"This is all your fault."

He was back in the Watchers' lair.

He was standing in a long, narrow, hallway, and the only thing he could see in the suffocating darkness was a distant source of light. He felt trapped and enclosed. The walls felt like they were closing in on him.

There was no way to go but forward.

He started running down the corridor towards the light. He wanted that light. He hated the darkness. It felt like the hallway was looping, keeping him trapped in an endless cycle, unable to reach that light.

But, slowly, the light grew brighter.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally reached the end.

The hallway had opened up to a world. And the light he had been following was coming from the dozens of fires. They were blazing hot and bright, destroying the buildings and environment around them.

This place looked familiar. Why did it look familiar?

The name came to him in a flash.

Evo.

The place was completely decimated. There was no life in sight. The only sound was the crackling of the fires, slowly burning all this hard work to the ground until only the ashes remained. Even the wind would blow it all away with time.

There was a Watcher standing in front of the carnage. Their face was shadowed and hidden by a mask. They wore the deep purple robes all Watchers wore, and two black wings sprouted from their back. They lifted their head slightly and gave him a smile.

That smile seemed familiar.

They slowly reached for the mask on their face and pulled it off.

His own face smiled back at him.

He whipped around to find that he wasn't in the long hallway anymore. He was in the world, with the fires burning around him. He looked down and saw he was wearing the same clothing as the Watcher in front of him.

But there was never a Watcher in front of him.

He had been looking in a mirror.

Somewhere in the world, a distant voice echoed.

"You can't escape us, Grian."

»»————-　★　————-««

The treehouse was coming together nicely.

Grian had used many saplings to grow the tree, then had broken a few axes and shears trying to shape it the way he wanted. It was easily the largest tree in the clearing. After detailing and editing the terrain a bit, the tree stood on a modest hill overgrown with grass and moss. Then, he had set to work on what would go in the tree.

The treehouse itself poked out from the leaves, oak logs and planks coming together to make a sturdy outside. The peaked roof of the house could just be seen coming out from the tallest point of the tree. Vines dangled from the sides of the house, and a swing was hung from one of the more sturdy branches.

The inside wasn't too big, maybe a 12x12 area, but it was cozy. Grian had moved all his stuff (Impulse's stuff) up into this area, and it was nicely stored in a single chest (Impulse's chest). His pickaxe (Impulse's pickaxe) was lying on his bed (okay, he had made the bed himself).

The others were probably relieved when the loud construction was over, but Grian wanted to take a hammer and some nails and do it all over again. The loud noise helped drown out the thoughts he'd been having ever since Evo.

After the treehouse was built, you could usually see Grian around the build, sitting on his swing or making some refinements to the plants outside. Sometimes he came down and messed around with Zed and Tango. Recently, though, he'd been spending a lot of time cooped up inside his humble abode.

Mumbo was starting to get worried.

He had always had his concerns for Grian, but they had started to grow just a week ago when Grian starting hiding away. It wasn't what was he doing up there and more of a why is he up there.

Grian had always been vague about his past. While the others had opened up, he had stayed silent. He tried to hide it with a smile, but it was a thin, desperate veil to conceal what was actually underneath.

Mumbo's best guess was that something had happened that he didn't want to talk about. But what, exactly?

He stood at the bottom of Grian's treehouse ladder, but he hesitated to go up. He wasn't sure Grian would welcome it--even though he was more comfortable with Mumbo than anyone else. But he was worried for him, so he ascended up the ladder...

...and promptly hit his head on the trapdoor at the top.

"Oof--Grian? Can I come in?"

After a few moments of silence, he called back.

"Yeah, come on in. Sorry about the trapdoor."

Mumbo ignored the throbbing pain in his head and went inside the treehouse. Grian lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. All of his stuff was scattered messily on the floor. A tiny window on the far side of the treehouse let in light through an opening in the canopy. An unlit lantern sat on top of his chest.

"G, you okay?"

Grian blinked, coming out of his trance. "Yeah, I'm alright."

"You keep on saying that, but are you really?"

Grian tried for a smile. "If I wasn't, why didn't you come earlier?"

"Well, for one thing, you've been hidden in this...very nice-looking treehouse...for a while now. You look like you haven't been getting enough sleep. Your pickaxe is embedded in the wall as if you threw it."

Grian rubbed his eyes. His hair was even more of a mess. He tried to stifle a yawn, but it was obvious that he was very tired.

Mumbo took a seat on Grian's bed. The mattress was actually really comfortable, so he wondered what was keeping Grian up at night.

Now that he was closer, Mumbo could make out the bags under Grian's eyes. He could also see that his eyes had lost some of their shine. And, he had never seen it before, but there was something off about his pupils.

"Your pupils are shaped like diamonds...?"

Grian averted his eyes. "It's nothing. Just a trick of the light."

Mumbo made a connection with something Stress had said a few weeks ago:

"Grian has a connection with a kind of magic, too, but I don't want to talk about it. I don't think he'd appreciate me telling you."

Xisuma had also said something about Grian and magic, but Mumbo had put it off to how he had gotten into this world. If memory served him right, Xisuma, Stress, and Wels were the first four to arrive in this world along with Grian. Something must have happened with Grian that they didn't want to share.

He tried putting the puzzle pieces together. "You have a connection with some kind of magic. That's why your pupils are shaped differently. It's not ice magic like Stress, or void like X, or Vex like Cub and Scar--"

Grian cut him off with a pointed glare, very far off from his usual cheerful nature. "Can you drop it? Please?"

