Shortly after passing out for the second time that day, Ant steadily began to regain his grip on reality, and found himself staring blankly at the ceiling for who knows how long, mouth in a slight gape. He rose from his place on the bed, pulling himself into a sitting position. Much to his surprise, the next thing he heard was the voice of the Captain. "Looks like you're finally awake."

The pryomancer turned his head to face Sparklez with a look of confusion. "When did you get here?"

"About a hour ago, why?"

He responded with a shrug of his shoulder. "Just wondering."

After a brief pause, Ant continued. "You weren't watching me while I slept this entire time, weren't you?"

Sparklez shook his head, denying the claim. He exclaimed with a obviously faked, shocked expression, "No, of course not!"

Ant could've sworn that as soon as the Captain finished speaking, he smiled for a split second, as if he was purposely trying to trick Ant. The Minecraftian only rolled his eyes at this, knowing that Sparklez was just trying to mess with him again, and proceeded to slide out of bed. He stumbled forward, still not used to his legs just yet. However, Sparklez caught his arm a moment before Ant hit the floor and pulled him back up onto his feet. With a hint of exhaustion in his voice, Ant mumbled a weak 'Thanks' before attempting another step. Yet again, the Minecraftian was unable to support his own weight, and had to rely on the Captain to keep him from collapsing. He sighed, gazing up at Sparklez. "I think you're going to have to do this for a while..."

"Eh, I don't mind. But I'm pretty sure the number of SparkAnt fics are going to up because of it," he stated with a sly smirk, "That is, if anyone sees us in public like this."

"Wait, you actually support that kind of stuff?"

The Captain only shrugged in reply before walking towards the door, Ant still clinging to his side. Meanwhile, on the upper floor, the others were hanging around the shop, as it was quite dark out, and most people were in their homes at this time. Dray, looking somewhat bored, was leaning back in her chair behind the counter, her legs propped up on top of it. Beside her, the robotic phoenix known as Mecha stood at attention. Rain sat across from the teen, her feet dangling off of the smooth quartz tabletop. She moved them in a rhythmic fashion from time to time, watching as they swung back and forth. Off in one of the far corners of the room, where the light levels were the lowest in the entirety of the shop, Anti was sharpening the two of his gleaming iron daggers, occasionally stopping and looking up every few seconds with his bright crimson eyes. The teenager behind the counter shifted her gaze to the stairway as she heard soft, but somewhat clumsy, footsteps.

She sat up and flicked her bangs out of her face with a single, quickly excuted flip of her head. Anti, as the observant person he was, almost immediately noticed Dray's sudden movement and turned towards the direction of Sparklez and Ant. Just as he had feared, his brother appeared to be in terrible condition. His face was deathly pale, and the pyromancer's eyes had changed from their normally warm, chocolate-brown color, to that of a dulled, less vivid, dark brown. The affected Minecraftian's eyelids occasionally drooped, unwillingly displaying his exhaustion. It still seemed as if Ant could collapse on them at any second. The assassin grimaced at taking in all of this, and spoke in a doubtful tone. "There's no possible way to get to Solstice with Ant in his current state."

Rain perked up at hearing the name of the town, as it had been mentioned to her several times before, yet she had never been there. "We're going to Solstice?"

Anti gave a small nod of the head in response to the child. "On my brother's request, yes. However, I'm afraid that he's in no condition to go anywhere right now."

A trace of a smile was on Dray's face, as she knew that this was her chance to get out of Windvale for at least a little while. She never really liked to stay in one area for too long, because sooner or later, it would get too boring for the teen. She craved the excitement and thrill of adventure, and almost fell out of her chair when the others mentioned the current problem of transportation, since Ant was unable to go anywhere at the moment without assistance, which would become a severe hinderance in their progress. However, as she tried to rebalance herself, Dray only succeeded in actually falling over this time. With a somewhat loud thump, she hit the wooden floor and quickly got back up, only to find that the others were staring at her oddly. Ignoring their questioning looks, she sheepishly grinned in apology before returning to her ordinary, cheerful self. Hopefully, her offer would be accepted. "Ya know, I happen to have an airship in my possession. I'm willing to take you guys to Solstice or wherever, but only if you allow me to tag along when we get there. So no sending me back afterwards!"

