This chapter was brought to you by Rachel running on full on midnight crack energy and a chaos hungry Pit.

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“Grian would never.”

“Well,” Another grumbled. “It turns out that’s not true.”

Everyone gathered at Grian’s starter house. Everyone. And yet, there was not a sound in the building. Everyone seemed to have agreed to the silence. Everyone.

They all observed tensely as Tango shifted his hold on Grian’s other communicator, a certain murderous glint in his eyes and frown on his face.

“This is a watchers device, if I’ve ever seen one.” Tango cursed, having to hold himself from tearing it apart, compromising by just gripping it really tightly. “Curses, so they really are involved.”

“And Grian is one of them.” Iskall sighed, an amount of hurt present in his voice, though he seemed to try to hide it. “He’s been leading this show from inside.”

“But it-” Stress said in pure disbelief. “Grian? Really?”

“As much as it pains me to admit it, yep.” Xisuma mumbled, almost absentmindedly. In contrast to usual, he seemed far more distant, though that might just be because usually he has his mask on. Instead, it was now lying on the floor, almost discarded. A large, long scar in the middle of his face glistens, his eyes seeming to be glued to the wall. “We’ve confirmed him to be one of them, and the chances that it’s just a coincidence are-”

“-Astronomically low.” Doc finished, a grumble in his voice. “So it means Grian’s the only one that could be doing all of this.”

“But- it’s Grian!” Scar protested weakly. “We’ve known him for years! Why would he ever- He wouldn’t-”

“Well, everything else says otherwise.” The admin let out a huff of laughter, though it was completely devoid of any kind of joy nor emotion. “We really should’ve seen this coming.”

“Still though, why now!?” Scar practically cried out. “He had every chance to stab us in the back long, long ago, so why-”  Ever the kind one, the sensitive one, Scar by contrast simply sounded hurt. As if he was about to burst into tears at any second, any affirmation of his fears. It was enough to make everyone else quiet down. “...Why would he do this to us?”

“I’m with Scar on this one,”Mumbo added out, almost reluctantly. “Grian has always been a bit… wild, but he never put much malicious thought into anything he does-”

“We don’t know that.” Impulse cut in, his voice uncharacteristically ruffled up and shaky. “I hate saying it, I despise this, I despise everything about this, but we really don’t know.” He paused, taking a shaky huff. “What do we know now? We thought he was on our side, and yet-” Sharply inhaling, the noise he let out was like that of a low, quiet sob disguised as a laugh. “It’s obvious that he was the one that killed them.”

“Grian wouldn’t! We’ve known him-”

“Maybe we didn’t actually know him, ever think about that?" Doc scorned harshly. "Maybe everything- everything up until now- was a lie.”

Nobody dared to say anything to that, and the room fell into silence once again. Each to their own, they were lost in their own emotions, whether it was anger, denial, grief, shock, or fear. It was hard to say anything. It felt hard to even breath.

“...Why did we let him in again?” Tango turned to Xisuma hesitantly. “Why did we ever accept him into our server?”

“Speaking of which, I just remembered.” Xisuma got up, still seeming deep in his thoughts and avoiding the other’s gazes. “How did he even learn about our server in the first place? We’re private, even the watchers shouldn’t be able to track us down, unless someone in the inside spilled.”

“Which was probably what he’d been doing this entire time. Curse him.”

“Mumbo.” The admin continued, finally landing his eyes on the suited up man, almost narrowly. “You were the one that introduced him to us, weren’t you?”

More than a few eyes all around the room widened. “Mumbo??”

Mumbo froze from all the attention, seeming to struggle putting his thoughts together, but tried to either way.

“I- oh.” He paused in realization. “Yeah. I was the one.”

“Why would you-”

“Mumbo, I also remember you saying,” Xisuma continued as if nobody said anything, “That you’ve known Grian for a long time. Longer than any of us, in fact.”

“I- I have, yeah.” He confirmed hesitantly, voice careful as everyone’s eyes shifted to him. “We were fairly close, but then he went to highschool, and after that I just,” He paused, trying to remember the details, “Never heard from him again.” 

Then he trailed off, but picked up again when someone was about to talk. “Until he reached out to me 4 years ago, out of the blue. We chatted, there didn’t seem to be anything weird about him. And then he told me he needed somewhere to stay because his last server…” Once again, he trailed off, eyes fully widening in realization. “Got deleted.”

