His strawberry blonde hair fell below his shoulders. It was messy and looked like a bird's nest. He didn't care. He didn't care how messy it was, but he wanted it short. There was nothing sharp in the cell. He hated it.

A clank of metal informed him that someone was coming. The amount of footsteps was what bothered him. There were two people instead of one. This had never happened before.

Behind the metal bars that isolated him from the rest of the world were now two people. They were both looking at him. He snarled, not really fond of the extra attention.

Next to the guard was standing a Watcher with short, pumpkin orange hair. They seemed curious - and young if he had to add. Why were they here? He didn't quite understand. They were not a guard.

"Go," they told the guard. The guard hesitated, but finally retreated with a few murmurs. He furrowed his brows, surprised by this action as he turned his focus back to the other Watcher.

"What the hell do you want.?" he asked, voice hoarse and cracking. He had wasted his vocal cords to screaming and now they were mostly ruined.

"Allow me to introduce myself," they hummed, bowing their head, "My name is Sherenidy Blackwood. I come from The Council of Watchers and Admins-"

He cut them off with a burst of hysterical - and extremely hoarse - laughter. He was in disbelief, not wanting to believe what they were trying to tell him. The Watchers and Admins working together? That was the best joke he had heard all his life.

"Excuse me," they hummed, getting his attention back. "I am here to invite you to join The Council and help us stop a creature that is haunting all the servers in existence. We have recently lost two important members and now we are in need of some new powers and you seem to be the best option we have."

"Kid," - he stopped to count the lines on the walls - "I'm not a kid, am I..?" he mumbled to himself. "Well, I don't believe that the Watchers and Admins are working together," he told them. They seemed surprised by his statement.

"Actually, the two sides formed peace over 100 years ago. The Council was formed a year ago to protect the rights of all the players," they explained. He laughed again, causing them to tilt their head.

"I'm just 18 and I've been here for two years because of the war. I've grown up surrounded by it. There's no way it ended 100 years ago," he answered, gesturing towards the bloody lines on the walls.

"According to my information, you are from a place where the Watchers and Admins have yet to accept that the war is over. They are still fighting despite the peace." Their tone flashed pain. "I promise that The Council is peaceful and no one supports the war. We stay out of it, as it has been proven to be impossible to be stopped. We have our own battles, but those are not against people. We only fight against creatures that are a threat to the players."

"Kinda tempting, but you see that I'm locked up," he gestured around his cell. "You see, betrayal and starting a resistance are not allowed." He crossed his scarred arms and glanced at them.

"As a member of The Council, I have the rights to free you and make you my student," they informed, yanking the cell door open.

His eyes widened. The door hadn't been opened in two years. He hadn't been outside in two years. Was he finally getting out?

"Welcome to freedom. What's your name?" They smirked and offered their hand towards him.

"Sp- No, it's Grian. Grian Xelqua Charles," he answered. The name felt weird on his tongue, but at the same time it felt so good.

"Welcome to The Council, ᒲᔑ╎リ ∴ᔑℸ ̣ ᓵ⍑ᒷ∷ ̇/ᒷꖎᑑ⚍ᔑ!"

-----

Grian bounced excitedly from his toes to heels as he and the other Hermits were waiting for everyone to get there. They were starting a new season. This was season 9, Grian's second season in Hermitcraft. He was excited for finally seeing the change of the season.

"So, Grian, do you have a plan for this season yet?" Stress asked with a smile on her lips. Grian turned to look towards her.

"I'm still thinking about it, but I think that I know what I'll be doing. At least with my shop," Grian hummed excitedly. He had spent hours drawing different blueprints with his siblings from The Council, mostly Quinn and Upton - even if the latter had spent more time rolling on the floor than actually helping.

"Great! I can't wait to see what you've come up with. Your builds last season were amazing! You really are a fit to our server!" Stress flashed him a warm smile.

Grian had to admit that he really liked how friendly and welcoming the Hermits were. It had been years since he had lived in such an amazing community. He had only rediscovered feelings like these with The Council and Hermitcraft. They all treated him like a human being and were always nice and understanding.

Xisuma clapped his hands together, getting everyone's attention. "Welcome to Hermitcraft season nine! Everyone knows the deal, let's go!" The admin cut the intro short and everyone rushed to different directions.

Grian hurried after his friends with a smile on his lips. Mumbo and Scar were his best options, so he followed after them.

His communicator let out a demanding buzz in his pocket, but he ignored it. His siblings would survive a few hours without him, he was busy with Hermitcraft.

-----

The Main World was filled with players. It was currently busier than ever, and the reason wasn't so good. Hypixel had been attacked by Spirit, a corrupted creature that was currently trying to destroy the whole universe.

"What do you mean that it just disappeared into thin air with no trace?" A blonde admin with ocean blue eyes exclaimed, slamming her hand against the desk, demanding an answer.

In front of her was an admin in civil clothing. She brushed back her caramel brown hair and sighed, looking into the ocean blue eyes with her sapphire blue ones. "We were following it from the shadows and saw it just disappear. We went to take a look at the place where it had been, but there was nothing left," she explained, sounding clearly frustrated with the results.