Sparklez didn't seem convinced, as he immediately began to question the teenager. "And how old are you, exactly? Because I'm pretty sure you're too young to be an actual airship captain."

Dray scrunched up her face in annoyance. "Myahnnn... I can fly that thing way better than some of those Skylords out there. I'm not kidding, I'm seriously way more skilled than they are, and I don't even have approval yet."

"Which is exactly my point. You aren't even allowed to pilot an airship, let alone own one."

The teenager shrugged, her sky-blue eyes reflecting her somewhat sly tone. "It's not illegal if they don't catch you!"

Just as Sparklez was about to protest against the girl's reply, the pryomancer by his side lightly moaned. "Just let her do it. There's really no other way to get there in a timely fashion at the moment. It's our only option."

Reluctantly, the Captain accepted Dray's offer, causing her to smile gleefully before running out of the room and down a hallway, her phoenix companion close behind. A second or two later, she popped her head out from the corridor and called out to them. "Aren't you coming?"

A fairly startled Rain responded. "Yes, of course!"

Several minutes later, the young, bright-eyed Minecraftian had her airship, dubbed the Stargazer, fully prepared for takeoff. She had decided to leave Mecha behind so that the workshop wouldn't be completely abandoned. Meanwhile, Sparklez still remained skeptical of the girl's ability to pilot the aircraft. "Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?"

Dray rolled her eyes, as he had asked similar questions earlier. "It's perfectly fine. I'm capable of piloting an airship, unlike you. Sheesh, why don't you just ease up a bit?"

"Ending up dead in the remains of a crashed airship really isn't appealing to me, that's all."

"Ugh, are you always like this?"

A faint trace of a smile crossed his features as the Minecraftian gave a small shrug. "Sometimes."

The teenager sighed, tired with the slight argument already. She then proceeded with yet another attempt to reassure the older of the two, then walked off to the control room. This was going to be one of the longest airship trips in her life, at least from what she could tell. In the next few minutes, the large vessel was airborn, and soon the stark outline of Windvale faded from view, as the sun set behind it. A couple of hours later, the flying ship was nearly two-thirds of the way there, as the murky green of the swamplands transitioned into the much brighter greens of the plains and forest biomes. Rain gazed out of one of the ship's windows at the land below, mesmerized from the bird's eye view. She turned at the sound of somewhat uneasy footsteps, and was met face-to-face with an extremely pale figure standing in the darkness, and to her, it seemed as if they were a ghost of some kind. The ten-year-old squeaked in fear at the sight and slammed into the wall behind her. Immediately, she recognized the Minecraftian to be a very sickly looking Ant. She gasped, shocked by the elder's appearance. "Oh my gods, are you okay?!"

Rain ran over to the pryomancer, a worried look on her face. She started to pull him over to the bench that she had been previously sitting on, against his attempts to reassure her. She shook her head in refusal. "No matter what you say, it doesn't change the fact that it looks as if you're about to drop dead at any second."

Ant fell silent, unable to counter her response. He even had to admit that he looked -and felt- as if he was desperately struggling to stay alive. The older Minecraftian weakly followed the child beside him as she led him over to her place by the window, aware that it was much more important for him to continue living rather than retain his fairly high level of pride. She sat down on the wooden bench, gesturing for him to sit beside her. Without a word, he obeyed the unspoken command, his gaze focused on the floorboards beneath him. The pryomancer leaned forward slightly, his eyes almost completely shut, before snapping awake. Rain laughed at the half-asleep Minecraftian, her royal blue eyes sparkling cheerfully. Ant glanced at her for a second, the trace of a smile on his face. He rose to his feet, causing the girl to cast her eyes upon him in a questionable manner. After he took a few short steps, Ant stumbled forward, swiftly falling to his knees, instantly beginning to hack up dark red blood. He leaned back, emitting a soft moan as a thin trail of the crimson liquid ran down his chin. Breaking free of her petrified state, Rain appeared at Ant's side and began attempting to tend to the suffering Minecraftian with the best of her abilities. Soon aware that there wasn't much she could do to assist him, the child arose from her place and rushed out of the dimly lit room, muttering unintelligible words and phrases under her breath in a panicky fashion. Something was obviously wrong with him, but she didn't know why.

