They got to work.

The portal wasn't hard to do, no, not at all! It was activating it that was more difficult.
And with that, Grian also started on trying to force out his newfound powers.
He vaguely remembers using them, but they only come in scattered and dreamlike bursts of memory.
Control of said powers was another thing, it came a lot easier- with Phil and strangely Xel's help.

He was also reading. A lot. The thick leather book Wilbur gave him had been identified as a history book of these god-like entities called Watchers. They were interesting, but Xel made it known he didn't like them. When asked why, he just...went quiet. He never told the others about the book, no no! What if they tried to take it? He was barely started with the book!

These angels, these Watchers, were powerful. They conquered worlds and recruited players.
They had a council as their leaders, and those leaders were strict.
Then, he came upon the chapter named "THE PLIGHT OF EVOLUTION."

Evolution...like the thing animals did? Why was it so familiar?
Turns out Evolution, or EVO, for short, wasn't a biological mechanism for animals, but a server.

He couldn't get far in the chapter after that before he started sensing that Xel was shaken, getting Grian more and more pissed with him.
"Grian, I don't think we should-"
"Now you talk?"
"What I'm saying is this isn't a good idea." He rattles out.
In frustration, he closes the book shut and looks at a nearby mirror. He didn't see himself this time. He saw that badly bleached hair, the green sweater, the wary eyes. He saw Xel.
Grimacing, he turned away to a window. Outside he noticed Techno sparring with a little piglin. Michael, was it? Cute. Grian tried to peacefully just watch the little boy swing his sword around, but he couldn't shake the feeling of the book, no, that chapter, calling to him.
It beckoned his name.
Was it his name? It felt like an incoherent scream. Thousands of them, more like. Thousands of voices chanting. Was it real? Another hallucination? Was he real? What-

"Hey mate, you ok?" Phil stood at the doorway of the guest room, looking just a bit perplexed. How long had he been there? "You look scared, what happened?"
"Oh- Phil! Hey man. Yeah I'm...I'm doing ok." Grian trailed off at the purple tinted book, open to that damned chapter.
"Well, if you're sure. Anyways, wanna come on out? Me 'n Tech are gonna go out to the nether with Michael. Y'know, see his kind."

Grian hadn't been to the nether in a while. To be fair, he hadn't been very far from his friend's house since he had come, mostly out of paranoia from Quackity. It would be nice to go out, and Michael seemed nice.

"Sure. What's the worst that can happen?" He got up, shook his feathers out, and picked up the book into his inventory.
"Watch out mate, you might'a just jinxed us all!" He exclaimed on his way out. The two shared a small laugh, but something nagged him in the back of his mind.

