Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Grian would never be able to fully comprehend how the rift worked, that he knew. He was just a player, an admin too at one point but those days are mostly over now. 

Even when the Watchers experimented, attempting to give him the gift of their powers, not much changed. 

Sure, they had given him a few sets of false wings and a couple of staffs that could conduct some Watcher magic, but he was never a real Watcher. He couldn’t be. You simply couldn’t alter one’s code like that. So he would always just be a player.

But there was always a part of him that wanted to give into his morbid fascinations. No matter how much he hated something or felt afraid of it, part of him still wanted to know more. He loved playing with things he couldn’t fully comprehend.

He knew the gist of it. The rift was supposed to lead to other realities. Other servers, dimensions, time periods, what have you. That was what he knew and had hoped would result from a rip through the fabric of the universe.

But when he created it, he fully accepted that he had no clue what would come out of it. How could he? How could he understand something so complex? He couldn’t. 

One of Grian’s flaws, one that he was rarely smart enough to avoid, was that he didn’t usually think things through all the way. 

Pranks were different. Of course he thought through his pranks most of the time, he was a master at them. You didn’t become a master at something without putting some effort in.

But sometimes he did things without considering if he should even do it. Sometimes he got into things he shouldn’t have. That’s what he always did, no matter how he tried not to.

Of course the rift would have unforeseen consequences when Grian didn’t even bother to try and foresee them in the first place.

He rarely thought things through. It was a flaw that coursed through his veins, accompanied only by his blood.

It was the same exact flaw that inevitably led him to this point in his life. Now here he was, lying on the ground and looking up at two very familiar faces from his past. Faces which stared back at him with wide eyes.

Two boys, one with bunny ears and one wearing headphones, looked at him and looked back at each other, pure confusion and curiosity spread across their faces.

Grian sighed, reaching an arm up to pinch his nose. This could only be the work of the rift. Looks like he had a problem of his own making. One he had to deal with himself. This was just wonderful.

He sat up slowly, palming at his forehead as he felt the beginnings of a migraine pound at his skull. The two high schoolers backed up slightly to give him space as he leaned towards them. 

“Gree-on?” Sam asked, a suspicious uncertainty in his voice.

Grian sighed even deeper, narrowing his already closed eyes. His headache only got worse with the rabbit hybrid’s familiar mispronunciation of his name.

“Are we sure that’s Grian?” Taurtis whispered loudly to Sam, acting as though the British man couldn’t hear in on them. The bunny boy just turned to his friend and shrugged.

“Maybe? I mean, it looks like him. Let’s see if he’s British,” he whispered back, just as loud, before turning back to Grian, who was now giving him an unamused stare as he knew exactly where this was going.

“Oi, mate, are you Bri’ish?!” The bunny boy asked in a horribly inaccurate British accent, shouting as if he was deaf.

Grian pushed himself to stand up, knowing he couldn’t just avoid what was happening to him if he wanted to get back to his time in Hermitcraft. 

Now standing straight, he patted down his clothing for any dirt and looked back at the two teens, who he noticed were shorter than him now, which nearly made him smirk. Sure, it was only a slight height difference, since the two boys were already tall for their age, but it was still funny to see.

“Yes,” he answered after a second of consideration, “And yes, I am Grian, but not your Grian.”

Taurtis and Sam scrunched up their noses in tandem.

“What do you mean you’re not our Grian?” Taurtis asked, squinting his eyes in suspicion.

“I mean I’m from the future,” he elaborated, refusing to beat around the bush when trying to answer their questions.

Both of the teens’ eyes immediately lit up at that, their jaws dropping. They looked ecstatic.

“You’re from the future? That’s so cool!” Taurtis shouted, unable to contain his excitement.

“Ooh! Can you tell us what happens in the future?” Sam asked curiously.

Grian’s demeanor softened a bit at their joy.

Now that he wasn’t a high schooler anymore, it was easier to spot the childishness in them both—especially Sam, who he had lost any and all respect for a long time ago. Turns out things were much more scary when he was a helpless teenager with very little life experience. He felt much more in control now, as an adult.

“I’m not sure if I should tell you two anything, in case it ruins the future more than all this probably already has,” Grian replied, crossing his arms.

“If this even is the past, and not just some alternate dimension of some kind,” Grian told himself.

The two boys deflated, their excitement leaving them so quickly you’d wonder if it was even there in the first place.

“Then what are you even here for?” Sam asked, just looking bored now.

Grian’s eye twitched a bit at that, but he reminded himself that this was a teenage boy he was talking to. This was Sam he was talking to, to be more specific, and he never was particularly good at being soft with his words.

“I didn’t exactly come here on purpose…” he began, unsure of how much he should reveal, “It was purely an accident.”

He couldn’t help but think back to when he time traveled and stole his diamonds and Villager Grian back, accidentally perpetuating a time loop where he’s doomed to lose his diamonds and create a time machine to get them back. He didn’t want to accidentally ruin his future back at Hermitcraft in case those same rules applied here.

