Rehabilitate and Adapt

Dreams and Reality

Gria's eyes snapped open and she almost jumped out of her bed. She could see the moon through the hole in the middle of her base and it looked like it was around midnight. She must have only slept for an hour or two.

What was with that dream? She thought.

The small girl looked around and quickly realized she wasn't wearing her glasses. As she put them on, she noticed a strange shadow in the corner of her room. 

It's probably just from a pile of chests or something, she told herself, but a little voice in the back of her head told her there was something else going on.

"I need sleep," Gria muttered, and she put her glasses back on the table next to her bed. Cub was right, she really hadn't slept in a while. It was probably making her paranoid. 

She rolled over so that she couldn't see the shadow anymore and tried to go back to sleep, but right before she drifted off she felt eyes watching her from the darkness. Gria sat back up in her bed and peered into the shadows the covered her base.

"Wh-h-o's-s-s-s th-th-the-ere?" She called. 

"Why, Gria? Don't you recognize me?"

"N-no?" she told the voice. "Wh-h-o a-are y-y-you?"

Slowly, the creature stepped out of the shadows so she could see it. It wore a long black cloak to hide it's face, the same one it had worn when Doc had been bitten by that spider.

"W-w-what-t d-d-do y-y-you w-w-wa-ant-t Sh-sh-shap-pe-sh-sh-shifter?" Gria spat.

"'Shapeshifter?'" the creature asked. "What kind of name is that? That just won't do. You, my dear, may call me, Mistrust."

"Y-you d-din't-t a-ans-swer my q-question," she hissed.

"I told you in the forest," he said. "I just want to catch up."

As he said those words his body began to morph into another form. His bones broke and reformed and his skin seemed to melt. It was so horrifying that Gria shut her eyes and curled up against the wall by her bed, hoping he would disappear.

When she opened her eyes, Mistrust was gone. Where he once was now stood a man with short, black hair, headphones, and a blue t-shirt.

"Like I said, Gria," he told her. "We need to catch up."

~

Xisuma stayed by Doc's side all night. 

"Please wake up, Doc," he whispered. "I couldn't live with myself if you died."

He waited for a moment as if that would make Doc magically wake up, but it didn't. Doc would wake up when his body decided he was healed enough to, and words wouldn't speed up that process.

Sighing, Xisuma turned to grab another healing potion, but as he did, he heard a noise behind him. He quickly turned around to see Doc's robotic eye flicker before whirring again and staying on. 

"Doc?" the admin asked. "Can you hear me?"

"Du musst schreien?" Doc groaned. "Mein Kopf tut weh."

"I have no idea what you're saying."

"Oh, right," the creeper hybrid muttered. "Can you talk a bit quieter? My head hurts."

"Of course," X told him. "Aside from that, how are you feeling?"

"A bit sore, but I think I'm alright," Doc responded. "Where's Gria?"

"I made her go home because she refused to sleep," the admin told him. "Want me to ask someone to get her?"

"Of course!" The cyborg exclaimed, practically jumping out of the bed.

"Alright," Xisuma chuckled as he pulled out his communicator. "Joe's going to go get her. For now, just relax."

Doc groaned but flopped back down on the pillow. As he waited for Gria and Joe, he looked around the room he was in. Two of the walls were made entirely of glass. There was a large table in the middle of the room and some shelves with different redstone parts labeling them against the walls. 

They must have turned Cherry into a makeshift infirmary, he though.

After a couple minutes of waiting, Xisuma's communicator buzzed. He quickly picked it up and read the message. As he did so, his heart dropped and the blood drained from his face.

"What is it?" Doc asked the other hermit.

Xisuma hesitated before responding, "It's from Joe. He just saw the shapeshifter grab Gria and teleport away."

~

Sorry this one took so long to finish! I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with the story, but I think I now have an idea of what I want to do next.

Thanks for reading!