Well, would you look at that! I uploaded a chapter on a Friday!

…just…the Friday…after…I was supposed to upload.

Eh. I uploaded on a Friday. I'll take it.

Anyways, real quick, reviews.

Ara celene: I just came up with the name 'Shell' on the fly lol. Also yes. The 'why are you running' meme is actually perfect for last chapter. Absolutely love the image that comes up in my mind. And of course I touch grass! Well…sometimes. I guess.

someguy: Yeah, nothing's ever gone wrong with that. Nope. Never has that ever led to negative consequences.

Anyways, have fun with this chapter. Or don't. It's mildly depressing.

Krios

Well, Now Shish Kebabs Are Ruined For Me

Luckily, we had a rough idea of where Heather was going.

We'd managed to let ourselves into Heather's house (cough we broke the door down cough) and search for some hints, any hints on where she could be going next. We didn't find a lot, but we did find this one thing: a note found under Heather's bed that had a list of locations, most of them crossed off. The ones that weren't crossed off were:

Crash Cove

Aurumus

"Perfect," Dan said. "So the closest one is Aurumus. But, Heather really likes the ocean, so she may have gone to Crash Cove."

"So where do we go?" Ben frowned.

"I think Crash Cove," Durham offered. "Like you said, she did love the ocean."

"Something interesting to note," Orca offered, "is that this house doesn't seem like…a home."

Dan wrinkled his nose. "This is a house, Orca. Houses are homes."

Orca rolled his eyes. "That's obviously not what I mean. I mean this house doesn't seem particularly…lived in. It's just got the basic essentials—food, water, furniture…but no personal belongings."

"Maybe Heather packed up before leaving?" Ben muttered.

"No," Seu said. "There was a bowl of soup in the fridge—it looked fresh."

"So was she just using this place as a shelter?" Ender sighed. "This was never really her home, was it?"

"Just a place she was staying." Dan groaned. "Welp, we've got an option. Crash Cove or Aurumus."

"Let's vote on it," Durham suggested.

"Alright then. Everyone close their eyes!" Dan yelled, and we did so.

"Who votes for Crash Cove?"

I didn't raise my hand.

"Who votes for Aurumus?"

I raised my hand.

"Alright, let's open our eyes now."

We all opened our eyes and looked at Dan. "Well? What were the results?" Ender demanded.

Dan blinked. "I dunno. Why are you asking me?"

"…"

Everyone stared at Dan.

"Are you serious?" Nikai spoke.

"Dan," Orca said, "at least one person is supposed to have their eyes open so they can count the votes."

"Well, why didn't any of you count the votes?" Dan said accusingly.

"We kinda assumed you would do it," Seu said exasperatedly.

"Why?"

"You're the one who told us to close our eyes!" Ender shouted.

"Alright, alright." Orca groaned. "Let's do this again. I'll count. Everyone vote!"

We voted again, and the result was Aurumus. "Democracy rules," Dan said triumphantly.

"You didn't even do it right," Ender grumbled, but nobody argued.

We all left Coralside and went to the forest, where our horses were tied up and Shell laid. "Hey, Shell!" Dan said cheerily. "We're back!"

Shell moaned and rolled onto his back, his eyes still shut.

"Oh, stop whining and get up." Dan rolled his eyes. "You've had enough sleep."

Shell opened his eyes and glared at Dan sleepily, then slowly got up. Dan jumped onto Shell's back and extended a hand to me. I almost took it, but hesitated.

"YOU'VE KILLED MORE!" the man screamed back. "INCLUDING MY SON AND DAUGHTER!"

"Well? Come on, we don't have time to waste." I looked up at Dan. Good old, trustworthy, mildly charming Dan.

Or was he trustworthy?

Shaking off those thoughts, I grabbed Dan's hand and he pulled me onto Shell's back.

"Alright, time to go!" And with that, Shell lifted off into the air. Wind pushed my hair back as we sailed through the air, the others following on their horses.

"Ahhh, this wind is so good." Dan sighed. "It was really hot in Coralside."

