There's nothing quite like fear cleaning. Sure, I was supposed to be at home, finishing my tax homework, but instead I'm trapped in a house I don't know, with a hell-angry Protoss outside. Seriously, Aldaris hasn't been this mad since he found out Zeratul was the one who gave the Overmind Aiur's secret location. I'm kinda scared to step out of the door. Thankfully, Aldaris hasn't zapped my brain or something, but he could at any moment. Truth be told, I'm not really afraid that he will, but what is there to do but think when you're just sitting there in a dark living room?

Well, I didn't have my tax homework, but fortunately for my sense of needing to do something, there was a funny smell coming from the kitchen. I took my shivering little self over that direction, and peered into the sink. Huh. Someone had obviously been here - all the dirty dishes, instead of layering the counters, now hung out in the sink.

"Eh," I said out loud, because talking to oneself doesn't make a person insane at all. "I guess I'm not too grossed out to do a stranger's dishes. I did work in a restaurant once. Ugh..." I reached in the other side of the double sink and plugged it up. "Better think of something else before the scarring flashbacks happen again. Ugh, restaurants."

My brief excursion into foodservice isn't worth recalling right now. So I did the dishes. Still too nervous to try and reach out with my mind to see what's going on with Aldaris (assuming I can), I decided to wipe the counters and the stove. The floor needed a mopping, so I went ahead and did that. I vacuumed the whole living room, while I was at it. Best yet, there were some scented candles in the closet to lay out and get rid of that dank smell that had taken over the house. After those were lit and the place started smelling like a field of chemical flowers, I stood there and looked around.

"Huh...I wonder if dude has any paper."

There was some in a drawer in the kitchen, and a plastic cup on the counter had some pens in it. Thus equipped with the tools of my trade, I went into the dining room and began to write.

"Dear Sir,

Hi. So, I just wanted to thank you for letting me use your house. See, I didn't have anywhere to go, and it just so happened that your door was unlocked. So I went in and stayed here for a couple of days. I didn't steal anything. Well, besides some cans of beans in the cabinet. I felt weird about staying here when you were gone, so I cleaned everything up. Besides your bedroom. I didn't go in there, because that's just awkward. Anyway, thank you. Even though you had no clue I was here, and you probably didn't mean to leave the back door open, you really helped out a desperate person in need."

I lifted the pen for a second. It's not very adventurous to sign a note "anonymous", and I avoid reading things written under that label anyway. Even with this note I don't like being a hypocrite. It's the honor of the thing, you know. All the same, putting my real name didn't seem like a good idea. I lowered the pen again, scratching at the paper and smearing the ink in an appropriate pseudonym.

"Yvonne January."

Granted, that's kind of a silly pseudonym, but it's from a book I intend to publish. Heh, if the guy who lives here likes teen fiction, he may even find out my real name. Not likely, probably. My book is directed toward teenage girls.

"Bethany, destroy that note at once."

Oh, now Aldaris felt the need to comment. I stared at the note a minute, contemplating doing as he said.

"Meh." I shoved the paper further up the table. "Come in here and tear it up yourself, if you want it gone. It won't do any harm, alright? Besides, this place wasn't clean when he left it, so there's no way we didn't do something in here, even a little thing, he wouldn't notice. It's better to be polite in this case and let him think I'm a travelling hippie, or something."

That seemed to calm Aldaris some. Well, the floating emotion hovering above my head abated, anyway. It left behind a sort of...I dunno, sourness. I don't know why Aldaris would be upset at something as simple as a note, though.

I sensed that it was safe to go outside. There wasn't that much cleaning I could do inside the house anyway, unless I wanted to get the windows (which I didn't), so I just went out through the back door. The back loft was as nice as ever, what with its fancy schmancy lawn furniture. I gave it another glance to check and see if it needed some cleaning. Other than some pollen, it looked alright. We didn't leave any trash around when we were here last, so I just left it.

