Archive of Our Own ^beta

“TOMMY, TUBBO GET DOWN!!”

Tubbo barely heard the warning before the entire world went dark. It felt like everything around him simply stopped existing, all the yelling and the sounds of swords clanking against armor and tnt being fired off just suddenly stopped. Everything except for Tommy’s hand that was digging into his shoulder. 

It hurt. Tubbo wanted to tell him to let go, that they needed to get moving. They couldn’t just stay here, they were easy kills if they didn’t get moving. They needed to find someone, needed to do something ! What were their orders again? 

Kill. 

They needed to kill, they had to win this war, there was no other option. He needed to tell Tommy that, to remind him of their orders, to get him to stop clinging onto his shoulder.

But Tubbo couldn’t talk. 

He felt ash in his mouth and he just realized how much his throat hurt. Had he been screaming? Everything felt both cold and extremely hot, his nerves were yelling at him but Tubbo couldn’t figure out why. Where was he again?

Focus, focus, focus. 

His eyes opened just enough for him to see Tommy’s face. The word was still so blurry, and looking around hurt just as much as looking straight at the sun. The boy was watching something, but Tubbo couldn’t hurt his head to see. He tried asking him what he was looking at, but all that came out of his mouth were unintelligible mumbles. Tommy did turn towards him though, but Tubbo almost didn’t recognise him.

The boy’s eyes were wide open, a dark shadow dancing on his face. He looked so, so much older like this, wrinkles and eyebags that Tubbo could swear he didn’t have before the battle were now the most predominant part of him. Tommy looked like he was about to say something, but right before the words could leave his mouth, light engulfed Tubbo’s vision.

 It hurt. He couldn’t tell if he had his eyes closed or opened, but it wouldn’t make a difference. The world went bright and the next second, it went dark. 

And Tubbo didn’t reopen his eyes for a long time.

“Tubbo.”

The world was spinning around him. Where was he? Why did his body hurt so much? 

“Tubbo!”

He was fighting. He had to be fighting. Why was he lying down? Was the war over? No, that couldn’t be the case.

“TUBBO!”

He had to fight. He needed to get up, they had to win this war, he had to continue figh-

“TUBBO YOU FUCK GET THE HELL UP!”

He immediately jumped to his feet, ignoring how much his body was screaming at him. He tried to gather as much information about where he was as he could, but the world was still so bright, colors and shapes dancing in front of his eyes. Where was the shouting? Why was everything so quiet? What were his orders?

“Finally! God you scared the shit out of me! Don’t fucking do that again, who even falls asleep in the middle of a fucking war!?”

He knew who he was talking to before he turned around and saw Tommy’s stupid face looking back at him. “I was knocked out, you prick!”

“Yeah, whatever man,” he rolled his eyes but he saw a smile appear on his friend’s face. “Glad you’re not dead,” he said, a bit too much sincerity seeping into his words.

 “Yeah… I’m glad you’re not dead too.”

They stayed a bit in silence, both watching each other in an attempt to make sure they didn’t disappear again. Tubbo wanted to ask what exactly had happened before getting knocked out, but before he could Tommy filled up the silence.

“So, where exactly are we right now?”

“Good question,” he answered as he started to look around the space they were in. His vision had come back to him and he finally saw the interesting place they were in. They were on solid rock, a body of water and a birch forest surrounding them. Close by, a giant mountain loomed over them and Tubbo could swear he saw a speck of color on the white snow.

Everything around seemed… so peaceful. It was so quiet, but not the oppressive kind of quiet he felt whenever he waited to be given orders. It wasn’t like the quiet right before battle, where his heart started beating so hard that he could barely hear what the generals were talking about. But the place they were in now, it was simply serene. In a nearby tree, a bird started to chirp, and Tubbo wondered how long it had been since he had last seen an animal except wolves and battle horses.
The sun was shining so brightly, but instead of feeling overwhelming and blinding, it was simply warm. 

“Tommy,” he called out, nauseous washing over him.

The blonde was looking over the rocks at the water below them, watching the water as if hypnotized. “Yeah?”

“Do you think that maybe, we-”

“Died?”

The sounds of the waves crashing against the stones was the only thing that could be heard between them. Tubbo’s eyes were fixated on his friend, but Tommy was looking straight at the water, a blank expression on his face. The waves, despite how intense they were, didn't seem to have any bad intentions, instead simply warning the boys to get moving, to not stay around and wait for something to happen, to just move .

They are just stupid waves , he thought as he made his way to Tommy.

