Zed shifted his position slightly, stretching as much as he could manage in the very limited space of his cramped vantage point in the ceiling of Impulse's base. He didn't know how long he'd been waiting, and it was starting to get to the point where he was too afraid to ask. He'd have left hours ago, but the sunk cost fallacy had kept him glued in one place. What if he left just as Impulse was getting back from... wherever he'd gone? That would be embarrassing!

He fidgeted absent-mindedly with his spyglass. There was a loose panel of copper that made a satisfying clicking noise when he moved it from side to side. If Zed was being honest, he was starting to worry. Surely Impulse had to come back to his base at some point? What if Impulse was out somewhere, stuck in the middle of nowhere, working himself to death? Zed bit down on the inside of his cheek in an attempt to quiet down that worried voice.

He stopped when he tasted blood. His worries didn't stop at all.

After a couple more minutes of deliberation, he decided to just reach out to Impulse with a simple check-in message. He typed it out one-handed, his other hand still fidgeting with the loose panel on his spyglass. When he tried to hit send, his communicator-phone-screen-thingy flashed bright red with a garbled error message. He tried again, to the same result.

Now Zed was really worried. He tried to send a message to Tango, and got the same result. Brow furrowed, he jumped down from his hiding place. To the nether with this attempt at I Try I Spy. He opened his elytra mid-fall, gliding out the door of Impulse's base with the grace of a newborn lamb strapped to a jetpack. Which was significantly more graceful than he usually managed. Once he was out, he turned and launched himself towards Xisuma's base.

As he flew over the spawn village and shopping district, he couldn't help but notice how crushingly empty everything was. Sure, the Hermits liked to keep to themselves (the name had to come from somewhere, after all) but it wasn't the most uncommon thing to see a couple hermits on a shopping trip, or someone refilling their shop, or just some sign of life. Zed forced down the lump forming in his throat, and kept on flying.

As he set down in the entrance to X's base, he tried to ignore the thin layer of dust.

"X?" he called, "Xisuma?" He stepped further in. The place felt cold and empty. "Xisuma, you ho-OME!?"

He let out an involuntary yelp mid-word as he tripped over some slight rise in the floor. He pulled himself up, and turned to look and see what it was. What greeted him was a simple item frame, lying in the middle of the path. Zed could make out a rounded depression where the item frame's contents had sat, but otherwise it offered him nothing.

After a few minutes of poking around X's base, Zed finally admitted to himself that whatever had happened to Tango and Impulse must have also happened to their admin. He bit the inside of his cheek again, wondering what to do next. Coming up short on ideas, he decided to go home and think it over there.

On his way home, he thought he heard the sound of rockets firing when he personally hadn't fired any. He turned to look, but there was no-one there. He looked away, trying to hold back the crashing wave of sorrow that threatened to roll over him. Was the loneliness already getting to him? He shook his head, tried to choke back the tears, and continued home.

He touched down in the upper layer of his base, his legs slightly shaky. He made his way towards the water columns to slide the rest of the way down, when out of the corner of his eye, he spotted it: another item frame. He turned, and headed over to take a look. Inside sat a lodestone compass, with the words 'Follow me, 8pm BST' engraved into it. He realised that this matched the item frame in X's base, and without another thought he popped the compass out of its frame.

After a little pondering, Zed figured that his best lead for finding where everyone had gone lay in the compass he held in his hand. He grit his teeth, and set off into the distance just beyond his base.

In hindsight, he shouldn't have been surprised where it led him.

The rift loomed over him now, purple and swirling and oddly enticing. His mouth felt dry. Everyone had gone through. Everyone had gone through that thing, and none of them had come back. Surely if they could come back, someone would have. He was scared, if he was being honest. What if it was a portal to the deepest core of the void? What if the Hermits – his friends – were trapped? Were suffering? Were dead?

Zed took a deep breath to steady himself, and turned around. Grumbot Prime was right there. Grumbot knew things, right? Grumbot could tell him. Right?

"Where did they go?" Zed asked.

I DO NOT KNOW. THERE IS NO GRUMBOT THERE.

"Can they come back?"

NO. I MADE SURE.

"What... Why?"

Grumbot took a while to respond to that one, sitting there, chugging along. Eventually, however, Grumbot Prime gave Zed his answer.

MUMBO FOR MAYOR

–––

Well. Hopefully this means I've gotten over the ol' writer's block? Time will tell, though.

I've been Entropy, peace out from the present!