wc: 1700 

"My mother died in childbirth," Grian began. "I don't remember much of her. She and my father were both admins, so I was naturally an admin. I grew up with a normal childhood."

He remembered the pictures of his mother. Shining golden hair, and a smile bright as the sun. His father was strong and sturdy. He didn't speak much of his late wife, but when he did, it was always with tenderness and love.

"I suppose I always had an affinity for my admin magic. I was the best in my class." Grian smiled at the memory of knocked over training dummies and the clamor of young children's cheering. "The war started when I was about twelve years old. My father didn't go to fight because I had no one to take care of me, but he did work in the factories to help the war effort. I didn't see much of him after that, and they started to train us as children to become better fighters if we had to fight when we grew up."

"So you had combative training since you were a child?" Xorial asked, leaning forward. Grian nodded, swallowing.

"Once I turned 16 I was considered an adult, so my father went to war. He passed after three months in battle." There was a moment of silence as Grian struggled to find the courage to speak again. "To make money, I..." he cracked a smile- "I acted in a small TV show. It wasn't a very hard audition, and they lacked actors. It's called Yandere High School, go give it a watch-" a few people chuckled- "But after that was over, I decided to use my power and become an admin. I did fairly well, and ended up taking charge of a server. Evolution, or Evo for short."

"One of the worlds compromised in the Watcher's takeover," Xerion commented. Grian nodded.

"We'd been receiving contact from Watchers for a while before the takeover, however," he continued. "They were never cruel. They left us riddles to solve and sometimes rewarded us with loot. The most evil thing they ever did was put obsidian over our chests. The way my server worked was that we would progress through portals to get to the next version, starting with Alpha. The portals were made by Watchers."

Xerion hummed. "Did you have any suspicions?" he asked, twirling a pencil in his fingers. "You were taught about Watchers in school, right?"

Grian nodded. "Yes, we learned about them. We learned about them as trade partners and allies. Yes, there were a few bumps in the road, but it was mainly positive. Once we engaged in war, they were taken out of our curriculum entirely. In Evo, they didn't seem that evil. We should have been suspicious, but to be honest, it wasn't as if we could kick them out."

"Alright..." Kleenex murmured, looking at whatever Xerion was writing. "Continue."

"We beat the ender dragon," Grian said. "When I jumped through the portal, Watchers took me, since I was the admin. They told the rest of my server that I had gone willingly. The server was destroyed shortly after." He thought of the fire, the smoke. The first time that vile shade of purple made me nauseated. "Most of my server mates made it out. Some didn't. In the Watcher world, I was held as a normal prisoner. They conducted tests and such on our magic to see where we would be helpful. They found that my magic was different, but they didn't tell me how."

"I remember that," Xorial said. "When I was still a Council member. It was a really short mention, but they did say that there was an admin prisoner who could be a really good weapon power wise. But we didn't discuss much, since you weren't much use while you still were so loyal to the admins."

"Yeah," Grian said, swallowing thickly. "And I was a high priority prisoner. Xeluph came in personally. Named me Xelqua. Came in to test me. To ask me what I knew..."

~~~

"So, Xelqua," Xeluph sneered, shutting the cell door behind him.

Grian cowered on the floor, hands trembling. The power muting cuffs on his wrists left him defenseless, but at this point, even if they were gone, he would probably not try to escape. Even if he did, Xeluph would find a way.

Perhaps it was just better to end his misery now.

Xeluph crouched in front of him, attaching cuffs to his ankles and pinning the ones around his wrists to the ceiling, rendering him almost unable to move. Fear spiked in Grian's heart. "Remember those nice scans we did when you first got here?"

"Yes, sir," Grian whispered.

"They found something interesting." Xeluph finished attaching the cuffs and straightened up, opening the cell door again. He reached around the corner and dragged in a cart.

Atop the cart were various potions and syringes. A notebook lay open on the very top, and Xeluph picked it up and flipped through its pages. Although Grian couldn't see his eyes, he could see through the quirk of his lips that he was intrigued. "You have undeveloped power sacs in your heart. Not sure if you've learned this, but magic is generated in the heart, which is then pumped through the rest of the body." Grian already knew this, but he had no energy or courage to say it. "Your admin sacs are working very hard. However, we found Watcher magic sacs. This could be very special."

The syringes now made sense. Xeluph selected one sloshing with an awful bright purple liquid. "Shall we begin?"

All Grian remembered from the next few days was pain. Just agony. Flaring pain up and down his arms, his legs, his back. He would awake in puddles of blood that were colored awful mixes of red and purple.

And not to mention the pain in his chest, as his those sacs developed. He was onstantly ripping at his own skin, trying to get the fire out, out, out-

