When Heather woke up again, Herobrine was gone.
Blinking blearily, she lifted her head, glancing around. She was back in the cell Theo had made for her, which had since been repaired. She was curled up on the floor next to the bed, and Manfred was standing on the other side of the room, staring blankly into space. She didn't see Theo, or her husband.
Uncurling, she sat up, stretching her arms above her head. Manfred glanced at her when she moved, only to turn back to the wall a moment later. Was he deliberately ignoring her, or did he just not care?
Leaning back against the bedframe, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
"Where's Herobrine?" Manfred glanced back down at her.
"In his cell." He responded. "Unharmed."
"Oh." Other than Theo beating him up, of course. Heather leaned back against the bedframe, hugging her arms to her chest. Like the void beneath her, she felt cold and empty.
The door swung open, and her eyes flickered up for a moment, just long enough to catch Theo's before she looked down again. The hacker stared at her for a moment, then gestured towards Manfred, and the Enderman popped away with a vrrp.
"Are you okay?" The innocuous question caught her off guard, and she glanced up at him as he approached and sat down next to her.
"...am I?"
"Let me rephrase, are you hurt? Physically?" She shook her head. "Okay. That's what I thought, but there was too much action to keep track of in that fight."
"Mm."
"I'm sorry." He ran a hand over his hood, then abruptly dropped his arm to his side. "For… um, I guess not letting them rescue you. And hurting Herobrine."
"It's okay." She muttered. "I know it 'can't be helped' and stuff."
"...yeah." Theo twiddled his thumbs. "I was just… wound up by the fight. Especially almost getting killed."
"Yeah." She felt a pang of pity at that. Even though he'd regenerated or whatever, he had to have felt the blade through his throat. "It's fine. Let's drop it."
"...okay." For a few moments, neither of them spoke, and she hugged her arms to her chest again. "...are you cold?"
"Um…?" Heather glanced up, gauging her comfort. "Kinda."
"Here." Before she could react, Theo slipped off his hoodie and offered it to her. She only caught a glimpse of his body underneath it before another appeared in its' place - he was very skinny, which both was and wasn't expected, and had a thin layer of black hair on his head. "I haven't really figured out how to make custom clothing outside of an avatar, so this'll have to do instead of a coat or something." He held it out until she took it, and she hesitantly hugged it to her chest, resting her chin on the thick fabric.
"Thank you."
"Mm." He looked away, focusing on the wall across the room. "So… did you know that your husband can break through planes?"
"Break through what?" She cast a suspicious look at her captor.
"He retrieved his weapon from my Ender Chest by moving to my plane. I imagine that has to come in handy." Theo scowls, then glanced over at her bemused face. "...what?"
"What's- what are 'planes'?"
"Geez, he really doesn't tell you anything, does he?" Letting out a sigh, Theo reached in front of him and placed an Ender Chest. "Here, open this." She obeyed. The chest was empty. "But, if I open it…" Gently pushing her hands away, Theo opened it himself, revealing several items stacked at the bottom. "Y'know, how Ender Chests work. But Herobrine was able to access my items, because…" he frowned.
"...well, remember how I talked about how Minecraft is an infinite world that takes up a finite amount of space?" She nodded wordlessly. "Okay, so, kind of perpendicular to this dimension are an infinite number of layers, or planes. Each individual coded as a player, including you, me, Steve and Alex, Herobrine, and Notch, has their own layer. We can visit each others' layers, but we each have our own little rectangle of reality. This makes it so that players can play on the same seed without running afoul of one another.
"It also runs Ender Chests. But, Herobrine can apparently traverse planes as he pleases." Heather remembered seeing him in her world before he took her.
"...yeah."
"Heather, I… realize that I am in no way qualified to comment on this," Theo started, and she fought the urge to cut him off there. "and I recognize that he cares about you a lot, but… Herobrine seems to keep you in the dark most of the time."
"He tells me about things that are relevant to me." She countered, shooting him a nasty glance.
"Did you ask him about cyberspace? About how he took you?"
"Maybe once or twice, back in the beginning. Otherwise I never really questioned it."
"Why not?"
"Wh- that's not- that's not even any of your business." Heather crossed her arms. "Just because you have a crush on me doesn't mean you can-"
"W-wait, what?" Theo cut her off, and she looked up to see his face heating. "I don't have a crush on you."
"You don't?" Now it was her turn to blush. "Then what was- what was all the stuff about me being 'worth it', and making sure I'm safe, and offering me your shirt, and-"
"I just meant- I do care about you, just… as a friend. You're married." He looked away, pressing one hand to his face. "Is that so shocking? That I might want to have a friend?"
"I just- assumed, I don't know. I thought you were mouthing off about Herobrine to try to get me to prefer you over him."
"Maybe a but, but not like- not in a romantic way." He spit out the word like venom. "I try not to get caught up in that mess if I can help it."
"O-oh." She broke eye contact. "W-well, anyway- anyway, I was gonna say, just because you c-care about me doesn't mean you can judge me and my husband's relationship. Besides, what do you know about this kind of stuff? You just said you try not to mess with romance."
"That doesn't mean I don't know about it." Theo shot back. "What I do know is that when people think they're in love, they're blind to the warning signs. I do care about you, and that's the reason I'm trying to get you to think."
"Sure."
"Heather, listen to me!" Theo grabbed her shoulder, not letting go even when she tried to swat him away. "When relationships go bad, they hurt everyone around them. What if Herobrine was just taking advantage of you? What would he do with you once he got tired of you? Just kill you? What would your family think? If they don't think you're dead already, that is?"
"Stop it!" Heather ripped his hand off her shoulder. "I'm sick and tired of you playing with my head!"
"I'm not trying, I swear! I just want you to be careful." He pulled his hand back. "Look, if you want, I'll drop it. But think about it, please. It's not fair to you or anyone around you to stay blinded by affection." On a hunch, she turned her head a bit, raising an eyebrow at him.
"You sound like you're speaking from experience."
"Oh, I am."
"Care to share?"
"My mother." Theo's eyes flared red. "She destroyed my family. If my father had caught on sooner, maybe I wouldn't have turned out like- like this." He laughed bitterly, gesturing to himself. "Love's dangerous. That's all I want you to know." The blonde looked down.
"That's- that's a reasonable viewpoint , assuming you're telling the truth, but you don't know Herobrine. He's not like that."
"And how do you know that? You don't know what's going on inside his head."
"I got a glimpse of it from his journal, before you destroyed it."
"Okay, fair. Fine. Just…" He offered her a hand, a friendly gesture. "I'm trying to do this for your good, so cut me some slack, okay?"
"...fine." He looked convincing enough that she could believe that - he just had the wrong idea about Herobrine. "I'll keep that in mind."
"Thank you." His body slacked a bit. "I'm… gonna get back to work."
"Okay." Once she acknowledged him, he disappeared in a burst of red. Sighing, the queen tucked her knees to her chest again, then abruptly remembered Theo's hoodie, the bundle of fabric resting in her lap. She frowned at it, then pulled her arms out of her thin jacket, pulling the white garment over her head. It was warm, and she noticed idly the lack of any scent.
Tugging the hood over her head, Heather leaned back, letting out a breath as she looked up at the ceiling. Theo was right about one thing, Herobrine hadn't told her very much about the world. She should ask him why if he- when he got out. Until then, she really shouldn't dwell on it. Spending hours coming up with conspiracy theories about how he didn't really love her wouldn't help anyone. Maybe she should just get some more sleep.