[Herobrine's POV]

Aria and I are walking through the stronghold towards the end portal. We decided teleporting could possibly be part of what was drawing Notch to our location so fast. It holds a specific code, and he no doubt has something that alerts him each time we do so. Of course, that could all just be paranoia, but we would rather risk the walk than have him appear just before we do. After we finished our meeting, we all split up to get the plan in motion. Mobius was working on sending a message to his close friend, Iris. She was an incredible hacker and had a whole team of computer geniuses. If anyone could locate Notch's file, it would be her. However, because of the time gap, it could be days for us before she's able to get in. We needed to stall for at least two 'reality' days.

Which means almost twenty-four days here in-game.

Joseph, Alexa, and Reginald are working on gathering the last of the supplies and creating more weapons and ammo for the offense side of the plan. Since I know Notch's coding well and using the knowledge from our battle with Entity, I was able to create a code of my own that could paralyze him for a few seconds. If, by chance, he was able to create a firewall fast enough to block it, there's a trojan virus within it that constantly changes the format. This would nullify any attempt to protect himself from it.

Hypothetically, it is the perfect weapon against the 'god' of Minecraft.

However, the silence from Aria this whole trip has my own thoughts turning doubtful. She was so confident before, but now that we are away from her friends, I can feel her mind racing. Her guard is down, and she's letting her worry show. As we make our way down a set of stairs to the grand hall we created, I feel her grunt in irritation at the state it was in. The statues lining the wall of the hall were each damaged from our battle here with Notch before, but most still stood. There was only one that was no longer visible. As we near the portal, I feel my gut twist at the sight of Alexa's statue crumbled. It was the one I was sent barreling into, totaling it. I feel my back thrumb in faint pain. However, each of the other four also held some damage. Mobius' was missing an arm, Anthony's held a massive gash across his front and burn marks on half his face, but I stop when I lay my gaze on Aria's.

Half her statue was missing, specifically her enderhalf. 

I can feel her follow my gaze. She grows rigid, but quickly shakes it off. "The damage can be fixed later, but we need to figure out this coding before he catches on." Her tone is level, but I don't need to read her mind to tell it was a ruse. I place my hand on her shoulder and give a light squeeze. She turns to look at me in the eyes, and I offer a small smile. Words won't work right now. She offers a small smile back and grabs my hand in thanks.

We turn back to the portal, and she squats down to investigate it. "It looks like he went deep into the code. Almost everything is scrambled so he can take us back-" She stops, turning her head towards me a bit. I was next to her now, gazing at the end portal frames. I couldn't meet her gaze, but I knew she was trying to be cautious of her wording. She clears her throat and continues.

"This won't be easy to fix. We might not have enough time to get it repaired." She looks to me, and I see her eye flash purple. I could sense it as well, but that was alright. We expected this anyways, but we need to continue as if neither of us noticed the change. I place my hand on the frame and push my power through it. I can feel the sensation of each eye of ender reacting to my code, but another power floods through the portal with my own. The eyes of ender suddenly calm as Aria copies what I am doing. I can see the coding start to shift, but the portal's destination was the same.

My home.

I try not to get distracted by the possibilities that held alone. We need to time this just right. I see a small blue screen appear in front of Aria. The words on it are tiny, but readable. She looks to me and nods. Everything was ready, and now we need him to take the bait. Our backs are to him, we are distracted. What I know about him, he won't miss this opportunity. I just worried about one last variable that we knew nothing about-

A step.

Aria swiftly turns, reaching out and grabbing the throat of the person behind us. Her gaze is hard, but my heart was racing. The character was not Notch. This person was wearing a red cloak and sported glowing white eyes, similar to my own. He was struggling in Aria's grasp, but my attention is drawn to the slow clapping. Notch was behind this new entity, hands before him applauding Aria's reflexes. Aria growls, then throws her victim into the portal behind us. He shouts, but it's cut off as he teleports away.

