A hard truth
Nuka froze and the world seemed to stand still as well.
He couldn't believe what he had just heard.
He swallowed hard, feeling himself trembling, while the words—the dreadful, terrible words, the words he had never wanted to hear—echoed in his mind like a broken record, getting louder and louder until he could no longer deny the truth, the cold, ugly, heart-wrenching truth.
All his fears, all his worries since the conversation with Herobrine had now come true.
"No..." he murmured softly, before violently shaking his head, his voice getting louder until it broke with anger and desperation, tears streaming down his face. "No. No! NO! This can't be! That...that is not true!"
"Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do," he replied coldly, which only made Nuka angrier!
He wanted so much to jump up and punch this guy in the face, make him pay for everything he had done to him and his mother, for destroying his world. But as much as he tried, he once again couldn't free himself...
"T-This...this can't be..." he finally managed to say with a voice shaking with anger, "You are...You are not my...! My mother would never...never associate with someone like you!"
"Oh, of course not," Null responded flatly, "But she never knew it was me."
With these words, he smiled and transformed into a young man, dressed inconspicuously, with fair skin, dark hair, and blue eyes, whom Nuka had never seen before.
"Usually, I don't stoop to this," Null continued in the form of the man, "but unfortunately, her family got the books they wanted very rich and had to put a spell on them that ensured they'd be destroyed as soon as someone not belonging to the family took them from their place."
He snorted contemptuously.
"You have no idea how annoying it was and what I had to endure until we were engaged and I could finally get those books, but it was worth it," he grinned maliciously.
"After all, they are the main reason why I have this lovely staff here now," he added with a satisfied, brief glance at the staff before turning back to Nuka and changing back into his old self.
"I'm surprised she survived the fire I caused afterward," he added with a thoughtful look. "But I'm even more surprised that she didn't leave or kill you right after your birth."
"Though she never knew my true identity," he mumbled thoughtfully before shrugging and turning back to Nuka with a wicked grin. "I guess she was just happy that her boyfriend, her only true love, who tragically died in the fire, gave her a child."
Nuka clenched his fists as he heard that.
"No! Stop!" he demanded desperately, knowing what Null had in mind, but he ignored his plea and just grinned.
"I wonder if she would have raised you if she knew the truth," he taunted, causing Nuka to scream, close his eyes, and turn away, his heart shattering at these painful words, the worst he had ever heard.
"I'm surprised she didn't get rid of you when she first saw your powers," he mused thoughtfully, causing Nuka to turn back to him and glare angrily, tears streaming down his face again. "Maybe she thought her boyfriend was a hybrid? Possible, but no matter what it was," he ended with a cold look, "a child was never on my planning list!"
"But fortunately, that's easily changed."
With these words, he narrowed his eyes to slits and raised the staff, which now glowed red again, on Nuka's chest, but he just stared at him expressionlessly.
His anger had disappeared by now, replaced by an overwhelming hopelessness that extinguished everything else in him and left him completely broken, not caring about anything that would happen to him now.
Why should he?
His worst nightmare had come true, and even more.
Null had broken him in every imaginable way and even more.
He had hurt him, shamed him, humiliated him and seemed to not care a bit about him, which was no surprise, but it still hurt... it hurt terribly.
By now he would probably even do him a favor with his death, as he would then be rid of all the pain and shame he felt, and most importantly, he would remember none of it...
In that moment, his gaze suddenly fell on Herobrine.
"Wait..." he whispered before glancing briefly at Null, "Before you kill me... may I make a request?"
"A request?" scoffed Null mockingly. "Why should I allow that?"
"Because... because that would be the least you could do for me," Nuka murmured softly before lowering his gaze and tensing. "As my... father."
He grimaced at the words before cautiously looking up at Null, who still stood there and actually seemed to be thinking, before he shrugged.
"Very well," he replied simply. "You can state your request."
He grinned.
"Whether I fulfill it is another matter."
"Can... Can you let Hero live?" he finally muttered, causing Null to raise his eyebrows in surprise before he laughed and shook his head amusedly.
"My goodness," he mocked. "You cling to him like a burr! What has he done for you to be so obedient to him?"
"Enough," Nuka weakly replied before lifting his gaze and glaring angrily at Null. "And I'm not obedient! He's just... the only thing I have left..."
At these words, he lowered his gaze again and his voice became brittle, but Null just snorted.
"Oh, that's sad," he replied with fake sympathy, still standing calmly and looking at him with an amused but curious gaze. "But why would you demand something like that? You are aware that he will soon die without his powers, aren't you?"
"I know..." Nuka whispered weakly, feeling his heart constrict once again. He then redirected his gaze to Null. "That's why I'm asking... because you're the only one who can prevent it!"
Null smiled as if amused.
"I won't give him back his power, kid," he replied mockingly. "I still need it."
"But there might be another way..." he continued with a thoughtful look, immediately bringing some life back into Nuka!
"Really?" he asked hopefully, to which Null nodded.
