A/N Did you review last chapter yet? If you didn't, go do it now! If you have, here's a delicious virtual cookie. *hands over cookie*

Chapter 40:

The Curtain Closes

?'s PoV:

It hurt. Every single inch of his body hurt. It wasn't just a dull ache either, but an almost stinging pain. He briefly wondered if someone had decided to use him as a pin cushion, and had the strangest vision of being poked with gigantic needles.

He didn't dare to open his eyes as he attempted to remember what could have caused it. His head pounded almost as fast as his heart did. His body didn't feel right either, but he could focus on that after he remembered why he hurt.

Light flooded his memory. That was the cause of it. A single, centered beam of light. Then what had happened? That couldn't have been the last thing, right? He didn't think that being stuck in the Void would cause him so much pain. He shouldn't even be in pain if he was in the Void.

He uneasily peered open one eye. That didn't do him any good. All that he got was a view of the End's sky. Opening the other eye, he began to look around him. There was rubble everywhere, and it took a lot of effort to move it off of him. It seemed as if he had crashed into one of the towers-Wait a second. Why on Minecraftia was he so high up?! The mobs on the ground below looked like ants from the height he was at!

"What could have happened to me-" He clamped a hand over his mouth. Even his voice seemed wrong. It wasn't the voice that he had used for so many years. It was some strange, foreign voice. A voice that, admittedly, sent shivers racing up and down his spine.

Resisting the urge to scream like a little girl, which was a very hard thing to resist, he made his way to the edge of the tower. His clawed fingers gripped the remaining wall tightly as he stared downwards. What looked to be endermen were crowded around some strange mobs. He recognized one of the mobs to be a villager, but the others were some terrifying new type of creature. They looked kind of like villagers, but they didn't seem normal either.

He gulped.

His confusion was quickly taken away because, being somewhat clumsy, he had to trip over his own two feet and go plummeting towards the endstone.

It didn't matter if he would survive the fall. He would be a pancake on the ground below, and it would take hundreds of years to heal from a wound like that.

Suddenly, he found that he wasn't falling. Behind him a pair of dragon-like wings had opened up. He hovered in the air. Cautiously, he ran his clawed fingers against them. They were definitely real, and not a figment of his imagination. "What the heck?" He muttered. This just kept getting weirder and weirder.

He landed on the ground below him. An enderman saw him and immediately fainted. He knew that his form was scary, but he hadn't realized how scary it was. With a snap of his fingers – that was how he always changed his form – he became an enderman and slipped into the crowd surrounding the strange mobs.

He said a quiet, "Excuse me," as he pushed through them. Though he knew that it made more sense to hightail it to the Ether, his curious nature made him have to find out what was going on. Yes, he had heard that curiosity killed the cat. But he had also heard that cats had nine lives, so he thought that saying was stupid.

He finally made it to the center.

The mobs looked like villagers – sort of. They didn't have as large heads and noses, and the males in the group didn't have bald patches. The clothes that they were wearing looked strange as well.

The leader of the small group, a mob with glowing white eyes, leaned against his sword for support. He looked exhausted, and looked like he was in pain. There was a cut on his shoulder.

The fake-enderman's eyes traveled to the sword. It was a diamond one, one that pulsed with powerful ancient magic. Not only did he recognize the sword to be Iroas, but he recognized the owner of the magic to be none other than Hero, god of light.

He clamped a hand over his mouth in shock. Alright, he really had to figure out what in the world was going on. He did his best glare of death at the endermen who tried to push him out of the way.

The chatter of the endermen grew startlingly quiet. And then a cry came from the farthest reaches of the group. "Télos is still alive!" One of them shouted. Probably the one that fainted. "And he's hiding among us!"

"I saw him!" Another yelled.

"He's disguised as enderman!"

"He's going to punish us for not continuing to fight!"

"He's going to kill us all for disobeying him!"

Fear spread throughout the crowd, and the mobs in the center all look terrified. "We can't ******* beat him now." The one wearing makeup around his eyes said. "We're too tired, Hero…"

A young girl asked, her voice shaking as she spoke, "What are we going to do?

