Steve was dreaming of food. Of bunches of pancakes stacked up on plates, of browned sausages, jars of maple syrup, and an entire container of smooth butter. Eggs, fluffed up, and omelets, with pieces of bacon that made his mouth water.

Swallowing, Steve woke up to a delicious smell wafting off to the library from the corridor. His nose unmistakably led him to the kitchen, where he found Herobrine using his magic to assist him as he was cooking up loads of food. Steve disbelievingly stared at the plates, skillets, and mugs filled with steaming milk and rice.

Glancing at Steve, paused in the doorway, his twin gestured to him to go to the table with his one arm, a spatula grasped within it. Several empty plates slid across the table in Steve's direction.

"Help yourself. I'm preparing food for our little trip… Did you have a good rest?"

Steve shrugged lightly and nodded. Remembering his earlier dream about where he and Herobrine had been brothers, he opened his mouth to tell about it, but then hesitated, not sure how Herobrine would react to that. If he laughed at him, Steve knew he would felt hurt. And the whole notion of being related to this powerful being was ridiculous. Him, Steve, a brother to a demigod?

Steve closed his mouth and dropped his gaze to a plate, starting to load it up with food.

"Don't be shy. Take as much as you want. There is a lot more coming, since I'm making extra just in case."

Steve nodded and this time heaped eggs and sausages on his plate generously. He dug in, and then realized what Herobrine just said.

"Trip?" He asked curiously. His twin smirked.

"Have you forgotten? We need to go back and reclaim everything from your home that we can still salvage."

Steve nodded, but then thought about it with concern. "Won't it be… dangerous? Those warriors… players… might still be there."

"Don't worry. I have my servants watching over the place. They ransacked it some, but not too much. And they are not there now. Of course, we will take measures to make sure that we won't be recognized. In fact, it will be someone else who will go there from town and look for you, since you never came back. You remember Miguel?"

"Yes. He is that young potion maker who came by our town the night when I… got drunk." Steve's cheeks got red as he suddenly remembered his blunder and their subsequent argument, after which Herobrine ceased to visit him and only appeared rarely from afar.

Steve had been very careful to let everyone in town know that he simply made up his stories about the ghost in the mansion tormenting him. The town guards still went to the mansion just in case to check and make sure that their ghost was still asleep, because they remembered the disturbing tales that their children told them last year.

Of course, Herobrine's ghost twin remained in the mansion, passive as usual. Even Miguel went there to check and returned with pleased enthusiasm, describing how the being just seemed to stand there even when he approached him and waved a hand before his nose. It really only awakened for the heroes, who came to make a challenge.

"Steve… What do you know about players?" Herobrine's more serious tone distracted Steve from his thoughts. He frowned and shrugged.

"Only that they are heroes. And what little you and Miguel told me. Although I find what he told me a little hard to believe. It's so different from the legends." Steve said hesitantly as he remembered the young potion maker tell him different stories from the time he travelled the world. For some reason, Herobrine smiled with amusement.

"Well, tell me what you know. I'd like to see where I have to start. I did promise you to explain more about myself and their world as a whole. What do you know of them so far?"

Steve nodded and tried to think.

"The legends say that they are Heroes, who appear when this or other world needs help to deal with the danger that sometimes appears." Skewing Herobrine a cautious look, Steve noticed a usual sarcastic and slightly rueful smile.

Herobrine smirked, though. "I am well aware of the legends, Steve. You can speak plainly. They claim that I am the one who sends those dangers into the worlds as a revenge against my brother, Notch, for his betrayal of me in the war with the gods."

Embarrassed, Steve nodded, but eyed Herobrine curiously, waiting for him to verify whether any part of the legends is true.

"Go on. What else do you know? I will tell you the truth about myself later, though you may find it quite disappointing by comparison."

Steve sighed, slightly impatient, but then in his mind remembered the vision that he had when he once sat in the library and read those legends in a book. His eyes opened wider as the image again bloomed within his mind.

