TW: Torture, Violence and Gore (slightly graphic), Trauma, Inhumane treatment, Imprisonment, Overall Watcher creepiness, Memory Altering. Basically, Uh oh indeed.

Grian awoke to a lot of things, very fast. First, his wings were curled up right around him, and a unsettling weariness ached in his bones. He remembered last night, which would explain the ache in his body. But, he wasn't lying in a bed, but instead on hard stone... Why would X lie him on stone? He opened his eyes to a frightening sight. Instead of stone, he was lying on bedrock, bedrock walls around him. His sight was properly colored, showing he wasn't wearing a mask... And he looked at his hands, and saw them tightly bound with a shimmering material... Magic binding rope. He internally cursed, glancing around. There was a wall made of iron bars before him, and when he tried to spread his wings, they were pressed against the walls that were barely large enough for him to spin around in.

Hopelessness set in quite quickly. As a watcher, he couldn't starve, meaning respawning was out of the question, and besides, there was no way their captor was that dumb to not set his spawn nearby. Besides, there would be no way to respawn on his own. He had no access to commands, his magic was bound, and he couldn't even die of fall damage since the cell was so small. He tried to visualize the tether to NPG, hoping he could pull them to help, but he could barely get the direction to his counterpart. The magic restraining bindings must stop the tether too...

He sat there for a while, before weariness dragged him under once more.

He awoke to someone aggressively banging the iron bars. He jolted up, his wings instinctively wrapping around him protectively as he clenched his eyes closed, causing the person banging on the bars to snicker. There was a sound of metal grinding, and someone pulled open his wings, tying something onto his handcuffs. 

He opened his eyes to see that the watcher, who was in full watcher form had tied more of that rope-like material onto his wrists, as a type of lead. The watcher, not even glancing at him again, pulled Grian along, causing him to inelegantly flop on his face and be dragged along the rough bedrock floor trying to stand up, his delicate wings having feathers torn out causing him to wince in pain. Finally he stumbled upright, and walked behind the watcher.

"What are you even planning to do!" He spat. "I'm a pitiful watchling, why am I important?"

"Pfft- You think your important. Hah, pathetic." The watcher turned to turned to spit at his feet, and turned, walking off pulling Grian behind him while speaking. "The head watcher wanted you, said you'd be good leverage against a council member, and told us to do whatever we like with you! So we're gonna have fun! Cause some pain... Burn some bridges between you and your friends... And best of all, you won't be able to do a thing! After all, Watchers, even weakling ones, shouldn't have friends among the mere mortals that claim this world is there's. Our ancestor was one the first, we were not creations of, but children of the primal beings, we are the gods, why should we lower ourselves to mere mortals' levels!"

Grian shivered at this. "Players are better then us though. You claim to be superior, have you even seen a player?"

"Xelqua, was it?'

"Grian please."

"Well, Xelqua, we're going to have to teach you to hold your little tongue, won't we?" The watcher tugged the lead harshly, causing Grian to stumble forwards

"You know how wrong all of this sounds..?" Grian commented, trying to keep it bright despite the feeling of dread coming over him.

"Your talking to a race of asexuals. We have no idea what sounds wrong or not.." The watcher's eyes rolled, the excessive amount of them made the movement unnerving, as ten or so visible eyes rolled all in sync.

"Fair." He nodded, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach.

The two walked together past rows of bedrock cells. Grian averted his eyes from the misery around him, of the watchers trapped in the rebel's clutches, the sobs from broken throats, the ones curled into balls mumbling, and the scent of blood in the air.

Finally, they reached a room, and the watcher dragged Grian inside of it, shutting the door. Inside there was a couple of chains and a watcher standing by the door. Grian swallowed as the watcher shoved him farther in. Grian tried to fight, but, with a flick of their hand, the watcher flung Grian through the air and hung them in the chains. It was just barely too high for his legs to touch the ground, so he hung limply, his already sore appendages screaming from the strain.

The watcher watched, purple fire flaring in their grasp as they summoned a obsidian dagger with a serrated edge, moving it towards his chest. Grian flailed as it cut into his skin through the watcher robes he wore. This continued for a length of time, with no way to track it, it could have been hours, days or simply minutes. He screamed until his throat gave out as again and again, in and out, splash splash of the dripping blood, warmth dripping down from the cuts.

He was sobbing silently at the end of it, gasping for air, every place the watcher coldly slid the dagger into felt like it was on fire, the floor had a pool of blood on it, and the room was swimming from the agony and potentially lack of blood. The watcher nodded, and silently opened the door. Grian hung there, waiting for the release of unconsciousness to take him, release him from the agony. Yet, it didn't come. The room stabilized. It came to his mind a fact about the rebels. The rebels had enchanted daggers to masterfully draw enough blood to cause excruciating pain, yet keep their victims on the brink of life, on the brink of consciousness, so the pain would stay with them through the time until they pass out from exhaustion. 