“Well, there it is.” Doc growled. “That double faced scum has been manipulating us the entire time. There’s the confirmation.”

“There- There has to be some sort of mistake- Grian wouldn’t-”

“I’m afraid there’s no more room for discussion.” Xisuma halted, voice almost completely monotone. “Now that we know one of our members was in fact involved in all of this, much more is the one leading the entire thing and has betrayed us, we need to act fast.” He sighed, before moving his gaze. “Pearl?”

“Oh.” She visibly tensed up, surprised and a bit afraid. “Uh- yeah?”

“First of all, I would like to say, on behalf of everyone here, that we’re sorry for suspecting you.” He stated, almost robotically, as he placed his mask back on slowly. His dull blue eyes emitting a glow. “But I must ask, do you know anything else? You’re free to talk about whatever you want. You’re cleared from suspicion.”

She shifted uncomfortably. “I- don’t really-” Pearl paused. “...Do you mean about the incident in evo, or…”

He shrugged. “Anything, really.”

“Well… uh-”

“What was Grian like back then?” Tango decidedly asked, after some consideration. “Was he any different than how he acted here?”

“He…” She considered it. “When they started getting involved, he would always act really, really hostile when the watchers were somehow involved, or if anyone brought them up. Other than that, he wasn’t any different from what he was like here. Chaotic like hell, but still a bit ordered.” She cringed. “...Also fairly destructive, if memory serves me correctly.”

“Destructive?”

“Like, TNT, and all that stuff, at least that’s what I heard from the other members, since I joined late.” She sighed. “But then again, most of the things said were kinda like… pranks? At least that’s what they said.”

"Do you recall anything else that may be relevant?"

"He was, how do I put this, a bit of a control freak?” A bit hesitant, she started toying with her hair. "Had this thing called the Grian Empire, heard from Taurtis he acted a bit tyrannical. He asked me to join once, but even when I did nothing much came of it. And well, I guess the Watchers focused on him more than the rest of us.”

"Well aren't those glaring red flags." Doc grumbles.

"Maybe it was, but nobody caught it if it was. Especially since he was notably anti-watcher. But then again, that could've easily been a trick, like everything else." 

"I suppose when you start calling everything he’s done into question, it becomes a bit obvious.” Xisuma murmured, a bit of a crazed smile revealing through the untight visor. “And yet, we still missed all of this. I missed all of this.”

“X, it wasn’t your fault-”

The admin’s head snapped back very quickly, sending a chilling, glass shattering glare. “I was the one that let him in officially, mind you. I went through his player history, server history, even saw a bit of his player code, and I still let him in.” He growled, voice cracking halfway. “It’s all my fault.”

Nobody else dared to correct or deny, the room immediately went tensely silent. A pause, and Xisuma turned his head away.

“...Sorry.” 

Biting her lip, Pearl hesitantly spoke again. “...I have to tell you all one more thing.” She took a deep exhale. “Does anyone here know the term listener?”

Wels' head snapped up, meanwhile others were in confusion. “You’re one of them.”

“Who? Sorry- I’m not following.”

“The Listeners.” Wels started. “A group of vigilantes, you can classify them as. They were formed by rogue watchers who defected against the watcher’s command, sacrificing their sight for greater power.”

“Greater than the watchers?” Gem asked, incredulous.

“No, we can never win against the watchers, in terms of strength, or anything really.” Pearl answered distantly, almost depressingly. “Most of our members can’t even do much, because to completely turn against the watchers after ‘you swore the oath’ means to face certain death.”

“Christ.”

“I was sent to this server,” Pearl began to elaborate. “Because we’ve received intel that the watchers were going to be attacking this server. Sending a watcher to falsify themselves as a member years before is a common tactic they use to mark servers they consider a threat.”

“A threat.” Tango grudged under his breath. “They consider us a threat. That’s amusing.”

“Pearl- I’m sorry but,” Everyone turned to see who was speaking, and couldn't believe their eyes. “I don’t know if I can trust you.”

Anxiety filled her up. “What-?”

“Impulse-?”

“Grian already betrayed us.” Impulse mumbled, almost darkly though hesitantly. “Who’s to say that there isn’t anyone else here that’s fooling us.”

