Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It gets quite lonely on the Main Hub.

As much as Martyn loved the adrenaline rush from competing in small events, it quickly got boring without a friend to do them with, (besides BigB every now and then.)

After all, a majority of them were busy on their own servers, and most of the time Martyn didn’t want to be a bother. But it had been what felt like an eternity since he had seen a familiar face and he was getting a bit desperate, even if he wouldn’t admit that to anyone.

He opened his communicator and scrolled through the servers he was whitelisted on. Empires, hmmm…no thanks. They were probably in the middle of some quarrel, and he didn’t feel like getting stuck in the crossfire.

He scrolled down further until he saw one that caught his eye. It was corrupted and in a different language than it was originally in, but still recognizable to him or any of the other former members.

Martyn stared at the letters as a wave of nostalgia washed over him, knowing fully well nobody would be there if he even managed to join the world.

The fact that Hermitcraft was right underneath the destroyed world had to be a coincidence.

Hermitcraft. Why not? He had only been there once, but two of the hermits were some of his oldest friends, also members of the old server. One even used to be the admin.

Martyn pressed a button on his comm to join the world, and closed his eyes.

Everything was fine when he joined their world, and everything was fine when he saw his surroundings, although the place seemed a lot quieter than it was before.

Martyn did find it a bit weird how all the buildings looked the exact same since he last saw them, if not then a bit damaged and worn down. It had been a few years since his first and only visit (besides this one of course) and there were barely any new buildings or shops anywhere.

The hermits were usually fond of making new establishments, and the fact that there were no new ones for a few years sent a small chill up his spine that he quickly shrugged off.

———

It had been at least half an hour, and the silence of the world was slowly creeping Martyn out more and more. Had they moved onto a new world? No, they couldn’t have. He would’ve spawned there instead.

Instead of his communicator being on his wrist like it normally was for everyone, Martyn held it in his hand, anxious for anyone, anyone, to send a message in chat. Even a death message would’ve been fine and he would at least know they were still there.

He sighed, and just as he was about to attach the communicator back to his wrist, he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He looked up, acknowledging that the thing didn’t look like a mob or an animal.

A hermit! Finally!

He ran up to the hermit, full of questions. Where was everyone? Why was nobody responding to his messages in the chat? Did the world stay the same for years? The hermit didn’t seem to notice Martyn, and as he got closer he recognized them more. 

The familiar brunette with streaks of long blonde hair. The black hoodie and blue shorts. The same height as him? No, she was taller now, by quite a bit too. Was that normal?

“Pearl!” Martyn yelled in excitement of seeing one of his old friends, and in relief that everything was fine.

Maybe he jinxed it, because as soon as he got Pearl’s attention, she turned towards him with what looked like half her face melting into a black and green glitch.

Martyn stared at his old friend in shock. “Pearl?” he managed to get out, barely louder than a whisper.

Pearl just looked at him for a minute, and smiled.

That’s when she ran at him without warning.

Even though they were far apart from each other, Martyn had barely any time to react, almost like she had gotten 5 times faster. Or somehow glitched over to him.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Martyn had been swept off his feet.

Due to him never actually putting it back on his wrist, Martyn’s communicator flew out of his hand and was crushed under Pearl’s foot, destroying his exit off the server.

Pearl drew her sword, and as Martyn closed his eyes, bracing himself for the attack, he heard a thud and a grunt.

He opened his eyes to see Pearl knocked onto the floor and somebody else with a dark robe and hood rushing at him.

“Watch out!” Martyn yelled as Pearl lunged for the other.

Just as they were about to get tackled, they glitched away. Martyn frantically looked around for them, until he felt hands on his arms, and suddenly the ground wasn’t there anymore.

Whoever the other hermit was was apparently strong enough to carry a whole other player while flying.

Martyn tried not to look down at the ground to avoid getting sick, but the last thing he saw was Pearl staring at him and the hermit as they flew away.

It couldn’t have been longer than 10 minutes until the hermit slowed down flying, clearly very tired from carrying both himself and Martyn in the air for so long. Avians could normally fly for hours before getting tired, but the weight of another human cut that down by a lot.

Eventually the hermit decided to land on a small wooden platform connected to a giant diorite tower that was nearby.

It wasn’t until then when Martyn processed the color of the hermit’s wings. Red, yellow, and blue, with a shade of purple that wasn’t always there.

“Grian? What’s going on?” Martyn asked him as Grian pulled his hood down.

“Get inside first. I’ll tell you, but we can’t be out in the open for too long.” Grian said as he rushed Martyn inside.

Chapter Text

“It was around a few weeks after you left when a few of the others started acting...well, a bit off” Grian said as he shut the door quietly behind the two.

Martyn raised an eyebrow at him. “Define off.”

“The hermits who started acting weirdly would run off when they saw anybody else, like they didn’t want to communicate with us or anything” Grian responded with a bit of sadness that Martyn failed to detect.

“Away? But Pearl ran at us and attacked.”

“They used to run, but they got more aggressive over time, eventually aiming to kill ones who hadn't died yet. The others started dying in short amounts of time, even the ones who were always really cautious of their surroundings, like Doc,” Grian said, looking away from Martyn.

“What was the point? They respawn right? Not that dying doesn’t hurt or anything,” Martyn asked, still completely confused.

“Cub proposed that it was a respawn virus. Anyone who died would come back infected.”

“Does he have a fix? Or at least a way to prevent it?” Martyn replied with the tiniest bit of hope in his voice.

“They got to him before he could figure it out.”

The two stayed silent for a minute, with Martyn still trying to figure out a way to fix this and Grian now silently taking Martyn’s place by the window.

“Isn’t Xisuma the admin? Maybe he could do something?”

“The infecteds knew he was the admin and targeted him. Xisuma was one of the first to go,” Grian muttered.

Grian continued staring out the window until realization struck him. He looked at Martyn, confusion on his face and his wings now raised. “How did you join the server?”

“What?”

“Xisuma figured out how to close the server, so after he was infected nobody was able to leave or join,” Grian said, staring at Martyn. “How did you get in?”

“I.. don’t know. I just joined it like any other server,” Martyn replied, eyes wide.

“If you were able to join, maybe you can leave right?” Grian asked as he quickly shuffled towards Martyn, reaching for his arm. “Where’s your comm?”

“Pearl destroyed it when she attacked me earlier.”

“Oh.” Grian mumbled, wings drooping.

“What if we made a new one? Or found a scrapped one?” Martyn asked. “Is that even possible?”

“Admins sometimes have back ups for their members, X could have had a few in his base,” Grian said, hope slowly re-entering his voice.

“And where is that exactly?”

...

“Er- It's actually quite far.. it might be too dangerous,” Grian said hesitantly.

“If I could get my hands on an elytra, can’t we just fly over there? I mean you don’t really need one with your wings and all”

“I tried to limit the risk of being seen by them, so I actually haven’t flown for quite a while. Honestly I’ve lost track of time, it may have been years. Infected hermits also damaged them every now and then, which is why I was only able to carry you for a few minutes.”

Martyn’s eyes widened once again at what he had said. Grian loved flying, more than almost anything. Any other avian would’ve only lasted a few minutes carrying another player, but Grian wasn’t just an avian.

They weren’t always like this, but Grian’s wings are unusually large, making them really powerful. Them going unused for years would definitely cause them to deteriorate.

“Are they okay? Carrying somebody else and it being the first time using them again isn’t the most ideal” Martyn stated worriedly.

“They’re a bit weak right now, so I would probably have to stay off them for a bit longer,” Grian replied, putting on a sad smile. 

“What about the nether? Does Xisuma have a nether portal at his base? I’m assuming he does.”

“I would actually recommend staying out of the nether. Really easy way to die in there,” Grian said as he rolled up a sleeve, revealing a small bunch of tiny burn scars from lava and long cuts from piglin swords.

“Soo... we walk.” Martyn groaned.

“Yeaa, not the most efficient,” Grian stated, rolling his sleeve back down. “We should also brew a few invis potions before we leave to hide from the others.”

The pair wandered around the room for a few minutes, looking for anything to make the invis potions with no luck at all. In the silence and the occasional opening of chests and drawers, Martyn was left alone with his thoughts, processing what had happened not too long ago.

That’s when he remembered something.

“Grian?”

“Yea?” Grian replied in an upbeat tone that was muffled from being halfway inside of a chest.

“How did you teleport behind me?”

“Augh-! Ow!” Grian yelped as he hit his head against the top of the chest. “Sorry, can you repeat that?”

Despite having a slight smile on his face, Grian’s voice no longer sounded as confident compared to several minutes ago. Instead it was replaced with the tone of someone who had just been caught doing something they weren’t supposed to.

“When we escaped Pearl, how did you teleport behind me?”

Grian hesitated at this. After what felt like an eternity of awkward silence, Martyn was about to assure him that he didn’t have to say anything, but Grian beat him to it.

“You know how Pearl was able to glitch towards you?” Grian responded.

“Yeah. I’m assuming she died and is infected right?” Martyn’s voice wavering a bit as he spoke.

“A few weeks after a bunch of people got infected, I hid with several others. They were out getting resources, while Stress and I stayed behind, and the infecteds had fo-”

As if right on cue, a loud crash came from the bottom of the tower. The two of them froze, Grian recovering seemingly faster from the fright compared to Martyn. “We don’t have time to brew them. We need to leave now,” Grian said with a slight panic in his voice that he was failing to hide.

“What if it's another hermit? One who’s not infected?” Martyn asked, voice pitch a bit higher than normal.

“I’d.. rather not.. take that risk,” Grian said, taking heavy breaths in between the words.

Pearl could have followed us when I flew over here.

Maybe we were talking too loud.

It could be False. Or maybe Doc.

I can’t outrun them, let alone with another person.

Martyn’s going to die cause I couldn’t get him out in time.

I can’t, they’re going to kill me.

I’m going to be one of them.

Not again.

I can’t

I can’t

I ca-

“W..ah wo..h G..ian! C..lm d….n. De..p ..rea..hs, ..eep bre..t..s.”

He was hyperventilating, and could barely hear anything over his own breathing and unwelcome thoughts. Martyn was trying to calm Grian down but nothing helped.

Clearly something more than just the virus happened while Martyn wasn’t here, but he wasn’t focused on that. He needed to calm Grian down while trying not to attract the attention of whoever was downstairs. Or whatever.

“Grian, you’re okay. We have to get outside, you need air,” Martyn said while slowly leading Grian towards the door they had previously entered through.

It took a bit of effort, but eventually they were outside. Martyn locked the door behind them, and they were safe from whatever had gone into the tower.

At least for now.

———

He opened his eyes to look at the server he hadn’t seen in quite a while, not since he had been banned. Soft-banned, but whatever. Banned is banned.

Wait.

He was only supposed to be gone for a few months. How long had it been? He could swear it was longer than what he was promised.

He was ready to come back and wreak havoc on the server like he always enjoyed doing, until he realized how quiet the world seemed to be. Where is everybody? Not a single player was in sight.

Until he turned the corner.

He hadn’t said anything, but they had spotted him. It’s been quite a while, but the faces he saw seemed to be names he remembered as Doc and Ren.

They looked normal at first glance, but the more he focused on them, the more unusual they looked compared to the last time they met.

Doc’s horns looked like they had been chipped, and the metal part of his face plus his metal arm was completely covered in some sort of black glitchy goo. Same with Ren, except the goo only covered his arms. Both of their eyes were pitch black.

They moved to turn fully towards him, and that’s when a third person who had been standing behind them was revealed.

“Xisuma?” He stared at the admin in shock.

Xisuma’s face was completely covered in glitch, along with a majority of his suit that used to be green and purple. His eyes weren’t even visible through the shattered visor.

What happened to Doc and Ren? How long had he been banned for? What happened to his br-

Before his thoughts could travel any further, Doc and Ren rushed at him at once.

Ren had gotten a hold of his wrist and before he could react, Doc grabbed and crushed his communicator with his metal hand.

Shards of glass impaled his wrist and pressure quickly increasing, and he let out a cry of pain before kicking Doc off of him and rolling over to dodge Ren’s lunge.

As he ran, he quickly pulled out his elytra and rockets he had before he got kicked off, and flew away. He thought he was safe until he realized that Xisuma was right on his tail.

It took around a good 20 minutes, but eventually he lost Xisuma with only a few rockets left, and was headed towards some giant diorite tower with a castle on the side. He was in need of medical supplies from Doc crushing glass into his wrist, and he needed food.

He opened the door on the bottom floor and stumbled in, knocking over a bunch of stuff in the process. The items he knocked down created a loud crash, causing him to freeze, afraid of being caught and attacked again.

He unfroze a minute later, and he managed to find some band-aids and gauze in a random cabinet not too long after.

He bit his lip, holding in a scream as he pulled different sized shards out of his wrist. 

Eventually, he got all shards that the eye could see before realizing that Doc had also broken his wrist in the process. How had he not realized that? He bandaged up his wrist, using some random stick he found as a splint and laid down on the couch.

What happened while he was gone?

Chapter Text

It took a little while, but eventually Martyn and Grian were able to make it outside of Bdubs’ castle.

Not a sound came out of the two of them, but it didn’t take long for Martyn to be the first to break the silence.

“Are you okay, Grian?” Martyn asked, giving the other a concerned look.

“I’m fine” he said in response, not returning Martyn’s gaze.

The two walked side by side through the small patch of trees, Grian looking around with frantic eyes every few minutes.

Silence and the occasional crunching of a branch was all they heard, but their pace picked up when buildings came into their sight in the distance.

For a few minutes, they walked through what was thought to be the starter village at first glance, but ended up being the shopping district.

“I think we’re lost,” G said, looking around, frowning and frustrated. “I haven’t been here in so long,” he muttered.

“Do you know the coordinates to his base?”

“I know the relative area, not the exact coordinates though” Grian said as he rolled up his sleeve to look at his comm.

It wasn’t there.

“Do you have your communicator on you Grian?” Martyn asked him, a worried tone creeping into his voice.

Grian sighed.

“No, I forgot it got taken when I first d-”

Unlike before, there wasn’t any time to freeze up.

Like amateurs, they were standing in the middle of the street, out in the open, and an arrow whistled in between the two of them. It scratched Martyn’s cheek, just short of drawing blood.

A whoosh was heard from above them, and as they looked up they saw a blur of familiar colors, black, blue and orange, and they had a bunch of scars covering their face.

Grian’s eyes widened. As his gaze was fixed on Scar, Martyn heard shuffling from behind them. He turned around to see Mumbo, sword and potion in hand.

Both their eyes were pitch black, and the two of them had black goo across their faces. Glitch was dripping from Mumbo’s forehead, and had replaced the marks on Scar’s face. The goo was also covering some parts of Scar’s torso, while the rest of Mumbo seemed to be normal, minus the torn up suit.

Before Martyn could say anything, Mumbo threw the potion at the both of them, only managing to hit Grian.

Grian let out a shriek of pain, and his wings shot out.

Scar took this as his opportunity to swoop down and release another arrow, but this time Martyn was quick enough to dodge it.

Mumbo threw a pearl in front of Grian, revealing black glitch that seemed to be creeping up his neck and down his entire back.

Grian looked like he had recovered from the pain, but his wings were still up high. At once, both Mumbo and Scar lunged at Martyn, but Grian got there first.

He managed to knock Martyn out of harm's way, but wasn’t able to get away himself before Mumbo grabbed his wings.

Martyn looked up, a bit dizzy, to see Grian in a chokehold. He looked like he was about to pass out, when something that looked like an arrow shot Mumbo deep in the arm.

Where did the arrow come from?

As Grian stumbled away, coughing, Mumbo let out a screech. A blood-curdling screech, not one a human is usually capable of making.

The two of them covered their ears. When they finally removed it, Martyn’s hands held several thick red drops of blood.

His ears were still ringing, and it took him a bit to process the fact that Grian was dragging him. His voice was muffled, but it was clear what he was trying to do.

Martyn stumbled forward, and followed him into the nearest building. He quickly blocked the door behind them, and ran to the back of the room with G.

It wasn’t until they were both crouched down when he noticed the hot tears streaming down Grian’s face.

His hearing still hadn’t fully recovered yet, and the only things he could make out were sounds of distant shouting and banging on doors.

———

Should he get up?

No, it’s not safe going anywhere outside this room.

But he’s at the bottom of the tower. Someone could easily enter.

Fine. Whatever. He’ll get up.

A little after his encounter with Doc, Ren and Xisuma, he decided to stop laying down and actually look for useful items.

He could use some food anyway, he was getting pretty hungry.

Going up the stairs, he cringed at every noise the wood made.

He looked in every chest for food or more medical supplies, but found nothing.

