3 months earlier

Xisuma's POV-

Atop of a spike, the admin sat alone in the middle of an ice spike biome, fiddling with his communicator. He had been thinking up a new experiment that he had hoped would work. Well, he hoped that all of his experiments would work, naturally. But this one, in particular, was important to him.

If this didn't work, then he had bigger problems than a disappointing experiment failure.

Xisuma quickly typed out a command into his communicator and clicked send. He waited a moment, two moments before heavy rain began pouring down. The bee-suited Hermit let out a long sigh of relief.

HermitCraft had recently not been doing so well, and X couldn't figure out why. He was doing everything right-- as far as he knew at least-- in the upkeeping of it, but it was still beginning to crash and burn. Ever since he began recruiting more Hermits last season, things had begun to go wrong. He was beginning to lose control of HermitCraft. He was lagging behind. It was a race he couldn't catch up to. A task he couldn't complete.

A game he couldn't win.

Quite literally, in his case. 

And it was beginning to drive him mad. Xisuma looked up at the sky to see the rain seemingly flicker a few times, then stop altogether. The admin's brow furrowed in frustration. Really? He couldn't just have this one thing? He sighed. Deciding that he'd figure that out later, Xisuma decided to check on the Hermits. Scrolling through the list of Hermits and their coordinates, he landed on Mumbo, whose had stayed relatively the same for the past few weeks.

Hm. Maybe he should check up on the redstoner; come to think of it, he hadn't seen his friend in a good bit. And a nice elytra trip might help to clear his mind and allow him to brainstorm what to do about the crumbling server. 

Or it seemed that he wouldn't be having a nice elytra trip, as his elytra was broken. Apparently, he'd be doing this the old-fashioned way.

Not a minute later, the Hermit was propping himself up against a wall of Mumbo's base, extremely disorientated. He had forgotten how awful of an experience teleporting was. Shifting places suddenly was extremely bad for one's sense of direction and balance. Pulling up his wrist, Xisuma quickly reached out to Mumbo on the communicator.

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

As he waited for his friend to respond, X looked around Mumbo's base. It was getting a bit dusty with neglect. When was the last time Mumbo had been up here to tend to it? Sure, his base was designed to look ruined, but did he really have to let it actually do so? As he walked around, a stone button on a shelf caught his eye. It was linked up to a line of redstone. He wondered what that could be. 

Before he could think about it too hard, though, the ground opened up beside him to reveal a long, spiral staircase. Woah. Xisuma walked up to it, peering down when he heard a loud, repetitive thumping and a form came running up. X jumped back as Mumbo stumbled out of the staircase just as the floor closed again. 

"Oh- hi, X, didn't see you there." Mumbo chuckled as he blinked the sunlight out of his eyes. As he regained his breath from running up the stairs, X peered behind him at where the staircase had been. Had that been what the button was for? And why was he working down in there anyway? What did he have to hide that was so important that he couldn't just say something himself?

 "Did you just- What are you doing, Mumbo?" Xisuma was thoroughly confused. Mumbo chuckled and walked over to the button X was inspecting before. So that did have something to do with this. 

After having the admin promise not to spill his secret project, Mumbo pressed the button. Once again, the sound of pistons sounded and the staircase was once again revealed. It wasn't lit very well, the only light seeming to come from a very distant bottom. The redstoner began to walk down the steps. He turned around to call back, "C'mon, X. Down here!" Xisuma followed quickly, allowing the floor to shut back above them. 

"Kinda dark," X noted. Maybe it'd be a better idea to light this up. He nearly tripped multiple times and ended up pressing his hand against the wall to avoid toppling down the steep steps.

Mumbo in front of him chuckled, though it sounded slightly uncomfortable. "Heh, yeah. I should probably do something about that." 

The light at the end of the tunnel-- or staircase, in this case-- soon got brighter and brighter until the two Hermits had reached the bottom of the stairs. Xisuma almost froze in his place as Mumbo revealed his project. It was a cloning device. "Mumbo," he began slowly. "Is that a-"

Mumbo cut him off, grinning wildly. "Yup! It's a matter duplication device!"

X raised his eyebrows. "It's a cloning machine." Was this a bad idea? This might be a bad idea. 

