Guys I lied about not updating LMAO

I couldn't help myself, okay? :(

This took literally all day long (from like 8 this morning til 18:45) to write because I literally cannot use my right arm rn

Enjoy!!

•°•

"Five, six, seven, eight," Scar said before fWhip started on his acoustic guitar, playing the intro to Burning Pile by Mother Mother.

A few measures later, Xisuma came in with on his electric with a riff. Or... he was supposed to. Instead, his amp started buzzing and ringing, which caused Zedaph's and Impulse's amps to do the same.

"Turn it off!" Zedaph shouted over the sound as he covered his ears.

Panicking and confused, Xisuma was frantically searching for the dial on the speaker that turned it off, though he accidentally turned the volume up, which only made everything worse. He felt like he couldn't even see with all the noise.

"Just unplug it!" Bdubs yelled. He came over and unintentionally stepped on X's amp cable, pulling it slightly out of place. The pitch went higher for a moment before Bdubs unplugged the amp from the wall and everything went silent aside from some static from the other amps.

A few sighs of relief went around the room.

Xisuma opened his mouth to apologise, but Scar beat him to it.

"Way to go, X," he said, rolling his eyes.

Xisuma frowned. "That wasn't entirely my fault," he said, huffing.

"Your amp, your fault."

The two of them glared at each other for a moment, insults to the other on their tongues just waiting to be shot out.

"Guys," False interjected, walking across the front of the mini stage to stand between the two of them. "There's no use in arguing over this. Just fix the problem and move on. It was a simple mistake and nothing that needs to be brought so much attention. Let's just get through these songs, okay?"

Scar and Xisuma stole one last glare at each other before agreeing to drop it. Xisuma plugged his amp back in and fixed the cable, then took a step away from the speaker so it wouldn't repeat what had just happened.

"Let's take it from the top," Scar said, then counted them off again.

The start of the song went smoothly and Xisuma's riff sounded really sweet. Joel came in with a nice beat and Bdubs and Tango came in with chords. It was sounding really good.

"All my style, all my grace," Scar began to sing, False singing a harmony behind his melody. "All I tried to save my face..."

Before they knew it, the song was over and it had done pretty well for the first run-through in a while.

"That was good, guys," Impulse congratulated the band. "We just need some tempo work and we're good on this one."

Xisuma nodded. "I agree." He flipped through the music on his stand. "Let's keep going, though. We'll call it quits once we've gotten through all songs, yeah?"

•°•

Scott stood just a few feet and a corner away from Stage Revolution's practice room, waiting for them to finish and leave until just one person was left by themself in the room. Grian required them to get magic from one of the band members before they could have their pendant returned to them, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The band members started to exit the room in twos or threes, chatting amongst each other. Two of them - Tango and Impulse - stopped just outside the door and turned to look back inside.

"You coming, Zed?" Impulse asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Zedaph said from where Scott couldn't see. "I'll catch up."

Tango shrugged. "Okay. I'll pull the truck around so you can just go out these doors over here," he said, pointing off to his left.

"Great, thanks!"

Tango and Impulse started to walk away, so Scott hurried to get into the practice room before Zedaph could leave. They quietly shut the doors behind them and locked them so nobody would come in and interrupt. The blonde boy was packing up his instrument by a table opposite the little stage, not noticing Scott's presence.

This is good, Scott thought, quieting stepping closer. If he doesn't know I'm here, then I can get a good amount of magic off of him. Maybe even all of it. He doesn't seem to have as much as the others do. They stood behind him for a moment before grazing their hand over his shoulders.

Zedaph jumped and turned around quickly enough to catch Scott off-guard. "Oh! Uh... hello?" he said, confused.

Scott could barely form the words to respond, too in awe of how amazing taking Zedaph's magic felt. It was unreal the power of it.

"...Scott?"

Scott blinked and look up at Zed. "Oh, hi," they said. "I was just..." They wracked their brain for an excuse as to why they had been so close to him, but couldn't seem to come up with a believable lie.

Zedaph laughed nervously. "You're a little close, buddy," he said, scooting himself away. "Did you... need something?"

Scott shook themself and frowned. "Yeah, I do," they said, then forcefully grabbed onto Zedaph's wrist, making him yelp.

"Hey, wait-" Zedaph blinked a few times as fatigue settled over him, draining him of all the energy he had mere seconds ago. "Stop-"

Scott couldn't help but get greedy, soaking up as much of Zedaph's magic as they could. They had totally underestimated Grian's power and his pendant's power. This was so much more powerful than their own and Jimmy's, possibly even combined. No wonder Grian was able to possess Jimmy so easily.

