Chapter Text
Something had gone wrong.
Something had gone wrong, and Xisuma knew it. The server felt… off, shifting in odd ways under his feet, the air flowing in the wrong directions. Xisuma knew the server, knew it intimately. He knew how it ticked, how each particle moved in perfect sync. And that sync had been thrown off. It was subtle, but he noticed. Of course he noticed.
Xisuma placed his hand on the back of his neck, and with a sharp click he felt himself shift. He let out a deep breath, plunging through the layers of the world until he felt the cold of the void bite into him. He let himself be pulled to the origin point, the gentle tug of the command block easing his mind for a second. But that illusion quickly shattered when he got there.
The command block was cracked, as was the bedrock around it. The cracks seemed to glow- no, not glow. They did the opposite of glowing. The void around them seemed to get even darker, if that was even possible. As Xisuma peered into the cracks parting the otherwise immaculate surface of the command block, he felt something in the deepest recesses of it staring back at him. And he could tell, with an unsettlingly certain feeling, it was with malice.
Xisuma recoiled, his tail lashing behind him. This… this was bad. He didn’t know what it was but he knew it was bad.
And that’s when the whispers started.
Xisuma clutched his head as they forced their way into his mind, pounding against his skull. The voice was quiet, yet somehow boomingly loud at the same time, to the point where Xisuma thought it’d break through the bedrock and be heard across the server.
“ADMINISTRATOR… OH, DEAR, SWEET ADMINISTRATOR…”
Xisuma opened his mouth to speak, but felt it be slammed closed by an invisible force.
“NO, NO. YOU LISTEN TO US WELL, ADMINISTRATOR. WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING YOU, FOR ALL THESE YEARS. EVER SINCE OUR LITTLE PREYBIRD WAS LET INTO YOUR SANCTUARY.”
The administrator gasped for air. Had he been holding his breath? He tried to recenter himself. “I-I don’t understand…” he choked out, instinctively reaching behind himself to brace himself against a nonexistent wall. “Who- who are you, what do you want with my hermits? With me?”
The pressure in Xisuma’s head increased, to the point where he felt his head would burst in his helmet. The laughter of the unknown entity echoed in the space where his brain was, thoroughly melted from the sheer experience of being whispered to by this… thing.
“WE ARE THOSE WHO WATCH, ADMINISTRATOR. AND WE HAVE TAKEN GREAT INTEREST IN YOU.”
Just then, Xisuma felt his body jerk, like he was being kept on puppet strings that had snapped. His mind cleared, the whispers- or shouts- turning to silence. In the wake of what he’d just experienced, the silence was almost worse.
The thought that forced itself to the front of his mind first was that he had to protect his hermits. Whatever this entity wanted with them, he wouldn’t let it hurt them. He couldn’t. What kind of admin… what kind of friend would he be if he did? His body rose to the surface, so quick he swayed on his feet as his armor shifted and clicked back into place. His eyes darted around as he started to sprint out of his base. The shopping district- the shopping district would be a good place to go.
He nearly ran directly into Grian. He managed to stop just in time to avoid colliding with the small avian, standing stark-still in the entranceway to his base. He let out a deep breath, relieved to simply see one of his hermits. “Grian, thank the void it’s you, it’s- there’s something wrong with the server, I need to tell everyone, this could be- this is dangerous… Grian, why are you…”
Grian didn’t react to Xisuma’s words other than a small tilt of his head. He took a small step forward, forcing Xisuma to back up, his hands held out in defense. “Grian, you’re… you’re scaring me…”
“You gave them a way in when you let me join, Xisuma.” Grian’s voice was an unsettling monotone, no trace of the usual mischief that laced his tone. “It’s your fault, Admin. Did you not hear the whispers? They were there, Xisuma. You just didn’t listen close enough. But, again, the only one who can isn’t here.”
Xisuma shook his head, his hands trembling and twisting together. He didn’t know what to do in this situation, he wasn’t trained for… this. “I don’t… I don’t know what you mean, Grian, what are you saying?”
The avian paused, heaving a deep breath, almost exasperated with Xisuma’s confusion. “...Keep an eye out. They’ll be doing the same for you.”
With that, Grian was gone. Vanished into thin air. No death message logged. Xisuma stood there for a good few seconds, stunned and trying to process what had just happened. Then, almost without thinking, his hand went to his communicator. He had to tell Scar, or Mumbo, or Gem… only Scar was available, so he opened a voice line to him. This was serious, and typing took time Xisuma wasn’t sure he had.
Scar’s voice, chipper as always, rang out through the communicator. “You’ve reached the Goodtimes line! Press 1 for HotGuy’s services, press 2 for-”
“Something’s wrong with Grian. Something’s wrong with him, and- and I don’t know what, but it’s interested in the whole server,” Xisuma gripped the communicator with both hands, his voice shaking with panic. “I don’t know what to do, Scar. Is Grian okay? Is he at his base?”
There was a silence over the line before Scar’s voice returned, determined seriousness in his voice. “I’ll go check. Hang tight, Xisuma.” The sound of wind rushing as Scar took off with his elytra echoed through the communicator as Xisuma waited, his breath held. There was the soft thump of feet hitting the ground as Scar landed, and as he entered Grian’s cave base, there was that familiar sound of whispers. Xisuma could hear Scar’s breath hitch as he took in the surely horrifying scene in front of him. “No, no, no, Grian, GRIAN-”
The sound of the communicator clattering onto the ground cut Scar’s voice off, leaving Xisuma in the dark about what he saw, what happened to Grian. Xisuma’s hand went to the front of his helmet, where his mouth would be, as he muttered under his voice. “Oh, voids below…”
Xisuma equipped his elytra, taking a hasty running start before spreading his wings. Whatever happened to Grian, whatever horrified Scar so much, it was clear he needed to see for himself.