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The weightless will of falling. The wind pushes at your back as you plummet further down to the ground. You know there should be something to slow the fall, extra cloth billowing behind you like a cape, allowing yourself to ease to the floor.
Bdubs didn’t have that luxury.
There was nothing to break his fall, only buckling slightly before having to respawn once more up within the stratosphere.
He would’ve been happy to just float within that cold little bit of the world, where you can just barely touch the stars. But instead, he continued to fall, again, and again.
If it hadn't been for Keralis’s rather extravagant house and its far too large pool, Bdubs would’ve been in that repetitive predicament for who knows how long.
He spat as he popped above the water, bones aching. Quickly, he got up to the glass wall, pulling himself up to try and get his bearings back, breathing heavily, trying to orient himself to solid ground.
“Oh my goodness!” He turned abruptly, seeing the wide-eyed stare of Keralis as the other came worriedly over. “Oh my goodness!”
“Uh, hey.”
He knelt next to Bdubs, looking for any injuries. “Are you okay?”
Bdubs brushed Keralis off, still breathing heavily as he pushed himself up to stand. “Well, now I am!” He grumbled, glaring at the sky. “Thank goodness for this swimming pool, this is–” He looked to the pool. “This is very nice. You know I’ve been– I’ve been trying to get out of that stupid loop for the past week.”
“Oh, yeah I saw, I didn’t know—”
“I kept on falling and I couldn’t stop and I kept falling to my death and–” He took a deep inhale. “I’m a little out of breath.”
“I didn’t know that was you, I thought it was just— I don’t know… But this is so nice!”
“Yeah, that was— That was me.” He looked up, noticing the building before him. “This– This is a beautiful house by the way.”
“Thank you so much, um well, night is coming would you— do you want to stay here for a bit? At least to rest?”
Bdubs gave a breathy laugh. “No, I, I wouldn’t want to impose. Geez, this is beautiful.” He followed behind Keralis, looking at the building as it somewhat loomed above him.
Everything kind of felt as though it were growing large and then small all at once, the ground swimming as he walked. “Hoo, wow, didn’t realise how lightheaded I felt. I, um…” He clutched at the door frame as everything continued to swim a bit, as though he had sat up a bit too quickly.
“Are you okay?” Keralis exclaimed once again, giving Bdubs a shoulder to lean on if need be.
Bdubs shook the other off, “No, no, I’m fine, just need to… adjust.”
“Here, come here and sit.” Keralis pulled out a chair from under the kitchen island.
His brain sloshed within his skull as he took the few remaining steps to the chair, sitting down and finding that the ground and everything else seemed to settle back into place.
“So,” Keralis began, leaning on the counter with interest and worry lighting his wide eyes. “How did you— Do you know how you got caught up in the sky?
“Good question. I mean, I just was sleeping and then. Bam. Falling.”
“Sleeping?”
“Well yeah! What else do you think I’d be doing at night.”
“But I heard…” Keralis trickled off in thought.
Bdubs gave a small chuckle, “Heard what? That I wasn’t sleeping? Ya know even though I live with a lot of insomniacs doesn't mean that I have sleeping problems.” That was a complete lie on his part, but compared to the rest of the nHo he got plenty of sleep.
For example, Doc would normally spend days just working off of caffeine and pure spite and then Beef would work till he dropped. Bdubs at least slept with the moon, kinda. And by that. when he saw the moon he’d at least sleep, which can lead to rather… Long periods where he’d be wide awake. At least Etho had a weird sense of sleep patterns, getting so fixated on every little project he started, crashing for a good twenty minutes and then getting back to work. Bdubs would often find the other curled up on the jungle floor in a patch of sunlight. It was funny to find any of them like that, as it happened somewhat frequently, but—
“I heard that last season the jungle had kinda —I don’t know— just took you guys and—”
The jungle. A shiver ran down his spine, as though vines were creeping up it. He remembered that but– “Last season?”
“Yeah, yeah you know, season five? I heard a lot of– Well a lot of stuff happened while I was gone, but Doc hasn’t been the best at explaining it all, especially due to the whole Area 77 business and—”
Season five. So this was— He was…
“Xisuma had said something about how much Doc was worried about all of you, so it makes sense with Area 77 but—”
“‘All of you?’” Bdubs took his eyes away from the smooth quartz countertop, looking at Keralis with wide, tired eyes. “What do you mean by ‘all of you’?”
