(^ For future reference ;3)(Also, you haven't been introduced to the last person on the bottom so don't try to guess who it is. I'm not gonna say anyway ;3)

(T/W for pain, shattering glass, blood, and severe gore >:3)

(There is a warning before the section with severe gore and a message after so you can skip it if needed)

POV: Grian

Location: The Shopping District

I shot a shocked glance at Xisuma and ended up meeting his gaze.

"What's going on?!" Mumbo exclaimed, purely bewildered and confused. I glanced back at him and shrugged, unsure of what was happening.

"Who's watching Joe...?" Stress asked, her wide-eyed gaze set on her communicator.

Most of us glanced back at her. "Cleo, last I checked, why?" Xisuma answered.

Stress looked up and met Xisuma's gaze with shock in her deep brown eyes before moving on to meet my gaze. "She just went afk..."

Dread filled my gut as I remembered Wolfie's words. "'Someone will betray you...'" I repeated aloud as I gazed off at the ground.

Xisuma turned to look at me, his eyes wide in realization. "We need to get to Joe's base," he stated as I looked up and met his gaze.

We turned and ran across the field to the Nether Portal, everyone following us, including Tango, Impulse, Zedaph, and the new arrival.

I strapped on my elytra and flew through the Nether hub, the people without wings doing the same and the people with them using their natural wings.

The moment I exited the Nether portal, I knew something was up. "Split up," I stated to the others over my shoulder, my gaze still on the base. The Readers remained by the portal while the rest of us began to search through the seemingly empty base.

I walked along a hallway with Stress at my side, our eyes peeled for Joe or Cleo. We turned a corner and immediately gasped. At the end of the hallway, Cleo was chained to the wall, unconscious as blood slowly dripped down from the side of her mouth.

Running quickly, Stress raised her hand and shattering the chains with purple magic, catching Cleo in her arms and lowering both of them to the ground. I ran up to them and kneeled down as I looked down at Cleo. I placed my hand on her cheek, examining her face with worry in my gaze. Faded purple marks were in several places on her face as if they were injuries inflicted by a Watcher. Several marks were also on her pale arms, confirming my suspicions.

"We need to find Joe," I said, lowering my hand but not looking away from Cleo's face.

"I don't think he's here..." Stress responded, her gaze also set on our unconscious friend. She gently ran a hand through Cleo's orange hair, loving concern in her brown eyes.

I set my hand on Stress's shoulder, looking up at her. "Let's get Cleo to a bed to rest," I said.

She nodded and helped me carry Cleo to Joe's bed. Sure enough, there was no sign of the poet Hermit himself.

The gray clouds continued to rumble outside, threatening to release their storms. There was a strange tension in the air that I figured only the magical players could feel. I looked at my hand and clenched my fist, imagining I was grabbing the tension. Sure enough, I almost felt something in my grasp. However, I knew it was likely just my imagination.

I shook myself out of my thoughts and followed Stress as she walked off to find the others. We knew Joe wasn't there.

We filed back through the portal, heading back to the Shopping District. The moment I stepped through, I was met with an uncomfortable sight. Trails of purple magic led away from the portal, off toward Sahara. Dread filled my gut. Could he have...? I trailed off, shooting off toward Sahara with Iskall, Mumbo, and the others -minus the Readers and the new arrival- close behind me.

My heart nearly stopped as I saw the front of Sahara. It had been partially destroyed by magic, purple residue covering parts of it. Gray concrete blocks were scattered on the grass from the small explosion and cracks were spread across the remaining walls.

I landed in front of the building and stared at it with wide eyes. Mumbo and Iskall flew down to land beside me, the former grabbing my hand and squeezing it in an attempt to comfort me. "We can rebuild it," he quietly said, his soft green gaze on me. I dropped my gaze to the ground in front of us, my eyes watering slightly.

We stepped back and partially threw our hands up as a boom sounded from above us, pushing us back slightly. Looking up to see what it was, we were shocked to see Joe standing on the top of Sahara, an evil grin on his face. His gaze was dark purple, rather than its normal green. However, the most shocking change about him was that the purple in his veins had spread far enough to be reaching across his cheeks.

"Joe!" came the yell from behind us. We looked back to see Xisuma standing on the hill, his determined gaze on Joe.

Joe's grin turned to a sly smirk and jumped up to float midair, his gaze piercing through us. "My name is Xalum," he responded. A moment later, he raised his arms, sending purple lightning strikes toward the sky. The gray clouds rumbled before releasing its rain on us, drenching us all.

