Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Fundy watches as Dream is pulled behind the column by George. It’s the final straw, and everything that’s happened throughout the last few months crashes into him like a wave. He starts running. Running away, away from everything. Away from Dream, who never really loved him. Away from Lmanberg, the place that he used to call home a long, long time ago. It was never really home though, was it. It was the only place he had, and he lived there for years, but it wasn’t home. He never felt at home, he was always struggling to get even the smallest amount of validation. Even after all that he endured being a spy for Pogtopia, Wilbur still called him a traitor and disowned him. Fundy was done. Done with letting his need for validation control his life. Done with everyone stepping all over him. And so he ran. Away. Far far away. He ran past the remains of Lmanberg, past the giant cobblestone towers, past Eret’s castle, even past Sam’s house. As he reaches the edge of the known Dream SMP, he realizes he has nothing with him. Absolutely nothing except for some flowers, some food, and his suit. The same stupid suit he was going to get married in. He can’t believe he was going to get married to someone who didn’t love him, who would’ve eventually broken his heart one way or another. He supposes he can thank George for saving him from that. He can’t go back to civilization, they must be looking for him now. He won’t go back there.

He continues on, though a bit more slowly this time to conserve energy. Past lakes, mountains, even some remains of an old village, one that was once inhabited years and years ago. He even passes by Snowchester before he realizes that he has turned around. God he is getting so lost, his sense of direction was always terrible. Eventually, he gets back into a forest, except this one is one that he’s never seen before, in all his years of travelling. Hell, he’s never even heard of it, and Wilbur used to sing him myths and legends and stories galore, back when he still cared. This forest is different. It is alive with life. Birds are chirping, bugs are buzzing, and there are small animals scuttling around everywhere. And the plants. The trees are so much more vibrant, the flowers seem to almost glow. There is so much motion in this forest, it almost seems as if the forest itself is alive, creating new paths and closing off old ones. It seems like the fabric of the world is bending and changing. As Fundy is travelling, he starts to see remnants of an old civilization. Except, it looks so much more advanced than current day. There are old mechanics that far surpass the capabilities of redstone. Fundy doesn’t recognize anything other than the familiar glint of iron. Suddenly, he hears rustling behind him, and hurried whispers. He whips his head around and catches a glimpse of black before he hears another rustle, this time to the left of him. But this time, there is nothing there. Just greenery, and some red flowers. By the time he looks back towards the first sound, the glimpse of black he saw is gone. It doesn’t matter, he decides. After all, it's probably just another strange creature in this strange new world that he has wandered into. Continuing on, he spots another sign of the old civilization, except this time, it's not just a piece of machinery, but a house. Or, it was. It’s clear that it was inhabited long ago, though it has since been abandoned. The closer he gets, the more he sees that it looks like an old greenhouse, with its ceiling made entirely of glass. The glass is dirty, the wood is peeling. But, it’s some sort of shelter, and he needs some, as night is approaching, and fast. Fundy pushes open the old door and cringes at the loud creaking noise as it swings open and as he walks inside.

And he stops dead in his tracks. This house is a mess. It seems as if the previous inhabitant left in a hurry. Maybe not willingly, Fundy thinks as he notices what looks to be a bloodstain on the floor. There are bottles scattered around, shiny rocks - crystals - all over the floor. And in the middle of the floor, is a six pointed star with a crystal pillar on each of the six points, and an even bigger one in the middle. The one in the middle seems to be a swirling, moving, mess of colors. Fundy shakes his head, thinking that the swirling colors are due to his total exhaustion. He’ll deal with this in the morning he decides. The moon is rising, and Fundy is getting tired. He takes off his suit jacket and tries to get comfortable, but can’t sleep with the stars overhead. It reminds him too much of Lmanberg, of the old days where they would stay up til the moon was overhead, singing and telling stories around a campfire.

He lays down for another 10 minutes, tossing and turning, before getting up and looking for somewhere, anywhere, that has a solid roof. And he finds that place, tucked in the corner of the house. Another door, but this one is pitch black with a tarnished gold handle. Fundy opens the door and finds a small room, with bookshelves covering 3 out of the 4 walls, and a spiral staircase in the middle of the room. All the wood in here is black, and yet Fundy feels safe. Safer than he’s felt in years. He descends into the basement, which opens up into a large room with a very tall roof, even though the stairs weren’t that deep. But Fundy doesn’t notice this, he’s close to passing out. And he does, barely managing to lie down before he passes out on the wooden floor.

Chapter Text

Fundy wakes up to the sound of a machine whirring and a heavy weight on his chest. Sitting up abruptly, he looks down to see that it is not a machine that he was hearing, it was a white cat with brown and orange spots that had taken up residence on his chest while he was asleep. His back aches from sleeping on the cold wooden floor, and his stomach aches, he hasn’t eaten anything since yesterday morning. Looking around, he notices how well kept and clean this basement is compared to the upstairs. The floors are clean, bookshelves are organized, and the lanterns are glowing a dim, yellow light. On the bookshelves are various bottles and jars, filled with strange substances that Fundy has never seen before. He starts looking around, finding a strange shiny metal and pocketing it - after all, he is still Fundy - before realizing that this is his house now. He found it, abandoned. Hell, other than animals he hasn’t seen a single human in this forest, despite the machinery and giant greenhouse. Everything in this house is his now, even if he doesn’t know what half of it is. He hears a bottle fall and whips his head around, only to see the small white cat sitting on the floor, with an empty bottle rolling away from her. Fundy sighs and heads upstairs, his stomach is seriously starting to hurt and he needs food. Fast. He exits the crumbling house and looks all around it, searching for anything that looks edible. Behind the house, he finds a small, overgrown garden patch and manages to salvage some potatoes, though he only finds three. He plants two of them and heads inside to start a fire on the packed dirt floor of the greenhouse. While his potato is roasting, he takes a better look around the greenhouse. In the middle of the main area of the greenhouse, there is a six-pointed star drawn out of white chalk, with a black circle around it. On each of the points, there are crystal pillars. And in the middle of the star, is another crystal pillar except it is twice as big and it seems to be swirling with black, white, red, blue, darker blue, and green, with white glowing veins running through it. There are potted plants scattered around, with plants such as rosemary, peppermint, bamboo, sage, foxglove, tulips (mostly red) and some spiky plant that Fundy has never seen before. There is ivy crawling all over the walls on the inside and the outside. Shelves and display cabinets cover almost every wall, except for one which is oddly empty. On those shelves are countless crystals, bottles, and jars all of which are completely alien to Fundy. The only bookshelf in the room only has 3 books and they are all falling apart. Fundy walks over to the bookshelf and grabs a book, flipping through the old and crumbling pages before something in there catches his eye. It is a star, just like the one on the floor in front of him. The crystals are all the same color, even the one in the middle. Reading the page, though not without considerable difficulty, he finds that it’s a summoning circle to summon a demon from… Hell? The book says that it’s Hell, but it doesn’t describe the stereotypical Hell that everyone knows it as. Instead, it describes a wonderful place full of life and beautiful hybrids. However, it isn’t just a paradise. The hybrids in there will manipulate you, get into your mind, and torture you mentally, convincing you to stay in the beautiful place while simultaneously making you go insane. And the worst part is, you won’t know it until you and all your loved ones are dead :)

Fundy flips through to some other pages, stopping on a drawing of some little creatures. They look like plant bulbs, except they have eyes and a mouth and are all different types of plants. Some are succulents, some are trees, some are flowers, and there are even some that look like carrots or roots. The book describes them as leaflings, and they seem to be the main population of Hell. They are usually friendly unless provoked, and the most powerful leaflings are ones that are made of different elements such as fire (kindlings) ice, and even water. This whole book, which is hundreds of pages long, seems to be information about Hell, though the book calls it by a foreign word, in a language that looks to be Greek, Δόλος. Since Fundy can’t read Greek, he decides to just call it Elysium, since it fits the description of what he knows Elysium to be from Wilburs tales. Fundy flips through the book a bit more, but the only interesting thing he finds is a page that is almost completely burnt except for a few words: Beware Dolus. Putting down the book, he realizes that he should probably get some tools and start repairing this place, after all, it is his home. He grabs his (now almost burnt) potato and starts eating it as he's going outside. After seeing what needs to be done, he starts gathering some wood from the trees around him, occasionally getting (and eating) an apple.

