#elemental hermits

    The winged hermit looked up from the boats to the mountain covered shores of the main island and spotted a stranger in red armor that he hadn't met yet in this strange new world… His armor was similar to Xisuma’s, as well as his voice actually...

    “...Yes?” The British hermit tilted his head curiously at the new man. “Are you talking to me?”

    “Ugh, yes, you. Who else?! You are licherally the only one in the nearby area right now.” The horned stranger strode down the mountain. “You are the new hermit the stinkin’ admin invited, yeah?”

    Grian nodded after a brief pause, and the Xisuma look-a-like continued to speak, “I’ve heard you’re a big fan of shenaniganry, aren’t ya? Interested in some advice?” Grian, dumbfounded, continued to nod. “Well, mind going for a walk? The weather is too nice to be wasted in the shadows of some mountain.” The red armored individual held out his claw-like hands, and the hermit took them, almost without hesitation. 

    Not that Grian had much of a choice, actually... Something about the stranger was charming and made him easy to listen to. 

    Not-Xisuma pulled him up onto land and let go of the hermit’s hand. As they climbed the steep mountain- with the stranger walking with an awfully lightweight pace, despite the heavy armor he was wearing- the other spoke once again, “Don’t you think the server is a little too quiet, Grian? Don’t you think it is in need of some… Chaos? Just like your old home, don’t you remember all those pranks you did? How much fun you had?” 

    Grian stopped for a moment- Nevermind the fact that he somehow knew about his life before Hermitcraft in Evo, or how he suddenly knew his name- he had a point! Maybe that was what he needed to truly fit in with the hermits… It could probably ease him of homesickness as well.

    The horned one took the air wielder’s silence as a sign to keep speaking, “Well, what do you think? Personally, I think something small would work… a tag game perhaps- Drat.”

    The stranger abruptly stopped talking, as a look of rancor briefly appeared on his face as if something just died nearby, and as quickly as the expression had come, it left once again. Grian didn’t have much time to process the sudden change of mood before the silence was broken by a very similar voice to the red stranger- this time- he recognized it.

    “Grian? Whacha doing out here alone?” The more familiar British voice replaced the formerly twisted voice. The winged hermit turned around, surprised to find the green armored version of the one he has been talking to. “N-nothing much really… Hey, do you guys know e-” Grian turned around once again to where the horned one once was, only to find he was replaced by air. “...each other?...”

    “...Grian?? You good dude?” Xisuma asked in a concerned tone, “If you aren’t feelin’ well, we can go to the Guardian Temple another day.” 

    “No! No… Uhm.” Grian coughed a bit, “Anyways, by any chance do you know someone that looks uncannily like you? He had red armor instead of your green one, and he had horns… Huge horns!” The Air wielder made exaggerated motions in the air, mimicking what he had seen.

    The admin’s face turned up as he tried to suppress a laugh, and snorted before letting it out and spoke in breaths. “So you’ve met Evil Xisuma! Glad he made an impression on ya, at least.” X’s laugh died though, but his smile was still bright without his helmet to obscure it. “Don’t worry about that scumbag, he can’t cause much harm! Out of curiosity though, what did he say to ya?”

    “He wanted to see a tag game of sorts, I suppose? I mean... it sounds fun, doesn’t it? This Evil Xisuma guy seems to have some good ideas once in a blue moon.” Grian thought for a bit, “I might actually just go ahead and start one.”

    “You aren’t wrong, that does seem like a swell idea, get some things on the server startin’, at least!” X agreed, “Well, feel free to start this tag game then, it certainly has my approval.” The admin spoke, as he picked up a boat from his inventory, and held it in his arms, “Evil Xisuma and potential tag game aside, shall we get going to the Guardian Temple, then?” He asked the new hermit, and energy bubbled up in Grian once more, excited to finally have some dark prismarine at his disposal.

The unimpressed look Mumbo gave him at that suggested he wasn't buying it at all, but before Grian could defend himself further, Mumbo was swooping down to get a closer look. With a twitch of his wings, Grian followed him down.

Since Mumbo was slightly in front of him, he got a perfect view of his friend botching the landing and tumbling head over heels along the top of his base before skidding to a stop in an annoyed heap. The sight made him laugh hard enough that his own landing was a little awkward, sending him stumbling forward several steps before he managed to stop himself.

"Nice landing," he teased.

"Oh, shut up." Mumbo tried to sit up, but the fall had knocked his elytra loose and one of the straps was wrapped around his arm, trapping it to his body. "Um. A little help, please?"

Grian shook his head, still giggling, and went over to free his friend. It took a bit of tugging from both of them, and some awkward wiggling from Mumbo, but eventually they managed to get the elytra off him. He scrambled to his feet, brushing away the wrinkles from his suit and doing his best to look dignified. His cheeks were red enough that it was hard to see his freckles.

"Thanks. Now, where did that chicken go?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mumbo. Why on Earth would there be a chicken in your base?"

"Well, maybe because a certain friend of mine keeps throwing eggs everywhere!" Mumbo threw his arms out, gesturing at the expanse of biomes below them.

Grian hummed, acting thoughtful. "Do you mean Iskall? It is pretty suspicious that we never see him and Poultryman in the same place, really."

"I saw you here yesterday with an armful of eggs, Grian."

"It wasn't me, it was the man in the chicken costume!" he insisted, playfully shoving at Mumbo's shoulder.

Mumbo took half a step back to brace himself, but his shoe landed on the discarded elytra and skidded. Grian had half a second to process the shocked look on his friend's face - and then Mumbo was falling off the side of his base with a shout of surprise. The next few seconds felt like an eternity while Grian realized what happened:

Mumbo was falling.

Mumbo wasn't wearing his elytra.

Mumbo was going to die and it was all Grian's fault, which meant -

Mumbo wouldn't respawn from this.

He shook himself out of his shock and sprinted forward, diving off after his friend, wings tucked as close to his back as they could go to help him fall faster. Below him, Mumbo was tumbling through the air, flailing out his arms like it would somehow help him slow down. Grian reached down, trying to catch him, but they were too far apart. The wind whipped around him in an attempt to slow down their fall, but it wasn't enough. The ground was approaching too fast, and he couldn't dive fast enough to beat it.

His view started to blur with tears, brought on by a mixture of fear and the rush of air against his eyes. If he could just fly a little faster, or if he'd moved a little faster, he'd be able to save Mumbo, but he'd just stood there like an idiot instead of reacting and there wasn't enough time.

Mumbo hit the ground with a sound that Grian knew he would hear in his nightmares forever, and vanished, leaving his items scattered over the ground.

Choking on a sob, he pulled out of the dive, wings pumping desperately as he tried to stop himself from experiencing the same impact. The wind, apparently not in the mood to mess with him right now, helped slow him down enough that the landing was only painful, rather than lethal. He still ended up rolling a couple of feet, in just the same way as he'd made fun of Mumbo for doing only a few minutes ago.

He slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position, but couldn't make himself move any further than that. For a long moment, he just sat where he'd fallen, wrapping his wings around himself in an instinctive attempt to hide from what had just happened. Falling damage on its own wasn't permanently lethal, but Grian was the one who had pushed him. Did that mean Mumbo was just - dead? For real? He shook his head desperately, even though he knew he was just fooling himself.

