Chapter Text
Grian didn’t know what was happening.
He was a watcher, he observed, these were his friends. What was wrong with him? Why did he want to- to hurt them.
Kill. Hurt. Destroy.
NO!
He clamped his hands over his ears and grit his teeth, forcing his eyes closed and his breathing to calm even though his hands were shaking so violently he couldn’t have called his friends for help on his communicator even if he wanted to.
That wasn’t strictly true. He desperately wanted his friends right now. Mumbo. Scar. Pearl. Mumbo… Scar… Pearl… Mumbo… Kill… Scar… Hurt… Pearl… Destroy… Kill… Hurt… Destroy… KILL HURT DESTROY KILL HURT DESTROY KILL HURT DEST-
NO!
No!
No.
He wasn’t safe like this. His friends weren’t safe.
He had some blocks in here-thank Void-and with his shaky hands managed to get his doors and windows barricaded, ignoring the urge to break them all down again and run rampant.
What was happening to him??
He was a Watcher. He had escaped them. He was free. He was Grian. He loved his friends. He loved Hermitcraft. He was free. He- Kill. Hurt. Destroy.
NO!
————
Days passed. His hunger levels dropped. That awful new hunger rose. He clawed at his arms, chest, wings. Wait wings? No. No no no no no! Not wings. He was Grian. He had escaped them! He wanted to live. He was fr-
“Grian?”
Scar. He should leave. Scar needed to leave. Scar needed to
“Come in..”
No! No why had he said that, no it was too late, he needed to get away from here, from him…
It was too late. He heard blocks breaking and Scar’s worried face appeared in his home. Good.
“No no no no no!” He hadn’t realised he’d said that aloud until Scar appeared closer; Grian hadn’t noticed him move.
He weakly pushed him away but Scar took it as a ‘come here’ gesture and put one hand on Grian’s knee and the other on his shoulder, wheelchair bumping against the block Grian was sat upon.
“I didn’t realise you had wings, buddy, are you doing okay? I thought I was the fun one in our friendship”
Grian’s eyes widened and his wings flared. Shit.
“I-I.. uh, I-“ he cleared his throat and then just as he opened his mouth to actually say something he cried out in pain.
Kill. Hurt. Destroy. Kill! Hurt! Destroy! KILL! HURT! DESTROY!
He launched himself at Scar, eyes glowing bright purple as his hair took on a red shine, darker than his sweater: blood red.
He snarled and Scar lifted his shield, barely in time to block his best friend’s attack.
KILL! HURT! DESTROY! KILL! HURT! DESTROY!
The mantra repeated in Grian’s head, over and over and over and over and he loved it .
He attacked with bare hands, fingernails morphed into claws as he hacked and slashed, barely landing a hit but not caring.
Scar floundered, confused and barely blocking Grian’s attacks until he pulled out Jelly’s leash and tied his straining friend up.
“Shit! Grian what’s happened to you..?”
Grian snarled and strained against the ropes, eyes bright purple and flashing about wildly as Scar pulled out his communicator and called Xisuma.
“X? Thank void, I- shit you’re working on a project? Okay okay I get it but this is important, something’s happened to Grian-“ Grian chose this moment to snarl loudly and Scar jumped in his chair, glad to hear that the admin was on his way.
—————
Xisuma came to Grian’s house a short while later, obviously disgruntled and with an equally annoyed-and concerned-Keralis alongside him.
“You seemed worried Scar, it’s Grian, what prank has he pulled now… what the void-“
Scar had his cane on Grian’s writhing back, pinning him in place as his other hand gripped the leash tightly, no hint of his usual smile as Keralis rushed to help take hold of Grian.
Scar let out a sigh of relief when the doe-eyed, and much stronger man, took hold of the thrashing Watcher and then he turned to Xisuma who was already running a diagnostic on Grian.
“I hadn’t seen him in a while so I came by to check on him, he’d blocked up all his entrances and could barely get his words out, he looked sick, and then his eyes started glowing and he just leapt at me, he hasn’t responded properly since..”
Xisuma didn’t respond, he was staring at his communicator in shock: Grian’s status was a colour he hadn’t seen before and the diagnostic read ‘Corrupted Watcher’.
