A/N: Slight Violence, Mind Control

Xelqua opened his eyes again to his celling, lying in his bed. Right. He had to exhaust himself. Twice. Great. Just Great. And giving he wasn't on the floor, the hermits had found the two of them. He sat up, the room lurched for a second as he did. 

Guilt rushed through him as he remembered what he had done to Pearl. It felt unethical... But what was even more unethical was pulling Pearl into the watcher's business. Mortals shouldn't have to deal with their civil war. They'd already seen the issues with that. The rebels saw players as collateral damage... No, he had to get ready for the interrogation that was sure to follow this. He was taking a deep breath when X walked in through the door. Oh no. He wasn't ready- He didn't have any lies thought up...

"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, Grian." X stared in his eyes, the visor making still making the eye contact uncomfortable for him, but it didn't force him to look away, which was lucky, as it'd come off as more honest.

"What do you mean?" Xelqua replied, tilting his head to try to sell the illusion of innocent he was trying to make

"Do you not remember anything happening to Pearl or you?" X questioned.

"No..?" Xelqua lied, carefully trying to not reply to quickly or too suddenly.

"We found the two of you passed out on the floor together three days ago." Three days..? He must have been close to magic overuse... Luckily his necklace didn't limit his magic so much it killed him...

"Three days... Wait- Is Pearl okay?!" He sudden asked. Pearl had dealt with watcher magic before, so it was unlikely there were complications... That typically only happened when players hadn't been exposed to magic. But there was a chance... There always was one... Memory wiping was risky. It's far easily to fully wipe or under wipe then to wipe a specific part... And if he was so close to death to magical exhaustion..

"Yes, she woke up a day after she was found with you. Just so you know, We're going to need to keep a far closer eye on you. Again, I want to ensure... Everyone's safe. I'll be getting a charm to aid you against the mind control, if it is that."

"H-Huh?!" He pretended to seem panicked. Well, pretend wasn't the right word. More like channeling his panic into his speech. "You think I've been mind controlled?"

"It's going to be okay- I'm getting an enchanted object from the other admins that I can give to you. But it'll get here in a few hours" X tried to reassure him.

He nodded, taking a deep breath. This would be tricky... He could play the mind control card now, but if he got this enchanted object, it'd be a device that would attack any users of watcher magic, and it could kill him... He might need to bail, and reach Kanvi or Ark in mindspace to let them know... "It's not like anything could happen in a couple of hours."

Almost as if it was timed perfectly, X's communicator started beeping with an alarm as Grian's simply pinged, before blowing up with notifications.

X quickly tapped some buttons on his communicator, looking panicked. "Oh notch- Grian, are you okay to walk?"

"Maybe?" He stood, and nearly fell over. After a second he got his balance. "Yep!" He was glad the heat was off of him... He didn't think X trusted him quite as much anymore...

"We need to get to spawn-" X looked at him. "I got an elytra, can you fly with me?"

"Yeah." Xelqua flapped his wings experimentally

"Are you sure you can keep up?" He glanced at the avian's wings.

"I'm certain."

"Okay..." X said, uncertainty underlying his voice, led Grian out, and began to glide.

Grian took off with a flap of his wings, following X.

X began to spam rockets, but the avian easily kept pace. While flying, he checked his communicator, and nearly fell out of the air as he saw the messages.

<EvilXisuma has joined the game>

<DocM77> Oh notch not again- X- A lot of us are at spawn and they just spawned in front of us-

<XisumaVoid> I know, I'm coming- Stay safe everyone-

<PearlecentMoon> Is Grian safe?

He tapped out a reply to this.

<Grian> Pearl! Your okay?

<Pearlecentmoon> Yeah, you?

<Grian> I'm good, flying to spawn with X rn. Do you remember anything?

<MumboJumbo> Sorry to interrupt but now isn't the time.

<Grian> Yeah true, sorry, I'll focus on flying.