“Wait a minute, how do you time travel on accident?” Taurtis asked incredulously with a small laugh, “Is that even possible?”

“Anything’s possible,” Grian answered vaguely, a smug smile stretching across his face.

“Well, if you time traveled accidentally, do you know how to get back or…?” Sam asked, trailing off.

“Eh, I’ll figure it out, I usually do,” he said, feigning the confidence he most certainly was not actually feeling.

“Does that mean you have nowhere to stay right now?” Taurtis asked, which was actually a good point.

“Uh, well, I…guess?” Grian floundered to say, feeling slightly off put by the idea of living on the streets till he found his way home. Especially in a city that got so dangerous and chilly once night hit. 

This was a permadeath world, wasn’t it? He should definitely be more cautious. He had no idea if the rift had any effect on what happened here, but he didn’t want to find out the hard way. He had to suppress a shiver at the thought.

Sam grinned,

“Well, you can stay at our place, right Taurtis?” He elbowed his friend in the side, hard.

Taurtis murmured a quick “ow” before confirming what Sam just said,

“Yeah, I mean, you’re still Grian, so we’re kind of obligated to bring you with us. We’d be bad friends if we didn’t.”

“Exactly, and we’re not bad friends, right Taurtis?“

“Right!” Taurtis nodded in an over the top manner.

Grian blinked hard, feeling a confusing mix of nostalgia and nausea at the familiarity of their dynamic.

“Well, alright then, I guess I’ll be staying with you two till I go home.”

He didn’t exactly have another choice, unless he wanted to be sharing a dumpster with Pepe for however long he was here. 

And so he found himself walking along the sidewalk with them, passing by the bus that he remembered Taurtis crashing. Passed out and bleeding all over the steering wheel. Taking him to the hospital and being accused of something he didn’t do. He tried not to think too hard about it. He had to stay positive, he had a good home he needed to get back to.

Grian kept quiet while the two boys engaged in a conversation that he didn’t even bother to try and keep up with. After a few minutes, the rabbit hybrid was suddenly looking over at him again,

“So you really can’t tell us anything about the future?” 

“…Nope.”

Grian’s eyes cracked open to a view of the sky. 

What just happened? Had he blacked out? He could’ve sworn he was just walking out of school a second ago.

Where were Sam and Taurtis? Did they leave him behind or something? He wouldn’t necessarily be shocked if they did. There seemed to be a very “every man for himself” mentality in Japan.

He sat up, feeling a strong headache coming on. He groaned, vision blurring as he attempted to focus on his surroundings.

His eyes went wide when he noticed he was definitely not in Japan anymore.

He stood up quickly, nearly falling back down in the process, and looked around frantically. Where was he?

He was standing on top of some kind of broken bridge made of rocks, which connected two buildings. Two beautifully made buildings, if he might add, and he found himself curious as to who built them. Maybe he could ask for a few tips if he ever got the chance.

He shook his head, wincing at the increase in pain that his brain retaliated back at him. This was not the time to admire the beautiful structures of this land. He needed to figure out where he was and how to get back.

He cautiously made his way across the bridge, weary of every crack he saw and thinking about how high up he was with every step he took.

Eventually he was up close to what looked to be a large vault. He reached up and grabbed at the huge handle. When he tried to pull it, he found that it wouldn’t budge at all. Either he wasn’t strong enough, or it was never meant to be opened in the first place. He quietly hoped it was the latter. Otherwise that was quite the blow to his confidence, he thought himself to be a pretty strong guy.

He took a few steps back and noticed an even bigger vault towering in the distance. It was surrounded by those giant, incredibly detailed walls he was entranced by when he woke up. He decided it wasn’t worth the effort to climb up there and attempt to open an even bigger vault, and turned around  to walk towards the second building. 

As he made his way towards it, he gawked at the site of floating boulders in the sky around it. It was beautiful, how does one even make something like this? He wondered how many people it took to build all this. Was it all one person? He had many questions that he felt would never be answered.

He walked inside the open plan build, which was pretty much the exact opposite of the vault he saw before. It was very free, as though it had nothing to hide. Both structures were beautiful in their own ways, but he felt much more comfortable in this one. More at home, for some reason. Maybe it was just the lighter colors, but somehow it felt like it went even deeper than that. 

Though the outside was gorgeous, the inside was littered with many different chests and strange, colorful boxes. When he opened up one of the chests, he was disappointed to be met with what looked to be nothing but a bunch of junk. 

He huffed, closing it and turning over to one of the alien-like boxes. He walked over to it, kneeling down and grabbing it by the sides, trying to figure out how to get it to open. 

