The End Of MINECRAFT (Being the Final Volume Of the Minecraft Trilogy)

Everyday Heroes

Light years away

Markus Persson walked through the sterile lab hallways, passing lab techs and scientists busy at work. He continued walking toward the glass wall adorned with the logo of his company, Mojang. The orange flame logo adorned the wall, which suddenly split open into two automatic doors as he came closer. Beyond these doors lay top secret machinery few men ever saw or would get to see. Fortunately, he was one of those few men.

Grabbing a cup of coffee from the snack bar, he hurried into the back of the facility, passing several top secret projects as he went. Finally, he pushed open the heavy steel door which contained Project Minecraft.

The brick room was cool, seeing that it was in a far, dark corner of the facility. All sorts of relics and memorabilia lined the walls, including rusty tools, faded pictures, and ancient pages of text. Monitors sat on shelves that also lined the walls, some of them on, displaying basic images, but most remained dark, as they had for years. Newspaper clippings and other reports hung all over, most containing foreboding and mysterious headlines.

Jens Bergensten sat at an older computer, frantically monitoring every little action it recorded. Hundreds of snaking wires connected the computer to a gargantuan machine. Markus guessed few people would know the machine's true purpose by looking at it. But he knew what it was: a gateway.

"How's the gateway?" he asked. His tone was casual, but inside, he was just as frantic for answers as his assistant.

Jens looked at him and answered hurriedly and excitedly, "The machine came back online after it picked up a signal, but there are still several preliminary tests we'll have to run before we can even dream of actually using it. However, if we get a full staff back on it and keep working at the rate I've been, we could expect a quicker result."

"How soon?" inquired Markus.

"A week, maybe," guessed Jens. That was great news, except that Jens' pace was working on one hour of sleep for three days straight. Markus was pretty sure that he hadn't been home in that time.

But Jens encouraged him. The two were good friends, and they had been together long before their collaboration on the gateway. Jens had a passion that he never bothered to hide, and it made working with him all the better.

"All right," smiled Markus. "I'll see what I can do." He gave Jens a pat on the back and strolled to his office.

"Markus!" shouted Jens, stopping him at the door. Markus turned.

"Yes?"

"Could this be related to Project Mentem?" wondered Jens, not looking up from the machine.

"Perhaps," mused Markus. "One can hope." With that, he went to his office. Sighing, he sunk into his desk chair. Jens was one of the few people who knew what the gateway, what the world of Minecraft meant to him. It meant a lot.

He had been someone else there. They all had. The whole team had been heroes in a way they never could be here on Earth. They had brought change, most of it good, to the locals. They had built a towering castle, watching the world change and grow. He had been called Notch, the leader, the cornerstone.

And then it had fallen apart. What mistakes they had made. Markus had thought they could expel evil from the land and impose law as the absolute power. As it turned out, evil just settled into that absolute power. What Brian had done was horrible, but Markus knew they had all messed up, especially him. They had played gods-- specifically Prometheus-- and they had paid the price.

So much lay on the other side of that gateway. A world he had been forced to abandon was waiting. Had it fallen to chaos? Or had his absence restored equilibrium? The villagers waited. The people who had revered him, first as a deity and then as a hero-- were they still there? And his brother was on the other side, if he was still alive.

He had lost his brother. Brian, called Herobrine by the locals, was gone. He had been claimed by the forces of evil, administering his own sick form of justice onto the world. But had Brian really been that wrong? Perhaps Markus himself had been the real evil, conforming the whole world to an order he thought was right.

These demons had haunted him for years, but now he was so close to actual answers. Absolution, closure. He just needed to open that gateway.

A ringing interrupted his thoughts. "There's a man to see you, Mr. Persson," announced the voice of his secretary. Markus frowned. He wasn't expecting anyone today.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"It's urgent, sir. I'm sending them in." Markus' eyes jumped to the door, which suddenly clicked open. A clean cut man in a dark suit walked in, no older than thirty. Markus immediately sized him up and felt a rush of emotions. Dark sunglasses, near haircut, bland tie-- this man worked for the government.

"Good morning, Mr. Persson," said the man, flashing a badge. "I'm Agent Fred Wilson, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"What is this about?" demanded Markus, keeping his cool. "We're a top secret lab, but that's all we are. The United States is one of our top clients, and your people know everything we do around here. What could be grounds for investigation?"

Agent Wilson was obviously prepared to answer his questions. "We've detected a strange transmissions being broadcast through this area, and we believe you have something to do with it." Markus felt his heart sink.

"Is this about Minecraft?"

"Project Minecraft, formerly known as Project Gateway, utilized transmissions beamed across cyberspace to open a portal from our planet to one located in this distant universe. It was originally thought to be an invaluable project, and so millions of dollars were poured into it for the hope of success. However, following the failure of the project, the confirmed deaths of twelve people, and the disappearances of at least twenty more, including your brother Brian Persson and Dr. Armstrong, the project was deemed too dangerous to continue and shut down."

"I am aware of all these facts," replied Markus through gritted teeth. "I hope you are aware, though, that the project was shut down because of machine failure, and the label of 'too dangerous' was only slapped on as a more pleasing reason."

"Well, yes," granted Wilson, "but the scientific reserve has since decided that such a project really is too dangerous to exist. They reached this decision only hours after determining you had reopened the project. I'm here to let you know, Mr. Persson, that you are by no means to continue working on Project Minecraft. The consequences of disobeying such an order will be disastrous for you, understand? I've been assigned to launch a full investigation into your company, and if I find anything alarming at all, you are done for. Do you understand?"

"Crystal clear," growled Markus. If this was just some regular U.S. inspector, he'd head over to the heads of the government and let them have it, but this was an FBI agent. Something was going on, and he was going to have to be extremely careful. No way were they going to stop him now though.

"Excellent," replied Wilson, gathering his things. "I'll begin now. If I need you, I'll find you." The agent left the office briskly. Markus watched him through the window, only reaching for his speaker once the man was out of sight.

"Margaret," he called his secretary, "get Mr. Bergensten to see me immediately. Tell him it's urgent."