While gathering some wood in front of the house, he sees another glimpse of black, except this time he sees some white and the distinct shine of a golden crown. It’s Ranboo, he realizes with a jolt as he drops his potato [ D: ] and starts running at him, hand going to where he keeps his sword before he realizes that he has absolutely nothing on him except for the wooden axe he was using to collect wood. As he gets closer, he notices 2 other figures. One of them is Tubbo, his green shirt, brown hair, and goat horns making him almost invisible against the greenery. And the other is a much smaller figure, which Fundy recognizes as a baby zombie pigman. Fundy hasn’t met Michael yet, so he registers it as an enemy and takes a swing at it with his only weapon - his axe. Ranboo cries out and steps in front of the axe, taking the blow directly to his right shoulder and dropping to one knee. Fundy drops the axe
“Ranboo why would you do that?! Are you stupid?! There is a zombie pigman behind you and I was tryin-” Fundy gets cut off by Tubbo, who says, “Fundy, that's Ranboo and mine’s son… we’re married, we have been for weeks now. Where have you been big man?” Ranboo stifles another cry and Tubbo turns to him, before turning back to Fundy and asking, “Look man, we followed you here because right after you left, there was this whole thing with Dream” Fundy tenses up at the mention of his past lover “and long story short he’s in jail now. Techno has been threatening us because apparently our 6 person group over at Snowchester is a government or something. We just want to keep Michael - our son - safe.” Fundy looks at him, his brain processing the information he’s just been given. Dream is in… jail? He’s in prison. Locked up. Permanently. Fundy doesn’t know how to feel about this. On one hand, he’s happy because he’ll never have to see Dream again… On the other, he did love Dream, no matter how one-sided that love was.

“Yo. Fundy! I asked if you could help out my man Ranboo, you kinda stabbed him with an axe.” Tubbo snaps Fundy back to reality, who had been lost in his thoughts, spiraling deeper and deeper.
“Uhhh yeah sure, I definitely have a place of my own that I definitely built and didn’t still. Anyways, do you have any food? Or clothes? And maybe a sword or some diamonds” Fundy asks with a grin.
“Fundy. You just attacked my husband-”

“It was an accident! You had what looked like a ZOMBIE PIGMAN with you. What did you EXPECT me to do?!”

“I don't know, maybe NOT attack him at first sight? YOU are not getting any weapons or valuables, nor do we have extra clothes, but I do have some food for you” Tubbo reaches into his pack and pulls out some bread, tossing it to Fundy, who pockets it for later.

The 4 of them head inside, Fundy immediately showing them down to the basement. Looking around, they eventually find some cushions in a closet for Michael. Fundy rummages through some cabinets and finds some bandages, tossing them to Ranboo, who bandages his shoulder with Tubbos help.

“Hey Fundy, you got any tweezers? This axe of yours was not made very well and there’s some wood stuck in Ranboo’s shoulder.” Tubbo calls over to Fundy, who is still going through the cabinets, searching for any spare clothes. Fundy glances over at Tubbo, looks back at the cabinet for a second, and responds with a simple “nope.”

His mind is busy, thinking about everything that has happened. First the wedding, then the forest, then this greenhouse, and now Ranboo and Tubbo are here and they have a CHILD?? And those books upstairs with the stuff about summoning weird plant hybrids and that place that's like Hell but not really and it has those little leaflings and its pretty and peaceful and whatsnot an-

“Hey Fundy!! Ranboo and Michael are gonna stay down here, wanna head up so we can do some exploring? This house is COOL.” Fundy’s training of thought gets interrupted by Tubbo, who motions for Fundy to follow before SPRINTING up the spiral staircase, with Fundy eventually following behind him. As Fundy gets upstairs, he sees Tubbo flipping through the book on Hell. Fundy rushes over and grabs it, holding it up high so Tubbo can’t reach.

“AYE. DON’T MESS WITH THAT TUBBO.”

“Why noooooooooooooot it’s a cool book! We should try summoning one of the small leaflings!” Tubbo whines. He looks like a little kid asking his mom for ice cream in the store.

“Because if we mess up, we could summon a hybrid and we do not want that”

“But Fundy how fun would it be to have your own little leafling?? We could each have our own leafling pet! Wouldn’t that be adorable???” Tubbo is just begging him at this point, and Fundy can tell that Tubbo would try and do the spell anyways, with or without Fundy's permission. He sighs.

“Okok you convinced me. So.” Fundy flips open the page to the leafling summoning spell. “We need, 6 crystals, one representing each element on each star point"

Tubbo points at the star in the middle of the room, the crystal pillars still standing on each point and in the middle. “I think they’re already there big man…”

“Well, that solves that! Thank god. Onto the next thing. In the middle, we need a plant for the type of leafling we want.” Fundy reads out the page, struggling a little bit, but managing to get the gist of it. Tubbo is already looking for a plant, and he finds one on top of a shelf, though it is just out of reach. He climbs on the bottom shelf to reach it, and accidentally knocks over a small bottle of black powder, which shatters. The black powder puffs outwards before settling on the ground. Some of it landed on the summoning circle, but it only lands on one crystal, the dark blue one. As the bottle crashes, Fundy's head whips around. “HEY. WHATD YOU DO.”

“Uhhh I didn’t do anything! Well maybe I knocked that bottle over and maybe it shattered, but it's fine, it's just some black powder and it's only on one of the crystals. Uhhhhh can you get this plant for me Fundy, I’m not tall enough” Tubbo brushes off the remaining black powder on his shirt and hair, which falls onto the dark blue crystal. Fundy reaches up and easily grabs the plant, which smells strongly of mint, however the leaves are a bit studier and longer than mint leaves.

“OK! So now, we place this in the middle, and now all we have to do is use this bottle.” Fundy holds up a bottle of glowing pink liquid. “To draw lines connecting the crystal and the plant, and then put some of it in the plant’s pot. How hard could that be? I don’t understand why this is so hard to do!”

As Fundy is making the lines, Ranboo walks upstairs and comes into the room. “WOAH. whats all this you guys are doing. You guys doing some magic stuff?”

“RANBOO RANBOO RANBOO OMG WE’RE GONNA SUMMON A LITTLE LEAFLING FROM THIS PLACE THATS LIKE HELL BUT NOT REALLY AND WE’RE GONNA HAVE OUR OWN LEAFLING PETS AND WE CAN GET MICHAEL A FRIEND AND THE-” Tubbo’s brain can barely keep up with how fast he’s talking and he just. Stops talking while he waits for his brain to keep up.

“Woah slow down there Tubbo. Don’t wanna die from being out of breath or smth. Wait. did you say Hell? And youre going to SUMMON something from there?!” He looks at Fundy, who is drawing lines with the glowing pink liquid on the floor. “Fundy. What is all this. It better not be dangerous.” Ranboo’s hand starts to stray towards his sword.

“Woah woah woah no need to get violent here. This spell is completely safe and as long as we don’t fuck it up! We’ll be fine!” Fundy is almost done drawing the lines from the crystals to the plant at this point. When he puts the pink liquid at the base of the dark blue crystal [lapis lazuli] the black powder leaks into the pink liquid and starts seeping towards the plant, though Fundy has already moved on to the next and final crystal, the pitch black one.

“Ok, well, I am going downstairs to watch over Michael. If you hurt him Fundy, I am going to personally track you down and kill you until you are permanently DEAD” Ranboo turns and walks downstairs, Tubbo looking after him. He takes a breath and turns to look at Fundy.

