Sigh

When I read through this chapter, it didn't seem very good. Idk. Have fun

~<>~

Did I ever mention that the Nether is hot?

Because it's like, really hot.

(Not as hot as my mixtape oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh)

Within thirty minutes, I had already pulled off my headband and used it to put up my hair into a ponytail. Everyone that had a jacket on took it off. Some people rolled up their sleeves. After twenty minutes, Jona got tired and dehydrated and Skye switched places with him.

The heat-and-small-space mix really did a number on my head, but I was holding on. We were going surprisingly as fast as when we were down underground, since netherrack needed to be tapped only once by an enchanted diamond pickaxe to break.

"Hey Stevie?" Gordon said to him.

"Don't call me that." He said without looking back.

"You're still a god, right? Do you get exhausted from working?"

"From physical labor? I used to not. But ever since, you know... it's as if I'm becoming more..."

"Mortal." I realized. "I'm turning you mortal."

Steve took a few seconds to respond. "I'm not the smart type—"

"Relatable." Gordon called out.

"—, so I don't know the official reason for my mishaps. But yes, I'm guessing that's the basic idea."

"Why, though? Does there have to be a balance of power in the... 'family'?"

Steve shrugged, which looked weird considering there was a spider attached to his chest. "I don't know anything about that stuff. It seems so."

"But." I paused, and inhaled. After I chose my words carefully, I spoke. "So when I gain a power, you lose one?"

"I don't believe so. You have a limit on how much godly crap you can gain, since you're half mortal. So there will be a limit on how much I will lose."

"Is it reversible?" I didn't want to steal anything more from him.

"Not sure. Perhaps we can ask Notch once we get to his city. I got a whole list of questions for him."

"I bet my list is twice as long."

"I won't take that bet."

There was something I wanted to talk about with him. But it was too dangerous to have others listen in on the conversation. I didn't want to give out false information and make others worry.

Sooner or later though, I was going to have to ask Steve if he would start aging again because of me.

~<>~

"I'm hoooot." Gordon whined.

Infinity sighed. "Please never say that ever again."

"It's not our fault you wear a long sleeve shirt." Abby said emotionlessly.

"Why don't you just roll up your sleeves?" Jona muttered.

Gordon threw his hands up as if it were obvious. "I don't want to scare you all if I reveal the gun show!"

"Then stop complaining." I could see the eye roll Abby made as she said that.

"You know very well I'm a whiny person. I can't help it."

"I thought you were a teenager, not a little kid." Jake said.

Gordon shrugged. "A common misconception."

"That's not a misconception." Mastermind corrected him. "A misconception is an opinion. The age of someone is a fact. Unless you meant mentally, in which case it can be an opinion."

"Listen man, I learned that word and I had to use it at some point to sound smart."

"Our break is up." Steve stood up with a relieved exhale. "We don't have to patch up this part; I'm sure we'll be fine."

I looked at the fifteen by ten space we were in. It was small enough to keep around. Anyone who found it would have to be the luckiest person in the Nether.

"Who wants to mine now?" Infinity asked as we all got up. "Cause it sure as heck ain't me."

"Aren't you a cyborg? Isn't your endurance greater than most of ours?" Steve turned to Mastermind.

He nodded sharply. "Yes."

"Then shouldn't you get a turn at mining?"

Mastermind stepped forward. "Sure."

"Why didn't you offer before?" Jake raised an eyebrow as Steve handed the pickaxe over.

"No one asked."

He sighed.

Mastermind went over to a wall. "This direction, right?" After Steve nodded, Mastermind broke the first two blocks. Right on the other side was an open area.

"That was easy." Mastermind handed the pickaxe back.

"What's there?" I went over to him and peered through the gap. What I saw made my jaw drop.

In front of us was the biggest cavern I had ever seen. I couldn't even see the end to it. We were near the ceiling, and about eighty blocks below was possibly the largest army camp in the world. Hundreds of thousands of mobs were right in front of me. Creepers, skeletons, zombies, spiders, endermen, zombie pigmen, even wither skeletons were all in bunches by tents and other buildings. I really didn't think that mobs needed resting areas, but the thousands of cobblestone buildings proved me wrong. We were positioned at the corner with the wall a few blocks to the right. The left expanded into the unknown.

The whole image was so vast, I could hardly comprehend it.

"Herobrine's army." I whispered not because I felt like we could be heard, but because of fear. "This is only a corner of his base... of what he has."