Still, he made himself stand up. If Mumbo was respawning at all, he would respawn in his base, right? In which case he'd probably want Grian to bring his stuff up there. He moved to go collect it, and winced. The fall had left scrapes and bruises all over him, and now that some time had passed he was becoming painfully aware of all of them. One of his ankles ached every time he stepped on it, but he forced himself to ignore it and started collecting Mumbo's scattered items.

There were too many of them to fit in his inventory, but he managed to find a few shulker boxes that weren't completely full, so he shoved all the leftovers into them. It was all a complete mess, but he could take the time to sort it out later. Right now he had to go check Mumbo's bed.

The wind was howling in response to his emotions, tugging at his clothes and whipping up the sand, but it didn't stop him from taking off. It knew when things were too important to mess with him. But even without the wind messing with him, his flying was so erratic that he almost slammed into the side of the base before landing correctly on one of the pathways. He barely slowed down when he hit the ground, letting his momentum push him forward into a run. There were a few stray shulker boxes in his way, but he vaulted over them instead of taking the time to dodge, spreading his wings to give him the extra height he needed.

He skidded to a stop next to Mumbo's bed, looking around frantically for some sign of his friend. But Mumbo was nowhere to be seen, and the sheets were just as neat as he usually left them, suggesting that he hadn't been here recently. Grian whirled around, trying to scan every part of the base for a tall, black-suited figure, but he couldn't see anything He quickly messaged Mumbo, but got no immediate response.

Mumbo hadn't respawned here. Which meant -.

Grian pressed both hands against his mouth, dropping his communicator onto the bed as the tears he'd been trying to hold back finally poured loose. His best friend was dead and it was all his fault, because he was too slow and too stupid to react in time. What was he supposed to do now? His breath hitched, coming out in frantic gasps. There had to be something he could do, but the only thing he could think was Mumbo's dead he's dead he'sdeadhe'sdead.

The wind picked up even more, approaching gale force as he panicked, whipping in fierce circles around him like it was trying to keep him safe from whatever was upsetting him. "I can't - I can't -." He wasn't even sure what he was trying to say. He needed to think, needed to figure out what to do, but the horror creeping up his throat was threatening to choke him and he couldn't think through it.

He started to back away from the empty bed, then turned to run, launching himself into the air with no thought to where he was going. The wind snatched at his wings and tossed him higher, too frenzied with his emotions to even notice that he was there anymore. Suddenly a thought managed to break through his panic: Xisuma. If X rewound time, he could catch Mumbo, or stop him from falling in the first place.

Clinging to that desperate thought, he flew off into the storm.

----

Mumbo sat up with a gasp. For a moment, he couldn't see anything as his head swirled with the vertigo that always came with dying and respawning. After a few seconds his vision cleared, and he started looking around to try and figure out where he'd respawned. This wasn't his base. Where was he?

It took him a moment before he remembered: this was the mining mesa. He'd been mining terracotta yesterday, and slept because it was getting dark. He must have forgotten to break the bed before he left.

Groaning, he stood up. Without any items, it was going to take him forever to get back to his base. Hopefully Grian wasn't too freaked out; he'd looked pretty scared while he was trying to catch Mumbo. It'd probably be best to hurry, just in case.

This time he made very certain to break the bed. There were a few chests near the beanstalk, and he dug through them quickly to see if he could find anything useful. Most of it was junk, but he found a mostly intact stone sword and a few uncooked potatoes. No one would mind if he took those. He would have preferred some redstone, but if he really had to, he could summon some from the ground. Not that he was expecting to; if he hurried, he could be back to his base before it got dark. He jogged over to the beanstalk and stepped into the water elevator, letting it propel him up to the nether portal. When he appeared in the nether, he mentally thanked Joe once again for marking the path back to the shopping district and set off at a run.

About halfway back, he slowed down to a walking pace to check his communicator. He had one message from Grian, which read “where are you?” He responded with “Respawned at the mesa, on my way back.” He shoved the device back into his pocket and continued running.

By the time he reached the shopping district portal he was too winded to run anymore, but he made himself keep moving anyway, stumbling through the portal. If he could find an ender chest, he was pretty sure he had a spare elytra that he could use to get home.

Barely two steps out of the portal, the wind hit him hard enough that he staggered and nearly fell over. He hadn't seen wind this hard in - ever, actually. It tore at his clothes, knocking over signs and sending dirt and leaves whirling through the air. He dug his shoes into the ground to brace himself and held up a hand to shield his eyes.

This obviously wasn't natural weather; it had to be because of Grian. Mumbo needed to get to him right now.

There was no way he could fly in this weather, but he started off in the direction of iTrade anyway to get his spare elytra, just in case the wind calmed down at any point. Getting there felt like it took twice as long as it should have, with the wind pushing him off balance every few steps so he had to concentrate on staying standing more than where he was going.

Half-blinded by the wind and not paying enough attention to what was happening around him, Mumbo ran straight into Iskall as the other man was coming out of iTrade.

"Whoa, you okay, dude?" Iskall asked, grabbing onto Mumbo's arm to steady them both.

"I'm fine, I just - I'm sorry, I have to hurry, I need my elytra." Pushing away from Iskall, he stumbled over to the nearby ender chest. The large building it sat next to helped block some of the wind so he could actually move without needing to brace himself.

"Why? There's no way you're gonna be able to fly in this weather." Iskall followed him toward the chest, tucking himself against the building to hide from the wind. "Do you have any idea what's going on with Grian?"

Did he leave his elytra in the blue shulker box or the green one? Mumbo dug through the stacks of random items he had stored in his chest, grabbing some spare armor and supplies while he was at it. After a moment, it registered that Iskall was talking to him. "What?"

"Grian. The weather was just fine half an hour ago, and now the wind is going absolutely insane and he's not answering any of our messages. I think something might be wrong.”

"I think something might be -

"I think something -

"I think -.”

Iskall's words suddenly stuttered, looping back on themselves several times. The lid of the ender chest, which Mumbo had just closed, was suddenly open again. He let go and flinched back in surprise, narrowly avoiding having his fingers crushed as it swung shut.

"What was that?" he asked. Just in case it happened again, he moved slowly as he stood up, but time seemed to be moving normally now.

“I dunno, man.”

"Right. Anyway... Yeah, something is definitely wrong. We were on top of my base, and he tried to catch me but couldn't, and I think it really scared him. He didn't mean to, of course, but he's obviously really freaking out about it." He started to strap on his elytra, then stopped when he realized that it would be nearly impossible to fly in this weather. Instead, he tossed it into his inventory.

"That...didn't make any sense, Mumbo," Iskall said. "Slow down and explain it to me again."

Mumbo took a deep breath. He was practically vibrating with the urge to run off and find Grian, but he made himself calm down somewhat so he could explain what was going on. "I fell off my base and died, and Grian's really freaked out about it, as you can tell."

"Oh, yeah, I saw the message. But what's the big deal? All of us fall off things all the time."

"I don't know? I guess because he tried to catch me and couldn't?" Mumbo shrugged helplessly. "Does it matter? We need to find him and calm him down."

"You're right. Okay, you go see if he's still where you died, and I'll get - get the others to help look for him."

"Thanks, Iskall!" Mumbo started to rush off, stopped, and turned around. "Um... Do you have a spare boat?”

