Grian immediately comes to find her the moment the Session ended, diving in at a high speed and flaring his wings to land safely at the last moment. Always the show-off, though he does have the skill to back it up. "Xerean, how long have you been laying here?" She looks at him, but doesn't say anything. "Don't answer that. Uh..." he comes and crouches on the bed beside her, folding his wings against his back. "Are you...how are you?" She scoffs and looks back up at the stone ceiling. "How do you think I am? My best friend killed me, using the powers I warned him NOT to use, after I tried to offer to help him, and now has ensured that talking with him is not an option." She replies, a little bitter. Then, she gets mad at herself for being upset with Scar. That isn't fair, he doesn't know what he's doing anymore. "That's...fair, I suppose." Grian sighs, and Xerean makes a sound between despair and confusion. "I don't know what's happening, Grian. Scar isn't like this. Not how I know him, at least. He sought me out. He wanted to kill ME. It's all moving too fast. And Martyn says that this isn't how Scar normally is, so I can't fault it to anything happening here, so it's my fault. It's my power coursing through him, which is what's corrupting him or making him violent and unlike himself." She sighs, and the Watcher remains silent, allowing her to get all the feelings out. "I don't know what to do anymore. I thought if I kept trying, I could get to him, but he's just killed me for that, and promised he'd do it again. He's rejecting me, and I don't want to abandon him, but I can't think of what else I'm meant to do." As she speaks, she starts to curl in on herself, shrinking smaller and smaller, until she could probably fit into Grian's palm. When she feels too big, she has to keep a lid on her powers or else they start showing how she feels, too. She feels sad, lonely and betrayed, so she's a small, forgettable little thing. The Avian keeps an eye on where she is, but lays down slowly to see her better. "I can't tell what's up or down, and my emotions keep...I don't understand what's happening there. I still have them, but it feels like they dull after each Session ends." Grian nods a little. "That happens to us all. That's just the Watchers. We feed on emotions, after all, and that's...why we're here, usually. It does help, in a way. But in any case, I don't think it's a good idea to try talking to Scar, full stop. He's settled into a path, one you did your best to stop him from taking, but he's done it anyway. It's like...Mumbo trying to use his hand to block a river much wider than he is tall. You can try your best, but you might have to accept the water's going where it wants to, regardless." He explains, looking up at the sunrise. "You should stick with me this session, if you can, and we'll see what happens. More importantly than ever before, you should avoid Scar. I'll do my best to do so, too. Just–yeah, stick with me." He suggests. She looks over at him again. "One small issue. I'm a Red now. I'm supposed to go hurt people, aren't I?" She points out. Grian grunts. "Yeah, that's a bit of a problem. Uh...well, as long as you don't go after me, Cleo, or Etho, I'm sure it'll be fine." He decides. "Are you sure? That's a big chance to take." Grian smiles at her and shrugs. "In Third Life, I teamed up with Scar until the very end, even when he was Red and I was still Green. He never betrayed me, and you don't like to hurt people, so I think I'll be fine." She can't argue with that; she doesn't want to hurt anyone. And they don't always make the smartest choices. "Okay." Xerean nods, already feeling that set of emotions leaving her. It's like she resets a bit during the day between Sessions. She keeps a bit of the emotions, but usually, they leave her very fast. "I think I'm going to sleep, now. This Session was a lot for us all. Are you going to be alright if I do?" She looks at him. "I'm very sad, but I'm not THAT sad. I can handle myself. I might join you, in fact." She decides, and that, she does. Sleep is something she taught her body to do, so it's more like walking than a subconscious thing. It comes to her quickly, however. She doesn't dream.