“Um– I, well–”
“What happened to the rest of the nHo, Keralis?” It was a simple question, and as Keralis blundered for an answer a growing panic started growing in the pit of Bdubs’ stomach.
“Xisuma, he had said that, well, that the jungle had just overtaken everything and you all just disappeared. We haven’t seen Etho or Beef anywhere and well, now you’re here.”
He already knew that they had been taken with him, at least Etho had. He’d seen the same vines that had entangled him fling the other out of the way before he was subsequently cocooned into the foliage. But why hadn’t Etho and Beef gotten out? Where would they be if not here?
“Where’s Doc?”
***
The strip of tarmac was hot beneath his feet as he touched down using the pair of elytra he’d practically stolen from Keralis. The airfield was silent, devoid of any airplanes.
He walked to the hangar, feeling the silent cold of the greenish metal even from a bit away. The large doors of which lay slightly ajar making it easy enough to walk through. The dark interior made way for an echoing sense of unfeeling concrete that rose the hairs upon his skin.
He stood in that darkness for but a second as fluorescent lights flickered on and an elevator seemed to ascend from a small opening in the ground.
A man stood upon the platform, white lab coat cleaner than he remembered and cybernetic mechanics polished to a shine. As the man looked up from his clipboard he caught sight of Bdubs.
The creeper hybrid”s eyes widened, mouth slightly agape as he took in the other before him. “Bdubs?”
“Yes, hi, hello, I need to talk to you about something.”
The other looked at him, as though he were hallucinating, taking in every piece of information in front of him. Whatever assessment he had given Bdubs was deemed satisfactory and a small smile appeared on his face. “Bdubs, how did you— Where were you?”
“You think I know?”
“I thought the jungle—”
“Well it— that’s not why I’m here. Do you know where Etho and Beef went?” Bdubs pressed
Doc’s eyebrows furrowed, eyes somewhat glassy, as though they were about to water. A small breath of a laugh escaped him, retorting similarly with, “Do you think I know? All I know is there was stress, a lot of it, and then the jungle just… I was alone.”
“But you don’t know where they would be? Where Etho would be–”
“No! Okay?!” It was a controlled yell. A familiar back and forth that they’d done hundreds of thousands of times. But it wasn’t about stupid little things that never really mattered.
“Well, then how did you— How did we get out?” he felt little pinpricks racing down his cheeks like raindrops.
Doc moved toward him, eyes watering, looking at the other with a melancholic expression. “I don’t know.” He pulled Bdubs into a hug, and Bdubs could feel the anxious and guilt-ridden energy dissipate a bit from Doc. “I’m glad you’re here though, man.” It was a quiet statement.
They stood in the hangar for a bit, missing the familiar touch of the remaining half of the nHo.
It was warmer below the empty hangar. The humming complexity of the halls felt like Doc had made a living being beneath the ground. With his redstone capabilities, it wasn’t too far-fetched.
They’d stopped briefly at a small kitchen, Doc getting some coffees to go for the both of them. The drink warming Bdubs with nostalgic content, better than whatever rush of emotions he felt when realising the rest of their quartet weren’t there. He needed to feel the snark nature of the two Canadians. He needed to hear the silly little chime-ins Etho always seemed to have.
But the coffee was enough.
As of now, Doc was excitedly showing off the small knick-knacks and machines that he and Scar had messed around with alongside the weird creatures that had somehow inhabited a small part of the world.
Doc kept bringing up this one dude as well. Grain? Green? Who knows, but Bdubs loved seeing the angry face of Doc as he recounted the little arguments between the two.
“And now he’s a freaking hippie. Peace, love, and plants and some other bullshit.”
“And this is his head on the villager?”
“Yes.” A word with bite, annoyance even.
They continued.
“And that.” His nose scrunched up in disgust with a stare that could kill as he looked at a quartz machine that was behind glass. “That is also one of the hippie's abominations. A time machine.”
Bdubs perked up, “Have you… tested it?”
“We haven’t no, although I’ve been picking up a time anomaly that’s of going back a couple of months and then returning. So it definitely works.”
Bdubs looked at the whirring machine. Something that held time in a bottle.
“We’re saving it to see if we can get the hippies to back off, but at this point, I may just blow it up. Scar would hate that though so that’s out of the question.” Doc turned away from the glass, continuing down the hall. “Let’s go before I do.” He laughed a bit as he walked away.
Bdubs did not follow,
He stared at the glass.
He would’ve laughed at that moment.
