Max gasped and looked around in a panic. The doors were thrown open, and squid started to file in. He heard Colin swear under his breath. 

"Who are you?" One of the squid asked. He was old, and looked grizzled and almost shrunken from the years. He wore a blue robe that blended in with his skin, and was glaring at them swimming in the pool. 

"No one" Colin replied behind Max. Max turned and looked at him with wide eyes. Colin only glared back at him. 

"I was teaching him how to use a stone, but he messed up and thought of the palace pool instead" Colin continued, keeping his head low. Max turned back around and looked at the guards surrounding the pool. 

-------

Phil woke up to sun in his eyes and the taste of blood in his mouth. He sat up and looked around his now ruined house. 

"Crap" He said. Everything was destroyed, except the couch he was lying on. 

Pictures were torn to pieces, the carpet was ripped up. He looked into the kitchen and all the wood was bent or broken. The cabinets were ripped off the wall and lying around the room. 

Phil looked around the house more, and found Jonas face down in the basement. He was surrounded by broken glass and the scattered pages of Colin's work books. 

"Jonas?" Phil said quietly. He limped over, and slowly knelt by his son. Jonas didn't move. A cut over his eyebrow was bleeding. It limped over his temple, and joined a puddle of some unknown liquid from one of the broken glass bottles on the floor. 

Phil carefully picked him up, and carried him back upstairs. He righted the couch, and set Jonas on it. And he waited. 

It was night before Jonas woke up again. His cut was bandaged, and his leg was in a cast. His vision swam in front of him as he sat up. 

"Don't go so fast" Phil said, "you'll make yourself sick" 

He was sitting in a chair in the still wrecked living room. One of his own arms was in a sling, and his head was wrapped tight. His feet were up on the mostly intact coffee table. In the kitchen someone was banging pots around. 

"Did colin get back?" Jonas asked. He was surprised to find his voice sounded hoarse. Phil shook his head. 

"no. haven't heard from him in a couple days now. Creed wouldn't have killed him though" Phil said confidently. "He's the only friend those two really have. I'm guessing he took Colin with him when he went to the nether again" 

"How do you know that's where he went?" Jonas asked. He was fully sitting up. "If he took Colin to the nether, he's not going to last long. Everyone knows the nether is too hot for squid. It dries them out too fast. And they can't  go long without water" 

"We know" A voice said from the kitchen. The pots and pans had stopped making noise, but there was still a ringing in Jonas' ears. He looked up surprised. 

Crystal stood in the doorway with two cups of soup in her hands.