She wakes up to the whispers of her Task appearing, and she reads it. "Hm. Okay." She sighs, and rolls out of the bed. "Hello?" She asks. She has a special Red Task. From what she saw of Martyn's, his were supposed to be fast. This one will last her the entire Session. And it's...weird. "Someone who has died will return for the Session to become the devil on your shoulder. You will be the only person able to directly communicate with them, and they will tell you how to complete your Tasks this Session." She starts walking, wondering if she's supposed to do something to activate it, or if Grian may have messed with the Code enough this won't work, and she'll have to hit fail. Luckily, she doesn't have to wait long, as abruptly, Mumbo just appears in front of her. It's almost as if he was always there, and she never noticed. There's no burst of power, no waver to any sort of continuity, nothing. Just nothing one moment, then a supposed-to-be-dead-Mumbo the next. "Mumbo?!" She exclaims, caught off guard. The vampire has a very similar reaction, jumping back in surprise. "Xerean! I–wait, you can see me?" He asks, tilting his head. She notices that at least for his skin, pale as it is, she can slightly see through it, and there's a bit of dried blood leaking from one ear. The Warden's shriek must have damaged his ears. He also has the burns from falling in the lava, she notes. "Yeah, I can see you. Why are you–oh." She laughs a little bit. This'll be interesting. "What? What is it?" He asks, looking around. "You're meant to be somewhat of a devil on my shoulder. I'm Red, as you can see–have you been able to keep up with the events since you died?" She inquires. Mumbo nods, waving out at the sky with no general direction. "We–Lizzie, Jimmy, and I–can watch you all. We sort of...float? Anyway, we choose to watch certain people, then swap stories when we all meet up at the end of the Session." He explains. She grunts softly, several more questions running through her head. What happens if she teleports? Or flies? Is he a physical, tangible object? She wants to try and figure all of these out, but right now, she'll stick to getting settled with Mumbo. "Hm. So, what have you seen? Do you read chat?" Mumbo sits down, seeing as she has, too. "Well, we all watched you guys fight the Warden and the Wither–good job with that, by the way–and then we decided to split into teams. Jimmy will usually watch you, Martyn, or Scar. Lizzie will watch Gem and the Scots, Joel, and the Heart Foundation, while I'll watch Grian's group and the Mounders. So we get a pretty wide scope." He explains, and Xerean looks up at the sky. "Can you see them now?" Mumbo shakes his head, but looks around anyway. "They aren't here, so I can't see them, but I also don't feel...as dead? It's in between falling and standing." She nods. "That's Limbo, buddy." He looks at her, confused. "I thought it was Limbo before? We were dead, but we were still alive in a way?" Xerean shakes her head, then takes a leaf, making it a little bigger. "Say this leaf represents existence, or in a better term, life and death. This side is the side of the living, and this is the side of the dead. Limbo is the middle, the thin layer inside the leaf. You're inside the leaf, but you can't get through to any one side." She explains, tapping and then pushing a hole through the leaf to make her point. "Oh. okay. So the weird place where you go before entering the Nether?" She nods, pleased he understands. Maybe she isn't so bad at explaining things, after all. "That's actually a way better way to explain it. Sorry mine was so abstract." The vampire shrugs, and she throws the leaf away. "Anyway, we should get on with this. As much as I'd like to, I can't do NOTHING, can I?" Mumbo nods, and they stand. "So, first Task?" He thinks. "Um...make someone take damage with a creeper." He suggests. "I can do that." She grins. Coincidentally, she has one already. If she can get some cobwebs, that'd be even better.

"Can you do me a favor?" She asks suddenly. They're making their way down the mountain. "Hm?" He replies, focusing on not falling. She doubts he can take damage as he is now, but it's hard-coded into him to be careful. "Can you...if Scar comes around, let me know so I can get out of there." Mumbo pauses, then nods, looking up at her sympathetically. They aren't the closest, mostly in close association due to Grian and Scar, but he does know her well enough to understand how she probably feels about what's going on. "Yeah. I can...I can do that." He confirms. She gives a small, rueful smile of appreciation, and they carry on. "I'm gonna go for Pearl." She announces, coming up on the Secret Keeper. "Okay." Mumbo replies, keeping stride with her easily. It probably helps that he's much taller than her. "First, though, I'mma go get some cobwebs. Mumbo, do you mind if I raid your house for cobwebs?" She asks, and he takes a moment to respond. "Uh–yes? I don't know if I had any, but you're welcome to check?" She finger guns at him, then heads for his sideways house. Rather than use the weird trapdoor trick, she just walks through the wall, and starts rummaging through the cramped space. "This house is quite small." She notes, and finds not cobwebs, but string. "You can't craft string into cobwebs, how do you plan on–" she pops back out of the wall. "I can just make it. Chaos, remember?" She pointedly weaves the string into the sticky substance, and shows it to him. "Oh, right." She chuckles a bit, then heads off to find Pearl. She instead finds Impulse, crafting something with the crafting table just outside the walled base. Moving quickly, she places the webs, catching him by surprise. "This is a Task!" She says, her attempt of a quick apology, before placing the creeper egg and backing up. After Impulse has detangled himself from the string, she offers him a heart in apology. "You can't just offer hearts to your victims, you only have one to give each Session!" Mumbo points out. Regardless, she gives it to the pointy-eared imp, who took about a heart of damage, but understood it was a Task and forgiven her. "Well then I'll apologize in other ways. I'm very much against everything my people stand for and do, Mumbo. I actively try to be whatever they're not." She replies, once they're out of earshot. "Fair enough." He concedes. In the next few days, they accomplish a few more Tasks, but mostly wander around the Server. She answers the questions based on distance she had(Mumbo cannot fly, but he does teleport wherever she is, and they have to be within earshot range at all times), and visits Grian. Someone had broken the bookshelves around their Enchanter, so she pitches in to help him and Etho fix it.

