A/N This is one of my favorite songs and also holds a deep connection with this chapter. Enjoy.

No reaction came from Dare. His jaw was clenched tight, refusing to say anymore. His eyes dropped to the ground, both filled with emotion yet somehow empty.

All three of them watched him intently as his hands balled into fists. "I have to go." He mumbled before turning to the door and walking briskly out of the house. He slammed the door with so much force that the house shook. Alex jumped up from the love seat and peered out of the small windows in the door.

"Well, he's not going to the village." She noted. "I think...I think he might be going into the woods."

Steve's attention was caught when she said that. "Where exactly in the woods do you think he's going?" He asked.

She looked around a bit longer before answering. "He's heading down one of the paths that leads to the lake."

Steve's eyes widened when he realized what Dare might do. "Alex, give me my iron axe."

Her head whipped away from the window and she peered at him with an odd look. "What?"

"Just give it. I have to get this cast off." Steve expected his sister to decline, to order him to sit with his leg propped up, but she actually listened and grabbed an axe out of the chest.

She handed him the axe and he grabbed it in a hurry. After several long, exhausting moments of sawing, the cast finally came off. It revealed a long scar with several smaller cuts around it, but seemed otherwise healed. When he stood up, his leg ached like he had suspected it to, but Steve could at least walk on it.

He limped over to the chest and pulled out an iron sword before stepping out of the door. He suddenly felt an arm land on his shoulder and knew immediately who it was.

Steve sighed heavily with guilt. "Alex, I have to go." He said, expecting Alex to pull him back in the house to keep him safe.

"I know." She choked out. "Just be careful."

He was partially taken aback by her words that he had to turn back around to face her. She gave a warm smile before nodding her head in the direction Dare went. "Go."

He smiled back in return and hobbled back around and down the stairs. Dare had already entered the woods, so Steve knew he had to hurry or...he didn't want to think about what will happen if he's too late.

Steve felt the cool air of the evening as he briskly limped down the field. Night would soon be on them, casting its eerie glow on all the mobs, but it was a risk he was willing to take.

His leg ached with each passing step, but he kept going. The woods were so close, but he still couldn't see Dare. Panic rose in his throat, but he pushed it away and used it as motivation to keep going further.

If my leg keeps dragging me back, then I might not make it in time.

The pain only increased as he accelerated towards the woods, which were only a few blocks away. He hobbled until he reached the edge of the worn down path that led to the lake.

Luckily for him, the path laid down a hill, so tension wasn't placed on his leg as much. With his sword to balance him like a cane, Steve was able to leap down the hill in a matter of seconds without hurting himself.

When he reached the bottom of the hill, he tripped and fell to the ground. He slammed against the twigs and rocks, moaning in pain. "I hate my life." He muttered through his clenched jaw. Using his sword to prop him up, Steve was able to hop on his feet without any further damage.

The lake lay in front of him, the vast blue shining with the rays of sun that were able to make their way through the tree canopies. It was a large lake, so that meant that Dare , if he did what Steve thought he might do, could've been anywhere.

"Dare!" He shouted. All that returned was silence, but something told Steve that he was still alive. "Dare, please answer!" Steve shouted once again.

Steve waited while the sounds of nature settled around him. Desperately searching for something, anything, Steve scanned the land around the lake until something caught his eye.

Next to a large boulder that was partially shaded by the trees, Steve could make out two glowing eyes - one that was purple, and the other was red.

Steve immediately hopped up and hobbled up the slope towards Dare. When he reached the top of the slope that overlooked the lake, he noticed how glassy eyed Dare was. In fact, Steve even noticed a stray tear somehow fall from his eye.

He desperately wanted to reach out and help Dare, but decided to give him his time. He gingerly walked over, about two blocks from Dare, and sat on the grass. The view from there was absolutely stunning, but neither of them noticed with their thoughts running rampant.

Seconds bled into minutes as the silence continued to thicken. Steve became so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Dare at first.

"Thirteen years."

Steve jumped at the fluctuation of sound. "What?"

"Thirteen years." Dare repeated. His eyes swelled up from sadness, anger, and mostly regret. Steve wanted to ask what he was talking about, wondering if he lost his mind.

"E-excuse me?"

"Thirteen years ago, from this day, my entire life was ruined." Dare choked out.

Several moments of silence followed. Steve pondered over whether or not to ask and dig up his past, but his curiosity got the better of him.

"How was it ruined?"

Anger triumphed over all his other emotions. His jaw clenched up and his eyes narrowed, filled with hatred. "Herobrine ruined it when he...when he took my daughter away from me."

Steve's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "You have a daughter?"

He closed his eyes tightly and shook his head. "No. I had a daughter."

Steve's eyes fell to the ground when he realized what he was implying. Dare sighed with deep regret. "I had a beautiful, amazing daughter. Her mother had died when she was just a baby, so it had always been me and her."

