[***WARNING*** EXTENDED CHAPTER]

[Aria's POV]

Before I know it, we are standing in a world that was flat and green. Nothing was around us and I knew immediately where we were.

Cave Game!

"You would be correct." I turn to Herobrine, and he slowly stands. He offers a hand, and I take it without thinking. He gently helps me to my feet, however, then turns and looks around. I could feel the joyful emotions flowing from him like waves. His face was soft and he held a small smile of remembrance. "This is the very first version of Minecraft, titled 'Cave Game' at the time. It was... a much simpler version." He turns his head to the right suddenly, as if feeling something touch him. I follow his gaze and gasp.

Notch, in his famous avatar, was standing in the game. Before him was what looked like an outline of a character. It matched the build of Notch's skin perfectly, and the game creator stretches out his hand. The simple outline does the same. As their blocky hands touch, the outline begins filling. At first, it seems like it will be the same, as the skin tone matches. Once it gets to the sleeves though, it turns cyan and jeans form on the legs. The face lacks a goatee and the eyes...

Are normal?

I can already see Herobrine nodding his head. "Don't be mistaken. That is, indeed, myself. My eyes were not always... implanted light bulbs." I can feel his gaze shift to me, and a smirk was on his face. I was trying not to laugh, but the small smile that shows betrays me. Letting out a defeated sigh, I watch them carefully. Notch seems to say a similar spiel to Herobrine as Flynn did to Clu.

"You will be called Herobrine. You are to help me make a place where everyone can show their creativity freely with little to no limits." Notch's voice was smoother than I anticipated, but Herobrine's voice catches me off guard as well. It sounded much, much younger than I thought. He almost mimics Notch, with a slight change in pitch.

"My name is Herobrine. I'm here to help make a world where people can show their creativity freely, with little to no limits."

I smile slightly, and the red in my peripherals is something I will treasure forever. I take the chance and let out a small snort. "I guess you hadn't hit puberty yet, huh?" I slightly turn, and I can see him trying to not be embarrassed and also be angry, but that just made it even more hilarious.

Herobrine was completely and utterly flustered!

I only shake my head and wave a hand. "Relax. I won't tell anyone about this." I quickly consider my words and smile. "Well, I won't tell them this part at least. See it as a... peace offering." When I meet his gaze again, I see the red start to leave his face and he gives another genuine smile. "Alright, I believe you on that." He then turns to face the scene again and waves an arm. Suddenly, everything seems to speed up as the world suddenly starts changing.

"It was... enjoyable creating the first mobs and objects. Making the trees was much more complicated than we thought, and the pig... well, you know how the first few turned out." The world slows until it stops at a scene in a plains biome. Notch and Herobrine are standing in front of a very, uh, tall pig. Notch is rubbing his chin in thought and Herobrine is looking at it with a hint of mischief in his eyes.

Suddenly, Herobrine smirks then summons a command block from the ground. When his hand slaps it, the usual interface appears before him. Notch slowly walks over. "What did we do wrong?" He asks, but Herobrine slightly shushes him. The creator looks at his helper in curiosity. Fingers are flying over an invisible keyboard, and coding is popping up until he finally stops and gazes up at the deformed pig.

"Alright... . Stand back real quick." Herobrine brings out a pickaxe, then slowly moves around the command block. He approaches the tall mob slowly, then strikes it. It squeals, turning on him and flashing multiple times. Herobrine quickly retreats, but the mob explodes and sends him flying. Notch shouts in concern and rushes over. When he gets to where Herobrine is laying face down in the dirt, he flips him over and shakes his head.

Herobrine was laughing!

He held a few small cuts, but other than that he was perfectly fine and laughing loudly. "Did you see that!? That was awesome!" He finally says, and Notch only smiles, then gives a soft laugh. "That, I will admit, was pretty cool. What do you want to call it?"

Herobrine suddenly stops laughing, and his eyes widen as he looks at Notch.

"Wait, what do you mean? You want to keep it?"

Notch slightly nods his head, tilting it a bit. "Might need to change up the skin a bit, maybe give it some hissing sounds, but you made this out of my mistake. I think it should stay. Don't you?" He stands and offers a hand to Herobrine, who takes it with a wide smile.

