Grian turned away from the moon and looked out at the world, still illuminated by the moon that now slowly fell down the sky. Watchers of all colors and types were walking around, riling up all the Shadows that originally had come to stand by Fallacy's side - which in the end has ended up being the thing to bring them down. For beings who had the motto 'Stand as one win alone' they really didn't get the whole "every man for himself" mentality of it.

He felt when someone moved next to him, and he also recognized who it was. Why wouldn't he? The presence of a primary is very distinct after all.

"It's good to see you again Quill." Ruby said, tone light and airy, "Though I do wish it would have been nicer than this."

"I'll try not to get kidnapped and mind controlled in the future." Grian dryly joked, it didn't really come out like he has wanted it to but oh well.

Ruby at least humord him with a chuckle, "Yes, you see to that." They sneaked a glance up at him, and Grian met their gaze halfway, "I fear we might not see you again if such a thing were to happen."

"Why not?" Wondered Grian, truly curious as to what his old mentor was speaking about.

Ruby sadly looked up at him, a black hand coming up to rest in his side, "You may be a former Watcher, as well as a member of the Void family, but that does not make you immune. Mind control is not just something you just shake off like it says in stories and myths, no it's a long recovery and a hard road. Most can't bear it. And well, their journey ends with them taking the quick route out."

"Death." Grian mummers quietly.

"The saddest one of them all." Ruby sadly confirms, "One seen far too often."

There was a story somewhere in there, but Grian was not going to push. Today was not the day for such things. It was a celebration of freedom and peace, of chains shattering once and for all. They both knew that, and they also knew that today was not a day for chat of the good old times or to reacquaint with each other. So with a goodbye the old mentor and mentee parted ways once again, each heading back to their own people.

Grian sees EX and the rest of the Hermits by the covered cage and the memories of who were beneath the cloth fills his bones with the need to run, so he follows it. Powerful legs making his sprint there short, much to his liking. As soon as he was close he snapped his maw forward, catching the dark fabric between his sharp teeth, and yanked backwards with his head successfully throwing the cloth off.

The three figures hidden within instantly cowered at the light that now covered them. While it might only be moonlight from a not so bright moon it was still a lot brighter than the complete and utter darkness they'd been trapped in before. All three were awake and looking up at this massive dragon they'd only briefly seen by Fallacy's side, eyes wide with fear and stances frozen. Grian tried to claw at the bars, to break them, but when Markus flinched he instantly stopped. He cooed at the younger in a soothing manner, but that didn't work either.

"Let me." He turned to see EX, red eyes shining with sympathy as he motioned towards the bars, "I'll talk to them."

"Please." Grian pleaded, stepping away from the cage he let his cousin get to work. There was no point with him staying and making the three scared for no reason.

Plus he had to talk to someone anyways. Someone he hadn't talked to in so long. A black cloak appeared out of the corner of his eye, perfectly timed. He turned himself around and walked those last few steps slowly, the high of killing Fallacy slowly fading away.

Death looked up as they saw the shadow on the ground grow bigger, and their eyes instantly softened as they met the violet ones of Grian's. "Hello little one, it's good to see you again."

The hermit gave the white haired being as good of a smile as his dragon form would allow, and he leaned down to be eye to eye with them, "It is. I've missed you."

Death sadly looked at him, reaching out with a phantom hand to soothingly rub his cheek, "And I have missed you as well Parvulus. I'm so happy to see you safe and sound once again." They sadly moved their phantom limb away, a thoughtful look on their face, "There is another within your mind."

"Oh! That's just Rook." Grian explained, laying down to make looking face to face with Death easier, "He helped me escape and now he's just kinda stuck in my mind."

Death was only halfway paying attention to Grian's ramblings about Rook, too focused on the dragon's chest, which sported a noticeable scar from the spear , "I wonder..." With a steady hand they reached out and placed it on Grian's chest. In a second Grian froze up, expecting the pain of Death's withering effect to soon set in. But it never came. "Oh my."

"Death, what's going on!" Grian squeaked out, maw opening and closing as he continued to gape at the zero effect the touch had to him.

"I can not touch what is alive. But the dead I have no effect on." They sadly traced the scar with a finger, touch light on the lightly colored scales, "And before you start worrying, you are not dead. But you were dead, and you don't just walk away from death without consequences."