It was right in front of Doc, and yet he hadn’t used it. Hadn’t used this opportunity to figure out everything. To find out where the nHo had gone.
Bdubs looked back to Doc.
He could do it. Bdubs could go back and fix it, he knows he could. He could ask and see where Etho had gone. Where Beef had gone. Look for them in space and time. Doc wouldn’t even realise it happened.
He pressed the stone button before he even thought further. He went through to the machine’s door, feeling the cold iron handle as he entered the stomach of the beast.
He locked the door.
A module filled with buttons greeted him. All of them were easily accessible, with label maker stickers adorning the below of each of them.
It was easy.
He could hear a click of a button, muffled behind him as the iron door to the chamber was opened.
He set the destination as best he could.
Hurried footsteps and worried pulls at the locked door made him turn as he pressed the enter button. Doc yelled, “Don’t do it, Bdubs it’s–”
> Input recognized. Destination: HC - 5. Loading…
He felt the ground beneath him shift, rocking the machine aggressively as he felt everything come out from under him and it stopped as soon as it started. His bones felt like jelly, as though he had gone hurtling through the sky once again in such a rapid manner that would’ve permakilled him.
A parrot squawked outside as leaves rustling brushed the top of the machine, the bird most likely taking a short flight to the next branch.
He opened the door slowly, feeling the humidity seep into his clothes, a familiar feeling. He recognised the way the trees swayed, the weird almost deadly floral scents that wafted about in the air.
The jungle. Season five.
As if on cue he could hear footsteps approaching, the rhythms too familiar not to be a member of the nHo.
And there he stood.
Bdubs saw a red bandana flying through the air, little vines curling upon his skin. More so a past him.
“Bdubs.” A soft voice, muffled by a cloth but sounding as though a small smile was upon the other's lips. His hair was shaggy, his clothes riddled with patches and tears.
“No. No, I don’t want to talk.” The other Bdubs, himself, spoke. Tone frustrated in a silly, dramatic way.
“What? I wasn’t doing anything, was I?”
His past self turned to the other, eyebrows knit angrily. “Oh, you were doing something alright! I mean, an AFK fishing farm?!”
“They’re easy!” Etho shrugged, eyes crinkling in an abashed grin.
“What would Wels say?!”
A pause.
“That I’m a hypocrite.”
“You are!”
“Nuh-uh!” Bdubs stopped in his tracks and sighed, . “Okay, well, Wels wasn’t there, so it’s fine.”
“He could‘ve!”
“He wasn’t Bdubs,” Etho reassured, a small laugh escaping him.
“That’s what you think! But first, it will be the AFK fishing, and then the next thing you know Rendog will come around and get you to his little dark side like Doc and then you’d be AFK fishing and kissing it up as you cheat on the nHo and—-“
“Wait, what did Doc do?”
His past self scrunched his face up in a perturbed way. “What didn’t he do!”
“Did him and Ren—?”
“Kill the Ender dragon together? Yeah!”
“Oh…”
“Honestly I wouldn’t put it past him. But you?! I mean, I thought you’d, I don’t know, not be stupid beyond belief. Like yeah your stupid sometimes, but it’s in a cute, funny way, ya know? That was just straight-up idiotic and—”
“Cute?”
A rising blush spread up Bdubs —his current self’s— face. Why did he do that?! How did he slip up that?!
“I, uh— No, you know what I meant! I didn’t mean it like that.”
Etho put his arm around Bdubs’ shoulder, bending toward him in a conspiratorial way. “Right, and I didn’t purposefully set up that AFK farm 'cause I knew you’d hate it either.” Sarcasm filled Etho’s tone as though it were a sponge in cement.
“You what?!!”
Etho giggled. “Mhm.”
“You are so—!” They continued their walk, their friendly arguments fizzling away as they drew further from him.
Present (future?) Bdubs didn’t join them, unable to watch this without cringing as he replayed that stupid comment. Why did he say that?!
He walked slowly back into the time machine, sitting down on the floor near the buttons to wrestle his whirring thoughts into coherence. Due to witnessing that scene once again, he felt himself fold inwards. The entire interaction kept replaying.
Tick.
Bdubs looked up.
Tock.
A clock hung upon the opposite wall, marking the time with clarity. That was its only job after all. Its hour hand was pointing excitedly toward the five, minute hand on the ten.
Tick.
Right.
Tock.
He had to continue.
***
He wouldn’t be able to find anything at this part of the season that could’ve alluded to the other's whereabouts. The only place that could be would be at the end. Or more so the future of this season.
