Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

One shall come when summoned
One shall come when feared.
The world shall start to End
As the time of Darkness neares.

Outward shall you go,
Past the mountains of the North.
In the place where long ago
The Watchers came to Earth.

On chaos do the Watchers feed
And they are marked by certain things.
They will come destruction to seed
And shall have obsidian wings.

The power over sea and sky
Will be deep inside their code
The Admin will stand helpless by
The portal of unbreakable stone

But sleep in comfort little one
For they have long since left.
And they shall not wake till time is done
Or Light heaves its dying breath.

But that time is not yet near
And there is no need to fret.
The return of the ones to fear
It will be the day the moon refuses to set.

Chapter Text

As he sat in a glass box slowly suffocating to blocks getting shoved in his face in an insane attempt by his best friend to harvest his soul. Grian wondered what happened in his life to bring him here. He looked out at Mumbo. His friend who was once human, then potato, currently… A pig? Maybe?  What choices did he make along the way that brought him here? 

“Mumbo did you even test this?” He complained between face fulls of stem.

“Maybe? I did think this would be a lot quicker than it is…” He replied awkwardly.

“Well it's taking forever” Grian whined “And I have 96 levels.”

“Oh dear. I really should have thought this through shouldn't I?” The two stared at each other for a moment before Mumbo started chuckling.

“It's squeezing the soul out of meee.” Grian complained

“It is sort of like a juicer innit?” 

Grian tried to complain again, but the machine seemed to be finally working. He could feel his soul stretching out of his skin. 

“Good-bye.” He mutterd. And then the world went black.

“ Wake ” Grian startled at the voice, eyes shooting open. Only to be greeted by a blank expanse of void. 

“Wh- Where are you?” he stuttered. “Who are you? Where am I?” Dying was a normal occurrence for hermits. Especially for him. But this had never happened before. Usually, he just blacked out, only to wake up in his bed or back at spawn. He'd heard of worlds where you only had one life but hermitcraft was not one of them.

“ WAKE ,” The voice said, closer this time.

“I am awake!” Even as he spoke he could feel the void shifting around him. He turned to see a giant symbol breaking up the monotonous black void around him. It appeared to be a rectangle with two opposing corners disconnected, forming a strange shape. A figure appeared next, coming closer to where he floated. As it neared it began to come into focus until standing before him was… Himself? The not Grian stared at him, a ghostly purple apparition. He held out his hand and Not Grian copied him. He slowly began to reach toward the figure, whose motions copied his own, until he was centimeters away from high-fiving it. Then he did. 

 Immediately he felt like it was a mistake. The purple figure seemed to dissolve the mist flowing into his hand, up his arm, and into his body. He gasped as he felt a burning sensation begin to spread from the original point of contact until his entire body was a white-hot blaze. Then it stopped. He could feel himself slipping out of the void back to the overworld as his body respawned. But the void didn't want him to leave. Even as he passed through the veil he could feel the weight of it grabbing onto his shoulders and staying there. And then it went black.

He staggered as he tried to get his bearings. The sun seemed blinding after the void and he shielded his eyes. He appeared to be at spawn, NOT back in his bead like he expected. Oh well, it wasn't that far back to Boatm. He turned to begin his hike, only to feel an unexpected weight on his shoulders. He looked behind him and saw feathers. Black obsidian feathers. He was startled and nearly fell over. He walked to a nearby river and tried to examine himself better. 

Staring into the water he began to take stock of his appearance. 

Waffle? Check.

Face? He kneeled down to get a closer look. Yup, his face was there but the way the light reflected off his eyes seemed eerily similar to the symbol in the void. 

Jumper? Well, it was there but clearly torn in some places. The wings must have torn it. 

Hands? He looked down. Check.

Weird feathers and weight? He stood up taking stock of what appeared to be wings sticking out from his back. He turned trying to get a better view. On chaos do the Watchers feed And they are marked by certain things.    Weird he felt like he should be worried about this. They will come destruction to seed, And shall have obsidian wings But he was probably overreacting. In any case, they would make the trip back faster. And with that, he took to the skies. 

In the room where he had last been, he found a chest with a sign on it 

“I saved your things! Thanks for the soul!” 

He sighed and began to collect his armor and gear. Mumbo might be a spoon sometimes but at least he was a thoughtful spoon. He looked at the elytra. Hmmmm probably won't need that anymore. He turned and headed back to his base, thinking about his new feathered appendages. They were Obsidian black and rather beautiful. However, he felt they could be improved by some colour. Rummaging through a chest he found some red, yellow, and blue dye that he thought would do nicely, and set to work.

Chapter Text

Mumbo felt bad. Of course hid did! He had just harvested his best friend's soul. Speaking of: He should probably go check on him… He sighed and jumped off the edge of his base and began the careful descent toward Grian’s alley.
“Grian! Are you there?” he called wandering onto the street. “I'm sorry about the whole ‘stealing your soul’ thing. But hey! I'm human again!” from a brown house on his right he heard a crash. Waking up to the door he knocked. “Grian?”
“I'll be out in a moment!” The voice of his friend called out. There was a thumping a ruffling and then the door was cracked open and he was greeted by a disheveled-looking Grian.
“Grian! Good to see you are still human!”
“Well mostly anyways.” The man chuckled
“Mostly? What on earth do you mean?” The door creaked open further and Mumbo saw the colourful appendages sticking out from his rumpled red jumper.
“YOU HAVE WINGS!?!”
“Yup!” He chirped, fluffing them up a bit. “Im a pesky biiird”
“Can you fly?”
“Yup! Wanna see?”
“Yes!” He cheered. His friend walked out the door to the entrance of the cave. Turned, bent his knees, and leaped into the air.
“Incredible.” Mambo breathed. Watching his friend soar through the sky whooping and hollering. “Wait up!” He called. Strapping on his elytra and taking to the sky.
Hours later when they collapsed back on the grass, Mumbo looked around at the beautiful landscape then over at his best friend. Speaking of the friend, Grian was already half asleep on the soft springy grass. Mumbo realized that he was the happiest he had ever been. Smiling he laid down next to the bird man, looking up at the beautiful blue sky he watched the puffy white clouds until he fell asleep.
____________________________________________________________________________
Deep in the void, something had stirred. Something dark. Something old. Something was Watching.

