AN:
A semi regular chapter! This should be the last one on the factory break-in arc that I accidentally created.
This chapter officially marks the Google doc I'm writing this in is too long so Grammarly won't give me editing suggestions anymore (yes that's how I edit, don't judge). I had to copy and paste the chapter into another Google doc and repaste the edited version into the original. To be fair though, the Google doc is 72 pages long in 1.15 spacing with Ariel 11 font.
I hope you enjoy.
End AN
"I… I need to go. I need to find the others to let them know," Grian started rushing out the door before he got stopped by Etho.
"Wait, you mean, tell your other friends that one of you guy's had died?"
"Yes, I need to tell Pearl and Tim what happened to Zee."
"You mean by going into their worlds? I don't think that's the best idea."
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't you hear about Pearl's world? They spawned a bunch of withers and had to evacuate because of how bad it got. They had to use the portal through 2B2T to get to Hub."
Grian sucked in a breath. This was bad.
This was very bad.
If they are being hunted, they need to know. Being separated from each other than they already were is even worse. They are against a group with the element of surprise and numbers.
"I… I…," Grian paused as he tried to find something to say, "… I still need to tell them."
Grian ran out of the factory before flying outside. He ignored the shouts behind him as he flew before he landed in front of the world portal.
Without hesitation, he ran through the portal before being met with a row of statues on one side of him and a fountain on the other. There was lush plant life surrounding him with a path bordered by the occasional bench.
He reached into his inventory for a rocket only to come up empty.
He went through the portal.
He had no items.
He ran up the stairs on the other side of the lowered spawn area to an area filled with shops selling unusual things.
Grian looked around for anyone only to see the empty streets and shops surrounding him. He ran further down the streets until he saw a man walking out of a church. He looked familiar from somewhere.
The man was wearing some kind of toga with a green edging. His hair was brown with a green stripe down the center.
The man started down the road towards him before he stopped when he saw Grian.
Grian ran up to the man, "I need to talk with Jimmy. Where can I find him?"
"Who?... How did you get here? I thought our world was closed off?"
"It is, I am from Hermitcraft. Where is Jimmy?"
"I forgot that the worlds were connected. Not used much though. Who are…"
"I need to speak to Jimmy urgently! I am sorry but I do not have time to waste."
The man pulls his communicator out, "right, sorry. I'll send him a message to get here on my communicator," he put the communicator away before holding out his hand. All Grian could do is wait.
"I just realized I haven't introduced myself. My name is Joel."
Grian wanted to bang his head on something for not realizing. Of course, it's Joel. His brain didn't recognize him in the panic.
"I… know… Joel, do you not recognize me?" Hypocrite said a small part of Grian's head.
Joel looked at Grian, squinting a bit before his eyes blew up. "Wait, Grian?! What happened to you? You looked like you've been run over by a ton of minecarts or something."
"Or something. I do not want to talk about it," Grian forgot about how he looked. His clothes were ripped, he had dried and running blood on him, and he was covered with bruises. He looked, felt, and actually was run over by a ravager a bunch of times.
Old scars covered by his clothing were on full display through the holes in his sweater…
Including the ones caused by him.
Grian crossed his arms over his chest in hopes to try to hide it but doing nothing. Joel got the message and tried to avoid looking at it.
Next to the two, a small stone pillar started to glow before Jimmy appeared holding onto it.
"Hey Joel, what did you… Grian? What…" Jimmy's eyes looked over Grian and darken at his appearance.
"How I look is not important right now," the fact that Grian's scar was showing isn't why he was here was left unsaid. "It is about Zee."
Jimmy tensed at the words as his eyes hardened. He knew that if Grian knew something wrong with Zee, something was really wrong.
(Line Skip)
"What happened?" Jimmy questioned. This wasn't some 'hey, it's been a while, how are you' visit. This was a potential 'there is some danger to us and the others' visit.
Not even mentioning the state he's in. Grian's sweater is torn beyond repair with darker red splotches all over it with semi-dried blood. He didn't even put in the effort of replacing it with another to cover up his scar. The scar Grian's afraid of. There was grime and a bit of blood clenched onto his skin.
Jimmy watched as he started to shake with tears. Jimmy rushed over and wrapped his arms around him.
"Um…" Joel said, looking awkward on the side. "Should… should I get someone? Should I get Scott or something… I don't know…"
"Oh.. uhh… no. You don't need to get anyone. Could you just give us a minute though?" Jimmy asked.
"What happened?" Jimmy asked Grian, again, after Joel grabbed onto the waystone to leave. Not even a minute later, Jimmy found his arms full holding an inconsolable Grian crying into his arms. After a few minutes, the crying died down.
