3 months earlier

It'd been a week since Mumbo retreated into the mini laboratory he had built under his base. Having left just a sign noting his absence, Mumbo hadn't surfaced in quite a little bit. Of course, that wasn't out of the ordinary, as randomly disappearing for about a week was pretty normal. Large projects were called large for a reason, after all. And it wasn't like he needed to leave-- the brit had been sure to bring all the supplies he needed for his project.

And said project was... Not going too well. Mumbo had barely slept a wink since he had begun his work, and was starting to feel the repercussions. His hands and legs were shaking, and he was beginning to be rather sloppy. He could barely focus on what he was doing. And that wasn't ideal, seeing that he was working with serious redstone here.

But he was going to push through. He'd complete his project-- even if it killed him. Which he surely hoped it wouldn't, or, at least not too many times. Regaining life grows quite tedious, especially if it's too repetitive. So, Mumbo quite hoped he wouldn't be too harmed in the making of this.

Of his project.

Of his cloning device.

Well... it wasn't exactly a cloning device, per se. It was more of a matter duplicating device. That's how Mumbo described it, at least. Calling it a cloning device would insinuate that it would be able to create life out of nothing, which wasn't possible. Not in any way Mumbo knew, anyway. So, Mumbo decided that it was a matter duplicating device. Or it would be, anyway, once he got it to work. Right now it was just a few chambers that electrocuted anything that went near it. Mumbo had the scorch marks to prove that.  

But he wasn't about to give up. No, he knew what he wanted to do, and he could just feel that he was almost there. He just had to persevere for a bit longer and he'd be golden. Plus, he had worked far too long and hard on this to give up now. The brit was invested in this now. Perhaps if he was only a day or two in the making of this he could simply give up, but not anymore. Mumbo knew that he'd passed the point of no return. He was following through with this no matter what.

Mumbo was typing furiously on a computer-like machine whose screen Mumbo had modeled after his communicator's when said communicator dinged twice with two messages. They were both private whispers from Xisuma, reading,

XisumaVoid whispers to you: Hey Mumbo, haven't seen you in a bit. Wanted to check in
XisumaVoid whispers to you: I'm at your base

Mumbo couldn't truthfully say he was upset that Xisuma wanted to speak with him. It had been a little bit since he had retreated into his base; it was only normal that the admin would want to check up on him. The brit just hoped that X wouldn't implore too much as to what he had been doing. Quickly typing out a confirmation that he'd be out soon, Mumbo walked over to a staircase in the corner of his room. 

Mumbo had designed the room to mirror his base's ruined theme. Having used materials to give it an old and run-down look, he was quite proud of his secret room. Moss climbed up the chipped, broken stone walls, ever increasing in size. The rocky floor was bumpy and uneven, with stones jutting out in random spots. Torches and lamps lined the walls, casting a bright yellow glow that contrasted the electric blue-white from the screen of the computer. In the corner stood a spiral staircase leading to his base. A stone button was set up on the wall beside it, leading to a piston-powered opening at the top. Cobwebs were thrown aimlessly into corners, adding to the ruined atmosphere. The place looked like it had been abandoned for years, except for the large brown-gray machine in the middle, which stood out enormously. 

The brit placed his palm on the button, releasing it when he heard the opening of the piston door. Running up the stairs as fast as he could, Mumbo barely had made it out before the floor closed back up. Squinting his eyes against the natural sunlight, Mumbo realized how much not emerging from his base for an entire week affected him. He made a mental note to do so more often. He also had to fix the timing on his piston door, so he didn't have to run for his life each time he tried to leave.

After rubbing the sunlight out of his eyes and regaining his posture, Mumbo noticed X standing right in front of him, jumping back with a start. "Oh- hi X," the redstoner started with a chuckle. "Didn't see you there."

But X seemed to be more interested in the fact that Mumbo had emerged from the ground rather than the fact that he appeared to have never seen the sun in his life. Peering behind the redstoner, the bee-suited Hermit said confusedly, "Did you just- What are you doing, Mumbo?" His gaze flitted over to a shelf for just half a moment, leaving Mumbo wondering if X had somehow found his apparently not-so-secret entrance to the apparently not-so-secret base.

