Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Steve has been alive a long time. He was now the only one left of the original Players. He wanted to stay, to explore the world even as he watched his friends leave. So, here he was in a snowy plains village, mining. He'd been doing that a lot lately. The clang of the pickaxe hitting stone and the satisfaction of finding different ores. He'd made a routine. Mine, eat, visit the villagers, sleep and repeat.

He heard his stomach rumble over the clang of his pickaxe. It was time to leave. He swung the pickaxe over his shoulder and ambled down the tunnel of his strip mine. He's always a little surprise at how much he mines in each tunnel. Each of his tunnels seem to go on forever and this one was no exception. It took him a couple minutes to finally find his small cave home. It was quaint, a small kitchen, a living room, bathroom, storage room and a bedroom. He dumped his stuff in his storage, glad to be rid of all the rocks. 

He does a small stretch before leaving to prepare lunch. He had some cooked chicken left from yesterday. He plated the chicken and grabbed some carrots he'd gotten from the farmer the other day. He settled down on his couch and set his plate on the small table in front of him. He leaned back and finally started to relax. He felt his shoulder relax and his jaw unclench. It felt so nice.

CREAAAAAAAAAKK

The sound of a louder creaking startled him up right. "If it's one of those villagers again," He grumbled, grabbing his shield just incase. 

He made his way carefully to his entrance way with his shield up, which was purposely down a short corridor for this reason - he didn't want the villagers to come in uninvited like they do in the village. But what he saw wasn't a villager. Not Richard, Stefan, Maria or even Fran. It was a woman with glowing eyes. Similar to those of Herobrine or so he heard. He was lucky to have never come into contact with the Cryptid. She had curly hair - wild and untamed, similar to fire. She had a green shirt and overalls with bicep visible tattoos that resembled the stars, a constellation maybe. But no shoes. How did someone walk in this snowy plains village without shoes? 

This person? Player? creature? was an odd sight, especially in such a small, out of the way village.

Then it took a step closer. He tensed, he took out his sword and raised his shield higher in an attempt to protect himself.

"Hello," The flame haired creature said, stepping closer. It seemed curious. 

The word startled him, he was slightly surprised it knew how to speak. But he should have assumed because it seemed to be a cousin of Herobrine.

"Hello," He responded, trying to make his voice threatening.

It wasn't, because the creature stepped closer. It was now so close, he could easily hit it with his sword.

But he didn't. 

Something inside him told him not to. This creature was intelligent, and you can't kill Herobrine so better not to aggravate this creature. 

Then it grabbed his shield. It was a sharp, sudden movement, he almost lost his balance. It startled him so much that he swung. 

It all happened so quickly, the shield torn from his arm and sword making contact with the creatures stomach. It collided with the creature, leaving a small wound. But he knew what a flash of red meant, this creature was hurt. 

He looked into the creature's oddly expressive eyes, to see they were widen in shock. It was as if this creature had never been hurt before. That made him feel a little bad. That was until the creature swung at him with their fist. It was more like a flail but it hurt. A lot. He went down two hearts from this creature. It wasn't trying!

It stopped after they hit him. Pausing, fist still making contact with his side. 

It jumped back, making contact with wooden ladder on the wall. It's eyes wide like before but it wasn't in shock. It was.. fear. 

He stood back up, not realising he'd curled into himself when hit, and faced the creature. He dropped his sword in a placating gesture. He wasn't going to hurt the creature. Who, on closer inspection, looked to be a girl. A teenager, maybe. 

He made his way towards her. He started slow, each step taking 10 seconds as he gauged the creatures (teenagers?) reaction. She just stared. The fear in her eyes never went away even though the rest of her was relaxed. He stopped a step in front of her. 

"Hello," He said, this time in greeting a ghost of a smile on his lips. 

"Hello," The creature responded, cautiously.

"Can I help you?" He asked, gesturing to the creatures side, where blood was dripping from the wound, slowly staining the torn shirt. 

The creature didn't respond, she froze momentarily before turning her head to see the wound. It was a straight, shallow cut but it hurt. A stinging pain. 

"I don't know what to do," The creature admitted. 

He nodded. Cautiously taking a step closer. When he didn't get attacked, he bent down to examine the wound. 

It wasn't bad, however it needed to be disinfected and wrapped. He explained this to the creature, who in turn just stared at him with a blank expression. How did this teenager, potentially Herobrine's cousin, seem to not know anything. It was odd, but he couldn't get distracted.

He led the strange creature into his bathroom.

As he collected the bandages and disinfectant from his first aid quit, he wondered why he didn't try to kill this Herobrine relative? Surely, that's what most people would have done. He wasn't even helping himself. He didn't drink any healing potion, eat a golden apple or anything really. 

Maybe because he saw himself in the girl. When he and his friends were first starting out in the world, scared and trying to understand their place in the world.

How he had wished he had a mentor when he was first created.

He started to disinfect the wound, being as careful as possible. Every time she winced, he felt bad even though it was a necessary evil. Then he bandaged it carefully. The girl stayed silent the entire time. No noises, no talking, nothing.

He quickly led her to his living room, letting her sit on his couch. He kept muttering about each action, trying to keep track of he'd done and had to do. He went to his kitchen and grabbed his breakfast tea, putting the tea bags in to the kettle. Then he put a kettle on. What's better than flavoured leaf juice than when you've met a stranger who's incredibly dangerous?

He took some potatoes out of a barrel and ate them to regenerate.

I should really get some more food, he thought as his health regenerated. 

Before he could debate what to by, he heard the kettle. He quickly poured some tea into two separate cups with saucers then made his way to the living room. 

The girl was staring his abandoned dinner when he walked in. It must be cold by now. But she grabbed a carrot then carefully brought it up to her face. She inspected the long, orange vegetable for a while. He refused to move, not wanting to disturb the girl and her carrot observation. Or what ever it was. 

