And now presenting: The Teeth Monolouge! The ramble Grian goes on in this chapter was literally me narrating my train of thought to my friend.

Scar pov

"There's more shades of green than lime green!" Scar complained to X as they flew to Grian's base. "All they ever sell for green wheelchairs is lime green! There's more than that in the world! All I want is a grass green wheelchair-"

X shushed Scar suddenly and dove down. Scar was about to ask why until he spotted Grian lying on the ground.

Scar and X approached him and saw that his eyes were open lazily, gazing up at the sky. He was muttering to himself words that made no sense whatsoever, completely overlapping each other.

"I dunno man, I like teeth," he started, the words barely distinct. "They're great for guessing games. The last time I played a guessing game was on a mountain. I breathe better on mountains. There was a thunderstorm. Lightning is not teeth friendly. What if the sky has teeth? I think it does." He kept rambling on to himself, talking about teeth and fluffy bees and gravity and devs-only-know what else.

"Grian?" Scar asked cautiously.

"Huh?" Grian mumbled, barely turning his head to look at Scar. "Oh, hello. What do you think of tornadoes?"

"Grian, snap out of it," X demanded harshly. "I don't know what's happened to you, but snap out of it."

Instead of answering, or even paying attention, Grian looked Scar in the eye and asked, "Do you have more teeth than the apple I had this morning?"

"Um. I...don't know?" Scar answered awkwardly. He was about to start counting when X interrupted him.

"Grian, wake up," X said again. He leaned down and, without hesitation, slapped Grian hard across the face.

Grian's facial expression changed immediately, looking confused and panicked. He rushed to his feet, stabilizing himself before he fell over again.

"What just happened to you?" X demanded again. "Why were you laying on Gem's beach staring at the sky and rambling about teeth?"

"I'm sorry," Grian apologized anxiously. "Where's the demon deer?"

X reached to slap him again before Grian said in a hurry, "No, no, I'm not just rambling! Please don't slap me again. I'm thinking again. Properly. There was a demon deer. Where did it go?"

"There's nothing here," Scar told him. "You're hallucinating."

"No, please, believe me," Grian begged. "I know I wasn't thinking straight, and I know I sound crazy, but I'm not lying to you. I am not hallucinating. There was a demon deer. That's the only thing I remember. Please don't slap me."

X lowered his hand, still looking skeptical, and asked, "What exactly did you see?"

"I'm not really sure," Grian admitted. "From what I remember, there was someone- something- with very strange deer antlers that looked absolutely huge. Their face was void, and they had very long legs."

"Where did they go?" X asked.

"There?" Grian tried, his voice doubtful. He pointed to one of the nearby houses, his hand shaking.

"Let's start there," X decided.

"Wait," Scar interrupted. "I still need to know what happened to you. Why are you here?"

"I don't know," Grian said. "Like I said, the last thing I remember is the deer thing, and that's it. I don't know what happened after that. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It's not your fault," Scar told him. "Are you hurt? Do you need help?"

Grian shook his head. "No, I don't think so."

"Okay, then," X decided. "Let's go find a demon deer."

Xisuma pov

X led the three of them to the house that Grian had pointed to. Every few steps, he would stop, look around, and continue.

He pushed open the door cautiously, looking around to check for any threat before motioning for the others to come in.

"Let's stay together," X said, "just in case."

Grian and Scar nodded, and the group began to inspect the house. What they had found was unsettling. The interior didn't suggest much, but there were several jars scattered throughout with various parts in them - eyes, hands, even a heart. X didn't want to think of who they belonged to.

Why would Gem build this? he wondered. She can be scary, but...nothing like this.

"What's this?" Scar asked, waving Grian and X over to him. He was pointing at a trapdoor on the floor.

"I don't know," X said. "I'm going in first. If anything happens, I'll yell for you. If not, I'll come back out, or come get you." Scar nodded, looking anxious.

X opened the trapdoor slowly, climbing down the ladder that only led down about ten feet.

He reached the ground, turned around, and immediately saw who - what - Grian had been talking about.

It stood in the middle of the floor in front of a large glass tube mounted against the wall. Its antlers were sharper than X had thought they'd be, and the bloodstains on its cloak suggested that it'd seen violence plenty of times before. X stretched his neck to see who or what was in the tube the deer thing was inspecting.

Etho.

"What are you doing to Etho?" X demanded.

The thing whipped around and its gaze was nearly as unsettling as being Watched. X held his ground.

"How have you come here?" it asked, its voice cold.

"What are you doing to Etho?" X repeated.

"Is that its name?" it said, sounding amused. "Finally, a way to label this." It grabbed something off the floor which X recognized as a very poorly put together sign and wrote in jagged letters, "SUBJECT: Etho."

As it moved, X could see Etho more clearly than he could before. He could see now that he was strung up by several strings on all of his limbs, plus his chest, back, and face. Though there wasn't much expression on his face, what little X could see was desperate, pained.

X took a cautious step closer, then another. Has it noticed me, or is it just waiting?

"I know you are there," it said, answering his question. "One step forward and you're dead."

"Let. Him. Go," X demanded.

The deer thing laughed once, loudly. "Even if you do manage to free it, it will not come with you."

"And how do you know that?" X asked.

Grinning, it turned its face towards Etho and said, "Still."

X immediately saw Etho completely stop moving. His face was frozen in fear and pain, and none of his limbs were moving.

"What did you just do to him?" X demanded coldly.

It shrugged, not answering his question. Instead, it began walking towards him.

"Scar!" X yelled before it could reach him.

Scar pov

As soon as he heard X's call, he scrambled down the ladder and turned to see a giant thing approaching X.

"Get someone!" X told him. "Now!"

Not waiting a moment, Scar hit the first contact which was Joel, typed in his name, his own coordinates, and "now" as fast as he could into his comm. A moment later, he heard the comm buzz with a message from Joel:

<SmallishBeans> but im eating a sandwich

<GoodTimeWithScar> NOW JOEL

<SmallishBeans> omw

The deer thing took a step closer to X and Scar stepped forward. He didn't know what he could do against it, but it was better than X alone.

Scar heard Grian come down the ladder and he stepped beside Scar. He spread his wings, trying to look more intimidating.

The thing raised one of its eyebrows, looking rather amused. "I am...very scared." It took another step forward and then another until it was right in front of Xisuma.

X raised his hands as if to Weave, but the deer just reached its hand out and tapped him on the head. He collapsed onto the ground in a heap, not even putting up a fight.

Scar looked down to X and opened his mouth to say something, but he cut himself off, looking back up at the deer with new hatred in its eyes.

"You are going to regret what you just did," Scar said darkly, bracing himself for a fight.

The thing smiled, so calmly that Scar nearly wanted to turn and run.

"I am, am I?" it said, tilting its head curiously. "My dear child, I do not feel regret." Scar pulled back his fist to punch it, but before he could, he felt it touch his forehead gently, and his vision began to grow dizzy. He fought to stay conscious, forcing his legs not to collapse beneath him.

"You...cannot...hurt me," Scar barely said, his mind fighting against him, "and you will not hurt Grian." The deer raised its eyebrows again and, out of pure spite, reached over and touched Grian's forehead. Grian stumbled for a moment before he too passed out, falling to the floor.

"Oh, I will," it said with a smile.

That was the last thing Scar heard before he couldn't hold onto his mind anymore, and he fell away.