Chapter 17: Black and Red

Reaching the village gates, Red looks at the two iron armored guards standing in front with unease. "Hero, this village looks a lot more safeguarded than the village we were at before. Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean-" Herobrine turned to look at her, his white eyes were wildly flaming from the sides as he stared at her intensely.

"With you and I together and our power. This village will fall to its knees and beg for mercy at our feet." He told her with a wicked smirk before turning and abruptly throwing a large fireball straight at the guards at the gate. The guards weren't able to react in time as the fireball penetrated right into each of them, setting both of them on fire. They both began panicking from the burns and weren't prepared for when Herobrine charged forward with his sword and pierced straight through the back of the first guard. The guard screamed in agony but was silenced by Hero as he twisted the sword in his wound before pulling out. The guard immediately fell forwards and into the dirt dead. Herobrine chuckled and looked to the other guard who had his iron sword out and shakily held up at Hero.

"Y-You won't take out village, you white-eyed devil!" The guard spat out and ran forwards to attack Herobrine, even through his devastating burns. Herobrine only laughed at his face and clashed his sword with his own. Red stood back not knowing what to do other than stare like an idiot. Should she interfere? It seemed like he was doing pretty damn well by himself. It was still kinda scary to see people being murdered right in front of her eyes. It was different when they were video game characters but now they looked as real as they did in her old world.

The guard wrestled his iron sword with Hero's diamond. Each of them had their eyes focused on each other as their swords pushed against each other. Herobrine smirked and finally roughly pushed through and caught the guard off balance. Taking this moment, he took his sword and slashed it across his neck. The guard screamed even though it came out gurgled from the blood, before falling down to his side and panicking until he bled out and died.

"That's how its done!" Herobrine declared haughtily in his triumph over the guards. Looking over at Red, he gestured her over with his hand. "Next time its your turn." He told her. She smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head.

"O-okay but you do know I'm not really that familiar with sword fighting, right?"

"Trust me, you'll find it comes naturally." Herobrine replied to her and then threw another fireball at the gates. The two of them watched as the wooden gates began to burn just enough to let them pass through. Herobrine jumped through the hole in the gates and Red followed behind much more clumsier. Almost tripping over her feet she accidentally walked into Herobrine's firm back. Hero didn't even stumble forwards but only looked back at her with a raised eyebrow at her.

She laughed nervously, "Sorry bout' that!" She apologized sheepishly with a blush tinting her cheeks. After that awkwardness, she went to look at the many cobblestone buildings that made up the town. "This town is quite large. Where do we even begin?"

"Right here." Herobrine replied with a grimace on his face as he was watching some guards running up with their swords up and ready to attack. Red looked away from her sight-seeing and back at the extra iron-cladded guards that didn't look to happy to see them.

"Simply slash at them from here and watch the devastation that sword you have brings." Herobrine ordered Red to do with a slight amused tone. Red glanced down at her sword The Starless Gale and then back at the guards anxiously.

"If you say so, dude." Red gulped and raised her black diamond sword up shakily. The guards turned to eye her down as she brought it up.

"Don't come any further or we will attack!" One of the five guards there shouted at them. Red shook her head and decided to try and enjoy this, even though it was far past her comfort-zone.

"I won't come any further!" Red shouted back mockingly at them and then concentrated as she slashed her sword at them like Hero told her too. The black aura that trailed with the sword suddenly surged out towards the guards in a wave of black shadow. The guards never had a chance when the black magic from the Starless Gale engulfed them all and began making them all panic as it severely corrupted them. Two of them started choking as the other three began falling down and convulsing, just like the priest Midas did at the dessert village.

"Whoa! What's happening to them?" Red said with wide eyes as she watched the guards dying in front of her from just one sweeping of her sword. Herobrine standing at her side, he watched them suffer with amusement, before glancing at Red.

"The darkness of your sword has tainted them. It attacks them from the inside as it infects the whole body within seconds. It is a slow painful way to go. How 'unfortunate' for them." Hero scoffed at the guards and then looked over at the city. "We have much to cover. Let's begin our fun." Herobrine gestured her to follow him as he began running up some stairs and to the center of the village, his cape could be seen whipping around behind him as he ran. Red stared at him and his cape and blinked a few times.