"I most definitely agree! I'll mess around with it a bit more, then get back to you. As for the name..." He rubs his chin, then nods slowly. "How about creeper? It kind of looks creepy anyways." Notch only nods his head, then turns away. "Creeper. I like it. I'm not sure the players will as much, but I think it will add some challenge to this game." Herobrine only nods his head and quickly returns to the command block. As he begins working on it, the scene slowly vanishes and everything speeds up once more.

"Soon, the game would be fully released and the survival aspect added in as a test run. Turns out a lot of people truly enjoyed it, and we continued." His voice lowers, and I can tell he was starting to become grieved the closer we got to the updates. I knew what was coming, but what I don't know is how we got to that point.

Until now.

Suddenly, the movement stops, and I can recognize us getting close to the 1.6 patch. It looked like it was just after the 1.2 updates when the Nether was added in, possibly 1.3 or 1.4. They were in a village testing out the trading system with the villagers. Herobrine was gazing around, slightly nodding to himself. I smile. It was odd but rather nice to finally see a side of him that wasn't trying to kill us all.

However, something seems to catch his eye, and he starts towards it. I turn to look at the present Herobrine, and his gaze is sorrowful. I open my mouth to question it, and he holds up a hand. "Just... watch." I turn my gaze back to the scene before me and watch as past Herobrine moves towards a cave. Inside of it was a sparkling red item, and Herobrine was moving towards it. As he nears the cave, he pulls out a torch, and it lights up the entrance.

My eyes widen.

Redstone!

I shake my head in disbelief. "But-But that wasn't added until 1.5!" Herobrine shakes his head when I turn to him, and gestures back to the memory. "It may have not been released to the public until then, but it was formed 'in-game' much, much sooner. And much more lethal."

I suck in a breath and turn back to the memory. Herobrine was kneeling in front of the ore now, and he was reaching out to it. Just as his hand touches it, a light is released, and I hear a scream before the explosion rings across the landscape. I feel the mindscape shutter at the intensity of it, but the debris flies right through us. Herobrine's gaze is regretful, and when I turn to look back, I understand why.

"No..."

The entire village was up in flames, the ground caved in and buildings collapsed. My hand covers my mouth in shock, and suddenly we are moved to where Herobrine lay. I can barely hold back my gasp at the state of his body. His face was covered in blood, both eyes wielding large gashes. Pieces of stone were impaled in his legs and one in his shoulder.

He coughs.

He's alive?!

I hear a dark chuckle behind me. "If I had died then, none of this would have happened." I turn to him, and he gestures back to the scene. "I, unlike my creator, am hardcore. Survival. If I die," He lets it hang for a moment, and I only turn back to the memory. Notch was already rushing over, holding his mouth and nose in an attempt to keep the smoke out.

"Herobrine! Come on, wake up!" He shouts while skidding to a stop next to his fallen creation. Said creation sputters up blood. His eyes twitch, but he can't open them. Notch seems to notice this, and his hands suddenly begin glowing white. "Hold on, I've gotcha." His face holds concern, and I see the wounds starting to heal over Herobrine's body. The stone pieces disintegrate, blood seems to soak into his skin, and his face returns to normal. Once he believes his work is done, Notch lowers his hand. "Open your eyes. I need to see if they are damaged."

Herobrine grunts then opens them. I hear him huff behind me when I gasp.

They were blank.

Not glowing, but no iris' in them anymore either. They were simply white. Herobrine moves his head around a bit, confused, then blinks rapidly. "N-Notch... I-I can't see."

I turn, and Herobrine nods. "Originally, I had gone blind." I hear movement, and the memory seems to lose sound as Notch helps Herobrine up. Said person walks over to my side and gestures at the two before us. "It took Notch nearly a week to find the code within me that was damaged. He... didn't have a backup file made for me, and couldn't remember the exact coding to fix it." The anger that comes from him nearly makes me choke, but I hold it back.

He sighs and calms himself, and I slightly exhale. "He instead wrote a new code in an attempt to give me my sight back, and it worked... to a point." He moves his hand, and the image before us switches to them in a small room. Herobrine was sitting on the edge of a bed, looking around hopelessly while Notch was typing away on a command block. Finally, he sighs and looks up at his creation.

"Alright. Close your eyes."

Herobrine does so, and huffs. "I hope you're right this time." Notch only mutters and agreement before hitting one last key. Past Herobrine twitches and hisses, then shakes his head. He slowly opens his eyes, and the light that comes from them is blinding. Notch slightly covers his eyes, then lowers his arms once he is used to the glow. Herobrine only looks around and laughs.

