Chapter 10: Final Preperations and Preocupations

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   Emily woke up to find herself in a very, very fancy hallway made of gold and nether quartz blocks with diamond facades and emerald ceiling tiles. Looking around her, Emily knew she could never afford anything that was vaguely made out of anything like that. Right beside her lay an unconscious Herobrine, shallowly breathing in and out.
"Herobrine," whispered Emily, "please wake up." When Herobrine didn't react, Emily began to poke Herobrine in the back. Sadly, Herobrine didn't say anything to suggest he was at all conscious.
Slowly, Emily tried to get up until finally she was on her knees. Using what little strength she had, she started to shake Herobrine ruffly. Still, the legend did not awaken.
Suddenly, Emily got an idea. An idea that was so improbable that she was about to abandon it until her vision turned into a fiery vortex. Amid the confusion of rainbow spirals, towering magma cubes and wacky villagers was a tiny image very far away. It was too far away. Emily stepped forward in her vision. As she walked, the image got bigger and bigger. Eventually, she realized what it was. It was so simple. It was so... beautiful. And most of all, it was so... delicious... With a full-hearted sob of happiness, Emily stepped forward and took a bite out of the roasted chicken.
Back in the material world, Emily took Hero's hand. Knowing that if she messed this up, Herobrine might never wake up from this... whatever it was. Focusing all her willpower, Emily put her palms on Herobrine. At first, it felt like nothing was happening. But then gradually, something occurred. As Emily's hands began to warm. Herobrine started... to budge? As the warmth escalated in Emily's palms, so did Herobrine's movements. At first, it was just an occasional nudge or budge. But soon, Herobrine was jerking around on the floor doing something that looked like a mix of the dances Hokey Blockey and Cube Dancing. Suddenly, both Emily's warmth and Herobrine's movements ceased.
Realizing her eyes were closed, she opened them. Looking down at Herobrine, she was saddened down to her core. She failed. She wasn't able to save Herobrine after all... The roasted chicken lied...
Fortunately, the chicken always speaks the truth. Herobrine's eyes fluttered open. And with the awakening of Herobrine came two words:
"Why brother?"
Herobrine fainted.

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(Somewhere far off)

The darkness swirled around him.  Around him, random images floated around. Notch smiling. A girl staring... oh my Notch SCARY HEROBRINE, and... burning chicken?
Between images, the darkness continued to whisper over and over again:
"Kill. Herobrine. "

The boy repeated the words over and over to himself.

