Grian couldn't sleep that night. Well, no. He didn't want to sleep that night. He was just too awake, too many thoughts were bouncing around in his head. Would Grumbot be alright? What had happened to Scar? And what's going on with that fiend, Sage? The Hermit had so much pent-up energy, he couldn't even fathom going to bed just yet. 

Besides, he had something he was better off doing anyway. Grian walked to the center of the main room and broke through the floor, tumbling down further and further until he landed on a single bit of water. He had a few secrets of his own. When Grian had told Scar that he hadn't been doing anything lately... that was a white lie. But the Hermit hadn't seen any sense in telling him the truth; it's not like it mattered at the moment anyway.

No, Grian had actually been quite busy lately. But, instead of his efforts being channeled into anything having to do with Mumbo, they were focused on Grian himself. Rather, his memories. 

Which were disappearing at an alarming rate.

Below his base, Grian had created his own room, a secret, private room. In it lay papers of all types strewn about the floor haphazardly. On a table were more papers. Each of these only had a couple of words, maybe a sentence or two written on each. There were a few scribbled drawings, but nothing coherent. It was all incredibly disorganized; Grian had tried to fix it multiple times, but no matter what he did it just got all chaotic again later. But, there was one thing that was tidy-- or as close to it as the gremlin could get. On one wall was a big poster board with different papers stuck to it. They were all connected by various pieces of string. To an outsider, it was pure gibberish. But to Grian, it made perfect sense.

It was his Memory Board. All these papers were covered in different memories from before HermitCraft. When he noticed that he was losing them, he had begun to jot them all down as quickly as possible so that he could at least have them. The Hermit didn't remember much anymore, so connecting these was proving harder than he thought. That's where the board came in. Whenever he was able to make a connection between a few memories, people, or other things, he connected them on there. Of course, he couldn't connect everything; not yet. But he was hoping that maybe, someday, he could.

But there was just one thing in particular that bothered him about all this. All of these memories, every last one, lead to something... someone... in particular. He couldn't remember their name. He couldn't remember what they looked like. All he knew was that they were the most prevalent person in Grian's life before this. 

Grian bent over and picked up a few papers from the ground.

-t̶w̶o̶- three groups

How could they remember so well? They were magic, I swear.

I hate being short

Heh... If only he could remember what any of this meant-- besides the short bit, of course. He knew that all too well. There was so little left in his brain now, it was almost as if it had never happened at all. The only things he remembered as fact were the most basic of information. Before he came to HermitCraft, Grian was a 'Watcher,' whatever that meant. And now... he was here. 

He looked back up at his Memory Board at the seemingly related various notes that were strung together. Things that only made sense to be together. 

It was almost like a cult... It was probably a cult

Initiation

Huh, initiation. Until now, Grian had never considered that fully. Didn't the Hermit Challenges have an initiation, too? Eh, that was just a coincidence. But it didn't matter, no. What mattered now was figuring out who this mystery person was, and what Grian had to do with them. Grian racked his brain for more memories, any glimpses of the past, but got nothing. Absolutely nothing. 

--------------

Sage's POV-

Sage, however, was extremely tired. Today was just too much. The second he reached his room-- which had thankfully been left by Void-- he collapsed facedown onto the couch and into a dream. 

He was just putting the finishing touches on his matter duplication device. It was a pretty amazing machine indeed, if he did say so himself. He was, to say the least, chuffed to bits. And it was his. All his. To be quite frank, the Hermit was so glad he refused Xisuma's offer to help. While it certainly would have gone smoother and quicker with the admin on his side, it was all worth it to be able to stare at his machine and think, I did this. This was all me.

However, he  did get mildly uneasy when he thought about Xisuma's offer. Had the bee-suited Hermit assumed that something would go wrong? No, he had it all under control. He assured the other of that, didn't he? The Hermit even took extra precautions to ensure that nothing went wrong. Eh, it didn't matter in the end, anyway. He'd be able to get this to work soon enough, and then everyone would be able to see his work.

The smile on his face was wider than it had possibly ever been. To have created something as tremendous as a matter duplicator in only a month... it had seemed like an impossible task, but the Hermit had pushed through and completed it. 