----

Grian hovered over Xisuma's base, trying to see if he was there. It was hard to tell with how much he was being jostled around by the wind and the fact that everything was still blurred by tears, but he was pretty sure he could see someone moving around at the bottom of the giant square hole. Tucking in his wings, he dove down to land right in front of him.

Ignoring the other man's noise of surprise, Grian lunged forward to grab his green hoodie with both hands and drag him down to eye level. "X, you have to help me! Mumbo - I pushed him, I didn't mean to, he wasn't wearing his elytra and he - he." Grian choked on the next few words, unable to force them out.

"What? Are you crying? What are you talking about?" The taller man tried to pull back, but Grian stubbornly clung on.

"Mumbo's dead," he burst out. "Because I - because I killed him."

Xisuma made a noise like he'd been punched in the gut and roughly shoved Grian away, stumbling back several steps to brace himself against a chest. "No. No, no, no."

"I'm sorry." He swiped the sleeve of his sweater across his eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to - you have to rewind, right now."

"You." Xisuma reached up to tug at his hair. He was shaking hard enough that Grian could see it from several feet away. "Why." It wasn't a question.

"I didn't mean to! We were just joking and I pushed him and he fell and I couldn't catch him and he didn't respawn." Grian took a step toward Xisuma. "Please, you have to rewind -."

Grian took a step toward -

Grian took a step -

Grian -

The world stuttered and jumped like a scratched record, and then he ran into a chest that was suddenly much closer than it had been a second ago. "What was that?"

"I can't. Not anymore."

"X, please."

"I can't!" Xisuma shouted. "Time fucking abandoned me and all I have is this!"

He flung out his arm, and the stacks of chests around them abruptly jerked closer. Grian dodged out of the way as the chest next to him toppled over onto the floor with a crash, spilling out a pile of iron and gold ingots. Heart pounding, he looked closer at the other man, taking in all the details he'd been too panicked to notice before.

There were far more scars criss crossing his exposed skin then there should have been. The set of his mouth was harsher, even when he wasn't shouting at Grian because he'd just killed his best friend. And the eyes currently glaring at him were bright red instead of brown.

"Oh," he said. Then, "Where's X? I have to find him before it's too late to rewind!"

"Are you actually this stupid, or did killing your friend also kill your brain?" Evil X snapped. "He can't help you with this any more than I can."

Grian shook his head desperately. "No, he just needs to rewind - there's still some time, right? I've seen him go back half a day, this is nothing."

"Dead is dead, idiot! As in permanent, never coming back. Even he can't fix that."

"But - no, he rewound last week when Ren fell into lava and lost all his stuff," Grian protested, wings fluttering anxiously.

Evil X made an aggravated noise and dragged a hand through his hair, making it even messier than it already was. The motion seemed to skip back half a second and repeat slightly, then continued normally. "Ren wasn't actually dead. He fell into lava because he wasn't paying attention, not because someone pushed him." The disgusted glare he sent Grian at that had the smaller man's wings flinching in front of him in an instinctive attempt to hide from it. "Have you ever seen him rewind for someone who hadn't already respawned to go whine at him?"

"No," Grian whispered. The air around him started to swirl faster, responding to his growing dread by trying to push everything away from him.

"Exactly. As long as they respawn, he can rewind as much as he likes. If they don't -" another record-scratch jump had the same gust of wind tousling his hair three times before Evil X continued, tone forced flat in a way that was almost eerie compared to how agitated he'd been earlier. "If they don't, it means the universe has decided they're really, permanently dead. And it won't let anyone change that."

Grian balled his hands into fists. "I don't believe you! You never liked any of us; you probably don't even care that Mumbo's -" he swallowed down the catch in his throat and stubbornly kept talking. "That Mumbo's dead. You're just trying to stop me from going to X because you don't want him to fix it!"

The world jerked around him, skipping so quickly that everything turned into a series of still images, repeating at random with a suddenness that almost made him nauseous. He shut his eyes to block it out, and then shut them again because the movement couldn't seem to stick.

"So why are you still here?" Boots scuffed against the ground, and when Grian cracked his eyes open again, Evil X had moved a few steps closer to him. He smiled mockingly, but there wasn't a trace of humor in his eyes. "You could go find him right now, instead of standing here and crying to me."

"I," Grian started, but he didn't know what to say. Evil X wasn't wrong and he knew it, but if he accepted that, he would have to accept that there was nothing he could do to fix this.

"Go on, go tell him what you did." He pitched his voice upward into a bad imitation of Grian. "X, please, you've gotta rewind for me because I murdered my friend."

"Stop! I didn't - it was an accident, I didn't mean to!"

"Oh? Well then, that just makes it all better. Make sure you mention that when you ask him."

"Stop, stop, stop." He wrapped his arms tightly around himself, squeezing handfuls of his sweater sleeves. "What am I supposed to do?"

Evil X scoffed and turned away. "Don't ask me."

"But -." Before Grian could finish the sentence, Evil X was gone, like he'd simply blinked out of existence. The sight made his heart race for a moment, even though he'd seen him teleport before.

And then he was alone, with only the howling wind for company. For a moment, he just stood there. Then he slowly sank down to the ground, curling up into a ball and pulling his wings close around him to block out the world.

There wasn't anything he could do to fix this, but at least he could put off seeing the way everyone would look at him when they realized what he'd done. At least for a little while, he could pretend he wasn't going to end up alone again.

----

The surface of the sea had turned choppy from the storm, sending large waves crashing into the beach. Mumbo really wasn’t looking forward to rowing in that, but there was no time to wait it out. He set his boat down, trying to avoid the water as much as possible, and started to jump in -

Everything stuttered, waves jumping from one spot to another like a bad stop motion animation. The sounds of the wind and the water looped back over themselves in a discordant mess, stopping and starting apparently at random. Mumbo couldn’t figure out if he was standing or leaning on the boat - none of the movements he made seemed to make any -

The side of the boat disappeared from under his hands, and he fell in the water with a splash as time abruptly became linear again.

Dropping into the cold water was a nasty shock, but even worse was the sudden lack of energy as the water wiped away the small redstone charge he normally carried. Fumbling back to his feet as quickly as possible, he searched frantically for the suddenly missing boat. After a few seconds, he spotted it bobbing wildly several feet away and hurriedly splashed toward it. The water was shallow enough to walk in, but he still took a few waves to the face before he managed to pull himself into the boat.

It rocked wildly when he flopped down, but didn’t capsize, so Mumbo ignored it and tried to catch his breath. The taste of salt lingered on his tongue from the bits of seawater that had gotten in his mouth. He spat a few times, unsuccessfully trying to get rid of it.

Right now he wanted nothing more than to curl up and take a nap, or at the very least find a circuit to recharge with until he felt less like passing out. But there wasn’t any time for that right now, so he forced himself to sit up and reach for the oars.

The wind only seemed to get worse as he rowed. He only made it as far as Grian’s base before his arms started to shake from the effort, so he landed his boat against the pathway and climbed out to stretch. Keeping one eye on it to make sure it didn’t float away again, he pulled his communicator from his pocket to check if Grian had responded yet. His little dip earlier hadn’t done the device any harm; they seemed to be nearly indestructible, even able to follow the hermits when they respawned.

There were nothing from Grian, but the group chat was full of confused messages from the other hermits. Reading through them, Mumbo realized that they were responding to...whatever it was that had happened earlier.

[FalseSymmetry] what was that??