"Oh!" She gasps, stopping suddenly. "What? What is it?" Grian prompts, wings raised and posture alert. Etho seems less tense, but definitely cautious as he pauses to glance over at her. "Scar's on Red!" Xerean exclaims. "Skizz killed him!" Mumbo's eyes widen. "Really?" She exhales sharply. "You couldn't have known." Grian says, seeing the look on her face. Is that true? Was there truly nothing she could have done? Xerean wonders what may have happened in a different situation, another universe. She appreciates what Grian is saying, but that won't stop her from thinking otherwise. "Right, Xerean, can you come with me?" He waves with his wing in an indication for her to follow him, leaving Etho to finish repairing the bookshelves, at least for the moment. He brings her over to the corner of the Border, and puts on a serious face. "Scar's Red now. He's much more a threat to us than ever before." She nods, holding her arm. "Scar always gets a bit crazy and murderous when he's Red, but if he's been that way as long as he has, and on Yellow, he's going to be worse. Now, I need to know..." He looks her in the eyes, if he wasn't already. "...are you prepared to kill him, if it comes down to it?" She shudders at the thought, but searches for a possibility anyway. "No." She sighs, looking at her hands, then clenching them tightly. "He's not himself, but he's still Scar, my best friend, the first actual person to accept me in Hermitcraft. And you know I can't do that to anyone. I couldn't even kill my father, who wouldn't hesitate to kill me." Grian inhales deeply, then nods sympathetically. "I understand. But you're going to have to be. Of all the people here, you're most likely the only one able to. Especially if he starts bringing your abilities into the equation." He points out. Mumbo's been sitting nearby silently, just watching them talk. "I don't want to." She whispers. It goes against everything she's spent thousands of years to fix about herself. Grian sighs. "I'll see what I can do, but my abilities are pretty limited here. The other two Watchers keep it under lock and key." She suddenly remembers the Watcher burn on her arm. She wasn't able to remove it entirely, but it hasn't done anything, either. Better safe than sorry, though. "I got this back when Session 6 was about to start. I was trying to see if there was a way out of here, or find what caused me to come here. I found an eye attached to the Code instead. It tried to attack me, and while I hurt it, too, I wasn't unscathed." He winces, gingerly taking her arm. Pointedly, she lets it go limp. "It doesn't hurt anymore, I've been trying to fix it." Grian shakes his head, running his thumb over the mark beneath it. "These don't go away. We don't have curses like you do, but this is close. This is going to make you more vulnerable to Watcher magic, make you weaker. You don't feel it, but it won't matter. Let me–hm." He falls silent, inspecting the injury and frowning a lot. "I can't remove it, not here, but maybe I can try something." She patiently allows him to do whatever he needs to before he puts a hand over the burn and mutters something in Galactic, which lifts some of the purple and makes it wispy, before being sucked up and absorbed by the Watcher. "That should make it a little better. Couldn't remove it, but I can still take in some of the base Watcher magic holding it together." He explains, and releases her arm. "Alright, they'll start wondering what happened to us, we should go back."

