Earlier that day

Sage's POV-

For once, Sage felt amazing. He had woken up to a certain cat murdering him, and the two had had an actual, civil conversation. Sage apologized. Citrus apologized. No hard feelings. Void came to let Sage know that he was just finishing up the sword... which was now a shovel for some reason. But whatever, he didn't really care. Maybe it was always a shovel. 

The faux-Hermit nonchalantly poked his head into the open door to the secret room. "Hello, Void! How are you faring?" Such fancy language. 

"Great. Come here, though, watch out, the floor is lava," Void explained. After stepping in and letting the door lock behind him with a resounding click, Sage glanced down, to realize that the floor, was, in fact, lava. Bubbling lava in place of the floor. Hm. Interesting design choice. Putting on his fire-resistant boots, Sage walked over the lava to Void, who was waiting patiently at the table. "Viola. The shovel is complete! But there's just one more thing I need to check."

"Yes?" The word practically fell out of Sage's mouth. "Whatever do you need?" So fancy. The duplicate sat down in the other chair, propping his head up with his hands on the table. To his surprise and mild confusion, Void jabbed a finger at the communicator secured around Sage's wrist.

As Sage subconsciously placed a hand over it, Void explained, "I need to see that for a moment, please." Huh. That's not suspicious at all. Seemed like a perfectly normal request to him. Sage carefully removed the communicator and handed it to Void.  Wow, he felt naked without that. It was his most powerful piece of armor, after all. It was the so-

But he did not get to finish that thought, as, suddenly, a shovel was suddenly pressing quite firmly at his throat. "Hk-!" What was Void doing? "Void-!" He could hardly get a word out. He was just so caught off guard. "What are you-"

"What do you think?" The admin's voice was cold, devoid of any hesitation. "You've done your part."  The shovel pressed harder, forcing Sage to lean back in his chair to avoid Void drawing blood. 

"B-but that'll kill me!" Without the communicator, Sage was at high risk of dying forever. Going back... there. "Why?"

There was no response, but Void didn't make any sudden, jarring movement. But he did press a bit harder with the shovel. Sage leaned back farther and thud. The duplicate went crashing to the ground. With a whimper, he squinted shut his eyes. He was defenseless now. His worst nightmares were coming true.

Wait... nightmares...?

"Sage." The voice of Void rang out from above him, and the admin poked his face into Sage's field of vision. "Sage." What? "Sa-"

As he drowsily blinked open his eyes, the first thing that came in focus was Void standing off to the side, wearing a less-than-amused expression. "Nightmare? First time?" To Sage's nod, the admin added, "They suck." And that was that. There was something off about Void. He seemed a bit... out of it. But definitely real this time, there was no mistaking that. "It's well past sunrise; maybe try sleeping in a bed next time, instead of the couch," he finished with a raise of the eyebrow. He looked so self-absorbed. It was stupid. 

Sage rolled his eyes. "Says the man who refused to sleep for three days." Proceeding to block out whatever retort Void gave, Sage stood up and stretched. He had been thinking a lot while he was waiting for sleep to take him, and had decided that, despite Void's reservations, he needed to talk to Mumbo. Again. Oh, how he hated talking to him. It just made him feel so guilty. And Mumbo was so rude back to him; it nearly made the faux-Hermit feel justified in his actions. Nearly. "Anyway, do you need anything?" Hopefully, it wasn't too clear that Sage was trying to shoo Void away. After all, he didn't want the admin to know that he was directly going against his orders.

Luckily for him, Void shook his head. "No, just wanted to check on you and let you know that I'm going out for a bit. Check on my shops, gather supplies, interact with the outside world..." Sometimes, Sage forgot that the bee-suited Hermit was actually friends with all the others. When you're part of a conspiracy against them, apparently it sets up just a bit of a divider. Who knew? Must be lonely, not having any friends to rely on. 

"Great, see you later," Sage replied, and Void gave a nod, waved goodbye, and swiftly left. With a sigh, the duplicate walked over to the kitchen in the back to make both himself and Mumbo some food. Bribery gets you everywhere, after all.... and Sage was also hungry.

As lamb sizzled on the stove and the warm scent of apple bread wafted from the furnace, Sage reflected on how exactly he wanted to interrogate Mumbo. Should he straight-up just reveal his knowledge? Or should he hint at it but ultimately let Mumbo be the one to admit it? These were the questions. One question that never popped up, though, was if he should even be doing this. No, this time Sage was absolutely sure of his decision. Nothing would deter Sage from seeking the truth, and this just so happened to be a truth the faux-Hermit-also-banned-antagonizing-failed-clone-so-maybe-just-'entity'-would-be-the-simplest-way-to-describe-himself was passionate about.