I watched the grinning Dan as he shut his eyes and let the wind push back his hair.

Dan's trustworthy. Stop doubting him. He's helped you this far, hasn't he?

I remembered last night.

"Ten and twelve years old," the man said mourningly. "They left this world too early."

Should I ask? Should I not?

I decided to take a risk. "Hey, um…Dan." I tapped his shoulder.

"Yeah?" Dan looked so carefree. So happy.

…

"A…about last night." I began. "Um, can you tell me the truth?"

Dan's face dropped, just like I expected it to. I also felt a pang of guilt, like I also expected.

Don't feel guilty. You have the right to ask this question.

Dan was silent for a while before saying, "He's just some psycho I locked up a long time ago."

"He said you killed his kids."

More silence, and then—"he killed someone as well. An innocent person."

"Are you trying to justify yourself by saying that?" I said, slightly shocked. "Killing an innocent person is bad. Really bad. But killing two kids you don't know is objectively worse!"

"What gives you the idea that I didn't know them?" Dan snarled.

"If you knew them, that makes it worse!"

"You don't know the whole story!"

"You're right!" I yelled. "Which is why I want to know!"

"You don't want to know." Dan's voice was dark. "You don't."

"Dan, the past few months have told me a lot about you, and you seem like a good guy. I don't want to believe you're the bad guy here." I scowled. "But if that's really all you can say to defend yourself, you really leave me no choice but to think you're a bad person."

Silence. And then…

"I did kill them." Dan said quietly. "But I didn't…want to."

I frowned. "That's literally the very least you could have said in your defense."

"I…" Dan looked distressed. "Look, can we talk about this when we're not like a thousand miles in the air?"

"And another thing!" I said loudly. "Why'd you lie to the others! I guess I can sort of understand why you'd lie to me, but you've known them for who know how long?"

"Three years," Dan said stiffly.

"Three years!" I sighed exasperatedly. "I just want to know why."

"I didn't want them to be distracted from our mission." Dan grumbled.

"That's bull and you know it. Dan, this guy could put us in actual danger." I snapped.

"We've fought Klith. I think they can handle one guy with crossbows." Dan said, annoyed. "And besides, we can't make progress if we're worried about my personal issues."

"And what a lot of progress we've been making these past four months, huh?" I laughed mirthlessly. "I think we're pretty close to raiding the Nether Prison, don't you? I even think we could beat Klith, while we're at it! I mean, we've spent the last four months getting laughed at by people who don't know their arse from their elbow, steadily spending our emeralds on stuff that won't even matter, while my mom's probably dead in prison!"

Dan looked at me for a second, and began, "Cal…"

As he began to speak, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. I looked down and spotted a firework flying towards us.

"Firework!" I yelled, and Dan yelled as Shell flapped to the side, dodging the firework. It exploded into blue and white sparks, and Dan scowled. "Blue and white fireworks…"

"…means SOS." I finished for him. I looked down and spotted the others fighting what looked to be several large grey figures. As we got closer to the ground, I saw that the large figures were actually monsters that I'd never seen before. But my sister had.

"Rock golems," I growled.

Everyone seemed to be having a bit of trouble to fighting them—they'd put away their swords in favor of pickaxes, but they still weren't doing very well. The rock golems were acting extremely aggressively, and if one of them landed a single blow on anyone, they'd probably be mortally injured.

I also noticed that some had large bulky fists, and some had spear-like appendages where their hands should have been. The ones with the spears were a lot faster, but slightly smaller than the ones with fists. One strange thing I noticed—the rock golems were glowing purple like they'd been enchanted, which Toni definitely hadn't said anything about when she'd been recounting the story about how she'd fought the rock golem.

Durham managed to smash one's head in, and it crumbled to the ground, but that was only one out of what had to be at least ten.

I heard Dan snarl in anger. I followed his gaze and spotted the man leading the rock golems.

To my non-surprise, it was the man from last night.

"CHARLIE!" Dan bellowed, and the man turned around. He didn't look pleased to see us, but he didn't look displeased either. He pulled out a firework rocket and loaded it into one of his crossbows, aiming and then firing at us. The firework multiplied into three rockets that all whistled towards us, glowing and about to explode.

