Requested by Jazthefox16, I slightly altered your request, I hope that's ok, I didn't change it too much! (Btw this takes place in season 7)
Xisuma had people coming to his door almost since the start of the server, all with a similar complaint. Their doors were missing. They all knew who was doing it, but X couldn't do anything about it without any real proof. That was until one day, Xisuma was flying back to his base and spotted a familiar red sweater lurking around one of his towers. He stopped and perched on a tree as he watched Grian rip down the door, slyly storing it in a shulker box. As X watched, an idea began to bloom in his mind. He pulled up his communicator, clicked on Grian, and scrolled down to the ban button. "He's always pranking us, why not prank him back?" he thought to himself as he pressed it.
It was all very sudden for Grian. One second, he was surrounded by lush jungle trees, a full inventory and armor, and the next, nothing. It took him a second to recognize where he was. There, in the middle of the field, sat a dormant nether portal. He had been here, years before when he first joined hermitcraft. He searched his inventory for anything, but all he had was his communicator. He pulled it up and typed out a short message to Mumbo.
"What just happened?" He sent the message, and as he did, another message popped up.
"You do not have permission to message this person." He had been... banned? Why? For stealing doors? Emotions rushed into his head all at once, and as he looked around the vacant field, he realized, he had only one other place to go. As he began to walk, memories flooded around him. Of hermitcraft, of his friends, and of him. How angry he looked as Grian ran away, all the way to the field with the portal. It had been lit, and without knowing what else to do, he jumped in. Somehow, he wasn't able to follow him through and thought he was safe. But now, he had to go crawling back. It would hurt at first, he knew it would. But after a while, it would go back to how it used to be. He could handle that, he thought, but as he approached the door, his stomach began to lurch with regret. He raised his hand, and as he did, he noticed his communicator on his wrist. He quickly stashed it away in his inventory. He tentatively knocked on the door, and after a few seconds, it swung open.
"Gree-on?"
Grian had been right and wrong about Sam. He was right about how much it would hurt in the beginning. The moment Grian stepped into the house, Sam shoved him to the ground and started to scream at him. Finally, after many bruises and cuts were added to Grian's body, Sam was too tired to continue and stormed up the stairs. Grian stayed on the ground, too in pain to move. He laid there, breathing shallow and pained breaths, and took out his communicator. Slowly, he messaged all of his friends. He hurt so much but needed them to know how sorry he was. Whatever he did to get banned, he didn't mean it, and that he would spend the rest of his life making up for it. After every message, the same message came up.
"You do not have permission to message this person." He cried as he finished, stashing his communicator away and curled up on the floor until eventually, he fell asleep. He was awoken abruptly by Sam, who had kicked him in the stomach and made him wheeze to life. This is what Grian was wrong about. It wouldn't ever go back to how it was.
"Get up." Sam commanded, and Grian, still trying to catch his breath, groaned as he tried to stand. His mind screamed at him to stand and to do what Sam said, but his body wouldn't let him. He slumped back on the ground, and Sam laughed. "Look at how lazy you've become without me! I said GET UP!" He screamed, and grabbed Grian by the arm, hoisting him up to his feet. Grian struggled to stay standing, but forced himself to, even though he almost fell as Sam loosened his grip. "Things are going to be different than how they used to be. Clearly last time, you thought you had enough freedom to run away. But I want you to know now that you are never leaving here, ever again."
It had been a few days since Mumbo had seen Grian around the server. Curious, he sent him a message.
"Hey man, you still alive? Haven't seen you in a while." He was surprised by the immediate response, but instead of being from Grian, it was a different message.
"You do not have permission to message this person." Mumbo raced to Xisuma's base, calling out and messaging him on the communicator. Finally, they met up on top of one of the jungle trees.
"Is Grian banned?" Mumbo started, and X chuckled slightly.
"Oh, yeah. I caught him stealing my door, so I thought, why not prank him back? Don't worry, it's not permanent." X replied, and Mumbo still looked confused.
"How long has he been banned?"
"I think about... 3 days?"
"You mean you don't know?!" Mumbo asked, and X shrugged.
"Alright alright, I'll unban him. Here, look." He showed Mumbo his communicator and pressed the unban button. Suddenly, both of them got a flood of messages from Grian. They all loaded in one at a time, and as Mumbo watched them come in, he got more and more scared. They started as long messages about how he was sorry and missed Hermitcraft, but as they went on, they got shorter and shorter.
"I don't know how much more I can take this." "I was wrong." The final message sent a chill down Mumbo and Xisuma's spines. "Help me."
"Oh my god, what happened?! Where is he?!" Mumbo shouted, and Xisuma looks frazzled.
"I-I don't know!"
"Well is he back in Hermitcraft?!" Xisuma seemed to think for a second before his face dropped.