"I-I can see! It worked! I can see again!" His joy was almost contagious if it wasn't for the fact that Notch looked upset. However, he covers it up with a fake smile that fools the younger Herobrine. I can hear the grumble beside me, and I shake my head. "You weren't naive to believe it. Your mind was just excited to see again and focused on that." His head snaps towards me so fast and I hold up a hand.

"You forget I can read your thoughts as well now, right?"

He grunts, and I feel the block go up.

Then it falls again.

"That's fine by me."

I turn to him, and he shakes his head. "I want you to trust me, might as well start with that. Anyways," He gestures ahead, and I turn to see another image appear. This one we have to walk to, and I don't mind. My legs were getting stiff anyways.

Stiff, in my mind. Consider me confused.

You'll get used to it.

That's not exactly comforting either, you know.

I hear him chuckle as we near the new memory, but it dies down almost instantly. I tilt my head in confusion. Now we were set in a bedroom with many sketches of mobs and update ideas. I could see the redstone ore pictures stuck to the wall along with other redstone items, like possible repeaters and torches.

"Wait, how long after is this?" I turn to Herobrine and see him grimace. It looks like he's about to ignore it, so I push. "Herobrine." He locks eyes with me, and I move closer. "How soon after is this?" I repeat, and he sighs.

"The next day."

I shake my head and look back at the memory. I spot the younger Herobrine rummaging around some books and notes in disbelief. I hold a similar look. "That's impossible! With how time works here, there was no way you were already at 1.5, not to mention there is no way he created all of this in just a few weeks! He..."

I turn to Herobrine, his expression rage-filled. My eyes are wide.

"Notch knew about the redstone anomaly and kept it secret."

Herobrine nods once. "You are almost correct. It's much worse than that." He moves to stand next to me once more, then walks straight into the memory. I see him stand next to his past self, then motion for me to come. I follow and stand on the opposite side. He points to the book in his doppelganger's hands, and I take a peek.

It was a map of the village from before on one page, and the other held a detailed cave system that was below it and lined with redstone! The distressed Herobrine flips the page, shaking his head. I couldn't read the writing at first until I feel Herobrine's power suddenly mix with my own. Then the rune-like enchanting alphabet turns to normal letters and I read the first thing on the next page.

'Test potency/lethality of redstone. Containable and usable?'

I skip further down, hoping I was wrong, but I wasn't. Notch was planning on using that village as a test of how deadly and powerful redstone was. There were no plans to evacuate the village.

He was going to level it with all the villagers in it.

I shake my head at the same time young Herobrine does. This wouldn't seem like such a big deal normally, but for Herobrine, these could be friends or even people he had helped create. Now, he's seeing notes that his own creator was making about destroying them just to test something new.

A hand suddenly appears and points at a single sentence at the bottom of the right page. I look at it, and can't hold back my shock.

'Keep away from Herobrine. He wouldn't agree to this test.'

I can only sputter out, "W-What?" before another voice joins the chorus.

"Herobrine?"

All of us turn to spot Notch in the doorway of the room, and I can see the tears falling from young Herobrine. On his right side, current Herobrine was glaring at the man. "H-How could you? You knew that was there! You knew that would happen!" He shouts, stepping forward. He holds the book tightly in one hand.

Notch shakes his head. "I knew you wouldn't approve of it, even if I told you I could recreate all of them anyway, just like they are." Herobrine's bright eyes widen, and he looks down. "That's it then, isn't it? We're just disposable toys, aren't we?" Notch's eyes widen this time, and he shakes his head.

"Herobrine, that's not what I meant. You're different, I made you different. They are just code that can be rewritten-"

"You have backups for them."

I can feel the sting in that sentence, especially when Notch's face pales. Herobrine holds up the book. "I know you do, but you don't for me. You say I'm different, that you care about me more, and yet you don't make sure my code is safe." When he looks up again, his eyes are hard, and I recognize the glare. Notch looks at his creation, knowing he had messed up now. He tries to reason with him again. "Herobrine, please. I have a reason."

"Let's hear it."

It was obvious Herobrine wasn't going to drop this, and he crosses his arms to prove it. Notch sucks in a breath, then sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose, sorta. "I knew this would happen. Look, because you are a copy of myself, I can't create a backup file for you without overriding my own file. It sees you as just another version of myself, and I can't fix that."

