It wasn't long after Cub and Impulse returned to the base that Grian did. An unrecognisable emotion crossed his face as he sighed and said.

'There was nothing I could do... They're going after Xisuma now.'

'What?!'

'They allied, and now they're going for Xisuma... And I think Ren's mind controlling the other hybrids.'

'What?! That's impossible!'

'It's the only thing that could explain how suddenly Doc turned to his side... Or why Martyn stopped trying to stop the alliance.'

A short silence followed

'What do we do now?' Cub asked.

'Find Xisuma. Warn him of Ren's plans.' decided Grian. 'I'll whisper to him in chat, and see what he says back.'

'And then just... Let him fend for himself?'

'He should be able to escape... Or just be prepared.'

'You think? What if Ren's hacked chat and can see any messages we put in too?'

'Low chance.' Replied Grian, already mid-message. 'There. Sent. Now we wait and see what happens.'

So they did wait, for about 5 minutes until they got bored. Grian scanned the area until he had an idea.

'Hey- should we generate some content?' He asked randomly. 'With the content generator?'

'Fine. But if we get any of the hermits who've... been turned... I'm blaming Grumbot for this entire thing.' Replied Impulse, crossing his arms. So Grian flew over to the generator, pressing the button and watching the papers fall to the ground. Collecting it, he sighed. 

'Well?'

'Rift. Grian. Enter... GRUMBOT WE HAVE BIGGER THINGS TO DEAL WITH!'

'Generate it again. Hopefully we'll get something normal.' Cub suggested, before pressing the button himself. Grian ran back the other way.

'Prank. False. Chicken. False is on their side.'

'Doesnt mean we can't fill her base with chickens...'

'We could frame her.' Offered Cub instead. 'Make it look like she pranked someone with chickens.'

'Isnt this how the prank war started in Season 6?' Impulse recalled with a laugh

'And hopefully we can start a second one now... Grumbot actually is a bit smart.'

'Well, he made his Mumbo win the mayor race...' Replied Grian, searching his chests for any eggs. 'So... How do I only have half a stack of eggs?!'

'This is a really stupid idea!'

'Impulse, if you want to sit out you can. But I want to at least pretend everything's normal.' Something in Impulse's expression changed at Grian's words, like they'd awoken a particularly bad memory. The other two noticed it instantly.

'That's what Tango and Zed told you, wasn't it?' Realised Grian. Impulse nodded silently back.

'I don't want to lose you too.' He mumbled, on the verge of tears. 'I don't want to lose anyone else.'

'We don't have to do it if you're not comfortable with it.' Cub decided. Grian nodded, hiding his reluctance.

'We can stay here then and... I don't know.' Grian let out a sigh, then frowned. 'I miss Scar. I miss pranking him.'

'Yeah.'

'And I miss Mumbo. I guess it just hadn't hit me that... That... I don't know. There's so much stuff we just can't do any more. I guess I just wanted to prove we could. I'm sorry, Impulse. It was a really stupid idea.'

'It's ok. I overreacted.'

'Has X replied yet?' Grian checked his communicator, still staring at it as he replied.

'No, nothing.' He flicked it back to main chat, lost in thought for a second.

'Maybe he's turned off his communicator to avoid distraction.'

'What? Yeah. Could be that. Or he's too busy trying to fix this to look.'

'Or the others are already there.'

'Cheerful. Well... I need to distract myself and build something.' Grian stepped away. 'I had an idea for the back.'

'What?!'

'I know... Rare... I'll see you two later.' and, with that, he flew out of the cave.

There were barely any places left on the server that X was still safe in... The nether was too dangerous, as was a lot of the end and overworld. But there was one place he could still find safe.

The void.

Technically still the end, but far beneath the land, blocks built down in a semi-safe obsidian box. He'd set spawn there with a couple of admin tricks and then set to work, trying to find the problem and, more importantly, a solution.

So far he'd ruled out external influence, though the entire thing reeked of powerful magic like that of the High Evoker - leader of the Vexlings - or the Watchers. If it was even was intentional. The only unnatural part of it was the glitch that combined player and mob code upon death. So research turned to whether any other servers had effects upon death. Which led tenuously to the life series, potentially demise, and nothing else.

Finding a solution proved even harder. The glitch was almost impossible to find, and then his own anti-tamper technology on anything linked to player deaths held him back.

Until an even bigger problem appeared in person.

The sound of talking reached Xisuma late one day, as exhaustion was set in and his focus gone.

'Hey, X... How's the research going?'

He turned at the sound of Scar's voice behind him. The obsidian box was still intact.

Vexes could faze through everything.

'Scar, I don't know what you're doing here but get out.'

'I just wanted to talk to you... What's going on here?' He sauntered towards the table and the piles of paper, picking one up. 'Watchers? Nice theory.'

'Scar get away.'

'Or what?' The sheet of paper lit with blue fire. 'You can't stop me.'

A sword flashed into X's hand.

'I'll kill you.'

'I'll come back.'

'I have admin powers. I can ban you.'

'I have friends.' Before Xisuma could stop him, Scar drew a netherite pickaxe, breaking through the obsidian ceiling. Tango jumped down, followed by Ren, Joe, and an ungodly number of bees on what looked like spider silk leads.

'Bees or vexes, X?' He continued to back away, before pulling up the admin screen of his communicator. A million different settings were open from his research... It took too long to close them all, trying to find basic settings, trying to remember basic commands...

Ban player: RentheKing

'I'LL BAN YOU!' He yelled. 'Get away or I'll ban you!' He swiped defensively with his sword, just as Joe unleashed the bees.

Without even needing reason, the bees attacked. There was nothing the admin could do, covering his face as he tried to type in a new command to teleport himself away... Which he couldn't do without the 50:50 chance of teleporting above the void, dying, and being killed anyway.

Three hearts.

Two hearts.

One.

Half a heart.

Xisuma was stung by bee

:)

Except the fact I've run out of planned chapters again.

Aaaaaaaaaa

Ok, I now have a plan written and...

Y'all ain't seen nothing yet

:)