Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with yet another chapter from VOiD. I have finally broken through the barrier of writer's block, and I am raring to go once more!

On a rather unfortunate note, this upcoming Thursday is the day that I will be getting a full set of braces... D: Yeah, it's gonna suck buckets. I really hope I don't get writers block while I have those on at first, I don't like writer's block... At least I somewhat know what to expect; I've had braces once already, although that was the time when I only had one set on the top row... Well, wish me luck anyway, I think I'll need it. _

As long as we're here, I'm going to give out more replies to reviews!

Replies To Reviews...

Somebody10101: I think Ben won't accept that fact, man.

CSICreeper: Uh, yeah. Ever seen Hoodwinked? If you have, then you'll know what I'm talking about when I saw you remind me of Twitchy the Squirrel.

BfheadGamer: Just to let you know, I'm answering that P.S. of yours as a question to the Mutated Bed From Chapter 4.

Volcanic the hedgehog: Actually, I've still got a sore throat, so that sucks buckets. Not as much as the braces I'll be getting, though. :(

Now then, ON WITH THE STORY!

Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with yet another episode from VOiD. Last time on VOiD we watched as Norman and Lizzy finally reached their old friend Professor Explotar and once again entered the world of Minecraft. Then we switched to the view of Mark, where we watched as Lucas was revealed to be lying and in perfect condition. Rexum got really mad and they left immediately, which brought everyone into their great moods again. Meanwhile, Notch and the crew of Mojang had their own pressing matters to deal with, for the Glitch had pulled a prank and made their clothes disappear while they were in public, forcing them into leaf-clothing. Finally, we dropped back down into the Void Palace and watched as the Glitch revealed some small snippets about its master plan. Now we get to see everything from Queen Enderdragon's point of view, and to be honest, nothing is going well for her at the moment.

Now, let the story commence!

Chapter 17: To Kill An Enderdragon

With all the chaos being caused by the Glitch, Queen Enderdragon was both stressed and in pain. Her Endermen empire was crumbling as it was, and at any moment the End could be attacked by the Glitch.

At the moment, Queen Enderdragon was flying over the obsidian pillars dotted around the End. The Endermen below her were scattering and screaming, carrying crying children and wailing babies. She couldn't calm any of them down, and that was the reason she was so stressed. With her Endermen population falling to pieces, so was she. Finally, the Queen got so frustrated that she landed atop the tallest pillar and let out a huge roar that echoed furiously through the cold air.

In an instant, all the Endermen below her halted to a stop and looked up at her. Her blazing violet eyes scanned the crowd for a moment before she began to speak.

"Citizens of the End! I must make it clear now that we are in a time of danger!"

Upon the word "danger" everybody started to panic and shout, but the Queen just stomped her foot to shake the whole island. Once they were quieted down again, she continued.

"This is a very desperate time, and that calls for desperate measures!" she said harshly. "I have made my decision!"

Her words hung in the tense air, the Endermen crowd hanging on every one of them.

"I have decided to open up the main portal back to the Overworld!"

The crowd gasped, and immediately they started screaming and shouting protests that were either angry, confused or frightened. Queen Enderdragon roared as loud as she could, which hurt her drying throat, and it caused her to start coughing heavily. She hovered down to the ground, scattering many Endermen, and lay down to rest. With the situation she was in, she had grown terribly sick from all her worry. Endermen swarmed her once again and started shouting out.

"Silence!" she shouted, quieting them again.

As people were shoving their way to reach their queen, paramedics streamed through the crowd and formed a ring around Queen Enderdragon. One of them spooned some blue liquid into her mouth, others just slid a machine around her to check her condition. Now everybody had gone from panicky to deathly silent. One by one, people shouted out frantically.

"Queen Enderdragon! If you open the portal you'll turn back into an egg!"

"What'll you do if the Glitch attacks you after you open the portal?!"

"We can't all leave you, you won't be safe!"

The paramedic finished spooning liquid into her mouth and she was able to speak again.

"My people, I must do this! You are all to travel into the Overworld and find the nearest civilization! You can't all teleport—that would alert the Minecraftians. I have already sent a messenger to a very expansive village called Smelttown! Once you arrive, the people living there will know that I have sent you in peace, and they will be aware of the conditions!"

"But the Glitch will kill you!"

