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Loud ringing shoots through Eye's eardrums as the black spots in his vision slowly fade away, heart thundering as he feels consciousness slipping back into his control rather than that person.
Rapid blinks in an attempt to shoo the spots away from his vision quicker, his foot stumbles as his hand tries to hold on to something in the midst of pure darkness until Eye feels something beneath his fingers.
It should've grounded Eye because it was exactly something he was searching for in his state of confusion, except fear begins to crawl its way into his beating too quick heart as the sliminess taints his fingers and the way he feels there's something alive in the substance.
Sculk.
His fingers jerk away as his vision manages to finally clear up, his head nearly snapping as he looks around. Eye ended up finding himself in a literal ancient city ⸻ one of his least favorite places by now.
Managing to get back on his feet, Eye finds himself in some place in the city, probably around the middle if he has to guess. Checking his inventory, he sees a familiar sight of blocks of sculk, sculk catalysts, sculk veins and unfortunately no sight of his ender chest or anything else.
.. Well that means he's been gone for a bit.
The last memory before everything blacked out that Eye remembers was that he had been just sending messages to Yama through whisper commands and after that, no matter how much Eye tries to, everything is a blur.
That's probably when the switch happened.
Glancing around his surroundings, the sculk seems to call out to him in a way, pulsating in weird, bioluminescent waves, mourning for the presence that had been accompanying them earlier and Eye just scoots away further, disgust marking his expression.
He never had really thought something in Minecraft would really creep him out that much, but here he is.
Eye jolts as a shriek suddenly shoots into his ears and breaks his train of thought, his already uneven breath trembling further (when was it this shaky?) as his gaze quickly darted towards direction it came from.
The sight really is unfortunate and unlucky and Eye questions what god did he piss off to be in this horrible position as he stares at the towering Warden wandering around, its footsteps echoing throughout the surroundings with how loud it is.
Lady luck seems to have blessed Eye as the creature doesn't seem to have noticed him, seeing it focused on a zombie that was unfortunate enough to cause enough sound and become its next victim.
It doesn't help with the fact that when Eye looks down, he sees trembles racking through his fingers and hears how his breath is still uneven and seems to grow shakier from that screeching sound.
He really needs to get out of here.
But his legs seem to be paralyzed as Eye puts effort into just trying to move it, the limbs unresponsive and he mutters a quiet curse beneath his breath.
He needs help.
Help.
Moving with still trembling fingers, Eye opens up his chat and doesn't pay a mind to the already existing texts there as he types out the next few words, his body suddenly feeling heavier than usual that he has to strain his fingers.
You whisper to Wind0wsVista: help pls
You whisper to Wind0wsVista: 234, 150
Wind0wsVista whispers to you: coming
Letting out a breath of relief, Eye slumps his body back against the cold, hard wall of deepslate bricks as he stares down at the ground, patiently waiting for Vista to come pick him up and bring him home.
The sounds of sculk pulsing, a nearby warden quietly growling as it walks around blindly, the cold breeze tickling Eye's face fills the space around him as the time ticks by and all he can do is wait in this forsaken place.
….
The ground has somehow become the most interesting thing to Eye’s gaze as he waits for Vista to come pick him up, the cold, hard bricks feels grounding yet numbing to his body. Though, it’s not really surprising either since this is the ancient city so Eye just has to tough it out for longer.
And tough it out he did as it feels like an eternity has passed. Without being on the surface, Eye couldn't tell how much time had already gone by while he was stranded here because his body is apparently refusing to listen to him, and has he mentioned he has no armor too for some reason?
Eye cannot be bothered to really think too hard though, the switch between him and Catalyst always leaving memories between in a haze which just makes connecting the dots harder, and he rather not know what Catalyst has been up to unless it directly affects his interactions with other members on the Click SMP (and for his own sanity).
Fortunately for said sanity, Eye soon receives a notification ping from his chat. Opening it up, he sees a familiar username with relieving words.
