Chapter 22: Home?

One agonizing day went by as Red stayed in her lonesome cell by herself. It was nothing like the cell she had been put in by Herobrine when she went mad with her power last time. No, this place was dark, dreary, quiet, small, and the worst part of it was the fact she was alone with no one on her side. Herobrine wasn't going to teleport out of nowhere this time and drag her out of the cell and into his comforting arms. Instead, it would probably be one of those asshole guards that have been nothing but nasty towards her. Just being Herobrine's Queen but also the fact she killed Wolfgang and let Ruth die had been the talk of the Rebellion. Each and every single on of them chose to hate her because of it, which she despised them all back just as much.

Her power had tormented her relentlessly the entire night. She would go from going back to her normal self that would sit there and mourn Herobrine and then seconds later she would go back to her darker self that would become outraged and start screaming out profanities and attacking walls and everything around her that was capable of being destroyed. She felt like an abused animal caged at the zoo that would be mercilessly poked and prodded at by the guards every so often with cruel jeers and comments, that were more than enough to break down an already broken hearted person.

"I-I'm sorry Hero… I failed you… I'm such a failure, I don't even have any right to be your Queen…" Red murmured depressingly in the darkness as she looked up to the only light that entered her cell. It came from a very tiny barred rectangular window that barely cast in any light into her little confided dingy cell room. Brining her knees to up to her chin as she sat on basically a hunk of smooth rock, she watched the light with sad eyes, she wished it was the light that gleamed from Herobrine's eyes. Unfortunately, she did not know the fate of Herobrine. It seemed more than sick to think he just died in his own bedroom with much less than one or two strikes. It didn't seem right! It just couldn't be! Hero referred to himself as a god, certainly he for sure had been over-exaggerating quite a bit, but he had to have SOME truth to it! Then again maybe, she was just making up things to make herself feel better. She prayed in her mind that if he was still in the Nether that by some chance he might have still survived, if by any chance.

Red felt her lip quiver and she fell into another silent flood of tears that made her entire body shake and feel sore from crying so much. Never in her life has she ever cried this much in her life. If only, she could get out of this cage and run away to find Hero, of course, it seemed that was only a remaining glimmer of hope and faith that she still had remaining in her heart. It felt like hours had gone by until Red finally heard the sound of boots walking near her. A guard dressed in the highest degree of diamond armor, looked down at her with a stern frown as she pitifully shuttered away and tired to ignore him. Except, this guard wasn't going to leave as he had a duty to carry out. "Scarlett Chandler, traitor of King Notch and Minecraftia. I have been ordered by the King to bring you to him as you will be parting today back to your own world. I request you come with me without putting up a fight. If so, I have been given permission my our majesty to take drastic manners. Will you cooperate or must I take further action?" He said in a authoritative voice that only made Red roll her eyes.

"Go away…" Red murmured tiredly. She didn't want to go back to her stupid old boring life, she wanted to remain here in Minecraftia with Herobrine! Why couldn't these people just get that through their big stubborn thick heads!?

"I will ask you one more time to change your mind. Will you cooperate and come with me? If not I will have no choice but to use force."

"Oh, for fuck sakes, fine! I'll come with you, asshole." Red growled viciously towards the Rebel and stood up from her spot to glower deeply at the overly-serious guard. He didn't seem at all fazed by her colorful vocabulary towards him as he only began opening up the cell door and letting her through. Red gladly walked out of the stinking claustrophobic cell and shot him the dirtiest of looks she could possibly make. "Now what?" She hissed.

"I will be taking you up to the throne room. King Notch will be waiting with Prince Steve and your sister. After that, they will be leading you to the portal you have first arrived in and you will be returned to your world."

"What if I don't want to go back to MY world?"

The guard scoffed as they walked through the halls, "You don't have a choice, traitor."

"Traitor, huh? Is that what I'm considered now? Tch, whatever…" Red scowled and walked with the guard that didn't seem to enjoy talking to her very much unless it was fully necessary for him to do so. Heading into the throne room, Red stopped in the middle of the room next to the guard and crossed her arms as she saw Notch, Steve, and Blue come walking up.