[docm77] i’m not sure, but i think it broke my redstone

[xisumavoid] oh no

[xisumavoid] i’ll deal with it, try not to do anything dangerous in the meantime

That was apparently all Xisuma had to say, despite several more messages asking him to explain what “it” was. If Mumbo had to guess, there was probably something going on with his powers, since the weird stutters seemed to be messing with time more than anything else. That was a little concerning, but it sounded like he knew how to fix it, so Mumbo wasn’t going to worry about it right now.

He tried sending another message to Grian, but there was still no response. After waiting a few seconds, fingers drumming anxiously against the communicator’s case, he gave up and dropped it back into his pocket. It wasn’t entirely unusual for Grian to ignore messages, but he’d picked a really bad time to do it.

It didn’t look like the wind was easing up at all, but Mumbo felt a little better after his break. He got back in the boat, managing not to fall in the ocean this time, and continued in the direction of his base. The longer half of the journey was already over; it didn’t take long for the giant sphere to come into view.

He jumped out onto the shore as soon as he got back to his base, leaving his boat behind. He made his way up the beach, wet shoes squishing with every step. The wind was throwing sand into the air, stinging his eyes and sticking to his wet skin. When he reached the top of the hill, he took a moment to look around for his stuff as he walked toward his base. It was hard to tell exactly where he’d fallen, since he’d been a little preoccupied at the time, but he had a general idea. There didn’t seem to be anything there at first glance, and it didn’t look like Grian was there either. Deciding to leave it for later, he made a beeline for his bubble elevator to check the rest of his base.

The first thing he saw when he arrived at the top was his bed. There was something laying on top of it - a communicator, he realized as he got closer. It was Grian’s, judging by the amount of stickers on the back. They were layered over each other to the point that some of them were almost completely obscured, but he could still make out multiple chicken and egg themed ones near the top.

Grian himself wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Mumbo turned in a slow circle, but his friend didn’t seem to be anywhere in the base. He picked up the abandoned communicator and went to check down the pathways, just in case. Along the way, he stopped and pressed his hand against one of the redstone lamps. It flickered out briefly as he drew the power out of it and into himself. The comforting surge of energy immediately had him perking up, freckles regaining their normal glow.

A quick search of his base confirmed that Grian definitely wasn’t there. At least now he knew why his friend wasn’t answering, but this was going to make finding him a little more difficult. He pocketed Grian’s communicator and pulled out his own to type out a message.

[MumboJumbo] has anyone seen grian? i really need to find him

Several moments passed, and then his screen lit up with a new notification.

[xisumavoid] he’s over here at my base

[xisumavoid] you might want to hurry

----

Feeling someone other than himself messing with time was an extremely unsettling feeling, like expecting to step on solid ground and finding air instead. It didn’t help that the jumps were messy and badly done, snarling time into a knot rather than neatly looping it back on itself. The lava directly below the narrow path he stood on made it especially frightening. Now was probably not the safest time to be in the nether.

Xisuma quickly flew toward the nearest piece of solid ground, managing to land just before another glitch sent time twisting around itself again. For a moment, he assumed that his alternate self had decided to start messing with him. Evil X had said he would be taking a break at his base, but perhaps that was just a ruse. With a groan of frustration, he set out towards his base, mentally preparing himself for a heated encounter with his evil counterpart.

However, instead of encountering Evil X upon returning to the overworld, he was greeted by a large gust of wind slamming into him that caused him to almost stumble back through the portal. Steadying himself, he took a moment to ponder the situation. Winds this strong could only be caused by Grian when he was very upset, which wasn’t a good sign. Typically when someone this distressed came to him, it meant something had gone very wrong, and they wanted him to roll back time to fix it. He wondered about what could’ve happened as he slowly moved forward through the billowing winds.

As Xisuma moved towards the center of his base, he made out the figure of Grian curled up in a corner. He called out to Grian, but he either couldn't hear him, or he was ignoring him. He called out again, and this time Grian slowly lifted his head in response, though he kept his eyes locked on the floor.

“Haven’t you said enough?” His voice was hoarse, as if he’d been crying.

Xisuma frowned, confused. He hadn’t talked to Grian in a few days. “What do you mean?”

“Or do you want to tell me some more about what a horrible person I am? Believe me, I already know.”

“What? Grian, what’s going on?”

Grian looked up at him. He looked like he was about to say something, but the expression on his face quickly changed to one of confusion, then fear. “Wait, you’re not -.” He cut himself off by bringing his hand up to his mouth.

“It’s just me,” Xisuma said soothingly, trying to calm Grian down. “You can talk to me, it’s okay.”

“No, I can’t! Just - leave me alone!” He lifted one hand and shot a large gust of wind at Xisuma.

It only managed to shove him back a few steps before he stopped himself by grabbing onto the edge of a crafting table. No thanks, he thought. He wasn’t just going to leave Grian to have some kind of breakdown in the middle of his base.

“Not until you tell me what’s going on. Whatever it is, I’m sure we can fix it somehow.”

“He said it’s impossible. That there’s some stuff even you can’t rewind,” Grian said, voice hitching.

“Who said that?” Xisuma asked. He took a few steps closer, moving slowly so as not to startle him.

“The other you, the one with the red eyes. Dead is dead, he told me. You can’t fix that.”

Xisuma felt his blood run cold. “Someone’s dead?” He’d never had to find this out for himself, but according to Evil X, that was the one thing that could stop him from rewinding.

Grian seemed to brace himself for a moment, then burst out, “Mumbo’s dead, okay? He’s dead and I’m the one that pushed him off!” Another powerful gust of wind followed his words, but this time it was strong enough to send Xisuma stumbling back into the portal.

He fell through into the nether and landed on the ground, too surprised by the sudden teleportation to catch himself. Composing himself quickly, he tapped a button on his helmet to bring up the chat screen, intending to message Mumbo. Before he could, a message appeared.

[MumboJumbo] has anyone seen grian? i really need to find him

A feeling of relief washed over him, and he took a moment to calm down before sending a reply.

[xisumavoid] he’s over here at my base

[xisumavoid] you might want to hurry

----

After reading the messages, Mumbo got halfway to the beach before realizing that he could get to Xisuma’s base much faster if he went through the nether. Scolding himself for not thinking of that before, he switched directions and hurried toward the building that housed his portal. It was a short journey, since their bases were somewhat close already, so it wasn’t long before he reached the right portal. Xisuma was standing in front of it, leaning back against the obsidian, but he perked up when he spotted Mumbo.

“There you are! You should hurry through and talk to Grian; he’s pretty upset. But I expect an explanation when you’re through!”

“Right, of course. Thanks for finding him,” Mumbo said, stepping past Xisuma into the portal.

The wind hit him as soon as he appeared on the other side, hard enough to knock him off balance and almost send him stumbling right back into the portal. He’d known to expect it, but this was much worse than he’d thought.

It took him a few moments to locate Grian. His friend was curled up in one corner of the base, wings pulled around himself so that the only thing Mumbo could see of him was a tuft of light brown hair.

“Grian?” he called, raising his voice to be audible over the wind. There was no response, so he moved a little closer and tried again. When there was still no answer, Mumbo moved closer again, almost right next to Grian at this point. He crouched down, trying to get his friend to look at him with a gentle tap on his wing.

