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Chapter 1 - Home no longer.

She rested herself on a small platform she had glitched off the side of the nearby chunk, Her long red hair coiled at her shoulders before continuing the fall down her back. Her deep blue eyes roamed over the unloaded vista, finally resting on the void below her. "If I jumped... Would I ever land?" She pondered aloud. "Maybe I would just freeze as I fell."

She shook her head roughly, sending her hair flying out from her shoulders in a wide arc. She refocused her attention on the great blocky sun as it descended towards the horizon. A small prayer to Notch fell into her head from her past. 'As the sun falls away, I thank thee for another day. As another year becomes clear, I praise thee name. As my life’s end comes near, I ask for but one more day.'

Her mouth formed the words and sent them flying into the void. Memories flooded in behind her recital. Memories of her old home, her old life. She remembered her few friends, and her multiple enemies.

Her eyes grew damp as she tried to force the memories away. They had banished her from the village at the age of eleven! The wizards had tutored her some before even they had tired of her constantly changing demeanor and sent her to the reject areas of Minecraftia,

So, now she lived on the last loaded chunks of Minecraftia. Mostly she lived in peace and hapless solitude. The creepers unfortunately had found her identity and demanded her removal from their lands. The wizards were most likely working on relocating her right now.

Undoubtedly, Marcus was already preparing to head her way and give her a quick relocation, A catch up lesson for her almost nonexistent magical potential, and a bit of conversation. She was pretty sure he only had to relocate her, the other things might be a addition to his duties or they might be pity...

Either way it was always a bittersweet reunion. He would bring a batch of essentials, random treats obtained from his other travels, and a new 'Cure.' Last time the 'cure' was a desensitization pod that she had to sit in for a day, time before that it was a bunch of cold potions that tasted like rotten feet.

The cure was for her 'Special problem.' In her earliest memories, she had a friend. They looked nothing alike, and were nothing alike. StormGale had been wild rambunctious and free spirited, while she had preferred books and puzzles. Over time, she saw StormGale less and less, until she just vanished completely.

The people in the town saw StormGale and said she did the worst things, but she never saw her. She honestly didn’t think about her very much... After a short period, instead of blaming the things done on StormGale, All of it was blamed on Ashley.

She was shunned and her friends disappeared. The arrival of the wizards was a relief. She had been so happy when they arrived and proclaimed that they would investigate her actions and the actions of the mysterious Stormgale.

For the next week, the wizards kept an omnipresent eye on her. At the end of the week, they called a town meeting and stated their findings. After a couple minutes of explanations, the whole town knew that, her 'authorized life force' was intertwined with the coding of another.

They brought her up to the stage and demonstrated a quick test. In front of all of them, her skin turned bleach white, her eyes faded to a stormy grey, and her hair turned to a silvery blonde. Gasps echoed through the crowd as StormGale stood in front of them. Stuck her tongue out and took a deep bow.

Confused and outraged, the Townsfolk had tried to extract an understandable answer from the wizards, but it seemed as though they were at a loss. A group of fathers grouped and approached the wizards as every eye in the room stayed stuck on StormGale's skin.


At least that’s how the wizards had recounted it to her. She didn't remember much more than getting up on the stage. What she did remember was waking up in a chair off the side of the main room and the kindly man that had took her hand and teleported them away from the irate crowd that had declared her banishment.

That had been five years before. Since then she had lived in the ruins of Antiquity, and the sodden bowls of troy. The wizards had changed her name and her background countless times. Finally, she had opted to live beyond the reaches of the humans and keep her past.

A deep bell rang out from the growing darkness. Somewhere out in the unloaded area, there was an immense wizard base glitched into the middle of nothing. Only the higher wizards could go there. She had attempted to glitch her way out towards the continuous tolls but she never got out of the sight of land.

Something always drove her back, the bell resounded again, jerking her from her thoughts and drawing her attention to the sun falling beneath the horizon. She cursed and checked her inventory for her bow.

She pulled it out and stretched, her skin color fading to white. Her calm grey eyes absorbed the situation and the bow in her hand. Quickly she tucked the bow away, and unsheathed her iron sword. She jumped from the platform and somersaulted through the air, barely grasping the ladder as she connected with the side of the unloaded chunk.

Holding the ladder with both hands, she brought her legs up behind her and touched the soil in front of her with her feet. In a single fluid movement, she thrust her upper body away from the ladder and hung for a second suspended over the void. Her silver hair caught the suns dying rays and flashed white.

She flipped up above the grass and gracefully landed on her feet. Confidently she strode forward into the night. She halted after a second and, grinned a frightening leer into the dark. The bushes around her snapped and swayed as bodies moved through them.

Behind her, she heard a low chatter of teeth grinding together. She jumped and swung her sword in midair slicing through the head of the zombie that had run full hilt from the bushes. Blood and brain flew in a gory mess through the air around her as she continued her spin.

As another two zombies forced their ways out of the bushes to confront her, her grey eyes flashed in delight and she beckoned them closer before running the first through with her sword, and vanquishing its body in a shower of grey and white puffs.

The second paused for a moment as if trying to understand what had happened to its partner. It recovered quickly but she had already launched herself into the air above it, she let out a fierce battle cry as she used the force of her fall to drive her blade down through the zombies’ skull sending bits of bone flying as she twisted it out of the creatures’ rotted innards.


The square moon had risen high above the dark land, and was nearing the apex of its climb, as she approached the front of her house. She ran her hand through her red hair and squinted her eyes at the remnants of the gore on her iron blade trying to figure out how she had lost so much time killing zombies.

She sighed as she walked through her gate and looked at her farm. None of the wheat had grown; shaking her head, she grabbed a couple of potatoes and carrots from their small patches. Much easier then going down to her main farm.

She looked out beyond her fence and sighed at the multitude of eyes that leered from the forest. She ducked as an arrow flew with great gusto towards her head, hit a button beside her farm and watched as the fence got one higher blocking the arrows, then walked towards her door.

On her door was a piece of dried flesh with words written in a dark ink. In a well-placed scrawl written several times in differing hands, it read; "You have been warned twice! After this there will be no more warnings." Rolling her eyes, she ripped the skin off the door, swung about and hit the button again, dropping the fence down so she could be seen over it.

She walked forward along her path and stood at her gate holding the dried flesh. Her grey eyes flashed as she ripped the skin in two and held them over the dual torches marking the entrance to her yard. Her red hair gleamed catching the light from the skins as they caught fire and fell in bright flames from her hands to the ground.

She turned away and walked back towards her house, hitting the button once more without stopping and walked through her front door. The leaves crackled behind her for a few seconds before the noise calmed and ceased.


Inside she shook her head and tossed out her earlier thoughts. She reached into one of her chests and fished out a bucket of water. Turning back to her cauldron, she filled it up and lit the fire beneath it.

She then plopped the potatoes on a board and cut them in silence. After a minute, she looked over to the cauldron and found that it was boiling. She looked around the room for a second as if she was missing something, and then redirected her attention towards the potatoes she was cutting.

She sighed as she finished with the potatoes, and then dumped the slices into the cauldron. She turned and grabbed some salt from her chest and sprinkled it in the water. She looked around again and murmured seemingly surprised, "Jack isn't here..."

She looked around the smaller kitchen, "Where is he?" Her voice cracked, then she shook her blond hair and took a deep breath. "Don't need him anyway." She murmured, an edge catching her voice.

She pulled the carrots out and sliced through them quickly, her knife becoming a blur as it moved across the cutting board. She scooped up the small slices of carrots and dumped them into the soup.

For a few minutes, she just blankly stared at the wall. The water boiled to a broth and the thick aroma of soup began to fill the air. She pulled a bowl from the chest and scooped a bit from the cauldron.

She move over to the table in the corner of the kitchen and began to eat her food. The hot soup stung her mouth but she hardly noticed it as she stared intently at the front door. "Where is he?" She murmured, barely hearing herself as her red hair fell into her eyes obscuring the sight of the door.

She blinked back a couple of tears and turned away from the door. "Probably at one of those Nexus clubs..." She said. Then she flung her bowl into the hopper on the side of the room, and stormed out of the kitchen.

She stormed over and slammed a button to her side, then stumbled up the stairs that formed ahead of her. She glanced off the door as she barged into her room then tripped over the lock switch that deactivated the lower stairwell access before falling into her bed.

As she began to fall asleep, she heard the zombies around her house chanting softly in their guttural language. She shuddered as their chant rose in volume. She contemplated what gods they might be calling on and what they might be asking for.

The chant continued well into the night but she fell asleep quickly, barely missing the sound of her lower door opening and sounds of her base level traps going off.

Chapter 2 - Problems with redstone.

Her sparkling blue eyes fluttered open as the morning sun cast its golden rays through the window to dance on her eyelids. She stretched for a moment, and then laid there sitting in the cool warmth of the morning sun. As the sun brought itself above the horizon, she slowly brought her body to a sitting position and watched as the sun climbed higher into the sky.

With a contented smile on her face, she pulled her legs out from under the covers and dangled them off the side of her bed. She leaned forward onto her feet and tapped a button beside her bed. With a soft swish of pistons the sunlight vanished, eloquently taking its place lay twin redstone lamps that blinded her.

Blinking at the harsh contrast from the soft sunlight, she tottered light-headedly towards her door. As her head began to clear, she stepped onto a pressure plate in front of her door. As the door swung open, she jumped back surprised. The door shut in front of her, leaving her to recover for a moment.

She stepped forward onto the pressure plate again, and sighed as the door swung open again. She walked out the door and stepped down towards thin air. As her foot continued traveling downwards, she cried out. She twisted her body towards her doors landing and tried to grab the stone.

Her blonde hair flew out above her body like a halo as she fell, her nails scraping on the side of the bricks. With a jarring lurch, she grabbed hold of one of the bricks in the wall. Gasping in pain, she dug her fingers into the crevices of the brick. She glanced down and shook as she remembered how high her room was.

“Thirty blocks” She spit through her teeth. It was meant to be inaccessible from all approaches. Her room even had a meager defense system set up by the resident missing ghost. None of that would help her now that she was dangling well above the survival portion of her fall.

She quickly tried to rationalize her thoughts and checked her belt to see what she had on it. Praying to Notch for a water bucket, she examined her belt. Astounded she glanced again. Her belt was empty! She never let her belt be empty! Fervently praying to whatever god might hear her, she twisted one of her arms and jammed her hand deeper into the rocky crevice.

She cried out in pain as she lost her footing and her vision went red. She raised herself up as she searched for another spot to step. Pleased with the shoddiness of her work she quickly found another spot and regained her footing. Now stable she wrenched her other arm from the bricks and pulled out her bag.

She quickly sifted through it, finding only a couple of blocks of dirt and a shovel. She groaned in despair as she double-checked, then triple-checked her bag. Her red hair began to show through as she checked for the fourth time. Her blue eyes turned calculating as she looked again at the dirt blocks.

` She slid her body away from the wall, Wincing as her pinned hand protested its abuse. Then she began to focus intently on the block diagonally below her. Her eyes grew wide and her face changed to a seemingly detached perspective as the block of dirt in her hand grew bigger and floated out of her grasp.

When it finally popped into place, she let out a sigh of relief and gingerly withdrew her massacred hand from the bricks. She looked it over for a second and shook her head as she examined the deep gouges in it. Now much calmer, she pulled out the next couple of blocks from her bag and began to work her way back up to her room.

Several minutes later, she made it to her door, red-faced and exhausted she splayed out onto her bed. She looked over and propped open a chest beside her bed and took a long draught of a red potion. The gouges on her hand remained but now the pain from them was gone.