“Get me regen potions and.. turtle master potions, and an echo shard if you have one, if not I have other ways..”
Scar gave one last desperate look at his best friend and then rolled out towards his huge tree ‘starter base’.
“What the hell were you thinking Grian, Watchers aren’t meant to affect the world”
Grian just snarled and strained against the bars Keralis had placed to keep him separated from them.
“Hey Shishwammy, what’s a Watcher? Is it anything like what you are?”
“A voidwalker? No no, Watchers are… a much higher level of being than I am, I didn’t even realise that he was one, he was so.. human, even more human than you or Stress or Joe, it never showed up in the server diagnostics, his status, anything, I think he’s in hiding, though from what I have no clue”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out shashwam, you’re such a clever girl~” Xisuma flushed with embarrassment despite the situation.
Scar rolled back in, a tower of potions and one or two echo shards resting on his lap, but he skidded to a stop at the sight of Grian behind bars “why is he behind bars?? This isn’t his fault, it can’t be his fault-“
Xisuma picked up the potions, not sure how to convince Scar that this was for the best, luckily Mumbo flew in with a crash.
“I heard some commotion! Who’s Grian pranked now? Uh- what’s going on?”
The room was silent except for Grian’s snarls and growls until Keralis finally spoke.
“Let Papa K explain the situation, you guys work on fixing it” he led a worried Mumbo outside and the two began speaking in hushed voices while Xisuma and Scar turned back to Grian who’s eyes had multiplied, opening on his cheeks, neck, forehead and the backs of his hands-they couldn’t see if there were any more because of his jumper-and they all glowed purple as he bent the metal of the bars with his bare hands. Xisuma didn’t waste any time, he shattered the potions at Grian’s feet and held the echo shard up in front of him, this worked to calm down voidwalkers so maybe, just maybe, it would work on Watchers too. The echo shard didn’t do anything, but the potions had instant effects: Grian staggered and the eyes-all except his usual two-closed and vanished as he gripped the bars for support.
He blinked.
His eyes were brown and exhausted.
“Scar?” Scar’s face broke out in a relieved smile as he nodded, but then Grian saw Xisuma and fear flooded his gaze.
“D-don’t turn me in to Them, don’t blacklist me X, please, please this is the only place I’ve ever felt human-“ his voice was desperate and his wings-which had ripped through his classic red jumper when they’d appeared-pulled in close around him, a protective shield that didn’t do anything to help.
“Them? Do you mean the other Watchers? Grian I’m not going to blacklist you but I need the full story..” he tried to sound reassuring.
“I want to but-“ he winced and his hands started shaking again “it’s coming back, don’t let me out of here, please don’t let me out of here, kill me if you have to but don’t let me out of his buildi-“ he cried out and heard the mantra in his head again, pounding on his skull.
KILL HURT DESTROY KILL HURT DESTROY KILLHURTDESTROYKILLHURTDESTROY
He opened his purple eyes and launched himself at the bars with a shriek as Xisuma and Scar watched on helplessly as Grian faded away again.
Xisuma fell silent in thought as Scar fell silent in fear.
“I know there’s a-well, another-watcher on this server, but I’ve made a promise not to let their identity out into the server, but I suppose there’s a time and a place for promises and a time and a place for saving Grian..”
He pulled out his communicator and sent a quick message to someone but Scar didn’t respond, still staring at Grian in his cage. Xisuma gulped and forced himself to calm down and try to offer some support: “we’ll get him back from whatever this is, I swear on my role as an admin”
Scar looked up darkly, a flash of power from seasons ago the admin had thought had long gone dormant
“You better.”
Xisuma shivered at those words and knew he had to figure this out before Grian hurt someone or himself or Scar killed him.
—————
Grian didn’t know what was happening, he couldn’t care less, he wanted to get out and Kill but he couldn’t, he was trapped, and briefly he hurt, not Hurt , he was in pain, something else, some other side was suddenly out and he was in the dark, this amazing primal anger was locked up. But it couldn’t contain him. Just like this cage couldn’t contain him. Not for long.
“Scar..” Grain’s voice was raw and quiet as his violet eyes met his friend’s.
“Grain? You’re back?? Oh god how? When? Let me get you out of there-“
“Aren’t you tired Scar..?”
