Chapter 4 – The Failures

     Herobrine/Sky teleported away from their massive army. They appeared at the edge of the birch and oak woods that bordered Crafters village. “No,” Herobrine hissed. Comet and Hail were flying above the village. They laughed and played as the villagers pointed and cheered. Herobrines eyes glowed a harsh white. “The traitors,” he growled. Reaching into his inventory, he took out a potion of invisibility and drank it in one huge gulp. Gray spirals floated above his head. He teleported into the village. Everyone was watching the two phantoms flying overhead. Herobrine walked a little farther through the streets and saw Gameknight999 coming out of the watchtower. He was smiling and looked happy. Herobrine wanted to hurt him so, so, so bad. 

      But he couldn’t. At least, not yet. So instead he stuck out a leg and tripped the User-that-is-not-a-user. Confused, Gameknight sat back up and rubbed his head. “What was that?” The new user, WonderWriter2000, asked. She stuck out her hand and helped him up. “You trying to get onto a YouTube Epic Fails video?” 

   He shrugged. “I-I tripped.” “On air?” She asked. She sounded doubtful. “I guess?” He said. 

    Herobrine chuckled quietly. “On air? That’s a little far fetched.” He said under his breath. Then his expression turned serious. “I’m coming for you,” he hissed. Then he disappeared.

    Silver mist surrounded Gameknight999. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. At first, he was confused. Then he realized. He was back in the Land of Dreams!

   For he was a Dream-walker, one of the very few who could access this strange land. Although it was unknown to them, everyone came here for just a moment each night. This was the place you appeared as you went from consciousness to sleep. The in between. It was the Dream-walkers job to protect the people as they passed through the in between. If you die in the Land of Dreams, you die in the waking world as well.

   Gameknight was in an oak forest. There was a lot of space between the trees, and behind him he could see a plains biome. He knew that this was a real place in Minecraft, but he would not be seen. He closed his eyes and imagined his diamond armor covering him. The armor appeared instantly. Then he imagined his favorite bow appearing in his hand, which it did. He knew from experience the Land of Dreams was not as peaceful as it looked. Notching an arrow, he crept forward. 

   As he went, the forest got denser and the trees closed in. He walked for what could have been minutes or hours, he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure why he was walking at all, just knew he had to. So he kept going. After a time, he froze. There were some faint sounds ahead. Closing his eyes once more, he imagined his diamond armor being replaced by iron. Looking down, he saw that now instead of being bejeweled he was covered with a steel coating. He drew his double swords, but kept the diamond blade close to the ground. Creeping forward, he heard the sounds grow steadily louder. It sounded like a clanking and thumping. The trees suddenly gave way to a large clearing, the ground obscured by fog. 

   Gameknight’s heart stopped for a split second. Herobrine was in the clearing. Not in Sky’s body, but his own. He was wearing his usual shadow crafter clothing, a black smock with a gray stripe down the middle. His sword was in his hand, and he was practicing attacking on a dummy. The dummy was made out of fence posts with a carved pumpkin for a head. There were scratches and gouges covering it. Then, with one last swing, the dummy’s head was sliced off. The pumpkin dropped to the ground and rolled. Gameknight could barely stop himself from being sick. 

   Herobrine smiled and turned. “I wouldn’t want to be that dummy. Would you?” He asked. For the first time, Gameknight noticed Sky was tied to a tree. She was sitting slumped, looking awful. Her skin was pale, her hair was limp and ragged, and her eyes were dull. She didn’t respond. “I wouldn’t want to be either,” Herobrine challenged. When she still did nothing, he scowled. “What, did you forget how to talk or something?” “Yes,” She said. Under different circumstances, Gameknight might have laughed. Herobrine scowled even more. “That sense of humor won’t make you anything but dead,” He snapped. Breaking the last of the dummy, he created another one with fresh materials. Gameknight watched in terror as Herobrine slowly got better before his eyes. At first it took him five tries to knock off the pumpkin, but he slowly reduced it to three. One time he completely split the dummy in half down the middle. After what felt like hours, he didn’t put the dummy back together. Instead, he looked around suspiciously. “We’re not alone, you know.” He said to Sky. She perked up. Gameknight did to. Did he know about him? Herobrine was still gazing out at the mist. “They’ve been here a while now,” The virus said. Gameknight was trying not to shake. “Just… watching.” Herobrine walked around the edge of the clearing. He was getting closer to Gameknight. Gameknight clutched at his swords, ready to jump out. Herobrine was ten blocks away. Eight. Five. Three. Now!