She looked over at her door and noticed the lever flipped the wrong way. She growled in frustration as she found the cause of her unexpected adventure. She angrily moved off her bed and pulled the lever back reactivating her stairs. She walked back to her door and activated the pressure plate, the familiar shift of the pistons filled the room and she felt the weight of the glitched dirt return to her bag.

Warily, she stepped down onto the first stair and descended the rest in a slight frenzy. She stopped at the bottom and closed her eyes with a deep breath. She held the breath for a moment before she walked down the hall to a door set flush with the wall

She stepped into the room and looked around at the assortment of chests that surrounded her. She began digging through the first chest, but abandoned it after a moment and moved in to the next one.

After several more chests, she fished out a piece of string, and tied her blonde hair up in a sort of ponytail. She then sagged against the wall, sighed in relief, and walked down towards her kitchen area.

She stepped into the kitchen and grabbed her bowl from the sink. Wordlessly she pulled a small bit of soup from the cold cauldron and tasted it. Sighing she put the soup back into the cauldron and set the fire beneath it aflame once more.

She walked back down the hallway as the soup started heating up. Halfway down the hallway she placed a block above her head and the wall opened in front of her. She walked in and slid down a small chute to the side of the entrance.


After a moment of falling, she started screaming and tried to grab hold of the sides of the wall. Her eyes grew wide and her screams echoed until she crashed through the water at the bottom and fell out onto the ground in a heap.

Breathing heavily, she wiped her red hair from her face and sat back with her eyes closed. "I'm alive." She said to herself, "I'm safe." as she stood up these became a mantra. "I'm alive, I'm safe. I'm alive, I'm safe." She walked through a darkened control room and sighed as she flicked a lever turning the lights on.

The little room flooded with light momentarily blinding her, she blinked for a moment regaining her sight then she walked over to the sign that read; "Egg allocator." She flicked the lever behind it and listened as water flowed down towards her.

A small bit of water came through a hole that opened up in the wall and the water fell through a grate in the floor, the sound of a turbine spinning below echoed after it. She stared at it confused "No eggs?" She asked bewildered. She hit the button again. Another quick flow of water poured out and a single egg landed on the grate.

She picked it up confused, Then flipped a lever beside the one that had turned the rooms light on. The front of the wall opened up and showed a vast array of darkness that systematically began to light up.

She gasped in dismay as she saw the water in the other room; it was coated with a thick sheet of blood. A whirlwind of disembodied feathers raged around twin pools that signified the two egg collection points.

One egg had survived the murder of its flock. Silently she put the egg in a small hatchery, and flicked the lever again. One by one the lights went out, hiding the horrors they had beheld. Finally, a pair of pistons covered the window blocks. Slowly she turned and crawled up the ladder leading to the rest of her house.

Eventually, she made it to her kitchen and sat in one of the chairs in the corner. She turned and pressed a button beside her. Seconds later, she heard the groan of several golems awakening below her. If anything lurked down there her iron golems would finish them!

In a slightly lighter mood, she rummaged through a food chest searching for something edible. As she sat there, sifting through the chest her grey eyes softened into memory.


Her favorite elder had been named Terran. He had lived a long life, and was the only one that told his countless stories of impossibilities. Yet his claim always remained that these wonders had existed, yet ceased to work. He spoke of floating islands that housed strange creatures’ and even gods. He told stories of never aging, and pools of water that once filled would never empty.
The thing she remembered the most of were his stories of swords crafted from simple blocks forming mighty blades that could slay six zombies at a time, and chests that complied to your will and showed you everything that lay within them at one time.

He would always grin and pull out a chest that worked that very way. He would show it to the groups that gathered to prove his point. She had gone to hear his stories longer than the others her age did. She remembered his eyes had always sparkled when she pressed him more about his past.


"The more you know, the less you know you know" He had remarked the last time she saw him. Months after she had left her town a group of traveling wizards had returned to the central citadel of learning, and passed on the news that he had vanished.


She shook her head and pulled out a piece of bread from the chest. Content she sat back in her chair and took a bite out of the bread. She sat back and gagged at the taste of the stale bread. She got up from her chair and walked to a chest by the sink still gagging on the bread.

She pulled a bottle of water out of the chest and took a long draught from it. As she drank, her mouth exploded in flames and she fell to the floor choking on the fluid that was burning down her throat.

A flash of memory came to her mind. Terran had always said that milk used to have healing properties! She looked up through her tearing eyes and sought out the bucket of milk on the wall.

Locating it she began to drag herself near it. With each movement, her stomach rolled in pain, and tears rolled down her face in streaks. She pulled herself up the side of the wall and broke the item frame. The milk fell to the floor and she cried out in exasperation.


She fell to the floor as her eyes began to cloud over, she reached forward desperately trying to grab the milk, but it was too far away. She abruptly realized that it wouldn’t have worked, milk didn’t heal you anymore. Her stomach rolled in pain and she began to drift towards the endless darkness.

Suddenly she felt the cool metal of a bucket being pressed into her hands and a calm force moving the bucket towards her mouth. As the bucket touched her lips and milk began to flow into her mouth, her doubts about the milk vanished.

A soft sweet feeling crept through her body; she opened her eyes and found a man above her holding the bottom of the bucket. His kindly eyes widened as he saw her eyes open, and he moved away from her releasing his grip on the bucket.

She blinked and the man disappeared. She sat up wondering if she had imagined it, when she saw the bucket of milk she had pulled from her item frame lying on the floor on the other side of the room.

Chapter 3 – blades, poison, endermen?

Her arms protested as she raised herself up from the hard floor and surveyed her kitchen in a new light. She looked down across the wooden floor and found the small bottle she had been incapacitated by. She crawled over to the bottle and picked it up from the floor. As she pulled herself up into a chair, she noticed several small specks of floating within the bottle that reflected light giving a golden coloration to them.

As she raised the glass up a bit higher to get a better look at the specks, she lost her grip on it and it fell towards the floor. The bottle fell to the floor, and in a timeless instant shattered into thousands of pieces, sending the tainted liquid flying around the room in large quantities. A drop landed on her hand, making her cry out as it frothed and irritated her hand to a bright red.

She reached down and grabbed the spare bucket of milk from the floor, she plunged her hand into it waiting for the burning to fade. She flung the bucket at the wall, outraged. Then ran to her sink and held her hand under running water for a minute.

Slowly the burning faded leaving only questions in her mind. She took her irritated hand from the water and pulled another bottle of water from her chest. she leaned it into the light and found that it too was full of golden specks. She dropped the bottle back into the chest and walked back to the sink.

She looked out a window behind it and pondered for a minute as the water drizzled through the knob.
"Someone tried to poison me..." She murmured barely audible over the water. "Then a stranger saved me, with the impossible." She looked back at the bucket on the floor, then doused her hands and wiped them over her face. She turned and leaned back on the sink, and looked up at a light grey sword that hung upon the south side of the room.

Entranced, she walked across the room and stood before it. Her hands came up and brushed the edges of the blade. She reached up and ran her fingers down the side of it, leaving a trail of dust. Hidden under the dust lay a silver blade that held her reflection. She looked at her reflection for an instant but her eyes darted away as her blue eyes surfaced. She let her fingers grasp hold of the blade and remove it from its designated frame.

She extended the blade outwards and pivoted before sheathing the luminescent blade firmly onto her belt. She stalked out of the kitchen and throughout the upper portion of the house. As she peered through the myriad of doors the blade moved from her sheath into her grasp, and blue flames danced along the blade.

Completing her circuitous path, she arrived in the kitchen. She sat and laid the blade before her on the table. As she gazed on it she thought of when she had recieved it.

It had been just before the wizards took her, Horace had approached her with a cloth covered object and held it out to her. "Only the heir of the Runneth may hold this blade." He had sneered at her. "But since your brothers are all dead, I guess we should give it to you." He had dropped it at her feet and walked away laughing.

She looked back at the blade, and traced the edge of it until a flush of steam blasted through the pipes beside the cauldron. She jumped, slightly startled by the abrupt noise. "The golems finished their rounds." She said. Her Grey eyes thrust their way into being, and her blonde hair flew out behind her as she strode towards the wall in front of her.

She pulled a torch towards her and after a small click, the wall fell away revealing a single aisle leading down into the depths of her house. She strode through the small entrance and unsheathed her blade. White and red flames rolled off the blade in waves as if in anticipation.

She walked forward and eyed her usual drop tube. Involuntarily, she shuddered and turned towards her ladder. She grabbed onto the sides and forcing herself into the dark, began the slow descent. Far below, she thought she could make out strange shadows, but she dismissed them as lighting bugs.

Halfway down, she turned towards the wall beside her and let go of the ladder. The air rushed past her and her red hair flew free of the string holding it back. She hit the ground and rolled. She stopped at the end of her roll with her sword unsheathed and a strange feeling of weakness permeating her mind.

Ahead of her lay the golem stalls, in all of them the stone pressure plates had been replaced with wooden pressure plates. She rocked back on her heels and grabbed her head as the feeling of weakness grew stronger, and a lance of pain arched through her head. She fell to one knee as her head erupted in fire. She caught her sword and spun with it barely missing the dark shape flitting out of existence behind her.

She heard a taunting laugh, and she looked around the room searching for its source. As she looked, she saw the shadows come to life drawing themselves from the wall and stalking towards her. Her eyes flashed grey and she jumped into the air as the shadows charged.

They collided soundlessly, before dissipating to nothing. As she landed softly in their wake, the laughter ceased. "Too smart for your own good, girl." The ominous voice resounded from all sides of the room. She glanced down and tried to remember the trick to revealing illusions.

"See everything, but see nothing." Commanded a small voice from behind her. She looked up and unfocused her vision, suddenly the room was filled with light and a large enderman stood a couple of blocks ahead of her. His deep voice called out to her, but now only from him
"Child, You have powerful friends..." He continued, "Why do you tempt fate instead of run?"
"I don't run from cowards that play with illusions." She snarled and rushed him with her sword.

His laugh echoed around her as his body grew thicker and wider. A handle appeared, looming over his shoulder and he ripped it free, revealing a white blade that stretched far beyond possible lengths. She unfocused her eyes once more and the size diminished. The enderman noticed her face and his eyes narrowed in scrutiny.

"Too smart for your own good, girl... My name is Diomedes, And I think I am going to kill you." With that an enderpearl flashed into his hand and he flung it high above him. She watched it fly up for a second before realizing that he had begun charging at her. She brought her sword up to block his first strike and braced herself.

He brought his white sword down on hers with a savage grin that seemed to mangle his face. As the two swords connected a look of shock crossed his face, and he went flying backwards at the wall. The instant before he connected with the hard rock, his pearl fell to the spot he had first stood, teleporting him.

He looked up visibly shaken, his eyes narrow and his jaw partially unhinged, he looked at her with new caution. "Powerful friends indeed." He whispered as she matched his movements across the floor. He sheathed his sword and his form thinned to a much lesser shape. His arms changed, gaining more joints and his hands sprouted rapier claws.

She unfocused her eyes once more trying to banish this foul delusion, But his harsh laugh broke out through the room as he saw her attempts. "This is no illusion, Girl." He settled forward on his long legs. "This is Reality!" Then he charged at her chuckling all the way.

She held her sword in front of her as he charged, but she couldn't see what good it would do. The small voice whispered behind her once more, "His claws! Hit his claws!" Before vanishing to wherever it had come. As he bounded towards her she glanced at his claws, they were the same color as his blade...

They were his blade! She realized. He couldn't generate anything new, he just rearranged it. She set her stance back and held her sword in position to strike at his stomach. He reached her and reared up, Giving her an ample strike as he swung his claws at her. "One hit!" She muttered as she swung her sword up towards his stomach.

