Scar's POV-

Scar stared down at Bee, who shifted uncomfortably. "I- You probably have a lot of questions," the bird mumbled, fluffing her feathers. She refused to look at the wizard, instead fixing her gaze on his starry hat.

The Hermit's voice was tight. "You think?" He wasn't sure why he was being so harsh on her. Part of him just felt like she had betrayed his trust somehow. 

This seemed to make the parrot more flustered, and she flapped her wings, speaking quickly. "I'm sorry, okay? But you're the one who refused to listen to me!" She seemed mildly anxious and kept plucking at her feathers with her beak. 

Scar sat back in his chair, still glaring at the bird. "Maybe you should have explained before we left." 

"I tried," Bee exclaimed, her voice cracking. "I tried to tell you and then you got distracted and didn't listen to me! I tried to warn you!" She hopped forward a bit, trembling.

She did, didn't she? She was trying to talk to Scar about Sage. He frowned inwardly. Something about her being connected to him rubbed Scar in the completely wrong way. The wizard couldn't help but feel mistrustful of the bird. He remained silent, a slight scowl forming on his face. 

Bee obviously did not like this. She drew a deep breath, and it was obvious that this was all out of her comfort zone. "Look, Scar, I'm sorry. I-If you want, I can explain what I was trying to say. Anything you want to know." 

That was fair. Scar still wasn't yet sure if he could trust Bee, but maybe she was telling the truth. He could hear her out. "...okay," he agreed at last. 

Bee seemed instantly relieved. She visibly settled, nodding. "Okay. What do you want to know first?"

After just a moment of thought, Scar knew what he would ask first. "Okay, what is your relationship with Sage?" 

"Well," Bee said reluctantly. "That's a pretty broad question. But o-okay." She thought for a second, before launching into a clearly abbreviated explanation. "So awhile back, maybe a week or two before he even emerged, Sage had a grand idea to make a little mole. A spy." She gestured to herself. "That would be me."

Scar didn't realize how tight he was clutching his robe until he let go of it to sit forward a bit. A mole. That's what she was. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and the bird chirped before continuing.

"But, ah, Sage isn't- isn't really that great at coding. He's got some m-memories and all, but those aren't, well it's not like he actually knows things." Bee shifted constantly while talking, hopping back and forth on the table. 

Scar butt in. "Coding?" She couldn't mean...

She did mean. "You know what a cloning machine is, right?" Bee seemed keen to get past this part. Scar grimaced, nodding. He had been correct. 

Before he could say anything, however, Bee continued. "So, yeah. Well, he kinda, well, he screwed me up pretty bad. I can't speak directly with humans, I'm not, y'know, evil-" She faltered on that last word as if she wasn't quite sure whether or not it was true. The hen paused for a moment, regaining her composure, before continuing. 

"But he still liked me. It was like I was a pet. Just a bird created from another bird's being-- oh that one's fine, by the way. He released it-- with little to nothing special about it at all." She seemed almost reminiscent, her voice quieter than before, but not with fear. It was like a part of her missed that. Scar didn't know how to feel about that. She knew he was awful, she knew he was evil. So why would she feel like that? It baffled the Hermit. "He called me Honey, because, well, food. He likes naming things after food, apparently," she continued, yanking Scar from his contemplation. 

Scar nodded along with her tale. Okay, so that was all fine and good. "But you are obviously not there anymore." 

This seemed to worry the bird, as she began tripping over her words again. "I- well, I es-escaped. I escaped and left-- wait that's the same word-- and lived out- out in the wild. I kinda changed my name, y'know, I didn't exactly want to keep the name Sage gave me, and, well eventually I came across y-"

Scar cut her off. "Really? You escaped," he asked, raising his eyebrow with a skeptical expression. Was she lying?

Bee opened her beak, before shutting it, before opening it again. "O-okay, I kinda escaped. I was let out. And then I never went back. There."

Something still felt off to Scar. It didn't sit with him right. But he let it go, and just said, "Okay. Sure. Anything else?"

Shaking her head quickly, the bird answered in a tight voice. "No, not anything in particular. I've, well I've been mostly trying to avoid him, as you could guess." Scar nodded slowly, furrowing his brow. That.. didn't add up. "Any other questions?"

"Yes," Scar answered. His tone was dim, and Bee visibly recoiled, as if she was anticipating an unreasonable question. "You knew what would happen when we went to Mumbo's. How? And why didn't you just say that?" If she had avoided Sage, how would she know about the trap? It didn't make sense.

Scar knew this was definitely not a question she wanted to answer. She hopped back a bit, taking a breath. "I- Oh- I- Well..." She stammered, making nonsensical chirps as she obviously tried to figure out how to phrase what she was going to say. Scar narrowed his eyes slightly. "You- you know Citrus? Sage's little c-cat?"

Scar knew Citrus, alright. The cat who impersonated Jellie for a week. With the shock of everything, Scar hadn't quite had enough time to process things. And now he knew that both his kitten and Mumbo were trapped somewhere, he began to feel sick. "Yeah." His voice was ice cold, and Scar stiffened as he spoke.

