Nullified

Chapter Fourteen

The tunnel lets out into one of the huge, deepslate caves, which is faintly lit by glow lichen. You wait for Herobrine to emerge behind you before hurrying away from your prison, grabbing your husband's hand and letting him lead you to a smaller tunnel.

"Do you think he can track us?" You manage between gasps as you try to collect your breath.

"I don't know. Possibly." Herobrine leads you down a mineshaft, towards where you can hear the hisses of cave spiders. "If he can control the guardian, I know not what other mobs he may have under his control."

"Wh- why are we going towards them then??" The spawner comes into view, blocked by cobwebs, and many pairs of beady eyes focus on the pair of you.

"These are freshly spawned. They should answer to me." Herobrine slows to a halt, and you cringe behind him a bit, but the spiders don't approach. Herobrine pauses only for a moment before gesturing behind you, and the spiders promptly stream away in the direction you had come. "Some backup for Steve and Alex." He explains, then you're heading down a side passage and breaking out into another cavern. You focus on breathing, already starting to get winded. You weren't prepared to run for your life today!

"Come out, come out, wherever you are..." Null's voice echoes through the caverns behind you, and you force yourself to go faster.

"Y/N, it's alright. Just try to stay quiet." Herobrine mutters.

"D-do you think Steve and Alex are-?"

"Shhh." Herobrine slows, and you do the same, grasping his hand tightly. Carefully, he leads you down a steeply-inclined tunnel, into a huge dripstone cave. The sound of water dripping off of the stalactites drowns out any sound you may make, which you soon realize is Herobrine's plan as he weaves through the stalagmites with you. Leading you down beside a large pillar, Herobrine crouches down and goes quiet, waiting for your pursuer to appear.

He doesn't have to wait long.

"First running, now hiding." Null's voice echoes through the cavern, impossible to pin down the source. "I never took you for such a coward."

"Only as much of a coward as one who challenges their opponent to a duel and gives them a wooden axe." Herobrine calls back, and you whirl to look at him in alarm, but the echo makes his voice difficult to track as well. "Afraid of a fair fight?"

"I have nothing to prove to you."

"Then why should I have something to prove to you?"

"You perplex me, Herobrine." A footstep sounds to your right, and you jerk to look, but it's only a zombie passing by. "You and I are not so different."

"I fail to see how you came to that conclusion."

"Notch gave us life, brought us into his game, then when we acted against his wishes he chose to exterminate us."

"We've done this song and dance before, and I still have no wish to join you." Herobrine snaps. "Besides, what do you need me for? You have Notch already."

"True enough... however..." A zombie's dying groan echoes through the dripstone. "...I cannot kill him." Herobrine frowns.

"Of course not, he's immortal. He simply respawns. I cannot kill him either."

"And yet I imprisoned him, did I not? I've stripped him of his power. What makes you think I couldn't kill him?" Null's voice is so carefree as he talks about slaughtering his greatest enemy. "And yet... I cannot bring myself to get rid of him. I presume a failsafe built into me and his other creations to keep him from harm." A pause, then, "Except you. A lack of that sort of failsafe is why he wants you dead in the first place." You're silent as they banter back and forth, processing this. So Notch was... truly out of commission. How Null had managed that, you have no idea.

"And you want me to kill him for you."

"Precisely."

"And why in the Nether do you think I would agree to that? Notch and I have been allies for years. Beyond that, the very game relies on him. Without Notch, this world would collapse!"

"Precisely."

"You want to destroy this world with us in it?? With you in it??"

"Yes."

"So you have a death wish??" Herobrine's hand tightens on yours.

"It is my purpose. It is why I was created, to bring ruin to this world."

"You claim to have evolved beyond what you were created for, and yet you still cling to your so-called 'original' purpose?"

"I prefer to think of it as a punishment to Notch for bringing me to life."

"Your manner of thinking is truly twisted."

"Can you truly say that you have never felt the same? That you've wished him dead for his crimes against you?" A pause. "And your loved ones?"

"No, I can't. But I place this world's safety above my own grudges, unlike you."

"Then you are a fool. Your loyalty to this world will be your downfall."

"It isn't hard to become loyal to a world I need to survive."

"Ah, but you don't, do you? You travel back to the 'real world'... where the players live. Why should it bother you if this world collapses?"

"It is my home. Beyond that, I have friends in this world who cannot leave it."

"Such as Manfred, hmm?" Your heart jumps into your throat. "It would be a shame for him to die at my hands."

"If you expect me to join you and kill Notch in exchange for an Enderman's safety, you have another thing coming. He would perish anyway when the world collapsed."

"He'll perish a lot sooner if you continue to deny me." Herobrine squeezes your hand painfully tight, then lets go.

"I care not." He grasps a chunk of dripstone from the ground, then straightens up. "Any subject of mine you kill would simply respawn, and default back to following me. Even if they did not, I have thousands of others to take their place. I do not see why you expect me to mourn the life of a single one."

"Don't treat me like a fool. I know you have an attachment to the Enderman."

"The only one I care about is my queen." Herobrine's voice is cold. "Everything else is secondary." He takes aim, and at that moment you spy a pair of blazing eyes through the stalagmites. "You were a fool to threaten her." He pitches the chunk of rock at the dripstone hanging far above, and there's a distant crack! as it connects. A piece falls, and Null looks up just in time before it connects, killing him instantly.

You gaze at the spot where Null had been for a moment, mouth hanging open a bit.

"That... good throw."

"Thank you." Herobrine brushes his hands off, then offers you a hand up. "Let's get some distance between us."

"Steve and Alex-?" You try as you take his hand.

"-will be alright, but we need to flee." Herobrine begins to lead you through the stalagmites again. "We aren't prepared to save them yet, but we will. Alright?" You nod sullenly. "Alright."

It's another hour that you make your way through the caves, at one point coming across another mineshaft, where Herobrine collects some wood to craft himself a pickaxe. From that point, he collects iron, gold, and diamonds as he sees them, making you a pickaxe so that you can work together. By the time you reach a dead end (only exit being through an under-lava tunnel) you're both geared up in iron armor, and each have a diamond tool- sword for you, pickaxe for him.

"My teleportation has yet to return, if it ever will." Herobrine reports, pouring a bucket of water onto the lava. "Let's move into the Nether. Even if we cannot find anywhere familiar, we will be able to cover more ground this way."

"Alright." You chew your lip, watching back the way you had come as Herobrine mines obsidian. Null would have had plenty of time to respawn. He was likely hunting you still...

"Y/N?" You turn at your husband's voice to find him beckoning you towards a lit portal. One last glance down the cave, then you obey, joining him in crossing to the other side.