"No. Unbanning someone doesn't bring them back, it just lets them through the portal again. He's still wherever he is when he sent those messages." Xisuma explained, and Mumbo's eyes widened.
They were eating dinner when Grian's communicator went off. He had been struggling through dinner, barely able to move his arms after the multiple beatings, but so hungry that he ate through the pain. The room was silent as Sam watched Grian's every move. But the silence was abruptly broken as a familiar ding rang out. Grian recognized it as Mumbo's message alert, but before he could figure out how, Sam rocketed out of his chair, slamming his hands down on the table.
"What was that?" He asked angrily, and Grian began to panic.
"What? Uh, nothing. It was nothing." Grian tried, but it only made Sam look angrier.
"Don't LIE TO ME!" Sam threw the table to the side, all of the food and dishware crashing to the ground. Sam lunged toward Grian and grabbed him by the throat, slamming him against the wall behind him and lifting him off the ground. His feet kicked against the wall as he dangled, small black dots surrounded his vision as Sam squeezed harder. "WHAT WAS IT?" He screamed into Grian's face, and as he felt his consciousness slipping, he used his remaining energy to take out his communicator. Sam grabbed it from Grian's hands and let go of his neck, causing him to drop to the ground. He desperately tried to catch his breath as his vision slowly started to return, and Sam began to laugh. "Hah! You ran away from me to be with these people, they kick you out, and you're still trying to talk to them?" He threw the communicator to the ground.
"No!" Grian choked out as Sam slammed his foot down onto it, smashing it into a million pieces.
"When are you going to learn that no one wants you!? No one loves you Gree-on! No one! Not me, not them, no one! I let you back into my house because I felt sorry for you, but now?! Now, I don't feel any sympathy for you!" His tone switched at the end into a more sinister growl. Grian couldn't stop the tears as Sam approached.
X and Mumbo raced toward the portal. As they approached, Mumbo asked,
"How are we going to find him out there?"
"I can track his communicator for as long as he's..."
"He's what, X?"
"Alive. Outside of Hermitcraft, there isn't any respawning." This made Mumbo race faster until finally, they had arrived at spawn.
"Now remember, once we leave Hermitcraft, we won't have any of our stuff. We have to get to him quickly, so we're going to have to run."
"I got it." Mumbo replied as he and X stood in the portal. Their vision went black for a second before they were stood in a field, the lit portal behind them crackling with purple energy. X looked down at his communicator and pulled up a map, a blinking red light leading them in the direction of their friend. They raced as fast as they could until finally, they ended up on an almost empty street full of what looked like abandoned houses. They had run past a few houses along the road when Xisuma stopped. Mumbo turned back in confusion.
"What? Why'd you stop? Aren't we almost there?" Mumbo asked in quick succession, and Xisuma looked up from the map at Mumbo.
"The light... it's gone."
Grian wasn't sure where his adrenaline had come from, but he was glad it did. Sam had disappeared into the kitchen as Grian continued to catch his breath, but when he came back, he held something new. A large, glinting knife. Grian got up as fast as he could and raced toward the door, but Sam side-stepped directly in his way. Deterred, Grian ran up the stairs behind him. He knew how dumb of an idea it was, but it was his only way to get away from Sam. As he raced, he heard Sam laugh.
"Ooh, did you want to play a game of hide and seek? Ok! But play carefully, you don't want me to find you." Once again, his voice dipped at the last line and sent fear into Grian's bones. He searched around as he heard Sam counting down from downstairs. He peaked his head into every room until finally landing on the bathroom. He ran in, locked the door, and crouched into the cabinet below the sink. He waited as he heard Sam finish counting. "Ready or not, here I come!" He shouted and Grian heard his booming footsteps dash up the stairs. He could hear doors slamming open and grunts of frustration as Sam approached the bathroom. He grabbed at the handle and realized it was locked. "Oh, come on now Gree-on, you know that cheating!" He yelled as he began to slam his body into the door. After a few loud bangs, Grian heard the door bust open. "Now, if I were Gree-on, where would I be? How about... here!" Grian heard the shower curtain get ripped open. "Or... here!" The closet door was slammed open, smacking against the vanity. Before he could stop himself, he made a small yelp in surprise. "Ah-ha. There you are." Sam growled as the cabinet doors swung open.
"What do you mean the light's gone?!" Mumbo yelled, and Xisuma began to panic.
"I don't know! Maybe he's... No! It could be that his communicator was destroyed, that's all!" He tried to reason, and Mumbo took a deep, nervous breath.
"Well then, which one of these houses was the light in?" he calmly asked, and X pointed to one.
"That one! No, that one! Maybe that one?" He looked confused, and as they tried to reason which house, they heard something from the house at the end of the street. A scream.
