Chapter Text
“Hello?...
Father??
Where am
I?.....
It's
So
Dark….. ”
His voice echoed through the empty space. Bouncing off nothing as the void sat close around him. All he knew was the ground below him as he slowly walked. It crunched strangely under his feet, and he had to move carefully as to not trip over the craters that coated every block. It's been hours since he got here, he was just supposed to get in, collect some samples, and hop back out the portal. But as soon as he entered, it vanished.. leaving him stranded…
In the distance, there was a harsh roar, loud and deadly.
Mike's legs moved faster as he hurried across the plateau, opposite of the sound.
____________________
“This is it Michael. Our time has come.”
Mike looked over to his father with a frown. “I don't know, it doesn't look.. safe… ”
They both looked down at the square portal once more. Redstone, lapis, and even some enchanted blaze rods surrounded The sparking portal. The 3X3 space within the blocks was draped in a splotchy black sheet if void, stars visible through it that moved with them.
“I mean.. I'm not sure it's supposed to look like that…”
William rolled his eyes at his son. “Don't be ridiculous, Michael. It's perfectly safe, I've run the calculations, and it's working. All you need to do is go In, grab something from the other side, then come right back out. No harm, no foul. It's a few minutes at most.”
Mike fidgeted as he frowned down at the portal. “If.. if you're certain, father.. you're the expert…”
“I am. Now, hurry up. If we run out of lapis or blaze rods it'll be months before we can get this open again.”
“O-okay, alright fine, I'm going..” despite his words, Mike hesitates at the edge of the portal, just looking down at the star filled void with a twist in his gut. This was a horrible idea, he can't go through with this, it'll only go wrong. Maybe it was just fear, but... “father-”
Mike had lifted his foot to step back away from his possible doom, but then a hand pushed him from behind, and he fell forward with a scream. The last thing he saw was his father watching him fall, looking unimpressed, maybe even annoyed..
Then the world he knew was gone.
And so was the portal back.
____________________
He shuffled forward with his head down, thin black legs walked past his peripheral vision as he shivered. It's been weeks at this point, and he's discovered it was more dangerous than he ever could have expected. Not only was he stranded on an, admittedly large, floating island, nothing but death awaiting him over the edge, but this world seemed almost purely inhabited by the most dangerous monsters of his world. Endermen.. he knew this would be their home dimension, but he never expected so many…
He was taught from a young age to never look directly at one, no matter what. So all he knew about their appearance was the blurry forms he would catch in the corner of his eyes, and from diagrams his father had. They looked almost human, but with deep black skin, purple eyes, and their proportions stretched . They were too thin, and much too long. And just one glance was enough to spell your death.
And here they were everywhere.
His stomach let out a loud growl, and he wrapped his arms around his middle. He was so hungry. He had some snacks in his inventory that he had been rationing, but as of a couple days ago he was officially out. At this rate, hunger would take him out before he could find a way home…
Feeling weak, he decided to sit, just a short break, eyes squeezing shut as he rode out the wave of hunger pains. And that's where he stayed for a few minutes..
But then, he's startled as something lands in his lap. His eyes shot open, And there sat on his legs was a round purple object, a bit bigger than his hand. He picked it up, feeling the firm, not hard, imperfect orb, along with the smooth outside. There was a white stem sat at the top, and very few blemishes. It looked almost like some kind of exotic fruit.
Hesitantly, he looked up, catching two long black legs walking away from him before he looked back down. Did It give this to him?.. that… didn't fall in line with anything he knew about these things..
His stomach growled again, and looking at the strange fruit made his mouth water. “Well..” He began, looking it over hesitantly. “It's better than starving.." so, with a deep breath to calm his nerves, he took a bite.
It was sweet, plus a little sour. The texture was like a mix of watermelon and an apple, while the outside had skin so thick it felt like a larger sweet berry. If there was more juice it would match all the better.. It was pretty nice, actually.
He took a couple more bites, then swallowed in near bliss at finally having something fall into his stomach. But then a strange feeling began to build in his belly, almost fizzing, bubbling.. but he didn't have time to wonder what was happening, as moments later he was falling. Not far, Less than a foot, but it was more than he frankly should be considering he was meant to be sitting on the ground.
Mike looked around quickly the moment he regained his bearings, and he saw the unmistakable purple particles of a teleport, and that his surroundings had changed slightly. Off about 20 blocks away he saw another quickly fading batch of particles, making It easy to tell where he was before.
“I-i..” his throat was dry as he just stared back at the space. “I teleported?....”
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Wind blew through his hair as he flew across the sky, his elytra spread out behind him. Once he was over the gap he landed, and began to sprint across the ground.
Then he saw his target. A large chorus plant was reaching up into the void, flowers spread across its highest branches. He pulled out his ax, and held it tightly before swinging at the base. It took only a few hits before the stock fell. Once it Hit the ground, it almost seemed to shatter into a large batch of fruits, leaving little else behind. Mike walked around, gathering up the fruit into his inventory, before soon pulling out a chorus flower and replanting what he took.
With a satisfied hum, Mike nodded, and started off towards his house.