Chapter Text

Grian felt something tickle his nose. It was something soft but he was tired and comfortable so he just rolled over to avoid it. But it came again. And he rolled back. When it tickled him a third time he sat up, summoning his shovel to scare off whoever thought it was a good idea to wake him up. Instead, he found Mumbo K. Jumbo sitting on his heels and laughing.
“I was SLEEPING!” he squawked.
“I know! But the sun is setting and it's quite wonderful. I didn't want you to miss it.” The moustached man chuckled. Pulling himself up further he turned to face the sun. Mambo was right. The view of the sun streaking the sky with yellows and oranges was beautiful from their vantage on Mumbo’s base. He stood up nearly toppling over at the strange weight on his back.
“Woah there! Did you forget your part bird now?” Mumbo cackled, catching him by the arm before he could fall over.
“... Maybe?”
“Grian!”
“What!”
“Phantoms!” Grian turned and sure enough a flock? Group? Gaggle? Of phantoms heading toward them.
“I'm on it!” He called leaping into the air. Effortlessly soaring toward the reptiles on his powerful wings. Slash. One down 3 to go. Realizing they were being attacked the monsters circled his head screeching. Chomp. Thunk. He faltered a bit as one of them slammed into his helmet. Good thing I put that on… He quickly finished off the last three before descending to join his mustached friend once again.
“Thanks buddy!” he chuckled
“No problem at all.” He replied absently checking his helmet for damage. There seemed to be a large dent on the back that he was going to have to fix. He sighed that would be a pain.
“Grian?”
“Yah?”
“Is the moon big?” Grian startled and looked up to where the moon was rising over Scar’s beautiful mountains.
“Maybe? You know I don't think I remember how large it's supposed to be.” He puzzled.

Chapter Text

Xisuma paused for a moment as he was finishing his base. Something had changed. He could feel it in the code. He checked his communicator for any strange messages but it seemed normal.

<MumboJumbo>: Grian can you come meet me in the Tree-ty room?

<Grian>:???

<MumboJumbo>: From the tree war?

<Grian>:Oh be right there

Grian suffocated

    Nope, nothing odd there. He changed his communicator into admin mode and watched as the screens of data emerged from the device, surrounding him with numbers and charts. He began swiping through them looking for anything unusual. 

Nothing. Nothing. Wait- no nothing. He sighed closing the windows with a wave of his hand. He'd have to look into it later. For now, the base wouldn't finish itself. 

__________________________________

Scar sighed as he made his way over to the Boatem hole. What could be soooo important that Grian needed to interrupt his Jellie time? He shuddered remembering the way she had jumped when his communicator had alerted. Yeah, she was going to want extra pets later to make up for it. 

“HELLOOOO! GRIAN ARE YOU HERE?”

He wandered over to peer over its edge. “Hellooo are you down there?”

__________________________________

Grian watched Scar as he made his way over to the Boatem Pole. He could show himself, he knew that, but he was enjoying just watching his friend.

“HELLOOOO!” Scar called. “GRIAN ARE YOU HERE?” He knew logically that this would be the best time to swoop down from his perch on his starter base, maybe startle Scar, and then explain the situation to him. Or you could watch. A part of his brain whispered. An even better opportunity might present itself. As he stalled Scar walked over to the hole and peaked over its edge.

“Hellooo are you down there?”

In the end, he wasn't sure what motivated him to swoop down on silent wings, land behind his friend, then shove him over the edge. 

“GRIAAANNNNNnnnnn nnnnnnnnn…. ” In the end, he just watched as Scar tipped over the edge and plummeted into the void.

GoodTimesWithScar fell out of the world.

“Grian!” Grian turned and saw Impulse staring at him. “Why did you do that?” Grian shrugged

“I dunno, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.” 

“Hasn't Scar already died to that thing enough?” Impulse chuckled.

“Yah!” Scar called as he made his way over from the Swaggen. “Haven't I died enough?” 

“Sorry Scar!” Grian called back, even though he wasn't actually sorry. He knew he should be but… he just wasn't. Why should he apologize for doing the right thing? No wait that wasn't right.

“Well?” Scar asked having reached the duo.

“Wait what?” 

“Did you not hear me? I asked what you… OH YOU HAVE WINGS!” Scar realized.

“Oh um, yah!” Grian stuttered fluffing the appendages. “These came from yesterday when Mumbo harvested my soul!” 

“Man those are cool!” Impulse cheered, “Can you give us a fly?” With a nod, Grian leaped into the air. 

__________________________________

Free us.

Chapter Text

Grian sighed and looked back at his base. The night sky effect had taken waaay longer than it should have but he was very pleased with how it had turned out. As he backed up trying to judge how the effect would be viewed from the outside, he stumbled over something. Turning he looked at the odd object that had caught his heel. 