Instead, what he did find was another player, and they were also covered in the glitch. But on the bright side, they were asleep and facing the wall.

The player had blonde hair and horns coming out of the sides of their head. The horns were cracked and covered in the goo.

Why did they look so familiar?

He could spend less time dwelling over that though. He needed to get out before they woke up.

He quietly snuck around a few chests to get to the next set of stairs. It was going well, until his foot caught onto something and he tripped.

The player shifted over so that they were facing him, and he held his breath. Nothing but the player’s soft breathing could be heard.

Eventually he got up, and continued to sneak towards the stairs. He didn’t even realize he had been holding his breath until he got there.

He cursed in his head as the first step he took made a creak. He turned around, and the player was still fast asleep. He kept on going up until he reached a floor with an exit to the tower, and he could finally relax.

Taking out his elytra, he glided over to what he last remembered as the shopping district. He couldn’t risk using the rockets, they were too loud.

He landed in a nearby building that looked like a shop. Was there any food in here?

He was about to go to the back area to check, when he heard commotion outside.

Peeking through the window, he saw 3 players. He couldn’t quite remember any of their names though.

One had wings and a dark coat over a red jumper, another was blonde wearing a green shirt, and the 3rd had a suit with a mustache.

Never mind, there were 4 of them.

One had been flying above them, out of his line of sight. Both the mustached man and the flying one had the same gooey black glitch on them as Doc, Ren, Xisuma, and that player in the tower.

Should he help? No, the 2 attackers could go after him. And he didn’t really want to.

But if he succeeded, maybe they could help make everything go back to normal.

…

Fine. But only from a distance.

He grabbed a bow and the one arrow that was in the nearest chest. Who only carries around a single arrow?

He moved back towards the window to see the mustached man holding the winged man in a chokehold. His wings look paralyzed, which could be why he wasn’t using them to fight back.

Cringing at the pain in his wrist, he took a deep breath, aimed the bow, and released.

The arrow hit the mustached man in the arm, and he screeched.

A very inhuman screech.

If he wasn’t wearing his helmet, serious damage could’ve been done to his ears.

After a few very long seconds, the man who was previously in the chokehold seemed to notice his presence, and he signaled for the man to come over. The man grabbed the one wearing a green shirt, who was on the floor covering his ears, and ran towards the building.

The two got to him, but not before he was able to hide in the back. He assumed (hoped) that they had blocked the entrance behind them.

He sighed in relief when he heard heavy banging and shouting from beyond the door.

It took a while, but the attackers eventually went away.

That’s when the other two finally got up from behind the furniture.

He made eye contact with the man in the red jumper, who now had dried tears on his face.

The man’s eyes widened at the sight of him.

“What?” He said, frowning at him.

“Are you-” the winged man said hoarsely before clearing his throat.

“Is your name EX?”

Chapter Text

EX frowned at the man.

“What is it to you?” He said, crossing his arms.

The other cleared his throat again.

“I’m Grian, and this is Martyn” he said, making a gesture towards the man in a green shirt, who gave EX an awkward little wave.

“Your Xisuma’s brother right? I think he’s mentioned you a few times”

“Wow, I’m honored,” EX said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Grian gave a defeated sigh.

“We were heading to Xisuma’s base to find spare communicators, so Martyn could leave the server. Do you want to come along?”

“Why would I help him leave when I get left behind? What do I get out of this?”

“I was going to try and return with backup. Then maybe we could help the others” Martyn chimed in.

“Okayyy, and what exactly happened to them?” EX asked as he wandered around the room to look for any leftover food.

“Some sort of respawn virus entered the server when Martyn was last here.”

“So you're saying this is his fault?”

Martyn gave the floor a guilty look while Grian’s eyes narrowed in on him.

“No. This is in no way his fault, it's just a glitch in the system.”

“Sure whatever.”

Half an hour of silence had passed by, and both groups were looking around the building for food. Edible food, that is. EX found some bread earlier, but it had been left alone for so long that it was as solid as stone.

“There’s nothing useful in here,” Grian concluded, disappointed.

“The offer still stands, if you want EX” he continued.

EX watched as the two walked towards the door, moving the furniture and blocks they had previously used as barriers. Giving EX one last look, the two of them made their way out of the shop and onto the empty roads.

Should he follow them?

They’re eventually gonna leave him behind anyway.

But..

Screw it.

Saying nothing, he ran after them. Both Grian and Martyn turned towards him with wide eyes, surprised he actually followed.

“I’ll help you guys, but you have to promise to come back after getting help,” EX grumbled.

“I promise,” Martyn reassured him, returning a small smile.

As much as EX disliked the hermits (and other players in general,) it was nice to have some company every once in a while.

———

Scar watched as Mumbo shouted and banged on the door, eventually giving up and walking away.

“M̶̢̫͖̜͂̊̈́̊̋̽̏̆͒̕̚̚ỏ̶̡͚̠̣͕̖̠̠̦̃̾̓̒̑̀̿̒̌̀ͅroń̸̢̯̩̦̺̻͚͍̰̬̦̻̈̋͘ͅ” Scar said, loud enough for Mumbo to hear.

Mumbo looked up at the roof Scar was perched on and glared at him.

“Ç̶̟̘̯̺̻̦̪̅̈̈́̃̔̾͑́̀̕͝ǭ̷͖̳̞͉͓̰̫̬͋̆͂̍͌͒̃͛͊̌wã̸̛͔͍̩͎͕̖̥͙͉̺͇̄̆̿̈́̃͒̄͒͜͜r̷̨̼͎̪̯̙͉̲̜̥̩̼̫͕̅̿̀̂͑̊̒͋̾̎́̈́͜͝͝d” he hissed in response.

“I’m nǫ̷̗͍̗̤͉̲̙̣͖̯̱̀t̴̨̖̫̝͌͂̈̈́͌̑̚ the ơ̶̧̝̘͉̞͙̦̜̝̪̗̜̲̺̈́͛̅̇̂̈́͒̀̈̽ͅn̷̨̲͓̮͖̔̎͐͑͘͘͜e wh̵̥͓͙̻͕̘͔̹̻̙̮̍͊̀͜o gơ̴̢̝̺̙̖͎̦̎̑̒̑̈̌̐̍͂͠t̵͙͍͓̣̾͛̒̈́̈̐͊͊̓̄̆͑̈́̉͝ sh̵̨͖̼̯͓͙͉̠̯͗̿̓̽͒̀̃̔̑ǫ̴̝͖͈̑̾̓̈̑̌̀̒̈͋̚͠͠t.”

“At leạ̶͙̀̔̔̒̓̓̇͆͝s̷̹͖̑͗̓̑͑̈́̍̉̎̇̓͛̚͠t I fought. You ḩ̶̬͔̪̯͔͓͍̫̦̼̲̍̿̃̀̊̽̌̒͂̅͂ȋ̴̡̺̞͚̣̖̭̹̱͎̂̽͋̓͂̓͒͘̚̚͜͝d̴̗̗̝̟̗̞͔́͊̈ lik̷̡̡̬͍̙͕̳̭͎̱̹̆̏̃͜e̴̠͔̓̉̌͊̇͘ a ch̸̢͕̳̥̭̓̒́̎̿͂̓͝ͅì̵̲̓̒͝ld̸̢̛̹̝̤̥̠͕͉̭̩̖̮͖̮̀͗̔̔̇̒̕͝.”

Stop.

Ugh. It was back. Mumbo tried to push it out, but failed miserably.

Scar is your friend. Grian and Martyn are your friends.

It was annoying. Mumbo didn’t have any friends, and if he did, Scar certainly wouldn’t be considered one.

And who is this “Grian” and “Martyn?”

Grian is the one with wings, and Martyn was the one in the green shirt.

The winged one. Grian.

Mumbo had targeted him for a reason, and was fuming just at the thought of him.

They were most certainly NOT friends.

It went silent. Good. As it should’ve been during the fight, instead of screaming in his ear telling him to quit it.

Scar frowned at Mumbo and rolled his eyes. Unlike Mumbo’s, Scar’s thoughts were silent.

It finally learned when to shut up.

———

Everything was fine.

Grian was just going to visit Mumbo. One of his best friends! It would be fine.

He flew over from the starter village to Mumbo’s base, which was linked to his own with a bridge.

Landing smoothly, he called for the mustached man.

“Mumbo!”

No response.

“Mumbo?” He tried again.

Still no response. Where was he?

Deciding to check somewhere else, Grian turned around. Just as he was about to leave,  Mumbo’s head poked around the corner of the vault.

“Hey Grian! Did you need something?”

Why did everything go fuzzy?

Why was he holding his sword?

“Grian? You okay there?”

Mumbo’s face wasn’t as cheerful as it had been a few seconds ago, instead replaced with confusion and the tiniest bit of fear.

Next thing he knew, he was on top of Mumbo, sword to his throat. Mumbo looked terrified, and Grian couldn’t feel anything but confusion.

Why was he attacking him? Why couldn’t he control his own body?

It felt like he was trapped in his own mind, forced to watch a horror movie.

Stop.

Stop hurting him.

Get off of him!

His thoughts and attempts went nowhere.

No matter how much Grian tried or how loud Mumbo screamed, nothing changed.

“Wake up! Grian wake up!” Mumbo cried out.

Huh?

“WAKE UP!”

The last thing Grian saw was Mumbo’s lifeless eyes and slowly disintegrating body.

He sat up with a loud gasp. Grian looked around, distraught and heavily panting.

What happened? Where was Mumbo? Why could he barely breathe?

To the left of him, Martyn was asleep, facing the wall.

“Y..u ne..d to cal.. ..own, ..t’s ..ot real,” somebody whispered.

Grian whipped his head around to see EX kneeled down next to him.

His breathing had relaxed, but not by much.

“Wha.. what happened?”

“You had a nightmare, and I woke you up,” EX said, awkwardly looking off to the side.

A fast asleep Martyn caught EX’s eye, and his face went straight.

“That idiot was supposed to be on watch while the two of us slept.”

“Oh.”

It was then that Grian realized there were tears streaming down his face, and he quickly wiped them away.

“Sorry for waking you up. Go back to sleep, I’ll stay on watch.”

EX didn’t have to think twice about accepting and nodded.

“Kay. Night.”

“G’night” Grian responded, turning away.

As Grian made his way to the window, faded words of EX’s attempt at comfort had slipped back into his mind.

“Y..u ne..d to cal.. ..own, ..t’s ..ot real, ”

“You need to calm down, it’s not real.”

“It’s not real.”

…

It was real. And it was something Grian had been trying so hard to forget about.

Chapter Text

“Wake up moron” somebody said as they threw what felt like a pillow at his face.

Martyn woke up groggily, and blinked until his sight cleared.

EX frowned at him. “You were supposed to keep watch last night.”

His voice was muffled. Maybe it was because of the mask?

“Sorry ‘bout that” Martyn murmured, still half asleep.

EX turned away and looked at Grian. He said something while rolling his eyes, and Grian gave an exhausted look in response. Why could he barely hear what they were saying?

“Martyn!” Grian said loudly, suddenly right in front of him.

“Hm? Yea Grian?”

“I called your name several times. You okay there?”

“I’m fine,” Martyn said, giving Grian a cheerful smile in an attempt to wave it off. Grian raised an eyebrow, not quite believing him. “Just having a bit of trouble hearing you, that’s all,” Martyn said in defeat.

Grian’s eyes widened and turned away. He must’ve said something to EX, because EX started walking away and beginning to pack something else up as Grian turned back to Martyn.

“Is this because of yesterday?” Grian asked while leading Martyn to the back room. Martyn nodded. “Are you sure your ears are okay?”

“I should be fine. You know that Listener ears recover faster.”

“They’re also more sensitive,” Grian said, frowning. 

“I’m fine, Grian. It’ll be okay.”

Grian gave him a defeated look. He knew Martyn was able to read lips, so he kept on talking.

“Xisuma might have something that could help in his base, but I’m not 100% on that. The only person who I know has hearing aids for sure is Doc.”

“Ah.”

Martyn’s face must’ve shown some sort of confusion because Grian sighed. “A majority of Doc’s machines have something to do with tnt, and he’s part creeper. He might have some extra, so we could head over to The Perimeter to look,”

“Is it on the way to Xisuma’s base?”

They sat in silence as Grian tried to remember the locations of both bases.

“I’m pretty sure it’s in the opposite direction,” Grian said, frowning at the realization.

“Oh, it’s fine then. I can read lips in the meantime,” Martyn smiled, trying to hide his disappointment. 

“Are you sure?”

“Yup! We need to get those communicators sooner rather than later, and you said Xisuma might have some so it’s not all bad.”

“If you say so,” Grian said as he took a step back, still giving Martyn a concerned look.

“We need to grab a few supplies before we go, can you get the food?”

Martyn nodded and Grian headed back into the other room.

Not too long after their talk, Martyn emerged from the room with a half full shulker box of forgotten food that he hoped was edible. EX and Grian both looked like they were done packing, and the three left the shop.

———

“Ẋ̴̩̘̳̬͚̫̗̪̻͉̩̽̌̄͊͒͌̑̈̊̓̋͝͝IS̷̛͉̲̦͍̣͖̤͕͕͕̺͚̽͂͋̆̏̀̀̅͋̐͌͘͜UM̷̧̫͉͈͍͔̣̘͌̓̀̈́͑̊͋̇̌͝A̸̬̽̓̔̏̓̑͑̔̀̉̕̕͠!!!”

She needed to shut up. Whoever he had chased down yesterday had somehow managed to injure Xisuma with random objects that were dropped, and her yelling was giving him a headache.

Pearl stormed into the room, eyes glaring daggers at Xisuma. “W̸̡̤͎̟̺̒͗̓̿̐̓̽͂͑̚ͅhat̶͙̿̽͂̒͂̄̀͐͛͠͠͠͝ t̸̢̤͇̱͔͍̲̗̖̘͝͝ͅhë̴̞̭̰͖̼̗͙͕͇̼̪͈́̎͝ hȩ̸̹̭̩̦̬͑͂͂̅̓͂̈́̊̒̂͐ll̴̛̝̓̓͛́ͅ do̸̧͚̜͎̦̘̥̗̯̺͎̓̎ yo̸̡̻̫̼͎͉̘͎͙̘̠͚͂̋͋̍̆͆͋́͑̏̈́̓̕͘͝ữ̷͎̫͍̖̖́̏͊̆͂̈́̽̀̎̚͝ waǹ̸̳̯͙̅͛̓t̴͚͕̲̥̞̟͉̉̆̍̉̓̎̑͂̅̚͜͝͝͝͝ͅ.”

“I̷̛̼̪̖̣̙̲̳̱͖͔̦̘̞͊̀̌̀͝ t̵̬͇̘̲͉̜̮̲̺̣͚̘̓̽̌̾̋̑̔̊̕ͅhoừ̷̡͇͙͕͕̦̝̭̙̦͇̽̍̈́̉͐͑̈͊̈́͛̕gh̴̞̗̰̩̫̳̟͈̝̺̫̣̖͊̈́̆͆̄̈͠ţ̵̛̝̘̥͖̤̖̞͔̫̫̌̌̍͌̎̃̈́̚͜͝͝ ý̸̯̟͈̩̦̥̟͈̈̍̐̓͗̂͘ͅou lock̸̰̟̼̙̘̙̝͉͓̞̙̲͛̒̆̈̓̓ed̷̨̛͈͔̙̳̜͖͚̮͔̦̖͔͒̔͒̔̇̾͑̈́̄ t̷̠̭̞̤̯̺͓͋͜hẹ̴̞̯̳̩͇̥̲̿̃̍̃̇̽͌̇̉͌̇̈́̕͘͝ d̷̢̼͉͓̺̳̗̗̦͒̿̋́͋̓́̇͂̿̚͝a̵̢̜̭̱̮̲̪̻̱̩͐̎͝mn s̸̨̯̟̬̭̞͉̖͚͓̫̀̐́͗̄̅̐̐erv̷̛͓̖̺̤̫̬͓̠̗̟͒ͅer̵̤͈̖͕͕̹̉̈̏͘͘͜! Wḧ̷̡͙̝̰̝̮́͐͆͒̌̕ẏ̶̱͈̦̞̹̈̉̅͆̄̽͆̓̎̕͝ is̶̭̙̤̈̆̃͛͝ tḧ̸̡̟͚̯̱̟͚̘͉̿̏͂͛̈́̇ͅere a̸̡̱͖̋̏͜ new̷̡̙̞̞̥̜͙̟̱͍͓̅͂͆̈́͂͂̿̈́͛͌̋̐͜͝͝ͅ g̵̻̱̮̒̎͋͘̚̚uÿ̶̡̖̰̲̪͈́̓̃͗̅͂̀ hé̸̲̳͖̖͔͔͎re̸̤̙̠̱̹̜̻̲̬̓́̀̑̀͐̄̑͑̅͊̾̚͠͝?”