It took Grian far longer than he'd expected to figure out what Death was referring to, only when Rook quietly reminded him how he'd seen his past did he figure it out. Where Death was touching was where Fallacy had stabbed him, the wound that had killed him. He looked back up to meet Death's eyes, but the old being's eyes were kept low as they looked at the scar, guilt practically radiating off of them in waves. He cooed softly, doing his best to be comforting yet unable to touch the other, and the phantom hand that returned to his face probably meant it helped, and if not that at least he showed Death had gotten what he was trying to do.

"I'm sorry little one, you should have never had to go through this." Death said sadly, hand retracting from Grian's chest.

"You couldn't have done anything to stop Fallacy. To be fair I would probably be dead if it wasn't for you, so in reality you have nothing to feel bad about." Oh Death hadn't said anything about guilt in his sentence but Grian wasn't dumb, he could read between the lines. "This was just as much my fault as it is yours."

"How sly of you." Death chuckled, "But yet I still have to disagree."

Grian huffed out a puff of smoke, eyes narrowing, "Disagree all you want, Dama-" Death's eyes widened at the word, which just left Grian as if he'd been calling Death that all along, "but facts don't lie."

When Death didn't answer him immediately Grian began to worry a bit, "Uh, Death? Are you okay?"

The horsemen opened and closed their mouth silently, teeth making small clicking like noises every time they slid shut, "You, you called Dama."

The violet eyed man blinked in surprise, "I-well yeah I suppose I did." His ears dropped, "Would you like me not to anymore?"

Death quickly shook their head, "No you can call me that if you want! It's just, ugh, I wish to show you how happy I am about you calling me that, but I can't touch you." They took a deep breath in, shoulders slumping. "Ever since I met you that first time in this world I knew you were someone I'd never forget, and I was right. I just hadn't expected to start thinking of you as my child along the way. But then I lost you, and suddenly it all started slowly fitting into place. But now I have you back, I have my little one back, but once again my life takes away any chance of ever giving you the love you deserve."

"You show affection physically don't you?" Grian asked. At Death's slow nod he whined, "And your curse bars you from doing it. That's terrible!"

"As is life." Death mumbles, eyes drifting over towards the gathered group of Hermits a little bit away. As soon as they'd been out of the fight everyone had gone to help heal Iskall as best as they could, with not so good results. His injured arm was practically nothing more than a dead weight at this point, but no one was really comfortable accepting that just yet. Not so soon after it all happened. An idea suddenly popped into their head, "Do you think you can turn yourself back to normal?"

Grian gave them a confused look, but nodded nonetheless, "Yes. And if I have any trouble I can just ask Rook."

"Good. You do that, I'll be back in a bit." The hermit turned dragon watched them walk away before focusing back on the task at hand.

So how do we turn back? Grian asked Rook, gently prodigy the other just to make sure he was still there.

Rook only scoffed at him, I wouldn't know I've never done it before. As Grian spluttered he added, I am literally not even one yet, and my transformation was into this form - not out of it.

We're screwed, Grian thought with a whine.

Inside his mind Rook was laughing, cackling even, "We're"? Oh no your all in this on your own, I'm not the one who said he knew how to turn back after all.

Rook! Grian shrieked, You are literally me! If I'm in trouble then so are you.

For a while the dirty blonde through it hadn't worked, but then Rook let out a long suffering sigh, Fine, but only because I'm unwilling to deal with Death. And so Rook tried his best to help Grian, who thankfully got it down just as Death got back, Mumbo and Iskall both following him like two lost puppies.

They froze as they caught sight of him, this being the first time he'd been human (ish) in front of them since that fateful day in Glaella. Neither of them really knew what to do, all three filled with so much they wanted to do but not sure where to start. Death, on the other hand, knew what they needed to do, "You two show him some love. Half or more should be from me." They then pushed the two forward, making them stumble into Grian, and the only reason the three stayed up was because of Grian's dragon strength.

"This isn't very much like your normally calm demeanor." Grian commented, pushing Mumbo up to stand upright again.

Death pouted, actually pouted, at him, "I know, but I've been wanting to give you a hug for so long and whilst this may not be me giving you a hug myself, I think you might be just as happy with one from those you love the most." They smiled down at Grian, his withered half not making the gesture any less happy or sweet, "Think of it as a hug from me as well."

