Well, I almost forgot to put this out today.

"Guys, I think that's it!"

I looked up and shaded my eyes from the setting sun. In the distance, I could see the tips of turrets rising to greet the sky. They were black against the bright orange and pink of the sunset. Glancing down at my interactive banner map, I saw that Entity's castle was in that direction.

"I think you're right Sub," I said. "It's in the right place."

"So now we can start thinking of a plan, right?" Sky asked as we resumed walking.

"Simple. Get in, get Herobrine out," Jerome said.

"And if we see Entity?"

"Don't attract attention."

"And what if Herobrine decides not to come with us?" I asked. "What if he tells Entity that we're there? It was hard enough to fight Entity and Null the first time, can you imagine what it's like to fight Entity and Herobrine?"

"Alright, do you have another plan?" Bajan asked.

I thought for a moment. "We need to prove to Herobrine that Entity is evil. If we confronted Entity, if he thought it was just us, maybe he would say things that would convince Herobrine of the truth."

"Or maybe he would kill us before we could react," Sky pointed out.

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"What if we just sent him away?" Sub suggested.

We all turned to him, confused. He explained further.

"Steve said that he hacked his way into the game. When you hack your way into something, you leave something called a 'rip' behind. It's literally a rip in the game. If we push Entity through the rip, we can seal it and he'll be trapped out of the game."

"How do you know about that Sub?" Bajan asked.

"I'm a hacker, duh. How do you think we got into Minecraft in the first place?"

"So we get there, close the rip, then what?" I asked. "Herobrine's going to think we just got rid of his friend. We'll be dead before we leave the castle."

"Then we find him first and tell him what we're going to do," Jerome said.

"And how do you expect that conversation to go?" Sky asked.

"Let's just play this by ear," Bajan said. "If we see Herobrine, we'll tell him what we're going to do. If we don't, we'll do it anyway."

"And do you think we can take down Entity alone?" I asked.

"Riley, you handled Entity and Null on your own."

"I barely survived! And I didn't even get close to killing him!"

"We're not going to kill him," Jerome pointed out. "We're just going to push him into this rip and close it."

"What's stopping him from getting back after we close the rip?" Sky asked.

"When a rip closes, the game sort of strengthens. You have to find a new weak spot, and for a game like Minecraft that's constantly changing, it's not an easy thing to do," Sub explained.

"And Entity's on his own. I know he's powerful, but there's five of us and one of him. And we have awesome weapons and stuff. We'll be able to handle him," Bajan said. "We'll tunnel into the castle again, like last time."

Sky nodded, and I had no choice but to go along. I rolled up my banner and we kept walking, grabbing some materials as we went to make pickaxes for each of us. Using my map again, we tunneled into the castle, coming up in the dungeon.

"I'm getting a sense of deja vu," Sky muttered as he climbed up and out of the tunnel. I suppressed a smile and followed him, looking around at the empty cells. This was exactly like last time we had broken into Entity's castle, trying to rescue Herobrine. And here we were, rescuing Herobrine again. But now, would he want to be rescued?

We went up a set of stairs, our weapons out and ready. Bajan had his bow on his back and had his sword out which glowed red. Jerome has his axe of course, Sky had his butter sword, Sub had both of his daggers out and I had my plain diamond sword.

"Don't use your mind-speech Sub," I reminded quietly. "Entity can hear it."

Sub looked at me and nodded his understanding. We crept up the stairs and carefully opened the door at the top.

"All clear," Sky said softly.

"Any idea where this rip could be?" Jerome asked as we exited the staircase.

"Logically, it would be in the middle of the castle. Entity doesn't want anyone getting to it, right?"

Sub nodded in agreement and we set off to our right, since there was a window looking outside on our left. I hung out behind everyone else, my eyes looking around for any sign of Entity, my legs tensed, ready to run. A flash of movement caught my eye and I stopped, staring at it. I had seen a flash of blue, like Herobrine's shirt. Hesitating for a moment, I lightly ran after it, half my mind wondering why I was doing this, half of my mind thinking that I could finally convince Herobrine of the truth. I turned a corner and saw him right there, looking down a corridor.

"Herobrine!" I called quietly.

