Chapter Text
For the first few days since his return from Double Life – since he'd found out that Nota was a Watcher – Xelqua had thought that would be it. There would be no other new Watchers or Watcher-hybrids and everything would go back to normal... with the exception of Nota being there now.
That did not seem to be the case, he thought now, perched on the backrest of Xisuma's couch and narrowing his glowing eyes at the five – FIVE! – thin, purple strings tied to his fingers, visible only when he put the – his – mask on. One of them was familiar; it connected to the finger of Scar, who was currently snoring loudly on the couch, wings spread out and fluttering unconsciously, almost whacking Xelqua in the face a fair few times. The other four, though... no, those were new. Those were new.
No, Xelqua did not think anything would go back to normal anymore.
Especially not after he'd defied the Watchers yet again, trying to protect Pearl after she became the third Winner of the Life servers.
Especially not since he could See exactly to whose fingers two of the four new threads were tied.
Especially not since two other threads were going outside the borders of the server.
Especially not since he had a hunch on who else, apart from Nota, might have been changed into a Watcher because of him.
He knew that Players on the server would sometimes wonder why, despite being an Avian, Grian didn't have a Flock of his own. Avians weren't solitary creatures by nature; in fact, they were quite social. So everyone would wonder: why didn't one of the server's Avians have a Flock? Pearl had one – consisting of Gem and Impulse.
The majority of Avians had a Flock, with some even being in two or more Flocks at once.
And yet Grian had none.
Grian alone knew the reason, or maybe Mumbo and Pearl also knew and just... hadn't ever mentioned it.
It was because he wasn't an Avian, not really; or, at least, he hadn't been originally. He'd been made into something close to an Avian by the Watchers.
He also knew that Xelqua was never meant to have a Watcher Flock of his own; not to mention a Flock consisting purely of Watcher-hybrids with no true Watchers in it besides himself.
And yet somehow it happened, he mused, moving his fingers slightly, to see the violet strings tangle and phase through one another.
Somehow, Xelqua suddenly had a Flock of five.
And only one of those five even knew about it.
And at least one of the remaining four who didn't know would probably kill him, once they found out.
So that was fun.
Xelqua guessed he'd just have to wait and See what would happen next.
...
He hated waiting.
***
Scar had always been... an interesting fellow, Mumbo had to admit.
Even after they'd grown closer as friends, living in the same vicinity during Season 8, there was still just... something about Scar that put him off, for whatever reason. It wasn't the way he looked, or anything like that, more just the way he carried himself, the way he would smile sometimes, as if he knew something nobody else did. He'd been that way for the entire time Mumbo had known him, all the way since Season 4.
It got even weirder after Grian joined the server; Mumbo could swear on his life he'd never seen Grian be as comfortable around someone as he instantly was around Scar, especially not after... EVO. (Especially not after a clearly traumatised, terrified and paranoid Grian had appeared on Mumbo's server right in the middle of the worst storm of Mumbo's life, told Mumbo to never call him by his old name – Xelqua – ever again and refused to answer any questions Mumbo had for months.)
Whenever Mumbo asked Scar about it, the Vex would only smirk and say he hadn't noticed anything weird.
When Mumbo asked Grian about it, all he got was an evasive 'Trauma... does things to people. We won a war together, me and Scar, did you know that?'
...Mumbo hadn't known that. Grian had never told him.
(Mumbo remembered Xelqua messaging him before he went to the End on EVO. He hadn't known it would be the last time he'd ever do that. He hadn't known that Xelqua would disappear without a trace for years, as soon as he stepped into the portal. He hadn't known that, soon after going to the End, Xelqua would be dead.
...Kind of.)
The fact that – apparently – Grian and Scar had won a war fighting together and not on opposite sides, as it often happened on Hermitcraft, had surprised Mumbo. The fact that that specific war had happened months before Grian had joined the server had surprised him even more. It seemed like Scar was the third Hermit to ever meet Grian – after Mumbo and Pearl.
It seemed like he was the first Hermit to ever meet the Third Watcher.
After Double Life had ended, Mumbo expected to see his friends – maybe stressed, maybe still washing away old blood – out and about, at least.
And yet there was silence.
Xisuma had told the other Hermits that Grian and Scar needed a break, that the reason would be given to them shortly, and that the two missing Hermits were okay. Mumbo wasn't so sure he believed that, especially since both of them were still on the server, and why would they be there if they needed a break?
(He remembered his own 'break', after all. The one after he'd been pulled into Last Life. He'd left the server for a while, then, not wanting to bump into any Hermits that were in the Death Game – which unfortunately included Grian. He just... couldn't look them in the eyes. He couldn't look at himself in the mirror, either. He always expected Red eyes to stare back at him. He remembered baring his teeth at his reflection, almost expecting them to be bloodied, almost expecting blood to drip into the sink from his stained hands.)