"Let her go, ᒷ↸╎ℸ ̣ ᔑ." A brunette admin with emerald green eyes stepped into the room. His statement earned an annoyed glare from the blonde, but he ignored it and turned to face the one standing in front of her. "∴||ᔑリᔑ, thank you for the information. I do have to remind you that the spy team isn't supposed to interact with the creature as you may not be strong enough to protect yourself from it," he continued to her. She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. "I know that you're an ex-member of The Council and therefore I trust your powers, but you alone cannot defeat it, plus you should keep your position a secret from the rest of the team. The shouldn't find out about your personal connections to us."

"We aren't that weak, ᒲᔑ𝙹," Wyana went to protest anyway. "But I understand what you mean," she went to add after receiving a look from both Mao and Edita.

"Return back to the team and continue searching for more information. We know nearly nothing about it and that has to change if we want to defeat it," Mao ordered. Wyana nodded and left the room, murmuring something as she disappeared through the door.

"Anything from Hypixel yet?" Edita asked, tipping her head. Mao shook his head with a sigh, crossing his arms and leaning against the bookcase behind him.

"The patrol hasn't returned yet, but let's hope that they do soon. We really need to hold a meeting as soon as possible," he informed, pulling out his communicator.

"I've been trying to call ̇/ᒷꖎᑑ⚍ᔑ for at least ten minutes and he hasn't answered!" a Watcher with short, pumpkin orange hair announced, slamming the door open and scaring the other two. She marched to the sofa in the middle of the room and flopped onto it with communicator in hand.

"The doorknob left a dent on the wall," Mao pointed out with a frown. The Watcher didn't pay any attention to the statement.

"How do I get my student to answer me when he clearly isn't checking his communicator?" the Watcher groaned and -presumably, since the mask covered her eyes and the two admins couldn't read the expression behind it - raised her eyes from the device.

"Didn't Hermitcraft move to a new season today?" Edita asked, tilting her head, turning to look at Mao for confirmation.

"They did," a brunette Watcher informed as he passed by the office's open door.

"ꖌᔑᓭᒷリ! Wait!" the Watcher from the sofa called out, pushing herself up and stumbling towards the door, failing to dodge the table and face-planting on the floor with a screech.

The brunette, Kasen, backtracked back to the door and tilted his head to her. There was a questioning look in his eyes that only the other Watcher was able to read through the mask.

"Any idea on how I could get ̇/ᒷꖎ to answer my messages?" she asked while climbing back to the sofa.

Kasen thought for a moment. Then he shook his head. "He's most likely busy with Hermitcraft. I don't think that you can reach him before he has settled in," he predicted before turning around and continuing walking to wherever he had been going to.

"Let me guess, you won't let me go to Hermitcraft to drag him out, will you?" the Watcher asked from Mao with a doubting look on her half-hidden face. Edita rolled her eyes and Mao sighed.

"As The Council's second in command I won't give you a permission to do that," he stated. "Let ̇/ᒷꖎ do his thing and go find someone else to help you. There are probably over 30 of us here, ᓭ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷリ╎↸||."

"Does that mean that I can take ⚍!¡ℸ ̣ 𝙹リ?" Sherenidy asked with a smirk on her face, knowing very well that Upton was Mao's own student.

Mao sighed again. This time it was a heavier sigh. "I don't need him on the moment, so go for it," he decided, not wanting to deal with the annoying third in command anymore.

"Great, thanks!" Sherenidy had a smug smile on her lips as she slipped out of the office to do whatever annoying little gremlins do.

"You know that ⚍!¡ and ᓭ⍑ᒷリ can actually cause some pretty bad damage if no one's watching them," Edita pointed out. "I wonder how they're our third and fourth in command.." she mumbled.

"I'm sending ⋮ᔑ||ꖎᒷᒷ after them," Mao decided and pulled out his communicator.

-----

Grian knew that his communicator was going mad in his pockets, but he was deep underground with Mumbo and Scar, gathering materials for his starter base and shop.

"Shouldn't you answer that? The person messaging you is probably getting pretty annoyed." Mumbo raised and eyebrow with a chuckle, gesturing towards Grian's pocket.

Grian waved his hand, "It's nothing," he informed extending the "i"s in it's. "I checked the notifications and it wasn't anything important," he shrugged, knowing very well that it was just Sherenidy telling him that they had work to do.

"If it's not important, then can't you mute it?" Scar asked curiously. Grian let out a pained sigh.

"It doesn't have a mute button.." he whined. The communicators The Council used were older models that hadn't been made in over four years. Their leader, Alden, had gotten them from some old server. They had many good features the newer ones didn't have, but the missing mute option was a problem everyone hated.

"That sucks," Mumbo hummed as he went to grab the iron he had seen. Grian narrowed his eyes and watched after him. Scar seemed to have wandered off somewhere as well.

"Mumbo! You're my friend! Can't you spare a bit of pity for my troubles?" he asked, faking sounding offended and hurt.

"Maybe you should buy a new communicator." Mumbo's answer echoed quietly from the depths of the cave.

