Chapter 23: Family Matters

After a well-spend nap Red was feeling slightly better but for some reason still questionably was having some slight nausea and cramps. Getting out from under her covers, she rubbed her eyes and looked around her room for a moment. 'Why am I feeling like this? Is it just not enough that I lost Herobrine and Minecraftia, but now I'm back here forever and sick for no damn reason!?" Red thought miserably as she ran her hands down her face. Red sat there at the side of her bed in thought, mainly thinking on Herobrine. It wasn't until something popped into her mind like a flicker of a lightbulb, when she glanced over at her desk table and stared at her laptop. Standing up from her spot on the bed, she rushed over and picked the laptop up and set it on the bed with herself.

"I wonder…" She murmured and opened up the laptop's lid and then went over to login in to the game Minecraft. Clicking on it, she waited for it to load. It opening up, she saw her old world there amongst some other older worlds that she hardly ever played anymore. Feeling a rush of excitement bubble up inside her, she clicked onto her old world where she met Herobrine and waited for it to load open. Unfortunately though, when she did the game only froze and suddenly shut off on her and went back to her main home screen.

"What the hell?" Red murmured and tried to repeat this process about five times, each and every single time it ending up the same. Red frowned and figured that the world she met Herobrine in would, of course, no longer be open to her. Though, even though she couldn't load back into her old world, she created a new one and named it, 'Herobrine's Minecraftia', in his honor, of course. Loading up the game, she found her usual look-a-like character standing there in the middle of a jungle biome and at a lack of anything in her inventory, except her map.

"I don't like the jungle, too confusing to navigate." Red sighed to herself and had her character begin aimlessly exploring forwards through the thick overgrowth of vines, shrubs, and tall jungle trees. Minecraft just didn't feel the same now that she had actually been there. In a way, it only made her dismal since this game she loved so much would always remind her of Herobrine and the relationship that they had. Would they even bother to give him a proper burial? Red's chest clenched at the thought of Herobrine lying dead, alone, and uncared for. Red stared at her screen as her character stopped walking as Red just stared with tears brimming her eyes, blurring her vision. "I'm sorry I didn't do anything to stop them, Hero… I'm so sorry." Red whispered and was so busy mourning to herself, she wasn't aware of the Creeper that came up and exploded behind her character, in the end killing her.

"FUCK." Red growled and wanted to violently slam her fists down onto the laptop's keyboard. "Why does my life have to suck so badly!? I-I just want Hero back… I didn't even get to say goodbye to him!" Red brought her hands to her face and sobbed harder into them as she sat there in front of her game over screen. "Why do I even have to feel like shit?"

"That's a good question." The voice of Blue suddenly spoke up from Red's door frame. Leaning against it, she had her arms crossed and was looking at Red with a skeptical look clearly on her face. Red tried wiping the tears away with her arm quickly before turning to look at her older sister with a frown.

"Wh-what?"

"Scarlett…" Blue started and pulled herself away from the door's frame as she began walking over towards Red and closing the laptop's lid on her. Red's eyes widen briefly as she swiftly glanced from her previous game on Minecraft and back to Blue accusingly.

"Why did you do that!?"

"We need to talk." Blue replied sternly, with an unreadable expression that was close to being emotionless but you could tell she was troubled by something. Red shook her head and glared Big Blue.

"About what? I just want to be left alone. My head is pounding and I'm not in much of a mood to talk." Red retorted snappishly and was unhappy by Blue just wandering on over and closing her laptop on her. Blue narrowed her light blue eyes and shook her head at her sister's nastiness towards her.

"I was sitting there thinking just what possibly could be wrong with you. At first I thought maybe it was just something simple like the cold but now I have other assumptions crossing my mind. I mean, I hope my assumptions are completely wrong but I must ask…" Blue closed her eyes momentarily and took a deep breath of air before speaking back up. "Scarlett did you and Herobrine… Did you two become intimidate with one another? God, please tell me I'm just out of my mind that I even just mentioned that but you have many symptoms that make me concerned, so I must ask." Blue reopened her eyes to look at the blank expression on Red's face that was warming up by each and every second as her eldest sister scrutinized her like an infectious bacteria

"I-I… I don't think that's any of your business…" Red replied awkwardly while her eyes darted nervously away from her sister as she spoke.