His grin grew wider, but faltered as her blade shifted directions and grazed one of his claws. He flew backwards once more but this time he connected harshly with the rock and fell to the ground purple blood oozing around him. She watched his body melt and boil as it returned to its original shape.

She shook her head and glanced back at the golem stalls, but the items were gone. She looked back at the enderman now fully reformed, but he remained on the floor. She ran over the battle in her head, at the beginning there had been movement behind him. "He wasn't alone." She cursed realizing her mistake, and whirled around.

Facing her with a large gun pointed at her head was a girl, "No, He wasn't." She muttered before ripping her blade from her hand; it skidded along the floor and disappeared. She reached forward and shoved her back towards a wall. Her blue eyes took in her surroundings and fell back defeated. "What do you want with me?" She asked.
"We wanted to pick you up nice and easy, and just be done with it." The girl snarled.
"You poisoned my water!" She exclaimed.
"You drank the water, and you are down here fighting?" Asked a bewildered voice from behind her as she felt a cool blade press against her neck.
The girl stepped forward and slammed her face into the rock, letting the edge slice into her face.
"Ashley I presume," she shook her head as blood trickled down her face filling her eye socket, her blonde hair fell down around her shoulder eliciting a gasp from the girl. She held her hand up to the blade and tapped it with her fingernail. She looked up at the enderman and grinned as her other hand pulled an ender pearl from his chest. His eyes grew wide and he fell to the ground in a heap. The girl danced back as she saw what Stormgale had in her hand. "You wanted to pick me up?" She exclaimed. The girl just stood looking at her hand in horror. She smirked and held it up, "It's still beating, you know..." She continued a grim smile on her face, "I can just put it right back in, and he'll be good as new!"
"Or I can smash your head in and take it from you" Growled Diomedes as he grasped her by the hair and smashed her face back into the wall and dropped her, retrieving the pearl from her hand. As she lost consciousness, she felt a cool bottle slide into her pocket, a soft whisper "You will survive." Then she knew naught.

Chapter 4 - Lucifer's Fall
Her blue eyes snapped open, but it seemed as though a purple veil was cast over her. In confusion, she turned herself, finding the vast emptiness that surrounded her to be true. Panicked, she sought out life in the vast featureless landscape. Her grey eyes discerned nothing.

Turning again, she cast herself into an endless spin and fell into a bout of despair. Red began to press against the blond roots of her hair. All but a few of the red strands fell away, those few surged forward encompassing one side. She let loose a violent scream, which cascaded throughout the endless dark landscape.

The threads of hair stretched out ahead of her looping into a circle and forming a sphere in front of her. Slowly a face appeared on it, blue eyes surfaced, and a pallid color faded over the growing hair. The hair stretched out and continued building on to the rest of the body.

White hair pulled away from her body in emulation as her hair began to shift to a golden color. Slowly the two strands took their respective shapes and colors. She watched in fascination, as the white steamed ahead of the red, applying features, clothes, and minute details as it built itself. The red slowly pushed on, not so far behind the white.

To the left, the white strands twisted after a moment then fell into a suddle lull, their creation complete. A girl floated ahead of her, her head wreathed in silvery blond hair that fell over her shoulders before continuing down to the small of her back, her skin gleaned a bright tallow, seemingly luminescent, and otherworldly.

To the right, the red strands tangled themselves in a knot before her, presenting their own work. Another girl floated there, suspended over the dark abyss. Her skin seemingly flushed from a chill, and her face standing out against her light auburn hair. Her hair cascaded over her shoulders, maintaining a gleam as it curled ahead of her.

As one, their eyes opened. She smiled as they floated and stared at one another in a state of shock. Completely oblivious to her, the red one opened her mouth as if to speak to the white one. As she did, her eyes widened in shock and she started choking, she heaved backwards. After a moment, a few strands of hair flew from her mouth, errantly flying towards the bemused white one.

When the white one saw what it was she started laughing, her eyes wide in incredulity. Her eyes suddenly went glassy, she wrenched her body upwards and opened her mouth in a silent scream as her eyes grew red and light came from under her skin, all at once it was incinerated as brilliant white flames fought their way from inside of her.

The red one winced, shielding her face from the onslaught of the light and scorching heat. Her eyes opened in disbelief as she looked back at her arms and found them plastered in ice. She watched in horror as the ice silently crept up her arms to her torso, leaving a thick, blue, melting sheath of ice that was semi-transparent, yet showed no skin.

Droplets of water fell from her arm as the white one's flames flared higher. The flames fell to just above her skin as the white one crumpled in space, seemingly exhausted. The red one glanced up from her arm as the heat faded. The room began to cool, temperature dropping fast; the red one's face froze over leaving a facade between her and the world.

The droplets of water from her arms, floated up and surrounded the three, the area shook as the water turned into shards of ice and exploded into nothing. The red one held her hands up in wonder as snow flakes fell down around them, sparkling in the dim glow of the white one's light.

The white one snarled as the snow hit her sending puffs of steam away and dampening her fire. She snarled and let flames fly out from her fingertips, vaporizing the snow and startling the red one from a blissful reverie.

Eyes sparkling, the red one floated closer to the white one, extending her hands in apology. With an audible snarl, jets of flame shot out melting the sides of her arms into cool water. The water fell down into the void, but the red ones face twisted in pure hatred. The water flew up from the void and formed a liquid shell around her.

The shell froze solid, before fracturing outwards into a million pieces. Thousands of specks of ice floated in orbit around her, before sling shotting around her and arcing towards the white one. Sneering, the white one blasted a jet of fire at the ice, melting it into an immense cloud of steam.

Another blast of flame issued from her fingertips aimed directly at the red one, but a smile crept across the red ones face as the flame shot through the cloud of steam. The steam enveloped it, instantly freezing the flame in a solid block of ice. The block broke away from the flame as it redirected itself towards the white one. It flew with increasing speed, but the white one wasn't there anymore.

The red one too had disappeared. With a laugh she watched as the frozen fire arced into the wall and blasted a hole in the void. A shocked scream echoed inside, followed by a fresh breeze and light. She strode forwards along a translucent path; finally she reached the edge of the void, and stared out through the cracks.

A girl stood facing it, with a rifle partially gripped over her shoulder. Beside her stood a large enderman, whose shifting armor was vaguely reminiscent of the void chamber she was inside. She saw their mouths moving but was unable to hear them; she pressed on the crack and winced as it pressed back with a shock. "It isn't fully broken yet." She muttered as she waved her hand in pain.

She closed her eyes and swayed backwards, away from the crack and the view of the outside. She set her face with a sigh and pressed her hand against the crack, slowly her hand moved forward through the dark wall. The room shifted from dark and black to a stunning silvery grey, before shifting again to a deep auburn.

She closed her eyes and the clashes became more violent, sending flashes of color in-between, this went on for several minutes. Finally the two colors smashed into each other, holding in the middle of the great dome, a sliver of pink. The pink grew, slowly pushing at its boundaries forcing the other colors apart.

Her hand pressed through the crack as the last of the colors were overcome by the pink. She grabbed the side of the crack and pulled herself up into the crevice. She stood there, it seemed that time had stopped outside; the girls face was frozen almost mid-word, while the enderman's armor had ceased its subtle vibrations.

Time slowly started its revolutions as she stood up, and strode confidently through the last stretch of the crevice. "Impossible!" The enderman said as she walked into the small cave. His eyes remained fixated behind her; she glanced back and found herself staring at a pink egg hovering about waist-height off the ground.
"Powerful," She said, returning her gaze to the enderman. His eyes narrowed,
"I called it up. As far as I knew, it was unbreakable." The girl twisted her gun further off her back and held it up as if in self defense.
"She is real?" She asked the enderman, in an off tone.

Glancing down at herself, she grinned. "I am real?" An uncertain expression flitted across her face. The room shook violently sending the two girls to the floor. "Diomedes!" The girl cried out as his body shimmered trying to teleport.
"Not happening," He groaned, his shimmering slowing.
"Interesting, I seem to remember you having the ability to teleport." She stated offhandidly as she brought herself up from the floor.
"I use pearls." He said, a harsh edge creeping into his voice. She ignored him, instead inspecting her clothes. She was wearing a pinkish orange dress that fell below her knees, and twin sandals coated with silver glitter.

She glanced back up as she heard a chuckle, Diomedes was looking down at her. "I've figured it out!" He said, "I must be in a dream!" She looked balefully at him and walked over to the girl, who was still sitting on the floor fumbling with the gun. "We don't need that," She said as she pulled it from the girl's hands. "Now do we?" She asked, setting a reproachful gaze on her.

When she didn't respond, she twisted around and mimed shooting a pair of bats that had just flown into the room. She twisted it, before tossing it up a couple of blocks and catching it by the barrel. Glancing at the hilt, a stricken expression fell over her face. She spun around and faced the girl. "Please, tell me you aren't Arnold!" She asked seemingly mortified.
"No," She sputtered, slightly surprised. "That's. That was my dad's name. My name," She broke off, glancing at Diomedes.
"You started, can't stop now." He muttered, and fumbled with something in his hand.
"Jenny." She said, subdued and staring at the ground.

She glanced up at the bats again and tossed the gun towards Jenny. She turned away and flipped over backwards, catching it in midflight before softly landing behind her. "Jenny? Much better name then Arnold, though I wouldn't doubt your father wore it well." She purred into her ear staring over her shoulder at Diomedes. "He wasn't kidding about the ender pearl, was he?" She paused for a moment, "Kind of Gruesome... If you ask me." Diomedes glanced up, with a stoic expression on his face.
"No one did." He said before focusing again on the pearl in his hands.

Shrugging she returned her attention to the ceiling, "Jenny, could you take a quick look at the ceiling for me?" Jenny tilted her head up and quickly surveyed the ceiling, only a couple of blocks from their heads. "Do you see the bats?"
"What about them?" Jenny asked.
"They aren't bats," She looked over at Diomedes and flashed a grin. "They're dragons." He glanced up in surprise, "Dragons?" The two objects transferred from vague shadows becoming clearer and the sharp ridges on their backs becoming more pronounced. Diomedes Cursed and threw his ender pearl out of the room, but it was too late.

The pearl reappeared in his hand as a dark luminescent circle appeared around the now circling miniature dragons. The room shook, and the circle gained depth, glowing an intense black. A voice boomed from the portal, filling all the corners of the room with a jagged old voice. "And Lucifer, hath fallen from the heavens, yet made his home among the mortals instead of his fiery kingdom."

A tight silence flooded the room, "Diomedes, Lucifer never consents to return... Therefore, you give me little choice." A rash chuckle resounded through the cave. "You will return. With or without your consent." The portal flashed a deep purple, and endermen poured through the opening.

They landed and prepped for battle, located their enemy and charged. She held Jenny by the shoulder as the group charged en masse towards Diomedes. Suddenly, Diomedes was in his bestial form. A deadly wolf, ripping apart the creatures attacking him. They too followed cue, shifting into various creatures that defied the laws of nature.

A large cat flew backwards with its guts splayed out on the ground. Another wolf charged into the fray to apprehend Diomedes. It soon laid; face mangled and purple blood oozing out, against the wall it had been slammed into. A raptor swooped down and caught Diomedes' arm, doing no damage but allowing several hits to go unguarded.

For its effort, one of its legs were ripped off by Diomedes, and an eye gouged by one of its own. It flew in an errant circle, swooning from blood loss till it caught sight of her in the corner. It flew at her but veered off from the cold gaze in her eye; instead it flew down and raked the side of Jenny's arm with its remaining talons.

As her blood dripped from its claws, it cawed in elation. Quickly flying back towards the fight as its wounds healed. She turned away from Jenny, Eyes burning in unbridled fury. She raised the gun up and held it towards the flying creature. Jenny glanced up at her in surprise. "It's not loaded." She warned as the trigger jerked back.