He saw a desert, where several figures appeared. Human, at first glance, in simple worn garments, who immediately began walking toward the town nearby, their faces determined. Others, smirking. And others gawking around themselves in awe. Some, arriving in groups and others alone. Appearing at random seemingly out of thin air, in forests, in plains, even in places covered with snow. Steve saw them all share something similar about them, though he could not quite pinpoint what it was. Maybe it was their carefree courage. Or maybe carelessness?

"They come from another world. And they handle the dangers that await here, helping everyone who lives here." He said the last slowly. Herobrine smirked again, but silently turned back to stir the steaks he was now cooking.

In Steve's mind, the heroes fought monsters, getting stronger in their power and skills, obtaining better gear and equipment. Rash, almost reckless in the way they faced danger. And some instead seemed content conversing with the locals, settling down in shops, trading, arguing. Living.

"They cannot really die. They can get hurt and also feel pain, same as we do, but less so. And if they die, they simply come back, reappearing in their own world that's above the sky. It's a special place. A great city, which floats like the islands of the End, but in the Ether. You cannot get there by flying or walking. Only… " Steve hesitated, not sure how to explain the concept that he did not truly understand.

"Only Players can go there. And those they choose to bring from this world. Ordinary people from this world cannot." Herobrine finished Steve's words for him quietly.

Steve turned toward him curiously. "But you have been there, right? I have heard stories. You even tried to go against them once." Steve reminded, fascinated by the tales that just came alive to him once more. Herobrine frowned though, his face getting darker.

"I did. And it was the biggest mistake of my life... You cannot imagine the power that those beings hold. And I do not mean just those regular players of whom you speak. I mean those, to whom you refer to as gods. But even some of the regular players are also dangerous, because they receive special powers and abilities once they level up."

Steve nodded readily, recalling the first time that he could remember himself, when he wandered the desert alone. The adventurers who found him were locals, who were helping several heroes to reach the ancient ruins nearby. They simply waited outside while the heroes, four men and three women in enchanted gear, went to fight the monsters within the ruins alone.

None of those heroes made it and on the way back to the local city of Mierdom, the locals complained to Steve that now they would have to go and guide the heroes back to this place yet again, so they could try to defeat those monsters and recover their loot.

They spoke with jealousy and admiration about a special guild in their city, which accepted only heroes of great strength. Many adventurers and newcomers to the city tried to win acceptance to that guild, but only a few ever met their standards. The locals with Steve spoke that the leaders of the guild were great heroes who even achieved an immortality of sort.

"Have you heard of the Admin?" Herobrine asked Steve quietly in a strangely subdued voice. Steve looked at him curiously.

"Yes. I have heard of them. Miguel said that that's the name of the gods, who summon the heroes to these lands and who decide who is worthy to go and live in their celestial city."

"Close enough. They are the beings in charge of this world now, who have displaced our creator, Notch, and turned him into their servant. Original Herobrine has faced them so he could free his brother from their rule and lost to them, badly. And so have I, when in my foolish delusion I attempted to do the same thing, thinking myself better prepared. But they are not truly gods. They are merely ordinary mortals in their world, like you and the other humans. It's only here that they gain their power. And they treat these entire worlds as merely a game, because to them none of the things that exist here are truly real."

Herobrine's voice held resentment and irritation and Steve blinked, not daring to interrupt him.

"And you?" He asked him curiously. "You speak as though you are not human. Who are you, Herobrine? Are you really the brother of Notch? The legends say that you are."

Herobrine paused in his cooking and lifted his chin, only to lower his head as his powerful shoulders slumped.

"I am not, Steve. I am not his or anyone's brother. I am not even Herobrine."

Steve blinked in confusion, briefly not trusting his ears. "You're… not?"

