id like to take a moment to thank everyone who left a review after I begged for feedback, it was Quite helpful and the fic is! actually finished now I Just need to translated it to fanfiction-appropriate-content
review replies:
Bookkeeper: HE PROBABLY WOULD NOT. BUT HE WILL. he cant escape his fate
Mayor of Ninjago city: never fear, there are like 7ish more chapters (?)
If there's one thing that Herobrine hates, it's helplessness.
It had been hard to keep track of the days in that dark cell, but he estimated that about a week must have passed that he lay there in the shadows. Eventually, Notch rescued him - only in the loosest sense of the word, of course. He provided him with a single health potion, and informed him of what had happened in his absence. Entity 303 and Heather were both gone.
He had travelled back to the Nether to arm himself, then teleported himself to Heather's world in search of her. He found her reuniting with her family, and retreated back to Minecraft. He wasn't sure how they would react to him, given his... unconventional appearance, but he didn't care to find out.
Aiming to collect her later that night, when she was alone, Herobrine had busied himself with preparing a place for them to hide out. Notch had made an offhanded comment suggesting that 303 had fled back to Earth himself, implying it would be a good while before he returned due to the differences in the passage of time. He had plenty of time to set up a base for them to live in.
Doing his best to stay mindful of the amount of time it would take for two or three hours to pass in Heather's world, Herobrine built a small survival base in a birch forest over the span of the next three weeks. He took care to find a secluded spot, far away from any notable locations in the world, in an effort to keep them away from 303.
While not building or stockpiling supplies, he visited Notch a couple of times to eavesdrop on any updates on 303. As far as he could tell, though, he hadn't made an appearance.
Finally, once a month had passed, Herobrine traveled back to Earth to bring back his wife.
When he appeared in her bedroom, he noted with a rush of relief that it was dark. A lump was curled up under the blankets in the bed, and he took a hesitant step towards it. Fortunately, a step was all it took to get her attention, and Heather rolled over, blue eyes peering up at him.
"Hey." She whispered, and he responded with a small smile. "We should go back, huh?" He nodded, offering her a hand, and she took it and let him pull her to her feet. She swayed a bit on her feet, and Herobrine glanced down at her outfit. She was wearing a new jacket, he noted. It was red.
He reached for her other hand, to steady her when they teleported back, but unexpectedly she pulled it away.
"Wait." Her voice was loud in the small room, and she flinched. "Can…" she continued in a whisper. "...I stay here a little while longer?"
"Stay?" Herobrine echoed, blinking down at his wife. "Why?" She looked down.
"I miss my family." Her voice held a hint of defensiveness. "I only got to see them for a little while."
"Even one night here is the equivalent of months in Minecraft." Herobrine protested. "If you stay…"
"It's not like I'll be in any danger. Theo can't- 303 can't find me here, for sure." She didn't meet his eyes. "It won't be for very long."
"It will for me." She didn't react. "Heather-"
"I want to see my friends." She interrupted. "I wanna go to school, and eat lunch in the cafeteria, and pass notes in class. I want to give my favorite teacher a hug." Her voice broke on the last word, and she bowed her head a bit. "Herobrine, I miss them."
She sank down on the edge of the bed, and Herobrine sat down on the floor beside her. "Heather-" he tried again, but she interrupted once more.
"I miss gossiping about dumb stuff, and playing games I'm not good at. I miss walking home with my best friend. I miss eating whatever crappy food the school decides to serve us. I miss homework." She let out a watery laugh. "I miss things being normal. I want to go back."
"But I would miss you." Herobrine blurted out, not trying to disguise the desperation in his voice. Stay with me.
"I know." A tear escaped down her cheek, and she buried her face in her hands. "I'm s-sorry, I just m-miss them so much." Herobrine felt a pang of guilt as she muffled a sob in her sleeve. "I'm sorry. I kn-know I should stay with you. I'm j-just being selfish."