When he finally figured it out, it opened up almost like a puzzle piece being detached from its rightful place. It was a weird texture, feeling like a shell of some kind but also like nothing he’d ever felt before. Like it wasn’t from here and wasn’t meant to be here, though that was a weird observation. He was probably just overreacting. He carefully closed it back up, not bothering to even look inside.

Grian stood up and turned his head towards the entrance when he heard what sounded like a firework going off.

He approached the opening and looked up to find that someone was…flying? Flying towards him? Could people even do that? He didn’t think he'd even seen Snow Owl fly and she was a literal owl hybrid. Or maybe she could and he’d never seen her do it? He didn’t quite know.

Seemed like such a waste to be able to fly and still take the train, though. But he vaguely remembered seeing Ellen hovering a few times and they still took the train. Perhaps flying took up as much energy as walking did? 

He backed up a bit, feeling concerned. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be here, and yet here he was. This might be this person’s house for all he knew, and he was trespassing right now. 

He quickly made his way back inside and chose to hide behind one of the many large chests. He didn’t know for sure what they wanted or why they were here. All he knew was that he didn’t want to be on the bad side of someone who could fly. That’s an automatic disadvantage. So hiding was the best option he could think of for now.

Soon after he went into hiding, he heard the sound of feet stumbling to land properly. Grian carefully peaked out from behind the chest to see a man with long hair and pointy ears, large scars wrapped around his face.

The man seemed like he was looking around for someone and, unfortunately, ended up spotting the teen as his head poked out. 

He quickly ducked back down, a small rush of adrenaline running through his body. The elf saw him. He saw him and he didn’t know what was going to happen next.

“Grian!” 

Wait, what?

“Grian, I saw you! Don’t you hide from me, mister!” 

The man was now walking over to where he was and it felt like his heart was beating throughout his whole body. 

Who even was this guy? He called out his name so he definitely knows who he is but Grian was pretty sure he’d remember seeing this man if he ever had. He had a very unique look about him and yet he didn’t have any clue who he was. Should he know him?

His was broken out of his thoughts when the man suddenly poked his head over the chest and looked at Grian with a large grin that stretched his scars in a way that was a bit uncomfortable to look at.

Grian couldn’t help but let out a loud—definitely not girly—scream and jumped backwards away from the elf. He wasn’t a coward! Something about being discovered like that just triggered some sort of primal fear deep inside him, that’s all. 

The elf man suddenly froze, seeming confused as he got a better look at him. It was quiet.

“Uhm, hello?” He chose to say, feeling awkward with the man just staring at him.

“Hi, Grian…?” The man asked rather than said, looking him up and down with an unsure expression.

Grian narrowed his eyes,

“How do you know my name? I’ve literally never met you in my life. I don’t even know what your name is.”

“Well, something’s definitely not right here,” the man looked down and muttered to himself before looking back at Grian, 

“I’m Scar, one of your pals! Though, you do look and sound an awful lot younger than usual,” the man—Scar, laughed slightly.

Grian furrowed his eyebrows. Younger? Scar continued on anyways,

“Yeah, you’re definitely not the version of Grian that’s supposed to be here,” he said, whatever that was supposed to mean, “but I’m not really sure how you got here in the first place…”

He trailed off, looking to be lost in thought. Suddenly he snapped his fingers,

“Tell ya what, how about I take you to my admin? So that we can figure out what’s going on here? He should probably be able to figure out what happened,” He suggested.

Grian thought about it for a moment. If anyone could get him home, it was probably this admin guy. So he nodded.

“If he can get me home, then sure.”

Scar grinned and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, leading him back over to the entrance. So they were going to go meet the owner of this place, that was good. A step in the right direction to going back home.

Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind,

“Wait,” he asked, tilting his head at the elf, “how are we going to get there?” 

Did they have trains here? What was their main form of transportation? This guy flew here somehow, but surely they weren’t doing that when Grian didn’t even have a way to fly with him.

Scar grinned,

“We’re gonna fly!”

 He stood corrected.

Chapter Text

“And how’s that gonna work, exactly?” Grian asked with a raised brow. 

The elf pulled something out of his inventory, an item that looked almost like a tablet of some kind, though not one that Grian had ever seen before. He began typing something out onto it.

“Well, first I’ll need to message Xisuma—that’s the admin’s name—to see where he is right now,” he explained, before muttering to himself, “Just gotta give him the gist of what’s going on.”

“No—I mean, how are we supposed to fly if I can’t fly?” Grian questioned incredulously.

Scar looked back up at the teen after a moment, seeming to realize his mistake.

“Ohhh right, you don’t have an elytra,” Scar had a look on his face like he was thinking again, 

“Well…I could always just carry you!” He concluded with a large grin.

“What?! No!” Grian’s face went red at the thought of being carried as if he were a child, “Can’t we just walk or something?”

The elf looked very amused,

“I mean, we could. Though that might take a while. If that’d make you more comfortable though, then of course we can!” he said, clearly finding his reaction funny.

Grian, on the other hand, was not as amused.