"Perhaps I can give him yours," he muttered more to himself than to Nuka, looking at the staff before turning to him again. "It would save him."
"Of course, it would kill you," he continued with a wicked grin, "but..."
"No!" Nuka's head shot up towards Herobrine, who was throwing himself against the chains and seemed very angry. "You can't... You can't do that, Nuka! He's lyi-!"
"Oh, shut up!" Null snapped angrily, and before Nuka knew what was happening, his friend was hit by a bright beam of light from Null's staff, knocking him out and preventing him from speaking further.
"So, what do you say?" Null asked a moment later calmly, as if nothing had happened.
Nuka looked at him briefly, unsure, before turning his gaze back to the now unconscious and weakly breathing Herobrine, and his heart sank at the sight.
He knew what he had to do...
"Okay," he muttered defeatedly without looking at Null. "You... you can take my power and give it to Hero..."
"Good decision," Null replied satisfied. "Especially since you're going to die anyway. But before I do that, you have to do something for me."
Nuka raised his head in surprise when he heard that.
"And... and what would that be?" he asked uncertainly, to which Null just grinned.
"Simple," he replied, still smiling. "You go and get me Steve."
"Steve?" Nuka repeated, confused. "But I don't know where..."
"Oh, that doesn't matter," Null interrupted him, still smiling. "I do."
(Change of view)
"We can't wait any longer!"
Roxana flinched and turned to the others who were standing by the portal, looking very serious.
"Can't we wait a bit more?" she asked pleadingly, but Jason just shook his head.
"Roxana, we've been waiting for almost an hour and a half!" he replied sternly. "We're already waiting too long! Herobrine... Herobrine said that if he's not with us in half an hour, we should go without him," he added with a carefully calm voice, as if he were ashamed of how harsh he had been with her at the beginning.
"And even if we wanted to, we can't afford to stay any longer. None of us can..." he mumbled with a brief glance at Steve, whom he now carried on his back and looked like a miserable heap. "We have to... we have to reluctantly assume that... that they've been captured."
Herobrine, yes, thought Roxana sadly as she rubbed her hands together for warmth from the small fire she had lit when they arrived. She shuddered again as a cold gust of wind passed over her.
But what happened to Nuka…?
Roxana narrowed her eyes and shuddered at the thought of what Null might have done to him.
A part of her wanted Nuka to have hidden in the castle and stayed there, but she knew it couldn't be true.
The boy would never have left Herobrine alone against Null.
"I'm afraid I have to agree with him," Einshine chimed in now, and you could hear that it wasn't easy for him either. "If Herobrine and Nuka had escaped Null, then... then they would have been here by now."
Roxana sighed resignedly as she heard that.
"I know..." she replied softly, turning around once more and casting a final glance into the darkness, unable to prevent tears from welling up in her eyes.
Why am I so sad about this? She wondered, hastily wiping away her tears. It's just Herobrine... I should normally be glad not to have to see him again…
"Is everyone ready?" she heard Jason say at that moment and she turned to see the others with drawn weapons standing before a small, inconspicuous but activated portal.
It looked relatively unremarkable for a portal that would lead them directly to the marketplace of the largest city in Minecraftia, but Steve insisted that it was the right one.
"If I made it any more fancy, Herobrine would probably destroy it," he had added grimly, a sentiment Roxana could well understand.
Even though she saw it as a significant weakness of the city in general, Steve had made it clear that this portal was always guarded by many of his best warriors, and everyone entering and leaving was searched to prevent a surprise attack on the city.
He also mentioned other measures that could be taken if they were attacked through the portal, but he hadn't gone into detail, claiming that they should remain secret.
This was probably just an excuse, Roxana suspected, since Einshine was also here, and Steve regarded him as an enemy, unwilling to reveal anything that might be exploited against him.
Well, at least this weakness will be very helpful for us now, she added in her thoughts as she drew her staff and stood next to her sister.
"Be careful," Jason murmured, standing beside Aurora and surveying everyone with a very serious look. "We don't know what awaits us beyond this portal."
"Well, it can definitely be nothing good," Aurora replied quietly, casting a concerned glance at the portal.
"Well, whatever it is, we must not allow ourselves to get lost in it," Jason responded seriously. "The portal is on a small pedestal in the middle of a very open marketplace, so it's impossible that Null's shadows, which are probably there, won't see us. We'll likely have to fight them, but we won't be able to win."
"So don't think you can play the hero there!" he added with a stern look. "We will only try to defend ourselves while trying to get off the marketplace as quickly as possible and then find a hiding place."
He sighed, and for a moment, Roxana could see that all of this was taking a toll on him, before he composed himself again, shaking his head briefly, probably to clear his thoughts.
"Listen, I'm not lying to you when I say that what we're planning is extremely dangerous," he sighed, casting a brief glance at everyone. "We could all easily die in the process, but we have no other options left."
"We can only hope that luck is with us..." he concluded before taking a deep breath and stepping through the portal.