"So X, who's this Evil Xisuma everyone's panicking about?" Xelqua looked up from his communicator, gliding to not outpace the admin.

"...He's a hacker who tried to destroy other seasons. I don't know how he keeps bypassing my protections." X replied. 

Xelqua glanced at him, thinking that the admin didn't tell the whole story. But who was he to judge. He certainly wasn't the cover-person for honesty...

The two arrived at a shocking display at spawn. A person in a red-version of X's armour stood at spawn, a red tinted visor fully hiding there face, an oddly dark, almost unnatural shimmering sword in their hand. The figure looked up at the two flying up to them. A couple of other hermits stood on guard nearby. Xelqua quickly scanned it to see Doc and Mumbo standing nearby, along with Impulse and Doc's friend, Ren. Pearl was nowhere to be seen... Good. This whole situation stinked of the rebels... 

"Ah, Xisuma! You've finally arrived! With a friend! How... pleasing." The figure swapped into Galactic. "Nice to finally meet you Xelqua... I've heard soo much about you. Take this as your official hello from the REAL Watchers!"

"Ah, the rebels, pleased to meet you, so glad you had to send someone to retrieve a watchling of the so called 'inferior watchers'." Xelqua replied in galactic coldly, causing all of the hermits to glance at him nervously. 

He then recognized the sword... Obsidian. A watcher weapon. He turned to the hermits, calling out "DON'T LET THEM KILL YOU- It's a watcher weapon made of Obsidian- It causes perma-death!"

"How-" X started, sounding confused

"I KNOW THINGS OKAY-" Xelqua called back, trying to plan.

EX chuckled, and stepped forwards. Something felt wrong about how they moved... Xelqua just couldn't figure it out. "The weakling isn't as dumb as they look! Or perhaps I put the bar too low. But, if you come with me, we'll spare these pitiful mortals!"

"I will not surrender to you! Why do you even want me?" Xelqua called in response.

"Well then, let's see how long you can keep your secrets while we spar! And after, we can watch this little server get destroyed like EVO!"

Xelqua's lips tightened at the jab. It hurt, It hurt so much... "I'll never let that happen again. I'll use my last scrap of magic to protect these players, even if it means perma-death."

"Uh- What's going on-" Xisuma said, extremely confused at the exchange in galactic.

"This doesn't concern you!" EX yelled at Xisuma.

"Hate to agree with them, but yeah- Stay out of it please-" Xelqua said. "Personal business. Sorry- You understand, right?"

Ex looked at Xelqua. "This is boring. Let's make it more interesting..." They raised their hand, and he struggled for a second, before a sparkling red wall surrounded the two, separating them. Magic... "Now we may fight in peace!"

Xelqua met Ex's eyes. "They are unable to see us?"

"Yes, you can keep your dumb secret."

"Good." Xelqua ripped the necklace off, turning once more into his watcher form, slapping the mask on. 

Oh, the reassurance of safety it gave him was so comforting, the flood of magic helping fill the depleted reserves, removing the tinge of exhaustion from magic overuse.

It was curious though, Ex didn't transform... Either they didn't want to, which was unlikely, or they... weren't a watcher? And they had magic- red magic- That sort of colored magic was admin magic... Why would the rebels recruit an admin? HOW did they recruit an admin?

"Imagine using a mask." Ex scoffed. "Just another way weaklings are inferior. The server should be cowering before your might..."

"Says the one who hides behind a helmet! What's wrong with being afraid to harm people! It's harder to protect then to attack. Dictators who rule on force set themselves up for failure, as those under will !" Xelqua shouted.

"Oh right, you're the only watcher ever who likes masks. Just because you couldn't even control your magic to drive us out!"

"Others like the masks as well! It's a safety measure, respected by all of the watchers, other then the Rebels."

EX scoffed. "Let's just fight, I didn't come here to listen to a false avian parrot lines from the weaklings."

"Gladly." He replied coldly, gaining his composure for the fight that would follow. Anger in battle lead to impulsive action, and would get you killed.