Buttons were pressed. The label maker labels screaming with “FUTURE” and “go forward” were rather easy to interpret, no wonder Doc hated Grian, he organised the same way Bdubs did.
He pressed enter.
> Input recognized. Destination: HC - 7 Loading…
That’s not what he meant.
A jungle with dry humidity and large pole-like trees greeted him.
Sure it felt like their jungle, the nHo’s jungle, but it just was…off. Less hostile.
He walked in that familiar unfamiliarity, finding more life within it. Grunts of bears echoed behind the bamboo-like trees and more parrots flew about the place in a sort of splendour. He walked for mere minutes but he could feel the air begin to be shoved down his esophagus in an exhilaratingly fresh way.
It was beautiful and different.
And then he saw it, a building that was practically floating above a lazy river. The innards of each room visible on the outside in a gorgeous and sacrilegious way.
A woosh and pop of a firework happened in tandem behind him. He looked up, seeing the diving flight of a person.
“Oho! Bdubs?” The flying figure shouted, slowly gliding as he spotted the other on the jungle floor. The figure landed. “Oh, dude! I haven’t seen you in a while!” He was nonchalant, his hair shorter, less unkempt, his jacket less worried with holes. He was stood in a happy, familiar way.
It was Etho.
He shouldn’t be here, he shouldn’t have seen him, this must have been breaking all of the time travelling laws or whatever.
He felt almost bare in front of the other.
“Uh, yeah.” A nervous laugh escaped as Bdubs looked Etho up and down. “Hi.”
“How’s the village and that mountain, huh? Been filling in those holes I told you to?”
Village? Mountain? He’d never done something like that before for a build.
“Yeah, yep.” He lightly chewed at his bottom lip, worrying a scab for the hundredth time.
“Good, good.” A beat. “So, why are you here then?”
“Um.” Why was he here? How would he answer that? Truthfully? No, no that’s stupid why would he do that? Etho would just write it off as a … joke. “I time travelled.” Straight to the point.
A second later his eyes widened.
He shouldn’t have said that. Stupid. Space! Time! All that wackadoodle nonsense that Doc would probably be spouting at this very moment, with physics and why everything would collapse and— Crap he spilled those beans too fast. Why’d he done that? Why’d he do tha—
“Uh-huh.” Etho quirked an eyebrow. “Likely story Bubs.”
Bdubs immediately shot Etho a glare, mouth agape in anger. “It’s true!”
A soft, muffled laugh escaped Etho. “Is this your bit now? Is it because of the grey glass I put in your chests?”
“No, I—What?! I literally just travelled through space and time! Twice! Do think I’d be joking?!”
Etho nodded.
“Nope, nope, I’m not having this! I have proof!”
“You have a time machine?!”
“Yes?! How else do you think I’d time travel, gosh your stupid.”
“Show it to me then.” Etho crossed his arms, laughing a bit at Bdubs visible anger.
“Fine! I will!” With that Bdubs stormed off with a huff and scrunched up his shoulders. Etho chuckled, following behind.
“You call this a time machine?”
“YES, I do.” Bdubs crossed his arms.
“I dunno it looks kinda… basic.” A glare was once again being used as a weapon against Etho by Bdubs. “Fine, fine, let me just—” He opened the door, the buttons flashing to life as the machine silently whirred
“Hey now, don’t go touching anything! This is fragile stuff!”
“Don’t worry I won’t. But wow, yeah this is basic basic.”
“Shut up.”
“What’s this do?” Etho picked up the clock that hung above the door. It’s hour hand pointing at a seven, minute hand at the nine. He turned it around, glancing at the open cogs that kept it ticking.
“That? Well uh, that right there is a clock.”
“Very matter of fact.”
“I know, I’m pretty good at this whole redstone thing. Definitely better than you.”
“Right.” Both of them laughed, Etho still examining the ticking clock. “This is a really weird clock though.”
“Put it back, you’re gonna break something.”
“Like there’s anything to be broken.”
Bdubs mouth widened, eyebrow furrowing once again in an exasperated fashion. “Put it back.”
“Put what back? This?” Etho held it out as if to give it back to Bdubs. Bdubs, to his chagrin, took the bait. The other lifted it higher, chuckling at the display as Bdubs went to grab at the clock.
“Give it back, Etho.”
They played in this fight, Etho keeping the clock just out of Bdubs reach and Bdubs jumping to grab it.
