{outside world}

(1 week after the last chapter ended)

'well, this should be it. It's been a week... I should be going back, any minute now.'

Elise thought to herself hopefully, wishing this would truly work.

It wasn't fair that Grian had gotten with Mumbo; she knew they had something special. Grian just didn't want to admit it.

Mumbo was in the way, and Elise wanted revenge. She wanted him out of the way. He had caused enough trouble before, and now he was causing more.

She was sick of things the way they were. It was time she got her way.

Later that day, close to noon, Elise had been feeling odd.

She remembered the feeling from last time she was about to be pulled into the HermitWorld.

She saw the particles swirling around her, her body felt tingly and ticklish, and she slowly warped just in front of the portal. All she had to do was step through and she would be back.

{HermitWorld}

Xisuma waited at the portal. He saw Elise as she stepped through.

"Ah, you're here! Perfect timing!"

"I thought you hated me?"

"What? Why would you think that? I've barely met you, Elise. We hope you enjoy your first year with us!"

Elise was obviously confused. It was almost as if everyone forgot about what had happened.

Oh well, didn't matter to her. Easier to take revenge.

Meanwhile, Xisuma and everyone but Grian and Mumbo knew exactly what was going on. Mumbo and Grian were in their house, while everyone else gathered around the portal knowing the plan.

1. Don't tell Grian or Mumbo that Elise is back!

2. Act as though you've forgotten what happened last season and that's it's Elise's first time with us!

3. Don't talk about Grian and Mumbo in front of Elise!

If they all kept up with that, Xisuma could continue his plan and get rid of Elise for good. He just needed a little bit more time to figure out how.

The only people who weren't around the portal were Tango, Gem, and Pearl.

They had all gone to keep Grian and Mumbo busy and distracted until they knew Elise had been settled somewhere.

"We could play some kind of card game?" Tango suggested, not knowing what else to say.

"Or go mining far far away from here! See if we can't find something exciting?" Pearl added.

"Why don't we go hang out by the portal?" Grian smiled.

"Um, we can't! Xisuma has an... Important meeting going on... It's very secret and we can't tell you about it. Technically, you're not even supposed to know he's there." Gem tried to make up an excuse, but Mumbo knew she was lying in a second.

"There's no way I believe that, Gem." Mumbo laughed. "There's something else going on..."

"Mumbo, it's alright. Nothing going on. I swear." Tango smiled at the moustached man.

Meanwhile, back at the portal, everyone was making it seem like there was a small welcoming party, and it was ending as Xisuma was getting ready to show Elise around.

"You're gonna show me where everyone's setting up? Perfect! There's actually been meaning someone in particular I want to meet." Elise tried to smile softly at X, hoping her smirk wouldn't show.

"Oh, really? And who would that be?"

"Uh... Someone name MumboJumbo and someone name Grian."

"Oh, you know what, they actually just left HermitWorld! Very recently. They were tired and wanted to stop."

"But I've been watching the lives, since before I came here... I've seen them both!"

"Oh, I mean they just left a couple days ago. They didn't like the live feature, and again, they were tired." Xisuma sighed. "We miss them a lot, but they're hopefully happy now."

"Xisuma, what the hell is going on?! Did you forget everything? What happened last year? Near the end? I've been here before! I could understand if Mumbo and Grian left, but there's no way you've just forgotten everything. You'd better tell me everything!" She had nothing to shove to his throat as a threat, but she was up in Xisuma's face.

He, of course, wasn't fazed even a bit.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, seriously. If you had been here last year, you wouldn't have been able to come now. Unless there was some kind of mistake? But that hasn't ever happened."

Elise sighed heavily. "Just... Forget it. I know I'm late. Can I get some help gathering block resources to start building some kind of house?"

"I'll send you off with Scar and Cleo."

Scar, Cleo, and Elise went off to start chopping wood and get other blocks so she could build something decent. They also helped mine some stone, iron, diamonds, other things like that to get her started.

{With Grian, Mumbo, Tango, Pearl, and Gem}

"It's been lovely to have you here, but me and Grian would really love some alone time!" Mumbo was getting tired mentally, and didn't want to deal with people anymore. His energy had been drained and he just wanted to rest with Grian.

"Yes, please. It really has been a lovely visit though!"

"Oh, could we stay for just one more card game?" Gem looked at Tango and Pearl, worried that their plan to keep them home wasn't going to work.

"I suppose one more card game won't hurt..." Grian turned to Mumbo and smiled. "You can go to bed if you'd like, I don't mind." He whispered softly. And with that, Mumbo walked away quickly to their room.

"Mumbo is extremely tired. He's going to bed. I'll stay and play a game though."

Grian grabbed the first card game he saw; Uno.

He shuffled and dealt out the cards to everyone left, and the game began.

A half hour later, their game was still going. Tango was getting a phone call.

"One sec, I need to take this." He smiled at everyone.

He walked away, hoping no one would hear him.

"Xisuma?! What's going on! It's been over 6 hours!"

"I know but we had to be sure Elise was busy and done!"

"Alright, alright. So we're good now?"

"Yes! You can come back whenever."

"Alright, just finishing a game of Uno."

"Really?"

"We had no other choice, okay? Mumbo's gone to sleep, we had to keep Grian doing something."

Tango hung up and went back to the Uno table.

"Uno!" Pearl called out, down to her last card. A blue 6.

Gem played a colour change, and lucky for Pearl she called out blue. Tango placed another change, calling out red, Grian placed a red 6.

Pearl smirked, knowing this was perfect.

She placed her card and jumped up doing a little victory dance.

"Nice one, Pearl!" Grian smiled, Tango and Gem just laughed.