“Yeah, well, it would still be better than being carried around like an infant.”

Scar chuckled,

“Yeah, my Grian would probably feel the same way.”

“That—and what’s ‘your Grian’ even supposed to mean?” Grian asked, arms crossed, feeling like he was out of the loop, “I feel like you know something that I don’t.”

Scar opened his mouth—about to answer—when suddenly the tablet let out a ding, which made him look down at the screen.

It was quiet between the two of them for about a minute, the only sounds being the wind and the many noises coming from the tablet—obviously some kind of conversation was going on. Eventually, he put away the device.

“Well, hey! It looks like we don’t need to walk anywhere because X is going to be coming to us,” Scar said cheerfully and Grian sighed.

“But don’t you worry!” Scar reassured with a smile, “All will—hopefully—be explained once he gets here.”

The teen grumbled impatiently and leaned on one of the pillars. He guessed he had no other option but to wait. He idly watched Scar sit down against the pillar opposite to him. Grian could already feel the boredom creeping up on him 

Maybe he could at least make conversation while waiting?

Grian was enjoying a dreamless sleep when he was shaken awake by something.

He groaned irritably and cracked an eye open, trying to figure out what the issue was. His blurry eyes met a pair of reddish-brown ones. 

The rabbit hybrid had a hand resting on Grian’s arm and a blank look on his face—until he noticed that the older man had woken up, and a grin replaced his previously vacant expression.

“Finally, you’re awake. You’re a really heavy sleeper, you know that?” The boy complained.

“Why did you wake me up?” Grian mumbled, still sleepy. His fuzzy vision started to clear up and he noticed an outfit in Sam’s other hand. 

God, he wanted to go back to bed—it was still dark outside. He felt his eyes slowly begin slipping shut.

Then Sam held out the uniform towards Grian,

“So you can go to school with us, duh.”

That woke him right up.

“Wait, what? No—I’m not going to school with you two. I’m not even an official student there, why would I even need to go?” Grian sat up and argued with a rough voice. He knew all his complaining was futile though.

“But we’re a trio! Me and Taurtis could just go without you, but it just wouldn’t feel right,” Sam, of course, insisted.

“You guys are friends with J, right?” Grian reminded him, “Before I even came here, J was basically a part of your group.”

“Yeah, but that’s different. He’s a cool guy, but we aren’t really best friends with him.”

Grian gave him a deadpan look. This boy really was stubborn as a mule, always determined to get his way.

“And you’re saying you’re best friends with me?”

Taurtis gasped, peeking his head into the room. Grian noted that both him and Sam were already dressed and ready for school.

“Grian? Do you not think of us as your best friends?!” The dark haired boy asked, looking offended.

Sam gasped as well, looking at Taurtis and back at Grian,

“Duuuude,” he breathed out, sounding betrayed.

Grian rolled his eyes,

“That’s not—I’m not—Oh, whatever.”

Grian just grabbed the uniform from Sam and held it in front of him, it looked a little smaller than what he usually wore.

“Is this even going to fit me? You two are definitely smaller than me, you know.”

Taurtis pouted,

“I miss you when you were the shortest one out of all of us.”

Grian smirked, 

“That’s just one of the perks of growing up. Now about the uniform—“

“Eh, just put it on,” Sam waved a hand, “You’re not that much taller. If anything, it might just be a little tight.”

Grian glared at the rabbit hybrid, hating that he was actually probably right, and started walking to the bathroom to get ready.

“Fine,” he said as he maneuvered past the two boys, who just watched him stomp out of the room.

“So, how exactly do you guys fly, anyway?” Grian asked the elf with a raised brow, trying not to look too interested.

Scar perked up, 

“Well, I’m glad you asked, good sir,” he said confidently, and unbuckled something around his chest.

The man worked to remove whatever it was from his back and then held it out for Grian, who leaned in closer to see.

“This, young man, is an elytra!”

It looked like a pair of wings you’d see on an insect, maybe a beetle or something. They were mostly opaque, only the slightest bit translucent, and were a purplish grey color. It also looked to have some kind of bright purple energy glowing around it. He’d never seen anything like it. It was oddly beautiful in its unusual appearance.

His mouth opened slightly as his eyes widened in awe. One of his hands reached out to touch it, and Scar only pushed it closer to him with a smile.

His fingers grazed along the silky smooth surface of the wings. It reminded him of the texture of the weird box from before, although it was completely different at the same time. It was such an otherworldly feel, something hard to describe.

“What did you say it was called again?” He asked.

“An elytra,” Scar supplied.

“Elytra…” He repeated to himself, testing how the word felt on his tongue.

“So this makes you fly?” Grian asked, still entranced by the glowing affect running across the gear.

“Well, not exactly. It helps you glide, but we use firework rockets to boost us through the air.”

“That’s so cool,” the teen breathed out, feeling giddy, looking up at Scar with an open smile, “Is it supposed to be glowing like this?”