At the cost of not seeing his friends in an entire month. 

Maybe that was unnecessary.

But no use poring over that now. Now was the time to test it out. The brit carefully placed an apple in one of the cells, closed the door, and typed vigorously on the computer for a minute or so. Then it was time. He pressed one more button and in the blink of an eye... the other cell had an apple in it.

Holy biscuits. 

He took the apple out of the other side and broke it open, inspecting the inside. It had the exact same texture, smell, everything as a normal apple. With a chomp, he confirmed that it had the right taste too. This was... nothing less than incredible.

But how did it work? It was impossible to create something out of nothing. Especially with a living-- or dead, like the apple-- thing, it should be impossible. You can't create life from nothing. You can't take something that wasn't there to begin with. You ca-

Sage woke up in a sweat. Those words rang through his head. 'You can't create something out of nothing.' It just wasn't possible. Sage... wasn't possible. And that's when it clicked.

The faux-Hermit flew out of the base. It was already morning, though it was hard to tell through the pounding rain that instantly drenched Sage. It all made sense. The memories, the thoughts, everything made sense. Sage just needed to get to Void. The admin was the only one who could help him. Only one thought was coursing through his mind as he flew.  I have to get to Void. I have to get to Void. I have to get to Void.

As soon as he touched the ground, Sage burst into Void's base, dripping with rainwater. Who knew he was that strong? Must be the adrenaline. He was freezing. It was still a bit chilly and he was soaked. Wet socks were truly a disgrace. But enough about that, he needed to get on with this. "Void I need to speak with you right now it's urgent and it can't wait where are you-" It was there he spotted Void in the corner, drowsily sorting items in a few chests. He seemed so tired that he didn't even consciously notice Sage's arrival. In fact, he looked like he might fall asleep where he was standing. Was Void really not sleeping at all? That seemed to be true. "...Void?" He walked over to Void and tapped him on the shoulder, causing the admin to jump.

"Wh- Oh, hi, Sage. Didn't notice you," he said. "What do you need? You look... wet."

"First off," Sage began, completely ignoring Void's last comment. "when was the last time you slept?" This was met with silence. "Void, have you not slept since-"

"Next question," Void snapped, cutting Sage off. He crossed his arms. 

"Void," Sage repeated, unmoving. 

"Sage," was Void's response. Both people stood there in silence, unwilling to give up, before Void finally sighed. "Fine, I haven't slept since then. But it's only been two days, I should be fine." Two days is still a long time to go without sleeping, especially for someone as busy as Void. But Sage wasn't going to get any further on that account. It was clear that Void didn't want to talk about it.

"...Fine, I'll drop it. But you have to sleep later." He fixed the admin with a stare until he nodded. "Good. Now... I actually have a bit of a request."

"Go ahead," Void answered, raising an eyebrow. 

Sage took a deep breath to steady himself. He had gotten here so quickly that he never allowed himself time to figure out how to actually phrase this. He had to be ca-... Actually, no. He was done being careful. If he waited any longer, he'd never get the chance to talk with the admin. "I want you to give me my memories. All of them."

This was clearly not the request Void was expecting. His voice was filled with confusion as he spoke. "You- what? You have all of your memories... Are you talking about Mumbo's? Because I can unlock them, but I can't ac-" 

"No," Sage said, cutting Void off. "I want my other memories." His amber and silver gaze shone seriously as he spoke. The air was thin and still; one could hear a pin cut through it as it fell, and the only noise was the dull throbbing of the rain outside. "I want my memories of being Evil Xisuma."

Void stared incredulously at the faux-Hermit. This clearly woke him up. Eyes wide, he stuttered, "W-what?" 

Sage took a step forward. Void was hiding something; he just knew it. No wonder the admin always found a convenient excuse to avoid talking about EX. He knew the truth about how he and Sage were linked. He had to! "I've had the... startling realization that before I was, well, me, I was the entity known as EX. I want those memories back." Despite the flame burning brightly inside of him, Sage's tone was ice-cold. 

"You-" It was hard to tell behind his purple visor, but the admin's face had drained of its color. "Really? No..." It seemed as though he wasn't even listening. "There's no way."