The barrel exploded, launching a huge fireball from it. The fire grew in intensity and size till it scorched the ceiling. The group turned in slow motion as they felt the heat. Their blood boiled and sprayed as the fireball smashed into them with a large explosion.

Waves rippled off their falling bodies, their mangled screams echoing through the air. The explosion rippled throughout the room as she turned away from the dying creatures and dropped the gun. It slowly fell to the ground and rebounded upwards with a loud, slow crack.

Jenny moved forward slowly, intent on the gun. She grabbed it and looked up at the portal, a grim smile spreading across her face. She slowly loaded her gun, and aimed it at the portal. The gun clicked, and she started reloading it.

She watched for a moment as Jenny slowly loaded her gun, before turning away and drawing a long silver blade. As she strode towards the nearest group of endermen, the blade lit with a vibrant pink flame. The flames coalesced in this color, before faltering into two colors; bright blue, and a fiery red.

With a sharp cutting laugh she sliced through a charging enderman before decapitating him and launching his head at the portal. She cut through the group she had targeted and dispatched them the same; blood flowing, appendages flying towards the portal.

Behind her, the loud shot of a gun finally rang through the air. Jenny stood, half-crouched cocking her gun to fire it at the portal again. On the other side of the room Diomedes roared, smashing an enderman’s head on the ground before sticking his hand into its chest and withdrawing an ender pearl, along with a fountain of purple blood.

She laughed and dashed over behind Diomedes, slicing the slow-moving creatures into bits. She lunged forward; smashing her blade into the same spot she had seen Diomedes pull the pearl from. She ripped it out and held on it a large ender pearl, pumping purple blood down her blade.

She whirled around, catching an enderman on the side of her with it, and watched in delight as small purple explosions lit the surface of the enderman’s skin before demolishing it. It let out a slow shriek before falling backwards and flashing in a white explosion that sent the enderman around her flying.

Grinning, she turned towards the last group of endermen, grabbed her sword with both hands, and pulled them apart. The flames mingled for a second before retreating to the opposite blades. With a fierce battle scream she cut through the large group.

Moments later, she lowered her blades and looked around the room. The cave was covered in dark purple blood, and the screams of the dead still echoed. She looked over at Jenny, and watched as she fired a last shot before slowly lowering her gun in exhaustion. She saw Diomedes leaning against the wall, cupping his hands around a gash in his leg.

She set her face and threw her blades at the miniature dragons circling the portal. As they left her hands everything shifted back into place. The bullets from Jenny's gun slammed through the portal, followed by a stream of body parts. A tight, anguished laugh echoed through the room as her blades pinned the dragons to the ceiling.

The portal vanished as the voice echoed through it. "Truly, you are a creature of the Void, Daughter of my parent’s killer." Then the voice echoed away with a cruel laugh. She looked back at Jenny and Diomedes.
"You owe me." Jenny stared at her in a mild shock, but Diomedes nodded. "I won't remember this encounter when we next meet." She continued, "Therefore, next time we meet. You will treat me with respect, and aid me in any way you can." She surveyed their expressions. "Understood?" They nodded in assent.

She jumped into the air and caught hold of the swords spearing the dragons to the ceiling. "You will help me, or I will remember what you did and why." She pulled her body up, then ripped the swords out of the ceiling and fell towards the floor. She smashed the dragons into the corpse of a fallen enderman, and laughed as a white vortex enveloped her.

-

The vortex appeared in her kitchen and spat her out. She glanced around in meager surprise. She looked down at her blades and found the bodies were gone. Sighing she walked over and sat down in her chair.

She laid the blades on the armrests, and sat back. "A child of the void?" She asked the cool air. "What does that even mean?" She shook her head, and then contemplated the swords before her.

She held her hand over the blue one, "Cautious, intelligent, resourceful." She murmured. The red one flared as she held her other hand over it. "Reckless, Focused, Strong of will." She shook her head and took hold of both blades. They flared a momentary pink before pulling together and returning to their original state.

She swept her blond hair out of her face and narrowed her grey eyes on her surroundings. "Just like me to lose time in a damn chair." She muttered as she got up and walked to the sink. "Wonder who it was that saved me..." She said surveying the small room, before walking away into the bowels of the house.

Chapter 5 - Ender-sight Staff, FoxFiend.

She walked down the hallway with a steely glare in her eyes. She stopped as the redstone lamps flickered. She looked up in exasperation as they stopped their flicker then died outright. She glanced around the coal-dark hallway and cursed under her breath. "Not a good night" She muttered.

With her fingers outstretched, and her feet sliding along the floor, she quickly made her way to the wall. Confident, she walked forward, leaving only a couple of fingers brushing the wall. She gasped in pain as she tripped over a ledge. She reached up the wall and slapped it harshly.

When nothing happened she slapped again a bit higher. She slowly raised herself from the floor searching but her fingers met the ceiling before she found anything. She sighed and traced the ledge below her with her foot. Slightly less confidently, she walked in measured steps along the ledge.

She stepped forward in anticipation of the wall, but instead finding nothing. She slipped as the ledge dropped and she fell to the stone floor. She inched forward trying to find a position to stand up, A click resounded through the room as she activated a pressure plate.

She panicked as she remembered a haywire of traps laid throughout her house. Gingerly she picked herself up from the floor, leaving pressure on the block below her, and gazed around the dark room.

After waiting for a moment, she moved backwards off the pressure plate. Instantly a red light filled the room and a low hiss echoed through the area. Blinking at the light, she walked towards it. A moment of examination showed it to be a not-latch hooked up to a toggle-able switch.

The area above it was bare, and probably was meant to house a redstone lamp. She glanced around the rest of the partially lit room. She blinked as she realized she wasn't even in the wing of the house she thought she was... Instead she was in one of Jack's old rooms, before he stopped collecting his ethereal treasures.

She looked around again and thought for a second, where was he? It had been at least a week since she had seen him last. She walked over and rummaged through one of the chests to find any source of light. The first seemed to be empty, but she knew that in reality it was chock-full of things in the ethereal plane.

She opened the second chest, but just stood there in amazement. In the chest was a golden staff with a blazing pearl threaded through the wood. It pulsated a light purple, showing that it had a different quality from other items. Picking it up she felt power surge through her body.

This was an EnderSight staff, one of the most powerful things ever constructed. It granted its user the ability to teleport instantaneously, and when you gazed through the eye, you gained a momentary ability to see the true sources of power in the world. One of which being rifts that the endermen used to return to their own world, the other obviously the greatest treasure for any adventurer; it showed the residual energies of portals, End portals.

Only one of the three strongholds had been discovered, and its portal had long since been destroyed. But the other two were still hidden somewhere in the vast reaches of this world. Her red hair dropped around her shoulders as she gripped the ends of the staff and brought her head close to the glassy surface of the eye.

As she gazed through it she saw nothing... The view was just tinted a dark green. The staff bucked in her hands as she touched it to the ground. Suddenly, the dark room was gone and she was standing in front of her bed. She blinked, then remembered the teleportative capabilities of the staff.

She walked over to the side of her room, "Where would he even have found this?" She murmured. Shaking her head, she walked over and pulled a lever, she glanced up as the windows opened giving a view of the horizon. The sun was long gone, but the stars shone brighter then ever. She tapped the staff as she stepped closer to the window, then dropped down to a sitting position. Her feet clanked on the glass below her as her blonde hair was cast behind her by a cool breeze.

A clanking sound echoed past her ears and she discerned a muffled curse. She looks up in bewilderment, and catches sight of a rectangular object floating through the air. On the end lies a set of pistons. A row of glass covered the wall and revealed a shadow standing inside, looking outwards. She glanced around and smashed a button placed on the side of the stone with her foot. She looked up at the silhouette and smirked in satisfaction as she heard the Hissing below her.

A large explosion broke the night and a volley of TNT flew towards the ship. The form jumped in surprise and climbed up onto the outside of their ship as the TNT exploded. As the particles flooded the air, she noticed an object shoot up out the explosive radius. She glanced in amazement as made out a thin form clinging onto it. After a second, A phosphorous trail shot out of the bottom.

"He is riding a firework?" She muttered in disbelief, her red hair dropping to her shoulders as she followed the luminescent trail upwards. He climbed into the sky and was lost to her view when explosion rang out and the trail was obscured.

The sky exploded into a sea of colors and she could make out a dark shape superimposed on the vibrant colors. Slowly the dark shape grew bigger, until she could make out the same thin form that had rocketed into the sky drifting down under a Grey cloud.

She looked at the grey cloud as he descended, it swayed and blew towards her, as well as into the path of a lingering piece of the firework. They collided and the cloud caught fire. As the fire spread, the form twisted and pulled something from its pack.

It vaguely looked as though it were a slab but its edges were oddly deformed. The form placed it beneath its feet and let go of the parachute. Now directly in front of her house it plummeted grasping onto the slab.

She Gasped as it fell closer to the ground. Suddenly the corners of the slab caught fire and a muffled explosion sent the form flying higher into the air. The form held on as the slab tilted towards her and raced through the air.

She ducked and felt the fire cross over her seconds before she a clattering and a groan of irritation. “It almost worked.” A male voice said with a tone of disgust. “Well, You are alive FoxFiend.” He muttered.
“Who are you?” She asked, her blonde hair fluttering away from her body and hazel eyes bleeding through a blue overcoat.

“What?” The boy swung around a white redspeckled robe swinging around him. “Who, you, I... You atttacked me!” Her hair shimmered and red peaked at the edges.
“I Don’t like company!” She said voice thundering.
“You, Her, Looking.” He cowered. “You’re her! They, they are looking for you.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Who is looking for me? The Wizards?” At that he looked up and a grin crossed his face.
“I am a wizard.” He said proudly. “The bearers said I was special! See!” He held up his hand and a piston appeared in his palm. She moved the small distance separating them and peered at it as her hair shifted to red.

The Piston rotated briefly before settling down on his hand and the head of it pushing out. She moved back slightly as arrays of repeaters appeared over his hand along with hoppers and dispensers. The set up floated upwards above the surface of his hand and an iron casing fell over it.

He looked up weakly at her, and handed the iron cased contraption to her before sitting down and curling up on her roof. She held the strange object in her hand and ran her other along the edge of it.
“Aim Away from you,” Came a sleepy yawn accompanied voice. She glanced down at him and found him near sleep once more. She looked at the end of it and found a hole in it. She pointed it away from her and pressed down on an oddly colored section. She jumped as a flaming bolt spewed from it and arced away from her house into the darkness.

Her blonde hair fell down on her back and she blinked her hazel eyes for a second. She looked down at the boy and sighed. She picked him up and tapped the staff. A blink later she placed him down on a small bed. A glint of light caught her eye as she turned away.

She turned back and crouched. A metal band encircled his neck, and a word was displayed on it. “FoxFiend. Subject seven, COV” She sighed. “Good night Fox-Fiend.” Then turned away and tapped the staff again disappearing up to her room.

Name: Jenny
Gender: Female
Age: 22
Species: Human
Special weapon or Item: A flintlock
Bio: Born in a small village, this girl is really smart. She is excellent in math and language, though a little bad in geography. She was the smartest girl in her village, and they would always call her 'the nerd' due to her knowledge of Minecraftia. While moving out, she found her dad's flintlock, and she decided to make a living by working for the Bearers at the age of 20. With her trusty flintlock and smarts, you should better stand out of her way.

Name: Diomedes Chased

Age: 28

Gender: Male

Species: Enderman

Appearance: When in battle, Diomedes wears full obsidian armor. When he isn't, he wears thiner armor. Which is at least more vulnerable than his full armor. He wears a chain around his neck with an Ender Pearl is, which was his father's before...