~~~

"Grian?"

Grian gulped, looking up. The entire table was looking at him expectantly. Xayla gave him a strange look. He knew she recognized what the glassy gaze in his eyes meant.

You don't have to, she mouthed. He ignored her.

"They did some scans. All Xeluph told me was that I had an undeveloped Watcher magic sac in my heart. He ended up developing it-"

Blood. His back was on fire. The wings lay useless on either side of him. The echo of his screams down the hallway.

He felt the grounding warmth of Xayla's hand and blinked the flashback away. "I developed Watcher powers and- and wings, too." Some people had winces on their faces, others just horror. "Xeluph would come in personally to teach me how to- to-"

Purple bursts. Sweat dripping into his eyes. The demands of his master and his feeble attempts to meet them. His failure to block the blasts, and the subsequent pain.

Grian stumbled, breath suddenly coming quick. His eyes darted between the sea of black and white heads. It was too familiar, reminded him of too much- of cold steel and screaming and pain and for it too stop, just to go home and for a shoulder to cry on- the feeling of hopelessness, of despair- of learning to silence his sobs and of feigning indifference, and the blows, and the hurt and blood and tears-

"Xelqua..?"

The name snapped something inside. Grian's hand shot into his cloak and drawing out a metal rod, quick as lightning. He couldn't see, couldn't think- everything was fuzz around him, and there was a thump and gasps- the clatter of the crutches on the ground barely reached his ears, and he still did not stumble.

He blinked and saw purple eyes, glowing up at him, his staff pointed at the Watcher's throat. People were rushing towards him, and Grian's heart beat like a machine gun in his chest, and all he could see was enemy. Xeluph. Watchers.

Despite becoming one, Grian had never separated the idea of enemy and Watcher.

He whirled, spinning his rod around at the growing crowd; escape, escape, his mind crowed, and he twirled the staff and slammed its end on the ground. He did not hear Xayla's shout to him, did not see Xerion. All he saw was Xeluph. Xeluph was in the flecks of their eyes, in the bare of their teeth, and with it came imprisonment and the threat of death lingering over his head.

A shockwave escaped from the end of his staff, and the obstacles, the enemies all fell, and Grian ran. He ran, not even feeling the painful contractions in his back in the form of invisible wings beating. With a slam the door was thrown off it's hinges, and Grian tried to run.

A hand gripped his wrist and he clamped his mouth shut. To scream was to be weak, and Grian had to be strong. Strong-

He looked back and saw the face of a Watcher, and felt his own twist into one of fear.

Breathing was difficult; his chest heaved as he desperately sucked in oxygen, scrambling backwards and away, bumping into watcher after watcher and pushing them away with blasts of magic; they were crowding in, and Grian couldn't breathe, and the murmurs in his ears were loud, so very loud, and-

Xayla came into his vision. A hand was placed on his chest, and faintly he remembered when he'd first met her and she had sat with him in the bloody cell, counting.

"In for four," came her voice. "Hold for four, out for four. There we go."

The world was blurry. The strength seeped from Grian's muscles and he fell forward into Xaylas arms, exhausted.

"Let's get you back to bed," she whispered in his ear. The throbs in his back were coming back in full force. He could vaguely feel blood soaking into his cloak and groaned.

She helped him stagger to his feet, and he stumbled back to bed, face burning with shame and skin prickling with the feeling of eyes on the back of his head.

I ALMOST GAVE YALL A FULL BACKSTORY HA

Thank you for reading! Have a good day or night, wherever you are!

-Ete