Grian didn't need to be told twice before he wrapped the two taller men next to him into a tight hug, arms so strong and familiar coming to wrap around him as well. Their smells hit his nose and he just sags, the natural mineral like tinge of redstone the two of them carried dull yet there - so familiar and safe, reminding him of all the times he joked about them needing to shower before they went to bed - laughing about how he wasn't going to have any color of powered or dust in his dreams. Not that they ever listened to him, they just jumped him and rubbed themselves against him, spreading the redstone dust all over him too. And then there was the scent that solidified that he was with them again, that it was all really and not a dream. The rosemary of Mumbo's shampoo, the one that left his hair smelling nice even if he didn't wash for days afterwards, and the sweet vanilla of Iskall, a smell that just naturally always followed the Swede. God bless his new inshached nose, their scents practically just covering him like a blanket now.

He was vaguely aware of the soft words and gentle hands, but to him it was all just blending together into sweet nothings, a breeze of love and affection that just kept sweeping by repeatedly. So when he started purring it came as no surprise to him, and whilst Mumbo and Iskall both startled at the new sound they quickly grew used to it and actively did their best to keep the sounds going.

A few feet away Death watched with a smile, enjoying seeing their Parvulus happy with his boyfriends. They turned away from the three, giving them their peace to reunite, and calmly walked through the darkened fields of the red moon, the moons shine having diminished even more. Their feet took them to the Hermit group, and Death's eye caught Doc's. The creeper jogged up to them, Ren following close behind.

"How is he?" Doc asked, eyes flicking over to the place where he knew Grian, and later Mumbo and Iskall, had gone off to.

"Remarkably well. Though I do fear that's just for now." Death hummed, a sad tilt to their lips.

"No one ever said happily ever after came right after." Doc agreed, subconsciously he rubbed at his metallic cheek.

"And no one said the road to happiness was the easy one." Ren added, taking Doc's hand away from his face and squeezing it tightly.

The horseman agreed to their words with a hum, though they didn't add anything more to the conversation. Though Doc still had something to ask them, "So what happens now?" At Death's look he explained further, "I mean it's over now, Fallacy's gone, so what will you do? Will you stay, leave, or do something else?"

"I'll stay in touch, a visit here and there, though I sadly can't give you all the time in the world. Especially not now."

"And why is that?" Ren asked,

"Did you see those red spirits that were roaming about?" They both nodded, "Well they are all real, dead, beings. Their souls have all already passed on, but due to some weird, messed up, magic Fallacy had been doing, all of these spirits are all new people who will need to be judged and processed so that they can then be reunited with their main soul."

"I got like, four words out of them." Ren mumbled, eyes wide. Death chuckled at his expression, "It is quite complicated, I do have to admit that. But a few millennia in you start getting the hang of things."

This didn't seem to make Ren understand any better so the conversation was dropped completely after that. The couple were heading back towards their friends when Death stopped, "Would you two mind telling the others I'll be leaving to go check up on my siblings? And don't worry I'll see you all back at Glaella when you get there." As soon as they saw the two nod they gave the two a thankful smile before teleporting away.

Back with the Architects Grian was getting out of his totally blissed out state, which meant that small talk had started up. About what they wanted to do, or more specifically what Grian wanted to.

"I want a cat - wait no! I want two cats!" He told them, face scrunched up with determination, "Yes, two cats!"

Mambo laughed at Grian's happy attitude, basking in the feel of his small boyfriend after so long away from him, "Two cats? We can get that fixed, what do you say Snowflake?"

Iskall hummed from where he'd ended up seated - warped up in Grian's wings, the dirty blonde's tail securely wrapped around his waist - "I can get behind that."

"Two cats it'll be then!" Mambo grinned, hands stroking through Grian's hair softly. Much to said man's annoyance ("I didn't just kill a snake for you to ruin my hair!"). Though they soon fell quite themselves, all three tired from all the shit that had happened today. Though Grian had a hard time falling asleep, his mind was still ablaze with thoughts and emotions. So instead he started trying to remember things from when he was Xelqua Void, trying to remember the childhood he never really had. So that's how he fell asleep, thinking about his parents and family, family he now had back.

He had all his family's back.

<End my entire being the ending took so damn long to finish! I've gone through, and I kid you not, 7 different endings before deciding on this one. I wish it all gone. Anyways so fluff! With just a tense sprinkle of angst. Now I don't really have anything else to add so just I'm just gonna go to bed (it is 3:30 AM in a school night and my dad is really judging me) 

So stay safe and have wonderful time everyone!>