Only a moment later, the carrot was in her mouth. A loud crunch soon followed. Seconds later, her already glowing eyes seemed to light up. She seemed to like carrots. 

Steve made his way over to the couch, handing some tea to the girl. She accepted eagerly, wanting to try something new.

They sat together in silence for a while, drinking tea.

Until her voice broke the silence "Are you a player?"

He paused. What kind of question was that? It wasn't hard to tell the difference between him and the villagers was it? He looked down at his clothes. He still looked like himself, Steve the first player, a light blue shirt and jeans. It was a very common outfit now. 

He nodded.

"You're nice," She stated.

"Thank you," He responded with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"I didn't know players could be nice," She said, punctuating her words with a turn of her head as she faced him. 

The comment caught him off guard. But he doubted he would get any information out of the teenage, fiery haired creature.

"What's your name?" He asked, trying to change topics.

"I am Gemini, the fourth eldest. Who are you?" 

"Steve."

Gemini opened her both to say something but she was interrupted by a loud- 

CRRRREEEEEEEAAAAAAAAKKKKKKK.

He had to put some oil or something on that trapdoor.

"Steve! We have new guests! You have to meet them," Fran shouted, running down his entrance hall. He looked up to see that the librarian had miraculously balanced her history book on her head as she ran while carrying the books he'd requested. 

Fran screeched to a halt when she saw the flame haired Gemini next to him, drinking tea. 

"You've already met one of them! How nice!" Fran exclaimed between breaths. 

One? How many more are there? 

Before he could voice his question, Fran grabbed his arm, dragging him out of his hole house. Gemini followed in suit with a small smile and new perspective. 

Chapter Text

He was supposed to be this horrible, eldritch entity, but he was clearly losing his touch. 

Though, Steve was almost as old as he was, so perhaps he just wasn't fazed.

After meeting Gemini, he was kind of expecting an encounter with Herobrine. Weren't they cousins after all?

However he hadn’t expected to meet him in a forgotten corner of the Hub while snacking on a golden burrito.

It started as he sat on the curb of a never-finished street eating his golden burrito from a shop a short distance away. He wasn’t sure how it was made, something about code modification was mentioned but he didn’t care. He did care about the delicious golden burito, which he finished in just a few bites.

He straightened his back, planning to lean against the vacant brick house when he saw a glimpse of something.

Immediately, he became alert. Looking around, theres no one. Only the cracked stone brick street, the same houses with different block palettes and moss. No player.

Deciding it was his imagination, which had been acting up a lot more these days, he sat back down. For a few minutes, he remained skeptical but relaxed. Leaning against the building and letting his body rest.

“Boo!”

His eyes flew open, arms already moving to push the unknown source away. He saw a brief flash of blue and the feel of fabric before it was gone,. The sudden change was surprising, almost having him lose balance

A quiet chuckle makes him look up to see, Herobrine.

Great.

Steve’s muscles tensed, almost frozen in fear. He never expected to actually meet Herobrine, it was just a thought. A scscenario that floated around in his mind. Not real.

Yet here he was. The man, the creature, the god. Herobrine.

"We finally meet. I've been waiting for this moment," He said, his voice unnerving.

Steve doesn’t respond, just stared at him. There wasn't much Herobrine could do to hurt anyone, which was the only consolation Steve had that he wouldn't try to kill him. 

"Oh, don't look that way. I'm not going to hurt you." 

It was then he realized that Herobrine was speaking. Using his mouth to communicate. In every story, he would manipulate code and use chats to talk with Players. Why was he talking now?

Amidst the confusion, Herobrine merely rolled his eyes.

“You’re so boring.”

That caught the player off guard. Why was this powerful entity acting so friendly with him.At least in the context of powerful gods and such, most of which treated players as playthings or pets.

Herobrine, despite his not creeping on him demeanor, stared back. Waiting.

“… Thank you?” Steve responded, unsure.

A sigh left the immortal. Instead of responding, he walked closer. Walked. Not teleporting. Walking. It shocked him, though he tried no to outwardly display it. Hopefully it was working.

If he noticed anything amiss, he didn’t say anything. He simply stopped in front of him. His glowing eyes, bright and frightening. Something in the nightmares of all who’ve heard the legends of the horrible Herobrine.

The immortal moved his arm, up close to Steve’s face. Instinctively, he flinched. As any sane and sensible person would.

But Herobrine rested a hand on his shoulder. Briefly, as if he had thought twice. Instead he puts his hand out and waits. He’s clearly holding something.

Should he take it? It’s Herobrine after all. He debates for a few seconds before ultimately deciding whatever it is he’s about to receive is better than the general threat of Herobrine.

Holding his hands out, it’s only a moment before the object plops into his hand. It’s a nether star. The more he looks at it, the more he realizes it’s not quite. Though, he’s not sure how.

Moving his gaze from the odd nether star and back to the immortal was difficult, but he could feel Herobrine’s stare boring holes into him.

Glowing eyes meet purple ones.

After so long with the Zodiacs, he was able to identify emotions within glowing eyes. Herobrine was a lot of things, mainly vulnerable in so many ways.

“Thank you…,” He trails off. Steve stays silent, the moment feels too delicate to be in public. Too emotional. But he waits for the immortal to continue, careful with movements scared anything would make this moment turn for the worst.

“Thank you for protecting them.”

Them. He knows who ‘them’ is immediately. He nods at the entity, who nods back looking saddened. Suddenly he’s gone. Nothing has changed, as if he was never there expect for the nether star. Pocketing it, Steve turns to where the Hub is bustling to continue his day. But Herobrine doesn’t leave his thoughts that day.

Maybe those stories are wrong.