"Well done, Aria. Then again, I should expect nothing less from someone who bested Herobrine and 303." Oh the rage that was pooling from the woman beside me was tangible. I set my hand on her shoulder. She turns to me and takes a deep breath. I step forward as she moves back and stands straighter. There are many things I want to say right now, but I have to stay focused. This was all about buying time.

"What do you want, Notch?"

The man tilts his head, confused. Good. We need to play dumb and act as if we don't know why he's after us. The more time we stall, the better. There's a signal we are waiting for, then we can get a little 'reckless'.

'Focus, Hero.'

'I'm focused! I'm focused!'

"I thought you would have figured it out by now, Hero..." Aria suddenly growls, and I put my hand in front of her to stop her. Notch looks between us and smirks. "Sorry, Herobrine. My mistake." I narrow my gaze, withholding a growl. "You're stalling. Answer the question." He meets my gaze once more. His eyes are unreadable. I keep my guard up, as does Aria. She was still in a fighting stance, hand ready to reach for her blade if necessary.

"You took something from me. I simply need it back." As I suspected, he wanted to get his part of the command block back to make his whole again. Notch looks towards Aria once more, a frown on his face. "It's a shame you had to drag her into this. I would have rather had no actual blood on my hands, but," He turns back to me, his expression growing grim. My pickaxe materializes in my hand that's in front of Aria. I could already see her reaching for her sword as well.

Suddenly, a metallic clattering fills the room, and I hear Aria gasp. I turn to look and the arm she was reaching for her sword with is wrapped in chains. I expect them to be similar to what Notch used to trap me before, but these were leading into the portal behind us. I see her eyes go wide just as the chain is yanked, and she is pulled backward straight into the portal before I have a chance to react. Her own shout is cut off halfway through as she disappears beneath the surface.

I growl and turn to face Notch.

He was right in front of me, hand raised. 

His blocky fist collides with my face before I can protect myself. We both begin falling backward into the portal, and I hear him speak as we teleport.

"You should have never turned against me."

The silence as we are sent through the portal is almost deafening. I can feel the code shaking as we fly through layer after layer of patching and firewalls. Before I have a moment to right myself while we are pulled through toward my old home, I feel hands grab my arms. The moment I see his face, however, I react and slam my fist against it. He grunts and tries to return the jab, but I block it and kick off his gut. Light is starting to penetrate my eyes, and I find myself twisting in the air. I needed to be careful as I land or risk losing more health than necessary. 

Air whips against my skin just as I see the grass break through the dark landscape. The cool blocks crunch beneath my feet, and I swiftly roll forward. I turn and raise my hands as a foot attempts to meet my face. The weight pushes me back, and I skid across the ground. As I stop, I finally look up to see Notch standing tall just before the cracks behind him close off completely. I feel my heart rate spike, but it wasn't just at the scenery around us. It wasn't even for the village directly behind Notch that held one of the most painful memories of my life.

Aria was standing just behind Notch, but her arms are pinned behind her back and a blade is against her throat. I can see cuts and bruises littering her avatar, and a large hole is in her shoulder. The being behind her holds similar wounds, but it was obvious it - or he - got the upper hand and won that fight. Her face is stuck with a painful expression. I can see her watching me carefully, worry and concern flowing through our bond.

'Don't worry about me, I'm fine.'

'Your wounds and current stance say otherwise.'

'I've had worse, you know that.'

I turn my gaze back to Notch. "Let her go. She has nothing to do with this." I try to keep my voice from cracking as the fear of the situation starts settling in a bit more. We are back in my original home, the place where I was made, the place where I barely escaped the first time.

The place Notch holds the most power.

The first Minecraft world.

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong. I know the command block you have is split." He turns his head slightly to where Aria is standing, and I see her hiss as the blade is pressed against her throat a bit more. "And I know she holds it." Just as I start to move, I feel pain radiate from my legs. I fall against the ground, barely able to turn to see the swords pinning my legs to the ground. I turn back and see Notch moving to stand before Aria. Her gaze was hard, but her fear was tangible. He stops in front of her. Aria lets out a low growl as the entity presses his blade against her throat again, drawing blood.

