{TIME ERROR}

Grian flapped his wings as he glided down to earth, smiling as he looked at the trees around him. Flowers swayed as he created wind currents with his wings. Birds from above cawed at him, his smile brightening as he looked up at them. A crack of a twig interrupted the gods' peaceful flight, making his eyes look towards the noise to see Kristian and XD, two other gods he hasn’t yet met more than twice. “Kristian? XD? What are you two doing on earth, shouldn’t you be in the void right now?” he asks, making his way to the other two. They seemed uneasy as he spoke, shifting in their spots. 

“Grian, we have a problem.” Kristian says, sorrow and sympathy growing on her face. Grian frowned, not understanding what the other meant. 

“What problem?” He asks, worry filling his own soul at her tone. 

“We’re so sorry, Grian.” XD speaks next. 

{TIME ERROR}

Before Grian knew what was happening, he was sobbing, a sword stuck inside his best friend's chest, wings spread over the ground as he mourned. He was a mess, fists tightening around the sword handle as he let himself unravel in his grief. Kristian stood off to the side, a dark look falling over her face. “I’m sorry Grian, it had to be done.” 

“You could have done it yourself, but  you had to have me do it, didn’t you?” He whispers. “I hate you for this, Kristian, XD. I will never forgive you.”  Silence fell over the broken terrain. 

“You may stay mad, Grian, but we need you to watch over the crystals on earth. We can’t stay long. If they fall into the wrong hands again, who knows what will happen. That Dekon isn't dead yet, and he will be back.” Grian pulled his wings close to himself, jerking a nod at the XD’s words. 

“I will do as you wish, but nothing more.” A long pause filled the void between them. 

“May I ask one other request, Grian?” Kristian asked.  

“What.” His bitter voice rang out. He wanted to be left alone, to grieve in peace. 

“I wish to make copies of you, to help you protect the crystals.” The already broken man gritted his teeth. 

“You wish you remake an already dying species?” he growls. 

“No, I wish to make beings close to your own image, Grian.” Kristian says, already waving her hands as they sparked with power. “Beings with powers, ones that will help you in battle with the evil of the world. Take it as an apology, my fellow god.” 

“Do as you wish.” He says, still shivering in anger. “Now, leave me be." Before they could turn away full though, the young God had his own request pop into his head. "I wish for no one to know the truth of what happened, please, keep it a secret for me. I can't bear this pain." He says. The two gods look at one another, both agreeing to his request.

"Very well, Grian."

Present. . .

Karl was ecstatic when he learned that Quackity was awake, sprinting to the house that his lover had been resting in as soon as he heard the news. What he wasn’t expecting was a very sad-looking Quackity laying on the living room floor with a very thoughtful look on his face. Karl hesitated to come near the other, but soon walked over sitting down by the other as he hesitantly started carding his fingers through the other’s hair. Karl smiled sweetly when he met his gaze with the other. “Hey Quacks, what up?” Quackity smiled, leaning into the other. 

“Nothing, just stressed.” A pause filled the air. The avian seemed to not want to talk, and Karl was ok with that at the moment. Quackity was right, everything happening was overwhelming for Karl too. 

“Well, you know you can talk to me about anything, right?” The blackette smiled, nodding as he closes his eyes. The brownette smiled too, stopping himself from messing with the other’s hair before laying down next to Quackity. “Everything may be a mess right now, but after this, we can go and live a simple life in the Dreamer castle! You know, like we always talked about.” Karl smiled at the thought. “I can go back to being head doctor, and you can keep going with your career as a general, serving your kingdom with loyalty.” Quackity smiled at the thought, but it slowly disappeared as he thought about it. 

“What about Sapnap?” Karl paused, frowning to himself as he sighed. He grew closer to the other, burrowing his head into the other’s chest as he felt the other hug him closely.

“He’ll go and become king of the Egg kingdom, and rule amazingly and fairly.” His voice was quiet as he spoke, both Quackity and himself not bothering to destroy the silence surrounding them. 

+ + +

Technoblade growled, walking behind Wilbur who was still ignoring him as he fed a bottle to Fundy. The fox hybrid just stared at him with curious eyes as he did. Wilbur thought, was determined to ignore the presence of his older brother. “Wilbur, you can’t ignore me forever!” 

“Yes, I can. And I will, dickhead.” The prince snaps, making Techno tighten his fists. 

“Stop being childish and talk to me like a grown adult, you prick.” Wilbur pierced his lips, brown eyes finally looking towards the piglin hybrid as if he was about to finally give up the petty grudge he had against him. 

“Hm, I don’t think so.” Technoblade growled, latching both his hands onto the younger’s shoulders, though the other tried to jerk out of his hold. “What are you doing?” 

“You’re being a fucking moron.” Wilbur looked offended by the pinkettes choice of words, but the other kept talking. “I’m sorry for what I said, Wilbur.” The once angry cold brown eyes slowly turned soft. “I didn’t mean to say what I did back in that training room, Wil. I was just angry and frustrated, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.” Wilbur smiled slightly at his apology, Fundy in his arms still staring at Techno just as curious as he was before. “I know you're going through alot right now too, Wil. I shouldn’t have criticized you the way I did.” Wilbur smiled softly at his brother. 

“I forgive you, Tech.” The piglin hybrid smiled at his words. He would have hugged him if he wasn’t holding his son in his arms, still feeding him a bottle. 

“It’s good to see you two are getting along again.” Their father said from the steps to the lower decks. They turned their heads to him as he spoke. “I thought I’d have to intervene and force you two to work it out if you guys didn’t do it on your own soon.” He admitted, smiling as he made his way down the last steps. Technoblade smiled, letting go of his younger brother's shoulders as the father neared them. 