Void had to know. Why was he playing dumb? Sage was too filled with anticipation to consider anything other than that. "Yes, I am," he growled. Then he had an idea. "You know what?" The duplicate pulled out his notebook, opened it, and thrust it at Void. "Read."

The shocked admin scanned the notebook. Somehow, his eyes managed to grow even wider. "You... really are him," he murmured, numbly handing back the notebook. Void looked back at Sage. His eyes were filled with something more now. Realization, acceptance... and a hint of fear. 

But it was a lie. It was all a lie. Void was lying. His eyes were lying. The admin had been hiding this from Sage. Why? He didn't know. Maybe he was scared. Scared that Sage would... would... he didn't even know. "Now, my memories. I obviously don't have them."

"Yes," Void muttered, still clearly in shock. Not in shock. Maybe in shock? Ugh, this was so confusing! Could Sage not have one, singular, normal day without any glitching or insane epiphanies? "The problem with that is... I don't have any memories to give you."

"Of course you do!" Sage couldn't help but yell. He didn't notice the tears streaming down his face. This feeling of helplessness, of betrayal, of unclarity, it was overwhelming. He just couldn't take any more twists. No more crazy plot twists that completely alter the story. Was that too much to ask? 

The faux-Hermit's insides were all being turned out. Every inch of him was battling itself. True, fake, right, wrong, everything meshed together and canceled out one another. Void was clearly telling the truth, but there was no way it wasn't a lie. Everything Sage had ever felt now made sense, but it was all just meaningless squabble. He was EX, or was he Mumbo? 

No... he was Sage. 

"...know nothing about this." Oh. Void was talking. "I didn't do anything... I didn't even realize it was possible." Something about the way he spoke gave Sage the inkling of an impression that Void was somewhat awestruck. He really didn't know anything, did he? It was a sinking realization. If Void didn't know, and Sage definitely didn't know... who did? Wait. He knew the answer to that question.

"Mumbo."

"Wh-what?" Void asked, startled. "How does Mumbo have anything to do with this?" No, not just anything. Mumbo had everything to do with this. "Sage, what are you thinking?" 

The faux-Hermit began to pace, leaving a trail of rainwater as he walked. "Mumbo is responsible for this, isn't he? He knew... he knew that he couldn't just create life, that it had to come from somewhere. I don't know how, but somehow, he had to know that." Sage froze in his spot. Wait. If Mumbo knew, and Sage had all of Mumbo's memories-- and more-- then why didn't Sage remember? 

"Sage, I think you're getting ahead of yourself," Void quickly responded, waving a hand in front of Sage's face. "Mumbo doesn't- he doesn't know, remember? There's no way he'd know. The only explanation..." His face darkened. "is a glitch."

"A glitch...?" Something like this was caused by some... glitch? There's no way... how could a glitch be so specific? Something so specific to target one certain aspect of his memories just couldn't exist. Well... he supposed weird glitches had happened. With Void being sent into that void-- no pun intended-- this world's collapse could have any number of crazy effects. But still... it just seemed a bit out there. 

But Void seemed set in that idea. "Yes. Now... I'm not sure how I can help, if at all. The only thing that I could do would be..." He trailed off. "Nevermind." Huh? "It's better if you don't kno- remember."

Sage blinked. And here he thought Void would be helpful. Now he was back at square one. Ugh, this was so annoying! The second he thought he was finally starting to understand everything, it all got ripped away from his grasp. And he was thrown all the way back to the beginning of the game. This was so aggravating. So dismaying. Sage frowned and turned around. He left Void's base, ignoring the admin's calls. He'd figure something out. He always did, didn't he? There was nothing he couldn't figure out, no puzzle he couldn't outwit, no boss he couldn't slay. Yeah... He just needed a new approach. Next time he saw Citrus, he'd ask her.

He just needed a breather right now. He wasn't feeling like himself.

-------------

Xisuma's POV-

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no. Oh no. This was quite possibly the worst-case scenario. Oh, Mumbo, what have you done? Bringing EX back... Well, maybe it was partially Xisuma's fault... but no matter. Right now, he just had to make sure that Sage-- EX? He was unsure of how to refer to him now-- didn't somehow remember his past, if he was in fact telling the truth about his lack of memories. 

