<TW> mention of violence, violence, blood

<CW> angst, a reveal

[MAIN PLOT BY Roxy-Rox0 ]

All those precious moments, the happy memories. Whether sheltered in one's mind, or preserved in pictures and videos, they hold so much meaning.

But, people make mistakes. Those precious things crumble, and falter. For they may be as strong as the great old trees, but they can also be as delicate as glass.

Those mistakes might have been disguised or excused, but in the end they have their consequences. Not everyone can handle those consequences, and not every consequence is handleable.

He knew this. For he had made a horrible mistake, and he wasn't sure if he could fix it. But he knew he could try. Even if he put on those grey clothes, even if he covered his hair, his eyes, he didn't cover his heart. And he knew he could repair what he broke if he tried hard enough.

He entered the forest that he had ran through not so long ago, the one he'd chased Ren through. He saw that crumbling castle, the one that the Being had enchanted with strange magic. The castle Ren was trapped in.

  I'm so sorry, Ren. He thought to himself as he touched an unstable wall. He entered the castle—honestly, he wouldn't consider it a castle anymore—and broke the barrier in doing so.

  He scrambled up the broken walls and stairs, searching for his dog eared.. well, could he really consider Ren a friend anymore? After what he had done to him?

  He found the dog hybrid staring blankly at a torn up tapestry, tears in his eyes. At first he couldn't bring himself to approach Ren, but he took a deep breath and walked towards him.

  "Ren.?" He said softly. Ren jumped and his ears perked up, he spun around and faced the One in Grey. Ren's ears slumped again when he saw his shrouded face, and Ren's eyes glanced around—looking to see if that monster was there too.

  The person got on one knee and bowed his head, making Ren's eyes widen. "You don't have to forgive me for what I've put you through, but please help me save the others.." he stated. He didn't want to look back up, and he felt tears of his own threatening his eyes.

  At first Ren stood there frozen, then his eyes softened and he reached out to his friend. "I don't know if I forgive you yet, but if I can get out of here, then I'll gladly help you."

  The person looked up into Ren's covered eyes and he smiled gratefully—he'll take that; it was better than nothing after all. He took Ren's hand and led him out of the castle.

  They left the castle behind and traversed through the forest. Their next stop was to reach X's base, and then he would tell whoever was there the truth.

  The truth..

It scared him.

✦✦ ꖎ╎ᓭℸ ̣ ᒷリ✦✦

The inside of X's base looked the same—minus the more panicky Hermits that were there. Cub and X were brought to a spare room, the One in Grey still hoped he could save his admin. As did the other Hermits.

He brought Ren with him into a room, Ren looked really tired from their journey. Tango and Pearl were in that spare room.

"Hey.." he started, he knew he needed to explain things, so he thought he'd start small with Tango and Pearl.

  Pearl rushed to comfort Ren and keep him conscious, the poor dog hybrid looked exhausted. The One in Grey took a deep breath before he started to explain where Ren had been, and his involvement with the Being.

  Tango looked at him sympathetically, the blaze hybrid felt a bit conflicted about what his friend had done, but he knew that he had good intentions at least.

  Scar walked in—he had been eavesdropping on the other side of the door—and placed his hand on the One in Grey's shoulder. "It's okay, we can still fix this. We can still save the others, we just have to stay positive and work together!"

  He smiled at Scar, wiping away the tears that were threatening his eyes. "Yeah, Scar's right." He said. He took another deep breath and glanced at Ren's tired but confident expression, Pearl's reassuring stare, and Tango's trusting eyes.

  "I have a plan."

✦✦ ℸ ̣ 𝙹✦✦

A battle. That was his plan, confront the Hermits that were under the Being's control and do something to get their friends back.

But, of course, every plan has its flaws.

Ren was bleeding from the head, Pearl was against Gem, Scar blocked and kept Mumbo away, Tango fought Impulse.

The One in Grey stood face to face with Doc to protect Ren, then suddenly his opponent walked away to stand on the sidelines.

Instead something taller than Doc approached, causing almost all fighting to pause momentarily. The Entity. It towered over Ren and the One in Grey.

The world seemed to get darker, and his friends' faces and voices became blocked out for the One in Grey. It was just him and the Being.

"You were nothing but a pawn," the Being stated, "disposable."

He screamed, pain flooding his senses as he fought to stay upright. He fell to his knees as the pain made his vision go black.

Then a memory came flooding in, a good times in his life. Why did the Being insist on torturing him with the past?