“Ī̶̛̺̦͖͛͒̂̉̽̑̈̍̄͝͠͠͠ s̷̩̠̤̻̜͈͎̲̠̙͉̳͍͊̽̓̋aid̷̯͍̳̻͖̦͇̭̞̹̣͙́̒̕ peo̵̡̢̦̹͍͎͚̬̻̺̝͎̔̍̓ͅpl̸̡̲͉͇͙̋̋̐̀͋̌͘ͅę̶͈̱͓̮̜̐́̉͋͜ c̵̰̹͈̦̯̜̱̻̖̓̈́́͑̈͐͌̽̕͠oų̵̛̜̥̖͓̱̳̟̫̤̪̬̖̳̃̈́͒̔͒̒̌͊̈̿̈͝ͅldṋ̶̢̛͍̺̝̮͎̰͇̙̌͊̈̄̄͛͠͝͝’t̷̗̠̀͜ l̴̡̦͙̫̪̱̠̘̻̀̔͜͜ea̸̬̍̽̇̓́̾̈̊ve. Ī̷̧̱̘͕̙̠̩̳̟̳̼̒̎̈́͆͌͛ͅ n̴̮̲̫͖͇̝̅̀͐͛͗̔̈́̋̀̀̇́̚̚evè̷̮͓͖͔̯̘͖̠͆̈͜ͅr̴͖̘͗̌̎̿͋̓͛̈́̆̈̕͜͝ saḯ̸̧̫̱̩͖̮̼͇̫͔̣̮̣͇̋̌̐̈̒̈̀͜ḏ̴̢̛̠̻͚͉̙̑́̏͗̊̈̆͋͝ p̷͍̣̙̼̘̪͚͒͂̎̃̎̎̓͂͘̕͘͜eop̵̨̘̗͍͈̦̠̺̞̠̻͗̄͗͝͠le c̵̡̧̢̧̩̞͎͉̘̟̞̯̲̘̦̈́oul̶̟̞͎̻̰̣͙̝̭̖̯̈́̈́͊̃̒̋̍̇̓̀̋͘ͅḍ̶̠͎̝̘̫̯͉͍̤̈̋̌ͅͅͅn’t joȋ̸̧͎̼̗͉̜̹̫̙͊̈̍́̓͒͝ͅn̷̙̏̂̅͘͠͠ͅ, d̶̢̛̦̳̻̼̒̅̔̔̄̑̑͂̽̇̋́̕̕u̸̱͓͛̋̃̆̆̀͋̕͘̕͠͝͠mba̵̡̢̧̫̘͈̰̯̰̙͐̋̒͗̏̇͜ͅͅss̷̬̖̻̦͓̥͗͆̓̐̍” Xisuma said, narrowing his eyes at the fuming moth.

“W̵̢̡͚̄̔̈́̈́̕͝hẏ̶̢̧̧̧̫̺͈͍̞̯̰̞̈͌͑͂̓͌͂̉̕ d̸̞͔̳̼̮̗͔̀̈́̌́̅̆̓͝͝ͅidn̵̫̊̆̊̅’t you̵̧̲͎̙̰̬̟̭͇̬̮̜̲̹͔̿̏̌̃͗̅͊̈͘͝͝ ǰ̶̨̖us̷̛̹̮̺̙̫̯͓̄͐̈́̾͂̃̈́̇̒͒͘̚͠͠t̵̨̗͔̜̝̮̘̟̰̫̄̐̈́̚͜ ç̵̨͓̦̹̘̮͍̝̟̞̌́̆̄͂̓̿̄͑̐̚ͅomp̵̨͈͎̮̬̲̻̠̦̹͈̜̙͊̾́͋̽̐lé̵̠̖̞̖͚̎̇̓̂͊̏̿͘͜͝tel̷̢͖̘͙̼̱͚̮̍̊͐̋̉̿̀̊̕͝͠͝͠ỳ̷̨̛̘̣͈̪̇́̅̓̒͋̆̌͝ͅ ļ̷͎̘̥̲̝́͒̑̌̑̓̿̍̀̇ocḵ̷͍̤̭͖̑͋̐̒̈́̓̒͗̈́͛͑͌͠ it?”

“I̵̺̓̐̂̄̽͆͛̍͐͝ d̵̛̫̲̭͙̼̱̦̭̂́̏̅͛͘͘on’ţ̴̢̨͕͍̠̙̱͇̫̩̭̉͒̏̌̎̃̽̆̍́͂͆͝ h̸̨̹̠̖̥̭͔͍̐̌̍͋̿̀̚͘ͅavḛ̴̼̫̩̭̯̥̙̪̲̤̿̌̈́̔̀̾̓̄̈́̊̚͝ͅ to ȩ̵̧̠̦̻̲̤̱̟̪̭̻̟̹̀̏͒́̏͂̊͒͗͘͠͠xpl̵̛̮͖̳̲͇̞̫̻͔̱̏̏͆͋̈̊͆̈́̐̂͆̍͝a̴̼̝̝̫̟̰̗̻̬̤̯̽́́͆̌̇̌͘͜͝͠in shį̴̥̳̯̠͈͖̙̦͋̂͛̅͗̉͒̀̚͝ͅt̵̟͚̮͖̤̦̺̅͐̋̔̓̊̅̀̈́̉̏̈́͛͝͝ to̵͚̪͚̞̖̯̤̣̳͚͎̹͙͊͆̑͊͐̉̅̓̽͒ͅͅ ỳ̴̼͙͙̇͗̀͗͐͛̀̉̿̕̚oư̸̧̹̪͙̱̪̏̑́͑̔͘” Xisuma said as Pearl rolled her eyes, annoyed.

“Thę̷͇͉̱̫̩̜̍̽̃͂͛̐̾̄͐̓̕͝r̸̡̧͔̝͖͍͉̱̰̮̘̘̋͛͛͒̀̈̀̏͑̑̓̀̉͘e̵̙̭͎͐̔͌͝’s a̶̰̝͚͌̐͆͑̇̈́͐͑́̃͝͝lso̸̦̮̣̞̗̯̱̟̜͈̦͍͙̺̘͋̈́́͊͌̂̔͗̽ a̵͎̩̱̖͍̞̜̜̩͕̋̑̃͘nỏ̷̪̪͕̝̬̬̙͕̩͖̯̣̥̒̆̃̍͂̌͛̂̓͊̾̕̕thẹ̴̢̢̡̛̩̝̭͎͉͚̭̀̎̈̿͂̃͋́͠͝ṙ̸̝ gú̴̘͕̗͓̠̬̥͔̜̹̼̙͓̋̊̍͛͛̇̔ͅy̶̪̖̠̘͇̬̳̬̫̬̟͚͒̉̈́̓̈́̆ͅ on̶̡̙̻̲̱̻͙͕͙̤̄̉̈́́̐̀̊̇̉̾̓̂͠ ṱ̶̬̥̤̲̞̟̩̤̥̾hė̴̝̤̺̬̜͈̘̹̳͕̈́̾̑̆̉͂͋͊͘ s̵̢̢͓̭̦͎̙͍̰̭̟̗̼̠̤͌́́erv̸̡͕͙̦̫͎͔̳̪̫̥̾̑̐̈́̋̓̔̀͘ͅer̷͎̘̙̪̭̣̽̾̉̀̂̎̾͘͝. H̶̢̟̻̝̩̲͑͒͊ͅę̵̨̨̣̣͙͔̜͖̜̤̑̓͜͝ k̵̟̍̑̀̃̄̈́ind̴̳͖̦̳̐͑̂́̒̄͘̕ of l̸̘͆͋͛͌̆͌oo̵̱̜͍̝͕̅̓̉̏̋̄̃́́̐̇̏͋͘͜͠ks l̵̡̟̭͕͉̜͖̞̹̖̟̻͍̄͑̈́͂̾͗̍̂͂̽͜͝͠ikê̴͖̄͂́̌͛̿͘ y̴̧̡̳͎̩̲̖̩̬̫̻̜̗͆̌̀͗̈̐̓̆͘͜ou” Doc said as he entered the room with Ren, hand gesturing towards Xisuma.

His doppelganger is the one who had injured him earlier. Xisuma frowned. Who was he?

…

No response. Of course it would stay silent only when he needed answers.

Why would you expect me to tell you anything?

He rolled his eyes. He honestly wasn’t even expecting it to respond. Thinking back to when they first encountered, he remembered something. It said one word.

“EX”

1. That’s what it had called the player. EX.

“Ĩ̷̧̡̡̼̹̲̜̟͔̱̩̍̀̈́̍̌͒̄̔́̌͝ͅ b̷̫̟̣͓͖͔̻̫̠̬͖̙̺͕̜̈̌̏͋̿̉̿́͝͝eļ̴̥͈̇̂̿́iev̴͔̪̰͎̫̱͋̃͘͠ë̴̢̠͖͉̱̘̫̦͙̠̺̙̣͓̊̆ ḥ̸̛̪̪̬̠̞̹̯̾͜͝is n̷̢̜͚̜̼̻̱̥̓̓̈́́́̈́am̶̺̹͈̤̪̼̌̈́̑e̵̹̺̬̤͐̄̊̈́͝ is̶̼̪̯̣͚͗̄̇ EX̸̢̨̛͇͇̦̪̣̝̱̱̗͆́̐̔̇͑͘͝” Xisuma said, standing up and turning towards the other three.

“W̴̫̙̟̦̩̻̣̰͗͛̐̽̊̀̈́̾̒́̅̔̚͝hy dǫ̶̖̉́͒̃̅̅͊͑̕̕͝͝es̵̨̧̫̟̝̀̒́͐̄̋͐́̚͝ h̴̛̭̖̲̳̽͊̓̉̿̏̔͛͂̀͘͝ë̴̠̹̖̮́͆̅̒̉̃̇́͊̀̀̚ loo̶̡̳͇͙̭̝̝̘̖̼̬̐̄̈̓̐̈̍͜͠k̶̛̛̼͆̑̈́̑́ so̵̖̝̤̗̅̂̆̒̈́͒̋͂͗͌͘ m̴̪͖̮̰̺͓͔͉̥̳͚̐̋̎̋̍͑̊̋͗͛͌͝uch̶̡̧̦͔̖͚̺̜͙̥̬͙̖̕ liķ̵̜̹̝̦̹̤̭̖͆̀̐̉̏́̓͑ȩ̷̨̛̣̫͖̝͇̘̤̻͒̑̊̑͊͋͆̎͗̋̋̏̒͠ y̶͚̤̤̋̽͒ou?” Ren said.

Xisuma shrugged. “R̵͖̰̙̣̲̈́elat̶̢̢̹͍̱̹͚̭̗̘̻͍͖̙̋ͅivȩ̶̀́ may̴̧͉̠̲̗̖̯̤̗̼̆̄̇̆͂̀͒́͛̚͘bē̶̲̻͐̽͗̆̕? B̸̨̰̗͐͌̐̆́͒̀̃́͗̃̚̕͝uṱ̷̛̱͎̟̘̪̱̠̀̀͐͗̃̽͋͛̍̓ tha̵̘͓̥̰̳̎̄̈͒̌́͗t̴̡̡̨̧͖̻̳̺̙̳͑͋̉͑͛̆̒͐̌̀̆̋̀̅͠ d̸͈̣͈̅̄̎̇̅̃̐̈́̀́̉oes̵̨̛̺̘̞̻̀͌̃̂̐̎̿̊́͆͒n’t̸̯̬͓̠̦̳̮̜̫̎́̆́̒ͅͅ m̶̡̨͖͓͉̻̲͕̲͗̿̀͗͗̇͂̆͘̚͘͝attè̶̢̲̠̟̘͎̮̬̼̥͔̂̂̿̋͐̾̇͗̈́̒͝ͅr̷̨̨̢͙̥̲̗̘͙̟͚͗̏̔͒̉̿̊̅́̂͒̚͜͠͝ͅͅ. Th̴̤̰̽̀͛̌̾̚ę̵̱̬̜̥͐ir c̶̛̪͍̍͛̐̂̾̅̀̈́͊͐̈̊̄͘ͅommų̶̹̘̳̮͓͉̺̻̞̞̮͎̉́͜ņ̴̢̡̧̙̤̬̱̟̍̿̈́͊̀̎̌͝͝icḁ̴̞͚̲̱̈́̓̓ţ̶̛̳̝̼̥̜͍̖̬̰͔̹͍̹̮̄̀͋̂̆orş̸̥̞̲̪͖̯̈͒ ȧ̸̡̡̖̫͕̿͌͛̇̅̇̒̀͑̋́̑̚̕reņ̸͍̲̤̦͇̻͔̤̞̘͒̽͑͒̾̀̂̋̎͛̕̕͝͝’t̴͍͓̫̙̠̯̠͎̰̲͚̤̖͐͗̔̀͊̎͌́̇̌̅͜͝ d̵̨̼̼̰̮̠͈͕̣̯͔͔̓̓̀̔̈́̊̉ͅetè̷̛̤̗̩̲̫̞̫͎͙̑͂́̌̒͝cẗ̵̝̥́̄͛ed̴̰̪̫͗̈́̄̉̍͋̓͐̉ in̷̨̦͛̓͆̀̇͆̆̒͝ the s̷̘̲̤̳̱̭̮̹̼̱̱̳̗̖̈͝ͅerv̵̧̦̝͇̥̜̫̘̩͉̣̯͆͑̌eȓ̷̡̡̼̳͚̹̓̈́̅̒̊̅̀̈́. W̵̧̛͉̯͚̬̠̜͈̤̣̗̫̎͋̌̅̉́̉̾̑̊̀͋̎͝ͅheȑ̷̳͉͕͖̬͕͍̹̹̠̽̽̋̔̀̈́̈́͆̌̊e̵̪̠͚̞̯̹̱̰̩̱͗̆͗̓͂̏͌̕ is t̷̜̱̻̭̩̾̌̅́͂̈́̌̆͆̈́̂͐̕̕͘he̴̤͕̜̖͉̔̓͑͗̄̀͌̉̋̅͌͂́̓ o̸̡͓̯͇̥͉̠͚͔̖̟͎̫̙̗̾̇̂̎͑͊͝thȩ̴̛̰͎͍͚̖̝̥̟̘͈͍̣̭̌͑̾͑͛̒̂̀r̶̥̙̼͇̰̐̂̀̀̎̒̐̀̃ p̵̨͇͚̣̤̤̙̞̪̟͔̰̞̱̰̽lay̵̛̤̿͌͐͗̄̓̓̓͑̌͘̕͠er’s, R̴͙̲̣̳͒͋̅͛en̷̢̺̼̹̱̞̮̻̲͇̮̝̒́͛̔̿̈́̑͋̋̑̓̊̿́͝ à̶̢̳̞̯͈̳͎̣͍͉͎̱͇͗̃̈́̿͂̀nd Doc̸̯͓̖͎̅̀̎ s̴̡̨̭̲͉̙͙͍̽̐͗̓́̊͗͊ͅtup̴͚͈̬͚͚̭̺͖̼̣̦͈̽̆͒̋̓̎͂̅̐͝͠ͅͅi̴̳̭͎̠͇̻͓͉̠̼̝͍͋͋̔͐͝ͅdly̴̨̰̹̯̖̝̪̩̣̆́̓́̍̔̏̄̏͒̾́̈̓̕ d̴͚̖̼̟̙̥͗̌̓͊̓esť̶̨̟̤̺̟͇͍̾͐̅̊̃r̷͚̞̻͕͈̱̙̯͚̣͖̻͔̓̈́oye̴̡͉̠̗̙͌̓̍̈̓̑̂̅̂̄͘͠d̵̢̖̠̭̹̪̭̩̰͎͎͕̩̈́̅͗̆̈́̉̔͜ E̶̡̛̥͎̦̻̜̘̼͓̘̘̩͑͂́̈́́͝X’s”

They all turned to Pearl.