"I just..." he mumbled out loud to no one. "I'd like to know why, really. Like, I understand why I'm... me.. but I just want to know..." Sage leaned on the stove, staring deep into the lamb. "Why hide it?" 

Then he realized he was on fire.

And quickly put himself out. 

Soon enough, the entity had a steaming box of goodies balanced in one hand while the other followed the wall. Without holding a torch, it got unbearably dark in the stairwell, even during the day. Seeing the eventual light at the bottom reach closer and closer, Sage steeled himself, before striding up to Mumbo. Wordlessly, he delivered the food, then sat onto the couch facing the cell and stared at Mumbo, testing his words in his mouth before saying, "You hid my memories of being EX." 

There was no sugarcoating, no flowery language. Sage spoke directly, getting straight to the point. Mumbo, who had previously neglected to put down the sleeping Jellie on his lap, now casually walked up to the glass door. "Of course I did."

He jumped up. "Why in the ever-loving Nether would you do that!?" Sage asked calmly. Okay. Not calmly. Actually, Sage pretty much yelled that, earning him the dirtiest of looks from Jellie. But Mumbo didn't seem fazed by that in the slightest. In fact, he almost seemed amused. Was this funny to him? Did the brit enjoy seeing Sage snap? The last time Sage snapped around Mumbo, the Hermit got his head slammed into the ground. How did he like that? 

"To stop you from being like him, of course."

Xisuma paced in front of the clone. The failed clone, to be specific. He paused right in front of EX just to glare at him for a moment before continuing his pacing. "EX, EX, EX! You have to stop! I... I can't keep covering for you." Along with anger, EX could sense fear in X's voice. It brought a lick of a smile to his face. "The others are going to realize you're not... on their side." The admin buried his head in his hands, groaning. Afraid to say the word 'evil'. Even though it was literally in EX's name. 

"Oh, why so sad? Afraid of a little fun?" The antagonizer sneered, sitting back in the chair to which he was haphazardly tied. Fingers dancing around the hilt of the undrawn sword on his belt, he continued, "Because I really don't see the problem. Things are boring. I fix that. Easy as pie." 

Now Xisuma really seemed to be suffering. Good. "EX, please take this seriously! People are going to try and attack you! You are going to die and you won't be able to come back."  His words were filled with panic. "You're hurting people, and if you keep it up, they're going to want to hurt you back. Don't you understand?" Behind the green visor-- and through the red one EX himself was wearing-- Xisuma's eyes were filled with distress. It was like the admin actually cared about EX's wellbeing.

That's a huge mistake.

The admin just droned on and on about how EX should really stop pulling pranks on the Hermits, how he should just learn to live like everyone else, how he should make friends, and all that boring nonsense. He never really saw the appeal. Having friends just means having to share yourself and let them drag you back. Less advanced friends are just luggage you have to drag with you wherever you go. 

Why would you purposefully put yourself through that torture? It was moronic. No thanks, EX was perfectly fine as is. He simply grinned, continuing to block out Xisuma-- who was still talking, by the way. Eventually, enough became enough and EX leaned forward. "Xisuma, I believe it's my turn." Stopping in his tracks, the Hermit shut up and turned to face EX. "I don't care about your friends. They are not my friends and I couldn't give less of a crap about them if I tried. You can't stop me. You never could and you never will. You'll always be one step behind me. You're holding yourself back, Mr. Admin." With practiced maneuvering, EX slid out of the lead that tied him up and stood tall, staring Xisuma directly level in the eye. 

"You-" Xisuma couldn't seem to get another word out. A frown twinged the corners of EX's mouth. It was sad, how restrained his creator was. It was too bad, really. He could've been much more powerful than he was now if he had focused on utilizing the power he already had rather than just trying to control the things he didn't.

A monotonous voice left the mutated clone's throat. "I'm not going to let you tame me like you did all the others. You can't domesticate me like some sheep. I know who you are. I know you more than you know yourself." EX moved right past Xisuma to the doorway of the room. "Weakling," he hissed, pulling out a flint and steel. There was a spark, and EX threw the metal behind him. In the back of his vision, a small orange light grew, and with a twirl of his finger, a flurry of firey blaze surrounded Xisuma. 