Shell swerved to the side, and the rockets flew dangerously close past me and Dan before exploding violently behind us. I felt a wave of heat envelop my back, making me sweat.

Almost emotionlessly, Charlie reloaded and fired at us again, but we were much to close to dodge. Shell flung out his wings, blocking us from the rockets with his body. Shell hissed as they exploded against his chest.

Charlie rolled to the side before Shell could crush him with his body as he landed. Nikai charged at Charlie, lifting his iron sword, but one of the larger rock golems stepped in front of Charlie, blocking Nikai's strike with it's body.

"So you do remember my name." Charlie said coldly.

"Yep," Dan said, but he looked tense. "Where'd you get your new friends?"

"You don't need to know," Charlie snorted. "All you need to know is that they are under my control."

"Uh, Dan, can you get Shell to blow up the rock golems for us please?" Ender called. "We're having a bit of difficulty!"

"No!" Charlie shouted. He grabbed something on his neck and waved his hand, and two of the rock golems with spike arms lunged forwards. One of them smashed Ben into a tree, making him groan and slide to the floor. Another one knocked Ender to the ground. Before both of them could stand, the rock golems pressed their sharp spikes against their chests.

The rest of the rock golems suddenly abandoned the people they were fighting and began to enclose around Dan and Charlie. Dan tried to back out, but was blocked by a rock golem, who pushed him forwards.

Shell's throat began to glow violet, but before he could blast flames at all of the rock golems, Charlie shouted, "Me and Dan will fight alone! If anybody interferes, my rock golems will spear your friends over there." he gestured to the rock golems who were holding Ben and Ender hostage.

"Don't you even touch them," Seu snarled.

"I don't intend to." Charlie said, and he glared at Shell. "That goes for the dragon, too. I can will them to kill faster than you can burn me alive."

"Fine then." Dan drew his scimitars with a murderous look. "Since you want this so bad…I'll fight you. Let's see if your skill can hold a candle to mine."

And with that, they launched themselves at each other.

Seu ran at the golems holding down Ben and Ender, but the golems raised their spikes to stab and Seu stopped, looking just as murderous as Dan. "Stay still," she snarled at Ben. "If you die I'll kill you."

"I don't intend on it," Ben said, eyeing the spike aimed at his chest.

"Calliope," Orca said urgently. "Your sister killed a rock golem. How did she do it?"

"If I recall correctly, she beat the crap out of it with an insane Herobrine power boost." I looked at Orca, slightly sarcastic. "We got that?"

"Not at all." Orca scowled. "We can destroy some rock golems, but there are too many and they'd crush us immediately. Not to mention Ender and Ben would be impaled."

I drew my netherite axe, not sure of what to do.

"Looks like we won't have to interfere," Nikai said. "Dan's winning anyways."

I turned to stare at him. He'd climbed a small tree and seemed to be watching the fight, his eyes narrowed. "For a guy that was that confident, he's really not doing that well."

I turned around, looking for a high point I could spot the fight from. I climbed onto a nearby rock and could just barely see over the rock golem's heads.

Dan was winning, alright—Charlie seemed to be struggling to keep up. He was somehow switching from crossbow to sword back to crossbow very quickly, but slowly Dan was beginning to push him back.

"GET HIM, DAN!" Durham yelled, and I was about to join in when I spotted something on Charlie's neck. A silver necklace, glowing like it was enchanted.

It was glowing the same color as the rock golems—a mix of magenta and purple. Did that mean the necklace was how Charlie was controlling the rock golems?

"DAN, THE NECKLACE!" I shouted. "THAT'S WHAT CONTROLS THEM!"

Dan didn't appear to hear me—he just kept fighting, slashing at Charlie with wild abandon. He slashed aside one of Charlie's crossbows and dashed forwards, aiming a strike at his heart that he barely dodged.

A thought hit me. He's going to kill him.