“In mÿ̷̢̩̠͕͖̝̮̯̬́̏̂̿͛̋̈́͝ͅ defe̶̛̜͎̥̤͖̾̽̋͌͒́̍͗̀́̏̋͑͝ͅͅnsḙ̷͍̗͕͈̯̃̃͒͜, y̸̫̻̻̅̆oų̴̨̰̥̤̮̦͍͍̀̀̊̎̐̈̒̄̾̄̀͝͝͝ s̸̡̩̱̟͙̗͉̜͂̒̈́̓̌̓͛͊̈͘ͅaiḑ̴̎̋͒̉̀͛̐͛͋̆̓͌̋͘ b̸̡͙͇́͑̂̔͆̍͐̍̓reá̵̧̺̳̖̣̗̜̥͙̓̌̾̂̾̔̅̅͒̆͝k̷̨͈̝̩̱͙̙̭̟̝̠͕͔̪̈̀̽ͅ thĕ̸̝͙̫̤̬̞̻̯̑̑͒͗͂́̂͐͐̔̾͜͠ͅ ç̴̫̣̹̗͔̰̹̟̈́̌̈́̿̎̏omm̷̡̯͚̰̝͇̞̞̱̰̤̹̗̕unį̷̼̘̞̰̠̰͈̠͔̰͚͈̊̉̀c̶͔̺̼̥̙̖͇̠͓̀̃͗̉͒͗̏̆̎̂́̀̕͝ͅatȏ̶͓̠̤̯r̸̙̩̄̆s̶̤̤͈͓̗̳̝̹̭͇̳̩̯̫̒̒̓̏͛̓͆͐”

“A̸̢̢̛̰̰̝̺̪̥͇̳͖̻͐͒̒́̈́̄̊̕̕̕͜fter̷̨̿̿̑̽̈́̇̓̈̐́̊̈́ I̴̢̡͍̥̻͖̓͑̅͐̂̃͘ l̴̹͒̾̆̒̅̅͒͂͘̚ocķ̴̧̡̛͉̥͔̠̹̮̗̼́̑̊̃͌̋ed̴͇̺̤̱̱̬̪͗ t̴̻̮͈̲͉͉̼̣̬̎͂͐́͒̕͜hem̸̩̟̳̩͕͎̗̩͐̄̂̄̍̾̿̐͜͝͝ i̶̛͕̖̩̪͖͈̮͙̭̩̳̿͆̄̉̾̊̇̈̅̄̕͘ñ̶̛̪̦͇̱̀̌̓͊͂̈́̈̅͒̿͌͘, y̵̧̡̛͎͓͇̙̱͍̫̺̣̦̭͚̾̍͊̿̓͆̇̚ou ̸̠̳̗̩̮͔̳̆̾̿̀̿̈́̍̊̈́̃̾i̴̧̗̰̩̭̙̊̓͋́̈̎̔̀̆͗̕͜diot̷̛͇͌͆̒͂̇̋͌̾͘͝. If ṫ̵̪̺̠͙̦̖̝̘͈̋̆̂̒̄̐̅̀͛͝͝͝͝heỵ̶̨͕̟͇̳̗̥̮̿́̒̓̏̓́͠͝ f̶̙̰̘̝̻̍̍̽̔iņ̸͍̥͓̞̳͙̮͔̱̻͙̋̃̄̄̓̀͌̈́͛͗̚̕͜͝d̷̢̙̫̦̜̱̲͎̗̭̎̃̃̀̄̒̄͆͑̕ ņ̷̧͇̪̙͈̜͉̲̃̏̈́͊̿́̓̀̚͘͝ew̸̨̛͌̓̑͐̓́̀̔̀͐̀̚ o̷̮͈̓̄̂̿̇̋̓̃̈͗̈́͘͠nes̴̜̯͈̤̫̻͆̋̐̓̀̉̓͌̈́͝ͅ, t̶̻̜̦̦̞̗̼̤̱̳͝hey̴̨̠͈͉̹̯̲̮̮̼̥̅̈́̂̊́̀̌̾̚̕̕’ll be a̶̞̗̐͂̃̄̉͑̌̋̒blê̶͎̦͇͎̤͉͖̗͚̫̗̹̠͈̅̕ to esč̵̢̱̟͈̗̺̠̜̭̘͂͑͜͜â̴̰͐́̍̃͆̈́̌̒͌̂̕͝͠͝pe̸̢̘̮͕̬̩͖̙̙͉͇̹͐.”

Xisuma hissed in annoyance. Stupid. How are they all this incompetent? His comments seemed to upset it, because he started to sense waves of anger that weren’t coming from him. Whatever.

“A̸͇̺͓͍̝̞̖̜͔̝̯̳̦͗̀̌nd w̸̘͓͇̩̼̭͕̳̎heŗ̶̛͕̙͍̻͉̝̰͎̽̆̅́̒̋͛̓̆̔́̍͠͝ȩ̵͈̝̙̜̼̜̽͐͆̅̓̂̋̿̔͌̎̕ dȯ̸̝̟̜͓̘͙͚͜ͅ yoų̷̨̙͙̠̱͕̈͋̾̈́̊̂̇̈́̄̿͑̈́͝ t̸̳̘̩͇̒͛͂͊͆̉̇̄̌̕͝hink̴̢̛̦̼͚̗̱͑̈̋̓̀̄̀́͘ y̸͖̣͂̿́̊͛ou̴͈͕̇͒̂̐͌͒̈́̒̎̊͆̈͘̚͠’rę̴͙̯̣̻̘̝̘͜͝ g̶̱̝̅͂̎͝oin̵̨͚͔̰̹̤̦̻̰̬̻͇͙͒̽͂̓̈́̃̌̍̿̇͘͝g̶̫̠͇͈̦̳̮̈̄͋͐̏̑̋̐̓͌̽̈́͛̕͝?” Ren said as Xisuma got up and strided towards the door.

“If t̵̘̳͚̮̥̲̤̦͖͖͕̾̇̌͂̽͐̈́͛hey̵̛͓̗͇̥̟̬̥͆̇͌̃̍́̕͝’re̵̛̛͉͉̩̊̇̈̎̈́̍́̒͌̍͗͘ l̸͔̜̹̮̦̬̖̼̜̣̊ook̵̟̞̆̓̌̾́̏̇́͆̏̄inǧ̴̣͔̭͆ f̴̨͍̘̟͍̔͠or ȇ̷̝̗̽̃̄̄̎͊͌͆̃͝xtŕ̸̡̞̙̯̰͈̣̮̰̀̂͂̚͜͝ä̶͔́͐̃̈̅̌̀̋͊̋̏͠ ç̵͉̺̘͕̯̙͔̦̥͎͙̩̟̄̉̔͌om̴̡͙͇̱̘̬̳̹͚̝̝̿͂́͂̈̑͆̈́ͅms, thé̷̮̈́͛́̂̊͊̾̃͂̄̚͠ẏ̷̛̙̝̩̫̯̜̩̪̮̇̆͆̒̉̉̀ w̴͉̾̒͗̔̈́̓͗̿̽̆̋̑͘̚ill̴̦̮͍̬͓̻̽ be h̵̢͖̜͈̦͇̣̣͎̮̽̎̕ead̴̢̼̟͔̯̞̫̯͙͇̘̻̯̜̓́̍̎͒͋͌͒͌̐̕̕̚eḏ̸̡̙͓̂̀͒̇̍̏̚ to̸̡͓̯͇̥͉̠͚͔̖̟͎̫̙̗̾̇̂̎͑͊͝ my ̸̛̩̙̙̫̓̂̆̈́̒͆̂̉̃̂̈̚b̴̮͎͔̰̥̫͉̖̊̇̔̐͛̀̀̍̈́ase̴̼̯̞̺̻͚͈̝͂͌̀̏͗̆̒̍̈́͘̚͘.” He just had to find out where his base was.

“Ġ̸̡̨̢̘͕̰̠͇̐̆͋͑͛̎̾̇͗̅͗͜͝ͅatḧ̵̻͙́̌̇̍̂̋̈́͒̅̍͒̉̇̃̕er̸͓̩̘̫̗̥̟̮̤͕̪̯̮͈̅͒͊̈́̓͒̓̈́̚̕ t̷͈̩͈̘̠̻͊̇͊̄̈̔̓͗̑hȩ̸̢̯͇̳͕̝͚͉͍͓̼̰͍̹̑̒̀̒͛̽̋̓̊́̌̌͝͝ oth̴̨̧̟̯̰̜̗̻͖̼͐͊̈̕er̶̢̛̙̎̈́̊́̑͛̇̆̏̆̊̉͆s̶̢̢͇̲͓͈͎̯̫̱̈́̃̈̋̐̅͘,, the̴̤͌̔̃̈̂̀͝n ẇ̸̧̗̝̫̩͉̪̼̬͔͔̰̤̒̀͂̔͐́̐͋̾̄̇̕͜͝ͅe’lḽ̵̋͆͒̀̋̂͗̊͠ f̵̡̧̡̢̩͉̝̜̼̞̤͙̒̈ind̵͓̖̮̞́̌̈́̍̀̅̇̚͝ th̸̬̮̤̱̭̦̺̮̝͍͈̯̹̗̏̓͑̔͂̽̇̾͘͝em.”

Chapter Text

He was running through the forest as fast as he could. Ren was right on his tail and he was out of rockets. All he was doing was getting supplies.

He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to be one of them.

Ren was the fastest. Out of all the infecteds, why did it have to be him? He tried to run faster, but his legs and stamina seemed to be fighting against him. The mobs weren’t helping his case either. Luck wasn’t on his side, and only pushed further away as he got shot in the leg by a skeleton. That gave Ren just enough time to catch up to him.

He didn’t even have time to take a breath before he felt a blazing sword go through his chest, along with the coppery taste of blood in his mouth.

The last thing he saw was Ren’s bright red shoes before his vision faded out.

———

Where was he?

They had gone out to get supplies and Ren had split them up. Frantically looking around, Etho had nearly called for his name before realizing that doing so could lead Ren right to him. He couldn’t message him either, because Xisuma had muted the server. Not even death messages could go through.

When the infected had taken over the bunker, they were lucky enough to have been together. They had survived together for years, he wasn’t about to lose him now.

Turning the corner, Etho ran through the starter village. He must’ve gone in one of these buildings right? Opening the door he was closest to, Etho sighed in relief. He was here, he had escaped.

“Bdubs?”

He turned around and Etho’s heart dropped.

Oh.

Bdubs’ eyes were pitch black, and glitch was dripping from his mouth and the middle of his chest. Etho slowly backed away towards the door, eyes wide and glued onto his friend.

“B?”

Maybe if he hadn’t moved at all, Bdubs wouldn’t have attacked him.

———

NO!

STOP IT!

ETHO!

…

Bdubs stared at the body in front of him. The man was a bloody mess of cuts and bruises, accompanied by hair that had changed from white to red. He wasn’t dead yet, but he would bleed out eventually. Bdubs himself had gained a few deep cuts from the fight the other had put up. Annoying. 

Stepping over the other, he left the building, leaving him to die.

Oh my god what have I done whathaveIdonewhathaveIdone-

…

I’m so sorry…

———

Was it too much to ask for one peaceful day?

They had been sneaking around, quiet and everything. But fate seemed to hate them, because they were spotted anyway. Screw Doc and his redstone eye.

“EX MOVE!"

With only one working hand, it was a struggle for EX to defend himself against Doc’s attacks. By the time EX managed to kick Doc away, Martyn and Grian had chased Pearl off. Aiming his bow, Martyn released an arrow at the cyborg. The arrow missed, but it was close enough distance from his face to catch him off guard. He glared at the two and ran off. At least he knew when he was outnumbered.

Offering EX a hand up, Grian looked at Martyn.

“They might tell the others, we need to find a building to hide in.”

Heading deeper into the village, the three quietly ran towards a building and went inside. Martyn was the first, but ended up becoming a roadblock to EX and Grian, who had both bumped into him when he stopped moving.

“What the-” EX began before he was hushed by Grian.

They all scanned the room to see splotches of blood covering a majority of the furniture, accompanied by a giant one blood stain right at their feet with a trail leading to the other room. There was also a bloodied and torn black mask, but that was the least of their concerns.

“Is.. is that fresh?” Martyn managed to get out, eyes unwillingly locked on the spot that covered most of the carpet.

A shuffle followed by a loud crash was heard from the back of the room, answering Martyn’s question. Startling the three of them, they quickly got out their weapons. Grian aimed a loaded crossbow, Martyn had a tight grip on a sword, and EX had gotten a potion out.

Expecting to see an infected player, the three backed away towards the door. To their surprise, stumbling from around the corner was not an enemy, but a fatally injured Etho.

The three made eye contact with him, and they lowered their weapons. Etho looked like a mess. 

While the majority of it was already dry, his forehead was still heavily bleeding, which was changing the color of his hair to a dark red. His arm looked broken and one of his ankles looked twisted and swollen. Other than being ruined with dried blood, his ears and tail looked fine, but it was still hard to tell. There were bruises on his face and his mask was gone. Just to top it all off, there was a stab wound in his lower abdomen.

If they had arrived any later, Etho would’ve already run out of time.

“Ah.. that’s good,” Etho said, just above a whisper while letting out a small pained chuckle. “I thought you were one of them..”

That’s when he collapsed, the exhaustion and pain finally overunning his body. He would’ve hit the ground head first if Grian hadn’t rushed to catch him.

Maybe they did get there too late.

Chapter Text

“Nonono- shit! Etho! Etho stay awake!” Grian said, laying Etho on the floor.

EX ran over, digging through his inventory to find any useful items, while Martyn stood there in shock.

“Regen, instant health, anything! Give me anything!” Grian was trying to keep the panic out of his voice, but failing miserably.

He couldn’t let this happen. Not again. He could do something this time, he could help.

Martyn was looking for any potions that would do more good than harm, and EX shoved a golden apple into Grian’s hand. Etho clearly wasn’t in the state to be eating anything, being knocked out cold.

Out of the corner of his eye, Grian could see that Etho’s blood was no longer a dark red, but instead leaking out a black glitchy substance.

Something clicked, and Martyn’s head jolted up from his inventory. He grabbed the golden apple out of Grian’s hand and cut out a bit with his sword. Hovering the slice above Etho’s stab wound, his grip tightened, squishing it. It wasn’t much, but there was now juice leaking from the apple, and the three watched as the juice helped knit Etho’s skin back together.

It seemed to be helping, but only lasted a few seconds before it stopped. Grian quickly began cutting the rest of it, and Martyn continued the process. It was just enough to heal the stab wound, but not any of the other injuries. Grian ripped a piece of his cloak off to clean Etho’s head from the blood, and Martyn ran to the other room.

All he needed was a bandage big enough to wrap around Etho’s head. They just needed to stop the bleeding. Rummaging through the chests, Martyn froze. He was making too much noise. Martyn continued to look, but tried his best to be as quiet as possible. Finally finding a big enough piece of cloth, Martyn ran back to the other room.

Grian was cleaning Etho’s other wounds, while EX was still trying to find the potions they had previously packed. Crouching down next to Etho, Martyn gently moved the hair out of his face, which revealed a giant gash across his forehead. Geez, this would definitely need stitches. As he finished wrapping the bandage around his head, he looked up to see Grian, who had also finished up cleaning his wounds.

“He’s going to be knocked out for a while, at least until we can find some potions,” Grian said, barely above a whisper.

“How are we supposed to get him to Xisuma’s base? We can’t just leave him here.”

All three of them fell silent, not thinking about that until now.

“I suppose I could try to carry him while flying,” Grian said hesitantly.

“Aren’t your wings still hurt?” EX asked, raising an eyebrow at the man.

“Yeah, so you two will need to help me carry him. I should have a backup elytra for you, Martyn. Although I will warn you, the durability isn’t too great,” Grian said, pulling a spare elytra out from his ender chest.

Martyn strapped the pair of wings onto him, while EX got his out and did the same.

“I’ll start carrying him, and you guys can grab his legs while we’re in the air. We won’t be able to use rockets while flying.”

The two nodded at him. “We could make an invis potion. I found a few ingredients in some diorite building, but no nether wart. Do you guys have any?” EX said, looking up from his inventory to find the other two staring back at him.

“Diorite tower? Was it you who made the loud crash?” Martyn questioned as EX’s face went noticeably pale, even through the red visor.

“Was it that loud?”

“No, we just happened to also be in the tower,” Martyn said, giving a small smile. “I did manage to find some nether wart though,” summoning the red plant to his hand and giving it to EX.

It only took about 5 minutes for the potions to be ready. The three of them gathered near Etho, preparing to throw the potion down.

“I’ll give Etho something to hold so you two can see where I am.”

Grian threw the potion down, and they all disappeared. Holding onto Etho tighter, Grian shot up into the sky, accompanied by the sounds of two other rockets following him. Grian shoved a piece of steak into Etho’s hand, and took it back when both Martyn and EX caught a hold of Etho’s legs. It was a bit of a struggle, but eventually the three began to glide in the direction of Xisuma’s base.

———

Doc and Pearl never fully left the area. They did go far enough away, but they were still in the starter village. The two of them sat on different sides of the room in silence, occasionally exchanging dirty looks while waiting for the others. By the fifth glare, they had finally arrived. Xisuma, followed by Mumbo, Scar, Ren, Tango, and a newly infected Bdubs walked through the spruce doors.

