Battle Scars - A Watcher-Grian AU story

Chapter 8 - A Wild EX has appeared

A/N: Slight Violence, Mind Control

Xelqua opened his eyes again to his celling, lying in his bed. Right. He had to exhaust himself. Twice. Great. Just Great. And giving he wasn't on the floor, the hermits had found the two of them. He sat up, the room lurched for a second as he did. 

Guilt rushed through him as he remembered what he had done to Pearl. It felt unethical... But what was even more unethical was pulling Pearl into the watcher's business. Mortals shouldn't have to deal with their civil war. They'd already seen the issues with that. The rebels saw players as collateral damage... No, he had to get ready for the interrogation that was sure to follow this. He was taking a deep breath when X walked in through the door. Oh no. He wasn't ready- He didn't have any lies thought up...

"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, Grian." X stared in his eyes, the visor making still making the eye contact uncomfortable for him, but it didn't force him to look away, which was lucky, as it'd come off as more honest.

"What do you mean?" Xelqua replied, tilting his head to try to sell the illusion of innocent he was trying to make

"Do you not remember anything happening to Pearl or you?" X questioned.

"No..?" Xelqua lied, carefully trying to not reply to quickly or too suddenly.

"We found the two of you passed out on the floor together three days ago." Three days..? He must have been close to magic overuse... Luckily his necklace didn't limit his magic so much it killed him...

"Three days... Wait- Is Pearl okay?!" He sudden asked. Pearl had dealt with watcher magic before, so it was unlikely there were complications... That typically only happened when players hadn't been exposed to magic. But there was a chance... There always was one... Memory wiping was risky. It's far easily to fully wipe or under wipe then to wipe a specific part... And if he was so close to death to magical exhaustion..

"Yes, she woke up a day after she was found with you. Just so you know, We're going to need to keep a far closer eye on you. Again, I want to ensure... Everyone's safe. I'll be getting a charm to aid you against the mind control, if it is that."

"H-Huh?!" He pretended to seem panicked. Well, pretend wasn't the right word. More like channeling his panic into his speech. "You think I've been mind controlled?"

"It's going to be okay- I'm getting an enchanted object from the other admins that I can give to you. But it'll get here in a few hours" X tried to reassure him.

He nodded, taking a deep breath. This would be tricky... He could play the mind control card now, but if he got this enchanted object, it'd be a device that would attack any users of watcher magic, and it could kill him... He might need to bail, and reach Kanvi or Ark in mindspace to let them know... "It's not like anything could happen in a couple of hours."

Almost as if it was timed perfectly, X's communicator started beeping with an alarm as Grian's simply pinged, before blowing up with notifications.

X quickly tapped some buttons on his communicator, looking panicked. "Oh notch- Grian, are you okay to walk?"

"Maybe?" He stood, and nearly fell over. After a second he got his balance. "Yep!" He was glad the heat was off of him... He didn't think X trusted him quite as much anymore...

"We need to get to spawn-" X looked at him. "I got an elytra, can you fly with me?"

"Yeah." Xelqua flapped his wings experimentally

"Are you sure you can keep up?" He glanced at the avian's wings.

"I'm certain."

"Okay..." X said, uncertainty underlying his voice, led Grian out, and began to glide.