"Let me see." Jake said. I stepped out of the way for him.

"This isn't right." Steve pulled out the Nether map. "This is only supposed to be a small opening, not a giant army camp."

"How long has it been since you got that thing?" Skye asked him.

He frowned in thought. "A few years?"

"He expanded, then."

"Oh my gods... there's so many..." I heard Infinity say when it was her turn to look.

I covered my forehead with my hand, and started to slowly pace around. I knew that Herobrine had a much bigger army, but that was insane. That was almost impossible.

"It's okay." I nodded, trying to mostly convince myself. "We knew his forces outnumbered ours. That never stopped us before. We can still do this."

"Holy!" Gordon yelped. "That's a lot of creepers! I mean... Psshhh. Totally. I've seen more than that."

"Nice save." Abby muttered, shoving him away.

"We need to get away from this place." Steve said, walking to the right wall. "Twenty blocks this way should be fine, then we can continue."

I stared at Jona as he replaced the two blocks in the wall. I was trying to get that picture out of my head, but it was really hard.

"How far away are we from Notch City?" I asked, attempting to change the subject.

"We just need to walk for a few hours. Then we'll get there."

That news made me excited and nervous. We were just a few hours away from seeing Notch again. Seeing the council, Charlie, everyone. I was ecstatic that we were going to be able to meet up with all of them again, but I was also scared of telling them what happened. How we failed.

Oh, and also the fact that I had to tell Notch I knew about the family tree.

How on Minecraft would I be able to tell him? Should I be formal about it? Should I be casual?

Hi Dad. It's me, Kat. You know, your daughter that has to save the world and you knew all this time yet you haven't bothered to tell me? Yeah, we should probably have a father daughter chat. About... everything.

That seemed too casual. And there wasn't enough information.

Hey, Notch. I understand you are busy and all, but I had stumbled upon something. Well, someone. We found your long lost brother Steve who was basically treated like a disgrace to the family. And he showed us the prophecy. Yeah, that scroll of paper that you and Her— wait, how was the prophecy even made? Like did you two actually create everything? If so, how will you be able to ensure that everything comes true? Is that a godly thing? Will I be able to have that thing? What other powers could I get? Oh, and will Steve lose his immortality thing if I conjure up more powers? Can I shut off my powers? And is it even immortality if Steve can die from anything but old age? Will he transform into the age he would be if he hadn't become immortal? How old are you guys? Oh, by the way, I know you're my dad.

Alright, too many questions. I'm pretty sure most of you didn't even read that.

So while we were walking through the deadly and very hot Nether, I was thinking about what I was going to say.

~<>~

~ Jake's PoV ~

I really did like Kat. But her ideas? Not so much.

Don't get me wrong, traveling through the Nether was genius. Kat was smart. But I was not feeling that way when we were in the blistering heat. My jacket was off yet I was still dying. At some points I would get headaches. However, moving helped, so I was grateful that the breaks we took were short.

I was a bit surprised when Kat mentioned she was claustrophobic. Shocked. A girl with her powers is afraid of tight spaces? It was a completely normal fear. Kat wasn't normal. She was half god.

I knew the whole time. I knew that Notch was her father. So did everyone. We only had the first two lines of the prophecy released to the public (it was an unwilling act from the council; we demanded answers after someone from the inside let something slip), and a description of what the child looks like (provided by Notch himself). I obviously wasn't alive when that happened, but the information carried.

I felt insanely guilty when I told Kat I didn't know where her family was and who they were. Technically I was only half lying; I have no idea who her mom is. But I just hoped that she wasn't going to confront me about it. If she did, I'd have to make her explain to me why she didn't tell me about her godly side.

"Jona... stop. We're here."

I didn't pay attention to anything around me, so I bumped into Kat when she halted.

"Sorry." I said.

"We're here." She repeated what Steve said. "We're here."

"Start mining out an area for the portal." Steve ordered Jona, rolling up the maps.

"Start mining out an area for the portal." Jona muttered quickly in a high pitch voice. But he did what he was told.

Steve narrowed his eyes at the mocking gesture. "You guys need to learn how to respect your elders."

I chuckled. "They treat everyone with the same amount of disrespect."

"It's called equality." Kat informed Steve.

After Jona made a big enough room for everyone and the portal, we all gathered inside.

"We're finally done in the Nether." Abby sighed.

