Battle Scars - A Watcher-Grian AU story

Chapter 19 - Identity crises, insanity, and brainwashing

Tw: Gore, Mentions of Death, Torture, Trauma, and all that fun stuff

Pearl... or was it Era? Her head felt like it was full of cobwebs... She awoke with a jolt, panting. There was Unor... Taurtis... Standing before her.
"Pearl- It worked?" He asked anxiously. She didn't respond, and he asked again more anxiously. "Pearl..?"
"I..." She held her hand to her head, tears forming in the corners of eyes. "Taurtis... Unor... Who am I?" She whispered.
"Your Pearl. Nothing I showed you changed that..." Taurtis looked at the ground. "But you remember..?"
"Kinda... There's gaps..."
"That's to be expected. The amount our memories have been muddled with, our thoughts. But I should have been able to get most of the effects out of the mental altering. I did a similar thing to myself after I remembered enough. It comes back to you in waves with the right triggers."
"I just... It feels wrong. Like I'm not natural in my own skin"
"It's because of the disguise." Taurtis explained quickly. "It was part of what I did before I threw you out the portal. A clinging illusion spell. Any admin magic or watcher magic used on you, it'd crumble. But none has been used on you so far, thankfully." Taurtis created a crystal on a chain, and passed it to her. Pearl recognized it as the same type as Grians.
Foreign knowledge flooded her brain. Taurtis had just created a Illusion crystal. It glows slightly purple due to the enchantment. It's the solid form of a player-form illusion spell, as Watchers discard their humanity apon taking the ritual. She shook the odd sensation off, and listened to her friend.
"Keep this. It'll hide your form. But- Maybe hide it under your hoodie, if Grian had on unhidden." Taurtis explained. "I'm going to take the spell off of you, alright?"
Pearl nodded. With a flick of Taurtis' hand, she turned into the semi watcher form. She spread her wings for the first time in years.
"Pearl... Do you hate me?"
"Oh Taurtis... No... I'd have done the same thing in your spot." She smiled at him, wing wrapping around him.
The door swung open, and a extremely concerned and slightly confused Eyn stood there.
"Uh-" Their eyes widened.
"For Primals sake." The two cursed in unison. They'd have alottt of explaining to do.
"What is the most preferable way to solve this-" Pearl turned, speaking to Taurtis in galactic.
"Well we have to explain, clearly, should we wish for their aid. And they appear to be the person Grian is closest to in this server."
"True. Very well. We will explain."
"... You do know I can understand galactic, right..?"
The two glanced at eachother, back at Eyn, at eachother.
"Well this is incredibly awkward." Eyn commented.
"Indeed." Pearl replied. She took a deep breath. "This'll be hard to explain. I just learned it now. It's a longgg story."
"I'll fill in the blanks." Taurtis nodded.
Pearl sighed, sitting down, to tell the story she'd just learned.

Xelqua burst awake. No no not again- After he'd fallen asleep was always when the worst happened- His body hurt like the primals themselves had burned it from the inside out. But he realized after a second he no longer was lying in a stone cell. Memories attempted to overwhelm him, Pearl, X, Mumbo, Eyn... The hermits all torturing him, simply for his power... He shivered from fear, his throat horse from pain

"Xelqua, your safe." A fellow watcher was standing in the corner of the room, in full watcher form, as was typical purple skin and multiple eyes unblinking.
"Y-... Yes, thankfully. Forgive my breech of conduct, but I do not recognize you, and I'm too battered to practice typical meeting formalities." He commented. The line had a bit of a stutter at the start, as he tried to use his horse throat.
"I am Kanri." The watcher replied.
"Pronouns?" Xelqua tilted his head.
"They/Them, thank you."
"It's simply out of the respect you deserve." Xelqua replied with what was considered the proper response to this sort of thing for someone who outranked you, and he pretty easily assumed Kanri outranked him.
"How are you doing?" The watcher almost sounded concerned, which meant a lot from a race where it was considered great weakness to show emotion.
"... Bit battered." He rubbed his own hair. "Mentally and psychically. But I'll get through it."
"Good. Glad to hear it. Don't worry about conduct, I'm just glad your okay, after all those players put you through." Kanri smiled at him, reassuring him his breeches of conduct weren't about to be punished harshly.
"Yeah... They're monsters." He shuddered at the memories. "Specifically that one named Pearl... And the admins... Pearl broke my wings... I don't think I'll be able to fly for ages... And the admins burned me with their magics... Another player shoved vile potions down my throat..."
Screams filled his ears, his own as pain seared across his wings, his arms, his chest... A hand was placed on his shoulder, grounding him.
"... Sorry." He whispered.
"It's alright, your safe here. You'll be able to heal, grow, and thrive here."
"Your right. Thank you so much for saving me-"
"We'd never abandon one of our pupils." Kanri smiled again, and this time Xelqua returned it. "Could you do something for us? We need to have you contact one of the weakling watchers. They'll spit nonsense at you, don't listen to it. Simply wait in meditation, they'll contact you eventually."
"Of course. It's the least I can do." Xelqua dipped his head, channeling his magic to transform into full watcher form