Of course. It should have been obvious that Dan wouldn't let him off. After all, what would we do? Throw him in jail again? He'd just escape. But still, it didn't sit right with me. It wasn't the killing itself that bothered me—that would be hypocritical, considering how many guards we killed in Kiosk's Temple hunting Fisherman. No, it was something else that bothered me.

Was it the fact that I'd never really learn about Dan's dark past? Ironically, Charlie seemed the person to most likely give me the truth, even if it was biased in some way. But as I thought about it more, it wasn't that that bothered me either, though that was part of it.

The necklace.

My eyes widened. Charlie had said he had control over the rock golems. Did that mean that if he died…would the rock golems would go back to their regular, non-intelligent but still aggressive ways? If so…

I looked at Ben and Ender. Ben was squirming uncomfortably under the spike aimed at him, and Ender was shouting curses.

I felt a chill. It doesn't matter. They die whether Dan wins or Charlie wins.

"What's going on?" Orca called to me. "Is Dan still winning?"

"Orca," I said urgently. "ORCA! We can't let Dan kill Charlie!"

"What?" Nikai looked at me with disgust. "Oh. Don't tell me this is a 'if we kill him, hat makes us just as bad as him' moment? Because—"

"No you moron, if Charlie dies Ender and Ben die with him!" I jumped down from the rock. "I need to get to Charlie, and I need to steal his necklace!"

Nikai made a face. "I didn't think you were a jewelry kind of girl."

"He's controlling the rock golems with that, brainless!" I snapped at him. I turned to Durham. "Durham, I need you to bend over. I'm going to jump onto your back and you're going to boost me over the rock golems."

Durham didn't question me, which was nice. He just kneeled down with one knee, and I took a few steps back. I began to run to gain momentum, and jumped onto Durham's back. As he straightened, I kicked off of Durham's shoulders, just managing to fly over the rock golems, who surprisingly ignored me.

Charlie turned to see me flying towards him. His eyes widened, and he reached for his necklace. But before he could grab it and control the golems, Dan dashed forwards, slashing at Charlie's hand. There was a sick squelch, and two of Charlie's fingers flew off.

As he howled, I plowed into Charlie and we both went tumbling to the ground.

"Nice work, Cal." Dan said, and he raised his scimitars. "Now I'll finish the job."

"Wait," I said. "You can't kill him. Just hold on for a moment." I reached for Charlie's necklace—

—only to be knocked aside by Dan. "We need to kill this guy, Cal." Dan said angrily. "We can't let him just walk free!" And with that he raised his scimitars.

"I know that, Dan, but you're not letting me speak! Listen—"

"Is this because you want to know the truth about him? About me?" Dan said wildly. "You trust this guy and not me?"

"Trust—what the hell are you spouting? Just hold off for a moment—" I began. Dan shoved me sideways, and I staggered away, nearly tripping over a rock.

Dan raised his scimitars again. "This ends now."

As he brought down the scimitars, I charged forwards with my Netherite axe and blocked the strike with my axe. Dan growled, "What—"

I kicked him in the stomach, making him double over. As he staggered back, I turned to Charlie. What I saw made my stomach drop.

His eyes were filled with dark humor as he grabbed his necklace. "An eye for an eye. Two innocents for two innocents, Dan."

"NO!" I roared, reaching for his necklace.

There was a scream that I recognized as Seu's. I tore the necklace from Charlie's neck, much too late. I clutched the necklace, and saw all the rock golems turn to me.

"GRT AWAY!" I yelled, and the rock golems backed away at my request. What I saw made my stomach drop.

Ender and Ben laid on the ground. The rock golems that had stabbed them were lumbering away like they hadn't done anything wrong. Seu cradled Ben in her arms, trying to comfort him. Blood poured from the deep wounds in Ender and Ben's chests.

"Hold on," she said urgently, and then looked up. "ORCA! TOTEM ME!"

"I-I've only got one!" Orca said, looking distressed.

"Healing potions? Regeneration? ANYONE?" I yelled, running up to them. "Oh god damn it…this wasn't supposed to…"

Dan ran over, looking stricken. "No no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO."