Steve placed down the obsidian for the portal. He only had ten, using cobblestone for the corners. He pulled out a flint and steel once he was finished. "I'm really shocked by this journey, honestly. I expected it to go way worse."

I wanted to punch him for saying that.

"Guys."

We all turned toward Skye in the back. He pointed down the tunnel in which we had just come from.

At first I didn't see anything. But then I looked closer, and gasped. Very far down, there was a zombie pigman charging at us. As I stared more intently, I noticed that there were more behind it. And they all looked mad.

"They found us! I knew we should've blocked up the path!" Steve cursed. He quickly used the flint and steel to light the portal. When the purple appeared, he shouted, "Go, go, go!"

One by one, we all went through the portal. There was a time delay, which made the rest of us have no choice but to watch as the pigmen ran toward us.

"How did they find us?" Infinity exclaimed as Abby jumped through.

"I don't know." I grabbed her arm and shoved her toward the obsidian. "Now go!"

She stuck her tongue out, but got into the portal. A few seconds later, she vanished.

Finally, it was just me, Kat, and Steve left. The pigmen were only fifty blocks away.

Kat was about to tell me to go, but I cut her off. "No. You're going now. I don't care about what you have to say; I want you safe."

She stared at me for a millisecond, then nodded. She jumped into the portal.

"You're next." Steve said, pulling out his sword.

"You don't actually think you can fend those things off, do you?"

"I don't plan on it. Get out of here!"

I wanted to argue, but that would've wasted time. I stepped onto the obsidian, and let the purple swirls consume me.

I had never been in a Nether portal before. They were basically outlawed. So I had no idea that the experience was that freaky.

It felt like my world was spinning, twisting, and turning upside down. Steve turned into a blob, and everything turned purple. Then, it faded to black. I felt a headache coming on as the world twisted around me. Finally it turned purple again.

The fresh, cool air was the first thing I noticed. I sucked in as much as I could, which made me even dizzier. I walked forward so I could see where I was, but I forgot I was on an elevated platform. I almost fell, but luckily someone caught me.

"Careful." Kat's voice rang out.

She steadied me until I could stand upright. I blinked and looked around.

We were in a room. It seemed familiar. The whole space was a giant square, and the ceiling was about ten blocks above us. There were couches and chairs, a large table in front of them, some arcade games spread around the area, and a buffet table to the right. The walls were wood, and the couches and chairs were velvety. The floor was purple carpet.

Then, I realized two things. One, this was the dining area for the council. We were in here right before we played Hunger Games, which seemed like it was forever ago.

And two, we had an audience.

There were ten council members in front of us. Mitch, Jerome, Preston, Rob, Vikk, Lachlan, Adam, Ty, Ian, and Jordan were sitting on the furniture, obviously in the middle of eating. Jerome had a chicken leg sticking out of his mouth, and Ian had a half eaten cookie in his hand, which he dropped when he saw us. They all stared at us, not moving.

"Hi." Ty said, his eyes and mouth wide open.

Adam started to say, "What..."

However, he was cut off by Steve making his way through the portal. He stumbled onto the carpet, blinked a few times, and shook his head. "Pick."

Jona knew immediately what to do. He took the enchanted diamond pickaxe and started to break a block of the portal.

"Everyone be ready." Steve said, putting Salem on the ground and brandishing his sword. "And don't kill my spider."

"What is going o—" Adam tried again.

This time, a zombie pigman cut him off. It appeared through the portal, golden sword ready. However, it didn't get far. When it stepped down onto the floor, Steve decapitated it from the back. The mob fell to it's knees, and finally to the ground, disintegrating. Just at that moment, Jona destroyed the portal.

We all stood there, breathing heavily. I'm sure we were a sight to see— a group of dirty and sweaty teenagers coming from a nether portal that appeared out of nowhere. With them, a dog, spider, and reclusive god. That surely had to ruin their appetite.

"Hi guys," Kat finally said, "we're back."

~<>~

Hey everyone

Guess what.

Next chapter is the last chapter.

Lmao I'm sorry for not giving a warning earlier. I didn't even know what chapter I was going to end it on. But then I was like "oh hey I can finally end this piece of garbage" so next chapter is going to be the last, no matter how long it is.

So pumped.

I really don't have anything else to say.

Question: What is your favorite naturally spawned Minecraft structure? (Certain temples, villages, etc)

Rock on, my little rebels.

And I can't wait till you guys see what's in the final chapter of The Soldier :)