Zedaph began to struggle, trying to pull his arm away the best he could with being so physically exhausted. "Scott, please, stop," he said softly, then gasped when he noticed a soft, yellow glow around the silhouette of his body. Whatever it was, it was travelling toward the pendant around Scott's neck and it hurt.

"There we go," Scott said with a horrifying grin on their face. "That's the good stuff."

Being so weak and in so much pain brought Zed to his knees on the ground. He couldn't formulate any coherent thought other than "this is where I die." He knew Scott was stealing his magic, and as far as Zedaph knew, they were stealing all of it. And he had a terrible feeling that it would make it that much easier to get to the rest of the band, but there was nothing Zed could do to stop them.

Suddenly, Scott let go and stumbled backward, leaving Zedaph to flop over onto the floor. The glowing faded and he watched with blurry vision as Scott scurried from the room before everything went black as he lost consciousness.

•°•

Tango tapped the steering wheel to the beat of the drums in the song playing on the radio, peaking around Impulse to see if Zedaph was coming out yet. "Gosh, how long is he going to take?" he whined. "I have to go shopping."

Impulse sighed. "I'll go check on him," he offered, opening the door and stopping when Tango put a hand on his arm. He looked back at Tango. "What is it?"

"Look," Tango said, then pointed toward the door to the school that they had been expecting Zed to come through. Instead, Scott was looking left and right, clutching the pendant around his neck. They ran around the side of the building and ducked around a corner, out of sight. "If what Keralis said about Grian was true, then..."

Impulse frowned. "Scott and Jimmy must be doing the same," he said, then gasped. "You don't think they-"

"I'm coming with you to check on Zedaph."

•°•

"I got the magic you asked for," Scott said as they approached Grian and Jimmy, taking the pendant off to give back to Grian. "Can I have my pendant back?"

Grian happily took his magic jewel back and admired the way it glowed. "Well done, Aemor," they said, a wide grin on their face. "I think you've just proved your competence." He took a moment to put thr pendant on before returning Scott's own pendant to them. "Who's magic is this?"

"Zedaph's," Scott answered. "It's not quite all of it, but it's a majority of it."

"Good job," Grian praised them, making them smile a bit in response. "I believe you deserve a better reward than just that."

Scott, confused, tilted their head. "A reward?"

Grian smiled an innocent, bright, and happy smile. "Yes!" they said cheerfully. "You deserve a great reward for this. In fact..." He glanced back at Jimmy for a moment. "Let's go somewhere more... private for this."

Jimmy gave the two of them a confused and hurt look as Grian pulled Scott out of earshot. Scott couldn't help but feel a little bad for Jimmy, though that empathy completely dissipated when Grian revealed his reward for them.

"I'm giving you the ability to take away their magic," Grian said quietly, creating an a bright orb of loght in his hands and holding it out to Scott. "You won't gain any of it yourself as it's not your power, but once we get enough magic to release ourselves from these damned human bodies, you will be rewarded greatly."

Scott stared in awe at the magic Grian held in his hands, taking it with caution. The energy radiating off of it was almost overwhelming, bringing out a feeling of greed in them. They let the magic absorb into them and let out a sigh of contentment. If just that small fraction of Grian's power felt so good, they couldn't wait to get all the magic they were promised.

"Don't let me down, Aemor," Grian warned.

Scott nodded firmly. "I won't."

•°•

"Zed!"

Impulse and Tango rushed over to their boyfriend, who was laying unconscious on the floor of the practice room.

"Is he dead!?" Impulse asked in a panic as Tango checked Zedaph for a pulse.

"No," Tango answered calmly, "but he's not looking good at all. If Scott really did take his magic, he took enough for him to be completely blacked out." He started to lift Zedaph off of the floor, causing the boy to startle awake and let out a cry of pain. "Oh, sorry," Tango apologised quickly, letting Zedaph drape himself over Tango's shoulder. He started to cry a bit and Tango rubbed his back. "I'm sorry, sweetcakes."

Zedaph sniffled and buried his face in Tango's neck, but didn't say anything.

"Let's take him home," Impulse said and Tango nodded, standing up. Zedaph instinctively wrapped his legs around Tango's torso as he was carried out to Tango's vehicle.

Poor Zed...

•°•

Ooohhh I wonder what will happen :0

Also this took SO LONG TO BLOODY WRITE ISTFG.

I'm fine :]

I hope you guys enjoyed!!