He was falling.

He only had a few seconds to register that before impact with the land, and even if he'd have tried to fly his wings were too tired to carry him. He stared up at the light blue sky for a few more seconds, wondering why there was a sort of brown-ish grey-ish smoke coming in from all sides, before seeing a purple spark out of the corner of his eye. The dragon had come out of the staff, and he knew it was following orders to protect him. Oリᒷ was smart, even in their dying moments.

Oリᒷ. Dying moments.

He didn't have time for his mind to roll around to T∴𝙹 because his eyes closed and his head tilted to the left as his eyes fell shut. The dragon stood on his chest, at a small size but ready to grow at any moment.

* * *

"What's that?" Scar asked Jellie, who meowed affectionately and brushed against his hand from the barrel she was sitting on. He could see a black dot, or maybe smudge, or maybe just... thing, in the sky that was travelling downwards. He furrowed his eyebrows as it got larger and closer to the ground. He stood still - torn between getting closer to where it would land and running away from it - and watched as it rushed past the Boatem bases and Watcher temple at an outrageous speed before finally hitting the ground.

Which wobbled, like a small earthquake.

Before he could stop himself he ran towards the new crater. Some of the disturbed dirt and stone had risen up and created a dusty haze. Scar wafted some away, coughing as some got in his throat, before seeing the black figure with a purple, firey dragon sitting atop his chest. It looked at him quizzically, head tilted to the side.

"Gah!" He yelled upon seeing it, falling backwards and shuffling away. He watched the dirt fog settle before thinking to tell people.

<GoodTimesWithScar> Boatem

<GoodTimesWithScar> Grian

<GoodTimesWithScar> Fell

<GoodTimesWithScar> Help

His messages were a good representation of what he was feeling.

<GoodTimesWithScar> Dragon

He added for good measure.

A flood of new messages came through, and he told them just to get to Boatem. First to arrive was Impulse.

"Hey man, I was just building, what's going- oh." He said. "How... what? Why is he even... I thought- what?"

"I don't know, he just- there was a black thing in the sky and then he fell and it was him- I don't know." Scar replied, as Cub, False and Gem showed up.

"What's the dragon?" Impulse asked, hopefully rhetorically because how could Scar possibly know? He stepped slowly forwards into the crater, "I wonder if it's friendly."

"Yeah, because any old dragon is gonna be friendly." Cub replied.

"You never know..." Impulse replied. He walked forwards slowly, approaching it and crouching down, putting his hand out to it like he would to cat. "Well hello there little-" The dragon screeched and multiplied in size to dwarf the hermits, holding it's wings out. Impulse stumbled backwards as quickly as he could, and it shrank back down to the cute size of a small dog. "You were right, Cub." He said, getting his breath back from the jump scare.

"As I always am, my friend." The scientist replied.

A little while later, all the hermits were there, stood in a circling around the crater.

"Why is there a dragon?" Bdubs asked.

"I don't know but trust me when I say it isn't friendly." Impulse replied.

"But it's so cute." Stress said. A couple of people chuckled.

"Is he okay?" Iskall asked, now speaking about Grian.

"Is he breathing?" Cleo asked.

"Do Watchers even breathe?" Ren replied.

"If he is alive, is he safe? To us, I mean." Jevin asked. Doc got his sword out. The dragon hissed.

"Doc!" A few people yelled.

"What? If he isn't safe we need to defend ourselves." He defended, not noticing the way the dragon was staring at him. He looked down at the Watcher hybrid, contemplating something. "Don't get mad, but-"

"Are we going to get mad, Doctor?" Bdubs asked, glaring at him.

"Hear me out, hear me out," the creeper replied, "if he is dangerous, then... right now he's weak, and now could be our only chance-" The dragon shrieked at the same time Mumbo said;

"Don't you dare finish that sentence."

Doc didn't put the sword away, so the dragon woke up Xelqua by giving him a small shock of magic. It's orders had been to wake Xelqua up if he was any danger - not to sort out the danger itself unless asked to - and wake him up if T⍑∷ᒷᒷ found them.

Xelqua sat up drowsily, having to use his arms to do so, and immediately saw Doc with his sword. He briefly lit his hand on fire to kill him, but was only strong enough to knock him out. Notch, he hated being drained like this. He hadn't noticed it during the battle, he'd been running on adrenaline so much he'd even forgotten about the pain in his thigh, which came back to him sharply.

Doc fell to the ground, Joe and Stress - who had been stood next to him - immediately going to his aid. False pulled out her own sword and he did the same to her.

"W⍑|| ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ?" (Why here?) He muttered, leaning on his staff to stand up. It hurt, and he felt too tired to be walking, but he didn't want an audience, which was what he seemed to have collected. He saw the start of his mega base, exactly how he'd left it, and made a decision because that was what he needed to do. He took small steps forward, limping, for a few seconds before coming to a small hill; the edge of a crater. Had he made it when he fell? Suddenly he was very grateful he didn't take damage from anything other than magic. He sighed, trying to step up through the crumbly dirt, still leaning on his staff to try and take as much weight as possible off his legs.

"Grian?" He heard Mumbo say, and he was vaguely aware the moustached man had begun walking towards him, but the dragon had got bigger again and stood between him and the human, bending it's wings backwards to defend him from all the angles the hermits could get him from.