It appeared to be a black shulker. He bent and peeked into it. There was an odd block in it, one he had never seen before. It appeared to be obsidian but... Leaking purple stuff out of cracks in it. It got on his hands as he picked one up, and he startled at it. It felt both impossibly hot and bone-chilling cold. He quickly dropped it back into the box and backed away. What kind of block was that? Crying Obsidian . The name came to him, almost whispered in his mind. Hmmmm suspicious. He walked back over to the shulker. 

“Alright,” He muttered. “What do I know?” He began ticking off on his fingers as he counted. “I know this wasn't here until I turned around to survey my work. I know its name now? Let's see obsidian is for portals and this is similar? So maybe this is for a portal?” He looked around the area but saw no signs indicating if any of the Boatem Crew had left it here for him. Oh well, he’d ask about it later. For now, he picked up the shulker and tucked it into his inventory. 

Walking into his base he began thinking about what he should put behind the false fronts of his alleyway. He could build a portal room . It was true he did need to make a portal room… and why not use this opportunity to experiment with the new obsidian.

5 hours later, he was pleased with his work. He had cleared out a large cavern behind one of the false fronts and now had a spooky cavern made of Blackstone and deepslate. There were crimson vines hanging from the ceiling and small versions of his favourite nether biomes in the corners. But the thing he was proudest of was the small cave on the right of the room. 

It was an unassuming thing lost in the colour and chaos that was the nether room. But once you followed it down it led to the most wonderful room he had ever made. It was made using layering glass and endrods, similar to the night sky effect of the alleyway, except here it created a void effect with purple fading out from the middle. When he stood in the center of the room he almost felt like he was back in the void he went to while respawning and the sensation was… calming. He felt at peace here. He felt at home here. But it needed something else… The portal. He began to build it in the center of the room. He realized something was missing… he placed some pieces of regular obsidian near the corners to create the broken corner effect of the symbol in the void. The end effect was quite breathtaking. With a flick of his hand, he summoned his flint and steel and lit the portal.

______________________________________

Escape. Freedom. He has freed us.

Chapter Text

Mumbo was slightly concerned. Ok well maybe slightly was putting it lightly. He hadn't seen or heard from Grian since 5 days ago when he had killed Scar. And well… Grian going radio silent meant one of 3 things 

1. He was setting up a prank. (Very possible)
2. He was grinding or building. (Also possible)
3. Something had happened to him. (Not as possible)

Usually, he wouldn't fret over the man. But he had more concern than usual. For one he had missed a Boatem meeting. One that he had scheduled nonetheless! He had ignored his and Pearl's attempts to contact him. And lastly, he hadn't removed the most recent prank Mumbo had made on the G-train. (A large pile of diorite on the empty train car labeled “bird poop”.) 

Mumbo sighed and began the descent from the top of his base to Grians.

“GRIAN?” He called into the empty alley, “ARE YOU HERE?” he heard nothing. He began methodically checking each of the shops looking for his friend. “Grian?” he pushed open another door. “You in here?” Instead of a shop, however, he found a huge cave. It had clearly been created by Grian's artistic hand. Each corner had an artificial nether biomes in it. And on the back wall was a large portal. This might explain Grians absence. A project this big must have taken ages. “Grian? Hellooo?” 

Behind him a zombie hoglin snorted startling him and making him turn towards it. When he turned back he saw Grian standing in the center of the room, just… staring. It was quite off-putting if he was being honest. 

“Oh there you are.” He sighed. “Where have you been?” 

“ I've been here. ” Grian replied. But something was off about both his appearance and his response. He just couldn't put his finger on it….

“ Why are you here? ” Grian asked, tilting his head at an almost unnatural angle. Must be the new bird genes, Mumbo reasoned. 

“Wha- why am I here?” He asked incredulously. “Grian you've been MIA for the past 5 days! We were worried about you!” 

“ We? ” 

“Yah! Me, Pearl, Scar, and Impulse! The entire Boatem crew was lost without you at our meeting yesterday.” Grian fluffed his wings and continued staring at Mumbo. His wings! Mumbo realized. They used to be vivid colours but now they were pitch black. 

“Grian your wings? What happened? They used to be so colourful!” Grian started as if this hadn't occurred to him. 

“ Oh yes… My wings. I washed those garish colours off. ” That wasn't right. Mumbo knew his friend and he knew he would never describe his beautiful wings as “garish”. Something was up.

“Oh well… you're the artist not me. If you think the black suits you better I'm sure your right.” 

“ I am . ”  Ok well then…

“Well I'm glad to see your still alive I'd best be off now! I've got- um some uh- ferns to pickle.” Mumbo lied internally cringing. He was the worst lier. 

“ Very well . ” Well that was incredibly un Grian like of him. Mumbo turned and walked out of the neather room. Purple. He realized. His eyes were purple. That's what had been bothering him. He decided to tell the rest of Boatem what was going on. 

__________________________________

Finally the annoying hermit was gone. Grian turned and made his way back to the void room. His friends were all there waiting for him when he got there.

“ Did you deal with the intruder? ” They asked.

“Yes, it was merely a hermit coming to investigate the silence of his friend.” 

“ Do you still consider him a friend? ” Grian paled. Surely they didn't think so low of him that he would even consider being on the same level as a hermit!

“Oh please, do you really think I would stoop that low? He missed Mumbo. 

“ We can never be too sure. ” They replied. Grian huffed and walked over to take his place amongst the crowd of beings. One day. They had assured him. He would join them and become one with them. The way they were one with each other. He couldn't wait. He barely even flinched when a booming voice filled the room.

“ The time is almost here! ” It called. “ This very night we shall begin phase one of the plan! ” This was greated by a chorus of cheers coming up from the figures all around him. But Grian was pretty sure he cheered loudest.