He laughed softly, but it was weighted with sadness instead of humor. "Her name...her name was Jennifer. My little Jenny." He swiped his hand across his cheek, wiping a stray tear away.

"I used to go on secret missions like this since I was eighteen. Damn, that was years ago. But anyways, I went on secret missions almost every week. When Jenny turned old enough to walk, I started taking her with me. I knew it was risky, but I always made sure she was safe as possible.

"Remember how I told you about the Resistance?" He asked somberly.

"Yes, I remember. You called yourselves the Resistance in public, but you guys were really the Protectors and only certain people knew about you."

Dare smiled, but it was one of sadness and guilt. "Well, I kind of lied to you about how they formed. The Resistance did turn into the Protectors, but in a much different way.

"The Resistance was an army long before my time that was made to fight off Herobrine. When I was old enough, I enlisted in the military, but they placed me into the Resistance. I had to go on undercover missions a lot, and that's how I met my wife. She was a human sorcerer, but had the ability to shift into any mob.

"She became pregnant with Jenny, but then became sick. I was lucky that Jenny survived. With her being a mixed mob, not many people wanted to babysit her, so I had to take her on these missions with me." Dare closed his eyes, forcing more tears to spill onto his cheek. He held tightly to his wrist and his nails dig into the skin.

"One mission in particular happened to  be the biggest one in my life. I didn't know at the time and it was just to investigate some villagers who knew about Herobrine. The tables turned when he showed up, taking the Resistance team by surprise. Mobs surrounded the village, trapping us all in.

"I took Jenny into a smaller house and hid her in the tallest cubby in the library. She was scared out of her mind and started to cry. I told her that it would be a quick fight to protect the villagers. It was a lie, but she calmed down. Then some explosion was heard in the town and I had to go out and fight. The only problem was that I forgot to tell her that I loved her." Thick tears rolled down his cheek as the memories sliced through his mind.

"That explosion was the beginning of something terrible. Herobrine flew above the town while hoards of mobs attack the villagers. I took my bow and notched an arrow in his direction. It hit his leg and he fell from the sky. He immediately got up, and that's when the real fight began.

"Swords clashing against swords, blood spilling everywhere; it was a madhouse. Inevitably, I was bloodied and bruised with him towering over me. I desperately reached for my sword but he used his own sword and slammed the hilt of it on my head. But a bit of the blade caught as well."

"Is that really how your eye became like that?" Steve asked. Dare nodded somberly.

"I reeled back from the impact and almost fell unconscious, but luckily my vision cleared before that happened. In my hazy sight, I couldn't detect Herobrine anywhere. All I could hear was my team fighting diligently in the background and the angry growls of zombies.

"I took in a calm breath, but that feeling didn't last for long. He appeared again, this time a bit farther away, but I knew that he was targeting me." Dare clutched onto the rock so tightly that Steve could swear he heard it crumble under his grasp. Dare didn't relieve his sorrow and guilt through the tears he had previously. Instead, he turned to face Steve directly and it was like Steve could actually feel those emotions.

"Herobrine had both his arms around my daughter. One was slung across her waist and arms so that she couldn't escape and the other held a dagger...a dagger that was..." Dare struggled to continue on. "It was placed under her throat."

The anger built up so much that the rock actually did break under his grasp. "She was screaming and squirming to get away, but it was no use. I was so broken that I couldn't hardly move, but I forced myself anyway. I got to my feet and started limping to her. It didn't matter if my life was at risk because hers was more important.

"It was like he was waiting for me to get close enough, smirking at my pathetic body. I kept going until I could no more. The dagger dropped from his hand and a blue aura replaced it. I was enveloped in this sorcery and was frozen in place." The veins were bulging out of their place and his knuckles were bloody from the skin breaking since he clenched them so tight.

"She screamed for me to save her, to get her away from the demon king. I couldn't reply and could only watch helplessly. Herobrine smiled, his fangs shining from the light of the burning village. Resistance is futile, he hissed at me before disappearing into nothing.

"But that wasn't the worst part. Right before he disappeared, Jenny had said something that has kept me alive since then." Dare paused to take in a shaky breath,"Please save me. I can't lose both of my parents!" Steve physically felt his heart clench in sadness. Dare's eyes fell to the ground and for the first time, Dare looked like a vulnerable, weak man. But he wasn't a weak man because Steve understood how much strength it took him to tell him this.

"When he disappeared, the magic wore off and I fell to the ground. I can't remember anything immediately after that except seeing the dagger on the ground before my vision went black. I woke up the next day and everything - everyone - around me was...destroyed. My entire team was dead, and I knew Herobrine killed them."

"How'd you know it was him who killed them?" Steve asked.

A look of horror flashed across his face as if the memory was playing out in front of him. In a way, it was. "Because...their eyes were...they were blank. Any remnants of their soul were gone and replaced with...emptiness." A shiver ran up his spine as his skin crawled from the memories.

