Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

– “Hmmm…”

• “What are you thinking about?”

The giant monstrous looking creature looked in the direction the voice came from, it was its comrade.

– “Nothing much”, it said while it turned back around looking down on a small green world through a portal. The other creature walked next to it and looked at the portal with its comrade, “Ah, the Evolutionists huh?”

The creature nodded and sighed, “It’s getting boring, don’t you think?”

• “Yes indeed. Should we ‘gift’ them their next update?”

– “This update contained the Ender Dragon and Wither, right?”

• “Yes, why did you ask?”

– “Lets ‘gift’ them their next update but with a twist.”

• “Could you explain what you mean?”

– “We shall ‘gift’ them the next update, but we shall also gift ourselves.”

The creature looked back at the portal again, this time focusing on one player.

• “Ah, you want to take one of them for yourself huh?”

– “Myself? You know very well we’re going to use it for OUR entertainment, right?”

The creatures looked at each other and one of them chuckled before it said: “Right, right. I’m such a fool, aren’t I? When are we going to give them their clues?”

- “I was thinking we will get everything ready for our little guest first and give the Evolutionists their clues by next week.”

• “Sounds good to me.”

- After the dragon fight -

Grian was laying on a hard floor. He sat up only to be surprised by the enormous room he was sitting in. He looked around him confused. Why was he not in the overworld? He got disturbed by two enormous creepy looking creatures walking in the room he was in. One of the creatures, the tallest one, had half broken wings. Its body was mostly covered with a big cloak, just like the other creature. They were also wearing a big dress like clothing underneath the cloak. The only difference between their clothing were the colors. The taller creature had light blue features on its clothing while the other one had lime. The other creature who was slightly smaller than its comrade had completely broken wings. It had razor sharp claws and you could see its razor sharp teeth whenever it smiled. It also had long black horns. They both had a mask covering their face not being able to see what expression they’re showing. The Evolution symbol was marked into the mask.

“A- Are you… the Watchers?”, Grian asked, frightened looking at the two monstrous looking creatures standing over him now.

– “Indeed we are, Xelqua.”

Grian looked confused at the taller creature. “Did it just call me Xelqua? How does it know that name?!”

• “If you are wondering how we know about that name, we know more than you’d think, darling..”

“Why that name though?”

• “Well, if we ever end up meeting other Watchers or players, they should not know you by your player name.”

“But I want to be ca-“

– “No buts, Xelqua. We’ve already decided we’re going to call you Xelqua and you will not change our minds.”

Grian stared at the creatures standing in front of him. “Xelqua…?” , he thought. “I haven’t heard of that name in so long now. It feels… so weird to be called Xelqua again after all these years…” He looked at the Watchers again. Are all the Watchers as big as they are? They are probably around 10 feet tall!

“What do I call you?”, Grian asked.

The creatures looked at each other for a solid minute before the more demon-like looking Watcher started talking: “We do not have names in the Down Side Up. We simply go by Number One and Number Two, which is me. I am Number Two.”

“Can I atleast call you by nicknames? Calling you numbers seems a bit weird to me.”

The creature nodded. Grian looked at The Watchers closely. He noticed the half broken wings of the taller creature. Some feathers were loose and seemed like they’d just fall off if someone or something shook it. The other one didn’t have wings. It looked more like a demon because of its long tail and horns.

“Feather and Tails”, Grian finally said after examining the creatures.

The two Watchers looked at each other.

“Your nicknames, Feather… and Tails!”, he said pointing to the right creature for its nickname.

– “Feather… Such a majestic nickname, isn’t it Tails?”

Tails nodded still looking at its tail. It looked back up at Feather.

• “He called us by our features, pretty clever isn’t it?”

Feather hummed in agreement. The creature walked closer to Grian, kneeling down and holding its hand in front of him. Grian looked confused at Feather.

– “Get on”, the creature simply said, moving its hand in a sign of letting Grian know to climb on it. Grian, still confused, got on its hand and Feather stood back up.

– “You shall watch over the server for now, until I come back”, it said to Tails before leaving the big room.

