Chapter Text
Martyn was relaxing in hermitcraft when suddenly, he was teleported.
Great, he thought. Another game.
But something was off.
He remembered basically everything from the last few games.
He decided to ask questions about that to the other players later.
Instead, he looked around with his limited field of view, seeing if there was anyone new in this game.
He felt a prickle of surprise. He saw Ren.
I guess the watchers decided it was a great idea to put Ren back into the games after he was on the world with us, he commented mentally.
“Hi Ren!” he called.
Ren waved back happily and they got on a boat together and eventually started mining.
~~~~~~~~~~
Martyn had just finished the first few nights of the new game.
He ended up living with Ren which, if he’s honest with himself, was no surprise.
But now was time to try to find out if anything else was having the same weird past memories as him.
And he knew just the entity to help him.
Grian.
But Grian and his team were mad at him for accidentally almost stealing their enchanter.
How was he supposed to get Grian alone without everyone else being really defensive and suspicious?
He decided to just try to go there and go for it.
He started walking over there and after about a minute, he started to hear them talking already.
That was really weird.
Usually he couldn’t use any of his abilities in the games.
Something was definitely going on.
And he needed Grian to help him find out what.
~~~~~~~~~
When he got over to the sub-one club's base, he was greeted by Skizz telling him to get out.
He ignored Skizz and told Skizz. “I need to talk to Grian.
Skizz was not happy about that. “You tried to divide the team, you tried to steal our enchanter, and then you want to have a private conversation with our friend. Never gonna happen.”
“Look, it’s just really important,” He started to beg.
“I’m sure it is,” Skizz interrupted. “Just like how sure I am that you’re definitely up to something.”
Martyn sighed. “I don’t have time for this. Just let me talk to Grian.”
“Of course we wouldn-” Skizz started.
“ Now, ” Martyn hissed, way more sharply than intended.
That got them both to be quiet.
Finally, Skizz spoke. “See, there he is again with all the aggressiveness. You can never trust this man.”
“We should just get this tall idiot out of our base,” Mumbo chimed in.
Then, suddenly Grian came out of a tunnel in their base.
“What’s going on here?” Grian asked. “And more importantly, what is he doing here?”
Grian pointed to him.
Martyn was about to say something but then Skizz cut him off. “He says he comes in peace and wants to talk to you but I don’t trust him.
“Please, it would only take a second,” Martyn continued to beg, getting a bit desperate.
Luckily, Grian took the hint. “Fine then, I’ll hear him out.”
“You can't be serious,” Mumbo muttered, a bit shocked.
“Yes I am,” Grian confirmed, to his allies' dismay. “Let's go over here Martyn.”
Grian led him over to a sheltered place in the woods and quickly made sure nobody was near them.
After a second, Grian told him, “You better have gotten me away from my own teammates for a good reason.”
Martyn took a deep breath. “I know what happened in the past games. I know you’re a watcher and they can’t affect any of your memories but I can usually barely remember the past games.”
“Oh,” Grian whispered.
Martyn nodded. “Yep. And that’s not all. I also have some of my abilities.”
Grian sighed. “Even I usually don’t have any of my watcher abilities.”
“Try speaking to me,” Martyn suggested.
Martyn was surprised to actually hear him. Okay.
Martyn looked up to see Grian glaring at him. “Did it work?”
Martyn nodded.
“You’d tell me if your friends told you anything about this, right?” Grian checked.
“Of course,” Martyn reassured. “But they didn’t. I can try to ask them though.”
“Okay,” Grian said with a smile.
So, did you have anything to do with this? Martyn accused the listeners.
What is “this”? They asked, clearly feigning ignorance.
Don’t be like that, Martyn snapped. You know exactly what I’m talking about. I bet you’ve been listening to this whole conversation.
Fine then, we think that we're gaining the upper hand against the watchers, they explained.
Then why are we still in the games? Martyn countered.
We’re working on trying to end them, they reassured. But that will be very difficult.
Martyn grinned. Thanks for telling me.
Martyn refocused onto his conversation with Grian and once again saw the intense gaze of Grian. “What did they tell you?”
“It was them,” Martyn confirmed.
Grian sighed. “Why am I not surprised?”
Martyn laughed. “To be honest, I’m not that surprised either.”
“What should we do about this?” Grian asked. “Should we tell anyone?”
“I’m gonna tell Jimmy, Scott, Joel, and Etho,” Martyn decided. “But I don’t think we should tell anyone else.”
“I’m surprised you’re not telling Ren,” Grian teased.
“He doesn’t need to know,” Martyn defended himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Martyn had just finished telling who he told Grian he’d tell about what he had learned that day.
Now, everyone has got off the world to wait for the next wild card.
But he stayed on for a bit longer.
He didn’t know why, he just felt like he needed to.
He waited there for a few minutes and eventually, he heard something.
“Hello?” He called.
He waited a few seconds. “Who’s there?”
Why are you still here? The watchers asked, their voice echoing through his mind.
He jumped a bit in surprise. Why the hell would I tell you?
Because you won’t like what we’ll do to you if you don’t, they replied with a cruel edge to their voice.
Are you guys gonna kill me again? Martyn scoffed.
That other eye of yours looks very tempting, they observed.
He didn’t feel like losing another eye so he decided to come up with a convincing lie. Fine, I was just trying to enjoy the peace.
Good for you, they replied, intentionally very loudly.
Martyn flinched and covered his ears. Sh-Shut up!
Make us, they shot back, louder than last time.
His knees went out from under him and he fell to the ground.
He felt the warm mix of sweat and tears drip from his face.
He shrieked in pain but quickly shut himself up because that just made things louder.
Worse.
Then, he heard a distant voice. Inhale.
Not knowing what else to do, he obeyed.
After a few seconds, he figured out the voice was the listeners. Now exhale.
He obeyed again and despite his situation, inwardly laughed after, thinking about how the listeners were giving him a breathing tutorial.
He did that a few times which calmed him enough to try to defend himself. Stop.
They ignored him.
Martyn took a deep breath in. NOW!
That finally got them to stop.
Martyn smiled.
Nice work, the listeners approved. You should probably go now.
He agreed and swiftly closed his eye and left.