Grian groaned, not bothering to shout as Mumbo was probably too far to hear it. He would have told him that he can't buy a new communicator because he isn't in charge of the communicators they use in The Council, but obviously he would have left The Council out of it. His friends weren't supposed to know that he was The Main Watcher Xelqua.

Then the communicator on his wrist let out a noise that sounded like a mechanical demonic screech. He tapped on the broken screen, trying to get the device to open and display the server's chat.

It opened with a weird ping and immediately shut down. Grian cursed and shook his wrist the communicator was strapped around. It began rebooting itself. When it finally booted, the screen was filled with a bright notification about the battery being too low. Then it shut with another weird ping.

Grian stared at it for a few minutes until swearing loudly, again. You see, The Council uses communicators that are meant for messaging to players all over the universe. But those communicators can't be connected to server's own chats. Therefore every player also needs a communicator, usually one that can be wrapped on their wrist, to use the server's chat. It automatically connects to the chat when a player logs into a server, but it can't be used to message people outside the current server.

Grian sighed, accepting the fact that his communicators battery had died. It was a problem none of his servermates had, and that was because they all had newer communicators that used magic instead of actually batteries. Grian had gotten his 14 years ago at the age of five. It was his mother's old and easily over 20 years old. It had been through a lot and sounded weird, but he wasn't about to change it to a newer one yet. It still worked perfectly, well, not really, but almost.

"Did your personal communicator die again?" Scar asked, making Grian jump as he hadn't noticed that the other had gotten behind him.

"Scar! You scared me!" he exclaimed. Scar chuckled, which made Grian cast him an offended look.

"But did your communicator die?" the brunette repeated his question and glanced at the ancient device in Grian's wrist.

"Yeah, it did, again.." Grian sighed and opened the straps to free his wrist from the tight grasp of the old communicator. Scar sucked in a shocked gasp when he saw the bruised skin that revealed underneath it.

Grian noticed his horror and proceeded to quickly explain. "It's pretty heavy and therefore needs pretty strong and tight straps to keep it in place. I've gotten used to the pain it causes by now." It sounded even worse when he tried to explain it.

"Your wrist looks terrifying! How can you stand living with that thing around it 24/7?" Scar exclaimed. His green eyes were wide open in shock and he was clearly trying to process the new information he had found out. It made Grian feel a bit awkward since he didn't see anything wrong with the bruises his communicator caused.

"It isn't that bad," he tried to explain. He didn't know what else to say, and he definitely didn't want to explain why he had such a high pain tolerance.

"If the communicator barely works, why don't you just buy a new one?" Scar asked and furrowed his eyebrows in concern.

"I once swore that I'd take this communicator to the grave with me," Grian hummed - leaving out the context of the situation where it had happened. He wasn't about to tell Scar that once he had been sure he wouldn't make it to his 18th birthday, but well, he would be turning 19 this year, so he took that as a win. "And therefore I will, in fact, be taking this communicator to my grave with me," he instead announced proudly.

Scar looked concerned, but didn't comment on it. Instead he suggested that maybe Grian should go to the Main World to get some healing gel since no one in Hermitcraft could make strong enough healing potions for the bruises.

Grian promised him that he would do it later. He made himself a mental note to go find either Yenny or Topaz - two of The Council's nurses. Haylie, despite being the leading nurse, wasn't an option because she would definitely lecture him about it.

-----

He slipped the communicator into his inventory and lit up his torch. The flame embraced the walls surrounding him. He grabbed his iron sword that was stained with the blood of the mobs - and maybe also his friends, but that information wasn't that necessary.

"We should really go get some materials, shouldn't we?" he asked, looking behind his shoulder where - hidden from everyone else's eyes - remained a silhouette.

"If you want to get something done, you need shit to use," the silhouette answered carelessly. Grian rolled his eyes and began walking deeper into the cave where both of his friends had disappeared before him.

"What do you reckon we need, Xavier?" he asked while scouting the area with his eyes, shining the torch light towards the walls to see what the darkness was trying to hide.

"Draw a bloody pentagram on the ground, that's fine with me," Xavier answered, making Grian turn around and toss a rock into his direction.

"I'm not about to summon another demon!" he hissed at the demon following him. "One is already too much," he announced his opinion and turned around to continue his journey deeper into the darkness of the cave.

"Whatever you say," the demon hummed before disappearing into the shadows. Grian didn't turn around to look at him and neither of them said anything to continue the conversation.

-----

Finally, after hours of digging, Grian finally saw the light of the surface again. He squirmed his eyes at the brightness and inhaled the fresh oxygen into his lungs, couching out the dust he had breathed in from the caves.

His communicator was still blowing with messages every now and then, but it had quieted up from what it had been before. His personal communicator still remained dead.

He was amazed by the builds that had started to pop up around the spawn during the time he had been deep underground. Now he just had to add his own build there in the spot he had chosen.

As he crossed the water, he happened to look at his reflection. Instead of his own face, a familiar face stared back at him. He looked away, not wanting to see it anymore, but deep inside he knew that he could never escape it.

Words: 3206

[3.8.2022]

This book is back with an alternative rewrite. I'll try to update this on Wednesdays, but because school is starting next week I might have to skip some weeks if I run out of time.