Wind0wsVista whispers to you: at east
Wind0wsVista whispers to you: r u able to come over
You whisper to Wind0wsVista: don't think so
You whisper to Wind0wsVista: body can't move
Wind0wsVista whispers to you: alr wya
Eye opens up another tab to check his coordinates, his gaze scanning the rows of white numbers and words before landing on the one he needs.
You whisper to Wind0wsVista: same direction
Wind0wsVista whispers to you: omw
Seeing those words, Eye feels like a weight has lifted off his shoulders as he closes both of the floating tabs and leans back against the deepslate brick wall.
Now all he has to do is wait a little more and Vista will be her-
“Hi.” A voice cuts the beginning of his thoughts, the sound so quiet that Eye freezes to reprocess if he had heard that correctly or not. Eventually, the evidence of Eye not going crazy and starting to hallucinate surfaces as the warm breath ghosting over the back of his ear.
Eye forces his body to not jolt away and avoid making any sounds as a shiver runs down his spine instead. Turning his head around (and practically almost snapping his neck), Eye is greeted with the sight of heterochromatic depths of purple and yellow staring right back at him.
“Can you give a warning next time and not jumpscare me?” Eye murmurs back in his own quiet voice as Vista simply responds with a shrug. The enderian responds with a simple shrug as he gets up from his crouched position, reaching a hand out to help the other to get up too.
Eye takes Vista’s hand and pulls himself up, a quiet wince escaping his lips as an ache quickly spreads through his entire body, his feet slightly stumbling from it. Fortunately, Vista does notice as his other hand moves to Eye’s waist to stabilize him, his eyes watching Eye as a confused look shadows over his expression.
“You okay?” Vista eventually asks, noticing how the other has zero armor equipped and how his body didn’t seem to cooperate with its owner earlier as he slings his arm over Eye’s shoulders instead, which Eye seems to have paused over a second before relaxing.
“Yeah.” Eye answers as Vista begins guiding them away from the city and to a hole in the wall, which Eye immediately guesses that is how Vista came in through here. The enderian carefully navigates the pairs’ way around the city, avoiding any more sculk and lingering Wardens (was there ever this many of them?) along their way.
His eyes dart to said enderian next to him, who is focused ahead with a clear goal in those mismatched eyes. With Vista closer now, however, Eye notices faint scarring around his cheek, the lines still seemingly in the process of healing. Mentally taking note, Eye looks back forward as the both of them approach the hole with Eye carefully walking in first followed by Vista who blocks it up right after, making sure that nothing will follow them.
The enclosed space does quickly cause discomfort within Eye as he shifts himself closer to the corner. Vista notices this in an instant as he pulls out his pickaxe to make the spot somewhat more spacious for Eye. When the space becomes at least not as confined and small, Vista places down an ender chest right after, wordlessly letting Eye find his gear back which he is grateful for.
Rummaging through shulker boxes and checking their contents, Eye eventually speaks up in a more clearer voice now that they’re no longer in the ancient city.
“Who did you fight with?” Vista visibly tenses up at the sudden question as Eye places down a shulker box with his original things and begins taking them out. The shapeshifter doesn’t look up just yet, waiting for a response as he organizes his things in his inventory. When he doesn’t get one, confusion quickly surfaces in him as he double checks everything in his slots.
“Vista?” Eye then looks up after a second longer of silence and instead pauses at the sight. Gone was the usual confidence Vista usually carries when leading his teammates, replaced by a look of.. guilt?
Silence soon falls over them as Vista states down at the ground, tension obvious in his shoulders while Eye just stares at him, concern starting to bloom within his heart.
“.. If you're uncomfortable then it's alr-”
“You.”
A pause seems to have struck Eye the umpteenth time as he processes what Vista had just said, his eyes slightly narrowing out of increased confusion and concern. Vista seems to have noticed it as he continues.
“I was fighting with you.” Vista forces out, his voice seemingly carrying a hint of strain in it as Eye stares back in surprise.
Oh.
Oh.
