Act III – Chapter 16
Trigger Warning: This chapter contains swearing. Reader discretion is advised.
(Minecraft: Story Mode and its characters belong to Telltale Games, not me.)
The hallway down to Cell Block Tango went on for much longer than Soren expected, but finally, after the eighth turn, he finally reached the entrance.
He emerged into what appeared to be the largest cell block in the Detention Facility yet. It wasn't built like the other cell blocks either. Instead, Soren saw two mini-towers, with bridges connecting to catwalks, which spiraled around them towards the top, where the actual cells, which appeared to be made out of bedrock, were located.
Behind them, Soren saw a vast space of nothing but a lake of lava which appeared to stretch on forever, with no visible wall or ceiling in sight, just an orange hue from the lava. In short, it made Cell Block Alpha look like a collection of low-level holding cells. Soren expected guards to be planted everywhere, but there was not a soul to be found from where he was standing.
Of course, they were all probably scrambling to contain the mass riot that Soren started, and with the Warden having been fired, and the Admin having abandoned the place, they were running without a leader. Which basically meant that the riot was far from ending.
To Soren's right, he saw a third bridge, leading into what he assumed was another control room. Of course the main control room wouldn't control anything in here. He had to open these cells separately.
Soren crossed the bridge on his left, leading towards the catwalk on the left tower. Upon reaching it, he hastily climbed the stairs to the top, and he saw that the bedrock cell was double-roomed and double-locked. The first door had a lever, which was locked from the outside, which Soren was able to open easily.
Stepping inside, Soren saw that the room he was in contained things such as a desk and some other useless items. He saw a window, which peered into the second part of the cell, which was blocked off by another iron door. Soren walked up to the window.
He saw that the walls of the second room were made out of obsidian, with the ceiling and floor made out of bedrock. It was empty, save for a bed, which had someone sleeping in it. The figure was facing away from Soren, but Soren recognized who it was immediately. It was Jesse. She had been outfitted with a straitjacket and a muzzle.
Soren tapped his right knuckle on the window, which startled Jesse awake. She bolted upright and almost fell out of the bed, giving out a muffled scream. She turned towards Soren, and green-eyes widened upon seeing him.
"Jesse!" exclaimed Soren. "Hang tight, I'm going to get you out of there."
Seeing Jesse nod in understanding, Soren sprinted back out and towards the Control Room, which was near the entrance. Surprised to find it unlocked, he raced inside, and saw two levers. One was marked 'JESSE' and the other was marked 'ROMEO'. So that was the prisoner's name. The name gave Soren a huge déjà vu sensation
Without delaying further, he flipped both levers, and immediately raced back to Jesse's tower. Upon reaching Jesse again, he untied the muzzle binding her mouth shut and helped her out of the straitjacket. It was then that Soren saw that she now had noticeable bruising under her eyes, which was no doubt from the nose fracture that the Admin gave her before they got sent down here.
"Thanks, Soren," said Jesse, catching her breath. "That was... that was the worst."
"While you were locked up, I figured out a way for us to possibly get out of here?"
That grabbed Jesse's attention immediately.
"You did?"
"Yes. Locked up in high-security alongside you is a prisoner who is supposedly named 'Romeo'," Soren explained. "Apparently, he's a notorious prisoner who apparently knows a huge secret about the Admin, and knows how to escape. Which is why he's locked up here."
"Yes, that's perfect! That sounds exactly like the sort of person we should get on our side," Jesse said.
"Yes! Now let's go meet this 'Romeo' and see if he can get us out of here,"
Soren led Jesse out of her cell and towards the other tower, where Romeo was supposed to be.
"How about you go in and introduce yourself, while I wait outside," Soren suggested. "I have a feeling he'd be more trusting toward a fellow prisoner than a guard."
Jesse took a deep breath, and then stepped inside. She almost flinched back at what she saw.
Before her stood who she assumed to be Romeo. He had matted, faded, shoulder-length dirty red hair, his skin looked dead and sickly and he, like Jesse previously, was wearing a straitjacket over his prisoner jumpsuit and a face muzzle. Upon seeing Jesse, he glared at her with extreme loathing.
As Romeo made angry muffled vocalizations, Jesse hesitantly stepped closer and removed his muzzle. Immediately, he started hacking, coughing and spitting. Jesse took a step back.