"Red!" Blue called out and came rushing forward to give her sister a hug. Red only glared Blue and backed away as she came close. Blue paused as she noticed she was being rejected by her sister, which made her look immediately uneasy. "Are you feeling better?" She tried asking instead but only got a nasty scoff as a reply. Blue frowned sadly and stepped away, feeling highly rejected by her own little sister that she used to be SO close too. Why was she so mad at her to begin with? She was only doing this for her own good! That devil of a man was only going to destroy her in the end. How could she not see that!? Blue just hoped that when they got home that Red would eventually start to remember how much she loved her own world, her own big sister, and even better yet forget entirely about Herobrine ever meddling around in her life and tricking her into falling in love with him in the first place.

"Good to see you are much more reposed than last time we met." Notch brought up stoically as he inspected Red who was only continuing to glare the three in front of her in silence.

"We're going home today, Red. Aren't you happy?" Blue questioned with a pleading look in her icy blue eyes. Red shook her head and scoffed for what felt like the trillionth time already from just this morning.

"I'm far from happy. Let's put it to that." Red retorted to Blue with a rolling of her brown eyes. Blue shrunk back at her answer and sighed wistfully. Steve noticed this and pat Blue on the shoulder with his own sad look. He didn't like the fact that he was probably never going to see Blue again after this day. It actually had depressed him the entire night he was fighting back tears the whole night. It seemed everyone had trouble sleeping that night…

"Well, happy or not. You will be returning back to your world. If you weren't from your world, understand, we would have you executed for the crimes you have committed… but because of the circumstances, I am generously allowing you to go free and go back home. But understand this, Scarlett. You are never allowed to come back to Minecraftia, as I must banish you forever for the sake of my people. It is nothing personal but for what you have done it must come to this." Notch stated with an authoritative voice that felt very much like he was talking down to her like a child.

Red simply glared him and shook her head at him in disbelief, "You're banishing me, huh? Didn't stop me from coming to this world, anyway! Rules are just words and that won't be enough to hold me back." Red spat out venomously to Notch, who sighed and shook his head at her usual cruel words to him.

"We'll see about that. Once you leave here, my troops and I fully intend on destroying the illegal black opal portal for good. All connections you have with this world and the portal will be eliminated and this will even give you much more of a chance to purge that black energy from your system."

Red frowned at this and was feeling worried. If they did destroy that portal there would absolutely be no chance of getting back to Minecraftia. It was the only passage from her world to here. If Herobrine was still alive somehow, he couldn't get to her anyway because of the portal being destroyed and there being no connection. Red felt sick to her stomach as Notch turned to look at Steve and Blue more calmly.

"When you are ready Sapphire, we will lead you through one of our transit portals to where the black opal portal is located and you may go home. Are you ready?" Notch questioned with a faint smile. Blue glanced at Steve's apparent depressed expression. He really didn't want her to leave, it seemed so sudden, too fast.

Blue sighed wistfully and with a determined nod to Notch, she replied, "Yes, I am…. I just want to say thank you too for all that you, Steve, and the rest of the Rebellion have done for me and my sister. I hope that everything here from here on out goes well for Minecraftia, now that Herobrine is no longer a threat." Blue said with a gracious smile towards the black bearded king. Notch smiled more and went over and pat Blue on her shoulder.

"I am more than happy I could help. I should be the one thanking you for going with Steve to do what you have. Because of you and Steve's bravery, Minecraftia will certainly have a better future for sure. So I pray that everything also goes just as well for you when you return home, Big Blue. You will be remembered and honored here for your valor to stand off to Herobrine… Now off with you, I'm sure your anxious to return home. It truly was a pleasure meeting you." Notch grinned and with one last pat he stepped back and glanced at his younger son, Steve, who looked far from thrilled at this occasion. "Steve, I want you to take Blue and Red back to the portal. If you could." Notch said and Steve nodded glumly.

"Yes sir." He replied and looked at Blue with a faint sad smile. "Ready?"

She nodded and glanced over at Red who was staring off into the distance with an even more depressing expression than Steve. She must be pouting over Herobrine again, Blue hoped she would be able to just get over that white-eyed devil at some point.

"Goodbye Sapphire… and Scarlett." Notch waved at them. Sapphire waved back and then began walking beside Steve towards the exit and to where the golden transit portal would be located. Scarlett watched them for a moment without moving and then glanced at Notch with a deep heartbroken frown.

"I hope you forever regret what you have done, Notch. You're one heartless bastard to kill off your own son." Red scoffed at the King and sharply turned away from Notch and finally began following behind Steve and her older sister.