“That's-"

“Impulse does have a point.” Iskall admitted. “Let me remind you all, we’ve known Grian for 3 years. 3 years. And yet we’re only finding all this out now, we’ve only been shown his true intentions now. He stayed for 3 years, gained our trust, and then backstabbed us.” A madden, joyless laugh. “The bastard tricked us. Manipulated us. What’s to say nobody else here is doing the same thing?”

“Iskall!”

“Now you’ve gone too far, both of you!” Stress stressed. “Now’s not the time for this! We need to trust each other to get through th-”

“I don’t necessarily blame them for not being able to trust anyone else in this room.” Etho sighed. “Hell, I’m even starting to doubt myself.”

“You guys! Stop! I can’t handle just thinking about another betrayal-”

And then the room erupted into chaos. So much so, no one noticed the admin's eyes starting to twitch underneath his visor.

“Are we completely sure Grian’s the one to blame-? I mean I still can’t believe it, he was our friend-”

“Keyword, was. Forced or not, he left us behind.”

“But he always seemed so nice, so kind, despite all of his shenanigans! There’s no way he would-”

“That’s what we thought, look where we are now!”

“Pearl, you said you knew at least about how the watchers had their eyes on us, why didn’t you ever tell us about all that earlier? This info could've been more useful, you know, before anyone died?”

“I- I wanted to, really, but I couldn’t!”

“That’s fairly convenient. So then why did you only say something now?”

“I- Because-”

“Guys- seriously- calm down-”

“ENOUGH! EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

No one spoke another word, freezing up to turn to the enraged, exasperated, exhausted admin they usually saw as calm and collected slammed his fists hard on the surface of the table, afterwards screaming loudly.

“Enough is enough, don’t you hear? I can’t even think with all the noise everyone is emitting! Jeez!” He growled, turning around the room to view each and every single one of everyone, an unfamiliar glint in his eyes. “I need everyone to tell me, to think, what made you all think this is remotely even the correct time to fight around, to mess around?”

“X, we weren’t-”

Another loud slam. “Then shut your mouths! Why is that so hard!?” He laughed, an almost maniacal desperation seeping into his voice. “Why!?" Something almost like a choked sob emitted from him. "I'm trying to fix things! I'm trying to think of a solution! I'm trying to do my job! But I- I can't! I just- Everyone shut up! I don't want to hear anyone, anyone, blabber." Slam. "any." Slam. "more." SLAM. "NONSENSE!"

He let out heavy breaths, head turned down with his fists still left on the wood.

"...Xisuma?" Tango tried falteringly.

"Ex…" The admin froze, before straightening up, avoiding everyone's gaze. "Excuse me for a second." And then he left through the door, no one daring to go after him.

Even after he left, the room stayed silent, no one having any idea what to say, no one emotionally stable enough to raise their voice.

"...We really need to do something now." False spoke after a while.

"Don't we have to wait for X?" Zedaph asks confidentless.

"He'll… come around." Tango sighed, looking out the open door dejectedly. "Give him a moment."

It went quiet again, before Pearl forced for the conversation to continue, even though none of them really wanted to speak. "Do you think there's anything left in this place that could reveal anything?"

The only thing that was said in response was a shrug. "Probably."

And so, multiple people rushed to move around, or at least do something. Then, everyone stopped as they hear a yelp.

"Ew- what's this- sticky?" Ren murmured out loud, his feet seeming to be attached to the floor by a thick blue fluid. He forced it away, but it left a blob on his shoe.

Doc looked at it with a small eyebrow raise. "This seems like… slime?"

"Did you step on a slime ball?"

"I probably did, didn't I? Whoops." Ren chuckled nervously.  "Dude, he has one hell of a chest monster."

"Please don't mention the word 'chest monster' around me, for the time being." Scar mumbled from the side, bringing back a bit of unease.

"Well," Impulse sighed, "let's start looking around, I guess."

"I'm," Keralis started hesitantly while looking around the room, "I'm going to go look for Shashwammy," then he saw Tango's face, and added; "In case anything bad happens to him."

The blond thought for a moment, before nodding. "Fine, let's go. I'm coming with you. X needs to hear at least something."

As they walked out, neither noticed the pair of eyes above the rooftop, ever listening, always watching.