Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Watchers were everywhere. They followed Pearl even before she joined Evolution. They followed Grian before they started leaving little gifts. The manipulation started as early as they could get their hands on someone important and close. Pearl was there when it all happened. When the Watchers took Evolution by the hand and did what Watchers do to sanctions like them. She had no idea Grian was still alive until she got to Hermitcraft

Pearl picked it up quickly when She came to Hermitcraft. It was an unspoken rule, but it was one she wished she’d learned before she opened her mouth. Somehow, breaking a rule you had no clue existed beat breaking one you knew in embarrassment. Cause then you’d get a strict talking to by Mumbo. And that was the peak of being the new guy. 

So there it was. The rules everyone but she knew.

Don’t talk about Evolution, Minecrack, or Kingdomcraft.

Unspoken rules turned out to be the bane of Pearl and Gem’s, another new arrival, lives.

Never reference other sanctions.

These little guidelines felt like something Pearl should’ve been told in the three years she was being processed. But, unlike the classic “ don’t break eye contact while speaking”, and “ stay ahead of schedule”, these were Hermitcraft specific.

And Mumbo talking to her was no different than the Watchers in the processing center.

“Pearl, somethings are just meant to stay dead,” He’d say, a stupid little frown on his face, “And Evolution is one of them, especially to Grian. Heaven forbid we have to redo the memory loss again .”

Processing had made her numb to the idea of potential Watchers getting their minds wiped clean of an event or two, but knowing Grian didn’t remember her or Taurtis or anyone made her uneasy. 

When Pearl and Grian were taken, they wanted Grian right then. They took him, screaming and crying, sobbing for Taurtis and Pearl, all for them to strap him to the ground and take the scene from his head. Even while they were doing it, Grian cried out for Mumbo and Scar to stop it. Neither of them did a thing. They watched while Doc did the dirty work.

For Pearl, and apparently Gem, she was sent to processing where they desensitized her to everything. For Pearl, she had to sit in a room with the burning of Evolution on repeat.

All she cared for in those memories now was how freakishly cold the auditorium was. Silk doesn’t keep in as much warmth as she would’ve liked on those days.

“Pearl?” 

Xisuma’s voice struck Pearl’s head like an electric guitar.

“Are you even listening?” He asked.

“What does it look like, Chief?” She said with a friendly smile. Xisuma sighed, rubbing his visor with his gloves like it were his temples.

“Pearl, how long does processing take for a traumatized individual?” He asked. She crossed her arms.

“What? What’s the point of asking me a question everyone knows?” She asked.

“Just answer it,” he groaned.

“Six to twelve months,” She said confidently.

“And how long were you in processing?”

“... three years…”

“Exactly.” Xisuma started walking again, down the calm path carved by Bdubs. It was the one thing Pearl couldn’t get desensitized to, the beauty of creation. The Watcher idolized it, even.

“When I heard that you and Gem were coming to Hermitcraft, I was a little confused,” Xisuma started speaking again, “I would’ve thought that you would’ve shortly followed Grian, just maybe to a different sanction… but no… three years later you show up at my doorstep fresh from the longest processing a hermit has ever undergone.” He paused for a second, chuckling, “You even beat Bdubs.”

“And?” Pearl asked, “I’m here aren't I? I sat through what everyone else had too three times over!”

“That’s what worries me,” Xisuma said gently, “You’re inside your own head so much. I feel that they went too far with you.”

“I don’t think so,” Pearl said, “I don’t feel like they did.”

“You don’t feel anything, do you?”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

They walked for the rest of the path in silence, parting ways when they came to Boatem. Mumbo was talking with Scar, probably about the whispering of Pearl’s ‘defiance’. The one thing Xisuma seemed to actually get was that her defiance wasn’t malicious. She didn’t mean to cause trouble, really! It wasn’t her fault that no one told her these things.

“Why do I have to be around Mumbo and Scar all the time?” Pearl snorted.

“Because they live near you and are very good at their jobs.”

“Yeah, but they’re… awful.”

“By that you mean…?”

“They’re mean. You’re never mean . Harsh, redundant? Sure. Mean? No.”

“The Head Watchers want to make sure they are fully aware of the people in their factions. One day, they might be your admin. All Watchers have to be mean sometimes.”

“They’re mean all the time.”

Xisuma ignored her last statement 

She hung back on the tree line until Scar walked away. That’s when she approached Mumbo. Heaven forbid Scar see her after all she said. Mumbo had asked to see her after Xisuma, and it was no doubt some double up. A plan made by the two to…um… do something!

“You asked to see me?” She said, Mumbo turned and smiled:

“Oh, yes! Hello Pearl.”

“Hello,” She echoed.

“How was your talk with Xisuma?” He asked, gesturing for her to walk with him. Pearl huffed.

“I just went on a walk!” She complained, “Y’know, with X?”

“Just walk with me,” Mumbo said, “It gets the mind moving.”

Pearl twisted her face but followed, “To be completely honest, Mumbo, I don’t remember most of the conversation.”

Mumbo nodded, eyes half shut as if she was bothering him , “You know, Pearl, if you listened more, maybe you wouldn’t find yourself in these conversations as much…”

Pearl’s mind started buzzing over Mumbo’s semi-sweet voice. 

That was the funny thing, wasn’t it? They understood her enough , but never enough to help her get better at anything. Voices so often turned to static that formed the bustling thoughts that preoccupied Pearl far more than another talking to.

And that was funny too, wasn’t it. How much more interesting Pearl’s own mind was compared to the drone of the Hermitcraft sanction. Thinking about her base was so much better!

A boat, beached on the shore in Boatem! Oh the potential of it! She thought about expanding upwards, maybe adding higher masts. Maybe she’d be able to see the mainland with a tall enough one. She hadn’t seen the mainland since before processing, and that was a while… It didn’t feel that long. To think, she was three years younger. It didn’t feel like that. It felt like nothing had changed from the first time she was processed. Or the second. Or third. Well the fourth time was a little funky.

She remembered the fourth time the best. It was kinda fun. Kinda. Nothing was really fun after Evolution, to be honest. She couldn’t remember the last time she was happy. Or the last time she had fun.

Funny how memory blocked out emotions like that.

She smiled.

“PEARL!” Mumbo’s voice and face filled Pearl’s face, but she was hardly startled. “How in the world do you do that?”

“Do what?” She asked simply.

Mumbo creased his brow, frowning. “You know, the thing where you don’t listen to a word I say and just stare into the distance like--”

“Why don’t I remember being happy?”

“What?” Mumbo’s face looked truly upset. If there was a picture child for ‘truly upset’, it would be that man, right there. Pearl smiled.

“The last time I remember smiling was when me and Grian were talking, but then you took him away when he panicked.” She teased, “Why did he get upset? Is that why we can’t talk?”

Mumbo’s body language was sick and panicked. He looked like a dad if his child had just called him an old fuck. A strange mix of disgust, concern, and terrible sadness. Pearl scoffed in her head. It made sense with that analogy; Pearl would be all of those things if her child called her that. Pretty insulting.

The whole interaction was pretty insulting. They could so easily put her back in processing, but they never did, even when she did something that drained the blood out of the room. Was it because they didn’t think she meant anything by it, like she was still as dazed and confused as she was in processing. She was far from dazed outside of the dark campus.

Scar almost sent her back, but X stopped him. That was the time when she asked what Bdubs did to grab the Watchers’ attention and sent him into some sort of spiral. Scar was pissssedddddd!!!

Pearl smiled for a light instant, returning to the stone expression of small upturned corners of her mouth she always wore, coming from her wandering to realize Mumbo was grabbing her shoulders. Tightly. 

“Hm?”

“Pearl, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” She asked.

“For what they did to you.”

Pearl thought.

What they did to her? 

That can’t be right. Processing was something every Watcher underwent. Why would Mumbo Jumbo of all be sorry for that? 

“Shouldn’t you apologize to everyone then?” She asked. “I don’t know why, but I’m no different.”

Mumbo let go of Pearl. Pearl looked past him at the moon as it sat on the horizon.

“The moon is really pretty tonight,” She said. “Me and Grian used to watch the moon rise. It was a really long time ago, though. We’d look at it with Taurtis.” She paused for a moment, seeing Mumbo unmoving. “Do you watch the moon sometimes?” She asked.

He glared down at him. “Do you even know why I wanted to talk to you?”

“Is it about Grian? I know you care about him a lot.”

“You are constantly trying to get him to remember that…” He rolled his eyes, “sanction. He doesn’t remember “Taurtis” and he doesn’t want to. You’re hurting him Pearl. You are hurting Hermitcraft. If it were my choice, you wouldn't even be here. I wish they’d let me leave you in that burning treehouse. But here you are. The least you could do is not purposefully harm Grian or anyone else here.”

Pearl was unfazed by this. Mumbo said a lot of things just to make people upset and get them to behave. Scar did too. 

Briefly, Pearl learned about The Plague Program. Mumbo and Scar are the shining examples of what the Head Watchers believe a Watcher should be because of this. Trained extensively to be machines. What little Pearl knew aided her to also know that it wasn’t perfect. She saw Mumbo cry before. He was looking at a little mirror when his composure broke like a dam. He was alone, so Pearl didn’t want to report him for having a mirror in the first place. The Plague Program’s one weakness was if they looked into their own eyes. A fitting weakness for two of the most egoistic men Pearl had ever met.

“Sure. I won’t bother Grian tonight.”

“Don’t do it at all.”

“Sir.”

“Get to sleep Pearl.”

~~~

The next day, Pearl saw Grian restocking his train shop. She smiled. They didn’t let Pearl and Grian talk much without someone else around, but… she didn’t really see anyone.

She trotted up to him;

“Hey G!” She said, scaring the builder.

“AH!” Grian jumped, turning quickly and freezing for a second. “Pearl! You scared me!”

Pearl laughed, “I sure hope so!” She leaned forward on the train’s platform and Grian plopped on the ground.

“What are you doing over here? I thought you had a meeting with X today?”

“Yeah, but I’ve got a sec,” She said, “To be honest, I’m not going to listen.”

“You should listen to what he has to say,” Grian advised with a smile, “I don’t know what Mumbo yelled at you the other day, but I wouldn’t want that to happen to me.”

Pearl cocked her head and laughed, “It was about you.”

“I suspected there was a reason we aren’t really allowed to talk to each other,” Grian said. “I don’t see why not; you seem like a really great person.”

“Why, thank you!” Pearl said with a little bow. Grian laughed.

“Do you know why we’re not allowed to talk?” He asked. 

Pearl bit her lip, “I’m not allowed to say, am I?”

Grian’s mood shifted, face darkening, “They don’t tell me anything. Pearl, I know they took away my memory… I don’t…” He sighed and stood up. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get deep on you.”

“What?” Pearl said, standing up too, “Don’t apologize for that! We can talk!”

“We aren’t supposed to remember?” Grian said, trying to walk away by jumping from the train platform.

“No one’s around!”

“They’re Watchers, Pearl!”

“They can’t see us at all times-”

“Yes they can!” Grian spun around, his eyes filled with a life they hadn’t been before. “If they couldn't, Taurtis would still be here!” He screamed. He covered his mouth, face filling with terror. “No, no, no…” Grian muttered, falling to the ground. Pearl stepped back, watching as Grian’s mind was rushed with the worst night of his life. 

She looked around, but no one was there. There were no other Watchers there. She knelt down and hugged Grian.

“Hey, I’m right here!” She yelled, squeezing her friend as he sobbed. He grabbed her back.

And that was the weird thing.

Another weird thing.

Normally in situations like this, someone would’ve come by now. Pearl didn’t want to believe someone was always watching, but it wasn’t like Mumbo or Scar to leave Grian by himself, especially when they didn’t know where Pearl was. The two of them couldn’t be together. No matter what.

So why now were they all alone?

“Grian, I’ve got you!” Pearl said, feeling her voice shake. She felt a visceral fear in her throat, boiling up into her speech. “Please don’t cry…”

His eyes were filled with the eldritch horror of remembering what was taken away from you. Pearl still remembered it, but Grian wasn’t supposed to. He was never supposed to think about Evo.

And magic flowed through her hands. A strong rush out of her hands and into Grian via purple, flowing energy. His tears came to a stop and his body stopped shaking, falling asleep in Pearl’s arms. 

She dropped his body, standing up and taking in a stuttering breath. Her body shook as she looked at her hands and then to Grian’s near lifeless body. Pearl backed up, seeing her old friend flutter his eyes open.

“Gah… What happened? Pearl?”

She backed up more; “We were just talking?”

Grian sat up, rubbing his head with a soft laugh, “Ah, sorry. You know my headaches get to me sometimes. What were we on about?”

Pearl tripped back, eyes wide and breathing heavy. Suddenly her mind sparked to life in a way it hadn’t for years.

Did she--

“No…” She muttered.

“What?” Grian asked, standing up and reaching out. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost--”

“NO!” She turned and ran, fleeing the scene as fast as her legs could take her. 

Xisuma stopped her, making himself visible. “Pearl! That was great!” He grabbed her shoulders, towering over her proudly. Mumbo also appeared from his veil of invisibility, smiling.

“Grian, thanks,” Mumbo gave him a thumbs up despite him having no memory of what happened.

Pearl struggled to get out of Xisuma’s grip, but it was an impossible feat. She felt Mumbo’s reassuring hand on her back.

“Hey, I know that was probably freaky,” Mumbo said, “But you did great under pressure.”

She couldn’t breathe.

“Don’t worry, we asked Grian about this test, so don’t even worry about him.” Xisuma said, “He knew that he’d have to get his memories erased again.”

“That wouldn’t matter,” Pearl said finally. “That wouldn’t matter if he agreed or not, you made him relive those memories! He wouldn’t even have known what you were putting him through!”

“Pearl, Pearl!” Xisuma said, “Grian’s fine, he’s already forgotten… thanks to you!”

Xisuma, stupidly , let go of Pearl’s shoulders, something she didn’t hesitate on. She bolted away from the two watchers, heading straight for the barrier. Her legs refused to quit even as Xisuma’s voice called after her. The distinct sound of teleportation filled her ears and Xisuma was once again in front of her.

“Pearl--” He grabbed her arm, tight in a grip of armor and magic, “What’s gotten into you?”

She lost her breath again, turning to see Mumbo also teleport beside her, face sympathetic.

“That was a great display of your magic,” Mumbo said. “You responded to that test really well. We aren’t mad.”

Pearl looked between, stopping up at the inhuman face that masked Xisuma’s true one. She took deep breaths, trying to calm down.

“Grian will be okay,” Mumbo promised, leaning down on his knees to be at her eye level. Pearl looked at him, trying to decipher his face. Happy, proud; like his son just was awarded a scholarship for academics and sports. Nothing like the night before.

“I thought you didn’t like what they did to me?” Pearl whimpered. Xisuma looked at Mumbo for an explanation.

“I-I was worried that the processing did something to her magic,” Mumbo recovered quickly, “we haven’t seen her use it much at all.”

“That’s true,” Xisuma said. “And it looks like this test gave her a distinct emotional reaction. Maybe all she needs is more pushing.”

Distinct emotional reaction?

What emotion was she even feeling right now? Like they just grabbed her guts and tore them out? Like they just slammed her head into the wall. Like they were drowning her?

Tired. That was the one thing she could focus on.

“I’m tired.” Her voice shook, and she told herself it was from being tired.

“Okay,” Mumbo said, standing up and looking at X.

“I’ll take her home,” Xisuma repositioned his hand from a grip of her arm to a light hold on her hand. Mumbo nodded, looking back down at Pearl and smiling.

“I’m going to check on Grian right now! Don’t worry, he’s safe. This whole test was under control.” Mumbo saluted the Watchers, index finger and thumb on each hand making a box over his face. “Watchers are in control. We are in control.”

In control of what? Pearl wondered as they walked back across the land bridge. Even as her breathing leveled out, her body shivered. She continued to let her mind swim with what emotion she was supposed to be feeling.

~~~

They made it to Pearl’s base and Xisuma let go of her once inside.

“Pearl,” he said, stepping out of the door. “Watchers are in control. We are in control… Goodnight.”

“Goodnight...” Pearl said, obediently saluting him as he did to her. The door then closed, leaving Pearl in the darkness of her house.

She flopped down on her bed and looked up at the ceiling. She reached out above her, trying to touch what she was feeling, grab it from the void and pull it back to her. She wanted to look at it in her own hands like she could others. She put up her other arm as well, as if having both in the air would help her grab the invisible thoughts scattered from conception. 

Her arms flopped back down, and she rolled over. She watched the door for a while, waiting for maybe Scar or Cub to come in, to chastise her for whatever happened today, but that didn’t happen. Xisuma probably told them to leave her alone. Which sucked because she would do anything to piss Scar off right about now.

A groan escaped her throat and she changed positions again, face in her pillow and arm off of the bed.

Her hand hit something under the bed.

Sitting up, Pearl leaned her head over, trying to get a glimpse. Her blanket covered it, so she slid quietly off the bed as if someone was eavesdropping. She bit her lip as she pulled the covers up and saw a small wooden box.

She forgot they let her keep this.

It was about the size of a shoe box, ornately decorated with symbols of three interlocking rings. A lock held it together, one she claimed she had no way of opening. That’s probably why they let her keep it.

There were papers in it, but that’s all the Watchers’ could deduce. It was enchanted to block Watchers’ sight.

Pearl smiled.

The lock was easy to open.

What looked like a key hole was just a disguise for a pass code, something the Watchers couldn’t tell if she knew or not. With a few flick of her hand, the lock popped off and she now had access to her most important belongings. 

All she was given was the passcode and instructions to open when ready.

It felt like a good time.

Pearl lifted the lid to the mysterious box and looked inside. The first thing there was a letter. The wax was the same symbol on the box. She carefully opened it, glancing at the maps that were folded behind it.

“Dear Pearl,

Something bad has happened. You know this. Evolution is gone. We’re probably gone. Whatever will happen isn’t going to be good. You have to do something. The Watchers are going to end the world if nothing is done. The rules will become tighter and more people will be killed. This cannot go on. Please do not be a part of it. You are unique. You can stop them from the inside. You can change the fate of this world and everyone in it. Find the people who can help you. We believe in you, Pearl.

Netty & Taurtis

Pearl’s smile faded.

She looked up, at her door, window, and all around. It was night now, most of the hermits would be asleep by now.

Pearl’s heart raced.

She grabbed the box, putting the letter inside and locking it again. She looked around some more, eyes wide and mouth glued shut.

Pearl stepped towards the window at the back of her house. With a steady hand, she opened it, pulling herself out and clutching the box under her arm. She hit the ground softly, letting her wings slow her fall. She closed the window behind her and picked up a rock. Backing toward the land bridge out of Hermitcraft, she raised her hand, whole arm shaking. 

With all of her strength, Pearl threw the rock and started running. Her legs hit the ground fast and light. She ran to the land bridge and opened her wings. Wind caught under her and she sped faster than she had ever flown before, crashing forward into the barrier with all of her strength. 

Magic rippled through Pearl’s body, and a freeing breeze covered her face. The world appeared in front of her, once lost to the barrier’s screen of pure ocean.

Her eyes spread as land came into view.

Pearl stopped mid air, wings flapping behind her as she caught her breath. The moon was brightly shining over Mainland. A ruined beach party sat at the edge, a burnt campsite and giant pillar just nearby. A grand city sat on the dark horizon, glowing. Towers and monoliths scattered the land with reckless abandon.

The weight of the world fell from Pearl’s shoulders as she flew, awestruck.

Chapter Text

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Ranboo leaned back and forth on his heels, nodding.

“Jesus Christ,” Tommy let the half-enderman in and closed the door behind them.

“Techno said I could stay here anytime I needed to,” Ranboo said, leaning over Tommy. Tommy glared up at him.

“Uh-huh. But if he knew why you’d be back on the streets.” Tommy went back to the ‘kitchen’ and grabbed another soda.

“What streets?” Ranboo asked, spreading his arms as if he made any sort of a point. Tommy stared back, tired and weirded out.

“Okay, whatever, just don’t bother me.” Tommy turned to look out of the window and sipped his cola, pushing back his scruffy hair. Ranboo sat down in an old chair silently, looking around the place.

…

“So, how have you been?”

Tommy whipped his head around to glare at Ranboo for daring to speak. Ranboo’s hands shot into the air and he stayed still.

“It was getting awkward!” He defended.

“Not for me!” Tommy shot back.

“HEY!” A voice cascaded through the home as someone ascended the latter from beneath. Techno landed on the wooden floor, crossing his arms. “What do you guys not get about laying low?”

“I told him not to talk to me!” Tommy yapped.

“Oh come on! We’re in the middle of nowhere!” Ranboo said, “No one is going to hear us!”

“That’s not exactly the point-” Techno rubbed his face, “just because no one’s around doesn’t mean that we have permission to yell!” He turned to Tommy.

“I wasn’t yelling…” Tommy grumbled, leaning back on the window.

“We don’t know who is around and who isn’t,” Techno said, walking forward to a chest. “Who knows if there’s a Watcher, sitting right outside our door, ready to pounce!”

Tommy glared at his older brother, watching him grin with the spooky story.

“There aren’t any Watchers here anymore, Tech,” Tommy chidded. “I’m not scared.”

Despite this, both Tommy and Ranboo jumped when there was a knock at the door. Techno’s smile fell and he reached for his ax by the door. With one hand on his weapon and the other on the door, he mouthed for his two adopted brothers to hide. They nodded, slipping into the basement.

Techno opened the door slowly, straightening his back when he realized who he was in front of.

“Ma’am.” He spoke simply, saluting the Watcher. 

The woman had a map in her hand and was covered head to toe in the Watcher’s symbol. She looked back up at him and he made eye contact. She looked down immediately.

“Can I get a couple of apples?” She asks timidly. Technoblade tried to keep eye contact, but she wasn’t letting him.

“I have plenty of golden apples--”

“Just apples,” She clarified. “I need food to travel.” 

“Um, of course.” Techno let the Watcher in, leading her to his ‘kitchen’. She kept her head down, staring at the ground. Tech grabbed a couple of apples and put them in a bag, handing them over. She took them.

“Thank you,” She said. “Really.”

“Of course.”

She grabbed one of the apples out of the bag and shoved it into her face. Techno stepped back as the woman devoured the fruit. After all of the edible flesh of the apple was gone, the woman wiped off her mouth.

“Thank you.”

“Are you… okay?” Techno asked cautiously.

“Yes…” She leaned on the wall, eyes opening and closing slowly. Her pale skin glistened with sweat. Her wings hung limply behind her.

Without warning, she collapsed. She hit the floor with a thunk and Techno froze.

“Crap--” He carefully picked up the woman, sliding down the basement ladder, startling Ranboo and Tommy.

“TECHNO!” Tommy yelled in a whisper.

“I don’t know what happened-- She just passed out!”

“Techno- do you even know what this looks like?” Ranboo asked. “It looks like we kidnapped a Watcher!”

“I know exactly what it looks like!” Techno snapped back.

“WAIT!” Tommy carefully stepped over to the Watcher.

“Tommy, what the hell are you doing?” Ranboo asked, stepping back.

“Looking for a com…” Tommy pulled her cloak back. Under the woman’s arm was an ornately decorated wooden box, gripped in her hand, but no communicator. He checked her other arm, and there wasn’t anything.

“Don’t they normally wear the coms on their arms?” Tommy asked.

“That’s what I thought,” Techno said. “But don’t go patting around! Remember, we’re dealing with a hoity-toity Watcher. She’s probably got an armatta of others watching to see what we do.”

Tommy shrugged and started looking around more.

“TOMMY!” Ranboo exclaimed.

“What’s gonna happen?” Tommy asked, looking back at them. “I spontaneously combust?”

“YES!”

Tommy rolled his eyes and continued looking around.

“Okay, unless it’s in her breast, she doesn’t have a com.”

“At least she isn’t being tracked… I think” Techno sat down in a chair.

“Maybe they started implanting trackers into the Watchers now,” Ranboo suggested, getting a look from Tommy.

Slowly, the woman opened her eyes, looking up at Tommy. He backed away, putting his hands up.

The woman sat up slowly, grabbing the box close to her chest, not meeting their eyes.

“They won’t look here,” She said. “My communicator is in the ocean.”

Tommy tensed up and watched Techno carefully stand up.

“Are you okay?” He asked for the second time.

She finally looked up and smiled, but in a hallow, empty way. “Yes.”

“How did you find this place?” Techno said, making his voice less sympathetic. She held up the box and looked around for something.

“A map…” She said, preoccupied by the fact the map wasn’t right beside her. Techno climbed up the ladder and looked around the floor, seeing the thin paper on the ground. He grabbed it and came back down.  He looked at it before handing it to her.

“What is this?”

“A map.” The woman took the map back and folded it back up. She unlocked the box and slid it inside. She looked up at them, eyes wide.

“Do you want to help me?”

“Help you?” Tommy said, “Help a Watcher? No way!”

“I’m not a Watcher anymore. At least not now.”

“What does that even mean?” 

“I have a plan. We’re going to trap them. We need someone on the inside. That’s me.”

Tommy looked at her like she was crazy. Techno crossed his arms, towering over the Watcher.

“And trust that you won’t sell us out?” He said, smirking slightly. “Uh-huh.”

“What can I do that you’ll trust?” She asked, standing.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Tommy said. “Something a Watcher wouldn’t do even for an undercover mission?”

The woman grabbed the clasp on her cape and ripped it off, letting the silky fabric fall to the ground. She dropped the symbol, and crushed it under her foot. She looked up at them and stared them in the eyes.

“What else?”

“You’ll do anything?” Ranboo asked. 

“Anything.”

Tommy groaned, “Ranboo don’t you dare do anything stupid--”

“I won’t, I won’t…” The enderman rubbed his chin, “What’s your plan?”

“I’m not telling you that until you’re on board,” She toughened her voice, standing tall, foot still placed over the shattered symbol. “To get trust, give.” She took off another symbol, ripping the pendant from her neck and staring at it with foggy eyes for only a moment before tossing it into the small bath of lava to her side.

After the haze had cleared, the woman turned back to them, pulling her hair into a ponytail.

“You can call me Pearl.”

“That’s not your real name, is it?” Techno asked.

“Sure it is. You just can’t let anyone know.” Pearl clarified, “We’ll be traitors.”

Tommy looked between Ranboo and Techno and then he looked at Pearl. He held out his hand.

“Tommy.”

She shook his hand, smiling.

“Technoblade,” Techno said, nodding with a grin. Ranboo looked around the room and finally spoke:

“Ranboo.”

Pearl looked between them smiling.

