Chapter Text
Ranboo watched Jack fall through the portal, not attempting to stop it in the slightest. His new endermen friends surrounded him, chattering about their new king. One specific one, who Ranboo had named Elon Musk, looked put out. Apparently they had wanted to be king.
Another enderman asked Ranboo what the song he had been singing was, and Ranboo’s smile brightened, Chat suddenly swirling excitedly. “I thought you’d never ask!”
Within the hour, every enderman in the End worshiped Lemon Demon.
DreamXD sucked in a deep breath and dove, through code and void, turning himself inside out and back again, flipping and sliding and squeezing. The void growled, raking at his sides in anger as he suddenly curled up into a ball, spinning quickly, and dispersed himself– spreading as thin as he could with no code. Green light rocketed around to all corners of the void, darkness reformed itself as it was released, and the god reformed, doubling over with a gasp at the pain.
Every part of his body hurt – not quite as much as it had when the void was inside him and vying to get out, but still– his head swam, but he shook it furiously, rightening himself. The darkness was pressing in, and DreamXD gritted his teeth and jumped, swimming up through the compressing void.
The blackness laughed, whispering and seething, as it sought to push him down again, but the god pressed on, white-hot pain dulling his senses as he forced himself up, up, up– there!
An island came into view, the endstone the most welcome thing he’d seen in a while. The code of it called to him, reaching down as he reached up, the void howling, clawing at his sides and trying to force him down, down, down – and he grasped the code, touching it with the tip of his finger– but that was enough. It was enough, and the world could breathe again.
The code attacked the void with renewed force, beating it away from the god’s battered body and enveloping him, touch soft as it embraced him with care. DreamXD sighed, sinking into the welcome enveloping feeling and shut his eyes.
His last thought before his ailed mind got rest was that he was never going anywhere near Ranboo or cake ever again.
Niki gazed, thunderstruck, at her bakery. It had reformed before her eyes, burned and charred pieces repaired and remodeled. Shakily, she entered it, hands ghosting over the entrance. It was exactly the same, down to the little notches on a few of the cabinets that had been repairable after The Pie Incident™.
A small smile graced her lips as she looked back at the newly restocked shelves. Ranboo. With renewed vigor, she grabbed the apron hanging from the hook and set to work. Cookies would be a nice thank you present.
Foolish grinned as he listened to the whispers of the code. So the god had finally gotten what he deserved, huh? Maybe it hadn’t been such a bad idea to point Ranboo in the right direction after all. He went through the play-by-play of what happened, laughing loudly and suddenly at the part where Ranboo had quite literally added void to a cake.
Everyone else at the funeral stared at him, aghast, and he realized with a wince that several people were sobbing at what the person speaking had just said. Oops.
Techno grinned, Chat screaming excitedly in his head. “Phil!”
“No!” the man in question called back, not even bothering to look at what it was this time. The crows, however, did, and there was a lot of squawking and joy. With a heavy heart, Phil turned around. When he did, his eyes widened comically. “What?! Techno!”
A mountain of diamond blocks was on their front lawn, piled up so high that Phil couldn’t even see the top because the sun was so bright.
He stood there, gaping, as Techno started his story.
“Okay, so, I returned Grumbot and I don’t think anyone even noticed he was missin’, and I got curious as to why so I went and looked for them and eventually found them inside of this really complicated series of boxes with redstone but I didn’t want them to see me so I hid and eventually got too curious and broke my way into a room with a pickaxe and it was filled with diamond blocks that it was clear that nobody was usin’ so I just sort of took all of them!”
Phil stood there for a moment, gaping at him in silence, before sighing and putting his face in his hands. “Go bring them back, Techno.”
“But–”
“Now.”
Tubbo tentatively crept towards the mansion, his son in his arms. When no Ranboo came out to greet them he frowned and stormed in. The house was eerily silent, nothing stirring. When he walked into the kitchen, however, he could see why. “Ranboo!”
Ranboo froze, Tubbo’s voice echoing through his mind. “I think I have to go, guys.”
All the endermen surrounding him let out a collective groan. They had been quite immersed in the story he’d been telling of “Cabinet Man”. One specific one, however, that Ranboo had named Aaron Burr, stepped forward, put their tentacle on his shoulder and stated that they would see him on the other side of the war. Ranboo wasn’t sure what that meant, but he repeated it anyway.
“See you on the other side of the war!” and he leapt backwards through the portal.
It was an odd experience, going through. When he’d come, DreamXD had just kind of faded the Overworld into the End, so he hadn’t actually experienced what going through the portal felt. Now, he could. It was like it was sucking him away from home when he didn’t want to leave.
Ranboo didn’t like that feeling. Regardless, he soon made it out, emerging in the basement of the mansion and banging his head on the ceiling in the process. The noise drew Tubbo to him, and the ram hybrid poked his head downstairs. “There you are! I’ve been calling for you for ages!”
“Well, technically I wasn’t actually here,” Ranboo pointed out, orienting himself.
“Then where– Ranboo Beloved what the hell is that?! ”
Ranboo looked behind himself in confusion and brightened at what he saw. “Oh yeah! So we have an End portal in our basement now.”
Tubbo just stared at him for a moment and then sighed. “You know what, whatever. You can keep it as long as you clean up the kitchen.”
“Yay! Okay, I’ll go do that now,” Ranboo said, walking to the stairs and beginning to climb. Before he got to the top, though, he turned back and looked at his husband. “By the way, where’s Jack?”
Tubbo stared at him like he was crazy. “How the hell should I know?”
Ranboo frowned. “Did he not come through the portal?”
“If he did, I wasn’t here,” Tubbo said, before furrowing his brow. “Wait. Why was Jack Manifold in the End with you?”
“That’s not important,” Ranboo waved him off. “Hm. I’ll clean up the kitchen after I find him, okay?”
And before Tubbo could respond, the particles swirled around him, and, with a pop, Ranboo materialized in front of Jack’s house in Snowchester.
“That really is a much more efficient way to travel,” the enderman-hybrid stated, walking up to the door.
But when he opened it, there was no one there. Chat told him to check the Manifold hotel, so with a quick teleport Ranboo was there.
The only things at the hotel were cats.
Ranboo checked Niki’s bakery. Nothing.
Chat suggested he check Puffy’s– maybe Jack went there for more therapy.
But Puffy said she hadn’t seen him since before they’d gone to the End.
Well then.
Where the hell was Jack Manifold?
To be continued…
CONTINUED!!! Jack Manifold's Guide To The Multiverse (help) is now out! Check it out if you want to see where Jack went or if you just want to see his braincells die.