"RED!"

"W-what now!?"

Blue rose her hand to her mouth and shook her head with wide disturbed eyes. "You did! You did didn't you!? You slept with that monster!?"

Red glared her sister with some embarrassment and sighed heavily in defeat, "Yeah? Well maybe I did! I'm a big girl! I can be with who I want to be and make my own decisions! What's it matter, anyways?"

"Red…" Scarlett rubbed her temples and shook her head as she looked to the ground, finding it very difficult to speak with her sister on this matter. Blue with another deep breath, once again spoke up, "Did you at least use protection?"

"I-…" Red turned in her rotating chair to face her sister, trying to recollect every small detail. It depressed her thinking about it but she felt more mortified when she realized that she was much too in the moment to had ever even briefly thought of such a concept. Red's eyes widen and she suddenly began to feel very scared. Bringing her fingers to her mouth, she did everything she could not to look at the look Sapphire was giving her.

"You didn't? Red for God's sake! Damn it!" Blue sharply turned away from Red and began anxiously running her hands through her hair from the stress of the dilemma.

"I forgot, alright!? It was hardly the thing on my mind when he and I were… in the heat of the moment!" Red tried defending herself pitfully as Blue turned back to look at Red with a glower at her irresponsibility on her part.

"You tell me not to intervene in your life but then you do stupid shit like this when I don't! Red, do you know you could possibly be pregnant right now!? You're not on birth control and apparently you didn't JUST sleep with your own sadistic kidnapper, but also didn't decide to take precautions before having sex with him!?"

"Whose to say I'm pregnant! I might just have a cold or something like you said! I'm also depressed as fuck from you forcing me away from the man I love, that you just had to go off and stick your nose in and have him murdered in front of my very eyes! You think you know everything but you don't! Maybe, I'm just heartbroken!"

"Oh please, Red. That's a bunch of bullshit and you know it. I went out and bought you a pregnancy test while you were sleeping. I want you to take it and see just what you might have gotten yourself into." Blue started rummaging through her jean pockets before pulling out the pregnancy stick and handing it over to her little sister. "Take it."

Red glared up at her sister from where she was sitting before roughly snatching the test from her hands. "Fine, I will and I'll prove to you that I'm not pregnant! I'm just emotionally sick is all!" Standing up from her chair, she stormed past her sister and went over to the bathroom. Blue crossed her arms again and glared down at the ground with a scoff.

"Red… what have you done?" She murmured to herself in worry and glanced up as the bathroom door was slammed behind angrily by Little Red.

"WHERE IS SHE?" The loud thunderous voice of the lone man from before in the Nether yelled at a trembling skeleton minion in front of him.

"W-we don't know, your highness. Nobody can find her!" A high raspy voice nervously replied back to the furious monarch, whose white eyes almost appeared to be flaming with the intensity of the very sun itself.

"What do you mean you don't know!? She's not with Notch and his band of blind fools? She must be if she is not in the Nether!"

"I'm sorry, King Herobrine. My informants are not bringing back anything useful. Nobody can get close enough to see if she is being incarnated by Notch and his men. If she is anywhere, she was mostly likely taken. We do have reports of some of our men watching her being seized by your brother and the Queen's older sister."

"DAMN THEM!" Herobrine was about to strike the skeleton in front of him that quivered and shuttered under the intense gaze of his still alive King. Herobrine instead, took his fist and with a flash of white magic, he slammed his fist into the cobblestone wall of the hidden hideout that Herobrine had in the Overworld for emergencies like this. The wall crumbled intensely from his inflection on it, leaving a rather unsightly large hole there in it's place. "I will smite every single pitiful life in my path myself in Notch's miserable little kingdom, if it is what it takes to get Scarlett back to me! Yet, all of you are too incompetent to even tell me if she is there or not!" Tightening his fists at his sides, he began pacing back and forth like a predatory lion prowling back and forth.