Queen Enderdragon coughed heavily again, and finally regained her breath ten seconds later.

"The survival of the Enderman race is far more important than my safety, you must realize! I will not be disobeyed, you ALL will retreat this place! If I have to get you through the portal by force I will!"

There was an uproar of shouts from the Queen's subjects once more. The paramedics came around with a massive stretcher and lifted her onto it. With at least thirty Endermen surrounding her, she was carried towards the center of the island. They set the Queen down on the end stone ground where she was facing her hundreds of Endermen people.

"Alright, now is the time! All of you move far away from me, or you WILL be obliterated." declared Queen Enderdragon, closing her eyes.

Queen Enderdragon had a way to open the portal to the Overworld, but it would mean destroying herself and turning back into an egg. But if it meant that her people would be safe, she was willing to do it. In her mind she let her instinct take over, and she thought to herself the deadliest command ever created...

"/kill"

All went away, and the Queen only felt immense pain for a second. She felt herself drifting away, her body shriveling up, her mind being swept with a drowsy feeling...

And then, moments later she felt herself come back to life, only this time she was floating. Yes, she knew where she was now; back in her Enderdragon egg. She heard the garbled sound of many shouts from outside, which were so loud that the cool shell around her vibrated. After the shouts dulled, there was a massive thundering of footsteps. The shaking of her egg lasted for at least ten minutes, and then she heard the last person plunge into the portal, and then the closing of the portal afterward. Then all was quiet.

Queen Enderdragon, now just a baby, swam upward and scratched with her tiny claws at the shell of the egg, which she knew would only break from the inside going out. After minutes of scratching, the top of the egg cracked open, and a blast of cold air blew into the egg. Shivering and wet, little Queen Enderdragon climbed out of her egg and toppled over the edge onto the bedrock frame of the dead portal.

Her vision was still blurry from the warm liquid inside the egg, so she wandered almost blindly across the cold end stone ground. She stretched her slimy little wings and flapped into the air, but it was very tiring with her body being too big to carry for the delicate limbs.

But before she was able to even begin waddling again, a cruel, monstrous, icy-cold sound echoed through the air. That sound was none other than the Glitch's alien voice.

"Mwahahahahahahahaha!"

The little Enderdragon yelped in fear and froze, looking around frantically for the source of the noise. Suddenly, the entire End was swept over with a pitch-dark wave, which drowned her in dark so that even the floor couldn't be seen.

"Oh, how adorable! A baby Enderdragon!"

She whimpered and crawled quickly around, searching for somewhere to hide. But where could you hide when everything was pitch black? Suddenly, she felt something brush past her from behind, and she jumped, scrambling away in fright.

"Awwwwww, you really are a cute little queen, aren't you?" whispered the Glitch icily.

Something slimy grabbed her tail and she let out a squeal, running as fast as her pudgy little feet could carry her away from the unknown creature that surrounded her, clouding her mind with dark thoughts. As she was running, she bumped into something, and before she could even let out another yelp, something very cold wrapped around her neck, making her gag. More unseen tendrils wrapped around her legs, pulling her to the ground, and then her little arms, and already the helpless little dragon was pinned to the ground by the monster.

Two glowing red eyes and a slit for a mouth appeared above her, and she swallowed a screech. Tears were running down her scaly cheeks—the moment of her death was very close, and she knew it. The Glitch's red eyes curled up gleefully as an evil grin spread beneath it. It extended a black tendril, which formed a jagged finger, and scratched lightly under her chin, which was wet with tears.

"Would you like a little cookie, or perhaps a tickle under the chin? AAHAAHAAHAAAA!"

The little dragon snapped at the pointed finger, which pulled back and waggled in front of her.

"Naughty, naughty!" muttered the Glitch, its grin broadening.

Her breathing had become short and panicked, her chest tight and her stomach knotted painfully. The black finger in front of her placed its sharp end on her chest as the Glitch continued, sounding like it was talking to a puppy, only with such a malice that it made the temperature drop by thirty degrees. In fact, the air around them was easily below zero, and the baby Queen Enderdragon's breath froze in midair.

"Unfortunately, naughty ones must be punished..."

The little dragon gasped in pain as the pointed finger pushed into her chest, sinking into the skin beneath her scales. Purple blood oozed from around the finger, coming from beneath her chest. She shrieked in pain, hoping to attract someone's attention even though she was utterly alone, and a black tendril of plasma constricted over her mouth to quiet her squeals.