At last, this world finally glitched something to a better result. Xisuma let out a heavy sigh as Sage flew back into the pounding rain. He couldn't exactly blame the other for snapping; like X, he was under a lot of pressure himself. In all honesty, X would be more concerned if Sage wasn't on edge. But still... the admin had to admit that he was worried about Sage. His recent mood swings, his outbursts, they were uncontrollable at best and dangerous at worst. All the different forces inside him must be fighting against each other-- his essence of EX, his memories as Mumbo, and his code of the leeching personality must not be agreeing with each other. 

As seen, these huge twists were causing Sage to spazz out; one could only hope that there wouldn't be anymore.

Hope... that couldn't be just the only option, could it? What good is hoping for something if you never act on it? It's like wishing on a star; you'll never get anywhere unless you make that wish come true. But X couldn't think of anything else right now-- at least, no safe options-- so he'd have to keep thinking on that. He just needed time. That's all. Time.

But for now, he had things to do. He had lost a day yesterday, so he had to make up for it now. It seemed that all of his paths were somehow leading back to the underground laboratory, weren't they? The admin stifled a yawn as he collected what he needed. He also needed sleep.

---------------

Doc's POV-

"Dude, I don't get why you're stressin' so much," Ren commented, leaning against the fence that divided Doc and Bdubs' plots. "When was the last time you slept, mmm?"

It was roughly midday. The ground was muddy from the torrential rain from earlier that day, but Doc didn't mind. He preferred the fresh air to the stuffy inside anyway. And wow, did he feel... not great. He had hardly a care in the world-- no big huge wars going on, no-one mysteriously going missing, nothing of the sort-- but something was nagging him, a little bug in the back of his mind. It was the way Xisuma was acting. The admin had seemed a bit more stressed than usual, yet refused to open up. It was normal for Doc to be a little worried, right? But Ren didn't notice it at all, apparently, and had spent the last ten minutes listening to Doc rant on and providing less-than-helpful feedback on why Doc was so idiotic for being concerned. 

"I slept last night. And got up before the sun, but that doesn't matter," he added under his breath. The cyborg tapped his foot incessantly and turned to face Ren, as he had previously been pacing. "You're sure there's nothing to worry about? Xisuma just seems off." 

"Yeah, man, he's fine," Doc's companion assured him, rolling his eyes good-naturedly. "Everyone's a bit frazzled after prank day; I nearly put a chicken in my cake batter earlier for instance." He shuddered, as if imagining the horror that chicken-flavored cake would be. Hm. That did sound horrendous. 

Doc supposed Ren was right; he usually was about these things. Okay, maybe not usually, but that was beside the point. Doc was just overthinking things, as he tended to do, though usually that 'overthinking' led to outstanding discoveries rather than being talked down like a child. Whatever, it's not like his gut was always right. "Yeah... you're right," he sighed, a grin settling back on his face. Yeah, saying it out loud made it easier for Doc to believe. If something was really bothering Xisuma, the admin would tell him. There was nary a secret between them, especially if it was important. 

"'Course I am," was Ren's confident response. "I'm me, after all." Doc couldn't help but laugh. If there was one useful part of Ren, it was his innate knack for cheering people up. "Now, we have much more important things to be discussing."

This caused Doc to raise an eyebrow. "More important things? Like what do you mean?" He folded his arms as Ren grinned.

"Our plans for Saturday," Ren said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You know, the battle with Bdubs and Impulse?" The dog man laughed. "The one we've been planning for a week? You sure you slept?"

Oh, right. Well, the was one war. But it was small, confined to four people. It was more of a dispute than anything. One that Doc had nearly completely forgotten about. It had started when Bdubs and his lackey, Impulse, snuck into Doc's base and stole his beloved goat painting. It had taken Doc over two weeks to create and was the featured possession of his bedroom. Now, it lay hidden somewhere in the Shopping District-- according to a message from Impulse-- and Ren had agreed to join Doc in a battle to win it back. It was supposedly going to be a fair fight... but both sides knew that there was no way that'd be happening, so the two teammates were heading over to the Shopping District before the planned evening meeting to set up traps.