Mumbo crossed his arms, quickly countering X's claim. "Well- Not a cloning machine cloning machine. I'm not creating life. I'm, er... making... artificial life?" Mumbo himself seemed unsure. X sighed inwardly. It wasn't that he didn't trust his friend, he just was wary of the prospect of more cloning. The last time that happened, it didn't go so well. 

Rolling his eyes, X walked up to the machine. 

"Hey, I saw that," Mumbo protested, but X ignored him, smirking to himself.

There was a communicator-like screen in front of the machine, showing hundreds and hundreds of lines of code. X had to say, it was impressive. "Is this what you're doing your work on?" X glanced back over to Mumbo, who nodded enthusiastically. 

"Yeah, it is! Like it?" The brit was clearly pretty excited, and X had to laugh just a bit. He turned to scroll through the lines of code, before turning back.

"Yeah, Mumbo, it's well-done," the admin praised. "Not that I expected anything less of course." X stood up. Now that he knew what Mumbo was doing, he should probably leave him to it. But then an idea came along. 

What if he could get Mumbo's clone to help him out? Just a little bit, here and there. X was ninety-nine percent sure that this clone would be, well, capable of it. Before he could stop himself, X found himself offering to give Mumbo a hand.

It seemed Mumbo was just as confused as X thought. He blinked, folding his arms. "Didn't you not want me doing this?" The moustached man narrowed his eyes slightly in confusion.

Maybe X wasn't a fan of this before, but... He quickly spoke. "Ah- no, no. I- well I wasn't against the concept; I just wanted you to be careful. Y'know, we don't exactly have a... wonderful track record with them." He found himself speaking quicker than normal, and finished, "I think this is a fun idea, actually, Mumbo, and I wanted to see if I could be of any use." He smiled hopefully. 

But then Mumbo refused. X had to admit, he was a bit surprised, but he understood. This was Mumbo's project after all. But he was a bit disappointed. He had gotten his hopes up. But what was he going to do? Mumbo didn't want-- need-- his help. He'd have to figure out another way to save the server. 

After a moment, Mumbo continued, mild worry showing on his face. "What, are you afraid it'll turn out like..." 

X quickly cut in, waving his hands. "Oh, no! 'Course not!" He really should've watched his words, whoops. "I have complete trust in you to not end the world, Mumbo." He smirked as Mumbo's face paled just the slightest. "Kidding," he laughed. He fixed his expression, smiling. "But in all seriousness, I do believe you'll do well. You cracked AI in three days, remember?" 

And he did. Knowing Mumbo, whatever he had planned would probably turn out fine. And worst comes to worst, it probably wouldn't be hard to stop. Explaining that he just wanted to check on Mumbo, X went to go back to the surface. "If you ever need help," X began to repeat before Mumbo cut him off.

"I know who to call." The brit rolled his eyes. "Bye, X!"

X attempted to find the button to go back up, feeling around for a moment. "Bye," he finally called when he finally got it. 

He walked up the stairs, thinking. He could use a break. Mumbo had his thing, all the Hermits were busy fighting over the mayoral position.. Come to think of it, shouldn't Mumbo be up there? He probably didn't expect to win. Maybe he didn't care as much about the race as his campaign manager did. But anyway, it was all fun on the surface, but X was finding it harder and harder to keep whatever control he had left. 

But he couldn't tell anyone. No, he couldn't tell everyone the truth about their lives. He had no idea how they'd react. Even Doc, who was one of his closest confidants didn't know. X sighed. Being the admin had a lot of struggling with it. He could really use a release from all of this.

Before he could get out, the top of the staircase closed, and a good portion of the light coming in from that side flickered out. "Mumbo," he called down. He was honestly relieved for the jerk from his thoughts. 

The floor opened again, and X continued walking, quicker this time, so that he got out with ample time to spare. He debated explaining what Mumbo was doing, but he had made a promise to keep his lips sealed. 

The sun was still high in the sky when X emerged. He supposed he could try and work on something or other. The Hermit had plenty on his plate. He pulled out his elytra to strap on, before remembering it was crumbled and torn and unusable. X sighed. 

Pulling up his communicator to teleport back to the ice spikes, X received a message from Doc.

Docm77 whispers to you: Hey X, I have a situation. Come to your bee shop.

Nevermind about the ice spikes, he knew what he'd be doing next. Typing out a command, X teleported to just a little away from the shop, to avoid suspicion. Making a mental note to find an ender chest and grab a spare elytra until he got back home, he walked up to where Doc was standing just outside the shop. He was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, eyes fixated on a fox walking calmly around in a circle over and over. As he approached, Doc glanced up. "Oh, X. C'mere, look at this fox."