"I wish I had a cool cape…" She murmured, envious of Herobrine's stylish cape before also rushing forward to catch back up. Herobrine's hand had a flame burning in his hand, he glanced back at Red and smirked widely. Red watched as he took the fireball in his hand and slung it forwards at a light oak wooden building.

"Start killing everyone you see, Scarlett! Leave no survivors! Let them feel our wrath! The wrath of the true King and Queen of Minecraftia!" Herobrine shouted loudly and laughed cruelly as he send another fireball at a group of villagers, who were running away and screaming at the top of their lungs. Red watched Hero bring merciless destruction and carnage amongst the village. He really seemed to be highly enjoying himself now, after all, he did consider this 'fun'. Red glanced down at her sword anxiously and was feeling nervous. She didn't know if she could just go around and start randomly slaughtering some innocent villagers that had not done anything to her. But she told Herobrine she would listen to him, if she didn't something bad would happen again!

Red battled in her mind what was the right thing to do, she could only stand there looking worried as Herobrine ran around assassinating everything and everyone around him with his ridiculously powerful magic. Red brought up her black diamond sword and stared at her own reflection. What should she do? Kill a bunch of innocent villagers and finally listen to Herobrine or should she disobey him again and make him angry again with her?

"I don't know what to do…" Red murmured quietly as she watched her reflection frowning sadly back at her.

"Are you sure this plan is going to be good enough?" Blue asked Steve unsurely as they walked through a hallway in the castle as they were leaving the war room, where they had been planning together.

"I don't think we could have a better plan! I'm completely confident this will work! I'm sure glad to have you here with me. Notch would have never agreed to this if I didn't have you here with me." Steve said while his cheeks began to warm up slightly at his own words. Blue stared at him as they walked and she could feel her own face redden slightly.

Glancing away awkwardly, she smiled faintly, "Its not like I have much of a choice as I must save my sister, but I'm happy I can help you and the Rebellion…" Blue replied. Steve grinned cutely and rubbed the back of his head.

"I'm glad you are willing to help us. You'll get your sister back in no time. I promise!" Steve paused and gave her a thumbs up. She could only stare blankly before looking away with a blush and a slight chuckle.

"I hope you're right!" she replied with a warm smile appearing on her usually serious face.

"I believe I will be! Anyways, we have portals to the Nether. Usually my brother has them destroyed by his mobs but we always manage to make new ones. Obsidian isn't that hard to make once you have the materials to make it. It just can be tedious to mine, since only diamond cuts through it. We have two open now and we constantly have our Scouts and Trackers going through. If we can bring our troops to get us through the front gate then we have our chance. Getting through the front is probably going to be a challenge but I believe we can do it!" Steve told her as he began leading her downstairs and eventually to a giant high-ceiling room that had two activated Nether portals and some other ones that were still under construction.

"Do you have some kind of bases there?"

"Well, sort of. The Nether is completely ruled by Herobrine. So its hard to keep a base lasting for too long there. He always has his mobs, especially the Ghasts, destroying our bases and our portals. The Ghasts are a pain, let me tell you. Usually, we are forced to mine underground and make cave networks to keep us from being hit with the fireballs the Ghasts rain down on us." Steve explained and then pointed to the activated Nether portal on the left. "That portal is probably to our safest base, right now. It's underground and hasn't been found out yet by the mobs or my brother. The other one we're a little concerned with because recently Herobrine has learned about it's location and is now constantly sending giant patrol groups to raid our base. I feel bad for all the sentinels we have that are posted there at that base. I don't know how long it'll last."

"That's horrible… but I thought obsidian is basically indestructible." Blue said as they began heading over closer to the safer Nether portal. Steve nodded and paused at the front of the entrance of the portal. He sighed and frowned faintly.

