Impulse stared at the world data as the Nether disconnected from the overworld, two hermits still trapped inside. He tried sending them a message, but it failed to go through. Now Impulse was confused more than anything; both Iskall and Python showed on the world population list, he should be able to send a message to them. One could even send messages to people in other worlds; it just took awhile.

But never had he seen it just...fail.

He vaguely heard rockets overhead as someone deftly slid into the room. False grabbed his shoulder to steady herself, narrowly avoiding a collision.

"Impulse? What's going on?" she asked, watching the data shift.

Impulse took one last look at the world data, wanting desperately to not voice his dread. But he could not avoid reality.

"The Nether's closed off."

Their eyes met; her disbelief, his exhaustion.

"Are they still in there?"

"I wish I could say no, but..." Impulse gestured helplessly.

And for the first time in years, False was speechless.

~~~

Back in the Nether, Iskall was becoming more and more limp. Python, unable to support the full weight of the man, gently rested him against the wall. His friend's breathing was already alarmingly shallow; Python didn't know what to do.

It seemed Iskall did, as he placed down an ender chest and started to weakly go through it. He managed to pull out a light blue shulker box, but that was as far as he got before he collapsed completely. Python, upon opening it, discovered it was an emergency kit; filled with golden carrots, rockets, spare elytra, and blocks of packed ice. Seeing the packed ice, Python knew what Iskall was trying to do.

Pulling out a stack of the ice, he went to work surrounding them both in a cube before giving Iskall a block to hold. Almost immediately the temperature within the box started cooling, but Python was afraid he was too late; the Swede had already fallen unconscious.

It was then he noticed the ice beginning to melt.

~~~

How quaint. They think a little ice will stop me?

The column of fire stood at the edge of the ruined tunnel watching the two figures; one frantic, the other unmoving. Xisuma could only watch on in horror.

One is close, the other not far behind. Soon they shall join you.

X was unable to move, every fiber of his being screamed to do something, if only to just get away. But he could do nothing to stop the Nether from burning his friends alive. Even worse, they were there because of him.

Aw hell, where's the fun in that? They'll never leave, anyway.

A new wave of dread swept over X as he watched the pigmen converge on the icy shelter that kept two desperate hermits alive.

~~~

Tango was agitated. More than that, he was furious, enraged. He never agreed to this; the initial pact or this current "test". Or any of it, really. Two of his friends were dead with two more not far behind, and this pillar of bastard was to blame. Raging around his base, he didn't notice all the fires he was inadvertently setting for quite a while. When he did, he forced himself to calm down. Anger would do no good without a direction, a purpose.

Interestingly enough, Tango felt he could do something about it, he just needed some help; yet from who, he didn't quite know.

So he directed that anger towards this problem, who could help him. Many of the hermits were magical, but most didn't have what he was looking for. What was he looking for? Something Grian had said earlier had stuck with him: So this is what she meant? What did he mean by that? Tango was so preoccupied he didn't hear someone gliding into his base.

"Tango, you ok my dude? I saw smoke and was afraid it was getting a bit toasty in here."

Tango snapped out of his thoughts to find Ren looking concerned.

"Oh! No, it's nothing to worry about. Heat never bothered me, but..." He looked at the scorch marks in the grass. "I may have gotten a bit heated."

"A bit heated? This looks more than a bit. Anyway, just making sure everything's ok over here. If you need me, give a holler." As Ren turned to leave, Tango stopped him.

"Wait. I'm going to see Impulse, I think I know what I need to do." As Ren turned back, Tango asked, "You want to come with? The more heads the better."

~~~

To say Python was worried was an understatement. It took him almost an hour to calm himself down; when he did, he noticed two things. One, Iskall's breathing had deepened and he was no longer deathly pale. Second, the slowly thinning walls of ice had refrozen not long ago; the Nether's temperature had dropped. Even though they were still stuck in the Nether, Python could start to feel hope. As long as the two of them survived, their friends would find a way to get them out.

Now that Iskall's condition seemed to have stabilized, Python wanted to scout out a more permanent place to wait things out. However, as soon as he broke one of the ice blocks, a golden sword came whizzing inches past his face. Slamming the block back in place, Python had to take a minute to calm down. So there was a small horde of pigmen waiting for them just outside. But what was confusing was the fact that neither Iskall nor Python had provoked them in any way. At least, none that he could think of.

A small groan and the sound of movement behind him caused Python to turn around. When he saw Iskall struggling to sit up, he almost burst into tears of relief.

"Python? What happened? I remember the portal was out and—" Iskall was interrupted as Python tackled him in an iron grip of a hug. A squeak escaped him as the hug threatened to make him pass out again. Python heard it and quickly lessened the pressure, though he didn't let go for a few more seconds.