X looked at that fox. Even as he approached, the animal didn't run off as it normally would, it just continued to walk in a circle. "Huh," he said. This didn't seem normal.

"I've been watching this for almost ten minutes now. It was doing.... that when I got here and hasn't stopped since. And don't even ask how a fox found its way to the Shopping District, because I have no idea." The Hermit scowled, continuing to watch the fox.

That was odd. Xisuma wondered if this was some sort of glitch. It had to be, right? It couldn't just be a weird fox. He mentally sighed. Why did there have to be so much going wrong? He stared at it for a moment before an idea sprung into his mind. "Oh, Doc, what if..." He dug through his inventorial pouch and found a few berries. "Maybe if we gave it some berries it would stop... doing whatever it is doing?"

Doc looked thoughtful. "Good idea. Maybe the berries would distract it?"

Distract it, stop it from glitching itself into oblivion by altering what it was doing... same thing, really.

X nodded. He held out the berries. "Hey there," he said softly. Almost instantly, the fox turned to X and ate the berries. Once it was finished, it seemed to realize how close the two Hermits were to it and ran off into the distance. X grinned at Doc. "Glad that worked out," X said.

"Agreed. Thanks for coming so quickly." The cyborg smiled, giving X a high-five. And with that, another one of the many problems was solved.

Through the rest of the day, X worked on different spells to go over with Scar that Friday, he worked on his own spells and commands, and he handled more glitches-- even if they were just minor ones. All the while, he couldn't stop thinking about Mumbo's cl- matter duplicating device. If X were to talk to the clone once it inevitably was created, could he get it to help him, in any way? 

And then a thought hit him. What if there was no way to fix this? What if things would keep getting worse and worse until X finally had to come clean to the rest of the Hermits and explain what was going on? What if something bad happened to someone in the process? And what would the others think of him? Would they be upset he kept this secret from them for years? 

And what would they do after that?

It was not a pleasant string of thoughts, but X couldn't seem to push it out of his mind. And as night drew near, the admin found himself wishing he didn't have to sleep. But his desire to be well-rested overweighed his wariness of falling into the dreaming world. He lay in bed for exactly one, two, three, fo-

The moment Xisuma awoke in the middle of a dark abyss, he knew what was about to happen. The admin scowled. He was no longer in the world of HermitCraft. No, this was a new place entirely. A place where he wasn't in complete control. A place where even banned people could still find him.

And find him EX did. The red-suited ex-hermit was soon standing in front of the admin, his arms crossed. Even if his face was largely covered by the helmet, X could tell he had that same, stupid, cocky grin on his face. "What do you want," Xisuma snapped. He scowled and narrowed his eyes. 

"You know what I'm about to say, X," the other answered. "And you're already considering it, aren't you?"

The worst part was, EX was right on both accounts. But X wasn't about to let him know that. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Now go away. I didn't kick you out of HermitCraft to let you come back in my dreams." He tried to sound threatening, but threatening the evil counterpart of oneself is much harder than it sounds.

EX scowled. "Couldn't you at least try to be competent? You're such a pain sometimes, Xisuma. You and I both know what I want to propose. Just make this easier for the both of us."

"Not a chance." X glared at EX, who rolled his eyes.

"Fine." EX sighed, clearly annoyed. "So I know Mumbo is creating a cloning machine," he began.

"Wait," X cut in. "How do you know that?" There was no possible way for EX to be aware of this. He wasn't in HermitCraft. It should be impossible for him to know things.

EX grinned. It was clear that he was enjoying knowing something that X didn't. "Just because I'm banned from going into the server doesn't mean I can't peek inside." Before X could ask what the heck that meant, the other continued. "Like I was saying, I also know that you have been having some struggles. Big struggles." He smirked.

X couldn't truthfully refute this and it ticked him off, having to agree with the other. "Get to the point, EX," he snarled. 

"Well..." EX drew this word out. It was like he was trying purposefully to get X as annoyed as possible, and, to be honest, that was probably what was happening. "What if you tampered with Mumbo's little clone and got it to destr-"

X cut him off immediately. "No chance." He knew this would happen. EX had been trying to destroy the server for years now, of course he would use this opportunity to attempt to do it again. He prepared to block out EX, turning away from him, when the meddler said something that caught his attention.