“Of being your friend? Never-“
“No..” he gave a weak chuckle “aren’t you tired of being nice?” His voice was dark enough to summon mobs and the only other noise was the dull thud of a pick axe onto the wooden floor.
“Grian..?”
“Don’t you just want to go apeshit?”
“This-this isn’t you Grian! Please, come back to me”
“This is me, this is me being free , don’t you want to be free too Scar? It’s just perfect” he punctuated the last word by flinging his wings open and launching himself at the bars, many many many eyes glowing brighter than they had before.
Scar sent a message to X-who was off trying to convince this other Watcher to come help-and backed up, rolling as far as he could before he hit the copper and calcite wall behind him. Even though he logically knew that Grian couldn’t break through iron bars, logic had never been Scar’s strong suit and this monster that had taken his friend thrived off breaking the logic of their petty world.
He was a fallen Watcher; mobs, players, gods knelt before his power. He bent the metal bars with ease and let out a manic laugh as he launched himself at Scar.
Scar wasn’t ashamed to admit that he screamed when Grian leapt at him, even as time slowed down and he summoned his shield, blocking the attack as his usually-green eyes glowed blue with power, a stark contrast to the royal purple of Grian’s many many eyes and wings.
Suddenly Grian froze, mid attack, and stared at something past Scar’s head. He smiled. He frowned. He jumped. A blur of pale golden wings launched past Scar and catapulted Grian right through the iron bars he’d just bent, shattering them. The stranger was wearing a white piece of fabric with a golden eye symbol covering their own eyes, their long pale brown hair shone with a divine light, and as they whirled past Scar he caught the faint scent of sunflowers. A hand came under his arm from behind and pulled him to his feet, forcing him to turn away from the violent scene before him to the masked face of the admin who might be Grian’s only hope.
Scar tried for force his usual grin as he asked “so this is your other Watcher friend? At least they’re strong, though I can’t quite tell who it is..”
Xisuma grimaced through his purple visor and looked over Scar’s shoulder towards the messy, violent fight taking place there “you’ll find out soon enough, just don’t get in the way.. I know you’re an elf this season and see no harm in changing forms but for those of us born as these beings it isn’t so easy, which is why we tend to masquerade as humans”
Scar nodded but both of them could tell that he wasn’t really listening: instead he was watching the fight with baited breath, feeling both relieved and guilty as the stranger finally pinned Grian down and kept him in place with bindings made of what looked like light made solid, nearly like a froglight but different somehow, more… golden? Scar could easily admit he wasn’t the best with words, but this was beyond any normal person’s words.
Pearlescent Moon turned around and flicked her long hair out of her face-Scar had never noticed how close in colour it was to Grian’s-and grimaced as she saw Scar.
“Oh- I didn’t realise my brother’s boyfriend was here..” they scowled at a sheepish looking Xisuma who could only retort by mentioning that there wasn’t much time to solve this.
Scar was pretty much stunned into silence at the sight before him: Pearl was a Watcher, Grian (who was looking stupidly hot tied up spread-eagled, straining against his bindings and snarling) was her brother, Xisuma was a Voidwalker, and his best friend might never come back. Plus that ‘boyfriend’ comment had short circuited his brain just a little.
“Can you save him?” Was all Scar could think to say once he’d regained control of his mind enough to speak.
Pearl’s slightly amused expression fell instantly “maybe, when I last saw my brother.. he’d just been sentenced to death for joining a server, and memories of him were locked inside the Archives for-for our safety,” her voice nearly broke as she continued, “I thought he had died, and I couldn’t even remember him enough to mourn properly, I couldn’t even remember him enough to recognize him when I was stationed here in disguise-“ it was only now that Scar noticed she wasn’t wearing her classic black hoodie and she seemed to radiate a power and strength that she hadn’t before. “He was a stranger, and it seems he couldn’t reach out to me properly without arousing suspicion.”
They paused and guilt filled her eyes before she added “maybe he thought I’d turn him in..”
Grian snapped and snarled and growled as the other three watched on in silence for what felt like aeons before Scar finally broke the silence.
“Can you save him?”
—————————
Weeks had passed since Scar had found Grian like that, and in that time he’d had to move his friend to a more secure location and hadn’t slept more than six hours in total. Pearl and Xisuma had access to more supernatural texts than he did but that didn’t stop him from spending every waking moment searching for anything that could help.
