Grian woke to soft sun rays streaming through pink curtains. They created gentle lines of warmth across his bright colored bedspread.

He stared out the window in innocent bliss. It was a gorgeous day outside. He couldn't wait to build more, campaign more, or hang out with Mumbo or Scar or Iskall—

Wait.

This wasn't his room. Those weren't his curtains or his bedspread. And he couldn't do any of those things today.

Grian bolted upright, letting out a gasp as pain shot through his left wing. He grimaced and peeked over his shoulder at the limb, finding it securely bandaged. It sat there, aching uncomfortably, but Grian didn't dare twitch the wing for the fear that he might hurt it more. The bones were broken. Iskall had done that.

Wait. That wasn't right either.

Something else had made Iskall do that.

Just a little while ago, Grian had been obsessed with the why. With just what had driven his friend to become violent. But now Grian wasn't sure what to think, what to wonder. Because after what he'd seen in the woods, he knew for a fact that the Iskall who'd hurt him wasn't the real Iskall.

He needed to talk to Stress. Maybe she and the other hermits had figured out what, or who, was hurting Iskall. Finding her wouldn't be a problem, he was in her house after all, judging by all of the pink and purple decor. (Oh, and by his memory of the night before, but Grian trusted his memory less than he'd trust Jellie in front of a butter dish.)

Grian shifted the blankets around him and planted his feet on the ground. His shoes were still on. Cool. When he pulled himself up, he subconsciously curled his uninjured wing around the other.

Grian strutted out of the room and down the stairs, happy if not for the very obvious dampener on his (and everyone else's) mood. He found Stress sitting at her table, and in front of her was a stack of books so thick and boringly titled that Grian got a headache just looking at them.

Stress was pouring over one of the books, eyes flicking back and forth with determination. If not for the fierce expression in her eyes, Grian would've said she looked bored as all get out.

"Hi Stress!" Grian chirped loudly, causing Stress to jump. She twisted around in her chair, giving Grian a proper view of her tangled hair and the bags under her eyes. She looked like she hadn't slept, though Grian hoped that she had.

"Gri'! Ya scared me, didn't think you'd be up this early." Stress scrambled up and over to him to start fretting. "How'd ya sleep? Is your wing still hurtin'? Ya feel okay? Tired? Dizzy? Achey?" Her hands ghosted over him as she talked.

"Stress, I'm alright, just a bit hungry and sore. It's okay." That was a lie. His wing felt like it was in fire. But Grian was a man on a mission this morning. "I... I- We need to talk."

. . .

Stress insisted that he get something to eat first, so they both sat at her table, books pushed to one end, and a plate of bacon, two cups of tea, and the leftovers of a batch of cookies in front of them.

"So. Did- did you guys figure out what was wrong with Iskall?" Grian started, nibbling on the edge of a vanilla cookie. "Because I might have an idea..."

"We think th- that Iskall's glitched. It doesn't make the most sense, but it's the only explanation we have." Stress responded with a sigh, dropping her head into her hands.

Grian frowned, thinking for a moment and taking a sip from his tea before he realized something terrible. (Stress made dangerously good tea— not that.) He realized something terrible— His theory might just be correct.

"It's not Iskall."

Stress shot him a confused glance. "Wh- What? What exactly do you mean Grian?"

"Well- I mean what's been creating this chaos, hurting us, it's not Iskall, or a glitched Iskall. I think it's something or- or someone else." Grian paused for a moment, taking a deep breath.

"I think Iskall might be possessed."

Stress opened and closed her mouth a few times to say something, to protest that idea. But she didn't have anything to say, so Grian continued.

"When I saw Iskall in the woods, it was like they were fighting for control over their own body. It was- it was like there was someone else inside of them. They spoke with a voice that wasn't theirs. And I've heard of people having possession type powers, it's rare and dangerous, and... I don't know..." Grian trailed off, looking down into his half empty teacup. A wobbly, blurry reflection of himself stared back at him while he waited for Stress' response.

"But— but none of the hermits have possession powers... and why in Jeb's name would any of the others do something like this?" She sighed, before gasping with an idea. "You don't think Beef secretly has possession powers, do you? No no no, he would never do that, even if he did have powers." She quickly took back the idea.

"We can't rule out the possibility," Grian looked back up from his tea and grabbed another cookie, "but I don't think it's Beef either. I trust him when he says he doesn't have powers— wait! Wait wait wait!"

Stress raised an eyebrow as Grian fluttered his uninjured wing around, a thought forming in his chaotic mind.

"Zedaph!" He exclaimed. "When Other-Iskall was monologuing to me, they mentioned Zedaph!"

"Whoa, slow down, start from the beginning." Stress put a hand out, her eyes wide after Grian's outburst.

"Sorry, yeah." Grian calmed his breathing and continued. "Other-Iskall sorta monologued to me. Said something about how they were using me to send a 'message'. But then, they told me to 'say hi to Zedaph for them' so I'm thinking right? What if, whoever's controlling Iskall is someone that Zedaph knows?"

Stress contemplated for a moment. "Wait, sorry did you call it 'Other-Iskall'?"

"Yeah, Evil Iskall would work too..." Grian trailed off when he saw Stress wince at the nickname. "Anyways! Zedaph. I should probably talk to him, don't you think?"

Stress just simply nodded, and Grian pulled out his communicator, and started to go to his private messages.

"Whoa, someone's been blowing up the group chat." Grian remarked as he noticed the near 100 new messages he had there. Taking a detour, he opened it up.