Mumbo chuckled. He was never that great at keeping secrets. Besides, X would surely find out soon enough. Before he could give it another moment's thought, he was walking over to the shelf on which he had concealed a small button. Connected to a messy line of redstone, this was the key to entering his secret lab of sorts. "Here," he began. "I'll show you as long as you don't say a word to any of the other Hermits, got it?"

The admin nodded, giving Mumbo a thumbs-up. "My lips are sealed," he confirmed.

Satisfied, Mumbo pressed his palm down on the button. The string of redstone lit up, shining bright red. Not a moment later, the sound of pistons filled the room and the floor opened up. The staircase down was revealed and Mumbo walked over to it. "C'mon, X. Down here!" Mumbo made his way down the stairs, looking back to make sure that his friend was following. He was, so when the door closed quickly up, flooding the room in darkness, Mumbo noted, "Almost there; careful where you step."

Soon enough, the two emerged into his room. The moustached man walked up to his machine and turned around, throwing his arms up dramatically. "Welcome, XisumaVoid, to my creation!"

The admin's eyes were wide behind his visor as Mumbo displayed his machine. "Mumbo, is that a-"

Nodding enthusiastically, Mumbo cut X off. "Yup. It's a matter duplication device."

Xisuma, raising his eyebrows, stared right into Mumbo's eyes, his green ones not wavering from Mumbo's own. "It's a cloning machine." Even though his tone was flat and unwavering, the brit could sense a bit of astonishment from within. He, if he was being perfectly honest, slightly expected this reaction. Mumbo didn't expect the admin to be all that pleased with his machine, knowing what had happened with Evil X. There was a reason he had never told him, after all. That, and, of course, it was supposed to be a bit of a surprise. 

For the same reason, Mumbo had never told Grian, his closest confidante, his plans. After Grian's own creations had gone a bit nuts, the sweatered hermit was forced to lock them in a closet. He surely wouldn't have agreed with Mumbo on his idea, should Mumbo have told him. But it wasn't like Grian was any bit experienced with machinery and the like, while Mumbo was. He'd be fine. 

"Not a cloning machine cloning machine," Mumbo refuted, folding his arms. "I'm not creating life. I'm, ah... making artificial life?" Mumbo found himself ending the statement in a question. He couldn't explain it well-- it made sense to him internally, he just couldn't get others to understand it the same way. That and he was extremely tired and barely making sense to even himself. 

X somehow didn't seem to pick up on Mumbo's grogginess, instead rolling his eyes and walking over to the screen. "Is this what you are doing your work on?"

"Hey, I saw that," protested Mumbo as he moved over to where Xisuma was. "Yeah, it is. Like it?" Mumbo had intended to sound casual, but his urge to impress the admin, the one who usually dealt with this stuff, overpowered that and he sounded rather enthusiastic. Which he was, of course. The brit fidgeted as X looked through his series of codes, nodding as he did so. 

"Yeah, Mumbo! It's well-done!" The admin looked up and turned to Mumbo. "Not that I expected anything less."

That went... surprisingly well. Compared to his attitude before, this was completely different. Not that Mumbo was complaining, he wasn't. The moustached man was simply taken aback by this sudden attitude switch. He opened his mouth to thank X before the bee-suited admin suggested something that Mumbo was certainly not expecting.

"Would you like me to give you a hand?" 

The admin grinned behind his helmet at Mumbo as he offered to help the brit with his top-secret, surprise machine. The same machine that he had just seemed to be displeased about or maybe even against. This was all too confusing. "Didn't you... not... want me to do this?" Mumbo inquired, shaking his head in confusion. 

"No, no," X said quickly. "I wasn't against the concept. I just wanted you to be careful; we don't exactly have a wonderful track record with them. I think this is a fun idea, actually, Mumbo, and I wanted to see if I could be of any use." 