"No, I'm the one who's being selfish." Hesitantly, he reached up, placing a hand on her arm. "If you want to stay here, then by all means do so. Your safety and well-being come first."
"No." She shook her head jerkily. "I'm s-supposed to stay with you. You're my husband."
"I've survived long enough alone." He tried. "A little more won't hurt." It had the opposite effect, as Heather pressed her palms to her face again. "Please, please don't cry." No response. "I love you."
"I kn-know." She sniffed. "...'m sorry."
"For what?"
"I d-don't think I l-love you."
The words tasted foreign on her tongue, but it felt good to get them out. Heather couldn't see Herobrine's face, her eyes squeezed shut and face hidden in her hands, but his stunned silence told her everything she needed to know about his reaction.
"...why?" He broke the silence at last. "Why do you think that?"
"I'm- I think I used to." She stammered out. "I don't know why I stopped. I just m-miss my family more." Heather peeked up, catching a glimpse of his face, and winced. He was composed, he always was, but she could still see the shift in his expression. "I just… I c-care about you, I really do. I d-don't want to leave you because I know you'd miss me." She rambled, trying to explain her actions away. "But I m-miss my life here a lot. I wanna stay."
"Then stay." She felt his fingers brush her cheek. "Stay as long as you want."
"But-" She cut herself off, unsure how to communicate how bad she would feel about leaving him. Even though she didn't love him.
"I'll survive on my own." He offered her the faintest of smiles, but she could hear his voice lowering as he spoke. "I'll deal with 303, and I'll bring Manfred back. So you can see him if you ever decide to come back."
"Come back in a day, okay?" Heather blurted out, her voice barely over a whisper to keep from tearing up again. "24 hours. Come pick me up tomorrow night." Herobrine hesitated, then nodded.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Very well." He moved towards her an inch, as if to kiss her, then appeared to remember and pulled away again. Instead, he placed a hand on her arm, offering her a slightly uncertain smile, then let go and disappeared.
Heather didn't move for a couple of minutes, perched anxiously on the edge of the bed in the silence of her dark room. She almost couldn't believe he was really gone.
Finally, the teen scooted back, pulling back the blankets and curling up on her pillow. Her eyes were red and dry from crying, and she was exhausted from the sheer emotional toll of that conversation. With this in mind, it was no wonder that it took her little more than a couple minutes for her to go to sleep.
303 sat huddled against the headboard of his bed, panting breaths muffled by the pillow his face was buried in. With shaking hands, he brushed back a lock of curly hair before returning his grip to the pillow. That had been way, way too close for comfort.
An image of Notch's hammer swinging down at him flashed across his vision again, and he shuddered, squeezing his eyes shut and stifling a whimper. From now on, he wasn't picking direct fights with anyone, much less Notch. He'd settle for hiding out somewhere and working on the firewalls from the safety of his base.
He was back at square one, 303 thought bitterly. With the added bonus that now the AIs knew all about him. He'd have to come up with a new entry plan in case Notch did something to the work he'd already completed.
Lifting his gaze to the window, 303 glanced at the sky, noting the yellows and pinks beginning to appear from the impending sunrise. He'd have to spend the day at school, there's no way he could simply vanish again without dad noticing. Not during the day. With a heavy sigh, he remembered that, of course, he hadn't done his homework. He barely remembered what it was. He was definitely getting yelled at today.
Dragging himself out of bed, 303 made his way over to his dresser and picked out a hoodie and jeans. It was almost time to get up, anyway. As he got dressed, he mulled over the differences between the passage of time in the real world as opposed to in Minecraft. There seemed to be a pretty significant gap. By the time he returned tonight, then, quite a long time would have passed in his absence. Maybe long enough for Notch and his flunkies to decide he was no longer a threat.
Slipping the hoodie over his head, Theo cast one last longing look at his computer before gathering up his backpack and leaving the room. Hopefully, by the time he returned tonight, Minecraft would once more be ripe for his taking.
cant believe theo is such a frickign nerd
~FFF