"That's probably because Xisuma sent out an announcement this morning. We all talked to him last night to let him know about the situation, and he said he'd tell everyone the gist of it all." Stress explained, peeking over his shoulder to see what he was looking at.

X's simple announcement sat there, saying that something had happened to Iskall, causing them to be glitched and if anyone saw them, they should let him know immediately. He'd also said that if anyone had any further questions they should talk to him, Stress, Mumbo, or Impulse. Grian was a bit confused about the Mumbo and Impulse part, as neither of them had been involved to his knowledge. He hoped nothing had happened to them too.

Following Xisuma's messages were the concerns and frantic yelling from basically every hermit other than Grian and Tango. Cleo was particularly vocal in making sure Stress was okay. Grian found that sweet.

One other thing he noticed in the chat was that Zedaph, on learning what happened to Tango, was over at the netherborn's base now, helping out Impulse. (Grian realized he'd obviously missed a bit, but he just rolled with it.)

"Zed's probably got his hands full of Tango right now, so might be hard if you want to talk to him in person." Stress said, reading his mind. "And I don't want you out and about too much anyways. Doctors orders." She said the last part with a finger in the air and an almost smug look on her face. Grian was glad she felt okay enough to make a little bit of humor in the situation.

"I'll message Zed later." Grian pocketed his comm. "He might not even be a lead anyways, I could've misheard, I- I wasn't.. quite there, you know."

"Yeah, I know." Stress mumbled quietly in understanding.

Grian let out a small huff and downed the rest of his tea. "This tea is SO good by the way." He mumbled.

"Oh you think so? Xisuma gave me those leaves, one of his personal blends he said." Stress smiled, and almost laughed at how quickly Grian had changed the topic.

"That man is a tea wizard." Grian stifled a chuckle, and went back to tipping the dregs of his drink down his throat.

. . .

After they'd eaten, Stress convinced Grian to let her complete a full check on his wing. She didn't undo the splint, but she poked and prodded carefully around it. Grian did his best to hold in his winces as she did so.

"I'm so close to being able to fix it, just... ugh!" Stress groaned, finishing her check. "No offense but bird anatomy is weird."

"None taken, and I'm in barn owl form, if that helps you at all." Grian replied.

Stress nodded and scribbled down a note on a piece of paper. Grian hadn't noticed before, but there were several other notes sticking out of the books and scattered around them. Stress dropped her pencil and spun back around to where Grian still sat.

"I talked with Scar earlier, he wants to give you one of his health crystals. It should help with general pain relief until I can actually heal your broken wing. We can head down to his place now, or you can stay here if you want." Stress offered him a hand to stand up.

Grian took her hand, replying. "Yeah, I'll come with. It's a short trip after all."

Grian reached over and stuffed one last cookie in his mouth before marching ahead and leading the way out of Stress' base. He frowned a little as he realized he had yet to steal Stress' door, even though right now his challenge from Mumbo should be the least of his priorities.

On the way over, Grian and Stress discussed Xisuma's tea blend quietly. It truly was one of the best that both of them had ever had, yet neither knew exactly what was in it. They also knew that Xisuma probably wouldn't tell them. (Stress had asked him before, and apparently he'd been using it to bribe people.) Scar's wizard village came into view fairly quickly. The man himself was bumbling around, clearly impatiently awaiting their arrival. He was wearing his usual wizard robe instead of the mayoral suit he'd been sporting lately.

"Stress! Grian!" Scar ran up to them and looked them both up and down before pulling Grian into a quick, three second hug. He was mindful of Grian's hurt wing too, careful not to let even a finger brush against it.

"I've got the crystal right here!" Scar reached into one of his many coat pockets, and procured a shard of shimmery pink. "I put it on a necklace too, so you won't lose it!"

Grian rolled his eyes at that. Of course Scar would doubt him. (To be fair though, he would've definitely lost it. Don't tell anyone.) He reached out and took the necklace, pulling it over his head as he tuned out Scar's rambling about its magical properties.

"Whoa," Grian whispered as the persistent ache in his back became dull and distant. It almost felt like he'd had caffeine again, it was just that incredible.

Scar let out a big gasp. "It works?! Yesss— I mean, of course it works! My crystals have a 100 percent success rate, results guaranteed with every purchase!!!"

Stress laughed, "Of course they do Scar, of course they do."

. . .

Grian and Stress eventually went their separate ways, back to their own bases. Of course not after some lengthy explaining with Scar, and some lengthy lecturing from Grian to Stress, arguing that she needed to get some sleep.

Scar sighed softly, a smile on his face knowing that he was able to take away some of Grian's pain. It likely wasn't all, but it was something. And while Scar had understood the basics of what had happened with Iskall through the group chat, he was shocked when the two told him what exactly they'd done to Grian.

Scar wasn't scared though. Not of Iskall. But he knew something was, well, off. He'd always been somewhat in tune with the magic of the world, and it didn't feel normal today, and it hadn't yesterday either for that matter.

Or maybe he was just being paranoid.

Probably.

Right?

————
(A/N)

Man, I write like Speedy Gonzalez when I don't wanna study for math. And I'm probably going to try to get a third chapter out this month, since I'll have finals in May. Ewwww :(

And again, no fancy lil song for this chapter, but this one was stuck in my head the entire time I was writing the second half of this, so enjoy:

Tell Me I'm Alive - by All Time Low

That end part with wizard chap wasn't gonna be there originally, but I think I like it! Anyways, that should be all...

Love ya my dudes, dudettes, dudens, and all other dude variations of equal validity!

<3 ur dude bro Soe
Lily didn't edit this but she exists too and is very cool