Xelqua stopped, flapping his wings gently just to double check, but they were too weak. They felt like they were in a dream; not quite controllable. He took a few more steps forward, his eyes fixed on the cliff of his base, before he couldn't anymore. He was too weak. He'd been stupid, wasting his energy. He let the unconsciousness take over his brain, closing his eyes.

"Grian!" Mumbo yelled as he saw him begin to fall through the dragon's translucent body. He ran forwards, ducking under the purple fiery wing and skidding on his knees to catch the Watcher before he hit the ground. "Grian..." He whimpered, not sure what to make of the whole situation.

The dragon saw and shrank down to the size of a parrot, landing on Xelqua and looking up at Mumbo. The redstoner looked back at it, holding Grian, no, Xelqua (that was right, right?) tighter and refusing to let go. He was expecting it to shriek again and maybe actually do something to him, but instead it stepped off of Grian, grew to human height and stared at the rest of the hermits for a few seconds each before shrinking down again and standing on the staff's head, which was on the floor.

Mumbo watched it for a second, before turning Xelqua onto his back and lifting him up, being careful of his wings. When the dragon didn't show any signs of stopping him, he started walking to Grian's base - which was where he seemed to have been heading. The rest of the hermits followed, Bdubs carrying Doc and Stress carrying False.

Scar cautiously picked up the staff, slowly raising it off the ground and watching the dragon as he did so. The dragon hopped off the stick and onto his shoulder. His eyes widened.

"Impulse." He whisper-shouted. "Turns out it is friendly."

* * *

Xelqua blinked slowly, looking up at the stars that twinkled peacefully in the darkness, oblivious and unaffected by what had happened. He sat up, realising he was on a bed, and looked around. Oリᒷ's staff was leaned against the bedpost, glowing gently. Mumbo was leaned against the bed on his left, asleep, and he noticed that the hermits were all nearby, leaned against the inside walls of the cave or chests or each other. The dragon was curled up in Scar's lap, who was leaning against Cub, was was leaning against a shulker box.

He realised the winged creature must've deemed the hermits safe, hence he was in the position he was in.

And then it all hit him.

And he started crying, silently, taking off his mask, pulling his legs to his chest and wrapping his wings around himself, replicating the protective barriers Oリᒷ and T∴𝙹 had surrounded him with when he first found out what was going to happen.

For one of the most powerful beings in the universe, he felt very, very small. He felt powerless, even though his magic had mostly recovered already. He felt useless; it was because of him Oリᒷ and T∴𝙹 had died. Tears streamed down his face uncontrollably, staining his dark jumper, and he tried to pull his wings in even tighter around him. He didn't want to be there anymore, he just wished he'd implode. He tried not to make any noise, tried to sniff quietly and sob without using his voice box.

Something tapped his wings, so he opened them up slightly to see the dragon looking at him sadly. He let it in, letting it sit on his lap, and he hugged it. The dragon and the staff was all he had left, and even they wouldn't last long. He stayed like that for a few minutes.

"Grian?" He heard Mumbo whisper next to him. He stopped crying, not wanting to be seen or heard in the state he was in. "Uh, Xelqua? That's your name, right?"

He lowered his wing to see the black haired man, kneeling next to the bed and facing him. He nodded.

"It's a nice name." The redstoner whispered, looking at Xelqua's purple eyes. "Can I... do anything to help?" He asked, hesitating slightly. Xelqua shook his head slowly, starting to close his wings around himself again. Mumbo reached out his hand and gently touched the wing, stopping the Watcher from hiding. "Can't I try?"

"There's nothing you can do," Xelqua said quietly after a moment's silence. He didn't want to talk in the Watcher way, he didn't feel like he deserved to. What kind of Watcher was he to let all of this happen?

Mumbo ignored him, and instead gently lifted his wing out the way so he could hug him. Xelqua let him, leaning forwards into the taller man's frame. He started crying again, wrapping his wings around Mumbo and remembering the last hug he'd had with Oリᒷ.

"I have nothing left." He sobbed quietly.

"You have the dragon, whatever it's called." Mumbo whispered back, stroking the gremlin's hair.

"Not for long," he replied.

"What do you mean?" Mumbo asked, glancing at the small creature.

"It'll die once it's carried out it's orders, now that it's owner's gone." Xelqua replied, voice breaking slightly as he had to say it out loud.

"What are it's orders?"

"To protect me until... until T⍑∷ᒷᒷ..." he trailed off. Silence stretched out for a few minutes.

"You... you have me, and all the hermits." Mumbo said. Xelqua chuckled bitterly. More silence echoed morbidly, until Mumbo sighed. "I... every day for the last two and a half months I've told myself that if I ever saw you again I'd say sorry, even though how I treated you was unforgivable, and now I will. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner. I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I'm sorry I wasn't a better friend. I'm sorry for attacking you when I should've been there for you. I'm sorry for everything I did wrong." Xelqua pulled away a bit and looked up, meeting eyes with his friend.

"I'm sorry too, sorry for worrying you and not talking, I'm sorry I wasn't better to you when all you did was care for me." He replied, another round of tears coming when he realised he could never say sorry to Oリᒷ and T∴𝙹. He leaned forwards again, hugging Mumbo tightly and grabbing onto his blazer, never wanting to let go. "I'm sorry for saying you weren't my friend when that's what you've only ever been."