In my defense, it hasn't yet been three months...

"I wonder what he's doing now," GrailMore murmured, looking closely at Ant's eyes trying to gauge to gauge his reaction. He looked up, his brown eyes meeting her gaze, and she was shocked by the fear and worry in his eyes. The purple-clad girl hugged Ant and kissed him softly. "Don't worry, CaptainSparklez is strong. He can take care of himself." Ant nodded, only slightly comforted by her words and actions. "Let's get up. We shouldn't spend the entire day in bed, right?" Grail said, hoping she could think of something to lift the somber mood.

"Yes, that's a g-" Ant stopped, his words caught in his throat as his amulet started glowing. "Sparklez?!" He whispered with a hint of desperation in his voice as he stared at the empty air in front of him.

"Uh, AntVenom, Sparky isn't there," Grail said slowly, her bright eyes wide with worry.

"No, he's right here!" Ant smiled widely for what had to be the first time in weeks. "Sparklez, it's good to see you!"

"You too," said the disembodied voice of the Nether Prince, "but to alleviate GrailMore's confusion, I am only visible to your eyes. That being said, you can both hear me. Grail, if you would like to see me, you can touch AntVenom's amulet and I should be visible to you as well."

"Okay," the purple-haired girl said hesitantly, and she touched the amulet. "Sparky! It really is you!" Grail grinned at the son of Herobrine who smiled back at the beautiful human girl. "I was getting a little worried there!" she said with a genuine laugh.

"It's good to see you, GrailMore," he said. The son of Herobrine then turned to Ant. "AntVenom, my dear friend, I hate to ask this of you but I need your help."

"Anything you need I will do," Ant answered instantly. Sparklez smiled a sad smile and said,

"That is what I was afraid of, because what I need you to do is very dangerous. I fear it could even be fatal."

"I've faced death before," Ant said said with a determined look on his face.

"I believe in Ant," GrailMore added. "He is the strongest and bravest man I know. Whatever you need, he will do it."

"Very well," Sparklez replied, and he paused before continuing, "I need you to kill me."

"What are you talking about!" Ant said, trying to keep to panic he felt from overflowing into his voice. "You're kidding right?" he said with an awkward laugh.

"Unfortunately, I'm not. I am being serious. I have recently learned that Herobrine is not completely dead. The moment before you killed him, he infiltrated my mind and I believe he was able to place some of his consciousness in me. It is not strong yet, but given time I know that he will succeed in taking over my mind completely. I would be a reborn Herobrine. Possibly one more powerful than before. This is the truth, AntVenom, and I need you to kill this currently mortal body to banish Herobrine from this world forever. If you kill me, only then he will be well and truly dead."

"Are you mad?" said GrailMore, surprising Sparklez with the pure emotion in her voice. "Do you honestly think we are going to kill you, without first trying everything in our power to save you, CaptainSparklez?"

"Grail's right," Ant added. "We're not just going to give up on you, it's not right. We'll find a way around this, we aways do."

"I-" Sparklez started to protest but stopped. "I thank you for courage, but nothing can save me now. Herobrine is simply too strong. It is starting to become difficult for me to hold him back."

"Is there a way for us to push him back?" GrailMore asked. "A way for someone like us, Minecraftians, to defeat Herobrine?"

"I…I don't know. I've never thought about it. Heh, I guess I'm like Herobrine in that way. He never viewed humans as a threat either," Sparklez said. "During our travels, I taught Ant how to protect his mind from intruders. But without an amulet like his, it would be very difficult to defend, much less attack."

"Is there anything you can teach me?" the purple-clad girl asked, "I don't care about the amulet. I just want to find a way to defeat him."

"Attack, huh?" Sparklez mumbled. "I believe for humans the best way to attack another mind is to imagine that your mind is a weapon, say a sword or spear, and to focus on attacking your target's mind with that weapon. Ah, that sounds so silly when you say it out loud!"

"No, it makes sense." Grail said, nodding.

"Wouldn't it be better if I tried?" Ant said, "After all, I do have the magic amulet."

"No, I want to have GrailMore give it a try." Sparklez said, "I'm interested to see if she succeeds. Feel free to start whenever you're ready." he said. The Nether Prince closed his eyes, his face relaxing visibly.

"Okay." Grail said as she furrowed her brow in concentration and closed her eyes as well.

A few seconds passed in silence while Ant watched apprehensively. Sparklez abruptly twitched and his neutral expression turned to a frown, Ant turned to GrailMore to see if she showed any signs of what had happened. As if in response to his eyes, Grail let out a shriek of pain and her blue eyes shot open.

"GrailMore, are you hurt?" Sparklez's calm voice spoke before Ant had a chance to say anything.

"N-no," she said, took a deep breath to steady her racing heart. "I think it's safe to say this is not a good solution to our problem." Grail said as she tried to smile, but Ant could see that something still bothered her.

"What happened?" Ant said, and turned to look at CaptainSparklez, his face clearly showing the anger he felt at his girlfriend's pain.

"Herobrine fought back." the demigod said simply. "He could see that I was letting GrailMore into my mind and he struck back. He probably unearthed a repressed memory. He likes to reopen old wounds."

"That's it exactly," Grail said with a bit of wonder in her voice. "How did you know? You weren't close to your father in the Nether were you?"

Sparklez frowned slightly at the word 'father',

"I knew him well, although you're right, we weren't particularly close. And I can feel his presence in my mind, it's a constant headache, but I can sometimes get a sense of his thoughts or memories. He is older and more powerful than you could ever imagine."

"That leads us back to the original problem," Ant said. "We don't know how to kill-" Ant stopped speaking as he fell over in a dead faint.

To my dear readers: I'm sorry.