EX stalked out of the room and the dome of flames collapsed inwards.  

Sage's breath came in rasps. What. Was. That. No, he knew exactly what it was, it had just caught him off guard. It was his first real memory of being him. 

And, great, he was a monster. 

"Back from your trip down memory lane?" Out came a bored voice from inside the cell. Oh, right, Sage was supposed to be talking to Mumbo. Joy. "Like I was saying, I specifically barred you from hi- well, your memories, to prevent the outcome that ended up happening anyway."

Sage gulped. "And what outcome is that?" The air tensed as Sage and Mumbo stood, eyes level with each other. Of course, Sage already knew what the Hermit was about to say, but that didn't mean he wanted to hear it.

"I didn't want you remembering your past and getting any ideas." There it was. Mumbo somehow knew that Sage's soul would come from the lost EX and had withheld Sage's core experiences from him so that he wouldn't go haywire again. And that means...

"So you lied to me when I came asking about EX!" For some reason, that had struck Sage as surprising, though, he realized now that that was perfectly in line with Mumbo's narrative. 

And Mumbo seemed to have thought Sage would've figured that out by now, as he rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes I did. Blah blah blah, I know nothing more about EX. And scene. What did you expect me to do? Tell the truth?" If Sage didn't know better, Mumbo's face would have looked very punchable right then. 

But Sage also knew that if he stayed, he would not be able to hold back much longer. "Goodbye, Mumbo. Enjoy your food," was what he managed to force out before turning heel and beginning to move back up the stairs.

"Sage," Mumbo called from behind him. Sage turned back around, raising an eyebrow. There was absolutely no emotion left in the redstoner's voice. All of his personality, all of the sparky, lively glimmer that his eyes and words held had long since disappeared. His cold eyes swam with cool fury as he growled three words. "Go to Hell."

Sage walked back up the staircase. 

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

Grumbot's POV-

Before He could see, He could hear. He could hear Iskall, chatting away to himself while he worked. What was he working on? Grumbot didn't really know. All He knew was that He felt weird, that He could not see, and that He was no longer in front of Grumbot's shop. 

It was quite weird. He remembered having some sort of freakout, and then nothing. He didn't even know where He was. And, well, He couldn't exactly ask. So, He did what any blind, mute, and bored robot would do in this situation, and listened to Iskall ramble on about conductors and friction and water cooling systems. One would think that a robot would be interested in all of these technical terms, but, to be honest... He was not. He really was not. In fact, He discovered that He could not activate His sleep function as a result of trying to do so.

Eventually, one thing in Iskall's rambles stuck out, mainly because it was the last thing he said before Grumbot heard footsteps disappearing off from somewhere in front of Him. "Okay, I'm just going to let this activate and you should be online soon. I'll be back." Part of Grumbot wondered if Iskall knew Grumbot could hear him, but the other part knew that that was a stupid notion, this is Iskall, he's just talking to himself. 

And soon after, as promised, a flicker of light jolted Grumbot out of his darkness, and the world came fully into vision. He was... inside His old body. Huh? On the other side of a makeshift door was a familiar sight of the ocean before the Shopping District. Glancing around, Grumbot found that his former code had been completely wiped out. It was all gone; what used to be His body was now just a hollow area. The bot slowly stood up. Surprisingly, He felt fine. Great, even. It was just like before his gli- 

Wait. Grumbot's hand shot to the tip of the rod connecting His bauble to His head and felt around. For some reason, a small amount of relief shot through the robot at the reassurance that the communicator was still there.

Not like He'd ever use it.

But that didn't matter right now. Right now, what mattered was answering three essential questions. 

How did Grumbot get fixed?

How long was Grumbot out of commission?

What's happened with Jrumbot?

The first question was relatively simple to figure out. Somehow, Iskall got his hands on Grumbot and fixed Him back up. How, exactly, the robot didn't know. He wondered how Iskall reacted when he found Him. Also, what did Grumbot even look like? It must've been disturbing.

The second question was practically impossible to tell. Usually, Grumbot had an amazing sense of time, direction, and all of those other things. If He tried, He could generally track the location of the Hermits-- with some exceptions, of course-- so this should be an easy question to answer. Wrong. Something in His code must've jumbled up, as Grumbot could hardly tell if it was sunrise or sunset-- the amber glow from outdoors was not very helpful-- let alone the date.