Grian, now sitting on Feather’s hand, was looking around. He was so high up! It felt like he was on some sort of attraction high up in the air. They were walking through a corridor. It was decorated by the pillars on the walls which were all covered with beautiful flowers. Everything was enormous compared to him. The doors, the plants, the windows… Grian looked outside one of the windows. “So this is the Down Side Up? It looks just like the server, but a lot darker and creepy looking. Taurtis must’ve been scared as hell when he woke up here.” Feather stopped in front of a door lowering its hand down to the floor. Grian climbed off its hand and looked at Feather.

– “Go on, open the door.”

Grian looked at the door and noticed a small control panel next to the enormous door. “Did they plan this all out? Taking me with them after the Ender Dragon fight?”

– “Put your hand on it. It’ll scan your hand and open the door.”

Grian hesitated a little before putting his hand on the control panel. It started scanning his hand just like Feather said it would and a couple seconds later a click sound came from the door. It was slightly open. Grian walked closer to the door and started pushing it revealing a room. A bedroom to be exact. It didn’t look like it was one of the Watchers' bedrooms, everything was too small for them. It was clearly his room. He looked around his new room. It was quite plain, all it got was a big wardrobe with a mirror on it, a bed with some bedside tables next to it, a desk with of course a chair, a bookshelf with a dresser next to it and a big carpet on the floor. They were all withe furniture decorated with purple and golden colors.

– “What do you think of your room?”, Feather asked.

“It’s… okay I guess…”

– “Okay?”

“It’s just… plain. You know.”

– “I’m sure you’ll get used to it, Xelqua. Don’t listen to that ‘builder’ in you. Anyways, your Watcher uniform is on your bed. Wear it and come find me at the courtyard. There’s a map in one of the bedside tables.”

And Feather left his room. Silence occured. It’s too silent for Grian. He started to get a bit anxious. He’d normally hear the wind blow, leaves going against each other. But now? Nothing but silence, even if it looked very windy, looking through the window…

Chapter Text

Grian was sitting on his bed looking outside the window. It’s quiet in his room. It had never been so quiet in a space he was at. Normally he’d hear the water go against the rocks or the leaves rustle against each other around him. The boy knew for a fact that he did not like it. In fact, he hates it. He was sure he absolutely hated it. Grian shook his head a little trying to take his mind off of the silence and climbed off of the bed, his bed . It was a master bed covered with a big soft blanket and pillows. Even those had the same color theme going on as the whole room had. Grian looked at the folded clothing he put on the bedside table with a mask next to it. Heunfolded the clothing to take a closer look at them. A purple sweater, black sweatpants, long white boots covered with purple and golden features, a cloak that goes up to his elbows decorated with only some gold features and a scarf also decorated with purple and gold. “So this is my ‘Watcher uniform’?” , he thought. “I thought my color would’ve been red. I mean, I have a red jumper on quite literally. Man, am I gonna miss this jumper.”

Grian looked at himself in the mirror. It took him a solid minute to finally give in of the idea that the uniform did look quite good on him. As he was looking at himself, he saw the mask on the bedside cabinet through the mirror. He walked back towards the cabinet and looked at the mask. It had a very weird shape; it looked like sunglasses, but it also covered the side of your face and it is made with some material that you could not see through from the outside. It had the EVO symbol carved into it, the symbol the Watchers have been using to make sure that it was the Watchers whenever giving the Evolutionists clues. Grian took the mask and immediately let it go after he felt a weird wave go through his body as soon as he took the mask. “I’m convinced that isn’t a normal mask!” , he thought looking back at the mask. It had a weird feeling to it. An eerie feeling. As if it contained something in it that will come free whenever he puts the mask on and takes over control of his body. “Focus, Grian. You have to take that map and go to the courtyard. Just… ignore that mask”, he said to himself trying to ignore that eerie feeling. He took a deep breath and  took the mask again together with the map Feather was talking about earlier out of the drawer of the bedside cabinet and left his room following the map towards the courtyard.

Grian walked into the courtyard amazed by all the sculptures and flowers it was covered with. Everywhere he looked, there was some sort of statue representing a Watcher of some sort hanging on overly overgrown pillars. There was a lot of greenery around the courtyard covered with beautiful flowers he had never seen before. There was a beautiful fountain in the middle of the courtyard with some benches around it. 

