TW: Mention of death

Tommy comes back as a ghost, buuuuut something went wrong

Tommy opened his eyes after being able to send part of his spirit out of the afterlife. What he didn't expect was to appear on an island with impressive buildings around him. This wasn't the Dream SMP spawn. This wasn't where he was supposed to be.

If it wasn't the Dream SMP, then where was he?

"Hello!" Someone with an accent similar to his glided down using grey insect like wings. "Alright who is this? Who's pranking me this time?"

"Okay, where the heck am I," Tommy demanded, his voice echoing like Ghostbur's would. He wore a confused expression, that's not what he wanted to say. "Heck. Why the frick can't I say it! Oh my goodness what is this cursed place!"

"You're not from here are you," he said, "how did you get into Hermitcraft? On accident it sounds like."

'Ghosts don't always follow the normal rules of the land I've discovered,' Schlatt's words echoed through his head.

"Oh frick, why did this have to happen to me." Tommy muttered.

"I'm Grian, and welcome to Hermitcraft," He greeted. "We could go find Xisuma and see if he can sort out your problem."

"Yeah, yeah, I need to get back," Tommy said, but would not being able to see everyone back there be so bad? It's not like anyone would miss him, and being here might prevent Dream from reviving him.

"Are you using a voice changer? Or is your voice usually that echoing, it's cool," Grian asked.

"That's something I only want to explain once," Tommy said, he thought for a second, how smart would it be to tell them his real name? "I'm Theseus."

"Nice to meet you," Grian looked at Tommy's back and frowned, no elytra. "Let me message Suma real quick."

"Cool builds," Tommy said, trying to fill in the silence. If he was going to be stuck here he might as well get a look around. "This is way more impressive than our spawn."

"You want to see mine," Grian light up, "sure these are cool, but mine is one of the biggest."

"I guess," Tommy shrugged, but he was curious about how this place was different from where he was from. They soon reached The Barge. Tommy marveled at the build, he hadn't seen anything like it.

"This is perfect actually, I was just coming to check on The Barge anyway," Grian went through the chests, collecting the diamonds that had been left there.

"You don't live here," Tommy said, this place was definitely big enough to live in. "What's with all these chests?"

"Oh no," Grian chuckled, this boy was giving him alot of laughs today. Maybe he could prank him later. "This is my shop. I sell different materials like sand, gravel, and even some netherite tools."

"Huh, and they just leave the payment in the chest," Tommy said as he opened a chest that Grian hadn't checked to find a couple of diamonds. "How do you know they don't just take more than they're supposed to?"

"Honor system, plus the people here aren't like that," Grian said, "are you telling me where you're from doesn't do that."

"Well for one I would've totally taken more than I was supposed to, but that was the old me," Tommy said, handing over the diamonds to Grian. What if he stayed here? He could get a new start, make a brand new reputation. It would take some work but maybe he could make the hotel himself.

"Grian! What's up," Xisuma flew in through the open top of The Barge. "Is this the stranger you were telling me about?"

"Yup, this is Theseus, he says he's not supposed to be here," Grian said, waiting for Tommy to add on.

"Yeah, I kinda don't remember where I'm supposed to be, just not here," Tommy lied, well partially. He was starting to feel like Ghostbur, his memory was patchy but there were certain things he did know.

"That's okay, is Theseus a nickname or is that your full name," Suma asked, pulling up the admin chat and seeing if there were any other admins he could contact.

"It's, uh, TommyInnit," he said.

"Grian! I need your head," A zombie looking girl flew down to them.

"Okay," Grian laughed and started to put his things in a chest. "Give me a second Cleo. Ready!"

Tommy started panicking as Cleo killed Grian and he dropped a copy of his head. "What?! But! Wait! You just!"

"You alright mate," Cleo asked as Grian respawned.

"Don't you only have three lives!?" Tommy said, there was no hesitation. His deaths started to flash through his mind and he took a shaky breath.

"No, we have infinite respawns," Grian said, "Is that what happened to you?"

"Yes, I lost all three of my lives, and tried to come back as a ghost," Tommy said.