Doc held his hand out to him, smiling. "You alright, Zedaph?" His eyes widened and Zedaph looked up at his friend. He glanced at his clothes, which were back to normal, before looking up at Doc again and taking his hand. Then the memory played as normal.

Zedaph smiled back at Doc. "You kind of tripped." Doc said.

Cub ran and hugged him from behind, startling Zedaph. But before the moment could continue, Zedaph broke free and snapped back to the present reality.

Cub didn't hug him, Ren was trying to get him to stand up. Doc wasn't standing before Zedaph, the Being was.

Ren was worried, and tears were flowing from Zedaph's eyes. He stood straight and glared at the Being.

"Don't mess with my head!" Zedaph growled and charged the Being, leaving a shocked Ren behind.

"All you ever do is hide behind people!" Zedaph yelled, his hood falling as the Being fought back.

Zedaph felt blood trickle into the green seeping from his eye as the Being banged his head into a tree and threw him back. Ren caught him and anxiously watched the Being.

"You good?" Zedaph asked and stood himself up.

"Yeah.."

They awkwardly looked away from each other. Ren looked back to where the Being was, but he didn't see it anywhere. Zedaph saw that as well, and they split up.

Zedaph found himself fighting against Doc again, the creeper hybrid acting more hostile than usual and attacking ruthlessly.

Zedaph didn't want to fight his friend, but he knew he had to.

  Tango winced as Pearl put her hand on his injury, his pointy ears drooping.

   Pearl looked nervously down at him before continuing to prod around his hair to find where all the blood was leaking. It made her woozy, but she wanted to help him.

   Scar stood off to the side, hugging Mumbo tightly and desperately. The moustached man in question was angrily trying to push him off.

   "Mumbo, please!" Scar cried out.

  He didn't want to lose another friend. Especially since he hadn't seen Grian in quite some time.

  Meanwhile, Doc was restraining Zedaph for the Being. Doc looked sad, though, as Zedaph shouted desperately at him.

  "I know you're in there Doc, I'm sorry!" Zedaph shouted, trying to fight against Doc.

 
  "ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᓭ ╎ᓭ ⊣ᒷℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ╎リ⊣ ᔑリリ𝙹||╎リ⊣."

  A tall and imposing figure appeared in front of Zedaph, knocking Doc down with magic.

  The Being's eyes widened as he looked up at the purple figure. Zedaph stared in equal surprise at the angry entity.

  The Watcher banished the Being to its "realm" (a.k.a. a magiked cave the Being controls now) and used its magic to weaken the possessed Hermits.

  "╎ ℸ ̣ ∷╎ᒷ↸." The Watcher said quietly.

  The Watcher fell to their knees in exhaustion and his form fell. An injured brunette replaced the Watcher.

  "Sorry, that won't get rid of it. Just hopefully by us some time," Xisuma said, glancing up at the still shocked Zedaph.
 

✦✦ (im too lazy to continue the basically useless Galactic in between these diamonds, so you get random English words now after this [i will take language suggestions]) ✦✦

  Doc looked at the corner, his eyes glancing at his restraints. Beside him Impulse grunted while pulling angrily against his own restraints.

  Their energy was mostly back now. But some of the possessed Hermits still were taken in.

   Xisuma glanced behind him at the two, a bandage was wrapped around one side of his face. He was lucky that Cub and Zedaph were there to save him.

  Speaking of Zedaph, he was currently crying in Xisuma's arms. Well, he had been crying, now he was just passed out from exhaustion.

  The Being had overworked him, and Zedaph had over-worried and overworked himself.

  Cub was back at his potion cluttered desk, this time Pearl was working with him. She didn't have as much knowledge as Gem, but Cub thought she was a good partner.

  "This potion can go with that one, right?" Pearl asked Cub quietly.

  He nodded and handed her the potion he held that she was referring to.

  "Thanks."

✦✦ egg ✦✦

Uh, hello?

Hi there! No, this is not some weird PoV of the story-

I'm Yaya! Or Bee, or Za, or Honey, or-

Well, whatever you want to call me. I'm even mom to some!

Sorry, this seems random, huh?

Well, I just wanted to say how grateful I am for your patience, and for all the reads I got while on a small break.

Even if it was just some rereads, it made me happy.

And I saw all those new voters as well! Welcome, and thank you!

Enjoy my book as it grows, and I hope you'll stick around. My schedule should hopefully return to normal soon!

Thank you greatly for 1.57k reads!

1718 words (woth A/N)

1602 words (without A/N)

(Forgot your "@" Roxy-)