    Gameknight suddenly stood up. Herobrine looked startled. This confused Gameknight. Wasn’t Herobrine looking for him? “You,” Herobrine hissed. “Yeah, me,” Gameknight said. 

    In a instant, Gameknight had his diamond armor back on. Herobrine slowly smiled. “I’ve always underestimated you, User-that-is-not-a-user.” He said. “But this time, you’ve underestimated me.” He suddenly clapped his hands above his head and let out a piercing whistle. At first, nothing happened. Then a roar of complete rage came from above. A huge beast dove down and hovered above its masters head. Herobrine grinned. “Meet my newest creation, Gameknight999,” He shouted. “Soar! Queen of the Phantoms!” Soar glared evilly down at Gameknight. She was easily three times the size of Comet and Hail, with huge wings the color of darkest blue. Her white scales were the color of the fog and she had strange gray patterns on her wings undersides. Her eyes were viscous green and her long tail swiped back and forth. 

    Gameknight shrunk back, but barely. “You didn’t create her!” He yelled. “You took her from the phantoms! You’re controlling her like you are with Sky!” Herobrine screamed in anger, “You don’t call her that! Her name is Void, and that was just what her worthless mother called her!” Sky screamed. “DON’T SAY THAT!” 

    Sky leapt up and fought her restraints with a horrible vengeance. “STOP!” Herobrine yelled at her. Gameknight saw his chance. He lunged at the virus, but with one beat of her wings Soar blew him backwards. Herobrine laughed. “You can’t even reach me! You’re the worthless one. You’re just little Tommy Feynman!”

    Gameknight froze. How did Herobrine know his name? Fear crept inside him. The virus cackled. “That’s right,” He said. “I know a lot more about you than you think. You see, when I was in that machine of yours I saw things. Very interesting things. I could see everything the Digitizer saw, down to what they were saying. I could also look back, so I now know everything you ever did by it or with it.”

       Gameknight was shocked. He’d always thought that whatever he did in the physical world was completely safe from dangers in Minecraft. Now he knew that was wrong.

      Herobrine smiled. “It’s all connected to the hard drive,” he said. “So I can go back as far as this,” He said. His hands began to glow a reddish yellow. Sky’s did the same. They must still be connected, Gameknight thought. The color spread into the air. The strange smoke curled into two figures in the air. A voice that seemed far away came out of one. “This one will do just fine,” the taller one boomed. “Great! Now can you tell me what you’re doing, Dad?” The smaller one said. In Gameknight’s voice. It was equally distanced, seeming to come from miles away as an echo. The taller one, Gameknight dad, laughed. “It’s a surprise,” he teased. “Dad! Come on! You’ve been hiding it for a week!” Tommy argued. “Fine,” Monkeypants said. “I’m making a new invention that can take real things and send them into a computer.” “Oh,” Tommy said, obviously unimpressed. “What’s that for?” His dad asked. “Do you really think that will work?” Tommy questioned. “I mean, it’s just a little out there.” His dad chuckled. “Just you wait. I’ve got a good feeling about this one. Anyway, I’m thinking of a name. Which do you like, the Coder or the Digitizer?” Tommy made a face. “Digitizer?” He asked. “That’s the worst name I’ve ever heard. Coder please!” His dad smiled at him. “We’ll see,” he said. The figures blew away. 

