Chapter Text
Exploits were always an interest of Spoke’s. He remembers hushed conversations, barely spoken words, in hopes that a child doesn’t hear.
But he heard.
And ever since he heard Minute discussing exploits with someone long gone from his memory, he’s wanted to know more.
He’s looked everywhere, read every book, and talked to so many people that it all blurs together.
But Spoke never got any information. It was like it was all hidden somewhere, far from the eyes of a normal person.
He refused to give up, though.
He kept looking.
And then he met Jamato.
The guy knew… a lot, to say the least. He knew all about exploits, and he even showed Spoke some.
He’d never been happier.
The two were holed up in Spoke’s base, trying to come up with something. A new idea, a goal, a way to gain even more power and riches.
“What if we went to the future?” Spoke threw out randomly, mostly kidding. Because that was impossible.
Jamato paused what he was doing, glancing over at Spoke.
“Don’t look at me like that! I was joking!” Spoke said.
Jamato then went back to what he was doing, not uttering a word.
But Spoke could tell the guy was trying not to laugh. Spoke rolled his eyes, but now that the thought was implanted into his mind, it didn’t leave.
“Ok, but what if we could? Like, do you know any way we could?” He wondered aloud.
Spoke thought it would be cool to meet his future self. He could bet a whole lot of money that his future self was just as cool as him.
If not, cooler.
He can almost picture it, him and Jamato, rich and powerful because of their exploits. Oh, the server would love them!
They’d help so many people, and become the most powerful players on unstable. Spoke grins. Yes, this is exactly what happens.
“Spoke. I don’t think it’s a good idea to—” Jamato started, once again setting down his pencil to look over at Spoke.
“But you know how!?” He interrupted, almost jumping up in excitement.
And although Spoke couldn’t see his face, he knew the guy was thinking.
“...I know of a way… but Spoke—”
“Let’s do it then! Please, Jamato! Wouldn’t it be so cool to see our future!?” Spoke, again, interrupted.
He had genuinely no idea how Jamato dealt with him.
“...Okay.” Jamato sighed, “but we are staying out of sight. I’ve read enough books to know not to interfere with the future.”
Spoke grinned. “Yes! Yes! Thank you, Jamato! Okokok, now, how do we make this machine of travelling of time?”
Jamato just kind of looked at him again, before pulling out a book from his inventory. The two spend a while reading over the instructions, before finally splitting up to gather materials.
Spoke grabs his ‘pigaxe’ and goes to find a cave, starting to collect redstone and other necessary items.
He doesn’t really want to, but going to the future is probably worth the few hours of physical labor.
So, that's exactly what he does.
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A few hours later, Spoke and Jamato already have every necessary supply, and begin construction.
‘Construction’, as in Spoke mostly watches Jamato do it. Hey, it’s not like Jamato disliked it, the guy was always afraid Spoke would mess something up anyway.
So he watches for a while, sitting on the edge of the flat field they were using. He quickly got bored, though, and picked up a flower, starting to mess with it.
It’s a blue cornflower.
Spoke thinks it’s pretty.
So he sticks it in his inventory as Jamato calls him over, showing him the finished product. Spoke grins, staring at the portal with great interest.
Jamato hands him a flint and steel.
“Wanna do the honors?” Jamato asks.
“Of course, thank you, my friend.” Spoke replies, lighting the portal.
Spoke and Jamato both step back a bit, equally as nervous. For a second, Spoke wonders if him and Jamato are still friends.
But he immediately brushes that thought away.
Because of course they’re still friends!
The two boys look at each other, before stepping through. Spoke feels the familiar nauseousness of teleporting.
He shoots a hand out, grabbing Jamato’s to steady himself before stepping out. They seemed to be in a base.
Jamato’s, actually.
It didn’t look all that much different from their timeline. Just… mostly abandoned. The portal closed behind them as they stepped out, and Spoke gasped.
The two once again glanced at each other, wondering how they were going to get back. The gasp must have been pretty loud, because the two heard a yelp of surprise, and then walking from somewhere in the base.
Jamato started dragging Spoke away, trying to find a hiding spot, but they were too late.
“Hello? Who are you? How did you find this place?” Jamato called out.
Spoke looked at Jamato, wondering why he’d said that. But Jamato was looking behind them, hand tightening around Spoke’s ever so slightly.
Spoke himself slowly turned around, only to be met with an older looking Jamato. Spoke looked between the two, suddenly wondering how he was going to tell the difference between the two.
He decided he would call the older one Jam.
Jam stared at them, completely frozen. He wasn’t looking at his younger self, no, he was looking at Spoke.
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Spoke saw the way Jam slightly clenched his fist, such a small and unnoticeable movement. But Spoke noticed. Spoke always noticed.