Mumbo thought for a moment, then responded, in turn seeming to surprise the other Hermit this time. "No, thanks. I think I'm good to do it myself!" The redstoner grinned, showing slightly crooked teeth, as he turned away from X and towards his machine. "I've been working on it this long, I may as well see it through 'till the end." After a moment, Mumbo continued. "What, are you afraid it'll turn out like-"

The admin quickly waved his hands dismissively. "Oh, no, of course not! I have complete trust in you to not end the world, Mumbo." At Mumbo's disconcerted expression, X laughed. "Kidding. But in all seriousness, I do believe you'll do well. You cracked AI in three days, remember?" Grinning, X moved to the staircase. "Well, that's all, really. I just wanted to check on you." 

Mumbo nodded. "Alright! Well, glad you seem to have enjoyed yourself," he chuckled. 

"I did," X confirmed. "And if you ever need any help-"

"I know who to message. I got it, I got it." Mumbo rolled his eyes in fake annoyance, though his grin gave away his joking intentions. "Bye, X!"

"Bye!" The bee-suited Hermit felt around for the button to open the staircase for a moment before ascending, waving as he went. After a moment, Mumbo heard the closing of a piston door and a distant, "Mumbo?"

He really needed to fix that.

Pressing the button to let Xisuma out, Mumbo turned back around, digging an apple out of his inventory. The moustached Hermit had a lot of work to do yet.

-----

2 months earlier

Mumbo sat back triumphantly on his couch, taking a bite out of his now infinite supply of apples. It had been an entire month since he had begun work on his project and, after all this hard work, it was finally finished. The brit had tested his project primarily on his fruits, and it worked perfectly. And it never electrocuted him at all; not since he worked out the kink that was the cause of that mess. The only issue, he hadn't tried it on himself-- or any other living creature-- once yet, and he didn't exactly have anything to test it on. Besides himself, of course, and while he'd surely respawn should anything unfortunate happen to him, there were more problems with operating the machine on himself.

The most prominent of which being that he couldn't actually do that.

To operate his machine, the brit had to press a few-- hundred-- buttons on the screen. It would be impossible to do so from within the cell. Mumbo had to figure out a way that he could be in multiple places at once.

Hm.....

Or perhaps he didn't.

Because Mumbo knew of one Hermit whom, if he ever needed anything, he just had to call. 

About fifteen minutes later, Mumbo was explaining his dilemma to XisumaVoid, whom had come right as soon as Mumbo had whispered, just as he had expected-- and hoped. The admin crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "So you want me to activate the machine... with you in it. Have I got that right?"

Mumbo nodded eagerly. "Yup! I've got it all set up. I'll even talk you through it. I just need someone on the outside of the machine to actually work the code." The redstoner was very excited for this; this might be one of his biggest projects yet, or the one he was most proud of, anyway.

Of course, he loved Grumbot as well, but that redstoning had only taken a few days, and was, quite honestly, rather rudimentary. This, on the other hand, was made over the timespan of an entire month, with each little detail excruciatingly precise, the redstoner having made sure to not mess up a single line of code. Creating one robot was one thing; creating a machine that could do the same an infinite amount of times over was another entirely. Mumbo couldn't screw this up, not even a little. Not when his and the other Hermits' countless lives were on the-- admittedly quite scribbly-- line.

Xisuma was silent for a moment, before suggesting, "Why don't you just teach me how to do it instead? Just show me how to do it a few times just so I can get the hang of it. And of course we can make sure this really is working." Mumbo couldn't help but be just the slightest bit hurt that X worried that Mumbo's machine didn't work, bit it was quickly dispelled as he thought about X's proposal. Now that he thought about it, it was a good idea to have X know exactly what he was doing first, before he did it on his own. 

The brit nodded. "Yeah, let's do that." 