Xerean spends the rest of the day with Grian, deciding to at least pause her Task. Mumbo doesn't mind, taking advantage of the experience to watch what's happening. The next morning, Cleo and Etho come over for a moment of planning. "So you're both aware that Scar has been a little off. More violent than normal." Cleo and Etho nod. "Now that he's on Red, we suspect it'll only get worse. With the present list and Lives people are on, I give us a week before someone is the last person standing. We have to be prepared for that." Cleo nods. "I've been trying to get a better wolf army." She offers. "And I'm fixing the Enchanter, so we should have some better gear soon." Etho adds, and Grian nods. "It might be useful to form some alliances." He says, to which they all agree. "Now we know what I'm doing today." There isn't much else said after that, but Grian suddenly pricks up his head in the middle of discussing who to approach first. "Someone's outside." He says, alert and bringing out his shield. "Oh, they're all outside!" He exclaims. Flaring his wings, Grian jumps up to head for the mountain above the base, and Xerean offers her hand to the other two. "I can get up there quicker than you can." She says, and that's enough to get them to take her hand. She teleports them up, then instantly throws them back as she sees Martyn about to strike an End Crystal. She remembers how much damage they can deal, from Season 8 of Hermitcraft. Unfortunately, she cannot stop Martyn or warn Grian, but she manages to keep the blast from hurting Cleo and Etho. Martyn instantly runs, a mass of wolves running forward to attack him, and Grian chases after him to retaliate. "Goodness! That was–that was quite fast." Mumbo exhales, and Grian returns, looking much worse for wear. "What happened?!" Cleo asks, and Grian chuckles a little, one of those 'I narrowly escaped death' chuckles people have sometimes. "Martyn attacked me. I went from...what was it? 20-some hearts to 7." They all share a wince, even Mumbo. "What'd he even–oh, it was an End Crystal!" He says. "Yeah. I brought Cleo and Etho up here, but I wasn't able to stop it from hurting you." She confirms. "Well, I'm hurtin' for hearts...anyone have one to spare?" Xerean shakes her head, having given hers to Impulse. Etho and Cleo give him one instead, and he manages to get one from Joel 'for the Bad Boys', which the Avian explains was a team he, Joel, and Jimmy had made in a previous Season. The Reds are still in front of the base, the front of which Joel has blown up at some point. "So...plan?" Xerean asks, standing atop what's left of the bed shrine thing. "Uh..." Grian flaps up for a moment to scout and consider options. "Tango and Skizz are coming up on the side of the mountain!" Cleo warns, so Grian banks to intercept. "Really not a good day to have a Red Task for me, huh?" She asks Mumbo wryly. Before he can reply, she charges off, ready to defend.

Tango and Grian are engaged in close combat, so she goes over to help fight Skizzleman. Scott's here, she didn't realize he'd appeared. she throws a disk on instinct to deflect an arrow away from Etho, then switches to a bow. She has to remember not to use her abilities, that would make the fights unfair. And as against the fighting and hurting and killing as she is, she won't be useless, either. Eventually, Tango flees, and Skizz backs off. "How we lookin?" Xerean asks. "4.5 hearts." Grian replies. "Oh. That's not good." She says, stroking a dog as it runs by to come up to Cleo. It's got blood around its muzzle, but it seems to be considerably older than this fight. "Yeah. Not my best day." Grian agrees, looking around. He's still on high alert, but for now, it appears that the Reds have backed off. "We should make some defenses, maybe use the box I made up on Joel's tower, fortify it." He muses, and Etho nods. "I've got lots of dripstone on me." He offers. "Perfect. So we make sure we're all ready, then go up and get set there?" Cleo confirms. Apparently, that's the plan. Bdubs visits, while Xerean is enchanting with Cleo, and they confirm that he's a friendly red. Grian gets Sharpness IV, and Xerean manages to get knockback II and fire aspect I on her own sword. "Gem's killed Pearl!" Grian announces, and Xerean withholds a sigh. "We're going to have to be careful. If Gem or Scar don't take us out first, Pearl will." He adds, mostly for her benefit. In between all the action, he's been explaining what happened in previous Seasons, such as the way everyone else won, the concept of the Boogeyman, and the noted strengths and patterns found in other players as the Sessions had gone on. "Especially with that bow." Etho agrees. "If we want to get to the tower, the time is now." Cleo tells them, rallying her wolves and looking over to see if Etho's ready. After raiding the chests one last time, they all set off. It starts out all fine and well, but then they run into Pearl and Gem riding a camel. Following on their heels are a couple of the remaining Reds, including Scar. His poncho's changed. It has a dark, dark purple color now, the flowers no longer just sunflowers, but a reddish hue that makes it vibrant and pop against the dark fabric, and a few pale purple lilacs have been weaved and added in. Scar picks her out immediately, eyes glittering with danger and excitement. There's new, little scars under his left eye, too, and a set of three over his nose. Probably from the explosion that put him on Red. He holds her gaze, tilting his head to one side a little, then diverts his gaze back to Etho when he spots him. "That's Chaos Scar." Grian hisses, coming up to stand beside her, shield up. "You're outnumbered, here." Pearl informs the Avian, who clearly knows this, but refuses to accept that fact. Without warning, Grian darts off to the right, making it past Martyn and Scar before Pearl releases an arrow and kills him. "Anyone else?" She asks, while Xerean takes a moment to realize the death. She's still dumbfounded as to how casual these people are when someone dies. Scar's grinning like a fool, shifting from foot to foot with a restless energy, watching the remaining three closely, and the others seem anxious to close in. She isn't in danger, as far as she knows, but her allies are. "Xerean, you get out of here; they don't want you." Etho tells her. "But doesn't that mean I should stay?" She points out. "I'd suggest we run, too." Mumbo offers, as Etho hands over the dripstone. "Just go. We'll be fine." He promises, and reluctantly, she leaves. She takes the long way around, assuming someone would try to follow her. It's not like Etho's telling her to leave was hidden by any means. Once she's sure nobody can see her, she teleports up to the tower and puts the dripstone in a chest. This is the moment Cleo dies, and a few moments after, Etho is killed by Scar, using the Lightsaber. Again. That leaves Impulse and Scott as the final two Yellows. Making sure she's left the materials for the tower in the chest, she flies down to go see her now Red team. "I got the stuff in the chest. What happened to not dying?" She asks Etho, more as a tease than a genuine question. "Scar's scarily good this Season!" He objects, then shrugs. "At least we're all on the same life, so we don't have to worry about betrayals. I should think. Now, Grian, do I have to fail or re-roll my Yellow Task to get a Red one?" She lets the two sort it out, and climbs to sit up on the Secret Keeper's hand. Scott dies, and Scar kills Impulse. He doesn't come up to her, and her friends stay around the Secret Keeper for the last handful of minutes for the Session. Finally, they all gather together, Scar not even glancing her way as he leans against the mossy stone below her. "So, now that we're all Red, I reckon we have one final Session before everything's over. We will have two days to prepare this time, do with it what you will." Grian announces, and she looks over at Mumbo. "Guess this is goodbye. Hope you had fun." She tells the vampire. "I guess...wait, look, it's Jimmy!" She looks up and over to where he'd pointing, and sees him standing beside Grian, though nobody else seems to notice him. Both he and Mumbo disappear a moment later, and she looks away.

