I shot awake with a gasp, clutching my chest as the dream faded away. My heart was pounding in my ears, leg muscles tense. I had been running... running...

"Dammit!" I groaned, throwing my blanket aside. No matter how hard I tried, anything I dreamt was gone the moment I opened my eyes.

Well... I'm not sleeping anymore tonight. I grabbed my elytra and a stack of rockets and took off into the air. The moon was high in the pitch-black sky, reflecting off the ocean I flew over beautifully. I turned upwards, gaining speed as I flew higher and higher.

I tipped forward, enough to slowly drift down towards the water. The shopping district was a center of lights in the distance, my own base standing as tall as it can go. Mumbo's ball was lit up as well, the mustached man probably AFK even now.

Everything looked so small from this height. The air was crisp, cool against my skin. It burrowed beneath the red sweater I wore, needles digging into my arms, my back, my sides. It was refreshing, making me more aware of the present than I have been since waking up.

"Can't sleep?" If I had been on the ground, I would have jumped. I glanced down below me, where the voice had come from, to see Tango flying up to my level.

"Is it that obvious?" I did a small loop, levelling out with the red-eyed blonde. He laughed a bit, gesturing to the lids at the bottoms of his eyes.

Right. I had some killer dark circles.

"How've you been settling in?"

I replied with a small shrug, looking down at the waves below us.

"Ah."

In sync, we launched another rocket, propelling ourselves up higher. There was barely a breeze over the ocean tonight, allowing us to speak without shouting.

That is, if I could actually speak to Tango. My tongue was heavy in my mouth, the faint memories from before I woke up dragging me down.

"X wanted me to check in on you. Make sure you were handling this okay."

Was I handling this okay? I glanced down at the water, taking a sharp dive. The wind grew, tearing at my sweater and pulling my hair back. At the last second I pulled up, soaring back into the sky.

I levelled out near Tango, avoiding his red eyes. "I'm gonna guess that's a big fat no?"

I shrugged a bit, doing a small roll. "I mean... it's okay, but you guys are all like... really close. And I'm an outsider."

"An outsider who's already won the affection of Mumbo, Impulse respects your pranks, and you even managed to intrigue Evil X."

Another shrug his way. I heard the sigh leave his lips as I tilted forward enough to head to the water. He followed, using another rocket to keep up his speed as I skimmed the waves of the ocean.

"Grian. You may not realize it, but you've garnered some respect." Tango had some issues levelling out as I had over the water, but he managed to do so eventually. I stared down at the surface, seeing the night sky reflected.

We flew in peace for a while, the silence thick between us. We drew a circle around the main island, avoiding some storm clouds coming from the distance.

"I think Doc sees me as a threat," I finally got my voice to work again, around the third loop of the island. The moon was approaching the horizon, the threat of daylight rapidly coming closer.

Tango laughed tiredly, pulling up a bit with another rocket. "He sees any newcomer as a threat. Trust me, he acts tough, but that's all words. He's a real big softie under the cybernetics stuff."

"He was intimidating... threatened me if I ever hurt his friends. Why would I hurt you guys?" I slowly took off towards the sky, wanting to watch the sun rise from high above the earth.

"I... I don't know." He was following me, spiralling higher and higher as I did. "I like to think you wouldn't, but-"

"But you don't trust me." I couldn't help the slight edge to my words. "Don't bother lying to me about that."

"Okay, sure, it's hard to trust a stranger." We were above cloud level now, the sky getting lighter and lighter. "But that doesn't mean I don't want to try!"

"You kept me in Mumbo's base for a week to make sure I didn't try anything. And even when I try to get out, you guys barely give me breathing room. I get checked in on by you, or Doc, or X every other day, because you can't trust me!" I turned to face Tango, heart pounding. I wouldn't be this mad, this reckless, if I could get more than a few hours of restless sleep at night.

"Grian-" A crack. My eyes widened as the right wing of Tango's elytra tore open. He didn't have a chance to say anything else as he began to plummet down to the earth below.

In an instant I shot after him, noting we had come over the mainland at some point. Tango was spiralling'out of control, quiet and calm. I knew, somewhere in the back of my mind, that he would come back. He would respawn, be perfectly fine. But something drove me to keep going.

I reached out, grabbing his arm with both my hands. I tried in vain to slow our descent, to level us out, but we were falling too fast.

Come on Grian, focus!

I squeezed my eyes shut, praying that somehow this would all work out.

I opened my eyes to us hovering above the ground, only a few feet away from sudden doom.

Hovering.

"Grian-" Tango was staring up at me, somewhere behind me. "Your... elytra..."

I dropped Tango, setting myself down on the ground. I spun, hands clawing at my back, at the white-speckled chestnut bird wings that spread out behind me.

Somehow... the sight of these wings wasn't weird, or scary. It felt... familiar, warm and comforting. I found the wings easy to maneuver, them responding to my subconscious thought.

"You're marked," Tango was sitting in the grass, staring up at me with a hint of... something in his eyes. Fear? Knowledge? "Why the fuck didn't you say-"

"Marked?" The word sent a ripple of warmth along my arms, down my back. The wind around us seemed to pick up, the feathers in my wings rustling amidst the breeze. "Tango, what-"

"No one can know about this!" He jumped to his feet, running over to grab my shoulders. "Grian, you... you cannot show this t-to anyone."

"Why not?" I reeled back, tucking my wings tightly against my back.

"Make them go away, Grian!" He waved his arms, eyes glowing in the dim light. Behind him, the sun was rising above the shopping district, making his hair look like a flame.

"I-you think I can just make them go away?!?" I flapped the wings, unable to hide the restless energy that was building. The wind speed picked up, rippling through Tango's clothing.

"Grian, please!" Tango looked back at the district, "People are going to wake up soon, they're going to have questions-"

"Tango, what the hell is going on?" The demand slipped out, harshly thrown at the blonde in question. "What the hell are you trying to hide my wings from?"

"From the others! If they see the wings they will know!"

"Know what???"

"They'll..." He took in a shaky breath. "They'll know that I'm not an Admin anymore. They'll know I've been lying to them the entire fucking time we've been here!"

That only piqued my curiosity. "Why does a pair of wings say that-"

"Because those wings are a goddamn Admin mark, Grian! If anyone else sees that, they'll fucking realize that you're an Admin!"

~

Boom, surprise chapter. Muahahaha.

The truth comes out. It'll be explained later, but the basic jist of things is that there are 3 types of people. Players, Moderators, and Admins. Players are basic AF, Moderators each have control over different small portions of their world (i.e. Mumbo can summon ores, Stress has ice abilities). Then Admins have control of large portions of the world. (Tango had the Overworld, Biffa controls the Nether, and X controls the Code of the world).

More on Grian's past will pop up slowly, but this was a massive scene for one chapter and I need to get back to DND. Wear your seatbelt!

~Parker