Chapter Text

Scar was concerned. First the moon was big. Speaking of, he should probably look into that… then Grian had shoved him into the Boatem hole and disappeared. Then Mumbo calls an emergency meeting for all of Boatem, saying he had information regarding Grian. He arrived at the meeting place in the Boatem hole, minecarts already bouncing as the other members took their places. Scar waited then hopped into his minecart while it was at rest. 

“So Mumbo,” Pearl started. “Why did you call an emergency meeting so soon after our last one?” 

“Yah.” Impulse put in. “He's gone missing before and it's never been anything important.” 

“That's what I was thinking.” Xisuma called descending down the hole. “But then again I don't think he has ever had his soul harvested either.” This was with a pointed glare at Mumbo.

“Xisuma!” Scar called. “What are you doing here?”

“Mumbo said he might need an admin at this meeting.” He explained

“Really? It's that serious?” Impulse asked.

“Why don't you take a seat and I'll explain.” Mumbo said pausing the machine for Xisuma to get on. 

“Do you- Do you always have meetings over a void hole bouncing around on minecarts?” He asked.

“Oh no!” Scar assured him. “We used to have our meetings next to the Boatem hole with end crystals behind us! The idea was if someone had a bad idea, kablooey! But they were too close together and if one went off they all went off…’’ for some strange reason, this didn't seem to console the admin. If anything he looked more worried. Nevertheless, he took his place in the empty minecart and Mumbo started the machine again.

“Alright so. I went to check up on Grian yeah? Because he was MIA? And to get to his alley and I called for him but he didn't reply. So I started poking around looking for him yeah? And he had built a huge portal room it's actually quite impressive. So anyway I went in and didn't see him so I turn and when I look back there he is!”

“Wait so you found him?” Scar interrupted. 

“Well yes but-”

“Then why isn't he here?” Impulse asked. “No offense X but if we found him why are you here?” 

“My thoughts exactly.” He replied.

“Well you see-” 

“Let's go say hi to Grian!” Scar called. 

“NO!” Everyone turned to look at Mumbo.

“No?” Pearl asked. “But Mumbo your his best friend!” 

“That's exactly why I think we should stay away from him for now.” This announcement was met by blank states all around. “Look when I found him. Or really it was more that he found me. There was something off about him. The way he talked- you know his wings are actually black? Like really black. He said he had washed the ‘’Garish’ colours off.” From across the room, Xisuma gasped. But Mumbo just assumed it was because he had just looked down into the Boatem hole. Honestly, the man seemed incredibly uncomfortable with the whole arrangement.

“So yah I told him that we had been worried about him and he asked who ’we’ were. And because he was acting odd and- did I mention his eyes were purple? Um, yah I made up an excuse and called this meeting and here we are!” 

“Mumbo can you stop the machine for a moment?” Pearl asked.

“Sure.” He pressed the button shutting the thing down and Pearl got out and walked over to the wall and sat down. She was followed by Xisuma who backed away from his minecart as if it would bite him. 

“Ok, this sounds like a problem.” Impulse admitted. 

“I agree, I see why you called me over now Mumbo.” X said from his place by the wall. He pulled out his communicator and was immediately surrounded by screens of data and numbers. “The other day when you killed Grian, I assume you killed him anyways.”

“What! I'm all peace love and plants I would never!” This earned him a stare from the admin and he quickly shut up.

“Anyway the other day I felt something change in the code. I did a quick check but didn't see anything odd. So I'm going to look again but this time I'm going to focus on Grian.” The room was quiet for several minutes as he typed some things and moved screens around. 

“Hmmmmm now that is odd.” He muttered.

“What?” 

“It- I don't know how to explain it…” He flipped the screen showing it to the others. “Right here,” he pointed at a specific string of numbers. “This… isn't supposed to be here.” 

“What? X I have no idea what I'm looking at here… all your fancy number doohigys are confusing my brain.” Scar said. Xisuma sighed and pulled up a second screen.

“Oh here is Mumbo's code and here is Grians. Mumbo has a normal code but here.” He said highlighting Grian's code. “It's just extra… I don't understand what it's changing but I've never-” he stopped his voice becoming strained. “I've never seen it in a player before.” He finished under his breath, panic clearly in his voice.

“What? X you're scaring me what do you mean you've never seen it in a player before?” Impulse asked. 

“I- they… Scars mountains, would that count? He lives… crap crap crap…” the admin was muttering under his breath now. 

“Xisuma?” Mumbo asked in a very small voice.

“Yah?” The admin said looking up from his frantic typing.

“Did I just doom my best friend?” He whispered a small tear appearing on his cheek. 

“Oh, Mumbo.” Pearl said wrapping the man in a hug. Soon everyone was holding him whispering assurances.

__________________________________

Xisuma went back to his communicator after joining the rest of Boatem in comforting the mustached man. He was currently trying to remove the string of code that definitely shouldn't be there but it only seemed to be growing. Finally, he decided to check the tab. Something he didn't do often in admin mode. There under the names of the hermits was a name that shouldn't be there. Well, it had always been there but it had been in spectator forever. He had never seen it online fully before. 

“Guys, this is bad.” He said prompting glares from everyone still sitting with Mumbo.

Giyf joined the game

Eutdut joined the game 

Idnritn joined the game 

Idnrig joined the game

Odor joined the game

Iutdu joined the game

Quifn joined the game

Wharner joined the game

Osnrfu joined the game

Fuind joined the game

Ddirn joined the game

Eofnfj joined the game

“Very bad.”