Maybe that was the reason why he'd snuck into Xisuma's base one night, when he knew the Admin had – reluctantly – gone off-server for a few days.
Maybe he'd just wanted – needed – to confirm his expectations.
He'd expected Grian and Scar to be together, safe and alive – maybe still wounded, maybe traumatised, but safe and alive. And, in a way, he got what he'd expected.
But as he climbed in through a window he would replace later and rounded a corner to Xisuma's living room, Mumbo couldn't have expected to be met with two pairs of burning violet eyes, two pairs of void-feathered wings and two equally protective snarls.
He didn't expect to find not one but two Watchers hiding in Xisuma's base.
He didn't expect to find Xelqua instead of Grian and another Watcher instead of Scar.
"Nota." Xelqua's voice was quiet, tense. The-Watcher-who-was-Scar looked to him and tilted his head, eyes still half-feral. Xelqua sighed, looking down at his hand, as if he expected something to be on it, then looking at Mumbo. "Stand down." The Watcher, whose Name was apparently Nota, narrowed his eyes in a silent 'are you sure he's not a threat?', but slowly shifted out of the defensive position. Xelqua held out a hand to Mumbo, who didn't hesitate to take it, still only half-believing in what he was seeing. Xelqua turned to Nota and gestured at Mumbo. "Nota, meet..." The Watcher squeezed his eyes shut, as if preparing for an inevitable disaster, whispering, "Oh, Mumbo, I'm so, so sorry." Mumbo could hear Xelqua forcing the words through his teeth. "Nota... meet Verba."
It was only after hearing the Name 'Verba' echoing around his skull, that Mumbo's brain caught up with everything that had just happened and immediately shut down, pulling him underwater.
When Mumbo woke up, it was alone and in a Void, almost. He was lying on what seemed like the floor, yet all he saw beneath was black. He could have sworn he heard whispers echoing around him, but couldn't make out almost anything of what was said. The only words he recognised were 'he' and 'Verba'.
The only things he saw were the glowing, violet Eyes in front of him.
He could feel three distinctive presences Watching him, before one flickered out.
Suddenly, a bright purple light lit up the Void as another Watcher – this one in full physical form, wearing the typical silver mask and black-purple robes – appeared between Mumbo and the Eyes of the other Watchers.
He stalked right out of the Void in front of Mumbo and stood over him in what seemed to be a protective stance. The new Watcher's hair was pure white, strands falling over his face – or rather, mask – as he snarled at the Others. His giant, black and purple wings were fully visible now, unobscured by the parrot-like facade. It almost seemed like there were more than two of them, like there were dozens.
And that's when it occurred to Mumbo that he'd never actually seen Xelqua's full Watcher form before. He'd seen Grian wearing the robe and mask the night he'd found him half-dead on his lawn, sure, but the white hair, the halo in the shape of a broken rectangle over his head, the almost-divine power radiating off him – that was all new.
"You will not touch him. He's Mine." Xelqua hissed at the Watchers, cold hatred and scorching possessiveness in his deeper, echoing voice. "He is One of Mine. Nota is One of Mine. Luna is One of Mine. Umbra and Porta are Ones of Mine. They are all of My Flock. You have no claim to them. You have no power over them." His giant wings flared out as he said it, the purple feathers almost glowing in the darkness.
Mumbo felt a dull, yet burning ache between his shoulder blades and tried to squeeze his eyes shut, but he could still See. He could See himself, clutching his head, curled up on what seemed like the floor and Xelqua protecting him. He could See everything, from all angles at once. He realised that some of the purple Eyes he saw were his own.
"Welcome back, Tertius." A voice Mumbo didn't recognise spoke up. Another, taller Watcher appeared out of the darkness and inclined Their head at Xelqua. "Your visitation is most... unexpected." They sounded cold, calculated, and yet weirdly concerned at the same time. "Have you finally decided to return home?"
"Oh, cut the bullshit, Primis." Xelqua's voice grew aggressive in a way Mumbo had never heard from Grian before. All of his feathers were puffed up in an attempt to make his wings even bigger. "I know what you were planning to do – you wanted to enlist Verba to join your ranks, probably as a replacement for Nota." Mumbo unconsciously twitched at the Name 'Verba', then blinked in confusion. It felt like his own. He had no idea what was happening. He saw Xelqua grit his teeth, seething. "Well, let me tell you – that's not happening here. Understand this. He is Mine. Nota, Verba, Luna, Umbra and Porta are Mine. They have been Mine since the beginning. You will not change that. It has been done. It is irrevocable."
