There was a Convex option. 

I had to.

This is going to be very long.

:)

The vex had taken over.

Scar knew that the moment he woke up. But he wasn't worried.

Until he saw the blood.

His hands and lower sleeves were covered in it. Something happened. Scar glanced at the glowing vex necklace he wore. Cub was at Concorp. They needed to talk. Scar took off, flying from his base, across the shopping district...

Sudden weight, and Scar was pinned to the ground by Grian with a sword against his neck.

'Where is he?' Grian snarled. His eyes were glowing purple. Not much, but enough for Scar to know the sword wasn't harmless diamond.

'Grian, please...' The sword was only pushed further against Scar's neck, silencing Him. He pulled a book from his pocket with his other hand, reading from book.

'Dear Architechs,

My sincerest apologies for laying this burden upon you but Mumbo didn't cooperate.

He is trapped and will die painfully in 3 days if you don't destroy Sahara and never rival ConCorp again.

Yours sincerely,

Captain Jack (CEO of ConCorp)'

'Where is he?' Grian repeated, trying not to cry. Scar couldn't speak. The Vex- they wouldn't. They wouldn't do that. Trap Mumbo. And from the blood...

'G- Grian...' Scar choked out. 'Believe me... The Vex took over... I don't know-'

'Don't LIE to me!' Pain, sharp against his neck as Grian pushed the sword deeper still. 'Maybe we do the same to you. Lock you up, forget where.' All Scar could do was a tiny headshake, eyes shining with terror.
'Have you ever seen an infinity room, Scar?' Grian whispered. 'Or would you prefer bedrock?' Scar's eyes only widened at the suggestion of the block that stifled Vexling magic.

'P-pl...'

'Your life for Mumbo's. Surely Cub would accept that.'

Kill him kill him kill him. The Vex whispered louder and louder in Scar's mind, his eyes growing bluer. Kill Grian. Kill him. Kill him. Kill him. KILL HIM!

Scar attacked. Grian screamed, stumbling backwards, bleeding. But Scar was free, standing and backing away. The Vex's power faded, and he tried to explain one last time.

'We- Me and Cub... we don't know where Mumbo is... or- or what...' He couldn't continue, nightmarish thoughts of what the psychotic Vex could've done flooding his mind. 'But we'll find him. I swear on the Vex. We'll handle anything that...' Scar insisted, faltering and backing away as Grian's expression turned from fury to horror, the Watcher on the verge of violence. 'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.'

'You don't deserve to be Hermits.' Grian spat.

'I know.'

Scar flew away.

Cub wanted to scream. The Vex had made him and Scar do... something. Something very bad. And they weren't telling them what. Every instinct borne from a season and half of trauma told him to find Scar and hide under Concorp until everything had calmed down. But he couldn't.

'CUB!'

Scar. Bleeding and crying, crashing as Cub ran over.

'Scar, Scar it's ok. I'm here. I'm right here.' Cub insisted, crouching next to his best friend, covering his bleeding neck with bandages. 'What happened?'

'G- Grian- he- Mumbo- we'd... That we'd... Oh- oh Notch...' Scar started sobbing anew. Cub hugged him. 

'Deep breaths, buddy. It's ok...' he murmured. Scar hugged him tighter.

 'Mumbo's trapped...' he whimpered. 'We trapped him... I don't know where. He's gonna die if we don't find him. We hurt him. I know we did...'

'Oh my goodness that's...' Cub barely got the words out, let alone his next few breaths. 'Oh notch... It'll- it'll be ok. We'll just...' Cub faltered. He had nothing. 'We'll just do... oh s***.... X'll understand, right? He wouldn't ban us? We tell the truth and... s***...'

Xisuma: Cub Scar my base now.

'X knows.'

'What do we- we...' Scar started sobbing again. Cub tried to comfort him.

'We need to talk to him.' He whispered back. 'I'm sorry.'

'I- I can't...'

Go. Go go go. We talk. We kill Grian. No one hurts our Scar. We kill Xisuma. No competition for Vexes. Vexes win. Vexes always win.

'We have to go.'

'We can't!' Scar begged.  'We can't go and- let them...'

Xisuma: now or I TP you.

cubfan135: wait

cubfan135: please

cubfan135: vex

Tango: someone's in trooouble...

Grian: they tortured Mumbo and are holding him hostage. They're being banned.

cubfan135: we can explain

Xisuma: CUB. SCAR. NOW.

cubfan135: vex want you dead

cubfan135: idk where Mumbo is

'This can't be happening...' Cub muttered through the tears. 'This can't be real. This- this isn't real...' Scar was still hugging him and sobbing with utter terror.

And then they were at Xisuma's base.

'Cub? Scar?' Xisuma asked, stepping away from the cage Grian had made. Inside, Cub glanced up from hugging Scar, eyes glowing with a pure white fire.

Possessed.

'You hurt Scar.'

'A lot.' Both had terrifying grins, higher pitched voices and pure bloodlust behind their glowing white eyes. 

'Where's Mumbo?'

The ConVex glanced between each other, then back at Xisuma, speaking in sync.

'Gone.'

They laughed. Xisuma let out a deep breath. Behind, Grian stepped closer. Xisuma's arm, blocking his way, was all that stopped him getting aggressive.

'We've hidden your dear little moustache man somewhere you'll never find him...' Scar crept closer to the edge of the cage, staring right at X.