Chapter Text

Grian staggered as he walked towards the Boatem Pole. There was a stabbing in his head. A screaming voice that was causing him pain. It kept shouting. Grian fell to his knees grabbing his head. He. Had. To. Warn. Them. With trembling fingers, he pulled out his communicator.

Grian: Thjey sre conimg

Grian: don trust

Grian: thw watchers

GoodTimesWithScar: Grian! Are you ok? Where are you?

MumboJumbo: Grian I'm so sorry are you ok buddy?

Xisumavoid: Grian hang in there

PearlescentMoon: Grian u good?

Impulsive: Grian

Ugh why did he do that. Now they had a warning. What did you do? I don't know. It won't happen again. This was a mistake he was still imperfect he had to get better. 

He decided the best way to do that was to continue his task and trap the general vicinity. He reached into his inventory and pulled out the TNT minecarts.

He was standing on a bridge in the sky. Two men in black jackets were there with him. He was pushing a Minecart off the edge of the network of bridges. There was a shout and one of the men with sunglasses on his eyes fell off the side of the bridge. He ran over to the edge and- 

He shook off the strange sensation and walked over to the neather portal and began to rig the area around it with the explosives. 

__________________________________

Xisuma was currently trying to ban the new players, but it was proving more difficult than it should have been. A simple /ban wasn't working. The best he could manage was putting all of them in hardcore so hopefully if battle ensued it would be roughly even. The only unfortunate side was the command seamed to affect Grian too. He sighed he had been working on the code for hours and still hadn't figured out a way to exclude his friend from it's effects. It had been almost ten hours since the strange new players joined and they had received the panicked messages from Grian. Since then Scar had died trying to enter the portal, apparently, there were been multiple TNT minecarts hidden under the portal. If he had to hazard a guess it would be the work of Grian.

“Hey X you still here?” Pearl called sticking her head into the room. He had holed up in Grian's starter base while he worked.

“Yah,” he sighed. “I still haven't figured it out yet.”

“Is- is Grian going to be ok?” She asked worry in her tone.

“I don't know Pearl, I just don't know.”

“Do you know what's wrong with him? And what's up with the new players?”

“I have some theories…” he lied. 

“Well?” 

“For the new players I don't know who they are or where they came from. But I fear what is currently happening with Grian has something to do both with his past and-” he cut himself off.

“Wha- his past? You mean before season 6?”

“Well yes, but I don't want to share his personal information until I have to.” X sighed. “He told it to me in confidence and I don't want to betray that.”

“That's fair. But promise that keeping it won't endanger Grian, Scar, Mumbo, or anyone else.” 

“Of course! I would never.”

 Pearl nodded to herself. 

“Good.” As she turned to go she paused to look back at him.

“And X?”

“Yah?”

“Get some sleep, you can get back to it in the morning with fresh eyes.”

__________________________________

Chapter Text

Xisumavoid whispers to you: Meet at spawn at dawn. Bring all your best armor and weapons. Be prepared for war.

__________________________________

“Xisuma!” Scar called as he arrived at spawn. “What’s with the cryptic message? Does it have something to do with the new players? Did you figure it out?”

“I'll do my best to explain when everyone gets here.” He replied.

“He keeps giving us the same speech about waiting for everyone.” False complained from where she stood with a group of heavily armored people. 

    An hour later and almost everyone had arrived with the glaring exception being Grian.

“Well,” X called standing up on a large red mushroom. “I assume you are all wondering what this is about?”

“Yes!” Was the resounding reply.

“Essentially, over the past week strange things have been happening on the server some you may have noticed others maybe less so.” This triggered a murmuring from the crowd.

“I'll start at the beginning, at least where believe this started. After Mumbo tried to um,” Here he paused and checked his notes. “‘Harvest Grian’s soul.’ He respawned with wings. Big colourful wings that he used to fly back to Boatem and then showed off to Mumbo. The next day he shoved Scar into the Boatem hole and then apologized and showed his wings off to Impulse and Scar.” Here he paused and gathered himself. “However shortly after he went radio silent for 5 days and when Mumbo went to check on him he acted odd and said some strange things-”

“His wings were black.” A voice interrupted. All eyes turned toward the mustached man who had spoken. “His wings were black, and his eyes were purple.” He sounded so sad about it, it broke his heart to see him like this.

“Uh yes.” Xisuma continued. “Um after that I was invited to an emergency Boatem meeting to discuss this weird behavior during which the new players joined and I discovered something was wrong with their code and Grian’s.”

“Ahem.” Jevin called. “Now when you say something was ‘wrong’ with their code that means…”

“It means there were some extra strings of code. I'm not sure what they do but I managed to write a program that places everyone with this extra code is now in hardcore because I couldn't figure out how to ban them.”

“I know how!” Tango called sarcastically. “/ban”

“/ ban isn't working.” Xisuma sighed. “Believe me I've tried.” To illustrate his point he pulled up his chat and typed in /ban Eutdut. However, after hitting enter an error message flashed on the screen claiming he didn't have the power to use this command.

“ Now you see that we are here to stay.” A figure called emerging through the trees.

“But then again a hermits culture is built on Huburis, admins even more so. Always believing that everything is in their power to build or do no matter the scale.” Grian continued coming to a halt just inside the shadows cast my the mighty dark oaks.

“The higher they build the farther they fall.”   With that 12 additional figures burst from the shadows and began to attack the waiting hermits.