“Well, not exactly died just…”

“Just what exactly?” he snapped, turning towards Tubbo. “We just teleported here!?”

“Maybe the war is done?”

The waves were crashing harder now, drops of water splashing on their clothes but none of them moved.

“They wouldn’t just leave us here.” He tried to sound certain of himself, to diminish any thoughts that might fuel these kinds of thoughts, but Tubbo could hear just how shaky his friend’s voice was. “They wouldn’t.”

“What if they couldn't find us? Maybe they went back to get more people to look for us, they could be on their way bac-”

“Tubbo we aren’t even in the same fucking place!” he snapped, turning his gaze towards Tubbo while gesturing to the world around them. “This isnt fucking L’manburg!”

“And why are you yelling at me?! I'm the one who's trying to think of an explanation instead of just sitting around!”

SIlence fell between them again as Tommy turned to watch the waves. Tubbo wanted to yell at him to start moving, to stop moping around and to try to find the others, they couldn't just remain here while the others were fighting. But, of course he didn't do that. Insead he went and sat next to him, his feet dangling off the side of the rocks, the water splashing him harder.

“Do you actually think we died?”  Tommy finally asked, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“Would it be that bad? It doesn't seem like we are in hell or anywhere like that,” he added when he saw Tommy looking at him as if he just grew another head.

“I suppose… So you think this is heaven? I thought it’d be more, I don't know, fancy?”

“It’s certainly not hell though right?”

“Yeah, it's not.”

Tubbo thought they were gonna fall into silence again, instead Tommy let out a dry chuckle, followed by giggling, followed by a full on laugh.

“Something wrong?”

“I don't know, it's just a tad funny innit?” He answered, whipping a tear from his eye. “Tommy and Tubbo, making it all the way to heaven. I bet everyone back home assumes we are in hell right now!”

“It is kinda funny,” the boy agreed, a small chuckle escaping his mouth. “So, what now?”

“Donno. Do you think we can maybe find Prime here?”

“I mean, I guess? It beats just standing here ‘till night falls.”

“Yeah, we do need to get moving soon, don't wanna deal with any fucking mobs right now.”

“Then that's the plan king.” He jumped to his feet and dragged Tommy away from the rocks and into the forest. “So do we just pick a direction?”

“Yup. How ‘bout there?” he asked, pointing in a random direction that went through the woods.

“I don't see why not! Let’s do this.”

And with that the two started wondering together, trying to ignore how quickly the sun was moving in the sky and hoping that wherever they were headed, it was going to be better than the place they left.

The walk had been much harder than they had anticipated. The terrain quickly got more and more difficult and the night came sooner than expected.

“We need to get out of this stupid forest.” Tommy said, waving the wood sword he managed to craft minutes earlier around. “Too many mobs. And I’m not dying to any bitch zombie.”

“We need to make a place to hide! More are going to appear and we can't run from all of them!”

“Well we can't exactly stop and make a house now can we?!”

“Yeah but we coul- you seeing that?”

The forest subtly stopped a couple of feet in front of them, leading into a clearing next to a river, just as rocky as the place they spawned in. But instead of being completely barren, torches lit up a huge area, with

“Is that a hou- OH SHIT!” A zombie had snuck up behind them, managing to land a pretty good punch square onto Tommy’s back. Behind it, at least a dozen more were slowly approaching and Tubbo could hear the unmistakable noise of bones rattling, warning him that skeletons were not far away.

“Just go!” The bruntlett yelled, not wasting a second before grabbing Tommy’s hand and running towards the lights. An arrow logged itself into his shoulder, but he didn't even flinch, just continued running. 

They ran past half-build houses, and chests that were overfilling with materials. “Maybe this is a construction site?”   Tubbo idly thought as he looked for a place they could shelter. The difference in the buildings architecture made it hard for him to even imagine what this place was supposed to be and the fact that all of them only had a couple of walls up at most ruled out most of them from being a safe place to spend the night. All except a little stone shack, right next to the edge of the water.
It was much smaller than all the other houses, but it was the only one who looked finished, so he beelined to it.

More arrows flew through the air, but Tubbo couldn't even tell if they managed to hit him or not. His body was numb, all his effort being put into running and not letting go of Tommy. He felt as if they had been running for hours, but he logically knew it could only be a couple of seconds. Before he realised, they were inside the small house, pushing the bed (which was also the only furniture in the extremely small room) in front of the door.

