Ninja in Evolution

The Truth

Grian was officially on the verge of a breakdown. The others did not help him, and neither did this Etho/Taurtis person. He was exhausted still, not fully recovered from his nightmares and if he isn't mistaking what's happening, well he is now reliving one of the more hated nightmares that he couldn't stand.

He wanted Taurtis, but they made it clear to him that his friend wasn't here. But if that was true, then why did the person let him continue calling him Taurtis? Why couldn't Grian see past the want for his bestie?

Grian was in his cave he made, it was meant to be a passageway between his base and others' bases so he could keep an eye on everyone in secret. He even had built his face into the wall, but now he's just using it as a hideaway to keep the others from seeing him like this. He would be embarrassed and did not want to talk to anyone about his past. He kept that all hidden for a reason. He didn't want anyone's pity.

Etho had tried to keep track of where Grian ran but he had gotten lost himself. The other Evolutionists were also looking for the smaller boy. He stumbled into a cavern-like area that seemed to have Grian's face in walls in a few different places. Etho may have gotten himself lost looking for the Emperor, but he wasn't going to admit it.

He was about to look for a way out when he started hearing sniffles. Etho turned towards the direction the sound came from and started walking, looking everywhere for the small boy who may be crying or something.

Etho had found the boy, curled up in a ball, in a corner. He looked even more tiny than he had, even more like a child.

"Grian?" He decides to speak up and alert himself to the boy. Grian just jumps out of his ball state, clearly not expecting anyone to find him anytime soon. His eyes were red from crying, but also had dark circles underneath. His hair was a mess, his hat thrown to the side of him.

"Wha-how?" He stutters out, then tries to steady his already shaky breathing out. "How did you get down here?" Grian's voice sounded rough.

Etho shrugs. "It was a bit hard to keep up with you, may have gotten slightly lost on the way, but I seemed to have managed. I was worried, people don't normally run off the way you did." He scratches the back of his neck, unsure what to say.

Grian just hugs himself while he stares at the ground. He was slowly becoming a ball again, Etho had to stop him and figure what's going on in the boy's mind.

"Hey, why don't we talk? You're upset, I want to help you." Etho takes a couple steps so he's closer to the smaller one. Grian isn't really phased.

"Why? So you can pity me?"

"What? Look, I wanted to help you. You went through some crap, I can tell with the way you acted. Maybe you should talk, I'll listen. We can get it off your chest. That tends to help people feel better."

"What do you know? You're not Taurtis, I just wanted him to come. I'm starting to think he's not coming despite saying he would." The boy just sighs at talking about Taurtis. He's seemed to accept that Etho isn't Taurtis, so that's a start.

"I may not know much about you, but you seemed to enjoy talking about pranking-"

"I'm sorry" Grian interrupted but it was barely heard by Etho. The boy was still staring down towards the ground.

Etho took another step forward, almost right in front of Grian now. He kneels down so he can come face to face with the boy. "What was that?" He questions.

Grian just sighs and looks up and Etho. "I'm sorry for treating you like that. No one should go through that like I had too." He mumbled the last part but Etho could catch it.

"What do you mean 'like I had too?' You went through that?" Grian freezes at the question, tears filling his eyes.

"I-I did," was all he could get out before the tears spilled out. Etho was shocked to hear this information. He decided the best thing he could do was to reach out and hug the smaller one, which Grian allowed him to do so. He even hugged Etho back.

Now Grian just cried into Etho's arms as the ninja tried to reassure him everything was fine, that he's forgiven and whatever else the smaller one would want to hear.

After a while Etho thought they should probably either talk about whatever Grian went through, or the two should get out of the caverns area. The smaller one had calmed down and was mainly sniffling now. "Hey, Grian. You wanna, maybe talk about anything? Or we can get outta here, or heck, we can do both."

Grian looks up at Etho after a few seconds and sighed. "Yeah, I guess both would be better. A lot of what happened is very personal and just sensitive. I never liked talking about it, it's always given me nightmares though, if I'm going to be honest."

"We'll work it out, slowly I'm sure, but it'll get better." Etho smiles under his mask. "Now come on, you're gonna have to lead the way, I got lost,' he chuckles and stands up, helping Grian stand up as well. The smaller one allows himself to be helped up but still holds onto Etho's arm.

Grian leads the way out like Etho had asked him too. "Well, welcome to the secret Grian Empire bunker I was working on first of all. I've made paths to everyone's bases." He slightly laughs, still not feeling up to his normal self. Etho just nods, happy to listen to the boy.

"Now, to get down to what had happened to me, that started in high school when I moved in with Taurtis and another boy, Sam. Sam was the bane of my existence. He never seemed to like me, and yet always pretended to, maybe for Taurtis.

One night, Sam thought it would be a good idea to visit the school at night. Those two brought their girlfriends along and started to argue about whose girlfriend was better. Sam got annoyed at one point and took his girl's knife and decided to stab Taurtis. I was the one to clean up that mess, took him to the hospital to get help, made sure he stayed even before returning to Sam.
The next day, Sam seemed like he had enough of me without Taurtis being there. He asked me to dress and act as Taurtis. I pretty much had a knife to me every time I tried to get out of that, so I was stuck as Taurtis.

He was out of the hospital before long but didn't remember anything. Sam dubbed him as Jerry even though I kept trying to correct him. Again the knife came out so I stopped doing so.
We were fighting some people when Taurtis finally remembered and was questioning what was happening, which I gladly explained to him.

More things happened that pretty much caused me to be stuck with them but we're almost out so we can talk about more later. Overall, I'm just happy that Taurtis didn't come to see that. He'd never let me live it down."

Etho listened to the boy who was still holding onto his arm. He didn't want to upset him, so he let Grian hold onto him during his story. It had a whole lot of heavy stuff, and it seems like there's more to it he's not letting out. Etho was worried about the smaller one. He was telling the truth earlier, no one should have to go through that, not even him.