At the best opportune time, Bdubs finally caught a hold of it, his body being flung in the air and almost in slow motion going back to the floor below. It was the least opportune time for gravity to actually work though. This is due in large part to the slippery nature of the quartz beneath them. As he landed, his feet didn’t quite catch the ground correctly (if that can even be said of the ground).
Instead of catching himself on the floor though, and due to the quite small machine that they stood it, his body caught itself on the button module.
Bdubs eyes widened.
The door locked.
> Input recognized. Destination: AS?LTILEF. Loading…
And then they were hurtling within space and time. Gravity nonexistent in this infinite in-between.
The millisecond was long enough for Bdubs to feel a gut wrecking feeling. His stomach was in his throat in a millisecond of a self-destructive array of “stupids”.
He should’ve known better than to bring Etho in. Why’d he do that? Why did he do that?!
And then it was over.
The clock was still ticking though.
Every bone within his body felt like it was grinding against the joints, sore beyond any belief. He took a deep breath, cold air running up and down into his breathless lungs.
A groan echoed off the walls of the small chamber.
Bdubs turned his head slightly, seeing Etho in a similar state.
A cough rocked through him as he slowly tried to sit up. “Told ya this was a time machine.” His voice sounded as though his vocal cords had been hit with a baseball bat.
“Why— Where are we?” Etho sounded almost tired, as though he’d run a marathon.
Bdubs shakily pulled himself up to see the control panel, assessing the damage. “Good question.” The lights flickered above them. All the buttons seemed fine, although a few seemed to have popped out a bit.
“Is it bad?”
Bdubs turned to Etho, face scrunched up. “Yeah! It’s bad!”
Etho pulled himself up using the door’s handle for support before walking to the console. He winced at the broken everything of the machine.
“Yeah! Yeah!! This is why you shouldn’t touch things!”
“You’re the one who fell.” A light chuckle escaped him.
“You touched the clock!”
“Then next time don’t use your lying voice! Cause you were really not selling the whole time machine thing. Okay, man.”
“Still your fault.” Bdubs rolled his eyes, crossing his arms.
Etho gave a rather exasperated sigh, shaking his head as he looked at the panel again before turning to the discarded clock. Its hour hand bent toward the eight. “Here, see? Easy fix, just got to find the resources.”
“Well, at least you didn’t break it completely.”
“Come on.”
The machine gave way to a forest instead of a jungle. The trees clustered around them in a tight hug. What little of the sky they could see greeted them, stars gathering in swarms of light, sparkling with a hollow hello.
“I’m gonna try and find some sand, maybe a cave.” Etho looked about the dense forest, then settled his mismatched eyes on Bdubs. “If you could get some string, that could cover the buttons pretty easily.”
“Ok.” Bdubs watched as Etho walked away, he could feel the trees curl around him as he walked in the opposite direction.
“Alright, string. Cool. Just got to find a spider is all, that’s easy.” The branches above him clattered, rustling their boughed leaves. He could hear the groans and creaks of the undead, just out of reach to not harm him but still a present threat. The few times that a hiss of a spider rang out Bdubs ran after it, only finding one with a liminal amount of string.
Soon enough the forest opened up just a bit, giving way to a stony hill. Atop it stood a building, almost like a small castle, with snow-white walls and light spilling from blue lanterns.
He snuck toward the building, unsure if anyone was inside, and if so, whether they were friendly. He had his fair share of enemies in the past so no doubt there could be some at whatever time this was. As he snuck up to the wall he noticed the artfully packed nature of snow and heard voices coming around and up one of the towers. He crouched down, trying to stay out of the sight of anyone from above as continued to go around the building.
“Bdubs, Etho has no loyalty to you.” He stopped in his tracks as he heard those words. The voice who said them was unfamiliar. “He’s just immediately teamed up with the next guy that’s come along.”
“Yeah, he’s a survivor man.” Now that voice was familiar, Tango. “That’s all he does is survive.” The previous voice seemed to agree.
“He loves me.” It was a soft, level voice that caught the other two in a hush.
Bdubs eyes widened. That was him. He— why would he say that? Why—
“If he loved you why didn’t he give you a life, huh?”
“Yeah, go say hello to him and see what happens.”
“He cares.” The surety felt almost physical.
No stop, why— why would he say that? Etho doesn’t love him, not enough to give him a life whatever that meant. And while he knew that Etho cared —-sure he does—- Etho doesn’t love him. Not in any way Bdubs would feel anyways. Right?
“You’re the only one that thinks—“
“He does.”