“I think we’re good,” Tommy said between gasps for air. “So,” he added, whipping away some sweat from his forehead. “Do we just crash out here?”

Tubbo didn't reply however. Instead, he fell to the floor, passing out for the second time that day, but instead of waking up in a new place, he just had a dreamless sleep.

MumboJumbo whispers to you: GRIAN COME HERE RIGHT NOW

You whisper to MumboJumbo: i didnt do anything

MumboJumbo whispers to you: JUST GET HERE PLEASE

You whisper to MumboJumbo: why

MumboJumbo whispers to you:  GRIAN PLEASE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

You whisper to MumboJumbo: fine
You whisper to MumboJumbo: where are you?

MumboJumbo whispers to you: MY BASE
MumboJumbo whispers to you: JUST GET HERE

You whisper to MumboJumbo: on my way

“What does he want?” Grian wondered as he put his communicator away. “A creeper probably blew up that little house of his,” he laughed as he put his elytra on and took off.

It took a bit for him to fly from the sand collection zone all the way back to Mumbo (it's also not like Grian was in any hurry, stopping by an unlooted village to steal their bell and collect some beautiful orchids on the way).

When he finally arrived at the base, he saw a worried looking mustached man walking back and forth outside his house.

“When will he get here!? It's been an hour- WHERE IS H- oh hi grian!” He cheerfully saluted before seemingly remembering the thing he was worried about, a terrified expression appearing on his face. “GRIAN!”

He ran to his friend and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him thoroughly. “Grian this is terrible!”

“Are you gonna tell me what happened or do you just wanna sit here?”

“Oh, yeah.” He let go of him before pointing at the house, somehow becoming even more terrified. “I can't go in there, I’ll need to make a new base and move all my materials and move the vault and-”

“Woah, woah, easy now. Did someone trap your house with minecarts?”

“NO IT’S WORSE!” He suddenly leaned in close to Grian, his mouth next to his ear as he whispered: “There are two kids in there!”

“Like, baby zombies?” He asked, taking a step back from Mumbo.

“No, actually human kids! I don’t know who they are or how they got here and oh god,” his face was red, speaking faster and faster while sweat covered his face, “Xisuma is going to kill me.”

“Breath Mumbo breath, X isn’t going to be able to get you if you die from hyperventilating! Now, tell me what happened.”

The man took a deep breath and tried to relax himself, but it was clear that the stress didn't go anywhere. “So, I just came back from collecting some stuff when I got back THEY WERE JUST THERE!”

“Mumbo… are you sure they’re not… villagers?”

“Wha- of course I’m sure they're not villagers! Grian I'm not that dumb!”

“Ok, ok, ok!” He quickly said, raising his arms. “Just wanted to make sure.”

“Well how about you go in there and see for yourself?”

Grian took a long look at the house. He couldn't see very clearly from here, but it didn't look like there was anyone in the house. Still, the thought that someone managed to get into the server did unsettle him. Also the fact that they were kids… that's horrifying in it of itself.

“Well don't chicken out now!”

“I’m not chickening out! I’m just… let’s just see this.”

They slowly walked to the house, Grian needing to fight the urge to pull his shield up. He didn't even realise he had been tiptoeing until they reached the door. He stopped right before opening the door, trying to listen out for any sound from the shack, but it was entirely silent.

“Well!” Mumbo whisper-shouted. “Open it!”

“I am!” Grian whispered back, but it still took him a good moment before fully opening the door.


“Oh… I didn't expect this.”

Two kids, both looked around fourteen? Maybe younger? Grian hasn't really been around children so he wasn't exactly good at guessing their ages but they looked young . Far younger for the scars that covered their faces and arms.

“What do you mean you didn't expect this!” he hissed, making sure to keep his tone low. “I’ve told you!”

“Yes but I didn't believe you!”

Mumbo just gave an outraged puffed in reply, rolling his eyes as if he had just heard the most unbelievable thing in the world. “So what do we do now? Should I message X?”

“X is not on the server you idiot!”

“Wh-why?!”

“He had an admin meeting to go to! He told us about it five days in advance!”

“How was I supposed to know that!”

As they continued their whispering shouting match, one of the boys, the one with brown hair, started squirming in bed. It took a moment for Grian to realise that he was probably shivering.

“You didn't even give them a blanket.” He murmured as he dug into his inventory for some wool to put over the two.

“W-well I didn't think they were cold.”