For the next hour, the two went through the process, cloning apple after apple after apple until X could do it on his own. At long last, the two were ready. Mumbo was practically bouncing out of his skin in a mix of excitement and nervous energy. Anticipation, he decided it was. Suddenly, the little cell he had intended to stroll calmly into was seeming very small and very trappable. Mumbo had been working towards this for a full month, but now that the time had finally come he was a bit nervous to actually do it. That seemed to happen a lot, didn't it?

As Mumbo stood, staring into the cell, X piped up from beside him. "Well, Mumbo, I think I could do this in my sleep. Are you ready?" The brit hastily nodded, not saying anything for slight concern of betraying his nervousness. He was about to step in the cell when X suddenly grabbed his arm. "Oh, Mumbo, wait. Give me your communicator; I don't know how it'd react to this machine."

Mumbo was confused. It was just a little thing-- surely it'd be fine in it? But X was probably right-- he usually was about these types of things. So Mumbo unfastened his band and handed it to the admin. And with that, he stepped into the cell. X, smiling, closed the door as Mumbo turned back around to face him. Was the cell always this small? The tall Hermit's hair brushed the top of the cell, and he began to feel mildly claustrophobic. Was this such a good idea? Now that he thought about it, maybe it wasn't...

How long had it been since he got in here? Peeking out, Xisuma was typing furiously. Had he messed up? Was something wrong? Why was this taking so long? "Hey, X," he called out, unsure if his friend could hear him through the clear glass-like material that made up the cell door. "Are you good? Do you need help?"

Apparently the door did not restrict sound as much as Mumbo had thought, as the bee-suited admin poked his head over. "Oh, I'm fine, just taking a bit longer than usual. Almost ready!" Mumbo could hear X surprisingly well for being separated by a solid wall. It was hardly muffled at all. Almost ready. He couldn't help but let out a nervous chuckle; all of his reservations about this came flooding back tenfold. 

However, Mumbo didn't exactly get a chance to voice them as the next thing he knew, Xisuma called out something Mumbo didn't quite catch and his whole body suddenly seemed to be on fire.

Ouch

A ringing filled his ears and the Hermit flinched. After a moment, though, it subsided along with the pain. It was silent. Almost too silent, and Mumbo was about to worry that his hearing had been damaged when X's voice travelled to him from seemingly the other side of the room. "Mumbo... I think it worked!" When X came back over to let the Hermit out, he was smiling brightly behind his helmet-- or he appeared to be, at least, Mumbo couldn't exactly see very well past the bee-like helmet. X opened the door and Mumbo quickly stumbled out, not having been so relieved to be in a somewhat open space in his many lives.

X handed Mumbo back his communicator and the two walked back over to the other cell, where a very familiar figure stood motionless, its eyes closed. Something Mumbo noticed was that his lookalike seemed to be emanating an almost orange, gold glow. How strange; nothing else seemed to do that. It appeared that Xisuma had noticed that as well, as the admin said next to him, "Hey, is it glowing?"

Mumbo nodded. "I think so. I wonder why; maybe it's because it's a person and not an apple?" X seemed to tense up and Mumbo turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "What, you don't think I'm right?"

X quickly shook his head. "No, that's not it. You are probably right, actually. My point was that, uh, are we sure this will work? The most complex thing we've made was an apple-- this is an entire human. What if it doesn't work, and stays in this.... half-alive state forever?"

Mumbo hadn't thought of that, but now that he thought about it, X could be right. Or maybe not, as the second Mumbo opened his mouth to respond, the glow around the form in the cell disappeared. The two turned to it, backing up just a bit. Suddenly, the figures eyes opened, revealing amber eyelids with silver streaks. The pupils were dilated in a way that made it seem like the figure was surprised or even scared. The form's eyes settled on the two Hermits standing outside of the cell and it immediately jumped into motion. It stumbled backwards against the wall of the cell, then turned around. It then flailed forward against the cell door, evidently trying to escape, its eyes wide.