What was that chapter hiding?

~~~
The sound of music swelled through through the air. Piglins danced throughout the center of the camp in the crimson forest. Techno was in his piglin form and dressed in gold and Blackstone. His hair braided with red nether mushrooms and ancient debris. He looked so at home.
Michael was there too, playing with some of the other runts.
Phil was there with Michael, telling stories of the overworld to the runts in some kind of piglin language. Xel was rambling on about how cool this all was, and frankly, Grian agreed.

As for him, he was just sitting there in the corner, taking it all in. He hadn't really seen piglins commuting before. They were always out on a hunt. They all looked so happy and a lot more...humane? Made him think about how he had treated them before.
"So, how're you liking the place?" Techno sat down beside his friend, his golden jewelry clanging against each other.
"It's pretty nice actually, once I get past the weird stares and stuff." He shrugged. "Say, what're they talking? Is it like a piglin language? And what's the dancing for?
"Yep, it's pig-speak. Taught Phil it a couple years back. And for the dancing, it's High tide for the lava, y'know, kinda like the nether's full moon. Time to celebrate the Blood God. Happens every few months." He didn't realize it wasn't just Techno who worshiped the Blood God!
"And Michael?"
Techno laughed. "Pig speak's the only language the kid knows how to talk in! Don't know why he hasn't spoke English since his dad speaks it and all, but eh, that's the way the world is."

Michael's parents...tubbo and ranboo, right? Yeah. How was ranboo? Grian hadn't seen him in a while. He heard someone once say that Ranboo died but who knows. He hopes that Ranboo didn't have to go through the same torture.

"And Michael's parents know about all this?"
"Yep, Tubbo's fine with it."
"And Ranboo?" Techno didn't answer that one, just giving a brisk nod. He opened his mouth to say something before another piglin wearing twin braids and a hoglin skin formal wear crouched down in front of the two.
She examined Grian and his golden boots, before smiling and nodding. More examining before her eyes widened in a worry. She oinked something to techno, who grunted back.

"Well, what did she say?" Grian asked.
"You want the word for word translation or the nicer one?"
"Word for word." He didn't even let Techno finish his last word. Techno shrugged in a 'fine, it's what you asked for' kind of way, worrying Grian. What did the Piglin say?
"Well first she was the village alchemist, Kerre. Second, she said word for word- 'your friend is like the crow, nice. However, he has the powers of the fallen ones. His brown feathers deceive him.'" Techno explained.
Fallen angels? Like the watchers?

"Fallen angels? Is that what she thinks?"Xel snarkly replied. Grian forgot Xel was there. His counterpart has quieted down once techno had come.
"Huh. Well," he stretched out his wings. "I'm gonna go take a walk. Spread my wings, you know?"
"Yeah, sure." Techno smiled.

The entire time Xel was nagging him about the piglin's words. He wasn't his usual normal, happy self. What was going on?
"How about a warped forest, huh?" He thought to himself. Landing, he noticed how close the lava was to the trees. That normally didn't happen, did it? Techno wasn't lying when he said it was high tide. How'd he never notice this?

Grian walked through the warped forest, his eyes skittering around. Something about the way Karre looked at him, like she was scared of him.

"Are you still thinking about this?" Xel asked.
"Yes, I am," Grian huffed, "I mean, did you see the way she was looking at me?!"
"Heh, I've-" Xel couldn't even finish his scentence before Grian got hurt. Pushed by an enderman he didn't even know was there. The enderman quickly took the book and left.
"HEY! MY BOOK!" Grian took out his sword in defense, but the creature was already gone.
"Well I think we should leave it to it."
"What?! No! That thing's important! I need to get it." Sure, he sounded somewhat obsessed, but that's what it felt like. He needed to find out who the watchers truly were, what EVO was, who HE was.

Grian started chasing the enderman, summoning portals to it and swiftly catching up. He was focused on one thing, that book. He never even noticed when Phil and techno ended up finding him in the nether's wasteland and started their own chase scene towards him.
"GRIAN! WAIT UP MATE!" Phil screamed. Grian didn't listen though, he just kept chasing the enderman.  The lava popped around him as he flew. The portals were just too exhausting.

The enderman led him to a portal at the edge of another crimson forest, where a portal made of end stone with dark purple and green veins, pulsing and through. Just as Grian was about to enter it, someone grabbed his arm.

"Grian." It was Phil. His grip tightened on his friend as he huffed. Behind them, techno finally caught up. .
"What- what in the world just happened?!" Techno breathed out.
"Guys, I-"
"No, no, no. We need to talk. What the heck just happened? Why were you chasing that thing?" Phil interrupted him.
Grian sighed. He should've known this was gonna happen.
"The enderman took a very important book of mine. It's like this old purple leather book and i'm pretty sure it's got some answers on my powers." He explained bluntly. "Wilbur gave it to me. "
At the mention of wilbur, the two others pricked up. "Wilbur? You saw him?" Techno asked rather suspiciously.
"Uhm, yeah. He's pretty weird but X- I found him pretty familiar."
"Right. Well, Wilbur's got his secret's doesn't he." Phil scoffed. "But still, If It's gonna help you, let's go get it."
Techno grabbed grian's shoulder and smiled, receiving a smile back.
Grian took a deep breath and stood up. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

~~~
Going through the portal was what Grian could best describe as bliss. It felt as if he were floating, and everything he had kept inside had flown out in a cacophony of flames. It lasted forever and only for a moment. It was amazing.

On the other side, he awoke to find himself in a forest with yellow and teal mushroom like trees, sitting in a mossy end stone flooring. There were ruined endstone pillars with runes etched in them all around the three. Beside him, Phil was helping techno up. Looking up into the sky, there was just void. Were they in the end?
"Woah..." techno couldn't help to marvel.
"Look at this place! Do blocks like these even exist?" Phil breathed out a sigh. Grian couldn't help but feel like this place was familiar. Like he had been here before.

The three decided to stay there in case of danger. Everything seemed well until Phil started to notice a shadow moving in the trees.
"WHO'S THERE?" Grian shouted. He summoned his powers as phil took out his sword and techno his axe. No one answered.
"Hellooo?" Phil gripped his sword.

FWOOM! The shadow fell to the ground, pouncing at Grian.
Just as he thought he was about to get hit...nothing. Instead, the hooded figure wrapped him in a tight hug.
"It worked, it worked!" She smiled. "You're here!"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Grian pushed away from the girl.

She pulled down the hood. Her face has a moon like mark, startling Grian. Did he know her?

"Wha- oh! I'm Pearl, and I'm your sister! At least, I was."