Aldaris wasn't anywhere in sight. The empty lawn curved down into a small cluster of trees, but the Protoss wasn't visible through any of the branches. Then again, if he could talk to me when I was inside the house, he couldn't be that far. Not that it's clear how powerful a Judicator's mind is, but presumably his telepathic talking only goes so far.

I wandered through the trees, still able to sense his presence. It's doubtful Aldaris wanted me to find him, but a bad mood is detectable even when the person involved isn't psychic. The cluster of trees really was small. Soon enough they thinned out, revealing a long area of dry grass. The sun shone especially bright here, and I smiled into it. Ahead of me a few yards was Aldaris, sitting on the ground with his robe tucked underneath him. Seriously, I've never seen anyone sit on the ground with such dignity. And oh wow, there was a cliff there. Suddenly Kensley's departure from this really cool house made a whole lot less sense. This whole property is gorgeous.

"Are you feeling better?" I asked, wandering, against my better judgement, to Aldaris.

The Judicator glanced sidelong at me only briefly. He didn't answer before returning his gaze to the sun and shut his eyes. He looked better, and his skin didn't seem like it was peeling anymore. Maybe my eyes had tricked me earlier. Ah, someone on the internet once told me that Protoss "eat" sunlight, so I guess that's what he was doing out here. Lol, Protoss are plants. Hehe.

Oh crap. Aldaris glanced sideways out at me, glaring again. Fortunately, dude glares too much. I'm used to it by now, and just chuckled.

"What, you don't want to be compared to a tree?" I said. "Why not? Trees are nice, pleasant things, and without them, people couldn't breathe. Protoss are the element of air, remember?"

Aldaris rolled his eyes at that, but his scowl disappeared, and I could have sworn I saw him smile a little with his eyes. Aiur's a jungle planet, according to the game, so he probably likes trees. Then another thought popped into my head.

"Huh…y'know, if you guys need sunlight to live, it seems like space travel would get really annoying. Especially when there's no star around. I guess artificial light wouldn't work then, because there's plenty of light on your ship, and it hasn't kept you from feeling sick…"

"That is enough," he snapped. "Have I not had my fill of the void in my exile there these many months? I do not wish to speak of it."

Y'know, sometimes I'm the slowest sludge on the hill. Despite it being really obvious, I didn't get until right that moment. Even though Aldaris watched out over the waters, making a point not to look at me, I could still see enough of the side of his face to see his hurt.

"Ohh…I'm a dunce. It's not a problem with all Protoss, is it?" I asked. "I mean, Protoss are alright in space, except not you…"

Still the same scowl. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, so I knew I'd figured out the mystery. Oh, wow I'm being dumb. So Aldaris has a problem where he can't absorb light so good, and I had to be all rude about it. It's not nice to bother people about medical conditions. Great. I am so the best at offending people. The Firefly television show sucks. Brad Pitt isn't attractive. The Beatles are the most overrated band of all time. See? I have a special talent for it.

"Well, okay. I'll just leave you alone then. And I won't mention it to the others. Heh, I tend to forget secrets anyway. I'll go back to the house and read a book or something until the teleporter's ready."

I'd only taken a few steps away when he stopped me. Something in my head clicked, and I knew automatically it was him. Protoss conversations must be full of all kinds of subtleties like that.

"You may stay, should you wish it."

Dude wouldn't talk to a human if he had the choice, no doubt. Oh well. I don't mind. It's hard not to feel sorry for someone separated from all his friends.

"Uh, okay."

I went and sat down near Aldaris' feet, just like a little kid. Granted, I was a little closer to the edge of the cliff than I should have been, but I really like heights. Peeking down, I saw the waves of an endless ocean crash against the rocks of the shore. Cool. No wonder Charlie wanted to sit over here. It's like a Thomas Kinkade painting.

"You enjoy enticing the hands of death, I see."

"Nope, I just like heights," I chuckled and pulled back from the edge. "And sharks, snakes, hostile aliens…okay, never mind, good point."