"I'm not going to-" The fake-enderman's protest was drowned out by the frantic screaming. "I don't want to-" Once again, no one was able to hear him. "WOULD ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT UP ALREADY?! I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU ALL SOMETHING, BUT YOU ALL JUST KEEP ACTING LIKE A CHICKEN WITH ITS HEAD CUT OFF!"

There was a tense silence. "Thank you." He angrily spat out. "Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Now would someone explain to me what the heck is going on? Like why all of you are rallying around Hero?"

To his surprise, a minute after he spoke the enderman started to run away from him. "It's him!" They shouted. "He's going to kill us!"

"Eh?" He questioned. "I'm not going to kill anyone-" He suddenly stared down. "Hero, why is Iroas against my neck? Hero?" The diamond blade glinted dangerously as it cut into his neck. He jumped to the side and watched the blood drip down Iroas. "Hero, it's me! Télos! Your best friend!"

Télos kicked Hero in the chest when he didn't respond. The god of light stumbled back in surprise, and Télos used the opportunity to steal Hero's sword. The same wings from before sprouted out of his back. "I'm not giving this back to you until tell me what's going on and promise to stop trying to kill me!" He shot into the sky and waved Iroas above his head. "I'm waiting, Hero!"

Suddenly, a fireball shot past his head. "Whoa!" Télos exclaimed, diving as his unknown attacker tried to hit him with another fireball. "That's not far, Hero! Besides the fact that you shouldn't try to kill your best friend, you're not supposed to get someone to get you-Would you stop that?!" He scanned the End for the attacker, and when he finally saw her, he was frozen in fear.

She was dead. Hero had told him that. Télos had mourned her death. Her death was the final straw, the reason that he decided to fight Robra. She had been everything to him, and when she died, the urge to keep living had died with her.

So why was Oracle standing in front of that castle? Why was her magic being aimed at him, trying to pierce his heart?

"Oracle!" He managed to get out. "It's me! Télos! You don't need to attack anymore-" Another fireball flew past his head.

"You hurt my brother and the ones he cares about, Télos." She simply said, shooting yet another fireball at him.

What does she mean?! I've never harmed anyone Hero cares about, and would never harm Hero! He dropped Hero's sword – aiming it just right so it would land before the god of light – and dove to the ground. Something strange was happening, and he would have to play the bad guy card to figure out what. Maybe something took control of me…And used that form from earlier and that voice. Télos snapped his finger. His form changed to the more evil-looking one, and when he spoke, his voice was much deeper. He walked over to Hero. "That blow you struck, best friend, gave me a case of amnesia. What exactly happened?"

"We ******* fought you, you *******!" Télos spun around to see one of the strange mobs. This one wore makeup, and his outfit was all black. "You threatened to harm Phoenix." Télos couldn't explain it, but he felt a connection to the mob, a connection that he had never possessed before with anyone.

"And you kidnapped Claire." It was a green haired mob that spoke.

"And you…And you harmed the mobs at the base. You killed them…" The mob that spoke was the shortest, and was the one who had spoken earlier. When he turned to stare at her, she began to tremble.

What kind of monster am I? Even if I was controlled, I didn't react to that bloodshed and everything I did…Maybe it's better if I die now…It's not like I have anything to live for anymore…

A hollow laugh escaped his lips. "Now I remember." Télos lied. "I remembered doing all of that. It gave me much pleasure." He turned away so they wouldn't see the tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "Then let us have one last battle, Hero, so I can finish you off-"

"Then you've already won." It was a black haired mob who spoke. She looked at him with tired brown eyes. "You know and we know that we've used up all of our magic in that final attack."

Then how am I supposed to die?! "We can still fight him." It was the first mob who had spoken. He gave a tired smile. "We have a little magic left…" The mob who had been by Oracle's side rushed to him. "Thanks, Phoenix." He said as she supported him. Magic started to form in the mob's hands. My magic! I have a…a...a chosen? Then that Phoenix girl is Oracle's…And the group around Hero is his chosen?

A pitiful bar of gold fell to the ground. "There was supposed to be ******* darkness too!" The mob stared down at his hands.