His wings twitched suddenly, knocking Mumbo’s hand away, and his head finally shot up. For a moment, everything was quiet as the wind died down for a second. A look of shock and disbelief was etched across his face. Suddenly, the wind picked back up, harsher than before, pushing Mumbo away slightly as Grian covered his eyes and started to shake his head. “No, no, no - stop it, you’re dead, you can’t be here - no nonoNO!”

“Grian, it’s okay! I’m fine, I’m right here, see?”

He held his arms in front of his face to protect his eyes from the wind, and started to move closer to his distraught friend. Trudging against the wind was difficult, but he was determined. As soon as he was close enough, he dropped down to his knees and wrapped his arms around Grian.

The wind abruptly halted. For a few moments it was dead quiet, but the sound of quiet sobs broke through the silence.

Grian sat up slightly so he could wrap his arms around Mumbo and bury his face against his shoulder. “I thought you were gone for good,” he said, his shaky voice muffled by Mumbo’s jacket. “You didn’t show up at your base, and I thought I -.”

“Shh, it’s okay. I just respawned at the mining mesa. I’m sorry that I scared you so much.”

“It seems kind of stupid now,” he mumbled. “But I thought maybe it counted as a permanent death because I pushed you.”

“You didn’t really push me off, I slipped. Even if that was your fault - which it wasn’t - it wouldn’t have counted as you killing me, right? The fall was what killed me, not you.”

“I…” Grian sniffled and pulled back slightly to look at Mumbo. “I’m just glad you’re okay.” He leaned back in to hug him tighter.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, just happy to be back together. Eventually, Mumbo pulled away and stood up. He held out his hand, and Grian happily took it, pulling himself to his feet.

“Let’s head back to my base - I’ll make you some cookies.”

----

Over the next few days, if anyone ran into Mumbo, they ran into Grian as well. The winged hermit was practically glued to him, seemingly afraid that Mumbo might disappear if he didn’t keep an eye on him at all times. Grian’s sudden clinginess was slightly off-putting, but he didn’t mind, because it seemed to be helping his friend feel better.

Some time later, Grian sat on the ground in Mumbo’s base, watching him work on a bit of redstone for some kind of farm. His friend was talking about something that had happened the last time he went shopping, but it was a little hard to keep track of, because Grian kept zoning out. Every five minutes or so, he would start to nod off before jerking himself awake again and trying to figure out what he’d missed.

“...and then it turned out his horse had actually wandered into Tango’s shop and - Grian?”

He sat up quickly and blinked a few times, trying to make his eyes focus on Mumbo’s face. “Yeah? Sorry, I’m listening.”

“You know, maybe I should tell you later. Why don’t you go take a nap? You look exhausted.”

“I’m fine, I’ve probably just been sitting for too long.” He smiled brightly and bounced to his feet, only to stumble as the sudden movement made his head spin.

“Grian, you’ve hardly slept at all for the past few days. Go back to your base and get some rest.” When he hesitated, Mumbo added “Seriously, I’ll be fine on my own for a few hours. Promise.”

Grian paused for a second and sighed, but responded with “Okay, fiiiiiine. See you later!” Mumbo turned away as he moved towards the edge of the building they were standing on and got ready to take off, but then he got an idea. He slowly crept up on Mumbo, and when he was close enough, he threw an egg directly at the back of his head.

“Ow! What the..” Mumbo trailed off as Grian laughed and ran away to the edge. “Grian!”

They leapt off their llamas, the potions of slow falling they had used turned what would’ve been a deadly fall into a slow descent towards the roof of the G Team base. As they floated downward, a lone figure standing on the roof came into view, their back turned toward them.

They landed slightly behind the mysterious person, not making a sound when their feet touched the white concrete. Doc gestured for silence with a finger against his lips and readied his trident as they crept closer. As they moved forward and got a better view, the figure was revealed to be Stress. She hummed quietly to herself, indicating that she hadn’t noticed them yet.

Without warning, Stress whirled around to face Doc and Ren. She yelped and jumped slightly when she saw them. After stumbling for a second, she hastily leaped into the water elevator beside her.

“After her!” Doc yelled. He and Ren quickly followed Stress down the water elevator and into the main hall of the base.

Stress’s panicked noises echoed through the large room as she ran, leaving a trail of ice behind her on her way to a second water elevator. Doc skidded on the unexpectedly slick floor, but managed to keep his balance and dove in after her, Ren following close on his heels. For a moment after they entered the next room, Stress was nowhere to be seen, and Doc paused.

A large splash alerted them to Stress’s location. They followed the noise to a corridor with a hole marked with a sign that read “Down.” The invading duo jumped in, the slow falling potion still in effect, allowing them to glide slowly into the next room.

Doc immediately spotted Stress running up a nearby flight of stairs and shot a bolt of lightning towards her when she paused to glance over her shoulder at them. She narrowly dodged it with a squeak and kept running.

When she neared the top of the stairs, she waved her hand and coated the path upward in a layer of ice. They paused for a moment, then decided to take the other flight of stairs to continue their chase. The small hesitation allowed Stress to widen the gap between them for a moment, but Doc and Ren quickly started to gain on her.

With another glance over her shoulder, she turned into a side room. When the two rounded the corner, they realised that Stress had run into a dead end.

“Ha! You’re trapped!” Ren taunted, but Stress didn’t seem to be listening. She ran to a corner and stomped on a button on the floor. The sound of pistons moving alerted the duo, and Doc shot another bolt at Stress. However, instead of hitting his target, it hit one of the many pigmen that fell from the ceiling. The now enraged pigmen turned to face him, as Stress escaped out a secret door with a small giggle. They fought their best, but the sheer amount of pigmen overwhelmed them, causing both of them to respawn back at the Team Star base.

Doc sat up and pounded a fist against the blankets in frustration. “I can’t believe she tricked us like that!”

“She really had us fooled,” Ren agreed with a sigh. “I thought she was panicking for sure.”

“We need to get back out there. Let’s go get some new gear,” Doc ordered. He stalked over to the chest where their spare supplies were stored and pulled out his backup trident, spinning it once to get used to the slightly different balance.

After suiting up, the two exited the house atop their base. Doc looked out across the battlefield, trying to spot the rest of his team, but the fighting had moved closer to the G Team base, and he couldn’t get a good view through the rain that had started to fall while they were inside the enemy base.

“Let’s move,” he commanded. Ren responded with a small nod before they jumped down to the grass below. Hurrying over the moat on one of the bridges made during the fight, they approached the hill that was blocking their view of the rest of the battlefield.

Doc paused at the top of the hill and raised one hand above his eyes as he surveyed the scene. Both teams had scattered across the area into smaller skirmishes, making it hard to tell exactly what was going on.

Sporadic bursts of fire near the river told him where Tango and Impulse were. The two were locked in a stalemate, unable to really hurt each other, but apparently unwilling to stop their duel. Doc frowned. Everyone on Team S.T.A.R could see how much it was affecting Impulse to keep fighting his friend, but he always refused to leave Tango for anyone else.

Floating blocks alerted him to another fight. Wels was facing off against both Jevin and Iskall. Despite being outnumbered, he seemed to be holding his own, slashing away the slime and grass blocks being thrown at him. Wels made an advance towards Jevin, slashing at him with his sword. Jevin mostly dodged the attack, but part of his hand was lopped off. Iskall made the advance this time, slamming a chunk of slime into Wels. During his window of opportunity, he directed a small blob of slime at Jevin’s hand, which replaced the fingers that had been cut off.