“Do you want to know the plan?”

~~~

“No one can get into Hermitcraft.”

Xisuma’s voice turned from confident to near anger of doubt at the idea that someone would even think that the barrier let someone in without him noticing. 

“Pearl is gone,” Scar growled, blue, ethereal wings flaring. “Something got in, X.”

The meeting room was tense as it always was when two head Watchers started arguing.

“NOTHING-” Xisuma slammed his fist into the wall. “-can get in… do you understand me?”

Scar scoffed, the only one unaffected by Xisuma’s outburst. “Nothing? How about that fool of your brother? How about that glitch of Hels? Nothing?” Scar laughed. “V-EX should have made me admin. You know that better than I…”

“I was chosen for this job explicitly by Ilmango. You came later and hardly have half of my experience.”

“Even more embarrassing for you, I guess.”

“If I may--” Grian stood up, getting both head Watchers’ attention. Grian sunk back at the sight of their faces. “We need to find Pearl, no matter what happened to her.”

Doc stood up, “Yes, Grian is right. I understand that a breach is very serious, but I think you two could deal with that while a separate group looked for Pearl. There is no need to yell.”

Scar and Xisuma glared at him, knowing he was right.

“Dare to speak without permission again,” Xisuma warned, “and rethink your place here.”

“Your logical fallacies mean nothing when your plans are initially flawed.” Grian looked away as Doc knowly tested his luck.

“Remember the last time you back mouthed a Watcher,” Scar scoffed.

Doc sat down, his notes being duly heard.

“Okay, in light of that, ” Xisuma sighed, “How would you and Grian like to go find Pearl? If that’s too much trouble, I will be sending Iskall.”

“Not at all,” Grian said.

Mumbo suddenly stood. “Actually, I would like to refute this.”

Doc scoffed under his breath.

“Explain,” Xisuma commanded.

“Pearl is known to have adverse effects with Grian, and Doc is known to be very… disloyal . I believe it’s in our best interest for me and Iskall to do this.”

Scar and Xisuma looked at each other and then back to Mumbo.

“You’re right,” Scar said. “Grian, Doc, you will be staying here.”

The two glanced at each other, Grian’s lips pressed. Iskall and Mumbo stood, leaving the room quietly. 

After the meeting, Grian and Doc walked out behind everyone.

“So now what?” Grian asked.

“I guess we’ve got to forget about it,” Doc muttered, “until we find another opportunity.”

Grian sighed and started walking back to Boatem. Doc went his separate way. Mumbo was just at his base packing up. Grian hid the touch of envy and walked up.

“Are you excited?” He asked. Mumbo looked back at him and smiled.

“Excited? This is a job, Grian, hardly anything to be excited about until we find Pearl.”

“What if you don’t?”

Mumbo cocked his head, furrowing his brow ever so slightly. “We will. I don’t like this bout of doubt you’ve been having. You seem so… reluctant these days.”

“Reluctant or cautious,” Grian sighed, “There’s a lot going outside these barriers, Mumbo. I don’t want you, Iskall, or Pearl to get hurt. It’s dangerous.”

Mumbo laughed as if Grian something so stupidly naive it was adorable. “Not for us.”

“It could be.”

“Are you suggesting you know more than you are telling me?”

“I’m suggesting that the cocky attitude we’ve adopted could be a weakness.”

“It’s not being cocky, Please,” Mumbo hummed, “we have every right to acknowledge we have a hand up here.” Grian watched Mumbo strap a shulker box to his horse. “Whoever took Pearl will pay dearly, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Completely.”

Grian began to walk away when Mumbo called his name one last time.

“Grian, Watchers have yet to fail.” He spoke like he was reading it from stone. “We will not fail this time.”

Grian gave him a nod and continued to walk. He thought about the ‘conversation’ Scar and Xisuma were having.

No one can get into Hermitcraft.

But people can get out.

As the builder walked back to his base, he picked a poppy from the ground, holding it in his hands, fiddling with it. His cave base’s entrance gaped like a mouth, wanting to swallow him and all of his worries. He stood outside for a second, simply looking up, thinking about nothing.

Well, maybe he was thinking about someone.

He walked into his cave and slid between two shops, making sure no one was watching him. He walked down a staircase, pulling a lever to make it disappear behind him. He carried the flower over and knelt down on the ground, surrounded by other poppies. With gentle hands, he planted it.

Each day, he planted another one, hoping one day they would be enough to account for everything he did wrong.

Maybe one day it would.

~~~

“Mumbo, the tracker says her communicator is in the ocean.” Iskall was matter of fact when he said it, glaring at Mumbo like it was his problem.

“What’s the issue?” Mumbo asked.

“The issue is that they’ve probably got Pearl tied up somewhere and are about to ransom her.”

“And?”

“That makes this so much harder than it needs to be.” Iskall jumped on his horse and leaned forward. “Why didn’t you just let Grian and Doc do it, would’ve gotten them out of your hair for a while.”

“Were you not listening?” Mumbo asked, jumping onto his horse. “They are not the most trustworthy, and recently they haven’t been extremely so.”

“So?” Iskall said, “I don’t get why we can’t just leave this to Ilmango--”

“Because Pearl is officially our problem,” Mumbo interrupted. Iskall rolled his eyes.

“Well, are we just gonna sit here?”

“You are really getting on my nerves tonight.”

“You are always on my nerves.”

Mumbo ignored him, kicking his house into a run. Iskall groaned and followed him. In no time at all, they were at the barrier. Dressed down into civilian wear, it was unlikely anyone would recognize them. It had been decades since they had seen family and friends, they wouldn’t recognize them either. Between Mumbo facial hair and Iskall’s robotic eye, they were invisible to anyone who wasn’t caught up on every Watcher authority, which included the general public.

As they rode across the withered bridge, Iskall looked out at the ocean. The dark green splashed and sloshed beneath them, a deadly foe to the flightless. Recovering the communicator was pointless; the little piece of iron and redstone could be easily remade. There wasn’t anything recorded on Pearl’s that was copied a thousand times over in The Library.

“Iskall!” Mumbo pulled his horse to a stop once they reached the shore. Iskall caught up, looking at the scene.

“Bad beach episode I guess,” Iskall laughed, hoping off to examine.

“This is ages away from the city,” Mumbo thought out loud. 

“Exile arch is my bet,” Iskall jokes, picking up a piece of stale cake, hitting it against the table with thumps. “Hey, Mumbo, you think this is how modders make cake swords?”

Mumbo didn't seem amused by Iskall’s humor. Iskall tossed the cake, making a sizable dent in the shore. They walked further on shore, holding their horses' reins.

“I’m thinking this place is creepy.”

“Iskall, please try to be serious?”

“Serious? Look at this place!” Iskall laughed again. “It’s literally a mess! Someone built this like it was an anarchy faction!” He gestured to a messily built tower. “Someone probably jumped off of that!”

“Yes, so let’s move on.” Mumbo jumped back on his horse. Iskall followed his lead, the two trotting further on land.

“Come on, dude,” Iskall said, pulling beside him. “There isn’t really a need to be so uptight right now.”

“Pearl is missing.”

“I know, but we haven’t been on a mission together in ages… All I’m asking is that you at least try to laugh at my jokes.”

“Maybe I would if they were actually funny.”

“Alright, be a dick.”

Chapter Text

The plan started with a hideout. Pearl called it the easiest way to tackle the Watchers. All good revolutionaries have a secret hideout. She told Techno, Tommy, and Ranboo about the maps, but she didn’t let them see them yet. They needed to prove some loyalty, and to be far, the three expected the same from her.

A test was in order.

At the hideout, the old wreckage of a faction called Evolution, they sat around a fire and stared at each other. It wasn’t a stare of malice; it was a stare of concentration and thought. How would they test each other without critically fucking everything up?

"We could have a building competition?" Ranboo suggested. Techno glared at him.

"She's a watcher, she's gonna be better than us by default," he said.

"How would that prove anything, anyways?" Pearl asked, "if we can build, so what?"

Ranboo hummed, "good points…"

Tommy groaned, falling backwards off his log. "All of this is worthless! Fighting watchers is like trying to… fight watchers!!!"

"So maybe we just need to trust each other!" Ranboo said, opening his arms. The other three stared back at him with dead looks. Pearl stood up.

"I'm tired: the test can be sleeping."

"Ah-ha!" Tommy exclaimed, pointing at her. "You want us to be vulnerable so your Watcher friends and kill us!"

Pearl looked at him, sizing him up. "I have no communication device, I burnt my Watcher symbols, I will be the first one asleep so if you want to kill me, go ahead. Honestly, I've got a better success rate with death than I do fighting Mumbo and Xisuma. Do your worst." Pearl plopped down on the ground and shoved dried leaves and sticks under her head.

Ranboo and Techno looked at each other and shrugged. Tommy watched them in disbelief as they settled down in the grass.

Tommy grumbled to himself, pulling out his sword and sitting on the log.

He held it up to his chin, forcing himself to stay awake.

By sunrise, Tommy was snoring louder than Technoblade. Pearl was the first to awake, which already put a target on her back. She cleared her throat, standing up and stretching. Targets were the least of her problems. As long as her cohorts didn’t spill anything, they would be free to develop a hideaway and create defenses.

So she started chopping trees. The old faction was so old that nature had taken back over. Which was very convenient. Whatever this place was, it didn’t last long. The Watcher’s must’ve really hated this place and its members.

She’s never been on a raid before. From what people like Iskall and Doc told her, they were miserable. Killing on sight, blood everywhere, killing dogs, kids, trapping people in mindless, empty states to serve Watcher purposes. Doc told her that when she asked why he didn’t use Impulse’s villager trading hall.

The connection still evades her.

Iskall told her his story when she asked about his eye. He made sure to add the gorey details about how he lost his eye defending Stress, only for them to be stripped apart.

“All in the business,” he had said, tears welling up in his eye.

Of course, both of the recounts were followed by “don’t tell X I said that” and all for Mumbo and Xisuma to reduce any such thoughts.

Their recounts sounded more like setting people on the right track, like they had done to her. By giving ordinary, wild users the ability to gain consciousness of their actions, they opted to save lives.

And, no, they would never kill dogs. That’s simply evil. 

“What are you doing so early?”

Tommy’s voice broke her trance. She blinked.

“Good morning.”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

“I just woke up at this time, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“It is, thank you.” Tommy pulled out a pickaxe. “Where should we start a mine? Since all of us are still alive, I guess we gotta start working together.”

“I’d say so!” Pearl smiled. “I don’t think we’ll need a particular place, but I’d like to have most of the base underground. Hidden, y’know?”

Tommy nodded. “Sure.”

After Techno and Ranboo woke up, productivity really began. With the trees slowly growing back and more arms to mine with, the underground base was hitting it off!

One small mining staircase expanded and by the end of the day they were cleaning the space up with wood and stairs.

Cleverly covered by a mound of dirt and rudimentary redstone, the base was well on its way to complete.

Or complete enough for the four misfits to function.

Or attempt to function.

“So now what?” Ranboo asked, “are we gonna make a plan of attack?”

“We can’t attack yet,” Techno said, “if Watchers can destroy entire factions, they can take on four people.”

“So we need more people,” Pearl smiled. “And a strategy! We’ll need to infiltrate them, strike them without them knowing.”

“How in the world would we do that?” Tommy spat, “we can’t just go around the city asking if people want to go fight Watchers with us!”

“And Watchers are known for being hard to sneak up on,” Techno said, “trust me, I know.”

“Well, we have something that past factions didn’t have.” Pearl smiled. “Now don’t kill me, but I came from Hermitcraft. I’m eyes on the inside. I can distract them! Weaken them from the inside so they don’t focus on a trap. If things start going awry inside, the outside is the least of their worries!”

Techno looked at Tommy. “She’s right. If we can throw them off our sent, we can build a team here.”

“So you go into Hermitcraft,” Tommy started, standing up, “alone, by yourself, leaving us, into safety, so that we can gather Watcher haters in one place to go attack Hermitcraft.”

He turned to Ranboo and Techno. “THIS IS A SET UP!

Pearl rubbed her chin. “That’s a really good plan, Tommy…” she said absentmindedly. “What if they suspect this plan? They already are going to think I ran away or got kidnapped, so what if they are expecting a ransom, or something…”

“Pearl,” Techno said, “don’t play stupid, now's not the time to pretend you don’t know what’s--”

She slapped a hand over his mouth.

The four stopped moving entirely, hearing a voice right above them. They looked at each other. Maybe if they could hear people above them, they should move the private meeting room down a few levels.

“Rudimentary!” A familiar voice complained, the sound of pistons retracting.

They scrambled to grab their weapons, hiding behind the doorway as two sets of feet walked down the steps.

“Why do you think she’ll be here?” It was Iskall.

“Because where else would she go?” Mumbo. “Uh, processing isn’t how it used to be. Watchers used to be trained against frivolous emotions.”

They walked into the meeting room, somehow not noticing the four traitors pinned to the wall now behind them.

“What a plain little meeting room,” Mumbo grimaced. “This can’t be Pearl’s doing. She must be further below.”

“Are you sure?” Iskall laughed. “Maybe she just didn’t feel like kitting out her playhouse.”

As Mumbo opened his mouth to chastise Iskall, the two of them were knocked to the ground. Iskall’s head hit the table, causing him to go unconscious immediately. Mumbo, though, rolled away from his attackers and pulled out a sword. 

“Stay back!” He yelled, looking at Pearl. “Pearl? What are you doing?”

She looked at the three gentlemen holding their swords at the ready. Pearl slid a knife from her belt, one that radiated with a glowing purple, more fierce than a normal enchantment. It was the same one that glazed Mumbo’s sword.

She looked back at Mumbo, swiftly kicking the sword away from his hand. She grabbed his neck and slammed him on the table, her blade sat on his forehead, bearing into his skin. Mumbo didn’t look scared to any extent.

He was angry.

“Pearl, I don’t know what you are doing, but you need to stop this right now!” he yelled, spitting in her face.

Unmoving, she spoke softly, eyes wide and piercing:

“I’m proving who I’m loyal to.”

With only a touch more pressure, the blade cut into his skin.

Then he looked scared.

Small black trails ran from the blade into the cut, making the veins black before dissipating into nothing. A drop of black-ish blood dripped down his face.

She let go of them and returned to her smiling air of innocence, turning back to her cohorts.

“Let’s go put those prison cells to use and lower this meeting room!” She glanced at Mumbo and Iskall. “Oh yeah, and destroy their communicators.”

~~~

Mumbo and Iskall were shoved into separate chambers, locked behind obsidian and iron doors. They weren’t incredible works of art like Watcher prisons or Sam’s prison, but they would hold a couple of defenseless redstoners.

Tommy looked through the window at Mumbo, who stared back, the slit on his forehead still bleeding.

“If that man gets out, we’re dead.”

“Why send them?” Techno asked, “Hermitcraft or not, aren’t they just redstoners?”

“Mumbo Jumbo and Iskall,” Pearl said as she pinned a map of Hermitcraft on a board. “Iskall is a great fighter. I’ve seen him beat Ren and False the area… and Mumbo…”

“That’s Mumbo Jumbo?” Tommy asked, eyes wide, “Mumbo Jumbo was like my father figure growing up!” He spun around and pointed a finger at Mumbo. “You betrayed me!”

Mumbo grimaced back.

“I thought that was Phil,” Techno said.

“Well, yeah, it is now.” Tommy sat down in their new meeting room. “But before Phil it was Mumbo.”

Ranboo sat down across from him. “So what’s the plan now? I think we can trust each other now.”

“I hope so!” Pearl laughed, “I just cut my mentor with a permadeath knife and locked him in a prison!” She looked like she just told them she got an A on a test.

“Yeah…” Techno said, “are all Watcher’s that good at attacking people?”

“Well, I guess not! Mumbo didn’t put up much of a fight.” Pearl sat down. “Come to think of it, I was in processing for a while longer than normal, and I have gone through my fair share of fighting classes. I know everything and anything they can throw at us. That much training is actually paying off! Who knew?”

Techno grinned, “Oh yeah, this is going to be good.”

“Okay, focus, plan:” Tommy said, slapping the table. “What’s the plan?”

Pearl lifted up her box. “Well, the maps. Whoever gave this to me said that these maps would help us. I was thinking, while I mix things up on the Hermitcraft side, one or two of you guys could follow one or two.”

“What about recruitment?” Techno asked, “Even if the Watchers are caught unaware, we won’t be able to take them alone.”

“The letter said to find the people who will help us,” Pearl said, “Maybe these maps lead to them.”

“Maybe…”

“We can try,” Ranboo said, “right?”

“Why not?” Techno said, jumping up, “we are in a position like no other, and we’ve got to take some risks. We’ve got two Watchers in prisons. That’s farther than anyone before us.”

Pearl smiled at him. “Is this our plan?”

Techno stood up and put his hand in the center of the table.

“This is so dumb, Techno,” Tommy groaned. Ranboo and Pearl ignored him, putting their hands in. With hesitation, Tommy put his hand in the center.

~~~

Xisuma looked out at the ocean. His gaze pierced through the fog watching for someone to return. It was unlikely that Pearl got very far. She probably realized she was being immature and didn’t know how to get back across the bridge.

Soon, Iskall, Mumbo, and Pearl would come trotting back, Pearl would be put in isolation, and in a day or two, this event would be put in the past.

Even though nothing could see it beneath his helmet, Xisuma smiled. He folded his gloved hands behind his back.

A second presence filled the space and Xisuma’s smile left him.

“How’s the fog?”

Scar’s voice grated his ear. “Hello, Scar.”

“Are you waiting for them to return? Don’t you have more valuable things to do with your time?”

“Making sure two of my Watchers are safe is important.”

“Maybe you should go babysit them on the next mission.”

Xisuma finally turned to the smaller man. Scar smiled at him, his bright blue eyes glowed in the dim night. His brown, puffy hair flew in the wind.

“Now, Xisuma, you know how Ilmango thinks of you.”

“I know how V-EX thinks of me.”

“Same thing Ilmango thinks.”

Xisuma ignored Scar for the most part. His cocky smirk that he always wore was enough to make Xisuma punch someone. One day, that someone would be the snarky little asshole.

“So, have they sent you any messages?” Scar asked, turning off his smirk to talk business. They didn’t want to work together, but they had to.

“Nothing yet. The other day they told me that they found some sort of beach with ruins on them.”

“That’s awfully far from the city.” Scar furrowed his brow.

“Iskall assumed exile.”

Scar shook his head, scoffing. “What do they even do over there?”

“Go insane, clearly.”

As they stared into the fog, a figure formed. Pearl crashed in front of them, face planting into the mud. Xisuma and Scar gave each other a look before watching Pearl again.

She scrambled to her feet, face covered in tears and snot.

“X-Xisuma, Scar!” She ran to them and hugged them, sobbing.

“Pearl? What on earth?”

“I’m sorry! I-I didn’t know, I was dumb…” Scar peeled her off of him.

“Your problem,” he said, opening his bright blue wings and shooting into the sky.

Xisuma groaned, wrapping an arm around her and pushing her to walk.

“Talk to me Pearl, why did you leave?” He didn’t bother to make his voice soft.

“I-I wanted to get away, to be alone, but-but I got attacked!” She paused to let out a sob. Xisuma wasn’t comfortable with people crying on a normal day, let alone Pearl.

“Hey, it’s fine. Don’t do it again.” Xisuma put a hand on her back and brought her to Impulse’s work in progress factory. He messaged Impulse to get down there even though it was the middle of the night. Impulse would be fine.

Impulse was down there quickly, panting a little by the time he got down.

“Hey X!” He looked at Pearl. “Oh- Pearl? What happened?”

“What we predicted,” Xisuma said, edging his voice to signal to Impulse that now wasn’t the time. “She ran away, got scared and came back. I hope she’s learned her lesson, but until we know for sure, keep her out of me and Scar’s way.”

Impulse just nodded, taking Pearl inside.

“Oh,” Xisuma said, grabbing the door as Impulse tried to close it. “Look at me when I’m speaking.” Impulse forced his eyes to meet Xisuma visor, where he could just barely see the admin’s piercing purple eyes and bright red scars. “Do not let anything happen. Don’t let your eyes off of her.”

“I won’t.”

Xisuma let go of the door and the force caused it to slam shut. Impulse shook his head.

“Okay, come on, let’s get you some tea and sit down…” Impulse led Pearl to his living space. She sat down staring absently, trying to decipher Xisuma’s behavior. By the time Impulse came back, Pearl was staring at him, tears completely wiped away.

“Why did he say that to you? Are you scared of Xisuma?”

Impulse set the cups of tea down and sat down, avoiding her eyes. Impulse was known for avoiding eye contact. She remembered Mumbo told her that it didn’t matter if he was a Watcher for longer, eye contact wasn’t negotiable. But she didn’t force it. What Mumbo said didn’t matter anymore.

“I’m not scared of him,” Impulse said, finding the sureness in his voice. “It’s just late.”

Pearl nods, although that doesn’t make any sense. Pearl could see the dark circles under his eyes, the way his hands subtly shook when sipping his tea. And it wasn’t tea. It was coffee. The smell was undeniable. His blinks were slow and lasted longer than they should.

“You should get some sleep.”

Impulse looked at her with a smile. “I’ve gotta keep an eye on you. You really scared us, you know?”

Pearl cocked her head. “How? What did you think happened?”

Impulse readjusted himself in his chair, sitting up. “We thought you’d run away and got kidnapped or something.”

“Oh.” Pearl smiled. “I didn’t. I just got lost. I met some nice people though. It didn’t seem like they wanted to skin me.”

“They probably were scared of you.”

“Like you’re scared of Xisuma.”

Impulse avoided her eye contact more. “I’m not scared of him. He’s our boss. There’s gotta be some hesitancy. I don’t want to say the wrong thing and neither should you.”

Pearl fiddled with her hands. “No one noticed my symbols were gone.”

Impulse looked her up and down. He sighed, standing. “We gotta get you a new communicator anyways. Come on.”

“Don’t you want to wait till morning?”

“If Xisuma or Scar finds out that you aren’t wearing symbols--” he cut himself off, realizing his voice was panicking. “They’ll be upset.”

Pearl nodded, standing up. She followed him out of his base and to the Octagon. Doc was in charge of building communicators, command blocks, and all the other extremely in depth redstone. It was likely he wasn’t asleep either.

Impulse walked straight in, yawning and stretching. Pearl followed him to Doc’s personal lab where Doc was sleeping on his desk. Impulse knocked on the doorway, waking the creeper up.

He spun around in his chair, saluting Impulse. Impulse and Pearl saluted back.

“Welcome home, Pearl. What’s up?”

“Pearl somehow lost her communicator and all of her symbols,” Impulse explained. Doc stood up, walked over, and grabbed Impulse’s shoulder.

“Go get some sleep. X is just torturing you at this point. I’ll get Pearl situated.”

“He said--”

“I don’t care what he said. Just go lay down in my bed.” Doc patted his back and he nodded slowly. He turned and left the room. Pearl watched him but Doc gestured for to come in. “So, how did you manage all that?”

Pearl looked around the lab. “My communicator fell in the river,” she lamented with little emotion, “and my symbols fell out when I got stuck in some bushes.”

Doc nodded, not truly convinced with her story.

“Alright,” he said, clapping his hands, “let’s get you into some new clothes, get you back in action. I’m shocked Scar or X didn’t put you in isolation.”

Pearl was reminded of her question.

“Is Impulse scared of Xisuma?”

Doc raising his eyebrows. He sighed, “you haven’t told anyone yet.” He plopped down in his chair. “Impulse isn’t on X’s good side right now. Remember when he accidentally created a massive lag spike near the command center?”

Pearl nodded. “But that was months ago. Why would he still be mad?”

“I don’t know. Whatever that lag did really pissed Scar and him off.”

Pearl looked around his office and then back to him. “Why do you tell me things you don’t want X to hear?”

“I personally think that we should know what’s going on with each other. All a lot of us do. It’s just hard to have heart to hearts when we’re not allowed to talk to some of you about certain things.” Doc took a deep breath, closing his eyes. “Technically, we aren’t supposed to tell you anything, really.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Doc stood up. “No problem. Now let’s get you situated.”

~~~

Impulse couldn’t fall asleep.

And it wasn’t because his mind was too busy, or because he’d chugged enough coffee to kill a man.

It was because of his least favorite thing about being a Watcher.

If you do something to make your admins mad, they can do practically anything to you.

Including making it impossible to sleep by messing up your code. So even when Doc had offered for him to sleep, it really wasn’t worth it. He was stuck. He didn’t even know what he did wrong. It wasn’t even his fault that the lag happened. It was an unavoidable lag spike. He even warned the sanction before it happened. No one else was mad.

Impulse clenched his fists, digging his nails into his skin.

He tried so hard to make Xisuma and Scar happy, to prove that he was worth keeping around and as soon as he made one, tiny, incomprehensibly small mistake, he was tortured. He knew what he was worth to the Watchers…

He just wished he was worth more.

The bed folded beside him as someone sat down. A cold, robotic hand rested on his bicep.

“Xisuma is scared of losing his potion to Scar,” Doc said, squeezing Impulse's arm as a sob broke from the human’s throat. “He doesn’t hate you. He’s scared that a crack that small will cause the dam to collapse if he doesn’t punish who created it, whether or not you are the person.”

Impulse covered his face, red with embarrassment. When he cried in front of people, he felt like a child. Even in front of Zedaph or Tango, he’d wished he’d just suck it up. He opted for crying alone or not at all, but anyone knows the pain that comes with it. If he didn’t know better, crying might feel nice.

“If Xisuma and Scar try to do anything to you, tell me. I’ll get it figured out. They cling on to power that no one is trying to take, and they get defensive over the smallest of things. You aren’t doing anything wrong.”

Doc’s words should’ve made Impulse feel better, but instead he cried harder. It was a battle he couldn’t win.

Chapter Text

Mumbo wiped the blood from his forehead for the millionth time. He stared forward, eyebrows knitted and clenched as he grimaced. He could just barely see the young boy left to guard Iskall and him.

Through a window, he could see into Iskall’s cell. His childhood friend laid unconscious, a wrap of wool around his head, on a bed. Mumbo teeth pressed into the skin behind his lips.

He walked up to the door and knocked on it.

The young man looked at him, brandishing his netherite sword.

“Let me out,” Mumbo demanded.

The young man smirked. “No.”

“That is an order, I practically own--”

“What? What do you own? You don’t own me!” 

“I own that sword, I--”

“No you don’t! I do now!”

Mumbo watched with disdain as he danced around and swung the sword like a band director’s baton.

“How old are you, anyways?” Mumbo asked, “Eleveen?”

The child stopped dancing. “Excuse me? I am seventeen you bitch!”

“Uh-huh, I totally believe that and don't think it’s pathetic that they let the kid guard a couple of Watchers!” Mumbo, thinking he got one up on the kid, crossed his arms and smirked.

“I think it’s pathetic that two Watchers are being guarded by a seventeen-year old with little to no issues but having to grapple with the fact that some I once looked up to is now a little spoiled bitch.”

Mumbo blinked. “I’m not spoiled!” He yelled, only getting the kid to laugh back.

“Listen, Mr. Mumbo Yumbo, I have four older brothers, being called a child is the least of my worries!”

“It’s Jumbo .”

“Yeah, yeah, sure it is.” The child turned away from the door. “The Mumbo Y umbo I knew was kind.”

“I am kind,” Mumbo started, smiling, “Watchers are gratuitous, spending what would be a worthless existence to help those who have lost their way. To end the existence of modders and insidious groups who seek to destroy our revenant governance of this sinful and destructive world. We seek to set those lost on the right path! Our mission is wholly to serve our glorious and fruitful world, to protect it from the vial and true monstrous creatures who seek to destroy it.”

Mumbo saluted to himself.

“Are you done?”

Mumbo glared out the small window. “YOU LITTLE BRAT!”

“I heard Hermitcraft Watcher’s couldn’t curse,” the kid said, “is that true?”

“If it were true, I wouldn’t be able to call you a fucking child with little meaning in your pathetic, worthless, squirming life.”

“I counted one. Is that your max?”

Mumbo screamed, wiping the blood from his face again.

“Whoa, calm down  Jesus…”

Tension built in Mumbo’s chest that entire time, and it took more force than he was willing to admit to not punch something.

“Listen, the whole permadeath knife thing was kinda rude on Pearl’s part, I will admit. But you kinda deserved it. Your general presence was clearly pissing her off.”

“You’re pissing me off.”

“Cool, I don’t want to try to extend an olive branch.” With two swipes, cobblestone blocks covered the door. 

There was a groan from beside him, muffled by the glass. Mumbo turned to the window and saw Iskall turning in his bed. Mumbo stepped over.

“Iskall? Are you awake?”

“Maybe…” He slurred, drool falling from his lips.

“Ew…” Mumbo grimaced. “Iskall, get up, we need to escape.”

Iskall’s hand grabbed the bedsheet, and yelped in pain. Tears ran down his left cheek. He started to take thinner, quicker breaths.

“I can’t see--” Iskall gasped, grabbing his mechanical eye.

“GAH! Stop freaking out, Doc can repair it!” Mumbo started pushing his bed out of the way, trying to find any weakness in the obsidian walls. His hands and nails clenched on the small lumps and edges of the black rock.

But there was nothing. Just solid rock.

Mumbo growled.

Iskall’s breathing started to slow down. Mumbo ran back over to the window.

“Okay, Iskall, we need to--”

Tommy glared up at Mumbo’s window, sitting beside Iskall and grabbing his hand.

“Get away from him, child!” Mumbo yelled.

“I’m helping him,” Tommy growled, “His head is busted up.”

“I don’t care what his head is, get away from him!”

Tommy glared at Mumbo. He stood up and broke the glass block, quickly replacing it with a block of cobblestone.

Tommy could hear Mumbo shout from the other side, demanding he be let out. Tommy ignored him, turning back to Iskall and kneeling back down.

“Keep taking deep breaths,” Tommy said. He grabbed some wraps and put them loosely around his head. “When the guys get back, we can get you cleaned up. I don’t think they’d want me to let you out, even if you were injured.”

Iskall gave him a small nod.

“You remind me of someone…” Iskall said, squinting his eyes open. Tommy just glared at him. “Thank you.”

“Yeah. Don’t let it get to your head.”

“I don’t plan on it.”

Tommy stood up and walked out, closing the door behind him. He turned to the map on the wall, seeing where the beach he knew so well stretched into a bridge to one of the largest Watcher strongholds in existence.

Something so big was there when he was in exile.

If Watchers were really protective over the world, why had that happened? Why did Dream get the power he did?

Maybe Techno and Ranboo were having a better time.