“Uh-huh, well you’re the only one left in BEST in my opinion.” He could hear the light jabs that this unknown person was telling his future self as they continued “We’re all on the same page that Etho has got to go.”
A new voice piped in, a different conversation popping up as though everyone above him was done with the previous one. Done with Bdubs' stupid reasonings.
He stood there, utterly still. Why would they think that he was clinging onto Etho? That’s crazy, why would he do that? He’s never been clingy, much less spouting out a complete lie that Etho loves him.
He slowly slid down the wall, sitting and curling in on himself.
Why would his future self say that if not for the fact that it was true? Why else would he have brought up that?
Nope! Nope, he shouldn’t be doing this right now. He needed to focus and get back to Etho, get him back to his timeline and stop doing stupid and impulsive things.
The voices soon left and Bdubs immediately walked off, trying to get back to the time machine and hopefully find Etho.
The sun slowly crept its way into the sky, a red hue cast upon it as pinks and oranges flushed together.
A buzz.
He looked down at his communicator.
> LDShadowLady fell from a high place
The username was red, as though it were marked in blood. A crack of thunder boomed across the server, signalling it as though it were from a final blow.
It was fine though. It wasn’t Etho so it was fi—-
> BdoubleO100 was shot by Grian
His name glared back at him as another boom of thunder shook through his bones.
He had to get back to Etho now. If not for his growing worry for the other’s safety due to those voices that spoke with such malice of the other, but to at least tell Etho that he wasn’t dead. That he was still alive and well and ready to go back home.
Tears brimmed his eyes in such a way that everything blurred around him.
It was a frantic search as he tried to wipe the tears and look for the silver hair that would surely be picking up the growing pinks in this light.
“Bdubs!” A figure came rushing toward him, pulling him into a hug.
He breathed, taking in the fluff of a familiar jacket. He hugged Etho back as though he were his life force.
Etho pulled back, taking in Bdubs, still holding tightly onto his shoulders. “Why did Grian kill you? Did you try and fight him—“
“No, no that was other me. Are you ok? Tango and this other guy said they wanted you dead and I think other me probably betrayed them because of it?”
“I’m fine. I got all the needed gold though, so we should be good to fix the machine and get out of here before one of us dies.”
Bdubs gave a light laugh to that. “I think you kinda failed on that requirement.”
“You know what I mean.”
The fix was easy enough, the clock back to at least a but of working condition and the buttons rewired into the panel.
> Input recognized. Destination: HC - 7. Loading…
The machine shot forward once again, but it somehow felt as though they were upside down, the blood flowing to his brain in such a headache-inducing way that left him feeling outside of himself.
In an instant, the floor was beneath them once again.
“Well, that sure was… something.” Etho chuckled.
“Yeah. It was.”
“This is my stop, right?”
Bdubs looked to the button panel. It proudly said HC-7 on its little dash. “Looks like it.”
Etho’s eyes shone with softness. “Great.” He squeezed Bdubs shoulder. “I’ll be going then.”
Bdubs turned as Etho gave a little wave before opening the door.
The warm hum of the jungle greeted them, overgrown grass and large leaves cluttered the space comfortably.
He loves me . The statement —declaration?— rang in his mind. Maybe his future self was correct, and if that were the case then…
“Wait.” Bdubs had gently grabbed the other’s hand, trying to stop him but with a touch like a question rather than a demand. “Uh, let me at least make sure you get home safely, don’t want my past self snatching you again.” A nervous breath escaped him.
Etho turned back to him. “Yeah?” His head tilted downward, brown and red eyes taking Bdubs in, a chuckle on his lips.
Bdubs let go. “Yep.”
“Alright then. Shall we?”
A step.
But Etho kept on stepping, with no ground to meet his feet. The once lush grass had cracked and chafed in such a way that it was gone instead showing a void, all-consuming.
A catch of a wrist, not in a question but rather in a great cry, a plea to hang on and not fall into the inky darkness, the maw of which was gaping in an effort to devour. The gravity bid him no comfort as the fishing pole that was Etho dipped dangerously into the lake of an abyss. The void’s gravitational pull was that of a black hole, inviting every atom to the center of a nonexistent star.
Somehow Bdubs pulled Etho back up, slamming the door, panting.
“What was that?” Bdubs checked the window, seeing trees wilting, the world deteriorating in such a way that it felt like a glitch had occurred. Or perhaps a virus at the center of the world itself had spread in an instant.