Another Watcher, smaller than the First One and yet still way taller than Xelqua, walked out of the Void, Their hands up, as if to calm the Third. "We do not wish to dispute your... Claim over your Flock, Xelqua." At that, the Player-Turned-Watcher snorted, causing Primis to raise Their head.
"Secundus." There was a clear warning in the First Watcher's voice.
Xelqua tilted his head at the Second. "Oh, really?" His laugh was a harsh, clipped sound. "Then am I wrong in assuming you will let me and Verba leave, Texera?" The other Watcher remained silent. Xelqua shook his head, muttering something about a 'stupid Taurtis'. "Thought so."
Mumbo felt Xelqua take his hand and pull.
His eyes lingered on the glowing Eyes of the Watchers, as he was pulled away and out of the Void.
He could have sworn one of Them winked at him.
***
When Mumbo blinked back into consciousness, it was the next morning, and he was alone in Xisuma's living room, lying in a pile of blankets and pillows. From his first moments awake, he could tell that something was not quite right. Mostly because there were now countless purple Eyes surrounding him – and because he somehow knew for a fact that not all of them were from Xelqua and Nota.
A lot of them were theirs, to be fair, but some of them – he knew – had been summoned by him. Or rather, not really by Mumbo, but by the one Xelqua had called 'Verba'. Because that hadn't been a dream, he knew that. Somehow, Mumbo was absolutely certain that hadn't been a dream. He'd been in the Void. He'd seen the Watchers. He'd seen Xelqua. Even to himself it sounded like a strangely vivid work of his imagination, but it just couldn't have been.
Because there were Eyes all around the room.
And he could currently See himself from around twenty different angles through those Eyes.
Which brought him to his next point: He was a Watcher now. Apparently. He thankfully didn't have the black-purple wings attached to his back; that would have been way too much to make sense of – he'd still checked, just in case – but he was still a Watcher, if Xelqua's words in the Void were to be believed. He, Mumbo K. Jumbo, the quote-unquote 'token normal human of the Hermitcraft server' had become a Watcher. Somehow.
He had no clue how, or when, he'd managed to do that, because he knew – from Grian – that the Watchers had a few specific ways of... creating new ones: choosing the best Player through Trials – which had most likely been the reason behind the Life servers' existence, now that he was thinking about it – by creating rigged deals that were just traps no matter what – which, to be honest, that was probably how Scar had managed to make himself a Watcher, Mumbo certainly wouldn't put it past him – or by just Taking them.
Mumbo didn't think he'd gone through any suspicious challenges recently; Last Life had happened quite a while before, and besides, he hadn't even won that one... but he hadn't been contracted either. And he would have thought that, if the Watchers had just Taken him, Xelqua would not have said that Name beforehand – he was known as The One Who Fled, after all, and Mumbo didn't think Xelqua would sell him out like that and then try to protect him. Besides, Mumbo was friends with Grian, and, as much as Grian liked to put distance between who he was as a Player and who Xelqua was as a Watcher, as much as he liked to completely separate Grian and Xelqua from each other, ultimately they were the same person.
So the matter of how Mumbo had become a Watcher was still a mystery.
The Name he got called was another matter entirely. Grian had taught him the Watchers' Language back when he'd appeared on Mumbo's server in exchange for Mumbo helping him relearn how to speak normally. And Mumbo wasn't fluent at all – or, at least, he hadn't been previously, since he'd understood Xelqua's conversation with the Watchers in the Void – but he did know some phrases.
He knew enough to recognise the significance and meaning of the Names he, Scar and Grian were called. Verba – words – Mumbo Jumbo. Nota – mark – Scar. Xelqua – sun – chaos – Grian.
'Verba... Very funny, Watchers.' Mumbo thought, reluctantly getting up from the blanket nest he must have been laid down in after he'd passed out and straightening out his crumpled suit. 'Very funny indeed.'
As he neared the room that was half a kitchen and half storage, he overheard a fraction of a conversation.
"-Actually, that reminds me, what were you doing there? My wings were hurting. I couldn't really See anything." Mumbo could imagine Scar's pout as he said it. He peeked inside.
Grian sighed. "I... Sorry, I should've remembered we're still... bound." Scar was weirdly perched on a chair, probably unable to sit normally because of the fluttering black and violet wings on his back. (And wasn't that a shock. A winged Grian was bad enough for the server, Mumbo could only imagine the havoc a winged Scar would bring.) Mumbo could see Grian stretching his own parrot wings, sat on Xisuma's table. "I was just... telling Them not to mess with any of you." Mumbo noticed he didn't say 'either', but 'any' and wondered just who the heck 'Luna', 'Umbra' and 'Porta' could be.
He knocked on the wall. "Hey, uh... Mind telling me what actually happened last night, Xelqua?" Okay, now this was not normal, he had not meant to call Grian that. He noticed his reflection's eyes turn violet in the window.
