Chapter Text
Freedom. At last, he was free.
Escaping them had not been easy. Grian knew that the Watchers would catch up to him eventually. It was inevitable - only a matter of time really, a question of when they would find him and not if. He had made his decision, and he was fully prepared to run for the rest of his life if he needed to.
He had stumbled out of the dark, empty void and into a basic single player survival world that was the start of his escape. A gust of fresh air blowing a faint scent of flowers and grass was the first thing that he registered, followed by the blinding midday sunlight that was almost unbearable after the ages spent in the deep, dark void. The tickle of the sharp grass blades digging into his bare feet was a sensation he hadn't realised he had missed.
He hadn't been planning on him staying here long, only long enough to grab the basic items needed to survive for a time whilst on the run. Food would not be easy to find whilst running from the eldritch beings that were the Watchers but carrying a fishing rod would help him in the long run so long as he had water. Although he had nothing from his time with the Watchers except the scars (both mental and physical) and robes, he still had his one shulker box of personal items from the Evo server. As Grian was the admin and he made the rules for the server - or at least he did in the start when he created it, he had allowed them to all have a shulker box to transport their personal belongings to the server in the first place. Grian had always made sure to pack up his most valuable items every time he jumped to a new update. Call it paranoia or his well-earned instincts from the earlier hardcore worlds he had ventured into, but he was thankful to his past self for it even if at the time he wasn't as grateful. The Watchers had never cared what he had in his inventory unless it was a weapon, which they had taken from him in the first few moments that he had been with them. He grabbed a red jumper and using some shears, expanded the slit to accommodate his bigger wings.
Thinking back on the Evo server was a painful reminder of everyone that he had failed. As their admin, he had a duty to guide, help and protect. The offer the Watcher's has given him left him with only one real choice which would protect his friends. The Watcher's had taken him in exchange for his server and everyone else being left alone. He believed for a while that they had kept their promise, holding desperately onto the hope that whilst he suffered, they lived. That was until the day that they taught him to Watch.
He knew they were dead; no one would have been able to survive the destruction the Watchers had wrecked on the spawn area, and he could do nothing but Watch it happen. Guilt sat heavy in his stomach like a lead balloon and was a common feeling now as he remembered his old flock and family. Pearl, his sweet, adopted sister of his heart had followed him onto the server only for him to lead her to her death.
It was his fault. He would carry that shame and guilt for the rest of his days.
Escaping had been an impulsive action in the end. The Watcher's rarely left him alone or with enough freedom to move around their base without a guard or minder to keep him in his place. Finding the right time had been almost impossible and sneaking past the guards was near impossible, so he stayed where he was playing along with them, and he waited.
The only reason he had managed to sneak past was thanks to an old friend of his drawing the Watchers away from their regular tasks to Watch.
Philza Craft had been playing in a hardcore world for longer than Grian had known him. It was a coincidence that had landed them in the same area of the Main Portal Hub but Phil, always one to talk with a fellow avian, had introduced himself and taken a liking to Grian's form of chaos that reminded him of his own children's misadventures. Although Grian and Phil had never met in person again, they had stayed connected and regularly messaged to update the other bird on their life.
Avians were not a very common hybrid species anymore thanks to the Hybrid Wars that had wiped out most colonies and nest groups so it was always nice to stay in touch with the ones that you could. Last Grian had heard, Phil had two adopted children with a third on its way and a wife but had also picked up two nicknames, Death's Angel, and the Hardcore King. With him being involved with the goddess of death, the Watcher's were keen to oversee his progress. They would not dare touch him with Death herself keeping a close guard over him but that didn't stop them from Watching. Grian just hoped that whatever had happened hadn't ended up with his friend dying and if he did end up losing his singular hardcore heart, that his Goddess could restore him back to life quickly enough that Grian could make a joke at his misfortune. The silent prayer was sent up to every god and deity he could think of.
With the Watcher's distracted and the guards away from their posts at the entrance room - a rookie mistake, Grian had taken the chance handed to him on a silver plate. Without looking twice, Grian legged it to the open portal and stepped through the purple swirling tear to the great unknown. Once through the first portal, he stepped out into a dark empty part of the void. Summoning up the Watcher powers they had forced on him, gathering them together to rip a hole in space to a new world.
With his mind back on the task at hand and his new supplies of basic materials such as wood, stone and ores to aid with shelter along the way, some basic food supplies that would last a long time in storage and basic iron tools, Grian gathered himself for another world hop. This world had no major protections to prevent the Watchers making him easy pickings and very vulnerable if he stayed too long. They were already on his trail; he would need to make a few jumps to lose them before he could find a place to rest for the night. Exhaustion would soon catch up to him and he didn't want to be in a survival world with no base or safe area.