Notch sighed heavily and looked down to the ground, "If only you knew the whole story…" Notch muttered with the shake of his head and thought hard on his son when he was a younger Herobrine, before he turned to his evil ways.

Steve, Scarlett, and Sapphire traveled through the golden transit portal and ended up in front of Red's old brick house she had been making before all this happened. Scarlett stared at the brick house with a sad recollection of when she was with Hero and was dumb enough to think he was just some silly role-player that took the Herobrine charade too seriously. As much as it was supposed to be a deception on her part, all she could do was laugh at it now. It was too bad she was too depressed to laugh, it felt like her whole world was crashing down around her at the moment. Once, she went through that portal, it was game over. She'd be back in her uninteresting life without Herobrine. Now that she was in love with the man, it seemed like an almost impossible concept for her to go on without him.

"The black opal portal is in this building." Steve brought up and began leading the two primary color oriented sisters into the other brick building. Stepping inside, Red felt another pang of hurt go through her body at the sight of the familiar and beautifully colored portal. How she wished she could just run off from here and somehow find Herobrine alive and well and ready to avenge the idiots that dared thought him dead.

"I guess this is it then…" Steve suddenly spoke as he stared at the portal with sadness.

"It seems so." Blue nodded and turned to look at Steve. He too turned to look at her with a sad smile appearing on his face.

"I suppose this is a goodbye then… I uhm… I thank you for being with me this whole time and you've been a great- … friend…" Steve obviously was having a difficult time letting go. Blue didn't get the chance to say anything as Steve suddenly rushed forward and brought Blue into a tight affectionate embrace. Red glared the two and stormed past them and closer to the portal.

"What are we waiting for!? Don't we need to RUSH back to our all so WONDERFUL life back in our world!? Come on, Blue! See ya' Steve! Have a BRILLIANT life! Nice knowing ya! COME ON! I'm just SOOO excited to go back home!" Scarlett spoke obnoxiously loud and extremely sarcastically, trying her very best to break up the all so tender and 'meaningful' moment between the two. If she didn't get a tender meaningful moment with Herobrine, than Blue certainly didn't deserve her own special 'moment' either.

The two 'friends' as they called themselves let go and were blushing but still looking sorrowful from having to leave each other. "Goodbye Sapphire…" Steve murmured as he stared Blue in the eyes. Blue nodded just as sad looking.

"Goodbye Steve… and thank you." Sapphire then turned to look over at Scarlett with a troubled expression, "Let's go, Little Red."

Red glanced down at the ground and without another word or one glance back, she walked through the portal with Sapphire following behind. Steve could only watched with a tremendous sick feeling dwelling inside his heart as the two Chandler sisters disappeared before his very eyes through the portal's entrance.

Steve stared for a long prolonged amount of time, silently warm tears slide down his face as he thought of the reality that he would never see Blue again. "Please, take care... Sapphire…" Hanging his head, he stared down at the wooden floor with his blurring vision and continued to quietly cry to himself at the loss of the pastel blue-haired woman he accidentally came to really care for through their journey together in Minecraftia.

Scarlett and Sapphire once stepping out of the portal found themselves standing in the middle of they're living room, next to Red's laptop. The two sisters were deathly quiet as they both looked around blankly at their familiar surroundings. Blue was the first one to speak up as she turned from looking around to stare at Red, who was being unnaturally quiet. "We're home…" She stated simply. Red's eyes briefly glanced at her sister as she merely nodded in reply.

"… Yeah." She replied quietly and then began walking towards the stairs that led up to her room.

"Where are you going?" Sapphire questioned with a look of concern reaching her face. Red paused at the first steps of the staircase and shrugged her shoulders.

"To my room…" She answered bluntly and then began making her ways up the stairs quickly. Blue stood there watching her sister climb up the stairs with a look that could only be described as a look of a person who had been physically and mentally broken inside and out. Blue had never seen her sister look so pessimistic before, it was painful to witness from her usually upbeat and fiery personality. Hearing a loud slam of a door, Sapphire could faintly hear the pained crying wails of her little sister in her bedroom. Blue frowned and rubbed her arm across her eyes to brush away the forming tears in her eyes. She just wished she could go up there and give her sister the biggest hug and tell her it was going to be okay. That they both could get through this, that no man in this world or another could separate the two of them. Yet, Sapphire wasn't so sure that Red really wanted to be with her anymore and that pained her more than losing out on ever seeing Steve again.

