Chapter Text
The four arrivals each lay on a cot against the wall of Doc’s large cabin, a curtain in between each bed for the small amount of privacy it provided. The boat rocked oh so slightly in the water. About five minutes after Xisuma and Scar messaged, Etho came gliding in through the porthole of the boat carrying an unconscious man like a sac of potatoes. Xisuma, recognizing the unconscious form as Impulse, had immediately set up another cot before Doc could even register what was going on and Etho had swiftly set down the figure and promptly passed out on the floor from pure exhaustion.
Xisuma had just sighed at that. He supposed that’s what happens after not sleeping for two days trying to finish your base, then carrying your own body weight across a lake.
Grian hadn’t left the other Avian’s side since they arrived at Doc’s house, even when Doc insisted he leave so that he could examine his patient. Xisuma, Scar, and Mumbo had all been shooed out of the room, but when Doc went back in to likely drag the blonde out along with them, there had been an unintelligible yelling match, the sound of something crashing to the floor, and silence.
X had tentatively peaked his head into the room to ask Doc if he needed help, but at a glare from the creeper he had hastily walked back to the living room to wait with the others.
*>·◡·<*
Two hours later, an exhausted Doc walked out from behind the impromptu curtain and collapsed on the couch. Etho had woken up and left for home an hour earlier, X making him promise to get more sleep.
“They’re all stable, although they all have a little code alteration I’ll have to repair at some point.”
X hesitated, “Are Impulse and Skizz ok? They just disappeared without a trace years ago for them to show up now-, with Joe AND this strange Avian I-”
“X, they are both fine. Their code is slightly damaged, but it is not nearly as bad as the Avian. I can’t even begin to check Joe’s code for some reason… Scar, would you mind going to Grian’s base and getting his wing medication?” Doc said, then whispered under his breath, “The kid still won’t let me touch his wings, the idiot.”
Scar let out a long, tired sigh but stood up and walked out the door to head to Grian’s base. As he flew, he tried to remember where in that ‘entity’ Grian kept his meds. He really hoped that they weren’t in the blonde’s ender chest since he couldn’t access that but-.
He stopped, noticing something off about the entity. More off than usual that is. Hesitantly reaching out with the little magic he had left from his past, he stretched it out as far as it could go, and sensed a presence inside the giant creature. He took out his bow and crept towards the looming figure. Why had Grian decided to build a giant rock monster in the first place, it was so creepy?!
Reaching the entrance, he got ready, gripped his weapon tighter and…
“Freeze!” He yelled into the empty space as he jumped out dramatically, bow at the ready.
“Aw come on! That was an amazing entrance and ever-” wait, the room wasn’t completely empty after all. There, on the floor in the far back corner, lay a young Avian girl curled on her side, her pastel brown, blue, and white wings splayed around her, and a red macaw feather strung around her neck.
*>·◡·<*
Scar rushed into the room cradling a young woman in his arms. As soon as he got over the shock of seeing a random Avian girl on the floor in a giant ‘sentient’ rock, he’d carefully scooped her up and rushed across the cobblestone bridge Mumbo built earlier, hoping she was still ok considering she’d likely portalled in hours ago with the other newcomers.
Xisuma watched, bewildered, as the conman rushed past him and through the curtain, Doc starting to yell obscenities until he noticed Scar’s cargo. Grian, barely aware of anything outside of his own mind, turned to look at the commotion, couldn’t see what Scar was holding as the man’s back was turned towards him. He let out a small gasp and fresh tears threatening to spill over as he saw blue and brown tips of flight feathers peaking out from behind Scar.
Not wanting to believe that his luck had turned so quickly as that meant bad things were coming soon, he impatiently waited for Scar to turn towards him so he could get a better look at the figure.
Just then a loud gasp rang out through the room as Scar was knocked off-balance by the girl leaping from his grasp, getting into a wobbly defensive stance, although you could tell just how off balanced she was by the way she almost fell on her face.
She looked around the room and glared at the strangers in front of her, starting to move towards the door when she stopped, her eyes landing on the flash of familiar red a couple feet behind the men that had, as far as she could tell, kidnapped her. Her vision slowly came more into focus, first staring at the familiar fire colored wings, then slowly moving to the bright red turtleneck, and finally moving upwards to the face she thought she would never see again.
“Grian?” She whispered, her fists slowly lowering, tears at the edge of her vision but not yet falling for fear. Fear that her injured mind was playing tricks on her. After all, this was too good to be true.
“Yes.” he whispered back.
And in the next instant she was in his arms, squeezing the life out of him just like he remembered, her body racked with sobs, no one able to tell if they were the happy or sad kind. His arms wrapped around her and squeezed as tightly as he could, tears finally released as he buried his face in her neck and sobbed just as hard if not harder.
As soon as Doc got over the shock of being attacked by what seemed to him like an insane, mentally unstable bird lady, he ushered Scar out of the room to give the two Avians privacy, putting the pieces together after Grian’s surprising announcement that this ‘Jimmy’ was actually his brother when Doc had tried to forcefully remove the blonde from the med bay.
“What’s going on? Is everyone alright?!” the distressed Admin interrogated as he rushed up to the scientist.
“Not my story to tell. I’ll leave it to Grian whenever he’s ready.” the creeper replied as he pushed past the Admin, passing the still confused Scar’s arm to the Voidwalker to make sure he wouldn’t try to see what was happening, went to the couch, sat down, and promptly passed out after the day’s adrenaline finally ran out.