“I— Why do you think I would know?!”
“Well you’re the redstone expert, there must be a redstone explanation to it.”
“Well, there isn’t.”
“Wait is this because I took you into the machine?”
“I mean… the future is never guaranteed but—“
“So it is?!”
“I don’t know!”
Bdubs went to the panel, searching for an answer in the console of buttons. “How do we fix it then? I don’t know how any of this time stuff works.”
“Should we even hop any more than we have?”
“I— we have to try.”
“But what if the clock’s the real problem.”
“We fixed that though.” Bdubs gaze glided across the labelled buttons. “That wouldn’t be the problem.”
“But what if it is?”
“Well, we have no way of knowing that, now do we? Can’t go out there, much less stay here.”
Etho began pacing behind him. “Who did you steal this from?”
“Why do you think I’d steal this?” Bdubs looked up to Etho. A bemused and knowing look, as though Etho had caught Bdubs with his hand in the cookie jar, was cast down on him. “I— Okay fine I stole it. Happy?” The look doubled down, and Bdubs gave a guilty smile back. “And it was from…” He mumbled, trying to avert his eyes and deflecting the question.
“Bdubs…”
“I stole it from Doc, okay?! Jeez, man.”
Etho rubbed at his face. “I mean, I’m impressed that he didn’t kill you on the spot, but that leaves no one to help.
All the options were gone, and while Etho knew how to work with machines, this was a world-shattering sort of situation. Bdubs knew Etho couldn’t fix the very fabric of the universe, even if there was a small part of him that wanted that.
Etho looked about the cabin, glancing up at the round, cracked clock. He took a step, grabbing at the timepiece. “It must be the cause of this, right?”
Or me , Bdubs thought. “I guess.”
Etho turned it around, beginning to fiddle with the cogs. “Maybe it’s…” He grabbed at a cog, slowly turning it so it moved forward in time.
A jolt.
A leap.
Everything felt displaced around them, as though their hearts were in their throats and feet on opposite sides. But that wasn't the case, at least physically speaking (thank goodness for that).
The clock’s face brightly pointed at an eight, its minute hand close to twelve.
“Okay… Is— Did that work?”
Bdubs looked to the door, “One way to find out, I guess.”
Bdubs walked out the door, feeling as though his bones were being pulled down as the rest of him bounced up. It was jarring and he could feel his brain slosh unnaturally in his skull.
The sky above him gave an unkind smile, the face of the moon rearing its ugly head in such a way that it took up the sky. Flames lapped at the edges of it that he could see and blocks danced upwards as though they were drawn to the impending meteoric shock.
Etho was the one to pull him in, Bdubs too awestruck and anxiety ridden all at once to even move out from under the impending doom that was so easily seen.
They had gone from the pot into the coals or whatever that saying was. Regardless it was bad.
Really bad.
“Bdubs we have to go back.”
“What?! No— NO! You’d die then, you’d— I don’t know.”
“We are going to die here if we don’t.”
“But—“
“I’m sure I can get this thing back to my time, it’ll be fine if I do, right?”
“I can’t just watch you die though, Etho.” He could feel something welling up within him, tears pricking the corners of his eyes.
“We don’t know if I’m going to die.”
“It’s a void, Etho! Of course, you’re going to die!”
“It’ll be fine I’ll just—”
“No.” Bdubs snatched the clock from Etho’s hands.
“Bdubs, I don’t want to do it either but what if it fixes it?” Etho reached for the timepiece, trying to grab at the wires or something to get it back. Bdubs kept it close to his chest though, eyes closed as he moved himself to the corner. “I can be back and it’ll be fine—”
“You don’t know that! You could die and then I’d be alone and what then?”
“What— Bdubs you can still go back to your season”
“But I’d have to watch you get hurt because of me again.”
“Because of...?” Etho had stopped grabbing at the clock. A slow breath occurred before realisation struck. “Oh. Bdubs., that wasn’t your fault.”
“If I hadn’t been so stupid with the jungle and everything, none of this would’ve happened.”
“You don’t know that, Bdubs.”
“YES! I do! Cause if I hadn’t done that you wouldn’t have left without a warning and I wouldn’t have gone off looking for you in freaking space and time. And now you could die and I can feel a hole in my chest that’s almost caving in on itself at the thought that you’ll be gone again.” A delirious laugh escaped him. “You weren’t even gone that long and I missed you and I didn’t know what to do.” His tongue felt as though it were caught in the back of his throat, unable to move from this minute moment. He swallowed it down as best he could though, continuing. “I don’t know even know what it is. What’s decided to plant itself in the center of my being, and I go ‘oh I should prune that down at some point' but I never do. And you’re just missing from me and the only thing I have left is that growing ache within my chest.”
