CW: Fighting, blood, burns, description of wounds.

Sigils materialized in his small little spacecraft. He took a quick note of everything and let out a sigh of relief. Everything was in order. He padded over to the stand that contained his infinity stone. It glimmered on its pedestal. The glass case was intact, showing no sign of damage or change. He nodded, satisfied.

The enderman turned to the spell surrounding the pedestal. He was about to sweep it away with his wing to remake it and prevent Biffle from entering, when movement caught the corner of his eye. He whirled, careful to not mess with the spell, as his fur spiked.

At first, he saw nothing, then felt a light tremor rumbled through the ship. The boundary had fended someone off.

Sigils scrambled over to the source of the tremble. His eyes searched the inky black void, panic bubbling in his chest. His eyes darted quickly to the spell behind him, then back out into space. He squinted, then spotted a mass moving. Small fizzes of energy popped from around the figure, showing the silhouette of a man.

SSundee.

In jet black armor.

Sigils inhaled shakily and stepped back. A blast of energy shook the spacecraft again as SSundee drifted too close. The lights swayed and flickered.

He couldn't remake the spell. Not now. Sigils whirled around, planning on grabbing every valuable he could and leaving, when he stopped, emerald eyes fixated on a figure. The lights flashed and flickered as the ship rocked again.

A man stood just beside the pedestal, facing Sigils. He wore a suit of armor in monochrome shades of grey. Black horns twisted from the helmet, and matching wings protruded from the back, with slots for the heat from the jet pack to escape. The helmet was smooth and blocked out all facial features except for slitted orange eyes that glimmered. Black claws replaced hands, and spikes adorned the shoulder pads. Streaks of deep lapis-blue ran along the side of his chest, like ribs.

Sigils' gaze dropped to the spell. Red sand covered the floor in uneven heaps.

"You're in the wrong place at the wrong time, enderman." Biffle's unmistakable voice hissed through the robotic filter of the helmet. The wings popped and shifted as he dropped into a battle crouch. A ball of unstable orange energy crackled between his fingers on his right hand.

Sigils crouched into a stance of his own as the nanotech armor unfolded from his necklace and covered his body.

"Traitor," Sigils hissed, flinging out his wings and leaping forward as the helmet formed around his head. His metal-covered claws slashed at Biffle, trying to find a weak point in the armor that he could use to pry it away, but his hands met sleek metal that simply deflected his attack. Biffle dodged to the side, causing Sigils to collide with the pedestal. He let out a pained grunt and shook his head. Sigils caught sight of the scattered sand and materials. He quickly grabbed a fistful and hurled it towards Biffle. A red cloud billowed around him, causing the man to cough and stumble back. Sigils stood up shakily and turned to the pedestal.

The stone was gone.

Sigils snapped back around, eyes locking back on Biffle as the dust settled. Sigils glanced at the orb of energy still floating in Biffle's open palm. The tendrils danced along the tips of his fingers and sparked up his forearm. He now saw the small stone glittering in the center of the ball. Sigils shifted and hissed.

Biffle lunged and swiped with his free hand. Sigils ducked and slashed, claws scrambling against sleek steel once again. Sigils quickly stood, now positioned in the center of the spacecraft.

He flicked an ear and prepared to lunge, when suddenly a force blew him sideways across the spacecraft. Sigils hit the wall hard, causing all of his breath to be squeezed out of his lungs. His helmet folded away, allowing him to breathe.

He coughed and gasped. His vision was blurred and spots of color flew past. He tried to push himself up to his elbows, but his hands slipped on something sticky and wet. Sigils' gaze trailed to the floor. Thick purple blood coated the ground around him. He gasped and tried to sit up, wincing as a wave of pain washed over him. He felt along his side, then bit back shouts of pain as he felt where the armor broke and where his skin fell away into marred flesh and sticky blood.

Sigils glanced up, spotting two figures. For a moment, he thought his vision was betraying him, but it started to clear and showed that there was, in fact, two people.

Panic rose in his chest. He teleported behind them and stumbled, not used to having to stand with a gaping wound, then quickly assessed the situation.

There was a separation between Biffle's helmet and the armor covering his neck. Sigils darted forward and thrust his claws between the gap. He pried the helmet off, struggling to keep himself standing. Biffle roared and whirled, grabbing Sigils' arm and throwing him to the floor.

Pain ran through him. Sigils groaned through gritted teeth. He struggled to his feet, baring his teeth. SSundee tilted his head while Biffle snarled, rubbing his neck where Sigils has scratched him.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" Biffle hissed. The Soul stone in his hand glowed.

Sigils folded his ears back and stepped away.

Biffle stretched out his hand towards Sigils. The energy exploded. Sigils was caught off guard. He teleported back over to the pedestal, just as a wave of nausea washed over him. He groaned and stumbled, leaning against the pillar. Sigils gasped and looked up.

