The night was calm and the base of Team Crafted was quiet and still. Out on one of the balconies of the great castle was a dark silhouette looking up at the sky, standing so still that from down below, it seemed as if he was a statue. A dark outline of a door opened behind him and other figure stepped out, moving to lean on the railing beside him. From him came a faint, small flicker of light that was visible from the main street below, but there was no one outside to see.

          "You've been standing out here long?" Adam asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the night or alert anyone to their presence.

          Steve shrugged a little. "A few hours maybe. But I prefer the outdoors to sitting inside."

          Adam nodded in agreement. He rested his arms on the railing and looked at the sleeping buildings below.

          "How's your friend doing? Mitch?"

          "He and Jerome were really close, even as kids. But we'll make sure he'll be okay. That's what friends do."

          "You've got a really solid group of friends Adam," Steve said knowledgeably. "Don't let them go."

          "I won't."

          They were silent for a few minutes before Steve spoke again. "I heard what the Lords said after the battle. You do know that they're going to forget everything they said, right? About not attacking each other?"

          Adam sighed. "I know. But even if we get peace for at least a few months, I'll be happy. I knew as soon as I said it that asking them to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious was a long shot."

          Steve hummed. A few seconds more passed before he said, "I'll keep an eye out for anyone who tries to pick up where Entity left off. I travel a lot so I'm pretty likely to hear a few things now that I know what to look for."

          "Thanks Steve." Adam followed the older man's gaze up to the bright stars above. The constellations of Herobrine and Anne still embraced in the sky but now, a little away from them, the stars had rearranged to form the figure of Notch working over a table, blueprints behind him. He heard Steve give a sigh and looked over to see him with his shoulders slouched, looking down to the street below.

          "You know, I thought - well, I believed - that maybe, after this whole war thing was over and done, the three of us could get back together again. Be a family, you know?" Steve didn't need to explain who 'the three of us' were. "We had split up years and years ago - centuries, really - but even we had all forgiven each other over the argument, we stayed separated out of habit more than anything. I thought that this war would change that but now, well..."

          "I'm sorry Steve," Adam said quietly.

          Steve took a breath and looked up at the stars. "Guess I'm the last in the family."

          The tone was nonchalant, but Adam was struck with a thought regardless. "If you're the last, does that mean that you won't get the Star Blessing?"

          Steve shrugged. "Yeah, but it's not really important. Hey, maybe I'll end up in the stars anyway, even without the blessing." He gave Adam a lopsided grin, but Adam could see the pain in his eyes.

          "I'll watch them," he promised.

          The show of uncaring dropped and Steve gave him a small, sad smile and a nod of thanks. They stood in thoughtful silence again, looking up at the sky.

          "Don't waste your magic," Steve said suddenly. "You owe that much to Herobrine. And don't go down the path he took either, of destruction and hate, he wouldn't want that. Learn from his mistakes and listen to your friends. They'll keep you on the right track."

          Adam nodded but Steve noticed that something was bothering him and when he asked, Adam heaved a sigh.

          "Why did Herobrine sacrifice himself for me?" Adam asked, finally speaking the question that had been on his mind for so long. "I was barely trained and had nearly no experience in this whole magic deal while he literally single-handedly changed the course of battles. This entire war would have gone so differently if he lived. We... We didn't even really know each other much outside of training and the war. So why would he die for me?"

          Steve frowned a little and looked out into space as he thought. "There were always a few things about Hero that I didn't understand, but several of them were answered when I learnt about him and Anne. She was his reason; why he did what he did, why he kept fighting. When she died, you kinda filled that purpose. He had to train you, to teach you how to control your magic, how to protect people. If you had died," Steve shook his head a little, "I don't think he would have found a reason to keep going. Hunting and killing people isn't a good enough reason to live, especially not for him."

          Adam's expression said that he wasn't convinced so Steve went on. "Look at it from his view. You had a group of friends who needed you, you helped to lead an army, you had people who looked up to you for leadership, you knew your recruits and who you were working with. In Hero's eyes, he only had Anne, Notch and I. And Notch and I had each other. I think he thought that losing you was the greater loss."

          Adam nodded, letting go of a deep sigh. Steve glanced at him. "How's your eye?"

          The General instinctively reached up to touch it then dropped his hand. "I doubt it'll ever be normal again, and it's not exactly an easy thing to hide." He was right. His left eye had healed over the past few days to the point where he could see out of it fine, but a thick scar ran down it vertically, crossing over the pupil. It glowed a brighter, more rich yellow - gold, even - than his other eye and occasionally spluttered out golden flames which had proven to be visible over his sunglasses. His bracelet cuffs were still firmly secured over his wrists, and he had no intention of ever taking them off again.

          "Good fun at parties."

          Adam gave a chuckle. "Yeah right, what kind of parties do you attend?" he asked.

          "Not enough, clearly." Steve stood and stretched. "I'd better get some sleep before heading out tomorrow. The mountains are calling me again, and I must answer."

          He held out a hand for Adam to shake and he took it.

          "See you around Steve."

          He gave a single nod. "See you around Adam."

          With that, Steve turned and headed inside the castle, leaving Adam out on the balcony of the castle, looking up at the constellations that hung forever in the sky.

The End

Man. I don't even know what to say.

I'm so glad that you guys took the time to read this book and its prequel and for commenting and asking questions, it helped me to keep going with the chapters especially when it was feeling a bit repetitive in the middle there.

But what did you guys think? What's your thoughts on the storyline and ending? What ending did you think would happen, what plot ideas did you like/hate/want to steal, anyone want to see some more Skybrine/Herobrine centred books or want me to branch out into something else, let me know!

I still feel bad and sad for killing off Anne and Herobrine. No one else though. Except maybe Seto. 

Anyway! The next book I'm writing is the sequel to System Failure, and it's called System Reboot. I do recommend checking out both, mainly because the plans for System Failure were made by LittleWolf65 and she allowed me to write the rest of the book when she had other things going on, which was great.

But apart from that uhhhh you can read some of the other stories I've written, most of them are shorter than this one, anywhere from 3 chapters long to 30 odd so have fun flopping around.

Otherwise, I'll see you guys in another book and once again, thank you for reading.

Bye!
~Storm