“ALRIGHT!! LETS DO THIS!! We have the plant in the middle, the crystals on the sides, and the liquid connecting the crystals and the plant! Now all we have to do is put the pink juice in the plant” he gasps. “fundyyyyyyyyyyyy can I do the final step pleaseeeeeeeeee”

“Nope, I’m gonna do it, I don’t want you to put too much and mess it up” Fundy flat out refuses, shaking his head.

“But whyyyy I promise I won’t mess it up.” Tubbo grabs at the bottle in Fundys hand, and manages to knock it out of his hand and grab it. Except Fundy had already uncapped it, and half the bottle falls into the plant and onto the lines, which have all turned pitch black. “Uh oh.”

“TUBBO WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT WHAT THE FUCK NONONO” Fundy is panicking as the now black liquid glows and it all slowly floats to and around the plant, and then the plant starts to rise into the air, propped up by the black (and the little bit of pink) liquid, which has gone all solid and stretchy [picture it to be like the venom symbiote if you’ve ever seen the movie(s)] It starts to form a vaguely human shape, with color rising up from the crystals and swirling around the figure. Fundy and Tubbo look at each other with the look of two people who just royally Fucked Up. They look back to the figure that is forming to see that it has solidified into something that looks like a human, except it has a rounder, non-human face and mint leaves on top of the head. Instead of just standing on the floor, it is floating slightly above the ground.

“Well hello there. Who are you two?”

Chapter Text

Fundy and Tubbo are both staring at this creature that they have summoned. It’s like nothing they have ever seen before, with its round face and the leaves sprouting from its head. Fundy vaguely recognizes it, and has to think for a good second or so before he remembers with a jolt that he saw it in the book about Elysium. Except, this isn’t one of the cutesy leaflings that he saw in the book, it’s one of the hybrids, the ones said to be deadly and manipulative. Though, this one didn’t look too hostile. Sure, it might’ve appeared with an aggressive face and a defensive stance, but as it saw the confused and slightly panicked looks on the boys’ faces, it relaxed, its eyes softening. It almost looks safe? Fundy shook that thought from his head. No. These hybrids are stone-cold manipulators with no emotions, their only purpose is to hurt people. So why does it look so welcoming and gentle? The hybrid speaks up, cutting off Fundy’s train of thought.

“Hello? I asked a question? Who are you guys? And why did you invoke me here, I was busy, thank you very much.”

Fundy is still speechless, but Tubbo collects his thoughts enough to introduce himself. Oh, and Fundy.

“Hello! I’m Toby, but everyone calls me Tubbo. That’s Fundy! We just call him Fundy.” He points at Fundy, then looks back up at 5up.

“Nice to meet you two, I’m 5up” The hybrid introduces itself. “I’m one of the most powerful hybrids in all of Δόλος, it's a wonder you two are still alive, that invocation should have killed you.”

Fundy has gathered his thoughts enough to speak now, and now that he can speak, he’s speaking faster than his brain can think.

“What do you mean you're one of the most powerful hybrids in whatever the hell that place is. And that do you MEAN that the invocation should’ve killed us. How do I know you’re not lying to me and that you're not actually a weakling trying to scare us. What does-”

5up cuts him off, “How do you know I’m not lying to you? You don’t, but I can show you a thing or two to prove it.”

And with that, it closes its eyes and just, stands there for a second, still hovering around 2 inches above the ground. Then, Fundy and Tubbo hear a noise. It’s a soft, indistinguishable chatter, barely audible. They turn around to look at the source of the sound to see the house being fixed in front of their eyes, the repaired part expanding outwards until the entire place is spotless. The dirt floor is packed down and clean, the glass is crystal clear, and the stone walls are cleaned and have moss growing on them. They turn back to 5up to see it no longer hovering, instead it is standing on the floor, its breath a little heavier than it was previously.

“Do you believe me now? That took a lot of energy to do.” 5up crosses its arms, staring directly at Fundy.

Fundy walks over and touches the glass, confirming that it is in fact real. As he walks over, he swears he hears that same indistinguishable chatter, except this time it is soft enough for him to think that he’s just hearing things. All of a sudden, the door to the basement slams open and Ranboo bursts out, huffing and puffing like he’s just run a mile.

“What the HELL was that. I’m over here taking care of Michael when all of a sudden the walls start WHISPERING and then they're all SHINY AND THERE'S MOSS ON THEM AND THE MOSS IS WHISPERING AND GLOWING PINK?! WHAT THE-” He stops mid-rant as he notices 5up awkwardly standing there, looking between Ranboo and Tubbo. “Who, or should I say what, is that.” His voice is dangerously low now as he advances towards him, hand drifting to his sword. Tubbo steps between them, hands out.

“Woah woah woah settle down there big man.” Tubbo is tiny compared to Ranboo, but he still stops in his tracks. “This is 5cup, it’s a hybrid from d- do- from somewhere. It’s kind of like Hell but also like Elysium but also not, it's complicated. We kind of accidentally summoned it instead of the leaflings, and it might be a bit dangerous, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Ranboo takes a second to take in the information, then takes a deep breath and says, again in that dangerously low tone, “so you’re telling me. That we ran away from the SMP, from everyone we knew and loved, from everything we held dear, so that we could protect Michael and live a peaceful life? And now you’ve summoned a DEMON?!” Ranboo looks at 5up in disgust, then looks back to Tubbo, his look of disgust changing into one of frustration. “What was even the point of moving away if you’re just going to get us into more trouble and put us in more danger.” And with that, he leaves and goes back downstairs. Tubbo looks after him, before looking back at 5up and Fundy.

“I should probably go talk to him… sorry about him 5cup. Can I call you 5cup? I'm going to call you 5cup from now on.” Tubbo heads downstairs as well, leaving Fundy and 5up to look at the closet door, then back at each other.

Fundy looks at 5up with distrust, but decides to not immediately judge it too harshly. After all, it did completely repair his new house within seconds of meeting him. So, he decides to try to gauge how much he can trust it. And to do this, he’s going to ask it to help with some simple tasks. But not in the magical way, oh no. Fundy is going to test it by asking it to come with him to find some food, make some tools, all with manual labor. After all, they’ll be deep in the forest and Tubbo and Ranboo are busy with their thing. If 5up wanted to kill him, it would have the perfect opportunity to do so. Though even if it doesn’t kill him, Fundy isn’t sure he can trust it much, after all, the book did say that they were manipulative killers. But Fundy isn’t that gullible, he’s dealt with enough manipulation from Dream and Wilbur to be able to recognize it when he sees it right? Right!
“Hey 5up, wanna come with me to get some food and tools? I’m kinda starving here and I’m pretty sure that Ranboo will kill you if I leave you here.” Fundy grabs his suit jacket, realizing that he is still in that stupid suit from the wedding.
“Oh, and could you maybe magic me some new clothes? I hate these old ones and I’m going to BURN them.”

5up laughs before closing its eyes. Fundy hears the chattering again, except this time it's closer, but not louder. He looks down at his clothing to see his suit being replaced with steampunk-type fashion, the same fashion style that 5up has. It’s not the most comfortable, but it’ll do.

“And yeah, I’ll come with you to gather some food and tools, not that I need to eat food anyways. Though, I would love to see Ranboo try and kill me, I bet he wouldn’t even be able to land a hand on me.”

They walk outside and head into the forest, with Fundy immediately cutting down some trees and getting some basic tools - his axe was broken by Tubbo when he hit Ranboo. After a few minutes, he has basic stone tools: a sword, axe, pickaxe, and a shovel. 5up has just been following him like a lost puppy, occasionally stopping to look around at the various plants and animals, even pulling up one of the plants at one point, before putting it down, looking confused. Fundy notices this, and stops to look at it.