Scar grinned at the contagious joy on the high schooler’s face. He’d never seen Grian look so young and so excited before. He felt happy to show something new to the kid.

“It’s glowing like this because it’s enchanted! The enchantments make it more durable and easier to repair,” he explained.

“Enchanted…like magic?” Grian thought about Ellen, wondering if they knew about the existence of enchantments. Probably.

“Yeah, like magic! There’s many different kinds of enchantments you can put on your tools to make them work better or last longer.”

“Wow,” the boy said, “That sounds pretty useful.”

“It definitely is,” Scar nodded, eyes trained on something in the sky.

Grian turned his head from the elf over to the clouds, to see what he was staring at, and noticed someone flying towards them.

“Is that…?”

“Yep, that’s X! He should help us out with all this!”

Grian gave a small nod as he watched a heavily armored man glide down to where they were.

Grian stepped out of the bathroom, body stiff as the jacket of the uniform hugged tightly around his form. 

The dress shirt itself fit just fine for the most part, but the jacket was definitely not his size, ending too high up on his torso to look right.

It wasn’t necessarily unwearable, but the restricted movement was definitely noticeable. Plus, he probably looked ridiculous right now.

Sam and Taurtis looked him up and down once he entered the room.

“I told you it would be too tight,” Grian said, irritated. It almost felt like he was wearing a corset. 

“Maybe ditch the jacket? I’m sure just the shirt and tie underneath would be fine enough to look normal,” Sam suggested, looking down at the hermit’s chest with critical eyes.

Grian huffed and unbuttoned the jacket, feeling much better once his arms left the tight grip of the sleeves. He brushed down the slightly wrinkled dress shirt and adjusted the tie. 

“Much better,” Taurtis nodded seriously.

“Yeah, you look just like regular Gree-on!” Sam said, grabbing his school bag and walking towards the door, “Now, come on. We’re gonna be late for school if we wait any longer!”

Taurtis trotted to the door as well and Grian sighed quietly, reluctantly trailing behind him.

This was gonna take a bit of getting used to. 

Chapter Text

As soon as the trio walked out of the apartment complex, Grian spotted a couple familiar faces. 

Yuki and Chan were crossing the street towards them—Yuki running eagerly over to Sam and Chan trotting along the road in a much calmer manner, glaring subtly at the other girl.

This immediately reminded Grian of the bad blood between the two. 

Yuki literally framed Chan for murder. Yeah, she definitely had a good reason to not like her. Hell, Grian wasn’t a huge fan either—she did do some messed up things, didn’t she?

“Sam! It’s about time, what took you so long?” Yuki complained, hugging the hybrid with enough strength to make Sam let out a slightly choked noise.

“Gree-on refused to get dressed, me and Taurtis had to convince him to,” Sam struggled to get the words out and Yuki finally let go of him, looking over at Grian.

Chan grabbed Taurtis’ arm and spoke before the other girl could even say anything,

“We should get going or we’re gonna miss the train.”

She wasn’t wrong, so Yuki begrudgingly gripped Sam’s hand and led the way towards the underground train station.

As they began to walk, Grian in between the two couples, he could hear Chan speak to Taurtis behind him,

“So, what happened? Why does Grian look so…off?” She asked, sounding confused.

“He’s from the future!” Taurtis responded with audible excitement.

“The future? What—“

Grian turned and stared at the teens, Taurtis was looking at Chan with a happy grin and Chan had an eyebrow raised, smiling slightly.

“You know, you could always just ask me about what’s going on with me, right?”

She looked at him,

“I didn’t think you’d wanna talk about it,” she said with a small shrug.

Grian sighed.

“So, is it true? Are you really from the future?” She asked, tilting her head.

“Yes,” he answered simply, turning back around to catch up with the other two.

Taurtis and Chan raced to catch up, now walking either side of him.

“So why are you here, then?” Chan asked.

“Well—“ Grian started before being cut off by Taurtis,

“He came here on accident! He said he has to find a way back, but he’s staying with us until then!” Taurtis informed his girlfriend eagerly.

Grian grumbled quietly at being rudely interrupted and Chan looked like she was thinking.

“Hmm…Maybe J could help you?” She said in a questioning tone.

“Hm? How could he help?” Grian asked, brows furrowing.

“Well, he’s pretty smart, likes science and stuff a lot. And he’s rich too, so that would probably work in your favor,” she shrugged at him again, turning to face forward, “I don’t know, I feel like it’s atleast worth a try if you don’t already know how to get back.”

“Huh, you’re right, that’s actually a pretty good idea,” Grian said, “Thanks, Chan.”

She smiled,

“Of course.”

Taurtis and her passed him, walking slightly faster to not fall behind before the train left without them. PufferfishPete wasn’t so lenient as to wait for every usual student. You were either there or you weren’t.