Special weapon or item: A sword made of Enderstone

Bio:

When he was a mere infant and had just been spawned into the End, his house was attacked by his fathers enemies. He was scared and alone, his mother spirited him away to a safe place before bidding him farewell. He was raised by his grandparents, out of contact with the rest of the world. After an indeterminable amount of years he finally gained contact with his father, only to find that his mother had long since passed away from a wasting disease.

Angry and distraught Diomedes returned to his grandparents realm and stayed there for a time, but as always War found them. He was forced into servitude fighting a meaningless campaign against his own people for ten long years. He advanced in rank until his command was only superseded by the Draconem itself.

His only wish was to regain contact with his grandparents. The Draconem refused him his leave so he took it instead. He returned to the house only to find a cruel mark listed over the remains of the house. He was escorted back to the Draconem's arena, and chided for disobeying orders.

Enraged he cast his allegiance aside and stepped through the void to reach his father. His father Saw him appear and hurriedly commanded him to leave. Before he could the house was ripped open and the Draconem's children ripped his father apart before him.

Diomedes cast himself into the void, hoping to die. Instead he awoke in a vaguely familiar world. Slowly he learned how to survive in the overworld, living as a thief and a warrior. Fighting for honor and dignity. He spurns his weaknesses in favor of his strengths and eludes the Draconem's bidding.

name: Foxfiend
gender: Male
age: 23
species:human
appearance: brown ruffled wavy hair. Red eyes, His right eye is covered in a redstone eyepatch that act as a replacement eye(lost in an accident) with extra binocular features. normal steve cothes with a white scientist robe around it that is stained with streaks of redstone(looks like blood from a distance, don't tell him, he doesn't know!).
special weapon or item: anything redstone.
bio: He grew up to around age 8 in a normal village leading a normal life. That is when strange this started happening around him, random redstone would appear around him, the concept of electricity came easily to him after that. By age 9 he mastered his ability to make redstone appear so it appeared when he wanted where he wanted. Then he worked on summoning other redstone things. Pistons, repeaters, torches. This took him 3 more years to master, he was 12. The village sent him to with a group of wizards so they might make use of his skills at age 10. In the mean time he perfected his techniques, and has been working on making his home better and more protected on the nearby mountain.

Chapter 1 - Life

She sat on the small platform glitched off the side of the chunk. Her eyes roamed over the endless unloaded terrain. She peered down into the void and thought about the endless drop. "Would I ever land?" She mused, "Or would I freeze to death first."

She shook her head and watched as the sun began to sink below the endless
horizon. She battled her mind as her thoughts began to turn towards her past, she cursed as the thoughts broke through and concentrated on her old town, and her eyes began to grow damp.

Her few friends probably would not be able to recognize her now. "Just as well," she murmured, "better for them not to." Since her banishment at the age of eleven, she had lived on the very edge.

She lived at the last loaded portions of Minecraftia, there she was able to live in solitude and have a semblance of peace. If the creepers had not realized who she was then her peace would be complete.

Every couple of months Marcus would visit her, whether it was his duty as a wizard or just pity she could never understand. She wondered though, how their conversations would always turn towards her old life.

Every other time he passed through, he would bring a batch of supplies, along with a new 'cure.' whether it was desensitizing her in a pod or feeding her cold potions that tasted like feet.

The cure was for something she was not even sure actually existed. She could remember that as a child she had assumed two distinct personalities; Ashley, and StormGale. However, over time she lost the distinction and was simply became Ashley. The people in the town she lived in did not manage to make the distinction.

Over time things happened and all of it was blamed on Ashley, who of course did not remember doing anything. Finally, a group of wizards had come through and observed her.

After a week of observation, they called a town meeting and proclaimed their findings. They explained that her 'life force' was intertwined with another.

The townsfolk had been stunned into silence. "Possessed!" the word trickled through the crowd transforming into another word "Witch?" she sat in the middle of the room as every eye turned towards her.

She remembered clearly the children being pulled protectively into mother’s embraces, and of the men approaching the wizard in charge and demanding answers about what could be done with her.

The men quickly grouped into a throng and began demanding that she be slaughtered, whilst several protested and demanded my extraction from their peaceful society.

The head wizard seemed to be surprised and feebly proposed arguments. Soon however a younger man came and took her away. That had been five years before.

She had lived in numerous places and lived as numerous people, but now she spent her time in solitude. Alone, and constantly weary of people and creatures.

A noise resounded across the blank landscape, drawing Ashley from her blissful reverie. She glanced up to find that the sun was sinking low under the horizon.

Cursing she looked around and stood up, she jumped from her platform towards the ladder on the side of the wall. Halfway there her skin shifted colors and she barely managed to grasp the ladder.

She hung there staring at the white skin. The arms pulled her body up over the side of the blocks; she shook her head queasy at the strange feeling of no control.

She tried to reach up to feel her head, but found her control lacking. Her arms instead propped her up off the ground.

The feeling of the lack of control lifted, and with it came a strange sense of invulnerability. The sun drifted lower, casting long shadows across the landscape.

Her sword came willingly to her hand and she held it at her side. Bushes snapped and crackled as bodies moved through them.

Cocking her head she smiled, the sun cast one more glimpse of light before vanishing. The smile became a frightening leer in the dark and a guttural snarl leapt from her throat.

Light blond hair flew away from her body like a cape, as she smashed the skull of the zombie that had leaped from the bushes.

Another guttural sound echoed, but this one seemed to be much closer to a laugh. As another zombie approached, seeking to aid its comrade in the feast it too died.

As the moon reached its apex, she approached her house. As she ran her hands through her bright red hair, she wondered how she had lost track of time.

Wandering inside her gate she surveyed the wheat but found little grown, nodding her head she wondered how long it was supposed to grow.

She shook her head and gathered some potatoes and carrots from their meager patches. Surveying the area beyond her fence, she wondered again how she had lost track of time that much.

Sighing, she ducked under an arrow from one of the zombies and headed to her door. On the door was a piece of dried flesh with words written on it.

It read; "You have been warned twice, after this there are no warnings." She ripped the flesh from the wall and walked back to her gate. She waved the flesh around so it could be seen then held it above one of her torches.

As it caught fire, she dropped it and headed inside. She stopped and listened at her doorway as the leaves crackled for a second, before becoming silent once more.


Inside she shook her head throwing out the earlier thoughts and started preparing the soup. She reached into one of her chests, pulled out a bucket of water, and filled up her cauldron.

She then started cutting up her vegetables and sliding it into the warming cauldron. As she went through the well-known routine, she let her thoughts wander.

She glanced around after a minute, realizing something; "Jack isn't here," she murmured slightly surprised. "Where is he?"

She took a deep breath, and then let it out. She returned to chopping up the last of the carrots and swept them into the cauldron. After a couple of minutes of it boiling, she grabbed a bowl and scooped some out.

She sat down in the corner of the room and ate her meal. When she finished her thoughts began to wander and she wondered where Jack was.

She dismissed the thought with an angry wave, and her white hair fell over her eyes. She stood up and dropped the bowl into a chest. She turned and headed to her room.

She lied on her bed and began to drift off to sleep. In the background, she could hear the moans of the zombies, as they roamed purposefully around her house.

Chapter 2

A yawn, a smile, the sunlight streaming into her room, Utter bliss, She brought her body up out of her bed and hit the Redstone button beside her bed. As she got up the sunlight above winked out of existence. The room flooded with light as silent pistons quickly replaced the glass with glowstone.

She flicked a switch beside her iron door and walked down a flight of stairs flashing into being right below her feet. She entered the main portion of her house, and started towards her storage room.
Halfway there she stopped, turned down a hallway, hit a button and dropped down into her farm. She surveyed her crops quickly but only about half of them had finished growing.

She then walked a bit beyond her crops and hit a button, a small stream of water poured out and several eggs fell onto a grate. The water poured through and the turbine below hissed as it was spun.
After a minute, a small puff of steam floated upwards through a glass tube to her right. She nodded her head as she counted the eggs, "Only six?" She murmured.

Shaking her head, she climbed up a metal ladder to the side of the grate. As she pulled herself into the dimly lit control room, she hit a button to her side. Light flooded the room, then seemingly flowing outwards, lit the hall one section at a time, a small gasp echoed from her mouth.

The waters had a thick coating of red blood. Feathers and pieces of meat floated through the water. Six chickens were lucky, the rest of the flock were dead. Wordlessly she hatched the chickens into a temporary holding chamber, and wandered back up the stairs.

She found herself in the kitchen, wondering how they had died. No, she wondered what had killed them. She rapped a button placed beside the table. Listening to the Redstone hiss, she felt a kind of relief. If anything else was down there. Her golems would finish it.

In a lighter mood, she rummaged through a food chest. As she sat there looking through all of the different things she remembered a story from one of the elders of her old village. He had told them of amazing things that had used to exist. Such as floating islands, and water that when put in a four-block area became infinite.

The things he had droned on about the most were the chests, Chests used to be amazing. You could access everything inside of a chest just by opening it, and they could hold much more then can now. Now unfortunately you had to rummage through until you found what you were looking for. Her train of thought broke as she fished out a piece of bread.

She sat back at the kitchen table and bit into the bread. She grimaced as she bit into it finding that it was extremely stale. Scraping her tongue with her teeth, she peered into her chest again and grabbed a bottle of water. As she drank it her mouth exploded into flames, Choking she stumbled towards the wall where a bucket of milk sat in an item frame.

She stumbled and fell to the floor grasping at the bucket. Switching the focus of her efforts she grabbed a lever beside her and wrenched it downwards. The wall drew backwards a block before opening a doorway. The milk fell in front of her. With a gasp she drank deeply and sat back.

A sweet feeling came over her; she picked herself up from the floor and returned to her chair. Exhausted she collapsed into the chair. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she turned the half-empty bottle towards the light to determine what it was.

There was no label on it, and with her first glance she assumed that it was normal water, but a second glance revealed small gold specks floating inside the liquid. As she sat back wondering what the fluid was, a gush of steam flew up two small pipes on the other side of the kitchen.

"The golems finished their rounds," She thought. With a sigh, she walked over to the pipes, crouched, pulled up the trapdoor, and dropped down the hole. After several seconds of disorienting darkness and the feeling of motion, she fell into a block of water. She climbed out of the small area and looked around a brightly lit area.

She walked towards a wall and it opened revealing a path. Without hesitation, she strode through. The wall closed behind her but she hardly noticed. In front of her were the stalls for her golems, but not one had a golem in it. She looked into the holding cells and found the pressure plates had been changed into wooden and items were sitting on them.

She backed up, with a slight realization. Only to feel a muzzle of a gun pressed to the back of her head.

Chapter 3


A rough hand grabbed her shoulder, and she was shoved against the wall. Her face rubbed harshly on the stone surface, as she tried to regain her bearings. She twisted her head towards the shoulder that was being grabbed, after a moment of pain she managed to reorient herself in that direction.
For a second she caught a glimpse of the hand, it was covered in a black glove but the hand itsself seemed to speak words. She thought a minute and in her mind's eye compared her hand with the hand she saw. When placed beside each other the structure of the two seemed to match.
She heard two voices behind her talking and she confirmed in her head that it was a girl. The other however seemed to be a minion; its words were slow and sounded like ice and gravel grating endlessly on each other. A snow golem maybe?

She leaned her head backwards trying to stretch the muscles in her neck that were screaming in righteous fury. Her head exploded in pain as the butt of the gun slammed into the back of her head.
Her face smashed into the stone and catching an edge of it, tore a gash into the left side of her face. She heard cursing behind her, then a makeshift cloth was brought up and tied around her face blinding one of her eyes.

