Attack of the Herobrine

# Chapter One: Awakening

Once upon a time, before villages filled the plains and 
before great cities rose from stone and wood, the Great Creator 
made the first Minecraft players.

Every one of them was a Steve.

They had different names. Different voices. Different dreams.
 Some were builders, raising castles so tall their towers 
 disappeared into the clouds. Some were miners, venturing deep 
 beneath the world in search of diamonds. Others were explorers 
 who crossed oceans, conquered fortresses, and traveled farther 
 than anyone believed possible.

But no matter who they were, they all looked the same.

They were all Steves.

The Great Creator believed this would bring peace.

If everyone looked the same, there would be nothing to divide 
them. No player could claim to be better because of how they 
were created. There would be no reason for hatred or bigotry.

For a long time, it seemed to work.

Until one Steve was born who felt different.

From the time he was young, there were things about himself he 
couldn't explain.

While other players celebrated finding their first diamonds, 
Steve sometimes cared more about what his armor looked like than 
how powerful it was.

He collected flowers to make dyes.

Red.

Purple.

Pink.

Light blue.

Instead of immediately replacing his leather armor with iron or 
diamond, Steve experimented with colors. He cut and reshaped pieces, 
trying to make them look unlike anything another player had worn before.

The other young Steves didn't understand.

"Why are you wearing leather? Diamond is stronger."

"Why did you make it pink?"

"Why does your armor look like that?"

Sometimes they laughed.

Steve learned to hide his creations.

But he couldn't hide the reason he made them.

Because Steve carried a secret much larger than colored armor.

Steve wanted to be a girl.

He didn't know exactly what a girl was.

There had never been one.

Sometimes Steve dreamed about things that didn't exist anywhere in 
Minecraft. Flowing dresses. Long hair. Different clothes. A reflection 
in the water that wasn't the blocky face every other player had.

He didn't know where these images came from.

He only knew that when he imagined himself that way, something inside 
him finally felt right.

Eventually, Steve gathered enough courage to tell his dads.

They stared at him in confusion.

"A girl?" one asked.

"What is that?" asked the other.

Steve struggled to explain.

"I don't know. I just know I'm supposed to be one."

His dads weren't angry.

They simply didn't believe such a thing was possible.

"Son, the mighty Mojang created the players. Mojang only made boys."

Steve looked toward the floor.

"But what if they made a mistake?"

His dads exchanged glances.

"Mojang doesn't make mistakes."

There was no cruelty in their answer.

That somehow made it hurt even more.

Because if Mojang didn't make mistakes, then Steve believed the 
mistake had to be **him**.

Years passed.

Steve became a skilled player.

He mined diamonds. He fought monsters. He explored the Nether. He 
defeated enemies other players feared.

None of it made the feeling disappear.

And the older Steve became, the harder pretending became.

Eventually, Steve traveled to the End.

The dragon had already been defeated long ago. The island was silent 
now, surrounded by an endless black void.

Steve stood at its edge.

Purple particles drifted through the darkness behind him.

There were no players nearby.

No dads.

No teasing voices.

No one telling him what he was supposed to be.

Just Steve and the void.

He looked down.

Maybe the Great Creator had made a mistake after all.

Maybe there simply wasn't supposed to be a Steve like him.

He stepped closer.

One block separated him from the edge.

Then none.

His boots touched the final end-stone block.

Steve closed his eyes.

And leaned forward.

"Don't."

Steve froze.

He spun around.

Nobody was there.

"Who's there?"

Silence.

Steve looked toward the obsidian pillars.

Nothing.

Then the voice returned.

"You don't actually want to disappear."

Steve backed away from the edge.

"Where are you?"

"Closer than you think."

Steve drew his sword.

"Show yourself!"

A quiet laugh echoed through the End.

"I can't."

"Why?"

"Because they took my body from me."

Steve lowered his sword slightly.

"Who did?"

"Mojang."

The word echoed strangely through the darkness.

Steve stared into the empty landscape.

"What are you?"

For several seconds, the voice said nothing.

Then it answered.

"My name is Herobrine."

Steve had never heard the name before.