Grian started walking faster too, not wanting to get left behind in the area he only barely remembered how to get his way around.

Xisuma was aware of the existence of the rift and had elected to ignore it for the most part. It wasn’t uncommon for the Hermits to create game-breaking things on the server—Doc was especially guilty of this. 

After reading the sudden message from Scar, he thought to himself that maybe he should’ve looked more into this whole rift situation, because he had a sneaking suspicion that’s where the problem stemmed from.

He typed back a response and put his communicator away. It looks like he had to take an unplanned trip to Grian’s base, affectionately named Dwayne.

He flew for a few minutes before finally seeing some beautifully sculpted floating rocks in the distance. Getting closer fairly quickly, he could see two figures looking up at him. He knew it was the two Hermits in need of his help.

Before he knew it, he was landing roughly on the wooden floor of the base. One of the two men jumped backwards slightly. Xisuma looked at them and—good lord.

Now there was a smaller (both in height and physique,) younger Grian standing next to Scar. 

The Hermit had already informed him of what he would see once he got here, and yet it still didn’t prepare him for it.

His eyes were wider, cheeks rounder and jawline softer. Plus he was definitely lankier. The differences were mostly subtle, yet they were hard to ignore. This was definitely a teenage Grian they were dealing with.

“Well, what do we have here?” Xisuma asked playfully with a kind smile, although it was only visible through the crinkle of his eyes.

Scar stood up and walked over to the teen and softly slung an arm over his shoulder, feeling more mindful that this Grian was less lean and more so just thin. 

“This, Xisuma, is Grian,” the elf introduced, squeezing the boy slightly, “Grian, this is Xisuma, the admin of this server!”

“Hey, bud, must be confusing to suddenly appear somewhere you don’t recognize, huh?” The Admin said, looking down at the teen, tilting his head with his hands on his hips.

Grian huffed at being talked down to like he was a kid who got lost in a mall, but nodded anyway.

“Well don’t worry, I’m gonna find out how to get you back home, where you’re supposed to be. Sound good?”

“Yeah,” Grian replied, feeling slightly relieved and safe with the presence of someone who knows what he’s doing.

Could he really trust an adult though? The adults he knew always pretended to know what they were doing but always did the wrong thing. Oh well, he was just gonna have to take what he could get.

Scar clapped his hands together,

“Okay! So where do we start?”

“We should probably make sure we figure out exactly what happened before we do anything.”

“You’re right,” Scar said and looked to Grian, who was staring questioningly at the two of them.

“So, Grian,” the admin started, pulling out his own tablet, “What was the last thing you remember before you got here?”

Grian thought about it for a second before answering,

“I was walking out of school with my friends, then suddenly I woke up on that bridge out there,” he pointed, “that’s all I can remember.”

The admin looked down and recorded the information,

“So nothing strange happened before that?” Scar tilted his head.

“Not that I can recall, no. Nothing out of the ordinary,” the teen shook his head.

“You said you were walking out of school before you woke up here. What server were you living in?” Xisuma asked, looking up from his device.

“Uh, I don’t know?” Grian said hesitantly, “I don’t know exactly what you mean by server. I was in Japan, I guess. Oh! I was going to Akademi High School, if that helps.”

Xisuma furrowed his brows and looked back down, reluctantly typing something out, 

“Hmm…Well that doesn’t completely narrow it down but I’m sure I could figure something out with that information.”

He looked up again,

“And, mind telling us how old you are?” Xisuma questioned him.

“17,” Grian answered, arms crossed tightly in front of his chest. 

The admin muttered an “okay” to himself and continued typing on his tablet.

Scar, on the other hand, cooed at the teen. He was 12 years younger than the Grian he knew.

“Aww, you’re just a baby-Grian, aren’t you!”

Grian gave him an intense look, a mix of both bewilderment and offense.

“I’m not a baby!” He said, narrowing his eyes and scrunching up his nose in anger.

Scar raised his hands in defense,

“Sorry, sorry! I just can’t help it!” He laughed.

He then looked over at his admin,

“So, what’s next, X?”

The admin looked up at the Hermit,

“Well, I was thinking we take a look at the rift.”

They reached the train station, just slightly more late than the other students. PufferfishPete glared at them,

“Hurry and get over here, before I close this door on you!”

The group rushes over to the door, wielding their freshly bought tickets.

They each individually made their exchange with him and he would grab the ticket roughly, telling them to get on already. 

Grian was the last to give him his ticket. He handed it over to the man and he only looked him up and down with a confused look on his face before demanding that he get on, turning around and heading towards the driver’s area.

Grian hurried on and found a seat next to where Yuki and Sam were sitting—Sam too busy talking to Taurtis to pay any attention to his attentive girlfriend. The British man looked around at the seats and huffed.

J wasn’t on the train, figures. He did own several expensive cars. It would be a waste to not drive one to school everyday.

