Author's Note: Hello, my friends! After a terribly long wait, your story is up once more! I'm really, really sorry about the wait. I have some lame excuses, but I won't state them for now, because they are completely pathetic. Anyway, enjoy! Leave a review! Have fun! XD Next chapter SHOULD be up by next Saturday. I swear, I REALLY will try to keep that promise. See ya! :D

AESEARIA

Aesearia wasn't aware of opening her eyes. They were open and receiving by the time she came about. She perceived that she was in a floating cloud of light blue, electricity occasionally discharging randomly across the clouds. She marveled at the beauty for a while, forgetting her name, who she was, the conflict against the Zerg, and all else. All that mattered was that she was in paradise. Bliss. Eternal bliss.

(It would not occur to her until later what a terrifying thought that was)

It seemed that a long while had passed, perhaps eternity, before Aesearia realized that if she could see and think, chances are, she had a body. She thought of raising her arm and, lo and behold, her arm rose before her. She looked down to her own body. She was dressed in a brown robe, humble yet beautiful.

It was at that point that she remembered everything.

Panic overwhelmed her.

Where am I? Am I dead? Where is my armor?

Then:

"Aesearia. I've been expecting you."

It was a disembodied voice, neither male nor female. It seemed to have come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

"Aesearia. I've been expecting you."

Who are you? Where am I? Am I dead?

Aesearia thought the voice chuckled.

"No, you are not dead. You are within your own mind – you will return to your friends shortly. As for me – shall we say that I am the Good, mysterious hand behind the game unto which you had been unwillingly thrust? For now, you may call me Voice."

There was something very, very overt about that statement. Aesearia couldn't quite place her finger on it, though, as it appeared that Aesearia was having trouble thinking on a complex level. She decided to ignore it and carry on.

Why am I here?

Again that chuckle and that sense of amusement.

"Why, it would defeat the purpose of being mysterious if I told you. Now, to be serious.

You have been thrust into this foreign world by chance, it would appear to you. Whether this is true, I will not tell you. What I will say, though, is that your survival amazes me. The human, Daniel, he has told you of this world, I presume? Yes, but he did not divulge all of the truth. See, a long time ago, when humans attempted to make this game in reality, they brought forth into the game a new entity, a new "boss": Herobrine, who has been the things of legend already. Of his history I will not elaborate – that would take much of our precious time. Once he was programmed into the system with a complex artificial intelligence, he began to perceive a sense of self and, not long afterwards, a need to be more than a part of a game. Naturally, everything went wrong and Herobrine crashed the entire system, taking over worlds of Minecraft from all over the planet Earth. Given that he is able to process all that information, I leave it up to you to process how powerful his intellect is. Anyway, he took over all the worlds of Minecraft and declared himself "king of the land". In short, he is able to control all aspects of the game, spawn whatever he pleases, and he can see everything, everywhere, any time of the day. You can't hide from him. However, he still has his weaknesses. First of all, he has no social experience. Being dangerously intelligent is not always the same thing as being dangerously cunning. Second, he is emotionally fragile, given that - "

Wait… If he can control everything, why hasn't he killed us already? Is there something he wants from us?

"…This, I do not know, or will not tell. As for whether or not there is something he wants from you… That is an interesting idea. Perhaps - "

Aesearia suddenly perceived that the being was tense. What had happened?

"Quickly, Protoss, go! Our time is up, until next time - "

Aesearia jerked awake. If she were human, she would have been panting. She sat up straight, looking wildly around her, her nerve cords clicking behind her.

"Woah, dude. Settle down. You're fine, it's just us, me an' Daniel. That was some kickass psionic kungfu you just did there." Ethan offered Aesearia a hand, pulling her up out of her sitting position. "Under any case, we're glad to see you're not dead. Furthermore, Daniel here destroyed the spawner, so we should be good to go. Daniel checked out the chest over there, got some diamonds, iron, saddles, and some purple, shiny books." He threw Daniel a smug glance.

"They're not shiny, purply books!" he exploded. "They're called enchanted books! You can use them to enchant your tools and weapons and you're just humoring me, aren't you?" Realization dawned on his face as Ethan cracked up, laughing harder than he ever had in his life.

"Well, you two seem to be having a lot of fun," Aesearia said dryly (which somehow made Ethan laugh even harder). "Is there anything else we need to do here? Or do we spend the rest of the time with me saving your lives?"

"You didn't save our lives! I had everything under control! Dang, I'd even bet I killed more zombies than you - "

Aesearia considered telling them about her vision, but decided that it could wait. Besides, the vision puzzled even her. Who was the Voice? Was it Herobrine himself, playing some cruel game with them? And if the Voice was telling the truth, could this Herobrine possibly be able to teleport her back to Aiur? Aesearia decided that she would have to visit this Herobrine eventually.

For now, though, their underground journey had led them to even more caves. The majority of the time was spent monotonously as Daniel mined out the ores and Aesearia and Ethan stood guard. Only the occasional violence with monsters (mobs?) broke the boring silence. They progressed deeper and deeper into the earth (Minecraftia?!), encountering absolutely nothing of interest, except for a bat stuck in stone. To pass the time, they talked about what they would do after the wars, assuming they could even get out of the gaming world. Daniel, who knew a little about the happenings in the Korpulu Sector, would join in the conversation from time to time.

"When I get out of this war, I'm gonna find myself a nice little stretch of land, find my love, and live a happy farmer's life out on some faraway planet. Hopefully those bloody Zerg will all be dead by then. Us and the Protoss should be able to live peacefully together, once the Zerg are gone. If we go to war again, I don't think I'd live to see the end."

"Farming? I don't think that's very exciting," Daniel interjected while digging out a huge hole/tunnel. "Why don't you consider doing computer science? That's very interesting, I think…"

"Humans," Aesearia sighed, "you each will find interests in different subjects. It is pointless and time-consuming to argue of it. Now, Daniel, is there any limit to how far we can diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iii AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - "

Aesearia fell with a heavy clunk on rough, stone floor. Darkness engulfed her, rendering her blind. Mentally sighing at her lack of good luck, she felt her way up. Her hands grasped about blindly, until they came upon –

Wood. Wood…

"Boys," she called up towards the tiny spark of light from whence she fell, "I think we have a problem…"