"Whoa!"
Eventually, Romeo caught his breath and turned his attention back to Jesse.
"Who the hell are you?!" he demanded. His voice sounded hoarse and rough, as though he had long since lost the habit of using it regularly.
"I'm Jesse," Jesse introduced. "You must be Romeo."
Romeo sneered. "Brave of you to come here, to sneak past all of those guards to enter my cell, without even thinking about who might be inside, eh? I know you're here because you need my help with something, why else would you stupidly risk getting caught in a restricted area by her to meet the most infamous prisoner in this place, eh?
"But, haha, but, what you didn't count on, is that I could easily refuse to help you, and if you get caught after that happens, I'll get the last laugh, as you would deserve it for being so fucking blind!" Romeo continued.
"Look, Romeo, I'm not your enemy. You don't need to threaten me," reasoned Jesse.
"Not my enemy? Oh, you really have no idea, do you? Why do you think that stupid prick Gordon lost his eye, hmm? How do you think he got that job as the Warden?" questioned Romeo. "He used to be a prisoner, like me, and before I was sent to maximum, I struck up a friendship with him. We planned to escape together, but then he sold me out!
"I am very proud to say that I ripped his eye clean out of its socket for that," Romeo continued. "And since that day, I vowed to myself to trust nobody!"
"Fine! Don't trust me," said Jesse. "But you're still supposed to know how to get out of here, right?"
"Oh, playing that card are we?" questioned Romeo. "Just give up! Nobody has ever escaped this place, and nobody ever will."
"You've tried to escape multiple times, why would you do that if you didn't know the way out?"
"I don't have to answer any more of your questions, Jesse," Romeo snapped. "I'm not helping you, just leave."
Okay, this wasn't working. Time to bring the Admin into the conversation.
"The Admin's got her hands on this powerful Redstone Heart, and she's running around, planning to do something horrible with it. I've gotta get out of here now and stop her!"
Romeo froze, and turned around with a surprised look on his face.
"Please, Romeo. I need your help. You may be the only chance I have to stop the Admin."
"Hold on a second, how do you know about the heart?" questioned Romeo.
"Wait, you know about it too?"
"Of course, and I also know just how deadly that thing can be, especially in the hands of Xara," answered Romeo. "After all, she did create it."
"Xara?"
"Xara Stewart - the Admin's real name."
"That's funny, I'd call her 'Slimeball', because that's what she is! And a sadist!"
"Sounds to me like you previously had possession of the heart, and if you did, you're damn lucky she didn't kill you on the spot."
"She almost did," admitted Jesse. "So now you want to help me?"
"Of course! Me and her are the only ones who know exactly how powerful that heart is. If she's undertaking a project so advanced that she needs it, it could spell disaster for us all."
Romeo sighed. "Okay, fine! I'm going to give you one chance, I will help you escape, but under two conditions."
"What is that?"
"One, you help me kill Xara," finished Romeo. "Two, you do not betray me. Let Gordon's eye be a prime example of what happens if you do."
"You got a deal," said Jesse.
"Good! But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We still need to find a way to escape that won't alert that bald shithead until it's too late."
"Ahem! Actually, I already took care of that," said Soren, stepping inside. "When the Admin caught me trying to get in here, she fired the Warden. Not only for placing undeserved trust in me, but for also eating cake instead of helping out with the riots."
Romeo's eyes widened, in a hopeful manner.
"You're joking, right?"
"Nope."
"That's brilliant! We won't have any trouble escaping now!" Romeo exclaimed.
"Oh, and before we leave. Some of my friends were locked up in here as well," Jesse said. "We'll need to get them first."
Romeo nodded. And with absolute ease, he managed to slip himself out of the straitjacket.
"The more, the merrier," said Romeo. "This way."
Romeo led Jesse and Soren back through Cell Block Alpha, and they raced their way back through towards Cell Block Bravo. On the way, they saw that the riot had really taken off now. They had to take a few detours due to the destruction that was being caused. Eventually, they reached Cell Block Delta, where they saw Radar gathered together with... Gabriel and Magnus?
"Jesse!" Radar called out, racing toward her. "Oh, I'm so glad you're okay! I was so worried!"