The grass near the edge was dry and kind of pokey, but it wasn't that bad. The sand wasn't the kind that would get stuck on jeans that much, so sat there and stretched out my legs. The sun was out, and since the nearest trees were several yards away, this was a perfect place to sit in our star's comforting warmth. I closed my eyes and let it shine on me.

"It was my understanding that exposure to the sun renders a human ill."

"Hm?" I said without opening my eyes. "Not usually. Few creatures can live without the sun. Except for those fish that live in deep caves and stuff. And these microscopic creatures called water bears. They can survive in most any environment, including space. They're kinda cute, when you look at 'em close up. Nah, humans need the sun. It helps us produce vitamin D."

It wasn't an interesting enough topic, I guess. Aldaris didn't say respond. I spent a moment or two just listening to the wind blow the water against the rocks of the cliff below. It was really nice.

"Bethany..." Aldaris said, his voice heavy with reluctance. "Speak."

"Hmm?"

I turned around. Aldaris blinked and stared down at me. Was he tired, or something? My intuition picked up weariness of the mind from him. Was he okay?

"Speak. Say anything, only say nothing of Starcraft."

"Uh…okay. So I work at a used bookstore, and I was thinking that you might be really bored up in your ship all day. I'm not really sure how well you can read english, but I know you were having trouble with it. So I was trying to think of what you might like to read, but it's hard to choose between something at your reading level and something that won't insult your intelligence. You're not opposed to reading children's books, are you?"

"That depends upon the quality of the the children's book."

I nodded. "I guess I'll get you some children's books then. Hans Christian Andersen should be good, because it's technically for children but still creepy. What I really think you should read is Watership Down. It's about these rabbits," I conjured up a picture of a rabbit in my mind, because chances are there's no bunnies on Aiur. "Except they're all personified, and have their own religion and culture and everything. One of the rabbits, Fiver, gets this premonition of danger for the rabbit warren, and those that believe him have to set out and find a new home. It's all nice and complex and stuff."

"These rabbits..." Aldaris said slowly, eyes scrunched in disbelief. "They have religious beliefs?"

"Yeah. What makes it interesting is that rabbits aren't all that smart, so their beliefs are based on really obvious things. There's the sun god Frith, and then Inle the night god. Inle himself is a rabbit, but he has a black rabbit that works for him and calls the souls of dead rabbits to the afterlife. Honestly, the author Richard Adams, was pretty smart when he made the book. That one, anyway. Kind of a one hit wonder, it was. The sequel was pathetic - you can tell he didn't want to write it - and his work The Plague Dogs was pretty bad. In that, he kept going on about the Scottish countryside for pages upon pages. And he gave a fox a Scottish accent. Bear in mind that the stereotypical Scottish accent is super hard to understand, so reading it was a pain. Oh, and then there was this one part where he spends all these pages talking about the backstory of a guy who escaped getting killed by Nazis, only for him to get a couple pages in present day, wherein one of the dogs gets his paw stuck on a rifle trigger and accidentally kills him. Come on, now, what is that? I think Adams is one of those kinds that like animals better than people. It would explain a lot."

To his credit, Aldaris didn't use this opportunity to say something about animals being preferential to humans. Then again, they guy is seven centuries old. He's got to be over petty comebacks by now.

"I have little interest in human fiction," he admitted, rubbing his eyes.

"That tone sounds like you're not interested in human nonfiction either."

"Yes, that is true."

For a second there, it seemed like Aldaris would say something else, but he didn't. He just stopped suddenly, then returned to watching the ocean again. He'd said to talk, so maybe he somehow wanted to hear my inane ramblings.

"Well, okay, but they say that the brain is like a muscle, and you need to exercise it. May as well be in learning to read english. Or you can learn korean, if you want. And they say that when someone is like on a deserted island or something, they need intellectual stimulation to survive. Being stuck on your ship all that time is probably just as bad."