“Ok, what’s going on with you. You’re acting like you’ve never seen a forest and plants before. I thought you lived in a forest with pretty flowers and plants everywhere”

5up turns to look at Fundy, furrowing his brow in confusion, replying, “where did you hear about that? Δόλος is nothing like what you just described… Δόλος is a wide open, never ending field. The only landmarks there are the different sections of the field for the different types of souls, and each section is thousands of miles long. The only way to get from one place to another is either to walk, which would take centuries, or to teleport, which is what most hybrids like me do. The only forest-like place is where we keep the leaflings, which can either be dangerous creatures who will rip a human apart in seconds, or one of the sweetest, most adorable things you’ve ever seen. It just depends on what kind of leafling they are.”

Fundy looks at 5up in horror and confusion. “So you mean to say, if we had correctly summoned that leafling, there's a chance we would have been mauled to death?!”

5up nods, “yep!! Fun, right?”

“NO? THATS NOT FUN.” Fundy then remembers what 5up said about Elysium, and how different it is to what was described in that book. “Wait wait wait, so you mean to tell me that the book that I read in there was wrong? But it had so much information and it was all official looking and shit!”

5up laughs again, “yes, it's all wrong. I don’t know who wrote it but it’s completely wrong. The hybrids in Δόλος don’t live in a magical fantasy land filled with joy and happiness. Δόλος is a place similar to the Underworld described in all those Greek myths. In there, we have sections for the different souls that cross into Δόλος. They all have illusionary barriers that make some look like beautiful forests, others look like beautiful mountain ranges with gorgeous rivers. We have it so that everyone, no matter how far they are from the borders, can see the other sections. However, when they’re inside the sections, the illusion dissolves for them and all they see is the barren dirt fields.”

Fundy looks at it in part fear and part.. Disgust? Shock? Pity? All three? “That sounds terrible! And you contribute to that?” Fundy takes a step back from it.

“It is terrible, but that’s the afterlife for you I guess. And no, I don’t contribute to that. As I said earlier, I’m one of the most powerful hybrids in Δόλος, so I reside at the castle in the middle with some of my fellow hybrids. There, we watch over everything in both the Overworld and the Underworld, making sure that everything is running smoothly and that the balance of the world is maintained. Well, that's what I was doing before I was rudely yanked into this world.”

They come across a cave, and Fundy descends into it, having found and killed some animals while 5up was talking about this strange world of it’s. “So what you’re saying is, you and your friends sit on your asses all day while the less powerful hybrids do all the work?” Fundy finds some iron and mines it, catching and pocketing the rocky ore that falls from the walls.

“Yeah, pretty much. The only time we have to step in regarding something in the mortal worlds is when a leafling gets loose. You see, most people in the Overworld have no idea that we exist, and we like to keep it that way. It gets kind of boring after a while, especially since your society has shunned all magic and turned to just engineering - we haven’t had an incident in DECADES.”

Fundy turns over the information in his brain for a second before his brain snags on a little piece of information, one that doesn’t quite add up. “Wait, so you said that if a leafling escapes, you have to step in and stop word from getting out?” 5up nods. “So why am I still here? Why haven’t you done something about me knowing about all of this, why are you telling me this.” Fundy is getting suspicious now, looking at 5up with a wary look in his eyes.

“Well, simply put it, you seem entertaining. I haven’t had any fun in years, and when you invoked me here I decided to stay for a bit, maybe mess around in this strange world of yours.” 5up waves it’s hand flippantly.

“Wait, so you’re telling me that the only reason I’m still alive is because I’m entertaining?! You haven’t had any fun in years? How old are you and how long does your kind live?” Fundy is, again, talking faster than he can think.

“I’m actually not that old, I’m only around 140 I think? Maybe 142, I’ve lost track.” 5up mulls over it for a second, then gives up. It doesn’t really matter anyways.

“ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY IS NOT THAT OLD?! WHAT THE FUCK HOW OLD DO YOU GUYS LIVE TO?” Fundy is caught off guard. Sure he didn’t expect the hybrids to have a normal lifespan, but for 140 to be considered young? That’s a whole other level of old age.

5up snickers at Fundy’s shock, this isn’t the first time it’s seen a reaction like this to its age, but it's amusing every single time. It doesn’t think it’ll ever get tired of it. “I mean yeah, the stronger hybrids, like me, tend to have life spans of up to 5 thousand years, but the lesser hybrids only have life spans of up to 1 thousand years.”
Fundy can’t even comprehend someone that can live for 1,000 years, much less 5,000. “So, you’ve been here since the start of the Dream SMP? And way before that right? You’ve seen everything, that must be cool!” Fundy doesn’t even want to try to comprehend how old and knowledgeable 5up must be, instead he starts asking about the cooler aspects of near-immortality.

“Yeah, it is pretty cool - in my free time, I usually just watch you guys up on the Overworld, it’s really entertaining to see humans like you evolving, but it also makes it so we can’t really make friends down on the Earth. Though, there is this one guy we’ve been seeing everywhere. At first we thought he was an immortal that got invoked here and didn’t know how to come back, but then we realized he would show up in some places, then vanish into thin air and not show up for another hundred years. Lesser hybrids can’t teleport nor do they have time travel abilities, so we have no idea who he is.” 5up shrugs, then teleports away for a second before coming back with some steak that it must have gotten from a nearby cow, and hands it to Fundy. Fundy accepts it, muttering a quick “thank you.”

At this point, they are deep in the cave and it’s almost impossible to see. Unexpectedly, an arrow comes flying out of nowhere and hits Fundy in his shoulder. A second later, so does another one. At this point, it realizes that it should probably do something, and tries to fight the skeleton that has emerged from the depths of the cave, only it has no weapons, and hybrids aren’t exactly built for fighting. It grabs the sword from Fundy, who has collapsed onto the floor. The skeleton shoots another arrow at 5up, who catches it in it’s hand before letting it drop to the floor. It walks up to the skeleton, catching and dropping two more arrows, before shoving the sword through its chest. The skeleton drops to the floor, its bones no longer held together by whatever strange enchantment brought it to life. 5up drops the sword and runs back to Fundy, before picking him up and teleporting out of the cave.

5up drops him to the ground, perhaps a bit too roughly, and Fundy jolts back to consciousness with a yelp. He opens his eyes, squinting a bit, and sees 5up grabbing various plants around the small clearing they’re in. He sits up, propping his back up against a tree and grabs an apple from his pack. 5up comes back with some yellow flowers and leaves in its hand. Fundy watches as it rips up the leaves and the petals of the flower, then grabs some water from Fundy’s bottle and mixes it until it forms a substance like a paste. [an herbal poultice] It then puts it up to Fundy’s wounded shoulder. Fundy is still asleep and doesn’t really know what's happening, all he knows is that his shoulder hurts like hell. He falls back into unconsciousness from the sheer pain of it.

Chapter Text

Fundy wakes up back at the Greenhouse. His shoulder is like new, with only some blood matted into his fur, but there’s no pain other than a slight soreness. He sits up and watches as 5up flips through one of the books on the bookshelf. Fundy turns his head to see that the title has something to do with immortality, but he can’t quite see the title as it's upside down and his head is still spinning a bit. 5up hears the soft groan Fundy makes as he sits up, and it peers over the book it’s reading. It sees that Fundy is awake and walks over, sitting down next to him.

“How’s your shoulder feeling? Does it hurt?” 5up asks, a slight look of concern on its face.

“It's fine, it's a bit sore but I’ll be fine after I eat some food and get some rest. Don’t worry about it. How did you even heal it anyways, those wounds were really painful.” Fundy doesn’t remember anything after being dropped in the clearing, the last thing he remembers is the ground swaying below him, fading in and out of consciousness as he is carried out of the cave, and than a jolt of pain and an exasperated sigh from 5up as it drops him in the clearing.

“Well, lets just say that a while ago, I learned a few things from a witch around… 5 years ago? I only stayed with her for a couple days, but she taught me some really cool things about herbs, along with some great uses for flowers, like roses.”

“Woah wait, did her name happen to be Hannah? I remember my dad telling me about a place called Hypixel, and it had warriors and gladiators and healers and everything in between.” Fundy smiles at the memory.