"It is but Herobrine has learned how to deactivate them for good. So the frame of it remains but the actual teleporting magic is usually eliminated for reuse. It's very frustrating. Anyways, I talked to my father Notch and he said he has our unit of troops ready for our surprise attack. They are waiting at our Nether's base for us. After that, its about going all out to save your sister and stop Herobrine for good." Steve said and brought back up a confident smile on his usually positive and upbeat self.

Blue stared worriedly at the portal and began fumbling with her hands that were in front of her, "I'm ready to do this when you are."

Steve suddenly took her hand and squeezed it with sheer confidence radiating from him. Blue looked surprise at him as he grinned at her with closed eyes, "I'm ready too! We can do this, Sapphire! I know we can!" Steve opened his blue eyes back open and quickly set a quick gentle kiss on her cheek, before swiftly running into the portal with her dragged along. All Sapphire could do was blink and blush furiously as she was dragged through the Nether's portal and to the base that was hidden underground.

Destruction was everywhere… buildings were burning, people were screaming for their lives, lifeless bodies littered the streets of the town. Herobrine was covered with blood when he finally went over to face Red questionably.

"Why are you not doing anything?" He questioned her, he looked rather intimidating covered with blood of innocent people. Red stopped staring at the ground and looked back at him with uncertainty.

"It just doesn't seem right…" Red murmured, "Killing wasn't right in my world and it doesn't feel right here either."

Herobrine sighed and put a bloodied hand onto her shoulder. Red slightly cringed at the blood on his hands but he didn't seem to care as he stared at her through narrowed eyes.

"This is all for the glory of our rein. These people need to be punished and slain for US. Don't you want that? These people mean nothing to you. They shouldn't as these people oppose you, mock you, ridicule you! Do you really think they are innocent? They are not. Remember what this is all for, Scarlett. You are not a low-life murderer but a revolutionary for a better future. Doing this is good, don't you understand? You're doing it not JUST for me but for you. Fight for yourself, Scarlett."

Red felt a strange feeling surge through her veins, she noticed they began turning black again. She began shaking and staring at them in fear, "W-what's happening to me!? My veins!"

"Your power wants release, Scarlett. See? Even your own body craves for the bloodshed of these cretins. Give into it, Red. Paint these streets with the color of your namesake."

Clenching her teeth she screamed out in rage as the black energy inside her was practically gushing out of her. She tightly held onto her sword, until her knuckles began turning white from the pressure. Closing her eyes, she tried to make it go away but it was overwhelming her mind. Herobrine watched her and wasn't going to admit that he was the one to evoke such a strong sudden burst of energy inside her. It seemed like it would be the only way to get her to be more agreeable to his request to join him in his massacre.

"Red?" Herobrine spoke her name as he eyed her black veins that were as black as night. Her hands began glowing an ominous black glow that also began radiating from her sword.

Red growled under her breath before snapping her eyes wide open, her eyes faintly showed black before going back to normal. She stood up completely straight and appeared infuriated as she narrowed her brown eyes and furrowed her brows. Holding tightly to her sword, she brought it up and scanned her eyes around the village like a hawk.

Herobrine noticed this change in her and knew that the power had begun heavily influencing her mindset with it's dark corruption. "How do you feel?" He asked her with interest. She growled under her breath and flickered her narrowed eyes at Herobrine and smirked cruelly to him.

"Pretty fucking good actually," She replied with an unusual viciousness in her tone. She then suddenly shot forwards like a bullet past Herobrine and began stalking a group of villagers she had seen hid behind some crates. "Peek-a-boo!" She cackled as they screamed and tried stumbling away from her and away from the crates. Red shook her head and had a crazed look in her eyes. "You can run but you can't hide~!" She said in a sing-song voice and then began laughing hysterically as she chased after them with her sword ready for blood.

Herobrine half smirked, "Perhaps, I released too much of her power too soon… Oh well, she seems to be enjoying it." He tried persuading himself with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Herobrine decided to watch her a bit before going back to his own slaughtering of the village.