"It is likely she is but we are not certain." The skeleton inquired sheepishly as Herobrine kept glaring him on with those intimidating eyes of his.

"Neither am I! I don't feel her presence anywhere. No matter how much I try to hone in on it. Notch can not possibly have magic that could prevent me from finding her location. It's absolutely impossible with the black magic's connection between us... Unless…" Herobrine paused in his pace across the floor and his eyes widen at a sudden realization.

"Unless what, your majesty?" The skeleton asked curiously though still sounding fearful as he spoke him.

Herobrine shook his head and began to lift up his head slightly as he made a dry humorless laugh, "Unless those imbeciles sent her back to her world! Yes, that would make much more sense and make things for me so much less complicated. Her brat sister was all so anxious to take her back 'home' and try and pretend that things would just so simply go back to the way they were. How incredibly shallow of her. This will work for me." Herobrine chuckled again but winced at his wounds from doing so, that were now cleaned and bandaged under his usual light aqua shirt.

"Are you alright, my highness!?"

Herobrine growled deeply under his breath and leered furiously at the skeleton that shook like a cowering puppy as it shrunk away from it's King. "Of course, I'm alright! Did they honestly think THIS would be enough to stop me?! So they may have hindered me when I was unsuspecting but now they will know nothing but pain far worse than this for what they have done! My dearest little brother will beg for death when I come for him, and if I see Scarlett's sister, Blue… I will not kill her, only for my Scarlett's sake… But I will make her life miserable, she will regret ever meddling in affairs in which she has no power over. I'll show all of them!" Herobrine yelled out while trying his best to ignore the shooting pains that went throughout his entire body but his sheer willpower to fight and receive vengeance was laid heavily on his soul and mind. Herobrine was about to exit out of the hidden base that was deeply underground and connected to a mineshaft, until another skeleton came running in with urgency.

"Your Majesty! I have not so good news! Notch and his men have the black opal portal's location completely guarded by the Rebels. They are planning on destroying the portal for good!"

Herobrine stared blankly at the messenger skeleton and scoffed at his announcement to him. Herobrine staring holes into the skeleton, he smirked and shook his head. "Idiots… You can't destroy a black opal portal that has already been sealed and activated. They'll only be wasting their time. This will only be an annoyance to me as I must reach the portal to bring my Queen back to me. I'll just have to pay the guards a visit and give them all a 'friendly' welcome. I'll even leave one alive to go back and inform Notch and Steve that they cannot kill a god king such as I! I would kill to see their faces once they find out." Herobrine said and with a flick of his wrist, he summoned out his infamous diamond sword in a flash of light. Brushing past the messenger skeleton with a face of vengeance, he was about to walk out the door of the miniature base.

"But what about your wounds, your highness? You are in no condition to fight!" The skeleton that he was talking to before brought up in concern. Herobrine merely chuckled again and shook his head with a wicked smirk pulling up on his lips.

"I was born in condition to fight. These wounds are nothing compared to the ones I will unleash amongst the sorry Rebels that will feel my wrath today." Herobrine opened the wooden doors to the outside where there was a long cave that led into the mineshaft outside. His minions of that base could only watch nervously as he took one step out of the doorway and teleported away in seconds.

Red sat there now on the floor of the bathroom as she stared at the pregnancy test that she had thrown with all her might against the bathroom wall the second she looked at it. It laid motionlessly on the tile ground in front of her with the '+' sign inquiring what she had never thought could even happen to her. She didn't cry as she felt like she had exhausted all of her tears for the day. She just blankly stared at the test on the ground with a million thoughts blazing through her mind. She was going to be a mother? All because she had lost her mind for only their one moment of pure bliss together? She stayed silent and wasn't aware of the soft knocking on the door.

"Red? Are you okay in there?" Blue asked with a softer tone. Red was completely zoned out and didn't reply nor did she bother to look up as Blue began slowly opening the door open to peek inside. "Red?" she questioned with worry in her eyes.

