No One gets Left Behind (Adopted from ZecoriTheWeirdOne)

Chapter 10 (26)

The back of the mansion? Maybe. Or he could just... Not.

Yeah. Doing nothing sounded really appealing at that moment.

Grian flopped onto a nearby chair, unconsciously curling up into a ball, sighing when he realised he needed to make a supply run for food. He slowly stood up, starting to fly towards the shopping district, crashing into the glass walls of the barge, groaning when he felt the glass shatter, plummeting onto the ground, surrounded in glass shards.

It would only take a few minutes to fix, but right now Grian couldn't be bothered, instead clambering up, hearing the glass crunch as he stood on it; he sluggishly grabbed a stack of beef from a chest, not noticing someone creeping up behind him.

Grian flinched slightly when he felt Xisuma' hand on his shoulder, staying still for a few seconds before Xisuma took his hand off, moving to the front of the now-frozen Grian.

"You okay?"

Grian nodded slowly, gaining a skeptical glance from Xisuma.

"I don't believe that."

"I know you don't." Xisuma sighed, Grian avoiding his gaze.

"We're just worried about you Gri; you've seemed so out of touch since-"

"If you're about to say Evo then I'm going to scream," Grian wanted, making Xisuma shift uncomfortably.

"I mean, but you have..." Xisuma told him, biting his lip as Grian slammed his sword against the crafting table, his hand shaking.

"It's not their fault Xisuma, and if you think for one second- ONE SECOND THAT IT'S THEIR FAULT-" Grian was cut off by Xisuma bringing him into a hesitant hug, seeming to have picked up on the tears threatening to spill over.

"I'm sorry, I... I shouldn't have shouted," Grian whispered, his voice cracking slightly. Xisuma stayed silent for a few seconds, making Grian worry that he was mad at him.

"Grian, seriously we're just worried about you. Like, one second you're shouting and the next you seem on the brink of tears," Xisuma said quietly, looking at the now very interesting ground.

"Oh you mean emotional stability? What's that?"

Xisuma gave him a half-hearted laugh, pulling away from the hug before it got too awkward

"What happened?" Xisuma asked softly, his gaze trailing back to Grian's line of sight, following it back to the floor.

"Nothing," Grian lied, making Xisuma sigh and move to run a hand through his hair before remembering he was wearing a helmet.

"Grian you tell me the truth or I go right through the portal and ask the evolutionists themselves to see what they say."

"I told you, it's nothing," Grian answered, gritting his teeth, moving to walk away and hopefully avoid the conversation he was hoping to avoid.

"Let's see if they agree," Xisuma stated; Grian tried to protest before Xisuma pulled up his admin screens, scrolling down to a heatmap designed map, noticing the splashes of red dotted around the map, wincing when he noticed the bright white splash where he assumed his base was.

Xisuma pressed the middle of the splash, the screen instantly zooming in and circling the area Xisuma had selected, coordinates appearing in white in the corner that Grian recognised as almost exactly where the portal was, reaching his hand out to stop Xisuma executing the teleport command using the shortcut in the top left corner, feeling himself lurch forward as he reappeared in his base.

This all occurred in a matter of seconds, barely giving Grian time to react except for cursing under his breath as Xisuma pulled him through the portal. Grian internally winced when he noticed Netty waiting nearby, her eyes flickering between Grian and Xisuma, looking down when she noticed Grian had seen her.

"Who's he?" she asked, her voice rougher than usual, glancing at the bedrock structure.

"Xisumavoid, admin of Hermitcraft," Grian muttered, shooting a glare at him.

"Why did you bring him here?" Netty asked harshly, a faint hint of anger in her voice, her eyes constantly flicking to the watcher symbol.

"He wasn't supposed to," Grian replied, noticing how Xisuma shifted uncomfortably.

"Did I cause issues or something by coming through?" He asked, frowning when he noticed the galactic scratched onto the side.

Netty followed his gaze to the writing, her eyes widening slightly with recognition, lowering her head.

"I don't understand what exactly what it says, but I was told what roughly it is," she said quietly. "Syra said Grian could understand it, but Syra says a lot of things."

"And no, you didn't cause any issues," Grian butted in, hoping to distract Xisuma from Netty's last sentence. "Just give me 5 minutes to recalibrate the lock."

"Why is the portal locked in the first place?" Xisuma pushed, moving towards it and pressing his hands against it, his arm fading right through the purple instead of simple vanishing through it like it had when he came in. "And what do you mean, Grian can understand it? The characters are flourished in a way that hasn't been used in millennia - it's a dead language," he stated with certainty, noticing Grian's hesitation to respond, making his way over to the portal and pushing against it with purple magic, revealing hidden lines of code that he started to rewrite.

"It's a language called Standard Galactic," Grian muttered, avoiding Xisuma and Netty's gaze. "Language of the Watchers, ancient, as you say millennia old."

"You speak it?" Netty asked, Grian hesitantly nodding.

"リᒷ⍊ᒷ∷ ⊣𝙹リリᔑ ⊣╎⍊ᒷ ||𝙹⚍ ⚍!¡ ⍑ᔑ ⊣ᒷℸ ̣ ∷╎ᓵꖌ∷𝙹ꖎꖎᒷ↸," he stared blankly, tapping the break in the portal twice and closing up the code. "And Xisuma, time to go. You shouldn't have come here."

"No Gri, first explain." Grian looked at Netty helplessly, but she just shrugged.

"If you won't then I will. He deserves an explanation," she told him, gritting her teeth slightly. Grian sighed, turning to Xisuma.

"Fine. But this is going to be a long story."