Chapter Text
X sent every hermit, bar Grian, a private message telling them to meet him in the basement of his house urgently, hoping that none of them were with Grian for him to get suspicious of multiple people being asked to meet at once. Though, once all the Hermits found out about him, it didn’t matter anyway.
That was a strange thing to think about, what it would be like once he told everyone about Grian. Would they believe him? X doubted the Hermits would think he would lie about something as serious as that, but what would they think of him keeping it a secret from them for this time? Grian had so many close friends with the Hermits too, so would they stand by his side, even when they found out the truth?
“Are you ready for this?” Evil X asked him, a rare moment of sincerity from his brother.
“Not at all, but I don’t think I ever will be. But if this is what I have to do to help the Hermits and stop the game we’re in then so be it.”
One by one, the hermits gathered in his basement. Some were confused, rightfully so. Some were concerned, again, rightfully so. It wasn’t until everyone had arrived that X began the meeting, choosing not to acknowledge Grian’s absence until he told the hermits the truth. Evil X had hidden himself before everyone got there, just so that Xisuma had time to tell them everything about the situation, including his temporary truce with his brother.
Xisuma cleared his throat, attempting to start the meeting but unsure of how he was even going to begin to tell the hermits the truth about the games they were in. “Um, hello everyone. I appreciate you all meeting me here on such short notice and under strange conditions. Before I begin what I wanted to say, I wanted to ask you all how Tango is faring?”
Impulse and Zedaph had taken up the roles of keeping an eye on Tango in his bloodthirsty state from the aftermath of the curse, keeping him isolated from the other Hermits, but attempting to bring him back to his former self. It was rare that one of them was not by his side, but this meeting was an EXception. “He’s still not himself, to put it plainly.” Impulse began, “We don’t know how to help him so that he’s no longer so violent, but we don’t even know where to start. It’s like as soon as you reach your last life, you become like a hostile mob, with no thoughts other than bloodshed.” Probably a fair amount of chaos in there too , X thought to himself.
“We’re not giving up on him though. And it means we now know what happens to us in this game in the later stages, if we ever get him to become less violent I can try to do some tests to see what it is that’s causing those thoughts.” Zedaph spoke, clearly trying to find some light in the situation.
“X, why are we here?” Pearl asked him, causing more hermits to ask similar questions.
“And why isn’t Grian here?” Scar questioned.
“You see, uh, I’ve recently stumbled upon, shall we say, some useful information regarding how we got to these games and how they began, and if you all just listen to me and keep an open mind about what I’m going to tell you, I think we have a way to stop them. Or at least, I hope we’ve found a way. I mean, it’s our best option no matter what, even if it fails and-”
“Your ‘friend’ Grian is who caused this, ok?” Evil X appeared out of the shadows, cutting off Xisuma’s rambling.
Some of the Hermits immediately looked at the brothers in shock. Some of them looked up in disbelief. Some looked betrayed, lost, angry even.
It wasn’t as if the Hermits thought Xisuma was lying. They were hardly acknowledging Evil Xisuma’s appearance after he abandoned them when the moon crashed. But X knew this information would crush them. Grian had been such an integral part of their community for years, and the prospect of him causing those death games seemed impossible.
“What do you mean he caused it? Like he got into some trouble and made some mistakes and the games are his fault but not really?” Iskall was the first to speak up.
“Grian isn’t who we thought he was. He’s a cosmic entity known as a Watcher, and Watchers gain power when their domains are strong in the world. Grian was supposed to watch over Chaos and Bloodshed, the domains of EX and my parents. The Watchers recruited Grian because they saw more potential in him than EX-”
“Way to put it nicely there brother.”
Xisuma shot a warning glare at EX, silencing him for the time being. “As I was saying, Grian’s powers as a Watcher get stronger the more chaos and bloodshed there is in the world. Watchers are supposed to never interfere with our realm, only getting as close to us as the End, but Grian decided he would take matters into his own hands. He used Hermitcraft as a tool to devise these games we suspect, beginning with Demise all that time ago and then pulling small groups of people into games similar to the one we are in right now, all with the life mechanic. He’s using us for power, and we don’t know what he or the Watchers want with the power. But we can stop this, if we just-”
“Hold on X,” Gem began, “I know you think Grian did this intentionally, but what if it was a misunderstanding? What if he’s being controlled by the Watchers and used?”
“Yeah, trust me, he did this all himself. EXplained it to me when he brought me here. I thought I’d escaped too, after you all had the moon disaster, but he found me and brought me into the games too. Face it, he doesn’t care about any of you and you were all just tools for him to practise his big evil master plan on. Now he has everyone in the world at his disposal, dying and killing each other in a game that he designed. The Watchers are pricks, yes, but this is all him.”
“How do we stop it?” Doc asked.
“What? You believe us? Just like that?” Xisuma was baffled. The hermits were his family, yes, but they were also Grian’s.
“We know you want the best for us Xisuma, and if you accuse something as serious as that of a Hermit, we know it couldn’t be a lie.” Cleo spoke up, other hermits agreeing.
“Grian’s power thrives on chaos and bloodshed, and he designed this game to cause that. But what if we don’t play the game? What if we live in peace? What if we spread this to all the other alliances, getting them to comply? Even if only we stopped playing, surely his power wouldn’t grow as much?”
“If X and the rest of you can convince everybody to live in harmony, I can try to reconcile with the Watchers and get them on our side. If we can get a Watcher far more powerful than Grian, then Grian can be stripped of his domains, making him a regular player and unable to continue the games.”
It was by no means a perfect plan, but it was a plan nonetheless. As X and EX talked the Hermits through everything they knew, they all began devising a strategy to get the other alliances on side, ideally without Grian’s knowledge. The curse was the biggest issue, but they could resist it. And they could resist the last life bloodlust.
But as the Hermits (and honorary Hermit) planned, one member at the table sat silent. He’d been frozen in shock since Evil X told the meeting about Grian’s true colours. He said nothing, and made eye contact with nobody. He didn’t appear sad, nor angry, nor anything really. His emerald eyes remained emotionless as his scarred hands pulled out his communicator under the desk to nobody else’s knowledge. He remained in a state of shock as he sent a message he should never have written.
<GoodTimeWithScar whispered to Grian: There’s something I have to tell you >