Kanvi hadn't heard from NPG since the explosion. She was starting to get concerned. She didn't think he'd leave without informing Ark or herself. She sighed, deciding to check Xelqua's quarters. There NPG stood, his head slightly tilted to the side.
"HELLO THERE!" NPG exclaimed. "WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUILD A RUSTIC HOUSE?" His head twitched bit, reminding Kanvi of a bugged out robot.
"Oh no-" She recognized that speaking. NPG must have glitched out again. But why would he randomly glitch out? Either way, Kanvi knew what to do. She flicked her magic, trying to push the Helsian into the closet once more.
"DO YOU NOT WANT TO BUILD RUSTIC HOUSES? BUT I WANT YOU TO-" With that, the door to the closet slammed close, and Kanvi redid the lock on it with a flick of her hand.
"I better contact Xelqua... he'll want to know NPG glitched out again."  Kanvi sat on the floor slipped into meditation, reaching for Xelqua's mindspace. But it was out of reach. She carefully tried to slip into his headspace so he'd feel the tug, but nothing happened, it slid out around her magic, like something was blocking the communication... She tried one more time, and this time, it worked.
Infront of her, there sat Xelqua. She gasped at the sight of him. Scars covered his face, and most shockingly, he was in full watcher form. He was wearing a mask, but something else seemed off about how he held himself, the expression on his face.
"Greetings. I assume you are the weakling I was told to wait for." Xelqua said coldly. Kanvi stepped back in shock. Xel was speaking like... A rebel...?
"Xel- What's wrong-"
"Nothing is wrong. And my name is Xelqua, not Xel." The watcher replied.
"Xel it's me Kanvi-" Terror shot through her, at the lack of feeling in his voice, and the fact he didn't recognize her.
"I do not know of a Kanvi. After all your a weakling. I'm a part of the true watchers. Why would you wish to associate with such power-hungry monsters as the mortals." Xelqua shivered to himself.
"Did Hermitcraft do this to you?"
"Why should that concern you?"
"Because I raised you like you were my child-"
"If that was so I would know you."
A flash happened, and a watcher in rebel robes and in full watcher form appeared beside Xelqua.
"Ah, Mx Kanri." Xelqua dipped his head, placing his hand over his heart.
Kanri whispered a word, and Xelqua straightened, staring forwards.
"Greetings Kanvi. I was wishing for Ark, but this, this'll do. Please, send a message to Ark for me. If you want Xelqua back, they must come to us."

Kanri had long since left the room. It'd been a few days since he'd returned, and most of his injuries had been treated. Despite this, Xelqua felt something... Off. Something just felt wrong about everything. The way Kanri looked at him with disguised disgust, the fact the scars the admins supposedly gave him were glowing with watcher energy... It all felt odd. But maybe he was just being paranoid. He touched the mask. Rebel trainees wore them, as they would avoid new watchers from blowing up the entire campus. It pricked something in the back of his mind, the idea of magic destroying a server... He shook it off, closing his eyes.

A/N:
Sorry motivation is annoying, The chapters will be unedited, I'll go back in the future to edit them. Also certain plot points might be roughly wrapped up as I've changed my plan slightly.
The reason this is, is because I don't want to push myself into burnout, and honestly, the plan I had has been changed so much that it may be a bit sudden with the shifts. Sorry!
ALSO. WHAT. THE. EVERLOVING. HECK. 500 READS- *SCREAMS CASUALLY*
WC: 1586
-Xera