(Spoilers for YHS ahead so if you want to watch that, pay attention to where I mark as spoiler stuff)

POV: Iskall

Location: Hermitville

I looked up in surprise as the yell came to my ears. With a glance at Mumbo and Joe, we dashed down the stairs and ran through Hermitville to Xisuma's house, leaving Doc, Scar, and Cub alone in my house.

Upon entry, we found Grian sobbing on the floor, Stress unconscious beside him, and Xisuma without his helmet crying over... A dead EX.

Mumbo let out a gasp and went to hug our fellow Saharan.

I closed the door and stepped inside, worry filling my gaze. With one pure heartbroken look from Xisuma, I made my decision.

"Xisuma, can you help me get Stress and Grian away from the bed?" I asked gently, crouching down a bit as I hoped giving him something to do would help him. He nodded faintly, his expression returning to one of shock as he gently lifted Stress away from the bed. I helped Mumbo with Grian and I told them to stay over there.

Xisuma looked at me, confusion in his wide eyes. I blinked at him and said, "Everything will be alright." He didn't say anything.

I stood in front of EX's body and rolled him over onto his back. I focused my gaze on the Watcher and concentrated.

Stress woke up slightly and was conscious enough to weakly call my name. I didn't respond.

"I'm so going to regret this," I muttered just before a light green glow surrounded my human eye. My friends watched in silent surprise as light flowed down my neck and across my chest to my spread out hands. My feet left the ground and the light green glow flowed toward EX's body. It hit his chest and spread from there, healing his body and mending his spirit.

His eyes flew open and he began to cough. Xisuma immediately got up to help him. "Wait!" I called, my voice echoing and sounding ethereal. Shocked, Xisuma stepped back and waited for me to finish.

I grimaced as I completed the spell. The glow stopped flowing from me and the rest of the streams of light green magic were absorbed by EX. He sat up, eyes wide as he looked around.

I dropped to the ground, my head bowed as I sat on one knee. I looked up and smirked as I saw my friends' bewildered expressions.

"What? Didn't you see me getting pulled to the earth with the rest of you?" I joked even though Joe, who hadn't been pulled, was standing at the back of the group.

Xisuma stood again and dashed over to hug EX, purple eyes wide with shock. He lightly punched EX's arm, saying, "Don't ever do that again," as he stared into his twin's gray eyes. EX chuckled and hugged him back.

Grian stumbled to his feet and wandered over to hug EX.

I managed to stand on shaky legs while Mumbo came over to me.

"What was that?" he asked quietly, bewilderment showing in his eyes.

I chuckled. "Magic," I responded.

Grian glanced back at me after pulling away from EX and stumbled forward to hug me, tears forming in his eyes. "Thank you," he whispered.

I smiled. "No problem," I said as I hugged him back.

After Grian pulled away, I felt EX's gaze on me.

"How do you feel?" I asked, crossing my arms to hide how weak I was feeling.

He swallowed before opening his mouth to respond. "Like I died and came back again," he answered.

I chuckled. "Yeah, that's to be expected," I commented.

"But there is one thing..." he said, his gaze dropping. My smile faded slightly.

"What is it?" I asked.

He looked up and met my gaze. "What are you?" My smile faded completely and I glanced away, trying to figure out how to respond.

I caught a glimpse of Joe helping Stress up but didn't react to it.

I sighed and looked back at EX. I lifted a hand and a light green fire filled my palm. Mumbo and Grian both let out quiet gasps at the sudden appearance of fire and stepped away.

"I am a member of the Listeners," I revealed. Everyone who had heard of the Listeners stepped away in surprise, which surprisingly included Joe as he had read a lot of books in his spare time.

EX's mouth gaped open before he said, "But why couldn't we sense your magic?"

I extinguished my hand and tucked it into my arm again. "Listeners are more powerful than Admins and Watchers alone so we are able to hide our magic from you. However, we're not more powerful than both of you together." My gaze fell upon Grian. "We aren't more powerful than those of you who are both," I said knowingly.

"You knew the whole time...?" he said quietly, his blue eyes wide as he stared at me. I nodded with a slight smile.

"The creature that Doc and Scar trapped in Area 77 is a shadow of a Listener. That is why it could sap EX's and Stress's magic but not Grian's," I explained.

"Why couldn't it sap Grian's?" Joe spoke up.

I glanced at Joe then moved my gaze onto Grian, the question in my eye. He let out a sigh and nodded. I looked back at Joe. "He's both," I said quietly. Joe's eyes widened slightly and he looked at Grian with respect in his gaze. Grian looked at the ground, definitely feeling uncomfortable.