"I am disappointed to say to you that your fellow rulers will die the same way you will..."

The finger sank deeper into her chest, puncturing her heart, and the blood flow increased dangerously, splattering her chest as she struggled against her bonds. Soon, blood flowed up into her throat but couldn't escape due to the black tendril over her mouth. For at least ten seconds, the Glitch let helpless baby Enderdragon suffer and soak in her own blood. Finally, the Glitch leaned forward with its menacing eyes an inch away from little Queen Enderdragons, and he whispered,

"Say goodbye to your soul, Queen Enderdragon."

The Glitch withdrew its black finger and leaned forward with its glowing red mouth, opening it to reveal the powerful black hole inside. In an instant, the very soul of the Queen, colored a gloomy black shade, rose up out of her chest and became swallowed by the darkness that protruded from the Glitch's mouth. That little dragon, scared, helpless, in pain, and spattered with her own blood, drifted off into the cold that was not just death, but the void that would erase her from existence. It was then that she knew no more...

At that moment, all the Endermen of Minecraftia cried out to the skies in grief. Their cries echoed through the entire dimension, and all the other mobs in Minecraftia gave their cries along with them, all sharing the same sorrow. The Minecraftians themselves knew not what was going on, but after taking one glance into the night sky they saw that the stars had disappeared from its darkness. They too knew that something terrible had just happened.

Also, as the cries continued on through the night, a wave of chilling wind swept over the land, and even in the Nether the temperature dropped by thirty degrees. This was a sign of the Glitch gaining power, and once that realization was spread throughout Minecraftia, everyone knew that one of their great rulers had not survived an attack from the Glitch. This in mind, the sorrow spread to the people living all around the Minecraft Dimension, and they too joined in with the cries of Minecraft's mobs.

It was the cries of all living creatures in Minecraftia that awoke Mark, who, when he sat up on the ground, felt unusually cold. He knew he had been having a terrible nightmare, only of which he could remember seeing the Glitch again. He took a quick glance around him, making sure that everyone was still alive. To his relief, they all lay sleeping on the ground around him.

Then he looked up into the sky, and immediately his whole body became even colder. The stars had vanished from the sky. He felt a kind of déjà vu for a moment there, but couldn't put his finger on when this had happened before.

Mark gave up trying to think and stood up off of the ground. He knew he had to tell someone about the sky, and Rexum seemed like the best person to tell. Rexum was sitting atop the Eyestone, which pulsed with chilly air as usual. He reached out a finger to tap Rexum on the shoulder, but the old wizard beat him there and grabbed his hand, making him jump.

"What is it?" he muttered quietly, almost as though some was eavesdropping.

Mark pointed up into the sky and said,

"I don't know why, but the stars aren't in the sky anymore..."

Rexum whipped his head upward, flinging his great shaggy mane of silver hair from his face to show the urgency in his expression. One look at the spotless black sky and Rexum's eyes widened twice their normal size. He leapt off the Eyestone, broke it apart and then picked it up in its item form. He grabbed Mark's wrist and muttered angrily,

"I knew it! This is worse than I could have ever imagined!"

Mark tugged at the old man's firm grip.

"What's worse than you... Ow! Hey! Slow down!"

Rexum was already rushing around to people, waking them up quickly with Mark dragging behind. Soon enough, everybody was groggily sitting up and rubbing their eyes. Mark gave a massive shiver when Raven awoke, because when she looked tired—like, more tired than usual—she looked nearly lifeless, almost like a creepy voodoo doll.

"What...?" she nearly shouted, but Rexum cut her off by clamping a hand over her mouth.

"We must leave now!"

Raven tried to say something, but it was muffled still by Rexum's hand. Finally, Rexum let go of her for a moment and whipped out the golden oak staff from an inside pocket of his robes. He twirled it in the air, creating a huge swarm of golden clouds. His wrinkles seemed to increase as he went, which either meant he was getting tired or he was just hurried. Or both. As people sleepily started protesting about being woken up, Rexum hurried everyone onto their own cloud.

"Everyone, we must leave NOW!"

Suddenly, something fell from the sky and hit Mark on the head.