"GladI'm okay? I'm just relieved that you're okay."
"Ah, you must be the infamous prisoner," said Gabriel, holding his hand out. Romeo took it.
"Right, you've already met me and Soren, these guys are Radar, Magnus and Gabriel," said Jesse, pointing to each of them.
"Romeo Blanc," Romeo introduced.
"Jesse! Long time no see," exclaimed Magnus.
Jesse simply chuckled.
"Yes, yes... touching reunion," snapped Romeo. "Can we get going please?"
"Yeah, we're going, we're going," said Jesse. "C'mon."
As they continued walking down the hallway, they saw a group of armored guards running past them.
"Run for your lives!"
"The prisoners have escaped!"
"The Warden's been fired!"
Two prisoners were on their tail, including the guy from before who had the chest full of contraband.
"When I find that Warden, I'm gonna make him pay for what he put me through!"
"Wow, I wouldn't want to be the Warden when they find him," said Magnus. "Those prisoners look like they're out for blood."
"I don't blame them. The Warden's definitely got a lot to lose. Just wonder what he will lose when they find him," said Soren.
As they continued on throughout the prison, they saw a few prisoners race out of a storage room. Taking a look, Jesse saw that the storage room contained weapons.
"Let's see if they left us any weapons," Jesse said.
Romeo looked as though Christmas had come early. He was bouncing with excitement.
"Yes!"
He raced inside, the others following. Jesse quickly decided to choose an enchanted sword over a diamond sword, as it was enchanted with sharpness, meaning that it would do more damage, even if it wouldn't last as long.
"Okay, definitely feeling better with a sword in my hand again," said Jesse.
Magnus immediately went for a few stacks of TNT. Romeo took the diamond sword with no enchantment and a bow along with a stack of various tipped arrows. Gabriel picked up a regular iron sword, while Soren settled instead for another bow with arrows.
Meanwhile Radar came out with a shield, Jesse and the others stared at him.
"What? It's versatile," he defended.
Romeo did a three-hundred and sixty degree spin attack, which missed Radar's head by a mere inch, startling him.
"Looking good, gang. Now let's-"
"You jerks better not have taken all the cool weapons before I got to dig through 'em!" an angry voice growled from the door. Standing there, Jesse saw a giant red-skinned figure, who was followed inside by a cow.
"Right, can you get out of the way?" asked Romeo, only to be ignored as the red-skinned dude turned to Soren.
"I oughta pound you to pulp for what you've done to Geoffy-Poo!" he threatened, raising a big red fist. "INCOMING FACE PUNCH!"
He immediately found a gleaming sword in his face.
"Listen, you." Romeo snarled, lips curling in a vicious grin. "I don't give two shits what he did to your precious cow, but you're holding us up." He pressed the sword against the other inmate, not hard enough to break skin but hard enough to make a point. "Reconsider your emotions and help us out of here, or fuck off!"
The other prisoner's demeanor changed in a snap, hands raising in defense as he backed away in fear. "I-I don't want no trouble! I-I'll go! I'm outta here!" He turned around, motioning for the cow to follow. "C-Come along, Geoffy...!"
"That was frighteningly effective," Jesse commented.
Romeo responded with a chuckle.
"Let's go!" Romeo commanded, gesturing for the group to follow him.
Romeo led them straight to the front entrance of the prison. Jesse took a look around and saw that nothing had changed out there at all.
"All right, it should be just around here," Romeo said.
As Romeo led them straight to the iron gates at the front of the prison, they saw that the Warden was blocking it with himself and a piece of TNT.
"We have a situation here," Gabriel observed.
"Back! Back! All of you!" The Warden ordered. "One more step and it's kaboomsville!"
The Warden noticed Soren.
"Soren!"
The other prisoners turned around and gave Soren a scowl upon noticing his clothes.
"Hey, you're wearing a guard's outfit!" A prisoner observed. "Well, guards ain't in charge no more! And furthermore, I'm not a fan of guards! So, thusly, you're getting beat up! A bunch."
It was then and there, that the Warden finally noticed who was standing next to them.
"Hello, Gordon!" Romeo greeted, voice dripping with gleeful malice. His lips parted into a cheshire grin. "Remember me?"