The third question Grumbot was almost afraid to know. Enough said.

But for now, He may as well do what He could, and that was figuring out what time of day it was. Wandering outside of the room, the bot confirmed His suspicions. It was His body, after all. It's kind of a morbid thought. It was like living in a corpse. To be specific, it was like living in His own corpse.

The sun was nowhere to be seen looking towards the Shopping District which confirmed Grumbot's hopes. It was sunset instead. The yellow orb melted into the glowing blues of the sea, painting the sky in all the colors from purple to red to orange to yellow. Turning his back to the hustle and bustle and artificial light of the Shopping District, Grumbot could leave all of that behind him-- literally and figuratively-- and just enjoy this moment. And He did. The bot sat Himself down on the edge of the platform, and without thinking, let His legs and feet dangle casually into the water.

Of course, the sudden sensation sent the robot panicking. What? What was that? It felt so weird! And like snow... but less prickly? That... That's water. Woah. And He wasn't being electrocuted; that's a huge plus. After a moment of shocked stillness, Grumbot relaxed. Hey, He liked water. It felt nice. It was no wonder the sun returned to it every night. If Grumbot could, He would as well.

Heck, maybe He will. What's stopping Him? He could just take this time every day to sit down off of the platform and watch the sunset. Maybe one day He would try and go further into the water than His legs. Just for a little bit, He wouldn't have to think about anything other than the setting sun, letting the last golden beams of light be a promise to return in the morning before the warmth drains from the sky. 

The sun beginning its descent was a sign of change. When the sky starts to bleed, the night will begin soon. The beasts will be unveiled, shielded by the cold reflection of the silver moon. The merciful sun gives way to the devious moon. All is let loose. All is told. The world's hidden monsters come to light.

Hm.

The sun buried itself into the sea. 

Grumbot had a realization. 

He had the realization that there was no way He could just sit like this forever. He couldn't hide, trap Himself in the enclaves of a peaceful moment. There was no way He could just sit forever in this fragment of time while everything else fell to bits and pieces. He couldn't be passive anymore. 

Grumbot had to reveal Hermitcraft's hidden monsters. He had to tell Iskall everything. 

"Grumbot?!" Speak of the devil and he shall appear, as that was Iskall's panicked voice Grumbot just heard from behind Him. "Wh- H- Dude?!" Clearly, the swede had not fathomed the fact that Grumbot would regain consciousness and proceed to let Himself touch the water. "I just fixed you, get back in the room-!"

Begrudgingly, Grumbot stood up. To His utter surprise, He was still feeling the water on His legs. It was still there. Such a weird feeling. But there was no time to linger on that. Following Iskall, the bot began to internally go over how He'd tell everything to Iskall. Especially since Iskall had to ask Him something first so that He could answer. 

He continued to ponder this as Iskall pointed to a makeshift bed. "You. Bed." It was odd, being around Iskall while he wasn't laughing and goofing around. "I'm putting you into sleep mode this time; you're not fully repaired and if something happens to you Grian will literally end my life."

So Grian knows. Hm. Maybe that was how Iskall found Him. It made sense. 

Wait.

Iskall was putting Grumbot into sleep mode? Hang on, Iskall, wait-

Grumbot sank into the depths of the nothingness that was His sleep mode.

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

Sage's POV-

By the time the sun began to set, Sage was outside, continuing to work on Mumbo's base. It really was a wonder that the entity was still committed to this task, especially with what was going on. Maybe it was a tribute to when this was the most important task in his head. Maybe it was just something to get his mind off of his and Mumbo's conversation. Maybe it was something to get his mind off of everything. Of course, though, as soon as he got settled into something, Void came barrelling into the base on his elytra.

"Sage," the admin blurted out, panting. "Into the room. Quickly." Oh. After swiftly following a very hurried Void down the steps and into his room, Sage grabbed Void's shoulders.

"Void. Calm down," he commanded, and after the other finally nodded, he let go and stepped back. "Take a breath. No need to rush." Who would've thought that it'd be Sage giving the mental advice? Impossible things really are happening every day. "What's up?" The faux-Hermit attempted to sound casual, but it was quite hard to do so, and his words came out like a deformed squawk.

Void opened his mouth to speak but quickly shut it.

"Wait here for a moment. I'll be right back," the admin said, right before leaving the room. As the pistons closed with a thud, Sage just stood there, bewildered. What just happened? He thought that Void needed to talk to him. Was he wrong? Had he misinterpreted that? The duplicate stood, pondering this for a good three minutes before the piston doors opened up again, showing an unexpected sight.

