Chapter Text
Mumbo Pov
Mumbo was fixing his vault door, when his comm dinged, the message was from Grian, asking for everyone to meet at the Shopping district.
What could that be for?
He put his materials away in a nearby shulker box, something telling him that he probably wouldn’t be getting back to his build any time soon. Strapping on his elytra, he fired his rockets and took off towards the Shopping district.
His mind buzzed with questions as the wind whipped past his face, wondering about what could have prompted Grian to call an emergency meeting, and about why he and a few other hermits had been missing from the server.
Could it be about X?
No. X was gone. If Mumbo was to dwell on these thoughts for too long, he would break down, and that wasn’t what he needed right now. His musings came to an abrupt end as the colorful buildings of HermitCraft’s shopping district came into view; structures of various shapes and sizes, scattered across the area and providing a vibrant contrast to the plain earth.
Mumbo came in for a graceful landing, elytra folding neatly behind him. The first thing that he noticed was that Grian seemed more agitated than usual. The avian had been a bit listless ever since their admin was taken, but now he seemed almost angry.
“Grian? I’m here for the meeting.”
Grian’s head snapped up, his eyes were glowing faintly purple and held a deep, burning rage within them. Mumbo couldn’t help taking a step back, breath stuttering in fear. Scar, –who must have been there the entire time– placed a hand on Grian’s shoulder, giving him a stern but caring look.
The avian slumped, all the energy leaving him in a burst and he turned an apologetic gaze towards Mumbo, who at this point, was more confused than scared.
“Is everything okay?” He inquired.
Grian opened his mouth, then closed it, gaze flicking to Scar, asking the man to speak for him. Scar smiled, but it was slightly strained.
“I’d rather not have to explain everything twice, so we’ll have to wait until a few more hermits get here,” noticing Mumbo’s crestfallen expression, he quickly continued,” –But, I can tell you that it’s about X.”
Mumbo froze, blood turning to ice as the words echoed in his head.
It’s about X.
He didn’t miss the way that Grian and Scar exchanged a glance at his sudden silence, but he chose not to react, instead moving to sit on one of the rocks outside of Grian’s entity shop.
He didn’t notice the other hermits arriving, only snapping out of his daze when Scar clapped his hands to begin the meeting.
“So,” Scar began, “many of you know that a while ago I was taken by the watchers.”
Murmurs of assent spread through the crowd of hermits.
Scar paused for a minute before continuing, “And while most of you might not know all of the details, I think most know that our admin, Xisuma, gave himself up in my place.” At these words, Mumbo noticed a flicker of guilt on the terraformer’s face, fast enough that anyone who hadn’t known the man for a long time might have missed it.
Scar’s voice wobbled slightly when he spoke again, though he seemed to be trying valiantly to keep his voice steady.
“Well, we went to Ex–who was given admin commands by X when he left– and told him that we wanted to stage a rescue mission to the watcher’s domain. They said yes, to our surprise and offered to go with us. We thought that it would be a good idea to let some other hermits know where we would be going just in case we needed back up, but they all decided that they wanted to come with us despite the dangers–” Chuckling rippled through the crowd, “--So our group ended up a lot larger than we originally anticipated, but we managed to get into the watcher’s domain pretty easily thanks to Grian and Pearl, and to make a long story short, we found X.”
Any excitement that Mumbo might have felt at those words died quickly at Grian’s pained expression and Scar’s barely masked anger.
“He wasn’t doing well, he had scars all over his body and didn’t recognize us when we tried to move him, and–” Scar’s voice stuttered to a stop, and Grian moved to take his place, Scar gave him a concerned look, but the avian seemed to brush it off.
“Ex said that his wings were different now as well,” Grian’s voice shook and Mumbo could tell that it hurt his friend to be talking about this, “ The watcher’s did something to his memories, and he doesn't seem to remember any of us, maybe Ex, but that might just be because they have a weird connection to each other.”
He took a deep breath to steady himself, “ X is safe for right now, but we don’t know how long we can keep the watchers out of the server. If anyone has any ideas for defenses or anything that could help X get his memories back, we could all use help.”
Scar led Grian off of the stage as whispers began to spread through their audience. Mumbo rushed to meet his two friends, concern and worry etched onto his face.
“Are you two going to be okay?”
Scar looked a bit surprised, “ I’d have thought that you would be interrogating us to find out where X is.”
“You guys are my fa- friends too.” He had to stop himself before he called them his family, now was not the time to be unpacking his relationships.
“We’ll be okay,” Grian offered him a weary smile as he said this, “ I don’t know about Ex though, they’re super concerned about Xisuma.”
Scar cracked a smile as well, “who knows, with how angry they seemed, they might murder the watchers before you can, G.”
Mumbo laughed, glad to see his friends in a better mood. Things were tough, but he was sure the Hermits could get through it.