"You... y-you freed Romeo?!" Gordon gasped in horror. "Just when I thought you couldn't ruin my life anymore! What in the world were you THINKING?!"
The other prisoners backed away in fear upon noticing that it was indeed Romeo. They all abandoned Gordon, screaming in terror.
"I think you've clearly lost your mind!" Gordon continued. "That red-headed menace, is nothing but bad news!"
"Compared to what Xara has done, I'm practically a saint!" defended Romeo. "Not like you, a spineless worm who would sell anyone out just to advance himself."
"Did you know he was once an Admin, too?"
The entire group looked at Romeo in shock.
"The Admin had to take his powers away. He tried to kill her!" Gordon said.
Romeo was glaring at Gordon with such hatred and loathing that even Jesse felt unsure about being too close to him. His head was literally shaking in rage. His red hair looked as though it was about to combust into flames at any moment.
"I promised the Admin I'd never let him free, no matter what! And I'll keep that promise! Even if I need to blow us all up to do it!" Gordon declared before putting the TNT down and holding out a flint and steel.
But, before he could light it, Romeo took out his bow and arrow and shot a poison arrow directly into his heart. Gordon's eyes widened as he sank to his knees and dropped to the floor, poofing into smoke, leaving behind the flint and steel and TNT. Romeo slowly walked up and pocketed the items. He turned around, to notice Jesse and the gang staring at him with mistrustful gazes. Soren was the only one not looking at him with suspicion.
"What?" Romeo asked.
"So, is it true, what he said about you? You were an Admin?"
Romeo closed his eyes and turned around.
"This isn't how I intended for you guys to find out," Romeo said, quietly.
"We want answers, Romeo!" Jesse exclaimed.
Romeo sighed, before nodding.
"Yes, I was an Admin," Romeo confessed, his voice a mere whisper. "It was a long, long time ago. When Xara revealed herself for who she truly was... she took my Admin powers away from me before building this place and banishing me into it."
Romeo noticed that Jesse was still looking at him warily.
"But Xara is the one in the wrong here. She was the one who trapped you all down here, not me!" Romeo shouted, pleading. "Look, I can't tell you exactly where we're going or what we'll be looking for, you'd never believe me if I did. But you have to trust me... please!"
"I'm sick of secrets. You should've said something!" Jesse snapped.
"I was going to lay the truth onto you slowly." Romeo responded. "If I had just shoved the news all on you at once, who's stopping you from condemning and abandoning me? I need to get my vengeance on Xara, no matter what! I've waited too fucking long! I'm not squandering it now!"
"There's no way we can trust him now!" exclaimed Magnus.
Soren stepped in.
"I knew you looked familiar! You were one of Fred's old admin friends!" recognised Soren.
"Right, I recognize you too. You were that book writer, lived at the keep. Soren, was it?" questioned Romeo.
"Yes!"
Soren turned to the group.
"Whatever you guys are thinking, drop it," he said. "Romeo is completely telling the truth here."
Magnus looked like he was inclined to disagree.
"Wait, so an Admin can be stripped of their powers?" Radar asked.
"Yes. Really difficult, but it is possible," Romeo answered.
"So, what do we-"
"We need to get moving, now! Before Xara finds any excuse to come back down here!" Romeo insisted.
"Yeah, I guess we should keep moving," Jesse agreed.
"Follow me," Romeo instructed, before taking off into the maze. Jesse and the others right behind him.
As they continued on into the maze, Magnus approached Soren. Jesse listened into their conversation.
"Soren, I believe you have some explaining to do," he said. "What was that? What are you playing at?"
"Believe me, Magnus. I know what I'm doing. I know you don't exactly trust Romeo, but we're going to need him if we're going to defeat Xara," reasoned Soren.
"Of course you would take his side, being all buddy-buddy with him!"
"It's a long story, Magnus! One that I don't think you're ready for right now."
"I just hope you're not making a bad mistake trusting ANOTHER admin."
Romeo suddenly stopped and held his hand out. At once, the purple colored spider-creepers and spiders appeared from above the walls.
"Stealing my concepts for yourself, Xara? Why does that not surprise me?" questioned Romeo.
"Gah, run!" Jesse screamed.
"Seriously, what's with these monsters?! They're all glowing!" Radar questioned.
They reached an opening, where they realized that they were completely surrounded.