The cloth staunched the flow of blood, but the pain grew as she was pulled back from the wall and guided down a passage that had not been there moments before. The passage was very patchy and was lit with torches, something she would never have done.
Her face contorted a bit as the grip on her hands tightened. A part of the gash on her face that had scabbed over ripped open again, and blood trickled down filling her eye socket. After hours of walking, they reached what seemed to be their hideout.
It seemed to be based in an abandoned mineshaft. It took some time before they got inside. As they moved further into the base, Ashley heard little whispers and moans. “Zombies?” She wondered. She didn’t hear the usual noise of water that accompanied a grinder, “Tame Zombies?” She looked up jolted from her thoughts as they entered the main room.
It was small, but the walls had many crevices and skillfully hidden buttons. The girls’ companion pushed her forward and the wall in front of her fell open. A small clasp locked over her hand as she dropped into the newly formed hole.

They walked to the other side of the room and conversed for a second before the girl came over and carefully peeled the rag from her face. Despite the girls tender hands as she pulled the bandage off, she cried out. The girl stared at her for a moment as the blood started to flow again, then applied a wet rag.
As the girl cleaned her face, Ashley studied her. Her face seemed dulled as though she was not interested in life, but her eyes betrayed her. Her eyes seemed to be insatiable devouring everything in sight.
Her touch, too gave many words. As she cleaned the gash she did not purposefully cause pain, instead her hands were gentle and steady. As the rag traced the outlines of the gash, Ashley realized that it was going to scar.

For a second her thoughts turned to Jack, He was probably at the house by now. If so then he would notice the light that showed the fact that she was down with the golems. Even now, he might be examining the area, and finding the tunnel.
She dismissed these thoughts hurriedly Ghosts had little power. "Even if he did all these things and found her, what could he do?" The torches wavered as a slight wind came through the room. "They were attached to the surface?" She wondered surprised.
Glancing at the girl, she realized they probably weren't. She sat with the rag dipped partially in a bucket of water and bandages in her hands. With a glance at her partner, she jumped up and grabbed her gun.

She crouched and backed up beside Ashley. With a quick motion, she unclasped her hands; and whispered to her, "These people are much worse then we are! When I tell you to run. You run and don’t look back!"
She then motioned towards a button on the wall. "Go through there." She muttered before stepping forward warily with her gun. A light purple mist wafted through the room, before disappearing.

The girl pointed towards a cloud of purple particles that began to form in the air and pulled the trigger. A loud explosion filled the air as the purple particles turned red like blood, and drifted to the ground.
More particles filled the air and the girl looked back at her. "Run." She mouthed before she pulled the trigger again. Ashley looked up in defiance and a white sheen broke out in her hair. A sneer ripped through her lips as her skin lightened. A green fog surrounded her, as the particles began to form into huge purple beings.
With a steel laugh, she smashed her fist into one of the creatures. It vanished in a flash of purple, only to reappear several blocks away falling down with a gaping hole in it. She pulled her sword out as the girl stared from where she stood with her gun.

With a haughty sneer, she charged the mass of purple beasts that had appeared. Her sword cut through their flesh and screams rent the air. The creatures flailed their long limbs but they could not force their way through the flashing blade.
After several minutes, she sheathed her blade and looked over at the girl. "What is your name?" StormGale asked, "Jenny." She muttered, Stormgale walked towards the button. "You aren't safe," Jenny said. "That wasn't the group!" Stormgale gave her a withering glance as she smashed the button and strode through the door.
Jenny picked herself up and called after her as the door slid shut. StormGale walked down the corridors. After several hours she found a section of her mines, her skin returned to a darker shade and exhausted Ashley walked the rest of the way home.
As she climbed up the endless ladders, Ashley contemplated installing elevators. When she finally made it to the main floors, she swore at the very least stairs. Slowly she dragged her body up the stairs into her room. Her hands caressed the bandage on her cheek as she faded off into sleep.

Chapter 4 - Dreams of tomorrow.

StormGale felt ice on her skin; arching her back she opened her eyes. She blinked as the suns rays blinded her. Looking around she saw clouds, looking down she saw a vast desert. After a minute she realized that she was high above the desert, grimly shaken she examined the ground. She couldn't see much but after a minute a small speck stood out.

After a minute she thought to herself, "Maybe if I could get closer?" Suddenly a roar of wind flooded her ears and she found herself flying towards the ground. The speck began to grow and take a strange shape, before she realized it the 'speck' had took a complete transformation. Now a massive city stood in its place. With high walls and many soldier milling about within it.

Stormgale flew closer still, until she could see a marketplace full of people; Vendors calling out their wares and patrons happily making their way to them. StormGale noticed the sun seemed to have gone backwards, as it was just now treading towards the top of the sky... As the morning stretched into afternoon, the marketplace emptied. Soon the rest of the town had completely shut down.

Confused StormGale traversed the city looking for any signs of life, but there were none. After a while the sky began to grow dark. StormGale looked around in surprise. She looked towards the shadows and found the sky covered in immense clouds that were steadily making their way towards the city. StormGale flew high above the city as the storm clouds approached.

Humbled by the size of the clouds she watched as they advanced on the city. The sides of the enormous storm began to stretch outwards, cutting off the view of the endless desert. The storm encircled the city, the two sides converging on one another seamlessly. A deathly silence filled the cooling air for what seemed like hours. Then all at once the sides of the storm began to roll and shake.

Within the clouds StormGale could see pieces of something flying around. She flew down closer to them and found that they were scorched pieces of paper. Confused a thought broke through "Ash, the storm is made of ash!" All at once the reasoning behind her statement vanished and she was shoved backwards toward the city by the fierce winds.

StormGale tried to fly out of the storms reach but was batted down into the ground. Before she could pick herself up, she was ripped from the ground and flung into the air as the storms crossed the city walls and began to engulf the houses. Screams filled the air as people were ripped violently from their houses.

The city faded into nothing as StormGale was buffeted from side to side by the winds. Lightning flashed, showing gruesome creatures with wings that swooped through the storm grabbing people. Slowly the air began to clear and StormGale could see groups of kids that had managed to grab onto each other.

They spun in small circles, seeming to be unaware of the storm. StormGale drifted near a group and heard them singing just over the roar of the wind. As they sang the wind seemed to lessen. With their eyes closed and mouths open the children began to drift towards the ground. One by one the groups merged and grew bigger and bigger. Until finally the last group joined hands and they all settled down on a grassy plain.\

StormGale looked around in awe, the desert was gone! In its place stood a large meadow with flowers and grass. She looked back at the children as they finished their song. They opened their eyes and seemed to be surprised that they were on land. The youngest of them came to her senses first. "Flowers!" She yelled as she dived into a patch.

The rest of the younger children joined her in the patch. StormGale watched as they frolicked. The older children looked around in disbelief, but like the younger ones gave in and set off to explore this new world. StormGale heard them making plans to build a town at the edge of the meadow. She wanted to watch them, but a strong wind pulled her high into the sky as they ventured off.

With a jolt she returned to her bed, she looked up and found Jake standing in her doorway. When he saw that she was awake he glided over to her. "Morning." StormGale looked at him pleasantly but one thought ricocheted around her head. "The Storm is made of Ash."

Chapter 5 - scattered reality

StormGale's gaze faltered for a second and her skin darkened in shade. Jakes face seemed contorted, a deep whisper echoed from his mouth. "I can't do this anymore!" He turned and strode to the doorway.

Ashley tried to get up and follow him so she could find out what was wrong, but she found herself unable to move. A tear streaked down her cheek and she reached down to pull her blanket higher over her, but her hand found nothing.

She looked down in surprise to find that the blanket was not there anymore. Frustrated, she leaned her head backwards on her pillow only to find rocks jabbing into her. She rolled over and found herself staring at a rock surrounded by dirt.

She jumped up and looked around. In front of her lay a crater right where her house had been. A tear leaked down her face stinging her scabbing scar on her face. She looked around, to the right she saw a few dead creepers, to the left she saw Jake standing, gazing stupefied at her.

He glided towards her and looked at her face, "What happened?" He asked, she looked over and gestured at the remnants of her house. "You first." After a moment of silence, she turned away from him. "It’s my fault," she muttered,
"What?"
"I knew they were going to attack."
"How could you have known they were going to attack?"
"They left a warning"
"A warning. Not a threat!"
"I burned the warning over a torch." Jake remained silent for a second, his face unreadable, slowly he said. "You burned a warning." He paused, looking up at the sky, then continued. "A warning from an irate tribe of creepers, in clear view of said creepers?" He looked down at Ashley, "What possessed you?"
Ashley looked down at the remnants of her house, "I was tired of running... I didn't know they could blast through obsidian."
Jake looked up, "Neither did I."

Ashley sighed and stood up, "How did I get out of the house?" She asked as she stretched. Jake did not answer so she looked back at him. His body had dropped in substance and she could barely make out where he was. His face retained its hard edges while everything else seemed to waft away. After what seemed like ages, he faded back into view and responded, "I don't know." His voice was tinged with regret

Ashley sighed, "I guess we'll never know... Right?" Jake just nodded. Ashley turned towards a large tree on the outskirts of her land, and started walking towards it. As she neared the large tree she examined its bark, only a couple of pieces were missing, "She survived." she said softly as she began to climb up the vines on the side.

She climbed higher and higher into the tree, face set with the effort. As she neared the top, Jake hovered beside her and she sped up. She pulled herself on top of the tree and fell back, exhausted. "I need to climb more!" She panted trying to regain her rhythm. "Next house. No fancy redstone." She turned towards Jake, "Okay?" He did not answer instead he seemed transfixed by something off the edge of the tree.

She regained her breath, then lost it again as she followed his gaze. On the opposite side of the tree was a huge crater that stretched beyond her render. Ashley turned and looked back at the remnants of her house. The crater now looked puny, at least compared to the enormous amount of destruction on the other side.

Ashley laid down and buried her face in the soft leaves, after a minute she sank low into sleep unseeing and unhearing. Slowly something brushed her ears, subtly drawing her from her slumber. She discerned voices, both familiar; she eased further awake as she struggled to hear what they were saying.
"The crater?" The first voice asked.
"Creeper war party, they don't like her." The second voice jogged her head, Jake.
"Is she okay?"
"Other than a large gash in her face that is already scarring-" The next couple of words were cut off by a gasp from the first voice.
"You aren't going to tell me that crater is from the creepers too?"
"No, it's from her."

Ashley stopped listening, from Who? The voices came closer, ascending the tree. Ashley opened her eyes and gazed in the general direction. When Jake's head came over the edge, she snapped her eyes closed. "She is asleep?" The first voice asked.
"She was very distraught yesterday" Barely able to keep her reaction from showing, Ashley wondered, I have been sleeping for a whole day!
"She looks it, Could you wake her up?" She felt a nudge on her head and she looked up to see Jake. She looked behind him and saw another, more elderly, ghost hovering a bit behind Jake.

Jake looked down at her. "Wake up." He said softly, "Someone here to see you." Slowly Ashley sat up against the leaves she had been using as a pillow. She examined the ghost and found distinct markings on his robes that designated him a low wizard of the bearers. She looked up at his face and found long wrinkles that seemed completely familiar yet alien at the same time. "You aren't dead." The ghost fell back surprised, "At least you shouldn't be." Ashley shook her head as a migraine began to develop.

Her skin began to shift and she gazed out at the destroyed section of the area. Her skin stopped halfway across her body and she heard labored breathing behind her. "Stop that, Marcus." Jake said to the older ghost. Ashley whirled around shifting completely into StormGale who stared shocked at Marcus. "You can't be Marcus!" She exclaimed, jumping up so she could get a better look at his face.