~~~

Tubbo looked over the walls of New L’Manberg.  The walls were no longer obsidian, at least not on the outside. He had put in a lot of work after the destruction. Making sure it looked like a city instead of a war ground. Surely it was all over. Surely it wasn’t worth the trouble of re-building.

But Tubbo stopped thinking that way.

Dream was in prison, Tommy exiled and dead, Techno in self-isolation, Jschlatt dead and buried next to Wilbur. Every fault was sanded down and the only ones who stood stood beside him. Each person left on the barren wasteland realized that it was worth rebuilding the destroyed. There was no one left to destroy it.

So he took a deep breath and let it out, feeling the wind spin around him. The sound of trees and the bustling town and the birds was like a symphony.

Tubbo walked back inside of his office, yelping when he saw two people standing at the table.

“Mr. President,” Ranboo said, smirking.

“Ranboo…” Tubbo gawked, “Techno…”

“Good morning, Tubbo,” Techno said, crossing his arms. Tubbo pulled out his diamond sword, swinging it forward to protect himself. Techno and Ranboo put their hands up.

“We aren’t here to fight,” Techno said, “we just have a proposal.”

“A proposal?” Tubbo laughed in disbelief. “You think, of all people, you can walk in here with a proposal?”

“Tubbo--”

“Do not start running your mouths again!” Tubbo stepped closer with the swords. “I don’t know if you two have realized anything, walking into New L’Manberg, but… it’s New L’Manberg ! I am actually allied with people and we have agreed to no longer take part in war, or conflict, or anything! We are done playing dress up and we are done playing revolution! These places are home to people!”

“I--”

“Get out.” Tubbo pointed the sword at them. Techno and Ranboo looked at each other and then back to the president. “Do I need to say it again?”

Techno reached for his sword, but Ranboo grabbed his arm, backing them away. They turned and left. As they walked from the walls of New L’Manberg, Techno glared at Ranboo.

“We could’ve taken him!” 

“I know, but do you think we could’ve taken all of them?” Ranboo sighed, “Techno, if Tubbo is really allied with a bunch of people, we’d be putting this whole thing at risk. If we can’t get him on our side, better not get him involved.”

Techno sighed but nodded. They started to walk away, pulling up a map Pearl had given them.

“Where in the world do you think this is?” Ranboo asked.

“Hopefully somewhere we can find revolutionaries.” Techno pulled out a compass and held it with the map. “At this rate, we’ll be there in a day or two.”

“We’ll get resources on the way,” Ranboo suggested, “it doesn't look like there are many towns around this place.”

“It looks like an observatory in the middle of a forest,” Techno scoffed, “I think isolation was high on the list when considering buying locations.”

They started heading West, further from any semblance of civilization.

~~~

Pearl woke up. After only a few days of sleeping on the ground, a bed was really nice. Especially in Doc’s base where the admins had to get permission to enter. According to the higher ups, if there wasn’t a place the people could go to escape abusive admins, then the system would be unfair to the little guys. Pearl always wondered which one of the Grand Watcher’s declared that rule. Seemed like an unwatcherly thing to do.

There was a knock on the guest room and Pearl slowly sat up.

“Come in,” She muttered, wiping drool from her mouth. Doc walked in and closed the door behind himself. “‘Morning?”

“Good morning Pearl,” he said. He walked over and sat down on the side of her bed. “Did you sleep well?”

She nodded, cocking her head.

“I’m glad. I’ve gotten the admin’s off our ass for today,” Doc sighed and looked down. “Can you tell me why you ran away?”

Pearl looked at him, wondering why he wasn’t making eye contact. “I got scared. Xisuma and Mumbo made me erase Grian’s mind.”

“Did you get scared?” Doc finally looked at her. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but… there doesn’t always seem to be a lot going on in your head.”

“There is though,” Pearl responded, “I can’t help but think about everything. Is that bad?”

“No, no, I--” Doc cut himself off and put a hand on Pearl’s. “Do you feel like they hurt you in processing… mentally?”

Pearl looked away, despite knowing better. “I mean, they must’ve. Everyone here thinks I’m insane.”

“We don’t think you’re insane.” Doc squeezed her hand. “We did something terrible to you those three years and I can’t begin to apologize for it.”

“Doc, you don’t agree with the Watchers… Do you?”

“Maybe I don’t. It’s needless violence, it’s suffering… There’s nothing good about what we are doing and I’m sorry you had to be a part of it.”

Pearl smiled. She even giggled a little bit. Doc looked at her when she looked at him. She leaned in.

“I don’t want to be a part of it either. That’s why I left! Doc, we can stop this!”

“Pearl, be quiet!” Doc slapped a hand over her mouth. “Listen, you can’t talk about that just out in the open.”

“Then where can we talk?”

Doc led Pearl down into a base beneath the ocean. It was a simple room, deep below. There wasn’t much in it, just some tables. Doc sat down at the table and looked Pearl in the eyes.

“What do you mean?”

Pearl just kept smiling. “Doc, I met people. There was a pig guy twice my size and an enderman and a human. They don’t like the Watchers either. It took a day or two to warm up to them, but we did eventually.”

Pearl didn’t yet want to say that they had kidnapped Mumbo and Iskall, but maybe that time would come.

Doc narrowed his eyes. “Pearl, that’s--”

“Crazy, I know! But get this, they are helping me! And you could help too!”

Doc’s face shifted. The hesitancy was starting to wear off.

“My job is to create a distraction so that the guys can finish recruiting people. That’s all you have to help me with.”

“A distraction? What kind of distraction?”

“We don’t know yet, but I’m gonna do something wild! The guys are working on an even bigger distraction.” Pearl clasped her hands together. “For now, I’ve just got to pretend I’m distraught and I need as much help as possible. Create a mini crisis for Scar and Xisuma, if you will.”

“Pearl, you are insane…” Doc stood up. “But I have an idea you can share. There are mod smiths still out there, hiding out and pretending their work is done. They have devices made to generate disruption devices. Lag that will distract Scar and Xisuma for a sizable time. If you can find a mod smith willing to help you.”

Pearl smiled even wider. “Thank you Doc.”

Doc looked away. “Of course.”

~~~

They stepped through a thick bunch of leaves and looked up at the lab. It filled the space of the forest, only glass domes and a few radio towers stretching above the trees. They walked up to the large metal doors, yellow and black stripes on the edges. It towered above them, much larger than any normal door.

“Do we knock?” Ranboo asked. Techno shrugged, ringing the doorbell.

From the inside, they heard barking. Techno and Ranboo glanced at each other and faced the doors as they opened with a hiss of steam. A man with goggles on his eyes and brown hair opened the door. He held a wrench in one hand and took off his goggles with the other. He had brown eyes that matched his hair. He was wearing a lab coat over top black clothes and he wore knee pads. All of it was covered in soot apart from where the goggles had been. A  skeleton dog ran around his legs.

“Hello?” he snapped, pulling out a diamond sword. “Who are you and how did you find this place?”

Ranboo and Techno again looked at each other.

“Listen, buddy, we’ve already been at sword point once today, we aren't looking for trouble,” Techno said.

“That actually sounds like you’re looking for trouble.”

“Today hasn’t been great for us,” Ranboo said, “I mean, the least you could do is not hold us at sword point.”

The man swung the sword back into its sheath, a weird addition to his mad scientist get-up. “Fine. What do you need?”

“We are looking for a mod smith,” Techno said, “we kinda hoped the mysterious map that led us to a were scientist would know a guy.”

“Know a guy?” The man said. “Where did you get that map? Why did it bring you here?”

“We were given it!” Ranboo said, “Oh gosh, we’re back in that situation of not trusting each other. You’re not a snitch, are you?”

“Why would-- You haven’t answered any of my questions!”

“Yes we have!” Techno snapped.

“Just tell me what you want!” The man groaned.

Deadlocked. Neither side could progress the conversation without exposing something. Techno and Ranboo exchanged a look. The man kept his eyes trained on them.

“Fine,” Techno said, lowering his shoulders, “we are making a resistance against the Watchers and we need something to truly screw over a sanction of Watchers.”

The man lowered his guard. “Oh? So that’s why you need a mod smith?”

“So, do you know one, or are we wasting our time?”

“Know one?” The man smiled. “I AM ONE! Come on in, I’ve been waiting for someone to finally have the balls to fight back with me!”

Techno and Ranboo hesitantly followed him. The inside of the lab was similar to the outside and filled with machines and devices up to the ceiling. 

“Well, that was easy,” Ranboo said.

“I’m glad that there are still people out there willing to fight. I’m so tired of the tyranny.”

“Ah, yes, crazy old guy,” Techno groaned.

“My name is Dan, by the way.”

“Techno.”

“Ranboo.”

 Dan leaned behind a counter and dug around. He “Good to meet you! Are there any others with you?”

“Not right now,” Techno said, picking up a glass box and spinning it in his hands. “The two others in our party are on their own missions.”

“Oh, I see!” Dan turned around and handed Ranboo a small box with a button on it. “You place this thing next to, say, villagers, and a sanction will blow up… practically. A good few seconds of literally being frozen.”

“That sounds about right,” Ranboo said, tossing it up and down. “Wait, how do we get it in?”

“We meet up with Pearl, give it to her,” Techno said, “until then, we can make sure this guy isn’t going to tell on us.”

“Tell on you?” Dan scoffed, “listen, I am a mod smith. I’m legally dead. My boss is already dead. I don’t have a place to go outside of this lab… I have nothing to gain from Watchers.”

“Okay, cool,” Techno said, “sadly, a sob story isn’t going to exempt you from suspicion.”

“I understand. It harms no one to be cautious.” Dan looked at them. “Do you have a base? I hate to disappoint, but this lab doesn’t have nearly the resources it did when it was running.”

“Yeah, we do,” Ranboo said, “so what’s it like, working with mods?”

“It’s weird. Over the years, Watchers have brought some mods into society because, shocker, they’re useful. But others, the dangerous ones, the ones made of pure insanity, weaved together by mad men, entire dimensions made for the purpose of pain-- working with mods risks your life… even before the Watchers decided it was their job to decide.”

“So…” Techno asked, “Do you want to help us? Even more than this. We’ll need more than four people and a modded device to take down the government.”

“Of course! I even know some people who are raring to go!” Dan picked up his skeleton dog. “I’m willing to go as long as Grimm can!”

“I don’t see why not,” Ranboo said, “he seems nice enough.”

“Get him to stop barking,” Techno snapped, “that’s going to be a beacon straight to us.” 

“Understood! He’s very well behaved.”

Chapter Text

“Funky…” said Pearl. She held the Disruption Device in her hands and giggled to herself. Techno and Tommy sat with her in some bushes. Ranboo agreed to stay behind and watch the prisoners. Doc stood above them keeping watch, pretending he was repairing a weather siren.

“Are you sure we can trust him?” Techno said and peaked up at Doc.

“Sure,” Pearl hummed, eyes still trained on the box. “He basically knows everything, save for Mumbo and Iskall.”

“Well, that’s not great. What if they come looking for them?” Tommy asked.

“They won’t.” Pearl finally lifted her eyes to them and smiled. “If anyone is going to look for those two, it’s Doc and Grian. They’ll shoot Grian with a memory erase spell and he’ll have a breakdown when they reach Evo. Doc won’t know how to deal with that, but he’s not going to call for backup. I’m there. Worst case scenario they run away because if X or Scar finds out Doc didn’t call backup, they’d be mad. ”

Techno shakes his head. “You can never be too sure. This is dangerous.”

“Please,” Pearl laughs, “Xisuma is stressed out of his mind, Scar is a pretentious, cocky admin wannabe, and everyone else is just doing their job. As soon as this happens, they’ll freak out and be so distracted on the inside they’ll never see us coming.”

Tommy sat back. “This is going to go terribly.”

Pearl smiled and held up the box. “You guys have no idea how funny this will be.”

~~~

Impulse packed emeralds into a shulker box. He wasn’t paying attention to anything but the current task. The edges of his eyes had gone blurry, and standing up was harder than it needed to be. But this was it. He’d finally be able to sleep after today.

He was so tired he didn’t even realize the world froze for a few seconds, during which he was leaning on the shulker box, closing his eyes.

Behind him, after, he heard someone groan. He repeated the sentiment, having the feeling that one of the villagers had randomly turned into a zombie, as they do. He pulled out his sword to fight off the intruder, but there was no zombie. None of the villagers looked like they turned either.

He rubbed his eyes and sighed. Right. Sleep deprivation.

But movement caught his eyes and he looked, meeting eyes with a woman trapped in one of the villager stalls.

“What the hell?” Impulse spat out and fell backwards.

“Oh? You’re the one saying what the hell?” She spat, pressing her hands on the close walls. “I’ve been trapped in this miserable little hole—” She stopped herself. With a sarcastic laugh, she turned to look at Impulse, leaning on her station table. “You don’t know about us… do you?”

Impulse was quiet for a while, staring up in blank awe. He shook his head.

“I don’t know? Are you a villager? Are you a human? What is going on, please tell me what’s going on?”

The woman’s face loosened a bit and a touch more sympathy graced her eyes. “It’s okay, most watcher’s have no clue villagers are real people.

“What?”

The woman stood up again and crossed her arms. “Let me out and I’ll catch you up?” She held a hand out.

Impulse walked forward; eyes narrowed. “What do I get out of this?”

She sighed, “I knew you’d be like this. Listen, each one of these villagers you enslave here are alive. We aren’t just mindless chunks of code. We’re alive.”

“Then why haven’t you done this yet?” Impulse asked, gesturing vaguely to the woman.

“Because there was some instability,” she said, “didn’t you feel the freeze that just happened?”

Impulse took a deep breath and checked his communicator. There was a large amount of complaining in the chat, but mostly just Xisuma and Scar shushing people. Of course, there were a few messages from Xisuma and Scar privately messaging him.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, pressing back tears.

He broke the table in front of her. The woman stretched and rolled her neck, taking a deep breath. She looked at him and smiled.

Then there was an arrow pointed at his face. The woman quickly had him pinned on the wall.

“Okay, cool,” she said, “so, you are going to let all of these villagers free and get us out of this hell.”

Impulse pulled out his sword. “Okay, hold on! I let you out, fulfill your side of the deal, then we can arrange further!”

“HUNTER!”

Impulse and the woman whipped their heads around to another villager. He had blond hair and bright blue eyes.

“Why don’t you look that much like villagers?” Impulse asked, trying to hide the shiver in his voice.

“Because watchers fucked up our code and made us look as inhuman as possible to lessen the mental destress breeding us would cause you.”

“Hunter, please! He can help.”

“Oh, wise one ,  he’s a watcher,” the woman called back.

“Put the bow down and tell him what he wants to know.”

The woman took a deep breath and did as she was told. Impulse also lowered his sword. If he got caught with them, they’d be killed, he’d be killed. Xisuma and Scar were probably on their way over.

“We need to get out of here,” Impulse said. The woman cocked her head, grimacing. “I don’t know how much my server mates know, but I’m sure my admin won't like this.”

“Free Crafter, then we can get out of here.”

Impulse met the woman’s demands. He turned the location off of his communicator and they disappeared into the forest nearby. Impulse placed a long down and visibly set all of his weapons and tools down beside him, close enough to reach, but far enough to not aid a sneak attack. Hunter did similarly, though Crafter claimed not to have weapons.

“So…” Impulse started fidgeting with his hands. “Can we start with the whole, all villager’s being sentient?”

“Oh yeah, easy.” Hunter leaned on her knees. “When the world started, however long ago that was, somewhere along the line, the watchers, or whatever was before them, decided the world needed to be populated with people a part of its very code. These people, the villagers, became sentient and started to live alongside everyone else. But then, the watchers were like, “ooh we can use these people and their trades to stimulate our economy!” and thus our code was infected to the point where many of us couldn’t talk or wield weapons or do anything.”

“Then what happened? How can you talk to me now?” Impulse asked, leaning in, eyes wide and brow creased.

“Gameknight,” Crafter said, “The User-that-is-not-a-user.”

“Herobrine’s admin?” Impulse said in disbelief.

Crafter and Hunter paused and looked at each other.

“Excuse me?” Hunter said.

“I don’t know!” Impulse said, hands shooting into the sky. “All I know is that Gameknight is the name of one of X-Hero’s admins.”

“Okay, I feel like now we’re the one’s missing shit,” Hunter said, “X-Hero?”

“He’s the oldest watcher. Ilmango and Gameknight are his admins, and they do all his dirty work,” Impulse explained, “like giving us shipments of villagers.”

The three were silent for a good minute.

“Looks like the political landscape has changed since we’ve been out.” Crafter covered his mouth and leaned forward in thought.

“Do you think he’s in his hidey-hole?” A voice asked through the forest. Impulse pinched his face and gestured for Hunter and Crafter to hide. The two ran behind a log, ducking down and covering their mouths.

“There he is!”

Tango and Zedaph walked out of the brush, catching Impulse scooping up his tools.

“Whatcha’ doing out here buddy?” Tango asked. Impulse shrugged, dropping his ax.

“Trying to get away from everything, really!” Impulse said, reaching for his ax, only to drop his sword and pickaxe. “Organizing things!” Tango walked over and helped him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

Zedaph looked around. “Ooh! Did you get a new bow?” Zedaph picked up Hunter’s bow and looked at it, pulling back the string.

Impulse clenched his jaw as sweat fell from his face.

“Yep! My bow!” he coughed, “no one else’s!”

“It’s pretty,” Zedaph said, handing it back to Impulse. He took it, keeping it out instead of putting it in inventory.

“Why out here? You know you can come to my place if you need anything," Tango said.

“Yeah, but it’s just nice out here!” Impulse set the bow down, worried about Hunter trying to kill him more than Zedaph and Tango thinking he was weird. They already did.

“If you want to be alone, no one’s going to be mad,” Zedaph said, placing a hand on Impulse’s shoulder.

“I know, but you know X or Scar would rear their faces if I’m alone for too long.”

Tango scoffed, “I know we’re all on edge, but I wish they’d just leave us alone for a few minutes.” Tango sat down and Impulse felt more dread build in his chest. The blaze looked up at Impulse. “If you want to talk to us about anything, we won’t tell X or Scar.”

“Anything?” Impulse asked, weighing his options.

“Anything,” Zedaph said, hugging Impulse. For a second, Impulse leaned into the hug. Between Pearl and Mumbo going missing and knowing villagers were sentient, he needed it.

Impulse took a deep breath and let go of Zedaph. “You guys have to swear to me right now. Cross your hearts you won’t tell this to anyone.”

Zedaph and Tango crossed their hearts, sighing a promise with a flash of thewatcher symbol between their fingers.

“Hunter, Crafter, come out.”

The two villagers slowly stood up, both completely ready to fight if necessary.

“The villagers are sentient, and we have breeding operations, and I think I’m gonna throw up if I think about it for any longer.” Impulse’s voice cracked when he said it out loud.

Zedaph and Tango looked at the villagers. Impulse turned away, fearing a weapon in his back and a messy respawn right in front of Xisuma’s snarl and Scar’s smug smile.

“Well, um, we can’t let them look like villagers,” Tango said. “If we sneak to my place, we can change their clothes and they will look like normal players! I think if we…” Tango paced as he worked out a plan. He paused. “Now, getting the rest of the villagers out will be nothing if not nearly impossible, so let’s focus on getting the ones who are like them out first.”

“Why don’t we just tell the server?” Zedaph asked. “We could release all the villagers!”

Impulse tried to keep himself from panicking. “Because Scar and X probably know.”

Zedaph and Tango went silent. 

“Right,” Zedpah muttered, “well, we can’t just leave them, but if we help them escape, we’ll be betraying Xisuma and Scar.”

Tango furrowed his brows. “And we let them continue this?” He grabbed Impulse’s shoulders. “I’m sick of all of this. We’re leaving Hermitcraft. For good. And we’re taking the villagers with us.”

“Tango, I--” Impulse couldn’t talk without his voice breaking.

“We’re gonna get you out of here.”

“And we’re gonna fix this!” Zedaph added, “we can’t just sit here knowing everything we’ve helped create. We have to fix this.”

“We will fix this,” Tango reaffirmed.

~~~

Doc and Grian walked into Impulse’s villager farm and started looking. They had to be faster than the admins. They searched around the base of the farm and Grian soon pulled the box from a small crack.

“How did she get it in here without anyone knowing?” Grian asked.

“Impulse is sleep deprived, Xisuma’s stressed, everyone thinks Pearl is ignorant and obedient… no one’s working with a full hand,” Doc replied. He took the box and lifted it in his hands. “Wow. Whoever built this knows mods.”

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Grian said, “I don’t feel like getting my mind erased again.”

They ran out of the open and into a forest, walking back towards the Octagon.

“So does… does it hurt?”

“Mind erasing? Not exactly hurt,” Grian said, rubbing his neck. “More makes you sick.”

“To the point of needing to be taken care of,” Doc said, filling the blanks.

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad we got rid of the creepy robot.”

Grian looked at Doc and raised an eyebrow. “Creepy robot?”

Doc looked back at him. “You don’t remember that thing?”

“Nope.”

“Well, the X-Muse designed a robot to perfectly accommodate you while you had no memory,” Doc explained, “We called it NPC Grian cause it knew everything about you that the Watchers wanted you to know. It literally tried to train you like a dog. It had to teach you how to eat.” Doc lowered his voice. “If you didn’t have that charm, I don’t think you would’ve made it…”

Grian reached up and felt the charm under the collar of his sweater. It was given to him by Taurtis ages ago. He didn’t really remember who Taurtis was. Chills ran down his spine when he tried to remember.

“I thought the charm of keeping was only for your inventory, but I suppose even I don’t know some things,” Doc chuckled.

“A great gift considering,” Grian laughed back. “So, any ideas what Pearl and them are planning? They didn’t turn the thing up all the way.”

“I think Pearl is holding off until they get more alliances. Just trying to hit us in the right places.”

“What do you think it did?” Grian asked, glancing back from where they came.

“I--” Doc hesitated. “I don’t exactly know, but Impulse is definitely gone.”

Grian felt his communicator buzz and pulled it out of his pocket. It was a message from Impulse.

“Grian, please do something for me. Delete this after you're done. Keep the barrier open. Cause a commotion, do something, anything, just clear the exit for me.”

Doc read over Grian’s shoulder and his face deepened.

“I’ll go prank someone,” Grian said, pulling on his elytra, “meet him.”

Doc nodded, running towards the barrier.

Grian flew up through the tree line and shot towards Cub’s base. He grabbed a few blocks of TNT and flint and steel. He ran and found Cub outside, tending to a garden.

“Hey!” Grian yelled, out of breath. He held up the TNT. Cub’s face dropped. “Lovely garden you got here!”

“Grian, don’t you dare light that TNT,” Cub demanded, “I’ll get Xisuma over here right now!”

“Oh no!” Grian said dramatically, “what are they gonna do? Erase my memory again?”

Grian took a deep breath and accepted his faith, lighting the TNT and throwing it at Cub.

Cubfan135 was blown up by Grian

Grian was blown up by Grian

Scar and Xisuma looked at each other.

Chapter Text

Xisuma wasn’t having the best week. Pearl was back, but Impulse, Zedaph, and Tango were gone. Doc and Grian were doing something , Bdubs was still in isolation, and False was doing who knows what on patrol. 

And Scar also knew all of this. He figured he could be helping, but that wouldn’t really help himself, now would it? The more out of control Xisuma became, the sooner Scar would take his place as admin.

As fun as just watching was, Scar wasn’t exactly one for standing idly by. 

Scar approached the building with his wings, seeing the white structure rise out of the sea. He landed and let himself in. There wasn’t anyone else here save for a few golems at each room. They let Scar into Bdubs room, where he stood behind one way glass, watching. Bdubs was in isolation again. Tied up in a rubber room, alone, staring at a blank wall. The room was dark and Bdubs was on his knees, seething.

Scar put a hand behind his back and put the other on the button to activate the speaker.

“Good morning, Bdubs.”

Bdubs whipped his head around to face the mirror. He didn’t say anything, just stared.

“How are you?”

“You won’t break me…” He spat.

“No? Are you sure?”

“I’m used to the hunger, I’m used to your words… there’s nothing you can do that I won’t fight against.”

Scar laughed and sighed, “Bdubs, your tenacity would be such an asset to the Watchers, you know that right? You’re so strong minded, and iron will to match… Bdubs you’re really what we need.”

“I don’t need you, I haven’t.”

“You’re perfect as far as I’m concerned.”

“I know what you’re trying to do.”

“I wish I could see your face outside of that dark room,” Scar breathed, “you’d look so nice…”

“You’re sick… You’re not Scar…”

“I am, though, dear Bdubs. The Scar that loved you is no different than me. I still love you.”

“No… no you don’t…”

“Keep refuting it, surely one day you’ll realize that there is more to this world than a padded cell and ignorance.”

“YOU PUT ME IN HERE!” Bdubs screamed.

Scar smiled. “You are going to stay here. Alone. I'll be sure to make this stay painful. How about nightmares? Stomach pains? When you learn a lesson, maybe I’ll come back. Until then… sleep well…” He took his finger off of the speaker. He turned to walk away.

“SCAR! DON’T YOU DARE LEAVE ME! SCAR, DON’T LEAVE ME! I’M SORRY, I’LL COME BACK!” Bdubs shrieked, trashing against his restraints. “PLEASE!”

Scar walked out of the room and put his hands behind his back. “I’ll come back for you, Bdubs… when it’s time…” 

~~~

Xisuma tried to calm himself down. It was night time, everyone was settling in for bed and Xisuma was going to make himself a cup of tea and sleep well. Yeah… yeah…

He poured the tea pot into the mug Keralis gave him for Hermitcraft’s first anniversary and took a deep breath. He lifted his cup to his lips and took a sip. A bright blue light lit up his room, causing him to spill the tea on himself and drop the mug. It shattered on the floor. He spun around, seeing the one person he was most fearful of seeing.

VE-X.

“Hello, Xisuma,” it said. The Watcher was the smallest of the grand Watchers; just a blob of blue and white pixels tha pulsed and pulled. Well, smallest wasn’t quite right. VE-X could be any size it saw fit. It had two white eyes but no mouth. When it spoke, the light pulsed.

Xisuma clenched his hands on the counter’s edge.

“Sorry to frighten you, but I thought you’d like to know some information.”

Xisuma hated how casual this conversation was.

“You know Scar’s been shadowing you for some time now, and I assume you know why.”

Xisuma nodded.

“Good, so I hope it’s not too much of a shock to let you know that we’ve decided not to transfer you.”

Xisuma felt bile in his throat.

“We’re sending you to the abattoir. I hope that’s not too much of a problem. Well, of course it’s not, well it won’t be! The only one who actually cares I think would be you.”

Xisuma wished he could feel numb like Pearl. He wished he was chosen like Scar and Mumbo to never live a day in their lives loving. He wished he was worth something to the Watchers.

“I mean, you haven’t been useful for some time, Xisuma. In fact, you’ve been weighing down what used to be one of our most productive sanctions. I’m not saying Muse-X was wrong for choosing you, I’m just saying you aren’t chosen anymore.” VE-X started to leave. “Is that fine with you?”

~~~

Xisuma stumbled into Keralis’s house, looking worse than normal. To most of the servers, Xisuma was a wall of armor, unmoving and strong. But to the few, they saw what was under that armor. His hair was a mess despite its short length, his face covered in a thin layer of facial hair, scarred skin, and dark eyes.

Tonight was somehow worse. He was a mess.

“Shishwammy?” Keralis came to his side and led him to the couch. Xisuma’s eyes and nose were red and swollen. As soon as Keralis brought his arms around Xisuma, the admin started to sob again. It was a never ending flow of heartache.

“They aren’t transferring me…” Xisuma choked out, grabbing onto Keralis’s shirt like his life depended on it. “I’m going to die…”

Keralis had seen the abattoir before. He’d worked there before. The thought of Xisuma going through that made his chest tight with tears.