"I'm sorry, Red. I just want you to be safe and happy. That's all…" Blue feeling almost just as heartbroken as Red, she headed up the stairs and through a small hallway past Red's room that led to her own bedroom. Opening the door, she quietly closed it and went over to her bed and sat down. She stared blankly ahead of herself for a moment, before burying her face into her hands while doubled over on the bed. She did the only thing her body wanted her to do as she gave in finally to all the stress and burden she was being subjected with and finally just broke down into choking tears. "I'm sorry, Red. I love you so much. Please, don't hate me… I just want my little sister back." Sapphire cried into her hands and continued to do so for the rest of the night.

On the other end, the second Red had slammed her door closed. She ran over to her bed and threw herself down onto it and began sobbing so hard that her whole body began to hurt. She didn't care though as she felt sad but at the same time empty. She took a pillow from her bed and cried into it for hours until her body could physically not bear the pain anymore and put her to sleep. The whole night she had nightmares of Herobrine standing there in the distance in a black void. She would keep running to him with her hand out to him, screaming his name. Yet, no matter how far or fast she ran, he always seemed to become more distant and farther away. She could hear his voice distinctly calling out to her in his beautiful rich voice that spoke her name with so much passion, love, and most of all desperation. She remembered in her nightmare when he finally became so far out away from her, the darkness around her eventually began closing in on her. It wasn't until she was left falling to her knees and screaming at the top of her lungs in agony as she extended her hand out to where she had last seen him.

"HEROBRINE!"

Yet, when she called out his name, he never came. She was utterly alone and left with nothing but the darkness that dwelled around her and most of all inside.

A week went by and Red and Blue barely spoke one word to each other, or at least Red barely spoke a word to Blue. Sapphire kept trying to do everything in her power to bring back the Little Red she once knew. She did everything from buying her favorite foods, to gifting her with her favorite things, and spending as much time with her as Red would allow her. Big Blue felt like she had done everything she could possibly think of to try and bring out that spit-fire bustling personality that she knew HAD to be still inside Red somewhere. Yet, whenever she tried, Red would only look emotionless and stay completely silent, every so often she might give her a blunt monotonous reply but that was about it.

The two sisters were currently sitting at the dining table in the kitchen and eating breakfast that Blue had cooked special for Red. She had made delicious homemade pancakes with happy-faces made out of whip cream. Red didn't even seem to notice though as she would only sit there with her fork and glumly stab repeatedly at the pancake with a blank expression.

Blue taking a bite of her pancake and setting her fork to the side, she stared at her sister. "Red…"

"What?" She murmured uninterestedly while not even once glancing up to look up into her sister's eyes. Blue frowned and tried to think of a way to cheer Red up.

"Wanna have a horror movie marathon today? I know how much you love horror movies!" Blue exclaimed with a grin and playful wink. Red merely shrugged and also took another absent-minded stab into her defenseless smiling pancake.

"I don't feel like it."

"Oh come on… I'll even watch Sharknado or something. I know how much you love those silly animal killer movies. Or maybe we could watch a comedy or something. I'm sure there is something on Netflix we would both like!" Blue offered while trying to sound positive and upbeat but Red still wasn't reacting the way she was wishing for her to act.

"I'm not feeling good. I don't want too…" She replied again in that painfully emotionless voice. Blue could only watch as she set her fork to the side and stood up to trash her barely touched pancake into the trash bin, before walking off without another word. Blue sighed heavily and ran a hand through her long hair in frustration.

"Red… Just forget him already…" Blue grumbled quietly and began to feel depressed herself because of her sister's dreadful attitude as of the past week.

Red closing the door behind her as she went back into her room, she honestly was feeling horrible and not just in the sense of missing Herobrine. Rushing to her bathroom that was connected to her room, she kneeled down next to the toilet and became nauseous as she threw up into the toilet. Tears pricked at the side of her brown eyes as she sat there crying over feeling sick and at the same time feeling lost without Herobrine. "Why can't things just work out for once!?" Red sobbed and ended up heaving into the toilet again. Sobbing pitifully on the white tiled ground, she brought her hands to her face as she cried beside the toilet. "I hate my life…" She mourned and cursed profusely in her mind as she felt a headache also coming on.

The soft knocks on the door by Blue could be heard and all Red could do was cry as she yelled at Blue, "Go away!"

"Red, what's wrong? Can I please come in?" Blue called out worriedly from the other side of the door. Red continued to sob as she shook her head.