"Alright, I'm also very tired. I'd really like to go to bed, or do you desperately need another card game?"

"It would be nice, but we won't keep you up anymore." Tango winked at the other two.

"Yeah, I am getting kind of tired now too." Pearl fake yawned, Gem joining her.

The three left, and Grian headed over to the bedroom to see Mumbo.

The weird part was... Mumbo wasn't there.

"Mumbo, where'd you go?" He looked all around, but Mumbo wasn't anywhere in the house. Grian noticed the back door had been left open though. Mumbo must have went for a walk.

He went out to go and look for him, bringing an extra jacket for Mumbo in case he was cold and had forgotten his.

He didn't have to walk far before he found Mumbo.

"Hey, Mumby, what are you-"

"Shh! Look!"

"Mumbo what are you-?"

Mumbo pulled Grian down next to him. He'd been watching a few of the hermits who were just on the other side of a tree the two were hiding behind.

"I sure hope this all works."

"I know, it'd be terrible if it didn't."

"It'll be the last they see of her."

"Mumbo and Grian will never have to see Elise again."

Grian looked at Mumbo worriedly.

"Mumbo I don't like this.."

"I'll explain stuff when we go back. I just want to know if they have anything else to say!"

Grian looked away and covered his ears not wanting to hear anything, mumbo paid close attention to everything.

"Yep, if our plan works, this whole thing will be over for good."

Mumbo grabbed Grian and started to pull him back towards their house.

"Listen, Gri! This is all really important. I may have misheard things, so don't count on everything I say to be right..."

They walked through the back door and up to their bedroom.

"I overheard a bit of the conversation. This I know I heard correctly; Elise is back. And Xisuma brought her back."

"What?! Are you kidding me? Xisuma swore we'd be safe and wouldn't see her!"

"It sounds like she won't be part of the live, and she has no idea we're still here. For what we know, she knows that we've left HermitWorld."

Grian frowned slightly. He still wasn't liking the sound of anything.

"Elise can't hurt us, don't worry. They're keeping a close eye on her."

"But what about what they said near the end? About us seeing her for the last time? Are they getting rid of us or her?!"

"Hopefully her... That I don't know of for sure, though. I'm sure they would be getting rid of Elise thought, considering the damage she's done."

"Mumbo I'm scared..."

Mumbo pulled Grian close, hugging him as he cried.

Grian was not just scared. He was terrified, and didn't want anything to happen to him or Mumbo. He was also angry with Xisuma for bringing her back in the first place. All she had done last time was nearly kill Grian and cause problems!

"How about we just try to go to sleep, okay love?"

Grian nodded in agreement.

Both changed into comfort clothing and crawled into bed. Mumbo was asleep within seconds. Grian, on the other hand, lie there as awake as one could be. He was close to Mumbo, nice and warm, and he was tired. But not physically, not enough to sleep.

It had taken Grian a few hours of lying there, desperately trying to just close his eyes and drift away. He finally fell asleep.

---

Grian spent weeks sleeping like this. It would take him hours to fall asleep, while Mumbo would be out quite quickly. Some nights he wouldn't even end up falling asleep. He just lay there awake the whole night.

He was exhausted for so long, barely able to keep his eyes open when he went out. But as soon as he got in a bed and was comfy, he just couldn't fall asleep.

Grian had tried everything.

Sleeping in different places.

Going to bed later, going to bed earlier.

With Mumbo, without Mumbo.

Warm milk before bed.

Reading.

Tv.

Music.

General background noise.

Nothing worked. He was stuck being tired.

He figured he was so stressed about Elise being back his mind wouldn't let him shit down and close his eyes for 5 minutes. He had to be awake and alert at all times to watch for her.

"Grian, you need to see someone about this. Joe might be able to help you."

"N-no no... I'm fine Mumbo-" Grian yawned.

"Seriously, you're worrying me! I'm here sleeping no problem and you can't even sleep for a minute. This isn't healthy Grian."

"I d-don't care. I'm f-fine!"

Mumbo threw his hands up in defeat, even though he knew he would have to find a way to get Grian to sleep.

One morning, after Grian had gotten the best sleep he had in a while, Mumbo woke up with him. They went downstairs together to eat breakfast and hang out.

Grian was feeling great that day.

He was still tired, from previous sleepless nights, but he'd felt way better than he had the day before.

When the two went outside together they saw something huge and insane.

It seemed to be a giant tree; similar to the one Iskall had built a few years ago, just a much smaller version.

It was still a good thousand blocks tall and huge in width.

Everyone had seen it, but no one had any idea where it came from.

Confused, many of the hermits tried to blame it on each other, but nobody admitted to owning it.

Xisuma sent Tango, Gem, and Pearl to distract Grian and Mumbo again while they questioned Elise about the tree.

But even Elise had no idea where it came from.

For a while strange things started to appear. Only every once in a while though, usually once or twice a week.

"Whoa, Mumbo, you have to see whats shown up today!"

"What is it, Gri?"

It was a huge statue of MumboJumbo. It wasn't a small statue; it was bigger than the "mini" Iskall tree that had appeared.

"Okay where in the world are these coming from?!"

"Mumbo, this is crazy! It's you! Damn, they didn't miss anything about you. If you were made of metal or that statue were human, you'd be twins! I couldn't tell you apart!"

Grian giggled, Mumbo slightly joining him.

2217 words!!!!!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!!!!!

It took me a while to get done, so I really hope you did enjoy it.

One of my more favourite chapter I would say.

Have a good time for now, be back in 1-2 weeks!!

Also: a new friend of mine is writing a Grumbo oneshots book over on their page :3 would be super cool if u went and checked it out!!!

is their tag. Go check out their page and vote for their Grumbo oneshots!!!!!!!!