Orca pulled out a totem of undying and looked from Ender to Ben, conflicted. I felt a spark of hope. I grabbed the totem of undying and set it on the ground between Ender and Ben.

This has to work. This has to!

I grabbed Ender and Ben's hands and set them both on the totem of undying at the same time. Hope sparked in my chest as the totem of undying cracked, and green and gold energy flowed from the totem…

…and swirled into Ben's chest.

I sat there for a second before punching the ground. "DAMN IT!"

Dan grabbed Ender and ripped off her jacket. He began to frantically search Ender's clothes as she coughed and spat blood.

"Ha…I had…a good run." Ender said weakly. "Didn't I?"

"Shut up," Dan growled. "You're not dying, not on my watch. YES!" He ripped a vial from Ender's pocket. It was merely the size of his index finger, and was filled with regeneration potion. He tossed away the cork and poured it into Ender's mouth. She let out a rattling breath.

And went still.

?-V-?

Charlie?

He was gone.

We looked up only to see a small patch of blood where Charlie had been. The rock golems Dan told Shell to destroy. We could have used them with the necklace, but after what had happened to Ben and Ender, I don't think any of us wanted to even look at the rock golems.

The totem had fixed up Ben's most severe wounds, though he wasn't 100% healed yet. To be honest, he wasn't even 70%.

Ender, however, had it a lot worse than Ben. The tiny bit of regeneration potion she'd taken had stopped her bleeding, but she was still very much in pain, and the wound was still very much hurting.

Dan had gone on Shell to get to the nearest town for healing supplies, but it'd been fifteen minutes since he'd gone, and I was beginning to worry for Ender. Not that I hadn't been worried before.

I sat next to Durham, who was beside Ender. "She doing good?"

"I've been stabbed in the stomach and I'm spitting out blood every five minutes," Ender rasped. "Every time I breath my chest burns."

"…oh."

"Is that a yes or a no?" Durham asked.

"No I'm not doing good you fool, I've been impaled." Ender coughed, and I moved to help her, then realized I definitely couldn't do anything to help her. "Don't overexert yourself," I said with concern.

"You're…the one who started the conversation, idiot."

"If you keep insulting me I'll leave."

"No, please." Ender's voice, despite being ragged, was still deadpan. "You're the only person keeping me going. Without you I'll be lost."

I snorted in laughter, but went silent. "I should go now. Let you get some rest." I stood to leave when Ender grabbed my sleeve weakly.

"I was just kidding, man." Ender tried to sound strong. She was failing. "Just…you guys stay with me for a moment."

So I sat back down, and we were silent for a while. I stared at the wall, thinking about Dan. And Charlie. How had he gotten his hands on those rock golems?

And we sat there for a while when Durham gently shook Ender. "Hey. Get up."

I looked at Ender. She was unconscious.

"Uh…Ender? You just sleeping?" I said nervously. "Hey, Ender, get up. Come on, wake up!"

And to my relief, Ender's eyes fluttered open. "I was having a nice dream," Ender mumbled. My relief quickly vanished when I realized how pale she was.

"Where is Dan?" Seu growled, stomping up to us.

"We don't know." Durham said. "And he's not answering his communicator either."

"Oh no." My stomach filled with dread. "You don't think Charles got him too?"

I began to groan when I saw something in the distance. I stood and ran towards the opening of the cave. Everybody followed me, including Orca and Nikai.

Shell was shooting towards us at a speed I didn't even know was possible. I almost thought he was going to plow into the cave for a moment until he threw out his wings and descended to the ground.

Dan jumped off Shell's back before he even landed, and ran into the cave. He stopped at Ender's feet and began rummaging around in a bag.

"Hello to you too," Ender murmured, but Dan still didn't speak. Out of his bag he pulled out several health potions, four golden apples, and some food. He pulled out the cork of several potions and poured them into Ender's wound. She grit her teeth as the wound began to knit itself together.

"God, this hurts." She managed to say between her teeth.