Grian – Xelqua – froze and slowly turned around, wings twitching at yet another pair of purple eyes watching him. He stuttered, probably trying to think of an explanation, when Scar butted in.
"So, uh, we all just got really, really drunk on Xisuma's potion stash, and then we started- hey-!" Scar was immediately grabbed by Grian and thrown out of the room with a startled chirp, door closed in his face. His muffled voice could still be heard through the door. "That's not fair!"
"Aaand, bye, Scar!" And Grian was facing Mumbo again. "Now that he's not trying to bamboozle you... I- uh, I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and-"
Mumbo sighed. "Quit stalling, Grian. I'm a Watcher, aren't I?"
Grian was sputtering again. "Er, I've got- I... um, I've got good news and I've got bad news?"
Mumbo just facepalmed. "Well, I think I might know the bad news already, so why don't you just give me the 'good' news?"
"The, uh, the good news is: it seems like your soul-stealing machinery back in Season Eight was... entirely too successful?" A nervous smile crept onto Grian's face. Mumbo wondered whether the sudden urge to kill was his own, or if it came with becoming a Watcher. It felt far too much like when he was the Boogeyman, or Red in Last Life.
"Hey-" Mumbo felt a hand on his arm. He turned to face Grian, who only gave him yet another strained smile. "It's not like that the whole time, I promise. We're not on Last Life anymore... Mumbo." If Mumbo had heard the – other? – Watcher hesitate before saying his name, he didn't comment on it.
"Uh- did I... Did I say that out loud?" Mumbo's eyes were now focused on Scar sulking outside the window.
"You did."
"Oh, bloody hell." Mumbo sighed, instantly turning around when he heard a gasp.
"Did you just-" Grian's eyes looked like they were about to fall out of their sockets. "...you swore. Mumbo!"
Mumbo frowned, ignoring Grian's indignation for the moment. "Wait. Wait a second, did you say... My machine? That would..." His mind was trying to solve about a dozen different equations at the same time. "That would make sense? Somewhat? But why would it make me a Watcher now and not back then?"
"I... I don't know. I guess I've been using my powers more, recently, what with N- Scar becoming a Watcher, but-" Grian shook his head. "I don't know. We should probably tell X about this-" At that, Mumbo instantly started protesting.
"Oh no, nonono. I'd rather not tell him I've become a Watcher while he's been away, especially not over the comm."
Grian stayed silent for a moment, before shrugging. "Fair, honestly."
"...You don't think anyone else is a Watcher now, do you?" Mumbo was honestly just trying to keep the conversation going, but his purple eyes narrowed when he saw Grian go completely still and pale, eyes just as violet as Mumbo's. "...Grian?"
The Avian was completely unresponsive. That was... not a good sign.
"Grian, you don't seriously- You don't think- Grian-" Mumbo was almost as pale as Grian now, which was an even worse sign. And yet the Avian was still not responding. Mumbo guessed he had no choice. "Xelqua-" And suddenly he was sent toppling to the floor, the Watcher's wing snapping out and hitting him with enough force to knock the air out of his lungs, sending him into a coughing fit. "GRIAN!"
That seemed to have snapped the other Watcher out of his stupor.
"Oh my gosh, Mumbo, I'm so sorry." He scrambled to help Mumbo up.
"I'm fine, it's fine, just... Just warn me next time, okay?" Mumbo winced, picking himself up off the floor. "So, returning to our previous topic... Xelqua. Who else?"
Xelqua looked away, mumbling quickly. "Pearl, Jimmy and Martyn."
Mumbo couldn't think of many common threads connecting that particular trio. Except maybe... "EVO?"
Xelqua sighed, picking at his feathers. "Not this time. Pearl was the Winner of Double Life. I had to protect her." Mumbo nodded. That... did make sense. Xelqua continued. "With Martyn and Tim I just... I don't know. I kind of just declared them as Mine in front of the Others, as... as you saw. I don't think They were too happy about that."
"So what do we do now? Do we find them, tell them what's going on?"
Xelqua's purple eyes slowly turned back into Grian's black ones, narrowing in suspicion. "You're taking this... surprisingly well." He didn't answer the question, but Mumbo decided not to push him for an answer, shrugging instead.
"I mean, you can't just... change me back, can you?" The Avian shook his head, silent. "So, really, there's no other option for me than to just... come to terms with it." Mumbo congratulated himself mentally on such sound logic, before reaching out for Grian. "Come on, let's go out and see where Scar is. I have no idea what he can do as a Watcher, and the mere thought of a Scar with wings scares me already." The Avian snickered, taking his hand and letting Mumbo lead him out of the base.
Maybe things wouldn't be so bad, after all.