Mumbo had recalled this is how False had reacted when Stress had talked to her. Mumbo, however, didn't know how to reassure Grian in this situation. "It happened in the past. There's nothing you can do about it."

"If you're trying to reassure me, I appreciate it, but there was something I could do. If I had just interfered, everything would be different."

Grian was placing all the blame on himself. Mumbo didn't know what exactly had happened, but it was major enough that Grian was acting this way. When Mumbo had first arrived in this world, he'd acted pretty cheerful and carefree. Now, he could see it was a façade to what he was hiding.

I guess the saying "the saddest people smile the most" really is true...

"What happened? I mean, you don't have to answer if you want, but if you wanted to--"

"What happened?" Grian echoed. "I lost a whole world because I didn't do anything. I made a promise that I knew they couldn't keep, but I was hopeful enough that if I sacrificed myself, they would spare them. Instead, they killed them and I got this."

Grian opened his hand, and a purple flame blossomed from out of nowhere. It filled the room with a dark ambiance. Even the sunlight seemed dimmed, and it was high noon. Mumbo thought the magic looked beautiful, but it was clear that that wasn't what Grian wanted to hear.

"This. This magic is what killed them. This is why I have these different-shaped pupils. I didn't want this, Mumbo. I still have nightmares about what happened--the world in flames, no life in sight, and me, standing in front of all the carnage. They keep on telling me it's my fault. And...they're right. I just stood there while they destroyed the world...Evo. I could have done something."

Mumbo couldn't find the words to comfort him. "G...Grian....you've been holding all of this in for weeks? If you keep on telling yourself all of this and never moving on, it's going to destroy you. You need to tell someone about this-you need to do something about this."

Grian looked down. "What is there to be done?"

"E-exactly!" Mumbo stuttered over his words. "I-I mean, it was all in the past. It happened weeks ago. You can move on now!"

But he knew that Stress's advice wouldn't work on Grian. He couldn't move on because he was blaming himself for their--Evo's--death. How could you move on from something you thought you caused?

Mumbo took a deep breath and tried a different tactic.

"G...I can't imagine what it's like. Honestly--you've gone through so much. But...maybe you should try accepting what happened instead."

Grian didn't respond. Mumbo took that as a sign to continue.

"I mean...maybe it was your fault, maybe it wasn't. Maybe we'll never know. So if you keep on beating yourself up over it, it'll just be an endless cycle and you'll never feel better. It happened, and that's okay. Accept that it happened and move on. Don't bother with what-ifs or this could be differents. You'll just give yourself a hard time."

Mumbo realized he was rambling and stopped himself. "What I'm trying to say is that you should accept that it happened and move on. That's it. If you do, there's a big chance that things will change for the better. Isn't that better than just staying stuck in here and doing nothing?"

Grian didn't speak for a count of ten. Mumbo was starting to worry that his ramblings didn't work. Then he nodded slightly.

"You need to tell someone about this, G. We can help you."

Grian still didn't speak, but he glanced up for a split second at Mumbo. Then he looked back down. "Well...maybe I should start by telling you."

Mumbo was taken aback. "Wh--me?--uh--you sure--"

Grian rolled his eyes, but he seemed more amused than annoyed. That was a good start. "I mean, I guess I just feel more comfortable telling you."

"Well, if it helps...I guess so. Fire away."

Grian proceeded to tell Mumbo everything: his close friendship with the other Evolutionists, the Watchers constantly bothering them, the leadup to Grian leaving Evo, and, of course, the Watchers breaking their promise and destroying Evo.

That part was hard for Grian to say, but he managed to choke it out--and he did feel better confiding in Mumbo, for all his ramblings, but he wasn't going to tell him that. He didn't want the mustached man getting a big head.

They ended up talking for most of the day. After Grian had told Mumbo his story, Mumbo decided to try and cheer him up with some lighthearted banter.

He took out some Redstone and tried to teach Grian, but he was impossible: "What do you mean, 'invert the signal'? What's even the point of an observer clock? How does this part correspond to that part?"

Mumbo left around sunset, once again showing his experience in being clumsy by falling down the ladder. The others were probably curious as to what happened inside the treehouse, but Mumbo obviously was too tired and wasn't going to spill for Grian. He'd do that himself.

That night, Grian slept without nightmares.

»»————-　★　————-««

The next morning, Grian admired the rising sun on the horizon. He climbed down his ladder and strolled outside. Thankfully, everyone else was asleep, except for False, but she didn't pay him any attention. Her attention was focused on some kind of star map she was doodling on a piece of Cleo's Portal Theory.

Grian pushed through the dense foliage, stepping over the occasional fallen tree. He took the path that he had walked weeks ago, in the middle of the night. If he knew where to go, it should be just around these trees...

So much had changed in a few weeks. He had traveled from one world to another, made new friends, lost old ones, even gained a power he didn't want. But these kinds of things happened for a reason. Someone was trying to show him that even though things had been down and desolate these past few weeks, things would always get better.

It would be a long time before he fully accepted Evo was gone. There was still a gaping hole where that world used to be, but talking to Mumbo and finally confiding his feelings helped a lot. And with time, he would tell the others, too. It wasn't done, but it was a step, and that's all that mattered.

Grian rounded the corner and smiled.

The field of sunflowers was in full bloom.

(WC: 2309)