“Um… Hi…?”, Grian said, spotting Feather on one of the benches. Feather stood up after he heard Grian say hello and walked towards him, “Xelqua, you’ve finally arrived”, Feather said, looking closely at Grian, “Your mask? Why didn’t you put it on, Xelqua?”

“I- I didn’t feel like it…”, Grian stuttered.

– “Don’t act so foolish. The mask is an important piece to us Watchers. Without it we can simply not consider you as a Watcher. We don’t want that now, do we?”

Grian looked at Feather, and then to the mask he was holding in his hand, still feeling that eerie feeling. The creature kneeled down and took the mask out of his hand. Grian took a few steps away from Feather out of reflex.

– “This mask contains the magic you need to become a Watcher, Sunshine. Without it, you will never be able to become a Watcher.”

“What if I don’t want to be a Watcher?”

Feather started laughing as if Grian just told it a joke.

– “Oh? You’re not joking? Well, you don’t have a choice, darling. You are the one we have chosen ”, Feather said slowly putting the mask on Grian’s face. The boy immediately fell on the floor as he felt a sudden shock go through his body. It felt like he was getting stabbed 100 times over and over again, but throughout his whole body. Feather stood back up and picked up the boy who was going through a lot of pain. 

– “Don’t worry, Xelqua. The pain will be over soon! After that, you’ll officially become one. Of. Us. ” 

Grian felt shivers go through his whole body. “One of us? Why’d it say that in such a creepy voice?!” 

– “Now, how about we take you back to your room, huh?”, Feather said slowly, walking towards Grian’s room. Grian, still going through a lot of pain, started getting dizzy and finally fell unconscious.

Grian opened his eyes trying to remember what happened and where he was. He had a huge headache and for some reason his back hurt a lot. Grian sat up holding his head with one of his hands. “The mask…?” , Grian thought as he touched it. “What did Feather say about the mask again??? Something about magic…?” Then it hit him. It must’ve been too much magic that entered his body at once becoming too much for his body to handle and then lost consciousness! Grian looked around the room. Did Feather bring me to my room?” , he thought as he tried standing up, immediately losing his balance and held onto the bedside table. “What the? Why is my balance so… unbalanced?” The confused boy tried looking at the mirror hanging on his wardrobe. Are those feathers he’s seeing? “Wait a minute… Don’t tell me!” Grian let go of the table and tried to find his balance before going to the mirror. Wings! He had grown wings! But how? And it isn’t just 1 pair! He had a pair of wings as big as him, a smaller pair below them and also a pair of wings behind his ears, which are now… Elf ears?? “Woah” , Grian thought. “Are these real wings!? My own real wings! This is so cool! Though… WHY DO I HAVE ELF EARS!?” Grian touched his ears. “Yep. I could very much feel myself touch my ears. People are going to bully me about these now!” Grian looked through his room again looking at the empty bookshelf. “There must be a library somewhere around here. I could probably find the library on the map.” Grian sat on his bed again, feeling his headache getting worse again. He started playing with the feathers of his wings, they’re very soft. 

“I bet Pearl would just want me hugging her with these for hours straight knowing how much she loves soft stuff”, Grian said, letting go a small laugh afterwards. 

“I miss them, I miss my friends… Even the property police.” 

Grian looked down at his feet. He started to feel anxious again. “Alright! Time to explore!”

Walking through enormous corridors, Grian was looking at how much decoration everything was covered with. He was amazed by all the work these Watchers put into building this place. There were small statues of Watchers on each pillar there was and every pillar was made like those from the middle ages. There were plants so big, they seemed like trees compared to Grian. Grian stopped walking and looked back on his map. He then looked at the door in front of him. 

“Right, this must be the library!” 

The boy noticed the door was left a bit open because of a book stopping it. He started pushing against the door to reveal bookshelves full of books, books that were too big for him to even lift up. He looked around the library, noticing the smaller size of bookshelves. Those must be for him. He walked up to the bookshelves and started looking through the books. He took books about magic and flying as he wanted to know how to do both of those.