'Well, certainly where you can never get him back.' Cub amended, starting to pace. 'Your little admin technology found him in seconds, I assume.'

'Unless that's just where his communicator is...' Scar's smile grew.

'You wouldn't f***ing dare.' Grian spat. 

'Grian, I'll handle them from here.'

'Xisuma, they've-'

'I'll get him back, Grian. Whatever it takes. I promise.'

'Xisuma...' he protested. 'They're dangerous. You remember last season.'

'I understand. Go.' 

He did. Xisuma returned to Cub and Scar, the latter of whom was now hanging upside down from the ceiling.

'Whatever it takes?' Scar repeated Xisuma's words. 'You'll give us anything?'

This wasn't how he wanted it to go. Making deals with Vexlings would never end well. Especially Cub and Scar, who could get their own way well enough on their own.

He nodded.

'Oh...' Scar laughed, dropping back to the ground. 'Oh-oh-oh... did you see that, Cub?'

'Seems like a business opportunity, man,' Cub stepped closer. 

'Don't worry, us Vexes are very reasonable... what are you willing to give us?'

'You wanted Sahara?'

'Oh yes, burn it to the ground. And?'

'...and?' Xisuma paused. The ConVex continued smiling expectantly at him. 

'What else will you give us?' Scar asked.

'Don't get us wrong, Sahara is a very good start.' Cub said. 'But enough to free Mumbo? Nahhh...' 

'Absolutely not. What else will you give us? I'm thinking... all the server's diamonds... firetick turned off... permission to grief anything we want...'

'Admin powers.'

'Ooh, good shout Cub. Admin powers...'

'No.' 

'No?' Scar cocked his head to one side. His clawed hands wrapped around the bars of the cage. 

'Free Mumbo or I ban Scar. Permanently.'

'Without consulting the other Hermits?' Scar was quick to spit back. 'What would poor Cub do without me?'

'I certainly wouldn't reveal where Mumbo is. In fact, I'd probably just kill you in revenge. Slowly. Run some experiments... how long can a player survive without various rather essential organs? How long can you hurt someone before they start screaming?'

'Enough. I understand,' Xisuma interrupted, hiding his discomfort at the suggestions. Which, from the glee in the ConVex's eyes, was their exact intent. 'Just give back Mumbo, no one gets hurt...'

'We WANT people hurt.'

'Look, Xisuma.' Cub leant on the bars of the cage, fiddling with a rather sharp looking knife 'They were trying to steal our profits. Offending our perfectly innocent business, putting sand over Concorp.'

'Some would say that's griefing...'

'So we nicely asked them to stop.'

'Oh, very, very nicely,' agreed Scar. 'We barely hurt him at all. But he didn't cooperate.'

'He did offer his profits.'

'Like he'd get many of those...' Scar scoffed. 'So we did the only thing we could and... hurt him more.'

'Did you know there are around 200 pain receptors in a single square centimeter of skin?' Scar nodded, grinning more. Not for the first time, Xisuma felt sick.

'How many of those pain-thingies did it take for Mumbo to scream?'

'It was before I drew blood...'

'Enough! You're... oh Notch... just let him go. Please.'

'You haven't given us anything.' Scar hissed, leaning through the bars, fangs bared.

'I'll give you Sahara, and all my shops, and let you stay... I just beg you, let him go! Please!' Xisuma cried. Scar looked at Cub and shrugged. Cub looked at Scar and shrugged back.

'Sure.'

'Really?' Xisuma frowned.

'Just... 1 question.' Cub added.

'Did you give an offering to the Vex?'

'An offering?'

'Last Season. Did you give an offering? At the cathedral? It's very important.' Scar asked.

'Yes.' Xisuma lied. 'Yes I did. Can we free Mumbo now?'

'Sure.' Scar fazed easily through the bars, Cub following. 'Lead the way.'

'It's down there.' Cub pointed at a random piece of dirt in front of him as he landed with Xisuma. Scar followed Grian.

'This block specifically?'

'Oh yeah, this one. Get digging.' Xisuma looked back at Grian. Scar stood next to Cub, watching as the pair obediently began before...

'Obsidian.'

'Yep!' Scar laughed. 'Cub's idea. Good luck!'

Half an hour and 60 or so blocks down later, the trio were still going. Grian tried going around, but the obsidian was everywhere.

'Can we switch to creative?' He grumbled.

'They'd probably kill us if we did...' Xisuma glanced up at Cub and Scar grinning down the hole at them.

'In creative?'

'We still die permadeath in creative.'

They continued.

Until the ground gave way.

The next thing they knew, Grian and Xisuma were pinned by Cub and Scar, knives against their throats.

'You didn't give us an offering.' Scar said, voice cold. One hand itched towards the release of Xisuma's helmet. The other held the knife closer to his neck.

'And you hurt Scar.' Cub added, holding the struggling Grian against the ground by his wings. The playfulness was gone, leaving only rage. 'You hurt him... threatened him...'

'Oh, and Mumbo's dead,' explained Scar, like it was obvious. Grian swore, cut off.

'Shhhh... Language.' Cub held the knife closer to his neck, running a clawed hand through his hair. 'Besides... You'll join him soon.'

'What do you want?' Xisuma asked, shaking.

'Sacrifice.'

'To the Vex.' They spoke in sync.

Then killed in sync.

:)

This isn't my fault.