"Wow, I really thought you cared more about your friends."

X whipped back around, fire in his eyes. EX had clearly struck a nerve. "And what do you mean by that? I'm keeping this server afloat specifically for them!" How dare EX claim that X didn't care about his friends! The admin attempted to calm himself. This was what EX did, get a rise out of people for his own benefit. He did this all the time. 

 EX smirked. He leaned forward just enough to make X step back. "Oh? And what about when your precious server breaks down even more? Right now it's only some messed-up ticks, a few weather issues, maybe a mob glitch here and there, but what about, say, a few months, a year from now when the other Hermits start to get affected, hm?" He shrugged, shifting his gears entirely. He crossed his arms and leaned back. "Not that I care, of course."

X didn't have a good response to that. Could EX be right? X knew he shouldn't be listening to the evil ex-Hermit, but he just couldn't help but fear that trying to fix things might cause suffering to others later on. 

EX seemed to pick up on X's hesitation. "And deleting the server would guarantee that no-one gets hurt."

"And what do you get out of it?" X found himself saying. He couldn't believe he was actually considering this. Destroying HermitCraft, the one thing he spent years and years ensuring wouldn't happen, was an idea that he didn't push away from his mind. What had life come to? 

"The one thing I've wanted for years is to finally see the HermitCraft server fall. All I've ever wanted was to be rid of that horrid place." EX stared Xisuma right in the eyes as he spoke, his voice serious. It was slightly unnerving, and X swallowed uncomfortably. "If you see this through, then I'll finally have what I want. Heck, if you see this through I'll never bother you nor your friends ever again."

X sat up in his bed, sweating. The moon was still high in the sky, the night still and quiet. The only sound was his own labored breathing as he stared into the darkness. He clutched the covers just slightly tighter. 

-----

2 months earlier

X had nearly forgotten about his conversations with Mumbo and EX. Nearly. He tried to push them from his mind, and, thankfully, EX hadn't bothered him since he first did a month prior. Then again, Mumbo hadn't either, and it was getting harder and harder to keep the rest of the Hermits from fretting over Mumbo's disappearance while still upholding his promise to the brit. 

That is until his communicator dinged with a message from Mumbo.

MumboJumbo whispers to you: Hey X could you come down here for a sec? I could use some help

X gulped as he pulled on his elytra to fly over to Mumbo's base. He had spoken too soon. He arrived there in no more than fifteen minutes, pressing the button to let him down the staircase and descending as quickly as he could without also falling down the flight of stairs. 

Emerging at the bottom, Mumbo was standing next to the machine, looking thoughtful. He turned around at Xisuma's approach with a smile. "Oh, hey, X! Here, have a seat, I wanted to discuss something."

X did as he was told, sitting down on a couch. Mumbo sat down and quickly began. He clearly did not want to waste any time. "So, X, I've finished my machine." 

X raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? That's great!" He wondered what Mumbo could need, then, if it wasn't any help coding or whatnot. He felt a shock of guilt, remembering what EX had advised him to do. Quickly pushing that thought out of his mind, the admin tried to focus on what Mumbo was saying.

"Yeah, thanks! Anyway, so I tested it out on these apples and it worked brilliantly." Mumbo's voice was bright as he described his success. "There's no difference at all, you can't tell that the cl- duplicates are, well, duplicates!" 

"Just say clones, Mumbo."

Mumbo rolled his eyes jokingly as he continued. "Anyway, I think it's time I can finally get to use it on myself." The redstoner was oddly calm as he talked about testing his machine on himself. Normally, one would generally be less eager to experiment on themself, but X wasn't judging.

Mumbo took a breath, and a slight frown formed on his face. Xisuma could tell that this was where he came in. "Only problem, I can't exactly operate it from the inside." He smiled hopefully. "And I was hoping that you could.... help." 

Crossing his arms, Xisuma raised an eyebrow. "So you want me to activate the machine... with you in it," he confirmed. Something was telling him that this wasn't a great idea. "Have I got that right?"

Nodding, Mumbo was practically bouncing out of his skin as he spoke. "Yup! I've got it all set up, and I'll even talk you through it." He spoke quickly, clearly excited to get down to business. "I just need someone on the outside of the machine to actually work the code."