Bdubs too..?

Waving off the thought, Pearl stood up. “D̸̡̢̯͔̻̝͈̫͍̼̮̬̂̈̏̇̌̈͑͘͘͝ͅͅid ỷ̴̨͔̭̘͈̦͕̙̖̩́̾͛͋̀͌̏͌̀͑͜ou̵̡̦͓̹̹͚̫̰͓͉͇̹̱͍͂̓ fin̵̨̛̗͙̝͚̖̲̅͛̅̌͂́̈́͆̒͜͝all̸͇̭͚̝̯̥̤̊̑̆̂̇̂͑̎̚y̶͈͍̼̳̞̓̅ fin̵̢̳͓̱̭̩͕̬̼̈̈̈́̉̈́͆͗́̃̽̈͛̓̆͠d yo̶̧͖̖̍ͅuŕ̴̢̥̉̓͋̌̐̾́͌͐̓̀͘̕͝ b̸̰̳͖͚͙̖̖̟͚͔̈́͗̍̄̊̀̿͝ͅase̸̠̥͍̘̥̝̳̜̪̘̯͔͕̊͊͊͋̈̈́͘͠?” raising an eyebrow at Xisuma, who rolled his eyes at her.

“Ì̶̥̞͕̯̮̟̹̯̿̽͗́̈́͝͠͝ ķ̵̧̼̱̠͍͈̝͚̪̃͆̽̎̏͐̀̚͝͝noẁ̴̛̲̑̉̆͂̃͒̇͘͝͝ whȃ̷̧̬͓̻̈̀̇̚t̶̛͎͍̗̤̪̿͗ it ļ̸̹̦̘̰̜̮̜̙̟̖̺̰̳̉̎̌͌ͅoǫ̶͉͔̼͔̖͍̳͍͕̻͙͕͗̈͌͋͌̈́͑͐͋̊͛ks l̵̼̟̰̳̯̦̉ikę̴͎͔̞͇̹͕̺̒̀̂̾̄̑, n̸̨̩̰̥̳̗̩͈̫͓̽̒̑͘͜o ȋ̶̟̖̙͚̼̗̻̳̋͐̿͆̑̌̋deȧ̸̟̟̊̄ whê̵̻͎̰̦̖͑͋̊͝re̷̲̪̣̥͎̜̱̦̞͐̓̌͑̔͠͝ it is.

Pearl’s eyes narrowed in on the man. While those two were going back and forth, Mumbo, Scar and Tango silently headed to the other room, looking for any useful items.

Bdubs strided over to the chests, looking for any weapons. His sword was on low durability due to the fight that white haired freak had put up.

Etho’s not a freak!

Hm. So his name was Etho? Whatever, it didn’t really matter anyway. He probably bled out by now. Bdubs turned to Doc and Ren, who were both just standing there, waiting for the other two to stop bickering.

“I k̶̦̲̜̮̬͕̀͗͌̇̿͛͘ill̵̨̫̜̞̘͇̙̰̯̋̏̔̎̅̈͐̾̓͘̚ͅed̷̨̛̞̥̤͙̝̖̄̎̈́̌͜͜͠ ơ̷̱̺̳̰͖̮̽͋̈̌̋̆̊̐̑̔̏̅͘͝ne oth̷̡͇̯̬͙̪͙̖̯͕͈͚̳̻̏̈̽̒͛̈́͜͝er̵̡̍̆̓͒̇̀̊́̌̋͐̀͘͜ p̷̹͎͂͌̈̽̇͋́͋laẙ̶̹̻̙͙̯̤̪͐̃̆̉̓̀̃̚e̶̢̛̥̦̞̜͖̳̭̗̖̘͛̊̅͌̾͠ͅr, Etḥ̶̢̗̞͍̟͎̣̂̈́̽͌̔̄̃̋o̵̗̱̘̲͙͛̈́͐͐̓̾̓͗̑. S̸̨̨̗̜̘̝̪̱̼̻͐͊̋hoṵ̶̡̼̥̪͊̓̌̍̈́̇̽̿̈̓́̓̅͠ͅld̴̨̢̗̰̪̣̩͚̯͌ we ṃ̶̠̆́͛̒͐͑̍͘͘͝͠eeț̶̝̙̹̮̱͒ hì̵̪̜̲̩͍͈͇͇̫̿̃͒́̃́͊̎̐m̸͚̲͘ a̴̩̦̲̲̣̜͌̽̑́̐́͐̚ͅt s̷̜̦͓̦̼̻͊͝paw̴̨̯͕̞͈̾̂͑̌n?”

“S̸̛̤̗̣̩̮̹͓̑̉̏͒̑͛͋̑̒̓̄ure̴̢͇̻̙̤̹̠̠̺͐̀̈́̓̍” Doc replied, Ren following not too far behind.

The three of them stepped outside. Just as they were about to take off, Ren jerked his head up.

“W̷̖̰̭͖̟͇̪̰̫͖͈̩̄ait̶̨̼̠͉͎̝͉̲̭̺̱̞͖͙͒̾̀̃͒͑”

Bdubs and Doc shot an annoyed glance at the wolf.

“Whȁ̶̧̢̻͔̞̝̟̫̈́́͘͠ṫ̶͕̠̱̘͇̰̥͍̗̗̻͓̮̅͌̾̈͜ ţ̴̛̛̪͕̬͗̓͊͂͒̽̂̉͐̅̕͠he hę̴̧͕̫̫͖̯̭̲̉͋͌̅̍͊͋̓̔͂̚͜͝͠ll̸͕̜͗͝ is it ń̴͔̥̬̫̘̫̜̼̖̿̒̅͌̐̚̚͘͝ow?”

Something is behind the building.

Turning around, Doc saw absolutely nothing. Shoving it further into the backseat of his mind, Doc scowled. He didn’t appreciate being tricked.

Doc looked up to where Ren was squinting, and something caught his attention. Through one eye, he saw nothing but clouds and a blue sky. But through the other, the faint outline of four players were seen, gliding through the air. Being infected with a glitched redstone eye was wonderful, wasn’t it?

“Go t̴̨̒elļ̷̢̪̪̝̱͖̰̲͓̙͍̰̝͆̃͛̈́̈̐̂͌̉͠ t̵̙͔̭̘̱͈̰̱͛͗he oth̸̦̩̱͔̥̩̆͂̄͜er̷̨̧̛̰̣̭̻̗̱̰̦̘̗͉͂̋̍͂̋̔̚͝͝͝ş̶̳̣͖̮͎̭̓̉͗͑͊͊̕̕ ẁ̵̢̳͔̫͍̩̳̀̅̎̍̂͛̾͊̚͝e f̶̡͈̞̬̼͙͋̽̀̇͊̏̆̾̈ouṇ̴̡̜͕͈͓̙̮̤̭̖̀̽̊͘͘d a f̵̜͍̠̂̋̈́͗ew̵̠̻̙͚̥͓̝̆͋̀̾̚ͅ pla̵̧̡͓̜̦͉̺̪̪̝͉͎̗̅yer̸̢̢̜̩͎̼̯̬̻͑͛̀͂̉s̴͖̳͔̹͚̘̜̫̲͎̊̎̿̈̾̅̈͗̊̈̀͐́̔͠ͅ” Doc said as the glare excitedly ran back inside. He returned a few seconds later with five infecteds following, all wearing a look that said they were ready to kill.

They all took off, flying after whatever Doc was so focused on. It only took around 10 minutes for a certain structure to come into view. A giant skull, one that Xisuma recognized as his base. Those stupid players had led them right to it. Perfect.

…

Shit.

Chapter Text

The invis potion was about to wear out, and they were right in front of Xisuma’s base. As long as nobody was home, they would be fine. As the three of them landed, the potion effects flickered away. Lowering his wings, Grian carried Etho on his back through a hallway, leading the other two to the main part of Xisuma’s base.

As they rummaged through chests for the spare communicators, Etho began to stir awake. He groaned as he sat up, head pounding. While EX and Grian remained in the other rooms, Martyn ran to Etho’s side, helping him fully sit up,

“Wh..What happened?” Etho murmured, his unhealed injuries resulting in more groaning. “Where’s Bdubs?”

“Take it easy. We found you half dead in the starter village, and we only had enough supplies to heal one thing. You still have a pretty bad mark on your head, do you remember anything?”

Etho didn’t respond, only trying to think back to what had happened before he passed out. He and Bdubs had gone out to get supplies, and Ren had split them up. Etho ran into a starter village house, found Bdubs, and- oh. Bdubs was dead. He was the one who attacked him.

Etho nodded, instantly regretting the movement because it only made the pain worse.

“Hey I found some regen potions for Etho-” Grian said as he walked back in the room.

Grian’s eyes widened when he saw that Etho was awake, and the fox did the same.

“Grian? You’re alive?” Etho muttered quietly, trying to avoid making his headache worse.

“Uhm.. yeah I’m alive” 

“But I saw you…”

“It’s really not that easy to explain,” Grian responded, scratching the back of his head. Martyn looked back and forth between the two, confused. Everything was still quiet, and he only caught little chunks of what they were saying.

Before Martyn could get a word out, a glitched fireball burst its way through the doors, exploding the chests behind them. As EX ran back into the room, eight others also entered. Etho’s head jerked towards the direction of the fireball, all of his pain suddenly being forgotten. His eyes darted between people he thought were still alive–Pearl, Mumbo, and Tango, who’s flaming hair was now pitch black. 

And Bdubs..

The loading of a crossbow was heard, and Grian covered himself with his wings. Thankfully, through his feathers, he could see that the crossbow wasn’t pointed at him.

But it was aimed at Etho instead.

Grian rushed forward, but he was too slow. Etho didn’t have anytime to react, only squeezing his eyes shut. The fact that he didn’t feel anything was a surprise, but a cry of pain was let out seconds later. Opening his eyes, Etho saw Martyn hovering over him, arrow through his stomach.

Before Etho could take in what had happened, Grian yanked him onto his feet and they ran. Through the adrenaline, Etho completely forgot about the pain in his ankle. They followed EX through the hallways, with Martyn and the other eight following not too far behind. The four turned the corner, and Grian shut the door behind them. EX piled stuff behind it as a barricade, but with nearly ten people the doors were bound to open soon.

The pain in Etho’s ankle finally returned, and he stumbled backwards, accidentally knocking a box down. The contents of the box scattered across the floor, revealing pieces of new communicators. At least they looked new.

Picking two of the scattered comms up, EX tossed one to Martyn, who struggled to catch it. The comms immediately lit up, displaying “Welcome, InTheLittleWood!” and “Evil Xisuma!”

“Leave, now!” Grian shouted, struggling to hold the barricade in place.

Why did the loading screen have to take so long?

———

What the fuck did they use to block these doors? They should’ve been able to break them down by now.

Xisuma was about to ram into the door again when his communicator buzzed. Twice. Looking at his comm, he frowned.

InTheLittleWood joined the server

Evil Xisuma joined the server

Goddammit. They must’ve found the communicators. Xisuma’s fingers flew to the tab button, clicking on the first name that appeared.

Just a few seconds..

5..

4..

3..

Shit he made a typo.

2..

1..

Done.

One down. Sure it was sloppy work and could be broken with a simple hack, but he didn’t have time to fix it. Pressing the home button, Xisuma was greeted with the exact message he was hoping not to see. He wasn’t quick enough.

Shit.

———

InTheLittleWood left the server

It worked! Martyn had escaped! But why was EX still here?

“Why isn’t the damn leave button working!?” EX shouted in frustration, aggressively jabbing his finger on the red button that the communicator displayed.

“He locked you in! Take the regen potions and hide somewhere, I’ll lead them away”

Cursing to himself, EX turned away and put his arm underneath Etho’s to help him walk. Etho, however, had other plans.

“There’s eight of them, you’re not going to get out in time! Just come with us!” he said, trying to fight against EX but painfully failing.

“I’ll be fine, you two need to hide” That didn’t quite seem to convince him one bit. “Just trust me. Now go!”

Looking back at EX, Etho limped to the red man’s side. The two of them hid in a nearby broom closet, grateful that it was big enough to hide the both of them. Peeking through the shutters of the door, the pair watched as Grian released the barricade, immediately jumping out of a window. Seven hermits followed him, the sound of rockets slowly fading away, but Ren stayed behind.

It was the unusual scent present in the room that caught the wolf’s attention. Heightened senses were a blessing to him, but he also heard something in him curse at the ability. Shoving the remains of the barricade out of the way, Ren made his way to the doors behind the desk. While Ren made his way over, EX’s fingers slowly made its way around an object. Something cool and smooth, like glass. Ren sniffed the air, trying to pinpoint the source of the smell. The two white haired survivors held their breath as Ren moved towards the closet.

As Ren opened the door, EX lifted up whatever he had grabbed and smashed it over Ren’s head. The potion bottle shattered, covering the three of them in a shiny gray liquid.

Weakness.

It wasn’t a splash potion, thank god. The drink sank into the wound created in Ren’s head, effectively weakening him and he collapsed. Eyes still blazing, Ren’s gaze shifted from the red man to another behind him. 

Etho! That’s gonna kill him!

EX heaved a sigh of relief before he heard another thump behind him. Turning around, he saw Etho, slumped against the wall, looking like he was about to pass out. EX looked down at his bandages, to see the gray potion seeping into his injuries.

“Goddammit no nono-”

Quickly digging through his inventory, EX pulled out the regen potions that Grian had given him. Etho looked too worn out to hold the bottle, but a bit of that energy was restored when EX poured the pink drink into his mouth. Etho’s other injuries were also healing, his broken arm and twisted ankle now partially healed.

Facing back to the hound, he crouched, tying him tightly to a cabinet. EX could care less that Ren was giving him the most bitter look he had ever seen.

———

He had spawned into a room full of chairs and tables made out of spruce wood.

Where was he?

He felt something buzz in his hand, and he lifted up his new communicator. There were messages from the people on the server, but his eyes couldn’t focus on the letters.

Why couldn’t he read it? Why was everything so blurry?

As the shock and adrenaline faded away, he was suddenly very aware of a sharp pain in his stomach. Looking down, Martyn found an arrow, the point of it sticking out through his bloodied shirt.

Yeah, one arrow would hurt like hell, but why did this one hurt 10 times worse? Attempting to focus his eyes, the shade of dark green on the arrowhead caught his eye. Poison. Martyn violently coughed up blood, making him bend over. That only resulted in more pain from the movement of the arrow.

Perhaps it was how much energy he had used, or the drowsiness of the poison that started to kick in. He just needed to lie down for a minute, he was so tired…

…

———

InTheLittleWood joined the server

Martyn was here! He didn’t say anything about visiting, but this was a nice surprise.

Now where did he last log out… oh yeah.

Walking through Tumbletown, Jimmy headed up the stairs of the saloon.

“Martynnn-!”

All his previous excitement disappeared within a second. The canary’s eyes widened at the sight of one of his best friends, bloodied and beaten up, lying on the floor.

“MARTYN!”

Jimmy rushed towards the other, crouching next to him. He dug through his inventory to find any bandages or potions, but no luck.

Lifting his wrist, Jimmy sent out rushed messages to the server.

<SolidarityGaming> help

<SolidarityGaming> tumbletown quick

<SolidarityGaming> martyn’s hurt bad

A few messages from other Empires members went through before Jimmy went pale.

InTheLittleWood was shot by Rendog

Chapter Text

His wings hurt like hell, but at least he lost them. Or well, lost sight of them.

Grian was in a forest, surrounded by giant snowy mountains. He would take in the beautiful terrain if he wasn’t currently being hunted down. He was a sitting duck, they would find him eventually. Grian couldn’t just fly over the mountains either, unless he was asking to be spotted.

Grian looked around, steadily turning his head to avoid moving the branches of the tree he was perched on. A small smile creeped onto his face as his gaze landed on a small cave opening nearby. Throwing one of the two remaining invis potions, he jumped down, silently landing on the dark green grass below. Staying still for a moment, Grian made his way over to the entrance of the cave.  Peeking into the cavern entryway, he let out a small groan.

Dear Xelqua. It hadn’t been lit up, and it was infested with mobs.

Grian creeped along the sides of the cave, dodging and weaving through the dripstone and pebbles in his path. A silent sigh of relief was let out as he reached the other end of the cave. Now he just had to dig out.

He was halfway done mining the second block when Grian felt his body go cold. All the blood drained from his face as something brushed against his wing. A furry eight-legged something.

Switching out his pickaxe, Grian brought his sword down on the spider, impaling it right in the abdomen. Enough force was used that the shining blue weapon would probably be able to stand up if he ever let go, tip of the sword now wedged into the ground. He was aware that it was probably an overreaction, but if there was any mob Grian hated, it was spiders. He hated them just as much as he hated rabbits, which was saying something.

