Has He Changed? (Hermitcraft 7 fanfic)

×Chapter 6×

  It had been almost four months since Xanthus came to the server to stay. And for some reason, he never seemed to get mad. He would get agitated yes, but never angry at anyone or anything.

   Most hermits boiled it down to Xan trying to control his temper after having so much trouble with it before. He would ramble to himself more often, and sometimes even seem to snap back to attention at the weirdest times.

   Stress and Tango brushed it off, as he had always rambled to himself and tended to struggle with payin attention.
   
   Jevin and Joe seemed to notice that Xanthus was acting off. Joe noticed at first because he thought he saw Xanthus in the barge then at the enchanted book shop in the span of a few seconds.

  Joe hadn't heard any rockets, nor running across the paths through the stores. He explained it to Jevin when they had crossed paths and the blue slime agreed that Xanthus was acting off.

   Joe was worried for his friend and hoped nothing was wrong with his coding. Joe went to the Xvoid brothers' base, finding Xisuma coming up from a ladder in the ground.

  "Hey X." Joe called, waving at his friend as he landed near him. 

  The admin turned around, looking startled but quickly brushing it off.

  "Hiya Joe! How have you been?" Xisuma replied, turning off his administration screen on his arm.

  Joe noticed X's actions, but ignored it to respond.

  "Doing good. How about you? Heard a lot from Xanthus but barely from you?" Joe stated, glancing around the base at the upgrades that had come while Xan had been here.

   Xisuma shrugged a bit, adjusting his shirt slightly. "Same old, same old. Just a bit more lively with my brother here."

  Joe nodded, leaning against one of the walls. "Lately though, Xanthus has been acting weird. He seems to be glitching or something. I wasn't the only one to notice. Jevin and I are worried for him."

  Xisuma tensed up, worry mixing with guilt in his mind. He had a thought dance through his head that his messing with the coding of his brother made him begin to glitch.

  "Are you sure he's glitching? Could just be moving fast. He has always been a fast walker." X replied, glancing at the area outside his base, thinking he heard rockets.

   "Yes. How else would he be in the barge then the enchanted book shop within a few seconds without any rockets going off or hearing any sprinting? He also has stopped talking to a lot of his friends. Whenever he does, it's very little. Like he's scared to speak." Joe explained, following Xisuma's gaze to the skyline.

   Xisuma only nodded, glancing at the ground. He had really hoped this wouldn't happen. But since Joe was the only one around and knew how to keep a secret, he decided to tell the truth.

   "Joe. I have something to tell you." Xisuma looked at the man wearing glasses, sighing softly.

   "What is it?" Joe tilted his head, frowning in confusion and worry.

   Xisuma waited a bit to reply, gaining up the courage.

   "I messed with Xanthus's code. I was scared he could go all ""Evil X"" again, so I tweaked some settings until he was harmless. I didn't realize that changing the coding would cause him to glitch. He didn't glitch for the first three months so I thought it was okay. Then you came to me with this information and I'm regretting doing that to him."

   Joe stood there, in awe and fear of the admin's ability to change a whole person. He couldn't be mad, because everyone was a little scared that Xan would turn into E.X. at any time if someone ticked him off.

  "Wait, does Cub know about this? He is the other admin after all. Wouldn't he have known from the start that you tinkered with someone's coding?" Joe questioned, worried and in slight panic.

  Xisuma only shook his head. "If he knew he would have stopped me. And it was for the greater good of the server."

   The hermit in front of him only nodded in understanding.

   "We should keep this a secret. I'll come over every so often to help you with commands and such, you might need it to fix up Xanthus's coding now." Joe stated, earning a sigh from the admin.

  "Yeah.. but how am I gonna hide this from Xanthus? I mean he lives here too." Xisuma replied, frowning.

  "That ladder you just came from there, it's a secret room right? That's why it's in the corner where a carpet could be put over it. We could work down there." Joe suggested, cocking an eyebrow at the admin.

  "Fine. But we need to make sure this stays between us." X said, huffing softly.

  Joe was about to reply when sniffling and the scuffle of running feet cut him off. It seemed to fade until rockets filled the air with a figure disappearing into the distance.

   "Crap.. that was Xanthus..." Xisuma mumbled, eyes wide still at the fact his brother had heard the conversation.