A furious exchange of blades shifted Doc’s gaze. A closer look revealed it to be a conflict between Cleo and X. Scattered remains of zombies surrounded them, X having already cut down the zombies Cleo brought with her. They were now engaged directly, the fight becoming a seemingly endless loop of swinging, dodging, and blocking.

Flashes of red light drew his attention to the last of the smaller skirmishes. Mumbo was flinging redstone at False, but she blocked most of it and reflected it back towards Mumbo. He would then direct it back, which created a stalemate. A small scowl crossed Doc’s face when he looked at his former ally. The betrayal still stung somewhat, but his anger was pointed more at himself than Mumbo. Of course he was a mole. Of course he would side with his best friend. He should've seen it coming. Doc sighed quietly, then continued surveying the battlefield.

With a squint, he managed to spot Joe at the very back of the battlefield. He was partially hidden behind a wall, waiting to spring into action if someone got seriously hurt. Stress suddenly came into view from around the side of the G Team base, and she ran up to Joe. As the two started talking, Doc drew his gaze to the side of the battlefield. It was difficult to see, but there was a small slit in one of the hills. The only people Doc could think of that would watch a war from the shadows like this would be the Convex. Doc gritted his teeth at the thought of the capitalists profiting off of the war.

Doc looked up at the dark clouds for a moment. The stress of the war was starting to get to him. Neither side seemed to be gaining any ground, and the infiltration mission ended up being a complete failure. The strong winds and pelting rains of thunderstorms were normally calming to him, but today he simply found them... agitating.

Clearing his head, he turned to Ren. “You head back and guard the base, He ordered, “I’m going to help Wels.”

“Alrighty! The Ren diggity dog has got you covered!” Ren replied with a smile.

Doc sighed, but smirked at his friend as he hopped down the hill and moved back towards their base, his small quip of humor not left unappreciated. Getting back to the more serious business at hand, Doc started to move forward to help the outnumbered Wels, but stopped short when he realised something important. Where was Grian?

Doc scanned the battlefield again, but there was no sign of him. The storm was getting worse, and thunder could be heard in the distance. He glared, a spark running from his hand to the the tip of his trident. Where was the little gremlin? Was he hiding like a coward? Or was he-

His thoughts were interrupted by two shattering noises and a sudden yelp of pain from behind him, partially muffled by the pouring rain. He whirled around to see Ren, halfway back to their base, hunched over with both hands pressed against his eyes. Doc had seen this before - someone must have hit him with a night vision potion. Mixed with Ren’s power, that potion made him extra sensitive to light.

Doc ran over to Ren to help him. “Ren! Are you ok?” he questioned, the concern in his voice apparent. Ren groaned, but managed to mumble out “I’m...fine.” Doc was about to say something else, but the sound of glass breaking and Ren screaming interrupted him.

Doc immediately noticed that the world was suddenly brighter. Someone had thrown more potions. He whirled around, the potion’s effects allowing him to clearly see who the attacker was. Grian.

Doc felt the anger building up in him at a rapid rate. Behind him, Ren was groaning in pain, louder this time. Grian flew back slightly, then turned around, ending up looking directly at Doc. He hovered in place, holding another potion in his hands Another spark ran across Doc’s trident as he scowled at Grain. So he was still trying to hurt his friend, huh? Not on his watch. He quickly shifted into a throwing position, and with all his might, hurled his sparking trident at Grian.

It hit him directly in the stomach, and Doc felt a grim sense of satisfaction as he watched the enemy team leader start to tumble to the ground. Grian flapped his wings desperately, but couldn’t find the strength to fight against the pain dragging him down.

The storm was nearing full force, rain pounding down on both teams. Doc’s trident flew back into his hand right before Grian hit the ground a few feet away. The potion Grian had been holding exploded on the ground in front of him, about half of its contents hitting Grian and a few drops splashing onto Doc. A sudden swirling sensation filled his head, revealing it to be a nausea potion. However, Doc didn’t take the time to think about what that meant.

The flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder clouded his spinning mind as he approached Grian with a murderous intent in his eyes. His foe was lying face first on the ground, shakily attempting to push himself up. Every movement had him letting out quiet gasps of pain, and he only managed to get one elbow braced against the ground before he had to stop, clutching at the wound on his stomach.  

Doc stalked up to Grian and paused, weighing his trident in his hand as he looked down at him. The other hermit was seemingly too distracted by the pain in his stomach to react to Doc’s presence. Something inside him seemed to snap as he momentarily abandoned rational thought.

“You think you can just hurt Ren - any of my friends - with no consequences, huh!?” Doc spat out as he raised his trident, electricity running all across his body as his rage reached its peak. He no longer cared about the fact that when a player kills another player, they die permanently. Everything seemed to be building up to this. Ren’s scream of pain, the disorientation from the nausea potion, and the thundering rain compelled him to lift his trident above his head, ready to slam it down at full force onto-

Grain lifted his head up and stared directly at Doc. The normally playful look in his eyes had been completely eradicated, leaving only terror and pain. Doc froze as he felt his blood run cold. Grian opened his mouth to say something, but coughed instead, scattering drops of blood on the grass below him, bright red against the green.

Doc’s mind raced as reality happened before him, rational thoughts seeping back into his conscience. Was this really what he wanted? Did he truly want death to his enemies, his...fellow hermits? Grian looked up at him one again, this time with a pleading look in his eyes. Doc lowered his trident slightly, horrified realization crossing his face. No, he decided, I don’t want this anymore. This isn’t right. I-

Grian coughed again, harder this time. A second later, his arm gave out and he collapsed onto the ground. Before Doc could react, Grian suddenly disappeared, leaving only his items in a pool of blood.

“GRIAN!” Doc screamed. His trident slipped from his hand as he stumbled back, multiple bolts of lightning striking near him as the battlefield went silent.

The clash between Cleo and X came grinding to a halt, both shaken by Doc’s bloodcurdling scream. Wels whirled around with his sword still raised, and Jevin let the blocks he was holding fall to the ground when he looked up.

Tango tripped over his feet as the scream rang out, nearly falling headfirst into the river. At the last second, Impulse caught him out of instinct. The two simply stared at each other for a second, until Impulse regained his composure and pulled his friend back to solid ground. Once Tango was stable again, Impulse let go and they both turned to look in Doc’s direction.  

Stress covered her mouth in shock, and Joe murmured a few words of horror as he watched. From their hidden bunker, Cub and Scar exchanged worried looks before turning back to the center of the battlefield. False’s shield desummoned as she quickly turned to stare up at Doc. And Mumbo?

Mumbo let all of his redstone drop to the ground behind him as he rushed over, a panicked expression on his face. He scrambled up the hill and came to a stop in front of Doc, taking in the scene with wide eyes. His gaze caught on the bloody trident on the ground, the pool of blood gradually being washed away by the rain, and he slowly dropped to his knees.

Doc wanted to say something, to explain or defend or - something, but the words wouldn’t come. His thoughts began to race, his instinctual denial of self-preservation was slowly drowned out by the reality that it was his fault that Grian was dead. It was his fault. It was his fault it was allhisfaultand-

----

Grian slowly opened his eyes. The white walls of the G Team base made for a stark contrast from the gloom of the rainy battlefield. The battlefield, where he was... - Grian suddenly remembered what had just taken place. Before he was able to ponder how in the world he was still alive, he became aware of pain on his stomach and back. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, and carefully rolled up his red sweater.