"Right, that. It slipped my mind," the Hermit admitted sheepishly. "Do you have any ideas for preparation?" Of course, Doc hadn't neglected his share of planning as well. In fact, he was just finishing up getting all of the gear ready.

"Have I ever!" As he spoke, the Hermit pulled out his pouch and began rummaging through it. "I had the best idea. It involves a lot of explosives." Eyes shining brightly, Ren displayed a scribbled diagram of... something. There were four stick figures, two of which seemed happy-- Doc assumed they were Ren and himself-- and the other two had x's for eyes-- probably Impulse and Bdubs. There were also a lot of scribbles, which were assumedly fire and explosives. His short tail wagged excitedly as he explained his master plan. "They touch the ground in a place we trapped and kaboom! They are no more. I've also got a bunch of other ideas-"

...Okay. "Yes... I think that looks great..." Doc started. He spoke slowly as he stared down at the paper. "But...."

"But what?" Was Ren's completely oblivious response. He nodded his head quickly so that the sunglasses that sat in his mop of brown hair-- fluff? Doc couldn't tell-- slid down onto his face. It was clear that that was meant to look cool, but it was just awkward-looking. But Ren apparently didn't mind and continued, "It's a perfect plan."

Chuckling, Doc raised an eyebrow. "You do remember that we're going to be in the Shopping District, right?" It appeared that Ren did not, as the dog man's face drained of color. "I doubt the others would be happy if their shops got caught in our crossfire."

"Oh. Yeah." Ren's tail drooped as the Hermit stared forlornly down at his paper from behind the oddly-positioned sunglasses. Something about it made Doc feel a bit bad. 

Well, that was only his first idea. "Let's see what else you have."

Ren didn't move.

"Ren, please tell me that not all of your ideas involve TNT."

"I am a simple man-!" The dog man's face flushed slightly as he shoved his paper back into his pouch and leaned back against the fence, folding his arms with a hrrmph. He grumbled something unintelligible and looked away from the bemused Doc. 

Okay, so no plans yet then. That's fine; they still had another full two days to prepare. But, if there was anything to learn from this, maybe putting Ren as the sole planner was not the best idea. "We can always go old-school," he suggested with a shrug. "Trip them up over their own feet, that sort of thing."

Ren nodded thoughtfully at this, seemingly over his failure. "Yeah.... yeah! Get them all caught up in themselves, and we swoop in and finish them off!" His eyes shone brightly again and his dog ears perked up in excitement as he spoke, getting quicker and quicker as he continued. "This will be great! Come on; let's go plan it out." And then, without giving Doc a chance to react, the Hermit grabbed his hand and pulled him as he ran into Doc's house to find the nearest flat surface he could. 

That worked.

-------------------

Sage's POV-

It was incredible what good a walk could do for a discombobulated mind. An uninterrupted walk. Come to think of it, Sage never did get to do that when he had planned to yesterday. No, instead he had to deal with those two Hermits. Sage would probably never forget the terror of that glitch, getting trapped like that. That was horrible. 

No, he wasn't about to dwell on it. The evening sun blazed like fire as it washed the sky in deep amber waves. The day was nearly over. As the looming figure of the base-- the base, not Sage's, not Mumbos; just the-- came into view a warm feeling of silence passed through the faux-Hermit. Silence. Warm, cozy, passive silence. The feeling he had grown to love. He approached the button on the shelf to open up the stairwell, and to his surprise, it was already uncovered. Huh. He was certain that the last time he checked it was sealed.

Whatever. The moustached man pressed the button and quickly concealed it before making his way to the staircase, pulling out a torch to light the way. Maybe Void was down here. But did Sage really feel like talking to him? Eh.... 

And then there was Mumbo. An inkling of the faux-Hermit still thought that he might be responsible for Sage's lost memories, but that just didn't make sense. There's no way Mumbo would know something like that. No way. Besides, last time Sage asked Mumbo about EX, the Hermit wasn't all that knowledgeable. Sage was overthinking this. It was hard not to, of course. But the fact remained that it was unlikely that Sage would be getting any information any time soon. Hm... maybe he could go around tomorrow and see what the other Hermits knew of EX. 