He's not entirely sure how long he's been here at this point. Time begins to lose all meaning after you spend long enough without day or night, but he does know he lost count around 2 years, and that was A while ago. Even if he still didn't look a day past 19.
He reached the edge of the island he was on, then ate the fruit, concentrating hard on going up. Sure enough, the fizzy feeling of teleportation hit him, before he appeared high into the sky. Quickly activating his elytra, he glided forward, soaring across the gap.
With a combination of teleportation and flying, It only took Mike about 5 minutes to arrive at the end ship he's been staying in. It was low enough to the ground that Mike could use a fruit to teleport into the bottom of the ship without issue, but high enough that it's unlikely for any of the endermen around to appear there unexpectedly. It was a pretty cozy place. Sleeping was tough without a bed when he first got here, but he found that shulker boxes, while solid as rock, were comfortable enough. He's gotten used to it anyways so there was really nothing to complain about.
Mike was currently working on putting everything he gathered on his run away, when suddenly, a shockwave blasted through the land, making him stagger and his ship creak. “What the hell?..”
He pulled on his elytra and ran onto the deck, only to look out with wide eyes. There was a beacon off in the distance. But not in just any direction, way back when Mike first arrived, that was where he came from.. this could be it..!! So, with one more fruit eaten, Mike teleported up into the sky, and flew as fast as his wings would let him in that direction. As he got close, he could see that, without a doubt, it was the portal appearing once again. It was shaky, and splotchy, and all around unstable. But it was the exact same pattern. A void like sheet with stars. His way home .
He was flying too fast though, as just 70 blocks from the portal he heard a creak, then a snap came from his wings. Mike plumited from his place in the sky, but other than an initial shout, he didn't scream. He shoved a fruit into his mouth and teleported inches above the ground, allowing him to land with ease, before throwing the dead weight of his wings off and sprinting to the portal.
It was wavering, almost flickering, it was about to close.. But a few more well timed chorus fruits threw him forward enough, and before long Mike was diving into the space.
It was disorienting, frightening. He felt there and not simultaneously. Something was horribly wrong, but that thought didn't even have time to solidify in his brain before he was falling out of the portal frame, and rolling onto the stone brick floor of the stronghold.
He stayed on the floor for a long while, and his breaths came quick and heavy. The air, it was wrong, there was too much of it, or not enough? He couldn't tell, but it was wrong , he can't breathe this air, what's happening?.. he could hear someone speaking to him, when they started to come into view he immediately forced his eyes down, staring at the ground and at his hands as he tried desperately to calm down.
The voice got a little louder, but Mike couldn't understand him, him yes, it's a man talking. Then suddenly, something grabbed his chin and roughly pulled his face up to a certain direction. He locked eyes with a familiar man, his father, his brain supplied maybe half a second longer than it should have.
“ Michael, can you hear me!?!” Finally, he processed what the man was saying, and Mike shakily nodded. “Good. Blastit, boy, I thought you had gone deaf on me. Now, that must have been plenty of time to explore a little, what did you see?”
Plenty of time? Was he kidding? Years of his life had been lost, just to look around a bit more!?!!?? Anger bubbled In his stomach, but Mike didn't, maybe couldn't, act on it, far too focused on how strange it was to have eyes on him again after so long. Instead, he just reached into his inventory, and carefully held out a chorus flower.
William looked at it for a moment, then took it, turning the large blossoming growth and turned it over in his hand. “And what's this?”
“Um.. y-you, uh..” He cleared his throat. “Plant it.. o-on end stone. Then you get this.” He then handed a fruit over, which William Took with fascination.
“Hm, I will have to try some tests out.. good job, Michael.”
William began to stand, but then Mike grabbed his sleeve, making the man stop. He quirked a brow at his son, who once again wouldn't meet his eyes. After maybe a few seconds too long, Mike spoke. “How.. how long?...”
It was quiet, then William sighed. “It has only been 4 minutes, Michael, get a hold of yourself.” He stood fully as Mike's hand went lax and his arm dropped back to his lap. “Perhaps.. you should go get some rest before heading home.. I'll be honest, I didn't expect whatever was in There to shake you so much.”
He wanted to protest, insist it couldn't have been only 4 minutes, that was impossible, he knew it couldn't be any less than 4 years !! But the idea of saying anything.. it just exhausted him. He felt drained, weak… So, he slowly pushed himself onto shaky legs, and nodded to his father, before walking out of the portal room and towards where the emergency beds were. Put here just in case things needed done and someone happened to get too tired to function. Commuting was just a waste of time after a point.
He stared at the bed For a long moment, then pressed his hand into its surface. It was so much softer than he could ever remember. He climbed in, pulling the blanket up to his chin. It was comfy, soft, and warm. Nostalgic, even. But.. wrong, if that could begin to make any sense. Curling up on this soft surface wasn't how he was used to sleeping, not anymore. He's not even sure if he could sleep like this. His body sunk in, in all the wrong places….
Ten minutes later, Mike finally fell asleep on the floor next to the bed. A dreamless sleep that offered little relief.
At least he was finally home..