I grimaced as the rain immediately started wetting my thick blonde hair. That was probably going to take a while to dry.

I ignored that fact and summoned my white wings, spreading them out behind me and flying up to be at his level. "Joe, you have to remember us!" I yelled to him, hoping I'd be able to get to the fellow Hermit before Xalum destroyed the server.

He let out an evil laugh and disappeared from view. I looked around in bewilderment, trying to find where he went. Taurtis flew up to me on his pale purple wings and looked around with me, his hand on my shoulder comfortingly. I blinked gratefully at him but pulled away in shock. He stared after me, eyes wide as I backed away, seemingly unaware of why I was scared. A glowing purple outline with a crack straight through the central Watcher symbol hovered in front of his face, forming the shape of his mask.

"Grian.." he began, eyes wide.

"Taurtis..." I responded, just as confused as he was.

Together, we looked down at the others in realization and saw that Stress had a purple outline over her face in the shape of her mask with the Watcher symbol glowing brightly in the center even though her mask wasn't on. We dropped down to the ground and looked around in confusion.

The other Hermits stared at us in confusion. Apparently, they could also see the mask outlines. As we passed Xisuma, he put his hand on my shoulder, saying my name. I pushed him off, meeting his gaze. I saw that he had a light purple halo above his head, signifying he was an Admin of the Ostrum Echelon. "We have to find Joe," I said. He tensed his shoulders but let out a sigh and nodded, drawing his hand away.

I glanced at where Scar and Cub were standing and noticed they had the outline of Vex wings behind them in a light blue color, matching their magic color.

Disregarding the magic-filled rain, we began to search for where Joe went.

At some point, I ended up in the courtyard of Sahara, beside the little desert patch, with Iskall at my side. The rain was puddling around us, covering the pathways and soaking the grass.

We tensed as an explosion sounded above us and looked up. Pieces of concrete fell down toward us but that wasn't the thing we were frightened off. Above us hovered Joe, a purple outline of a mask on his face and the Watcher symbol glowing brightly in front of his forehead.

At the sight of my friend-turned-Watcher, my mind began to break down. Dark thoughts ran through my mind, faster than I could process, each one getting increasingly worse. It's my fault. Joe's gone. The Watchers have won. Everyone I care about is gone. Everyone's going to die because of me. The server is going to be destroyed. I can't do it. It's all my fault. Among the dark thoughts, one rose above the rest, increasing in volume. However, it was just calling my name. I realized with a start that it wasn't my internal voice.

Returning my focus to reality, I looked over at Iskall and saw him smiling softly at me, concern in his gaze. His human eye was faintly glowing light green, showing he was a Listener. I looked down and realized he had been clenching my hand tightly, just barely having let go.

He began to speak, bringing my attention back to him, "You needed some help."

I smiled softly. "Thanks, Iskall," I responded quietly.

We turned our attention back to Joe while the rest of the Hermits began to land around us. Tango landed beside me, pulling out a trident. I glanced over at him and he met my gaze, a slight smirk on his face.

We turned to Joe, ready to fight back. Lightning struck around him, the hue purple rather than white. An evil grin was on his face as he glared down at us.

The window above us shattered and shards large and small began falling toward us. In one large one, I caught my reflection. The mask outline was golden with a purple symbol in the center, I had a halo above my head, and my eyes were faintly glowing light green, symbolizing how I was an Admin, a Watcher, and a Listener.

Before any of the glass hit us, I raised a hand, creating a golden shield to block us all.

Joe swung a hand, purple light following its path. A hole was torn in my shield, right in front of me. A shard of glass the size of a rather large dagger flew straight toward me, faster than normal thanks to Joe's magic. I didn't have enough time to block it.

(Yes Star, you lost the guessing game >;3 And no I didn't change it last second, it was Joe from the start XD)

(STOP READING HERE IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SEVERE GORE)

A blur of motion appeared in front of me, blocking me from the glass, and a bloodcurdling scream came from the person who just ran in front of me. The blonde dropped his knees, dropping his trident and gasping in pain as he clutched his left arm.

A yell of horror came from behind me, seemingly coming from Zedaph.

My golden shield faded as I dropped to my knees beside him while folding my white wings behind me, eyes wide as I looked down at his arm. Stress ran over, yelling the blonde's name.