"Owwww!" he shouted, rubbing his head.

He looked down to see what had hit him and spotted something round lying in the grass at his feet. Suddenly, it started emitting clouds of thick black smog and dark sparks. Mark's eyes widened in alert.

"Oh shi—"

Rexum grabbed his hand just in time to wrench him away as the black bomb exploded, sending acidic black goop everywhere. When Mark opened his eyes there was a golden shield around him, which was slowly beginning to melt away because of the black sludge. Rexum lead him to one of the golden clouds and sat him down on it quickly, then ran ahead to his own.

"Rexum, what's going on?!" shouted Mark.

Rexum jumped up onto his golden cloud, looked around to see that everyone else was safe—even the two horses, who were instead floating in a golden hovering pen, plus the entire pig family and Bonbon—and then thrust forward with his glittering staff in both hands. All nine clouds and the one magic floating pen rocketed forward, all of them trailing behind Rexum. Suddenly, screeching sounds came from above, and when Mark looked above him he saw hundreds of the acid bombs raining down upon them. It was just like that night in Invacuo City when the entire city was bombed with black explosives. Almost everyone was either screaming and/or clinging to their cloud for dear life, for Rexum refused to slow down.

Meanwhile, Mark's mind was racing, although he could hardly hear himself think over the sudden explosions coming from close behind them.

"How did the Glitch find us?! It must be the Glitch, but how?! Rexum said that we were completely concealed by his magic! And what about the stars?"

Mark could hear Kelsey screaming from way behind him, but he couldn't look back; he was clinging too hard to his own cloud. Then, after about two minutes or so, the explosions began to drift away. Another few minutes past, and then the explosions were just dulls vibrations from far away. Rexum didn't slow down, though, and he continued to fly them through the mountains that reared their massive, ugly heads.

Then, ten minutes of sickeningly fast travel later, Rexum slowed down the clouds and landed them on the slope of a snow-covered mountain. Mark shivered as he stepped off of his golden cloud, which disappeared instantly. It was snowing at the moment, and Mark could feel every individual snowflake pelt his skin, freezing him in place. Everyone around him was the same way; curled up into balls or huddling together.

And then there was the matter of Rexum. He had collapsed in a frozen pile on the ground. Mark shuffled over to him and knelt down to see if he was ok. His skin had turned extremely pale and clammy, and it looked as though he had aged twenty years and fallen badly ill in a short amount of time. Mark raised a shaking hand and called out to the others.

"G-guys! R-R-Rexum doesn't l-look very g-g-good!"

People swarmed around him to get a look at Rexum. Mark put a hand on Rexum's chest to check for his heartbeat, which was beating very irregularly. Then he rolled Rexum onto his stomach so he could put a hand on his back to check for breathing, but when he was turned over Mark's stomach began to churn. A large hole had been burned through Rexum's robes, and in his skin was a festering wound that was spitting up the black goop that had come from the bombs. Rexum must have somehow gotten grazed by that bomb when he had pulled Mark out of the way.

Mark nearly got touched by the spurting black substance, and he backed up.

"Everyone back up! Do NOT touch the black goop, or it'll do the same thing to you!"

Everyone formed a circle around Rexum, making sure to keep a good distance away from the spurting. Mark quickly located Vanessa and locked eyes with her.

"Vanessa! You're the only one who can get rid of that goop! Use your magic or something!"

Vanessa would do anything to help out Rexum, so she agreed and set to work. She transformed Cantatis into a magic sponge, which she fitted inside the wound to soak up all of the goop. Being made of Light magic, the sponge stayed where it was and did not burn up at all. Although, it did seem to tire Vanessa out the longer it went on.

They stayed huddled like that around Rexum for another half hour, when finally the wound had oozed out the last bit of black sludge. Vanessa turned the blackened sponge that was Cantatis into a massive catapult, which launched the five and a half gallons of mire far behind them. Now Rexum looked as pale as ever, and his wound was still mushy and purple. So while Vanessa was magically bandaging up his back, Mark sent everyone out to find wood for a fire.

He sat down and watched Vanessa go to work. Neither of them spoke for a while, but then after a few more minutes Mark was surprised to hear Vanessa speak first.

"Mark?" she murmured.

Mark looked up and said,

"Yes?"

Vanessa walked over and sat down next to him, curling up to him to try and get warm.