"Missed me, did you?"

"You have no idea, man! I was worried you were going to die! You can't do that again!"

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's just...the Nether and I never really got along very well." Iskall absentmindedly picked up the ice block he had held when he was unconscious. "If I stay in the Nether too long, I start to overheat; thus the packed ice."

"Well, you think you're ready for a fight?" Python asked as he stood up.

"A fight? Why?"

"Remember all those pigmen we saw earlier?" Iskall nodded. "Well, they're after us for whatever reason."

As Iskall got up, he had to grab Python to steady himself. "Why would they be after us?"

"I don't know. Are you sure you're ready for a fight?"

"Not really, but do I have a choice?"

~~~

False had left a few hours ago, leaving Impulse alone; she was needed elsewhere. So, completely alone, Impulse started to doubt himself. He had tried everything X had shown him before; resetting chunks, manually teleporting into the Nether, even just relighting the portals. Nothing worked. He couldn't understand how X could deal with things like this.

He heard a knock and turned to see Ren and Tango walking into the room. Impulse almost said something, but the look on Tango's face told him this was important.

"Impulse. I know what I need to do. But I need your help."

"My help?" Impulse asked. "What can I do?"

Tango paused, unsure of how to continue. "I need help finding specific people, but I don't know who."

Impulse was, understandably, confused. "And how can I help?"

"The same way Ren can; another head to bounce ideas off of. Besides, it has to do with the Nether problem."

That got Impulse's attention. He looked for Ren—who had stayed silent so far—to Tango. "We should probably find a better place then. X's base is a little depressing, all things considered."

Ren spoke up. "We can go to my base then."

~

At his base, Ren led them to a cozy room behind his storage area, or what would soon be. The three of them settled down. Or, at least two did; Impulse started pacing.

Ren, settling into a corner, asked, "So where do we start?"

"I think..." Tango, sitting in a chair, took a moment to gather his thoughts. "Four. We need four hermits, one for each cardinal direction. For each of the four elements."

"So...where do we start?"

"With me. I'm fire, I know that much. So we need to find hermits that match earth, air, and water."

Impulse had stopped pacing to say, "You sure?"

Tango sighed. "I'm not sure how, but yes."

"Do you have any other hunches?"

"Grian."

Tango looked up to find Impulse looking baffled. "And you said you need my help?"

Tango ran his fingers through his hair. "Those were the easy ones. The other two I have no idea."

Ren interjected, "Wait, how do you know it's Grian?"

Both Tango and Impulse looked at him. "He has wings, Ren. Real ones. And he's eons better than anyone else at flying," Tango answered. "Seems like air to me."

Ren nodded. "So we just need to find people who have something to do with water or earth?"

"It's the best I have."

~~~

It wasn't their best fighting, but Iskall and Python survived the pigman onslaught with superficial wounds. Now that the Nether was at a more manageable temperature, Iskall was no longer at immediate risk for heatstroke; they could safely search for a temporary safe location to wait this out. Python gathered up everything he found of value while Iskall hoisted Xisuma's body over his shoulder.

Taking to the air, the two scouted for an ideal location, taking frequent breaks to stave off heat exhaustion. After almost an hour and a few close calls, they found an adequate cave and started setting up their temporary base. Iskall, now utterly exhausted, passed out as soon as they were done, alarming Python. After checking on his friend, Python checked the spawn proofing of the cave one last time before settling down himself. Gazing at the block of packed ice, he wondered how long they would be stuck in the Nether. It wasn't long before he fell asleep as well.

~~~

Figuring out the other two hermits Tango needed was harder than they anticipated. Perhaps emboldened by how quickly the first two were identified, Ren and Impulse spent the next hour bouncing ideas around only for Tango to dismiss them. Until...

"Guys, what about Stress?" Both Tango and Impulse looked at Ren, who continued, "I know we've already discussed her, but the more I think about it the more plausible it is"

"What makes you say that?" asked Tango, intrigued.

"You ever wonder how she gets blue ice so fast?"

"I just assumed she used the ice farm Iskall build for her to use," said Impulse.

"Well, yes, but—she doesn't craft it," Ren explained. "She creates it. She showed me. She turned one block of packed ice into blue ice."

"How the— What!?"

Ren looked at Tango. "Is that water enough for you?"

Tango, staring at nothing, said, "It's the closest we've got. Alright, Stress is water. Now we just need to find earth."

"Scar. His terraforming skills could be—"

Tango cut Impulse off. "No, he already has the Vex."

"Oh. That makes sense," said Impulse, a bit miffed.

The three of them settled into a contemplative, edged silence. As the minutes passed, the nervous energy increased, to the point where they all jumped when someone entered the room. Standing in the doorway was, unexpectedly, TFC.