He forced himself to focus. He wouldn't give up... The hermits would come, surely? Or NPG? Or Ark or Kanvi? Surely, they'd come... He glanced at the blood below him, and his determination cracked. The hermits couldn't hold a torch to these beings, neither could NPG... They'd both die before even making it a step into the rebel fortress, if they even could make it. Ark was too valuable, and they were too clever to come to rescue him, as that'd put them right in the rebel's grasp, and Kanvi would want to, but Ark wouldn't let the rebels get another hostage against them. But nerves filled him as he realized something. The hermits and NPG wouldn't get stopped by logic, the fact the watchers took him would cause them to come, overpowered or not. He closed his eyes and prayed to the primals no one would come for him. He'd handle it by himself, as always...

X groaned as he awoke... His head hurt so much... then memories flooded back into his brain...

Grian speaking- He'd been suspicious of the gremlin's story, but pretended to buy it. The protection falling as Grian pretended to reinforce it, but actually opening a loophole from the barrier, allowing them to slip through... Grian smiling at 5 watchers who landed in front of the house, calling out to them in galactic, laughing in a unhinged manner as a the watchers attacked X... Him pulling his admin panels out quick enough to kick the watchers and Grian from the server... Passing out on the field...

Grian had betrayed them. It didn't feel real... But it happened. It certainly felt real. He'd trusted the player, gave him the benefit of the doubt despite knowing something was off, knowing that he was a watcher. He'd known since the night Grian had been 'puppeteered', supposedly. Only players who had a type of magic could have that magic channeled through puppeteering, and the purple flame was unmistakably watcher magic.

X got more sure of it the more he thought of it, the mysterious messages he got, the fact Grian appeared randomly.

Eyn was sitting there and noticed X's awakening. "X!"

"Eyn..." X mumbled.

"X? What's wrong?" They asked anxiously.

"He betrayed us..." He mumbled. "Tried to have his fellow watchers kill me, take over the server."

"X... Are you sure? I don't think he'd do that..." Eyn said quietly.

"He did." X pulled off a armor piece to show a watcher-given wound on his arm, faintly glowing violet.

"But watcher can mess with memories..?" Eyn mumbled.

"Eyn, I know... But all the evidence points towards him."

"It... doesn't?" Eyn sounded very concerned for X's wellbeing. "X are you sure your okay? I really think watchers messed with your memories."

"They would have needed to get inside the server to do that." X said stubbornly.

Eyn sighed, replying hesitantly. "Sure, okay..."

X opened his admin panels, clicking a few buttons to ban Grian from the server.

"X..? What are you doing..?"

"Unwhitelisting the traitor, for what little it'll do..." X said quietly. "I can believe I trusted him."

"Because he's innocent!"

"Eyn, are you sure he didn't mess with YOUR memories?" X was getting concerned at how much their twin was defending Grian. "You were alone with him for a while..."

"I- I don't think so?" Eyn seemed less sure now. "My memories of him don't seem... shiny, like the other altered ones..."

X's lips became a line. "Well there's no difference between the ones of him attacking me and the other ones. I should probably make an announcement."

"Yeah..." Eyn said quietly.

X and Eyn flew off towards spawn as X typed in his communicator.

<XisumaVoid> Urgent meeting at spawn to discuss events that happened last night. Please come as soon as possible

<PearlecentMoon> I saw the barrier light up with watcher magic! Is Grian alright?

<XisumaVoid> Yes, unfortunately.

<PearlecentMoon> What do you mean Unfortunately?

<XisumaVoid> I'll explain later.

<DocM77> I'll be there

A/N

DUH DUH DUHHHH- Drama >:D 

Sorry, I had to add X being a derp for once, he's been too clever. Blame it on the magic.

And more angst to feast upon for you angst lovers. I love making beings with the ability to alter people's perceptions and/or memories, it's so interesting to see what they can do :D

Outside of talking about the angst, I actually have a few songs I relate to certain characters in this story, so imma share them with you!

Grian/Xelqua: Humpty Dumpty By AJR (It just fits perfectly with his character in this.)

NPG: The Moss by Cosmo Sheldrake (IDK why but it fits with how he acts)

I don't really have a song for X because he's a bit of a wildcard/plot device in this story XD

Eyn: Curses by The Crane Wives (The new ending has more Eyn content, so that's fun! But the feels right for how I'm planning to work Eyn's part of the story)

Pearl: Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land by Marina (Can't explain it with your current knowledge. Kind of fits with Grian too, but Humpty Dumpty fits him better)

Ark: & by Tally Hall (It fits and I have no idea why but it does)

Kanvi: Something Wild by Lindsey Stirling and Andrew Machon (I love her so much <3 We stan watchers that are semi-decent parents)

There's another character who's song is Rät by Penelope Scott, but you haven't met them yet ;)

WC: 1903

- Xera