Number One walked into the Watching room, the room Grian was first in before he was brought to his room. Number Two looked at Number One.

• “What are we going to do with him now? When do we do it ?”

– “We can not do it yet, it’s too early for that.”

• “Then when are we going to do it !? This server is getting boring the longer we wait.”

– “You shall be patient. We need to earn his trust one hundred percent before we do anything. We need to be able to toy with him easily and that will not happen if we do it now!”

Number Two flinched back, not being used to Number One’s intimidating voice. It had been a while since it spoke like that to it.

– “We need to find his weak spot and use that, manipulate him to believe we are the ‘good guys’ and that everything we do is for the better”, Feather continued with a calmer voice.

• “And how are we going to do that?”

– “Simple, we need to somehow traumatize him without US being the reason for it.”

• “Trauma huh?”

– “Yes indeed my dear comrade. I‘ve been keeping a close eye on him and I might know how we’re going to get hum traumatized.”

• “I’m listening.”

- “Throughout the days he was here, he started getting more and more anxious about how quiet this place is. I suggest we leave him alone for a week or two.”

• “We can’t just leave all of a sudden, and don’t we have to stay here to protect our land?”

– “We are telling him we’re leaving, while in reality, we never leave.”

• “So we’re basically going to avoid him?”

Number One nodded in agreement.

“Wh- What!? You’re leaving me all alone in this ginormous palace!?”

– “We simply do not have a choice, Xelqua. We have been called to go to an important meeting and have to deal with a lot of stuff.”

“What about my food, and this whole palace!?”

• “Don’t worry about that. We have servants that will take care of this palace and will make sure you get your food.”

–  “Number Two, we have to go. We can’t afford to waste more time.”

“Wait-!”

Grian tried going after the Watchers, but got stopped by a very small creature pulling his cloak. It was wearing a butler suit. Still pulling Grian’s cloak, it pointed back to the palace. Grian looked back in the direction the Watchers went to and signed. He followed the servant, at least he thought it was one of the servants the Watchers were talking about, back inside the palace.

Chapter Text

A month has passed and there still was no sign of the Watchers. Grian was sitting on his bed looking outside in the hope the Watchers would return anytime soon. He has been lonely for far too long and the servants never paid any attention to him at all. 

And to top it off, he’s been very wary of his surroundings lately and started panicking a lot. Every sudden sound would come as a shock to him and he gets disoriented a lot if he doesn’t take the map with him, which causes him to panic every time. The palace is just way too big and he does not want to get lost in this place at all.

Grian started learning how to use his ‘magic’ in an attempt to keep his mind off of the silence around him. He has no one he could go to and ask for help, so it wasn’t really working as well. All he learned was how to make fire, but it always goes off a second later.

“I give up. This magic thing is going nowhere! It’s no use trying to learn magic if you don’t even know anything about it. Why even am I here if no one is here to help me with my magic? Aren’t Watchers supposed to be able to use their magic!? UGH!”

Grian threw the book across his room with full force and took off his mask. He looked at the mask as he felt a large amount of magic leave his body again.

“What was that for?” 

Grian jumped off his chair startled by the voice he heard and threw the mask at it in a reflex. He looked at the way the voice came from and saw a figure standing there. It looked like it had the same silhouette as his, but it’s glowing a purple-ish color and all of its wings are black.

“Wh– Who are you!?”

It simply shrugged its shoulders before it started walking closer to Grian. The frightened Watcher tried backing away from it, but the wall behind him stopped him from going any further. The figure kneeled down and held the Watcher’s shoulders before it said: “Who are you?”

“Wh– What? I- I’m Grian!”

“Grian? Wasn’t your name Xelqua?”

“I- My name…? It’s… No! It isn’t Xelqua. It’s just a name the Watchers use to hide my real name!”

The figure didn’t say anything. They stayed quiet for a while, every minute becoming more stressful than the other. The figure tightened its grip on Grian’s shoulders before it asked: “Who are you truely?”.

“Hey! Stop that!”, the boy said, pushing the figure away from him. It fell on it’s back and let out a little chuckle. 

