*
                          
"#### it!" Caden snapped abruptly, Notch nearly choking on his coffee. "They're gone!"
                          
"Gone? What do you mean?"
                          
"They're not on the server anymore." Caden dragged a hand through his damp hair, frustration evident in his voice. "Steve was- he was taken away first, then Herobrine followed. He was- he was just removed."
                          
"Hopefully that's a good thing..." Notch muttered. "Removed from... them." Caden didn't respond. All he could wonder is if he had been detected, and the prisoners moved to a safer place.
                          
"I'll hunt around and try to find a connection." He muttered, minimizing the window that showed the inhabitants of the server. "If we can't find one, we- ####, I don't know what we'll do."
                          
"We'll find them." Notch's voice was impressively even. "We have to." The teen hummed tunelessly in response.
                          
"Okay."
                          
*
                          
He was warm.
                          
Herobrine didn't move for a long time. Didn't think. Just enjoyed the feeling of being warm, and calm, and whole. He didn't remember the last time he felt this whole.
                          
The light in his chest pulsed with a regular beat. Stephan was near, safe, and... he appeared to be sleeping. Content.
                          
 He didn't know how he got here, but he didn't question it. The pain was over, for now.
                          
...
                          
His eyes snapped open. Where was he??
                          
The room was white, and empty, but... different. He couldn't detect the compound around him, or anyone accessing it. It was empty. Calm. He was alone.
                          
Except for Stephan, who was in the next room. Just out of reach. 
                          
He rolled over, pushing himself up with shaking hands and staggering upright. Joseph had taken him. He himself was no longer in pain, and Stephan was nearby. Had Joseph taken him away as well? Healed him? Had his tormentors finally broken him so greatly that they needed help to put him back together?
                          
He lifted a hand, touching his face. Even his scars seemed to have fad-
                          
He blinked.
                          
Wiggled his fingers.
                          
Blinked again.
                          
He could see out of his left eye.
                          
He closed his right eye in experimentation, not sure what to believe. Was this a dream? It wasn't a normal one. Had Joseph... fixed it? How? And why??
                          
He closed both eyes, then opened them. This could wait. He should check on Stephan.
                          
It was simple enough to pass through the walls of the rendered prison, making his way through an empty void towards another room. The light inside was dim, illuminating what looked like the inside of a wooden cabin. Stephan was asleep, curled up on the cushions of a red couch, and a quick visual assessment revealed he was unharmed. Comfortable. Thank Notch for that.
                          
Except it wasn't Notch who had done this, it was Notch who had allowed him to come to this horrid place in the first place.
                          
Herobrine sat down gingerly, body sinking into the fabric of an empty cushion. The feeling almost unnerved him, it had been a long time since he felt anything... soft. But he didn't move.
                          
He was silent for a while, just thinking. Wondering when Joseph would come back. When he would be put back with the others. If his treatment would improve, or get worse.
                          
He didn't move until Stephan did, shifting on the couch and startling him back into reality.
                          
"Stephan?" The younger man jerked upright, spinning in his direction with wide, blue eyes.
                          
"Herobrine!" The next thing he knew, a pair of arms had flown around his neck, and he squeezed his little brother back as Stephan buried his face in his shoulder. "Joseph- you're here. Did he-?"
                          
"Yes." Herobrine murmured in response. "He brought me here."
                          
"Notch, I'm glad to see you." A grin slipped onto the elder's face.
                          
"Wrong brother." A laugh bubbled up from Stephan's chest, and he rocked back on his knees to look him up and down.
                          
"Are you hurt?"
                          
"No." Herobrine responded without missing a beat. "Are you?"
                          
"No, no." A perpetual smile shone on his face. "I felt... sick. All by myself, I mean. Something felt off, I was worried..."
                          
"I hope it was only being in a new place, and not something your 'Joseph' has done." Herobrine did not even consider telling Stephan about his treatment. Notch knew he had suffered enough in this cursed place already.
                          
"I'm sure that's it." Stephan's eyes, still skimming him for injuries, finally rose to meet his own. It was a moment before he noticed, then his mouth dropped open. "Your eye!"
                          
"It works again." Herobrine answered the unspoken question, resisting the urge to flinch away as Stephan lifted a hand to touch his face. Carefully, he traced his left eye with his thumb, hand resting on his cheek before Herobrine gently pulled it away. "I believe it was Joseph's doing."
                          
"He is a good man." Lowering his hand, Steve shifted to lean against Herobrine's shoulder, which was responded to in kind by an arm that threaded behind his back to pull him close.
                          
"I wouldn't put your faith in him just yet." He cautioned, lazily resting his fingers on Stephan's shoulder. "But I do believe you are safe with him. For now."
                          
"So are you." The miner insisted. Herobrine hummed, but didn't respond.
                          
They didn't move until Joseph came back.