Herobrine turned around and looked at Steve ruefully. "I am not. I am not Herobrine, whoever he really was. I am merely his copy. A prank by one of the gods, who wished to scare the others into thinking that the real Menace had returned. That's what I was told… And it all makes sense. I have not even the fraction of the knowledge and skills that original Herobrine had, even though I have his looks." Looking at puzzled Steve, the man whom he until now believed to be Herobrine, suddenly smiled at him without showing his sharper than normal teeth, which made him look very tired and human. Or at least, that's what Steve perceived coming from him, coming in a very open and vulnerable way.

"Disappointed? Unfortunately for you, of perhaps fortunately, I am not that being of destruction that the lord of the Nether is supposed to be."

"Why… unfortunately?" Steve asked, frowning at the other man as he attempted to re-piece together everything he knew with Herobrine's new claim added to the mix. Herobrine was not… Herobrine? Only someone who looks like him? But… he had powers.

"Because even though he truly hated humans, if the stories are correct, he had a soft spot for all virtual humans, so he would have helped you. He would have been in far better position to help you now than I am. The powers that I am able to wield are only a tiny fraction of his. And even they are failing thanks to the cursed disease that I've been afflicted with, thanks to the effort of the Admin... Do not worry, it is not contagious. It was meant for me and me alone… Well for anyone else who bears a trace of Herobrine's power."

"Then you do have his power in you. That's true at least?" Steve verified to make certain and Herobrine's lookalike nodded.

"Some of his power, yes. And even his looks. Enough that even the gods freaked out when they found me. They almost erased the game, until Notch dealt with me and brought me to their hold. That's right, you and the people of this world came this close to losing your lives and starting them anew if Notch did not defeat and capture me five years ago. And it might happen again if they ever decide that they were wrong. That's why I dare not do anything that might provoke them or make them think that I might be the true Herobrine, reborn."

"But you're taunting the players. And killing them. You boasted them to me yourself." Steve protested, allowing a disapproving note to steal into his voice.

"All in good fun. That's what's expected of my role, anyway. The main point is that until now, I was careful and did not defy the Admin and their rules of this game. I used only in-game means to defeat the players and only in self-defense. Whatever recordings… whatever evidence they have of my actions would have clearly showed that."

"But something changed. Now they want to destroy you." Steve concluded, accepting Herobrine's words as he quickly tried to make sense of what was going on using Herobrine's words as a basis instead of what he thought previously. He had been wondering all this time why Herobrine seemed as if he was acting far less powerful than he had been in the stories he read and heard about him. Only, he had thought that Herobrine was actually a shard of the true being who once existed and now gathering power before he challenged the gods to another duel for control of these worlds.

"Now they do wish to destroy me. And… they seem to have found a way." Herobrine looks to his left shoulder and missing arm, now carefully bandaged beneath his teal t-shirt.

"Why? If you are of no danger to them as you say? Why do they wish to destroy you? And… What do you mean, that they have found a way?" Steve frowned deeper.

Herobrine sighs and reluctantly pulls up a chair, sitting down at the table, too.

"It was someone else, Steve. Someone else who pretended to be me and harmed several players, not just here but in real life. Someone, who made it appear as though I did it, using true Herobrine's powers."

"Someone pretended to be you? Can the Admin not tell?"

Herobrine shook his head. "Apparently, not. They are all convinced that it was me and that I have gone mad. Luckily, they still believe that I am not the original Herobrine, or else this entire world would have already ceased to exist. They can handle the complaints by a few players, pay them out a sum, but they have now set their minds to get rid of me. As for the way they found, it is a nasty trick, a disease that they've created to affect me, a curse that they have placed on the weapons, which they then gave out to all their heroes. They have declared a Quest and called it 'Abolish Herobrine'… Nearly all the heroes have accepted it. And now you've gotten pulled into the mix. They will soon be on your trail, too."

"Me?" Steve asked as glimmers of alarm and terror shot through him. He could not imagine living with all those powerful beings pursuing him. Again, he saw the strangely cold, ruthless eyes of the three formerly amicable men with whom he had explored the caves in fake search of Herobrine's whereabouts. Chills ran up his back. They were going to torture him.