The revelation seems to have caught Eye off guard. The concern within Eye only increases along with his confusion being replaced by guilt. Silently, Eye puts the shulker box back into the ender chest, closing the top right after with a quiet click.
“Well- I, uh.”
His throat suddenly feels way too dry, parched. His mind is failing on him as he clears his throat of non-existent phlegm.
“I'm sorry.”
Vista doesn't say a word back, letting the silence grow tense and still which makes Eye uncomfortably shift his feet. Without a word, Eye pulls out a pickaxe out of his inventory, the heaviness in his limbs having mostly gone away now as he gets ready to mine to the surface.
“We should go back.” Eye turns his back on Vista and raises the edge of his pickaxe, lifting his hand up before he is abruptly stopped by something catching his wrist.
That something is a hand, and that hand belongs to a certain enderian.
“.. Vista?” Eye calls out, his voice holding a hint of surprise as he gazes at the unreadable expression Vista now has on his face.
Without a word, Eye returns his pickaxe to his inventory. Staring at the blank expression that Eye can't get a read on Vista's face, his concern starts bubbling over to concern.
“You okay?-” Dark-brown eyes widen as Vista suddenly pulls on his wrist, causing Eye to quickly lose his balance and stumble on his feet. Eye is quickly balanced though as Vista arms wrap around him and pull him into a hug.
.. What?
Eye blinks, caught off guard by the sudden embrace by Vista. His own arms dangle at his side, useless, since he doesn't even know what to do or how to react to this sudden embrace by Vista at all.
“Vista?”
“I thought you were gone.”
Eye freezes up as he hears those words leave Vista's lips, dark-brown eyes quickly darting to find the other only to feel a weight landing on his shoulder instead and Eye looks down to stop at the sight.
Vista is leaning his forehead against his shoulder, his expression hidden as his arms tighten around Eye further. Though, it doesn't really bother Eye and he just allows it.
“I thought you were never coming back.” Each word slipping out of Vista makes Eye's heart clench, something that is unfamiliar and not what he is used to at all. Eye doesn't say a word to stop Vista, though.
“I thought I lost you.”
Eye could hear a shake in Vista's voice as he said those words, the clench in his heart only deepening to the point it might as well hurt. Eye never really expected to hear these words from Vista, let alone see him voicing them out like this in a vulnerable state.
The shapeshifter can't blame the enderian, though, this wasn't the first time that this has happened before, where Catalyst takes his place instead.
Eye remembers how he heard about Vista saying something about trying to kill Catalyst just to bring him back, to bring his Eye back. That memory still lingers somewhere around his head.
It really just tells him how close they have grown close to each other ever since Eye pulled that stasis chamber of Vista's.
Letting the silence hang between them for a few more seconds, Eye lets out a quiet exhale, not realizing he's been holding his breath for a while. Without a word, his own arms reach up, tentatively wrapping around Vista's body.
“I'm sorry for worrying you, Vista.” Eye eventually responds, his voice sounding softer this time, gentler. Vista tucks his head into the space between the other's neck and shoulder as his response.
“.. I swear I will try to not let it happen again.” Eye can't promise that it won't ever happen again because he knows if he ever gets close enough to sculk or getting killed by a warden, it'll trigger another switch and he'll be gone for days until another switch happens and he'll be back.
Vista does seem to know that and also seems to be relieved at hearing Eye would try his best to avoid another switch happening too at the very least as the tension drains from Vista's shoulders, his arms loosening their hold by just a tad bit.
The pair remain in that position for a long while, and Eye doesn't mind as he carefully guides them to a stone wall to lean his back against, supporting the both of them with the new spot.
Eye doesn't know how much time passes as they remain hugging each other in a warm embrace within the enclosed space of stone walls, but he does know that Vista seems to be comforted that Eye is back now and it isn't all an illusion with him hugging Eye so tightly.
So, at the very least, the shapeshifter can offer this comfort to the enderian. Until he is sure Eye is actually here, until he is sure his Eye is actually back.