“Shishwammy, I--”

Normally he stayed quiet and stonelike while Xisuma was like this. He wanted to be a support, not someone also cripled by fear. But today he knew. 

He squeezed his best friend and cried with him.

~~~

Xisuma and Scar walked through the castle differently. 

Scar’s head was lifted and he smirked. He strode with his hands quilted behind his back. He squared his shoulders and each step he took hit the shining floor satisfyingly.

Xisuma’s eyes were trained on the ground and his head was folded slightly downward. He clenched his fists at his side and he pushed his shoulders forward towards his ears. His feet stumbled.

“Don’t be too worried,” Scar said as they entered the last haywall before the courtroom. The walls were a glassy and reflective purple. Silver pillars climbed to a ceiling far above them. The windows opened up to the void and decorative curtains framed them. They stopped in front of the door. Scar looked at Xisuma, still smirking. “Come on; you look like you’re about to be killed. They won’t do it on their floors. They’ll do it--”

“In the abattoir,” Xisuma finished, looking up. There wasn’t any point fighting Scar anymore. His fight was over.

“See! You still know what you're doing!” Scar's voice was condescending. “Maybe they’ll spare you and let you live in some small sanctions somewhere. Oh, wait, the decision was finalized last week, am I correct?”

The hallway lasted forever. The end still wasn’t in sight. Xisuma considered running many times. He’d thought about it for weeks now, and ever since Pearl disappeared, he knew his fate was sealed. He’d spent nights buried in Keralis’s chest sobbing. He’s spent nights throwing up. He’s spent nights awake, just staring at the ceiling.

And Scar knew. Maybe that was part of the reason he was so happy. He knew how much Xisuma wanted the rumors to be false, for this to be a hoax. He’d seen his admin break down under pressure more and more as the time grew nearer. Scar had spent many nights just smiling to himself. He spent nights drinking with Cub. Before the decision was even finalized, he knew and, boy, was it a great feeling.

The end of the hall stepped out from the void’s fog and loomed over him. Xisuma was sure he was going to throw up. He grabbed his stomach with both arms. Xisuma’s whole body filled with a weight he couldn’t describe. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. That morning he hadn't even put on his armor. It didn’t matter what he looked like. Scar just glanced at him without another word. 

The doors opened. The guy who opened the door was younger than them but far higher ranking. Hero-X’s right hand man.

“Good evening, Gameknight,” Scar and Xisuma said in sync.

“Scar, Xisuma,” he said with a bow and let them into the courtroom. In a circular desk sat three beings. They towered over the two, larger than anything else that existed, at least now. They made sure to get rid of the Modzillas and Johns of the world to maintain their grandeur.

There was VE-X, Virtual Execution. He was in charge of death and life basically. Permadeath and respawn were his doing.

To his left was Hero-X, the perceived oldest being alive. He was cocky; in charge of the code that ran through the very fabric of the world. He allowed admin to do far more than mortals ever could. 

And there was Muse-X to the right, the one who wanted to see them. Muse-X was detail oriented and cared about the little things. The things that made the world what it was.

Muse-X had taken such care with Xisuma only to replace him with Scar, VE-X’s little pet project. Xisuma was barely keeping it together.

The two followed Gameknight into the very center of the room, so all three Watchers could stare down at them. Xisuma bit the inside of his mouth. He thought about Keralis and every comforting word he’d said. He’d never hear his voice again.

“Xisuma Void and Scar Goodtimes, I assume you know the reason you’ve been called?” Muse-X said in a booming voice.

They nod, making eye contact.

“Allow me to make it official,” Muse-X said. Xisuma couldn’t help but start shaking violently. He wished he could be like Mumbo: unafraid of death. “From this day forth, Xisuma Void has been revoked of his term as the Hermitcraft Sanction’s admin, a position now held by Scar Goodtimes. On the dawn of the 14th, Xisuma Void is to be sent to the abattoir and killed.”

Xisuma couldn’t hold it in any longer. He cried out and fell on the floor. Scar broke eye contact momentarily to watch.

Gameknight grabbed Xisuma and lifted him up. Scar followed them out of the room.

“Sorry,” Gameknight said to Xisuma, setting him on the floor outside of the courtroom. Xisuma coughed and spit and gripped his hands into his hair. His chest heaved as he forced air in and out. Gameknight looked at Scar. “Normally the other guy isn’t so.. Stone faced.”

Scar laughed as Xisuma screamed. “Isn't it great? I was a part of the program of taking people from childhood,” he explained, “the others and I are proving that breeding perfect Watchers isn’t so hard!”

Gameknight twisted his face and just turned and walked back into the courtroom. “Gross,” he muttered.

Scar kicked Xisuma’s stomach. “Stop crying. It won’t do anything for you.”

Scar grabbed one of Xisuma’s arms and started to drag him down the hall.

“The abattoir isn’t so bad,” Scar said, chuckling to himself. “You’ll just be starved, thirsted, and then beaten to death in front of a crowd! Maybe they'll even hang you instead! It’s really not the worst way you could go.”

Xisuma suddenly stood up and ripped his arm from Scar.

“I SHOULD’VE LISTENED!” He snarled, spitting blood from his lips.

“Listened to what? The traitors?” Scar snapped back, “I don’t get why this is such a bad thing! You finally get to die, I think most people want that!”

“Doc was right, this is out of hand… Scar, you weren’t always like this…”

Scar grabbed Xisuma’s neck and raised him off of the ground. He squeezed his hand around Xisuma's throat.

“Doc doesn’t knows shit. He will be dealt with shortly, along with all of the others you ignored.” He threw Xisuma into the wall and it cracked under the force. “Once I find Mumbo, a new era of Hermitcraft will be born. A new age of Watchers will rise and the world will be shaped and molded to our perfect vision… Why is that a bad thing?”

Xisuma took a deep breath and lifted himself to his feet, but stumbled back against the wall. Scar stepped towards him and grabbed his face, forcing eye contact.

“Xisuma, you knew this day was coming for a very long time… I’m shocked you’re shocked.”

Scar let go of him and walked through the glassy doors. 

Xisuma was going to die. And there was nothing anyone could do about it…

Well, most anyone.

~~~

Ex was dragged from his cell by two heavily armored guards. They sat him down in a chair in front of a concrete wall with a speaker in it and tied restraints around his waist, wrists, ankles, and neck. 

A voice came from the speaker.

“Mr. Void, your presence has been requested for an execution. Your brother will be pulverized at the dawn of the 14th.”

“Ohh…” Ex whispered to himself, “how fun? Do I get to bring a plus one?”

The woman on the other side sighs, “as per general practice, you will be allowed one guest with you.”

“Exciting…”

“You will be under strict surveillance the entire viewing, you and your plus one. Under no exception will you be allowed to leave the presence of a designated guard. Do you understand the consequences if you do not follow the strict guidelines?”

“Naw, let’s go over them again,” Ex said. The woman let out another tired sigh.

“If you fail to obey orders, you will be starved and tortured under whatever means the Warden sees necessary.”

“Understood, madam.”

“Good. You will be escorted come time. Who is your plus one and where can we find them?”

Ex chuckled. “Goes by the name Replicant, lives south in the old city, in the old airplane hangar. He’s small, blond hair, and might have blood on his hands… depends if it’s tea time or not.”

“Egh,” one of the guards groaned.

“Understood. Have a good evening, Xiryla.”

Chapter Text

Pearl was building the base further underground. There were large areas dug out now but there were things to fill all of it. Dan created a functioning lab at bedrock with a secret door guardian both the stairway down and the lab’s entrance. A new war room was constructed from Techno, now kitted with what they would need to fight. There was more coming, he assured them, but because the nether was under Watcher control, diamond was the best they could do.

Ranboo and Tommy made quick work of a prison and immediately put Mumbo in the isolation ward. As if that would do anything. Iskall commented as he and Sparkles charted a map with all of the major Watcher strongholds and sanctions, as well as disbanded locations that could still have resources.

They were really starting to become a team.

Of course, that wouldn’t last much longer for Pearl, at least not like this. Pearl was going to have to shed her skin, and become a butterfly! Or a moth. A moth. Moths are cooler. She had some cool ideas, but there was a piece of her plan missing: who was to kill her?

Techno could.

She was planning to tell the team about her grand plan soon anyways, so if they could get on the same page now, it would benefit them in the long run!

So she called a meeting.

“Hello, hello, good afternoon, fellow rebellious people,” Pearl announced to the room, “So, while I was in Hermitcraft, I realized something; they still think I’m alive. I can’t keep sneaking away if they start keeping a closer eye on me, so… We’re gonna kill Pearl!”

The room continued to be silent, but now edged with foreboding.

“We’re going to go to the edge of Hermitcraft and make a spectacle out of myself!”

“That could be very dangerous,” Sparkles said, “If we do it like that--”

“If we don’t do it like that, then they have reason to believe we’re lying,” Techno said.

“He’s gotta point,” Tommy said, writing something down.

“So, who’s going to “kill” you?”

“A new character,” Pearl explained, “someone I will become, and from there on out I will be this new guy.”

Iskall looked at her. “How will we do that? Whoever you put out there will be at risk.”

Pearl’s smile turned from excited to devious. “Let’s wander down to the mod lab.”

When they got down there, Dan stepped forward.

“Dan’s been working on something, a technique pretty lost to time,” Pearl said, allowing him to explain further.

“NPCs.” He pulled a cloth from a figure to reveal a featureless humanoid. “They are the middle ground between robots and humans. We can design this one to be exactly like Pearl, and then Pearl, now the new figure, will kill it.”

“They’ll be left with an identical version of me that, per Watcher tradition, they will burn where the body was found and they’ll never have a single idea that I’m alive.”

“That’s…” Iskall felt light headed. “NPC’s were outlawed for a reason!”

Tommy pulled out his sword.

Iskall shut his mouth.

“Iskall, don’t worry,” Pearl said, “this one won’t even be around for too long.”

The group left the room, leaving Iskall staring at the thing.

“COME ON!” Tommy yelled, “Don’t make me put you back in your cell during your free roam time.”

“Yeah,” Iskall muttered, turning and leaving the lab.

In the meeting room, Pearl brainstormed names. The general idea was to wear a mask, both to cover her face and mock the Watchers, and to dress in purple, again to mock the Watchers. She also needed a cool name for the rebellion. They were growing in numbers thanks to Dan and Sparkles’ seemingly infinite contact list of trustworthy people, and that was cause for a name.

They were fighting the Watchers. The Listeners was a name lost to time, and they weren’t exactly ecstatic about sitting around. Something like the Fighters was stupid, the Speakers were dumb as hell. She thought back. She erased the white board as an idea appeared in her head.

Nocere was the Latin root for ‘hurt’. A nociceptor is a pain receptor. The Nociceptors had a pretty cool ring to it.

She wrote it on the board and smiled.

Now… her name.

She wanted it to be powerful, to strike fear into people. Of course, some of that would come with time and experience, but it wouldn’t hurt to choose something cool to begin with.

And what strikes more fear than deep space?

Pearl smiled.

~~~

Pearl put the mask on. It was solid black and reflective, and it was attached to the hood of her cloak. She pinned her cloak around her neck with a special pendant: three interlocking gold rings. She wore thick black pants and dark purple boots. Her belt had the rings on it as well, and she wore a black turtleneck. She pulled on dark purple gloves.

She took a deep breath and looked at the NPC that looked exactly like her.

“Hello, Pearlescent Moon,” she said, walking around the thing. “I’m excited to see you die!” She giggled.

“Pearl, stop being creepy,” Techno said from the doorway. He wore a similar outfit, instead all black and lacking the chrome reflection of Pearl’s mask.

“Right, sorry!” She said, grabbing the NPC bridal style.

“Are you sure you want to do this now?”

“Why wouldn’t I? Xisuma’s just been kicked out. If Scar’s first day as their admin is miserable, hopefully the other hermits will leave, and that’s one less adversary to worry about.” 

Techno nodded.

Pearl, Techno, and Dan made their way to the bushes outside of Hermitcraft, leaving Tommy and Renboo to keep an eye on the decentors. Pearl looked at herself. The NPC was a perfect replica and would run into Hermitcraft spewing Pearlescent Moon things, then, the real Pearl would walk in, break the barrier and kill her with Mumbo’s sword. Then she’d say something super cool. Who knows what that would actually be, but she’s improvising it. That would be cooler.

“Are you ready?” she said. Techno nodded. He handed her Mumbo’s Sword and Pearl turned on the NPC.

~~~

Hermitcraft was getting a new admin. How exciting! The entire sanction was gathered around to greet Scar as their new admin. Xisuma wasn’t there, but that wasn’t surprising. Mostly everyone there was sad, but they didn’t show it. This was a good thing. Surely. It wasn’t lost on anyone that Xisuma wasn’t coming back. Some were better off than others, let’s just say that.

There was a general consensus that if Xisuma had just lost Zedaph, Impulse, Tango, Mumbo, and Iskall, maybe Scar would get them back. With complete control of the sanction, he had the power.

But there was one more person missing that was upsetting. Pearl wasn’t there, and that was weird because Scar was sure Doc had just told him that Pearl was at his base. They should’ve arrived together all things considered.

VE-X loomed over Scar’s shoulder as he announced to the hermits that he was the new admin of the server. He saw Keralis look away. Scar considered that maybe some of the hermits didn’t realize yet what had happened to Xisuma. Of course, that really didn’t matter. Where Xisuma was was the least of anyone’s issues.

“I promise,” Scar continued, “to bring back the Watchers that have been taken from us. They will not be stolen, they will not be killed. These perpetrators will see light for the last time, and they’re little reign will be short lived!”

Scar held his hands up and saluted. Hesitantly, the hermits saluted as well.

“They’re faith wavers,” VE-X whispered into Scar’s ear.

As Scar was about to speak again, there was a clammer outside of the barrier.

“Ah, just let me check it out,” Scar said, nonchalantly, “and why don’t we make something of it? Hm? Let’s see what the issue is.” VE-X narrowed his eyes and followed along. The barrier wasn’t too far away and the sanction gathered to see. And they saw.

Pearl’s eyes watered as she reached out for them, being held up by the neck by some featureless figure in purple and black. Scar raised his arm up.

“I’ll deal with this,” Scar said. He walked to the barrier and stepped through, pulling out his sword.

The figure wasn’t impressed by his netherite sword. The figure two had a netherite sword. It stops the person from respawning and turns their body to stone. Not only that, but the sword had an engraving on it.

That was Mumbo’s sword.

“Don’t fuck up,” VE-X growled, “take care of this.”

“Let go of her,” Scar demanded, “or I’ll have to take action.”

A threat would have normally worked, sure, but not here. The figure wasn’t a showman. Their sword pierced Pearl’s body and as soon as it hit the ground, it started the process of freezing. The hermits were frozen, even the few who knew it was fake. Scar took a deep breath. That wasn’t the great show of power he thought it would be. 

The figure walked towards him and leaned in. Scar stared at himself in the reflection and his eyes grew. They spoke with a distorted beyond recognition voice:

“Watching only gets people killed. Nociceptors feel that pain and repurpose it for your demise alone.”

As soon as they were done speaking, they disappeared, leaving the hermits with a frozen corps. VE-X looked down at Scar’s shivering face and disappeared, leaving him to deal with the consequences.

“This is a minor incident…” Scar said, regaining his composure and turning to the crowd.

Gem stepped forward. “Minor… Scar… this is how you think of us?” Gem closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. “When I became a Watcher, I thought I’d be saving lives. I can’t wait to see more of my loved ones die.” She turned and walked back into Hermitcraft.

“Gem, you’re life isn’t that important,” Cub snapped, “don’t act like the death of that freak affects what we are doing.”  

“Freak?” Beef yelled, “Pearl wasn’t a freak. Misguided, but her life mattered.”

“As much as everyone else serving the Watcher’s cause,” Cub seethed, getting in Beef’s face. “We don’t matter individually.”

Beef shoved Cub away from him and caught up to Gem to comfort her.

The rest of the hermits, eyes wide, dispearced apart from Doc and Scar. Doc looked into Scar’s eyes.

“You’re in over your head. I wish you’d see that before it’s too late.”

Scar, for once, didn’t have anything to say as he left. There was something not too great about someone dying in front of you. Why didn’t he ever feel like this? Why was this the first time?

He closed his eyes to take a deep breath, but instead his breath was stolen from him when he saw his own, soulless, eyes staring back. His eyes shot open. He studied his breathing and set fire to Pearl’s lifeless body. He walked back into Hermitcraft, shaking away the offputting nature of the encounter.

~~~

At the Nociceptors’ base, they were celebrating. Techno was screaming about the hermit’s faces, Tommy was screaming about the sword, Dan screamed about the NPC, and Iskall was awkwardly sitting in the corner with a half-empty red solo cup. No one seemed to care that they had traumatized a bunch of people and Iskall wasn’t ecstatic about that. His eyes drifted to where Mumbo’s cell was. He grabbed a slice of pizza and walked down. He came to the door and opened the half a block tall slit.

“Mumbo, I brought you pizza.”

Mumbo got up and stared back at him. “Oh? What for?”

“Well, they have successfully… done something. I’m not allowed to tell you.”

“Oh is that so? Why don’t you, what power do they have over you?”

“A lot actually, so just take the pizza and stop complaining.”

Mumbo grabbed the plate and sank back down. Iskall sighed.

“Listen, I’m really sorry they did this to you. It sucks. I wish you could be a part of this, but you’ve made it very clear that you’re going to kill them if they let you. And then they’d kill you because you have no weapons and are only one person.”

“I don’t know why you care.”

“There was a time when you cared.” Iskall sat down on the other side of the door and rested his head on it. “I remember, when I first got to Hermitcraft: you were my mentor and we did a lot together. It wasn’t until recently when you started this whole “nothing else matters” bit…”

“You know why.”

“Yeah, I just wish there was a way to do something about it. It’s like after we disbanded Evolution, everything changed.”

“That’s when the orders were given.”

“I heard Xisuma’s getting executed.”

“I suspected as much. VE-X was pushing Scar as the new admin for a long time.”

Iskall took a deep breath and put his face in between his arms. 

~~~

Tango, Zedaph, Impulse, Hunter, and Crafter had made considerable distance even with limited movement at night. It was best to take it slow until Impulse was better. Once he was, they only slept as long as they had to. They went around the city until they ended up in a forest far from any sanctions or compounds. They set a camp up for the night and huddled around the fire.

Conversation had been kept limited throughout most of the trip, but now that they had the room to breathe, it felt like they had to talk now.

“Where are we heading,” Crafter asked, “anywhere in specific?”

“Not yet,” Tango said, “I don’t even know where we would go! Just--just away from there, you know? I guess we should figure out a way to get the villagers out, but I just… I don’t know how to… I don’t have the slightest clue what happened.”

“Some sort of lag thing,” Hunter said, “I’m not into redstone, but I’m sure if we found someone who was we could figure it out.”

“I AM INTO REDSTONE!” Tango gasped, yelling at himself more than anyone else. “I don’t know anything outside of what is legal and that’s our downfall. How are we supposed to fight or work with a force we don’t understand in the slightless!”

“Whatever caused that lag wasn’t legal, I’ll be sure of that,” Zedaph said, “but I’d have to assume it’s some sort of chuck loader or unloader. It did something to the entity code that allowed Hunter and Crafter to break out… but what that is specifically, we don’t know.” He turned to Crafter. “Do you know anything about the code you were trapped behind?”

“Not much,” Crafter hummed, “it was created by Hero-X as a way to stop Gameknight back in the day. He used the same kind of magic to travel to a parallel universe that he was from and, sadly, killed his family.”

“So it’s a dimensional rift?”

“Maybe… I only know what I do from hiding. There isn’t much information shared that Hero-X doesn't find out about eventually.”

“What do we know about Hero-X’s powers?” Impulse asked.

“He creates monsters stronger than the ordinary. The types of guys they shot off to the moon and mars to stay away.”

“The monster kings and queens,” Zedaph muttered.

“Yeah, and they’ve gotten a lot more powerful since I’ve fought any,” Hunter growled.

“Who are we dealing with now?” Crafter asked.

“There’s one for each type,” Tango explained, “last I heard, The Creeper King was in charge of traitors and rebellions, you know, since Hermitcraft stopped that.”

“Ew,” Hunter said, “I hate creepers.”

“I mean, Doc isn’t bad,” Zedaph said.

Hunter drew in the dirt with her sword. “So, what’s the plan? We can't hide for all our lives. He has to save people and we have no idea how to. For all we know, the creeper king is already on your case.” She pointed her sword at team Z.I.T.

“Probably,” Tango said, “Python was assigned to look for Iskall and Mumbo.”

“Likely then the other one ’s on us,” Zedaph shuttered.

“The other one?” Crafter asked.

“Preston,” Tango said, “he and Python are the creeper king’s little pets. They do everything he tells them without hesitation. Preston just happens to be Zed’s personal enemy.”

“He should be labeled as a public enemy!” Zedaph ranted, “he tormented his processing group! He didn’t care who we were, but he would find some reason that we weren’t good enough to be Watchers! “Oh, you’re a goat hybrid? What can you do? Ram into someone? An avian? Gonna go make a nest?” EUGH!”

“Good to know,” Hunter snorted.

Crafter sighed. “Okay, we need to get organized. What are our goals?”

“Save the villagers and stay alive,” Tango said.

“Let’s break that down: what do we need to do first?” Crafter elaborated.

“Figure out how to do it,” Impulse said, “if we can come up with a design, then we can move forward with planning the escape. We know it’s possible on a small scale, but could we find a way to escalate that?”

Crafter pulled out a book and quill and started writing.

“In order to do that, we might need to find someone who’s more experienced with modded redstone and mechanics, since we are super familiar with that.”

Zedaph added, “we know the Create mod well, but that’s it. I don’t think it will prove very useful.”

“But who knows more about that?” Tango asked.

Hunter thought for a second and she looked up. “Redstonia?”

Tango, Impulse, and Zedaph looked at her, eyes wide. She put her hands up.

“Sorry…”

“No!” Impulse said, “that’s not a bad idea! But we’re gonna have to actually… go there…”

“I’ll go!” Tango and Zedaph said in sync. They smiled.

“I’ll go with you guys,” Hunter said, “but Impulse doesn’t seem ecstatic about this idea.”

“That’s fine!” Impulse said, “I’ll just stay back. Someone’s gotta make sure you have a place to return to.”

“And I’ll stay with him,” Crafter said, “I know splitting up isn’t the safest idea, but it might be better to work in smaller groups.”

“I agree,” Hunter said, “no offense, but the more people we have, the more people to watch out for.”

“We won’t have any way to communicate, though,” Zedaph said, “we’ll have to be careful.”

“Well, we won’t move far,” Crafter said, “if we do we’ll leave a message.”

Tango gave them a thumbs up. “Sounds like a plan! Any objections?”

When no one spoke, they went to sleep with the intent of getting to work tomorrow.

~~~

Ex and Replicant stood in the back of the audience in between three illiger guards. Ex smiled at his plus one. Replicant smiled back. He always had a positive gleam on his face, no matter what was going on. His green eyes sparkled in the morning sun. Despite being an NPC, Replicant was Ex’s closest friend. He was the kinda friend that made Ex want to do better. From his freshly pressed red sweater to his clean converse, he took care of what he looked like, even though he couldn’t change it much.

“You seem really happy to be attending your brother’s execution,” Replicant said.

“If everything goes well, we have everything to be happy about.”

“I do feel bad,” Replicant said, “I think he really isn’t the most deserving of this.”

“Who is?”

Xisuma was brought out on the stage, rope already around his neck. Though he was already beaten, tortured, and starved, he didn’t look sad or lost. Instead his face was painted with anger. He was working his way backward through the model of grief, even more proof that Watchers really weren’t people anymore. Ex, despite everything, was proud of his brother. That pacifist, control freak was certainly fun to watch.

In the middle of the city, where anyone could come see an admin die. Xisuma no less. The place was crowded to say the least. That was good.

Replicant put his hand in the pocket of his khaki pants and held a small remote.

“You work magic,” Ex said.

“Why thank you!”

The rope was thrown over a wooden post and a guard grabbed the other end. Xisuma didn’t look up. His short hair didn’t do much to hide his face, but right now, he didn’t need to focus on looking good. He was about to die.

“Ready when you are,” Replicant said, slipping Ex a knife to cut his hands free.

“Ready.”

The announcer said some very basic things about Xisuma being a total and complete failure and Ex enjoyed the sound. Xisuma needed to hear that from someone other than himself.

They started to slowly raise Xisuma up and he stood on his toes as long as he could. Why couldn’t it be fast? Why was it slow? Traitors got it fast.

Then he was dropped to the ground. All at once, the three guards dropped dead, the stage was set on fire and Xisuma was lifted up by a small frame and pulled away from the stage.

Xisuma struggled against it but stopped when he saw his brother laughing as he ran ahead. They continued to run and Xisuma said nothing.

“Shit! They're following us!” Replicant yelled.

“Hey, Suma, wanna use your magic for a sec?”

They dropped Xisuma and cut his restraints. Xisuma scrambled to his feet, watching the guards run towards them. He needed to make a choice quickly and honestly, it didn’t matter. He was dead anyways.

When the guards got close enough, Xisuma let out a burst of purple energy from his hands. He summoned an ax and swung it around his head, using centrifugal force to cut off the heads of the guards. He re-gripped the ax and slammed it into the ground, causing the ground to split and crack upwards, launching the bodies. 

Ex cheered and grabbed his arm. They started running again and Xisuma let his ax disappear into nothing.

“WOOH! I love it when you do that!” Replicant yelled, raising his hands up.

“AYO, ME TOO!” Ex whooped.

“I did not just do that…” Xisuma muttered. They ran further into the city where they slipped into an alleyway. “This is just great.”

“Hell yeah it is!” Replicant said, “you’re welcome, by the way.”

“Yeah…” Xisuma breathed. He rubbed his face and Ex put a hand on his shoulder.

“Does it feel good: freedom?”

“It feels like breaking the law…”

“You were already gonna die,” Replicant shrugged as he typed something into his communicator.

“So?” Xisuma spat, “I was okay with that, I failed, I wasn’t good enough, and now look what you’ve done! We are-- this is--”

“We’re super illegal now,” Ex said, “I’m an escaped convict, you didn’t die, and Replicant is a deviant NPC! Now all we need is Hels.”

“Hels?” Xisuma spat, “What in the world would we need Hels for?”

“He plays mad guitar,” Replicant said.

“Do you even have a plan?” Xisuma seethed.

“Of course!” Replicant said, “there’s a rebellion, I’m sure you’ve heard about it; every news station is getting on it, including Chad Enderman. Man, that guy’s past his prime.”

“A rebellion?” Xisuma mumbled.

“Yeah,” Ex said, “their leader killed Pearlescent Moon. People suspect they’ve also kidnapped Mumbo and Iskall.”

Xisuma’s face dropped. “Killed?”

“Oh yeah!” Replicant said, “permadeath weapon and all. Scar made an announcement about it and everything, pretending the situation was under control.” He pulled up the news video and showed Xisuma. Scar didn’t look right, and not in the dissonant way he normally did. His eyes were wide and his smirk was virtually nonexistent. His speech was nothing close to what it normally was; if Xisuma didn’t know better, he’d think Scar sounded almost human again.

“And that’s where we’re going?” Xisuma asked. Ex nodded.

“Fun, right?”

Xisuma leaned against the building and covered his face. Part of him missed being like Scar and Mumbo.

~~~

Cub made Scar a cup of tea. Scar held the warm drink in his hands. Cub sat across from him, where Keralis sat to Xisuma. As far as VE-X was concerned, they were the perfect versions of Muse-X’s shameful admin.

“You’ve been an admin for less than a week! Things are bound to go wrong.”

“Hah, yeah.”

“This still might be the end of Hermitcraft.”

“Way to cheer me up.”

Cub laughed, “Scar, you are great. Believe me, I know. I’ve seen admins crash and burn and you… you won’t.”

“But Hermitcraft will?”

“Faith is wavering. Because of Xisuma’s sloppy leadership, many people are turning away. You have to work hard to keep who you can.”

“What if I can’t?”

“I would think you’d be transferred and the others reprocessed or killed.” Cub set down his cup and leaned forward with a gentle smile. “But the higher ups know that the crash to come won’t be your fault, but if you pull up, it will be the greatest honor.”

Scar looked into his tea at his wavering reflection. “I looked at that mask… It was a mirror.”

“Don’t look at it again.”