    Gameknight felt sick. That had been over a year ago. The fact that Herobrine had been able to see all that was terrifying. Sky was still pulling at her chains. Soar circled around them like an evil vulture. Herobrine raised his sword, ready to swing. But he didn’t. There was a look in his eyes, a look of uncertainty. Finally, he attacked. Gameknight was barely able to get his blade up to block the attack. Herobrine had quickly became very good at fighting. Gameknight could barely see the blade as it swung towards him. Panic overtook him. He did not want to get into a fight with Herobrine. I need to escape! He thought frantically. I need to leave! I’ve got to get out! These thoughts built up inside his head and a unfamiliar feeling swept over him. For the briefest moment, he felt as if he was in two places at the same time. But then he was in completely new surroundings. He was still in the Land of Dreams, but the forest was even denser and more frightening. However, it appeared someone had cleared out a chunk of it. Then he saw why.

    There were three long rows of bedrock cells. The mist swirled dangerously around the prisons. There were iron bars on the back of the first row, but the one in the middle had them on the front and back. From what Gameknight could see, the back row only had them in the front. Gameknight couldn’t tell if the cells were occupied. At least, not until he heard the clanging. 

        A banging was coming from inside of one of the front row cells. The sound echoed around the woods, seeming fearful and desperate. Gameknight could now see a few more details as he inched closer. Whoever was in there could need his help! He could see figures in all the cells, but what confused him was the fact that they were strange shapes. Something tingled at the back of his brain, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. 

     There were only two cells in the back row, but he wasn’t sure why. He was just about to step out of the woods when there was a sudden screech from the back row. “WILL YOU STOP THAT?!?!”

    Gameknight froze. A sinister chill went down his spine. The clanging stopped. Then, from the cell the sound had originated from, a grumbling deep voice boomed out. “WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT, SCARLET?” In that moment, much of the mist lifted and Gameknight saw exactly who was in the cells. 

    Every monster king or queen that Gameknight had ever fought (and killed) was trapped in one. In the first three at the front, Xa-tul, the ancient zombie king from the Great Zombie Invasion (enter name here- I forgot what it was :).), and Reaper the skeleton king were locked up. In the second row there was the blaze king Charybidis, then the spider queens Shakiliud and Shalivak had two where in the middle between them was just more bars. And in the last row, the two cells were occupied by the the two Enderman kings. Feyd and Gameknight’s number one opponent Erebus stood there, looking indentical. 

    “Ebbi (pronounced E B) over there has a point,” Reaper said. Xa-tul glared at him, bringing attention to the fact that in the middle of the wall of each cell had a block replaced with even more iron bars so they could see their neighbors. The entire prison had been created for them, the monster rulers who had failed. The point was that they had to be surrounded by other failures forever. 

   Erebus screeched in anger. “Ebbi? Scarlet? You horrible creatures! Do you have any idea what I can do?” Xa-tul just grinned a toothy grin and, just to prove his point, banged the bars once more with the flat of his golden broadsword. Charybdis grimaced. The flame surrounding him flared and his blaze rods spun faster. “Ssstop!” Shakiliud hissed. “You have been doing that for daysss! The Creator iss not coming back for you, ssstupid zzzombie!” Xa-tul growled. “Of course he will, spider! I was always the masters favorite. I was loyal and strong, much unlike that traitor over there! He jabbed his huge block sized hand over towards the enderman. From Gameknight’s angle, he could not really see the endermen moving very easily, but he could almost feel Feyd’s hands balling into blood red fists. “You monsters!” He snapped. “Can not one of you think?” He snapped. “The Creator doesn’t care about you, or me, or anyone of us! We were just tools for him to play with. Sometime soon another of us the User-that-is-not-a-user has killed will appear, and they will be stranded here just like all the ones that will come after it! We’re worthless to him. Just pride-killing memories. At least I figured it out before I died! But I can’t say the same about you guys.” He sounded exasperated, as if he had said these words a million times before. “So stop calling him Master, stop calling him the Creator, and call him by hisreal name Herobrine!” 

    And at that moment, the Creator showed up.