"But… I'm just a man. A miner… I know nothing about these things." He mumbled helplessly.

Herobrine watched him with pity and guilt. "I know. And I am sorry. I would have rather that my servants had not brought me to you when I had been unconscious. On the other hand, then I would not have been alive to help you now." He looked down at his single, remaining hand.

"The safest way to get them off your tracks would be for me to surrender to their Mercy. Only I know that I won't receive any. I will be destroyed. And there are other concerns that have to do with you."

"Then don't. Don't surrender to them."

"Of course not. I'm not that altruistic." Fake Herobrine smirked, but then looked at Steve intently. "We need to talk about your options and fast. You obviously won't be able to stay in that town after this. But you are used to running, are you not?"

Steve blinked, a strange feeling of unease creeping up on him at the last words even though he tried to resist it. "What do you mean?" He asked in confusion.

"I mean your status as a player, Steve. I ran another check on you while you slept and I found an interesting thing."

Steve just looked at Herobrine blankly, so Herobrine sighed. "You still claim that you don't remember a thing? Hold on a second…" He suddenly turned back to his sizzling skillets that are placed above multiple cooking stoves and began to flip over his deliciously smelling, seasoned stakes. Steve was too troubled to pay much attention to food now, however, as he was mulling over Herobrine's statement.

"If you are still talking about that idea that I might be a player, then you're wrong, Brine. I am not one and I have never been one. I can tell you that for sure. I've been here for at least eight years now that I remember and in none of that time have I ever found anything that might tell me my past. Not that I have searched much." Steve admitted reluctantly, but then stubbornly set his jaw. "I don't remember who I am, that much is true. I've told you this before. I am but an ordinary man, though. Nothing special."

Herobrine made a huff and, having finished flipping his stakes, turned back to Steve. "I'm not saying that I don't believe you. I have finally located the place where your signal is coming from."

"My signal?"

"It's a type of energy, a beam of light if you will. It connects all of us to the place where our information is stored. To Notch and his world. Even the players, when they choose to connect here with full immersion settings as you are doing now."

"I don't understand."

"Take my word for it, then. If you don't believe me on anything else, at least believe this. You are a player who has connected to this world like all the other players do, through a neural net. But your connection is full. It's like the System is treating you as if you were one of the locals, one of the people who lives in this world. Your connection to it is complete, without margins or limitations. And it bypasses Notch's controls, as if you were a hacker or… logging in outside of the System itself. Your anchor leads somewhere to the deadlands. It's not from the celestial city from where the other players log in."

"None of what you say makes any sense to me, Herobrine." Steve slightly shook his head with regret, a small smile appearing on his face as he felt an unexpected enthusiasm coming from the other man for some reason. Herobrine seemed excited about his discovery.

"Yes, sorry about that. Let me put this into a different form. You told me that you know that the gods have build a celestial city, right? Its above all these worlds. In the Ether itself. Where no one may cross except by their permission?"

"Yes. I know that." Steve readily nodded.

"Well, all players except for a certain few, such as those from expeditions or adventurers, who come to the planet… to the world below them, come here from that celestial city. And they come here in a… different form than what they live in back at home. These worlds that Notch had created makes them a different body, to which they connect through a special device, called a neural interface. Pay that no heed, its not that important.

What's important is that they all come here with certain limitations, unless that device is hacked, or broken on purpose. The limitations clip their senses, so as not to experience strong discomfort or unpleasant sensations such as when they stab a foot, for example. That's why they are so brave and when they die here, they simply respawn again as Notch's worlds recreate their body anew. Their real body meanwhile remains safe in that city, asleep and monitored to make sure they are doing well.

You are missing that monitoring. And that's because you are not logging in from the city. You are logging in from somewhere else in their world, from a place that's considered forbidden to dwell in. Does that make sense so far?"

At Herobrine's expectant gaze, Steve attempts to reword this slowly.

"You are saying, I have another body somewhere just like the heroes do? And its not in their city?"