The Protoss chuckled. "Your concern almost seems genuine."

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"You jest. For what reason would my well being concern you? Surely you despise me."

"Huh? Why would I?"

Aldaris shook his head and said some foreign language stuff, probably swear words. "Have you in your foolishness forgotten that the Protoss are the enemies of the humans in the Korprullu Sector?"

"So the destroying of Chau Sara and Tarsonis and such was accurate? That wasn't just Starcraft?"

"You did not know for certain?"

"Well, Starcraft shows Tassadar attacking the Conclave, and you said that didn't happen. That means anything in the game is liable to be wrong. Oh! Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up Starcraft again. You said you didn't want to talk about it."

"The fault is my own," Aldaris muttered. "Forget it."

Cue awkward pause. The trouble with being a nerd is that I never know how to react in social situations, particularly when someone is emotionally charged. Something was really eating at Charlie, that's for certain. He sat there, his hands clenched, angry at something. I'm pretty sure he's not mad at me, but he was making me want to go back to the Kensley house. Is that what he wanted? Again, social cues are a mystery.

"I'm not mad at you, Charlie." I said. "I've already forgiven you for all that."

"...You have?"

"Sure. Why not?" I hugged my knees. "After all, Aiur got destroyed. I mean, sparing the humans probably wouldn't have saved Aiur, and we had nothing to do with its invasion, but isn't that enough suffering?"

Aldaris didn't exactly seem happy at this announcement. "Your reason is only exceeded by your childish naivity."

"Oh? What, do you want me to hate you, or something?"

"Whether you fear or hate the Protoss is of no concern. Your forgiveness will not create an ally of the race who fought against your people. The ill will of this war will not vanish in one moment, and it is foolish to believe that any human authority will find himself at the same conclusion you make."

"Is this the K Sector? That war exists there. Here we've got enough troubles without bringing in any of yours. You should take a break from all that now. Refresh your mind and stuff. Don't tell me you can't find a way back."

"By the gods, should such terror befall me? Fear not, human, many options remain. I will vacate this planet when it becomes a possibility. The task is difficult, but not impossible. This exile shall not be prolonged further than necessary."

I felt a little bad at this point. I should be cheering this guy up, but here I am just making his funk worse. It's like that episode of Deep Space Nine where Captain Sisko is trapped on a space world with freshly insane dictator Gul Dukat, and he utterly fails to keep Dukat from falling into a racist mental breakdown. That episode always bothered me, because Sisko is trying to act as if Dukat is absolute evil, when really Dukat just wanted someone to pull him from the ledge of despair. Thankfully, Dukat is way worse than Aldaris, and I'm quite good at the rambling. Yeesh, I'm so glad I don't have to title this journal "Me and Dukat."

"Welcome to the gulag," I said suddenly.

"...'Gulag'?"

I nodded, then stretched out over the grass. It's storytime, and I wanted to be comfortable. "The gulag is the prison camp system in the Soviet Union. It doesn't exist anymore, but back when it did, there was this guy called Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He'd wanted to become a writer, but ended up joining the military because writing wouldn't have supported him. And then he gets arrested for criticizing the Soviet dictator, and spends eight years in prison camps before heading off to exile.

"But while he's in the prison camp, he discovers all these stories of wrongly imprisoned and cruely treated prisoners - seriously, the Soviet Union used to arrest people for things like travelling outside the country, believing in God, and because they had arrest quotas to fill. It was because of his experiences that Aleksandr ended up writing the Gulag Archipelago, a massive testimonial of the Soviet Union's crimes. The Gulag Archipelago being perhaps the twentieth century's greatest nonfiction work. Besides that, he wrote a number of other stories. So in the end, he became more successful than he ever could have without being pulled away from his normal life."

"This little story of yours...what is its relevance?"

