Cursed (A hermitcraft and Evo fanfiction)

Chapter 11

*rereads the next few chapters of the original story*

Time to end up with too few chapters...

A couple of days had passed. 

No one knew why Grian and Joe were dead, Scar and Xisuma gone, a mysterious player called Glitch had broken into the server and Cub found unconscious with a vex mask on, just outside Etho's base. False and Jevin were hiding, and no one wanted to talk to EX enough to visit his base, leaving the server full of speculations and rumours with no apparent origins. Etho and Keralis had been looking after Cub since, trying to heal the nasty scars he'd been found with to little avail - whatever had caused them couldn't be a normal Minecraft weapon. Everyone was paranoid, trust beginning to fall apart, and the server slowly falling into chaos. 

Cub woke up. 

'Hello?' He looked around, disorientated and dizzy. He appeared to be inside, the walls a mismatch of colours and textures that could only be in Etho's base. Groaning, the pharaoh tried to sit up, just as the ninja entered the room.

'You're awake!'

'Just about... what happened?'

'I should be the one asking you that... what gave you those injuries?! Healing potions aren't doing anything... and why did I find you in a vex mask?'

'I... uhh... what?'

'I left the mask in a chest in here. The entire server's been wondering what happened...'

'What... happened?'

Memories flooded back. The mission. Grian's death. Glitch. Xisuma gone. Scar gone. False?

'Didn't... False... tell you?' Cub managed to sit up, looking over his bloody pharaoh garb with a frown. 

'No one's seen her since she murdered Grian. And no one's seen Jevin either.'

'Jevin? Why would he know what happened?'

'He killed Joe. But it was all glitchy.'

'What?! Hold on, Joe's DEAD?'

'You didn't know?'

'Uhh... no?' He was supposed to be keeping watch... I wondered why he didn't come and help us.

'Help... you?'

'Yeah. Anyway, I should tell everyone that you're alright. Is it alright if you tell everyone what happened? Everyone wants to know. The server's in chaos. It seems like half of us are hiding now for some reason or other... Tango hasn't been seen since Zed died, Iskall and Mumbo are upset about Grian, Cleo's gone into hiding about Joe... No one knows why Bdubs is barely around...' Etho sighed. 

'That's... not good. But, yeah. We can meet in the shopping district and discuss.' 

'Good. When?'

'Now? I mean... I'm not doing anything.'

'Then let's go.'

It took a decent amount of time for the meeting to actually happen, and for enough hermits to gather. Jevin and False still weren't there, but TFC admitted he did know what happened to Joe. Tango had only come after Impulse had spent all his energy (and a few tears) convincing him. Bdubs was still hiding behind everyone... Cub sat on the stairs up to the town hall in front of all of them, trying to find the right words.

'Uhh... hi?' He began poorly. 'Etho wanted me to tell all of you what happened so... I'm here.'

'Good start, man. Now can you explain what the heck happened?' Doc interrupted, arms crossed, leaning against a diamond tree. Ren nodded. 

'So... uhh... Grian wanted to free EX.' Cub looked over at the new admin as he spoke. The formerly-evil player was looking back at him, clearly uncomfortable. 'And... he gathered a group of us to sneak into Xisuma's base, and do that.'

'Who?' Etho asked quietly.

'Me, Scar, Jevin, Joe and TFC.' Cub counted the hermits off on his fingers. 'Jevin, Joe and TFC were keeping watch for trouble outside, while me, Grian and Scar freed EX. False was there as a guard and attacked us, and killed... Grian. Then Xisuma arrived and asked what happened, and then... then Glitch came.'

'Glitch?'

'Glitch. Some evil version of Xisuma, who came and... used weird magic to get rid of Xisuma, and could teleport, and fought us and... and... was banned, but came back, and pushed me out of Xisuma's base. I landed near Etho's base and... that's... it.' 

'Hold on, dude. What happened to Scar, and why were you wearing the vex mask again?'

'I... Glitch took Scar with him when he was banned. And he destroyed my elytra, so the only way to survive the fall was to put on the mask and use vex wings to fly away.'

'And what happened to Joe? You haven't explained that.' Cleo pointed out.

'I don't know what happened. Genuinely. I was too focused on ensuring that the server wasn't taken over by evil versions of ourselves. Because... Glitch was an evil Xisuma, and when I ended up in Season 6, there were evil Tango and Impulse... Jevin turns into some murderous version of himself. I feel like there must be other hermits like this... it can't just be a coincident.'

'So, you're telling us that we're probably going to be killed by ourselves, but not actually ourselves.'

'yes.' Cub confirmed after a moment of figuring out what Ren had said. 

'And you're sure they're in season 6?'

'Mostly. But it's our best bet for getting back Scar and Xisuma.'

'Now?!' Tango burst out. 'I'm sorry, but we're not doing it now.'

'I never said now...' Cub sighed, adding louder 'We'll do it when all of us are ready to.' 

'Does anyone know why my best friend is dead?' Cleo interrupted. 'Or am I just going to have to break Jevin's legs to get an answer?'

'No legs will be broken.' EX intervened hastily.

'You're not a real admin, Evil X. You don't tell me what to do.'

It was harsh enough to silence him, as intended. Cleo looked around the hermits again. Cub glanced at TFC, and the eldest hermit noticed, hiding his eyes. 

'No? Fine. I'll just murder Jevin then.' Cleo decided finally, flying away before anyone could dissuade her. Cub prepared to follow after. 

'Does anyone else have any questions or anything they want to add?' He asked. Tango raised his hand.

'Do the dead get any kind of burial or anything?' He questioned. 'Because as far as I know, Zedaph's corpse is still in the remains of my base.' 

'We were going to...' Impulse started. 'We were waiting for you to recover enough to go...'

'Well, I'm here now.' Tango crossed his arms. 'So we can do it.'

'Anything... else?' No one answered. Cub glanced to TFC again. 'No? I... guess this is over. Go back to your own things.' The hermits separated, quickly leaving the shopping district empty. 

I can't end chapters without suspense...