It was the bee-suited Hermit... without the bee suit. To Sage's utter shock, Void was just wearing a camo-colored t-shirt with gray jeans in addition to his communicator. In his hands, he held a mass of yellow and purple with a familiar helmet on top. Without the suit, Sage could see clearly a slightly faded x-shaped scar on his cheek. "Void, wh-"

Before Sage could even ask, Void cut him off, speaking quickly as if he wanted to get this over with. "It's my suit. Y'know... for after. You'll need the admin mag- er, permissions to shut down the world once I'm gone." So that's what it was for. Right. Sage had nearly forgotten about his responsibility.

Once Void fled the world, it was the entity's job to destroy the admin magic, ridding this world of the one thing that held it together. 

"...Right," he confirmed, nodding. He folded his arms. "And you're giving it to me now because...?" It just didn't make sense. Why not wait until right before the main event?

"Well-" The Hermit didn't really seem to know how to answer that. "Just in case." Just in case? "Just in case something happens, or I forget, or... or..." Void buried his face in his hands, something he clearly hadn't been able to properly do in a while. For the first time, Sage saw sparkling drops of salty tears run down Void's cheeks. "I don't know, Sage. I'm a mess."

Sage didn't say anything. He just let Void talk. Sometimes, that was the best option. People just need to get things out, especially when they have no one else to talk to. Sage had been there. Sage is there. So, he just stood quietly and let the admin rant.

"S-so I went out earlier, went to go hang out with Doc and Ren and Joe and Bdubs and Keralis and some of the others, a-and- and I had a great time, and it was amazing." Void had begun to stare blankly into the wall behind Sage as he rambled on. "A-and Keralis asked if I'm doing anything anytime soon and, well, yeah, yeah I am, I'm..." He was almost sobbing at this point, choking the words out. "I'm murdering all of my friends." 

Without a word, Sage took the suit from Void's hands and set it onto the couch. He then wrapped his arms around the admin and then received a constricting hug back. The two stood there like that for a moment, before Void drew away. "...Thanks. I needed that," he said. He chuckled mirthlessly. "I have a meeting with Scar tonight."

Oh? Sage didn't know about this. It made sense, Void didn't have to tell Sage everything-- he often did not-- but the faux-Hermit would have appreciated at least a heads-up. Oh, well. It's too late now. "Then you should probably wear your suit. Can't tip anything off." Moving aside, Sage gestured towards the pile of armor now on the couch. "We can talk afterward."

"Heh... you're right." 

Void scooped up the suit and left Sage alone with his thoughts. 

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

Iskall's POV-

The swede reached into Grumbot's wiring and ever-so-gently set the robot to sleep mode. Instantly, the form before him slumped down into the bed, His screen blinking off. He looked almost peaceful like this. Iskall smiled, standing still for a moment as if he was expecting the bot to suddenly wake up again. Eventually, he let out a heavy sigh and slumped against the wall.

What was Grumbot thinking? Well, first of all, what was Iskall thinking? He knew that Grumbot would likely come online soon but still decided to leave. But Grumbot decided the best thing to do was immediately go into the water. How was that a good idea? Iskall had no clue. But everything was fine, Grumbot was safe, and Iskall wasn't about to get torn to shreds by his friend. 

It seemed that thinking about Grian had willed him into existence, as Iskall's communicator suddenly dinged with a message. 

Grian whispers to you: Update on Grumbot?

Right, it's been a few days, hasn't it? Before the cyborg could respond, though, he heard a voice coming from the opening. "Expected you'd be here." Iskall whipped around, his face pale with alarm, to see a sweatered cod boy in the doorway, folding his arms.

"Dude! You scared the living daylights out of me!" The cyborg yelped, pouting. As Grian walked in, he gave him a dirty look.

"Obviously, I didn't do well enough if the daylights were still living." Hey! Grian proceeded to ignore Iskall's complaints and walked straight over to where Grumbot lay, motionless. "So... What's up with Him? Will He be alright?" The Hermit's eyes glistened with genuine concern, making it quite apparent just how much the brit cared about his robot. Iskall could imagine why. 