With his last glance around the world and a whispered word of thanks to the unknowing owner as he stepped backwards into the crack between worlds that he had forced open using his Watcher powers. He was engulfed by the hauntingly black nothingness that captured his body so gently with tendrils. It almost made him believe that the void cared for him and would protect him. He knew that was just his mind making friends out of nowhere though. Now that he had left that last world, he pushed his eyes out to search and find the next world to shelter and hide him from his pursuers. A brief thought did pass his mind as to whether the Watcher's regretted teaching him that trick as it would be essential to him avoiding them.
The rest of his day would pass in a rush of worlds and running. World after world he travelled to, hid in caves, travelled thousands of blocks towards nowhere and once far away he warped away to the next safe space. After seven worlds, he paused just long enough to use his powers the Watcher's had forced on him to sense if he was within their gaze. He opened his eyes to a superflat world, with some random buildings. Not a safe space for the long run or to stay the night but in creative mode he was able to catch his breath for a few minutes before moving to the next one.
This world must've been someone’s testing world for redstone builds if he guessed by the various machines and random contraptions scattered around the area, which at first glance looked entirely chaotic but he was sure that to a redstoner there would be a system and a reason as to why they were placed where they were. It was amusing to Grian but it was a perfect place to eat a bit of his food stockpile and gather his strength again before he had to move again. His fish and bread were a filling food but also bland in comparison to his usual food that he had cooked in the past.
Whilst he ate, he looked over the machines and tried to figure out what he was looking at. The automated farms were an easy spot as well as the storage systems. He had tried to figure out the doors but knowing his luck, pressing the button would cause the entire machine to break and leave evidence that he was here. An old friend of his had known his weakness for random buttons and had often left the odd prank button around when they met up on a build world.
His last jump of the day landed him in a dense dark oak forest with a full moon shining high in the sky but only slightly through the canopy of the trees. He quickly built a small hut, it really wasn't big enough to call a house, but he could settle on a hut. There was just enough room for his bed, a furnace and his shulker box. Cosy but simple. It needed to be as tomorrow he will need to dismantle the entire thing and leave no trace of him being here.
Placing his food in the furnace to cook whilst he slept with the bonus advantage to also supply a bit of heat to warm the small area up, Grian then set about tucking himself into bed for the night. He spent some time combing his hands through his hair and feathers of his wings to remove some of the dirt and debris that he had picked up along the road. It didn't take long before he had passed out for the night, with a final thought passing through his head hoping that tomorrow would be better than today.
The next day passed exactly as the previous day. Ripping a portal to a new world, step through, close the rip, run in the world picking up supplies as needed, remove all traces of his existence and then repeat. There had been a few signs of the Watchers in some of the worlds, but he had ripped a new portal as quickly as he saw the signs. The signs usually being the unfinished portal they used as a symbol of their presence and bedrock in the spawn area.
The chance that the bedrock had been placed by a player was always there, but Grian would never risk it. Too much was at stake.
Eventually the days passed, and the signs diminished to almost nothing. In the blink of an eye, weeks had passed in what seemed like seconds. Grian hadn't dropped his guard just yet and was constantly looking over his shoulder to see if they had found him after all this time. Worlds had passed him by, and he always made sure that he left no evidence of his presence on the worlds. He left them exactly as he arrived. There had been no sign of the Watchers for the past four weeks, but he had not abandoned his caution totally yet. This had been the longest Grian had been by himself since he was abandoned as a kid.
At night Grian had been looking over his old communicator, trying to get it back into a working order. It had made it through the dragon fight on Evo with only minor damage which was amazing for the old model. He had had plans to replace it when he could make his next visit to a marketplaces. Unfortunately, he had never got that chance and it had eventually broken under the blast provided by the guard who had caught him using it whilst in the Watcher's wonderful care. His blatant disobedience had resulted in an almighty beating which had left him barely able to walk and permanent scars that would be forever blasted along his back.
He had hid the pieces in his inventory ever since, never daring to look at them unless he knew it was safe. With the Watchers, it was never safe, he wasn't even sure that it was safe until he had been running for weeks but he was still hesitant. Now that he had spent some time looking at the pieces in front of him, trying to work around the melted parts and destroyed wires he had had to admit defeat. Unfortunately, it didn't look like he would have much luck in making a small repair himself or patching it together when so many parts needed to be replaced. He would have to make a try and venture out into a global marketplace to find a communicator shop.
Could he do that though? Was he safe enough? Could he risk it? Was a communicator worth the potential to give away his location.
