Steel Blood - A Hermitcraft fanfiction

Ch 25: oH nO it's a filler chapter-

'Is everyone alright' was probably the wrong thing to say after the battle. Scar's side had retreated not long after NPG began his killing spree. Now there were 3 more dead. 

xB.

Doc.

And Zedaph. 

The former two killed by NPG, and the latter a complete accident by Impulse. It had been self defence: Zedaph had attacked him first, and the shove against the wall to get him away wasn't meant to kill. 

But it did. 

'Is everyone alright?' The fateful words, spoken by Grian had a very mixed response from the group. Including swearing from some of the least expected places.

'What the f*** do you think, Grian?' Impulse snapped back. 'It's- it's not like Zedaph's dead or anything. It's not like I F***ING KILLED HIM.' 

'You need to keep NPG under control, dude.' Ren snarled in agreement. 'He's killed a lot of people recently. And now- now...'

'It wasn't his fault.' Mumbo replied. 'He didn't mean to do it...'

'Oh, of course he didn't, dude.' Ren interrupted, sarcasm seeping from every word spat from his mouth, storming over to where the moustached hermit was standing as he quickly backed away, hands raised in terrified surrender. 'That... THING is dangerous. Scar's right, we need to kill it. Before it ends up killing us.'

'It's not a thing! He's our friend!' Gem shot back. 'And he only attacks when someone attacks him. If we actually help him, then everything will be alright.'

'DOC'S DEATH IS NOT ALRIGHT!'

'Ren, please, I know you're upset...' Gem tried to reason, but the dog was having none of it, turning and walking away. 

'Ren, please. Come back. We need you- REN, PLEASE!' 

'I'm sorry, dudes, but NPG's gone too far. I'm not helping it any more.'

And with that, he left. 

It was another couple of days until NPG woke up, tired, groggy, and with no memory of what had happened. No one was with him. He didn't really know, he realised, where he was in general - some kind of stone room. Whatever it was, it was NOT a rustic house. But... maybe that was a good thing? The build that had become his obsession didn't have to be every build, did it? Other players were happy making other things. And maybe the house would've made him stand out too much.

'Hello?' He asked, sitting up. Whatever muttered conversation had been happening just outside stopped, before the door opened and Mumbo appeared, looking rather sheepish, and nervous. NPG scanned his databases for why. Nothing. But he did remember a time like this before. Just after he'd-

'I killed someone, didn't I?' 

'W...what? You remember?'

'No. I just remember what you said the last time I woke up like this.'

'You killed xB. And Doc.'

'Doc was on our side.'

'Yes.' 

Silence.

'Grian's planning another mission. You're staying behind, though. He doesn't want you to get into any more trouble, plus you need time to recover from the fight.'

'You're going, aren't you?' 

'Yeah... But Gem's staying behind to look after you. And Hypno will be here. It's a mission to dig under to Scar's base and try to convince him not to kill everyone, trade back Jellie, and hopefully end the fighting...'

'Hopefully.' NPG repeated. 'And what if it goes wrong?'

'We... all get captured, and Scar sends his forces to capture you. You get scared... and kill people, and there'll be no one to stop you.'

'I don't want to kill anyone. I never meant for any of this to happen...'

'I know.'

'MUMBO, IT'S TIME TO GO!' The distance call from Grian reached the pair.

'I don't want you to go.'

'Gem's here.'

'I don't want you to end up killed... Mumbo I'll miss you.'

'Me too, NPG. You're my friend.'

'You too.' 

The two shared a smile, before Mumbo ran off, leaving the robot alone. 

'Mumbo, there you are! So, everyone's here now, I see. And before we get on with trying to convince a madman not to kill someone who murdered his best friend and trapped him in a box for who knows how long, Wels joined us!'

'I'd rather trust you than Scar...' The knight explained. 'Besides, NPG's pretty cool.' 

'Great. Now, we all know the mission: dig a straight tunnel to Scar's base, find him, and I'll convince him not to attack NPG. Wels, Hypno, if anything goes wrong, you fight. Mumbo, Impulse, you dig. Any questions? No? Then let's get going.'

And thus the mission began, with Impulse starting to tunnel down into the ground, a few blocks down, before heading in the direction of Scar's base. The others followed down behind. Mumbo joining Grian at the back.

'Mumbo, you're supposed to be digging.'

'NPG's woken up.' Mumbo replied. 'I... thought I should tell you. He's awake, and figured out what happened.'

'Oh, great. How did he react?'

'He didn't mean to do it, and he doesn't want me to die.'

'That all?'

'Basically, yeah... do you think this mission is going to succeed?'

'I don't know. I hope so, but I'm afraid that Scar's too far gone... why does he always make such stupid mistakes?!'

'You're... going through a lot right now. And no one blames you for anything. I just want you to know that.'

'I don't know why I decided to help NPG. It's only going to cause more trouble. I should've stayed out of this.'

'You're doing the right thing, NPG isn't a threat.'

'I still feel like he is... he almost killed me, remember? And he just always reminds me of Robot Grian.'

'I know.'

'Uhhh... guys? There's something above us?' Impulse broke through the conversation by saying.

'Again?! Just... change direction and pretend we're not doing anything.' Grian replied 'We technically come in peace.' 

'Actually, I think the other side had the same idea as us... there's a tunnel coming towards us right now. I can hear more digging...'

'Right, we're turning back.'

'Now?' Wels argued. 'We can easily diffuse the situation. NPG isn't here and if it's him they're after then...'

'If we tell them he's not here they're going to head straight there and we'll end up with a massacre on our hands, or someone will kill NPG and make all of this worthless.' Mumbo retorted. 'We can't do that.'

'We can't do anything, it seems.' Snapped Grian. 'We turn back, avoid confrontation, and return to our base. Maybe blow up our tunnel on the...'

'THEY'RE HERE!' Impulse yelled, though it was obvious, as the tunnels combined and the ceiling started to fall in. 

AHHHH THIS SUCKS