"Exactly!"

"What… does that mean?" Steve asks uncertainly.

"It means, my friend, that if the Admin find you with me and run the same full scan on you that I have done, they will find the same thing. They will then detain you as their prisoner until they find your real body and force you to log off. And then you'll face more trouble, since you have logged on into the game that they own without proper protocols or payment. The good news is that this won't be considered a heavily punishable offense. Just a yearly fine multiplied by however long they will trace you to have been online, plus the expenses to find you and then additional expenses for your trial. Bad news is that if they find you and learn that you are some sort of criminal hiding out on the planet, then you will face charges for whatever crime you have committed."

"Why do you immediately assume that I have committed a crime?" Steve protested, slightly offended by Herobrine's conclusions. His twin merely grinned at that.

"Because their society is so highly regulated that even gamers must play by the rules and with safety in mind. And you are not. You are somewhere on the planet, hacking into their system illegally. You are also still alive after eight years of being constantly logged on, which means that you have a life-sustaining machinery set up, sustaining your body. But considering that you are playing with full settings, you may have already sustained some neural damage. The safety rules for players are set up for a reason. Human mind is very complex. A painful event here and you could suffer a cardiac arrest in real life, which means that both your bodies die. Since you are playing with full settings, I think that's exactly what happened to you. You died in both worlds. And then your capsule repaired your body as best it could, but with some brain damage. That's why you then respawned here without memory."

"Herobrine, I hear what you are saying, but just don't understand what to do with it."

Herobrine made a long-suffering sigh and leaned closer to Steve, making direct eye contact as he considered him intently.

"This means, Steve, that you must decide what to next. Would you like to hear your options?"

"Yes, please. Please, just tell it to me simply, without all those strange terms." Steve made a plea. Herobrine nodded, appearing slightly irritated. He was not irritated at Steve, however, but himself, as he found himself failing to explain things properly.

"Steve, your life may be in danger. You have been logged on for a very long time. Eight years, at least. You have lost your memory and do not remember how to log off. Neither do you remember your situation in real life. And even if I help you to log off, I do not know whether you will even be able to leave the life capsule on your own right now, without someone to help you. I cannot help you out there, since I exist only in this game. Your best option may be to go to the Admin directly and tell them what I have said. Then they can deploy measures to find your body on the planet and see if they could help you. This is your option one and probably the safest, since they have the resources and means to find you. On the other hand, you will certainly be charged a lot of money and end up being imprisoned if you are really a criminal or simply if you cannot pay back what you owe them."

"I think I understand. What are my other options?" Steve asked uneasily.

"The other options are more risky. One is to stay with me until I'm able to figure out exactly what's going on with you. I do have connections that I can pull with people in real life. Of course, they do not know me as myself, but your rescue can be arranged, for a price of course. And I do owe you. I could arrange for a private expedition to find you. The only consideration is the price that they will demand. It will be higher and I currently have other more pressing obligations that I must meet first. You will have to wait."

"And the other options?" Steve smiled uneasily, giving Herobrine a grateful if troubled look. Learning that he had some other body that he had to take care of was certainly a shocking bit of news that he just couldn't accept well. Herobrine seemed so certain about this, though.

Herobrine lightly shrugged. "The last option is to simply continue living as you usually have. Continue to play the game. Only no matter how good your life capsule might be, you risk one day simply going to sleep and not waking up, either here or in the real world. But it is your choice, of course. And I will respect your decision."

Steve moved uncomfortably beneath Herobrine's intent gaze, his mind fleeing in all directions and unable to concentrate on the answer he was expected to give.

"Um… Um… Just… Give me a moment." Steve finally mumbled and stood up abruptly from the table, forgetting all about his food. He paced back and forth along the length of the kitchen. Herobrine watched him a moment and then stood up and turned back to his skillets, turning off the flames. He began dismissing the food still piping hot directly into his inventory. All this time he remained silent, waiting for Steve to say something.