"It was just one time… I never thought I… that I…-" Red paused shuddering and shook her head. Her wide brown scared eyes looked up to her big sister in fear. "What do I do? I-I don't know what to do!"

Blue glanced down at the pregnancy test that was positive for pregnancy and then back at her sister. "You will have a child…" Blue murmured and then sat down in front of Red on the ground, next to the pregnancy test. "You will have his child… I condemn what you did with that monster but… You must have the child. The child is innocent to what has been done, whether it is his or not."

"Have Herobrine's child?! Herobrine who is dead because of you! My child will be fatherless!" Red hissed viciously and finally felt herself sniffling as she began crying again. Blue flinched at that painful accusation and shook her head with a frown.

"Red, you should know it had to be done. It won't matter though because you have me. I will do whatever I can to take care of you and the child. We can raise him or her together. We can do this."

"That's not okay, Sapphire! Why does this bullshit keep happening to me!?" Red wailed out in sobs and began loudly crying in her hands on the ground. Blue sighed heavily and glanced at the test before gently placing her hands onto Red's shoulders as she sobbed out in heart-wrenching cries of fear.

"Stop feeling bad for yourself! What has been done has been done! Your thoughtless actions are the cause of this and now that this has happened you MUST take a stand and have some responsibility, Scarlett! A child is a serious commitment."

"W-what if I don't want to have a child!?" Red murmured into her hands while Blue scowled and rolled her eyes.

"Well, then maybe you should have thought about that before screwing Herobrine, Red! For God's sake your own murderous kidnapper… This is ridiculous." Shaking her head, she pulled back her hands and sighed again in frustration.

"Don't fucking treat me like a whore, Blue! He was my very first and certainly my last! I-I just don't want to have a child without a father! I-I'm not ready for this! I want Herobrine back! Its not fair! It's just not fucking fair!" Red sobbing again, Blue could only watch her with a frown.

"Crying is not going to get rid of the baby. You do tend on keeping it right?"

Red paused in her sobs to take her hands off her red swollen eyes from crying so much, "I'm not abandoning my child! Not like mom and dad! I'm better than them! I-I'll be the best fucking mother there ever was! I'm not backing out! Even though I'm scared to death and don't know one single thing about being a parent… A single one at that…" Red stared at the pregnancy test and began to think of Herobrine and how much she wished he was still here with her, to help her take care of their child.

Blue looked down sadly at the mention of their own neglect from their own parents that they only knew for a short time when they were little, until being thrown out into an orphanage and tossed around multiple times into different families until they were old enough to fend for themselves. Closing her eyes, she sighed softly, "Red, you aren't alone. I promise you with everything that I am, that I will be here for you and the child. I am proud of you that you are not backing out of this and not reenacting what our mother and father had done to us. I believe you will be a great mother. Although, I highly disapprove of this happening and with a man I hate none the less… I still care for the child and you. I love you, Red. I would do anything for you… I know you don't always approve of the way I do things but I do all these things in your best interest because I love you dearly." Reopening her eyes, she stared at Red who was looking back at her with unreadable eyes.

"I love you too Sapphire, I do… but I can never forgive you for what you did to Herobrine. He became my everything and you took that away because you were jealous of him. Jealous of him having me all to himself."

Sapphire's eyes narrowed darkly at that as she shook her head, "I am not jealous, Red. I am only looking out for you! He was a cold-blooded killer that was hurting and tormenting everyone around him! I'm sorry it had to be the one you claim to have fallen for, but you just must learn to let go. I let go when I didn't want too! Ya know?" Blue spoke hurtfully as her mind diverted over to the goofy smiling face of Steve. She too felt tears overflowing and softly cascading down her pale face. "I didn't want to leave Minecraftia either. I doubt you would believe me, but I did feel something for Steve. Yet, I know my duty as your older sister who is my flesh and blood, who is much more important to me than some sweet guy that I just so happened to meet."

"I knew it… Yet, you can go on and know that he's alive and well in his world. I get to live here knowing that I am considered an enemy to everyone in Minecraftia and worst of all Herobrine will never be thinking of me at the same time as me because he's gone. If you truly knew how to let go, Blue. You would have let me go but you didn't. Now I'm pregnant and without a Father… What am I going to tell the kid? That your aunt murdered your father, oh but don't worry! She's going to care for you and everything will be hunky-dory!"