“Uh, yeah! Her name was Hannah, but I met her while she was travelling, though I have been to Hypixel a couple times. I was sent to train with some gladiator guy named Purpled, he might’ve completely beat my ass BUT I did get him a couple of times. Anyways, as much as I would like to talk about myself, we still have stuff to do.” 5up stands up, reaching its hand down for Fundy to grab. Fundy slaps his hand aside, standing up by himself.

“I don’t need your help to stand up, I’m not that weak.” He grabs his pack and starts crafting some stuff, putting down a crafting table then a couple furnaces. Soon enough, he has some food and iron cooking, and the smell of steak mixed with metallic iron fills the air. 5up follows after Fundy, and pulls out some herbs from its pack, placing them one one of the shelves around the room. It then sits down on the floor, back against the wall, and takes out something from its pocket, along with a small knife, and begins scratching at this small round stone. Fundy’s ears perk and he walks over to 5up, squatting down so that he can see what it’s doing. On the stone is a foreign symbol, one that looks like an upside down M with a line through it.

“Whatcha doing there 5up,” Fundy inquires as he leans over to look at the stone. 5up, without looking up from its project, responds, “it's a runic talisman, this one is for protection and strength.”
“I have no idea what a runic is or a talisman but ok. Have fun with that?” Fundy shrugs, getting up and taking the steak and iron out of the furnace and replacing it with some gold that he found.

“A rune is ancient norse writing, and a talisman harnesses those runes so that we can use the magic inherently stored in them” 5up replies, once again not looking up from its project. Fundy looks back at it. “Huh. ok, that sounds cool.” 5up doesn’t respond, too wrapped in its task to really care. It is essential that these runes are perfect, or else they won’t work like it wants them to.

At this point, Fundy has realized he should probably let Ranboo and Tubbo know that they’re back so that Ranboo doesn’t get surprised about 5up being here. He descends down the stairs, and when he gets downstairs, he sees that it's empty. Ranboo, Tubbo, Michael, they’re all gone. The only thing that remains is a big wooden arrow pointing to a small satchel on the floor. On the wood, is a note. “Sorry to leave without notice, but Ranboo didn’t feel safe here, and to be honest, neither did I. So we left and headed up North, but I left some Stones of Farspeech that I got from Ranboo, he says he has no idea where he got them but hey, they work!! Hope to hear from you soon, stay safe! -Tubbo :D
P.S. Crumb wanted to come with us and absolutely would not stay no matter how much we tried, so she’s our cat now, haha :P
P.P.S COME VISIT! Though maybe without 5cup… Ranboo really doesnt like it”

On the floor, where the arrow is pointing, is a necklace with a carved stone on it. Fundy picks up the necklace, runs his finger over the smooth stone, and pockets it, then heads up stairs. As he closes the door to the stairway closet behind him, he notices that once again, the room is empty, with no sign of 5up. The only thing out of the ordinary he sees is a small, glowing pink note, with the words, “Be right back, gone to get some herbs and do some hybrid stuff, be back in an hour or two."

Chapter Text

Fundy stares blankly at the note in his hand, his eyes unfocused, his mind in a different place. While his body is in the Greenhouse, his mind has brought him back to Lmanburg. Except, it's not the Lmanburg he left, it's the original Lmanburg, with its walls reaching up to the sky and the caravan standing proudly. He sees Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo from his own eyes, but he is unable to move. He sees Dream, Sapnap, and George standing at the entrance to Lmanburg, a single block of tnt placed on the ground. He tries to run forward to stop it, to do something, anything, but he can’t move. The tnt is lit, and he watches as the same scene that happened years ago happens again, but this time he knows what's about to happen and he can’t do anything to stop it. He watches as his country, his home, is blown up. As he runs from the explosions, he gets shot, falls, and blacks out. His vision returns, but this time, he’s at the first Lmanburg election, with Schlatt about to announce the results. The same scene that happened originally plays out, with Niki crying out at his side. He watches Wilbur, his father, die in front of him. Again, he watches this tragedy happen, and again, he is unable to do anything. The scene changes again, but this time Fundy is at the Lmanburg flag, with flames illuminating his face and warming his fur. He sees Wilbur and Tommy in the distance, tears streaming down their faces. The flames flare up and cover his vision. The next scene is when the president of new Lmanburg is about to be “elected.” Fundy feels himself stand up straighter, and he recalls thinking that Wilbur was going to follow through with his promise, the promise he made years ago. The promise that he would pass down everything to Fundy. He recalls the disappointment, the anger he felt as Tommy was called up, and then the wave of sadness he felt on top of it all as Tommy handed the presidency to Tubbo, who accepted it without a second thought.
As Wilbur walks down to the stage, Fundy starts walking away. No one notices, why would they care anyway. Well, almost no one notices. Wilbur catches up to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, stopping Fundy.

“Where are you going Fundy? Shouldn’t you be happy for Tommy and Tubbo? Shouldn’t you be right with them, cheering them on? They’re your fellow Lmanburgians after all. Why are you being so selfish, it's not like you ever did anything in Lmanburg anyways. All you did was get in the way, get us killed. You never had any worth, I only kept you around because you were my son and nothing more. You were never worth anything.” As Wilbur spits the last sentence, Fundy realizes he has control of his body, his voice. He feels tears rolling down his face, his face wet with tears. His throat has closed up, and his vision is blurry. He tries to speak up, but he chokes on his words and can’t get anything out.

“Well, I’ll catch you later, I have some business to attend to.” and he walks away with a slight smile on this face. Fundy realizes that today is the day Lmanburg gets blown up again. Today is the day Wilbur dies. He starts running after Wilbur, but he gets stopped by Niki.

“Hey hey hey where are you going? The celebrations have just begun- are you ok?” Niki notices the tears running down his face. Fundy just shakes his head, unable to speak, and keeps running. It’s too late he realizes. Wilbur has covered up the button room, and without a pickaxe, it would take Fundy ages to get through the stone. His breathing starts getting more restricted, his throat closes up again, and the tears start streaming down his face again. His chest starts to ache, and he feels weary and sore. He sits down against the stone. Well, he falls down, his legs giving out as he tries to catch his breath, tries to regain his composure, but he can’t. His vision is dulling, he can’t breathe. His vision fades, and he can vaguely hear the sounds of explosions and screaming before he is pulled back to his physical body in the Greenhouse. However, it's not over. He still can’t breathe, and his mind is running a mile a minute. He hears explosions, he hears Wilbur's voice, repeating, “useless, useless, worthless, my idiot son, you are worth nothing, this is all your fault. I am dead because of you” it’s all he can think about. His heart feels like it’s breaking into a thousand pieces, his chest is aching, his throat is scratchy and dry. His eyes have emptied themselves of tears. He can’t breathe. He can’t breathe. He can’t breathe. His vision is blurry. His chest hurts. His heart hurts. Wilbur is still in his head, yelling at him. It’s all he can hear, all he can think of. He’s a failure. He was never as good as Wilbur, never as good as any of them. He was and still is useless.

Fundy stays sitting down on the floor, back against the wall, head in hands, trying to take deep breaths, trying to calm down. After a long, painful 10 minutes his breathing steadies, and Wilbur's voice in his head quiets, but it’s still in the back of his mind. He stands up, and immediately has to sit back down, his legs are a bit shaky. He takes another couple of seconds, before standing up and looking out the window. It’s getting dark, and 5up still isn’t back. He starts getting a bit anxious, before taking a deep breath and walking around, stretching his legs, feeling the leaves of the plants. It seems to calm him down enough for him to be able to cook some steak and eat a bit of it. He goes downstairs and tries to sleep, to no avail. He can’t sleep. Wilbur is still in the back of his mind, and he is too anxious to sleep. He tosses and turns for almost two hours before he hears faint footsteps upstairs. He sits up and sprints upstairs, only to stop dead in his tracks as he sees 5up’s hand and shoulder covered in blood. It stops and looks at him, it’s eyes strangely blank and empty. Instead of the soft, gentle look that it usually has, 5up now looks cold and threatening, with the blood on it’s arm and its eyes stone cold. It sees Fundy take a step back and it’s expression softens slightly.