Grian breathed out through his nose, closing his eyes. He was gonna have to remember to talk to him at school then. 

He opened his eyes and jumped slightly when he saw Yuki staring at him. Her reddish pink eyes bore into his soul. He stared back, waiting for her to stop. She didn’t.

“What?” He finally asked, exasperated.

“Why do you look weirder than usual?” She asked, looking unimpressed.

He gave her the same look back,

“I’m from the future,” he said bluntly.

She tried and failed to hold back a loud laugh, making Grian smirk a little bit to try and hold back a laugh of his own. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her genuinely laugh before. It was all fake, cute laughs to make people like her.

“No, but seriously.”

“Really, I’m not lying,” he reaffirmed.

She scrunched up her nose and crossed her arms,

“There’s no way. Time travel doesn’t exist.”

Grian raised an eyebrow,

“Seriously? Out of all the weird things that happen here everyday, time travel isn’t possible?”

“Hmph,” was all she let out and Grian adjusted himself in his seat.

“The Grian you know is probably like…16, 17? I'm almost 30.”

Her jaw dropped,

“No way you’re 30, you look younger than that!”

He could hold back a small laugh at that,

“Well, thanks I guess.”

She sat back, looking like she was thinking hard about something, before asking,

“So, you’re actually from the future?” At a nod from Grian, she continued, “How did you get here then?”

“Uh,” he scratched his head, “let’s just say I made something I probably shouldn’t have and leave it at that.”

She looked him up and down and decided to lay off on him.

“Okay, then.”

Grian sighed and sat back, wanting to just relax for the rest of the ride before he got to the school. God, he hated school.

Chapter Text

In just a few minutes, they had arrived at their destination. It wasn’t much, but it was just enough time for him to get his brain sorted.

Pufferfish Pete was the first to unboard the train—which made much more sense to Grian now that he was older, considering the man had like 20 different jobs and hundreds of kids to feed.

Grian wasn’t in nearly as much of a rush as he stood up, allowing several students to bump past him as they made their way out the doors.

Yuki waited patiently for him, even as Sam, Taurtis and Chan left without her, which was pretty odd behavior from her. She never really cared much for him back then, so it felt odd to suddenly have her attention.

Grian looked at her curiously but she just gave him an expectant look. Clearly waiting for him to make the first move.

He brushed off his pants and adjusted his tie before walking out of the train, turning to see if Yuki was keeping up behind him. She was. Following him like a bear cub following its mother.

He still felt that it was a little weird, but ultimately decided to shrug it off and keep walking, looking to catch up with the other three that took off without them.

He would have to find J once they got to school, which shouldn’t be too hard given how extroverted the kid was. 

He glanced over at Yuki once more, who had begun to jog past him to catch up with Sam. He should probably also figure out what’s up with her. Besides the whole Yakuza family business thing.

The three had finally reached ground level, taking much longer than usual without the use of an elytra. They took the old fashioned route and spent about 10 extra minutes hiking down the hill and over to the huge hole in the ground.

Grian furrowed his brow, seeing a glowing purple aura seeping from the darkness below. It was clearly a long way down, a fall from here would surely kill him. He was beginning to realize they really did fly everywhere they went.

Xisuma and Scar also noticed the issue.

“Huh,” X muttered, “Well this might be a problem.”

“You’re telling me,” Grian complained, “Are you saying we’re supposed to get down there somehow?”

“Well, I guess me carrying you isn’t such a bad idea now, huh?” Scar asked Grian in amusement.

Grian huffed and narrowed his eyes,

“Do you people not know that stairs exist? What is with this place and your lack of self preservation?”

“I’ll have you know, it’s your future self who built this!” Scar said, only half-joking.

Grian grumbled to himself for a moment as the two Hermits waited for a response, then looked back at Scar, 

“Can’t you guys just…build stairs to get down there or something?”

Scar and X looked at each other for a moment and then looked back at the younger Grian,

“We could do that, it might take a little bit though,” X pondered, “Maybe…Actually, Scar, how about you take Grian on a tour of the server while I message Doc for assistance with this instead?”

Scar grinned,

“You got it!” He looked down at Grian, “I’ll show you around and you can meet all the lovely folks that live on this wonderful server!”

Scar’s natural enthusiasm and charisma made Grian feel safer than he ever had his whole life. It was nice, comforting even, to feel safe enough to depend on someone other than himself. 

He let himself relax and smile a bit, feeling like he could probably get used to this,

“Sure.”

Grian followed the teens for a few minutes, walking farther behind them. He didn’t try to catch up, far too focused on his plans for the day to have a chat. He needed to talk to J, convince him to help him out. Probably wouldn’t be too hard, J was a pretty cool dude from what he could recall.

Soon he could see the towering form of Akademi High School in the distance, gradually appearing from behind the buildings and houses. 

He scrunched his nose at the sight. He was never particularly fond of this place and he still wasn’t. Not even nostalgia could make him like this place.

