sort of way to escape the room, before noticing a very bright light coming from one of the many rows of bookshelves. He cautiously approached the source, which was a torch. The mentioned torch was being carried by a young child, about six years old, who appeared to be searching for something. Ant immediately saw the child, and attempted to evade being spotted by them. However, while doing so, he accidently bumped into one of the shelves, causing the child to look in the direction of the sound. The child's dark brown eyes widened when he saw the 22-year-old. The child, apparently a boy, asked in a soft voice, "Who are you?"

Ant wasn't sure what to say to the young boy, so he directly answered the question. Surprisingly, he was able to smile, even though he still had a pounding headache. "My name is Ant. What's yours?"

The child looked at him curiously, as if wondering how the Minecraftian had arrived there in the first place. The six-year-old blinked, and turned his head to the side in confusion. "That's what my name is, too..."

The 22-year-old studied the child's appearance, which confirmed his suspicions. The child was, in fact, a younger version of himself. Suddenly, the distinct shrill hiss of a spider came from the ceiling above them. The youth seemed unaware of the sound, and squeaked in fear as he saw Ant slowly unsheathe his sword. Ant noticed the younger Minecraftian's reaction, and silently gestured to the ceiling. The six-year-old raised his head to see what the other meant. His eyes widened as he saw quite a few spiders, climbing around on the ceiling above him. Another hiss came from one of the creatures as its scarlet red eyes took in the sight of possible prey. It leaped from its hiding place, its fangs shining in the dim light of the library. Just before the creature could sink its fangs into the child, it was stabbed directly in the heart with a diamond sword. Ant pulled the gigantic spider's dead body off of his blade with his foot, leaving the rest of the spider's blood to flow into a small puddle around the mob.

A faint death cry came from the spider as it vanished into a burst of smoke. Although the cry was soft, the other spiders heard it and leaped down to face the two Minecraftians. A spider lunged at Ant, who quickly sliced it in half. Now there were three more of the mobs, each one hissing threatenly. One of the mobs pounced on top of Ant's younger self, who struggled against the grip of the spider that was holding him down. The 22-year-old immediately took notice, yet he was distracted by another one of the creatures who refused to be defeated. The mob hissed at him as it barely missed his arm in an failed attempt to bite the pryomancer. Ant took advantage of the spider's frustration and swiftly cut it apart. The other spider had retreated, but the one with his past self was still attempting to kill the child. It was only centimeters from the child's face, using its shrill hiss only to scare the boy. The spider had moved far away from the 22-year-old, several rows away, yet it was still fully visible to him.

Ant rushed past the many rows of bookshelves in order to reach the spider, but there was no way he could make it in time. The mob glanced at him for less than a second before turning back to its captured prey. Another loud hiss pierced the air as the creature slightly moved back, then pounced, with its sharp fangs protruding from its mouth. Time seemed to slow down as the spider came closer and closer to the six-year-old with each moment that passed. Ant was so close to striking the spider himself, but there wasn't much time for him to do so. The mob hissed in victory, as it neared its prey. It could imagine the taste of the young Minecraftian already...

(A/N: HAI GUYS! I finished yet another chapter! I've been pretty busy this week, and I also suffered a bit of writer's block. (Nuuu, writer's block, WHY!?) I don't have too much more to say other then there's only 10 MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT! YUS! Also, I'll be leaving to go to D.C. on one of the first weeks of summer (I forgot what day I'm leaving, lawls!), so don't panic if I don't post a chapter that week. Also, sorry for the late chapter. I just wanted to get it over with, so no reviewer questions this chapter. I PROMISE THEY'LL BE THERE NEXT CHAPTER! SO, DON'T STOP SENDING 'EM IN! ETERNALDRAYGON, OUT!)