"So…" Heather's eyes fluttered open at the voice, and she glanced up to see a pair of red eyes watching from the doorway. "Feeling any better?"
"Like you care." She turned over to bury her face in the pillow.
"Hey, I let you see Steve, didn't I?" Theo's footsteps echoed off the floor, and she lifted her head an inch to glower at him.
"Yes, thank you ever so much, oh kind and merciful captor, for not dooming me to eternal solitude. How majestic, and…" She grasped for another sarcastic insult. "...humble."
"Gonna guess from the overuse of adjectives that that was sarcasm."
"What gave it away?"
"I just said what gave it away, you dumb-" He cut himself off, then let out a sigh as he sank down on the edge of the bed. "Look, okay, I'm- I've been a jerk to you. And I'm not good at apologizing. But I'm sorry. I really am." He paused, rubbing his neck. "...not sorry enough to call off all my plans, but you have to understand that. I don't… want you to be mad at me."
The words came out in a rush, and he nearly stumbled over them. "I mean, I kidnapped you, so this is a weird situation and I can't blame you at all for being mad at me, but you- I mean-" He cut off again, and Heather lifted her head a bit more as he hesitated a few moments. She was still mad, but now she was curious what was going on in his head.
"All I mean is… it was really nice, talking to someone who didn't just… yell." He finished lamely, looking away, and she felt a pang of pity, although she wasn't quite sure where it came from. Either he was a clever actor spinning a sob story to get her to stop snarking at him, or… something was going on with him.
"As opposed to…?" She prodded. "What do you mean someone who doesn't yell? I mean, I'm pretty sure I did yell at you."
"You did," He conceded. "but that was different. That wasn't you trying to beat me down, that was pretty well-deserved. You're not just mean."
"Oh, like you are?" The retort slipped out, but he just sighed.
"Yeah, like me." With a huff, she shoved herself upright, pushing tangled hair out of her face.
"Alright, so you're lonely. Got it. How about this - I'll cut you a deal." Theo threw her a wary glance from his seat on the edge of the bed.
"A deal?"
"Yeah." She got up off the bed, taking advantage of the slight height difference she obtained by doing so. "Let me see my husband. Give me Manfred back. Then I'll give you a chance." Theo's mouth opened, then snapped shut again.
"Look, you know I can't do that. Herobrine is immensely powerful, the moment he has you in his sights he'll just run off with you and I'll never see either one of you ever again - much less recapture him. You are the only thing keeping him in that cell."
"Exactly why I want to see him. I want him to know that I'm safe. Unlike some AIs, Herobrine actually has, like, real feelings. I don't want him to be worried about me."
"Dude, I just told you he's gonna pull some bull**** move if he lays eyes on you and probably escape. I can't risk that, short of Notch he's the only one who can attempt to stop me."
"Okay to be fair, anyone can attempt to stop you, most would just fail. Why do you want to be friends so bad, anyway? Didn't you run off to Minecraft to get away from humans?"
"Well- well, yeah." He broke her gaze. "That's because there I never met a human who was worth it. But you're… kind of worth it." She blinked down at him, still focused on his face, and spotted the faintest hint of a blush. Was he…?
"Well…" She took a step back, looking away. "...that… okay, I can see where you're coming from." She paused for a beat. "I still really miss my husband, though."
"Well, m-maybe I can find a way to block his powers or something, then you could see him." Theo coughed into his hand. "I'll see what I can do. I'll try to avoid just hitting him with another potion of weakness if I can help it."
"Ah. Yeah. Good." Shuffling to his feet, Theo headed for the door again, then paused with his hand on the knob.
"Since the threats to you are what's really keeping your husband contained, I might send your Enderman friend back here." With that, he vanished through the doorway. Staring after him, Heather sunk down onto the bed, giving up on suppressing a blush.
This was really not the time to be the subject of a love triangle.
"I miss pickaxes."
"I know, Steve."
"My hands hurt."
"I know, Steve."
"I want to die."
"Me too. Only an undetermined number of blocks to go!" Alex punched another stone brick, letting out a breath as it finally crumbled, dropping the pair another few feet. Steve groaned, rubbing his forehead, and Alex fought the impulse to remind him that this was your idea, Steve, because it was actually a very good idea.
One of the many perks of respawning upon death was the ability to teleport home from just about anywhere, albeit with no items - it wasn't hard to kill yourself if you were determined enough to do it.
The End was one of the easiest places to die, granted one could get to the void. It might take forever since they were unarmed and had nothing but their hands to dig with, but as long as 303 didn't catch them in the act, they could get out of there.
Steve huffed as the block below them vanished. "My hunger bar's almost empty. That's not fun."
"Me too." Alex took a break from digging, reaching up and resting her wrists on her head.
"I hope 303's getting Heather and Herobrine food, it'd be a shame if they starved." Steve continued, and Alex gave him a funny look.
"Herobrine's hardcore?"
"Yeah."
"Huh."
"Yeah." Steve made to punch the bricks again, then stopped. "Did you hear something?"
"No." As soon as the words left her mouth, though, she registered the steady thump-thump-thump of footsteps, far above them. Since the only one allowed to roam free was their captor…
"Hurry." Alex lowered her voice to a whisper, reaching down to tap on the bricks again. In near-silence, the two worked, the only sound being the soft thump of fists against stone, for a few minutes before they heard an iron door slam open far above.
At that moment, the block underneath them crumbled and the two began to free-fall into the void.
"Woo!" Steve yelled as Alex let out a startled shout. She could feel the icy burn of the void disintegrating her, but that was far from the worst way to die. Closing her eyes, she hugged her arms to her chest and waited for the void to kill her.
The next thing she knew, she was lying in soft grass.
"Hey, this isn't my base." She opened her eyes at Steve's voice, sitting up to find him kneeling in the grass next to her. "What happened to my spawn point?"
"There you are." A new voice spoke, and Alex whirled around to find a tall man with a black beard standing behind them. "You wouldn't believe how much trouble I've been through trying to find you."