“That might be hard considering that we are against each other.”

“The effects of looking into your own eyes can be detrimental. You know this… why even ask about it?”

“I fear I’m already losing my edge.”

Cub reached forward and grabbed his shoulders. “You are one of the greatest Watchers put to administration. A look into a mirror won’t kill you yet.”

“How many more are there?”

“How many what?”

“People who are going to stand up to us?”

Cub laughed, “not more than we can kill.”

Chapter Text

“Day 147. The zombies aren’t letting up, they just keep coming. Every time we make a dent, new ones show up, stronger than the last. A hundred days have gone and passed , and there is no end to this apocalypse. A hundred days seems like nothing now. The only one who doesn’t seem worried is the person who owns our current residence.  He’s been out for a day gathering resources for more bullets. We’re running low. If Pat doesn’t come back, me and Sean are doomed.”

“Charlie!” Sean yelled, “a man can only take so much of you talking to yourself!”

“My recorder is much better than your little notebook. Admit it.”

“No.”

The two of them sat atop the tower, waiting for Pat to return. Sean scribbled in his little notebook and Charlie filmed out across the desert. Sean found it infinitely annoying how he somehow always had the resources for more cassettes, yet finding one feather was so hard. When a quill or pen broke, Sean was often left with nothing to write with other than charcoal. Maybe film was a better way to document a zombie apocalypse, but writing would be just as important one day.

Charlie aimed the camera at the city's edge. It couldn’t have taken more than a week for the whole place to turn to dust. Part of him believed that outside, outside of this area, the undead were taken care of. Since leaving Las Nevadas, Charlie had no idea what was going on with the rest of the world. He got stuck in this giant, empty sanction full of evolving zombies. This place must’ve been a Watcher waste dump or something. What else would create these rapidly evolving mobs beside radiation?

A man in armor climbed up and into the keep, tossing down a bag full of fun things. Sean was quick to grab the SMG.

“Oh yeah. This is more like it!”

Pat picked up more shotgun ammo and reloaded the gun strapped to his armor. “Anything weird happen while I was gone?”

“Nothing unusual,” Charlie said, grabbing some arrows, “A couple special guys, but Sean handled them.”

“Sure did,” Sean bragged, “two boomers and a spitter.”

“Ugh, those ones suck!”

“You can say that again; got pukricide and pileobile everywhere,” Charlie groaned. He and Pat climbed down the ladder to put the loot away while Sean stayed up top to keep lookout. Organization wasn’t important until the three lost most of their supplies in a creeper explosion. Plus, it saved a lot of time when there was an emergency.

“Where did you find all of this?” Charlie asked.

“Another shipping container,” Pat said, “on the way to the miner’s dream tunnel, I found a container incorrectly labeled “golden carrots.””

“That’s a Hermitcraft export,” Charlie muttered.

“Exactly. I don’t know what’s going on, but there was clearly a drop that went wrong.”

“Who would need guns and why would Hermitcraft supply them?”

Pat shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. No one can get what lands here, not if they can't deal with what lives here.”

Charlie lagged behind when Pat started climbing back up. He followed him. “How would that get in here anyways? They use trains and portals, not helicopters.”

“Portal misfire,” Sean said, “easy.”

“You don’t even know what we’re talking about!” Charlie snorted.

“It doesn’t matter if someone comes looking for it,” Pat breathed, “who knows, maybe they figured out it was contraband and tossed it out here.”

“I hope that starts to happen more often!” Sean laughed, “I want more ammo.”

“I didn’t take all of it,” Pat explained, “it can be a sort of extra storage in case something happens here. Plus, it’s full of golden carrots.”

Charlie nodded and looked out to the desert. He leaned on the cobblestone walls and sighed.

“We should build more,” he suggested.

“Build?” Sean grimaced. “Build what?”

“A real base! We’ve got nothing but time out here, so why not!”

Pat shrugged. “We could, but I’m not a great builder.”

“That doesn’t matter! As long as we do it together!” Charlie raised his arms into the air.

Sean stifled his laughter.

“We won’t have a chance otherwise,” Pat seethed, “if we all built separate builds, I’d be dead pretty quickly.”

“WELL What are we waiting for?” Charlie said, sliding down the ladder. Pat gestured for Sean to follow and they climbed down.

It was a wonder the three had never properly built a base. They were in and out of ruined towns and military bases for months before finding a tower that did the best job. The open desert land was easy to hold out from the top of the tower. 

Sean started on a cobblestone wall. He told Pat and Charlie with the utmost confidence that when you want to survive for long periods of time, a wall is the only way to do it. He suggested that they start looking for more iron to strengthen the wall, but it would be hard to balance the wall and bullets, so some sacrifices would have to be made.

Charlie expanded the tower down. Basements, he found, were pure zombie repellent. A new room was more cobblestone to use on the wall. The further down he went the more resources. They could create an entire base beneath the surface that would hold everything and hold up against the hordes.

Pat built up the tower. He added off bits and more pillars. It looked more like a castle than a tower now, and Sean’s small wall collided with the monster of stone Pat was building. He said it was inspired by another dimension, one the Watchers had, of course, banned. Pat talk a lot about other worlds, ones made of crystal, tress made of gold... Charlie hadn't even been to the end.

Once they had spent a few days on the improvements, the benefits were apparent. The only thing that had caused trouble was getting up from the basement. If only they had elevator pads-- oh, wait, those are illegal.

“Isn't it just wool and an ender pearl?” Sean asked while they ate.

“Yeah,” Pat said, “I wonder if we can find enough wool.”

“The forest probably has some sheep,” Charlie suggested, “but the forest gets really dangerous. We’d need to go in a pair, but that--”

Sean picked up, “that would leave one of us on tower duty. But if all of us went--”

Pat finished, “the tower would be unprotected.”

They sat for a little bit in silence, thinking.

Sean looked up with a gleam in his eyes. “If no one is here, the zombies will hardly care.”

Pat and Charlie smiled. “Ah, I love game mechanics!” Pat laughed. The three finished their food and got started packing immediately. They shoved backpacks full of food, ammo, and knives. Sub-machine guns and semi-automatic rifles topped off, they waited till morning for a quick escape from their stronghold.

They would be traveling all day, maybe even into the night, but the zombies weren't much of an issue. Most of the time.

"HUNTER!" Sean yelled, firing his pistols. Pat killed it with a few more shots, saving Sean. Charlie whipped his head around to watch their back and his face dropped.

"AH SHIT!" He yelled. Sean and Pat didn't have time to react before a blood-curdling screech filled the sky. "HORDE!" Charlie screamed, opening fire on a large group of zombies running towards them. Sean switched his pistols for a sniper and shot the snitch before it could cause more damage. Pat's sub-machine gun mowed down the waves of normal zombies.

"We have to keep moving!" he shouted over the commotion. Sean and Charlie followed Pat and continued to run, shooting back at the horde chasing them. They saw the edge of the forest on the horizon, and the goal was enough to keep them moving. They ran forward and Sean looked back one last time.

"CHARGER!"

Charlie couldn't react to the warning and was yanked off of his feet. The charger pulled him for several long seconds before slamming him into the ground, repetitively. Charlie yelped, and a few bullets put the monster down. He coughed and gasped as Pat and Sean ran over. pat knelt down.

"Here, brink this--" he handed Charlie a healing potion. Charlie sat up and drank it, feeling better already. He stood up with Sean's help.

"Wow, thanks, that was..." he laughed, "chargers am I right?"

"Come on," Pat said, starting to walk again, "let's not startle the horde again."

"Oh yeah, please? A man can only take so many hordes... and so many frogs..."

"Frogs?" Charlie asked.

"Don't ask. Stay pure, my man."

Night was falling by the time they reached the forest, which looked different. A purple substance ate at leaves and grass, and animals had vines strangling them.

“Shit,” Pat seethed.

“What?” Charlie asked, “what is all that?”

“The taint… supercharged like nothing else.” Pat explained. He turned on the flashlight on his backpack and stepped forward. Sean followed him, saying:

“It was some super weapon the Watchers tried to use before they realized they were really dumb for that.”

Charlie followed them and took out his shotgun. Thankfully, upon killing a sheep, it dropped normal wool.

“We can’t stay here long,” Sean warned, “it’s easy to get sick here.”

“I already feel ill,” Pat groaned.

The three tread around the outside of the forest, staying near the edge. Each one carried a torch and their gun, shortly regretting going this far out. And for what? Elevators? At this point they needed to ask if it would be more efficient to find the components for a redstone one and figure it out themselves. But if there was one thing they knew with their collective knowledge were modifications.

The zombies took a little extra to take down. A shotgun wasn’t so powerful here, nor were Sean’s pistols. Pat’s rifle was having a hard time with the amount of them showing up. Suddenly, as Charlie was taking on a sheep and Sean and Pat defended him, a bell rang. It shook the ground beneath them and rattled their skulls. They dropped their weapons to pin their hand over their ears, as if it had any effect on the blood curdling sound. When the sound reached an end, there were no more zombies, or sheep, or anything but them and the infected forest.

Well, except for a man standing in front of them. Pat and Sean lifted up their guns while Charlie lifted up his hands. The blond man laughed. He wore a brown hat, and matching vest, a golden Watcher’s symbol pinned to it. He had cowboy boots and a blue bandanna.

“Geez! You three are feisty!” He said, “don’t get so protective, I’m not here to fight!” He was shorter than all of them, but that didn’t stop Charlie from feeling a pain in his chest from seeing that symbol. He stretched his shoulders where a rope sat. “Let’s get you three out of this place.”

“Actually, we’re good,” Sean spat.

“Actually, ur not.” A pair of golden wings explained behind the man’s back and he cocked his head. “You see, you three are trespassing on Watcher land. It may be a dumping ground, but that’s exactly why we can’t have people in it. Got any idea what the trespassing punishment is?”

The three looked at each other and then back at the Watcher.

“Can I get your names?”

“Popularmmos.”

“Forge Labs.”

Charlie looked at them and then back at the Watcher. “Slimecicle.”

The Watcher’s face twisted. “Ew? No nicknames?” They shook their heads. He shrugged. “Name's Jimmy. Now, let’s go.”

Morning came as they left the forest, but that didn’t stop zombies. Though, they seemed to ignore them, for the most part, now that “Jimmy” was there. There were growls and snarls, but no attacking. That’s Watcher influence.

“So, how long have you three been in this desert?”

Pat glanced at Sean and Charlie. “I’ve been here for years.”

“Same, but less,” Sean answered.

“Almost a year,” Charlie muttered.

Jimmy laughed, “WOW! Wh-what?” He could hardly talk behind the laughter.

“What’s funny?” Sean asked.

“Well, we had no idea that there were people LIVING out here! Some god; can’t even find hideaways…” Jimmy sighed. “Do you have a base?”

“Why would we tell you?” Pat snapped.

 Jimmy cocked his head back towards them and smiled. “Because I might let you get some of your belongings before we nuke it.”

The rest of the journey was quiet. When they returned to the base Jimmy turned to face them completely. He smiled at them.

“You've worked hard on this site. I’m sure you’d love to keep it.”

No one spoke.

“If you do, I have an offer.”

Sean nodded.

“If you three help me obtain an AWOL Watcher, I’ll pardon this site.”

“Why would we want to keep living in this Zombie hell hole?” Pat seethed.

Jimmy kept smiling. “Because… if you stay here, pardoned, you won’t be processed into Watchers or killed or sent away. The prison is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It’s always hungry for new, terrible people to hold. So, if you like your life more than those options… You should help me.”

Charlie looked at his fellow zombie survivors. Sean and Pat looked at each other and at Charlie. “There’s no choice,” Pat breathed. Sean stepped forward.

“Okay. We’ll help you.” He held out his hand. Jimmy leaned forward, but he pulled his hand away at the last second.

“And you aren’t narcs, are yah?”

They shook their heads.

Jimmy grabbed Sean’s hand. “Oh this is a great thing you’ve just done.” 

Chapter Text

Stampy yawned and stretched. He rolled his shoulders and tossed his orange blanket from his bed. He hopped off the bed and into his shiny iron boots. He tore the curtains from the window and stepped outside. 

“AHH!” Stampy breathed with a smile. Barnaby was right behind him, smiling and taking in the lovely morning. “What a beautiful day, don't you think, Barnaby?”

Barnaby barked happily and Stampy smiled at him.

“Hey Stampy!” A voice shouted from behind them. Stampy turned around and saw Fizzy hanging from his roof.

“Good morning, Fizzy!” He beamed, “Up early?”

“Oh yeah! I couldn’t wait for today!” He jumped down.

“And today’s going to be a good one!”

“Well what are you waiting for! Will and Polly are already at the dog house!”

Fizzy and Stampy trotted through his house and into his garden of roses. They jumped down the steps to the dog house. Polly and William waved. William was dressed in his best diamond armor and Polly in enough jingle bells for a lifetime.

“Good morning William! Good morning Polly!” Stampy greeted.

“Good morning, Mr. Stampy Cat!” Polly said with a big smile, “are you ready for today?”

“Ready? I’m excited! Today is the tenth anniversary of my lovely world!” He linked an arm with Polly.

“Well, we won’t want you overwhelmed, Stamps,” William said. Stampy chuckled.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m more than ready for today, and I hope you are too; it’s going to be fun for everyone!”

The four started to make their way towards the funland when Polly hummed.

“Stampy, do you think Hit The Target and Veeva Dash will show up?”

“Oh, of course.”

Fizzy, William, and Polly stopped for a second and looked at each other.

“What do you mean?” William asked, catching back up. “Should I get my netherite armor?”

“Oh no! I plan on them showing their faces,” Stampy announced, “I would love to have some cake with them. I don’t think the Lovely World would be the same without them!”

“What if they try something?” Fizzy asked, “what if they steal the dogs? Or-or blow something up!”

“Don't worry at all. They won’t really want to do any of that today of all days.”

The helpers looked at each other and sighed.

“Whatever you say, Stamps,” Polly chuckled.

When they made it to the funland, the space was lit up with lights and tables. Harrit and Harrison sat at one and waved. Mittens and Lucky Cat sat with Benton and Duncan. Flippy, Fluffy, and Gregory Jr. congregated around the golf course, of course. The other dogs played together in the grass and Barnaby quickly joined them for a game of tug-o-war. Henry, Norman, and Hilda had their own table to enjoy with some cake.

“With everyone here, those two Watchers will have a hard time picking anyone off!” Stampy clarified. Polly chuckled and shook her head.

William took a deep breath. “Stampy, you have a weird way about things. Couldn’t we just trap a table?”

“I’m way ahead of you.”

Polly and William looked at him, losing their smiles.

“Hm?” They said in sync.

“No table will need explosives at all!”

“Please tell me you got someone else to do the redstone…” Polly breathed.

“You know me better than to do any redstone myself” Stampy smiled, walking over to mingle. Fizzy shrugged and followed him.

“Whatever he’s got up his sleeve, it’s not going to work,” William muttered.

“Nope,” Polly agreed.

The party seemed to be going very well, and so far there was no sign of Hit the Target or Veeva Dash. Despite the subtle suspicion of the two being right around the corner, the residents of the Lovely World engaged in games and cake, and Stampy even convinced Hilda to join them for a game of charades.

But that couldn’t last forever, not on the tenth anniversary.

Target and Veeva stood on the top of the Helter-Skelter, looking down on the festivities. 

“Can’t we go down and get a slice of cake?” Veeva asked. Target scoffed.

“Keep your head on, we’ve got a mission. All of them are right there, a perfect chance to get those dogs...”

“Why? Shouldn’t we wait to attack him? The tenth anniversary seems like a pretty crude day to do this”

“Today is the perfect day…” 

Back on the ground, everyone was mostly just hanging out. While the evening was filled with fireworks and a cookout, everyone had some down time just to hang out. Of course that was the perfect time for Veeva and Target to jump down.

Stampy stood up to greet them, William grabbing the hilt of his sword defensively. Fizzy tossed a snow ball up and caught it. Polly held a bow and arrow close. The party stopped and each guest glared up at the Watchers. The dogs growled and puffed up. Stampy was the only one not reaching for a weapon.

“Good evening you two!” Stampy said, arms wide and welcoming. “I was hoping you two would show up!”

“What? You think we’re here for festivities?” Target cackled, “We’re here for your dogs, cat man!”

Veeva tossed a potion into the air. Stampy watched it with a smug smile. As the easily shattered bottle neared the ground it stopped.

“What?” Veeva said, “What did you do?”

Stampy gasped, “What? Me? Do something? Never.”

A cloud of purple smoke burst from thin air in between Target and Stampy. The purple swirls turned into a tall, thin woman. Golden hair fell behind her and goggles clung to her head. With brown boots, blue jean shorts, a striped shirt, and a dark green jacket to top it off, Stampy knew who he was looking at. He smiled. William gasped.

“False Symmetry,” he laughed. Veeva Dash and Hit The Target spun around and gasped, backing away from the higher up Watcher.

“STAMPY!” She cheered. She pushed Veeva and Target out of the way and hugged Stampy. William and Polly jumped back. “AH! It’s been too long!”

“It has been!” 

They pulled away and Stampy squared his shoulders and put on a rare but beautifully impressive fake smile. Veeva and Target looked at each other with wide eyes and creased eyebrows.

“This party seems so extravagant, even by your standards, Mr. Longnose. To think, Hermitcraft only turned ten only a month ago! It’s funny how close we were without even knowing. Practically the same age.”

“Thank you for coming today, False.” Stampy cleared his throat. “You know why, don’t you?”

“That the Watchers assigned to you have been acting off of accords?” False leaned over, flaring her wings, and picked up the potion. “Wow, attacking you on your tenth… despicable…”

“But--” Target slipped forward, “But why hasn’t this sanction been disbanded?”

“They haven’t done anything wrong,” False said, chucking the potion back at Veeva, “Unlike you two, disgraces. Grian does more for us than you two do, and you have an actual assignment.”

“Oh, don’t be too harsh on them,” Stampy cooed, “They’ve added such color to my lovely world.”

“But one of those colors was blood!” False remarked.

“Alas,” Stampy sighed, “nevertheless, I’d hate for them to be transferred. At least I know I can defend myself from these Watchers.”

“You shouldn’t have to!”

The two chuckled. William, Polly, and Fizzy looked at each other with wide eyes and gulped. William stepped forward, “You know her?” he asked. Stampy and False turned to him.

“Why of course,” Stampy replied, “I have quite a few Watcher connections around the area. Through everything, I’ve had my fair few run-ins. People come here to escape them, you know. It’s not my forte to hide people who have made the Watchers angry.”

“Exactly,” False added, “You know, that’s why he’s in good favor. He tells me when something is afoot!”

“And I thank you for that,” Stampy finished with a quick bow.

“Speaking of, have you heard of the rebellion?”

Stampy’s face dropped, “Rebellion?”

“Pearl goes missing first and then it’s half of Hermitcraft. EX is escaped and is on the run with Xisuma. Unhappy about execution charges I guess. Scar’s the new admin.”

“Not Mumbo?” Stampy asked.

“Gone to. Captured with Iskall. Now Captainsparklez is gone. Whatever’s going on, it’s going on fast. Anything on your side?”

“Not that I’m aware. Do you think I will have something to worry about?”

“If they got EX out… iBallisticsquid could be next. And think about who else? It’s so exciting to think about what other old faces they’ll drag out of the grave…” Stampy watched with wide eyes and clenched fists as False laid back on a picnic table. She grabbed a slice of cake from the table and started eating it. She continued, “Hell, Scar might invoke the name Wizard Keen to get his hands on those rocks again. We’re looking at a full on state of emergency for the Watchers. DanTDM, iHascupquake…” she paused to finish the slice and glare at Stampy, “Technoblade himself… The Watchers are in deep shit.”

She stood up and opened up a portal. “With luck, Stampy’s Lovely World will be just fine… Right? You’re not going to help them… are you?”

Stampy stared back at her.

“Very well.” She sauntered through the portal and it closed behind her with a puff of purple smokey swirls.

“A rebellion?” Polly snapped, “Stampy, what does that even mean? I didn’t know you knew the Watchers at all!”

“It’s not worth talking about,” Stampy admitted, “I pay a tax and alert them if anyone tries to hide here. I’m looking out for this sanction with everything I’ve got.”

“So we aren’t going to help?” William asked.

“I’m afraid not. We’re not getting involved at all. Either way, people will die and I don’t want to be a part of that.”

Target and Veeva looked at each other. Stampy glanced at them and smiled. “Come on, enjoy some cake. The Lovely World wouldn’t be the same without good villains.”

~~~

Stampy yawned and stretched as he walked into his room. He kicked his boots off and flicked off the lights. Barnaby laid down in his bed and Stampy flopped down on his bed. A headache gnawed at him and he rolled on his back. The room was silent apart from Barnaby’s light snoring. Stampy couldn’t get his eyes to close. After what False said, he couldn’t get to sleep. A rebellion that big was something to worry about, even for people who weren’t on either side. All he could do was stay out of the way and prepare for what he could. 

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

When Stampy’s eyes finally started to drift closed, there was a noise outside: his balcony railing creaked, followed by heavy boots landing on the wood. Stampy eyes opened and he sat up, seeing a large silhouette outside. His heartbeat began to speed up. His chest rose quickly with his thin breaths. He reached for his diamond sword and stood up. The door edged open and the man stepped through.

He was taller than Stampy by at least a foot. His broad shoulders loomed over Stampy and his wide eyes seemed to glow in the dark. Stampy knew who was in front of him and his heart accelerated. A rubber covered hand reached out, the black glove reflecting the little light from the orange night light. Stampy looked up to meet the man’s face and his worst fear.

“Stampy…” Squid breathed.

“No, I’m not--”

“Listen to me, Stamps, this is bigger than both of us. You can’t deny that you’re presence would--”

“What would my presence do? I’m not going to fight an unwinnable fight.”

“But it is winnable! Stampy, don’t you get it? You won’t have to worry about Watcher’s anymore!”

“There will be something else to worry about, I assure you.”

“But right now, it’s the Watchers, and don’t you want to do them justice?”

“For what?”

“For Netty…” 

Stampy held his breath. “Don’t…”

“What they did to Netty, to all of the members of Evolution is some of the worst they’ve ever done. This is our chance to get back for that! For Crazy Craft!”

“Crazy Craft was dangerous, and you know that.”

“Evolution wasn’t.”

“It was a direct violation. It might as well have been a FTB.”

“FTBs aren’t even that serious.” Squid sighed, “don’t you remember everything we’ve been through? Stampy, mod labs were slaughtered . Don’t you want to fight back against that?”

“People are going to die.”

“People will die whether or not you stand up for what you believe in or not. This is happening.”

“Happening… I will not put this sanction in danger. There are people living here.”

“You know they can all fight.”

“You should leave.”

“I know. You know where to find us.”

“I do.”

Squid backed up and turned around. He walked back out on the porch and jumped up. Stampy watched him leave and fell back on his bed. He let out a deep breath and closed his eyes. They’d be in Evolution. Where else but the most recent disgusting display of power?

Chapter Text

“Python, how do you keep fucking up this bad?”

“Fucking up? Wow, what strong language for a not-problem.”

The two creepers walked into the giant hall.

“You fucked up so bad that the King call both of us.”

“Like you don’t shit the bed often, Preston.”

The large doors opened and they straightened their backs. Before them was a large green creeper. His legs were long and stretched, back hunched; the mutant creeper towered over them from his throne. He hissed.

“You’re brilliantency,” Preston said with an over dramatic bow.

“You’re explosion-y-ness,” Python added, bowing as well.

“Stop. Please. Please stop,” the Creeper King groaned

Preston and Python stood back up and walked further into the room. “What did you need us for?” Python asked.

“You two have been in charge of rebellion hostages for almost a decade. I find your progress on Mumbo Jumbo and Iskall disappointing. After dealing with The Miners, Preston, you should be more on top of this. We aren’t even dealing with mod wielding.”

“Sir, I am doing my best to track down the location of the base. So far, we know nothing but the description of their leader.”

“Give us one more week and those idiots will slap their face on every wall from here to the city! We’ll find and destroy them in no time,” Python jumped in.

“I suppose you are correct. But I cannot forgive your slip with Sparkles.”

Python’s face dropped. “You heard about that?”

“He probably would’ve led you straight to that base.”

“There has been no reason--”

“Hush. What is done, is done. You two know what is expected of you. Find who you can find before it’s too late. And don’t let Jimmy get ahead of you.”

“Yes, King Bomby.”

~~~

Tango, Zedaph, and Hunter set up a campsite on the side of a mountain. It was a long way to Redstonia, let alone that entire part of the map. They were quite most of the trip, nothing more than information and planning, no small talk. But in that dark little cave with a few torches and a piece of wool to sleep on for each of them, the silence started to eat.

Hunter looked at Tango and Zedaph. “You didn’t know about us?” she asked quietly.

Tango nodded. “I had no idea… all that time…” He clenched his fists. “I’m so sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” Hunter sat down and put her hands in her lap. “I didn’t have any idea this was happening. I don’t remember anything after Gameknight left.” She looked away and sighed. “So, why did you guys leave so fast? I was sure you’d kill Impulse.”

“Kill him?” Tango gasped, “never. I-- he’s our best friend. It would take a lot for us to turn him in… he created a lag spike and got punished… a lot… it wasn’t even his fault. Imagine what could’ve happened if something was his fault.”

“Honestly, we’ve been looking for a reason to get him out of there,” Zedaph chimed in. “They did shit to him in processing.”

“Processing?” Hunter asked, looking up.

“It’s bootcamp for Watchers,” Tango explained, “in there, you and a class are taught how to be a Watcher. That includes desensitization and destroying self worth.”

“You two seem fine for going through that.”

“I was at a very loose place,” Zedaph said, “it was basically high school all over again…”

“I didn’t go through processing,” Tango said, “if I had, I would’ve been with Mumbo and Scar, and thank god I wasn’t.” Tango paused, “But Impulse did. They screwed the fuck out of him, and immediately our admin was cold to him because another Watcher in his class is a well known rebel. The kind of guy that Xisuma really hated. I knew him before everything, and I hate what they did to him.”

“No wonder you needed to get out, shit man.”

Zedaph laughed, “this is such an uphill battle, what are we doing?”

Tango wrapped an arm around him.

“I’m great at uphill battles.” Hunter laid down on her wool pillow. “I’ve fought Herobrine before. Turned him into a fucking pig. And if we run into Tom-- Gameknight, I’ll try to talk to him. He might listen to me.”

“I sure hope so,” Tango muttered, laying down as well. Zedaph snuggled up to Tango. “Goodnight.”

“Night.”

The next morning, the three set out. As they got closer to the location, they started to see the damage. A sheer cliff face dropped down in front of them, lumpy ground down to bedrock, exposed and torn. The aftermath of a tragedy Watcher promised to fix. It didn’t look too fixed.

Zedaph reached into his inventory. He pulled out a black hoodie and handed it to Hunter. It had a red mushroom cloud logo, reading “BOOMERS.”

“We’re getting close, put that on so no one knows you’re a villager.”

“Why do you just have a Boomer’s hoodie on you?” Tango asked.

“It reminds me of Bdubs.” 

Tango’s face deepened. “Alright, let’s head in. Let’s try to get to  Redstonia by tonight. I’d hate to get stuck out here.” 

“You can say that again.” Hunter put on the sweatshirt and scaled down into the valley. Zedaph closely followed her, but Tango stayed back for a second. He looked over his shoulder and creased his eyebrows.

“We’re coming back for you Bdubs. We’re coming back.”

~~~

Impulse and Crafter stayed on the move. Thanks to Impulse’s messy inventory, they had two saddles and got horses. They left a breadcrumb trail of carved trees and headed deeper into a forest. They were quiet for most of it.

Crafter saw how Impulse’s hand clutched the reins of his horse. He looked at him.

“Is everything alright?” He asked. 

Impulse sighed, “yeah…”

“You don’t have to, but talking may help. Getting a second opinion has always reassured me.”

Impulse looked back up at him. “If you’re willing to listen to a whole lot of nothing.”

“Always am.”

“The world really feels like it’s falling apart. I was just getting used to being a Watcher, to being who I am… but now I found out that I’ve been--” he doesn’t dare say it, “I can’t believe villagers are alive… What else have they lied to us about? What else do I not know? Did Pearl run away or was she kidnapped, what happened to Mumbo and Iskall, what kinds of things are they doing to Bdubs? I wish I could know just a little more than I do. I feel like I’m shooting in the dark. Who knows what I’ll actually hit.”

Crafter nodded. “Taking risks like this are terrifying. Going against what you’ve always known must be doing a lot in your head. When Gameknight led us to battle against Herobrine all that time ago, many people didn’t want to fight with him. Many people died. Sometimes I even wonder about the cost, especially now that things have gotten worse. But we must remember that we make decisions based on the knowledge we have. We can’t look back on our choices and ridicule ourselves for the so-called “right” choice. We did our best then and we’ll do our best now.”

Impulse looked at him and his face softened. “I guess you’re right.”

“You’re right too. Your emotions need to be felt and you don’t have to understand them all right now.”

Impulse nodded, but stayed quiet.