A coil of violet magic spread from Xelqua's palm, forming a shield before him as he watched EX's movements, trying to understand how they fight. 

EX charged forwards with the obsidian sword, spinning it in their palm they he started to rain slashes towards him

Xelqua blocked Ex's sword blows as they rained down on his shield, looking for a opening. The admin was attacking too quickly, forcing the him on defense. He knew he had to do something, so he sent a weak pulse of magic from the magical shield to break up the Admin's rhythm. Quickly as the Admin stumbled, the Watchling dropping the shield, flicked his hand, causing a tendril of violet light to coil around the Admin's ankle. He tugged it, tripping them. This gave the Watchling time to summon his own obsidian blade from Watcher's End with a flash of violet light, as the Admin got onto his feet. 

This equaled the duel, Xelqua didn't need to rely on his weakened magic. He stared through the sweat forming on his brow, bouncing on the tips of his feet. He had to be careful that the sweat didn't drip into his eyes, and he'd need to be careful about over exertion, for if he tired before his opponent, the fight would be over.

Ex and Xelqua circled for a minute, before EX leapt in. Xelqua expected this, as the Admin had shown he was recklessly aggressive. Xelqua sidestepped one slice, blocked the other, and replied with a slash against the shoulder. Luckily, the armor was a skin, which was a type of illusion that was tangible but offers little protection, not proper armor, as his armor dented like foil under the Watchling's blade. 

Ex didn't even flinch, that's when Xelqua realized what was going on... Someone was puppeteering them. Even the most trained admin would still flinch at a unprotected slash from a obsidian blade, but if they were being pupperteered, the watcher could keep the Host enough in their own body they could feel the pain rather then the watcher...

 He jumped in a brutal offense, trying to pry the helmet off of the Admin, forcing them into defense. Xelqua was running on pure adrenaline at this point. Sure he was good at PVP, but he wasn't great at it, and the rebel controlling the admin was far stronger then him.

With one more pry, he managed to pop the helmet off of the rebel, and sure enough, violet eyes shimmered under it. But the most startling thing was the violet X scar across their face along with a couple of smaller ones across their cheeks and forehead, and the pure white hair. The violet scars would have had to be given by a Watcher, and the White hair meant they had likely been effected by watcher magic so much it altered their appearance. 

"So I have been talking to a rebel. A rebel inside one of their prisoners, because they're too afraid to risk their own skin." Xelqua said dully.

"No, it's because the admin of this server is a moron, and keeps increasing anti-hacker security instead of anti-watcher security, thinking this one keeps hacking in!" The rebel laughed. "It's quite amusing."

Xelqua smiled sweetly. "Well lucky for you, I've learned a bit about puppeteering. Thank you for teaching me more by the way!" 

He continued in Common. "Hello... whoever's in there, can you hear me? I hope you can... I know it feels like you can't do anything, but you can."

Ex's controller stiffened, and launched a slash at Xelqua, which he blocked with another shield of purple magic. He was vaguely aware the shield was quickly weakening even without attacks, his magic was running dangerously low, even with the mask to boost it.

"Imagine the controller is corruption resting in your mind, like vines around it, choking you. You have admin magic... Raise a hand, and use that to burn those vines." Xelqua jumped into the air and dropped the shield, flapping his black wings, dodging the blasts of Red magic the admin's puppeteer was throwing at him.

 All of a sudden, the purple veil over the person's eyes flickered, and faded, and they slumped to the ground. 

Xelqua quickly landed, taking off the mask and putting the necklace back on. He ran to their side, trying to help them. All of a sudden, commotion burst out around them. He supposed the walls had fallen, which wasn't surprising given what this admin appears to have gone through.

"W- What did I do... I tried to capture you... and destroy here" They said softly, and coughed weakly.

"Shh... I'll help you. They also think I'm having issues with being controlled, so they'll understand..." He whispered, kneeling in front of the admin. "For now though, we don't have much time. I doubt your name is Evil Xisuma, so may I have your name and pronouns?"