Herobrine looks at him, shocked. Notch shakes his head. "That's why I keep telling you to be careful! I can't bring you back completely like I can with the villagers and mobs! Something will always end up different. But the villagers I can bring back! They are-"

"No."

Notch stops, his eyes starting to hold a glare. Herobrine returns it evenly. "No. They are not toys for you to destroy and rebuild. I helped make them, I helped create their personalities, their jobs, their lives. You have no right to mess around with that like some god!" This time, Notch narrows his gaze and steps forward. I could already tell what he was going to say, and it was grinding my gears.

"I am the creator of this game, does that not make me the 'God of Minecraft'?"

I feel my own blood boil at that, and past Herobrine growls. He pulls out a pickaxe, and I see lightning slightly pulse on it. This seems to catch Notch's eye as well, and current Herobrine smirks at it. Past Herobrine speaks with venom in his voice.

"We will see about that."

He charges forward, and the battle begins. I shake my head, turning away. I knew how this fight ended already since he was standing here before me. I could hear the grunts and metal clashing, but my gaze was on the present Herobrine. He was watching the fight with sorrow in his eyes.

"I trusted him, believed in him, helped him create this world and most everything in it until that point."A shout echoes and I see past Herobrine fly backwards from a sword strike that hit him square in the chest. He crashes against the ground and slams to a stop against the stone wall. "I lost this fight, and he tried to rewrite my memory. However," He holds a slight smirk, and I tilt my head.

A roar of rage rings out, and I turn to see Notch get thrown back. Herobrine was glowing bright and slightly floating above the ground. His wound was healed, and he growls at the man before him. Current Herobrine only keeps the smirk. I shake my head. "You had been messing with the code during the whole talk, weren't you?" He gives me a nod and motions to the small screen that had just fizzled away behind his back.

"I had given myself all the abilities I have now in order to escape, should something like this happen."

I nod my head, and Herobrine suddenly vanishes from the memory. The image fades, and we are back in the mindscape. I look at him confused, and he shrugs. "Not much else after that. I had learned, of course, that there was a world outside of Minecraft, and if I could figure out a way, well, out, then I could right the wrong done to me once and for all."

My eyes widen.

"You wanted to kill Notch?!"

He nods his head, and a frown makes it onto his face. "It didn't matter to me how long it took, or the cost. Everything I knew was in jeopardy, including my own life." He crosses his arms and grunts before continuing. "Each day, I could feel him trying to get rid of my code. However, I had figured out how to hide it deep in the files where not even Notch himself knew to reach it."

His eyes watch me for a moment, then he holds out a hand. Above it, a screen flickers on, and I find myself staring at

The roaming file?

Herobrine nods his head, and I watch as the '.minecraft' folder is chosen, then 'assets', then the folder '1a'. I look at him carefully, and he holds an unreadable expression. "What are you trying to show me?" I ask. He doesn't reply, but instead reaches up with his free hand and grabs hold of the second file within '1a'. He brings it out and holds it in his hand carefully. The screen flickers then disappears, but the file remains in his hand.

He opens it, and surprisingly another zip file is within. I look at it before it finally registers in my mind. He swiftly opens the zip file, then chooses one of the nearly seven hundred files that were within it. The folder he pics is labeled 'origin', and within it is a simple file with coding on it.

The title was 'Herobrine'.

I look at him, and he looks at it carefully. His gaze slowly moves to meet mine, then he walks over to me with his own coding in his hands. "Give me your hand." Not knowing what else to do, I extend it, and he places his hand with the coding in my own.

Then he turns it over and drops his code into my open palm.

"You now have access to my coding, which means-"

"I could... delete it."

I lift my eyes, and they meet his. He was trying to hide the slight fear and hurt in them but failing. However, he does give a single nod. "Yes. You could, once this is all over."

I don't know what to do or say. He was literally giving me his weakness. I don't want to give in, to trust him...

But he was making it really hard not to.

I shake my head and turn my hand over to place his coding back in his hand. "Alright, alright. I... I understand now." I look him in the eyes and sigh. I turn away and rub my face. This was so much to take in. I still couldn't fully process what I just watched.

"Rest on it. I know it's hard seeing someone you thought was... good, turn out to be someone much more sinister."

I turn to him, but he was already gone. The glow of his eyes remain a bit, and I can only remember the image of him being nearly mutilated still. I shake my head again. Learning that Notch might be manipulative was not the only thing hurting my head.

'What am I supposed to do now?'