Etho’s eyes were squinted almost, trying to decipher whatever metaphor Bdubs was getting at. “What?”
“Oh my goodness you stupid idiot, I love you. Okay?!”
“Oh.” Etho’s eyes widened. “OH! Wait– Oh. oh no.”
“What— Don’t oh no me!? I just poured my heart and soul out to you.”
“No, no of course. I just… I should’ve…” Etho seemed to search Bdubs’ eyes for something. That small inkling of a smile twinkled within those heterochromatic eyes, the corners of which watered ever so much, fondness and remorse folding in on themselves in a swirl.
In an instant, warm, lanky arms wrapped around him. A familiar fuzzy coat just in reach of his arms and a thumping heart greeted his ear as he was folded into a hug.
A small breathy laugh escaped Etho. “I love you too, Bubs. And I’m sorry that I never said anything about where I was. But, my Bdubs needs me. And you’re Etho needs you, 'cause I know I needed mine when I got back.” Etho gently pulled away, putting his hands on the clock. “Now, before we meet our impending doom, I’d like to at least go home. Okay?”
A stupid little chuckle escaped him as he looked down at the clock, taking in its gold, looking back up to Etho and his half-covered face. Bdubs tenderly placed the timepiece in Etho’s hands,
Etho smiled down at it. Taking one of Bdubs hands in the other and pressing it up gently to his mask, where his lips would be. “Thank you.”
A turn of a cog.
A disposition of space and time.
A breath between two people who were loved.
A universe soon to say goodbye.
“I’ll be going then.”
The clock was gently placed back upon its frame.
“Be safe.”
That smiling face, eyes crinkling with affection before turning to that cold iron door. “I will.” A soft promise that would never really be true.
As the door swung open they were greeted by that deepening rot. Etho jumped to the nearest block that was at least somewhat stable, turning back to give a small wave back to Bdubs.
He could feel something coursing through him, in a way that a waterfall fell and tumbled into one stagnant pond. Maybe it was that little plant, still overgrown but more controlled. He looked to Etho one last time before gently closing the door, turning so as not to see whatever fate was made for the future.
Looking upon the console made his stomach roll, and made his eyes tear up once again. He imputed what he needed, unsure if it would actually take him to his time.
> Input recognized. Destination: HC - 6. Loading…
Everything rushed forward, his stomach dropping as though the entire machine had gone around a loop-de-loop. The tears that had welled fell in small droplets, refracting light that his eyes couldn’t even see, reflecting emotions that had seeped into his bones over this entire trip. The displacement of everything felt almost routine now.
He opened the door. Finding fixed fluorescents greeting him.
Almost instantly Doc was there, ready to rip Bdubs a new one. “Bdubs! That was experimental stuff, man! Thirty seconds worth of your time and yet you chose the most danger—” He stopped, seeing the stream of tears rolling down Bdubs’ face. He rushed up to Bdubs, looking the other man up and down. “What happened?”
“Ah, um.” Bdubs rubbed at his eyes with his sleeve, trying to erase the tears and snot. “Nothing.”
For all his threatening and intimidation, Doc held softness. Everyone does, but it was always a surprise when he did. “Don’t lie to me.”
He chuckled. “Fine, yeah, I’m not. I— There was a lot.”
“Do you need to sit down?”
“I think so. Yeah.”
***
“Ah.”
“Yeah.”
“No wonder the anomaly detector went off. You tore a hole through time. At least with a time that wasn’t yet recorded, which is good but you could’ve ripped the universe apart with—”
Bdubs was barely listening, knowing how much more of this he’d be getting for the next two hours.
“— You could’ve died too! The machine could’ve exploded. You could’ve altered everything right now and—”
He deserved this, even though he’d at least found some of the answers he’d wanted. Even if his Etho, wherever he may be, didn’t feel the same he could still feel at least a bit whole. He confessed, at least to someone, especially to himself.
Hopefully, his Etho, the Etho that was living and breathing in tandem with a similar clock tick as his own, was living in a cosy place. A place to heal maybe, away from stress.
He could wait though, he was sure.
***
The rest of the season went by. By that time they had hopped worlds, an ocean and its breeze welcoming them.
And not to his surprise so did a silver-haired man.