While half of his mind was still on the critter, the other half felt eyes watching him. Tearing his gaze away from the arachnid’s corpse, Grian looked up to see the horde of mobs charging at him. They must have noticed the movement of the sword and the fallen creature.

Swiftly grabbing his sword and switching it back out for a pickaxe, Grian turned around and hastily mined out a space in the wall. Hurrying forward, he blocked off the space between him and the mobs. He moved quickly enough, just in time to block an arrow that would’ve shot him in the head.

A breath of relief wasn’t released until sunlight landed on his skin. Finally exiting the hole he dug, Grian stretched like he had just woken up from a very long nap. An internal groan followed not too long after at the realization that he had to fly back to Xisuma’s base. He needed to see if EX and Etho were okay.

Adjusting his stance, Grian took off, hopefully for the last time so he could finally let his wings rest.

———

InTheLittleWood was poisoned

InTheLittleWood was poisoned

InTheLittleWood was poisoned

What the hell?

Scott rushed to spawn, where he met a very distressed Jimmy and an ill Martyn. “Poison isn’t supposed to kill people, why is he dying?!” Jimmy said, trying to hold himself together and clearly failing.

Pulling out a bucket of milk he had brought with him, Scott kneeled next to Martyn and watched as the poison effects slowly faded away. Letting out a sigh of relief, he stood back up and turned to Jimmy, who had calmed down a bit.

“Do you know what happened?”

“No.. he just logged in and there was an arrow in his stomach and he kept on dying-”

“Deep breaths, Jimmy, he’s okay now. Do you still have the arrow?”

“Uhm, yeah I’ll go get it” Jimmy said, nodding his head shakily before flying away.

Dying wasn’t a big deal, because this wasn’t a hardcore world. But that didn’t make it pleasant, especially a death loop.

Not too long later, Jimmy returned, arrow in hand, and Scott had laid Martyn down on a quickly made bed. Scott took the arrow as he opened his communicator to look through its code. Poison shouldn’t be able to kill, was this even poison?

“Ren would never hurt him..” The blonde muttered under his breath.

“Maybe it was an accident, or a prank gone wrong?”

“No, I mean he would never hurt him. No matter what. He would even back out of a prank if the target was Martyn” Jimmy said, shaking his head in confusion. Why would that change?

“What the hell?” Scott whispered, confusion running over his body.

“What? What is it?”

“The poison’s code is mixed with the wither effect. It’s also glitched out, and I can’t read most of it.”

That’s impossible. Wither potions were only available to bedrock players. Players who live in completely separate areas, thousands of worlds away. You couldn’t even bring bedrock items anywhere near a java world, even if it existed in both versions. That’s what was killing him? Scott glanced back at Martyn, who had stopped dying but still looked pretty pale. He shifted his gaze to Jimmy, who sat on the ground beside the other. He sighed before sitting down on a grayish chair that was across the room from the two.

Of course this had to happen when fWhip was away, leaving him to deal with this. At least Martyn was safe for now.

———

Everything was so bright, and his head was throbbing. Martyn tried to sit up, but his arms felt like jelly. What happened?

He had died, he should be infected. Forcing his arms to work, he sat up. A part of him regretted moving, because now the headache was accompanied by a sudden hot pain in his stomach.

“H..y, ..ey. Y..u’r.. sti..l ..urt, Ma..tyn, la.. ..own,” was all he heard as hands guided his shoulders back down to the couch. Great. Respawn hadn’t fixed his hearing.

Wait. Hands. Somebody was here, and he was infected. Grian had mentioned how the infected players still had control before they lost it.

Eyes suddenly wide open, Martyn scrambled back, ignoring the pain burning in his body.

“Stay back!”

The other’s hands rose in surrender, and Martyn could tell they were confused. His vision was still hazy, and he couldn’t see if the other was talking or not. Focusing his eyes, he was able to make out the players' outfit. A sky blue sweater, with matching blue hair.

“Scott?”

“..arty..? Ar.. ..ou ok..y?”

He rubbed his eyes, trying to see if it really was him. His vision cleared, revealing both Scott and Jimmy in front of him. They weren’t supposed to be here. They couldn’t be here, it wasn’t safe.

“Why am I not dead?” Martyn muttered, as he looked up at the two. “You shouldn’t be here, how are you here?”

“What do you mean?” Jimmy asked, giving him a strange look.

“I mean it’s not safe here. You two aren’t even whitelisted, how are you here?”

Jimmy and Scott exchanged a short glance, expressions both filled with confusion and worry.

“You’re on Empires, Martyn” Jimmy said, turning back to him.

Empires. Ohh. Memories slowly started re-entering his mind, and he remembered everything. The banging on the doors, Grian holding the door shut while he and EX tried to leave, then logging out of Hermitcraft. Did EX make it?

Wait, the hermits. He needed to get help.

“I came from Hermitcraft. There’s something wrong with the respawn system, and I came to get help.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Whenever somebody dies, their code gets taken over by some virus”

“So like an apocalypse sort of situation?”

“Yeah, I guess you could call it that.”

“So you need help getting rid of it? I could gather a few Empires members who are on right now and try to convince them to join” Scott said, pulling out his communicator to scroll through the player list. “Joel and Lizzie are the only others online right now.”

“They’ll probably tag along, they have friends on the server” Jimmy chimed in.

Martyn was grateful that they were so willing to help, but a part of him felt bad for what he was about to get them involved in.

“Wait but you guys aren’t whitelisted, and I’m pretty sure Xisuma would’ve completely closed the server after I left. How would you get in?”

Now that might be a problem.

“I could try to hack in, but that could take hours, maybe even days,” Scott said, giving Martyn a conflicted look. They didn’t have that kind of time.

“I mean it’s worth a shot” Martyn replied as Jimmy shot him a look of realization.

“Can I speak to you outside?” Jimmy muttered, tilting his head towards the entrance door.

Martyn nodded in response, following the other outside of the building, leaving Scott to deal with the firewall.

Jimmy waited for Martyn to close the door behind him before speaking. “Do you think we could help him with the code? Y’know, cause were..”

“But then we would have to actually tell him, and I’m pretty sure only Watchers have the ability to mess with any sort of code. Sorry Tim”

Jimmy sighed and turned away from him. Martyn assumed the canary wasn’t saying anything and looked away, taking in his surroundings. It was so peaceful here compared to what he had just escaped from. His attention only returned when he felt a tap on his shoulder, and he realized Jimmy had said something.

“Martyn? You okay?”

“Ah yeah I’m fine. My ears just got a bit damaged,” Martyn replied with a small chuckle, trying to play it off while Jimmy returned a horrified look.

“You know Listener ears can be permanently damaged, right?”

“Of course I know that” Martyn snapped. Jimmy took a step back, and Martyn sighed. “Sorry. It’ll heal eventually, it’s fine” he said, gaze and attention shifting back towards the terrain around him.

That’s when it caught his eye.

“Jimmy? What is that purple crack in the mountain?” Martyn asked, pointing in the direction of said crevice.

Jimmy raised his head to look where he was pointing. “Oh yeah, that’s been there a while. We think it’s a portal of some kind, and threw a couple notes into it. Nothing happened though,” he said, shrugging. “Why?”

Martyn thought back to the charity event, trying to remember something Grian had said. The avian had mentioned how some big purple glowing thing had appeared in his basement, and how he called it “the rift.” Could that lead to Hermitcraft?

“There’s a portal on Hermitcraft that looks similar to the one here. Maybe we could use that to gain access to the server,” Martyn said, voice slowly filling up with curiosity and hope.

“Are you sure? It might be dangerous and could lead to something else..” Jimmy replied, suspicious. Although Martyn couldn’t quite hear the other’s tone, he could spot the clear nervousness displayed on his friend’s face.

“It might be better than waiting for Scott to try and figure out how to hack in. Besides, if it’s not Hermitcraft and you die, you’ll just respawn here”

Jimmy hesitated before eventually giving in. Pulling out his communicator, he sent a message out to Lizzie and Joel, who were already on their way, and went inside to retrieve Scott.

It only took a few minutes for the three of them to meet up with the other two near the portal. While the four Empires members gathered their stuff, Martyn’s eyes were glued on the swirling portal before him. If Scott’s code worked correctly, the things in their inventory should transfer to the server with them. Sighing, Martyn turned to the group, who looked like they were waiting on him.

“When we join, Xisuma will lock us in the server, and there will be no turning back. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

Scott gave him a small smile. “We’ll be fine. I’ve already informed fWhip and the others of what we’re doing. If anything happens, I’m sure he’ll be able to pull our code out of there.”

Martyn hesitated before returning the smile. He trusted them, and he couldn’t come back to Hermitcraft without help.

Taking a deep breath, Martyn led the five of them into the portal.

Chapter Text

It took a few minutes for the five of them to recover from the nausea of the rift, but it had worked! Martyn looked up, the face of Grumbot staring right back. He would never say this while Grian was around, but he had always found Grumbot a bit unsettling.

Looking into his inventory, he was pleased to find that the things from the Empires server were still there, meaning Scott’s command had worked. Turning around, Martyn watched as Scott came out of the rift, followed not too far behind by Jimmy, Joel and Lizzie. He waited a moment for them to recover from the quick queasiness before instructing them on what to do next.

“I don’t actually know where Xisuma’s base is from here, so I think we should try going through the nether.”

“Isn’t the nether like, really dangerous?” Lizzie asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Yeah, but it might be the fastest option we have right now.”

“Should we use the invis potions?”

“Maybe use them later, just so we can see each other.”

The five of them took the rockets out of their inventories, taking off one by one as they followed not too far behind Martyn.

———

InTheLittleWood joined the server

Smajor1995 joined the server

SolidarityGaming joined the server

Smallishbeans joined the server

LDShadowLady joined the server

A small smile had made its way onto his face, covered by his mask. Xisuma hadn’t closed the chat for his communicator yet, and EX was pleased to see that Martyn had kept his promise.

Somebody else, however, was not pleased with this at all. They were glad they came back with more people to kill, but something in them hated that fact.

Why are you back here?

…

You were FREE!!…

———

The first thing the five of them felt as they entered the portal was the blasting heat of the nether. What made the situation worse was how Grian’s portal was separated from the others and not in the main hub, making this all way more difficult. However, in the distance, Martyn could see the hub hallway for Decked Out, clearly marked with blackstone and ice.

It was a silent walk, none of them saying a word. The only noise that reached Martyn’s ears were the muffled sounds of lava and piglins not too far away. It kinda sucked, not being able to hear nearly as much as he used to, but there was nothing he could do except wait for them to heal.

They would heal, right?

Lost in his thoughts, the five of them reached the icy hallway before they knew it. None of them made a sound as they walked through the frozen hall, shivering due to the sudden temperature change.

Reaching the end of the hallway, Martyn looked ahead to find three pathways.

“Uhm.. I’m pretty sure it’s this way?” Martyn said as he pointed left, uncertain. It had been a while since he had been in Hermitcraft’s nether hub.

“Yeah.. I think you’re right,” Jimmy faintly said back, as if he had seen something. Looking down the hallway to his left, Martyn’s eyes widened at what Jimmy was looking at, and his breath was taken away. He didn’t remember this last time he was here.

Down the hallway, a beautiful, giant blue tree laid in the center of a floating platform. The room was pitch black with shroomlights, soul lanterns and nether stars lighting up the area. Surrounding the tree were intricate buildings made of stone bricks and crimson wood. Floating wooden platforms with paintings also accompanied the structures.

This might’ve felt like a dream if Martyn hadn’t remembered why they were there in the first place.

The five of them glided to the other side of the room, Martyn and Lizzie’s eyes still partially glued on the warped leaves of the tree. Their focus only shifted back to their mission when Jimmy’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing in on the path they had just walked down.

“Sh!” The five of them froze.

“Somebody’s here..” Jimmy warned, looking around for any movement outside of the group.

Undetected to Martyn, distant fireworks could be heard being fired from behind them. Jimmy however, picked the noise up. The fireworks were distant, but they were quickly getting closer and closer. Before any of them could react, a woosh was heard above them and a figure landed mere feet away from Martyn.

And a crossbow was aimed directly at his head.

Martyn’s arms flew to cover his face, expecting to be shot, but felt nothing. Peeking through his fingers, he saw Mumbo. His knuckles were white with a tight grip around the weapon, but he didn’t move.

“Mumbo?”

The crossbow dropped, sending a loud clatter echoing through the halls. Gripping the sides of his head tightly, Mumbo fell to his knees.

“N̸̞̲̼̙̖͙͖̪̼̋̊̃͌̋̈́͗̏̕̚͜͜͜͝͠͠O̸̺͉̺͖͍̪̗͓̩̺͝͝!!” Mumbo screamed, clutching his head harder.

It was loud enough for Martyn to almost hear the other clearly. He stood there, confused and terrified as all the others. What the hell was happening?

“W̷̢̪͓̘̺̮̰̬̟̱̑͑h̴̦̪̻͇̩̻̺̘̞̅̑̿̌̍̔͋̃̍̋͝y̸̝̖̎̽̎͆͌̀͠ w̴̡̛̖͗o̸͉͑ų̷̨͎̩̥̮̻̠̞͉̤̬͓̮͂̍ͅl̵̨͓̹̻̮͚̩̗͈̓͌̄̽͗́͊̾̿͘͜͝ḓ̵̡̨̧͇̣͕̖̗̟̫̞̃͒͘ y̷̨̰̪͈̲̞̬̯̭̲̹̓͂͆̚͜ou come back here?!” Mumbo yelled again, black inky tears leaking from his eyes. As the others stood behind him, Martyn was the only one who noticed that the black in Mumbo’s eyes was starting to fade away, showing his normal red and black pupils.

“RUŃ̶̨̛̻̯̬̥̞̻͌̈́̈̂͌̈́̚͘̚͝͝!” was the last thing he got out before the darkness took over his eyes once more.

A frown covered Mumbo’s face, giving the group a dark expression. If looks could kill, they would all be dead. Without warning Mumbo lunged towards the crossbow, but before he reached it, Martyn kicked the weapon farther away.

“Go!” He yelled, running past the suited man. 

Heavy footsteps followed him as they turned the corner, heading into a hallway labeled “Xisuma’s base.” The loading of an arrow was heard, landing on the ground inches away from Lizzie’s leg.

As they turned right, Martyn could see the swirling purple of the portal at the end of the hallway. Just a little further..

He was out of breath, but they did it! “Get in, get in!” he said as the other four ran into the overworld portal. Fumbling with his inventory, Martyn frantically pulled out a bundle of TNT, along with a flint and steel. He lit the explosive as he stepped through the portal, Mumbo just seconds away from reaching him.

The last thing Martyn saw as he stepped through was the fire burning the last of the TNT string and Mumbo running in his direction.

———

“What happened?” Jimmy asked, worried. In his defense, Martyn had taken his sweet time coming through the portal, and they thought Mumbo had got him.

Martyn, who was still trying to keep his balance, held one of his hands on his head. “I blew up the portal behind us. Mumbo’s stuck in there.”

A sigh of relief was heard from both Jimmy and Scott. “Soo.. where are we?”

“We’re in Xisuma’s base. They should still be here..” Martyn stated, taking in the room around him. Scorched cabinets and items were scattered all over the floor, courtesy of Tango’s blast from not too long ago. There was a trail of blood, starting from where they had laid Etho down to down another hall.

“I think they should be this way..?” Martyn said, not at all confident in where he was going. They didn’t really have anytime to take in their surroundings when they were being chased by nearly ten people. As the trail of blood ended, the five of them stood in front of a set of double doors. Martyn took a deep breath as he pushed one of them open. God, he hoped it was Grian in there.

———

No words were exchanged ever since Grian made it back. Strange looks however, were. Ren had been glaring at the other three for hours, mainly Grian and EX. Etho had been resting the entire time, the regen potions draining all his remaining energy. His injuries had healed by now, but a giant scar remained on his forehead due to healing without any proper treatment besides a consumed potion. Grian and EX had exchanged a few words about Ren in the beginning, but nothing was said ever since.

Well, until they heard footsteps coming from the door beside them.

Grian, having heard the noise first, shot up onto his feet with a loaded crossbow pointed towards the door. They couldn’t leave Etho and Ren here, so they might as well try to fight back. EX stood next to him, also acknowledging the pattering footsteps down the hall. Grian spread out his wings, puffing out his feathers to make him look bigger. His heart rate picked up as the door slowly opened, but it stopped rising when he saw who it was.

“Martyn!” he breathed in a sigh of relief, rushing forward to embrace the other. Grian wasn’t normally one for hugs, but that wasn’t important right now. “Oh my god you’re alive..” he muttered.