~~~

“Okay, so what’s the actual plan?” Grian asked Doc.

“We’re bringing Keralis with us. And Stress.”

“Okay, cool, what about Gem? She seemed really upset last night.”

“We’re going to be making a scene by taking Keralis and Stress, any more and we’ll be increasing our risk by a pretty great amount.”

Grian sighed, “we’ll come back for her.”

“Yeah. We’ll come back for all of them.”

Grian nodded.

The two walked into Doc’s base and loaded several shulker boxes of materials. Blocks, food, and tools were stashed up.  Grian glanced at Doc several times, but worked in silence. Doc noticed, but he didn’t ask. Whatever was going on in his mind wasn’t important enough to take a break for. They needed to get out tonight, that much was obvious. But Grian would not stop.

“Are you good?”

“Hm?”

“You keep looking at me.”

“Ah…” Grian looked around for something to say other than the thing on his mind. “You got any…” He scratched his neck and narrowed his eyes. He looked at Doc and raised his eyebrows. “Alcohol?”

Doc scoffed, but it turned into a laugh. “You’re right. I’ll go get it. Message Keralis and Stress to meet us.”

Grian gave him a blushing thumbs up. Doc walked down the dark hall. He felt the brick walls as he walked and his eyebrows creased. He closed his eyes and stopped walking. He rubbed his lips together and took a deep breath. He walked down the hall.

The four met at Doc’s base and went in pairs to the barrier. Grian and Stress waited in the bushes for Keralis and Doc to get through. Once all four were on the other side, they tossed their communicators off the land bridge.They all took off their Watcher symbols and Doc his Creeper King sigil and tossed them out as well. Grian took the Watcher symbols off and walked over to where Pearl was killed. He set his symbols down. Stress looked away. They opened their wings and flew to the other side.

Grian looked at the beach, one Iskall had messaged him about. Exile.

“Thank you,” Stress said, breaking the silence.

“Of course,” Grian laughed, turning to her. He grabbed her hands and squeezed them. 

“I never thought I’d run away,” Stress muttered and tears formed in her eyes. “I never thought--”

Grian hugged her. “We’re gonna get Iskall back.”

“Come on, we have to keep moving,” Doc mumbled. Stress nodded and let go of the embrace. “Where are we going?” Keralis asked.

Doc clench his mouth. “Anywhere but here. Further in. There are ruins everywhere. We’ll find something.”Doc started walking before anything else was said. Grian followed him soon after.

Stress looked up at Keralis. “We’re doing the right thing… right?”

Keralis sighed. “I think so.”

They followed Doc and Grian down the coast of the mainland.

~~~

Gem punched the pillow Beef was holding up for her as Etho paced the room. They huddled down in Gem’s base.

“How could he do that? He didn’t even try to stop them,” Gem growled, “the least he could’ve done was actually use the magic that was given to him. Or was Pearl not worth the effort?”

“There are a lot of decisions that need to be made every day, and I’m sure this change of admins is… stressful.”

“So stressed he would let Pearl die like that?” Gem whispered, “I saw what they did to her in processing, the Watchers have done nothing but fail her.”

Beef didn’t respond this time, instead clenching the pillow tighter.

“They’re weak, they’re scared. We don’t know who we’re fighting. They covered all identifying traits,” Etho discussed, “We’re potentially seeing EX again, mod smiths… really anyone.”

Beef sighed and laid back. Gem leaned back on the wall. “What can we do? We can’t save anyone. Mumbo and Iskall are probably dead!” Gem crossed her arms and looked away. “Everyone who isn’t here is probably dead.”

“Doc’s not.” Etho said. Beef and Gem looked at him. He sighed, “I wasn’t supposed to say anything. Doc’s trying to get people out. He and Grian have a plan. I don’t know what that plan is but… he’s coming back for us.”

“Are we going to fight back?” Beef asked.

“I don’t know.”

Gem sniffled. “Great. I can’t wait to get the hell out of here.” She whipped off her cheeks. “I can’t believe I thought being a Watcher was a good thing. I can’t believe my parents were proud of me.” Etho sat down beside Gem and hugged her. She cried into her hands and leaned on Etho. Etho reached forward with one arm and grabbed Beef’s hand.

“We’re gonna get out of here.”

~~~

Python and Preston walked along the edge of the desert. Python groaned as Python looked in every old storage container.

“What are you even looking for?” Python hissed.

“Guns.”

“OH MY GOD, THERE ARE NO GUNS!”

“But what if they’re are guns?”

“THERE ARE NO FUCKING GUNS!”

Preston reached into a box and pulled out a pistol. He checked the clip and it was empty. “I found a gun.”

“A useless one. Now come on, we need to get eyes on Mumbo and Iskall.”

“And what if they’re dead?”

Python stopped walking. He clenched his fists. “They’re not dead.” 

Preston laughed. He put the gun in his belt and caught up to Python. The two started walking again. “You still care about all of them, don’t you?”

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“Hermitcraft is doomed. Do you think I still fawn over my adventures? They were destined to end.”

“Everything is,” Python spat, “does that mean I shouldn’t care? Should I just surrender to my end right now? It’s gonna happen eventually.”

“Wow, no, don’t be so grim. I’m just saying you shouldn't care so much about the end. Frankly, it doesn’t matter.”

Python rolled his eyes. “You suck.”

“You suck more.”

They walked for a little bit longer when they ran into a small group of four people. Python vaguely recognized the Watcher leading them. They stopped walking and stared at each other.

“You’re Jimmy right?” Python asked his fellow Watcher.

“Python?” Jimmy asked back. They shook hands. “You were a part of the Evolution disbanding?”

“Sure was. You were a part of Evolution?”

“Yes Sir.”

Python nodded, “who are they?”

“Some desert folk I bribed into helping me.”

“With what? I thought empires were a resource sanction. You don’t go on missions do you?”

“Well, to be honest, this is a little different from your missions.”

Jimmy pulled a machine gun out of his inventory and opened fire. Before either of the creepers could do anything, they were on the ground, bleeding out. Despite seeing a thousand creepers die, Pat, Sean, and Charlie took a step back. Jimmy took out flint and steel and smiled back at the three. “I would advise you to keep your distance for this part.”

They bolted backwards as Jimmy lit the creeper’s bodies on fire. They ignited and Jimmy fled as well. The two bodies exploded. Jimmy gave the three a thumbs up. “They’ll respawn but we’ve got some time until that happens!”

“Why did you do that?” Charlie yelped.

“Because that creeper is the reason the people I called family are dead or Watchers. I’m not gonna let Grian’s name die in vain like that.” Jimmy took a step closer to them. “Your weapons are exactly what I need. Imagine if we got a machine gun suited with permadeath? Imagine how many Watchers we can kill!”

“You’re insane,” Pat said.

“Am I?”

Chapter Text

“Messier,” Iskall repeated, scrunching up his nose.

“Yep!” Pearl said. She sat on the table in front of Iskall. “Don’t you think it’s a cool name?”

“Doesn’t that mean like “more dirty”?”

“NO NOT-- Not messier… Messier. Like the French astronomer!”

Iskall blinked.

Dan looked in the room. “That’s not how you pronounce the astronomer’s name.”

“How would I know, smarty? I’ve only read about him…”

Dan walked in and set down blueprints. “You want something scary and space themed? Cygnus. It’s a giant black hole.”

“Dan, there's like, three people named Cygnus,” Pearl said as if it was obvious, “and plus, there was already a dramatic cut off where I decided my name.”

Iskall and Dan looked at each other and then back at Pearl.

“KEPLER!” Tommy jumped in.

“No way,” Iskall said, “that just sounds like that old dog cartoon.”

“That’s Kipper,” Dan corrected.

“Um, Pulsar!” Tommy said, “it’s a neutron star that emits radiation…”

“It’s also a radio,” Dan said.

“Dan, you are about to not be my favorite dad.”

“You could literally just call yourself “Black Hole” or something,” Iskall suggested.

“Yeah, but I’m not lame,” Pearl laughed.

There were heavy footsteps coming down the hall. Expecting Techno, Pearl said:

“Hey, Techno, I need a cool villain name, can you--” She stopped upon seeing who it really was. The only person who didn’t look scared out of their minds was Dan and even then his eyes were wide.

“Andromeda,” Squid suggested. He leaned in the doorway.

“IBALLISTICSQUID?” Tommy gasped, “NO WAY.”

“I thought you were dead!” Pearl yelped, jumping up.

“I did too…” Iskall muttered. He stood up and backed away.

“Haha, I’m not gonna die that easy.” He crossed his gloved arms. “It’s nice to finally be here.”

Dan laughed, “I may have forgotten to mention I know Squid from crazy craft!”

“This is insane!” Pearl chuckled, “I can’t believe this, with you… we’re unstoppable… After faking my death, Xisuma’s death, Doc and Grian leaving, Impulse, Tango and Zedaph nowhere to be found?” She laughed and grabbed her head. “They don’t stand a chance!”

“Calm down, jeez…” Tommy said and put his hands up. 

Pearl took a second to compose herself. She looked at Iskall and put a hand on his shoulder. “They don’t even have Mumbo Jumbo as a backup.”

Iskall rushed out of the room. He hurried over to Mumbo’s cell.

“It sounds like a sitcom out there…” he seethed, “Oh wow, a new guest star… who’s next? Markiplier?”

“Mumbo, they’re--”

“They're breaking down Hermitcraft.” Mumbo stood up and walked to the window.

“They’re going to hurt people. They’re going to hurt them.”

“All in the name of revolution and all in the name of the Watchers.”

Iskall clenched his fists. He grabbed one of the bars from the cell window and pulled at it. Mumbo watched him and laughed.

“What are you going to do? Break me out? I thought you had a little deal.”

“Deals off--” Iskall scoffed, yanking the bar out. He wielded it like a weapon and put a hand on the door to Mumbo’s cell. “Get ready to run.”

“Where are we going to go? They're stronger than us.”

Iskall looked Mumbo dead in the eyes. “If you want to sit here and watch them kill everyone you love, then fine, but I’m getting out of here.”

“No, no, I’m coming…” Mumbo muttered.

“Okay. On Three… One… Two… Three.”

Iskall opened the door and grabbed Mumbo’s arm. They ran up the stairs past the war room and didn’t stop. Even when Iskall heard Pearl’s voice he kept moving. The two ran out of the base, chased by the Nociceptors. Pearl grabbed Iskall’s neck and pulled him back. His iron bar weapon fell from his hand. Mumbo stumbled forward and looked back.

“What is this?” Pearl said, reaching back and pulling her mask over her face. Mumbo looked away to avoid his reflection. “Iskall, I thought you were a neutral party?” She squeezed his neck and lifted him off of the ground. He grabbed her hand.

“Please… Pearl…”

“Do me a favor and show me you were paying attention…”

“...”

“Say my real name…”

“...Andromeda…” 

“Ohhh, I like that.” She threw Iskall on the ground and swung her sword to rest on his neck. “Now, let’s think about this: you and Mumbo are trying to escape.”

“Don’t hurt him!” Mumbo yelled, still looking away. 

Andromeda stepped over Iskall and stood right in front of Mumbo. “Are you scared of looking at me?” She cupped Mumbo’s face with her gloved hand. “Or are you scared of looking at yourself…”

“Pearl, don’t taunt them,” Technoblade said, holding a sword over Iskall. “Let’s get them back down.”

She turned to him. “No. We’re going to let them go. Under a condition.”

“What could you want from us?” Iskall yelled.

“Remind your fellow Hermitcraft members that Pearl is dead.”

“Deal…” Mumbo breathed. Andromeda put a blade on Mumbo’s neck.

“You sure?” She whispered. Mumbo could see himself in his peripheral vision and his heart rate increased. “Is it really a deal? I thought you would’ve left Iskall by now… one life to get your information back. It would make you useful to Scar…”

“Mumbo…” Iskall pleaded.

“So, is it Iskall or the Watchers?”

Mumbo sweated as she pulled his face to look at her with the edge of the knife. He closed his eyes, but the vision of his own eyes lingered. “Give me Iskall,” he yelped in one breath. There was a shuffle behind him and the knife slipped from his chin.

“Remember… Pearl’s dead. Don’t make a mistake.”

Iskall grabbed Mumbo’s arm and pulled him. They started running. Mumbo finally opened his eyes and looked back. The Nociceptors were gone. After a few minutes they slowed down. He looked at Iskall. Iskall let go of Mumbo’s arm and heaved air. His eyes darted around their unfamiliar surroundings. Old and corrupted terrain circled them. They were in the middle of nowhere, truly.

Iskall sank down to his knees and put his head down. “Are you happy now?” he hissed. “We’re fucked, Mumbo. Fucked.” He stood up and started walking in a new direction. Mumbo followed him, biting his tongue. “We can’t go back to Hermitcraft, everyone there is freaking out, we don’t know where anyone is, and who would want you anyways!” he turned and faced Mumbo. 

“Since last year, you have been unbearable,” Iskall continued, “you and Scar. Just total jerks all the way around. You don’t care about anyone anymore, you don’t even care about yourself. All you care about is protecting the Watcher’s and their greatness. You can’t be serious, I thought. Mumbo and Scar are the most caring people I know! People you actively protested the disbanding of Evolution. But then, oh but then, out of nowhere, you and Scar and the leads on that mission. Grian was SCREAMING for you to stop and you made everything worse because he wasn’t being agreeable! And then you’re back to being kind? Like you don’t even remember the terrible things you’ve done? I don’t know if I’m just happy you picked a side at this point. At least you aren’t getting all in your emotions now!”

Mumbo didn’t respond. Iskall’s eyes opened.

“Her mask…” he muttered.

“What about her mask?” Mumbo asked, “Iskall, I know you’re not happy with me, but--”

“No, we can get Scar on our side! Mumbo this is it!”

“One: do we have a side, two: what are you even talking about. Iskall, we are going to be executed.”

“Mumbo, you spoon, her mask is a mirror. Listen to you, you’re being reasonable; it worked.”

Mumbo’s eyes widened. “You… you’re right… But… what are we going to do with that? Just because Scar isn’t crazy, doesn’t mean X won’t be.”

“Xisuma was executed,” Iskall breathed, “Scar’s the admin.”

“That… complicates things.”

The two stood in silence. Iskall looked up at Mumbo.

“Are you done being… like that?”

Mumbo hugged Iskall. “I am.”

“Mumbo? Iskall?”

The two looked up to see Doc, Grian, Stress, and Keralis.

Iskall and Mumbo backed up.

“We aren’t here to take you back,” Doc said, putting his hands up.

“Good,” Iskall breathed, “neither are we.” He ran forward and hugged Stress, who hugged him back.

Grian looked at Mumbo.

“Grian, I--”

“Don't talk to him,” Doc demanded, stepping in front of Grian. “Do your best not to talk at all.”

“You can’t tell me--” Mumbo cut himself off. He just took a step back. 

Grian walked over to Iskall and Stress, giving Mumbo one last look. He hugged Iskall. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I thought… I thought they killed you.”

“No, they can’t kill me,” Iskall laughed, squeezing Grian. “Are you okay?”

“As okay as I can be.”

“Okay, let’s get going,” Doc announced, “we have to keep moving and find a good place to set up. If we’re going to wait this out, we need to do so far away.”

“How are we going to get back?” Keralis asked.

“Underground tunnels. It’s old school time.”

“Right.”

~~~

Tubbo sat down at the meeting table. Stampy sat across from him. Quackity had been waiting at the head of the table. Far above the desert land of Las Nevadas, the three sat in the meeting room, circled around a piece of paper. “By signing this, we all agree not to aid in the rebellion or the Watcher’s goals,” Stampy clarified.

“And we will not take action against either party,” Tubbo added.

“Correct,” Quackity finalized, “we have to defend the cities that haven’t been harmed.”

“What do we do if we’re attacked?” Tubbo asked, fidgeting with the pen in his hands. 

Quackity shrugged and lifted the cigarette from his mouth. “We’ll come to each other's aid. I think that’s the only time we can act.”

“Egg shells,” Stampy muttered, “we only act in defense.”

Tubbo rested a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Only.”

They took turns reading the paper and signing it. Their alliance had been around for years now, but this renewal would ensure dedication. The Alliance of Peaceful Parties, as they were called, was not going to waver in the presence of a rebellion.

~~~

EX, Replicant, and Xisuma arrived at Hels’ warehouse. They walked in with a passcode they didn’t let Xisuma see. They got inside and Hels, Repilcant, and EX engaged in an elaborate handshake and greeting. Xisuma felt the pit in his stomach deepen. He looked down at the tiled floors. He couldn’t feel his arms or legs anymore. The pain in his stomach ceased only to return harsher. The bruises and injuries he sustained from the abattoir dug deep into his body. Yet, everything felt like a numb buzzing as did the happy greetings from in front of him.

A hand grabbed his shoulder and the pain and sound returned. EX stood in front of him, creased eyebrows and a frown.

“Suma’, let’s get you somewhere safe.”

They walked to a side of the warehouse with spare rooms. EX opened one of the rooms’ doors and revealed a plain room with a sleeping bag and lamp. EX helped his brother lay down. EX sat down beside him and rubbed his head.

“You don’t usually let your hair get this long… what happened?”

“I didn’t need to look good to die,” Xisuma responded blandly. 

EX laughed, “you look good with a beard.”

Xisuma laid quietly and stared forward. His whole body shivered. EX stood up and left the room. Xisuma put his face in his hands and took a deep breath. EX returned to the room with a letterman jacket. Xisuma’s eyes widened.

“Hels told me to get rid of it, but you can’t just get rid of your twin’s jacket.”

Xisuma sat up and put it on. He didn’t meet EX’s eyes. “Why… Why did you save me?”

“Should I have left you?”

“I failed. I wasn’t good enough.”

EX lifted Xisuma face up. “You are a better man than most. I hope you’ll find that somewhere beneath the torture those Watchers did to you.”

Xisuma dropped his head again and laid back down, swaddling himself in his old jacket. “Thank you, Xiryla.”

“Not the real name!” EX fake-complained with a laugh. Xisuma chuckled, but that was the end of his energy. “You’re so sad… get some rest, man.”

EX left the room, closing the door behind him.

“Finished tucking your bro into bed?” Replicant laughed.

EX laughed and walked back over to them. Hels’ hit Replicant’s head. “You don’t know what it’s like to have a brother to take care of!”

“Oh yeah?” he responded, “I sure do.”

“Grian wasn’t your brother,” EX said, walking over to Hels’ kitchen. “He was a sad result of Watchers and couldn’t live on his own if he tried.” He started a pot of tea. “Speaking of: how’s Wels?”

Hels joined him at the counter. “Still asleep…” He sighed, “I know you love your brother, but he was the one that punished Wels like this. Maybe we shouldn’t be so nice.”

“He just got out of the abattoir,” EX said, “he deserves rest before we confront him about being a Watcher. And you know as well as I that it was Scar that convinced him to punish Wels like that.”

“Remind me why we’re sympathetic?” Replicant scoffed. He jumped on the couch and turned on the TV. EX rolled his eyes playfully.

“It’s gonna rain tonight!” Hels changed the subject, “hate rain…”

“Hey, is Bad Times around?” Replicant asked, “I miss him.”

“Of course you do,” Hels muttered. EX shook his head and proceeded to fix a cup of tea for himself. He blew the steam from the brown liquid and took a sip. “You know, Rep,” hels continued, “you talk about Bad Times a lot.”

“I’m well aware, we’re besties.”

EX set down his tea. “I’m gonna go change. Prison garbs aren’t exactly my vibe.”

“I think they look nice,” Replicant said.

“You have no sense of style,” EX said, leaving the conversation. His room was covered in posters and had a bed frame. If he wasn’t mad at his brother, he would’ve let him sleep on the actual bed. Unfortunately, his brother was a Watcher admin. He lost brother points in those years.

EX tossed his white clothes off and put on jeans and a tee-shirt. With converse and his letterman jacket, like the quirky white boy he was, the fit was complete. He journeyed back out to the living space and sat down on the couch. Repilcant had the news on. He muted it, but EX could still read the subtitles.

“After a slew of Watcher disappearances from Hermitcraft, other sanctions are starting to agree with the at first controversial removal of Xisuma Void as admin. The new admin, Scar Goodtimes, is cracking down on security and has made a public statement about disbanding the group now known as the “Nociceptors.” This group, Goodtimes states, is violent and should be avoided. No statement has been filed from The APP, and they continue to stay quiet about the issues at hand.

“At the execution of beloved ex-admin, Xisuma Void, there was quite the scene witnessed--”

EX snatched the remote from Replicant and turned the TV up.

“The ex-admin was taken from execution by two people; Xiryla Void and a new face. These two seemed to have taken Void far away, and even fought back and killed several Watcher guards. Void was seen fighting back as well.

“In other news, the price of bread has risen again--”

EX muted the TV again. He leaned over the couch and smiled at Replicant and Hels. “We’re famous.”

“Not one followed you, right?” Hels growled.

“No one,” Replicant promised, “we aren’t stupid.”

“Sure you aren't.”

EX left them to bicker and watched the news man, an enderman, talk about the declining value of emeralds. EX fiddled with the edge of his jacket and bit his lip. He bounced his leg. The subtitles read irrelevant information. The news man wore a Watcher symbol around his neck along with the Enderman King’s sigil as a cuff link. EX tried to remember a time before all of this, but it didn’t come to his mind. As long as he could remember, Xisuma wanted to be an admin. 

Why would anyone want this?

“EX, you okay over there?” Hels asked.

“Yeah,” EX sighed, “just brooding.”

Replicant laid down on him and closed his eyes. “Don’t mind me, keep brooding.” EX smiled and pet Replicant’s head. Hels took the remote and changed the channel.

“Sorry, I don’t want to get depressed. Look! EJ’s on.”

“Ew,” EX said. “You know I don’t like her music. She stole my branding.”

“Putting “Evil” in front of your first name isn’t novel.”

“I thought it was.”

“Look at me and Rep. My name is a pun, and his name is really creepy… Actually…”

“Thanks,” Replicant muttered.

“EX is way slicker than EJ anyways.” EX looked at the subtitles. “Bro she’s doing a cover! How can you get more unoriginal than that?”

“Covers are great. There’s this awesome Metallica “Powerslave” cover by Testament--”

“Stop making allusions to the real world.”

“Okay… she’s Hero-X’s daughter. Have respect.”

EX scoffed. “Who cares?”

“I do…” Repilcant mumbled.

“Go to sleep,” EX breathed, running his fingers through the smaller guy’s hair.

Chapter Text

Pearl put a map on the wall of the war room. Tommy looked over at the black and white map with a few locations penciled in.

“What’s that of?”

“Old tunnels dug across most of the world.”

Tommy saw “Manberg” as one of the locations. His eyebrows creased. “How old is it?”

“I don’t know? I was given this by Taurtis, but Evolution isn’t even marked.”

“It’s only a few years old.” Tommy walked up beside them. “It has Manberg written instead of L’manberg or New L’Manberg. It’s from Jshlatt’s time in office.”

“Interesting…”

“Yeah! Cause there’s El Rapids and Poptopia! Oh and off the map to this side is where Logsteshire used to be! OOH and the prison is right here now-a-days!”

Pearl looked down at Tommy and twisted her face. “What?”

“You had to be there,” Tommy insisted.

Dan trotted into the room with a tote bag, “Pearl! I mean, Andromeda! I have something you’re really going to like!”

“Oh?” she said walking back to the table. Tommy grabbed a pencil and started labeling places on the tunnel map. Dan set the bag down carefully and pulled out a test tube. It was filled with a purple substance. Pearl’s eyes lit up. “What is that?” she asked.

“Bacterium. I thought the Watcher’s destroyed every sample, but I found one.”

“Where?” Tommy asked, “isn’t that stuff super dangerous?”

“Oh yeah. I found it in a safe at an old pizzeria my friend, Think, worked at. He knew this stuff so well… I fiddled around with it, but he was… he was a mod smith of another breed. No doubt in my mind he saved this.” Dan put it back into the bag carefully and smiled. “All we have to do is put this somewhere it will cause a lot of damage. Because it’s been outlawed, they’ll have no way to create a jammer.”

“That would destroy a lot of Hermitcraft,” Tommy said.

“And do we not want that?” Pearl laughed, “I think this is the perfect way to truly make our presence known.”

“Yeah, and how are we supposed to get it in there? Pearl’s dead.”

“We don’t need to go in. We create a wall of brick and set it loose on the other side.”

Before Tommy interjected again, Dan spoke: “Is that a map of the underground tunnels?” He trotted over and grabbed a pencil. “Okay, so Think’s mod lab is over here, and he probably has a lot of stuff in there. It was raided by D-XD, so it’s likely it was a sloppy job and we can still get stuff out of there.”

“Dream XD…” Tommy muttered.

“And, I mean, how could we not at least go check it out. That place is a treasure trove of old research and mods. Think had more books than Trayaurus, I think… Anyhow, There should be a place where we can incubate a good chunk of this.”