“Where have you been and why the fuck are you covered in blood.” Fundy’s voice quivers a bit, and he feels oddly relieved to see 5up, but he pushes down that feeling and pretends that it doesn’t exist. Wouldn’t want to get attached to someone else who’ll eventually leave him, just like everyone else in his life!

“Well, I tried to go hunt for some food for us, and I may have gotten a bit carried away. I told you I haven’t had any fun in years.” 5up grabs a cloth from his bag and starts wiping away some of the blood, but some of it has already dried onto it’s skin.

“How did you trying to hunt for food turn into you having blood all over your arms?!”

“Honestly, I have no idea. One minute I was cleaning up a cow carcass and the next, there's a billion more cows and I wanted to get them all! It was a lot of fun though, I will have to admit.” 5up opens its satchel and pulls out around 15 raw steaks, handing them over to Fundy, who’s legs buckle at the weight of them.

“Jesus christ! This is going to keep us fed for DAYS!” Fundy walks over to the furnaces and starts cooking up the steaks. 5up walks up behind him and pulls out another object from its bag. The thing it pulled out is a long, smooth knife. It seems to be made from bones, but the knife isn’t off-white like bones should be. Oh no. It’s stained with dark red blood, far darker than the blood that was on its shoulder and bag. 5up taps Fundy on the shoulder and holds up the knife, before saying, “Soooo I made a couple knives with the bones from the cows! It’s why I took so long getting back to the Greenhouse.”

Fundy looks up from the furnace and sees the long knife in 5ups hand. He looks up at 5up, then back down at the knife, then back up at 5up, before reaching out and grabbing the knife. It’s a pretty good knife. It's sharp, smooth, and has a nice leather handle. The dark red, almost black blood may be a bit offsetting, but it’s better than a wooden sword.

“Thanks,” he mutters, then turns back to the furnace, taking out the steak and putting it aside. After it’s all cooked, he looks back at 5up, who is still standing right where he was before. Well, now he’s back to carving the small stone that he was carving before. Fundy feels an overwhelming sense of exhaustion and stress wash over him, and he starts to head downstairs to sleep. Right before he disappears down the stairs, he turns back to 5up, and mumbles a quiet, “goodnight.” And then he heads down the stairs.

Downstairs, he goes straight to the little sleeping area he has set up, he wants nothing more than to go to dreamland for a while and escape the anxiety and stress that has taken over his life. After a while, he finally escapes into his dreams. Although, they’re closer to nightmares than dreams.

Chapter Text

Fundy wakes up, except he’s not in the greenhouse. Oh no, he’s back at his home in Lmanburg, with all of his chests and armor there, and he’s wearing what he was wearing right before the wedding. He’s back right where he started, and he thought he had made progress. Fundy sighs, and throws the covers off of himself and stands up, his feet making contact with the cold wooden floor. Oh yeah. It’s real. His mind is clouded, there's a small voice at the back of his head, chattering away. Multiple actually, and he can’t make out a single word of what they’re saying. Sunlight shines directly into eyes as he opens the door, and he’s blinded for a second. When his vision clears up, instead of seeing the dmsp in front of him, Fundy is looking out over a large expanse of desert, with sand stretching as far as he can see in every direction. In the distance, however, he can see a small, familiar structure. As he walks over to it, his paws crunching in the sand, he recognizes it as the van. The same one that was in the original Lmanburg, the same one that he grew up in. Sand kicks up behind him as he starts running towards it, towards the one thing that has always been a constant in his life. Lmanburg. As he nears it, he sees two name tags; his own, and Wilburs. As he tries to get inside, he finds that the door is sealed shut, and no amount of tugging, pushing, or prying can get it open. He even ran into it at full speed, and the van didn’t even shake - it was never this stable before. Sitting down, back against the door, he sees a small, black house in the distance. Squinting against the bright sunlight, sunlight that doesn’t seem to hold any heat, he walks over to the house. Inside is a single chest, and in that chest is a singular book. Opening the book, he finds that it’s written by him, but he has no memory of writing this. He skims through the first page, eyes landing on the words,

*None of this is real. You are not real.*
Flipping through more and more pages, Fundy sees the same message repeated over, and over, and over again; *you are not real.* The chattering in his head gets louder, and he starts to hear a heartbeat. A heartbeat that is steadily getting louder and faster. All he can see is *you are not real* and all he can hear is voices in his head.

He wakes up in his bed again, back at his base. He throws off the covers and flings open the door. He’s back in the desert, but this time it’s dark out, the moon hanging in the sky above him. Again, he sees the van, and again he runs over to it. This time, though, Wilbur’s name is gone, and only his name is in the van. Again he runs over to the door and again it is sealed shut. He starts banging on the door, tears running down his face.

“Where am I. None of this is real - I am not real. Why is this happening to me? Why me?! What did I do?! WHY ME.” He hits his head on the door. His voice is hoarse. “Wilbur please I know you’re in there please Wilbur don’t leave me. Please.” He chuckles, and then starts laughing hysterically. “Wil you were there. This is just a prank isn’t it? I'm being pranked aren’t I? Haha funny joke you got me. Just open the door for fucks sake.” He laughs again, standing up, pushing against the door and smacking the button. “No?” He laughs again, his hands on his head covering his eyes. When he moves his hands, he notices that the house is still there, and he stumbles over to it. Opening the chest, he finds the same book. Picking it up, he feels a fit of rage come over him, and he chucks the book across the room. It hits the wall with a loud SMACK, and falls onto the floor, open. On the open page, there is a dark red splotch. Fundy walks over and picks it up, brow furrowed in confusion. This book isn't the same as last time. He flips to the beginning, and sees writing, different from before.

*Hi me! Welcome back! Yeahh, second time here? or third? Not entirely sure*

“Not entirely sure?!”

*Listen to me Fundy and you should trust me because, well you know why? There are two things you can do right now - walk back to your base, jump in bed, fall asleep, and you will wake up as if nothing ever happened. Or you can keep reading… And I will tell you what I know…

You are not real*

Fundy flips through the pages, and again he sees *you are not real* repeated over and over again, the writing irregular in size and even in handwriting, as if many different people wrote in this.

*You don’t want to know the truth*

“You don’t want to know the truth. You don’t want to know the truth. You don’t want to know the… I don’t want to know the truth to what?! The truth to-”

*WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP*

Fundy wakes up, back in his base. At this point, he starts freaking out. Flinging the doors open, he again sees the barren desert stretching out for miles in front of him. This time, the van is gone and in its place is a smoking crater.

“Oh! Yeah, no, okay. Yeah, no- this is- What is happening right now?! I’m actually stressing out this is- No, nononono no Listen- They are toying with me. They are toying with me! They are actually- Everyone is toying with me. They are always toying with me! Everyone is! I’m always being played with! Why? Why always me? No! Why does it always have to be me! Every single time…!” He opens and closes the door, runs upstairs and around his house, all the while he is freaking out. It’s becoming harder for him to breathe, he’s running out of breath and gasping for breath.

“I am not real. All I have to do is wait for midnight and then just sleep. And all of this will end, right? All I have to do is just- wait until night-time and it’s all gonna be over, it’s all gonna be done! I just gotta sleep and then it’s gonna disappear!”

He tries to sleep, he really does. He lays in bed for hours, tossing and turning, mumbling to himself. Hours later, after the sun should have risen, he gets out of bed and opens the door, only to be greeted by the cold, black night and the barren desert. He slams the door shut and slides to the floor, his head in his hands. Standing up, he sighs, before opening the door again and walking outside. Looking around, he sees a figure in the distance. With a cry of joy, he runs over to it, only to stop dead in his tracks. The figure is pitch black, with red eyes staring out at him from under layers and layers of cloth. There is no skin visible, and there is no way that it should be able to run with the miles of fabric on the floor around it, and yet it starts after Fundy, who immediately turns around and starts sprinting back to his house, back to safety. The figure follows, getting closer and closer as Fundy starts screaming, running up the stairs and trying to go to sleep, praying it goes away. The figure comes upstairs, and starts reaching towards a panicking Fundy. Then, his vision goes dark.