“Go away! Leave me alone!”, Grian said out of anger, regretting what he said straight after he said it.

“If you say so”, it said.

“Wait! I wasn’t serious!”

But it was too late. The figure, who was laughing on the floor a second ago, was already gone leaving Grian all alone again. 

“C- Come back! Please! Don’t leave me alone! W- We can talk it out, right!?”

Tears started forming in his eyes. Never has he been stressing over the silence as much as he does now. Not having talked to anyone but himself for a month now and finally having talked to someone else really hit him hard.

“No, no, no, no, no, no”, he said over and over again. 

– “Xelqua? Is everything alright?”

It was Feather! He wasn’t alone anymore! Grian jumped up and hugged Feather tightly. He was so relieved.

– “Are you crying?”

“... No…”

- “Xelqua…”, it said, kneeling down to be on the same height as Grian. The sobbing boy avoided eye contact with it. The Watcher held his cheek softly and moved his head so it could look better at the sobbing boy, “Look at me, Xelqua. We’re sorry we left you alone here for a month. And where is your mask, darling?” Grian kept quiet as he still was looking away from the Watcher. 

– “Don’t look away from me, Xelqua. We’re here now, see? You’re not on your own anymore”, the creature said, standing back up and started walking towards Grian’s mask lying next to the book, “If you want to, we can teach you how to use your magic and wings.”

Grian looked up at Feather, who was now holding the book and his mask. Grian slowly nodded as he wiped off his tears and walked towards the large creature. He took the mask Feather was holding out to him and put it back on, 

– “Now then, I’ll talk to Number Two about this and we’ll come back to you as soon as we have a plan figured out for your lessons.”

And it left the room, leaving the boy, who now has 3 pairs of wings again, alone in his room. Grian felt his room becoming smaller and smaller again and started to get anxious again.

“I- I need some fresh air, haha…”, he said hastily leaving his room. As he closed the door to his room, he saw a figure from the corner of his eyes. It’s the figure with his silhouette! It started flying away from him as soon as Grian spotted it. He immediately started following the figure.

“W- Wait!”, Grian huffed while running trying to catch up to it.

“I- I’m sorry! Please stop running away! We can talk it out, right?!??”

The figure, completely ignoring Grian’s callouts, still flew away from him. 

After a while of running, it finally stopped in front of a door. It was the library. Grian finally caught up and huffed as he was tired of running, then looked at the door and back to the figure confused.

“The library? Why’d you bring me here out of all places?”, he said, still tired.

“Don’t act like you didn’t see that giant spell book on the lecture when you were last here.”

“What? Are you telling me I should look into it!?”

It nodded.

“Are you crazy out of your mind!?! That’s from the Watchers! I can’t just go in there and take a look at it!”

“But they’ll never know if you do it in secret!”, it said, way too optimistic as if it’s something completely normal to do. 

“No, I refuse! I won’t look through it, I don’t even know anything about magic yet! All I can do is this”, Grian said, lighting up a fire in his hand, which goes away after a second.

“Lame.”

"Tss, I'm going back to my room."

– “Didn’t expect you to be here out of all places.”

• “So, how is he doing? Can we execute it ?”

– ”Yes, yes we can, but not now. He’s traumatized enough to go to us and just do anything we tell him to, but we still have to teach him how to use his magic and wings.”

• “Is that really necessary though?”

– “Yes it is, Number Two. He has to be able to open a Watching Portal and cast spells and such. Every Watcher should know that.”

• “And why the flying.”

- “You’ll know soon enough. We just have to figure out how to teach him magic and flying.”

• “I’ll teach him everything about magic, you’ll do the flying part.”

– “Sounds good to me. I’ll go tell Xelqua.”

Feather walked towards Grian’s room, only to stop in front of the door because it heard Grian talking to someone. “Who is he talking to?” , it thought. Feather slowly opened the door.

“Why are you still here?”

“...”

“I don’t care, I’m having mixed feelings towards you. And to top it off, you have MY silhouette! ”

“...”

“Rude!”