But there was no need for him to worry. It wasn't like Grian had entrusted Grumbot to some sub-par engineer. "Oh, He'll be perfectly fine. I've just got some last bug fixes, plus some cooling features so that this doesn't happen again," Iskall explained, also staring at the still form on the bed. "He looks bad now, but that's just because everyone is unsettling when they aren't awake." He shrugged, turning to a nearby chest to grab a bottle of water, but paused. Next to the water were some very special paintings. 

Grian seemed to notice his hesitation. "What's wrong?" It was impossible to mistake the worriedness in his voice. Did he think Iskall didn't know what he was doing? His friend's apparent reluctance only hurt his ego just a little bit. "Can't find something?"

"...No," Iskall said after an uncomfortably long pause. "Actually, I want to show you something." Gently, the swede pulled out three slips of paper. They looked like maps or some sort of small painting, but in reality, they were actually neither. They were something special that only Iskall had. To the extent of his knowledge, Iskall was the only one who knew how to do this. 

He held out one of the papers to Grian. On it was an intricate replica of the inside of Grumbot's 'head'. Except it wasn't drawn. No, it was almost like Iskall took a moment from reality and put it right into the world. Well, not almost. Exactly. Because that's exactly what he did.

As Grian marveled over the picture, Iskall began to explain.

"Okay, so, you're probably confused. I was too at first. But!" Iskall's eyes glistened excitedly. "It's actually really, really cool. I found this out one day while goofing around with my communicator, taking it off, throwing it at various objects, just seeing how it works. And I was messing around with the keys, and suddenly, the communicator's screen popped up and flashed really brightly. And then, what do you know, a little piece of paper appeared that looked like the screen like... captured what was in front of it and saved it on the paper. It was amazing!" 

Grian's eyes grew wide as Iskall told his story. "So it  just... saves whatever it 'sees'?" As Iskall nodded, Grian stared down at the paper. "And this is..."

Iskall nodded. "The inside of Grumbot, where I've been keeping all of His code. Basically, all I have left to do is-"

It was extremely clear that Grian spaced out long ago by the time Iskall got to the end of his explanation. In fact, Iskall didn't realize it, as he had gone to actually open up Grumbot's panel, but the gremlin had actually just left by the time the outdoors had gone pitch dark. 

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

Sage's POV-

On the floor of a room, a certain entity lay, staring up at the ceiling.

And he was bored. What with Void's sudden breakdown, Sage's thrilling conversation with Mumbo, and all of the other stuff he's done recently, not doing anything at all was just so strange. And when he had nothing to do, that just made him think about things. He would really rather not think at the moment. He needed something to do.

He needed to go out, to be productive, to talk to someone. Talk to someone, that's it! Sage just needed to be able to talk without holding anything back, and there just so happened to be someone who was the perfect conversationalist for the duplicate. The only problem was, she wasn't exactly reachable at the moment. Sage hadn't seen her at all since prank day, Wednesday. And now that the sun was fully down, that made two whole days without any sign of the cat. She better be alright. If she wasn't, and it was all Sage's fault...

No. There wasn't any use pondering the possibilities. He had to go find her himself. But... Sage glanced at the floor, or rather, through the floor towards the other secret room. There were certain valuables that couldn't be left alone. Someone needed to stay here.

Ugh, Sage didn't want to do this; Void didn't seem to be in such hot of a mood, and Sage hated to mess with his day more. But, to be honest, he cared about Citrus's wellbeing too much to care.

You whisper to XisumaVoid: hey could you come back
You whisper to XisumaVoid: i really need to look for citrus
You whisper to XisumaVoid: and i know you're busy but
XisumaVoid whispers to you: Yeah sure, I'll be right back

Sage had his finger on the send button for another explanation, but Void had responded quicker than he could type. It was hard to tell from the words themselves, but he didn't seem too upset about it. That was good. Now, Sage just had to wait. He slumped back onto the floor, resuming his ceiling watch. It shouldn't take long... Hm, how far was Scar's base from here? Or maybe he was at that other place; who knows? Elytras were pretty fast.

Before he could ponder any longer, Sage's thoughts were cut off by the distant sound of pistons and an ever-crescendoing thump thump thump of someone running down the stairs. Ah. There's Void. The door opened and Void ran in, suit-in-hand. Sage considered tripping him. 

Instead of that very obviously bad decision, the faux-Hermit stood up. "Hey, Void," he waved, trying to keep his eyes off of the very shiny golden suit. "Thanks for coming on such short notice."