He spun around, his eyes widening when he saw me. "Riley? What are you doing here?"

"Helping you," I said, walking closer.

"Why?"

"Because Entity is evil."

He sighed, like he was sick of me saying this. "I've told you, Entity-"

"Just listen to me, okay?" I interrupted angrily. Herobrine was surprised but he stopped speaking. "Entity fought us in an old stadium. Half of it was crumbling down and we snuck up on it, trying to surprise Entity and Null. They dropped down and we started fighting. Jerome and I ran for Entity but he threw us back, then you started fighting him. You both were using your swords as well as your magic, and you were moving so fast I could barely see what you were doing. I went off to fight Null, and then Entity threw you back and you hit one of the columns. Entity and Null activated a beam that started to destroy Minecraft, and then you sent us away, back to our world. Don't you remember any of that?"

Herobrine's eyes narrowed. "Why do you keep telling me this?"

"Because it's the truth!"

"Then prove it!" Herobrine's voice was angry, but I imagined that I could hear some desperation in it, like he was asking for the truth to be proven. But he turned and walked angrily away from me, turning down the next hallway.

"Riley? Come on!" Sky's voice hissed at me and I turned and saw him beckoning me. Sighing, I followed him. "What were you doing?"

"I... nothing."

"Guys, I think this is it!"

Bajan disappeared down several stairs that were set in the middle of a wall. We followed him down to a large room that was empty except for a single thing that was suspended in midair at the back of the room. It was about the height of a human and just as wide with jagged edges. When I looked through it, I saw nothing but black.

"Yep. That's a rip," Jerome said.

"So all we need to do is shove Entity through," Sky grinned.

"Shove me through what?"

We all spun around guiltily and saw Entity standing at the bottom of the staircase, grinning at us, his black sword in his hand.

"You know, I was wasting a lot of my time looking for you guys," he said, walking towards us. "But now, you've solved my problems. I'll kill you here, get rid of your corpses, and no one will be any wiser."

"Woah, woah, what about Herobrine?" Sky asked.

Entity scoffed. "That idiot believes everything I tell him. He believes that you are trying to hurt him. And I'm going to make sure it stays that way."

"Why are you even doing this to him?" I asked. "What do you have to gain?"

"HEROBRINE ABANDONED ME!" Entity yelled. "HE LEFT ME ALONE WITH NOTHING! I GAVE HIM AN OFFER THAT WOULD MAKE US STRONG, THAT WOULD MAKE US RULERS! AND HE LAUGHED AT ME!" Entity took a deep breath, like he was trying to control his anger. "Well this time, the joke is on him. I'll be the ruler of Minecraft, with him doing everything I tell him to. And by the time he figures it out, if he ever does, it'll be too late. I'll be in control."

He kept walking at us. I took out my sword, seeing my friends also take out their weapons. Entity laughed at us.

"You think you can stop me?" he asked. "With your petty weapons?"

"We don't need to stop you," Jerome said. "We just need to push you into the rip."

Entity grinned, showing off his yellow teeth. "Bring it humans."

We charged at him, ready to take him on as a team.

(Herobrine) Because you know, why not?

I sprinted away from the stairs, my mind spinning, trying to connect the dots. Only minutes after I had seen Riley, she and her friends had charged at Entity, with weapons ready. I hadn't heard all of what they were saying, but they seemed to want to get rid of Entity. I had left just as they had started to fight, 5 against 1. I wanted to help, no, I had to help. But who? Which side was the right one? Which one was telling the truth? Which was selling lies?

The things I had remembered crowded my head, as if they were trying to make things clearer but failed. Then the latest memory that I had remembered came back to me. Less than a minute after I had talked to Riley, it had flashed in my mind. And as I relieved it again, my heart hardened.

I would need my sword.

I had chosen my side.

Questions:

What did Herobrine hear Entity and the group say?

What did he remember?

Which side has he chosen?

Will the group be able to push Entity into the rip?

Will Entity just destroy all of them?

Will Herobrine and Entity team up?

You guys are gonna have to wait for the answers to these questions because the next chapter is proving to be a butt to write. I might need to do re-write it a few times, we'll see.

Stay awesome!