March 13th, 2027.
He walked up the stairs, not fully knowing what he was doing, but he knew exactly what needed to be done. He shook out his nerves and made his way down the hall. The sound of his shoes were heard in the hallway. Stepping upon a room with the door wide open, he entered and found the room was more vibrantly decorated, fit for a king. He closed the wooden door behind him and locked it so no one would come in.
"Hello Travis." A familiar voice said. Trace turned around and smiled at Lucifer.
"Hello Louis." He stepped into the room and his found his brother laughing at him.
"Please, indulge me. Entertain me, why are you here?"
"Two reasons and how nice of to ask." Trace smiled.
Lucas and I managed to get outside with all the survivors.
"Swim out to the boat and get ready sail." Lucas shouted.
"Where's Sterling and Ethan?"
"They're getting Sierra, remember?" Lucas told me.
"They should have been-"
Another barrel we had set up had gone off.
"We can't wait here. We need to get to the boat."
We swam back with the others and quickly got ready to sail before the last of the barrels blew.
"Look!" Someone shouted as I was climbing on board. I looked behind me and saw three figures moving in the water.
"Throw them a line, now." I commanded. We threw them some rope and helped pull them all up. Ethan climbed on board, with Sterling and Sierra following behind him.
"Sierra!" I exclaimed.
"Let's go, the barrels will go off any second now." Lucas shouted.
"Barrels?" Ethan looked at us.
"What are you talking about, is that what the explosion was about? That was you?"
"Wait," Sierra snapped, "where's Trace?"
Trace smiled and began walking around the room. Still soaking wet from his swim to the castle.
"You see, my friends are here to break their other friends out. I'm here, to make sure you can't get out." Lucifer's eyes got wide.
"What the hell are you talking about?" He asked, "You think I'm a fool?"
Trace only smiled and waltzed his way to the window and looked out into the distance. Lucifer made his way to the door, trying to open it, he realized his brother locked them in.
"We created this world. We're gonna break it down."
"What the hell? Travis, open the door."
"He was here on the boat." I told her.
"No he was inside the..." Sierra looked back at the castle for a moment and we all saw the fear in her eyes.We all paused for a moment.
"He-he came back, right?"
We quickly ran down below deck and looked through the cabin.
"Guys." Ethan found a note on top of Trace's things.
"Where'd he go?"
"Why did he go into the castle?" Sterling asked.
"Cuz he wanted to make sure both him and his brother got home." Ethan said sadly.
Lucas took the note and began reading it out loud to us.
"It says: "My dear friends, I have come to a conclusion more a discovery really."
"I figured you out." Trace smiled and turned back to his brother. "I know now. I know how to end the game." He began to laugh at himself. "To think, I spent all that time putting a whole team together, when this was all I had to do."
"It was under out noses the whole time. Isn't that funny. For days I thought to myself" Lucas read.
"I thought about it and it made sense." Trace smiled at his brother, then began laughing.
"How come you were the king? How did you become king? How come you had short cuts and all these hidden things, like this castle for example. How were you able to get a hold of an ice dragon? I asked myself and finally it hit me. It was so easy, but so hard because it was hidden."
"When we were trapped here, the rules were simple: fight the final boss and you win the game and free everyone."
"We already know that." I snapped becoming even more tense.
"Then there's you Louis. Louis, it's obvious and as your brother I should have seen this. When we were kids, you, it was you. You were always there. When mom left you were in charge. Its so clear to me now. You're-"
"-final boss." Oh my God." Lucas gasped.
"Wait, that means?"
"Shit!" Sierra ran back up on deck.
"So, you know. Now what?" Lucifer snapped. Trace stood still for a moment and just looked out the window.
"Now I'm gonna beat you." Trace said, "I'm going to put this all behind us."
"How do you plan to do that exactly?" Lucifer snapped again, but Trace remained cool and calm. He only acted as if nothing could possibly bother him. Lucifer was mad with rage and was paranoid. He was scared, worried of what would happen.
"I've been one step ahead of you this whole time Travis!"
"No."
"What?" Lucifer walked over to his brother and got in his face, grabbing him by the collar attempting to be threatening. "What did you say? Do you honestly think you have-"
"I've always been one step ahead of you Louis. You just never saw it." Trace put his hands on his brother's and looked him in the eye.
"Tell me, why you, my older brother, were always constantly trying your hardest to be better than me, when all I wanted was to be like you." Lucifer dropped Trace and took a step back in disbelief. He began to feel his hands get sweaty and felt uneasy.
"You can't beat me. No one can. You hear me! No one! Not you, not dad! Not-" Trace looked at his brother with tears running down his face.
"I just did." He said, "I guess that's check mate."
"Travis?"
"I'm sorry." He smiled
By the time we all got back on the top deck, the castle was blown into bits and pieces. The explosion pushed our ship back causing us all to lean back and fall backwards. It was on fire. Biting like a wild fire. We all got up and ran to the side of the ship and looked at the castle as it began to fall apart.
"No," I gasped. We all stood there looking at the burning stone castle, watching our friend's sacrifice up in flame.
"Trace!"