"It is Zee," Grian said after a while.
Zee? What could be wrong with him?
"Jimmy," Grian started softly. No. No! No!
He knew that kind of tone. It's the kind of tone used when you break bad news.
That would mean…
It couldn't.
"He's… he can't… how did it happen?"
"..." Grian pulled away from Jimmy causing his heart to sink. It… had to be some kind of potion accident or… or… some… programming accident?
"Grian. How. Did. It. Happen."
"... Yuki."
Jimmy's head pounded. Yuki. How could it be her?
"Don't joke like that!" Jimmy started to laugh a bit in denial. Grian winced at the forced laughter. He's… he's not joking.
"Who knows," Jimmy said with anger simmering.
"Jimmy calm…"
"Do the others know?!"
"You are the first I am telling. I came here shortly after I found him."
"We need to tell… wait… you found him?"
"He was in Hermitcraft or… at least… you know."
Jimmy couldn't breathe. Why hadn't he realized sooner? If Yuki could kill Zee outside of Ardonia, she would have traveled through the worlds. All of the betrayers could.
Nowhere was safe.
(Line Skip)
Grian walked through the portal followed shortly behind by Jimmy. Grian gave him an elytra and rockets before launching into the air with Jimmy following right behind.
The two flew towards the factory where the other two resistance members waved to them in the doorway. The two Enderknights touched down, meeting with the other two before Grian lead the group to the vault where the armor was.
When they got up to the rooms Jimmy rushed to the armor, taking the helmet of the laying armor off. He turned to Grian confused as the armor shows an empty inside.
"Where's his body?" Jimmy asked.
"If you look inside the left arm of the armor, his arm is there. Yuki's dagger was also left here with it. His goggles were also left here and yes they were his."
"He could still be alive! You can still live if you get an arm chopped off and…"
"You can still live if your arm gets amputated. You will live if someone is there to help heal right after you lose it. This was a wound caused to kill. Why would they chop off the arm of an enemy to heal it? You know what Yuki is like. The rest of the body is probably gone as an act to spite us. As a way to prevent us from giving Zee a proper burial."
Grian doesn't know the reasoning why she did it the way she did. Yuki loved to do things to her victims that she knew would upset them. Things that prevented Enderknights from getting proper burials.
"He didn't die here. He fell in battle," Jimmy commented at the lack of blood on anything but the armor and arm.
"I know that—she knew that. It is the place we found him though." Grian got out his enderchest, pulled out a shovel, and started digging down.
Once the hole was made, Grian reached up from the hole, taking the arm that Jimmy extracted and wrapped in some wool before placing it down and climbing out of the hole.
They covered the hole back up before finding something to mark it.
Out of all of their friends, Grian would have never expected Zee to fall in battle. He never had a personal weapon other than his potions to mark it either.
But he did have brewing stands. Grian hesitantly pulled out his other enderchest. His one from Ardonia. After placing it down, he pulled out a brewing stand that used to belong to Zee.
He walked over with the stand in his hands and placed it over the area they buried the arm. Jimmy placed the obsidian helmet he grabbed from the laying armor on the center of the brewing stand, over the blaze rod.
"May you rest well as you watch over us from the void and know that even the End…"
"Can bring a new beginning," Grian finished Jimmy's speech. The one used for those who have died.
The ones who betrayed them, who betrayed him will be dealt with later.
Right now, Grian needed to honor Zee.
(Line Skip)
To say that Scar was scared was an understatement. He was terrified.
When he woke up in the middle of the night to an arrow hitting the door of his snail, he thought it was just a skeleton.
This was no skeleton.
The arrows that skeletons shoot do not look as nice as the one penetrating his door. The arrow was entirely metal with red feathers on the end. He could slightly see the arrowhead through the door with a beautiful design.
He was going to pull it out to look at it before he noticed the tip of the arrow leaking liquid. Leaking poison.
Scar carefully opened the door before seeing a note pinned to the door by the arrow.
This was no accident.
He carefully pulled the letter away, leaving the arrow embedded into his door before reading it.
If he wasn't scared before, he was now. This was a threat. Someone claims that he betrayed them. It said they were coming for him.
What did he do?
AN:
Please comment! I love reading and responding to your comments.
Please ask any questions. I've been thinking about compiling all the questions asked and I answered for another chapter of the notes on AO3 because I haven't gotten anymore requests asking for something. Please let me know what you guys want to know more about! Also for you Wattpaders, do you guys want me to post the Notes here too?