The ghost reared back as she advanced and StormGale started to crumble. "You can't be Marcus!" Her skin started to shift but stopped halfway again and Marcus's breathing started again. "The Reapers are after you!" He gasped, "That’s why I was sent here." Fury ripped through StormGale’s eyes and fire danced on her fingertips. "You." She snarled but she was unable to make out the words. She rounded on Jake, still half shifted. His eyes grew wide as he registered the state of her body and the fire sprouting from her fingertips.

"What happened last night?" She snarled as Jake floated in front of her.
"The creepers attacked you." He sputtered trying to move away from her.
She smiled a grim smile, "Then why did you tell Marcus that I made the craters?" Her eyes flashed shifting back and forth from grey to blue. After a second, her eyes took on the qualities of both. A cloudy blue. Jake stumbled backwards and tried to speak, but nothing would come from his lips.

With a scream, StormGale wrenched herself away from Jake and threw herself into the air. With fire dancing in fading trails behind her, she disappeared into the sky.

Chapter 6 - Fallen Angel

She flew through the darkening sky, a trail of fire blazing from her fingertips. With her eyes glazed and thoughts muted, she pressed onwards. For hours she flew, not stopping for want or deprivation. Her eyelids grew like weights, but still she fought her way through the sky.

As much as she tried to not think, her loss of sleep made her weary and she succumbed to the past. Her thoughts drifted to the many houses she had lived in over the past several years. Jake had always been a constant. With his ghostly form, he would scout out the terrain and pick the perfect spot for a house. Within a couple of days he would have guided her hand along the redstone and lead her to the caravans to get cheaper deals on the hard to obtain blocks.

He would plot out all the farms and housing plans, all for the maximum expectancy. How the creepers had destroyed, even the obsidian was unthinkable. Surely, they hadn't that much power! She shook her head and glanced down towards the ground. Thinking like this would get her nowhere. He had betrayed her, that was that.

She settled her mind by watching the terrain she flew over, she flew over jungles, forests, and even large tent cities set up by the Nomads. From the ground, she could hear squawks as they noticed her high above them. Unnoticed however was how quickly they packed their living areas and set after her easily following her trail. Even less noticed, were the small group of people that set off in the opposite direction, clothed in gold and white.

She flew onwards. Her power faded slowly from her lack of sleep and food. She flew slower and slower until she came upon a large desert. She noticed it immediately and shuddered upon remembering her dream. Up ahead of her loomed a large city, which seemed to mimic the walls of her dream. She started breathing faster and her skin began to shift to a darker shade.

Her mind went blank as she began to fall and Ashley began to emerge. Fighting valiantly she forced Ashley back inside, and flew straight up trying to regain her altitude. Suddenly the air shimmered and a girl appeared in front of her, Shocked StormGale shot a bolt of fire at her but it went through the girl. With a Laugh, a stream of water poured from the other girl encircling StormGale. The girl approached as StormGale fended the water with blasts of fire.

Suddenly Stormgale lost control and shifted into Ashley, the girl disappeared and Ashley plummeted towards the ground. Ashley looked around disoriented and quickly realized she was falling. She reached into her pockets but found them empty. She glanced down and found the ground approaching fast.

With a large city to one side, a vast moving sea of people to the other, she found herself plummeting towards a horse drawn carriage. She looked around wondering how she had gotten so high. Her ender pearl was gone, so it might be possible that she had thrown it up. Ashley found this rather unlikely.

Her stomach rolled as she saw the ground approaching faster and faster. She closed her eyes and imagined she was at her house waking up and everything was fine. All at once, the memories of the destruction of her house boiled over into her mind. She screamed as she remembered the destruction and the betrayal by Jake. She breathed faster and faster angling herself into the wind with one thought. "I want to die!"

Mere blocks from the surface a cloud floated under her and formed into water. She crashed into water and lost consciousness for a second. She woke with her lungs burning and the water softly pushing her to the surface. When she broke the surface she heard a gasp, it sounded familiar. She angled her head as her body screamed in pain; a girl was walking into the water towards her.

No, she was being pulled towards her. The water sucked at her pants and drew the girl straight to Ashley. The girl looked down at her surprised, but picked her up and started from the pool of water. The Tower of water dissipated pressing the girl back to her carriage, before disappearing altogether. The girl looked back confused and befuddled before she put Ashley into the back of the carriage.

She climbed in beside Ashley and grabbed a box of what seemed to be medical supplies, and then turned back to her. Ashley breathed in sharply as the girl looked at the side of her face. The girl turned white, as if she had seen a ghost. "You?" She whispered. "How?" Ashley only looked at her with the barest amount of recognition.

The girl took a wipe from her box and cleaned up the gash in her face that had pulled open again. She then tied a bandage around her head and whispered softly. "I'm sorry I didn't do this last time." She then said something else that Ashley barely caught before she faded away. "My name is Jenny; you will be safe with me."

Ashley laughed as she barreled through the marketplace, Adam in quick pursuit. She dove through a cart and continued running. As she heard a crash behind her, she laughed; Adam never could do that, yet he always tried. The shouts from behind her assured that he was still running.

She looked ahead of her and chose the route Adam would hate the most. There up ahead she saw an alley. "Perfect." She said between her teeth. She shot into the alley and heard a soft curse behind her as Adam entered. She laughed; Adam hadn't made it this close to date. Those shopkeepers must not have been happy!

Laughing to herself, she climbed up the wall on the side of the alley. Now running along the rooftops, she laughed harder as she did somersaults over the gaps catching glimpses of Adam running across the roofs behind her. Slowly she slowed down and let him catch up as she approached the final edge of the roofs.

Sure he had victory in his grasp he sped up and ran full hilt ready to grab her. The instant before he did she jumped backwards over him and landed behind him. He continued charging, So bewildered by the fact that she had disappeared that he ran right off the roof. Below she heard boxes cracking as he landed and laughed. "See you at the marketplace!" she called to him, laughing uncontrollably.

She hopped down off the roof and walked slowly back towards the marketplace. She started humming a song as she walked so she failed to notice the man standing inside one of the shops. As he caught sight of her, his face twisted and he charged out yelling. "Stupid little brat!" He yelled spittle flying in large globs from his mouth.

Ashley saw him and backed away slowly. "What’s wrong?" she asked softly. His eyes narrowed dangerously, behind her she heard the familiar puffing of Adam. "Ashley!" He panted as he came closer, as soon as he caught sight of the man standing in front of her he dropped to his knees. "Elder Horace." He mumbled but the man ignored him.

Instead, he grabbed Ashley's wrist and dragged her away repeating aloud. "Stupid, Ungrateful brat." He dragged her down through the marketplace and all conversation stopped. The shopkeepers examined their customers very thoroughly, while the customers kept their eyes on the produce.

As Horace pulled her further into the city, Ashley got an idea of where they were going. It was a path she took once a day. As they got closer Ashley began to get scared, "Is something wrong with the garden?" She asked, all she got in answer was a sharp squeeze to the wrist and he pulled her faster.

The garden was a large area in the middle of the city that housed an exotic collection of plants and animals. It was somewhere Ashley could go and relax without interruption. All the workers new her and would allow her to go in just about whenever she wanted. However, she only came once a day, and there were always workers cleaning when she went.

Horace dragged her into the garden and past the workers on duty. Ashley looked at the workers and found the same look on each of their faces; Betrayal. "What did I do?" She whispered as Horace dragged her into the garden. As they entered the main room, Ashley screamed.

The trees were all burning and lava was strewn all over the place. She saw corpses of the animals all over the place. "Who did this?" She cried, wrenching herself free of Horace and cradling a wolf that was lying on the ground with its fur singed. An older man walked from further within the Garden. "You did." He said wearing the same look as the others.

Tears ran down her face as she was dragged to the town square. Horace climbed up the steps and locked her into the stockade. He began to speak but Ashley could hear none of it. She had not burned the garden. It was out of her imagination let alone her abilities. She cried in front of everyone as Horace faded away and stopped talking.

She heard the sound of leather being stretched and gasped. They were going to give her lashes. As the leather was being stretched, the man got down next to her and whispered. "I am sorry. I will make this as quick as possible." His voice broke at the end. Then he got up and pulled the leather from the stretcher.

After what seemed like forever, the stockade was unlocked and an old woman picked her up and hobbled down the stairs. She carried Ashley down into a cave and bathed her wounds under cool spring water. Ashley looked up at the woman and thanked her profusely in hoarse whispers, but the woman waved at her to be silent as she bathed her. Ashley then fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter 7-

She woke in midair and braced herself as she fell to the floor. She bounced with the carriage for a minute as it settled, then reoriented herself; she was in a small area that had a thick smell of oil and seemed to close in on her with each passing moment. Ashley grabbed the metal holds on the side of the wall and held on for dear life, as the carriage jolted her from her feet. After what seemed like an eternity, the carriage began to slow down.

Exhausted Ashley slumped to the floor, the carriage groaned as weight dropped from the front. Footsteps crunched as someone rounded the side of the carriage. Then someone ripped the sheet up from the side and jumped into the small area. Ashley fell back from the doorway clutching her eyes. She heard a quick apology and the burning light faded.
As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she heard soft shuffling and things being rearranged. She looked up and saw a girl standing there shuffling through what seemed to be medical supplies. The girl then came over to where she was sitting and gingerly reached for the bandage on her face. Ashley twisted away, remembering how she had gotten the injury in the first place.

The girl reached forward again and took the bandage off of her face. Ashley winced as the girl touched her cheek. "Sorry," she whispered, then turned and grabbed ointment from her box. "Did that last bump wake you?" She asked as she dabbed ointment onto Ashley’s face. Ashley nodded, "Why were we going so fast?"
The girl averted her eyes. "A group of Nomads are following us, I was attempting to lose them."
Ashley looked at her, "Did it work?" she asked.
The girl's eyes fell to the floor "We are a good hour’s ride ahead of them."
"We should get going then."
"Let me finish cleaning your face."

The girl worked utterly focused to what she was doing. Ashley looked at her as she applied a new bandage to her face. The girl carefully kept her eyes averted and stayed focused; as soon as she finished with the bandage, she was cleaning up. She pulled out of the carriage and Ashley followed, "What was your name again?" She called after the girl as the sun bore holes into her retinas.

"Jenny." Ashley mulls the name over in her head, 'Jenny.' after a minute Jenny called back, "Want to sit up front? Much less cramped!" Relieved that she wouldn't be stuffed back into the dark area, Ashley jumped onto the side of the front. Ahead was a broken path in ill repair.
"Guess that explains the bumps." Ashley said. "Where does it go?"
Jenny glanced over from where she was lacing up the horses, "Spawn; this was one of the great interchunk roads built before the apocalypse."
An involuntary shudder rocked through Ashley, images slipped through her head. A man, no a boy, standing in front of a beast that held the boy's future. Ashley rocked backwards with a slight gasp, and a strange feeling that she was that beast.

Jenny hopped into the driver’s side of the carriage ready to go, Ashley climbed onto the side of the carriage and Jenny pulled the reigns to start the horses. She pulled fruitlessly for a second before the horses responded and started moving. At the beginning, it was slow but soon they were breezing through the biomes.

Ashley gazed out from the carriage as the horses strained on the leads. They passed huge rivers, and large mountains that reached high into the clouds. Ashley felt a feeling grow inside of her, 'she had done this before...' Suddenly her skin began to shift and the sound of the carriage and the horses were gone, instead she heard heavy hoof beats behind her. As her skin faded slowly back into Ashley, she jumped up and looked backwards over the carriage seeing a large group of Nomads barreling behind them on horses.

Ashley's skin began to fade again to a lighter shade, her eyes picked out a strange detail on the front of the saddles of the Nomads. As Ashley looked dumbfounded at the strange things, smoke ripped from one of them. Startled Ashley fell down beside Jenny who glanced over, "Whats wrong?" She mouthed towards Ashley.
"Nomads, Saddle guns, behind us!" Ashley mouthed. "Shooting!"

