#I will explain later why so “many” items and the 4 elytras

[mel-is-genderfluid]

-If I say that it took me about 4/5 hours to get all of this, would you guys believe me? :'))

[zallano]

The HereAfter, Chapter 5

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, read on AO3!

The entire chapter under the cut

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“The same way I did? What do you mean?” Mumbo asked. “I mean, we have the same clocks right? Surely we did something similar to travel through time.” Grian explained. “Wait you’re saying you’re from the past too?” Mumbo questioned. “Er- no- not exactly. I’m from the ‘future’” he made air quotes. “Oh, the future. That’s interesting..”

Grian nodded. “What did you do to get into this time period?” He asked. Mumbo shrugged. “I have no idea. I just appeared here.” He explained. Grain frowned. “Oh, okay,”

They sat on the treetop in silence for a few moments. The sound of the ocean and the soft ticking of their clocks channeled through the air. It was peaceful. Though, Grian’s sad expression made Mumbo concerned. “Are you okay?” He asked.  “Oh- yeah, I’m fine. Sorry about that.” Grian stood up and dusted off his pants. He glanced off toward the horizon. The sun has risen higher, the sky was a soft golden color and slowly turning blue. “Ah, it’s morning now.” He turned to look at Mumbo.  

“It was nice meeting you, Mumbo, but I have to go work on a few projects,” he cycled through his inventory and got out a stack of rockets. Mumbo stood back up. “Oh right, of course. I have some things to work on as well.” He smiled. Grian saluted and fired his rockets off, launching off into the air. He waved bye one last time at Mumbo before heading back to his base.

Grian flew through one of the massive entrances, using up way too many rockets in the process. He landed in the center. His hands were shaking and he could feel himself overheating slightly, though that didn’t bother him. He couldn’t believe it. Mumbo really was from the past. A further past than this past.

He paced around in circles, muttering nonsense. He ran through his inventory, items flickered in and out of existence in the palm of his hand. He ended up with the shulker box that no longer had eggs in it. Trying to distract his mind from future and past thoughts, he decided to clear out his inventory in the many chests he had laying around.

Grian dumped the empty shulker box into a random chest in a corner of his base. As he walked away from his ‘storage area’ a semi-transparent grey bar flashed across his eyes. He received a private message from Xisuma...

Xisumavoid: You talk to Mumbo yet? Grian blinked a few times, replying instantly. Grian: yeah Xisumavoid: Good Grian: Why?

He got no reply. Grian frowned slightly and leaned against the side of his water elevator. He ran a hand through his messy hair. Thoughts ran through his mind at rapid speeds. No longer was he able to distract himself from them.

Mumbo somehow got into the future. Now, what did Mumbo do in order to be brought into the future and not the past? What did Grian do to get into the past? His hands moved to cover his eyes. The cold metal of his hand against his forehead cooled him down slightly. If Mumbo got into the future, there was a chance Grian could also travel to the future- to his time. He would be able to see his friends and family again.

He slowly slid down the pillar. His elytra sliding off his back, though he didn’t care enough to pull it up. His eyes darted around his base. There was still more to do. He sighed. His clock ticked quietly. It didn’t bother him. He stood up, walking over to his chests grabbed a few stacks of glass and white concrete.

Grian spent the next few hours working on expanding his base and adding more to the other floors. He wasn’t exactly sure what else there was to add to his base, but he liked working. However, he wasn’t able to finish his floor before he received yet another message from Xisuma.

Xisumavoid: Grian Xisumavoid: Spawn. Come quick

Grian placed one more block down before replying.

Grian: What? What do you need?

X replied almost immediately which was odd considering he didn’t have an eye like Grian.

Xisumavoid: I found another one.

-

Meanwhile, a hundred or so blocks away, on a small island, Mumbo was digging in the ground. He decided that his treehouse was insufficient and that he was going to live under the island. He dug straight down until he hit bedrock. He didn’t like the look of bedrock and went back up a few levels until he found a good place to begin mining out an area to live.

While mining he found a red ore. Mumbo completely ignored it at first. Red ore had little to no use in his world. Although, he saw Grian use a red torch to temporarily confuse his clock. Mumbo mined the ore, red dust came spilling out of the block and onto the floor. He touched it with the tips of his fingers. He felt like sand and glowed like fire. He stuffed the dust into his inventory.

Possibly he could find a use for it later.