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"Hero! Hero! Calm down!" screamed a flailing Emily, who was trying to hold down a struggling Herobrine. Suddenly his eyes opened again.
"Let me get a go at him!!!" screamed Herobrine. Finally throwing Emily off, he got to his feet and began to run down the hallway, Emily chasing after him.
The duo ran through countless hallways, taking multiple turns here and there, never stopping. By the time the two began to slow down, Emily was making the sounds of a dying horse. Walking at a more bearable pace, Emily continued to follow Herobrine, until she realized that Herobrine had already stopped a few dozen paces behind her. Turning around, she tried to get a peek at what Herobrine was gawking at.
Indeed, the two of them deserved to gawk at what they saw. Looking inside what should've been a nice, plush room, was now replaced by a flaming world filled with flowing, hot-to-touch lava, and floating ghost-like creatures. Emily wasn't sure what she would've called them... Like gassy ghosts... Maybe... Ghasts?
All of a sudden, Herobrine began to run again.
"Oh for heaven's sake..." muttered Emily, "why run?"
As if Herobrine heard Emily's question, he started to wail repeatedly, "Boom boom boom boom..."
Emily wasn't sure what Hero meant until she looked at the "Ghast" again. This time, the creature's mouth and eyes were open. And oh what a horrific sight it was. Such a horrific sight it was, this author won't even recount the details so you readers may be able to sleep at night. But most of all, Emily took notice of what was coming out of the Ghast's mouth. Following right after Herobrine, Emily ran for her life as a flaming charged-up ball of coal chased after her.
Catching up to Herobrine, Emily heard a giant BOOM, and felt a searing heat from behind her.
Panting with her every step, Emily asked Herobrine, "Hero, what in the world is happening?"
As if everything was normal, and he did not just go through some sort of psychotic episode, Herobrine answered normally, "Why don't we go look out of a window and see for ourselves?"
Following his suggestion, Emily led Herobrine to one of the small windows set into the wall. Staring out, at first Emily saw nothing in particular. Then the earth shook. Walls rattling, wind howling, Emily stuck her head out of the window. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The cows were grazing in the tall grass, villager gardeners cutting the leaves of oak trees to create giant shrubs and hedges. Then all of a sudden, the world flickered. What was once was a beautiful garden just moments ago, was now a barren darkened landscape with towering obsidian pillars. Atop these monstrous structures were these fiery, devilish cubes of sorcery, ready to help aid their master in whatever evil deed they wished to befall upon Minecraftia. On the ground stood millions of tall, black figures. Each had a hollow, purple look, holding some type of white, cratered block. And above it all flew a fearsome creature. Emily wasn't sure if she was seeing right. What she saw in front of her was only known as legends to the few who remembered. Dragons hadn't existed in Minecraftia since the Alpha days, perhaps older than even the Indev Creation. Long Beta ages had come and gone, and Emily was sure those flying creatures had been long deleted. And they certainly were not black.
Suddenly, the dragon noticed Emily. It made a sharp turn in the air, and suddenly it was now flying straight for her. Before she could scream, the world flickered, and the garden returned.
Scared out of her wits, Emily turned to Herobrine. "WHAT WAS THAT???" asked a terrified Emily.
Putting a fist to his chin, like one would see on the beautiful magnum opus marble statue of Steve, the first man, Hero replied, "What you just saw was an episode. They have been occurring more and more frequently. Ever since you destroyed the first inner wall, as each day progressed, the tremors and episodes became more and more frequent and longer. What you sa..."
Before Hero could finish, Emily interrupted him. "What do you mean each day progressed? Have I missed something crucial?"
"Well," pondered Herobrine, "I thought you would've realized. When the inner ring shattered, space and time became unstable. Somehow, Notch created the wall so that it would correspond to Minecraftia's safety net. In other words, it had a direct link to Minecraftia's mainframe or existence. Break one, you will cripple the other. We had no idea. Notch forced us to deal a fatal blow to Minecraftia just to get to him..." Hero took a minute to think. Then, in the quietest whispers, he said, "Smart brother..."
"Anyways," continued Herobrine, "when we were sucked into the portal, people emerged out of it from different places and times. The majority of people came out on the other side, only having a few hours passed by. Others, such as my unlucky self, came out closer to home. I..." Here he chuckled, "emerged inside Notch's bathtub. Luckily, he wasn't there. But he did have the strangest shaped underwear in the strangest places..."
Emily was starting to regret asking Hero. She certainly did not want to know about the clothes of Hero's brother. Especially, the pieces that interacted with... Emily shivered in disgust.
"Anyways, I was a day ahead, thereby missing a day of the action. I found this out from my wife. She told me that you hadn't been found yet, so we decided to split up." Hero took a pause, gazing out a window in sad contemplation. "Sadly, my calculations were wrong. Breaking the walls created more damage than anticipated. When we split off, I was accidentally transported through a portal. The episodes were not too frequent then, yet somehow I got transported into one. I was pretty much going through portal after portal. Eventually, I grew too exhausted and collapsed. Here I am now." Hero, now beginning to walk even faster, decided to stop talking.
"Where are we going now?" Emily asked Hero. She was tired of being kept in the dark. Who would have known that Notch, Guardian of Minecraftia, was actually an evil guy?? And Herobrine, legends' darkest villain, was actually a... hero??? And now, the world was breaking apart, pixel by pixel, because of her. What she didn't understand...
"Hero," she said, "Why did you make me break the wall in the first place?"
Hero, understanding what she was implying, replied, "I did not make you break the wall on purpose so the world would break down. I only wanted to stop my brother. I am only capable of a minuscule fraction of damage compared to what my brother is capable of doing."
The two fell silent for a while.
"We're..." he started. Suddenly, a loud crash was heard from above. "Ah... I believe our ride is here Emily. We are to go to the central tower of Notchus, House of Redstone, and we will use the Command Block to fix the world!"
Command block? Was this destruction possible? Could Emily fix her wrongdoings? Hopefully so... Because Emily wasn't sure what would happen to her and everyone else if she failed.

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What seemed like centuries of darkness started to shift. The boy could feel it. He knew that he could feel it. He felt as if he had some type of... control over it. Indeed the boy was correct. The darkness was beginning to fade. Not very long, the boy realized where he was. Turning his head side to side and blinking his eyes, adjusting to the light, he observed that he was in Notch's throne room. He realized that he would finally be able to find... someone, when a voice from somewhere behind him whispered, "Jake, do not forget..."
Turning around, Jake shouted, "WHO'S THERE?!??" His voice echoed across the room, but dust pixels were the only things that moved. His name was Jake.
"WHO'S THERE?!???" repeated the voice with double the volume and triple the anger. "WHY IT IS ME. JAKE!"
All of a sudden, Jake felt insignificant compared to the size of the chamber. He knew that he would always be insignificant. Unless...
"Yes Jake..." whispered the voice. "You know what you must do... The only way to be you again..."
Jake said the only answer that made sense to him.
"I must kill Herobrine."
With that, Jake tped out of the room.

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