“Sounds good. We make our way over to this lab, get materials, and set hell loose on Hermitcraft and maybe even another sanction…”

~~~

Pearl, Dan, Techno, and Squid packed up for their journey to the old mod lab. Sparkles walked into the war room as they did. He walked to Pearl’s side.

“Pearl-- Andromeda,” he asked. She looked up and smiled.

“Yes?”

“I was wondering if you wanted us to do anything about Mumbo and Iskall.”

“Hmm…” She put a finger on her chin.

“Don’t do anything,” Techno said, “they're gone. Just keep your eyes on this place and keep it safe.”

“Oh-- okay.”

“Listen,” Pearl said, putting a hand on Sparkles’ shoulder. “I know you’re worried about Iskall. He spoke very fondly of you.” There was something in Pearl’s eyes that Sparkles hadn’t seen before. “I know all of this is… difficult, but Iskall can stand on his own. He doesn’t fall easily.”

Sparkles smiled and nodded. “You’re right.”

“After this is all over, maybe things can… will be better.” She let go of him and grabbed her backpack. “Alright, keep getting resources with Ranboo and Tommy. Keep everything together and we’ll be back soon. These underground tunnels will get us there pretty quickly.”

“Okay, stay safe. And try not to die.”

“Die?” Pearl laughed, “never.”

The four set off and out of the base, putting their masks down as they entered the night. It wasn’t even much of a trip to the nearest entrance to the underground tunnels. From here, though, it was quite the journey to the mod lab. High in the mountains a train ride away from the city, Think Noodle’s lab was not only one of the largest mod labs, but it was also home to some of the largest explosives known to modding.

“Also, did you know that Think was responsible for revivals outside of Watcher respawn systems? This technology was destroyed by him himself after using it on himself for dying in a Roblox Obby.”

Techno rubbed his face. Squid laughed. Pearl led the group with the map.

“And, these explosives that I mentioned earlier are actually used today in Watcher factions used to manufacture concrete. Massive coffins were constructed over these sites with limited entry and exit due to the extreme conditions that the TNT can cause. I mean, at this point in TNT history, we’ve stopped calling TNT because that is an inaccurate measurement. We use terms like “nukes” now.”

“Are you done?” Techno asked.

“Of all people I thought you’d like to know about this.”

“Listen, withers and TNT get the job done. What’s the fun of taking it all out in one blow if there isn’t even a little bit of the flag to watch drift from the sky?”

“Um, it's gone in one blow? That’s pretty satisfying.”

“Blowing people up is a bit hostile, don’t you think?” Squid asked.

Dan stopped to consider the question. Techno jumped in:

“That’s the point.”

“Okay,” Pearl said, stopping their conversation, “we’re gonna take a turn up here into a hub room. From there we’ll climb altitude.”

Squid chuckled and caught up to Pearl. They entered the large room and looked around. Dan hummed.

“Wow this place--”

Talking echoed from down a hall across from them. The Nociceptors pulled their masks on and pulled out their weapons: Pearl wielded Mumbo’s sword, Techno a fully enchanted diamond one, Squid a netherite one, and Dan his fists. They stood at the ready as Doc stepped through the tunnel. He pulled out his netherite sword and flared his wings to protect the people behind him. Keralis jumped out behind him and pulled his own sword from his pocket. 

Pearl laughed, though distorted through the mask.

“You’re kidding me?” Techno snapped, “I thought you said Doc was with us!”

“With them?” Keralis spat.

“Oh, I am not with them,” Doc seethed.

“No?” Pearl laughed. “Come on then. Don’t be with us then.” She lunged forward and struck Doc’s sword with her own. Doc pushed back and ran out of the way, putting his wings away and running back towards her.

Grian pulled out his pickaxe and wrestled Techno’s blade from his face. The pickaxe flew from his hands to the other side of the space where Dan caught it, and Stress stepped in to block the next attack, a swing from below that would’ve taken Grian’s arm clean off 

Keralis took on Squid and nailed a blow on his armor. Squid swung down and Keralis met it halfway. Metal scraped as Keralis’ sword flew upwards and whistled as it came back down. Squid rolled out of the way and pulled out another sword to duel wield. Keralis summoned his shield and blocked the onslaught.

Pearl cut through the air and crashed into Doc’s sword, and Dan ran over and swung down with the pickaxe, which Doc caught with his metal arm, ramming it back and slamming it into Dan’s shoulder, making him drop the pickaxe that Grian reobtained and hit Techno's leg, setting off balance and swinging Stress off balance as well and she tripped into Squid, shoving him to the ground, and Keralis kicked a sword from his hand. 

Dan stumbled back and grabbed his shoulder. Grian threw the pickaxe at Squid and the tool pinned his armor to the ground. Stress lifted an ax from her inventory and swung it as Pearl, barely missing when Techno swung again and she blocked. Keralis slammed his shield into Techno’s head, breaking his mask, and kicked him to the ground. Doc broke away from Pearl and grabbed Mumbo and Iskall. Doc dragged them down another tunnel and Keralis and Stress followed. Grian ran after them but stopped and stared at Pearl. He punched her and ran down the hall, blocking the tunnel behind them with obsidian.

Dan groaned and dropped to the ground. Squid struggled to pull the pickaxe out of the ground. Techno pulled his mask off and touched his lip and nose where they dripped blood. Pearl looked down at them.

“Who hits a guy with a shield?” Techno snapped.

“Who hits a guy with a pickaxe…” Dan slurred.

“Who pins a guy to the ground with a pickaxe?” Squid groaned.

Pearl pulled the pickaxe from the ground and helped Techno up. She came to Dan’s aid and started wrapping his arm up.

“Of course they’re also going to the lab,” Squid grumbled, “what are we supposed to do?”

“Follow them,” Pearl said as she helped Dan to his feet. She gave him a health potion and walked to the obsidian barrier. She lifted her pickaxe and mined it away. “They aren’t going to be an issue.”

“They whooped our butts and Grian was fighting with a pickaxe,” Techno said.

Pearl looked back at them and took off her mask. “Yeah. We’re kinda trained to whoop ass.”

“I’ve killed people with pickaxes before,” Techno said as he followed her down the tunnel.

“Yeah, I can fight better than that,” Squid agreed.

“Don’t sweat it. We’ll win next time,” Pearl said.

“How can you be sure,” Dan asked.

Pearl laughed. It grew in volume until it dropped into nothing. She looked back at her companions, smiling. “Do you think those people will touch world ending mods?” She turned around and walked forward down the dark hall. Techno hesitated to follow her, but did so anyway. Dan and Squid were close behind him.

~~~

“We aren’t safe here!” Grian yelled, “they are coming here too, and I don’t want to stick around to find out what that means for us!”

“We can fight them,” Doc argued, “they aren’t trained like we are.”

“It doesn’t matter, they have Mumbo’s sword. If one of us even draws a pin drop of blood…”

Iskall looked at Mumbo who stared forward with creased eyebrows. Mumbo reached up and touched his forehead where Pearl’s blade carved into his skin. It had only stopped bleeding a few hours prior to his and Iskall’s daring escape.

“We have permadeath weapons too,” Doc said.

“Doc,” Grian snapped, “it doesn’t matter! They aren’t scared of those weapons like we are! They already won’t respawn, not since VE-X changed it! They kill us… we’re dead. Not respawn dead, dead-dead.”

“I should tell them,” Mumbo whispered to Iskall.

“Wait a bit,” Iskall suggested.

“Whatever,” Doc waved Grian away, “let’s get resources while we can. There’s no point in arguing now…” He walked further into the mod lab. “We’ll have to fight them anyway.” 

Grian sighed and went to the large bookshelves on the other end of the lab.

Stress and Keralis joined Iskall and Mumbo at the center of their room. “It’s a beautiful lab,” Stress said, “I bet it was even prettier when it was in operation.”

“Absolutely,” Keralis agreed.

“There are skeletons everywhere,” Mumbo muttered, “there was never a reason… was there?” Keralis, Stress, and Iskall looked at him with wide eyes. “Death and destruction…” he continued, “it wasn’t to cleanse the world, it wasn’t to bring a new era of life… it was so that they could control everything. It was for the sake of killing, that we killed… that I killed.” Mumbo wrapped his arms around his body. “I killed them.”

“Mumbo, are you feeling okay?” Keralis asked and put a hand on Mumbo’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Keralis…” He muttered, walking further into the lab.

Iskall took Stress’s hand. “He’s… he’s normal again. I think P--” Iskall stopped himself. Stress looked at him with creased eyebrows. “The Nociceptors knew what he was.”

“The mask…” Keralis mumbled, “that’s why Scar was so… distant…” Keralis looked at Iskall. “Iskall, you have to tell us everything. Whether or not we want what they want is irrelevant. I’m not letting any more of us die.” 

“I’ll tell you as much as I can.”

“You need to tell us everything,” Stress whispered.

“I--” Iskall squeezed her hand. “I can’t.”

Keralis nodded. “I’m going to talk to Doc. He knows something about the Nociceptors that he needs to tell us.” Keralis followed in Doc’s footsteps. Iskall looked away from Stress.

They weren’t alone in the lab.

Doc was rustling around in a testing room, digging up old armor and weapons. Keralis walked into the room and knelt down beside Doc. Doc groaned.

“Hey Keralis.”

“Hey Doc. What’s up?”

“Just… Ugh, just looking for resources, like we’re supposed to be!” The two stand up and Doc fully faces Keralis. “What is it?”

“It’s just that you seem to know more than you’re letting on.”

“I do… but that information isn’t at my disposal.”

“Why not?”

“It’s better if you don’t know. Knowing is making a lot of things a lot harder.”

Keralis studied Doc’s face for a few moments. “We could help if you told us.”

“You couldn’t. That’s what no one understands until they know. Once they know, they know they can’t do anything about it. Be honest, the only thing we can control right now is what we do. We can’t control Hermitcraft, we can’t control the Nociceptors, we can’t control the Watchers. We can’t even control each other. And I’m calling the shot to keep my mouth closed. Trust me; it’s better not knowing.”

Keralis nodded and turned to leave. Doc continued to dig through rubble as Keralis walked back into a different room to dig around.

Grian was looking through the book shelf when he smelt vinegar. He looked around and his eyes tracked the shadows. Across the main path, behind a dead bush up, a silhouette darted from one pillar to the next. Grian narrowed his eyes and reached for his ax. He felt something drop on his face. The liquid rolled down his cheek and fell on his lip. His eyebrows creased.

A giant hand grabbed Grian’s mouth and put a pistol to his temple.

“You’re gonna stay quiet for us, Watcher,” the man behind him ordered, a deep voice rumbling through Grian’s body. “And you are going to go quietly, back with us…”

Grian rammed his elbow into the man and pulled out his ax. The man flew back into the bookshelves and clattered to the ground. Iskall and Stress ran over, Stress tossing an ax to Iskall. They saw Grian standing above a large man in light tan camo. 

“Who is that?” Stress asked.

“I don’t know…” Grian muttered.

“You cannot be here!” The man said, standing up. He towered over them, switching his pistol out for a rifle. “This lab is ours now.”

“You can’t just take a lab,” Iskall said.

The man’s face relaxed and he tilted his head. “Fucking Watchers.” There were footsteps behind them. They looked back to see two more people, one short and a tall one. The short one wielded… a pickle. He wore a blue shirt and dark blue pants. His hair was short and brown. The taller one, not nearly as tall as the camo man, had long dirty blond hair, pointed ears, beautiful eyes, and a green robe. He held a bow and arrow and aimed it as Stress.

“Oh great,” Iskall sighed, “an elf?”

“Iskall…” Grian muttered, “don’t be rude…”

Iskall whipped his head around and looked at Grian.

“You three are surrounded,” the large man said, “and thus should surrender.”

“We’re not going to do that,” Stress said. The elf scoffed.

“I hate women who wear pink…”

“That is a weird thing to hate,” Grian seethed.

Doc, Keralis, and Mumbo ran out of the hall to see what was going on. Doc walks over and puts a hand on his sword. “Who are you?”

“Who are we?” The short one spat, “why should we tell you?”

“You know what, it’s not worth it,” Keralis said, “the Nociceptors are going to show up anytime now. This place has nothing.”

The group paused as they heard voices coming from the tunnel. Doc led the members of Hermitcraft away. The Nociceptors walked in and looked at the three assorted men.

While they went through the whole “who are you?” round, Doc led them out back through the tunnels. After getting away, Doc stopped them.

“We need to find somewhere to set up.”

“Oh yeah?” Grian snorted. Doc glared at him.

“Most everyone in Hermitcraft are on our side,” Stress said, “except Scar.”

“But he can be,” Mumbo said, “if we get him to look at himself in a mirror, it should, you know, not… Why does that work?”

“It’s a symbolic representation of reflecting on yourself,” Doc explained.

“Ah, that makes sense.”

“Stop breaking the fourth wall and focus,” Iskall spat, “all of this is great, but how will we get rid of VE-X? He’s still going to be hanging around. Muse-X and Hero-X may have other things to do, but he doesn’t.”

“There’s a way we can do that too,” Stress said, smiling, “he can just respawn as soon as he dies, but what if he can’t?”

“How do you suggest we do that? I don’t think anything can kill him that hard,” Grian sighed.

“Stress is right!” Iskall slammed a fist into his other hand. “If we trap him in a vault and let the time run out, he wouldn’t be able to respawn.”

“Do we know that for sure?” Keralis questioned.

“No, but it’s the closest thing we have to an answer.”

“We’ll try it,” Doc said, “but first we need to get back to Hermitcraft, and get Scar on our side.”

The group nodded and started back down the narrow and dark tunnels. Mumbo lagged behind for a moment and looked to where they came from. Something bad was going to happen and there wasn’t any stopping it… was there?

Chapter Text

Tango, Zedaph, and Hunter walked into Redstonia. The sandstone foundation town sparkled with iron block and redstone powder. There were some whispers from the citizens as Tango and Zedaph walked through. Zedaph rubbed his arm and avoided looking at anyone, and Hunter eyed everyone that looked at her, while Tango gawked at every corner of the city.

“Have you seen more redstone?” Tango laughed, spinning around.

“Yeah, you built Decked Out.”

“Well, you know what I mean! Outside of a Watcher sanction!” Tango paused for a second and crossed his arms. “You know, I’m starting to think that Watcher’s were never really all that good…”

“Yeah?” Hunter scoffed.

A small group of teens ran up to the group. A girl stepped forward. “Are you the creator of Boom Box?” She asked.

“I sure am!” Tango laughed.

“That’s amazing!” A boy said, “That's like, my favorite sport to watch!”

“Sport?” Zedaph seethed, looking at Hunter. She shrugged.

“I like Decked Out, so much!” a different girl swooned. “Seeing you run dungeons is soooo awesome.” She tilted her head down a little bit. “It was really hot.”

“OKAY!” Tango said, grabbing Zedaph and Hunter’s sleeves. “Great to meet some of my fans!” He waved as they scurried away.

“I didn’t know you had a fandom?” Hunter said.

“I did…” Zedaph said, eyes wide and full of a loss of innocence.

“Well, people like my mini-games,” Tango explained, “It’s no Diamond Defenders or TCG, but you know.”

“You know those people personally, don’t you…” Hunter shook her head.

“We might…” Zedaph shrugged.

The three walked up to Ellegaard’s chambers. They walked up the steps and looked at the door.

“Pretentious,” Tango spat.

“What did you just say?” A man said, “Ellegaard’s Dome Of Concentration is the opposite of “pretentious!” it is a glorious spot for our dear Lady of the Redstone--”

Tango pulled his sword out and held it up to the man’s neck. Hunter gasped and looked at Zedaph, but he looked unbothered. “You’re going to let us in… Don’t make it hard.”

The man yielded and let them into the dome. Tango and Zedaph walked in like they owned the place. Hunter looked at the man and creased her eyebrows, but followed them in. The interior looked pretty complicated, with puzzles wall to wall, and item transport--

“This is basic as shit,” Tango said, walking further in.

“Hey,” Hunter said, holding her ground. “What’s going on? Why did you threaten that guy?”

“Do you want to get your family and friends safe today, or later?” Tango snapped back. He sighed and pushed his hair back. “Never mind, you-- you’re right. We don’t need to attack people.”

“And waving that netherite sword around might alert someone that you are Watchers.”

“That’s an even better point,” Zedaph admitted, “look, we’re just getting a little tired of traveling and annoying people and all the other things that happen.”

Hunter followed them, “I get it, just shocked me is all.”

“Listen, once we’re out of here, we won’t hurt another person,” Tango promised, “not until they force us to fight.”

Hunter nodded.

They walked into Ellegaard’s room, where she was working on a command block.

“I don’t know how you got in here, but could you please leave?” She snorted, “I’m working on something of dire importance.” Hunter saw a symbol embedded in the leather of her chest plate. Her eyes widened.

Tango sighed and looked back at Hunter. “Hunter, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for--”

Blood splattered on Hunter’s face. Her eyes shot open and her hands shook. Zedaph looked at her. “We should’ve told you,” he explained, “Ellegaard is an admin under Muse-X. She would’ve known about the villagers and would not have helped us. But she has something that we need.”

Tango lifted the command block, now covered in blood, and looked at it. His sword, strapped to his side, sparkled with enchants and dripped with blood. The redstoner’s body was limp on the ground, bleeding out from a wound that would’ve never healed. “I don’t like how easy she was to… kill.” He put the block in his inventory and looked back at them. “Let’s get out of here.”

~~~

Several Years Ago…

Mumbo, Scar, and a few others stood beside each other, beaming with excitement. When the Watcher that had been instructing them their whole lives approached them, he gave them folders at the same time.

“Jumbo, Goodtimes,” he said, “You too have both been assigned to Hermitcraft due to your incredible redstone and building skills respectively.”

The two tried to hide their excitement while on stage. Once they got off though, they screamed and hugged each other. They seemed a lot more excited than their processing mates. Dream, who was a few years younger, seemed pissed that he was going to be starting a whole new server. Squid, a few years older, wasn’t happy about the focus on mods. Either way, Mumbo and Scar were going to be at the same sanction.

And for a while, it was great. Because they were a part of the specialization training and basically grew up in the program, they served pretty high positions around the sanction. Helping new recruits and working with Xisuma to prevent rebellions were what they did on the adminning job, but they also were large producers for the server. They were born for this, and the Watchers thought so too.

It wasn’t long after Scar got there that VE-X became interested in him. While none of the higher ups wanted to be Mumbo's patron, it didn’t matter. They were still hand in hand.

And all of that changed like a light switch turning on.

“Mumbo, Scar,” Xisuma said, shoving reports in their hands. “You two are to come with me, Doc, False, Python, and Keralis to disband a sanction.” Scar and Mumbo looked at each other and their orders.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Mumbo said, meeting Xisuma’s eyes, “Hermitcraft is a resource sanction.”

“Sure is, but VE-X and Muse-X have made it clear that they want us there. Really, it shouldn’t be hard. Plus, there’s a member that they want to put here.”

Mumbo and Scar shared one last scared look, but they nodded and saluted their admin, making a rectangle between their fingers.

The team reached the sanction, netherite sword and shields drawn. Xisuma lets out a tired sigh. “Let’s just speak to them first, maybe we don’t need to shed blood.” They walked into the town square and looked around. “HELLO! Can we speak with the members of this sanction?”

Cautiously, a man with dirty blond hair stepped forward. Mumbo’s eyes widened. It was… Grian? They were friends a long time ago, but never once did Mumbo think that Grian would betray the Watchers… What was he doing here?

More people stepped out, wielding their own weapons, but staying behind Grian.

“Why are you here?” Grian asked, “we haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Quite the contrary!” Xisuma announced, “well, sorta… um, we’re actually here for you, Grian.”

Grian’s eyes widened.

“You have shown extreme vigilance in your building abilities, and surely you would be an asset to the Hermitcraft Sanction! Well, you and your sister, that is.”

Grian looked back at his older sister, Pearl, and then back after she shrugged. “We’re not interested,” he muttered, “thank you though.”

“This really isn’t a choice you have,” Xisuma eased, “come with us and we won’t use force! How about that?”

“No, never,” Pearl said, “you are not going to just… take us.”

“We have a life here, we have no business being Watchers.”

Xisuma sighed, “Last chance.”

Grian pulled out an enchanted diamond sword. “We said no.”

“Very well.”

And just like that, Scar and Mumbo felt something. For a moment, nothing made sense and their eyes filled with fog. Just a moment later, the world was so easy to understand. Every light had a sharp edge, every face identifiable, each blade of grass and leaves on a tree were definable and measurable.

And it was very obvious what they were supposed to do.

~~~

Scar looked at the Watchers’ symbol carved into the stone wall. He didn’t know who carved it, but it was detailed and smooth. Great effort went into it. Cub walked up behind him in the large hall. 

“What’s next?” Scar asked, not even turning to Cub.

“What do you mean?”

“The Nociceptors are getting stronger, people are leaving, I--” Scar stopped himself and turned to look at Cub. “Don’t you want to leave?”

“After everything?” he laughed, “it’s a good question and we’re lucky VE-X isn’t here.”

“We have to find the other members of Hermitcraft and we need to think of a plan.” Scar started to pace.” If I can do one thing, it will be protecting this sanction and the people in it. I’m done following these sick rules that require me to kill people!” 

Cub’s eyes widened. “Scar…”

Scar turned to him. “You don’t want to keep doing this, do you?” Scar stepped closer to him. “You don’t know the kind of thing we’re doing, the Watchers are doing, to keep sanctions running…” Scar grabbed Cub’s shoulder. “It’s fucking disgusting, Cub… I’m done… we’re done.”

Cub nodded. “What’s first?”

“Bdubs.”

The two ran out of the old cave and towards the opposite side of the island, opening their wings and covering the land with ease. They landed at the white structure and opened the doors. Scar dismissed the guards, yelling at them to the sanction. They strutted in and Bdubs looked up.

Without a single word, Scar broke open the cage and an alarm system blared. Cub untied Bdubs.

“Wh-what?” he muttered, shivering.

“We’re done,” Scar said, tears coming to his eyes. He ran up and hugged Bdubs. “How could I do this to you?”

“We can hug later,” Cub said, pushing the two out. The three ran off of the platform, jumping into the ocean just as an explosion went off inside the building. 

“It was rigged to explode?!” Bdubs yelled. Scar picked him up and opened his wings.

“It was for security.” 

The three flew away.

VE-X teleported down from on high above the crumbling isolation building. It looked up and saw Scar and Cub fly away.

~~~

Xisuma wandered out of his little concrete room to see his brother at the weird half kitchen. It smelt like omelets. He was humming to the tune of a well known song. Xisuma walked up and looked over his shoulder. EX turned to him.

“Good morning, Xisuma.” He smiled.

“Good morning,” Xisuma muttered, rubbing his face. “Were you humming “Girl’s Know How to Fight?”” he asked.

EX blushed. “Yeah, and? How do you know the song?”

Xisuma chuckled. They stood silently for a second, Xisuma moving to lean against the counter. He looks up at his brother.

“Why did you and Replicant save me?’

“Hm? Why wouldn’t we? You’re powerful as hell.”

“Is that really all?”

“Do you want me to say it out loud, or is the subtext enough?”

Xisuma shook his head. “At least I didn’t call Replicant “NPC Grian” this time.”

“You’re learning; I’m proud.”

“I’m trying.”

“You’re doing.”

“...”

“Speaking of, Rep and Hels will be back soon. They’re finding Badtimes.”

“I forgot about him…”

“Hah, how could you? He’s ridiculous.”

“A great fighter.”

“Xisuma, serious question real quick.”

“Yeah?”

“Why haven’t you run your mouth yet? You know we’re not on the Watchers’ side.”

“I do.”

“So?”

“I don’t think I’m with the Watchers anymore.” Xisuma paused and looked up at the rafters in the ceiling, swirling around each other. “My whole life was mapped out like a perfect diagram and I was on the right path. I thought about it everyday; become and admin and impress everyone. And I think I did, at least for some time. That armor, those commands, those members… they were proof of my overwhelming progress…” he sighed and looked at EX. “But those members… Watchers are people. They are unpredictable and hell… I couldn’t predict this, not with the information I was given. The higher ups don’t want to elevate people, they want to create machines.”

“You used to want to be like Mumbo and Scar,” EX added, “I remember you called me one day, furious that it couldn’t have been you.” He laughed, “look at you now!”

Xisuma breathed out and smiled. “I’m not a machine. No matter how hard I tried.” A laugh grew from his lips. “Hell, I don’t even think Mumbo or Scar are really machines! Dream and Squid were in that program for god’s sake!” His laugh tapered off and his face lit up in realization. “EX… we were wrong.”

EX raised an eyebrow and mocked him: “Are you sure about that--”

Xisuma hit him. “No, not like that! The Watchers aren’t impossible to beat. They can be killed just like anyone else, they aren’t immune. I can create weapons that can kill them. That’s the entire reason they indoctrinated me.”

“Well, except for VE-X. He controls respawning, and we can’t kill him; he’s a literal ghost.”

Xisuma’s eyes dimmed. “We’ll find a way. The point is, the others are killable.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Hels and Replicant opened the warehouse doors and closed them behind. Badtimes looked into the warehouse at the brothers.

“Wow, big space,” he gawked.

“We’ll be moving soon!” Hels laughed, “heading out to the Nociceptors’ base shortly.”

“THE GANG’S BACK TOGETHER!” Replicant whooped, running up to EX.

“Sure is,” EX agreed, “plus an ambitious ex-admin.”

“Ooh, are those omelets?” Replicant asked. EX didn’t answer, just handing the NPC a plate. The group all got some food and sat down at the TV. Xisuma stood behind the couch.

“What do you wanna watch?” EX asked.

“Can we watch EJ? She’s live right now!” Badtimes asked.

“No, nope, nope!” EX said, holding the remote away from Badtimes when he reached for it. During the commotion, the TV turned to a news channel. Xisuma snatched the remote from his brother, seeing VE-X.

“X, don't--”

“Hold on.”

“Hello citizens, it is I, VE-X, one of the higher up Watchers. I know that there has been some trouble regarding one of our resource sanctions, Hermitcraft. It is with great pleasure to announce that, with the exception of the late admin, Xisuma, all members are well and accounted for. Some sources would lead you to believe otherwise, but I urge you to avoid that riff-raff. Xisuma is dead and the sanction is as healthy as ever. Thank you.”

EX snatched the remote back. “They’re spreading misinformation, what’s new about that?”

Xisuma sighed, “I just… it would be nice to know where they were.”

“Evidently not in Hermitcraft.”

Xisuma groaned and leaned back on the couch, watching EX turn the channel to Bluey, which got a good response from Replicant and Badtimes. He changed it anyway.

~~~

VE-X stared down at the group of disobedient Watchers. Doc, Grian, Mumbo, Iskall, Stress, and Keralis, who had wandered in from outside the sanction, and Scar, Bdubs, and Cub, who had just gotten down with breaking Bdubs out of prison. Punishing nine people at the same time was less than optimal.

But VE-X was no one to back down from a challenge and False had thankfully finished more prison cells.

After throwing the traitors into the cells, he put False to watch over them while he finished his… work.

False didn’t seem to care too much for the deliberately vague threat from VE-X and took the keys from VE-X with little intent to throw them away. She turned to Scar and began to unlock the cell.

“Stampy formed a neutrality alliance with New L’Manberg and Las Nevadas,” she told the group. “They aren’t going to fight unless attacked.”

“That’s good,” Doc said.

False went to his cell next. “And I heard third hand that Tango and Zed got a command block; I have no idea why or how.”

“It must’ve come from Redstonia,” Iskall said, “but it was just them?”

“They had a girl with them.”

“Hm.”

After letting them out, False looked at them and crossed her arms. “Any idea about what we’re going to do with VE-X? We can’t exactly stab him.”

“We can trap him in a vault and let the time run out.” Iskall said. 

“Oh, devious,” False smiled, “but question; how are we going to trap him in there?”

“We have to lure him in there,” Iskall said, “ Someone has to lure him.”

Bdubs looked between the faces of hermits he knew, what he thought was, so well as they conversed about things he had no concept of. Scar and Mumbo looked distinctly different. Their eyes were the most different. They looked like different people, really. False had surely changed from what he remembered, but he couldn’t put his finger on what changed. Doc, Cub, and Grian looked several years older, yet Iskall, Stress, and Keralis maintained an optimism Bdubs couldn’t see anywhere else. He wondered if he too looked different from when he went into isolation, or if it was his mind playing tricks on him that anyone looked any different to begin with. No matter what, he kept his lips together and listened closely for context.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to meet up with Tango, Zed, and Impulse,” Grian added, “clearly they are doing something. They didn’t just run away.”

“We should get the other members caught up,” False said, “Gem, Etho, and Beef are totally on our side. I can’t imagine they’re are many of us left that wouldn’t be.”

“Right,” Doc said, putting a fist into his other hand. “We’ll get everyone in one place. But we’ve got to be fast. Who knows when VE-X will get back.”

The group nodded.

Chapter Text

Python and Preston stood in front of King Bomby with red faces. Well, redder than normal. The creeper king looked down and just stared. They’d been like that for at least two minutes.

“What the hell?” Bomby asked. “A machine gun killed you? Jimmy killed you? Three random survivors from the waste zone?

The two creepers nodded.

“You two used to be so much better than this! Preston, you’ve destroyed mod labs across the map and killed that filth that brought it to the mainland! And Python, you served Hermitcraft as a mass producer and tax collector! What happened?”

“Listen, crazy craft mods, if you’ll remember are my specialization, do not include guns like that,” Preston eased.

“And I’m not exactly trained for fighting!” Python recalled, “I’m a producer and tax collector.”

The king closed his eyes and Python and Preston bickered back and forth with excuse after excuse. After a while, they quieted themselves.

“This will be you two’s last chance,” he stated clearly, “you are to go and kill Jimmy and his little group of outlaws. If you do not, you two will be executed, just like that admin from Hermitcraft… What was his name?”

“Xisuma,” Python beeped.

“Right… Xisuma.” Bomby looked down upon them. “Go then, and if you don’t finish your mission, well… you might as well never come back at all.”

The two creeper’s bowed and scurried out of the room, eyes wide and filled with fear. They walked quietly down the hall. Preston snuck a glance at Python.

“Do we do it?” he asked. Python looked at him.

“I--” he wanted to respond with a confident “yes,” but he didn’t let himself. “I’m not sure.”

Preston looked away as they walked out of the cave. “I regret what I did every day,” he admitted, “I never understood why I was ordered to kill them. They were… we were protecting the overworld. There were threats that the Watchers refused to acknowledge and we were stopping them… and then one day, you get the orders and…” Preston lifted an enchanted dagger from his belt. “And you kill your best friend.”

“Lachlan?”

“Yeah… And Jerome. Bajan.”

“Let’s leave,” Python said suddenly. Preston looked at him. “Right now, we’re going to find that base.”

“The Nociceptors?”