“Dad, you can’t try and fix every problem me and Techno have.” Wilbur chuckles as he takes the bottle out of the child's mouth to lay him down for a nap. 

“Oh yes I can.” Philza says, smile getting brighter. “Though I do prefer it when you two work it out on your own, like you have a few times.” Techoblade smiles too. Wilbur faces his family once Fundy was down for his nap, brown eyes sparkling with happiness. Phil clears his throat through, making the happy moment slowly disappear. “Be ready in the morning though, we have a battle that will determine our universe's survival tomorrow, we will need to win.” 

+ + +

Sam clashed his sword against Ponk’s own weapon,  gritting his teeth as he fought to throw the other off-balance. Ponk wasn’t easy to beat though, a real challenge for the creeper hybrid. Charlie sat on the edge of the training field, watching as he twiddled with his own sword. He had been training with the others, of course not under Quackity as he had hoped. But, he enjoyed training with Sam and Ponk anyways, and wasn’t bad at it either. Finally Sam managed to push the other back, smiling triumphantly. “Ponk, Sam!” They looked over to see Gemini, one of the hermits, running over to them. “Meeting at Scars house, we’re doing one last run over the plan before we head to bed.” Fear filled Sam, the grip he had on his sword tightening. He’d been fearing this day since it had been mentioned, having to try and kill the man he once served didn’t sit right with him, but he knew it had to be done. 

“Ok, we’ll see you there.” Ponk looked over towards the creeper hybrid as hespoke, sensing the uneasy tone he used. The deer hybrid though didn’t catch on, smiling warmly before giving a curt nod and running off, probably to tell others of the meeting.  Ponk sat his free hand against Sam’s shoulder, squeezing it as he did so. 

“I promise, everything will be fine.” He says, smiling up at the taller man. The green-haired male tried to smile back, but he could tell it was fake. 

“I hope you're right, Ponk.” He sheathed his sword, the Egg general following suit as they made their way to Charlie. 

“C’mon Charlie, we have a meeting to go to.” Charlie sprung up from his sitting position on the floor, sheathing his sword like the other two did before following them into town. In town it was quiet, none of the villagers leaving their homes as they prepared to fight Dream and his troops. Grian didn’t want to bring them into this anymore anyways, so it was good they were not wandering around as they trained. Pushing Scars door open, Sam heard yelling, but not from a voice he recognized. When he walked further in, he saw a very interesting bee hybrid and a blaze hybrid he had not seen before. 

“You didn’t even bother telling me you were going to war? Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for something like this to happen?” The blond blaze hybrid spoke. 

“Tengo!” The bee hybrid yelled, wings buzzing in frustration. 

“What? I’m not lying.” He crossed his arms as he spoke. Grian sat in front of the two, others around hollering and their own group looking confused. 

“Xisuma, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I just didn’t want to drag anyone else into this.” The bee hybrid didn’t look pleased by this apology. Sam looked over towards Charlie and pink, who both shifted out of the awkward air surrounding them. “It’s bad enough the people that are from Hermitcraft are involved, I just couldn’t bring myself to put more of them in danger.” 

“You know that this is a serious matter, foreigners on our lands!” When Sam looked back up, this Xisuma male seemed dumbfounded, even angry, as he spoke. “This is outrageous!” Grian looked sad, maybe even guilty, as the other spoke. 

“Well, I’m getting involved whether you like it or not, Grian.” The male, Tango, says. He looked proud of his decision as well. 

“You should have kicked them out as soon as they stepped foot onto our lands! But no, you decided to let their problems become ours!” Grian flared his wings open, looking pissed at the other. 

“Their problems are ours as well, Xisuma. If Dream gets his hands on those crystals, all we know will cease to exist!” The room grew silent at his outburst, Pink grabbing hold of the creeper's hand as the room grew tense. “I won't let that happen again!” This sentence confused others, while some begin to figure out what the avian ment, but Philza quickly put the pieces together. The king looked at Grian, brown eyes sparkling in interest. 

“So, you are the original?” He asks. Grian seemed to freeze, brown eyes holding understanding as he looked at the other. He had let it slip, and Philza knew that his silence was a yes. Yet, others in the room were yet to understand. “The original, the one who started it all.” The king says, confusing most. “So, how are you still alive, Grian? Shouldn’t you be dead by now?” The dirty blond seemed to shiver, as if memories were playing in his mind as Philza spoke. 

“How do you know about the original?” He asks, brown eyes still traced on Phil. 

“My village, we had an original copy of our history, saying we were all created based off of the first savior, by the god of death. I never believed that legend until now though.” he says, wings fluttering as he speaks. “I’ve always been told a different story, but now I understand.” Grian’s fists tightened. “You were the one to destroy the last dictator, weren’t you?” he asks. The room was quiet, looking from Philza to Grian to see what his response would be. 

“I don’t know how your village got ahold of this book, but what you read was something no one was supposed to learn about.” He says, gritting his teeth as he speaks. 

“So, you don’t deny it?” The blond says. The other avian was quiet. 

“I can’t deny the truth.” he says. “Though, I wish it were all lies.” Sam was still confused, looking from Grian to Philza trying to understand what was happening. 

“So, how are you still alive?” 

“I wish to forget, now, leave me alone.” And with that he left, leaving everyone confused, even Philza. The one puzzle piece he couldn’t put together wasn't being answered. He couldn’t worry about this though, a war was coming to them. He’d have to ask after, fit it together after he got his son back. Xisuma sighed, still looking angry before looking towards Sam and his group. 

“I will help, along with Tango, since this battle seems important. But someone will need to fill me in so I understand.” And so, they gained two new allies.