The Past Ahead - an Empires SMP AU

Chapter 17 - Preparations

           Everyone was panicking, except King Joel, of course. My friends are weird, he thought as he bit into another empanada. They still think the 'demon' is real. I know better, of course. 

           "How did Xornoth get here?" and "How do you know?" were the two most asked questions flying around the room now. Gem figured out the first one. "Oh no. The spell I cast... it brought him here, didn't it?" She moaned. "This is all my fault." "Xorny's here?" Emperor Joey was ecstatic. "How do you know?" "He's been possessing people around the server," Princess Gem said.

           "It possessed me once and Scott too and I think it also possessed fWhip." Everyone close to the mentioned emperors quickly moved their chairs away. "Don't worry," Gem said quickly. "From what I know, when they're possessed they have red eyes. That should be a helpful clue." Everyone stared at Sheriff Jimmy, who had red eyes. 

           "It's because I'm on my villain arc!" Jimmy said, realizing. "Look, it's contacts, okay?!" He clumsily took one out, poking his eye in the process, but everyone could see that he was telling the truth. "One question," Scott of Chromia asked. "Who's Xornoth, exactly?" Several emperors began talking at once.

           "He's this demon,"

           "He spreads corruption-"

           "He corrupted the nether and the gnomes-"

           "He's evil!"

           "He's Joey's husband or something like that."

           "Uh, wait what?"

          "Don't ask about Joey's love life." 

           "He's not real," King Joel yawned. "He's just a prank someone came up with, don't fall for it." "Don't mind my husband, Joel's too thickheaded to notice a literal demon running around," Lizzie informed everyone. Joel sputtered, "I'm not thickheaded, Lizzie! It's everyone else who's thickheaded to fall for a prank." 

           Scott of Rivendell stood up. "Look, this is a serious matter. Xornoth is very dangerous. He corrupted our empires, he even corrupted some of us to do his bidding. He kidnapped Shrub and almost had her sacrificed, for goodness' sake! Now, first things first, none of us have been to the end yet, is the dragon still dead?"

           Everyone looked at Oli. "Uh, what are you talking about?" The bard asked, confused. "Oh, just for clarification, after I killed it a thousand years ago a new ender dragon was born and then after Gem died she moved back to the end," Sausage of Sanctuary said. "And then Oli killed it." 

           "Oh boy," Gem muttered. "That is not good." "Why?" Oli asked. "Why shouldn't the dragon be dead?" "Well, in our time, Xornoth asked Sausage and Joey to kill it because it was the only thing restraining him from full power." Everyone looked at Sausage and Joey. "I was not myself; Xornoth had his puppet hands in me!" Sausage shouted. 

           "Do you have the dragon egg?" Gem asked Oli. "Yeah, I was trying to cook it into an omelet but then it hatched and I adopted it as my baby boy Gregory!" Oli gushed. "Why are there so many kids in this timeline?" King Joel grumbled. "Your timeline has too many siblings," Goblin fWhip said. "Jimmy and Lizzie and me and Gem-" "And Scott and- oh..." Shrub added, then trailed off when she realized what she was saying.

           Everyone looked at her expectantly, and then at Scott. "You have a sibling too?" Scott of Chromia asked. "Yeah," Scott said, after a short pause. "He happens to be a demon and Joey's love interest." "Wait, are you saying-?!" "In other words, Xornoth is my brother." "He's not real," Joel tried to say, but no one was paying attention to him anymore.