Grian couldn't help it. He was cornered and he was going to die. He did the only thing he could. He screamed. Sam shoved the knife into the cabinet and Grian raised his hands to block it. He felt the knife go through his hand and yanked back out. He screamed again, but before Sam could get another swing, he forced himself out of the cabinet. Sam, who had been squatting down to get to the cabinet, was knocked over by this sudden weight, and Grian used the opportunity to run out of the bathroom. It was a straight shot to the stairs but as he got there, Sam threw himself onto Grian. They both went tumbling down the stairs until finally, they hit the bottom. Grian hurt again, his adrenaline wearing off slightly as Sam sat up. Knife still in hand, Sam slashed down at Grian, making a long but shallow cut along Grian's cheek. Grian laid on his back as Sam sat on top of him, bringing the knife down toward Grian's chest. Grian raised his hands and stopped the blade, using all of his strength to hold Sam's arms away from him. His hand was screaming in pain but he held his grip as Sam screamed.
"Just die already!" Just as he finished saying this, the front door swung open.
"Grian!" He heard Mumbo's voice call out, and in his moment of confusion, he let his grip falter. Just as he looked toward the front door to see Mumbo and Xisuma standing there, he felt the knife go into his chest. His vision blurred, but he could see Xisuma run at them, knocking Sam off of him and tackling him to the ground. Before he could see what Xisuma was doing to Sam, Mumbo came into view. He was kneeling next to him, frantically pressing his hands onto Grian's wound.
"It's ok buddy, we're here. It's ok now." He kept repeating those words as Grian's vision continued to swirl.
"X! We're losing him!" Mumbo shouted, and Xisuma stepped away from Sam, who was now badly bruised and unconscious. "What do we do? We don't have time to find a hospital!"
"I know I know." X sat, thinking for a second before he realized something. "We need to get him back to Hermitcraft. He can respawn there!" X decided, and Mumbo nodded. He gently picked Grian up as they raced back to the portal.
The wind felt nice in Grian's hair. He could still feel the pain in his hand and his chest, but he could also feel the wind as Mumbo ran. It reminded him of flying. Oh, how he had missed his elytra and flying through Hermitcraft. He opened his eyes slightly and saw Mumbo's distraught face as he ran. Grian smiled slightly, also looking over to Xisuma who ran alongside him. X noticed Grian's eye's wandering over to him and felt his body fill with guilt.
"Grian, I am so sorry. I shouldn't have banned you. I didn't know that this would-" His solemn words were cut off.
"Hey, it's ok." Grian's voice was breathy and quiet, but X could hear him. "I'm sorry for stealing your door." X chuckled slightly.
"It's ok Grian. We're almost home, and we can put it back together."
"Hmm." Grian hummed in delight before his eyes began to shut again. The portal was in view now, and Mumbo was racing toward it.
"Grian? Hey, don't close your eyes just yet! We're almost home!" Mumbo called out, but he could feel Grian's body relax in his arms. They jumped into the portal just as Mumbo heard Grian exhale slowly and finally. Their vision blanked again before they popped back at spawn, Grian no longer in Mumbo's arms.
"Where is he?" Mumbo asked, and Xisuma looked around.
"I..."
"X, where is he?!"
"I don't know!"
Grian wasn't in pain anymore. Wherever he was, he was standing again. He looked around, but before he could figure out where he was, a message popped up in front of him.
"Welcome to Hermitcraft! Would you like to respawn?" The yes and no buttons were presented in front of him, and without hesitation, he clicked yes.
The portal began to whir behind X and Mumbo again and as they turned, there stood Grian, facing backward and confused.
"Grian?" Mumbo asked hesitantly, and Grian whipped around in excitement. He locked eyes with Mumbo as he jumped toward him, embracing desperately. Mumbo barely caught him, and X sighed in relief. Once they were done hugging, Grian turned to Xisuma, who was looking down.
"Look, Grian, I'm so sorry. It was supposed to be a prank but then I let it get too far and-" He was cut off by Grian hugging him.
"Hey, it's ok. Just, can we not ban anyone as a prank anymore?" Grian asked genuinely, and Xisuma nodded.
"Of course." Grian and Xisuma separated and Grian took a deep breath as he took in his surrounding.
"Hm. It's nice to be home."
Wow. Nearly 3000 words. I think this was my longest one-shot yet. I guess that's what not writing for 6 months does to you. I wasn't super sure how to end it, so... Welp, I hope you enjoyed it, I doubt it's my best just because this is the first thing I've written in a while, but it's something! Anyway, thank you for reading and still being here, I hope you have a good day/night, and you are loved.
P.S. Thanks for the request Jazthefox16 because without it, I may have never been inspired to write again. This also means that requests are open again! No promise that they will be fulfilled, but if one inspires me enough to write, I will try.