Chapter Text
A crack all the way from the temple on one side to the corner of the mouth on the other side. Clear and evident.
Neither Cub nor Scar had ever seen a Vex Mask damaged, let alone this badly.
The magic was the only reason it was still whole. The magic poured off it, more so even than the whole ones Cub and Scar were wearing.
It was an easy decision to bury the cursed thing. Even their Vex agreed with that call.
—
The Mask, seeping power and seeking it, cursed their choice in the darkness they had put over it.
—
Grian was digging, flattening the hill further, while Mumbo fiddled with redstone. The night was easy, relaxed.
A tune played on the jukebox and jokes were swapped.
“Hey Mumbo!” Grian called out, the languid nature of the night affecting even his enthusiasm. “Mumbo, look what I found!” Mumbo quickly glanced over before looking back to his redstone.
"Awh, come on, Mumbo," Grian needled, "just a quick look?"
"I'll be over in a sec Grian, this clock just… the timing is all off and I can't figure out why, especially since Iskall designed this part and-"
Redstone troubles. Grian let the words flow over him, having long ago realised that that would never be his forte.
In his hands he held blue porcelain. Cold and shimmering.
He felt called to put it on… just so he could joke about Cub and Scar. Just a little joke or two.
Mumbo would come over and laugh with him soon enough.
Just put it on, it was only a mask.
—
The mask is cool against his skin, and then the Mask is his skin.
He feels himself laugh, loud and powerful and so, so joyous. Feels the peals of it rip from him like waves crashing ashore.
Curious fingers find his new face. Harder and colder than he was used to, but his fingers tingled with magical joy. Fizzled with it as they traced the crack. The uniqueness of this Mask.
"Grian?" The shout was distant and the Mask made it feel even more so, "Grian whatever have you found now?"
A face popped up over a wall, and they remembered feathers and clucking. Laughter. A different mask.
Rockets in one hand, eggs in the other.
"Poultryman? You're really going to-" Mumbo shouted as they flew over, still laughing. "Wait, that's not a chicken head. Grian what-"
Laughter trailed behind them, twisting into their rocket smoke as they threw eggs all over the construction site. But this was simple. Plain. A repetition.
Their landing in front of Mumbo was graceful, the elytra even more familiar to them than it was to just Grian. They cocked their head, didn't open their porcelain lips.
"Grian?" Mumbo seemed afraid, more than amused. "Are you wearing a Vex mask?"
Ah, at least he understood. Laughter spilled out again, high in tone and energy. This was fun, wasn't it?
Wasn't it?
"Grian?" A hand reached toward their face, towards the seam between them.
A snarl snapped their mouth open, showing the white fangs ready to bite. How dare he! How dare he even consider approaching them, this perfect fusion, with an intent to split them. How dare he!
They fired a rocket, easily lifting upwards and away. But there the sun was, high and piercing, another vile intrusion.
But they could change that. The statue, the power. They had no time for proper rituals, but with their power, they wouldn't have a need for them, either.
Providence, that the place in question was so close, too.
—
Inside Grian's pocket, his communicator dinged.
—
When they landed on the statue, the magic there fizzed against their own. Powerful but vile. The purple-green of admin powers, not their gorgeous Vex.
But they could work with this. They would.
They grabbed a shimmering line and pulled.
They heard painful yelling as the opposing magic burned into their fingers, and they pulled again, pulled harder.
The magic here lashed into them, their own power flinging outwards. But still there was no rain.
Once more they pulled, harder still. The painful yelling became even louder as their powers mixed around and inside them.
The sky darkened.
Their skin and back burned.
They pulled.
An arrow whizzed by them.
—
"Grian!" The voice of one of the traitors rang out. "Stop it!" They were wearing their Masks, as if that would help. As if there was any Vex as powerful as they were.
They looked at the Vex with the crossbow, arrow loaded and shimmering. A smile twisted on their face, large fangs showing between porcelain blue lips.
—
The skybox glitched as they released the tendrils of admin magic. Glitched as they snapped into place.
They snapped their wings, taking to the sky.
"Grian, take it off!" One shouted as the other tried to manoeuvre to flank them.
Was it a laugh or a snarl, what escaped their mouth? Did it matter?
It was easy to dodge the arrow, to snap wings and fly to the side. To hover, for a second, as they took stock of their weaponry.
It came from the sea, but it's still connected to water. If the clouds pulled just that little bit tighter, they may even be able to gain their lightning.