With a thumbs-up, Void responded, "Oh, it's no problem. I was getting the feeling I wasn't wanted, anyway." He laughed, but it was hollow. "Figured now was as good a time as any to hand this over," he explained, gesturing to the suit he had deposited on the couch.

Sage found himself opening his mouth to make an excuse to not put the armor on. What? What was wrong with it? It's not like it was going to bite him. But still, it was like he was scared. Sage was scared to put the suit on. Maybe it was because the moment he was wearing the suit, everything would begin to come to a close. And the future, what would happen after HermitCraft was abandoned without the admin magic keeping it stable, was scary.

No. He was done being scared. It was this new thing-- Sage the scaredy-cat. Scared of himself, scared of everyone else, scared of everything around him. It was disgraceful. The entity nodded. "Right."

Moments later, he reentered the room, all decked out in the bee suit. "It's... stuffy," he admitted. How did the admin move in this thing? "Not going to lie, it's not my favorite piece of clothing in the world."

This seemed to greatly amuse Void. He was highly amused. Extremely amused. This was the funniest thing since sliced bread. "Okay, so the bee suit isn't right for you. Press the panel in the middle." He grinned, proceeding to give no further instructions. ...Okay, that's not suspicious at all. And so Sage did exactly that.

Before he could react, so many different things started moving at once. The golden panels of the suit flipped inward, leaving pure void in their places. The bee wings made one last feeble flutter before disappearing completely. Of course, Sage could hardly see any of this, as his entire vision was flooded with light, yet, somehow, he knew perfectly well what was going on. Inexplicably, he knew exactly what to do. What to wear, oh what to wear? That was the question that involuntarily flooded his mind.

Eventually, the light began to fade away, and the first thing that Sage noticed was that there was no purple visor in front of his face. In fact, the whole helmet was gone. But something still seemed off. It was a certain tingling, light yet noticeable, from his left eye. Instinctively, he placed his hand to it. 

player"Mumbo_Jumbo"Hand: Empty

What. 

In the bottom left of his vision, a small white message popped up. But it wasn't in the real world; no, it was almost like it was in his eye itself. Sage quickly moved his hand away, and the message disappeared. Void, who had been laughing at his outfit, gasped.

"Sage- your eyes-?" He seemed shocked, confused, and almost scared. "They've... changed." The admin held his communicator up and took a screenshot-- something he had taught Sage to do long ago-- and held out the paper to the faux-Hermit. "Look."

And they did change indeed. One of his eyes had lost the silvery glints while the other-- his left!-- had turned completely to the metallic color. And, as if on cue, a tiny message popped up. 

minecraft:Painting

Thank you, mysterious eye messages, for the obvious. Though, Sage had no clue what 'minecraft' meant. He glanced up at Void, who was scrutinizing Sage, seemingly lost in thought, and after a brief moment of consideration, Sage kept his mouth shut. Maybe he shouldn't tell Void about this just yet.

While it was mildly annoying, Sage decided to ignore it. He glanced down at his new-- and much more comfortable-- clothing. It was surprisingly plain... and familiar. A light gray dress shirt with matching pants, paired with darker gray shoes. Oh, but lest he forget the sunset-colored bowtie. It almost seemed to sparkle, even without the natural sunlight. Something about it seemed to just exert magical energy. 

There was one last thing. Tied right behind the bowtie was an incredible, billowing white cape that flowed all the way down to his ankles. Almost reflexively, the entity felt around the back of his neck. Aha! That's what he was searching for. A hood. It was a cape with a hood. Incredible. 

"I look ridiculous, don't I," Sage chuckled. He spun around, letting the cape whack Void in the legs. "It's amazing."

"Sage, I need you to know that this is the stupidest thing I have ever seen." That was reasonable. "But, no matter. Your ey-"

Nope! Sage was not about to let Void bring that up. "Anyway, I really should get going. Thanks, Void!" Grinning, he gave Void finger guns as he walked backward just a bit quicker than casually towards the door. Quickly pressing the button and running out, the entity booked it up the stairs. He had a mission.

-(Author's Notes)-

I have wanted to write an anime transformation scene since I started this AU. 

Anyway, I'd like to thank you once more for reading. With the rise of school, I only have time to get a chapter out once a month or so-- I wouldn't want to fail a class for the sake of a Minecraft fanfiction, haha! But I'm sure you lovelies understand. Right? ...Right? Heheh....

So, when I say this, I really do mean it. Thanks for coming and I'll see you next time, my little readers!

Promise out!