“Hey G” Martyn chuckled, returning the hug. Once the two finally broke away from each other, Grian peeked around him, eyes widening and heart dropping at who stood in front of him.

Jimmy, Joel, Scott and Lizzie. They had all come to help. The happiness was quickly overrun by the guilt that washed through him. He was forever thankful that they were willing to come, but Grian couldn’t bear the thought of losing another friend to something he had dragged them into.

“Grian? You okay there?” Scott said, putting a hand on his shoulder. Ah, he had zoned out again. He needed to stop doing that. It was a risky thing to do here, to lose focus and not pay attention to what was around you.

“Yeah, I’m good.” Grian replied, waving to the others and giving a small smile as Lizzie cheerfully returned the gesture. “Thank you for coming, you really didn’t need to,” he continued, tilting his head a bit.

“They kinda did..” EX muttered under his breath. No one except Grian and Jimmy had heard him, and the shorter avian’s eyes narrowed in on the admin’s brother.

“We wanted to help. It’s no problem, really.”

Grian gave the emperors another glance. They now had two Listeners and one Watcher, and maybe..?

“I know this is a bit of a long shot, but do you still have admin access Scott? I noticed you brought a few things from Empires..” Grian asked while eyeing the multicolored elytra that rested comfortably on Scott’s back.

“I was able to give myself admin controls, but they are quite limited. The server’s firewall is very difficult to break through.”

So maybe this could work. But he couldn’t do it with all these people watching.

“Can I speak to you.. in private?” he hesitated as he took a glimpse back at EX, who raised an eyebrow at him, and Etho, who was still sound asleep on the wooden floor.

“Sure?” Scott agreed, narrowing his eyes in suspicion as Grian made his way over to Ren, untying him.

The moment Ren wasn’t tied to the cabinet anymore was the moment he tried to make a run for it, but Grian was quicker. “Not so fast there,” Grian said as he tied the wolf’s hands back once again. Leading Scott and dragging Ren into the other room, Grian sighed.

“You have admin access on this server, so I was thinking maybe you could try to dissect the glitch from his code?” Grian whispered to the other, trying to keep the idea quiet from Ren and the others in the room. He knew Jimmy could hear him, but Jimmy already knew what he was about to say so there wasn't any point in trying to hide it from him anyway.

“I’m not so sure about that. I don’t have access to anybody’s code, and even if I did, admins don’t have the power to mess with it.” Scott frowned with uncertainty.

“I.. I can help you. But you can’t tell anyone. Promise?”

…

“I promise.”

Grian let out another sigh, but this time out of fear. Surely Scott wouldn’t hate him for this, right?

As Grian crouched down next to Ren, he could feel the warmth of the magic starting to swirl around his left hand. Ren’s eyes widened, and Grian heard a faint gasp from behind him. Ignoring it, he lifted his arm that was now glowing a bright purple and reached towards Ren. Ren tried to move away, but the restraints on him prevented him from doing so. Grian put a hand on Ren’s shoulder and turned back to look at Scott, who was understandably horrified.

“Please trust me on this,” he said as he put out his other hand for Scott to take.

Scott hesitated. Grian was a Watcher. All the admins had been warned about them and how dangerous they could be. Grian was a Watcher, and Scott had let him onto the MCC server more than twenty times.

But he had also known Grian for years, dating back to before the start of MCC. If he wanted to do something, he probably would’ve done it by now. Scott hesitated, but eventually took Grian’s hand. He watched as Grian closed his eyes, then opened them to reveal glowing purple pupils. Exhaustion hit Ren like a truck, and his eyelids quickly shut. A wave of power traveled through Scott’s arm, catching him off guard. He looked at Grian in confusion as the man put both of his arms down.

“What was that?”

“I gave you access to Ren’s code.”

“Watchers can change player code themselves right? Why not do it yourself?”

“I don’t have admin access anymore, so I can’t while on a private server like Hermitcraft. Given that you have a limited amount of things you can do here, I’m guessing granting someone admin isn’t one of them. The magics also a bit difficult to control cause I don’t really use it that often.”

Scott hummed in acceptance. Really thinking about it, he didn’t mind that Grian was a Watcher, but he did wonder what Grian meant by not having admin abilities anymore . Shrugging it off, Scott opened his communicator. His questions weren’t important right now.

Scott typed through his comm, pulling up Ren’s code. Sure enough, it was filled with the same virus he had seen on the arrow that killed Martyn. As he deleted and sifted through it, Scott noticed how Ren shifted in his sleep, a bit uncomfortable.

If he was doing this right, this should work.

———

The bright lights in the room he was in blinded him, despite it not actually being that bright. It dimmed once his eyes adjusted, but a bold headache was now the only thing he could focus on.

…

Silence.

Everything was so.. quiet.

The voice was gone.

Ren looked up, and the sight of Grian and Scott greeted him. How was Scott here?

“Ren, you good buddy? Scott removed the virus from your system, so you should be back to normal now” Grian said to him with a quiet tone.

No, that couldn’t be right. Ren stared forward, noticing that his hands were tied behind his back when Grian moved to undo the knots. Shifting his position slightly, relief and happiness overwhelmed him. He could control his own body.

Ren’s eyesight went blurry, and he felt something drop on his legs. “It’s so quiet,” he whispered.

“The voice is gone, you’re alright now” Grian whispered back as he moved back in front of the wolf.

Ren’s arms dropped to his side, eyes wide as he lifted them in front of him, moving his fingers one by one. Oh my god, he could move . He could control himself.. it had been so long..

His eyesight blurred more as he heard Scott say something, not quite catching the other’s words. As Ren continued moving his hands around, two other players entered the room: Jimmy and Martyn.

Oh my god.

Martyn.

He had hurt him. He didn’t mean to, not again. It was an accident! He couldn’t control it! He-

“Ren? It’s okay, I know it was an accident,” Martyn said soothingly. Had he said that out loud? Not hearing him say anything further, Ren noticed how Martyn was now crouched in front of him. When did he get there?

“I never would have- I couldn’t do anything I could only watch I-” he was tripping over his own words now, unable to get a clear sentence out without stumbling. As the other embraced him, Ren couldn’t do anything but tightly hug him back. Martyn’s shirt was getting soaked, but he didn’t care and let Ren stay where he was.

His voice was rough as he whispered repeated apologies into Martyn’s shoulder.

“It’s alright, you’re okay now”

Chapter Text

Two years.

He had been under that horrid thing’s control for TWO YEARS.

For two years, Ren had watched himself kill his friends off, one by one.

Xisuma’s brother, EX. Ren was there, and he had helped Doc shatter the other’s wrist and communicator.

Bdubs. Ren had split him and Etho up. He was the one who had stabbed Bdubs, killing him.

Doc. That stupid thing knew Doc would never hurt him, even if it was in self-defense. It knew everything about him.

Tango, Cub, Beef, the list was too much for him.

Ren was also the one who had first detected people flying around, leading them to Xisuma’s base. He was the one who shot Martyn in the stomach. Ren had overheard Scott telling Grian how Martyn had died to it on the Empires server and got stuck in a death loop.

The anger was starting to bubble back up in his chest, and Ren grabbed the sides of his head, crying out in frustration. His ripped jeans were starting to get soaked again, Ren’s face buried in his knees.

For two years, he had watched himself hurt everyone around him, and there was nothing he could do.

———

Grian never closed the window he had previously used to escape, so the first thing Etho felt when he woke up was a cool breeze on his face. He looked up, only to find that he was alone with the red man he had hid with earlier. Xisuma’s brother EX, Etho recalled.

He grunted as he sat up, catching EX’s attention. EX stared at him for a minute, and looked back to the cabinet he was rummaging through after concluding that Etho was fine.

“Etho?” said somebody from behind him.

Startled, Etho jumped to his feet as he quickly pulled his sword out, holding it to the throat of the other.

The man looked at him, hands raised and face full of shock with a hint of confusion. Another girl with pink hair stood behind him, equally surprised. The man had brown hair with a streak of darkish green, and wore an outfit that kind of reminded Etho of Shrek.

“Who..?” Etho examined him with wide eyes.

“It’s me, Joel,” he said. As the girl waved back, a sense of recognition ran through Etho’s mind, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint where he remembered them from.

“How did you get onto the server?” Etho questioned, sword still not budging from Joel’s throat.

“Martyn found a portal that let us on”

Right. Martyn had made it out. Were these the people he brought back?

“Do you..” Joel started, slowing down when Etho’s head snapped back up towards him. “Do you remember me?”

Flashes of memories went through Etho’s mind. A giant ship on the top of a hill. A building that looked like a giant wooden cake being set on fire. The smell of the smoke and burns of the lava that had killed him. All of those memories connected to Joel, but he couldn’t figure out how. Etho ran his fingers through his hair, which still contained bits of dry blood and the stained color of dark red. As his hand met his forehead, Etho felt a dry patch of skin that didn’t quite feel normal. Running his fingers over it, he remembered the feeling of thick blood running down his face.

Ah.

“I got hit in the head pretty hard not too long ago,” lifting some of his hair to show Joel and the other girl. That explained the jumbled and lack of memories.

Joel sighed. “Well, Scott is talking to Jimmy Martyn and Grian in the other room, so why don’t I try and help you remember?” He offered, awkwardly chuckling.

Etho nodded, looking into the eyes of the other as he lowered his sword. He seemed trustworthy.

———

“Soo.. you’re Joel, and that’s Lizzie” Etho mumbled, gesturing towards the pink haired girl beside him. “We were partners in the third set of life games where our health was linked?”

“Yeah that’s basically it.”

“And Lizzie was in the second game right? Teamed up with.. BigB and Cleo.”

“Well, BigB” Lizzie hesitated, tone dropping as she looked at the ground.

So that’s where those memories had come from. When he was partnered with Joel.

…

What about Small Etho?

The ship burns, EVERYTHING burns!

Etho get back through!

…

Yeah, he would remember eventually.

As more and more memories came back to him, Etho examined the room again. EX, Joel, Lizzie, him.. somebody was missing. Two people, actually. Grian and..

“Ren” Etho whispered, body suddenly cold.

“Hm?”

“Where’s.. Ren” Etho strained to get out.

“Oh, Grian and Scott took him to a different room. He was aggressive when we first arrived, but I think they fixed it. Ren should be back to normal now, you can talk to him.”

Joel’s words were going through one ear and out the other, and Etho wasn’t able to concentrate. He would’ve been able to keep himself together if it were any other situation, but the images of Ren that had burned into his brain were overwhelming. Ren’s pitch black eyes and long claws that both dripped a black goo. The way he was now twice as strong as he used to be. The wild and sadistic smile Ren wore when he had split Etho and Bdubs up not too long ago and at the Perimeter.

Logically, Etho knew Ren didn’t mean any of it, that it was out of his control. Physically however, his body was rooted to the ground he sat on, frozen in his spot. He should go talk to him. It was unreasonable for Etho to be scared of his own friend. Then why couldn’t he move?

“You okay Etho?” Joel asked, carefully resting a hand on his shoulder.

“Mm..” Etho mumbled as he tried to nod in response, his head failing to obey his mind.

“You don’t have to go see him if you don’t want to, I mean it was just a-”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll go talk to him,” Etho whispered as he shakily stood up.

“Are you sure? You don’t look like you are,” Joel frowned.

“I’m fine. I’ll be right back,” Etho said. He quickly shuffled out of the room to avoid questions, but he did catch one last uncertain glance EX gave him before leaving his view.

Deep. Breaths. He’s normal now. Deep, breaths.

As Etho walked out of the room. He was greeted by the sight of Grian, Scott, Martyn and Jimmy all huddling and whispering to each other. Grian looked up and grinned as he saw Etho make his way over.

“Hey Etho. Your head okay?”

“Aside from a bit of fuzzy memories, it’s fine. It did leave a scar though” Etho said, rubbing the mark with his fingers.

Deep breaths.

“Do you know where Ren is?”

“Ren’s in the other room, but he hasn’t spoken to anyone since we got him back,” Grian said as he pointed to another pair of doors. As Etho made his way over, he couldn’t help but think about how Grian’s smile had faltered a bit at his question.

Still cold with sweat, Etho put a hand on the door and pushed.

Deep breaths.

———

The door creaked open and Ren jumped back. He had been sitting in silence for so long, and the sudden noise had startled him. Looking up, he saw Etho standing at the doorway. The lack of a mask had confused Ren for a second, and he wouldn’t have recognized Etho without his signature white fox ears and tail. Well, it was kind of white. The dried blood still left a dark red stain in his hair.

“Hi” Etho whispered.

“Hey” Ren responded, equally as quiet.

Etho stood still for a minute before finally closing the door behind him. Ren noticed how Etho hesitated to take a step forward, struggling to do so when he finally did. Etho sat down next to Ren but kept his distance, around two blocks away. The unwanted memories of when he was infected were swarming Ren’s mind, refusing to leave him alone. How terrified Etho looked, when he had split him and Bdubs up and at the Perimeter.

“I’m sorry,” Ren blurted out.

“Wha-”

“I’m sorry,” Ren choked out again. “I didn’t mean to kill Bdubs when I found you two in the forest, and- and Beef in the Perimeter-“

“Ren” 

“He was trying to run away but I-“

“Ren.”

“I don’t know what I was doing I tried to control it-“

“REN!”

Ren’s rambling was cut off by Etho’s loud interruption, both of them suddenly going quiet again.

“Look I know that wasn’t you. I’ve seen what this thing does, how it slowly takes over your mind until you can’t do anything but watch.”

Etho took a breath. “It wasn’t your fault.” Breathe out.

…

“Thanks.”

Etho stared at his lap, fidgeting with his fingers. It was still difficult for him to talk to Ren, his voice still sounding a bit strained when he did so. But he had done it.

Maybe this was a step forward.

“Hey, sorry if I’m interrupting anything,” Lizzie said as she peaked her head through the door.  “But I think they have a plan.”

Chapter Text

“Okay, so who here knows how to handle player code?”

The silence in the room was deafening, causing Grian to sigh.

“So since Scott and I are the only ones who know how, they’re gonna stay behind while we try and capture the hermits who are infected.”

“Who’s we?” EX asked, leaning against the wall.

“Jimmy, Joel, Lizzie and I,” Martyn answered.

“Wait, why not me or EX?” Etho spoke up.

“You two are still recovering. EX’s wrist is still fragile and you were nearly killed.” Out of the corner of Etho’s eye, he could see Ren wince at Martyn’s statement.

“Yeah but it’s only my wrist. I’m fine now, I can help” EX said as he narrowed his eyes. The silence that followed his statement clearly displayed everyone’s surprise. EX wanted to fight?

EX sighed. “Look I don’t like you guys, or players in general. But the faster we get this over with, the faster everything goes back to normal.” EX stopped talking before the part about missing his brother came out.

Martyn hesitated. Was it really a good idea to put EX out there? He did make a good point, but he was still hurt. “If you hurt your wrist again, permanent damage could be done even with a regen potion.”

“I know that.” EX’s stubbornness pierced through his reasoning and Martyn gave in.

“You can be on support.” EX nodded, satisfied.

While the fighters would try and capture the other hermits, support would keep them alive. Joel, Lizzie and Martyn were going to fight, while EX and Jimmy were on support. The support would also have to be invisible the entire time so they wouldn’t get hurt. On purpose, at least.

“We should set up some stasis chambers beforehand. If you need to be pulled out, Scott and I could bring you back.”

“How would we warn you though? Aren’t the chats still closed?”

“Um- I.. I can see if you’re low on health through your code.” Grian quietly muttered reassurances to himself, EX growing suspicious. Grian wasn’t wrong, you can see how much health somebody has left if you have access. It was the way he said it that had thrown EX off. Like it was an excuse, covering for something else he was unaware of.

“We’ll go to the starter village first since it’s the closest, then the shopping district.” Scott cut in. Etho watched as he threw a nervous glance to Grian, but only for a second.

“Weakness potions are also very important. They will exhaust whoever you’re fighting, even more so if they also have a slowness but we couldn’t find any ingredients for that.”

As the others listened to Martyn’s instructions, Ren couldn’t help but stand quietly in the corner, not asking any questions. He wanted to help, he really did. But what if he did something wrong? What if somebody died because of him, again? What if the voice came back?

“What about that guy over there? Is he going to fight? He looked pretty strong when he was infected” EX asked as he pointed to Ren, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“Ren’s going to stay he-”

“I can fight.” Ren said. His input came out a bit louder than he expected, catching himself and the others off guard.

“Ren, you're still recovering. We can’t send you out there.”