X was about to agree. He was about to say, 'Sure, Mumbo, but if anything bad happens, it's your fault.' He was about to aid Mumbo in the last step of his plan. But he didn't. No. Instead, EX's words came flooding back to him. And X had another idea.

It wasn't a good idea. Definitely not. It was immoral, it would make Xisuma feel awful, and it would involve betraying Mumbo-- and possibly the rest of the Hermits'-- trust. It would take a good while, and X would have to keep a secret nearly as large as HermitCraft itself. And it might not even work.

"Why don't you just teach me how to do it instead?" X quickly reasoned, "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." He smiled slightly, hopefully. 

And his hopes were answered as Mumbo smiled. It wasn't as enthusiastic as before, but it was something. "Yeah," he agreed with a nod. "Let's do that."

Mumbo showed X how to work the machine. Type this in here when it says this, make sure you select these things, don't forget that semicolon, things like that. X caught on quickly, and after about an hour, the two were ready. After his fifth successful go, X turned to Mumbo. "Well, Mumbo, I think I could do this in my sleep. Are you ready?"

Mumbo nodded glancing at the cell to the left which he was about to step into. Xisuma watched as a flicker of uncertainty flashed on his face before he nodded, grinning widely, masking his concern. X was slightly concerned about this but didn't say anything. After all, he couldn't go through with his plan without Mumbo actually doing this. 

Taking a breath, Mumbo was about to walk into the cell when X's eyes landed on his communicator. "Oh, Mumbo, wait," he began, grabbing Mumbo's arm before he could get inside. Was that a good idea to bring in? It might glitch out; the communicator was incredibly important, and X couldn't risk anything bad happening to it or Mumbo or the clone as a result of the code. "Give me your communicator; I don't know how it'd react to this machine."

Seemingly confused, Mumbo unfastened the communicator from his wrist hand warily handed it to Xisuma. The admin smiled as he shut the door and quickly turned to hide his slight panic. This machine better work. It better not kill Mumbo. If the machine killed Mumbo, things would turn disastrous really quickly.

Because if Mumbo died without his communicator, he wouldn't be coming back. 

So as Xisuma stood at the screen, hesitating for a moment, he took a breath and hoped for the best. But he also just took one more moment to think about what he was about to do. This was his final chance to turn back. To make what was probably the right choice. But he realized that his mind was made long before He stood there for a good minute or two, typing quicker than he had ever before.

He changed something here, added a clause there. He flipped some words around and selected some different buttons. He did pretty much what Mumbo told him, but slightly different. Enough to do what he needed with also avoiding suspicion. If he hadn't felt so guilty, he may have been proud of his work.

Apparently, this was taking a while, as Mumbo called through the door-- which amazingly didn't stop sound from passing through in the slightest-- "Hey, X? Are you good? Do you need help?" His voice seemed to shake a little like he was worried that Xisuma didn't know what he was doing or he messed up or something. 

X quickly responded, "Oh, I'm fine, just taking a bit longer than usual. Almost ready!" Which he was. He just had a bit more to finish up and things would work. After just thirty seconds more, he shouted out. "Done! Brace yourself!" 

And without allowing himself any time to stop and think, he pressed a button to start the machine. 

A bright light filled the room, and X had to shield his eyes, even behind his purple-tinted visor. As the light cleared, the right cell was no longer empty. Instead, there stood a perfect replica of Mumbo, just standing there with his eyes closed. He was extremely unsettling and Xisuma didn't like it. "Hey, Mumbo, I think it worked!" The admin quickly came back over to his friend, to his immense relief, was standing, seemingly perfectly fine-- if not a little disoriented-- in his cell. After handing Mumbo back his communicator, the two walked back over to and stood in front of the other cell, staring at the creation.

But something was off with the figure. He seemed to radiate an orange, maybe amber glow. X didn't remember specifying that. Weird... "Hey, is it glowing?" He asked. Maybe it was just him who could see it? Maybe he was hallucinating.

Apparently not, because Mumbo nodded in agreement. What could be causing it? X subconsciously tensed. It couldn't be something to do with-

He hadn't realized Mumbo was talking until he turned to X, saying, "What, you don't think I'm right?"

Of course, he had no clue if he agreed or disagreed with Mumbo, so he quickly tried to cover up the fact that he zoned out. "No, that's not it," he said, shaking his head. "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?"

Well, that was part of the reason he tensed up, at least. The other part wasn't exactly something he could just say, being that it had to do with the fact that he just coded this AI to aid in HermitCraft's destruction.