"I didn't let go of you because that man didn't deserve you! If you would have just listened to me you wouldn't be pregnant and fatherless in the first place! But you never listen to me, even when you know I'm right-"

"No, Sapphire! You're wrong this time! I might have always gone and been your personal yes-man in the past but this time is different! I'm taking a stand and taking responsibility and making my own decisions, whether you agree to them or not. I'm not condemning myself for anything that I have done. It is my fault for having sex without protection and I will deal with the consequences with an open-mind. I will be a good mother, the best one I can be!. That much I promise to my child more than anything." Red said and gently placed her hand onto her stomach where her baby was growing inside. Smiling sadly, she stood up from the ground with Sapphire following behind as they walked out of the bathroom together.

Scarlett went over and sat down on the bed as Sapphire eyed her with a serious but sorrowful look, "I hope you are a good mother, Scarlett. I'm sorry I'm such a terrible person to you for caring about you with all my heart."

"Don't be sorry for caring about me… be sorry for not caring about who I care for." Red stared down at her stomach as she spoke bluntly. Sapphire glanced off to the side in frustration at her unsatisfactory choice in words and finally sighed in defeat.

"I need some time to think… I'm sure you do too. Also one more thing… Stay off Minecraft. We're done with that world. We belong here." Blue sent a look over at the laptop and then at Red who looked up to see her sister turning away and wandering over to take her leave. Red frowned and watched her open the door before going through it and closing it softly behind her. Red stared at the door in silence before looking back down at her stomach that now held a forming child of her and Herobrine's inside.

"I wish I could tell your father about you. I'm sure he would love you… as I already do…" Red sighed softly and then stared at her laptop before going back into another crying fit on her bed. She missed Herobrine more than ever now. At least, she now had a part of him with her.. or rather inside her. She swore on her life she would make this child's life a happy, successful, and fulfilled one, even without Herobrine at her side.

Herobrine stood off in the distance where he used to watch Red come and go from her little brick home she had made. He stayed cloaked among the trees and watched as Rebel sentinels were absolutely swarming the area at every direction. Notch had certainly put up a lot of guards for possibly believing someone like him was dead. Then again, he would think Notch wouldn't be as stupid as to actually believe he was out of the picture for good. Herobrine holding onto his sword, he tightened his grip on it and thought hard on Scarlett.

"I'll get you back, Scarlett. I promise." He murmured to himself and glared off at the guards hatefully. "You'll all regret taking my Queen from me and to make her go through the pain of the thought of losing me. I hope you all suffer when I'm finished with you." With that said, Herobrine without hesitation shot forward like a bullet and made a giant telepathic surge that trailed forwards and pushed everything out of it's path, including Rebels. Herobrine clashed with his first Rebel and was going crazy with power blazing around him. They wanted to see the true power of Herobrine? Then let him give them a peek and see how fast he can topple all these guards within minutes.

Many objects around Herobrine were floating up in the air and being thrown at other sentinels that were racing towards him and screaming battle cries at him in horror. They thought he was dead, what fools they were. They should have known Herobrine was of godlike quality that matched Notch's power, if not more powerful. Slashing through about five guards already, they dropped like flies. Hero's eyes were blazing brightly like two burning stars in the night sky. With his other hand he concentrated and suddenly summoned a second diamond sword in his hand.

With a wicked cruel smirk, he cackled loudly as he began gracefully racing through the hordes of Rebels and killing each and every single one off with absolute ease.

"How are you alive!? Impossible!" The captain of the group yelled out as he ran ahead and took position in front of the door to the room that had the black opal portal inside.

Herobrine slashing the head off of one of the opposing Rebels that were foolish enough to approach him. The captain shuddered at his evil doings as he sauntered up to him with his bloodied enchanted diamond swords in hands. "Where is your god now? I will punish you and purge you from my land, my Minecraftia." Herobrine paused at an uncomfortably near distance towards the captain. The captain could only look on in horror as the evil magic that Herobrine possessed was tearing through his men without even him interfering personally. His magic was literally blazing like a wide spread white fire around the forest.