   “Did someone say my name?” Herobrine said, appearing with Sky in tow. Feyd stopped talking, momentarily stunned. Herobrine smiled and dropped his daughter in between the front and middle rows. “I think you met my daughter Void last time I was here, he said lightly. The monsters growled and hissed, looking viscously at the girl. She scrambled backwards. Lifting up her hands for protection, they flickered feebly.

     Soar suddenly flew in from the treetops, her wings spread wide. “Ah! M’lady!” Called another voice from above. Gameknight had to cover his mouth to keep from screaming. Malacoda, king of the ghasts and former king of the Nether, floated above. He was the third prisoner for the last row, he was just to big for a cell. He was chained to a stone wall post in the ground. Nevertheless, he grinned down at the phantom. Gameknight wasn’t sure why he hadn’t seen him before, his red eyes should have glowed through the fog. He was also surprised he hadn’t said anything- usually he never would shut up. 

   Soar glared up at him. “Leave me alone and shut up or I will sink my claws into you and watch you deflate, you ballon,” she hissed. All the monsters smiled, except for Erebus, who cackled. Herobrine didn’t try to hide his laugh at all. Malacoda chuckled and mumbled something about his type of woman, but he quieted down real fast after that. Herobrine turned to his phantom guardian. “Go find Gameknight999,” he said. All the monsters except Feyd growled and hissed at his name. Soar nodded and took to the sky once more.

   Herobrine smiled crookedly down at Sky. “Don’t try anything while I’m gone,” He said to her. She nodded quickly, but he still raised his hand and had magical chains shoot out and pin her to the ground. Gameknight noticed a mark on her face that hadn’t been there when he saw her earlier. He blood boiled. Herobrine teleported away, obviously looking for him. The anger was building in Gameknight. 

    He looked nervously at where the endermen were locked up. He didn’t think they could get out, but still. He thought about how dangerous the endermen had been as the enemy.

  How dangerous as the enemy.

Gameknight had a sudden, wild idea. Before he could think about it, he rushed forward into full view of the mobs. They yelled and pointed, banging on the bars, but he didn’t care. As he ran, he yanked out his diamond pickaxe. Then he was there, in front of Feyd. He destroyed the bars in only a few seconds and yanked out the king. The Enderman screeched and tried to pull away, by Gameknight held on tight. “Wake up wake upwakeupwakeupwakeupWAKEUP!” He yelled at himself. Then he and the monster disappeared.

    Herobrine wasn’t sure why he had hit Sky. 

It had come out of nowhere. After Gameknight999 suddenly teleported away somehow, he had walked over to his daughter. The other part of him was struggling to win the mental battle, and with a sudden burst of emotion he had struck her in the face. He shocked himself as much as he schooled her. To cover up the fact that he had no idea what he was doing, he mumbled something about not acting up again and walked quickly away. Now, alone in the forest, the other him was even worse. A wave of nausea engulfed him, and he fell to his knees and threw up. He wiped his mouth, tasting the bile. He stood up shakily. “What’s wrong with me?” He moaned. Suddenly, white light streaked across his vision and he heard voices. Indistinguishable muttering- Let me go, more muttering. You know I can’t do that, said a sad voice. You know I can destroy you, said the first voice. But you wouldn’t, said the sad one. I will if you don’t let me through. Now let me get to him! There was a sudden loud sound, as if someone had been blasted aside. No! Don’t! Cried the second voice. But it was to late. I’m sorry! Yelled the first one, and those words echoed and echoed as the second voice screamed out for him and then his vision returned. 

     Herobrine opened his eyes and saw he was on the ground shaking. His head throbbed so bad he couldn’t think. He noticed there was a lot more vomit on the grass than before. He sat up against a tree, trembling. What had that been? He hadn’t seen anything, he had just heard a snippet of conversation. He had a sinking feeling that that was one of the memories he kept feeling at the back of his brain and that one of those voices had been his. But who was the other person?” The headache subsided a little bit as the other part of him withdrew the contact, obviously pleased. He was instantly much more wary about this other part of him than before. He was dimly aware of shouting coming from the prison for his creations. He shook his head and teleported away.