Chapter Text

Fundy wakes up in his nest-like bed, back at the Greenhouse. His fur is soaked with sweat, he’s out of breath, and there are tears streaming down his face. His chest aches, but even though he was screaming at the top of his lungs in his dream, his throat doesn’t feel any worse for wear. Apparently that didn’t transfer over to real life. Legs shaking, he stands up, the cold stone floor refreshing against his fever-like skin and fur. Taking a deep breath, he gives himself a minute to regain composure, before heading upstairs. Once upstairs, he finds 5up sitting in the corner, carving that same rock of it’s. 5up looks up at Fundy, who walks over to their food chest and pulls out some steak and wild berries that 5up found and scarfs them down like he hasn’t had a meal in months. 5up cocks an eyebrow at him and greets him.

“So how did you sleep? I heard you cry out a couple times so it couldn’t have been too good.”

“Not good, I had a nightmare, it was terrible.” Fundy sits down across from 5up, leaning against the wall.

“What was it about? Do you want to talk about it?” 5up puts down it’s rock and looks at Fundy with a slightly concerned look on its face. “Only if you want to of course.” It adds on.

Fundy sits there, silent, as he tries to recall the nightmare. If he’s being honest, he can’t really remember much of it. He starts to talk about it, and as he does, more and more of it comes back to him, but the chattering at the back of his mind from the nightmare also comes back to him. Fundy doesn’t pay it any attention, as he just associates it with the nightmare. As he talks about it, he can practically see the cogs turning in 5up’s head. After a minute or so of thinking, the hybrid starts talking.

“So, you said that you saw yourself and Wilbur, your adopted father, in a van. But in the next cycle, he was gone and only you were left?” Fundy nods. “How was your relationship with him?” Fundy sighs, and replies,

“It wasn’t good. I kind of betrayed him, but I was acting as a spy to get him vital information. But even after I told him this and gave him information that was crucial for his success, he still disowned me. I haven’t talked to him since. He’s dead now, but his ghost still roams around.”

5up nods, and says, “Well, that part of your dream is probably because you never got closure from him, and even though you may not think about him much, part of you still wants that closure.”

Fundy stares at 5up. “Ok, when the fuck did you become this wise, Mr. Therapist?”

5up chuckles. “Well, I’ve always had a knack for reading people. I like to think I’m great at reading people based on body language, tone of voice, everything really.”

Fundy rolls his eyes. “Arrogant much?”

“It’s not arrogant if it’s true.” 5up shoots back.

“Yeah ok sure.” Fundy laughs, hig laugh sounding just like a fox laugh. “So uh, what do I do about this nightmare? I don’t think I can handle another nightmare like this, it was terrifying and it brought back memories that I didn’t want to be brought back.”
5up sinks into concentration, the cogs in its brain turning as it considers possible options. [kowalski, analysis] “Well, maybe you could go back to the smp and talk to Wilbur? Maybe get some closure from him, and even some of the other members of the smp. Give them an actual goodbye.”

Fundy thinks about it. As he does, the chattering in his brain gets louder and almost more demanding. On one hand, he doesn’t want to go back to that place. He never felt at home there, and he really thinks that he can make a home here, perhaps even with 5up. I mean, 5up seems nice so far, not manipulative at all. In fact, it has been nothing but helpful. Well, except for that one incident with that suspiciously dark blood.

But on the other hand, if these nightmares keep happening, he’s never going to be able to truly be free of the smp. He might be in a new place with a new person, but he’ll still be reminded of the smp, and not the positive parts of it either. So, he takes a deep breath, looks up at 5up and meets its coal black eyes, and agrees. He agrees to go back to the smp and talk to Wilbur, hopefully gaining closure. 5up suggests that he head out as soon as possible, and Fundy goes and packs the small amount of belongings he has, along with most of their food supply, which really isn’t much. After he comes back upstairs from packing some medical supplies in case of emergency, he realizes that he still has no idea how to operate the stone around his neck. Perhaps he can ask 5up about it.

“Hey 5up, do you know anything about Stones of Farspeech? I got one from Tubbo when they left and I have no idea how to use it.” Fundy tosses it over to 5up, who catches it with ease. 5up turns over the stone, looking at the lines that have been carved into the stone’s smooth surface. Pointing to a small circle on the side of the stone, it explains that in order to talk to the person on the other side - in this case that would be Tubbo or Ranboo, whoever has the stone - you just have to hold your finger down on the circle. Fundy grabs the stone back and holds his finger down on the circle. “Hey! Hey Tubbo! You there?” He waits in anticipation for a second, and then hears a voice coming out from the stone - its Tubbo!

“Hey big man! Nice to know you finally figured out how to use this thing!” Something crashes in the background, and before Fundy can say anything, Tubbo says, “Oops, gotta go! Michael just let our entire population of cows out of their pens and that is literally our only food source right now. Talk to you later!” And he drops the stone on something - Fundy can hear the sound of the stone hitting the surface - and the sound stops.

“Well, you figured out how to use it! And now you won’t be so lonely on your journey.” 5up says, trying to hold back a laugh.

“Wait, are you not coming with me?”

“Uhhhh no, I can’t leave this general area.”

“Wait why?” Fundys brow furrows in confusion, and his face falls a bit.

“Well… Uh… I…” 5up looks like it's at a loss for words. “I can’t leave this area because us hybrids can’t leave the area we’re summoned at. I can barely go beyond the border of this house.”

Fundy’s eyes narrow in suspicion, before he thinks about what 5up said for a second. It makes sense, he supposes. And 5up is right, he’s gonna be able to talk to Tubbo on the trip anyways! Fundy shrugs and shoulders his bag, it’s still early in the morning, if he leaves now he can probably get to his destination before night falls. As he’s heading out the door, he feels a hand on his shoulder.
“Wait, I have something for you.” 5up brings out the stone that it’s been carving. It’s an ornately carved stone with a leather cord through it. The stone is beautiful, with swirls and lines and all sorts of shapes. “It’s a stone for protection and mental strength. I think it’ll help you on your journey.” 5up looks up at Fundy with a small smile on its face. “Oh, and I also slightly modified the Stone of Farspeech - I just made it so that it’s harder for people to listen to your conversations through the stones.” Fundy takes the necklace, looping it around his neck. The chattering that has been growing in his head quiets down, and the signature chatter of 5up’s magic starts up, before dying down again. While both chattering sounded very alike, the one spurred by the necklace was soothing, while the other chattering was malevolent, anxiety inducing.

“Well, I’ll be heading out now. Hopefully I’ll see you in a few days!” Fundy waves and walks out the door. Breathing in the fresh air, he looks down at his map and starts walking.

Throughout his journey he tries talking to Tubbo, but no luck. The stone stays dead silent the entire time. Fundy starts to think that maybe, just maybe, 5up made it so that the stone wouldn’t work and he couldn’t talk to Tubbo, when a voice comes through the stone.

“Hey big man!! Tubbo here, can’t talk for long but just wanted to let you know that I am in fact alive.” He laughs, and Fundy laughs along with him, the tension seeping out of him.

“Glad to hear that Tubbo! Hey, did you know, I’m actually on my way to the smp right now?”

“Oh yo really!! Make sure to say hi to Ghostbur for me! And maybe a 'fuck you' to Dream on behalf of Ranboo? Hahaha. Anyways, I gotta go now - talk to you later!” And he’s gone, and Fundy is left with only the crunching of leaves under his boots again.

