The song for this chapter is: Stupid in Love by Rihanna.

I had always known Ant as the master of Hunger Games. All of the time he sneaked around, looking for victims to pounce on. He was one of the only players that could defeat me. We were enemies during gameplay, but best friends when it came to other things.

When I saw him in the former Enderdragon camp, it was a relief. I thought he was dead. It seemed to be the same incident as Mitch.

"Ant?" I carefully crept up closer to the dimmed figure.

"Jordan? Is that you?" a voice asked. This was Ant.

"Yeah."

"Oh my Notch! I've finally found you! Literally been looking for what… two months?! And Mitch! Jerome! Ryan! Nice to see you! I missed you guys!" He came closer to reveal himself. Ant wore all black and his usually straight and flat black hair was abnormally curly.

"You and Jason got killed. How is it possible?" Mitch told Ant.

"We didn't. You may have seen duplicates."

"Huh?"

"See, no one truly died. The ones who were supposedly killed were actually caught by the squids and replaced by mannequins. There were others who were truly thought dead, like Mitch."

"You got caught by the squids?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. There were these cells. I got put with Jason, Kermit, Noah, Seto, Dawn, and a lot of others who I didn't recognize. Everyone else was scattered throughout the rest of the prisons."

"What happened? How'd you get out?"

"The squids figured out that there was someone who escaped, so they tried to relocate us…"

I remembered iEcho's story, "I know. I know who escaped."

"How?"

"She is with Mat, Ian, and Preston. Her name is iEcho and she was the one who escaped from that cell. She left without knowing what happened to her cellmates, thinking that all of you were going to get killed."

"No… they didn't want to kill us yet. They wanted to use us as bait for if they needed information from Sky. In an attempt to transfer us, the squids failed miserably, letting us leave the squid dimension and reenter our own dimension. I rushed by myself, leaving Jason and the others. I wonder if they ever made it out."

"Well, let's hope so. We've actually on the hunt for other recruits, so I'm glad we found you."

"Good thing."

"Let's look for more people, and maybe I can win the HUNGER GAMES!" Jerome screamed out yet again.

"Dood," Mitch motioned for Jerome to lower his voice level, "Not so loud."

"Okay. Sorry, Benj."

Beatrice POV

I spun around to see the 25 year old man with tan skin, blue hair, green eyes under dim sunglasses, and a gray outfit. I could barely make out the scar going down his right eye.

"Ray?! What… what… how?"

"He finally let me go. As long as I brought you back."

"But… You always come with a but."

"But… I'm not going back. I don't listen to anyone's orders anymore."

"I should find my friends again. They have to know about this."

"I've gotta mention this… he also wants the boy by the name of CaptainSparklez."

"Obviously." I stashed a diamond sword in my sword-buckle and led Ray outside, "CaptainSparklez, or Jordan, is one of my friends. If he doesn't know that Herobrine is back and after him, then he's screwed."

"I think he wants to use you as bait."

"Why?"

"Since you're such good friends with him, you can lead his group to the Nether."

"That would be a position for those such as Sierra or Sky. Not me."

"Don't you miss mother?"

"Yeah. Please don't talk about it."

"Sometime we have to."

"Okay," I annoyingly shot a glare at him, "Go on."

"There are some things that I didn't tell you about… about mother."

"Such as…?"

"She was murdered."

"What? You told me that she suffered from cancer."

"No. She was killed… by father."

"I can't believe it."

"You should. He hated her. This led to us working like slaves just to get a crumb of bread. Herobrine had no reason to marry but he wanted to produce children to do the dirty work for him."

"He was a jerk."

"Don't say that out loud. He's always watching you."

Responding to his comment with a different concept, I asked, "What about Void?"

He seemed confused. "What about her?"

"Where is she?"

"With him," he sighed.

"Oh." I paused for a moment, "And Ty?"

"Ty… our brother Ty?"

"Yeah."

"Isn't he with the Sky Army?"

My mouth gaped open. This was the same Ty that ran into battle with the rest of the Sky Army recruits. I had not recognized him because I hadn't seen him in years, "Yes. He is."

"Oh, yeah, that's right. Herobrine wants all of his four children. He only let me have a freebie because I made a deal with him. Is that gonna work out though? No damn way."

"So me, you, Ty, and Void?"

Ray nodded.

"I'm not going back to that place. If you want to join me, I'll be on my way to the Sky Army HQ."

"No worries. I'm coming." He grinned and took off his sunglasses. His scar was more visible.

"I remember when he did that to you," I mentioned, "You asked for a day of freedom. He scratched you with his own hand. Didn't even let the zombie pig men touch you."

"I know." Ray glanced down at his feet for a split second but then lifted up his head, "I'll lead you to the HQ. After being a spy for twenty-five years, I know my way around this area."

"Alright." He led me into the massive trees, glooming down upon us. The sky became grayer and mistier as we advanced more into the woods. I realized that I had just left the Illusionists with no leader. No one to lead them in case of attack. I hoped that someone would eventually take over, most likely my successor.

No matter what I said, fought, or defended, Herobrine was there. He was always there.