Red ran her sword through a woman and began laughing like the 'Wicked Witch of the West' as she fell to the ground, coughing up fresh oozing blood. Red snickered and shook her head, "Too slow! You lose! I win!" Red grinned wickedly and then looked back at the rest of the group, who were caught cornered at a dead end. Red roughly kicked the dead lady on the ground out of her path and began sauntering forward with a wide grin, "Dead end. Guess what that means?"

The people began shaking profusely and were terrified of this new and rather unpleasant version of Little Red. She was terrifying to look at with her veins being black and the black shimmer from her hands were equally menacing. Bringing The Starless Gale forward, she pointed it at them and suddenly blast a beam of dark magic directly at them. They hardly had time to scream when the black magic also envelop them and began violently attacking their insides. All of them began convulsing and choking just like the others, slowly dying on the spot. Herobrine stepped up to Red's side and smirked down at the suffering villagers.

"Well done. Not as bad as you first thought is it?"

"I want more." Red said and looked at Herobrine with her wide crazed eyes. She grabbed onto him and began shaking him, "I need more! I want to hear them scream my name! Where are they?" She uttered in a raised mad tone of voice that hardly sounded like her own. Herobrine frowned and gently pushed her away from him.

"Calm down, Scarlett. You're not quite acting yourself."

"I feel better than I ever have felt! Please, Hero! I want to punish more.. For our rein… For us?"

Herobrine wasn't falling for her attempt at being somewhat flirtatious. It was obvious the dark power was messing with her mind way more than he anticipated and it somewhat irritated him. It was cute when she was shy about doing as he asked here, but now she was a blood-thirsty crazed woman that didn't seem all there in the head. He didn't like that.

"You need to concentrate to tame the energy. You're consuming too much of it."

"But Hero, I'm fine! I'm perfectly fine! NEVER BETTER! I just want to kill these opposers to our rule, like you wanted too! Remember?" Red whined and suddenly clung onto Hero with a tight hug. Herobrine sighed heavily as she nuzzled her face into his bloody light aqua blue shirt. He wrapped his arms around her and she with much gratification reveled in the strong arms of her King.

"I'd prefer to have my Little Red back. I'll remember in the future not to be so giving in letting your energy release so much. I don't want your mind to be depraved to be nothing but a rabid vicious animal."

"I am not!" Red inquired and brought herself back from the hug. Herobrine stared down at her face, where fresh blood was sprinkled all over and gradually drying. "I'm just doing what you asked! Let's kill them all together! PLEASE!? OH PLEASE!?"

"No, we're going back home. Your mind had been too distorted, I'll send some mobs to finish up the rest here. Come here." Herobrine grabbed onto her arm as she glared him and tried pulling away.

"No! I won't! I want to finish what we've started!"

"Little Red, listen to me." He warned, his eyes flashing that look that could make anyone weak at the knees in fright.

"No! I'm not finished!" With that she tore her arm away from Hero and began running speedily away from him to go find some more victims. Herobrine glowered and turned sharply to watch her run off.

"Scarlett, you're really pissing me off." He growled and teleported right in front of her face. She squealed and stumbled backwards at his sudden appearance.

"Go away!" She shouted at him and was about to run the other direction, but Hero grabbed her left arm roughly before she could get away and pulled her back..

"I'm not going anywhere." He threatened darkly. She turned to look back at him with a vicious glare, once again Hero could see her eyes turn black momentarily as she glared at him.

"ME NEITHER." She growled with a low almost animalistic tone. She tried ripping her arm away from him but he wasn't letting go that simply.

"I will force you to leave at this moment." He shot back but was interrupted when an arrow zipped by his face and left a small bleeding cut on the right side of his face, where it had just grazed. Herobrine growled lowly and suddenly harshly shoved Red down onto the ground. Red screamed and fell backwards onto the cobblestone ground below her. She clenched her teeth, closed her eyes, and made an "oomph' noise as her backside hit the rocky hard surface.