A few hours, multiple breaks, and many failed attempts at talking to Tubbo later, Fundy sees one of Tommy’s many cobblestone towers. He breaks into a sprint, his bag considerably lighter now that he’s eaten most of the food, and gets to the edge of L’manhole, only to hear purge sirens piercing through the air, and see citizens running left and right, tossing armor, XP bottles, and other gear to each other. None of them so much as look at him, despite Fundy trying to ask what’s going on. The few people who do stop, look at him with a look of confusion, before saying, “We’re gearing up for a fight, Dream escaped from the prison.” and running off. Nobody even acknowledges the fact that he was gone, or that he ran away from his failed wedding. Fundy walks around more, and still no one pays any attention to him. Not Eret, who gives him a nod as they run by. Not Antfrost, who looks at him before continuing to run. Not even Phil or Techno, though they do mutter to themselves as they walk by him, Techno’s hound army trailing behind. Fundy continues to walk around, and at some point he catches sight of Niki’s bakery, and Niki is in the bakery. Making a cake. Completely ignoring everything around her that’s happening. Fundy smiles, and runs over, opening the door and walking in. Niki looks up from her baking, looks at Fundy. Her jaw drops over and she runs over to him, squeezing him in a tight hug.

Chapter Text

Niki holds onto him for a few more seconds, her embrace warm and comforting. She pulls away and looks at Fundy in concern for a second, then leads him over to a comfortable chair and sits him down. Seconds later, a warm cookie is stuffed into his hand. It tastes comforting, like home. After he finishes the cookie, he looks over at Niki, who is sitting on the chair next to him.

“So… what are you doing in here? Everyone else seems to be running around gearing up for war and you’re here baking cookies and cakes and shit.” Fundy motions to the cakes in the oven, then to the rack of still-warm cookies.

“Well, I was going to fight with them and help, but not a single one of them would actually take me seriously. Sure they seemed grateful for my help, but I could see that they didn’t want to have to babysit me during the war. They never take me seriously, they don’t think I’m worth anything and I’m tired of it.” Niki rolls her eyes in frustration.

Fundy chuckles and nods, “Yeah, I know how that feels. Wilbur never did anything but treat me like a toddler. That, or he would yell at me.” Fundy scoffs. “And even when I came back here, no one paid any attention to me! I’m not saying I wanted a banquet or a- or a grand festival, but a hello would’ve been nice.” Fundy pouts, clearly upset.

The harsh sound of the kitchen timer rings throughout the kitchen, and Niki takes the cakes out of the oven. The sweet smell of chocolate wafts throughout the bakery, and Fundy takes a deep breath in. Niki puts the cake on the counter and sits down again.

“So, I heard about the whole wedding fiasco. Where did you go after you ran? It’s been weeks since anyone has heard from you-”

“Not that they seem to care” Fundy cut in.

“-And you just show up back here, wandering around like a lost puppy.”

Fundy takes a deep breath. “After the wedding, I just ran. I didn’t really care where I ran, but I ended up in this old abandoned Greenhouse and decided to stay there. Tubbo and Ranboo visited at one point - I had no idea they were married, let alone that they had a CHILD - and at one point Tubbo and I kinda maybe sorta summoned this guy from another dimension, and long story short it’s now the two of us living together in an old abandoned Greenhouse that it fixed up with magic.”

Niki looks taken aback, that was clearly not what she had expected.

“That was not what I expected you to say.” She chuckles. “Ok, thats cool’n all, but why are you back here? I thought you hated this place.”

Fundy sighs, “Yeah. I do. But I started having nightmares - like, really bad ones. I talked about them with 5up.” Fundy notices Niki’s look of confusion, and adds, “that’s the demon guy’s name. Anyways, I started having nightmares, we talked about it a bit - turns out it's really fun to talk to and good with advice - and it suggested that I come back here to get some closure before I officially move on. So, I was just gonna come back, say my goodbyes, leave, and never look back.”

“I’ve been having nightmares too, but they’re about Wilbur. I see him in my dreams Fundy. I see him bruised and bloody on the floor, and there's someone hurting him but I don’t know who it is. Tommy and Ghostbur went off to the prison a couple days ago, and I haven’t heard from them since. And now, there's this whole ‘dream escaped,’ get ready for the war ordeal going on.” Niki sighs, looking down at her hands. She looks back at Fundy.

“So, if I help you with your nightmares, will you help me with mine? I mean Wilbur is definitely on your list of people to talk to soooo if I come with you, we can get two birds with one stone!”

Fundy thinks about it, but only for a quick second. “Sure!! I’m probably gonna need some emotional support too.” He chuckles nervously. “But right now, I just want to relax. I’ve been walking all day and stressing out all week.”

Niki stands up, then reaches her hand out for Fundy to take. He stands up on his own. “I can stand up on my own thank you very much, I’m not that weak.” He laughs, and Niki laughs back at him. It feels good to laugh with her. She’s always been the one person he can count on. The clear, fresh air is a stark difference from the sweet smell of the pastries that fill the bakery. Rainbow lights shoot into the air in front of Eret’s castle, and Tommy’s hotel stands tall and proud. As Fundy is taking in all the scenery, Niki starts walking towards the castle. Fundy catches up to her, and they walk in silence for a bit.

“Where are we going?”

“I would take you to the castle, except I’m sure you’ve seen it thousands of times over, and it’s not like it’s changed at all”

Fundy nods at that.

“We’re going behind the castle. Antfrost set up an animal sanctuary a little ways behind the castle, and I find that it’s a great place for me to relax - there are foxes, polar bears, cats, dogs, etc!”

Fundy’s ears perk up at the mention of foxes, he hasn’t seen one in months - it seems as though they’re endangered on the SMP, which is strange considering there’s a spruce forest right pretty close to the main smp.

“That sounds amazing! Race you there?” Without waiting for an answer, Fundy takes off. The wind whistles through his hair as he runs through the castle and out the back, his feet pounding on the worn wood of the prime path. Flamingos and trees whiz by him, and at one point Niki catches up to him and they run alongside each other before Fundy smirks at her and speeds up, running in front of her. She laughs and runs faster, and they both start weaving in front of each other, laughing the whole time. Fundy trips over Niki’s foot - or it's the other way around, he really doesn’t know, and he falls, and Niki falls after him, narrowly avoiding landing on his head. They lay in the grass, breathing heavily and laughing until their ribs get sore. After they settle down, Fundy looks over at Niki and she looks back at him. They smile at each other, savoring the comfortable silence between them. It reminds Fundy of the old days, when Tommy would chase him around L’manburg until they would fall on a heap on the floor, exhausted. Fundy gets up, the grass leaving a stain on his jacket. He reaches a hand down to Niki, who takes it and stands up. They walk in comfortable silence before arriving at the animal sanctuary. Trees tower overhead, and various animal sounds fill the air. To the left is a flower field, with multiple beehives and many bees lazily floating around. To the right is a spruce forest themed area, with both white and orange foxes running around and playing with each other, their yips filling the air. And directly in front of them is the strider area, a glass container with lava on the floor and a singular strider in the middle. Fundy takes off towards the foxes and hops the fence, petting all the foxes that don’t run away from him.

They spend the next few hours playing with the various animals. After they’re all tired out - and a bit scratched up - they sit with the bees in the sweet smelling field and talk. Niki talks about how her life has been since Doomsday, and Fundy talks about his new life at the Greenhouse. He talks about how strange his new home is, and how the whole forest has this strange energy about it. He talks about how he distrusted 5up at first but gradually started to trust it more and more, and even consider it a friend. As he says that, he realizes that this is the first time he’s considered 5up a friend, but he really does mean it. 5up hasn’t been anything but friendly and hasn’t done anything suspicious or wrong- except for that one time he came back to the house covered in blood. The voices in Fundy’s head seem to cheer at the thought that 5up is his friend. Niki talks about how she’s been living alone, and how even Ghostbur didn’t visit her much. They talk and they talk and they talk until it gets dark. After it gets dark, they lay in the grass and point out shapes in the stars and clouds to each other. Soon enough, Fundy gets tired and falls asleep. Niki looks at him, smiling. Fundys ears are twitching slightly and he has a soft smile on his face. He looks peaceful, at ease. Niki feels herself drifting off to sleep, and gradually, she does.

:D