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Xisuma couldn't have known what would happen by banning him, surely. Right? He wouldn't just sentence his brother to the void, sure they were both Voidwalkers but this is not the void he grew up in, a different kind. This, this is the place players most often call limbo, a place between life and death. Where players went between respawns. The plane between death and life.
But Exis wasn't in the respawn menu, he was stuck walking on an invisible plane of sorts. The void was vast and all looked the same, the closest a regular player could usually get to this was getting glitched into the end portal.
There had been stories, very few, so few that it was almost believed to be a thing that had been made up to scare children, of people getting trapped in the void. But there could be hundreds of stories of people who never managed to escape or that were still stuck in limbo, forever waiting out their days.
So after trying everything, trying to communicate with anyone, even praying, he just stopped doing anything. And eventually ended up lying down, staring into the void of nothingness. Except the void was never nothing, because it was also everything at once.
Days passed, though Exis couldn't truly tell, there were no clocks, no sun or moon to indicate anything. Eventually he couldn't even tell if his eyes were really open or closed, there was no difference. Everything looked the same, and even when he tried to look at his own body, it was just void, nothing and yet everything.
Everything in the void was cold, though he instinctively knew that, having grown up in a different type of void, it was different without any housing or other people. Even just shelter would have helped, anything would have been better than the bitter cold that made his fingers and toes go numb. If he had been a normal player, a human, practically anything but a Voidwalker, he would have probably died of frostbite after a few days, but he didn't. He just lay in the vast expanse of void.
Weeks, months, years, Exis didn't know how long it was until it felt like a hook grabbed him by his neck, pulling him. He didn't struggle, barely even moving on his own at the dragging. If it was death finally taking him into her arms, then he would not complain, if anything he would welcome her with open arms. If it were life reclaiming him, then he wouldn't stop her either, but he would hold no love for her.
Eventually, after what could have been years, but was surely only hours, he felt like he was struck by lightning, and fell onto grass. But he only saw the ever-consuming void, even if he could hear and feel the grass on his hands, his knees and hands scrapped up and stinging. Rain fell down hard on him, the sound of it loud but welcome. Everything was welcome after being deprived of it for so long, if anything it was a tad overwhelming. Distantly, he realised he was crying, but it would be difficult for anyone nearby to tell due to the rain. He distantly realized that he wasn't wearing his helmet, but he wasn't struggling to breathe.
A shout, an order by the sounds of it, came from nearby, one he recognised like the void that was burned into his eyes. The rain was too heavy to properly hear his brother, but he didn't mind. Anything familiar was good enough.
But soon enough, the lack of vision, the severity of it truly set in, and his eyes widened in horror. "I can't- I- oh Gods, I can't see," he whispered, his voice filled with horror. Someone was nearby now, calling his name, behind Exis if he had to guess.
Distantly, in the back of his mind, he knew he was injured, that there were painful burns going up both of his arms and spanning across his face. Exis knew that they were there, but he could barely feel them from the adrenaline coursing through his body. Everything was making his brain fuzzy.
"Evil Xisuma, you could perma-die out here if you don't get inside, we don't care if you just dig yourself a hole, but please do something!" a voice called out, nearby but the rain was heavy.
"I can't see. I can't see anything!" The man was beginning to hyperventilate now, someone picking him up, someone strong but he had no idea who it could be.
"Can you help me here Impulse! Xisuma stay inside!"
Another shout, though Exis still didn't know who it belonged to, didn't recognise, but he froze at the name. Would his brother send him back now? Back to the void? He couldn't go back, he refused to, even if it would mean getting his vision back he would not go back. "Don't send me back, I won't go back," his voice was frantic panic evident in his voice, loud and clear despite the rain that was still falling.
There was another set of hands, and soon enough Exis was dragged inside a warm building, being placed on a couch. Towels had been placed on it beforehand and he was covered with a blanket, though his shivering didn't stop.
"He's freezing, put the kettle on won't you?" an Australian accent rang out, another blanket being brought over.
"I can't see," Exis muttered, utterly devastated, his voice full of pain. The lights were on, at least he could tell that, or he thought he could. The hushed talking in the background stopped, and the room went scarily quiet. Someone touched his shoulder, and he flinched in surprise. "Who's touching me?"
And then he was being hugged, by someone all too familiar, by his brother whom he should hate, should detest, but loved, oh he loved the man because he was the only family he had. "Exis I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry."
"Don't send me back, I won't go back, I'll do anything, I'll be good and nice," Exis said, clinging onto his brother as if his life depended on it. His voice was filled with desperation, the desperation of a broken man. "Please, just don't send me back."
"I won't, I promise," the Admin said, clutching his brother. "You weren't supposed to be there."
And for the first time in what felt like and what probably had been in years, maybe even decades, he felt himself breaking down. Exis felt himself break, and the only thing keeping him together was his brother, who didn't let go.