"Um, well, the gulag's a metaphor. There's always a time in important people's lives when they go through trials and face their worst fears. Or it happens to everybody, and we associate it with great people - or people they want us to believe are great - because they're the only ones people write about. Though you may think all of this is an accident, it may really be the time when you learn to become who you're really meant to be."

Suddenly Aldaris exploded with laughter, shaking and bent over double. With not one concern for my fragile little ego, his mockery stunned me to silence. Did I say something funny?

"Your arrogance is only overtaken by your foolishness," Aldaris scornfully laughed. "Am I so imprudent to accept the ravings of a mad neonate such as yourself? You are a child, and moreover one that knows nothing of the great and terrible events I have withstood, and in your few years never could hope to achieve the wisdom and education of the Protoss. You are naive not merely to us, but your own kind. To hear you speak can only invite the mockery of your Koprullu Sector counterparts. And to say such things from merely witnessing the half-accurate ravings of a computer game is the height of arrogance."

Aldaris continued to smirk at me, but I had a chuckle of my own. I rolled my eyes and lifted my hands in surrender. "Okay, whatever, Charlie. Think whatever you want. I don't care. You're happy now, so I guess I cheered you up. Yay. Success, achievement, progress. Qapla'. Even think I'm arrogant if you want."

"Then you protest my accusation?"

"Certainly. My personality type, INTP, is often accused of arrogance, when really we're just making blunt, childlike observations."

"And you prefer childishness to arrogance?"

I thought about it a second. "Well, yeah. It makes people underestimate me."

That just about did it. Aldaris buried his face in his hands and laughed as though the world would run out of humor. I got the honor of sitting there in numb awkwardness until Aldaris finally calmed down enough to interrupt his laughter with a few words.

"Your plan has functioned as intended," Aldaris said. "My estimation of you is not significant."

"Dude, if I really were so proud as you say, I'd be a heck of a lot more offended at you right now," I chuckled. "I'm just making observations. Whether they're accurate or not, well, you know."

"Is that the case? You are the one who believes humanity is my greatest fear."

"I never said that. Actually I meant the opposite. You're not afraid of anything here, so much a you're afraid - my guess, anyway - of just being away from your people and not being able to do anything for them. It's that loss of control over their fate that just drives you nuts."

Aldaris calmed down a bit at this point. His eyes flickered a bit yellow at me before he returned his gaze to the waters below. "If I cared nothing for those I left behind this situation should prove more tolerable."

"Yeah." I nodded. "I dunno, I think you're handling it better than, say, Zeratul or Raynor would be. Oh my gosh, if Jimmy and Zer were here, holy crap would it be bad. Raynor would drink himself to death, and the only thing stopping Zer from doing the same is that he can't."

"For what reason?"

"Eh, think about it. Jim found out his government was massively corrupt, found out the guy he supported against this government was also corrupt, failed to save Kerrigan twice, and ended up manipulated by her. The only positive thing he ever did was help you guys on Aiur, and I'm convinced that if Tassadar hadn't found him, he'd have ended up giving up on life then and there. At the end of Brood War I'm convinced that the only thing keeping him alive is his vow to kill Kerrigan."

"I know not overmuch of Raynor," Aldaris said. "Though nothing you say seems implausible, assuming Starcraft has portrayed the events concerning him correctly. Yes, certainly Zeratul would fare worse than I. Though he claims greater adaptability, his past is no less disfigured. Indeed greater, for his guilt against Aiur."

"What seems to hurt Zeratul the most is his inability to correct all his mistakes. Did you notice that in Brood War he seemed a lot dumber than he did in Starcraft? He didn't notice Raszagal's turning, despite knowing her better than you. He didn't even think to question that perhaps killing the second overmind was what Kerrigan wanted."

"Strong words from from one whose favorite character is Zeratul. Or do you prefer him from pity?"

"What? You are all kinds of wrong about me today. Zer's not my favorite. No way."

"Is that so? Then your favorite is Tassadar, of course."