His base sat unfinished and abandoned but for once he didn’t care about leaving it like that.
Grian was getting worse.
He became more and more violent as time went on, attacking anyone who got close, clawing at the walls of his cell, screaming and laughing and crying as blood poured from self-inflicted wounds. Scar could hardly bear to look at him by the fifth week, he barely ate, barely spoke, just sat and stared at the ground and listened to his best friend’s destruction.
—————————
KILL HURT DESTROY
KILL HURT DESTROY
KILL HURT DESTROY
KILL HURT DESTROY
It ran on and on and on and on in a loop in Grian’s head. It was hell. He loved it. Time was a blur, all that mattered was when someone got a little too close to this cage and he could reach and claw and try to Kill and Hurt and Destroy someone, anyone, anything, he tasted blood constantly and it was horrible and delicious .
Then one day things changed.
A voidwalker. That shapeshifter (he was currently an elf). His fellow Watcher. Expressions Grian couldn’t currently comprehend beyond wanting to rip them to pieces. A vampire was nearby and the tell-tale smell of redstone washed over the corrupted Watcher.
Golden chains appeared and he wailed as their blinding, agonising light pulled him to the wall, keeping his hands away from anything that he could Kill Hurt Destroy . Objects of power were set around the room: Ender dragon egg, elytra, blaze rods, heart of the sea, an emerald. One from each of the realms: End, Sky, Nether, Ocean and Overworld. Of course most players only knew about three of them, but the Ocean and the Sky were their own realms, unique and beautiful.
Chains tightened. Blood slowed. There was a scream. That horrible delightful red haze slowly lifted. Pulled out of the Watcher like someone had a hand in his stomach and was pulling out his guts. It hurt. It felt like a part of him was being killed. Like his very existence was being destroyed.
Then it was gone.
There was sobbing that Grian couldn’t recognize as his own.
The next few days passed in a blur. A different sort of blur that the past few weeks had. They passed in softness and care and apologies. When he truly came back to himself Scar was asleep by his bed, slouched over, with his hand in Grian’s. Grian tried to gently pull his hand away (with only a slight sleepy blush on his face) but he froze when he realised there were a dozen of barely healed claw marks on his best friend’s face, shirt, arms, neck .
It made Grian sick to know he was the cause of so much pain, and while Xisuma might have been saved by his armour there had been someone else there helping him, someone who now knew who he was, someone who-as far as he knew-was still loyal to the Watchers. His sister: Pearl.
It was only when the world was swimming out of focus did Grian realise that tears were streaming down his face.
“Void” he muttered, or perhaps sobbed would be a better description, and Scar woke up with a start.
“Grian? No no no why are you crying?? Does something hurt still? Are you okay? Tell me if you’re okay?” Scar stammered, not releasing Grian’s hand as he checked his temperature and gently wiped away tears that just kept falling and falling and falling.
There was a puff of dust and Grian’s wings vanished as he gripped Scar’s hand like a lifeline in a storm, pulling himself close as he cried and cried and cried: muffled sobs turning to wails and pleading for death. He didn’t deserve to be alive after what he nearly did, if Scar hadn’t come and found him before it had taken hold properly then he just Knew he would’ve killed the entire server, every player, every mob, everything. Until he was the only thing left. In a desolate world. A prison.
A prison he deserved.
Scar fell silent and let his best friend cry into his chest as he simply ran a hand through his hair: a soothing touch Grian didn’t think he deserved but couldn’t help but melt into.
———————
Recovery was slow.
Not just physically, but mentally too; it was difficult to resist the call of chaos that had scarred him so deeply, and having his friends around him made that… more complicated.
Scar and him were.. something.
Mumbo was his best friend.
Xisuma and him now shared a new bond.
And Pearl… she was his sister, but they still needed to talk, and with time, they would, but for now Grian was taking it slowly; getting used to appearing as more than human a few times when he was comfortable enough and was surrounded by people who he knew could restrain him if it came to that.
Things were looking up, and there were days when Grian didn’t even feel the call of that corruption at all, though he knew it was unlikely to last with the Watchers out there preparing their next move…