"They're pretty scary-looking, Jesse."
"Then let's be scarier," Jesse responded.
The group of six engaged the mobs. Jesse took care of some zombies easily, before moving onto a spider, where Jesse and Romeo knocked a spider back and forth with their swords, eventually killing it.
"How many of these things are there?" Gabriel groaned.
"Never just one! Never!" Jesse repeated, as she climbed on a wall and took care of a zombie.
"Nice work!"
"Thanks, Gabriel."
Gabriel and Jesse watched Romeo pulverize more mobs.
"Impressive," Gabriel remarked.
Romeo did not respond, instead plunging his sword into a spider that was about to jump on him.
They continued fighting, with Magnus blowing up some mobs and Radar needing some help, until Jesse knocked a spider-creeper into the obsidian wall, creating a hole.
"Let's get out of here!" Jesse called out.
"Nice shortcut," Romeo appraised. "Come on!"
"I tell you what, that guy is as crazy as a hopped-up ocelot," Radar remarked.
"Agree with ya there, squishy!" Magnus agreed.
They followed Romeo, into a dead end.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" Romeo panicked. "Th-the route's changed! There- there has to be a way around!"
"Uhhh, Romeo? You all right there?" Radar asked, nervously.
"I... JUST..." Romeo let out a scream of anger. "SHUT YOUR CAKEHOLES AND LET ME THINK!"
"See! I told you we shouldn't have trusted him. He's got no idea where he's going!" Magnus pointed out.
"Let... me... think!" Romeo snarled, glaring at Magnus.
"Think, or make something up?"
Romeo made a growling sound, prompting Jesse to step in on his behalf, diffusing the argument before it started.
"Aw, come on. He didn't get lost on purpose!" Jesse defended.
"Finally, someone's being fucking realistic here!" Romeo agreed. "Thank you, Jesse."
Romeo looked up and saw a potential exit strategy.
"Wait! What the hell are we doing? All this time, we could've just built to the top of that wall." Romeo said.
"And got to the other side that way! Yeah!" Radar finished.
"Sounds good to me!" Jesse said.
Radar, Soren, Gabriel and Magnus engaged the mobs while Romeo and Jesse dug up a pile of dirt and used it to build to the top of the wall.
Upon reaching the top, Jesse looked around, spotting a building in the distance.
"Oh, get fucked!" whispered Romeo.
"What are you-"
Romeo immediately covered Jesse's mouth.
"Shut it, or you'll wake that thing up!" Romeo growled.
Romeo pointed towards the center of a large gap in the maze, where Jesse saw a large three-headed ghast hibernating. But it was too late, for it had woken up and was now beginning to rise. Jesse froze in place, seeing the giant three-headed-ghast looming directly over her. It opened it's three sets of glowing magenta eyes and stared right back.
"Oh fuck!" exclaimed Romeo, jumping back down to the others. "GET DOWN!"
"Huh?"
The giant ender-ghast charged up a fireball and sprayed it directly towards Jesse, who quickly ducked out of the way. It landed right on top of the ender-zombies that Radar was defending himself from, killing them instantly.
Jesse unsheathed her sword, feeling quite stupid for doing so. Bringing a sword to a giant mob fight? There were hundreds of cliched lines on this. As it charged another set of fireballs at her, she quickly tried to hit one back. When it appeared to work, that's when she fully entered combat mode. She was going to take this thing down or die trying.
"A three-headed-ghast? Why would the Admin create that?" she exclaimed as she continued to hit fireballs right back at it. Eventually, it stopped and let off a huge screech, which to Jesse's horror, attracted the attention of a whole horde of normal ghasts.
Again, Jesse continued to hit fireballs back until it gave out another huge screech, attracting even more ghasts. They all started to attack.
There was no way Jesse was going to stand a chance against them all standing still, so she took off into a run. While running, she used her sword to knock back the ender-ghast's fireballs, while dodging the fireballs from the rest.
In a fit of rage, the ender-ghast started releasing fireballs in all directions, which was a bad move, as the ghasts now turned their attention towards the ender-ghast. They were starting to attack the big one.
After having a rain of fireballs sent back at it, the ender-ghast started retaliating, sending out huge waves of fireballs, killing the other ghasts one by one. In doing so, it revealed a glowing magenta spot on the top of its head - it's weak point.