Mumbo and X stood in shocked silence. Mumbo wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting, but this was definitely not it. As Mumbo said, "Should we... let it out?" X simultaneously muttered, "Well that answers that question..." The two Hermits stood uncomfortably still as the figure in the cell seemed to calm down, backing up with slightly less wild eyes. It stared into the distance, propping itself up against the wall of the cell for quite some time before looking back at the two. Its mouth opened and a strikingly familiar voice came out.

"...hello." The figure sounded so much like Mumbo that it was almost scary. "Explanation." The word was less of a question and more of a statement; this creation was demanding an explanation. 

And Mumbo had no idea how to give one.

Luckily, Xisuma was on the case. In about sixty seconds, the admin had managed to sum up everything that was going on, from Mumbo building the machine, to the apple cloning, to the creation of... the creation... itself. Mumbo really needed to give him a name at some point. 

After a few more minutes of explaining and talking to the Mumbo lookalike, X pulled Mumbo to the side. "I think we should let him out," Xisuma suggested. Mumbo nodded in agreement; the redstoner was just about to suggest that. The npc-- it was the simplest thing Mumbo could refer to it-him?-them? as-- seemed to calm down quite a bit, and Mumbo was at least eighty percent sure that it wouldn't try to run off and get it and/or anyone else hurt.

Calmly and carefully, Mumbo walked over to the cell door. His eyes met the npc's, the latter of two's narrowing slightly. He slowly opened the door, but couldn't help stepping back quite a bit. "Wanna come out?"

"Alright," the npc said in an almost monotonous voice. He-- Mumbo figured he was a he at least-- seemed a fair bit more than uncomfortable leaving the confines of the cell. As he stepped out, the AI's arm shot out to prop himself up on the cell, and his steps were wobbly and unbalanced. Mumbo blinked. Could he not walk? Uh, oh. Before Mumbo could ask any questions, however, the npc continued. "So this is Hermitcraft."

Wait, how would the lookalike know that? Neither X nor Mumbo hadn't mentioned it at all in the time they explained-- which, in hindsight, would probably have been a good idea. But nevertheless, the two didn't mention it, and so there was no logical explanation for the npc to know it. Unless... 

"Mu- er, you-" Mumbo really had to figure out something to call him, "Where are we?"

The npc answered him immediately with no sign of hesitation. "In the secret room under your base."

Mumbo caught X watching intently in the corner of his eye while he asked a second question. "How do you know this?"

Mumbo had asked a question that he and X hadn't gone over, which, again, probably would've been a good idea, but it aided him now, so he wasn't complaining. There should've been no way that this AI had known that. If Mumbo's theory was correct, this creation of his was more complex than he had thought. And it appeared that Mumbo was right, as the other didn't respond for a full minute, before saying,

"I remember building it."

Mumbo saw X perk up in the corner of his vision. The moustached Hermit couldn't help but smile, though, internally he was practically jumping up and down in excitement. This AI he had created, he owned Mumbo's own memories. How, why, Mumbo had no idea. But he did. That explained why he knew all those things, why he seemed so calm just a minute or so after coming into very existence, why he had no good reason for knowing things other than he just did. Mumbo was chuffed to absolute bits with this. He couldn't wait to bring this out into the real world and show everyone. 

Maybe the npc and Grumbot could become friends, even! 

But then, when exactly could he bring the npc out into the real world? He certainly couldn't yet, no, no, no. The npc just wasn't ready for real human interaction yet-- outside of Mumbo and X, of course. He could barely speak on his own yet; the bot had been silent for a good two minutes now. No, Mumbo needed to keep this AI in for at least a while longer; maybe a week would be good. 

A week. That was a decent amount of time. How long had it been already? Surely it had been a fair amount of time-- the Hermit wondered if anyone had noticed his absence yet. He turned to Xisuma. "Hey, X," the Hermit began. The admin, who had been idling in the corner, messing with something on his communicator, glanced up.

"Yes?" He glanced between Mumbo and the npc. "You want me to leave or anything?" The admin's eyes locked with the npc's own, and Mumbo tilted his head. 

"Do you want to... talk with him?" Mumbo was getting the feeling that that was exactly what X had wanted to do. Momentarily forgetting what he actually was going to ask X, he moved to the other side of the-- granted, small-- room to allow his friend and his creation to chat.