Feather closed the door it slightly opened to listen to Grian talking. “He’s talking to himself? It did sound like he was having a conversation with someone… Did he somehow bring someone in?” Feather continued listening through the door slightly opening it again..

“Stop avoiding my question! Why are you here? Just to annoy me!?”

“...”

A loud bang is heard out of Grian’s room. Feather immediately fully opened the door and went inside only to see Grian angrily staring at the wall.

– “Xelqua, what is all this racket about?”

“N- Nothing!”, Grian said nervously. “Please don’t tell me it was listening to our whole conversation” , Grian thought starting to get sweaty and anxious. 

– “Who were you talking to?”

“Of course it heard us! When will luck stand on my side.” Grian looked at Feather and then back to the wall, where the figure was just standing a moment before. “And it of course had to leave, huh?”

“I- Uh… I was… mmm… Talking to myself! Haha .” 

– “Ahuh, sure. Anyways. We’ve decided on who’s going to teach you what. I’ll be teaching you how to fly.”

“And Tails is going to teach me magic?”

The Watcher nodded.

– “Well then. Let’s get going shall we?”

“Wait, where to?”

– “A big place so we can start the flying lesons? Obviously”, it said, walking out of Grian’s room.

“Wait, right now!? H- Hey! Wait up!”, Grian said hastily following the Watcher.

Chapter Text

After about 2 months of learning, Grian finally learnt how to properly fly using all his damned 6 wings, which is not easy at all. In fact, he was already pulling quite dangerous tricks like flying upside down or flying backwards, which he regrets afterwards because his 3 pairs of wings do sometimes just ignore what he wants them to do — as if they’re their own being — and he ends up flying into a pillar or just falling to his demise — he never dies for some reason — though he always ignores the pain and just continues flying as it is way too fun to stop doing so and he couldn’t care less about the pain.

“You know this is self harm in a way, right?”, the figure said, popping up in front of Grian causing him to get startled, resulting in his wings to stop working and ended up gliding with full speed face first into a pillar and then falling on the floor landing on his wings.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch…”, Grian said sitting up, feeling a piercing pain going through his main pair of wings. The figure was now standing in front of him glaring at him. At least Grian thought it was glaring at him, its faceless head was tilted down to him, giving it an eerie feeling to the figure.

“There’s a huge scratch in your mask”, it pointed out after a long silence, making the air between them tense.

“I literally flew face first into a pillar because of YOU, and all you care about is my mask!?”

“The Watchers aren’t going to be happy when they find out”, it said straight up ignoring what the angered Watcher just said.

“I’ll tell them it’s your fault.”

“They won’t believe you. You are the only one able to see me.”

“W- What— What do you mean!?”

“I just told you, you are the only one able to see me.”

The injured Watcher looked at the figure confused. Does this mean it’s imaginary? That it’s all made up? Everything about the figure… Is it all made up? It can’t be right? He was able to touch it, and it was able to touch him. Though, he never saw it pick up something. He never saw it coming in contact with the world around them. Grian has only seen it just standing or flying there or ‘sitting’ on something. “Does this really mean it’s not real?” . he thought, his gaze stuck on the figure as his brain was trying to scramble the puzzle pieces together. He shook away the thought the moment it came. There was no way it was just his imagination.

“Are you real, Xelqua?”

“I– What? O- Obviously! I’m right here being able to talk with people and do stuff!”

“Well then, what’s your excuse for me being ‘imaginary’?”

Grian just looked at it even more confused than he already was. First of all, how did it know what he was thinking about? Can it now read minds all of a sudden!? Second of all, what does it mean by that? Just because he’s real, it is real as well? The confused Watcher just looked at the figure leaving its question unanswered only for it to fill in the silence again, “That’s right. Nothing. ”

“Wh- Why don’t you pick up stuff!? Explain that!”

“Holograms can’t do that either, right?”

“A- Are you an hologram?”

“Holograms, hallucinations, … They’re all the same. Even if I might be one, I’m still real as long as you are real, I don’t need to prove anything. You are my proof.”