Télos stayed silent.

"What did you do to us?"

He didn't get why the mob was referring to himself in the third person, or what he believed that Télos had done. All that the god could do was silently stare at them and try to be intimidating.

"Are you really Télos?" The villager woman questioned. Her shirt was wet – from what Télos had no idea.

"No, I'm some other g-" He caught himself mid-sentence. "Yes, I am."

"Are you really evil?"

The question caught him off guard. "Of course I am. Why don't you fight me now, Hero, and try to kill me with Iroas-"

"You're not saying that you'll defeat him. You're not insulting him like before. You're talking to him like you're an entirely different person-" Shock appeared on her face. She turned to Hero, eyes still wide. "Hero, don't kill him."

"But he kidnapped you-"

She shook her head.

"Claire, he did. He is not the Télos I knew."

"I want everyone to listen to me!" The woman, who Télos guessed to be named Claire, cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted. "Please, everyone – endermen too – listen to what I have to say!"

The End fell eerily silent.

Though Hero protested and tried to prevent her from going, Claire walked over to Télos. He turned his back to her. He wasn't going to cry. He was going to be strong.

"When Hero killed the evil god of darkness Robra, Télos, god of gold, sacrificed himself." She started. Though she was talking to everyone, Télos had the feeling that her speech was more directed at himself and Hero. "He stood right behind her, and when they were killed with a beam of light, their particles mixed together. I'm not sure how it happened, but Robra's darkness took over Télos. It created a new being, a new, eviller version of Télos."

"How can you prove that?" The mob who had spoken was one of the ones closest to Oracle. It was a strange creature, one that looked like a cross between a fairy tale zombie and pig. "Because right now, I still want to kill Télos."

"Robra had powers of darkness. Lexal can confirm that. As Télos' chosen, they are able to use his powers. They could use both gold and darkness up until we all used that final attack on Télos. But now, the two can only use gold."

Silence settled over what Télos had now realized was a battlefield. He could feel everyone's stares on him, could feel their doubt and mistrust.

He heard two steps of footsteps slowly come closer. He wondered what was going to happen to him. Were these two people who believed Claire's explanation? Or did they want to slit his throat? He guessed the latter.

He felt a hand slip into each one of his clawed ones. Tears still streaming down his face, he raised his head to see that those two brave mobs were none other than Oracle and Hero. "I believe in you." The godly siblings said in unison.

The tears fell even harder. Télos jerked his hands away, walking away from the two of them. "But I killed mobs, Hero! I've only killed one before – Robra! I harmed you, I harmed the ones you hold close, and I kidnapped that villager!"

"You did not do that." Oracle tried to reassure him.

"But I did!"

A third mob walked up to him. Instead of offering comfort to him like the gods had done, the mob slapped him in the face. "Stop your ******* crying." It was his chosen who had slapped him, the one who spoke in third person and wore makeup. Gray eyes met with purple eyes as Télos stared at him. "I ******* forgive you, you *******. You're probably more of an ******* now than before, but I ******* forgive you."

"It wasn't your fault." The green haired mob spoke up.

"You weren't in control." The white haired mob added. Before Télos knew it, all of Hero's chosen, and Oracle's group were agreeing.

Télos wiped his tears, and turned to his childhood best friend and his crush. "You two have amazing chosen." He managed to get out, sniffling. "I do too, don't I?"
Both of them nodded.

Once the tears had finally stopped falling, Télos said to Hero and Oracle, "So, I have a lot of questions for you guys. For example, why my chosen likes to speak in third person. Do you think we could talk it over some good old pumpkin pie-There still is pumpkin pie, right? Please let there be pumpkin pie, almighty force-thingy that watches over me!"

Hero laughed. His chosen looked startled when they heard the laugh escape the god of light's lips. "Yes Télos, there is still pumpkin pie."

"Good." Télos crossed his arms and nodded. "Very good." And it really was. Because mobs that he had always known, and mobs that had just surfaced into his life forgave him for something he doubted he could ever forgive himself for.

It was also very good because Oracle surprised him by kissing him on the lips.

The End…?