The trident was a familiar weight in their hand. The enchantments woven into it were wrong for lightning, but if they had just a moment, nothing but a moment-
Another arrow whizzed by, another narrow dodge.
They snarled, flung out the trident. A cut in a flapping coat. The weight slapped back into their hand, and they flung it out again.
—
Let’s dance, then. Let’s play.
—
The other had approached, and they let their body fall, wings tucked around torso. The wind jerked on them, pulling on aching joints, and their feathers only skimmed the water.
“Grian!” The voice was distant now. Good.
“Grian, we don’t want to hurt you!” Funny, coming from the one shooting at them.
“Just a chase, then?” They landed on simple wood, feet lightly dancing to the edge. “Catch me, you can’t!” Laughter fell from their lips as their body dropped towards ground again. Laughter still as large wings caught them moments before the fall.
He knew this course, knew the hoops and loops.
“Grian!” They were already falling behind, the fools. More joy to him, in a victory so overwhelming.
An arrow thudded into the wood of a hoop, and they flung their trident back. The tines were wet, but it couldn’t have been more than a scratch.
They let themselves fall and rise, twisting through the hoops. The wind rushed by their face. Arrows rushed by their face. There was no second hit with the trident, but the other Vex hadn’t hit a single time yet. They were still winning.
They would still win.
—
Above the fantasy district they turned around, a stretch of air coming up that would allow for a well-aimed hit with their trident.
They pulled their arm back, laser focussed on the Mask underneath the hat.
An arrow thudded into their shoulder from below.
They growled as their grip on the trident tightened in pain. The earth swayed underneath their feet as they landed, focus shifting to the golden blaze in front of them.
She.
Not even a fellow Vex.
They growled, the very air shivering for them, but she held her bow steady.
—
She took a breath, her bow on a hair trigger, but held her shot.
They stepped towards her, growl loud and earth unsteady.
—
She held her shot.
—
“Grian.” She held her shot.
“Stop.” She held her shot.
“Stand down.” She held her shot.
“Take it off.” They threw their trident. She released her arrow.
Both hit.
—
Growling ripped apart the air as her dogs went after them. A single beat of their wings and they were airborne again, the beasts earthbound.
An arrow flew by their hair. They could taste the metal of the tip disrupting their magic, and their trident flung true, another hit.
They flew down, and an arrow hit their leg.
A stumbling landing, a glance from their trident as she changed to her sword.
He flew up again before the beasts could charge him, but she still sliced at the same leg she struck before.
Blood drops shimmered in the dull sunlight and they laughed and laughed and laughed.
An arrow from above struck their shoulder and stayed. The veins tinted grey as the weakness potion spread.
Blue moved underneath his skin to counter it.
The trident got a blow in on that one, and as soon as it hit their hand again, they threw it to the Interferer.
The energy in the fields changed. A direct hit.
The hounds ran back to their base, barking for their master.
—
“Grian!” There was anger in the tone now, not just fear.
Well, that was a fun little twist, wasn’t it? They laughed at the fun joke. That’s what one does, at jokes.
Another interferer joins them, running in the fields below them.
He carries a sword, so they don’t even grace him with a strike of their trident. Instead, it hits the shoulder of their fellow Vex wearing a hat. He tumbles in the air, but manages to right himself.
But they were outnumbered by far now, and that wasn’t fun.
A wingbeat and they headed further, continuing the race.
They dodged an arrow from below and got hit by one from above.
It tore through feathers and skin, piercing their wings. Forcing them downwards.
—
Three to one.
They could win this.
They were Vex, after all.
—
The tines caught one blade, and another caught them.
Blood slipped from their skin into their cardigan, red on red on Vex.
They growled, swung, nicked one, swung, blocked another. Sparks flew as metal met metal.
“Grian!” He had tried to kill this body once before. He had failed then, too.
They laughed. Swung.
A blade blocked them as another swiped at them.
A beat of their wings did nothing but pain them, but they managed to dodge the shimmering edge.
A kick backwards managed to wind the Vex with the hat, and they twisted their trident until the tines ripped the blade from the hitman.
Threats neutralised, except for the ferocious bald Vex.
They growled, but his expression stayed the same. Wide smile, blank white eyes focussed solely on them. “I don’t want to do this, Grian.”
Funny, it nearly sounds like he meant it.
But he still tightened his grip on his sword.
They raise their arm for a strike.