A few minutes later, X came back to Mumbo. "You wanted to speak with me? Heh, I assume my speaking with your clone wasn't the only reason you called on me."

Clone. There it was again. Mumbo couldn't put his finger on it, but something felt off about calling the npc a clone. But, nevermind that, Mumbo had wanted to ask X something. "Yeah, actually. When you leave, would you mind telling everyone that I am, in fact, alive? I mean, it's been over a month now, been a-"

Xisuma cut him off with a laugh. "Of course I can. If you'd like I could go now; leave you to your bot. Unless you needed me for anything else?"

After a moment, Mumbo shook his head. He really didn't need anything, now, did he? Really, all he had called the admin for was to help him activate the machine. He didn't exactly need him for anything else. "I'm good for now! You can go if you want." 

And go he did. In just a few more minutes, Mumbo was alone with his AI.

"So," the brit began. "Any questions?"

-----

After about an hour of 'answering questions', most devolving into large conversations, Mumbo finally decided it was time to do what he had been meaning to since the creation of the creation. Give said creation a name. "Hey, buddy." The npc looked up from where he was sitting on the couch. "I think it's about time you got a name. How does N-"

Surprising enough to Mumbo, the other intervened, cutting Mumbo off. "Actually, I think I'd like to name myself."

Mumbo didn't exactly have a good reaction to this. "Wh- You know normally you don't name yourself right?" was all he could make out, and even that was a sputtering mess. Why hadn't he considered the fact that this npc-- who had displayed completely different character traits from Mumbo, oddly enough-- would want to name himself? 

The creation merely blinked at Mumbo's refute. "You named yourself."

"No I didn't." Mumbo raised his eyebrows, frowning slightly. What on Earth...?

"Yes you did. You weren't always Mumbo Jumbolio, remember?" The npc gave a smile. "Before X recruited you. That was an alias you made just for Hermitcraft."

Mumbo shook his head. He didn't remember a single bit of this. He had always been Mumbo Jumbo. And recruiting? What in the name of the Nether was this AI talking about? Surely there was a glitch in the programming... And Mumbo had tried so hard for there to be none. Wonderful. Nonetheless, Mumbo supposed he wouldn't get anywhere by refusing the npc the ability to name himself. He sighed. "I suppose if you wan-"

Before he could even finish, the soon-to-be-named npc's face lit up and he began to nearly glow in happiness. "Thank you! Ohhhh... I know the perfect name!" 

The npc ended up naming himself Sage, for, in his words, "It's like you, but at the same time, the complete opposite." Mumbo couldn't decide whether or not to be offended. But something he definitely knew he was feeling was pride. This... thing... this AI, this npc, Mumbo had made it. Sure, X had pressed a few buttons, but Mumbo designed it. He was so incredibly proud of himself. 

And he just couldn't wait to show Sage off to the rest of the Hermits.

-----

1 month and 3 weeks earlier

It had been a little over a week since the npc had been brought to artificial life. And just a few hours, maybe minutes, before Mumbo planned to leave his little room of his own creation. Who knew that over a month of zero interaction with most of his friends would be so taxing? And forget about real, natural sunlight; the redstoner was practically a vampire at this point. Glancing at the staircase in anticipation, the brit was frantically going over in his head repeatedly what he had done with Sage over that last week, trying to remember if there was anything he missed.

Granted, he didn't exactly do much with him. After all, with Mumbo's memories, surely he knew how to do things. The AI didn't need to learn about redstone; surely remembering doing it was enough. The AI didn't need to learn how to fly-- not that Mumbo could do anything for him there... and not just because they were stuck in a small underground room. 

And there were things that Mumbo didn't even teach the AI, yet he discovered on his own. For instance, he certainly made a personality for himself. Much unlike the quiet, mildly grumpy AI he had been right at the start of his life, Sage was now almost always smiling, and always had something to say. He never seemed to get all that upset with whatever Mumbo had to say; he was pretty optimistic, as people go. The Hermits would love him, Mumbo decided.