"You'll never win." 

Her voice drips with venom, but Notch doesn't seem moved by it. He only lifts his hand, and I can see him reaching out. A small light appears in front of Aria. At first, it would seem like this would be harmless. Maybe I was wrong?

Pain suddenly emits over the bond, and I can tell I was only feeling a fraction of what she was going through. Her teeth are bared as she grunts, trying to hold back screams of agony. Her eyes are shut. I twist over again, trying to push through the pain to free my legs. I couldn't teleport, or the swords would come with me. I needed to remove them. She wouldn't survive this. I call my pickaxe-

Nothing arrives.

My hand is open and empty, and I can't even feel its familiar, comforting thrum. I curse and try to reach for one of the blades.

Screams echo in my ears. I turn to see Notch pulling his arm back now, slowly and carefully. The command block was starting to form, and the coding was ripping itself from Aria's body. I could see each line starting to shatter. Tears are flowing down her face. I have to get free!

"Almost done. Don't fight it, you'll only make this hurt more."

I can't get the swords out. Something is keeping them in the ground. They won't budge! 

'No!'

I turn back, watching in horror as the lines of code continue to break, snapping like string. I could feel her strain, but that was growing faint. The more the codes break, the less I can hear and feel from her. Our connection was starting to shatter.

She was dying.

"Aria!"

Her name slips out before I can stop myself, my heart hammering as the reality sinks in. I can't stop this. I can't help her. Notch turns to face me, his eyes wide with shock. Did he truly think I didn't care? Did he think I couldn't have emotions? Did he think I was that shallow?

I suck in a breath as sudden pain floods my mind, along with anger that was not my own. Just as Notch is distracted, I see purple particles form around the command block that was forming. The code is covered as well, and each string is repaired as the block suddenly vanishes. Aria then quickly kicks out, catching Notch in the knees and sending him back enough to break his hold on her. The being, whom I can only assume now is another version of 303, stumbles backward. His grip on her drops, and she swiftly turns to land a solid blow to his face. He crashes against the ground.

Aria is suddenly before me. I can feel her rip the blades from my legs. I can't understand what's going on at first until her eye of ender within her head meets my gaze. It was burning, with purple smoke emitting from it. She was running out of time. Just as she removes the last blade, I reach out to her and grab her shoulder. I use my power to teleport us as far as I can. Cool air blasts our skin. We were in a cave at the top of a mountain, many chunks away from where Notch was currently. Aria is next to me, squatting down with her sword in her hands. We had no idea if he could follow my teleports, but if he could, there was no way for us to be safe.

A moment passes, then another. Silence rings out around us.

Aria relaxes just a bit.

Then her sword drops from her hand. 

Swiftly, I move to catch her just before her head cracks against the stone. Her exhaustion and pain were evident even without our shared bond. I can only imagine what that pain must have felt like, and yet she still pushed through to get us out of that situation. None of this was part of the original plan, or even our updated one. No one could reach us here. I try to call my pickaxe again, and nothing replies. Aria hisses as pain floods her whole being.

I try to make her more comfortable, but even I hiss in pain as my legs throb. I can only hope and pray Mobius was able to send the message he needed to, and that they realize we are no longer our world. Each of us are wounded, hold no resources, and are trapped without the home-field advantage anymore. Any codes or weapons we had to fight him with are gone. All the mods we had before are no longer with us. The only thing we still have is Aria's sword, and even that barely held any power here in this world.

"We're trapped." Aria says, and I nod. It wasn't much of a question, but I felt the need to confirm it anyways.

The only way out, the way I escaped before, was sealed off by Notch long ago. We could try to make it there, but not in our current state.

We just need to stay hidden.

'But for how long?'

'As long as it takes.'