"Ah, you're from the Dream SMP," Xisuma said, "I'll contact Dream and-"

"No! He can't know," Tommy said. "What I mean is that he's kinda in a prison he built and probably won't get your messages. I should probably stay here for now."

"What kind of server has a prison," Cleo asked.

"I'd rather not think about the many reasons why," Tommy said and images of Doomsday surfaced in his mind that he had to ignore.

"Yeah, I'm looking at a list of everyone who's joined and it's amazing that the server hasn't been reset yet," Xisuma said.

"Well it seems like you need a place to stay," Grian said as he pulled out an extra pair of elytra. "You can have these to get started."

"Do-do you mind if I stay with someone for now," Tommy asked as he slipped on the elytra, he didn't want to admit that he didn't want to be alone, but he also didn't want to be a burden to these people who were being so nice to him.

"Of course!" Grian said, "you can live in my starter home, it's not too far from the mansion."

"Well, Theseus, if you need anything feel free to message me," Xisuma said as he gave Tommy access to the chat that would allow to him to speak to all of the other Hermits. The ghost was now officially apart of Hermitcraft.

"Uh, thank you," Tommy couldn't understand it, these people we being so nice, not only to him but to each other as well. In short, he wasn't used to it. But it was a nice change from the chaos he knew and practically grew up with.

It took a bit but Tommy was able to get used to using the elytra, but the falling off towers on purpose didn't sit well with him for whatever reason. He couldn't remember why, it just didn't feel right.

"Here we are," Grian landed on the ground expecting Theseus to follow him. Instead he just flew higher, it was exhilarating and made him feel free. Seeing Grian he glided down to where he was. "You're a natural, you might be as good as me one day!"

"Thanks," Tommy said, he remembered stories of someone flying around like that. Wasn't it about someone he knew? Tommy rubbed his head, why couldn't he remember? "Woah." He had turned around and properly seen the Mansion.

"Yeah, I built that, I'll take you to see some of the other Hermits' bases tomorrow," Grian said it as if it were no big deal. "Do you like building?"

"I mainly built cobblestone towers, nothing as cool as that though," Tommy admitted.

"Well everyone starts somewhere, maybe while you're here we could help you improve your buildings, there's plenty of open land to practice on," Grian said, he jumped off again and glided down to the abandoned hobbit home he had built. "Well this is where you can stay. There's a mine down there and you're welcome to use my villagers, just try to get your own materials."

"Wow, thanks," Tommy said, he walked in as Grian flew off to the mansion. It was getting dark so Grian decided to go the the Nether and see how his gold farm was going.

By the time Grian returned to the hobbit hole to check on Theseus he was in the trading hall going back and forth between the villagers. He seemed focused on something and occasionally opened a shulker box he must have found.

"Hey, what have you been up to," Grian said, it was weird having someone else around.

"I sorted some of your, uh boxes, I hope you don't mind me using them, they're really cool," Tommy said, "I also noticed your Barge was low on some resources so I went mining and refilled some of them."

"Oh, wow, thanks Theseus," Grian said, maybe it was good that he was here. He could help Grian cut his work in half.

"It's the least I could do for you letting me stay here, everyone here is so nice and it's so cool," Tommy was practically beaming.

"No armor yet? You've got to take care of yourself as well," Grian said, noticing Theseus only had elytra on. "We could go to Scar's shop and-"

"I don't like armor," Tommy said, "it feels heavy, and wrong. Like I shouldn't be wearing it."

"Oh, well I guess you'll have to be extra careful," Grian said, "I would help you build your house, but I've got alot I need to do."

"Oh, well that's alright," Tommy shrugged, "Can I help you at all?"

"I just got my base back after swapping with another one of the Hermits, Zedaph," Grian said, think aloud for Theseus' sake. "I have some plans for The Barge so if you could take this bonemeal and go mine some spruce trees that would be great."

"Yeah! I can do that!" Tommy grinned, taking the bonemeal and flying away.

