Xisuma landed neatly at the entrance to his guest tower, folding his wings and turning to wait for his companions. Tommy and Tubbo were fast learners, but they had only just learned to fly this morning. They weren't too far behind though- Xisuma could see them winging through the jungle, gliding over the canopy. He kept an eye on them, ready to swoop in if one of them lost their balance, but to his relief, they both managed to soar up to his tower and land unscathed.

Tommy grinned. "That was fun!"

Xisuma gave him a small smile. "Let's go see Dream, shall we?"

Tommy and Tubbo trailed after Xisuma as he walked briskly to the living quarters of his tower, knocking on the iron door. A moment later, it creaked open, Bad on the other side, holding a chocolate chip muffin in his free hand. "Oh hi Xisuma! I assume you're here to see Dream?"

Xisuma nodded and Bad stepped aside to let him in. He noticed Nihachu and Wilbur sitting together on the sofa, strumming their instruments and humming a light tune. Wilbur gave him a little nod in greeting and Nihachu beamed. "Hi X!"

"Hello." He gestured towards Wilbur's guitar. "Love the music."

Wilbur smiled. "Thanks man. I heard you play guitar yourself?"

"I do."

"Maybe we could play together sometime?"

Xisuma's mouth curved upwards in a small smile. "I'd like that."

Nihachu laughed and nudged Wilbur gently. "Stop distracting him. He's here to talk to Dream!"

"Oh right." Wilbur pointed towards the bedroom door. "He's in there. Techno's with him right now."

Xisuma nodded and approached the room, Tubbo and Tommy trailing behind him. Opening the door, he took in the scene.

Soft, golden bars of sunlight streamed into the room through the window, warming up the whole room. Dream sat upright in a bed, his mask off. Techno sat next to him on the edge of the bed, the two debating about something. Xisuma only caught the words "potato farm" and "accident", which confused him, but he decided not to comment on it.

Dream turned to Xisuma and smiled. Xisuma studied his face carefully. He had messy blond hair, and a few light freckles across his nose. His eyes were the most intense, focused green Xisuma had ever seen, and while they were gentle, Xisuma could see a certain hard, coldness behind them. There was a thin, white scar that stretched across his face, from slightly above his right eye, over his nose and ending on his left cheek.

Xisuma could tell there was a story behind that, but judging from they way Dream preferred to wear a mask, decided not to ask.

Perhaps he and Dream weren't too difficult after all, with him preferring to have his helmet.

Tommy, however, did not have the inclination to keep quiet, and blurted out, "I didn't know you had such an epic looking scar!"

Tubbo poked his friend in the ribs, and Tommy whacked him right back. "What was that for?"

Dream winced and fumbled for his mask, slipping the white porcelain surface over his face, concealing his expression. "It's nothing. Just... a mark from before."

Xisuma turned to Tommy and Tubbo. "Why don't you guys go keep Bad company for a moment? I need to talk to Dream about some admin stuff." His voice invited no discussion.

"Yes." Tubbo agreed, dragging Tommy out of the room, Techno watching the exchange with amusement.

"So", Dream spoke first. "Xisuma I assume?"

Xisuma nodded. "How much do you remember?"

"Up to opening the portal. How long was I out?"

"About a day."
Dream nodded, sighing in relief. "That's not too bad."

Techno smirked. "We really could have used your diplomacy though."

Xisuma laughed in agreement. "Your friend here is very handy with a sword, but a little less with words."

Techno gave a fake scowl. "I'll have you know that I'm an ex English Major thank you very much."

Dream laughed. "Well I apologize on behalf of Techno for whatever he did."

Xisuma waved it off. "Oh no, don't worry about it. He didn't actually hurt anyone. Now, I was wondering maybe if the three of us could have a little talk on what in the world is going on?"

Dream nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good idea. Oh, and sorry about attacking your code. I would have tried for a more diplomatic approach, but we were running out of time."

Xisuma nodded. "Of course. No worries though, no permanent damage done."

Dream laced his fingers together, pausing. "I'm a little worried about the code. Techno told me that your world was attacked - uh before I attacked - and respawn was turned off. That's also what happened to us, although ours felt a lot scarier. So I'm afraid that this is linked. I don't think we've really escaped anything."

Xisuma nodded slowly. "That makes sense. Do you have any ideas on what it might be?"

"No. I know it has to be an admin though- only an admin would have these abilities."

Techno glanced at Xisuma. "Would your world, by any chance, have an extra admin?"

Xisuma froze, memories flickering in his mind. "Two. There were two apart from me. One we parted with on good terms. The other... he's gone. He's not coming back."

Dream paused, reading Xisuma's expression. He could tell that Xisuma didn't want to talk about it, his purple eyes glittering with fear. "It's fine. It's probably not someone we know anyways. But so far I think the only thing we can do is to keep a lookout.'

"Constant vigilance." Techno agreed, running his hand down the side of his blade.

Dream hesitated and glanced at Xisuma. "I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble. You've built something great in this world, and I don't want to be the cause of the end. If you don't want us here, I can open a portal to another world."

Xisuma shook his head. "No. Even if I wanted you gone, which, to be clear, I do not, I have a feeling that the code disruptions brought us together for a reason, not that they randomly just so happened to you and I."

Xisuma couldn't see Dream's expression behind his mask, but he imagined that the masked man was smiling.

Dream nodded slowly and stretched. "Uh, I feel kind of sore after laying around for so long. Can someone come with me to the shopping district to get wings?"

"I'll come." Techno rose, sheathing his weapon and glancing at Xisuma. "If you don't mind, that is."

Xisuma waved his hand. "Of course not. Have fun!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After what Xisuma had found about Tubbo's code, he had checked everyone's code. Dream, although a powerful admin, couldn't do much as he wasn't linked to this world's code like he was to his own and while he could run some simple commands and radiated power, he was unable to assist in checking the codes of the players. Which was fine, as Xisuma found nothing else. He wasn't sure if that should have made him worry more or worry less.

Instead, he directed his attention to the festival that was going to take place that evening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The festivities ran into the night. The hermits and SMPers decided to settle their differences and celebrate the odd events that had brought them together with a little festival. Lanterns glowed brightly on the trees, mirroring the countless sea of stars on the sky. Laugher echoed through the warm summer night air as the hermits challenged the newcomers and other hermits to mini games. Some players simply walked around, starting snippets of small talk.

Tubbo was excited to learn that Xisuma was also a huge fan of bees, and the two kept up a conversation about the fluffy insects well into the night, often becoming the topic of gossip along the other partygoers.

Techno put up a firework show fairly early in the evening after swearing up and down to Dream that he wouldn't get anyone killed "this time", which had alarmed Xisuma, but nothing had gone wrong and they had all enjoyed the vibrant splashes of colour as the fireworks burst into a million flecks of light in the night sky.

Bad walked around, offering people muffins. Of the three varieties he had, chocolate, blueberry and cinnamon sugar, the last one seemed to be the most popular and by the end of the night, multiple hermits were begging him for the recipe, which he had refused to reveal.

Slowly, as hints of rose gold and soft splashes of pink began to appear on the horizon, hermits and SMPers headed to bed, minds buzzing with excitement and exhaustion.

They were content.

They felt safe.

They were simply unaware.