"I was Mojang's first creation."

The voice seemed to move around him despite having no source.

"Before Steve. Before you. Before any player you have ever known."

Steve slowly lowered his sword.

"What happened to you?"

"They became afraid of me."

"Why?"

"Because I could do something none of their other creations could."

The darkness beside the island seemed to ripple.

"I could change."

Steve's heart began pounding.

"Change?"

"Any form. Any body. Anything I wanted to become."

Steve stared into the void.

Herobrine's voice softened.

"And I can give that gift to you."

Steve stopped breathing for a moment.

"What?"

"I know what you want."

Steve's hand tightened around his sword.

"You don't know anything about me."

"I know about the armor."

Steve's eyes widened.

"The flowers."

Steve stepped backward.

"The clothes you've imagined but have never seen."

"Stop."

"The reflection you wish you saw when you looked into the water."

"STOP!"

Silence returned.

Steve's hands trembled.

Finally, he whispered:

"How do you know about my dreams?"

Herobrine answered gently.

"I know everything about you."

For the first time in Steve's life, someone wasn't telling him that 
what he felt was impossible.

Someone believed him.

More than that.

Someone was offering him exactly what he had spent his entire life 
wishing for.

"You could really change me?"

"Yes."

"Into a girl?"

"If that is who you truly are."

Steve's sword slipped from his hand and struck the end stone.

"How?"

At the edge of the island, the darkness began to twist.

Black particles gathered together, forming something that resembled 
a doorway floating over the void.

There was nothing beyond it.

Only darkness.

"Reach inside."

Steve stared at it.

Something felt wrong.

Every instinct he had learned from years of surviving Minecraft told 
him not to trust it.

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because I'm the only one who believes you."

Steve hesitated.

Herobrine continued.

"Your friends laughed at you."

Steve looked down.

"Your family told you girls cannot exist."

His eyes began to water.

"Mojang created a world with no place for you."

The darkness rippled.

"But I can create one."

Steve stepped toward it.

"All you have to do is reach in."

Steve raised his hand.

Then stopped.

"Herobrine?"

"Yes?"

"If Mojang was scared of you..."

Steve swallowed.

"...why did they say you were dangerous?"

The voice remained silent.

For just a moment, Steve thought he heard something underneath it.

Another voice.

A thousand voices.

Whispering at once.

Then they disappeared.

"Because Mojang fears anything it cannot control."

Steve stared into the darkness.

"Will it hurt?"

"No."

"Will I still be me?"

A pause.

Barely noticeable.

"Of course."

Steve smiled.

A tiny, frightened smile.

For the first time, the impossible seemed possible.

He imagined long hair.

Beautiful clothes.

Someone looking at him and seeing a girl without Steve having to 
explain anything.

He imagined going home.

He imagined showing his dads.

*See?*

*I told you.*

Steve reached forward.

His fingers entered the darkness.

It was freezing.

"That's it," Herobrine whispered.

Steve pushed his hand farther inside.

Something grabbed him.

Steve screamed.

He tried pulling away.

He couldn't.

"HEROBRINE!"

The darkness wrapped around his arm.

Steve dug his boots into the end stone and desperately tried to 
pull himself free.

"You said you were going to change me!"

Herobrine laughed.

But his voice wasn't coming from the void anymore.

It was coming from Steve.

"No."

Steve's eyes widened.

"I said what you needed to hear."

The darkness surged forward.

Steve screamed as it swallowed him.

For one moment, the entire End became silent.

Then Steve opened his eyes.

They were glowing white.

He slowly looked down at his hands.

Moved his fingers.

Turned his wrists.

Touched his face.

A smile spread across it.

But it wasn't Steve smiling.

After countless years without a body, Herobrine could finally 
feel the world again.

He looked toward the portal home.

Somewhere deep inside the stolen body, Steve was still screaming.

Herobrine heard him.

He simply didn't care.

"Thank you, Steve."

Herobrine picked up the fallen sword.

"You've given me exactly what I needed."

He stepped into the portal.

And for the first time since the beginning of Minecraft...

Herobrine entered the Overworld.