The next week he debated the ups and downs of going to a marketplace. He could pick up on the local news, repair his communicator, and find out about his friends who hadn't been on Evo like Mumbo and Philza. The downside was he could be caught by them, reveal his location and end up running through the worlds again. The first fortnight of running had been especially exhausting with the multiple gate hops each day, constantly building and destroying his works to continue on to the next day.
The breaking point ended up being the freedom a communicator would bring. He had admin training and with a fixed communicator he could boost the shields and firewalls of a world and make a permanent base of operations. The access to the admin tables of a server would be invaluable and would save him from constantly using his Watcher powers and potentially drawing the attention that he didn't want. He could finally find peace. Tomorrow he would leave this world, and he would work towards step 3 of his masterplan...
- Step 1: Escape - doesn't matter when or where but just get away.
- Step 2: Keep away from them - run, don't look back just keep running. If you think you are safe, run some more and then check again.
- Step 3: Find a way to live safely in a world so you don't have to run.
He believed that step number 4 was going to be something to remind him that if he didn't have friends, they couldn't be used as a weapon against him but he was nowhere near that point yet. With no friends, he wouldn't be forced to watch them die for his mistakes and he wouldn't be hurt again. Experiencing that pain once was enough for a lifetime and he would not put him in that situation again.
The plan would be started for his expedition into the market places. It did mean that he would have to use an official portal as he didn't have a communicator to port over and he didn't know if he could use his Watcher powers or if it would alert the local admins or the Watchers themselves if they sensed their powers used in a public setting.
He would pack up and port over to another world that had been long abandoned by its original owners and then begin the hunt for the portal. He could always set up his own world, but it would have no protections until he regained his communicator and had access to his server panels again. He would have to risk it slightly, he wouldn't be in the world for a long time, just long enough to get to the portal and out.
The jump over to the new world was easy. It was a simple abandoned world, no-one online and from the fine layer of dust on the community areas no-one had been around for a long while. Therefore, there was no-one to see him logout - perfect.
Grian raised his left arm, forearm parallel to the ground as a small panel floated up with 3 option buttons. The motion was both familiar and not at the same time, as if he had done the same motion many times before but also that he hadn't in a while and was out of practise. Everyone had these 3 sections, it was engraved in their very being from when they first spawned. The first option held his personal information such as emergency contacts and data relating to his code, hybrid status and medical alerts. As a parrot avian, chocolate was an almost certain death sentence to him and that information had saved his life once before (lesson learned, Pearl would put chocolate in everything if she could and it was not safe to steal food from her).The second option contained his world list of open worlds that he was officially welcome to enter. This hadn't been updated since EVO which was top of the list even if it was greyed out showing that the world was no longer active. It seemed that by using his Watcher powers to travel between worlds he didn't register on any of the worlds that he had travelled through.
It was, however, the last option that Grian needed, labelled Public Areas. His finger hovered over the button for a few seconds. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and pressed the button.
For the first time in a long time that he couldn't put an exact number to, Grian logged out of the world.
With a small almost inaudible pop, he appeared in a semi crowded circular room filled with portals along every side leading to other worlds. The portals were for popular multiplayer world servers, EVO had had one, but the most popular ones sat closer to the front of the room's entrance.
Some servers decorated their portals to make them instantly recognisable. Hypixel had both official decorations and graffiti that made it instantly recognisable. Sci-Craft had a few posters with redstone builds and blueprints for their best and most popular ideas. Hermitcraft was a fun one because although they hadn't built anything around the portal, they had made tonnes of unique stickers that covered the portal frame. All servers had a sign in front with the official name of the server just in case you
Exiting the portal room, he stepped out into the main world area. Grian had visited other public worlds before but not this one. Luckily for him, there was a map and signpost in the centre of the room to direct him to a shopping district.
"Good morning sir, welcome to Communication Nation. How may I assist you today?" A peppy girl with short blonde hair spoke from behind the counter with a friendly smile on her face. She had a splattering of freckles upon her nose and bright blue eyes that shone as she smiled. Her name tag read "Cassie" upon her blue work apron.
"H-h-hi," Grian stuttered out before clearing his throat. He was very conscious that this girl was the first person he had spoken to since his freedom - his infrequent animal friends did not count as they didn't talk back and were few and far between on his wanderings. "I broke my communicator a while back and I need to get my communicator repaired or get a new one if it can't be repaired."
Grian reached into his pocket and bought out the broken communicator. He knew it was a shot in the dark that they could get it working again but the hope was addictive to him.
"Hmm this is going to be a difficult one. Let me bring it into the back and have a closer look. If I can't get it to work, do you want the account transferred over?" Cassie smiled gently at him.