But he wasn't worried about tomorrow right now. Right now, he just had to concern himself with today. Or, rather, what was left of it. Sage approached the door to his room. Hm... After a moment of thought, he moved on instead. Void was more likely than not in the room downstairs, working on the sword. Maybe he'd go check on the admin instead. After all, if Void didn't sleep, chances were he wasn't making much headway.

Angling his gaze away from Mumbo, Sage walked over to the door. Huh, it was already open. Normally it just swung shut on its own. That's weird. Pushing it open enough so that the faux-Hermit could get in, Sage's amber eyes peered over to the table. His jaw dropped.

There before him was a scene unlike any other. Against all logic, there was Void, a piece of chorus fruit, and the sword... hovering in midair. A dim purple light emanated from the three, Void's helmet's visor was glowing bright purple, and the bee wings were sparkling and fluttering like crazy. And the most insane bit of all was Void himself. His eyes were open wide, yet glazed over, and he seemed to be uttering some unknown syllables that Sage couldn't make heads or tails of. "∴𝙹∴ ||𝙹⚍ ᔑᓵℸ ̣ ⚍ᔑꖎꖎ|| ℸ ̣ 𝙹𝙹ꖌ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ℸ ̣ ╎ᒲᒷ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ℸ ̣ ∷ᔑリᓭꖎᔑℸ ̣ ᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᓭ." What was he saying? "ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᓭ ∴ᔑᓭ ᔑ ∴ᔑᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ 𝙹⎓ ||𝙹⚍∷ ℸ ̣ ╎ᒲᒷ"

"V-Void?!" Sage yelped. While not the last thing he was expecting, this was certainly very, extremely insane. Another glitch? Could it be like the one from the other day? "Are you alright?!" The duplicate ran up to Void and held his hand out to prod the admin, when suddenly Void's eyes cleared. They fixated on Sage, and an expression of shock swept over Void's face.

"Ngheh-!" Void went crashing to the floor, along with the sword. Inexplicably, the chorus fruit just disappeared. "HI SAGE-!" The purple light quickly dissipated and all traces of anything strange were no more. 

Sage was so, so confused. "You- floating?- What- What?" In all of his confusion, he could hardly get a coherent thought out. Since when could Void float? Were his bee wings on his helmet lifting him up? According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that Void should be able to fly!

"Huh? Oh, that." As he stood up, placing the sword back onto the table, Void explained himself. "It's my headspace. It makes admin magic-" he gestured with a hand to the sword and chorus fruits- "-more effective. I probably should've told you about it," he admittedly sheepishly with a chuckle. 

That was... relieving. "Oh, alright. I thought you got possessed or something," Sage said. "What was that gibberish you were muttering?" He cocked his head. Sage tried to keep himself informed, but this was something brand new; he had never encountered this once.

"Ah, that's just another language," Void reasoned as if that was a perfectly normal and acceptable thing to casually say. "It's essentially magic words-- like 'abracadabra' but it actually works." Huh. Interesting. Where would one possibly learn that? "I've been teaching Scar, too, being a wizard and all. I don't exactly remember how I came to be fluent in this language, but..." He trailed off, seemingly remembering that he and Sage weren't exactly on Scar's 'side' anymore. "Anyway, I better get back to work."

"And then you'll sleep," Sage reminded the admin. No response. "You'll sleep if I have to drag you to a bed myself."

"...fine. But if I get trapped in the abyss again, I'm blaming you," Void relented with a scowl. Hiding a yawn, he turned away from Sage and focused instead on the sword, making it a point to show Sage that he wanted to be alone. "See you tomorrow, Sage."

The duplicate rolled his eyes. "See you tomorrow." And with that, he left to go find his own bed to sleep in.

-(Author's Rambling)-

*Yawn...* I'm a bit tired myself. All of these plot twists are making me sleepy...

Thanks for coming, blah blah blah, see ya.

Promise- zzzz....