Steve's POV

I saw darkness. Complete darkness. All of a sudden, light replaced the darkness, and I felt life flow back to me. I could think, I could hear. I felt my chest get filled with air.

"He's alive!" I heard a voice exclaim.

My eyes opened. My vision was still a bit blurry, but I could sort of make out the image standing before me.

"Paige?" I whispered.

"Yes," she said. "It's me."

My vision cleared, and I could see her face looking back at mine. I was so madly in love with her. I couldn't help myself.

I grabbed her shoulders.

"What are you-" she started to say, but I cut her off with a kiss.

At first her face was shocked, but then she kissed me back. I wanted this moment to freeze, because it felt so right...

"I love you, Paige," I whispered.

"I love you too," she responded.

My heart was beating a million beats a second.

Suddenly, I heard a chuckle in the background. Then, it turned into a laugh.

I stopped kissing Paige and turned around.

"It's not funny, Ashton," I said, ticked off.

"It's just so awkward," Ashton said in between laughs. "I'm not good with awkward love moments."

Hayden swung his arm around Ashton and agreed.

"You guys can have your kissing session later," Hayden said. "But right now we have a world to save."

"How are we going to get out of here into the real world?" I asked. "I kind of missed a lot."

"Well," Paige said. "I did see everyone disappear to The End. We will have to somehow get out by going to The End."

"What about Ender?" Ashton asked.

We all turned our heads at him and stared.

"Who's Ender?" I asked.

"The dragon," Ashton said. "There's a dragon in The End, you know."

"And..." I said.

"And we'll have to fight him," he said. "Nobody ever goes in The End without a fight. Maybe not Herobrine. But any regular person other than him."

"But what if there's no exit in The End?" Paige piped up.

"There is!" I suddenly said.

"There is?" Hayden asked.

"I have a vague memory of it..." I said, scratching my head.

"Let's hear it," Hayden said.

"Okay," I said. "I remember one time Herobrine showed me a portal that he called 'The Other World Portal' while I was at The End. He forced me in and I lost all of my Minecraft memories." I felt kind of shocked that I remembered so much.

"That's not vague," Ashton pointed out.

"Is 'The Other World' the human world?" Paige asked.

"Most likely," I replied. "How else would I have ended up in the human world?"

"Since we know the portal is in The End," Paige said. "Let's go there. It's the only way out. But we need weapons."

Ashton an are-you-serious look, and Paige rolled her eyes.

"I mean, weapons are over in that chest!" she said, correcting herself.

Ashton flashed her a thumbs up.

"Now, let's hurry!" he said. "We have no time to waste!"

"Wait!" Paige said. "Hold this, Ashton."

She handed him a baby. Where did she get a baby?

They started walking really fast.I started running to catch up to them.

"Steve, please fetch a ender pearl from the knocked out Enderman," Paige said.

"But why me?" I asked. "Why not any of you?"

"Fine I'll do it," Paige hastily said.

"I'm coming with!" I called after her.

•••••••••••••••••••

Paige and I finally arrived back at the area where all of the monsters were passed out.

"So we just need a Ender pearl?" I asked.

"Yup," Paige said.

I looked at the monsters. I recognized one. It was the monster that burned Ashton's arm!

I gave it a kick. A powdery substance flew out of its body. I grabbed a handful and stored it in my pocket.

This might be useful, I thought.

I walked over to where Paige was standing. I tapped her shoulder lightly.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

Paige shushed me.

Why? I mouthed to her.

He's stirring, she mouthed back.

Who's he...? I stared down at the body that I she was talking about. The body was black, and it looked like a human. It had long legs, and in its hands it clutched a turquoise pearl. That must be the Ender pearl.

I'll get it. I mouthed to Paige.

She tried to stop me, but I did it anyway. I bent forward and reached my arm outward. My arm slowly advanced closer and closer to the Enderman's pearl, I could almost touch it... I gently pulled it out of his hand, and slowly pulled my arm backward.

"I did it!" I whispered happily to Paige.

But I must've whispered too loud, because the Enderman opened its purple eyes and glared at us with hatred.

"You little twerps," he said menacingly. "You really think you can stop Herobrine? He has a whole army. And all you are is kids. You don't stand a chance."

The enderman stood up. "And your journey ends here."

"No way!" I yelled. I punched him, but he teleported and took no damage.

"Paige, you the front, and I'll take the back," I ordered.

We stood opposite of each other, each trying to attack him. We inflicted a little damage on him. All of a sudden, the enderman grabbed Paige and started to choke her.

"Can't... breathe..." Paige choked out.

"Let go of her!" I cried.

"I said it, and I'm going to say it again," the enderman said. "Your journey ends here."

Just as he said that, an arrow whizzed straight at him and hit him in the head. I turned around to see who shot that, and it was Hayden!

The enderman slumped to the ground, letting go of Paige's neck. She also fell to the ground, gasping for air. Ashton and Hayden rushed over to us.

"Looks like we came at the right time," Hayden said.

Ashton handed Paige the baby, and me the sword. I ran over to Paige.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"I'm fine," she said.

Then she slipped her hand into mine. I squeezed it a little bit.

"I need the ender pearl," Paige said.

I handed it to her with my spare hand.

"I also need blaze powder," she said.

I took the orange powder out of my pocket and gave it to her. Letting go of my hand for a second, she sprinkled the powder on the pearl. It changed color to more of a green, and grew a black eye in the middle.

Paige walked over to The End portal and placed the eye in it. The portal grew a black vortex.

"So this is it," I said. "This is The End portal."

"What are we waiting for?" Ashton exclaimed. "We have a world to save! People are getting killed as we speak! Herobrine is way ahead of us!"

He jumped in the portal.

"I'm going with Ashton," Hayden said.

Hayden jumped in after him.

"Let's go!" I said.

"Wait," Paige said. "We didn't exactly get to finish this..."

She leaned over and kissed me on the lips. I returned it. After a minute, she pulled away and took my hand.

"We have a world to save," she said.

We ran towards the portal and jumped in it. Goodbye, Nether. I thought.

The next thing I knew, I was thrown out of the portal. I landed on cold ground next to Ashton, Hayden and Paige.

I looked around at my surroundings. The sky was pitch black, and the ground was a pale yellow. Scattered around the area were tall towers. In the distance, there was a portal that was white.

"I see the portal!" I said.

"Let's head over." Hayden said.

Paige scooped up the baby and walked with us.

"It's completely abandoned here," Ashton pointed out. "Usually when you enter here, there are endermen."

"Huh," I said. "That's kind of weird. Herobrine must have taken every single monster with him."

"Which is another reason why we should hurry," Hayden said. "Come on!"

We picked up our pace until we were practically running. Now we were just a few yards away from the portal.

"Almost there!" I said.

Suddenly, a huge, black figure landed right in front of us.

"Not so fast," the figure growled.

_________________________

Hurray! I finally got done with this chapter! :D The next chapter will be the final chapter of this book!!! I will be sure to have a sneak peak of the next book at the end of this book!