"Yes please. I haven't had access for a while so it might have a backlog of messages." Grian smiled nervously back.
"Leave it with me. In the meantime, feel free to take a seat and help yourself to a drink in our waiting area."
Grian nodded and moved over to the side area, taking a glass and filling it with water before he sat down. Only 10 minutes later, Cassie returned. Grian stood up and walked over to the counter.
"I tried to save your original device, but the structure is too weak from the blast. It would be fine, but it would break after a few respawns." Cassie explained whilst bringing out two boxes, "I was able to save your memory card including your pictures and all information on the device. I've uploaded your profile to the new device as well. You will need to update and adjust to your liking but you are all ready to go."
"That is great," Grian grinned, "I didn't think it could be fixed but I didn't expect you to be able to save all the info on it. Those photos are... special to me. Thank you."
"You're welcome," Cassie pushed the boxes towards Grian who opened them both. The first had his broken com carefully preserved. The second held his new com which looked identical to the old one in design minus the massive hole, cracks and scratches. He closed both the boxes up.
"How much do I owe you?"
"Only 2 emerald blocks please." Cassie responded. Grian looked into his inventory & dug out the payment. Even though Grian had been on the run, he had gathered a substantial number of resources including precious metals. Diamonds were common but after a stroke of good luck a mountain and few ravines with exposed ores, he had gained a selection of emerald ore which had increased when he traded and at village he passed. With the payment dealt with Grian waved at Cassie as he left to sit down somewhere and sort through his new communicator.
He wandered around the main area for a short while before realising that the crowds were starting to grow to levels that he was uncomfortable with so he decided to hunt for a smaller out of the way place to rest and set up his new com. Walking down a side alley that had a few wonky and weirdly shaped buildings that jutted out from each other and hung over the walkway and made Grian unable to see the sky, he came across a small hole in the wall cafe. Looking inside there were only 2 people, a customer sat at a table looking over some admin panels and the barista who was wiping down the counter.
Grian walked up to the counter and went about ordering himself a medium tea with cream and sugar, Grian sat down in the corner of the room at a small booth with a few comfy cushions to work on his 2 com units. Opening the boxes he saw his old com and the state that it was in. It honestly looked like it would crumble apart if he tried touching it - so he left it alone. The new com looked like a bracelet or watch with a red strap almost identical to his old one except this one was missing the small white stripe.
Strapping it onto his left wrist, he flicked his arm to boot it up, opening up a small holographic screen which showed a loading bar. Using his other hand, he grabbed his drink and took a sip as he waited. Quiet music played in the background of the cafe which was relaxing to Grian. The only other sounds in the cafe were the usual coffee machine whirring and a few huffs and sighs coming from the other customer.
"Urgh, why is this still not working!" Came a voice from behind Grian a few tables back. Grian turned to look and could see the other customer with his hands scrubbing at his eyes. He was a taller than average guy with paler than normal skin and a mask covering his lower face that wheezed with gusts of air on a regular cycle. His face showed deep frown lines as well as laughter lines around his eyes and mouth showing Grian that he was not as serious as he first seemed. His deep purple eyes with dark bags showed his exhaustion and weariness. He was clearly a voidwalker and the mask was probably to aid with him breathing in the higher concentration of oxygen than he could cope with. Most voidwalkers wore entire atmospheric suits with a large helmet but it seemed like this person had forgone the full suit for this venture.
"Are you okay?" Grian spoke up looking at the obviously stressed person, sending him a smile that he knew was shy and hesitant but hopefully conveyed that he was friendly.
"Not really, sorry for disturbing you," The guy spoke, "Just trying to get this glitch sorted but every fix I simulate causes another problem which is worse."
"Want a second set of eyes to look it over?"
"If you think you could help, take a seat. I'm Xisuma Void, current server admin of Hermitcraft but most people call me X. Currently working on our fifth world, if it doesn't keep breaking." X reached his hand out for Grian to shake.
"I'm Grian, used to admin a server for a few friends which had more bugs than I care to admit but was more of a testing ground. Now that I think about it, I never did manage to solve the enderman griefing of my house – and it was only my house as well." Grian introduced himself with a laugh shaking the hand offered to him. X laughed, offered the seat next to him, which Grian took and hovered the server admin panel with the data panels in front of them both.
"We have a few glitches but the one causing me an issue is regarding a spawning reset. When a player dies, they are kicked from their spawn point and dumped at 0,0. That wasn't even our original spawn point when we started up, which is annoying as it's thousands of blocks away from our homes and all the main areas."
As Xisuma spoke he pointed out the main areas of code as he spoke of the issue at hand. Grian’s eyes were enraptured with the numbers and letters in front of him. It had been a while but he had missed this part of his admin duties.
