Greens and blues materialized around him once more, and Herobrine dropped onto his feet with a soft thump.

Immediately, he spotted Entity 303 in front of him, and instinctively reached for a weapon - only to find his inventory empty. That wasn't good. He tried to teleport, but nothing happened. That's right. He had been turned mortal. He couldn't use many of his abilities in this state.

"Herobrine!" Warm arms were thrown around him, and he jumped, stumbling a bit due to his reduced strength. "Don't worry, he's on our side now. Just wait a minute, he'll turn you back the way you were."

"Heather?" He managed, eyes flitting down to the girl pressed against his side. She grinned up at him, and he found himself smiling back. "What's going on?"

"A lot of stuff happened, but-" She turned to nod in the hacker's direction. "303's- well, he's my friend now. He's not gonna mess with you."

"Except for restoring your previous form, of course." The boy cut in, then hit a key. Immediately, Herobrine's body flooded with power, and he straightened up as his eyes began to glow once more. Chuckling, he bent down to wrap his arms around his wife, lifting her off the ground as he hugged her tightly to his chest. She threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder, and he closed his eyes for a moment as he spun her around. She was safe.

"I have to talk to you about something." She whispered into his ear. He nodded, glancing around at his surroundings before placing her back on her feet. They were in a plains biome, one he didn't recognize.

"Here." Taking her by the hand, he lead her away from the hacker as he went back to tapping on the keyboard in front of him. Out of the corner of his eye, Herobrine spied another figure materializing out of thin air - Steve. He wasn't sure what exactly Heather had done to have the hacker reverse the changes he'd made, but he did know that she could be very convincing when she wanted to be. Case in point, Notch.

Once they had travelled an acceptable distance from the others - now including Alex - Herobrine stopped, sinking down to sit on the soft grass. Heather sat down beside him, playing with the hem of her shirt for a moment before letting out a breath and meeting his eyes.

"I think- I love you." She squeezed his hand, and he blinked. She… did? "I'm not, uh, really sure what love should feel like. I'm not by any means an expert. But I do know that I care about you, and I want you to be happy. And… I think I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Herobrine's heart skipped a beat. He would be certain he was dreaming, if not for this being far more lovely than any dream he had ever experienced.

"But," Heather continued, looking down at the ground. "I don't know if that's possible." Of course, Herobrine knew it couldn't be that simple. "I love my family, too. I miss them. I can't… I'm not willing to leave them forever. So…" She met his eyes again, hopeful. "Maybe we can take advantage of the time difference. I can spend the day at home, then the night here. It's not a perfect solution, but… it could work." She stopped, and he was silent for a moment before she prompted, "What do you think?"

"I think…" He looked down at their clasped hands, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb. "Any solution that lets me see you, even if it's months or years apart, is good enough for me." A smile lit up her face, and she scrambled onto her knees to kiss his cheek. He turned his head as she pulled away, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"But…" He continued. "I think… there might be another option." Heather's smile vanished, and he hastened to continue. "I could come back with you." His wife was frozen for a moment, processing this.

"You mean… come to Earth?" He nodded. "And stay?" Nodded again. "But- is that possible? I mean, where would you stay? There's no way my parents would be okay with you being near me, you look so much older, and your eyes-"

"Hey," He interrupted. "I would figure it out. As long as you're alright with it."

"I-" Her eyes were wide, and she looked down at the grass, a thousand emotions crossing her face. "I- don't know if it'll work." She met his eyes again, this time smiling. "But let's give it a try."

Somehow, after all the nonsense they had gone through, everything worked out fine in the end.

Theo brought Minecraft back and restored all the mobs, including giving Manfred back his freedom to choose his own master. Notch was less than thrilled with the idea of Theo getting off without any sort of consequence, but grudgingly agreed to leave him alone. Heather had a significant amount of say in what he did now - he owed her, if not for her he and his world would still be in stasis.

Heather and Theo explained everything to his dad, who seemed really incredulous about the story until his son took him into the game for a minute. Heather wasn't entirely sure what went on afterwards, but they had a long talk, and Theo seemed happier afterwards.

After they said goodbye to Steve, with a promise to come and visit every now and then, Heather and Herobrine returned to Earth. He quickly slipped away, and reappeared two days later with a job and an apartment - and sunglasses. Apparently he just… got away with wearing them all the time?

They couldn't let themselves be seen together, but always managed to meet up at least once a day on Heather's walk home from school. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was better than spending months apart.

They couldn't be together just yet, and it might be a long time before they could, but they were willing to wait for it.

Year 2389

The cave was plunged into darkness as a final torch died.

For a few moments, everything was silent, the soft crackling of the torch's flame finally silenced. Then a skeleton spawned, standing stiffly in place for a beat before walking aimlessly towards the opposite wall.

With a soft vwoop, an Enderman teleported into the chamber. He glanced back and forth, scanning the quiet cave with his violet eyes, before spying a soft glow on the other side. Curious, he teleported closer, and came across a lone Nether Portal in the otherwise empty cave.

The mob stepped closer to investigate, trailing clawed fingers over the obsidian. On an impulse, he grabbed a block with both hands and tugged the cube free from the frame. The portal went silent.

In another dimension, white eyes flickered open in a pitch-black cage.

"I… am free?"

well shoot.

triquel coming soon :)

~FFF