He cleared his throat and looked up at me. "So, why haven't the Watchers or the Admins heard anything of the Listeners in so long?" he asked, clearly trying to change the subject.

I cleared my throat and answered, "We were listening." He gave me a "no duh" stare and I let out a chuckle.

"Well then, why aren't you with the Listeners?" he asked. (I'm legit watching YHS where Grian is in the episodes and I can imagine his voice so well~)

I glanced away. "It's too dangerous for me to be with them right now," I answered. He fell silent and looked away.

I cleared my throat, hiding the fact that I was about to topple over. "We should just head back to my house," I said, my arms still folded across my chest.

The other hermits agreed quietly and filed out of the small house. Grian remained just long enough to give me a knowing look. I didn't share anything in my eyes as we met gazes. Finally, Xisuma and EX left to go back to my house after grabbing their helmets and putting them on.

I glanced around the room and followed them. I let out a small gasp and leaned on the doorframe, grasping my chest with my free arm. I grimaced and gritted my teeth against the pain. I lowered my arms as the pain subsided and walked calmly back to my house where everyone was now resting.

I spotted Grian waiting outside, his gaze on me. Did he see me? I thought before dismissing it. Grian was my friend and he wouldn't judge me.

I walked up to him and was about to pass him when he stopped me. "Iskall," he said, looking at me.

I met his gaze and swiftly closed the door so the others wouldn't hear. "Yeah?" I replied, hoping my true emotions didn't show through.

"That shadow is yours... Isn't it?" he asked.

I immediately froze then realized that everybody freezes up when they get caught. I mentally cursed myself for falling into the trap of the a̴͉̅̀̍͆̐́͆̓̓̽̐̓͘͝u̵̟̻̿̍͂̚t̵̬͚͍̩͑ͅḩ̷͊̓̓õ̴̧͇̟͓̐̀̀̋̄̿̊̀͋͘ŗ̷̧̦̖͙̼͙͓͎̤̫̠̼̩̐̔͂̈́̓̈́͛͊̋. I met Grian's gaze and let out a sigh. "I'm too dangerous to be with the rest of the Listeners," I replied quietly.

He sighed. "How did you get it?" he asked quietly.

I glanced away. "A Watcher and an Admin worked together to curse me," I answered quietly.

Grian fell silent again for a few moments. "I'm sorry..."

"It's not your fault," I insisted quietly.

"..."

"Why do you have a mechanical eye?"

I froze and looked away. "So that my shadow doesn't become part of me," I answered quietly.

"So if you took it off...?"

I met his concerned gaze. "I would become my shadow."

"..."

"Well, guess we'd better not take that off," he joked, a small smile growing on his face.

I chuckled. "Yeah, guess so," I replied, a smile growing on my face. He always managed to make a dark situation lighter.

A small smile rested on his lips as he continued, "Come on, let's get inside. You look like you're about to fall over." I put on a pouty face before replying, "Fine."

He chuckled at my pouty face and brought me inside.

I leaned against the wall by the staircase and surveyed the small room. Cub was encouraging Scar to sleep on the far wall and the weakened hermit was declining even though he looked like he was about to fall over. Xisuma was treating the slight remainder of the burn on EX's back and had even managed to get him to take off his broken armor. Now, EX just sat on the bed in a white tank top that was kind of ripped and burned in the back where he got hit. Grian and Stress were trying to help Taurtis with his wing and other wounds but I could tell that Grian occasionally glanced over at EX. Mumbo and Joe stood near Doc as they waited for him to awaken. I smiled at the sight of the odd bunch and did what I did best: listen.

My attention was drawn to Cub and Scar.

"Come on Scar, you need to sleep," Cub said quietly.

"No, I don't, I need to make sure Doc is okay," Scar replied.

"Scar, Doc is fine, you need sleep," Cub insisted.

I smirked as Cub continued to try and get Scar to go to sleep and only succeed when he promised to keep an eye on Doc for him.

I turned my attention to Mumbo and Joe and noticed they were talking quietly about everything that was going on. I knew there wouldn't be interesting stuff in their current conversation so I looked toward EX and Xisuma.

"EX, how many times do I have to tell you, don't take blows for me," Xisuma was scolding.

EX winced as his brother touched a sore spot that my healing hadn't fully mended and replied, "I have to make up for all the blows I gave you."

Xisuma fell silent for a few moments. "That's not a good enough reason to get yourself killed."

"I didn't die though."

"Yeah you did, Iskall brought you back."

"Well, I didn't stay dead."

Xisuma sighed. "This conversation isn't going to go anywhere."

EX chuckled. "Nope."

