No One gets Left Behind (Adopted from ZecoriTheWeirdOne)

Chapter 18 (34)

His communicator buzzed as he landed in the new world. The familiar nausea hit, the previous events rushing in after a second. The crushing terror and grief gripped him now that his emotional walls had been let down, but he did his best to keep it off his face. The rest of the hermits followed suit, with Taurtis coming in last, being supported by Iskall. 

Grian looked around for any Evo members, catching sight of Martyn.

"Oi, Martyn!" He called out, dragging his attention over to the dysfunctional group. "Do you think you could get Netty over here? Or Syra, or just, y'know, someone?"

"What, am I not good enough?" He laughed, taking in the rest of the hermits for the first time. "You brought your cult of crazy friends along?" Grian winced slightly before he answered.

"I've probably not been very open about the current- watcher situation. It's gotten- A lot worse, put it that way." He shifted uncomfortably, pushing away the memory of his most recent encounter. "I'll explain it later." Martyn nodded, his eyes widening in shock when he saw the brunette at the back.

"Is that-"

"Later," Grian cut off, unwilling to explain it separately to everyone. Martyn hesitated a second before nodding, grabbing his communicator and sending a message, presumably to Netty. Grian probably should've thought of that, but he was struggling to focus and think properly. 

"Who's that?" Xisuma whispered to Grian. For a second, he sounded like Mumbo, and for a second, Grian thought he was there right next to him, whispering in his ear.

"InTheLittleWood, mostly called Martyn, he/him," Martyn cut in, clearly able to hear Xisuma's whispers. Xisuma opened his mouth to answer, but Grian cut him off.

"It'll probably be better for everyone to introduce themselves once everyone's here," he explained. Xisuma reluctantly agreed.

Grian walked towards Taurtis, who had at this point regained consciousness although he was still clearly suffering from blood loss among other things. Martyn cleared his throat, waving his communicator vaguely in his direction.

"Netty wants to know if she should bring the rest of the evolutionists? Because apparently Pearl's in a good enough position to come over or summin' like that."

Grian hesitated for a moment. "Oh, what the hell, might as well get storytime over with." Martyn nodded, typing something in response. He gripped Taurtis tighter, pressing his face into his shoulder for a brief sense of reassurance. Taurtis was here. That's what he'd been working towards for the past year, but only now was he beginning to question whether it had been worth it. 

Taurtis loosely held onto Grian, more resting his hands than with any actual force. An unwilling tear slipped out onto his cheek. He wiped it off with his hands now bloodied from Taurtis's sweater, smudging his face with red. The small hermit stepped back, giving his friend a small smile before looking around at the hermits. They all looked exhausted.

A few of them were whispering angrily to each other, some were leaning on each other or clinging to some other form of physical contact, but most just looked like they were ready to collapse. 

Martyn coughed, raising an eyebrow at Grian and motioning with his head towards where the rest of the evolutionists were standing. Pearl was leaning subtly on Netty, but looked in a better state than before. 

"Uh, so... I probably have a lot of explaining to do," Grian stated, shuffling slightly. A few eyebrows were raised. "Everyone from Evo knows about the Watchers, but the Hermits probably don't know as much. All you really need to know is that we're at a point where we need to run."

"I think 2 watchers went rogue, and then it escalated," Pearl added quietly. 

"Wait, are you defending them?" Netty asked, a hint of accusation in her voice.

"I mean, sure they're assholes already, but didn't it start with 2 watchers breaking the rules, then we took action against them? I hate to admit it, but I feel like we pushed them towards it." The Grian pushed them towards it went unsaid.

"She does have a point," Tom admitted. 

"Do you mind carrying on? We're still pretty confused-" Grian hesitated for a moment, letting Pearl's words sink in. She brought up a very good point. His fault.

"They took Taurtis, and through a series of events, they kidnapped Pearl and we located the location of one of their hideouts. We got Pearl back, got access to the old Evolution server where they were keeping Taurtis. There- Never mind." His voice cracked slightly as he thought about it. "I didn't proof the portal properly, they have access to both of these servers now. We have a day at most."

There was silence for a few moments, before Netty's face lit up. Grian realised that he'd shifted slightly out of the way, so that Taurtis was visible, because they wouldn't have seen him yet. It had been nearly 2 years since they'd seen him. Nearly 2 years since Grian messed up.

Netty engulfed him in a tight hug, so tight that he started coughing slightly. Netty loosened her grip after that, but more Evolutionists started to pile in. Grian didn't join in. 

The hermits had assembled on the other side of him to the evolutionists, giving an almost sense of divide between the two groups. Grian couldn't help but smile as he saw the genuine happiness on the Evolutionists' faces, but he also couldn't stop a tear from slipping out again. Because sure, Taurtis was back, but at what cost? And he felt bad for even thinking it, but was it really worth it?

Xisuma offered him a supportive smile, as did Taurtis hidden in amongst his friends. It was enough to make him feel elated, but yet still wasn't enough. He wondered if anything would fill the hollow, empty hole now inside of him, but he knew that if anything could, it would be his two families.

His two dysfunctional, stupid, incomplete families.

Look if Martyn's character is wildly inaccurate don't blame me, ok. The description for his character I was given was friendly, smart, sometimes witty, swears, blunt, likes puns