Finally, he patiently smiled. "Don't fret so much. It's not like you're going to die right away. You've lived this long already and felt no ill effects, correct? No dizzy spells or being suddenly confused?" He asked thoughtfully.

Steve glared at him with a sarcastic look. "Now you try to calm me down. After telling me all that! Thanks." He walked back and forth a few more times and then plopped back down into his seat, where he wearily rubbed his eyes.

"Herobrine, what would you do in my place?" He finally helplessly asked. Herobrine humphed with amusement.

"I would definitely stay with my new friend and let him try to solve my problems for me, since he seems to know what he is doing." He said with wry, hidden smile. Steve blinked and then grinned widely as the words sunk in.

"Then we are friends?"

Herobrine smiled more this time, no longer hiding the self-depreciating look that came into his face. "For what its worth, yes. I consider you a friend. One of the very few I have. Perhaps the best." He conceded, causing a huge beaming smile to appear on Steve's face. Impulsively, he got up and stepped towards Herobrine to hug him, only to be warded off by a defensively raised hand.

"Please don't. I don't like to be touched. You might as well learn that now before I accidentally hit you or cause you other harm if I am startled." Herobrine said with a wince.

Steve readily nodded. He then tried to think again about his own situation. "Then, this means that I'm to stay with you?" He asked hopefully.

Herobrine reluctantly nodded. "Until I manage to resolve your situation, yes. But bear in mind, that my own condition is currently not the best and the Admin are looking for me. If I am captured or destroyed, your only choice might be the first option. If something happens to me, do not delay, Steve. Turn to them for help."

His smile lessening and then falling completely, Steve merely nodded again.

"What are we going to do now?" He asks quietly, remembering the players that threatened him and Herobrine earlier. Herobrine grinned as he pointed at the stacked up food.

"And right now we're going to prepare for a trip to your hometown and see what we can salvage from your home. Open your inventory. I need to check what you stuffed in there last night."

"How?"

"Here. I'll do it for you." Herobrine said and reached his hand that he held directly in front of Steve's face. Steve startled when suddenly the little blinking green line on the side of his vision had expanded into a transparent screen divided into numerous slots with names on them.

Weapons, Food, Gear, Rocks, Plants and other categories showed. Steve gaped while Herobrine humphed with humor. "Don't tell me you were just using it blind all this time."

"I… didn't know that it was there." Steve said with surprise. "How did you do it, though? How did you open it?"

"Just will it to open it. The System will detect your neural impulse and… Steve, just wish for it to open and it will happen."

Steve nodded. "Close." He whispered softly, intently staring at the screen. Obediently, it retreated back into a blinking line.

"It's blinking green. It means that its still less than half filled up. Once it blinks orange, it means its less than two-thirds full. And once its red, it means that there is hardly any space left at all… Although with your inventory stats, you will hardly ever have to worry about it. Congratulations, you have probably the biggest inventory space I have ever seen for a player. Nearly as big as mine. A hundred thousand tons. You could carry an entire small mountain in there."

"And to think that all this time I was just using it for buckets of rocks." Steve grinned back. "Open…" He opened his inventory again. Just out of curiosity, he looked at the category marked as tools and felt satisfaction when he saw several old pickaxes in there that he made himself some time ago. He had thought that he misplaced them.

"Now let me check what you have in there. I saw you packing some things last night and I thought I saw several dangerous potions and a few cursed items. I apologize. I should have helped you choose the right items, but I was too tired last night."

Faster than Steve could see, he saw numerous categories of items open up and start vanishing from his grasp, while others appeared there instead, including food items that Herobrine had just prepared. Steve could not help smiling in amusement at Herobrine's thoughtful thinking.

Noticing his grin and where his eyes were looking at, a tinge of red crept into his twin's face and he lightly shrugged in a defensive way. "What can I say. I like cooking. Now hold still, I am not done, yet."

Herobrine continued to sort through Steve's inventory while Steve patiently waited…