SSundee was walking towards Sigils, but he paused and tilted his head. Sigils's gaze jumped over to Biffle, who was staring at Sigils' side. Sigils' own gaze dropped down to his wound, and he sucked in a startled breath. The fur on his side had been burned away, leaving a golden-tinted burn that glowed. His blood went from purple to a bright orange.

"What did you do," Sigils growled, more in fear than anger.

"I- I didn't-," Biffle stammered.

"Blast from the Soul Stone," SSundee murmured, "You're going to want the admins to look at that. If you can find them." Sigils could hear the smile in his voice.

Another wave of pain and nausea washed over him and he stumbled, unable to bite back the screech that came from him. He trembled as he sank to his knees, clutching his side with one arm.

Castle. Henwy's Castle. The thought echoed through Sigils' already pounding in his head. He squeezed his eyes shut as the atmosphere around him changed from cold and dark to warm and dim.

"Holy sh- Sigils?" Henwy yelped. Sigils' eyes flew open and locked on Henwy and Jerome, who had reared back at Sigils' sudden appearance.

Sigils grinned lopsidedly, "Sorry, did I interrupt something?"

The world tilted sideways into the abyss.

***

Sigils shot awake with a startled gasp.

A chorus of relieved sighs echoed around him. He blinked tiredly and sat up with a grunt. Arms and wings wrapped around him. He jumped, then recognized Henwy.

"Oh my God, we thought you were dead," Henwy whispered.

"I- what?" Sigils shouted. He squirmed out of Henwy's arms and firmly planted his hands on Henwy's shoulders. Sigils looked around wildly, taking in the scene around him. They were in the admins' treehouse. Frost, Florian, and Rafessor looked like they had seen a ghost, while Jerome looked both relieved and scared out of his mind. Henwy looked like he was fighting tears.

"Okay- alright hold on- what happened," Sigils demanded.

"You were hit directly with raw energy from your Soul Stone," Rafessor said sternly. Sigils tilted his head at him and narrowed his eyes. A memory tugged at the back of his head, one that he couldn't pinpoint.

"Good thing we were already in the area," Florian replied, "You could have died."

Sigils went silent as the words sank in.

"They almost killed me?!" Sigils shouted. Everyone recoiled.

"They?" Jerome echoed.

Sigils' eyes darted between the group, "Yeah- did you guys not know?"

"I thought you had been screwing with the magic," Frost replied slowly.

"I have a gash in my side!"

"I thought that was from the Soul Stone," Frost shot back in defense.

"Alright, alright, calm down," Rafessor waved his hands around. He turned to Sigils, "Tell us exactly what happened."

"Biffle and SSundee tried to kill me!" Sigils shouted, his fur spiking, "They broke in, stole the stone, and blasted me with it."

"Biffle?" Henwy murmured. He paused, then his face went slack, "Oh. Wait- Jerome."

"That's why he was lying," Jerome nodded slowly.

"Is there something you'd like to share?" Sigils muttered.

"Just before you were attacked, Biffle came to see where you were. He said you had been losing control of your Enderman form." Henwy replied.

Sigils claws twitched.

"We can figure that all out later," Rafessor interrupted. He seemed to have suddenly snapped back into reality, as if he had been caught up in visions rather than the conversation, "Sigils, we tried our best to help, but a direct blast from the Soul Stone is doing some permanent damage, such as a disturbance with your shapeshifting."

Sigils tilted his head and knitted his eyebrows together in confusion.

Rafessor continued, "It means that if you ever remove that bracelet-" He pointed to Sigils' arm where a thick metal band was firmly clamped around his wrist "-you're going to slowly decay from the Soul energy and will lose control over your Enderman form again, and there won't be anything we can do to stop it."

Silence settled over the room.

"Well isn't that just cheery," Sigils mumbled, throwing the covers off of himself and sliding off of the bed. He stumbled at first, but managed to righten himself and started walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Florian demanded, catching Sigils' forearm as they passed.

"I'm going to knock some sense into Biffle and SSundee." Sigils replied stiffly, "Coming?"

"I'm down, but we should at least wait to make sure you're stable," Henwy replied, moving to stand between Sigils and the door. Sigils stared disdainfully at him.

"Just a night," Sigils said.

"A week," Frost shot back sternly.

"We'll close at three days," Sigils clapped his hands together.

"Actually," Jerome spoke up, "Maybe it's best if we confront them as soon as we can. It's already been a day since the whole incident, and we don't know what they could be planning. But, Sigils, if you're showing any signs of another near death experience then you will be staying right here."

Sigils frowned, "Fine."

"Great," Rafessor smiled, "Now let's do some planning."

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Word Count: 1821

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