I smirked at the brotherly interaction between the Admin and the Watcher and turned my focus onto Taurtis, Grian, and Stress.

"Taurtis, why were you in that bunker?" Grian asked.

"I was sent to deal with rogue Watchers..." Taurtis answered.

"And you weren't told what the Watchers' names are?" Grian's words were hesitant like he wasn't sure what Taurtis would reply with.

"No, they didn't..."

"..."

"Well, that's a good thing," Grian commented. "Uhm, how did you get inside? Xisuma locked the server..."

"I guess I managed to get in while he was trying to lock it... Does that mean I can't leave?"

"Probably not..."

"Oh..."

"..."

"..."

"Well, at least you two are together again," Stress commented quietly, hoping to lighten the mood.

Taurtis looked at her. "I guess so," he replied before looking back at Grian.

Grian smiled slightly and went up to hug him. Taurtis smiled and hugged him back.

I smiled at the friendship of the two but noticed EX glaring over at Taurtis.

Grian stood and walked over to me and I was forced to change my focus.

"Hey, Iskall," he said quietly.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"Can we talk? I'd like to know how you got to be a Listener," he asked.

I looked at him in surprise for a second before replying, "Oh, sure."

He followed me downstairs and we headed outside. We found a random bench near a water feature and sat down.

"So," he began.

"So," I echoed with a small smirk.

"How did you become a Listener?"

"..."

"Straight to the big question, huh?"

He chuckled. "Yeah," he replied.

I chuckled too. "Well, I was given the chance to train to be a Listener when they saw how good I was at focusing on different conversations. Well, that and I had the capability to do magic," I explained.

"I see," he replied.

Another round of silence fell over us.

"So," he began. "What was your experience training as a Listener?"

I leaned back as I said, "Well..." I pondered for a moment. "You do go to a school like Watchers and Admins do but it's not nearly as big. There aren't that many Listeners in the world compared to Watchers and Admins."

"I see."

"For some reason, it's called the Listener Seminary," I explained. "Watcher Academy and Admin University make sense but Listener Seminary is a bit odd. Oh well, it is what it is." Grian chuckled a bit but didn't say anything.

"Otherwise, it was a good time," I finished.

"Did you make any friends?" he asked.

I thought about it. "I did make one friend, he had brown hair like I do but he seemed a bit odd in the head... I have no idea where he lived before the Seminary and I have no idea where he is now," I explained.

"What was his name?" Grian asked.

"Oh, his name was Sam." He immediately froze.

I could practically see his mental reactions on his face. The chain of downward spiraling reactions like It can't be ended with Sam's a really common name.

"What did he usually wear? Or did you have to wear uniforms too?" His voice was quieter as if he was distracted by something else.

"No, we didn't have to wear uniforms. Uh, he always wore a white hood thing with bunny ears on it," I answered. He froze up again, his eyes growing wide.

"What is it Grian?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He looked away and didn't respond. I sighed and knew what I had to do. I took a breath and ventured into his mind.

(Spoiler start here(basically don't read until you see more bolded text))
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Images flashed around me. Images of dead bodies, bleeding out onto the high school floor. I noticed that some of the images had a few familiar faces. Some had a boy with black hair, some had a boy with dirty blonde hair, some had a boy with brown hair, and some had all three. I realized with a start that the black-haired boy was Taurtis, the dirty blonde-haired boy was Grian, and the brown-haired boy was Sam. I took notice of an image where Sam and Taurtis both bore stab wounds and Grian was looking at them with worry. I also noticed that a girl with pink hair had been with them. The final image was Sam carrying a knife that was covered with blood and trying to stab Grian.

Before I could see anything else, something pulled me out of his thoughts and I went mentally reeling away.

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I focused back on the real world to see Grian staring at me with wide blue eyes.

"You can do that...?" he asked.

I chuckled slightly. "Yeah, sorry bout that... Bit of a habit," I apologized, feeling awkward.

He smiled slightly. "Well, you needed to know. Let me put in some context," he said. He cleared his throat. "So, I used to have friends named Sam and Taurtis- well, Taurtis is still my friend... Anyway, I ended up visiting Japan where they lived and on Halloween night, we ended up staying in the school and we saw ghosts and stuff, it doesn't matter. However, once I had managed to win the thing by Taurtis pushing Sam out of the school and then me pushing Taurtis out of the school, things went south. Sam ended up pulling a knife and stabbing Taurtis. Taurtis offered to drive the bus that would take me home BUT Taurtis passed out from loss of blood and the bus crashed... Anyway, I got him to the hospital and told Sam about it. Uhm, he asked me to dress up as Taurtis, and things went even more south..."

