SHADOW KNIGHT'S REVENGE: A Minecraft Diaries Fan-Fiction

Chapter VII: Recognise

Phoenix Drop had changed a lot.

In Arabella's opinion, it was a sad change. The village grew smaller and it looked like Mother Nature took over it. Even though Levin hadn't mentioned it, Arabella could see that there were far less people than there had been fifteen years ago. Phoenix Drop had grown very dim.

Arabella didn't care, though. She made it an effort to remind herself that she was a Shadow Knight, and these sentimental attachments needed to break. If she was still attached to this place, how was she going to obliterate it later?

How would she be able to kill Laurance?

Arabella reached an impasse yet again. If she was going to help resurrect the Shadow Lord, she needed to be remorseless. She needed to drown out her feelings and sentiments, and be able to get her hands bloody without shedding a tear. The first step would be to destroy any lingering attachments to Phoenix Drop.

She wasn't even paying attention to Malachi, the one Levin assigned to take Arabella on a tour around Phoenix Drop.

"And these are the docks," Malachi was saying. "This is the main area of Phoenix Drop. As long as you stay within the gates, you'll be fine. You've met most of the people residing in the village already, but a few of us have gone on a journey to Scaleswind, in fact, just a few hours before you arrived."

"Phoenix Drop seems like a nice place," commented Arabella halfheartedly.

After a few silent moments, Malachi turned to Arabella. "Say, Mona, I feel like I've seen you before."

"Oh?" replied Arabella. Even when Malachi used to be a ghost, Arabella never hung around him much. "I think you might've mistaken me for someone else. I never really left Krisalis until a few days ago."

Malachi didn't seem convinced, but he sighed. "I guess. Well, you can look around Phoenix Drop alone, if you want."

"Thanks."

After Malachi left, Arabella was alone with her own thoughts. Most of the village already accepted her as Mona, which was a relief. Still--Arabella was slightly disappointed no one remembered her.

Like she had convinced herself, no one cared about her.

Arabella decided to practice her combat skills alone in the docks. She set up a simple dummy which broke at the easiest blow, making it annoying to continuously set up again and again. She hoped that maybe one of the guards would notice her and then let her join the guard, making it all the more easy for a plan of sabotage.

Unfortunately, the one person who did notice her was the last person Arabella wanted to see.

"Finally decided to show up?"

Arabella swung around and her battle-axe clashed with a gigantic, violet broadsword. The wielder was shrouded by a red mask and a helmet. Of course, it was the one person who recognised her: the Stranger.

"Why are you here?" asked Arabella through gritted teeth, refusing to lower her weapon.

"I should ask you the same thing. After all, you 'died'," he replied.

Arabella decided to make something up. She was pretty sure the Stranger would slay her on the spot if she even remotely revealed her true intention. "Look, I never really died in Irene's Dimension. I was just wounded--and pretty badly, at that. When I crawled out of the portal, it led me to someplace in the outskirts, and I camped there for a few days, trying to bring myself up to good health. Then, I started wandering about to find a village or some sort of settlement, and here we are."

The Stranger wasn't convinced at all. He shrugged. "How come you're hiding your identity, then?"

"I don't want anyone to panic or anything, which reminds me," said Arabella, lowering her battle-axe as a sign of peace. "You can't tell anyone about this."

He crossed his arms, but didn't reply. It was apparent that he didn't care about Arabella trying to hide.

"Look," she said, looking directly in his eyes (or, at least, where she thought his eyes were), "this might not matter to you, because you've already lost everything you care about--your wife, your child, your entire village. But it matters to me. I still have a chance at redemption. If you could help someone out without any harm to yourself, why wouldn't you? Are you really that bitter about it?"

Arabella knew she hit below the belt, bringing up his past. The Stranger looked pretty malcontented. He turned away and starting walking back into the shadows. "The second Aphmau, Laurance and Katelyn return from Scaleswind, this charade is over... Mona."

As soon as he disappeared, Arabella let out a sigh of relief. However, she felt a pang of guilt in her stomach. She didn't want to do that to the Stranger, but she had to. That was the only way he'd oblige.

Still, it didn't feel so bad doing it. Like Gene had said, it was easy to be selfish now that she was a Shadow Knight. Plus, this was going to help her masterplan of reviving the Shadow Lord, so it was all good in the end.

Arabella didn't want to continue fighting her worthless dummy, so she left the docks to explore Phoenix Drop.

As she walked through the new Phoenix Drop, she didn't think about much. Maybe she could meet 'new people', but she decided to wander on her own. However, her attention turned to the old guard station--and by that, she meant the very first one that Aphmau had built ages ago. Something was tugging at her to enter the dilapidated place. It was as if her aura was attracted to it.

Malachi had said that this was a prison, now. Arabella didn't understand why she would want to go inside, but she unwillingly stepped into it and immediately wished she hadn't.

She suddenly felt weak and powerless here. There had to be some barrier magicks going on here, but why was it affecting her? Unless...

It was only meant for Shadow Knights, which meant a Shadow Knight was imprisoned here.

"Sasha?" Arabella wondered aloud. Her only response was a dry, humourless laugh.

"I see you've made your way here as well," replied Sasha, sitting on the dirty floor of a cell.

~•~

A/N: Hello! I hope you're still reading this fan-fic. If you're wondering why I'm calling Aaron the Stranger, it's because he didn't reveal his name to everyone yet (at least, not at the time when I was writing this). So, yeah.

I hope you enjoy this! Until next time.

-(Gr)ace