"Any message saying spawn point blocked or obstructed?"
"Nothing. Just a regular respawn except for the random location. It’s now so bad that one of the hermits has decided to build a transport system to help everyone get back to the main area."
Grian scrolled through the code. Nothing was jumping out as glitch in the respawn mechanics but there was something wrong with the code in general, almost as if the code had mixed up the order of the lines. Looking more closely at the code lines, Grian spotted a single line that he was sure was not where it was supposed to be. The line was genuine and a needed piece of code, but it was supposed to be run at the beginning of a respawn and not at the end. There was no glitch physically in the code anymore that Grian could see but the aftereffect had caused enough damage that the issue was still happening.
Grian knew that some servers coded differently than others so he would have to check again but he was hopeful that he had figured out the problem.
"Are these in the right order?" Grian commented to X, "It seems like the code lines have been twisted within your coding and the new order of the code lines are causing a problem."
"Now that I look at it, no. At least not how I originally coded them, but you know how sometimes the code shifts and slides into place after. I just thought it was the code settling down, not distorted into this mess.”
"Well, we can fix the order again but the good news is that you don't have a glitch. It was actually caused by lag, based on the timestamps of the edits on this line." Grian showed the code to X and pointed out the lines with his finger.
"When a person dies, the respawn mechanic tries to spawn them again, but the reorder of the automatic spawn options means that it checks 0,0 first, bed second and the original spawn last. The server lagged as someone was respawning. It then tried all the spawn options at the same time and then when it was done, it just left the order tried as the default order. It's a weird one… not seen it before but I have seen a similar problem when I had a laggy server, just not as twisted as this..."
Grian muttered as he flicked through the code to find the indicators that he was looking for. Eventually he found the problem lines again and highlighted the lines on the communicator so that Xisuma could find them again later.
"You could prevent this from happening again by slowing down the spawn mechanic slightly so that lag doesn't affect the code and it has time to run the options and doesn't try to rush through them all at once. It would only mean your players had a second or two delay on respawning, not that bad of a compromise." Grian shrugged nonchalantly.
"Wha- How do you know this?" Xisuma was in shock. "I've had this issue on the server for weeks now. Even our other coders have looked over this and made no progress."
"It's luck really," Grian nervously scratched the back of his neck. "I had an old friend who caused servers to lag all the time with his redstone. Not that he meant any harm with it but you know how redstone can be occasionally, especially in the older worlds. We had build competitions and we always had to stop mid game for me to fix all the lag glitches that he was creating. The end of a very long story is that I’ve seen something like this before."
"I can't thank you enough. With the boundaries my hermits like to push to break the world mechanics, sometimes my worlds end up with the most bespoke glitches that no-one encounters on a normal day." X glanced over the code smiling at the fix Grian had given him.
"Don't worry about it," Grian leaned back, relaxing against his seat, "I might not run a server anymore, but I was good at fixing the problems that I came across when I did."
"You've saved me a whole lot of trouble so thank you. Would you mind if we exchanged com info, just in case I have another problem in the future?"
"I would but that is actually my reason for stopping here,” Grian showed his old com unit to X, “I am just waiting for the new com to complete set up before I can swap information. Thought I would have a drink whilst I waited.”
Grian showed his new com and the progress bar as it updated on his wrist, it looked to be about 75% complete but you can never tell with computers if that would be another five minutes left or an hour.
“Well, my treat. Can I get you another drink?” Xisuma offered with a smile.
“I’m not going to say no. I don’t have anywhere else to rush off to.” Grian shyly smiled back.
Xisuma stood and left to go grab fresh drinks. Grian quickly finished the last of his drink as he watched the bar slowly load.
93% complete…
96% complete…
98% complete…
99% complete…
And then finally it reached 100%. Patience was not a skill that Grian had learnt in his life so far.
Quickly scrolling through his com, he saw that most of his old contacts were corrupted and unable to be recognised by the new communicator. At least he still had his information and pictures.
His heart hurt seeing his old friends in the pictures and he knew he was not ready for that pain so he quickly closed the memories and starting running the start up checks to make sure everything was running as he needed it to.
X soon returned with the new drinks and gave Grian a few helpful points on his new comm setup that Grian had not thought of. Between the two of them, they quickly had it all set up. X had typed in his comm details into the device for Grian and they sat talking for a little while longer, enjoying the company.
It ended too soon though and the evening drew closer. As they left the coffee show and walked back to the portal area, they decided to stay in touch.
For Grian, it was a new start and a new friend. One he would keep safely away from any Gods and ethereal beings with all of his power.
This friend he would protect.