A large scab had appeared on the left side of his stomach. That was where he had been hit by Doc’s trident. Eyes widening, he moved a hand to his back and sure enough, there was another large scab on the right of his back. It stung when he touched it, and he quickly drew his hand away. Why was it still there? He’d never had an injury carry over into a respawn before. Was the scar the trade off for him not being permanently dead?

Well, at the very least, the pain was only external, meaning that his internal organs most likely healed completely. As long as he moved carefully, he should be fine. He started to get off his bed. The pain immediately became worse, but it wasn’t unbearable. Getting back to the battlefield was of the utmost importance, so he would have to endure it. Once he was there, Joe would heal him, and more importantly, it would show the other hermits that he wasn’t gone for good.

He remembered what it was like, thinking Mumbo was really, truly dead. It had felt like the world was coming apart, the idea of never seeing his friend again too much to bear. And the “fact” that it was his fault that he was gone… it would’ve torn him apart had it been true.

As he slowly started to trudge out of the barracks, he thought back to before he died. The night vision potions were only meant to incapacitate Ren, not hurt him. He thought the his yelp was from surprise, not pain. So when he heard Ren scream the second time, and saw the look of rage on Doc’s face…

He needed to apologize - now. Swallowing his pain, he continued onward, determined to make it back as quickly as possible.

----

[Grian was slain by docm77]

The message sat inconspicuously in the corner of Iskall’s robotic eye. It didn’t really register at first; there had already been a few death messages earlier from traps and other defense mechanisms triggering. He’d been too busy fighting to pay attention to what he assumed was more of the same.

Then Doc screamed, and during the pause that followed, he got a moment to actually read what the message said.

His first thought was No, that can’t be right. Surely Doc, even as stressed as he seemed to be lately, wouldn’t go that far. He stared up the hill at Doc, trying to process what he’d just read.

Mumbo, apparently, was much quicker on the uptake. He must have started running as soon as he heard the scream, because he passed Iskall moments later, almost tripping in his haste to get to Doc. Iskall watched as he came skidding to a stop, looking down at something that wasn’t visible from his own viewpoint.

The sight of him sinking to the ground was enough to bring Iskall out of his own shock. He pushed past Wels, who didn’t seem to be paying much attention to him anymore, and climbed up the hill to get a better look.

What he saw confirmed what had already been proven true. Scattered items were stained red from the pool of blood they lied in. Doc was frozen in place, staring at the items as if they were a corpse. Which, in a twisted way, they were.

Iskall found himself in a similar position to Doc for a moment, too shocked to fully react. He wanted to look away, but something about the scene kept drawing his eyes back to it. It just didn’t seem real. How could Grian, the upbeat one, the playful one, be dead? It just wasn’t possible.

But it was.

He finally managed to drag his gaze away from the blood to look at Doc, searching his expression for some kind of explanation. It was hard to tell exactly what the other man was thinking; mostly, he just looked shocked. He waited for Doc to say something, anything, but no sounds were made.

Iskall didn’t know what to do, what to think, what to say. It felt like his grief and his anger were waging their own civil war in his mind. The conflict grew bigger, and louder, until it slowly started to seep out. “Why… How…” Suddenly, his anger gained the upper hand in his internal battle. “How could you?!”

Doc, finally broken from his trance-like state, tried to respond. “I… I didn’t-”

“Don’t try to defend yourself!” Iskall yelled. “This is your fault! Grian is dead because of YOU!” Tears began to streak down his cheeks as his emotions spilled out all at once. “You MURDERER!”

Iskall raised his hand, a large chunk of slime gathering around it. He was about to slam it into Doc, but something cold wrapping around his arm stopped him. He spun around, and immediately after was pulled down the hill by Wels. Scrambling to his feet, he got into a fighting stance, his tears still fresh on his face.

The rising tensions could be felt by everyone. Feelings of grief, anger, and an overwhelming sense of dread that this was the beginning of a bloody fight were unanimous. Even Doc and Mumbo reluctantly readied themselves for what was to come. No one wanted this, but this was their reality now.

That is, until another, higher pitched scream rang out. “GRIAN?!”

Once again, all heads turned to the source of the sound, which was Stress this time. They followed her gaze until they saw what caused her to scream. There stood Grian, hunched over slightly with one hand on the outer wall of the G Team base, and the other clutched around his stomach.

----

Doc couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d watched Grian die from the wound he inflicted, the wound that should have been a death sentence. This shouldn’t be possible. If it wasn’t for the other hermits obviously reacting to Grian’s presence as well, he would’ve wondered if he was having some kind of guilt-induced hallucination.

Joe had already run up to Grian, and Mumbo was currently sprinting his way over. Iskall, however, was frozen in place, seemingly by the whiplash from his shifting emotions. Doc considered following Mumbo, but the storm starting to slow down allowed him to hear Ren mumble something.

Reminded of what made him so angry in the first place, Doc approached his friend. “Are you going to be okay?”

Ren moved his hand long enough to open one eye, then immediately winced and covered it again. “...Maybe? I drank a regen potion, but everything’s still really bright.”

Doc frowned. “Well, we should get you to Joe so he can heal you. Can you walk?”

“I think so, yeah.” He carefully pushed himself to his feet, one arm outstretched for balance and the other firmly over his eyes. Once he was up, Doc draped Ren’s arm over his shoulder to help guide him, and led Ren over the hill.

Once they reached the top, Doc saw that the other hermits had gathered around Grian. Mumbo had him locked in a hug, and Joe had a hand on his shoulder, healing him to the best of his ability.

People went quiet as the two of them approached. Joe looked tired, but as soon as he saw Ren, he ran over. Confident that Joe would take care of him, Doc started to walk toward Grian by himself. But before he got close enough to talk to him, Iskall stepped in the way.

“What, do you want to try again? Stay away from him,” Iskall said as he glared at him.

“No, I…” Doc started, but he couldn’t find the words to explain.

“Don’t make excuses. You attacked him - you wanted him dead.”

Doc looked at Grian, but found his expression unreadable. He sighed internally. What was he supposed to do now? He wracked his mind, but couldn’t think of a way to make this better - to apologize.

Suddenly, a new, distorted voice was heard. “Actually, that’s not the case, as surprising as it sounds.”

All heads turned to face the newcomer, Evil X.

X spoke up first. “Why are you here? I thought you said that you wanted to stay out of the war.”

“I did want to stay out, but one of you just had to kill someone. Now I have to explain this to you lot! Such a pain...”

“Wait. Do you know why Grian respawned even though he was killed by another hermit?” X questioned.

“Oh? Did I forget to mention that little detail earlier?” Evil X remarked snarkily. “The only way someone can die permanently is if someone else kills them with the intention of having them not come back. So, I guess that means that Frankenstein’s Cyborg over here didn’t actually want Grian dead.”

Iskall stared at Evil X. “...What? He stabbed him in the gut! How could that not be intentional?!”

Exasperated, Evil X threw his hands into the air. “Well, then he decided against it at the last second or something - I don’t know!”