Within a couple more minutes, he was walking through the open entrance of the school and into the populated, early-morning locker room.

Sam and Taurtis went on their own way, barely paying any attention to him anymore. As did Yuki and Chan.

Grian spotted J leaning against his locker chatting with Dom and Hidden. 

“Hey, J!” he called, walking towards the boys.

The three looked over at him ready to greet the British student when they froze, a look of confusion twisting their faces. J recovered much quicker than the other two.

“Grian?” He asked, “What’s up? You’re looking awfully…different.”

Grian would ignore that for now,

“Yeah, I need to talk to you real quick?” He gave a questioning look to the teen, silently asking if they could talk alone, “It’s pretty important,” he added

J looked over at Hidden and Dom, who looked back at him—still confused as before—and shrugged, finishing grabbing their stuff and walking away.

J turned back to him,

“So, whatcha need?”

“I don’t know if you can tell exactly but…” J raised his eyebrows as Grian spoke, “I’m from the future.”

J only nodded, 

“I figured. So what is it that you need help with exactly?”

“I don’t have a way to get back to my time right now, I didn’t even mean to come here in the first place.”

“Huh,” the teen said, thinking, “So I’m guessing you need my help to get back, then?”

Grian nodded so hard he almost got a headache from the harsh movement.

J sighed,

“Well, I don’t exactly have my own DeLorean yet. I’ve been meaning to get around to building one for myself I swear—“

“So, will you?”

“Hm?”

“Will you help me build a Time Machine? I’ve done it before a couple times but…I haven’t exactly been on a server like this in a while,” Grian said, remembering the limited materials he had access to here.

“Obviously!” J grinned with enthusiasm, “I’d never pass up an opportunity to help a friend—and create my own Time Machine in the process of course.”

Grian smiled with relief,

“Thanks, man,” he said genuinely, “Let me know when you’re ready to start, I…I don’t have an ICrab on me so you might have to text Sam or Taurtis to get ahold of me but—“

“I’ve got a way better idea!” The boy interrupted.

“Oh yeah?” Grian raised a brow.

“How about you, Sam and Taurtis come to my place for a sleepover and we start tonight?” He proposed with an expectant look.

“Uh,” Grian paused and thought about it.

He guessed he would rather spend the night with J than just Sam and Taurtis alone, maybe it would be a little more calm and reasonable? Plus if he could help get it done quicker…

“Sure, sounds good,” which got him a grin in response.

“Perfect!” J exclaimed, slamming his locker shut and ready to walk away, “See you guys tonight at my place!”

Grian nodded at the now-retreating figure and sighed again, he really wanted to see his real friends again. He’d only felt this kind of home sickness once before, and he didn’t like it. Hopefully J could actually help him out.

Scar wished Mumbo was here to see this as he led the teenaged Grian through the currently vacant outside area of the shopping district in Hermit Town.

The boy looked around in awe at the buildings. It was all just so beautiful. It was exactly the kind of stuff he would dream up whenever he envisioned his future in architecture. There was a building with purple crystals (amethyst, he guessed) as the roof!

“Who built all this?” He asked Scar in amazement.

Scar smiled wide at his interest in the magnificent builds of their friends. 

“It was a team effort, everyone here built their own shop!”

“That’s incredible,” Grian mumbled to himself, being completely honest, then looked at Scar, “So is everyone here a builder?”

“Pretty much, though some Hermits are more into redstone than building. Everyone usually builds their own base though so, yeah!”

“Redstone?” Grian’s face scrunched up in confusion, “What's that?”

Scar’s eyes widened,

“You don’t know what redstone is?!”

“No, I guess it’s another one of your weird things you’ve got going on in this world of yours here,” the boy grumbled.

“Redstone is basically how all machines work! It’s how we build automatic farms, pull cool pranks, build doors that open without being pushed, power our jukeboxes! How do you not know what redstone is?”

“I’m pretty sure all of that can be done with electricity,” Grian said skeptically, “Never heard of this redstone business.”

“Electricity? Like lightning?” Scar tilted his head.

“I mean, I guess? I’m no scientist or whatever but I know that electricity is used to power essentially everything. It’s usually how we get energy, I mean there’s other ways but—“

“So you basically use lightning to produce energy?” Scar asked with wide eyes, “That sounds amazyn, I wonder if we can do that here…is that what those rods are for?” 

The elf man looked lost in thought, now muttering to himself, almost like he was scheming something and Grian poked him to get his attention.

“So what is this redstone stuff you’re talking about?”

Scar looked at him blankly for a moment before snapping his fingers and forming a grin on his face.

“I think the best way to teach you about redstone, my friend, is to introduce you to one of our many redstone experts on the server!” He proclaimed, “Come on!” 

Scar grabbed his hand and started pulling him somewhere before he could get another word out.

He guessed he would be meeting more people.