Battle Scars - A Watcher-Grian AU story

Chapter 16 - Literally no one is having a good day.

TW: Memory altering, Brainwashing, Trauma, Torture, You get the idea. he same TWs as the past two chapters

Xelqua awoke. It was so good to be home, to finally be able to sleep. He trembled at the thought of the torture he'd gone through... The pain, the scars... Shivering, he went to roll over, when a flare of pain from his wing reminded him of his state. He remembered that specific session vividly...

Pearl had smirked at his trembling, chained up form on the floor of the cramped cell. "Are you finally going to give us the power we want, watcher scum?"

"N- No..! I'll never do it!" He gasped, knowing of the destruction the players would cause. He wished he could fight back but the magic restricting band they had put on him had weakened his magic to the point where he couldn't even summon a ember.

"Then you get what you deserve." Pearl laughed, reaching slowly towards him. Slowly, she ripped feathers out of his wings, causing him to strain away. Eventually she was content with the  feathers, and went for the bone. With a slow motion, she snapped the delicate bone in both of his wings. Pain was all he felt, through his whole battered, broken body. 

He shook the flashback off with a swallow of fear and pain. And the pain was all their fault. All their fault, the watchers saved him, their fault, the watchers were right all along, he should obey them.

Wait, what was he thinking? That was a odd train of thought... He dismissed the worry about it as a watcher walked in. This was Kanri, the watcher who'd saved him... Why did he think of that in such a hesitant way? They'd clearly saved him, he should think that without a doubt. 

Notch, his head hurt. 

Wait, where was he? What was going on? Why did he keep thinking the watcher saved him, they were the ones to torture him... The watchers had saved him, the pain was the player's fault, he had grown up with the watchers, he should obey them... NO, these weren't the watchers, they were the rebels, they'd hurt him...

Obey obey obey, it echoed in his head until he thought it was going to explode...

"It failed again. Full memory alterations are so hard to do..." Kanri sighed. "See if you can get Westina, or possibly Zenoth or Xinith, depending on if the head watcher will allow them out of the cells. The more magical power, the more chance for success."

"Yes Mx. Kanri."

"Time for attempt 34... Prehaps attempt less to numb the trauma, but just alter it to come solely from the mortals..."

Purple fire danced behind his eyelids as he fell back into the bed mat, falling into a purple tinted abyss...

"It's with great sorrow that I inform you that Grian has been helping the watchers all along. He brought five of them onto our server last night, and attacked me." X dipped his head. "I'm fine, but I had to ban him. If you see him, or his helsian counterpart who joined the server a while ago, known as NPG or NPC Grian, please report them to me instantly."

Pearl stood off to the outskirts of the group, Eyn nearby. The other hermits showed various reactions to this information. Most of the group seemed surprised, but believed it. Doc had a 'I told you so' sort of expression on his face. Boatem seemed hurt, some, like Mumbo and Scar, seemed disbelieving, but mostly shocked. 

It's sort of a habit of hers to watch others' reactions before deciphering her own. Personally, she couldn't believe that Grian would betray them for the watchers...Gah, her head hurt all of a sudden. Holding her hand to her forehead, a memory floated back to the front of her mind, almost like a veil around it was torn away.

Her walking into Grian holding their mask...

Grian apologizing... Trying to convince her it wasn't that bad...

Her being scared he was going to hurt her...

Him trying to reassure her, seeming hurt that she though he'd harm her...

Him doing... something with his magic. 

Altering her memory? It must have been, as she didn't remember it until now...

Grian had altered her memory? Suddenly X's story seemed a lot more believable. But she thought it through. Grian had seemed desperate. He was trying to keep his secret safe... Which made sense, given she kept talking about the watchers in a negative light. He'd been desperate and acted on impulse...

She still couldn't believe Grian would help the people who kidnapped him from the start. And there was something else... She just couldn't put her finger on it... But something was telling her to wait, be careful, think it through.

"Pearl, are you alright?" Eyn asked quietly, likely noticing her visibly being in slight distress.

"Yeah, sorry. Just a headache." She lied. "I'm going to bail, tell X I'm heading to my base."

Eyn frowned. "... Alright. First though, what do you think of what X is saying..? I don't quite buy it..."

"It's... possible. But something doesn't quite click. Like, why would he help them if they destroyed Evo and kidnapped him. But I don't think X would lie about that sort of thing..."

"Yeah... Why indeed..." Eyn seemed to be connecting some dots, before glancing at her. "After the meeting, mind if I meet you in your base?"

"Alright..." She dipped her head, before quickly slipping away from X, who was rambling about safety procedures or something. Not that it'd be any help if the watchers assaulted a server again...

Somewhere in the rebel headquarters, the runaway watcher cursed. He'd only been able to pull forwards a poorly hidden memory, not the more buried ones he'd caused. He'd have to slip through, which was risky when he couldn't look into the server before teleporting in. But, he had to go now. He'd been gone for too long, the watchers would just watch him and locate him by that, and all hope for saving Grian would be lost. 

He used his magic to launch himself through the hole in the defense, closing his eyes as he felt the other servers fly by, letting his magic alone drag him. He opened his eyes just before he got into the server, using a spell to stop himself from spawning at the world spawn, but instead with Pearl, and in the last second, he wrapped a disguise around himself to turn himself into his player form. 

With a flash, he spawned on top of Pearl as he entered Hermitcraft. Spawned on top of Pearl in the most literal sense. He fell right on her head.

"Ow- What in the primal's na-" She looked up to the figure, shock covering her features. "Taurtis?! Your alive?!"

A/N:

Sorry this chapter was so short! I wanted to end it on a cliffhanger, and that was the smoothest part to end it on. 

Also, mystery person has been revealed! Did you guess it? But yeah, Taurtis was the person on the songs list that I relate to the song Rät.

ALSO: I'll give you a tiny bit of Fluff soon I swear- Please don't murder me T-T

Pronouns update:

Kanri uses She/They

WC: 1188

- Xera