Before either of them could say anything more, though, the figure in the cell opened his eyes. The glow seemed to be sucked into the AI, and his eyes nearly were shining, amber with silver specks. They differed from Mumbo's green ones, oddly enough. 

X watched, slightly concerned, slightly intrigued, but mostly just concerned as the figure in the cell began to freak out for a good minute before calming down. X couldn't blame him, coming into existence must be a pain and a half. And he couldn't blame him for what he did next, which was demand an explanation in a voice that was chillingly similar to Mumbo's. 

Seeing Mumbo completely at a loss for words, X quickly jumped in to lend a hand. "Okay, so. I'm XisumaVoid, and this is Mumbo Jumbo. You don't have a name, but you came out of this machine right here." X figured he didn't have to explain all of this, given that the creation was almost definitely self-aware, but Mumbo didn't know that so here he was. "Mumbo here created this cloni- matter duplication device. Very smart. We tested it a bunch with apples, then eventually you happened. And here we are, and here you are."

The creation nodded. And with that initial explanation out of the way, Mumbo and X began filling the other in on the other bits of information, until eventually, X pulled Mumbo over and suggested the two let him out of the cell. They couldn't keep him in there forever, after all. 

Mumbo agreed, and the two let him out. "Wanna come out?" Mumbo offered, opening the door.

After what seemed like a moment of hesitation, the npc said slowly, "Alright." He seemed reluctant to get out, and X noticed he had to prop himself up on the cell. The bee-suited Hermit assumed this would happen; the AI needed to get used to walking, after all. "So this is HermitCraft," he said.

Mumbo seemed shocked that he knew this. The two hadn't mentioned it, after all. X was less surprised, as he had assumed-- and hoped, he would know where he was. X also hoped he'd be bright enough to hold his tongue about his business. Mumbo seemed to take things a step further, inquiring the AI about where he was.

And to be honest, the answer surprised X too. "In the secret room under your base," he said smoothly. He didn't have to think about it, he didn't hesitate at all. He just knew it. Xisuma wondered how. 

And so did Mumbo, as he continued with, "How do you know this?"

This time, X and Mumbo weren't the only ones who were intrigued by the answer. The creation himself seemed even just a bit confused as to how he knew this, falling silent for a good while. And when it finally spoke, X perked up immediately. 

"I remember building it," he said slowly, as if he wasn't quite sure how that made sense. It didn't. That only meant one thing, and that was that this npc, this clone, had Mumbo's memories. And that just didn't make sense. X didn't remember anything like that in the machine. Was that just a general thing that happened? Did that mean that EX had X's memories as well? Once he and the npc could chat, X would bring some things, including this, up.

X stood off to the side. He had to write all of the things he needed to talk with the npc about down. Pulling up his communicator, he switched to a private chat-like function he used to make notes to himself. Generally, they were about glitches he needed to check out, or meetings with other Hermits he had yet to attend. He was jotting a few conversational points down when Mumbo turned to him and said, "Hey X?" 

Xisuma looked up, putting his communicator down. "Yes?" He glanced between Mumbo and the npc. He probably wanted X to leave, which was very disappointing. X was hoping to be able to speak with the npc. "You want me to leave or anything?"

But luck seemed to be on his side today, as Mumbo shook his head. "Do you... want to talk with him?" He offered, moving aside. Yes, that was exactly what Xisuma wanted to do. 

Mumbo moved over to one side of the room to allow the two space to talk. X led the other into a corner. Before he could get a word out, though, the npc began in a quiet voice, "I know what you're about to say and I am ready to do anything at all." After a moment, he continued. "As long as you let me call the shots."

X had to admit, he was surprised. At multiple things, actually. For one, the npc knew exactly what he was meant to do, though the admin supposed that should've been obvious. But he also knew not to discuss it with Mumbo around, for which X was grateful. And another thing, he was insisting that he get to decide how things went down. To be fair, X didn't have a plan himself, but something about letting this AI dictate things didn't rub him right. 

"We will work together on this," X compromised. After a moment of contemplation, the other shrugged. 

"Alright, sounds good." That was easy. Easy enough that X might have been suspicious had he not have had other things on his mind that he wanted to talk about.

"Hey, so I'm gathering that you have Mumbo's memories." X could see this being useful, but also not being useful at all. He couldn't decide. Having this clone know how HermitCraft works would be a huge plus, though it wasn't like Mumbo was in on his plan and would have anything in his memories to pertain to that.