"I c-can only m-m-make you c-cold Vanessa. I'm as c-cold as you..." he muttered.

Vanessa just curled tighter and said,

"This is n-not how I expected t-t-to spend m-m-my summer. I expected to s-spend it under warm c-covers reading a book."

Mark hugged her close and muttered,

"Yeah, well I'm sorry I brought you into this mess."

"Well, I c-can't really say it's n-not your fault, but I will say that this isn't ALL y-your fault."

"H-how so?"

"W-well... It's not your f-f-fault that that thing called th-the Glitch exists. It's n-not your fault that y-you of all people were chosen t-t-to b-b-b-be a hero. And it's n-not your fault th-that we're stuck in a t-tundra, either. Oh, I'm so c-cold..."

She hugged Mark to stop herself from shivering, or at least try to. Even though Mark knew that most of the things that were happening to him and everyone else weren't his fault it still felt like he was to blame for it all.

The next moment, they heard a shout from behind them, and they both turned around on their butts to see Adrian and Gabe trudging up the snowy hill with many blocks of dark pine. Adrian was shouting out of excitement.

"W-we got th-th-the w-wood!" he declared.

Once they had reached the flat part of the slope where Mark, Vanessa and Rexum sat/lay, they set down a huge unlit bonfire. Soon after them came Lucas and Kelsey, who looked flustered and out of breath when they reached their spot with wood in their hands. After they piled wood onto the bonfire they sat down and huddled next to everyone else for warmth. Finally, Raven came crawling up the hill, her pale cheeks bitten by the harsh wind, snot running from her nostrils. She kept sniffling over and over as she came over the edge, and didn't even bother putting wood on the fire and just huddled with everyone else as quickly as possible in the cold air, squeezing in next to Mark.

Adrian's shaking hand zipped open his Blockpack from behind and took out a flint and steel, which he used to light the mountain of wood in front of them. Immediately, Mark felt warmth spread over him from the fire, and he felt relaxed. Plus, with both Kelsey and Raven on either side curling up to him, he felt even warmer. Vanessa stood up and had to resort to rolling Rexum closer to the fire, for he would not move. His eyes had now closed and his breathing had slowed, and he looked slightly at ease but still VERY exhausted.

Everyone sat in silence around the fire for a while. No one even looked at each other. Ten minutes of this later, Lucas was the first to speak.

"What now?"

Wow... I was getting some shivers during that scene with the Glitch and Queen Enderdragon as a baby. The Glitch said something previously about three Souls, does that have to do with it sucking up Queen Enderdragon's soul? Could that one be the Soul of Darkness?

Well, you can think whatever you want, but now we must get on with QAA!

To the Glitch: I bet you smell worse than a gundarks corpse buried on Korriban. And Revan, Canderous, Darth Vader, and Mara Jade could beat you in a fight no sweat.

The Glitch: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This is a joke, I say! Those weaklings would not stand a chance! MWAHA, I SAY! MWAHA!

To the Mutated Bed From Chapter 4: GYFVJUREWWGBBKUFDRGVUYDCGYFNKIVR!

Mutated Bed From Chapter 4: FAJGHARHLIAWHGOHGIAOIERBIWOIFAOUIJVAZ!

To the Glitch: Ou ink is an top me? *turns Super Saiyan 4 and break ice* Looks like I'll have to bring you down myself!Kaaaaaa-meeeeeeeeeee! Haaaaaaaaaa-meeeeeee! Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!

The Glitch: *shifts its body by splitting itself in two to dodge the blast* Well, NOW I see just how powerful you can be! WELL DONE, FOOL! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

To Notch: Why don't you give Mark the toomanyitems mod? It will help him a lot!

Notch: I don't have time! You don't understand the kind of situation I'm in at the moment! :/

Well then! How will the rest of the Enderman race survive now that their queen is dead forever? Will they be accepted into humankind? Will the Glitch rise to an even higher power now that it has absorbed the energy from Queen Enderdragon's soul? And what will happen to Mark and his friends now that they are stranded in a frozen tundra with barely any supplies? But for now, this is Pastrinator64, and I'll see you later with chapter numbah eighteen!

*throws sugar bomb, disappears in a cloud of fine white sugar*

Byyyyyeeeeee...

~Pastrinator64 [~]