Grian noticed Taurtis trying to reach a hand out to comfort him, reminding him that Taurtis seemed to be badly injured. This was meant to be an in and out job, but he'd just gone and over complicated it.

Stupid, stupid, stupid

He should never have agreed to let Mumbo come with him. He couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh as he remembered telling Mumbo to trust him.

So much for trust.

He was reminded of Taurtis yet again, forcing his mind out of it's stupor and to focus. Taurtis was injured, however they had the luxury of time. There probably wouldn't be more watchers coming, but it wasn't safe to assume. He'd assumed he could get Mumbo out, and look where Mumbo was now.

The reminder that Mumbo was dead was as painful as before. No, not dead, just... Missing. Right? He was just missing, it was a trick by the watchers to mess with his head. Just missing.

The body lying on the floor said otherwise.

"Sorry," Grian muttered, his hands shaking as he began to untie the rope around Taurtis's wrists. There were red marks in the areas where he'd been tied from the ropes cutting in, and while they would need treatment, it didn't seem to have caused nerve damage or blood loss. Taurtis gave him a lopsided grin, one Grian quickly returned as he took out his communicator.

"What you 'pologising for," he slurred. "You came."

"Not soon enough," Grian muttered, letting the ropes fall to the ground. "Do you think you're safe to teleport?" Taurtis shrugged, wincing after.

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not really," Grian admitted. "They could come back at any time."

"Well then yeah, I'll survive." Taurtis pushed himself up, using Grian for support. He clung onto his arm tightly, swaying for a second before holding steady. Hesitantly, Grian entered the command to teleport them to the portal, internally praying it wouldn't go wrong and that Taurtis wouldn't get more injured. The two crashed in front of the portal, but Grian managed to get up after only a few seconds, helping him up nervously. He was shaking slightly, but he ignored that, making sure Taurtis was stable - well, as stable as he could be - before stepping in.

Taurtis stumbled onto the ground, his movements shaky. Grian barely registered that they were back in Hermitcraft, reaching for his communicator and typing in a hasty message.

Grian: Spawb hekp nexded llease

A rush of replies came through, the communicator buzzing loudly on the floor next to them, but Grian didn't focus on that. He focused on the portal, panic swelling once he realised he hadn't cleared the portal of IP traces. This server was now trackable. Fireworks fired loudly nearby, footsteps and voices following soon after. Grian was too focused on the building panic at the realisation, desperately thinking through possible solutions. The Evo portal was one-way, they could easily access Evo, so that wasn't an option. He could get everyone out safely, giving them about a day.

Everyone except-

No. No, he couldn't think about that right now. There wasn't time.

There was never time.

And right now, they had even less until the Watcher's found them. But he didn't want to evacuate the Hermit's unless he was certain that they needed to. Moving temporarily to Evo could be an option that could buy them time, but-

"Grian, where's Mumbo?"

The walls he'd slowly been building to block out the wave of emotions suddenly broke. His breathing was ragged, clinging onto the portal so that he wouldn't collapse. A choked sob escaped his mouth, which he quickly tried to suppress, but it didn't make it any better.

A hand rested on his back, and it took him a moment to realise it was Taurtis's. The physical contact, though well-intended, didn't help - if anything it made it worse.

"We can't- I tried- I-" he broke off into silent sobs, resting against the portal for comfort. He straightened (homophobic) up, or at least tried to, struggling to get his words out.

"Need to move- no time- Evo-"

"Grian, I don't fully understand what you're saying," someone cut him off. Xisuma. He recognised that synthesised voice. "Do we need to get to Evo?" Grian nodded shakily, brushing away his hysterical tears. He was dizzy and unable to focus, but he knew he needed to. He could break down later.

"Why do we need to get to Evo? What about Impulse?" It was a female voice this time, False maybe? He couldn't be sure.

"I don't know, but I'm inclined to believe Grian. He can maybe explain once he's calmed down. We can leave a note for Impulse-"

"Bad idea," a slurred voice cut in. "Can't let 'em know, hope 'e figures out." Grian's vision started to clear when he wiped away the tears, trying to steady his breathing.

"T-Taurtis's right. They'll f-find us." Damn, he wasn't able to keep it together. How could he after-

No. He couldn't spiral again.

"Oh my god, this is such a mess," Grian muttered, resisting the urge to collapse.

"Grab your stuff, ender chests and all, anything you value," Xisuma said, taking control of the situation. "Is there netherite and shulker boxes in Evo?" He ran through his memories briefly, nodding after a second. "We probably have an hour at most, meet by Grian's starter base in 30," Xisuma added. The blonde nodded.

"C-can some people help get Taurtis over there," Grian asked, his voice still shaky and weak.

"Sure," Iskall volunteered.

"I'll get the message to the people who aren't here," False added. Grian nodded gratefully, reaching over to Taurtis. Iskall helped pick up one end, and Grian couldn't help but notice the way he was starting to slip in and out of consciousness. Iskall pulled out some fireworks and pulled their elytra on. Grian helped support them, trying to get his wings working. Eventually, they managed to get flying towards his starter base. Grian thanked Iskall briefly for their help, grabbing some bandages and starting to wrap up a few of Taurtis's wounds.

Once that was done, he flew over to his mansion. He emptied out his ender chest first, glancing around for anything he deemed worth saving. He could save his netherite throne, his diamond chandelier, but at the end of the day, that simply wasn't worth taking.

He unearthed his obsidian sword - the one thing he'd had since the corrupted world, and slotted it into his hotbar next to his netherite sword. He grabbed a shulker box of food, a look of regret on his face as he had to leave the birds.

He did bring Maui and Pearl though - he couldn't leave them.

He pulled the maps down from the walls, and a photo album. On the front was a picture of Mumbo.

He quickly remembered his camera, taking a brief photo of his mansion before he ran back to his starter base. At that point the rest of the hermits were starting to arrive, and Taurtis was starting to regain consciousness.

"This is really it," Scar whispered.

"It's certainly been a good run," Cleo said quietly. (I originally wrote Impulse before forgetting he was gone and possibly being tortured, I couldn't say) Murmurs of agreement echoed around the hermits. Grian looked around at the 21 hermits, Taurtis and Xeno, and smiled. It was a sad smile, one clearly being forced, but despite the inner turmoil, he picked up Maui and Pearl, and prepared to go through the portal.

"I guess this is goodbye to Season 7. I hope one day we can come back, but for now..." he cleared his throat, and with a final salute, stepped through the portal to Evo, out of the Season 7 world, for the last time.

It's not been 3 months what do you meaaaaaan

I KEPT MY PROMISE AND DEFINITELYMDIDNT WRITE IT IN ONE SITTING JUST NOW

Thank you @XxFadingDreamsxX for the ridiculous support and forcing me to write this :]

And screaming at me to update actually helps, and I like it unlike other authors (but dont fo around doing that to other authors)