Jenny’s eyes grew wide as Ashley mouthed the last words. She tossed the leads to Ashley and began burrowing in a chest behind her. Startled Ashley tried to keep control of the horses. After a minute, Jenny pulled a gun out of the chest. She stood, aimed, and fired over the back of the carriage. Bells rang in Ashley’s head as she tried to keep the horses on the road. Her eyes grew heavy and she started seeing flashes of color.

She felt the carriage go off the road, but she didn’t care. She heard screaming behind her as Jenny continued shooting. A small object ripped through the carriage beside her she watched it mystified. "What is that?" She murmured, it flew towards the horses and they screamed. It didn't hit the ones close to her, but the one in the front wasn't so lucky.

It fell, and screamed a bloodcurdling scream as the other horses trampled it. Ashley laughed as the carriage went into the air, ramping off the horse’s body. She laughed so hard that she barely noticed when Jenny jumped down and tore the reigns from her hands, then threw the reins to the wind. She was still laughing as Jenny flipped a switch on the side of the seats. When the tremors started from the back of the carriage, she started crying.

Jenny handed her a mask and motioned for her to put it on her head, as the tears streamed down her face, she noticed that Jenny was wearing a mask too. She smiled through her tears and pulled it onto her head. She took a deep breath and suddenly she snapped. Worriedly she looked around through her bleary eyes, 'They were off the road! Had she done that?'

Jenny was holding the front of the the carriage and holding on tight. Ashley caught a grip and looked back; There were even more horses now! As Jenny fought to hold on, the horses started getting closer and closer. Suddenly Ashley could hear voices behind them; a loud voice rang above the rumbling of the others and echoed through her head, "Cease fire! We want them both alive!"

Ashley looked back to Jenny to see what she might make of the command, but Jenny had a strange purple and black device in her hands and seemed not to have heard the warning at all. After a minute of her messing with the purple gadget, it sprang to life with a red glow. A purple field suddenly enveloped the carriage, Ashley screamed as it grew bigger.

She looked behind and saw several riders pushing their horses to get into the purple glow. They crossed into a desert biome and sand puffed up around them in clouds. Jenny slammed a button on the device in her hands and everything disappeared in a flash of purple.

Chapter 8 - Wrecked

Stormgale winced as she felt sand in her eyes. She reached up to wipe the sand out and felt a cloud fall off her arms. Surprised she shifted to sit up and a large amount fell off of her in clumps. She began to dust herself off then she heard the moan. She looked around trying to determine where she was then remembered the chase. She gazed upwards and determined that the carriage must have collapsed onto them after... Whatever had happened.

The moan echoed again in her ears, after a minute she discerned the source. There was a large metal machine lying to the side of her. Partially under it was the girl; "Jenny!" She thought as she drug herself over. The girls’ skin was white, and blood was seeping down from her chest. Her eyes fluttered and she looked at Stormgale. She tried to speak but only a gurgle came out.

From outside of the collapsed carriage Stormgale suddenly heard voices. She motioned for Jenny not to talk, but when she looked at her, her eyes had unfocused and her breathing had slowed. One of the voices sounded familiar... The one that had commanded not to shoot!

Stormgale moved towards the side of the carriage, wincing as her leg drug on the ground. She made it to the side and pulled a knife out of her pocket. She cut a slit in it and then ripped it the rest of the way apart. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the outside and she saw four men standing in front of her. "My friend." She rasped. "She's hurt!" The men's eyes lit with recognition and two of them pulled her out through the slit.

Their hands were rough, but they were strangely gentle. As they carried her from the carriage the other two climbed through the gap with torches. Stormgale heard a slight gasp from one of the men and then her skin began to shift. One of the men watched as her skin flowed from right to left for a minute before he slipped a bracelet onto her arm.

The shift stopped immediately and reversed. Stormgale looked up at him confused, "He wants to talk to you, right now." The man who placed the bracelet said. Stormgale tried to rearrange her thoughts, but she found herself extremely tired. After a minute the men placed her in a chair. She looked up and found a man staring at her.

His eyes were the main difference; his were blue while the others were brown. His skin too seemed less wrinkled and lighter. He opened his mouth and began to speak. "My name is Samuel of the greater nomadic tribe." Stormgale tried to speak but was unable to. The man saw her attempt and pulled a glass from his bag. Handing it to her he motioned for her to drink.

She did and her mouth jumped to life, it had the texture of the potions that Marcus would bring... But the taste of this was phenomenal! The man laughed as she finished the bottle. "Good?" He questioned.
Saying the first thing that came to her mind she replied. "Amazing!" He laughed again, his eyes sparkling. "Are there more than one group of Nomads?" She asked. His eyes retained their sparkle and watched her for a minute before responding. "Yes. One group was formed right before the apocalypse; the greater nomadic tribe." He continued, "The other was formed around a hundred years ago, obviously the lesser." He smiled again.
"The main difference is why we were formed. The first group was formed by a great man that rescued a group of survivors from Herobrine's clutches; the second however was formed by people that were exiled from the cities."

"Our groups don't have much contact..." He said as a scream echoed from the carriage and Stormgale looked over.
"My friend!" She said as she caught sight of the wreckage. The carriage had bulldozed into a large tree and collapsed on itself. One of the men came running from the carriage. As he got closer he gasped, "She was speared by her engine!" Samuels’s eyes grew big.
"Take the healing supplies. We will not be accountable for her death!" He said tossing his bag to the man. The man ran back to the carriage with the bag, and Jenny's screams grew louder.

With the screams echoing in her ears Stormgale rocked backwards and her skin began to shift again. Slowly it fought its way across her skin and shifted her back to Ashley. Ashley looked up at Samuel; A small noise growing in her ears. "Take care of her." Samuel looked confused. "Promise me!" She hissed as the noise grew louder and the air was filled with shades of purple.
"I promise!" He said right before a group of men appeared around them. Ashley's skin shifted halfway as stayed rock steady. The men moved closer to her.
"We just want you to come with us." The first one said as two men came up behind her. Ashley laughed a cruel laugh, and turned towards the two behind her. She held her hands up and their eyes grew red. "Stop" Yelled the man, as blood poured from their noses.

Ashley looked back towards Samuel as their eyes exploded and the blood formed currents in the air around her. They froze into Red spikes and with a wave of her hands she sliced them into the other two of the men. The first man ran towards her with a bracelet similar to the one on her arm and clasped it onto her neck.

As Ashley felt her power fading she growled. "This won't last forever!" Then focused on the man's neck, His face grew red quickly, but someone slammed Ashley's head before she could finish the job.

Chapter 9 - The past catches up

She floated within the void, time itself was suspended. Voices meandered throughout her mind, none familiar, all meaningless. The words to seemed to carry meaning, but they still jabbered endlessly. Sharp staccato bursts of enlightenment fell to her mind, a snippet here and there. "She is unconscious?" One voice seemed to ask endlessly.
"To the best of our knowledge, that is well to our benefit." Another fell into chorus.
"But surely she has drained her power reserves?"
"The power she used is beyond anything we have! Like nothing we have dreamt of!"

As the words continued to echo, she felt herself drawn further into the void. The words became distorted, and remained meaningless. Her eyes clouded as she fell, her arms stretched out as wings, yet still she fell endlessly through the void.

-

Two girls lay on the floor of the white room. One stretched as she woke, and leaned back against the wall. She looked around and sighed, a book appeared on her lap and her eyes lit up. She picked it up, brushed her white hair out of her face, and began to read.

The second girl stirred after a while, she shook at the warmth that had filtered into the room. After a minute the warmth was replaced by a brisk chill. She opened her eyes and screamed at the light that etched itself into her retinas; instantly the room became much darker.

Relieved the girl stood up and examined her surroundings. As she looked around the temperature began to rise, the room began to lighten, and she noticed a girl sitting on the far side of the room. She was reading a book. Surprised she stormed over to the girl. "How did you get a book?" She snarled.

Calm grey eyes appeared over the rim of the book. "I dunno." "Glad the room is lighter though." The girl said before the eyes disappeared beneath the rim once more.
"I want a book!" Said Ashley, a smack resounded from behind her but she ignored it. "look behind you." Stormgale said as her eyes appeared over the rim again, this time with a hint of impatience. Ashley looked behind her and found a book sitting cover down on the floor.
"How did that get there?" Ashley said wonderingly, "I just walked from over there!"
"It fell!" Growled Stormgale "Now will you let me read?"
Ashley looked over at Stormgale "What book is it?" She queried.
"How the Nether should I know!" Stormgale roared at Ashley, "Are you an idiot?"
Ashley smiled as she knelt down to pick the book up. "Depends on who you ask." She looked at Stormgale again "What is your name?"
In a harsh controlled voice Stormgale spoke haltingly from behind the cover, her fingers straining on the sides of the book. "If. I. Tell. You. Will you let me be?"
Ashley cocked her head for a second, looked around the room. "Doubtful." she continued "There isn't anyone else here."
"At least you’re honest," She hissed. "My name is Stormgale. Now pick up the book and sit down and read."
Contented Ashley picked up the book and examined the cover. "It’s an issue of 'thoughts from outside of the block'!" She crowed, "I wonder how this got here." Then with a smile she plopped onto the floor and began to read.

The 'Thoughts from outside the block' Magazine was a monthly magazine that proposed theories of things not necessarily true, but typically believable if you looked at the evidence that was provided. The first of the batch dominated the cover, With dark skin and white eyes peering out.

"Herobrine is not dead!" It proclaimed, "He set the Apocalypse in motion to gain power after his followers were destroyed."
Ashley laughed as she read the evidence behind it. Stormgale looked over at her and sighed, "What are you laughing about?"
Ashley turned towards her with a grin on her face trying to restrain her laughing, "I love this magazine!"
Stormgale rolled her eyes, "Getting kind of warm, isn't it?" instantly the temperature lessened and Stormgale continued. "Find your favorite theory out of that, then read it to me... Kay?"
Ashley's eyes lit up, "I already found my favorite one." Stormgale repressed a groan.
"Okay, what is it?"
"There is an alien civilization of dark creatures that reside below the void" Ashley continued, "This accounts for strange signals found in the Redstone ether, as well as the fact that no one has survived the fall through the void and returned a message."
"Okay," said Stormgale slightly defeated.
"It's freezing in here!" Ashley exclaimed.
The temperature jumped up and Stormgale looked at Ashley. "Cold is better than being roasted alive!"

Ashley's eyes blazed and Stormgale fell backwards as the wall behind her disappeared. The white walls shifted and became color; people faded into being around them. Cheers resounded from around the hall that they now found themselves in. A great table was laid out ahead of them; chockfull of food.

A man stepped down in front of the table and began to speak. "We are here to commemorate two lives, and to bind them together in eternal love." He continued, "May Notch bless Adam and Lindsey Coven from this day on. Ashley fell backwards into a chair; "He's getting married?"
Stormgale stood beside her in equal shock "He's getting married, to her?"
Ashley looked up, eyes wide in shock. "Where are we?" She asked.
Stormgale just looked at her blankly. Ashley started to get mad, "Quit staring at me!" She growled. Stormgale just pointed behind her; there coming down the stairs in an elegant suit was Adam.

His brown hair was swept back and his clothes were perfectly arranged. He descended the steps slowly, his presence softly alerting the rest of the crowd. Slowly the clamor of the hall died down, and all were gazing at him. He reached the bottom of the stairs and bowed extravagantly. "Thank you for coming, all of you." He spoke softly but his voice echoed across the room. "I must apologize, but Lindsey will not be attending this function." He paused, "Or any other..."