Nodding, Bee continued. "Well, I- Well I've run into her on various occasions because, well she doesn't want to leave me alone ever. And sh-she's not great at shutting up either." The bird got faster as she spoke. "And she kinda- kinda spilled that something was up at the base. I- I didn't know what, exactly, but..." She trailed off, her gaze fixing on a grain of the wooden table. 

Scar was still skeptical. Something about her didn't sit right with him. But he wouldn't be getting any answers, would he? The wizard sighed. He could see Bee was getting almost hysterical, and Scar himself was just so drained from that day. "Okay," he said calmly. His breath was rasped, and his face was paled with fatigue. "I believe you." Was that true? Scar decided it was. 

He stood up, turning away. He began to say, 'Let's go,' but he stopped himself. The Hermit had an idea. He turned back to the bird, who tilted her head. "But you're going to help me take him down."

"What?!" Bee hopped forward frantically. "Scar, that's an awful idea, you've seen him and what he can do, we couldn't possibly-"

But Scar had already made up his mind. The wizard's words were final. "We can, and we will. We're going to figure out how to take him out together. You and me."

Shaking her head, the bird opened her beak to protest, but shut it after a moment, evidently realizing that Scar wouldn't be changing his mind. "...fine," she agreed at last. "But we're not doing any sort of heroics or anything. If-- when-- Sage finds out, we're going to have a lot of trouble..." She mumbled this last part, and Scar wasn't completely sure whether or not the words were meant for him.

"We'll stay under the radar, I promise." For now, at least. Scar couldn't shake Sage's calm and creepy smile when he reminded him and Grian to not say a peep to anyone else. And while the wizard would normally disregard that, something told him it'd be best to keep quiet. 

This seemed to relieve Bee greatly, as the bird settled, nodding. "Okay." 

...

The rest of the day was uneventful, just as Scar had hoped it'd be. Bee flew off to her nest, and Scar tried to take his mind off things by working on his magic project. It wasn't going as well as he hoped. 

Soon enough, the sky had dimmed to a deep purple. The sun had retreated into the ground and the moon replaced it, hanging in the sky, shining brightly. Scar was beyond tired, and with what he had planned for the next day, the wizard figured he should get at least a little sleep that night.  

Climbing into bed, he almost forgot to remove his pendant. Sitting back up, the wizard removed his hat and unpinned the magic translator. He was about to lie back down when he noticed something about the pendant that he hadn't before. The yellow pendant shined brightly, illuminating the pitch-dark room with a bright glow. But something was off about it. The more Scar stared at it, the more he realized that the pendant seemed to be flickering. Not the glow, but the entire thing itself. As if it couldn't decide whether it wanted to exist or not.

Scar was tired, wasn't he? 

Yeah, that must be it. The wizard placed the pendant gently in his pouch and lay back down, soon drifting off to sleep. 

Scar blinked as he glanced around. Hm, this didn't seem normal. He was standing in the middle of a forest, surrounded by bees. Yes, bees. Huh. He couldn't seem to recall how he got here, or why there were so many bees. Why were there so many bees? "Hello, bees," he called out, confused. "Why are you here?"

The nearest bee turned to the Hermit. Its eyes flickered red and Scar stepped back. But they soon returned to normal and the bee never attacked the wizard. "Beware bees," it said before turning back.

Confused, Scar cocked his head. "Why?" But he got no answer.

Scar awoke to the sun shining through a window. That was an odd dream. He thought it was, at least. What was his dream again? He remembered something about bees being ominous. Hm, strange. Well, he didn't really need to dwell on that. Not right now, at least. Right now, he had business to do. 

Checking his pouch, the Hermit retrieved the heart-shaped crystal, glowing a vibrant pink. He smiled as he pulled up his communicator. 

<GoodTimesWithScar> Hey Iskall, want to meet up?

Not five minutes later, as Scar was finishing packing up some foodstuffs into his bag, his communicator dinged with a message.

<Iskall85> Yes! I'm free now
<Iskall85> Come to Grumbot's platform?

After replacing the precious crystal in his pouch, Scar quickly typed out a response confirming the place. He could hardly contain his excitement; this was easily his most difficult creation yet. Now was the real test-- to see if it worked. 

--------

Iskall's POV-

Grinning widely, the Hermit awaited Scar's arrival. He stood behind Grumbot's large, mechanical body, where a much smaller robot shell leaned up against it. It had a multitude of wires connected to its back, connecting it to the big form.

It had come out perfectly. With a large, square head, a computer screen buzzed with ones and zeros. Atop its head sat a mop of dirty blonde hair, and an antenna stuck out of it, topped with a red bulb. It was like a smaller version of the original build. Its body was made entirely of gray sheets of metal, with different panels of darker gray across it. The anatomy of it strongly resembled that of a human; the bot had arms with hands with five fingers each, and it had two legs, though it seemed like it was wearing boots. It was about half a foot shorter than Iskall. On its chest was a wide gray panel with a blank screen. 