"J-just go away!"

Blue stood at the door and frowned, without the permission, she opened the door, anyways. Stepping through, she scanned her eyes across the bedroom until she noticed the bathroom door was cracked open and pained sobs could be heard from inside. "Red?" she said again and headed over to slowly open the door up to see her little sister on the ground, doubled over in pain.

"I-I said g-go away!" She cried but Blue wasn't going to listen. With an overly-concerned look, she kneeled down to her sister and set her hand to her forehead.

"You're not burning up…" She murmured and gently ran a hand through her short red hair. Scarlett trembled in pain and felt like she needed to dry-heave into the toilet. Why was she feeling so sick all of a sudden!? Sapphire furrowed her brows and tried to think of what possibly could be ailing her sister. "What are your symptoms?" She asked with a more serious tone of voice. Red shuttered away from her sister and ended up dry-heaving into the toilet like she felt like she was going to do.

"I-I feel really nauseous and t-tired… Plus, I have a really bad headache coming on."

Blue wanted to chalk it up to being just a cold but she wasn't so sure. "You've probably have gotten yourself so worked up, you have gotten yourself sick. Let's get you to bed and I'll bring a trash-bin over, okay?" She said and carefully began helping her sister off the cold tile of the ground. Having her arm wrapped around her, she walked out of the bathroom and to the side of her bed. Red complied to getting in as Blue tucked her in with a sad expression.

"Hold on a second, okay?" Setting a kiss on her forehead, Blue headed out of her room to go get the trash-bin that was in the kitchen downstairs. Red's lip quivered as she laid there feeling ill in every way. Yet, even during this time of illness her mind wouldn't leave Herobrine. This whole week she couldn't stop thinking of him and also having nightmares with him in it. Red thought long and hard on why she would be feeling this way. It never really occurred to her what it actually was as Blue walked back inside.

Placing the trash-bin at her side of the bed, she stood there with her hands on her hips as she looked down at her queasy sister. "Just relax for awhile… I'll also get you some ice for your headache. Just try and calm down and think of something nice, all right? I love you, Red." Blue genuinely told her sister in a soothing voice. Red glanced away from her sister's eyes and took a short time to reply.

"… I love you too." She murmured very quietly.

Blue made a another smile at that and glanced over at her door. "I'll be right back again. Just stay put for a moment. I'll take care of you, Red. I promise." With that Blue began heading out of her bedroom and to once again, went back down stairs to get an icepack for her sister's throbbing headache. Red hid her head under the warm covers of her bed and continued to cry to herself until Big Blue came back to try and nurse her back to health from this all so sudden illness.

Far from where they were, vast destruction laid waste everywhere amongst the bloodied corpses of dead soldiers that laid sprawled across the wide giant bridge. Scorching hot fire was more evident than it usually was as it was blazing around in every direction on the flammable surroundings of netherack. The distinct sound of footsteps on nether brick stone sounded, step by step, as a single man walked amongst the dead corpses that he had smitten by his sword and magic alone. Stepping over the occasional corpse of a fallen, he didn't even cast a single glance down as he quietly walked forwards. Everything around him was dead from monster to soldier alone. At the end of the nether brick bridge, the lone man paused and stared off into the distance through the wild blazes of fire and brimstone that surrounded him and the fallen.

Glancing down with a dark expression at his freshly bloodied diamond sword, he growled under his breath in a deep low rumble like rolling thunder. He began gradually trekking in a certain direction, a direction that only he knew lead to a secret Nether portal within one of the millions of caves that covered the hellish burning landscape.

Glaring with eyes like the flames around him, he walked without one stumble or step of hesitation. The lone man like a prowling wolf in the night, felt nothing but the pang of vengeance in his heart. Traveling through the very dark and ominous tunnel of a single netherack cave, he stood in front of an obsidian portal that glowed a dim purple light, that was the only light that filled the small cave.

Stopping at the very entrance of the portal, the lone man stood and gazed at the portal with a hard look. Making his sword disappear into a flash of light. The man stared at the portal for a long time, before he began chuckling lowly to himself and with a wide unnaturally sharp-toothed smirk tugging up on his fiendish lips. The man stepped inside the portal and began to chuckle with a wicked undertone.

"It's not over… Not even close…. All hail the King and god of the new world! All hail to me!" With a loud wicked villainous cackle, the dark violet portal made a humming noise before whisking the lone bloody man away at the blink of an eye.