“Spoke? What are you doing here? Look, if you’re here to kill me—” Jam said slowly, slightly backing away.
Spoke’s eyes widened as he glanced at Jamato, who looked equally as confused.
“What?” Spoke replied, genuine shock replacing all thoughts.
“Are you not— oh. You’re not, you’re not Spoke.” Jam concluded.
“I am Spoke.” Spoke replied, “We’re from the past.”
Jam was quiet for a second, obviously thinking. It was a second before he spoke again.
“Yes, of course.” Jam looked at Jamato, “why did you— you know what? It doesn’t matter. You’re here now.”
Spoke still didn’t let go of Jamato’s hand. He had a really bad feeling about this.
Spoke watched as Jam’s eyes landed on their intertwined hands, quickly looking away.
Yeah, there was something going on.
“Why did you think I would kill you?” Spoke asked.
Jam visibly tensed, fist clenching and unclenching repeatedly. He looked like he really did not want to answer that question.
“It… it doesn’t matter.” He said eventually, shaking his head.
Spoke’s eyes narrowed.
“Well, obviously it does. I wanna know what happened between us.” Spoke said, refusing to back down.
“No. No. Nothing has happened between you two yet, and I want to keep it that way.” Jam muttered.
“We can’t fix it, if we don’t know what happened.” Jamato tried.
That seemed to work, at least a little bit. Jam looked Jamato dead in the eyes, and said only one thing.
“Do not take the totem.”
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“What totem—?” Spoke and Jamato said at the same time.
“You’ll know. Just, please. Don’t do it. Promise me. Promise me you won’t.”
“I— okay. Okay. I promise.” Jamato mutters.
Jam nods, seemingly slightly relaxing.
“How— how old are you?” Spoke asks after a second of silence. He had so many questions, but he didn’t know if Jam would answer them.
So he decided to start small.
“Twenty eight.”
Spoke’s jaw dropped.
“Holy shit you’re old!” He yelled. “Oh wait, that means I’m twenty six. Jamato, our older selves are dying!” Spoke stresses.
Jam looks incredibly offended as Jamato laughs.
“So you must be, what? Sixteen?” Jam says.
“How’d you know!? He has magical powers or something bro, Jam, you have to teach me your ways.” Spoke replies, mock excitement present on his face.
“...The way you're acting. And Jam? You’re calling me Jam?” Jam sighed, obviously already done with this entire situation.
“Jam is good on toast.”
“...Toast was never part of the conversation.”
“It is now. Jamato I want toast, do you have any?” Spoke replies, turning back to his friend.
“No, Spoke, why would I have toast?” Jamato questions, still slightly laughing.
“Dunno, you seem like the kind of guy who carries around toast in your pocket. Like pocket toast. Can that be a thing? Can we normalize pocket toast?” Spoke rambles on very seriously.
“...Sure Spoke. We can normalize pocket toast.” Jamato says, before turning back to Jam. “So, what’s going on?”
Jam tenses up again.
“And where is older me?” Spoke adds.
Jam flinches.
Spoke and Jamato once again share a look.
“...I’m not telling you. You need to go back. This is too dangerous for you.” Jam replies. “The portal— or machine— or whatever you built— build it again. Get out of here, and don’t come back.”
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“Okay… fine. We’ll need some stuff from the end—” Jamato agrees, and Spoke glares at him.
Because they are not leaving.
“Do not go to the end.” Jam hisses, “Whatever you need from there, I'll find it.”
Jamato nods. Spoke elbows him.
“Wait, wait, wait. We are not leaving. And what's up with the end? I thought Minute was protecting it?”
Well, he knew Minute was protecting it. Because Spoke is his son. And Minute would never willingly give up the end without reason.
What if he’s dead—
“Minute’s fine, Spoke. There were some… complications.” Jam reassures.
“Okay then. We’ll go start collecting the materials in the overworld, right Spoke?” Jamato says, in a tone that means do not argue with me.
“Wait— no—”
He didn’t even get the chance to finish his sentence before he was being dragged outside. He struggled and tried to break free from Jamato’s grip, but it was no use.
So, he just eventually gave in.
“But Jamatooo!” Spoke complained, “I don’t want to gooo!”
“Shush. We’re not leaving. We just needed to get away from him.” Jamato replies, continuing to drag Spoke along.
“Oh, okay. You could have said that.”
Jamato shoots him a look, and Spoke grins back.
“SpokeIsHere, you are going to be the death of me.” He says, shaking his head slightly.
“Apparently. Did you see that guy? He like, flinched, at the mention of my name.” Spoke grumbled, taking out the flower from his inventory again.
“Yeah, I saw.”