Herobrine summoned a fireball in his hand and shot the fireball at the archer that he could see was standing on top of a cobblestone building that was nearby. The fireball with perfect precision hit the archer and lit him on fire. Herobrine turned to look back down at Red, he briefly touched his cheek to feel the cut that was slightly painful when touched. "We're going back NOW." Herobrine reached down and grabbed onto her arm again, she tried struggling with all her strength on the ground to get away from him. Herobrine had quite enough and with a strong tug, he jolted her up to him. She yelped and tried to actually lay a punch onto him, but he caught her punch and then slapped her across the face. "STOP IT!" He hissed but immediately felt guilty for slapping her so hard, but it was the only way to get her to stop struggling for two seconds.

"YOU FUCKING HIT ME!" She cried out but wasn't answered as she was grabbed onto by Hero in a choking bear like hug. She continued to squirm away in his arms, but with just enough of her being held, Herobrine was able to teleport them away from the village and back to his Nether Fortress.

Teleporting back in Herobrine's room, he threw Red onto his bed and glared down at her with wild flaming infuriated eyes. The second she hit the bed, she brought herself into a sitting position and glared back at him, "Why did you hit me!?"

"Because you're acting crazy!" He replied agitatedly. She growled and jumped up from the bed and started throwing pitiful hits onto his chest. He grimaced and finally used his magic to hold her down in her place. She felt herself become paralyzed, the only part of her body that she could move was her head. She tried struggling but she wasn't moving an inch. Herobrine held his hand out at her and shook his head.

"The way you are acting I might have to detain you until your energies calm down. This is ridiculous!"

"Let me go!" She whined but finally came to the conclusion she wasn't going to move an inch. Herobrine lowered his head so his eyes were covered by his hair that swept down.

"I don't want to do this to you but it is only until you calm down." Walking over to her, he teleported with her again but in a much more unfamiliar location. She was back in the torture chambers! Still unable to move, Herobrine picked her up bridal style and began walking her through the aisles of prisoners that were staring with glares or oddly at the two.

"What are you doing!?"

"I'm locking you up in my solitary confinement chambers. I'll make sure to bring things for you to be comfortable, but I can't have you come out until you are back to normal. I will NOT tolerate you assaulting me." Herobrine said sternly as he brought her to an area of the chambers that was deathly quiet, the only sound was the dripping of some water that was nearby.

"You're not actually going to lock me away! I'm a Queen!"

"You are and I hate to do this to you… but I was not expecting for you to act the way you had. It will only be for as long as the black energy lasts within you. Once it calms down, I will retrieve you and rid you of this awful place." Herobrine told her and then set her down to her feet as he began to unlock an iron door. It creaked open as he opened it, looking back to Red. He went over and picked her back up and walked inside.

"You aren't seriously going to leave me in this place are you!? I was just doing what you asked me to do! You said listening to you would be a good thing!" Red shouted at him viciously. Herobrine shook his head and laid her down onto the stiff bed that was in the tiny nether brick room that only had a toilet, sink, and mirror.

"You did and I'm not angry with you because this is not your fault. Once the power within you relinquishes, like I said, I will get you out. For now just relax and concentrate if you can to make it die down." Hero said and stared at her with a frown. Red tried struggling but it was no use, Hero's power was way overbearing. She finally just decided to heavily glare him.

"Don't leave me in here…"

"I must go. I'll be back."

"NO!" She shouted demandingly. "I'LL HATE YOU IF YOU LEAVE ME!"

"I know that is far from the truth. Goodbye Scarlett." Turning away from her, once he was out the doors. He withdrew his paralysis on her and was quick to hear terribly loud banging on the door by Red.

"I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!? I FUCKING HATE YOU SO MUCH!"

Herobrine deeply frowned to himself and hated more than anything to hear her say those words, even though he knew she was only saying it because her mind wasn't in the right place at the moment. Hearing her scream more loud hurtful words and profanities. He finally had enough and teleported away from her cell in the blink of an eye to get away.

Red banged onto the door from behind until her fists were swollen red. She cried out for Herobrine but he never came. She eventually after a couple minutes in pure deafening silence, fell to her knees sobbing her eyes out. Why did he leave her alone? She hates being alone…

"C-Come back…" She murmured painfully and glared down at her black veins as she continued to cry to herself with a tear-stained face.