"The Ender Council came in and rescued me. No matter what they asked, I never told them anything. To this day, they still have no idea what he did to me." The anger and sadness returned and his eyes darted back to the ground.

"Ever since then, the Council ordered me to stay in the End as much as possible. That's when I created the Protectors, a team of younger recruits that dedicate their lives to finding information about Herobrine. I used the information they found to piece together my own profile of him.

"Every night I would enter the Overworld and try to find him and Jenny. No information led me anywhere and I never came closer to finding her."

Steve hesitated to ask, but he had to know. "How'd you know that she was..."

"Dead?" Dare finished for him with a hateful snarl (directed towards Herobrine, not Steve). "Because I went back to the village. Everything was gone, the buildings' hollow shells showing that there was once life there, but it was gone. The one thing I found was that same goddamn dagger on the ground." His eyes glazed over before continuing on.

"Someone had taken the dagger and cleaned it because it was shimmering against the sunlight. Wrapped around the dagger was...was a locket. It was the locket my daughter wore everyday. I opened it up and saw two pictures. One of her mother, and one of her. Both were marked out with...blood. Once I saw that, I knew she was gone." He finished in a soft whisper. A single tear fell from his pained eyes.

"Is that why you freaked out when I told you Casey was taken?" Steve asked. Dares' brows furrowed in confusion.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"After thirteen years, you finally were able to create a family. It's a little broken, but it was all you ever needed. Casey became a daughter figure to you, just like Jenny was."

A sad, but ever present smile appeared on his face for the smallest second. "It's just...I spent the last thirteen years searching for her and...and I finally found someone who could fill that gaping hole. I didn't replace her, but I knew Jenny was gone and I had to move on." Dare's face suddenly darkened and anger returned to crush his other emotions.

"But then Herobrine returned to screw my life up once again. And now Casey has to pay for it."

Steve didn't know how to feel about this. Could Herobrine be lying to him and is secretly communicating with The Assassin? Or did she use telekinesis to reach Dare's thoughts? The one thing that Steve wasn't questioning was how evil Herobrine could be.

That's probably why he was uncomfortable when I mentioned Dare. Steve remembered when he had that conversation. A sudden realization struck him.

Herobrine knows where Jenny is.

He became anxious for the confrontation that awaited him. Before he could imagine how Hero would react, Dare spoke out.

"I swear to Notch when we finally get to  battle them, I'm going to kill that son of a glitch." His eyes flashed over to Steve. "No offense."

Steve didn't even realize what he said. "Uh, none taken." All that was occupying his thoughts was him praying that Dare never finds out about Herobrine.

It's inevitable. He's bound to find out sooner or later.

"God, I miss her. Though it was only ten years, I've cherished my time with her." Dare hesitated to continue. "I just wish my time was longer."

Anger bubbled up in Steve. He knew that Herobrine was in deep, and he wouldn't be able to crawl out of it. His anger was also meant for The Assassin. But the most anger went to himself.

"I'm sorry Steve."

His eyes snapped over to him in confusion. "What? Why?"

"If I wouldn't have taken you to the End, none of this would've happened. Casey would be safe at the castle, you wouldn't of been injured, and Donny wouldn't..."

Steve smirked over at him. "You think that you caused all this? It was bound to happen eventually and we have a trained soldier to help. So no, you didn't cause this."

Dare shook his head, his somber eyes trained on the lake. "I guess, but I've been responsible for most of my other past mistakes. The biggest one was me deciding to have a family."

He laughed bitterly, and for the first time ever, Steve could sense pure fear.

"See, you never know how much you truly love someone until you let them go. And when you do, they never return." He rested his chin on his knees, never losing sight of the lake.

"Just...just watch out Steve. The world can be a cruel and manipulative place that will take all you ever loved. And when it does, it takes a small piece of you along with it."

•••

Y'ello readers! How's it going? School good? Personally I-

*sniff from the corner*

Herobrine? Are you...crying?

*sniffs again* N-no. A stick just fell into my eye.

Is this about the chapter? I know I made it emotional but I didn't know I made it THAT emotional.

You killed off Dare's wife and daughter!

Um, actually you did that.

Nu-uh I only killed the daughter.

O.o Alrighty then. Your arguing skills have gotten so much better.

I know.

Okay, okay. We are getting off track. So, readers, I would like to know how this chapter went. I tried to make it extremely emotional, but I don't know if I accomplished that.

You did.

Shut u- wait. Was that a positive remark about my book?

No..uh, I uh...gotta go. I have other...uh...fanfictions to invade.

*eyeroll* Whatever. The song I referenced at the beginning is Let Her Go by Passengers and it's so sad yet so beautiful at the same time and it really relates to this chapter.

Okay, so this author's note is really long and I might want to end it before the hormonal demon returns.

I HEARD THAT.

Bye!

-Crazy