“I’m volunteering myself. I want to help.” Ren sighed as Martyn looked at him in concern. “I’ve watched myself hurt everyone else for two years. There has to be some way I can help to undo what I’ve done.”

“You didn’t start this.”

“I killed nearly 10 out of the 26 people on this server, including you. Don’t tell me this wasn’t my fault.” Ren looked back down at the floor. “I want to help.”

Martyn quieted down. He could continue to comfort Ren, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t do any good.

“You can support," Martyn said after hesitating. "If they really need it, you can help fight. Physically, I think you are the strongest out of all of us, but I-.. we can’t lose you right after getting you back.”

“That’s fine.”

———

Grian hated how much this virus made him use his Eyes. After joining Hermitcraft, he wasn’t in a single situation where he had to use them. That is, until after the charity.

He had seen the look on Martyn’s face when they met again, when Grian had saved him from Pearl. Martyn had noticed the purple tint starting to reappear on Grian’s wings from the overuse of his magic.

While the others were getting ready to head out, Grian found a room for himself. Hopefully nobody would enter. Taking a deep breath, Grian closed his normal eyes and opened the others. He looked around the mountain, getting dizzier as he moved farther away from the ground. He was only using two Eyes at the moment, which would be easy for him to control.

Grian focused on different areas as he scanned the shopping district for any infected hermits. This was the first time he used it to actually find someone, rather than checking if the area was safe or not.

…

Maybe he should keep another Eye on Xisuma’s base, just to make sure they were safe while he was scanning the area. Grian thought, opening a third Eye. This was still manageable.

As more and more time passed by, Grian’s anxiety grew by the second. This wasn’t good, he wasn’t finding anybody and he would lose control eventually. He needed to search faster. 

Grian strained as he opened a fourth Eye, which soon grew to five, then ten. He had Eyes all over the starter village, but not a single person was in sight. The risk of losing control combined with the overwhelming amount of power that was now surging through his veins was starting to take a toll on him, and Grian clenched his fists. He had to find someone.

The others were preparing to risk their lives, he couldn’t be this useless.

…

THERE!

In the storage room of Scar’s tree was Stress, going through the remainder of his supplies. As soon as one of Grian’s Eyes had spotted her, the other nine of them began to intensely zoom in on Stress, examining her exact location inside of the tree’s trunk. Grian couldn’t be sure that she would be there when they arrived, but it was worth a shot.

One by one, Grian began to close his Eyes. Before he could close the last one, Stress raised her head and looked directly at him, catching Grian off guard. How in the world did she spot him? Nobody was supposed to be able to see Watcher Eyes. It was like looking at a person as a spectator!

Grian closed the last Eye and opened his human ones back up to find Scott in front of him. How long had he been there?

“Uh, they’re ready to go. Did you find anyone?”

“Yeah, Stress is in Scar’s treehouse,” Grian grunted as he got up, mind still on how Stress could’ve possibly spotted him.

As Grian left the room to meet up with the others, Scott took another glance at the spot he had seen the man. It was strange, watching his friend he had known for years, sitting on the floor surrounded by so many floating purple Eyes. Shaking the unease off, Scott closed the door and followed Grian. He would just have to get used to it.

———

Stress stared at the oak log wall. She could’ve sworn she felt something watching her, but when she looked to where she had felt the gaze, there were nothing but logs. If somebody was invisible, she would have noticed the particles.

Stress went back to rummaging through the chests. Should she go somewhere else?

…

No, it’d probably be fine.

———

Nothing but the ground below and a bunch of invisible particles could be seen as the seven of them glided through the server. Grian had tagged along since there was no one’s code he could help with yet, while Scott stayed behind with Etho. Grian was also the only one who knew where Stress was, but he couldn’t say that without having to give an explanation on how he knew that. He would just slightly guide them in that direction instead.

After a couple of minutes and safety fireworks, Scar’s treehouse came into sight.

“Down here,” Grian said, diving down a bit towards the entrance of the trunk. “We should check here first,” he suggested, hoping that nobody would ask him why.

As the seven of them made their way up the wooden steps, they cringed as a loud creak emerged from each step they took. Taking the next step forward, Joel gave a satisfied look to Grian when the step made no noise. The following one was also silent, and the one after, all the way to the top.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Jimmy let out a silent sigh of relief. Usually he would’ve glowed a slight green when adjusting the volume of something like the stair steps, but the invisibility potion had covered it up.

They entered Scar’s first storage room, with Grian and Joel leading the group. Frowning, Grian lifted his left hand toward the wall, only touching it with his fingertips. He should’ve known Stress would move spots. Closing one of his eyes, he opened up a different Eye on the palm of the hand that was barely touching the wall. Being able to control where the Eyes popped up around him was nice, but with over half of the group being invisible, it was hard for Grian to tell where they were. The glowing purple that was starting to emit from his hand didn’t help either.

As Grian scanned the area for any sign of Stress, Martyn gave Grian a small frown that the other had ignored. Martyn was pretty sure that the rest of the group had gone into the room next door, but he wasn’t 100% sure that everybody invisible had left them alone.

Opening a barrel, Martyn rummaged through it for a bit before feeling a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Grian wearing a cautious look.

Stress is on the top of the tree. Under the leaves, but above the branches. Grian mouthed. Martyn’s hearing had started to come back, but it was only a bit. It was progress though. He nodded in response, watching as Grian left to get the others.

“He’s lucky it was me and not anybody else who stayed in the room,” Martyn heard from behind him. He whipped his head around, letting out a silent scream of terror before trying to recognize the voice. Martyn heard a faint sigh, followed by Jimmy stating his name. Ah. That made more sense. As Martyn tried to recollect his thoughts, Jimmy continued speaking.

“Anybody else would’ve seen Grian using his Eyes, even if he tried to hide it just now. Tell him to be more careful,” Jimmy said before walking out, leaving Martyn alone. He wasn’t wrong, Martyn had noticed how Grian was overusing his powers more than he was used to. Shaking it off, he left the room to meet up with the others. He would speak to Grian about it later.

———

Stress had noticed a ladder that led to the top of the branches, where Scar had hidden some extra supplies. Perhaps it was the sound of her own searching that had muffled the people sneaking around downstairs. When she finally finished looking through the shulker box, Stress turned around to see four people, Grian, Martyn, and two others she didn’t recognize. Examining them closer, she noticed potion particles coming from behind them. Great, there were more people she couldn’t see.

Pulling out a sword, Stress took a step back deeper into the chest monster behind her. As much as she didn’t want to show it, she was nervous. Stress wasn’t much of a pvp girl. While the virus made her ten times more aggressive, the fighting skills remained the same.

Scanning through her inventory, Stress looked for anything that could help her. What caught her eye wasn’t a potion of poison, but rather a potion of fire resistance, accompanied by a flint and steel right next to it. She grinned, equipping both. The fire would signal to the others that there was somebody here, then they could help her! Or Grian and the rest of them could die in the fire. Which was unlikely, but a hopeful outcome on her side.

Sword in one hand, she moved the flint and steel behind her back in an attempt to hide it. The attempt clearly failed, as she had watched Grian’s eyes widen as he called out the arson tool she was holding. Scowling, Stress set the logs in front of her on fire as she drank the fire res potion. She didn’t have enough time to search the other chests, which bummed her out but wasn’t her most pressing concern right now.

Grian shot up, wings flapping harder to put out the small fire that Stress had started. The tree leaves weren’t giving Grian much room to fly, so he lowered himself to a different, higher up but thinner branch than before. His wings looked like they were still in rough shape, but he was able to use them thanks to the regen potions. The wince Grian gave told Stress otherwise, like his wings were usable but it hurt him doing so. Stress smiled, he wouldn’t be using them to put out other fires anytime soon.

Footsteps were heard from beside her, causing Stress to turn and lunge. Strangely, she landed on nothing, or at least nothing she could see . When Stress’s body was brought back down to the floor, her hands and knee hovered above the ground while her eyes detected invisibility particles. Her suspicions were confirmed when Stress heard a pained grunt come from underneath her.

Pulling out the flint and steel, Stress lit up the ground behind her, creating a wall of fire that stood between her and everyone else. Stress heard a yelp from the girl with pink hair, the flames spreading dangerously close to her feet. Her distraction was somewhat working, the fire distracting three out of the four offenders, along with another who Stress couldn’t see. There were three invisible people Stress had detected, but only two seemed to be doing anything.

Stress turned back to the person she was pinning down, smiling before putting her sword to where their throat was supposed to be. Although before she could do any damage, a sharp pain shot through her hand that held the sword, dropping it to the ground. She screeched, losing her grip on the person as they slipped away. Stress grabbed her wrist, showing her the source of the pain: an arrowhead going straight through the back of her hand.

Stress whipped her head around, trying to find who had shot her. While Martyn and the other three unknown people had been containing the fire, Grian was still perched up on the branch, a crossbow in his right hand.

Stress scowled at him before turning back to her side. Her eyes quickly scanned the area in front of her, searching for potion particles but finding none. She spun back around to face the others, the sight of waterlogged branches and chests greeting her in an attempt to control the fire. The fire had spread quickly, but the damage control was working. Stress clenched her jaw in response, unsatisfied.

Stress brought the flint and steel back to her hand, ready to light more logs on fire before something very colorful had exploded in front of her. She screamed, the gunpowder from the fireworks burning her arms and face. Stress clawed at whatever was in front of her, only managing to swipe at air.

The last thing Stress saw were the final embers of the fire she had set being put out.

———

As he and EX put out the last of the fire, Martyn turned back towards Stress to find her unconscious on the logs. Behind her stood Lizzie, axe in her hand.

“Uhm.. I was supposed to do that right?” Lizzie asked, concern noticeable in her voice as she put away the axe.

“Did you kill her?”

“No, I-I don’t think so? I just hit her in the head with the back of the axe, but I shot a firework at her beforehand. I’m not sure how much health she was on.”

Grian flew down from the branch he was still perched on and walked up to Stress. Kneeling next to her, he put two fingers on her neck to feel for a heartbeat.

“She’s still alive,” Grian stated after a moment of silence. As Grian got up, Lizzie let out a sigh in relief.

“Let’s take her back to Scott,” Martyn said, lifting Stress into his arms. They had to leave as soon as possible. The fire burnt a giant hole in the leaves above and logs below them, exposing the group to other infected that might have noticed the commotion. Joel threw an invisibility potion down, and the sight of any other living being disappeared from Martyn’s view.

One down, it was progress. Hopefully the others wouldn’t be this difficult. Martyn thought as he set off a firework, shooting him up into the sky.

Chapter Text

Not only was it difficult, it was ten times harder.

Tango, who had been cautious about his teammates and fire before, was letting loose now that they were in the open. Grian would’ve been able to handle him if he weren’t trying to hide his godlike powers, and well, if he was here. He had stayed behind with Scott and Etho to fix Stress’s code, leaving Martyn, Jimmy and the others to bring more hermits back.

“DUCK!” Joel yelled as Martyn rolled over to his right, barely missing another fireball that was thrown.

Martyn landed in a crouch, quickly loading and firing an arrow at the blaze. Of course, he had miscalculated where it would land and missed Tango by a mile below his feet. Tango let out a spotted laugh before shooting another fireball in his direction.

Unfortunately for them, Tango had inherited a blaze’s power to both shoot fire and fly, lifting the man at least 20 blocks into the air above them. Elytras were hard to control for mid-air combat, and none of them had wings, except for one but Martyn wasn’t quite sure of their current position.

“Martyn!” Someone whispered to Martyn. Ah, there he was.

“I can fly up to Tango and hit him that way, but they would notice that someone had done something,” Jimmy said, loud enough for Martyn to hear but quiet enough so the others couldn’t.

“I can Whisper to Grian so he can create an illusion. Just wait for me to say when.”

Despite Martyn not being able to see him, Jimmy nodded in response and backed away. As Martyn muttered his message to Grian, somebody watched him from afar, one eye on Tango and the other on Martyn.

What is he doing? EX thought to himself, suspicious. It wasn’t like he hadn’t noticed how weird Martyn was acting, along with a few others. First him, Jimmy, Grian, then Scott too. EX narrowed his eyes on the man before shifting his attention back to Joel, who was nearly set on fire by Tango. EX threw a splash potion of fire res on him, and watched as a smirk grew on the other’s face.

“Thanks!” Joel shouted, firing another arrow at Tango that missed by a hair.

EX had bigger things to worry about right now. He’d ask later when, y’know, they weren’t fighting for their lives.

———

Grian and Scott were skimming through Stress’s code one last time. Etho had left the room when he had given Scott access to her code, and had been watching them while they worked. The room was mostly silent until Grian heard a quiet voice in his ear.

Grian.

Grian looked up from his communicator. Was that Martyn?

You should be able to hear me.

Grian had forgotten about Martyn’s Listener abilities. One being Whisper, a way to directly communicate to somebody without a comm. Grian couldn’t respond, so he waited for Martyn’s next message.

We’re fighting Tango near Scarland. Can you create an illusion to cover for Jimmy?

Grian slightly grimaced, his reaction not detected by the Scott of Etho. Illusions were not easy in the slightest, the ability actually being the hardest out of all. Martyn knew this.

But if he had asked, this must’ve been their last resort.

“Hey Scott, can you finish this up? I have to.. check on something.” Grian said, giving the man a serious look. Hopefully, Scott would pick up that he needed to do something Watcher related.

Scott wore a confused expression before realization took over. “Sure, it’s almost done anyway.”

“Thanks,” Grian said, exiting the room.

Grian quickly walked to the end of the hallway, finding a quiet room for himself. Opening one Eye, he scanned the terrain around Scarland to find the area that Martyn had described. It only took a minute, the sight of a giant flaming circle being pretty obvious and easy to spot.

Grian held a hand out, taking a deep breath as his hand started to glow a blinding purple. He pointed his finger forward, beginning to write a message that burned into the air in front of him. Only Martyn should be able to see this..

Fire an arrow at Tango from behind. When it hits, tell him to attack.

Grian let out a breath he had been holding in. Even that tiny message was hard to write. But on the bright side, Grian watched as Martyn gave a tiny nod in response, indicating that he had seen the message.

Now all he had to do was time this correctly.

———

Martyn made his way behind Tango, the blaze’s attention being focused on Joel and Lizzie. Martyn muttered a few words, stalling as he loaded his bow. Opening his mouth the slightest bit, he said something.

Jimmy, get behind Tango. When the arrow is about to hit, attack.

Jimmy sent back what sounded like an okay, but Transmission was muffled due to Martyn’s still damaged hearing. Aiming the bow, Martyn held his breath. Pulling this little stunt was already plenty risky. It had to work, or else Jimmy’s secret would be revealed to all of them.

GO! Jimmy sent back, and Martyn released the arrow.

To everybody watching the scene unfold, the arrow had hit Tango straight in the back, sending him hurtling towards the ground below.

In reality, the arrow had gone right above the blaze’s head.

Jimmy was the one who had flown up to Tango and struck him in the back, knocking the redstoner out.

Grian was the one who had made the group see otherwise.

Martyn sighed before letting out a quiet chuckle in relief. It worked! Tango was out, and Jimmy’s Listener identity would be safe. He ran towards Tango, giving him regen before the injuries drained him of his health.

“Nice shot Martyn!” Lizzie cheered, followed by an approving grin from Joel. The illusion had worked, and Martyn Whispered one last message of thanks to Grian before picking Tango up.

———

Grian sighed in relief as he closed his Eye, the purple in his hands beginning to dim. Turning back towards the door, the avian jumped about a foot in the air, Scott’s presence nearly giving him a heart attack. How had he not noticed that Scott wasn’t there?

“What was that? That didn’t happen the last time you used your Eyes.”

“It was just a little something to help with the fight. We should get ready, they’re coming back with Tango now.”

Scott hummed in agreement, not exactly forgetting what he had seen. Grian had written a message, instructions for someone to go behind Tango. Scott shrugged it off. It was most likely a message for Jimmy or Martyn, considering how they were the only ones who had already known of Grian’s Watcher status. And from the looks of it, whatever plan they made had worked.

———

Martyn should’ve been the only one to see the message. Grian’s lack of experience and control had resulted in the message not being entirely private between him and the Listener. The already suspicious EX observed the message appearing in front of his very eyes, not being able to interact with it when he attempted to. He also watched as Martyn followed said instructions, being the only one to do so. Fire an arrow at Tango from behind , and EX stood back as Martyn loaded an arrow as Tango’s back was turned.

When it hits, tell him to attack . Who was “him?” Who else knew about this?

The arrow had hit Tango straight in the back, but EX had a feeling that he wasn’t exactly seeing things correctly. Especially when he seemed to be the only one who noticed that Tango had no arrow wound when Martyn picked him up.

What the hell was he hiding from them?