"You'll never take Minecraftia, Herobrine! Minecraftia and it's people will always be free and not under your tyranny! All hail King Notch!"

"You'll regret that." Herobrine warned and suddenly teleported right in front of his face. The captain screamed and tried backing away but Herobrine brought his one sword up to his face, the tip of it nearing the middle of his eyes. "Get down on your knees, infidel!"

"N-never!"

"DO IT!" Herobrine commanded loudly and the captain dropped to his knees by force of the telekinesis that Herobrine had and was excessively using on the unsuspecting group of Rebels that never had a chance. The captain tried struggling but stopped when he found it pointless as he could not move. Herobrine brought his sword to his neck, "Now beg your king, for your life. Beg for it!"

"I-I-" Herobrine took his other sword and jabbed the sharp tip of it into his right shoulder with a fiendish smirk crawling onto his lips.

"What was that?" Herobrine questioned mockingly and laughed at the captain's cry of pain from Herobrine's sword that burnt his flesh with it's enchantment.

"I-I won't- I-"

Jabbing into his other shoulder while the man was still on his knees. Herobrine titled his head, "You won't what?"

"… P-Please! S-stop it! Stop it! You're the king! Please just stop!" The captain begged when the pain escalated as Herobrine willed his power to burn him from the insides. The man was in tears and pleading at the top of his lungs for Herobrine to stop.

"Say it. Say all hail Herobrine! King of Minecraftia!"

"STOP THIS!" A voice suddenly shouted from behind. Herobrine paused with his torture on the captain and turned around to see the shorter but similar looking man standing there and with his sword out.

"I-It can't be… It can't be you! We killed you!"

"Well, you did one awful job at that. Now didn't you little brother? You cannot stop me for I am unstoppable." Taking his sword, Steve could only run forward and scream in protest as Herobrine took the sword and slit the throat of the captain, who began gurgling on the blood before falling over on his side and painfully suffering until he died.

"You are mad man! I should have known it wouldn't have been so easy! Stay away from that portal, Hero! Leave those innocent girls alone! They don't even belong here!" Steve yelled and cautiously approached Herobrine closer but not too close that Hero would take action.

"You're only half right. One of them does belong here and she belongs with me. I will be recollecting my Queen back to me and you certainly will not get in my way this time. I admit I was underestimating you and your little shrew but that won't happen again. Now you either leave here or I'll simply just kill you. I'm rather restless to reclaim my Queen so you better choose quickly or I'll choose for you." Herobrine said and watched his twin with anticipation. Steve glanced around at the destruction around him before taking a step forwards.

"You leave those sisters alone. I won't let you go any further, Herobrine."

"You just never learn do you? Fine, I can indeed fulfill your excessive desire to die by my hand." Pointing his swords at Steve, he glared at him hatefully. "I will bring Scarlett back home."

"Not if I have anything to do with it!" Steve then roared out a battle cry and charged forwards. Herobrine smirked arrogantly and waited for his oncoming blow to come. He was ready for their rematch. Unfortunately, for Steve there was no hesitance or mercy left in Herobrine. Herobrine simply wanted fresh blood on his sword, the blood of the one that took his Queen from him and dared oppose him.

"Let's finish what we've started." The two swords clashed against each other, diamond on diamond. The swords were now held into position and the two waged battle as they pushed with all their might on each other's blades to gain control. The sparks of the two rubbing against each other flew. Herobrine smirked as Steve clenched his teeth together and tried to thrust his sword against their deadly hold.

"I'm going to put you down for good, Herobrine! For Minecraftia!" Steve drove forwards but Herobrine parried and shoved forwards and hit his sword against his own.

"Indeed, for Minecraftia! For my soon to be kingdom!" Herobrine replied with a wicked laugh and repeatedly slashed at Steve as the two almost identical brothers began to assault each other to see who would out do the other in a battle to the death.