TW: Torture, Memory altering, Trauma
The combat team was composed of Wels, False, Etho, X, with Pearl and Taurtis leading. They'd decided on a smaller group, as this was meant to mostly be stealth. The group waved Pearl handed out the transportation runes.
Eyn walked up to X. "Are you sure I can't come..."
"The server will need an admin. And you need time to heal." X said quietly. "I'd rather Pearl and Taurtis stay here, but we'll need all the magic we can get. You know neither of us have any magic outside of the code of our servers."
Eyn nodded sadly. "X... Be careful, alright?"
"I will, don't worry." X hugged Eyn. "One day you'll be able to live normally on Hermitcraft, alright?"
"I love you X." Eyn whispered.
"I love you too, Eyn..."
"Now, go. Go get our Gremlin back." Eyn smiled sadly.
Pearl and Taurtis took this as a excuse to talk between each other privately.
"You sure you can handle this?" Taurtis whispered to Pearl.
"... I have to. How about you?"
Taurtis stared at his feet, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "I'm going to have to. I can't sit by and watch Grian get hurt again!"
"We'll get him back, okay?"
"What- What if they've altered his memories?"
"It took them years to do it to us. But if they did, we'll subdue him, and teleport him out."
The two looked at each other, determination filling their gazes. They both knew they had to save Grian... Whatever the cost.
The group activated the runes. Pearl and Taurtis turned to face the others, without a sign of the nausea and weakness the others had. X was the next to recover. The others took a few more seconds. They'd come in on a quieter area of the city that wasn't guarded from teleportation, and would allow them to slip into a passage
All the hermits pulled out their obsidian blades, and with a flash of violet light, Taurtis' blade was in his hand as well. Pearl weaved a magic around them to hide them from sight. Both of the watchers were in full watcher form on the off chance they needed to blend in with the public. The group followed Taurtis, who, unsurprisingly, had memorized all the unguarded back passages through the city. The two slipped through, before reaching a intersection in the path of mazes. Pearl and Taurtis turned to the group.
"He could be held in two places, both places where torture takes place. Taurtis last saw Grian in the dungeon, but there's a chance they took him for... re-education, so we're going to the Academy first, on the chance he's there, as it's less guarded then the dungeon, and we know the layout better." Pearl said quietly.
The group nodded, and they continued to slip through back passageways, reaching the academy.
Pearl reached out for Taurtis' hand. The walls almost seemed to whisper their watcher names... Era... Unar... Taurtis was clearly effected as well, his mouth a thin line. Memories threatened to pull her under, but she took a deep breath.
"For Grian." She whispered.
"For Grian," Taurtis replied quietly, before turning back to the group. "The academy has very few hallways, let alone hidden ones, but due to how the schedule works, it's not crowded at any time, because their sticklers for efficiency. With luck, we will be able to slip through the halls to the student dorms, the most likely place for him to be kept in this place... If he's not there, we'll check the reeducation center... If he isn't in either of those places, he's in the dungeon, which means our plan changes drastically."
Everyone nodded, as Pearl reminded them of their roles.
"Etho, you stand guard at the hallway. If someone stands guard at the front of it, head to the spot we pointed out to intercept us, you know the location, the alcove near the student dorms." Etho nodded, and slipped to the side. He was the ideal runner as he was literally a ninja, meaning he could move swiftly without making a ruckus.
"False, Wels, on the chance we have to deploy plan B, your going to be the ones to get Grian out of here. Otherwise, you'll guard the outside of the door, and let out the call if someone comes in."
The two glanced at eachother, and nodded
"X, Taurtis and I will attempt to convince Grian to come with us. We have no idea what state he'll be in. Remember, if all turns to disaster, which is likely, screw all the plans and try get to a place you can teleport from, and get out of this place. If you've forgotten the map, you can head to rendezvous location A, B or C, whichever's closest, and teleport from there. D won't work as it's in the core of the city. If the shield suddenly vanishes, take a invis potion, and flee. This means I've been unable to keep the spell up, which likely means I'm captured or dead, or they detected us and dispelled it, which means we're compromised either way. And if I send the signal, go to the nearest rendezvous location and wait, it means we need to regroup, but it's not urgent. If the signal includes the word emergency, go to the rendezvous and teleport out."
Everyone nodded, knowing the severity of what Pearl was saying. They were risking perma-death, or possibly worse if they were caught. Etho nodded to the group and slid against the wall. The other darted through the hallways, narrowly avoiding bumping into the few watchers using the ground, until they got to a open door marked 'Dorms' in galactic.
The four ran through the walkway until they found an unmarked dorm. Wels and False flanked the door, while Taurtis flicked it open with a string of magic. There, Grian sat on a sleeping mat, mask covering his eyes, wings spread around himself defensively.
"Grian-" Pearl whispered, slipping inside, quickly followed by Taurtis and X. Pearl quickly weaved the spell around Grian so he'd be able to see them.
Grian looked up, slowly, his eyes slowly sliding up to X's helmet... And tears began to flow. At first Pearl and Taurtis thought this was from joy, but after a second, Grian began to scramble back, his expression crazed with fear.
"N- NO YOU CAN'T HAVE ME AGAIN- I WON'T LET YOU HURT ME AGAIN!" The gremlin screamed in galactic.
A/N:
Heheh... Xelqua, don't do anything you might regret... ;)
PLEASE DON'T MURDER ME I HAD TO. But we're nearing the end of this tale. But don't worry, I still have a few tugs at your heartstrings yet. Prepare for major angst.
The tale is not over quite yet. Sorry for the short chapter, it was a good part to cut it at!
WC: 1158
- Xera
YOU ARE READING
Battle Scars - A Watcher-Grian AU story
FanfictionHe thought it'd be easy, just go into a server and keep a eye out for glitches... Spoiler alert: It was not. He didn't factor in lying to the whole server, hiding his magic, old friends, and his own trauma. Oh, and the whole war going on. That too.