“I’m not going to kill anyone else. Not unless they're a Watcher.” Python ripped the symbol off of his suit. Preston did the same and they ran out away from the base.

~~~

Jimmy and his group of survivors made it to a lump of ruins in the middle of corrupted land and nowhere. Charlie looked around at the ruins. He felt the rough stone under his fingers and rubbed the dust in his hand. It wasn’t even that old.

“Where is this,” Pat asked, holding his gun ready.

“This is my old sanction,” the Watcher told them, “this is also a new rebellion.”

“A rebellion?” Sean gasped, “why would you bring us here?”

“Because we’re going to join it, duh! You three have GUNS, do you know what that can do for us?”

“Most of our guns are in the desert,” Pat explained, “so, we can’t exactly share.”

“You can share the location, we’ll do the rest.”

“We’re not going to tell you where our guns are,” Charlie snapped, “who knows what you’ll do with it!”

“Why wouldn’t you? Don’t you hate Watchers?”

“We haven’t needed to deal with them in years,” Sean said, “and without them, we were fine in the desert.”

“So you didn’t want to leave?”

The three glanced at each other. Charlie looked back at Jimmy and narrowed his eyes. “Aren’t you a Watcher?”

“I won’t be! I’m done with this… Everyone I loved was either killed or made into a Watcher…” Jimmy pulled out his gun and looked at them. “Listen, if you three aren’t into this plan, then you can go back to that desert and you can die.” He raised the gun.

Charlie looked at Sean and Pat.

“We’re not going to help you--”

As Pat finished his statement, Jimmy shot his head off. Charlie and Sean stepped backwards. Jimmy aimed at them. “Any other quitters?”

~~~

EX navigated the tunnels under the world. They came to an open room and they stopped for a moment.

“Hermitcraft is that way, so the old Evolution server will be the other way.” Replicant, Badtimes, and Hels started walking, but EX hesitated when he saw his brother staring the opposite direction. “You want to go back, don’t you?”

“I was really this wrong.”

“You don’t have to be wrong anymore.”

“But we’re going to kill people. We’re going to destroy things…”

“I wish there was a way we didn’t have to do either.”

Xisuma sighed and looked at his brother. “The members of Hermitcraft don’t want this anymore. I don’t want this anymore. You know it’s true.”

“The Watchers might still use you.”

“Not if we don’t let them.”

EX looked his brother in the eye and grabbed his arm. “They might kill you.”

“I don’t think so.”

EX nodded, letting go of his arm. Looked at his brother and searched his face.

EX looked back up at him. “Hey, your sanction is going to be okay. We aren’t going to hurt any of your… hermits .”

“Hermits?”

“Yeah, it’s like a cute name for your sanction members.”

Xisuma smiled. “Yeah. They’re gonna be okay.”

“I’m gonna tell the Nociceptors to stray away from Hermitcraft. We’ll go for Scicraft. But you better make sure your hermits don’t pull a fast one on us.”

“Never.”

“We’re gonna finish this.”

They parted ways down the dark halls.

~~~

Impulse and Crafter sat around a fire. Impulse stared into the flames, not touching the bit of food he had. Crafter ate quietly, opting to stay quiet tonight. Impulse spoke up:

“All my life I thought I was doing good.”

Crafter looked up at him.

“I worked really hard to get to Hermitcraft and to be a Watcher. Back then… that was the admirable thing to do. Work hard, grind, create, and make the world a better place, yet, all this time. And I think I should’ve seen it sooner, but… how was I supposed to think anything was wrong? It was all wrong, it was terrible, but… I turned a blind eye.” Crafter opened his mouth to speak, but Impulse wasn’t done. “And after all of that, after all the lying, stealing, and torture I provided resources for and did myself… After all of that… I was still not good enough. If I wasn’t good enough for that world, how in hell can I be good enough for the one outside?”

Footsteps approached the camp before anything else could be said or admitted. Tango, Zedaph, and Hunter stepped through the branches and smiled down. 

“One command block for yah!” Tango said. Crafter saw the discomfort on Hunter’s face, despite her smile. “One command and we’ll have every villager freed from that virus.”

“Great,” Impulse said, standing up with a similar smile to Hunter’s. “We can start making up for being Watchers.”

There was a deep silence. Even the flickering fire seemed to quiet down under the immense pressure presented by the presence of the common block. There was no Ellegaard and Impulse knew why. He was sure Tango even kept the redstoner’s symbol in his pocket. He was sure Crafter had the suspicion too, just by how he and Hunter communicated wordlessly. Even without the blood on Tango’s clothes, they knew the fate of the greatest redstoner. That title could belong to someone else now.

“We set it off, we get the villagers free, the world goes into chaos. We’ll go back to Hermitcraft first just to tell the villagers there what’s going on, they’ll spread the word and, who knows, maybe I’ll get a chance to punch Scar for you, Impy!” Tango said, plopping down in the grass with a smile.

“Right,” Hunter eased into the grass.

“We’ll head back tomorrow,” Tango asserted, “get a good sleep.”

Zedaph and Impulse sat down. Zedaph looked at Impulse and put a hand on his shoulder.

It took a while for everyone to lay down and get comfortable enough to sleep. Even then, Impulse couldn’t keep his eyes closed for long. Zedaph seemed to notice and rolled over to face him.

“Can’t sleep either?” Zedaph asked in a whisper.

“Nope,” Impulse responded with a hush.

“We haven’t had a lot of time to talk. Are you doing okay?”

“No. How about you?”

“Not the best. As bad as it sounds, I wish things had never happened, you know?”

“I wish I could go back in time and stop myself from wanting this.”

“Me too.”

Zedaph reached forward and squeezed Impulse’s  hand. “I think we can fix things.”

“Really?”

“I do. I think that we can get through this. I think at the end of the day, everything will be okay. Eventually.”

The corners of Impulse’s mouth tugged into a small smile. “How are you so sure?”

“Because we don’t give up. Not yet, not never.”

“No, we don’t.”

“We’re gonna get Bdubs, we’ll get Grian. Everyone. No one left behind.”

“No one…”

“Get some sleep. You need it.”

Impulse nodded, and with Zedaph’s kind words, he found sleeping easier.

~~~

“So we’re going to destroy Scicraft with this bateria instead of Hermitcraft?” Dan asked.

“Exactly,” EX confirmed. “The hermits-- I mean, members of Hermitcraft aren’t a problem for us anymore.”

“Should we trust him?” Techno asked Andromeda. They’re body language shifted and EX, despite the mask and clothes, thought he recognized them.

“Yeah,” they said, so plainly. “Hermitcraft doesn’t need to be a part of this right now. Scicraft is a much bigger threat.” Even though confused, no one questioned the ring leader’s authority, and Andromeda left the room.

“Fine,” Techno said, “Dan, how's the… thing going?”

“Great, really,” Dan responded, ignoring EX. “It’s almost done and it’ll, well, let’s just say it’ll cause a tussle.”

EX looked back at Replicant and then back at Dan. “What is it?”

“Oh, you know,” Dan laughed, “Just a little something-something if we need it.”

“Anyway,” Techno interrupted, “how would you like to take this to Scicraft when the time comes?” EX was handed a shulker box full of purple… stuff.

“Sure,” he said, “easy.”

“Just remember to get out quick,” Dan said, “once the Watcher’s start to realize what’s going on over there, they’ll want your head on a stick.”

“They’ll want everyone’s head on sticks,” Techno corrected. “We’ll tell you when the time comes.”

Techno and Dan walked out of the room.

~~~

The members of Hermitcraft circled around a table in a freshly dug, underground room. The only thing they knew for certain was that someone would have to lure VE-X into a vault in order to kill it. Iskall was already working on a vault crystal that would minimize the chance of survival.

At the moment, there was very little to do. They put together weapons and armor, fixed up the little underground room, and talked through different scenarios that they would likely face. There wasn’t much to do, but there was all too much to speak about. No one spoke up though. Only necessary speech and communication.

Chapter Text

Pearl looked at the vile of bacteria. She leaned her head on her arms and stared into the purple substance. This would eat the Scicraft sanction from the inside out. Part of her wondered if they should be using it on Hermitcraft instead, but that thought filled her with dread. Dan said it was a dumb idea to trust EX. They didn’t know him, so they couldn’t trust anything he said. Techno liked the idea of hurting Scicraft first, but he thought that leaving Hermitcraft alone would be a monumental mistake.

But they trusted her judgment.

Trust. That’s all they’ve been relying on this whole time. Crazy.

Pearl stood up and grabbed the bacteria. She slipped it into her pocket. Dan had a larger amount waiting for her word. She walked up the stairs out of the base and shoved her mask over her face. She could’ve used the underground tunnels, but what’s the fun of that? Nevertheless, she started off towards Scicraft.

~~~

Tango, Impulse, Zedaph, Crafter, and Hunter stood on a hill and looked over at the shore. Tango pulled the command block out and set it down.

“Alright, we’re going to sneak you two in,” Tango said to the villagers. “I’ll be finished by the time you get in there and you guys are going to need to act quick. The command will only free villagers in a radius, so you’ll need to get to other sanctions as fast as possible. Make the most of our time. Mobilize, get weapons and armor. We don’t have time to lose.”

The five walked across the beach and onto the seemingly broken peer.

Impulse opened the barrier with a wave and they slipped in. They neared Impulse’s villager hub when they saw Stress and Iskall building a portal out of gray stone. The two groups stared at each other.

“Funny seeing you hear…” Zedaph chuckled.

“Yeah…” Stress muttered, “we didn’t think you guys would come back.”

“Had to,” Tango sighed.

“Well, be careful,” Iskall snapped, “we don’t know when VE-X will come back.”

“What are you doing?” Impulse asked.

“We’re gonna trap him in a vault. He’s a ghost; we can’t exactly stab him.”

“That’s so smart…” Tango said. 

“I know,” Iskall jokingly bragged. He ran forward and hugged Tango. He hugged him back. Stress hugged Impulse and Zedaph the best she could. Iskall pulled away. “Mumbo and Scar are back. Xisuma wasn’t killed. We have a plan to kill VE-X. Xisuma and EX made a deal with the Nociceptors to leave Hermitcraft alone… If you want to come home…”

“Of course we want to come home,” Impulse said with a voice crack. “We’re freeing the villagers.”

“Freeing?” Stress asked.

“We’ll explain later.”

“Well go!” Iskall said, “he might be back anytime now.”

“Alright,” Tango said, “good luck.”

“You too.”

~~~

VE-X floated back down from on high to see how the Hermitcraft members were. They were as he left them, in cages and miserable. But his good mood dissolved when he counted one less than he had before.

“WHERE IS ISKALL,” he yelled in False’s face, who just stared back. “I should’ve known better! Of course you’re defective as well!” He grabbed False and threw her in a cell as well. “How did an entire sanction spoil like this? Oh yes, because of Muse-X’s little pet…” He looked through the cages, searching for the point of escape.

“You are going to tell me where that waist of attention is or I’ll--”

“Looking for someone?”

VE-X spun around to see Iskall standing in the entrance. “You--”

Iskall started to run. VE-X chased him. The portal wasn’t far and Iskall entered it without hesitation. VE-X stopped for a moment. But his anger got the better of him and he entered.

The cavern in front of him was sharp and full of trapped chests. He began to search around, looking for the insignificant traitor. 

Iskall hid behind a pillar of stone and took a deep breath. He turned and fled further into the vault and slipped into a corner, so when VE-X followed him into the next room, it couldn’t find him again.

“Argh, come out, you little brat!”

Iskall said back. He couldn’t go too far in or he wouldn’t have a chance of getting out. He held his breath.

“You know, Iskall,” VE-X started, “you really don’t mean that much in the long term. You were supposed to be Mumbo’s.”

Iskall narrowed his eyes.

“Just like Cub or Keralis… but you were a failure… just a waste of resources…”

Iskall bit his tongue. 

“If you hadn’t been such a failure, nothing bad would’ve ever happened to Hermitcraft… Pearl would be alive… Mumbo would be okay… everyone would still be okay.”

Iskall ignored his own thoughts and pulled out his sword. He checked the timer. He walked out.

“There you are,” VE-X teases, “are you ready to go home? Are you ready to fix your mess?”

Iskall glared at him.

“What? Are you going to try to fight me? I am made of the very code on which our world realizes! You cannot fight me with a sword!”

Iskall took a deep breath: “I’m not going to fight you.”

“Then let’s get out of this silly little cave game and back to our world. We can still fix it.”

Iskall started walking back to the entrance of the vault. He stumbled and wobbled. He tried to find the pace that would get him out and leave VE-X in.

“Well, why are you walking so slow? The portal is right there.”

Iskall sweated. 19 seconds.

Iskall stopped walking when he came in front of the portal.

“Well? What are you waiting for?”

Iskall swallowed hard. “I’m waiting for you.”

“You think I don’t know what’s going to happen?”

Iskall’s eyes widened.

“That portal is trapped. Go out, set off the trap, and I’ll come through once it’s already done.”

Iskall checked the time.

5 seconds.

“Say no more.”

He walked out of the portal.

All of the hermits were right there, waiting with baited breath. 

Iskall flinch when the portal zipped shut behind him.

VE-X ran out of time

There was a deep silence over the group.

~~~

Dan and Pearl set the purple bacteria loose on Scicraft. It didn’t take long for the world to start crumbling beneath them. They made a quick escape out of the sanction and started heading back to the Nociceptor base.

“That was really easy,” Dan said, “I feel like we got away with all of this way too easily, you know?”

“I’m not complaining,” Pearl said, taking her mask off, “I’m really glad it was easy. And I’m glad we don’t have to blow up Hermitcraft.”

Dan looked at her and creased his brow. “You really care about them.”

“Yeah.”

“I would’ve done anything to save Think.”

“Anything?”

“Anything. He was… we were close. His lab was such an awesome place, and everyone he worked with, everyone he knew… they all fought for that lab… and of course they were shot down by Dream.”

“You had a mod lab, didn’t you?”

“Yeah… and the most amazing lab partner a man could ask for. He was insane, but he was… Trayaurus was something else.”

“I heard great things.”

A man in a full suit of netherite armor dropped from the sky in front of them, two fiery wings burning behind him. Pearl and Dan pulled their masks down and pulled out there swords.

The man held up his hand and lifted his mask.

“Gameknight…” Dan breathed.

“I’m not here to fight… Well, I am, but we need to talk.”

“What could you ever want to talk about?” Pearl spat, “just fight us.”

“No…” Gameknight sighed and put his helmet into his inventory. “I don’t want to fight you… I want to fight the Watchers.”

Pearl and Dan glanced at each other.

“I’ve been so blinded…” he laughed, “I thought… I thought everyone was dead. Hunter, Sitcher… Crafter… But no… They were always here, under my nose, trapped and abused.” Gameknight clenched his fists. He sighed. “Herobrine… he killed my entire family. I had nothing left to fight for.

“But I was wrong. I have something to fight for, and it’s this world, and I will not lay down my sword until every Watcher is wiped from this land and blood spreads on this grass.”

Pearl nodded.

“You trust him?” Dan gasped.

“Why shouldn’t we…”

“I can prove myself. VE-X is dead,” Gameknight breathed, “he died minutes ago. Respawn is gone. Tango, Impulse, Zedaph, members of Hermitcraft, released their villagers and they are taking armies to free the others.”

Pearl lifted up her mask and held out her hand. Gameknight took it. 

“Welcome to the team.”

~~~

Muse-X breathed in deeply.

“What are you sitting there for,” Hero-X snapped, “we have to kill them! We should’ve killed them at first disobedience!”

“Calm yourself,” Muse-X whispered, “and listen.”

Hero-X scoffed and listened. The sound of a gentle piano danced in the air. “What? No! This isn’t supposed to happen!”

“This is exactly what is supposed to happen.”

Hero-X shapeshifted back into his human form and summoned a sword from the very code of the world. “You wretched Watcher. I knew I should’ve killed you, Orcial .”

“Herobrine,” Muse-X said, “you could never kill me.”

“I’m not going to sit here and die!” Herobrine screamed and opened a portal to the ground below. He landed and summoned armor to wear. His eyes glowed in the darkness that settled over the land. “RISE MY ARMIES OF THE UNDEAD!” and just like that, hundreds of thousands of monsters, creepers, zombies, skeletons, rose from the earth and stood behind him.

Herobrine laughed. “Just like the old days before all this… hah, Watcher shit.”

~~~

Stampy felt a chill run down his back. He could feel the world under his feet shift and pull uncomfortably as it twisted and broke. 

“Stampy… something is wrong,” William muttered, “we need to fight back.”

“We can’t,” Stampy breathed, “this might be the end, but that’s okay.”

“What do you mean?” Polly asked.

“The world wasn’t meant for this.”

Chapter Text

The sky turned red over Scicraft as lava born fires consumed the landscape and redstone. The air quickly grew toxic with the electric material. Gameknight looked back and sighed. He could’ve avoided this.

~~~

He was, what, 14 when it happened? 15? Leaning over the edge of the endstone, into the void, Crafter’s hand slipping out of his. He screamed, pained and alone. This was supposed to be it, he was supposed to win. The world was supposed to be safe from Herobrine once and for all, yet he blew it. No one could get to his aid when his body slipped and got cut on that pale stone for what should’ve been the last time. If he and Crafter were dying… At least Herobrine was too.

The fall lasted a long while. Gameknight mulled over each and every mistake that drew him nearer that edge. Maybe, just maybe, if he’d just listened to his father, nothing like this would’ve happened.

And as the darkness fully engulfed him, the world was filled with a bright white. I guess this was it, the answer to the age old question: if you die in the game, do you die in real life?

Gameknight closed his eyes.

And opened them, laying down on his desk. He shot up and smelt iron and rot. He didn’t hear anything, not even the music from the main menu of Minecraft. He stepped back and his chest heaved with air. He ran up stairs and was met with… 

There is no way to describe seeing your little sister, whom you stand up for a school, who you play video games with, and listen to her silly stories and play Just Dance with, dead and gutted.

That’s when Thomas started hearing things. Ringing. He stumbled throughout the house and found his mother and father in similar states of horror.

He went to school for a few days. He didn’t know what else to do. What was he going to tell the police? He knew what it was. The blood on the floor told him who it was. The cops wouldn’t buy it for a second. So he wrote a letter. He called 911. And went back inside of the game.

There waiting for him was Herobrine himself, smiling.

~~~

Gameknight shook his head and got rid of the images that flooded his head every night. One day the nightmares would go away, he told himself, night after night, but even then he knew himself to be a fool. Fool as he was, though, he followed Pearl and Dan into the world with nothing less than resent and passion to finally end this world.

Pearl and Dan on the other hand were laughing about the chaos they were causing. In no time Muse-X and Hero-X would be here, ready for a tussle. Pearl was ready to kill them. Dan was ready to run. Gameknight was the perfect backup for what they needed and granted them the knowledge of the Watchers.

“There’s going to be an all out war,” Gameknight hummed, “Herobrine has already summoned a great force to stand by his side. By all accounts they’ll be held off by the villagers.”

Pearl looked back at him. “Sounds good.”

“If you trust me, I can lead the villagers and take down Herobrine myself while you two handle The Orical… I mean, Muse-X.”

“Wow, what a title for a warmongering piece of shit Watcher,” Dan laughed. 

“Sounds good. You have fun out there, settling your score!” Pearl said. She and Dan walked away and Gameknight turned and started walking towards Herobrine's last stand.

~~~

Grian sat on the dirt ground, his heart pounding. Tango, Impulse, and Zedaph put their freeing the villagers act to work, Xisuma enchanted a new ax with Permadeath just in case, and False disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke to uphold her deal with the peaceful sanctions. A full out war was going on outside of the boundaries of Hermitcraft, and all Grian could think about was what he couldn’t do… and what he didn’t do.

~~~

Evolution was supposed to be a bit of a middle finger to the Watchers, but there wasn’t harm intended. They were rowdy, loud, and pranked each other. Nothing more than a nuisance to the Watchers, but unlike most FTB sanctions, Evolution stayed that way and flaunted the skills they did have. Sure anything you built could get griefed with a squid, but that didn’t mean Grian was going to make it a nice place for that squid.

He built as big and as grand as he could with the limited block pallet and land size. He worked with what he had and, clearly, that was impressive to the Watchers.

Hermitcraft was prestigious. After the failure of the specialization training, bolstering both Squid, a modding terror with a passion for swords, and Dream, the most violent and manipulative moderator, it was shut down for a time. Hermitcraft, though, had Scar and Mumbo. They were the stars. Something about that sanction brought out the best in people.

But Grian was no Watcher sympathizer.

So when they showed up at Evolutions door step, asking for Grian, Pearl, and Jimmy, all holier than thou, to join them in their sanction and oppression, the Evolutionists fought back.

To their dismay, even the resource gathering members of Hermitcraft could wield a sword, Scar and Mumbo better than the rest. They killed everyone. Everyone except the spare few they wanted to keep.

Processing was terrible. Grian was depressed. So the Watcher sought a different solution. There had always been victims that they had trouble with for one reason or another, and when other methods didn’t work one of three things could happen: they get killed, they get transferred to a secret program, or they’re minds get wiped. Grian was lucky.

The mind erasing process wasn’t polished by any means; simple but specific reminders of what caused his mental state could send him spiraling further and further each time. So the Watchers sought an even better solution.

They really wanted him for some reason.

So they took his entire mind away. It was like he was born again. But before they did that, they took his mind and uploaded it to an NPC, just like Grian, but censoring the less desirable thoughts. This thing took care of Grian. It did everything for him until Grian relearned how to be himself.

And just like the Grian was made a part of Hermitcraft after a year of slow and backwards progress.

It didn’t even work all the way because of a little pendent that stayed with Grian that entire time.

~~~

Grian sighed. Hermitcraft was safe now. There was nothing he could do.

~~~

Tommy, Ranboo, and Technoblade snuck onto the peaceful lands of New L’Manberg. They parked a set of boats quietly behind the prison and drank invisibility potions. They took off their armor and kept their weapons close to their hands. They had to be quick, each step had to be measured and timely. They entered the prison right under Sam’s nose. It was shockingly easy to get into the prison without Sam. More accurately, without the wordless communication of respecting people in the same sanction as you, it was a breeze. It didn’t matter that the three were carving holes in the walls, despite the elder guardians’ curse, if Dream was dead.

According to Pearl, it was likely Dream was already dead, at least functionally. Dream-X, or Dream XD as they knew it, hadn’t been seen in ages. Who knew what they’d find behind that lava wall.

With patients, a few more potions of invisibility, and cobblestone, the three drew closer to the chamber.

Technoblade drew his ax.

“Stay,” he commanded breathlessly. Tommy and Ranboo nodded. Techno pushed back the last layer of lava and gagged.

Dream was dead and the mass of flesh that was X-Dream took up most of the cell, calloused and bleeding in several places the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. The mass turned its ‘head’ towards Techno.

He lifted the weapon, but he paused. He swallowed puke and cut down on the monster. He slashed down several times, cutting deeper and deeper into the wad of muscles and fat. 

~~~

Pearl and Dan sat down in the Nociceptor base. She smiled at him.

“Once Gameknight kills Hero-X, I’ll handle Muse-X. Once that’s done, I’ll come back here and well start it .”

“Are you sure it would work? After all this time, shouldn’t we just… keep this world?”

Pearl looked down and folded her hands. “After all of this, the world is ruined. We need to start fresh. And apart.” She handed Dan a folded up piece of paper. Dan carefully undid the dirty paper. “It’s called a hub world. We can access other worlds from there. You know, we won’t be stuck.”

“Okay…” Dan breathed, “I really hope this works.”

“Me too.”

They sat in silence for a second. Pearl stood up and spoke:

“Tell EX about the NPCs… I think he’d want to know that.” She walked to the door of the room. “I’ll see you on the other side.”

“I’ll see you on the other side,” Dan repeated.

~~~

Herobrine teleported in front of Gameknight as fighting surrounded them. 

“After everything, you still continue to define me.”

“You ruined everything. I’m not going to continue to fight with you.”

“Fighting against me… surely you know better.”

Herobrine drew his blade and crashed down on Gameknight. Gameknight raised his shield and blocked the attack. He swung his own ax up. It hit Herobrine’s arm and the creature reeled. Gameknight threw the shield from his arm and equipped two swords.

“Let’s dance.”

Herobrine’s blade crashed into Gameknight’s swords with a metallic hiss. The blades drew away from each other with sparks. Gameknight didn’t hesitate to bring the blades down on Herobrine again. The monster teleported and attacked from the back, but Gameknight swung his swords back and deflected it.

The sun set and darkness consumed the battlefield. It didn’t slow down Gameknight or Herobrine’s onslaught. There was never a slice or hit that didn’t land on a sword or skin. Each attack would land, it was up to the other to defend. Gameknight’s health was dropping, but he was sure Herobrine’s was as well. He had to tank it.

He charged forward and cut forward, blocked, but his other sword hit. Herobrine reeled back in pain and charged back in, only to meet Gameknight’s sword again. Gameknight brought his other blade down on Herobrine’s shoulder. Herobrine dropped his sword and fell to the ground, his yellow-ish-green blood spilling onto the grass. Gameknight knelt down in front of him. He rammed his diamond sword through Herobrine’s chest.

“Farewell, old friend.”

Herobrine disappeared in a puff of smoke, dropping a single, golden apple.

~~~

Pearl knew it was time when the large creature known as Muse-X teleported in front of her. She didn’t realize it until right then that this wasn’t going to be a fight. Muse-X was surrendering. She drew her sword and Muse-X bowed down to her. With one swipe, the creature’s head was released from its body.

~~~

EX and Replicant stared as Dan walked away. EX looked down at Replicant. He hugged the NPCs, shaking. Replicant hugged him back.

“I--” EX couldn’t bring himself to speak.

“It’s gonna be okay! You’ve gotten by without me for ages!” Replicant said, petting EX’s hair.

“But… I… I don’t want you to go…”

“I know…”

EX nearly started crying, but his eyes widened with realization instead. “You don’t have to go.”

“What?”

“COME ON!” EX grabbed Replicant and they ran out of the base. They dashed towards Hermitcraft and ran fast beneath the moon. Any second down, the world would be cleansed from right under their feet. They ran into the sanction and saw the hermits talking. EX ran right into Xisuma, toppling him over. Several hermits jumped back and pulled out weapons. EX ignored Xisuma and looked up at Grian.

“Grian--” He gasped. “I need it.”

Replicant stood back and looked at Grian, someone he shared almost every physical feature with.

“Woah, woah,” Doc said, “what is going on?”

EX stood up and helped his brother up. “Grian please, they’re going to destroy the world and make a new one and--”

“Slow down,” Xisuma said, rubbing his brother’s back. EX took a shaky breath.

“The Nociceptors are going to restart the world… everyone’s gonna respawn there except… except NPCs…”

“So what do you want with us?” False snapped “According to X, you ditched us. ”

EX gulped. “I know… I just… Grian… your pendent, it's from the Twilight forest. If I have it, I can save Replicant and rebuild him in the new world!”

“Hold on,” Mumbo said, standing up, “what pendent? He shouldn’t have any pendent from any mod!”

“I--” Grian tried to speak, but was interrupted.

“Doesn’t matter now, does it,” Iskall scoffed, “if EX is telling the truth, the worlds gonna get deleted!”

“Maybe that’s for the best,” Impulse sighed.

“How is that for the best?” Doc asked.

“Does it matter? There’s no arguing with them!” EX spat.

“Okay, so we’ve been dealing with a death cult this entire time, that would’ve been nice to know!” Tango gasped.

Grian backed out of the circle of yelling hermits and ran over to EX. He took the pendant off and handed it to him. EX looked down at him with wide eyes.

“Quick,” Grian breathed.

EX ran back over to Replicant and took out his drive. The body fell limp, but EX secured the drive in his inventory.

“Thank you…” EX breathed.

“Of course. See you on the other side.”

“You too.”

The world was consumed in a bright light. It didn’t stop to finish arguments or to resolve plot holes, just consuming and taking everything.

And just like that, the world fell into darkness. Nothingness. 

The Void.

And from the void a small light emerged. It grew and grew, creating grass and water, and stone. New flora sprouted up from the ground, new creatures and biomes. The world for so many years had been stuck and unable to grow. Now it was able to breathe.

From the dry grass, beautiful birch trees grew and were adorned with golden, orange, and red leaves. Birds chirped in the canopy. A breeze tickled the leaves.

Pearl opened her eyes to the wonderful sensations of a new world. She took a deep breath of the clear air. She sat up and looked around. She was no longer wearing the dark cloak of a Nociceptor, just her blue hoodies and some jeans. She laughed to herself.

It was nice.