And that's how the next two weeks went, Tommy helping Grian and the other Hermits. He became known as the friendly ghost that had shown up one day. He never expected payment for helping, but it was an unspoken rule that you give him some cobblestone or diamonds to use. Grian and Scar taught Tommy how to improve his build and make it more pleasing to the eye. Over time Tommy forgot about the life he left behind and grew into the name of Theseus, almost becoming a new person.

But eventually Dream XD did find out and had to bring the ghost home. Problem was, he wasn't able to forcefully do it. Traveling between servers was tricky, and wasn't like the teleportation the admins could do with everyone on their server. In order to get Tommy home, XD would have to convince him to travel back with him.

"Hey Theseus," Xisuma flew over to Theseus as he was looking at the tower he had been building. He was trying to figure what to do next. "You have a visitor. Do you want to meet at the shopping district or should he come here?"

"Can they come here?" Theseus asked, "if that's not too much trouble."

"Of course not, let me just," Suma started typing a command as Theseus looked back at his tower. "There we go." Within seconds a teen around Theseus' age appeared next to Xisuma. He had blond hair and wore a wrinkled green button up.

"Hello," Theseus said, not thinking anything of Suma teleporting the boy to him. "I'm Theseus. What brings you to Hermitcraft?"

"I- uh, you actually, do you not remember me," he stammered, he didn't sound or act like Tommy, but he looked like him.

"No, sorry. Who are you?" Theseus asked, starting to feel bad for not remembering him.

"It's me, it's your best friend, Tubbo." He said, "Tommy, I'm thrilled to see you."

"Don't call me that," Theseus felt himself start to hyperventilate at the mention of his old name, but he was able to calm down and remain in control. He didn't want to remember the life he had before. "I'm not him anymore."

"Don't you want to come home," Tubbo said, he heard from Xisuma that he had been going by Theseus, but wasn't he aware of the history behind that name? "And why out of all names, why choose Theseus."

"I don't know," he shrugged, completely ignoring the first question, "it felt familiar to me."

"Everyone would be thrilled to see you, come back home," Tubbo said, he had been asked to do this and he wanted Tommy home as well.

"I don't want to, that's not my home anymore," Theseus said, "I like it here."

"But what about your hotel," Tubbo said.

"What hotel," he asked.

"Nevermind, but what about Sam, or Puffy, or Wilbur," Tubbo said, Ghostbur had been asking everyday when Tommy was coming back, but no one wanted to keep telling him that Tommy was dead.

"Will-Wilbur," Theseus stammered, stumbling back at the name. His mind flashed back to his death and the immense pain he was put in. He wasn't going back there. He had no idea what would happen it he was taken back to- "No. No, no, no." He rejected the thoughts and fears and pushed them back into the recesses of his mind. He was Theseus, Tommy was dead. He rubbed his head as he tried to calm down.

"Hey Theseus!" Stress flew down to them, "Ren's currently working on his base and needs lava. Do you want to come help me?"

"Yeah, yeah I'll help," Theseus turned to Tubbo, thought about saying something but decided against it. He then flew off towards the Nether portal with Stress.

"That didn't go well," Tubbo said, trying to think of something else. "Is there anyone here he trusts?"

"Grian, they've been helping each other ever since Theseus got here. If there's anyone who could convince him to go back to your server it's him." Xisuma said, "unless you know of anyone from your server who could."

"Well it seems like he doesn't like Wilbur so I don't think bringing Ghostbur would be a good idea, but there's always Glatt if we can find him," Tubbo said, "What's he like nowadays?"

"He loves the server, the first few days he was telling Grian and I how great it is here. The Hermits love having him as well, Theseus will just go around collecting materials for everyone," Xisuma said.

"Okay, I need to talk to Drista about getting someone else here to help," Tubbo said and the young admin had suddenly appeared next to him as Xisuma went to find Grian and let him know what was going on."

"You called," Drista laughed as Tubbo jumped back.

"I think we should bring over Ghostbur and Schlatt, they're both ghosts and know what Tommy is going through," Tubbo then tried to think of something else. "Could you give me two name tags as well?"

"Yeah, here," she threw him the items then disappeared.