"I- I think... Eyn..? That sounds right... And uh- They/Them please."

"Okay good. And can we keep the me-being-a-watcher thing between us? The server doesn't... exactly know." He whispered, glancing at the group, which wasn't in earshot yet

"Yeah... Can we keep the whole trying to capture you between us too?"

"Yep-" Xelqua said, before getting interrupted.

"Evil X- Grian- What's going on?" Mumbo said, sounding concerned for his friend. Eyn flinched at being called "Evil X"

"Hard to explain. They were mind controlled. And their name is Eyn."

"Eyn..." Xisuma looked at the un-helmeted form, confusion filling his voice.

"Xisuma..." Eyn's voice sounded hurt.

"It wasn't you?" He mumbled. "They- did this to you?"

"Y- You thought... I'd do this to you?

Xisuma's eyes were visibly tearing behind the visor. "I didn't know what to believe... Eyn I-"

"No! I waited 30 years, hoping he'd come and save me! 30 years of torture and inprisonment! The only freedom I got was when I was mind controlled to attack you all! Even when I broke through, you still didn't come and save me when I disappeared again!"

"Eyn, Think about what your saying..." Xelqua cautioned. "Remember, watchers can mess with your memories... They can dip your more precious moments with venom and bitterness..."

"I know... But..." Eyn mumbled.

"...30 years..? It hasn't been that long...Y- You never told me!" Xisuma said, his voice full of tears.

"You thought I left you with my own free will! My own twin thought I had left him!" Eyn flung their arms in the air. "You acted like you're the wronged one, claiming I'm just a simple HACKER. Trying to forget me!"

"Well you never told me anything!"

"I TRIED! I tried to hint, every time I got a hint of sanity, of control! But you were lying to yourself, thinking I was just 'Evil Xisuma', just a evil version of yourself!" Eyn sniffled from his spot on the ground. "The first time I appeared, did I get a embrace? Love? No, you ignored me! You ignored me and the watchers dragged me back kicking and screaming for help."

"I- I don't know what happened then, but-"

"EYN." Xelqua shouted. "XISUMA- BOTH OF YOU!"

Everyone turned to Grian. The chaos gremlin who was known to be nervous at times, but rarely shouted. Grian shifted uncomfortably at the attention, unconsciously fingering the violet crystal on his necklace, but continued.

"Clearly both you have some stuff to talk about, but Eyn is underfed, and I'd be shocked if they don't need medical attention, and both of us are EXHAUSTED. So, I'm going to fly them to a safe spot, and you're going to explain to the other hermits. Eyn deserves the proper story being told. You owe them at least that."

He nodded to Eyn, and Eyn nodded back. Gently, the avian picked up Eyn, noticing how, despite the heavy armor, light they were.

"I'm going to take you to my base for now, I'll grab some stuff and we'll make you a small cottage or something off continent - Unless you want to live here?"

"I'd... rather not." Eyn's lips were pressed tight

"Yep, figured so."

Grian flew quickly to his base, his wings flapping efficiently for swift travel. 

Walking in, he grabbed some diamonds to make Eyn some tools, along with some building blocks. He poked his head out.

"Favorite color?"

"Wha- oh- Red."

"All right! Anything to avoid in a base?"

"Er- Nope."

"Alright!" He slipped back in, grabbing some stuff to make red concrete and some wood, along with a couple healing potions for the both of them. "Let's head out before everyone comes here. They'll have some questions I doubt either of us are ready for..."

"Heh..." Eyn said quietly.

"Ready?"

"Yep."

Grian scooped Eyn back up again, and took off, soaring over the nearby oceans.

A/N

I think this gets the record for the longest chapter thus far, but we hit 100 views! I won't rant again, don't worry, but I just wanted to thank you all again <3

WC: 2907

Pronoun note: It was mentioned in the chapter, but Eyn uses They/Them in this story, please respect that!

- Xera