He paused as if the memories were starting to hurt a bit to recall. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter, "Sam truly believed I was Taurtis and then when the real Taurtis showed up but without his memories, Sam called him Jerry... A lot of things happened... We ended up in a gang and we had to take people's money..." He paused.

"Uhmm, this sounds really crazy," he commented with a laugh. I laughed too. "Well, I'm perfectly fine with listening," I replied. He grinned before clearing his throat and continuing.

"Well, a gym teacher named Rowan hit Jerry in the head and he turned back into Taurtis and remembered everything. Uhhmm... I ended up getting in a knife fight with someone over a girl... Neither of us got the girl... All I got was a bunch of cuts..."

"Well, that's not good," I commented.

(Spoiler end here(cause something Iskall says needs context from what Grian says after this))

He shook his head. "No, not really. But yeah, Sam went insane, Taurtis forgot things for a while, and I questioned if I was the only sane person in that town," he summed up.

"Ah, I see... Well, that explains why Sam sometimes had the urge to stab things... I managed to get him to not stab things though," I said.

"Well done," he congratulated.

"So basically, for a good while, your small group of 'friends' was made up of an Admin, a Watcher, and a Listener?" I asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, I guess so! Oh, wait... I just realized Sam is more powerful than Taurtis and me," he said.

"Well actually, not you now because you're an Admin and a Watcher," I replied.

He opened his mouth then closed it again. "Good point," he said.

I chuckled at his reaction and we fell silent.

"How was your experience at the Academy?" I asked, glancing at him.

"Lots of getting hurt," Grian answered. "The only place where I wasn't getting hurt was while I was training as an Admin."

"And Hermitcraft," I commented.

"Well, for the most part, yeah," he replied.

A thought suddenly came to my mind. "What if you were to go to the Listener Seminary?" I asked, a smirk growing on my face.

He chuckled. "Then I would be too powerful for this universe," he replied.

My smile faded as I realized something. "What would happen if you are forced to take a Listener's powers?" I asked, my voice growing serious.

His smile faded as well. "Then the universe may just explode," he answered.

"We don't know that," I replied.

"I don't exactly trust myself with that much power."

"Grian, you'd be fine. You're literally the Prime Admin and you hide it," I whispered to him so no one else would hear.

"Good point," he replied quietly.

"..."

"Grian, why haven't the Watchers realized that you're the Prime Admin?" I asked quietly.

He fell silent for a few moments. "I don't know," he answered quietly.

"Do the Listeners know?" he asked.

"Probably, I mean, I do," I answered.

"Hm," he replied, looking away.

I glanced toward the sun, which I just realized was setting. "Isn't it kind of ridiculous how much has happened to us within the past day or so?" I commented with an amused smile.

He chuckled as he thought about it. "I mean, yeah. I got my memories back, The Watchers on the server got sent to the Watchers in a dream to get punished and I somehow managed to summon Xisuma to help." He paused to close his eyes and chuckle at how ridiculous his summing up sounded. "Scar and Doc literally nearly died, well uhm actually... Scar did die but yeah. Uhm, Scar and Cub are Vexes, EX literally died for a bit and you're a Listener. Also, we've got your shadow chasing us," he finished as he looked over at me.

I laughed as he summed it up. "Final thing, your high school friend returned as a Watcher," I reminded. He laughed and nodded.

He gazed off toward the sun. "Hermitcraft is the best thing to ever happen to me. Everything else has just been... Bad in one way or another," he said softly, a small smile on his face.

I reached over and wrapped him in a sideways hug. "We're glad you're here, dude," I said with a smile. He looked up at me. "I'm glad I'm here too," he said.

With that, we fell silent again and just enjoyed the peacefulness of the evening and each other's company.

Grian never noticed how weak I was.

(3466 words or so)

(This is my longest chapter I think!)

(So uhm yeah, Iskall's a Listener in this universe XD)

(also I am now and forever from now on going to say "uhm" instead of "um" unless it makes more sense for "um" to be in the sentence or whatever)

(I have absolutely no idea what the Listeners are in canon Evo so my version of the Listeners are probably going to be the most original thing in this book)

(Also, I have an elaborate reason behind the creature being Iskall's shadow. Should I make that public in the comments or should I just tell those who want to know it in a private message? Let me know)

(and yes, I didn't want to kill EX off completely so I made Iskall reveal himself XD)

(Hope you enjoyed, bye~)

(((ps this was pretty much done last night(well, in the middle of the night) but I wanted to wait until morning to publish it because not many people see it when I post at night for some reason. Also it was like 3 am and i wasn't done with editing it so yeah)))

(((((PPS this is the chapter I reread the most to make sure I liked it)))))