“They don't even have armor on.” He slowly placed the wool on top of them, trying to be as gentle as he could. As he looked over to the brunette, he saw that he was tightly hugging a wooden sword, clinging to it as if he was expecting to be jumped at any moment.

“Gosh, they look like they just came from war,” Mumbo pointed out, his anxiety slowly fading away.

“Yeah… we can’t just leave them here. We have to help.”

“I think we should let them rest first? We can try to gather them some food or armor ‘till they wake up.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They slowly and quietly backed out of the room, not before Grian took one last look at the two kids. “X is going to kill us…” was all he grumbled before closing the door behind him.

He woke up in a cold sweat. He gripped his diamond sword harder, he needed to- wait. Tubbo looked down at the weapon he was holding. A weak wooden sword that looked on the verge of breaking.

“Oh.” The memories of the last day slowly came to him. They weren’t in L’Manburg, but at least they managed to survive the night.

“Tommy, wake up.” He started shaking him until the boy started flinging his arms around, trying to push him away.

“Let me sleep, asshole.” He put the wool over his head (where did they get this wool? Neither of them had any shears.) and continued trying to push Tubbo off the small bed.

But he wasn't going to let himself be beat that easily. He pulled the pillow from underneath Tommy’s head and hit him hard with it. “Just wake up already!”

“You dickhead!” He tried to snag the pillow back, but Tubbo was holding tightly onto it. So he resorted to his plan B, trying to bite him.

“Don't touch me you weirdo!” The two were full on brawling with each other, bits of wool flying everywhere as they laughed and shouted at each other.

“I swear I'll whack you with this sword-” He tried to say, but at that exact moment the door to the cabin opened.


Silence fell as the two teens looked at the two adults. Both pairs of friends looked equally as uncomfortable as each other and Tubbo tried to create some distance between them by swinging his useless weapon around. “Who are you?” he asked, trying to sound as confident as he could.

“Oh, I’m Mumbo!” The first man presented himself, his lush mustache and clean dark suit somehow soothing Tubbo’s nerves just a bit. “And this is my pal here Grian!” He gave the other man a hard pat on the back which almost made him stumble forwards right onto his and Tommy’s bed. “I’m the owner of this house.”

“Hardly even a shack,” the man- Grian laughed while Mumbo gave him a death glare. “Now, who are you two and how did you get here?”

“Who are you the fucking police?” Tommy perked up, his words seemingly shocking both of the adults, as they looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

“Well, no, we aren’t the police.” Grian replied and as he spoke he started digging in his inventory. Tubbo nerves started to rise as he clutched the sword harder. Was the man looking for his weapon? Were they about to be attacked? He and Tommy had no change to protect themselves but maybe they could make a run for it-

“But,” he continued, tossing a bundle directly towards Tubbo. “Our server’s admin isn't here and we weren't about to leave the kids alone to survive by themselves, so we got you two some stuff.”

Inside it there was some food, some potions of healing and even two gapples! He gave Tommy one of the fruits and the two ate it as fast as they could, the healing properties of the food starting to immediately have its effects.

“We didn't have time to get you some good armor, but I'm sure we can remove that. Now,” He looked straight into Tubbo’s eyes, his gaze soft but not pitying, simply curious. “Can you tell us what happened?”

“We thought we had died,” he answers, the coldness with which he replied surprising even himself.

“Don’t just tell them that, you idiot!”

“Tommy, if they wanted us dead they would have done it by now, all we have is a wooden sword for God’s sake!”

“You thought,” the mustached man repeated, confusion washing over him. “You had died? But wouldn't you just respawn at your bed?”

“It’s not that simple… it’s a bit more complicated from where we are.”

“Well you don't have to tell us all about it right now,” Mumbo continued trying to give them a comforting smile but it was clear that he wasn't quite comfortable with the two kids. “We could just show you around the place if you want?”

The two teens looked at each other, silent a quick conversation taking place between them, before they came to the same agreement. “Don’t see why not,” Tommy replied, getting up from the bed and stretching. “God this place sucks, can't believe I thought it was heaven.”

“Hey now!” Mumbo tried to defend himself as Grian and Tubbo quietly laughed to themselves. “I worked really hard on this base!”

“His bases are as far from heaven as anything can get,” Grian said, ignoring the betrayed look his friend was giving him.

“I like to think that my bases are quite holy actually.”

“Redstone is the work of the devil Mumbo and your houses are always full of it.”


“Maybe this place isn't as bad.” Tubbo thought to himself as he and Tommy laughed as the two men playfully bickered. Maybe they could just relax here for a while.