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Chapter Text

This was fun. As he fought through the mess of hermits nothing but a swirl of wings and a sword. He laughed as he slashed and stabbed his sword finding purchase in flesh and limb. Expertly dodging strikes and blows from the slow clumsy hermits. The entire time he was laughing. It tore from his throat unbidden but welcome nonetheless. They were so slow! It was almost too easy to-

GoodTimesWithScar was slain by Grian

Ah there it was. He watched as his opponent crumpled at his feet a sick glee filling him. But he couldn't hesitate, he took to the skies and began to survay the battleground below. The hermits seamed to be gathering towards the middle of the clearing. With a whoop he swooped towards them and began to strike at heads and other unprotected areas. Crack. His head searched the area for the source of the sound. Judging by the low muttering and cursing, some unsuspecting hermits just broke his helmet. And then he was swooping toward the now unprotected green head sticking out like a sore thumb amidst the sea of blue. Slash! And then the head was rolling across the floor. 

IJevin was slain by Grian

Geminitay was slain by Idnrig

Idnrig was slain by Xisumavoid

“ Retreat ” the words were whispered in his head by Them. 

10 figures fled the battlefield as one, vanishing into the sky or into the shrubbery. 

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“ You have failed. ”

This was greated by sound of agreement and frustration.

“ Your task was to kill and steal 3 hermits. Not to lose one of you to them and only barley collect the required number of hermits. You are better in all ways, you are stronger, faster, smarter. You have no excuse ”

Taking this as a dismissal they left the chamber and began to fial into the hallway.

“Where are they?” He asked breaking the silence.

“ They are down there. ” One of the figures pointed down a nonspecific corridor, gosh it was becoming a maze down here.

“Thank you.” He took off down the the hallway they had indicated.

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He came to a stop in front of the first cell

“ Grian?” The call came from inside the cell. “ Oh my goodness Grian! It's you! Oh my goodness I've been so worried! Are you here to rescue me? Thank goodness my communicator isn't working and-”

“Do you ever stop talking? Void your annoying.” He sighed, he already had a headache and it hasn't even been a minute. 

“Grian?” 

“No by the way.” He cut the man off. “I am not here to ‘rescue’ you. Because you don't need rescuing you need enlightening.”

“ Enilghtin- what? Grian wha-”

“Shut up.” He snarled stalking over to the bars causing the man inside to flinch away. “You are a pathetic hermit, you can do nothing on your own but must rely on the Universe for everything. But if you join us you will be free of their rule, you will have power not restricted by their codes and be truly free.” 

“ Ummmm yah G I don't know what your talking about but uh arnt you still bound by the code? X was just talking about how he was keeping you and the new people in hardcore to prevent too much destruction and stuff… Oh! By the way don't die it's permanent now! He is trying to exclude you but-”

“ You think I didn't notice?” The glare he found at the stupid hermit must have been a good one because he began to back away again. “I'll be back later. Really wish you would have just accepted Their offer, things would have so much better.”

“ Grian?”

Then he was pressed against the bars of the cell the man's collar in his hand lifting him off the ground.

“ I. Am. Not. ‘Grian’.” Then letting him fall to the ground he stalked off towards the next cell.

“ No.” The man wheezed “You're not. But Grian is in there somewhere.”

“Scar- your stupid tricks won't work on me hermit.” He scoffed.

“Ha I knew it! Come on Grian you got this! Beat that weird… um… possessed version of you!” 

He froze anger quickly rising this hermit was pressing all his buttons.

“Xelqua. My name is Xelqua.”

“ Nope! Sorry Grian but that's not your name!” He growled heading towards the next hermit, hopefully they wouldn't be so exasperating.

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He should have known better. Void he was stupid.

“All hermits are the same.” He grumbled to Odor. They threw their head back and let out a hearty laugh.

“ Oh I think you'll find it's more than just hermits. Once you spend enough time with Them you begin to realize all players are the same.”

“Players? I'm sorry I do not understand this language.”

“Ah I forgot, you are still new to us. Players are the term used for those who are not above the code of the Universe. Not like we are. They are very nearly at the bottom of the food chain so to speak. Just above villagers with their higher intellect and their ability to become something more. They can become admins when the Universe blesses them and allows them control over the code. Does this help explain it?”

“Yes very much thank you.” He turned to go back to his building. It was always building these days. Their lair was never big enough and one could only design so much with the muted colour pallet they were allowed. 

“Odor? May I ask another question?”

“It seems you already have.” While their expression was hidden behind their cloak their tone was endearing, so he continued.

“Where do we fall on this food chain?”

“Ah, that is a good question. This is how it was explained to me: The Universe was created when existence itself became bored and decided to create something new. The Universe realize the immense power it had and began to create small worlds, slowly learning the way to build and create. When players were first made they did nothing but run rampant, not a single thought in their heads. But the Universe felt attachment to them and gave them a wisdom akin to their own and began to teach them how to manipulate the code. But the Universe was selfish and kept their most valuable secrets to themself and wanted to move on from the players. They began to update worlds making bigger and better things leaving the players trapped in the past. But what they didn't know was the entire time they were being Watched. The players have a saying that goes something like this: ‘If a tree falls in the woods but there is no one is around to hear it, does it make noise?’ that is what I feel happened there would be no point to the Universe if there was no one to watch them. So when They saw the Universe moving on They decided to help the players, They took pity on them and began to create portals between ‘updates’ They began to make Themselves known to the players. Gifting them when the did good deeds and punishing them for their cruel ones. So you see They are what keeps the Universe in check without Them the players would have no world to live in.”

“Thank you for your wisdom.” 

“You are most welcome.” They replied.

“Xelqua, They request your presence.”

“Good luck!” Odor called as he began to follow Giyf down the winding hall. Oooh this was probably about one of those annoying hermits. Ugh if they got him in trouble with Them he was going to make sure their time with them was hell.