He still wasn’t convinced. “Why should we even trust you, anyway? You’re always causing trouble, so-”

Before he could finish, he was cut of by Grian placing a hand on his shoulder. “I think Evil X may be right. Right before I died, I saw the look on Doc’s face and…” he trailed off, turning to look at Doc. “...and I don’t think he wanted to hurt me anymore.”

Everyone turned towards Doc. The implications of this revelation were front and center. The leader of Team Star had shown mercy to the leader of the G Team. From a strategic point of view, that was counterproductive and unnecessary. But from a moral point of view, it made perfect sense.

Because at the end of the day, they were all still hermits - still friends, even through conflicts like these.

Doc slowly walked up to Grian, all eyes in him. He stopped directly in front of the other and paused, still not sure what the right thing to say was. After taking a moment to gather his thoughts, he looked Grian in the eyes and spoke.

“This… this war has gotten out of hand. It started with just a few pranks, and somehow it escalated into this.” He gestured between himself and Grian, then at the whole battlefield around them. “I was one terrible decision away from ending you for good. I was so close to…” he glanced at the ground for a moment, then back up to Grian. “This can’t go on for any longer, Grian, I - I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too, Doc. I didn’t think the night vision potions would do as much damage to Ren as they did.” The pair turned to look at Ren and Joe. Ren was still squinting, but he no longer needed to cover his eyes thanks to Joe. He flashed a thumbs up and gave a weak smile when he noticed them looking.

The two team leaders turned to each other again. “So... what happens now?” Grian hesitantly asked.

Doc didn’t have a response to that. He quietly pondered what to say, until the sound of footsteps interrupted him. Mumbo walked up to Ren, holding something black in his hand. He silently offered it to the opposing team member. When Ren picked up and unfolded the item, it was revealed to be Mumbo’s sunglasses. He put them on and glanced around the area.

After a few seconds, he looked back at Mumbo and simply said, “Thank you.”

And, with that small act of kindness, the whole conflict fell apart.

----

The storm slowed to a drizzle as awkward conversations broke out between the formerly combating hermits. False and Cleo exchanged a few shaky, but sincere words, promising to hang out later. Stress walked over to Ren to apologize for tricking him and Doc earlier, but he just smiled and started excitedly praising her acting skills, apparently not upset at all about dying to her trap. Mumbo was also talking to Ren, the latter telling a joke pertaining to his new sunglasses in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Jevin and Wels couldn’t entirely seem to shake off their wariness just yet, but after a few moments of staring, Wels quietly asked if Jevin’s hand had healed alright. Jevin shrugged and responded that it was fine now, and the two lapsed back into silence, although this time it was a  more comfortable one. Joe and X had met up occasionally during the war, so they more quickly got to talking about the bigger picture and what happens next. Iskall mumbled an apology to Doc for his outburst and for later questioning him so severely, but Doc responded saying that his anger and caution were perfectly justified.

Despite the tense air between them, Tango quietly thanked Impulse for catching him earlier. Impulse tried to deny that it held any importance, but in response to his stubborn retort, Tango pulled him into a quick hug. They both pulled away a second later, Impulse from surprise and Tango from his rashness. After staring at each other for a moment, Impulse placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder and smiled softly. He saw the tears well up in Tango’s red eyes, then felt them in his own as he pulled him in for another, longer hug.

Grian smiled from afar as he watched the two friends reconcile. Glancing around the area once again, he suddenly realized that Evil X had disappeared. Showing up and teleporting away soon after was typical of him, but Grian still wished he had the chance to ask him about why he knew so much about permanent death. Joe lightly tapping him on the shoulder distracted him from those thoughts, however.

“Do your wounds still hurt?” he inquired.

“A little, but it’s much better now thanks to you,” Grian responded, not wanting to worry their healer. “Is Ren doing alright?”

Joe frowned slightly. “He’ll most likely need to wear sunglasses at all times during the day, but he seems to be taking it in stride.”

“Well, at least that part’s good news,” Grian said as he looked over at Ren, who still talking to Stress and Mumbo. His gaze shifted over to Doc who was now standing to the side of the area by himself as he looked at the others.

Excusing himself, Grian walked up to him. “This… certainly isn’t how I expected today to end, but I’m glad it did.”

Doc turned towards him. “Yeah, definitely.” He stretched his arms. “If everything goes well I’d like to actually get some rest tonight.”

Grian nodded in agreement. He had grabbed some items while he was leaving the base, so he rummaged through his pockets, looking for some food to give to Doc as a small peace offering. However, the first thing he grabbed onto was...an egg. “How’d this get here?” he mumbled to himself.

Overhearing what Grian said, Doc smirked. “Oh, did the man in the chicken costume slip an egg into your pocket?” he teased.

“Uh- no! I mean yes! I mean-” Grian was cut off by Doc’s laughter. “Hey!”

Doc’s continued to laugh as Grian pouted and stomped his foot. An impulsive thought, however, turned his expression into a grin. He readied his arm, and threw the egg directly at Doc’s face. Doc immediately stopped laughing and glared at Grian as he wiped the egg’s contents off with his sleeve.

Grian froze. The logical part of his mind told him that Doc wasn’t actually mad, that he was just being playful. However, another, louder part caused him to look on in fear as it told him Doc is your enemy, he tried to kill you, he looked at you with those furious eyes and-

Doc shaking his shoulder tore him away from his thoughts. “Grian! Grian, are you okay?” Grian peered up at Doc and saw that he now wore a worried look on his face. The more logical part of his mind took control again, saying Remember the regret you saw in his eyes when he realized what he was doing, and how he apologized later on. He is NOT your enemy.

Grian shifted his gaze downward again. “I-I’m fine, I just…I’m sorry-”

“No, don’t apologize,” Doc ordered firmly. “I almost killed you permanently less than thirty minutes ago, you have every right to be cautious.”

“But I’m still here! I should’ve known better than to think that- that you would-”

Doc spontaneously wrapped Grian into a hug. He paused for a moment, then said: “Thinking you were dead, and that I killed you… It was a terrifying thought. I don’t ever want to feel - anyone to feel what I felt then.”

The doubtful voice in Grian’s head was drowned out as he returned the hug with a small squeeze of his own. They parted after a few moments, and Doc gave him a friendly pat on the back.

Q: Will we have a central plot for this AU? A: Yes we will!! We are working hard on a central story for the AU! Hopefully more organized and comprehensible than the last, and more appropriate for an AU of hermitcraft. It will take lots of work, but we believe we can do it!

Q: Will we see ex/z again?  A: Unfortunately we’ve decided to scrap the original Evil Xisuma character for this au, and he won’t be appearing in the reboot. However, it does not mean that he will be gone forever!

Q: Have the hermit’s powers changed with the season? A: Yes! [we’re working on updating the document!] 

Q: Will the old fics be gone? A: No worries! We are deciding to keep the old fics on the blog, but they will not be included in a new canon tag for the AU(that tag is to be decided.).

Q: Are you guys moving to a new blog for the story? Will we still have asks? A: Similar question, but we will be continuing to use this URL for the AU! Asks for the hermits will be open once again after we get the story started and rolling. For now, asks on this blog will be treated as OOC asks. 

Q: Can we get a hint on what the new main plot will be about? A: Very similar to before, it’s about the Season 6 Civil War, but there are many things rewritten about it to be able to tell the story that we want to tell! Unlike before however, we are likely to start the plot by the tag game, not the very beginning of the season.