"Really, it's way too hard to have favorites in Starcraft. The ones I like the best tend to be the ones I happen to be thinking about lately. Like Duke, for example. I like how he doesn't get aggravated when Tassadar's yelling at him. Or Mengsk, he's a fantastic fictitious character, and a great villain." I cringed. "Now that I know he's real...well, now I have to rethink everything. Besides, I tend to stray from picking the most popular characters. Everybody likes Zer and Tass." Suddenly, I grinned. "Actually, you're pretty popular these days. When I did my favorite character personality analysis thing on a forums lately, the first three or four people all picked you as one of their favorites. I think it comes of Starcraft 2 characters being so weak and watered down that a good antagonist becomes appealing."

"Stating any favorites of yours was merely a joke on my part," Aldaris said. "It is foolish to select them when they are true people, and not characters. The tragedies of the Korprullu Sector are no mere fantasies. They cannot be ignored in favor of silly games."

"You act as though it's going to happen here."

"Will it not? The fingers of your hand count the centuries until the time of Zerg's imminent arrival. The Earth is now poised with the opportunity to save itself, if possible, from the terror of the Swarm."

"I don't know that that's the case, Charlie." I yawned and stretched. "Mm, thing is, according to Starcraft, the K Sector is fifty thousand light years away. The only way to get there in less than fifty thousand years - five hundred centuries, mind you - is to suddenly develop faster than light travel, which we are nowhere near at this present time. And that's not taking into account getting there early enough to have the population levels what they are when Starcraft started. This has got to be some sort of alternate universe to where Starcraft happens. I think, anyway. It's not like we have any way of finding evidence."

Aldaris went silent, retreating at least partway back to his brooding aura has he settled his chin in his hands and stared off into the distance. To my horror, I realized that he'd probably thought about this already. Not to mention that he's probably already sent messages through space hoping that Aiur or other Protoss worlds answer him back. If this Earth is an alternate universe, then there most likely isn't going to be anyone to come and save him. Aaaaaand then I go and remind him how alone he is with my alternate universe talk. No wonder he didn't want to talk about Starcraft.

Man, I'm stupid...

"Yes, I am aware of that."

I stare at him for the second it takes me to remember that he's still a telepath. But hey, I'm being nice today, so I just grin and bear it.

"If I make a fool of myself again, will you laugh?"

"Perhaps. Continue speaking and we shall see."

We talked a little more, but that was about normal stuff. I ranted on about some books he should read, like The Shadow by Hans Christen Anderson and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. This led into a long conversation on the nature of literature, and he did laugh at me a couple more times. After a bit, he said his recall unit was recharged, and I could go back home. Finally! I could go back to my computer and finish up those stupid tax class assignments!

My laptop, still on from earlier, sat on my dining room table. I sat down and started clicking all the appropriate links - online homework is annoying, but it beats having to figure out what goes where on who knows what tax form.

"My assignment..." I whispered. "It's not there..."

I clicked on the "see all assignments" link. Oh no...this week's assignment was due at noon. I glanced at the lower right of my computer screen. 2:39.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

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Author's Notes:

- Sorry it's been so long. I had schoolwork and other things going on which prevented me from uploading this here. The good news is, I have a big buffer going on for posts, so I intend to post weekly for a while until this segment of the story is done. I'll also have the opportunity to edit my first drafts to make them nice and pretty for the fanfiction net crowd.

- Note that this is the same day as my last post. Also, since I've missed so much time, we can't assume time is passing in the story at the same pace as me writing it. That's what I originally intended, but oh well. There's less pressure this way. For the record, everything that happened so far took less than half a year.

Author's Notes New:

- That book I mention up there that I want to publish I have not yet. For some reason I have it in my head that I want to finish writing the first draft of the series before getting into the publishing side. Mainly I'm just trying to figure out how I want to take the series so that I can go back and edit stuff in, if I need to.

That, and I've been slacking. Please review this story with statements to admonish me for my lack of initiative.