With the resources Xisuma had given him he went to go find what he thought could help remind Tommy of who he was. He went in the direction of where the large mansion loomed, traveling through the jungle on foot. Eventually Tubbo found the two animals he needed, and took leads off a wandering trader. He stumbled across Grian's hobbit hole, used the anvil inside to carve names on the tags, and found some blue dye to cover the sheep he found. Now Tubbo lead the imitations of Henry and Friend to Grian's mansion where Drista now was with Ghostbur and Glatt.

"Friend!" Ghostbur exclaimed going over to the blue sheep and hugging them. "Hi Tubbo. Drista brought us here."

"I know," Tubbo said he didn't know the best way to put that Tommy was here.

"So why the hell did we get dragged here," Glatt demanded, "I came cause I have nothing better to do."

"Hey," Stress flew down to them with Theseus following behind. "Suma said you guys need to talk to him."

"I'm not talking to you," Theseus said, he didn't acknowledge Ghostbur in fear of having the same flashbacks as earlier.

"What if I'm here," Grian said, coming up from inside the mansion, "I needed to tell you something anyway."

"Well if you need anything just say, okay," Stress said to Theseus, it was clear he didn't like them, or just wasn't comfortable with them.

"Fi-fine," Theseus said and Stress flew off with the shulker boxes. "There is nothing you can say that will get me to come back."

"Wha-what happened to you," Ghostbur asked, this wasn't Tommy, or at least it wasn't the same Tommy he knew.

"I died, Ghostbur, I died cold and alone and none of you cared about me," Theseus felt tears start to burn his skin and he quickly rubbed them away.

"But we do, Tommy, every-" Tubbo started.

"Will you stop calling me that!" Theseus snapped, "I'm sorry. It's just I don't like being called Tommy, because I'm not Tommy. I'm Theseus. Tommy is dead, you need to accept that."

"Everyone misses you Theseus," Ghostbur said, finishing what Tubbo was saying. "Don't you want to come home?"

"No, because everyone treated me like crap, that much I do remember," Theseus said. He was still as stubborn as ever.

"But what about Henry," Tubbo said, pulling the cow forward. "We found him, we could go get him back together. Like old times."

"I think we've sugar coated this too much," Glatt said, "kid, if you don't come back in a few months you'll be here alone and won't have anyone. You may be annoying as heck but I-" Glatt stopped at the word, he didn't want to say that. This made Theseus start to crack a smile as Glatt tried to swear.

"The server is PG, you can't swear here," Theseus chuckled, forgetting for a second what Glatt has told him. "And what do you mean I'll be alone in a few months?"

"We uh- we reset the server every year, year and a half," Grian said, he knew they would have to tell Theseus eventually, but no one actually wanted to crush the ghost like that and tell him. "I think the best thing would be for you to go with them."

"Oh, okay," Theseus said, he felt hurt, but also confused. Why leave such amazing builds?

"Hey," Grian looked up at the ghost, "It's okay. Maybe we'll meet again someday. Build a tower for me?"

"Yeah, I-I just need a second, then we can go," Theseus said, not waiting for a response before going off to the log cabin he'd built himself. Tubbo let go of the animals and followed him. The cabin was less of a cabin and more like a small hut with log walks surrounding it.

It was an exact replica of Logstedshire.

"You're okay, everything's fine," Tubbo heard Theseus muttering to himself, then the familiar sound of Chirp came on. "Just listen to the music."

"I- how do you remember this," Tubbo said, from what he knew exile wasn't the greatest point in Tommy's life.

"I don't know, but you need to go," Theseus said. "Don't you ever listen?"

"Not when I'm worried about my friend," Tubbo said, "you are my friend and I really miss you.

"Maybe, you should let me decide who my friends are, I did a perfectly good job while I was here," Theseus sighed. "Just, give me some space. I'll come to you when I'm ready."

"I-Okay," Tubbo said, it seemed there was no changing his mind. He had to accept that this wasn't Tommy, Tommy was gone.

"Please just leave, I'll come when I'm ready," Theseus said, he knew the boy was trying, trying to remind him of who he once was, but he didn't want to remember. He wanted a new life, like the one he created here.

All Theseus wanted, was peace.