They go quiet for a second, just walking to… wherever they were going.
“Do… do you think we’ll end up like that?” Spoke asked quietly, messing with the petals of the flower.
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“I don’t know.” Jamato replies, looking away. “I hope not.”
“Promise me you won’t let that happen?”
“Promise.”
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“...Okay then. We don’t have to worry about it!” Spoke smiles.
Because Jamato promised.
And why would he ever break a promise to Spoke?
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It took Spoke only a little longer to realize where they were going. A stronghold. Of course.
“Jam’s going to kill us.” Spoke whispered as the two walked to the nearest stronghold, which for some reason had a huge building over it.
The front had a massive skull, engraved in stone. Spoke thought it looked sick.
“Not unless he catches us.” Jamato responds, walking a little quicker to get there faster.
The familiar adrenaline rush of doing something incredibly stupid hits Spoke as Jamato throws him a pickaxe.
“We mine through the side walls. The entrance is obviously guarded. Don’t get caught, I’m not saving you.” Jamato says, turning them slightly so the two can walk around the side.
“How thoughtful.” Spoke mutters in response, but he clutches the pickaxe close to his chest.
The wall is pretty easy to get through, but the hard part was actually getting through the guards. Neither of them had invisible potions, so they had to be really careful.
Jamato snuck around the side of a very tall house, slightly peaking his head out to see if the coast was clear.
Jamato then turned and gestured for Spoke to join him, which he did.
“Okay, we’re going to need to run across the street, the other side looks like it has better hiding spots to get to the main building.” Jamato whispered.
Spoke nodded, and Jamato held up his fingers to count down silently.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
Spoke grabbed Jamato’s hand and ran.
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They had almost made it to the other side when someone grabbed his arm.
Spoke yelped and whirled around to face whoever dared lay a hand on the great SpokeIsHere.
The guard looked equally as surprised and immediately dropped his arm, stepping back and making hand gestures that looked like an apology.
Spoke blinked and looked at Jamato, who looked just as confused as he was.
He guesses he’s just that intimidating!
“Yeah! Uhm. Stand down, or something! Jamato help me, what is he doing?” Spoke said, still not letting go of Jamato’s hand.
“He thinks you're in charge, I think.” Jamato replies, shrugging.
Spoke’s grin widens. Him? In charge? Oh, this was going to be fun.
“Uhm… bring me my second in command, my uh, soldier!”
“You suck at this.” Jamato said.
The guard immediately left, presumably to grab whoever Spoke asked for.
“Why would you ask for him to get a stranger?” Jamato mumbled.
“Because this stranger, might have info! Think a little, Jamato! Use that brain of yours!” Spoke responded.
Spoke didn’t need to see Jamato’s face to know he was rolling his eyes.
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A few minutes later, the guard was back, along with someone else. This guy could apparently talk, as he shooed away the guard, before turning to him.
“You’re not Spoke.” He said.
Spoke’s heart dropped.
“Uh, yes I am! The great SpokeIsHere, right here! That’s me!”
“Your hair is too long. You’re wearing your old clothes. And the Spoke I know, would rather die than hold hands with JamatoP.”
The two immediately release their hold, causing the guy to lightly chuckle.
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“So, if you’re not Spoke, then who are you?”
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Spoke glanced at Jamato, knowing that the other was thinking the same thing he was.
Do we trust him?
Spoke looks back at the guy, and sighs. Who knows, he might have some answers.
“We’re uh— from the past. We uh, made a time machine.” Spoke said, and Jamato elbowed him as hard as he could.
Spoke yelped as Jamato threw his hands up in exasperation.
“You can’t just say that!” He hissed.
“Sorry…” Spoke replied, holding his side in pain.
“A time machine, you say?” The mystery guy says, interest obvious in his voice.
Spoke nods at the same time Jamato shakes his head.
“Spoke!”
Spoke shook his head.
“Okay, now, usually, we would kill you for trespassing, but I think Spoke would find this… situation… very interesting. My name is Commander, by the way.”
“I’m—”
“I know.”
“Oh—kayyy.” Spoke responded, starting to walk after Commander, but stopped when Jamato tugged at his sleeve.
“I don’t think this is a good idea, Spoke.” Jamato said, worry present in his tone.
“Nah, it’ll be fineee. Just trust me bro, when have I ever been wrong!” Spoke smiled, this time dragging Jamato along.
“...Okay… but if you get us killed, I’m killing you myself.” Jamato muttered, reluctantly following after Spoke.
“That’s not how it works.”
“I’ll make it work.”
“That’s scary.”
Both boys paused for a second, before bursting into laughter.
Commander smiled ahead of them, but for a completely different reason.
Oh, things are about to get messy.