I hoped you guys all enjoyed the last chapter! I already have a sequel planned out, so you'll get to see your favorite characters again, along with a whole new cast of characters! I can't say anymore. If I do, I've given Levi permission to duct tape my mouth as punishment, and something tells me he'll do it painfully…Well, time for the question and answer/dare section!

Raiden the OC: Soul, if you could meet any person from this story (in real life) who would it be?

Soul: Wait, these guys aren't real? *gasps* I admit that part of the reason I put of the questions was so I could answer this one this chapter. I would love to meet-

Geist: Me?

Soul: *sighs* No, not you. You're not even from this story. I think that me and Télos would be best buddies. Not evil!Telos, but the one at the end of this story.

Télos: Sea, I feel honored.

Soul: He's been calling me Sea for awhile lately.

Télos: Because it's the initials for SoulErrorArwitch!

Raiden the OC: Do you know what cooties are?

Zalio: Um…Should I?

Soul: Zalio grew up on his own. So no, Zalio, you shouldn't.

Now for some good old dares!

Raiden the OC: Stesa, scare Soul by barely missing them with arrows.

Stesa: *grins evilly* It would be my pleasure to.

Soul: Ye gods! Télos has infected her with his evil grinning!

Télos: I do not grin evilly! *grins evilly*

Stesa: *shoots arrows at Soul, each time barely missing*

Soul: I'm sorry for all the plot twists-Ah! I'm sorry for technically being the one to kill your friends! I'm really sorry for humans creating Minecraft as a game, even though I really don't have anything to do with that last one!

Raiden the OC: Aleks, do a thousand years of death to Zalio.

Soul: *snickers* This is going to be priceless.

Lex: That means I have to too!

Aleks: What the Nether is a thousand years of death?!

~Time Skip~

Aleks: I'm going to ******* kill you, Raiden the ******* OC!

Lex: People never seemed to think how we both have to do the dares when they dare one of us… *sighs*

Lexal: *walks up to Zalio and does a super quick a thousand years of death*

Zalio: *stares* What on Minecraftia was that for?

Lex: It was Raiden!

Aleks: And his ******* dares again.

EnhancedHD: Soul, I dare you and all of the characters to host a birthday party in your mindspace and then to jump into the Void on a dragon.

Soul: First off, we have to make a few minor adjustments to this dare.

Télos: We're going to have a "Congrats on saving the world, everyone, and welcome back Télos!" party instead of a birthday party. *blows into party horn*

Hero: It is the perfect way to end A Hero's Destiny.

Zalio: We all think we know what you're talking about when you say Void, but our version of the Void is different.

Télos: So we're going to ride around the End on a dragon!

~Time Skip~

*everyone is sitting on the dragon*

Télos: *grins contently with wipe cream around his face* That pumpkin pie was delicious!

Zalio: *nods in agreement* It sure was. Hey, I wonder what Soul has planned for the sequel. And I wonder what it's going to be called…They probably have a name already.

Soul: *laughs uneasily* Names are my Kryptonite. I'm still working on the name. But I can reveal to the readers and to all of you who the story will revolve around.

Glow: Probably Hero again. So Soul can call it A Hero's Fate, or something just as cliché as this story.

Soul: I worked very hard on coming up with that, thank you very much! And A Hero's Destiny was once Take Back The Night, remember?

Télos: Come on, Sea! Tell us who the story is about! You're going to probably take forever to upload, so tell us poor characters and your dedicated readers now!

Soul: *grins evilly* He's sitting right in front of me.

Everyone: *looks around*

Télos: Sea, the guy in front of you is me! I'm going to the main character of the new story?!
Soul: One of several, yeah.

Télos: *gives a gigantic grin* This is awesome! *jumps off dragon's back, and darts around the air with his wings*

Hero: We all wish to thank you for reading this entire story.

Soul: I understand that's not easy, especially with my sporadic updates.

Hero: It was an amazing journey for Soul as a writer, and they loved getting to see your reactions to what they wrote. Soul is grateful for every single one of you, whether you be someone who does not leave reviews, or someone who reviews every chapter.

Soul: I hope you all have an awesome day/night, and see you in the sequel!