But Iskall didn't have much time to admire his handiwork as a certain Scar came flying in. He landed just next to Iskall, barely missing the swede as he crashed not-so-gracefully to the ground. Iskall barely held back a snicker as he helped his friend up. "Hallo, Scar," he greeted warmly. 

Scar smiled at Iskall, though there was something hidden far beneath that seemed a bit off. "Hell, Iskall," he said. Gesturing to Grumbot's soon-to-be new body, he asked, "I assume this is what I was needed for?"

The swede nodded. "Yes, yes it is!" As he spoke, Scar dug through his inventorial pouch to pull out a crystal. It was heart-shaped and glowed pink. Quite honestly, it was exactly what one would picture a crystal containing life to look like. "Woah..." He marveled at the crystal and Scar chuckled.

"This took a while," he admitted. "I hope it works!" Iskall nodded in agreement. It would be rather anticlimatic if the crystal decided it wouldn't work after all this effort was put into making it.

"Only one way to find out." Iskall stepped up to the panel on the bot's chest and pressed in a little bit. A small compartment was revealed, a glass box-like thing with what seemed to be a pressure plate at the bottom of it. Scar handed Iskall the crystal with the warning to be very careful with it, and the swede gently placed it into the compartment. He pressed on the panel again and the compartment shut, fixating the crystal in place.

Iskall stepped back and the two waited a moment, before Scar asked, "So what exactly is supposed to happen?" Iskall narrowed his eyes. Something should have happened. So why didn't it? He walked back up to the form and looked over it. It seemed to be.... vibrating. It began to vibrate more and Iskall stepped back again.

"I think something is definitely happening," he said. Iskall's eye widened as the screen on Grumbot's head flickered for a moment before two bright blue eyes appeared, along with a bright blue moustache. It looked nearly identical to Grumbot's screen on his large body, except this was much more dynamic, flickering as it moved to different sides. It blinked. It was a lot less stationary. 

Iskall was thrilled. And so, apparently, was Scar, as the Hermit gasped. "It worked," he exclaimed. "Oh gosh, it worked!"

"That's so omega!" Iskall was grinning from ear to ear. "Hallo, Grumbot," he said, stepping forward. He held his hand out, and the other tentatively took it, nodding. His eyes were wide. "How are you feeling?" The swede asked.

Even though Grumbot didn't seem to have a mouth, a slightly robotic, but mostly human voice came out. "Disorientated, but overall alright." It came out as a sort of yell, and all three people there jumped. 

Scar stared, amazed, at the creation. He still seemed shocked that what he had done was successful. "Hey, Iskall, those wires," he pointed out. "Do you..."

Oh, right, the wires. They had just been for transferring information, but that had finished a while back. "Right. Grum, I'm going to just get those off of you. Alright?"

"Sounds great," the bot agreed. After Iskall had safely taken them off, Grumbot stretched and tested out his legs. Oddly enough, he didn't say a word. Iskall didn't know what he expected, but he figured something would come up. After all, he had been stuck in an unmoving position for months. 

Scar seemed to notice too, as he muttered to the swede, "He's not very talkative." Iskall nodded in agreement.

"Hey, Grumbot," he called. Grumbot glanced up. "You doing alright?"

The bot nodded. "Yeah, why?" His voice was still yelly, but Grumbot seemed to be attempting to get it under control. 

Iskall shrugged. "You just aren't talking much, and I was, er, concerned." 

Grumbot shrugged but didn't say anything. This was thoroughly confusing. he was just talking when Iskall asked him a question, so why not now?

That's when he realized.

"Hey, Grum." The bot looked up. "You can't talk unless you're asked a question, can you?"

An instant response. "Nope. Same as always." 

"Oh." That was a slight issue. 

Scar seemed unsurprised by this. "Well that's disappointing," he remarked. Glancing over, Iskall saw a frown form on his face. "I don't suppose there's any way to fix that."

Shaking his head, Iskall realized that there probably wasn't. And even if there was, he would run the risk of accidentally causing more harm, and that was something he really didn't want to do. The swede stood up straighter. "Well, we'll find a way to work around it." After a second, he added, "Right, Grum?"

The bot nodded. "Hopefully." Without warning, the bot walked up to Iskall and gave him a hug before stepping back. His eyes tilted slightly with happiness. 

Iskall turned to thank Scar for his help, but realized with a start that the wizard was no longer there. "Wh-" Where did he go? Why did he leave without even saying goodbye? What was that about? Iskall hadn't even heard him leave.

Deciding that he'd check in with him later, the swede put back on a smile and turned back to Grumbot, who also seemed confused. "So what do you think about saying hi to Grian?"

"I'd like that."

-(Author's Rambling)-

You have no idea how long this chapter has been waiting in my brain to write.

In other news, Unrecognizable officially has a Discord server now! Why? I'm not entirely sure myself, but I thought it might be fun. Join if you so wish, but don't feel pressured or anything! I hope to see you there!

https://discord.gg/tmZ3fu3dj7

Anyway, thanks for coming, and I'll see you in the next one, my little Readers!

Promise out!