In other words, Mumbo was ready to bring the npc into the real world. Turning to his creation, Mumbo begun, "Sage, I think it's time we bring you out into Hermitcraft."

Sage's eyes widened in fake surprise. "So you mean there's more than a small room underground? Incredible!"

"Oh shut up," Mumbo laughed. Quite the personality indeed. "What I was going to ask, before I was so rudely interrupted, was if there was anything else you wanted to know about before we go."

The npc stared into space, evidently in thought, for a moment before answering. "Actually, yes. Your... bracelet... communicator... thing. Could I see it?" The npc cocked his head, staring right at the silver band on Mumbo's wrist. 

Mumbo thought for a moment. He had never taken it off before; not that he could remember, anyway. But the communicator, it was just that. A communicator. Something used for communication-- or more, in Xisuma's case, but Mumbo wasn't an admin, so that didn't apply to him. After a moment's thought, the Hermit undid the clasp attaching it to his wrist and carefully handed it to Sage. "Careful," he warned. "I don't really want to know what happens should it break."

The npc took it and turned it around in his hands, studying it. "Cool..." He attached it to his wrist, just as Mumbo had worn it. He sat still for a moment, simply admiring it.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Mumbo coughed. "Could I... have it back, now?" No answer. Sage just stayed perfectly still, smiling down at the communicator. "...Sage?"

And that's when Sage looked up with Mumbo, his face adorned with a more-than-happy, abnormally wide smile that revealed crooked teeth and large, gray-speckled, amber eyes.

And that's when Mumbo Jumbo knew that something was terribly wrong.

In a flurry of motion, Mumbo slammed his hand down on the button to open the piston door. The PUSHHHH of the pistons seemed infinitely far away, as he ran up the stairs as fast he could. His racing heartbeat matched badumps with the thump, thump, thump of his feet on the ledges. He had to be almost there! Outside. Something was wrong with Sage. Why had he thought making another AI was a good idea? He should've taken X's advice and let him help. 

X! X could help now. X knew about Sage. X knew the programming behind him. If Mumbo could just messa- Nope. He didn't have his communicator. He couldn't call for help. He had to get there on his own. 

Not far now. How many stairs were there? Was Sage behind him? He couldn't hear anything. Maybe he should look back.

Mumbo glanced back.

Mumbo missed a step.

"Oumph-!" Mumbo hit his head on the hard surface of the step and the world spun for just a moment. But Sage wasn't behind him-- not yet, at least. If he could just make it out, he could get a potion of healing, or simply die, whatever he needed to do to fix his head. 

Aha! Light! Though it was currently just a white abyss, somewhere close, Mumbo could see daylight flooding down onto the staircase. Just.. a little... mo-

Pushhhhhh.

And just like that, the light was gone. Mumbo collapsed to the step he was standing on, panting. 

"You really should've fixed that door."

WHAM. Mumbo's head met the ground again, and everything went dark.

----

When Mumbo woke again, he was in a familiar place. And it wasn't the comfort of his own base. Flinging his pounding head around wildly, he recognized the familiar, small area of his own cell. The one he had stayed in while allowing X to make Sage. The very small, very claustrophobia-inducing one.

Mumbo was liking this place less and less.

Especially since, sitting right outside of it, on the couch, was Sage, his arms folded on his lap, and his grin wide. "So, Mumbs," he began.

"How are you liking imprisonment?"

-(Author's Rambling)-

Okay... don't yell at me. I have a perfectly reasonable explanation for being away for nearly three months. Does school work as an explanation? With the start of school, my focus hasn't exactly been on writing Minecraft stories.

But... to make it up to you guys... I tried to make this chapter extra long to compensate.

And boy... make it long I did.

5687 words.

5687 words.

Well, anyway, I hope you like this bit of a backstory/flashback chapter! I've got nothing to say about it except maybe...

:)

That's all for today, so see ya next time, my little readers!