"Drink this," Dan said curtly before handing Ender a potion of healing and regeneration respectively. As she gingerly drank, he took two golden apples and two potions and handed them to Seu. "Make sure Ben drinks these potions," he said. "Healing, then regeneration. After the potion effects wear out make him eat the apples. Even if he doesn't went them." He turned to Ender. "That goes for you as well. When you start feeling like crap again eat one of the apples."

"I already feel like crap," Ender laughed weakly. "And I'm not—"

"If you were about to say you're not hungry, you can stuff it." Dan scowled. "You need to eat those apples to heal. But stay still for the time being."

"Was planning to do that even before you told me to," Ender said. Dan stood and I stood with him.

Dan faced away from me, but I didn't let him leave. "Dan."

He acted like he didn't hear me.

"Dan, Dan, Dan Dan Dan Dan DAN DAN!" suddenly I found myself screaming. "What is wrong with you!?"

Dan turned to face me. He looked guilty but also defensive. "Wh…what?"

"If I'd just taken his necklace, Ben and Ender wouldn't have been stabbed. I would have gotten out of your way and you would have gotten rid of Charlie. Everything would have been fine!" I threw my arms up into the air. "But of course you had to ruin it with your idiotic line of thinking? Trust him? He shot me in the leg!"

"I thought it was a 'kill him and we're just as bad as him' moment." Dan mumbled.

"You didn't let me explain!" I yelled, and Dan winced. "How shallow of a girl do you think I am? I could literally have said: 'Necklace control golems. I take necklace. You kill him.' And we'd have been done! But you didn't even let me get a word in!"

Dan took a step back. "I…you…you could have just said it." His tone was half defensive, half trying to convince himself it was true.

"Oh, great solution." I growled. "It's not like I was trying to say it or anything."

"I know I screwed it up! I know I nearly killed Ender and Ben! I know I did this all wrong!" Dan screamed, clutching his head. "I know you're disappointed because we've done nothing in the past four months! I know, Cal! Trust me, I know!"

"You're not acting it." I said icily.

"Cal, I think you're going a bit too far. Let's just hear him out for a moment." Durham began.

"Why should I listen to him when he's not even the real leader?"

Silence. Everybody gaped at me. Dan stared at me in shock.

"What'd you say?" Dan said lowly.

"I just—" I hesitated and then ran out of the cave.

Nobody called after me.

?-V-?

After a while I began to regret running from the cave.

It felt childish—like a kid had run from the room to avoid the consequences of what they!d just said. I sat against a tree, head in my hands.

"Why did I say that?" I moaned. "God."

"I'm trying, Cal!"

I sighed. He did understand that he was in the wrong.

Did I really have to be so harsh on him?

I rubbed my forehead. I needed somebody to talk to, but I didn't want to go back to the cave. So who was I going to talk to? Shell? I snorted.

And then I remembered. I pulled out my communicator when suddenly it began to ring. I blinked, surprised. Who was it?

I answered the call. On the other side I heard someone say something inaudible. I recognized the voice.

"Toni? What are you doing up so late?"

"Sorry, did I wake you?" Toni said.

I shook my head. "Nah. I was actually just about to call you. Oh—" I remembered something, and felt a pang of guilt. "I'm so sorry I didn't call you for your birthday. There was this guy with rock golems, and there was a magic woman I had to chase—"

"No, no, it's fine." Toni reassured me. "It sounds like you had a rough time. And I wouldn't have been able to pick up anyways. I fought a bunch of magic withers, met my old school bully, and then a magic girl almost set me on fire."

"Looks like we never get a boring day, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Did you have a reason for calling?" I asked.

"Kind of," she said. "But you can speak first if you want. You sound like you've been through a lot."

"So have you."

"But I want to hear your story first."

I sniffled. Just a little.

"Cal? You okay?"

I let out a dry laugh. "I'm not quite sure. Am I? Hey, is it really okay if I talk first?"

"Totally."

"Okay," I said, feeling slightly relieved. "Okay. Now. Would you like the bad news, or the bad news?"

Again, really sorry for the slow upload. See ya next Friday!

…

…maybe.

Krios