Chapter Text
Grian woke up in a dungeon. It was very cold and wet. And filled with people’s severed heads. That wasn’t too strange for hermitcraft… but still. Kinda weird. There were a lot of heads, someone was just killing players for fun. He couldn’t say he was surprised, he did once make a game out of collecting his head. But the dungeon was very dark down there and every time Grian moved it would set off a sculk sensor. That brought up some trauma that Grian wasn’t ready to deal with. He hated sculk with a passion now.
He rubbed the back of his head. It stung, as if someone put a health pot where he got hit there. Well… Grian guesses he got hit there. He clearly got knocked out, probably by the other him. That guy seemed like a jerk. And a wimp. Although he was surprisingly good at combat. Was there a war against Grumbot here too? No, there couldn’t be, if there was the other him wouldn’t have stopped him from blowing up Grumbot, unless he had been converted. Grian didn’t think Watchers could be converted. Then again Grumbot did have two whole years to study him. Grian still wasn’t fully caught up on everything he missed. He ran off to this place pretty quickly, maybe he should have stayed longer. But now’s not the time for lingering on the past.
No one here looked like they’d been converted, none of them had sculky eyes, but maybe that wasn’t a side effect anymore, maybe Grumbot didn’t even need the wiring along people. Grian had missed a lot if that was the case. Grian should try and get back to his world, get more intel on Grumbot. He should have waited before charging after it. It was too late now, he was in a prison cell. He opened his inventory to get out his pickaxe, when he found out it had been cleared. Fun. He did NOT feel like punching metal bars to get out of here.
A door opened, light spilled into the dungeon. Grian heard the clicking of hooves as someone walked down the stairs. “Hello? Who’s there?”
The woman with the sword from earlier became visible. She didn’t have her sword anymore. “Hi sword lady,” he said as she walked over.
“I have a name.”
“Okay… What is it?”
“You claimed to be Grian yet you don’t know who I am,” she replied snarkily.
He shrugged in response. Maybe she’s this world’s False! She wasn’t an avian, nor blond, but still! She was as good at combat as False, if not better! “I know who you are, you’re False.”
By the look on her face, she wasn’t False. “Not False. I’m Gem.”
Huh. There were new Hermits here, that’s interesting. “Hi Gem.”
“Why are you here?”
“Why should I tell you?” he couldn’t help but smirk.
She smirked in return, “Maybe because I have the keys to the cell you're in.”
Grian sighed, if he wants out, he’ll have to answer her questions. “Fine. I’m here to decommission a robot.”
“Yeah, I saw, but why?”
“Because it’s a dictator.”
“How is he a dictator? Doesn’t he want to make Mumbo mayor? Not himself.” She was very dismissive of Grumbot, and the threat he posed..
“It’s a long story.”
She sighed, “Whatever you say. You’ll tell us at some point.”
Grian raised an eyebrow. Us? “Who’s in here with you?” He started to scan the room for invis particles. He wished he had his bow so he could shoot whoever was invisible.
“No one’s in here apart from us.”
Grian didn’t buy that for a second. He was more than used to being lied to. Someone was in here, there had to be. “Don’t lie to me. Who’s in here? Are they converted?”
“Converted?” She looked actually confused. She’s a good actress. There was no way Grumbot was here and no one had been converted. Someone was in here, listening in.
“Just tell me who’s in here. Please.”
“No one is in here other than you and I. When I said us, I was talking about my friends outside. I was going to tell them.”
“You mean Grumbot.”
“What do you have against Grumbot?! What did he do to you to make you this paranoid about everything? And don’t say long story.”
Grian sighed. Maybe she wasn’t lying. “Well… do you remember the mayoral election? Did that even happen in this world?”
“Yeah, but that was back in season 7. I hadn’t joined yet.”
Huh. “What season is it then?”
“Season 9.”
He blinked, “What.”
She sighed, “It’s season 9, Grian. I’m guessing it’s still 7 where you're from then?”
“Maybe, I’ll never tell.”
She sighed, “Are you going to answer any more of my questions?”
“What do you think?” he replied sarcastically.
"Be happy X won't let me use... more extreme ways of getting you to talk." With that, she let out a huff as she left the dungeon, leaving Grian alone in the dark, again.
✢ ✢ ✢
X had come as soon as possible. He was about to message Grian about how he cloned himself, when he received a message that Gem needed help keeping a prison. Now he was sitting at Gem’s table, letting her interrogate a version of one his players from another universe. He was surprised with how calm he was, and how calm everyone was. Pearl and Grian were passed out on the couch with Mumbo sitting awkwardly between the siblings and Impulse was sitting at the table with him.
Xisuma studied the comm “Grian” was carrying. It was very different from any other comm he’d seen. But it also didn’t seem like a mod. It synced up to the server instantly, it also added “Grian” as a player on the server. Whoever made this was either an admin or had a lot of redstone skills. It was the kind of thing Zed would cook up or Doc would make. X put the comm down next to Impulse so he could take a look. Xisuma pulled up “Grian’s” and normal Grian’s code on his admin panel. The two looked very similar. But “Grian’s” code was much less glitchy then Grian’s. Grian’s code was always glitching whenever X pulled it up. X asked if he could fix it for Grian, but he said he’d do it himself. That was season 6, Grian’s code was still a pain to deal with. X found himself avoiding pulling it up wherever possible it had gotten so bad. Part of him thought it was on purpose. But anyway, “Grian’s” code wasn’t glitchy, or at least as glitchy, it was bearable to look at. It is pretty much the same as Grian’s, the only difference was in their species and the name. Grian’s name said he was Grian, while said that it had been changed to Grian from something else that X couldn’t find. For the species; Grian’s was unreadable due to glitches, and “Grian’s” said Watcher. X was a little shocked to see that “Grian’s” code just casually said he was a god. That had to be a glitch, right?
He needed a better way to tell the two Grian’s apart. “Grian” and Grian wouldn’t work long term, although he hoped this wouldn’t be a long term problem.
༄ ༄ ༄
Mumbo couldn’t help but be a little nervous. Grian had only been gone a day, but Mumbo felt he would have been back by now. Maybe something had gone wrong. What if Grian had been captured again? But he had to wait. There weren't going to be people sent after Grian till a week with no contact. Mumbo hoped Grian would be back soon. He was worried about his friend.