It grinned at Grian, well, he was sure it was grinning. Its faceless head was still pointed at him and it was giving eerie vibes off. “’As long as you are real, I’m real…’? What if I were to…”

The pillar in front of him, where the figure was standing a few seconds ago, seemed to stand under a spotlight, everything around it going dark. It had some blood on it, which was probably from his bleeding nose he did not even know it was bleeding up until now. He stood up ignoring his now even more aching wings, which were just hanging down his body on the floor, and looked at the pillar. It seemed to call for him, pull him closer to it as he started slowly walking towards it and held the pillar tightly. “As long as I am real, IT is real” , he thought before brutally smashing his head against the pillar causing his mask to shatter and falling unconscious seconds after he did it.

Grian, slowly coming back to his senses, noticed he was laying on something soft instead of the hard concrete floor he was on before everything went dark. What even happened before he ended up here? Someone or something must have brought him into his room and put him in his bed.

– “Ah, you’re finally awake.”

“F- Feather?”, Grian asked, sitting up trying to remember what exactly happened. 

– “Look at you, Xelqua. Look what you’ve done to yourself”, the creature said. Its voice didn’t sound like it always does, calm and reasonable. Instead, it… it sounded… disappointed. “Go look at what you've done to yourself, Xelqua”, it said with the same disappointed tone in its voice pointing at the mirror. Grian stood up and slowly walked towards the mirror. He was greeted by his reflection, who had a huge wound on his forehead and his wings seemed to be bandaged. 

“H- How come my body feels so… weak?”, Grian said, turning around to look back at Feather.

– “Well, Xelqua. You’ve somehow managed to shatter the most important thing a Watcher has, which caused a lot of magic your body had to drain out.”

Grian flinched because of how its voice sounded. It's… angry with him, angry because he shattered his mask… The most important thing…

“But, my body never feels weak when I take off my mask…?”

– “Your body loses its magic physically but it’s still there, just contained in the mask. You are still able to cast basic spells like fire or opening a portal. When shattering your mask, you lose all the magic contained in it besides some physical traits. In your case, it’s the wings.”

Grian looked back at his wings. His poorly bandaged wings. Did they even try their best to treat them? Or are they just not used to treating something? It sighed, “You careless, ungrateful brat.”

Grian flinched back. “Ungrateful? Am I… ungrateful? … Maybe I am… I left bloodstains on that pillar… And—- And shattered my mask. They probably put a lot of work into making one… I- I really am ungrateful… I should’ve kept myself together, but nooo. Instead, I decided to do this. It was right, the Watchers weren’t going to be happy with me. And I only made it worse.”

Silence occured. Silence that made its way into Grian’s head, into his mind. That painful, stressful feeling he’s been dealing with for months now. That feeling which has been bugging him since the day he was left alone in the palace, only to be disturbed by the figure. The figure Grian does not know what to think about; grateful because it’s the only ‘person’ who could keep him company, or even more stressed because it keeps taunting him. And now to top it off, he isn’t even sure anymore if it’s real or not.

– “Now why do you keep dozing off into your head. Stay in reality for once and look at me. Not only did you cause yourself harm, but you’ve also caused us a lot of work. Making a new mask is much harder than you think and I suppose you’ve probably already figured that out.”

It’s angry at him. It’s angered about his mistakes. His careless mistakes he should never have made.

It sighed again, “I don’t have time for your nonsense. I’m going to get Number Two to get started on making that new mask for you, though I doubt it will start on it any time soon.”

It walked out of the injured Watcher’s room, leaving him all alone yet again. He looked back at his reflection in the mirror. Is that even him he’s seeing in the mirror? Not only are his wings bandaged up — and they still hurt a lot — he also has a huge wound on his forehead and a scratch on his eye — which is probably because of his mask shattering — but he also saw someone looking back at him with no emotion at all. He was staring at him with dull eyes. 

“They don’t care about you.”

Grian jumped up and turned around startled. The figure was standing in front of him again.

“What do you mean?”

“They don’t care about you, it’s as simple as that.”2

“Y- You’re lying! Of course they do!”

“You heard what Number One said, right?”

Grian left the figure unanswered.

“You’ve litterally tried to kill yourself! That’s so obvious, yet it did NOTHING about that. All it cared about is that stupid mask of yours.”

