Grian woke with a start, feeling something cold and hard pressed against his back. As he looked around he realised he was lying down on the cold obsidian ground and slowly sat up, hissing in pain from his broken ribs. As his eyes started to adjust to the darkness, he noticed the walls made out of purpur bricks and a single iron door from across of him.
He slowly stood up, trying not to do anything sudden as he didn't want to hurt his ribs anymore than he had to. He gasped as he felt broken bones stabbing at his lungs. Gritting his teeth, he straightened his posture as much as he was able, now fully standing up. He tried to walk over towards the iron door, but something yanked his foot back and he tripped, falling face-first into the obsidian, hitting his chin and biting his tongue.
"Ow," he groaned. He rolled over gently and looked at what had yanked his foot.
Of course I'm chained to the wall, he thought bitterly.
He tried to blast the chain using his magic but realised his magic wasn't there anymore. He felt odd, instead of the usual humming of his magic, there was hollowness, and his body felt quiet, and he shifted uncomfortably.
He squinted at the black chain wrapped around his ankle, noticing the tiny carved out symbols on each hoop.
Binding symbols.
So chaining him up and locking him up in a room apparently wasn't enough contain him. He smirked at the thought, they're scared of me.
He felt something soft brush against his arm and he jerked away, but then noticed the light purple feathers. Since his magic wasn't hiding his wings anymore, they were exposed for everyone to see.
He smiled faintly at the sight of his wings. It had been two years since he'd last seen them, and he had definitely missed them. He ran a hand over one wing gingerly, feeling the soft feathers. It was some kind of comfort knowing that they were still there, almost like a caring arm wrapping around him.
"Where is he?" Grian heard someone say, and he immediately stiffened. He knew that voice.
"In here Ravana," Watcher A said. He heard the hurried footsteps getting louder and louder until they reached the door, where they came to an abrupt stop.
He held his breath as he heard a key slip into the lock and heard a loud click, the door creaking as it swung open.
"Oh hello, Xelqua," Watcher R said. "It has certainly been a while since we last talked hasn't it?"
"If you've brought me here to convince me to be your trainee again to join you, don't even bother, because it's not happening." He said coldly.
Watcher R laughed dryly.
Grian frowned.
"I'm afraid you've got it all wrong, Xelqua," They said. "We don't want you back, you don't deserve to be a Watcher anymore."
"You're only here so we can make sure you don't spoil our plans and get in the way." Watcher A said calmly. "Until we decide what to do with you, however, we got to make sure you don't run away again."
"You really think I can run away?" Grian gestured at the chain with the symbols wrapped around his ankle.
Watcher R tilted their head. "You think you're so smart don't you? The Xelqua we know will always find a way out. Don't you dare think that we've forgotten about the times you dodged our lessons."
Grian hid a cheeky smile. So they had noticed.
"What are you going to do then? Add more chains?"
"Oh no," Watcher A said, and Grian felt uncomfortable at how eager he sounded.
"We're going to take away what helped you escape last time."
Grian narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
Watcher A let out an insidious laugh. "Why," they said.
"We're going to take your wings of course."
● . ◌ ◯ ◌ . ●
Theo felt numb. She didn't even notice at first that she had dropped the diary. She didn't want to believe it, she didn't want to accept it.
You willingly gave him over to the Watchers, a small voice said. You willingly handed over a fricken Prime Admin.
But I didn't know, she argued with herself. How could I have known?
Maybe if you had read the diary like you were supposed to when you became a Prime Admin, the voice argued back. You know very well that you're supposed to read the Prime Admin's diary before you, so you can learn from their experiences.
But I was so busy! I hardly had anytime to sleep, how was I even going to have the time to read some stupid diary?
The only stupid thing here is you.
She sighed, exasperated with herself.
"How could I have been so blind?" She yelled at no one. "How could I have been so stupid?"
She suddenly gasped as she felt pain explode behind her eyes and felt it reach her forehead and it spread from there, the pain covering her whole head.
She gagged from the pain, feeling sick, one hand clutching her stomach while her other hand clutched her head. She fell to her knees, hunching over as her ears started to ring, the left side of her face starting to go numb.
"I'm afraid that knowledge is off-limits to you." Theo heard a distant familiar voice.
She saw someone walk from the corner of her eye, the person slowly walking in front of her.
"Help," Theo gasped out, black spots creeping in from the corners of her vision.
"I'm already helping, Theo," the girl said, now crouching in front of Theo.
No, she thought. She can't, no that can't be right.
Leah forced Theo to look at her, gripping her by the chin and tilting her face upwards.
"Did you know, Theo," Leah said. "Healer admins can go both ways. They can create pain and remove pain."
"Why..." Theo choked out, trying to keep herself from vomiting.
"Why I helped the Watchers?" Leah finished for her. "I've always been one of them, Theo. I've always been a spy Watcher."
Theo tried to hide the new pain from her eyes but failed, and to her dismay, Leah noticed.
"Aww, don't look so hurt," She smiled cruelly. "You're not going to remember any of this when I'm done anyway."
The dark spots were covering almost all her vision by now and Theo was fighting a losing battle for her consciousness.
"Good night~," Leah said in a singsong voice as all her hearing faded out, the darkness taking full control as she collapsed.
● . ◌ ◯ ◌ . ●
Mumbo was upset.
But no, calling him upset would be an understatement as Mumbo was broken, devastated, dejected; pretty much miserable.
He hadn't left the room they had all their beds in, curling up in his own bed, refusing to speak to anyone.
His eyes were red and puffy from crying so much, his bedside table filled with scrunched up tissues from blowing his nose.
It hurt Iskall to see one of his best friends in such a state, and what hurt him more was that he couldn't do anything to make him feel better.
He had tried everything; he had tried cracking jokes, he had tried telling him about the good times they've had, he had even gone to Mumbo's base when he wasn't supposed to just so he could fetch his favourite redstone plushie.
He sat on his bed with the lime green bed sheets which was next to Mumbo's bed with the red bed sheets.
He felt a tear roll down his cheek, and quickly wiped it away. I have to be strong, for Mumbo and Grian.
"Do you think he will come back?" Mumbo sniffled, clutching his redstone plushie tightly.
Iskall snapped out of his thoughts, blinking blankly at Mumbo, before smiling sadly.
"I bet he will," Iskall said, only half-believing his answer.
"I miss him," Mumbo said quietly, inhaling a shaky breath.
"We all miss him," Iskall murmured, craning his neck upwards slightly as he felt his one organic eye pooling with tears once again, so the tears wouldn't run down his face. He pinched himself on the skin between his thumb and pointer finger and tried focusing on the pain.
"I could've saved him, Iskall," Mumbo's voice cracked. "He was right there, and I just stood there, frozen like the useless spoon I am."
Iskall's head snapped to face Mumbo. He looked at him in the eye.
"Do not ever say that about yourself again, you're not useless." Iskall said firmly.
"We couldn't have done anything, we couldn't have saved him, we all saw what happened to Xisuma when he tried..." He faltered, staring at the ground.
He looked up again as he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Thank you, Iskall," Mumbo said as he wiped a tear away, smiling for the first time in the hours since Grian had been taken.
Iskall smiled back, wiping away a tear of his own. "Anytime, Mumbo."
● . ◌ ◯ ◌ . ●
1507 words
A bit of an emotional chapter :')
Also sorry this chapter's a bit short, I'll try to make the next chapter longer
Feel free to correct any grammatical or spelling errors :P
Ily all <3