Trembling slightly, Ant managed to get one last glimpse of Rain before she dashed out, as a wave of concern fully clouded his mind. The poison on Phantom's dagger couldn't possibly be affecting him now, could it? He grimaced, finally realizing the truth behind his predicament. Before he could do anything else, the pryomancer burst into yet another coughing fit, shaking severely with each one. After the last few moments of it had passed, he was left with an overwhelming sense of drowsiness, immediately falling over onto his side. None of Ant's limbs responded whenever he tried to move them, rendering the Minecraftian utterly useless in his attempts to get back up. Shadows clawed at the edges of his vision, beckoning him to give in to the shifting darkness. He resisted against the temptation, but not for long, as he only possessed a dwindling amount of energy from suffering through both coughing fits, drastically weakening the now unmoving being. The poison that he now acknowledged to be in his bloodstream felt as if it was cold water, freezing him even further to the spot. Ant tried to keep himself awake, but slipped away just as three dark figures entered his line of sight.

In fact, the Minecraftian wasn't fully unconscious. Alternatively, he was trapped in between the two, awake yet unable to do control any of his actions, and was incapable of thought. He could only watch blankly as Sparklez knelt beside his immobile self, resting a hand on the pryomancer's forehead for a second before pulling it away in shock. It was void of any heat, and was instead quite frigid for someone who was alive and breathing. A few moments later, regardless of the others' assistance, he felt his breathing steadily slow to a halt, as the room grew darker from his perspective. Was he merely slipping away into the Dreamscape again? Unsure, Ant could only wait for the shadows clouding his mind to fully consume him before he would know for sure. Sure enough, he began to sense himself fading further into the abyss, as his heartbeat drew to a close. When the darkness finally swarmed Ant, he was met with shadows on all sides. Instantaneously, a bright light formed far from the drifting AntVenom, and he oddly felt drawn to it. Even now, he could perceive the surging pain of the poison in his bloodstream, although he shouldn't be able to feel anything from his physical form in the waking world. Deprived of a way to escape said agony, the pyromancer forced himself to float over to the luminous source, only to find himself already sluggishly moving towards it without any extra support from his own body. He was only a few feet away when it finally occurred to the Minecraftian, throwing him into a state of appall.

He was dying.

(A/N: DUNDUNDUNNN! Bet you never saw that coming. I'm going to get so much hate for doing this, aren't I? But nobody panic, as this IS NOT the last chapter! Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions! At least I'm not taking up an entire two weeks to write a chapter. Sheesh. Anyways, I made a Chibi Sparklez skin. Randomly had to say that, sorry. But it's so adorable~! Also, you may have noticed that I mentioned cover art, right? If not, LOOK AT THE TITLE-SUMMARY-THINGY! So yeah, I currently have a few basic sketches (which are pretty much just doodles), and I have a concept. I MURST PROV MEH ARTZ SKILL! Which I will, so calm down people. Dun freak on meh! NAO ONTO DA REVIEWUR QUESTONS!)

Sane asked this: "How did Ant lose his memories in the first place?!"

Imma answer, because I'm the writer, and I say so. Shortly after the Legions created Anti, they wiped Ant's memories after altering them a bit, so if he happened to restore his memory, it would be changed from the real thing. After Chapter 14 and 17, this no longer applies, as a side-effect of the poison/Anti restored Ant's actual memories to him. Kinda confusing (and a bit cliché), I know.

And now I will randomly talk with PrincessLyoka. (DEAL WITH IT!)

Well, at least your SpellCheck works. Mine is busted for some weird reason, so I have to go back in Fanfiction's document editor and correct the stuff that's incorrect. It's seriously annoying, but hey, that's life.

And then there's Jeff, directing this at Anti's face! (jkjk): "you're a clone? I did not see that coming."

Anti: Not many people do, which is why I wear a facemask and a hood. Can't have too many people getting suspicious, can we?

(This is a small edit, I know, but since I've been accused of it/seems like I do from all the direct references: I DO NOT SHIP SPARKANT! In fact, the only two shippings I support at the moment are GrailVenom and HySpark (No, it is not Hypixel x Sparklez. That's just weird.). It just so happens that quite a bit of Fire Within uses bits and pieces from SparkAnt fics, such as Sparklez's ability to be Sonic the Hedgehog. So, please don't assume these thingsss! D: Also, we made it to 50 reviews and passed the number of views my first fanfic on the site got! Whoo! ~Dray)