“Stop it!”

“Number One is right afterall. You are an ungrateful brat. Even now you’re thinking of ‘ending’ this ‘nightmare’.”

Grian looks back at the mirror, at the person standing there looking at him. He’s still questioning whether that person in his reflection he sees is him or a completely different person. He doesn’t see any emotion on his face and he looks like he has no regrets . If that’s truly him, then they’re both right. He is ungrateful… Grian started feeling stressful. “Change the topic, change it before this gets worse, G- … Xelqua…”

“How did you know?”, Grian finally asked in an attempt to change the topic. The figure just stared at him, not giving any answers. “About what I was… thinking…?”, Grian continued, guessing it didn’t get what he meant.

“Ooooh, that! You really don’t get it yet, huh?”, It said letting out a small chuckle before it continued again, “You remember that conversation we had before you went all suicidal?” The injured Watcher slowly nodded. “Well, you should’ve already understood it when I said ‘holograms, hallucinations, … They’re all the same’. I guess your head was too stuck on the idea the Watchers had something to do with it.”

And then it hit Grian. The figure standing in front of him, it isn’t real. It’s a hallucination… He has never been talking to someone for real, he has just been talking to… nothing. To… To an image his brain made up. It was all just a lie… A stupid lie his brain has been playing on him. But why? Why is he hallucinating? Why can he feel it touch him? How does it feel like it’s right here with him if this all is just a lie? Everything is so confusing.

“Xelqua… Even if I am a hallucination, it doesn’t mean I am not real, remember? You might be the only one who can see me, come in contact with me. But I am real, standing right here, talking to you. Got it? I’ll never leave your side as long as you are here. ”

“Stop taunting me, p– please!”, Grian bursted out in panic. The figure only started laughing before it left Grian, leaving the now panicking boy alone. He started hyperventilating. “Stop it! Why are you hyperventilating!?” Grian started to get dizzy and leaned against the closet behind him. “Is everything really just a lie? The figure, the Watchers, are they all just putting up a show?! Have I really just been living in some sort of big scheme?”  

Grian fell on the floor having lost the power in his arms to hold himself up. “Breathe in… Breathe out… Just keep doing this. Ignore everything around you and concentrate on your breathing…” After a while of struggling how to breathe, he finally managed to calm down and stood up to go sit on his bed, looking outside the window again. He guessed it was some sort of coping mechanism he had, just looking outside while his head was still full of thought he could not stop. All this time, he has just been hanging around with an illusion of himself. He never had a friend… It was all a dirty lie his own mind has been playing on him. His own STUPID mind. He started pinching himself in his arms out of stress.

“ֆȶօք ȶɦǟȶ.”

“What the- What are you? Are you also some stupid hallucination!?”

“ֆȶօք ɖօɨռɢ ȶɦǟȶ.”

“Don’t ignore me!”

The weird birdlike creature walked up to him and pointed at his hands, “ɖօռ’ȶ ɖօ ȶɦǟȶ, ȶɦǟȶ’ֆ ռօȶ ɢօօɖ ʄօʀ ʏօʊ.”

Grian looked at his hands, and then back at the little critter. It just stared at him.

“R- Right… Look, I stopped”, he said while holding his hands in the air. The weird creature looked content and it hugged his arm.

“ȶɦǟȶ’ֆ ɮɛȶȶɛʀ!”

“What are you?”

“ʏօʊ’ʀɛ քɛʀֆօռǟʟ ֆɛʟʄ ƈǟʀɛ ʀɛʍɨռɖɛʀ! ɮʊȶ ɨ ʍʊֆȶ ɢօ ռօա. ɮʏɛ ɮʏɛ!”

“What? Could this day get even more confusing now?”

Grian stood back up and looked back at 'his reflection'. ” God, I look like a mess.” 

Chapter Text

This story won't get continued anymore
I have lost interest in this story and hate everything about it dkjvnz

BUT

that doesn't mean I won't be remastering the story from scratch
I'm sorry for having made y'all wait for the next chapter h h hh h 
Chapter 1 is already in the make kfjbzr