It just so happened that two ghasts had aligned towards it, which gave Jesse the opportunity to jump on them to reach the big ghast.
Leaping off the second ghast, Jesse dived and plunged her sword directly on top of the magenta weak-spot. The ender-ghast gave out a huge cry of pain, and Jesse pulled her sword out and plunged it in again.
After repeating a few times, hundreds of fireballs began pouring out of the ender-ghast towards the other ghasts, killing most of them. Just as the ender-ghast exploded, Jesse dived off of it, and landed back on the obsidian wall, striking a combat pose as the rest of the ghasts died around her.
"I... I... w-wow!" stammered Romeo. "I mean... fuck, that was..."
Jesse helped Soren up.
"Holy shit, Jesse, you're a real terror!"
Looking at Romeo, Jesse saw that for the first time, he was looking at Jesse in wide-eyed awe and... was that envy?
"Excellent landing by the way, Jesse!" appraised Soren.
"Oh, that? It's just my perfect reflexes and photographic muscle memory," she said dramatically, quoting Jack.
Romeo pointed towards the building in the distance.
"There, that's our ticket out of here," he said.
"That is... sparkly," commented Radar, mesmerized by it.
"Is that... diamond?" asked Gabriel.
"Follow me." Romeo instructed.
They slowly climbed down from the top of the obsidian maze and followed Romeo's lead once again.
"Look, Jesse. I'm sorry about before," apologized Romeo. "I'm not a very trusting person anymore, not after what both Xara and Gordon did to me back at that detention facility, or whatever the fuck she's calling it. Before you mentioned the Redstone Heart, I thought you were trying to have me on, get all buddy-buddy with me and then leave me in the shit, like Gordon did.
"It's just, Xara never used to be like that. It just all happened out of the blue."
"We've all suffered because of the Admin," said Jesse.
"Some have, and if we don't stop her, will suffer much worse," added Romeo. "There's something else I want to elaborate on. You know that Fred guy Soren mentioned? He was one of us, another Admin."
"Where is he?" Jesse asked.
"He's dead. It's not a story I'm ready to share at the moment, but me and Fred were together when Xara revealed her true colors. She came in out of the blue... and killed him. It was so sudden and shocking, it wasn't until I was already imprisoned that my mind fully processed what had happened."
They reached the diamond building.
"Where's the rest of it?" Gabriel questioned.
"Yes, how are we supposed to use this to escape?" questioned Magnus. "This doesn't even go up to the ceiling."
"We aren't going up. We're going down," Romeo said.
"Down? There is no down. We're standing on bedrock here!" Magnus protested. "You can't go any further."
"That's the point. What we're looking for, is below the bedrock," Romeo said.
"Everybody knows there's nothing under the bedrock!" Magnus continued to argue. "We're at the bottom of the world."
"We are not at the very bottom of the world!" Romeo reasoned. "Trust me, there is a whole lot more to see underneath the bedrock."
Jesse remained silent. Magnus glared at Romeo, before slowly walking back into the maze.
"You know what? I'm done listening to him! I'd much prefer to go back in the maze than listen to any of that scam nuggets lies!"
"Magnus, wait!" Soren pleaded.
"No, Soren! He's an Admin. An Admin was the reason we're down here in the first place!"
"Remember, she took my admin powers away," Romeo reminded. "Down there, lies a method to taking Xara's powers away from her... forever! Fred and I discovered a few ways to do it."
The monsters chose that time to show up.
"Jesse, help me get into this tower," Romeo called out.
Jesse and Romeo broke the window panes on the side of the tower, revealing a set of steps coming out of darkness.
"This is it!" whispered Romeo. "After all these years, I'm finally going to take that bitch down!"
The mobs were really starting to gain on them.
"Now there's a good reason to get a move on," Jesse said, before jumping in. Romeo following. Soren, Gabriel, Magnus and Radar eventually followed too.
End of Act III.
Author's Notes: Finally, that's the end of that. This part of the story was torturous to write, but at least I pulled through. Next up is the underneath, one of my favorite parts of Canon. And just so you know, the story is going to get a whole lot more darker from now on. Darker than Canon.
Like it? Review. Don't like it, look up another story.
More to follow.