Our friend's red eyes were wide with shock and bright with pain as he stared down at his arm. Or rather, lack of. The shard had flown straight through his arm, cutting it off right above the elbow. Blood was flowing out, dripping freely onto the stone pathway.

Stress dropped to her knees, grabbing Tango by the shoulders as tears of agony rolled down his cheeks. She swiftly sent the remains to the void and worked her healing magic on Tango.

(START AGAIN HERE)

"Stop Joe," she hissed to me through gritted teeth. I met her gaze and nodded. I stood and backed away. Moments later, Stress fitted on her mask and cast the spell that teleported them off the battlefield in a flash of purple light.

I turned to the others, my eyes wide with shock. They stared back at me with horror in their gazes. I noticed Impulse holding a horrified Zedaph, both of them breathing raggedly in shock at what happened to Tango.

I let out a shaky breath and turned back to Joe, anger growing inside of me. Not at my friend, but rather at the Watchers who did this to him.

I gritted my teeth in anger and pushed off of the ground, spreading my wings and pushing against gravity.

Joe grinned evilly and summoned a large pair of pale purple wings before flying to meet me. I raised my hand, summoning a golden ball of light. He raised his own hand, a glowing ball of purple light growing in his grasp.

We struck midair and both of us were thrown backward, away from each other.

Pain flared in my wings and I looked back to see lines of purple light spreading across them, rendering them useless. I barely managed to use them to glide safely down to the ground before they were completely useless for the time being. Hiding them, I looked up at Joe with fear in my light blue gaze. How was I supposed to fight him without my wings?

Joe sent a blast of magic toward me. Narrowly dodging, I sent one back and realized in shock that my magic was silver rather than golden. Joe did something to me and I couldn't use my golden magic.

Thinking quickly, I summoned my obsidian blade and prepared to block the next attack.

It came sooner than expected. It struck my blade and my sword vanished from my hand, sent to the void where I couldn't get it fast enough.

A blast of purple magic began to fly toward me, and I stood defenseless. My silver magic wouldn't be enough to stop his strangely powerful purple magic. My sword was gone. I couldn't use my wings to fly away. I thought I was done for. It came closer and closer, making me question my life choices.

A blast of red magic from my left flew straight into the purple magic, canceling it out and saving me mere moments before my seemingly inevitable death.

I spun around to see where it came from. No one I knew that was present had red magic. The owner of red magic lowered his hand to stare at it, his normally green eyes wide and glowing red. A red outline of a mask surrounded his face, the Watcher symbol on the front faded and odd compared to everyone else's. The Hermit looked up to meet my gaze in shock.

"How did I-" Mumbo began, completely and utterly bewildered.

(WC: 2342)

(A/N: I got the idea of cutting off someone's limb and concluded on Tango... Sorry not sorry >;3)

(Just gonna say, the title means that there is a thirteenth important magical person. This includes Myriel, EX, Xisuma, Grian, Iskall, Joe, Stress, Taurtis, Sam, Scar, Cub, and C.H. Yes, I'm calling her C.H. because technically, she's not me. She's more determined and more enthusiastic compared to me, basically how I would be if I still had my spunkiness from my childhood. I can be like that but it's getting rarer and rarer to see. *ahem* that got dark, sorry. I am okay, just so you know)

(Here, have this picture to talk about who they are. Don't do it up on the first one cause that's spoilers for the peeps who haven't read it yet. Again, don't try to guess who the last person on the bottom is, I'm not going to say who it is until they've been introduced. Have fun~!)

(Okay here's some serious description thingies that I really wanted to make:)

(Mumbo Oliver Jumbo has magic but not quite what anyone expects... Unknowingly, Evander Xanthus Void gave him magic when he possessed him, granting the Hermit the ability to feel magic and use it. He may be the only one who is able to stand up to Joe.)

(Joe Hills has become one of the most powerful Watchers in Minecraft and is ready to destroy everything Grian holds dearly. He has returned to going by his real first name, Xalum, and joined the Watchers against his own will. He must be stopped before everything is destroyed, including Hermitcraft.)

(Grian Charles Xelqua has been temporarily stripped of his golden magic, rendering him defenseless. Terrified Xalum is going to kill everyone he loves, he may decide to take drastic actions to save his friends. If anyone else finds out about his duel identities, trouble is sure to follow for the Prime Admin of Minecraft.)

(Hope you enjoyed, leave a vote if you did, bye~!)

<3