She's still there when people start heading back home to prepare. Xerean goes to stand, only for someone to put a hand on her shoulder and push her back down. "Hello there." Scar says, smiling. She doesn't reply. "What, no greetings for your best friend?" He asks, feigning hurt. He leans to one side to see her face, she's refusing to make eye contact while she thinks of what she should do. "What do you want?" She asks finally, and he sits back upright. "Just to talk." He replies, sitting down as well. "In two days, war is gonna break out. It'll be everyone for themselves, but you, you don't do so well when it comes to hurting people, even here, you're too soft and  continue to apologize. But me, I've been cuttin' people down left, right, and center. I'll bet we'll be on opposite sides. And I want a real fight." He leans in, some sort of purple-fucsia flash going over his eyes before they return to green. "Don't disappoint me." He warns, then stands, and leaves. Blinking, she realizes that no time had passed. He'd stopped time and she just didn't notice? She must be losing it. There's a big difference in the feeling of the World when it's running as normal compared to when it's frozen. She immediately sends herself to wherever Grian is, which happens to be on the roof of their base. He's checking his taloned hands and feet, sharpening some of them. While he may not have been allowed to fly, they couldn't just get rid of his talons, and he takes advantage of that, often. "I know you hate it, but you NEED to be ready to fight Scar. He'll come for you, I saw how he watched you." Grian warns, tilting his head to make his voice clearer, but not looking at her. "I know." She replies quietly. "He told me himself: he wants a fight." Grian sighs, then gets up. "I'll help you the best I can, and I'll see if we can get some of the others to help, a last-stand alliance." He assures her, spreading his wings. She doesn't reply, only nods her head faintly and watches him head off. Then, she sends herself back over to Lizzie's house, standing ontop of it. The most important part of Chaos Witch fights is being able to keep up or outpace your opponent with creative ways around the other's attacks and defend. Scar shouldn't have much experience with that, however, he's managed to stop or pause time with seemingly no issues, so she can't take any chances. Floating, she leaves one hand touching Lizzie's house, then removes her hand, watching it turn into some sort of reptilian beast with white, long, slanted eyes that reach down its neck, pale grey fur, and webbed hands. A moment later, she snaps her fingers and it turns into a car, then a futuristic gun, a bubble-blowing machine, and then a simple hunter's knife, before she reverses the effects and Lizzie's house comes back, returning to normal. She won't need to worry about resources, just how fast she can change things. 

For the first day, that's all she does. After, the works on her physical capabilities. Enhanced as she may be now, she still isn't THAT little bit stronger. 

And then, it's time. 

She can hide no longer. 

The end has come.