Chapter Text

“X If your not careful you are going to pace a hole in the floor. I know for a fact Grian would not appreciate to come back to a house with a doughnut on the floor.” Pearl called up from the main floor of Grians base. 

“I wasn't pacing.” Xisuma lied.

“What were you lying? I couldn't hear you over the squeek squeek squeek of the floor while you paced in circles.” 

“Fine. But I wasn't pacing in circles it was more of a figure 8.” 

“Sure you weren't. Any update on the whereabouts of… well anyone?”

“No it's like their positions are being hidden from me.”

“How about Jellie?”

“What?”

“Ya know Jellie? Scars cat?”

“Well yes of course I know Jellie, scar takes her everywhere! I just- what does she have to do with… anything?”

“Well here's my thinking: you know how pets can always find their owners? No matter how many walls are between them? So long as they are within a specific range?”

“... Yah?”

“Well what if we just followed her to Scar? He didn't take her to the meeting. So she's probably somewhere in the Swaggen!” 

“Well what if he's outside her range?” 

“What if she's not?”

The both turned to look out the window towards the Swaggen.

“I suppose it's worth a shot.”

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“Guys I found her! She's in his bedroom!” Impulse called from somewhere above his head.

“Sweet! Good work Impulse!” Pearls voice could be heard from… Slightly to the left? It was hard to tell in the maze of wagons. He walked over to the nearest ladder and began to follow the sound of the man's voice through the Swaggen. 

Ssssss…. 

Oh great

*Boom!* 

He was blown back against the wall the ladder shattering to pieces in his hands. Curse scar and his habit of not lighting up his bases. 

“Uuuugh. My ribssss.” He groaned to himself. 

“X? You good?” 

“Yah just give me a moment.” He sullenly looked around at the damage while he ate a golden carrot, not too bad but definitely noticeable. Ugh. He plopped down a sign. Nothing fancy, just apologizing for the damage.  When he was one floor away from Pearl he noticed a similar hole in the wall this one with a sign from Grian. He missed the man.

“X you coming?” 

“Yes, I'm coming one minute.”

He made his way up to join the others. 

“Soooo…. Now what?” Pearl broke the silence. They stood around the cat in a broken semi-circle. The rest of boatem and Xisuma. 

“She looks so happy, not a care in the world!” Impulse observed. “I wonder if she knows what's going on out there.” 

“Hopefully not.” The admin hoped.

“How do we get her to find Scar?” Mumbo asked. Pearl crossed over to sit next to the cat.

“Hey Jellie. You're a great friend of Scar and he loves you very much. But we don't know where he is right now can you find him?” She coaxed.

“Mrrp!” Was her only reply.

“Come on Jellie! Scar is counting on you!” She began to gently shove the cat trying to coax her up.

“Mrrreep!” 

“Welp I tried. Impulse?”

*Sorry Jellie. No hard feelings!” And with that, he dumped a bucket of water on her head.

“MEOW!” and she was off like a shot down the ladder before anyone had time to react. 

“After that cat!” Xisuma cried. 

And after that it was a mad stampede out of the Swaggen and after the cat. 

“She's heading towards the G-train!” Mumbo called. 

“After her!”

“This way!”

“In the ally!” 

“Ive got her!” Pearl called as she slipped a lead around Jellies neck.

“Probably should have put that on her before I dumped water on her… Sorry guys.” Impulse apologized sheepishly, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Where was she going?” Xisuma pondered. 

“This- This is where I found Grian.” Mambo whispered. Immediately all heads turned to face him where he had wandered into the previously unnoticed cavern.

“Really? Where was he? The detail with the lighting! Oh!” Pearl gushed.

“He he was right there!” He pointed towards the center of the room. “I walked in and didn't see him then there he was!” 

“Do you think whatever is up with Grian is also happening to Scar? And Jevin? And Gem?” Impulse questioned.

“I don't know let me check.” With one swift motion Xisuma began checking their code.

“I don't see any sign of the “Defect” associated with The Wa- whats happing with Grian. But their location is being hidden from me still.”

“Then its up to you Jellie!” Impulse crowed reaching down to remove the lead. “You ready? Here we go!”

And with that Jellie was off like a shot.

“Dont loose her in the cave! And try to stay quiet. I've got a bad feeling about this.” Xisuma cautioned.

Chapter Text

Mumbo had been a wreck all week. He had hardly worked on any kind of project or base work. He felt as though all of this was HIS FAULT. Every waking hour was spent researching on anything that could help discover what has happened to his friend. 

To make matters worse when X had called the emergency meeting he had hoped beyond hope it was to announce Grians return. But no it had only lead to more bad news and now they had lost more people. All because he couldn't stand to be a pig! Now he was at his wits end trying to keep up with a cat that moved at the speed of sound! Honestly? It was a lot!

 But Jellie could be their last hope. He had to keep up. For Grian! For Scar! And Gem and Jevin! One more step one more burning step. His lungs heaved his head swam. He could do this he could do this he could do-

Where was Jellie? Where was he! He skidded to a halt at the cross road ahead of him. The dark corridor split again but he couldn't see Jellie and had no inclination on where she would have gone. 

He had failed.

He had failed them all.

This realization hit him in the gut and he crumpled to his knees. At that moment any terrible thing could have happened. But nothing did. No monsters crept around the corner. No winged beings grabbed him from behind. He was alone. In the dark. Somewhere along the way he had lost the rest of Boatem. He was truly alone. And he cried. How could he help it? It has been a long week. And here in the dark, well it didn't get much more dismal than this.

A hand touched his shoulder.