The npc nodded. "Yes, I do. All of his memories."

Now that was interesting phrasing. Generally, when X recruited Hermits, the longer they stayed, the more their memory of their past lives faded away to nothingness. If this npc had all of Mumbo's memories, from even before he joined HermitCraft, that would be interesting. "All of them? From before he joined the server, even?" He also slipped in a mention of the server, to check if this clone actually was self-aware or not.

The AI scowled, and X realized that this was the first time he had seen him do that. He didn't have long to dwell on that, though, as he spoke. "No. I have all of his memories from the moment he entered this server. Not from before, though." That, too, was interesting. 

X couldn't think of any more questions. "You know what to do. Good luck," was all he said before walking back over to Mumbo, who clearly hadn't heard a word of their conversation. "You wanted to speak with me?" He asked. "Heh, I assume my speaking with your clone wasn't the only reason you called on me." He had an idea of what Mumbo might ask of him. 

Mumbo frowned slightly, only noticeable if someone were to be paying attention, at the word 'clone'. "Yeah, actually," he answered, nodding his head. "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-" 

X knew that's what he was going to ask and cut him off. He laughed, though it held a hint of uncomfortableness. "Of course I can." Because he wouldn't be doing that at all. 

Trying to push that out of his mind, he changed the subject slightly. "If you'd like I could go now; leave you to your bot. Unless you needed me for anything else?" The Hermit himself didn't need to stay any longer, he had done all he needed. And he didn't think Mumbo would need him for longer; he'd probably want to spend some time with the npc. 

Apparently, X was right, as Mumbo responded, "I'm good for now! You can go if you want."

X nodded. "Alright, see ya, Mumbo!" And before he could stop himself, he pressed the button and ran up the stairs to get out.

As the piston doors closed behind him, X found himself having second thoughts. This was an awful decision. He couldn't erase how beyon excited Mumbo was to see the creation, knowing that it wasn't exactly as he thought. Xisuma kept having to remind himself that this was for the good of everyone, that everything would work out in the end.

But he just couldn't shake the thought that he himself might be the actual Evil XisumaVoid.

That night, he didn't have any dreams at all.

-----

Present day

Xisuma nodded at Sage. He knew this was coming. He'd be the one to ensure that Grian and Scar wouldn't come down again. Hooray. He loved his job.

For the last two months, X had been making through this with the sole reminder that this was for everyone's wellbeing, that he wasn't an awful person. He ignored Mumbo's betrayed look as he realized that X wasn't on his side. He pushed away the guilt of having to cover for Sage as he adjusted to other people. He disregarded the thought that everyone would hate him. And he shut out the fear that HermitCraft would crash and burn in its glitches before Sage's plan had a chance to come to light.

Speaking of, X asked, "So Sage, any progress?" 

The clone scowled slightly, his grin wiped from his face. "No, it's still not working. Could you come look at it when you have time?"

X nodded. The admin himself would probably be better suited for this anyway. "Yeah, I have time." 

The cat on Sage's lap purred. "I dunno what we would do without you," she said in her usual cooing voice. It got annoying after awhile, had found a good bit ago. She stood up and stretched before jumping off of Sage's lap. "Well, this has been entertaining, but I better go. I've got to find a new Hermit to bother." The cat then disappeared down the hallway X had entered from, leaving Sage staring after her with a slightly concerned expression on his face.

"Be careful, now that-" but Sage could obviously tell that Citrus couldn't hear him, and he furrowed his brow. "Don't die," he muttered to himself. He glanced over at X. "I'm just worried that Scar or Grian will kill her." This was a definite shift in attitude; Sage fretted over Citrus's well-being like X would to any of his close friends.

X couldn't exactly give a reassuring response to this, because he couldn't say for certain whether or not he'd-- at least attempt to-- get rid of the cat if he was in his friends' shoes. Instead, he just mumbled an agreement, before changing the subject. "So let's see this sword, shall we?"

-(Author's Rambling)-

BAH I didn't write a 6500 word long chapter. Nope. What are you talking about? Heheh...

Anyway, I hope all of you lovelies enjoyed seeing a different side of the story. Who knew things could get so convoluted so quickly?

Anyway, thanks for coming, and I'll see you next time, my little Readers!

Promise out!