Code Name: Connections (Discontinued)

One's House Is Another's Prison

Gem started to think a lot more now that she wasn't busy with her base. While some of the other hermits talked about solutions to their problems, considering asking directly from the Watchers, Gem was in her own head. She couldn't stop thinking about what Pearl said. They'd joined Hermitcraft together, taken in under the Watchers as what was supposed to be an act of kindness. But they'd done so much already, how was sparing the two of them supposed to make up for anything?

"I wish I came with you," Gem whispered under her breath, catching the attention of Cub.

He scooted over, "Gem are you alright?" Gem sighed, pushing her hair out of her face.

"To be honest Cub, I don't know," She admitted as the voices of once calm people started to thunder. "I think I know who's behind all of this."

"Who do you think?" Cub asked. "I wanted to assume EX, but this is far too large a scale."

"Yeah, at first that's what I thought," Gem said, moving her fingers across the dirt in the ground, "But then I started thinking about what someone said to me." Cub listened quietly, his black hair hanging over his face, tangled and sweaty from a fight. "But you have to promise you won't say anything. I don't want... I don't know what I want."

The storm of fighting was growing.

"Gem, it's okay." Cub confirmed. "We can't let this tear us apart."

"It's Pearl." She said, "I haven't seen her, but I can't be more sure. Those... Nociceptors as they call themselves, keep saying they killed her, but I don't believe them. She's angry, and to be honest, I am too. She came to me and asked if I wanted to join her and I wanted to... say yes..."

Gem and Cub sat in silence, somehow blocking out the cries of their friends, every hermit trying to promise themselves that everyone was okay. That they would all be okay.

"I wish I could've said yes too." Cub said.

"Maybe they wouldn't've done all this," Gem lemented.

"Maybe..." Cub wondered. "We can stop them."

"How?" Gem said, finally looking at him. Cub pulled his communicator out and pulled a picture of old runes on yellowed paper. A drawing of colorful crystals filled the center of the page.

"These crystals are said to be older than the Watcher's themselves. They hold a power that anyone can wield." Cub explained. "When X-VE tried to take them and force them to become a Watcher asset, the crystals defied him. They provide power to separate worlds, keep entire dimensions held up... Scar had some."

"Isn't he X-VE's eyes?"

"Yeah, but those crystals kept X-VE from taking control of his body." Cub grabbed a stick and drew in the dirt, drawing crystalline shapes, "He threw them away when he got caught, just outside of my base last season, and they grew."

"So how are we supposed to get all the way back there?" Gem asked, "We'd need a time machine or something..."

"Each Hermitcraft world is stored somewhere," Cub explained, "But there are more places we could find these... wonders..."

"Cub," Gem said, looking at him, eye's wide, full of something. "We need to get out of this cage. We need to betray the Watchers and Nociceptors."

Cub nodded, grabbing her hand in a shake, "We need to find those crystals."

~~~

Mumbo watched the sun set, holding a bundle of woods as he walked back to the base they had set up. He never wanted to return to Evo. It was the worst day of his life, that was for sure. Grian probably felt the same. For having so much in common, they couldn't seem to find ground to stand on.