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“Hello? Is anyone there? Please? I'm sorry for insulting you Grian! I just-” Scar slumped back to the floor. Who knows how long he had been pleading with the empty hallway. No one was coming. Not that not-Grian, not the hermits, no one. He curled tighter into a ball in the corner of his equally dark cell. 

Alone. 

He hated being alone.

It gave him too much time to think.

It was easy to be happy and bubbly and ignore all the sad things when you had people to be happy for. 

But here? In the dark? 

He was alone.

And it was cold.

Very cold. 

And then there was warmth. 

He lifted his head to see Jellie rubbing her head against his knee. He scooped her up and sat there. 

In the dark.

But not alone.

And not as cold.

Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.

Chapter Text

Impulse had dropped back first unable to keep up with the cat. Then Pearl. Even Xisuma had been slightly too slow when rounding a corner and had lost sight of her. All that was left was Mumbo. The man was chasing that cat like the flames of hell were licking at his heels. But there was no way he was keeping track of his turns. Even if he did find Scar they would both be lost together. X sighed and turned on the heat vision feature of his helmet. There he could see small paw prints slowly fading as they wound the corner to his left. And with that he took off again.

Several turns later the paw prints were met by foot prints. Recent. As recent as the cats prints. It couldn't be Mumbo, these prints came from an adjoining hallway, and anyway Mumbo was wearing shoes.

They were not alone in these corridors. And whatever lived here knew they were here.

He had to find Mumbo.

Straight, left, right, left, right, right, left, and- 

There! A figure leaning against the wall! Towering over it was a tall winged figure. He drew his sword. He was not losing another hermit to these things. The figure froze as the soft glow from his enchanted sword illuminated the almost too dark to see hallway. Honestly the light level in here couldn't be more than 2. 

“Get away from him.” His voice sounded much calmer than he felt.

Two heads snapped towards him.

The sitting figure was clearly Mumbo the man sat curled in a ball leaning against the wall.

But the other figure? Well, it wasn't human. Piercing purple eyes glared at him from a thin face. Two huge iridescent wings were spread behind in a display of power that was honestly quite intimidating. Welp. He was dead. Mumbo was dead. 

“Might as well go down fighting.” He muttered to himself as he began to jog towards the thing.

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Something was wrong. He knew it in his gut. Someone was in danger. 

“You see disturbed. What is the matter?” Quifn questioned.

“Can't you feel it? Something is wrong.” He began fidgeting, the feeling in his gut tightening almost painfully. 

Quifn paused then straightened. “I feel nothing. You probably just ate something gone bad. Come help me with this arch-”

“No disrespect but I feel very strongly about this.” He cut in. “I will return shortly.” With that he took off down the narrow hallway back into the labyrinth of passages. Left. Up. Right. No wait. Another left. Past the cells. Ignore the one calling out to him. Two more lefts. There. A hermit was fighting Wharner. Another hermit was crouched against the wall shaking. A hand was pressed against his side where his dark suit was slowly getting darker. 

    This? This is what he felt? Some hermit’s pathetic last breath? How humiliating.

“G-Grian?” The man whispered.

“Grian?” The fighting one asked. “This better not be Grian. *Oof* It doesn't even look like him.”

This was it. This could be another kill. Another hermit in the cells. They would be proud of him.

He was moving before he even noticed the sword in his hand. Streaking across the room, sword raised. In one side out the other. It was easy. In the back. 

It didn't take long for them to realize they'd been impaled. One short screach then they dropped. Body dissolving on the cold floor. 

He'd done it. 

What had he done? 

“Grian?” The fighting man. Xisuma. He remembered. “Why?” 

“I-” he started looking down where a body had been moments before. “I had to. They had hurt you and Mumbo.”

“Not that I'm not grateful for you saving me but um. I am actively bleeding out.” Mumbo called from his position on the floor.

“Oh um right one moment.” X walked over and handed him a health potion. “Here, drink up and stop complaining.”

“Hahahaha. Like you wouldn't complain if you got stabbed.” There was humor in his voice but it was almost entirely drowned out by the raging fury of emotions that Grian was struggling to name.

“You need to get out of here. They are going to find out any second.” He warned.

“Not without you.” Mumbo said.

“No I cant I- I'm not um I'm not human anymore?” He protested flapping his new feathered appendages for added effect.

“Um can you hear yourself right now? ‘Im not human’ I was a potato for ages and you still let me stick around!” 

"This is different."

"How?"

"how? HOW? YOU DIDN'T KILL ANYONE! YOU DIDN'T SUMMON CREEPS IN YOUR BASEMENT! YOU DIDN'T LOCK THREE OF YOUR FRIENDS BEHIND BARS AND DO NOTHING TO HELP THEM. IM A MONSTER MUMBO LEAVE ME!”

he turned his back to the mustached man before he could see the disappointment and anger in his eyes. Because of course he would be disappointed and angry. 

“But I did kill someone. And he was my best friend. All this happened because of me. It's my fault.” And when he turned it wasn't anger or disappointment in his eyes but something much worse. Guilt. Oh.

"You can't really blame yourself Mumbo? No part of this was your fault."

"I chose to deceive you and steal your soul. I chose that. You had no choice in this right?" Grian stood there stunned at the sorrow dripping from his friend's voice and slowly shook his head. 

"No, not really."

"Then you're no worse than me. Please come home."

“Fine but let me go find Scar, Gem, Jevin first. Meet you by the Boatem hole in half an hour.”

And with that he took off back down the hall the way he came from.

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“Have you seen Xquela around?”

“I was with him earlier, he said he felt something off and went to investigate.”

“When was this?” 

“Around 45 minutes ago.”

“Find him They wish to speak with him again.”

“Very well.”

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