Battle Scars - A Watcher-Grian AU story

Chapter 20 - X stops being an idiot?!??? Not clickbait!!1!

TW: Mentions of Torture, Mentions of death, Trauma, Mentions of manipulation, Memory altering, you get the idea.

Eyn's head was swimming with the new information. "So... your saying Grian's likely being tortured right now like I was, Pearl became a watcher but forgot, because you put a spell on her, and both of your mannerisms were altered due to the watchers, who took you from EVO?"
"Exactly." Taurtis nodded. "Expect for the fact, uh- Grian's probably a higher priority then you were."
"Notch... We have to move then. If what you say about time in watchers end is true..." Eyn's lips tightened. "We might already be too late."
"Yes, every second wasted means a minute, or possibly longer wasted to save Grian. We need to talk to X..." Pearl replied.
"Pearl, you call him over maybe?. He thinks I'VE been brain washed, so he'll be on edge if it's me ." Eyn shivered. "I can't imagine what you two went through there..."
Pearl stared at her shoes, while Taurtis' mouth became a line.
Pearl replied first. "... Old habits are hard to break. When the memories came back, the habits did too. The manipulation they did... I look at Taurtis and instinctively think, Ah, Unor. Even though I still remember all of Evo."
Eyn nodded, and the three stood in silence, before Taurtis spoke up.
"Weren't we supposed to prepare for X?"
"R- Right. Taurtis, there should be a room with a axolotl aquarium upstairs, wait up there? When you hear me shout in galactic, come back down?" Pearl quickly asked, before typing a message to X.
Taurtis nodded, climbing the ladder to the top floor.
A few minutes later, a knock sounded at the door. Eyn sat off to the side, their admin panels open, as Pearl let X in.

"Heyyy X!" Eyn saw Pearl smile, although even from here they could tell it was forced. "I- Er- Have to do something. I'm very sorry, but hopefully you'll forgive me." She pulled the necklace off, transforming to semi-watcher form.
Eyn took a deep breath at this, grounding himself, and got ready to defend Pearl until Taurtis came down.
"UNOR-" She called, purple fire igniting in her hands, as she weaved it around her fingers.
"P- PEARL-" X stuttered. "You too? And Eyn?" He scrambled back, and Pearl fung a thread of violet flame around his ankle, pulling him stumbling back, as Taurtis landed on the floor, removing his necklace as well.
The two nodded, and purple fire blazed, dipping and churning around their hands, it highlighting their faces in violet light, looking every part of the deities from legends... The two advanced on X, the violet fire surging through his armor, channeling into his eyes. The two seemed to go into a trance, the only movements were their hands, still weaving that glowing thread, manipulating it smoothly
Eyn clenched their eyes closed to try to block out the emotions overwhelming them. They were helping X, it'd be fine. They trusted Pearl after all... But the vision of the two, channeling their magic into X made them tremble with terror. They took a deep breath. X was under a spell of some kind. They didn't want X to end up like them. And Grian was being tortured... They didn't want the already-traumatized gremlin to suffer that type of thing...
"GAH-" Someone gasped, causing Eyn to shoot up. He opened his eyes to see Taurtis and Pearl tucking their necklaces back into their hiding spaces, and X looking around frantically.
"Wha-"
"X, think back, and tell us what you remember of the night Grian left." Pearl said calmly.
"..." X's eyes widened in shock. "They- The watchers did something with me... And took him! I thought he'd betrayed us..."
"He didn't. He's currently getting tortured in the rebel's part of watcher's end." Taurtis replied.
X turned to Taurtis. "Who-"
"Old friend from Evo. His name is Taurtis" Pearl interjected. "We both got taken by watchers, stuff happened and I escaped, but he removed my memory of being taken. We don't have time."
X's eyes widened at the name. "Taurtis..? Eyn do you think...?"
"Yeah, for sure..." They replied, knowing X was thinking of what Grian went through in high school.
"He... Told you?" Taurtis asked.
"Yeah..." X replied. "Don't get annoyed at him-."
Pearl looked quite confused at the fact everyone seemed to have a conversation with half of the speaking done telepathically.
"No, I'm glad. It's rare for him to trust people with stuff. Me and Pearl didn't even know he was a watcher until we connected the dots." Taurtis frowned slightly.
Pearl stared at the ground. "If only he told us..."
Taurtis sighed, placed. "We agreed years ago. It wasn't his fault. He was trying to protect us from them. Now we have to do the same. We'll have all the time in the world afterwards to sort out our emotions. We're all going to need time to heal." Everyone fell silent, staring at the ground.
Eyn sighed. "We need to go." They spoke, snapping the three out of their thoughts.
"Yes- Uh- Let's get a small group of people able to do PVP, and get another group to prep potions, elytras, and rockets. Taurtis, Pearl, would you be willing to help us make gear that can damage watchers?"
Taurtis spoke up. "I can help you forge Obsidan weapons. Pearl will be better at creating transport runes so we can get there."
Pearl nodded.
"Okay. Eyn, could you help me make an announcement to the server..?" X asked quietly.
"Of course." Eyn dipped their head.
X tapped out a message on his com, and Eyn glanced at it, before typing in one of their own.
<XisumaVoid> Hello everyone. I know it hasn't been long since our last one, but we have a urgent meeting.
<EynVoid> If you were even thinking of skipping it, I will come for you kneecaps so don't try me <3
X glared at Eyn for this, but there was no time to argue.

When the two arrived at spawn, the anxious group was around them. X stepped forwards, Eyn behind him.

"Hello everyone. Last meeting I claimed Grian had betrayed us." X sighed. "It's... since come to my attention this was wrong. He's in fact been kidnapped by a group of Watchers known as the Rebels by majority of the Watchers."
"The rebels were the Watchers that took me. The main difference appearance wise is full watchers of the rebels are always in their purple skinned forms, and don't wear masks, unless their trainees." Eyn continued for X.
"I understand if you have your reservations, but since time moves quicker in watcher's end, every minute we spend here, it's even longer Grian's in their grasps, suffering. So we wish to create two teams. One team to prepare items, who'll get Elytras, Potions, and aid Taurtis in making weapons. Taurtis a watcher who's on our side. The other team will be our attack team. They'll sneak in to try and free Grian, and will plan our attack. This team will be lead by Pearl, who turns out is also a watcher."

The hermits exploded with questions, making Eyn's ears almost ring from the amount of noise. They could tell X was getting overwhelmed, so they placed a hand on X's shoulder, trying to reassure him they were there. They looked over the crowd.

"One at a time." Eyn called out, and thankfully, the hermits quieted.

"How do we know X isn't mind controlled right now?" Someone called out
"Pearl did the spell to clear X's memories. Do you not trust your own servermate?" Eyn replied, a bit annoyed at this
"Well clearly she'd been lying to us!" That stubborn voice called out again
"No, her memory had been wiped." X replied for Eyn. "She had no recollection of the ending of Evo, where she had been taken.

"Are we sure Grian didn't betray us?" The stubborn voice wouldn't stop.
"Giving he's probably being tortured right now, it's quite unlikely he's betrayed us." Eyn snapped, causing everyone to stop in shock. Eyn realised X hadn't mentioned the torture thing. They used the silence to their advantage to end this dumb QNA that was going on.
"Great, no more question? Then if you want to join a team, talk to X." Eyn replied, before walking away.

A/N:
Team hermit's on their way to save G-man. But who knows how that'll go... ;)
WC: 1417
- Xera