Hunted | A HermitCraft AU

Welp, there goes Xisuma's wellbeing

"Stress is dead." 

Xisuma blinked in surprise, staring up at False in front of him.

Her hair was mattered, blood stained her clothes and dirt and grime marred her face. She looked exhausted, fidgeting with the nether star in her hands. There were dark bags under her eyes, and as Xisuma looked over at Doc and Mumbo, who were standing on either side of her, in an aqually wrecked condition, he felt confusion well up within him. 

What had happened? It had been a week since he'd seen any of them, and he knew that Grian had been worried. Iskall had been gone too, although Xisuma, Joe, Ren, Xerexis and Grian all trusted that wherever Iskall was, Mumbo was taking care of them. It thankfully seemed that they were right, although based on the first thing False had told him, he had a bad feeling about what had happened. 

"What do you mean Stress' dead?" Xisuma asked, his voice trembling slightly, and False narrowed her eyes. 

Before she, or Doc could say anything else, Mumbo placed a hand on their shoulders, stepping between them to face Xisuma. 

"We went looking for Stress to see if we could catch Kady. No one was doing anything, and we were worried that Kady and Rowan were making plans against us, so we cornered Stress, and fought her. We killed her, and we expected her to respawn, but she didn't. Kady explained to False, before she was caught, that if a hermit has been used as a host for more than a month, then they permadie." Mumbo explained, and Xisuma let out an audible gasp, muffled to the others only by his helmet. 

"We have Kady here, but we won't get Stress back." False said bluntly, tossing the nether star onto the floor in front of Xisuma. 

"We fortunately found Scar though." Doc chimed in. "Him and Cub were found. Cub was moving and alive, somehow, although we aren't sure how yet. Him and Scar are in the medical area. Cleo was also there, but she was on the floor, unmoving. No pulse, no breathing, nothing. Whatever magic was used on them, or whatever was done on them, it worked differently on them, probably because Cleo's a zombie." 

"So we have Cub back?" Xisuma said, still surprised and mildly shocked, and Doc nodded. 

"Yeah. Cub didn't seem to have any memories though, and Scar refused to speak to any of us except for Mumbo." Doc said. 

Mumbo nodded his confirmation. "I can't say anything though. Scar and Cub swore me to secrecy." He said. 

Xisuma nodded, leaning against the wall as he took all of that in. 

He mainly felt numb. 

Stress was dead. Permanently. 

Sure, he knew it had happened to Jevin. He knew it had happened to Cleo. he knew it had happened to Cub (and then somehow reversed). 

But Stress... 

Stress was an innocent party. She was dragged into a war not her own, and while everyone else had been admittedly, save for Xisuma and Grian, her more so than anyone else. 

She'd been used as a puppet by both Kady and Rowan until her death. Terrified, not able to do anything, and mindless. First it had been the actual puppeteering by Rowan, in control of Xisuma. Then Kady taking control of her. 

She'd done nothing wrong, and yet she'd been killed for it. 

At least in the cases of the others, he could see some logic behind them. Cleo was used as something to control False, and False's actions had gotten Cleo killed.Cub had been snooping in on Area 77, a prohibited area, so when he'd been caught, they had every right to punish him. Jevin had been participating in a rebel group and had the bad fortune of getting caught of course he deserved to be punished. 

It took Xisuma a good minute before he realised what he'd thought, and he felt sick. 

Sick that he had thought that about his friends. 

Sick that he'd been so apathetic towards people who didn't deserve to have been killed. 

No one deserved what had happened. Lest of all those who'd been killed in the crossifre of his war against Rowan. 

Xisuma felt sick from his own thoughts. 

Maybe Xerexis was right. 

Maybe Xisuma was a traitor. 

...

Maybe this was all Xisuma's fault.